Kings with their damnable revolts so often apostated the whole land and made the Israelites turne Idolaters As all imitate their king so aggrauate his sinne so doe most copie out his Nobles augment their crimes My Lord must haue his followers aswell of his vice as of his person if he leaueth his King at the Chappell dore he turneth not back without his Attendants who if his Honour pleaseth to be Idolatrous wil wait vpon him euen vnto a Masse As the Nobles Peers be so borne so you honoured Lords who iudge the Land you graue Fathers the Elders of the City are so exalted so placed ut bona malaque vestra ad Rempublicam pertineant your vertues and your vices are subiected inhaerent in your persons but by these as the Heauens by their Influences you worke good and euill through the whole Land Better no Iudge in Israel then a corrupt one no Elder then a wicked one the first giueth but liberty the second addeth incouragement to sin you see to eminence of your persons doubleth your crimes and maketh your sinnes as scarlet as your habits I might inlarge my proofe and exhortation with an Apostrophe to the Clergy the liuing Oracles of God to whom ye must resort for counsell Hi si eloquuntur magna non vivunt if their liues cry not downe sin as loud as their tongues they may helpe to build the Arke and perish in the Floud if they that preach the way to Heauen tread the way to Hell Hell must be their portion the number of their followers shall add vnto their tortures From the Clergy I might descend vnto the Gentry from them to euery Oeconomicall Goueruour and Father of his family although I stay there yet let none the meanest here take heart to offend for the sin which the meannesse of his Person lessneth by denying him followers may be aggrauated by other circumstances of the place and manner which I will briefly glance ouer We ascribe no inherent holinesse to any place Bethel may become Bethauen the Temple of God the house of an Idol the seat of Peter the chaire of Antichrist neither doe I know whether the zeale of Christendome was right if they warred for Iewry as for the Holy land yet may we iustifie our consecrated Churches Chappels which being separated for an holy vse may not be profaned if the buyers and sellers will trade in the Temple our SAVIOVR prouideth a whip for them and I would to God the zeale of Authority in imitation of that of our God would whip out the buyers and sellers out of the Temple would whip them either out of the Iles or into the Quier Good God to see how the prophane walkers in the time of diuine seruice when the Quier are chaunting their sacred Anthems and Heauenly Halleluiahs are then polluting the stones with their durty feete when they should weare them with their supplicating knees there are at the same time some praying aboue some blaspheming below and that so loud that God heareth not the prayers for the blasphemy As the Vbi the place so the Quomodo the manner of doing it doth much difference a sinne Mens propositū saith the Law distinguunt maleficia whosoeuer calleth his brother foole is in danger of Hell fire Matth. 5.22 yet doth Paul call his brethren the Galatians fooles and sinneth not Gal. 3.1 He that killeth a man shall surely be put to death Leuit. 24.17 yet he that killeth a man ignorantly whō he hated not before shall flee vnto one of the Cities of refuge and liue Deut. 19.4 5. that which infirmity slippeth must not be censured as that which malice acteth that which is committed out of ignorance is not punished as that which is done out of presumption I am no aduocate for ignorance he who is ignorant let him be ignorant still he who affecteth ignorance let him perish in his ignorance In them that may know it is a sinne in them that may not know it is a punishment for sinne it is to none which ought to know and all ought a priuiledge to sinne yet if it be particularis and not Vniuersalis as the Philosopher facti and not iuris as the Lawyer inuincibilis and not vincibilis as the Master of the sentences it doth excuse à tanto although not à toto it lesneth the offence but taketh it not away it still remaineth a sinne and therefore liable to the punishment of sinne Death which is the second part in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a death vnto sinne as well as a death for sinne a death which putteth not Nature in her graue but Vice how shall we being dead to sinne liue therein Rom. 6.2 Death for sinne is either spirituall and of the soule naturall and of the body or eternall both of soule and body Anima est vita habet ipsa suam vitam as the soule is the life of the body so is God the life of the soule The iust doe liue by faith Romans chapter 1. verse 17. Euen by faith in the Sonne of God Galat. chap. 2. v. 20. Who quickneth them with his spirit Eph. 2.5 The body may liue and yet the soule may be dead by which the body liueth there are some long since buried which yet liue such are Abraham Isaac and Iacob for God which is their God is not the God of the dead but of the liuing so there bee now some liuing which haue bin long since dead A widow liuing in pleasure is dead while she liueth the 1 of Timoth. 