him it is no small Comfort to us if either he take us away before his Judgments come or keep his Judgments away till we be gone When God had told Abraham in Gen. 15. that his Seed should be a Stranger in a Land that was not theirs meaning Egypt where they should be kept under and afflicted 400 years lest the good Patriarch should have been swallowed up with grief at it he comforteth him as with a Promise of a glorious deliverance at the last so with a Promise also of Prosperity to his own person and for his own time But thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace and shalt be buried in a good old age vers 15. In Esay 39. when Hezekiah heard from the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah that all the treasures in the Lord's house should be carried into Babylon and that his Sons whom he should beget should be taken away and made Eunuchs in the Palace of the King of Babylon he submitted himself as it became him to do to the sentence of God and comforted himself with this that yet there should be Peace and Truth in his days vers 8. In 4 Kings 22. when Huldah had prophesied of the evil that God would bring upon the City of Ierusalem and the whole Land of Iudah in the Name of the Lord she pronounceth this as a Courtesie from the Lord unto good King Iosiah Because they Heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Grave in Peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place verse last Indeed every man should have and every good man hath an honest care of Posterity would rejoice to see things setled well for them would grieve to see things likely to go ill with them That common speech which was so frequent with Tiberius was monstrous and not savouring of common humanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I am gone let Heaven and Earth be jumbled again into their old Chaos but he that mended it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea saith he whilst I live seemeth to have renounced all that was man in him Aristotle hath taught us better what reason taught him that res posterorum pertinent ad defunctos the good or evil of those that come after us doth more than nothing concern us when we are dead and gone This is true but yet proximus egomet mi though it were the speech of a Shark in the Comedy will bear a good Construction Every man is nearest to himself and that Charity which looketh abroad and seeketh not only her own yet beginneth at home and seeketh first her own Whence it is that a godly man as he hath just cause to grieve for Posterities sake if they must feel God's Judgments so he hath good cause to rejoice for his own sake if he shall escape them and he is no less to take knowledge of God's Mercy in sparing him than of his Iustice in striking them This Point is useful many ways I will touch but some of them and that very briefly First here is one Comfort among many other against the bitterness of temporal Death If God cut thee off in the midst of thy days and best of thy strength if Death turn thee pale before Age have turned thee gray if the flower be plucked off before it begin to wither grudge not at thy Lot therein but meet God's Messenger chearfully and imbrace him thankfully it may be God hath some great work in hand from which he meaneth to save thee It may be he sendeth death to thee as he sent his Angel to Lot to pluck thee out of the midst of a froward and crooked generation and so to snatch thee away left a worse thing than death should happen unto thee Cast not therefore a lodning eye back upon Sodom neither desire to linger in the plain it is but a valley of tears and misery but upto the mountain from whence cometh thy salvation lest some evil overtake thee Possibly that which thou thinkest an untimely death may be to thee a double advantage a great advantage in ushering thee so early into God's glorious presence and some advantage too in plucking thee so seasonably from God's imminent Iudgments It is a favour to be taken away betimes when evil is determined upon those that are left Secondly here is a Warning for us to take Consideration of the loss of good or useful Men and to fear when they are going from us that some evil is coming towards us The Prophet complaineth of the too great and general neglect hereof in histime The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Esa. 57. When God sendeth his Angel to pluck out his righteous Lots what may Sodom expect but fire and brimstone to be rained down upon them When he plucketh up the fairest and choicest flowers in his garden and croppeth off the tops of the goodliest Poppies who can think other than that he meaneth to lay his Garden waste and to turn it into a wild Wilderness when he undermineth the main Pillars of the House taketh away the very Props and Butteresses of Church and Common-weal sweepeth away religious Princes wise Senators zealous Magistrates painful Ministers men of eminent Ranks Gifts or Example Who can be secure that either Church or Common-weal shall stand up long and not totter at least if not fall God in Mercy taketh such away from the evil to come we in wisdom should look for evil to come when God taketh such away Thirdly here is Instruction for Worldlings to make much of those few godly ones that live among them for they are the very Pawns of their Peace and the Pledges of their security Think not ye filthy Sodomites it is for your own sakes that ye have been spared so long know to whom you are beholden This Fellow that came in to sojourn among you this Stranger this Lot whom you so hate and malign and disquiet he it is that hath bailed you hitherto and given you Protection Despise not God's Patience and Long suffering ye prophane ones neither bless your selves in your ungodly ways neither say We prosper though we walk in the Lusts of our Hearts This and thus we have done and nothing have been done to us God holdeth his hand and holdeth his Tongue at us surely he is such a one as our selves Learn O ye Despisers that if God thus forbear you it is not at all for your own sakes or because he careth not to punish evil doers no he hath a little remnant a little flock a little handful of his own among you a few names that have given themselves unto him and call upon him
Miracles in compiling of Legends in gelding of good Authors by expurgatory indexes in jugling with Magistrates by lewd equivocations c. Practices warrantable by no pretence Yet in their account but piae fraudes for so they term them no less ridiculously than falsly for the one word contradicteth the other But what do I speak of these but petty things in comparison of those her lowder Impieties breaking covenants of truce and peace dissolving of lawful and dispensing for unlawful marriages assoyling Subjects from their Oaths and Allegiance plotting Treasons and practising Rebellions excommunicating and dethroning Kings arbitrary disposing of Kingdoms stabbing and murthering of Princes warranting unjust invasions and blowing up Parliament houses For all which and divers other foul attempts their Catholick defence is the advancement forsooth of the Catholick Cause Like his in the Poet Quocunque modorem is their Resolution by right or wrong the State of the Papacy must be upheld That is their unum necessarium and if heaven favour not rather than fail help must be had from hell to keep Antichrist in his throne But to let them pass and touch nearer home There are God knoweth many Ignorants abroad in the world some of them so unreasonable as to think they have non plus'd any reprover if being admonished of something ill done they have but returned this poor reply Is it not better to do so than to do worse but also what necessity of doing either so or worse when Gods law bindeth thee from both He that said â— Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill and he that said Do not steal said also Do not lye If then thou lye or kill or do any other sin though thou thinkest thereby to avoid stealth or adultery orsome other sin yet thou art become a transgressor of the Law and by offending in one point of it guilty of all It is but a poor choice when a man is desperately resolved to cast himself away whether he should rather hang or drown or stab or pine himself to death there may be more horrour more pain more lingring in one than another but they all come to one period and determine in the same point death is the issue of them all And it can be but a slender comfort for a man that will needs thrust himself into the mouth of hell by sinning wilfully that he is damned rather for lying than for stealing or whoring or killing or some greater crime Damnation is the wages of them all Murther can but hang a man and without favour Petty Larceny will hang a man too The greatest sins can but damn a man and without Gods mercy the smallest will damn a man too But what will some reply In case two sins be propounded may I not do the lesser to avoid the greater otherwise must I not of necessity do the greater The answer is short and easie If two sins be propounded do neither E malis minimum holdeth as you heard and yet not always neither in evils of pain But that is no Rule for evils of sin Here the safer Rule is E malis nullum And the reason is sound from the Principle we have in hand If we may not do any evil to procure a positive good certainly much less may we do one evil to avoid or prevent another But what if both cannot be avoided but that one must needs be done In such a strait may I not choose the lesser To thee I say again as before Choose neither To the Case I answer It is no Case because as it is put it is a case impossible For Nemo angustiatur ad peccandum the Case cannot be supposed wherein a man should be straitned as he could not come off fairly without sinning A man by rashness or fear or frailty may foully entangle himself and through the powerful engagements of sin drive himself into very narrow straits or be so driven by the fault or injury of others yet there cannot be any such straits as should enforce a necessity of sinning but that still there is one path or other out of them without sin The perplexity that seemeth to be in the things is rather in the men who puzzle and lose themselves in the Labyrinths of sin because they care not to heed the clue that would lead them out if it were followed Say a wicked man through heat of blood make a wicked vow to kill his brother here he hath by his own rashness brought himself into a seeming strait that either he must commit a murther or break a vow either of which seemeth to be a great sin the one aga inst the fifth the other against the third Commandment But here is in very deed no strait or perplexity at all Here is a fair open course for him without sin He may break his vow and there 's an end Neither is this the choice of the lesser sin but only the loosening of the lesser bond the bond of charity being greater than the bond of a promise and there being good reason that in terms of inconsistency when both cannot stand the lesser bond should yield to the greater But is it not a sin for a man to break a vow Yes where it may be helpt salvis charitate justitia there the breach is a sin but in the case proposed it is no sin As Christ saiâ—h in the point of swearing so it may be said in the point of breach of vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never was any breach of vow but it was peccatum or ex peocato the breaking is either it self forâ—ally a sin or it argueth at least a former sin in the making So as the sin in the case alledged was before in making such an unlawful vow and for that sin the party must repent but the breaking of it now it is made is no new sin Rather it is a necessary duty and a branch of that repentance which is due for the former rashness in making it because an hurtful vow is and that virtute praecepti rather to be broken than kept The Aegyptian Midwives not by their own fault but by Pharaoh's tyrannous command are driven into a narrow strait enforcing a seeming necessity of sin for either they must destroy the Hebrew Children and so sin by Murther or else they must devise some handsome shift to carry it clean from the King's knowledge and so sin by lying And so they did they chose rather to lye than to kill as indeed in the compatison it is by much the lesser sin But the very truth is they should have done neither they should flatly have refused the King's Commandment though with hazard of their lives and have resolved rather to suffer any evil than to do any And so Lot should have done he should rather have adventured his own life and theirs too in protecting the chastity of his Daughters and the safety of his Guests than
