neere him or hurt him Psa 91.7 c. and after a glorious victory of all miseries here Luk. 10.19 Rom. 2.7.10 he shall be crowned with glory and eternity hereafter Let us not then in a good cause be ever deterred by the vaine affrights of feare or danger The goodnesse of the cause ought to animate us in the evilnesse and hardnesse of the way to accomplish it If God be the author the devill cannot be the hinderer Honesty and goodnesse shoot in stright lines at the last and best end Gods glory and God will as certainly prosper the meanes as he doth propose the end Verum bonum convertuntur say the Schooles Truth and goodnesse are reciprocates there is no goodnesse without truth no truth without goodnesse Magna est veritas vincet great is truth and shall prevaile so all goodnesse in the strength of truth shall at last overcome The winds may blow the raine fall Matt. 7.24.25 the floods beat upon thee but thou shalt not fall for thou art grounded upon a rocke Hast thou begun then a noble a glorious action which redounds to Gods glory the Churches and Common-weal's good Incapisti benè quis impedivit Thou bast begun well Gal. 5.7 who hath hindred thee that thou continuest not If the action was evill why did you undertake it if the action was good why do you not hold on What if slanderers back-bite you and traduce you What if authority frowne what if envy maligne what if the multitude rage Psal 2.2 and the people imagine a vaine thing thou hast Gods commission say not then I cannot 't is but nè fortè malum capiat moriar but a lest some evill take me and I dye Thine owne cowardize thine owne weaknesse may conquer thee Psal 2 3. but all these though they take counsell together shall not be able to withstand thee If God set thee on worke he 'le beare thee through maugre the opposing fury of the devill and all his agents Go on then in the strength of the Lord and be victorious Psa 71.16 I tell thee if for the fortè there be an evill reall that threat thee Sicapiat if it take thee si moriare if thou die Rom. 14 8. yet know whether thou live or die Rom. 8.37 thou art more than conquerer It 's better fall in a good cause than prosper in an evill one Onely let not thy feare betray Gods cause to miscarriage If death it selfe be threatned to thee die Canst thou ever have a better end than to die for that end for which thou and all things were made Gods glory which grant O Lord that we may propose unto our selves in all our thoughts words and works that glorifying thee in this life we may receive eternall glory and felicity from and with thee in the life to come and that not for any merits â—four own but for his sake who hath dearly bought us to whom with the father and the holy Spirit be ascribed all honour praise and glory now and forever Amen GENES 19. VERS 20. Behold now this City is neere to flee unto and it is a little one O let me escape thither is it not a little one and my soule shall live IT is a property of Divinity not to erre Perfection is a White at which all of us ought to aime none may hope to hit The best men have their errours and imperfections Optimus ille est qui minimis urgetur he 's the best man that hath least he 's no man that hath no faults Let him be excepted that was without exception him that being man was more then man too CHRIST JESUS God and man in whom there was no fault neither was guile found in his lips All others are comprehended under the condition of sin which they shall never put off while they are clad in these robes of flesh The best of Gods Saints have had their slips and fals and to make them flye forth from themselves to a better and surer hold they have had often remembrances of their owne weakenesse in many grievous wounds and bitter derelictions have often fallen been wounded with the weak reed of their owne strength Wonder not then if you behold a David defiling his hands and heart with innocent blood 2 Sam. 12.9 and unlawfull pleasures David 2 Sam. 11.5 though a man after Gods owne heart 1 Sam. 13.14 was but a man Wonder not to behold a Solomon 1 Kin. 3.12 the wisest among the sonnes of men committing a double whoredome 1 Kin. 11.1.4 Spirituall and Corporall Solomon though so wise was but a man Wonder not that Peter so foully denyed and abjur'd his master Mar 14.66 67 c. unlesse you wonder that Peter was a man We receive with our birth and nature two inevitable conditions peccare mori to sin and to dye And though it hath beseemed the piety of the Churches children to justifie the Patriarkes against the bitter taunts of scaffing I shmaelites and uncircumcised Philistines and like the good sons of Noah to go backward with the vail of charity in their hands Gen. 9.23 and cover the nakednesse of their fathers yet must not that vaile of