if thou strangle thy sefe with the smal cords of vanitie Thou must therefore be contented to forgo those little ones a great beam will put out a mans eye so may a mote too a great flame may burn a house so may a small sparkle a cart-rope may strangle a man so may a small cord a sword will take away the life of the strongest man and so may a little pen-knife nay the point of a needle a Canon shot may murther a man so may the shot of a pocket dagg the deep Ocean may drown a man and so may a smal River It is even so with sin the Aegyptians were as surely drowned that laid dead on the shore as those that were overwhelmed in the deep so the least sinne without repentance drowns a man in the gulfe of perdition as well as the greatest and let me add this which is a most certain truth though at the first it may seeme a paradox that more are damned to Hell for little sinnnes then for great Why Because as it is not the falling into the fire that burnes a man to death but continuing in it nor the falling into the water that drownes a man but lying in it so it is not the falling into sin that damns a man for then all should be damned seeing all fall into sin but cotinuance in sinne and impenitencie A great sinne may prove veniall and a little sinne the same kindâ—n mortall exempli gratia oppression may be veniall and the least desire of another mans goods mortall actuall adulterie veniall and adulterie of the heart unlawfull desire mortall shedding of innocent blood veniall and unadvised anger mortal one of these wee find pardoned in David another in Zacheus the third in Manasses and pardoned they shall be to all such as truly repent and believe the Gospel but these being breaches of Gods law are in their own nature mortall and unlesse repentance follow them they are sure to bring death with them not that these are more grievous in their own nature then those or did more provoke Gods wrath the contrary is true in both but because they often find mercie when the other doe not because they are often accompanied with repentance when the other are not and it is not the greatnesse or littlenesse of the sinne that makes it mortall or venial but the continuance in it or forsaking of it he that continueth in his sin though never so small shall not prosper but he that forsaketh them though never so great shall finde mercie Now many that have been overtaken with grievous and crying sinnes having had the looking glasse of the Law laid before them have been humbled and upon their humiliation pardoned and so their mortall sinnes made venial whereas these lesse sinnes wherein men walke securely and never are truly humbled for them but blesse themselves with the fancie that they are free of many hainous crimes wherewith many others in the world are stained these these I say bring many milions to hell experience sheweth that many dangerous wounds being timely looked unto are cured whereas the least as a stab with an Aule or prickle of a black or prickle of a black thorn neglected may indanger a member if not life So the greatest sinne soundly and timely repented obtains pardon whereas the least neglected as if there were no danger because of it self not so dangerous brings death on the back of it Let then the men of this world who make a sport of sinne mince and qualifie and extenuate their greatest offences let them thinke themselves happie because they are not the greatest transgressors let them never have any Scriptures but such as sound Gods mercies in their mouthes but for thee Beloved Christian if thou look to find favour at the hands of the Almighty though after thy fals and slips thou art to meditate upon Gods mercies lest thou be swallowed up with over much heaviness yet before to keep thee from falling mediate upon his judgements and fierce wrath against the least transgressions lay them open before God that he may cover them condemn them that he may forgive them confesse them to be by nature mortall that by grace he may make them veniall Thus much concerning the second proposition the last proposition is against the Romish doctrine of traditions wee receive traditions say the Fathers of the Councell of Trent pertaining to faith and manners with like devotion and reverence that wee doe the books of the Old and New Testament they meane divine and Apostolicall traditions these wee reverence and receive as well as they viz. if they be expresly delivered in the Scripture or may by necessary consequence be thence proved this is not their meaning but such as are not written but only said to be delivered by Christ and his Apostles very well but seeing the ancient received some for divine and Apostolical which are not rejected even by the Church of Rome as abstaining from blood and that which is strangled praying toward the East c. How shall I know what traditions are divine and Apostolicall Bellarmine gives me a good rule that is without doubt an Apostolical tradition saith he that is taken for Apostolicall in those Churches where is a continued succession of Bishops from the Apostles where is that marrie onely in the Church of Rome Et ideo ex testimonio hujus solius Ecclesiae sumi potest certum indubitatum argumentum ad probandas Ecclesiasticas traditiones and therefore from the testimonie of that Church onely may be taken a certain and infallible argument for proving of Apostolicall traditions This is the strongest