Sermon unto us 1. It putteth us in mind of what Christ hath done for us and the many benefits we obtained by his life death resurrection and intercession 2. It is a remembrancer unto us of what we should do for Christ in gratitude to the many favours he hath done for us 54. Secondly Christians it is the largest name it takes in all Christs little flock within the compasse thereof agreeing in the same fundamentall doctrine though there may be difference betwixt them in unimportant controversies where the errour doth not intrench on salvation though their opposites may unmercifully censure and condemn them for the same O! if God were not more mercifull to us then we are charitable one to another his flock would be so little it would not deserve the name of a flock 55. 3. It is the ancientest proper name Believers Saints Brethren Disciples they were but epithites and appellatives and though they still be in being and lustre yet they are all out-shined with the word Christian the best largest and ancientest name for all of our profession And the Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch FINIS THE WORST of EVILS Ephes. 2.3 And were by nature the Children of wrath even as others By T. F. B. D. LONDON Printed by R. Daniel MDCLVI THE WORST of EVILS Ephes. 2.3 And were by nature the Children of wrath even as others IN this chapter S. Paul is the remembrancer to the Ephesians and reades them a lecture of their badnesse before their calling and conversion surely such thoughts are right profitable to Christians to call to minde how bad they were whilst they were wilde Olives before they were ingrafted into Christ for first it will raise their thankfulnesse to God What am I or what is my fathers house that thou shouldst bring me hither it will make us pay one tribute of praise more fully more freely when we consider if we be vessels of honour it is no difference in the clay but in the pleasure of the Potter Secondly it is excellent physick against the pleasure of pride to let our souls bloud with the consideration how bad we have been he that will not confesse his former badnesse I suspect his present goodnesse whether he hath any or not Lastly it will make us both pitty the present wofull estate of wicked men and hope well and pray heartily for their future conversion why should we fear that arm of God should be too short for others that could reach us thinke not that we are the last lost sheep that shall ever be found The most crooked tree will make timber for the temple if God pleaseth to hew it For these and other reasons S. Paul in this chapter paints out to the life the dead estate of the Ephesians whilst they were in trespasses sinnes following their own lusts and the power of the Prince of the aire and in conclusion showes the cause thereof namely their corruption by nature so that the last item in this black bill is in effect the very imprimis of all the rest And were by nature the children of wrath even as others we will observe this plain method 1. That by Nature all are the Children of wrath 2. How it comes to passe that we are so 3. Seeing so it is what good use we may make thereof to our selves 1. That by nature we are the children of wrath is the very language of my text yet lest any should object my text should be but a single Instrument heare how it is tuned according to the dolefull consort both of scripture and reason in this point of scripture Psal. 51.5 behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me Romans 5.12 wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned 2. By reason fetcht from the mystery of Circumcision under the old Testament Baptisme in the new the whole saith our Saviour have no need of the Physitian but those which are sick Secondly because we want that original righteousnesse wherein we were created and which is required to the purity and perfection of our nature which righteousnesse was in Adam who was created after Gods own image consisting chiefly in knowledge and holinesse as for Adams knowledge he gave sufficient proof thereof in giving names to rhe Creatures if a Godfather at the font give a foolish and fond name to a child the Bishop at confirmation hath power to alter it had Adam either imposed improper or insignificant names on the creatures God no doubt could have reversed and revoked them but the text saith Gen. 2.19 whatsoever Adam called living creatures that was the name thereof God did concurre with Adam and approve their names as brief definitions of their natures nor was his sanctity any whit inferiour to his knowledge each faculty of his soul did look straight forwards on his proper object without squinting aside on any other so that what was said of this great world was as great a truth of this little world man and behold all things therein were exceeding good now because we want thiâ— originall righteousnesse we are therefore the children of wrath Thirdly because all the partâ— and powers of our soul and bodâ— are depraved with originall corruption now as Nehemiah did by night survey the ruines of the walls of Jerusalem so let us with shame sorrow and silence behold the breaches and