neere him or hurt him Psa 91.7 c. and after a glorious victory of all miseries here Luk. 10.19 Rom. 2.7.10 he shall be crowned with glory and eternity hereafter Let us not then in a good cause be ever deterred by the vaine affrights of feare or danger The goodnesse of the cause ought to animate us in the evilnesse and hardnesse of the way to accomplish it If God be the author the devill cannot be the hinderer Honesty and goodnesse shoot in stright lines at the last and best end Gods glory and God will as certainly prosper the meanes as he doth propose the end Verum bonum convertuntur say the Schooles Truth and goodnesse are reciprocates there is no goodnesse without truth no truth without goodnesse Magna est veritas vincet great is truth and shall prevaile so all goodnesse in the strength of truth shall at last overcome The winds may blow the raine fall Matt. 7.24.25 the floods beat upon thee but thou shalt not fall for thou art grounded upon a rocke Hast thou begun then a noble a glorious action which redounds to Gods glory the Churches and Common-weal's good Incapisti benè quis impedivit Thou bast begun well Gal. 5.7 who hath hindred thee that thou continuest not If the action was evill why did you undertake it if the action was good why do you not hold on What if slanderers back-bite you and traduce you What if authority frowne what if envy maligne what if the multitude rage Psal 2.2 and the people imagine a vaine thing thou hast Gods commission say not then I cannot 't is but nè fortè malum capiat moriar but a lest some evill take me and I dye Thine owne cowardize thine owne weaknesse may conquer thee Psal 2 3. but all these though they take counsell together shall not be able to withstand thee If God set thee on worke he 'le beare thee through maugre the opposing fury of the devill and all his agents Go on then in the strength of the Lord and be victorious Psa 71.16 I tell thee if for the fortè there be an evill reall that threat thee Sicapiat if it take thee si moriare if thou die Rom. 14 8. yet know whether thou live or die Rom. 8.37 thou art more than conquerer It 's better fall in a good cause than prosper in an evill one Onely let not thy feare betray Gods cause to miscarriage If death it selfe be threatned to thee die Canst thou ever have a better end than to die for that end for which thou and all things were made Gods glory which grant O Lord that we may propose unto our selves in all our thoughts words and works that glorifying thee in this life we may receive eternall glory and felicity from and with thee in the life to come and that not for any merits â—four own but for his sake who hath dearly bought us to whom with the father and the holy Spirit be ascribed all honour praise and glory now and forever Amen GENES 19. VERS 20. Behold now this City is neere to flee unto and it is a little one O let me escape thither is it not a little one and my soule shall live IT is a property of Divinity not to erre Perfection is a White at which all of us ought to aime none may hope to hit The best men have their errours and imperfections Optimus ille est qui minimis urgetur he 's the best man that hath least he 's no man that hath no faults Let him be excepted that was without exception him that being man was more then man too CHRIST JESUS God and man in whom there was no fault neither was guile found in his lips All others are comprehended under the condition of sin which they shall never put off while they are clad in these robes of flesh The best of Gods Saints have had their slips and fals and to make them flye forth from themselves to a better and surer hold they have had often remembrances of their owne weakenesse in many grievous wounds and bitter derelictions have often fallen been wounded with the weak reed of their owne strength Wonder not then if you behold a David defiling his hands and heart with innocent blood 2 Sam. 12.9 and unlawfull pleasures David 2 Sam. 11.5 though a man after Gods owne heart 1 Sam. 13.14 was but a man Wonder not to behold a Solomon 1 Kin. 3.12 the wisest among the sonnes of men committing a double whoredome 1 Kin. 11.1.4 Spirituall and Corporall Solomon though so wise was but a man Wonder not that Peter so foully denyed and abjur'd his master Mar 14.66 67 c. unlesse you wonder that Peter was a man We receive with our birth and nature two inevitable conditions peccare mori to sin and to dye And though it hath beseemed the piety of the Churches children to justifie the Patriarkes against the bitter taunts of scaffing I shmaelites and uncircumcised Philistines and like the good sons of Noah to go backward with the vail of charity in their hands Gen. 9.23 and cover the nakednesse of their fathers yet must not that vaile of charity blindfold our judgement so that we altogether