part in them as much as may be so if we look into a Christian man as he is proposed to us in the Gospel we may justly marvel to what purpose God hath planted in him this faculty and passion of anger since he hath so little use of it and the Gospel in a manner doth spiritually diet and physick him for it and endeavours much to abate if not quite to purge out that quality Beloved we have hitherto seen who Iacob is and what manner of man the Christian is that is described unto us in holy Scripture Let us a little consider his brother Esau the Christian in passage and who commonly in the account of the world goes for one Is he so gentle and tractable a creature Is his countenance so smooth his body so free from gall and spleen To try this as the Devil sometimes spake unto Iob Touch him in his goods touch him in his body and see if he will not curse thee to thy face so touch this man a little in his goods touch him in his reputation and honour touch him in any thing that he loves for this is the onely way to try how far these commands of peace and forbearance and long suffering prevail with us and see if he will not forget and loose all his patience Which of us is there that understands the words and precepts of our Saviour in their litteral sense and as they lie The precepts of suffering wrong rather then to go to Law of yeilding the coat to him that would take the cloak of readiness to receive more wrongs then to revenge one these and all the Evangelical commands of the like nature Interpretamento detorquemus we have found out favourable interpretations and glosses restrictions and evasions to wind our selves out of them to shift them all off and put them by and yet pass for sound and currant Christians We think we may be justly angry continue long Suits in Law call to the Magistrate for revenge yea sometimes take it into our own hands all this and much more we think we may lawfully and with good reason do any precept of Christ to the contrary notwithstanding And as it usually comes to pass the permitting and tolerating lesser sins opens way to greater so by giving passage and inlet to those lesser impatiences an discontents we lay open a gap to those fouler crimes even of murther and bloudshed For as men commonly suppose that all the former breaches of our patience which but now I mentioned may well enough stand with the duties of Christians so there are who stay not here but think that in some cases it may be lawful yea peradventure necessary at least very pardonable for Christians privately to seek each others bloud and put their lives upon their swords without any wrong to their vocation out of this have sprung many great inconveniences both private and publick First Laws made too favourable in case of bloudshed Secondly a too much facility and easiness in Princes and Magistrates sometimes to give pardon and release for that crime Thirdly and cheifly for it is the special cause indeed that moved me to speak in this Argument an over promptness in many young men who desire to be counted men of valour and resolution upon every sleight occasion to raise a quarrel and admit of no other means of composing and ending it but by sword and single Combat Partly therefore to shew the grievousness and greatness of this sin of Bloudshed and partly to give the best counsel I can for the restraint of those conceits and errours which give way unto it I have made choice of these few words out of the Old Testament which but now I read In the New Testament there is no precept given concerning Bloudshed The Apostles seem not to have thought that Christians ever should have had need of such a prohibition For what needed to forbid those to seek each others Bloud who are not permitted to speak over hastily one to another When therefore I had resolved with my self to speak something concerning the sin of Bloud-shed I was in a manner constrain'd to reflect upon the Old Testament and make choise of these words And the Land cannot be purged of Bloud that is shed in it but by the Bloud of him that shed it In which words for my more orderly proceeding I will observe these two general parts First the greatness of the sin Secondly the means to cleanse and satisfie for the guilt of it The first that is the greatness of the sin is expressed by two circumstances First by the generality extent and largeness of the guilt of it and secondly by the difficulty of cleansing it The largeness and compass of the guilt of this sin is noted unto us in the word Land and the Land cannot be purged It is true in some sense of all sins Nemo sibi uni errat no man sins in private and to himself alone For as the Scripture notes of that action of Iepthe when he vowed his daughter unto God That it became a Custom in Israel so is it in all sins The errour is onely in one person but the example spreads far and wide and thus every man that sins sins against the whole Land yea against the whole world For who can tell how far the example and infection of an evil action doth spread In other sins the infection is no larger then the disease but this sin like a plague one brings the infection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thousands die for it yet this sin of Bloud diffuses and spreads it self above all other sins for in other sins noxa sequitur caput the guilt of them is confined to the person that committed them God himself hath pronounced of them The son shall not bear the sins of the father the soul that sinneth shall die the death But the sin of Bloud seems to claim an exception from this Law if by time it be not purged like the frogs of Egypt the whole land stank of them it leaves a guilt upon the whole land in which it is committed Other sins come in like Rivers and break their banks to the prejudice and wrong of private persons but this comes in like a Sea raging and threatning to overwhelm whole Countreys If Bloud in any land do lie unrevenged every particular soul hath cause to fear lest part of the penalty fall on him We read in the Books of Kings that long after Saul's death God plagued the Land of Iewry with three years famine because Saul in his life-time without any just cause shed the Bloud of some of the Gibeonites neither the famine ceased till seven of Saul's nephews had died for it In this story there are many things rare and worth our observation First the generality and extent of the guilt of Bloud-shed which is the cause for which I urged it it drew a general famine on the whole Land Secondly the continuance and length of the punishment