not to morrow have been as yesterday with them and lessened the peoples number twenty three thousand more especially their former crying sins having received a new accession of a double guilt the guilt of Zimri's fact and the guilt of their connivance No rack should make me confess that man to be truly zealous of judgment who when he hath power to cut him short shall but so much as reprieve a foul and notorious Malefactor or grant him any respite or liberty to make his friends and to sue a pardon Solomon hath told us and we find it but too true Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Third Phinees was nothing retarded in his resolution by fore-casting what ill will he might purchase or into what dangers he might cast himself by executing judgment upon two such great Personages The times were such as wherein sin had gotten head and was countenanced both with might and multitude Zimri was a mighty man a Prince of a chief house and he that should dare to touch him should be like to pull upon himself the enmity of the whole Tribe of Simeon It seemeth he was confident that his might and popularity in his own Tribe would privilege him from the enquiry of the Magistrate how durst he else have so braved Moses and the whole Congregation And the woman also was the daughter of one of the Five Kings of Midian And could Phinees think that the death of two such great persons could go unrevenged All this either Phinees either fore-casteth not or regardeth not His eye was so fixed upon the glory of God that it did not so much as reflect upon his own safety and his thoughts strongly possessed with zeal of the common good had not any leisure to think of private dangers Zeal is ever couragious and therefore Iethro thought none worthy to be Magistrates but such as were Men of courage And he hath neither Courage nor Zeal in him besitting a Magistrate that is afraid to do justice upon a great offender The sluggard saith there is a Lyon in the way and then he steppeth backward and keepeth aloof off But the worthy Magistrate would meet with such a Lyon to choose that he might win awe to Gods ordinances and make the way passable for others by tearing such a beast in pieces and would no more fear to make a Worshipful thief or a Right Worshipful murderer if such a one should come in his Circuit an example of Justice than to twitch up a poor sheep-stealer Great ones will soon presume of impunity and mean ones too by their example in time learn to kick at authority if Magistrates be not forward to maintain the dignity of their places by executing good Laws without favour or fear Hitherto of the spirit and zeal of Phinees by occasion of this his former Action or gesture of standing up There yet remain to be considered the other Action and the success of it He executed judgment and the plague was stayed Both which because I would not be long I will joyn together in the handling when I shall have first a little cleared the translation The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is a word that hath three different significations to Iudge to Pray to Appease And Interpreters have taken liberty to make choice of any of the three in translating this place The Greek rendreth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the vulgar Latine which for the most part followeth the Septuagint Placavit as if we should read it thus Then stood up Phinees and made an atonement or appeased God And the thing is true God himself testifying of Phinees Num. 25. that By being zealous for God he had turned away his wrath and Made atonement for the Children of Israel The Chaldee interpreteth it by Vetsalle and the ordinary English translation of the Psalms usually read in our Churches accordingly Then stood up Phinees and prayed But Hierom and Vatablus and the best translators render it according to the most proper signification of the word and most fully to the story it self Dijudicavit he executed judgment Verily prayer is a special means to appease Gods wrath and to remove his Plagues and prayer is as the salt of the Sacrifice sanctifying and seasoning every action we undertake and I doubt not but Phinees when he lift up his hand to execute judgment upon Zimri and Cosbi did withal lift up his heart to God to bless that action and to turn it to good In which respects especially if the word withal will bear it as it seemeth it will some men should have done well not to have shewn so much willingness to quarrel at the Church translations in our Service-Book by being clamorous against this very place as a gross corruption and sufficient to justifie their refusal of subscription to the book But I will not now trouble either you or my self with farther curiosity in examining Translations because howsoever other Translations that render it praying or appeasing may be allowed either as tolerably good or at least excusably ill yet this that rendreth it by Executing Iudgment is certainly the best whether we consider the course of the Story it self or the propriety of the word in the Original or the intent of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture And this Action of Phinees in doing judgment upon such a pair of great and bold offenders was so well pleasing unto God that his wrath was turned away from Israel and the plague which had broken in upon them in a sudden and fearful manner was immediately stayed thereupon Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God above the blood of Bulls and of Goaâ—â—â— the death of a Malefactor slaughtered by the hand of Iustice When the Magistrate who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister and Priest of God for thiâ— very thingeâ— putteth his knife to the throat of the beast and with the â—ire of â—â—â— holy zeal for GOD and against sin offereth him up in Holocaâ—stum for a Whole burnt Offering and for a peace-Offering unto the Lord. Samuel saith that to obey is better than Sacrifice and Solomon that to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice Obedience that is the prime and the best sacrifice and the second best is the punishment of Disobedience There is no readier way to appease Gods wrath against sin than is the rooting out of sinners nor can his deputies by any other course turn away his just judgments so effectually as by faithful executing of Iustice and Iudgment themselves When Phinees did this act the publick body of Israel was in a weak state and stood in need of a present and sharp remedy In some former distempers of the State it may be they had found some ease by diet in humbling their
generation be visited with any such spiritual judgment as is the removal of their Candlestick and the want of the Gospel for the sins and impieties of their Ancestors in some former generations yet this ought no more to be accounted the punishment of one for another than it ought to be accounted the punishing of one for another to punish a man in his Old Age for the sins of his Youth For as the body of a man though the primitive moisture be continually spending and wasting therein and that decay be still repaired by a daily supply of new and alimental moisture is yet truly the same body and as a River fed with a living Spring though the water that is in the channel be continually running out and other water freshly succeeding in the place and room thereof is truly the same River so a Nation or People though one generation is ever passing away and another coming on is yet truly the same Nation or People after an hundred or a thousand years which it was before Again secondly The want of the Gospel is not properly a spiritual but rather a temporal punishment We call it indeed sometimes a spiritual Iudgment as we do the free use of it a spiritual blessing because the Gospel was written for and revealed unto the Church by the Spirit of God and also because it is the Holy Ordinance of God and the proper instrument whereby ordinarily the spiritual life of Faith and of Grace is conveyed into our souls But yet properly and primarily those only are Spiritual Blessings which are immediately wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God and by the same Spirit cherished and preserved in the heart of the receiver for his good and are proper and peculiar to those that are born again of the Spirit and all those on the contrary which may be subject to decay or are common to the reprobate with the Elect or may turn to the hurt of the receiver are to be esteemed temporal blessings and not spiritual And such a blessing is the outward partaking of the Word and Ordinances of God the want thereof therefore consequently is to be esteemed a temporal judgment rather than spiritual So that notwithstanding this instance still the former consideration holdeth good that God sometimes visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children with outward and temporal but never with spiritual and eternal punishments Now if there could no more be said to this doubt but only this it were sufficient to clear God's Justice since we have been already instructed that these temporal judgments are not always properly and formally the punishments of sin For as outward blessings are indeed no true blessings properly because wicked men have their portion in them as well as the godly and they may turn and often do to the greater hurt of the soul and so become rather Punishments than Blessings so to the contrary outward punishments are no true punishments properly because the Godly have their share in them as deep as the Wicked and they may turn and often do to the greater good of the soul and so become rather Blessings than Punishments If it be yet said But why then doth God threaten them as Punishments if they be not so I answer First because they seem to be punishments and are by most men so accounted for their grievousness though they be not properly such in themselves Secondly for the common event because ut plurimum and for the most part they prove punishments to the sufferer in case he be not bettered as well as grieved by them