deny those faults to be which we would have concealed from the scorne of irreligious men Diminuit culpam excusatio non tollit God would have the errours and faults of his Saints as well to stand upon record as their vertues and therefore Seneca Nat. quaest lib. 6. cap. 23 as Seneca sayes of Alexander his murther of Calisthenes hoc est Alexand. crimen aeternum quod nulla virtus nulla bellorum faelicitas redimâ—t This is a blemish that shall eternally sticke on his faire name which no vertue of his nor the glory of all his victories shall redeeme quoties enim quis dixerit occidit Persarum multa millia opponetur Calisthenem quoties dictum erit occidit Darium opponetur Calisthenem quoties omnia Oceano tenus vicit ipsum quoque tentavit imperium c. opponetur sed occidit Calisthenem As often as it shall be said he slew many thousands of Persians yea but it shall be said againe he slew Calisthenes As oft as it shall be said he conquered Darius yea but he kill'd Calisthenes As often as it shall be reported to the renowne of his name he subdued all to the very Ocean and it too and removed his Kingdome from a corner of Thrace till it knew no other bounds but the same with the whole earth but as a check to all his glory it shall be said yea but he kill'd Calisthenes Thus it is in the blessed Scripture with many of the Lords worthies whose religious life and integrity deservedly cals upon our wonder to behold them but then againe lest they of themselves should entertaine too high an opinion or we of them desinit in
like Gods Gen 3. to know good and evill they can never claw of But there is certainely an height to which we may goe but he that rests not there may goe further but it is downewards and that many times impotente sui pondere with a swinge that cannot controule it selfe till it carry him headlong into the dangerous precipice of distraction and errour Such while like Elias they are wrapt in the Chariot of contemplation 2 King 2.11.13 reach not to the perfect vision of the heavens and things done and enacted there which they aspire to but they let fall their mantles which should vaile their nakednesse Knowledge as it is in it selfe is a sweet thing but it hath its sower sauce with it Like Vinegar it doth not so much satisfie the appetite as whet it with a new and fresh desire The Satyre that could not be content to see the fire but must needs in Curiositie feele it scorched his fingers Now for answer to this second argument of Lots and to shew the fallacie of it whereas he saith it is neer The neernesse is so farre from making lawfull his request that it shewes it rather to be absurd for if it be neer Sodom it is neer danger and the more being as neer in condition as in place Is this Zoar a Citie of the Plaines and not in the same condition of sinfulnesse with Sodom Then Lot thou wouldest change place but not company and the next degree to sinne is to be in the company of sinners Woe be to him that is alone saith Solomon and yet say I better it is to be alone then in the company of sinners Eccles 4.10 and that in respect of a double danger infection and judgement First of infection for I dare say it is as great a miracle for a man that permits himselfe the libertie of wicked societie not to be tainted Dan. 3.27 as for the three children in the fiery furnace not to be burned And good reason is therefor this since in our body there is not so great a disposition to catch fire as in our soules to receive the tincture of sinne The customarie beholding of sin committed though by others doth in our selves weaken the strength of our Antipathy and by little and little familiarize it to our nature bringing us by an insensible progression from a full hatred to a faint dislike from dislike to a toleration from a toleration to a consent so to a delight and at last to a societie and actuall commission And as the danger of infection is much so secondly little lesse is the danger of judgement Witnesse Lot himself who suffered in the captivity of Sodom because he so journed in the Citie of Sodom Tum tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet Virgil. Who desires a vicinitie with danger First therefore looke unto thy safety and then to thine ease 'T is neer to Sodom and therefore farre from safetie He commits a strange soloecisme that makes the way his end that lookes how he goes not whether Such is the folly of us wretched men Doe not we just as Lot did When the seeming pleasures of the way cozen us into hell when foolishly delighted with the pleasures of sin for a time we goe on in the wayes of death Heb. 11.25 as an Oxe goeth on to the slaughter or as a foole to the correction of the stockes till a dart strik through our liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7.22 23.27 Thus much for Lots first argument