many are said to doe in 1 Tim. 4. 2. he foretels they should speake lyes in Hypocrisie and invent lyes that should have a pretence of holinesse which they know to be a lye or else they should not be said to speake lyes in hypocrisie but they doe it to maintaine their honour and greatnesse which must downe if their doctrine prove false and though many are given up to beleeve their lyes 2 Thes 2. 11. as a punishment of their not loving the truth yet others of them shall know they are lies and yet vent them for truths Thus when men fashion their opinion to the times and wayes of preferment and their dependances on Great ones or to maintaine and uphold a faction or out of pride having broached an error maintaine it though the pulling out that one tile doth untile all the house These are the two causes given of perverting the truth 1 Tim. 6. 4 5. namely pride and covetousnesse and supposing gaine godlinesse and so fashioning their religion accordingly when men are Knights of the post that will write or speak any thing whereby they may get gaine and preferment Secondly men sin against knowledge in regard of others First by concealing it the Apostle indeed sayes in a certaine case Hast thou knowledge keepe it to thy selfe He speakes it of opinions or practices about things indifferent which might scandalize the weake but if thou hast knowledge which may edifie thy brother thou oughtest to communicate it Socrates knowing there was but one God said in his Apologie for his life that if they would give him life upon condition to keep that truth to himselfe and not to teach it to others hee would not accept life upon such a condition and I remember he expresseth his resolution in words very nigh the same words the Apostles used Acts 4. 20. whether it be better to obey God than men judge you and we cannot but teach the things wee have heard and seene sayes Christ for knowledge is a thing will boyle within a man forvent and cannot be imprisoned It is light and the end why light was made was to be set up to give light And Christ argues from an apparent absurdity to put a light under a bushell which may give light to all the house Hast thou knowledge of God and of his wayes thou canst not but speake if withall thou hast but a good heart to all in the familie to thy wife in thy bosome c. God took it for granted that Abraham would teach his children what he should know from him The same disposition is in all the children of Abraham Secondly when men endeavour to suppresse knowledge As the Pharisees they kept the keyes of it in their hands and would not open the treasures of it themselves nor let others doe it neither So they Acts 4. 16. could not deny but a great miracle was done by the Apostles say themselves but that it spread no further let us threaten them and charge them that they speake no more in his name And this they did against their consciences by their owne profession we cannot deny it as if they had said if wee could we would but it was too manifest it was the truth So when Masters keep their servants from the meanes of knowledge they are thus guilty Thirdly when wee would make others sinne against their consciences The Pharises when the blind man would not say as they said they cast him out they would have had him say that Christ was a sinner when through the small light he had hee judged it evident enough that a sinner should not doe such a miracle as was never done since the world began And so Iezabel made the Judges and witnesses sinne against conscience in accusing Naboth and so some of the Gentiles that would hold correspondencie with the Jewes would have constrained the Galathians to be circumcised Gal. 6. 12. Those that knew that circumcision was to be abolisht yet they would perswade them to it by a clubb argument drawn from avoiding persecution not from evidence of the Truth or by reasons that might convince them and their consciences therfore he sayes they constrained thē The perswaders might indeed glory as having their cause and side strengthened but they wanne little credit to their cause by it for as the perswaders arguments were suited to flesh so the others yeelding was out of flesh and so they glory in your flesh and weaknesse sayes he as the Papists urged Cranmer not by arguments but threats and promises to recant this is the greatest cruelty in the world to have a man murder himselfe stab his conscience To offend a weak conscience is a sinne if but passively when thou dost something before his face which his conscience is against but if thou makest him wound his own conscience and to doe an act himselfe which his owne conscience is against it is much worse as if thou beest a Master and hast a servant who pleadeth conscience that hee cannot lye for thy advantage in thy shop or who will not doe unlawfull businesses on the Sabbath day and pleads conscience wilt thou smite him and whip him God will smite thee thou whited wall How darest thou smite him and so cause him to doe that for which God will whip him worser Shew mercy to those under you enforme their consciences wring them not you may hap to break the wards if you doe Now for sinnes committed collaterally or per modum circumstantia that I may so expresse it against knowledge they are done either when particular acts of sinne are committed and duties omitted against light and knowledge and so the Saints may and doe often sinne against knowledge Or Secondly in regard of a knowne estate of sinne and impenitencie persisted in when men continue and goe on in such a state against conviction of conscience that such is their estates For the first because particular acts of sin committed against knowledge are infinite and there will be no