stake that stands in the Popes hedge allow him this principle and he will be sure to win the field The Protestants have challenged the Romanists at three severall kinde of weapons Reason Antiquitie and Scripture The first they put off with their nice and aeriall distinctions the second when all other shifts have failed them they wipe oft with the wards of their expurgatorie indices wherein they deale with the ancient Fathers and some of their own side also as Terence in the Poet did with Prognâ— that is cut out their tongues that in future times they shall never be able to crie down Poperie when they are assaulted with the third which is the fittest that can be used to maintain Gods quarrell against his enemies being taken out of Davids Tower where hang a thousand shields and all the weapons of the strong men they put off this blow by their tradition yea but traditions are against the Word of God Ye shall add nothing unto that which I command you Deut. 4. Yea but traditions are the word of God though not written how prove you this because our Church holdeth them to be such Et quod nos volumus sanctum est as Tichonius the Donatist was wont to say Woe unto you yee Hypocrites for ye bind heavie burdens and lay them upon mens shoulders yee make the Law of
attribute being more proper and essentiall unto God then any whatsoever That Tyrian proved the wisest in the end who having concluded in the Evening with his fellowes that he which could first in the next morning behold the Sun which they worshipped as a God should be King looked not toward the East where he riseth but towards the western mountains where his rayes did first appear We will follow his Example and seeing we cannot seek into the fountain at which the Cherubs did cover their faces let us behold it in the mountains that is the Prophets and Apostles as Jerome expounds the word or the mountains that is the creatures and works of God in all which it doth most clearly shine there is no work of God in which there do not appear such manifest Characters of his mercy that he which runneth may read them Those benefits intended towards his children as namely Election before all time creation in the beginning of time Vocation Redemption Justification in the fulnesse of time Glorification after all time c. To prove them to be so many rivers of the bottomlesse Ocean of Gods never dying mercy it were but to busie my self about a principle which I hope none of you will call into question Gods almighty power is manifested unto us in that he hath created the world of nothing and made all the hoast of heaven by the breath of his mouth and it is a property in describing of which Gods Secretaries do strive to be eloquent Job to shew it faith that hee spreadeth out the heavens like a Canopie and walketh upon the height of the Sea that he maketh the starres Arcturu and Orion and Pleiades and the climates of the South Elihu sets it forth under Behemoth whose taile is like a Cedar and his bones like staves of brasse yet the Lord leadeth him whither soever he will and under Leviathan which makes the depth to boile like a pot and the sea like a pot of ointment and yet the Lord can put a hoâ—k in his nose and pierce his jawes with an Angle David to shew it faith that he maketh the mountains to skippe like Rammes and the little hils like young sheep Esay to expresse it saith that all nations before him are as a droppe of a bucket and are counted as the dust of the ballance that hee taketh away the Isles as a little dust that he hath measured the waters in his fist and counted heaven with a span comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a weight and the hils in a ballance and yet his mercy goeth beyond his power in that his omnipotency hath made nothing but what his mercy moved him to create and it comes after too in preserving and guiding and protecting by his heavenly providence a branch of his mercy whatsoever his powerfull hand hath made if he should but once stop the influence of his mercy all the works of his hands should presently be annihilated The earth is full of the mercies of the Lord saith the Psalmist hee saith not the heavens saith Austen Quia non indigent misericordia ubi est nulla miseria they needed no mercy where there is no misery and yet in another place hee addeth the heavens too thy truth an other of his attributes goeth unto the clouds there it stayeth but thy mercy goeth further it reacheth unto the heavens in fewer words It is over all his works But my text leads me to entreat of his mercy as it hath reference unto his justice where you shall finde that of two infinites one doth infinitely surpasse an other to bee called a mercifull God and the father of mercy is a title wherein God especially delighteth but he is almost never called the God of judgement here how hee proclaimeth himself The Lord the Lord strong there is one Epithete of his power merciful gracious slow to anger abundant in goodnesse and truth reserving mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin there are six of his mercy Then comes his justice in punishing of offences not making the wicked innocent visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation there he confines his justice hee saith unto it as he doth unto the seas in Job Hither shalt thou goe and thou shalt go no further here shalt thou stay thy raging waves it shall not passe