on blindfold into hell And through inner post along unto utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Frustrà sibi de ignorantia blandiuntur saith S. Bernard qui ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant S. Paul so speaketh of such men as if their case were desperate If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant as who say if he will needâ— be wilful at his peril be it But as many as desire to walk in the fear of God with upright and sincere hearts let them thirst after the knowledge of God and his will as the Hart after the rivers of waters let them cry after knowledge and lift up their voices for understanding let them seek it as silver and dig for it as for hid treasures let their feet tread often in Gods Courts and even wear the thresholds of his house let them delight in his holy Ordinances and rejoyce in the light of his Word depending upon the ministry thereof with unsatisfied ears and unwearied attention and feeding thereon with uncloyed appetites that so they may see and hear and learn and understand and believe and obey and increase in wisdom and in grace and in favour with God and all good men But then in the third place consider that if all ignorance will not excuse an offender though some do how canst thou hope to find any colour of excuse or extenuation that sinnest wilfully with knowledge and against the light of thine own Conscience The least sin thus committed is in some degree a Presumptuous sin and carrieth with it a contempt of God and in that regard is greater than any sin of Ignorance To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is a sin saith S. Iames Sin beyond all plea of excuse S. Paul though he were a Persecutor of the truth a Blasphemer of the Lord and injurious to the Brethren yet he obtained Mercy because he did all that ignorantly His bare ignorance was not enough to justifie him but he stood in need of Gods mercy or else he had perished in those sins for all his ignorance but yet who can tell whether ever he should have found that mercy if he had done the same things and not in ignorance Ignorance then though it do not deserve pardon yet it often findeth it because it is not joyned with open contempt of him that is able to pardon But he that sinneth against knowledge doth Ponere obicem if you will allow the Phrase and it may be allowed in this since he doth not only provoke the Iustice of God by his sin as every other sinner doth but he doth also damm up the Mercy of God by his contempt and doth his part to shut himself out for ever from all possibility of pardon unless the boundless overflowing mercy of God come in upon him with a strong tide and with an unresisted current break it self a passage through Do this then my beloved Brethren Labour to get knowledge labour to increase your knowledge labour to abound in knowledge but beware you rest not in your knowledge Rather give all diligence to add to your knowledge Temperance and Patience and Godliness and Brotherly kindness and Charity and other good graces Without these your knowledge is unprofitable nay damnable Qui apponit soientiam apponit dolorem is true in this sence also He that increaseth knowledge unless his care of obedience rise in some good proportion with it doth but lay more rods in steep for his own back and increase the number of his stripes and add to the weight and measure of his own most just condemnation Know this that although Integrity of heart may stand with some ignorances as Abimelech here pleadeth it and God alloweth it yet that mans heart is devoid of all singleness and sincerity who alloweth himself in any course he knoweth to be sinful or taketh this liberty to himself to continue and persist in any known ungodliness And thus much for our second Observation I add but a Third and that taken from the very thing which Abimelech here pleadeth viz. the integrity of his heart considered together with his present personal estate and condition I dare not say he was a Cast-away for what knoweth any man how God might after this time and even from these beginnings deal with him in the riches of his mercy But at the time when the things storied in this Chapter were done Abimelech doubtless was an unbeliever a stranger to the Covenant of God made with Abraham and so in the state of a carnal and meer natural man And yet both he pleadeth and God approveth the innocency and integrity of his heart in this business Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart Note hence That in an unbeliever and natural man and therefore also in a wicked person and a cast-away for as to the present state the unregenerate and the Reprobate are equally incapable of good things there may be truth and singleness and integrity of heart in some particular actions We use to teach and that truly according to the plain evidence of Scripture and the judgment of the ancient Fathers against the contrary tenet of the latter Church of Rome that all the works of unbelievers and natural men are not only stained with sin for so are the best works of the faithful too but also are really and truly sins both in their own nature because they spring from a corrupt fountain for That which is born of the flesh is flesh and it is impossible that a corrupt tree should bring forth good fruit and also in Gods estimation because he beholdeth them as out of Christ in and through whom alone he is well pleased St. Augustin's judgment concerning