end of instancing in particulars therefore I will not insist Onely in briefe this distinction concerning such acts may be observed and the observation of it may be usefull That some acts of sinnes against knowledge are meerely transient that is are done and ended at once And though the guilt of them is eternall yet the extent of the act is finished with the committing it and reacheth no further as a vaine oath breach of the Sabbath c. which acts cannot be repealed though they may be repented of But others there are which though the act may be but once outwardly and professedly done yet have an habituall and continued permanency life subsistence given it such as that untill a man doth recall them hee may be said continually to renew those acts and every day to be guilty of them and to maintaine it and so habitually to cōmit them As it is with Laws which though made but once are
pleaded for thee but if against Mercy it selfe who shall Well if thou goest on thus to doe so still thou hast a hard heart it argues the greatest hardnesse of all other that is the second You use not however it comes to passe to deale thus with the worst of men sinner like to your selves but to them that love you you tender love againe Luke 6. 33. and will you deale so with God Is it a small thing to weary men but you must weary God also sayes Esay 7. 13. Hee thought it infinitely lesse to abuse men than God but you carry your selves as men to men but as devills towards God herein ye have not the hearts of men in you not principles of common humanity whereby ye differ from beasts The cords of love are called the cords of a man Hos 11. 6. the spirit of man breakes melts under kindnesse beasts indeed yee use to prick with goades but the cords of a man are the cords of love no principle being more deepely engraven in mens hearts than this to doe good to those who doe good to you Mat. 5. 46. Nay would ye had herein yet the hearts of beasts The Oxe knowes his owner the Asse his masters cribb but my people have rebelled against mee A sinne so much against nature that he calls upon those creatures who have no more than meere nature in them viz. the heavens to stand astonisht at it But as nature elevated by grace riseth higher than it self so being poysoned with sinne it is cast below it selfe sins against it self and the principles which are begotten in and with it selfe if it were not so how were it possible thou shouldst hate him who never did thee hurt and goe on to wound him who weepeth overthee and despise that in him most which seekes to save thee and load him with sins Amos 2. 13. who loades thee daily with his mercies Psal 68. 19. There is a third consideration the text suggests to shew the fearfulnesse of thy sin in this respect and that is that thou goest on every minute sinning and in impenitency by despising his goodnesse to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath to sin against mercy of all other encreaseth wrath thou must pay treasures for treasures spent As thou lavishly spendest riches of mercy so God will recover riches of glory out of thee God will not lose by thee but will reckon with thee in wrath for every offer of patience spent for every sand of long suffering that runs out hee drops in a drop of wrath into his Vialls and it will prove a treasure such a treasure as shall bring in an eternall revenue of glory unto God of all his glory lost and riches spent with advantage such a treasure as will aske an eternity of time to be spent upon thee and yet be never emptied or made lesse and the longer thou goest on the greater heap it will swell unto And dost thou know and consider how fast this treasure fills and how much the longer thou goest on to adde to it still the more thou addest still the last yeere more than all the yeeres before every minutes impenitency adding to this heape and summe as new figures added in a summe use to doe the first is but one the second makes it ten the third an hundred the fourth a thousand and what a summe will this grow to Ay but thou wilt say Tush I am in prosperity in health wealth and ease and to day shall be as to morrow and much more abundant Esay 56. 12. Well but fourthly consider out of the text that there will come a day at last the morrow whereof will be a day of wrath It is treasuring up now but is not brought forth till the day of wrath till which day thou mayest goe on and prosper as Iob giving us the reason why wicked men prosper here sayes Chap. 21. They are reserved to the day of wraths in the plurall because treasures are laid up against then thou art yet spared because thy sins are not yet full and that Treasure is not full as the sins of the Amorites were not and all this thy present prosperity fits thee but for hell So Rom. 9. 22. they are said to be vessells fitted for destruction by long suffering And so Nahum tells us they are but as stubble laid out in the Sunne a drying till it be fully dry Nahum 1. 10. that it may burne the better and like grapes that are let to hang in the Sunshine till they be ripe Revel 15. 16. and so thou for the winepresse of Gods wrath But thy senselesse heart may hap to say I see no such thing and these are but threats I thinke so therefore it is said in the Text that it is a Treasure which as Treasures use to be is hid till that day comes then revealed as the words have it For though thou seest not this day a comming yet God who sits in heaven sees thy day a comming as David sayes Psal 37. 13. who is therefore said to see it because himselfe sees it not and it is a comming faster than thou art aware of it 2 Pet. 2. 