Thirdly because they are indeed a kind of punishment though not then deserved but formerly Fourthly and most to the present purpose because not seldom the Father himself is punished in them who through tenderness of affection taketh very much to heart the Evils that happen to his Child sometimes more than if they had happened to himself See David weeping and pulling for his traiterous Son Absolom when he was gone more affectionately than we find he did for the hazards of his own person and of the whole State of Israel whilst he lived For if it be a punishment to a man to sustain losses in his Cattle or Goods or Lands or Friends or any other thing he hath how much more then in his Children of whom he maketh more account than of all the rest as being not only an Image but even a part of himself and for whose sakes especially it is that he maketh so much account of the rest The Egyptians were plagued not only in the blasting of their Corn the murrain of their Cattel the unwholesomness of their Waters the annoyance of Vermine and such like but also and much more in the death of their first-born that was their last and greatest Plague The news of his children slain with the fall of an house did put Iob though not quite out of Patience yet more to the trial of his patience than the loss of all his substance besides though of many thousands of Oxen and Asses and Sheep and Camels Now if no man charge God with Injustice if when a man sinneth he punishe him in his body or goods or good name or in other things why should it be suspected of Injustice when he sinneth to punish him in his Children at least there where the evil of the children seen or fore-seen redoundeth to the grief and affliction of the Father And so was David's Murther and Adultery justly punished in the loss of his incestuous Son Amnon and of his murtherous Son Absalom Upon which ground some think that clause unto the third and fourth generation to have been added in the Second Commandment respectively to the ordinary ages of Men who oftentimes live to see their Children to the third and sometimes to the fourth Generation but very seldom farther implying as they think that God usually punisheth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children within such a compass of time as they may in likelihood see it and grieve at it and then whatever evil it be it is rather inflicted as a punishment to them than to their Children This in part satisfieth the doubt That the Punishments which God layeth upon the Children for the Fathers sins are only temporal punishments and consequently by our second ground not properly punishments But yet for so much as these temporal evils be it properly be it improperly are still a kind of Punishment and we have been already taught from the third ground that all evils of punishment whether proper or improper are brought upon men evermore and only for their own personal Sins the doubt is not yet wholly removed unless we admit of a second Consideration and that concerneth the Condition of those Children upon whom such punishments are inflicted for their fathers Sins And first It is considerable that Children most times tread in their Fathers steps and
bound to this care Let not him that professeth the faith of Christ by his supine carelesness this way justifie the Infidel and deny the Faith He stealeth also which is the basest Theft of all from the poor in robbing them of that relief which he should minister unto them out of his honest gettings the over-plus whereof is their proper revenue The good house-wife of whom we heard something already out of the 31st of the Proverbs Seeketh wool and flax Layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff But cui bono and to what end and for whose sake all this Not only for her self To make her coverings of Tapestry though that also nor yet only for her houshold To cloath them in scarlet though that also but withal that she might have somewhat in her hands To reach out to the poor and needy like another Dorcas to make coats and garments for them that their lâ—yns might bless her So every man should be painful and careful to get some of the things of this Earth by his faithful labour not as a foolish Worldling to make a Mammon of it but as a wise Steward to make him Friends with it So Distributing it to the necessities of the poor Saints that it may redound also upon the by to his own advantage whilest sowing to them temporal things the comfort of his Alms he reapeth in recompence of it their spiritual things the benefit of their Prayers Saint Paul exhorteth the Ephesians by word of mouth and it was the very close of his solemn farewel when he took his last leave of them and should see their face no more that By their labour they ought to support the weak and minister to the necessities of others remembring the words of the Lord Iesus how he said It is more blessed to give than to receive And after his departure he thought it needful for him to put them in mind of the same duty once again by letter Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing that is good that he may have to give to him that needeth Lay all this that I have now last said together and say if you know a verier Thief than the Idle person that stealeth from himself and so is a foolish Thief stealeth from his Family and friends and so is an unnatural Thief stealeth from the poor and so is a base Thief Fourthly and lastly a Calling is necessary in regard of the Publick God hath made us sociable creatures contrived us into Policies and Societies and Common-wealths made us fellow members of one body and every one anothers members As therefore we are not born so neither must we live to and for our selves alone but our Parents and Friends and Acquaintance nay every man of us hath a kind of right and interest in every other man of us and our Country and the Common-wealth in us all And as in the artificial body of a Clock one Wheel moveth another and each part giveth and receiveth help to and from other and as in the natural body of a Man consisting of many members all the members Have not the same Office for that would make a confusion yet there is no member in the body so mean or small but hath its proper faculty function and use whereby it becometh useful to the whole Body and helpful to its fellow-members in the body so should it be in the Civil Body of the State and in the Mystical Body of the Church Every man should conferre aliquid in publicum put to his helping hand to advance the common good employ himself some way or other in such sort as he may be serviceable to the whole body and profitable to his fellow members in the body For which reason the ancient renowned Common-wealths were so careful to ordain that no man should live but in some Profession and take district Examination who did otherwise and to punish them some with fasting some with infamy some with banishment yea and some with death The care of the Indians Egyptians Athenians and other herein Historians relate and I omit It were to be wished that Christan Common-wealths would take some greater care if but from their example to rid themselves of such unnecessary burthens as are good for nothing but to devour the fruits of the Land and either force these droans to take pains for their living or else thrust them out of the Hives for their Idleness Which course if it were taken what would become of many thousands in the World quibus anima pro sale who like Swine live in such sensual and unprofitable sort as we might well doubt whether they had any living souls in their bodies at all or no were it not barely for this one argument That their bodies are a degree sweeter than Carrion I mean all such of what rank and condition soever they be as for want of a Calling mis-spend their precious time bury their Masters talent waste Gods good Creatures and wear away themselves in idleness without doing good to themselves to their friends to humane society Infinite is the number of such unprofitable burthens of the Earth but there are amongst other three sorts of them especially whereof the World ringeth and such as a man that hath to speak of this argument can scarce baulk without some guilt of unfaithfulness It is no matter how you rank them for there is never a better of the three And therefore take them hand over head as they come they are Monks Gallants and Rogues First those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil Beasts slow-bellies stall-fed Monks and Friars who live mewed up in their Cells and Cloisters like Boars in a Franck pining themselves into Lard and beating down their bodies till their girdles crack I quarrel not the first Institution and Original of these kind of men which was then excusably good the condition of those times considered and might yet be tolerably followed even in these times if those gross Superstitions and foul Abuses which in process of time have adhered and are by long and universal custom grown almost essential thereunto could be fairly removed But Monkery was not then that thing which now it is There was not then that Opinion of Sanctity and Perfection in the Choice that imposition of unlawful unnatural and to some men impossible Vows in the Entrance that clogg of ridiculous Habits and Ceremonies and regular irregular Observances in the Use that heavy Note of Apostacy upon such as altered their course in the loose all which now there are Those by their fastings and watchings and devotions and charity and learning and industry and temperance and unaffected austerity and strictness of life won from many of the ancient Fathers as appeared in their writings ample and large testimonies of their vertue and
