on those actions which in themselves are lawful Nay multa mandata vitiat it may make that unlawful which is commanded Hebr. 10.31 Oh it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! but how fearful is it to have his hand fall upon us when we stand at his Altar to see him frown and hear him thunder when we worship in anger to question us when we are doing our duty What a dart would it be to pierce our souls through and through if God should now send a Prophet to us to tell us that our frequenting the Church and coming to his Table are distastful to him that our fasts are not such as he hath chosen and that he hateth them as much as he doth our Oppression and Cruelty to which they may be the prologue that he will have none of the one because he will have none of the other And yet if we terminate Religion in these outward formalities make them wait upon our lusts to bring them with more smoothness and with more state and pomp and applause to their end to that which they look so earnestly upon if we thus appear before God he that shall tell us as much of our Hearing and Fasting and Frequenting the Church shall be as true a Prophet as Micah the Morasthite was And now to conclude if you ask me wherewith ye shall come before the Lord and bow your selves before the most High look further into the Text and there you have a full and complete Directory Do justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God With these you may approch his courts and appear at his altar In aram Dei justitia imponitur saith Lactantius De vero cultu l. 6. c. 24. Justice and Mercy and Sincerity are the best and fittest sacrifices for the Altar of God which is the Heart of man an Altar that must not be polluted with blood Hoc qui exhibet toties sacrificat quoties bonum aliquid aut pium facit The man that is just and merciful doth sacrifice as oft as he doth any just and merciful act Come then and appear before God and offer up these Nor need you fear that ridiculous and ungodly imputation which presenteth you to the world under the name of mere moral men Bear it as your crown of rejoycing It is stigma Jesu Christi a mark of Christ Jesus And none will lay it upon you as a defect but they who are not patient of any loss but of their honesty who have learnt an art to joyn together in one the Saint and the Deceiver who can draw down heaven to them with a thought and yet supplant and overreach their brother as cunningly as the Devil doth them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius is a good man Tertull. Apolog. his only fault is that he is a Christian would the Heathen say He is a good moral man but he is not of the Elect that is one of our faction saith one Christian of another I much wonder how long a good moral man hath been such a monster What is the Decalogue but an abbridgment of Morality What is Christs Sermon on the mount but an improvement of that and shall Civil and honest conversation then be the mark of a Reprobate Shall Nature bring forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius Just and Honest men and shall Grace and the Gospel of Christ bring forth nothing but Zanies but Players and Actours of Religion but Pharisees and Hypocrites Or was the New creature the Christian raised up to thrust the Moral man out of the world Must all be Election and Regeneration Must all Religion be carried along in phrases and words and noise and must Justice and Mercy be exposed as monsters and flung out into the land of oblivion Or how can they be elect and regenerate who are not just and merciful No The Moral man that keepeth the commandments is not far from the kingdome of God Mark 12.34 and he that is a Christian and buildeth up his Morality and Justice and Mercy upon his Faith in Christ and keepeth a good conscience and doth to others what he would that others should do unto him Matth. 7.12 shall enter in and have a mansion there when speculative and Seraphick Hypocrites who decree for God and preordain there a place for themselves shall be shut out of doors Come then and appear before God with these with Innocence and Integrity and Mercifulness Wash your hands in innocency Psal 26.6 Rev. 1.6 and compass his altar For Christ hath made us Priests unto his Father there is our Ordination To offer up spiritual sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 there is our duty and performance By Jesus Christ there is our seal to make good and sure our acceptance Chrysostom besides that great Sacrifice of the Cross In Psal 59. hath found out many more Martyrdome Prayer Justice Almes Praise Compunction and Humility and he bringeth in too the Preaching of the Word Epist. 87. Which all make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a most magnificent and pretious sacrifice We need not cull out any more then these in the Text for in offering up these we shall find the true nature and reason of a Sacrifice observed For to make any thing a true Sacrifice there must be a plain and express change of the thing that is offered It was a Bull or a Ram but it is set apart and consecrate to God And it is a Sacrifice and must be slain And this is remarkable in all these in which though no Death befall us as in the Beast offered in Sacrifice but that Death which is our Life our Death to sin yet a change there is which being made to the honour of Gods Majesty is very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When we do justly we have slain the Beast the worst part of us our Love of the world our filthy Lusts our Covetousness and Ambition which are the life and soul of Fraud and Violence and Oppression by which they live and move and have their being When we offer up our Goods there is a change For how strong is our affection to them how do we adore them as Gods are they not in common esteem as our life and blood and do we not as willingly part with our breath as with our wealth Hebr. 13.16 Now who so doth good and distributeth and scattereth his wealth he poureth forth his very blood bindeth the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar letteth out all worldly desires with his wealth and hath slain that sacrifice saith S. Paul with which God is well pleased And last of all Humility wasteth and consumeth us to nothing maketh us an Holocaust a whole-burnt-offering nothing in our selves nothing in respect of God and by this our exinanition it exalteth all the Graces of God in us filleth us with life and glory with high apprehensions with lively anticipations of that which
