nos purificet quando dicat dominus Intrate in requiem meam Let him also purifie us that every one of us being burned with that flaming sword not burned up or consumed we may enter into Paradise and give thanks unto the Lord who hath brought us into a place of refreshment This opinion of theirs is in the main of it very uncertain relying upon the sense of some obscure places of Scripture is only apt to represent the great severity of the Judge at that day and it hath in it this only certainty that even the most innocent person hath great need of mercy and he that hath the greatest cause of confidence although he runs to no rocks to hide him yet he runs to the protection of the Crosse and hides himself under the shadow of the Divine mercies and he that shall receive the absolution of the blessed sentence shall also suffer the terrors of the day and the fearfull circumstances of Christs coming The effect of this consideration is this That if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the wicked and the sinner appear Quid faciet virgula deserti ubi concutietur cedrus Paradisi Quid faciet agnus cum tremit aries Si coelum fugiat ubi manebit terra said S. Gregory And if S. Paul whose conscience accus'd him not yet durst not be too confident because he was not hereby justified but might be found faulty by the severer Judgement of his Lord how shall we appear with all our crimes and evill habits round about us If there be need of much mercy to the servants and friends of the Judge then his enemies shall not be able to stand upright in Judgement 5. But the matter is still of more concernment The Pharisees beleeved that they were innocent if they abstained from criminall actions such as were punishable by the Judge and many Christians think all is well with them if they abstain from such sins as have a name in the Tables of their Lawes But because some sins are secret and not discernible by man others are publick but not punished because they are frequent and perpetuall and without externall mischiefs in some instances and only provocations against God men think that in their concernments they have no place and such are jeering and many instances of wantonnesse and revelling doing petty spites and doggednesse and churlishnesse lying and pride and beyond this some are very like vertues as too much gentlenesse and slacknesse in government or too great severity and rigor of animadversions bitternesse in reproof of sinners uncivill circumstances imprudent handlings of some criminals and zeal Nay there are some vile things which through the evill discoursings and worse manners of men are passed into an artificiall and false reputation and men are accounted wits for talking Atheistically and valiant for being murderers and wise for deceiving and circumventing our Brothers and many irregularities more for all which we are safe enough here But when the day of Judgement comes these shall be called to a severe account for the Judge is omniscient and knows all things and his tribunall takes cognisance of all causes and hath a coërcitive for all all things are naked and open to his eyes saith S. Paul therefore nothing shall escape for being secret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all prejudices being laid aside it shall be considered concerning our evill rules and false principles Cum cepero tempus ego justitias judicabo when I shall receive the people I shall judge according unto right so we read When we shall receive time I will judge justices and judgements so the vulgar Latin reads it that is in the day of the Lord when time is put into his hand and time shall be no more he shall judge concerning those judgements when men here make of things below and the fighting man shall perceive the noises of drunkards and fools that cryed him up for daring to kill his Brother to have been evill principles and then it will be declared by strange effects that wealth is not the greatest fortune and ambition was not but an ill counsellor and to lye for a good cause was no piety and to do evill for the glory of God was but an ill worshipping him and that good nature was not well imploy'd when it spent it self in vicious company and evill compliances and that piety was not softnesse and want of courage and that poverty ought not to have been contemptible and that cause that is unsuccessefull is not therefore evill and what is folly here shall be wisdome there then shall men curse their evill guides and their accursed superinduced necessities and the evill guises of the world and then when silence shall be found innocence and eloquence in many instances condemned as criminall when the poor shall reign and Generals and Tyrants shall lye low in horrible regions when he that lost all shall finde a treasure and he that spoil'd him shall be found naked and spoil'd by the destroyer then we shall finde it true that we ought here to have done what our Judge our blessed Lord shall do there that is take our measures of good and evill by the severities of the word of God by the Sermons of Christ and the four Gospels and by the Epistles of S. Paul by Justice and charity by the Lawes of God and the lawes of wise Princes and Republicks by the rules of Nature and the just proportions of Reason by the examples of good men and the proverbs of wise men by severity and the rules of Discipline for then it shall be that truth shall ride in triumph and the holinesse of Christs Sermons shall be manifest to all the world that the Word of God shall be advanced over all the discourses of men and Wisdome shall be justified by all her children Then shall be heard those words of an evill and trady repentance and the just rewards of folly We fools thought their life madnesse but behold they are justified before the throne of God and we are miserable for ever Here men think it strange if others will not run into the same excesse of riot but there they will wonder how themselves should be so mad and infinitely unsafe by being strangely and inexcusably unreasonable The summe is this The Judge shall appear cloathed with wisdome and power and justice and knowledge and an impartiall Spirit making no separations by the proportions of this world but by the measures of God not giving sentence by the principles of our folly and evill customes but by the severity of his own Laws and measures of the Spirit Non est judicium Dei sicut hominum God does not judge as Man judges 6. Now that the Judge is come thus arrayed thus prepared so instructed let us next consider the circumstances of our appearing and his sentence and first I consider that men at the day of Judgement that belong not to the portion of life
our faculties is to serve God and doe justice and charities to our Brother For if we doe the work of God in our own day wee shall receive an infinite mercy in the day of the Lord. But what that is is now to be inquired What wee have done in the body But certainly this is the greatest terror of all The thunders and the fires the earthquakes and the trumpets the brightnesse of holy Angels and the horror of accursed Spirits the voyce of the Archangel who is the Prince of the heavenly host and the Majesty of the Judge in whose service all that Army stands girt with holinesse and obedience all those strange circumstances which have been already reckoned and all those others which wee cannot understand are but little praeparatories and umbrages of this fearfull circumstance All this amazing Majesty and formidable praeparatories are for the passing of an eternall Sentence upon us according to what we have done in the body Woe and alas and God help us all All mankind is an enemy to God his nature is accursed and his manners are depraved It is with the nature of man and with all his manners as Philemon said of the nature of foxes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every fox is crafty and mischievous and if you gather a whole herd of them there is not a good natur'd beast amongst them all so it is with man by nature he is the child of wrath and by his manners he is the child of the Devill wee call Christian and wee dishonour our Lord and we are Brethren but we oppresse and murther one another it is a great degree of sanctity now a-days not to be so wicked as the worst of men and wee live at the rate as if the best of men did design to themselves an easier condemnation and as if the generality of men consider'd not concerning the degrees of death but did beleeve that in hell no man shall perceive any ease or refreshment in being tormented with a slower fire For consider what we doe in the body 12 or 14 years passe before we choose good or bad and of that which remaines above halfe is spent in sleep and the needs of Nature for the other halfe it is divided as the Stag was when the beasts went a hunting the Lyon hath five parts of sixe The businesse of the world takes so much of our remaining portion that Religion and the service of God have not much time left that can be spar'd and of that which can if we consider how much is allowed to crasty arts of cousenage to oppression and ambition to greedy desires and avaritious prosecutions to the vanities of our youth and the proper sins of every age to the meer idlenesse of man and doing nothing to his fantastick imaginations of greatnesse and pleasures of great and little devices of impertinent law-suites and uncharitable treatings of our Brother it will be intolerable when we consider that we are to stand or fall eternally according to what we have done in the body Gather it all together and set it before thy eyes Almes and Prayers are the summe of all thy good Were thy prayers made in feare and holinesse with passion and desire Were they not made unwillingly weakly and wandringly and abated with sins in the greatest part of thy life Didst thou pray with the same affection and labour as thou didst purchase thy estate Have thy alms been more then thy oppressions and according to thy power and by what means didst thou judge concerning it How much of our time was spent in that and how much of our estate was spent in this But let us goe one step further How many of us love our enemies or pray for and doe good to them that persecute and affront us or overcome evill with good or turn the face again to them that strike us rather then be reveng'd or suffer our selves to be spoil'd or robbed without contention and uncharitable courses or lose our interest rather then lose our charity And yet by these precepts we shall be judged I instance but once more Our blessed Saviour spake a hard saying Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and upon this account may every one weeping and trembling say with Jcb Quid faciam cum resurrexerit ad judicandum Deus What shall I doe when the Lord shall come to judgement Of every idle word O blessed God! what shall become of them who love to prate continually to tell tales to detract to slander to back-bite to praise themselves to undervalue others to compare to raise divisions to boast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who shall be able to stand upright not bowing the knee with the intolerable load of the sins of his tongue If of every idle word we must give account what shall we doe for those malicious words that dishonor God or doe despite to our Brother Remember how often we have tempted our Brother or a silly woman to sin and death How often we have pleaded for unjust interests or by our wit have cousened an easie and a beleeving person or given evill sentences or disputed others into false perswasions Did we never call good evill or evill good Did we never say to others thy cause is right when nothing made it right but favour and money a false advocate or a covetous Judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so said Christ every idle word that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Paul uses it every false word every lie shall be called to judgement or as some Copies read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every wicked word shall be called to judgment For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idle words are not meant words that are unprofitable or unwise for fooles and silly persons speak most of those and have the least accounts to make but by vaine the Jewes usually understood false and to give their mind to vanity or to speak vanity is all one as to mind or speak falshoods with malicious and evill purposes But if every idle word that is every vain and lying word shall be called to judgment what shall become of men that blaspheme God or their Rulers or Princes of the people or their Parents that dishonour the Religion and disgrace the Ministers that corrupt Justice and pervert Judgment that preach evill doctrines or declare perverse sentences that take Gods holy Name in vain or dishonour the Name of God by trifling and frequent swearings that holy Name by which wee hope to bee saved and which all the Angels of God fall down and worship These things are to be considered for by our own words we stand or fall that is as in humane Judgements the confession of the party and the contradiction of himselfe or the failing
