worse than perdition to bee saved for ever in these flames to bee ever scorched and never consumed that is to bee ever dying and never dye Here as Saint g Aug. de civit Dei l 13. c. 11. Ibi non erunt homines ante mortem neque post mortem sed semper in morte atque per hoc nunquam viventes nunquam mortui sed sine fine morientes Austine acutely observeth wee can never bee sayd properly dying but either alive or dead for to the moment of giving up the ghost wee are alive and after that dead whereas on the contrary the damned in hell can never bee said to bee alive or dead but continually dying not dead because they have most quicke sense of paine not alive because they are in the pangs of the second death O miserable life where life is continually dying O more miserable death where death is eternally living Yea but shall all be salted with this fire the fire of hell God forbid Doth Christ say of this salt not of the earth but of hell that it is good ver 50. is this the meaning of his exhortation have salt in you that is procure the salt of hell fire to keep you alive in the torments of eternall death to preserve you to everlasting perdition By no meanes h In hunc locum Maldonat therefore and Barradius and all that are for this first interpretation are justly to bee blamed because they had an eye to the antecedents but not to the consequents of my text On the other side those who adhere to the second interpretation are not free from just exception because they had an eye to the consequents and not to the antecedents For wee ought to give such an interpretation of these words as may hold good correspondence both with the antecedents and consequents and either give light to both or receive it from them The elect to whom these latter restraine the word All have nothing to doe with the unquenchable fire of hell mentioned ver 48. neither have the reprobate to whom the former interpreters appropriate these words any thing to doe with the good salt ver 50. yet both have to doe with some kinde of salting and with some kinde of fire For every one shall bee salted one way or other either here with the fire of the spirit seasoning our nature and preserving it from corruption or hereafter with the fire of hell There is no meanes to escape the never dying worme of an evill conscience but by having salt in us nor to prevent the unquenchable fire of hell but by fire from heaven I meane heart-burning sorrow for our sinnes Dolor est medicina doloris That we may not bee hereafter salted with the fire of hell wee must be here salted with a threefold fire of 1 The word 2 The spirit 3 Affliction or persecution First with the fire of the word the word is a fire i Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord It hath the three properties of fire 1 To give light 2 To burne 3 To search First it giveth light therefore Psal 119. it is called a lanthorn to our steps and a light to our paths Secondly it burneth 1 In the eare 2 In the mouth 3 In the heart First in the eare k 1 Sam. 3.11 Whosoever heareth my words saith God his eares shall tingle Secondly it burneth in the mouth l Jerem. 5.14 I will make my words fire in the mouth Thirdly it burneth in the heart m Luk. 24.32 Did not our heart burne within us when hee opened to us the scriptures Lastly it searcheth pierceth and tryeth like fire The n Heb. 4.12 word of God is mighty in operation and sharper than a two-edged sword c. Secondly with the fire of the spirit the spirit is a fire o Act. 1.5 You shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire Water will wash out filthy spots and blots on the skinne onely but fire is more powerfull it will burne out rotten flesh and corrupt matter under the skinne This fire of the holy Ghost enlightneth the understanding with knowledge enflameth the will and affections with the love of God and zeale for his glory and purgeth out all our drossie corruptions Thirdly with the fire of persecution and affliction Persecution is called a p 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryall and all kinde of afflictions and temptations wherewith Gods Saints are tryed in Saint Austines judgement are the fire whereof Saint Paul speaketh q 1 Cor. 3.15 He shall be saved as it were through fire And of a truth whatsoever the meaning of that text bee certaine it is that the purest vessels of Gods sanctuary first in the Heathen next in the Arrian and last of all in the Antichristian persecution have beene purified and made glorious like gold tryed in the fire There is no torment can bee devised by man or divell whereof experiments have not beene made on the bodies of Christs martyrs yet the greater part of them especially in these later times have beene offered to God by fire as the Holocausts under the law Bloody persecutors of Gods Saints set on fire with hell of all torments most employed the fiery because they are most dreadfull to the eye of the beholders most painefull to the body of the sufferers and they leave nothing of the burned martyr save ashes which sometimes the adversaries maâ—ice outlasting the flames of fire cast into the river And many of Gods servants in this land as well as in other parts in the memory of our fathers have been salted with this fire call you it whether you please either the fire of martyrdome or martyrdome of fire And howsoever this fire in the dayes of Queen Mary was quenched especially by the blood of the slaine for the testimony of Jesus Christ as the fire in the city of the r Liv. decad 3. l. 8 Bruson facet exempl l. 1. Astapani as Livie observeth when no water could lave it our was extinguished with the blood of the citizens yet wee know not but that it may bee kindled againe unlesse wee blow out the coales of wrath against us with the breath of our prayers or dead them with our teares Admit that that fire should never bee kindled againe yet God hath many other fires to salt us withall burning feavers fiery serpents thunder and lightning heart-burning griefes and sorrowes losse of dearest friends wracke of our estates infamy disgrace vexations oppressions indignation at the prosperity of the wicked terrors of conscience and spirituall derelictions And God grant that either by the fire of the Word or of the Spirit or seasonable afflictions our fleshly corruptions may bee so burned out in this life that wee bee not salted hereafter with the fire of hell which burneth but lighteth not scorcheth but yet consumeth not worketh without end both upon soule and body yet maketh an end of neither O that
be tormented for ever and ever Non habebunt requiem die vel nocte sed cruciabuntur inaeternùm Each of the former torments is of it selfe intolerable and all of them most insufferable yet all must bee endured without all meanes of ease or hope of release the banishment is perpetuall the chaines everlasting the worme immortall the fire unquenchable No losse so great as of the Kingdome of Heaven no prison so loathsome as the dungeon of Hell no sight so gastly as of the ougly fiends no shreeking so lamentable as of damned ghosts no stench so loathsome as of the lake of brimstone no worme so biting as the remorse of conscience no fire so hot as the wrath of God but such losses never to be recovered such chaines never to bee loosed such darknesse never to be enlightened such sights never to be removed such noyse never to be stilled such fumes never to be dispelled such a worme never to be pluckt off such fire never to be quenched such torments never to be released such misery never to be ended maketh up such a punishment as exceedeth all humane eloquence to expresse patience to endure What shall I say more Who of us is able to hold out long with a vehement fit of a burning feaver or colicke or stone though lying in a sweet roome upon a soft bed having the best meanes of physicke to mitigate the paine and comfort of friends to strengthen our patience If the Physician should tell us that after a moneth or a yeere we should be out of our extreme fits he would be so farre from chearing us up that hee would neere drive us to despaire how then shall wee bee able to endure the scorching flames of the brimstone lake in the darke dungeon of Hell where we have no other comforters about us than insulting Divels or perhaps some of our dearest friends and kinred tormented with us Yet if these paines lasted but for a yeere or an age or a thousand yeeres or the duration of the world though so great misery could admit of no possible comfort yet there might bee some hope but now after many ages and millions of yeeres spent in this insufferable torment to endure as many more and againe as many more and after all this to be nothing neerer to the end than at the first day of their entrance into that place of durance O this is able to breake an heart even as hard as Adamant Happy are we that we have time to think on and means to prevent these endlesse paines for which the damned soules would give a thousand lives if they had them for their neglect thereof while the time served them they now pierce their hearts and rend their soules with these and the like lamentations Woe worth our brutish sottishnesse and beastly folly whereby for painted shewes and vanishing shadowes of sinfull pleasures we have forgone everlasting joyes and the glory of a celestiall Kingdome O that we should be so retchlesse as never to fore-thinke of the