are seated in the sensitive part and without which misery and paine have no tooth at all to bite us for our passions are the sting of misery nor could Christ have suffered at all if he had been free from them if misery be a whip 't is our passion and fancy that make it a Scorpion what could malice hurt me if I did not help the blow what edge had an injury if I could not be angry what terror had death if I did not feare It is opinion and passion that makes us miserable take away these and misery is but a name Tunde Anaxarchum enim non tundis you touch not the Stoick though you bray him in a morter Deliverd then he was to these passions to feare and to grief which strein'd his body which rackt his joynts which stretched his sinews which trickled down in clods of bloud exhaled themselves through the pores of his flesh in a bloudy sweat the fire that melted him was his feare and his grief Da si quid ultra est is there yet any more or can he be delivered further not to despaire for it was impossible not to the torments of Hell which could never seize on his innocent soule but Irae Dei to the wrath of God which wither'd his heart like Grasse and burnt up his bones like a Hearth and brought him even to the dust of death Look now upon his countenance it is pale and wan upon his heart it is melted like wax look upon his Tongue it cleaves to the roof of his mouth what talk we of Death the wrath of God is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fearfullest and terriblest thing in the world the sting of sin which is the sting of Death Look into your own soules That weake apprehension of it which we sometimes have what a night and darknesse doth it draw over us what a night nay what a Hell doth it kindle in us what torments do we feele the Types and sad representations of those in the bottomlesse pit how do our delights distast us our desires strangle themselves what a Tophet is the world and what Furies are our Thoughts what do we see which we do not turne from what do we know which we would not forget what do we think which we do not startle at or do we know what to think now what rock can hide us what mountaine can cover us we are wearie of our selves and could wish rather not to be then to be under Gods wrath were it not for this there would be no Law no Conscience no Divell but with this the Law is a killing letter the Conscience a Fury and the Divell a Tormentor But yet there is still a difference between our apprehension and his for alas to us his wrath doth not appeare in its full Horror for if it did we should sooner dye then offend him Some do but think of it few think of it as they should and they that are most apprehensive look upon it as at distance as that which may be turned away and so not fearing his wrath treasure up wrath against the day of wrath To us when we take it at the nearest and have the fullest sight of it it appears but as the cloud did to Elias servant like a mans hand but to Christ the Heavens were black with clouds and winds and it showred down upon him as in a tempest of fire and brimstone we have not his eyes and therefore not his apprehension we see not so much deformity in sin as he did and so not so much terrour in the wrath of God It were Impiety and Blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ Cujus natura patientia Tert. de patient saith Tert. whos 's very nature was patience yet who of all that noble Army ever breathed forth such disconsolate speeches God indeed delivered them up to the saw to the wrack to the teeth of Lions to all the engines of cruelty and shapes of death but numquid deseruit they never cryed out they were forsaken he snatched them not from the rage of the perescutor by a miracle but behold a greater miracle Rident superantque dolores Spectanti similes Sil. It 〈◊〉 1. In all their Torments they had more life joy in their countenance than they who looked on who were more troubled with the sight-than they were with the punishment their Torture was their Triumph their Afflictions were their Melody of Weak they were made Strong Tormenta carcer ungulae Prudent Eubal Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est Torments Racks and Strapadoes and the last Enemy Death it self were but a recreation and refreshment to the Christians who suffered all these with the patience of a stander by But what speak we of Martyrs Divers sinners whose ambition never reacht at such a Crown but rather trembled at it have been delivered up to afflictions and crosses nay to the anger of God but never yet any nay not those who have despaired were so delivered as Christ we may say that the Traitor Judas felt not so much when he went and hanged himself For though Christ could not despaire yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than to those that doe who beare but their owne burden when he lay pressed under the sinnes of the whole world God in his approches of Justice when he comes toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rod and his Axes carried before him many sinners have felt his rod and his Rod is Comfort in his Frown Favour and in his Anger Love and his Blow may be a Benefit but Christ was struck as it were with his Axe others have trembled under his wrath but Christ was even consumed with the stroke of his hand For being delivered to his wrath his wrath delivers him to these Throwes and Agonies delivers him to Judas who delivers nay betrayes him to the Jewes who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangs betweene two Thieves I mention not the Shame the Torment of the Cross for the Thieves endured the same But his soul was crucified more than his body and his heart had sharper nailes to pierce it than his hands or his feet Tradidit non pepercit he delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more Tradidit deseruit he delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew his comfort stood as it were a far off and let him fight it out unto death he looked about and there was none to help even to the Lord he called but he heard him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 27.46 he roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And could God
Crucified his death for sinne with our Death to it his Resurrection with our Justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away He shed his blood to melt our Hearts and he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose againe for our Justification and to gaine Authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our convertimini our Turne is the best Commentary on the consummatum est it is Finished for that his last Breath breathed it into the world we may say It is wrapt up in the Inscription Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes for in him even when he hung upon the Crosse were all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Knowledge hid 2 Coloss 3. In him Justice and Mercy are at Peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seale our Pardon we were in our Blood and her voice was Live we were miserable and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowells yearn'd but then Justice held up the Sword ready to latch in our sides God loves his Creature whom he made but hates the sinner whom he could not make and he must and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevail'd Mercy had been but as the morning Dew and soon vaâ—…sh'd before this raging heat and if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory his hatred of sinne and fearfull menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and had portended nothing Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. had been void and of no effect If he had been extreme to marke what is done amisse men had sinned more and more because there could be no hope of Pardon and if his Mercy had seal'd an absolute Pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their Evill wayes because there could be no feare of punishment And therefore his wisedome drew them together and reconciled them both in Christs propitiatory Sacrifice and our Duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the Guilt the other from the Dominion of sinne and so both are satisfy'd Justice layes downe the sword and Mercy shines in perfection of Beauty God hates sinne but he sees it condemned in the flesh of his Sonne and fought against by every member he hath sees it punisht in him and sees it every day punisht in every repentant sinner that Turnes from his evill wayes beholds the Sacrifice on the Cross and beholds the Sacrifice of a broken Heart and for the sweet savour of the one accepts the other and is at rest his death for sinne procures our Pardon and our death to sinne sues it out Christ suffers for sinne we turne from it his satisfaction at once wipes out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees Tert. de anima c. 1. destroyes sinne it self Haec est sapientia de scholâ caeli This is the method of Heaven this is that Wisedome which is from above Thus it takes away the sinnes of the world And now wisedome is compleat Justice is satisfyed and Mercy triumphs God is glorified man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Tert de poenit c. 8. Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tert. Take comfort sinnner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy returne what musick there is in a Turne which begins on earth but reaches up and fills the highest Heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed Image on which God delights to look for there he beholds his wisedome his Justice his mercy and what wonders they have wrought Behold the shepherd of our souls see what lies upon his shoulders you would think a poor Sheep that was lost nay but he leads sinne and Death and the Devill in Triumph and thou mayst see the very brightnesse of his Glory the fairest and most expresse Image of these Three his most glorious Attributes which are not onely visible but speake unto us to follow this heavenly Method His wisedome instructs us his Iustice calls upon us and Mercy Eloquent mercy bespeaks us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us To Turne à viis malis from our evill wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance for it hath these Three Gods Wisedome and Iustice and Mercy to seale and ratify it to make it Authentique The 2. part Turn ye Turn ye We come now to the dictum it self and it being Gods and it being Gods we must well weigh and ponder it and we shall find it comprehends the Duty of Repentance in its full latitude For as sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore and conversio ad creaturam and aversion and Turning from God and an inordinate conversion and application of the soul to the Creature so by our Repentance we doe referre pedem start back and alter our course worke and withdraw our selves a viis malis from evill waies and Turne to the Lord by cleaving to his Lawes which are the minde of the Lord and having our feet enlarged run the way of his Commandements We see a streight line drawne out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further and further you draw it the weaker and weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bow'd and brought back againe towards its first point Eccles 7.20 The Wise man will tell us That God at first made man upright that is simple and single and syncere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many Inventions mingled himself and Ingendered with Divers extravagant Conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines now drawne out to that object now to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh and sometimes on the world now on Idolatry and anon on Oppression and so at a sad Distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his Center and therefore God seeing him gone so farr seeing him weak and feeble wound and Turned about by the Activity of the Devill and sway of the Flesh and not willing to loose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as the Instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistencie in his former and proper place to draw him back from those Objects in which he was lost and so carry him on forward to the Rock out of which he was hewed whilst he is yet in viis malis in his evill wayes all is out of Tune and Order for the Devil who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. de poenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon repentance and boldness and senlessness upon sinne but Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our Turne we see the danger we plaid
for which it was held First we consult Secondly we settle and establish our Consultations and last of all we gaine a Constancy and perseverance in those Actions which our Consultations have engaged and encouraged us in and all these three we owe to Feare Did we not Feare we should not Consult did not Feare urge and drive us on we should not determine and when this breath departeth our Counsells fall and all our Thoughts perish Present Christ unto us in all his beauty with his Spicy cheeks and Curled locks with hony under his Tongue as he is described in the Canticles present him as a Jesus and we grow too familiar with him Present him on the Mount at his Sermon and perhaps we will give him the hearing Present him as a Rock and we see a hole to run into sooner then a Foundation to lay that on which is like him and we run on with ease in our evill wayes having such a friend such an indulgent Saviour alwaies in our Eye but present him descending with a shout and with the Trump of God and then we begin to remember that for all these Evill wayes we shall be brought into Judgement Our Counsells shift as the wind blowes and upon better motion and riper consideration we are ready to alter our Decrees For these three follow close upon each other pallemus horrescimus Circumspicimus Plin. Epist. saith Pliny first Feare strikes us pale then puts into a fitt of Trembling at last wheeles us about to fee and consider the danger we are in this consideration follows us nor can we shake it off longiorisque timoris causa Timor est this wind increaseth as it goes drives us to consultation carries us on to determine and by a continued force binds and fastens us to our Counsells And therefore Aquinas tells us that our Turne proceeds from the feare of punishment tanquam à primo motu as from that which first sets it a moving for though true Repentance be the gift of God yet fear works that Disposition in us by which we Turne when God doth Turne us The Feare of punishment restraines us from sin in the restraint a hope of Pardon shewes it self upon this hope we build up strengthen our Resolution and at last see the horror of sin not in the punishment but in the sin hate our folly more then the whip and our evill wayes more then Death it self which we call a Filial feare which hath more of love then feare and yet doth not shut out this Feare quite for a good sonne may feare the Anger of a good Father and thus God is pleas'd to condescend to our weakness and accept this as our reasonable service at our hands though our chiefest motive to serve him at first were nothing else but a flash from the Quare moriemini nothing else but a feare of Death For in the last place Bas in Psal 32. this is a principall effect of the feare of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as it brings us to Consultation so is it a faire Introduction to Piety it self Feare takes us by the hand and is a Schoolmaster unto us and when Feare hath well disciplin'd and Catechised us then love takes us in hand and perfects our Conversion so that we may seem to goe from Feare to Love as from a School to an Universitie In the 28. of Genesis at the Twelfth verse Jacob sees a Ladder set upon the Earth and the Top of it reaching up to heaven and we may observe that Jacob makes Feare the first step of the ladder for when he awakes as in an extasie he cryes out Quam terribilis iste locus how dreadfull is this place verse 17. so that feare is as it were the first rung and step of the Ladder and God on the top and Angels Ascending and Descending Love and Zeal and many Graces between Think what we please disgrace it if we will and fasten to it the badge of slavery and servility it is a blessed thing thus to feare the first step to happiness and one step helps us up to another and so by degrees we are brought ad culme Sionis to the top of the Ladder to the Top of perfection to God Himself whose Majesty first wounds us with feare and then gently bindes us up and makes us to love him who leads us through this darkness through this dread and terror into so great light makes us Tremble first that we may at last be as mount Sion and stand fast and firme for ever We now passe and rise one step higher to take a view of this feare of punishment not onely as usefull but lawfull and commanded not under the Law alone but under the Gospel as a motive to Turne us from sinne and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of Righteousnesse not onely as a restraint from sionne but as a preservative of Holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progresse in the wayes of perfection And here it may seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn Plat. l. de Rep. and not a Christian alone but any moral man and therefore Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of morality and our great master in Philosophie makes punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the whip doth saith Solomon to the fooles back for to be forced into goodnesse to be frighted into health argues a disposition which little sets by Health or goodnesse it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best master the Prince of Peace and love himselfe strives to awake and stirre up this kind of feare in us tells us of Hell and everlasting Darkness of a Flaming Fire of weeping and gnashing of Teeth presents his Father the Father of Mercies with a Thunder-bolt in his hand with Power to kill both body and soul shews us our sinne in a Deaths Head and in the fire of Hell as if the way to avoid sinne were to feare Death and Hell ad if we could once be brought to feare to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this feare The Philosopher calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basan Ps 31. Tert. de poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an Instrument to worke out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum makes it the best Schoolmaster of ten Thousand Harken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice what found more frequent then that of Terror able to shake and divide a soul from its sinne Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand Had he heard him cursing the Figg-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weigh'd the
Pharaohs heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaohs heart and now let us Judge whether it be safer to interpret Gods induration by Pharaohs or Pharaohs by Gods for if God did actually and immediately harden Pharaohs heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him but if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as 't is plain enough he did then Gods Induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily takes he would not and therefore could not hinder sufficit unus Huic operi one is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God for to keep to the letter in the former hakes a main principle of truth that God is in no degree Author of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleeres all doubts prevents all objections and opens a wide and effectual door to let as in to a cleer sight of the meaning of the former For that man doth harden his owne heart is undeniably true But that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in this hideous monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dresse it up with some far fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand For induration is the proper and natural effect of sin and to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the devil or man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very flie indeed and the soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and nature speak the same thing many times Aristot l. 7. Eth. c. 1. though the phrase be different that wihch the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ferity and brutishnesse of nature that in Scripture is called hardnesse of heart for every man is shaped and formed and configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whither they be good or evil one sin draws on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calls Ferity a shaking of all that is man about us and the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate minde And such a minde had Pharaoh 1 Rom. 2.8 who was more and more enraged by every sin which he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this hardesse of heart and indisposition to all goodnesse and therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that dereliction Incrassation excaecation hardnesse of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindnesse and hardnesse of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of permission and then this expostulation is real and serious Quare moriemini Why will ye die And now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in Hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of Time but onely in Generall stood up in defence of the Goodness and Justice of God for shall not the Judge of all the Earth doe right shall he necessitate men to be evill and then bind them by a Law to be good shall he exhort beseech them to live when they are dead already shall his Absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but 't is an ugly and ill-favoured one for this they fight unto Death even for the Book of life till they have blotted out their names with the Blood of their Brethren This is Drest out unto them as savoury meat set for their palate who had rather be carried up to heaven in Elias fiery Charriot then to pace it thither with Trouble and paine That GOD hath absolutely Decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of Death upon others is as Musick to some eares like Davids Harpe to refresh them and drive away the Evill Spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt mens desires doe easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a Decree they dreame themselves to Heaven for if we observe it they still chuse the better part and place themselves with the sheep at the right Hand and when the Controverly of the Inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongs they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of Ground made them their Judge to determine whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves because they read of Election elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now Oh Death where is thy sting The sting of Death is sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of sinne is the Law but it cannot bind them for sinne it self shall Turne to the good of these Elect and Chosen Vessels and we have some reason to suspect that in the strength of this Doctrine and a groundless conceit that they are these particular men they walk on all the daies of their life in fraud and malice in Hypocrisy and disobedience in all that uncleannes and pollution of sinne which is enough to wipe out any name out of the Book of Life Hoc saxum defendit Manlius Sen. Controv. hic excidit For this they rowse up all their Forces this is their rock their fundamentall Doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may feare many thousands of soules have been Tumbled down into the pit of Destruction at this rock many such Elect Vessells have been cast away Again others miscarry as fatally on the other hand for when we speak of an absolute Decree upon particulars unto the vulgar sort who have not Cor in Corde as Austin speaks who have their Judgement not in their Heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatall necessity and one there is that called it so Fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny they think themselves in chaines and shackles that they cannot Turne when they cannot be predestinate not to Turne but
excludens sed probans libertatem saith Tertul. To this end a Law was enacted not taking away but proving and trying the liberty which we have either freely to obey or freely to transgresse for else why should he enact a Law For the will of man looks equally on both and he being thus built up did owe to his maker absolute and constant obedience and obedient he could not be if he had not been thus built up To this end his understanding and will were to be exercised with arguments and with occasions which might discover the resolution and the choice and election of man Now these arguments and occasions are that which we call temptations which though they naturally light upon the outward man yet do they formally aime at the inward and are nothing do nothing till they seise upon the will which may either joyn with the sensitive part against the reason which makes us to every good work reprobate or else joyn with our reason against our sensual appetite which works in us a conformity to the will of God for he wills nothing to be done which right reason will not have us do The will is that alone which draws and turns these temptations either to a good end by watchfulnesse and care or by supine negligence turns them to a bad turnes them from that end for which they were permitted and ordained and so makes Satans darts more fiery his enterprises more subtle his occasions more powerful and his perswasions more perswasive then indeed they are so that what God ordained for our trial and crown by our security and neglect is made a means to bring on our downfall and condemnation We must therefore in the midst of temptations as in a School learn to know our selves and in the next place to know our enemies and now they â—ork and mine against us examine those temptations which make toward us lest we judge of them by their outside look upon them and so be taken with a look lest as the Romans observed of the barbarous Nations that being ignorant of the art of engining when they were besieged and shut up they would stand still and look upon the Enemy working on in the mine not understanding quò illa pertinerent quaeex longinquo instruebantur what it meant or wherefore those things were prepared which they saw a far off and at distance till the Enemy came so neer as to blow them up and destroy them so we also behold temptations with a carelesse and regardlesse eye and not knowing what they mean suffer them to work on to steal neerer and neerer upon us till they enter into our soules and dwell there and so take full possession of us And first we may lay it as a ground That nothing properly provoketh it self as the fire doth not provoke it self to burn nor the Sun to shine for the next and necessary causes of things are rather efficients then provocations which are alwayes external either to the person or principal or part which is the principal and special agent and so the will of man doth consummate and finish sin but provoketh it not but is enticed to that evil or frighted from that which is good by some outward object which first presents it self unto the sense which carries it to the fancy which conveighs it to the understanding whence ariseth that fight and contention between the inferior part of the soul and the superior between the sensual appetite and the reason not to be decided or determined but by the will and when the will like Moses holdeth up its hands as it were and is steady and strong the reason prevaileth and when it lets them down the sense The senses then are as Hierom calls them fenestra animae the windows of the soul through which tentations enter to flatter and wooe the fancie and affections to joyn with the principal faculties of the soul to beget that sin which begetteth death and if you will observe how they work by the senses upon the soul you will soon finde that they do it not by force and battery but by allurement and speaking it faire or else by frowns and terrors that there is no such force in their arguments which spiritual wisdome and vigilancy may not assoile that there is no such beauty on them which may not be loathed no such horror which we may not slight and contemn And first they work us occasions of sin and all the power that occasion hath is but to shew it self and if it kill it is as the Basilisk by the eye by looking towards us or indeed rather by our looking towards it Occasion is a creature of our own making we give it being or it were not and it is in our power as the Apostle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut it off 2 Cor. 11.12 When we see the golden wedg we know it is but a clod of earth we see beauty and can call it the colour and symmetry of flesh and blood of dust and ashes and unlesse we make it so it is no more indeed we commonly say occasio facit furem that occasion maketh a thief but the truth is it is the thief that makes the occasion for the object being let in by the senses calls out the soul which frames and fashioneth it and bringeth it to what form it please maketh beauty a net 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in ps 1. and riches a snare and therefore Bonum est non tangere it is not safe to see or touch for there is danger in a very touch in a cast of the eye and upon a look or touch the Soul may fly out to meet it and be entangled unawares utinam nec videre possimus quod facere nobis nefas est we may somtimes make it our wish Hieron not to see that which we may not do not to touch that which may be made an occasion of sinne not to look upon wine when it is red nor the strange woman when she smiles For in the second place they are not onely made occasions of sins but are drest up and trimmed by the father of lies who takes up a chamber in our Fancy in that shape and form in those fair appearances which may deceive us there is a kinde of Rhetorick and eloquence in them but not that of the Orators of Greece which was solid and rational but that of the later Sophisters which consisted in elegancies and figures and Rhetorical colours that which Plato calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flattery and popular eloquence for as they who deliver up themselves to fortune and tread the wayes to honour and the highest place do commonly begin there with smiles where they mean to shake a whip and cringe and bow and flatter the common people whom they intend to enslave stroke and clap them and so get up and ride the Beast to their journeyes end so do these tentations insinuate and win upon the weaker part
the grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy death But for all this his triumph death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadfull as before All is finisht on his part but a covenant consists of two and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not thou shalt believe But every promise every act of grace of his implies a condition He delivers those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible All the terrour death hath is from our selves our sin our disobedience to the commands of God that 's his sting And our part of the covenant is by the power virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it from him and at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the Scepter out of his hand and spoile him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as Saint Paul speaks dye to profit dye to pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us feare death Then we shall look upon it not as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrims as a message sent from Heaven to tell us our walk is at an end and now we are to lay down our staffe and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat Tert. de patientia What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly fears God can feare nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortall before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never goe hence Last of all It will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knows the condition of a stranger how many dangers how many cares how many stormes and tempests he was obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that he had now passed through them all and was set down at his journeys end why should he who looks for a City to come be troubled that his fellow pilgrime came thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy Emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unlesse it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandments which might give us a taste of a better estate to come unlesse it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers and yet unwilling to draw neer our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery we send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke and harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are neerest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into aire when indeed there is no more then this one pilgrime is gone before his fellows one gone and left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith Saint Hierom we are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeys end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keeps us in that temper which the Philosopher commends as best in which we do sentire desiderium opprimere she gives nature leave to draw teares but then she brings in faith and hope to wipe them off Sen. ad Marciam she suffers us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Orator ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembers whereof we are made is not angry with our love and will suffer us to be men but then we must silence one love with another our naturall affection with the love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then he was a stranger and now at his journeys end and here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Blessed are such strangers blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours For conclusion let us feare God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Lawes which came from that place to which he is going let these his Lawes be in our heart and our heart will be an elaboratory a limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of world through which we are to passe It shall be as a rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it and a shop of precious receipts and proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium mortis a place where death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and of its terrour In a word It
us made like unto God exalted by his Humiliation raysed by his descent magnified by his minoration Candidati Angelorum lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of an Angelicall estate with songs of joy and Triumph we remember it and it is the joy of this Feast fratres Domini the Brethren of Christ Thus with a mutual aspect Christs humility looks upon the exaltation of our Nature and our exaltation looks back again upon Christ and as a well made picture lookes upon him that looks upon it so Christ drawn forth in the similitude of our flesh looks upon us whilst we with joy and Gratitude have our eyes set upon him They answer each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are parallels Christ made like unto men and again men made like unto him so like that they are his Brethren Christ made like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things will fill up the office of a Redeemer and men made like unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which may be required at the hands of those who are Redeemed his obedience lifted him up to the crosse and ours must lift us after him and be carried on by his to the End of the world And as we find it in Relatives they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of Convertency in these Terms Christ and his Brethren Christ like unto his Brethren and these Brethren like unto Christ Christ is ours and we are Christs saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. and Christ Gods And in the last place the modification the Debuit It behoved him carries our thoughts to those two common Heads or places the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convenience and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Necessitie of it and these two in Civil Acts are one for what becomes us to doe we must doe and t is necessary we should doe it what should be done is done and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians because the law supposeth obedience Impossibilitas juris which is the Complement and perfection of the law and this Debuit looks equally on both both on Christ and his Brethren if in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto his Brethren which is the benefit Heaven and Earth will conclude men and Angels will inferre Debemus that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ which is the Duty My Text then is divided equally between these two Termes Christ and his Brethren That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is First his Divine 2. his Humane Nature 3. the union of them both for 1. we cannot but make a stand and enquire quis ille who he was who ought to doe this and in the 2. place enquire of his Humane nature For we find him here flesh of our flesh and Bone of our Bone Assimilatum made like unto us what can we say more Our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things and then will follow the union of them both exprest in this passive fieri in this his assimilation and the Assumption of our Nature which all fill us with admiration but the last rayseth it yet higher and should rayse our love to follow him in his Obedience quod debuit that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderfull and Catholique a benefit must be Translated tanquam ex officio as a matter of Duty The end of all is the end of all Our salvation the end of our Creation the end of our Redemption the end of this assimilation and the last end of all the glory of God which sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ and then his Brethren and he will dwell together in unity Onely here is the difference our obligation is the easiest t is but this to be bound and obliged with Christ to set our hands to that bond which he hath sealed with his Bloud no heavy Debet to be like unto him and by his condescension so low to us to raise our selves neerer to him by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedience which will make up our last part and serve for application And in the first place we aske with the Prophet quis ille who is he that cometh who is he that must be made like unto us what is done and who did it of so neere a relation that we can hardly abstract the one from the other and if one eye be leveld on the fact the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it Magnis negotiis ut magnis Comediis edecumati apponuntur actores Great Burdens require equall strength to beare them matters of moment are not for men of weak abilities and slight performance nor every Actor for all parts To lead Captivity Captive to bring prisoners to Glory to destroy Death to shut up the gates and mouth of Hell these are Magnalia wonderfull things not within the sphere of common Activity We see here many sonnes there were to be brought unto Glory at the 10. v. but in the way there stood sinne to Intercept us the feare of Death to Enthrall us and the Divell ready to devour us and we what were we Rottennesse our mother and wormes our Brethren lay us in the ballance lighter then vanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men fallen below the condition of men lame and impotent not able to move one step in these wayes of Glory living Dead men quis novus Hercules who will now stand up for us who will be our Captaine we may well demand quis ille who he is Some Angel we may think sent from Heaven or some great Prophet No inquest is made in this Epistle neither the Angels nor Moses returned The Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Glorious Creatures indeed they are Caelestiall spirits but yet Ministring spirits in all purity serving the God of purity saith Naz not fit to intercede but ready at his Beck o Nazianz. Orat. 43. with wings indeed but not with Healing under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a Darknesse their light is their Obedience and their fairest Elogium Ye Angels that doe his will they were but finite Agents and so not able to make good an infinite losse they are in their own Nature mutable and so not fit agents to settle them who were more mutable more subject to change then they not able to change our vile bodies much lesse able to change our soules which are as immortall as they but are lodgd in a Tabernacle of Flesh which will fall of it self and cannot be raised againe but by his power whom the Angels worship In prison we were and Cui Angelorum written on the doore miserable Captives so deplorably lost that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us And if not the Angels not Moses sure though he were neerest to God and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear
we could not have taken him for our Captaine and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers non novimus Christum si non credimus we do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captaine that leads us as Moses did the children of Israel through the Wildernesse full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposes some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looks back into some grave Tolle certamen ne virtus quidem quicquam erit take away his combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations Religion it self were but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it a fable What were my Patience if no misery did look towards it what were my Faith if there were no doubt to assoile it what were my Hope if there were no scruple to shake it what were my Charity if there were no misery to urge it no malice to oppose it what were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead Fui mortuus I was dead saith the Lord of life and it is directed to us who do but think we live but are in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils which are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomlesse pit when we hear this voice by the vertue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcometh the world Nor need this Method seeme grievous unto us for these very words Fui mortuus I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plaine and easie method For by his Death we must understand all those fore-running miseries all that he suffer'd before his death which were as the Traine and Ceremony as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as poverty scorne and contempt the burden of our sinnes his Agony and bloudy sweat which we must look upon as the principles of this Heavenly science by which our best master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to rayse us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings for we have not such an High priest who will not help us but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities and is mercifull and faithfull Heb. 2.17 hath not onely power for that he may have and not shew it but a will and propension a desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the Gates of death Indeed mercy without power can beget but a good wish Saint James his complementall charity Be ye warmed and be ye filled and be ye comforted which leaves us cold and empty and comfortlesse and Power without mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heale a broken heart may as well strike us dead as revive us but Mercy and Power when they meet and kisse each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and rayse us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a Bath a Rack a Bed and persecution a Blessing will call those sorrowes that are as if they were not such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his compassion and mercy were coeternall with him as God yet as man didicit he learnt it He came into the world as into a Schoole and there learnt it by his sufferings and death Heb. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feele it in our selves it must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggs of me and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way side and then I powre my oyle and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feele the Hell of sinne in my self before I can snatch my Brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walks abroad and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and heales two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him for they were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffer'd are the maine strength of our Salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be mercifull then he could leave off to be the sonne of God yet before he emptyed himself and took upon him the forme of a servant sicut miseriam expertus non era ita nec miscricordiam experimento novit saith Hilary as he had no experience of sorrow so had he no experimentall knowledge of mercy and compassion his own hunger moved him to work that miracle of the loaves for it is said in the Text He had compassion on the multitude his poverty made him an Crator for the poore and he begs with them to the end of the world He had not a hole to hide his head and his compassion melted into tears at the sight of Jerusalem When he became a man of sorrowes he became also a man of compassion And yet his experience of sorrow in truth added nothing to his knowledge but rayseth up a confidence in us to approach neer unto him who by his miserable experience is brought so neer unto us and hath reconciled us in the Body of his flesh Coloss 1.21 for he that suffer'd for us hath compassion on us and suffers and is tempted with us even to the end of the world on the Crosse with Saint Peter on the Block with S. Paul in the fire with the Martyrs destitute afflicted tormented would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye you may see him in your own soules take him in a groane mark him in your sorrow behold him walking in the clefts of a broken heart bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit or to make him an object more sensible you may see him every day begging in your streets when he tells you He was dead he tells you as much In as much as the children were partakers of flesh and Bloud he also himself took part of the same and in our flesh was a
with and the horror of those Paths in which we sported we see in our flight a banishment in every sinne a Hell and in our Turne a Paradice Divers words we have to expresse the true nature of Repentance but none more usuall more full and proper then this of Turning for it includes all the rest It is more then a bare knowledge of our sinnes more then Griefe more then an acknowledgement or confession more then a desire of change more then an endeavour for if we doe not Turne a Termino in Terminum from one Terme or state to another from every sinne we now embrace to its contrary If we do not fly and loath the one and rest and delight in the other our knowledge of sinne is but an accusation our Grief is but a frail and vanishing displacency and our Teares are our recreation Iugentibus lachrymae quietis recreationis loco sunt Mos Maimmon Doct. perplex l. 3. c. 4 s. our desires but as Thoughts and our Endeavours proffers but if wee Turne and our turne be reall these Instruments or Antecedents These disposing and preparing Acts must needs be so also true and reall we talke much of the knowledge and sense of our sinne when we cannot be ignorant of it of grief when we have no feeling of consession and acknowledgement when the Heart is not broken of a deâ—…re to be Good when we resolve to be evill of our endeavour to leave off our sinnes when we seed and nourish them and even hire them to stay with us In udo est Maenas et Attin our Repentance is languid and faint our knowledge without observation our grief without compunction our acknowledgement without trepidation our desire without strength and our endeavour without Activitie but they are all compleat and made perfect in our turne and Conversion If we turne from our sinnes then we know them and know them in their Deformity and all those Circumstances which put so much horror upon them If we Turne our head will be a Fountaine of Teares Lament 1.16 and the Eye will cast out water our confession will be loud and hearty Our desire eager and impatient and our Endeavours strong and earnest and violent This turn is as the hinge on which all the rest move freely and orderly Optima poenitentia nova vita saith Luther the best and truest Repentance is a new life a turne carries all the rest along with it to the end The end of our knowledge of our griefe of our acknowledgement the end of our desires and endeavours For we know our sinnes we bewaile them wee acknowledge them wee desire and endeavour to leave them in a word we turne that we may be saved 1. The Knowledge of our sinnes And first it includes the knowledge of our sinnes for he that knows not his malady will neither seek for oure nor admitt it Isid Pelusiot l. 1111. ep 149. he that knows not the danger of the place he stands in will not turne his face another way he that dwells in it as in a Paradise will look upon all other that yeeld not the same delight as upon Hell it self he that knows not his wayes are evill will hardly go out of them Malum notum res est optima saith Luther 'T is a good thing to know evill for the knowledge of that which is evill can have no other end but this To drive us from it to that which is Good when sinne appeares in its uglinesse and monstrosity when the Law and the wrath of God and Death it self display their Terrors before our face That face is more then brasse or Adamant that will not gather blackness and Turne it self But this Prescript To know sinne one would think should rather be tendred to the Heathen then Christians Act 15 20. Quandâ— hoe Factum non est quando reprehensum Quando non Pâ—…missum Cic. â—…o M. Caeliâ— Rom. 1.31 To them some sinnes were unknowne as Revenge Ambition Fornication and therefore they are enjoyn'd to absteine from it and yet even those which the light of Nature had discovered to them they did committ though they knew That they who did commit them were worthy of death But to Christians it may seem unnecessary for they live in the Church which is spoliarium vitiorum Ethic. 3. c. 22. a place where sin is every day revil'd and disgraced where it is Anatomized and the bowells and entrayles every sinew and veine of it showne I should say our Church were reformed indeed if we did commit no sinnes but those we doe not know many things we doe saith the Philosopher we may say most sinnes we commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not which reason perswades but which the flesh betrays us to not to which our knowledge leads us but our sensuallity Stat contraratio Reason when we sinne is not so foyled or beaten downe but it stands up against us and opposeth us to our face It tells the Miser that Covetousness is Idolatry The wanton that Lust is that fire which will consume him the Revenger that he diggs his owne Grave with his sword it is indeed commonly said That reason is corrupt but the Truth is that which we call corrupt reason is our passion or sensuality for that cannot be reason which directs us to that which is unreasonable The sense doth too oft get the better but can never silence or corrupt it so as to call evill good or good evill For that is the language of the Beast of the sensuall part and for ought I see we may as well assigne and Entitle our Good Actions to our sensitive part when we keep as our bad to our Reason when we break the Law Reason never yeelds and our knowledge is still the same In Lust it commends Chastity in Anger Meeknesse in Pride Humility when we surfeit on those delights which sinne brings with it our Reason plainly tell us That they are deadly Poyson We need not then be over-sollicitous to secure this Ingredient the knowledge of our sinnes to bring it into the Recipe of our Repentance for there be but few which we know not fewer which we may not know if we will if we will but take the paines to put it to the question either before the Act what we are about to doe or after what it is we have done for it is a Law a plaine Law we are to try it by not a dark riddle and if we doe mistake it is easy to determine what it was that did worke and frame and polish the cheat Not a sinne which comes with open mouth to devour us and swallow up our Peace but is of that Bulke and corpulency that we cannot but see it and though we may peradventure here Turne away our eye yet we cannot put it out Our knowledge will not forsake us and our Conscience follows our knowledge which may sleep but cannot die in us which is an evill spirit that all the
Love for as my Joy is to have so my Grief is to want what I love and ours may have no better principle then the love of our selves and then it comes à Fumo peccati from the troublesome smoake which finne makes or rather from the very Gall of Bitternesse a Grief begot betwixt Conscience and Lust betwixt the Deformity of sin and the pleasure of sinne betwixt the apprehension of a reall evill and the flattery of a seeming good when I am troubled not that I have sinned but that it is not lawfull to sinne much disquieted within me that that sin which I am unwilling to fly from is a Serpent that will sting me to death That there is Gravell in the Bread of deceit That that unlawfull pleasure which is to me as sweet as Honey should at last bite like a Cockatrice That the wayes in which I walk with delight should lead unto Death That that sinne which I am unwilling to fling off hath such a Troope of Serjants and Executioners at her heels and so it comes à Fumo Gehennae from the smoke of the bottomlesse Pitt from feare of punishment which is farre from a Turne but may prepare mature and ripen us for Repentance But then it may come from the Feare of God wrought in us by the apprehension of his Justice and Mercy and Dominion and Power to Judge both the quick the dead and this Griefe is next to a Turn the next and immediate cause of our Conversion when out of the admiration of his Innocence Majesty and Goodness I am willing to offend my self for offending him and offer up to him some part of my substance the Anguish of my soul the Groanes of Contrition and my teares Anastas Bib. pairum which are ex ipsa nostrâ essentia sicut sanguis martyrum from our being and essence and are offer'd up as the blood of Martyrs Confession of sinne 3. And this Grief will in the third place open our mouthes and force us to a Confession and acknowledgement of our sinnes I mean a sad and serious Acknowledgement which will draw them out Bas in Ps 37. and not suffer them to be pressed downe and settle like foule and putrifyed matter in the bottome of the soule as Basil expresseth it For the least grief is vocall the least displacencie will open our mouthes yea where-there is little sense or none we are ready to complaine and because St. Pauls Humility brought him so low look for an Absolution if we can say what we may truly say but not with St. Pauls Spirit That we are the chiefest of sinners For nothing more easy then to libell our selves where the Bill takes in the whole world and the Best of Saints as well as the worst of sinners How willing are we to confesse with David That we are conceived in sinne and borne in Iniquity how ready to call our selves the Children of wrath and workers of all unrighteousness what delight doe we take to miscall our virtues to finde Infidelity in our Faith wavering in our Hope Pride in our Humility Ignorance in our Knowledge coldness in our Devotion and some degrees of Hostility in our very love of God what can the Devil our great Adversary and Accuser say more of us then we are well pleased to say of our selves But this Acknowledgement is but the product of a lasy knowledge and a faint and momentary disgust and it comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speaks not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Art c. â— c. 15.1 it is but the calves of our lips not the Sacrifice of our Hearts we breath it forth with noise and words enough we make our sinnes Innumerable more then the haires of our head or the Sands of the Sea-shore but bring us to a particular account and we find nothing but Ciphers some sinnes of daily Incursion some of sudden subreption some minute scarce visible sinnes but not the Figure of any sinne which we think will make up a Number he that will confesse himselfe the chiefe of Sinners upon the most gentle remembrance upon the meekest reprehension will be ready to charge you as a Greater or peradventure Take you by the Throat But this is not that Confession which ushers in Repentance or forwards and promotes our Turne it is rather an Ingredient to make up the Cup of stupefaction which we take downe with Delight and then fall asleep and dreame of safety even when we are on the Brinke and ready to fall into the pitt David 't is true Aug. Hom. 4.1 In his Tribus Sâ—llabis Flammâ— sacrificii ecram â—emino ascenctit in coelum said no more but peccavi and his sinne was Taken away Tantum valent Tres syllabae saith St. Aust such force there was in Three Syllables and can there be virtue in Syllables no man can imagine there can but Davids Heart saith he was now a sacrificing and on these three Syllables the name of that sacrifice was carryed up before the Lord into the highest heavens If our knowledge of our sinnes be cleane and affective if our Grief be reall then our confession and acknowledgement will be hearty our Bowells will sound as a Harpe our Inwards will boyle and not rest our heart will tremble and be Turned within us our Sighes and our Groanes will send forth our words as sad messengers of that Desolation Is 16.11 Job 30.27 which is within Our heart will cry out as well as our Tongue My heart my heart is prepared saith David which is then the best and sweetest Instrument when 't is broken 4. Desire 4. And these three in the fourth place will raise up in us a desire secondly an endevour to shake off these feares and this weight which doth so compasse about and infold us Heb. 12.1 for who is there that doth see his sinnes and weep over them execrate them by his Teares Fletus humanarum necessiatum verecunda execratio Sen. Câ—nt 8.6 and condemn them by his Confession that shall see sin clothed with Death The Law a killing letter the Judge frowning Death ready with his Dart to strike him through who would be such a Beast as to come so neere and Hell opening her mouth to take him in who will not long and groane and travaile in paine and cry out to be delivered from this body of Death Quissub tali conscientiâ c who would live under such a Conscience which is ever galling and gnawing him what Prisoner that feels his Fetters would not shakethem off certainly he that can stand out against all these Terrours and Amazements he that can thwart and resist his knowledge wipe off his Teares and fling off his sorrow and baffle and confute his owne acknowledgement he that can slight his own conscience mock his Distaste Trifle with the wrath of God which he sees neer him and play at the very gates of Hell he that is in profundis in
this Great Deep and will not cry out he that knows what he is and will be what he is knows he is miserable and desires not a change is neere to the condition of the Damned spirits who howle for the want of that light which they have lost and detest and Blaspheme that most which they cannot have who because they can never be Happy can never desire it But to this condition we cannot be brought till we are brought under the same punishment which neverthelesse is represented to us in this life in the sad thoughts of our Heart in the Horror of sinne and in a Troubled Conscience that so we may avoid it The Type we see now and to this end that we may never see the Thing it self and the sight of this if we remove not our eye at the call and enticement of the next approaching vanity which may please at first but in the end will place before us as foule an Object as that which we now look upon will worke in us a Desire to have that removed which is now as a Thorn in our eyes a desire to have Gods Hand taken off from us and that those sinnes too may be taken away which made his Hand so heavy a desire to be freed from the guilt and a desire to be freed from the Dominion of sinne a Desire that reacheth at Liberty and at Heaven it self Eruditi vivere est cogitare saith Tully Tusc q. l. 5. Meditation is the life of a Schollar for if the minde leave off to move and work and be in agitation the man indeed may live but the Philosopher is dead and vita Christiani sanctum Desiderium saith Hierom the life of a Christian is nothing else but a holy desire drawne out and spent in Prayers Deprecations Wishes Obtestations in Pantings and longings held up and continued by the heat and vigor and the endlesse unsatisfyednesse of desire which if it slack or fayl or end in an indifferency or Luke-warmness leaves nothing behind it but a lump a masse of Corruption for with it the life is gone the Christian is departed 5. Endeavour 5. But in the last place This is not enough nor will it draw us neere enough unto a Turne there is required as a true witnesse of this our convincement and sorrow of the Heartinesse of our confession and the Truth of our desire a serious endavour an eager contention with our selves an assiduous violence against those sinnes which have brought us so low to the dust of Death and the House of the Grave and endeavour to order our steps to walk contrary to our selves to make a Covenant with our eye to purge our eare to cut off our hand and to keep our Feet to forbeare every Act which carries with it but the appearance of evill to cut off every occasion which may prompt us to it an Endeavour to work in the Vineyard to exercise our selves in the workes of Piety to love the faire opportunities of doing good and lay hold on them to be ambitious and Inquisitive after all those Helps and advantages which may promote this endeavour and bring it with more ease and certainty unto the end And this is as the heaving and strugling of a man under a Burden as the striving in a Snare as the Throwes of a Woman in Travail who longs to be delivered this is as our knocking at the Gates of Heaven as our flight from the wrath to come Thus doe we strive and fight with all those defects which either nature began or custome hath confirmed in us thus do we by degrees work that happy change that we are not the same but other men Val. Max. l. 8. c. 7. as the Historian speaks of Demosthenes whose studiousnesse and Industry overcame the malignity of Nature and unloos'd his tongue alterum Demosthenem mater alterum industria enixa est The mother brought forth one Demosthenes and Industry another so by this our serious and unfeigned Endeavour eluctamur per obstantia we force our selves out of those obstacles and encumberances which detain'd us so long in evill waies we make our way through the Clouds and darknesse of this world and are compassed about with raies of light Nature made us men evill Custome made us like the Beasts that perish and grace and Repentance make us Christians and consecrates us to Eternity The Turne it selfe Or True Repentance All these are in our Turne in our Repentance but all these doe not compleat and perfect it For I am not Turn'd from my evill wayes till I walk in good I have not shaken off one Habit till I have gain'd the contrary I am not truely Turn'd from one point till I have recovered the other have not forsaken Babylon till I dwell in Jerusalem for Turne ye from your evill Wayes in the holy language is Turne unto me with all your heart worke out one Habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 2. Ethic. c. 1. with another let your Actions now controll and demolish those which you built up so fast that which set them up will pull them downe perseverance and assiduity in Action The liberall Hand casts away our Almes and our Covetousness together The often putting our knife to our throat destroyes our Intemperance The often disciplining our Flesh crucifies our Lusts our acts of mercy proscribe Cruelty our making our selves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven stones the Adulterer our walking in the light is our Turne from Darknesse our going about and doing good is our voluntary Exile and Flight out of the World and the Pollutions thereof Then wee are Spirituall when we walke after the Spirit and when wee thus walke wee are Turn'd I know Repentance in the Writings of Divines is drawne out and commended to us under more notions and considerations then one It is taken for those preparatory Acts which fitt and qualify us for the Kingdome and Gospel of Christ Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 it is taken for that change in which we are sorry for our sinne and desire and purpose to leave it which serves to usher in Faith and Obedience but I take it in its most generall and largest acception for the leaving one state and Condition and a constant cleaving to the contrary for the getting our selves of every evill Habit and investing our selves with those which are good or to speak with our Prophet for Turning away from wickednesse Ezek. 18.27 and doing that which is Lawfull and right for casting away all our Transgressions and making us new Hearts and new Spirits I am sure this one Syllable Turne will take in and comprehend it all for what is all our preparation if when we come neere to Christ we stand back what are the beginnings of obedience if we revolt what is the bend or Turne of our Initiation if we Turn aside like a deceitfull Bow what 's out sorrow if it do but bow the head