5. and 6. You that liue in sinne are already in your graues I must therefore bespeake you as sometime Christ did Lazarus Lazare veni for as come you forth of your graues arise from death to life from sinne to newnesse of life but my words want efficacy and my speech hath no power to raise you Christ Iesus therefore speak that vnto your hearts which I doe vnto your eares De eo quod deterius potiori insidiari solcat Where it is in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo the Iew would haue vs read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for saith he Cain had no sooner slaine his brother but he became dead himselfe and Abel being murthered was yet aliue if hee was not how did hee speake how did he speake aloude and cry for vengeance so hee wittily Let the dead bury the dead Matth. 8.22 let them which are spiritually dead bury them which are dead to nature and the solemnity of their funerals being ended let them prouide for their owne interrring which is at hand for mors operata erit mortem the death of the soule will cause the death of the body A death common vnto all it is all mens pilgrimage from the sepulcher to the sepulcher from the graue of the wombe to the graue of the earth all men shall once die for as much as all men haue sinned Heb. 9.27 The instinct of
make bad vse of the Law which is good so doe the righteous make good vse of death which is bad Ipsa poena vitiorum transit in arma virtutis fit iusti meritum etiam supplicium peccatoris This made the Primitiue Christians so ambitious of Martyrdome that they did pursue their persecution so couetous of ruine that not staying for the hand of the hangman they turned their owne executioners and left their liues now in the fire now in the water like the man his lunaticke sonne in the Gospell who being possessed with a Diuell fell sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water Mat. 17.14 'T is one thing for death to come to vs 't is another thing for vs to goe to death the first may be martyrdome the second is murder We must goe with alacrity but we must stay vntil we are called death which is iust in the will is vniust in the hand we may not meet it although we may attend it insomuch that it is an argument of force enough to proue the Bookes of the Maccabees to be Apocryphall because they doe so much extoll Razis the Father of the Iewes for murthering himselfe 2 Maccab. 14 42. As the true Christian Martyrs be the best of Christians so be your Pagan Pseudo-Martyrs the worst of the Heathen other Idolaters doe but worship false gods these goe about to proue them true Epiph. lib. 2. Her 8. of these there were a number euen vnto a Sect. Litle better then these were the Pseudo-Catholicks if they suffred for their Haeresies but indeed they die malefactors more for sedition then Religion more for faction then for Faith they liue Papists but they are hanged Traitors although both Haeresie Treason might deserue death yet hath the mercy of our Princes inflicted it only vpon the latter God will reward both euery sin euen the least with death not with the first death only but with the second not with naturall death only of the body but with aeternall also both of body and soule for euermore Vita hîc aut amittitur aut tenetur Euery one that departeth this life is either sung into blisse by the Angels or hauled into torments by the diuels Cypr. de mort sect 2. The Fathers were vnacquainted with the new Orcography of the School-men whose searching invention hath founded as many Regions below the Earth as there are aboue in the Aire the first is their Limbus Patrum where they faigne the Fathers to haue suffred the temporary pain of losse before Christ's comming Tert. lib. 4. cont Maâ—cion an Haeresie borrowed from Marcion and grounded vpon this false reason that Heauen gates were shut vntill Christ's ascension which being disprooued by the theeue's entrance Bellarmine taketh the Keies and openeth them at his Passion and before they were not open but then was his Passion when he was slaine which was from the beginning of the world The second place is their Limbus Infantum where they lodge Infants dying before Baptisme where they torture them with eternall paine of losse 1 Cor. 17.12 A bloody conclusion of a mercilesse Religion which maketh not death as it is here a punishment for sin but sin it self 't is foolish to thinke that the seed of the faithfull who are holy from their birth should be depriued of inward grace because necessity denyeth them the vse of outward Sacraments when publick Baptisme may not be had priuate is sufficient if death preuent this votall will availe Sat est si adest mentalitèr cùm non potest haberi sacramentalitèr Thom. part 5. quest 68. art 2. it is enough if Christian Parents desire it if they cannot obtain it The force of truth made Mr Hooker of this opinion euen where he disputeth against Schismaticks for priuate Baptisme If there were not strength of proofe charity should make them rather partiall Ecclesiast polit lib. 5. sect 61. then cruell Iudges force them to conclude that many Infants of beleeuing parents as they suffer no paine of sense so doe they vndergoe no sense of paine The third place is their Purgatory that Apocryphall dreame that Roman mythology Dial. lib. 4. ca. 41 a place first offered to be built by Gregory six hundred yeares after Christ vpon the false disproued foundation