And these his Precepts are defluxions from him the proper issue of his naturall and primitive desire of that generall Love of good-will which he did beare to his Creature and the only way to draw on that love of Friendship that neerer Relation by which we are one with him and he with us by which he calls us his Children and we cry Abba Father his first will ordain'd us for good his second will was publisht and set up as a light to bring us to that good for which we were made and created But we are told there is in God voluntas permissionis a permissive will or a will of permission and indeed some have made great use of this woâ—d permission and have made it of the same necessitating power and efficacy with that by which God made the Heavens and the Earth for we find it in Terminis in their writings positâ peccati permissione necesse est ut peccatum eveniat that upon the permission of sinne it must necessarily follow that sinne must be committed They call it permission but before they winde up their Discourses the word I know not by what Logick or Grammar hath more significations put upon it then God or nature ever gave it Tert. in vit Agr. Romani ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant say the Ancient Britons in Tacitus The Romanes where by Fire and Sword they lay the Land waste and Turne all to a Wildernesse call it Peace so here the word is permission but currente rotâ whilst they are hot and busy in their work at last it is Excitation stirring up Inclining hardning permittere is no lesse then Impellere permission is Compulsion by their Chymistry they are able to extract all this out of this one word and more as That God will have that done which he forbids us to doe God doth not will what he tells us he doth will That some are cast asleep from all eternity that they may be Hardned and all this with them is but permission And to make this Good we are told That God hath on purpose created some men with an intent to permit them to fall into sin and this at first sight is a faire Proposition that carries Truth written in the very forehead but indeed it is deceitfull upon the weights one thing is said and another meant God hath created some and why some and not all for no doubt the condition of Creation is the same in all And why with a purpose to permit them to fall into sinne did he not also create them with a purpose that they should walk in his Commandements Certainly both and rather the last then the former for God indeed permits sinne but withall forbids it but he permits nay he commands us to doe his will Permission lookes upon both both upon sinne and upon Obedience on the one side it meets with a check on the other with a Command That we may not doe what is but permitted and Forbidden and that we may yeeld ready Obedience to that which is not permitted onely but commanded It was a Custome amongst the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to number and cast up their Accounts with their fingers Naz. Or. 3. as we do by Figures and Counters whence Orontes the Persian was wont to say Eundem digitum nunc Decem millia nunc unum ostendere that the same finger with some alteration and change did now signifie Ten thousand and in another posture and motion but one The same use some men have made of this word permission which they did of their fingers In its true sense and naturall place it can signifie no more then this A purpose of God not to Intercede by his Omnipotency and hinder the committing of those sinnes which if he permitted not could not once have a being but men have learnt so to place it that it shall stand for Ten Thousand for Inclination and excitation and induration and all these Fearfull expressions which leave men chain'd and Fetter'd with an Inevitable necessity of sinning and so make that which in God is but merely permission infallibly effective and so damne men with gentler Language and in a soster phrase he permits them That he doth that he must doe but their meaning is His absolute will is that they should die and let them shift as they please and wind and Turne themselves to slip out of reach after all Defalcations and substractions they can make it will arise neere to this Summe which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said To none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Law of Providence as Nazianz. calls it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layes not any Law of Necessity upon all things Aquin. priâ—… part q. 22. Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their owne nature are contingent he hath applyed Contingent Causes so that that shall fall out Necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that Contingently which he hath left in a Contingency and both these in the nature of things necessary and Contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he alters them not but extrà ordinem when he would doe some extraordinary worke when he would work a Miracle The Sunne knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sunne to stand still in Gibeon Josh 10.12 and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon But then I think all Events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sunne for all have not so necessary causes unlesse you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poore to fall in battell or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darknesse when the Sun sets or Light when it riseth in our Horison And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walke or stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to Everlasting life and everlasting perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not That the Providence of God hath laid a Necessity upon such Events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those Actions which concerne our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us downe to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walke whether he predetermine that we be rich or poor that we Conquer or be overcome what is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at Liberty to runne the wayes of Gods Commandements what is it to me if the Moon