in 't Death onely is terrible to the living and then there can be no stronger argument that thou art alive then this that thou doubtest thou art dead already And list up thy head too Thou despairing and almost Desperate sinner whom not thy many sins but thy unwillingness to leave them hath brought to the ' Dust of Death who first blasphemest God then drawest the punishment neerer to thee then he would have it and art thy own Hang-man and Executioner not that Pardon is deny'd but that thou wilt not â—ue it out Look about thee and thou mayest see Hope comming towards thee and many Arguments to bring it in An Argument from thy soul which is not quite lost till it be in hell and if thou wilt possesse it it shall not be lost An argument from thy will which is free and mutable and may Turne to good as well as evill An argument from the very Habite of sin which presseth thee down which though it be strong yet is it not stronger then the grace of god and the activity of thy will It is very difficult indeed but the Christian mans work is to overcome difficulties An argument from those sholes and multitudes of offenders who have wrought themselves out of the power of death and the state of Damnation from many who have committed as many sinnes as thou but this one of Despaire from those Publicans and sinners who have entered into the Kingdome of Heaven An argument from thy own argument which thou so unskilfully turnst against thy self for it is no argument 't is but a weak peremptory conclusion held up without any Premises or Reason that can enforce it For Despaire is but Peâ—itio Principii proves and concludes the same by the same makes our sinnes greater then Gods Mercies because they are so and Repentance impossible because it is so Though the Soule be not quite lost till it be lost for ever though the will be free and Grace offers it self though the voice of God be Turne Though multitudes have Turn'd and that which hath been done may be done againe Though the Argument be no Argument yet despaire doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against what reason â—oever hold up the Conclusion Thou sayst That God cannot forgive thee if he cannot then he is not mercifull neither is he just and so he is not God and then what needst thou despair we begin in sinne proceed to Blasphemy and so end in despaire But a God he is and mercifull but thy sinnes ae greater then his Mercies which is another Blasphemy and brings in something more Infinite then God and takes Gods office from him and dispences his Mercies of which he alone is Lord and shuts up his rich Treasury of goodness when he is ready and willing to lay it open and so ruins us in despight of God But thou saist Though canst not repent which is thy greatest error and the main cause of thy despaire for when the heart is thus hard it beats off all succours that are offered all those meanes which may be as Oyle to supple it Thou canst not is not true Thou shouldst say Thou wilt not Repent for if thou wilt thou maist for thou canst not tell whether thou canst repent or no because thou never yet putst it to the Tryall but being in the pit didst shut the mouth of it upon thy self and stop it up with a false opinion of God and of thy self with dark notions and worthlesse conceits of Impossibilities Behold God calls after thee againe and againe his Grace as a devout Writer speaks is most officious to take thee out his Mercy ready to embrace thee if thou do not stubbornly cast her off Behold a multitude of penitents who have escaped the wrath to come and beâ—ken to thee by their example to follow after them and retire from these Hellish thoughts and conclusions into the same shadow and shelter where they are safe from those false suggestions and fiery darts of the enemy and if this will not move thee then behold the blood of an immaculate Lamb streaming down to wash away thy sins and with them thy despair to raise thee from thy Grave this sepulchre of rotten bones baneful Imaginations that thou mayest walk before him in the land of the living to beget Repentance and to beget a hope to pity us in our tentations who was sensible of his own Hebr. and to drive despair from off the face of the earth For why should the name of a Saviour and despair be heard of in the same coasts if it breath within the curtains of the Church 't is not Christ but the Devil and our sensuality that brings it in The end of his coming was to destroy it for this he came into the world for this he died Ask Christ saith Saint Basil what he carries on his Shoulders it is the lost sheep Ask the Angels for whom they rejoyce it is for a sinner that repenteth Ask God for what he is so earnest as to call and call again It is for those who are now in their evil wayes Ask the Shepherd and he will tell you he left ninty and nine to find but one lost sheep his desire is on us and he had rather we would be guided by his Shepherds-staff then be broken by his rod of iron if thou wilt return returne his wisdom hath pointed out to it as the fittest way His justice yeelds and will look friendly on thee whilst thou art in this way and mercy will go along with thee and save thee at the end If thou wilt thou mayest Turn and if thou wilt Turn thou shalt not despair or if a cloud overspread thee it shall vanish at the brightnesse of mercy as a mist before the Sun Here then is Balm of Gilead Turn ye Turn ye a loving compassionat call to turn even those who despair of turning The second hinderance presumption a Doctrine of singular comfort but this Balm is not for every wound nor will it drop and distill upon him who goeth on in his sin for mercy is as strong drink and wine to be given to them who are ready to perish and to such who have grief of heart Prov. 31.6 Many times it falls out by reason of our presumption and hardnesse of heart that there is more danger in pressing some truth then in maintaining errours care not for the morrow is as Musick to the sluggard and he hears it with delight and folds his hands to sleep If we commend labour the covetous hath encouragement enough to drudgon to rise up early and lie down late to gain the meat that perisheth if we but mention a worship in spirit and truth the sacrilegious person takes up his hammar and down goes ceremony and order and the Temple it self how many solifidians hath free grace occasioned how many Libertines hath the indiscreet pressing of the freedom we have by Christ raised the Gospel it self we see hath
been made the savour of death unto death and mercy malevolent At what time soever c. hath scarce with many left any time to repent and therefore it will concern us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. 20. ad Basil Magn. as Nazianzen speaks with Art and prudence to dispence the word of truth or as Saint Paul speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut it out as they did their sacrifices by a certain method to give every one his proper food in due season for some dispositions are so corrupted that they may be poisoned with Antidotes Theod. Therap Theodoret observes that God himself did not fully and plainly teach the Jews the Doctrine of the Trinity lest that wavering and fickle Nation might have took it by the wrong handle and made it an occasion of relaps into that Idolatrous conceit which they had learnt in Egypt of worshipping many gods The Novatians errour who would not accept of penance after Baptisme so much as once though no Physick for a sinner yet might have proved a good Antidote against sin for men had they beleeved it would some at least have been more shy of sin and more wary in ordering their steps and shunned that sin as a Serpent which would excommunicate them and shut them for ever out of the Church And therefore the Orthodox Fathers even there where they oppose that assumed and unwarranted severity of the Novatian deliver the Doctrine of Repentance with great caution and circumspection and a seeming reluctancy invite loquor Ter. de penitent Bas t m 1. Hem. 14. saith Tertul. I am made unwilling to publish this free mercy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Basil I speak the truth in fear for my desire is that after Baptisme you should sin no more and my fear is you will sin more and more upon presumption of Repentance and mercy He would and he would not publish the free mercy of God in Christ he was bound to preach Repentance and yet he feared What means that profuse yet sparing tender of Gods mercy these large Panegyricks and as great jealousies why did they so much extol Repentance and yet male ominari presage such an evil consequence out of that which they had presented to all the world in so desirable a shape But now the Father was so taken so delighted with the contemplation of it discovered so much power in it that he thought the Devils themselves in the interim and time between their fall and the Creation of man might have reprented and been Angels of light still and now drawing in his hand and putting it forth with fear and trembling before holding out Repentance as a board or planck to every ship-wrackt soul but now fearing lest Repentance it self should become a rock one would think the holy Father himself were turned Novatian and to speak truth that which the Novatians pretence to denie Repentance after Baptisme exprest these expressions from him and was the true cause which was made him publish it with so much fear ne nobis subsidia paenitentiae blandiantur that men might not be betrayed by the flattery and pleasing appearance of that which should advantage them and level their thoughts on that benefit which it might bring to them and boldly claim it as their own though they are willing to forget and leave unregarded that part of it which should make way to let it in and hearing of so precious an Antidote presume it will have the same virtue and operation at any time and so after many delayes make no use of it at all That the Doctrine of Repentance might not maks us stand in more need of Repentance in a word that that which is a remedy might not by our ill handling and applying it be turned into a disease Look into the world and you will see there is great need of so much fear and such a caution and that more fall by presumption then despair non am morbis quam remedio laboramus by our own folly and the Devils craft our disease doth not hurt us so much as our remedy and Repentance which was ordain'd as the best Physick to purge the soul is turned into that poyson that corrupts and kills it What wandring thought what Idle word what prophane action is there which is not laid upon this fair foundation The hope of pardon which yet will not bear up such hay and stubble we call sin a disease and so it is a mortal one but presumption is the greatest the very corruption of the blood and spirits of the best parts of the soul we are sick of sin t is true but that we feel not but we are sick very sick of mercy sick of the Gospel sick of Repentance sick of Christ himself and of this we make our boast and our bold relyance on this doth so infatuate us that we take little care to purge out the plague of our heart which we nourish and look upon as upon health it self we are sick of the Gospel for we receive it and take it down and it doth not purge out but enrage those evil humours which discompose the soul we receive it as Judas did the sop we receive it and with it a divel For this bold and groundlesse presumption of pardon makes us like unto him hardens our heart first and then our face and carries us with the swelling sailes of impudence and remorslesnes to an extremity of daring to that height of impiety from which we cannot so easily descend but must fall and break and bruise our salves to pieces praesumptio inverecundiae portio saith Tert. prsumption is a part and portion and the upholder of immodesty and falls and cares not whither ruins us and we know not how abuses and dishonours that mercy which it makes a wing to shadow it and hath been the best purveior for sin and the kingdom of darknesse We read but of one Judas in the Gospel that despaired and hanged himself and so went to his place but how many thousands have gone a contrary way with lesse anguish and reluctancy with fair but false hopes with strong but fained assurances and met him there Oh 't is one of the divels subt lest stratagems to make sin and hope of heaven to dwell under the same roof to teach him who is his vassal to walk delicately in his evil wayes and to rejoyce alwaies in the Lord even then when he fights against him to assure himself of life in the chambers of death And thus every man is sure the Schismatick is sure and the Libertine is sure the Adulterer is sure and the Murderer is sure the Traitor is sure they are sure who have no savour no relish of Salvation The Schismatick hath made his peace though he have no charity The Libertine looks for his reward though he do not onely denie good works but contemn them The Adulterer absolves himself without Penance The Murderer knows David is entred Heaven and hopes
fear God and his goodnesse not to make Mercy an occasion of sinne and so consequently of Judgement which she is so ready to remove For at the very name of Mercy at the sound of this Musique we lie downe and rest in Peace It is Mercy that saves us and we wound our selves to death with Mercy And as he that lookes upon the Sun with a steady eye when he removes his eye hath the Image of the Sun presented almost in every object so when we have long gazed on the Mercy-seat our eye begins to dazzle and Mercy seems to shine upon us in all our Actions and at all times and in every place We see Mercy in the Law quite abolishing and destroying it silencing the many woes denounced against sinners When we sinne Mercy is ready before us That we may do it with lesse regret That no worme may gnaw us when our Conscience chides Mercy is at Hand to make our Peace And this in the time of Health and when our strength fayleth and sickness hath laid us on our Bed we suborne and corrupt it to give us a visit then when we can scarce call for it to stand by us in this Evil day when we can doe no good that we may die in Hope who had no Charity and be saved by that Jesus whom we have Crucifyed And as it falls out sometimes with men of great Learning and Judgement who can resolve every doubt and answer the strongest Argument and objection yet are many times puzzled with a peece of Sophistry so it is with the formal Christian He can stand out against all motives and Beseechings and all the Batteries of God all his Calls and Obtestations against the Terrors of Hell and sweet allurements of his Promises but is shaken and foyled with a Fallacie with the Devills Fallacie à Dicto secundum quid ad Dictum simpliciter That Mercy doth save sinners that Repent and Therefore it saveth all and upon this Ground which glides away from us upon this reason which is no Reason the pleasures which are but for a season shall prevail with us when heaven with its blisse and eternity cannot move us and the trouble which Repentance brings to the flesh shall affright us from good more then the torments which are eternal can from sin And therefore to conclude Let us fear the mercy of God so fear it that it may not hurt us so fear it that it may embrace us on every side so fear it that it may save us in the Day of the Lord Jesus Let our song be made up as Davids was of these discords Mercy and Judgement Let us set and compose our life by Judgement that we may not presume and Turn our fear by Mercy Psal 101.1 that we may not despair remember we were Prisoners and remember we were Redeemed Remember we were weak and impotent and remember we were made whole Remember what Christ hath done for us and remember what we are to do for our selves and so work out our salvation with fear and trembling and then draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith to the throne of Grace that Gods Wisdom and Justice and Mercy may guide us in all our wayes till they bring us into those new Heavens wherein dwelleth righteousnesse where God shall be glorified in us and we glorified in him to all eternity THE SEVENTH SERMON PART III. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes c. THE word is loud the call sudden and vehement and we have heard it loud in the ears of them that Despair Turn Turn ye it is not too late and terrible to them that presume Turn ye Turn ye it is not soon enough and it cannot sound with terrour enough For we see presumption is a more general and spreading evil and it lames and criples us makes us halt in our turn that we Turn not soon enough or if some judgement or affliction Turn us about our Turn is but a profer a turn in shew not in reality or if we do Turn indeed it is but a turn by halfs a turn from this sin but not from all or a false hope deludes us and we are ever a turning and never turn Our December is our January our last moneth is our first day of the yeer our thirty dayes hence nay our last hour is to morrow is now Cate cras prosiciscetur h e. post triginta dies Plutarch in vitâ Cat. Vtic. as Cato's servents used to say of him our picture is a man our shadows substances our feigned repentance true our limb is a body our partial Repentance a complet one and a single Turn from one sin universal And therefore the Schools will tell us that presumption stands at greater opposition with Hope then with Fear One would think indeed the presumption did include a Hope and shut out Fear and so she doth even lead us madly over all over the Law and over the Gospel over the Threatnings of God and the wrath of God upon the point of the sword upon death it self But yet presumption is a deordination of Hope rather a brutish temerity a wilful rashnesse then Hope and moves contrary to her Hope layes hold on the promises but 't is the condition that stretcheth forth her hand she looks up to Heaven but 't is this Turn t is Repentance that quickneth her eye But presumption runs hastily to the promises but leapeth over the condition or treadeth it under her feet Presumption is in Heaven already without grace without Repentance without a Turn or at best it is serotina latewards in the evening in the shutting up of our dayes or ficta a formall repentance or manca a lame imperfect Repentance a false hope it is and therefore most contrary to Hope and therefore no Hope at all Now this sudden and vehement call should have more force and energie with it then to awake and startle us then to make us for a while look about It was so loud to hasten our repentance to give it a true being and essence to complete perfect and settle it for ever Our Repentance is our Sacrifice and it must be 1. matutinum sacrificium our morning early Sacrifice 2. Vivum a living Sacrifice breathing forth piety and holinesse not a dead carcase or the picture of Repentance and 3. integrum a Sacrifice without blemish perfect in every part and it must be in the last place juge sacrificium a continued sacrifice a Repentance never to be repented of a turn never to turn or looke back again The First The first matutinum Sacrificium An early Sacrifice Sen ep 7. There is a time for all things under the Sun saith the wiseman and it is a great part of wisdom occasionem observare properantem to watch and observe a fair opportunity and not to let it slip away between our fingers to hoyse up our sailes dum ventus operam dat Hier. ad
is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same God in all his commands not forbidding one sin and permitting another as his wayes are equal so must our turn be equal not from the right hand to the left not from superstition to prophanesse not from despising of prophesie to Sermonhypocrisy not from uncleannesse to faction not from Riot to Rebellion but a turn from all Extreams from all evil a collection and levelling the soul which before lookt divers wayes and turning her face upon the way of truth upon God alone If we turn as we should if we will answer this earnest and vehement call we must turn from all our evil wayes we use to say that there is as great a miracle wrought in our conversion as in the Creation of the world but this is not true in every respect for man though he be a sinner yet is something hath an understanding will affections to be wrought upon yet as it is one condition required in a true miracle that it be perfect so that there be not onely a change but such a change which is absolute and exact that it may seem to be as it were a new Creation that water which is changed into wine may be no more water but wine tht the blind man do truly see the lame man truly walk and the dead man truly live so is it in our turn and conversion there is a total and perfect change the Adulterer is made an Eunuch for the kingdom of Heaven the intemperate comes forth with a knife at his throat the revenger kisseth the hand that strikes him when we Turn sinne vanisheth the Old man is dead and in its place there stands up a new Creature In the 15. to Galatians Saint Paul speaking of the works of the flesh which are nothing but sins and having given us a catalogue reckoned up many of them by which we might know the rest at last concludes Of which I tell you before as I have told you often that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God where the Apostles meaning is not that they who do all these or most of these or many of these or more then one of these but they who die possest of any one of these shall have no place in the kingdom of God and of Christ for what profit is there to turn from one sin and not all when one sin is enough to make us breakers of the whole Law and so liable to eternal death It is a conclusion in the Schools that whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin and turns not from it whatsoever he doth do he pray or give almes bow the knee before God or open his hand to his brother be it what it will in it self never so fair and commendable it is forth with blasted and defaced and is so far from deserving commendations that it hath no other wages due to it but death I cannot say this is true for so far as it is agreeable with reason so far it must needs be pleasing to the God of reason so far as it answers the rule so far is it accepted of him that made it nor can we think that Regulus Fabricius Cato and the rest who do convitium facere Christianis upbraid and shame many of us Christians were damned for their justice their integrity their honesty Hell is no receptacle for men so qualified were there nothing else to prepare and fit them for that place but yet most true it is that if we be indued and beautified with many vertues yet the habit of one sin is enough to deface them to draw that night and darknesse about them that they shall not be seen to put them to silence that they shall have no power to speak or plead for us in the day of trial though they be not sins not bright and shining sins for I cannot see how darknesse it self should shine yet they shall become utterly unprofitable they may peradventure lessen the number of the stripes but yet the unrepentant sinner shall be beaten For what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under Arrest nay what performance can acquit him who is condemned already Reason it self stands up against it and forbids it for what obedience is that which answers but in part which follows one precept and runs away from another and then what imperfect monsters should the kingdome of Heaven receive a liberall man but not chast a Temperate man but not honest a Zealous man but not Charitable a great Faster and a great Impostor a Beadsman and a Theese an Apostle a great Preacher and a Traytor such a Monsterous mishapen Christian cannot stand before him who is a pure uncompounded Essence the same in every Thing and Every Where One and the same even Unity it self For againe every man is not equally inclin'd to every sinne This man loves that which another loathes and he who made the Devil fly at the first Encounter may entertaine him at a second he that resisted him in lust may yeeld to him in Anger He who will none of his delicates may fayle at his Terrors and he that feared not the roaring of the Lyon may be ensnared by the flattery of the Serpent For the force of Temptations is many times quickned or Dull'd according to the Naturall Constitutions and severall complexions of men and other outward Circumstances by which they may work more coldly or more vehemently upon the will and Affections A man of a dull and Torpid disposition is seldom Ambitious a man of a quick and active Spirit seldome Idle the Cholerick man not obnoxious to those evills which melancholly doth hatch nor the Melancholick to those which Choler is apt to produce As hard a matter it may be for some men to commit some one sinne as it is for others to avoid it as hard a matter for the Foole in the Gospel to have scattered his Goods as it was for the other Foole the Prodigall to have kept them as hard a matter for some to let loose their Anger as it is for others to curbe and bridle it some by their very temper and Constitution with ease withstand lust but must struggle and take paines to keep down their Anger Some can stand upright in Poverty but are overthrown by wealth some can resist this Temptation by slighting it but must beat and macerate themselves must use a kind of violence before they can overcome another which is more sutable and more flatters their Constitution And this we may find by those darts which we cast at one another those uncharitable Censures we passe For how do the Covetous condemne and pity the Prodigal and how doth the Prodigal loath and scorne the Covetous How doth the Luke-warme Christian abominate the Schismaticque and the Schismaticque call every man so if he be not as mad as himself How doth this man bless himself and wonder that any should fall into such or
such a sin when he that commits it wonders as much that he should fall into the Contrary For the Enemy applies himself to every Humour and Temper and having found where every man lies open to invasion there strives to make his Battery where every man is most assaultable and there enters with such forces which we are ready to obey with a sword which the Revenger will snatch at with Riches which the Covetous will digge for with a dish of dainties which the Glutton will greedily devour and what bait soever we taste of we are in his Snare he hath his severall Darts and if any one pierce the heart he is a Conqueror For he knows the wages of any one sinne unrepented is death We are indeed too ready to flatter and comfort our selves in that sinne which best complies with our Humour ever more to favour and Pardon our selves in some sinne or other and to make our obedience to one precept an Advocate to plead for us and hold us up in the breach of another I am not as other men are there are more Pharisees then one that have spoke it Some sinne or other there is either of Profit or pleasure or the like to which by Complexion we are inclin'd which we too oft dispense with as willing it should stay with us as Austin confesses of himself that when he prayed against Lust he was not very willing to be heard or that God should too soon divorce him from his beloved sinne At the same time we would be Good and yet evill we would partake of life and yet joyne with that which tends unto death we would be converts and yet wantons we would Turne from one sin and yet cleave fast to another Oh let me Hugg my Mammon saith the Miser and I le defy lust let me take my fill of love saith the wanton and I le spurn at Wealth Let me wash my feet in the blood of my enemies saith the Revenger and all other pleasure I shall look upon and loath I will fast and pray saith the Ambitious so they may be wings to carry me to the highest place where I had rather be then in heaven it self Every man may be induced to abstaine from those sinnes which either hinder not or promote that to which he is carried by the swindge of this naturall Temper and disposition And as every Nation in the times of Darkness had its severall God which they worshipt and neglected others so every man almost hath his beloved sinne which he cleaves to and rather then he will Turne from it will fling off all respect and familiarity to the rest will abstaine from evill in this kind so he may take in the other which is pleasant to him will be for God so he may be for Baal too will not Touch so he may Tast will not look on this forbidden Tree so he may pluck and Tast of the other And this is to sport and please our selves in that evill way which leads to Death For what though I scape the Lion if the Beare teare me in peeces what is it to leane our hand and rest upon the forbearance of some sinnes if a Serpent bite us what is it to Turne from many sinnes and yet be too familiar with that which will destroy us Saul wee know spared many of the Amalekites when Gods command was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many for one of them was his Executioner God bids us destroy the whole Body of finne to leave no sinne reigning in our mortall Bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we Turne not from it will be strong enough to Turne us to Destruction For againe It is Obedience onely that commends us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requires and so every degree of sinne is rebellion God requires totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universall Conversion True Obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demurr and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale doth not take upon it self to determine which Commandement is to be kept and which may be omitted what in it is to be done and what is to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equall to that Truth which is revealed so is our obedience imperfect when 't is not equall to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the Truth reveal'd and in the other come short of the command and so in the one distrust God in the other oppose him what is a sigh if my murmuring drown it what is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it what is my Liberality if my uncleanness defile it what are my Prayers if my partiall obedience turne them into sinne what is a morsell of bread to one poore man when my oppression hath eaten up a Thousand what is my Faith if my malice make me worse then an Infidell The voice of Scripture the Language of Obedience is to keep all the Commandements the language of Repentance to depart from all Iniquity For all the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the Treasure of the Church shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Teares all these will vanish at the guilt of one sinne and melt before it as the wax before the Sun for every sinne is as Seneca speaks of Alexanders in killing Calisthenes Crimen aeternum Sen. de Benef. an everpentance can redeeme For as oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand persians it will be reply'd he did so but withall he slew Calisthenes He slew Darius 't is true and Calisthenes too He wan all as farre as the very Ocean 't is true but he killed Calisthenes and as oft we shall fill our mindes and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sinnes our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us but we have continued in this or that beloved sin and none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sinne shall to our Reproach And now because in common esteeme one is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault Let us well weigh the danger of any one sinne be it Fornication Theft or Covetousnesse or the like be it whatsoever is called sinne and though perhaps we may dread it the lesse because it is but one yet we sahll find good reason to Turne from it because it is sinne