charity blindfold our judgement so that we altogether deny those faults to be which we would have concealed from the scorne of irreligious men Diminuit culpam excusatio non tollit God would have the errours and faults of his Saints as well to stand upon record as their vertues and therefore Seneca Nat. quaest lib. 6. cap. 23 as Seneca sayes of Alexander his murther of Calisthenes hoc est Alexand. crimen aeternum quod nulla virtus nulla bellorum faelicitas redimâ—t This is a blemish that shall eternally sticke on his faire name which no vertue of his nor the glory of all his victories shall redeeme quoties enim quis dixerit occidit Persarum multa millia opponetur Calisthenem quoties dictum erit occidit Darium opponetur Calisthenem quoties omnia Oceano tenus vicit ipsum quoque tentavit imperium c. opponetur sed occidit Calisthenem As often as it shall be said he slew many thousands of Persians yea but it shall be said againe he slew Calisthenes As oft as it shall be said he conquered Darius yea but he kill'd Calisthenes As often as it shall be reported to the renowne of his name he subdued all to the very Ocean and it too and removed his Kingdome from a corner of Thrace till it knew no other bounds but the same with the whole earth but as a check to all his glory it shall be said yea but he kill'd Calisthenes Thus it is in the blessed Scripture with many of the Lords worthies whose religious life and integrity deservedly cals upon our wonder to behold them but then againe lest they of themselves should entertaine too high an opinion or we of them desinit in
given a being to that eye of the world there are no such distinctions Here then for a word of use let us see the vanitie of many men who think with the colour of an excuse which our ignorance hath unskilfully doubted to bleare the eyes of that all discerning wisedome to which thoughts themselves things of weakest essence and neerest nothing are open and apparent Heb. 4.13 Psal 139.2 From the Asteriske and note of attention behold now I come to Lots reasons to urge his affirmative request which argue more the good mans affection then enforce his conclusion Innocenti a melior est quam eloquentia Quintilian Innocence saith Quintilian is better then eloquence and a good cause then a good Orator Magna est veritas praevalebit O there 's a considence in truth better then all the flourishes of Rhetorick all the proofes of reason Each colour implies some defect and each proofe some doubt that doubt a possibilitie of the contrary And therefore it hath usually beene the guise of innocence to make no argument her best argument and the slight of reason the reason why she should not be slighted It was a brave and heroicke scorne in the Affrican Scipio Titus Livius when being accused of treason against the common wealth he in stead of answering led the people to the Temple to give thankes for that renowned victory that day twelve moneths before by him obtained Scipio's vertue scorned to bee defended let his actions not words speake for him And me thinkes more could not have been said for Scipio then this silence and his disdaine of defence did out doe all oratorie And verily truth like a perfect cube needs not these poore props let falsehood and a weake cause strengthen their weake credit with these mercenaries that like Tartars or Switzers will be hired to either side for the better pay For indeed our corrupted reason is become the onely advocate to passion and affection and so vassatized unto them that as it is the greatest of our taskes so is it that wherein she shewes the best of her abilities in making good the most desperate and forlorne cause Our affections first resolve and then make reason harrow all the Topicks of invention to finde defences if not excuses using herein poore reason as a great Potentate not long a goe his clergie For having a desire to marry within degrees unlawfull he set his learned men on worke to prove it lawfull and againe after a while being cloy'd and desiring change set them againe on worke to prove the former marriage unlawfull Nay so monstrous is the folly of our credulitie when our affections claime a strong interest in the cause that the same arguments shall serve us to prove contradictions yea and the same reasons perswade or confirme the lawfullnesse of that which in themselves prove it most unlawfull Witnesse the words of my Text with the two precedent verses in which Lot would prove Gods Counsell as full of danger as his owne of convenience and safety when as all the reasons he can alleadge prove the flat contrary For first This Citie is neere to flye unto and it is a little one This Citie Is it a Citie and not the more likely to be sinfull It is Bela a Citie of the Plaines and