should bee and doe so and so as to Adam I should not have eaten the forbidden fruit I should have kept the Gen. 2. covenant of my God for hee said doe this and live to David I should not have committed adultery or contrived murther for God hath said thou shalt not doe so Secondly to apply by way 2 To apply of reflection upon themselvs what yee have beene or done I should have beene and done so and so but I am and have done thus and thus As to Adam I should not have eaten the forbidden fruit but I have done it to David I should not have committed adultery and murther but I have done them and to all of us I should have repented believed hoped loved but I have not done them as I ought 3 To pronounce Thirdly to pronounce impartiall judgement upon your persons actions as therfore I am a wicked man have done foolishly and am accursed 2 Sam. 24. or therefore I am in Christ have done uprightly and am blessed Thus David I Psal 119. Luke 1. 5. have gone astray like a lost sheep thus the prodigal I have sinned against heaven and before thee thus Paul I was a persecutor blasphemer oppressour thus Hezekiah I have walked before 2 Tim. 1. Es 37. thee with a perfect heart This work of conscience will make you runne out of Sodom with a showre of brimstone at your heeles or make you passe thorough the wildernesse under a cloud of comfortable protection therefore hold it Lastly the charge of conscience 4 Hold the charge of conscience must be held also It hath a large Diocesse over every secret and every manifest thing of yours in person or by communion It hath a charge over inclinations Davids conscience saw the inclinations pronenesse of his heart to cleave unto the dust and therefore hee flies to GOD encline my heart Psal 119. unto thy testimonies and not unto covetousnesse It hath charge over the understanding therefore Agurs conscience lookes upon that and complaines surely I am more brutish Pro. 30. 2 then any man and have not the understanding of Adam in mee It hath charge over the memorie therefore God presents memory to his people they remembred not the Lord Iud. 8. 34 Psal 106. 7 their God they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies that their consciences might worke accordingly It hath charge over thoughts wills affections Es 55. 7 and desires Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts saith God to conscience Math. 15. the thoughts defile a man saith Christ to conscience therfore how long shall your wicked Ier. 4 14. thoughts lodge within you yee Ioh. 5. will not come unto me that ye may bee saved saith Christ to conscience Oh how I love thy Psal 119. Psal 18. Psal 119. Psal 42. law yea I love thee dearly O Lord my God I hate all wicked waies saith David from conscience My soule longeth for thee as the hart panteth after rivers of waters I desire to be Phil. 1. dissolved to be with Christ say Davids and Pauls consciences but wicked mens consciences shall cry at last wee desired not the knowledge of Iob. 21. thy lawes Yea the charge of Conscience reacheth to your words and deedes Yee must give an account of every idle Math. 12. word to God and your consciences of every idle word that hath no naturall civill or religious end therefore Davids conscience pleaded against him that he said in his haste all Psal 31. 22. Psal 116. 11 men are lyars even Samuel himselfe in his message from God and Peters conscience lashed him to the purpose for his detestable words in the high-priests hall Davids conscience also comes to his deeds I have sinned greatly in that I have done I have done 2 Sam. 24. 10. very foolishly Ezra when he presented others consciences as well as his owne cried out and now what shall wee say Ezr. 9. 10 for wee have forsaken thy commādements O the large charge of Conscience As ye must hold the light of conscience the love of conscience and the worke of conscience so hold the charge of conscience that yee may doe as Paul would have you hold a good conscience Would you now know the grounds of holding a good 2 Why you must hold a good cōscience 1 If it bee gone God will be against us conscience Doe but marke these foure that follow First if conscience runne away from you GOD your own soules will be against you Gods eyes are purer then to behold iniquitie with approbation and when hee with rebukes doth correct man for sinne as a moath hee makes his beauty to Psal 39. 11 consume away hee doth not presently thunder out of heaven but secretly gnawes out the comfort of their hearts when hee is to Ephraim as a Hos 4. Ier. 20. 3 4 Pro 28 1 Levit. 26. 37 moath He makes them plagues to themselves magor missabib flying when none pursues at the sound of a shaking leafe making every moate a beame and every beame an whole house Yea by conscience he makes them an whole wildernesse of woe Hezekiah complained that God would breake all his Es 38. 13 bones that hee could not speak for anguish of spirit but chattered like a crane or swallow and mourned like a dove Iobs bitter Iob. 12. 26 things that God wrote against him made him cry out that the arrowes of the Almightie Iob. 6. 4. 8. Iob. 7. 14. 15. were within him scared him with dreames and visions and made his soule choose strangling and death rather then life Davids bones waxed old with roaring all the day long and his moysture was like the Psal 32. 