dilapidations of our souls Our understandings are so bad that they understand not their own badnesse our wils which are the Queens of our souls become the vassals of sin our memory like Jett good onely to draw strawes and treasure up trifles of no moment our consciences through errours in our understanding sometimes accusing us when we are innocent sometimes accquitting us when we are guilty our affections all disaffected and out of order must not that needs be a monstrous face wherein the blewnesse which should be in the veins is in the lipps the rednesse which should be in the cheeks in the nose the hair that should grow on the head on the face must not our souls needs seem ugly in the sight of God who have grief growing there where joy should joy where grief should wee love what wee should hate hate where we should love wee fear where no fearis and fear not where we ought to fear and all our affections either mistake their true object or exceed their due measure this made the purest Pagans see somewhat of their naturall impurity and the most refined Philosophers complain of their drowsinesse by nature they saw alâ— was not right all was not well which made them complain thaâ— nature was Noverca a stepmother nature was a mother in law but when or how their own mother dyed that they could not tell or remember they could not know how their souls forfeited originall righteousnesse being a mystery too high for them
with me first the party to whome the wrong was offered was a stranger the word stranger in the very mention of it ought to carry with it a protection from all wrongs the heathen Romans were so Christian in this kind that if their enemy chanced to enter into their house in nature of a stranger there was a cessation from enmity during his abode under their roof and revenge gave place to hospitality Secondly she was a woman that sex may seem in some sort to be fenced from injury because it is not fenced from injuries For such is the known weakness of women that wee count it weaknesse in men to offer them any wrong and our modesty is the best safeguard and defence for theirs Thirdly she was a Levites wife and methinks some shadow of sacrednesse should be reflected from him on her Fourthly she was abused to death indeed she died not presently but before she came into the house her soul got out of her body and even in our law it is murther that comes within the compasse of a year and a day now murther you know is a crying sinne yea like Stentor the Graecian it shouteth louder then 50. other ordinary offences The monster mother may smother her child but when she hath done she cannot smother the murther of her child Fifthly abused to death by a whole city those are deceived who conceive the multitude of offendors diminish the offence Rather the more the sinners the more heinous the sinne the worst sinne that ever was was the most generall sinne that ever was when all mankind together sinned at once in Adam yea in our law that which being done by one or two is but a trespasse committed by more assumes the name of a ryot Lastly by a whole city of Israelites but if they had been Hivites or Hittites that had done me this dishonour then perchance I should have born it had they been Canaanites or Jebusites had offered me this disgrace then more patiently could I have digested it but they pretended to serve the same God and observe the same religion They were descended from the loyns of Jacob and issued from the womb of Rachel what good doth the ark of God in Shiloh with Levites a tending before it Aarons rod pot of manna mercy seat within it if there be a Sodome in Sion a Bethaven in Bethel folly in Israel verily I say unto you I have not found so great an offence no not amongst the Gentiles Happy those poor Armenians which live in those remote parts where the shrill sound of the gospel was never trumpetted forth their invincible ignorance will be an Orator in the ears of the mercifull judge not wholly to excuse but much to diminish their fault not to prevaile for a full pardon yet to procure a lighter punishment whilst in the same day they shall rise up and condemn the Jewes in my text seeing better by the light of a candle then the Iewes by the beams of the sun I come now to the prescribing of the wholesome order for the future consult consider and give sentence but first wee must remove an objection which here may rise for may some say why is it not particularly exprest in the law of Moses what punishment ought to be inflicted upon an whole city when by lust they abuse a woman to death had this been a book-case and the penalty precisesly specified it would have spared the Israelites all their pains to consult and consider yea this may seem to argue the law of God of some defects and imperfections that it is not adaequate to all occasions and of extent large enough for all necessities and needs to be patcht and peeced with the accession of humane deliberation For two reasons the particular punishment is expressed first because the spirit of God being charity it self charitablely presumed that no Israelites would be so wicked the heathen appointed no punishment for