à quantitate viae it is neer I proceed to the second à quantitate termini t is little it is a little one and is it not perexigua a very little one In which words me thinkes I discerne as much passion as hope of compassion Behold it is a little one and is it not a little one Let me with your patience before I enter further into examination of the argument doe what I thinke the words will give me leave looke over the pale of Divinitie into the groves and shades of Philosophy and there would I desire the resolution of a probleme Why men have a kinde of naturall indulgence and delight in little things Or why men are more taken with things that are under their just and ordinary proportion then those that exceed it For inanimate it is not onely not so but directly contrary where with the quantitie of bulke is also encreased the quantity of vertue as in pearles precious stones and the like But for artificiall things 't is indeed many times on the contrary that the valew and esteeme of them is so much the more by how much they are the lesse To comprehend in the compasse of a Wall-nut or in a lesse quantitie so many severall springs wheeles catches motions all distinctly regularly moving is it not farre more admirable then the exemplar of the same in a great clock For our esteeme of these lesser workes the reason is evident in regard it shewes the more art to contrive a worke in the lesse quantitie Materiam superabit opus Nay this is grounded upon nature Ovid. which nunquam abundat in supervacaneis sed agit per lineas breviores goes the most compendious and neer way to work But now for animated things why we are more tenderly affected towards them in their minoritie and infancie rather then in their adult-age and maturitie What may be the reason of that Is it that innocency of theirs with which we are affected that yet is defiled with no other sin then what by the necessity of their procreation is contracted to them Or is it from a noblenesse of nature to be indulgent towards them that are unable to helpe themselves Or is it we love them as the meanes of our eternitie to which we aspire by this renovation of our selves Or will you say it is a weaknesse of our judgements and misplacing of our affections on the imperfection and inchoation of the creature rather then on their adult-age and perfection Or is it a kinde of simpathy with our owne principles Sure if it be none of these and that I may erre in the reason yet the thing it self is evidēt that naturally we are more compassionately indulgent to the infancy and minoritie of the creatures then to them in their adult-age and maturitie and our blessed Saviour himselfe seemes to acknowledge in his owne example this affection as lawfull as naturall in taking little children in his armes Mark 10.16 laying his hands upon them and blessing them rebuking those that forbade them to be brought unto him and many such like passages But I am afraid I have dwelt too long on this theme though I am confident not with any impertinencie to my Text in which I finde the straines of like passionate indulgence it is a little one and is it not a little one and my soule shall live But I proceed to
which followes in these words O let me escape thither But before I passe to the request and last argument here stands in a parenthesis a passionate Epanalepsis set downe by way of interrogation is it not a little one In which having done with the matter of the words the Rhetorick only is left to our observation It is a little one O let me escape thither and is it not a little one In which words methinkes I finde as somewhat of passion so much of a compassionate indulgence so that I know not what more winning and affectionately moving could have been spoken A right piece of true Rhetorick that woes the affections like a right artist like one that would derive both powerfull and pathetically into his auditory his owne notions his owne sence and like a common Genius of the whole body animate the whole company with one and the same soul This is the true end of all Rhetorick both prophane and sacred ducere affectus to take and lead the affections quoquo velis which soever way you please And to doe that is there any way but through the understanding Which being truely and undoubtedly so I can but wonder for understand I doe not what end they have proposed to themselves whose preaching is more affectedly obscure then Delphian Oracles or Egyptian Ieroglyphicks that indeed make good in a bad sence that of the Apostle that calls preaching prophesying 1 Cor. 14 3. that have mouthes nay words and speak not and would make good that curse upon their auditors to be of those that hearing heare and understand not Isa 6 9. 