shall you rule Even as it is in the text Over the fishes of the Sea by the Angle Christ bids Peter cast in his angle and take the fish Matth. 17. 27. Or by the net Christ also bid Peter let down his net to make a draught Luke 5. 4. Angling and fishing are to man both for profit and for pleasure And over the fowl of Heaven By Fowling by Hawking by power or by policie either killing them with arrows or taking them in pits or by snares as in Prov. 7. 23. the 20. Joshua 13. God for the Ravens and for the young birds prepareth their meat Job 39. 3. So that the fowls and birds are to man for service for solace and their notes of musick And over every beast This is indeed a large Charta de foresta We are permitted and authorized hereby to hunt the wild beasts of the forest and being hunted to eate the flesh thereof Levit. 17. 13. Thou mayest eat flesh even what soever thy heart desireth Even as the Roe buck and the Hart is eaten so shalt thou eat it Deut. 12. 22 23. There they were permitted the eating of all kinde of flesh they might before eat the flesh of that they had hunted as of the Roe-buck and of the Hart. It was caro justitiae which they got by hunting it was dainty meat unto the Hunter for unto the hungry soul every thing is sweet Prov. 27. 7. The Hunter had his snares Psal. 91. 3. The Hound hunteth the Deer both are serviceable unto man there is pleasure in the hunting and chasing the game is for meat when it is pulled down We have rule over Horses and Doggs who serve us though not to feed us The Dogge defendeth our flocks from the Wolfe our houses from theeves our bodies from injurie the swiftnesse of the Horse helpeth our slownesse the Elephant in battel helpeth our weaknesse the Sheep help our nakednesse cloathing us with their wooll the Oxe plougheth the ground to give us bread and eateth grasse to be our food he giveth his hide to shoe us and every thing that moveth in the Earth is for man We finde great goodnesse many wayes in the Bee and in the Silk-worm God saw man feeleth the goodnesse of those things God hath created So that subjicite terram is the tenor of all Law a giving possession of inheritance and dominamini is a rule and dominion given to man over the utensils the riches of the Sea Land and Aire A spiritual Analogie There is here also observed by the Fathers a spiritual Analogie in dominamini In man there is a spirit and a soul in him there is also Earth the cares of the body ought to be lesse than those of the soul est enim anima in homine coelum corpus autem coenum saith Basil non sit coenum coelo superius sed sit coelum coeno superius Let the soul have dominion over the body and the concupiscence thereof the body is earthly given to lust anger envie pride Here they admonish us to subdue these beastly affections and to tame the savagenesse of our corrupt nature The whole nature of beasts and of birds and of creeping things and things of the Sea is tamed and hath been tamed of the nature of man but the tongue can no man tame it is an unruly evill full of deadly poyson this place doe they allege out of the 3. James 8. And as James saith that the tongue should be tamed from evil speaking malicious slandering back-byilng lying and dissembling so say they and that very well that all the brutish affections ought to be tamed and subdued that so the soul might reign in the body and the body be subject to the soul. Praeterea dixit Deus Ecce dedi vobis omnes Herbas sementantes semen quae sunt in superficie totius Terrae omnesque Arbores in quibus est Fructus arboreus sementantes semen vestrae ad comedendum erunt c. Gen. 1. 29,30,31 Februar 11. 1590. THIS is Gods third speech of this sixth day concerning man The first in the 26. verse is of his power in creating him The second dixit in the 28. verse is of his providence in preserving mankinde This third speech is Gods further care for the nourishment of them whom he hath created and by propagation preserved In the 30. verse God sheweth his love to man having before given unto man the beasts of the field yet he giveth to his beasts their meat The last verse is the closing up of the sixth day Mans meat The Argument of the 29 verse is for provision for mans meat An Objection Here ariseth a question made by some Man in the estate of his innocency was immortall what need had man then of any meat The Answer True it is that Adam was created immortal yet having a possibility to be immortal Thereupon the School-men say there is a double immortality posse non mori fuit Adami mori non posse est Dei for Christ only who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords hath this immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. which is bestowed upon us by way of reward through Christ our Saviour whereby our nature is ingrasted in the divine nature of the second immortality for the first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning spirit that is bringing us from Heaven the spirit of life the first was of the Earth earthly the second of the Heaven heavenly 1 Cor. 15. 45. Adam was created with a possibility of immortality the part immortal of mans creation was from God but through mans disobedience and ambition when he did eat of the forbidden fruit of good and evill God shut him out of the garden of Eden lest he should take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever chap. 3. 22. whereby Adam was deprived of life for it was said in the 2. chap. 17. When in that day he did eat of the forbidden fruit he should dye the death So that by mans disobedience man became mortal who before in the state of his innocencie had a possibility of immortality for then he had the Image of God perfectly but by sinne came death per peccatum mors and so by mans transgression Gods Image was defaced for by one man sinne entred into the World and death by sinne and so death went over all men by this Adams sinne even Babes were subject to death though they had no actuall sinne Rom. 3. 12. And life came to Mankinde through one that is Christ Jesus As by the offence of one the fault came on all men to condemnation so by the justifying of one the grace abounded to all men to the justification of life the 18. of the foresaid chapter For by him this mortall must put on immortality this corruptible incorruption for Christ swallowed up death in victorie saying Death where is thy sting Hell where is thy victorie 1 Cor.
of his blessings on him in this happy place which sheweth Adam in all justice worthy to be condemned as filius mortis 2 Sam. 12. 5. in that he having such infinite store of all good trees that were yet was not content but did impiously and ungratefully take away and steal from him which had but only one tree From both these we gather that it is not lawfull in respect of Gods will nor against the Law of nature but it is allowed and permitted to man in the estate of innocencie to desire and to use and enjoy both plenty and variety of Gods blessing here on Earth which are pleasant and good that is such good Creatures which may serve for delight and profit David Psal. 23. 5. giveth God thanks for both for God gave him balme which is a thing for pleasure and an overrunning cup which is for plenty And Salomon 2 Chro. 9. 21. and in the 1 King 10. 22. when his Navie went to Ophir he took order according to the wisedome God gave him that they should bring him Apes Peacocks and Parrots c. which we know are only for delight and hath a use for pleasure so he had both a desire and fruition of such things and our saviour Christ which is wiser than Salomon John 18. 2. he often resorted to and reposed himself in a garden and took pleasure therein and Luke 24. 43. there we see he cate of an honey-Combe for the pleasure of taste and St. Augustine giveth this reason because God caused Bees not to gather honey for the wicked only but for the godly also The desire then and the use is lawfull only we must take this Caveat by the way and beware that we long not after the forbidden Tree that is that we both in respect of our wills and desires in regard of the means to obtain and get these things and also of the use and enjoying them must beware that we doe not that which is forbidden for to desire those things in affection immoderately to seek them by evill means inordinately and indiscreatly or to use them in excesse unthankfully is the abusing and making them evill unto us And let this suffice for the first part Now for walking about the Garden Moses here calleth us into the mid'st of it and we know that usually in the mid'st of their places of pleasure men will have some curious devise so God applying himself to the nature of men is said to have a speciall matter of purpose in the mid'st which Moses will have us now see and consider We read in the 1 Cron. 16. 1. that in the middle of the Temple and in the mid'st of the middle part God caused the Cherubins and the Ark to be set where his glorie and presence did most appear for there he contriveth and conveyeth the most excellent things in all Paradise and setteth them in the mid'st thereof to be seen which were no where else that is to say the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evill which he expresseth by name as for all the rest he hudleth them up in a general term as not worthy the naming in respect of this Touching which two St. Austin saith well that we must note that they came out of the ground not out of the Aire that is they were not fantasticall trees as some men have imagined but very true and substantial trees as the rest not differing but only this in prerogative and special fruit which by Gods blessing they brought forth fructus erat non ex natura arboris sed ex gratia Creatoris as è contra it was not an evill or hurtfull tree ex voluntate plantantis sed ex culpa comedentis for by Adams sinne it became deadly We see then that as Paradise was a natural place though it had reference to a spirituall place for in this tree of life is both matter of Historie which proveth the very true and essential being of it and yet withall matter of mysterie For as it is a true use to be applyed to the body and natural life to maintain it So besides that History in it was a mysterie to signifie a heavenly matter to be spiritually applyed to our souls as the Scriptures doe teach And in these two respects we shall have a perfect comprehension of these trees in the middest Touching the tree of life and the corporal use of it we must remember that it is said in the 7. verse that God gave man a spirit of life and made him a living soul that is such a soul which could give life to every part in the body with the functions and faculties thereof as to eat and drink to move goe and stirre which the soul of Beasts also giveth to them naturally Touching the natural life and living soul of Man all Physicians doe well agree with divinity in this that it standeth in two points and that there were two causes ordained by God by which it should be maintained or impaired the one is set down Deut. 34. 7. Humidum radicale the natural vigor and strength of nature in moisture the other is called Calor naturalis 1 Reg. 1. 1 2. that is natural heat So long as they two are perfect and sound the bodily life doth continue perfect but when there is a defect or decay of them then the natural life doth cease and end Wherefore God taketh order that by eating and drinking there should be a supply of that natural moisture which should be spent in us by travail and labor Jer. 18. 15. And therefore it is called a refection and recovering by food that moisture which before hath been decayed in us now because the moisture and juice which cometh of meats and drinks would at last by often mixture become unperfect as water being mixed with wine is worse therefore God gave this tree of life for mans bodily use that whatsoever naturall defect might grow in these two yet the fruit of this tree shall be as balm as it were to preserve his bodily constitution in the first perfect good estate of health Secondly though there be no decay of moisture or that yet sinne which is the sting of death might impair or destroy this immortall life 2 Chron. 15. 16. For when God doth punish or chastise man for sinne then even as a moth fretteth a garment so doth sinne consume our life Psal. 39. 11. Therefore God ordeined also the other tree of knowledge to a remedy for that that as the body should be sustained by that corporall fruit of life so his heart also might be propped up or upheld by grace Heb. 13. 9. which this tree of knowledge did teach him to apprehend And thus much of the corporall use of these trees which were truely in the Garden as this History doth shew Now for the other part it is not to be doubted but that as it hath a true matter of history So it hath in it also a spirituall mystery
of whom he came the Scripture doth particularly set down For among the sonnes of Noah he came of Shem among those that came of Abraham he was of the Tribe of Juda in that Tribe he came of the house of David and so is called The Sonne of David Matthew the first chapter and made of the seed of David according to the flesh Romans the first chapter He is that seed in whom God promised Abraham That all the Nations of the earth should be blessed as the Apostle expounds it in the third chapter of the epistle to the Galatians Secondly For the manner how that Victory is gotten It is by bruising the Serpents head Wherein for the bruising we learn that Christ goeth not to work by subtilty as the Serpent did he pretends not love as Sathan did but he professeth deadly hatred he deals not creepingly and deceiptfully but goeth to it with open force and violence He that hurts the heel comes by stealth behinde as the Devil dealt here but if a man will break another mans head he will come before him and so doth Christ. And therefore he is not like the subtil Serpent but as the brasen Serpent that was set up upon a pole John the third chapter and the fourteenth verse to shew that his dealing is open and manifest The Serpent having a purpose to destroy our Parents seduced and beguiled Eve the second epistle to the Corinthians the eleventh chapter but Christ having a purpose to destroy the Devil and so save man saith plainly in the thirteenth chapter of Hosea O death I will be thy death O Hell I will be thy destruction and so he speaks in the twelfth chapter of John I when I am lift up will draw all men that is he will not entice them by fraud and subtilty as the Serpent doth Secondly The part to be bruised is the Head of the Serpent Christ would not goe to the weaker part as the tail or heel as the Serpent doth but to the head of the Serpent where both his strength and poyson lyeth so he is not minded as the Serpent was The strength and poyson of Satan as it is called in the twenty sixth verse of the eighteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles is the poyson that he hideth in his head which hath the same name in the holy tongue but Christ bruiseth the head Secondly He hath poyson in his tongue as it is in the third verse of the hundred and fourtieth Psalme but Christ destroyed that poyson as it is in the fourth chapter of Matthew and the fourth verse with alledging it is written Thirdly he hath poyson in his teeth of which Christ saith Now is the power of darknesse Luke the twenty second chapter But the chief poyson that he 〈◊〉 to destroy us with is the curse of the Law which the Apostle calls the strength of sin in the first epistle to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter That Curse is of twelve forts Deuteronomie the twenty seventh chapter but Christ hath taken them away When he became a curse for us Galatians the third chapter So hath he broken his head and drawn forth this poyson of it First by resistance Secondly by patience Thirdly by receiving the poyson of it into his own body Having done this to shew that he hath obtained a full conquest he went up on high and lead captivity captive Psalm the sixty eighth and the eighteenth verse Though he were dead that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death Hebrews the second chapter and the fourteenth verse yet now he saith I am alive and have the keyes of Hell and death Apocalyps the first chapter and the eighteenth verse He fast ned to the Crosse the hand writing Colossians the second chapter and 〈◊〉 over Hell and Death as it is said O Hell where is thy sting O death where is thy victory the first epistle to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter And thus is the victory fulfilled in Christ But for the condition This Victory did not cost him nothing so great a matter it is to redeem a soul Psalm the fourty ninth he bought his conquest at a deer rate even with the price of his own blood for Christs enemies did not only stander the footsteps of our annointed Psalm the eighty ninth but left in his humanity those impressions of cruelty that made him cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matthew the twenty seventh chapter and to send forth strong cries with tears Hebrews the fifth chapter but still they did but bruise his heel And so he did set all this at his heel as we speak that he might set us at his heart Thus much concerning the Victory as it was fulfilled in Christ as he was the wheat Corne 〈◊〉 it is also fulfilled in the Church For whatsoever he did he did 〈◊〉 not for himself but for the members of his body and he doth infuse such virtue into his body that as Christ said to his Disciples Behold I give you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the power of the enemy Luke the tenth chapter and the nineteenth verse so shall the faithfull be able to trample the Devil under their feet to whom this promise is made That God shall tread down Satan under their feet Romans the sixteenth chapter which is a plain exposition of this promise set down by Moses Christ as he is the wisdom of God shall communicate this power to his Church That they shall tread under their feet that poyson of temptation which the Serpent speweth out of his mouth by resisting it as he himself did Matthew the fourth chapter They shall be able to sustain the poyson of his teeth by not giving place to it Though he hurt them in the heel that is in their earthly parts as substance wealth good name yet they shall be able to suffer it so long as he touch not the head But if a man refuse to suffer detriment by Satan in these outward things he shall have no part in the victory because it is not gotten without bruising of the heel and some blood shed for it is Gods will That all shall be conformable to the Image of his sonne Rom. 8. 29. for of those things which Christ in his natural body suffered there remaineth somthing which must be accomplished in his mysticall body Col. 1. 24. until the number of the Elect be fulfilled Here is matter of special direction for us It is plain the promise is made to no man but to him that is at enmity with the Serpent with whom we must make continual warre because although Christ have already wounded him in his head yet he is not dead and though his courage be much abated yet he still doth much mischief In this warfare we are to learn two things First what we must doe to him to practise it Secondly what he will doe to us that we may avoid it That which we are
Army of Frogs which God hath in the Waters where you shall see that God hath such great power in these weak things that they can annoy the mightiest Kingdomes upon Earth Exod. 8. 14. Armies of Earth For the Earth it self that can swallow up Gods enemies Numb 16. 32. And on the Earth you may take the Lyons for a strong Army 2 Kings 17. 25. but his power is most of all seen in the weak Host of Grashoppers Exod. 10. 14. and of Locusts and Caterpillers Joel 2. 25. Yea of Lice he can make such an Army that c. Exod. 8. 16 17. If we come to men the Inhabitants of the Earth they are Gods Host but they fight not against other Creatures but with their own kinde not one against one but thousands against thousands even in pitched fields not with natural Instruments as the Boare with his tusk the Bull with his horne but with artificial weapons of divers sorts with whose kinde of forces the World is too well acquainted Thus we see that there is no creature in Heaven or Earth but is a Souldier in pay with God and all these hoasts are in league with us so long as we serve God Job 5. 23. And keep our sacramentum militare which we make in our Baptism otherwise they come upon us like armed men and are prest against us to punish our disobedience And every part of Heaven and Earth then will send out an Army to conspire our destruction and overthrow and this may suffice for a brief view of these Armies A word of the third perfection we have seen perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now we are to consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First The World was a great House perfect in respect of the parts but yet the rooms were emptie and unfurnished Then God replenished garnished and furnished it with its hoasts as we have heard But yet there wanted a third perfection which is a head to guide and an owner to possesse manure and occupie all Man the perfection of Gods work God made the Earth as his work-house and shop and Heaven as his chamber and place for a rest and reward and both for one and that is man God made the Earth as the Tent to prepare our selves and to put on our Armour as the Field Lists or Tiltyard to trye masteries or to fight in against Gods enemies 1 Pet. But the Heavens and Firmament he made as locum triumphi that is the Court to triumph in So that when man was made to be a Souldier in the one and a Conqueror in the other all was perfected God made the Earth in its parts absolute and gave it erecta 〈◊〉 depressa vallium densa silvarum and furnished it with beasts and cattell of divers kinds but did perfect all by making man the owner of all In a Battell though the Field be appointed the Ordinance planted and the Souldiers encamped yet all is unperfect till there be a Generall of the field to marshall them and a Captain to lead them so was all unperfect till man was made Object Seeing man was the perfection of all things what ayleth it now That being so many men we can see nothing absolute and in its perfect estate David saith Psal. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Law is perfect as if he should say there is nothing else perfect now the Heavens are called often imperfect Levit. 26. 19. The Ayre is infectious the Seas dangerous the Earth also groweth in her imperfections So the Beasts are unto us In our bodies we finde troops of diseases and in our souls heaps of sorrows and care which shew our imperfections Resp. Perfectio creationis Though the finishing of Heaven Earth and Man be the perfection of Creation Deformatis 〈◊〉 perfectionis Yet now we must understand that the sinne of man brought in death and so an imperfection or deformation Finis peccati mors Rom. 6. 21. Et peccati finis damnatio Phil. 3. 19. verse Thus then standeth our estate and condition Ratio The reason of it is because the Captain and Lieutenant man being set to resist the enemy Satan grew in a league and conspiracy with him against God and so apostatavit non militavit as saith St. Ambrose wherefore seeing he was not content with his estate to be Lieutenant but would be chief generall sicut Deus Gen. 3. Therefore consequently followed his decay And this is the means whereby from perfection he came to desection and so to imperfection for when he which was the perfection of all things became imperfect then all things which were ordeined for and given to him grew subject to alteration and vanity Rom. 8. and so per consequence imperfect And thus saith David we have seen an end of all perfection under the Sunne Perfectio redemptionis Yet that perfection of nature being lost see the unspeakable mercy of God we have another new perfection 2 Cor. 5. 17. in Christ In whom we are made new creatures And that perfection to the which nature would have brought us that is never to dye but to be translated with Enoche to the same will Gods grace through Christ restore us again And as in the sixt day man was here perfected So in the sixt age of the World Christ came and made his Consummatum est which is the second perfection of redemption at which time as St. Peter saith all things lost by nature shall be restored by grace Yet there is another further perfection then this of grace and redemption that is the perfection of glory in the life to come for then shall the last end and perfection come Matth. 24. 14. When that which is imperfect is done away then that which is perfect shall come 1 Cor. 13. vers 11. Quam autem perfecisset Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat quievit ipso die septimo ab omni opere suo quod fecerat Gen. 2. 2. vers April 24. 1591. THe other day I shewed you that these two verses doe as links in a chain depend one upon the other for the Holy Ghost telleth us that when he had made man he perfected all his works and here when he had perfected and finished all then he rested It is the right order to work and labour still untill we have attained to the perfection of our work which done it is reason we should leave off and rest For whereas that is perfect whereunto nothing can or may be added and Gods works now being so having that perfection within which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fit joyning and knitting together of parts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the furnishing and adorning of the parts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the setting a head over them there wanteth now nothing else to be added but only an end and conclusion to be
may be resolved two wayes as the School-men say Quando actio cadit super materiam indebitam that is either when an action is forbidden from lighting on it which should not or when it is invested with all his due circumstances In speaking of this we will take this course first to entreat of the subject and action here expressed and then of the application of it to us The subject is a Tree and that but one tree of knowledge which tree with the fruits of it were without question no more evill than the other trees for all alike God saw to be good as we have seen and therefore it was such as might have been eaten as well as the other if this restraint had not been And again if this restraint had fallen on any other tree in the Garden as it did on this it had been as unlawfull to eat as this So that it is not the nature of the tree but of Gods word which made it evill to eat for there was no difference between them but in respect of Gods word and charge which said Thou shalt not eat thereof In which respect it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill We must understand that this tree hath not his name of every quality in it but of the event and effect which should come by it Exod. 15. 25. The Wise man calleth it lignum dolorum Eccles. 38. 5. of the effect and event it had of these waters So in Gen. 35. 8. there is a tree called Arbor lamentationis not that the fruits thereof would make a man sorrowfull but for the casualty and event which happened and befell Israel there not that it was the cause of any lamentation So we must know that whereas Adam before knew good both wayes both by contemplation and experience now having broken the Law he knew evill both wayes also we had the knowledge of good and evill morall by naturall contemplation Gen. 4. 7. so long as thou doest good to thy self men will speak well of thee So that to know good is bene pati while he did bene agere Dicite justè quia bene Esay 3. 10. 11. The just shall eat the fruit of their righteousnesse and the wicked the fruit and reward of their sinne and this is the other knowledge of good and evill Numb 11. 18. there was knowledge of good and evill by sight sense and experience Psal. 133. 1. this is shewed that malum culpae was the cause of malum poenae and by feeling the bitternesse of the punishment he knew how bitter a thing it was to forsake God and not to fear him So he knew the good of obedience by the good of reward which was the sweetnesse of pleasures before his fall and after his fall he knew the evill of sinne by the evill of his punishment The one knowledge is Gen. 18. 19. the other kinde of knowledge is Gen. 22. 12. If we follow St. Augustine and Tertullian we may say truly that it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill both wayes both in respect of the effect and also of the 〈◊〉 Tertullian conceiveth that it was called so of the effect and duty which was to arise and be taught out of it in which respect he calleth it Adam's little Bible and the fountain of all divinity for as the Bible is the perfect rule of knowledge to us So was that to him and should have been 〈◊〉 if he had not fallen for by this dicendo it should have plainly 〈◊〉 Gods will and so it should exactly teach that to be good which was according to it in obedience and that to be evill which is contrary to it by transgression for the knowledge could not be more 〈◊〉 set down then by this object and action Thou shalt eate of these and shalt not eat of this God then by forbidding them to eat of the tree of knowledge did not envy or grudge that they should have knowledge but rather made this rule the root of all knowledge to them that the science of good and evill is taken only from Gods dicendo that is things are therefore good because God by his word alloweth them and are evill because he forbiddeth them Now touching St. Augustine He saith this is called the tree of knowledge in respect of the event in regard of the exeperimentall knowledge which man had by it both because by it he had felt the reward of obedience so long as he stood upright and also by it he found and felt by experience the reward and penalty of disobedience for when he had contrary to Gods word reached his hand to the tree and eaten of it he had experimentall knowledge by and by both how birter a thing it was to sinne and forsake God Jer. 2. 19. and also how good and sweet a thing it was to stick fast to God by obedience Psal. 73. 28. He found that in the action of obedience was life and happinesse and in the act of sinne was death and wretchednesse 〈◊〉 before Adam had eaten of the tree he had knowledge of good by contemplation and experience and so for ever should have had and then he had argumentall knowledge by presumption and contemplation also of evill for he by the argument of privatives must presume this conclusion that if he doe that which is forbidden he should be deprived of the tree of life and that happy estate and so consequently must needs come to death and all misery which he found to be most true by wofull experience so soon as he had put it in triall And thus much of the object and of the name given to it Touching the Action which is the second part in which I mean thus to proceed by way of certain positions and grounds the one necessarily arising out of the other We lay then for the first ground that it was not lawfull for God nor behoofull for us that God should make triall of Adam who he had made for it is equally expedient and right in the practice and behaviour of men first to make proof and triall of 〈◊〉 before they will make any reckoning or commendation of them as good laborers so God tried Abraham Gen. 22. 12. that he might have experimentall knowledge of his obedience and say nunc scio c. Now I know that thou fearest God seeing for my sake thou hast not spared thine only sonne So he proved Israell at the waters of striffe and Job by an other triall So God had knowledge of man whom he made that then he was good but he would by triall see whether he would continue so or not 2. Second it was meet that seeing a triall must be made that it should be by some externall thing in which this outward obedience and practice might appear as masters doe make triall of their servants obedience in some such work Doe this Goe thither So seeing Gods will was that Adam should be a spectacle in obedience
As if he should say my commandement and will shall be the rule and direction of your will and works so in the new Testament St. Paul saith we must not be wise above that which is written 1 Cor. 4. 6. But that we be sober and know and understand according to sobriety which is to prove what every thing is by the perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2.3 This then is the difference between Gods commandements and those which men doe make when men though they be the greatest doe command any thing they therefore doe command things because they be good and lawfull and when we deal with them we therefore obey their Laws so farre forth as the things they command are lawfull and good because their words and commandements have no power to make things good But when we deal with Gods commandements we simply obey all that he willeth because his commandement and word doe make things absolutely good ye though they before may seem to be evill yet after he hath commanded them they are made therefore perfectly good Nos volumus qua bona sunt bona autem sunt quia voluit Deus Gods good will therefore is the best and most beneficiall thing for us and our good and the things he commandeth are the wisest things for us to follow howsoever they seem to corrupt reason and sense which are ill Judges in those matters Thus much then for our application and use that when our actions are agreeable to Gods word and law then they are according to Gods will And therefore we may be sure that it is best for our behoof Nam quo die comederis de eo utique moriturus es Gen. 2. 17. June 22 1591. EVery Law hath in it two principall parts the one containeth the body and tenor of it the other comprehendeth the sanction and penalty Touching the body of the Law we have entrcated already both of the subject and also of the action of it Now therefore we are come to the latter part to consider of the punishment threatned to the breach of it concerning which we say That as there is required necessarily in the Law giver authority and right to command so likewise in him must be a power and ability to correct and punish the transgressors or else his authority is without an edge Both these therefore are seen in the Law-maker by the parts of this Law the one being the directive part serving for direction the other being the corrective part which serveth for execution And every one may be sure that he is subject and under one of these This then is as if Moses had said Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is this Non comedes but his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is this If you will needs eat and 〈◊〉 your will before mine and your lusts before my love then be ye sure of this That in that day thou shalt dye the death for death is the sower and bitter sawce of this sweet meat Rom. 6. 23. Touching the punishment in it self we are to know that in every punishment inflicted for offence there is required Justice to give it in a due proportion that there be an equality between the punishment and offence As in the Law he that will desire another mans Sheep and steal it he in justice is to restore four-fold Again reason and equity requireth that the punishment must be of greater force to 〈◊〉 and discourage from sinne then the sinne must be to perswade and entise us to it Such an equality is in this For because he took liberty to stretch his will and desire further than he should therefore that he should lose the first liberty he had for this is just and equall 〈…〉 etiam poneret modum beneficio and that he that observeth not the manner of using it should lose the right use which he had It is therefore reason and right that either we should Dimittere voluntatem male vivendi aut amittere facultatem bene 〈◊〉 This we say to justifie God because men think that this sinne of eating such a fruit is not a capitall offence and that God was too hard to 〈◊〉 this so sore a punishment on it Touching the second point which is concerning the cause of his death which must not be ascribed to God because the cause is found in our own selves for God saith If you eat you shall die that is you shall be causes and authors of your own death your blood light on your own heads for I am not guilty thereof which we shall the better percive and esteem if we consider that which before I have shewed that Adam was made immortall non necessitate naturae sed vi 〈◊〉 gratiae not by natural necessity but by the priviledge of Gods grace for Adam consisting of contrarie qualities by his own nature they must needs in regard of themselves be the cause of death to them as they were to the beasts But notwithstanding this subjection to mortality and possibility to dye in regard of their nature Gods grace did sustain their bodily life and kept them from death so long as they kept themselves from sinne But now si hence transgression besides the necessity of nature their sinne also did pluck death upon them and was the cause of this curse So long therefore as man kept his first estate he was united to God which was life and had use of the tree of life which then was 〈◊〉 Deo and had this grace to preserve life and by that means so long we had an immunity from death because we were 〈◊〉 with the prop of Gods grace which was the cause of our immortality but when 〈◊〉 did cause that prop to be pulled away which sustained the 〈◊〉 of our nature then we could not choose but dye both by the necessity of nature and desert of our sinne If we had leaned still to the stay of our nature and not trusted so much to our own wills and wisdoms it had gone well with us But this voluntarie forsaking of God and leaning on the broken staffe and reedis stay of our own was the cause of our fall into sinne and so unto death Thus we see God justified in this sentence saying Morieris because he is neither the Author or Cause of Malum naturae which is sinne nor yet of 〈…〉 which is death But man causing both culpam poenam doth both wayes cleer God and condemn us and our selves are proved to be the cause of both 3. Point The kinde of death Now touching the third point which respecteth the kinde of death here threatned for there are several kindes of death Rev. 2. 11. Rev. 20. 6. there is the temporall and eternall the naturall and spirituall the first and second death which of these is here in this punishment threatned St. Augustine answereth that God doth here mean both whatsoever death may be included from the beginning of our life unto the last death all that is here