we are concerned but if we do yet praesentis temporis ita est agenda laetitia ut sequentis judicii amaritudo nunquam recedat à memoriâ so laugh here that you may not forget your danger lest you weep for ever He that thinks most seriously and most frequently of this fearfull appearance will finde that it is better staying for his joyes till this sentence be past for then he shall perceive whether he hath reason or no. In the mean time wonder not that God who loves mankinde so well should punish him so severely for therefore the evill fall into an accursed portion because they despised that which God most loves his Son and his mercies his graces and his holy Spirit and they that do all this have cause to complain of nothing but their own follies and they shall feel the accursed consequents then when they shall see the Judge sit above them angry and severe inexorable and terrible under them an intolerable hell within them their consciences clamorous and diseased without them all the world on fire on the right hand those men glorified whom they persecuted or despised on the left hand the Devils accusing for this is the day of the Lords terror and who is able to abide it Seu vigilo intentus studiis seu dormio semper Iudicis extremi nostras tuba personet aures SERMON IV. The Returne of PRAYERS Or The Conditions of a PREVAILING PRAYER John 9. 31. Now wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth I Know not which is the greater wonder either that prayer which is a duty so easie and facile so ready and apted to the powers and skill and opportunities of every man should have so great effects and be productive of such mighty blessings or that we should be so unwilling to use so easie an instrument of procuring so much good The first declares Gods goodnesse but this publishes mans folly and weaknesse who finds in himself so much difficulty to perform a condition so easie and full of advantage But the order of this infelicity is knotted like the foldings of a Serpent all those parts of easinesse which invite us to doe the duty are become like the joynts of a bulrush not bendings but consolidations and stiffenings the very facility becomes its objection and in every of its stages wee make or finde a huge uneasiresse At first wee doe not know what we ask and when we doe then we finde difficulty to bring our wils to desire it and when that is instructed and kept in awe it mingles interest and confounds the purposes and when it is forc'd to ask honestly and severely then it wills so coldly that God hates the prayer and if it desires fervently it sometimes turns that into passion and that passion breaks into murmurs or unquietnesse or if that be avoyded the indifferency cooles into death or the fire burns violently and is quickly spent our desires are dull as a rock or fugitive as lightening either wee aske ill things earnestly or good things remissely we either court our owne danger or are not zealous for our reall safety or if we be right in our matter or earnest in our affections and lasting in our abode yet we misse in the manner and either we aske for evill ends or without religion and awefull apprehensions or we rest in the words and signification of the prayer and never take care to passe on to action or else we sacrifice in the company of Corah being partners of a schisme or a rebellion in religion or we bring unhullowed censers our hearts send up to God an unholy smoak a cloud from the fires of lust and either the flames of lust or rage of wine or revenge kindle the beast that is laid upon the altar or we bring swines flesh or a dogs neck whereas God never accepts or delights in a prayer unlesse it be for a holy thing to a lawfull end presented unto him upon the wings of Zeal and love of religious sorrow or religious joy by sanctified lips and pure hands and a sincere heart It must be the prayer of a gracious man and he is onely gracious before God and acceptable and effective in his prayer whose life is holy and whose prayer is holy For both these are necessary ingredients to the constitution of a prevailing prayer there is a holinesse peculiar to the man and a holinesse peculiar to the prayer that must adorn the prayer before it can be united to the intercession of the Holy Jesus in which union alone our prayers can be prevailing God heareth not sinners so the blind man in the text and confidently this we know he had reason indeed for his confidence it was a proverbiall saying and every where recorded in their Scriptures which were read in the synagogues every Salbath day For what is the hope of the hypocrite saith Job will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him No he will not For if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear mee said David and so said the Spirit of the Lord by the Son of David When distresse and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they oall upon mee but I will not answer they shall seek mee early but they shall not find mee and Isaiah When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud and again When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they will offer burnt offerings and oblations I will not accept them For they have loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord will not accept them hee will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Upon these and many other authorities it grew into a proverb Deus non exaudit peccatores it was a known case and an established rule in the religion Wicked persons are neither fit to pray for themselves nor for others Which proposition let us first consider in the sense of that purpose which the blind man spoke it in and then in the utmost extent of it as its analogie and equall reason goes forth upon us and our necessities The man was cured of his blindnesse and being examined concerning him that did it named and gloryed in his Physician but the spitefull Pharisees bâ—d him give glory to God and defie the Minister for God indeed was good but he wrought that cure by a wicked hand No says he this is impossible If this man were a sinner and a false Prophet for in that instance the accusation was intended God would not hear his prayers and work miracles by him in verification of a lye A false Prophet could not work true miracles this hath received its diminution when the case was changed for at that time when Christ preached Miracles was the onely or the
XXV SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN-GROVE Being for the VVinter half-year BEGINNING ON ADVENT-SUNDAY UNTILL WHIT-SUNDAY By JEREMY TAYLOR D. D. Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane M. D C. LIII To the right Honourable and truely Noble RICHARD Lord VAUHAN Earle of Carbery c. MY LORD I Have now by the assistance of God and the advantages of your many favours finished a Year of Sermons which if like the first year of our Saviours preaching it may be annus acceptabilis an acceptable year to God and his afflicted hand-maid the Church of England a reliefe to some of her new necessities and an institution or assistance to any soule I shall esteem it among those honors and blessings with which God uses to reward those good intentions which himselfe first puts into our hearts and then recompenses upon our heads My Lord They were first presented to God in the ministeries of your family For this is a blessing for which your Lordship is to blesse God that your Family is like Gideons Fleece irriguous with a dew from heaven when much of the voicinage is dry for we have cause to remember that Isaac complain'd of the Philistims who fill'd up his wells with stones and rubbish and left no beauvrage for the Flocks and therefore they could give no milke to them that waited upon the Flocks and the flocks could not be gathered nor fed nor defended It was a designe of ruine and had in it the greatest hostility and so it hath been lately undique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris En ipse capellas Protenus aeger ago hanc etiam vix Tityre duco But My Lord this is not all I would faine also complaine that men feele not their greatest evill and are not sensible of their danger nor covetous of what they want nor strive for that which is forbidden them but that this complaint would suppose an unnaturall evill to rule in the hearts of men For who would have in him so little of a Man as not to be greedy of the Word of God and of holy Ordinances even therefore because they are so hard to have and this evill although it can have no excuse yet it hath a great and a certain cause for the Word of God still creates new appetites as it satisfies the old and enlarges the capacity as it fils the first propensities of the Spirit For all Spirituall blessings are seeds of Immortality and of infinite felicities they swell up to the comprehensions of Eternity and the desires of the soule can never be wearied but when they are decayed as the stomach will be craving every day unlesse it be sick and abused But every mans experience tels him now that because men have not Preaching they lesse desire it their long fasting makes them not to love their meat and so wee have cause to feare the people will fall to an Atrophy then to a loathing of holy food and then Gods anger will follow the method of our sinne and send a famine of the Word and Sacraments This we have the greatest reason to feare and this feare can be relieved by nothing but by notices and experience of the greatnesse of the Divine mercies and goodnesse Against this danger in future and evill in present as you and all good men interpose their prayers so have I added this little instance of my care and services being willing to minister in all offices and varieties of imployment that so I may by all meanes save some and confirme others or at least that my selfe may be accepted of God in my desiring it And I thinke I have some reasons to expect a speciall mercy in this because I finde by the constitution of the Divine providence and Ecclesiasticall affaires that all the great necessities of the Church have been served by the zeale of preaching in publick and other holy ministeries in publick or private as they could be had By this the Apostles planted the Church and the primitive Bishops supported the faith of Martyrs and the hardinesse of Confessors and the austerity of the Retired By this they confounded Hereticks and evill livers and taught them the wayes of the Spirit and left them without pertinacy or without excuse It was Preaching that restored the splendour of the Church when Barbarisme and Warres and Ignorance either sate in or broke the Doctors Chaire in pieces For then it was that divers Orders of religious and especially of Preachers were erected God inspiring into whole companies of men a zeal of Preaching And by the same instrument God restored the beauty of the Church when it was necessary shee should be reformed it was the assiduous and learned preaching of those whom God chose for his Ministers in that work that wrought the Advantages and persuaded those Truths which are the enamel and beautie of our Churches And because by the same meanes all things are preserved by which they are produc'd it cannot but be certaine that the present state of the Church requires a greater care and prudence in this Ministerie then ever especially since by Preaching some endevour to supplant Preacbing and by intercepting the fruits of the flocks to dishearten the Shepheards from their attendances My Lord your great noblenesse and religious charitie hath taken from mee some portions of that glory which I designed to my selfe in imitation of St. Paul towards the Corinthian Church who esteemed it his honour to preach to them without a revenue and though also like him I have a trade by which as I can be more usefull to others and lesse burthensome to you yet to you also under God I owe the quiet and the opportunities and circumstances of that as if God had so interweaved the support of my affaires with your charitie that he would have no advantages passe upon mee but by your interest and that I should expect no reward of the issues of my Calling unlesse your Lordship have a share in the blessing My Lord I give God thanks that my lot is fallen so fairely and that I can serve your Lordship in that ministerie by which I am bound to serve God and that my gratitude and my duty are bound up in the same bundle but now that which was yours by a right of propriety I have made publick that it may still be more yours and you derive to your selfe a comfort if you shall see the necessitie of others serv'd by that which you heard so diligently and accepted with so much pietie and I am persuaded have entertain'd with that religion and obedience which is the dutie of all those who know that Sermons are arguments against us unlesse they make us better and that no Sermon is received as it ought unlesse it makes us quit a vice or bee in love with vertue unlesse we suffer it in some instance or degree to doe the work of God upon our soules My Lord in these
