was a far greater torment to Satan then all his could be to Iob. Iulius Caesar when he had almost lost the field at Munda was ready to have kill'd himself so great a Conqueror knew not how to conquer Adversity and yet no man is totally vanquished by it till he yield to it Quicquid erit superanda omnis Fortuna ferendo est Though we loose all we may still possess our souls in Patience This is our last Reserv and that strong Hold whereunto he who is beaten out of the Field may alwaies retire and cannot be forced out of it but by surrendring it The common sort of men in Adversity are like Children when they are whipt either wholly surprised with Grief and Horror never striving to keep it from the Hart but give up all presently betraying themselvs by an utter despondency of Spirit and neglect of all Remedies or Cordialls and so ly whining under the power of their Adversary bemoaning and pittying themselvs to no purpose which is a most evident Sign of an absolute conquest and sinks the Soul wholly under water whereas Patience keeps up the Head yea many conspire with their miseries and are as Quintilian expresseth it Ambitiosi in malis augmenting and aggravating them as much as they can as though they found some Pleasure in Grieving and some Musike in their mournfull Ditties Or else Sturdily and Sullenly bear their Afflictions with a setled obstinacy of Mind like strong Bodies on whom no Physike can work when they most need it and so their Disease proves incurable This is to out-brave God and Nature and rather to fly and shun the sense of Affliction then to conquer it Men of Pleasure seek to divert it by inordinate and unseasonable Mirth Gaming Drinking and Surfetting on the remainders of the Feast of Prosperity which is to abuse both Politicians strive by all means to make an Escape and get out of Adversity turning and winding every way like an Eel as long as there is any Life but care not to profit by it or perhaps grow wiser but not better Philosophers fortify against it by the strength of naturall Reason as he said concerning the death of his Son Scio me genuisse mortalem accounting it a gallant thing to be no more affected with the death of a Man then the breaking of a Pitcher Only a Christian Fruitur malis which is indeed a most admirable Enjoiment Angels excell in strength Doing the will of God but Christians in Suffering and a patient enduring of necessary evills is next to a voluntary Martyrdome A Christian heareth the Rod and who hath appointed it which teaches him to suffer and sweetens his suffering more then all the Arts and shifts of worldly men whereby they fence against it He hath a most acute sense of the Pain as feeling the anger of a God in it and yet bears it patiently as the hand of his Father who chasteneth every Son whom he loveth punishing for Sin that so he may punish from Sin and so enjoieth the Love of God and more comfort in all his Evills then worldly men do in all their Good things XII Of Death DEath in it self as it is a cessation of Life is an indifferent or midle thing between Good and Evill and paralell with not being Born In the Ages which have preceded we did not live and in the succeeding we shall not live the first is a negative Death the second a privative Therefore we may as reasonably griev that we were born no sooner as that we shall live no longer Our very Life is a continuall Death for that which is past is dead already Quicquid retro est mors habet and when Death at last shall shut up all and put a full period to the Whole it shall do no more then what every moment doth to the severall Parts The last Sand in the Glass runs out in the same manner as the first Therefore Death should not seem so strange and monstrous being thus familiarly conversant with us every moment The difference between this Mortall Life and Immortality is like that between a Lease for years and an Estate in Fee Simple both go hand in hand together and equally spend the same minutes of Time but the one still runs on whereas the other stops in a certain period Immortality looseth nothing by spending being renewed as fast as it decaieth and continueth still the same Term which the other doth not but is diminished by every moment Fools flatter themselvs and suppose a kind of Immortality in the present Instant of Life because it sufficeth for the present aswell as Immortality it self and they hope still to continue one year or day or moment longer Thus the momentany and uncertain condition of Life which should most mortify is by vain men abused to the contrary Consider Death in relation to the Evill things of this Life and so it is a Release from them all and no part of them Diseases Pains Griefs and all those sad grones and ougly faces which are put upon Death belong to Life which many times exerciseth more cruelty and tyranny then Death Racking is a greater pain then Beheading yet not so deadly Assoon as Death enters upon the