understood Object But it may seem hard and unjust that seeing only the Body did take and eat of the forbidden fruit that the Soul also should be condemned to this death as well as the Body Resp. But to satisfie this doubt the Fathers say That as well the Soul as the Body was in the transgression alike guilty and therefore in Justice should be alike punished and this they make plain by this familiar parable and comparison Be it say they that a blinde man and a criple or lame man should be in an Orchard and this one charge should be given alike to both that upon pain of death they should not take and eat of this one tree The blinde man of himself could not steal of the fruit because he could not finde where the tree was the lame man for his part could not alone take of the fruit because though he saw yet he was not able to goe to it So when neither of them without other could be guilty they conspired both together and agreed that the blinde man should carry the lame man to the tree and so to take their pleasures and fulfill their desires by which means they both became guilty of death Such a thing say they in resemblance was between the body and the Soul the Soul had a desire and appetite being forbidden but could not perform the Action wherefore the inward affection within moved and conspired with the outward action of the body and so perfected the sinne joyntly and therefore together are worthy of this death Object Notwithstanding this It seemeth to some that here is meant only the second death spirituall to be the punishment and not the corporall and temporall their reason is because God saith In what day thou shalt 〈◊〉 of it thou shalt dye therefore seeing present death and 〈◊〉 insued not the sinne but some lived nine hundred yeers after therefore they are induced to think that God here intended especially the second death of the Soul Resp. But to refell this opinion we see Gen. 3. 19. that in the same day they sinned the sentence of the bodily death was denounced irrevocablo 〈…〉 in pulverem reverter is which also is shewed by debarring him from the tree of bodily 〈◊〉 And that it is plainly meant of the corporal death also St. Paul sheweth it Rom. 5. 15. For only this death came to all Gen. 7. 21. 1 Gar. 15. 21. It is the death from which we rise again wherefore we make no 〈◊〉 but that this is meant of the bodily death and as of that so we say of the death of the Soul we all being 〈◊〉 transgressores in Soul are said 〈◊〉 in soul to be dead and to have this sentence given out against us Our Saviour Christ saith Matth. 8. 22. Sinite mortuos sepelire mortuos that is let the dead in soul bury the dead in body Also our 〈◊〉 is set out in the lost 〈◊〉 Luke 15. 31. He was dead but is alive again that is spiritually dead in sinne and alive by repentance And St. Paul more plainly saith 1 Tim. 5. 6. They being alive are notwithstanding dead By death here is understood the death of miseries Rev. 9. 6. that is the calamities and 〈◊〉 of this world which sinne will bring upon us which are 〈◊〉 more grievous and bitter than death it self for it is said that men being alive in those 〈…〉 wish and desire death as being lesse horrible than it On the contrary side to the Godly there are provided such joyes which are better than life it self Psal. 63. 5 6. for Gods loving favour and the light of his countenance is better than the 〈…〉 in this life in which regard the 〈◊〉 esteem 〈◊〉 of life but wish to be out of this life that they may enjoy that The Jews by 〈◊〉 of this 〈◊〉 eating 〈…〉 eat and 〈…〉 doe gather this By the first that he might eat both for necessary use and also for delight and pleasure And so by the second which containeth the punishment they make this 〈◊〉 〈…〉 dye that is 〈…〉 Heb. 2. 9. For the first and bodily death is but a sipping and tasting or death but when he saith thou 〈…〉 the death that is say they thou 〈◊〉 suck and 〈◊〉 up the very dreggs of death both which are comprehended in these two words Rev. 20. 14. Mors 〈◊〉 Death and Hell Object Hereout then 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 that is Whether God in 〈◊〉 threatning intended the pains of Hell fire There have been 〈◊〉 men that have 〈◊〉 that Moses in all his books spake not either of Heaven or 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 or of death Resp. but they were 〈…〉 〈◊〉 32. 21. 〈…〉 conceive that the 〈…〉 Statute and Law 〈…〉 priviledge of faith in Christ is reversed and taken away 4. Point Now we are come to the fourth point which is the time for this hath bred a scruple and been a bone for some to gnaw upon for seeing Adam is said to live so many hundred years after his fall Gen. 5. 5. which is answered diversly of sundry men Some say out of Peter 2 Epist. 3. 8. that with God 〈◊〉 dies est 〈◊〉 mille 〈◊〉 and therefore seeing Adam reached not to a full thousand years old he may truly be counted with the Lord and in respect of his reckoning to dye in the same first day The ancient Writers doe say that by assigning the time quo die is only an extent of the Law and is not extended to the punishment when it should take place So that they say it is q.d. Thou shalt ever and at all times oboy and no day break it As the like is Luke 21. Cavete ne qua die c. as if God allowed no day or hour in which the contrarie should be done Et semper ad semper faciendum est so the negative bindeth for ever But touching this matter the Judgment of Augustine and Theodoret I like best who say That not the act and execution of Death was presently to be inflicted the same day in which he should sinne but the sentence of death should that day be denounced as we see it was Gen. 3. non actum moriendi sed debitum mortis for then death was made a debt and became such an inevitable sentence which should not be revoked They received the sentence before the execution of Gods Judgments So did St. Paul 2 Cor. 1. 9. We received the 〈◊〉 of death in our selves because we should not trust in our selves but in God c. And in the Law he is accounted a dead man which hath his judgement and hath received the sentence of death And after this sort Adam and all his Posterity were dead in the same day 〈…〉 erat in dominium mortis saith St. Paul Rom. 6. 9. that is God delivered him being guilty and condemned for sinne unto the Sheriff of death to be kept and reserved unto the execution day which is
he did now For as the Angells which though they were unmarried yet notwithstanding did fall and not keep their first estate So no doubt the Divell would have been as strong in his delusions to have made him to fall as he was in deceiving his wife we may therefore lay the fault of this finne upon Eve or the Divell for as St. James saith Jam. 1. 14. It was not so much any outward occasion as his inward and corrupt concupifcence which made him to sinne But be it that she was the cause of fall yet from whence then came that occasion of evill to him Non'e e latere viri why then out of himself came all this cause of sinne But if any shall complain yet further of the womans hurt and fault let us know that this woman was made by the counsell of God the means and occasion by which amends was made and that with advantage for the evill for all the evill which she had first done for as she brought forth sinne and death so she was a means to bring forth a holy seed which should bring eternall righteousnesse and life unto all for as the Serpent should deceive the woman So it was Gods purpose that the seed of the 〈◊〉 should destroy the Serpent and his works wherefore we must not so much with grief marvail that the womans sinne was made the occasion of all our misery as with joy and comfort to wonder that God made the seed of the woman to save us from sinne and to bring us to 〈◊〉 And thus much for the resolution of these two doubts Now for the second part we see that after deliberation God cometh to this determination and saith Faciam adjutricem where we may mark that God saith not fiat as when he made other Creatures but faciam which is a word of advisement and wise deliberation whereas fiat is a word of haste and expedition to be presently done without delay which almighty God doth to put us in minde that when we goe about to get our selves wives or to give our children in marriage that we must not 〈◊〉 about it rashly or suddenly to post up such matters on the sudden but with great discretion wise advice and consultation to attempt so weighty a matter that is first by considering whether it be good or no for us that a match should be made Again seeing it is plain that God only is the giver of good and meet marriages and wives we learn that therefore it is our duty when we lack this help to pray earnestly unto God that it would please him to say unto us as he said unto Adam I will make a meet help for 〈◊〉 For want of observing which rules in 〈◊〉 it often cometh to passe that very unmeet matches and marriages hath been in the world and foul corruptions and abhominable abuses have crep into this holy ordinance to the slander and disgrace thereof for this is set down as the chiefest cause of all the monstrous sinnes of the first age of the world Gen 6. 2. Because the sonnes of God looking upon the daughters of men took them wives according to their own fancies that is rashly and headily without advice and deliberation and they took them at the first sight as pleased themselves and did not crave of God to give them such as might please him Micholl Davids wife is said to be a wife of Saules making and giving and therefore because God made not the match and marriage between them she was not a meet help but a snare to intangle him And so God doth threaten Joshua 23. 12 13. verses that if the Israelites doe after their own wills take unto them heathenish woman to be their wives which he had forbid they should be no helps to them but hurts namely They should be thorns to their eyes whips to their sides and snares to their feet because they doe not take wives at Gods hands that is such as he alloweth and willeth them to take Nam quum formavisset Jehova Deus è terrâ omnes bestias agri omnesque volucres coeli adduxisset ad Adamum ut videret quî vocaret singulas etenim quocunque nomine vocavit illas Adam animantem quamque id nomen ejus est Gen. 2. 19. Octob. 16 1591. THese words contain the occasion of the former deliberation for that there might be an orderly proceeding it was necessary that man being alone and wanting a meet help which was good for him therefore that first a generall view and survey might be taken of all the Creatures which God had made to see whether amongst so many millions of goodly creatures some one might be found for Adam to be a meet mate for him and then if the man should not finde any one fit for him God might proceed in his former purpose in making one woman meet for his company In these words therefore we have first to consider Gods commission and warrant for the ministring and bringing together all the creatures before the man Secondly Adams answer returned non est inventus for after his diligent search it is said he found no meet help for the first because it is Gods royall prerogative to cause all the creatures to make their appearance at a certain place and time which man of himself might not presume to take upon him therefore God giveth over his right by a letter of Attourny and dedimus potestatem to Adam by which he might lawfully both take a streight survey of them all and also impose names to every one of them as he pleaseth which see that this writ and warrant is given out to all the living creatures here below saving unto fishes the reason whereof is because that if there were any likelyhood at all that man might finde a meet companion and mate for himself any where then it must needs be amongst one of these two kinds of creatures either amongst beasts of the field or fowls of the aire for there be some agreement and conformity between man and beasts and birds naturally but none at all between the fish and us the beasts as we have seen are made of the same mould and matter which we are made of and the fishes were made of the slyme of the waters and not of slyme of the earth Secondly because they have naturally divers notes and voices as well as man but the fish are mute and dumb and therefore unmeet for our company Thirdly beasts and birds doe feed on earthly things as we and breathe and live in the same aire and place which we doe and doe delight naturally in the sight and company of man and easily will be made tame sociable and serviceable for man whereas è contra the fish neither feed nor breathe as we doe they cannot live in the same place and element which we doe but are as it were inhabitants of another world below us and besides this they will by no means be made tame and
heat nor the cold but after the fall they were passible and then they made them garments Nakednesse opposite to Ornamentum Again Nakednesse is taken against ornament with costly apparel which is to please the eye as it is a◠large described in Esay 3. 18 c. But Adam and Eve needed not the beauty of apparel they needed not the silk of the silk-worm nor the wool of Sheep not the skins of rare beasts nor any cloth of gold nor any needle work the softest raiment and the richest apparel would have been no grace but a disgrace to Adam in Paradise he was naked and yet the robe of righteousnesse was his attire when Christ was transfigured upon the mount Thabor his face did shine as the Sunne and his clothes were white as the light Matthew 17. 2. Christ was bright as the Sunne For that Adam and Eve were conversant with God they had that brightnesse which passed the glorie of the richest apparel their brightnesse was like the shining of the Sunne if the Sunne were covered with velvet it were no grace but a blemish to the Sunne and if Adam had been adorned in rich attire it would have disgraced the bright shining beams of his innocence And though that Adam by his disobedience lost this his brightnesse and we also lost it by his transgression innocencie and the robe of righteousnesse was their garment but after they were apparelled with shame But by Christ Jesus we look to be restored to the first state of Paradise to be covered with the robe of righteousnesse Esay 61. 10. then this corruptible body shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality 1 Cor. 15. 53. then shall the just men shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father Matthew 13. 43. then shall our beauty be without blemish our minde shall be upright our glorie unspeakable Then as it in Esay 24. 23. the Moon shall be abashed and the Sunne ashamed when God shall reign in Sion and glorie shall be before his Saints Why Man created naked For what cause they were created naked and were not clothed The Fathers answer that there is a resemblance between nakednesse and innocencie Nakednesse is to be bare from outward clothing Innocencie is to be bare from inward naughtinesse and there is a resemblance between deceit and a covering or mask there be those that have a shew of Godlinesse yet have they denied the power thereof 2 Tim. 3. 5. there be those that cover their deceit with the hood of 〈◊〉 as Peter speaketh and with the cloak of shame as Paul speaketh in 2 Cor. 4. 2. they cover their craftinesse Let then our minds and thoughts be innocent let them be naked from all kinde of wickednesse for as Paul speaketh in Hebrews 4. 13. God discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any Creature which is not manifest in his sight all things are naked and open to his eyes Innocencie to Adam and Eve was a glorious garment the robe of righteousnesse was their attire the man that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho in Luke 10. 30. and fell among theeves was robbed of rayment and was wounded to death which is the case of Mankinde after the fall was restored by the tender compassion of Christ the true Samaritane to be apparelled in the glorie and rayment of righteousnesse They were not 〈◊〉 The second thing is the state of the soul they were not ashamed they were not confounded their soul was not troubled In Revel 19. 8. the wite of the Lamb which is the Church shall be arrayed in pure fine limaen and the fine linnen is the righteousnesse of the Saints their thoughts were honest their soul at rest but the disquiet of the soul is by passions and perturbations Yet God at the first did create in Adam and Eve affections as in 〈◊〉 5. 22. Love joy peace long suffering gentlenesse meeknesse temperance which are the fruits of the spirit Adam had joy and love which were his 〈◊〉 affections and as the train to wait upon his original righteousnesse but the corosive affections which are in Man is shame grief 〈◊〉 c. which are the fruits of the Divell and of the flesh these 〈◊〉 the Divels Sergeants to arrest Man God himself after the 〈◊〉 would have these to be in us to punish us and to tyrannize over us As the Jebusites which were in Jerusalem as a scourge to them the which was called the Citie of the Jebusites Joshah 23. 7. and 18. 28. shame and sinne doe scourge us with whips not heard their stripes are worse than of an iron scourge as a Father saith well peccata nos surdo vulnere verberant The original hath and they were not confounded So long as sinne hath shame in his cheeks 〈◊〉 is counted a virtue to be 〈◊〉 in Paradise was accounted to be an evill and the least evill it is now If this small blemish shame were not to be found in Paradise then greater offences were not for shame is called primitiae peccati the first fruit of sinne and after shame came fear as it is in chap. 3. 8. and after fear sorrow seized upon Man This word of confounding is taken from a troubled vessel where the lees being stirred doe 〈◊〉 up to the top and shame we see bringeth a great part of the blood of the heart to the face When Adam and Eve had transgressed they then were ashamed and covered their shame chap. 3. 7. and men cover their faces that are ashamed after shame seized upon man his peace was dishonored his bleslednesse was taken away if a man now be innocent we doe say he is not ashamed and thus and that very well the School-men doe reason If the steps of sinne as shame be not found in man then the fruits of sinne are not in him the fruit of sinne is shame and the end thereof is death as it is in Romans 6. 21. see Proverbs 28. 14. that after shame a man hardneth his heart and becommeth shamelesse but after that comes punishment Esay 24. Shame fear sorrow are the Divels Livery it is the Divell that doth cloath Man with shame as with a garment But innocencie and righteousnesse are Gods plants God made Man without sinne without shame Now of these two joyntly They were naked and yet they were not ashamed They wanted shame he saith not and he felt no want of apparel And Austin saith well upon these words of Moses Non laudat 〈◊〉 sed innocentiam mentis for in that he was not ashamed he was innocent and he that sinneth not hath noe cause to be ashamed and now if a man have committed a fault and shameth not we call him impudent But if he be innocent and shameth not we say not that he is impudent but that he is couragious and confident for the wicked flyeth when none pursueth but the righteous are bold and confident as a Lyon Proverbs 28. 1.
When a man hath done 〈◊〉 either he shameth which as we say is a signe of grace or else he hardneth his face like a stone and is not ashamed but shamelesse this is objected against the People of the Lord in Jeremie 3. 3. that though they were wicked and punished for their wickednesse yet they would not be ashamed Harlots were wont to cover their faces to cover their shame but now Harlots are become shimelesse this was the reason that Judah supposed Tamer to be an whore chap. 38. 15. for that she had covered her face God cannot abide the sinfull man but he will punish sharply those that will not be ashamed when they have committed abhomination Jeremy 6. 15. Now we are clothed and ashamed for the minde condemneth the deformity of sinne by shame and to be ashamed at our faults now is accounted a virtue shame now bewrayeth the sinne that is covered Adam and Eve were naked in body innocent in minde and were not ashamed of their nakednesse But since the Fall it is otherwise as in chap. 9. 22. Ham saw the nakednesse of Noah his father and was accursed but Shem and Japheth went backward and covered the nakednesse of their father whose nakednesse they saw not and for that they shamed to see their fathers nakednesse they were blessed God in the 20. of Exodus 20. commandeth Moses not to make steps up to his altar lest when he went up by the steps his filihinesse were discovered thereon when the young man in Mark 14. 52. that was clothed in lynnen upon his bare body and they would have caught him he left his linnen cloth and fled from them naked as being ashamed In the 21. of John 7. when Christ appeared to Peter and heard him speak he cast himself into the Sea not naked as he was but gyrded to him his coat But what maketh nakednesse lawfull and laudable what maketh want of shame commendable in Adam and Eve to be now a thing blamable and whereof to be ashamed There were certain Cynical Philosophers and notable Hereticks called Adamites that went naked but at length they were weary of their opinion they were not able long to continue naked and were at last ashamed of their nakednesse But to answer the said question we will consider first Adams original state and then the state of him and of Mankinde by his Fall The 〈◊〉 of Adams Innocencie was when the word of God was above all when mans reason was subject to Gods word when his will was obedient to his reason when his concupiscence to his will and when his flesh was subject to his concupiscence so all in Man was straight and right he was upright within and without his reason was obedient his will was not perverse his concupiscence was chaste the nakednesse of the body corrupted not the soul it was original righteousnesse that was the complexion of Mans soul when Man was innocent there was then no hindrance of good nor any inclination to evill All this while there was no shame for there was nothing whereof man had cause to be ashamed Innocencie and uprightnesse brought forth chastity chastity brought forth courage and this it is that made them though they were naked not to be ashamed But after the Fall when all came out of joynt as Paul speaketh our concupiscence became a Rebell to our will our will to our reason our reason to the Law of God mans body would not yeeld obedience to his soul nor his soul unto God according to that of Paul Rom. 7. 23. I delight in the Law of God concerning the inner man but I see 〈◊〉 Law in my members rehelling against the Law of my minde and lending me captive to the law of sinne which 〈◊〉 in my members the corruption of the fleshrebelleth and riseth against our spirit our carnall members doe raise up the flesh against the Law of the minde and against our will and these members 〈◊〉 called the fire-brands of 〈◊〉 It is not the hand not the leg not the arme not the seemly parts but the basest part the unseemliest member that striveth against the spirit Yet by Marriage upon those members of the body which we think most unhonest put we most honesty on and our uncomely parts have more 〈◊〉 for our comely parts need it not but God hath tempered the body together and hath given the more honor to that part 〈◊〉 lacked by this bond of Marriage whereby they two become one flesh Levit. 18. 6. And in diverse other places God faith 〈◊〉 shalt not come neer any of the kinred of his flesh to 〈◊〉 her shame though it be under title of marriage the uncovering of which shame turpe est vobis dicere it is a shame to tell though marriage be honest and honourable yet there is a shame in marriage which is the shame of the carnall members whereof both Man and Woman have their shame Man may be ashamed of his fire-brand of concupiscence all finnes are to be shamed at but lust above all is to be ashamed of which causeth other sinnes as in 〈◊〉 Adultery and Murther and the members of lust and carnalitie we are to cover and so to cover our shame and to this shame of 〈…〉 men are subject which sinne 〈◊〉 us more like bruit beasts than othervices the theef by the Law might make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that committesh adultery destroyeth his own 〈◊〉 the wound and 〈◊〉 of that teacher 〈◊〉 man was death Prov. 6. 33. neither the Law of God nor the Law of Nature admitted any 〈◊〉 for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before Amnon committed his inceft 2 Sam. 13. 13. she said to him Commit not this folly how shall I put away my shame and than 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 of the fools of Israel he should be accounted even as a beast that hath no regard of kinred he should for that inoest be esteemed as a 〈◊〉 person He that is inticed by the flattery of an Harlot and felloweth her is as an one that goeth to the slaughter 〈◊〉 7. 22. He is like 〈…〉 neighing after his neighbours wife 〈◊〉 5. 8. 〈…〉 God that begat him and that formed him Deus 32. 18. It is 〈◊〉 begetteth sinne and sinne begetteth 〈◊〉 there was no sinne no filthinesse in Adam and Eve at the first where fore though they were naked yes they were not ashamed But in chap. 3. 7. after their Fall when they knew they were naked they made them 〈◊〉 to cover their privie and incomely parts and yet the covering of their shame takes not away 〈◊〉 shame And we should 〈◊〉 thus of apparel that it is to defend our nakednesse we being passible of weather to cover our shame and we have 〈◊〉 great cause 〈…〉 thereof seeing it is but as a clout wherein we doe wrap and cover our own shame we must take heed that we make not our shame to be our glory apparel should be a covering to shame but alas it is even now become a provocation and an
allurement to sinne The costlinesse of the apparel sheweth the pride of the minde Job in 29. 14. saith I put on Justice and it covered me my judgment was as a robe and a Crown Justice and Judgment did cover and adorn Job Esay prophecieth in chap. 61. 10. that Christ shall cloath the faithfull with the garment of salvation he shall cover them with the robe of righteousnesse he shall deck them like a bridegroom or a bride with her jewels Adam was created after the image of God that is in righteousnesse and true holinesse as it is in Ephes. 4. 24. in a word the spouse of the Lamb Christ Jesus whose wife is the Church she shall at the latter day be arrayed with pure fine linnen and shining and the fine linnen is the righteousnesse of the Saints Revel 19. 8. The apparel that covered Adam was his innocencie and the robe of righteousnesse melior est vestis Innocentia quà m Purpura Innocencie is better apparel than purple or scarlet say the Fathers out of the first of Proverbs 31. 22. where Salomon speaking of the wise woman saith that her family are cloathed in scarlet and purple is her garment that is the outward vesture But in verse 25. he saith strength and honour is her cloathing that is say they the inward decking of the soul it is not the outward apparel that God regardeth but as Peter saith in his first Epistle chap. 3. 4. If the hid man of the heart be uncorrupt with a meek and quiet spirit before God it is a thing much set by Purple and scarlet are the chief colours and most esteemed of by men yet yet they are the colours of shame and confusion Man in his Innocencie was in honor innocencie and righteousnesse were then his cloathing but when Man obeyed Sathan and disobeyed God he put on the Divels livery which was sinne and shame according to that in Psalme 132. 18. God saith He will cloath his enemies with shame Homo spoliatus honore indutus pudore after mans fall he was spoyled of his honor and wrapped in a few clouts to cover his shame this was his change from honor to misery We must now labour by all means to recover this first innocencie and seeing that we are become wretched and miserable poor and naked we must follow the counsell of the Angel in Revel 3. 18. We must buy of Christ the white rayment that we may be cloathed and that our filthie nakednesse should not appear We must put off the old man with his works Coloss. 3. 9. And we must put on the new man which is Christ who is renued in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Jacob the younger sonne must put on the cloaths of his elder brother Esau chap. 27. 15. And we must put on say the Fathers upon that place the apparel of righteousnesse of our elder brother Christ eldest sonne to God the faithfull are called the Children of Abraham Galath 3. 7. But we by the faith we have in Christ Jesus hope to become the Children of God and heirs of everlasting life as in the Gospel it is said that his wounds doe heal us so may it as well be said that his nakednesse must cover our nakednesse by his passion he washeth away our sinnes he dyed us with his purple blood he dyed an Innocent that we by his death might be unblamable his apparel is red and his garments like him that treadeth the Wine-presse it was he alone that trod the Wine-presse and all his rayment shall be stained Esay 63. 3. It was the purple of his blood that dyed us again in original righteousnesse the souldiers when they had crucified him took off his garments so that he hung naked upon the crosse John 19. 23. You see by the 12. to the Hebrews 2. that he endured the crosse and despised the shame to deliver us from shame and eternall punishment So that we must repose our selves in him and not be ashamed of him for who so shall be ashamed of Christ Christ shall be ashamed of him when he shall come in his glorie Luke 9. 26. But all our glory and rejoycing must be in the dear and only begotten sonne of God in whom we have redemption through his blood that is the forgivenesse of sinnes who is the image of the invisible God the first born of every Creature by whom and for whom all things were created 1 Coloss. 14 15. We must put off the old man and put on the new and if we be apparelled with Christs righteousnesse we shall not be ashamed We must not cloath our selves with our own works and our own righteousnesse which is corruption and shame but we must cloath our nakednesse with the nakednesse of Christ the immaculate Lamb. In a word his wounds must heal us his nakednesse must be our cloathing his shame must be our glorie his death must be the means to attain our life Then we shall hunger no more nor thirst no more we shall be impassible of cold and of heat and the Lamb which is in the middest of the faithfull shall govern them and lead them unto the lively fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes Revel 7. 17. And if we be washed with his blood we shall be whiter than the snow then shall we be cloathed with innocencie by him our corrupt bodies shall put on incorruption and after the mortality of this our body we shall be cloathed with immortality of body and soul 2 Cor. 5. 4 c. This is it that I thought good to speak for the opening of this verse AMEN LECTURES PREACHED UPON the third Chapter OF GENESIS LECTURES Preached in Saint PAULS Church LONDON Serpens autem erat astutus astutior quâvis bestiâ agri quam fecerat Jehova Deus Gen. 3. 1. Novemb. 〈◊〉 1591. HITHER TO hath been shewed at large the happiness and perfection of Adams estate while he continued upright in Paradise Now lest any of us comparing our estate with Adams and finding so great an alteration and difference between him and us because he was holy we corrupt with sinne he was happy and blessed having all things wanting nothing which might increase his happiness we miserable subject to all calamities and distresses which may encrease our miserie he without shame or sorrow we confounded with them both Therefore lest we should enquire how this Change and Alteration came to our natures the Prophet in this Chapter will shew it us that we may be out of doubt As therefore we have had hitherto the building beautifying and perfecting the Frame of all the world and of all the works of God So now we shall see the ruine and lamentable overthrow of all which Saran by sinne brought unto all For whatsoever God hath done in the great world in generall as it is set down in the first Chapter or whatsoever we have seen excellent and glorious in the little world which