old Father in the excuse of his licentious Son in the Comedy Non est flagitium mihi crede adolescentulum scortari and yet he spake but as the generality of them then thought but it was the serious plea also of the grave Roman Orator in the behalf of his Client in open Court before the severity of the sage Reverend bench of Judges Quando hoc non factum est Quando reprehensum Quando non permissum And Datur omnium concessu c. Nor in the lust of concupiscence saith St. Paul as the Gentiles which know not God An error so universally spread and so deeply rooted in the minds and in the lives of the Gentiles who having their understanding darkned through the ignorance that was in them because of the blindness of their hearts wrought such uncleanness not only without remorse but even with greediness that the Apostles had much ado with those men whom by the preaching of the Gospel they had converted from Gentilism to Christianity before they could reclaim them from an Error so inveterate both in the judgment and practice St. Paul therefore as it both became and concerned him being the Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles often toucheth upon this string in his Epistles written unto the Churches of the Gentiles But no where doth he set himself more fully and directly with much evidence of reason and strength of argument against this Sin and Error than in the first Epistle he wrote to the Corinthians because among them this sin was both it self most rife in the practice the Corinthians being notedly infamous for lust and wantonness and it was also as much slighteâ— there as any where many of them thinking that the body was made for fornication as the belly for meats and that fornication was as fit and convenient for the body as meats for the belly Out of which consideration the Apostles in that first General Council holden at Ierusalem Acts 15. thought it needful by Ecclesiastical Canon among some other indifferent things for the Churches peace to lay this restraint upon the converted Gentiles that they should abstain from Fornication Not as if Fornication were in it self an indifferent thing as those other things were nor as if those other things were in themselves and simply unlawful as Fornication was but the Apostles did therefore joyn Fornication and those other indifferent things together in the same Canon because the Gentiles accounted fornication a thing as indiffereut as what was most indifferent Some remainders of the common error there were it seemeth among some Christians in St. Augustine's days who both relateth the opinion and confuâ—â—th it And some in the Popish Church have not come far behind herein so many of them I mean as hold that Simple fornication is not intrinsecally and in the proper nature of it a sin against the Law of Nature but only made such by divine positive Law A strange thing it is and to my seeming not less than a mystery that those men that speak so harshly of Marriage which God hath ordained should withal speak so favourably of fornication which God hath forbidden preposterously preferring the disease which springeth from our corruption before the remedy which God himself hath prescribed in his Word But howsoever if some Christians have spoken and written and thought so favourably of fornication as to their shame it appeareth they have done the less may we marvel to see Abimelech a King and an Infidel allow himself the liberty to continue in the sin of Fornication and yet notwithstanding such allowance stand so much upon his own innocency and integrity as he doth God forbid any man that heareth me this day should be so either ignorant or uncharitable as to conceive all or any of that I have yet said spoken to give the least shadow of liberty or excuse to Fornication or any uncleannes which St. Paul would not have so much as named among the Saints not named with allowance not named with any extenuation not named but with some detestation But the very thing for which I have spoken all this is to shew how inexcusable the Adulterer is when even those of the Gentiles who by reason of the darkness of their understandings and the want of Scripture-light could espy no obliquity in Fornication could yet through all that darkness see something in Adultery deservedly punishable even in their judgments with death They could not so far quench that spark of the light of nature which was in them nor hold back the truth of God in unrighteousness as not by the glympse thereof to discern a kind of reverend Majesty in God's holy Ordinance of Wedlock which they knew might not be dishonoured nor the bed defiled by Adultery without guilt They saw Adultery was a mixt crime and such as carried with it the face of Injustice as well as Uncleanness nor could be committed by the two offending parties without wrong done to a third And therefore if any thing might be said colourably to excuse Fornication as there can be nothing said justly yet if any such thing could be said for Fornication it would not reach to excuse Adultery because of the injury that cleaveth thereunto Against Fornication God hath ordained Marriage as a Remedy what a beast then is the Adulterer and what a Monster whom that remedy doth no good upon In the marriage-knot there is some expression and representation of the Love-covenant betwixt Christ and his Churoh but what good assurance can the Adulterer have that he is within that Covenant when he breaketh this Knot Every married person hath ipso facto surrendred up the right and interest he had in and over his own body and put it out of his own into the power of another what an arrant Thief then is the Adulterer that taketh upon him to dispose at his pleasure that which is none of his But I say too well by him when I compare him but to a thief Solomon maketh him worse than a Thief Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfie his soul when he is hungry c. But whoso committeth Adultery with a Woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own soul c. Where he maketh both the injury greater and the reconcilement harder in and for the Adulterer than for the Thief Nay God himself maketh him worse than a Thief in his Law in his Moral Law next after Murther placing Adultery before Theft as the greater sin and in his Iudicial Law punishing Theft with a mulct but Adultery with Death the greater Punishment To conclude this first point Abimelech an Heathen-man who had not the knowledge of the true God of Heaven to direct him in the right way and withal a King who had therefore none upon earth above him to control him if he should
the same ways will not please all we ought not to be careful to satisfie others in their unreasonable Expectances much less our selves in our own inordinate Appetites but disregarding both our selves and them bend all our studies and endeavours to this one point how we may approve our hearts and our ways unto the Lord that is to God the only Lord and our Lord Iesus Christ. God and Christ must be in the final resolution the sole Object of our pleasing Which is the substance of the whole words of the Antecedent laid together which we have hitherto considered apart and cometh now to be handled The handling whereof we shall dispatch in three Enquiries whereof two concern the Endeavour and one the Event For it may be demanded first what necessity of pleasing God And if it be needful then secondly how and by what means it may be done And both these belong to the Endeavour and then it may be demanded thirdly concerning the Event upon what ground it is that any of our endeavours should please God Of which in their order 7. First That we should endeavour so to walk as to please God The Apostle needed not to have prayed so earnestly as he doth Col. 1. and that without ceasing neither to have adjured us so deeply as he doth 1 Thess. 4. even by the Lord Iesus if it did not both well become us in point of Duty and also much concern us in point of Wisdom so to do First It is a Duty whereunto we stand bound by many Obligations He is our Master our Captain our Father our King Every of which respects layeth a several necessity upon us of doing our endeavour to please him if at least there be in us any care to discharge with faithfulness and as we ought the parts of Servants of Souldiers of Sons of Subjects 8. First He is our Master Ye call me Lord and Master and ye say well for so I am and we are his servants O Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy Handmaid And he is no honest servant that will not strive to please his Master Exhort servants to obey their own Masters and to please them well in all things Tit. 2. Next he is our Captain It became him to make the Captain of their salvation perfect and we are his Souldiers Thou therefore endure hardness as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ saith Saint Paul to Timothy We received our Prest money and book'd our Names to serve in his Wars when we bound our selves by Solemn Vow and took the Sacrament upon it in our Baptism manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue his faithful Souldiers unto our lives end And he is no generous Souldier that will not strive to please his General No man that warreth entangleth himself in the Affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a Souldier 2 Tim. 2. Thirdly He is our Father and we his Children I will be a Father to you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty and when we would have any thing of him we readily bespeak him by the name of Father and that by his own direction saying Our Father which art in Heaven And that Son hath neither grace nor good nature in him that will not strive to please his Father It is noted as one of Esau's Impieties whom the Scripture hath branded as a Profane Person that he grieved and displeased his parents in the choice of his Wives If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. Lastly He is our King The Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods and we are his Subjects his people and the Sheep of his Pasture and he is no Loyal Subject that will not strive to please his Lawful Sovereign That form of speech if it please the King so frequent in the mouth of Nehemiah was no affected strain of Courtship but a just expression of Duty otherwise that religious man would never have used it 9. And yet there may be a time wherein all those Obligations may cease of pleasing our earthly Masters or Captains or Parents or Princes If it be their pleasure we should do something that lawfully we may not we must disobey though we displease Only be we sure that to colour an evil disobedience we do not pretend an unlawfulness where there is none But we can have no colour of plea for refusing to do the pleasure of our heavenly Lord and Master in any thing whatsoever inasmuch as we are sure nothing will please him but what is just and right With what a forehead then can any of us challenge from him either Wages as Servants or Stipends as Souldiers or Provision as Sons or Protection as Subjects if we be not careful in every respect to frame our selves in such sort as to please him You see it is our Duty so to do 10. Yea and our Wisdom too in respect of the great benefits we shall reap thereby There is one great benefit expressed in the Text If we please the Lord He will make our Enemies to be at peace with us of which more anon The Scriptures mention many other out of which number I propose but these three First if we please him he will preserve us from sinful temptations Solomon Eccl. 7. speaking of the strange woman whose heart is as Nets and Snares and her hands as bands saith that whoso pleaseth the Lord shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her He that displeaseth God by walking in the by-paths of sin God shall withhold his grace from him and he shall be tempted and foyled but whoso pleaseth God by walking in his holy ways God shall so assist him with his grace that when he is tempted he shall escape And that is a very great benefit Secondly If we please him he will hear our Prayers and grant our Petitions in whatsoever we ask if what we ask be agreeable to his will and expedient for our good whatsoever we ask we know we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight And that is another very great benefit Thirdly If we please him in the mean time he will in the end translate us into his heavenly Kingdom whereof he hath given us assurance in the person of Enoch Whom God translated that he should not see death because before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God And this is the greatest benefit that can be imagined 11. Go then wretched man that hast not cared to displease the immortal God for the pleasing of thy self or of some other mortal man cast up thy Bills examine thy Accounts and see what thou hast gained 1. By displeasing God thou hast
