at what To stumble is to take an argument of offence at something to make them fall still into the wayes of wickednesse As when the Iewes took these arguments against Christ to conclude against faith in him He is a man gluttonous a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Wee say well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Divell And when the Iewes took these arguments against Stephen We have heard him speake blasphemous words against Moses against God against this holy place and the Law And when the Corinthians raised this foundation against Saint Paul This fellow perswadeth men to worship GOD contrary to the Law and Tertullus in a slanting speech before Foelix wee have found this man a very pestilence a mover of sedition among all the Iewes in all the World These are arguments of offence to make them that doe receive them still to fall into sin new sins old sins all sins But whereat ordinarily doe wicked men stumble Ordinarily at sixe sorts of things when they would flatter themselves in their wayes of darkenesse Either Ignorance or presumption or despaire or the World or scandall or the peaceable end of sinners and the contrary of those that have lived more strictly They stumble at ignorance on both hands Sometimes they stumble at the ignorance of sin and so they fall to sin and care not feare not When Iosiah knew not sin his sweet nature stumbled with the times but when he heard the Law of God read he rent his clothes and melted to the very heart When Saul lived a Pharisee the death of Stephen was nothing it could be swallowed up upon a full stomack but when the Law came and shewed him what sinne was when hee saw sinne revive to pricks wound and kill then he mourned under his captivity Sometimes they stumble at the ignorance of Repentance They are like Nicodemus who cannot heare of a new life but hee dreames of entring his mothers wombe againe and like Peters hearers who when they sinned knew not what they did and when they were pricked at the heart for sin knew not what to doe Men and brethren what shall we doe to be saved They stumble at presumption that God will any time accept of them upon any termes Therfore at what time soever saith one GOD desireth not the death of a sinner saith another Christ saith Come unto me saith a third God will that all men should bee saved saith a fourth Every presumptuous wretch layeth some sure foundation which might be sound and sweet to a true penitent which yet will not serve his turne when he is to try the strength of it no more than Sampsons greene Cords could binde him or a rope of sand can pull down an impregnable Castle They stumble at despaire and at that on both sides too Sometimes they despaire of their owne strength Alas all the waies of vertue grace and glory are too hard for me I must lie downe in shame confusion sinne and sorrow but not move a foot to Heaven When Christ preached that no man could come to him except it were given him of his Father many of his Disciples went backe and walked no more with him in so much as CHRIST complained to the twelve Will yee also forsake mee If Christ bee such a manner of person that accesse to him is so hard so much above our power that we must be beholding to a Father whom wee are not acquainted with then farewell Christ welcome world who are more familiar Sometimes againe they despaire of GODS strength and mercy for them Christ cannot save them GOD will not save them Let strength and mercy bee what it will on high it is too high for them What is that to me I am the worst of unworthy sinners This cast out Cain hanged Judas damned both and any other that delight in such a downefall They stumble at the world of honour pleasure profit The stony hearers stumbled at the care-cloth the thornes of cares for worldly pelfe The unworthy Guests stumbled at the new bought purchases of Farmes and Oxen and so much as at the new married Wife I cannot come The rich worldling at the new Barnes and store for many dayes His soule did so alwayes live in them that hee thought hee should alwayes live with them Thus they stumbled and fell The huge blocke of the World was too great for them to leape over into heaven and therefore downe they fall and breake their neckes into the wayes of sinne They stumble at scandall and at that they trip dangerously on both hands Sometimes they are loth to offend their wicked companions what shall I forsake them scandalize them goe without them though in a better way make them that are my friends my foes to neglect and scoffe at mee This made Nicodemus come to Christ by night This made many of the chiefe Rulers believe in him but they confessed him not lest they should bee put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God Sometimes againe they take offence at the lives of those that seeme to bee more godly than themselves and are so at least by profession Indeed these should bee very carefull to adorne the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore many excellent exhortations are spent upon them in the most sure Word of GOD. Sometimes they are called upon to behave themselves wisely to them that are without Sometimes to walke honestly towards them that are without sometimes to give no offence neither to Jew Câ—â—iaâ— nor Church of GOD yet are they not so carefull in the workes of holinesse righteousnesse and sobriety as they ought This is soone espied by wicked men and so made an argument to stumble at You will say They are in darknesse how then can they spie such a hole in the coat of him that is better than themselves I le