waters of blood and bitternesse gotten with peril To be desired to get knowledge But happily the bellie might be satisfied with the fruit of some one of the trees that were permitted yet all the pleasure of the other trees in Paradise were not so pleasant in Eves eyes as was this The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare with hearing Preacher 1. 8. That every tree in the Garden of Eden was pleasant to the sight and good for meat chap. 2. 9. In Eves sight this tree was more pleasant and better for meat than all the other trees in Paradise In 1 Sam. 6. 19. the men of Beth-shemash would needs be looking into the Ark of the Lord which none might touch into which none might look but the Priests this was the reward God slew fifty thousand and seventy men Eve will eat that she might not eat But when we will see that we ought not to see this desire of vanitie will admit the fruit of the forbidden tree to be both good for meat and full of pleasure The chiefest of the three goods is that it is atres to be desired to get knowledge whereupon chiefly she relieth that she shall attain the knowledge of good and evill every one desireth knowledge Triplex est tentatio this latter temptation is treble Eve seeing the tree is tempted by necessitie by vanitie of the eye and curiositie of reason she should have followed the advise of Paul in Heb. 12. 1. seeing she was compassed with such a multitude of assaults she should have cast away every thing that would have withdrawn her from obedience she should have taken away the occasion whereby sinne would have hanged on she should not have beheld the tree This amplifying of the goodnesse of this tree for meat for pleasure and for knowledge and for what so might be desired argueth a notable fetch in the Devill that she busying her eyes in beholding the same and being imployed in thinking of the great good that should come to her by eating thereof might at length take and eate and never think of Gods words in quocunque die comederitis mortem moriemini but rather regarding the Serpents words in quocunque die comederitis ex eo eritis sicut Dei scientes bonum malum He cloyeth her with pleasure he maketh no mention of punishment The Children of Israel in Exodus 16. 3. being a little pinched with samin they could murmur and remember their flesh pots in Egypt and that then their bellies were full of bread but they bring not in remembrance the sirie furnace wherein they were inforced to make brick Sathan in Matthew 4. 8. in the 〈◊〉 of our Saviour oftendit sibi regnum mundi gloriam regni he shewed him the Kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them but he shewed him not the cares and dangers that are in Kingdomes For Kings themselves have termed their Governments of their Kingdomes splendidam servitutem a glorious service or servitude Here the Serpent causes Eve to see three things in this tree The fruit was wholsome for meat the pleasure to the eye and that it was good to be desired to get knowledge So he might have told her of three things written for the eating of this fruit which he omitteth The first whereof is Gods wrath the second is death and the third death again moriendo moriêris dying thou shalt dye the one is the death of the body which he incurred willingly the other the death of the soul which he must consequently run into for the reward of sinne is death and for the goodnesse of the tree it shall have the bitternesse of sinne for the beautifull fruit which his eyes beheld tenebrae exteriores outward darknesse for the desire to know all things man shall have Gods nescio vos I know you not In every sinne there is an allurement and a punishment as it is in 1 Tim. 6. 9. there is an allurement and a snare as in covetousnesse Lust bath a bait and an 〈◊〉 covered and not seen as may appear by James 1. 14. When a man is tempted he is drawn away by his own concupiscence and is inticed Tenebantur eorum oculi their eyes were holden that they could not know Christ Luke 24. 16. And here the eyes of Adam and Eve were holden that they should not see the truth for it is Gods punishment because they will hearken to the words of the Devill because they have sinned against the Lord therefore they shall walk like blinde men Zephaniah 1. 17. God he saw that if they did eate of the tree forbidden they should 〈◊〉 die the Serpent he saw they should not die at all but if they did eate their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods what God saw they would not see but what the 〈◊〉 that would they 〈◊〉 Here Eve saw that the fruit was good for meat for meat for the body and for meat for the soul that is knowledge where with Paul Philip. 4. 18. saith he was filled In 2 Kings 4. 39. they put 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 and knew it not and were not poysoned The fruit of this tree was to Eve such meat as was the wine of the Vine of Sodom for 〈◊〉 it is in Deut. 32. 32. The Vines of Sodom Gomorr ah were pleasant to behold but what followeth the wine of those Vines is the poyson of Dragons the cruel gall of Aspes So here the tree is pleasant to the eyes and beautifull in outward shew but the fruit to them is most 〈◊〉 in the taste The former part of this verse is Eves sinne the latter 〈◊〉 sinne which we will not now handle for the occasion of 〈◊〉 was in her seeing the goodnesse whereof res ipsa loquitur Her disposition to 〈◊〉 is in her taking the fruit and stretching her hand to the same The sinne it self is in the eating of that which God hath said you shall not eat Eve by seeing took the fruit A Father saith well Dedit Deus 〈◊〉 propter bonum dedit palpebr as propter malum God gave us eyes only to behold good and eye lids that we should not see evil But seeing they have abused Gods commandement God hath put this tree as a stumbling block of their iniquitie before their face as it is in Ezech. 14. 3. As before we did justly reprehend Eve for her hearkning to the Serpents first speech which was a question So now much more Eve is to be reprehended for her hearkning to the Serpents second speech which is meerly repugnant to the word of God you shall surely 〈◊〉 saith God you shall not dye at all Sathan saith Where she heareth not a speech of his dissimuled subtiltie but even the speech of 〈◊〉 maliciousnesse and open blasphemy apparant to the simplest for now she should have stopped her eares she should have stepped upon the Serpents head and she should even have stamped the Serpent which was so malicious under
her foot Every one cannot spy Sathan when he appeareth as a friend When Christ would have gone to suffer at Jerusalem Peter as a friend in words of compassion saith to him 〈◊〉 thy selfe this shall not be 〈◊〉 thee Christ he perceived friendly Sathan in Peter Matt. 16. 23. But in the grosse sinne of Idolatry 〈◊〉 downe and worship mee and in this notorious sinne of 〈◊〉 you shall not die at all any man may easily discover Sathan But Eve shee was not moved at the report of an Angell of light but at the words of a base Serpent or buggish worme shee was not only content to hear his needlesse questions his reproaches to Gods word and his blasphemous termes against God himselfe but which is more she heard him willingly shee beleeved him and shee was very forward to doe as the 〈◊〉 perswaded her Aspiceret 〈◊〉 timentibus oculis shee should have beheld the Tree with twinckling eyes as it is 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 3. 11. with tingling eares she should not have striven about words which were to no profit but to the perverting of the hearers yet heare you that Eve giveth her eyes to behold the Tree her eares to hear blasphemous words she giveth her hands to take of the fruit she giveth her mouth and bellie yea all her bodie unto the 〈◊〉 But it is not good to eat much honie nor to seek glorie by the sense When that she could not refrain her appetire she was like a 〈◊〉 which is 〈…〉 and without walls Proverbs 25. 28. and her inward parts were battered We finde in the outside three things vidit tulit comedit she saw she took and she did eate The first was the concupiscence of the eye The second the stretching out the arme to take of the fruit was the attempt The last was the actuall sinne and the 〈◊〉 The ancient Divines doe call the first desiderium the second conatum the endeavor the last actum the accomplishment The The desire of the eye and the endeavor of the hand doe argue a consent and by the assent of reason she yeeldeth to eate Seven degrees in every sinne The ancient Fathers doe make seven degrees in every sin out of this very first sin of Eve But five of these degrees are past before we come to tulit and the other two last one concerneth the taking the other the act 1. Suggestion The first of these degrees they call a suggestion 2. 〈◊〉 the second they call the invading of the consent 3. Consent to delight the third they call consensum in delectatione a consent to sinne with delight 4. Lingring the fourth they call moram a lingring and stay in the delight 5. Consent to sinne the fift they 〈◊〉 call 〈◊〉 in actum a consent to the very practise of sinne 6. Taking Then after these five degrees commeth the 〈◊〉 which is tulit the taking the fruit 7. Eating and the seventh which is comedit the very act of sinne These seven degrees are seven several motions and distinct as you may easily see in this sinne and disobedience of Eve The first suggestion in Eve to disobedience was wrought by the Serpent but now the suggestion in our mindes is by our selves Here the Serpent made question of Gods goodnesse now the corruption of our own nature maketh many needlesse questions Sathan hath two wayes to convey concupiscence either by his Pipes to play unto us pleasant notes or by his Glasse therein to shew us many allurements But after the Fall the Devill needed not to use his suggestion for behold all the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart were only evill chap. 6. 5. Christ calleth these suggestions cogitationes ascendentes mounting and ambitious thoughts She saw three things which are three degrees and all the three are the second general degree The first degree of the seeing they doe call allubescentiam an entertaining of the luggestion and we call it here aspectum intuitum arboris the beholding of the outward shew of the tree The second degree of seeing is by beholding it to withdraw our asfection from the fear of God which we call 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 our turning our selves from God 3. Consâ—… sua cum delectatione The third degree I told you was called a consent with delight which is a further bair not only willingly but even wishly to behold the fruit and to look into the nature of the fruit This degree they call inspectum and contuitum vidit quod delectabile she seeth that which is delightfull to the sight and this is consensus intellectus a consent of the understanding as it is in Job 20. 13. when wickednesse was sweet in her mouth she hid it under her tongue and favoured it and would not for sake it but keep it close in her mouth 4. Morosa delectatio The fourth degree is beyond the third it is mora and morosa delectatio a lingring of the del ght this makes her dote on every circumstance on the beautie on the virtue of this tree Hereby when we have removed from us the thoughts of sinne sinne is resumed this is non inspectio sed introspectio she seeth knowledge not to be seen Hereby she seeth quod concupiscendum this degree is the hunger and thirst of sinne a burning desire to sinne wherein she seeth lignum delectabile and desiderabile that the tree is pleasant and to be desired to get knowledge 5. Consensus in actum The fift degree as I told you is called consensus in actum the consent to the act it self thinking with themselves If the beholding this tree be so pleasant having in it to the eye all varietie of pleasure what and how wonderfull delightfull will the taste thereof be surely it will be full of all pleasure and therefore I think it expedient to take thereof and I doe long to eat of the same this is the consent of reason ad opus malum to work wickednesse even with greedinesse and they doe call this last degree of sinne vidit aberrationem cordis a wandring astray of the heart See Prov. 20. 1. 6. Conatus In the sixt place comes the sixt degree which is conatus the endeavor to streatch our the hand and to apply our hand to the pulling of the fruit from the forbidden tree 7. Actus peccati In the seventh place comes the last degree which is the eating of the fruit the consummation of all even the sinne it self These seven degrees are compared to the seven degrees of 〈…〉 of a childe in the mothers bellie by the ancient Divines and that out of James 1. 15. where the Apostle saith When last hath conceived it briugeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death And indeed Eve by seeing was brought to bed of sin which was the first begotten of Sathan The Cavilists doe say of suggestion here of Sathan by his question that the suggestion is as
it were the woing of the woman which is with some 〈◊〉 The second degree allubescentia the invading and entertaining the thought of sinne is as the yeelding of the woman to the Suiter The third the consent with delight this is the prostitution and submitting her minde to the Serpent The fourth 〈◊〉 delectatio the lingring and soothing up the conceived sinne the 〈◊〉 the delight to sinne is as the conception of the childe in the mothers wombe The fifth which we called consen sum ad opus the consent to put in practise the sinne is as the quickning of the childe The sixt which is the endeavor and disposition to sinne in the taking of the fruit is as the labour of the woman in Child-bed that was the wickednesse of the hands as it is in Psalme 7. 3. The seventh which is the eating is as the birth of the child for this eating the forbidden fruit is sinne it self which is the first born of the Devill Now will we speak of the endeavor of the Woman in the taking of the fruit of the forbidden tree The taking of the fruit came per 〈◊〉 Serpentis and pulchritudinem arboris by the guile of the Serpent and by the beauty of the tree These are the two motives in Eve to take of the fruit from the tree for as Jeremiah speaketh in his ninth chapter the twenty first verse death is come up into the windows and sinne is entred into our palaces sinne is already in our eyes and is entred into the pallace of her heart Hence it was that her feet were 〈◊〉 carrying her bodie from the trees permitted to the sorbidden tree David as he speaketh in Psal. 119. 59. That he hath turned his feet into Gods testimonies and in the 101. verse of the same Psalm As for evill I have refrained my feet from the evill way that I might keep thy word But Eve here turneth her feet from Gods testimonies and his word and she turneth her feet to the Serpent to goe in the way of evill At the first she 〈◊〉 say with Job as he protesteth in his 31. chapt 5. vers If I have walked in vanitie or if my foot have made haste to deceit let God weigh me in his just ballance and he shall finde mine aprightnesse But behold now Eve she walketh to see 〈◊〉 such are the feet of Eve they are swift in running to mischief as Salomon speaketh of the 〈◊〉 of the wicked in Proverbs 6. 18. It is the prayer of David in Psalme 36. 10. Non veniat mihi pes superbiae that the foot of pride would not come upon him She came with a proud foot to behold this tree And as it is in the said 10. verse of the 36. Psalme The hand of the wicked moved to evil Eve here she takes the tree with an high hand she takes of the fruit with an out stretched arme God he will doe well to those that be good and true in heart But saith David in Psal. 125. 5. Those that turn aside to their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them with the workers of iniquitie So doth God here lest they should put forth their hands to take of the fruit of this tree Eve her self in the third verse confesseth that God commanded she should nottouch it God he guideth the meek and teacheth the humble their way Psal. 25. 9. Eve she saith she may not touch the fruit yet she taketh the same in her hand This is iniquitas and contradictio evill and absurditie She doth not only touch the fruit but takes the fruit of the tree As her inward soul was infected per imposturam Serpentis by the flatterie and deceit of the Serpent so her senses of seeing and taking or touching were inticed per pulchritudinem arboris by the 〈◊〉 of the tree There was a time when the eyes of man waited upon the Lord as doe the eyes of the hand-maid upon her Mistrisse Psal. 123. 2. God he was the guide of man Psal. 48. his hands touched nor the mouth tasted nothing but that which was permitted But now she is content instead of God to have the Serpent for her guide she will give her eares to hear his speeches her eyes to behold vanitie her feet to runne to deceit her hands to work mischief and her mouth to taste of sinne thus giving to Sathan all her members as weapons of unrighteonsnesse unto sinne as Paul speaketh in Rom. 6. 13. She was possessed with an itch as may appear by the form of answer Ne forte moriar and by the pleasantnesse of the fruit in her sight the jaundice of concupiscence might be perceived in her eyes Her feet would be gadding where they should not whose feet cannot abide in her house Prov. 7. 11. Her hands were as lime twigs her fingers itched till she were fingring of the fruit forbidden When she had taken of the boughs and fruit fuerunt aridirami and putrida radices quia non cepit quod caperet because she took not of the tree which was permitted cepit de fructu arboris per quam capitur she took of the delightfull and pleasant fruit where with her self was taken even as the fish which taketh the bait but is taken it self of the hook See chap. 15. 16. And she did eat And she did eat This is the consummation of sin for the accomplishment of Eves disobedince is in actuall sin If Conatus the endeavor to sinne if the practise of treason though the treason be not fully accomplished deserve death by the laws of man if the concupiscence of the eye which brought David from the adulterie of Bersabe to the murthering of Urias deserve the punishment and revenge of God then the beholding with concupiscence the beauty of the forbidden fruit deserveth Gods wrath Much more then perfected disobedience which is in the comedit deserveth the death for comedendo comedes moriendo moriêris Doe as God hath commanded thee and eating thou shalt eat of all the trees but if thou eat of the forbidden fruit moriendo moriêris dying thou shalt dye To eate that which God hath said you shall not eat implyeth a plain contradictorie to Gods word and a manifest disobedience to his commandement and by ones disobedience many were made sinners as Paul speaketh Romans 5. 19. Esau did eat his broth and bread with a good stomach and in regard of them contemned his birthright chap. 25. 34. In Genesis 37. 25. they regarded more the plasure of their own Jacobs sonnes were eating when Joseph was in the pit It is Davids prayer in Psal. 141. 4. Let me not O Lord eate of the delicates of the wicked The bread that the wicked eate saith Osee in chap. 9. 4. shall be as the bread of mourners and all that eate thereof shall be polluted By sinne primogenitura the birthright of Eve is gone with Esau The pleasure he took in his pottage was but short while he was hungrie The space of every pleasure
is but short as the Fathers say it endureth no longer than while a man may be eating an apple the continuance of all pleasure is momentarie the pleasure remained but while the fruit was a eating The punishment of disobedience But for this transitorie and vain pleasure she incurred endlesse pain of body and of soul for as the Fathers say well the eare that would not hear the words of love ne comedite eat not of it shall once hear this speech of Gods wrath discedite maledicti depart you accursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his followers The eyes that beheld with joy and delight the pleasure of the forbidden fruit those eyes shall be weeping and wailing for their amisse all whose tears shall not avail them The feet that did run unto iniquitie shall be bound in iron and heavie chains the hand of Gods wrath shall be stretched out against that hand that presumed to stretch forth it self to take of the fruit that was forbidden as it is in Esay 9. 12. And the mouth that did eat of the forbidden fruit thinking thereby to attain all pleasure shall be full of gnashing of teeth according to that In Hell there shall be weeping and wailing stridor dentium In a word the wormes in the grave shall devour and eat her body that did eate of the fruit which the was forbidden and the Dragon shall devour her soul both her body and soul shall be in endlesse pain still dying never dead for the reward of sinne is death God hath said they should not eat yet she did eat and by eating fell into many sinnes simplex est Dei verbum but multiplex comedendi peccatum Twelve sorts of sinne The ancient Divines upon this place say that there are twelve sorts of sin whereof the first three they doe call peccatum occasionale the second three they doe call peccatum primitivum the next three peccatum derivativum the last three peccatum instrumentale which they gather out of Job 24. 13. They abhorred the light and continue not in the paths thereof Three occasionall 1. Ingratitude The first of the three occasionals is Ingratitude or the neglect of the due measure of thankfullnesse to God for all the benefits whatsoever bestowed upon Eve in Paradise and us in this world in that the mouth is not imployed in the praising of God for all his benefits but he filleth his mouth with this ne forte lest peradventure This first is the neglect of love 2. Securitie The second is a neglect of fear which is a security God he hath made me Monarch over all the Creatures he hath given me all the trees which are infinite in Paradise what though I eat of an apple surely I shall not dye for so small a matter God will not punish me 3. Carelesse curiositie The third occasion is negligence of that wherein we ought to be most carefull we should not enter when God had forbidden the tree this is carelesle curiositie by the seeing the pleasure of vanitie more than the will of God himself These are the three causall sinnes The neglect of love the neglect of fear the negligence of that is commanded and the curiositie of that is needlesse Three primitive The three primitive sinnes concern the superior part of the soul the three derivative sinnes the inferior part of the soul Of them in order first of the superior after of the inferiour 1. Incredulitie First the reason is infected with incredulitie to God and credulitie to the Serpent whereby they beleeved not that if they should eat they should dye the death but if they did eat they should be as Gods 2. Tediousness The second primitive sinne is Discontent a malecontented minde which is the tediousnesse of this yoake whereby this commandement and easie restraint is a burthen unto them 3. Self-love The third sinne of this kinde is of the lower part of the soul which is self-love Accounting her self as if she had made her self not as if she were made by God I see the tree is wholsome and to be desired why should I then seeing this refrain from it Three derivative Now for the three derivative sinnes 1. Stupiditie First from Incredulitie in Gods word commeth a Child which is the credulitie in the Serpent which is called stupor an astonishment at the Serpents speeches which is a blockish patience in being content to hear the most abject Creature a silly worm a subtle Serpent which is pejor omnibus viventibus worse than any living Creature even 〈◊〉 God And from self-love are derived two other sinnes 2. Pride for from thence commeth pride 3. Ambition and from pride commeth ambition pride and ambition are not one sinne but several sinnes for ambition is the lifting up of that which pride hath conceived So that pride and ambition are the two Daughters of self-love Three Instrumentall The last is the instrumentall sinne 1. A licentious seeing The first whereof is that of Jeroboam who stretched out his hand to take the Prophet of God and his hand withered 1 Kings 13. 4. 2. A presumptuous reaching The second is that of Lots wife who would look back to Sodom yet was forbidden to see the vain pleasure wherefore she became a piller of salt 3. A greedie eating The third is Esaus eating of his pottage for which he lost his birth-right Eves eye saw the fruit her arme reached to take the same her mouth did eat the same The first is a licentious beholding the second is a presumptuous taking the last is a greedie eating and devouring of the forbidden fruit Etiamque dedit comedendum viro suo secum qui comedit Verse 6. Novemb. 27. 1591. THese words I have now read unto you I told you contained Adams sin which words if you mark them doe contain Adams first sinne and Eves second sinne for after she had eaten of the fruit her self she gave of the fruit to him there is her second sinne and he did eate there is his first sinne The Wiseman in 42. 17. of his book saith very well God hath appointed that his saints should declare all his wondrous works which he hath stablished by his Majesty But behold Eve who was a Saint when she became a sinner published not Gods commandement but the Serpents words and the commendations of the forbidden fruit this is the woman that representeth iniquitie Zach. 5. 7. She is as the woman in Rev. 17. 13. that gave her power and authority to the Serpent Not only to eat her self but to give also to Adam the forbidden fruit is as a Father saith well propinare Adamo to drink to him in the golden cup of sin in giving him the fair and pleasant fruit of iniquitie that they 〈◊〉 may eate The Serpent in his first question speaketh of him and here Dixitne Deus ut non comederitis hath God
shall see the nature of sinne that sinne bringeth sinne unlesse it be extinguished by repentance for Austin saith well of sinne Quod nisi deleatur duplicatur which unlesse it be extinguished it is doubled In Esay 14. 29. the Prophet saith That out of the Serpents root shall come a Cockatrice and from the Cockatrice egge shall come a firie flying Serpent and here from the Serpents malice came Eves sinne and from Eves sinne came Mans fall the Serpents temptation brought forth Eves disobedience and that Cockatrice egge hatched Adams downfall and so they were both robbed of their righteousnesse This is their discending from Jerusalem to Jericho Luke 10. 30. Rebellion with sinne Againe after the woman hath eaten this her giving of the fruit to her husband to eate is a further circumstance in the nature of sinne to add rebellion unto sinne for the devill will not only seduce the woman but by her will seduce man for he draweth also the mighty by his power Job 24. 22. The Serpent will destroy both the weak and the strong the foolish and the wise The sociablenesse of sinnes Thirdly Sinne will be associate for the sinner will try the righteous if he will offend that even here Adam may be as deep a sinner as her self for indeed good fellowship is not so apparently seen as among sinners for they joyn hand in hand manum in manu saith Salomon Prov. 16. 5. They doe consult in heart and make a league against the Lord Psal. 83. 5.6 The Ishmaelites and Moabites c. Sinners are as thornes folded one in the other Nahum 1. 10. This is the sociablenesse of sinne Sinne infectious Fourthly it is hence observed that sinne is infectious The Serpent he infected Eve with his breath of craft and maliciousnesse made her beleeve him and eat of the fruit and she being infected her self infected him This is called Pollution He that toucheth pitch is defiled She went not only out of the way her self but she caused many to fall from the Law Malach. 2. 9. her word did fret as a canker as Paul speaketh 2 Tim. 2. 17. for sinne is contagious it poysoned Eve and Adam also See 1 Tim. 1. 6. Austin upon this saith well That if God strook blind the soul of Eve she could not see her own miserie from her originall righteousnesse The Serpent gave and Eve gave the fruit The Serpent gave to Eve and Eve gave to Adam the same material fruit but not with like affection She in giving to Adam of the fruit thinks she doth him an especial favour and that whereof he needs not fear for though by the giving him the same she take away from him original righteousnesse the favour and fear of God yet she accounteth that she makes him a great reward But this her reward may well be compared to the present of Ehud Judges 3. 16. who presented Eglon the King of Moab with a curious made dagger wherewith after he killed him The Apple wherewith Eve presented Adam was his destruction but yet as I said she did it not with the minde of the Serpent for he caused her to eat of a malicious minde knowing it would be her bane Yet Eve she gave it to Adam of a good affection not of any malicious intent 2. Means that women seduce men Now the means wherewith she induceth man to bring him to eate are of two sorts which are the two means that women use to seduce men withall both are by the voice as you may see in 17. verse following Adam obeyed the voyce of his wife so that it should seem that she used some oration to perswade him blanditiarum verba 1. Flatterie and flatterring words 1 King 11. 4. The idolatrous wives of Salomon turned his heart to Idolatrie blanditiis by their flatterie And here Eve saith to Adam as it were thus You may see that I have eaten and find the fruit to be pleasant I have eaten and yet I am living and thus with a protestation of love she wisheth Adam that he would eate Adam in the mean while as a Father saith well stood in doubt either to eat or not to eat inter preces uxoris cōminationes Creatoris between the prayer of his wife and the threats of his Creator God had said in the day they did eat thereof they should die he saw she had eaten and yet was living Salomons wives blanditiis by flatterie overcame Salomon 2. Importunity The other thing wherewith women overcome men is Importunity It was this that Delilah used to overthrow Sampson she was importunate with him continually and therefore he told her all his heart Jud. 16. 16. So that these are the two means wherewith woman overcommeth man namely blanditiis importunitatibus by flatterie and importunitie And he did eat Now it followeth to speak of Adams sinne And he did eat In the 17 verse of this chapter God curseth man because he had obeyed the voice of his wife and for that he had eaten of the tree whereof God had commanded him that he should not eat whereby you see that not only the giver of the forbidden fruit but the taker thereof also both the perswader and the consenter to sinne deserve death The manner how he consented is in this with her Adam he came to her not she to him say the Fathers For although God had created Man in uprightnesse though he were placed by God in Paradise and though Gods love to man were shewed in making Eve to be his help yet he gave no eare to the speeches of Gods love nor to his threats but rather hearkned unto Eve and her allurements The woman hereby is convicted of carelesnesse and the man of negligence in that he permitteth her to wander from him where she pleaseth but the woman must not depart no not a little lest she fall A third thing is Eve and Adams curiositie of this tree they would eat it to try what virtue was in it they would try a conclusion if they should eat thereof whether they should dye as God had said or be as Gods knowing good or evill Moses commanded That there should be no manna reserved till the morning yet Exodus 16. 20. some there were that would try conclusions that obeyed not Moses but reserved it till the morning and it was full of worms and it stank Again as it appeareth in that chapter to try conclusions some there were contrarie to Moses words that upon the Sabbath day went forth to gather Manna Paul 2 Cor. 11. 3. saith I fear lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupt from the simplicitie that is in Christ. In Adam his body from his soul his sense from his reason should not have swerved Eve beleeved not God but the Serpent Adam beleeved not God but Eve Paul Coloss. 2. 7. would have us rooted and builded in Christ and stablished in the faith But the
But here on the contrarie part Adam exalted himself he became even disobedient unto the death the everlasting death of body and soul could not withhold him The motive to sinne was small and 〈◊〉 the retentive was great and terrible 4 The manner The fourth circumstance is the manner of sinne It was citò factum soon committed Peters denyall was ad vocem ancillulae at the 〈◊〉 of a sillie made Adams transgression was without delay at the voice of his wife 5. The Place The fifth circumstance is of the place It was in Paradise that he was polluted But though Lucifer were the most glorious in the Heavens yet for his pride God sent him headlong from the Heavens Man was Monarch of the earth all in Paradise were at his command yet for his disobedience God sent him out of Paradise 6. The Time The sixt circumstance is of the time He was servent in obedience in the beginning but he continued not therein many dayes time as a file filed away his righteousnesse he sell in the beginning 7. The Punishment The seventh circumstance is of some notable hurt aliquod damnum that should come to man by his disobedience whereby both God and man are damnified It before while he was righteous he were in the image of God for in the likenesse of God was Adam made chap. 5. 1 then surely by mans disobedience Gods Image in man was defaced Adam who was now unrighteous was no more like God who was only righteous and 〈◊〉 of Wisdome but Adam as David speaks Psal. 73. 22. was foolish and ignorant he was even as a beast before God and his sinne was not only his own confusion but the ruine of us all of all mankinde It is Christ Jesus that will make our sinnes and iniquities to be no more remembred Heb. 10. 17. It was the transgression of Adam that brought grave jugum super 〈◊〉 a grievous burthen to all the world from this sinne came all sinnes hence came the heap of all evill The Fathers say that Omnia 〈◊〉 sunt appendices 〈◊〉 all misehief doth depend upon this disobedience of Adam and they say that because this is the greatest sinne it deserveth the greatest punishment The ancient Divines consider a difference in Eves sinne and in Adams sinne Eve she sinned in three respects First In hearing Gods name reproachfully blasphemed Secondly In that she heard this blasphemie not from the mouth of an Angell of light but from a paultry and abject Worm And lastly In that she became scandalum a means to slander God and seduce Man Adams sinne is seen in three other respects First The man was stronger and yet he was seduced by the weaker Secondly Man was made as the womans head and therefore when he heard her say she had eaten when he did see her offer him of the forbidden fruit it was his part to have reproved her Thirdly the root of nature was in him not in her yet the corruption of all came by Eve unto Adam and from both to us all which hearing the words of the Serpent and the Woman which seeing the pleasant fruit which eating of the forbidden tree did bring the punishment and death of body and soul to all men living The Remedy But the remedy for this so vile and 〈◊〉 a sinne and the redresse of this punishment is by the promised seed our Saviour Christ born of a Woman It was our Saviour that for the flattering 〈◊〉 of Adam heard all reproaches Adam beheld the fruit which was pleasant in his eyes Christ he was buffetted about the eyes Adam took the tree in his hand Christ was fastned to the tree for the stretching out of Adams hands to take of the fruit his hands were stretehed out and nailed upon the crosse Adams eating of this pleasant fruit was 〈◊〉 by his eating of bitter gall and sharp Vinegar according to that Psal. 69. 21. They gave him gall in his meat and in his thirst they gave him vinegar to drink Man had his side pearced but Christ had his heart opened All these things did God doe to deliver us out of that miserie whereinto by Adams sinne Mankinde had fallen who shall deliver me from the body of this death but God through Jesus Christ. In Ezechiel 3. 3. they that shall eat the roll that God shall give them it shall be in the mouth as honie In beleeving Christs name we shall have life John 20. 31. If then we eat of the forbidden tree eat not of the promise which we have in Christ we shall dye the death both body and soul shall be tormented We must not say Quid mihi tecum Christe Christ what have I to doe with thee but we must receive him that is our Redeemer In the 〈◊〉 we must therein eat of the bread which is his body Mat. 26. 26. who brake the bread in his Supper and offred his body on the Cross Christ through suffering death tasted death for all men that through affliction the Prince of our salvation might be consecrated Heb. 2. 10. And by our faith in him death shall be to us but as the tasting of the poyson which death shall not swallow up our soul though our body dye our soul shal live for ever But the sinners that eat of the tree that commit wickedness if they repent not shal be cast into endless afflictions As by Adam we all eat of the forbidden tree in the mid'st of the Garden in the beginning of the bible so by Christ the blessed shall eat of the tree of life in the mi'dst of the heavenly Paradise wherein there are twelve manner of fruits and the leavs thereof doe serve to heal all the Nations of the Earth Rev. 22. 2. The leaves of this tree in the end of the Bible will serve for medicine here in this life but after this life ended this tree of life shall fill us all with 〈◊〉 joy and glorie everlasting Which God of his infinite mercy grant c. Amen Tunc aperuerunt sese oculi amborum noveruntque se nudos esse consutis foliis ficulneis fecerunt sibi subligacula Gen 3. 7. January 25. 1591. THE opening the eys of our first Parents by which they saw that they were made naked which was the former part was sent from God that they seeing that sin which was against God was a losse of their glory which is called bonum utile and that instead thereof brought unto them nakednesse shame and confusion which was against bonum honestum and also that it did cast them into that distresse and anguish of minde that they could not tell what to doe or finde to cover their shame but figg leaves which was against bonum jucundum which opening of the eyes comming from God was to this end that by seeing this they might return to their own hearts Esay 46. 8. and enquire as Esay willeth them 5. 19. wherefore they had done this and transgressed Gods