3. Damnation slumbereth not though thou dreamest not of it lingreth not as an hue and cry it is sent out and is on its course and will in the end overtake thee and that when thou least thinkest of it as a theefe in the night when thou art asleepe yet dreamest not of it 2 Thes 5. when thou art least prepared for it as in the old world when they were eating and drinking as God watcheth when his child is at the best and ripest and then takes him so he will watch thee to take thee for thy neglect at thy worst and give thee haply no time to prepare they goe downe to hell in a moment Psal 73 9. FINIS IMPRIMATUR THO WEEKES R. P. Ep o Lond. Cap. Domest Gen. 2. Heb. 1. 2. Rom. 1. 2 Sam. 14. 14. Isa 40. Rom. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doct. To sin against knowledge is the highest aggravation of sinning Demonstratiōs of the point by comparing it vvith other kinds of sinning How much sinnes against knowledge doe transcend sins of ignorance In sins of ignorance there may be a supposition if he had known it he would not have done it but not so in these The vast difference between them appears in the repentance God accepts for each A generall repentance for the one not so for the other Some kinds of sinning against knowledge exclude frō mercy which done ignorantly leave a capacity of it Sinning against knowledge is the highest to sinning against the holy Ghost Secondly Reasons which are 6. 1. Because knowledge is the greatest 〈◊〉 2. Reason Knowledge is the immediate guide of men in all their wayes A man sins against his Guide That knowledge is so proved in that an erroneous conscience bindeth Knowledg layeth a further obligation as obedience
the highest degree of murder and an aggravation of it so self-condemning must needs be reckoned God tooke it as a great advantage over him that hid his talent that out of thine owne mouth I will condemne thee thou wicked servant The doctrine being thus proved First I will explaine what it is to sin against knowledge Secondly I will give the aggravations of it Thirdly I will give rules to measure sinnes of knowledge by and the greatnesse of them in any act Lastly the use of all For the first what it is to sinne against knowledge First to explaine it I premise these distinctions The first distinction That it is one thing to sinne with knowledge another thing against knowledge There are many sinnes doe passe from a man with his knowledge which yet are not against knowledge This is to be observed for the removall of a scruple which may arise in some that are godly who else may be wounded with this doctrine through a mistake A regenerate man is and must needs be supposed guilty of more knowne sinnes than an unregenerate man and yet he commits fewer against knowledge than he First I say hee is guilty of more knowne sinnes For he takes notice of every sinfull disposition that is stirring in him every by-end every contrariety unto holinesse deadnesse to duty reluctancie to spirituall duties and when regenerated beginneth to see and know more evill by himselfe than ever he did before he fees as the Apostle sayes of himselfe Rom. 7. 10. all concupiscence and the holier a man is the more he discernes and knowes his sins So sayes the Apostle Rom. 7. 18. I know that in me dwels no good thing And ver 21. I finde when I would doe good evill is present with me And 23. I see another law All these he sayes he perceived and found daily in himselfe and the more holy that he grew the more he saw them For the purer and clearer the light of Gods Spirit shines in a man the more sinnes he knowes he will see lusts steaming up flying in his heart like moates in the sun or sparkes out of a furnace which else he had not seene the clearer the sun-beame is which is let into the heart the more thou wilt see them But yet in the second place I adde that neverthelesse he sinnes lesse against knowledge For then wee are properly said to sinne against knowledge when wee doe take the fulfilling of a lust or the performance of an outward action a dutie or the like into deliberation and consideration and consider motives against the sinne or to the dutie and yet commit that sinne yeeld to it and nourish that lust and omit that dutie Here now we sinne not onely with knowledge but against knowledge because knowledge stept in and opposed us in it comes to interrupt and prevent us but now in those failings in dutie and stirring of lusts in the regenerate afore mentioned the case is otherwise they are committed indeed with knowledge but not against it For it is not in the power of knowledge to prevent them for motus primo primi non cadunt sub libertatem but yet though such sinnes will arise againe and againe yet sayes a good heart they must not think to passe uncontrouled and unseene Therefore let not poore soules mistake me as if I moant throughout this discourse of all sins which are knowne to be sinnes but I meane such sinnes as are committed against knowledge that is when knowledge comes and examines a sinne in or before the committing of it brings it to the Law contests against it condemnes it and yet a man approveth it and consenteth to it when a dutie and a sinne are brought before knowledge as Barrabas and Christ afore Pilate and thy knowledge doth againe and againe tell thee such a sinne is a great sinne and ought to be crucified and yet thou cryest let it goe and so for the duty it tels thee again and againe it ought to be submitted unto and yet thou omittest it and committest the sin choosest Barrabas rather than Christ these are sinnes against knowledge now such sins against knowledg break a mans peace and the more consideration before had the more the peace is broken The second distinction is that men sinne against knowledg either directly or collaterally objectively or circumstantially First