parricides supposing that sinne could not be committed Men must first murther all nature in themselves before they can be so unnaturall as to murther their parents Secondly the mentioning of the punishment might by satans suggestion and mans corruption be abused to make them commit the sin some sinnes are left out in the law not because they are too little but because they are too great should the punishment of every villany be put into the law the committing of many villanies would be put into our minds which otherwise might be forgotten and sinnes punisher would be made sins remembrancer Yet though this case for circumstance is not set down in the Bible for substance it is in severall places who sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed Gen. 6.9 now the scripture is not written for those that will be idle but for such as comparing one place with another by faithfull consequence will proportionably extract and deduce what ought to be done in each severall action whose substance in the bible is recorded though each circumstance particularly set down And now I come to the order for the time to come but behold in the order it self much confusion arising from the variety of translations you shall scarce find three bibles wherein two of these words are rendred alike what therefore must wee do the best way to expound the text is to practise it and before wee give sentence what should be the meaning of these severall words let us first consult with interpreters and consider the originall The first word in the great Bible consult importeth in the originall a meeting of many together rendred by learned Tremelius adhibete vos ad istud settle your selves together to this matter The observation is this in matters of moment we are not severally to follow our private advice but jointly to unite your selves together in consultation eyes see more then an eye saith the proverb I must confesse Paphnutius with his one eye for his persecutors had bored out the other saw more in the matter of ministers marriage then the 300 two-eyed bishops assembled in the councel oâ— Nice But he was an exception from a generall rule ordinarily tow are better then one yea Solomon the wisest of earthly kings had his councel of aged men which stood before him 1 Kings 12.6 nay a greater then Solomon may be brought for the proof of this point God himself Genes 1.26 being about to contract the first volume of the world into the abrigement of man called as it were a councel in the persons of the Trinity let us make man Had God any need of councel is not the same eternall act which is done by one person done by all or are not these things rather written for our instruction surely for our instruction they are written that when we enterprise things of consequence we may call for and make use of the councels and directions of others to blame then are they who rashly runne on their own heads I cannot but commend the swiftnesse of
whence childrens badnesse doth grow but rather the water or compost tha cause it to spring and sprout more speedily Fasly maintain it and so the Papists who though they allow the deprivation of originall righteousness will not allow the depravation of our nature but hold that we differ from Adam no more then a naked man from him whose clothes are taken away and to make this more plausible Bellarmine creates in his brains that Adam was created with a reluctanty and rebellion of the inferiour powers of his soul against the superiour faculties thereof nay blusheth not to affirm that God could not make a man so pure and perfect but praeter Dei intentionem ex conditione materiae there would be such a rebellion in him Lord this same Bellarmine at other times without necessity and against reason could conceive how omnipotency props up accidents without a substance and makes the same body at the same time in severall places and now he cannot see how an infinite power is antidote strong enough to expell out of the matter any venemous quality whatsoever true it is that there was in Adam motion tendency and propensity of each faculty to its proper object but as for any obliquity and deordination in them it neither was nor could be as repugnant both to Gods goodnesse and mans perfection But thus they go about to make as I may say some corption in Adam in his state of integrity that they may make way for some integrity in the sonnes of Adam after their corruption but the best is that as the Pharisees Act. 23.9 though enemies to S. Pauls person yet friends to his tenets about the resurrection from the dead and valiantly vindicated both him and the truth from the Sadduces who traduced him for an Heretick so the Dominicans who are sound in this point that we are unsound by nature defend both us and the truth against the Iesuiticall faction that maintain the contrary on then with courage you learned Friers and may the school of Dominick be too hard for the sheild of Loyola whilst verity is on your side let victory be at your backs may you as far surpasse your enemies for piety and solid learning as they go beyond you and all honesty in policy and treacherous designes And thus