the fourth generation and that is more then Ordinary if it come so farre it is but as a high spring upon such as hate him but his mercy flowes like a boundlesse Ocean upon thousands of those that love him Nay the Prophet tels us that to punish is with God a rare and extraordinary work The Lord saith he shall stand as in mount Perazim hee shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon that hee may do his work his strange act This is an act of judgement where you see that to punish with him is an uncouth and strange work an act indeed unto which without compulsion of justice hee could not be drawn he is more loath to put out his hand for to inflict a judgement then ever was Octavius to subscribe his name to the execution of any publike offender whose usuall speech was this Vtinam nescirem literas I would to God I could not write How oft doth miserable man offend against his maker surely if the just man fall seven times then the wicked falleth seventy times seven times and yet he maketh his Sunne to shine upon them both he makes his rain to fall upon them both still almost he containeth the sword of his justice within the sheath of his mercy If in case he be enforced to draw it he is as it were touched with a feeling of that which the wicked suffer hear himself speak Therefore thus saith the Lord of hoasts the holy one of Israel ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies it is a kinde of ease to be avenged of thine enemie and therefore God when the Jews continue still to provoke him to his face will ease himself by inflicting his judgements upon them I will ease me of mine enemies but it comes with an ah or alas it is pain and grief to him he is wounded to the very heart his bowels are rolled and turned within him a few tears might have made him sheath his sword and deferre his punishments the history of Ahab will prove as much who was one that had sold himself to work wickednesse that provoked the Lord more then all the Kings of Israel that were before him then Baasha then Omri then Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin therefore the Lords sends unto him the Prophet Eliah telling him that in the field where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth they should lick his blood also and that he would wipe
away his posterity as one wipeth a dish when it is wiped and turned upside down Ahab hath no sooner rented his clothes at the Prophets words then God repenteth him of what he had threatned Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me a simple humiliation God wot only in outward shew and yet shall suffice to revoke part of Gods judgements against him because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his dayes upon his house Nineve had multiplyed her transgressions as the sand upon the sea shore she had by her sins blown upon the coals of Gods anger against her but yet he will not come upon her as a thief in the night to destroy her she shall have fourtie dayes warning and if in the mean time she will turn her playing into praying and her feasting into fasting and by covering her self with sack cloth hide from his eyes her broad sails of pride he will make it known unto her that he was not so ready before to lend a left ear of justice to her crying sins as he is now to afford a right ear of mercie to the cry of her sinners he will repent of the evil that he had denounced against her and will not do it The old world had so defiled the earth with her cruelties and the smoak of her sins did so fume up to Heaven into the Nostrils of God that he was sorry in his heart that ever he had made man yet he will not presently destroy this wicked generation there shall be an hundred and twenty years for repentance before he will purge this Augaeum stabulum with a deluge of waters Nay such is the never drying stream of his mercies that for the righteous sake the wicked though they do not repent shall fare the better God is not like to the Emperour Theodosius who for the offence of a few put all the Thessalonians to the sword but rather if without offence the Potter may be compared to the clay like to that Persian General who spared Delos because that Apollo was born there or Caesar who made the Cnidians free men for Theopompus his sake it was an opinion of the Heathen that for one evil mans sake many good men were put to the worse Pallas exurere Gentem Argivûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Pallas overthrew the whole navie of the Argives Vnius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei for the sin of one man by name Ajax the son of Oileus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God punisheth a whole City for one mans sin and sends upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famine and plague for the sin of some particular it is not so God never punisheth one man for anothers offences if thou object unto me that the Israelites were plagued for Davids trespasse I answer Davids sin did occasion that punishment which the Israelites did justly deserve for their own iniquities for howsoever David in respect of himself who deserved more called them sheep yet indeed they were Wolves in sheep-skins and verily in this particular we have an evident demonstration of his mercies for first of three several punishments he gives him leave to chuse which of them he would When David had chosen the