wretchednesse we are now come to O that wee should refuse the meanes freely offered unto us to escape these torments for which wee would now give the price of our dearest hearts bloud O that we might be released but for a while out of these torments If we might returne to life againe what would we not doe what would we not suffer that we might not come to this dismall place But alas all is too late the irrevocable sentence is pronounced the time of repentance is past but the time of our sorrow shall never passe All our prayers are now fruitlesse our complaints bootlesse our mourning regardlesse our griefe remedilesse our woe comfortlesse our torments endlesse If the consideration of these things move us not beloved brethren we beleeve them not if we beleeve them not we are not what we professe to be that is Christians If there be no such torments in Hell as I have in part described then which to thinke and much more to utter deserveth a thousand Hells there is no truth in the Gospel upon the expresse Text whereof I have all this while enlarged my selfe Nay yet further I shall be able to demonstrate unto you that if ye beleeve there is no Hell that ye are no men because ye have no conscience There is no conscience if no religion no religion if no God no God if no providence no providence if no justice no justice if no torments to be endured after this life by them who have violated all humane and divine lawes and received no condigne punishment in this world Nature hath given us an image of Hell in Aetna and other hills that continually burne and of the damned in the Salamander and Pyrausts that live in the fire The ancient Grecians and Romans yea the Barbarous Indians that have no learning among them yet acknowledge a kind of Hell so witnesseth the Relator of the * Hist Virgin Animae immortalitatem agnoscunt eamque putant post mortem pro meritis transferri aut ad deorum sedes aut ad ingentem sero bem igne ardentem Popogusso dictam quam in extremis mundi partibus sitam ex itimant Virginia voyage The Virginians saith he acknowledge the immortality of soules and they beleeve that after death according to their desert they are either translated from hence into the seats of the gods or are carried to a huge ditch burning with fire called Popogusso An evident argument that God hath engraven the image of Hell so deep in mens consciences to deterre them from ungodlinesse that the Divell cannot raze it cleane out though he desireth nothing more But I speake to Christians with whom this reason alone is sufficient to enforce their assent If there be no Hell Christ descended not into it nor triumphed over it If no second death Christ hath not redeemed us from it But hee hath certainly i Apoc. 20.6 redeemed all that beleeve and have part in the first resurrection Other things we beleeve because they are so this is undoubtedly so if we beleeve it O what an easie condition is this to have our debts paid for us if by faith we take the summe laid downe for our discharge and tender it unto God and be carefull to run into no more arrerages He is most worthy to lye in the prison of Hell till he pay the uttermost farthing of his debts who can have them paid for him upon so easie termes and will not Wee have looked long enough downe upon Hell and Death let us now looke up to our Saviour who triumphed over both Let the sight of the one as much raise us up in hope as of the other dejecteth us in feare let the serious meditation upon the everlasting flames of Hell kindle in us an everlasting hate of sinne and love of our Saviour who by his fasting hath famished the worme of conscience that now it shall bite no more and by his bloud hath quenched
that are bound visit not the sicke or imprisoned in a word performe not any of those duties which shall be vouchsafed the naming at the generall day of retribution unto all men which shall be according to their workes not according to their words The witty Epigrammatist deservedly casteth a blurre upon Candidus his faire name and debonaire carriage because all the fruits of his friendship grew upon his tongue * Martial Epigr. Candide κοῖνα φιλῶν haec sunt tua Candide πάντα quae tu magniloquus nocte dieque sonas Ex opibus tantis veteri fidoque sodali das nihil dicis Candide κοινα φιλων Thou sayst my friend Candidus that all things are common among friends but it seems these words of thine are thy all things For of all thy wealth and goods thou makest no friend thou hast a doite the better thou givest nothing at all and yet art most prodigall in thy language and wearest out that Proverb threed-bare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are common amongst friends The Naturalists observe that the females of Biâ—ds oftentimes lay egges without cockes but they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ova subventanea egges filled up with winde unfit to be hatched such is the issue of most mens love now a dayes it bringeth forth partus subventaneos windy brats that is good words faire promises and happy wishes But though in our gardens of pleasure wee nourish many plants and trees for their beautifull blossomes and goodly flowers yet it is manifest out of the 16. Thou shalt eare freely of every tree in the garden Verse of the second of Genesis that there grew no tree in the terrestriall Paradise of God that bare not fruit neither shall any but such as fructifie bee transplanted into the celestiall For x Mat. 3.10 Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen downe and cast into the fire Wee reade in our Chronicles of King Oswald that as he sate at table when a faire silver dish full of regall delicacies was set before him and he ready to fall to hearing from his Amner that there were great store of poore at his gate piteously crying for some reliefe commanded his Steward presently to take the dish off the table and distribute the meat and beat the dish all in pieces cast it among them whereat the Bishop his Amner taking hold of his hand was heard to use these or the like speeches Nunquam veterascet haec manus the hand which beareth such fruit shall never wither or waxe old in part he was a true Prophet for afterwards in a battell where the King was slaine having his arme first cut off the arme with the hand being found were covered in silver kept as a holy Relique and by this means endured many hundred of yeers after the whole body was consumed That which quencheth Hell fire in the conscience is the bloud of Christ that which applyeth this bloud is faith that which quickneth this faith is love that which demonstrateth this love are workes of mercy and bounty piety and pity which are not so much offices to men as sacrifices to God faith cryeth for these as Rachel did for children Give mee fruit or else I dye For y James 2.26 Faith without works is dead as the body without breath And can aman think we live by a dead faith Give saith our Saviour and it shall be given unto you Which precept of his was so imprinted in the minde of that noble Matron z Hieron epitaph Paul Mat. Damnum putabat si quisquam debilis aut esuriens cibo sustentaretur alterius Et Cyp. de elecmos Demus Christo vestimenta terrena indumenta coelestia recepturi demus cibum potum secularem cum Abrah Isa Jac. ad coeleste convivium venturi Paula that shee accounted it a great losse and dammage to her if any prevented her charity in relieving any poore or distressed member of Christ she was a like affected as if one had taken a great bargaine out of her hand A great bargaine indeed to lay out mony in earthly trash and receive for it heavenly treasure to bestow ragges and receive robes to give a little broken meat that perisheth to the hungry and for it to bee bid with Abraham Isaac and Jacob to an everlasting banquet in Heaven I should close with this sweet straine of Saint Cyprian but that there remaineth another note pricked in the last words of my Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One another If any demand why Christ addeth this clause enjoyning mutuall love I answer because gratitude charity and necessity inforceth it Where love is not answered there is no gratitude where kindnesse is not requited there is no justice where offices of friendship are not mutually performed there is no life All a Senec. ep 48. Alteri vivas oportet si vis tibi Societas nostra lapidum fornici similima est quae casura nisi invicem obstarent hoc ipso sustinentur humane societies are like archt-building in which unlesse every stone hold up another the whole frame suddenly falleth Howbeit though gratitude justice and necessity plead for correspondency in Christian charity yet the world is full of complaints of parents against their children husbands against their wives pastors against their flockes tutours against their pupills masters against their servants that their providence love and care is not answered in the observance love gratitude and obedience of their inferiours Fathers upbraid their children saying Amor descendit non ascendit Love descendeth from us to our children but ascendeth not from them to us Husbands commence actions of unkindnesse against the wives of their bosome that the kinder they are to them the more disloyall they find them Pastors take up the Apostles complaint against his Corinthians that the b 2. Cor. 12.15 more he loved them the lesse hee was loved againe Tutours murmure that their care to breake their scholars of ill conditions is recompenced with hatred And Masters that their good usage of their servants is requited with contempt whereby you see how needfull it was that Christ should with his owne mouth as it were heat the glew to joyne our affections together with his own finger knit the knot to tye our hearts together with his owne hands to write a new bond to inwrap our soules one in another and with his owne presse print anew in our mind the commandement of mutuall love the characters whereof were quite worne out of most mens memory Seneca fitly resembleth the mutuall and reciprocall duties of friendship in giving and receiving benefits one from another to a game at Tennis wherein the ball is tossed backward and forward from one racket to another and never falleth to the ground or if it fall it is his forfeit who mist his stroake even so every kind office wherewith our friend serveth us ought to be returned backe to him that no courtesie fall to
