with those heavy tydings and grievous feares and just in the nick God said unto him Arise goe up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an Altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled'st from the face of Esau thy brother and then both long and late yet at least being drawne to it Iacob doth performe his vow It is true he did it though it were long first yet wee see the Lord was faine to fire him out of his negligence and to force him to remember himselfe His putting off so often his long delaying was as great a sinne as our very breaking of our vow neither had he ever done it had he bin let alone and yet Iacob was all this while a deare servant of God and he was pardoned his delaying his vow and he is in heaven let us not thinke but our case is good albeit we have made and broken many a vow Repentance will come heale all againe The summe is that we make no more vowes than needs must sith Satan is apt to thrust us on our vows knowing that our nature is sick to breake out when it is so bound and when we have failed then hee roares and cries there is nothing left but hell and desperation for a covenant-breaker with God and therefore wee must be choice this way never to vow but when we are truly called unto it and when we are called to it to vow and feare nothing sith wee vow not on our owne strength but only on the power and grace of God were we to performe the vow by any force any wit of our owne men should rather vow never to vow than to vow at all but sith we go by the help presence and assistance of God when wee have a calling to it vow and spare not and if wee doe fall so farre as to breake our vowes yet let us hold our own we are not the first others have done it and are in heaven it is a pardonable sinne repentance will take up the matter betwixt God and us make us as good and perhaps better friends than ever The best friendship is often after a falling out and wee must know that many times repentance pleaseth God better than never to have done the sin because it humbles a man more and drives a man more out of himselfe and there is as much saith in it for a man to beleeve that God on his meere repenting will forgive him as there is in holding out against the tentation and not breaking the vow at all neither is it besides the booke to say that there is as much grace in it for a man when hee is downe to repent and returne as there is in not falling at all for by our fall the powers of the soule are weakened the force of grace is decaied and the strength of our sinfull matter is confirmed and the conscience of a man after a fall is as a distempered lock the more wee tamper with it the worse all this showes that it is a signe of much love great favour of God to repent of a great and foule fault it is the vomit of the soule and of all physick none so difficult and hard as it is to vomit and therfore we must comfort our selves and say I confesse I did God great wrong in breaking my promise and did highly provoke him but I now see that hee meaneth all good to my soule in that he hath given mee the heart and grace to repent of my sin and this is a fruit of an upright heart to take displeasure at sin There is I know an uprightnesse and that is of obedience when we sin but a few sins in comparison so Ezekiah comforted himselfe in that he walked uprightly before the Lord. 2. Another of repentance when we catch many sore fals sin many great heynous sins but yet we pick up al againe by mourning and repentance so David did and his heart was all out as upright as ever Hezekiahs was he was a man after Gods owne heart and carries as large-testimonies of his uprightnesse and sincerity as the Old testament hath any Now this uprightnesse of repentance is as sincere and showes as true an heart to God as the other of obedience rest wee then our comfort on this point that say we have not kept our selves to our covenant and our vow yet saving that it must and wil cost us sorrow upon sorrow our repenting of our breach of promise is as pleasing to God and ought to bee as comfortable to us as our Not sinning would have been and sith God thinks never the worse of us for our breaking our vow we must not be more just or more holy than God we must not thinke ever the worse of our selves The last is unbeleefe and a kind of Atheisme as touching Christ Iesus Atheisme I call it with the Apostle sith he that is without Christ is without God and when a man is a spirituall man hee shall finde that his unbeleefe this way will mightily punish his cōscience for lose our hold here and all is lost it being not faith in God but Christ which doth save us and this is an high and an hard point of Divinity here a man is put upon a totall deniall of himselfe sense reason and all but meere pure faith is against it A man hath a law of nature and principles answerable which teach him somewhat concerning the Being of God a man hath in him as hee is a man somewhat which will give a kind of sight of GOD but for Christ his Nature his Birth his Offices his Death his Resurrection natures law hath not a letter in it to teach us any thing concerning these matters they are Mysteries heavenly Riddles nothing can spell them and find them out but faith alone they are ours onely by revelation as good goe about to fore-see future contingents as to finde out any thing as touching Christ Iesus except by the Word and Spirit only Things in the morall law finde some seeds in the light and law of nature but ask nature at the best as touching Christ and the answer is that the Gospell is foolishnesse God to be made man by dying to conquer death to rise and not rot in the grave and for manhood to put it selfe for the maine of heaven happinesse on one who 〈◊〉 as the worst of the three was crucified betwixt two theeves these are things impossible and incredible to flesh and bloud to beleeve Now here is a field yeelding a world of perplexities to the disputer and therefore our only course must be to become fooles in our selves that we may be wise in Christ to rely only on the Word of God to find out our Christ in the word to circumcise the eyes of reason it is faith must doe it I shall lose my selfe except I put my selfe upon It is written Say though
