his Master behinde his back but he will be ready upon every occasion to vindicate his credit and to magnifie him unto the opinion of others He will make much of those that love his Master and set the lesse by those that care not for him And as to his credit principally so he hath an eye also in the second place to the profit of his Master He will have a care to save his goods the best he can it will grieve his very heart to see any of them vainly wasted or imbeazeled by his fellow servants yea and it will be some grief to him if any thing under his hand do but chance to miscarry though it be without his fault See we how far every of us can apply all this to our own selves in the service of God If we have no heart to stand up in our rank and place for the maintenance of Gods truth and worship when it is discountenanced or overborn either by might or multitudes If our bloud will not appear a little when cursed miscreants blast the honour of God with their unhallowed breath by blaspheming oaths fearful imprecations scurrile prophanations of Scripture licentious and bitter sarcasms against the holy Ordinances of God If a profound drunkard and obscene rimer and habituated swearer a compleat roarer every loose companion and professed scorner of all goodnesse that doth but peep out with a head be as welcome into our company and finde as full and free entertainment with us as he that carryeth the face and for any thing we know hath the heart of an honest and sober Christian without either prophanenesse or precisenesse If we grieve not for the miscarriages of those poor souls that live neer us especially those that fall any way under our charge what faithfulnesse is there in us or what zeal for God to answer the title we usurp so often as we call our selves the servants of God Thirdly if we be his faithful servants we should let it appear by our diligence in doing his businesses No man would willingly entertain an idle servant that is good at bit and nothing else one of those the old riming verse describeth Sudant quando vorant frigescant quando laborant such as can eat till they sweat and work till they freeze O thou wicked and slothful servant saith the Master in the parable to him that napkined up his talent Mat. 25. they are rightly joyned wicked and slothful for it is impossible a slothful servant should be good The Poets therefore give unto Mercury who is interpres divûm the messenger as they faign of Iupiter and the other gods wings both at his hands and feet to intimate thereby what great speed and diligence was requisite to be used by those that should be imployed in the service of Princes for the managing of their weighty affairs of State Surely no lesse diligence is needful in the service of God but rather much more by how much both the Master is of greater majesty and the service of greater importance Not slothful in businesse fervent in spirit serving the Lord saith S. Paul Let all those that trifle away their precious time in unconcerning things or poast off the repentance of their sins and the reformation of their lives till another age or any other way slack their bounden service unto God either in the common duties of their general or in the proper works of their particular calling tremble to think what shall become of them when all they shall be cursed that have done the Lords work in what kinde soever negligently We see now what we are to do if we will approve our selves and our services unto the Lord our heavenly Master What remaineth but that we be willing to do it and for that end pray to the same our Master who alone can work in us both the will and the deed that he would be pleased of his great goodnesse to give to every one of us courage to maintain our Christian liberty inviolate as those that are free wisdom to use it right and not for a cloak of maliciousnesse and grace at all times and in all places to behave our selves as the servants of God with such holy reverence of his Majesty obedience to his will faithfulnesse in his imployments as may both procure to us and our services in the mean time gracious acceptance in his sight and in the end a glorious reward in his presence even for Jesus Christ his sake his only Son and our alone Saviour FINIS A Table of the places of Scripture to which some light more or less is given in the foregoing Fourteen Sermons Chap. Ver. Pag. Gen. III. 4 5 131 15 241.351 16 241 19 241 IV 2 242 VI 6 200 IX 25 221 XV 15 210 XVIII 20 137 32 212 XIX 8 40 9 212 16 211 XX s VI 323 c. XXIIII 12 c. 400 XXXI 29 346 XXXII 6 c. 346 XXXIII 4 c. 346 Exod. II. 14 10 X 26 369 XI 5 6 224 XIIII 4 179 XX 5 224.231.234 XXIII s I III. 125 c. Lev. 26. 21 399 23 399 26 c. 335.301 Num. 22. 27 282 XXIII 19 200 XXV 5 156 Deut. 8. 3 300 14 306 17 306  18 316 XV 4 250 XVII 4 109 XXXII 15 310 Ios. 24. 15 394  24 398 Iudg. 3. 9 10 157 V 7 157 XIX 30 109 1 Sam. 2. 30 396 IV 18 155 XII 24 400 XV 15 377 2 Sam. 13. 28 399 XV 4 117 XXI 14 166 2 King 2. 9 102 X 20 112 XXI 13 377 s XXIX 173 c. 1 King 3. 9 62 VI 25-26 228 VIII 27 226 X 10 209 30 222 XXII 20 210 1 Chron. 26. 29-31 155 2 Chron. 19. 6 114 XXIIII 22 310 Nehem. 5. 15 140 Iob 1. 2 100 5 10 20 224 IX 33 2 XIII 7 36 XXII 30 212 XXIX 9 100 s 14 17. c. 97 c. Psalm 2. 11 398 III 7 112 IV 6-7 301 XIIII 4 111 XVIII 44 398 XIX 12 335.343 13 360 XXXIIII 11 106 XXXVI 3 336 6 215 XXXVII 1 193 XXXIX 11 219 XLV 6 7 102 L 22 213 LI 6 400 12 367 LII 2 4 131 LVII 4 111 LVIII 5 336 6 112 LXXIII 2 3 217 17 217 LXXV 2 4 114.170 LXXVI 10 348 12 348 LXXXI 12 361 LXXXII 6 105.114 CIII 1 2 298 CV 14 351 CVI 6 235 s XXX 149 c. 31 156 CVII 8 352 CIX 14 235 16 101 CXVI 12 299 16 393 CXIX 6 183 94 396 141 4 CXLIII 12 396 CXLV 8 206 16 244 CXLVII 1 312 9 353 Prov. 1. 13 135 III 3 107 XII 13 162 XIV 21 6 XV 8 190 17 301 XVI 12 170 XVII 16 261 XVIII 7 135 9 244 13 110 17 136 XX 25 294 XXI 1 348 XXIIII 26 102 XXV 2 110 XXVI 13 162 25 353 XXVIII 13 335 XXIX 7 137 12 142 XXX 1 6 33 130 XXXI 20 244 Eccles. 1. 4 222 18 337 VIII 11 162 IX 1 179
