him sit down and consider with himself his enemies one by one and he shall quickly discover their weakness Primi in praeliis vincantur oculi It s a saying that the first thing that is overcome in a Souldier is his eye while he judges of his enemy by his multitude and provision rather then by his strength Beloved if we judge not of our adversary in gross and as it were by the eye we shall easily see that we shall not need to do as the King in the Gospel doth send to his enemy with conditions of peace for there is no treaty of peace to be had with these Had Zimri peace that slew his master saith the Scripture and There is no peace unto the wicked saith my God Not onely Zimri and the wicked but no Christian hath or can have peace he must be always as fighting and always conquering Let us single out some one of this Army and let us examine his strength Is it Sin doth so much affright us I make choice of it because it is the dreadfullest enemy that a Christian hath Let us a little consider its strength and we shall quickly see there is no such need to fear it Sins are of two sorts either great and capital or small and ordinary sins I know it were a paradox in nature to tell you that the greatest and mightiest things are of least force yet this is true in the case we speak of the greatest things are the weakest Your own experience tells you that rapes and murthers parricide poisoning treason and the rest of that rabble of arch sins are the sins of the fewest and that they have no strength at all but upon the weakest men for doubtless if they were the strongest they would reign with greatest latitude they would be the commonest they would be the sins of the most But wandring thoughts idle words petty lusts inconsiderate wrath immoderate love to the things of the world and the rest of that swarm of ordinary sins these are they that have largest extent and dominion and some of these or all of these more or less prevail with every man As the Magicians in Exodus when they saw not the power of God in the Serpents in the Bloud in the Frogs at the coming of the plague of the Lice presently cried Digitus Dei hic est this is the finger of God so I know not how it comes to pass though we see and confess that in those great and heinous crimes the Devil hath least power yet at the coming of Lice of the rout of smaller and ordinary sins we presently yeild our selves captives and cry out Digitus Diaboli the strength of the Devil is in these as if we were like unto that fabulous Rack in Plinie which if a man thrust at with his whole body he could not move it yet a man might shake it with one of his fingers Now what an errour is it in us Christians when we see the principal and captain sins so easily vanquish'd to think the common souldier or lesser sort invincible For certainly if the greatest sins be the weakest the lesser cannot be very strong Secondly is it Original corruption that doth so much affright us Let us consider this a little and see what great cause we have to fear it And first Beloved let us take heed that we seem not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight with our own fansie and not so much to find as to feign an enemy Mistake me not I beseech you I speak not this as doubting that we drew any natural infection from the loins of our parents but granting this I take it to be impossible to judge of what strength it is and deny that it is any such cause why we should take it to be so strong as that we should stand in fear to encounter it and overcome it for we can never come to discover how far our nature is necessarily weak for whil'st we are in our infancy and as yet not altered à puris naturaelibus from that which God and nature made us none of us understand our selves and e'r we can come to be of years to be able to discover it or define any thing concerning the nature of it custom or education either good hath much abated or evil hath much improved the force of it so that for any thing we know the strength of it may be much less then we suppose and that it is but a fear that makes it seem so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostom It is the nature of timerous and fearful men evermore to be framing to themselves causeless fears I confess it is a strange thing and it hath many times much amazed me to see how ripe to sin many children are in their young and tender years and e'r they understand what the name of Sin and evil means they are unexpectedly and no man knows by what means wonderfully prompt and witty to villany and wickedness as if they had gone to schole to it in their mothers womb I know not to what cause to impute this thing but I verily suppose I might quit Original sin from the guilt of it For it is a ruled case and concluded by the general consent of the Schools that Original sin is alike in all and St. Paul seems to me to speak to that purpose when he saith that God hath alike concluded all under sin and that all are alike deprived of the glory of God Were therefore Original sin the cause of this strange exorbitancy in some young children they should all be so a thing which our own experience teaches us to be false for we see many times even in young children many good and gracious things which being followed with good education must needs come to excellent effect In pueris elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times an hope of excellent things appears which in riper age for want of cherishing fades and withers away a certain sign that Nature is not so weak as Parents and Tutors are negligent whence then comes this difference certainly not from our Nature which is one in all but from some other cause As for Original sin of what strength it is I will not discuss onely thus much I will say there is none of us all but is much more wicked then the strength of any primitive corruption can constrain Again let us take heed that we abuse not our selves that we use not the names of Original weakness as a stale or stalking-horse as a pretence to choke and cover somewhat else For oftentimes when evil education wicked examples long custom and continuance in sin hath bred in us an habit and necessity of sinning presently Original sin and the weakness of mans nature bear the blame Vbi per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere naturae infirmitas accusatur When through sloth and