unnaturall killings selfe murthers pollutions against nature passions of dishonour and the like Satan hath no naturall affection in him nor lust as lust hath none neither Satan hath no naturality in him for he lost all in his fall the law of nature was not given to him hee was not to hold order and termes of civillity and humanity amongst men and therefore there was not use of any such law to bee given to him All wee can say of him is that Satan is kept under held in awe by God restrained by feare within and ordered by Gods providence without it is awe not naturall law that keepes Satan within bounds Man hath indeed in him naturalnesse but lust which is our Originall sin hath no naturall affection in it some sins then are called unnaturall because they are against the law of nature in us which law of nature is no part of Originall sin for in it selfe it is good and the very unwritten law of God which law of nature as it is now in us doth neither see nor greeve at all sinnes but only at some greater sins which sins are therefore called unnaturall In every man there are two things the law of nature is one Originall sin the other for the law of nature some say it is a relique of the old Image left in Adam I thinke not for then man in Adam lost not all the Image of God then in man by nature there is some peece of goodnesse but the frame of mans heart is onely evill There is none that doth good no not one wee are all together become filthy Then it would follow that man brings w th him of his own into the world the seeds of vertue some roots of goodnesse which is Pelagianisme and condemned by the Church of God The seeds of vertue are not saith Prosper in the soule of man because they are utterly lost in the first sin of Adam neither can wee come by them except GOD who first gave them restore them againe I thinke rather to say that in things usefull to hold in the wild lusts that be in man GOD presently after all was lost by the fall all and every peece of the Image of God I say to maintaine discipline amongst men GOD planted in the heart of all mankinde an inward law checking many sins against God but more against men and accordingly GOD hath made a fuller and greater revelatiō to nature in the things of the second Table than in the first and what else is meant by the phrase where speaking of the power of nature to see into the booke of the creature it is said God shewed it unto them viz. by the law and light of nature which God hath given to all men as men they shewed it not to themselves God is said to shew it unto them Now then to come home to ou◠point Sins against nature are such as are against the law of nature lust hath in it all sins and when it is so great and breaketh out so grossely that nature cries shame of it why then wee call that sin an unnaturall lust a sinne against nature which sinnes have their roote in Original sin and would shew themselves and appeare were there no divell albeit herhaps not in that manner and measure as wee see some men who cannot bee said to bee haled to it by the divell but onely by their owne wicked lusts who when their lusts are in care no more for wife children friends brother father than they doe for a dog are moved no more with the teares of their owne bowels than with the whinening of a pigge Let lust alone and without any help from Satan it will make a man give over to bee a man shake off all humanity go beyond all shame all sense put off all naturall affection deliver a man up to obdurate heart not discerning betwixt good and evill either in morall or naturall respects as Paul shewes how some men put off all manhood become dogs yea worse than dogges for dogge with dogge useth not to commit filthinesse and some women shaketh off all woman-hood also for there is no who with lust for were it not for the watching providence of God over us and the restraining power of God with us and the law of nature in us men would fling out into all kind of wickednesse there would bee no being no living amongst men we would all bee such fooles as to thinke with our hearts and say with our mouthes there is no God Originall sin hath all Atheisme in it there will bee nothing but murther amongst us Husband would kill the wife and wife the husband father son sonne the father brother brother Caine Abel our houses and townes would bee full of parracides and fratricides and men would doe execution on themselves as common as might be oh the bottomlesse depth of Originall sin Our own lust is a fearefull murtherer it comes immediately from Satan at the first and he is a murtherer from the beginning Men would bee Wolues Beares Tygers Divels one to another neither would any shame keepe men and women from monstrous adulteries most infamous uncleanenesse Incests Rapes Beastiality what not Looke wee what is in any man that is by nature in the heart and lust of