from our Parents Psal. 51. Behold sayth Dauid I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceiue me The originall word is warme me as if the first heate deriued to him were not without contamination I was borne a sinner sayth a Saint It is saide Gen. 5. that Adam begate a sonne in his owne likenesse after his image and called his name Seth. This image and likenesse cannot bee vnderstood of the Soule for this Adam begate not Nor properly and meerely of the Bodies shape so was Cain as like to Adam as Seth of whom it is spoken Nor did that image consist in the piety and purity of Seth Adam could not propagate that to his sonne which hee had not in himselfe vertues are not giuen by birth nor doth grace follow generation but regeneration Neyther is Seth said to bee begotten in the Image of Adam because mankind was continued and preserued in him But it intends that corruption which descended to Adams posterity by naturall propagation The Pelagian error was Peccatum primae transgressionis in alios homines non propagatione sed imitatione transisse that the guilt of the first sinne was deriued to other men not by propagation but by imitation but then could not Adam be said to begette a sonne in his owne image neyther could Death haue seazed on Infants who had not then sinned But all haue sinned Rom. 5. As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed vpon all men for that all haue sinned This title then the sonnes of men puts vs in mind of our originall contamination whereby we stand guilty before God lyable to present and eternall iudgements Dura tremenda refers You will say with the Disciples Ioh. 6. This is an hard saying who can heare it beare it nay be ready to conclude with a sadder inference as the same Disciples after a particular instance Math. 19. Who then can be saued I answere We deriue from the first Adam sinne and death but from the second Adam Grace and Life As we are the sonnes of men our state is wretched as made the sonnes of God blessed It is a peremptory speech 1. Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and bloud cannot inherite the kingdome of God neyther doth corruption inherite incorruption It is a reuiuing comfort in the 6. Chapter of the same Epistle Such wee were but wee are washed but we are sanctified but we are iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus by the spirit of our God The conclusion or inference hereon is most happy Now therefore there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walke not after the flesh but after the spirite Wee may liue in the flesh but if after the flesh wee shall die Si voluntati voluptati carnis satissacere conemur If our endeuours bee wholy armed and aymed to content the Flesh but if we bee led by the spirit cum dilectione cum delectatione with loue with delight wee are of the sonnes of men made the sonnes of God It is our happinesse not to bee borne but to bee new borne The first birth kills the second giues life It is not the seed of man in the wombe of our mother but the seed of Grace in the wombe of the Church that makes vs blessed Generation lost vs it must bee regeneration that recouers vs. As the tree falls so it lies and lightly it falls to that side which is most loden with fruites and branches If wee abound most with the fruits of obedience wee shall fall to the right hand life if with wicked actions affections to the left side death It is not then worth the ascription of glory to what wee deriue naturally from man Dauid accepts it as a great dignity to be sonne in law to a King To descend from Potentates and to fetch our pedegree from princes is held mirabile et memorabile decus a dignity not to bee slighted or forgotten But to bee a Monarch Imperium Oceano famam quiterminat astris Whose fame and Empire no lesse bound controules Then the remotest sea and both the Poles Oh this is Celsissima gloria mundi the supremest honour of this world yet Princes are but men saith the Psalmist Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe His breath goeth forth hee returneth to his earth They may bee high by their calling Princes yet they are but low by their nature sons of men And meerely to bee the sonne of man is to bee corrupt and polluted They are sinfull the sonnes of men weake there is no helpe in them corruptible their breath goeth forth dying they returne to their earth It is registred as an euident praise of Moses his faith that for the rebuke of Christ he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter There is no ambitiō good in the sons of men but to be adopted the sons of God vnder which degree there is no happines aboue which no cause of aspiring 2. Our Corruptiblenesse is heere also demonstrated A mortall Father cannot beget an immortall sonne If they that brought vs into the world haue gone out of the world themselues we may infallibly conclude our owne following He that may say I haue a man to my Father a woman to my mother in his life may in death with Iob say to Corruption Thou art my Father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister It hath beene excepted against the iustice of God that the sinne of one man is deuolued to his posteritie and that for the fathers eating sowre grapes the childrens teeth are set on edge according to the Iewish Prouerbe Ier. 31. 