3. 4. drought in summer when Gods arrowes stucke fast in him thorough the power of conscience Therefore hold a good conscience Secondly nothing will doe 2 Without it nothing will doe us good Psal 51. you good without a good conscience Have you all houses lands gold silver kingdomes Empires they will do you no good without this no nor faith it selfe for a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5 and a good conscience and faith unfayned will goe together they all worke one for another a good conscience riseth from a pure heart and faith unfained cannot bee without a good conscience There is a A fourefold sting in sinne fourefold sting in sin the guilt of sin the fruits of sin the service of sin the habits of sin Faith in Christ pulls out the two first a good conscience from Christ the two last If therefore yee would have any good of what you have hold a good conscience Thirdly with a good conscience 3 With it nothing can doe us hurt nothing can doe you hurt It stands out against all the world Let slanders come Paul sets the sentence of his conscience against them with me it is a very
Therefore Cleon of old when hee was delegated to the helme of the common wealth called al his old frinds into a chamber to him to dissolve all relations and respects of old frindship that he might looke upon all with impartiall eies And the old Ephe. 25. Bona est erga pauperem misericordia sed non contra Judicium Iob 31. Gen. 12. Gen. 18. Judges of Athens called Aâ—eopagitae did heare all causes in darkenesse where they could see no persons why should it not be thus still especially considering Gods saying thou shalt not respect a poore man in judgement Surely mercy to a poore man is good saith Saint Augustine but not against judgement this is an holy eye Secondly when the cause is searched out diligently As God in the case of Babel-builders and Sodomites came down to see whether the case were according to the cry so must all doe that looke towards judgement Philip the Macedonian sitting in jvdgement upon one Machetes was not attentive he was more ready to sleepe then Dormitabundas heare saith the Historian yet at the end of the pleading hee pronounced sentence against him Poore Machites cryed out I appeale To whom saith Philip A te ad te from thee halfe asleepe to thee whole awake with that Philip rowzed himselfe up and heard the cause againe And though hee would not reverse the sentence to discredit his publike judgement yet hee himselfe paid the fine to punish his owne sloath Heere is an image of an holy eye 4 By an holy mouth Lastly there must bee an holy mouth when nothing is spoken in judgement which doth not become an holy mouth Christ looketh upon himselfe as the Judge of the world and saith I can Ioh. 5. 30. Non per infirmitareÌ„ sed per integritatem faciendi sed per observantiam Iudicandi Examinat causae merita non mutat Ambrosi doe nothing of my selfe what nothing he saith not so for weakenesse but for integrity not for his impossibility of doing but for his uprightnes in judging And againe As I heare I judge not judging by pleasure but by the religion of right judgement He is not indulgent to his owne will but doth examine the deserts of causes and determines without alteration Heere is an holy mouth Againe wicked men had taken a wicked woman in adultery even in the very act Christ came not to judge as an earthly governour and therefore hee pronounced not sentence according to the law Hee doth measure them all as wicked persons and saith he that is guiltlesse throw the first Iohn 8. Put a vit lapidandaÌ„ sed non a lapidandis Ambros stone Hee though her worthy to bee stoned but not by them that would have done it they must pull the beame out of their owne eye before they undertake that in their brothers Here againe is an holy mouth Againe Mary Magdalen was not invited to Luk. 7. the Pharises house but yet shee came and pressed upon Christ while others intertained him with meate she did it with teares Christ coÌ„mands her not to be shut out of dores though shee troubled him at dinner no hee commandes Omnium horarum judex Iohn 3. Iohn 4. the grumblers to let her alone He is for all houres for Nicodemus that came to him by night and for her that interrupts him at meate It was meate and drinke to him to doe his fathers will Heere was an holy mouth Yet once more Publius Rutilius the Roman when a deare friend prest him hard with an unjust suite denied him His angry friend cryes out what neede I thy friendship if thou wilt not grant mee my request He should have beene a Christian that thus answered what neede I thy friendship if thou presse mee to sinne against lawe and justice Here is an holy mouth Right honorable Right worshipfull and beloved oh Application that all that are to deale in any passage of justice this day were thus good as that they had such hearts hands eyes mouthes then should the Lord the Judge judge in the judgements of men I confesse that justice as every other vertue is harder in practise then in contemplation for not onely the Minorites Hist of Councel of Trent but the Majorites are the objects of reformation high as well as low are two guilty and an oxe flayes hardest when he comes to the head Besides our vices Vitia sunt a dulta praevalida are not infants they are growne men and strong and as Livy of old complained of Neque vitia neque remedia ferre possumus Rome wee neither can indure faults nor their corrections so may we say of some popular and Epidemicall vices and sicknesses of the soule now This made David groane under the burthen of Ioab who had slaine Abner a prince and a great man in Israel when he could not doe as he would for the present I am this day 2 Sam 3. 