for our more orderly proceeding we will consider First the sin it self that is here reprehended Wresting of Scripture where we will briefly consider what it is and what causes and motioners it finds in our corrupt understandings Secondly the persons guilty of this offence discipher'd unto us in two Epithets unlearned unstable Last of all the danger in the last words unto their own damnation And first of the sin it self together with some of the special causes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They wrest They deal with Scripture as Chimicks deal with natural bodies torturing them to extract that out of them which God and Nature never put in them Scripture is a rule which will not fit it self to the obliquity of our conceits but our perverse and crooked discourse must fit it self to the straightness of that rule A learned Writer in the age of our fathers commenting upon Scripture spake most truly when he said That his Comments gave no light unto the Text the Text gave light unto his Comments Other Expositions may give rules and directions for understanding their Authors but Scripture gives rules to Exposition it self and interprets the Interpreter Wherefore when we made in Scripture non pro sententia divinarum Scripturarum as St. Austine speaks sed pro nostra itae dimicantes ut tam velimus Scripturarum esse quae nostra est When we strive to give unto it and not to receive from it the sense when we factiously contend to fasten our conceits upon God and like the Harlot in the Book of Kings take our dead and putrified fancies and lay them in the bosome of Scripture as of a mother then are we guilty of this great sin of wresting of Scripture The nature of which will the better appear if we consider a little some of those motioners which drive us upon it One very potent and strong mean is the exceeding affection and love unto our own opinions and conceits For grown we are unto extremities on both hands we cannot with patience either admit of other mens opinions or endure that our own should be withstood As it was in the Lacedaemonian army almost all were Captains so in these disputes all will be leaders and we take our selves to be much discountenanced if others think not as we do So that the complaint which one makes concerning the dissention of Physicians about the diseases of our bodies is true likewise in these disputes which concern the cure of our souls Hinc illae circa aegros miserae sententiarum concertationes nullo idem censente ne videatur accessio alterius From hence have sprung those miserable contentions about the distemper of our souls singularity alone and that we will not seem to stand as cyphers to make up the sum of other mens opinions being cause enough to make us disagree A fault antiently amongst the Christians so apparent that it needed not an Apostolical spirit to discover it the very heathen themselves to our shame and confusion have justly judiciously and sharply taxt us for it Ammianus Marcellinus passing his censure upon Constantius the Emperour Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem saith he and they are words very well worth your marking Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem anili superstitione confudit In qua scrutanda perplexius quam componenda gratius excitavit dissidia plurima quae progressa fusius aluit concertatione verborum dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium The Christian Religion a Religion of great simplicity and perfection he troubled with dotage and superstition For going about rather perplexedly to search the controversies then gravely to compose them he raised great stirs and by disputing spread them far and wide whilst he went about to make himselfsole Lord and Commander of the whole Profession Now that it may appear wherefore I have noted this it is no hard thing for a man that hath wit and is strongly possest of an opinion and resolute to maintain it to find some places of Scripture which by good handling will be woed to cast a favourable countenance upon it Pythagoras's Scholars having been bred up in the doctrine of Numbers when afterward they diverted upon the studies of Nature fancied unto themselves somewhat in natural bodies like unto Numbers and thereupon fell into a conceit that Numbers were the principles of them So fares it with him that to the reading of Scripture comes fore-possest with some opinion As Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle thought that every where he saw his own shape and picture going afore him so in divers parts of Scripture where these men walk they will easily perswade themselves that they see the image of their own conceits It was and is to this day a fashion in the hotter Countreys at noon when the Sun is in his strength to retire themselves to their closets or beds if they were at home to cool and shady places if they were abroad to avoid the inconvenience of the heat of it To this the Spouse in the Canticles alluding calls after her Beloved as after a shepherd Shew me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest thy flock where thou dost rest at noon The Donatists conceiting unto themselves that the Church was shut up in them alone being urged by the Fathers to shew how the Church being universal came on a suddain thus to be confin'd to Africk they had presently their Scripture for it for so they found it written in the Canticles Indica quem diligit anima mea ubi pascas ubi cubes in meridie In which Text meridies doubtless as they thought was their Southern Countrey of Africk where the Shepherd of Israel was and no where else to feed his flocks I may not trouble you with instances in this kind little observation is able to furnish the man of slenderest reading with abundance The Texts of Scripture which are especially subject to this abuse are those that are of ambiguous and doubtful meaning For as Thucydides observes of the fat and fertile places of Greece that they were evermore the occasions of stirs and seditionsâ— the neighbouring Nations every one striving to make it self Lord of them so is it with these places that are so fertile as it were of interpretation and yeild a multiplicity of sense they are the Palaestra for good wits to prove masteries in where every one desires to be Lord and Absolute A second thing occasioning us to transgress against Scripture and the discreet and sober handling of it is our too quick and speedy entrance upon the practise of interpreting it in our young and green years before that time and experience have ripened us and setled our conceits For that which in all other business and here likewise doth most especially commend us is our cauteâ—ous and wary handling it But this is a flower seldome seen in youths garden Aristotle differencing age and youth makes it a property of youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
be admit of some recompence Honours Wealth Preferments if they be taken from us they may return as they did unto Iob in far greater measure and the party wronged may receive full and ample satisfaction but What recompence may be made to a man for his life When that is gone all the Kingdoms which our Saviour saw in the Mount and the glory of themâ— are nothing worth neither is all the world all the power of Men and Angels able to give the least breath to him that hath lost it Nothing under God is able to make satisfaction for such a wrong the revenge that is taken afterward upon the party that hath done the wrong cannot be counted a recompence That is done In terrorem viventium non in subsidium mortuorum It serves to deter the living from committing the like outrage but it can no way help him that is dead David at the same time committed two sins great sins Murther and Adultery the reward of either of which by Gods Law is nothing else but death yet for his Adultery he seems to make some satisfaction to the party wronged for the Text notes that David took her to his Wife made her his Queen and that he went in unto her and comforted her all which may well be counted at least a part of recompence But for dead Vrias what means could David make to recompence to comfort him For this cause I verily suppose it is that in his Penitential Psalm wherein he bewails his sin he makes no particular confession no mention of his Adultery but of the other of Bloud he is very sensible and expresly prays against it Deliver me from Bloud-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation as if Adultery in comparison of