Lact. l. 6 de ver cult c. 24. A thing indeed it is which may seem strange to flesh and blood and Lactantius tells us that Tully thought it impossible but a strange thing it may seem that the sigh of a broken heart should slumber a Tempest That our sorrow should bind the hands of Majesty that our Repentance should make God himself repent and our Turne Turne him from his wrath and a change in us alter his Decree and therefore to Iulian that cursed Apostate it appear'd in a worse shape not onely as strange but as ridiculous and where he bitterly derides Constantine for the profession of Christianity he makes up his scoffe with the contempt and derision of Repentance Julian Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whosoever is a corrupter or defiler of Women whosoever is a man-slayer whosoever is an uncleane Person may be secure 't is but dipping himself in a little water and he is forthwith clean yea though he wallow again and againe in the same mire pollute himself with the same monstrous sinnes let him but say he hath sinned and at the very word the sinne vanisheth let him but Smite his breast or strike his forehead and he shall presently without more adoe become as white as snow And 't is no marvaile to hear an Apostate blaspheme for his Apostacie it self was blasphemy no more then 't is to heare a Devill Curse both are fallen from their first estate and both hate that estate from whence they are fallen and they both howle together for that which they might have kept and would not upon Repentance there is Dictum Domini thus saith the Lord and this is enough to shame all the witt and confute all the Blasphemy of the world As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but that he Turne and in this consists the Priviledge and power of our Turn this makes Repentance a Virtue and by this word this Institution and the Grace of God annexed to it A Turne shall free us from Death a Teare shall shake the powers of Heaven a repentant Sigh shall put the Angels into Passion and our Turning from our Sinne shall Turne God himself even Turne him from his fierce wrath and strike the Sword out of his hand Turne ye Turne ye then is Dictum Domini a voice from Heaven a command from God himself And it is the voice and dictate of his Wisdom an Attribute which he much delights in more then in any of the rest saith Naz. Orat. 1. for it directs his power for whatsoever he doth is done in wisedome in Order Number and Measure whatsoever he doth is best his raine falls not his Arrowes fly not but where they should to the marke which his Wisedome hath set up It accompanies his Justice and make his wayes equall in all the disproportion and dissimilitude which can shew it self to an eye of flesh It made all his Judgements and Statutes It breathed forth his Promises and Menaces and will make them good in Wisedome he made the Heavens and in Wisedome he kindled the fire of Hell nothing can be done in this world or the next which should not be done Againe it orders his Mercy for though he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy yet he will not let it fall but where he should not into any Vessell but that which is fit to receive it for his Wisedome is over all his works as well as his Mercy he would save us but he will not save us without Repentance he could force us to a Turne and yet I may truly say hee could not because he is wise he would not have us die and yet he will desTroy us if we will not Turne he doth nothing either good or evill to us which is not convenient for him and agreeable to his wisedome Nor can this bring us under the Imputation of too much boldnesse to say The Lord doth nothing but what is convenient for him for 't is not boldnesse to magnifie his wisedom They rather come too neer and are bold with Maiesty who fasten upon him those Counsells and determinations which are repugnant and opposite to his wisedome and goodnesse and which his soul hates as That hedid Decree to make some men miserable to that end that he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heale them That he did threaten them with Death whose names he had written in the book of Life That he was willing man should sinne that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our Duty which himselfe will worke in us by an irresistible force That he commands intreats beseeches others to Turne and Repent whom himselfe hath bound and fetter'd by an absolute Decree that they shall never Turne That he calls them to Repentance and Salvation whom he hath damn'd from al eternity and if any certainly such Beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a Dart. No 't is not boldness but Humility and Obedience to his will to say He doth nothing but what becommeth him what his wisedome doth justify and he hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint tPaul Ephe. 1.8 in all Wiedome and Prudence His wisedome findes out the meanes of Salvation and his Prudence orders and disposeth them his wisedome shewes the way to life and his Prudence leads us through it to the end I Wisedome was from everlasting Proverb 8. and as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of Gods wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God unto salvation and she fitted and proportioned meanes to that end means which were most agreeable and connaturall to it It found out a way to conquer Death Heb. 2.14 and him that hath the power of Death the Devill with the weapons of Righteousness to digge up sinne by the very Roots that no work of the flesh might shoot forth out of the Heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done againe Immutabile quod factum est Quint l. 7. to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kisse each other in Christs Satisfaction and ours for our Turne is our satisfaction all that we can make which she hath joyned together Condigna est satisfatio mald facta corrigere est correcta non reiterare Ber. de Just. Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiochens conc can 2. never to be severed his Sufferings with our Repentance his Agony with our sorrow his Blood with our Teares his Flesh nailed to the Crosse with our lusts
