9 10. Nor could all their other Purifications doe much neither towards the cleansing of the Mind which might be still in the Mire while the Body was in the Laver and remain as bestial as those Creatures to which it was beholding for its cleansing Besides that the Jewish Promises being so remote and obscure so low and mean and relating so much to this life that 't is question'd by some whether they pointed at all to any other they could have but little influence on the more spiritual part of Man which can never rest satisfied with what is so unproportioned to and so much less than its self All which defects are abundantly supply'd by Christ who has not only given us better Precepts but as the Apostle says established them on better and clearer Promises such as in their nature are most apt to engage us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God To all which we may add the powerfull assistances of God's grace and the force and efficacy of Christ's example whereby He has not only pointed out the way to us but trac'd it Himself being both the way and the truth All such pressing Motives to Purity of life that 't is Morally impossible for any to name the name of Christ and not to depart from all Iniquity And therefore Athenagoras in his Apology for Christianity plainly tells us and 't is a great truth That no Christian can be a bad man unless he be a Hypocrite or pretend to so holy a Master and be so unlike Him To behold the Lamb of God without spot or blemish and be himself a Leopard And surely He that shall consider how that the whole Discipline of the Jewish Religion was but Purity in Type and all the Ceremonies of their Worship but so many Figures or rather Doctrines of Cleanness must needs grant that Purity which the Christian Religion advanc'd and which the Mosaical one did but adumbrate to have been of a far higher strain and cannot but in reason confess there lyes now upon him a much stronger obligation to Purity he being not only washt in Christ's own bloud that bloud which alone can purge his conscience from dead works to serve the ever-living God but baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire And now tell me whether any can well pretend to be redeemed by that bloud wherein he finds no power to sanctifie him Without doubt whatsoever Christ worketh for us He worketh in us too If he clear us from the guilt of sin he does likewise cleanse us from the pollution of it If he free us from the obligation and the punishment he does withall from the power and dominion of it and while he quenches Hell-fire without does at the same time quench that of Lust within us These things are not to be separated and when we find them so or find our selves the same men Christ found us still in our sins though he has used all possible means to draw us out of them we certainly frustrate all the ends of his Incarnation He is not born for us but against us This Child is not set for our rise but for our fall His taking our Flesh will doe us no good if we doe not walk by his Spirit and that we shall not doe if we be not Holy as well as Innocent and not only perform those excellent things He requires from us but love and become zealous of them that so we may be indeed his Peculiar People A Title which some in our days are pleased to appropriate to themselves who yet shew little of that which must secure it renouncing good works in their own practice and decrying them in others as the mark of Antichrist's rather than of Christ's People These are they who talk so much of Faith and set it up in opposition to good Works an error worse than theirs who make them joint Causes with Christ's Merits in our Justification such there were in our Apostle's time who because He did so much magnifie Faith to beat down the Jews conceit of being justified by the Works of the Law did so far Idolize it as to think all good works useless when once they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity And there are and too many among us who bury all thoughts of good works in a pleasing but deceitfull Contemplation of Faith as exclusive of those good works whereof 't is so naturally productive and which can no more be separated from it than heat from light 'T is Faith indeed which alone purifies the heart that is the very foundation and root of all other Graces without which our Profession is but an empty Name and our most glorious performances but so many glittering Sins But then 't is such a Faith as supposes good works or else 't is but a dead an invisible Faith good works being the only evidences of its reality whereby we approve our selves unto Men as well as glorifie God stop the mouths of the Enemies of the Gospel make our calling and election sure to our selves and our profession good in the sight of others by adorning the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things and by the practice thereof resembling Him who went about doing good And upon these and the like accounts we find our Apostle highly magnifying and earnestly calling upon Titus to press the necessity of them chap. 3. 8. This is a faithfull saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be carefull to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men so profitable that without them the Text expresly affirms they cannot be God's peculiar People And here we may see how strict an Exactor of them our Lord is who is not content with our performance of without our affection to them nay requires the very heat and fervor of that affection will have us doe and withall be zealous of them which is more than barely to doe them and cannot possibly consist with any coldness or indifferency to them Such a temper He requires whose Zeal did even eat him up that we should follow after righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is eagerly pursue and even persecute it be active and violent in quest thereof never leaving off our pursuit till we have obtain'd it He who like Gallio cares for none of these things but is indifferent to them shall be as little car'd for by God and such as are neither hot nor cold in his service he will spew out of his mouth Nescit tarda molimina Spiritûs sancti gratia God's Spirit fires that Soul it does inspire making it active and industrious to improve his Graces to add one link or other still to the Chain of them To faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and so on To strive not only to be