every man were it not for God restraining and natures law curbing should our Originall sinne be drawne forth and let out we should all doe as Caine did as Absalom did as Ammon did as the Sodomites did for what sin soever is forbidden in the Word and hath bin ever practised in the world that sin every man carries in his bosome there is no man but is of himselfe a dead dogge for why should God forbid that in the word to all if the nature of all were not subject to it Bestiality the foulest sin is forbidden to thee as well as to any other therefore it is in thy corrupt nature as well as in the nature of any other Besides wee are cut all out of the same cloth we are al alike in the guilt of Adams sinne one man hath not sinned more in Adam than another and therefore our Originall sin being the penalty of Adams sin must needs bee one and the same in all where the cause is just the same there the effect must needs bee the same Originall sin then by nature is no more no worse in one than in another it differs not so much as Magis minus In some what by reason of the tempter of the body education occasion tentations influences of Gods providence and chiefly by reason of the liberty of mans will man having his will at some command to sin I say by reason of that and other things lust is drawne forth more in one than in another and more to one sinne than another and that breakes out in the life of one which doth not in another but
as the plot of all diseases lyes in the humours of the body so for certaine in the lust of the soule there is in all a kinde of pronesse a very aptitude to the worst of sinnes I know that the power of man is finite and no way able to runne upon divers horrible impieties in all extremitie at once chiefly sith many sinnes in the act doe crosse one another though all concurre in the Roote as in a Common Center but yet now one then another there is no sinne under heaven but man is subject unto by turnes chiefly should the LORD give Satan leave to blow the fire and to baite our lust man would presently shew himselfe in his colours and sinne many divelish sins That which is said is true that there is no sin so bad so base so unnaturall but mans nature is if no enclinable to it yet capable of it If the sin bee but so so an ordinary crime that then our nature is inclinable to it but if most unnaturall and most abhorrent from the principles of nature yet wee are capable of it in some degrees Lust is of it selfe past shame and past sense I may adde that though at first sin against nature sit not with us tast not of our nature by reason of that law and light that is in us yet after a little space when lust hath overcome the law of nature a man is as sicke after sins against nature as hee was after common sins and worse for the greater and fowler a sin is the more headlong is our lust after it wee being by Originall sin most eager after those transgressions which are worst an ordinary stomacke is most of it selfe earnest after usuall dyet that is wholesome but wee see a custome brings children to eate coales and an humour in the stomacke makes young women eate leather to choose and what more usuall than for breeding women to lust after such things which would make the stomacke of another to rise so I may say that as long as our lust is kept in and held downe it is for ordinary faults while the law of nature can rule it against the force and cunning of Originall sinne such unnaturall passions seeme to finde some Antipathy in us but when by custome occasion or tentation lust shewes it self and the light of nature can doe little why then man is not onely capable of unnaturall sins but inclinable to them and more impudent and impotent that way than after other sinnes As wee see Ammon is sick after his owne Sister an unnaturall crime and hungers more after her than ordinary and Caine had rather kill his owne brother than any man else in the world had there bin any Many are more mad after Hee lusts who care not for Shee lusts as in Sodome we see Lots daughters were not worth the looking after they must know the men they went after strange flesh saith Iude strange in their Sex and kinde so Paul saith Rom. 1. 26. that women more shamefast and modest by nature than men did not care for the naturall use which they had lawfully but changed it into that which is against nature thus we see delights against nature are when Originall lust is let out more looked after than naturall our corrupt affections are not more capable of but more inclinable at last to unnaturall sins which they did stare at at the first as long as the law of nature doth fight it out against Originall sin and can carry it we love not to heare these sins named but when nature in the Law of it is suppressed and our lust rules all no sinne in such request as some unnaturall sinne or other these passions of fedity and dishonour doe then burne as it is in Saint Pauls English Wee reade much of Ganimedes and the jest went of Nero and his Sporus that it had beene well for the world if Domitius Neros father had had no other wife In a word a man whose Originall sinne is kept in order doth but hunger after sins of ordinary quality but when nature is out of office and lust doth all men will then long after unnaturall lusts Passions worke more strongly the wrong way and the streame is most swift when it is not in the right channell And in the other passion of bloud how men do put off all naturall affection wee see it for men are more cruell when they take to their own children their owne