29. As if we might say to euery sonne of man as Horace sung to his friend Delicta maiorum immeritus lues Thou being innocent doest suffer for thy nocent superiours This a Philosopher obiected against the gods strangely conferring it as if for the fathers disease physicke should be ministred to the sonne I answere Adam is considered as the roote of mankind that corrupt masse whence can bee deduced no pure thing Can we bee borne Morians without their blacke skins It is possible to haue an Amorite to our father and an Hittite to our mother without participation of their corrupted natures If a man slippe a syense from a hawth orne hee will not looke to gather from it grapes There is not then a sonne of man in the cluster of mankind but eodem modo nodo vinctus victus it is lyable to that common and equall law of death Vnde superbis homo natus satus ortus ab hum◠Proud man forgets Earth was his natiue wombe Whence he was borne and dead the Earth's his Tombe Morieris non quia aegrot as sed quia viuis sayth the Philosopher Thou shalt die oh sonne of man not because thou art sicke but because
the sonne of man Cuinasci contigit mori restat Who hapned to come into the world must vpon necessity goe out of the world It is no new thing to die since life it self is nothing els but a iourney to death Quicquid ad summum peruenit adexitum properat He that hath climbed to his highest is descending to his lowest All the sonnes of men die not one death for time and manner for the matter and end one death is infallible to all the sonnes of men The corne is somtimes bitten in the spring often trode downe in the blade neuer failes to bee cut vp in the eare when ripe Quisquis queritur hominem mortuum esse queritur hominem fuisse Who laments that a man is dead laments that he was a man When Anaxagoras heard that his son was dead hee answered without astonishment Scio me genuisse mortalem I know that I begate a mortall man It was a good speech that fell from that shame of Philosophie Epictetus Non sum aeternitas sed homo particula vniuersi vt hora diei venire igitur oportet vt horam praeterire vt horam I am not eternity but a man a little part of the whole as an houre is of the day like an houre I came and I must depart like an houre Mors dominos seruis sceptra ligonibus aequat Dissimiles simili conditione ligat Deathes cold imparciall hands are vs'd to strike Princes and Peasants and make both alike Some fruite is plucked violently from the tree some droppes with ripenesse all must fall because the sonnes of men This should teach vs to arme our selues with patience and expectation to encounter Death Saepe debemus mori nec volumus morimur nec volumus Often we ought to prepare for death wee will not at last wee die indeed and wee would not Adam knew all the beasts and called them by their names but his own name hee forgot Adam of earth What bad memories haue wee that forget our owne names and selues that we are the sonnes of men corruptible mortall Incertum est quo loco te mors expectat itaque tu illam omni loco expecta Thou knowest in what place Death looketh for thee therefore do thou looke for him in euery place Watch therefore for you know not what houre your Lord doth come Thus for the Owners 2. The vessell it selfe is the Heart The Heart is Mans principall vessell Wee desire to haue all the implements in our house good but the vessell of chiefest honour principally good Quanm male de te ipse meruisti c. sayth Saint August How mad is that man that would haue all his vessels good but his owne heart Wee would haue a strong nerue a cleare veyne a moderate pulse a good arme a good face a good stomacke onely we care not how euill the heart is the principall of all the rest For howsoeuer the Head be called the Tower of the mind the Throne of Reason the house of wisdom the Treasure of memory the Capitol of iudgement the shoppe of affections yet is the Heart the receptacle of life And Spiritus which they say is Copula animae corporis a vertue vniting the soule and the body if it bee in the Liuer naturall in the Head animal yet is in the Heart vitall It is the member that hath first life in mā and is the last that dies in man and to all the other members giues viuification As man is Microcosmus an abridgement of the world hee hath heauen resembling his soule earth his heart placed in the middest as a center the Liuer is like the sea whence flow the liuely springs of bloud the Braine like the sunne