spirits and have been obedient to the heavenly calling There shall stand the men of Ninevch and they shall stand upright in Judgement for they at the preaching of one man in a lesse space then forty dayes returned unto the Lord their God but we have heard him call all our lives and like the deaf Adder stopt our ears against the voice of Gods servants charme they never so wisely There shall appear the men of Capernaum and the Queen of the South and the Men of Berea and the first fruits of the Christian Church and the holy Martyrs and shall proclaim to all the world that it was not impossible to do the work of Grace in the midst of all our weaknesses and accidentall disadvantages and that the obedience of Faith and the labour of Love and the contentions of chastity and the severities of temperance and self-deniall are not such insuperable mountains but that an honest and a sober person may perform them in acceptable degrees if he have but a ready ear and a willing minde and an honest heart and this seen of honest persons shall make the Divine Judgement upon sinners more reasonable and apparently just in passing upon them the horrible sentence for why cannot we as well serve God in peace as others served him in war why cannot we love him as well when he treats us sweetly and gives us health and plenty honours or fair fortunes reputation or contentednesse quietnesse and peace as others did upon gibbets and under axes in the hands of tormentors and in hard wildernesses in nakednesse and poverty in the midst of all evill things and all sad discomforts Concerning this no answer can be made 4. But there is a worse sight then this yet which in that great assembly shall distract our sight and amaze our spirits There men shall meet the partners of their sins and them that drank the round when they crown'd their heads with folly and forgetfulnesse and their cups with wine and noises There shall ye see that poor perishing soul whom thou didst tempt to adultery and wantonnesse to drunkennesse or perjury to rebellion or an evill interest by power or craft by witty discourses or deep dissembling by scandall or a snare by evill example or pernicious counsell by malice or unwarinesse and when all this is summ'd up and from the variety of its particulars is drawn into an uneasie load and a formidable summe possibly we may finde sights enough to scare all our confidences and arguments enough to presse our evill souls into the sorrowes of a most intolerable death For however we make now but light accounts and evill proportions concerning it yet it will be a fearfull circumstance of appearing to see one or two or ten or twenty accursed souls despairing miserable infinitely miserable roaring and blaspheming and fearfully cursing thee as the cause of its eternall sorrowes Thy lust betray'd and rifled her weak unguarded innocence thy example made thy servant confident to lye or to be perjur'd thy society brought a third into intemperance and the disguises of a beast and when thou feest that soul with whom thou didst sin drag'd into hell well maist thou fear to drink the dregs of thy intolerable potion And most certainly it is the greatest of evils to destroy a soul for whom the Lord Jesus dyed and to undoe that grace which our Lord purchased with so much sweat and bloud pains and a mighty charity And because very many sins are sins of society and confederation such are fornication drunkennesse bribery simony rebellion schisme and many others it is a hard and a weighty consideration what shall become of any one of us who have tempted our Brother or Sister to sin and death for though God hath spar'd our life and they are dead and their debt-books are sealed up till the day of account yet the mischief of our sin is gone before us and it is like a murther but more execrable the soul is dead in trespasses and sins and sealed up to an eternall sorrow and thou shalt see at Dooms-day what damnable uncharitablenesse thou hast done That soul that cryes to those rocks to cover her if it had not been for thy perpetuall temptations might have followed the Lamb in a white robe and that poor man that is cloathed with shame and flames of fire would have shin'd in glory but that thou didst force him to be partner of thy basenesse And who shall pay for this losse a soul is lost by thy means thou hast defeated the holy purposes of the Lord 's bitter passion by thy impurities and what shall happen to thee by whom thy Brother dies eternally Of all the considerations that concern this part of the horrors of Dooms-day nothing can be more formidable then this to such whom it does concern and truly it concerns so many and amongst so many perhaps some persons are so tender that it might affright their hopes and discompose their industries and spritefull labours of repentance but that our most mercifull Lord hath in the midst of all the fearfull circumstances of his second coming interwoven this one comfort relating to this which to my sense seems the most fearfull and killing circumstance Two shall be grinding at one mill the one shall be taken and the other left Two shall be in a bed the one shall be taken and the other left that is those who are confederate in the same fortunes and interests and actions may yet have a different sentence for an early and an active repentance will wash off this account and put it upon the tables of the Crosse and though it ought to make us diligent and carefull charitable and penitent hugely penitent even so long as we live yet when we shall appear together there is a mercy that shall there separate us who sometimes had blended each other in a common crime Blessed be the mercies of of God who hath so carefully provided a fruitfull shower of grace to refresh the miseries and dangers of the greatest part of mankind Thomas Aquinas was used to beg of God that he might never be tempted from his low fortune to Prelacies and dignities Ecclesiasticall and that his minde might never be discomposed or polluted with the love of any creature and that he might by some instrument or other understand the state of his deceased Brother and the story sayes that he was heard in all In him it was a great curiosity or the passion and impertinencies of a uselesse charity to search after him unlesse he had some other personall concernment then his relation of kindred But truly it would concern very many to be solicitous concerning the event of those souls with whom we have mingled death and sin for many of those sentences which have passed and decreed concerning our departed relatives will concern us dearly and we are bound in the same bundles and shall be thrown into the same fires unlesse we repent for our own sins and double our
only because it can hurt them Saepius illud cogitant quid possit is cujus in ditione sunt quà m quid debeat facere Cicero pro Quinctio they remember oftner what God can do then what he will being more afrighted at his Judgements then delighted with his mercy Such as were the Lacedaemonians when ever they saw a man grow popular or wise or beloved and by consequence powerfull they turned him out of the countrey and because they were afraid of the power of Ismenias and knew that Pelopidas and Pherenicus and Androclydes could hurt them if they listed they banished them from Sparta but they let Epaminondas alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being studious and therefore unactive and poor and therefore harmlesse It is harder when men use God thus and fear him as the great Justiciar of the world who sits in heaven and observes all we do and cannot want excuse to punish all mankinde But this caution I have now inserted for their sakes whose Schooles and Pulpits raise doctrinall fears concerning God which if they were true the greatest part of mankinde would be tempted to think they have reason not to love God and all the other part that have not apprehended a reason to hate him would have very much reason to suspect his severitie and their own condition Such are they which say that God hath decreed the greatest part of mankinde to eternall damnation and that only to declare his severity and to manifest his glory by a triumph in our torments and rejoycings in the gnashing of our teeth And they also fear God unreasonably and speak no good things concerning his Name who say that God commands us to observe Lawes which are impossible that think he will condemn innocent persons for errors of Judgement which they cannot avoid that condemn whole Nations for different opinions which they are pleased to call Heresie that think God will exact the duties of a man by the measures of an Angell or will not make abatement for all our pitiable infirmities The precepts of this caution are that we remember Gods mercy to be over all his works that is that he shewes mercy to all his creatures that need it that God delights to have his mercy magnified in all things and by all persons and at all times and will not suffer his greatest honour to be most of all undervalued and therefore as he that would accuse God of injustice were a blasphemer so he that suspects his mercy dishonours God as much and produces in himself that fear which is the parent of trouble but no instrument of duty 3ly Godly fear is operative diligent and instrumentall to caution and strict walking for so fear is the mother of holy living and the Apostle urges it by way of upbraiding What! doe wee proveke God to anger are we stronger then he meaning that if we be not strong enough to struggle with a feaver if our voyces cannot out-roar thunder if we cannot check the ebbing and flowing of the sea if we cannot adde one cubit to our stature how shall we escape the mighty hand of God And here heighten your apprehensions of the Divine power of his justice and severity of the fiercenesse of his anger and the sharpnesse of his sword the heavynesse of his hand and the swiftnesse of his arrows as much as ever you can provided the effect passe on no further but to make us reverent and obedient but that fear is unreasonable servile and unchristian that ends in bondage and servile affections scruple and trouble vanity and incredulity superstition and desperation It s proper bounds are humble and devout prayers and a strict and a holy piety according to his laws and glorifications of God or speaking good things of his holy Name and then it cannot be amisse wee must be full of confidence towards God we must with cheerfulnesse relye upon Gods goodnesse for the issue of our souls and our finall interest but this expectation of the Divine mercy must be in the ways of piety Commit your selves to God in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creator Alcibiades was too timorous who being called from banishment refused to return and being asked if he durst not trust his country answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In every thing else but in the question