such mens works is well known who pronounceth of the best of them that they are but splendida peccata glorious sins and the best of them are indeed no better We may not say therefore that there was in Abimelech's heart as nor in the heart of any man a legal integrity as if his person or any of his actions were innocent and free from sin in that perfection which the Law requireth Neither yet can we say there was in his heart as nor in the heart of any unbeliever an Evangelical integrity as if his pâ—rson were accepted and for the persons sake all or any of his actions approved with God accepting them as perfect through the supply of the abundant perfections of Christ then to come That first and legal integrity supposeth the righteousness of works which no man hath this latter and Evangelical integrity the righteousness of Faith which no unbeliever hath no mans heart being either legally perfect that is in Adam or Evangelically perfect that is out of Christ. But there is a third kind of integrity of heart inferiour to both these which God here acknowledgeth in Abimelech and of
of both Laws Civil and Canon with the vast Tomes of Glosses Repertories Responses and Commentaries thereon and take in the Reports and year-books of our Common-Law to boot for Divinity get through a course of Councils Fathers School men Casuists Expositors Controversers of all sorts and Sects When all is done after much weariness to the flesh and in comparison thereof little satisfaction to the mind for the more knowledge we gain by all this travel the more we discern our own Ignorance and thereby but encrease our own sorrow the short of all is this and when I have said it I have done You shall evermore find try it when you will Temperance the best Physick Patience the best Law and A good Conscience the best Divinity I have done Now to God c. AD AULAM. The Tenth Sermon WHITE-HALL at a publick Fast JULY 8. 1640. Psal. 119. 75. I know O Lord that thy Iudgments are right and that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled 1. IN which words the holy Prophet in two several Conclusions giveth unto God the Glory of those two his great Attributes that shine forth with so much lustre in all the Works of his Providence his Iustice and his Mercy The glory of his Iustice in the former conclusion I know O Lord that thy judgments are right the glory of his Mercy in the latter And that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled And to secure us the better of the truth of both Conclusions because flesh and blood will be ready to stumble at both We have his Scio prefixed expresly to the former only but the speech being copulative intended to both I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and I know also that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled Our order must be to begin with the Conclusions first as they lie in the Text and after that to proceed to David's knowledg of them although that stand first in the order of the words In the former Conclusion we have to consider of Two things First what these judgments of God are that David here speaketh of as the Subject and then of the righteousness thereof as the Praedicate I know O Lord that thy judgments are right 2. What Iudgments first There are judicia oris and there are judici◠operis the judgments of Gods mouth and the judgments of Gods hands Of the former there is mention at Verse 13. With my lips have I been telling of all the judgments of thy mouth And by these Iudgments are meant nothing else but the holy Law of God and his whole written Word which every where in this Psalm are indifferently called his Statutes his Commandments his Precepts his Testimonies his Iudgments And the Laws of God are therefore amongst other reasons called by the name of Iudgments because by them we come to have a right judgment whereby to discern between Good and Evil. We could not otherwise with any certainty judg what was meet for us to do and what was needful for us to shun A lege tuâ intellexi at verse 104. By thy Law have I gotten understanding St. Paul confesseth Rom. 7. that he had never rightly known what sin was if it had not been for the Law and he instanceth in that of lust which he had not known to be a sin if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet And no question but these judgments these judicia oris are all right too for it were unreasonable to think that God should make that a rule of right to us which were it self not right We have both the name that of judgments and the thing too that they are right in the 19th Psalm Where having highly commended the Law of God under the several appellations of Law Testimonies Statutes and Commandments ver 7 and 8. the Prophet then concludeth under this name of Iudgments ver 9. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether 3. Besides these Iudicia Oris which are Gods judgments of directions there are also Iudicia Operis which are his judgments for correction And these do ever include aliquid poenale something inflicted upon us by Almighty God as it were by way of punishment something that breedeth us Trouble or Grief The Apostle saith Heb. 12. that every chastening is grievous and so it is more or less or else it could be to us no punishment And these again are of two sorts yet not distinguished so much by the things themselves that are inflicted as by the condition of the persons on whom they are inflicted and especially by the Affection and Intention of God that inflicteth them For all whether publick calamities that light upon whole Nations Cities or other greater or lesser Societies of men such as are Pestilences Famine War Inundations unseasonable Weather and the like or private Afflictions that light upon particular Families or Persons as sickness poverty disgraces injuries death of friends and the like All these and whatsoever other of either kind may undergo a two-fold consideration in either of both which they may not unfitly be termed the Iudgments of God though in different respects 4. For either these things are sent by Almighty God in his heavy displeasure as Plagues upon his Enemies intending therein their destruction Such as were those publick judgments upon the Old World swept away with the flood upon Sodom and the other Cities consumed with fire from Heaven upon Pharaoh and his Host over-whelmed in the Red Sea upon the Canaanites spewed out of the Land for their abominations upon Ierusalem at the final destruction thereof by the Romans And those private judgments also that befel sundry particular persons as Cain Absolon Senacherib Herod and others Or else they are laid by Almighty God as gentle Corrections upon his own Children in his Fatherly love towards them and for their good to chastise them for their strayings to bring them to repentance for their sins to make them more observant and careful of their duty thence-forward to exercise their Faith and Patience and other Graces and the like Such as were those distresses that befel the whole people of Israel sundry times under Moses and in the days of their Iudges and Kings and those particular Trials and Afflictions wherewith Abraham and Ioseph and Iob and David and Paul and other the holy Saints and Servants of God were exercised in their times 5. Both the one sort and the other are called Iudgments but as I said in different respects and for different reasons Those former Plagues are called Gods Iudgments because they come from God not as a loving and merciful Father but as a just and severe Iudg who proceeding according to course of Law giveth sentence against a malefactor to cut him off And therefore this kind of judgment David earnestly deprecateth Psal. 143. Enter not into judgment with thy servant for then neither can I nor any flesh living be
we too severely censure the Persons either for the future as Reprobates and Cast-aways and such as shall be certainly damned or at leastwise for the present as Hypocriâ—es and unsanctified and profane and such as are in the state of Damnation not considering into what fearful sins it may please God to suffer not only his chosen ones before Calling but even his holy ones too after Calling sometimes to fall for ends most times unknown to us but ever just and gracious in him Or thirdly when for want either of Charity oâ— Knowledge as in the present case of this Chapter we interpret things for the worst to our Brethren and condemn them of sin for such actions as are not directly and in themselves necessarily sinful but may with due circumstances be performed with a good conscience and without sin Now all judging and condemning of our Brethren in any of these kinds is sinful and damnable and that in very many respects especially these four which may serve as so many weighty reasons why we ought not to judge one another The usurpation the rashness the uncharitableness and the scandal of it First it is an Usurpation He that is of right to judge must have a Calling and Commission for it Quis constituit te sharply replied upon Moses Exod. 2. Who made thee a Iudge and Quis constituit me reasonably alledged by our Saviour Luke 12. Who made me a Iudge Thou takest too much upon thee then thou son of man whosoever thou art that judgest thus saucily to thrust thy self into God's seat and to invade his Throne Remember thy self well and learn to know thine own rank Quis tu Who art thou that judgest another Iames 4. Or Who art thou that judgest anothers Servant in the next following Verse to my Text. As if the Apostle had said What art thou Or what hast thou to do to judge him that standeth or falleth to his own Master Thou art his fellow-Servant not his Lord. He hath another Lord that can and will judge him who is thy Lord too and can and will judge thee for so he argueth anon at Verse 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother We shall all stand before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ. God hath reserved three Prerogatives Royal to himself Vengeance Glory and Iudgment As it is not safe for us then to encroach upon God's Royalties in either of the other two Glory or Vengeance so neither in this of Judgment Dominus judicabit The Lord himself will judge his people Heb. 10. It is flat Usurpation in us to judge and therefore we must not judge Secondly it is rashness in us A Judge must understand the truth both for matter of fact and for point of Law and he must be sure he is in the right for both before he proceed to sentence or else he will give rash judgment How then dare any of us undertake to sit as Iudges upon other mens Consciences wherewith we are so little acquainted that we are indeed but too much unacquainted with our own We are not able to search the depth of our own wicked and deceitful hearts and to ran sack throughly the many secret windings and turnings therein how much less then are we able to fathome the bottoms of other mens hearts