built up his assurance as strong as he can yet thinks himself not sure enough but seeks for further assurance and fortify's it with his Feare and assiduous diligence that it may stand fast for ever whereas we see too many draw out their owne Assurance and seale it up with unclean Hands with wicked hands with hands full of Blood We have read of some in the dayes of our Fore-fathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard whose Conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks Out-cryes and deep Groanes and loud complaints to them who were neere them That Hell it self could not be worse nor had more Torments then they felt And these may seem to be breath'd forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very Dialect of Despaire and indeed so they are for Despaire in the worst acception cannot sink us lower then hell But yet we cannot we may not be of their opinion and think what they say that they are cast out of Gods sight No God sees them looks upon them with an Eye full of compassion and most times sends an Angel to them in this their Agony as he did unto Christ a message of Comfort to rowse them up but if their tendernesse should yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dares say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaines for the people of God I speak of men who have been severe to themselves and watchfull in this their Warfare full of good works and continued in them and who have many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and neere unto happinesse these Terrors and affrightments who are full of Charity and therefore cannot be destitute of hope although their owne sad apprehensions and the breathings of a Tender Conscience have made the operation of it lesse sensible and their hope be not like Aarons rod cut off dryed up and utterly dead but rather like a tree in Winter in which there is life and faculty yet the absence of the Sun or the cold benumming it suffers no force of life to worke but when that draws neere and yeelds its warmth and Influence it will bud and blossome and bring forth fruit and leafe together The Case then of every man that Despaires is not desperate but we must consider dispair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhal'd and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted Conscience the streame of it is poysonous and deleteriall the very smoake of the bottomlesse pit but if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seises upon one as well as another or a weakness of Judgement which befalls many who may be weak and yet Pious or an excessive sollicitude and tendernesse of soul which is not so common we cannot think it can have that force and malignity as to pull him back who is now thus striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with Feare and trembling At the Day of Judgement the Question will be not what was our Opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was and what we thought of our Estate but what we did to raise it not of our fancied application of the Promises but whether we have performed the Condition For then the Promises will apply themselves God hath promised and he will make it good we shall not be askt what we thought but what we did for how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their Error till it was too late How many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with Hypocrites How many have fancied themselves into Heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way on the other side how many have beleeved and yet doubted how many have been synceere in the wayes of Righteousnesse and yet drooped How many have fainted even in their Savours Armes when his Mercies did compassed them in on every side how many have been in he greatest Agony when they were neerest to their Exaltation How many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest Heavens I know nothing by my self 2 Cor. 4.4 saith Saint Paul yet am not thereby Justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium ne forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith Saint Hierom though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amisse which he did not know and though our Conscience accuse us not of greater crimes yet our Conscience may tell us we may have committed many sins of which she could give us no Information and this may cast a mist about him who walketh as in the Day In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yer perish a man may have a groundless Hope and a man may have a groundlesse Feare and when we see two thus contrarily Elemented the one drooping the other cheerfull the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offends the other trembling before him whom he loves we may be ready to pitty the one and blesse the Condition of the other cast away the Elect and chuse the Reprobate and therefore we must not be too rash to Judge but leave the Judgement to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemne the Innocent for his Feare or justifie the man that goes on in his sinne for his Assurance Take Comfort then thou disconsolate soule which art strucken down into the place of Draggons and art in this terror and anguish of heart This feare to thine is but a cloud and it will drop down and distill in Blessings upon thy head This Agony will bring down an Angel This sorrow will be turned into joy and this Doubt answered this despaire vanish that Hope may take its proper place againe the Heart of a poenitent Thy Feare is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more Comsortable then their security Thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua thy feare of Death will end in the firme expectation of Eternall life Though thou art tost on a Tumultuous Sea thy Mast spent and thy Tackling torne yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when these proud Saylors shall shipwrack in a Calme Misinterpret not this thy dejection of Spirit thy sad and pensive Thoughts nor seek too suddenly to remove them an afflicted Conscience in the time of health is the most hopefull and Soveraigne Physick that is thy feare of Death is a certaine Symptome and infallible signe of life there is no Horror of the Grave to him that lies