parents than to any enemies aye the fire of a mans unnaturall sins are not satisfied but with a mans owne bloud and many thinke to lay this divell by killing themselves who have not a thought of murthering any body else Oh that men could once come within sight of the depth of their owne lust Man would then learne not to bee so bold with occasions of sin against nature what if at first nature doth even spit at them yet if once they fire and take they worke strongly and come with a greater swing of delights than naturall sinnes doe and therefore I would we could learne as to be humble for our Originall sinne so to thanke GOD for keeping us and ours that those unnaturall courses have not bin and broken forth in our persons or houses to our shame and scandall as have bin done in houses and families of better than our selves And to pray that God would keepe us as from all other so from taking after unnaturall passions What if wee have grace yet sith these sinnes are not sins against the holy Ghost t is possible for good people to bee infected with them as long as we have Originall sin we want but occasion and a tentation and Gods permission and then we fall sith Originall sin is the same it was and was at first the same it is now there bee perhaps new actuall sins because never drawne out into practise before but no new Originall sin Originall sin is but one and it is the selfe same in kind and degree in all persons and at all times It may and doth in some beare new fruites but it never had nor hath nor shall have new rootes it ever had in it the rootes of all sins and it can never have but the rootes of all Wee must ever stand bound to the goodnesse of our God who hath so kept us hitherto that we have not broken forth into more and into worse sins than we have There is no abhomination so prodigious but our Originall sinne would quickly water at it it is his meere favour alone who hath kept us and our families from occasions of such sins or such occasions from us Blesse God then that Caine hath not killed Abel in our houses that Ammon hath not defloured our Tamar that our Absalom hath not been the death of his brother Ammon 〈◊〉 that our brother Absalom hath not sought our lives also that Reuben hath not gone up to his fathers Couch
for feare lest hee be out who could say perfect till hee came to say and a girle being threatned and terrified breaks the glasse only for feare of breaking it so when we are in feare joyned with discouragement Satan hath a great advantage and those sinnes amplified and set up doe mightily faint and discourage the heart and spirits of men and who can fight with any heart against an enemy that hee hath little or no hope to conquer Now when we doe make our sins worser than they are then it doth secretly steale away our hope and so we make no great hast to resist nor have no great heart to fight we then must learne not to make it lesse lest we be too slothful nor more lest we be too fearefull but just as the matter is as neere as we can that so wee may bee fitted and prepared to fight the good fight of faith with diligence and watchfulnesse 2. Wee must not suffer the thoughts of these horrible tentations to tarry in our mindes they are Gods and our greatest enemies and we must shut the doore against them what if we dislike and distaste them yet as one notes this rowling of them up and downe in our heads doth show that there is an insensible likening of them in our hearts we must set our hatred against them and thrust them away presently and hold it a dangerous thing to thinke of them God cannot take it well if wee mislike a thing in judgement and doe not set against it with the meanes God hath appointed and sanctified to that use Satan will coozen us as though that our very misliking of them were enough in things foule and that there were no feare of danger wheras nature it selfe doth looke sadly at these tentations and the mislike we feele may well come from the influence of the law and light of nature I have learned that we are never the further off from a tentation for our misliking it onely but the nearer except withall in affection we humble for it as well as distaste it in our judgments what if the dislike be not because it is a sin but because there is some feare or shame This is selfe-love and pride and this will worke in the sin if we goe no further and that by Gods just judgement our duty then is not to suffer the thoughts of such wounding and terrifying tentations to tumble up and downe in our mindes though we have no minde to them for either by discouraging us or enticing us they will get further hold but wee must cast them off set the word against them and turne our thoughts to some better subject and chiefly to thinke on those two great Dayes the day of Death and the day of Iudgement 3. Wee must of all see that we set not against those of our owne strength we can doe nothing by our owne power against any lust but least in these because what through feare horror in som what through the swinge and violent torrent of these two passions of anger and lust a man hath but little use of that reason he hath and so the more he strives this way the worse it is it doth but encrease our desires to the sinne our strength is here to pray and expect and laying all naturall and carnall weapons aside let God alone to doe all and out of grace it is that hee doth doe for us what he doth in our trials and conflicts and therefore Paul had his answer that all was to bee done by the grace and mercy of God and so we finde that