with any certainty to pronounce of them either good or evil We must then leave the judgments of other mens Spirits and hearts and reins to him that is the Father of Spirits and alone searcheth the hearts and reins before whose eyes all things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is most Emphatical Heb. 4. Wherefore our Apostles precept elsewhere is good to this purpose 1 Cor. 4. Iudge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts Unless we be able to bring these hidden things to light and to make manifest these counsels it is rashness in us to judge and therefore we must not judge Thirdly this judging is uncharitable Charity is not easily suspicious but upon just cause much less then censorious and peremptory Indeed when we are to judge of Things it is wisdom to judge of them Secundùm quod sunt as near as we can to judge of them just as they are without any sway or partial inclination either to the right hand or to the left But when we are to judge of Men and their Actions it is not altogether so there the rule of charity must take place dubia in meliorem partem sunt interpretanda Unless we see manifest cause to the contrary we ought ever to interpret what is done by others with as much favour as may be To err thus is better than to hit right the other way because this course is safe and secureth us as from injuring others so from endangering our selves whereas in judging ill though right we are still unjust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the event only and not our choice freeing us from wrong judgment True Charity is ingenuous it thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. How far then are they from Charity that are ever suspicious and think nothing well For us let it be our care to maintain Charity and to avoid as far as humane frailty will give leave even sinister suspicions of our brethrens actions or if through frailty we cannot that yet let us not from light suspicions fall into uncharitable censures let us at leastwise suspend our definitive judgment and not determine too peremptorily against such as do not in every respect just as we do or as we would have them do or as we think they should do It is uncharitable for us to judge and therefore we must not judge Lastly There is Scandal in judging Possibly he that is judged may have that strength of Faith and Charity that though rash and uncharitable censures lye thick in his way he can lightly skip over all those stumbling-blocks and scape a fall Saint Paul had such a measure of strength with me it is a very small thing saith he that I should be judged of you or of humane judgment 1 Cor. 4. If our judging light upon such an Object it is indeed no scandal to him but that 's no thanks to us We are to esteem things by their natures not events and therefore we give a scandal if we judge notwithstanding he that is judged take it not as a scandal For that judging is in itself a scandal is clear from Vers. 13. of this Chapter Let us not therefore saith S. Paul judge one another any more but judge this rather That no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall into his brothers way And thus we see four main Reasons against this judging of our brethren 1. We have no right to judge and so our
cause to do that which in regard of the thing done may bring them within the compass of some Statute or branch of a statute yet such as circumstances duly considered no wise and indifferent man but would well approve of Now if in such cases always rigour should be used Laws intended for the benefit should by such hard construction become the bane of humane society As Solomon saith Qui torquet nasum elicit sanguinem He that wringeth the nose too hard forceth blood Guilty this way are not only those contentious spirits whereof are too many in the world with whom there is no more ado but a Word and an Action a Trespass and a Process But most of our common Informers withal Sycophants you may call them for that was their old name like Verres his blood hounds in Tully that lie in the wind for game and if they can but trip any man upon any breach of a penal statute there they fasten their teeth and tugg him into the Courts without help unless he will dare offam Cerbero for that is it they look for give them a Sop and then they are charmed for that time Zacheus besides that he was a Publican was it seemeth such a kind of Informer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word Luke 19. If I have played the Sycophant with any man If I have wronged any man by forged cavilation or wrung any thing from him by false accusation A report of this third kind is false as devoid of equity But it may be thought I injure these men in making them raisers of false reports and am my self a false accuser of them whilst I seek to make them false accusers of others when as they dare appeal to the world they report not any thing but what is most true and what they shall be well able to prove so to be At once to answer them and clear my self know that in Gods estimation and to common intendment in the language of Scripture it is all one to speak an untruth and to speak a truth in undue time and place and manner and with undue circumstances One instance shall make all this most clear Dog the Edomoite one of the servants of the house of Saul saw when David went into the house of Ahimelech the Priest and how Ahimelech there entertained him and what kindness he did