divine Scripture but upon his knees and if we professe to beare no lesse inward honour to that sacred volume why should we how can wee think it free for us to entertaine it with an unmannerly neglect SECT VII AS to the name and word so to the services of God must the efficacy of our holy feare bee diffused and these whether private or publick If we pray our awe will call us either to a standing on our feet as servants or a bowing of our knees as suppliants or a prostration on our faces as dejected penitents Neither when the heart is a Camell can the body be an Elephant What Prince would not scorne the rudenesse of a sitting petitioner It was a just distinction of Socrates of old that to sacrifice is to give to God to pray is to beg of God And who is so liberall as to cast away his almes upon a stout and unreverent beggar If we attend Gods message in the mouth of his holy servants whether read or preached our feare will frame us to a reverent carriage of our bodies so as our very outward deportment may really seeme to speak the words of the good Centurion Now we are all here present before God to heare all things that are commanded thee of God we shall need no law to vaile our bonnets save that in our owne breast It was a great word that Simeon the sonne of Satach said to the Iewish Prince and Priest convented before their Sanhedrin Thou standest not before us but before him that said Let the world be made and it was made did we think so how durst wee sit in a bold saucinesse whiles that great Embassie is delivered with our hats on our heads as if we acknowledged no presence but of our inferiours yea that which is a shame to say those very apprentices who dare not cover their heads at home where their Master is alone yet in Gods house where they see him in a throng of his betters waiting upon the ordinances of the God of heaven think it free for them equally to put on and to bee no lesse fellowes with their Master than he is with his Maker as if the place and service gave a publick priviledge to all commers of a prophane lawlesnesse Surely the same ground whereon the Apostle built his charge for the covering of the heads of the women serves equally for the uncovering the heads of the men Because of the Angels yea more because of the God of the Angels who by these visible Angels of his Church speakes to us and solicites our salvation If we addresse our selves to the dreadfull mysteries of the blessed Sacrament of the body and bloud of our Lord Iesus our feare will bend our knees in a meet reverence to that great and gracious Saviour who is there lively represented offered given sealed up to our soules who at that heavenly Table is as Saint Jerome truly both the guest and the banquet Neither can the heart that is seasoned with true piety be afraid of too lowly a participation of the Lord of glory but rather resolves that he is not worthy of knees who will not here bow them for who should command them if not their Maker if not their Redeemer Away with the monsters of opinion and practise concerning this Sacrament Christ Iesus is here really tendred unto us and who can who dares take him but on his knees What posture can we use with our fellowes if we sit with our God and Saviour At our best well may we say with the humble Centurion Lord we are not worthy thou shouldest come under our roofe but if we prepare not both soules and bodies to receive him reverently our sinfull rudenesse shall make us utterly uncapable of so blessed a presence SECT VIII NEither doth our awfull regard reach onely to the actions of Gods service but extends it selfe even to the very house which is called by his name the place where his honour dwelleth For as the presence of God gives an holinesse to what place soever he is pleased to shew himselfe in as the Sunne carries an inseparable light wheresoever it goes so that holinesse calls for a meet veneration from us It was a fit word for that good Patriarch who sware by his fathers feare which he spake of his Bethel How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the house of God this is the gate of Heaven The severall distances and distinctions that were observed in the Temple of God at Hierusalem are famously knowne None might sit within the verge thereof but the King all others either stood or kneeld I have read of some sects of men so curiously scrupulous that their Priests were not allowed to breathe in their Temple but were commanded whiles they went in to sweep the floore to hold their winde like those that dive for sponges at Samos to the utmost length of time and when they would vent their suppressed aire and change it for new to goe forth of the doores and returne with a fresh supply But we are sure the Ethiopian Christians are so holily mannerly that they doe not allow any man so much as to spit in their Churches and if such a defilement happen they cause it to be speedily clensed What shall we then say of the common prophanenesse of those carelesse Christians that make no distinction betwixt their Church and their barne that care not to looke unto their foule feet when they come under this sacred roofe that with equall irreverence stumble into Gods house and their tavern that can find no fitter place for their ambulatory their burse their counting house their sepulcher It is recorded of Saint Swithine the no lesse famous than humble Bishop of Winchester that when he died he gave charge that