dares call any sin little that is committed against God Small contempts against great Princes are accounted great oversights for what is wanting in the thing is made up in the worth of the person How great a sin then is the smallest contempt that is done against God Prudentissimus ille est qui non tam considerat quid jussum sit quam illum qui jusserit nec quantitatem imperii sed imperantis cogitat dignitatem It is the best wisdom for us not so much to consider what is commanded as who it is that commandeth it to consider I say not the smallness of the Law but the greatness of the Law-giver Sins comparatively may be counted greater or lesser but absolutely none can be counted small To conclude then this point Charity suspecteth no harm saith St. Paul true but we must note that some virtues in us concern our selves as Faith Hope Temperance and the like some virtues concern not our selves but others but such an one is Charity Charity that wills Christians to think well of all others can have little room upon our selves Let us then make use of this Charity towards our Neighbours hope the best of all their actions but let us take heed how we be over-charitably minded to our selves Caesar profess'd that he would rather die then suspect his friends and he sped accordingly for he died by the treachery of those freinds whom he suspected not Let us take heed how we be over-kind unto our own thoughts how we think it an errour to be too suspicious of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peradventure those sons of our own hearts whom we least suspect will in the end prove those who shall betray us But I come to a third reason A third reason why I shall advise you to this jealousie over your own thoughts is the difficulty of discovering them betime and discerning of what spirit they are For our heart is like that feild in the Gospel in which the Husbandman sows good corn and the enemy sows tares God infuseth good thoughts and the Devil ill Now as weeds many times at their first budding are hardly known from good herbs so at the first springing and budding of our thoughts a hard matter it is to know the weed from the good herb the corn from the tare As Iudah in the Book of Genesis knew not Tamar till the fruit of his sin committed with her began to shew it self so till the fruits of our thoughts and purposes begin to appear except we search very narrowly we can scarcely discover of what rank they are Tunc ferrum quod latebat infundo supernatabat aquae inter palmarum arbores myrrhae amaritudo reperta est Then the iron that lay in the bottom will swim at the top of the water and among the pleasant Palm-trees will be found the bitterness of Myrrh We read in the second of Samuel that when the Ark was brought from Kirjath-jearim the oxen that drew the cart shook it and Vzzah reaching out his hand to save it from falling for his good service was laid dead in the place Doubtless Vzzah his accompanying the Ark was a sign of his love unto it his love unto it begat in him a fear to see it in danger his fear to see it in danger bred in him a desire to keep it from danger See Beloved what a number of golden thoughts are here yet as we read in the Book of Iob when the servants of God came and stood before him Satan also came and stood amongst them So in this chorus and quire of these Angelical thoughts the devil finds a place to rest himself in For this desire of Vzzah to save the Ark from danger made him forget what was written that none should touch the Ark save onely the Preists the breach of which precept brought that fearful judgment upon him You see Beloved that though the course of our thoughts be like Iacob's Ladder and God himself be at one end of them yet Satan if he can will be at the other Let us learn by this example of Vzzah betimes to discover our thoughts and not to suffer them to grow till their fruit betray them Indeed our Saviour hath given us a rule You shall know them by their fruits but we must take heed that we extend not this rule too far Vzzah felt the fruit of his thoughts to his own cost It is never good trying conclusions there Vbi poenastatim sequitur errorem Let us learn to decipher our thoughts then when we may do it without danger whilst they are in semine whilst they are yet but budding and peeping above ground Donec Sarculo tantum opus est non Securi whil'st yet there is onely need of the Weed hook and not of the Hatchet A fourth reason yet there is for which I would counsel you to hold a strict hand over your thoughts and it is Because that from outward sins we can better preserve our selves then from our sins in thought Beloved there is a transient sin and there is an imminent sin there is a sin that is outwardly acted by the service of the body there is a sin that requires not the help of the body but is committed inwardly in the very thought and soul a speculative or an intellectual sin Outward sins are many ways pass'd by means may be wanting company may hinder time and place may be inconvenient but for speculative sins or sins in thought all times all occasions all places are alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil A man saith he of great gravity and countenance sits in the midst of the market-place with many hundreds about him and looking upon him yet notwithstanding this man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even this man in the mid'st of all the company fancies to himself what he desires and in his imaginations goes unto the place of sin or rather retires into his own heart and there he finds place and means to commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin that hath no witness but God If we retire to our private chambers these sins will follow us thither and as Baanah and Richab did by Isboseth Saul's son they will find us out upon our beds and slay us there If we go to the Church they will find us out there and as Adramelech and Sharezer slew Sennacherib whil'st he was worshipping his god they will set upon us even in the midst of our holiest meditations and prayers neither Chamber nor Church no place so private none so holy that can give us Sanctuary or shelter us from them St. Hierom confesses thus much of himself that when he had forsaken the world all outward occasions of sin and gone into the Desert and shut himself up in a poor Cell and macerated his body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with watchings with fastings and perpetual prayers and religious exercise yet could he not be secure from them Pallebant ora jejuniis mens desideriis aestuabat in