it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands For though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the Keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death Were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place For it is impossible it should hold them You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness How can Purity mix with stench How can Beauty stay with Horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified Gal. 5.24 their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine to define what it is We call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised It was an end of all it is now the beginning of all It was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them We live or rather labour and fight and strive with the World and with Life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and press forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the Spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes his Dominion over Hell and Death We will but in a word fit the ECCE the Behold in the Text to every part of it and set the Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
the towers of a City these rend the Veil nay dig up the very foundation of the Temple The Spirit is named but from the Flesh is the persecution Matth 21.38 For what did the Husbandmen set upon the Lord of the vineyard but to gain the inheritance What set the whole city of Ephesus in an uproar but Demetrius his Rhetorick Acts 19.25 the brutish but strong perswasions of the flesh From this craft have we this gain Though the Truth and Religion be held up and shewed openly for a pretense yet envy and Malice Covetousness and Ambition envenom the heart and strengthen the hands of all the enemies of the Church these whet the sword these make the furnace of Persecution seven times hotter then it would be The flesh is the treasury from whence these winds blow that rage and beat down all before them Thus it is with every one that is born of the flesh he is ever in labour with mischief ever teeming and travelling with persecution and wanteth nothing but Occasion as a Midwife to bring it forth Now as we have beheld one person in this Tragedy and the chiefest actour so let us look upon the other the Patient born after the spirit And behold a Lamb for the Spirit who came down like a Dove begetteth no Tigers or Lions Behold a Man a Worm and no Man virum perpissitium Epist. 104. as Seneca calleth Socrates a man of sufferance deaf or if not yet dumb to all reproches and when injuries are loudest as silent as the Grave kissing the hand that striketh him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualized in matter as Nazianzene candidatum crucis as Tertullian saith one that is so fitted and prepared for the Cross that he looketh upon it as upon a preferment Poor Lamb he cannot bite and devour he cannot scatter the counsels of the crafty he cannot bind the hands of the mighty Ignorant and foolish Psal 73.22 as David speaketh as a beast in this world a man in nothing but in Christ Jesus being elemented and made up of Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness the principles of the Spirit Gal 5.22 having no security no policy no eloquence no strength but that which lieth in his innocency and truth which he carrieth about as a cure but it is lookt upon as a persecution by those who will not be healed Why hast thou set me up as a mark saith Job Why every one that is born of the spirit is set up as a mark S. Paul calleth it a spectacle 1 Cor. 4.0 He that is born of the spirit is no sooner thus born but he cometh forth a contentious man Jerem 15.10 that striveth with the whole earth The Spirit cannot breathe and work in him but it shaketh every corner of the earth every thing that is from the earth earthy It striveth to pull the Wanton from the harlots lips and to level the Ambitious with those who are of low degree it beateth the Covetous from his Mammon it wresteth the sword out of the hand of the Revenger it striketh out the teeth of the Oppressour Rom. 16.17 it marketh the Schismatick and avoideth him it anathematizeth the Heretick Numb 22 22. It is that Angel which standeth in our way when we are running greedily for a reward It is that Prophet that forewarneth us Jude 11. Dan. 5.5 that Hand on the wall that writeth against us that Cock that calleth us to repentance Matth. 26.74 that Trump that summoneth us to judgement Well said Martine Luther Nihil scandalosius veritate There is not a more offensive thing in the world then that spirit of Truth which begetteth and constituteth a Christian It much resembleth the Load stone qui trahit simul avertit is at once both attractive and averse at one part draweth the Iron at the other loatheth it The Truth knitteth all good men all that 〈◊〉 born of the spirit in a bond of peace but withdraweth it self and will not joyn with the evil with those who are born after the flesh and so maketh them enemies And therefore I may add to Luther Nihil periculosius veritate There is not a more dangerous thing in the world in respect of the world then the Truth For as the Truth as it was said of Noah Heb. 11.7 condemneth the world that is convinceth it of infidelity and so leaveth it open to the sentence of condemnation so doth the world also condemn the Truth 1. By reproching it Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula said the Heathen What ado here is with Christ and his Legend And so saith every Atheist in his heart every one that is born after the flesh 2. By selling it as the Wanton doth for a smile the Covetous for bread Isa 55.2 for that which is not bread the Ambitious for a breath a sound a thought the Superstitious for a picture an idole which is nothing 3. 