should repose upon such things must needs rise and fall ebb and flow just as the things themselves do Which is contrary to the state of a true contented mind which still remaineth the same and unchanged notwithstanding whatsoever changes and chances happen in these outward and mutable things 7. We see now the unsufficiency of Nature of Morality of Outward things to bring Contentment It remaineth then that it must spring from Religion and from the Grace of God seated in the heart of every godly man which casteth him into a new mould and frameth the heart to a blessed calm within whatsoever storms are abroad and without And in this Grace there is no defect As the Lord sometimes answered our Apostle when he was importunate with him for that which he thought not fit at that time to grant sufficit tibi gratia My Grace is sufficient for thee He then that would attain to St. Pauls learning must repair to the same School where St. Paul got his learning and he must apply himself to the same Tutor that St. Paul had He must not languish in Porticu or in Lycaeo at the feet of Plato or Seneca but he must get him into the Sanctuary of God and there become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must be taught of God and by the anointing of his holy Spirit of grace which anointing teacheth us all things 1 Ioh. 2. All other Masters are either Ignorant or Envious or Idle Some things they are not able to teach us though they would some things they are not willing to teach us though they might but this Anointing is every way a most compleat Tutor able and loving and active this anointing teacheth us all things and amongst other things this Art of Contentation also 8. Now as for the means whereby the Lord traineth us up by his holy grace unto this learning they are especially these three First by his spirit he worketh this perswasion in our hearts that whatsoever he disposeth unto us at any time for the present that is evermore the fittest and best for us at that time He giveth us to see that all things are guided and ordered by a most just and wise and powerful providence And although it be not fit for us to be acquainted with the particular Reasons of such his wise and gracious dispensations yet we are assured in the general that all things work together for the best to those that love God That he is a loving and careful Father of his children and will neither bring any thing upon them nor keep back any thing from them but for their Good That he is a most skilful and compassionate Physician such an one as at all times and perfectly understandeth the true state and temper of our hearts and affections and accordingly ordereth us and dieteth us as he seeth it most behoofeful for us in that present state for the preservation or recovery of our spiritual strength or for the prevention of future maladies And this perswasion is one special means whereby the Lord teacheth us Contentment with whatsoever he sendeth 9. Secondly whereas there are in the word scattered every where many gracious and precious promises not only concerning the life to come but also concerning this present life the spirit of grace in the heart of the Godly teacheth them by faith to gather up all those scattered Promises and to apply them for their own comfort upon every needful occasion They hear by the outward preaching of the Word and are assured of the truth thereof by the inward teaching of the Spirit That God will never fail them nor forsake them That he is their shepherd and therefore they shall not want but his goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives That his eye is upon them that fear him to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of dearth That he will give grace and Worship and with-hold no good thing from them that live a godly life That though the Lions the great and greedy Oppressours of the world may lack and suffer hunger yet they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and a thousand other such like Promises they hear and believe The assurance whereof is another special means by which the Lord teacheth his children to repose themselves in a quiet content without fear of want or too much thoughtfulness for the future 10. Thirdly for our better learning besides these Lectures of his Providence and Promises he doth also both appoint us Exercises and discipline us with his Rod By sending changes and afflictions in our bodies and in our names in our friends in our estates in the success of our affairs and many other ways but always for our profit And this his wise teaching of us bringeth on our learning wonderfully As for those whose houses are safe from fear neither is the Rod of God upon them as Iob speaketh that are never emptied nor poured from vessel to vessel they settle upon their own dregs and grow muddy and musty with long ease and their prosperity befooleth them to their own destruction When these come once to stirring and trouble over-taketh them as sooner or later they must look for it then the grumbles and mud of their impatience and discontent beginneth to appear and becometh unfavoury both to God and man But as for those whom the Lord hath taken into his own tuition and nurturing he will not suffer them either to wax wanton with too long ease nor to be depressed with too heavy troubles but by frequent changes he exerciseth them and inureth them to all estates As a good Captain traineth his Souldiers and putteth them out of one posture into another that they may be expert in all so the Lord of hosts traineth up his Souldiers by the armour of righteousnes on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil Report and good Report by health and sickness by sometimes raising new friends and sometimes taking away the old by sometimes suffering their enemies to get the upper hand and sometimes bringing them under again by sometimes giving success to their affairs even beyond their expectation and sometimes dashing then hopes when they were almost come to full ripeness He turneth them this way and that way and every way till they know all their postures and can readily cast themselves into any form that he shall appoint They are often abased and often exalted now full and anon hungry one while they abound and they suffer need another while Till with our Apostle they know both how to be abased and how to abound Till every where and in all things they be instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Till they can at least in some weak yet comfortable measure do all things through Christ that strengtheneth them These exercises
ready to do any further act that shall be required of him for the confirmation of his Fathers act who had long before sold away the Lands from him Whatever then we may impute of the former I mean of original guilt to Adam yet we must take the latter I mean our actual transgressions wholly and solely to our own selves 23. Nor can we thirdly lay the blame upon Satan or his Instruments which is our last and commonest refuge Serpens decepit was Eves Plea and she pleaded but truth for the Serpent had indeed beguiled her St. Paul hath said it after her twice over Esau after he had sold his birth-right his own self yet accused his brother for supplanting him Aaron for making the Calf and Saul for sparing the Cattel both contrary to God's express Command yet both lay it upon the people Others have done the like and still do and will do to the Worlds end But alas these Fig-leaves are too thin to hide our nakedness all these excuses are insufficient to discharge us from being the authors of our own destruction Say Satan be a cunning Cheater as he is no less who should have look'd to that Had not God endowed us with understanding to discern his most subtil snares and with liberty of Will to decline them Say he do tempt us perpetually and by most slie insinuations seek to get within us and to steal away our hearts That is the utmost he can do a Tempter he is and that a shrewd one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath his name from it yet he is but a Tempter he cannot enforce us to anything without our consent and God hath given us power and God hath given us charge too not to consent Say ungodly men who are his Agents cease not by plausible perswasions importunities and all the engagements they can pretend to solicite and entice us to evil Yet if we resolve and hold not to consent they cannot hurt us My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not Prov. 1. 10. Say they lay many a cursed example before us as Iacob did pilled rods in the sheep troughs or cast stones of offence in our way Have we not a Rule to walk by by which we ought to guide our selves and not by the examples of men And whereto serve our eyes in our heads but to look to our feet that we may so order our steps as not to dash our foot against a stone 24. Certainly no man can take harm but from himself Let no man then when he is tempted and yieldeth say he is tempted of God for God tempteth no man saith St. Iames that is doth not so much as endeavour to do it Nay I may add further Let no man when he is tempted say he is tempted of Satan That is let him not think to excuse himself by that For even Satan tempteth no man in that sence and cum effectu Though he endeavour it all he can yet it cannot take effect unless we will St. James therefore concludeth positively that every mans temptation if it take effect is meerly from his own lust It is then our own act and deed that we are Satan's Vassals Disclaim it we cannot and whatsoever misery or mischief ensueth thereupon we ought not to impute to any other than our selves alone He could never have laid any claim to us if we had not consented to the bargain and yielded to sell our selves 25. Of the Sale hitherto I come now to the Redemption the more Evangelical and comfortable part of the Text. And as in the Sale we have seen mans inexcusable baseness and folly in the several circumstances so we may now behold Gods admirable power and grace in this Redemption His Power that he doth it so effectually The thing shall be done Ye shall be redeemed His Grace that he doth it so freely without any money of ours Ye shall be redeemed without money 26. First the work to be effectually done It is here spoken in the future Ye shall be Redeemed not only nor perhaps so much because it was a Prophecy of a thing then to come which now since Christs coming in the flesh is actually accomplished but also and especially to give us to understand that when God is pleased to Redeem us all the Powers on Earth and in Hell cannot shall not hinder it By the Levitical Law if a man had sold himself for a bondslave his Brother or some other near Friend might redeem him or if ever God should make him able he might redeem himself If this had been all our hope we might have waited till our eyes had sunk in their holes and yet the work never the nearer to be done for never would man have been found able either to redeem his own soul or to make agreement for his brothers It would cost more to redeem their souls than any man had to lay down so that of necessity he must let that alone for ever But when the Son of God himself setteth in and is content to be made of God to us Redemption the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and the work shall go on wondrous happily and successfully 27. His Power his Love and his Right do all assure us thereof First his Power Our Redeemer is strong and mighty even the Lord of Hosts And he had need be so for he that hath us in possession is strong and mighty Vir fortis armatus in the Parable Luke 11. He buckleth his Armour about him and standeth upon his guard with a resolution to maintain what he hath purchased and to hold possession if he can But then when a stronger than he cometh upon him and overcometh him breaketh into his house bindeth him and having bruised his head taketh away from him his armour wherein he trusted the Law Sin Death and Hell there is no remedy but he must yield perforce what he cannot hold and suffer his house to be ransacked and his goods and possessions to be carried away Greater is he that is in you saith St. Iohn that is Christ than he that is in the world that is the Devil Christ came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the Devil and he did atchieve what he came for he hath destroyed them And amongst his other works he hath destroyed this purchase also wrung the evidences out of his hand even the hand-writing that was against us and having blotted defaced and cancell'd it took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross. 28. Such was his Power his Love secondly not less which made him as willing as he was able to undertake this work of our redemption In his love and in his pity he redeemed them Isa. 63. 9. There is such a height and depth and length and breadth in that Love such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every dimension of it as none but an infinite