not more likely to be in the same manner and degree sinfull Secondly is it neere Sodom and not the more dangerous nay is it neere as well in condition as place how much more likely to be joyned in punishment Thirdly is it little how much more reason to be destroy'd For saith God to Jonah should not I then spare this great Citie Nineveh wherein are more then sixescore thousand persons that cannot discerne betwixt their right hand and their left and also much cattle Jonah 4.11 How contrary is Gods argument to Lots God will have a Citie spared because it is great Lot because it is little But these rich and fruitfull plaines had much endeared the heart of the good Patriarch loath he was to change a Citie and a plenteous valley for a mountainous and rockie desert and therefore though God be his immediate Counsellor the end his safety yet being interested by affection against the authoritie of his Lord the dutie of a servant the mercie of a deliverer doth Lot struggle first by delayes and then with forced reason to prove Gods Counsell full of danger as his own request of conveniency and safety Nay so farre hath his affection blinded him worse then the Sodomites at his doore for they could not see because the Angels blinded them Lot could not see when the Angels directed him I think misguided unsanctified reason doth rather breed suspitions then cleere them Syllogismes never compounded controversies seldome the law friends There is indeed an abstracted Logicke which prescribes formes and motions but follow it into the practice of men it hath still one terme more then it should affection or passion The Lawyer hath not he his rationem tinnulam for his quartum argumentum and what wonder then if in a double sence he commit fallaciam in quatuor terminis Nor is it thus onely in our every dayes actions and occurrents which according to our interest reason must justifie or at least excuse but as if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that circle of Arts had made them mad too with walkking in it the Schooles themselves and Vniversities have matriculated the same dotage Who would not unstudie reason and befoole all arguments that should see a thesis affirmative proved by many reasons his true Negative proved also yet both answered and after a long progresse with inquisition and industry arrive fairely at the same point where it begun and end in the greater doubt Quid leo est nisi insanire cum ratione What 's this but to be a learned foole and with great labour to make Cob-webs to be swept away Magno conatu◠nugas Would not this under things of faith be enough to make a man a Skeptick Sure we need not to the native weaknesse of our understanding and reason make it more wretched by this slavery and mancipation to our affections and passions unlesse to a weake eye we would throw in dust But I leave them in their maze and come to Lots arguments themselves to enforce his request and first of the object of his behold the first reason of Lots affirmative request being à qualitate This Citie 't is a Citie In which as in the rest of his arguments I might propose to my selfe this order Every argument or reason hath veritatem or veritatis speciem First then I might shew the probabilitie of his argument Secondly the fallacie Thirdly we might draw from either some use for our selves I might thus improve the matter of my text unto a large compasse if I should dilate particularly pro and con on every of his arguments As first in this first argument that it is a Citie the other a mountaine I might
bargaine Men will take God at his word give him a sterile and hungry mercie good words and good wishes but not sacrifice Hos 6 6. Good thrifty Christians we are growne that can goe to heaven a cheaper way then by good workes that 's by the mountaine we can goe by faith Mistake me not beloved as though in this just sarcasme I tasked in the least wise our doctrine or befriended in any sort those unjust reproaches and scandalls of the Church of Rome that we should maintaine that faith alone without good workes can save us or that good workes are not at all necessary to salvation Our doctrine doth more establish yea and encourage good workes then theirs while it gives them so great a valew that the least of them even giving a cup of cold water Matth. 