and severally sends them to the jury of the tribes of Israel Hard hearted husband if the least pity be alive in thy breast offer not this wrong unto the dead Is it not enough that her soul is parted from her body but her body also must be twelve times parted from it self suffer her ashes to sleep in quiet the pawn for the return of her soul methinks that knife that cuts her hands should pierce thine heart but comdemn not the Levite for this deed it was not cruelty but pitty and piety that moved him unto it that the sight of the corps might make the Jewes the more throughly prosecute the cause and every tribe that had a part of her body might have a part in revenging her innocent bloud Her mouth onely spake whilst she was living now each peice of her mangled corps speaks when shee is dead whilest the Israelites both attentively heard and judiciously understood the language thereof which made them condemn the causers of her death for matchlesse offendors many men have done villanously but these surmounted them all there was no such deed done nor seen since c. I will not mangle my text as the Levite his wife with often dividing it let it suffice to observe therein two principall parts First a narrration of a notorious villany there was no c. 2 The prescribing of wholesome orders for the future consult consider and give c. In the first two commendable practises of the Iewes commend themseIves to our meditation 1 First they were well skilled well versed in the severall actions which were done in their country before their time and used to match compare one deed with another to see which was better which worse which more which lesse vitious and amongst the army of sinnes behold this in my text stands like a Saul stands higher then his fellows by the shoulders upwards Herein let us follow the example of the Israelites let us read histories that we be not made an history let us compare the passages of the time past with those of the present age for as it is a great blemish in a Gentleman though never so proper and personable if he hath but such a crick in his neck that he cannot turn his face backward to see what is behind him so it is a great shame in such a one as pretends to learning and wisedome if by the benefit of wisedome he cannot reflect the eyes of his mind backward and see those things which were done in the dayes of his fathers and in the old time before them You therefore that have the chronicle of our kings in your houses the Acts and monuments in your halls condemn them not to a desk as the Jews did their harps to the willows rather for sight then service till moths have fretted out the bookes as worms have eaten the bodies of those worthy men who compiled them but at your best leisure read and peruse them But when you have read all humane Authors over they will be but so many muddy and brackish channells to the pure and fresh fountain of Gods holy word meditate therefore in the same both day and night wherein alone you shall find stories more true more various more pleasant more profitable then all other writers ancient or modern are able to afford 2. The second praise-worthy practise in the Israelites is this they kept the solemn and constant memorial of their coming out of the land of Egypt from which as from a memorable aera and remarkable Epoche they used to date and compute their severall actions not since the day that the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt And good reason they had to remember it God then bestowing on their fathers a great deliverance who whilest they lived in Egypt lived in continuall slavery Indeed they had meat enough which may serve to condemn the cruelty of some masters to their servants now adayes who though they give them their bellyfull of work will not give them their bellyfull of victualls The Egyptians dealt better with the Jewes in this kind of onions cucumbers and the flesh-pots of Egypt they had their full by their own confession Yet their life being a bondage must needs be miserable liberty being the very life of our life without which our life is a continuall dying Yea the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt may in some sort seem to them to have been the creation of the world Adam was made of the dust of the earth they then fetcht from the clay of the earth whereof they had made many hard bricks though not half so hard as the hearts of those Taskmasters which were set over them the world was made of nothing the Jewes when they came out of Egypt being made formerly for outward respects no better then nothing And as their remaining there was miserable so their removing thence was miraculous wonderfully therefore should they have forgot themselves if they had forgot Gods wonders towards them in this deliverance And have not wee English men as many and remarkable deliverances as ever the Jewes had some common with us to all Christans as the second birth day of the world at the birth of our Saviour You therefore that are clarks and notaries who in dating of acts and instruments with your posting pens make such frequent mention of the year of the Lord labour that those words which have been so often written with your hands may once be written in your hearts with the benefits accrued to all mankind by the birth of our Saviour Some proper to this our nation alone as the deliverance from the Spanish invasion in 88. Naomi said to the men of Bethlehem Ruth 1. call me not Naomi fair but call me mara bitter for the Lord hath afflicted me I went out full but return empty c. so might that great fleet say call me not the invincible Armado but call me the conquered Armado for the Lord hath punished my pride I went out full the terrour of the world but return empty to the scorn of all nations Go then you Spaniards bragge of Lisbon Bilboa and Toledo blades sure I am that then an English sword managed by the arm of the God of heaven was proved to be the best mettall Nor lesse miraculously from home-bred conspiracy in the gunpowder treason where the reason onely was intention but nothing thanks be to God brought to execution but the traytors Well it s said that things written in marble are most durable in difference of time I would not wish to us a marble hard or stony heart but such a one as is soft tender and pliable and surely this will sooner receive and longest retain the print of Gods favours unto us and principally of these deliverances wherein the people of England may be said to have come out of the land of Egypt Now that this sinne in my text may appear in its proper colours consider