understanding can fathom Sic Deus dilexit So God loved the world But how much that so containeth no tongue or wit of man can reach Nothing expresseth it better to the life than the work it self doth That the Word should be made Flesh that the holy One of God should be made sin that God blessed for ever should be made a curse that the Lord of life and glory should suffer an inglorious death and pour out his own most precious blood to ransome such worthless thankless graceless Traitors as we were that had so desperately made our selves away and that into the hands of his deadliest enemy and that upon such poor and unworthy conditions O altitudo Love incomprehensible It swalloweth up the sense and understanding of Men and Angels fitter to be admired and adored with silence than blemished with any our weak Expressions 29. I leave it therefore and go on to the next his Right When de facto we sold our selves to Satan we had de jure no power or right at all so to do being we were not our own and so in truth the title is naught and the sale void Yet it is good against us however we may not plead the invalidity of it forsomuch as in reason no man ought to make advantage of his own act Our act then barreth us But yet it cannot bar the right owner from challenging his own wheresoever he find it And therefore we may be well assured God will not suffer the Devil who is but malae fidei possessor an intruder and a cheater quietly to enjoy what is Gods and not his but he will eject him we have that word Ioh. 12. 21. Ejicietur now is the Prince of this world cast out and recover out of his possession that which he hath no right at all to hold 30. Sundry inferences we might raise hence if we had time I may not insist yet I cannot but touch at three duties which we owe to God for this Redemption because they answer so fitly to these three last mentioned assurances We owe him Affiance in respect of his Power in requital of his Love Thankfulness and in regard of his Right Service First the consideration of his Power in our Redemption may put a great deal of comfort and confidence into us that having now redeemed us if we do but cleave fast to him and revolt not again he will protect us from Sin and Satan and all other enemies and pretenders whatsoever O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee Isa. 43. If then the Devil shall seek by any of his wiles or suggestions at any time to get us over to him again as he is an unwearied sollicitor and will not lose his claim by discontinuance Let us then look to that Cornu salutis that horn of salvation that God hath raised up for us in Christ our Redeemer and flie thither for succour as to the horns of the Altar saying with David Psalm 119. I am thine oh save me and we shall be safe In all inward temptations in all outward distresses at the hour of death and in the day of judgement we may with great security commit the keeping our souls to him both as a faithful Creator and as a powerful Redeemer saying once more with David into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Psal. 31. 6. 31. Secondly The consideration of his love in our Redemption should quicken us to a thankful acknowledgment of his great and undeserved goodness towards us Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hands of the enemy Psal. 107. Let all men let all creatures do it but let them especially If the blessings of corn and wine and oyl of health and peace and plenty of deliverance from sicknesses pestilences famines and other calamities can so affect us as to provoke at least some overly and superficial forms of thanksgiving from us how carnal are our minds and our thoughts earthly if the contemplation of the depth of the riches of God mercy poured our upon us in this great work of our Redemption do not even ravish our hearts with an ardent desire to pour them out unto him again in Hymns and Psalms and Songs of Thanksgiving with a Benedictus in our mouths Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 32. Thirdly The consideration of his Right should bind us to do him service We were his before for he made us and we ought him service for that But now we are his more than before and by a new title for he hath bought us and paid for us and we owe him more service for that The Apostle therefore urgeth it as a matter of great equity you are not your own but his therefore you are not to satisfie your selves by doing your own lusts but to glorifie him by doing his will When Christ redeemed us by his blood his purpose was to redeem us unto God Rev. 5. 9. and not to our selves and to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. and not to it And he therefore delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might the more freely and securely and without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty and the thing withal so very reasonable we have the more to answer for i◠we do not make a conscience of it to perform it accordingly He hath done his part and that which he was no way bound unto in redeeming us and he hath done it to purpose done it effectually Let it be our care to do our part for which their lye so many obligations upon us in serving him and let us also do it to purpose do it really and throughly and constantly 33. Thus is our Redemption done effectually it is also done freely which is the only point now remaining Not for price nor reward Isa. 45. 13. but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction For the meaning is not that there was no price paid at all but that there was none paid by us we laid out nothing towards this great Purchase there went none of our money to it But otherwise that there was a price paid the Scriptures are clear You are bought with a price saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. and he saith it over again Chap. 7. He that paid it calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom that is as much as to say a price of Redemption and his Apostle somewhat more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth a just and satisfactory price full as much as the thing can be worth Yet not paid to Satan in whose possession we were for we have found already that he was but an Usurper and his title naught He had but bought of us
for every of us to have a right judgment concerning indifferent things and their lawfulness I shall endeavour to shew you both how unrighteous a thing it is in it self and of how noysom and perilous Consequence many ways to condemn any thing as simply unlawful without very clear evidence to lead us thereunto 11. First it is a very unrighteous thing For as in Civil Judicatories the Iudge that should make no more ado but presently adjudge to death all such persons as should be brought before him upon light surmises and slender presumptions without any due enquiry into the cause or expecting clearer evidence must needs pass many an unjust Sentence and be in great jeopardy at some time or other of shedding innocent blood so he that is very forward when the lawfulness of any thing is called in question upon some colourable exceptions there-against straightways to cry it down and to pronounce it unlawful can hardly avoid the falling oftentimes into Error and sometimes into Uncharitableness Pilate though he did Iesus much wrong afterward yet he did him some right onward when the Jews cryed out â—â—ucifige Away with him crucifie him in replying for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why what evil hath he done Doth our Law judge a man before it hear him and know what he doth Was Nicodemus his Plea Ioh. 7. I wonder then by what Law those men proceed who judge so deeply and yet examine so overly speaking evil of those things they know not as St. Iude and answering a matter before they hear it as Solomon speaketh Which in his judgment is both folly and shame to them as who say there is neither Wit nor Honesty in it The Prophet Isaiah to shew the righteousness and equity of Christ in the exercise of his Kingly Office describeth it thus Isa. 11. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity Implying that where there is had a just regard of righteousness and equity there will be had also a due care not to proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our first apprehension of things as they are suddenly represented to our eyes or ears without further examination A fault which our Saviour reproveth in the Jews as an unrighteous thing when they censured him as a Sabbath-breaker without cause Iudge not according to the outward appearance but judge righteous Judgment Ioh. 7. 