tell you when men see a thing that may further them in the way to Heaven they do receive it inward by the meanes of the spirit and the sweet beames of grace which shine about them For every good giving comes from the Father of lights but when they see any thing that helpes them onward to Hell they have a power of seeing from within As a Cat sees in a darke night by fyring the aire to her selfe and for her owne uses so wicked men being set on fire of Hell can in their darkest state easily kindle a light for their owne uses to find fodder for their soules in their way to Hell-ward They stumble Lastly at the peaceable end of sinners Truly they dyed like Lambes There are no hands in their death just like the good thiefe upon the Crosse which with quiet and sweet reaches after grace and glory breathed out his soule to GOD notwithstanding all the wickednesse of
THE YOVNG-MANS Warning-peece OR A Sermon preached at the buriall of WILLIAM ROGERS Apothecary With an History of his sinfull Life and wofull Death Together with a Post-script of the use of Examples Dedicated to the Young-men of the Parish especially to his Companions By Robert Abbot Vicar of Cranebrooke in KENT Prov. 7.23 The young Foole as a Bird hasteneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life LONDON Printed by R. B. for P. Stephens and C Meredith and are to be sold at their Shop at the signe of the Golden Lion in Pauls Church Yard 1639 To all the Young-men of my Parish especially to late Companions of William Rogers Apothecary Grace Mercy and Peace DEerely beloved Young-men that this Sermon in effect was preached by mee among you you know and the occasion you know too When I preachd it it cam to your eares it wrought something in some of your eyes but I little thought to have presented it to your eyes againe Importunities from abroad and at home have pressed mee to make this adventure And now it is come to whom should it come but unto you It is true my love to that dead Young-man made me willing to satisfie his desire and your desires to have it have not made mee willing thus to send it unto you Yet your courses being the occasion of it and your welfare being the end of it you may justly chalenge it and shall not by mee bee robbed of your right Who knowes whether God may leave a blessing behind I cannot bee assured that for the word of God handled in it or for me the poore instrument that is used in it ye will make much use of it for your good because I feare ye so often prefer an ale-house before the house of God It may be ye had rather be without it than have it because the sight of it to you will be a sting the sight of it to others will bee but a remembrancer to them to call upon you still to forsake those courses which ye love Yet herein have I hope that you will love to see the picture of him being dead whom yee loved and followed as your Doctor while he lived If it be not drawne to life my eyes eares and understanding much faile me besides many witnesses will not faile to say that all is true I am sure it is so for substance and if it be coloured otherwise even at the first it was rudely drawne it is for your sakes that you may still see him the more perfectly and know your owne estate You have had in your daies many examples teaching that there is no bargaine to be had in a wicked way it is folly to lay out your silver and not for bread But to have two in one yeere layes the axe to the root of the trees of the Wood and preacheth that except ye amend yee shall likewise perish Yee have seene two Apothecaries different in their course The one so many wayes looking home-ward that he died miserably rich the other so lashing outward that hee dyed miserably poore Both of sweet and mild natures and of different waies in life yet both of uncomfortable passages out of the world The one having first the devill presenting himselfe unto him to be his Physitian and next CHRIST sitting on the Throne condemning his unprofitable life and bidding him shift for himselfe for he would have nothing to do with him The other as if hee would prevent Christ condemning himselfe to hell for ever and ever The one being very rich and having no children was pressed by me while hee was in peace and before his last Will was settled of his thousands to give but one hundred pounds for the repairing of the Church or other pious workes But if hee were worth ten thousand as he said he would not give a penny beside what he had given by will that is twenty Marks to the poor ten pounds to me and some other petty Legacies If I were rich I should be loth to pay so deare for such a denyall as he did in the end full of horror to the last The other being very poore was pressed by me againe and againe but to beleeve in Christ for salvation But I could not for ought I saw prevaile neither The one had lived well except his misery the other had lived ill and so in misery worse I know you feare not the danger of â—he first example for you are out of the way of being too rich If you have enough to goe like gallant Blades it is all you desire yet if you have not your credite must bee good till the quarter day or the good market comes But may you not feare the danger of the second Him ye loved enough his courses yee love too well The Ale-house must bee your Chappell Kitchin Work-house the first draught is your prayer the next your breakfast and the last your worke Yet if ye had but a Priest that would prophecy of Wine and strong drinke and say Come let us fill our selves with Wine and strong drinke to morrow shall be as this dâ—y and much more aboundant