must be by an excrement bread is the interest of thy continuall labour this is the yoke of the sins of Adam God in punishing the Israelites will remember the land which he gave them Leviticus 26. 42. and they must suffer the punishment of their iniquitie yea when you shall remember your own wickedness yee shall judge your selves worthy destruction for your iniquitie in the thirty sixth of Ezekiel and the thirty first Paul in the first of the Corinthians the ninth and the fifteenth saith it were better for him to die than not to doe his duty The use of the Scripture Now this sentence upon Adam hath this use for us spinae tribuli the thorns and thistles when we walk in the field speak to us as Gods book doth and make us a Sermon telling they should not have grown there but for us the earth should not have been cursed with barreness but for our wickedness if the thorn prick or the nettle sting thee it will say hoc propter te I was first brought and still I grow to make thee remember thy obedience so that the very nettle that is good for nothing shall put thee in mind of thy 〈◊〉 Be not angrie with the earth if it be barren for it will say it was so non propter se sed propter te To conclude this point well saith a Father we must have not only sensum poenae in corpore the feeling of punishment in our body but sensum irae divinae in mente the seeling of Gods wrath in our soul. But now not to leave you plunged in despair with consideration of grievous punishment in a word I will touch the alay of this punishment be comforted though God be just yet he is mercifull non est Crux sine Christo hast thou a Cross then hast thou Christ to comfort thee Mercies in this Sentence are five God hath left five signes of his mercie in this sentence which the ancient Fathers term vestigia miserantis gratiae impressions of Gods mercifull favour 1. The first is non dixit maledictus tu cursed be thou as he said to the Serpent but terra maledicta cursed be the earth the nature that sinned is not cursed nor is it like Cains curse in the fourth Chapter and eleventh verse for there is he cursed from the earth but here the earth of which Adam was made not Adam himself was cursed 2. Secondly he is punished but with a little labour to his great sinne with a watry drops of sweat and the sweat is but an easie sweat of the face not like Christs sweat in his prayer the twenty second of Luke the fourty fourth verse which was like drops of blood trickling down to the ground 3. Thirdly God might have suffered the earth to have been fruitless let man have laboured never so much but that man for all his sinne yet with his labour shall make the earth fruitfull in my opinion is a great mercy which I ground out of the one hundred twenty eighth Psalme when thou eatest the labour of thy hands saith David thou shalt be blessed It is a blessing when the Wife is fruitfull as the Vine upon the house side when thy Children are as the Olive plants about thy Table and it is a blessing that yet with labour the earth shall bring forth fruit It is a comfort that your labour shall not be in vain as St. Paul speaketh the first to the Corinthians the fifteenth and the fifty eighth God in mercy sendeth rain to water the earth what to doe Isaiah telleth you in his 55. chapter and 10. verse to give not only bread to the eater but even seed to the sower It is a comfort when we sowe that we shall reap he that soweth eareth reapeth thresheth doth it in hope the first to the Corinthians the ninth chapter and tenth verse God giveth bread to the hungry and the seed to further increase by labour dat acquisitum that thou hast gained through thy labor 4. Fourthly it is a great mercie to call it panis taus thy bread thou shalt eat of thy own bread this is mercy I say to terme that mans which is Gods Lastly this labour hath a date and an end it hath tempus refrigerii upon the amending your lives God will put away your sinnes and a time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Acts 3. 19. Let this be lastly your comfort that though you labour long yet you shall have a resting after your labour In sudore vultûs tui vescitor cibo donec revertaris in human cum ex eâ desumptus fueris nam pulvis es inpulverem revertêris Gen. 3. 19. October 〈◊〉 1598. NOw are we to handle the other part of Adams Sentence and punishment The ground and nature of the Sentence and in the Sentence we are to consider the ground of it and the nature or form of it Disobedience is the ground of this sentence and this Sentence is made even a Law for according to that of Paul Romans 6. 2. The Law of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death so that sinne is the cause of death Hence sprung the Pelagian heresie condemned by the Councell of Carthage Concil Carth. 7. That said that though we sinned yet we were freed though we lived never so dissolutely yet we were saved After Christs comming death was not the reward of sinne but mark what St. James in his first chapter and thirteenth verse saith When lust hath conceived it 〈◊〉 forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death and St. Paul in the fifth to the Romans the nineteenth and the twenty first saith Death That as by one mans disohedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many were made righteous and further That as sinne reigned unto death so grace by righteousnese might reign to eternall life Truth it is that through sin came death and that death hath rule over all Adam at the first by sinne brought death the last Adam by obedience brought everlasting life and as Paul in the first to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter and the twenty sixth verse saith That the last enemie that Christ should destroy was death for as it is in the same chapter As in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive and the very wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life saith Paul in the sixth to the Romans and the twenty third verse The nature and form of sinne Touching the nature and form of the sinne God is not cause of sinne God is not the agent in sinne but the cause of sinne is only from Adam himself And according to that of the Wise man in his first chapter and thirteenth verse Adam and sin cause of death God hath not made death neither hath he pleasure in the
As if he should say my commandement and will shall be the rule and direction of your will and works so in the new Testament St. Paul saith we must not be wise above that which is written 1 Cor. 4. 6. But that we be sober and know and understand according to sobriety which is to prove what every thing is by the perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2.3 This then is the difference between Gods commandements and those which men doe make when men though they be the greatest doe command any thing they therefore doe command things because they be good and lawfull and when we deal with them we therefore obey their Laws so farre forth as the things they command are lawfull and good because their words and commandements have no power to make things good But when we deal with Gods commandements we simply obey all that he willeth because his commandement and word doe make things absolutely good ye though they before may seem to be evill yet after he hath commanded them they are made therefore perfectly good Nos volumus qua bona sunt bona autem sunt quia voluit Deus Gods good will therefore is the best and most beneficiall thing for us and our good and the things he commandeth are the wisest things for us to follow howsoever they seem to corrupt reason and sense which are ill Judges in those matters Thus much then for our application and use that when our actions are agreeable to Gods word and law then they are according to Gods will And therefore we may be sure that it is best for our behoof Nam quo die comederis de eo utique moriturus es Gen. 2. 17. June 22 1591. EVery Law hath in it two principall parts the one containeth the body and tenor of it the other comprehendeth the sanction and penalty Touching the body of the Law we have entrcated already both of the subject and also of the action of it Now therefore we are come to the latter part to consider of the punishment threatned to the breach of it concerning which we say That as there is required necessarily in the Law giver authority and right to command so likewise in him must be a power and ability to correct and punish the transgressors or else his authority is without an edge Both these therefore are seen in the Law-maker by the parts of this Law the one being the directive part serving for direction the other being the corrective part which serveth for execution And every one may be sure that he is subject and under one of these This then is as if Moses had said Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is this Non comedes but his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is this If you will needs eat and 〈◊〉 your will before mine and your lusts before my love then be ye sure of this That in that day thou shalt dye the death for death is the sower and bitter sawce of this sweet meat Rom. 6. 