Pestilence for three dayes indeed he sent his destroying Angel but before his sword was half drawn he puts it up again and repenteth him of the evil and abridgeth the time Now we know that every substraction from his judgements is a multiplication of his mercies and how far he is from punishing the righteous with the wicked let Sodom witnesse a sink of the filthiest sins a cage of the uncleanest birds a den of the wickedest theeves that ever the earth bred yet he will not rashly come upon her but first he will go down and see whether they have done altogether according unto that cry which was come unto him and if there can but fifty righteous men be found in five Cities which was but for every City ten nay if but fourty nay if but thirty nay if but twenty nay if but ten can bee found amongst them all which was but for every City two he will not destroy the Citie for those mens sake when none can be found save just Lot he will not subvert Sodom before he be brought out of the City nay he will spare the whole City of Zoar for Lots sake if good Paul be in the ship all that are with him even the barbarous Souldiers shall for his sake come safe to land But of all others that I may end this point where I began it Jerusalem in my Text is most famous whom the Lord doth so tenderly compassionate that if within her spatious walls amongst so many millions of souls one righteous man could have been found either among the Nobles or Magistrates or Priests or people he would have spared Jerusalem for that mans sake And is this true be not then dismayed thou fainting and drooping soul whom the burden of thy sins hath pressed down to the brink of hell is there such a thunder-threatning Cloud of Gods justice set before thine eyes that thou thinkest it impossible that the Sun of his favour should pierce through it into thine heart deceive not thy self where sin aboundeth there grace super-aboundeth thou aâ—t a fit Subject for God to work upon where should the Physitian shew his skill but where the greatest maladies do reign and where can God better shew his mercie then where is the greatest aboundance of mans misery the desperatest diseases that can befall the soul of man dead Apoplexies unclean Leprosies dangerous Lethargies remedilesse Consumptions whatsoever they be God can as easily cure them as the smallest infection and as he is able so is he most willing to do it because his mercy as I have already proved is his chiefest attribute and every attribute of God is the Essence of God so that he can no more cease from his works of mercy then the eye being well disposed from seeing or the fire from heating or the Heaven from moving or the Sun from shining he that denyeth this is a Traytor to the King of Heaven because he gain-sayeth that stile wherein God especially delighteth There is no sin of it self 〈◊〉 but God can wipe it away he will forgive 〈…〉 as welâ— as righteous Abraham ten thousand talents aâ— one peny Suppose that all the sins that ever were committed from the murther of Cain to the treason of Judas laid upon thy shoulders there is no more proportion between them and Gods mercie then between stillam muriae mare Aegaeum betwixt a drop of brine and the Aegean nay the great Ocean the snuff of the Candle and the light of the day or a mote in the Sun and the Globe of the high Heaven Flie unto the throne of grace and though thy sins were bloody like Scarlet he will make them as Wool and
he should rather have runne unto God to have given him thankes for all his benefits but it may be God came in a more terrible manner then he was wont not so the text saith the voice of the Lord came he did but send his voice not his fearefull and terrible which shakes the Wilderness but his mild and gentle voice it came walking it came not running to take vengeance and therefore it must needs be that his guilty conscience made him afraid Cain after he had murthered his innocent brother howsoever he could prettily excuse the matter unto God telling him that he was not his Brothers keeper yet had he an inward accuser which laid the murther so hard unto his charge that he was enforced to confess the fact and desperately to cry out my sinnes are greater then can be pardoned Jacobs sonnes when they sold their Brother Joseph were never troubled in conscience for it but many yeares after upon their trouble in Egypt their consciences were awaked Gen. 42. 21. They said one unto another wee have verily sinned against our Brother in that wee saw the anguish of his soule when besought us and we would not heare him therefore is this trouble come upon us Ahab was one that sold himselfe to worke wickednesse that provoked the God of Heaven to anger more then all the Kings that were before him then Baasha then Omri then Jeroboam the sonne of Nebat that made Israel to sinne this wicked King hearing from the mouth of a poore Prophet who a little before fled out of the Country for saving his life those fearful judgements that God would bring upon his house was smitten in conscience and rent his cloathes and put sackcloath upon him and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went bare footed 1 King 21. 