to mount unto who wanted the wings of holy writ the direction of S. Paul in my text that we are by nature the children of wrath even as others Here perchance some may expect that as the master of the feast said to him that wanted the wedding garment friend how camest thou in hither so I should demand of originall sin foe and worst of foes how camest thou in hither and by what invisible leakes didst thou soak into our soules but I desire if it be possible to present you this day with a rose without prickles to deliver plain and positive doctrine without thorny disputes or curious speculations lest as Abrahams ramme was caught in the thicket so I imbroyle you and my self in difficult controversies and here in generall to prevent such objections as might be made against this doctrine of the wrath deserving condition of men by nature pray hearken to these three excellent rules 1. Let us not with our wanton wit kick against the pricks of our own consciences and goe about to prove by arguments that is not which we by woefull experience find is or that that is not just which is done by justice it self 2. Let us not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine of the chair to determine controversies between God us for the wisdome of the flesh is a malefactor no wonder if the malefactor being made a Judge doth accquit himself 2ly it is enmity to God no reason that hee should be censured by him that is his enemy his wayes I say which are often above reason but never against right let us not make the pallat of corrupt flesh which savoureth not the things of the spirit our taster in spirituall matters 3. Let us not busy our brains so much to know how Originall sinne came into us as labour with our heart to know how it should be got out of us but the worst is most men are sick of the Rickets in the soul their heads swell to a vast proportion puft up with the emptinesse of airy speculations whilst their leggs and lower parts do wast and consume their practicall parts do decay none more lazy to serve God in their lives and conversations and here the better to ballace both mine and your judgements aganinst all blasts and billowes of private opinions hearken to the resolution of the Church of England as she hath delivered her self in the article which is the ninth in number and beareth the title of originall or birth-sin originall sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault and corruption of every man which naturally is ingendred of the of-spring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from originall righteousnesse and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth alwayes against the spirit therefore in every person born into the world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation and that this infection of nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerate whereby the lust of the flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the wisdome and some sensuality some the affection some the desires of the flesh is not subject to the law of God and although there be no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confesse that concupiscence and lust hath of it self the nature of sinne So far the golden Article which as all the rest was written by their hands who had good heads and hearts in whom wisdome did contend with their learning but their piety was a Conquerour above both who what they learnedly distilled out of the scripture faithfully infused into these Articles and as the reall serpent of Moses did devoure the seeming serpents which Jannes and Jambres the Egyptian enchanters did make so shall the truth of these Articles outlast and outlive confute and confound all false and erroneous doctrines whatsoever even when wilfull Heretiques shall have their eyes put out with the beams of truth and factious Schismaticks want a conventicle to hide their shame in and furious Innovatours either run themselves out of breath if the law do not first overtake them or else fall down through the giddinesse of their own brains and then shall the eternall truth of these Articles want nothing but a foe to oppose them because herein they concurre with the doctrine of S. Paul in my text that wee are by nature children c Is it so that that we are by nature the children of wrath this serves to confute three sorts of people namely those who either faintly affirm it or flatly deny it or falsely maintain it faintly affirm it and such are those as have written Peccatum originis non nisi ex duobus scripturae locis effoditur originall sin is digg'd out but of two or three places of scripture is diggd out do they mean is extracted by faithfull consequence as if what were so deduced were not Scripture as well as that which is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in so many words Is diggd out and so are gold and pretious stones and are mysteries of religion of lesse price because they are to be gathered by some pains is diggd out and that is false for it lyes above ground in plain and pregnant places of scripture though these men had rather stumble at it then behold it But out of two or three places of scripture why out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall not every truth be established but out of two or three places of scripture as if one were not all one with one thousand when it comes from an infallible mouth places of scripture are not to be taken out by the tale but the weight Thus these men labour to lessen originall sin O let us all labour to lessen originall sin but not by extenuating it in our tenets and opinions but by labouring to crucify mortifie it in our lives and conversations and surely many mens immoderate diminishing originall sin making it next to nothing gave the unhappy occasion to learned Illyricus to fall foul on that opinion if his meaning there be not mistaken that originall sin was a very substance indeed an opinion so absurd that at the same time I could both laugh at the ridiculous tenet and weep at the unhappinesse of the man that maintained it well let us go backward and if we want wherewithall to cover his nakednesse let us do it with the sheets of his own books and let his admirable mastery in other things crave a concealment of his errour in this Flatly deny it and such are the Pelagians who say that all sinne comes onely by imitation surely Cain never learned to kill his brother by imitation he was the first that set that black coppy and wrote not after any other Indeed children would not be so bad or so soon bad but for bad examples set before them but bad examples are not the root from