and nature doth mildly begin to deal with him saying ubi es And thus writers gather because the Hebrews have in their tongue a double ubi the one is a reproachfull and sharpe ubi but this here is that which Jeremiah in his Lamentations doth often use and therefore is a sorrowfull ubi as who should pitty them which are not where they should be wherefore this voice and question is without any exprobrations or bitter taunting words lest he should be overcome with despaire and grief but hereby God doth as it were give him a safe conduct as it were giving him free leave to answer for himself the best he could as it is said favorably to Paul Act. 24. 10. You are permitted to speak for your self you shall be favorably heard which is a speciall grace and mercy of God because whereas he might have cut him short off and stricken him dumb yea and dead too without any more a doe Now to the tenor and matter of this verse as it sheweth and letteth out the Justice of God for as God is mercifull and loving so Justice must come forth to judgment against sinne Psalm 94. 15. For this is a matter of consequence that albeit God is for a long time patient and mercifull yet at length he will shew himself to be righteous and just by comming to judgment but indeed even Gods very judgment is a mercy shewed to men as I have shewed for so is this judiciall proceeding in judgment set down as a favor and mercy Luke 19. 15. shewed to servants and subjects for vers 27. it is said to be the state of an enemy to be slain without judgment for of such God saith bring him forth slay him before my face presently Again carry these away binde them and cast them into utter darknesse They therefore which will not hear God ut consulentem patrem shall hear against their wills ut condemnantem judicem And he which will not obey the Judg willingly shall obey the Hangman whether he will or no. This course of Gods judgment holden being the first is a pattern and plat-form of the whole proceeding of judgment in all Courts and places of Justice that shall be in the end of the world for here in this place we may gather the whole right proceeding of Justice in a place of Judgment for in the 7. vers God sendeth out first a processe to arrest and cite them which they refusing in the 8. vers God sendeth an attachment which is a more peremptory kind of vocation more effectually by feare to constrain them and bring them to their answer which when they had shifted off also he came himself and in the 11. vers brought them to their triall and purgation then in the 12. ver there followeth the confession of his guilty conscience and then followeth the just sentence in the 14. vers and in the 22. vers beginneth the execution thereof and so an end Gods course therefore is first to call forth Adam to his answere but this may seem at the first sight to be a defective course because here is none but the Judg and the party arraigned to accuse and to be a witnesse against him upon which the Judg might proceed for no other person being there it must needs be that either God must proceed in this Judgment ex officio or else make Adam accuse himself Foelix Act. 25. vers 16. saith that it was not the manner of the Romans to arraigne any before there was brought in evidence against him by accusers and witnesses but to answer this we say that as it were erroneous to hold that there was no third person to accuse him for here is the Devill which is the accuser of all men therefore there wanted not an accusation and besides him which accused by suggestion no doubt Adams own conscience within and evident action without did accuse and witnesse against him for Adams flight and hiding himself accused him of feare and shame and fear and shame argued him to have a guilty conscience and his guilty conscience accused and testified against him that he had done some hainous offence against God and so the evidence of his crime being manifestly layd open before them all God might and must orderly proceed in Judgement against him Error Therefore it is also an error in those which hold that there may not be any just lawfull and ordinary proceeding judicially against any unlesse there be brought 〈◊〉 face to face to accuse them for it is plain and evident that uppon such strong presumptions one may be called before the Judge and the Judge may judicially proceed against him thereupon as we see in the case of murther how God proceeded against Cain Gen. chap. 4. vers 9 10 11 12. and how God proceeded against Sodome and Gomorrah Gen 18. 20 21. and how they proceeded in an extraordinary course against Jeremie Jer. 29. 26. when the matter concerneth the trouble and confusion of a Country or Commonwealth for if it was permitted to a private man by the Law of Jealousie to make his wife purge herself and to bring her to triall upon surmise and suspicion Numb 5. 14 15. c. then much more may men in authoritie who must be jealous over the Commonwealth and State of a Kingdome when they see it in danger by troubles and tumults that arise use such an extraordinarie manner and course of judgment in bringing men to their trialls of whom they have a strong suspicion and surmise to be the causers thereof for so did Joseph to avoid danger to the State upon surmise and suspicion call his bretheren before him accusing them for spies Qui dixit Vocem tuam audiebam in hoc horto extimui autem eò quòd nudus sim abscondi me Gen. 3. 10. February 3. 1591. WE have heard how vain a thing it is to dissemble or hide either our selves or our sins from God for well may a sinner set himself in such a place and case that God may be hid from him and where he may not see God and his gracious presence but it is impossible for any to set himself in any place so secret or close where God shall not be able to see him ergo it is a folly to hide our sinnes either by deniall or dissimulation yet we see the Devils voice and counsell to sinners is still cover hide flie deny and dissemble your sinnes in no wayes confess it for if you doe there is no waybut one with you that is that God in severity and justice should proceed in judgment to condemn you to death so that this is the Devils art and endeavour to make us beleeve that confession is a deadly poyson to kill us which indeed God hath ordeined and made to be a speciall means and mithridate to save our souls from sin being committed As before it was his subtilty to make us beleeve that the Tree forbidden did bear so virtuous a
with a groane and by all lawes of Nations the husband is above the wife Touching the particulars of the Text. Her Sorrow First hee will greatly increase her sorrowes besides the sorrowes in conception and bringing forth children her sorrow is afterwards increased many a woman breedeth and beareth her owne sorrow she may beare her childe to misery if shee see it beg it increaseth her sorrow shee may beare it to execution as wee have too many lamentable examples but the sorrow of a mother is much more increased if it live so wickedly that shee beare it to hell fire For the sorrow of Child-bearing in the Psalmes and throughout the Prophets the greatest sorrow is compared to a womans laboring with childe which is so great that many a one dyeth of it as did Rachell Gen. 25. 18. never was childe borne without pain according to that old verse Nascitur haud sine vae fuerit qui filius Evae But here God sheweth even in judgement his mercy for shee sinned in soule is punished but in body and that punishment is temporary though the sinne deserved death eternall and which is further there is a blessing even in this Sentence for to have children though with pain is a great blessing and by the ancient Fathers is called the blessing of the womb and brests and barrennesse of woman is held a greater sorrow and payne than to have children with much griefe and payne for when the childe is once borne the payne is forgotten but barrennesse is to her a continual grief in the 30 of Genesis vers 1. When Rachell saw shee was barren and Leah fruitfull shee envied her sister and so great was her desire of children that unlesse shee had children shee would die So it is a Sentence of Justice mingled with Lenity the punishment is not with rig or but with indulgence it is tanquam fraenum non flagellum as a bridle rather to check than a scourge to bruise it is but a chastizing of sinne in Eve non est quasi Coluber as a Serpent to sting but an easie correction Her subjection The second part of her punishment is That shee shall bee subject to her Husband and there is mercy in this also for the best are of opinion that in time of integritie there was order and subordination for order is the mother of perfection The two ends of marriage here is a subordination of affections the womans to the husbands and of occonomicall government for generation and cohabitation are the two ends of marriage and in both shee is to bee ruled by her husband some idle-headed fellowes gather hence That seeing women are to bee subject to men therefore men ought not to bee subject to women but marke hee saith viro tuo to thy husband Touching the Rule of Women now the rule of women as in most Common-wealths hath beene allowed even so in Scripture for Candace Queene of the cast and Sabaes Queene are commended nay it is Gods owne Law Numb 27. 8. That if a man die without a sonne his inheritance shall fall to his daughter then the daughter of a King is not barred government which is her inheritance but oeconomicall subjection here is chiefly understood that made Sara call her husband Lord. In the first of Ester you see Vasbti the Queene punished because shee would not obey Ahashuerus the great King of Persia a great Monarch shee came not when hee sent for her advice was taken how shee should bee punished for her disobedience this offence was not only against the King but by example against the Princes and People for in the seventeenth verse of that Chapter This example among other women shall make them despise their husbands and therefore a solemne Sentence was pronounced against her That shee should bee divorced and deposed the end of which Decree was as appeareth in the end of that Chapter That all the women through that huge Monarchy should doe their husbands honor both great and small and further the King sent forth his Letters to every People after their language That every man should beare rale in his own house Esther her selfe was example of this who worshipped with reverence her King shee must bee subject unto man in regard of her weakenesse and infirmities as Paul speaketh in the Corinthians Woman is not her selfe her own for at marriage she giveth not her self but is given to her husband by a man and after marriage shee loseth her own name and beareth her husbands bee the husband wise or simple hee must beare rule over her for subjection is the condition of all Wives to all Husbands Abigaiell in the first chapter of Samuel and the twenty fith verse must as well obey Naball her husband as David even of Religion this obedience is this is the Mercy that though hee shall rule her yet they both shall rule their houshold hee shall rule her not as a King his subject or a Lord his slave not in feare but in love Adamo verò dixit Quia auscultavisti voci uxoris tuae comedisti de fructu arboris illius quo interdixeram tibi dicendo ne comedas ex isto maledicta esto terra propter te cum dolore comedito proventum ejus omnibus diebus vitae tuae Eaque spinam carduum proferto tihi tu verò comedito herbam agri In sudore vultûs tui vescitor cibo donec revertaris in humum cum ex eâ desumptus fueris nam pulvis es in pulverem reverteris Gen 3. 17.18.19 Septemb. 17. 1598. SAint Chrisostome writing upon this place saith sedet Judex non surgit God who is the Judge sitteth still and riseth not Adams punishment he continueth his Court and giveâ—h not over till he hath given judgement upon all the offenders This is as it were the third O yes saith that Father upon Adams offence which sentence is conteined in the 17. 18. and 19. verfes In the Sentence upon Adam two things In which sentence are conteined two parts the one is the fault contained in the beginning of this verse the other is the penaltie contained in the end of the 17. vorse to the end of the 19. verse First the Fault Secondly the Penalty Of both these in generall these are the proceedings of God whence the rule and patern of all Justice is grounded for God goeth here to sentence upon a cause because thou hast heard the voice of thy Wife and eaten the forbidden fruit and upon a Cause not alledged by an Accuser but confessed by the Offender the 12. verse before so that in justice God will say to Adam ex ore tuo te judico I will judge thee even out of thine own mouth thou evill Servant Luke 19. 22. In the sentence two things Particularly In the fault are two parts or branches first there is an inordinate consent the other a disordinate act The first is the hearing the voyce of
his wife The second is his eating Inordinate Consent Touching the first The giving eare to the voyce of his wife it is nothing unlesse it bee accompanied with another circumstance hee may heare the voyce of his wife if shee speak that is reason and so the superior may heare the voice of the inferior In the second of the Kings the fift chapter and thirteenth verse the Master must hear the voyce of the Servant in reason If the Prophet saith Naamans servant to Naaman had commanded thee a great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather when hee saith to thee but this Wash and be cleane and there Naaman heard the voyce of his servant so that licet audire vocem 〈◊〉 the words of reason are to be heard from our Inferiour be it Wife Child or Servant for reason ruleth all out of the mouth of whomsoever it commeth but we must not hear words noysome and of wicked desire but when they are brutish senseless and of foolish desire we must not hear them but above all not words contrary to Gods word for vox dei praecipiens commanded him not to eat vox uxor is disuadens perswaded the contrary yet he heard the voice rather of his Wife than of God so the fault is disobedience to God which is not alone but is accompanied with another fault called Ignavia negligence carelesness not regarding Gods Commandement This laying the bridle carelesly on the neck is to be subject to her voice that was subject to him and by such negligence was drawn to transgression the 〈◊〉 act It was no excuse to Joab that he had Davids letters to murther Urias as it is 2 Sam. 11. 14. nor Solomons Idolatry was not to be excused because he was perswaded thereunto by his Wives It is a great offence non contristari mortiferas delitias not to be sorry for deadly delight The pleasing voice of Eve was no excuse to Adams breach of Gods Commandements 2. The disordered Act. The other branch is the disordered act of Adam which is a second degree of sinne for to have heard the voice of his Wife and there to have stayed and not to have sinned had been worthy commendation to have remembred the voice of God and not regarded the voice of Eve had been commendable before he heareth the voice of God but here he obeyeth the voice of Eve Out of this act of sinne the Fathers gather two Circumstances the first is that the voice of God might easily have been obeyed Of all the trees in the Garden thou maist eat de illâ arbore of that one tree alone thou shalt not eat in such plenty one might have been forborn so that great was the disobedience when so small a matter commanded by God was not obeyed by Man according to that of St. Austin upon this place Magna est iniquitas ubi non magna obediendi difficultas here is great ingratitude not to for bear this one having all other in aboundance The Second Circumstance in this act of sin is to doe it though charge were given before to the contrary with pain of death in the 17. of the former Chapter It was otherwise with Paul 2 Cor. 15. he remembreth their obedience to be with fear and trembling Not death shall separate Paul from his obedience but Adam was disobedient though death were denounced disobedient to death so that the aggravating the act is the contempt of Gods denouncing of death and punishment So much may suffice of the Fault The Punishment or Penaltie Now touching the Punishment Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life c. I consider this Punishment of Adam after two sorts either as a Sentence or as a Law Now we will speak of it only as a Sentence hereafter by Gods patience we will handle the other as a Law Herein we will consider the proportion of that Fault with the Punishment with the Fault and with the Act it self In the Sentence are two Punishments The first cursed be the earth for thy sake c. The second in the sweat of labour shalt thou eat thy bread till thou return to dust for dust thou art and to it shalt thou return The one part of the Punishment is a hard life the other a corruption by death In Proportion As Eves so Adams punishment is in proportion First his desire was unlawfull and the Act was sin for according to 1. of St. James 15. When lust conceiveth it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Eves lust made her sinne and she was punished Adams neglect to suffer an Inferiour to prevail against God is punished with labour for labour is poena ignaviae and Mans ingratitude to God is punishment with the Earths ingratitude to Man he was disobedient the earth shall be unfruitfull he offended in meat and he is punished in his meat the earth that should feed him is cursed for him he offended in unkindness active he is punished with unkindness passive he dealt unkindly with God he shall suffer the earths unkindness Eve her punishment was in bringing forth life Mans is in bringing forth living to maintain and nourish life which is a great difficulty both have their pain labour and sorrow Hers is in intension great but for a few houres his is great in extension to indure all the dayes of his life And so much generally of the Punishment In his meat Now in particular the first part of mans Punishment is in his meat Men must needs have whereof to eate for life without living and maintenance will not be preserved there is not only a bringing forth of Children but there are also curae oeconomicae houshould cares meat and cloathing must of necessity be had according to that of the Wise man Preacher 6. 7. all the labour of man is for his mouth and the 16. of the Proverbs and the 26. is to like purpose he must eat and the hearb of the field must be his meat fuell must maintain the fire and meat must maintain life Adam came of the earth and must live by the earth the earth that was his Mother must be his Nurse and from thence mankinde must be maintained even all the meanest and the Monarch for as it is Preacher 5. 8. the aboundance of the earth is over all the King consisteth by the field that is tilled The hearb of the field bread was the only sustenance of the Patriarchs before the Flood but after the waters had taken away by over much moisture the strength that was in hearbs and bread God gave them then other meats drinks of strength in the 9. Chapter of this Book 20. Noah planted Vineyards and drunk the wine thereof But that Adam is here to 〈◊〉 is the hearb of the field and the bread of his own labour These two wereable to strengthen mans hart as it is said
must be by an excrement bread is the interest of thy continuall labour this is the yoke of the sins of Adam God in punishing the Israelites will remember the land which he gave them Leviticus 26. 42. and they must suffer the punishment of their iniquitie yea when you shall remember your own wickedness yee shall judge your selves worthy destruction for your iniquitie in the thirty sixth of Ezekiel and the thirty first Paul in the first of the Corinthians the ninth and the fifteenth saith it were better for him to die than not to doe his duty The use of the Scripture Now this sentence upon Adam hath this use for us spinae tribuli the thorns and thistles when we walk in the field speak to us as Gods book doth and make us a Sermon telling they should not have grown there but for us the earth should not have been cursed with barreness but for our wickedness if the thorn prick or the nettle sting thee it will say hoc propter te I was first brought and still I grow to make thee remember thy obedience so that the very nettle that is good for nothing shall put thee in mind of thy 〈◊〉 Be not angrie with the earth if it be barren for it will say it was so non propter se sed propter te To conclude this point well saith a Father we must have not only sensum poenae in corpore the feeling of punishment in our body but sensum irae divinae in mente the seeling of Gods wrath in our soul. But now not to leave you plunged in despair with consideration of grievous punishment in a word I will touch the alay of this punishment be comforted though God be just yet he is mercifull non est Crux sine Christo hast thou a Cross then hast thou Christ to comfort thee Mercies in this Sentence are five God hath left five signes of his mercie in this sentence which the ancient Fathers term vestigia miserantis gratiae impressions of Gods mercifull favour 1. The first is non dixit maledictus tu cursed be thou as he said to the Serpent but terra maledicta cursed be the earth the nature that sinned is not cursed nor is it like Cains curse in the fourth Chapter and eleventh verse for there is he cursed from the earth but here the earth of which Adam was made not Adam himself was cursed 2. Secondly he is punished but with a little labour to his great sinne with a watry drops of sweat and the sweat is but an easie sweat of the face not like Christs sweat in his prayer the twenty second of Luke the fourty fourth verse which was like drops of blood trickling down to the ground 3. Thirdly God might have suffered the earth to have been fruitless let man have laboured never so much but that man for all his sinne yet with his labour shall make the earth fruitfull in my opinion is a great mercy which I ground out of the one hundred twenty eighth Psalme when thou eatest the labour of thy hands saith David thou shalt be blessed It is a blessing when the Wife is fruitfull as the Vine upon the house side when thy Children are as the Olive plants about thy Table and it is a blessing that yet with labour the earth shall bring forth fruit It is a comfort that your labour shall not be in vain as St. Paul speaketh the first to the Corinthians the fifteenth and the fifty eighth God in mercy sendeth rain to water the earth what to doe Isaiah telleth you in his 55. chapter and 10. verse to give not only bread to the eater but even seed to the sower It is a comfort when we sowe that we shall reap he that soweth eareth reapeth thresheth doth it in hope the first to the Corinthians the ninth chapter and tenth verse God giveth bread to the hungry and the seed to further increase by labour dat acquisitum that thou hast gained through thy labor 4. Fourthly it is a great mercie to call it panis taus thy bread thou shalt eat of thy own bread this is mercy I say to terme that mans which is Gods Lastly this labour hath a date and an end it hath tempus refrigerii upon the amending your lives God will put away your sinnes and a time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Acts 3. 19. Let this be lastly your comfort that though you labour long yet you shall have a resting after your labour In sudore vultûs tui vescitor cibo donec revertaris in human cum ex eâ desumptus fueris nam pulvis es inpulverem revertêris Gen. 3. 19. October 〈◊〉 1598. NOw are we to handle the other part of Adams Sentence and punishment The ground and nature of the Sentence and in the Sentence we are to consider the ground of it and the nature or form of it Disobedience is the ground of this sentence and this Sentence is made even a Law for according to that of Paul Romans 6. 2. The Law of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death so that sinne is the cause of death Hence sprung the Pelagian heresie condemned by the Councell of Carthage Concil Carth. 7. That said that though we sinned yet we were freed though we lived never so dissolutely yet we were saved After Christs comming death was not the reward of sinne but mark what St. James in his first chapter and thirteenth verse saith When lust hath conceived it 〈◊〉 forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death and St. Paul in the fifth to the Romans the nineteenth and the twenty first saith Death That as by one mans disohedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many were made righteous and further That as sinne reigned unto death so grace by righteousnese might reign to eternall life Truth it is that through sin came death and that death hath rule over all Adam at the first by sinne brought death the last Adam by obedience brought everlasting life and as Paul in the first to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter and the twenty sixth verse saith That the last enemie that Christ should destroy was death for as it is in the same chapter As in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive and the very wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life saith Paul in the sixth to the Romans and the twenty third verse The nature and form of sinne Touching the nature and form of the sinne God is not cause of sinne God is not the agent in sinne but the cause of sinne is only from Adam himself And according to that of the Wise man in his first chapter and thirteenth verse Adam and sin cause of death God hath not made death neither hath he pleasure in the
destruction of the living and in the eighteenth of Ezekiel and the twenty third God hath no desire that the wicked should die but if even the wicked return from his waies he shall live so that Adam and his sinne was the cause of death death was made by him for God is the God of life It was the sinne of Nineveh that made God to threaten destruction to Nineveh within fourty dayes but when as it is in the third of Jonah and the eighth they returned by repentance from their evill waies God shewed mercie and they were not destroyed Adam he forsook God of himself and so he brought death to himself So long as he shewed his obedience unto God the other Creatures were obedient unto him there was no enmity between him and the other Creatures in time of obedience he was not in danger of death God breathed into Adam life Adam brought death The Prophet in the 104. Psalme 29. saith If thou take away their breath they return to their dust so that life is Gods but dust is their own ground and they have their moisture and when that moisture is dried up and taken away it turneth to dust ex argillâ fabricavit hominem Deus Job in his tenth chapter and ninth verse saith to God Remember that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me to dust again for if the moisture of the grace of God be taken away what are we but dust The Heavens send down the dew from above to moisten the Earth Isaiah 45. 8. It is the spirit of God that giveth the moisture to beliefe John 7. 39. If that be taken away we are but dust Thus farre of it as a Sentence A Law Now of this as of a Law To dust shalt thou return First touching the certainty of it in these words to dust thou shalt return of the uncertainty when donec untill There are those that escape the first part of this punishment of Adam that live not in the sweat of their face qui non vivunt ex labore sudoris there are those that live at ease and yet fare daintily that have aboundance and take no pains that lie upon their Beds as the door turneth upon his hinges Proverbs 26. 14. But though they escape that part of the Sentence this part takes hold of all for all must die this is universall this is certain Statutum est it is a Statute and a Law that all must die from the first to the last Adam the fift to the Romans the fifteenth David himself saith of himself in regard of mortalitie of the body Psalme the twenty second and the sixth I am a worm and not a man We have comfort in Jesus Christ to live for ever this was it that Jesus said that John should not die the twenty first of John and the twenty third and by him we look for the resurection of the body This it was that made Job in his nineteenth chapter and twenty sixth verse to say That though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh A universall Law Touching the extent of this that it is universall to all to die it is plain not to be denied for as it is in the eighty ninth Psame and the fourty eighth verse What man liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the grave Though God hath said to Kings and Princes and Judges of the earth yee are Gods and Children of the Almighty yet yee shall die as men and fall like others Psalme the eighty second and the seventh laquei mortis the snares of death compass about the Godly their body goeth to the grave but their soul returneth to rest Psalme the one hundred sixth and the seventh verse and as it is in the second of the Preacher and the sixteenth The wise man dieth as well as the fool Look what sentence is given upon man falls upon the rest of the Creatures for man is the great Count-palatine of the world and the chief mover in the Sphear as he moveth all are moved and the Elements and Birds and Beasts were subject to Mans change his disobedience made all disobedient and out of order yea as the Wise-man saith in the nineteenth of Ecclesiast and the fifth All the living know assuredly they shall die So much for the certainty to all Uncertainty Donec untill Now of the uncertainty of the time donec untill which is verie uncertain Isaack though he were old and neer his death yet in the twenty seventh of Genesis and the second he said senex sum diem mortis nescio I am now old and know not the day of my death The men of this world have their Portion in this life there are the gates of death as David speaketh and laquei mortis the snares of death This time cannot be discerned it is nighest us when we think our selves most secure For when the rich man had layed up store for many years and said to his soul take thou thy rest even then came it hâc nocte this night thou shalt die Death is pronounced upon all but a flaming fire and vengeance belongeth only to the ungodly the second to the Thessalonians the first chapter and the eighth and ninth verses Mercy in death Now touching the mittigation of this death in this sentence of death for as the Wise-man speaketh in the seventh chapter and the seventeenth verse The vengeance of the wicked is fire and 〈◊〉 this bitterness must be alayed for as Bernard saith non est crux sine Christo non est punctio sine unctione there is no cross without comfort no punishment without ointment The fear of death Christ delivereth them from the fear of death that is Gods anger that all their life were subject to bondage the second to the Hebrews and the fifteenth The hope of life so then the fear of death must be alayed with the hope of life For though the wicked be cast off for his malice yet the righteous hath hope in his death the fourteenth of the Proverbs and the thirty second This is joy to us even in death that Christ will change this vile body that it may be fashioned like his glorious body the third to the Philipians and the twenty first and according to the fourteenth of the Revelations and the thirteenth their hope is with a blessing beati mortui qui in domino moriuntur blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their laboures Now in the verie words of the Sentence are implied two sorts of this delay Donec implieth an end of labour Donec implieth that they shall labour untill then untill implieth no eternity there is a consummation of labour there is end of labour and an assurance of rest the blessed rest from their labours tempus est refrigerii there is a time of refreshing the third of the Acts and the
nineteenth They that live in ease are weary of it Salomon in the first of the Kings the eleventh chapter and the fourth verse died in his age Abraham in the twenty fifth of Genesis and the eighth yeelded the spirit and died a good age Death is a resting from Labour and from sinne and death is not only a resting from labour but from sinne also Paul in the seventh to the Romans and the twenty fourth desireth to be delivered from the body of sinne which he calleth the body of death The holy Fathers on that place but this difference that the Martyrs desire to die that they might not sinne the Malefactors because they have sinned A delaying of the punishment The other part of the delay is the chiefest which is the consideration that there is an exemption of death from the best part of man a qualifying of the punishment A bodily punishment for the soul and body both offended but the body only is punished the soul mans better part is free that is not touched He saith not here thou shalt die the death but thou shalt return to dust for as it is in the third of the Preacher and the twentieth all 〈◊〉 of the dust and all shall return to dust It is the body only that returneth to dust but the soul returneth to God that gave it Mans heavenly part shall be free from this sentence The Soul immortall the head of man his soul which is neerest God shall be safe though his heel be bruised The earthly part shall return to that it was but the heavenly 〈…〉 still the immortality If Christ be in us the body is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life for righteousness sake the eighth of the Romans and the tenth This then giveth comfort in death that though the body die the soul shall live for ever This gave comfort to Adam that he had thus well escaped Hevah the Mother of the living that in the very next verse he calleth his Wife with joy Hevah which is the Mother not of the dead but of the living for Hevah is mater viventium In the twentieth of Luke the thirty seventh and thirty eighth verses The Lord is Deus viventium The Lord is called the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob yet is he not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him yet then the Patriarchs were dead but though the Grave had their body God had their soul the Patriarchs died their soul lives the third of Exodus the sixth to be compared with the former place for after death they were not dead but removed to another state of life God will bring his again from the depth of the Sea Psalme the sixty eight and the twenty second The first death so the godly shall suffer the first death Revelations the twenty first and the eighth expoundeth that place But the wicked and the accursed shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death The second death the first death is the death of all the first death only is the death of Saints but the second death is the death of sinners Davids soul is delivered from the sword Psalme the twenty second and the twenty first but death seedeth 〈◊〉 upon the wicked as sheep feed upon a Common and as their life was without repentance so their death shall be without end the godly wish for death to rest from their labours the wicked wish for death that live in torment which is great Revelations 9. 6. The gates of death are mentioned in the Psalmes and in the seventh of the Proverbs and the twenty seventh Penetralia mortis the Chambers of death The wicked live not only in the Gates in the Courts in the Chambers of death but even in the Dungeon of death in the twenty third Psalme and the fourth verse and in the seventh of the Romans the twenty fourth are to be delayed in the one is mention of umbra mortis in the other corpus mortis they are to be delayed with the 9. of Marke the 1. where it is said that some there are that shall not taste of death till they have seen the Kingdome of God come with power So that the first death takes hold of the gody but the second death toucheth them not For they that be faithfull unto death shall be crowned with a crown of life Revel 2. 10. and in the 11. verse the godly that overcome shall not be hurt of the second death Isaiah 26. 19. Death naturall and eternall they are subject to the naturall death but free from the eternall death This is their comfort in the first death to have deliverie from the second death Resurrection By the resurrection of the dead to life is a second return for by the first return the body returneth from dust to dust but the second is from dust to glorie Return which is a return not of the soul but of the body also according to that of Job This body of flesh shall be covered with immortalitie and according to that of Hosea the 13. Chapter and the 14. verse The godly shall be redeemed from the power of the grave and death and according to that place of the Prophecie Christ will be the death of death it self but most plain of all is that of the 1. of the Revelations the 18. spoken of Christ That he is alive but was dead but now he is alive for evermore and he hath the keyes of hell and of death This then doth alay and qualifie the bitterness of this sentence The use hereof is diverse to learn Hence now may we gather use to our selves in these five things 1. Humility The first is though it be bitter yet it is wholsome the first use is taken out of pulvis es Learn hence unde es from whence thou art thou art but of a clod be not proud thou treadest upon that thou art made let that put thee in minde of humilitie boast not of thy honour for thy honour is in the dust There is nothing in the grave whither thou goest Preacher 9. 11. Quid ergo attollis cervicem in pulverem reversuram this is a means to learn humility learn of your selves what you are and then be humble Austin saith that the time will come to give an account to God of thy doings remember thy own frailty and be not proud for God knoweth whereof we be made he remembreth we are but dust Psal. 103. 14. 2. To regard things of this life as dust The second use is out of pulvis in pulverem dust to dust We must remember whither we are to goe we are now dust but sub alienâ formâ in the likeness of flesh but we shall be dust in the likeness of dust it self our flesh of dust shall be turned into dust and according to that of