23. Touching the punishment in it self we are to know that in every punishment inflicted for offence there is required Justice to give it in a due proportion that there be an equality between the punishment and offence As in the Law he that will desire another mans Sheep and steal it he in justice is to restore four-fold Again reason and equity requireth that the punishment must be of greater force to 〈◊〉 and discourage from sinne then the sinne must be to perswade and entise us to it Such an equality is in this For because he took liberty to stretch his will and desire further than he should therefore that he should lose the first liberty he had for this is just and equall 〈…〉 etiam poneret modum beneficio and that he that observeth not the manner of using it should lose the right use which he had It is therefore reason and right that either we should Dimittere voluntatem male vivendi aut amittere facultatem bene 〈◊〉 This we say to justifie God because men think that this sinne of eating such a fruit is not a capitall offence and that God was too hard to 〈◊〉 this so sore a punishment on it Touching the second point which is concerning the cause of his death which must not be ascribed to God because the cause is found in our own selves for God saith If you eat you shall die that is you shall be causes and authors of your own death your blood light on your own heads for I am not guilty thereof which we shall the better percive and esteem if we consider that which before I have shewed that Adam was made immortall non necessitate naturae sed vi 〈◊〉 gratiae not by natural necessity but by the priviledge of Gods grace for Adam consisting of contrarie qualities by his own nature they must needs in regard of themselves be the cause of death to them as they were to the beasts But notwithstanding this subjection to mortality and possibility to dye in regard of their nature Gods grace did sustain their bodily life and kept them from death so long as they kept themselves from sinne But now si hence transgression besides the necessity of nature their sinne also did pluck death upon them and was the cause of this curse So long therefore as man kept his first estate he was united to God which was life and had use of the tree of life which then was 〈◊〉 Deo and had this grace to preserve life and by that means so long we had an immunity from death because we were 〈◊〉 with the prop of Gods grace which was the cause of our immortality but when 〈◊〉 did cause that prop to be pulled away which sustained the 〈◊〉 of our nature then we could not choose but dye both by the necessity of nature and desert of our sinne If we had leaned still to the stay of our nature and not trusted so much to our own wills and wisdoms it had gone well with us But this voluntarie forsaking of God and leaning on the broken staffe and reedis stay of our own was the cause of our fall into sinne and so unto death Thus we see God justified in this sentence saying Morieris because he is neither the Author or Cause of Malum naturae which is sinne nor yet of 〈…〉 which is death But man causing both culpam poenam doth both wayes cleer God and condemn us and our selves are proved to be the cause of both 3. Point The kinde of death Now touching the third point which respecteth the kinde of death here threatned for there are several kindes of death Rev. 2. 11. Rev. 20. 6. there is the temporall and eternall the naturall and spirituall the first and second death which of these is here in this punishment threatned St. Augustine answereth that God doth here mean both whatsoever death may be included from the beginning of our life unto the last death all that is here
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
destruction of the living and in the eighteenth of Ezekiel and the twenty third God hath no desire that the wicked should die but if even the wicked return from his waies he shall live so that Adam and his sinne was the cause of death death was made by him for God is the God of life It was the sinne of Nineveh that made God to threaten destruction to Nineveh within fourty dayes but when as it is in the third of Jonah and the eighth they returned by repentance from their evill waies God shewed mercie and they were not destroyed Adam he forsook God of himself and so he brought death to himself So long as he shewed his obedience unto God the other Creatures were obedient unto him there was no enmity between him and the other Creatures in time of obedience he was not in danger of death God breathed into Adam life Adam brought death The Prophet in the 104. Psalme 29. saith If thou take away their breath they return to their dust so that life is Gods but dust is their own ground and they have their moisture and when that moisture is dried up and taken away it turneth to dust ex argillâ fabricavit hominem Deus Job in his tenth chapter and ninth verse saith to God Remember that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me to dust again for if the moisture of the grace of God be taken away what are we but dust The Heavens send down the dew from above to moisten the Earth Isaiah 45. 8. It is the spirit of God that giveth the moisture to beliefe John 7. 39. If that be taken away we are but dust Thus farre of it as a Sentence A Law Now of this as of a Law To dust shalt thou return First touching the certainty of it in these words to dust thou shalt return of the uncertainty when donec untill There are those that escape the first part of this punishment of Adam that live not in the sweat of their face qui non vivunt ex labore sudoris there are those that live at ease and yet fare daintily that have aboundance and take no pains that lie upon their Beds as the door turneth upon his hinges Proverbs 26. 14. But though they escape that part of the Sentence this part takes hold of all for all must die this is universall this is certain Statutum est it is a Statute and a Law that all must die from the first to the last Adam the fift to the Romans the fifteenth David himself saith of himself in regard of mortalitie of the body Psalme the twenty second and the sixth I am a worm and not a man We have comfort in Jesus Christ to live for ever this was it that Jesus said that John should not die the twenty first of John and the twenty third and by him we look for the resurection of the body This it was that made Job in his nineteenth chapter and twenty sixth verse to say That though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh A universall Law Touching the extent of this that it is universall to all to die it is plain not to be denied for as it is in the eighty ninth Psame and the fourty eighth verse What man liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the grave Though God hath said to Kings and Princes and Judges of the earth yee are Gods and Children of the Almighty yet yee shall die as men and fall like others Psalme the eighty second and the seventh laquei mortis the snares of death compass about the Godly their body goeth to the grave but their soul returneth to rest Psalme the one hundred sixth and the seventh verse and as it is in the second of the Preacher and the sixteenth The wise man dieth as well as the fool Look what sentence is given upon man falls upon the rest of the Creatures for man is the great Count-palatine of the world and the chief mover in the Sphear as he moveth all are moved and the Elements and Birds and Beasts were subject to Mans change his disobedience made all disobedient and out of order yea as the Wise-man saith in the nineteenth of Ecclesiast and the fifth All the living know assuredly they shall die So much for the certainty to all Uncertainty Donec untill Now of the uncertainty of the time donec untill which is verie uncertain Isaack though he were old and neer his death yet in the twenty seventh of Genesis and the second he said senex sum diem mortis nescio I am now old and know not the day of my death The men of this world have their Portion in this life there are the gates of death as David speaketh and laquei mortis the snares of death This time cannot be discerned it is nighest us when we think our selves most secure For when the rich man had layed up store for many years and said to his soul take thou thy rest even then came it hâc nocte this night thou shalt die Death is pronounced upon all but a flaming fire and vengeance belongeth only to the ungodly the second to the Thessalonians the first chapter and the eighth and ninth verses Mercy in death Now touching the mittigation of this death in this sentence of death for as the Wise-man speaketh in the seventh chapter and the seventeenth verse The vengeance of the wicked is fire and 〈◊〉 this bitterness must be alayed for as Bernard saith non est crux sine Christo non est punctio sine unctione there is no cross without comfort no punishment without ointment The fear of death Christ delivereth them from the fear of death that is Gods anger that all their life were subject to bondage the second to the Hebrews and the fifteenth The hope of life so then the fear of death must be alayed with the hope of life For though the wicked be cast off for his malice yet the righteous hath hope in his death the fourteenth of the Proverbs and the thirty second This is joy to us even in death that Christ will change this vile body that it may be fashioned like his glorious body the third to the Philipians and the twenty first and according to the fourteenth of the Revelations and the thirteenth their hope is with a blessing beati mortui qui in domino moriuntur blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their laboures Now in the verie words of the Sentence are implied two sorts of this delay Donec implieth an end of labour Donec implieth that they shall labour untill then untill implieth no eternity there is a consummation of labour there is end of labour and an assurance of rest the blessed rest from their labours tempus est refrigerii there is a time of refreshing the third of the Acts and the