of his life he would not trust his Mother lest ignorantly she should mistake the black bean for the white and intending a favour should doe him a mischief We must we may most safely trust God with our souls the stake is great but the venture is none at all For he is our Creator and he is faithfull he is our Redeemer and he bought them at a dear rate he is our Lord and they are his own he prays for them to his heavenly Father and therefore he is an interested person So that he is a Party and an Advocate and a Judge too and therefore there can be no greater security in the world on Gods part and this is our hope and our confidence but because we are but earthen vessels under a law and assaulted by enemies and endangered by temptations therefore it concerns us to fear lest we make God our enemy and a party against us And this brings me to the next part of the consideration Who and what states of men ought to feare and for what reasons for as the former cautions did limit so this will encourage those did direct but this will exercise our godly Feare 1. I shall not here insist upon the generall reasons of feare which concern every man though it be most certain that every one hath cause to fear even the most confident and holy because his way is dangerous and narrow troublesome and uneven full of ambushes and pitfalls and I remember what Polynices said in the Tragedy when he was unjustly throwne from his Fathers Kingdome and refused to treat of peace but with a sword in his hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every step is a danger for a valiant man when he walkes in his enemies countrey and so it is with us we are espyed by God and observed by Angels we are betrayed within and assaulted without the Devill is our enemy and we are fond of his mischiefs he is crafty and we love to be abused hee is malicious and wee are credulous hee is powerfull and wee are weak hee is too ready of himself and yet wee desire to be tempted the world is alluring and wee consider not its vanity sin puts on all pleasures and yet wee take it though it puts us to pain In short wee are vain and credulous and sensuall and trifling wee are tempted and tempt our selves and we sin frequently and contract evill habits and they become second natures and bring in a second death miserable and eternall Every man hath need to feare because every man hath weaknesses and enemies and temptations and dangers and causes of his own But I shall onely instance in some peculiar
sorts of men who it may be least think of it and therefore have most cause to fear 1t. Are those of whom the Apostle speaks Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Greek proverb In ordinary fish we shall never meet with thornes and spiny prickles and in persons of an ordinary even course of life we finde it too often that they have no checks of conscience or sharp reflexions upon their conditions they fall into no horrid crimes and they think all is peace round about them But you must know that as Grace is the improvement and bettering of Nature and Christian graces are the persections of Morall habits and are but new circumstances formalities and degrees so it grows in naturall measures by supernaturall aides and it hath its degrees its strengths and weaknesses its promotions and arrests its stations and declensions its direct sicknesses and indispositions and there is a state of grace that is next to sin it inclines to evill and dwels with a temptation its acts are imperfect and the man is within the Kingdome but he lives in its borders and is dubiae jurisdictionis These men have cause to fear These men seem to stand but they reel indeed and decline toward danger and death Let these men saith the Apostle take heed lest they fall for they shake already such are persons whom the Scriptures call weak in faith I doe not mean new beginners in Religion but such who have dwelt long in its confines and yet never enter into the heart of the countrey such whose faith is tempted whose piety does not grow such who yeeld a little people that doe all that they can lawfully doe and study how much is lawfull that they may lose nothing of a temporall interest people that will not be Martyrs in any degree and yet have good affections and love the cause of Religion and yet will suffer nothing for it these are such which the Apostle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They think they stand and so they doe upon one leg that is so long as they are untempted but when the Tempter comes then they fall and bemoan themselves that by losing peace they lost their inheritance There are a great many sorts of such persons some when they are full are content and rejoyce in Gods providence but murmur and are amazed when they fall into poverty They are chaste so long as they are within the protection of marriage but when they return to liberty they fall into bondage and complain they cannot help it They are temperate and sober if you let them alone at home but call them abroad and they will lose their sober thoughts as Dinah did her honour by going into new company These men in these estates think they stand but God knows they are soon weary and stand stiffe as a Cane which the heat of the Sirian star or the flames of the Sun cannot bend but one sigh of a Northern wind shakes them into the tremblings of a palsey In this the best advice is that such persons should watch their own infirmities and see on which side they are most open and by what enemies they use to fall and to fly from such parties as they would avoid death But certainly they have great cause to fear who are sure to be sick when the weather changes or can no longer retain their possession but till an enemy please to take it away or will preserve their honour but till some smiling temptation aske them to forgoe it 2ly They also have great reason to fear whose repentance is broken into fragments and is never a whole or entire change of life I mean those that resolve against a sin and pray against it and hate it in all the resolutions of their understanding till that unlucky period comes in which they use to act it but then they sin as certainly as they will infallibly repent it when they have done these are a very great many Christians who are esteemed of the better sort of penitents yet feel this feaverish repentance to be their best state of health they fall certainly in the returns of the same circumstances or at a certain distance of time but God knows they doe not get the victory over their sin but are within its power For this is certain they who sin and repent and sin again in the same or the like circumstances are in some degree under the power and dominion of sin when their actions can be reduc'd to an order or a method to a rule or a certainty that oftner hits then fails that sin is habituall though it be the least habit yet a habit it is every course or order or method of sin every constant or periodicall return every return that can be regularly observed or which a man can foresee or probably foretell even then when he does not intend it but prays against it every such sin is to be reckoned not for a single action or upon the accounts of a pardonable infirmity but it is a combination an evill state such a thing as the man ought to feare concerning himselfe lest he be surpriz'd and call'd from this world before this evill state be altered for if he be his securities are but slender and his hopes will deceive him It was a severe doctrine that was maintain'd by some great Clerks and holy men in the Primitive Church That Repentance was to be but once after Baptism One Faith one Lord one Baptisme one Repentance all these the Scripture saith and it is true if by repentance we mean the entire change of our condition for he that returns willingly to the state of an unbeleeving or a heathen profane person intirely and choosingly in defiance of and apostasie from his Religion cannot be renew'd againe as the Apostle twice affirms in his Epistle to the Hebrews But then concerning this state of Apostasie when it hapned in the case not of Faith but of Charity and obedience there were many fears and jealousies they were therefore very severe in their doctrines lest men should fall into so evill a condition they enlarged their fear that they might be stricter in their duty and generally this they did beleeve that every second repentance was worse then the first and the third worse then the second and still as the sin returned the Spirit of God did the lesse love to inhabit and if he were provoked too often would so withdraw his aides and comfortable cohabitation that the Church had little comfort in such children so said Clemens Alexandr stromat 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those frequent and alternate repentances that is repentances and sinnings interchangeably differ not from the conditions of men that are not within the covenant of grace from them that are not beleevers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 save onely says he that these men perceive that they sin they doe it more against their conscience then infidels and
follies and infirmities SERMON XI Part II. IF it be possible to cure an evill nature we must inquire after remedies for all this mischief In order to which I shall consider 1. That since it is our flesh and bloud that is the principle of mischief we must not think to have it cured by washings and light medicaments the Physitian that went to cure the Hectick with quick-silver and fasting spittle did his Patient no good but himself became a proverb and he that by easie prayers and a seldome fast by the scattering of a little almes and the issues of some more naturall vertue thinks to cure his evill nature does fortifie his indisposition as a stick is hardened by a little fire which by a great one is devoured Quanto satius est mentem potius eluere quae malis cupiditatibus sordidatur uno virtutis as sidei lavacro universa vitia depellere Better it is by an intire body of vertue by a living and active faith to cleanse the minde from every vice and to take off all superinduced habits of sin Quod qui fecerit quamlibet inquinatum ac sordidum corpus gerat satis purus est If we take this course although our body is foul and our affections unquiet and our rest discomposed yet we shall be masters of our resolution and clean from habituall sins and so cure our evill nature For our nature was not made evill but by our selves but yet we are naturally evill that is by a superinduced nature just as drunkards and intemperate persons have made it necessary to drink extremely and their nature requires it and it is health to them they dye without it because they have made to themselves a new constitution and another nature but much worse then that which God made their sin made this new nature and this new nature makes sin necessary and unavoidable so it is in all other instances Our nature is evill because we have spoil'd it and therefore the removing the sin which we have brought in is the way to cure our nature for this evill nature is not a thing which we cannot avoid we made it and therefore we must help it but as in the superinducing this evill nature we were thrust forward by the world and the Devill by all objects from without and weaknesse from within so in the curing it we are to be helped by God and his most holy Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must have a new nature put into us which must be the principle of new counsels and better purposes of holy actions and great devotion and this nature is deriv'd from God and is a grace and a favour of heaven The same Spirit that caused the holy Jesus to be born after a new and strange manner must also descend upon us and cause us to be born again and to begin a new life upon the stock of a new nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Origen From him it first began that a divine and humane nature were weaved together that the humane nature by communication with the celestiall may also become divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only in Jesus but in all that first beleeve in him and then obey him living such a life as Jesus taught and this is the summe totall of the whole design As we have liv'd to the flesh so we must hereafter live to the spirit as our nature hath been flesh not only in its originall but in