with love and when it turns its worst face towards us we are weary of it and have an inclination a velleity a weak and feeble desire to shake it off our soul loveth it and loatheth it we would not and we will sin and all upon presumption of that mercy which first gave us ease upon hope of forgiveness quis enim timebit prodigere quod habebit posteà recuperare Tertul. de pudicitia c. 9. for who will be tender and sparing of that which he hopes to recover though lost never so oft or be careful of preserving that which he thinks cannot be irrecoverably lost so that Repentance which should be the death of sin is made the security of the Sinner and that which should reconcile us to God is made a reproach to his mercy and contumelious to his goodness in brief that which should make us his friends makes us his enemies we turn and return we fall and rise and rise and fall till at last we fall never to rise again And this is an ill signe a signe our Repentance was not true and serious but as in an intermitting fever the disease was still the same onely the fit was over Gravedinosos quosdam quosdam tor ninosor 〈◊〉 mus non quia semper sed quia saepesunt Tul. Tusc q. l. 4 Galen de fanitat Tuendâ or as in an Epilepsie or the falling sickness it is still the same is stil in the body though it do not cast it on the ground and such a Repentance is not a Repentance but to be repented of by turning once for all never to turn again or if it be true we may say of it what Galen said of his art to those that abuse it who carry it not and continue it to the end perindè est ac si omnino non esset it is as if it were not at all nay it is fatal and deleterial It was Repentance it is now an accusation a witness against us that we would be contrà experimenta pertinaces even against our own experience taste that cup again which we found bitter to us and run into that snare out of which we had escaped and turn back into those evil wayes where we saw death ready to seise upon us and so run the hazard of being lost for ever And these four are the necessary requisities Concl. and properties of Repentance it must be early and sudden upon the first all For why should any thing in this world stop and stay us one moment in our journey to a better is not a span of time little enough to pay down for Eternity it must be true and sincere for can we hope to binde the God of Truth unto us with a lie or can a false Turn bring us to that happinesse which is real it must be perfect and exact in every part for why should we give him lesse then we should who will give us more then we can desire or how can that which is but in part make us shine in perfection of Glory Last of all it must be constant and permanent for the crown of life is promised unto him alone who is faithful unto death Turn ye Turn ye now suddenly in reality and not in appearance Turn ye from all your evil wayes Turn never to look back again and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint render it to turn for ever and so to presse forward in the wayes of righteousnesse till we are brought to that place of rest where there is no evil to Turn from but all shall turn to our Salvation Thu much of the exhortation Turn ye Turn ye the next is the Reason or Expostulation For why will you die O House of Israel THE NINTH SERMON PART V. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes For why will you die Oh House of Israel WHY will you die is an Obtestation or Expostulation I called it a reason and good reason I should do so for the moriemini is a good reason that we may not die a good reason to make us turn but tendered to us by way of expostulation is another reason and puts life and efficacy into it makes it a reason invincible unanswerable The Israelite though now in his evil wayes dares not say He will die and therefore must lay his hand upon his mouth and Turn For God who is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free from all passion being to deal with man subject to passion seems to put it on exprimit in we have here a large field to walk over but we must bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from these words and we shall first take notice of the course and method God takes to turn us he draws a sword against us he threatens death and so awakes our fear that our fear might carry us out of evil our wayes Secondly that God is not willing we should die Thirdly that he is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all that if we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own will ruines us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God takes to turn us he asks us why will ye die in which we shall passe by these steps or degrees First shew you what fear is Secondly how usefull it may be in our conversion Thirdly shew it not onely useful but good and lawful and enjoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death the fear of Gods wrath may be a motive to turn me from sin and it may be a motive to strengthen and uphold me in the wayes of righteousnesse God commends it to us timor iste timendus non est and we need not be afraid of this Fear Quare moriemini Why will ye Die And death is the King of terrours to command our fear that seeing death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.16 we might look about and consider in what wayes we were and for feare of death turn from sin which leads unto it for thus God doth Amorem timore pellere subdue one passion with another drive out love with fear the love of the world with the fear of death present himself unto us in divers manners according to the different operations of our affections sometimes with his rich promises to make us Hope and sometimes with fearful menaces to strike us with fear sometimes in glory to encourage us and sometimes in a tempest Clem. Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whirle-winde to affright us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodnesse that if hope drive us not to the promises yet fear might carry us from death and death from sin and so at last beget a Hope
and delight and ravish us with the glory of that which before we could not look upon Now what feare is we may guess by Hope for they are both hewed as it were out of the same Rock and Expectation is the common matter out of which they are framed as Hope is nothing else but an Expectation of that which is good so Feare saith the Philosopher hath its beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. 2. c. 6. from the Imagination of some approaching Evill where there is Hope there is Feare and where there is Feare there is Hope For he that doth but feare some evill may befall him retaines some Hope that he may escape it and he that hopes for that which is desirable stands in some feare that he may not reach and possess it so that you see Hope and Feare though they seem to look at distance one upon the other yet are alwayes in Conjunction and are levell'd on the same Object till they lose their Names and the one end in Confidence the other in Despaire Now of all the Passions of the Mind Feare may seem to be the most improfitable for the Wise-man will tell us it is nothing else but the Betraying of those succours which reason offereth Wisd 17.11 Curt. and the Historian speaking of the Persians who in their flight flung away their weapons of Defence shuts up all with this Epiphonema adeo pavor ipsa auxilia formidat such is the nature of Feare that it disarmes us and makes us not onely runne from Danger but from those Helps and Succours which might prevent and keep it off It matures and ripens mischief anticipates Evill and multiplies it and by a vaine kind of Providence gives those things a being which are not spe jam praecipit hostem saith the Poet It presents our Enemie before us when he is not neere and latcheth the Sword in our Bowels before the Blow is given And indeed such many times are the effects of Feare but as Alexander sometimes spake of that fierce and stately Steed Bucephalus qualem isti equum perdunt Curt. l. 1. dum per imperitiam mollitiem uti nesciunt What a brave Horse is spoil'd for want of manning so may we of Feare a most usefull Passion is lost because we doe not mannage and order it as we should for we suffer it to distract and amaze when it should poyse and byas us we make it our Enemy when it might be our Friend to guard and protect us and by a Propheticall presage or mistrust keep off those Evills which are in the approach ready to assault us for prudentia quaedam Divinatio est our Prudencie Vit. Pompon Attici which always carries with it Feare is a kind of Divination Our Passions are as a winde and as they may thrust us upon the Rocks so they may drive and carry us on to the Heaven where we would be All is in the right placing of them passiones aestimantur objectis our passions are as the objects are they look on and by them they are measured and either fall or rise in their esteeme to feare an Enemy is cowardize to Feare labour is slothfulnesse to feare the face of man is something neere to baseness and servility to be afraid of a command because it is difficult is disobedience but Pone Deum saith Saint Austin place God as the Object and to Feare him not onely when he shines in Mercy but when he is girded with Majesty to feare him not onely as a Father but a Lord nay to feare him when he comes with a Tempest before him is either a virtue or else leads unto it Now to shew you how Feare works and how usefull it may be to forward our Turn we may observe first that it works upon our memory revives those Characters of sin which long Custome had sullied and defaced and makes that Deformity visible which the delight we took in sin had vayl'd and hid from our sight when the Patriarchs had sold their Brother Joseph into Egypt for Ten yeares space and above whilst they dreaded nothing they never seem'd to have any sence of their fact but lookt upon it as a lawfull or warrantable sale or made as light on 't as if it had been so Joseph was sold and they thought themselves well rid of a Dreamer But when they were now come down into Egypt Genes 42. and were cast into Prison and into a feare withall that they should be there chain'd us as Captives and slaves then and not till then it appeared like an ill Bargaine then they could give it is right name and call it a sinne against their Brother we are doubtlesse guilty of our Brothers Death say they one to another vers 21. Said I not saith Reuben that you should not offend against the Lad at the next verse Thus whilst our Sun shines cleare without cloud or Tempest all Conscience of sinne is asleep and we forget what we have done even as soon as we have done it and it is to us as if it never had been or appeares in such a shape we can delight in but when the weather changes and the Tempest is loud when the pale Countenance of death is turned towards us if then our Countenance changes because our mind doth so we have other thoughts and other eyes and by the very sight of Death are led to the sense of sinne Now our sinne which was buried in Oblivion is raised againe and appears in its own shape with that terror and Deformity that we begin to hate and at last are willing to destroy it Death hath a Terrible looke but the sight of Death may make us live as the Brazen Serpent did Heale those who were bitten in the Wilderness onely by being look'd upon For Secondly Having a sense and feeling of our sinne we begin to advise with our selves and aske Counsell of our Reason which before we had left behind us and our Thoughts which were let loose and sent abroad after every vanity that came neere us are collected and turn'd inward upon themselves to revolve and see what an ill flight they made and what poyson they gathered where they sought for Manna how they were worse then lost in such deceitfull Objects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Rhet. 2. c. 6. for Feare brings us saith the Philosopher to consultation Call the Steward to account and he is presently at his Quid faciam what shall I doe Luke 16.3 when a King goes to warre and warre is a bloody and fearfull Trade the text tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 14.31 he fitteth down first and takes Counsell Feare is the mother of a device and Consultation dies with feare when we presume Counsel is but a reproach and is taken as an Injurie and when we despaire it is too late There be three things saith Saint Basil which perfect and consummate every Consultation and brings it to the end
therefore have need of this kind of remedy as much need certainly as our first Parents had in Paradise who before they took the forbidden fruit might have seen Death written and engraved on the Tree and had they observ'd it as they ought to have done had not forfeited the Garden for one Apple had this Feare walked along with them before the coole of the Day before the rushing wind they had not heard it nor hid themselves from God in a word had they Feared they had not fell for they fell with this Thought that they should not fall that they should not die at all Imperfection though it be to Feare yet 't is such an Imperfection that leads to perfection Imperfection though it be to Feare yet I am sure it is a greater Imperfection to sin and not to feare It might be wished perhapps that we were tyed and knit unto our God quibusdam internis commerciis as the devout School-man speaks with those inward ligaments of Love and Joy and Admiration that we had a kind of familiar acquaintance and intercourse with him That as our Almes and Prayers and fasting came up before him to shew him what we do on earth so there were no imper fection in us but that God might approach so nigh unto us with the fulness of Joy to tell us what he is preparing for us that neither the Feare of Hell nor the Hope of Heaven and our Salvation but the Love of God and Goodnesse were the only cause of our cleaving to him That we might love God because he is God and hate sinne because it is sinne and for no other reason that we might with Saint Paul wish the increase of Gods Glory though with that heavy condition of our own Reprobation But this is such an Heroick spirit to which every man cannot rise though he may at last rise as high as Heaven this is such a condition which we can hardly hope for whilst we are in the flesh we are in the body not out of the body we struggle with doubts and difficulties Ignorance and Infirmity are our Companions in our way and in this our state of Imperfection contenti simus hoc Catone Dictum Augusti cum hortaretur ferenda esse praesentia qualiacunque sunt Suet. Octav. August c. 87. we must be content to use such means and Helpes as the Law-giver himself will allow of and not cast off fear upon a Fancy that our Love is perfect for this savours more of an Imaginary Metaphysicall subtility of a kind of extaticall affectation of Piety then the plaine and solid knowledge of Christian Religion but continue our Obedience and carry on our perseverance with the Remembrance of our last end with this consideration That as under the Law there was a curse pronounced to them that fulfill it not so under the Gospel there is a flaming fire to take vengeance of them that obey it not 2. Thess 1.8 It was a good censure of Tully which he gave of Cato in one of his Epistles Thou canst not saith he to his friend love and Honor Cato more then I doe but yet this I observe in him optimo animo utens summâ fide nocet interdum Reip. he doth endammage the Common-wealth but with an Honest mind and great Fidelity l. 2. ad Attic. ep 1. for he gives sentence as if he lived in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Platonis non in faece Romuli in Plato's Common-wealth and not in the dreggs and Rascaltry of Romulus And we may passe the same censure on these seraphical Perfectionists who will have all done out of pure Love nothing out of Feare They remember not that they are in fraece Adami the off-spring of an Arch-Rebell that their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite and that the want of this Feare threw them from that state of Integrity in which they were created and by that out of Paradise and so with great ostentation of love hinder the Progresse of Piety and setting up to themselves an Idaea of Perfection take off our Feare which should be as the hand to wind up the Plummet which should continue the motion of our Obedience the best we can say of them is summâ fide pio animo nocent Ecclesiae If their mind be pious and answer the great shew they make then with a Pious mind they wrong and trouble the Church of Christ For suppose I were a Paul and did love Christ as Cato did Virtue because I could no otherwise Nunquam recte fecit ut faces videretur sed quià aliter facere non poterat Vell. ratere l. 2. Hist suppose I did feare sinne more then Hell and had rather be damned then commit it suppose that every thought word and worke were Amoris foetus the issues of my Love yet I must not upon a speciall favour build a general Doctrine and because love is best make Feare unlawfull make it sinne to feare that punishment the Feare of which might keep me from sinne for this were in Saint Pauls phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put a stumbling-block in our Brothers way with my love to overthrow his feare that so at last both Feare and Love may fall to the ground for is there any that will fear sinne for punishment if it be a sinne to Feare What 's the language of the world now we heare of nothing but filiall feare and it were a good hearing if they would understand themselves for this doth not exclude the other but is upheld by it we are as sure of happinesse as we are of Death but are more perswaded of the Truth of the one then of the other more sure to goe to heaven then to die and yet Death is the gate which must let us in we are already partakers of an Angelicall Estate we prolong our life in our own Thoughts to a kind of Eternity and yet can feare nothing we challenge a kind of familiarity with God and yet are willing to stay yet a while longer from him we sport with his Thunder and play with his Hayl-stones and Coales of fire we entertain him as the Roman Gentleman did the Emperor Augustus Macrobius in Saturnal coenâ parcâ quasi quotidianâ with course and Ordinary fare as Saul in the 15. of the first of Sam. with the vile and refuse not with the fatlings and best of the sheep and Oxen Did we dread his Majesty or think he were Jupiter vindex a God of Revenge with a Thunder-bolt in his hand we should not be thus bold with him but feare that in wrath and Indignation he should reply as Augustus did Non putaram me tibi fuisse tam familiarem I did not think I had made my self so familiar with my Creature I know the Schools distinguish between a servile and Initial and a Filial feare there is a Feare by which we feare not the fault but the punishment and a feare which feareth the punishment
Errors because they have so many and that none can Erre but he that sayes he cannot and for which we call him Antichrist This bandying of Censures and Curses hath been held up too long with some loss and injury to Religion on both sides Our best way certainly to confute them is by our practice so to live that all men say The Feare of God is in us of a Truth to weave Love and Feare into one Peece to serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in Trembling Hilar. in Fs 2. ut sit timor exultans exultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Feare not to Divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to Feare the Lord the lesse for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyne them both together and place Christ in the midst and then there will be a pax vobis peace unto us his Oyntment shall drop upon our Love that it be not too bold and distill upon our Feare that it faint not and end in despaire that our Love may not consume our Feare nor our Fear chill our love but we shall so Love him that we do not Despaire so Fear him that we do not presume That we may Feare him as a Lord and love him as Jesus and then when he shall come in Glory to Judge both the quick and the dead we shall find him a Lord but not to affright us and a Jesus to save us our Love shall be made perfect All doubting taken from our Faith nay Faith it self shall be done away and the feare of Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and we who have made such use of Death in its representation shall never dye but live for evermore And this we have learnt from the Moriemini Why will you Die THE TENTH SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL 33.11 why will you die Oh House of Israel WEE have lead you through the Chambers of Death through the school of Discipline The School of feare For why will ye Die Look upon Death and feare it and you shall not Dye at all Thus farre are we gone We come now ad domum Israelis to the House of Israel Why will ye die oh house of Israel For to name Israel is an Argument Take them as Israel or take them as the House of Israel Take the House for a Building or take it for a family and it may seem strange and full of Admiration that Israel which should prevaile with God should embrace Death That the House of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom 't is no strange sight to see men run on in their evill wayes In Mesheck or the Tents of Kedar there might be at least some colour for a Reply but to Israel it is Gravis expostulatio a heavy and full Expostulation Let the Amorites and Hittites let the Edomites let Gods enemies perish but let not Israel the People of God Dye Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The Quarè moriemini why will ye Die we see is levell'd to the marke is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration Oh Israel why will ye die I would not have you die I have made you gentem selectam a chosen people that you may not Die I have set before you Life and Death Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it and why will you die My sword is drawne to affright and not to kill you and I hold it up That I may not strike I have placed death in the way that you may stop and retreat and not go on I have set my Angel my Prophet with a sword drawne in his Hand That at least you may be as wise as the Beast was under Baalam and sink and fall down under your Burden I have imprinted the very Image of Death in every sinne will ye yet goe on will ye love sinne that hath such a foule face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrell'd with Death Quis furor oh Cives what a madnesse is this oh ye Israelites As Herod once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrot no more but this Herod to Cassius Thou art mad Philostrat in vit Herodis so God may seem to send to his People God by his Prophet to the Israelites you are mad Therefore doe my people run on in their evill wayes Isa 5.13 because they have no understanding For now look upon Death and that affrights us Look upon God and he exhorts us Reflect upon our selves and we are an Israel a Church of God There is no cause of dying but not Turning no cause of destruction but Impenitency If we will not die we shall not die and if we will Turne we cannot die at all for that if we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemnes us but kills us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction comes from our selves It is not God it is not death it self that kills us but we die because we will Now by this Touch and short descant on the words so much Truth is conveyed unto us as may acquit and discharge God as no way accessary to our death and to make our Passage cleer and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees draw out these three Conclusions 1. That God is not willing we should die 2. That he is so far from willing our death that he hath plenteously afforded sufficient meanes of life and salvation which will bring in the Third and last That if we die our death is voluntary That no other reason can be given of our death but our own will And the due consideration of these three may serve to awake our shame Naz. Or. 20. as death did our feare which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks another Help and furtherance to worke out our Salvation Why will ye die oh House of Israel And first That God is not willing we should die is plaine enough First from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self Secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulates For 1. why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that askes me why I will die by his very Question assures me he intends not to destroy me God is not as man that he should lie what he works he workes in the cleer and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water flows to purge and cleanse us his oyle is powred forth to supple us his commands are not snares nor his Precepts Accusations He stamps not the Devill 's face upon his Coyne He willeth not what he made not and he made not Death saith the Wiseman He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry Wisd 1.12 and
if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a Tempest we have rais'd it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it we force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas Accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father his goodnesse is Naturall his severity in respect of its Act Accidentall for God may be severe and yet not punish for he strikes not till we provoke him his Justice and severity are the same as everlasting as himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams Bosome yet were he Good if there were neither Angel nor men he were still the Lord blessed for evermore in a word he had been just though he had never been Angry he had been mercifull though man had not been miscrable he had been the same God just and good and mercifull though sin had not entred in by Adam nor Death by sinne God is active in Good and not in Evill he cannot doe what he doth detest and hate he cannot Decree Ordaine or further that which is most contrary to him he doth not kill me before all time and then in time aske me why I will die He doth not Condemne me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my Candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his Exhortations and Expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he comes to punish Isai 28.21 sacit opus non suum saith the Prophet doth not his owne worke doth a strange work a strange Act an Act that is forced from him a worke which he would not doe And as he doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to manifest his Glory in it which as our Death proceeds from his secondary and occasion'd will For God saith Aquinas seeks not the manifestation of his Glory Aquin. 2.2 q. 132. art 1. for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternall as himself no Quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphin and Cherubin in the midst of all the Blasphemies of men and Devills is still the same and his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it strives in the perfection of Beauty rather then when it is decay'd and defaced rather then in a Damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit and so to receive his Glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on Earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest Heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde admortem sed ante ad vitam The sentence of Death was pronounced against man almost as soon as he was man but he was first created to life we are punished for being evill but we were first commanded to be good his first will is That we glorify him in our Bodies and in our soules but if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his Glory out of that which dishonor'd him and write it with our blood In the multitude of the People Prov. 14.28 is the Glory of a King saith the wisest of Kings and more Glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebell and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man fills his place then where the Prisons are filled with Theeves and Traytors and men of Belial and though the Justice and wisedome of the King may be seen in these yet 't is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more Power then the sword In Heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is in it to see it in the Church of the First-borne and in the soules of just men made perfect it is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Divel and his Angels For God is best pleased to see his Creature man to answer to that patteâ—e which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every Artificer glories in his work when he sees it finish't according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawne in his minde and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or witts with that favour and complacency we doe upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon man when he appeares in that shape and forme of Obedience which he prescrib'd for then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued streame and course of all our Actions breaks forth and is seen in every worke of our Hands is the Eccho of every word we speak the result of every Thought that begat that word and it is Musick in his eares which he had rather heare then the weeping and howling of the Damned which he will now heare though the time was when he us'd all fitting meanes to prevent it even the same meanes by which he raised those who now glorify him in the Highest Heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his Naturall will which is his prime and antecedent will for Death cannot issue from the Fountaine of Life and by this will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the meanes to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made for the goodness of God it was which first gave a being to man and then adopted him in speâ—… regâ—…i design'd him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a Tast of that Joy and Happinesse which he from all Eternity possest And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his will exprest in his command in his precepts and Laws For under Christ this will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observ'd swallows it up in victory for how can Death touch him who is made like unto the living Lord or how should Hell receive him whose conversation is in heaven Ezek. 16. â—1 13.21 If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet and he repeats it often as if Life were as inseparable from them as it is from the living God himself by which as he is life in himself so to man whom he had made he brought life and immortality to light