directly when knowledge it selfe is the thing men abuse or fight against becommeth the object the terminus the butt and mark shot at this is to sin directly against knowledge it selfe The second way collaterally is when knowledge is but a circumstance in our sinnes so as the pleasure of some sinne we know to be a sin is the thing aimed at that our knowledge steps but in between to hinder us in it and we commit it notwithstanding though we doe know it here knowledge is indeed sinned against yet but collaterally and as a stander by but as a circumstance onely shot at per accidens concomitanter and by the by as one that steps in to part a fray is smitten for labouring to hinder them in their sin as the Sodomiâ—es quarrelled with Lot they are both found in this Chapter and therefore come fitly within the compasse of this discourse First This collaterall kinde of sinning against knowledge is mentioned in the 21. verse where he saies They knew God yet they glorified him not there knowledge is made but a circumstance of their sinning they sinned against it but collaterally But then that other kind of sinning directly against knowledge is mentioned ver 28. They liked not to retaine God in their knowledge that is they hated this knowledge it selfe so as now they did not onely love sin they knew to be sin but also they loved not the knowledge of it so that because both are thus clearly instanced in wee will speake of both more largely Now sinnes directly against knowledge it selfe are many I will reduce the chiefe heads of them into two branches First in regard of our selves Secondly in regard of others First in regard of our selves five wayes we may thus sin against knowledge it selfe First when we abuse knowledge to helpe us to sinne as first to plot and contrive a sin as Iudas plotted to betray his Master if hee could conveniently so the text sayes Mark 14. 11. hee would doe it wisely and thus those that came to intrap Christ with most cunning questions did sinne and those who plot against the just as Psal 37. 12. So secondly when men use their wisedoms to tell a cunning lye to cover a sin as Plato sayes men of knowledge sunt ad mendacia potentiores sapientiores whereas fooles though they would lye yet often tell truth ere they are aware But also thirdly when they abuse morall knowledge which yet as Aristotle sayes is least apt to be I am sure should least be abused so as to make a shew of
good pretences to cover their sins and dissemble them not onely by finding out some cunning artificiall colour as David did in the matter of Vriah Chance of warre sayes he falls to all alike but when men are so impudently hypocriticall as to make use of religious pretexts as the Devill sometimes doth as Saul who pretends to Samuel I have done the will of the Lord and when Samuel told him of the cattell oh sayes he they are for a sacrifice when God had expresly commanded to kill them all But this shift shifted him out of his Kingdome Samuel pronounceth him a rebell in it Rebellion is sinne against knowledge therefore he knew it Thus also Iezabel coloured over the stoning of Naboth with a solemne fast So Iudas fisheth for money with a charitable pretence This might have beene sold and given to the poore In sins against knowledge usually the mind indevours to find out a colour and that provokes God more than the sinne because we goe about to mock him We see men cannot endure a shift much lesse the All-knowing God not to be mocked and we see it is hard to convince such an one David was faine to be brought to the rack ere he would confesse when he had a shift and men doe seeke such shifts onely in case of sinning against conscience for else there were no need they would be sure to plead ignorance as Abimelech did Secondly when men neglect the getting and obtaining of knowledge which knowledge might keep hinder them frō sinning and might make them expert in duties This is as much as to sin against knowledge although the sins be committed out of ignorance yet that ignorance being through their owne default it comes all to one when it may be said of men as the Apostle doth of the Hebrewes Chap. 5. 12. That for the time they have had to learn they might have beene teachers they had yet need be taught againe the first principles If a man had an Apprentice who through negligence and want of heeding and observing what hee daily sees and heares about his trade might have got for his time much knowledge in his trade whereby he might have saved his master much which hee now hath lost him and rid and perfected much worke hee daily spoiles him such carelesse blockish ignorance it is just for his master to correct him for and to charge on him all that waste and losse because he might have knowne how to have done better And therefore even they who thought ignorance in it selfe no sin wherein they erred yet the neglect of knowledge upon this very ground they thought a great sinne and that it would be so farre from excusing sinnes as that it would aggravate them So here we see these Gentiles shall not onely be reckoned with for the actuall knowledge they had attained to and sinned against but also for what they might have had and have picked out of the creatures For so the Apostle brings in this here in the 20. verse that the power of God being cleerly seen in the creatures they neglecting to spell and reade it so much knowledg as they might have got God will reckon to them and aggravate their sins by Thirdly which is yet much worse when men refuse knowledge that they may sinne the more freely and doe stop the eare lest they should be charmed As when men are loath and afraid and dare not reade such a booke as discovers or might discover that truth to them the submission to which would prejudice them and this to the end that they may plead ignorance of their sinne Thus also those that assent not to truth when it comes in strongly upon them but seek to evade it But 1 Cor. 14. 