habits and affection so our nature must be spirit in habit and choice in design and effectuall prosecutions for nothing can cure our old death but this new birth and this is the recovery of our nature and the restitution of our hopes and therefore the greatest joy of mankinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a fine thing to see the light of this sun and it is pleasant to see the storm allayed and turned into a smooth sea and a fresh gale our eyes are pleased to see the earth begin to live and to produce her little issues with particolour'd coats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing is so beauteous as to see a new birth in a childlesse family And it is excellent to hear a man discourse the hidden things of Nature and unriddle the perplexities of humane notices and mistakes it is comely to see a wise man sit in the gates of the City and give right judgement in difficult causes But all this is nothing to the excellencies of a new birth to see the old man carryed forth to funerall with the solemn tears of repentance and buryed in the grave of Jesus and in his place a new creation to arise a new heart and a new understanding and new affections and excellent appetites for nothing lesse then this can cure all the old distempers 2. Our life and all our discourses and every observation and a state of reason and a union of sober counsels are too little to cure a peevish spirit and a weak reasoning and silly principles and accursed habits and evill examples and perverse affections and a whole body of sin and death It was well said in the Comedy Nunquam ita quisquam bene subductâ ratione ad vitam fuit Quin aetas usus semper aliquid apportet novi Aliquid moneat ut illa quae scire credas nescias Et quae tibi put as prima in experiundo repudies Men at first think themselves wise and are alwaies most confident when they have the least reason and to morrow they begin to perceive yesterdayes folly and yet they are not wise But as the little Embryo in the naturall sheet and lap of its mother first distinguishes into a little knot and that in time will be the heart and then into a bigger bundle which after some dayes abode grows into two little spots and they if cherished by nature will become eyes and each part by order commences into weak principles and is preserved with natures greatest curiosity that it may assist first to distinction then to order next to usefulnesse and from thence to strength till it arrive at beauty and a perfect creature so are the necessities and so are the discourses of men we first learn the principles of reason which breaks obscurely through a cloud and brings a little light and then we discern a folly and by little and little leave it till that enlightens the next corner of the soul and then there is a new discovery but the soul is still in infancy and childish follies and every day does but the work of one day but therefore art and use experience and reason although they do something yet they cannot do enough there must be something else But this is to be wrought by a new principle that is by the Spirit of grace Nature and reason alone cannot do it and therefore the
the precepts of the Gospell were impossible to be kept because it also requiring the heart of man did stop every egression of disorders for making the root holy and healthfull as the Balsame of Judaea or the drops of Manna in the evening of the sabbath it also causes that nothing spring thence but gummes fit for incense and oblations for the Altar of proposition and a cloud of perfume fit to make atonement for our sins and being united to the great sacrifice of the world to reconcile God and man together Upon these reasons you see it is highly fit that God should require it and that we should pay the sacrifice of our hearts and not at all think that God is satisfied with the work of the hands when the affections of the heart are absent He that prayes because he would be quiet and would fain be quit of it and communicates for fear of the lawes and comes to Church to avoid shame and gives almes to be eased of an importunate begger or relieves his old parents because they will not dye in their time and provides for his children lest he be compled by Lawes and shame but yet complains of the charge of Gods blessings this man is a servant of the eyes of men and offers parchment or a white skin in sacrifice but the flesh and the inwards he leaves to be consumed by a stranger fire And therefore this is a deceit that robs God of the best and leaves that for religion which men pare off It is sacriledge and brings a double curse 2. He that serves God with the soule without the body when both can be conjoyned doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Paphnutius whose knees were cut for the testimony of Jesus was not obliged to worship with the humble flexures of the bending penitents and blinde Bartimeus could not read the holy lines of the Law and therefore that part of the work was not his duty and God shall not call Lazarus to account for not giving almes nor St. Peter and St. John for not giving silver and gold to the lame man nor Epaphroditus for not keeping his fasting dayes when he had his sicknesse But when God hath made the body an apt minister to the soul and hath given money for almes and power to protect the oppressed and knees to serve in prayer and hands to serve our needs then the soul alone is not to work but as Rachel gave her maid to Jacob and she bore children to her Lord upon her Ministresse knees and the children were reckoned to them both because the one had fruitfull desires and the other a fruitfull wombe so must the body serve the needs of the spirit that what the one desires the other may effect and the conceptions of the soul may be the productions of the body and the body must bow when the soul worships and the hand must help when the soul pities and both together do the work of a holy Religion the body alone can never serve God without the conjunction and preceding act of the soul and sometimes the soul without the body is imperfect and vain for in some actions there is a body and a spirit a materiall and a spirituall part and when the action hath the same constitution that a man hath without the act of both it is as imperfect as a dead man the soul cannot produce the body of some actions any more then the body can put life into it and therefore an ineffective pity and a lazie counsell an empty blessing and gay words are but deceitfull charity Quod peto da Caï non peto consilium He that gave his friend counsell to study the Law when he desired to borrow 20 l. was not so friendly in this counsell as he was uselesse in his charity spirituall acts can cure a spirituall malady but if my body needs relief because you cannot feed me with Diagrams or cloath me with Euclids elements you must minister a reall supply by a corporall charity to my corporall necessity This proposition is not only usefull in the doctrine of charity and the vertue of religion but in the professions of faith and requires that it be publick open and ingenuous In matters of necessary duty it is not sufficient to have it to our selves but we must also have it to God and all the world and as in the heart we beleeve so by the mouth we confesse unto salvation he is an ill man that is only a Christian in his heart and is not so in his professions and publications and as your heart must not be wanting in any good profession and pretences so neither must publick profession be wanting in every good and necessary perswasion The faith and the cause of God must be owned publiquely for if it be the cause of God it will never bring us to shame I do not say what ever we think we must tell it to all the world much lesse at all times and in all circumstances but we must never deny that which we beleeve to be the cause of God in such circumstances in which we can and ought to glorifie him But this extends also to other instances He that swears a false oath with his lips and unswears it with his heart hath deceived one more then he thinks for himself is the most abused person and when my action is contrary to men they will reprove me but when it is against my own perswasion I cannot but reprove my self and am witnesse and accuser and party and guilty and then God is the Judge and his anger will be a fierce executioner because we do the Lords work deceitfully 3. They are deceitfull in the Lords work that reserve one faculty for sin or one sin for themselves or one action to please their appetite and many for Religion Rabbi Kimchi taught his Scholars Cogitationem pravam Deus non habet vice facti nisi concepta fuerit in Dei fidem Religionem that God is never angry with an evill thought unlesse it be a thought of Apostasie from the Jewes religion and therefore provided that men be severe and close in their sect and party they might roll in lustfull thoughts and the torches they light up in the Temple might smoke with anger at one end and lust at the other so they did not flame out in egressions of violence and injustice in adulteries and fouler complications nay they would give leave to some degrees of evill actions for R. Moses and Selomoh taught that if the most part of a mans actions were holy and just though in one he sinned often yet the greater ingredient should prevail and the number of good works should outweigh the lesser account of evill things and this Pharisaicall righteousnesse is too frequent even amongst Christians For who almost is there that does not count fairly concerning himself if he reckons many vertues upon the stock of his Religion and but one vice upon the stock of his infirmity
can never go too far But then be carefull that this zeal of thy neighbours amendment be only expressed in waies of charity not of cruelty or importune justice He that strikes the Prince for justice as Solomons expression is is a companion of murderers and he that out of zeal of Religion shall go to convert Nations to his opinion by destroying Christians whose faith is intire and summ'd up by the Apostles this man breaks the ground with a sword and sowes tares and waters the ground with bloud and ministers to envie and cruelty to errors and mistake and there comes up nothing but poppies to please the eye and fancy disputes and hypocrisie new summaries of Religion estimated by measures of anger and accursed principles and so much of the religion as is necessary to salvation is laid aside and that brought forth that serves an interest not holinesse that fils the Schooles of a proud man but not that which will fill Heaven Any zeal is proper for Religion but the zeal of the sword and the zeal of anger this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bitternesse of zeal and it is a certain temptation to every man against his duty for if the sword turns preacher and dictates propositions by empire in stead of arguments and ingraves them in mens hearts with a ponyard that it shall be death to beleeve what I innocently and ignorantly am perswaded of it must needs be unsafe to try the spirits to try all things to make inquiry and yet without this liberty no man can justifie himself before God or man nor confidently say that his Religion is best since he cannot without a finall danger make himself able to give a right sentence and to follow that which he findes to be the best this may ruine souls by making Hypocrites or carelesse and complyant against conscience or without it but it does not save souls though peradventure it should force them to a good opinion This is inordination of zeal for Christ by reproving St. Peter drawing his sword even in the cause of Christ for his sacred and yet injured person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theophylact teaches us not to use the sword though in the cause of God or for God himself because he will secure his own interest only let him be served as himself is pleased to command and it is like Moses passion it throwes the tables of the Law out of our hands and breaks them in pieces out of indignation to see them broken This is the zeal that is now in fashion and hath almost spoyl'd Religion men like the Zelots of the Jewes cry up their Sect and in it their interest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they affect Disciples and fight against the opponents and we shall finde in Scripture that