whilst they fight one against another let us come to our selves and apply what hath been delivered first to those that are children to parents then to those that are parents to children Ye children to parents have heard how wee are by nature the children of wrath even as others which wrath-deserving condition is derived to you from Adam by your immediate parents they alas could not convey life but must pass death unto you also by the same grant yet this ought not to lessen your love abate your affection diminish your duty unto them Isay 45.10 woe unto him that sayes to his father what hast thou begotten or unto his mother what hast thou brought forth Rather imitate the example of David though he complained that in sinne had his mother conceived him yet he was a father to his father and a mother to his mother in her old age taking order with the king of Moab that they should be provided for 1 Sam. 22.3 grant our parents should turn Ostriches unto us and forsake us when we are young wee neverthelesse are to be Storks unto them and feed them when they are old having received from them under God the greatest benefit that can be our being Ye parents to children have heard that this wrath-deserving condition is derived by you unto your posterity How solemnly seriously and religiously then ought marriage to be undertaken and used how too too blame are they who adde to this naturall corruption other stains before God and man antedating their wives whores and heirs bastards a sinne in some places that is made so common that t is made no sinne have wee too little wickednesse of Peor whereof wee are not cleansed unto this day that before the old debt be satisfied ye runne on a new score and adde bastardy and illegitimation to the naturall infection of your children 2. Secondly yee see how though against your wills yee have propagated this wrath-deserving condition unto your children know then that you are bound both in honour and honesty civility and Christianity to pluck them out what lieth in your power of this pit wherein they are plunged and this ye may doe first by embracing the speediest opportunity to fasten the sacrament of baptisme upon them by baptisme the condemning power of originall sinne is drowned in the font the bane is removed the blot doth remain the guilt is remitted the blemish is retained the sting is gone the stain doth stay if not consented to it cannot damn us though it may defile us In baptisme the finall-peaceable-commanding power is washed away ever after it may be in us not over us it may rule as a tyrant not a king being ever resisted often subdued though never expelled Some prisoners have eaten off their irons with Mercury water but there is no way to fret of the fetters of originall corruption wherewith our feet are hurt in the stocks the irons have entaed into our souls but by the water in baptisme and therefore take heed how yee needlessely deferr it let marriage feasts be put of till the parties have got their wedding wardrobe let churching be deferred to attend the perfect health of the woman let funerall pomps be delayed they may be put of without danger which rather please the living then profit the dead these are moveable feasts whereof yee make your own Almanacks and set them to fall higher or lower sooner or later at your own pleasure but oh take heed how causelesly ye put of the baptizing of your children stand not on the shadow till ye loose the substance ne quod deferatur auferatur lest what ye delay God deny whilst you deferre the christening of your child God take away the child to be christened and then though I will not be the judge to condemn the child were I one of the Jury I should scarce accquit the father Secondly let them not want good prayers which if steept in tears will grow the better good precepts good precedents and shew thy child in thy self what he should follow in others what he should shun and avoid let them not want wholesome correction if occasion require blast not their souls with the honey-dew of cockering and indulgence fetch those little malefactors from the hornes of the Altar from the sanctuaries of their mouthes sides lipps and bosomes what saith Solomon folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive it out not drive out the heart but the folly never was brave spirit spoiled with moderate correction But the mischeif is that as in the beginning of the year we make much of those weeds which bring the first newes of the approaching spring