as to the chief agent that imployeth it We have this treasure in earthen vessels saith Saint Paul that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us 2 Cor. 4. We say Words are but wind and indeed the words of the best Minister are no better as they are breathed out and uttered by sinfull mortall man whose breath is in his nostrils but yet this wind as it is breaâ—hed in and inspired by the powerfull eternal Spirit of God is strong enough by his effectuall working with it not only to shake the top-branches but to rend up the very bottom-root of the tallest Cedar in Lebanon Vox Domini confringens Cedros Psal. 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voyce of the Lord is a glorious voyce The voyce of the Lord breaketh the Cedars yea the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon Another Cause is in the Object and that is the force of Natural Conscience which the most presumptuous sinner can never so stifle though he endeavour all he can to do it but that it will be sometimes snubbing and stinging and lashing and vexing him with ougly representations of his past sinnes and terrible suggestions of future vengeance And then of all other times is the force of it most lively when the voyce of God in his word awakeneth it after a long dead sleep Then it riseth and Sampson-like rouseth up it self and bestirreth it self lustily as a Giant refreshed with wine and it putteth the disquieted patient to such unsufferable pain that he runneth up and down like a distracted man and doth he knoweth not what and seeketh for ease he knoweth not where Then he would give all Dives his wealth for A drop of water to cool the heat he feeleth and with Esau part with his birth-right for any thing though it were never so little or mean that would give him but the least present refreshing and preserve him from fainting Then sack-cloth and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning and renting the garments and tearing the hair and knocking the brest and out-cries to heaven and all those other things which he could not abide to hear of in the time of his former security whilest his conscience lay fast asleep and at rest are now in all haste and greedily entertained and all too little if by any means they can possibly give any ease or asswagement to the present torment he feeleth in his soul. A third Cause is oftentimes in the Application of the Instrument to the Object For although Gods Word in the general be Powerfull and the Conscience of it self be of a stirring Nature yet then ordinarily doth the Word of God work most powerfully upon the Consciences of obstinate sinners when it is throughly and closely applyed to some special corruption whereunto the party cannot plead Not-guilty when the sinne and the judgement are both so driven home that the guilty offender can neither avoid the evidence of the one nor the fear of the other A plain instance whereof we have in this present history of King Ahab When Eliah first came to him in the Vineyard he was pert enough Hast thou found me O mine enemy But by that the Prophet had done with him told him of the sin which was notorious Hast thou killed and taken possession foretold him of the judgement which was heavy I will bring evill upon thee and will take away thy Posterity c. the man was not the man Eliah left him in a farr other tune than he found him in The Prophets words wrought sore upon him and his Conscience wrought sore within him both together wrought him to the humiliation we now speak of It came to passe when he heard these words that he rent his clothes c. If you desire another instance turn to Acts 24.25 where there is a right good one and full to this purpose There we read that Felix the Roman Deputy in Jury Trembled when Paul reasoned of Iustice and of Temperance and of the judgement to come What was that thing may we think in St. Pauls reasoning which especially made Felix to tremble It is commonly taken to be the Doctrine of the last judgement which is indeed a terrible doctrine and able if it be throughly apprehended to make the stoutest of the sons of men to tremble But I take it that is not all The very thing that made Felix tremble seemeth rather to be that Paul's discourse fell upon those special vices wherein he was notably faulty and then clapt in close with judgement upon them For Felix was noted of much cruelty and injustice in the administration of the affairs of Jury howsoever Tertullus like a smooth Orator to curry favour with him and to do Paul a displeasure did flatteringly commend his government and he was noted also of incontinency both otherwise and especially in marrying Drusilla who was another mans wife Tacitus speaking of him in the fifth of his history painteth him out thus Per omnem saevitiam libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit And for such a man as governed with cruelty and rapine and lived in unchaste wedlock to hear one reason powerfully of Iustice and of Chastity for so much the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used properly importeth and of Iudgement it is no wonder if it make