hee were the only man and you the only people of the world I know you think yourselv's very familiar with Christ as if hee would passe by these slips of youth and imbrace you in the armes of his mercy upon the least call But you forget that Christ hath now taken state upon him He was an Infant crying in the Cratch and then he was circumcised by wicked Priests carried by an Asse into Ierusalem Hee was a Preacher in Israel and then he was pressed upon by all and sought to be intangled by his enemies Hee was a worker of miracles here and then sicke soules and bodies troubled him He was under arrests and executions and then Iudas did kisse Souldiers buffeted and spit upon him and Iewes and Gentiles killed him But now the case is altered his present state admits no such neere approach Will you say hee is my sweet Saviour still Go then and tell him so say Lord I am idle unprofitable and luxurioâ—s but thou art my sweet Saviour still Say yee to your fathers and mothers I am drunken idle warton rebellious but ye are my father and mother still and I expect your blessing and your pâ—rse Surely such proud and dissolute carriage shall a thousand times sooner please men on earth than it shall please Christ in heaven He hath redeemd you that ye might serve him in righteousnesse and holines all the daies of your life He hath bought you with a price that yee might glorifie God in body and soule and by the grace of God save your selves from the midst of this wicked generation wherein ye live Perhaps you may think your sinnes not to be so great but that you may keep your fellowship in the salvation of Christ too But they are not worthy of pitty who wilfully deceive their own soules
It is not bad enough to have these horrors and perplexities for sinnes and punishments He was no swearer no whoremonger no thiefe no scoffer at Religion no perjured wretch no wilfull lyar no proud and sâ—rley resister of good counsell and reproofe like too many other young-men now a dayes yet when conscience is awaked and sits as a Iudge on him Onely for drunkennesse neglect of mens bodyes and neglect of Prayer Word and Sacrament he passeth this heavie doome upon himselfe I must bee burned in the furnace of Hell millions of millions of ages and at the last in idlenesse of thoughts and talke he ends his miserable life This is your example which he intreated me to lay before you that ye may be warned by it to keepe you from Hell The living God present it as a powerfull example to your Consciences that it may work that good which this miserable young man wished And that it may the more prevaile ye shall have a rule now as well as an example shewing the misery and horrour of a wicked life from this proverbe The way of the wicked is as darkenesse they know not at what they stumble Salomon had pressed in many words because all words were not enough all Young-men in his sonne to avoide the needlesse and vaine society of wicked men Enter not into the path of the wicked and goe not into the way of evill men Art thou allured Avoide it Is the way delightfull Passe not by it Doth thy way lye that way Turne from it Art thou call'd in whithersoever thou goest Passe away This exhortation being thus pressed with words is further urged by reasons First from the persons and states of wicked men They sleepe not except they have done mischiefe themselves or made others to doe it for how can they when they eate the iron bread of wickednesse and the Sodome Wine of violence This breeds no sweete flegme to binde up the senses Secondly hee urgeth it from the course of wicked men which he sets downe comparatively with the godly The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day The descent of grace is from heaven as the light shineth the degrees of grace are not all attained unto at the first but more and more but the prosperitie of grace where it is nourished by a godly life is not to goe out to the perfect day Therefore it is excellent to be in society with the godly But for the course of wicked men 1. It is as darkenesse there is the danger of it 2. They know not at what they stumble there is the signe of it In this course of wicked men there are two propositions which I shall labour to open and apply unto you First That the way of the wicked is darkenesse That ye may conceive this I shall open unto you thorow GODS helpe foure points 1. What is the way of the wicked 2. How is it darknesse 3. How it comes to be so and 4. Why it is darknesse 1. The way of the wicked is the whole course of a wicked man to death and Hell David saith The way of the wicked shall perish that is his thoughts words deeds wherin he pleaseth himselfe till at last he sees and feeles the empty vanity of them when the comfort of them leaves him and he fall into hell 2. This way of the wicked is darknesse by an absence of that first light which GOD gave to sinlesse and obedient man Before man had sinned hee had the light of knowledge the light of grace and the light of comfort He could fully and fairely see what was fit for a creature to keepe him in perpetuall communion and fellowship with GOD. He had the beames of GODS grace in him and about him keeping out the darkenesse of sin He had sweet comfort in the injoyment of GOD and himselfe and in the best possession and use of all the Creatures But when hee fell from the Principles of Life the Lord and his Law he quickly was overwhelmed with the darkenesse of ignorance the darkenesse of sin and the darknesse of misery Our blessed Saviour came to give light to them that sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of