should start out of his Sphere if I lose not the sight of that brightness which should direct me in my way to blisse what were it to me if I were necessitated to Beggary so I be not a predestinate Bankrupt in the City of the Lord Let him doe what he will in Heaven and in earth Let the Sun goe back let the Starres lose their light let the Wheele of Nature move in a contrary way Let the pillars of the world be shaken Let him doe what he will It concerns us not further then that we say Amen so be it for we must give him leave who made the world to govern it If all other Events and Actions were necessary we might well sit down and lay our hands upon our mouth But here 't is est de totâ possessione we speak not of Riches and Poverty or faire weather and tempests but of Everlasting life and everlasting Damnation and to entitle God either directly or indirectly to the sinnes and death of wicked men so to lay the Scene that it shall appeare though mask'd and vail'd with limitations and distinctions and though they be not positive yet leave such Premises out of which this conclusion may easily be drawne is a high reproach to Gods Infinite Goodnesse a Blasphemy however men wipe their mouthes after it of the greatest magnitude not to speak the worst it is to stand up and contradict him to his face and when he swears he would not have us die to proclame it to all the world that there be Thousands whom he hath killed already and destroyed before they were and so Decreed to doe that from all Eternity which in Time he swore he would not doe I speak not this to rake the Ashes of any of those who are dead who either maintained or favoured this Opinion nor to stirr the Choler of any man living who may love this Child for the Fathers sake but for the honor of God and his everlasting goodnesse which I conceive to be strangely violated by this Doctrine of Efficacious permission or by that shift and evasion of a positive efficiency joyn'd as it is said inseparably with this permission of sinne which is so farre from colouring it over or giving any lovelinesse to it that it renders it more horrid and deformed and is the louder blasphemy of the two which clothes as it were a Devil with Light which yet breaks through it and rages as much as if he had been in his owne shape Permission is a faire word and bodes no harm but yet it breathes forth that poysonous exhalation which kills us for but to be permitted to sinne is to be a child appointed to death The Ancients especially the Athenians did account some words ominous and therefore they never us'd to speak them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prison they called the House The Hangman Helladius apud Photium the Common Officer and the like and the Romanes would not once mention Death or say their friend was dead but Humanitùs illi Accidit we may render it in the Scripture Phrase He is gone the way of all flesh what their fancy lead them to Religion should perswade us to think that some words there be which we should be afraid to mention when we speake of God Excitacion to sinne Inclination Induration Reprobation as they are used are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-boading words but yet we must not with the Heathen onely change the language and meane the same thing and call it Permission when our whole Discourse drives this way to bring it forward and set it up for a flat and Absolute Compulsion for this is but to plough the wind to make a way which â—…oses of it self as soone as it is made this is not to Teach men but to amaze them Sermo per deflexus anfractus veritarem poâ—rus quâ—…il quam ostendit saith Hilary when men broach these contradictions to known and common Principles when they make these Meanders these windings and turnings in their Discourses they make it also apparent that they are still in their search and have not yet found out the Truth Let us therefore Fontem à Capite fâ—dere as neere as we can lay open the ground of this mistake and Error and we shall find it to be an error as great as this and hath the same tast and relish with the fountaine from whence it flowed For they who make Gods will which is but permissive Effective at the very mention of Gods will Think of that absolute will of his which cannot be resisted by which he made the Heavens and the earth and so acknowledge no will of God but that which is absolute and effective as if that will of his by which he would have us doe something were the same with that by which he will doe something himself and so in effect make not onely the Conversion but the Induration of a sinner the worke of his Omnipotency But were not men blind to all objects but those they delight to look on they might easily discerne a great difference and that Gods will is broken every Day His Natural Desire which is his will to save mankind is that fulfilled if it were there could be no Hell at all His command that is his will what moment is there wherein that is not resisted we are those Divells which kindle that fire which he made not for us we are those sonnes of Anak those Gyant-like fighters against Heaven which break his Commands with as great ease as Samson dip his Threads of Towe We are like those Leviathans which break the bounds which he hath set us that esteem Iron as straw with whom his Threatnings which he darts at us are accounted as stubble and can we who so often break his will say That his will is alwayes fulfilled For againe we must not imagine That all things that are done in the world are the worke of his hand or the effect of that Power by which he brings mighty things to passe nor can we so much forget God and his Goodness as to imagine that upon every Action of man he hath set a Dixit factum est he spake the word and it was done he commanded and it became Necessary for some Actions there be which God doth neither absolutely will nor powerfully resist but in his Wisedome permitteth to be done which otherwise could not be done but by his permission nor doth this will of permission fall crosse with any other will of his not with his absolute will for he absolutely permitteth them not with his primary and Naturall will for though by his Naturall will he would bring men to happinesse though he forbid sinne though he detest it as that which is most contrary to his very nature and which makes men Divels and Enemies to him yet he may Justly permit it and the reason is plaine For man is not as
God qui sibi sufficit ad beatitudinem who is all-sufficient and Happinesse it self and therefore was placed in an Estate where he might work out his owne Happinesse but still with a Possibility of being miserable And herein was the Goodnesse and Wisedome of God made visible and as from his goodnesse it is that he loved his Creature so in his goodnesse and Wisedome he placed before him Good and evill that he might lay hold on Happinesse and be good willingly and not of Necessity For it is Impossible for any Finite Creature who hath not his completenes his perfection in himself to purchase heaven but upon such termes as that he might have lost it nor to lose it but upon such Termes as that he might have took it by violence For every Law as it supposeth a possibility of being kept so doth it also a possibility of being broken which cannot be without permission of sinne Lex justo non est posita if Goodnesse had been as Essentiall to man as his Nature and soule by which he is if God had interceded by his Omnipotency and by an irresistible force kept sinne from entring into the world The Jewes had not heard the noise of the Trumpet under the Law nor the Disciples the Sermon on the Mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the Comfortable breath of his Promises nor the Terror of his Threatnings for who would make a Law against that which he knows will never come to passe a Law against sinne supposeth a permission to sinne and a possibility of sinning Lastly it stands in no shew of opposition to his occasion'd and consequent will for we must suppose sinne before we can take up the least conceit of of any will in God to punish Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Austin in his Retractations all punishment that is just is the punishment of sinne and therefore God who of his Naturall Goodnesse would not have man commit sinne out of his Justice wills man's Destruction and will not repent Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est Tert. l. 2. adv Marcion saith Tertullian Thus God is entirely good whilst all he is whether Mercifull or severe is for Good minus est tantummodò prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quam prodesse his reward might seem too loose and not carry with it that Intinite valew and weight if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as to reward and some distrust it might work in the creature That he could not doe the one if he could not doe both So â—…en sinne is permitted though God hate sinne that which brings us to the gates of Death is permitted though God hath tendered â—…s will with an Oath That he will not have us die Though he forbids sinne though he punish it yet he permitts it I have said too little Nay he could nor forbid and punish it if he did not permit it Yet permission is permission and no more nor is it such a Trojan Horse nor can it swell to that bulke and Greatnesse as to hide and conteine within it those Monsters of Fate and Necessity of Excaecation and excitation of inclination and induration which devoure a soule and cannot be resisted which bind us over unto Death when the noise is loud about us why will ye die For this permissive Will of God or his will of permission is not operative nor efficacious neither is it a remitting or slackning of the will of God upon which sinne as some pretend must necessarily follow nor is it Terminated in the thing permitted but in the permission it self alone for to permit sinne is one Thing and to be willing that sinne should be committed is another for it is written in the leaves of Aeternity That God will not have sinne committed as being most abhorrent and Contrary to his Nature and will and yet this permission of sinne is a positive Act of his will for he will permit sinne though he hath clothed it with Death to make us afraid of it and upon paine of Eternall Damnation forbids us to sinne though it were his will to permitt it These two To be willing to permit sinne and to be willing that sinne should be committed are as different in sense as in sound unless we will say That he who permits me to be wounded when I would not look to my self and hold up my buckler â—id cast that Dart at me which sticks in my sides we have been told indeed Qui volens permittit peccata certè vult voluntate permissivâ ab alijs fieri That he that is willing to permit sinne by that permissive will is willing also to have that sinne committed but it is so unsavoury so thin and empty a Speech that the least cast of the Eye pierceth through it a rotten stick whitled by unskilfull hands to make a Pillar to uphold that Fabrick of the Fancy The absolute Decree of Reprobation Take away this supporter That God will have that to be done which he permits that is That he will have that to be done which he forbids and down falls this Babel of Confusion to the ground And now what is God's will Haec est voluntus Dei sanctificatio vestra This is his will even your sanctification Saint Luke calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Counsell of God and so doth Saint Matthew 1 Thess 4.3 Luk. 7.30 his counsell his wish his desire his will his naturall syncere and constant will and it savours of much vanity and weakness to talke and dispute of his Decree which in respect of particulars must needs be to us most uncertaine when we certainly know his will when he cries to day if you will heare his voice when his Precepts his Laws are promulg'd hodie To Day to enquire what he did before all Eternity we may rest on the Goodnesse of God who would not have created us Isa 43.7 if he had not loved us I have made thee I have formed thee I have Created thee saith God for my Glory on the Mercy of God with which it could not consist to precondemne so many to Misery before they were upon the Justice of God which cannot punish without desert which could not be in the Creature before he was and on the Wisedom of God which doth nothing much lesse doth make man for nought stamp his Image upon him to deface it nor useth to make and unmake to build and pull down to plant and to digge up and to the grace of God which hath appeared unto all men that they may know him to be the True God and him whom he hath sent Christ Jesus But now we are told that some places of Scripture there are which seem to give God a greater hand in sinne then a bare and feeble and uneffective permission for in the 6. of Esay 9 10. vers God bids the Prophet Goe tell the
Novatian de cib Judacicis and those Birds of prey ut Israelitae murdareatur pecora culpatasunt to sanctifie and cleanse his people he blames the Beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and laies a Blemish upon his other Creatures to keep them underfiled and for to keep our Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies 1 a. 1 ae which he ordeined for that end ne vacaret Idololatriae servire saith Aquin. that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from men and they might learn from beasts to Turn from their evil ways Isal 5.4 and God might well cry out Quid facerem quod non fecerim what could I have done that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Quare c. why will ye die Oh House O house of Israel But to passe from the Synagogue to the Church which excells merito fidei et majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happinesse of Gods people was to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty which lets usnot loose in our own evil wayes but makes us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish and here Why will ye die if it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter Sarcasme as bitter as death it self It is here improved and drove home a minori ad majus by the Apostle himself for if that which should be abolisht was glorious 2 Cor. 3 11. much more shall that which remaines whose fruit is everlasling be glorious And again If they escaped not who resused him who spake on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel Acts. 7.38 how shall not we escape if we turn away from him who spake from Heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. Colos 2.20.21 the whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the Armory of God ubi mille clipei armatura fortium where are a thousand Bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off death the helmet of Salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith to quench all the Fiery Darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6. And as it is a House Eph. 3.5 so is it a Familie of Christ of whom all the Family of heaven and earth is named who is M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the Houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Familie by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the Tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which makes the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles some Pastors some Prophets some Teachers Eph. 4. there be some to be Taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which makes up the integrity of the parts and then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and and knit together by every joynt by the bond of charity which is the coupling and uniting vertue as Prosper calls it by the unity of faith by their agreement in holinesse having one faith one Baptisme one Lord and at last every string being toucht in its right place begets a harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I doe not meane the stones and building some indeed would bring it downe to this to stand for nothing but the walls but I suppose a subordination of parts which was never yet questioned in the Church but by those who would make it as invisible as their Charity Not the foot to see and the eye to walke and the Tongue to heare and the Eare to speake not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but as the Apostle sayes it shall be at the Resurrection Every man in his own Order Naz. Or. 25. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safe-guard in a rout every man is a Child of Death every throat open to the Knife but when an Army is drawn out by Art and skill all hands are active for the Victory Inequality indeed of persons is the ground of disunion and discord but Order draws and works advantage out of Inequality it self when every man keeps his station the common Souldier hath his Interest in the victory as well as the Commander and when wee walke orderly every man in his owne place wee walk hand in Hand to Heaven and Happinesse together For further yet In the Church of God there is not onely a union an Order but as it is in our Creed a Communion ef parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt doe many and great services for us though we perceive it not The blessed Saints departed though we may not pray for them yet may pray for us though we heare it not and though the Church be scattered in its Members through all the parts of the world yet their hearts meet in the same God Every man prayes for himself and every man prayes for every man Quodest Omnium esi singulorum that which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high Termes of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but blesse God and count it a great favour and priviledge that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaks Children of the Church think of our selves as in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self Wee cannot speak loud with the Cardinal si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum and Bellarm praefar ad Controv If a Catholique fall into a sinne suppose it Theft or Adultery yet in that Church he walketh not in Darkness but may see many helps to salvation by which he may soon quit
himself out of the snare of the Devill maternus ei non deest assectus she is still a Mother even to such Children her shops of spirituall comfort lie open there you may buy Wine and Milk Indulgences and Absolution but not without money or money-worth be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will There is Physick there are Cordialls to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a Schoole of Virtue then a Sanctuary for Offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to conveigh their Merits to us on Earth wee cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them downe in Pardons and Indulgences but yet though we cannot finde this power the re which is a Power to doe nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my Brother yet I may beare for him Gal. 6.2 even portare onus fratris beare my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my Death nor profit in my Dust yet there may be in my memory of my good Counsel my Advice my Example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae Consult Cass c. de Relig. 5. saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints and though my Death cannot satisfy for him yet it may Catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever and by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in Turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry Hand and a narrow Heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant wavering mind we cure the palsie for we can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of Lyes For as there is an Invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves which union though the Eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appeare and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which doe attend this union which are as so many Hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigor into the whole body so must the members also annoynt each other with this Oyle of Gladnesse Each member must be Active and Industrious to expresse that Virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his owne but every man anothers Wealth saith the Apostle not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more naturall to man or who is neerer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his owne but as it may bring advantage and promote the Good of others not presse forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not goe to Heaven but saving some with feare and pulling others out of the fire Ep. Iud. 23. and gathering up as many as his Wisedome and care and zeal towards God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane Societies and those Politick Bodies which men build up to themselves for their Peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non Convenit that is a most unnecessary superfluous part or Member for which the whole is not the better ut in sermone literae saith Austin as letters in a word or Sentence so men are Elementa Civitatis the principles and parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republique and he that endeavours not the advancement of the whole is a Letter too much fitt to be expung'd and blotted out but in the Church whose maker and Builder is God it is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the Circuit and glory of it here every man must be his own and under Christ his Brothers Saviour for as between these two Cities so between the happinesse of the one and the happinesse of the other there is no Comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former Ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had Jurisdiction but over one Diocesse so the care and Piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive Operation is as Catholick as the Church every soul he meets with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul in saving a soul from Death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit or ascend the Chaire I may be eyes unto him Numb 10.31 as it was said of Hobab I may take him from his Error and put him into the way of truth if he feare I may scatter it If he grieve I may wipe off his Teares If he presume I may teach him to feare and if he despaire I may lift him up to a lively Hope that neither feare nor grief neither Presumption nor despaire swallow him up thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sinne and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by his friendly communication transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so runne hand in hand from the Chambers of Death And thus farr we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the Priviledges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same Grace endowing us with severall Gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in thoe Offices and Duties which Christianity makes common and God hath registred in his Church which is the Pillar of Truth where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Feares and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these Helpes and Advantages of God above ready to Help us of men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to recerve us then to die is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their Breast to the sword for to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such Company
excludes all stoicall fate all necessity of sinning or dying there is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or binde us over to death so that if we die it is in our volo in our will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason quia volumus because we will die We have now brought you to the very Cell and Den of death where this monster was framed and fashioned where 't was first conceived brought forth and nurst up I have discovered to you the Original and beginnings of sin whose natural issue is death and shut it up in one word the will that which hath so troubled and amuzed men in all the ages of the Church to finde out That which some have sought in Heaven in the bosom of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked Hell and made the devil the Author of it who is but a perswader a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the fancy alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to binde men much lesse the Gods themselves as 't is said what many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to finde out opening the windows of Heaven to finde it there running to and fro about the universe to finde it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own Breasts in our own heart the will the womb that conceives this Monster this Viper which eats through it and Destroyes the Mother in the Birth For that which is the beginning of Action is the beginning of sinne and that which is the beginning of sinne is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit Hilar. in Ps 118. saith Hilary there is nothing in man Nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death and In homine quic-quid est sibi nocet there is nothing in man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and Instrument of sinne That which hurts him may help him That which Circumspection and Diligence may make an Antidote neglect and Carelesness may Turn into Poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as goodness so sinne is the work of our will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither Good nor Evill I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse saith GOD by his Servant Moses I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and cursing Deut. 30.19 and what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own Hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sinne Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weake Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of Dying For the Qeustion or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law why are you weake or why are you Dead for Reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisedome of God will stand up to defend them but the Question is Why Will ye die for which there can bee no other Reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will for upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a Temple of the Lord or into that Tower of Babel and Confusion which God will Destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our Folly and madness so full of Contradictions is a wilfull sinner that though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of Death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion Tert. Apol. c. 1. That he was ever willing to Die nolumus nostrum quia malum Agnoscimus we will not call sinne ours because we know it Evill and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself 'T is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is Comfort sounds every where but we are deafe and cannot heare it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fetter'd and can make no use of it There is Balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our naturall weakness of our want of Grace and Assistance when we might know the Danger we are in we plead Ignorance when we willingly yeeld our Members servants to sinne we have learnt to say we did not doe it plenâ voluntate with a full Consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the faire Glosse of a good Intention and meaning we complaine of our Bodies and of our Souls as if the Wisedome of God had fail'd in our Creation we would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we might be good we will be evill And these Webbs a sick and unsanctify'd Fancy will soon spin out These are Receipts and Antidotes of our own Tempering devis'd and made use of against the Gnawings of Conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience begins to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and to put it to silence wee carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostoms time bound the coines of Alexander the Great or some part of Saint Johns Gospel to ease them of the Headach for by these Receits and spells we more envenom our souls and draw neerer to Death by Thinking to fly from it and are ten-fold more the Servants of Satan because we are willing to doe him service but not willing to weare his Livery and thus excusando exprobramus our Apologies defame us our false Comforts destroy us and wee condemn our selves with an Excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to passe we will take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from these First from our Naturall weakness Secondly from the Deficiency of Grace for neither can our Naturall weakness Betray nor can there be such a want of Grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much Power as to force the will and so there will be no Necessity of Dying either in respect of our Naturall weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his Grace and then in the second place that neither Ignorance of our duty nor regret or reluctancie of Conscience nor any pretence or good Intention can make sin lesse sinfull or our Death lesse voluntary and so bring Death to their Doores who have sought it out who have called it to them who are Confederate with it and are worthy to bee partakers thereof And Why Will you
Die O House of Israel Why will ye die we may perhaps answer we are Dead already Haeret lateri lethalis Arundo The poyson'd and Deadly Dart is in our sides Adam sinned and we die Omnes eramus in illo uno cum ille unus nos omnes perdidit we were all in the loines of that one man Adam when that one man slew us all And this we are too ready to confesse that we are Borne in sinne nay we fall so low as to damne our selves before we were born which some may doe in Humility but most are well content it should be so well pleased in their Pedegree well pleased to be brought into the world in that filth and uncleannesse which God doth hate and make the unhappinesse of their Birth an Advocate to plead for those pollutions for those wilfull and Beloved sinnes which they fall into in the remaining part of their life as being the proper and naturall Issues of that weaknesse and Impotency with which we were sent into the world which is not True in every part for that weaknesse whatsoever it is can draw no such necessity upon us Licentiam usurpare praetexto necessitatis Tert. de cul Faem nor can be wrought into an Apology for sinne or an excuse for dying for to include and wrap up all our Actuall sinne in the folds of Originall weakeness is nothing else but to cancel our own Debts and Obligations and to put all upon our first Parents score and so make Adam guilty of the sinnes of the whole world Our naturall and Originall weakness I will not now call into question since it hath had such Grandees in our Church men of great Learning and Piety for its Nursing Fathers and that for many Centuries of yeares but yet I cannot see why it should be made a Cloak to cover our other Transgressions or why we should miscarry so often with an Eye cast back upon our first fall which is made ours but in another man nor any reason though it be a plant watered by the best Hands why men should be so delighted in it why they should lie downe and repose themselves under its shadow why they should be so willing to be weak and so unwilling to heare the contrary why men should take so much paines to make the way to happiness narrower and the way to death broader then it is In a word why we should thus magnify a Temptation and disparage our selves why we should make each Importunate object as powerfull and Irresistible as God himself and our selves as Idols even nothing in this world Magna pars humanarum querelarum non injusta modo materiâ Petrarch 1.3 R. S. c. 1. sed stulta est the world is full of complaints and excuses but the complaints which the world puts forth are for the most most unjust and void of that reason which should present and commend them For when our souls are pressed down and overcharged with sin when we feel the Gripes and Gnawings of our Conscience we commonly lay hold on these remedies which are worse then the discase and suborne an unseasonable and ill applied conceit of our own natural weaknesse which was more dangerous then the temptation as an excuse and comfort of our overthrow we fall and plead we were weak and fall more then seven times a day and hold up the same plea still till we fall into that place where we shall be muzled and speechlesse not able to say a word where our complaints wil end in curses in weeping and wailing Hierenym Amando and gnashing of teeth Omnes nostris vitijs favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem we are all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our lusts conceived and brought forth by the Midwifry of our will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the Door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this Complaint against nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and nature hath imprinted in our Soules those common principles of goodnesse as that good is to be embraced and evil to be abandond That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations as the Stoicks call them of the minde Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst c. and preparations against sin and death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke might lift up our souls far above those depressions of self love and covetousnesse and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which reason with the help of Grace overcomes at once For reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but when we are beat to the ground checks and upbraides us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam and when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weaknesse as well as we do with the temptation then if we fall God remembers whereof we are made considers our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever but to think of our weaknesse and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves to seek out death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approach as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weaknesse is to charge God and nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself and thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fal willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anack too strong for such Grashoppers as we we delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the