38. when the Apostle had cleerely discovered the truth in those things controverted so as who ever was spirituall or not fully blind might see and would acknowledge the truth then he shuts up his discourse about them ver 27. If any be ignorant let him be ignorant for it is wilfull it is affected hee speakes it as elsewhere Revel last it is said He that is unjust let him be unjust still that is hee that will be unjust and refuseth to turne let him goe on This is a great sinne for God you see gives such a man over one that is but neglectfull or dull of capacity God will take paines with him to teach him and beare with him as Christ did with his Disciples but if he be wilfully ignorant he lets him die in his ignorance and yet will reckon with him as if all his sinnes had beene committed against knowledge because hee refused to know The fourth is to hate the light and to endevour to extinguish it This is yet much worse when men hate the Word and the Ministers of it the examples of Gods people and the light they carry with them they shining as lights in a crooked generation Phil. 2. 15. and yet they hate these as theeves doe a torch in the night and fly against the light as batts doe and as the Iewes did Iohn 3. 20. This Christ sayes is the great condemning sinne of all others So these Gentiles put Socrates to death for reproving them And thus men sinne also when they labour to extinguish the light in their owne consciences and like not to retaine God in their knowledge verse 28. but would studie the art of forgetfulnesse When men have put the candle out and drawne the curtaines that they may sinne and sleepe in sin more freely and securely Thus those also sin in a higher measure who have had a cleare conviction that they ought to be thus strict and ought to sanctifie the Lords day and pray privately but now have lost this light and think they need not be so strict when men continue not in what they were once assured of as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 3. 14. these sinne against their knowledge and are the worst of such sinners and this estate Aristotle himselfe makes statum maligni the state of a wicked one namely when the sparkes of light are extinguisht or hated For when any mans light is lost and turned into darknesse by sinning then as Christ sayes how great is that darknesse When good lawes are not onely not enacted and embraced but repealed also it is Aristotles similitude to distinguish an incontinent person and a wicked man this is an high kind of sinning So of these Gentiles it is said their foolish heart was darkned they had extinguisht some of that light God gave them As some drink away their wits so some sin away their consciences and thus by degrees they first sinne away the light of the word they had as they in Iude who were religious once and then they quench even that little sparke of nature that is left Also verse 10. corrupting themselves in what they know naturally Fiftly Men sinne against knowledge yet worse when they hold opinion against their knowledge So
that is alone by themselves so Beza and Theophilact understand it which he makes there the first degree of unnaturall uncleannesse which is therefore unnaturall because thou destroyest that which nature gave thee for propagation quod perdis homo est Then 2. the uncleane love of boyes men burning in lust with men ver 27. be it discovered in what dalliance it will though not arising to an act of Sodomie doing that which is unseemely ver 27. which hee therefore sayes is the perverting the use and intent of nature and so is a sin against nature leaving the naturall use of women My brethren I am ashamed to speak of such things as are done in secret These kind of sinnes by the Apostles ranking them are in a further degree of unnaturalnesse than any other because they are made the punishments of other sinnes which yet were against the light of nature also namely not glorifying God when they knew him yet that being a sinne the light of nature was not so clear in comparison of these therefore these are made the punishments of the other as being more against nature So for men to be disobedient to Parents stubborne to them and without naturall affection as the Apostle sayes ver 30 31. this is against nature even the instinct of it So unthankfulnesse and requiting evill for good is against a common principle in mens mindes Doe not the Gentiles doe good to those that do good to them your hearts use to rise against such an one out of common humanity or if you see one cruell and unmercifull which is another reckoned up ver 31. there being usually principles of pitty in all mens natures by nature therefore for one man to prey upon and tyrannize over another as fishes doe over the small ones as Habakkuk complaineth this is against nature which teacheth you to doe as you would be done to So covenant-breakers and lying and forswearing mentioned ver 30. inventers of evill and truce-breakers are sins against nature and natural light lying is against a double light both morall both juris which tels us such a thing ought not to be done and facti whilest we affirm a thing that is not the knowledge of the contrary ariseth up in us against though there were no law forbade it therefore of all sins else the Devills lusts are expressed by two lying which is a sinne in the understanding and malice in the will Iohn 8. 