Murder were no crime at all I am sorry I should have any just occasion amongst Christian men so long to insist upon a thing so plain and shew that the sin of Bloud is a great and hainous sin But he that shall look into the necessities of these times shall quickly see that there is a great cause why this doctrine should be very effectually prest For many things are even publickly done which in part argue that men esteem of this sin much more sleightly then they ought Aristotle observed it of Phaleas one that took upon him to prescribe Laws by which a Common-wealth might as he thought be well governed that he had taken order for the preventing of smaller faults but he left way enough open to greater crimes Beloved the errour of our Laws is not so great as that of Phaleas was yet we offend too though on the contrary and the less dangerous side for great and grievous sins are by them providently curbed but many inferiour crimes find many times too free passage Murther though all be abominable yet there are degrees in it some is more hainous then other Gross malicious premeditated and wilful Murther are by our Laws so far as humane wisdom can provide sufficiently prevented but Murders done in haste or besides the intent of him that did it or in point of honour and reputation these find a little too much favour or Laws in this respect are somewhat defective both in preventing that it be not done and punishing it when it is done men have thought themselves wiser then God presuming to moderate the unnecessary severity as they seem to think of his Laws And hence it comes to pass that in Military Companies and in all great Cities and places of Mart and concourse few moneths yea few weeks pass without some instance and example of Bloudshed either by sudden quarrel or by challenge to Duel and single Combat How many examples in a short space have we seen of young men men of hot and fiery disposition mutually provoking and disgracing each other and then taking themselves bound in high terms of valour and honour to end their quarrels by their swords That therefore we may the better discover the unlawfulness of Challenge and private Combat let us a little enquire and examine in what cases Bloud may lawfully and without offence be shed that so we may see where amongst these single Combat may find its place The Manichees were of opinion that it was not lawful to violate any thing in which there was life and therefore they would not pull a branch from a tree because forsooth there was life in it To think that mans life may in no case be taken from him is but a branch of Manichism and the words of my Text do directly cross it where it is laid down that for the cleansing of bloud bloud may and must be shed For the avoiding therefore of the extreme we are to note that the lawful causes of Bloudshed are either Publick or Private Publick cases are two First in case of Iustice when a malefactour dies for his sin by the hand of the Magistrate Secondly in case of publick War and defence of our Countrey for the Doctrine of Christ is not as some have supposed an enemy to Souldiership and Military Discipline When Iohn the Baptist began to preach Repentance and amendment of life amongst those that came forth to understand and learn their duty the Text saith that the Souldiers came and ask'd him Master what shall we do And Iohn wills them not to lay down their weapons or to take another course of life which he ought and would have done if that course had been unlawful but he instructs them rather in their calling for he gives them these two Lessons Do no man wrong and Be content with your pay your wages then which there could not have been better or more pertinent counsel given to Souldiers these being the two principal vices of Souldiers to wrong places where they live by forage aud pillage and to mutiny in dislike of their pay When St. Peter came to preach to the Centurion in the Acts we find not a syllable in all that Sermon prejudicial to a Souldier's profession And therefore accordingly in the times of the Primitive Church Christians served even under Heathen Emperours and that with the approbation of God himself For in the Ecclesiastick story we read of the Legio fulminatrix of a Band of Souldiers called the Thundring Band because that at what time Marcus the Emperour lying with his Army in Germany was afflicted with a great drought and in great danger of the Enemy when they were now about to joyn battel the Christian Souldiers that Band fell flat on their faces and by their instant prayers obtained of God a great Tempest which to the Emperour and his Army brought store of cold refreshing water but upon the Enemy nothing else but fire and whirl-wind The Emperour's Epistle in which this story is related is this day extant recovered by Iustin Martyr who lived about the time the thing was done Wherefore we may not doubt of the lawfulness of that profession which it hath pleased God thus to grace and honour with such a miracle Besides
this weakness of the flesh is no prejudice at all to the strength of a Christian for though the flesh be weak yet the spirit is strong and so much our Saviour tells us too and why then do we not follow the stronger part Si spiritus carne fortior quia generosior nostra culpa infirmiora sectamur saith Tertullian If the spirit be stronger then the flesh what madness is it in us to make choice of and follow the weaker side Nulla fides unquam miseros elegit amicos Which of you is so improvident as in a faction to make choice of that side which he sees to be the weakest and which he knows must fall Again this weakness of a Christian is onely outward within what he is the words of my Text do sufficiently shew Socrates outwardly was a man of deformed shape but he was one of an excellent spirit and therefore Alcibiades in Plato compares him to an Apothecary's box which without had painted upon it an Ape or a Satyre or some deformed thing but within was full of sweet and precious oyntment Thus Beloved it is with a Christian whatsoever outward deformity he seems to have howsoever he seems to be nothing but rags without yet he is totus purpureus all scarlet and glorious within I have said Ye are gods saith the Scripture the Magistrate is wont to ingross and impropriate this Scripture to himself because sitting in place of Authority for execution of Justice he carries some resemblance of God but to whom can this Scripture better belong then to the Christian man For the magistrate indeed carries some shew of God without but many times within is full of corruption and weakness the Christian carries a shew of weakness without but within is full of God and Christ. The second thing which I told you we learn't was a Lesson teaching us not to be puft up with opinion and conceit of our own outward strength and glory for if any man because of this shall begin to think of himself above what he ought let him know that he may say of his exceeding strength no otherwise then the man in the Book of Kings spake when his ax was fallen into the water Alas Master it was but lent Those that build houses make Anticks which seem to hold up the beams whereas indeed as St. Paul tells the Olive-branch Thou bearest not the root but the root thee So is it true in them they hear not up the house the house bears up them Beloved seem we never so strong yet we are but Anticks the strength by which the house of Christ doth stand it