Thirdly In this proceeding of Gods councell and wisedome if neither of these take place that neither Cain himself nor others are the better for this mitigation yet as the Woman said in the second of Samuel the fourteenth chapter that albeit one of her Sons had slain the other yet she would not be deprived of him that was alive for that she was willing that her husbands name and 〈◊〉 should continue upon earth so it stood with Adam he had two Sonnes whereof the one was the bane of the other and albeit Cain deserved to die presently yet God doth not so consider the greatness of his sinne that he will forget the nature of man which himself had created and therefore as well to preserve mankinde as to shew that godly posterity is not hereditarie he suffers Cain yet to live For as Adam had a Cain so from Cain who was that evill one in the first epistle of John the third chapter Gods purpose was to derive such as should pertain to the Covenant Of one and the same Parents Gods will is one shall be born after the flesh another after the spirit and he that is born after the flesh shall persecute him that is born after the spirit Galatians the fourth chapter and the twenty ninth verse As we say of his wisedome so it stands not with Gods justice that whosoever findes a Malefactor shall kill him for God doth plainly expresse his will that a Murtherer being worthy of death in himself for all that shall not be murthered of every one Therefore God saith whosoever shall presume of himself to kill Cain though it be with this pretence that he is a murtherer shall be punished seven fold for it is not in every mans power 〈…〉 If any man have committed a crime the Judge shall see whether he be worthy of death and as the Judge shall judge him so shall he be punished Deuteronomie the twenty 〈◊〉 chapter Exodus the twenty second chapter The Magistrate being Gods Ordinance Romans the thirteenth chapter hath power to put a murther to death for he hath the Sword committed unto him for that end But he that taketh up the Sword shall perish by the Sword Matthew the twenty sixt chapter For if every one that findeth a mans 〈◊〉 might kill him it would soon root out all mankinde And that this inconvenience should not fall out God takes order that every man shall not doe that to Cain which Cain hath done to Abel no man may kill a Murtherer unless he have authority committed unto him for that end That is for his sparing The second point is for the punishment of him that transgresseth thus that is he shall be punished seven fold It is strange that be which kills a murtherer shall have a more grievous punishment than he The number of seven is numerus complens hebdomidem therefore by the 〈◊〉 punishment Gods meaning is that he will lay a compleat and consummate punishment upon such a party but howsoever it seem strange yet it is justice for that as God will not have him spared whom he condemns to death as Saul spared Agag in the first of Samuel the fifteenth chapter nor let him goe whom he hath appointed to die in the first of Kings the twentieth chapter and the fourty second verse so it is a grievous sinne to kill him whom God will have spared and this is it which makes the sin of such a party grievous besides the consideration of Gods wrath against them that doe addere afflictiones afflicto Zechariah the first chapter and the fifteenth verse God saith he will be 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 that help forward the affliction of them with whom he was a little angry and therefore such a one shall not escape but before plagued and the Prophet saith the Lord will not judge and condemn a man twice for one fault Nahum the first chapter and the ninth verse Such a man committeth a sinne more grievous than Cains sinne in two respects First Cain transgressed only the Law of nature written in his heart but the other transgresseth not only the naturall Law but Gods express Command who gave order that no man should of himself presume to kill Cain Secondly It is more grievous in that he maketh Cains example a warrant to commit murther but God saith he must not doe so for if a man seeing Cain punished for his sinne shall notwithstanding sinne as he hath done he addeth to his transgression and must therefore have a greater punishment than Cain From those two parts already handled we may gather that to those that sit as Judges in Gods place there is left a power of life and death a power to crucifie and a power to let loose as Pilate said to Christ John the 19th chapter verse the tenth that they have power both to mittigate and to abrogate the punishment of Offenders For the first David was fain of necessity to forbear Joab being himself weak and old and to delay his punishment when he had murthered Abner and Amasa men more righteous and better than he till Salomon his sonne was established in the first of Kings and the second chapter But the reason why Cain's punishment is delayed is not any forbearance of necessity but because the lengthning of his punishment is a better means to restrain men from the like sinne than if he had at once been punished with death For this cause the Prophet saith Psalm the fifty ninth and the eleventh verse Slay them not least my people forget it but scatter them abroad by thy power It is magis ad bonum publicum that the Offenders be spared If Cains life had been presently taken away it might have been doubted whether Cain had ever committed any such sinne or no or if they did beleeve it yet they might soon forget the punishment laid upon him therefore God thought it better he should be spared that others seeing Cain live in continuall miserie might take occasion to inquire what he hath done that understanding the cause of his miserie they may be warned to avoid his sinne Secondly From hence is grounded the aggravation of punishments so that where thest is ordinarily punished with four fold restitution Exodus the twenty second chapter He that stealeth a poor mans sheep that hath no more is by Davids judgment the child of death in the second book of Samuel the twelfth chapter he that finneth upon contempt of Gods command and not of any necessity as he that gathereth sticks upon the Sabbath day Numbers the fifteenth chapter such a one is more grievously to be punished When the party offended will have a man spared then to kill him contrary to his command is a sinne that deserves extraordinary punishment for mensura peccati is that which brings us unto plagarum modus Deuteronomie the the twenty fifth chapter and the second verse Cain being warned from the law of nature kills his Brother and therefore deserves punishment but he that being warned
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
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
great regard in times past not to abuse anothers Concubine 2 Sam 3. 8. In several there are in them two other Duties In the man understanding and wise government there is I say in the husband direction and there must be in the woman subjection to be subject to his direction And here I am to admonish women of seven things to make them to honor their husbands First they must consider that Adam was formed first and then Eve 1 Tim. 2. 13. Secondly Man was not created for the Womans sake but Woman for the Mans sake 1 Cor. 11. 9. Besides he was wounded that she might be made She was taken out of him She was brought unto him She was made to help him She received her name of his name his name was Ish her name Ishah She had in her name a letter of five in number lesse than man to shew she was but a diminutive All these doe imply womans subjection There are two other Duties several of the man and wife The Man must protect his Wife in danger chap. 20. 11. Providing is required of the man to provide for his houshold and family 1 Tim. 5. 8. And the woman is to preserve and enlarge that her husband hath provided the domesticall duty of preserving the house and houshold pertaineth to her as it is in Proverbs 31. 21. She should be of the property of the Snail still at home but a foolish Woman is troublesome Proverbs 9. 13. The house in holy Scripture is taken for the Children whom she must bear and bring up in the fear of God The Wife through bearing of Children shall be saved saith Paul 1 Tim. 2. 15. The house is taken for the Servants whom we must govern well And the house is taken for the implements which she must order and enlarge She must be not as Ivie which cleavth to the tree and is not profitable though green but as the fruitfull Vine on the sides of thine house she shall bear Children like to the Olive plants round about thy table Psalme 128. 3. 3. No divorce after marriage And this cleaving of each to other implyeth a perpetuity of this bond out of the 2 of Kings 18. 6. Man shall leave father and mother to cleave to his wife And in 1 Cor. 7. 10 and 11. Paul saith I command those that be married not I but the Lord Let not the Wife depart from her Husband and let not the Husband put away his Wife It is true Quos Deus conjunxit homo non separabit whom God hath joyned let no man separate Yet God himself may sever them either by death for when the Husband is dead she may marry to another man Romans 7. 3. or God may sever them by divorcement for lewdnesse and whoredome not for every light matter but for a very weightie cause as it is in the 24. of Deuteronomy 1. Divorcement is called in Hebrew a sawing and the divorce of man and wife should be as the sawing a 〈◊〉 from the body If a man have the dead Palsie in some part of his flesh he will not presently have it cut off unlesse it 〈◊〉 some other part Divorces for two causes The Wife so long as her Husband liveth is bound unto him 1 Cor. 7. 39. But if the flesh be not only dead but corrupted then may there be a proceeding to divorces and that upon two causes as the ancient Fathers doe say out of the Scripture The one is for Fornication and Adulterie And who so putteth away his Wife except it be for fornication causeth her to commit Adultery Matthew 5. 