38. 39. weake though a King and the sonnes of Zervjah are too hard Mar. 14. 18. In bonum vniversitatis for me yet if every one in his place doe what he could for the common good upon sound examining of witnesses with all circumstances which is that which doth bring the edge of the law upon offenders then the Lord the Judge judgeth But if it fall out that reason Iudicium legis est Iudicium solius rationis Iudicium hominis est Judicium rationis libidinis soundly regulated rule not for the judgement of law is the judgement of pure reason the judgement of the man is the judgement of reason and lust or if witnesse bee not truely weighed as in Pilates case who sentenced Christ to death though he might legally know he was innocent because Mar. 14. 59. the witnesses agreed not or if circumstances bee not 2 Sam. 1. well sifted as David did who justly put the Amalekite to death upon his owne confession that hee killed Saul for though Saul killed himselfe as at least after knowne yet considering these two circumstances first that his confession was not out of Phrensie and discontent with his life but out of full reason to claw David and secondly that his bad thoughts were discovered by himself against the Lords annoynted which justly make him an unworthy traytor his death was justly inflicted by David or if it fall out that conscience be not fully satisfied with the light of truth before verdict and judgement and so proceedings be precipitate and hasty which Nero himselfe could scarce endure in his first part and therefore being mooved to set to his hand to an execution he would say I would I Vtinam nescirem literas cauld neither reade nor write If either of these foure fall out then the Lord the Judge judgeth not Now I beseech you you having heard thus much both how you may drive God from draw God unto judgement seates preach the rest of this judge to your own hearts
instruction First yee must bee extraordinary persons As it is with a batte or flindermouse it is a kinde of bird but an extraordinary one It flies 1 Be extraordinary persons like a bird and so is among the fowles of the aire but it brings not forth young like a bird nor feedes them like a bird nor feedes it selfe like a bird so be you singular among Mat. 5. 47. men one of a city and two of a tribe Ordinary men do love the world to a miracle They forget they are the generation of God and so to the dishonour of their race the world and worldly things doe blot out this law of justice But as wee read of Hercules when hee wrestled with the mighty Mauritanian Antheus so often as hee threw him to the earth his mother hee soone recovered his strength againe but when beyond ordinary course he lifted him up above the ground and so held him at armes end till he was breathlesse hee soone vanquished him So when yee wrestle with your owne hearts for justice which are earth earth earth and throw Ier 22. 29. them to the ground ye never goe away conquerours for they are where they would bee Therefore lift them up extraordinarily into another element and have your conversations in heaven and yee shall soone gaine the victory to doe this law of justice The prudent searchers of nature consider the soule of man according to the three powers of it and speake though not so accurately as others of three parts of it The reasonable angry and 1 Rationalis 1 Irascibilis 3 Concupiscibilis lustfull part From the reasonable part proceeds reason itselfe judgment discretion and wisedome and this they seat in the head From the angry part issue the hot motions of fortitude and courage and this they seate in the heart From the lustfull part come desires and appetites after meate drinke and other pleasures and this they seate in the ventricle These three may represent unto us the three ages of the world In the first they Melanch post were wise then wisedome flourished arts and sciences were invented and if wee seeme to be more in this then they it is because we are Pigmies upon those Giants shoulders In the second they were valorous From Ninus to Iulius was the age of warrious Then David Sampson Achilles and Hercules were in prime But in this third and last age most are given to appetite The understanding and heart have had their times but now the Belly is the great God and as hunger after pleasure profit or honour prevailes so all lawes of God and nature are more or lesse neglected Had yee not neede then to be singular now if you would doe as you would be done unto Secondly being singular 2 Let the Spirit of Christ dwell in you extraordinary let the spirit of Christ dwell in you as well as the law of nature even that spirit wherewith hee did revive this Nature is a good mistresse if Christ be our master Nature shall well direct us in our workes of justice when by Christs spirit we are created to good works Therfore bee sure that you bee in Christ by faith that Christ be in you by the life of justification