Stage the Tragedy is done In relation to the Good things of Life it is a totall deprivation of them and the Grave of all our worldly affairs aswel as of our selvs yea as to our share and interest therein a dissolution of all this World The Tyrants wish That the whole Earth might perish with him took effect in himself Death laugheth at all the Actions of mortall men and stepping in when he pleaseth dasheth all in peices Death stops the mighty Conqueror in the full Career of his Victories and bids him quit the field Death deposeth all Kings and reduceth them to the common equality of their originals Death sweeps down the great Politician and the curious Cobweb of his high Designs Death silences the learned Clerk and makes the Poet cease in the midst of his work like the Poeticall Swan Qui fixus arundine carmen Mille modis querulum quod caeperat interrumpit Death is the best Comment upon Life set him by the most beautifull Mistress and he will convert our deifying fansies into dust and rottenness as Caligula used to say of his Tam bona cervix simulac jussero demetur Place him on the Table among our dishes as the Ancients used to do at their Feasts he will turn all into worms meat Nothing can stand before him but all vanish and disappear at his affrighting presence Honor which of all wordly things only seems to survive passeth away with our Breath into the empty Aire as Boethius wittily descanteth Vbi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii jacent Quid Brutus aut rigidus Cato Signat superstes fama tenuis parvulis Inane nomen literis Sed quid decora novimê° vocabula Num scire consumptes datur Iacetis ergo prorsus ignorabiles Nec fama notos
efficit Quod si putatis longius vitam trahi Mortalis aura nominis Cum sera vobis rapiet hoc etiam dies Iam vos secunda mors manet Where now is just Fabricius Brutus where Or Cato the severe In a few Letters their surviving Fame Presents an empty Name But can those Titles which we read or hear Make Dead men to appear In dark oblivion ye all lye down Nor are your Persons known Or if you tâ—ink your Life by others Breath May be redeemâ—d from Death Time which this Life shall also from you take A second death will make The arguments which the World commonly draws from Death are very strange Epicures say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dy Certainly Death is the worst Master of Revells The Covetous will live Poor that he may dy Rich whereas indeed none dy Rich but the richest depart as poor and naked out of this world as any leaving all their welth to others Glorious men dy daringly that so they may be famous after Death yet all their Fame is but as a stately Monument set over their Graves Miserable men invoke Death and fly to it as their only Remedy but they are the worst Physicians who cure by killing These and the like are false enjoiments of Death and to no good end The reference it hath to another World as it is a parting Line between Life and Eternity doth best instruct us rightly to enjoy it Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do saith the Wiseman do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest He makes Death an incitement to Work not an invitation to Play and the chief VVork and Business of our Life is to gain eternall Life Blessed are the dead who dy in the Lord that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them All other Works all Arts and Sciences and the vast Projects and famous Enterprises which fill the History of the World end in the Grave In that very day his thoughts perish those only are our Stock and Provision for another VVorld Thus a Christian enjoies Death by being familiarly acquainted with him and taking him by the hand goes along with him in all his steps and motions dying dayly to the World and living to God and Heaven and when Death at last summons him to depart he willingly resigns up all as things which no longer concern him He looks upon Heaven as a Kingdom in Reversion after his own Life and looses nothing in the mean time by staying for it while he lives he encreases his future Glory and when he dies he goes to possess it Men of this world whose hope is only in this Life put Death far from them though it be most naturall and nigh unto them and the most certain of all future things and when Death appears and stares them in the face they behold him as a most strange and horrid thing either dying away through fear and astonishment as Nabal did or enraged like a wild Bull in a net as the famous Duke of Biron or with Iudas desperately plunge themselvs into Hell like Empedocles who cast himself quick into Mount Aetna The best of them look upon Death as an indifferent thing as Martial concludes his Happy Life Summum nec metuas diem nec optes But to me saith the Apostle to live is Christ and to dy is Gain which is the best and truest enjoiment both of Life and Death XIII Of Sin SIn is the Death of Souls the Father of