is not ours it is Christ's who by that power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself doth sustain both himself and us Luke XVIII 1. And he spake a Parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint MY Text is like the Temple at Hierusalem it is the House of Prayer wherein we may learn many special points of the skill and practise of it Now as that Temple had two parts First the Fore-front the Porch the walk before it and secondly the Temple it self So have these words likewise two parts First there are words which stand before like a Porch or Walk and they are these And he spake a parable unto them Secondly here are words like unto the Temple it self that men ought always to pray and not to faint If you please before we enter into the Temple or speak of these words That men ought always to pray let us stay and entertain our selves a little in the Porch and see what matter of meditation it will yeild And he spake a Parable unto them c. to instruct and teach the ignorant no method no way so speedy and effectual as by Parables and Fables Strabo gives the reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For man is a creature naturally desirous to know but it is according to the Proverb as the Cat desires fish loath to touch the water loath to take the pains to learn knowledge is indeed a thing very pleasant but to learn is a thing harsh and tedious above all the things in the world The Book which St. Iohn eats in the tenth of the Apocalyps was in his mouth sweet as honey but bitter in his belly Beloved those Librorum helluones students that like St. Iohn eat up whole Volumes these find the contrary for in the mouth in the perusal◠their Books are harsh and unpleasant but in the stomach when they are understood and digested then are they delightful and pleasurable Yet one thing by the providence of God our nature hath which makes this rough way to learn more plain and easie it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common experience shews we are all very desirous to hear narrations and reports either pleasant or strange wise men therefore and God himself which is wiser then men being to train up mankind Genus indocile a subject dull of hearing and hardly drawn to learn have from time to time wrought upon this humour upon this part of our disposition and mitigated sugred as it were the unpleasantness of a difficult and hard lesson with the sweetness of some delightful Parable or Fable And S. Chrysostom tells us of a Physician who finding his Patient to abhor Physick but infinitely long for Wine heating an earthen cup in the fire and quenching it in Wine put his potion therein that so the sick person being deceived with the smell of Wine might unawares drink of the Physick or that I may better draw my comparison from Scripture as when Iacob meant to be welcome to his father Isaac he put on his brother Esau's apparel and so got access So beloved wise men when they meant either to instruct the ignorant or to reprove offenders to procure their welcom and make their way more passable have been wont for the most part as it were to clothe their lesson or reproof in a Parable or to serve it in a dish savouring of wine that so Iacob might be admitted under Esau's coat that the smell of the pleasantness of Wine might draw down the wholesomeness of Physick Great and singular have been those effects which this kind of teaching by parables hath wrought in men by informing their ignorance reproving their errour working patience of reproof opening the understanding moving the affections and other sovereign commodities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for this cause not onely our Poets and prophane Authours but whole Cities and men which gave Laws to Common-wealths have made especial choice of this course Yea our Saviour Christ himself hath filled the Gospels with Parables made them like a Divine and Christian AEsop's Fables because he found it to be exceeding profitable For first of all it is the plainest and most familiar way and above all other stoops to the capacity of the learner as being drawn either from Trees or Beasts or from some ordinary common
c. In these words we will consider these three things 1. The Person David And David's heart smote him 2. David's Sollicitousness his care and jealousie very significantly expressed in the next words his heart smote him 3. The cause of this his care and anxiety of mind in the last words because he had cut off Saul's skirt In the first point that is in the Person we may consider his greatness he was a King in expectation and already Anointed A circumstance by so much the more considerable because that greatness is commonly taken to be a privilege to sin to be over careful and conscientious of our courses and actions are accounted virtues for private persons Kings have greater businesses then to examine every thought that comes into their hearts Pater meus obliviscitur se esse Caesarem ego vero memini me Caesaris filiam It is the answer of Iulia Augustus the Emperour's daughter when she was taxed for her too wanton and licentious living and counsel'd to conform her self to the sobriety and gravity of her father My father saith she forgets himself to be Caesar the Emperour but I remember my self to be Caesar's daughter It was the speech of Ennius the Poet Plebs in hoc Regi ante-stat loco licet lachrimari plebi Regi honeste non licet Private men in this have a privilege above Princes but thus to do becomes not Princes and if at any time these sad and heavy-hearted thoughts do surprize them they shall never want comforters to dispel them When Ahab was for sullenness fallen down upon his bed because Naboth would not yeild him his Vineyard Iezabel is presently at hand and asks him Art thou this day King of Israel When Ammon pined away in the incestuous love of his sister Thamar Ionadab his companion comes unto him and asks Why is the King's son sad every day so that as it seems great Persons can never be much or long sad Yet David forgets his greatness forgets his many occasions gives no ear to his companions about him but gives himself over to a scrupulous and serious consideration of an Action in shew and countenance but light Secondly As the Person is great so is the care and remorse conceived upon the consideration of his action exceeding great which is our Second part And therefore the holy Ghost expresses it in very significant terms His heart smote him a phrase in Scripture used by the holy Ghost when men begin to be sensible and repent them of some sin When David had committed that great sin of numbring the people and began to be apprehensive of it the Scripture tells us that David's heart smote him when he had commanded Ioab to number the people Wherefore by this smiting we may not here understand some light touch of conscience like a grain of powder presently kindled and presently gone for the most hard and flinty hearts many times yeilds such sparks as these He that is most flesh'd in sin commits it not without some remorse for sin evermore leaves some scruple some sting some loathsomeness in the hearts of those that are most inamour'd of it But as Simeon tells the Blessed Virgin in St. Luke's Gospel Gladius pertransibit animam tuam A sword shall peirce through thine heart so it seems to have been with David It was not some light touch to rase onely the surface and skin of the heart but like a sword