Peace the light of knowledge That they that see not might see the light of grace that they that follow him might not walke in darkenesse but have the light of life And the light of comfort that he might give beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse All wicked men that misse this that are in hunting with Esau while this blessing is given following the luxurious courses of the world in wickednesse while CHRIST brings life and immortality to light by the Gospell doe fall into darkenesse darknesse darknesse Because they loved darknesse rather than light therefore their cogitations are darkened through ignorance their foolish hearts are full of darknesse they looke to the earth and behold darkenesse and sorrow they fall to the darkenesse of horrour for there is no peace to the wicked saith my GOD they goe downe to the place of darkenesse and the horrible pit shuts her mouth upon them O woe unto them they have rewarded evill unto their soules 3. But how doth the wicked mans way become to bee darknesse As outward darknesse doth grow upon men three wayes so doth this First naturally by some defect in naturall generation So there being a naturall defect now in mans propagation through sin he brings forth blind Whelps Though more or lesse for naturall excellency man bee not borne blinde yet for morrall rectitude to improve his understanding to the best advantage for his happines in Gods way hee is darkenesse Secondly actually by too much gazing on the excelling sensibles of the world or by too much heate or cold which checke or chill the spirits So when wicked men doe too much gaze upon the deceitfull glories and pleasures of the World when they are cold in Religion or religious duties and doe hotly pursue the pleasing vanities of this life they become clouded in the thicke smoake of darkenesse This blinded that rich foole from securing his soule and Zaccheus before his conversion from going the right way to heaven For they that will bee rich fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drowne men in perdition and destruction Thirdly penally when it is inflicted as a punishment as when Zedechias his eyes were pulled out as a just punishment upon his wicked life so when GOD sees the courses of men to be foule and detestable contrary to the light of the word and checke of Conscience which he hath given them then GOD justly shuts their eyes stoppes their eares and takes away the
a thousand miseries Gowts Consumption Fevers Stone Strangury death are the portions of this worlds wantons And when that goes from us or we from that it gives a bitter farewell to the lovers of it Though a man live many dayes â—â—t let him remember the dayes of darknesse which will come first or last and then farewell profit farewell pleasure farewell honour the white sticke must be broken worldly comforts must vanish and if yee have not built your nest in the Rocke Christ the wind will take you the world will spew you out and whither then Doe they stumble at the offence of their companions It is at they know not what stil Call for them all whom you are loth now to offend in pleasing GOD and what can they doe As the Winter brookes they passe away faith Iob. Are they touched for sinne They will bee glad to bee rid of them away from mee yee wicked I will keep the Commandements of my GOD. Doth the wrath of GOD come They can say alas my brother alas his glory but as the wrath of man cannot accomplish the righteousnesse of GOD so nor the power of man can stand with comfort against the wrath of GOD. Doth poverty come as an armed man A worldly friend will help once a godlie friend will helpe twice but daily to hang upon the pockets and purse-strings of others is like a curst wife a continuall dropping away with such a like fellow from off the earth the land is not able to beare such a loathsome guest Doth death come with this Iron Law You must goe and make your bed in darkenesse where they must say to corruption thou art my mother to the Worme thou art my brother and sister Where are their companions now One stands by and weepes but cannot helpe another would come but feares the flashes of reproofe for godlesse courses but let them all come can they deliver their bodies from the grave and their soules from the hand of Hell The Redemption of a soule cost more than so they must let that alone for ever What matters it then to offend such so they may please God Doe they now stumble at the lapses and falls of those that seeme better than themselves Is it not still at they know not what If a Christian sinne it is not because hee is a Christian but because hee is a Christian no more it is not the profession but the person that is in all the fault Hee that is a good Christian should answer like that blessed Martyr who when hee was asked what was his name hee answered Christian what was his Countrey answered Christian what were his hopes thoughts words and deeds Hee answered Christian He was a Christian all over and if it bee otherwise Christianity must not bee blamed but sinne in him and Sathan out of him that put on that faire hood to cover their deformitie Besides sinne shall condemn them not justifie the wicked stumbler They shall goe to hell for that without Repentance the wicked shall not goe to Heaven for being worsâ— because they are bad And what doe they stumble at now Is it at the peaceable end of sinners It is still at they know not what For it is not ever true that wicked men finde such a calme when death approacheth somtimes Hell fire flasheth upon them then sometimes they