32. except it be for Whoredome Matthew 19. 9. And as I told you adulterous flesh is rotten 〈◊〉 it is 〈◊〉 flesh in the thighs and this divorcement for carnall copulation in Adultery they doe gather quia adherebit uxori 〈◊〉 out of suae to his own wife and she to her own husband must cleave The other cause of divorce is for spiritual Adultery which is 〈◊〉 as it is called in the Scriptures If thou have an unbeleeving Wife if she be content to dwell with thee for sake her not for in that she is an Infidell she is dead flesh but in that she is content to dwell with thee she putrifieth not but if she seek to draw thee to Idolatry in such things thou mayst not yeeld but there may be a departure 1 Cor. 7. 15. God suffereth separation and apostacie for spiritual Fornication which is Idolatrie and where God doth make separation there his Deputies which are his Priests for Incontinencie and Apostacie may suffer divorcement for that the People committed Fornication both bodily and spiritually with the daughters of Moab Moses in the name of God ordained they should be slain and Phineas with his spear appeased Gods wrath Numbers 25. In Ezra 10. 4. after they had resolved to put away their strange wives they came to Ezra the Priest saying Arise for this matter belongeth unto thee who bid them in verse 11. to separate themselves from their strange wives as you may see there at large But Pauls counsell in the 1 to the Cor. 7. 11. is my counsell here that but for argent occasion a man should not put away his wife but if she depart let her remain unmarried as if she did retain only to her Husband or let her be reconciled to her husband and this reconciliation maketh no new marriage but by repentance she if she have offended must renew her life in honestie and holinesse and this reconciliation must be a renuing of their love and the man must heartily forgive her as he would have God forgive him then there must be a forgetting of any sepatation as though there had been no breach at all that so faith and love may ever after be preserved that so their love may be not only more dear than that to Parents but that it may grow daily more and more that God may blesse them and their Children that their union in the flesh may breed the unity of their mindes that they may be united each to other as Christ and his Church we in him and he in us who by his Incarnation became our flesh and he is one body with his Church who was tormented and scourged who dyed whose very heart was pierced with a spear whence his Church was taken he forsook his Father in the Heavens and was incarnate he forsook his Mother and suffered death that he might cleave to the Church and the Church to him that so they might be one spirit that so this bond might continue perpetually and that this knot that joyneth Man and Wife might be indissoluble Erant autem illi ambo nudi Adam uxor ejus ae non erubescebant Gen. 2. 25. Novemb. 〈◊〉 1591. THis verse at the first sight may seem 〈◊〉 and to small purpose but the wisdome of the Holy Ghost did add the same to the rest for good purpose If it be referred to that which went
a condemning of his action because it is a foolish thing to doe that which hath no good reason to be rendred to warrant the doing of it Therefore God divideth the sense into two parts either the reason must be in God or in Abel in God for favouring him or in Abel because favoured of God Now God in the former part hath acquitted himself saying If thou dost well shalt not thou be accepted for behold I am just and will regard thy well doing therefore thou hast no cause to be grieved for that Or else thou shalt be rewarded according to justice and that in bounty and liberality which is by ancient Fathers grounded upon the words of God to Abraham Fear not for I will be thine exceeding great reward Genesis the fifteenth chapter and the first verse that is If thou dost well thou shalt be 〈◊〉 be rewarded for it but if thou dost not well thou hast no cause to be grieved neither for as I am just and will talk with thee one day thou shalt hear of it so yet my justice is full of mercy I intend not presenly to take thee by the throat but give thee space to repent 〈◊〉 shall but lye at thy dore so that not only Gods justice 〈◊〉 herein but his mercy is exceeding great and mixed with justice If God took order that after his sinne committed Cain should 〈◊〉 by and by come to judgement but should have time first to 〈◊〉 himself of it this is matter of comfort that no man should despair by and by when he hath sinned far that God is a 〈…〉 God and would not the death of sinner and therefore giveth him time to repent This sheweth that God gave him no cause of grief There remains that the grief must be conceived against Abel because God so much respected him but so the sense is as if God should say Cain art thou grieved for Abels good and fearest he should grow insolent by the favour I have shewed him and so he should despise and thou shouldst be vile in his eyes If Abel have offended thee why his desire shall be subject to thee but that is no cause why thou shouldst be grieved for he being the Child of grace doth not affect any such manner of superiority as thou fearest but is as modest and as humble as he was before and so thou hast no reason of impatiencie against him And not only that first but this second that God shewed plainly that it is his will that in and by the sin committed no man should lose any priviledge which of right is due to him and which before hee had and every motion in a Superior to sinne doth not discharge him of his authority Which is contrary to that false opinion and censure of them which thinke that even Princes themselves after sinne committed lose all their prerogative and supremacy of government which they had before and that their Subjects are not bound to doe their service any longer to them but that ever after their allegiance shall cease which is false and contrary to all reason and not Gods intent and will here For as in the chapter before after Adam had sinned yet Eve was still subject to him so the same God saith and ratifieth here that Cain though he had thus sinned both against God and his brother yet being the elder and first born and so before Abel so there should be a superiority and dominion that he should still retain by nature And it is Gods assertion that that superiority should be reteined still and that Abel should not seek to be his Superior neither did he That was the prerogative which Cain had before Abel as the elder But to yeeld this obedience hath been the continuall practise of all the Saints and Children of God King Saul was a wicked man yet David rebelled not against him because he knew him to be the Lords annointed so the Prophet Jeremy saith of Nebuchadnezar a wicked King that he will visite the Nation and Kingdome that will not serve him the twenty seventh chapter of Jeremiah and the ninth verse and for the new Testament both Paul and Peter confess the same Paul in the first to Timothy the second chapter and the second verse and Peter in the first epistle of Peter the second chapter and the fourteenth verse doe will that duty and allegiance be given to the higher powers not only if they be good but though they be Tyrants and wicked Princes that fear not God And it is it that God saith by Job Job the thirty fourth chapter and the thirtieth verse that by him the Hypocrite reigneth that is for their sinnes God will send wicked Princes and Cain shall bear rule over Abel God doth not only alledg that thus it was but thus he would have it This Government thus by God established in the beginning was by David Jeremy Paul Peter Job and all the rest of the Patriarchs and Saints of God confessed and allowed So that if we regard Abel either in respect of himself or his demeanour towards Cain or we respect Gods goodness herein no just cause can be of grief neither was it Gods will that Abel should resist neither doth he any such thing and so indeed there was no just cause why Cain should fear it or be grieved And this may suffice for the first which I will shut up with this Caveat of instruction 〈◊〉 Our own sinne of malice and envy is cause of our grief that for as much as the grief of malice and envy cannot be 〈◊〉 from God who is just nor from Abel who is mild and modest then it remains that it came from Cain himself whom God repeats four times together in the words of this Text thou and thee and so he must return to his own heart and remember how his own sinne is cause of his grief as God himself speaketh by Isaiah the fourty sixth chapter and the eighth verse Remember thus and be ashamed bring it again to minde you transgressors Note And for the new Testament Luke the fifteenth chapter the prodigall Sonne when he came to himself confessed his own unworthiness and said Father I have sinned which is another main point of Divinity established from the beginning that as God saith Hosea the fifteenth and the ninth perditio tua ex te Israel salus autem ex me so our well doing or ill doing is cause of our regarding or destruction so saith James no man is tempted of God for God cannot be tempted of ill neither doth he tempt any man but every one is tempted of his own concupiscence James the first chapter and the thirteenth verse So that from the first we have this Doctrine that if God be judged he is innocent and if Abel there is no fault in him and to come to Cain he is in all the fault But now if we come about and say it is not meant of the person but of the things that is