1 Cor. 8.4 By violence against the friends and lovers of Truth that they may drive it out of the world by commanding and charging them to speak no more in that name Acts ◠17 5.28 by persecuting them as Ishmael did Isaac with ascoff For this is all we read Sarah saw Ishmael mocking And this scoff this derision Gen. 21.9 whatsoever it was S. Paul calleth persecution And this is the Devils Method to make a scoff the prologue to a Tragedy to usher in Persecution with a Jeer first put Christians in the skins of beasts and then bait them to death with dogs first disgrace them and then ad Leones Away with them to the Lions first call the orthodox Bishops traditores and then beat them down at the very Altar first make them vile and then nothing The Psalmist fully expresseth it Swords are in their lips Psal 59.7 For every word these scoffers speak eateth flesh It is a mock now it will be a blow it will be a wound It beginneth in a libell it endeth in Rise kill and eat The first letter the Alpha is a mock the last the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is desolation Thus the son of the free woman he that is born after the spirit is ever the patient and the son of the bond-woman he that is born after the flesh layeth on sure strokes Vnus venter sed non unus animus saith Augustine As the twins strove in the womb of Rebekah so these two the Good and the Evil strive in the World the one by silence the other by noise the one by being what he is the other by being angry that he is so the one by his life the other by his sword Art thou born of the Spirit Eccl. 2.1 a true member of Christ Then prepare thy self for temptation as the son of Sirach speaketh For when thou hast put on these graces that make thee one thou hast with them put on also a crown of thornes If thou be an Isaac thou shalt find an
throat But this is not that Confession which ushereth in Repentance or forwardeth and promoteth our Turn It is rather an ingredient to make up the cup of stupefaction which we take down with delight and then fall asleep and dream of safety and peace in the midst of a tempest yea even when we are on the brink of danger and ready to fall into the pit David it is true 2 Sam. 12.13 Aug. Hom 4.1 In his tribus syllabis flamma sacrificii coram Domino ascendit in coelum said no more but Peccavi and his sin was taken away Tantum valent tres syllabae saith S. Augustine Such force there was in three syllables And can there be virtue in syllables No man can imagin there can But David's heart saith he was now a sacrificing and on these three syllables the flame of that sacrifice was carried up before the Lord into the highest heavens If our Knowledge of our sins be clean and affective if our Grief be real then our Confession and Acknowledgment will be hearty Isa 16.11 Job 30.27 Lam. 1.20 our bowels will sound as a harp our inwards will boyl and not rest our heart will tremble and be turned within us our sighs and grones will send forth our words as sad messengers of that desolation which is within Our heart will cry out as well as our tongue My heart my heart is prepared saith David Psal 57.7 which is then the best and sweetest instrument when it is broken 4. And these three in the fourth place will raise up in us a Desire to shake off these fears Heb. 12 1. and this weight which doth so compass about and infold us For who is there that doth see his sins weep over them exsecrate them by his Tears and condemn them by his Confession that doth see Sin clâ—thed with death the Law a killing letter the Judge frowning Fletus humanaâ—um necessitatum verecunda exsecratio Sen. Contr. 8.6 Death ready with his dart to strike him through that would be such a beast as to come so near and hell opening her mouth to take him in and doth not long and grone and travel in pain and cry out to be delivered from this body of death Who would live under a conscience that is ever galling and gnawing him What prisoner that feeleth his fetters would not shake them off Certainly he that can stand out against all these terrours and amazements that can thwart and resist his Knowledge wipe off his Tears fling off his Sorrow baffle and confute his own Acknowledgement slight his own Conscience mock his Distaste trifle with the Wrath of God which he seeth near him and play at the very gates of Hell he that is in this great deep and will not cry out he that knoweth what he is and will be what he is knoweth he is miserable and desireth not a change such an one is near to the condition of the damned Spirits who howl for want of that light which they have lost and detest and blaspheme that most which they cannot have who because they can never be happy can never desire it But to this condition we cannot be brought till we are brought under the same punishment which nevertheless is represented to us in this life in the sad thoughts of our heart in the horrour of sin and in a troubled conscience that so we may avoid it The type we see now that we may never see the thing it self And the sight of this if we remove not our eye at the call and enticement of the next approching vanity which may please at first but in the end will place before us as foul an object as that we now look upon will work in us a desire to have that removed which is now as a thorn in our eyes a desire to have Gods hand taken off from us and those sins too taken away which made his hand so heavy a desire to be freed from the guilt and from the dominion of sin a desire that reacheth at liberty Tusc q. l. 5. and at heaven it self Eruditi vivere est cogitare saith Tully Meditation is the life of a Scholar If the mind leave off to move and work and be in agitation the man indeed may live but the Philosopher is dead And Vita Christiani sanctum desiderium saith Hierom The life of a Christian is nothing else but a holy desire drawn out and spent in prayers deprecations wishes obtestations pantings and longings held up and continued by the heat and vigour and endless unsatisfiedness of the desire which if it slack and fayl or end in an indifferency or lukewarmness leaveth nothing behind it but a lump and mass of corruption for with it the life is gone the Christian is departed 5. But in the last place this is not enough nor will it draw us near enough unto a Turn There is required as a true witness of our Convincement of our Sorrow of the heartiness of our Confession of the truth of our desire a serious Endeavour an eager contention with our selves an assiduous violence against those sins which hath brought us so low even to the dust of death and the house of the grave and Endeavour to order our steps to walk contrary to our selves to make a covenant with our eye to purge our ear to cut off our hand to keep our feet to forbear every act which carrieth with it but the appearance of evil to cut off every occasion which may prompt us to it an Endeavour to work in the vineyard to exercise our selves in the works of piety to love the fair opportunities of doing good and to lay hold on them to be ambitious and inquisitive after all those helps and advantages which may promote this endeavour and bring it with more ease and certainty to the end This is as the heaving and strugling of a man under a burden as the striving in a snare as the throws of a woman in travail who longeth to be delivered this is our knocking at the gates of heaven our flight from the wrath to come Thus do we strive and fight with all those defects which either Nature began or Custome hath confirmed in us Thus do we by degrees work that happy change that we are not the same but other men Val. Max. l. 8. c. 7. As the Historian speaketh of Demosthenes whose studiousness and industry overcame the malignity of nature and unloosed his tongue Alterum Demosthenem mater alterum industria enixa est The mother brought forth one Demosthenes and industry another so by this our serious and unfeigned endeavour eluctamur per obstantia we force our selves out of those obstacles and encumbrances which detained us so long in evil waies we make our way through the clouds and darkness of this world and are compassed about with raies of light Nature made us men evil Custome made us like the beasts that perish Grace and Repentance make us Christians and