for him of all which he afterwards gave Saul particular information in every point according to what he had seen Wherein though he spake no more than what was true and what he had seen with his own eyes yet because he did it with an intent to bring mischief upon Ahimelech who had done nothing but what well became an honest man to do David chargeth him with telling of lyes and telleth him he had a false tongue of his own for it Psal. 52. Thy tongue imagineth wickedness and with lies thou cuttest like a sharp rasor Thou hast loved unrighteousness more than goodness and to talk of lies more than righteousness Thou hast loved all words that may do hurt O thou false tongue Conclude hence he that telleth the truth where it may do hurt but especially if he tell it with that purpose and to that end that it may do hurt he hath a false tongue and he telleth a false lye and he must pardon us if we take him for no better than the raiser of a false report We see what it is to raise a false report let us now see what a fault it is The first Accuser that ever was in the world was a false Accuser and that was the Devil Who as he began betimes for he was a lyer from the beginning so he began aloft for the first false report he raised was of the most High Unjustly accusing God himself unto our mother Eve in a few words of no fewer than three great crimes at once Falshood Tyranny and Envy He was then a slanderous accuser of his Maker and he hath continued ever since a malicious accuser of his Brethren Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he hath his name from it is most languages Slanderers and Backbiters and false Accusers may here hence learn to take knowledge of the rock whence they were hewn here they may behold the top of their Pedigree We may not deny them the ancienty of their descent though they have small cause to boast of it semen serpentis the spawn of the old Serpent children of their father the Devil And they do not shame the store they come of for the works of their Father they readily do That Hellish Aphorism they so faithfully practise is one of his Principles it was he first instilled it into them Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Smite with the tongue and be sure to smite home and then be sure either the grief or the blemish of the stroke will stick by it A Devilish practice hateful both to God and man And that most justly whether we consider the sin or the injury or the mischief of it the Sin in the Doer the injury to the Sufferer the mischief to the Common-wealth Every false report raised in judgment besides that it is a lye and every lye is a sin against the truth slaying the soul of him that maketh it and excluding him from heaven and binding him over unto the second death it is also a pernicious lye and that is the worst sort of lies and so a sin both against Charity and Iustice. Which whoso committeth let him never look to dwell in the Tabernacle of God or to rest upon his holy Mountain God having threatned Psal. 50. to take special knowledge of this sin and though he seem for a time to dissemble yet at least to reprove the bold offender to his face Thou satest and speakest against thy brother yea and hast slandered thine own mrothers Son These things hast thou done and I held my tongue and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was even such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set before thee the things that thou hast done And as for the Injury done hereby to the grieved party it is incomparable If a man have his house broken or his purse taken from him by the high way or sustain any wrong or loss in his person goods or state otherwise by fraud or violence or casualty he may possibly either by good fortune hear of his own again and recover it or he may have restitution and satisfaction made him by those that wronged him or by his good industry and providence he may live to see that loss repaired and be in as good state as before But he that hath his Name and Credit and Reputation causelesly called into question sustaineth a loss by so much greater than any Theft by how much a good Name is better than great Riches A man may out-wear other Injuries or out-live them
but is often used by our Apostle in his Epistles with application ever to the Church of God and the spiritual Building thereof The Church is the House of the living God All Christians Members of this Church are so many Stones of the Building whereof the House is made up The bringing in of Unbelievers into the Church by converting them to the Christian Faith is as the fetching of more Stones from the Quarries to be laid in the Building The Building it self and that is Edification is the well and orderly joyning together of Christian men as living Stones in truth and love that they may grow together as it were into one entire frame of Building to make up the House strong and comely for the Master's Use and Honour 25. I know not how it is come to pass in these later times that in the popular and common Notion of this Word in the Mouths and Apprehensions of most men generally Edification is in a manner confined wholly to the Understanding Which is an Error perhaps not of much consequence yet an Error though and such as hath done some hurt too For thereon is grounded that Objection which some have stood much upon though there be little cause why against instrumental Musick in the Service of God and some other things used in the