which had such a load as the sins of Mankind and God's wrath due to those sins hanging upon it These were the Arrows of the Almighty that went through his Soul This The poyson thereof that drank up his Spirit These The Terrors of God that did set themselves in Array against Him to use Job's expression The spirit of a Man may well bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit a spirit so wounded as his was by the hand and stroke of an omnipotent God who could bear but He that was God's equal and yet even He complains who yet did bear it How easily could He have vanquished the malice of Hell who stoops at the power and anger of God If any thing could add to this affliction to this piercing of his Soul on Man's part it must have been those bitter taunts those cutting reproaches he suffered from the ungratefull Jews or rather those despights He foresaw Sinners should doe Him who should make a mock of Him and of those Sins which pierced Him or at least so slender a reckoning of all his piercings as to have no sense at all of them and as if they were a matter not worth looking on should never bestow so much as one Thought upon them nay by their constant sinning and that without any remorse should crucifie afresh the Son of God and put him to an open shame treading him under foot and counting the bloud of the Covenant whereby they were sanctified an unholy thing All this and more than our faint apprehensions can reach to our Lord had in his prospect and which pierced his very Heart by that foresight He had of it and so brings us Christians within the compass of those that pierced Him Indeed the Text literally points to the Jews and their Assistants the Roman Souldiers as the Authors of Christ's crucifixion and the immediate Executioners thereof And it cannot be denied but that All of them had a hand or head in this Act. They brought him to they stretcht Him on his Cross They pierced his hands and his feet they stood staring and looking upon Him says the Psalmist Psal. 22. 17. All of them in their several degrees were guilty of the Fact some as procuring his Death as the whole Nation of the Jews some as commanding the Execution as Pilate others as doing it as the Gentile Souldiers And we are ready and not without good cause too to condemn their cruelty But this is only to mind the Evil they did not what Evil Christ suffered This is to be angry with them but not to justifie our selves who pierced him as well as they and some of us more deeply than many of them did Let us not mistake our selves It was their Sin that did practise but it was ours that procured our Lord's Death We would fain shift our Sin on the Jews and Heathens who were but the Instrumental causes here whereas we are the Principals 'T is not the Executioner that properly kills the Man nor yet the Judge Solum peccatum homicida est Sin only is the Murtherer and every Sinner the Executioner of a Saviour All Men are the Meritorious causes for whose Transgressions He was pierced The Lord hath laid on Him the Iniquity of us All says the Prophet Esay 53. 6. It was the Hypocrisie of our Hearts that mocked Him It was the Bribery of our Hands that buffeted Him The Oaths of our Mouths that spat in his Face We betrayed Him with our wanton kisses We whipt Him with the cords of our Oppression We gave Him Gall and Vinegar to drink by our luxurious Intemperance Our Pride in vain Apparel and Ornaments platted a Crown of Thorns upon his head and stript him of his garments In a word our mighty Sins were the Nails which pierced his hands and his feet and the Spear that was thrust into his side The glory of the Lord was brought to shame for our shamefull lives The Lord of life was put to death for our deadly sins and the word became speechless for our crying Ones So that I may justly bring this home to every Man in this Congregation with the Prophet Nathan's Tu es homo Thou art the Man that piercedst Christ and every one of us were that question put to us seriously which was once to him scoffingly Matth. 26. 8. Prophecy who smote thee may without the gift of Prophesying return the answer It is We that smote Him We have now found out the Piercers here And who but They ought to be the Spectators of that Tragedy which themselves have occasioned Indeed all Mankind are the They in the Text that have pierced and therefore must look upon him But what is it to look upon him Is it only to gaze upon a Crucifix with the superstitious Papist and have our Minds look one way while our Eyes look another Is it to look upon Him with dry Eyes and unrelenting Hearts Or only to look and no more To afford him a passing glance of our Eye and then fix it perhaps on some vain and sinfull Object Surely the looking here implies more than so it requires the Exercise of all our Senses and Faculties in the judgment of the Hebrew Doctors as Grotius on this place observes out of Exod. 20. 18. and Jer. 2. 31. It requires our Memory to recall our Understanding often to reflect and ruminate on Christ's Passion and engages all our Affections about it It exacts our most serious Attention and our often-repeated Meditations We must so look upon as to look into Christ pierced for us so look on as never to look off Him That by frequent viewing the dimensions of his Cross we may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height thereof and to know the love of Christ there dying for us which passeth knowledge St. Peter speaking of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow 1 Pet. 1. 12. tells us ver 13. that the Angels desire to look or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there imports curiously to pry into them and the more we doe so the greater benefit shall we reap by it For at every our looking here some new sight will offer it self to us to raise our admiration and exercise our affections It will make us love Him who was pierced for us and it will pierce us through with sorrow for having pierced Him It will move our Pity raise our Faith and exalt our Hopes to their highest pitch That we may then look upon Christ pierced to our benefit and comfort let us doe it these five ways With an eye of Pity and Compassion of Sorrow and Regret of Love Faith and Joy 1. With an eye of Pity and Compassion And this is no more than what we commonly doe to all afflicted persons The misery of Sufferers be they who they will naturally attracts our Eyes and turns our Bowels towards them At least we are apt to pity if not so
Georgius Stradling S.T.P. Decanus Cicestrensis Prebendarius Westmon SERMONS AND DISCOURSES UPON Several Occasions By G. STRADLING D. D. Late Dean of CHICHESTER Never Before Printed TOGETHER With an Account of the AUTHOR LONDON Printed by J. H. for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. The PREFACE 'T WAS the ancient Modesty of those Ages and Nations who had a due Sense of Decency to introduce great Works with the Lives rather than the Elogium's of the Authours and to distinguish a Preface from a Panegyrick Afterwards especially in the declining Age of the Roman Empire Sophistry began its Reign The Prologue that anciently open'd the Play was now spent in commendation of the Poet and Men were drawn into an high esteem of the Writer by the Proëm till they were undeceiv'd by the Book 'T is the unhappiness of those general Prefaces that if ever they avoid the guilt of falsity they are necessarily liable to the charge of impertinence as being unluckily joyn'd to those Books that either do not deserve their praise or do not need it For which of those two Reasons I give no commendation of these following Discourses I leave the Reader to judge it seeming at present more material to give a short plain and naked Account of the Authour Dr. Geo. Stradling then was born about the Year M DC XXI at St. Donat's Castle in Glamorgan-shire the ancient Seat of his Family His Father was Sir John Stradling the fifth of those 200 Original Baronets that were created by K. James upon the first Institution of that Order His Father's propensity to Learning and his Progress in it is easily discernable from those his Works that are yet extant and whether it proceeded from the greatness of his parts the agreeableness of his Temper or the generality of his Studies we shall