Perdition which like the Cici or Worm in Ionas Gourd corrupted the world almost assoon as it was made The Mystery of Iniquity is almost as wonderfull as the Mystery of Grace and Godliness that it should be so exceeding sinfull and that being such it could possibly enter into the VVorld when it was so perfectly constituted that there was no cleft or crany in it by which Sin might creep forth enter into it untill it made way for it self Before Adam by fatall experience acquired the Knowledge of Good and Evill Sin might seem an incredible thing for how could it be imagined that a reasonable Creature of perfect understanding and exact integrity made only to serv and obey his Creator and conscious that all his Happiness consisted therein should rebell against him and at once plunge himself and all his Posterity into everlasting Misery As there was no reason for Sin so neither was there any root or ground out of which it should spring only a bare Possibility of doing that which was most unreasonable and unnaturall God made Man upright but they have sought out many inventions he was fain to seek out and invent the way of undoing himself and to create Sin which God had not made But that which is most wonderfull in Sin and which hath puzled the most profound Doctors is the consideration of Gods Permission and Providence how and why he should suffer such an Enemy to himself and all his Creatures to invade the World and ruin the whole Creation It is certainly the greatest quarrell and highest blasphemy which the Divells and damned have against God that he should make them to damn them and it is the strongest argument in the corrupt minds of the sinners of this VVorld who have not yet felt the Hell of Sin that it is no such great matter as Divines would perswade them thinking that because God doth permit it therefore he will also tolerate it This is the strange and prodigious birth of Sin and the Nature of it is answerable thereunto for it is no less then the doing of that w ch we ought not to do or the not doing of that which we ought to do and what we ought not to do is in the very next degree to what we cannot do Chast Ioseph puts the one for the other How can I do this wickedness and sin against God making morall Entity and Bonity as convertible as Naturall and Gods Interdiction as restraining as his Interposition This Monster assoon as it is born is so strong and adult in mischief that it destroieth the Womb that bare it and infecteth the whole Sphere of its activity though acts of Sin make it grow yet the first birth thereof makes it a complete Body and merits an universall and eternall punishment It hath blasted the whole inferior world and laid the foundations of Hell it self hence are all the Evills in Nature all the disorders in Humane society and villanies of Men. The Story of the Italian who first made his Enemy deny God and then Stab'd him and so at once murdered both Body and Soul declares the perfect malignity thereof and should the dire imprecations of revengefull Spirits be alwaies executed on others we should create Divells and Hells enough to destroy all Mankind But all this is the least and lowest Evill in it the perfection thereof consists in the contrariety and enmity
against God It is called a Law of Sin as being directly opposite to the Law of God for what God saith Thou shalt do Sin saith Thou shalt not do and what he saith Thou shalt not do Sin saith Thou shalt do and so inverts the whole Decalogue and the very Law of Nature robing God of his Creature and setting it up against him and in his throne No created Majesty can endure a Consort much less Divine which is most absolutely and infinitely Supreme It is true Sin can never effect what it intends and therefore wicked men think it is nothing because it cannot hurt and wrong God but a declared intent is Treason even among men much more by the Law of God who is chieifly served or disserved by our Spirits and Wills yea this shows the most perfect malice of Sin that it fights against a Majesty which cannot be wronged and breeds a more haughty disdain and just revenge in him whom it opposeth to be defied by so base and Enemy Men may say they do not intend to hurt God yet they do transgress and offend his Law which is to offend himself though the intention may be to do God good service If therefore there be any such difference in Nature as Good and Evill if there be any Monster or Mischief in the World Sin is really the worst of Evills being most contrary to the Chief Good and in this relation it is infinitely evill though as it is a finite act it cannot be really and properly infinite for then it should be an Enemy equall to God but it comes as neer to infinite as possibly it can and if the Soul were infinite it would Sin infinitely as being eternall it will sin eternally yea it is as it were infinite to us for we cannot measure nor comprehend the utmost extent of the