giues the light of vnderstanding and the senses are set round about like the starres The Heart in man is like the roote in a tree the organ or lung-pipe that comes of the left cel of the heart is like the stocke of the tree which diuides it selfe into two parts and thence spreades abroad as it were sprayes and boughes into all the body euen to the arteries of the head The Egyptians haue a conceite that mans growing or declining followes his Heart The Heart of man say they increaseth still till hee come to fifty yeares old euery yeare two drachmes in weight and then decreaseth euery yeare as much till hee come to an hundred and then for want of Heart hee can liue no longer By which consequence none could liue about an 100. yeres which conceyted demonstration hath often proued false But it is a vessell a liuing vessell a vessell of life It is a vessell properly because hollow hollow to keepe heat and for the more facile closing opening It is a spirituall vessell made to containe the holy dewes of grace which make glad the City of God It is euer full eyther with that precious iuyce or with the pernicious liquor of sinne As our Sauiour sayth Math. 15. Out of the heart proceede euill thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witnesse blasphemies Know you not sayth his Apostle that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirite of God dwelleth in you If our Corpus be Templum Domini sure our Cor is Sanctum sanctorum It was the answere of the Oracle to him that would bee instructed what was the best Sacrifice Damedium Lunae solem simul canis iram Giue the halfe Moone the whole Sunne and the dogs anger Which three Characters make Cor the heart The good heart is a receptacle for the whole Trinity and therefore it hath three Angels as if the three Persons of that one Deity would inhabit there The Father made it the Sonne bought the Holy Ghost sanctifies it therfore they all three claime a right in the Heart It hath three cels for the three persons and is but one Heart for one God The world cannot satisfie it a Globe cannot fill a Triangle Onely God can sufficiently content the Heart God is sayth a Father non corticis sed cordis Deus not regarding the rinde of the lippes but the root of the Heart Hence Sathan directs his malicious strength against the Heart The foxe doth gripe the necke the mastiffe flies at the throat and the Ferret nippes the Liuer but the Deuill aymes at the Heart inficere interficere The Heart he desires because he knows God desires it and his ambition still inclines intends his purposes and plots to robbe God of his delight The Heart is the chiefe Tower of life to the body and the spirituall Citadell to the whole man alwayes besieged by a domesticall enemy the Flesh by a ciuill the world by a profest the Deuill Euery perpetrated sinne doth some hurt to the walls but if the Heart be taken the whole Corporation is lost How should Christ enter thy house and suppe with thee when the Chamber is taken vp wherein he would rest the Heart All the faculties of Man follow
heart sayth the Psalmist the locall seate of this madnes when they haue not known the wayes of the Lord. The true obiect of diuine knowledge is God and the Booke wherein we learne him is his Word How shall they scape the rockes that saile without this Compasse when the Frenzy hath turned the edge of common sense frustrated the power of reason and captiuated the regent-house of vnderstanding a man dreades not fire mockes the thunder playes at the holes of Asps thrusts his hand into the mouthes of Lions ignoti nec timor nec amor he knowes not the danger So whiles the supreme Iustice is not knowne nor the auenger of wickednesse vnderstood the vngodly are so madde as to mocke at sinne to play at the brinks of the infernall pitte and to dally with those Aspes Crocodiles the stinging and tormenting spirits to precipitate themselues into that vnquenched fire to fillup the darts of thunder backe againe to the sender and with a thirsty voracity to swallow down the dregs of the wrathfull viall Quid in causa nisi ignorantia what hath thus distempered the heart and put it into this wildnesse that without feare or wit men run into the euident danger of vengeance if not ignorance Aprudent man foreseeth the plague and hideth himselfe but the foolish run madly on and are punished If the Romists were not mad-mē or worse they would neuer set vp ignorance as a Lampe to light men to heauen assuring it for the damme to produce and nurse with her cherishing milke to batten deuotion when it is indeede an originall cause of madnesse the mother of errour and wildnesse making mans way to blisse more vncertaine then Hannibals on the Alpes or a Larkes in the ayre The truth is know to know and be wise know to obey and be happy This is eternall life to know God and his Sonne whom he hath sent Iesus Christ. Labour to vnderstand