when the Apostles began to preach the meeknesse of the Christian institution salvations and promises charity and humility there was a zeal set up against them the Apostles were zealous for the Gospell the Jewes were zealous for the Law and see what different effects these two zeals did produce the zeal of the Law came to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they stirred up the City they made tumults they persecuted this way unto the death they got letters from the high Priest they kept Damascus with a Garrison they sent parties of souldiers to silence and to imprison the Preachers and thought they did God service when they put the Apostles to death and they swore neither to eat nor to drink till they had killed Paul It was an old trick of the Jewish zeal Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos They would not shew the way to a Samaritan nor give a cup of cold water but to a circumcised brother That was their zeal But the zeal of the Apostles was this they preached publickly and privately they prayed for all men they wept to God for the hardnesse of mens hearts they became all things to all men that they might gain some they travel'd through deeps and deserts they indured the heat of the Syrian Starre and the violence of Euroclydon winds and tempests seas and prisons mockings and scourgings fastings and poverty labour and watching they endured every man and wronged no man they would do any good thing and suffer any evill if they had but hopes to prevail upon a soul they perswaded men meekly they intreated them humbly they convinced them powerfully the watched for their good but medled not with their interest and this is the Christian zeal the zeal of mecknesse the zeal of charity the zeal of patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these it is good to be zealous for you can never goe farre enough 2. The next measure of zeal is prudence For as charity is the matter of zeal so is discretion the manner It must alwaies be for good to our neighbour and there needs no rules for the conducting of that provided the end be consonant to the design that is that charity be intended and charity done But there is a zeal also of Religion or worshipping and this hath more need of measures and proper cautions For Religion can turn into a snare it may be abused into superstition it may become wearinesse in the spirit and tempt to tediousnesse to hatred and despair and many persons through their indiscreet conduct and furious marches and great loads taken upon tender shoulders and unexperienced have come to be perfect haters of their joy and despisers of all their hopes being like dark Lanthorns in which a candle burnes bright but the body is incompassed with a crust and a dark cloud of iron and these men keep the fires and light of holy propositions within them but the darknesse of hell the hardnesse of a vexed heart hath shaded all the light and makes it neither apt to warm nor to enlighten others but it turnes to fire within a feaver and a distemper dwels there and Religion is become their torment 1. Therefore our zeal must never carry us beyond that which is profitable There are many institutions customes and usages introduced into Religion upon very fair motives and apted to great necessities but to imitate those things when they are disrobed of their proper ends is an importune zeal and signifies nothing but a forward minde and an easie heart and an imprudent head unlesse these actions can be invested with other ends and usefull purposes The primitive Church were strangely inspired with a zeal of virginity in order to the necessities of preaching and travelling and easing the troubles and temptations of persecution but when the necessity went on and drove the holy men into deserts that made Colleges of Religious and their manner of life was such so united so poor so dressed that they must live more non saeculari after the manner of men divore'd from the
passion in Religion destroys as much of our evennesse of spirit as it sets forward any outward work and therefore although it be a good circumstance and degree of a spirituall duty so long as it is within and relative to God and our selves so long it is a holy flame but if it be in an outward duty or relative to our neighbours or in an instance not necessary it sometimes spoils the action and alwaies endangers it But I must remember we live in an age in which men have more need of new fires to be kindled within them and round about them then of any thing to allay their forwardnesse there is little or no zeal now but the zeal of envie and killing as many as they can and damning more then they can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smoke and lurking fires do corrode and secretly consume therefore this discourse is lesse necessary A Physitian would have but small imployment near the Riphaean Mountains if he could cure nothing but Calentures Catarrhes and dead palfies Colds and Consumptions are their evils and so is lukewarmnesse and deadnesse of spirit the proper maladies of our age for though some are hot when they are mistaken yet men are cold in a righteous cause and the nature of this evill is to be insensible and the men are farther from a cure because they neither feel their evill nor perceive their danger But of this I have already given account and to it I shall only adde what an old spirituall person told a novice in religion asking him the cause why he so frequently suffered tediousnesse in his religious offices Nondum vidisti requiem quam speramus nec tormenta quae timemus young man thou hast not seen the glories which are laid up for the zealous and devout nor yet beheld the flames which are prepared for the lukewarm and the haters of strict devotion But the Jewes tell that Adam having seen the beauties and tasted the delicacies of Paradise repented and mourned upon the Indian Mountains for three hundred years together and we who have a great share in the cause of his sorrowes can by nothing be invited to a persevering a great a passionate religion more then by remembring what he lost and what is laid up for them whose hearts are burning lamps and are all on fire with Divine love whose flames are fann'd with the wings of the holy Dove and whose spirits shine and burn with that fire which the holy Jesus came to enkindle upon the earth Sermon XV. The House of Feasting OR THE EPICVRES MEASVRES Part I. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye THis is the Epicures Proverb begun upon a weak mistake started by chance from the discourses of drink and thought witty by the undiscerning company and prevail'd infinitely because it struck their fancy luckily and maintained the merry meeting but as it happens commonly to such discourses so this also when it comes to be examined by the consultations of the morning and the sober hours of the day it seems the most witlesse and the most unreasonable in the world When Seneca describes the spare diet of Epicurus and Metrodorus he uses this expression Liberaliora sunt alimenta carceris sepositos ad capitale supplicium non tam angustè qui occisurus est pascit The prison keeps a better table and he that is to kill the criminall to morrow morning gives him a better supper over night By this he intended to represent his meal to be very short for as dying persons have but little stomach to feast high so they that mean to cut the throat will think it a vain expence to please it with delicacies which after the first alteration must be poured upon the ground and looked upon as the worst part of the accursed thing And there is also the same proportion of unreasonablenesse that because men shall die to morrow and by the sentence and unalterable decree of God they are now descending to their graves that therefore they should first destroy their reason and then force dull time to run faster that they may dye sottish as beasts and speedily as a flie But they thought there was no life after this or if there were it was without pleasure and every soul thrust into a hole and a dorter of a spans length allowed for his rest and for his walk and in the shades below no numbring of healths by the numerall letters of Philenium's name no fat Mullets no Oysters of Luerinus no Lesbian or Chian Wines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore now enjoy the delicacies of Nature and feel the descending wines distilled through the limbecks of thy tongue and larynx and suck the delicious juice of fishes the marrow of the laborious Oxe and the tender lard of Apultan Swine and the condited bellies of the scarus but lose no time for the Sun drives hard and the shadow is long and the dayes of mourning are at hand but the number of the dayes of darknesse and the grave cannot be told Thus they thought they discoursed wisely and their wisdome was turned into folly for all their arts of providence and witty securities of pleasure were nothing but unmanly prologues to death fear and folly sensuality and beastly pleasures But they are to be excused rather then we They placed themselves in the order of beasts and birds and esteemed their bodies nothing but receptacles of flesh and wine larders and pantries and their soul the fine instrument of pleasure and brisk perception of relishes and gusts reflexions and duplications of delight and therefore they treated themselves accordingly But then why we should do the same things who are led by other principles and a more severe institution and better notices of immortality who understand what shall happen to a soul hereafter and know that this time is but a passage to eternity this body but a servant to the soul this soul a minister to the Spirit and the whole man in order to God and to felicity this I say is more unreasonable then to eat aconite to preserve our health and to enter into the floud that we may die a dry death this is a perfect contradiction to the state of good things whither we are designed and to all the principles of a wise Philophy whereby we are instructed that we may become wise unto salvation That I may therefore do some assistances towards the curing the miseries of mankinde and reprove the follies and improper motions towards felicity I shall endevour to represent to you 1. That plenty and the pleasures of the world are no proper instruments of felicity 2. That intemperance is a certain enemy to it making life unpleasant and death troublesome and intolerable 3. I shall adde the rules and measures of temperance in eating and drinking that nature and grace may joyne to the constitution of mans felicity 1. Plenty and the pleasures of the world are