in Chron. ad an c. 1. Calvisius his hote discordant from our purpose viz. that the yeere of our Lords birth was Annus Sabbathicus a yeere made of seven multiplyed or a yeere of Jubile For even by this very circumstance wee may bee put in minde that he who was borne in a temporall Sabbathicke yeere on earth procureth for us an everlasting Sabbath in heaven 3 Of the day of the yeere From the age in which our Lord was incarnate wee have already proceeded to the yeere now from the yeere wee will come to the day on which God hath set many glorious markes 1 First St. Matthew telleth us of a n Mat. 2.2 new starre that appeared to the heathen Sages which guided them in their way to Bethlehem 2 Secondly St. o Quest vet N.T. Hodâ—eâ—no die natus est Christus octavo Calend. Jan. ab illo die crescunt dies ecce à nativitate Christi dies crescit illo oriente dies proficit Austine and St. p Ambros Serm. 8. de temp Ambrose and q Prudent in hyâ—n ad Cal. Jan. Quid est quod Arctum circulum Sol jam recurrens deserit Christusne terris nascitur qui lucis augit â—ramitem Prudemius note that the day of our Lords birth fell precisely upon the winter solstice and from that day the dayes begin to lengthen 3 Thirdly this day in the vineyard of r Magdeburg ex Martino Vinca Engaddi quae balsamum ferebat horem fructum liquorem simul fudit Engaddi the Balsamum tree both blossomed and bare fruit and liquor also dropped from it Thus we see what golden characters God hath fixed upon the age yeere and day of our Lords birth in which we may read the benefits of his incarnation which are these First rest this seemeth to be figured by the Sabbathicke yeere Secondly peace this was shadowed by the temporall peace concluded through all the world by Augustus Thirdly libertie from spirituall thraldome this was represented by the law of manumission of servants Fourthly Knowledge this was shewed by the new starre Fiftly encrease of grace this was signified by the lengthening of the dayes from Christs birth Sixtly spirituall joy this was expressed by the oyle which sprang out of the earth Seventhly health and life this the Balsamum was an embleme of This peace this libertie this knowledge this grace this joy this health God offereth to us in this accepted time and day of salvation Behold now c. The Jewes had their now and that was from the day of our Lords birth to the time of the destruction of the Temple before which a voyce was heard at midnight saying Å¿ Joseph de bello Jud. l 7. Migremus hinc Let us goe hence The Gentiles now or day of grace began after Peters t Acts 10.11 vision and shall continue untill the fulnesse of all Nations be come in Our Countrie 's now for their conversion from Paganisme began when Joseph of Arimathea or Simon Zelotes or Saint Paul or some other of the Apostles planted the Gospell in this Island for our reversion to the puritie of the ancient doctrine and discipline was from the happie reformation in King Henry the eighth his time and Kings Edward the sixts and shall last till God for our sinnes remove our golden Candlesticke All your now who heare me this day is from the day of your new birth in baptisme till the day of your death Application Behold now is your accepted time now is your day of salvation make good use of these golden moments upon which dependeth your eternall happinesse or miserie Yet by a few sighes you may drive away the fearefull storme that hangeth over you yet with a few teares you may quench the fire of hell in your consciences yet by stretching out your armes to God and laying hold on Christ by faith you may be kept from falling into the brimstone lake While yee have the light of this day of grace t Phil. 2.12 Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling before the night of death commeth when u John 9.4 no man can worke If you reject this accepted time and let slip this day of salvation there remaineth nothing for you but a time of rejection x Mat. 7.23 Away from mee I know you not and a day of damnation y Mat. 25.41 Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire To apply this now yet once more Behold now in these feasts of Christmas is tempus acceptum an accepted time or a time of acceptation a time when wee accept and entertaine one another a time of giving and accepting testimonies of love a time of receiving the holy Sacrament a time when God receiveth us into favour biddeth us to his owne table Behold now is the day of salvation the day in which our Saviour was borne and the y Titus 2.11 grace of God bringing salvation appeared unto all men This day our Saviour will come into thy house and if with humble devotion godly sorrow a lively faith and sincere love thou entertaine him what himselfe spake to Zacheus the Spirit will speake unto thee z Luke 19.9 This day is salvation come to thy house Which God the Father grant for the merits of his Sonne through the powerfull operation of the holy Spirit To whom c. THE SPOUSE HER PRECIOUS BORDERS A rehearsall Sermon preached Anno 1618. THE XXXII SERMON CANT 1.11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver Right Honourable c. AS the riches of Gods goodnesse are set forth to the eye of the body by the diversity of creatures in the booke of nature so are the treasures of his wisedome exposed to the eye of the mind by the varietie of senses in the booke of Scripture Which in this respect is by reverend antiquitie compared to the scrole in a Ezek. 2.10 Vid. Hier. in c. 2. Ezekielis Ezekiels vision spread before him which was written Intus à tergo within and without without in the letter within in the Spirit without in the history within in the mystery without in the typicall ceremonies within in the morall duties without in the Legall resemblance within in the Evangelicall reference without in verborum foliis within in radice rationis as St. Jerome elegantly expresseth it The former sense resembleth the golden b Exod 16.33 And Moses said to Aaron take a pot and put an Omer full of Manna therein c. pot the latter the hidden c Rev. 2.17 Manna it selfe that is as the shell or mother of pearle this as the Margarite contained within it both together as d Nazianz ad Nemes Literalem comparat corpori spiritualem animae Verbum Dei geminam habet naturam divinam invisibilem humanam visibilem ita Verbum Dei scriptum habet sensum externum internum Nazianzen observeth make this singular correspondency betweene the incarnate and the inspired
scelus exprobrare viderentur lib. c. 23. Homines malunt exempla quam verba c. Lactantius to imitate the vices of Princes and Nobles is a Court-complement nay a part of the service and obsequiousnesse due to their persons all men in Jupiters time castaway the feare of God lest they should seeme to upbraid ungodlinesse to their King Wherefore no marvell sith Ahab was starke lame on his right leg that the Israelites here after the manner of Clisophus followed him limping looking sometimes to Gods Altar sometimes to Baals O the subtiltie of the enemie of our soules how many fetches and turnings hath that wily Serpent to get in his head if he get it not one way by Atheisme nor the contrarie by Superstition yet hee hath a third way to slide in by indifferencie Whom he cannot bring to coldnesse in the true religion or hot eagernesse in the false he laboureth with a soft fire to make luke-warme as he did the people of Israel to whom hee suggested these or the like thoughts Alas what shall we doe we are even at our wits end our weake and weather beaten bark is betwixt two rocks stand still wee cannot the wind is so strong If wee steere one way wee make shipwrack of our lives and goods if the other of faith and a good conscience to this streight we are driven either we must forsake our religion or trench upon our allegeance God and the King stand in competition Neither as the matter now standeth is it possible to serve much lesse please both if wee cleave stedfastly to God wee shall be cloven in peeces and hewen asunder by Ahab if we cleave not to him wee forsake our owne mercie and the rocke of our salvation if wee burne incense to Baal we shall frie our selves in hell fire if we sacrifice unto God Ahab will mingle our owne bloud with our sacrifices Wee must needs indanger either our soules or our bodies our estate or our conscience Why is there no meanes to save both Wee hope there is by dividing our selves betweene God and