sorry if we die He looks down upon us calls after us he exhorts and rebukes and even weepes over us as our Saviour did over Jerusalem and if we die we cannot think that he that is life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complaine why doth he expostulate for if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us how can a desire or command breath in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already if he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the Contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect otherwise to passe sentence an irrevocable sentence of Death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a Dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcasse and bid it walk Indeed by some this why will you die is made but sancta simulatio but a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them sets up man as a marke and then sticks his deadly arrows in his sides and after askes him why he will die And why may he not saith one with the same liberty Damne a soul as a Hunter kills a Deere a bloody instance as if an immortall soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the World it self nay then his own most pretious Blood were in his sight of no more valew then a Beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Author of sinne for who is so sinfull that could hear and not Anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a Conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premises and they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some vocat ut induret He calls them to no other end but that he may harden them he hardens them that he may destroy them He exhorts them to turn that they may not Turn◠He asks them why they will die that they may run on in their evill wayes even upon Death it self when they break his command they fulfill his will and 't is his pleasure they should sinne 't is his pleasure they should die and when he calls upon them not to sinne when he asks them why they will die he doth but Dissemble for they are dead already Horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous Decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this What 's become of the expostulation what use is there of the obtestation why doth he yet ask why will ye Die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable but if this Fancy this Interpretation take place it is no reason at all why will ye die the Answer is ready and what other answer can a poore praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nosti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnest us before thou mad'st us Thou didst Destroy us before we were and if we die Even so Good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur it is our Destiny or rather Est deus in nobis not a stoicall fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistible Arme hath destroyed us and so the expostulation is answered and the Quare mortemini is nothing else but mortui estis why will ye die that 's the Text the Glosse is you are dead already But in the Second place That this expostulation is true and Hearty may be seen in the very Nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and Quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness and therefore cannot bid us live when he intends to kill us For consider God before man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of his Goodnesse and Love The heavens were the workes of his Fingers Basil Hem. in Famem sicci◠he created Angels and men he spake the word and all was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil what necessity was there that he should thus break forth into Action who compell'd him who perswaded him who was his Counsellor He was All-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. non quasi Indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus it was not out of any indigencie or Defect in himself that he made Adam after his Image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could millions of Worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made or Seraphin or Cherubin he gain'd not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athena Legatio pro Christianis said Aristotle for there could be no Accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagor as calls it as an Instrument to make him Musick Did he cloth the Lilies and dresse up Nature in various colours to delight himself or could he not reigne without man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerfull and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would for he might both will and not will the Creation of all Things without any change of his will but it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into Action will you know the cause saith the Sceptique why he made world Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quam cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vaine then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing and were it not for his Goodnesse we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All-sufficient 1 Tim. 1.11 and Blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the Heaven and the Earth though there had neither been Angel or man to worship him but he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertul. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur Tert. adv Marcion l. 2. si agatur Goodness is an Active and restlesse quality and it is not when it is Idle it cannot containe it self in it self and by his Goodness he made man made him for his Glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to Heaven made him a living soul ut in vitâ hac compararet vitam that in this short and Transitory life he might fit himself for an Abiding City and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of Himself God is good nor can any evill proceed from him if he frowne we first move him
