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death_n	law_n	life_n	power_n	7,966	5	5.2131	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13017	The heauenly conuersation and the naturall mans condition In two treatises. By Iohn Stoughton, Doctor in Divinitie, sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge; and late preacher of Gods word in Alderman-bury London	Stoughton, John, d. 1639.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1640 (1640)	STC 23308; ESTC S113792	78,277	283

haters of him Now because we cannot conceive any thing of God almost but in some proportion that we finde in the creature to him Removing all imperfections I will instance in three good things wherein they goe about to wrong God First In the content and tranquillity of minde or if you will his pleasure by displeasing him Secondly In his good name and honor due to him by dishonoring him Thirdly In his Riches and possessions by dammaging him yea even his Kingdome it selfe in a manner de-throning and deposing him I will but briefely give a touch of every one of these because otherwise I shall not compasse to dispatch so much as I desire The first then is the displeasing of God Without faith it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle and so it is impossible for the unregenerate man butto displease God their best actions stinke in his nostrills The prayers of the wicked is abomination to the Lord in the Proverbes My Soule abborreth your new Moones and appointed feasts they are a trouble unto me I am weary to beare them as the Lord himselfe complaineth of the Iewes by the Prophet Esay 1. 14. But my purpose is not to shew how much the Lord is displeased with them because I shall have better opportunity for that in the next point but how much they displeased the Lord it is their whole course and study so to doe almost I know saith Moses to the Israelites that evill will befall you in the latter dayes because ye will doe evill in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the workes of your hands Deut. 31. 29. And the Prophet threatens in Gods name 1 King 14 15. The Lord shall smite Israel and shall roote him out of this good Land because they have made their Groves to provoke the Lord to anger and Ieroboams sinnes wherewith he sinned against God are termed in the same Booke 15. 30. His provocations wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger And in the second Booke 17. 17. Where you have a Catalogue of the sinnes of Israel this concludes all They caused their sonnes and their daughters to passe through the fire and used divinations and inchantments and sold themselves to doe evill in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight Out of which places you may see what is the issue of the sinne of the wicked what the scope upon which their wit and will and wayes are wholly set namely to provoke the Lord to anger and that sinne in this respect is enmity to God and sinners enemies I thinke it is plaine enough for is not this enmity to doe all things that we know will thwart and crosse a man and to omit and neglect any thing that might in any sort be to his liking to delight to grieve and vexe and fret him which the wicked doe in sinning against God Secondly I might further illustrate this from another peevishnesse which the Apostle Paul hath observed in our nature which is such that the Law of God which should be a bridle to restraine and curbe our lawlesse luft is a spurre to provoke and pricke it forward to runne more violently the more God forbids sinne the more we bid for it the more greedily we desire it Sinne saith the Apostle Rom. 7. 8. Taking occasion by the Commandement wrought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the Law sinne was dead for I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sinne revived and I dyed And the Commandement which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sinne taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me As if we did sinne upon purpose so much the more because it is offensive to God to displease him and as you had it even now to provoke him to anger and if God had need to deale with us as he did in the story who was wont to command the contrary when hee would have any thing done because he knew they would crosse him and as the Philosopher cousend Alexander who thinking that he would make sute to him to restore his Country which he had ruined from which he was utterly averse when he saw him come toward him swore he would deny whatsoever he should desire and he therefore demanded the cleane contrary of what he intended that he would not restore his Country and by that wile sped in his sute because he did not speed Thirdly I might further presse this because our disposition is such naturally toward God for the most part as we will be most refractary in those things which he most earnestly requires at our hands if there be any service more pure to him any performance of ours more precious then other in his sight any duty that he delights in we are more aukward and untoward to that as if we did it of purpose to displease him and to provoke him to anger and I could instance here particularly in the Sanctifying of his day in private and frequent prayer and many other the like but this that hath beene said already may suffice concerning the first the displeasing of God to shew that it is a character of enmity a badge of hatred and as it is said in the Gospell of the Tares sowne while the husbandman slept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy hath done this so the wicked that doe this continually may be branded in the forehead with this marke and knowne to bee an enemie Secondly the second act of enmity whereby the wicked men seeke to bring evill upon God is by dishonouring him which they doe in sinning many wayes both in conceiving very meanely and basely of him in their minde or else they could not sinne and so speaking diminitively of his Majestie yea blaspheming his holy Name as also in the very sinne it selfe which as it brings a deformity upon themselves is dishonourable to him as the Creator and as it is a difformitie from his holy Will and disobedience thereto is dishonourable to him as the King and Governour of all things for as the mangling and defacing of some noble Pictures robs the Artificer of his deserved praise and so tends to his disgrace and as the disobedience of the Subjects is a dishonour to their Soveraigne so we blurring and mangling of our owne soules with sinne and the Image of God in them doe impaire the glory of his Wisedome and Workemanshippe of which hee made them to have beene Statues and Monuments and rebelling against him deny him the glory of his power and Soveraignetie and make both his Wisedome and Power to be called in question the defects that be in us redounding in some sort to the discredit of him that made us as though hee wanted either power or wisedome to have prevented or to redresse it Now ye know that God made all things to