sinfulness thereof no more then we can number the particular acts Let us therefore stand amazed at the sight of this Hydra this killing and never dying Serpent devouring all Good and propagating all Evill Now what enjoiment can there be of such a perfect Evill Certainly next to the Grace of God a Christian reaps the greatest Happiness from it yea Grace it self which delivereth from Sin cannot be enjoied without the enjoiment of Sin from which it delivereth and the more horrid and hellish Sin is the more doth the Love of God appear in delivering us from it and in preserving the little spark of his Grace in the midst of an Ocean of corruption There is no such Antipathy in Nature as between Holiness and Unholiness the contrariety of Vice and Virtue is far short of it Grace is the highest perfection of the Soul and Sin the greatest imperfection As sin is the occasion of our greatest Good and highest Preferment so it is also of Gods greatest Glory and therein we should rejoice There is more Ioy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth then over ninety and nine Iust persons who need no repentance Thus the more we hate it the more we enjoy it and our greatest abhorrency doth most excite this affection of holy Joy and this is the high priviledge of a Christian to enjoy that which is most contrary unto him not only by forbearing it but also by Gods forgiving and recovering out of it to a state of higher Perfection and Happiness XIIII of the Restauration of the Soul THe Restauration of the Soul is the Conversion of it from Sin to God as the Corruption thereof was a defection from God to Sin This is a greater and more glorious work then the first Creation and the utmost Design of God in making the VVorld As in an ingenious Poem which is the Creature of Fancy the chief excellency is the Plot and the excellency of the Plot is the strange difficulty and intricacy of the Epitasis or troublesome state of the Business which is afterward beyond all expectation cleared up and resolved into an happy Catastrophe whereas if it should be carried on in a constant course of Prosperity it would seem very flat and dull without art or wit Thus God having made all things for himself and the manifestation of of his own Glory as the wisest end which he could propound to himself was not satisfied with the first work of Creation though exceeding good and perfect in its kind but assoon as it was finished suffered Sin to enter upon the Stage bringing Death and Hell along with it and so to confound and destroy all This was the Dignus vindice nodus such as all the Wit of Men and Angels could not unty till God himself came down from Heaven and resolved it into this more glorious work of Redemption which is an uncreating of Sin and a creating of Grace God cannot make Factum infectum but by pardoning Sin he makes it Quasi infectum Sin remitted is as though it had never been cōmitted Thus Justice it self justifies the unjust and being overcome it triumphs Justice and Mercy could not meet together in any other way and there is no other Instance in the whole History of the VVorld of any act of God which doth so perfectly exercise all his Attributes manifest all his Glory and consequently fulfill the end of Creation As God justifies the Ungodly so he makes him Godly which is the other part of this great work and no less wonderfull then the former If the entrance of Sin into the VVorld be so stupendious the expulsion thereof is much more The Peripatetikes suppose the Soul of Man to be like a plain Table or as we say a blank Paper on which Good or Evill may be imprinted and so equally indifferent to both But other Heathens have confessed the contrary Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur and all Christianity is against it If their Opinion were true probably some one man among so many millions might have lived pure from Sin perhaps through the whole course of his life or for a year or day or hour or at least might perform some one action perfectly good which none ever did Therefore the Platonikes say the Soul is like a Chariot drawn with two Horses whereof one is fair and generous the other deformed and resty The first is the Rationall part the second the Sensuall some Platonicall Divines call them Flesh and Spirit but it is most evident that not only the inferior faculties but also the superior are corrupted otherwise the inferior could not draw them away they being able of themselvs to put forth their own acts pure and incorrupt the Mind is free and cannot sin but from it self though it may be tempted and urged by others On the contrary sometimes the Mind urges the inferior faculties to sin beyond the common bounds of their nature and the utmost desires of Beasts besides there are many rationall and spirituall Sins wherein the inferior Faculties have no share The Pelagians seem to grant a mixture of both principles of Good and Evill in every Faculty and