and are ready to welcome and reward and cast off all the Huge distance and inconsistency which is between these two the pleasing of men and the being a servant of Christ and of these we shall speak plainly in their order si adhuc placerem if I yet pleased men c. And first we need not doubt that most men desire to be pleased and it may seem a needlesse labour to go about to prove it for do but whisper do but breath against their humour and you have made a demonstration that it is so Saint Paul indeed makes it his wonder at the 6. v. miror quod tam citò I wonder that you are so soon removed and we might well wonder at his wonder but that his miror carries with it more of reproof then admiration for the consideration of this humour this desire to be pleased takes off our admiration and when we have discovered this we cease to wonder into a barren soile from the Gospel of Christ which bringeth salvation but withall trouble to the flesh to another Gospel which is no Gospel but excludeth both in a word to see men begin in the spirit and end in the flesh Omnis rei displicentis etiam opinio reprobatur saith Tert. The very thought of that which displeases us displeases us almost as much as the thing it self for indeed it is nothing but thought that troubles us and it is not the matter or substance of truth but opinion and our private humour which makes truth such a bitter pill that we cannot take it down It was the usual speech of Alexander the great to his Master Aristotle Doce me facilia leave I pray you your knotty and intricate discourses and teach me those things which are easy which the understanding may not labour under but such as it may receive with delight and it is so with us in the study of that art of arts which alone can make us both wise and happy we love not duros Sermones those hard and harsh lessons which discipline the flesh and bring it into subjection and demolish those strong holds which it hath set up and in which it trusteth a Parasite is more welcome to us then a Prophet he is our Apostle who will bring those familiar and beloved arguments to perswade us to that to which we have perswaded our selves already and further our motion to that to which we are flying we finde almost the parallel in the 30. of Esai 10. v. of those who say to the Seers see not loquimini placentia Prophesie not unto us right things but Prophesie deceits men who had rather be cosen'd with a pleasing lie then saved with a frowning and threatning truth rather be wounded to death with a kisse then be rowsed with noise rather die in a pleasant dream then be awaked to see the pit opening her mouth and even speaking to them to fly and save themselves from destruction I am appeal to your eye and tender you that which your observation must needs have taken up before both at home in your selves and abroad in others for he that doth but open his eyes and look into the world will soon conceive it as a common stage where every man treads his measures for approbation and applause where every man acts his part walks as a Parasite to himself and all men one to another that is do the same which the Israelites did after the molten Calf Exob 32.27 slay every man his brother and every man his Neighbour and every man his Companion every man being a ready executioner in this kinde and every man ready and willing to die We will therefore in the next place search this evil humour this desire of being pleased and we shall be the willinger to be purged of it if either we consider the causes from which it proceeds or the bitter effects which it produceth And First It hath no better Originall then Defect then a wilfull and negligent fayling in those Duties to which Nature and Religion hath obliged us a leannesse and emptinesse of the soul which not willing to fill it self with Righteousnesse fills it self with Aire with false counsells and false attestations with miserable comforts In time of necessity when we have nothing to eate we fall too with the Prodigall and fill our Belly with husks The wicked flie when none pursueth Prov. 28.1 fly from themselves to others and from others to themselves chide themselves and flatter themselves are troubled and soon at rest fly to the Rule which condemns them to absolve them and suborne one Text to infringe and overthrow another as he that hath no good Title is bold on a false one Citò nobis placemus It is a thing soon done and it requires no labour nor study to be pleased we desire it as sick men doe Health as Prisoners doe Liberty as men on the rack doe Ease for a troubled spirit is an ill disease not to have our will is the worst Imprisonment his choice is to put himself upon the rack Rom. 14. the last vers We may see it in our civill affaires and matters of lesser allay when any thing lyes upon us as a burden how willing are wee to cast it off How doe we strive to pluck the sting out of every serpent that may bite us how do we study to work out the venom out of the worst of evills when we are poore we dreame of Riches and make up that which is not with that which may be when we have no House to hide our heads we build a Palace in the Aire when we are sick This thought turnes our bed That we may recover and if the Physitian cannot heale us yet his very name is to us as a promise of Health we are unwilling to suffer but we are willing nay desirous to be eased as Basil tells us of young men that when they are alone or in some solitary place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they feigne unto themselves strange Chimeras suppose themselves Lords of Countreys and favourites of Kings and which is yet more though they know all this to be but fancy and a Lye yet please themselves in it as if it were true indeed Arist Rhetor. 2. c. 14. We all are like Aristotles young man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of Hope and when there is no Doore of hope left we make one And so it falls out in the managing of our spirituall estate we doe as the Apostle exhorts though not to this end cast away every Thing that presseth down but so cast it away as to leave it heavier then before preferr a momentary ease which we begg or borrow or force from Things without us before that Peace which nothing can bring in but that griefe and serious Repentance which we put off with hands and words as as a Thin irksome and unpleasing For could we be sick we might be well did not we love our disease we might shake it off but