sanctification comfort and then as Christ teacheth this law of nature so you through Christ shall grow more and more abounding in the practise of it so long as you are Experience teacheth that a tree lives longer then a man or fowle or beast and wee aske the reason of it It is resolved S. Fr. Bac. Nat. Hist thus Other creatures grow to their full stature and then grow no more but in excrements as haires nailes feathers and the like but a tree live it never so long growes in proper parts and so drawes juice and sap from the roote thorough the whole body to quicken it So if you inquire why a man in Christ doth keepe all lawes better then another man I answer because he is never at his height so long as hee is heere He dayly sucks in and drawes in his growing parts of greatnesse or goodnesse the heavenly oyle and liquor of Christs spirit which Phil. 4. inables him to doe all things thorough him that helpeth him Be it in the name of Iesus Christ thus with you and ye shall not faile to doe as you would be done unto in minds mouthes and members I le Motives to observe this law give you but two incentives and so an end The not doing this will much discomfort you in the day of death In many cases betwixt you and others you have seene or heard variety of opinions and for want of judgement or goodnesse by witty evasions have beene swayed this way and that way But then let conscience have her perfect work and when it spies that by these means ye have not done as ye would be done unto it cries prickes and wounds and yee know not what to doe especially when death comes to draw you to the barie of God Therefore as Pythagoras gave a precept to his schollars not to taste of any thing that had blacke tailes so doe I advise you here and I pray God you may follow it in my christian sense The king saith according to the old picture I rule you all the souldier saith I fight for you all the husbandman saith I feede you all the priest saith I pray for you all but death saith I devoure you all And then if notwithstanding your pretence of faith in Christ you have impenitently not done as you would be done unto hell will say I will torment you all Lastly consider that the doing of this will comfort you when that day comes Put case yee have not had braines to search into every particular case to reach to the depth of every wise law to untie every knot in things to bee done or forborne yet if in indighting witnessing pleading answering judging and recording yee have done as yee would bee done unto then shall your memories blesse your understandings for seeing your understandings blesse your memories for recording your understandings and memories blesse your wills for decreeing your wills blesse your affections for maintaining the whole soule blesse the body for practising and God shall blesse all for cleaving unto his law of justice from Christ and nature And if with this you have also the law of faith and piety and follow them according to the rule of Christ then shall you heare well done good and faithfull servants enter into your masters joy To which joy our good God bring us all in his good time thorough his way of piety and justice without holinesse no man shall see thee O Lord therefore bring us thither thorough the way of piety Hee that doth not righteousnesse is not of thee O God therefore bring us thither by the way of righteousnesse also Oh let us serve thee heere in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our
Ninevites who were presently Ion. 3. 2 Chro. 34. 27. in sackcloth and Iosiah who rent his cloathes with weeping eies and melting heart Thus Davids flesh trembled for fear of God and Psal 119. 120. he was affraid of his judgments yee must looke to the promises of God as David who hid Psal 119. 11 them in his heart that he might not sinne against him Whatsoever is in the word ye must have an eie unto For though they doe not so immediately concerne you in the way of life and death as many Genealogies Chronologies Histories and Prophecies yet you must bee ready to understand Praeparatione animi them and their uses as God shall offer them yet yee must principally hold precepts to direct threatnings to humble and promises to allure and comfort ye must hold them by understanding what the will Eph. 5. 17 of the Lord is till if ye can yee come to all riches of the ful Col. 2. 2. assurance of understanding Yee must hold them by assenting to them yeelding to all the truth of them as Saint Luke to the storie of Christ whereof he was fully perswaded Yee Luâ—e 1. 1. must hold them by bringing your bodies and soules into subjection unto them For in Iesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith working Gal. 5. 6. by love This is the object of faith The act of faith is to say 3 The act of faith this is mine to adjudge and appropriate father sonne and holy Ghost unto your selves without this yee cannot feele any comfort of what you believe Therefore as David and Christ said My God My Psal 22. 1. Ioh. 20. 28 God as Thomas said My Lord and my God and as the Luke 1. 47 Blessed Virgine said my spirit that is the quintessence of my soule acted by the spirit of God rejoyceth in God my Saviour so by way of adherence when most times ye have no evidence yee must take God in Christ as your owne as hee offers himselfe I am the Lord Ex. 20. Ier. 31. thy God I will bee thy God This is the act of faith The power of faith is to make use of the riches of it The power of faith Psal 32. Psal 45. Rom. 4. Act. 15. Mal. 4. Eph. 3. Heb. 6. 