reprehension Then the shewing of the promise which God maketh to them that doe well and on the other part the danger of the 〈◊〉 that belong to them that doe evill and when withall we 〈◊〉 that 〈…〉 will set upon us yet it shall not prevail against us but we shall have the mastry over it if we accept of Gods grace offered to us Now seeing God laboureth by all these means to drive Cain from sinne and he notwithstanding continues hardened in it we see the Prophets words verefied that God ordereth his works in 〈◊〉 for t That the mouth of wickedness may be stopped Psalm the one hnndred and seventh and the fourty second 〈◊〉 God may in this respect say to Cain and every wicked man quid debui facere quod non feci I saiah the fifth chapter so that we are not to accuse God that Cain proved so wicked for he is to be justified when he is judged Psalm the fifty first The use hereof 〈◊〉 to those that are Preachers of the word that seeing the Scholar is not above his Master seeing the Messenger is not greater than he that sent him we should content our selves if our preaching have not that success we with seeing Gods Sermon made to Cain did want effect And yet we see our weakness in the Prophet who seeing that his pains took no place with his auditors resolved that he would speak no more in Gods name Jeremiah the twentieth chapter and the ninth verse but Esay made a better conclusion Isaiah the fourty ninth chapter and the fourth verse For albeit he confessed he laboured in vain and spent his strength in vain yet he will goe on still for that he knew his reward was with God Heb. 6. When God preacheth and Cain never the better Our labour is not in vain in the Lord. when Christ in his first Sermon could doe no good we are not to think it strange though our preaching want success Though others profit not feeing nothing befalls but what befell God and Christ the Prophets and Apostles for it was St. Pauls case also the second to the Corinthians and the second chapter Note it is better it should want effect being preached than it should not be preached at all and better it should perish in the eares of the hearers than in the mouths of such as are Ministers Thus much we have to observe on Gods part It is Cains way not to profit by Sermons but to grow worse after Now on Cains part we are to note first what is Cains way that taking notice of it we may labour to avoid it for the Apostle saith Woe to them that walk in the way of Cain Jude the eleventh Now the way that Cain walked in was to hear Sermons but not to profit by them As he was careless in his sacrifice and thought any thing would serve to offer to God so when God preacheth to him he had no respect how he heard and therefore he had no profit thereby When God had used all means that could be to draw him from sinne First by shewing him that it was an absuid thing to finne more 〈◊〉 a bruit beast than a reasonable man Secondly by shewing him not only that he should by finne deprive himself of God but procure his own woe and be brought to account for it And lastly by ministring to him comfort that from the blessed seed of the woman that hath broken the head of the Serpent he should receive strength to subdue sinne yet for all this he stops his eare lyke the deaf Adder Psalm the fifty eighth and saith with them Jeremiah the fourty fourth and the sixteenth verse Say what you will we will doe what pleaseth our selves This was Cains humor and this was theirs also that heard Jeremy Ezekiel the thirty third chapter and thirty first verse They come and fit before thee they hear thy words but doe them not but their heart goeth on their covetonsness and runneth upon their worldly affaires Cain was the Patriarch of all such and as they walk in his way so they must come to be partakers of that woe that belongs to him and to all his of spring But we are further to note that Cain was not only not a whit better but far worse after the Sermon he went as the Psalmist speaks Psalm the sixty ninth from one wickedness to another Note he proceeded from wrath to deadly hatred and from hatred to murther from peccatum in affectu to peccatum in effectu for the word that goeth out of Gods mouth shall not return to him void but shall accomplish that which God will and prosper in the things whereto he sent it Heb. 6. It is like the rain that falleth down from heaven and watereth the earth which though it bring not forth good corn yet it causeth thorns and thistles to spring up Isaiah the fifty fifth chapter and the tenth and eleventh varies and so the Apostle saith that the Gospel preached by him is not in vain but is either odor vitae ad vitam or odor mortis ad mortem the second to the Corinthians and the second chapter and this effect it hath not that it is the nature of Gods word to bring forth evill Example but as the nature of water is to coals and never to kindle unless it be in lime which is hot and kindled by means which naturally cooleth and quencheth all other things so where the nature of Gods word is to kill sinne if it be uttered to the wicked which perish sinne is made unreasonably sinfull by the word Romans the seventh chapter and wicked men are the more hardened in their sinne when by the word they are reproved of sinne Hence it is that men being reproved and checked of sinne by the word have proved more sinfull Note The worse by reprehension As Abner being reproved by Isbosheth was the worse in the second of Samuel and the third chapter so Asa being reproved of the Prophet was the worse in the second of the Chronicles and the fifteenth chapter For the pariculars of this verse we must know that Cain's sinne is not a sinne presently committed but that kinde of sinne which is plowed for He goeth about and fetcheth a compass before he committeth the deed He had already resolved to murther his Brother if opportunity would serve before he spake word to him And as he that looketh after a woman to lust after her hath already committed adulterie in his heart in the fifth chapter of Matthew Murther in heart not acted so Cain was already guilty of murther though it were not actually committed and so it was with Judas so soon as he had agreed with the Scribes and 〈◊〉 to kill Christ he was guilty of murther before God as if it were already done All the while that he was compacting with them about his death he was in that sinne as Christ saith of him Quod facis
fac cito John the thireenth chapter and the twenty seventh verse only Cain and Judas wanted but opportunity which so soon as they had obtained they committed their sinne actually The causes of Cains proceeding to the committing of this act are diverse down after diverse sorts First he seeketh a convenient place and opportunity and maketh choyce of the field because he would not be hindred in doing the murther for he could not have any opportunitie at home for Adam and Eve being at hand would have been ready to hinder him And as he makes choyce of this place not to be hindered so in that after he denyed the fact it appeareth his desire was as well not to be discovered as not to be hindred Wherein we have to respect first his great blindness that could not see the nature of sinne for in that he sought such a place for the doing of it as might be hid and unknown It is strange he could not perceive it to be a work of darkness his own conscience did condemn him for he durst not be seen to doe that which he did but in hypocrisie would seem not to be what he was this was his way and we must beware that we walk not in it Again it is strange that he was more afraid of Adam a mortall man than of the omnipotent God and was more fearfull that Adam his Father a mortall man should see him than that God who is able to grinde him in a morter should behold his fact Wherefore as sinne is a dishonest thing perswading against all reason to fear man more than God so is it a dishonest thing for that we will not be seen to commit sinne as a thing that standeth not with their credits and therefore make choice of such places as are fittest for the concealing thereof Note Secondly he deviseth how to draw Abel to that place and what means to use that Abel might goe confidently with him thither To that end though he have not now spoken to him of a long time yet he is content to speak kindly to him The heathen man saith that if a man will hate he must doe it apertè unless he will be worse thin wilde beasts for they violenly flie upon those things which they hate Dissembled hatred discovered by silence but the Devill hath taught men to dissemble their hatred that they might be worse than beasts Hatred commonly is discerned by silence one argument of that hatred and grudge which Josephs bretheren bare to him was not potuerunt alloqui illum Genesis the thirty seventh chapter and so Absolom having conceived hatred and displeasure against Ammon spake neither good nor ill to him the second of Samuel and the thirteenth chapter but as the 〈◊〉 when he most of all hated our first Parents would seem to be touched with some commisseration of their estate Genesis the third chapter Note Hath God indeed said ye shall not eate Nay but he knoweth c. So he 〈◊〉 Cain to dissemble his hatred with fair words which dissimulation is a sinne condemned not only of the heathen but abhorred by the Saints of God For when such a one as walks in the house of God with him as his friend and companion should deceive him then David had cause to pray against such a one Psalm the fifty fifth Let death seize upon him Cain though he hated his brother and purposed his death yet to accomplish his purpurpose he makes a fair semblance of love Example So Absolom being minded to murther Ammon pretends great love to him he must needs have Ammon to the Sheep-shearing or else all his cost is