no more favor hath God forgotten to be mercifull no doubt God will shew the mercy that hee found in his misery or if with the Prophet Jer. 47. 6. we fay Oh thou sword of the Lord how long will it bee ere thou cease turne again into thy scabbard rest and be still no doubt God will be mercifull And for the Cherubyms the Cherubyms that covered the two ends of the mercy seate in Exodus the 25. chapter and the 18. verse were Cherebims of protection that covered with their wings the Mercy-seat And in Ezekiel 28. it is said That the king of Tyrus had been in Eden the garden of God and verse 14. That he was the 〈◊〉 Cherub that covereth it was a Cherubym of protection They no doubt that accompanied the Lamb Revel 14. were Angells and Cherubyms singing and harping for joy and these Cherubyms that here are appointed with fire and sword if it please God to be mercifull may turne their shape and lay downe the Sword for if Gods wrath be appeased no wrath is executed as in the case of David and of Jerusalem and of Ninivie where God stayed the hand of his Angell and his wrath ceased for God giveth power to Angells in Heaven and Princes on the Earth and all the shields of the world belong unto God Psal. 47. so that if he be appeased they yeeld their power and if God will have mercy upon man and will say deliver him that he goe not downe the pit for I have received a reconciliation then shall he be restored to his former state Job 33. 24. Upon mans repentance God will deliver his soule from destruction and if here God were once reconciled the sword should be taken away from the Angell and he should put it up into his sheath and man should recover his former state and the Angell shall become an Angell of mercy like the Cherubyms Exod. 25. 〈◊〉 covered with their wings the mercy seat or Propitiatory Now the meanes of reconciliation is a Propitiatory sacrifice for Sacrifice is the way of Reconciliation When Abraham with his offering of his sonne had pleased God the Angell stayed Abrahams knife and he found favor with God chap. 22. After David by his sinne had procured the punishment of his people he repented him of his sinne ond offered him up a burnt offering and a peace offering and then the Lord answered him by fire from heaven upon the Altar of burnt-Offering and when the Lords wrath was appeased the Angell sheathed up his Sword 1 Cron. 21. 26. and here if in Adams Case Gods wrath be appeased and he reconciled the Angell will lay down his firySword and flamma quae ardet gladius qui mactat the fire that should burne shall be extinguished and the sword that should slay shall be sheathed and by a Sacrifice Gods wrath shall be appeased for Exod. 12. chapter Where God seeth the blood upon the 〈◊〉 of their houses God and his Angell will passe over their houses and plague nor destruction shall not fall upon them the token of blood shall be a reconciliation of Gods favor and the Angell passed by This brings us to the great Propitiatorie Sacrifice the like whereof never was in the world in the which is not the blood of Lambs Goats or beasts but the blood of the immaculat Lamb Jesus Christ Gods sonne and mans Saviour who offered his pretious blood for the sinnes of us all who was the only and all sufficient Sacrifice to apapease the wrath of God and reconcile man to his Love this Sacrifice drew the alliance of Men with Angels made a reconciliation with God and restored man to the tree of life and the Paradise of God and the Angels shall rejoyce and be glad at this reconciliation and that Christ was exalted the eleventh of the Revelations and the fifteenth verse And the seventh place the Fathers doe alledge that this place is a poynting even unto the Gospell that in the fencing thus of Paradise it was foretold that one should come that through his obedience should remove the armed Cherubyms and give unto mankinde a passage into Paradise and this they ground upon the first of Ezechiell and the tenth verse and upon the tenth of Ezechiell and the fourteenth verse and the fourth of the Revelations and the seventh verse they agree that there were foure Cherubyms in the first of Ezechiell and the tenth verse they had the face of a Man the similitude of the face of an Oxe of a Lyon and of an Eagle and in the tenth of Ezekiell and the fourteenth verse one had the face of a Cherubym the other of a Man of a Lyon and of an Eagle and for the Cherubyms in the fourth of the Revelations and the seventh verse The one was like a Lyon the other like an Oxe the third like a Man the last like an Eagle and these foure beasts in the Revelation theydoe referre unto the foure Evangelists But the other places and this also they doe referre unto the four principall acts of Christ in our reconcillation They doe apply the face of the Man to Christs nativitie who was borne man of a pure virgin The face of the Oxe to his passion who resembled his death to the death of an Oxe sacrificed for the sinnes of the People and the face of the Lyon to his Resurrection who thereby triumphed over death even he that was a Lyon of the Tribe of Judah And lastly they compare the face of the Eagle to his glorious ascention whereby he mounted like an Eagle above an Eagles pitch only to reconcile us unto Gods favor And if the Sacrifice of Christ be applyed unto us then doth it appease Gods wrath to us David applyeth Nathans rebuke to himselfe after all his sorrow and acknowledgment of his sinne in the one and fiftith Psalme with deepe and hearty repentance he sheweth that the Sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit and a broken heart he despiseth not and if with David in the fourth Psalme and the fist verse We examine our owne heart and offer the Sacrifices of righteousnesse and trust in the Lord this application of our Sacrifice to this Sacrifice is by our hearty repentance and then shall the Sacrifice of Christ Jesus be unto us a reconciliation and a propitiatory Sacrifice even to us that are penitent for hee that mourneth and sorroweth for his sinnes that repenteth from his heart of his former wickednesse shall be sure to have a part of this blessed Sacrifice once offered for all upon the Crosse And this is Pauls Sacrifice in the twelfth to the Romans and the first verse offer upyour bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable serving of God these then that sacrifice their Soules and Bodies by Repentance shall be assured to have a part in Christs sacrifice If thy eye offend pull it out the ninth of Marke and the fourty seventh verse apply by thy repentance Christs passion
we were like to perish till he provided for us so we must give him a present even the first fruits of that we have acknowledging that all came from him in the twenty sixt chapter of Deuteronomie The ground of our oblation is to testifie so as the ground of our oblation 1. our thankfulness is the testifying of our thankfulnesse 2 our subjection to God Another end is the testifying and acknowledging of our subjection to God that as he gave us our souls so we confesse we ought to bestow our souls on God And that we shall doe if when our own reason cannot attain to see how that should be just which he requireth 1. to give and subject our souls to God yet we be content to make our souls subject to him and to bring them into the obedience of Christ in the second of the Corinthians and the tenth chapter If as we have grieved the spirit of God with our sinnes so we be content to grieve our souls and to break them with sorrow which is a sacrifice to God in the fifty first Psalme and the seventeenth verse 2. to subject our bodies to God Secondly as we have received our bodies from God so we must make them subject to God by abating the desires which our flesh delighteth in that we may delight in that which God requireth and that we be content to impoverish the body to chasten it and bring it under by fasting in the first of the Corinthians and the ninth chapter From both soul and body our mouths must shew forth Gods praise that it may be more fit for his service we must not only acknowledge in our soul that we owe our selves both soul and body to God but we must open our lips and shew forth his praise with our mouthes in the fifty first Psalme 3. We must honour God with our substance And lastly we must honor God with our substance in the third chapter of the Proverbs And not content our selves with the oblation of the lips as a sacrifice that cost us nothing in the second of Samuell and the twenty fourth chapter The sacrifice also hath two grounds The sacrifice also hath two grounds 1. The confession of our sins aud why First The confession of our sinnes for in that the poor Lamb or other beast whatsoever hath his throat cut what is it else but a confession that what the Lamb suffereth the same we our selves deserved to suffer As the Lamb dieth so we deserve the death both of body and soul And as the Lamb was burnt to ashes so we deserved to be burnt in the lake of sire and brimstone in the twentieth of the Apocal. and the tenth verie For sine effusione sanguinis non est peccatorum remissio in the ninth chapter of the Hebrews And so in that the poor beast hath his blood poured out we doe thereby confesse that we cannot have remission of sinnes without the shedding of blood if we seek it in our selves 2 The confession of our faith in Christ which maketh the other perfect and why But there is a second ground of the sacrifice and that is the confession of our faith which maketh all the other confessions perfect for how is it possible that a Lamb should be worth a Man and that the death of an unreasonable creature should be a sufficient satisfaction for the sinnes of a reasoable soul the Apostle saith It is impossible that the blood of Lambs and Goats should take away sinnes in the tenth chapter of the Hebrews and the fourth verse It cost more to redeem souls then so vise a price or the price of the most pretious things in the world in the fourty ninth Psalme Christ the Lamb slain by whose blood we have remission of sinnes and why Therefore the reason why they offered sacrifice was to make confession of their faith in Christ whom they confessed to be the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world by whose blood we have remission of sinnes So the Lambe which Abel offered in the fourth chapter of Genesis which Esay foresaw should stand before his shearrer in the fifty third of Isaiah whom John Baptist pointed at John the first chapter and the twenty ninth verse Ecce Agnus Dei is Christ the Son of God slain from the beginning of the world to take away sinnes Apoc. the thirteenth chapter And in the blood of that Lambe are the sinnes of the whole world purged as it is in the first Epistle of St. John the first chapter and the seventh verse 4. The warrant whereby they offered oblations and sacrifice Fourthly The warrant whereby they offered their oblation and sacrifices was not any expresse command of God in the Scripture and God only knoweth what kinde of service best pleaseth him and of themselves they were not to devise any thing 1. Adam was instructed by God and they by Adam but they were taught by Adam and Adam was instructed by God As Adam had experience that God was able to bring light out of darknesse so he taught Adam by his spirit that as by the tree of life he would give life so by death he would give life For as in the Sacrifices of the Law the Jews were taught that out of death God would give them life We by our Sacraments so now in our Sacraments Christians are assured that by the death of Christ whereof the Supper is a commemoration the faithfull obtain life Made known 1. By the light of nature The meanes whereby God made this known to them was first the light of nature That they had offended God which told them that seeing so many infirmities and sicknesses lay upon them it was for that they had offended som body 2. That they owe thankfulness for all they had to be acknowledged in heart word and works Secondly that all they possessed was from some superior power to whom they ought to be both thankfull and dutifull and to acknowledge both these in words as well as in heart and to expresse this subjection by works that is by offering somthing to God 2. For the confession of faith no reason or light of nature taught but by Gods spirit But as for confession of faith no reason of man no light of nature that could apprehend that but as Christ saith in the sixteenth of Matthew it was the Revelation of Gods Spirit which taught them that Christ the Lambe of God should be offered as a Sacrifice for sinne of which all the sacrifices that went before were types Concerning Cain and Abell we are to observe two points First what they had in common Secondly what severally All both poor and rich must offer For the first As we learn that all must offer both in the Law in the thirtieth chapter of Exodus for God will have his offering be we rich or poor and in the Gospell where Christ alloweth
as thou usest to doe unto those that love thy name And to imitate We must imitate them that by faith have pleased God we must have both the faith and offerings of Abel and Abraham and unto these we must add that our offerings come not from us agre in fine dierum but that they be primitiae they may not be the leanest of our sheep but the fattest The offerings of Wordlings but if we examine the faith and offerings of the world we shall finde the greatest part goe the way of Cain they offer in sine dierum and without any choice the vilest things they have and many are worse than Cain for whereas he offered many desire such a Religion wherein they may come before God with empty hands they would offer a sacrifice that cost them nothing the second of Samuel the twenty fourth chapter and the twenty fourth verse the first to the Corinthians the ninth chapter and there is another degree of men that content themselves with pirituall scrifices some will be content to add vitulos labiorum that is not only conceive som good meditations for a time but hear a Sermon praise God with a Psalm but as for a real oblation they bring none But this was not Abels faith his was an offering faith if we will be saved as he was we must bring his faith to God and shew the effects of it Fides and obtulit must not be severed for that is abomination Examination of offerings If our offerings be in fine dierum if they be the meanest things we have then they are 〈◊〉 sera rejectionis oblationes We must consider and ballance that which we offer to God with that which we offer to our bellie whom wee make our God as it is in the third chapter to the Philippians and that we offer to our backs in the first Epistle to Timothie the second chapter and the ninth verse in costly apparell If therefore we have been slack and unwilling to offer to God Note we must henceforth offer more franckly and pray that God would continue this purpose in our hearts to offer to him in the first book of Chronicles the twenty ninth chapter and the 〈◊〉 verse because this is a savour and smelleth well and is acceptable to God Philippians the fourth chapter and the seventeenth verse If we will have the true faith it must be that faith that doth worke by love in the fift chapter to the Galatians and the sixt verse that it be like Abrahams faith which did cooperare operibus in the second of James and the twenty second verse and such a faith as hath joyned to it love and all other virtues in the second of Peter the first chapter and the second and third verses For where there is great faith there will be great sacrifices and oblations in the eighth chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians Qnapropter accensa est ira Kajini valde cecidit vultus ejus Gen 4 5. May 6. 1599. IN which words as we see the originall taint and corruption that came into our nature by the disobedience of man breaketh forth for here originall sinne sheweth it self first in Cain in whom we see that verified which the Apostle affirmeth of all men that there is a spirit in us that lusteth after envy in the fourth chapter of James and the fift verse For here the envy of Cain is manifest in that he is angry because God did approve Abel's sacrifice and respected not his This envic and malice of his proceeded from the Devill who is called the envious man Matthew the thirteenth chapter and the nineteenth verse for that he soweth envy and all other vices in the hearts of men There went another sinne before envy For where Abels sacrifice was done in faith and therefore respected we have shewed that Cain offered only to please men and consequently whatsoever he did was hypocrisie which albeit it goe before his envy yet it is only in the heart But the first sinne that shewed it self outwardly was his malice and envy against his brother where we are to note the proceeding of sinne Envy beginneth with Hypocrisie First He began with hypocrisie within Hatred followeth and then follows hatred and envy without Breach of faith to God causeth breach of charity to men for if shipwrack be made of faith towards God charity towards men will not long be unbroken If the end of the promise which is faith in the blessed seed of the Woman be not regarded the end of the commandement which is love in the first epistle to Timothie the first chapter and the fift verse will little be respected For as Saint John saith This command we have from him That he which loveth God should love his brother also But he which loveth not his brother which he seeth how shall he love God which he hath not seen the first epistle of John and the fouth chapter In the words themselves there are two things expressed First a heavinesse or anger conceived Secondly the abating of his countenance that is Cains sinne in an inward imposthume and an outward jaundise But in the first we are to marke It is not said he was displeased or angrie but wrath and exceeding wrath the inward infection was come to a suppuration It was not envy only but also hatred which made him proceed to the murthering of his brother the first epistle of John the third chapter Note The heart heavie it is distempered If we inquire why he was heavy We shall finde that to be for that his heart was distempered either against God or his brother either against him that did respect or against him that was respected Heavinesse the first fruit of sinne The first passion or affection of our nature mentioned in Scripture as we see is heavinesse which is the first fruit of sinne and of it self is neither to be condemned nor commended for ex peccam 〈◊〉 tristitia And as the worm cats out the timber wherein it was bred so sadnesse being bred of sinne is the bane of sinne for there are two sorrows in the second epistle to the Corinthians and the second chapter Tristitia secundum Deum tristitia secundum seculum The Godly sorrow is commendable for it brings forth repentance but the worldly sorrow causeth nothing but death and eternall destruction If Cain was sorry because he offered not his sacrifice in faith as Abel did he is not to be blamed but his sorrow was a worldly sorrow and therefore to be condemned As the King said to Nehemlah Why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sick this is nothing but sorrow of heart Nehemiah the second chapter and the second verse So where we see Cain heavy and his countenance cast down we may gather that he is disquieted and sorrowfull for 〈◊〉 and charity whose property is to think the best the first epistle to
in hell to endure torments for ever This is a thing worthy our consideration That if we doe not well we shall be punished for sinne lyeth at the door and if we sinne against the Lord be sure your sinne will finde you out Numbers the thirty second chapter and the twenty third verse Note for sinne doth intangle men as it were with cords and snares Proverbs the fifth chapter Sinne lyeth at the dore first in diem judicii asservatur wherein are two points First concerning the lying of sinne Secondly the place where it lyeth By lying is understood the act of sinne and as that which lyeth is said to rise again so sinne is not so low nor so asleep but after it hath lyen a while it will rise again that is after the act performed there 〈◊〉 a remorse of conscience for the sinne committed for the act of sinne howsoever the lips of a strange woman drop as hony yet of the remorse he saith the end is more bitter then wormwood Proverbs the fifth chapter and the third verse for sinne is never so sweet in committing as it is bitter in remembring The bread of deceit is sweet to a man in the act of sinne but after when he is touched with remorse it filleth his mouth with gravell Proverbs the twentieth chapter and the seventeenth verse Whosoever devoures holy things they prove a snare to them Proverbs the twentieth chapter and the twenty fifth verse How goodly a colour soever the wine have in the cup and how pleasantly soever it goe down yet in the end it will bite like a Serpent Proverbs the twenty third chapter and the thirty first and thirty second verses They that are desirous to fall asleep hide themselves in some private corner that they may not be 〈◊〉 so there is a secrecy of sinne and men would fain hide sinnes but there is a day of the Lord which when it commeth it shall illuminare occulta tenebrarum the first to the Corinthians the fourth chapter and the fifth verse then the most secret sinnes shall be laied open for there is nothing covered that shall not be known nor hidden that shall not be revealed Luke the twelfth chapter and the second verse Touching the place where sinne lyeth it is at the dore or gate and this it maketh sinne to awake For it cannot sleep by a dore where there is continuall knocking But there is a double interpretation of the word dore First it is referred to the dore of a mans conscience of which it is said Behold I stand at the dore and knock in the third chapter of the Revelations and the twentieth verse And according to this sense Gods meaning is that when sin is once committed a mans conscience will easily be disquieted with the least knocking for the sleep of sinne is like the sleep of him that sleepeth upon the top of a mast in the twenty third of the Proverbs and the thirty fourth verse which being tossed to and fro of the winde suffereth him not to take any quiet rest And that sinne is wakned by the dore of the conscience we have a plain example in the Children of Jacob Affliction knocketh at the dore of conscience to awaken it being asleep for when affliction did knock at the dore of their consciences they remembred their sinne and confessed that all that misery was befallen them for their cruelty towards Joseph in the fourty second of Genesis and the twenty second verse and after Jacob was dead the remorse of conscience did so waken them that they would not be quiet till they had asked Joseph forgivness for their cruelty towards him Secondly because there are some that can sear up their consciences so as they will not be touched with any remorse Therefore there is another dore whereat sinne is said to lye that is the dore or gate of death Psalm the ninth Isaiah the thirty eighth and the tenth verse I am going to the gate of death This gate or dore cannot be shut up we cannot escape death Judex stat prae foribus Jeremiah the fifth chapter as soon as we are out of the dore of death we shall see the Judge ready to give sentence upon us and to condemn us for our sinnes Sinne barketh like a dogge then sinne shall not bark like a Dog but howle and roar as a Lyon not suffering us to take any rest but keep us in continuall torment The consideration of so great miserie as is procured by sinne should terrific us from sinne unless we be worse than beasts who by no means will be brought to run into the fire or any other apparent danger use what extremity towards them you will At erga te est appetitus illius tu praees illi Gen. 4. 7. July 21. 1599. WHich words as heretofore I have told you contain a very gracious and mercifull admonition or if you will have it so a Sermon and that the best Sermon that ever was made by God to Cain concerning the reforming in himself of those inward trespasses of hypocrisie to God and malice conceived against his brother Of which as the ancient Fathers have divided them be four parts First by way of expostulation Why art thou wrath c. Secondly a point of doctrine and direction to the promise If thou doe well c. And the third a point of correction 〈◊〉 by God by way of commination If thou doe not well sin lyeth at the dore And these three we have already handled now come wee to the last which is the manner how God will deal that he shall be inexcusable saying erga te erit appetitus ejus the meaning whereof it is good that wee know for indeed the diverse taking of the word ejus where unto ejus should be referred makes that the words are 〈◊〉 diversly translated yet are all true and of due and high regard and have very fruitfull and godly meditations for there 〈◊〉 that refer this word ejus to Abell that is thy brothers desire shall be to thee which is not here meant There are others that refer it thus because no mention is made here of Abell but that sinne is the last thing spoken of therefore they refer it to sinne thus the desire of it shall be to thee which is the best translation and the most fit and congruent sense agreeing with the words So then to deal truly and uprightly I have told you that the words may bear both senses well and with good profit therefore I will take them both first together and then tell you which is best If then we understand it to be Abel which cannot be referred to any mans person so well as to Abels take it so as if God should say indeed I respect thy brother and if thou rejoycest that Abel is respected thou dost well for so thou shouldst doe but thou art grieved thereat Why then art thou so sad Here God expostulates with him it is
a condemning of his action because it is a foolish thing to doe that which hath no good reason to be rendred to warrant the doing of it Therefore God divideth the sense into two parts either the reason must be in God or in Abel in God for favouring him or in Abel because favoured of God Now God in the former part hath acquitted himself saying If thou dost well shalt not thou be accepted for behold I am just and will regard thy well doing therefore thou hast no cause to be grieved for that Or else thou shalt be rewarded according to justice and that in bounty and liberality which is by ancient Fathers grounded upon the words of God to Abraham Fear not for I will be thine exceeding great reward Genesis the fifteenth chapter and the first verse that is If thou dost well thou shalt be 〈◊〉 be rewarded for it but if thou dost not well thou hast no cause to be grieved neither for as I am just and will talk with thee one day thou shalt hear of it so yet my justice is full of mercy I intend not presenly to take thee by the throat but give thee space to repent 〈◊〉 shall but lye at thy dore so that not only Gods justice 〈◊〉 herein but his mercy is exceeding great and mixed with justice If God took order that after his sinne committed Cain should 〈◊〉 by and by come to judgement but should have time first to 〈◊〉 himself of it this is matter of comfort that no man should despair by and by when he hath sinned far that God is a 〈…〉 God and would not the death of sinner and therefore giveth him time to repent This sheweth that God gave him no cause of grief There remains that the grief must be conceived against Abel because God so much respected him but so the sense is as if God should say Cain art thou grieved for Abels good and fearest he should grow insolent by the favour I have shewed him and so he should despise and thou shouldst be vile in his eyes If Abel have offended thee why his desire shall be subject to thee but that is no cause why thou shouldst be grieved for he being the Child of grace doth not affect any such manner of superiority as thou fearest but is as modest and as humble as he was before and so thou hast no reason of impatiencie against him And not only that first but this second that God shewed plainly that it is his will that in and by the sin committed no man should lose any priviledge which of right is due to him and which before hee had and every motion in a Superior to sinne doth not discharge him of his authority Which is contrary to that false opinion and censure of them which thinke that even Princes themselves after sinne committed lose all their prerogative and supremacy of government which they had before and that their Subjects are not bound to doe their service any longer to them but that ever after their allegiance shall cease which is false and contrary to all reason and not Gods intent and will here For as in the chapter before after Adam had sinned yet Eve was still subject to him so the same God saith and ratifieth here that Cain though he had thus sinned both against God and his brother yet being the elder and first born and so before Abel so there should be a superiority and dominion that he should still retain by nature And it is Gods assertion that that superiority should be reteined still and that Abel should not seek to be his Superior neither did he That was the prerogative which Cain had before Abel as the elder But to yeeld this obedience hath been the continuall practise of all the Saints and Children of God King Saul was a wicked man yet David rebelled not against him because he knew him to be the Lords annointed so the Prophet Jeremy saith of Nebuchadnezar a wicked King that he will visite the Nation and Kingdome that will not serve him the twenty seventh chapter of Jeremiah and the ninth verse and for the new Testament both Paul and Peter confess the same Paul in the first to Timothy the second chapter and the second verse and Peter in the first epistle of Peter the second chapter and the fourteenth verse doe will that duty and allegiance be given to the higher powers not only if they be good but though they be Tyrants and wicked Princes that fear not God And it is it that God saith by Job Job the thirty fourth chapter and the thirtieth verse that by him the Hypocrite reigneth that is for their sinnes God will send wicked Princes and Cain shall bear rule over Abel God doth not only alledg that thus it was but thus he would have it This Government thus by God established in the beginning was by David Jeremy Paul Peter Job and all the rest of the Patriarchs and Saints of God confessed and allowed So that if we regard Abel either in respect of himself or his demeanour towards Cain or we respect Gods goodness herein no just cause can be of grief neither was it Gods will that Abel should resist neither doth he any such thing and so indeed there was no just cause why Cain should fear it or be grieved And this may suffice for the first which I will shut up with this Caveat of instruction 〈◊〉 Our own sinne of malice and envy is cause of our grief that for as much as the grief of malice and envy cannot be 〈◊〉 from God who is just nor from Abel who is mild and modest then it remains that it came from Cain himself whom God repeats four times together in the words of this Text thou and thee and so he must return to his own heart and remember how his own sinne is cause of his grief as God himself speaketh by Isaiah the fourty sixth chapter and the eighth verse Remember thus and be ashamed bring it again to minde you transgressors Note And for the new Testament Luke the fifteenth chapter the prodigall Sonne when he came to himself confessed his own unworthiness and said Father I have sinned which is another main point of Divinity established from the beginning that as God saith Hosea the fifteenth and the ninth perditio tua ex te Israel salus autem ex me so our well doing or ill doing is cause of our regarding or destruction so saith James no man is tempted of God for God cannot be tempted of ill neither doth he tempt any man but every one is tempted of his own concupiscence James the first chapter and the thirteenth verse So that from the first we have this Doctrine that if God be judged he is innocent and if Abel there is no fault in him and to come to Cain he is in all the fault But now if we come about and say it is not meant of the person but of the things that is