Baal God shall have the one and Baal the other our heart wee will keepe for God but Baal shall have our hands and knees at his service though wee visit Baals groves Baal shall never come into our thoughts even then when we offer incense unto Baal we will offer the incense of our prayers on the Altar of our heart to the God of our fathers By this meanes wee are sure to hold faire quarter with Ahab and we hope also to keepe in with God to whom we give the better part Yea but this is no better than halting betweene both Be it so is it not better to halt thinke you than to lose both legs And what shame is it for us thus to halt sith the Prince and chiefe Priests doe no otherwise They are our guides and if they mislead us let them beare the blame As the people thus reasoned with themselves and after much swagging on both sides in the end came to fix and resolve upon this middle way out commeth the Prophet Elijah and fearing no colours presenteth himselfe first to Ahab and afterward to the people by Ahab hee is entertained with this discourteous salutation Art thou hee that troubleth Israel How darest thou appeare in my presence The Prophet as well appointed with patience to beare as the King armed with rage to strike encountreth the King on this wise It is not I that trouble Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that yee have forsaken the commandements of the Lord and have followed Baal Wee see here by the freedome of the Prophets reproofe that though the servants of God may be in bonds yet the word of God is not bound nay it bindeth Ahab and all his servants to their good behaviour they cannot stirre hand or foot against the Prophet They are so farre from silencing him that in Gods name hee commands them saying Send and gather unto me all Israel unto Mount Carmel and the Prophets of Baal foure hundred and fifty and the Prophets that eat at Jezebels table The King taketh the word from Elijah and gives it to the people and a Parliament is on the sudden assembled wherein Elijah is the speaker his speech is an invective against unsettled neutrality and dissembling in matter of religion unsettlednesse is taxed in the word halt indifferency in the words betweene two opinions dissembling and temporizing in the words following if the Lord be God follow him How long halt yee betweene two opinions The Prophet here useth no flourish at all no prolusion after the manner of Fencers but presently hee fals to blowes and that so smart that he stunned his adversaries for so we read they answered him never a word c Cic. Catil 2. Quousque tandem abutêre Catilina patientiâ nostrâ Phil. 2. Quâ—niam meo fâ—o fieri dicam P.C. Muret. orat Ergo hoc miseris Gallis c. How long halt yee An abrupt Exordium becommeth a man that is in a vehement passion such an one now surprized Elijah the Baalites profaning Gods name polluting his Altars slaying his Prophets heat him above his ordinary constitution In such a case as this was to have been luke-warm had been little better than key-cold When God is highly dishonoured the true religion wronged grosse idolatry patronized not to bee moved is an argument either of insincerity or cowardice Patientia digna omni impatientiâ Such patience is insufferable such silence is a crying sinne such temper a distemper Wherefore no marvell if Elijahs spirit in which there was alwayes an intensive heat now flamed and his words were no other than so many sparks of fire How long halt yee betweene two opinions Not why but how not doe ye now but how long will ye not lose or misse your way or goe awry but halt not in a wrong path but betweene two wayes How aggravateth the unseemelinesse of their gate by their manner long by the continuance halt by the deformity betweene two opinions by the uncertainty Is it not a most shamefull thing to halt after an unseemely manner for a long time betweene two wayes not certaine which to take or leave Out of the manner of Elijahs reproofe observe the duty of a faithfull Minister of God when just cause is given to bee round with his hearers and to reprove them plainly calling halting halting if they do not so they halt in their duty and the vengeance of God is like to overtake them denounced by the Prophet Jeremie d Jer. 23.31 32 Behold I will come against the Prophets that have sweet tongues and say He saith Behold I am against them that prophesie false dreames saith the Lord and doe tell them and cause my people to erre by their lyes and by their lightnesse yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profit this people at all But because this note sorteth not well with this time
visus in grosse For hee will certainly call all men to a most strict and particular account of every moment of time they have spent of every particular grace they have received of every particular duty they have omitted of every particular sinne they have committed in deed word or thought nay of the first motion and inclination to evill The smallest atomi or moates that flye in the ayre are discerned in the Sunne so the smallest sinnes and offences shall be discovered at the brightnesse of Christs comming And as the words that are written with the juyce of a Lemmon cannot be read when they are written but may be plainly and distinctly if you hold the paper to the fire and dry the letters so the smallest letters in the book of our conscience yea the least notes and points and scratches which neither any other nor our selves see well now shall easily be discerned by the fire of the last judgement The conceit whereof tooke such a deep impression in the render heart of Saint Hierome that he professeth x Victor Reat in vit Hieron Sive comedo sive bibo sive quid aliud facio semper videtur mihi tuba illa terribilis sonare Surgite mortui venite ad judicium wheresoever he was whatsoever he did whether he ate or dranke or walked abroad or sate in his study or talked with any he thought he heard the last Trump sound shrill in his eares Awake yee that sleep in the dust and come to judgement At which time that you may be all more perfect I would advise you to y Barradius comment in concord Evang. Ascendat mens tribunal judici rationem ratio exposcat reckon before hand with your selves either at private fasts or every evening Among z Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythagoras his golden Verses these seem to mee to be most weighty Before thou suffer thy temples to take any rest resolve these three questions Wherein have I transgressed What have I done What part of my duty have I left this day undone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to which rule Seneca recordeth it to the eternall praise of Sextius that every evening hee put these interrogatories to his soule * Quod hodiè malum sanâ—st cuâ— vitio obstitisti qua parte melior factus es What wound hast thou healed this day What vice hast thou withstood Wherein art thou better than thou wert the day before thus Pythagoras advised thus Sextius did and yet neither of them for ought appeareth thought of any other judge than their reason nor accusers than their thoughts nor tormentors than their vitious affections nor hell than their owne conscience What suppose yee would they have done what care would they have taken how oft would they have revised their accounts if they had thought they should have been brought to answer for all their actions speeches gestures affections nay thoughts purposes intentions deliberations and resolutions before God and his holy Angels at the dreadfull day of judgement If the consideration of these things no whit affect you you shall one day give an account among other your sins for the unprofitable hearing of this Sermon His word which I have preached unto you this day shall testifie against you at that day Give me leave therefore a little to rouze you up and by applying the steele of my Text to your flinty hearts to strike out of them the fire of zeale I told you before of foure sorts of Stewards the sacred the honourable the wealthy and the common and ordinary I will begin with the sacred 1. Appl. to Ministers Thou to whom the Oracles of God and soules of men are committed who hast received grace by imposition of hands not to gaine applause to thy selfe or an high step of dignity on earth but to win soules to God and bring men to Heaven thou to whom the mist of blacke darknesse is reserved for ever if thou departest from the holy commandement and drawest others after thee but an eminent place amongst the Starres if thou turne many to righteousnesse how is it that thy minde study and endeavour is not to build Gods house but to raise thine owne not to adde by the ministery of the Gospel those to the Church that shall be saved but Imponere Pelion Ossae to lay steeple upon steeple and preferment upon preferment and adde dignity to dignity either not preaching at all or like the high Priest in the old Law entering but once a yeere into the Sanctum sanctorum or at the most furnishing but some few high Festivals with some rare and exquisite peeces of stuffe embroidered with variety of all arts and sciences save Divinity Is this to preach Christ crucified Is this to a John 21.16 17. feed feed and feed is this to be b 2 Tim 4.2 instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine is this to c Acts 20.27 I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsell of God declare the