12. All this will easily be granted may some say where the case is plain But suppose when the Lawfulness of something is called in question that there be probable Arguments on both sides so as it is not easie to resolve whether way rather to encline Is it not at leastwise in that case better to suspect it may be unlawful than to presume it to be lawful For in doubtful cases via tutior it is best ever to take the safer way Now because there is in most men a wondrous aptness to stretch their liberty to the utmost extent many times even to a licentiousness and so there may be more danger in the enlargement than there can be in the restraint of our liberty it seemeth therefore to be the safer error in doubtful cases to judge the things unlawful say that should prove an error rather than to allow them lawful and yet that prove an error 13. True it is that in hypothesi and in point of practice and in things not enjoyned by Superiour Authority either Divine or Humane it is the saferway if we have any doubts that trouble us to forbear the doing of them for fear they should prove unlawful rather than to adventure to do them before we be well satisfied that they are lawful As for example if any man should doubt of the lawfulness of playing at Cards or of Dancing either single or mixt although I know no just cause why any man should doubt of either severed from the abuses and accidental consequents yet if any man shall think he hath just cause so todo that man ought by all means to forbear such playing or dancing till he can be satisfied in his own mind that he may lawfully use the same The Apostle hath clearly resolved the case Rom. 14. that be the thing what it can be in it self yet his very doubting maketh it unlawful to him so long as he remaineth doubtful because it cannot be of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Thus far therefore the former allegation may hold good so long as we consider things but in hypothesi that is to say only so far forth as concerneth our own particular in point of practice that in these doubtful cases it is safer to be too scrupulous than too adventurous 14. But then if we will speak of things in thesi that is to say taken in their general nature and considered in themselves and as they stand devested of all circumstances and in point of judgment so as to give a positive and determinate Sentence either with them or against them there I take it the former allegation of Via tutior is so far from being of force that it holdeth rather the clean contrary way For in bivio dextra in doubtful cases it is safer erring the more charitable way As a Iudge upon the Bench had better acquit ten Malefactors if there be no full proof brought against them than condemn but one innocent person upon mere presumptions And this seemeth to be very reasonable For as in the Courts of Civil Iustice men are not ordinarily put to prove themselves honest men but the proof lyeth on the accusers part and it is sufficient for the acquitting of any man in foro externo that there is nothing of moment proved against him for in the construction of the Law every man is presumed to be an honest man till he be proved otherwise But to the condemning of a man there is more requisite than so bare suspicions are not enough no nor strong presumptions neither but there must be a clear and full evidence especially if the trial concern life So in these moral trials also in foro interno when enquiry is made into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Humane Acts in their several kinds it is sufficient to warrant any Act in the kind to be lawful that there can be nothing produced from Scripture or sound Reason to prove it unlawful For so much the words of my Text do manifestly import All things are lawful for me But to condemn any act as simply and utterly unlawful in the kind remote consequences and weak deductions from Scripture-Text should not serve the turn neither yet reasons of inconveniency or inexpediency though carrying with them great shews of probablity But it is requisite that the unlawfulness thereof should be sufficiently demonstrated either from express and undeniable testimony of Scripture or from the clear
eaten or not for neither if we eat nor if we eat not are we much either the better or the worse for that But the Kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost It consisteth in the exercise of holy graces and the conscionble performance of unquestioned duties Sincere confession of sin proceeding from an humble and contrite heart constancy in professing the true faith of Christ patience in suffering adversity exemplary obedience to the holy Laws of God fruitfulness in good works these these are things wherein God expecteth to be glorified by us But as for meats and drinks and all other indifferent things inasmuch as they have no intrinsecal moral either good or evil in them but are good or evil only according as they are used well or ill the glory of God is not at all concerned in the using or not using of them otherwise than as our Faith or Temperance or Obedience or Charity or other like Christian grace or vertue is exercised or evidenced thereby 23. I have now done with the first thing and of the most important consideration proposed from the Text to wit the end it self the Glory of God The Amplifications follow the former whereof containeth a description of the party to be glorified That ye may glorifie God If it be demanded Which God For there be Gods many and Lords many It is answered in the Text God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Of which Title there may be sundry reasons given some more general why it is used at all some more special why it should be used here First this is Stilo novo never found in the Old Testament but very often in the New For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Eph. 3. The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ knoweth that I lie not 2 Cor. 11. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. As the Old Covenant ceased upon the bringing in of a new and better Covenant so there was cessation of the old Style upon the bringing in of this new and better Style The old ran thus The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob proclaimed by God himself when he was about to deliver the posterity of those three godly Patriarchs from the Bondage of Aegypt But having now vouchsafed unto his people a far more glorious deliverance than that from a far more grievious Bondage than that from under Sin Satan Death Hell and the Law whereof that of Aegypt was but a shadow and type he hath quitted that Style and now expecteth to be glorified by this most sweet and blessed Name The Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Exchanging the name of God a name of greater distance and terror into the Name of Father a name of more nearness and indulgence And taking the additional title or denomination not from the parties delivered as before who were his faithful servants indeed yet but servants but from the person delivering his only begotten and only beloved Son It is first the evangelical Style 24. Secondly this Style putteth a difference between the true God of Heaven and Earth whom only we are to glorifie and all other false and imaginary titular Gods to whom we owe nothing but scorn and detestation The Pagans had scores hundreds some have reckoned thousands of Gods all of their own making Every Nation every City yea almost every House had their several Gods or Godlings Deos topicos Gods many and Lords many But to us saith our Apostle to us Christians there is but one God the Father and one Lord Iesus Christ his Son This is Deus Christianorum If either you hope as Christians to receive grace from that God that alone can give it or mean as Christians to give glory to that God that alone ought to have it this this is he and none other God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. It is a Style of distinction 25. These two Reasons are general There are two other more special for the use of it here in respect of some congruity it hath with the matter or method of the Apostles present discourse For First it might be done with reverence to that Argument which he had so lately pressed and whereof also he had given a touch immediately before in the next former verse and which he also resumed again in the next following verse drawn from the example of Christ. That since Christ in receiving us and condescending to our weaknesses did aim at his Fathers glory so we also should aim at the same end by treading in the same steps We cannot better glorifie God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ than by receiving one another into our charity care and mutual support as Iesus Christ also received us to the glory of his heavenly Father 26. Secondly since we cannot rightly glorifie God unless we so conceive him as our Father If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. That they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. it may be the Apostle would have us take knowledge how we came to have a right to our Son-ship and for that end might use the title here given to intimate to us upon what ground it is that we have leave to make so bold with our great Lord and Master as to call him our Father even no other but this because he is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only Son of God by nature and generation and through him only it is that we are made the Sons of God by grace and adoption As many as received him to them he gave power to be made the Sons of God Joh. 1. If we be the Sons of God we are made so but he is the Son of God not made nor created but begotten I go to my Father and to your Father saith he himself Ioh. 20. mine first and then and therefore yours also He is medium unionis like the corner stone wherein both sides of the building unite or like the ladder whereon Iacob saw Angels ascending and descending All intercourse 'twixt Heaven and Earth God and Man is in and through him If any grace come from God to us it is by Christ If any glory come from us to God it is by Christ too Unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus Eph. 3. And this shall suffice to have spoken concerning the former Amplification briefly because it seemeth not to conduce so much nor so nearly to the Apostles main scope here as doth that other which now followeth respecting the manner with one mind and with one mouth 27. Wherein omitting for brevities sake such advantages as from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be raised for farther enlargement observe first that whereas he nameth two
an universal concurrence of judgment as there is in the main fundamental points of the Christian Faith And if we were so wise as we might and should be to make the right use of it it would not stumble us a whit in the belief of our Religion that Christians differ so much as they do in many things but rather mightily confirm us in the assurances thereof that they agree so well as they do almost in any thing And it may be a great comfort to every well meaning soul that the simple belief of those certain truths whereon all parties are in a manner agreed may be and ordinarily is sufficient for the salvation of all them who are sincerely careful according to that measure of light and means that God hath vouchsafed them to actuate their Faith with Piety Charity and good Works so making this great Mystery to become unto them as it is in its self Mysterium Pietatis a Mystery of Godliness Which is the last point proposed the Quale to which I now pass 22. As the corrupt Doctrine of Antichrist is not only a Doctrine of Error but of Impiety too called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mystery of iniquity 2 Thes. 2. So the wholsom doctrine of Christ is not only a doctrine of Truth but of Piety too and is therefore termed here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mystery of Godliness Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Godliness since there appeareth not any great necessity in the Context to restrain it to that more peculiar sence wherein both the Greek and English word are sometimes used namely to signifie the right manner of Gods Worship according to his word in opposition to all idolatrous superstitious or false Worships practised among the Heathens I am the rather enclined to understand it here as many Interpreters have done in the fuller Latitude as it comprehenderh the whole duty of a Christian man which he standeth bound by the command of God in his Law or of Christ in his Gospel to perform 23. Verum and Bonum we know are near of kin the one to the other And the spirit