the Lord said not to him my power but my grace is sufficient for thee wherefore we must put al upon the power and grace of God turne Satan to God to Christ for his answer set the grace of God against our sins when comming to prevent them when come to pardon them set the power of God against the strength of them all beleeve it that the grace of God is sufficient either to prevent us or preserve us He is in great danger who in any but of all in these potent tentations goes by his owne wit or reason or worth or strength Hee is in safe case who can say I deserve nothing I can doe nothing but hurt my selfe and make worke for sinne and Satan I meane to put all upon GOD who will worke mightily in me and for me but the grace of God which is with me he is all in all hee will doe all or nothing that he may have all the praise of his grace The helpes which serve in severall for every particular assault might be many some we will propose and first for those tentations which are in things of God then in things of man for God we are much assaulted to Atheisme and Blasphemy to Atheisme as the greatest sin that is in that it smites at the roote of all for to say the truth all sin is from Atheisme for who would sin did he then verily thinke that there were a God that saw all and would punish all and such a God God must be or no God and to Atheisme for when we have sinned sinne doth draw towards Atheisme exceedingly wipes out all notions of a Deity as much as it can and when wee are in sin wee must bee either willing to get out of it by repentance or else wee shall bee willing to turne Atheists the best of our play then being to feed our selves with a conceit that all is but talke to hold men in awe and that there is indeed neither heaven nor hell no place of torment that when wee dye all is gone no otherwise than with a Beast when the conscience will not get quiet by turning to God by repentance then it will seeke to quiet it selfe by unbeliefe bearing it selfe in hand that there is no such thing as hell to torment men in consider withall that Sathan doth all he can to make men Atheists because when there is no feare of God before mens eyes they will sinne all manner of sinnes that the divell would have them sin So Psal 14. The foolish hath said in his heart there is no God what followes They are corrupt they have done abominable works thus then when once men take to Atheisme they grow most corrupt and doe abominable workes there is no hoe in sinning then for what shold or can keep the wit and wil of man in when once wee conceit that there is no such thing as God the divell cannot bee a flat Atheist for he beleeves trembles and were it nothing but the sence he hath of the wrath of God tormenting why That is enough to prove that Satan doth fully undoubtedly acknowledge a Divine power He is not an Atheist because he cannot because he shall not but yet he beares good will to Atheisme because that sin doth much advantage his kingdome Saint Iames doth prove that God tempts no man
I cannot finde a reason of things beleeved as touching Christ Iesus yet I doe finde a reason of my beleeving them and that is because I finde it so in the Word I must live and dye by the booke the Bible must carry it How do I know that there is any such thing as sin but because it is written I must then passe my soule upon it First that there is Christ Secondly that Iesus is the Christ Thirdly what this Christ is and what he did and doth for the salvation of the Church Fourthly that hee is my Christ my Iesus my Saviour I say I must dye upon it because these things are in and out of the Word many scruples break in but dare any man set it under his hand that Iesus is not the Christ that any else is the Saviour No. Are wee not ready when wee are at the worst if we be called to subscribe with our hands to this proposition that Iesus borne of the Virgin Mary was and is the Messias the Saviour of his people Why then downe with all oppositions and dubitations dash them al out of countenance with this I doe beleeve in Iesus Christ because it is in the Word the eye and hand of faith must doe it dye with this in our mouthes hee is hee because the word saith so and I do beleeve it the rather because Satan and lust cannot abide to heare of it Hold we our selves then to the letter and tenor of the Gospell and the tentation will blow away faith workes strongest at last where reason is most against it and we finde dying men doubt least of all about the Articles of Christ and the principles of faith it being a received axiome in the Church of Christ that saith workes best and clearest when it workes alone and it workes alone in things wherein reason saith no but the word of God saith yea Thus much concerning the particulars in the first Table now followes to bee treated of some chiefe of the second table The thing we must begin with is that the pangs of conscience which arise out of sinnes in the second Table were generally greater and stronger than of the first and it is because that there is lesse of the light and law of nature in us of the worship of God than of the duties of our neighbour we have here a double sting the spirituall conscience cries and the naturall conscience cries and when two come together to cry that cry must needs bee great it is the better to maintaine order and discipline amongst men that there is more of natures law in the things of men than of God and a greater light to discerne those than these The world must stand and hold in some quiet til the period of it expire which