whole counsell of God is this to d 1 Tim. 4.13 attend to reading to exhortation to doctrine to continue in them is this to give themselves wholly to the worke of the Ministery that their profiting may appeare unto all is this to e Acts 20.31 warne every one publikely and house by house day and night with teares to save themselves from the corruption of the world the snares of Sathan wrath to come Will a purchased dispensation of absence from thy Cure upon some plausible pretence or thy Curates diligence excuse thy supine negligence or secure thee from the Apostles f 1 Cor. 9.16 Vae Woe be to mee Paul if I preach not the Gospel in mine owne person O thinke upon it in time to make a better reckoning before thou be summoned to give up the last accounts in the words of my Text Give an account of thy Stewardship of thy Ministery Next to the sacred Steward commeth in the minister of State and Magistrate to bee rounded in the eare with the admonition in my Text. 2. To Magistrates Thou to whom both the Tables are committed who art ordained by God and appointed by thy Soveraigne to see religion maintained justice executed and peace kept how commeth it to passe that the sword of justice lyeth rusty in the scabard and is not drawne out against Sabbath-breakers contemners of the Church discipline blasphemers swearers drunkards lewd and scandalous livers Doest thou use the authority committed to thee to revenge thy selfe and not to redresse wrongs done to the law nay doest thou protect and bolster iniquity and impiety doest thou live by those sinnes and draw a revenue by licensing those places of disorder which thou art made a minister of justice to suppresse Is this to be a man fearing God and hating covetousnesse is this to stop the mouth of impiety to cleanse the
us they may receive us into everlasting habitations 5. To seeke the Lord whilest hee may bee found and not to deferre our repentance from day to day 6. To be sure to provide for our eternall state whatsoever becommeth of our temporall and to preferre the salvation of our soule before the gaining of the whole world 7. To examine daily our spirituall estate and to informe our selves truly how we stand in the Court of Heaven in Gods favour or out of it 8. To observe to what sinnes wee are most subject and where wee are weakest there continually to fortifie against Sathans batteries 9. In all weighty occasions especially such as concerne our spirituall estate to aske counsell of God and take direction from his Word 10. To consider the speciall workes of Gods providence in the carriage of the affaires of this world and make use thereof to our selves 11. Lastly to meditate upon the Law of God all the dayes of our life and consider their blessed end that keep it with their whole heart and their accursed death that transgresse it And so I fall upon the second branch of my Text Observ 3 They would consider I have already proposed wisedome to your desires now I am to commend consideration to your wisedome The Schoole Divines make this the speciall difference between the knowledge of men and Angels that the knowledge of Angels is intuitive but of men discursive they see all things to which the beame of their sight extendeth as it were on the sudden with one cast of the eye but we by degrees see one thing after another and inferre effects from causes and conclusions from principles and particulars from generalls they have the treasures of wisedome and knowledge ready alwayes at hand we by reading hearing conference but especially by meditation must digge it out of the precious mynes where it lyeth In which regard Barradius alluding to the sound of the word though not to the Grammaticall originall saith meditatio est quasi mentis ditatio meditation is the enriching of the soule because it delves into the rich mynes of wisedome and maketh use of all that wee heare or reade and layeth it up in our memories Seneca fitly termeth it rumination or chewing of the cud which maketh the food of the soule taste sweeter in the mouth and digest better in the stomacke By the Law of God the u Levit. 11.3 7. beasts that chewed not the cud were reckoned among the unclean of which the people of God might not eate such are they in the Church that never ruminate or meditate upon those things they take in at the eare which is the soules mouth I know no difference more apparent between a wise man and a foole than this that the one is prometheus hee adviseth before the other is epimetheus he acteth first and deliberateth afterwards and * Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wardeth after hee hath received the wound the one doth all things headily and rashly the other maturely and advisedly A man that hath an understanding spirit calleth all his thoughts together and holdeth a cabinet councell in the closet of his heart and there propoundeth debateth deliberateth and resolveth what hee hath to doe and how before hee imbarke himselfe into any great designe or weighty affaire For want of this preconsideration most men commit many errours and fall into great inconveniences troubles and mischiefes and are often caught unawares in the Divels snare which they might easily have shunned if they had looked before they leaped and fore-casted their course before they entred into it It is a lamentable thing to see how many men partly through carelesnesse and incogitancie partly through a desire to enjoy their sensuall pleasures without any interruption suffer Sathan like a cunning Faulkner to put a hood upon their soules and therewith blind the eyes of the understanding and never offer to plucke it off or stirre it before hee hath brought them to utter darknesse O that men were wise to understand this cunning of the Divell Application and consider alwayes what they doe before they doe it and be they never so resolutely bent and hot set upon any businesse yet according to the advice of the x Cic. Orat. pro Pub. Quint. Si haec duo solùm verba tecum habuisses Quid ago respirasset credo cupiditas c. Orator to give their desires so long a breathing time till they have spoken these two words to themselves Quid agimus what doe we what are we about is it a commendable worke is it agreeable to the Word of God and sutable to our calling is it of good report and all circumstances considered expedient if so goe on in Gods name and the Lord prosper your handy-workes but if otherwise meddle not with it and put off all that the Divell or carnall wisedome can alledge to induce you unto it with these checkes of your own consciences saying to your selves Shall we offend God shall we charge our consciences shall we staine our reputation shall we scandalize our profession shall we despite the Spirit of grace shall we forfeit our estate in Gods promises and foregoe a title to a Kingdome shall wee pull downe all Gods plagues and judgements upon us in this life and hazzard the damnation of body and soule in hell and all this for an earthly vanity a fading commodity a momentary pleasure an opinion of honour a thought of contentment a dreame of happinesse Shall we bett with the Divell and stake our soules against a trifle shall we venture our life and put all the treasures of Gods grace and our crowne of glory in the Divels bottome for such light and vile merchandize as this world affordeth Is it not folly nay madnesse to lay out all upon one great feast knowing that we should fast all the yeere after to venture the boiling in the river of brimstone for ever for bathing our selves in the pleasures of sinne for an houre We forbid our children to eate fruit because we say it breedeth wormes in their bellies and if wee had the like care of the health of our soules as of their bodies wee would for the same reason abstaine from the forbidden fruit of sinne because it breedeth in the conscience a never dying worme O that we were wise to understand this and to Consider our later end I have proposed wisedome to your desires in the first place and in the second referred consideration to your wisedome now in the last place I am to recommend your later end to your consideration A wise man beginneth with the end which is first in the intention but last in the execution and as we judge of stuffes by their last so of all courses by their end to which they tend It is not the first or middle but the last scene that denominateth the play a tragedy or a comedy and it is the state of a man at his death and after upon which wee are to