miserably cry out I am damned I am damned I must to Hell and when it is true GOD Satan and themselves have an hand in it God justly seales them up to hardnesse of heart and then like the Leviathan they laugh at the Speare Satan covers their sins and lockes in their thoughts to dreame of golden Mountaines Hee labours to make their life and death to be an heaven here that hee may the more cunningly bring them to hell hereafter Themselves have accustomed themselves to sinne and custome in sinne takes away the sense of sinning and so like Nabal their heart dies like a stone And put case that Gods good people be disquieted when death appeareth They draw neere to GOD and see themselves abominable as Esau They have a circumcised heart and so are tender at the least touch which Satan perceiving hee drives home with all his rage and skill to slander his godly course because his time is but short Thus now ye have the whole Proverbe which sets forth a rule to your miserable example to shew the miserable estate of those that are and walk and stand and sit in the darke wayes of sin and wickednesse What shall I say to you Young men O that I could speake to your hearts so powerfully that yee may be rowzed from lying under the dominion of sinne any longer Oh that my Doctrine might drop as the raine and my speech might distill as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grasse Yee have heard the woe woe woe to wicked men Sometimes this keepes them off from vertue and grace and sometimes that Here they stumble and there they stumble before behind on this side and on that and at last tumble into despaire and Hell for evermore Francis Spyra stumbled thus when hee cried out I would faine be in Hell to try the worst that God can doe And that outlandish wretch thus who would have given all to his soul not to forsake him but when nothing would serve the turne but he must die he commended his soule to the devill to be carried into everlasting torments And that English wretch thus I give my goods to the King whom I have cozened my body to the earth and my soule to the Devill And that other wretch not worthy of a name thus My soule I bequeath to the devill who ownes it my Wife to the Devill who drew mee to my ungodly life and my Chaplaine to the Devill who flattered mee in it But deare young men doe not yee so Lay hold of eternall life and pull your selves by the mighty power of GOD into that way Vse no arguments to pull your selves into or keepe your selves in the way of sinne Quit your selves like men and the God of Heaven stand by you for your helpe and succour Now is the accepted time now is the houre of salvation God hath shot a warning peece from Heaven stand not out but vaile to him before he shoot the vollies of his vengeance against you irrecoverably Yee have many motives to make you look about you now for grace and glory First your age is a most unsettled age pestered with many lusts of youth which drop by drop may fall upon you till you are suddenly over head and eares That which hath been formerly fained of Hercules that he stood in two wayes ready to take either is true of you For as a strait tree which is loose at the root standeth trembling and being unsetled with a little
both of sinne and judgement of those hee dearely loved And if we be versed in his Booke wee may observe that he hath beene pleased to make many uses of such examples Sometimes by them hee doth threaten Remember what the Lord did unto Myriam Did not Acham the sonne of Zerah commit a trespasse in the accursed thing Wherefore doe you harden your hearts as the Aegyptians and Pharaoh If yee doe as they have done yee shall bee punished as they have beene Sometimes by them hee doth reproach unthankefull people Did not I deliver you from the Aegyptians and from the Amorites from the children of Amon and from the Philistims O my people remember what Balack King of Moab consulted and what Balaam the sonne of Beor answered from Shittim to Gilgal Are yee not ashamed to offend such a GOD as I who have neither beene a barren Wildernesse nor a dry Land Sometimes by them he comforteth and strengtheneth the hands of the weak Thine eyes have seene all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two Kings This your trouble is as the waters of Noah to mee as I have said they shall no more goe over the Earth so nor your afflictions shall overwhelme you Will you be dismaied in any trouble or cast off your confidence as if Gods hand were tyed up now more than in those dayes Sometimes by them hee doth maintaine great points of godlinesse Was not Abraham our Father justified by workes Not to glory in before God for Abraham beleeved God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse but to make him stand out against the blasphemies of the world the accusations of Conscience and the upbraidings of a dead faith And will not yee who must bee the children of Abraham or perish walke in the way of so worthy a Father Sometimes by them hee doth disswade from vice Bee not Idolaters as were some of them Let us not commit fornication as some of them did and fell in one day three and twenty thousand Let us not tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of Serpents Neither murmure as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer if yee goe on in such a way and will not be disswaded yee will meet with the same plagues which they have found or worse Sometimes by them he gives promonition and caution I feare least by any meanes as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should bee corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Will yee not take heed lest lesse policy make you to fall as Eve fell which was full of bitternesse to her and hers All this use and more hath our good God made of examples not onely because like leaking Vessels we are apt daily to runne out and to forget our fashion which we saw in the Glasse if it be not still represented to us but also because of the singular profit of examples For as they profit a world of people they being like a burning Beacon giving light before men and being like fire whereat we may give light to thousands of Candles so doe they last long and hold out to the worlds end as the poore Widowes mites and Lots Wifes transmutation Neither is it in vaine that GOD hath taken such a course as this It is all for our good that wee may know how to use examples according to their severall natures But among the rest you may reape a threefold benefit by them First an Observation of the customes and usages of the Church and enemies of it This will bee an adjument to wisdome which is ordinarily attaineable by experience of our owne dayes and memory of others Next an Illustration of the faith and manners of others what ever they be For examples doe not make faith and manners but give patternes of Gods rules for the more Expedite practise of them And lastly a declaration of Gods ordinary providence in his acts of wisedome goodnesse mercy justice and the like From these two uses the world doth mostly too farre wander For want of the first the Church is many times filled with Schismes and disorders For want of the second faith and manners are not so cleared and examples are taken up as necessary Lawes which onely shew a lawfulnesse where the rule of Scripture doth not oppose For want of the third God passeth by and wee know it not Let him bee never so wise by the neglect of the example we admire it not Let him be never so good by the neglect of the example we love it not Let him be never so mercifull by the neglect of the example we imbrace it not Let him be never so just by the neglect of the example wee doe not feare and tremble and avoide the rockes of sinne and hence it is that I have beene induced to propound these examples unto you also It may bee that sometimes men doe observe the way of GOD in the whirewind of justice but either they are willing to thinke it not so great as it is or to judge it to reach further than our good God intendeth it If men do think the first it is because they would flatter themselves in like sinnes Loth they are to thinke that God should punish that which they love or that danger should happen to them who have done as they meane to doe still If men judge the second it is because they want charity and judgement in the wayes of God Sometimes GOD gives an example of his justice which begins here and continues for ever and ever as in many of the drowned first world and roasted Sodomites God never made mee so skilfull in his Throne businesse as to define peremptorily that every suckling and infant of those miserable ones were cast into the bottomelesse hell Hee onely sayes that the floud did sweepe them away and they were burned with fire and brimstone and there leaves us to leave the rest to GOD. They were not in the Arke indeed nor was Iob in the visible Church as Isaac and the rest of the Patriarchs were yet might the All-eye looke upon them as he pleased and judge or spare Sometimes God gives an example of his justice which dies here and for ought wee know may end in glory Thus we are said to bee judged that wee might not bee condemned by the world No man will judge Iosiah or Ionathan for their untimely deaths They died in peace though they died in warre in peace with God in warre with men Nor will they resolvedly reprobate the soules of Er and Onan Nadab and Abihu Ananias and Saphira or their likes Their sins were great and grievous yea damnable and therefore GOD brought fearefull judgements upon them and as hee hath said so hath hee done bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their dayes But for their soules and how farre his justice
extended to them is among the secrets of his government and past our cognizance It is an old lesson never to bee forgotten That secret things belong to the Lord our God but those things that are revealed to us and to our children for ever But what is all this to our examples in this Warning-peece If you apply it aright you shall know how to use them to your good Bee sure therefore to see Gods hand in both and his anger against sin in both without that such judgings could not ordinarily come into the world Bee sure also not to extend GODS justice further than what you see or heare Thus farre God hath gone goe you no further Cannot GOD take up his people and whippe them soundly for sinne but presently the rash world must cry out They are bastards and not fâ—r GODS rest Indeed you see or heare that one of them had a debauched and wicked life God saw it and thrust him downe to the gates of hell and so he did fearefully judge him in this world Yet withall hee had such remorse confession selfe condemnation desire of others good and of his owne though with despaire that God hath given us reasons of charity to his soule and kept the rule of certainty to himselfe onely Notwithstanding let no man of such a course presume God comes as a swift witnesse against such and will make his sword drunke with their bloud For hee will wound the hairy scalpe of every one that goes on still in wickednesse You see also or heare that the other of them had a great deale better life It