it peirced deep into him To teach us one lesson That actions spotted though but with the least suspicion of sin ought not carelesly to be pass'd by or sleightly glanced at but we ought to be deeply apprehensive of them and bestow greatest care and consideration upon them The third part of our Text containeth the cause of David's remorse in the last words because he cut off Saul's skirt In the two former parts we had to do with greatness there was 1. a great Person and 2. great Remorse can we in this third part find out any great cause or reason of this so to make all parts proportionable Certainly he that shall attentively read and weigh these first words of my Text and know the story might think that David had committed some notable errour as some great oppression or some cruel slaughter or some such Royal sin which none but Kings and great men can commit But Beloved this my Text seems to be like the Windows in Solomon's Temple broad within but narrow without or like a Pyramide large and spatious at the Basis and ground of it but small and sharp at the top The Person and Remorse which are the ground and subject of my Text both are great and large but the Cause which is the very crown and top of all that is very small yea peradventure none at all For whether it be that my self accustomed to greater sins and now grown old in them have lost all sense of small and petty errours or whether indeed there be no errour at all in this action of David but onely some fancy some jealousie arising out of that godly and careful watch he kept over all his ways or whatsoever else it was that caused this scruple or remorse in David it is a very hard matter to discover and yet notwithstanding that we may make more open pass unto such Doctrines as I shall raise out of these words let us a little scan and consider what it was in this action that made David thus strangely scrupulous And first of all was it for that he had touch'd and taken that which was none of his own and therefore might seem to fall within compass of the Law against injury and purloining This seems not probable for when afterward in the like case he came upon Saul as he was sleeping in the Camp and took from him the Spear and the pot of water which stood at his head we do not read that his head that his heart smote him and yet he took what was none of his Or 2 ly was it that he did wrong and dishonour Saul in mangling his garment Indeed the Iews have a Tradition that this was the sin of which David was here so sensible And therefore say they whereas we read in the first of Kings that when David grew old they covered him with clothes but he gat no heat this was the punishment of his sin committed against Saul God so providing that garments should not be serviceable to him who had offended in wronging Saul's garments But this I must let go as a fable Or 3 ly was it that he had unadvisedly given way to some disloyal thought and at first resolved to revenge himself on Saul having him at the advantage though afterward he repented Indeed St. Chrysostom thinks so and therefore on those words at the latter end of the verse next before my Text And David arose he notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See you not saith he what a tempest of rage and anger begins to rise in him for he supposeth him
it Last of all it is Tertullian's speech Quanto facilius illicita timebit qui etiam licita verebitur It is wisdom sometimes to suspect and shun things that are lawful For there are many actions in themselves good which yet to many men become occasions of sin and scandal For it is with our actions as it is with our meats and drinks As divers meats fit not to divers constitutions of body so all actions accord not well with all tempers of mind As therefore what dish it is we easily surfeit of though it be otherwise good it is wisdom totally to abstain from so look what actions they be in which we find our selves prone to sin it is good spiritual Physick to use abstinence and quite to leave them For if our Saviour commands us to pluck out our eyes and pare off ours hands if once they become unto us cause of sin how much more then must weprune away all inward thoughts all outward circumstances which become occasion of offence unto us A second reason why I would perswade you to entertain a jealousie of all your thoughts and actions is a natural over-charitable affection which I see to be in most men unto their own ways and which is strange the worse they are the more are we naturally inclined to favour them The reason is because the worse they are the more they are our own When question was sometime made Why good herbs grow so sparingly and with great labour and pains whereas weeds grow apace without any culture and tilling it was answered That the earth was a natural Mother to the one to the other she was a Step-mother the one she brought forth of her self to the other she was constrain'd Beloved it is with our hearts as it is with the Earth the natural fruit of them is weeds and evil thoughts unto them our hearts are as mothers injusta virescunt they spring up in us of themselves without any care or manuring but as for good thoughts if they be found in our hearts they are not natural they are set there by a high hand they are there by a kind of spiritual in-oculation and graffing as men graff Apples and kind fruits upon Thorns and Crabs No marvel then if like choice herbs and fruits they grow so tenderly and need so much care and cherishing As therefore Parents though their own children be very deformed yet love them more then others though more beautiful so corrupt and evil thoughts are naturally dearer unto us then good because we are as Mothers unto them to the rest we are but Step-dames Two notable fruits there are of this over-charitableness to our own actions First a willingness that we have to flatter to deceive and abuse our own selves by pretences and excuses There is a plain a downright and as it were a Countrey reprobate one that sees his sin and cares not much to excuse it and is content to go on and as it were in simplicity to cast himself away There is a more witty more refined and as it were a Gentleman-like reprobate one that strives to smooth and gild over his sin to deceive others and himself with excuses and apologies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks to take great pains and with the expense of a great deal of wit and art to damn himself When Saul being sent against Amalek had spared Agag and the best and fattest of the prey at Samuel's coming to visit him how doth he wipe his mouth as if all had been well and trimly composes himself to entertain him Blessed art thou of the Lord I have performed the commandment of the Lord And when Samuel had shewed him his errour how quickly hath he his excuse at his fingers ends We have spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord Et Deo adulatur sibi lenocinatur as Tertullian speaks he thinks to gull Almighty God with fair and flattering pretences and becomes a baud to his own vice nimium idem omnes fallimur it is the common errour of us all and in most of our actions we do as Saul did endeavour to put tricks upon our selves Beloved were we not partial but rigid censurers of our own thoughts this corrupt fruit would quickly rot and fall away Again there is a second fruit springing out of this favour and dotage in our own actions an errour as common though