of veniall sins but they pretend more antiquity Dionys Eccl. Hier. cap. 7. would proue it by this false illation because there was prayer for the dead whereas this prayer was not a supplicatioÌ„ but a thanksgiuing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or if they did petition 't was not for the soule 's safety but the bodies glory or if they supplicated for the soule for the remission of the sins of the soul 't was only for a publick iustification for a solemne acquittal and perfect consummation of blisse and this not because the euent was doubtfull but as Austin prayed for his Mother her entrance into Heauen although he beleeued she was entred before Lib. 9. Confess cap. 13. and endeth his Petition with Credo Domine iam feceris quod te rogo There is a fourth place which these men deserue to inhabit for inventing the other three which is Hell the place of the damned where they suffer death a second death a death after death a death and yet euerlasting The reprobate like the Salamander is stil scorched in the fire but neuer consumed the soule suffreth of the body but dieth not so is the body tormented by the fire but perisheth not Illic sapiens ignis membra urit reficit carpit nutrit like vnto the lightning which is the thunders fire it so toucheth the bodies Minutius in Dial. Octa. that it destroyeth them not and if the fuell remain the fire will still endure The flames of Aetna and Vesuvius still burne but neuer burne out Ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur sed inexesâ corporum laceratione nutritur I dispute not whether this fire be materiall or metaphoricall whether it be spirituall or corporall certainly 't is furious and terrible I desire neither to vnderstand nor vndergoe it yet thus much is certain as it hath extremity of heat to tormeÌ„t so hath it no light to comfort it burneth but shineth not how painfull it is to sit how dismall to suffer in darknes There is no punishment but it is in Hell there is no sense-afflicting torture but it is there augmented and yet doth the paine of losse far surmount the pain of sense t is more affliction to be shut out of Heauen then to be imprisoned in Hell and banishment is worse then death and yet shall this also be inflicted on sin both these both without intermission to make Holy-daies in Hell were to poëtize with Prudentius both without end for that Traian was deliuered from Hell by the prayers of Pope Gregory I beleeue not although Damascen bringeth the East West to witnesse it Damas serm
de defunctu August de civit Dei lib. 21. 〈◊〉 24 This were with Origen to be kindly mad and to turne Hell into Purgatory both these both without intermission both without end and yet is the punishment as iust as great for death euen this death is the stipend and wages of sin there is a proportion between the punishment and the offence which is the third part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quiâ— Facinus est mensura paenae when misdemeanour is censured with death when the malefactor suffreth beyond the rigour of the Law 't is cruelty doometh him and not Iustice yet must the sentence alwayes ballance the crime if the sin be impudent the punishment must be exemplary as is the offence and an extraordinary offender must not be hanged vpon a common gallowes God his doome is alwayes impartiall and he doth still proportion his vengeance with the sinne he blesseth and curseth he rewardeth and punisheth in analogo so that the vertue is charactred in the reward and the vice may be read in the punishment When God promiseth to build Dauid's House for euer because he purposed to build God an House when Ioseph's brethren doe homage vnto him as vnto their Lord because they had sold him as their slaue God so rewardeth them both that he sheweth the piety of the one and the affliction of the othet Ahab is humbled and God deferreth his iudgments the reward sheweth his humiliation and sheweth it to be temporary Because Vriah falleth by Dauid's sword Optatus lib. 2. cont Parmenian the sword must not depart from Dauid's House 2 Sam. 12 because the prophane Donatists doe impiously cast the Sacramentall Bread vnto the dogges the same doggs doe presently teare in pieces those Donatists Because Sodome burneth with flames of lust it is burned with flames of fire Gen. 19.24 because the lust is vnnaturall the fire is supernaturall and God sendeth Hell froÌ„ Heauen When you see Absalom's haire to be his halter you may know it was his pride and when ye read that Salomon's Kingdome was diuided ye may read and yet ye need not read to know it that he diuided God's Kingdome The line is no otherwise laid to the rule then God's rewards and punishments are proportioned to our workes many times thus in speciall in this life so that as the casuists obserue he punishes in the same maner in the same kind in the same place in the same part but alwayes in generall hereafter 1 Cor. 15. As there are here degrees of grace so shall there be hereafter degrees of glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one starre differeth from another in glory some shall but shine with the brightnes of the firmament others shall glister with the glory of the starres All the Elect shall build vp the House of God but the Martyrs only shall be pillars in the House Apocal. 