44. Secondly to sin against that light which thou didst suck in when thou wert young to sin against the light of thy education this is an aggravation and a great one There is a Catechisme of a blessed mother Bathsheba which shee taught Solomon when a child put in among the records of sacred Writ Prov. 31. wherein she counsels him betimes not to give his strength to women she foretold him of that sinne and because it is incident to Kings most they having all pleasures at command she tells him particularly it destroyes Kings and so also not to drink wine was another instruction there he was forewarned of this aggravated Solomons fault the more for reade the 2. Chapter of Ecclesiastes and we shall finde there that hee was most guilty in the inordinate love of these two but hee had not beene brought up so his good mother had not thus instructed him And thus also when God would aggravate his owne peoples sin unto them he recalls them to their education in their youth in the wildernesse So Ierem. 2. 2. Goe and cry to them Iremember the kindnesse and towardlinesse of thy youth he puts them in mind of their education by Moses their Tutor and their forwardnesse then And so Hos 12. when he was a child I loved him and then God had their first fruits ver 3. this he brings to aggravate their back-sliding ver 5. Therefore the Apostle urgeth it as a strong argument to Timothie to goe on to persevere in grace and goodnesse That he had knowne the Scriptures from a child and therefore for him to fall would be more hainous The reason is because the light then infused it is the first a virgin light as I may call it which God in much mercy vouchsafed to pre-possesse the minde with before it should be deflowred and defiled with corrupt principles from the world and did put it there to keep the mind chaste and pure and this also then when the minde was most soft and tender and so fitter to receive the deeper impression from it And hence ordinarily the light suckt in then seasons men ever after whether it be for good or for evill it fore-stalls and pre-judgeth a man against other principles and though a man comes to have more acquired knowledge and reasons after put into him when he is come to perfect age yet the small light of his education if it were to the contrary doth bias him and keeps him fixt and bent that way So we see it is in opinions about Religion the light then entertained can never be disputed out so in mens wayes and actions Traine up a child in his way and he will not depart from it Prov. 22. 6. To sin therefore against it and to put out the beames of it or defile it and to weare out the impressions of it how wicked is it and what a wretch art thou to do so Many of you young schollers have had a good Bathsheba that instructed you not to poure out your strength to drinke or women but to pray privately and to feare God and love him and when you come hither you have good Tutors also who teach you to pray Ministers who instill blessed truths into you from which one would think you should never depart yet you doe Think how grievous this is for if it is made an excuse for many a man in sinning that it answers but his education that he never knew or saw better as you say of many Papists then must it needs on the contrary be an aggravation of sinfulnesse And as it was Timothies commendation that hee knew the Scriptures from a child so it will be thy condemnation that thou knewest better from a child and yet rebellest against thy light Thirdly the more reall and experimentall the light is men sinne against still the more sinne as when they have learnt it from examples of godly men whom they have lived amongst or the observations of Gods dealings with themselves or others and not onely from the word notionally To sinne against such light this addes a further degree not onely to sinne against the bare light of nature but also further when nature hath besides lighted her torch at the Scripture and then when beyond all this the reall examples and observations made of Gods dealings with a mans selfe and others shall confirme all this this makes a mans sinfulnesse much more grievous for as exempla efficacius docent quà m praecepta so the knowledge got by experiments of mercies or judgements is of
run through to have it set apart for ease and to be void of torment if the rich man in hell made it such a great suit and counted it so great a favour to have but one drop of water which could but for a little while scarce more than a moment have cooled and eased not his whole body but the tip of his tongue only how much more would he have thought it mercy to have lived so many yeares againe as he had done free from torment what is it then for thee to live so many yeares free from the falling of the least drop of that wrath whereof the full vialls should have been poured out many yeares agoe The same Law was out against us which was out against the Angels That day thou eatest thou shalt dye the death what put the difference the Apostle tells us his long suffering to us ward not to them for in Chap. 2. 4. he had told us that hee spared not the Angels which fell but posted and threw them into hell as soone as they had sinned Sixtly But further in the 6. place Is this all hath it beene barely a time of ease given thee a time of reprivall No it hath beene more space to repent and so to obtaine thy pardon in Rev. 2. 