2. the Scribes and Pharises brought a woman that was taken in adulterie to Christ desirous to know his opinion but to no other end save only to tempt him our Saviour made no particular enumeration of their sinnes but only wrote with his finger upon the ground adding these words He that is without sin amongst you let him cast the first stone at her What followed when they heard it being accused by their owne consciences they went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the least there was never a greater contemner of God then was Caligula never man burst out into more outragious sins then he he was one of those fools that say in their heart their is no God yet none so fearfull as he when he saw any signes of Gods judgements insomuch that when it thundred he was wont to hide himselfe under his bed his guilty conscience made him feare that God whom of purpose he studyed to contemne 4. I doe not speake this as though I were of opinion that all men were alike touched with a feeling of their sinnes I know there is great difference between the sons of God and the sons of Belial when they have sinned between such as sin of infirmitie and such as by long practise have gotten an habit Sin is to the Children of God asit it were a thorne in their sides and a prick in their eyes they feel it at the very first yea and that most grievously too but thewicked which sinne with a high hand have so overcharged their conscciences that they are benummed and past feeling as the Apostle speakes Eph. 4. 19. such have their consciences burned as it were with a hot Iron as he elswhere saith meaning that they are so dulled and hardened by custome that they can hardly be brought to any feeling of their sinnes and no marvell for Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati custome of sinning taketh away the feeling of sinne I may compare the conscience of Gods Child to the eye of a needle which streitneth the smallest thred but such as have gotten a custome of sinne their consciences are like to great broad gates at which a loaden Camel may finde easie entrance or it may be likned unto a greene path in soft and marish ground which in the beginning is so soft that a man cannot set his foot upon it but will leave an impression in the ground but in processe of time by continuall passage it is worne unto the gravell and then a loaden Cart will scarce leave any print behind it so like wise the conscience at the first is so soft that the least sinne leaveth a wound and print in it but continuance in sinne weareth it to the gravel and maketh it so hard that the greatest iniquity can scarcely be felt Now the Children of God commonly sinning upon infirmity seldom upon presumption never upon habit after they be effectually called but the wicked adding drunkenness to thirst that is heaping one sinne in the neck of another without entring into a due consideration of their wicked estate it fals out that the ungodly for the most part are not so soone touched with a feeling of their sinnes as are Gods children when they have transgressed Holy David after he had committed adulterie with Bathsheba slept divers moneths in his sinne a thing not so ordinarily befalling the Children of God but he was no sooner rouzed out of this Lethargie by the Prophet Nathan then the prick of sinne did sting him to the heart and made him crie as in Psal 51. Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy great mercies and according to the multitude of thy compassions doe away mine offences One deep calleth upon another the deepnesse of his sinnes calleth for the depth of Gods mercies but Herod had so long enjoyed Herodias his Brothers wife that the preaching of John Baptist a greater man then the Prophet Nathan a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet could not move him from that particular though he disswaded him from other sins to which he was not so much inured The same Prophet David when he had numbred the people a thing of it selfe indifferent if he had taken no pride in the multitude of his Hoast was smitten at the heart and said unto the Lord I have sinned exceedingly in that I have done If his Predecessor Saul had done the like it may be supposed he would have defended the lawfulness of the fact who was so ready to excuse himselfe for keeping the fat Oxen of the Amalekites contrary to Gods commandement Godly Austin in his old age was moved in conscience for the least faults he had committed when he was a Child for playing at the Ball when his Parents had forbidden him for stealing a few wild Peares out of his Neighbours Orchard sinnes which few will remember or if they doe it is onely to brag of them so then it is without question that such as are not inured to any sinn will be sooner moved then those which by long custome have made it naturall unto them but yet none are so wicked though with Ahab they sell themselves to worke wickedness but their consciences will