disparaged by another when himselfe destroyes it as bubbles perish with the breath of children Doe not the laws of all wise Nations marke the drunkard for a foole with the meanest and most scornfull punishment and is there any thing in the world so foolish as a man that is drunk But good God! what an intolerable sorrow hath seised upon great portions of Mankind that this folly and madnesse should possesse the greatest spirits and the wittyest men the best company the most sensible of the word honour and the most jealous of loosing the shadow and the most carelesse of the thing Is it not a horrid thing that a wise or a crafty a learned or a noble person should dishonour himselfe as a foole destroy his body as a murtherer lessen his estate as a prodigall disgrace every good cause that he can pretend to by his relation and become an appellative of scorne a scene of laughter or derision and all for the reward of forgetfulnesse and madnesse for there are in immoderate drinking no other pleasures Why doe valiant men and brave personages fight and die rather then break the laws of men or start from their duty to their Prince and will suffer themselves to be cut in pieces rather then deserve the name of a Traitor or perjur'd and yet these very men to avoyd the hated name of Glutton or Drunkard and to preserve their Temperance shall not deny themselves one luscious morsell or poure a cup of wine on the ground when they are invited to drink by the laws of the circle or wilder company Me thinks it were but reason that if to give life to uphold a cause be not too much they should not think too much to be hungry and suffer thirst for the reputation of that cause and therefore much rather that they would thinke it but duty to be temperate for its honour and eat and drink in civill and faire measures that themselves might not lose the reward of so much suffering and of so good a relation nor that which they value most be destroyed by drink There are in the world a generation of men that are ingag'd in a cause which they glory in and pride themselves in its relation and appellative but yet for that cause they will doe nothing but talk and drink they are valiant in wine and witty in healths and full of stratagem to promote debauchery but such persons are not considerable in wise accounts that which I deplore is that some men preferre a cause before their life and yet preferre wine before that cause and by one drunken meeting set it more backward in its hopes and blessings then it can be set forward by the counsels and armes of a whole yeer God hath ways enough to reward a truth without crowning it with successe in the hands of such men In the mean time they dishonour Religion and make truth be evill spoken of and innocent persons to suffer by their very relation and the cause of God to be reproached in the sentences of erring and abused people and themselves lose their health and their reason their honour and their peace the rewards of sober counsels and the wholesome effects of wisdome Arcanum neque tu scrutaberis ullius unquam Commissúmque teges vino tortus irâ Wine discovers more then the rack and he that will be drunk is not a person fit to be trusted and though it cannot be expected men should be kinder to their friend or their Prince or their honour then to God and to their own souls and to their own bodies yet when men are not moved by what is sensible and materiall by that which smarts and shames presently they are beyond the cure of Religion and the hopes of Reason and therefore they must lie in hell like sheep death gnawing upon them and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning of the resurrection Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas Haec hora non est tua cum furit Lyaeus Cùm regnant rosae cùm madent capilli Much safer it is to go to the severities of a watchfull and a sober life for all that time of life is lost when wine and rage and pleasure and folly steale away the heart of a man and make him goe singing to his grave I end with the saying of a wise man He is fit to sit at the table of the Lord and to feast with Saints who moderately uses the creatures which God hath given him But he that despises even lawfull pleasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall not onely sit and feast with God but reign together with him and partake of his glorious Kingdome Sermon XVII THE MARRIAGE RING OR THE Mysteriousnesse and Duties of Marriage Part I. Ephes. 5. 32 33. This is a great mysterie But I speak concerning Christ and the Church Neverthelesse let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself and the Wife see that shee reverence her Husband THe first blessing God gave to man was society and that society was a Marriage and that Marriage was confederate by God himself and hallowed by a blessing and at the same time and for very many descending ages not only by the instinct of Nature but by a superadded forwardnesse God himself inspiring the desire the world was most desirous of children impatient of barrennesse accounting single life a curse and a childlesse person hated by God The world was rich and empty and able to provide for a more numerous posterity then it it had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You that are rich Numenius you may multiply your family poor men are not so fond of children but when a family could drive their heards and set their children upon camels and lead them till they saw a fat soil watered with rivers and there sit down without paying rent they thought of nothing but to have great families that their own relations might swell up to a Patriarchat and their children be enough to possesse all the regions that they saw and their grand-children become Princes and themselves build cities and call them by the name of a childe and become the fountain of a Nation This was the consequent of the first blessing Increase and multiply The next blessing was the promise of the Messias and that also increased in men and women a wonderfull desire of marriage for as soon as God had chosen the family of Abraham tobe the blessed line from whence the worlds Redeemer should descend according to the flesh every of his daughters hoped to have the honour to be his Mother or his Grand-mother or something of his kindred and to be childelesse in Israel was a sorrow to the Hebrew women great as the slavery of Egypt or their dishonours in the land of their captivity But when the Messias was come and his doctrine was published and his Ministers but few and the Disciples were to suffer persecution
it that flew Abimelech and endanger'd David it was a sword in manu linguae Doeg in the hand of Doegs tongue By this Siba cut off the legs of Mephibosheth and made his reputation lame for ever it thrust Jeremy into the dungeon and carryed Susanna to her stake and our Lord to his Crosse and therefore against the dangers of a slandering tongue all laws have so cautelously arm'd themselves that besides the severest prohibitions of God often recorded in both Testaments God hath chosen it to be one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them a party for those whose innocency and defencelesse state makes them most apt to be undone by this evill spirit I mean pupils and widows the poore and the oppressed And in pursuance of this charity the Imperiall laws have invented a juramentum de calumniâ on oath to be exhibited to the Actor or Plaintiff that he beleevs himself to have a just cause and that he does not implead his adversary calumniandi animo with false instances and indefencible allegations and the Defendant is to swear that he thinks himselfe to use onely just defences and perfect instances of resisting and both of them obliged themselves that they would exact no proofe but what was necessary to the truth of the Cause And all this defence was nothing but necessary guards For a spear and a sword and an arrow is a man that speaketh false witnesse against his neighbour And therefore the laws of God added yet another bar against this evill and the false Accuser was to suffer the punishment of the objected crime and as if this were not sufficient God hath in severall ages wrought miracles and raised the dead to life that by such strange appearances they might relieve the oppressed Innocent and load the false accusing Tongue with shame and horrible confusion So it happen'd in the case of Susanna the spirit of a manwas put into the heart of a childe to acquit the vertuous woman and so it was in the case of Gregory Bishop of Agrigentum falsely accused by Sabinus and Crescentius Gods power cast the Devill out of Eudocia the Devill or spirit of Slander and compelled her to speak the truth St. Austin in his book De curâ pro mortuis tels of a dead Father that appeared to his oppressed Son and in a great matter of Law delivered him from the teeth of false accusation So was the Church of Monts rescued by the appearance of Aia the deceased wife of Hidulphus their Earle as appears in the Hanovian story and the Polonian Chronicles tell the like of Stanislaus Bishop of Cracovia almost oppressed by the anger and calumny of Boleslaus their King God relieved him by the testimony of St. Peter their Bishop or a Phantasme like him But whether these records may be credited or no I contend not yet it is very materiall which Eusebius relates of the three false witnesses accusing Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem of an infamous crime which they did affirming it under severall curses the first wishing that if he said false God would destroy him with fire the second that he might die of the Kingsevil the third that he might be blind and so it came to passe the first being surprised with fire in his owne roofe amaz'd and intricated confounded and despairing paid the price of his slander with the pains of most fearfull flames and the second perished by pieces and Chirurgeons and torment which when the third saw he repented of his fault cryed mightily for pardon but wept so bitterly and found at the same time the reward of his calumny and the acceptation of his repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Cleanthes nothing is more operative of spitefull and malicious purposes then the calumniating Tongue In the Temple at Smyrna there were Looking-glasses which represented the best face as crooked ugly and deformed the Greeks call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so is every false tongue it lies in the face of heaven and abuses the ears of justice it oppresses the Innocent and is secretly revenged of vertue it defeats all the charity of laws and arms the supreme power and makes it strike the Innocent it makes frequent appeals to be made to heaven and causes an oath in stead of being the end of strife to be the beginning of mischief it calls the name and testimony of God to seale an injury it feeds and nourishes cruell anger but mocks justice and makes mercy weep her selfe into pity and mourne because she cannot help the Innocent 5. The last instance of this evill I shall now represent is Cursing concerning which I have this onely to say that although the causelesse curse shall return upon the tongue that spake it yet because very often there is a fault on both sides when there is reviling or cursing on either the danger of a cursing tongue is highly to be declined as the biting of a mad dog or the tongue of a smitten serpent For as envy is in the evill eye so is cursing in the reproachfull tongue it is a kinde of venome and witchcraft an instrument by which God oftentimes punishes anger and uncharitablenesse and by which the Devill gets power over the bodies and interests of men For he that works by Thessalic ceremonies by charmes and non-sense words by figures and insignificant characterismes by images and by rags by circles and imperfect noyses hath more advantage and reall title to the opportunities of mischief by the cursing tongue and though God is infinitely more ready to doe acts of kindnesse then of punishment yet God is not so carelesse a regarder of the violent and passionate wishes of men but he gives some over to punishment and chastises the follies of rage and the madnesse of the tongue by suffering it to passe into a further mischief then the harsh sound and horrible accents of the evill language By the tongue we blesse God and curse men saith St. James 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reproaching is cursing and both of them opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blessing and there are many times and seasons in which both of them passe into reall effect These are the particulars of the second 3. I am now to instance in the third sort of filthy communication that in which the Devill does the most mischief by which he undoes souls by which he is worse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Accuser For though he accuses maliciously and instances spitefully and heaps objections diligently and aggravates bitterly and with all his powers endeavors to represent the separate souls to God as polluted and unfit to come into his presence yet this malice is ineffective because the scenes are acted before the wise Judge of Men and Angels who cannot be abused before our Father and our Lord who knows whereof we be made and remembreth that we are but dust before our Saviour and our elder Brother who hath felt our infirmities and knows kow