his body should not in any case be buryed within the Church but be layd where his grave might be wet with raine and open to weather passengers I suppose as conceiving that sacred place too good for the repository of the best carcasses Surely we cannot easily entertaine too venerable an opinion of the habitation of the Almighty If our hearts have the honour to be the spirituall Temples of God we shall gladly give all due honour to his materiall Temples and doubtlesse in all experience we shall so respect the house as we are affected to the owner It was the discipline and practise of the Hetruscians from whom old Rome learned much of her skill in Auguries and many mysteries of religion that those deities whom they desired to harbour in their owne breasts as Vertue Peace Modesty should have Temples erected within their walls but those which were the Presidents of warres and combustions or pleasures and sensualitie as Mars Venus Vulcan should take up with Temples without their walls And even so it is and will be ever with us if we have an holy regard to the God of heaven and adore him
liquid body and how tamed and confined by thine Almightinesse How justly didst thou expostulate with thy people of old by thy Prophet Ieremy Feare yee not mee saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof tosse themselves yet they cannot prevaile though they roare yet can they not passe over it And what a stupendious work of omnipotence is it that thou O God hast hanged up this huge globe of water and earth in the midst of a yeelding aire without any stay or foundation save thine owne eternall decree How wonderfull art thou in thy mighty winds which whence they come and whither they go thou only knowest in thy dreadfull thunders and lightnings in thy threatning Comets and other fiery exhalations With what marvellous variety of creatures hast thou peopled all these thy roomy elements all of severall kinds fashions natures dispositions uses and yet all their innumerable motions actions events are predetermined and over-ruled by thine all-wise and almighty providence What man can but open his eyes and see round about him these demonstrations of thy divine power and wisedome and not inwardly praise thee in thine excellent greatnesse For my owne practise I cannot find a better notion wherby to work my heart to an inward adoration of God than this Thou that hast made all this great world and guidest and governest it and fillest and comprehendest it being thy selfe infinite and incomprehensible And I am sure there can be no higher representation of the divine greatnesse unto our selves Although withall we may find enough at home for what man that lookes no further than himselfe and sees the goodly frame of his body erected and imployed for the harbour of a spirituall and immortall soule can choose but say I will praise thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made SECT III. SVrely could we forget all the rest of the world it is enough to fetch us upon our knees and to strike an holy awe into us to think that in him we live and move and have our being For in these our particular obligations there is a mixed sense both of the greatnesse and goodnesse of our God which as it manifestly showes it selfe in the wondrous work of our excellent creation so most of all magnifies it selfe in the exceedingly gratious work of our redemption Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared saith the sweet Singer of Israel Lo power doth not more command this holy feare than mercy doth though both here meet together for as there was infinite mercy mixed with power in thus creating us so also there is a no lesse mighty power mixed with infinite mercy in our redemption What heart can but awfully adore thy soveraigne mercy O blessed God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ in sending thine only and coequall Sonne the Sonne of thy love the Sonne of thine eternall essence out of thy bosome downe from the height of celestiall glory into this vale of teares and death to abase himselfe in the susception of our nature to clothe himselfe with the ragges of our humanity to indure temptation shame death for us O blessed Iesu the redeemer of mankind what soule can be capable of a sufficient adoration of thine inconceive able mercy in thy meane and despicable incarnation in thy miserable and toilsome life in thy bloudy agony in thine ignominious and tormenting passion in thy wofull sense of thy fathers wrath in our stead and lastly in thy bitter and painfull death thou that knewest no sinne wert made sinne for us thou that art omnipotent would'st die and by thy death hast victoriously triumphed over death and hell It is enough O Saviour it is more than enough to ravish our hearts with love and to bruise them with a loving feare O blessed Spirit the God of comfort who but thou only can make our soules sensible of thy unspeakable mercy in applying to us the wonderfull benefit of this our deare redemption in the great work of our inchoate regeneration in the mortifying of our evill and corrupt affections in raising us to the life of grace and preparing us for the life of glory O God if mercy be proper to attract feare how must our hearts in all these respects needs be filled with all awfull regard unto thy divine bounty Oh how great is the goodnesse that thou hast laid up for those that feare thee even before the sonnes of men SECT IV. NOw we