People Crassum reddito cor populi hujus Make the heart of this people fatt and their eares Heavy lest they see with their Eyes and heare with their Eares and be converted Now to make their heart fatt and their eares heavy and to shut up their eyes is more then a bare permission is in a manner to destine and appoint them to Death most true if it can be proved out of this place that God did either But it is one thing to Prophesy a Thing shall be done and another to doe it Hector in Homer foretells Achilles Death and Herod the fall of Mezentius in Virgil and our Saviour the Destruction of Hierusalem but neither was Hectors Prophesy the cause of Achilles Death nor Herods of Mezentius nor our Saviour of the Destruction of Hierusalem vade dic Goe and tell them makes it a plame prediction what manner of men they would be to whom Christ was to speake stubborn and refractory and such as would harden their faces against the Truth If you will not take this Interpretation our Saviour is an Interpreter one of a Thousand nay one for all the world and tells the multitude that in them was fulfilled the Prophesy of Esay which saith By hearing you shall heare and not understand Matth. 13.14 for this Peoples heart is waxen fat and their eyes have they closed that they might not see And here if their eyes were shut it were fit one would Think they should be open'd True saith Chrysostome if they had been borne blinde or if this had been the immediate Act of God but because they wilfully shut their eyes he doth not say simply they do not see but seeing they do not see to shew what was the cause of their blindnesse even a perverse and froward heart they saw his Miracles they said he did them by Beelzebub He tells them that he is come to shew them the will of God they are peremptory and resolute that he is not of God and bring corrupt Judges against their own sight and understanding they were justly punisht with the losse of both For it is just that he should be blind that puts out his own eyes Yet was not this incrassation or blinding through any malevolent influence from God but this action is therefore attributed to God because whatsoever light he had afforded them whatsoever means he had offered them whatsoever he did for them was through their own fault and stubbornness of no more use to them then colours to a blinde man or as the Wise-man speaks a messe of Pottage on a Dead-mans Grave We might here Sylvam ingentem commovere meet with many other places of Scripture like to this but we will touch but one more and it is that which is so common in mens mouthes and at the first hearing conveighs to our understanding a shew and appearance of some positive act in God which is more then a bare permission For God tells Moses in plain termes Indurabo cor Pharaonis I will harden Pharaohs heart Exod. 7.3 And here I will not say with Garson aliud est litera aliud est literalis sensus that the letter is one thing and the litteral sense another Hil de Trin. l. 8. but rather with Hilary Optimus est lector qui dictorum in telligentiam ex dictis potius expectet quam imponat retulerit magis quam attulerit he is the best reader of Scripture who doth rather wait and expect what sense the words will beare then on the sudden rashly fasten what sense he please and carry away the meaning not bring one nor cry this must be the sense of the Scripture which his presumption formerly had set down Sure I am none of the Fathers which I have seen make this induration and hardning of Pharaohs heart a positive act of God not Saint Augustine himself who was more likely to look this way then any of the rest although he interprets this place of Scripture in divers places Augustin Feriâ 4 post 3. Dominic in Quadrages Pharaoh non potentiae sed patientiâ Dei indurabatur id Ser. 88. I will but mention one and it is in one of his Lent Sermons Quoties auditur cor Pharaonis Dominum obdurasse c. As often as it is read in the Church that God did harden Pharaohs heart some scruple presently ariseth not onely in the mindes of the ignorant Laity but of the Learned Clergy and for these very words the Manichees most Sacrilegiously condemned the old Testament and Marcion rather then he would yeeld that good and evil proceeded from the same God did run upon a grosser impiety and made another two principles one of good and another of evil But we may lay this saith he as a sure ground and an infallible Axiome Deus non deserit nisi prius deserentem God never forsakes any man till he first forsake God When we continue in sin when the multitude of our sins beget despair and despair obduration when we adde sin to sin and to make up the weight that sinks us when we are the worse for Gods mercy and the worse for his Judgements when his mercy hardens us and his light blindes us God then may be said to harden our hearts as a Father by way of upbrayding may tell his prodigal and Thristlesse son ego talem te feci t is my love and goodnesse hath occasioned this I have made thee so by sparing thee when I might have struck thee Dead I have nourished this thy pertinacy although all the Fathers love and indulgency was grounded upon a just hope and expectation of some change and alteration in his son Look upon every circumstance in the story of Pharaoh and we cannot finde one which was not as a Hammer to malleat and soften his stony heart nor do we read of any upon whom God did bestow so much paines His ten plagues were as ten Commandements to let the people go and had he relented at the first saith Chrysostom he had never felt a second so that it will plainly appear that the induration and hardning Pharaohs heart was not the cause but the effect of his malice and rebellion Magnam mansuetudinem contemptae gratiae major sequi solet ira vindictae for the contempt of Gods mercy and there is mercy even in his Judgements doth alwayes make way for that induration which calls down the wrath of God to revenge it We do not read that God decreed to harden Pharaohs heart but when Pharaoh was unwilling to bow when he was deaf to Gods Thunder and despised his Judgements and scorn'd his Miracles God determined to leave him to himself to set him up as an ensample of his wrath to work his Glory out of him to leave him to himself and his own lusts which he foresaw would lead him to ruine and destruction But if we will tie our selves to the letter we may finde these several expressions in several Texts 1. Pharaoh hardned his heart 2.