gift and the heart also and before he comes to the Altar makes the worshipper himself a sacrifice Love doth not stay at the porch but enters the Holy of Holyes doth not stay in the beginnings but hasteth to the end doth not contract the duty but extends it to the utmost doth not draw pictures but men doth not sacrifice the beast onely but offers and consumes us binds us wholly to the work forceth and constrains us never lets us rest till we have fulfilled the will of him that commands Improves sacrifice to obedience hearing to practice fasting to humility and repentance Love may begin but never ends in ceremony And this is the reason why Religion hath so many professors and so few friends so many salutes and so many contempts flung upon her why she is so much spoke of as the bird of Jupiter that eagle which must carry us to heaven but hath no more regard then the sparrow on the house top or the owle in the desart why it is so much talkt of and so little practiced for men do not love it but because it carries a kind of majesty and beauty along with it and strikes every eye that beholds it because men speak well of her in the gates and we cannot but speak well of her whilest we are men therefore we are willing to give her a salute in the midst of all those horrid and hellish offices which are set up against her we give her a bowe and let her passe by as if her shadow could cure us or we lay hold on the skirts of her garment touch and kisse them are loud and busie in the performance of the easiest part of it bind the sacrifice with cords to the hornes of the Altar but not our lusts and irregular desires but let them fly to every object every vanity which is to sacrifice a beast to God and our selves to the devil 2. These formall worshippers do not onely not love the command but they do it for the love of something else They love oppression and blood and injustice better then sacrifice and all this heat and busie industry at the Altar proceeds not from that love which should be kindled and diffused in the heart but as the unruly tongue is set on fire by hel hath no other originall then an ungrounded and unwarranted love of those profitable and honorable evils which we have set up as our mark but cannot so fairely reach to if we stand in open defiance to all Religion And therefore when that will not joyne with us but looks a contrary way to that to which we are pressing forward with so much eagernesse we content our selves with some part of it with the weakest with the poorest and beggerlyest part of it and make use of it to go along with us and countenance and secure us in the doing of that which is opposite to it and with which it cannot subsist and so well and feelingly we act our parts that we take our selves to be great favourites and in high grace with him whose laws we break and so procure some rest and ease from those continuall clamors which our guiltinesse would otherwise raise within us and walk on with delight and boasting and through this seeming feigned paradise post on securely to the gates of death In what triumphant measures doth a Pharisee go from the Altar what a harmelesse thing is a cheat after a Sermon what a sweet morsell is a widdows house after Long Prayers what a piece of Justice is oppression after a fast After so much Ceremony the blood of Abel himself of the justest man alive hath no voice For in the 3. place These outward performances this formality in Religion have the same spring and motive with our greatest and foulest sinnes The same cause produceth them the same considerations promote them and they are carried to their end on the same wings of our carnall desires Do you not wonder that I should say The formality and outward presentments of our devotion may have the same beginnings with our sinnes may have their birth from the same womb That they draw the same breasts and like twins are born and nurst and grow up together doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter No It cannot but both these are salt and brinish our sacrifice as ill smelling as our oppression our fast as displeasing as our sacriledge and our hearing and Prayers cry as loud for vengenace as our oppression We sacrifice that we may oppresse We fasT that we may spoile our God Ezek. 16.44 and we pray that we may devour our brethren Like Mother Like Daughter saith the Prophet Ezekiel They have the same evil beginning and they are both evil Ambition was the cause of Absoloms Rebellion and Ambition sent him to Hebron to pay his vow 2 Sam. 15. Covetousnesse made Ahab and Jezebel murderers and Covetousnesse proclaimed their fast 1 King 21. Lust made Shechem the sonne of Hamor a Ravisher and lust made him a Proselyte and Circumcised him Gen. 34. Covetousnesse made the Pharisee a Ravening wolf and Covetousnesse clothed him in a lambs skin Covetousnesse made his Corban and Covetousnesse did disfigure his face and placed him praying in the Synagogues and the corner of the streets Ex his causam accipiunt quibus probantur saith Tertullian They have both the same cause for the same motives arise and shew them both The same reason makes the same man both devout and wicked both abstemious and greedy both meek and bloody a seeming Saint and a raging Devil a Lamb to the eye and a Roaring lion Scit enim Diabolus alios continentiâ alios libidine occidere saith the same Father The devil hath an art to destroy us with the appearance of virtue assoone as with the poyson of sin For in the fourth place This formality in Religion stands in no opposition with him or his designes but rather advances his kingdome and enlarges his dominion For how many Sacrificers how many attentive hearers how many Beadsmen how many Professors are his vassalls how many call upon God Abba Father who are his children how many openly renounce him and yet love his wiles Ex malitia ingenium habet Tertull. de Idololat delight in his craft which is his malice how many never think themselves at liberty but when they are in his snare and doth not a faire pretence make the fact fouler doth not sacrifice raise the voice of our oppression that it cryes louder doth not a forme of Godlinesse make sin yet more finfull when we talk of heaven and love the world are we not then most earthly most sensuall most divelish is the divel ever more divel then when he is transformed into an Angel of light And therefore the divel himself is a great promoter of this art of pargetting painting and makes use of that which we call Religion to make men more wicked loves this foule and monstrous