and waking A third distinction is peccatum cubans and vigilans that is sinne sleeping and lying still and sinne waking that is the temptation of sinne before and while it is committed and then the remorse after The fourth and last distinction is that which 〈◊〉 a difference between the Children of God and of the Devill between the reprobate and the regenerate that in the godly there is peccatum 〈◊〉 but not dominans sin ruleth but reigneth not from hence is grounded that which the Prophet saith in the nineteenth Psalm Keep thy servant from presumptuous sinnes and in the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm Direct my steps that no iniquitie have dominion over me so the Apostle in the sixth chapter to the Romans Let not sinne reigne in your mortall bodies yet he confesseth in the seventh chapter to the Romans that sinne dwelleth in him By which we may see plainly what it meaneth for sinne would command a mans body his eye foot and hand yea set all the parts of his body a work about that it 〈◊〉 But that party when sinne biddeth him 〈◊〉 and goe 〈◊〉 still when sinne biddeth him stretch out his hand can clasp it close when sinne biddeth him delight his eye can shut it close when sinne biddeth take to heart and one doth with sighs shake it off he that when sin commeth running shutteth the dore against it avoideth all provocations in such a one there is peccatum currens but not dominans That is for the division and the difference between these two sorts of persons But secondly we have a main foundation which the ancient Fathers and Doctors ground upon the thirteene verses of the third chapter where God useth the same words to the woman that he useth to Cain here Why hast thou done this And the Woman said The Serpent beguiled me It sheweth that the proceding of Cains sinne was as the first sinne was for the Serpent first shewed her the fruit and she did eat and then after she shewed it to Adam and it pleasing his sight he likewise did eat This is the proceeding of sinne from the Serpent to Eve from her to Adam and so here the presuming of reason in Cain contrary to reason was as that in Eve and Adam and therefore as after God said to the woman Thy desire shall be subject to thy husbands and he shall rule over thee so here he saith Cain shall bear rule over sin and the same shall befall in mans sensuality that is his lusts and concupiscence which befell his uper part which is his reason alluring him and drawing him to sinne Therefore they call the understanding and reason which is the uper part of the soul Adam and the lower part that is the affection Eve The desire and pleasure of sinne that is the apple and sinne is as the Serpent As this is grounded upon the speech of God so is it upon the similitude and manner of sinne whereby man is caught as a fish with the bait in the first chapter of James for reason taketh the bait first Such a proceeding is in all sinne and there is no other temptation to sinne now then there was in the beginning to Adam and Eve Thus much for our state and duty arising by way of instruction and exhortation to behave our selves so as sinne get not the rule over us I come now to the last in these words But thou shalt bear rule over it Wherein we ask How shall this be fulfilled can we give to nature that power and freewill nay it is plain we cannot neither is Gods intent so to doe for we are not able of our selves as from our selves to think a good thought as it is in the second to the Corinthians the third chapter and the third verse for we have all been as an unclean thing all our righteousnesse is like a filthy cloth in the sixty fourth chapter of Isaiah and the sixth verse so that he that hath no more in him than the strength of nature is as he that followeth the steps of an harlot whose case is like to the oxe that goeth to the slaughter as it is in the seventh chapter of the Proverbs Therefore it is not to be desired neither is it in our strength to doe it for where God saith Tee shall rule over it Is our strength able to doe thus No. Further as Moses said in the 30. of Deuteronomie and the 14. that Gods meaning in giving him the Law was not that he could doe it or should of himself but it was verbum fidei the word was as near to thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart to doe it This word is the word of promise as Paul expoundeth it in the tenth chapter to the Romans The means to rule sinne is as near thee as sinne is Say not in thy heart who shall goe up into heaven the means is the word of faith which assureth thee of Christ the promised seed who shall for thee break the head of the Serpent as it is in the third chapter of Genesis and give thee the victorie over sinne for else this doctrine had been false if that promise had not gone before then there is Christ without whom we can doe nothing but sinne as himself speaketh Sine me nihil potestis facere in the fifteenth chapter of John the fifth verse It is he that giveth repentance in the second 〈◊〉 to Timothie the second chapter by whom they come 〈◊〉 amendment 〈◊〉 of the snare of the Devill And therefore as the Apostle saith Wee must be strong in the Lord that we may be able to resist in the sixth chapter to the Ephesians For we are able to doe all things in him that strengthneth us as it is in the fourth chapter to the Philippians that is by the strength of his grace enabling us For the performance whereof we must sue to him and begge it at his hands by prayer And that is the meaning of the words that we should ire ad Dominum ut in Domino dominemur 〈◊〉 must goe to him that hath trod upon the bead os the Serpent and overcome the power of Hell Sinne and Death and he shall tread down Sat an under 〈◊〉 feet in the sixteenth chapter to the Romans and the twentieth verse In the one hunderd and tenth Psalme He shall bear rule over his enemies then he may justly bid us bear rule over sinne seeing he is both able and milling to help us There is no man hath set it down more excellently than St. Gregory who saith Justus Deus instat praecepto quia cùm instat ptaecepto praecurrit auxilio so that if a man can remember what Christ hath done how that he which hath broken the Serpents head will give us power to bear rule over sinne as he is able so will he if we be earnest suitors to him for 〈◊〉 give us grace and strength whereby to resist temptations of sinne So saith the Apostle in the second to
fac cito John the thireenth chapter and the twenty seventh verse only Cain and Judas wanted but opportunity which so soon as they had obtained they committed their sinne actually The causes of Cains proceeding to the committing of this act are diverse down after diverse sorts First he seeketh a convenient place and opportunity and maketh choyce of the field because he would not be hindred in doing the murther for he could not have any opportunitie at home for Adam and Eve being at hand would have been ready to hinder him And as he makes choyce of this place not to be hindered so in that after he denyed the fact it appeareth his desire was as well not to be discovered as not to be hindred Wherein we have to respect first his great blindness that could not see the nature of sinne for in that he sought such a place for the doing of it as might be hid and unknown It is strange he could not perceive it to be a work of darkness his own conscience did condemn him for he durst not be seen to doe that which he did but in hypocrisie would seem not to be what he was this was his way and we must beware that we walk not in it Again it is strange that he was more afraid of Adam a mortall man than of the omnipotent God and was more fearfull that Adam his Father a mortall man should see him than that God who is able to grinde him in a morter should behold his fact Wherefore as sinne is a dishonest thing perswading against all reason to fear man more than God so is it a dishonest thing for that we will not be seen to commit sinne as a thing that standeth not with their credits and therefore make choice of such places as are fittest for the concealing thereof Note Secondly he deviseth how to draw Abel to that place and what means to use that Abel might goe confidently with him thither To that end though he have not now spoken to him of a long time yet he is content to speak kindly to him The heathen man saith that if a man will hate he must doe it apertè unless he will be worse thin wilde beasts for they violenly flie upon those things which they hate Dissembled hatred discovered by silence but the Devill hath taught men to dissemble their hatred that they might be worse than beasts Hatred commonly is discerned by silence one argument of that hatred and grudge which Josephs bretheren bare to him was not potuerunt alloqui illum Genesis the thirty seventh chapter and so Absolom having conceived hatred and displeasure against Ammon spake neither good nor ill to him the second of Samuel and the thirteenth chapter but as the 〈◊〉 when he most of all hated our first Parents would seem to be touched with some commisseration of their estate Genesis the third chapter Note Hath God indeed said ye shall not eate Nay but he knoweth c. So he 〈◊〉 Cain to dissemble his hatred with fair words which dissimulation is a sinne condemned not only of the heathen but abhorred by the Saints of God For when such a one as walks in the house of God with him as his friend and companion should deceive him then David had cause to pray against such a one Psalm the fifty fifth Let death seize upon him Cain though he hated his brother and purposed his death yet to accomplish his purpurpose he makes a fair semblance of love Example So Absolom being minded to murther Ammon pretends great love to him he must needs have Ammon to the Sheep-shearing or else all his cost is lost But shall not Ammon my brother come the second of Samuel and the thirteenth chapter this course took Joab with Amasa the second of Samuel and the twentieth chapter so Judas dissembled his malice with hail Master and kissed him John the twenty ninth This sin is abominable yea it containeth seven abominations as the Wiseman tells us Proverbs the twenty sixth chapter and the twenty fifth verse and they that 〈◊〉 hatred with love and slattering words walk in the way of Cain That which Cain spake with Abel when they were alone as St. Jerome thinketh was that he 〈◊〉 Abel what God had said to him and what he had taught him the 〈◊〉 referres it to this verse that his words to him were eamus ad agrum whatsoever it was he said it was abominable hypocrisie Thirdly we see that Abel obeyed the voice of his elder brother for that it was Gods will he should bear rule over him so he went thinking all had been well The best natures not suspicious for the best natures are least suspicious as we have an example in Gedaliah who beleeved that Ishmael had no purpose to hurt him Jeremiah the fourtieth chapter for charity is not suspicious in the first to the Corinthians and the thirteenth chapter especially Abel had little cause to suspect him that was come from a Sermon and seemed to be a new man Note so that he spake kindly to him that had not given him a good look along time This change in Cain made Abel to goe with him and being in the place appointed Cain arose and slew him Degrees of Cains sinne 〈◊〉 Touching the death of Abel we are to observe from the words First it was a violent death for his life did not goe out of him but as the word signifieth it was rent from him Secondly it was a bloody death as the words of God to Cain shew The voice of thy Brothers blood which thou hast slain cryeth to me verse the tenth Thirdly it was a sudden death and therefore more grievous because thereby not only the body is killed but the soul also of such a party that is in state of sinne and hath not respite graunted to repent thereof In this act of Cain we have to observe these things wherby his sin is aggravated First the sinne which he committeth is murther a sinne the more grievous for that it is the defacing of Gods Image Genesis the ninth chapter Secondly his fact the more odious for that the party murthered is one more weak than himself for he was younger than Cain therefore it was a cowardly part to set upon his inferiour It is the thing which the Wise-man complaineth Ecclesiastes the eighth chapter I saw one man bear rule over another not for good so the authority and superiorty which was committed to Cain should have been for Abels good but he abused it to the hurt of his younger brother Thirdly where God will not have any innocent blood shed but sacrifice must be offered Deuteronomie the twenty first chapter Cain kills innocent Abel which doth in a third degree aggravate his sinne for to shed innocent blood is a thing that Pilate himself could not abide and therefore washed his hands declaing that he was clear from killing Christ Matthew the twenty seventh chapter and the twenty fourth
verse Fourthly he breaks the bond of nature for the party murthered is his brother and so he becommeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans the first chapter Fiftly he feares not to kill him though he know it will be to the great grief of Adam and Eve his Parents wherein he deals worle than Esau who would not utter his hatred against Jacob till the dayes of mourning for his Father were past Genesis the twenty seventh chapter Sixtly it was not done ex irae impetu but ex odii habitu and against such the Prophet prayeth be not mercifull to such as sinne of malicious wickedness psalm the fifty ninth Seventhly his hatred was not open Cloaked hatred under colour of friendship but cloaked and hidden under a shew of love which makes it more grievous It was not mine enemie that did me this dishonour for then I could have born it It was not mine adversary that exalted himself against me for I would have hid my self but it was thou my companion my guid and familiar friend therefore let death seiz upon him Psalm the fifty fifth and the twelfth thirteenth and fifteenth verses Eighthly this sinne is committed after Gods admonition who had uied all means to draw him to repentance Ninthly not only being admonished but seeing his Father made an example of Gods wrath whom he saw daily labouring and moyling in the earth for his disobedience to God Tenthly that which makes Cains sinne out of reason sinfull Romans the seventh is the cause not for any offence that Abel had committed but for doing his duty in Gods service as the Apostle noteth in the first epistle of John the third chapter and the twelfth verse Wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his brothers good Cain Patriarch of hypocrites and persecutors of the Godly As before he was the Patriarch of all hypocrites so here Cain is the Patriarch of all persecuting Tyrants for that he slew his brother for no other cause but for well doing and for this good sacrifice whereby he pleased God Abel the first righteous Martyr And as Abel is said to be the first of all righteous men Matthew the twenty third chapter and the twenty fifth verse so here we see him the first Martyr wherein we see the works of the Devill who is a mutherer from the beginning John the eighth chapter and the fourty fourth verse Anger conceived hatred is murther of the soul. for he did not only murther our first 〈◊〉 in Paradise but he makes Cain a mutherer first of his own soul by conceiving hatred against his brother and purposing his death and then by killing the body of his brother Envy the meanes As this is the effect of the Devill so he makes the sinne of envy the means of which sinne the Wise-man saith Proverbs the twenty seventh chapter and the fourth verse Who can stand before envy there is no way but death with them that are envyed Examples The Bretheren of Joseph were content with nothing but the death of their brother but that two of them did withstand it Genesis the thirty seventh chapter It was envy that made the Scribes and Pharisees crucifie Christ Matthew the twenty seventh chapter Of hatred 〈◊〉 murther We see how Cain proceeded against his brother from envie to anger from anger to hatred and from it to murther these degrees must be observed Note that we may avoid them in our selves because there is no man but may sall as well as Cain except the grace of God doe stay him To conclude It is a necessary point that we consider aright of of this matter for the Prophet complaineth in the fifty seventh chapter of Isaiah and the first verse The righteous perisheth and no man considereth it So it is a fault if we do not consider the death of righteous Abel The Wiseman complaineth in the seventh chapter of Ecclesiastes and the seventeenth verse In the dayes of my vanity I have seen a good man punished in his justice and a wicked man continue longer in his malice This was Abel's case but when a man shall consider that death was at the first inflicted upon sinne because it is the wages of sin Romans the sixt chapter and the last verse and that 〈◊〉 is the means by which death entred into the world Romans the fift chapter and yet that Abel a righteous man is the first that drank of this Cup in the old Testament as John Baptist was in the new it will make him say Hoc est onus Jehovae as it is in the twenty third chapter of Jeremiah and the thirty fourth verse and hic est durus sermo John the sixt chapter The Apostle saith Godlinesse hath promises both in this life and the life to come in the first epistle to Timothie the fourth chapter and the eighth verse and among the promises of this life long life is one in the sixt chapter to the Ephesians and the third verse which God promiseth to them that honour their Superiors On the other side God threatneth that the blood thirsty and deceitfull man shall not live out half his dayes Psalm the fifty fift And yet Cain lived long and Abel a godly man dyed soon Therefore when we see the righteous dye quickly and the wicked live long we must take heed we stumble not at Gods doings but justifie God and acknowledge that he is just and true and every man a lyar Psalm the fifty first Romans the third chapter Therefore to make this point plain it is true long life is promised as a blessing of God which he promiseth to the observers of his command but withall we must know there are certain causes wherein this rule holdeth not true that the dutifull and holy man shall live long in this world The exceptions are First in respect of the parties themselves to whom this blessing is promised It is with a Godly man as with the fruit of trees if after it is once ripe it besuffered to continue on the trees it will be rotten so it is with good men in this world And therefore the Wiseman saith of Enoch that because he lived amongst sinners God translated him and he took him away least wickednesse should alter his understanding and deceit beguile his minde Sapi. the fourth chapter In such a case it is not a benefit but a detriment for a man to live long And there is no man but in such a respect will be content that God shall break promise with him Secondly Another exception is in respect of the punishment of sinne If a party that pleaseth God should by living long become miserable he would not think long life a blessing and therefore God in mercy took away good Josiah that he should not see the miseries that were to come upon the Jews by the captivitie in the second booke of Chronicles and the thirty fourth chapter this favour he vouchsafed to that godly King
of every man even of every beast in as much as he hath first taught beasts to kill men by his own confession it is just that as the Prophet speaks Micah the seventh chapter and the fift verse The Wife of his bosome and the Children of his loyns shall break the bonds of nature with him as he before hath thewed himself unnaturall to his brother And this is a great part of Cains punishment that albeit there be none to kill him yet he shall be in continuall fear of death that a man shall not only fear Gods threatning but his own fancy that he shall fear not one but every one that meets him as if every one knew his fault that he shall fear not only where there is cause of fear as wilde beasts but tuta timere and this is a part of Gods curse that God will send faintness into their hearts so as they shall be afraid at the shaking of a leaf Leviticus the twenty sixt chapter and the thirty sixt verse at every shadow as the Midianites were of their dreams Judges the seventh chapter and at every noise and rumor in the second of the Kings the seventh chapter and the sixt verse These feares are great punishments and arguments of a guilty conscience and this sheweth that albeit wickedness be secret yet it will not suffer a man to be quiet Wherein we are to observe how Cain de scribeth the state of them that are out of Gods favour and cast from his presence that they fear either no fear as Psalm the fifty 〈◊〉 If the Prince frown upon a man there is no hope of favour any where else so if God be once offended so that a man despair of his favour he will fear every creature the starres of heaven fought against Sisera Judges the fift chapter and the twentieth verse The stones in the street will cease to be in league and peace with him Job the fift chapter therefore when God saith quaerite faciem meam Psalm the twenty seventh our soul must answer thy face Lord will I seek For if we seek the Lord our God we shall finde him Deuteronomie the fourth chapter and the twenty ninth verse and that is so necessary that the People say If thy presence goe not with us carry us not hence Exodus the thirty third chapter and the Prophet speaketh Cast me not from thy presence Psalm the fifty first for without the assurance of Gods favour and protection we shall fear every shadow every noise that we hear Secondly Cain in these words sheweth what was his chief fear and what did most grieve him that was that he should die not the death of the soul but the bodily death by the hand of man he feares the shadow of death but not the body of death as the Apostle speaks Romans the seventh chapter but eternall death is that which he should have feared most of all for it hath a body and shall be found though the bodily death is often sought and cannot be found Job the third wherein Cain shewes what he is that is animalis homo in the first to the Corinthians the second chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phillippians the third chapter not having the spirit so was Saul afflicted in the first of Samuel the fifteenth chapter Honour me before the people he respected worldly honour more than Gods favour whereupon saith Augustine quid tibi honoratio haec proderit miser If 〈◊〉 death fall upon Cain what shall it profit him to live on earth but this sheweth plainly that the life of the body was Cains chief felicity and that the greatest grief he had was for the death of the body as if he should say let me live though it be but in fear and sorrow This is the affection of flesh and blood as the Devill saith of Job Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job the second chapter that is so long as life is not taken away man is well This being Cains complaint it is an implied petition and the request is Quasi pro magno beneficio ut non 〈◊〉 which request may be well uttered if it be rightly taken for not only the wicked feare death but the godly say themselves we sigh and would not be uncloathed but cloathed upon in the second to the Corinthians the fift chapter they would passe to immortality without the dissolution of the body and soul. That prayer for life is well if it be for a good end as Hezekiah praieth he may live to the end he may bewaile his sinnes in the 〈◊〉 of his soul Isaiah the thirty eighth chapter repentance is the end that he sets David saith I will not die but live and praise the Lord Psalm the one hundred and eighteenth the Apostle Paul albeit in regard of himself he desires to be dissolved yet because it is profitable for the Church that he should still remain in the flesh he desires to live Philippians the first chapter and the twenty second verse so life may be sought if it be for this end to doe good but if our end be the escaping of death for a time the case is otherwise Touching the end of Cain's desire It may be he 〈◊〉 life that he might repent and praise God and doe good for charity 〈◊〉 the best in the first epistle to the Corinthians and the thirteenth chapter But we see what doth continually vex Cain and all the wicked that is the doubt of the forgivenesse of sinne which is the worm of the spirit and a continuall fear of death which they know they have deserved at the hands of all Gods creatures Dixit verò Jehova illi Propterea quisquis interfecerit Kajinum septuplo vindicator imposuit Jehova Kajino signum ne eum caederet ullus qui foret inventurus eum Gen. 4. 15. Septemb. 26. 1599. CAINS chief complaint and petition therein implied was handled verse the fourteenth This verse contains Gods answer which is a yeelding or granting to that petition of his and that effectuall for God provideth for the safety of Cain's life not only by his word and command but by a visible mark which he set upon Cain Wherein we are generally to observe First That as the Prophet tels us in the one hundred and tenth Psalme God dealeth not with any sinner according to his sinnes and deserts for if God did not in wrath remember mercy 〈◊〉 the third chapter he should not in justice have suffered Cain to open his mouth for it is just that he which turneth away his car from hearing the law when he prayeth should not be heard Proverbs the twenty eighth chapter and the ninth verse That he which will not hear Gods Prachers shall not be heard of God when he prayeth And the Lord in the Propher saith more plainly in the second chapter of Zechary and the thirteenth verse that as he by his Prophets cried unto the people and they would not
Thirdly In this proceeding of Gods councell and wisedome if neither of these take place that neither Cain himself nor others are the better for this mitigation yet as the Woman said in the second of Samuel the fourteenth chapter that albeit one of her Sons had slain the other yet she would not be deprived of him that was alive for that she was willing that her husbands name and 〈◊〉 should continue upon earth so it stood with Adam he had two Sonnes whereof the one was the bane of the other and albeit Cain deserved to die presently yet God doth not so consider the greatness of his sinne that he will forget the nature of man which himself had created and therefore as well to preserve mankinde as to shew that godly posterity is not hereditarie he suffers Cain yet to live For as Adam had a Cain so from Cain who was that evill one in the first epistle of John the third chapter Gods purpose was to derive such as should pertain to the Covenant Of one and the same Parents Gods will is one shall be born after the flesh another after the spirit and he that is born after the flesh shall persecute him that is born after the spirit Galatians the fourth chapter and the twenty ninth verse As we say of his wisedome so it stands not with Gods justice that whosoever findes a Malefactor shall kill him for God doth plainly expresse his will that a Murtherer being worthy of death in himself for all that shall not be murthered of every one Therefore God saith whosoever shall presume of himself to kill Cain though it be with this pretence that he is a murtherer shall be punished seven fold for it is not in every mans power 〈…〉 If any man have committed a crime the Judge shall see whether he be worthy of death and as the Judge shall judge him so shall he be punished Deuteronomie the twenty 〈◊〉 chapter Exodus the twenty second chapter The Magistrate being Gods Ordinance Romans the thirteenth chapter hath power to put a murther to death for he hath the Sword committed unto him for that end But he that taketh up the Sword shall perish by the Sword Matthew the twenty sixt chapter For if every one that findeth a mans 〈◊〉 might kill him it would soon root out all mankinde And that this inconvenience should not fall out God takes order that every man shall not doe that to Cain which Cain hath done to Abel no man may kill a Murtherer unless he have authority committed unto him for that end That is for his sparing The second point is for the punishment of him that transgresseth thus that is he shall be punished seven fold It is strange that be which kills a murtherer shall have a more grievous punishment than he The number of seven is numerus complens hebdomidem therefore by the 〈◊〉 punishment Gods meaning is that he will lay a compleat and consummate punishment upon such a party but howsoever it seem strange yet it is justice for that as God will not have him spared whom he condemns to death as Saul spared Agag in the first of Samuel the fifteenth chapter nor let him goe whom he hath appointed to die in the first of Kings the twentieth chapter and the fourty second verse so it is a grievous sinne to kill him whom God will have spared and this is it which makes the sin of such a party grievous besides the consideration of Gods wrath against them that doe addere afflictiones afflicto Zechariah the first chapter and the fifteenth verse God saith he will be 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 that help forward the affliction of them with whom he was a little angry and therefore such a one shall not escape but before plagued and the Prophet saith the Lord will not judge and condemn a man twice for one fault Nahum the first chapter and the ninth verse Such a man committeth a sinne more grievous than Cains sinne in two respects First Cain transgressed only the Law of nature written in his heart but the other transgresseth not only the naturall Law but Gods express Command who gave order that no man should of himself presume to kill Cain Secondly It is more grievous in that he maketh Cains example a warrant to commit murther but God saith he must not doe so for if a man seeing Cain punished for his sinne shall notwithstanding sinne as he hath done he addeth to his transgression and must therefore have a greater punishment than Cain From those two parts already handled we may gather that to those that sit as Judges in Gods place there is left a power of life and death a power to crucifie and a power to let loose as Pilate said to Christ John the 19th chapter verse the tenth that they have power both to mittigate and to abrogate the punishment of Offenders For the first David was fain of necessity to forbear Joab being himself weak and old and to delay his punishment when he had murthered Abner and Amasa men more righteous and better than he till Salomon his sonne was established in the first of Kings and the second chapter But the reason why Cain's punishment is delayed is not any forbearance of necessity but because the lengthning of his punishment is a better means to restrain men from the like sinne than if he had at once been punished with death For this cause the Prophet saith Psalm the fifty ninth and the eleventh verse Slay them not least my people forget it but scatter them abroad by thy power It is magis ad bonum publicum that the Offenders be spared If Cains life had been presently taken away it might have been doubted whether Cain had ever committed any such sinne or no or if they did beleeve it yet they might soon forget the punishment laid upon him therefore God thought it better he should be spared that others seeing Cain live in continuall miserie might take occasion to inquire what he hath done that understanding the cause of his miserie they may be warned to avoid his sinne Secondly From hence is grounded the aggravation of punishments so that where thest is ordinarily punished with four fold restitution Exodus the twenty second chapter He that stealeth a poor mans sheep that hath no more is by Davids judgment the child of death in the second book of Samuel the twelfth chapter he that finneth upon contempt of Gods command and not of any necessity as he that gathereth sticks upon the Sabbath day Numbers the fifteenth chapter such a one is more grievously to be punished When the party offended will have a man spared then to kill him contrary to his command is a sinne that deserves extraordinary punishment for mensura peccati is that which brings us unto plagarum modus Deuteronomie the the twenty fifth chapter and the second verse Cain being warned from the law of nature kills his Brother and therefore deserves punishment but he that being warned
which assurance we are likewise to gather to our selves in this 〈◊〉 that as surely as we corporally doe taste of the bread and wine so sure it is that we spiritually feed on the body and blood of Christ which is communicated unto us by these elements as the Apostle 〈◊〉 in the first to the 〈◊〉 the tenth chapter and the fifteenth verse that the bread broken is the communion of the body of Christ that the cup blessed is the communion of his blood that by partaking of this spirituall food we may be fed to eternall life Thirdly this act was performed with speed the Ceraphin came flying with wings and being 〈◊〉 he hath a present effectuall power to take away his sinne for a little before he that cried out that he was in woefull case verse the 〈◊〉 Vae mibi by and by being touched and revived with comfort of forgivenesse saith Ecce ego mitte me in the eighth verse whereby we learn that the touching with the coal thus taken from the Altar and the participating of the body and blood of Christ hath a power not only to purge and heale the sore of our nature but that it giveth a 〈◊〉 to serve God more cheerfully and carefully than we did before 〈◊〉 us serventes spiritu servent in spirit Rom. the twelfth and the 〈◊〉 verse so that we care for nothing nor count our live 〈…〉 that 〈◊〉 may finish our course with joy Acts the twentieth and the twenty fourth verse The summe of all is that seeing it is a fearfull thing to appear in the presence of Gods Majesty and knowing that one day we must all appear before his tribunall seat and throne of glory we do 〈◊〉 with the Prophet that albeit we have lived never so upright a life yet if we have beene silent when we should have spoken to his glory if we have omitted never so little a duty which we ought to have performed for all that our case is miserable untill it please God by the burning coale of his Altar and by the sacrifice of Christs body offered up for us upon the crosse to take away our sinnes And that if we 〈◊〉 humble our selves before God and acknowledge our sinnes then our sinnes shall be purged by the death of Christ and by partaking of the sacrament of his bodie and blood the rather because in the sacrament we doe touch the sacrifice it self whereas the Prophets sinne was taken away with that which did but touch the sacrifice Then after the receiving of this sacrament we must take a view of our selves whether we can say Nonne cor 〈…〉 in nobis Did not our heart burn within us Luke the twenty fourth chapter and the thirty second verse because in this sacrament we finde a fire of Christs love towards us And whether we finde in our selves that willingnesse to serve God aright which was in the Prophet in the eighth verse Behold send me Ecce mitte me As in regard of our misery we made the confession of sinfull men so having experience of Gods mercie in taking away our sinnes we must make the confession of Angels crying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Lastly We must not only shew forth the heat of our love to our needy and poor Brethren by doing the works of mercy but even to our enemies as both Salomon and the Apostle teach If thine enemie hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for so thou shalt heap 〈◊〉 of fire upon his head Proverbs the twenty fift chapter and the twenty first verse and Romans the twelfth chapter and the ninteenth verse For so as thouarta burning coale in thy self so thou shalt kindle in him the coals of devotion to God and of love to thy self Attendite ne justitiam vestram exerceatis coram hominibus ut spectemini ab eis alioquin mercedem non habebitis apud Patrem vestrum qui est in Coelis Matth. 6. 1. Octob. 15. 1598. THE drift of our Saviour in these words is to separate that which is vile from the pretious Jeremiah the fifteenth chapter to sever the tare of vain glory from the good corne of righteousnesse and mercie But as Christ gives charge That while his Disciples laboured to gather away the tares they should beware that they pluck not up the good corne Matthew the thirteenth chapter So while we labour to pluck up the tares of vain glorious intentions we must take heed that we doe not withall pluck up the good corne of good works for heretofore the good seed of the Doctrine of good works was not so soon taught but presently the Devil sowed in mens hearts the wicked opinion of merit of works as tares among good corne And while men laboured to take away the opinion of merits then he takes away out of mens hearts the care of works In the counsel of Christ two things are to be noted First the corn must be sowed take heed ye doe good works Secondly the 〈◊〉 must be plucked up but doe them not to be seen We must doe righteousness both privatly in our own consciences and publiquely before men as the Apostle sheweth Provide for things honest before all men Romans the twelfth chapter But the tares are to be avoided that is to be seen ut videamini where we have a command First Christ will not have us doe good works to this end to be seen Secondly That we may not we must take heed as if he should say My will is ye shall not give almes to this end to be seen Thirdly That ye may avoid this fault ye must take heed Whereby he signifieth that to doe almes to this end to purchase praise to our selves is a hurtfull thing And to avoid this fault is a matter of great difficul y. For the first point Christ saith When ye give almes doe not blow a trumpet when ye fast or pray let not all the world know of it neither let the end be ut videamini Touching which we are to know that our good works are not worse in themselves for being seen but are the better even as the goodnesse of a colour stands in the lightnesse of it so our good works are more commended if they be known And they of themselves desire the light as Christ sheweth in John the third chapter and the twenty first verse But such is our corruption that if we think our works are known we with our pride doe corrupt them For as pride is the way to dry up the fountain of Gods grace as James saith God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble James the fourth chapter So the sight of good works is a means to overthrow our humility The Pharisees knew this full well which purposing to tempt Christ covered their hooks with praise Seeing we know that thou art a teacher come from God and regardest no man tell us is it lawfull Matthew the twenty second chapter But Christ to teach us what a dangerous thing it