when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeed his Sonne be like unto him be pitiful tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion if thou be angry beware that thou sin not by speedy revenge if thy wrath be conceived in the morning and perchance increase his heat with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoon and set with it at night Let not the Sunne go down upon thy wrath if its conception be in the night use it as the harlot used her child smother it in thy bed and make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before iâ— see the Sun to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love The branches of this Vine as they are united with the boale from whence they receive nutriment so have they certain tendâ—els whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were divide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it self Virgil tels us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a miâ—tle tree to shadow his sacrifice there issued drops of blood from the boale trickling down unto the ground at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum Aenea laceras jam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cried for vengeance against Polymnester the Thracian King which had slain him in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to revenge thy self of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himselfe Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner jam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood hand cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Nam Polydorus ego I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I am now come near to a point which I have pressed heretofore in the other publick place of this citie therefore I proceed no further but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse which was Jerusalems miserie The Tree is very fruitful and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughs which when I have commended to your several tastes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true Professors if ye can finde a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Jerusalem Thirdly that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily understood From these three I collect three Propositions from the first Gods flock militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priviledged but that it may revolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor city so fenced but the sins of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy Spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world and therefore it is great reason that he should have it all to himself yea and he challengeth it as his own right The gold is his and the silver is his and all the beasts of the field 〈◊〉 his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills and the Heavens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footstool and the reprobate are his for Nebuchadnezzar is his servant and as Judah is his so is Moab likewise but in another kinde of service in a word The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now meant for that belongs only unto men and yet not unto all but to a few which are appointed to be heirs of salvation God made all men so that they are all his sons by creation but he ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption our first Father did eat such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King his blood was stained and all his children were made uncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy and God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his justice in punishing the greater part of such as so grievously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in saving of some though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore in a Parliment holden before all times it was enacted that the natural son of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnesse of time take upon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certain number out of that Masse of corruption wherein all mankinde lay these be they which shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these be his people and the sheep of his pasture these be they which have this prerogative to be called the Sons of God and the heirs of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheat it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner there are many stones but few pearls it is the pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds Sathan hath a Kingdom and Christ but a little flock it is like to Bethleem in the land of Judah but a little one amongst the Princes of Judah it is like to Noahs flood going and returning like the 〈◊〉 flowing and ebbing or like to the Moon filling and waining and sometimes so eclipsed and darked with the earth that thou canst not perceive that Christ the son of righteousnesse doth
to permit them to fall as namely to humble them to make them more earnestly implore his help to shew unto them their own miserie in relapsing and to make knowne his owne mercy in forgiving but still he is ready to receive them again if they returne unto him by repentance For if he would have us to forgive our Brethren their trespasses when they turne unto us and ask forgiveness not seven times but seventy times seven times that is as oft as they offend us much more will the Lord out of the bottomlesse depth of his mercie pardon his children when they fall if afterward they returne unto him by earnest and unfeigned repentance And thus much in effect the Novatians did at length confesse holding that such as sinned after baptisme were not to be admitted into the congregation but yet they should be exhorted to repentance that so they might obtain remission of sinne of God who alone can forgive sinnes meaning that if after their relapse they should repent the Lord would have mercie upon them and this is the difference betwixt Gods children and revolting hypocrites these when they fall they fall away but Gods