2 Cor. 4. 13. for thy owne proper good Great is the power of faith and it prevaileth It covereth our sinnes by the garments of Christ our elder brother and so is imputed to us for righteousnesse It cureth our sinnes bringing Christ who hath healing under his wings to dwell in our hearts by faith It brings forth a world of the labour of love wee having the same spirit of faith believe speak and thinke and doe For by Eph. 2. 10. faith we are Gods workemanship created in Christ to good workes to walke in them And this affirme constantly that they that have believed in Tit. 3. 8. GOD be carefull to maintaine good workes This is the power of faith Now this ground of faith 2 Why yee must hold faith this object of faith this act of faith this power of faith you must hold upon these five Grounds First faith is our life wee live by faith not by sight and 1 Faith our life 2 Cor. 5. Hab. 2. every just man must live by his faith Not efficiently for so in GOD we live move and Act. 17. have our being Nor meritoriously for so saith Christ I am the way the truth and the life Nor by way of immediate Ioh. 14. application for so the holy ghost is a quickening spirit as Adams soule was the 1 Pet. 3 18. Gen. 2. breath of life But as a prime instrument of our life in Christ without this wee cannot have life either before God or in this miserable world This Rom. 1. 17 Heb. 10. 38 unites us to Christ and receives a quickning spirit as the vertue of Christ from the spirit of Christ in the meanes of salvation As men say of their trades and hands under God they are my living take away these and take away my life so say wee of faith it is your life therfore hold it Secondly faith is our power 2 Faith is our power of working of working to doe us our best good In a naturall man his reason is his power Hee is borne naked with abundance of bodily weaknesse a beast hath a great deale of bodily strength and if a lyon rationally knew how to use his pawes a dog his teeth a bullock or buck his hornes or an horse his hoofes how few men would there bee in the world But let man come in with his reason and hee subdues them all But in a believer his faith is his power and what is the power of reason to this As Christ said of miraculous faith it pulls up trees by the rootes and removes mountaines it makes sunne stand still and go backward so much more of this saving christian faith in another kinde It covers more sinnes then heaven and earth can cover Get the heavens to cover them our sinnes are more then the starres and are come up above the heavens Get the sea to cover them the sea can cover the sands at a full tide but our sins are more then the sandes of the sea Get the earth and all the creatures to cover them our sinnes over-top them all and make Rom. 8. the whole creation groane under the burthen But get faith and as love covers a multitude of sinnes in others so faith covers all sinnes in our selves It brings the garments of Christ and then wee cannot Apoc. 16. Phil. 3. Dan. 9. bee naked It brings the righteousnes of God the everlasting righteousnesse to dwel amongst men and then God cannot but be there where his righteousnesse is to give grace and Psal 84 16 glorie and every perfect gift It is your power to doe your best good and therefore hold it Thirdly faith is your workman 3 Faith is our workman Set faith about any work and what can it not doe Art thou at Gods Gen. 12. word to goe a great journey thou knowest not whither Faith did it for Abraham Art thou to fight against lyons Heb. 11. Gen. 22. beares Philistims and other puissant enemies Faith did it for David Sampson Gideon Barach and their fellowes Art thou to doe what nature abhorres Faith did it for Abraham in the sacrifice of his son Art thou to cleanse the uncleane stables of sinne Faith will take Christs spirit and arguments and doe it It cries out shall I that am dead to sinne yet live Rom. 6 therein Shall I sinne that grace may abound God forbid I will mortifie the deedes of the Rom. 8. flesh by the spirit Art thou to suffer persecution Faith will suffer it for thee in goates-skinnes and sheepes-skinnes Heb. 11. in the craggie wildernesse Art thou to overcome Death
and Hell Faith will doe it too Faith receives Heb. 11. the dead to life and sends a defiance to the greatest enemies of it O Death where is 1 Cor. 15 thy sting O Hell where is thy victory Thankes bee to God for Iesus Christ the Captaine of my salvation O who would bee without faith It is our workeman hold it Rom. 7. 4 Faith is our best light here Fourthly faith is all the comfortable light yee have in the world Without the sunne the earth would be an Aegypt and without faith we are in a region of darkenesse The wisemen Math. 4. Math. 2. came out of the east and worshipped Christ offering also gold frankincense and myrrhe why what did they see in him They saw a child not a man they saw him in a stable not in a throne in ragges not in robes crying in a cratch not thundring in the clouds how then came it about they now worshipped Faith saw God in him for the heavens waited upon him in his starre Faith saw in him a prophet a priest a king and their oblations were answerable The thiefe upon the crosse cryes out unto Christ Lord remember mee when thou comest into thy kingdome was he a Lord that was dealt with like a slave had hee a kingdome that was disgracefully thrust out of the world Could he remember him that would not remember himself when they cryed come downe from the crosse and save thy selfe Faith casts away these mists and saw glory in shame Yee know what the Centurion said verily this man was the son Mat. 27. 