hardly find any Gentleman whatsoever that among all the eminent Scholars of that Age men of different Professions and very disagreeable Studies appears by their Writings to have gain'd so Universal a respect and esteem Dr. George Stradling the Youngest of his Sons follow'd the genius of his Family and tho' not then design'd for the Clergy pursu'd however the best and most agreeable Studies of humane and polite Learning with great vigour and diligence at first beyond Sea and afterwards at home For so it happened that being very early sent to Travel about the rise and first appearance of the Troubles in England he grew acquainted with the modern Languages abroad before he had obtain'd a familiarity with the Latin here And therefore I have often wonder'd upon the Sight of many of his solemn Exercises in the University afterwards that a Man that came so late to the Study of the Roman Tongue should not only obtain so great an insight into the best Authours thereof but should have made himself an intire Master of their Eloquence Which strange improvement which is not now common to many of those of his Profession who are esteem'd Learned can be attributed to nothing more than the deep Impressions which the true Sense of the Authours of the best Age of the World I mean that of the Augustean Century first made upon his mind so that afterwards by frequent perusal of their Works he without the usual Art or Method occasionally understood rather than industriously learn'd not only the true and genuine Phrase but the best Cadence Turn and natural Beauties of the Roman Language It is observable that when he came to the University of Oxford after his Return from France and Italy about the 18th Year of his Age he much addicted himself to the Study of Musick and made so great Improvements in that Art the grounds of which he had learn'd in his Travels that no man in England was more valu'd for his Skill therein by the greatest Professors of it in his Youth especially Dr. Wilson the Musick Professor of Oxford in his Time nor made better use of it in his declining Age to the diversion of his Leisure or to the raising and heightning of his Devotion When he had for some Years resided in Jesus College he being descended from one of the Brothers of the Noble and Generous Founder of All-Souls College Henry Chicheley once Archbishop of Canterbury was in the Year M DC XLII deservedly and gratefully elected Fellow of that College a Society exactly fitted to his humour and disposition as that which according to its original Institution had always preserv'd an equal Mixture of the Gentleman and the Scholar He was a Gentleman of that easie and affable Temper and withal of so considerable a Character then in the University that 't is no wonder if he was much lov'd and regarded by most of his Cotemporaries in the College and in a particular manner by Dr. Sheldon then Warden thereof I have seen several Letters from him when afterwards Bishop of London which express'd a nearer Intimacy with our Authour than the Distance of Age and Place that was then between them generally seem'd to allow And indeed as they were both of them Men of good Birth and no mean Fortune as their dispositions to the King's Cause were the same the Evenness and Generosity of their Temper alike their Breeding Education and the Tendency of their Studies not different it is hardly to be imagin'd but that such an Agreement and Conformity of Mind Fortune Manners and Studies confirm'd by their long Enjoyment of each others Conversation should improve their Acquaintance into a lasting Friendship To that worthy and generous Prelate at last Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Stradling who after the Restoration of the King became his Chaplain did in a great measure owe those Dignities and Preferments which he afterwards enjoy'd in the Church The Wars coming on and most of the best Gentry in England appearing on the King's side our Authour according to the Inclination of himself and his Family went into the Army and was made Cornet in a Troop of Horse rais'd by his Nephew Sir Edw. Stradling for the Service of His Majesty in which Station he behav'd himself with Courage and Resolution till after the loss of his Brethren and other his Relations in the Field the Army was disbanded by the King and the common Despair of the Royal Party throughout the Nation gave him opportunity of an honourable retreat to his Studies At that time there was a Cessation of Arms rather than a Peace The Fury of the Conquerours was turn'd into deliberate Revenge and those that were conquer'd had lost their strength rather than forgot their hatred The Visitors of the Parliament that were not often inclinable to Forgiveness did frequently take occasion to disturb our Authour in the Enjoyment of his Fellowship and once had utterly ejected him if his Alliance to two great Men of different Principles had not happily secur'd him Mr. Oldisworth a Man of no small Learning once Secretary to the E. of Pembroke who had married his Sister and Coll. Ludlow a
all sin both original and actual whereas her self by calling Christ her Saviour professes her need of him so especially by making her a vast and inexhaustible Ocean of all perfection the property of him alone in whom all fulness dwells and of whose fulness we all the Virgin Mary not excepted have received and all this upon a plain mistake of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies not any infus'd qualities or inherent gifts but God's meer gratious acceptation of her And yet as great an affront as this is to the divine Majesty there is yet one thing more intollerable that these Men not content to allow the Virgin equal to her Son will needs give her a kind of Command and Authority over him as if now in Heaven he were to be subject to her as once on Earth and she were a Queen Regent to govern and comptroll him as it were in his Minority Witness those expressions Monstra te esse Matrem and Jussu Matris impera salvatori words which I dare not English and which their Rosaries and Litanies are stufft with Nor does their Practice bely their Expressions their Addresses being more to the Mother than to the Son and her Temples having almost swallow'd up his which are now become Shops of lying Miracles one of them especially that of Loretto all Wainscoted within with them and its self the greatest of all as having been carried if we will believe them from Bethlehem by Angels and by them plac'd where now it stands I shall not trouble you with a description of all their fopperies their superstitious bowings cringings and lighting of Candles to our Ladies Images their ridiculous dressing and undressing them their vows offerings and presents to these dumb Idols so like the Cakes offered up to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 7. and the like which if they do not out-doe at least they bid fair for Heathenish Idolatry if this be not to worship the Creature more than the Creator 't is at least to doe service to her who by Nature is no God and who can no more endure it than St. Paul could a sacrifice Act. 14. or the Angel in the Revelations chap. 19. 10. divine Worship or to come a little more home than St. Peter to be styl'd Universal Bishop of God's Church a Title they will needs force upon him though himself expresly disclaims it 1 Pet. 5. 