Pharaohs heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaohs heart and now let us Judge whether it be safer to interpret Gods induration by Pharaohs or Pharaohs by Gods for if God did actually and immediately harden Pharaohs heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him but if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as 't is plain enough he did then Gods Induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily takes he would not and therefore could not hinder sufficit unus Huic operi one is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God for to keep to the letter in the former hakes a main principle of truth that God is in no degree Author of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleeres all doubts prevents all objections and opens a wide and effectual door to let as in to a cleer sight of the meaning of the former For that man doth harden his owne heart is undeniably true But that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in this hideous monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dresse it up with some far fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand For induration is the proper and natural effect of sin and to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the devil or man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very flie indeed and the soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and nature speak the same thing many times Aristot l. 7. Eth. c. 1. though the phrase be different that wihch the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ferity and brutishnesse of nature that in Scripture is called hardnesse of heart for every man is shaped and formed and configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whither they be good or evil one sin draws on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calls Ferity a shaking of all that is man about us and the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate minde And such a minde had Pharaoh 1 Rom. 2.8 who was more and more enraged by every sin which he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this hardesse of heart and indisposition to all goodnesse and therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that dereliction Incrassation excaecation hardnesse of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindnesse and hardnesse of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of permission and then this expostulation is real and serious Quare moriemini Why will ye die And now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in Hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of Time but onely in Generall stood up in defence of the Goodness and Justice of God for shall not the Judge of all the Earth doe right shall he necessitate men to be evill and then bind them by a Law to be good shall he exhort beseech them to live when they are dead already shall his Absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but 't is an ugly and ill-favoured one for this they fight unto Death even for the Book of life till they have blotted out their names with the Blood of their Brethren This is Drest out unto them as savoury meat set for their palate who had rather be carried up to heaven in Elias fiery Charriot then to pace it thither with Trouble and paine That GOD hath absolutely Decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of Death upon others is as Musick to some eares like Davids Harpe to refresh them and drive away the Evill Spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt mens desires doe easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a Decree they dreame themselves to Heaven for if we observe it they still chuse the better part and place themselves with the sheep at the right Hand and when the Controverly of the Inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongs they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of Ground made them their Judge to determine whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves because they read of Election elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now Oh Death where is thy sting The sting of Death is sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of sinne is the Law but it cannot bind them for sinne it self shall Turne to the good of these Elect and Chosen Vessels and we have some reason to suspect that in the strength of this Doctrine and a groundless conceit that they are these particular men they walk on all the daies of their life in fraud and malice in Hypocrisy and disobedience in all that uncleannes and pollution of sinne which is enough to wipe out any name out of the Book of Life Hoc saxum defendit Manlius Sen. Controv. hic excidit For this they rowse up all their Forces this is their rock their fundamentall Doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may feare many thousands of soules have been Tumbled down into the pit of Destruction at this rock many such Elect Vessells have been cast away Again others miscarry as fatally on the other hand for when we speak of an absolute Decree upon particulars unto the vulgar sort who have not Cor in Corde as Austin speaks who have their Judgement not in their Heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatall necessity and one there is that called it so Fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny they think themselves in chaines and shackles that they cannot Turne when they cannot be predestinate not to Turne but
eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing dead faith or fides armata a faith in armes Tert. de Anima c. 33. and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whil'st we know not when 't will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and awe us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and binde us to our duty that we may fulfill our work and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the vigils and Eve and the houre of his coming the first houre of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil for the good satis est illis credere it is enough for them that they beleeve they walk by faith saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.7 and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the he Lord and in them as in a glasse behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other and this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all unto them to the true beleever Christus venturus Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith sees plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the World at an end in the prediction But to Evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin Jud. Ep. v. 