2.12 All the Saints shall iudge the world but the Apostles shall be mounted vpon twelue more eminent Thrones All the Elect after iudgment shall sit in Heauen but some with ioy only on the left hand others both with ioy and preheminency on the right In Heauen there are many Mansions Iohn 14.2 And though he cannot lodge amisse who lodgeth there yet is one roome more glorious then another If there be not many mansions in Hell if the roomes be not distinguished I am sure the tortures are Hell fire is all of one heat yet doth it not burne alike The same scorching Sun heateth a Northerne man more then a Southerne yea an English man trauailing into Spaine doth iustly more feare a Calenture then a Spaniard Let straw wood be the fuell of our fire the heat is more and lesse The fuell of this fire are the sinnes of the Reprobate as they are small or great more or few the heat is augmented or diminished but yet it is alwayes intollerable See the proportion when the least sin is committed an infinite Maiesty is offended and therefore an infinite punishment must be inflicted In the least sinne God is contemned and the creature praefer'd before the Creator Suarez de legibus lib. 3. 8. num 21. Let Suarez distinguish mandatum à mandaÌ„te Legistatorem à lege there must be contemptus personae where there is contemptus operis and if God be contemned let it be materially or formally directly or indirectly Simply or secundum quid Let them modificate it with more not to be vnderstood Metaphysicall suttleties the sinne must still be infinite and the guilty must suffer torments in proportion which because they cannot doe Intensivè simul semel they must doe extensivè successivè 'T is no disproportion when he that sinneth but for a time doth suffer more then for a time hee would alwayes haue liued in sinne who neuer left to sinne while he liued And 't is proportion that hee should neuer want punishment who had a will euer to offend You see the Iustice yet is not God more strict in fitting the punishment to the sinne then certaine in auenging the sin with the punishment which is the fourth and last part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If neither Vertue should be rewarded nor Vice punished we might with Epicurus conclude both against God and prouidence yet were the persecutions of the Christians weakely vrged by Caecilius in Minutius against their beliefe In Dial. Oct. And his Dilemma that their God either could not or would not succour them and so that he was either weake or vniust was but a flourish and therefore he might haue spared his Sarcasticall Interrogatory triumph Qui subvenire reviviscentibus potest viventibus non potest saevitia non est sed certamen The fightings without and the terrours within which the Saints vndergoe are their trials and not their punishments and doe more exercise then hurt then Persecution is not alwayes the instrument of God's fury but sometimes of his mercy They are bastards and not sonnes who were neuer corrected The father seeing his childe swouning lendeth him a blow to recouer him The Physician putteth his Patient into an Ague that hee may cure him of a worse malady God sometimes casteth downe that he may raise vp hee sometimes killeth that he may make aliue and turneth the poyson to a preseruatiue Sicut ignis flatu premitur ut crescat vnde quasi extingui cernitur inde roboratur God then wrestled with Iacob when he came to blesse him and put out Saul's eyes that he might restore him his sight Let me be persecuted O Lord so I be not forsaken let me feele the lash of thy blowes so I escape the smart of thy fury so if I be whipped I will kisse he rod. As the iust doe thus enioy their afflictions so doe he vniust suffer in their prosperity and are cursed with their blessings â—ern in Cant. Hom. 42. Certè tunc magis irascitur Deus cùm nâ—n irascitur God's hand is then heauiest on the
big ones the tares spring vp faster then the corne and they doe it insensibly they steale their growth crescere non videmus sed crevisse yet if this were not so if lesser slips opened not the sluces for greater crimes to flow in if wanton glances were not fore-runners of Fornication nor Fornication a step to Adultery if concupiscence would not winne consent nor consent breake out into Act nor the Act often reiterated beget an habit yet were one and the least of these damnable Flesh and Bloud may dispute the fairest praetexts for sinne yet black wil not be dyed into white The Prince of darknesse when he transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light 't is a iugling and not a change so the workes of darknesse may haue the credit of the deedes of light they can neuer haue the goodnesse 't is in vaine to sow fig-leaues together to couer our deformities let vs distinguish and mitigate colour or qualifie what we can that which is mortall and such is euery sinne will not be made veniall otherwise euery Popish Casuist or Roman Schoolman would make veniall sinnes as fast as their God on earth doth pardō them Possunt excusari à mortali parentes c. Parents putting off as well Nature as Religion cursing their children euen to that height that they wish them with the Diuell sinne but venially so Greg. de Val. 3 Tome 1090 page Qui