for both these are compatible for a time If then we look upon the persons of Peter and Iudas both of them are in the state of mortal sin unrepented of and therefore both in state of damnation but if we look back unto God we shall see a hand reach'd out unto St. Peter pulling him back as he is now running down the hill which hand we do not see reach'd out unto Iudas Christ had a look in store for St. Peter which if it had pleased him to have lent unto Iudas Iudas would have done that which St. Peter did When then we pronounce St. Peter and in him any of the Elect of God as they are in St. Peter's case to be fallen from grace we speak not with relation to any purpose of God but we mean onely that they have not that measure of Sanctification which ought to be in every child which shall be an heir to life and what hinders to pronounce that man fallen from grace whom we must needs acknowledge to be in that state in which if he continue there is no way open but to death What then may some men say had St. Peter lost the Spirit of Adoption had he not those sanctifying qualities of Faith Hope and Charity which are proper to the Saints and are given them by divine inspiration in the moment of their conversion was that immortal seed of the Word quite kill'd No verily How then Having all these may he not yet be called the child of death I answer he may and is indeed so for these do not make him that at no time he can be so but that finally he shall not be so for they are not armour of proof to keep out all darts neither do they make our souls invulnerable as the Poets fain the body of Cyenus or Achilles to have been but they are precious balms ever more ready at hand to cure the wound when it is given They are not of force to hinder mortal sin for then every soul in whom they are were pure undefiled neither were it possible that the Elect of God after their conversion should fall but they are of force to work repentance which makes all our wounds remediable He that is mortally sick and dies and he that is likewise mortally sick and through help of restoring physick recovers in this both agree that they are mortally sick notwithstanding the recovery of one party The wound of St. Peter and of Judas was mortal and in both festred unto death but there was balm in Gilead for St. Peter for Iudas there was none The sting of the fiery Scorpion in the Wilderness was deadly and all that looked not on the Brazen Serpent died the Brazen Serpent altered not the quality of the Scorpion's sting it onely hindred the working of the poison The sting of sin in St. Peter and in Iudas was deadly but he that was lift up on mount Calvary as the Brazen Serpent was in the Wilderness at him did St. Peter look and live Iudas did not look and therefore died How comes it about Beloved that God every where in Scripture threatens death without exception to all that repent not if the state of sin unrepented of in whomsoever it is be not indeed the state of death When David was intending to stay in Keilah and suspecting the inhabitants of that City asks of God whether the men of Keilah would deliver him over into the hand of Saul God tells him they would and therefore certainly had he stayed there he had been betrayed unto Saul To urge that St. Peter because of God's purpose to save him could not have finally miscarried though he had died without repentance as some have not stuck to give out is nothing else in effect but to maintain against God that David had he stayed in Keilah had not fallen into Saul's hands because we know it was God's purpose to preserve David from the violence of Saul All the determinations of God are of equal certainty It was no more possible for Saul to seize on David then it is for the Devil to pull one of God's Elect out of his hand as therefore the determinate purpose of God to free David from the malice of Saul took not away that supposition If David go to Keilah he shall fall into the hands of Saul So neither doth the Decree of God to save his Elect destroy the supposition If they repent not they die eternally for the purposes of God though impossible to be defeated yet lay not upon things any violent necessity they exempt not from the use of ordinary means they infringe not our liberty they stand very well with common casualty yea these things are the very means by which his Decrees are brought about I may not stand longer upon this I will draw but one short admonition and so to an end Let no man presume to look into the Third Heaven to open the Books of Life and Death to pronounce over peremptorily of God's purpose concerning himself or any other man Let every man look into himself and try whether he be in the faith or no The surest means to try this is to take an unpartial veiw of all our actions Many deceive themselves whilst they argue from their Faith to their Works whereas they ought out of their Works to conclude their Faith whilst presuming they have Faith and the gifts of sanctification they think all their actions warrantable whereas we ought first throughly to sift all our actions to examine them at the Touch of God's Commandments and if indeed we find them currant then to conclude that they come from the sanctifying Graces of the holy Spirit It is Faith indeed that gives the tincture the die the relish unto our actions yet the onely means to examine our Faith is by our Works It is the nature of the Tree that gives the goodness the savour and pleasantness to the Fruit yet the Fruit is the onely means to us to know whether the Tree be good By their fruit ye shall know them saith Christ It is not a rule not onely to know others but our selves too To reason thus I am of the Elect I therefore have saving Faith and the rest of the sanctifying qualities therefore that which I do is good thus I say to reason is very preposterous We must go a quite contrary course and thus reason My life is good and through the mercies of God in Iesus Christ shall stand with God's Justice I therefore have the gifts of Sanctification and therefore am of God's Elect For St. Peter to have said with himself I am of the Elect this sin therefore cannot endanger me had been great presumption but thus to have reasoned My sin is deadly therefore except I repent I am not of the number of God's Elect this reasoning had well befitted St. Peter and becomes every Christian man whom common frailty drives into the like distress I made my entrance into my Sermon with the consideration
audierint aliquid contradici The same temper must be found in every Reader of Scripture he must not be at a stand and require an answer to every objection that is made against them For as the Philosopher tells us that mad and fantastical men are very apprehensive of all outward accidents because their soul is inwardly empty and unfurnished of any thing of worth which might hold the inward attention of their minds so when we are so easily dor'd and amated with every Sophism it is a certain argument of great defect of inward furniture and worth which should as it were ballance the mind and keep it upright against all outward occurrents whatsoever And be it that many times the means to open such doubts be not at hand yet as St. Austin sometime spake unto his Scholar Licentius concerning such advice and counsel as he had given him Nolo te cansas rationesque rimari quae etiamsi reddi possint fidei tamen qua mihi credis non cas debeo so much more must we thus resolve of those lessons which God teacheth us the reasons and grounds of them though they might be given yet it fits not that credit and trust which we owe him once to search into or call in question And so I come to the third general part the Danger of Wresting of Scripture in the last words unto their own Damnation The reward of every sin is Death As the worm eats out the heart of the plant that bred it so whatsoever is done amiss naturally works no other end but destruction of him that doth it As this is true in general so is it as true that when the Scripture doth precisely note out unto us some sin and threatens Death unto it it is commonly an argument that there is more then ordinary that there is some especial