3. No let us honour the Blessed Virgin as becomes the Mother of God not as a Goddess she is but a Creature how glorious soever and we are not to make her an Idol neither to invoke her Name nor adore her Person we allow her God's Mother but not his Rival place her we may as near his Throne as Religion will suffer us not in it in the Throne God will be greater than any style her Queen of Saints while Christ remains the Sovereign King of them and 't is honour enough for this Queen to be solo Deo minor to be blessed even above the Angel that proclaim'd her so yea if they will have it above all Saints and Angels too but still below her Son who is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. In a word Our endeavour should be to copy out those Perfections which were so eminent in this Blessed Mother of our Lord Her Faith by our ready assent to God's Word Her Devotion by frequently meditating on it a book which like Ezekiel's rowl must be eaten and well digested Her Purity by keeping our selves unspotted from the World and hating even the garment spotted by the flesh always remembring that they who follow the Lamb are Virgins Her Prudence by trying the Spirits by proving all things but holding fast that which is good suspecting even an Angel from Heaven could he propose any thing to us that should seem to cross a Precept of Christ and dreading not only every little stain but the very suspition of it Her Obedience by an entire submission to God's revealed Will and which is the crown and perfection of all grace her Humility These are the Copies we are to transcribe the best Gifts to be coveted such as will adorn and perfect us make us holy and glorious other may have more pomp and lustre in themselves these most use and benefit to us and therefore let our aim be to be pure as the Mother of God we who are commanded to strive to be perfect even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect And if we hear the Word of God and keep it as she did the Lord will as certainly be with us as He was with her and we at last be with him where she now is eternally Blessed in the fruition of the most Blessed Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost To whom let us ascribe as is most due everlasting glory c. Amen A SERMON Preached on Christmas-day TITUS II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works THE greatest blessing God could bestow upon us or we receive took its rise from Man's sin The sin of the first Adam was the cause or at least the occasion of the Incarnation of the second Had the former still continued in Paradise the latter had not come down from Heaven Innocence was to be lost before it could be recovered nor was the Physician but for the sick nor the Redeemer but for the captive But as the first Man did not therefore sin or was ordained to sin that the Son of God might be incarnated so his Goodness who can fetch light out of darkness took advantage by that sin to manifest its self in its expiation and his Wisedom contriv'd a way to make that very sin instrumental to a greater good than Man had forfeited which gave occasion to a Father to style Adam's first Transgression Foelicem culpam a happy crime that procur'd him such a Redeemer as could doe him more good than 't was in his own or Satan's power to doe him hurt and so well repair his Ruine as to make it more advantageous to him than his Innocence He is now a gainer by his loss his falling so low has but rais'd him up the higher being made more happy by his very unhappiness so that where Man's sin did abound God's grace has much more abounded And never sure did it more abound than at this time when the Son of God took our humane nature upon him that he might unite it to his divine one Visited us from on high to this end that he might redeem us was born only to dye for us cloathed with our flesh to be in a capacity to suffer in it and by his own suffering to advance us to glory in Heaven And next to that his transcendent Mercy of giving us Heaven is this That He prepares us for it That He is pleased to refine as well as to exalt us We may now
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
their wrecks And to this purpose like another Aeolus he lets fly his boisterous Winds his Seminary Priests and Jesuits Alas He is the principal Author of our disturbances These but the Instruments who like so many Puppets dance by the motion of his hand 'T is no marvel if these his sworn Vassals his Janizaries in continual pay should advance the Interest and fight for the Cause of their great Lord and General wherein themselves are so much concern'd Nor do they boggle at any thing that may promote it be it never so impious while the good of the Catholick Cause as the Pharisaical Gold did their Altar shall sanctifie all their lewdest practices 'T is no marvel I say that such men should doe any thing who are members of such a Church whose tender mercies are cruelty whose piety butchery religion faction devotion sedition zeal fire and martyrs traytors Surely such Cannibals as daily devour their God will make no bones to swallow up whole States or which is worse to blow them up This was their attempt this day and this is still their design no doubt 'T is no Fable this but a History Habemus confitentes reos What need we any farther Witnesses than the Parties themselves All Garnet's tricks and equivocations at last fail'd him when being put to it he could not deny but that he had a head and hand in it confessing withall that his principal motive to this villany was an Excommunication thundred out against Queen Elizabeth by Pius Q. and Sixtus V. which sticking still on King James as not repealed but rather confirmed by their Successors obliged him in Conscience to attempt the Murther of his Sovereign in obedience to the Pope his greater Lord. This Bill was produc'd in the indictment of the said Garnet and gave occasion to the Oath of Supremacy So that the matter of fact being as clear as the confessions of the Contrivers and Instruments themselves could make it all the subtlety of Papists can never disprove or disguise it Here is no shift no starting-hole left them The Mine was contrived at Rome though 't was to be sprung here at Westminster The Pope himself laid the Train which his Ministers by his order were to give fire to And how near were they to doe it and we to be undone There wanted but a little light Match to have sent up a Church and State into the air Nor did our Enemies make any doubt but that they should have seen us flying there and which was their charity that our Fall thence should have been as low as Hell However lest the Plot should possibly fail as through God's infinite mercy it did of its intended effect they had a Declaration ready to indict the Protestants of that Treason For the Brat would have been too foul for the Pope to father though himself very well knew it was his own natural issue and all the world besides And indeed the very shape and complexion of this Monster shews it not to be of an English Extraction Nothing but the Pope and the Devil could lay such a Cockatrice's Egg nor any but a Jesuite hatch it Let them take it between them and let it remain an eternal blot upon them and their religion guilty of a design than which nothing yet ever lookt more like Hell the darkness and the flames of