him tremble Do thou consider this and tremble whosoever thou art that in thy thoughts despisest the holy word of God accounting of it but as of some humane invention to keep fools in awe withall and thou also whosoever thou art that undervaluest this precious treasure for the meanness or other infirmities of the earthen vessel wherein it is conveyed Tell me doest thou not herein struggle against the testimony and evidence of thine own heart Doth not thine own Conscience and Experience tell thee that this Sword of the Spirit hath a keen edge and biteth and pierceth where it goeth Hath it not sometimes galled and rubbed and lanced and cut thee to the very bone and entred even to the dividing asunder of the joynts and of the marrow Hath it not sometimes as it were by subtile and serpentine insinuations strangely wound it self through those many crooked and Labyrinthean turnings that are in thine heart into the very in-most corner and center thereof and there ripped up thy bowels and thy reins and raked out the filth and corruption that lurked within thee and set thy secretest thoughts in order before thy face in such sort as that thou hast been strucken with astonishment and horrour at the discovery Though perhaps it have not yet softened and melted thy stony and obdurate heart yet didst thou never perceive it hammering about it with sore strokes and knocks as if it would break and shiver it into a thousand pieces Doubtlesse thou hast and if thou wouldest deny it thy conscience is able to give
the Evil and mercy again in suspending it for so long a time I will not bring the evil in his days Of these two points we shall entreat at this time and first and principally of the former I will not bring the evil It is no new thing to them that have read the sacred stories with observation to see God when men are humbled at his threatnings to revoke them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome more than once this is ever Gods manner when men change their deeds to change his doom when they renounce their sins to recall his sentence when they repent of the evil they have done against him to Repent of the evil he had said he would doe against them Search the Scriptures and say if things run not thus as in the most ordinary course God commandeth and Man disobeyeth Man disobeyeth and God threatneth God threatneth and Man repenteth Man repenteth and God forbeareth Abimelech thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his wife untouched and God spareth him and he dyeth not Hezekiah make thy will and Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live but Hezekiah turneth to the wall and prayeth and weepeth and God addeth to his days fifteen years Nineveh prepare for desolation for now but forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed but Nineveh fasted and prayed and repented and Nineveh stood after that more than forty years twice told Generally God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place but if they repented he either with-held it or deferred it or abated it or sweetned it to them for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisedom he hath thought good some way or other he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour wherein he threatned it A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto and which he often and openly professeth he will hold Two remarkable testimonies among sundry other shall suffice us to have proposed at this time for the clear and full evidencing hereof The one in Ierem. 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evil that I thought to doe unto them The other in Ezek. 33.13 14. When I say to the wicked thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawfull and right If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die And every where in the Prophets after Denunciations of judgement follow exhortations to Repentance which were bootlesse if Repentance should not either prevent them or adjourn them or lessen them You see God both practiseth and professeth this course neither of which can seem strange to us if we duly consider either his readiness to shew mercy or the true End of his threatnings We have partly already touched at the greatness of his mercy To shew compassion and to forgive that is the thing wherein he most of all delighteth and therefore he doth arripere ansam take all advantage as it were and lay hold on every occasion to doe that but to punish and take vengeance is opus alienum as some expound that in Esay 28. his strange work his strange act a thing he taketh no pleasure in Vivo nolo in Ezek. 33. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked c. As the Bee laboureth busily all the day long and seeketh to every flower and to every weed for Hony but stingeth not once unlesse she be ill provoked so God bestirreth himself and his bowels yearn within him to shew compassion O Ephraim what shall I doe unto thee O Iudah how shall I entreat thee Why will ye dye O ye house of Israel Run to and fro through the streets of Ierusalem and seek if you can find a man but a man that I may pardon it But vengeance commeth on heavily and unwillingly and draweth a sigh from him Heu consolaâ—or Ah I must I see there is no remedy I must ease me of mine adversaries and be avenged of mine enemies Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets how oft would I c. How shall I give thee up Ephraim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together So is our God slow to anger and loath to strike Quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox but plenteous in mercy as David describeth him in Psal. 103. Never was a man truly and inwardly humbled but God in the riches of his special mercy truly pardoned him never was man so much as but outwardly humbled as Ahab here but God in his common and general mercy more or lesse forbare him Secondly the end of Gods threatnings also confirmeth this point For doth he threaten evil think ye because he is resolved to inflict it Nothing lesse rather to the contrary he therefore threatneth it that we by our repentance may prevent it and so he may not inflict it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom he foretelleth what he will bring upon us for this very purpose that he may not bring it upon us and warneth before he striketh to make us carefull to avoid â—he stroke In the antient Roman State and discipline the manner was before they made warr upon any people first to send Heralds to proclame it Bellum indicere â—e inserrent to the end that if they would make their peace by submission they might prevent the warr nor so onely but be written also in albo amicorum enrolled as their friends and confederates So God sendeth his Heralds the Prophets to threaten vengeance against sinners not thereby to drive them from hope of mercy but to draw them to repentance and humiliation whereby they may not only turn away the vengeance threatned but also if they perform them unfeignedly and with upright hearts interest themselves farther in his favour and love Nor is it to be accounted among the least of Gods mercies when he might in his just displeasure over-whelm us in the very act of our sinnes as Zimri and Cosbi were runn thorow in the very act of filthinesle and as Uzzah and Annanias and Sapphira and some few others whom God picked out to shew exemplary judgement upon were strucken dead upon the sudden for their transgressions When God might in justice deal with the same rigour against us all I say it is not the least of his mercies that he forbeareth and forewarneth and foretelleth and threatneth us before he punish
reference to Ahab that is to say either relatè as the son of Ahab or disparatè as another man from Ahab or comparatè as a man not altogether so bad as Ahab Now what Justice first to punish the son for the father or indeed secondly any one man for another but most of all thirdly the lesse offender for the greater It is not a matter of so much difficulty as at the first appearance it seemeth to clear these doubts if all things thereto appertaining be duly and distinctly considered The greatest trouble will be the things being of more variety than hardnesse to sort them in such manner as that we may therein proceed orderly and without confusion Evermore we know Certainties must rule Uncertainties and clear truths doubtfull it will be therefore expedient for us for the better guiding of our judgements first to lay down some Certainties and then afterwards by them to measure out fit resolutions to the doubts and then lastly from the premises to raise some few instructions for our use The first Certainty then and a main one is this Howsoever things appear to us yet God neither is nor can be unjust as not in any other thing so neither in his punishments Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance God forbid for then how shall God judge the world shall not the Iudge of all the earth doe right Indeed the reasons of his Iustice oftentimes may be oftentimes are unknown to us but they never are they never can be unrighteous in him If in a deep point of Law a learned discreet Iudge should upon sufficient grounds give sentence flat contrary to what an ordinary by-stander would think reason as many times it falleth out it is not for the grieved party to complain of injustice done him he should rather impute what is done to want of skill in himself than of Conscience in the Judge Right so if in many things Gods proceedings hold not proportion with those characters of Justice and Equity which our weak and carnal reason would expresse we must thence inferr our own ignorance not his injustice And that so much the rather because those matters of Law are such as fall within the comprehension of ordinary reason whereas the wayes of God are farr removed out of our sight and advanced above our reach and besides an earthly Iudge is subject to misprision mis-information partiality corruption and sundry infirmities that may vitiate his proceedings whereas no such thing can possibly fall upon the divine Nature David hath taught us in the Psalm that The righteousness of God is as the great mountains and his judgements as the great deep A great Mountain is eath to be seen a man that will but open his eyes cannot over-look it but who can see into the bottom of the Sea or finde out what is done in the depths thereof Whatsoever we doe then let us beware we measure not his wayes by our wayes nor his works by our works howsoever they seem to swerve from the rules of our wayes and works yet still The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works Though we cannot fathom the deeps of his judgements for The Well is deep and we have not wherewithall to draw yet let the assurance of the righteousnesse of all his proceedings stand firm and manifest as the mountains which can neither be removed not hid but stand fast-rooted for evermore This we must rest upon as a certain Truth howsoever whomsoever whensoever God punisheth he is never unjust The second Certainty To speak of Punishments properly no temporal evil is simply and