10. no evidence is cleer enough and light it self is darknesse what they naturally know and what they can preach unto themselves in that thy corrupt themselves and give their senses leave to lead them to all uncleannesse whilst reason which should command is put behinde and never hearkned to are as bruit Beasts in spite of all they have of man within them and if they beleeve his coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same after the rivers turned into blood after frogs and lice after the plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Exod. 10.27 Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant till he was drowned in the Red-sea Balaam though the Asse forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse vpon them and death upon himself for he was slain for it with the sword Exod. 31.8 what evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knows well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come and he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breath vengeance in his face for howsoever we pretend ignorance yet the most of the sins which we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the foolish man that the lips of the Harlot will bit like a Cockatrice he knows it well enough and yet will kisse them tell the intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived the cruel oppressor will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eats bread who knows not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice who knows not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death and yet how many seek it out and are willing to to travail with it though they die in the birth cannot the thought of judgement move us and will the knowledge of a certain houre awake us will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and will he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined houre were upon record No 2 Tim. 3.13 they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the devil avoid though they knew the very houre I might say though they now saw him coming in the clouds For wilt not thou beleeve God when he comes as neer thee as in wisdom he can and his pure Essence and Infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou shalt believe him if he would please to come so neere as thy sick Fancy would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dreame of a sick and ill affected mind that complaines of want of Light when it shines in thy face for that Information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more Miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same Lethargiques which we were in a word if his doctrine will not move us the Knowledge which hee will not Teach will have little force and though it were written in Capitall Letters at such a time and such a day and in such an Houre the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this Death in sinne till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam Conclus and so conclude and we may learn even from our Ignorance of the Hour thus much That as his coming is uncertaine so it will be sudden as we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we doe not think on 't Tert. Apol. c. 33. cum Totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tert. with the shaking of the whole world with the Horror and amazement of the Universe every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did waite for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1. Of Travell coming upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess 5.2,3 Luk. 21.35 2. Of a Thief in the night and 3ly Of a snare Now the Woman talks and is cheerfull now she layeth
been made the savour of death unto death and mercy malevolent At what time soever c. hath scarce with many left any time to repent and therefore it will concern us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. 20. ad Basil Magn. as Nazianzen speaks with Art and prudence to dispence the word of truth or as Saint Paul speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut it out as they did their sacrifices by a certain method to give every one his proper food in due season for some dispositions are so corrupted that they may be poisoned with Antidotes Theod. Therap Theodoret observes that God himself did not fully and plainly teach the Jews the Doctrine of the Trinity lest that wavering and fickle Nation might have took it by the wrong handle and made it an occasion of relaps into that Idolatrous conceit which they had learnt in Egypt of worshipping many gods The Novatians errour who would not accept of penance after Baptisme so much as once though no Physick for a sinner yet might have proved a good Antidote against sin for men had they beleeved it would some at least have been more shy of sin and more wary in ordering their steps and shunned that sin as a Serpent which would excommunicate them and shut them for ever out of the Church And therefore the Orthodox Fathers even there where they oppose that assumed and unwarranted severity of the Novatian deliver the Doctrine of Repentance with great caution and circumspection and a seeming reluctancy invite loquor Ter. de penitent Bas t m 1. Hem. 14. saith Tertul. I am made unwilling to publish this free mercy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Basil I speak the truth in fear for my desire is that after Baptisme you should sin no more and my fear is you will sin more and more upon presumption of Repentance and mercy He would and he would not publish the free mercy of God in Christ he was bound to preach Repentance and yet he feared What means that profuse yet sparing tender of Gods mercy these large Panegyricks and as great jealousies why did they so much extol Repentance and yet male ominari presage such an evil consequence out of that which they had presented to all the world in so desirable a shape But now the Father was so taken so delighted with the contemplation of it discovered so much power in it that he thought the Devils themselves in the interim and time between their fall and the Creation of man might have reprented and been Angels of light still and now drawing in his hand and putting it forth with fear and trembling before holding out Repentance as a board or planck to every ship-wrackt soul but now fearing lest Repentance it self should become a rock one would think the holy Father himself were turned Novatian and to speak truth that which the Novatians pretence to denie Repentance after Baptisme exprest these expressions from him and was the true cause which was made him publish it with so much fear ne nobis subsidia paenitentiae blandiantur that men might not be betrayed by the