and compassionate of our brethrens misery and conformable to the image of his Sonne Hee weaneth us from this world and breedeth in us a longing desire to exchange this vale of teares with the river of pleasures springing at his right hand in Heaven If God should not send us sometimes crosses and afflictions and sawce our joyes with sorrowes wee would often surfet of them we would take too great liking to this world and say with Peter It is good being here let us pitch our tents and take up our rest here This might suffice for the clearing of the first doctrine of this Text but that I fore-see an objection that may be made against it How say I tribulation or afflictions are markes of Gods children sith wee see the wickedest men that breath sometimes full of them Are not notorious malefactors often apprehended cast in prison scourged to death tortured upon the rack broken upon the wheele and executed with other most exquisite torments Do not all the plagues threatned in the Law fall upon some of Gods enemies in this life Are not the very dregges of his vialls of vengeance poured upon them For your full satisfaction herein I propound these ensuing observations to your serious thoughts 1. Albeit the judgements of God fall heavily in this life upon some notorious obstinate and impenitent sinners yet for the most part the rod of God falleth to the lot of the righteous more of them are afflicted and they more afflicted than usually the wicked are who with Dives take their pleasure here because as the Psalmist speaketh their n Psal 17.14 portion is in this life 2. Though afflictions in some sort are common to all sorts of men yet chastisements and corrections meant by the word tribulation in my Text are proper to the godly The calamities and afflictions that befall the ungodly are punishments for their sinnes not chastisements for their good effects of Gods justice not tokens of his love they are sent to them for their ruine and destruction not for their amendment and instruction 3. Afflictions taken by themselves are not notes or markes of Gods children but afflictions with patience and tribulation with joy crosses heavier or lighter are laid upon all men but none bear them chearfully save Gods children The wicked when they feele the hand of God upon them rise up against him but the godly submit themselves under his mighty hand and commit their soules to him as their faithfull Creatour the wicked o Revel 16.12 gnaw their tongues and curse but the godly p Job 1.21 blesse and praise God the wicked have little or no sense of the wrath of God or their sinne but of their punishment but the godly are much more grieved at the wrath of God and their sinne than their punishment the wicked have alwayes their eyes upon their wounds stripes and sores but the godly on the hand that smiteth them which when they see to be the hand of their heavenly Father they compose themselves to patience they humble themselves before him and confesse their sinne they open all their wounds and sores crying with that religious Father hic ure hic seca here burne here lance here pricke my veines here feed me with the bread of affliction here give me my full draught of the cup of teares that all teares may be wiped from my eyes hereafter chasten and judge me here that I be not condemned with the world This holy q Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 1. c. 8. Manet dissimilitudo passorum etiam in similitudine passionis et licet sub eodem tormento non est idem virtus atque vitium nam sicut sub codum igne aurum rutilat palea fumat sub eâdem tribulâ stipulae comminuuntur frumenta purgantur c. ita una eademque vis irruens bonos probat purificat eliquat malos damnat vastat exterminat Father elsewhere lively expresseth the difference betweene the godly in their sufferings and the wicked by the similitude of the same flayle that striketh the corne out of the eare but bruiseth the stubble the same fire that purgeth the gold but consumeth the drosse the same motion that causeth an ointment to send forth a most fragrant smell but a sinke to exhale a most noysome savour The godly are whole under the flayle of tribulation their faith like gold shineth in that fire in which the hypocrites smoake like chaffe their devotion sendeth forth a most sweet savour when they poure out their soules before God but the wickeds consciences being troubled like sinkes that are stirred exhale most pestilent aires breathing out blasphemies and execrations In a word the wicked and godly come out of great tribulation but the godly come out of it cleane the wicked foule the one with their garments soyled and rayed the other with their garments washed and made white They washed their garments and made them white Thus having descried all holy ones by their blew marke let us now view the white they have washed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pareus acutely notes that it is not here said that the Saints r Comment in Apoc. c. 7. doe wash but have or had washed their garments For indeed there is no washing in heaven because there can no impure thing enter there he that is uncleane at his death remaines uncleane still For as St. ſ Cypr. ad Demet. Postquam hinc excessum fuerit nullus est jam poenitentiae locus nullus est satisfactionis effectus hic vita aut amittitur aut tenetur Cyprian truely informeth Demetrian After we are gone from hence there is no place for repentance no effect of satisfaction here eternall life is got or lost Here one drop from our eyes can fetch out that spot which an ocean cannot doe hereafter Let us seeke God therefore while he may be found strive to enter in before the gate of mercy be locked up worke while we have day wash while we have water and soape doe good while we have time breake off our sinnes and wash our polluted consciences with our penitent teares and purge them with hyssop dipt in Christs bloud before we heare that dreadfull order read in our eares t Apoc. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still behold I come and my reward is with me to give every man according as his workes shall be The whitenesse here of the garments of them whom Saint John saw invested signifieth the candor and purity of their life without spot of foule sinne or staine of infamy This is a conspicuous note of Gods children u Phil. 2.15 16. who shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation holding forth the word of life It is not enough to have a cleere conscience within us we must see that our x Mat. 5.16 workes so shine before men that they may see them and
Court of justice in which the lesser flyes are strangled but the greater easily breake through them And bee the lawes of any Commonwealth or Kingdome never so exact yet Seneca his observation will bee true Angusta est justitia ad legem justum esse it is but narrow and scanty justice which extendeth no further than mans law A man may be ill enough and yet keepe out of the danger of the lawes of men which are many wayes imperfect and defective but the law of God is no way subject to this imputation it is perfect and as the Prophet David speaketh c Psal 119.96 exceeding broad it reacheth to all the actions words and imaginations of all the sonnes of Adam not a by syllable can passe not a thought stray not a desire swerve from the right way but it falleth within the danger and is lyable to the penalties annexed to it which are most certaine and most grievous 1 Externall in the world 2 Internall in the conscience 3 Eternall in hell The arguments that are hence drawne to deterre men from sinne and wickednesse are of a stronger metall and have another manner of edge than reason can set upon them d Heb. 4 12. For the word of God is quick and powerfull sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The Hyperbolicall commendation which the e Cic. de orat l. 1. Fremant licet omnes dicam quod sentio bibliothecas omnes Philosophorum unus mihi videtur duodecim tabularum libellus si quis legum fontes capita viderit autoritatis pondere utilitatis ubertate superare Orator giveth of the Romane lawes published in twelve Tables of right belongeth to this member of the Apostles exhortation it hath more weight of reason and forcible arguments of perswasion to holinesse of life and detestation of vice in it than all the discourses of morall Philosophers extant in the world Hence we learn that their losses who trade with Satan are inestimable and irrecoverable that wicked and ungodly courses and means to gain thrive by not onely deprive us of the comfortable fruition of all earthly but also of the possession of all heavenly blessings that even small offences when they come to light are sufficient to cover the sinner with shame and confusion that all the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of the soule shall be discovered in the face of the sun before men Angels that not only outward acts but inward motions and intentions not only loud crying sins but also still and quiet that lye asleep as it were in the lap of our conscience not only hainous crimes and transgressions of an high nature but also those seeming good actions that have any secret filthinesse or staine in them if it bee not washed away with the teares of our repentance and blood of our Redeemer shall bee brought into judgement against us and wee for them condemned to death both of body and soule in hell No tragicall vociferation nor the howling and shricking of damned ghosts can sufficiently expresse the horrour and torments of that endlesse death which is the end of sinne What sinne hath proved for the time past yee have heard wee are at this present to consider what it is for the present it hath beene unfruitfull what fruit had yee it is shamefull whereof ye are now ashamed Shame is defined by f L. 2. Rhet. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle Agriefe and trouble of minde arising from such evils as seeme to tend to our infamy and disgrace somewhat more fully it may bee described A checke of conscience condemning us for some intention speech or action whereby wee have defiled our conscience before God or stained our credits before men This affection is in all men even in those that are shamelesse and impudent who are not so called because they are without this irkesome passion but because they shew no signe thereof in their countenance nor effects in their lives As impossible it is that in the conscience of a sinner g Rom. 2.15 thoughts should not arise accusing him as that there should bee a fire kindled and no sparks flye up To pollute the conscience with foule sin and not to be ashamed is all one as to prick the tenderest part of the body and to feele no paine h Suet. in Tib. Tiberius who let loose the raines to all licentiousnesse yet when hee gave himselfe to his impure pleasures caused all the pictures to bee removed out of the roome and Alexander Phereus that cruell tyrant when hee beheld a bloody Tragedy in the Theater and therein the ugly and monstrous image of his barbarous cruelty drawne to the life was so confounded therewith that hee could no longer dissemble his terrour of minde nor expect the end of that dismall Scene Now how deepe an impression shame and infamy make in the soule wee may perceive by those who preferred death before it i Xen. l. 7. Cyr. Paed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Panthea solemnly wished that shee might bee buried alive rather than constrained to staine her blood and good name by keeping company with any how great soever hee were contrary to her vow to her dearest Abradatus And k Ovid. Epist Phillis Demophoonti Phillis having lost her honour voweth to make amends for it by her voluntary death Stat necis electu tenerum pensare pudorem Which Lucretia also practised flying out of the world to shun the shame thereof and spilling her blood which the tyrant had a little before stayned and Europa thought one death too light a revenge for wronged chastity Levis una mors est Virginum culpae If shame and infamy were not the sharpest corrasives to a guilty conscience the Prophet David would not so oft use these and the like imprecations against the enemies of God Let them be confounded and perish that are l Psal 71.11 83.17 against my soule and let them bee counfounded and vexed evermore let them bee put to shame and perish let mine adversaries bee clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their owne confusion as with a cloake Yea but if shame and confusion are the very gall and wormewood of Gods vengeance against the wicked most bitter to the taste of the soule what construction are wee to make of those words of the Prophet m Ezek. 36.32 O yee house of Israel bee ashamed and confounded for your owne wayes doth the Prophet here give them counsell to pull down Gods vengeance upon themselves Nothing lesse To cleare this point therefore wee must distinguish of shame which is taken 1 Sometimes for a vertuous habit and disposition of the minde consisting in a mediocrity betweene two extremes impudency in the defect reproved in the Jewes by the Prophet n Jer. 8.12
so this hardy sinner finding himselfe confounded at lesser sinnes throweth himselfe headlong into greater that he may be the sooner past all shame Yee To whom doth Saint Paul addresse his speech to those whose loathsome sores were upon them or to those who had washed them in the laver of regeneration and now were cleane and sound Surely to the latter as appeareth by the words ensuing But now yee have your fruit in holinesse Notwithstanding these though free from the guilt of sinne yet are not freed from the shame of it Whereof saith he yee are now ashamed For as in the finest cloth and stuffe after the spot is taken out there remaineth some staine and as in the flesh of a man hurt after the wound is cured there remaines some scarre so though the spot of our sinnes be washed out and the wounds of our conscience cured yet there remaines somewhat like a scarre or staine defacing the image of God in us which when the soule beholdeth she is ashamed of her selfe All other evills which sinne bringeth are in some sort curable the fire of Gods wrath kindled against us may be quenched by the teares of our repentance the anguish of conscience may be asswaged by the balme of Gilead the breach of charity may bee made up by satisfaction to the party whom we have wronged and unfained reconciliation only the shame of sin and the staine of our reputation and credit can never be got out Haec macula nec sanguine eluitur our winding sheet which covereth our bodies covereth not our shame neither is our infamy buried in our grave with us 1. Now ashamed Now after the commission of sinne or now after your conversion unto God It is with all of us as it was with our first Parent in Paradise we first taste the forbidden fruit of sinne Gen. 3.10 and then see our nakednesse and are ashamed We are now ashamed of those sinnes whereof we were not ashamed when wee committed them What Doth sinne then cleare the sight of the mind and enlighten it with knowledge because we see more in sinne after we have committed it Nay rather sinne darkneth the understanding and putteth out the eyes of the minde Surely Adam got no knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit but lost by it as all we his posterity find by our palpable ignorance in those things which most concerne us Why then was the tree of the fruit whereof he tasted called the tree of knowledge of good and evill Because thereby Adam came to experience and feeling of the good hee lost and the evill hee brought upon himselfe and his posterity as the horse may bee said to know the lash or spurre and a childe the rod when they feele the smart and paine of them If this be true that sinne rather infatuateth a sinner than any way instructeth him or increaseth his knowledge how commeth it then to passe that sinne present should not worke much more shame and confusion upon us than when it is past that wee should not discover the deformity and loathsomenesse of pleasures as they are comming to us but as they are going from us Whence is that Latine Proverbe Voluptates intuere abeuntes non venientes Why doe they come unto us naked and put off their masques when they take their leave of us Nay rather our eyes are shut when they come to us and they are open when they goe from us or to speake more plainly when they come towards us and our desires run to meet them we contemplate only that which is amiable and lovely in them we take no notice of the turpitude and deformity in them not but that wee might see it also if we would but that we are not willing to looke that way lest the sight of that which is filthy and nasty in them should marre our mirth and interrupt our pleasure The ignorance of an incontinent man is not like the blindnesse of Regulus which was forced but of Oedipus who pulled out his owne eyes Aristotle in this point saw day-light as it were at a chinke when propounding this question Utrum scientia sit in incontinente whether an incontinent man hath knowledge of what he doth resolveth it thus An a Arist Eth. lib. 7. c. 5. incontinent man hath a generall knowledge and a confused notion that incontinency is many waies hurtfull and prejudiciall to him but not a particular knowledge that the action or pleasure wherewith he is then taken is of that nature Why may not the particular be deduced out of the generall It may but he will not deduce it he is not at leisure to enter so farre into the point his heart is possessed with the present pleasure which his sense thirsteth after and all his thoughts and affections are set upon it so that for the present he cannot or will not withdraw his mind from the delightfull object before him to look behind him consider the danger he incurreth like beasts that are drawne by the sweet smell of the Panther but never take notice of his ougly head before he turne upon them and devoure them But after the intemperate person hath taken his fill of sinfull pleasure hee is at leisure to bethinke himselfe what he hath done Reason in the naturall man and the Spirit of God in the regenerate Christian bloweth the coale of knowledge within him which lay hid under the ashes and by the light thereof he seeth what manner of guests he hath entertained and how they have soyled slubbered his inward rooms made them most filthy and loathsome The b Plin. nat hist l. 10. c. 4. Aquilae cum Cervis praelia sunt multum pulve rem volutatu collectum insidens cornibus exâ— utit in oculos pennis ora verberans donec praecipitet in rupes c. Eagle before he setteth upon the Hart rolleth himselfe in the sand and then flyeth at the Stagges head and by fluttering his wings so dustieth his eyes that he can see nothing and then striketh him with his talons where he listeth Beloved yee have heard of the uncleane spirit in the Gospel which led the possessed man into c Mat. 12.43 dry places the sand and dust with which this Eagle filleth his wings are earthly desires and sensuall pleasures wherewith after he hath put out the eyes of the carnall man he dealeth with him as he listeth Mercury could not kill Argus till he had cast him into a sleep and with an inchanted rod closed his hundred eyes The Divell so tempereth the poysoned cup which hee offereth to the voluptuous person that hee feeleth nothing in the going downe of it but sweetnesse but after he hath swallowed downe his draught he feeleth a fire kindled within his bowels and unlesse he take suddenly a great quantity of heavenly balsamum it proveth the bane of his soule 2 Now yee are ashamed After your conversion renovation now God hath annointed your eyes with the d Apoc.