lost But shall not Ammon my brother come the second of Samuel and the thirteenth chapter this course took Joab with Amasa the second of Samuel and the twentieth chapter so Judas dissembled his malice with hail Master and kissed him John the twenty ninth This sin is abominable yea it containeth seven abominations as the Wiseman tells us Proverbs the twenty sixth chapter and the twenty fifth verse and they that 〈◊〉 hatred with love and slattering words walk in the way of Cain That which Cain spake with Abel when they were alone as St. Jerome thinketh was that he 〈◊〉 Abel what God had said to him and what he had taught him the 〈◊〉 referres it to this verse that his words to him were eamus ad agrum whatsoever it was he said it was abominable hypocrisie Thirdly we see that Abel obeyed the voice of his elder brother for that it was Gods will he should bear rule over him so he went thinking all had been well The best natures not suspicious for the best natures are least suspicious as we have an example in Gedaliah who beleeved that Ishmael had no purpose to hurt him Jeremiah the fourtieth chapter for charity is not suspicious in the first to the Corinthians and the thirteenth chapter especially Abel had little cause to suspect him that was come from a Sermon and seemed to be a new man Note so that he spake kindly to him that had not given him a good look along time This change in Cain made Abel to goe with him and being in the place appointed Cain arose and slew him Degrees of Cains sinne 〈◊〉 Touching the death of Abel we are to observe from the words First it was a violent death for his life did not goe out of him but as the word signifieth it was rent from him Secondly it was a bloody death as the words of God to Cain shew The voice of thy Brothers blood which thou hast slain cryeth to me verse the tenth Thirdly it was a sudden death and therefore more grievous because thereby not only the body is killed but the soul also of such a party that is in state of sinne and hath not respite graunted to repent thereof In this act of Cain we have to observe these things wherby his sin is aggravated First the sinne which he committeth is murther a sinne the more grievous for that it is the defacing of Gods Image Genesis the ninth chapter Secondly his fact the more odious for that the party murthered is one more weak than himself for he was younger than Cain therefore it was a cowardly part to set upon his inferiour It is the thing which the Wise-man complaineth Ecclesiastes the eighth chapter I saw one man bear rule over another not for good so the authority and superiorty which was committed to Cain should have been for Abels good but he abused it to the hurt of his younger brother Thirdly where God will not have any innocent blood shed but sacrifice must be offered Deuteronomie the twenty first chapter Cain kills innocent Abel which doth in a third degree aggravate his sinne for to shed innocent blood is a thing that Pilate himself could not abide and therefore washed his hands declaing that he was clear from killing Christ Matthew the twenty seventh chapter and the twenty fourth
of every man even of every beast in as much as he hath first taught beasts to kill men by his own confession it is just that as the Prophet speaks Micah the seventh chapter and the fift verse The Wife of his bosome and the Children of his loyns shall break the bonds of nature with him as he before hath thewed himself unnaturall to his brother And this is a great part of Cains punishment that albeit there be none to kill him yet he shall be in continuall fear of death that a man shall not only fear Gods threatning but his own fancy that he shall fear not one but every one that meets him as if every one knew his fault that he shall fear not only where there is cause of fear as wilde beasts but tuta timere and this is a part of Gods curse that God will send faintness into their hearts so as they shall be afraid at the shaking of a leaf Leviticus the twenty sixt chapter and the thirty sixt verse at every shadow as the Midianites were of their dreams Judges the seventh chapter and at every noise and rumor in the second of the Kings the seventh chapter and the sixt verse These feares are great punishments and arguments of a guilty conscience and this sheweth that albeit wickedness be secret yet it will not suffer a man to be quiet Wherein we are to observe how Cain de scribeth the state of them that are out of Gods favour and cast from his presence that they fear either no fear as Psalm the fifty 〈◊〉 If the Prince frown upon a man there is no hope of favour any where else so if God be once offended so that a man despair of his favour he will fear every creature the starres of heaven fought against Sisera Judges the fift chapter and the twentieth verse The stones in the street will cease to be in league and peace with him Job the fift chapter therefore when God saith quaerite faciem meam Psalm the twenty seventh our soul must answer thy face Lord will I seek For if we seek the Lord our God we shall finde him Deuteronomie the fourth chapter and the twenty ninth verse and that is so necessary that the People say If thy presence goe not with us carry us not hence Exodus the thirty third chapter and the Prophet speaketh Cast me not from thy presence Psalm the fifty first for without the assurance of Gods favour and protection we shall fear every shadow every noise that we hear Secondly Cain in these words sheweth what was his chief fear and what did most grieve him that was that he should die not the death of the soul but the bodily death by the hand of man he feares the shadow of death but not the body of death as the Apostle speaks Romans the seventh chapter but eternall death is that which he should have feared most of all for it hath a body and shall be found though the bodily death is often sought and cannot be found Job the third wherein Cain shewes what he is that is animalis homo in the first to the Corinthians the second chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phillippians the third chapter not having the spirit so was Saul afflicted in the first of Samuel the fifteenth chapter Honour me before the people he respected worldly honour more than Gods favour whereupon saith Augustine quid tibi honoratio haec proderit miser If 〈◊〉 death fall upon Cain what shall it profit him to live on earth but this sheweth plainly that the life of the body was Cains chief felicity and that the greatest grief he had was for the death of the body as if he should say let me live though it be but in fear and sorrow This is the affection of flesh and blood as the Devill saith of Job Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job the second chapter that is so long as life is not taken away man is well This being Cains complaint it is an implied petition and the request is Quasi pro magno beneficio ut non 〈◊〉 which request may be well uttered if it be rightly taken for not only the wicked feare death but the godly say themselves we sigh and would not be uncloathed but cloathed upon in the second to the Corinthians the fift chapter they would passe to immortality without the dissolution of the body and soul. That prayer for life is well if it be for a good end as Hezekiah praieth he may live to the end he may bewaile his sinnes in the 〈◊〉 of his soul Isaiah the thirty eighth chapter repentance is the end that he sets David saith I will not die but live and praise the Lord Psalm the one hundred and eighteenth the Apostle Paul albeit in regard of himself he desires to be dissolved yet because it is profitable for the Church that he should still remain in the flesh he desires to live Philippians the first chapter and the twenty second verse so life may be sought if it be for this end to doe good but if our end be the escaping of death for a time the case is otherwise Touching the end of Cain's desire It may be he 〈◊〉 life that he might repent and praise God and doe good for charity 〈◊〉 the best in the first epistle to the Corinthians and the thirteenth chapter But we see what doth continually vex Cain and all the wicked that is the doubt of the forgivenesse of sinne which is the worm of the spirit and a continuall fear of death which they know they have deserved at the hands of all Gods creatures Dixit verò Jehova illi Propterea quisquis interfecerit Kajinum septuplo vindicator imposuit Jehova Kajino signum ne eum caederet ullus qui foret inventurus eum Gen. 4. 15. Septemb. 26. 1599. CAINS chief complaint and petition therein implied was handled verse the fourteenth This verse contains Gods answer which is a yeelding or granting to that petition of his and that effectuall for God provideth for the safety of Cain's life not only by his word and command but by a visible mark which he set upon Cain Wherein we are generally to observe First That as the Prophet tels us in the one hundred and tenth Psalme God dealeth not with any sinner according to his sinnes and deserts for if God did not in wrath remember mercy 〈◊〉 the third chapter he should not in justice have suffered Cain to open his mouth for it is just that he which turneth away his car from hearing the law when he prayeth should not be heard Proverbs the twenty eighth chapter and the ninth verse That he which will not hear Gods Prachers shall not be heard of God when he prayeth And the Lord in the Propher saith more plainly in the second chapter of Zechary and the thirteenth verse that as he by his Prophets cried unto the people and they would not