sin which shall draw with it some especial punishment This sin of Wresting of Scripture in the eye of some of the Antients seemed so ugly that they have ranged it in the same rank with the sin against the holy Ghost And therefore have they pronounced it a sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater then can be pardoned For the most part of others sins are sins of infirmity or simplicity but this is a sin of wit and strength the man that doth it doth it with a high hand he knows and sees and resolves upon it Again Scripture is the voice of God and it is confest by all that the sense is Scripture rather then the words It cannot therefore be avoided but he that wilfully strives to fasten some sense of his own upon it other then the very nature of the place will bear must needs take upon him the Person of God and become a new inditer of Scripture and all that applaud and give consent unto any such in effect cry the same that the people did to Herod The voice of God and not of man If he then that abases the Princes Coin deserves to die what is his desert that instead of the tried silver of Gods word stamps the Name and Character of God upon Nehushtan upon base brasen stuff of his own Thirdly No Scripture is of private interpretation saith the Apostle There can therefore be but two certain and infallible interpreters of Scripture either it self or the holy Ghost the Author of it It self doth then expound it self when the words and circumstances do sound unto us the prime and natural and principal sense But when the place is obscure involved and intricate or when there is contained some secret and hidden mystery beyond the prime sense infallibly to shew us this there can be no Interpreter but the holy Ghost that gave it Besides these two all other Interpretation is private Wherefore as the Lords of the Philistines sometimes said of the kine that drew the Ark unto Bethshemesh If they go of themselves then is this from God but if they go another way then is it not from God it is some chance that hath happened unto us so may it be said of all pretended sense of Scripture If Scripture come unto it of it self then is it of God but if it go another way or if it be violently urged and goaded on then is it but a matter of chance of mans wit and invention As for those marvellous discourses of some framed upon presumption of the Spirits help in private in judging or interpreting of difficult places of Scripture I must needs confess I have often wondred at the boldness of them The Spirit is a thing of dark and secret operation the manner of it none can descry As underminers are never seen till they have wrought their purpose so the Spirit is never perceived but by its effects The effects of the Spirit as far as they concern knowledge and instruction are not particular information for resolution in any doubtful case for this were plainly revelation but as the Angel which was sent unto Cornelius informs him not but sends him to Peter to school so the Spirit teaches not but stirs up in us a desire to learn desire to learn makes us thirst after the means and pious sedulity and carefulness makes us watchful in the choice and diligent in the use of our means The promise to the Apostles of the Spirit which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with the knowledge of high and heavenly mysteries which as yet had never entred into the conceit of any man The same promise is made to us but fulfilled after another manner For what was written by revelation in their hearts for our instruction have they written in their books To us for information otherwise then out of these books the Spirit speaks not When the Spirit regenerates a man it infuses no knowledge of any point of faith but sends him to the Church and to the Scriptures When it stirs him up to newness of life it exhibits not unto him an inventory of his sins as hitherto unknown but either supposes them known in the Law of Nature of which no man can be ignorant or sends him to learn them from the mouth of his teachers More then this in the ordinary proceeding of the holy Spirit in matter of instruction I yet could never descry So that to speak of the help of the Spirit in private either in dijudicating or in interpreting of Scripture is to speak they know not what Which I do the rather note first because by experience we have learnt how apt men are to call their private conceits the Spirit and again because it is the especial errour with which S. Austine long ago charged this kind of men Tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere by so much the more prone are they to kindle Schism and contention in the Church by how much they seem to themselves to be endued with a more eminent measure of Spirit then
death and hell you shall in these words find nothing pertinent But if you take this Resurrection for that act by which through the power of saving grace Christ the Sun of righteousness rises in our hearts and raises us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness here in these words you may perchance find a notable branch of it For to raise our thoughts from this earth and clay and from things beneath and such are those which here Abraham calls The good things of our life and to set them above where Christ sits at the right hand of God this is that practick Resurrection which above all concerns us that other of Christ in Person in regard of us is but a Resurrection in speculation for to him that is dead in sin and trespasses and who places his good in the things of this life Christ is as it were not risen at all to such a one he is still in the grave and under the bands of death But to him that is risen with Christ and seeks that good things that are above to him alone is Christ risen To know and beleive perfectly the whole story of Christ's Resurrection what were it if we did not practise this Resurrection of our own Cogita non exacturum à te Deum quantum cognovâ—ris sed quantum vixeris God will not reckon with thee how much thou knowest but how well thou hast lived Epictetus that great Philosopher makes this pretty Parable Should a Shepherd saith he call his sheep to account how they had profited would he like of that sheep which brought before him his hay his grass and fodder or rather that sheep which having well digested all these exprest himself in fat in flesh and wooll Beloved you are the flock of Christ and the sheep of his hands should the great Shepherd of the flock call you before him to see how you have profited would he content himself with this that you had well Con'd your Catechism that you had diligently read the Gospel and exactly knew the whole story of the Resurrection would it not give him better satisfaction to find Christ's Resurrection exprest in yours and as it were digested into flesh and wooll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have read Chrysippus his Book this is not virtue To have read the Gospel to have gathered all the circumstances of the Resurrection of Christ this is not Christianity to have risen as Christ hath done so to have digested the Resurrection of Christ as that we have made it our own this is rightly to understand the Doctrine of the Resurrection of Christ. For this cause have I refused to treat this day of that Resurrection in the Doctrine of which I know you are perfect