See Melanct. l. c. de perc some make it a sin and some a punishment onely some make it both some have made it to be nothing but the want and deprivation of Original righteousnesse or an habitual aversion and obliquity of the will others have made it the image of the devil There be that conceived the whole essence of man to be corrupted there be that make it an Accident and there have been that have made it a substance and there have not been wanting those who have made it nothing All agree in this that there is something in us which we must strive to subdue and keep under some call it our natural inclination which may be the matter of vertue as well as of vice others Original sin which to yeeld to is to die but to curb and restrain to fight against and to conquer is the great work and Busines of a Christian I speake not this to take away our Originall weaknesse but to take it away from Being an excuse For in the Second place our Naturall weakness is so farre from excusing our sinne or making it less voluntary That we are bound by our very profession to Crucify this Old Adam in us to mortify our Earthly Members and lusts non exerere quod Nati sumus not to be what indeed we are to be in the Body but out of the Body to Tame the wantonness of the Flesh for did we not for this give up our names unto Christ were we not Baptized in this Faith It is my Melancholy saith the Envious It is my Choler saith the Revenger It is my Blood saith the wanton it is my Appetite saith the Glutton and so every man runnes on in his own wayes because the winde that drives him comes from no other Treasury but himself no other corner but his corrupt heart fructu peccatorum utuntur ipsa subducunt they are content to reape the fruit and pleasure of sinne but withdraw the sin it self and remove it out of the way But this is not the right use of our natural weakness which may be left in us but as all agree to Humble not disarme us to shew we are men weak and impotent in our selves not to make us proud and Rebellious against our God but to set us upon our Guard and make us bestirre our selves and call up all our Forces and send our Prayers as Embassadours to Heaven for help and succour against this Inmate and Domestick Enemy The Envious should purge his Melancholy and rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep The Cholerick should bridle his Anger and make it set before the Sunne The wanton quench that fire in his Blood and make himself an Eunuch for the Kingdome of Heaven Julian Antiochens the Glutton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wage warr with his Appetite and set a knife to his Throat If this care were Generall if we understood Christianity aright and did strive and struggle with our selves the best Contention in the world If we did doe an Act of Justice upon our selves performe that Judicatory part of the Gospel labour to bind this Old Man in Chaines and Crucify the flesh with the Lusts and Affections we should not complaine or rather speak so contentedly of Adams fall not bemoane our selves and yet be pleased well enough in it nor take that Doctrin with the left hand which is offered to us with the right or as he spake in the Historian sinistrâ Dextram amputare Cut off our right Hand with our left and by a sinister and unnecessary Conceit of our own weakness rob and deprive our selves of that strength which might have defended us from sinne and Death which now is voluntary because we cannot derive it from any other Fountaine then our owne Wills For last of all Be the Blemishes in the understanding and will which we are said to receive by Adams fall what they may be either by certain knowledge or conjecture yet we shall not die unless we will And if such we were all yet now we are washed now we are sanctified now we are Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 6.11 and the Leper who is clensed complaines no more of his disease but returns to give Thanks The blind man who is cured doth not run into the Ditch and impute it to his former Blindness but rejoyceth that he can now see the Light and walketh by the light he sees and we cannnot without foul Ingratitude Deny but what we lost in Adam we recovered againe in Christ and that improved and exalted many degrees For not as the offence so is also the gift saith the Apostle For as by the offence of one many were made sinners that is Rom. 5.15 were under the wrath of God and so consider'd as if they had themselves committed that sinne so by the Obedience of One many shall be made righteous made so not onely by Imputation That we would have and nothing else have sinne removed and be sinners still but made so that is supplyed with all Helps and with all strength that is necessary and sufficient to forward and perfect those Duties of Piety which are required at the hands of a Justifyed person for do we not magnify the Gospel from the abundance of light and Grace which it affords Do we not count the last Adam stronger then the First Is not he able to cast down all the strong holds all the Towring Imaginations which flesh and blood though Tainted in the womb can set up against him and therefore if we be truly what we professe our selves Christians this weakness cannot hurt us and if it Hurt us it is because we are not Christians To conclude If in Adam we were all lost In Christ we are come home and brought neere to heaven post Jesum Christum when we have given up our Names unto Christ and professe our selves members of that Mysticall body whereof he is the head all our Complaints of weaknesse and disabilitie to move in our severall places is vaine and unprofitable and Injurious to the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God unto Salvation and a grosse and angerous error it is when we run on and please our selves in our Evill wayes to complaine of our Hereditary Infirmities and the weaknesse and imperfection of nature For God may yet breath his Complaints and Expostulations against every son of Adam that will not Turne Though you are weak Though you have received a bruise by the fall of your first Parents yet in me is your strength and then Why will you die oh House of Israel We must now remove those other pretences of Flesh and Blood But in our next and last Part. THE TWELFTH SERMON PART VIII EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne yee from your evill wayes For why will you die Oh House of Israel WEe are told and can tell our selves that Sin is a burden and he that lies under a Burden seeks Ease nor
doth he alwaies ask Counsell of his reason to choose that which is made and fitted to remove it but through the importunate irksomness of his paine he layes hold of that which is next and that 's the best though it leave him under the same load and pressure and all his Art and continuance hath gain'd no more then this That he thinks it lighter then it was when it is the same but with a large addition of weight And thus we sin but cannot perswade our selves we were willing to sinne we run upon our death and yet 't is that which both our eye and our will abhors we die for 1. we were born weak 2. We want means to avoid it 3. We want light to see our wayes 4. We walk on in them but we walk in pain and though we make no stop yet we have many a check we would not and yet we will go on we condemn our selves for what we do and do it and last of all we seek death but we mean life we do those things whose end is death but to a good end and so make our way to heaven through hell it self intend well and do those things which can have no other wages but death These are pillows which we sew under our own elbows Original weaknesse want of grace ignorance of our wayes the reluctancy of our Conscience which we call Involuntarines and if these be not soft and easie enough to sleep on we bring in a good meaning a good intention to stuff and fill them up and on these we sleep securely as Sampson did in the lap of Dalilah till our strength go from us and we grow weak indeed fit for nothing but to grinde in his prison to do him service who put out our eyes able to die and perish but not able to live strong to do evil but faint and feeble and lost to that which is good The second pretence For as we have sought for ease from the beginning of the world so have we also from the beginning of the Gospel as Saint Mark hath it Mark 1.1 as we have brought in the first Adam infecting and poysoning us so we would finde some deficiency in the second as if that Grace which he plenteously spreads in our hearts had not vertue enough to expel and purge it out as we pretend want of strength so we pretend want of help and succour the want of that Grace which we might have which we have but will not use and have nothing more common in the world even in their mouths who know not what it is What mention we the many what talk we of those who like those narrow mouthed vessels receive but little because it is powred out too fast and many times have as little feeling of what they receive as those earthen vessels to which we compared them Grace it is in every mans mouth the sound of it hath gone through the earth and they hear it and Eccho it back again to one another they talk and discourse of it and yet all are not saved by that Grace they talk of Ebrius ad phialam Augustin mendicus ad januam the drunkard speaks of it in his cups and by the Grace of God he will drink no more and yet drinks drunk 'till there be no appearance in him either of Grace or Nature either of the Christian or the man the Beggar he makes it his Topick and hopes it will melt him he beggs of into compassion which had not power to unfold his hands to work that he may need no relief it sounds in every ear and every ear is delighted with it and it is to them as the sound of a consecrated Bell is to the superstitious and they conceive it hath power to drive the devil out of their coast whilst they not fall but run into those temptations which they might have overcome by that Grace they talkt of What speak we of these even they who have a great name for learning and are of the first ranck and file have not brought it forth to the Sun and people in that simplicity and nakednesse that upon the first sight they may say This is it Somtimes it is an infused habit somtimes is is a motion or Operation sometimes they know not how to distinguish it from faith and Charity it is one and the same and yet 't is manifold it excites and stirs us up it works in us and it works with us it prevents and follows us and thus they handle Grace as the Philosophers do the Soul they tell us what wonders it works but not its essence they tell us what it doth but not plainly what it is But let us take it in its most plain and vulgar sense for that speciall and supernatural Assistance which promotes and upholdes us in that course and those Actions which carry us on to a supernatural end but not shut out that Grace of God by Christ Jesus by which we are justified which in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace and favour of God and in most places is opposed to the works of the Law nor those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those gifts and graces as quicknesse of wit depth of understanding and the like not in his mercies by which we are so often intreated nor his promises which do even wooe and allure us nor any beams of the glory of that gospel which are all agents and instruments in working us out a Crown in bringing us to that end for which we were made and designed and he that shall look back upon these cannot conceive that God will shorten his hand and be desicient and wanting to us in that help and assistance which is fit and necessary for us in this our race that he wil speak to us by his Son speak to us by his Blood speak to us by his mercies speak to us from heaven and then leave us as the Ostrich doth her young ones in the sand open to injuries and temptations naked and without help to defend us against that violence which may tread us to death this certainly cannot consist with his Justice and his goodnesse who having given us Christ will with him give us all things for how should it be otherwise saith Saint Paul who giveth to all men liberally Rom. 8.32 Jam. 1.5 and upbraideth not saith Saint Iames and to pretend a want of Grace and assistance from God what is it but to cast all our imperfections upon him as well as upon Adam as if we sinned and were defective in our duty not through our own negligence and corrupt and perverse wills but because God refused to give us strength to do it gave us a Law and lest us in fetters bid us go and meet him in our Obedience when we were as lame as Mephibosbeth and had no servant to help us as if the heavens were as brasse and denied their Influence and god did on purpose hide himself and
hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extol it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonnesse But it may be said that when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves we willingly grant it that we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up we denie it not and then Thirdly that not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God ingratitude it self cannot denie it and then that man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their Resurrection that we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which these premises will not yeeld This flint will yeeld no such fire though you strike never so oft we are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be Dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure or because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creator for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as man hath nor doth his power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kinde how often he hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out how often hath he said Fiat lux let there be light when we remained in darknesse for we are free agents and he made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary not doth his power work according to the working of our Fancy nor lies within the level of our carnal Imaginations to do what they appoint but is accompanied and directed by that wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucan though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest We think that God can do whatsoever he can but we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will for to necessitate us to goodnesse were not to try our obedience but to force it quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity takes of the price and value of that it works and makes it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from sin and death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blinde as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemptoribus she will neither passe by them who will receive her nor dwell with those persons which contemn her nor save those who will destroy themselves To conclude this He is most unworthy to receive Grace who in the least degree detracts from the power of it and he is as unworthy who magnifies and rejects it and makes his lise an argument against his Doctrine sayes he cannot be resisted and resists it every day he that denies the power of it is a scarse a Christian and he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loiters and stands idle all the day long shadows and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what he will do and so Turns it into wantonnesse Let us not abuse the Grace of God and then we cannot magnifie it enough but he that will not set his hand to work upon a fancy that he wants Grace he that will not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune was said to have done at Galbas gate till she be weary hath already despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the want of that for any excuse which he might have had but put it off nay which he had but so used it as if it had been no grace at all They that have grace offered and repell it they that have Antidotes against death and will not use them can never answer the expostlation Why will ye die The third pretence And certainly he that is so liberal of his grace hath given us knowledge enough to see the danger of those wayes which lead to death and therefore in the next place ignorance of our wayes doth not minuere voluntarium doth not make our sin lesse wilfull but rather aggrandize it For first we may know if we will know every duty that tends to life and every sin that bringeth forth death we may know the Devils enterprises saith saint Paul 2 Cor. 2.11 and the ignorance of this findes no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding when the Gospel shines brightly upon us to dispel those mists which may be placed between the truth and us Sub silentiae faâ—ultate nesâ—ire repudiatae magis quà m non com pertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 1.8 then if we walk in darknesse and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty and not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaks of a strange contempt in not attaining that which is so easily atchieved and which is so necessary for our preservation I know every man hath not the same quicknesse of apprehension nor can every man make a Divine and it were to be wisht every man would know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for him that thresheth out the corn to resolve controversies or State-questions but Saint Peter requires that every man should be able to give an answer 1 Pet. 3.15 a reason of his faith and if he can do that he that knows the will of God is well armed and prepared against death and may cope with him and destroy him if he will And this is no perplext nor intricate study but fitted and proportioned to the meanest capacity he that cannot be a Seraphical Divine may be a Christian he that cannot be a Rabbi may be an honest man and if men were as diligent in the pursuit of the truth as they are in managing their own temporal affaires if men would try as many conclusions for knowledge as they do for wealth and were as ambitious to be good as they are to be rich and great if they were as much
afraid of Gods wrath as they are of poverty and the frown of a mortal this pretense of want of knowledge would be soon removed and quite taken out of the way For now the Grace of God hath appeared unto all men and commanded all men every where to repent and turn from their evil wayes What Apologie can the oppressor have when wisdom it self hath sounded in his ears and told him Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self for even flesh and blood would soon conclude that no man will oppresse himself What can the Revenger plead after that thunder vengeance is mine what can the covetous pretend when he hears Go sell all and give to the poor what can the seditious say when he is plainly told he that resists shall receive damnation can any man misse his way where there is much light to direct him when he brought a great part of his Lesson along with him into the world which he may run and read and understand How can he there erre dangerously where the Truth is fastned to a pillar where there is such a Mercury to shew him his way And therefore in the second place if we be ignorant it is because we will be ignorant and if we could open a window into the breasts of men we should soon perceive a hot contention between their knowledge and their lusts struggling together like the twins in Rebeccahs womb till at last their lust supplants their knowledge and gains the preheminence nolunt intellgere ne cogantur facere saith Austin they will not understand their duty lest that may draw upon them an obligation to do it nor will see their errour because they have no mind to forsake it for their knowledge points towards life but not to be attained to but by sweat and blood which their lust loathes and trembles at and therefore this knowledge is too wonderful for them nay t is as the gall of bitterness unto them and as Neros mother would not suffer him to study Philosophy quia impetaruro contraria Suet. Nero. c. 25. because it prescribes many moral virtues as Sincerity Modesty and Frugality which sort not well with the crown and must needs fall crosse with those actions in which Policy and Necessity many times engage the Monarchs of the Earth so do these look upon the truth as a thing contrary to them as checking their pride bridling their malice bounding their ambition chiding their injustice threatning their Tyranny and so study to unlearn suppresse and silence it and will not hear it speak to them any more but set up a lie first the childe then the Parasite of their lusts and enthrone it in its place to reign over them and guide them in all their wayes I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles tells us that he observed many cast down and very sad and dejected upon the knowledge of the truth not so much for this that it did shew them the danger they were in and withall an open and effectual door to escape but that it choaked the passages and stopped up the way to their old Asylum and Sanctuary of ignorance For truth is not onely a light but a fire to scorch and burn us not onely a direction but a Satyre and teacheth us to denie ungodly lusts and if we obey not it censures and condemns us This ignorance then cannot excuse our sin or make our death lesse voluntary because our lust hath taken the place of knowledge and dictates for it and we grope at noon-day and will not see those sins which though they be works of darknesse yet are as visible as the light it self Rebellion is not therefore no sin because it comes gravely towards us in the habit of zeal and religion Prophaness is not excusable because Fanatick persons count Reverence Superstition Deceit is not warrantable because I hold it as a positive truth that the wicked have title to the things of this world and my Phantastick lusts have drawn out another conclusion where there was no medium no premises to be found that I am a righteous person then follows a conclusion as wilde as that that I may rob and spoil him But these are but bella Tectoriola but artificial Daubings and the weakest eye may see through them and discover a monster and as Tully in one of his Books de Finibus tells us that those Philosophers who would not plainly say that pleasure was their summum bonum or chiefest Happinesse but vacuity of sorrow and trouble did vicinitate versari bordered and came neer to that which they first called it so the world hath found out divers names to colour and commend their soulest sins but bring them to the trial and they must needs mean one and the same thing and that zeal and Rebellion Devotion and Prophainess taking from the wicked and down-right Cosenage are at no greater distance then these two a Fiend and a Devil but that the Devil is then worst when he takes the name of an Angel of light The truth is plain enough but the Prince of this world hath so blinded them that they will not see it For their lusts which laid their Conscience asleep hath taken the chaire and prescribes for it and drives them on to do that which was never done nor seen Judg. 19.30 to tread all Laws of God and man under feet and make their strength the Law of unrighteousness I know not whether we may call this ignorance or no It is too good a name for it and nothing but our Charity can make it so or grace it so much if it be ignorance it is a proud puffing majestick insolent ignorance the Jewish Rabbies might well say Error Doctrinae reputatur pro superbiâ Maimonid more Henoch p. 3. 41. this ignorance is nothing but pride or the issue of it even of that pride which threw Lucifer down from Heaven and raiseth men here upon earth to fling them down after him But in the last place to conclude this if this ignorance be not affected or rather forced and made a pillow to sleep on yet if it proceed onely from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that non-attention that supine negligence to keep it out yet in matters which concern life and death we are as much bound to know the means how as to strive to attain the one and escape the other for what I ought to do I ought to know Pet Aerod de Reb. Judicat de Fide Relig. c. 5. Idem The Jews have a saying Delinquit propheta qui à prophetâ decipitur 't is a great fault in a Prophet to be deceived though by another Prophet The Civilians imperitia medicorum dolo comparatur Ignorance in a Physitian is a kinde of cheat and a bloody cheat Plin. N. Hist for the ignorant Physitian negotiatur animas hominum saith old Cato in Pliny doth Trade and deceive men out of their lives when they most trust in
them For if the man be Ignorant if he will administer Physick he will kill if the man be ignorant if he will Preach he will also Prophesie lies If he be a Magistrate if he will Govern he will also shake the pillars of the Common-wealth If he be a Christian if he be ignorant then as he will professe so also will he run into the snares of the Devil and this his ignorance is no plea against that Law which he was bound to know Sen. Contr. l. 5. c. 5. as well as to keep it Ex toto noluisse debet qui Imprudentiâ defenditur he that will plead Ignorance or error for an excuse must have his whole will strongly set up against it and then the great difficulty or impossibility of avoiding it may be his Advocate and speak for him but if he make room for it when he might exclude it if he Embrace that which may let it in or make no use of the light that detects it if he will or reject not or be indifferent if he distast the truth for some crosse aspect it hath on his designes and love a lie because it smiles upon them and promotes them then this ignorance is a sin and the last the greatest and therefore cannot make up an excuse for another sin for those sins which it brings in in Triumph but is so much the more Malignant in that we had light but did turn our face away and would not see it or did hate and despise it and blow it out For he that will not know the wayes of life or calls his evil wayes by that name may well be askt the question why he will die Ignorance then is not alwayes an excuse for some are negligent and indifferent will not take the pains to lift themselves up to the truth by those steps and degrees which are set for them and are the way unto it and so walk as in the night which themselves have made because they would not look upon the Sun Others study and affect it and when the truth will not go along with them to the end of their designes perswade themselves into those errours which are more proportioned to it and will friendly wait upon them and be serviceable to fill and answer that expectation which their lust had raised and call them by that name They will not know what they cannot but know nor see death though he stand before them in their way and so are lead on with pomp and state with these false perswasions with these miserable Comforters to their grave The fourth pretence But in the next place when we finde some check of Conscience some regret some gain-sayings in our minde that we are unwilling to go on in these evil wayes and yet take courage and proceed we are ready to please our selves with this thought and are soon of the Opinion that what we are doing or have done already if it be evil yet is done against our will and if destruction overtake us it seises on them that did so much hate and abhor it that we shook and trembled when it did but shew it self to us in a thought And this I take to be an errour as full of danger as it is void of reason of no use at all but to make us favour our selves and ingage and adventure further in those wayes which lead unto death I deny not but as there is great difference in sins so there may be a difference also in committing them that the righteous person doth not drink down sin with that delight and greedinesse which the wicked do that they do not sport themselves in the wayes of death nor fall into them with that easinesse with that precipitancy that they do not count it as a purchase to satisfie their lusts and that most times the event is different for the one falleth down at the feet of God for mercy the other hardens his heart and face and wil not bow but yet I cannot number it amongst the marks and characters of a righteous man or as some love to speak and may so speak if they well understood what they said of one of the elect when he falls into any mortal grievous sin as Adultery Murder and the like that he doth not fall plenâ voluntate with a full consent and will but more faintly and remissly as it were with more Gravity then other men that he did actually fall but was not willing to fal that is that he did wil indeed the sin which he did commit but yet did commit it against his will Nor can I think our consent is not full when we chide and rebuke the tentation and yet suffer it to win ground and gain more and more Advantage against us when we have some grudgings some petty murmurs in our selves and in our heart defame those sins which we shew openly in our Actions for when we have done that which is evil we cannot say we would not have done it when we have made roome for sin to enter we cannot say that we would have excluded it For 1. I cannot see how these two should meet so friendly a double Will nay a contrary will in respect of one and the same Act especially when sin is not in fieri but in facto esse when the temptation hath prevailed and the will determined its act Indeed whilst the Act was suspended and our minde wavering and in doubt where to fasten or which part to embrace whether to take the wedge of Gold or to withdraw whether to smite my brother or to sheath up my sword and anger together whether to taste or not to taste the forbidden Fruit when it was in labour as it were and did strive and struggle between these two the delightfulnesse and unlawfulnesse of the Object between the temptation and the Law whilest the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh there may be such an indifferency a kinde of willing and nilling a profer and distast an approach and a pawse an inclination to the object anda fear to come neer But when the sense hath prevailed with the will to determine for it against the reason when lust hath conceived and brought forth then there is no room for this indifferencie because the will hath determined its act and concluded for the sense against the reason for the Flesh against the spirit For we must not mistake the fluctuations and pawses and contentions of the minde and look upon them as the Acts of the will which hath but one simple and indivisible act which it cannot divide between two contraries so as to look stedfastly on the one and yet reflect also with a look of liking upon the other our Saviour hath fitted us with an instance you cannot serve God and Mammon if we know then what the will is we shall know also that it is impossible to divide it and shall be ashamed of that Apologie to say we sin semiplenâ