exilium vita supplicium non sentire in illo igne quod illuminat sentire quod cruciat inefficacis poenitentiae igne exuri consumentis conscientiae verme immortaliter rodi inundantis incendii terribiles crepitus pati barathri fumantis amarâ caligine oculos obscurari profundo gehennae fluctuantis mergi Prosper with dry eyes To bee banished for ever from our celestiall countrey to bee dead to all joy and happinesse and to live to eternall death for ever to bee cast out with the Divell thither where the second death serveth for a banishment to the damned and life for a torment there to feele in that unquenchable fire the torment of heat and not receive any comfort of light to bee cruciated with heart burning sorrow and uneffectuall repentance to bee gnawne with the immortall worme of conscience to frye perpetually in crackling flames to have their eyes put out with the smoake of the river of brimstone to be drowned floating in the bottome of hell The end c. Understanding by end the finall effect not the finall cause of sinne by those things all those things hee spake of before and by death that death which is opposed to eternall life each of these words Finis Horum Mors yeeldeth a most wholesome and fruitfull observation 1 That all sinfull courses and wayes have an end Finis 2 That all sins are mortall of which before Horum 3 That eternall death of body and soule in hell is the wages which the impenitent and obstinate sinner shall receive to the uttermost farthing Mors. That all sinfull pleasures and delights have an end no man can doubt for they cannot survive our life here our life often surviveth them and what is our life but h Pind. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fumi umbra the shadow of smoake or dreame of a shadow that is lesse than nothing Seneca out of his owne experience found honour to bee of the nature of glasse quae cum splendet frangitur which when it most glowes and glisteneth in the furnace suddenly cracketh and pleasure to bee like a sparke quae cum accenditur extinguitur which is quenched in the kindling And surely all comforts and contentments of worldly men are like bubbles of soap blowne by children out of a wallnut-shell into the ayre which flye a little while and by the reflection of the sun beams make a glorious shew but with a small puffe of winde are broken and dissolved to nothing But alas it is not so with the paine of sin as it is with the pleasure that is as lasting as the other is durelesse Leve momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum est quod cruciat The delight of sinne is for a moment but the torment remaineth for ever Who will be content to fast all the weeke for one good meales meat to lye in prison all the dayes of his life for one houres liberty and jollity These similitudes fall short and reach not home to the representing of the sinners folly who for swimming an houre in the bath of pleasure incurreth the danger of boyling for ever in a river of brimstone and torrent of fire Momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum est quod cruciat Those things whereof yee are ashamed have an end and how soone yee know not but the death which is the end of them hath no end and this wee know That wee may more fully understand what is meant by this end wee are to take notice of a double death The first commonly called death temporall The second which is death eternall h Aug. de Civ Dei l. 21. Prima mors animam nolentem pellit de corpore secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in corpore Idem de Civ Dei l. 13. Prima mors bonis bona est malis mala secunda ut nullorum bonorum est ita nulli bona The first death driveth the soule out of the body being unwilling to part with it the second death keepeth the soule against her will in the body the first death is the separation of the soule from the body the second death is the separation of body and soule from God and by how much God is more excellent than the soule by so much the second death is worse than the first The first death is good to good men because it endeth their sorrowes and beginneth their joyes but evill to evill men because it ends their joyes and beginneth their everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth the second at it belongeth to none that are good so it is good to none Both of these doubtlesse are due to sinne and shall bee paid at their day the sentence pronounced against Adam morte morieris by the reduplication of the word seemeth to imply as much as thou shalt dye againe and againe the first and second death the first death is as the earnest-penny the second as the whole hire both make up the wages of sinne the first is like the splitting of the ship and casting away all the goods and wares the latter as the burning both with unquenchable fire In this death which is the destruction of nature that Maxime of Philosophy holdeth not Omnis corruptio est in instanti for here is corruption in time nay which is more strange and to the reason of the naturall man involveth contradiction Corruptio aeterna mors immortalis an eternall corruption and an immortall death i Aug. loc sup Nemo hic propriè moriens seu in morte dicitur sed ante morté aut post mortem id est viventes aut mortui ibi è contrariò non erunt homines ante mortem aut post mortem sed sine fine morientes nunquam pejus erit homini in morte quam ubi erit mors ipsa sine morte In this life men cannot properly bee said to bee dying or in death but alive or dead for whilest the soule remaineth in the body wee are living and after the separation thereof wee are dead whereas they that are in hell cannot bee said properly to bee dead because they are most sensible of pain nor to be alive because they suffer the punishment of the second death but continually dying and never shall it be worse with man in death than where death it selfe is without death where life perpetually dyeth and death perpetually liveth Saint k Greg. l. 9. moral c. 45. Gregory sweetly quavereth upon this sad note Mors sine morte finis sine fine defectus fine defectu quia mors vivit finis incipit deficere nescit defectus The death of the damned is a deathlesse death an endlesse end and undefcizible defect for their death alwayes liveth and their end beginneth and their consumption lasteth And that this death is meant in my text either only or especially the correspondencie of this member to that which followeth but the gift of God is eternall life maketh it manifest Yet for further confirmation