21. And as it hath beene more than ease of torment unto thee so also consider it hath beene more than slacknesse in him that hath afforded it to thee as the Apostle there doth tell us It is not that he hath tooke no notice of thy offending him but he is sensible of every idle thought of every oath vaine word and as the Scripture tels us he is pained at the very heart in so much as he repents that ever he made thee he is angry with thee every day thou risest every time hee lookes on thee when ever he meets thee going into the Taverne to be drunk the whorehouse to be uncleane when he meets thee reeling in the streets he hath much adoe to forbeare killing thee as he had to forbeare Moses when he met him in the Inne He is ready to have a blow at thee and it should not need be any great stroake or fetching his arme about if he did but blow on thee thou wert consumed To suffer thee to live doth therefore cost him much riches of patience but to cut thee off need cost him nothing hee can doe that with ease But further all is joyned with a willingnesse that thou shouldst repent and not perish as that place tells thee It were much mercy for a Traytor to be reprived to have a lease of his life for twenty yeeres though there were no hope nor meanes of obtaining his finall pardon after that time spent and this also though moneth a yeere what others who have laine gasping would have given a world for time againe as I have heard one crying day and night call time againe or if not then oh what in Hell The third thing I am to shew is that all this goodnesse patience and forbearance is afforded towards you as a meanes and helpes to bring you to repentance Acts 17. 26 27 28. God sayes the Apostle there hath allotted to men both their times to live in and also their places of abode and habitations all richly furnished with blessings to uphold their lives beings And to what end are both these thus afforded That they might seek the Lord if by groping after him even as men in the darke they might haply finde him But men being in the darke and destitute of guides to bring thē unto God may yet be as far of finding him as ever Therefore adde but the words of my text to what the Apostle sayes there and we see that this goodnesse of God takes us by the hand and leads us to repentance to turne from sinne unto God and so to finde him And thus lead are you unto God by the help of three severall guides which each after other sweetly leade you and point you out to this First all this goodnesse beares witnesse to your hearts of a gracious hand that extends it self in all these therefore in that 17. of the Acts he subjoynes God is not far off any of us That there is a good God bestowes all things on you is a thought lyes at next doore of all his blessings not far off Yea they all sayes the Apostle to the same Gentiles Acts 14. 16. doe beare witnesse of him though they went on in their owne wayes yet sayes he there God left not himselfe without witnesse that is an impression on their hearts that his good hand bestowed all on them when he filled their hearts with foode and gladnesse Secondly His goodnesse having brought thus God to mens thoughts then your owne consciences take you and leade you downe into your selves and beare witnesse that you by walking in your owne wayes doe nothing but provoke and offend this good God So Rom. 2. 15. And then thirdly there is an indelible principle common to all men to love those who love them which after the two former have brought you hitherto point you to Repentance as the conclusion Shall we goe on to sinne against this good so good returne evill for good Is not this a naturall necessary consequent out of all these to say as they Let us therefore feare the Lord who giveth us the early and the latter raine as it is Ier. 5. 26 27 And though men are said not to know this in the text yet the meaning is they doe not throughly and effectually consider thus much so as thereby to be brought to Repentance yet however there is such a witnesse of all this in all mens hearts and thus are they led on unto Repentance would they see their way and follow their guide The use shall be an use of expostulation as here the Apostle carryes it with men sinfull and impenitent for going on to sinne against all this mercy together with an aggravation of their sinfulnesse hereby Men if young doe usually take the advantage of this their precious time which out of so much long suffering is vouchsafed them and of all those precious opportunities and blessings they enjoy to improve them onely in reaping and gathering in to themselves the pleasures of sinne making the time of youth their harvest of sinning and yet thinke to escape by repenting afterwards and then when old after they have already enjoyed a long and a faire Sunshine day to turne to God in and to have sowne much seed to the Spirit the comfort whereof they might now have reaped yet as they have altogether neglected so to doe all their youth so they goe on to doe so still whilst they see they have any day left be it never so neare the setting and doe choose rather desperately to venture their estate in the world to come upon the riches of his mercy pardoning though without all care and endeavour to change their
these armies of blessings thou findest the world filled with to fight against their Maker under the devills banner whom thy wickednesse sets up as the god of this world And as the yeere is crowned with goodnesse so thy yeeres with wickednesse and no moment is barren but all thy imaginations are evill continually Yea thou hast sinned against heaven and earth and subjected the whole creation unto vanity laden the earth and filled it so with wickednesse that it groanes the axeltree of it is even ready to crack under thee and the ground thou treadest on to spue thee out Fiftly since thou camest into the world what a long time hath God suffered thee to live in it hee hath not spared thee three yeares onely as he did the figtree but thirty forty And when thou first madest bold to thrust forth thy trayterous head into the world Death which thy sin brought into the world with it might have arrested but for one treason and though all that time of his reprivall he carryes and behaves himselfe never so obediently But unto thee this time hath beene more than a longer day of life and putting off the execution which for the guilt of that first rebellion should have been acted on thee in the womb it hath beene time to repent in And yet hath not this time of thy reprivall made thee so much the more rebellious and hast not thou spent all this time in making up the measure of thine iniquity full and hath it beene will ingnesse onely in God that thou shouldest not perish yea more joyned with waiting also when it should once be thinking the time long as longing and desiring that thou wouldst repent that he might pardon thee Thus Ierem. 