flattery and pleasing appearance of that which should advantage them and level their thoughts on that benefit which it might bring to them and boldly claim it as their own though they are willing to forget and leave unregarded that part of it which should make way to let it in and hearing of so precious an Antidote presume it will have the same virtue and operation at any time and so after many delayes make no use of it at all That the Doctrine of Repentance might not maks us stand in more need of Repentance in a word that that which is a remedy might not by our ill handling and applying it be turned into a disease Look into the world and you will see there is great need of so much fear and such a caution and that more fall by presumption then despair non am morbis quam remedio laboramus by our own folly and the Devils craft our disease doth not hurt us so much as our remedy and Repentance which was ordain'd as the best Physick to purge the soul is turned into that poyson that corrupts and kills it What wandring thought what Idle word what prophane action is there which is not laid upon this fair foundation The hope of pardon which yet will not bear up such hay and stubble we call sin a disease and so it is a mortal one but presumption is the greatest the very corruption of the blood and spirits of the best parts of the soul we are sick of sin t is true but that we feel not but we are sick very sick of mercy sick of the Gospel sick of Repentance sick of Christ himself and of this we make our boast and our bold relyance on this doth so infatuate us that we take little care to purge out the plague of our heart which we nourish and look upon as upon health it self we are sick of the Gospel for we receive it and take it down and it doth not purge out but enrage those evil humours which discompose the soul we receive it as Judas did the sop we receive it and with it a divel For this bold and groundlesse presumption of pardon makes us like unto him hardens our heart first and then our face and carries us with the swelling sailes of impudence and remorslesnes to an extremity of daring to that height of impiety from which we cannot so easily descend but must fall and break and bruise our salves to pieces praesumptio inverecundiae portio saith Tert. prsumption is a part and portion and the upholder of immodesty and falls and cares not whither ruins us and we know not how abuses and dishonours that mercy which it makes a wing to shadow it and hath been the best purveior for sin and the kingdom of darknesse We read but of one Judas in the Gospel that despaired and hanged himself and so went to his place but how many thousands have gone a contrary way with lesse anguish and reluctancy with fair but false hopes with strong but fained assurances and met him there Oh 't is one of the divels subt lest stratagems to make sin and hope of heaven to dwell under the same roof to teach him who is his vassal to walk delicately in his evil wayes and to rejoyce alwaies in the Lord even then when he fights against him to assure himself of life in the chambers of death And thus every man is sure the Schismatick is sure and the Libertine is sure the Adulterer is sure and the Murderer is sure the Traitor is sure they are sure who have no savour no relish of Salvation The Schismatick hath made his peace though he have no charity The Libertine looks for his reward though he do not onely denie good works but contemn them The Adulterer absolves himself without Penance The Murderer knows David is entred Heaven and hopes
Celantiam Isai 5.7 as he in Plautus speaks whilst the winde sits right to fill them and as it is in civil actions so is it in our turn in our repentance if we observe not the winde if we turn not with the wind with the first opportunity we set out too late when another will come towards us is most uncertain the next winde cannot be so kinde and favourable We confesse Nullus cunctationis locus est in eo consilio qued non potest laudari nisi peractum Otho apud Tac. l. 11. Hist advise and consultation in other things is very necessary but full of danger in that action where all the danger is not to do it Before we enter upon action to sit down and cast with my self what may follow at the very heels of it to look upon it to handle and weigh it to see whethere life or death will be the issue of it is the greatest part of our spiritual wisdom but after sin to demur when we are running on in our evil wayes to consult what time will be best to turn in what opportunity we shall take to repent betrayes our ignorance that when time is we know it not or our sloth that though we see the very nunc the very time of turning though opportunity even bespeaks us to turn yet we carelesly let it fly from us even out of our reach and will not lay hold on it Thus saith Solomon the desire of the slothful slayeth him he desires Prov. 21.25 but doth nothing to accomplish his desire and so he desires to be rich and dies poor he thinks his ambition will make him great his covetousnesse rich his hope happy that all things will fall into his lap sedendo votis by sitting still and wishing for them and this keeps his hands within his bosom not so much his sloth as his desire kills him Turn ye turn ye the very sound of it might put us in fear that now were too late that the present time were not soon enough but the present is too soon with us we will turne we will finde a convenient time all our turning is in desire desire delayes our turn and delay multiplies it self to our destruction We will then enforce this duty 1. From the advantage and benefit we may reap from our strict observing of opportunity 2. from the danger of delay And first opportunitas à portu saith Festus Opportunity hath its denomination from the word which signifies a haven I may say Festus verbo Opportune dicituâ— ab eâ— quod navigantibus maximè uâ—iles optatique sint portus opportunity is a Haven we see they who are tossed up and down on the deep make all means stretch their endeavours to the farthest to thrust their torne and weather-beat vessel into the Haven where they would be quam optati portus how welcom is the very sight of it littus Naufragis the shore for ship-wrackt persons what can they wish for more Behold saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation here is a Haven and the Tide is now Now put in your broken vessel now thrust in into the Haven opportunity is a prosperous gale delay is a contrary winde and will drive you back again upon the rocks and dash you to pieces And indeed a strange thing it is that in all other things opportunity should be a Haven but in this which concerns us more then any thing a Rock The twilight for the Adulterer Isaacs funeral