10.42 shall be rewarded tenne-thousand fold above ' its owne worth theirs rewarding them onely after the rate of their own worth I would to God our practice were according to our doctrine and that it were no more the fault of the men then the religion so to cry up faith faith that they have cryed downe good workes as if they were effects of superstition and ignorant zeale It is our practice not our doctrine that sets faith and good workes at oddes which are in them selves as much connexed and linked as cause and effect Sunne and light body and shadow or what ever example of strongest dependance can be found in nature But I pray God we pay not deare for thinking to have heaven too cheap The Ephesians cryed up Diana Act. 19 28.25.27.34 Diana but gaine was in it gaine was their godlinesse yea their god We cry up faith faith and there is gaine in it Iam. 2 24.24 it s to exclude good workes those as if out of fashion with Popery we have not so much pietie shall I say or charitie as to keep up those stately edifices which they built Nay I doubt some are so farre from putting a finger to the worke that the repairing of S. Paul's is with them Popish To finde a neerer way to the Indies hath cost many a life and to finde a neerer way to heaven hath cost many a soule Many a one is in Sodom burned that went to escape by Zoar. Some will pray but like sluggards in their beds will fast but with curious refections Prov. 26.14 give almes but not a moiety of their robbery give a Vicar five pounds and rob the Church of five hundred be temporall Bishops or spirituall Earles build an Hospitall and rob a Church doe good at their deaths and live how they list It s no wonder there be weavers and tapsters and other mechanick Clergie if there be temporall Bishops We will follow Christ Luk. 9.59.61 but take leave of our friends first or bury dead but when he bids us follow we will not follow him to the mountaine I come now to the last words and part of my Text in these words and my soule shall live Man hath committed in this a foule idolatry in making the creature a God while before the enjoyment he promises all happinesse and what not in every end he proposes Man hath done the creature againâ— as foule an injury while he vilifies the creature in the enjoyment as farre as to hate and loathingnesse Et concipit aethera mente Ovid. O if we could but compasse such a mans estate honour parts our desires should sit down we had done for any further wishes But doe we there set up our rest nay alasse are they not either distastfull or onely the whetters of new appetite When we enjoy them how short we fall of that we promised from them Let me escape thither and my soul shall live saith Let I have mine hearts wish Was it so Alasse he 's no sooner there but he flyes away from thence to the mountaine So farre short are all outward things in giving a full content We are like the silly sheapherd in the fable that seeing the Sunne as it were on the top of an overlooking mountaine makes haste up to see so glorious a thing but ariving at the top of that it then appeares on the top of an higher thither againe his desire couzens him with much labour and fresh hope he arives it then appeares on a third and on his third accesse leaves him both now hopelesse and weary He finds to his cost it is in heaven he lookes for and that this is but a fond conceipt arising from his deluded sense Man is this foolish shepheard he lookes upon honour and thinkes happinesse is there on wealth that happinesse is there on mirth and pleasure that happinesse is there to come to these with as much paine as promise he labours to arive in each object like every hill seemes to rest thither he arives sees it now in another object followes that it is not there A new wish tempts him and that obtain'd deceives him Alasse foole it is in heaven that thou lookest for the true Sunne of righteousnesse Mal. 4 2. He onely hath that which thou lookest for in vaine thou lookest rest safety security happinesse in Zoar Eccl. 2.25 in that which thy soul hastes to enjoy if thou expect to finde it in sublunary things There is only rest to be found in the mountaine cut out of the rocke without hands Dan. 2 34 35. which filled the earth my fills all places Let us therefore if we thinke to escape the spirituall Sodom go with David to this mountaine from whence our helpe cometh let us go not by the Plaines but leave to the papists their Zoar purgatory the low way let us goe via regia the high way the difficultie is abundantly rewarded in the delights of the end Let us then goe on Matth. 10.22 and that couragiously in the way that God hath commanded and undoubtedly we shall obtaine the end which God hath proposed and promised Say not when He bids thee that I cannot 't is but the weakenesse of thy sloath not strength that disinables thee block not up the way with the objections of thine owne feares Dispence and that but for a while with a few vaine false and transitory pleasures that would charme thee like Syrens in thy way and then the bitternesse of conceited evils is already past thou hast escaped hast overcome the height of the mountaine where thy soul shall live Soli Deo Gloria FINIS