Church that they tend not to edification but rather hinder it because there cometh no instruction nor other fruit to the understanding thereby And therefore ought such things say they to be cast out of the Church as things unlawful A Conclusion by the way which will by no means follow though all the Premises should be granted for it is clear both from the Words and Drift of the Text that Edification is put as a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed of Expediency but not so of Lawfulness And therefore from the Unserviceableness of any thing to Edification we cannot reasonably infer the Unlawfulness thereof but the Inexpediency only But to let go the inconsequence that which is supposed in the Premises and laid as the ground of the Objection viz. that where the Understanding is not benefited there is no Edification is not true The Objectors should consider that whatsover thing any way advanceth the Service of God or furthereth the growth of his Church or conduceth to the increasing of any Spiritual Grace or enlivening of any holy Affection in us or serveth to the outward Exercise or but Expression of any such Grace or Affection as Ioy Fear Thankfulness Chearfulness Reverence or any other doubtless every such thing so far forth serveth more or less unto Edification 26. The building up of the People in the right knowledge of God and of his most holy Truth is I confess a necessary part of the Work and no man that wisheth well to the Work will either despise it in his heart or speak contemptibly of it with his mouth yet it is not the whole Work though no nor yet the chiefest part thereof Our Apostle expresly giveth Charity the preheminence before it Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth And for once he speaketh of Edification in his Epistles with reference to Knowledge I dare say he speaketh of it thrice with reference to Peace and brotherly Charity or Condescension The Truth is that Edification he so much urgeth is the promoting and furthering of our selves and others in Truth Godliness and Peace or any Grace accompanying Salvation for the common good of the whole Body St. Iude speaketh of building up our selves and St. Paul of edifying one another And this should be our dayly and mutual study to build up our selves and others in the knowledge of the Truth and in the practice of Godliness but especially to the utmost of our powers within our several Spheres and in those Stations wherein God hath set us to advance the Common Good by preserving Peace and Love and Unity in the Church 27. The Instructions Corrections or Admonitions we bestow upon our private Brethren the good Examples we set before them our bearing with their Infirmities our yielding and condescending from our own power and liberty to the desires even of private and particular men is as the chipping and hewing and squaring of the several Stones to make them fitter for the Building But when we do withal promote the publick Good of the Church and do something towards the procuring and conserving the Peace and Unity thereof according to our measure that is as the laying of the Stones together by making them couch close one together and binding them with Fillings and Cement to make them hold Now whatsoever we shall find according to the present state of the Times Places and Persons with whom we have to do to conduce to the Good either of the whole Church or of any greater or lesser portion thereof or but of any single Member belonging thereunto so as no prejudice or wrong be thereby done to any other that we may be sure is expedient for that time 28. To enter into Particulars when and how far forth we are bound to forbear the exercise of our lawful Liberty in indifferent things for our Brother's sake would be endless When all is said and written in this Argument that can be thought of yet still as was said much must be left to mens Discretion and Charity Discretion first will tell us in the general that as the Circumstances alter so the Expediency and Inexpediency of things may alter accordingly Quaedam quae licent tempore loco mutato non licent saith Seneca There is a time for every thing saith Solomon and a season for every purpose under Heaven Hit that time right and whatever we do is beautiful but there is no Beauty in any thing we do if it be unseasonable As Hushai said of Ahitophel's Advice The Counsel of Ahitophel is not good at this time And as he said to his Friend that cited some Verses out of Homer not altogether to his liking and commended them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholesome counsel but not for all men nor at all times If any man should now in these times endeavour to bring back into the Church postliminio and after so many years cessation thereof either the severity of the ancient Canons for publick Penances or the enjoyning of private Confessions before Easter or some other things now long disused he should attempt a thing of great Inexpediency Not in regard of the things themselves which severed from those Abuses which in tract of time had through mens corruption grown thereunto are certainly lawful and might be as in some former times so now also profitable if the times would bear them But in regard of the condition of the times and the general aversness of mens minds therefrom who having been so long accustomed to so much indulgence and liberty in that kind could not now brook those severer impositions but would cry