and have reflected on that in the knowledge of which I fear you are imperfect which that I might the better do I have made choice to prosecute my former Meditations begun when I last spake unto you in this place For so doing I shall open unto you one of the hardest points of your Spiritual Resurrection even to raise your thoughts from the things of this life and seat them with Christ above To make my way more fair to this I will take leave to put you in mind in short how I proceeded in the opening of these words when I last spake unto you out of this place You may be pleased to remember that after some instruction drawn from the first word Son I proceeded to consider the ensuing words wherein having by an Alchimy which then I used changed the word Recordare Remember into Cave Beware and so read my Text thus Beware thou receive not thy good things in this life I shewed you that we had never greater cause to consult our best wits what we are to do and how we are to carry our selves then when the world and outward blessings come upon us Upon this I moved this Question Whether or no if the things of this world should by some providence of God knock and offer themselves to us we are bound to exclude them and refuse them or we might open and admit of them I divided my answer according to the divers abilities and strengths of men First Qui potest capere capiat he that hath strength and spiritual wisdom to manage them let him receive them But in the second place he that is weak let him let strong diet alone and feed on herbs let him not intangle himself with more then he can manage Let him try Quid ferre recusent Quid valeant humeri To the first the sum of what I spake was this Receive them we may and that without danger of a Recepisti first if we so received them as if we received them not secondly if we esteemed them not good thirdly if we did not esteem them ours And here the time cut me off and suffered me not to descend unto the second part upon which now I am about to fall Cave ne recipias Take heed thou receive not thy good things In this matter of Receiving and entertaining these outward and foreign good things there have been two ways commended to you the one the more glorious to receive them of this we have spoken The other the more safe not to receive them of this we are now to speak These ways are trodden by two kinds of persons the one is the strong man and more virtuous the other is weaker but more cautelous the one encounters temptation the other avoids it We may compare them to the two great Captains Hannibal and Fabius the one ever calling for the battel the other evermore declining it In one of these two ranks must every good man be found if we compare them together we shall find that the one is far more excellent the other far more in number For to be able to meet and check our enemy to encounter occasions to act our parts in common life upon the common stage and yet to keep our uprightness this indeed is truly to live truly to serve God and men and therefore God the more because men On the contrary to avoid occasions to follow that other vincendi genus non pugnare to overcome the world by contemning and avoiding it this argues a wise indeed but a weak and fainting spirit I have often wondred at Antiquity which doting extremely upon a sequestred a solitary retired and Monkish life sticks not to give out that all perfection is in it whereas indeed there is no greater argument of imperfection in good men quam non posse pati solem non multitudinem not to be able without offence to walk the publick ways to entertain the common occasions but to live onely to God and to themselves Vtilis ipse sibi fortassis inutilis orbi Men of no great publick use but excellent for themselves Saints indeed in private but being called forth into common life are like Batts in the Sun utterly ignorant of publick practise like Scheubelius a great
it lasted full three years and better Thirdly the time of the plague it fell long after the person offending was dead Fourthly whereas it is said in my Text That Bloud is cleansed by the Bloud of him that shed it here the Bloud of him that did this sin sufficed not to purge the Land from it that desperate and woful end that befell both Saul and his sons in that last and fatal Battel upon Mount Gilboa a man may think had freed the Land from danger of Bloud yet we see that the Bloud of the Gibeonites had left so deep a stain that it could not be sponged out without the Bloud of seven more of Saul's off-spring So that in some cases it seems we must alter the words of my Text The Land cannot be purged of Bloud but by the Bloud of him and his Posterity that shed it St. Peter tells us that some mens sins go before them unto judgment and some mens sins follow after Beloved here is a sin that exceeds the members of this division for howsoever it goes before or after us unto judgment yet it hath a kind of Vbiquity and so runs afore so follows us at the heels that it stays behind us too and calls for vengeance long after that we are gone Bloud unrevenged passes from Father to Son like an Heirlome or Legacy and he that dies with Bloud hanging on his fingers leaves his off-spring and his Family as pledges to answer it in his stead As an Engineer that works in a Mine lays a train or kindles a Match and leaves it behind him which shall take hold of the powder long after he is gone so he that sheds Bloud if it be not betimes purged as it were kindles a Match able to blow up not onely a Parliament but even a whole Land where Bloud lies unrevenged Secondly another circumstance serving to express unto us the greatness of this sin I told you was the difficulty of cleansing it intimated in those words cannot be cleansed but by the Bloud of him that shed it Most of other sins have sundry ways to wash the guilt away As in the Levitical Law the woman that was unclean by reason of Child-bearing might offer a pair of Turtle-doves or two young Pigeons so he that travels with other sins hath either a Turtle or a Pigeon he hath more ways then one to purifie him prayer unto God or true repentance or satisfaction to the party wronged or bodily affliction or temporary mulct But he that travels with the sin of Bloud for him there remains no sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of vengeance he hath but one way of cleansing onely his Bloud the Bloud of him that shed it The second general part which we considered in these words was that one mean which is left to cleanse Bloud exprest in the last words the bloud of him that shed it The Apostle to the Hebrews speaking of the sacrifices of the Old Testament notes that without Bloud there was no cleansing no forgiveness He spake it onely of the Bloud of beasts of Bulls and Goats who therefore have their Bloud that they might shed it in mans service and for mans use But among all the Levitical Sacrifices there was not one to cleanse the manslayer For the Bloud of the cattle upon a thousand hills was not sufficient for this yet was that sin to be purged with Bloud too and that by a more constant and perpetual Law then that of Sacrifices For the cleansing of other sins by Bloud is done away the date of it is out but to cleanse Bloud by bloud remains as a Law to our times and so shall unto the worlds end Sanguine quaerendi reditus out of Bloud no way to get but by Bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil hast thou shed Bloud wouldst thou be free from the guilt of it Thy best way is to be a Martyr and shed thy Bloud for Christ's sake Now that what I have to say may the better be conceived and lodged up in your memories I will comprehend and order all that I will speak under three heads First I will in general yet a little further breifly shew how great a sin the sin of Bloud is Secondly I will speak of the redress of some misorders very frequent in our age which give way to this sin especially private revenge and single combat Thirdly I will touch at the means of taking the guilt of Bloud away which here the holy Ghost commends to those which are set in Authority to that purpose And first of the greatness of the crime and sin of Bloud Of sins in holy Scripture there be two sorts recorded One sort is a silent dumb and quiet sin God doth as it were seek after it to find it as the people did after Saul when he was hidden amongst the stuff Of this nature are the ordinary sins of our life which do more easily find pardon at the hands of God but there is a second sort of sin which is a vocal and a crying sin a sin like that importunate widow in the Gospel that will not suffer the Judge to be quiet till he hath done justice and those are the more heavy and grievouser sins of our lives Of this second sort there are two sins to which the Scripture doth attribute this crying faculty First the sin of Sodom for so God tells Abraham The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is come up before me The second is the sin of which I am now to speak the sin of Bloudshed for so God tells Cain The voice of thy brothers bloud cries unto me from the earth The sin of Adam in Paradise doubtless was a great and heinous sin which hath thus made us all the children of death yet it seems to be but of the rank of mute sins and to have had no voice to betray it God comes unto Adam convents him examins him as if he had not known it and seems not to beleive any such thing was done till himself had confessed it But bloud is an unmannerly importunate and clamorous sin God shall not need to come and enquire after it it will come up unto him and cry as the souls do under the Altar in the Revelation How long Lord how long Nec patimur iracunda Deum ponere fulmina suffers not God to forget judgment or entertain a thought of mercy To satisfie therefore the cry of this importunate sin and to shew men the grievousness of it the Laws of God and men have wonderfully conspired in the avenging of bloud by what means or by what creature soever it were shed Beasts unreasonable creatures though whatsoever they do they cannot be said to sin for whatsoever they do they do by force of that natural instinct by which they are guided and led as by their proper Law yet man's bloud if they shed it is revenged upon them God himself is the Authour of this Law Gen. ix where he tells Noah
be admit of some recompence Honours Wealth Preferments if they be taken from us they may return as they did unto Iob in far greater measure and the party wronged may receive full and ample satisfaction but What recompence may be made to a man for his life When that is gone all the Kingdoms which our Saviour saw in the Mount and the glory of themâ— are nothing worth neither is all the world all the power of Men and Angels able to give the least breath to him that hath lost it Nothing under God is able to make satisfaction for such a wrong the revenge that is taken afterward upon the party that hath done the wrong cannot be counted a recompence That is done In terrorem viventium non in subsidium mortuorum It serves to deter the living from committing the like outrage but it can no way help him that is dead David at the same time committed two sins great sins Murther and Adultery the reward of either of which by Gods Law is nothing else but death yet for his Adultery he seems to make some satisfaction to the party wronged for the Text notes that David took her to his Wife made her his Queen and that he went in unto her and comforted her all which may well be counted at least a part of recompence But for dead Vrias what means could David make to recompence to comfort him For this cause I verily suppose it is that in his Penitential Psalm wherein he bewails his sin he makes no particular confession no mention of his Adultery but of the other of Bloud he is very sensible and expresly prays against it Deliver me from Bloud-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation as if Adultery in comparison of Murder were no crime at all I am sorry I should have any just occasion amongst Christian men so long to insist upon a thing so plain and shew that the sin of Bloud is a great and hainous sin But he that shall look into the necessities of these times shall quickly see that there is a great cause why this doctrine should be very effectually prest For many things are even publickly done which in part argue that men esteem of this sin much more sleightly then they ought Aristotle observed it of Phaleas one that took upon him to prescribe Laws by which a Common-wealth might as he thought be well governed that he had taken order for the preventing of smaller faults but he left way enough open to greater crimes Beloved the errour of our Laws is not so great as that of Phaleas was yet we offend too though on the contrary and the less dangerous side for great and grievous sins are by them providently curbed but many inferiour crimes find many times too free passage Murther though all be abominable yet there are degrees in it some is more hainous then other Gross malicious premeditated and wilful Murther are by our Laws so far as humane wisdom can provide sufficiently prevented but Murders done in haste or besides the intent of him that did it or in point of honour and reputation these find a little too much favour or Laws in this respect are somewhat defective both in preventing that it be not done and punishing it when it is done men have thought themselves wiser then God presuming to moderate the unnecessary severity as they seem to think of his Laws And hence it comes to pass that in Military Companies and in all great Cities and places of Mart and concourse few moneths yea few weeks pass without some instance and example of Bloudshed either by sudden quarrel or by challenge to Duel and single Combat How many examples in a short space have we seen of young men men of hot and fiery disposition mutually provoking and disgracing each other and then taking themselves bound in high terms of valour and honour to end their quarrels by their swords That therefore we may the better discover the unlawfulness of Challenge and private Combat let us a little enquire and examine in what cases Bloud may lawfully and without offence be shed that so we may see where amongst these single Combat may find its place The Manichees were of opinion that it was not lawful to violate any thing in which there was life and therefore they would not pull a branch from a tree because forsooth there was life in it To think that mans life may in no case be taken from him is but a branch of Manichism and the words of my Text do directly cross it where it is laid down that for the cleansing of bloud bloud may and must be shed For the avoiding therefore