to destroy which threatneth striketh and then is no more When this Lion roareth every man is afraid is transelemented unnaturalized unmanned is made wax to receive any impression from a mighty but mortal hand And shall not the God of heaven and earth who can dash all this Power to nothing deserve our Fear shall we be so familiar with him as to contemn him so love him as to hate him Shall a shadow a vapour aw us and shall we stand out against Omnipotency and Eternity it self Shall Sense brutish Sense prevail with us more then our Reason of Faith And shall we cross the method of God make it our wisdome to fear man and count it a sin to fear God who is only to be feared This were to be wiser then Wisedome it self which is the greatest folly in the world I have brought you therefore to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this School of Fear set up the Moriemini shewed you a Deaths-head to discipline and catechize you that you may not die but live and turn from your evil wayes and turn unto him who hath the keys of Hell and of Death who as he is a Saviour Rev. 1 1◠so is he also a Judge and hath made Fear one ingredient in his Physick not onely to purge us but to keep us in a healthful temper and constitution And to this if not the danger of our souls yet the noise of those who love us not may awake us Stapleton a learned man Promptuar Moral but a malitious fugitive layeth it as a charge against the Preachers of the Reformed Churches that they are copious and large in setting forth the Mercies of God but they pass over graviora Evangelii the harsher but most necessary passages of the Gospel suspenso pede lightly and as it were on their tiptoes and go softly as if they were afraid to awake their hearers That we are mere Solifidians and rely upon a reed a hollow and an empty Faith Bellarmine is loud that we do per contemplationem volare hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation and hope to go to heaven in a dream Pamelius in his Notes upon Tertullian is bold upon it That the Primitive Church did anathematize us in the Marcionists and Gnosticks and if they were Hereticks then we are so And what shall we now say Recrimination is rather an objection then an answer And it will be against all rules of Logick to conclude our selves good because they are worse or that we have no errours because they have so many and that none can erre but he that sayeth he cannot and for which we call him Antichrist This bandying of Censures and Curses hath been held up too long with some loss and injury to Religion on both sides Our best way certainly to confute them is by our practice so to live that all men say the Fear of God is in us of a truth to weave Love and Fear into one piece to serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce in trembling Psal 2.11 Hilar. in Ps 2. Vt sit timor exsultans exsultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Fear not to divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to fear the Lord the less for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyn them both together and place Christ in the midst And then there will be a Pax vobis peace unto us His oyntment shall drop upon our Love that it be not too bold and distill upon our Fear that it faint not and end in despair that our Love may not consume our Fear nor our Fear chill our Love but we may so love him that we do not despair so fear him that we do not presume That we may fear him as a Lord and love him as Jesus And then when he shall come in glory to judge both the quick and the dead we shall find him a Lord but not to affright us and a Jesus to save us 1 Joh. 4.17 Our Love shall be made perfect all doubting taken from our Faith Nay Faith it self shall be done away and the Fear of Death shall be swallowed up in victory and we who have made such use of Death in its representation shall never dye but live for evermore And this we have learnt from the MORIEMINI Why will ye die The One and Twentieth SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. why will ye die O house of Israel Prov. 7.27 WE have led you through the chambers of Death through the school of Discipline the school of Fear For why will ye die Look upon Death and fear it and you shall not die at all Thus far are we gone We come now to the house of Israel Why will ye die O house of Israel To name Israel is an argument Take them as Israel or take them as the house of Israel take the house for a building or take it for a family and it may seem strange and full of admiration that Israel which should prevail with God Gen. 32.28 Psal 122.3 should embrace death that the house of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom it is no strange sight to see men run on in their evil wayes Psal 120.5 In Meseck or the tents of Kedar there might be at least some colour for a reply but to Israel it is gravis expostulatio a heavy and full expostulation Let the Amorites and Hittites let the Edomites let Gods enemies perish but let not Israel the people of God die Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The QVARE MORIEMINI why will ye die we see is levelled to the mark is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration O Israel why will ye die I would not have you die I have made you gentem selectam a chosen people that you may not die I have set before you life and death Deut. 30.15 19 Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it And why will ye die My sword is drawn to affright not to kill you and I hold it up that I may not strike I have placed Death in the way that you may stop and retreat and not go on I have set my Angel Num. 22.23 my Prophet with a sword drawn in his hand that at least you may be as wise as the beast was under Balaam and sink and fall down under your burden I have imprinted the very image of Death in every sin And will ye yet go on Will ye love Sin that hath such a foul face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrelled with Death Quis furor ô cives What a madness is this O ye Israelites As Herode once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East Philostrat in vit Herodis