of the foolies in Israel we are an adulterous seed and he is a jealous God and no marvell if there be adivorce of our affections For what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what communion hath light with darkenesse and what concord hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6. 14. And can two walke together except they be agreed saith the Prophet but more particularly as I said before that mans hatred to God arose from two things First Because he forbids the evill of sinne which they love as an holy Law and Secondly because he inflicts the evill of punishment which they hate as a just Judge and so crosses them in both respects for in the former they see he is not like them in the latter they perceive hee likes them not so proportionably there is a double respect in naturall men as sinners upon which Gods hatred to them is a ground First sinne as it is sinne by reason of which they are not like to God Secondly sin as it is hatred to God by which it appeares they like not God for there be two causes of love principal as Gregory de Valentia notes the first is the goodnesse of it the second is the good inclination towards us goodnesse of it selfe is attractive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it doth as it were invite and call to it and every man is willingly to runne after it but love is more lovely and more forcible magnes amoris amor as they say the reason is because that seemes to give us some proprietie in this thing so that we love it as our owne and this is enough to recompence the want of the other yea to make it seeme to be where it is not Suum cuique pulchrum the Crow thinkes her bird the whitest and as it is in love so you must understand it contrary in hatred there are two causes first evill in a thing secondly hatred too and these two things are in wicked and carnall men by nature for which God is an enemie unto them and hates them First Sinne Esay 59. 2. But your iniquities have separated betweene you and your God and your sinnes have bid his face from you Sinne makes the wall of separation betweene God and his people Sinne is the veile of covering that hinders the plople from beholding the Holy of Holies and in the second of the Ephesians you have naturall men stiled the children of disobedience in the second verse and in the third it followes the children of wrath to note that our disobedience is that onely cause of Gods displeasure and you shall observe it through the whole course of Scripture that God was never angry with Israel but Israel first provoked him by his sinnes and therefore offensé to note the connexion of both these signifies both sinne and anger and this appeares sufficiently out of all other places that have beene alleaged The second ground of Gods enmity to us for our sinne as it is hatred of him is contained in the former and needes no further explication But now for the further illustration and confirmation of the whole Point that God is an enemy and hates men as in the state of sinne and corruption three things may be considered out of which will appeare both that it is and what it is and wherein it consists and what are the fruits of it The first is the filthinesse of sinne Secondly the second the holinesse of God Thirdly the third the grievousnesse of the punishments that God inflicts for sinne The two former I will passe over now because I meane to make use of that which I thinke needfull and pertinent in them in a more oportune place onely remember what hath beene delivered in the former point that may helpe to the understanding of them I come to the third and last of them the Punishments which God in his just wrath against sin and hatred of it doth inflict upon sinners which if you will see how great and grievous they are take but a view of them three wayes First in some particular and remarkable examples Secondly in the generall nature and kindes of them Thirdly in one singular which hath both undergone and overcome them all our Saviour Iesus Christ And by this Gods detestation of sin and sinners for sinnes sake will be sufficiently manifested and as I declared mans hatred to God by the effects of it so the same course is more fit here and more necessary because there is no such affection to be conceived in God but in relation to those effects which he produceth like unto those creatures which are and when they are so affected To speake first of the generall nature and kindes of punishments as man sustaines for his sinnes Punishment is nothing else but some evill inflicted for some fault committed and therefore includes two things First the sufferance of some evill and this is as it were the materiall of it Secondly the reference to some fault precedent and this is the formal as it were which makes it properly punishment which otherwise would break malum naturae as suppose Adam had beene blind or so before his transgression that blindnesse would have beene evill to him indeed but onely malum naturae but because it was not inflicted by justice for sin it would not have beene malum Poenae a Punishment for Iustice sheweth its dislike to sinne two wayes First before sinne committed by prohibition Secondly after sin is committed by punishment I might perhaps adde another clause and say there must be a third condition to make an evill a punishment that it be inflicted with a mind of punishment and so maketwo kinds or two significations of punishment First Proper where all those three conditions are found Secondly Improper where the last is wanting the evils that God brings upon the wicked are properly Punishments because they are evils and they flow from Gods justice against sinne and that with a purpose of punishing that sinne the evils that Gods children suffer are improperly punishments but properly chastisements because though they be evill and laid upon them for their sinne yet they are not so much animo puniendi as animo corrigendi not as from a Iudge but as from a Father not to revenge but to reforme them or rather they may be distinguished not from the persons upon whom they are inflicted but from themselves for Punishments may be considered either as intermedia or as ultima the intermedia c. Chastisements of their owne nature intended for the amendment both of the wicked and godly upon whomsoever they fall but Supplicium ultimum because it cannot be conceived as medicinall at all but as Poenall onely that is properly and simply Punishment so in Commonwealths all other Punishments inflicted upon the delinquent party are medicinall for the recovering of them to honest life according to the lawes but