de toto genere a punishment By temporal evils I understand all the penal evils of this lfe that doe or may befall us from our bodily conception to our bodily deaths inclusivè hunger cold nakednesse sicknesses infirmities discontents reproaches poverty imprisonments losses crosses distresses death and the rest in a word all that Sore travel which God hath given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith and that Heavy yoke which is upon the sons of Adam from the day that they goe out of their mothers womb till the day that they return to the mother of all things I say none of all these are properly and de toto genere to be accounted punishments For to make a thing simply and properly and formally a punishment there are required these three conditions 1. That it be painfull and grievous to suffer 2. That it be inflicted for some fault 3. That it be involuntary and against the sufferers will That which hath but the first of these three conditions may be called after a sort and truly too Malum poenae a kinde of punishment But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly that Evil onely is a punishment wherein the whole three conditions concurre Now these temporal evils though they have the two first conditions all of them being grievous to suffer all of them being inflicted for sinne yet in the third condition they fail because they are not involuntary simply and perpetually and de suo genere involuntary to omit also a kinde of failing in the second condition not but that they are ever inflicted for some sinne deserving them but for that there are withall other ends and reasons for which they are inflicted and whereunto they are intended besides and above the punishment of the offence It may not be gainsaid indeed but these things are involuntary sometimes in the particular and especially to some men even the least of them but simply and universally such they are not since by othersome men the greatest of them are willingly and cheerfully not only suffered but desired Not but that they are grievous to the best It must needs be some grief as to the Merchant to see his rich lading cast over-board and to the Patient to have an old festered sore searched and sindged so to the Christian to have Gods correcting hand lie heavy upon him in some temporal affliction The Apostle telleth us plainly No affliction for the present is joyous but grievous But involuntary it is no more in him than those other things are in them As therefore the Merchant though it pity his heart to see so much wealth irrecoverably lost yet getteth the best help and useth the best speed he can to empty the Vessel of them for the saving of his life and as the Patient though he smart when the wound is dressed yet thanketh and feeth the Surgion for his pains in hope of future ease so the Christian though these temporal evils somewhat trouble him yet he is willing to them and he is cheerfull under them and he acknowledgeth Gods goodness in them and returneth him thanks for them because he knoweth they are sent for his future good and that they will at the last Yield him the peaceable fruit of righteousness when he shall have been sufficiently exercised thereby See
sweat for it Secondly although it may not be gainsayed but that that injunction to Adam was given as a Curse yet the substance of the Injunction was not the thing wherein the Curse did formally consist Herein was the Curse that whereas before the fall the task which God appointed man was with pleasure of body and content of mind without sweat of brow or brain now after the fall he was to toyl and forecast for his living with care of mind and travel of body with weariness of flesh and vexation of spirit But as for the substance of the Injunction which is that every man should have somewhat to do wherein to bestow himself and his time and his gifts and whereby to earn his bread in this it appeareth not to have been a Curse but a Precept of divine institution that Adam in the time and state of innocency before he had deserved a Curse was yet enjoyned his Task To dress and to keep the Garden And as Adam lived himself so he bred up his children His two first born though heirs apparent of all the world had yet their peculiar employments the one in tillage the other in pasturage And as many since as have walked orderly have observed Gods Ordinance herein working with their hands the thing that is good in some kind or other those that have set themselves in no such good way our Apostle elswhere justly blaming as inordinate or disorderly walkers And how can such disorderly ones hope to find approvance in the sight of our God who is a God of Order He commandeth us to live in a Calling and woe to us if we neglect it But say there were no such expresse Command for it the very distribution of Gods gifts were enough to lay upon us this necessity Where God bestoweth he bindeth and to whom any thing is given of him something shall be required The inference is stronger than most are aware of from the Ability to the Duty from the Gift to the Work from the Fitting to the Calling Observe how this Apostle knitteth them together at the 17. Verse As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk God hath distributed to every man some proper gift or other and therefore every man must glorifie God in some peculiar Calling or other And in Eph. 4. having alleged that of the Psalm He gave gifts unto men immediately he inferreth He gave some Apostles some Prophets c. as giving us to understand that for no other end God did bestow