Elect though they fall seven times yet they rise as often The fall of the wicked is like the fall of Eli from his chaire or of Iesabel from the window it is a breakneck fall but the fall of the godly is like unto the fall of Eutychus though they fall from the third loft yet they are taken up though dead and some good Paul by embracing them with the sweet promises of his Gospel doth revive them the wicked are like to the Raven which as the vulgar corruptly reades it went out of the Arke and returned not they goe out of the Arke the Church and return not but feed upon the carrion of this world but the godly are like the Dove they flie somtimes out of the Arke the church of God yet when they find no rest for the soles their feet they returne again with an olive-branch in their mouthes like the Dove I mean with an humble confession of their offences and earnest and hearty prayers unto Almighty God which when they do then Noah the true Preacher of righteousness will put forth his hand and again receive them into the arke And therefore let not the weake Christian be discouraged with the remembrance of such sinnes as he hath faln into after his justification as if now there were no hope of pardon but let him prostrate himselfe before the throne of God and with many bitter groanes crie after this or the like manner Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I dare not lift up my impure eyes unto the heavens the seate of thy majesty I am one whom thou hast vouchsafed to adopt to be thy son and yet I have never reverenced thee as a loving Father but like a stranger have transgressed thy precepts and neglected thy statutes so that I am most unworthy to be called thy sonne I am one for whom thou hast given thine owne and only sonne Christ Jesus God and man the very brightnesse of thy glorie the engraven form of thy person the essential word by which thou madest all things and yet I have been unmindfull of so great a benefit I have rejected the sweet promises of thy sons Gospel I have denyed the faith I have sinned Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne I am one whom thou out of the bottomlesse depth of thy mercie many others of better desert being still leftin darknesse hast illuminated with the light of thy word hast called unto faith and repentance hast ingrafted into the true Vine when I was a wild branch thou hast made me partaker of thy holy sacraments and yet these inestimable Jewels these heavenly treasures these rich indowments I have set at naught and trodden under foot I have sinned Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne I am one whom thou hast washed with the blood of thy deare sonne whom thou hast restored to newness of life and yet I have returned like a dog to my vomit and with the Sow to the wallowing in the mire to thee therefore to thee belongeth righteousness but unto me belongeth nothing but shame and confusion of face yet O my God the greater my offences are the more earnestlie I implore thy help and the more shall thy mercie appeare if thou pardon and forgive them I have polluted and defiled all my wayes thou O Lord Jesus which art puritie it selfe which camest into this world to save sinners whereof I am chief wash my filthiness revive my deadness quicken my dulness awake my drousiness kindle my zeale increase my faith Lord Jesus I flie unto thee my soule gaspeth after thee as a thirstie land Peter denyed thee and thou didst receive him again the Apostles forsooke thee and yet thou forgavst them Paul persecuted thee and yet thou didest receive him to mercie David did grievously trespasse and yet thou O God hadst pittie and compassion upon him the Israelites oftentimes provoked thee and yet thou didst in thy mercie forgive them thy love is not abated thy bowels of compassion are not lessened the bottomlesse-Ocean of thy mercie is not dried thou hast protested and made it to be proclaimed by thy Herauld the Prophet that thou wilt not the death of a sinner but that he turne unto thee and live Lord I turne unto thee receive me to mercie let thy favourable countenance once againe shine upon me And when his heavenlie Father shall heare these and perceive that they proceed from an humble and contrite heart presently he will have compassion upon such a prodigall Child and fall on his neck and kisse him and bring forth his best Robe even the Robe of Christs righteousnesse and put it upon him and put a Ring on his finger and shooes on his feet Thus farre of the first Proposition the second followes It is not enough for a Christian to perform obedience to some of Gods precepts and to beare with himself wilfully in the breach of others Cursed is he that continueth not in all There were some of opinion as saith Lombard that a man might truely repent of one sinne and obtain pardon for the same and yet continue in another but these did never rightly understand the nature of mortification which requires a detestation and forsaking of all sinne and not a paring away of some which may best be spared as wee cannot at the same time look with one eye into Heaven and another unto the earth so may wee not in somethings serve God and in other things be servants of sinne when a man seeth his house on fire he will not quench some part of the flame and let the rest be burning but he will use all possible meanes to extinguish all the fire lest peradventure if one spark