54. of God what a man and the sonne of God too The son of God that could not have the favour to live or dye so well as the sonne of man Surely some sparke of faith saw life in death light in darknesse It is your light hold it Lastly faith makes earth 5 Faith makes earth heaven Math. 13. Gen. 28. Eph. 2. heaven unto you and the church the kingdom of heaven the house of God the Gates of heaven and sets us on the seats of heaven heere below Before we come to the proper place and mansion which Christ hath Ioh. 16. provided for us by faith wee sit with Abraham Isaack and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven Put case wee hope for it wee see it not faith is the ground of things hoped for the evidence Heb. 11. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things not seene It stands under the waight of the whole world and yet sayes heaven is mine It sees nothing but earth and sinners and beasts and trees under the canopie of the starrie heaven and yet sayes heaven is mine as if it had it already O the world of grace and glory that is in faith therefore hold faith Oh that I now knew how Application to screw my selfe into your soules to search whether yee hold faith How many thousands have it not and cannot hold it How many thousands have it a little and know not whether they hold it or no yee are to bee married to the lambe and till that day come Annulum sponsalem yee have but the wedding-ring of faith to have and to hold first for promise then for fruition Tell me then Doe yee hold the ground of 1 Try the ground of faith Rom. 8. faith Then yee are humbled soules yee have passed thorough the spirit of bondage whereby yee have been shut up in prison under Moses till the sonne hath made you free Ioh. 8. and yee walke humbly ever after for feare of loosing this estate This laies the foundation of faith deepe enough Hymeneus and Alexander 1. Tim. 1. 20. built upon the sands and so they ship-wrackt against the rockes of the world Therefore you must downe lower under the sands earth rockes to the gates of hell and then Out of the depths have I cryed Psal 130. 1 unto thee O Lord. Are yee thus in some measure or other according to your sinnes Say it if yee love faith and your salvation Are yee convinced Ioh. 16. Act. 2. of your sinnes are yee pricked at the heart for your sinnes Are yee so all this that yee are at utter enmity with all sinne Then keepe this ground of faith Doe yee hold the object of 2 Try the object of faith faith This nourisheth and keepes faith alive It is like oyle to the lampe like fewell to the fire and like sap to the tree Have you full assurance of the knowledge of the scriptures Can you say I le pawn my life body and goods and soule that though I cannot conceive all yet all in the scripture is true what I know is true and I resolve to learne more what I know not is true and I will doe my best to comprehend that too Have ye a free assent to all the truth of it and to that alone for salvation Do ye not come off basely as Agrippa almost thou Act. 26. 28 perswadest mee Have yee a beliefe to all the precepts promises and threatnings of the scriptures Doe ye say all the commandements are true I must do them all the threatnings are true and if I live in Deut. 32. sinne I must undergoe them even to burning in the nethermost hell all the promises are true and I must relieve my flagging and drooping spirit with them in despite of my unbeleeving heart Doth thy faith in the knowledge of them change thee as it did David who when hee could Psal 40. say that in the volume of thy booke it is written of mee presently cries out Loe I come to doe thy will If it be thus hold faith But doest thou not rather hate the being of the word in thy understanding Thou knowest it will strip thee of all thy lusts Doest thou not therefore say as those miscreants depart from mee I desire Iob. 20. not the knowledge of thy lawes doest thou not hate the nature of the word to will as that wills Heare that cursed voice and feare to finde it in thy selfe I will doe as I have done Ier. 44. whatsoever the word of God saith Doest thou not hate the rules of the word Art thou not sorry they are true Wouldest thou not they were false Can a fleshly-man love that flesh and bloud cannot inherit 1 Cor. 15. the kingdome of heaven Can an old sinner love that the childe shall dye an hundred Es 65. 20. yeares old so ripe shall hee bee for God and the sinner being an hundred yeares old shall bee accursed Can an usurer love that hee is not for Gods tabernacle and holy hill that Psal 15. 5 putteth his mony to usury Can an whoremonger love that whoremongers and adulterers Heb. 13. God will judge or any of those sinners that bee not deceiued neither fornicators nor 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor theevs nor covetous nor