his speech Matthew the twenty sixt chapter so by a mans talk it will appear how his heart is affected His speech consists first of a preface Heare my voice ye wives of Lamech hearken to my words Secondly the body of his oration I have killed or will kill a man in my wound and a young man in my hurt Thirdly If Cain shall be avenged seven times then Lamech seventy times seven times In which words he saith in effect that he will neither doe right not suffer wrong His Preface we see is a solemn and grave Speech as if Solomon himself were delivering some great piece of wisedome or as if some Prophet were to declare some weighty matter in the name of the Lord. That we may see that the wicked are as carefull in stirring up the hearers to hear their blasphemies as the Prophets and Saints of God are to crave attention to their heavenly doctrine They are like the words of Jacob to his Children Genesis the fourty ninth chapter and the second verse Hear ye Sonnes of Jacob hearken to Israel your Father where to hearken is more than to hear and the speech is more than the voice whereby Lamech willeth his Wives with all attention to bow their eares to that which he saith which sheweth that he imagined that which he spoke was some great matter whereas indeed it is nothing but a vain boasting of his power that he can doe mischief Psalm the fifty second for the Prophet saith That the great men speak out the corruption of their hearts and they wrap it up Micah the seventh chapter and the third verse and so doth this great Gyant Lamech we see by his words he hath this opinion that he ought to be heard being a man of this power For as the Wise-man saith of the practise of the world If the rich man speaks all must hearken to his word but the poor when he speaks cannot be heard but see what is the effect of his speech for all his good preface therefore we must not presently impute wisedome to every one that beginneth in this solemn manner Of the body of his Oration be two parts First a proclaiming to the world What he will doe if he be touched Secondly If Cain be avenged seven times then Lamech seventy times seven fold Of the former there are two readings the one is I have stain a man being but wounded and killed a young man in my hurt The latter is I would kill a man If it be the former it is a Commemoration If the latter a Commination wherein he breatheth forth threatnings as Saul did Acts the eighth chapter against any that should doe him wrong The one is a bragging of his strength that he feels himself so strong as if he were wounded yet he is able to be avenged of him that shall touch him The other shewes his vindicative spirit that is so far from suffering that if he be but touched he will kill he threatens pro vulnere mortem In the first by that which the Apostle saith in the second to the Corinthians the tenth chapter That if God give strength and power to any man it is not to destroy but to 〈◊〉 We see it is no true boasting which Lamech makes he doth not boast aright that saith he is of strength to doe hurt the commendation of strength is not in killing and wounding but in saving and defence For the second interpretation we are to know it is no just dealing to kill him that hath but inflicted a wound for justice is there should be talio wound for wound and not death for a wound If it be read as the Fathers read it I have killed a man in my wound then it is a confession Now we know confessions proceed of repentance but that was not the cause of Lamechs confession for then he would not have chosen these confessions but it is in the spirit of arrogancie that he confesseth to his wives what he hath done He saith that when he had killed one man in his wound then he proceeded to kill a young man that is he added blood to blood It is enough for a man to sinne though he doe not brag of it but when they doe as the Sodomites did that is praedicare peccata sua Isaiah the third chapter and the ninth verse then they are come to the 〈◊〉 of wickedness if they brag of their sinne and are so far from sorrowing for their finne that they seek applause for it as if they had done well This preaching of sinne and that rejoying in wickedness which the Wise-man speaks of Proverbs the second chapter and the fourteenth verse exultat in rebus 〈◊〉 falls upon none but such as are in profundo peccatorum that is grievous sins and at the pitch of all naughtiness Naturally men are ashamed of sinne and it is a signe of grace so to be affected therefore the Lord saith Jeremiah the eighth chapter and the twelfth verse Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination but where instead of covering their faces with shame for sinne Men have 〈◊〉 foreheads and will not be ashamed Jeremiah the third chapter and the third verse that is a sinne out of measure sinfull for shame is a 〈◊〉 of that singultus cordis that is of that inward grief of heart in the first of Samuel the twenty fift chapter which they conceive that they have offended God but when instead of sorrow and shame there is an exaltation or rejoycing of the evill they have done and a hardness of heart so as they cannot be touched with any grief of their 〈◊〉 These are the tokens of one that is past grace and these appeared in Lamech of whom the Apostles words are verified That his shame is his glory Philippians the third chapter In both these he justifieth Cain for he was ashamed to confesse that he had killed Abel and therefore answered the Lord I know not am I my brothers keeper and after he is very sorry and greatly cast down and therefore saith My sinne is greater than can be pardoned This is it we learn in the 〈◊〉 part The second is worse for where there is no shame there may be fear He that hath lost shame for 〈◊〉 is like the beast 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 ninth for the beast is not ashamed of any thing but though 〈◊〉 beasts be without shame yet they have fear for they will 〈◊〉 willingly run into the fire it is so terrible to them therefore he that feareth not when he 〈◊〉 the danger of sin he is 〈◊〉 than a 〈◊〉 yea than the Devils themselves Who 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 the second chapter Therefore where as 〈◊〉 is not 〈◊〉 to kill and murther him that should but wound him having not 〈…〉 That if a man 〈◊〉 evill sinne 〈◊〉 at the dore but 〈◊〉 an 〈◊〉 of Gods wrath upon Cain for murther that is a sign that his 〈◊〉 is greatly hardened A man would think the very 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be
nature so with his name He is wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the Prince of Peace Isaiah the ninth chapter Thirdly With his miracles For he raiseth the dead and quickneth whom he will no lesse than the Father John the fift chapter and the twenty first verse Fourthly Because exception was taken against his miracles For they said that he did them by Belzebub Matthew the twelfth chapter therefore he is further sealed with a voyce from Heaven saying This is he in whom I am well pleased heare ye him Matthew the seventeenth chapter not only whom he commands but where he promiseth to refresh them that come to him Matthew the eleventh chapter Fiftly He hath sealed him with the spirit The spirit of the Lord is upon me Luke the fourth chapter And that not only rests John the third chapter the three and thirtieth and four and thirtieth verses content with receiving the spirit for himself but with a power to give it to his So that by his intercession with God the Father He sent down the spirit upon the Apostles Acts the second chapter Being thus sealed by God he is able to nourish us by his flesh crucified for us unto eternall life if he give us grace to lay hold of it by faith Dixit igitur eis Videte cavete ab avaritia nec enim cujusquam vita ex iis quae ipsi suppetunt in eo sita est ut redundet Luke 12. 15. Novemb. 26. 1598. HERE Christ gives two commandements to covetous men First To discern and see the sinne of covetousnesse Secondly To beware of it Against the latter of them as against every other Commandement the corrupt nature of man makes two questions First of Rebellion Why should we beware Secondly of Ignorance How shall we beware The former question is resolved three wayes First We must beware of it because the sinne of 〈◊〉 is hardly avoided the desire of having aboundance is so rooted in the hearts of all men Secondly Because as it is hardly avoided so it is a sinne very hainous in Gods fight being committed howsoever we perswade our 〈◊〉 that those sinnes are the least that are naturally planted in us Thirdly Because whereas men may repent for other sinned they can hardly repent of this For other immoderate desires doe cease by two means either 〈◊〉 they are satisfied or else when death doth approach 〈◊〉 doth yield to neither of these means for the more that riches increase the more doth his covetous desire increase and the 〈◊〉 that death is the more doth a covetous man imbrace his riches and still covet more Touching the second question Though we be perswaded that we ought to avoid this sinne yet we know not how How to avoid 〈◊〉 and therefore we ask How shall we avoid it The word of God appoints 〈◊〉 three means First Trust in God Secondly Prayer against the sinne Thirdly Meditations concerning the same The first means Trust in God First it is a good way for the avoiding of 〈◊〉 to trust in God for that is a thing that the heart of a covetous man will not set himself against He will in no wise follow the counsell of the Philosopher which teacheth That to avoid covetousnesse a man must give himself to the actions of prodigality he would rather hear how he might get money than how to spend that he hath But if he be advised to put his trust in God he will not be against that as a thing which is not so contrary to his sinne as prodigality But this means doth the