nature so with his name He is wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the Prince of Peace Isaiah the ninth chapter Thirdly With his miracles For he raiseth the dead and quickneth whom he will no lesse than the Father John the fift chapter and the twenty first verse Fourthly Because exception was taken against his miracles For they said that he did them by Belzebub Matthew the twelfth chapter therefore he is further sealed with a voyce from Heaven saying This is he in whom I am well pleased heare ye him Matthew the seventeenth chapter not only whom he commands but where he promiseth to refresh them that come to him Matthew the eleventh chapter Fiftly He hath sealed him with the spirit The spirit of the Lord is upon me Luke the fourth chapter And that not only rests John the third chapter the three and thirtieth and four and thirtieth verses content with receiving the spirit for himself but with a power to give it to his So that by his intercession with God the Father He sent down the spirit upon the Apostles Acts the second chapter Being thus sealed by God he is able to nourish us by his flesh crucified for us unto eternall life if he give us grace to lay hold of it by faith Dixit igitur eis Videte cavete ab avaritia nec enim cujusquam vita ex iis quae ipsi suppetunt in eo sita est ut redundet Luke 12. 15. Novemb. 26. 1598. HERE Christ gives two commandements to covetous men First To discern and see the sinne of covetousnesse Secondly To beware of it Against the latter of them as against every other Commandement the corrupt nature of man makes two questions First of Rebellion Why should we beware Secondly of Ignorance How shall we beware The former question is resolved three wayes First We must beware of it because the sinne of 〈◊〉 is hardly avoided the desire of having aboundance is so rooted in the hearts of all men Secondly Because as it is hardly avoided so it is a sinne very hainous in Gods fight being committed howsoever we perswade our 〈◊〉 that those sinnes are the least that are naturally planted in us Thirdly Because whereas men may repent for other sinned they can hardly repent of this For other immoderate desires doe cease by two means either 〈◊〉 they are satisfied or else when death doth approach 〈◊〉 doth yield to neither of these means for the more that riches increase the more doth his covetous desire increase and the 〈◊〉 that death is the more doth a covetous man imbrace his riches and still covet more Touching the second question Though we be perswaded that we ought to avoid this sinne yet we know not how How to avoid 〈◊〉 and therefore we ask How shall we avoid it The word of God appoints 〈◊〉 three means First Trust in God Secondly Prayer against the sinne Thirdly Meditations concerning the same The first means Trust in God First it is a good way for the avoiding of 〈◊〉 to trust in God for that is a thing that the heart of a covetous man will not set himself against He will in no wise follow the counsell of the Philosopher which teacheth That to avoid covetousnesse a man must give himself to the actions of prodigality he would rather hear how he might get money than how to spend that he hath But if he be advised to put his trust in God he will not be against that as a thing which is not so contrary to his sinne as prodigality But this means doth the Scripture inculcate Trust not in uncertain riches the first epistle to Timothy and the sixt chapter If riches increase set not your hearts upon them Psalm the sixty second Riches avail not in the day of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nam per det in die ira Proverbs the eleventh chapter and the fourth verse Let not the rich man glory in his riches 〈◊〉 the ninth chapter and the twenty third verse As the Scripture exhorts us not to trust in riches so it sets forth examples of them that in vain put their trust therein For this is the man that took not God for his strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches Psalme the fifty second But of confidence in God it speaketh thus It is better to 〈◊〉 in the Lord than to put confidence in man Psalm one hundred eighteen O Lord of hosts blessed is the man that putteth his trust in 〈…〉 the eighty fourth Our father 's trusted in thee and thou didest deliver them Psalme the twenty second and the fourth verse The 〈◊〉 shall hunger but such 〈◊〉 trust in the Lord shall want 〈◊〉 good things 〈◊〉 the thirty fourth and the tenth verse A horse is 〈◊〉 thing to 〈…〉 man but the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and trust in 〈◊〉 Psalme the thirty third and the seventeenth verse To deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of 〈◊〉 After that a man hath admitted this opinion which is so confirmed by Scripture then there is cause to perswade him for the 〈◊〉 gives two commands in the first to Timothy the sixt chapter and the seventeenth verse Charge the rich of this world not to trust in 〈…〉 but in the living God and to distributs To 〈◊〉 them That the cause why men doe not distribute is for want of trust in God They could be content to sow good works but they look up and fear a cloud of poverty will come upon them and they shall want themselves which would not be if they did trust in God but men give more trust to the uncertainty of riches than to the certainty of Gods promise To help this error our Saviour saith Care 〈◊〉 for your heavenly Father knoweth that you need all these things Matthew the sixt chapter and the thirty second verse And the Apostle saith Let your conversation be without 〈◊〉 for God 〈◊〉 said I will not leave thee nor for sake thee Hebrews the thirteenth chapter and the fift verse If we were perswaded that he that seeks to obtain Gods favour by doing good works layeth up a better 〈◊〉 for the time to come than he that heaps up riches the first epistle to Timothy the sixt chapter and the nineteenth verse it would make us use this means for the avoiding of 〈◊〉 For be a man never so rich in this world and never so honourable yet his glorie shall not goe with him Psalm the fourty ninth and the seventeenth verse But their works follow them opera 〈…〉 Apoc the fourteenth chapter and the thirteenth verse Therefore it were good for us rather to respect and provide for the time to come And as it is good for the life to come so for this life present For a little that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly Psalme the thirty seventh and the sixteenth verse And Godlinesse hath promise of this life and that which is
to come the first epistle to Timothie the fourth chapter and the eight verse Again to trust in God and not in riches is a better foundation not for our selves only but for our posterity I never saw the righteous for saken nor 〈◊〉 seed begging their bread Psalm the thirty seventh and the twenty fift verse The seed of the righteous is blessed Psalme one hundred and twelve and the second verse The second mean Prayer The second means to avoid this sinne is Prayer either with a moderate desire to pray with Salomon Proverbs the thirtieth chapter That God will give neither poverty nor riches or with David Psalme the hundred and nineteenth Incline my heart is thy Laws and not to 〈◊〉 And this is a good means such as a covetous man will 〈◊〉 admit For howsoever the sinne of covetousnesse be rooted in the heart of man yet when he considers the danger that he is in by the same he will pray that he were not covetous And howsoever the Apostle saith The prayer of a righteous man availeth mush if it be servent Oratia 〈◊〉 pravales James the fift chapter and the sixteenth verse yet God will sometime hear the prayer of a wicked man if it be not servent yet if it be offered up often it will not be in vain not by the violence or weight but by often rising up as the water that often falls makes the stone hollow The prayers of wicked men are turned into sinne if they be ordained to sinne Psalme the hundred and ninth and the seventh verse And God doth not hear them that ask to spend upon their lusts James the fourth chapter and the third verse But when wicked men pray against sinee and seek for grace to destroy sinne in them God doth not reject these prayers For Christ will not 〈◊〉 the smoking 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 flashing of such destics in the 〈◊〉 of coverous men enough they be not so vehement as the prayers of righteous men Mathew the twelfth chapter Christ did not quench the small desire that was in 〈◊〉 at the first but accepted of it so that it grew to be a desire of shewing greater works of liberality Luke 19. The third 〈◊〉 The third means is Meditation Every covetous 〈…〉 these flashing desires in his heart that he were not to covetous As 〈◊〉 though he lived wickedly yet desired to dyethe death of the righteous But that those desires may be constant they 〈◊〉 wife from meditation which will stitre them up often For so they will be 〈…〉 ad meridiem Proverbs the fourth chapter and the eighteenth verte Whereas otherwise they are as the sudden flash of lightning that doth no sooner appear but is presontly gone Therefore that he may avoid this sinne the covetous man among all his thoughts of vanity I will goe to the Citie and buy and fell 〈◊〉 the fourth chapter I will pull down any barus and make greater I will act and drink Luke the twelfth chapter must 〈◊〉 these true thoughts which only keeps him from it First he must think of the means whereby he obtains riches Secondly of riches what it is to be rich and what riches are That he may consider of the means of getting riches as he ought he must think first To how many cares he is brought with the desire of being rich how infinite and 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 are that they are like 〈◊〉 he hath 〈◊〉 sooner rid himself of one care but another ariseth in his heart For when a man hath enough yet still he hath his cares They that want meat and drink doe but say What shall we eat and 〈◊〉 At 〈◊〉 the sixt chapter and the rich men that have to eat and drink are also car 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 more and to enlarge 〈◊〉 banos to receive more Lake the twelfth chapter therefore the Apostle saith well They that will be 〈◊〉 pearct themselves with many sorrows the 〈◊〉 epistle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the sixt chapter Secondly to how many sinnes the 〈◊〉 man doth end anger his soul while to gather riches he sticketh not to sinne against God by oppression by deceit by peryury swearing and 〈…〉 Thirdly to how many judgments and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 he is subject by means of these sinnes even while he is in this life 〈◊〉 That by means of his 〈◊〉 he is like no 〈◊〉 forever A sorrow 〈◊〉 to every sinne For whereas there is a sorrow due to every sinne which 〈◊〉 by repentance is remitted and 〈…〉 at the 〈◊〉 of God The sinne of the covetous man is so 〈◊〉 in him 〈◊〉 he cannot be sorry for it the more he hath the more he still desiteth and the neerer he is to death the more 〈…〉 his 〈◊〉 of covetousnesse Of restitution Without it no remission If he will be truly penitent for 〈◊〉 he must make restitution as 〈◊〉 Luke the nineteenth chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nisi 〈◊〉 non 〈…〉 But this is that which makes a 〈◊〉 mans sinne 〈◊〉 before God That he cannot make restitution which notwithstanding must be made and other sinnes require no restitution therefore Christ 〈◊〉 well That it is as hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven as for a Camel to passe through the eye of a needle Matthew the nineteenth chapter When the young man was willed to sell all he had and to give to the poor he was very sore grieved so loath are they to restore that which they have unjustly gotten together But howsoever the Doctrine of restitution is durus serme yet it is sanus sermo The consideration of these four things that doe accompany the greedy desire of getting riches will make a man to avoid this sinne if he think upon them throughly Uncertainty of riches evils they bring The second observation is touching riches wealth it self If thou consider how deceitfull and uncertain a thing riches is for which thou hast brought thy self to so many inconveniences and such infinite cares so many grievous sinnes to so many judgements of God daily hanging over our heads for the same and into such difficulty of 〈◊〉 it will make thee avoid it therefore our Saviour calls riches deceitfull Matthew the thirteenth chapter and the twenty second verse And the Apostle saith they are uncertain vanity the first epistle to Timothie the sixt chapter The reason is because he that hath them to day may lose them to morrow and though they make mans life comfortable for a while yet they cannot prolong life The reason is because our life doth not stand in the aboundance of wealth In which words the holy Ghost gives them leave to imagine that if they be covetous they shall be wealthy and rich howbeit it is not any means that the covetous man can use that will make him wealthy for which of you by taking thought Proverbs the twenty second chapter and Matthew the sixt chapter The blessing of the Lord maketh rich Sola 〈◊〉 Domini Proverbs the tenth chapter
Christ which wee should chiefly desire to see is that joyfull day of his birth whereof the Angels brought word a day of great joy to all the people that this day is born a Saviour Luke the second chapter In the desire it self we are to consider two things First the Degree Secondly the Manner of this Desire First for the Degree It is noted in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is leaped for joy of that day in regard of the great benefit which should come unto the world by Christs birth Which joy the babe John Baptist expressed who before he was borne leaped in his Mothers womb Luke the first chapter and the fourty first verse The joyfull desire here mentioned is as St. Peter speaks a joy unspeakable and glorious the first epistle of Peter and the eighteenth chapter To teach us that the day of Christs comming in the flesh is a day most of all to be desired and a matter of the greatest joy that can be Secondly For the Manner of this Desire It was a desire joyned with trust and confidence without which our desire is in vain be it never so hot Abrahams desire of seeing Christs day was joyned with hope that he should see it which he so much desired The Creatures desire to see the day of their redemption for they groan Romans the eighth chapter but this desire is without hope These desires are both to be seen in Jacob For when his sonnes being sent from Joseph told him that Joseph was alive and was Governor in the land of Egypt his heart wavered Then he had a desire to see Joseph but it was not joyned with hope for he beleeved them not But when they told him Josephs words and shewed him the Chariots that were sent for to bring him then he had a desire with hope and his spirit revived within him Genesis the fourty fift chapter and the twenty sixt verse The hope that he conceived of seeing him whom he desired to see made him rejoyce Touching the Reason of this desire he had sufficient matter of present joy for he was exceeding rich in Cattel and Silver and Gold Genesis the thirteenth chapter and the second verse Why then doth he long after a joy to come The reason is though God had blessed him with aboundance of temporal blessings yet he considered a day would come when his present joy should be taken from him John the sixteenth chapter Therefore he desires a joy that had a foundation that is not earthly but heavenly joyes Hebrews the eleventh chapter Such as should not be taken from him John the sixteenth chapter and the twenty second verse as Job knew that his Redeemer lived Job the nineteenth chapter So Abrabam desired a Redeemer and such a one he had For thus saith the Lord which redeemeth Abraham Isaiah the fourty ninth chapter and the twenty second verse That might redeem his soul from Hell Psalm the fourty ninth And his body out of the dust of death Psalm the twenty second for he confessed himself to be both dust and ashes Genesis the eighteenth chapter Dust in regard of his nature and therefore subject to corruption but ashes in regard of his sinnes by which he is subject to everlasting condemnation in respect of both he desired a Redeemer that might deliver both his body from death and his soul from destruction that might say revertite silii Psalm the ninetieth and the third verse He considered he needed a Redeemer for his soul and body that he might not be dust and ashes and therefore exceedingly desired one that would deliver his soul from being ashes and his body from the dust Secondly It is said of Abraham that he saw Christs day the notice of Gods eternal mercie herein was Abrahams desire by whose example all that will see Christ must first desire the sight of him as he did Et desiderium sit eum spectare Though Abraham did not actually see Christ in the flesh yet he had a desire which was all one as if he had seen him with bodily eyes For if the concupiscence only of evill be sinne though the act follow not then desire of that which is good is accepted albeit it be not actually performed therefore Nehemiah prayeth Hearken to thy servants that desire to fear thy name Nehemiah the first chapter and the eleventh verse The very hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse is effectual to blessednesse Matthew the fift chapter When we can say with David Coepit anima me a desider are justitias tuas Psalm the hundred and nineteenth We desire to be more desirous of it as a thing acceptable before God and though our soul desire not yet the want of it is our woe and the fainting of our joyes while we say When wilt thou comfort us Psalme the hundred and nineteenth Those are as the bruised reed and smoaking flax which he will not quench Isaiah the fourty second chapter That which Abraham did see was Christs day which is true in what sense soever we take it He saw the day of his Deity Genesis the eighteenth chapter the second and third verses when seeing three men he ran to meet them and bowed himself to the ground saying Lord which was a vision of the Trinity Secondly For the day of his death and passion he saw that too Genesis the twenty second chapter and the fourteenth verse when Abraham making the great promise of his obedience by sacrificing his sonne upon mount Moriah when after Christ was crucified said In mane 〈◊〉 provideat Dominus though he take not my sonne Isaac yet will he take one of my seed that shall be the sonne of Abraham Thirdly He saw the day of Christs nativity when he said to his servant Put thy hand under my 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 by the Lord God of Heaven and God of the earth 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 fourth 〈◊〉 and the twenty third verse Quod 〈…〉 ad 〈…〉 saith 〈◊〉 but it was to shew that the seed in whom all 〈◊〉 should be blessed should come out of his loins and take flesh of him for he took the seed of Abraham Hebrews the second chapter So Abraham saw all the dayes of Christ. But secondly We are to inquire in what 〈◊〉 he saw this day For which point we must know he saw not Christs day 〈◊〉 Simeon whose eyes did behold 〈◊〉 salvation Luke the second chapter nor as 〈◊〉 to whom Christ saith 〈◊〉 are the eyes that see the things which 〈◊〉 see Luke the tenth chapter that is with bodily eyes which many 〈◊〉 and Kings could not see So Abrahams outward man 〈◊〉 not see Christs dayes but he 〈◊〉 it in the 〈◊〉 man Romans the 〈◊〉 chapter He saw it spiritually with the eyes of 〈…〉 Ephesians the first chapter and the eighteenth verse And 〈◊〉 the eyes of faith which 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 things not 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 By which things invisible to the eyes of the body are made visible to the eye of the minde by the eye of
which inward desire of revenge must likewise be overcome as the Apostle willeth Romans the twelfth chapter Avenge not your selves sed vince malum bono we must overcome the evil of our fleshly lusts and desires of revenge with the grace of mortification and patience 2. Extra Secondly The seed of the Serpent is without us for there are filii Belial of whom were those to whom Christ said John the eight chapter You are of your Father the Devil Such as will doe mischief for doing well such enemies are men of corrupt mindes and understandings that are destitute of the truth and are bold to say that gain is godlinesse from which we must separate our selves the first epistle to Timothy the sixt chapter and the fift verse And if we overcome in this warre then we shall be partakers of this promise But who overcommeth in this warre and who can say he is a conqueror in this battall The Apostle saith That he that sinneth is overcome of sinne and brought into bondage of the sinne the second epistle of Peter the second chapter and the nineteenth verse Therefore where the promise is here made only to him that overcommeth we must see if the Scripture offereth more graces James the fourth chapter and the sixt verse And if we look into Apocalyps the second chapter and the fift verse we shall finde there he that makes this promise offers more graces that is Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe thy first works Dâ—… victoria So there are two victories the first is continere a peccato the other is paenitere de peccato If we cannot get this victory over the Serpent that he doe not cause us to sinne at all yet if we so farre overcome him that sinne reign not in our mortal bodies Romans the sixt chapter and the twelfth verse if we wound his head which was promised Genesis the third chapter and the fifteenth verse so as though he cause us to sinne yet he get not the head or set up his throne in our hearts then we are to hope that we shall be 〈◊〉 of this promise if we return from whence we are fallen and repent us of the sinnes we have committed and doe the first works then no doubt we shall be restored to our first estate and Christ shall give us a new right in the tree of life But he that either fighteth not at all but is at a league with Hell and hath made a Covenant with death Isaiah the twenty eighth chapter he that will deny sinne nothing but will fulfill the lusts of the flesh or if he fight yet he fight not lawfully nor strive to overcome but is content to follow every temptation as an oxe led to the slaughter Proverbs the seventh chapter and not only so but put stumbling blocks before himself which may make him fall Ezekiel the fourteenth chapter and use all means that he may be overcome And if having fallen they labour not to get the victory after by repenting of his former sinnes and doing the first works then they have no part in this first promise Men may draw neer to the holy mysterie of Christs body and blood and snatch at the tree of life but Christ gives it not except they be such as overcome either by the grace of abstinencie from sinne or of repentance and sorrow for sinne They may be partakers of the tree of life de 〈◊〉 but not de jure The bread of life is to them as the bread of wrong Proverbs the fourth chapter and the seventeenth verse and the bread of deceit which shall in the end fill their mouths with gravell Proverbs the twentieth chapter So both the promise and condition are touched But the question is How we shall overcome that we learn Apocalyps the twelfth chapter where the Saints are said to overcome the great dragon the old Serpent with the blood of the Lambe Which blood hath two uses First that which the Apostle calls the sprinkling of the blood of 〈◊〉 Christ the first epistle of Peter the first chapter and the second verse Secondly That by receiving the cup of blessing we are partakers of the blood of Christ the first epistle to the Corinthians the tenth chapter and the sixteenth verse So that in these words is a reciprocation vincenti ut comedat comedenti ut vincat dabo edere the body and blood of Christ is the fruit of that tree of life which the Apostle speaks of the first epistle of Peter the second chapter and the twenty fourth verse That he bare our sinnes in his body upon the tree Of which fruit whosoever are partakers in the Sacrament when it is ministred to them doe receive power to overcome that so they may eate of the tree of eternal life For in this Sacrament we have both a means of victory and a pledge of our reward that is the life of grace begun in us here to assure us of a glorious life in the world to come Every tree must have a root and the root of that tree which Christ speaks of is here in this Sacrament for in it is sown in the hearts of the receivers as it were a kernel which in time shoots forth and becomes a tree for as there was a death of the soul by sinne before God inflicted a death of the body so answerable to that first death of sinne there must be in us a life of grace which is the root of that tree from whence we shall in due time receive the life of glory In this sacrament the tree of the life of Grace is town in us that is a measure of grace wrought in our hearts by the power of Gods spirit by which we shall at length attain to eate of that tree which shall convey unto us the life of glory As there are two trees of life so we must have a double Paradise We must have liberty to be of the Paradise on earth that is the Church Militant which is called hortus conclusus Canticles the second chapter before we can be received into the heavenly Paradise that is the Church Triumphant So there is a plain analogie between those As when we are dead in sinnes and in the uncircumcision of the flesh Colossians the second chapter and the thirteenth verse we receive the life of grace by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ in baptism so when we are fallen from the life of grace and are restrained from the life of God Ephesians the fourth chapter and eighteenth verse and dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephesians the second chapter then we obtain victory against sinne and death by the blood of the Lamb being drunk in the Sacrament Apocalyps the twelfth chapter and the eleventh verse For if the material tree of life in Paradise received such influence from God Genesis the third chapter that being dead in it felse it had power to convey the natural life of our Parents while they eat of
the fruit thereof then is God able as well to give such a power to the Creatures of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament that albeit they are dead of themselves to convey into us the life of grace even as the tree of life did prolong natural life for so saith Christ John the sixth chapter and the fifty third verse Except ye eat the flesh of the sonne of man and drink his blood ye have no lifein you Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life he that eateth me shall live by me And he that 〈◊〉 of his body shall live for ever There is no life but in God first 〈…〉 the thirtieth chapter ipse enim est vita mea and he committeth life to the sonne Therefore it is said There is a River of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb Apocalyps the 〈◊〉 second chapter and the first verse And as the Father hath life in himself so he hath given to the Sonne to have life in himself John the fift chapter and the twenty sixt verse And as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them so the sonne quickneth whom he will John the fift chapter and the twenty first verse God being the fountain of life draws life to his sonne as into a Cistern from whence we draw life therefore it is said of the wisdome of God that is Christ that he is a tree of life Proverbs the third chapter and the eighteenth verse of whom it is now said in ipso er at vita John the fourteenth chapter and therefore he calls himself this life John the fourteenth chapter This is the Cistern of life to give life to them that are dead in original sinne by the sprinkling of his blood in 〈◊〉 And when they are dead in actual sinnes he gives new life to them that are 〈◊〉 of his body and blood in the Sacrament of the Supper In this Sacrament Christ hath provided a tree of life of graces against the death of sinne whereof they must be partakers that will eat of the tree of life which Christ here promiseth So that whereas the Wiseman saith Fructus justi est lignum vitae Proverbs the eleventh chapter and the thirtieth verse The seed of this tree is here sown and bringeth forth the root of a better tree for as grace is the root of glory so glory is the fruit of grace Here in this life the root of grace is planted in us and brings forth the fruits of righteousnesse that in the life to come it may make us partakers of the tree of glory and to assure us of this life we are sealed with the holy spirit of promise as the earnest of our inheritance Ephesians the first chapter and the thirteenth verse and the second epistle to the Corinthians the first chapter and the twenty second verse That albeit we are fallen and can be overcome of finne yet if we fight better and doe the first works we shall be partakers of the life of glory The kernel of grace is planted in us by the participation of the body and blood of Christ of which kernel commeth a tree which bringeth forth the fruits of holinesse and righteousnes in our whole life Which God will in due time reward with the Crown of life and glory in the world to come Cupimus autem ut unusquisque vestrûm idem studium ad finem usque ostendat ad certam spei persuasionem Hebr. 6. 11. August 24. 1599. AS in the old testament the Prophetisse Deborah in the service of the Children of Isha against Jabin doth specially praise God for the willingnesse of the people Judges the fift chapter so here the Apostle commendeth the Hebrews for the work and labour of their love in that they spared no cost in shewing themselves good Christians Now the crown of our rejoycing is the summe of our desire and therefore as there Deborah desireth to have the promptnesse and readinesse continued in the people so the Apostle wisheth that all the Hebrews as they have been carefull to practise the fruits of faith so should they still shew further diligence in that behalf The special drift of the Apostle is to shew that the Christians comfort standeth in the perfection of their hope The Apostle Hebrews the eleventh chapter and the first verse maketh their hope for to be the definition of faith For though matters Historical and Dogmatical pertain to faith yet chiefly faith hath hope for its object for as Augustine Credimus non ut credamus sed 〈◊〉 speremus therefore the Apostle saith the end of all Scripture is that we may have hope Romans the fifteenth chapter and the fourth verse and that which he affirmeth in the first epistle to the Corinthians the ninth chapter That he which planteth planteth in hope is as much true in all actions the ground whereof is the hope we conceive of some benefit for he that soweth soweth in hope he that saileth saileth in hope and he that marrieth doth it in hope that his estate will be bettered thereby For sure it is that it is but a comfortlesse thing to beleeve that there is everlasting joy and glory laid up in Heaven except a man be perswaded that he shall be partaker of it Exanguis res fides sine spe quia spes fidei exanguis est Amb. And as hope is the blood of faith as the Prophet saith Isaiah the thirtieth chapter and the fifteenth verse In quietnesse and in confidence shall be your strength so hope is that which whets diligence and therefore the Prophet saith in the second book of the Chronicles the fifteenth chapter and the seventeenth verse Be strong and let not your hands be weak for your work shall have an end And in the new Testament the Apostle saith Be stedfast and immovable knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord Quod labor vester non erit inanis in Domino the first epistle to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter and the fifty eighth verse So nothing is more to be desired than to have hope in the evil day and the means of this hope is to shew forth diligence But for the easier intreatie of the contents of this verse the points which the Apostle holdeth are first That we are not only to beleeve but also to hope Secondly Not with a feeble or faint hope but with the fulnesse of hope Thirdly This hope must not be for an hour as Christ speaketh of St. John John the fift chapter but continuing to the end Then for the means of this hope his request is First That Diligence be used Secondly This Diligence must be shewed forth For the first point the Apostles desire is That they should hope for that which they beleeve wherein standeth the real difference that is between the faith of the Devils and men reprobate and the faith of the Children of God for even to the Devils the Apostle ascribes