nettles are used for pot-hearbs and sâ—llets made of Eldern buds so fond parents welcome and embrace in their children the first beginnings of sinne yea please themselves to hear their infants dispraise God swear call names talk wantonly yea this is accounted wit in the little children I am sure it is want of wit in the greater children for so I may fitly call their foolish parents who take delight therein I say no more but as for those parents who will not use the rod upon their children I pray God he useth not their children as a rod for them Now least those who at this present time are neither children to parents nor parents to children should complain with the Grecian widdows that they this day are neglected in the dispensation of my doctrine hearken to a generall use which will take us all in let us all take notice of a bad principle which lurks in our hearts this naturall corruption which deserves the wrath of God in the low Countries half their houses ly buried in the ground the laying of the foundation is counted as much as the rest of the building so half our badnesse lyes secret and unseen consisting in originall corruption whereof too few take notice for though as I have said before baptisme taketh away the commanding and condemning power thereof yet the blot still remaining as by woefull experience we daily find makes us backward to all goodnesse and headlong forwards to all badnesse this is that which S. Paul to the Romans who though he might touch at an improper expression sure would never land there and dwell so long therein calls sinne fourteen times and we shall find it fourteen thousand times to be so in our selves Away then with the sick doctrine of the soundnesse of freewill and merit of works we have alwayes that in us which baneth the perfection of all our performances namely the lawless law in our members which rebelleth against the law of our mind and leadeth us captive to the law of sinne which is in our members Thou shalt not commit adultery and thou shalt commit adultery thou shalt not steal and thou shalt steal thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour thou shalt bear false witnesse against thy neighbour witches they say say the Lords prayer backward but concupiscence this witch in our soul sayes all the commandments backward and makes us crosse in our practise what God commands in his precepts Thus every day we sin and sorrow after our sin and sin after our sorrow and do what we would not and would what we do not and the vvind of Gods spirit blovveth us one vvay and the tide of our corruption hurryeth us another these things he that seeth not in himself is sottish-blind he that seeth and confesseth not is damnably proud he that confesseth and bewaileth not is desperately profane he that bewaileth and figheth not against it is unprofitablely pensive but he that in some weak manner doth all these is a Saint in reversion here and shall be one in possession hereafter FINIS THE SNARE BROKEN Genes 49. vers 6. O my soul come not into their secrets By T. F. B. D. LONDON Printed by R. Daniel for J. S. 1656. THE SNARE BROKEN Genes 49. vers 6. O my soul come not thou into their secrets AMong the many arguments to prove the pen-men of the scripture inspired by the spirit of God this is not the last and least that the pen-men of holy writ do record their own faults and the faults of their nearest and dearest relations for instance hereof how coursly doth David speak of himself So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a very beast before thee And do you think that the face of S. Paul did look the more foul by being drawn with his own pencill when he sayes I was a murtherer a persecutor the greatest of sinners c. This is not usuall in the writings of humane authors who praise themselves to the utmost of what they could and rather then loose a drop of applause they will lick it up with their own tongues Tully writes very copiously in setting forth the good service which he did the Roman state but not a woâ—d of his covetousnesse of his affecting popular applause of his pride and vain glory of his mean extraction and the like Whereas clean contrary Moses he sets down the sinne and punishment of his own sister the idolatry and superstition of Aaron his brother and his own fault in his preposterous striking the rock for which he was excluded the land of Canaan No wonder then if he tell the faults of Simeon and Levi both their cruell murther and the heavy curse which their father laid upon them Old Jacob lyes now a dying the lanthorn of his body was ready to be broken and the light that was in it to be exâ—inguished his twelve sonnes get about him every one expects a blessing and they raise their intentions the more because they knew that he was a prophet He begins sadly Reuben hath a check and Simeon and Levi have a curse No doubt old Jacob as a private man had affection to them both but now he speaks to them as a prophet he knowes no naturall affection being acted with spirituall inspiration he leaves off flesh and blood being prompted by the spirit of God and tells them cursed be their wrath for for it was fierce and their anger for it was furious I shall use no other method in the words but such observations as are pertinent to the text profitable for your souls First O my soul c. seeing Jacob doth entertain a discourse with his own soul wee may learn A Christian who can discourse with his own soul may make good company for himself This was Davids precept Psal. 4. vers 4. commune with your own hearts upon your beds this is no contradiction there is a kind of discourse which makes no noise this communion is the heart of heavenly meditation he may give himself a question and answer it himself and David what he prescribes to us practises himself when he sayes why art thou so sad O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me trust still in God Had people this art of entertaining a time to discourse with themselves it would prevent much mischief thou mayest divide thy soul into severall parts and thou maist discourse if thou wilt with every faculty with thy understanding memory fancy and the severall affections of thy soul. Ask that question of thy understanding which Philip askt of the Eunuch Acts 10. understandest thou what thou readest call your understanding to account whether you understand what you read or not Ask thy fancy that question which Acbish once propounded to king David where hast thou been roving all this day bring thy fancy to account Ask that of thy memory which the master did of the unjust steward Luke 16. give an account of thy stewardship ask thy