the faith yet we may examin our selves 1 Pet. 3.15 and be ready alwaies to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us If the Spirit be of God yet it may be tried whether it be of him or no. 1 John 4.1 Every thing of this nature may be brought to the trial 1 Thes 5.21 that we may hold fast that which is good But then if it be true yet it is not alwayes so certain as those speculative conclusions and known principles which none ever yet denied who had but so much reason as to prove him a man To be deaf therefore to all other information under pretense of infallibility to shut out a clearer light upon presumption that he is fully enlightned already ejus est qui mavult didicisse quà m discere is the property of him alone who loveth his credit more then the Truth and counteth it a disgrace or punishment to learn any thing In conclusions then of this nature the mind must ever be free and disengaged not so wedded to its own decrees as to be averse and strange when a fair overture is made of better For I may erre as well as judge aright For how hath Errour so multiplied and whence proceed the greatest part of the errours of our life but from this presumption That we cannot erre If men were either impartial to themselves or so humble as to hearken to the judgment of others the Prince of this world would not have so much in us nor should vve be in danger of so frovvard a generation If men vvere not so soon good they would not be so often evil Nor doth this vvillingness to hear reason blast or endanger that Truth vvhich Reason and Revelation hath implanted in us nay it rather vvatreth it and maketh it flourish For vvhen hath gold a brighter lustre then vvhen it is tried And this attentiveness and submission to what may be said either for or against it is a fair evidence that we fell not upon it by chance but have fastned it to our soul by frequent meditation and are rooted and established in it Neither doth it argue any fluctuation or wavering in the mind or unfixedness of judgement For he doth not waver who followeth a clearer light and better reason and cleaveth unto it Mutatio sententiae non est inconstantia saith the Oratour To disanul a former judgment upon better evidence is not inconstancie it is the stability rather and persevering act of Reason its certain and natural course to judge for that which is most reasonable And the mind doth no more waver in this then the Planets do erre or wander which are said to do so because they appear now in this now in that part of the heavens but yet they keep their constant and natural motion For this entertaineth Truth for it self and suffereth not Errour to enter but under that name and when Truth appeareth in glory in its rayes and beams in that light which doth best discover it chaseth Errour away as a monstre and boweth to the sceptre of Truth It is never so wedded to Errour though never so specious as not to be ready to give it a bill of divorce when Truth shall offer it self to its embraces But it may be said That the mind must needs waver and be lost in uncertainties because it strugleth as yet with doubts and knoweth not whether there may not be better reasons brought then those which she hath already signed and subscribed to I say this is not true Nay rather the mind doth therefore not waver or fluctuate because it doth not know it For till it do know that better reasons can be brought it is bound to that conclusion which for ought yet appeareth hath the best to confirm it Any evidence is the best till a better be brought And until a better be brought it is not Prejudice to lay claim to the best We are yet in via in our way we yet dwell in houses of clay and tabernacles of flesh we struggle with doubts and difficulties Errour and Misprision are our companions here In many things we erre all and in many things we erre in which one would think it were impossible to mistake and are never more deceived then where we think our selves infallible God alone hath this prerogative Not to erre To see all things exactly with a cast of his eye and ad nudum as the Schools speak naked as they are Our knowledge in comparison of his is but ignorance We have need of instruction upon instruction Isa 28.10 13. Psal 19.2 precept upon precept line upon line and that day unto day every day should teach us knowledge That knowledge and certainty we have is such as we are capable of and such as is available to that end for which we were made sufficient to entitle us to happiness but is not like that in God but rather an uncertain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or kind of doubting in comparison of his infallibility Our certainty is such as the wisdome and goodness of God hath fitted to our condition in this life and it is then in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when we give diligence to use those means that are afforded us that we may judge rightly of all things when we judge according to that light and evidence which sheweth it self and judge not otherwise till a clearer light appeareth Thus S. Paul was a Champion of the Law and after a Martyr of the Gospel Thus he persecuted Christians and thus he died a Christian Thus St. Peter would not converse with the Heathen Acts 10. as polluted and unclean and thus he after looked upon them as purified by God preached to them and baptized them This hath brought into the world all those Recognitions Retractations Recantations which are not onely as confessions but triumphs over a conquerred errour rejoycings and jubilees of men who had sat in darkness but have found the light He who is not fitted and prepared for better information and will not yield upon surer evidence but so magnifieth the impressions that were first made in his mind as to rest upon them as infallible maketh himself aut Deum aut bestiam as the Philosopher speaketh either a God or a beast and the more a beast by making himself as God undeceiveable and that cannot erre for so as a beast he lieth under every burden every errour though it be so gross and mountainous as to press him to death In a word he that doth not empty his mind of Prejudice that doth not expectorate and drive this evil far from him is not fit to be a purchaser of the Truth Dedocendi officium gravius prius quà m docendi Our first task and hardest is to unlearn something that we have been taught and after with more ease we shall learn better We must first pluck up the weeds that Truth may fall as in good ground