happen to God and if he knowes it not he is a fool Can any thing in this world be more foolish then to think that all this rare fabrick of heaven and earth can come by chance when all the skill of art is not able to make an Oyster To see rare effects and no cause an excellent government and no Prince a motion without an immovable a circle without a centre a time without eternity a second without a first a thing that begins not from it self and therefore not to perceive there is something from whence it does begin which must be without beginning these things are so against Philosophy and naturall reason that he must needs be a beast in his understanding that does not assent to them This is the Atheist the fool hath said in his heart there is no God That 's his character the thing framed saies that nothing framed it the tongue never made it self to speak and yet talks against him that did saying that which is made is and that which made it is not But this folly is as infinite as hell as much without light or bound as the Chaos or the primitive nothing But in this the Devill never prevailed very farre his Schooles were alwaies thin at these Lectures some few people have been witty against God that taught them to speak before they knew to spell a syllable but either they are monsters in their manners or mad in their understandings or ever finde themselves confuted by a thunder or a plague by danger or death But the Devill hath infinitely prevail'd in a thing that is almost as senselesse and ignorant as Atheisme and that is idolatry not only making God after mans image but in the likenesse of a calf of a cat of a serpent making men such fools as to worship a quartan ague fire and water onions and sheep This is the skill man learned and the Philosophy that he is taught by beleeving the Dâ—vill * What wisedome can there be in any man that cals good evill and evill good to say fire is cold and the Sun black that fornication can make a man happy or drunkennesse can make him wise And this is the state of a sinner of every one that delights in iniquity he cannot be pleased with it if he thinks it evill he cannot endure it without beleeving this proposition that there is in drunkennesse or lust pleasure enough good enough to make him amends for the intolerable pains of damnation But then if we consider upon what nonsense principles the state of an evill life relies we must in reason be impatient and with scorn and indignation drive away the fool such as are sense is to be preferred before reason interest before religion a lust before heaven moments before eternity money above God himself that a mans felicity consists in that which a beast enjoyes that a little in present uncertain fallible possession is better then the certain state of infinite glories hereafter what childe what fool can think things more weak and more unreasonable And yet if men do not go upon these grounds upon what account do they sin sin hath no wiser reasons for it self then these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same argument that a flye hath to enter into a candle the same argument a fool hath that enters into sin it looks prettily but rewards the eye as burning basons do with intolerable circles of reflected fire Such are the principles of a sinners Philosophy And no wiser are his hopes all his hopes that he hath is that he shall have time to repent of that which he chooses greedily that he whom he every day provokes will save him whether he will or no that he can in an instant or in a day make amends for all the evils of 40 years or else that he shall be saved whether he does or no that heaven is to be had for a sigh or a short prayer and yet hell shall not be consequent to the affections and labours and hellish services of a whole life he goes on and cares not he hopes without a promise and refuses to beleeve all the threatnings of God but beleeves he shall have a mercy for which he never had a revelation If this be knowledge or wisdome then there is no such thing as folly no such disease as madnesse But then consider that there are some sins whose very formality is a lye Superstition could not be in the world if men did beleeve God to be good and wise free and mercifull not a tyrant not an unreasonable exactor no man would dare do in private what he fears to do in publick if he did know that God sees him there and will bring that work of darknesse into light But he is so foolish as to think that if he sees nothing nothing sees him for if men did perceive God to be present and yet do wickedly it is worse with them then I have yet spoke of and they beleeve another lie that to be seen by man will bring more shame then to be discerned by God or that the shame of a few mens talk is more intolerable then to be confounded before Christ and his army of Angels and Saints and all the world * He that excuses a fault by telling a lie beleeves it better to be guilty of two faults then to be thought guilty of one and every hypocrite thinks it not good to be holy but to be accounted so is a fine thing that is that opinion is better then reality and that there is in vertue nothing good but the fame of it * And the man that takes revenge relies upon this foolish proposition that his evill that he hath already suffer'd growes lesse if another suffers the like that his wound cannot smart if by my hand he dies that gave it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sad accents and dolefull tunes are increased by the number of mourners but the sorrow is not at all lessened I shall not need to thrust into this account the other evils of mankinde that are the events of ignorance but introduc'd by sin such as are our being moved by what we see strongly and weakly by what we understand that men are moved rather by a fable then by a syllogisme by parables then by demonstrations by examples then by precepts by seeming things then by reall by shadowes then by substances that men judge of things by their first events and measure the events by their own short lives or shorter observations that they are credulous to beleeve what they wish and incredulous of what makes against them measuring truth or falshood by measures that cannot fit them as foolishly as if they should judge of a colour by the dimensions of a body or feel musick with the hand they make generall conclusions from particular instances and take account of Gods actions by the measures of a man Men call that justice that is on their side and all their own causes are right and
they are so alwayes they are so when they affirm them in their youth and they are so when they deny them in their old age and they are confident in all their changes and their first error which they now see does not make them modest in the proposition which they now maintain for they do not understand that what was may be so again So foolish and ignorant was I said David and as it were a beast before thee Ambition is folly and temerity is ignorance and confidence never goes without it and impudence is worse and zeal or contention is madnesse and prating is want of wisdome and lust destroyes it and makes a man of a weak spirit and a cheap reasoning and there are in the Catalogue of of sins very many which are directly kinds and parts and appendages of ignorance such as are blindnesse of minde affected ignorance and wilfull neglect of hearing the word of God resolved incredulity forgetfulnesse of holy things lying and beleeving a lye this is the fruit of sin this is the knowledge that the Devill promised to our first parents as the rewards of disobedience and although they sinn'd as weakly and fondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon as slight grounds and trifling a temptation and as easie a deception as many of us since yet the causes of our ignorance are increased by the multiplication of our sins and if it was so bad in the green tree it is much worse in the dry and no man is so very a fool as the sinner and none are wise but the servants of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wise Chaldees and the wiser Hebrewes which worship God chastly and purely they only have a right to be called wise all that do not so are fools and ignorants neither knowing what it is to be happy nor how to purchase it ignorant of the noblest end and of the competent means towards it they neither know God nor themselves and no ignorance is greater then this or more pernicious What man is there in the world that thinks himself covetous or proud and yet millions are who like Harpaste think that the house is dark but not themselves Vertue makes our desires temperate and regular it observes our actions condemns our faults mortifies our lusts watches all our dangers and temptations but sin makes our desires infinite and we would have we cannot tell what we strive that we may forget our faults we labour that we may neither remember nor consider we justifie our errors and call them innocent and that which is our shame we miscall honour and our whole life hath in it so many weak discourses and trifling propositions that the whole world of sinners is like the Hospitall of the insensati madnesse and folly possesses the greater part of mankinde What greater madnesse is there then to spend the price of a whole farm in contention for three sheaves of corn and yet tantum pectora caecae noctis habent this is the wisdome of such as are contentious and love their own will more then their happinesse their humour more then their peace Furor est post omnia perdere naulum Men lose their reason and their religion and themselves at last for want of understanding and all the wit and discourses by which sin creeps in are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frauds of the tongue and consultations of care but in the whole circle of sins there is not one wise proposition by which a man may conduct his affairs or himself become instructed to felicity This is the first naturall fruit of sin It makes a man a fool and this hurt sin does to the understanding and this is shame enough to that in which men are most apt to glory Sin naturally makes a man weak that is unapt to do noble things by which I do not understand a naturall disability for it is equally ready for a man to will good as evill and as much in the power of his hands to be lifted up in prayer to God as against his Brother in a quarrell and between a vertuous object and his faculties there is a more apt proportion then between his spirit and a vice and every act of grace does more please the minde then an act of sin does delight the sense and every crime does greater violence to the better part of man then mortification does to the lower and often times a duty consists in a negative as not to be drunk not to swear and it is not to be understood that a man hath naturally no power not to do if there be a naturall disability it is to action not to rest or ceasing and therefore in this case we cannot reasonably nor justly accuse our Nature but we have reason to blame our manners which have introduced upon us a morall disability that is not that the faculty is impotent and disabled but that the whole man is for the will in many cases desires to do good and the understanding is convinced and consents and the hand can obey and the passions can be directed and be instrumentall to Gods service but because they are not used to it the will finds a difficulty to do them so much violence and the understanding consents to their lower reasonings and the desires of the lower man do will stronger and then the whole man cannot do the duty that is expected There is a law in the members and he that gave that law is a tyrant and the subjects of that law are slaves and oftentimes their ear is bored and they love their fetters and desire to continue that bondage for ever The law is the law of sin the Devill is the tyrant custome is the sanction or the sirmament of the law and every vicious man is a slave and chooses the vilest master and the basest of services and the most contemptible rewards Lex enim peccati est violentia consuetudinis quâ trahitur tenetur animus etiam invitus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur said St. Austin The law of sin is the violence of custome which keep a mans minde against his minde because he entred willingly and gave up his own interest which he ought to have secur'd for his own felicity and for his service who gave for it an invaluable price And indeed in questions of vertue and vice there is no such thing as Nature or it is so inconsiderable that it hath in it nothing beyond an inclination which may be reverted and very often not so much nothing but a perfect indifferency we may if we will or we may choose but custome brings in a new nature and makes a Biass in every faculty To a vicious man some sins become necessary Temperance makes him sick severity is death to him it destroys his chearfulnesse and activity it is as his nature and the desire dwels for ever with him and his reasonings are framed for it and his fancy and in all he is helped by example by