upon some Apostolical upon others Prophetical upon others gifts in other kinds but that men should imploy them some in the Apostolical some in the Prophetical some in Offices and Callings of other kinds And if we confesse that Nature doth not we may not think the God of Nature doth bestow abilities whereof he intendeth not use for that were to bestow them in vain Sith then he bestoweth gifts and graces upon every man some or other and none in vain let every man take heed that he receive them not in vain let every man beware of napkening up the talent which was delivered him to trade withall Let all As every one hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold graces of God The manifestation of the Spirit being given to every man to profit withall he that liveth unprofitably with it and without a Calling abuseth the intent of the giver and must answer for his abuse Secondly the necessity of a Calling is great in regard of a mans self and that more wayes than one For man being by nature active so as he cannot be long but he must be doing he that hath no honest vocation to busie himself in that hath nothing of his own to doe must needs from doing nothing proceed to doing naught That saying of Cato was subscribed by the wiser Heathens as an oracle Nihil agendo malè agere disce◠Idleness teacheth much evil saith the wise son of Syrac nay all kind of evil as some copies have it It hath an ear open to every extravagant motion it giveth entertainment to a thousand sinfull fancies it exposeth the soul to all the assaults of her Ghostly enemies and whereas the Devils greatest businesse is to tempt other men the idle mans only businesse is to tempt the Devil Experience of all histories and times sheweth us what advantages the Devil hath won upon godly and industrious men otherwise as upon David in the matter of Uriah and many others onely by watching the opportunity of their idle hours plying them with suggestions of noysom lusts at such times as they had given themselves but some little intermission more than ordinary from their ordinary imployments How will he not then lead captive at his pleasure those whose whole lives are nothing else but a long vacation and their whole care nothing but to make up a number and to waste the good creatures of God There is no readier sanctuary for thee then good Christian when the Devil pursueth thee than to betake thy self at once to prayer and to the works of thy Calling flye thither and thou art safe as in a Castle Non licet is a very good and proper and direct answer when the Devil would tempt thee to sin it is evil and I may not doe it but yet Non vacat is the stronger answer and surer I am busie and I cannot do it That giveth him scope to reply and it is not safe to hold argument with the Devil upon any terms he is a cunning Sophister and thou mayest be circumvented by a subtilty before thou art aware But this stubborn and blunt answer cutteth off all reply and disheartneth the Tempter for that time It was Saint Hieroms advice to his friend Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut Diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum Be always doing something that the Devil may never finde thee at leisure There is no Crosse no Holy-water no Exorcism so powerful to drive away and to conjure down the Fiend as Employment is and faithfull labour in some honest Calling Thirdly Life must be preserved Families maintained the poor relieved this cannot be done without Bread for that is the staff of life and Bread cannot be gotten or not honestly but in a Lawfull vocation or Calling Which who ever neglecteth is in very deed no better than a very thief the Bread he eateth he cannot call his own We hear saith Saint Paul writing to the Thessalonians That there are some among you that walk inordinately and work not at all but are busie-bodies Them therefore that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Iesus Christ that they work with quietnesse and eat their own bread As if it were not their own bread if
good concerning Israel in 22. 24. of Numbers In all which and sundry other instances wherein when there was intended before-hand so much evill to be done and there was withall in the parties such a forward desire and such solemn preparation to have it done and yet when all came to all so little or nothing was done of what was intended but rather the contrary it cannot first be imagined that such a stop should be made but by the powerful restraint of some superiour and over-ruling hand neither may we doubt in the second place that every such restraint by what second and subordinate means soever it be furthered is yet the proper work of God as proceeding from and guided by his Almighty and irresistible providence As for that which happened to Balaam that it was Gods doing the evidence is clear we have it from the mouth of two or three witnesses The Wisard himself confesseth it The Lord will not suffer me to go with you Num. 22. The King that set him on work upbraideth him with it I thought indeed to promote thee to great honour but lo the Lord hath kept thee back from honour Num. 24. And Moses would have Israel take knowledge of it The Lord thy God would not harken unto Balaam but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing because the Lord thy God loved thee Deut. 23. It was God then that turned Balaams curse into a blessing and it was the same God that turned Labans revengeful thoughts into a friendly Expostulation and it was the same God that turned Esaus inveterate malice into a kinde