so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
vanity or the next business will drive it away and take its place Nor let us make a room for it in our Phansie For it is an easie matter to think we are free when we are in chains Who is so wicked that he is not ready to persuade himself he is just And that false persuasion too shall go for the dictate of the Holy Ghost Paganism it self cannot shew such monsters as many of them are who call themselves Saints But let us gird up our loins and be up and doing the work those works of piety which the Gospel injoyneth It is Obedience alone that tieth us to God and maketh us free denisons of that Jerusalem which is above In it the Beauty the Liberty the Royalty the Kingdom of a Christian is visible and manifest For by it we sacrifice not our Flesh but our Will unto God and so have one and the same will with him and if we have his will we have his power also and his wisdom to accompany it and to to fulfil all that we can desire or expect Servire Deo regnare est To serve God is to reign as Kings here and will bring us to reign with him for evermore Let us then stand fast in our obedience which is our liberty against all the wiles and invasions of the enemy all those temptations which will shew themselves in power and craft to remove us from our station In a calm to steer our course is not so difficult but when the tempest beateth hard upon us not to dash against the rock will commend our skill Every man is ready to build a tabernacle for Christ when he is in his glory but not to leave him at the Cross is the glory and crown of a Christian And first let us not dare a temptation as Pliny dared the vapour at Mount Vesuvius and died for it Let us not offer and betray our selves to the Enemy For he that affecteth and loveth danger is in the ready way to be swallowed up in that gulf Valiant men saith the Philosopher are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet and silent before the combat but in the trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready and active But audacious daring men are commonly loud and talkative before encounters but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flag and fail in them The first weigh the danger and resolve by degrees the other are peremptory and resolve suddenly and talk their resolution away It is one thing to talk of a tempest at sea another to discourse of it leaning against a wall It is one thing to dispute of pain another to feel it Grief and Anguish hath not such a sting in the Stoicks gallery as it hath on the rack For there Reason doth fight but with a shadow and a representation here with the substance it self And when things shew themselves naked as they are they stir up the affections When the Whip speaketh by its smart not by my phansie when the Fire is in my flesh not my understanding when temptations are visible and sensible then they enter the soul and the spirit then they easily shake that resolution which was so soon built and soon beat down that which was made up in haste Therefore let us not rashly thrust our selves upon them But in the second place let us arm and prepare our selves against them For Preparation is half the conquest It looketh upon them handleth and weigheth them before hand seeeth where their great strength lieth and goeth forth in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ and so maketh us more then conquerers before the sight And this is our Martyrdom in peace For the practice of a Christian in the calmest times must nothing differ in readiness and resolution from times of rage and fire As Josephus speaketh of the military exercises practised amongst the Romans that they differed from a true battel only in this that their battel was a bloudy exercise and their exercise a bloudless battel So our preparation should make us martyrs before we come to resist ad sanguinem to shed a drop of bloud To conclude as the Apostle exhorteth let us take unto us the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to stand against the horrour of a prison against the glittering of the sword against the terrour of death to stand as expert souldiers of Christ and not to forsake our place to stand as mount Sion which cannot be moved in a word to be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed The Seven and Fortieth SERMON PART VII JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed TO Persevere or continue in the Gospel and To be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in heaven and there is scarce a moment but a last breath between them nothing but a mouldering and decaying wall this tabernacle of flesh which falleth down suddenly and then we pass and enter And that we may persevere and continue means are here prescribed first assiduous Meditation in this Law we must not be forgetful hearers of it but look into it as into a glass vers 23 24. yet not as a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and then goeth away and forgetteth himself not as a man who looketh carelesly casteth an eye and thinketh no more of it but rather as a woman who looketh into her glass with intention of mind with a kind of curiosity and care stayeth and dwelleth upon it fitteth her attire and ornaments to her by a kind of method setteth every hair in its proper place and accurately dresseth and adorneth her self by it And sure there is more care and exactness due to the soul then to the body Secondly that we may continue and persevere we must not only hear and remember but do the work For Piety is confirmed by Practice To these we may now add a third which hath so near a relation to Practice that it is even included in it and carrried along with it And it is To be such students in Christ's School as S. Paul was Acts 24.16 To study and exercise our selves to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Not to triflle with our God or play the wanton with our Conscience Not to displease and wound her in one particular with a resolution to follow her in the rest Not to let our love of the world or fear of danger make that a truth which we formerly