not still to be neuters Scepticks but absolutely to expresse and declare our selves on one side as wee shall see most occasion And yet how many be there which have learning too much to be papists yet religion too little to be good protestants They are loth to say that Luther is in the right and they are loth to say that Bellarmine is in the wrong And as God saith of himself I am what I am so may it be said of these men they are even what you would have them to be nor need wee go out into the wildernesse to see these reeds shaken with the wind I am afraid in our towns best traded places most populous there be too many of them who spending all their life in tedious consulting and considering of points continue more unresolved then when they begun will never give sentence Which word putteth me in mind to apply my self unto your Lordships to whom his Highnesse authority hath committed the power of passing the sentence of life and death but I remember what Iohn Baptist said to our Saviour Matth. 3. I have need to come to thee and comest thou to mee Is your Honours courtesie and humilitie such as to repair to my weak pains when I whose learning in law matters is no better then ignorance have need to come to you who are the captains of the first forme in the school of justice and therefore need not now to learn the alphabet of your office well do you know how to weild the sword in the hand when to give a slanting blow and where to make a down right stroke whose actions are a continuall web whereof justice mercy are the woof and the warp Leaving therefore your Lordships I come to them who come to these assizes neither to do nor to suffer but onely to heare and behold when I compare this meeting in my text with ours at this time I find a threefold cause for which wee ought to be heartily thankfull to the God of heaven first that though there be many sinnes in our land yet most of them are personall not like this in my text wherein a whole city together was jointly engaged Should we have a murther generally committed by a whole city I am afraid that the cable of that offence twisted with so many lesser cords of severall offendors would be so tough and strong it would almost make the sword of justice turn edge before it could cut through it God daily diminish the sinnes of our land that they may be fewer for number lesser for measure lighter for nature and may our eyes live to see our churches more full our prisons more emptie Not to flatter our selves we are a sinfull nation fellonies amongst us are frequent murther sometimes and were they never so seldome they were too often yet be it spoken to Gods glory these be private sinnes not city villainies as this of the Gibeonites not but that we English men are as wild and as untamed horses as ever the Iews were but that God is pleased to hold us with a stronger bridle curb of his restraining grace then he did them Let him therefore have all the honour of the action Secondly we see the poor Levite was fain to send for justice abroad and about from Dan to Beersheba with much care and cost had the allowance of this Levite been no larger then the poor pittance of some curates and vicars amongst us this one charge would have exhausted his two yeares revenues but let us thank God that justice is brought home to our doors When I have seen with what tedious paces weary thighs poor people have painfully climed and clambred up the steep ascent to the town of Shaftsbury in this county to bring water to the town then have I commended the conveniency of those cities which seated in champion places have water at will then have I praised the commoditie of those houses where turn the cock and plenty flowes at pleasure so when I consider the great trouble of the Levite in my text to send about for justice then have I just cause to praise God for the benefit of our itinerarie judges w ch without our cost or procuring bring justice home unto us If any in this sence doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold the cup is at his mouth let him drink his fill Thirdly the cause of all this mischeif is set down in the first verse because there was no king in Israel a tyrannie is to be preferred before an anarchy for a commonwealth to want a chief it is the chief of all wants every man will do what he lists none what he should Too much liberty would make men slaves to their own lusts Westminster hall would be turned unto the Gluttons kitchin in a word compared to this confusion that of Bable may justly seem an exact modell of method But thanks be to God our happinesse will appear the greater if we consider the state of forreign countries divided from us no less in condition then by the sea look upon high Germany which ever Prometheus like hath a cruell eagle feeding upon her entrailes Is this the civil law wherein nothing stands good but violenta passessio and firma ejectio where souldiers keep Term all the year long and scarce make a short vacation in the dead depth of winter whilest thus the continent is drowned with woes our happy island is dry the waves rage round about us but thanks be to God none runne over us wee are more safe under our vines then our neighbours in their castles Oh let us take heed that wee take not a surfet of our own happinesse but be heartily thankfull to God and expresse our thankfullnesse in the reformation of our lives But what go I about to do this is none of Joshuas day wherein the sun stands still time will wait attendance on none and I am privy to the undispenceablenesse of your occasions wherefore the halfe of my text shall be the whole I will add at this time consult consider and give sentence FINIS * See the Rhemish Testament and Dr. Fulk in his Annotat. on this verse Acts 11.26 citing one Christophorus Francius for the justifying of this observation