fitted to times of peace and fitted to times of tumult establisht and mighty against all occurrences all alterations all mutations whatsoever There is no time wherein a man may not be just and honest wherein he may not be merciful and compassionate wherein he may not be humble and sincere A Tyrant may strip me of my possessions but he cannot take from me my honesty he may leave me nothing to give but he cannot sequester my compassion he may lay me in my Grave but my Humility will raise me up as high as Heaven The great Prince of the Aire and all his Legions of Devils or men cannot pull us back or stop us in the course of our obedience to the Will and Law of God but we may continue it and carry it along through honour and dishonour through good report and evil report through all the terrors and affrightments which Men or Devils can place in our way What he requires he required and it may be done yesterday and to day and to the endof the world And as his Wisdome is seen in giving Lawes so it is in fitting the Means to the End in giving them that virtue and force to draw us to a neerer vision and sight of God whose wisdome reacheth from one end to another mightily and doth sweetly order all things Wisd 8.1 For which way can frail Man come to see his God but by being like him what can draw him neere to his pure Essence but simplicity and purity of spirit what can carry us to the God of love but Charity what can lead him into the Courts of Righteousnesse but Justice what can move a God of tender mercies but Compassion For certainly God will never look down from his Mercy-seat on them that have no Bowells In a word What can make us wise but that which is good Those virtues Temperance Justice and Liberality which are called the Labours of wisdome Wisd 8.8 what can bring us into Heaven but this full Taste of the powers of the world to come so that there is some Truth in that of Gerson Gloria est gratia consummata Glory is nothing else but Grace made perfect and consummate For though we cannot thus draw Grace and Glory together as to make them one and the same thing but must put a difference between the Meanes and the End yet Wisdome it self hath written it down in an indelible character and in the leaves of eternity That there is no other key but this Good in the Text to open the Gates of the Kingdome of Heaven and he that brings this along with him shall certainly enter Heaven and Glory is a thing of another world but yet it begins here in this and Grace is made perfect in Glory And therefore in the last place his Absolute will is not onely attended with Power and Wisdome but with Love and these are the Glories of his Will He can do what he will and he will do it by the most proper and fittest meanes and whatsoever he requires is the Dictate of his Love When he sent his Son the best Master and wisest Lawgiver that ever was on whose shoulders the Government was laid he was usher'd in with a Sic dilexit so God loved the world Iohn â— and his love seems to have the preeminence and to do more then his power which can but annihilate us but his love if we embrace it will change our soules and Angelifie them and change our bodies and spiritualize them and endow us with the will and so with the power of God make us differ as much from our selves as if we were not Annihilated which his power can do but which is more made something else something better something neerer to God which is that mighty Thing which his Love brings to passe We may imagine that a Law is a meer indication of power that it proceeds from Rigor and Severity that there is nothing commanded nothing required but there is Smoke and Thunder and Lightning but indeed every Law of God is the Naturall and proper effect and Issue of his Love from his power 't is true but his power mannaged and shewn in Wisdome and Love For he made us to this End and to this End he requires something of us not out of any Indigency as if he wanted our Company and Service for he was as Happy before the Creation as after but to have some object for his Love and Goodnesse to work upon to have an Exceptory and vessel for the dew of Heaven to fall into as the Jews were wont to say Propter Messiam mundum fuisse conditum That the world and all mankind were made for the Messias whose businesse was to preach the Law which his Father said unto him Psal 2.7 and to declare his will And in this Consists the perfection and Beauty of Man for the perfection of Every Thing is its drawing neere to its first principle and Originall and the neerer and liker a thing is to the first cause that produced it the more perfect it is as the Heat is most perfect which is most intense and hath most of the Fire in it And Man the more he partakes of that which is Truly Good of the Divine Nature of which his soul is as it were a sparkle the more perfect he is because this was the onely End for which God made him This was the End of all his Lawes that he might find just Cause to do him Good That man might draw neere to him here by Obedience and Conformity to his will and in the world to come reign with him for ever in Glory And as it is the perfection so is it the Beauty of a man for as there is the Beauty of the Lord Psal 27.4 so is there the beauty of the subject The Beauty of the Lord is to have will and power and Jurisdiction to have power and wisdome to command and to command in love So is it the beauty of a man to bowe and submit and conforme to the will of the Lord for what a deformed spectacle is a Man without God in this world which hath power and wisdome and love to beautifie it Beauty is nothing else but a result from perfection the beauty of the Body proceeding from the symmetrie and due proportion of parts and the beauty of the Soule from the consonancy of the will and affections to the will and law of God Oh how beautifull are those feet which walk in the wayes of life how beautifull and glorious shall he be who walks in love as God loved him who rests on his power and walks by his wisdome and placeth himself under the shadow of his love And thus much the substance of these words afford us What doth the Lord require Let us now cast an eye upon them in the Forme and Habit in which they are presented and consider the manner of proposing them and the Prophet proposeth it by way of Interrogation And as he ask'd