of the extreme we are to note that the lawful causes of Bloudshed are either Publick or Private Publick cases are two First in case of Iustice when a malefactour dies for his sin by the hand of the Magistrate Secondly in case of publick War and defence of our Countrey for the Doctrine of Christ is not as some have supposed an enemy to Souldiership and Military Discipline When Iohn the Baptist began to preach Repentance and amendment of life amongst those that came forth to understand and learn their duty the Text saith that the Souldiers came and ask'd him Master what shall we do And Iohn wills them not to lay down their weapons or to take another course of life which he ought and would have done if that course had been unlawful but he instructs them rather in their calling for he gives them these two Lessons Do no man wrong and Be content with your pay your wages then which there could not have been better or more pertinent counsel given to Souldiers these being the two principal vices of Souldiers to wrong places where they live by forage aud pillage and to mutiny in dislike of their pay When St. Peter came to preach to the Centurion in the Acts we find not a syllable in all that Sermon prejudicial to a Souldier's profession And therefore accordingly in the times of the Primitive Church Christians served even under Heathen Emperours and that with the approbation of God himself For in the Ecclesiastick story we read of the Legio fulminatrix of a Band of Souldiers called the Thundring Band because that at what time Marcus the Emperour lying with his Army in Germany was afflicted with a great drought and in great danger of the Enemy when they were now about to joyn battel the Christian Souldiers that Band fell flat on their faces and by their instant prayers obtained of God a great Tempest which to the Emperour and his Army brought store of cold refreshing water but upon the Enemy nothing else but fire and whirl-wind The Emperour's Epistle in which this story is related is this day extant recovered by Iustin Martyr who lived about the time the thing was done Wherefore we may not doubt of the lawfulness of that profession which it hath pleased God thus to grace and honour with such a miracle Besides
Christ and resolution in his quarrel he gave an evident testimony when he protested himself ready to lay down his life for him Greater love then this in the Apostles judgment no man hath then to lay down his life for his freind This St. Peter had if we may beleive himself yea he began to express some acts of it when in defence of his Master he manfully drew his sword and wounded the servant of the high Preist But see how soon the scene is changed This good Champion of our Saviour as a Lion that is reported to be daunted with the crowing of a Cock is stricken out of countenance and quite amazed with the voice of a silly Damsel yea so far is he possess'd with a spirit of fear that he not onely denies but abjures his Master and perjures himself committing a sin not far behind the sin of Iudas yea treading it hard upon the heels But the mercy of God that leaves not the honour of his servant in the dust of death but is evermore careful to raise us up from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness suffers not this Rock this great Pillar of his Church to be overthrown He first admonishes him by the crowing of a Cock when that would not serve himself full of careful love and goodness though in the midst of his enemies forgets his own danger and remembers the danger of his servant Himself was now as a sheep before the shearer dumb and not opening his mouth yet forgets he not that he is that great Shepherd of the flock but David like rescues one of his fold from the mouth of the Lion and from the paw of the Bear He turns about and looks upon him saith the Text he cries louder unto him with his look then the Cock could with his voice Of all the members in the body the Eye is the most moving part that oft-times is spoken in a look which by no force of speech could have been uttered this look of Christ did so warm St. Peter almost frozen-dead with fear that it made him well-near melt into tears As if he had cried out with the Spouse Cant. vi O turn away thine eyes for they have overcome me he grows impatient of his looks and seeks for a place to weep what a look was this think you St. Ierom discoursing with himself what might be the cause that many of the Disciples when they were called by our Saviour presently without further consultation arose and followed him thinks it not improbable that there did appear some Glory and Majesty in his Countenance which made them beleive he was more then a man that thus bespake them whatsoever then appear'd in his looks doubtless in this look of his was seen some Sovereign power of his Deity that could so speedily recover a man thus almost desperately gone A man that had one foot in hell whom one step more had irrecoverably cast away It was this look of Christ that restored St. Peter Quos respicit Iesus plorant delictum saith St. Ambrose They weep for their sins whom Iesus looks upon Negavit primo Petrus non flevit quia non respexerat Dominus Negavit secundo non flevit quia adhuc non respexerat Dominus Negavit tertio respexit Iesus ille amarissime flevit St. Peter denies him once and repents not for Iesus look'd not back upon him he denies him the second time and yet he weeps not for yet the Lord look'd not back He denies him the third time and Iesus looks upon him and then he weeps bitterly Before I come to make use of this it shall not be altogether impertinent to say something unto some Queries that here arise concerning the condition of St. Peter and in him of all the Elect of God whilst they are in a state of sin unrepented of for as for St. Peter's faith which some make doubt of there can as I conceive no question be made It is not to be thought that St. Peter had revers'd with himself the confession that he had formerly made of Christ or that he thought doubtless I have err'd this is not the person whom I took him to be Indeed through fear and cowardize he durst not confess that with his mouth unto salvation which in his heart he beleived unto righteousness Any thing further then this that speech of our Saviour takes away wherein he tells him before-hand I have pray'd that thy faith might not fail But since our Age hath had experience of some who because the Election of God standeth sure and Christ's sheep none can take out of his hands conclude therefore that for the Elect of God there is no falling from grace that to David and Peter no ill could happen no though for so they have given it out that they had died in the very act of their sin To meet with such disputants I will breifly lay down what I conceive is to be thought in the point Wherefore parate fauces pani as St. Bernard speaks Hitherto I have given you milk provide your stomacks now for harder meat and such as befits strong men in Christ. Peter and Iudas for I will couple them both together in my discourse whilst they are both joyned together in sin Peter I say and Iudas in regard of their own persons were both more or less in the same case both fallen from grace both in a state of sin and damnation till the Repentance of St. Peter altered the case on his part But the Grace of God signified two things either the