it being all in it I need not display the horror of it the very prospect thereof being ghastly beyond all expression Let your thoughts supply the defect of my rhetorick and tell you whether such fruits as these be the fruits of the Spirit of God or of his true Prophets Surely their Vine is the Vine of Sodom their Grapes are Grapes of Gall and their clusters bitter And yet how many are there that can relish no other but what an Italian soil produceth though they be as mortal as those of the forbiddentree Without doubt our English palats have been strangely corrupted of late days that we should be so bewitch'd and intoxicated with the cup of Rome's abominations as to suck out the very lees and dreggs thereof with such delight and pleasure I know the troubles of our late Wars have given the Romish Emissaries opportunity of beguiling many who discontented with their sufferings at home and pincht with necessity or offended with the many Sects which the licentiousness of the War had begot or couzened with the pretences of antiquity vanity glory and splendor of the Romish Church and perhaps allured by those pleasing doctrines and opinions whereby their Casuists gratifie Sinners have revolted from us and do still revolt Much talk there is of the increase of Popery and if true 't is not much to be wonder'd at for a Plague is infectious and a Gangreen spreading and evil as well as good communicative But surely Papists need not bragg much of their gain when they consider how and whom they get They are such as we can spare them men that had no religion till they found them one and whose noreligion was better than what they have gotten who living like Atheists that they may seem at least to be of some religion pretend to be Papists and being cast out by us were fit for them to receive These be their prey These their spoils I envy them not such Proselytes who add nothing to the repute of any side but number nor do we lose any thing but what would shame us our Church being but the purer for having such dreggs purg'd out Ancient Rome had at first wanted men to inhabit it if Romulus had not opened an Asylum and modern Rome would not be so much replenished if there were not a Sanctuary there for such Converts Let me bespeak such as St. Paul did his Galatians O ye foolish People who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth That having known God as ye have done ye should turn again to weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Lick up your vomit and forsake the truth of God to follow lies and Jewish fables For what is Popery but one great one what are its new doctrines but old heresies patch'd and trick'd up and only so old as to be rotten Look into its practices too whether that which Tacitus says of Rome heathenish be not as true of Rome apostate That all shameless and heinous enormities ran into it as into a common sewer Christian Rome now if I may give it that name is no more like what once it was than Jesuits are like Apostles And yet these be the men ye doat on and if you can get any one of their Tribe into your houses you can say to your selves as Micah did Judg. 17. 13. Now I know the Lord will doe me good because I have a Priest Such a Priest indeed as his was who like a Serpent cherisht in your bosome will sting you to death Let me apply the old Proverb 'T is ill going in Procession where the
Church when they cannot make them of their Religion I doe not think that those Christianos nuevos those new Christians as they call them in Spain That is such as the Inquisition has made Christians of Mahumetans doe much love the Religion they turn to and much less those who turn them to it by employing Fire and Faggor These indeed are undeniable Evidences of cruelty in them that use them but slender Motives of credibility to beget belief in them that suffer by them And this way will not fail to multiply enemies instead of procuring friends to any Cause though never so good For as Persecution to the true Church is but as the Pruning to the Vine which gains in its bulk and fruit what it loseth in a few luxuriant branches lopt off so even Heresies themselves thrive by being prun'd too the cropping of these Weeds does but serve to thicken them the bloud of the Devil's Martyrs proves as much the Seed of his Synagogue as that of Gods Saints does of his Church and the destroying of the Persons of Hereticks supposing them such does but add life to their Cause And indeed what encouragement have Men to receive a Religion from their Oppressors or how can they think that they who torture and kill their Bodies are really concern'd to save their Souls And while the felicities of another World are recommended to them only by such as doe deprive them of all in this we cannot wonder at their little appetite to embrace them or to find the oppress'd Indians protest against that Heaven where the Spaniards are to be their Cohabitants Add we to all this That such Motives as these can never demonstrate Truth For how successfull soever their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true For by that argument it proves the Religion it goes about to settle true It proves that that which it destroys was true before while it prevailed and had the power And then such a testimony is given to the truth of Christianity which Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since And thus you see how all violent ways to propagate the Faith cannot be acceptable to God the Father as being directly contrary to his Nature and Will nor yet to his Son since they cross the very end and design of his coming into the World his Doctrine and Practice Fly in the very face of Religion it self and can never serve their turn who make use of it From all which it follows That they who pursue such ways neither know God the Father nor his Son Jesus Christ. I know what is commonly said by some who practice this way of compulsion in excuse and defence of it That many who serve God at first by compulsion may come after to serve him freely That these sorts of Conversions doe not augment the number of Saints but they diminish that of Hereticks That although some among them may prove bad Converts themselves yet they have Families to be saved that their Children may make good Christians and though the stock be naught yet the branches may be sanctified But the answer hereunto is easie That neither good Intents nor casual Events can justifie unreasonable Violence which instead of rendering Men orthodox Christians makes them rather Atheists Hypocrites and Formalists For being constrained to practice against Conscience they soon come at last to lose all Conscience Nor are Men to owe the Salvation of Souls to any unwarrantable proceedings because they must not doe any present evil in prospect of any future good This was another gross error of these persons in the Text as I am now to show you in the next place 2. The Jews here thought their Zeal to the Temple and their Ritual Observances so invincibly meritorious that no crime could defeat it And we see how apt many Christians are to ascribe so much to the force of a good meaning as if it were able to bear the stress and load of any sins that can be laid upon it A good purpose shall hallow all they doe and make them boldly rush into the most unchristian practices in prosecution of what some call The