voluntate with an imperfect with an half will we know not how There may be indeed a kind of velleity and inclination to that which is good when the will hath embraced that which is evil there may be a probo meliora a liking of the better when I have chosen the worser part which is not a willing but an approbation an allowing that which is just which ariseth from that light of our minde and Law of our understanding from that natural Judgement by which we discern that which is evil from that which is good and is an Act of our reason and not of our will and thus I may will a thing and yet dislike it I may embrace and condemn it I may commend Chastity and be a wanton Hospitality and be a Nabal Clemency and be a Nero Christianity and be worse then a Jew I may subscribe to the Law that it is just and break it I may take the cup of Fornication and drink deep of it for some pleasant taste it hath when I know it will be my poyson And therefore in the second place this renitency and resistancie of Conscience is so far from Apologizing for us as for such as sin not with a full consent that most times it doth adde weight to it and much aggravate our sin and doth plainly demonstrate a most violent and eager consent of the will which would not be restrained but passed as it were this Rampier and Bulwark which was raised against it to the forbidden object which neither the Law nor the voice and check of Conscience which to us in the place of God could stop or restrain and that we play the wantons and dally with sin as the wanton doth with his strumpet that we do opponere ostium non claudere put the door gently to Senec. N Q. l. 4.2 but not shut and lock it out which is welcom to us when it knocks but more welcome when it breaks in upon us and so frown and admit chide embrace bid it farwel when we are ready and long to joyn with it make a shew of running from it when we open our selves to receive and lodge it in our heart For again if the pravity and obliquity of an act is to be measured and judged by the vehement and earnest consent of the will then the sin which is committed with so much reluctancy will prove yet more sinful and of a higher nature then those we fall into when we heard no voice behinde us to call us back For here the will of the sinner is stubborn and perverse and makes hast to the forbidden object against all opposition whatsoever against the voice of the Law which is now loud against him against the motions of the spirit which he strives to repell against the clamors of Conscience which he heares and will not hear even against all the Artillery of Heaven it doth not yeeld to the tentation when no voice is heard but of the tempter nothing discover'd but the beauty and allurement of the object nor upon strategeme or surprisals but it yeelds against the thunder of the Law and dictate of Conscience admits sin not in its Beauty and glory when it is drest up with advantage and comes toward us smiling to flatter and wooe us but it joyns with it when it is clothed with death when it is revealed by conscience and hung round about with all the curses of the Law Swallows down sin not when it is as sweet as honey but when it hath a mixture and full taste of the bitternesse of Gall and so though our sin be against our conscience yet it is not against our will and therefore is the more voluntary Besides in the last place this is a thing which almost befalls every man that is not delivered over to a reprobate sense whose eye of reason is not quite put out who is not unman'd and hath any feeling or sense of that which is evil and that which is good nay it was in Cain it was in Judas it is in every despairing sinner or else he could not despair These pauses and deliberations these doubtings and disputes and divided thoughts are common to the righteous and to wicked persons Duplici in diversum scindimur Hamo Hunccine an hunc sequemur Most men are more or lesse thus divided in themselves and as Plautus observes it is the humour of some men when they are at a feast to dislike the dishes but no whit the more abstain Culpant sed comedunt tamen they finde fault with their meat and did eat it up so it is with us we too oft disrelish sin and swallow it down we cannot but condemn sin and we are as ready to commit it and with him in the Comedy Ask Quid igitur Faciam When shall we now do when we are knocking at the harlots door and are ready to break forth into Action And therefore this Conceit that a regenerate man doth not sin with a full consent in that his conscience calls after him to retire in the very adventure is very dangerous and may be mortal to the heart that fosters it for when this conceit hath filled and pleased us we shall be ready with Pilate to wash our hands when they are full of blood and cry out we are Innocent when we have released Barrabas let loose our Sense Appetite and Affections to run riot and delivered Jesus the just one to be scourged and crucified deliver'd up our reason to be a slave and ministerial to all those evils which the flesh or devil can suggest and delivered up our affections to be torn and scattered as so many straws upon a wrought sea and never at rest in a word contemnere peccata quià minora putamus to slight and passe by our sinnes in silence because we will not behold them in their just shape and proportion in that horror that Terror and deformity which might fright us from it And this conceit is a greater Tentation then that which hath first taken us for it brings on and ushers in the Tentation Takes from it all its displacency that it may enter with ease and when it hath prevail'd shuts out Repentance which should make way for that mercy and forgivenesse which alone must make our Peace Every man favours himself and is very open to entertaine any Doctrine which may cherish and uphold this humour and make him lesse wicked or more righteous then he is and though at first we find no reason which commends it to us and craves admittance for it yet because it speaks so friendly to our Infirmities and helps to raise up that which we desire to see in its height we take it upon Trust and beleeve it to be true indeed and stand up and contend for it as a part of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saitns and having this mark of the Righteous That we sinne but check our selves in it we take our selves to be so righteous
persons though we be so ill qualified that an Impartiall eye beholds it and findes so much probability as points to it as to the marke of the Beast It is with many of us as it was with the slave in Tacitus Annal. 2. who being like Agrippa in outward favour and the linaments of his body did also take upon him to counterfeit his Person and being askd by Caesar How he came to be Agrippa stoutly answered As thou camest to be Caesar Nemo non benignus sui Judex there are but few or none at all that are not too favourable Judges in their owne cause and though they be slaves and servants unto sinne yet will be ready to put on the person of a Prince of a Saint of a chosen vessell and by the help of Imagination and the frequency of those pleasing and deceitfull thoughts at last verely beleeve himself to be so And if reluctancie and regret and the turning away of the Face of the soule the Conscience at the evill we doe be a marke of a Regenerate man then certainly a very Pagan a Notorious sinner may find this marke about him and though he commit sinne with greedinesse yet lay him downe and rest and sleep upon this conclusion That hating sin as he doth and committing that sinne which he thinks he hates his name may be written in Heaven and that he is also one of the Elect. But then to conclude this A strange thing it may seem That we should first wound our Conscience and then force her to powre in this Balme first not hear her speak and then bring her in to make this plea That we did not Heare her first to slight and offend her and then make her our Advocate I spake unto you and you heard not it is your happinesse Had I not spoken your sinne had been greater then it is and thus we doe it with lesse danger That 's our thought because we first told our selves That we should not doe it But call our sin what we please a sinne of Infirmity or a sinne with a halfe-will with a Half Consent with a will and no will non mutatur vocabulis vis rerum Quintil l. 9. Inst c. 1. words and names have no power to change and alter the nature of our sinne or to abate any degree of its poyson and malignity and pretend what we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence and Judgement is the Lords and in his sight even those sinnes which we doe with reluctancy and some contention with our selves and voluntary and without Repentance bind us over to Death Even of them who sinne though they check and condemne themselves before the Act say they would not and yet doe it this Question may be askt Why will ye die The fift and last Common pretense We come now to the last pretense which is commonly taken up by men who are willing to be evill but not willing to goe under that name and we shall but touch it for it will soon fall to pieces with a Touch. And this pretence is made up of a bad will and a good Intention or meaning which is indeed of a Good will and a bad the one being levell'd on the end the other on the means that lead unto it and the one is set up to commend and Authorize the other for as some think if the end be faire it casts a beauty and lustre upon the way that leads to it though it be as foule as sinne can make it and then when our Will is evill it is not evill because it looks further then that evill to something that is so good that by its vertue it will transforme and change the nature of it and make it like unto it self And if we look into the world we shall find that nothing hath deceived men more nothing hath wrought more mischief on the Earth then a groundlesse thought that that must needs please God which is done to a good end with a good mind and an Ardent Affection and zeal That of the two Tables we may break the one to secure and preserve the other that we may serve God when we break his will and honour him when we deface his Image that that sin which may Damne a soule and the least may doe that is not considerable if we carry it along but in our hopes to that End which we have set out with the fair title of Good though it may sometimes be a greater sinne then that which we would make use of to raise it up But we must suppose it good but yet wee cannot think it can have such a strange and more then Omnipotent virtue to change every thing even that which is most contrary to it into its self or to make Things not to be what they are or at the same time to be both good and Evill This is but a Sophisme but a cheat put upon us by the Devill for there be two things to make up a good Intention or else it is not good First it must be levell'd to a right and warrantable end and then carried to it in a due and orderly course by those means which are fitted and proportioned to that end and sure sinne is so unlike to that which is good that it were easier to dissolve the Earth and then set it upon its pillars againe then to draw them to such a subordination as to serve to advance one another what a strange sight would it be to see such a figge grow on such a Thistle to see one evill Spirit drive out another which commonly brings in seven worse then himself to see Religion brought into the World upon the Devills shoulders Besides every thing that is good whether it be a naturall Good or a Civill good or a Divine good hath its proper and peculiar means ordained and fitted to it either to procure or preserve it If I desire Health Temperance and a good diet are the means If I would have food and raymeant Industry is the meanes If I would keep my friend Fidelity is the means If I would have a well-ordered Family Discipline is the means if I would establish a Common-Wealth Prov. 20.28 Justice is the means That That alone will uphold it saith Solomon who was the wisest of Kings and knew the fittest means for that end but who ever heard of any use that sinne was ever of what end can that be proportioned to if there be any 't is not worth the nameing the end of it is Damnation Run to and fro the Earth look about in every corner of the universe search all the Records from Adam to this moment you shall never find any other For our Health it destroys it strikes us in the very Gates of life Cutts us off in the midst of our dayes and Tumbles our Gray Haires with sorrow into the Grave For this many are weak and sick amongst us 1 Cor. 2.10 and many are asleep For our food it
makes it gravell in our mouths and strips us of our rayment and drives us amongst Swine For Friendship It may tie a knot but it will fly in pieces of it self for the friendship of evill men is as false and deceitfull as themselves For our Families It raises a Tempest even in these Basons Fluctus in Simpulo Proverb Tull. 3. de leg these little bodies these petty resemblances of a Republick It sets Father against Sonne and sonne against Father makes a servant a Traytor and raises enemies within doores and draws out a Battalio in a Cottage For Common-wealths the least sinne may sooner overthrow them then the greatest set them up and of all their Glories they cannot shew any one of them that was brought in by either It may raise them for a time perhaps to some height butthen it gets up above them lies heavy upon them and presseth them downe breaks them to pieces and Buries them in their Rubbish this it doth and shall that which can doe nothing but worke desolation be a fit prop for Religion to leane on when shee seems to sink or to bring her back when the voice is that she is gone out of our Coasts Can evill be fitt for any Thing but that which is like it But we are told Tale critopus tuum qualis Intentio Bernard de modo bene vivendi c. 15. that our work doth follow the Nature and quality of our Intention True if the Intention be Evill If I build a Church to set up Idolls If I build a colledge to perpetuate my name If I be very holy on the sudden and pay my vow to usury a Crown if I do a good act in it self for some evil end for then the intention alters and changes the Nature of it and makes it like unto it self and the reason is plain because any one bad Circumstance is enough to make an Action evil but bonum ex causâ intergrâ the concurrence of all is required to denominate it good Greg. Past Cur Part. c. 4. multa non illcitavitiat animus the minde and intention doth bring in a guilt upon those Actions which are otherwise lawful but cannot make that just which is forbidden cannot answer for the breach of a Law Briefly a good intention and a good action may be joyned together and be one nor can they be good but in this conjunction but to joyn a good intention to a bad action is with Mezentius in the Poet to tie a living Body to a Carcase it may colour indeed and hide a bad Action but it cannot consecrate it it may disguise a man of Belial but it cannot make him a Saint it may be as a Ticket or a passe to carry a wicked man to the end which he sets up and there leave him more secure it may be but without doubt more wicked then before For Murder now hath no voice Faction is Devotion Sacriledge is zeal all is well because we mean well we fix up a good intention in our fancy and that is our pole-star and having that in our eye we may steer our course as we please and buldge but swell our sayles and bear forward boldly till at last we are carried upon that rock which sinks us for ever and therefore to conclude this a good intention cannot pull out the sting from death nor the guilt from sin but if we sin though it be with an honest minde we sin voluntarily in brief though we know it not to be a sin though from the Tribunal of conscience we check our selves before we commit it though we do evil but intend good though we see it not though we approve it not though we intend it not as evil yet evil it is and a voluntary evil and without repentance hath no better wages then death and this expostulation may be put up to us Quare moriemini Why will ye die for we cannot say but they are willing to die who make such hast to the pit of ruine and in their swift and eager pursuit of death do but cast back a faint look toward the land of the living We must now draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all even death it self in the will of man we cannot lay it upon any natural weaknesse nor upon the want of grace and Asistance we cannot plead ignorance nor the distaste and reluctancy of our minde nor can a good intention name that will good which is fixt on evil nor the means which we use commend and secure that end which is the work of sin and hath death waiting upon it if we die we can finde no other answer to this question Why will ye die but that which is not worth the putting up 't is quiavolumus because we will die Take all the weaknesse or corruption of our nature look upon that inexhaustible sountain of Grace but as we think dryed up take the darknesse of our understanding the cloud is from the will Nolumus intelligere we will not understand take all those sad symptomes and prognosticks of death a wandring unruly fancy 't is the will whiffs it about turbulent passions the tempest is from the will etiam quod invitus facere videor si facio voluntate facio even that which I do with some reluctancy if I do it I do it willingly all provocations and incitements imaginable being supposed no love no fear no anger not the devil himself can determine the will or force us into action and if we die it is quia volumus because we will die If death be the conclusion that which infers it is the will of man which brought sin and death into the world And this may seem strange that any should be willing to die Ask the prophanest person living that hath sold himself to wickednesse and so is even bound over to death and he will tell you he is willing to be saved heaven is his wish and eternal happines his desire as for death the Remembrance of it is bitter unto him death if you do but name it he trembles The Glutton is greedy after meat but loathes a disease the wanton seeks out pleasures but not those evils they carry with them under their wing the Revenger would wash his feet in the blood of his enemy but not be drownd in 't the Thief would steal but would not grinde in the prison but the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Ath. 2.1 the beginning of all these is in the will and he that will be intemperate will surfet he that will be wanton will be weak he that taketh the sword will perish by the sword he that will spoil will be spoiled and he that will sin will die Clem. Alex. strom 2. every mans death is a voluntary act not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of any natural appetite to perish but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his own choice who did chuse it though not in se
not in itself which is so terrible but in causis as the Schools speak in its causes in those sins in which it is bound up and from which it cannot be fevered for sin carries it in its womb and if we sin we are condemned and dead already we may see it smile upon us in some alluring pleasure we may see it glitter in a piece of Gold or wooe us in the rayes of Beauty but every smile every resplendency every raie is a dart and strikes us through Why will ye die why the holy Ghost is high and full in the expressing it Amamus mortem we love death Prov. 8. and the last v. and love saith the Father is vehemens voluntas a vehement and an Active will it is said to have wings and to flie to its object but it needs them not for it is ever with it the covetous is kneaded in with the world they are but one lump It is his God one in him and he in it The wanton calls his strumpet his soul and when she departeth from him he is dead the ambitious feeds on honour as 't is said Camelions do on air a disgrace kill him amamus mortem we love death which implies a kind of union and connaturality and complacency in death Again exultamus rebus pessimis Prov. 2.14 we rejoyce and delight in evil Ecstasim patimur so some render it we are transported beyond our selves we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travel for it we triumph in it we have a kind of traunce and transformation we have a Jubile in sin and we are carried delicately and with triumph to our death Nay further yet 1 Kings 22.4 we are said to make a covenant with Death Isai 29.15 we joyn with it and help it to destroy our selves as Iehoshaphat said to Ahab I am as thou art and my people as thy people we have the same friends and the same enemies we love that that upholds its dominion and we fight against that that would destroy it we strengthen and harden our selves against the light of Nature and the light of grace against Gods whispers and against his loud calls against his exhortations and obtestations and expostulations which are strength enough to discern death and pull him from his pale horse and all these will make it a volumus at least not a velleity as to good but an absolute vehement will after we have weighed the circumstances pondered the danger considered and consulted we give sentence on deaths side and though we are unwilling to think so yet we are willing to die to love death to rejoyce in death to make a Covenant with death will make the volumus full to the question why will ye die no other answer can be given but we will For if we should ask further yea but why will ye here we are at a stand horror and amazement and confusion shuts up our mouth in silence as in the 22 of Matth. when the Guest was questioned quomodo huc how he came thither the Text saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capistratus est he was muzled he was silent he could not speak a word For conclusion then Let us as the Wise-man counsels keep our heart Prov. 4.23 our will with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and out of it are the issues of death let us take it from death and consine and binde it to its proper object binde it with those bonds which were made to binde Kings and Nobles the most stout and stubborn and imperious heart binde it with the fear of death with the fear of that God which here doth ask the question and not seek to ease our selves by an indiscreet and ill applied consideration of our natural weaknesse For how many make themselves wicked because they were made weak how many never make any assay to go upon this thought that they were born lame Original weaknesse is an Article of our Creed and it is our Apologie but 't is the Apologie of the worst of the covetous of the ambitious of the wanton when 't is the lust of the eyes that buries the covetous in the earth the lusts of the flesh that sets the wanton on fire the pride of life that makes the Ambitious climb so high prima haec elementa these are the first Elements these are their Alphabet they learn from their Parents they learn from their friends they learn from servants to raise a bank to enoble their name to delight themselves in the things of this world these they are taught and they have their method drawn to their hands by these evil words which are the proper Language and Dialect of the world their manners are corrupted and for this our father Adam is brought to the bar when 't is Mammon Venus and the world that have bruised us more then his fall could do And secondly pretend not the want of Grace for a Christian cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to pretend the want of that which hath been so often offered which he might have had if he would or to conceive that God should be unwilling he should do his will unwilling he should repent and turn unto him This is a charge as well as a pretense even a charge against God for bidding us rise up and walk when we were lame and not affording us a staff or working a miracle Grace is of that nature that we may want it though it be not denied we may want it when we have it and indeed we want Grace as the covetous man wants money we want it because we will not use it and so we are starved to death with bread in our hands for if we will not eat our daily bread we must die And in the next place let us not shut up our selves in our own darknesse nor plead ignorance of that which we were bound to know which we do know and will not which is written with the Sun-beams which we cannot say we see not when we may run and read it For what mountainous evils do men run upon what grosse what visible what palpable sins do they foster quae se suâ corpulentiâ produnt sins which betray themselves to be so by their bulk and corpulency Sacriledge is no sin and I cannot see how it now should for there is scarce any thing left for its gripe Lying is no sin it is our Language and we speak as many lies almost as words perjury is no sin for how many be there that reverence an oath jura perjura it is an Axiome in our morality Iusjurandum rei servandae non perdendae conditum est Plaut Rud. Act 5 sc 3. mantile quo quotidianae noxae extergentur Laber. and policie and secures our estates and intailes them on our posterity Deceit is no sin for it is our trade nay Adultery is no sin you would think with the Heathen with those who never
title to that honour which we give to a just man How many count themselves just men yet do those things which themselves if they would be themselves would condenm as most unjust and do so when others do them and how many have carried so much honesty with them into hell the Law of men cannot reach home to carry us to that height of innocency to which on other Law but that within us might lift us up but the Lawes of this Lord like his power and providence reach and comprehend all the very looks and profers and thoughts of the minde which no man sees which we see not our selves which though they break not the peace nor shake any pillar of a common-wealth for a thought troubles no heart but that which conceives it yet it stands in opposition to that policy which this our Lord hath drawn out and to that end for which he is our Lord and is louder in his ears then an evil word in ours and therefore he looks not onely on our outward guilt but the conscience it self and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit regulates the very thoughts and intents of the heart which he looks upon not as fading and vanishing characters in the soul but as killing letters imprinted and engraven there as S. Basil speaks as full and compleat actions wrought out in the inward man Saint Bernard calls them passivas actiones passive actions which he will Judge secundum evangelium Bas de virg Bern. 159. according to these Laws which he hath publisht in his Gospel Secondly that he is a Lord appears by the vertue and power of his dominion for whereas all the power on earth which so often dazles us can but afflict the body this wounds the soul rips up the very heart and bowels and when those Lords which we so tremble at till we fall from him can but kill the body This Lord can cast both soul and body into Hell nay can make us a Hell unto our selves make us punish and torment our selves and being greater then our conscience can multiply those strokes Humane laws have been brought into disgrace because they had not power enough to attend and hold them up and even the common people who fear them most have by their own observation gathered the boldnesse to call them cobwebs for they see he that hath a full purse or a good sword will soon break through them or finde a beesom to sweep them away What speak you of the Laws I can have them and binde them up in sudariolo saith Damianus in the corner of my Handkerchief nay many times for want of power victae leges the Laws must submit as in conquest and though they have a tongue to speak yet they have not a hand to strike And as it is in punishment so it is sometimes in point of reward men may raise their mer it deserts so high that the Exchecquer it self shall not finde a reward to equal them We have a story in our own Chronicles of a Noble-man who did such service for his friend then but a private man that he made him first a Conqueror then a king the Historian gives this note that kings love not to be too much beholding to their Subjects nor to have greater service done then they are able to reward and so how truly I know not makes the setting on of the Crown on his friends head one cause of the losing of his own But it is not so with this our Lord who being now in his throne of Majesty cannot be outdared by any sin be it never so great never so common and can break the hairy scalp of the most Gyant-like offender and shiver in pieces the tallest Cedar in Libanus Who shall be able to stand up in his sight In his presence the boldest sinner shall tremble and fall downe and see the Horror of that profitable Honorable sinne in which he Triumpht and called it Godlinesse The Hypocrite whose every word whose every motion whose every look was a lye shall be unmaskt and the man of Power who boasted in malice and made his will a Law and hung his Sword on his will to make way to that at which it was levell'd shall be beat down into the lowest pitt to Howl with those who measured out Justice by their Sword and thought every thing theirs which that could give them Before him Every sinne shall be a sinne and the wages thereof shall be Death Again he hath rewards and his Treasurie is full of them Not onely a Cup of cold water but the powring forth my blood as water for the Truths sake shall have its full and overflowing Recompence nor shall there ever any be able to say what profit is it that we have kept his Laws No saith Saint Paul Non sunt condignae Mal. 2.14 Rom. 8.8 put our passions to our Actions our Sufferings to our Almes our Martyrdome to our Prayers they are not worthy the naming in comparison of that weight of Glory which our Lord now sitting at the right Hand of God hath prepared for them that feare him Nec quisquam à regno ejus subtrahitur nor can any goe out of his reach or stand before him when he is angry He that sits on the Throne and he that grindes at the Mill to him are both alike 3. And now in the third place That every knee may bow and every Tongue confesse him to be the Lord Let us a little take notice of the large compasse and Circuit of his Dominion and the Psalmist will tell us That he shall have Dominion from the Sea to the Sea and from the River unto the ends of the world Adam the first man and he that shall stand last upon the Earth Every man is his subject For he hath set him saith Saint Paul at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his Feet and gave him to be Head over all Things to his Church and what a thin shadow what a Nothing is all the overspreading power of this world to this All other Dominion hath its bounds and limits which it cannot passe but by violence and the sword nor is it expedient for the world to have one King nor for the Church to have one Universall Bishop or as they speak one visible Head For as a ship may be made up to that bulke that it cannot bee managed so the number of men and distance of place may be so great that it cannot subsist under one Government Thus it falls out in the world but it is not so in the Kingdom of this our Lord No place so distant or remote to which this Power cannot reach Lybiam remotis Gadibus Jungit all places are to him alike and he sees them all at once It is called the Catholick Church and in our Creed wee professe wee beleeve Sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam the holy Catholique CHURCH That is That that