may not think this inward adoration of the greatnesse goodnes of God to be one simple act but that which is sweetly compounded of the improvement of many holy affections for there cannot but be love mixed with this feare The feare of the Lord is the beginning of love and this feare must be mixed with joy Rejoyce in him with trembling and this feare and joy is still mixed with hope For in the feare of the Lord is strong confidence and the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy As therefore we are wont to say that our bodies are not neither can bee nourished with any simple ingredient so may we truly say of our soules that they neither receive any comfort or establishment nor execute any powers of theirs by any sole single affection but require a gracious mixture for both As that father said of obedience we may truly say of grace that it is all copulative Neither may wee think that one only impression of this holy feare and inward adoration will serve the turne to season all our following disposition and carriage but there must be a virtuall continuation thereof in all the progresse of our lives Our Schooles do here seasonably distinguish of perpetuity of whether the second act when all our severall motions and actions are so held on as that there is no cessation or intermission of their performance which wee cannot here expect Or of the first act when there is an habit of this inward adoration settled upon the heart so constantly that it is never put off by what ever occurrences so as whatsoever we do whatsoever we indeavour hath a secret relation hereunto And this second way we must attaine unto if ever we will aspire to any comfort in the fruition of Gods presence here upon earth and our meet disposition towards him I have often thought of that deep and serious question of the late judicious and honourable Sir Fulke Grevil Lord Brook a man worthy of a fairer death and everlasting memory moved to a learned kinsman of mine much interessed in that Noble man who when he was discoursing of an incident matter very considerable was taken off with this quick interrogation of that wise and noble person What is that to the Infinite as secretly implying that all our thoughts and discourse must be reduced thither and
refraine from no wickednesse because the feare of God was not in that place so we may no lesse irrefragably inferre where we see a trade of prevalent wickednesse there can be no feare of God Wo is me what shall I say of this last age but the same that I must say of mine owne As this decrepit body therefore by reason of the unequall temper of humors and the defect of radicall moysture and heat cannot but be a sewer of all diseases So it is so it will be with the decayed old age of this great body of the world through want of the feare of the ever-living God Rivers of waters O God shall run downe mine eyes because men keep not thy law But what do I suggest to the obdured hearts of wilfull sinners the sweet and gracious remedies of a loving feare This preservative is for children sturdy rebells must expect other receits A frown is an heavy punishment to a dutifull sonne scourges and scorpions are but enough for a rebellious vassall I must lay before such an hell of vengeance and show them the horrible Topheth prepared of old even that bottomlesse pit of perdition and tell them of rivers of brimstone of a worm ever gnawing of everlasting burnings of weeping wailing and gnashing when the terrible Iudge of the world shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and obey him not And certainly if the sinner had not an Infidell in his bosome the expectation of so direfull a condition to be inflicted and continued upon him unto all eternity without possibility of any intermission or of any remission were enough to make him run made with feare only unbeleefe keeps him from a frantick despaire and a sudden leap into his hell And if the custome and deceit of sinne have wrought an utter senselesnesse in those brawny hearts I must leave them over to the wofull sense of what they will not feare yea to the too late feare of what they shall not bee able either to beare or avoid Certainly the time will come when they shall be swallowed up with a dreadfull confusion and shall no more be able not to feare than not to bee Oftentimes even in the midst of all their secure jollity God writes bitter things against them such as make their knees to knock together their lips to tremble their teeth to chatter their hands to shake their hearts to faile within them for the anguish of their soules Were they as insensate as the earth it selfe Touch the mountaines and they shall smoke saith the Psalmist The mountaines saw thee and they trembled saith Habbacuc But if their feare be respited it is little for their ease it doth but forbeare a little that it may overwhelme them at once for ever Woe is mee for them In how heavy and deplorable case are they and feele it not They lie under the fierce wrath of the Almighty and complaine of nothing but ease The mountains quake at him and the hils melt and the earth is burnt at his presence Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rockes are thrown downe by him saith the Prophet Nahum Yet oh what a griefe it is to see that so dreadfull a power should carry away no more feare from us wretched men yea even from those that are ready to feare where no feare is Paines of body frownes of the