for Esaus murder Felix his convenient time for a bribe and to opportunity they fly tanquam ad portum as to a Haven the Adulterer waits for it Esau wisht for it Faelix sought for it what should I say Opportunity works Miracles fills the hands with good things Raiseth the poor out of the Dung defeateth Counsells conquers Kingdoms is the best Physitian and doth more then Art can doe and without it Art can do nothing is the best Politician and without it Wisedome can doe nothing is the best Souldier for without it Power can doe nothing It is all in all in every thing but in our Spirituall Politie and Warrefare it hath not strength enough to Turn us about it is not able to bow our knee or move our Tongue much lesse to rend a heart but such is our extremity of folly such is the hardness of our hearts Ipsa opportunitas fit impietatis patrocinium one opportunity raises in us a hope of another makes us waste our time in the waies of Evill which should be spent in our Returne extends our hopes from day to day from year to year from one houre to another even till our last minute till Time flies from us and opportunity with it till our last sand and when that is run out there is no more Time for us and so no more opportunity The voice of Opportunity is To day now if you will heare his voice harden not your Hearts this is his voice Now 't is true but there may be more nows then this and it is but There may be to morrow may yeeld an opportunity Thus we corrupt her language In my youth 't is true but I may recover it in my riper Age my feeble Age will have strength enough to Turne me or I may Turne in my bed when I am not able to Turn my self Now there be more Nows then Now what need such haste my last prayer my last Breath my last gasp may be a Turne Now this our way uttereth our Foolishnesse for what greater folly can there be then when Grace and Mercy when Heaven is offered now to refuse it Plutar. in vita Pelopidae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let sinne devour the opportunity and to morrow we will Turne is a speech that ill becomes a mortalls mouth whose breath is in his Nostrills for it may be his last His age is but a span long but a hand-breadth pro nihilo as nothing in respect of God the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian Nullificamina others Nihilitudines or Nihilietates which is Nothings and in such a Nothing shall I let slip that opportunity which may make me something even eternal Shall I make so many removes so many delayes within the compasse of a Span whatsoever my span my nothing may be my opportunity is not extended beyond this span is no larger then this nothing And here is the Danger whether this Span be now at an end and measure out I cannot tell My span may be but a fingers breadth my age but a minute That which I fill up with so many Nows so many opportunities Nothing and then if I turn not Now I am turned into Hell where I can never Turne care not then for the morrow let the morrow care for it self There is no Time to Turne from thy Evill wayes but now 2. The Danger of Delay And First It is the greattest folly in the
delighted tradidit repletos non replendos Isid Pelus l. 4. ep 102 saith the father he gave them over not be filled but being filled already with all iniquity he delivered them over to a reprobate minde they retained not God in any part of their time and now that is run out is at an end and that time will be no more they would be evil and now they cannot be good The Jewish Doctors had a proverb that God did but in this his proceeding farinam jam molitam molere but do that which was done already to his hands grinde that corn that was ground already and leave them who would be left to themselves and their own hellish wickednesse which was their ruine For that of Basil is most true Bas Hom. 22. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgement follows mercy at the heels to take revenge upon those who wantonly abuse her strikes them dead who would not live and seals them up to damnation who were condemned already You may now Turn and he will receive you that 's the dialect of mercy but you shall not if you thus put it off from time to time that 's the voice of an angry and despised God Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day see Mercy gave her a day and shined brightly in it by which light she might have seen the things that concerned her peace nunc autem but now now it is past are as the black lines of reprobation drawn out by the hand of Justice It was thy day but now it is shut up and now nox est perpetuo una dormienda thy Sun is set for ever all is night eternal night the light is hid from thine eyes and thou shalt never see it more You will say this was spoken to a People to a Nation 't is true but may it not also be so with every particular person may it not be so with one Pharisee with one viper as well as with a generation was it not so with Judas as well as with Jerusalem I have read that a Body or a Society that a Common-wealth may fall under a censure and be subject unto penalty yet bodies do not offend but in their parts 't is not Rome that commits the fault but Sempronius or Titius who are parts of that Common-wealth Not the Amorites alone Not the sect of the Pharisees not Jerusalem alone but every man may have Diem suam his allotted time in which he may turn from his evil wayes and this day may be a Feast-day or a day of trouble it may beget an eternal day or it may end in the shadow of death and everlasting darknesse Oh that men were wise but so wise as the creatures which have no reason so wise as to know their seasons to discover hanc diem suam this their day wherein they may yet turn that we could but behold that Decretory hour or but place it in our thoughts or make it our fear that such a one there may be in which Mercy shall forsake us and Justice cut off our hopes for ever Certainly we should not make so many Dayes in our year we should not resolve to day for to morrow and to morrow for the next and so drive it forward till the last sand till we can resolve no more For he that thinks so lightly of eternity to think it may be wrought out in a moment and yet will not allow it so much but when he please hath just cause to fear that his day is past already Now though there may be such a day such a moment yet this day this moment like the day of judgement is not known to any and it may seem on purpose to be removed out of our sight that we may be jealous of every moment of our life and when the devil tempts the World flatters the flesh rebells set up this thought against them that this may be our last moment and if we yeeld now we shall be slaves for ever For as the long suffering of God is Salvation