is true also that thus much being confessed hee closed too long and too much with the world as all that knew him well complained He was also unthankfull to a parish who had beene loving to a poore father of his in a free gift of a good maintenance from them when hee would not bee perswaded both befor the setling of any Will and before the setling of his last to give a poore pittance out of his great estate to that loving Parish for pious uses hee having no children of his owne God saw this too and whipt him to the purpose before hee went hence and was no more seene Would not GOD have an irreligious world see how ne-necessary it is to breake off a wicked life by Repentance and how usefull to honour GOD with our riches It would make a good mans heart to bleed that the world should have a second floud of sinne by some and that by others pious and publike workes should bee neglected opposed and grumbled at as if mens riches were their owne and they might doe with them what they list as if they were gods Shall private persons and affaires not worth a dunghill to the businesses of GOD bee the onely object of bounty and munificence If in such a case GOD withdraw his countenance and frowne is it not worthy our notice Let God bee GOD and doe his owne worke in sparing their soules for ever as hee pleaseth yet let him shew us examples too of what wee ought to doe or what wee shall suffer For if wee doe not amend for ought I know he may and will doe according to our patternes take away our comforts here and our comforts for ever and ever which is infinitely more I shut up all in a word Looke upon your examples and feare and tremble If they have found GOD thus angry who have beene overtaken by indulged and over powring infirmities how will he look upon you if ye neglect and scorn after such warnings Yet look upon them so as you leave not Charitie behinde Yee may have hope to conceive well of them who were judged in this world because yee knew not their hearts Yee can have no hope to conceive well of your selves in so doing because yee know your owne hearts better You are apt in excusing some to flatter your selves and in accusing others to justifie your selves too farre Neither of these can doe well in the day of your account which I desire may bee comfortable unto you in the day of our LORD IESUS CHRIST 1 Cor. 10.11 All these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come FINIS Imprimater Thomas Weekes Cap Domest Epis Lond. Not onely as they but worse So he was accounted of all about us some years before he dyed So may a good man have by some distemper or over-powring temptation to lash some sin for the example of others I meane an uncomfortable death not judging his eternall estate Gen. 29.26 2 Sam. 1.19 20 c. Act. 9.39 Magis vi vorum sola tia quam mortuorum subfidia This yong man is called miserable Not in respect of Gods judgment final For from him are many arguments of hope 2 Tim. 2.16 Phil. 3.12 Gal. 3.9 Mar. 5.26 Col. 4.14 But in respect of his own feeling 1 Pet. 3 15. This had a deepe ground Christmasseday 1635. And next his owne apprehension upon it Manifested by many fearefull speeches And plaine judgments against himselfe Prov. 1.24 25 26 27. The Text Pro. 4.19 1. Connected v. 1 10. Verse 14. Vers 15. Vers 16. Vers 17. Verse 18. Verse 9. 2. Divided 3. Expounded Propos 1. 1. What the way of the wicked is Psal 1. ult 2. How it is darkenesse Negatio lucis primitivae Luk. 1.19 Ioh. 9.39 Ioh. 8.12 Esa 61 3. 2 Tim. 1.10 Ioh. 3.19 Eph. 4.19 Rom. 1.31 Eph. 5.30 Esa 57.21 Mat. 8.12 Psal 69. Ephes 5.8 Luke 12. Luk 19.2 1 Tim. 6.9 Eph. 6 10. 1 Ioh. 2.11 4. Why the wayes of the wicked are darkenesse Venebrae à tenendo Exod 10. Ioh. 12.35 Vivant aliud agendo nibil agendo aliter â—gendo 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nox a nocendo Ier. 8.4 5. Psalm 14. Lamen 1. Esa 3.9 Appli 1 Ioh. 2.13 1. Hence wicked men are convinced of their miserable estate Ob. Though they see it not Sol. Ioh. 5 41. Ob. And though they feele it not Sol. Object Potentia est dispositio rei ad actuÌ„ Potentia naturalis vi principii interni 2. Potentia obedientialis vi principij externi Ioh. 2. Act. 26.18 2. Therefore thinke it not strange to see the wicked doe shamefull things Ob. Though they doe think their darkenesse not the cause of their shame because they know much Sol. Surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum nos doctores trucimur in innum Esay 66.2 2. Therefore be exhorted to avoide the wayes of wicked men Apoc. 16.15 1 Thes 5. Luk 19.41 42. Ob. Sol. To your hurt though you thinke it will doe you little or no hurt Exo. 10.24 Propos 1. What it is to stumble Mat. 11.19 Ioh. 8.48 Acts 6.11.13 Acts 18.13 Acts 24.5 Rom. 7. Iohn 3. Acts 2. 3. At despaire of their owne strength Ioh. 6.65 66 67. 2. Of Gods strength 4. At the world Matth.