one and the same and therefore to rise upon another mans ruines to enrich our selves by fraud and deceit is as much against nature saith Tully as poverty which pincheth it or grief which afflicts it or death which dissolves it for poverty may strip the body Ibid. grief may trouble it and death may strike it to the ground but yet they have a soul but injustice is its destruction and leaves a dead soul in a living body For as we have already shewn man is naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature but violence and deceit quite destroy all Society and Lully gives the same reason in his Offices which Saint Paul doth against Schisme in his Epistles 1 Cor. 12. If one member suffer all the members suffer with it and therefore the intent and purpose of all must be saith the Orator ut eadem sit utilitas uniuscujusque singulorum that the benefit of one and every man may be the same so that what deceit hath purloyned of stollen away or violence snatcht from others is not Profit because it is not honest Res surtiva quousque redierit in Comini potestatem perpetuò vitiosa est and the Civilians will tell us that that which is unjustly detained is not valuable is of no worth till it return to the hands of the lawfull proprietary Again in the second place Justice and Honesty are more agreeable to the nature of men then Profit or4 Pleasure For these reason it self hath taught us to contemne and he most enjoys himself who desires not pleasure and he is the richest man who can be poore and we are never more men then when we lest regard them but if we forfeit our integrity and pervert the course of Justice we have left our selves nothing but the name of men Si quod absit spes foelicitatis nulla saith Saint Austin If we had no eye to eternity nor hope of future happinesse Tull. Off. 3. Si omnes Deos hominesque celare possimus saith Tully if we could make darknesse a pavilion round about us and lye skreend and hid from the eyes of God and man yet a necessity would lye upon us to be what we are made to observe the lessons and dictates of nature saith one Nihil injustè faciendum saith the other nothingmust be done unjustly though God had no eye to see it nor hand to punish it and this doctrine is current both at Athens and Jerusalem both in the Philosophers School and in the Church of God To give you yet another reason but yet of neere alliance to the first whatsoever we do or resolve upon must habere suas causas as Arnobius speaks must be commended by that cause which produceth it now what cause can move us to desire that which is not ours what cause can the oppressor shew that he grinds the face of the poore the theef that he divides the spoile The deceitfull tradesman that he hath false weights Pondus pondus a weight and a weight a weight to buy with and a weight sell with If you ask them what cause they will eitherlye and deny it or put their hand upon their mouth and be ashamed to answer here their wit will faile them which was so quick and active to bring that about for which they had no reason it may be the cause was an unnecessary feare of poverty as if it were a greater sin then cosenage It may be the love of their children saepe ad avaritiam cor parentis illicit Foecunditas prolis Gregan 1 Iob c. 4. saith Gregory many children are as many temptations and we are soon overcome and yield willing to be evil that they may be rich and calling it the duty of a Parent when we feed and cloth them with our sinne or indeed it is the love of the world and a desire to hold up our heads with the best which are no causes but defects and sinnes the blemishes and deformities of a soul transformed after the image of this world These are but sophismes and delusions and of no causality For ti 's better I were poore then fraudulent better that my children should be naked then my soul better want then be unjust better be in the lowest place then to swim in blood to the highest better be drove out of the world then shut out of heaven It is no sinne to be poor no sinne to be in dishonor no sinne to be on a dunghill or in a prison it is no sinne to be a slave but it is a sinne and a great sinne to rise out of my place or either flatter or shoulder my neighbour out of his and to take his roome It is no sin to be miserable in the highest degree but it is a sinne to be unjust or dishonest in the least Iniquity and injustice have nothing of reason to countenance them and therefore must run and shelter themselves in that thicket of excuses must pretend want and poverty and necessity and so the object of my concupiscence must Authorize my concupiscence and the wedg of gold warrant my theft and to gain something is my strongest argument to gain it unjustly Ibid. And therefore Tully saith well If any man will bring in and urge these for causes argue not against him nor vouchsafe him so much as a reply omnino enim hominem ex homine tollit for he hath most unnaturally divided man from himself and left nothing but the beast Nature it self our first School-mistris loaths and detests it nor will it suffer us by any means to add to our own by any defalkation from that which is anothers and such is the equity of this position that the Civil Law alwaies appeales unto it videtur dolum malum facere qui ex aliena jactura lucrum querit He is guilty of cosenage and fraud who seeks advantage by another mans losse where by Dolus malus is understood whatsoever is repugnant to the Law of nature or equity For with the beames of this Law as with the beames of the Sun were all Humane Laws written which whip idlenesse which pin the Papers of Ignominy the best hatchments of a knave in the hat of the common barretter which break the teeth of the oppressor and turn the bread of the deceitfull into Gall upon this Basis this principle of nature whatsoever you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them hang all the Law and the Prophets For the rule of behaviour which our Saviour set up is taken out of the Treasury of nature and for this is the Law and the Prophets Matth. 7.2 that is upon this Law of nature depend the Law and the Prophets or by the due and strict observing of this the Law is fulfilled as Saint Paul speaks Rom. 13.8 or this is the summe of all which the Law and the Prophets have taught to wit concerning Justice and Honesty and those mutuall offices All. Lamprid. and duties of