the second of Pet. 3.15 so is every day every hour of our life such a day and such an hour which carries along with it eternity Sen. de benef 2.5 either of pain or Blisse That thou mayest therefore turn now think that a time may come when thou shalt not be able to turn tardè velle nolentis est not to be willing to turn to thy God now is to deny him delay is no better then defiance And why shouldest thou hope to be willing hereafter whoart not willing now and art not willing now upon this false deceitful hope that thou shalt be willing hereafter Wilful and present folly is no good presage of after-wisdom and it is more probable that a froward will will be more froward and perverse then that after it hat joyned with the vanities of this world and cleaved fast unto them it should bow and bend it self to that Law which makes it death to touch them He that leaps into the pit upon hope that he shall get out hath leapt into his Grave at least deserves to be covered over with darknesse and to buried there for ever Feare then lest the measure of thy Iniquity be almost full and perswade thy self thy next sin may fill it Think this is thy Day thy houre Thy moment and though peradventure it may not be yet think it may be thy last It is no error though it be an error For if it be not thy last yet in Justice God might make it so for why should Heaven be offer'd more then once and if it be an Error It is an happy Error and will redeeme us from all those Errors which delay brings in and multiplies even those Errors which make us worse then the Beasts that perish A happy error I may say an Angel that layes hold on us and snaches us out of the fire out of the common ruine and hastens us to our God A happy Error which frees us from all other errors of our life And yet though it may be an errour for it is no more Then it may be it is a truth for onely Now is true there may be many more Nows 't is true a now to morrow and a now hereafter and a now on our death-bed but these are but may-bees and these potentiall Truths concern us not for that which may bee may not bee that which concerns us is an Everlasting Truth To day if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts if you harden them to day and stand upon May-bees then they may be stand for ever And therefore if you expect I should point out to a certaine time The time is now Turne ye Turne ye even now now the Prophet speaks now the words sound in your eares Now if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts For why was it spoken but that we should hear it It is an earnest call after us and if we obey not it
them For if the man be Ignorant if he will administer Physick he will kill if the man be ignorant if he will Preach he will also Prophesie lies If he be a Magistrate if he will Govern he will also shake the pillars of the Common-wealth If he be a Christian if he be ignorant then as he will professe so also will he run into the snares of the Devil and this his ignorance is no plea against that Law which he was bound to know Sen. Contr. l. 5. c. 5. as well as to keep it Ex toto noluisse debet qui Imprudentiâ defenditur he that will plead Ignorance or error for an excuse must have his whole will strongly set up against it and then the great difficulty or impossibility of avoiding it may be his Advocate and speak for him but if he make room for it when he might exclude it if he Embrace that which may let it in or make no use of the light that detects it if he will or reject not or be indifferent if he distast the truth for some crosse aspect it hath on his designes and love a lie because it smiles upon them and promotes them then this ignorance is a sin and the last the greatest and therefore cannot make up an excuse for another sin for those sins which it brings in in Triumph but is so much the more Malignant in that we had light but did turn our face away and would not see it or did hate and despise it and blow it out For he that will not know the wayes of life or calls his evil wayes by that name may well be askt the question why he will die Ignorance then is not alwayes an excuse for some are negligent and indifferent will not take the pains to lift themselves up to the truth by those steps and degrees which are set for them and are the way unto it and so walk as in the night which themselves have made because they would not look upon the Sun Others study and affect it and when the truth will not go along with them to the end of their designes perswade themselves into those errours which are more proportioned to it and will friendly wait upon them and be serviceable to fill and answer that expectation which their lust had raised and call them by that name They will not know what they cannot but know nor see death though he stand before them in their way and so are lead on with pomp and state with these false perswasions with these miserable Comforters to their grave The fourth pretence But in the next place when we finde some check of Conscience some regret some gain-sayings in our minde that we are unwilling to go on in these evil wayes and yet take courage and proceed we are ready to please our selves with this thought and are soon of the Opinion that what we are doing or have done already if it be evil yet is done against our will and if destruction overtake us it seises on them that did so much hate and abhor it that we shook and trembled when it did but shew it self to us in a thought And this I take to be an errour as full of danger as it is void of reason of no use at all but to make us favour our selves and ingage and adventure further in those wayes which lead unto death I deny not but as there is great difference in sins so there may be a difference also in committing them that the righteous person doth not drink down sin with that delight and greedinesse which the wicked do that they do not sport themselves in the wayes of death nor fall into them with that easinesse with that precipitancy that they do not count it as a purchase to satisfie their lusts and that most times the event is different for the one falleth down at the feet of God for mercy the other hardens his heart and face and wil not bow but yet I cannot number it amongst the marks and characters of a righteous man or as some love to speak and may so speak if they well understood what they said of one of the elect when he falls into any mortal grievous sin as Adultery Murder and the like that he doth not fall plenâ voluntate with a full consent and will but more faintly and remissly as it were with more Gravity then other men that he did actually fall but was not willing to fal that is that he did wil indeed the sin which he did commit but yet did commit it against his will