purpose of God's Election the Grace and Favour Inherent in the Person of God which he still casts upon those that are his notwithstanding their manifold backslidings or else it signifies the habit of sanctifying qualities Inherent in the Regenerate man those good Graces of God by which he walks holy and unblameable Again the state of Damnation signifies likewise two things either the purpose of Gods Reprobation or else the habit of damnable qualities in the sinful man From the state of Grace as it signifies the purpose of God to save the Elect can never fall In the state of Damnation as it signifies something inherent in us every man by nature is and the Elect of God even after their Calling many times fall into it that is they may and do many times fall into those sins yea for a time continue in them too David did so for a whole years space which except they be done away by repentance inevitably bring forth eternal death for the state of mortal sin unrepented of is truly and indeed the state of death yea the whole and sole reason of the condemnation of every one that perishes for Christ hath said it Except ye repent ye shall all perish So then you see that into the state of Damnation as it signifieth something inherent in us a man may fall and yet not fall from the state of grace as it signifies God's purpose of Election
commission that Saul did against the Amalekites one of these whom Saul spared lived to cut his throat and executed that judgment upon Saul which Saul neglected to do on him So if we let but one sin alone there may come a time when that one sin may ruine us Therefore let Dixi custodiam be of the extent it is here 1. In the first person 2. To bind us for the present 3. Over all our ways These three Circumstances shew the meaning of the words And now since you know what they mean what think you of taking them up for your own Can you find in your hearts thus to resolve Will you try whether it be possible to make it good or no I shew'd you last day that the onely way to know whether it be possible is to make trial your selves and that you have this for your comfort that in other cases by making of trial many things have been found possible which till then many wise men thought impossible If other kind of trials have sped so well why may not God give the like success to this which certainly is more pleasing to God Do ye rightly apprehend what I mean I do not say it is possible for any man to keep the whole law and never offend It is too late for you and me to make trial of that for we have all offended deeply and without the Merits and Mediation of Christ we are utterly lost But this I say When a man is in David's case here when he is brought to the knowledge of God and his own miserable estate to the free pardon of great offences that he hath committed may he not then resolve for the time to come as David doth May he not then keep that resolution not so as never to slip but not to fall and leave his right way Is he bound to think it impossible shall he so discourage himself from the happiest experiment in the world I know many men hold it impossible and live accordingly but I would have all under my charge to hold it possible and to live as they meant to prove it Or if you will needs think it impossible be perswaded to undertake it howsoever for if you do your best and cannot effect it that endeavour will be highly prized Shall I speak plain I imagine it is impossible for I fear we have brought our selves to that pass that it comes not far short of impossibility for us to do it Yet why should we not venture upon impossibilities in this so good a cause as well as we do of our own accord in other cases Is not the greatest part of our lives spent in attempting things meerly impossible Petrarch It a se res habet ad impossibilia studium omne conversum est We would want nothing never be troubled not be sick not die this all desire this is impossible Why do we not as much desire not to sin which is the onely cause of all our want trouble sickness and death too If you would be exempted from them little offended with them take up this Dixi custodiam If you will be affrighted with this impossibility you shall have enough of all the other Therefore among so many impossibilities we undertake for our own fancy Let us attempt this one of perfect Christian cautelousness especially since God commands us and David here undertakes the practise of it Certainly either David saw some possibility in it which we do not see or else he thought some impossible attempts were not misbecoming us And would you but look a little to the Institution and Discipline of the ancient Monks or to the practise of our adversaries the Iesuites of our times you would wonder what strange examples you might find of the obedience of inferiours toward their superiours even in cases of apparent impossibilities If one of you which are fathers should bid your little children bring you that which you knew were beyond his strength onely to try him would you not commend reward his endeavour And do you think your heavenly Father hath not as much love and respect unto his own children By this time I hope you are in charity with these words with the main word Custodiam I will observe I will take heed Now I will tell you what it is It is a word of that singular weight and moment that it contains in it all the Christian art and wisdom by which whatsoever the force and fraud of sin and hell can secretly suggest or openly oppose is frustrated and defeated altogether If we surveigh and sum up all the forces which the Divil Flesh World are able to raise those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satan's deep unfathom'd policies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual juglings and cousenages all devises and means whatsoever by which he abuseth us or we our selves This one word Custodiam I will take heed contains that in it which disannuls them all Galen observ'd it of the diseases of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To suppose there were some one cure of all maladies were extreme folly Among the world the diseases that our frail bodies are subject unto every one if we will cure it must have a proper remedy if we will prevent it must have a proper Antidote Besides the difference from the temper age complexion custom trade and diet of the patient But in the cure of souls though our spiritual diseases be more and more dangerous yet all these if you would cure and remove them prevent and shun them have but one remedy antidote and preservative Would you know what these are The one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance the other is Custodiam cautelousness These two Simples cheap and easie growing in every man's Garden are universal medicines in all our spiritual diseases the one curing the other preventing the one lifting up when we are fall'n the other supporting us that we fall not All Gilead will yeild no other balm but this We have not as some Physicians have a Box and a Box one receit for great persons and another for meaner the spiritual cure of our souls admits of no such partiality but from the Scepter to the Spade there is but one way to prevent sin Custodiam cure sin committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent ye Now of these two David here like Mary in the Gospel teacheth you to make choice of the better part For let it not offend you if I compare these two great Christian virtues Cautelousness Repentance and not onely compare but much prefer the one before the other I know the doctrine of Repentance is a worthy lesson the joy and comfort of our souls we drink it in with thirsty ears yet let me tell you to be all for it is some wrong and impeachment to this Christian cautelousness and wariness here commended For as the ancient Romans were wont to use vomiting to procure them an appetite for farther eating so it seems many Christians use Repentance When we