good old Cause others The Catholick Faith For how doe Men swallow down the deadliest Poyson Perjury Sacriledge Murther Regicide and the like in confidence of this their preservative and say grace over the foulest sins How many have made themselves Saints upon that account that would never have been such upon any other And how much Religion groans under the Reproach of all those Evils which zeal and good meanings have consecrated is notorious to all the World Men call the over-flowing of their gall Religion and value their Opinions so high and their eagerness in abetting them that they think the propagating of them so important a service to God as will justifie all they doe in order to this end Now not to speak of their Error in the choice of their Opinions That of many opposite one only can be the Right my present business shall be to shew you 1. The Impiety and 2. The Danger of this strong delusion in respect of that Malignant influence it has on Practice For the clearing of which two things we are to observe That to the making an Action good and warrantable these three things are requisite 1. A good Intention in the Doer 2. That the Matter of the Action be in it self good and 3. That it be rightly circumstantiated For a failure in either of these three things quite vitiates the whole Action 1. The first thing necessary to a good Action is a good Intention in the Doer This we learn from Matth. 6. 22. If thine Eye that is thy Intention for so Interpreters generally understand it be single thy whole Body shall be full of light Be the matter of an Action never so good yet if a Man's aim and intention in the doing of it be not so all is stark naught For Actus moralis specificatur ex fine And Finis dat speciem in moralibus And as the End is the first thing that sets an Agent a working so is it the last that perfects its work Nay so valuable in the sight of God is a good Intention where-ever it be found That as He sometimes prevents an evil Act in him in whom He discovers a good Intention as in Abimilech so does He sometimes reward a good Purpose tho' it proceeds not to act as in David T is true that a good End alone does not justifie any action but it is as true that there can be nothing good or tolerable without it And although a good meaning doth not wholly excuse yet an evil one wholly condemns it But then 2dly Besides a good Intention two things more are requisite to the making an Action good 1. That the Matter of it be such 2. That it be rightly circumstantiated 1. That the Matter thereof be good For our Intention as our zeal must be always in a good thing And a thing is then
good when it is conformable to that Rule which is the measure of its goodness namely God's Will revealed unto us in his Word which if it condemn an Action no Intention how good soever can warrant it 2. That it be duly Circumstantiated That is that all necessary circumstances be found in it For bonum ex integra causa malum ex quolibet defectu A thing may be evil upon one circumstance but it cannot be good but upon All and every partial defect in the Object End Manner or other such-like circumstances is sufficient to render the whole action bad but to make it good there must be an universal concurrence of all requisite conditions in every of these respects These principles being taken for granted as I think no good Christian will question the truth of them the Conclusion is clear and evident That no Intention how good soever in it self can make any Action good where either the Matter thereof is bad that is Repugnant to the revealed Will of God or it fails of those necessary circumstances that must concur to its goodness And the main Reason hereof is Because no good purpose can alter the nature of Good and Evil It can neither alter the nature nor change the degree of Sin so as to make it less in one Man than in another because the nature of Good and Evil depends not on Man but on the Will of God And the differences between Good and Evil and the several degrees of both doe spring from such Conditions as are intrinsecal to the things themselves which no outward Respects much less men's Opinions can vary nor sanctifie the use of them What is evil in some circumstances may be good in other but if the thing be wholly bad in it self it can never be made good till there come a cause as great to change the Nature as to make it Nor is sin de numero eligibilium It can neither be chosen for its own sake nor in reference to any farther end E malis minimum may hold true in Evils of pain but in Evils of fault or sin E malis nullum is the Rule For as there is neither form nor beauty in sin that we should desire it so neither any good use we can put it to For that Actio peccati non est Ordinabilis ad bonum finem is the common Resolution of the Schools 'T is true indeed that God can and many times doth order the very sins of Men to a good end but that is beyond our skill nor must we commit any though accidentally and in the event it may possibly turn to his glory We are not to tell a lye although through it the truth of God may more abound to his glory as St. Paul speaks Rom. 3. 7. And the reason is because God Himself whose Will ought to be our Rule hath expresly forbid us so to doe Will ye speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for Him says Job ch 13. 7. Will He borrow Patronage to his Cause from falsehood Or will he be glorified by those Sins which he forbids and abhorrs I find indeed a sort of people in Esay 66. 5. who when they hated their Brethren and cast them out for God's name sake either out of their company as not fit to be convers'd with by their lesser Excommunication or out of their Synagogue as deserving to be cut off from the Congregation of the Faithfull by their greater one could wipe off all their crime by saying The Lord be glorified But what says God Himself of them They have desired their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations They did evil before mine eye and chose that in which I delighted not ver 3 4. That is they did their own Will not mine and pretended to advance my Glory in such a way as themselves fancied but I never allow'd of God will as soon part with his Glory as have it thus promoted With Him it is much the same thing to be made the End as the Author of Sin and whether we doe good to a bad end as the Pharisees did or evil to a good one with these in the Text we are equally guilty in the sight of God who will be sure to punish us even for our good but unwarrantable Intentions As He did King Saul for reserving the best of the flocks of Ameleck which he had devoted to utter destruction though it were for a Sacrifice And King Uzzah for putting forth his hand to support the tottering Ark out of a very good intention as he thought because that was no part of his but of the Levites office Does St. Paul justifie himself for having persecuted the Church of God though with a very good intention So far was he from that that he calls himself the chiefest of sinners for the Commissions of that time wherein he says he served God with a pure conscience and did what he thought in his heart he was obliged to doe His good conscience could not then in his account sanctifie his actings nor make his bloudy hands undefiled 'T was blasphemy and persecution for all 't was Conscience I was before says he a