not so dangerous for we are content many times to acknowledge that something is amiss in our actions we will confess them to be sins but we account of them as little sins sins of a lesser fize not so fearful easily pardonable There is a sinner who by committing some great and heinous crime crimen devoratorium salutis as Tertullian calls it such a sin as with open mouth devours salvation doth as it were with one step leap into hell and of this kind of sinners the number is fewer But abundance there are who avoiding great and heinous sins by committing lesser sins as they think can be content to go by degrees and as it were step by step into hell Beloved let us a little put on the spectacle I but now spake of that we may see whither any sin be so small as we take it I know there is difference of sins our Saviour tells us that there is a beam and there is a mote but withall this I know that the best way to keep us from sin is minima pro maximis cavere to loath even the least as if it were the greatest if we look through this glass it will make us think every mote a beam Sins in themselves are unequal but in regard of us and of our endeavour to avoid them they are all equal Fly from evil saith the Psalmist he tells us not that there is one greater evil from which we must fly and another less from which 't is enough if we do but go but he bids us fly and to make haste alike from all To think that a sin is less then it is may be dangerous for it makes us the less careful to avoid it but to mistake on the other hand and think a sin greater then it is this is a very profitable errour Vtinam sic semper erraremus would God we did always thus erre for besides that there is no danger in it it makes us more fearful to commit sin Our Saviour reprehends the Phaâ—isees in the Gospel because they could strain at gnats but swallow camels but yet it is true that men learn at length to swallow camels by swallowing gnats at first Nemo repente fuit turpissimus no sinner so hardy as to set upon the greatest sins at first The way by which men train up themselves to the committing gross and heinous sins is by not being at first consciencious of lesser sins Et sane nescio saith Paulinus in St. Hierom an possimus leve aliquod peccatum dicere quod in Dei contemptum admittitur who
have surâ—eited and are sick of sin by repentance we disgorge cast it up again bibit vomit sin and repent repent and sin again Thus goes our life away Polybius tells us though man be generally accounted the wisest of all creatures yet some have thought him the foolishest of all other For the Fox will never return to the snare which he hath once escaped nor the Wolf to the pit nor the Dog to the staff that hath beaten him onely Man will never be taught to beware sed peccat fere semper in iisdem though he smart never so oft yet will he return to the same offence and fault again He that should well observe the follies of men might more pardonably take them to be utterly more devoid of memory then Aristotle holds it of Bees so easily do we forget the danger of sin and being now driven of return to it again Now a great part of this our folly we owe to the doctrine of Repentance as it is commonly taught and understood For as trusting to the help of the Physicians hath overthrown the health of many while they think they may use excess take their pleasures the more securely because they see the remedy So it is to be feared that relying upon the promises made to the repentant man hath been the ruine and the overthrow of many a soul For repentance is physick and therefore to be used sparingly and with good manners lest too familiar use of it make it cease to be a duty and a cause of presumption and wantonness There is not any Doctrine in the delivery whereof we ought to walk more warily and wisely then in the Doctrine of Repentance so quickly may we make that an invitation to offend which was ordained as a Farewel turn the remedy of sin into an occasion of sinning The discipline of the ancient Church was never to admit any to publick pennance more then once and if after such kind of pennance he offended scandalously again like the Leper in the Law he was shut out of the camp never to return unto the congregation Nay in the Scriptures we shall never find an example of Repentance upon relapse and falling but into sins once repented of Do not think this fell out by chance but rather probably conclude from thence either our Fore-fathers durst not make trial of any such conclusion and to make no practise of it or if they did yet it pleased not the holy Ghost that any such example should stand upon record lest peradventure it might prove a president to posterity most men being quick scholars at such kind of lessons Will you know whether all this tends This is my meaning It is better for you to study health Custodiam then physick Repentance Labour rather in prevention not to commit it again then in repenting the same remedies afterward Think of our Saviour's counsel to one that he had cured Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee And indeed repentance ever goes with this condition Sin no more c. He that repents and forsakes his sin shall find mercy saith the Wise-man Now therefore since Repentance at best is but a Remedy the benefit of it except we manage it wisely uncertain the danger if we use it too often may be great Let us not suffer the hope of frequent Repentance to abuse us for this is but the cold comfort of a miserable man But with our serious repentance let us take up this resolution as David did for it is folly to wound our selves that we may need the Salve again It is a good thing to seek what we have lost and this repentance doth but it is a thing of higher excellency not to be of the lacking hand but to enjoy still what we have And this the benefit of Cautelousness Dixi custodiam But leave we therefore this comparative discourse and so come in the second place to treat of this Virtue in it self Custodiam is but care wariness and he that hath this one Art needs no other The good providence and mercies of God appear in this that propounding a course of eternal life to men of all sorts he hath laid it down in such terms that nothing but negligence and uncautelousness can hazard it Might he not have done this in a more high and reserved manner with respect to some sorts and orders of men If he had done so the greatest part I will not say of mankind but of the professors of Christianity had perished finally perished If he had required great knowledge sharpness of wit what had become of slower spirits and shallower capacities But he saith Not many wise not many learned And there is some reason for it de facto as we may guess by other cases For men of low abilities are more jealous of their actions and the jealousie makes them the more cautelous And if they use the like caution with their craftiest enemy the Divil it must needs be custodiam safety 2. If God had required great strength extraordinary abilities and stoutness of men then the greatest part had perished because of weaker temper but he rather chuseth the weak things of the world to confound the strong Miscellanies Mr. HALES Confession of the TRINITY THe Sum of whatsoever either the Scriptures teach or the Scholes conclude concerning the Doctrine of the TRINITY is comprised in these few lines GOD is ONE Numerically ONE more ONE then any single Man is One if Vnity could suscipere