and in the name of the Palatine Churches required a Copy of these considerations upon the Catechism We have saith he a command from our Prince to see that nothing be done in prejudice of our Churches The Catechism is ours known by the name of the Palatine Catechism and from us you receiv'd it The Observations therefore upon it concern us we require therefore a draught of them with purpose to answer them and submit our answer to the judgement of the Synod This request of the Palatines was thought very reasonable These Considerations I speak of those on the Confession for those others I saw not are nothing else but Queries upon some passages of the Confession of little or no moment so◠that it seems a wonder unto many how these men which for so many years past in so many of their Books have threatned the Churches with such wonderful discoveries of falshood and error in their Confession and Catechism should at last produce such poor impertinent stuff There is not I perswade my self any writing in the world against which wits disposed to wrangle cannot take abundance of such exceptions After this did the Praeses put the Remonstrants in mind of the judgement of the Synod past upon the manner of propounding their Theses on the Articles Two things there were misliked First their propounding so many Negatives Secondly their urging so much to handle the point of Reprobation and that in the first place whereas the Synod required they should deliver themselves as much as was possible in Affirmatives and begin first from Election and from thence come to the point of Reprobation in its due place He required them therefore to signifie whether they would follow the Judgement of the Synod or their own They answered that they had given up their reasons to justifie their Proceeding and otherwise to proceed their Consciences would not permit them For saith Episcopius the point of Reprobation is that quod maximè nos aegrè habet that he could not endure that Doctrine concerning the absolute Decree of God that God should peremptorily decree to cast the greatest part of mankind away only because he would Corvinus answered that he could not salvâ Conscientiâ versari in Ministerio till that point were cleared Isaacus Frederici that praecipuum momentum was in that question others that in the question of Election they had no scruple all their doubt was in the point of Reprobation and therefore their Conscience would not suffer them to proceed farther in disputation till that matter were discust To this answer was made that the Synod did not refuse to handle the matter of Reprobation but thought it not fit to have it done in the first place But when this would not content them the Praeses proposed unto them whether they were resolved so to proceed or else to relinquish all farther disputation They replyed they resolved to break off all farther Treaty if that matter might not be handled It was told them that it should be treated of in its due place but the question was only de modo procedendi whether they should handle that first or no. Episcopius and some others of them gave answer that for the order they did not precisely stand upon modo de tota re agatur but this answer they stood not unto For when the Praeses told them again that it was the pleasure of the Synod first to handle of Election and then of Reprobation as much as should seem necessary and for the Churches good and withal charged them to answer roundly and Categorically whether they would proceed according to this order they answered No. Then did the Praeses require them to withdraw and give the Synod leave to advise of this The sum of that which past in the mean time was this That their pretence of Conscience was vain since it was not of any thing which concern'd Faith and good manners but only of order and method in disputing which could not at all concern the Conscience that the Disputation must begin from Election First because the order of Nature so requir'd to deal of the Affirmative before the Negative and again because that all Divines who ever handled this Question did hold the same order the Holy Ghost in Scripture had taken the same course That they should be assured in the name of the Synod that they should have liberty to discuss the question of Predestination throughout That whatsoever they pretended yet the true end of their so hotly urging the question of Reprobation was only to exagitate the Contra-Remonstrants Doctrine and to make way for their own Doctrine in point of Election Lydius observed that it had been the custome of all those who favoured Pelagianism to trouble the Church with the question of Reprobation D. Gomarus that saw that his Iron was in the fire for I perswade my self that the Remonstrants spleen is chiefly against him began to tell us that Episcopius had falsified the Tenent of Reprobation that no man taught that God absolutely decreed to cast man away without sin but as he did decree the end so he did decree the means that is as he predestinated man to death so he predestinated him to sin the only way to death ◠and so he mended the question as Tinkers mend Kettles and made it worse than it was before In summe the Synod caused a Decree to be penn'd to this purpose That it should be lawful for the Remonstrants to propose their Doubts both in the Question of Election and Reprobation but for the order in disputation which of the two should come first they should leave that to the Synod who thought it fitter to give than to riceive Laws and that whereas they pretended Conscience it was but vain since there was nothing in Scripture against this Command of the Synod nay that it was more agreeable with Conscience to obey than to withstand Then were the Remonstrants called in and after a short admonition better to advise themselves the Decree of the Synod was read unto them And when they began to urge their Conscience the Praeses Politicus spake to this purpose that there had heretofore been many Decrees made by the Delegates but they had been all neglected he therefore strictly warn'd them that no man should dare to withstand any Decrees either of the Magistrate or of the Synod either by open opposing against it of by sullen silence under pain of penalty according to the will of the Lords When Episcopius had said aegerrimè ferimus and would have said somewhat more he was enjoyn'd silence and so the Session ended Mr. Praeses telling us that the next Session we should come to the question si per Remonstrantes liceret Now concerning Monsieur Moulins Proposals of which your Lordship required to know what I thought I will deliver my self in my next Letter to your Honour In the mean time commending your Honour to Gods good protection I humbly take my leave Dort this