the Bible lest thou vndergoe the curses in it Lege historiam ne fias historia Saint Paul after the recitation of many fearefull iudgements concludes Now all these things hapned vnto them for ensamples and are written for our admonition c. If wee will not bee admonished by these ensamples wee may become ensamples our selues histories of madnesse to future generations Let the Papists call Ignorance by neuer so tolerable and gentle names it is Ignorance still still cause of madnes If madnes may bring to heauen there is hope for these wilfully ignorant 2. Vnfaithfulnesse Is a sufficient-efficient cause of madnes Faith is the Christian mans reason now on the priuation of reason must needes follow the position of madnes For shall the Creatour of heauen and earth the eternall Iustice and infallible Truth affirme shall he sweare wil you put him to his oath and that by two immutable things the best in heauen and the best on earth will you haue him set his hand to it and write it with his owne finger dare you not yet trust him without a Seale must hee seale it with that bloudy waxe in the impression of death on his Sonne must you haue witnesses three on earth and as many in heauen when the King of Kings might well write Teste meipso and will you not yet beleeue him Is there no credite from your hearts to all these premises promises attestations protestations signes seales Will not these all these signifie certifie satisfie your soules of that vnchangeable truth Surely you are madde haplesly hopelesly mad vnmeasurably out of your spirituall wits Were you as deepely gone in a corporall frenzy I would sigh out your desperate case Hei mihi quod nullis ratio est medicabilis herbis Shall the Lord threaten iudgements woe to him that trembles not Non sapient sentient tamen Hell was not made for nothing The vantguard of that accursed departing rabble the ringleaders of the crew that dance to hell are vnbeleeuers Reuel 21. An vnsetled heart accompanied incredulity If yee will not beleeue surely yee shall not be established Neyther are they that beleeue not gathered within the pale and solde of the Church but wander like straggling goates and wilde beasts on the mountaines and forrests of this world Hereupon through the improuident and incircumspect courses that madde Infidelity keepes the soule stumbles at the Rocke and is broken by that which might haue beene her eternall safety 1. Pet. 2. They that wander from the mounds and bounds of Faith madly inuite dangers to salute them Sub clypeo fidei subsidio virtutis vir tutus But where faith is not our Proctor nor is prouidence our Protector what shall shield vs in the absence of faith Not Solon not Solomon a Wise man among the Gentiles a wiser among the Christians but grow madde in the deficiencie of faith Men see by vnanswerable arguments that the hand of God is too strong for sinners that the least touch of his finger staggers their liues their soules that hee sends his Executioner Death to cal the wicked away and that in a more horrid shape then to others arming him with plague murder distraction destruction and that often with suddennesse they behold that Cadit corpus inde cadauer sepelitur seponitur the body dies and turns to rottennesse they know their owne building to be made of the same loame and dust and therfore lyable to that common and equall law Frequent examples of Gods immediate vengeance are added to the ancient trophees and monumentall ruines of his former desolations spectacles set vp in the vast Theater of this world whereof quocunque sub axe whither soeuer thou turnest thine eyes thou must needes be a spectator Shall we still thinke that solummodò pereunt vt pereant vel vt pereundo alios deterreant they only perish to perish and not to terrifie others threatning the like wretchednes to the like wickednes Surely the iudgements of God should bee like his Thunders Poena ad paucos terror ad omnes Whilest some fall others should feare They that will not take example by others shall giue example to others But we see those that are as ripe in lewdnesse draw long and peaceable breathes neither is it the disposition of a singular power but the contingencie of naturall causes that thus worketh Take heed it is not the leuity but the lenity of God not the weakenesse of his arme but the mercy of his patience that thus forbeareth thee The Lord is not slacke as some count slacknes but is long-suffering to vs-ward c. If this gentle Physicke make thee madder hee hath a darke chamber to put thee in a dungeon is more lightsome and delightsome the Graue bands of darkenesse to restraine thy outrages and potions of brimstone to tame and weaken thy peruersenesse Then will hee demonstrate actually Nemo me impunè lacessit No man shall prouoke me vnpunished Infidelity of Gods iudgements is madnesse vnbeliefe of his mercies hath neuer beene counted lesse What is it