brotherly congratulation He that hath set bounds to the Sea which though the waves thereof rage horribly they cannot pass Hitherto shalt thou go and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves and did command the waters of the Red Sea to stay their course and stand up as on heaps and by his power could enforce the waters of the River Iordan to run quite against the current up the Channel he hath in his hands and at his command the hearts of all the sons of men yea though they be the greatest Kings and Monarchs in the world as the Rivers of waters and can winde and turn them at his pleasure inclining them which way soever he will The fiercenesse of man shall turn to thy praise saith David in Ps. 76.10 and the fiercenesse of them shalt thou retain the latter clause of the verse is very significant in the Original and cometh home to our purpose as if we should translate it Thou shalt gird the remainder of their wrath or of their fiercenesse The meaning is this Suppose a mans heart be never so full fraught with envie hatred malice wrath and revenge let him be as fierce furious as is possible God may indeed suffer him and he will suffer him to exercise so much of his corruption and proceed so far in his fiercenesse as he seeth expedient and usefull for the forwarding of other his secret and just and holy appointments and so order the sinful fiercenesse of man by his wonderful providence as to make it serviceable to his ends and to turn it to his glory but look whatsoever wrath and fiercenesse there is in the heart of a man over and above so much as will serve for those his eternall purposes all that surplusage that overplus and remainder whatsoever it be he will gird he will so binde and hamper and restrain him that he shall not be able to go an inch beyond his â—eâ—der though he would fret his heart out The fiercenesse of man shall turn to thy praise so much of it as he doth execute and the remainder of their fiercenesse thou shalt refrain that they execute it not Be he never so great a Prince or have he never so great a spirit all is one he must come under No difference with God in this betwixt him that sitteth on the Throne and her that grindeth at the Mill He shall refrain the spirit of Princes and is wonderfull among the Kings of the earth in the last vers of that Psalm Now of the truth of all that hath been hitherto spoken in both these branches of the Observation viz. that first there is a restraint of evill and then secondly that this restraint is from God I know not any thing can give us better assurance taking them both together than to consider the generality and strength of our Natural corruption General it is first in regard of the Persons overspreading the whole lump of our nature there is not a childe of Adam free from the common infection They are all corrupt they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one General secondly in regard of the subject over-running the whole man soul and body with all the parts and powers of either so as from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no whole part Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and To them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their minde and Conscience is defiled and All the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually General thirdly in regard of the object averse from all kinde of good In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing and prone to all kinde of evil He hath set himself in no good way neither doth he abhorre any thing that is evill Adde to this generality the strength also of our corruption how vigorous and stirring and active it is and how it carrieth us headlongly with full speed into all manner of evill As the horse rusheth into the battell so as we have no hold of our selves neither power to stay our selves till we have run as far as we can and without the mercy of God plunged our selves into the bottome of the bottomlesse pit Lay all this together and there can be no other sufficient reason given than this restraint whereof we now speak why any one man should at any one time refrain from any one sin being tempted thereunto whereinto any other man at any other time hath fallen being alike tempted Every man would kill his brother as Cain did Abel and every man defile his sister as Amnon did Thamâ—r and every man oppresse his inferiour as Ahab did Naboth and every man supplant his betters as Zâ—bah did Mâ—phâ—bosheth and every man betray his Master as Iudas did Christ every man being as deep in the loynes of Adam as either Cain or Iudas or any of the rest Their nature was not more corrupt than ours neither ours lesse corrupt than theirs and therefore every one of us should have done those things as well as any one of them if there had not been something without and above nature to withhold us and keep us back therefrom when we were tempted