magis minus Yet GOD is so ONE that he admits of Distinction and so admits of Distinction that he still retains Vnity As He is ONE so we call Him GOD the Deity the Divine Nature and other Names of the same signification As He is Distinguished so we call Him TRINITY Persons FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST In this TRINITY there is One Essence Two Emanations Three Persons or Relations Four Properties Five Notions A Notion is that by which any Person is Known or Signified The One Essence is GOD which with this Relation that it doth Generate or Beget makes the Person of the FATHER the same Essence with this Relation that it is Begotten maketh the Person of the SON the same Essence with this Relation that it Proceedeth maketh the Person of the HOLY GHOST The Two Emanations are to be Begotten and to Proceed or to be Breathed out The Three Persons are FATHER SON and HOLY SPIRIT The Three Relations are to Beget to be Begotten and to Proceed or to be Breathed out The Four Properties are the First Innascibility and Inemanability the Second is to Generate these belong to the FATHER the Third is to be Begotten and this belongs unto the SON the Fourth is to Proceed or to be Breathed out and this belongs unto the HOLY SPIRIT The Five Notions are First Innascibility the Second is to Beget the Third to be Begotten the Fourth Spiratio Passiva to be Breathed out the Fifth Spiratio Activa
me not no Church either Ancient or Modern ever gave When it was objected what if they were in danger of death their answer was that the want of Baptism would not prejudice them with God except we would determine as the Papists do that Baptism is necessary to salvation Which is as much to undervalue the necessity of Baptism as the Church of Rome doth over-value it Here followed a recitation of all that had been done since the business of the Catechism had been set on foot amongst the rest was registred the exceptions of the Remonstrants of Vtrecht and it was added atque iis est à Praeside satisfactum Those of Vtrecht excepted against that word satisfactum they had said they an answer given them but no satisfaction For they persisted in their former opinion and forthwith that word was altered Here was a doubt moved whether it were not fit that some of the especial Reasons brought by the Synod in the Question of the Baptism of Infants should not be added to the Decree It was answered That Reasons were obnoxious to cavil and exceptions and it was not for the Authority of the Synod to Reason but to Decree After this the Praeses signified to the Synod that the time prefixt for the appearance of the Remonstrants was now expiring and yet nothing was signified concerning their appearance neither to the Secular President nor Ecclesiastical Wherefore naming them all he thought good to cite them to appear It was answer'd by those of Vtrecht that they did provide and would shortly be forth coming In the mean while to take up the time Mr. Praeses thought good to commend to the Synod the consideration redress of those abuses which were in Printing Every man was suffered to print what he listed whence came abundance of blasphemous heretical obscene and scandalous Pamphlets Many here delivered their opinions others required farther time to think of it The English first thought fit that the States General should be requested to take the care of this into their hands That there should be Censors to approve all such Books as should go to the Press That no man should print but such as were known to be of the Reformed Religion Unto this advice divers things were added by others as that there should be a set number of Printers that they should be sworn that there should be certain Laws prescribed unto them that they should print no Heretical Books especially the Books of David Georgius H. Nicolaus Socinus that no Libels no unlawful Pictures either obscene or made to any mans disgrace should be permitted that no Book should be Printed without the names of the Author Printer Place except the Synod or the Magistrates did in some cases otherwise think good that there should be care that the Correctors for the Press were good Scholars and many other things of the like nature Then were there read certain Canons made in some Synods before concerning this business Theodatus of Geneva told us that in his travails at Venice he had observed that there was a Colledge of sundry persons secular and spiritual to whose care was committed all the business of Printing He thought it fit there should be such Colledges here erected When all had spoken that would the Praeses told them that Adrian Smoutius had written a little Book in the Belgick Tongue unto the Synod and sent the Copies of it to him to be distributed And so requesting them to take in good part the good will of the man for want of more business the Synod brake up At length are we coming to the main battel The Armies have been in sight one of another and have had some parly The manner was this Upon Thursday the 6. of Decem. stylo novo The Synod being set in the morning the Praeses signified that there had come unto him in the name of the Remonstrants these four H. Leo Niellius Matthisius and Pinakerus to give notice that the Remonstrants were ready according to their Citation but because they had but lately come unto the Town that yet convenient lodgings were not provided their papers books and stuff were confused therefore they required respite either till Saturday or at least Friday morning The President of the Politicks replyed that they should come and personally make appearance before the Synod and there propose their mind and if the Synod approved their causes they might be deferred Upon this were two of the Deputies of Vtrecht sent forth to give them warning to provide for their present appearance In the mean while till they came the Praeses thought fit that such as in the former Session delivered not themselves concerning the Reformation of abuses in Printing should now doe it Here was little delivered besides what was said the day before only some few particulars as that order should be taken to repress this longing humour in many men of coming to the Press that there should be no impression of the Bible at any time without leave had Forreign Books brought out of other Countries should not be distracted here without peculiar leave after their being perused by the Censurers to ease the Censurers that they might not be troubled with reading too great a multitude of unprofitable Books it was thought fit that the Books should first be brought to the Classes and what they approved should be brought to the Censurers c. In the men while the Remonstrants came all that were cited by Letters and were admitted into the Synod There is in the midst of the Synod-House a long Table set as it seems for them for it hath hitherto been void no man sitting at it here Chairs and Forms being set they were willed to sit down The Praeses told them that he had commended to the Synod their suit of being a little respited but it was the will of the Deputies for the States that they should come before the Synod and propose their cause themselves Episcopius standing up spake to this effect First he prayed God to give a blessing to this meeting and to pour into their minds such conceits as best fitted men come together for such ends then he signified that according to their Citation they were now come ad collationem instituendam concerning that cause which hitherto with a good Conscience they had maintain'd As for the point of delay true it is they spake to the Praeses concerning a respite until Saturday or Friday by reason of that great distraction of their Books and Papers and want of convenient lodging but not as a petition to be moved in that behalf unto the Synod but only as a thing which out of common equity they might have presumed on without acquainting the Synod with it For they were ready even at that present to begin the business they came for without any farther delay But this they left to the Deputies Secular and Ecclesiastical to determine of Then were they requested to withdraw a little into a chamber