great restraint of liberty losse of goods who is it that feares not But alas to avoid these men feare not to venture upon the displeasure of him whose anger is death and who is able to cast body and soule into hell fire So wee have seene fond children that to avoid a bug-beare have runne into fire or water So we have seen a starting jade that suddenly flying from a shadow hath cast himselfe into a ditch We can but mourne in secret for those that have no teares to spend upon themselves and tremble for them that will needs gnash If those that are filthy will be filthy still If secure men will set up a trade of sinning every good heart will take up Nehemiahs resolution But so did not J because of the feare of the Lord and the practice of holy Habacuc I trembled in my selfe that I might rest in the day of trouble It is wise Solomons good experiment which hee loved to repeat By the feare of the Lord men depart from evill for they say one to another as the Tremelian version hath it in Malachy The Lord hearkeneth and heareth and how dare they how can they doe amisse in that presence For as the Saints say after the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lambe Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints who shall not feare thee and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy SECT XII SHortly then that wee may put these two together which are not willing to be severed Whosoever is duely affected with a true filiall feare of the Almighty cannot by allurements be drawne to doe that which may offend so sweet a mercy cannot by any difficulties bee discouraged from doing that which may bee pleasing to so gracious a majesty The Magistrate that feares God dares not cannot be partiall to any wickednesse dares not cannot bee harsh to innocence managing that sword wherewith hee is intrusted so as God himselfe if he were upon earth would doe it for the glory of his owne just mercie The Messenger of God that feares him on whose errand hee goes dares not cannot either smother his message or exceed it he will he must lift up his voice like a trumpet and tell Israel of her sinnes and Iudah of her transgressions not fearing faces not sparing offences The ordinary Christian that feares God dares not cannot but make conscience of all his wayes he dares not defraud or lie for an advantage he dares not sweare falsely for a world hee dares not prostitute his body to whatsoever filthinesse he dares not oppresse his inferiours he dares not turn away his owne face from the poore much lesse dares hee grind theirs in one word he dares rather dy than sinne And contrarily what blockes soever nature layes in his way since his God calls him forth to this combat he cannot but bid battell to his owne rebellious corruptions and offer a deadly violence to his evill and corrupt affections and enter the lists with all the powers of darknesse resisting unto bloud and willingly bleeding that he may overcome Who now would not be in love with this feare O feare the Lord yee his Saints hee that feares him shall lacke nothing The Sunne of righteousnesse shall arise unto him with healing in his wings In the meane time the secret of the Lord is with him The Angells of the Lord are ever
practises thereupon growing idle or unprofitable wee make divine mercy a Pander to our uncleannesse and justly perish in our wicked presumption SECT XIX THe other extreame followes It may seeme a harsh word but it is a true one that there may bee an evill feare of a good God A feare of horror and a feare of distrust That God who is love it selfe is terrible to a wicked heart Even in the beginning our first progenitor ran from the face of his late maker and hid him in the thickets For it is a true observation of Tertullian no wickednesse can bee done without feare because not without the conscience of doing it Neither can any man flee from himselfe as Bernard wittily and this conscience reads the terrible things that God writes against the sinner and holds the glasse wherein guilty eyes may see the killing frownes of the Almighty Now offensive objects cause the spirits to retire as Philosophy and experience teacheth us whereupon followes a necessary trepidation in the whole frame of the body And now the wicked heart could wish there were no God or which is all one that this God had not power to avenge himselfe and finding that after all his impotent volitions the Almighty will bee still and ever himselfe he is unspeakably affrighted with the expectation of that just hand which hee cannot avoid This terror if through the improvement of Gods mercy at the last it drive the sinner to a true penitence makes an happy amends for its owne anguish otherwise it is but the first flash of that unquenchable fire which is prepared for damned soules In this case men do not so much feare God as are afraid of him and such a torturing feare is never but joyned with heart-burning and hatred wherin sinners demeane themselves to God as they say the Lampray doth to the fisher by whose first blow that fish is said to bee dulled and astonished but inraged with the next and following Wretched men it is not Gods fault that hee is terribly just no it is his glory that hee is mercifully terrible It is not for me to say as Spalatensis cites from Cyrill that those who would not bee saved are no lesse beholden to the bounty of the good God than those that are brought home to glory I know and