13. last God expresseth himselfe when shall it once be yea and consider how many dayes of payment have been set and how many promises made and broken all by thee and yet still hee walteth unto wonderment Thou receiuedst presse money at thy Baptisme when thou didst promise to forsake the devill and all his workes and to begin to serve him when thou shouldst begin to discerne betweene good and evill But no sooner did the light of knowledge dawne in thy heart but thou beganst to fight against him and thy first thoughts to this day have beene onely and continually evill And then haply in thy younger yeares before thou hadst tasted of the pleasures of sinne he gave thee an inkling by meanes of thy education of his goodnesse towards thee and of that happinesse to be liad in him and thou hadst the first offer of him ere thy tender yeares were poysoned by the world and he hath dealt with thee againe and againe both by his Word and Spirit not waited onely but wooed thee and hath beene a suiter to thy heart long and I appeale to your hearts how many promises you have made him of turning from all your rebellions to him after such a Sermon which was brought powerfully home in such a sicknesse and in such a strait thy conscience knowes full well And still God hath made tryall of thee and given thee longer day and though thou hast broke with him againe and againe yet he hath forborne thee againe and againe and hath waited this twenty thirty forty fifty sixty years when thou shouldest come in and be as good as thy word and still thou hast failed him And yet behold and wonder and stand confounded at the riches of his long suffering that after so many yeares expence and promises broken by thee expectations failed in him and many mockeries of him after all this he is yet willing to accept of the remainder if thou wouldst spend the rest of the time left thee in the flesh according to his will as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 4. 3. even to lose principall use and all for what is past and requires but the same composition was propounded the first day yea and not onely so but with promise to become a debtor unto thee to bestow further riches on thee than ever yet thou sawest or art able to conceive yea and all this when he could have his penyworths out of thee another way and lose not one farthing by thee but by punishing thee in hell recover all to the utmost Neither seventhly hath it beene barely and simply an act of patience and forbearance though joyned with this willingnesse thou shouldst not perish or meerely a permissive act of suffering thee to live But God shewes forth yet more riches of goodnesse joyned with this long suffering in him ye live and move and have your being and dost thou live in him onely nay thou livest on him also upon his cost and charges I have hung upon thee sayes David from my mothers wombe And consider what thy life is that of so small a bottome he should spin out so long a thred had hee not drawne it out of his owne power as the spider doth her web out of her owne bowels it had beene at an end the second minute to maintaine that radicall moisture that oyle that feeds the lampe and light of thy life that radicale balsamum this is as great a miracle as the maintaining the oyle in the cruze of the poore famished widow And further yet hath he maintained thee onely Nay more hath he not defended thee tooke thy part protected thee tooke thee under his wing as the hen doth her chickens to shelter thee from those many dangers thy life hath been exposed unto Otherwise how many wayes ere this hadst thou been snatcht away out of the land of the living Is thy case the case of the figtree onely which before we mentioned that when God cryed Cut it downe another cryed spare it but there have beene many have cryed Cut thee downe and God hath cryed spare Thee there is never a minute but the devills would have had a blow at thy life as he longed to have had at Iohs That thou a poore lump of flesh shouldst walke through and in the midst of such an host of fierce and cruell enemies whose hearts are swelled with malice at thee and God should say to them all concerning thee as he did to Laban concerning Iacob Touch not this man And yet if thou wert not liable to their malice and power yet consider how many dangers and casualties besides thou hast beene kept in and from as falls drowning killing many wayes how often have the arrows of death come whisking by thee took away those next thee haply of thy kindred brother sister yoke-fellow of the same house family with thy selfe and yet have missed thee And if we look no farther than these dayes of mortality we have lived in two great plagues in this Kingdome how have the most of us all here survived and now the third is increasing and growing upon us To have our lives in such deare yeares of time when to have our life for a prey is mercy enough as Ieremy told Baruch that these arrows should