blasphemer and a persecuter and injurious v. 13. So that a conscientious or which is here the same thing a well-meaning Man may for all that be the chiefest of sinners nor will it avail any one to shroud his soul actions under handsome intentions What more abominable than Idolatry or what more acceptable service to God than to destroy it And yet those Christians who in a preposterous Zeal and as they thought a good Intention brake down Heathen Images and deservedly suffered for it were never thought fit to be received by the Church into its Martyrology The persons here had as good a pretence as could be it was to doe God service What better Intention And yet they excommunicated and killed Christ's Disciples What Action could be worse Are they thankt for their pains Nay are they not therefore charged by our Lord with gross Ignorance with not knowing the Father nor Himself This may suffice to shew the Impiety of this opinion That a present Evil may be done in prospect of a future Good Give me leave now in a word to shew you also the Mischief of it the bad Influence it has on practice It is impossible for me to tell you what destruction it hath brought and daily brings upon the Earth How many Churches it hath devoured how many Countries depopulated how it hath filled the World with bloud and rapine and must of necessity still confound it by begetting and for ever perpetuating religious feuds and quarrels among Christians For while each Party thinks he has God on his side and that he has as good a right to his Opinion as he that opposeth it hath to his which is a strong persuasion that he is in the right till he be convinc'd that he is in the wrong There can be no end of
design and management thereof did at his Examination confess That his principal motive to this villanous attempt was an Excommunication thundred out at first by Pius Quintus against Queen Elizabeth and kept still on foot by Sixtus Quintus which sticking on King James oblig'd him in conscience to attempt the murthering of his Sovereign in obedience to that Bull. And how did he excuse that Fact Was it not by his pious intention to promote God's glory and the good of the Catholick Church A fit cover for such a foul fact but commonly made use of by such as himself was in justification of the like wicked practices St. Paul we see hath expresly doom'd all those that doe so to no less than eternal Damnation But those men and he are not agreed in this point For should his doctrine be good what would then become of all their Piae Fraudes Feigned Legends and Miracles Indices Expurgatorii Equivocations and mental Reservations Allowance of common Stews for the preventing unnatural Lusts that is of one Sin to hinder another For which and the like the Catholick defence is the Catholick cause and men's pious Intentions which in case they should prove never so faulty yet a little rectifying of them will rectifie all that is amiss in them A piece of spiritual Chymistry this of late Invention which can extract the finest gold out of the basest metal to guild over all the Villanies which the heart of man can devise or his hand execute I know not whether any can really think that by such vile artifices they can doe God any service But I am apt to believe that they rather think to doe themselves one and that 't is the same humane policy not to give it a worse name and not Religion that acts such men which did these persons in the Text. But if any men do in good earnest think they doe God any service thereby It is such a one as our Lord Himself here flatly tells them neither his Father nor He will ever thank them for But since it will be in vain for me to tell them so who will not take Christ's own word for it I shall turn my discourse to you who now hear me and for the preventing any such dangerous errour in you leave some few Rules of caution and direction with you and so conclude 1. And the first shall be concerning your Zeal That you be as carefull and industrious to employ it in a good as some do theirs in a bad cause but with this proviso That your Zeal be a right and well-temper'd one A right one it will be if it be alway in a good thing And well-temper'd if it be according to knowledge Rom. 10. 2. St. Paul's rules both If your Zeal be not in a good thing it will doe the same mischief that fire does out of its proper place the hearth And if it have not light to see its way by it will prove very dangerous company in the dark and lead you into bogs and precipices There is nothing so pernicious to man as a blind frantick zeal which instead of eating them up who are possess'd with it eates up God's people as if they were bread Nor is there any thing so injurious to God it being common for people in their indiscreet and furious zeal for God to run farthest from Him and either to break the two Tables of his Law with Moses or at least to dash them one against the other And can we think they should ever doe God service who know not what they doe themselves May not he say to such Zealots what King Achish did of David 1 Sam. 21. 15. Have I need of mad men And does not too much ignorant zeal much more than too much learning make men so Surely there is no madness to the religious one which like the Devil in the possessed man in the Gospel casts them sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water that is into contrary excesses and extravagances scattering mischief where-ever it goes turning the World into a Chaos and the Church into an Acheldama while Melancholy is made the seat of Religion by some and Frenzy by others what can follow thence but confusion And therefore we ought to have a special care that our Zeal be guided by knowledge and discretion lest we over-shoot our selves with these men here and when we put Christ's servants out of our Synagogues and kill them too into the bargain we become so foolish as with them also to think we shall thereby doe God service 2. Our next caution must be that we be well assured of the soundness of the Principles we act by What a dangerous thing it is to be herein mistaken our Saviour tells us Matt. 6. 23. If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness that is If thy mind and conscience be defiled if thy Judgment be corrupt how great and dangerous will those mistakes prove that mislead thee For the farther thou shalt go on in thy wrong way the more shalt thou be out of the right one And when thou art once out it will be impossible for thee to get into it again so long as those false Guides which are as so many Satans standing at thy right-hand still prompting and tempting thee to evil shall remain in thee He that commits a sin by principles hath nothing to retrieve him from his errour while he retains such principles and as long as he is under the power and guidance of ill ones they will not only dangerously expose but highly encourage him to evil by turning the greatest crimes into merit and making him hope to gain Heaven by such practices as directly lead him to Hell The Physicians maxime That an error in the first concoction is never to be mended holds as true in Religion as in Nature And therefore it highly concerns us that our first choice here be right lest we set out amiss and offend God most even there where we think most to please Him 3. The last Use I shall draw from my Text is an Use of Direction or Tryal how to judge of the Truth and Goodness of a Religion and that is by the Mildness and Harmlesness thereof This is the proper Chraracter of true Christian Religion It has all of the Dove and nothing of the Vulture in it That which breathes nothing but Curses and Slaughters to be sure is not of God the Father nor of His Son I think there is no true Member of our Church that understands his Religion well and the nature of it but would be willing to submit it to this Test But I can scarce believe that they who talk so much of the Cruelty of ours would be content to put the Truth of their Religion upon this issue We need but compare Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth's Reigns to see which of the two Religions they were of was the mildest No fire and faggot to be