blesse God for the difference But certainely God is wonderfully gracious as hee is also infinitely just even to those that will needs incurre damnation having tendered unto them many powerfull helps to their repentance which hee hath with much patience and longanimity expected That God therefore is just it is his owne praise that hee is terrible wee may thank our selves for were it not for our wickednesse there were nothing in God not infinitely amiable Seest thou then O sinnefull man nothing at all in Gods face but frownes and fury doth every beame of his angry eye dart vengeance into thy soule so as thou would'st faine runne away from his presence and wooest the rocks and mountaines to fall upon thee and hide thee from the sight of that dreadfull countenance cleanse thy hands purge thine heart cleare thine eyes with the teares of true contrition and then look up and tell me whether thou dost not see an happy change of aspect whether thou canst now discerne ought in that face but a glorious lovelinesse fatherly indulgence unconceivable mercy such as shall ravish thy soule with a divine love with a joy unspeakable and glorious SECT XX. SEldome ever is the feare of horror separated from a feare of distrust which in the height of it is that which we call despaire for when the soule apprehends a deep feare of Gods dereliction it cannot but be filled with horrour Now as the holy and well moderated feare gives glory to God in all his attributes so this extremity of it affronts and dishonours him in them all but especially in his mercy and truth In his truth suggesting that God will not make good his promises in his mercy suggesting that he either cannot or will not forgive and save It was a true observation of Saint Hilary that it is not the least office and effect of faith to feare for that it is said by the Prophet Esay He shall fill them with the spirit of the feare of the Lord and againe we are charged to worke out our salvation with feare But there cannot be an act more opposite to faith then to feare distrustfully to despaire in fearing none more injurious either to God or our owne soules For surely as Cyrill well the wickednesse of our offences to God cannot exceed his goodnesse toward us the praise whereof from his creature he affects and esteems so highly as if he cared not in any other notion to bee apprehended by us proclaiming himselfe no otherwise in the mount then The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sinne adding onely one word to prevent our too much presumption That will by no meanes cleare the guilty which to doe were a meere contradiction to his justice Of all other therefore GOD hates most to be robbed of this part of his glory Neither is the wrong done to God more palpable then that which is done herein unto our selves in barring the gates of heaven upon our soules in breaking open the gates of hell to take them in and in the meane time striving to make our selves miserable whether God will or no. And surely as our experience tels us concerning the estate of our bodily indispositions that there is more frequent sicknesse in summer but more deadly in winter so we finde it here other sinnes and spirituall distempers are more common but this distrustfull feare and despaire of mercy which chils the soule with a cold horror is more mortall For the remedy wherof it is requisite that the heart should be throughly convinced of the super-abundant and ever ready mercy of the Almighty of the infallible and unfaileable truth of all his gracious ingagements And in respect of both be made to confesse that heaven can never be but open to the penitent It is a sweet word and a true one of Saint Bernard In thy Booke O Lord are written all that doe what they can though they cannot doe what they ought Neither doth God onely admit but he invites but he intreates but he importunes men to be saved what could he doe more unlesse he would offer violence to the Will which were no other then to destroy it and so to undoe the best piece of his owne workmanship It is the way of his decree and proceedings to dispose of all things sweetly Neither is it more against our nature then his to force his owne ends and when he sees that fayre meanes will not prevayle to win us from death he is pleased feelingly to bemone it as his owne losse Why will ye dye O house
about him His soule shall dwell at ease here below and above salvation is neare unto him yea he is already feoffed of life and glory SECT XIII NOw as some carefull Pilot that takes upon him to direct a difficult sea-passage which his long and wary observation hath discovered doth not content himselfe to steere a right course in his owne vessell and to show the eminent sea-markes a farre off but tells withall what rocks or shelves lie on either side of the channell which upon the least deviation may indanger the passengers So must we do here Having therefore sufficiently declared wherein this feare of God consisteth what it requireth of us and how it is acted and expressed by us it remayneth that we touch at those extremes which on both sides must bee carefully avoyded These are Security and Presumption on the one hand on the other Vicious feare It was the word of the wise man yea rather of God by him Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischiefe Lo an obdured security is proposed to feare both in the nature and issue of it Feare intenerates the heart making