the last of Death which is the last that the Magistrates power can extend it selfe unto is onely Poenall and cannot be conceived as intended in love for amendment of the malefactours But this shall suffice to have pointed out the nature of a Punishment now to conceive distinctly of the kindes of punishments in generall which God in his just wrath and indignation against sin inflicts upon sinners I thinke you must take the whole extent of the materiall of them namely Evill for man having offended against Gods justice which is infinit cannot be satisfied unlesse all evill be brought upon the sinner which he is capable of for in civill Courts of Iustice indeed a punishment in the same kind that the offence was at least in one kind of evill will make sufficient satisfaction but where the offence is against God it is not so for though it be exparte principii but one fault yet it hath ex parte objecti an infinite guilt Nay Secondly though it be ex parte principii but one formaliter in that selfe yet even in that respect also it is all virtualiter in the seede in so much as the offender in that once offended against God the Authour of the Law and so against the whole Law according to that in the Apostle Iames 2. 10. Whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all For he 〈◊〉 said Doe not commit adultery said also doe not kill And thirdly though it be but one actually yet it is interpretatively by all because the same party hath a mind and will to commit all if there were the like occasion now as God accepteth the will for the deed when there is a willing minde so he imputeth And though we doe not say that God will de facto punish the wicked for all the sinnes that they would have committed as some fondly would have infants predestinated either to life eternall for the good or to condemnation for the evill which he foresaw they would have done had he lent them longer life because then all should have equall punishment whereas there are degrees and that no doubt according to the degrees of their actuall sinnes Yet it is no errour to say that God may de jure punish any one sinne with all kindes and all degrees of punishment not for sinnes they would have committed to speake properly but for that one which deserves all in strict rigour of Iustice as well as if all were indeed committed and that for this reason because that containes all in it and is as much as all in the minde of the sinner that committed it though he were hindered that they did actually breake forth and as this is true of all sinne so properly of originall which is all so that to make the fault and the punishment equall wee must divide punishment by the evill and make it all evill that a man is capable of The whole laitude of evill then you shall take by a threefold distinction The first is this the first evill is either Damni or Sensus as they use to distinguish punishment either a losse and privation of good or a position and feeling of some evill privative or positive for this distinction must not be restrained to eternall punishments as the Schoole seemes to doe but is generall to all as you easily doe and shall perceive and this distinction is taken from the adjuncts or affections of evill or at least we will take it so without scrupulous inquirie for the present Secondly the second is taken from the causes or integrall parts and so evill is loathsome in effects that death as it is generally used in Scripture and by name in that of Genesis the intermination of God 2. 17. In the same day that thou eatest therereof that is of the forbidden tree thou shalt die surely where according to the meaning of God there is a Synec doche of one eminent kind of punishment for all the rest and if the signification of the word be extended to all the particulars there under comprehended there must needs be a metaphor in regard of some for both the separation of the soule from God is so called Death by the trope and eternall death hath the same reason now to lay out the parts in some order as if divided the good of man in the explication of Happinesse and it was either Summum the favour of God or secondly Subordinatum and that againe two fold first Internum with the essence of man as it were or secondly Externum without him Internum againe two-fold first in the Vnderstanding secondly in the Will first in the Soule secondly in the Body In the Soule againe two-fold so it is contrary here which you may reduce to these five First the displeasure of God and enmity with him Secondly darkenesse of the Vnderstanding and ignorance Thirdly perversnesse and crookednesse of the Will Fourthly Distemper and diseases of the body Fifthly Crosses in the outward estate want and shame and all the rest And let no man looke backe to the scope of this Discourse which was to shew how God shewes his enmitie to sinners and hatred to sin in bringing those punishments upon them for it and than looke upon this Catalogue and wonder to see both mans sinne which is in the third the untowardnesse of the will and Gods wrath which is the first of them to be brought as punishments for there is a double consideation of these two First for the rise of them and then the order of them is thus Mans sinne is the first which provokes Gods displeasure which brings all other punishments upon man Secondly for the continuation and then it is thus God being provoked justly suffers man to continue and goe on in his sinnes which continually addes fewell to the fire of Gods wrath and that being the principall linke drawes the chaine of all plagues along with it So that you see in this respect both the continuation of sinne and of Gods wrath ariseth from Gods wrath provoked by the first sinne and so are mutuall causes one to the other and this is the second distinction Thirdly the third is from the effects and containes the Species of punishment which are two first Temporall in this life secondly Eternall in the life to come and the principall differences betweene these two are three-fold First in regard of the intension of them for the punishments that God inflicts here are not in the highest degree that they may be but in a more remisse mingled with the fruition of many mercies Secondly in the Extension for all punishments that make up our full misery are not inflicted no not upon the wicked here but in the life to come they are Thirdly In duration for punishments suffered here by the wicked are neither continued without intermission but have many Lucida intervalla nor continuall without end but are all concluded in death which brings a change of this estate but the