of Saint to the Apostles and Martyrs yet take it to themselves 1022. They are no less Saints because canonized by the Pope and idolized by the Papists 1022. Let us bless God for them and follow them 1022 1023. How they are to be followed 525 526. We should not fright our selves with the difficulty and impossibility of imitating them 1023. In the best Saints there is some sin and errour 1025 c. Their examples may do much good and much hurt 525 526. Men are apt to imitate their vices and to mistake their virtues 1025. Their memory how carefully preserved of old 1019 Their Examples to be followed now 1020. but no further then themselves followed the Rule 1025 c. v. Examples Whether a Saint can fall finally from grace 1112 c. Salvation where to be found 34. v. Save Samson Of his killing himself 526. 1 Sam. ii 25. 289. Satisfaction none from the Creature 537. 786. onely in God 787. 1124. Satisfaction for sin we cannot make unto God 325. Of Popish Satisfaction 340. Save God can but will not save us without our selves 434 435. 628 629. 722. Saul v. David His sparing some Amalekites applied 602. Scandal not to be given to weak brethren 639. 1102. Schismes and Sects whence 641. 676. Schismes proceed from want of Charity and Prudence 59. from Envy Covetousness and Ambition 842 843. Schism is the first step to Apostasie and Atheism 581 582. a sin not to be expiated by Martyrdome 853. A religious man can hardly be a Schismatick 853. Scholars Great Scholars sometimes come short of plain Christians in faith 734 735. Scipio Tettus an Atheist 705. Scoff Of all expressions of distast a Scoff is the worst 955. It oft ushereth in Persecution 187. Scripture a complete and perfect rule 58. 524 525. v. Gospel It is to be read diligently 96. Who is the best reader of it 412. It s business and end is to draw our minds from earth to heaven 646. It is plain and easy in matters of practice 933. and necessary points 1084 1085. v. Necessary Obscurer places like to the Sun in winter the plainer to the Sun in summer 600. One part must be expounded by another 831. Corrupt passions make men interpret S. to serve their purposes 97 98 It is wont to be wrested by wicked men to countenance their sins 222. 287. 349. 951. Scripture the onely shop of comfort 948. c. Comforts drawn hence are general and solid 949. We must be very careful how we gather apply comforts from thence 950. for many are forward to misapply them 951. Scripture-comforts are milk and honey to the humble soul but deadly poison to the impenitent 951. Season Outward things have their proper Season but the Practice of godliness is at all times seasonable 1002. Secure persons awakened 434 435. 502. Sedition and Schism whence 641. Seducers craft 506 507. Seeking of God what 789. v. GOD. Oh that we would seek God as he seeketh us 881. Seek Righteousness v. Righteousness Self v. Wrong Self-conceit most dangerous 160 161. 633. 1028. Self-deceit causeth a world of wickedness 912 913. disgraceth our Profession 913. c. aggravateth our sin 916. deserveth no pity 916. The Self-deceiver chideth down his own Reason 916. Rules to avoid Self-deceit 933. Self-denial how necessarie 789. 867. Self-love what 1047. Self-love is lawful but abuse maketh it a great sin 1047. how pernicious 207. 481 c. 557. 856. 1046 c. Its remedie 482. Self-opinion of how ill consequence 556 557. Sell. v. Trades-men The Romans when they sold any thing were to discover its faults to the buyer 128. 659. To sell the Truth what 693. Semiramis her tomb 559. Sending doth not alwayes imply subjection 56 57. Senses the windows of the Soul at which Sin and Death enter in 261 c. to be carefully watched 264. Their wonderful frame 246. 727. Tentations may enter the S. without sin 264. 270. The S. though they beget not Faith may help to confirm us in it 727. That of Seeing is the principall 727. Tertullian blameth the Academicks for questioning the S. 727 728. Sermons Hearing of S. nothing worth without practice 221. 277. S. used in London on sundry occasions 422. Serve God serveth us more then we serve him 50. To serve our brethren is no disparagement but an honour to us 57. God would be served with that which we value most 850. God is to be served with both soul and body 160-163 632 635. Private Service of God is good but publick is better 2. In our Service of God we must not rest in the work done 451 452. We must prepare our selves beforehand 478. Servant of Christ a most eminent title to be made good by us 509 The duty of Christ's Servant 510. He must follow his Master 510. If we serve not Christ oh how many tyrants will rule over us 511. One Servant cannot have many Masters 509. Servants are not to interpret but to execute the will of their Lord 511. Seven a mysterious number to some 249. Shame is an effect of Sin 1038. and should be a means to prevent it 1039. but by the policie of Satan it is made a cloke to cover it 1039. What use we should make of Shame 1038 1039. The Devil casteth-off all shame of sin 1038. Shewing Christ's death what 473. Sickness Our advantage by it 565. 592. S. is a far worse time to serve God in then health 593. How much more easily we perceive our Sickness then our sins 480. Signes of Christ's second coming should awaken us to repentance 1045. Though never so many appear Atheists and Epicures regard them not 1046. Self-love maketh men unfit and unprofitable spectators of them 1047 1048. as also doth want of faith 1048 c. Signes wrought but in few a belief of Christ's first coming and they now work but in few a fear of his second 1046 c. Sin and Sinners Sin is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature 328. It is a deformity in Nature and a breach of Order 930. Sin hath for its original neither God nor the Devil nor our own Nature but our own Will 424 c. How S. is conceived brought forth 260 c. 270. 280. Our Senses Thoughts Phansie Appetite may be set on objects that occasion Sin and yet without Sin 264 c. Sin is not alwayes the effect of Infidelity but sometimes of Incogitancy 771. It was necessarie Man should be subject to S. but not that he should sin 603 604. The doctrine of the Not-possibility of avoiding Sin if it be true not fit to be published 605. Whether there be a possibility of not sinning 602 c. ¶ Sin of all things is good for nothing 443. It doth all the mischief in the world 444. Every Sin is unnatural unreasonable maketh a Man worse then the Beasts 378 Sin is a spot and defilement 280. How it polluteth 167. 1019. v. Creature It s poison is like to