willingly will come as often as they may and not like those that swell with pride and say another time will serve as well as now as Davids servants said to Naball in the first book of Samuel the twenty fift chapter We come now in a good time for thou makest a feast and art in case to relieve us another time peradventure thou wilt not be so prepared So men ought to take the opportunity and to say in their selves Now is the time of the celebration of Gods mercy and loving kindnesse Now we receive Christ and therefore there is great hope that if we come he will receive us Now we celebrate the memory of his death when he was content to receive the thief that came unto him and therefore it is most likely that he will receive us if we come to him But if we come not now happily we shall not be received when we would It is Christs will That they which are given him of the Father be with him where he is and may behold his glory John the seventeenth chapter and the twenty fourth verse Therefore it stands us upon to come to Christ that he may receive us to be one with him in the life of grace and partakers with him in his Kingdom of glory Qui verò haec audierunt compuncti sunt corde dixerunt ad Petrum ac reliquos Apostolos Quid faciemus viri fratres Petrus autem ait ad eos Resipiscite c. Act. 2. 37. April 12. 1600. OUR Saviour Christ promised Peter Acts the fift chapter to make him a fisher of men and 〈◊〉 the thirteenth chapter That the 〈…〉 of Heaven is like a 〈…〉 which catcheth fish of all 〈…〉 The first casting forth of this act and 〈…〉 draught that Peter had is by 〈…〉 these verses And the draught which he made was 〈…〉 souls verse the fourty first If we 〈◊〉 of what 〈◊〉 They were 〈◊〉 souls of them that killed the Sonne of God and 〈…〉 the spirit of God whom they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈…〉 holy Ghost to 〈◊〉 verse the 〈…〉 These men are full of new 〈◊〉 Which when we advisedly consider it cannot but be matter First Of great comfort Teaching us that albeit we be great sinners as the Jews that put the sonne of God to death yet there is a quid faciemus what to doe that is a hope of remission of sinnes Secondly Of instruction touching the means That if we repent and be pricked in heart with the consideration of our sinnes as they were we shall attain this mercie which they received First St. Luke sets down the Sermon of Peter Secondly The sruit and effect of it As the Sermon it self propounds the death and Resurrection of Christ so in the effect that followed of it we see the means how we are made partakers of his death and Resurrection and that is set down in these two verses which contain a question and an answer In the question is to be observed First the cause of it that is the compunction of their hearts Secondly the cause of that compunction and that was the hearing of Peters Sermon Touching this effect which Peters Sermon wrought in the hearts of his hearers it is compuncti sunt corde Wherein note two things First the work it self Secondly the part wherein of the work it self it is said they were pricked Wherein first we are to observe That the first work of the spirit and operation of the word is compunction of heart howbeit the word being the word of glad tidings and comfort it is strange it should have any such operation but that Christ hath foretold the same John the sixteenth chapter When the comforter comes he shall reprove the world of sinne Now reproof is a thing that enters into the heart as Proverbs the twelfth chapter and the eighteenth verse There is that speaketh words like the prickings of a sword and as Christ gave warning before hand so now when the holy Ghost was given we see that Peters hearers are reproved and pricked in their consciences that they dealt so cruelly with Christ. As this 〈◊〉 the Elect of God so there is another spirit called by the same name of pricking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans the eleventh chapter and the eighth verse that is the spirit of slumber which shews it self upon those that shall not be saved Touching the manner of this operation we see it is not a tickling or itching but a pricking and that no light one but such as pearced deeply into their hearts and caused them to cry Whereby we see it is not the speaking of fair words saying with the false Prophets Jeremiah the twenty third chapter The Lord hath said ye shall have peace it is not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans the sixteenth chapter and the eighteenth verse that makes this effect but this speaking The part wherein this work was wrought was the heart as Luke the twenty fourth chapter they burned in their hearts and 〈◊〉 the second chapter and the fourteenth verse I will speak to their hearts So it was 〈◊〉 of the eares in the second 〈◊〉 to Timot hie the 〈◊〉 chapter or of the brain that they felt but a 〈◊〉 of the very 〈◊〉 and so should we be affected at the hearing of the word As 〈…〉 is pricked in the flesh is disquieted till he have remedy so should the consideration of our sinnes disquiet us and make us seek for cure This is our duty from their example and it is a good signe of distinction to shew us whether we be of the number of those that shall be saved whether of the good fish that shall be gathered together or the bad fish that shall be cast out Matthew the thirteenth chapter and the fourty eighth verse So if we pertain to God we shall feel this pricking at our hearts after we have heard the word The cause of this compunction is his auditis that is they had heard a speech of St. Peter which did disquiet them till they asked counsel of Peter and the rest The word of God of its own nature hath no such operation for the Patriarch Job saith Job the twenty third chapter It was agreeable to him as his appointedfood And David Psalm the nineteenth saith The Commanaements of the Lordrejoyceth the heart and is sweeter than the honey and the honey-combe But yet it hath this effect in regard that it meeteth with that which is an enemy to our Salvation that is sinne the deputy of 〈◊〉 as the word is Gods 〈◊〉 Without the Law sinne is dead but when the Commandement came sinne revived Romans the seventh chapter and the eighth verse for sinne is a sting the first epistle to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter which lyeth dead so long as it is not reproved But when it is reproved by the commandement of God then it reviveth and stings the heart it makes men have a conscience of sinne Hebrews the tenth chapter and when sinne is
the furnace and cast them up in the 〈◊〉 and they caused a stink And David in his sicknesse saith Psalm the thirty second His moisture was like the draught in Summer Therefore in the plague of Leprosie Leviticus the thirteenth chapter and the fourty fift verse the Leper was to have his mouth shut up David in that great 〈◊〉 spoken of in the first book of Chronicles the twenty first chapter and the thirtieth verse would have gone to 〈◊〉 but be found he should not feared with the Angel Therefore the servant of God saith Proverbs the fourteenth chapter A wise man 〈◊〉 the plague and shunneth it but the foolish goeth on still But these are not the only causes For besides 〈◊〉 there is some divine thing to be considered for there is no 〈◊〉 but a spirit belongs to it as Luke the thirteenth chapter and the eleventh verse a spirit of infirmity So are we to conceive that besides natural causes there is some spiritual of the sicknesse as 〈…〉 twelfth chapter a destroying Angel So in Davids plague in the second book of Samuel the twenty fourth chapter And 〈◊〉 the thirty seventh chapter and the thirty sixt verse the Angel went forth and slue And Apocalyps the sixteenth chapter and the 〈◊〉 verse The Angels poured out the Vials of the wrath of God and there fell a noysome sore So it is Gods hand that brings in these plagues The cause stands on two parts First Gods wrath 〈◊〉 which all evil things proceed For affliction commeth not from the earth Job the fift chapter and the sixt verse They are sparks of his anger And he is not angry with the waters that they should drown 〈◊〉 the third chapter nor with the aire that it should corrupt but for these things commeth the wrath of God that is for our sinnes 〈◊〉 the fift chapter He doth but make a way to his wrath and then the earth 〈◊〉 up the 〈…〉 Psalm the seventy eighth The sinnes of the people are the cause of Gods wrath Peccata morum goe before peccata humorum There is first corruption of the soul Michah 〈◊〉 first chapter and the third verse All flesh had corrupted their 〈◊〉 Genesis the sixt chapter So there is infection in mens wayes before the streets be infected There is plaga animae the plague in the soul before it appear in the body It is sinne that bringeth sicknesse and death Romans the sixt chapter So they are both joyned Psalm the thirty eighth and the third verse There is no rest in my bones because of my sinne Therefore it is our sinne and infection of the soul that must be looked into If it were some outward cause only it could not be but the plague should stay 〈◊〉 there is so great store of means Jeremiah the eighth chapter Is there no balme in Gilead But he saith Jeremiah the fourty sixt chapter and the eleventh verse Frustra multiplicas medicanda sinne being not taken away physick will doe 〈◊〉 good First the corruption of manners must be holpen and then bodily help will follow Psalm the fourty first Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee And that course our Saviour keeps Matthew the ninth chapter first he saith Thy sinne is forgiven and then Take up thy bed and walk These sinnes he calls inventions Inventions please us greatly and all new things our new omnia better than old Manna Numbers the eleventh chapter But if it be our own inventions then we goe a whoring after it Such is the delight we take in it verse the thirty ninth Our first Parents were of this minde so proud they would not take a rule of life from God but would sicut Dii Genesis the third chapter They set up to themselves graven Images Exodus the 〈◊〉 chapter They have Dii alieni such as their Fathers had Not when men living otherwise then God 〈…〉 I shall have peace Deuteromie the twenty ninth chapter and the 〈◊〉 verse These webbs that we weave our selves and these eggs that we hatch Isaiah the fifty ninth chapter are our confusion and 〈◊〉 God and great reason For Exodus the fifteenth chapter and the twenty sixt verse he saith If thou 〈…〉 to my 〈◊〉 I will lay no disease Ego Dominus 〈◊〉 But if we follow our own inventions we can look for nothing but diseases quid tibi praecipio haec 〈…〉 Deuteronomie the twelfth chapter 〈◊〉 men will be 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 that was Sauls rebellion he would not destroy all as God commanded he was wiser than so But what were these inventions It is said verse the twenty eighth They joyned themselves to Baal 〈◊〉 Numbers the twenty fift chapter that is the sinne of whoring and fornication and that impudently before the congregation committed by Zimry and Cosby It was the adoring of an abhominable Idoll a sinne so grievous as it is said many years after 〈◊〉 not enough of the sinne of Peor Joshuah the twenty second chapter it is a sinne that will not be cleansed at the first And we see daily the sinne of uncleannesse ends with a plague that is infectious For the Cure It is certain As there are natural causes so natural cures of this Diseise 〈◊〉 as some Writers doe hold had this Disease and used not only prayer but a plaister by the Prophets direction Isaiah the fifty eighth chapter But as the cause of the plague is not only natural so here is used a spiritual remedy that is in as much as contrary curantur contrariis viis If the provoking of Gods anger be the Cause of the plague the appeasing of it by prayer must be the Remedy The two remedies are out of the double sense of the word which signifieth prayer and punishing Prayer is an appeaser of Gods wrath not only in other points but in this Numbers the twenty fift chapter They all wept and prayed And David in the second book of Samuel the twenty fourth chapter and the seventeenth verse fled to this remedy I have sinned but these sheep what have they done And Hezekiah being infected with the plague turned himself to the wall Isaiah the thirty eighth chapter And in Salomons prayer the first of the Kings and the eighth chapter where plagues or corrupt agues shall hop here then in heaven And there is a good proportion between this remedy and the disease For if there be a corrupt smell the way to take it away is by the good smell of incense or perfume So as our sinne doth give an evil savour and stink in Gods nostrils so the spiritual incense will remove it and that incense is prayer Psalm the fourty first Therefore the prayers of the Saints are called odours Apocalyps the fift chapter But it must be prayer qualified in two sorts First Phinehas prayer that is the prayer of the Priest So David had Gad to pray for him Hezekiah had Isaiah Lift thou up thy prayer Isaiah the thirty eighth chapter The Corinthians had Gad to pray for them the
considered that considering how God hath plagued them in the Devil we should beware that we fall not into the like sinnes Touching the Curse of God As it is the first so the greatest part of this Sentence And is a punishment most fearfull for all men doe abhorre to be cursed and to incurre the displeasure of a man much more of God whose word is his deed so that he no sooner speaks but it is done Jacob was loth to doe any thing to deceive his Father because so saith he I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Genesis the twenty seventh chapter Indeed as the Wise-man speaks the curse that is causelesse and proceeds from foolish people shall not light upon a man Proverbs the twenty sixt chapter and the second verse But if a godly man such as Jacob and Isaac were doe curse it shall not fail but come to passe Much more shall the curse of God take effect for it shall come into a mans bowels like water and like oyle into his bones Psalm the hundred and ninth the seventeenth verse For the meaning of this Curse the Holy Gohst hath set down a large commentary in 〈◊〉 the twenty eighth chapter and in Leviticus the twenty sixt chapter and the Prophet saith Gods curse is a flying book twenty cubits long and ten cubits braad containing the curse that gotth over the whole earth 〈◊〉 the fift chapter and the third verse It is a book written within and without with lamentations mournings and woes Ezekiel the second chapter By these places it appeareth how large Gods Curse is in respect of this life But if with this we joyn that which Christ addeth concerning the life to come that is everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels Matthew the twenty fift chapter his curse will appear to be farre more large Secondly There is no malediction but in regard of some evill The evill that procured this curse unto the Devill was the evill of his malice which he shewed not only in speaking evill of God but in seeking to destroy man both in body and soul And his malice appears herein because he did those things being not provoked thereunto and for that he did it without any 〈◊〉 to himself As the Devill is malicious so are all they that are of that evill one Cain had no other cause to hate his Brother and to slay him but because his works were righteous and his own evill in the first epistle of John the third chapter and the twelfth verse The 〈◊〉 persecuted Christ not for any evill that they found in him worthy of death but only of envy Mark the fifteenth chapter and the tenth verse Thus to sinne of malice is a thing so displeasing unto God as albeit he did in mercy forgive men when they sinned through frailty yet he will punish their own inventions Psalm the ninty ninth and the eighth verse and therefore against such the Prophet prayeth Be not mercifull to those that offend of malicious wickednesse Psalm the fifty ninth and the fifth verse But consume them utterly in thy wrath that they may perish verse the thirteenth Where the Lord saith Cursed art thou and not be thou he sheweth that the curse commeth not from God but from the Devils malice and so whatsoever misery betideth us it is nothing else but the sparkles of our own sinnes Job the fift chapter and the ninth verse and as the Psalmist saith They are the dreggs of Gods wrath Psalm the seventy fift for as the Prophet speakes Wee our 〈◊〉 batch the 〈◊〉 egge that is sinne and the Serpent that is bred of this egge is the curse of God inflicted upon us both in this life and the life to come We doe first by sinne as it were cast the seed and the crop that we 〈◊〉 is all manner of misery and calamity Isaiah the fifty ninth chapter and in Justice God doth reward us thus for the wages of sinne is not only punishment with sicknesse povertie and such like in this world but hereafter with eternall death and destruction both of body and soul Romans the sixth chapter the twenty third verse In that God speaks by way of comparison Cursed art thou 〈◊〉 all beasts he doth not drop a curse upon the Serpent but as Daniel speaks the curse is 〈◊〉 upon him Daniel the ninth chapter and the eleventh verse And that this curse was verified in the visible Serpent appears hereby that not only Men but even all beasts doe shun the Serpent as a Creature principally accursed of God much more it is true in the invisible Serpent the 〈◊〉 for not only the godly but even the wicked that are of their Father the Devill 〈…〉 stick to curse him The visible Serpent being an unreasonable creature could not be so malicious But the invisible Serpent the more policie he hath the more pernitious and hurtfull he is 〈◊〉 he is so malicious that as he himself is fallen from his first estate and hath plunged himself in the bottom of Hell so he laboureth to bring all men into the same estate therefore thus was his malice rewarded Now to the two other branches of this Sentence where we shall finde two 〈◊〉 punishments for two sorts of sinnes for pride must have a 〈◊〉 and lust must loath and we shall see that they are both rewarded accordingly as Salomon saith That Pride goeth before dejection Proverbs the sixteenth chapter and the eighth verse So the Devil having 〈◊〉 himself must be thrown down to creep upon the ground for it is great equity that he that would fly should creep And as it was meet that glory should end in shame Philippians the third chapter so is it as meet that God should punish inordinate last with loathsomnesse And this is the course of Gods Justice as the Wise-man saith in Proverbs the twentieth chapter and the seventeenth verse The bread that is gotten by deceipt is sweet but at the last it will fill the mouth with gravel All the sinnes of the world may he reduced to these two that is The desire of greater glory than God hath appointed to us And of greater pleasure than is lawfull for us First we are to inquire How the first of these two punishments is verified in the visible Serpent for we know that all Creatures saving Man are dejected and creep as it were upon their belly and as one saith 〈◊〉 their breast between their feet only man being lift up with his countenance is taught not to set his minde upon earth but to meditate upon heavenly things But as Jonathan went of all four when he climbed up to the rock upon his hands and feet the first book of Samuel the fourteenth chapter and the thirteenth verse so doth man somtime grovel and creep upon earth when he is earthly minded But the difference that is between the Serpent and other beasts is this The Serpent having no legs lyeth flat upon his belly and is therefore
we can doe is to bruise his head And many are so 〈◊〉 from that that they fetch balmes and oyntments to heal his head so soon as it is wounded Instead of treading him under our 〈◊〉 many doe tread under their feet the Law and word of God as Samuel speaks in the first book of Samuel the fifteenth chapter and the twenty third verse and tread under feet the blood of the Covenant Hebrews the tenth chapter and the twenty ninth verse which God appoints as a means to 〈◊〉 us in this fight By nature we are enemies to God and to the crosse of Christ Philippians the third chapter and the eighteenth verse except God vouchasafe us the benefit of this promise and make this enmity between the Devil and us We see this enmity was fulfilled between the Devil and Christ that was the seed of the woman for they say What have we to doe with thee Jesus Matthew the eighth chapter and the twenty ninth verse and between him and the wicked Jews which were of the Serpents seed which said to Christ Behold a glutton and a wine drinker a friend to Publicans and sinners Matthew the eleventh chapter and the nineteenth verse And thus still the Devill and his generation doe oppose themselves against Christ and the faithfull that are born anew of the immortal seed of the word the first epistle of Peter the first chapter and the twenty third verse But as for the ungodly the Devil doth never disturb them for in them the strong armed man bath 〈◊〉 full possession so as all that he hath is in peace Luke the eleventh chapter and the twenty second verse And the Devil doth no sooner hold up his hand to them but they are ready to doe whatsoever he will But he that hath not his part in this hostility and spiritual conflict with the Serpent shall have no part in the promise of victory which is made to the godly Hoc conteret tibi caput tu autem conteres buic calcaneum Gen. 3. 15. Aug 10. 1598. IN this last part of the Curse pronounced by God upon the Serpent there are two points First a proclaiming of warre Secondly a promise of Victory the summe whereof is the breaking of the Serpents head as the holy Ghost speaks here or as the Apostle saith in the first epistle of John and the third chapter the loosing of the works of the Devil In the proclaiming of enmity we have to consider First the enmity it self Secondly the persons between whom it shall be Touching the enmity we shewed first That it is kindly that preposterous love and amity should end in hatred and mortal enmity as it fell out between the Serpent and the woman Secondly That God is the author of this enmity who saith of himself I will put enmity Whereupon we gather That as God is the stirrer up of all affections so especially of that hatred which is between good and evil 〈◊〉 and error between Babel and Sion the Tents of the godly and the wicked as they are opposed in the eighty fourt Psalm And therefore as it is Christs rule That no man should separate that which God hath joyned Matthew the nineteenth chapter so where God promiseth that he will 〈◊〉 the wicked and the godly let no man seek to conjoyn them nor make peace when his will is there should be mortal hatred and warre The persons are the Woman and the Serpent By the Woman is meant not Eve as she is the mother of them that dye but the Church which is signified by her in regard whereof she is called The mother of the living Genesis the third chapter and the twentieth verse As allo the bodily Serpent is not meant but the Devil that old Serpent The first thing then to be noted in the persons is That as there is naturally a hatred between the Woman and the visible Serpent so God threatneth this as a punishment to be laid upon the Devil That there shall be continual warre and harred between him and the Church Secondly This enmity shall not be for a time for he contents not himself to say I will put enmity between thee and the Woman but that it shall continue between their seed that is it shall be hereditary to abide till the worlds end so long as God hath a Church By the seed of the Woman is understood the faithfull that are born and begotten in the Church which is the mother of us all Galatians the fourth chapter By the Serpents seed is meant the wicked whom Christ calls Serpents and a generation of Vipers Matthew the twenty third chapter and the thirty third verse Thirdly It shall be no light harred but deadly and mortal for it shall proceed to grinde one another to powder The hatred which the Church beareth towards the Devil is such as shall break his head in peeces as an earthen vessel is broken so that it shall not be fit for any use not so much as to fetch fire in any peece of it Isaiah the thirtieth chapter and the fourteenth verse Wherefore touching this former part As it is a great punishment for a proud man to have them set before him whom he thinks to be farre under him so for as much as the Devil hold us captive at his will the second epistle to Timothy and the second chapter it is a grievous curse which God layeth upon him that we shall not only be set at libetry from him but have the mastery over him and trample him under our feet Secondly for our selves As it is a blessing for a man not to be deceived of him whom he thinks to be his friend so God vouchsafeth us a great blessing in that he promiseh to ftirre up in us a hatred against sinne and the Devil so that we shall not make a league with hell nor an agreement with death Isaiah the twenty eighth chapter but shall still be at enmity with him Contrari wise if we make truce with the Devil and please our selves in our sinnes then are we accursed and like the fool that laugheth when he is lead to the Stocks to receive correction Proverbs the seventh chapter Thirdly It is a general Prophecie That if God 〈◊〉 not enmity between us and the Serpent in this life he will set enmity between us and himself in the life to come so that we shall say How have we hated instruction and our hearts despised correction proverbs the fift chapter and the twelfth verse Sinne goeth down sweetly but in the end it will bite like a Serpent Proverbs the twenty third chapter and the thirty second verse Thus we see that because we did abuse that general peace that was between us and the Creatures God hath thought it necessary to stirr up war between us so that we shall have the Devil an adversary to us And as he tempted us to evil so we shall still be enemies to him God indeed might easily have destroyed the Devil for causing us
are taken away There are two natures in a Cole that is the Cole it selfe which is a dead thing and the burning nature and heate that it hath which setteth out first Christs humane nature which is dead in it selfe And then his divine nature containing the burning force of that is represented in this burning Cole So the element of bread and wine is a dead thing in it selfe but through the grace of Gods spirit infused into it hath a power to heate our Soules for the elements in the Supper have an earthly and a heavenly part Secondly that Christ is to bee understood by this burning Cole wee may safely gather because his love to his Church is presented with fire Cantit the eighth chapter and the sixth verse It is said of Christs love the Coles thereof are fiery Coles and a vehement flame such as cannot be quenched with any water nor the floods drown it even so all the calamities and miseries that Christ suffered and endured for our sakes which were poured upon him as water could not quench the love that he bare us Thirdly quia non solum ardet ipse sed alios accendit so saith John the Baptist of him There cometh one after me that shall Baptize with the holy-Ghost and with fire as it is in the third chapter of Luke the sixteenth verse therefore the graces of the holy-Ghost are also represented by fire Acts 3. the union whereof hath a double representation First it is signified by water in Baptisme for sinne that is derived 〈◊〉 us from another being as a 〈◊〉 may be washed away with water and therefore the Propher saith there is a fountaine opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of 〈◊〉 for sinne and 〈◊〉 Zach. the thirteenth chapter and the first verse therefore 〈◊〉 said to Saul bee Baptized and wash away thy sinnes Acts the twenty second Chapter and the sixteenth verse that is meant of originall sinne and the corruption of our nature by which wee are guilty of the wrath of God but because through the whol course of our life sinne by custome groweth more to be strong and to stick fast in our nature so as no water can take it away therefore 〈◊〉 Grace of God is set out by fire as having a power and force to burn 〈◊〉 sinne for by custome sinne is bred and setled in our nature and is 〈◊〉 drosse that must be tryed and purged by fire so the holy Ghost speaketh of actuall sinnes the first of Isaiah and the twenty fift verse and the sixt ter of Jeremiah and the thirttieh verse Ezech. the twenty second chapter and the eighteenth verse The house of Israel is to mee as drosse that is by custome of sinne and in regard of this kinde of sinne there needs not only water to wash away the corruption of our nature and the qualitie thereof but fire to purge the actuall sins that proceed from the same The sinnes of Commission came by reason of the force of concupiscence and from the lusts that boyle out of our corrupt nature and the grace that takes them away is the grace of water in Baptisme but the sinnes of omission proceede of the coldnesse and negligence of our nature to doe good such as was in the Church of Laodicea Rev. the third chapter and the fifteenth verse and therefore such sinnes must bee taken away with the fiery Grace of God Secondly for the quality of the Cole it is not only a burning Cole but taken from the Altar to teach us that our zeale must bee 〈◊〉 and come from the spirit of God The fires that are appointed by earthly Judges to terrifie malefactors from offending may draw a skinne over the spirituall wounds of their Soules so as for feare they will eschue and sorbeare to sinne but it is the fire of the Altar and the inward Graces of Gods spirit that taketh away the corruption and healeth the wound therefore as in the Law God tooke 〈◊〉 there should ever bee fire on the Altar Leviticus the sixt chapter and the ninth verse so for the sinner that is contrite and sory for his sinne there is alwaies fire in the Church to burne up the Sacrifice of his contrition and repentance even that fire of Christs Sacrifice The love which hee shewed unto us in dying for our sinnes is set 〈◊〉 unto us most lively in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood unto which wee must come often that from the one wee may fetch the purging of our sinnes as the Apostle speaks and from the other qualifying power si in luce John the first chapter the seventh verse wherefore as by the mercy of God we have a fountain of water alwaies flowing to take away originall sinne so there is in the Church fire alwaies burning to cleanse our actuall transgressions for if the Cole taken from the Altar had a power to take away the Prophets sinne much more the body and blood of Christ which is offered in the Sacrament If the hem of Christs garment can heale the ninth chapter of Matthew and the twentith verse much more the touching of Christ himselfe shall procure health to our soules here we have not somthing that hath touched the Sacrifice but the Sacrifice it self to take away our sins Secondly the Application The application of this Cole is by a Seraphin for it is an office more fit for Angells than men to concurre with God for taking away sinne but for that it pleaseth God to use the service of men in this behalfe they are in Scripture called Angells Job the thirty fifth chapter and the twenty third verse Malachi the second and the seventh verse The Priests lips preserve knowledge for hee is the Angell of the Lord of Hosts and the Pastors of the seven Churches in Asia are called Angells Apoc. the first chapter and the first verse for the same office that is here executed by an Angell is committed to the sonnes of men to whom as the Apostle speaks Hee hath committed the ministery of reconciliation 2 Cor. the fift chapter and the eighteenth verse to whom hee hath given this power that whose sinnes soever they remit on earth shall bee remitted in heaven the twentith chapter of Saint John and the twenty fift verse So when Nathan who was but a man had said to David etiam Jehova transtulit peccatum 〈◊〉 the second booke of Samuel the twelfth chapter and the thirteenth verse it was as availeable as if an Angell had spoken to him And when Peter tells the Jewes that if they amend their lives and turn their sinnes shall be done away their sinne was taken away no lesse than the Prophets was when the Angell touched his lips Acts the third chapter and the ninteenth verse for not hee that holds the Cole but it is the Cole it selfe that takes away sinne and so long as the thing is the same wherewith wee are touched it skills not who doth hold it but wee
have not only the Cole that touched the Altar but the Altar it selfe even the Sacrifice of Christs death represented in the Supper by partaking whereof our sins are taken away Secondly the Word or invisible grace The word of comfort whereby the inward Grace is preached unto us is that the Angell said to the Prophet Loe this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity shall bee taken away and thy sinnes purged concerning which wee finde that the Leper was cured of his Leprosie not only by the word but by the touching of Christ but the Centurian said only but speake the word and thy servant shall bee whole Mat. the eighth chapter and the eighth verse so hee can doe what he will with his only word It pleased God to take away the Prophet sinnes by touching his lips And albeit he can take away our sins without touching of bread or wine if he will yet in the councell of his will he commendeth unto us the sacramentall partaking of his body and blood It is his will that our sins shall be taken away by the outward act of the sacrament The reason is not only in regard of our selves which consist of body and soul and therefore have need both of bodily and Ghostly meanes to assure us of our Salvation but in regard of Christ himself who is the burning Cole Forever since God ordained that Christ should take our nature and aptare sibi corpus in the tenth chapter to the Hebrewes and the fifth verse that so he might worke our Reconciliation As Christ became himself a man having a bodily substance so his actions were bodily As in the Hypostasis of the Sun there is both the Humane and Divine nature so the Sacrament is of an Heavenly and Earthly nature As he hath taken our body to himself so he honoureth bodily things that by them we should have our sinnes taken away from us By one bodily sacrament he taketh away the affection unto sin that is naturally planted in us By another bodily Sacrament he taketh away the habituall sins and the actuall transgressions which proceed from the corruption of our nature And here we have matter offered us of faith that as he used the touching of a cole to assure the Prophet that his sins were taken away so in the Sacrament he doth so elevate a peice of bread and a litle wine and make them of such power that they are able to take away our sinnes And this maketh for Gods glory not only to beleeve that God can work our Salvation without any outward means by the inward Grace of his Spirit but also that he can so elevate the meanest of his creatures not only the hemme of a garment but even a strawe if he see it good shall be powerfull enough to save us from our sinnes As Christ himself is spirituall and bodily so he taketh away our sinnes by means not only spirituall but bodily as in the Sacrament For if there be a cleansing power in the Word as Christ speaketh in the fifteenth chapter of John and the third verse If in prayer as Peter sheweth to Simon Magus Pray to God that if it be possible the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee in the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and the twenty second verse If in shewing mercy and giving almes sinnes shall be forgiven as Salomon saith in the sixteenth chapter of the Proverbs and the sixth verse Per misericordiam purgantur peccata much more in the Sacrament wherein both the word and prayer and the works of mercy doe concurre to the cleansing of sinners from their sinnes Whereas the Seraphim did not take the coale in his mouth but with tongues and applied it not to the Prophets care but to his tongue We learn that it is not the hearing of a sermon that can cleanse us from sinne but we must 〈◊〉 of the bodily element appointed to represent the invisible grace of God It is true that meditation privately had will kindle a fire in the hearts of many in the thirty ninth Psalm and the third verse And the word as it is a fire Jeremie the twenty third chapter and the twenty ninth verse will also kindle a man and heat him inwardly But because in the Sacrament all those doe meete together therefore nothing is so availeable to take away sinne as the touching of bread and wine with our lips The effect The effect of this touching followeth wherein we are to consider First the efficacy of this action Secondly the certainty that as sure as this coale hath touched thy lips so surely are thy sinnes taken away Thirdly the speede that so soon as the coale touched presently sinne was taken away and purged The efficacie standeth of the removing or taking away of sinne and of the purging away of sinne The taking away and purging of sinnes have two uses Some have their sinnes taken away but not purged for something remaineth behinde Some have Adams sigge leaves to hide sinne that it shall not appeare for a time but have not Hezekiah his plaister to heal it in the thirty eighth chapter of Isaiah and the one and twentieth verse But by the touching of this Coal that is of the body and blood of Christ we are assured that our sinnes are not only covered but quite taken away as with a plaister as the Lord speaks I have put away thy transgressions like a cloud and thy sins as a mist Isaiah the fourty fourth and the twenty second verse whereby the Lord sheweth that our sinnes are scattered and come to nothing when it pleaseth him to take them away The other sense gathered from the word purging is that God doth no forgive our sinnes as an earthly Judge 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 or so that he 〈◊〉 away with his 〈◊〉 without any 〈…〉 shewed him 〈◊〉 that he likewise becometh favourable unto 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to doe us all the good he 〈◊〉 If 〈◊〉 can obtain 〈◊〉 pardon at the hands of temp orall Judges it is all they 〈◊〉 looke for but they never come to any preferment But God doth dor only give us 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 as he doth pard on out sinnes so 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 loving and kinde to us Christ doth not only take us away from God that he should not proceed to punish us for our 〈◊〉 but offers us up to God as an acceptable sacrafice as Peter 〈◊〉 Christ once suffered for sinnes the just for the unjust that he might offer us up to God in the first of Peter the third chapter and the eighteenth verse for as the wiseman saith Take the drosse from the silver 〈◊〉 shall proceed a vessel for the refiner Proverbs the twenty fift and the fourth verse So after sinne is taken away from us our nature is most acceptable to God because there remaineth nothing but his own nature Secondly for the certainty As thou hast a perfect sense of the touching of this coal so certainly are thy sinnes taken away