iudicium facit in re gravi temerarium c. A Iudge iudging rashly be it vpon life and death sinneth but venially Bonacina in his second disputation de peccatis his 3 quaestion puncto 5. Some lying some theft must be veniall when some blasphemy all if it be but chollerick is not mortall Navar in his Manuall page 91. Yet doe these which thus preach impunity for sin brand vs with the slaunder of Libertines The distinction of mortall and veniall vnderstand it aright 't is none of theirs but ours 't is true all sinnes euen of the Elect in foro iustitiae in the rigour of iustice are mortall but in foro misericordiae by the mercy of God they are all veniall legally all are mortall Euangelically all veniall ratione peccatorum they are all mortall ratione peccantium there are none not veniall this is our doctrine in which there is as well consent as truth with them there is no concord for besides some amongst them which altogether deny their vse of the distinction as Gerson and Fisher they cannot agree what this venial sinne should be some will haue it contra consilium others contra praeceptum some state it to be praeter legem not contra legem others graunt it to be against the Law but not against charity which is the end of the Law some thinke it both to be against the Law and to diminish charity one will haue it to be sinne imperfectly by analogy others properly vnivocally you may know 't is Babel they are building by the confusion of their language While we thus proue all sinnes to be mortall we teach not a parity of offences we are so Catholicke that we are not Stoicall all sinnes are mortall therfore all are aequall 't is bad Logicke but calumnies must be prou'd by such sequels Vertues haue their Climax much more vices the School giueth the reason Illae ad unum tendunt haec ab uno ad multas mundi vanitates The person the place the manner are circumstances which both aggrauate extenuate a sinne First the person the person against whom we offend the person who offendeth for the first lesse was the sin of the vsurpers in slaying the seruants then in killing the Heire of the Vineyard far greater was the sin of the Iewes in crucifying the Lord of glory then that of their Fathers in murthering the Prophets he sinneth with a higher hand that transgresseth against the Cōmandements of the first Table then he that offendeth against them of the second Blasphemie of oathes profanation of the Sabbaoth although here by the indulgence of the Law or by the conniuence of the Magistrate they escape the seuerity of discipline shall hereafter be punished with extremity of torture Neither doth the person only distinguish the guilt of the two Tables but maketh degrees of sin against one the same Commandement Homicide Parricide are both murder yet the seuere torture which all Nations inflict vpon the one aboue the other are sufficient euidence of the difference of the crimes All murder is censured is punished with death but death hath not alwaies the same sting when she commeth to torture a Parricide a Rauillac for murthering his King O how she is dressed like a Fury armed with racks with fires with strapadoes with burning pincers pulling off flesh to make wounds with scalding oile pitch rozen to powre into those wounds with horses to disioint rent the body that the malefactour may think himselfe in Hell before he is dead she tormenteth him in a furnace flaming with fire brimstone making vp her tragedie with the banishment of the Parricides parents with pulling down the house where he was borne although she spareth the liues of his brethren sisters vnkles yet must they change their names all the Rauillacs must perish Degrees of punishment are as well after death as in death the tortures of one damned soule are differenced from the pangs of an other he that hath bin more wicked Mar. 23.15 shall be more wretched such shall be the punishment as is the crime which is augmented not only by the person who is offended but by the person also who doth offend Greatnes goodnes should twin together no Monarch hath licence to offend no Prince hath any non-obstante for sin neither yet is the Kings praerogatiue lessened because he may not sin it should be inlarged if he could not sin 'T is the misery of soueraignty that the offence is alwayes as great as the offender the sin as soueraigne as the person a Prince his slips are crimes a moat in his Eye is a beame his blemish is a leprosie 't is the Kings truth in the beginning of his first booke of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reason is because he doth not so much commit his sin as teach it nec tam delicto nocens est quà m exemplo A Peasants sin presently findeth it's graue is neglected as his person but Monarchs vices are alwaies masculine and beget the like in others Let Nero be ouer-much delighted in stageplaies straight the grauity of the Senat putteth on Buskins Lactant. 5. infiit and acteth a Comedy Mores vitia Regis imitari genus obsequij putatur Many doe thinke it against their allegiance to be holy if their King be profane The People will follow their Prince yea although they forsake their God to doe it whatsoeuer Iosuah their Captaine their King commandeth them that will they doe Iosuah 1.16 Hence is it that the Israëlitish renegado