Scripture inculcate Trust not in uncertain riches the first epistle to Timothy and the sixt chapter If riches increase set not your hearts upon them Psalm the sixty second Riches avail not in the day of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nam per det in die ira Proverbs the eleventh chapter and the fourth verse Let not the rich man glory in his riches 〈◊〉 the ninth chapter and the twenty third verse As the Scripture exhorts us not to trust in riches so it sets forth examples of them that in vain put their trust therein For this is the man that took not God for his strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches Psalme the fifty second But of confidence in God it speaketh thus It is better to 〈◊〉 in the Lord than to put confidence in man Psalm one hundred eighteen O Lord of hosts blessed is the man that putteth his trust in 〈…〉 the eighty fourth Our father 's trusted in thee and thou didest deliver them Psalme the twenty second and the fourth verse The 〈◊〉 shall hunger but such 〈◊〉 trust in the Lord shall want 〈◊〉 good things 〈◊〉 the thirty fourth and the tenth verse A horse is 〈◊〉 thing to 〈…〉 man but the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and trust in 〈◊〉 Psalme the thirty third and the seventeenth verse To deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of 〈◊〉 After that a man hath admitted this opinion which is so confirmed by Scripture then there is cause to perswade him for the 〈◊〉 gives two commands in the first to Timothy the sixt chapter and the seventeenth verse Charge the rich of this world not to trust in 〈…〉 but in the living God and to distributs To 〈◊〉 them That the cause why men doe not distribute is for want of trust in God They could be content to sow good works but they look up and fear a cloud of poverty will come upon them and they shall want themselves which would not be if they did trust in God but men give more trust to the uncertainty of riches than to the certainty of Gods promise To help this error our Saviour saith Care 〈◊〉 for your heavenly Father knoweth that you need all these things Matthew the sixt chapter and the thirty second verse And the Apostle saith Let your conversation be without 〈◊〉 for God 〈◊〉 said I will not leave thee nor for sake thee Hebrews the thirteenth chapter and the fift verse If we were perswaded that he that seeks to obtain Gods favour by doing good works layeth up a better 〈◊〉 for the time to come than he that heaps up riches the first epistle to Timothy the sixt chapter and the nineteenth verse it would make us use this means for the avoiding of 〈◊〉 For be a man never so rich in this world and never so honourable yet his glorie shall not goe with him Psalm the fourty ninth and the seventeenth verse But their works follow them opera 〈…〉 Apoc the fourteenth chapter and the thirteenth verse Therefore it were good for us rather to respect and provide for the time to come And as it is good for the life to come so for this life present For a little that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly Psalme the thirty seventh and the sixteenth verse And Godlinesse hath promise of this life and that which is
willingly will come as often as they may and not like those that swell with pride and say another time will serve as well as now as Davids servants said to Naball in the first book of Samuel the twenty fift chapter We come now in a good time for thou makest a feast and art in case to relieve us another time peradventure thou wilt not be so prepared So men ought to take the opportunity and to say in their selves Now is the time of the celebration of Gods mercy and loving kindnesse Now we receive Christ and therefore there is great hope that if we come he will receive us Now we celebrate the memory of his death when he was content to receive the thief that came unto him and therefore it is most likely that he will receive us if we come to him But if we come not now happily we shall not be received when we would It is Christs will That they which are given him of the Father be with him where he is and may behold his glory John the seventeenth chapter and the twenty fourth verse Therefore it stands us upon to come to Christ that he may receive us to be one with him in the life of grace and partakers with him in his Kingdom of glory Qui verò haec audierunt compuncti sunt corde dixerunt ad Petrum ac reliquos Apostolos Quid faciemus viri fratres Petrus autem ait ad eos Resipiscite c. Act. 2. 37. April 12. 1600. OUR Saviour Christ promised Peter Acts the fift chapter to make him a fisher of men and 〈◊〉 the thirteenth chapter That the 〈…〉 of Heaven is like a 〈…〉 which catcheth fish of all 〈…〉 The first casting forth of this act and 〈…〉 draught that Peter had is by 〈…〉 these verses And the draught which he made was 〈…〉 souls verse the fourty first If we 〈◊〉 of what 〈◊〉 They were 〈◊〉 souls of them that killed the Sonne of God and 〈…〉 the spirit of God whom they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈…〉 holy Ghost to 〈◊〉 verse the 〈…〉 These men are full of new 〈◊〉 Which when we advisedly consider it cannot but be matter First Of great comfort Teaching us that albeit we be great sinners as the Jews that put the sonne of God to death yet there is a quid faciemus what to doe that is a hope of remission of sinnes Secondly Of instruction touching the means That if we repent and be pricked in heart with the consideration of our sinnes as they were we shall attain this mercie which they received First St. Luke sets down the Sermon of Peter Secondly The sruit and effect of it As the Sermon it self propounds the death and Resurrection of Christ so in the effect that followed of it we see the means how we are made partakers of his death and Resurrection and that is set down in these two verses which contain a question and an answer In the question is to be observed First the cause of it that is the compunction of their hearts Secondly the cause of that compunction and that was the hearing of Peters Sermon Touching this effect which Peters Sermon wrought in the hearts of his hearers it is compuncti sunt corde Wherein note two things First the work it self Secondly the part wherein of the work it self it is said they were pricked Wherein first we are to observe That the first work of the spirit and operation of the word is compunction of heart howbeit the word being the word of glad tidings and comfort it is strange it should have any such operation but that Christ hath foretold the same John the sixteenth chapter When the comforter comes he shall reprove the world of sinne Now reproof is a thing that enters into the heart as Proverbs the twelfth chapter and the eighteenth verse There is that speaketh words like the prickings of a sword and as Christ gave warning before hand so now when the holy Ghost was given we see that Peters hearers are reproved and pricked in their consciences that they dealt so cruelly with Christ. As this 〈◊〉 the Elect of God so there is another spirit called by the same name of pricking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans the eleventh chapter and the eighth verse that is the spirit of slumber which shews it self upon those that shall not be saved Touching the manner of this operation we see it is not a tickling or itching but a pricking and that no light one but such as pearced deeply into their hearts and caused them to cry Whereby we see it is not the speaking of fair words saying with the false Prophets Jeremiah the twenty third chapter The Lord hath said ye shall have peace it is not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans the sixteenth chapter and the eighteenth verse that makes this effect but this speaking The part wherein this work was wrought was the heart as Luke the twenty fourth chapter they burned in their hearts and 〈◊〉 the second chapter and the fourteenth verse I will speak to their hearts So it was 〈◊〉 of the eares in the second 〈◊〉 to Timot hie the 〈◊〉 chapter or of the brain that they felt but a 〈◊〉 of the very 〈◊〉 and so should we be affected at the hearing of the word As 〈…〉 is pricked in the flesh is disquieted till he have remedy so should the consideration of our sinnes disquiet us and make us seek for cure This is our duty from their example and it is a good signe of distinction to shew us whether we be of the number of those that shall be saved whether of the good fish that shall be gathered together or the bad fish that shall be cast out Matthew the thirteenth chapter and the fourty eighth verse So if we pertain to God we shall feel this pricking at our hearts after we have heard the word The cause of this compunction is his auditis that is they had heard a speech of St. Peter which did disquiet them till they asked counsel of Peter and the rest The word of God of its own nature hath no such operation for the Patriarch Job saith Job the twenty third chapter It was agreeable to him as his appointedfood And David Psalm the nineteenth saith The Commanaements of the Lordrejoyceth the heart and is sweeter than the honey and the honey-combe But yet it hath this effect in regard that it meeteth with that which is an enemy to our Salvation that is sinne the deputy of 〈◊〉 as the word is Gods 〈◊〉 Without the Law sinne is dead but when the Commandement came sinne revived Romans the seventh chapter and the eighth verse for sinne is a sting the first epistle to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter which lyeth dead so long as it is not reproved But when it is reproved by the commandement of God then it reviveth and stings the heart it makes men have a conscience of sinne Hebrews the tenth chapter and when sinne is