82 and seeing see and perceive not Act 28.26 And indeed I wonder at the patience of them that heare such who are delt with as the Foxe did with the storke Who inviting the storke to a feast powr'd his liquor into so slat and shallow a dish that the poor stork was only a spectator while the Fox lapt up the meat his long bill being unable to dip in that shallow platter For you that heare such I know not in that regard what you loose if you sleep whilst such preach for if they will not make you auditors I know not why you should in the Church onely be spectators But for such Preachers I would upon the pardon of a question give them I think good counsell What need they labour an houre not to be understood Is it not a more compendious way if they would not be understood to say nothing 2. There is an other sort that on the contrary as the former make preaching prophesying so these in as bad sense would make good that of the Apostle of some that call preaching foolishnesse as if because preaching must not be gareish 1 Cor. 1.21.23 it must therefore be sordid T is beyond the patience of an understanding man to beare the rankenesse of their undigested meditations and God sure but for our punishment never made such Ambassadors It is beyond both my purpose and skill to prescribe the best way who acknowledg my selfe in the lowest classe of learners But sure there is a latitude wherein men may both please and profit and it will prove best when men learne first the inclination of their owne Genius and seeke to perfect that whether in the kinde of prosecution or action Much of imitation is distort and lame I have with a perfunctory touch done with this and come to Lots affirmative request O let me escape thither God prescribes Lot the way to escape flye to the mountaine Lot replyes O not so my Lord for I cannot c. there 's a nè sic of disobedience O not so and there 's a nè fortè that is his distrust and then behold this Citle is better there is confidence 1. Man 's a distrustfull creature and yet man 's a presumptuous creature For is there any climax in sinne whose highest step we have not reached If the basenesse and abjectednesse of our feares shrinke us as low as hell the swolne pride and height of our presumption preaches us as high as heaven so that with a saucie presumption we dare capitulate and indent with God nay even chalk him out the way with a not so my Lord but behold a better conveniency O let me escape thither thither to Zoar one of the five Cities of the plaines 2. Man you see desires to serve God easily and cheaply would have the way to heaven downe the hill the way broad strawed with violets and roses good store of merry companions along with him and at the end a wide and open gate that might be hit blindfold O who then would not goe to heaven He thinkes it not for the state of so glorious a Palace to have so narrow a Gate It 's that that offends many and makes them turne back againe to Sodom that the way should be so narrow set with thornes of afflictions that scratch and pull back a solitary and melancholick way as many think through disgraces and reproaches 2 Cor. 6.8 c. loaden with an heavy yoake an heavy crosse Matth. 11.29 that all the way must professe patience Luk. 9 23. and invite a second blow after the first Luk. 21.19 and at the end agate that to get through they must creep low as the dust Matth. 5.39 and so straight that to get through a man must leave his wealth Matth. 7.14 his dearest sins nay even his flesh The Israelites way to the spirituall Canaan is through a sea of sorrow made big with their owne teares that goes high with their owne sighes with a spirituall Pharaob full of rage and at their heeles through a Wildernesse where there are all things that threaten death and no sustenance for life Deut. 8.15 no bread no water no flesh no houses a long way through deserts and wildernesses amongst many fiery serpents through many enemies O these are the things that make many a one returne againe towards Egypt Act. 7.39 and goe on merrily in the wayes of death Prov. 7.23 till a dart strike through his soule Men will with much adoe perhaps be brought to desire to escape the spirituall Sodom but not by the mountaine O that 's up hill and against the haire but by the way of the Plaines of Zoar all would escape O sayes every one let me escape but thither this way by Zoar and my soule shall live We would be content to invert that petition thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven to thy will be done in heaven as it is on earth that our pleasure might rather be Gods service then Gods service our pleasure Most men deeme the man in the Gospel a foole to buy so deare a bargaine when he found the Pearle Matth 13.46 that is to part with all that he had to purchase it What needed this cost without doubt say they heaven ' may be had at an easier rate and he but over-bought his