of God who is both the Author and the Revealer of this Mystery as he is the spirit of truth Joh. 14. so is he also the spirit of holiness Rom. 1. And it is part of his work to sanctific the heart with grace as well as to enlighten the mind with knowledge Our Apostle therefore sometimes mentioneth Truth and Godliness together teaching us thereby that we should take them both into our care together If any man consent not to the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the doctrine which is after Godliness 1 Tim. 6. And Tit. 1. according to the Faith of Gods Elect and acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godliness And here in express terms The Mystery of Godliness And that most rightly whether we consider it in the Scope Parts or Conservation of it 24. First the general Scope and aim of Christianity is by the mercy of God founded on the merits of Christ to bring men on through Faith and Godliness to Salvation It was not in the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the personal obligation rigour and curse of the Law so to turn us loose and lawless to do whatsoever should seem good in our own eyes follow our own crooked wills or gratifie any corrupt lust but to oblige us rather the faster by these new benefits and to incite us the more effectually by Evangelical promises to the earnest study and pursuit of Godliness The Gospel though upon quite different grounds bindeth us yet to our good behaviour in every respect as deep as ever the Law did if not in some respects deeper allowing no liberty to the flesh for the fulfilling of the lusts thereof in any thing but exacting entire sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation in all those that embrace it The grace of God appearing in the revelation of this mystery as it bringeth along with it an offer of salvation to all men so it teacheth all men that have any real purpose to lay hold on so gracious an offer to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly and godly in this present world 25. It is not to be wondered at if all false Religions give allowance to some ungodliness or other when the very Gods whom they worship give such encouragements thereunto by their lewd examples The Gods of the Pagans were renowned for nothing so much most of them as for their vices Mars a bloody God Bacchus a drunken God Mercury a cheating God and so proportionably in their several kinds all the rest Their great Capital God Iupiter guilty of almost all the Capital vices And where the Gods are naught who can imagine the Religion should be good Their very mysteria sacra as they called them were so full of all wickedness and filthy abominations as was already in part touched but is fully discovered by Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius Arnobius Tertullian and other of the Ancients of our Religion that it was the wisest point in all their Religion to take such strict order as they did for the keeping of them secret 26. But it is the honour and prerogative of the Christian Religion that it alone alloweth of no wickedness But as God himself is holy so he requireth an holy Worship and holy Worshippers He exacteth the mortification of all evil lusts and the sanctification of the whole man body soul and spirit and that in each of these throughout Every one that nameth himself from the name of Christ doth ipso facto by the very taking of that blessed name upon him and daring to stile himself Christian virtually bind himself to depart from all iniquity nor so only but to endeavour also after the example of him whose name otherwise he unworthily usurpeth to be just merciful temperate humble meek patient charitable to get the habits and to exercise the acts of these and all other holy graces and vertues Nay more the Gospel imposeth upon us some moral strictnesses which the Stoicks themselves or whoever else were the most rigid Masters of Morality never so much as thought of Nay yet more it exalteth the Moral Law of God himself given by Moses to the People of Israel to a higher pitch than they at least as they commonly understood the Law took themselves thereby obliged unto That a man should forsake all his dearest friends yea and deny his own dearest self too for Christs sake and yet for Christs sake at the same time love his deadliest enemies That he should take up his Cross and if need were lay down his life not only for his great Master but even for the meanest of his fellow-servants too That he should exult with joy and abound in hope in the midst of tribulations of persecutions of death it self Surely the
Mystery that driveth at all this must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest degree the great mystery of Godliness That for the scope 27. Look now secondly at the parts and parcels the several pieces as it were whereof this mystery is made up those mentioned in this verse and the rest and you shall find that from each of them severally but how much more then from them altogether joyntly may be deduced sundry strong motives and perswasives unto Godliness Take the material parts of this Mystery the Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Baptism Temptation Preaching Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascension Intercession and Second coming of Christ. Or take if I may so call them the formal parts thereof our eternal Election before the World was our Vocation by the Preaching of the Gospel our Iustification by Faith in the merits of Christ our Sanctification by the Spirit of grace the stedfast Promises we have and hopes of future Glory and the rest It would be too long to vouch Texts for each particular but this I say of them all in general There is not one link in either of those two golden chains which doth not straitly tye up our hands tongues and hearts from doing evil draw us up effectually unto God and Christ and strongly oblige us to shew forth the power of his Grace upon our souls by expressing the power of Godliness in our lives and conversations That for the parts 28. Thirdly Christian Religion may be called the Mystery of Godliness in regard of its Conversation because Godliness is the best preserver of Christianity Roots and Fruits and Herbs which let alone and left to themselves would soon corrupt and putriâ—ie may being well condited with Sugar by a skilful Confectioner be preserved to continue for many years and be serviceable all the while So the best and surest means to preserve Christianity in its proper integrity and power from corrupting into Atheism or Heresie is to season it well with Grace as we do fresh meats with salt to keep them sweet and to be sure to keep the Conscience upright Holding the mysteries of faith in a pure Conscience saith our Apostle a little after at verse 9. of this Chapter and in the first Chapter of this Epistle vers 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience which latter some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack Apostasie from the faith springeth most an end from Apostasie in manners And he that hath but a very little care how he liveth can have no very fast hold of what he believeth For when men grow once regardless of their Consciences good affections will soon languish and then will noysom lusts gather strength and cast up mud into the soul that the judgement cannot run clear Seldom is the head right where the heart is amiss A rotten heart will be ever and anon sending up evil thoughts into the mind as marish and fenny grounds do foggy mists into the air that both darken and corrupt it As a mans taste when some malignant humour affecteth the organ savoureth nothing aright but deemeth sweet things bitter and sowre things pleasant So where Avarice Ambition Malice Voluptuousness Vain-glory Sedition or any other domineering lust hath made it self master of the heart it will so blind and corrupt the judgment that it shall not be able to discern at any certainty good from evil or truth from falshood Wholsome therefore is St. Peters advice to add unto faith Vertue Vertue will not only keep it in life but at such a height of vigour also that it shall not easily either degenerate into Heresie or languish into Atheism 29. We see now three Reasons for which the Doctrine of Christianity may be called The mystery of Godliness because it first exacteth Godliness and secondly exciteth unto Godliness and is thirdly best preserved by Godliness From these Premisses I shall desire for our nearer instruction to infer but two things only the one for the trial of Doctrines the other for the bettering of our lives For the first St. Iohn would not have us over-forward to believe every spirit Every spirit doth he say Truly it is impossible we should unless we should believe flat contradictions Whilst one Spirit saith It is another Spirit saith It is not can a man believe the one and not disbelieve the other if he hear both Believe not every spirit then is as much in St. Iohn's meaning as if he had said Be not too hasty to Believe any Spirit especially where there appeareth some just cause of Suspicion but try it first whether it be a true spirit or a false Even as St. Paul biddeth us prove all things that having so done we may hold fast what upon trial proveth good and let the rest go 30. Now holy Scripture is certainly that Lapis Lydius that Test whereby this trial is to be made Ad legem ad testimonium when we have wrangled as long as we can hitherto we must come at last But sith all Sectaries pretend to Scripture Papists Anabaptists Disciplinarians All yea the Devil himself can vouch Texts to drive on a Temptation It were good therefore we knew how to make right applications of Scripture for the Trial of Doctrines that we do not mistake a false one for a true one Many profitable Rules for this purpose our Apostle affordeth us in sundry places One very good one we may gather from the words immediately before the Text wherein the Church of God is said to be the pillar and ground of truth The Collection thence is obvious that it would very much conduce to the guiding of our judgments aright in the examining of mens doctrines concerning either Faith or Manners wherein the Letter of Scripture is obscure or the meaning doubtful to inform our selves as well as we can in credendis what the received sence and in agendis what the constant usage and practice of the Church especially in the ancient times hath been concerning those matters and that to consider what conformity the Doctrines under trial hold with the principles upon which that their sence or practice in the Premisses was grounded The Iudgment and Practice of the Church ought to sway very much with every sober and wise man either of which whosoever neglecteth or but slighteth as too many do upon a very poor pretence that the mystery of iniquity began to work betimes runneth a great hazard of falling into many errors and Absurdities If he do not he may thank his good fortune more than his forecast and if he do he may thank none but himself for neglecting so good a guide 31. But this now mentioned Rule although it be of excellent use if it be rightly understood and prudently applied and therefore growing so near the Text I could not wholly baulk it without some notice taken of it it being not within the Text I press it no farther but come to another that springeth out of the very Text it self And