Nor can I think our consent is not full when we chide and rebuke the tentation and yet suffer it to win ground and gain more and more Advantage against us when we have some grudgings some petty murmurs in our selves and in our heart defame those sins which we shew openly in our Actions for when we have done that which is evil we cannot say we would not have done it when we have made roome for sin to enter we cannot say that we would have excluded it For 1. I cannot see how these two should meet so friendly a double Will nay a contrary will in respect of one and the same Act especially when sin is not in fieri but in facto esse when the temptation hath prevailed and the will determined its act Indeed whilst the Act was suspended and our minde wavering and in doubt where to fasten or which part to embrace whether to take the wedge of Gold or to withdraw whether to smite my brother or to sheath up my sword and anger together whether to taste or not to taste the forbidden Fruit when it was in labour as it were and did strive and struggle between these two the delightfulnesse and unlawfulnesse of the Object between the temptation and the Law whilest the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh there may be such an indifferency a kinde of willing and nilling a profer and distast an approach and a pawse an inclination to the object anda fear to come neer But when the sense hath prevailed with the will to determine for it against the reason when lust hath conceived and brought forth then there is no room for this indifferencie because the will hath determined its act and concluded for the sense against the reason for the Flesh against the spirit For we must not mistake the fluctuations and pawses and contentions of the minde and look upon them as the Acts of the will which hath but one simple and indivisible act which it cannot divide between two contraries so as to look stedfastly on the one and yet reflect also with a look of liking upon the other our Saviour hath fitted us with an instance you cannot serve God and Mammon if we know then what the will is we shall know also that it is impossible to divide it and shall be ashamed of that Apologie to say we sin semiplenâ
her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaffe and now she groanes Now the Mammonist locks his God up in his chest layes him down to sleep and dreams of nothing else and now the Thief breaks in and spoils him Now our feet are at liberty and we walke at large walk on pleasantly as in faire places Now the bitterness of Death is past and now the snare takes us Now we fancy new delights send our Thoughts afarr off dream of Lordships Kingdoms Now we enlarge our Imaginations as Hell Anticipate our Honors and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our Hand Now we are full now we are Rich now we reigne as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in his name and in this type and representation of Hell entitle our selves to eternity of bliss are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he comes Now sudden surprisalls doe commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a Dreame or rather dead But this brings either that Horror or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out we look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our Fancy but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away the Tempest rises Aul. Gell. Nâ—ct Art l. 19. c. 1. the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call bis blood again into his cheeks he cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt for apparitions and Phantasies he doth not change his Counsell but is constant to himself sudden joy and sudden feare with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it brings omnimodam Desolationem an universall Horror and amazement seises upon all the Powers and Faculties of the Soul chaines them up and confines them to loathsome and Terrible Objects from which no change of Objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this Darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation for no coming again after this coming for it is the last And now to conclude veniet Fratres veniet Aug. Ser. 140. de Temp. sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Aust He shall come He shall come my brethren his coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden it will concern us to take heed how he findes us when he comes Oh let him not find us digging of Pitts spreading of netts to catch our Brethren spinning the Spiders web wearying and washing our selves in vanity let him not find us in strange apparell in spotted Garments in Garments stained with blood Let not this Lord find thee in Rebellion against him This Saviour find thee a Destroyer This Christ who should annoint thee find thee bespotted of the world Let not an humble Lord find thee swelling a meek Lord find thee raging a mercifull Lord find thee cruell let not an innocent lord find thee boasting in mischief let not the Son of man Find thee a Beast But to day if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts This is your Day and this day you may work out Eternity this is your hour to look into your selves o be jealous of your selves vereri omnia opera to be afraid of every word work and Thought every enterprise you take in hand for whatsoever you are saying whatsoever you are doing whatsoever you are imagining whilst you Act whilst you speak before you speak whilst you think and that thought is a Promise or prophecy of Riches and Delights and Honors which are in the approach and ready to meet you or a seale and Confirmation of those glories which are already with you whilst you think as the Prophet David speaks That your Houses shall continue for ever even then he may come upon you and then this Inward Thought all your thoughts perish or return again upon you like Furies to last and torment you for ever And therefore to conclude since the Premises are plaine the Evidence faire since he is a Lord and will come to Judge us Since he will certainly come since the Time of his coming is uncertain and since it is sudden He is no Christian he is no man but hath prostituted that which makes him so his Reason to his sense and Brutish part who cannot draw this Conclusion to himself That he must therefore watch which is in the next place to be considered THE SIXTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Watch therefore c. The last PART WEe have seen Christ our lord at the Right Hand of God consider'd him First as our Lord. Secondly as coming Thirdly as keeping from our eye and knowledge the Time of his coming and now what Inference can we make He is a Lord and shall we not feare