these two there are no other publick causes of Bloudshed As for the causes in private I know but one and that is when a man is set upon and forced to it in his own defence If a theif be robbing in the night and be slain the Law of God acquits him that did it and by the Roman Laws Nocturnum furem quomodo libet diurnum si se telo defenderet It was lawful to kill a theif by night at any hand and by day if he used his weapon Of private Bloudshed there is no cause but this and this we must needs allow of For in all other private necessities into which we may be driven the Law and Magistrate have place to whom we must repair for remedy but in case of defence of life against sudden on-set no Law can be made except we would make a Law to yeild our throats to him that would cut them or our Laws were like the Prophet that came to Ieroboam at Bethel and could dry up mens arms that offered violence Wherefore all cause of death one onely excepted is publick and that for great reason For to die is not a private action to be undertaken at our own or at any other private mans pleasure and discretion For as we are not born unto our selves alone but for the service of God and the Common-wealth in which we live so no man dies to himself alone but with the damage and loss of that Church or Common-wealth of which he is a member Wherefore it is not left to any private man's power to dispose of any man's life no not to our own onely God and the Magistrate may dispose of this As Souldiers in the Camp must keep their standing neither may they move or alter but by direction from the Captain so is it with us all Our life is a warfare and every man in the world hath his station and place from whence he may not move at his own or at another man's pleasure but onely at the direction and appointment of God his General or of the Magistrates which are as Captains and Leiutenants under him Then our lawful times of death are either when our day is come or to fall in battel or for misdemeanour to be cut off by the publick hand of Justice Vt qui vivi prodesse noluerunt corum more respub utatur He which otherwise wise dies comes by surreption and stealth and not warrantably unto his end And though we have spoken something in Apology and defence of War yet you may not think that in time of War your hands are loose and that you may at your pleasure shed the bloud of your Enemy Misericorditer etiam bella gerantur saith St. Austin even in War and Battel there is room for thoughts of peace and mercy and therefore many of the ancient Heroes renowned Souldiers and Captains were very conscientious of shedding the bloud of their Enemies except it were in Battel and when there was no remedy to avoid it In that mortal Battel Sam. 2. between the servants of David and the servants of Isbosheth the Scripture reports that Abner fled and Azahel Ioab's brother following him hard at heels to kill him Abner advises him twice Turn aside saith he why should I smite thee to the ground but when Azahel would not hearken but followed him still for his bloud then he stroke him with his spear that he died In the time of War when he might lawfully have done it in the fury of the Battel Abner would not shed bloud but by constraint Xenophon would make us beleive that the Souldiers in Cyrus his Army were so well disciplin'd that one of them in time of the Battel having lift up his arm to strike his enemy hearing the Trumpet to begin to sound the Retreat let fall his arm and willingly lost his blow because he thought the time of striking was now past So far were these men from thinking it lawful to shed the bloud of a Subject in time of peace that they would not shed the bloud of an Enemy in time of War except it were in the Feild Iulius Cesar was one of the greatest and stoutest Captains that ever was in the world he stood the shock of fifty set Battels besides all Seiges and Out-rodes he took a thousand Cities and walled Towns he over-run three hundred several Countreys and in his Wars were slain well near twelve hundred thousand men besides all those that died in the Civil Wars which were great numbers yet this man protested of himself and that most truly that he never drew bloud but in the Feild nunquam nisâ— in acie stantem never slew any man but in a set battel I have been a little the bolder in bringing these instances of Heathen men First because the doctrine of Christ through errour is counted an enemy to policy of War and Martial Discipline Secondly because we have found out many distinctions and evasions to elude the precepts of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles For as it hath been observed of the God-makers I mean the Painters and Statuaries among the Heathen they were wont many times to paint their Goddesses like their Mistresses and then think them most fair when they were most like what they best loved so is it with many Professours of Christian Religion they can temper the precepts of it to their liking and lay upon them glosses and interpretations as it were colours and make it look like what they love Thirdly because it is likely that the examples of these men will most prevail with those to whom I speak as being such to whom above all they affect to be most like Except therefore it be their purpose to hear no other Judgment but onely their own unruly and misorderly affections it cannot but move them to see the examples of men guided onely by the light of reason of men I say the most famous in all the world for valour and resolution to run so mainly against them To come then unto the question of Duels both by the light of reason and by the practise of men it doth appear that there is no case wherein subjects may privately seek each others lives There are extant the Laws of the Iews framed by God himself The Laws of the Roman Empire made partly by the Ethnick partly by Christian Princes A great part of the Laws of Sparta and Athens two warlike Common-wealths especially the former lie dispersed in our Books yet amongst them all is there not a Law or Custom that permits this liberty to Subjects The reason of it I conceive is very plain The principal thing next under God by which a Common-wealth doth stand is the Authority of the Magistrate whose proper end is to compose and end quarrels between man and man upon what occasion soever they grow For were men peaceable were men not injurious one to another there were no use of Government Wherefore to permit men in private to try their own rights