like Rivers receives every day encrease and every day diminution and is not the same to Day which it was yesterday yet is it corpus aggregatum a collected Body which is not made up at once in every part but receives its parts successively She is Terrible as an Army with Banners as it is said of the Spouse in the Canticles and in an Army you know the Van may lodge there to night where the Rere commeth not till the Morning So it is with the Church it hath alwayes its parts yet hath alwayes parts to be added so we read Acts 2. and the last verse That the Lord added daily that is successively such as should be saved Quantum iniquitatis grassatur tantum abest regnum Dei quod secum affert plenam re â—itudinem saith the Father Christ is come and yet is still a coming whilst there are Heresies and Schismes in the Church whilst the one undermineth the Bulwarks without and the other raises a Mutiny within whilst the Divell rageth and men sinne there be yet some to be gathered to his Sheep-fold and though in respect of his Power he be already come yet for his Elects sake he will not execute it yet And this is the very reason which Justine Martyr gives of the proroguing and delay of his comming and why the Consummation and end of all things is not yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mankinds sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the seed of Christians which is yet to be propagated for by his eternall Wisdome he fore-sees That many there be who will beleeve and turne to him by Repentance and some that bee not even many who are yet unborn in his second Apologie for the Christians For the promise is made to you and to your children saith Saint Peter natis natorum qui nascentur ab illis and to all that are afar off Acts 2.39 even as many as the Lord God shall call for how many thousands are not yet who shall be Saints for their sakes it is that the Lord doth not consume the world with fire that he doth not come to judge the world that wicked men are permitted to revell on the earth and the devil to rage that he suffers that which he abhors suffers injustice to move its armes at large and spread it self like a green bay tree and leaves innocency bound in chaines that he suffers men to break his commands to question his providence to doubt of his being and essence that we see this disorder and confusion the world in a manner dissolved before its end but when that number is full a number which we know not or if we did cannot know when he will fill it up when that is compleat then time shall be no more then Lo he comes and will purge the world of Heresie and Schisme will appear in that Majesty that the Athiests shall confesse he is God and see all those crooked wayes in which his providence seemed to walk made even and strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonur to his Majesty to mannage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every haire of our head and observe the Sparrow that falls from the house top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresy and Schisme prophanesse and Atheisme sin and death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Crosse and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finisht his victory and triumph compleat and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense Coloss 2.15 Triumph and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more THE FIFTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Dominus venturus The Lord will come Nescitis quâ horâ You know not what hour PART II. WEE have already beheld the person our Lord and we have placed him on his Tribunal as a judge for the Father hath committed the judgement to the Son you have seen his Dominion in his Laws which were fitted and proportioned to it as his Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousnesse so his Laws are just no man no Devil can question them we approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience gives us is an approbation You have seen the vertue and power of his dominion for what is regal right without regal power what is a Lord without a sword or what is a sword if he cannot manage it what is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he comes upon him but our Lord Es 9.6 as he is called wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large compasse and circuit of his Dominion no place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him Luk. 1.33 and over them that put him to open shame and last of all the durability or rather the eternity of it for of his Dominion there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary and take the words going before he shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain for as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign as his Priesthood so his Dominion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never passe away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversus settled in his place but upon his return Dominus venturus the Lord will come it is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of eshcacie and vertue First to awake and stir up our faith Secondly to raise our hope and Thirdly to inflame our charity It is an object for our faith to look on for our hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace And first it offers it self to our faith for ideo Deus alscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon
eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing dead faith or fides armata a faith in armes Tert. de Anima c. 33. and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whil'st we know not when 't will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and awe us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and binde us to our duty that we may fulfill our work and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the vigils and Eve and the houre of his coming the first houre of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil for the good satis est illis credere it is enough for them that they beleeve they walk by faith saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.7 and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the he Lord and in them as in a glasse behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other and this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all unto them to the true beleever Christus venturus Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith sees plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the World at an end in the prediction But to Evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin Jud. Ep. v. 10. no evidence is cleer enough and light it self is darknesse what they naturally know and what they can preach unto themselves in that thy corrupt themselves and give their senses leave to lead them to all uncleannesse whilst reason which should command is put behinde and never hearkned to are as bruit Beasts in spite of all they have of man within them and if they beleeve his coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same after the rivers turned into blood after frogs and lice after the plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Exod. 10.27 Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant till he was drowned in the Red-sea Balaam though the Asse forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse vpon them and death upon himself for he was slain for it with the sword Exod. 31.8 what evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knows well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come and he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breath vengeance in his face for howsoever we pretend ignorance yet the most of the sins which we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the foolish man that the lips of the Harlot will bit like a Cockatrice he knows it well enough and yet will kisse them tell the intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived the cruel oppressor will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eats bread who knows not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice who knows not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death and yet how many seek it out and are willing to to travail with it though they die in the birth cannot the thought of judgement move us and will the knowledge of a certain houre awake us will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and will he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined houre were upon record No 2 Tim. 3.13 they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the devil avoid though they knew the very houre I might say though they now saw him coming in the clouds For wilt not thou beleeve God when he comes as neer thee as in wisdom he can and his pure Essence and Infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou shalt believe him if he would please to come so neere as thy sick Fancy would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dreame of a sick and ill affected mind that complaines of want of Light when it shines in thy face for that Information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more Miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same Lethargiques which we were in a word if his doctrine will not move us the Knowledge which hee will not Teach will have little force and though it were written in Capitall Letters at such a time and such a day and in such an Houre the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this Death in sinne till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam Conclus and so conclude and we may learn even from our Ignorance of the Hour thus much That as his coming is uncertaine so it will be sudden as we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we doe not think on 't Tert. Apol. c. 33. cum Totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tert. with the shaking of the whole world with the Horror and amazement of the Universe every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did waite for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1. Of Travell coming upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess 5.2,3 Luk. 21.35 2. Of a Thief in the night and 3ly Of a snare Now the Woman talks and is cheerfull now she layeth
we are sick and will be so there is something wanting and a supply is our shame being an Argument of that defect which we are unwilling to acknowledge a Physitian doth but upbraid us and selves in our Disease as in health it self and had rather languish and Dye then be told we are sick And this in the Second place proceeds even from the force and power of Conscience within us which if we will not hearken to it as a Friend will Turne Fury and pursue and lash us and if we will not obey her Dictates will make her feele her whip This is our Judge and our Executioner It whips the sluggard stones the Adulterer Hangs and quarters the Traytor blows upon the misers store and makes the lips of the Harlot bite like a Cockatrice whither shall they goe from her spirit and power whither shall they fly from her presence the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they fly from themselves Aristot l. 9. Eth. c. 4. yet carry themselves about with them whithersoever they goe Now every thing that is oppressed doth naturally desire ease and so doe they and finding it a laborious thing to quiet the Conscience which cannot be done but by yeelding and bowing our backs to her whip and running from our selves from those sinnes which pleased our sense but enraged our Conscience we seek out many inventions and advance our sinnes against her till they prevail and even put her to silence For in evill men the worst part doth the office of the better corrupts the Records mitigates the sentence pronounceth life in Death The sensuall part is their Conscience their God it bids them doe this and they doe it and when it is done is a ready Advocate to plead for it and defend it It conceives and brings forth the Monster and then gives it what name it please It was a crying sinne It hath now lost its voice It was uncleanness it is now frailty It was treason it is now the love of our Countrey It was perjury It is now prudence Riches commend Covetousnesse bonor Treason pleasure wantonness That which begets sinne nurseth it up till it grow up to strength to oppose it self to Conscience and degrade and put her from her Office and bring in a Thousand sorry excuses to take her place in the midst of which she cannot be heard not heard against Riches whose Sophistry is preferred before her Demonstrations not heard against Beauty which bewitches us and makes us fooles not heard against Honor which lifteth us up so high that we cannot heare her not heard against Power which is the greatest parasite in the world and calls in a world of Parasites to bow before us and blesse us in the Name of the Lord and thus we are first pleased to sinne and then are easily pleased in it wee are in danger and will not know it and when the God of Israel is angry heare what the God of Ekron will say In a word we raise a storme in our selves and whistle it downe we wound our selves and skinn it over we are too soon troubled and too soon eas'd and might recover were not our remedy more fatall then our Disease Thus you see this humour of being pleased is very predominant in most men and in the Third place as it proceeds from the power and force of Conscience which will speak if she may be Heard and doth speake even when she is not heard so it doth from the lustre and Glory of Piety and holinesse which spreads her Beames and darts her Light in the very face of them who have proscrib'd her sent her a Bill of divorce and put her away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for goodnesse is equally venerable to all men and not onely Good men speak well of her but her enemies praise her in the gates who is so evill that he is willing to goe under that Name How angry will a Strumpet be if you call her so Call a Pharisee a Hypocrite and he will thrust you out of the Synagogue Though I bow downe before an Image yet I am not an Idolater though I break the bonds of Peace yet I am not factious Though I never have enough yet I am not covetous I am not evill though I doe those Things for which we justly call men so Our rule here is quite contrary to that known and received Axiome of the world Malo me divitem esse quam haberi In the managing of our worldly affaires we had rather be rich then be accounted so but in the course of our Religion we are rich enough we are good enough if we have but the name that we are so we are good enough if none dare call us evill And thus it is both in the Errours of our understanding and of our will In the one we think it better to pretend to knowledge and rest our selves in that then to be taught to alter our mind malumus didicisse quam discere That we know something already is our glory Quintil. l. 3. Instit. 1. but to submit our selves to Instruction is an Argument of Imperfection and therefore we account it a punishment to be Taught And this is the reason why so few have retracted their Errors but rather stoutly defended them even a loathness to seem to have erred which mightily reignes in most men but especially in all pretenders unto knowledge Nature it self having annexed a shame unto these two above all other Things which Naturally befall us Lust and Ignorance for as the Italian Proverb is A Learned Fool will be a fool ever And so it is in the other In the practick errors of our life wee would not know our selves nor have others know that we have done any thing amisse qui apponit scientiam apponit dolorem Eccles 1. last vers he that increaseth Knowledge increaseth sorrow for when the knowledge of the Truth incites us to follow after it and the force of Custome draws us back we are as it were at warre and divided in our selves our motion is unquiet as the bounding of a heady Steed with the bit in his mouth we are in our own way and impatient of a Check and we hate those Counsellors which are willing to be eyes to us and lead us out of Danger Tell a heretick he is so He will Anathematize you Tell a Schismatick he is so he will fly from you as from the Plague Tell a persecuter he is so and he will rage more and make it good upon your self deny it and yet make it too manifest That he is so For the will of man loves the channel which it hath chosen and would runne on smoothly and evenly without Interruption but when it meets with any stop or bank it begins to rage and foame and cast up mire and dirt in their faces who do attempt to stop its course volumus errare we will erre and he is an Enemy that tell us the truth volumus peccare
For he knows of whom he requires it even of men and he considers us as men and remembers whereof we are made He doth not require we should be as Just and Mercifull as he is God may give us his strength but he cannot give us his Arm to be as Just as he This is more impossible then that which is most impossible it is impossible to think it nor doth he look that our Obedience should be as exact as that of the Angels quorum immortalitas sine ullo malorum metu periculo constat whose Happinesse is removed from all danger or Feare of change saith Lactantius but he requires an Obedience answerable to our Condition which may consist both with sin and Error into which man as man may sometimes either through inadvertency or frailty fall into and yet do what he requires But then If this Doctrine were true That we were Fettered shackled with an impossibility of doing what he requires as indeed it hath neither Reason nor Scripture to countenance it yet sure it cannot without danger be so rudely and with such zeal and earnestnesse publisht as sometimes it is nor can it savour of that spirituall wisdome which is the Salt which every Teacher should have in himself to urge and presse it to the multitude who are too ready to make an Idoll of that serpent which is lifted up to cure them For how many weak hands and feeb e knees and cowardly Hearts hath this made How willing are we to heare of weaknesse and impossibilities because we would not keep the Law How oft do we lye down with this Thought and do nothing or rather runne away with it even against the Law it self and break it what polluted blind impotent cripled wretches are we ready to call our selves which were indeed a Glorious confession were it made out of hatred to sinne but most commonly they are sent forth not from a broken but a hollow heart and comfort us rather then accuse us are rather flatteries then aggravations the oyl of sinners to break their heads to infatuate them not to supple their limbs but benum them and they beget no other Resolution in us but this Not to gird up our loines because we are weak to sinne more and more because we cannot but sinne not to do what God requires because we have already concluded within our selves that it is impossible To conclude this The question is not whether we can exactly keep a Law so as not to faile sometimes as men for I know no reason why this question should be put up but whether we can keep it so far forth as God requires and in his goodnesse will accept whether we can be Just and Mercifull and Humble men and if this be impossible then will follow as sad an impossibility of being saved For the not doing what he requires is that alone which shuts the Gates of Heaven against us and cuts of all hope of eternall happinesse and this were to unpeople Heaven this were a dragons taile to draw down all the starrs and cast them into hell But the Saints are sealed and have this seal that they did what God required and it is a thing so far from being impossible that the Prophet makes but a But of it It is not impossible it is but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God For secondly It is so far from being impossible that it is but an easie duty My yoke is easie saith our Saviour Mat. 11. and my burden light For 't is fitted to our necks and shoulders and is so far from taking from our nature or pressing it with violence that it exalts and perfects it All is in putting it about our necks and then this yoke is an ornament of Grace as Solomons chain about them and when this burden is layed on then 't is not a burden but our form to quicken us and our Angel to guide us with delight in all our waies And this the beloved disciple suckt from his masters bosome 1 John 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous for here is love and hope to sweeten them and make them easie and pleasant Nor doth he speak this as an orator to take them by craft by telling them that that which he exhorted them to was neither impossible nor difficult and so give force to his exhortation and make a way for it to enter and work a full perswasion in them to be obedient to those commands but as a Logician he backs and establishes his affirmation with an undeniable reason in the next verse For whatsoever is bern of God overcometh the world and so his commandments are not grievous to those who have the true knowledge of God He that is born of God must needs have strength enough to passe through all hinderances whatsoever to tread down all Principalities and Powers to demolish all imaginations which set up and oppose themselves and so make these commands more grievous then they are in their own nature and this he strengthens with another reason in the next verse For he that is born of God hath the help and advantage of faith and full perswasion of the power of Jesus Christ which is that victory which overcometh the world so that whosoever saith the commandments are grievous with the same breath excommunicates himself from the Church of Christ and makes himself an Hypocrite and pofesses he is that which he is not a Christian when Christs words are irksome and tedious unto him That he is born of God when he hath neither the language nor the motion of a child of God doth not what God requires but doth the works of another father the devil When men therefore pretend they cannot do what God requires they should change their language for the truth is Salvian they will not for if they would there were more for them then against them Totum durum est quicquid imperatur invitis to an unwilling mind every command carries with it the fearefull shew of difficulty Mvult execrari legom quà m emendari mentew praecepta odisse quà m vitia A wicked man mavult emendare Deos quam seipsum saith Seneca had rather condemne the Law then reforme his life rather hate the precept then his sin Continence is a hard lesson but to the wanton Liberality to a Miser Temperance to a Glutton Obedience to a factious and rebellious spirit All these things are hard to him that loves not Christ but where there is will there is strength enough and love is stronger then death What was sweeter then Manna what sooner gathered yet the children of Israel murmured What more bitter then Hunger and Imprisonment Isid Palus 2. cp 67. yet Saint Paul rejoyced in them nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wickednesse in its own nature is a troublesome vexatious thing Vitia magno coluntur saith Seneca scarse any sinne we
within him In a word to love Mercy is to be in Heaven every man according as he purposeth in his heart let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerfull giver such a mercy is Gods Almoner here on earth and he loves and blesseth it follows it with his providence and his infinite Mercy shall crown it That gift which the Love of Mercy offereth up is onely fit to be laid up in the Treasury of the Almighty And now I have set before you Mercy in its full beauty in all its glory Conclusion you have seen her spreading her raies I might shew you her building of Hospitalls visiting the sick giving eyes to the blind raising of Temples pittying the stones breathing forth Oracles making the ignorant wise the sorrowfull merry leading the wandring man into his way I might have shewed you her sealing of Pardons but we could not shew you all these are the miracles of Mercy and they are wrought by the power of Christ in us and by us but by his power the fairest spectacle in the world Let us then look upon it and love it what is mercy when you need it is it not as the opening of the heavens unto you and shall it then bea punishment and hell unto you when your afflicted brethren call for it Is it so glorious abroad and shall it be of so foul an aspect as not to be thought worthy of entertainment at home shall it be a Jewel in every Cabinet but your own hearts Behold and lift up your eyes and you shall see objects enough for your Mercy to shine on If ever one depth called upon another the depth of calamity for the depth of our compassion if ever our bowells should move and sound now now is the time I remember that Chrysologus observes that God did on purpose lay Lazarus at the rich mans Gate quasi pietatis conflatorium as a forge to melt his stony heart Lazarus had as many mouthes to speak and move him to compassion as he had ulcers and wounds and how many such forges hath God set before us how many mouthes to beseech us how many wounds wide open which speak loud for our pity how many fires to melt us shall I shew you an ulcerous Lazar They are obvious to our eye we shall have them alwaies with us saith our Saviour and we have them almost in every place Shall I shew you men Stript and wounded and left half dead that may be seen in our lives as well as in the high waies between Jericho and Jerusalem Shall I shew you the teares drilling down the cheeks of the orphans and widdows shall I call you to heare the cry of the hire kept back by fraud or violence for that cryes to you for compassion as oppression doth to God for vengeance and it is a kind of oppression to deny it them Have you no compassion all ye that passe by and every day behold such sad spectacles as these shall I shew you Christ put again to open shame whipt and scorned and crucified and that which cannot be done to him in his person laid upon his Church shall I shew you him now upon the crosse and have you no regard all you that passe by shall I shew you the Church miserably torn in pieces shall I shew you Religion I would I could shew you such a sight for scarce so much as her forme is left what can I shew or what can move us when neither our own misery nor the common misery nor sinne nor death nor hell it self will move us If we were either good Men or good Citizens or good Christians our hearts would melt and gush forth at our eyes in Rivers of water If we were truly affected with peace we should be troubled at war If we did love the City we should mourn over it if we did delight in the prosperity of Israel her affliction would wound us if Religion were our care her decay would be our sorrow for that which we love and delight in must needs leave a mournfull heart behind it when it withdraws it self But private interest makes us regardlesse of the common and we do not pity Religion because we do not pitty our own soules but drink deep of the pleasures of this world enlarge our Territories fill our barnes make haste to be rich when our soul is ready to be taken from us and nothing but a rotten mouldring wall a body of flesh which will soon fall to the ground between us and hell I may well take off your eye from these sad and wofull spectacles it had been enough but to have shewn you Mercy for she is a cloud of witnesses a cloud of Arguments for her self and if we would but look upon her as we should there need no other Orator I beseech you look into your Lease look into your Covenant that Conveyance by which blisse and immortality are made over to you and you shall find that you hold all by this you hold it from the King of Kings and your quit-rent your acknowledgement for his great Mercy is your Mercy to others pay it down or you have made a forfeiture of all if you be Mercilesse all that labour as 't is called of charity is lost your loud profession your forced gravity your burning zeal your faith also is vain and you are yet in your sinnes For what are all these without Mercy but words and names and there is no name by which we can be saved but the name of Jesus Christ and all these Devotion Confession Abstinence Zeal Severity of life are as it were the letters of his name and I am sure Mercy is one and of a faire character and if we expunge and blot it out it is not his name Why boast we of our zeal without mercy it is a consuming fire 'T is true he that is not zealous doth not love but if my love be counterfeit what a false fire is my zeal and one mark of true zeal is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 14. if it be kept within its bounds and mercy is the best watch we can set over it to confine and keep it in The Church of Christ is not placed under the Torrid Zone that these cooler and more temperate vertues may not dwell there if you will have your zeal burn kindly Ignis zeli ardere debet oleo misericordiae Aquâ—… de Eruditione princip l. 1. c. 15 16. it must not be set on fire by any earthy matter but from Heaven where is the Mercy-seat and which is the seat of Mercy if you will be burning lamps you must poure in oleum misericordiae the oyl of mercy as Bernard speaks if this oyl faile you will rather be Beacons then Lamps to put all round about you in Arms as we have seen in Germany and other places Men and Brethren I may speak to you of the Patriarch David who is dead and buried and though we
be that seale it up and seare it as Saint Paul speaks as with a hot Iron If it speake to us we are deafe if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul beat and wound it more and more multi famam pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny the loudest noise our conscience can make is not heard but the censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we heare it and we tremble we are led like fooles with melody to the stocks what others say is our motion and turnes us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we heare it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of conscience is defraud not your brother nay but we will over-reach him the voice of conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self nay but we will oppresse him the voice of conscience is Love Mercy nay but we will love our selves what we speak to our selves our selves soon make hereticall How Ambitious are we to be accounted Just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it what a sin is uncleannesse in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet with what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death he whips the theef and hangs the murderer and indeed whips and hangs himself by a Proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we owe to our selves are of any great force to prevaile with us to order our steps aright walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give eare to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusuall That there is little hope that it will compleat and perfect our walk and make us Just and Mercifull men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God and to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion that whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he makes is infinitely and incomparably more cleare and certain then that which we make by our sences that we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts that thou seest not the birds fly in the ayre so distinctly as he sees thy thoughts fly about the world to those severall objects which we have set up for our delight that he sees and observes that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Yet neverthelesse though being as we are in the flesh and so led by sence were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That he did but see us as man sees us or were this as evident to our faith as that is to our sence we should be more watchfull over our selves more wary of the divels snares and baits then we commonly are magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary Hil. in Psal 178. for there is a necessity laid upon us of feare and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe That he now stands by as a witnesse who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly beleived Glorious things are spoken of faith we call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask is ours so would to God it were nay would for many of us we did but believe that he is present with us and sees what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but would run from as from serpents as from the divel himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and Power were so neer And now in the last place Let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion doe walk on in the haughtinesse of their hearts and neither bowe to the Laws of God or men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerfull Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Many walk saith Saint Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the presumptuous sinner walks not with God who hath first hardened his heart and then his face as Adamant whose very countenance doth witnesse against him who declares his sins as Sodome and hides them not and they who first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself first lose their reason in their lusts and then their modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil who doe that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain who first make shipwrack of a good conscience and then with the swelling salies of Impudence hasten to that point and haven which their boundlesse lusts have made choice of as we should doe to eternall happinesse per calcatum patrem as Saint Jerome speaks over Father and Mother over all Relations and Religion it self forsake all these not for Christs sake and the Gospel but for Mammon and the world What foule pollutions that grinding and cruell oppressions what open profanenesse have there been in the world and we may ask wit the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 8.12 Confusi sunt Were they ashamed when they committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they have any shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.18 for the hardnesse and blindnesse of their heart For in sin and by sin they at last grow familiar in sin clothe themselves with it as with a robe of Honour bring it forth into open view