him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not Watch This every one of them naturally and necessarily affords and no other conclusion can be drawne from them but when we consult with flesh and blood we force false conclusions even from the truth it self and to please and flatter our sensuall part conclude against Nature to destroy our selves Sensuality is the greatest Sophister that is works Darkness out of Light poyson out of Physick sinne out of Truth See what Paralogismes shee makes God is mercifull therefore presume he is patient Therefore provoke him He delayeth his coming we may now beat our fellow-Servants and eat and drink with the Drunken It is uncertain when he will come therefore he will never come This is the reasoning of Flesh and blood This is the Devils Logick and therefore that we be not deceived nor deceive our selves with these Fallacies behold here Wisdome it self hath shewn us a more excellent way and drawn the Conclusion to our hands Vigilate ergo He is a Lord and to come and at an Hour you know not of Watch therefore And this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vigilate is verbum vigilans as Aug. speaks a waking busy stirring word and implies as the Scholiast tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all manner of care and Circumspection and what are all the Exhortations in Scripture but a Commentary and Exposition of this Duty There we find it rendered by awaking working running striving Fasting Praying we shall find it to be Repentance Faith Spirituall Wisdome that golden chaine wherein all virtues and Graces that Vniversitas Donorum as Tert. speaks that Academy that world of Spirituall Gifts meet and are united
be that seale it up and seare it as Saint Paul speaks as with a hot Iron If it speake to us we are deafe if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul beat and wound it more and more multi famam pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny the loudest noise our conscience can make is not heard but the censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we heare it and we tremble we are led like fooles with melody to the stocks what others say is our motion and turnes us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we heare it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of conscience is defraud not your brother nay but we will over-reach him the voice of conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self nay but we will oppresse him the voice of conscience is Love Mercy nay but we will love our selves what we speak to our selves our selves soon make hereticall How Ambitious are we to be accounted Just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it what a sin is uncleannesse in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet with what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death he whips the theef and hangs the murderer and indeed whips and hangs himself by a Proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we owe to our selves are of any great force to prevaile with us to order our steps aright walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give eare to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusuall That there is little hope that it will compleat and perfect our walk and make us Just and Mercifull men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God and to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion that whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he makes is infinitely and incomparably more cleare and certain then that which we make by our sences that we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts that thou seest not the birds fly in the ayre so distinctly as he sees thy thoughts fly about the world to those severall objects which we have set up for our delight that he sees and observes that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Yet neverthelesse though being as we are in the flesh and so led by sence were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That he did but see us as man sees us or were this as evident to our faith as that is to our sence we should be more watchfull over our selves more wary of the divels snares and baits then we commonly are magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary Hil. in Psal 178. for there is a necessity laid upon us of feare and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe That he now stands by as a witnesse who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly beleived Glorious things are spoken of faith we call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask is ours so would to God it were nay would for many of us we did but believe that he is present with us and sees what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but would run from as from serpents as from the divel himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and Power were so neer And now in the last place Let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion doe walk on in the haughtinesse of their hearts and neither bowe to the Laws of God or men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerfull Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Many walk saith Saint Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the presumptuous sinner walks not with God who hath first hardened his heart and then his face as Adamant whose very countenance doth witnesse against him who declares his sins as Sodome and hides them not and they who first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself first lose their reason in their lusts and then their modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil who doe that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain who first make shipwrack of a good conscience and then with the swelling salies of Impudence hasten to that point and haven which their boundlesse lusts have made choice of as we should doe to eternall happinesse per calcatum patrem as Saint Jerome speaks over Father and Mother over all Relations and Religion it self forsake all these not for Christs sake and the Gospel but for Mammon and the world What foule pollutions that grinding and cruell oppressions what open profanenesse have there been in the world and we may ask wit the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 8.12 Confusi sunt Were they ashamed when they committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they have any shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.18 for the hardnesse and blindnesse of their heart For in sin and by sin they at last grow familiar in sin clothe themselves with it as with a robe of Honour bring it forth into open view