Christian action Victory and Conquest and when my Apostle here saith I can Doe all things his meaning is I can Overcome and Conquer all things And here is the second and most glorious part of Christian Omnipotency never was any true Christian overcome or can he For look how much he yeilds unto his enemy so much he fails of his profession and title David complains of Ioab and his Brethren These sons of Zerviah are too strong for me But Beloved a Christian man finds none of these sons of Zerviah whom he needs to fear or of whom he needs to complain For as Aristotle tells us that a magnanimous man is he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thinks nothing great but conceits all things as inferiour to himself so may we define a true Christian to be such a one as to whom nothing is dreadful in whose eye nothing under God carries any shew of Greatness St. Paul hath left us a Catalogue in the end of the eighth to the Romans of all the forces outward and inward bodily and ghostly that can be mustered against us Life Death Angels Principalities Powers things present things to come heighth depth any creature imaginable and pronounces of them that in all these we are Conquerours Conquerours is too mean a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are more then Conquerours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom we conquer them with ease without any pains or sweat Pancas Victoria dextras exigit we shall not need to bring forth against them all our forces a small part of them will be sufficient to gain the day and not onely overcome them but turn them to our benefit and behoof For sin is like unto Sampson's Lion it comes upon us with open mouth to devour us but when we have slain it we shall find honey in the belly of it Wonderful therefore is the power of a Christian who not onely overcomes and Conquers and kills the Viper but like the skilful Apothecary makes Antidote and Treacle of him Indeed our Adversaries seem to be very great St. Paul calls them by wonderful names as if he meant to affright us Powers Principalities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depths the prince that ruleth in the air the god of this world and what not Yet notwithstanding as one speaks in Livy of the Macedonian War as I remember Non quam magni nominis bellum est tam difficilem existi maveritis victoriam we must not think there will be any doubt of the Victory because it is a War of great name and noise For me-thinks I discover in our Apostle when he uses these strange astonishing words a spiritual stratagem by which to stir us up and make us stand upon our guard he makes the largest report of our enemies forces We read that one of the Roman Captains perceiving his souldiers unnecessarily to faint draws out letters before them and reads the news of that which never was of I know not what Kings with Armies and multitude coming forthwith against them which Art of his did much avail him to gain the victory because it made the Souldiers to recollect themselves and fight with all their might Beloved I may not think that the Apostle in making this report of our enemies forces relates that which is not but this I think I may safely say that he makes the most of that which is For it can never hurt us to take our enemy to be as strong as he is or peradventure stronger for this is a very profitable errour it makes us more wary and provide our selves the better But to sleight and contemn our enemy to err on the contrary side and think him to be weaker then he is this hath caused many an overthrow It is a rule which Vigetius gives us Difficilime vincitur qui vere potest de suis de adversarii copiis judicare It is an hard matter to overcome him that truly knoweth his own strength and the strength of his adversary And here beloved is the errour of most Christians we do not know of what strength we are We look upon this body of ours and suppose that in so weak and faint a subject there cannot subsist so great strength as we speak of as if a man should prize the liquour by the baseness of the vessel in which it is As divers Land-lords have treasures hidden in their feilds which they know not of so many of us have this treasure of omntpotency in us but we care not to discover it and to know it did we but perfectly know our own strength and would we but compare it with the strength of our enemies we should plainly discover that we have such infinite advantage above them that our conquest may seem not to be so great as is pretended For the greater the advantages are the glory of the victory is the less and that which makes a conquest great is not so much the greatness of him that conquers as the strength and greatness of him that is overthrown Now that proportion is there betwixt the strength of God himself dwelling in us and all the strength of Heaven Earth and Hell besides how then can we count this spiritual War so fearful which is waged upon so unequal terms In quo si modo congressus cum hoste sis viceris in which if we but give the on-set we are sure to gain the victory restitisse vicisse est To resist is to conquer for so saith the Apostle Resist the Divil and he shall flee from you There was never yet any Christian conquer'd that could not and in this war not to yeild the victory is to get it As therefore one spake of Alexander's expedition into India Bene ausus est vana contemnere the matter was not much which he did the greatest thing in it was that he durst do it so considering our strength and the weakness of our adversaries we may without prejudice speak even of the worthiest Souldiers that ever fought these spiritual Battels Bene ausi sunt vana contemnere The greatest thing that we can admire in them is that they durst do it Would we but a little examine the forces of our adversaries we should quickly find it to be as I have said When Alcibiades a young Gentleman of Athens was afraid to speak before the multitude Socrates to put him in heart asks him Fear you saith he such a one and names one of the multitude to him No saith Alcibiades he is but a Tradesman Fear you such a one saith he and names a second No sor he is but a Pesant or such a one and names a third No for he is but an ordinary Gentleman Now saith he of such as these doth the whole multitude consist and by this device he encouraged Alcibiades to speak He that shall fear to encounter the multitude and army of spiritual adversaries which are ready to set themselves against him let him do by himself as Socrates did by Alcibiades Let