it fit for all gracious impressions security hardens it and renders it uncapable of good feare ends in happinesse security in an evitable mischiefe And these two though contraries yet arise from the same cause contrarily applyed Like as the same Sunne hardens the clay and softens the wax it is heat that doth both causing drynesse in the one and a dissolution in the other Even so the same beames of divine mercy melt the good heart into an holy feare Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared and harden the wicked heart in a state of security For upon the goodnesse of God to men both in giving and forgiving do men grow securely evill and rebellious to their God as being apt to say J have sinned and what harme hath happened unto mee saith Siracides Lo even forbearance obdureth Because sentence against an evill work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to do evill How much more do the riches of Gods goodnes which are the hottest beams of that Sun when they beat directly upon our heads The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fooles shall destroy them saith Salomon Our philosophy tells us that an extreme heat shuts up those pores which a moderate openeth It was a sore word of Saint Ambrose that no man can at once embrace Gods favour and the worlde Neither can I disallow that observation of a rigorous Votary that the Divells of consolation as he calls them are more subtile and more pernicious than those of tribulation Not so much perhaps in their own nature as for the party they find in our own breasts The wise man could say Lest J bee full and deny thee and aske who is the Lord Even very heathens have beene thus jealously conscious of their owne disposition So as Camillus when upon ten yeeres siege he had taken the wealthy city Veies could pray forsome mishap to befall himselfe and Rome to temper so great an happinesse This is that which Gregory the great upon his exaltation to that papall honour doth so much complaine of in himselfe that his inward fall was no lesse than his outward raysing and that his dull heart was almost grown stupid with those temporall occasions And surely so it will be if there be not a strong grace within us to season our prosperity That which the Historian observed in the course of the world that abundance begets delicacy and animosity that againe quarrells and vastation of warre and from thence growes poverty is no lesse true in the particular state of the soule If we be rich and high fed we grow wanton and stomackfull and apt to make warre with heaven till we be taken down againe with affliction Thereupon it is that the wise and holy God hath found it still needfull to sauce our contentments with some mixtures of sorrow and to proclaime the Iubile of our mirth and freedome upon the sad day of expiation The man after Gods owne heart could say In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved but the next yee heare is Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled and this trouble he professes to have beene for his good without these meet temperaments worldly hearts runne wilde and can say with the scornfull men that rule in Ierusalem We have made a covenant with death and with hell are wee at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorow it shall not come to us for we have made lies our refuge and under falshood have wee hid our selves yea in a stout insolence as the Prophet Ieremy expresses it They belie the Lord and say it is not he neither shall evill come upon us neither shall we see sword or famine Neither yet is it only the abuse of Gods long suffering and bounty that produceth this ill habit of security and hard-heartednesse but especially a custome of sinning Oft treading hardens the path the hand that was at the first soft and tender after it hath beene inured to worke growes brawned and impenetrable Wee have heard of Virgins which at the first seemed modest blushing at the motions of an honest love who being once corrupt and debauched have grown flexible to easie intreaties unto unchastity and from thence boldly lascivious so as to solicite others so as to prostitute themselves to all commers yea as our Casuists complaine of some Spanish Stewes to an unnaturall filthinesse That which our Canonists say in an other kind is too true here Custome can give a Iurisdiction neither is there any stronger law than it The continued use then of any known sinne be it never so small gives as Gersons phrase is a strong habituation and though it be a true rule that habits do only incline not compell yet the inclination that is wrought by them is so forceable that it differs little from violent Surely so powrefull is the habit of sinne bred by ordinary practise as that it takes away the very sense of sinning so as the offender now knowes not that he doth the very act of some evill much lesse that he sinnes and offends in doing it and now the heart is all turned dead flesh whether too good or ill there is not then a more dangerous condition incident into the soule of man than this of security it bars us of the capacity of any good that may be wrougâ—â— upon us it exposes us to the successe of all tentations it drawes downe the heaviest of Gods judgements upon our heads it defies justice it rejects mercy it makes the heart Gods Anvile which the harder it is struck the more rebounds the blow but the devills featherbed wherein hee sinkes and lyes