that of the Asp 1037. Death is the wages of Sin 445. It is the nature of S. to dig a pit for it self 931. It resembleth Hell and naturally tendeth to it 932. Sinners wilfully run into hell 932. We should not sin though we might gain heaven by it 378. Though thou have but one sin turn from it for it is of a monstrous aspect 378. Though but one it is fruitful and may beget another 379. Though but one it deserveth and may pull down temporal punishment 379. Though but one if not forsaken God will punish thee eternally in hell for it 380. 610. And thy punishment shall be the greater there by reason of the sins of others whom thy example shall have made to sin 380. Sinners oft escape mens laws 233. but Christ's they shall not 233 The sinner is most fo to himself 119. Sinful lusts drown and darken the mind 97. quite transform a man 125. Little difference betwixt a Devil and an obstinate Sinner 722. Better to suffer then sin 126 131. There is a proportion between Sin and Punishment 929. 931. Punishment of Sin manifesteth the Justice of the Providence of God 930. and conduceth to the good of the Universe 930. ¶ How Sin gaineth strength by delay and groweth upon us 357. 414. 793. 922. 983. If we give way to one Sin we are likely to give way to more 1120 1121. Sins of Omission lead to sins of Commission 456 What an empire Sin hath and exerciseth 358. 741. 767. Sin the worst Tyrant 741. 1098. How old men act over their sins in their age 357. How bold men make nothing of Sin 923. ¶ Divers names that Sin hath in Scripture 805. None expresseth it so lively as Debts 805. A fourfold analogy between Sins and Debts 805 c. An account of the wofull gain we make by Sin 807 808. The penalty of Sin 808. The fearful gashes and torments that Sin maketh in the heart of a sinner 809. 1097. What miserable remedies Sinners use to appease their unquiet consciences 946. v. Conscience It is far easier to avoid Sin then to get rid of it 809 810. One difference between Sins and Debts 810. What we do when we pray Forgive us our trespasses 811. v. Remission God when he forgiveth doth not make that to be no sin which was a sin 871. All the virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin 375 376. 378. 812. 813. Mortall Sins will not be blotted-out by Martyrdome 707. What S. Christ will bear with what not 319. God's pardoning of former Sins maketh those we commit afterwards more grievous 380. 612 613. Sins after reconcilement revive those that Repentance had covered 381. 613 614. ¶ Original Sin alledged to excuse actual more then is fitting 427 428. 446. Our being bidden daily to beg pardon implieth not a Necessity of sinning 110 111. 604. v. Vice Some call their obstinate perseverance in sin Infirmity and Weakness 456 457. Men are wont to cloke their Sins with honest names 499. For none so much a Sinner as to be willing to be accounted so 500. Some say that the foulest Sins advantage rather then endanger the Elect 755. Many applaud themselves that they abstein from some Sins they observe in others 601. God's Permission of Sin how understood by some 407 c. How God permitteth Sin since he hateth it 410 584 c. Other apologies that men use to shift-off their Sin 432 c. as I. Want of help and assistance against it 433. 447. II. Ignorance 436. c. 447. v. Ignorance III. Checks of Conscience Remorse and Unwillingness 439. 447. The different way of Sinning of the Righteous and the Wicked 439. The Godly when they have sinned cannot plead that they have sinned against their will 440. Sin against Conscience is exceedingly the more sinful 441. IV. A Good meaning cannot palliate Sin 443. 447 448. How men are wont to excuse their Sins 171. 499. 1034 c. That which can be excused is not a Sin 1029. Excuse aggravateth Sin 1029. 1040. To seek to hide our Sin is far worse then to commit it 933. Sinners either despair or deny or lessen or confess or excuse their Sins whereof Confession is good the rest naught Excusing worst 1035 1036. To excuse Sin is natural 1036. more natural then to commit it 1038. ¶ Every man is not equally inclined to every Sin 376 377. 601. 1038. Every man hath his beloved Sin 378. What sins be inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace 603. How far a Saint may abstein from Sin 603. A little Sin may become a great one 603. How it cometh to pass that lesser Sins have more power over us then greater 607 608. Many content themselves with avoyding great and gross Sins 607 610. We must watch and fight against the least Sin 610. It is easier not to tast Sin at first then to forbear it afterwards 614 Men will revile Sin and pray against it and yet not leave it 787. Many are forward censurers of the Sins of others and take no notice of their own 377. We must not so shun one Sin as to dash upon another 374. Sick and aged persons do not so much forsake Sin as it forsaketh them 592 593. All Sins must be forsaken 600. Sin is most sinful in a Christian 417 418. ¶ Tentations to Sin how to be overcome 270. Sin appeareth ugly even by the light of Nature 325. 330. Sin must be known before it can be left 329. We do know many Sins and might know more 330. Many Sins are secret and not taken notice of 331. but these we must fear and hate and beg pardon of 331. Secrecy is the nurse of Sin 167. Men study to conceal it 167. We must search and find out our Sins of what sort soever 483 484. It is an easy thing to see Sin but hard to leave it 484 485. Affliction bringeth Sin to remembrance 567 568. All punishments suppose Sin 586. Fear bringeth us to the sight of our Sins 387 388. Fear curbeth us from sinning 390. Prosperity maketh Sin not appear 610. Sin cannot be sufficiently curbed prevented by humane Laws 168. nor by checks of Conscience 169. Many condemn Sin in others and practice it themselves 169. Hard-hearted sinners nothing will work upon 253. Causes of mens growing resolute in sinning 90. ¶ The way to get rid of our Sins is penitently to confess them 1040 1041. David thought to have gone rather too far in confessing his sins 1040. Saul's Sin and David's compared 1030. Whether one in the state of some mortal Sin can perform a good action 375. 601. Many men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin and repent and sin again 383. Relapses make us more inclinable to Sin and backward to Piety 614. To sin without shame is to be like the Devil 1038. v. Shame Every wilfull Sin a step to Apostasie 1121. To have sin what in St. John 602. Sinners themselves cannot but think well of Virtue 89 90. v. Piety