up the Law of Nature each Pagan may confute an Infidel and each Sinner himself That there is a God to be worshipped is founded in that natural Dependence Rational Creatures have on their Creator and that Good and Evil are different things is the Voice and Dictate of Natural Reason too which he that contradicts unmans himself and is to be lookt on as a Monster in Nature Such there have been in all times and which is strange even in those of Divine Revelation for we find the Jews themselves upbraided here with this Impiety which was so much the grosser in them because besides the unwritten they had withall a written Law to instruct them better Both in effect the same the same Precepts in stone and in the heart The Mosaical Law being nothing else but a Digest of that of Nature where the only difference is in the Clearness of the Character For Moses did but display and enlarge the Phylacteries of Nature This was still the Text and all his Precepts but so many Commentaries on it He did but trim up that Candle of the Lord natural Reason which before burnt dim set off Vertue with a better Lustre and expose Vice in its proper shape and hue giving That all its natural Advantage to charm the Eye and painting out This in such lively Colours as might represent it in its utmost Deformity Yet such was the perverse blindness of some that they could see no difference here at all no distinction between an Angel of Light and a Fiend Good and Evil were to them both alike or rather not alike for they preferred Evil to Good did not only confound the Names and Nature of these things but in a cross manner misplace them putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness like those Antipodes to mankind who by their strange way of living turn Day into Night and Night into Day This is that abomination the Text takes notice of which drew this severe Imprecation from the Almighty uttered by the mouth of his Prophet Wo unto them that call Evil good c. Which words seem to point to the Jews but are indeed directly levelled at all those who remove the natural Land-marks and Boundaries of Moral Good and Evil and they present us with these three Observations 1. That there is a Real and Natural difference between Vertue and Vice called here Good and Evil. 2. That there always have been and still are such as labour to take away this Difference Men that call Good Evil and Evil Good 3. That to do so To endeavour to alter the Nature and Property of Moral Good and Evil is such a heinous provocation as will inevitably bring a Curse upon it Of these in their Order And 1. That there is a real and natural Difference between Vertue and Vice called here Good and Evil. It seems the Academician and Epicurean Sects were rife in the Prophet Esay's Days who being a loose sort of men and impatient of all natural and moral Restraints would fain perswade themselves and all others That nothing was in it self good or bad that there was no such distinction in Nature but only in the opinion of men who were pleased to make an inclosure where God and Nature had laid all in common Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum was their fundamental Principle A Principle which because I find taken up and improved by some of the like depraved Judgment and it is the very Source and Fountain of much of that Corruption that is in the World deserves to be considered and the direct way to disprove it will be to make out a real and natural Difference between moral Good and Evil which I shall endeavour to do 1. From the Nature of a Divine Being 2. From our own Make and Constitution 3. From the natural Beauty of Good and Deformity of Evil whereof every Man's Reason is the proper Measure and Judge 4. From such contrary Effects as must of necessity argue a Contrariety in their Causes 1. The first proof of this Truth I shall fetch from God Himself in whose very Nature and Being the difference between Good and Evil is conspicuous For 't is evident that there is something simply Good and something simply Evil even to Divine Being something which God is by the Necessity of his Nature and something which by the same Necessity He cannot be For should I ask Epicurean Christians whether God can be other than what He now is or the Scripture represents Him They must needs resolve the question in the Negative unless they will deny Him to be God or which is the same thing grant him mutable Immutability being so essential to him that what he now is he ever was and what he ever was he ever shall be and cannot chuse but be so Now God from all Eternity was just mercifull good and true 'T is the Description he gives of Himself Exodus 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth And were not these his essential and unalterable Properties the Reverse of that Description might as well befit him which were the highest Blasphemy imaginable and the Manichees needed not to have invented two distinct Principles of Good and Evil when by the Epicurean Doctrine these so contrary things might well enough be reconciled to one and the same Divine Being whereas the Scripture tells us that some things are impossible for God to do As to lye and to be unjust And surely what He cannot Man ought not What is good or bad to Him must be so to us too and what is contrary to the divine can never be a part of humane Perfection If God cannot be other than good mercifull and just Man who was created after his Image must of necessity resemble his Creator and the Copy to be complete in all points answer its Original 2. As indeed it does For upon this account of a natural resemblance 't is that we are said to be Partakers of the divine Nature and God has so wrought and woven his Image into the very frame of our being that like Phidias his Picture in Minerva's Shield it can never be totally defaced without the ruine of that frame And herein also the differences of Good and Evil are apparent For our Passions Fear and Shame especially do manifestly betray them Omne malum aut timore aut pudore persudit natura Nature saith Tertullian hath dasht every Vice with Fear or Shame As for the first of these Fear The continual Frights the pale Countenances and broken Sleeps of wicked Men do plainly argue the inward dissatisfactions of natural Conscience when they doe amiss the guilt of the heart usually spreading it self over the face As on the other side Innocence is ever quiet and bold and they who act by the rules of right reason always calm and serene Of which so apparent contrary effects no better account can be given than