his fore-past life whereas many of those who have lived better have died with little rest and no comfort Hence they stumble thicke and threefold and make no question to dy no worse than they though they doe as bad Thus they stumble and stumble and the cause or the signe of all is this in the Proverbe They know not at what they stumble As for sinne they do not know who they themselves are that sin They are the creatures of GOD who hath blessed them a thousand wayes and therefore they should live to the honour of him and not as if the Devill had made them They doe not know whom they sin against It is against an infinite GOD who is an infinite good and therefore the least guilt will not so easily bee taken off as they dreame Can much Niter and much Sope doe it Can thousands of Rammes and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle Sinne against a private man and it is a trespasse or battery sin against a King it is sedition or treason but sinne against God and no name can expresse it nothing can cleanse it but the bloud of the Lambe which brings to us the righteousnesse of GOD which is of infinite worth They doe not know what sin will worke It is the wilde Bore of the Wood that laies waste the Vine of our soules it woundeth the Conscience defaceth the Image of GOD and writes upon us Satans Image and superscription it brings feare pit and snare upon the inhabitants of the earth and at the last the vengeance of eternall fire All this and much more about sin these poore wretches doe not know and hence they stumble upon sinne and ruine As for Repentance they know neither the necessity worke or worth of it Doe they present this to their soules that except they repent they shall perish Yes that they doe and therefore they will repent hereafter Yea but are they not deceived in the worke of it Doe they not thinke it to bee the worke of an houre when the whole life of a man were but enough for us to walke in that way Doe they not thinke it to bee nothing but a conviction for sinne a sorrow for sinne and a crying God mercy Doe they know that it implyes sorrow for sinne seene purpose to forsake sin sorrowed for and to returne unto God Or know they that it is accompanied if it be saving with an holy course in godlinesse and righteousnesse No such matter It is so slenderly looked after and so poorely prized by them that they take it up as old shooes when they have none else to weare when they have not a day to live and an houre to spend in sinne then they will repent what ever come of it Thus these miserable wretches when they have built a Castle of their owne Repentance not Gods do stumble at they know not what Now for presumption woe is them whatsoever they dreame of Mountaines of mercy They know not the power of GODS wrath They thinke him to bee made up of nothing but mercy and that hee should doe them wrong if they should not have it They see the light of his countenance so long in their health and prosperity that they presume hee cannot bend his browes and turne his backe in after daies Doe they remember that after God had made the world his first act was an act of justice upon lapsed Angels who though they were in Heaven were cast downe into Hell and delivered into the chaines of darknesse to bee reserved unto judgement Have they forgotten that his next worke was a worke of justice upon Adam in Paradise and the third that wee reade of a worke of justice upon Cain for committing murther but once Have they not read that GOD drowned the first world first for imaginations Or that he burned with fire and brimstone Sodome and her wicked sisters for pride fulnesse of bread abundance of idlenesse which hatched plenty of lust Is the justice of GOD upon the world cleane gone out of minde when his Church was in a Corner and but a little flocke Or will they not see the justice of God upon Christ Our surety in the similitude of sinfull flesh that hee did not escape it being made sin for us that is by being a sacrifice for sin that wee might be the righteousnesse of GOD in him They have forgotten all prints of Iustice that they may put farre from them the evill day and sinne without feare But that God that is a God of mercy for the vessels of mercy is for those who by wilfull sins make themselves the vessels of wrath a consuming fire yea and when his hand takes hold of judgement hee will make his sword drunke with bloud Then shall they know what now they willingly know not that hee that blesseth himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of my heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not bee mercifull unto him Doe they stumble at despaire of their owne strength It is at they know not what still For doe they not shew great strength in sinne Why then will they not try what they can doe in vertue Hath not CHRIST promised his assistance in the Word of GOD and Sacraments Why will they neglect CHRISTS hand which is put under to helpe Why will they not be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that they may be able to doe all things through him that helpeth them Will they more impotently stumble at the despaire of Gods mercy Surely they stumble at they know not what For God is good unto wicked men much more to those that truely repent Doth not his Sun and raine blesse obdurate sinners much more hath hee the blessing of peace for those that tremble at his Word and are weary and heavie laden with their sinnes For will they forget how willingly GOD reasoneth with the rebellious Iewes and promiseth that upon Repentance he will make their twice dipt scarlet sinnes as white as wooll Or doe they not regard that GOD tels them that mercy pleaseth him If hee come in a work of justice hee shaves with a Raser that is hired as if hee had no instrument of his owne to execute wrath but if he comes in a worke of mercy it is his own work his proper worke But they forget this as if Christs bloud did not triumph over all the sins of penitents even to the bathing of them that turne to him who shed it by murther this they forget and so doe stumble at headlong despaire Doe they stumble at the world Alas they know not at what What is all the world if wee could graspe it into an handfull It flattereth while it smileth and the glory of it passeth away Have wee the confluence of all worlds goods They cannot keepe off