believed for necessity of salvation Artic. 20. h See Conference at Hampâ—oâ— Court pa. 70.71 i Iâ— rebus medits lex posita est obediâ—ntiae Bern. Epist. 7. k De hujusmodi quippe nec praeceptor expectandus nec prohibitos au scultandus est Bern. de praec dispensat See Agell 2. Noct. Attic. 7. Bernard Epist. 7. l See Sam. Collins Sermon in 1 Tim. 6.3 pag. 44. c. m Artic. 34 n See Calvin lib. 4. Instit. c. 10. sect 27. o Quot capita tot Schismata Hieronym p Like that Col. 2.21 Touch not taste not handle not a Pro inficiatione pontificatus foeminei Aquipont in resp ad Sohn de Antichristo Thes. 15. speaking of the Priests executed in the reign of Qu. Elizabeth b See Donnes Pseudo-Martyr per totum especially c. 5 c. c The practice of our Church sufficiently confirmeth this which censureth no man for the bare omission of some kind of Rites and Ceremonies now and then where it may be presumed by the parties cheerfull and generall conformity otherwise that such omission proceedeth not either from an opinative dislike of the Ceremony imposed or from a timorous and obsequious humouring of such as do dislike it Whosoever willingly and purposely doth openly break c. Artic. 34. d In minimiâ— quoque mandatis culpam facit non minimam convertit in crimen gravis rebellionis naevum satis levem simplicis transgressionis Bern. de prec dispens a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.5 b Not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake Ibid. c Meditations on the Lords Prayer pag. 12. in the Margent a All benefit of Law being denied thâ—m and they debarred of other means by conference or writing for heir defence Def· of Ministers reasons part 1. pref to Reader We do accuse the Reverend Bishops in the sight of God and Man for their hard and extream dealing towards us Removall of imputations p. 40. b Many by their factious behaviour were driven to be Papists The Kings Maj. in Confer at Hamp pag. 98. a Witnesse the learned Books of divers reverend Prelates Iohn Whitgift Iohn Buckâ—ridge Thomas Morâ—on c. a Sancti stante charitate possâ—â— errare etiam contra Catholicam veritatem Occham Dial. part 1. l. 2 c. 4. b So Pelagius from whose root Popery in that branch sprouted was a man as strâ—ct for life as most Catholickes yet a most dangerous and pestilent Heretick Pelagii viri ut audio sancti non parvo proâ—â—ctu Christiani Aug. 3. de peccat merit rem 1. Istum sicut eum qui noverunt loquuntur boâ—uÌ„ ac praedicandum virum Ibid. cap. 3. c Non enim in cuâ—usquam persona praetermittendum est quod institutis generalibus continetur Leo dist 61. Miramur a I referre the Reader for more particular satisfaction to Fr. Masons Sermon on 1 Cor. 14.40 pag. 30. Sam. Collins Sermon on 1 Tim. 6.3 pa. 21.22 and others but especially to their own writings a Brightman in Apoc. cap. 3. b This Simile was first used by a very Reverend grave and worthy Deane who hath many waies deserved well of our whole Church Alexander Noel Deane of Pauls in a Sermon before Queen Elizabeth and modestly and moderately urged not at all against the Ceremonies which by his practise he did allow but for the further restraint of Popish Priests and Jesuites who lay thick in Ireland and the westerne coasts of England and Wales as heaps of dust and dirt behind the doores Yet I here ascribed it to the Puritanes who though they father it upon that good man must own it as their own brat because by mis-applying it to the Ceremonies they have made it their own Malè dum recitas incipit esse tuum c Meditations on the Lords Prayer pa. 11. c. primae edit 1619. See Hookers Preface Sect. 8. a Eadem velle eos cognosces da posse quantuÌ„ volunt Senec. Epist. 42. b Mat. 10.27 c Gal. 2.14 Utique conversationis fuit vitium non praedicationis Tertull de praescript cap. 23. Non imperio sed facto Lyra. Non docentis imperio sed conversationis exemplo Gloss. Ord. ibid. d Otherwise what else do we but deny and betray the truth Defence of Min. reasons part 1. Pref. to the Reader e Artic. 20. f Artic. 34. g Heb. 3.2 h Acts 20.27 a That thou might'st be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged Psal. 51.4 a Triplex inconveniens Lyranus hic b Verse 5. c Verse 7. Observ. I. a Propter hos arguendos fecit Paul 9. hic quasi digresâ—ionem tractando haec Cajetan hic b Aut animo d mas aut viribus addas Dâ—ctâ—m Archidamâ— ad filium apud Plutarch in Laconicis c As Zuinglius said of Carolostadius whom he jâ—dged too weak to undertake the defence of the truth against Luther in the point of Consubstantiation Nâ—a satis humâ—rorum haber Sleidan a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observ. II. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 14.15 Jam. 5. â—7 c 2 Cor. 5.20 d 1 Thes. 2 1â— e 1 Thes. 4.8 f We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God Acts 6.11 Observ. III. a Mat. 11.17 19. b Mat. 5.17 c Mat. 22.21 d John 19.12 e Luke â—3 2 f Mat. 10.25 g Acts 17.28 Esay 16.12 h Rom. 9 1â— 1â— 18 c. i John 13.1 Rom. 11.29 5.9 10. 8.35 38 39. k Rom. 3.28 a John 8.44 b Ephes. 6.12 c 2 Thes. 1.10 11 12. d 1 Cor. 11.19 e John 10.12 f 2 Tim. 1.6 g 1 Tâ—m 6.20 2 Tim 1.14 Observ. IV. a Amorasius Lyra Piscator Pareus c. b Chrysostomus Cajâ—tâ—nus Erasmus c. c Mat. 12.36 a Mat. 12.31 32. b 1 Tim. 1.13 a Involuntarium minuit de ratione peccati b Psal. 19.12 c 1 Tim. 1.13 d 2 Pet. 3.18 a Tertul. l. 2. adv Marcion cap. 14. b Inter haec datur electio minus damnum ficere licet ut evitetur majus Parens hic c Slater on this place a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Quia eorum â—bâ—ectum non includit â—liquid pertinens ad ordinem rationis Aquin. 1.2 qu. 18. art 8. in corp a Let every man be fully perswaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own mind vâ—r 5. a Rom. 14.14 b Ibid. v. 23. c Ibid. ver 21. d Ibid. ver 20. e Math. 9.13 a Vide susè Augustinum in lib. de Mendacio contra Mendacium a libi· b Ad sempiternaÌ„ saluâ—eÌ„ nulus ducendus est oâ—itulante mendacio Aug. de mendac ca. 19. c Ea quae constat esse peccata nullo bonae causae obtentu nullo quasi bono fine nulla velut bona intentione facienda sunt Aug. contra Mendac c. 7. a Suapte natura repugnat peccato quod sit eligible propterea nec propter se nec propter aliud