stand to it or no that they did maintain amongst them an implicite faith and it was usual with some of them when they were prest with any reason they could not put by to answer that though themselves could say little to it yet such and such could say much which was enough for them When all had spoken their pleasure the conclusion of the Synod was that they must reform the manner of propounding their mind that they must give up their answer in affirmatives as much as was possible that this form of answer was not according to the Decree of the States and this was the effect of that Session On Friday the 5 15 of Decemb. there was a short Session in the morning The matter propounded was whether it were not fit that the Remonstrants should be required to give up their minds concerning all the five points before the Synod proceeded to examine or determine any thing The reason was the connexion of the points mutually one with another for which cause it was hard to determine of one except their mind in the rest were known The Secular Lords and the Synod liked well of the proposal Those of Geneva thought it best to take their opinions out of their books to which the Praeses answer'd that it could not be because they were called thither by their citatory Letters to propose defend their own opinions That they could not complain of the Synod for calling on them thus at once to deliver themselves For the Synod doubts not that they were provided since themselves had long since given it out in their books and private speeches that they were provided The Remonstrants then being called in were told that it was the determination of the Synod that they should deliver their opinions at once concerning the five points and for this they had given them time till Munday For this would prove better for the Synod and for themselves Then that they should deliver themselves in affirmatives as much as possibly might be For by their negatives they delivered not their own opinions but diverted upon other Thâ— Confessions and Creeds had alwayes been framed by affirmatives thus or thus we do believe not by negatives To this they replyed Attendemus ad ea quae à Domino Praeside dict a sunt considerabimus Then did the Praeses signifie that on the morrow there should be a Latin Sermon in the Synod house Scultetus is the man that makes it And this is the effect of what was done at that time and so ceasing to trouble your Lordship any farther at this time I humbly take my leave resting Dort this 15. of Decemb. 1618. stylo novo Your Honours Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord THe seventh of Decem. stylo novo being Friday in the morning the Synod met the first thing that was done was the pronouncing the Decree of the States concerning Grevinchovius and Goulartius to this effect That whereas the Remonstrants had petitioned to the States that Grevinchovius and Goulartius might be admitted into the Synod there to defend the Remonstrants Cause the Lords for good causes thought they neither ought nor could grant it yet thus much did they graciously permit that they might freely come in private and do them what help they could and if they thought that in any thing they saw further into the Cause than their brethren they might have leave to exhibit their mind in writing to the Synod Provided First that they had leave of the Synod so to do Secondly that they did not seek any frivolous delayes Thirdly that they promised to submit themselves to the Decree of the Synod and last of all that the Church Censures respectively pass'd on Grevinchovius and Goulartius be not prejudiced but stand still in their full force and vertue This Decree was consented unto by the whole Synod Here the Praeses admonisht those of Vtrecht to provide themselves and resolve what they would do whether they would profess themselves parties for the Remonstrants or keep their places and sit as Judges if they would express as parties then must they cease to be accounted part of the Synod and be accounted as Episcopius and the rest that were cited They required that time might be given them to deliberate The Praeses eagerly urged them to give their resolute answer They replyed it was a greater matter than might so soon be dispatch'd So far they went that at length they fell on some warm words For when two of the Remonstrants Deputies by chance â—pake both at once the Praeses admonisht them to speak modestiùs ornatiús For men here speak one by one and not by pairs But here the Secular Deputies strook in and thought fit they should have time of respite till the morrow yet so that in the mean time the Synod should proceed Then were the Remonstrants call'd in and the Decree of the States concerning Grevinchovius and Goulartius read unto them Episcopius standing up required that a little time might be granted to them to speak and forthwith uttered an Oration acrem sanè animosam and about which by reason of some particulars in it there will grow some stir The effect of the Oration was this THat Religion was the chiefest note of a man and we were more distinguished by it from other Creatures than by our Reason That their appearance before the Synod was ut illam etiam Spartam ornarent that they might endeavour something for the preservation of the Purity of Religion That Religion was nothing else but a right Conceit and Worship of God That the Conceits concerning God are of two sorts some absolutely necessary which were the grounds of all true Worship in these to erre might finally endanger a man Some not absolutely necessary and in these sometimes without great danger men might mistake That they descryed many conceits passing in our Churches which could not stand with the Goodness and Iustice of God with the use of the Sacraments with the Duties of Christian men These had given occasion to the Adversaries abroad to accuse our Churches and lay upon them many strange imputations That therefore their endeavour had been none other but to remove these imputations and to provide as much as in them lay that the Conceits of some few might not pass for the general Doctrine of our Churches But this their endeavour had hitherunto had but ill success And as in a diseased body many times when Physick is administred the humours which before were quiet are now stirred and hence the body proves more distempered so their endeavours to cure the Church had caused greater disorder yet in this had they not offended For they laboured to none other end but that the Church might not be traduced by reason of the private conceits of some of her Ministers That in this behalf the world had been exceedingly incensed against them but this Envy they esteeemed their Gloriam