could not be were it not for this bond and law of nature and thus wee have it that in weaker Christians especially greatest troubles of mind come from matters of the second table And if you aske what the matters of the second table be which doe most vex the conscience of a man and doe prove the worst tentations wee answer that men are usually most disquieted which murther against the sixth uncleannesse against the seventh and theft against the eighth Commandement Disobedience to Parents and Authority as it is first in the second table so caeteris paribus it is the greatest sin and hath the sharpest punishment the Ravens of the Valleys shall pick out their eyes which is never set downe for a punishment of murther it selfe wee read not that hee that is cholerick with his brother must dye but hee that but speaketh evill of father or mother is a man of death by the word of God but yet these cases doe not use to stagger the conscience most in most be-because it is not so flat against the light of Nature neither are they held such heynous faults amongst men and wee use to judge too much of the greatnesse and soulenesse of sins by custome the estimate of men we do account those the worst sins not ever which the Word saith are the greatest sins but such as amongst men in the time and place where we live goe for the mighty sinnes and trouble of conscience doth arise from our opinion and apprehension wee have of things which by the way must teach us not altogether to be led by the wrack of our conscience for conscience is blind in al unregenerate men and in the best it is in part defiled and corrupt and imperfect and therefore it is mistaken and cannot bee our rule and it is our sin to set our conscience in the roome of the Word of God when conscience speakes in the Holy Ghost and according to the word then it must be heard else conscience doth sometimes complaine most of some things that are no sins at all as we see in the Pharisie who was troubled in minde if hee should chance to eate with unwashen hands and through misprision and error they thought they did GOD good service to kill Christ and his Apostles and therefore we must not set up conscience too high put it not in Gods place but when it speakes for God and from God and hath light enough to see what is what then when it speakes out of the word the conscience must bee heard God is greater than our heart and therefore wee must hold to him and to his Word which onely is his Interpreter in this world it concludes not then simply to say my conscience tels me it is a sin my conscience tels me I am not in Gods favour but to returne we must know that those sins doe trouble most which doe most disturbe the society of men for it is the naturall conscience that gives the heaviest blow there is most light and sight in the natural conscience of man in those matters which concerne humane societies of men and so because bloud lust and theft do undermine the state of mankinde and cast all into confusion hence it is that these sins make such a cry as they doe and that not simply because they are the greatest that bee nor for that they are most against the nature or will of God but because they doe most hurt to men and are most against the order and governement of mankinde before I descend to those particulars I would have men to aske the question whether their trouble bee because the tentation is bad or base or bad and base both 1. If we be troubled only because the sin is base and brings with it or after it the shame of the world than it is from sinne and pride that we are so vexed and that is made a matter of conscience which is wholly or chiefly a matter of self-respects or if it be within our selves and secret and yet out of a conceit of our selves wee are much afflicted that we should be haunted to doe or drawne to act such and such vile and
those sins that will affright conscience And the cause why civil men feele lesse disturbance from temptations is because they are wholly under the power of temptation til God awaken their heart What danger they see not they feare not the strong man holds his possession in them and is too wise by rowzing them out of their sleepe to give them occasion of thoughts of escape None more under the danger of tentation than they that discerne it not they are Satans stales taken by him at his pleasure whom Satan useth to draw others into the same snare therefore Satan troubleth not them nor himselfe about them but a true Christian feares a temptation in every thing his chiefe care is that in what condition soever hee bee it proves not a temtation to him Afflictions indeed are more ordinarily called temptations than prosperity because Satan by them breedeth an impression of sorrow and feare which affections have an especiall working upon us in the course of our lives making us often to for sake God and desart his cause yet snares are laid in every thing we deale with which none can avoid out those that see them none see but those whose eyes God opens and God useth the ministery of his servants for this end to open the eyes of men to discover the net and then as the Wiseman saith in vain is the net spred before the sight of any bird This moved this godly Minister my Christian friend to take paines in this usefull argument as appeareth in this Treatise which is written by him in a cleare quicke and familiar stile and for the matter and manner of handling solid judicious and scholler-like and which may commend it the more it is written by one that besides faithfulnesse and fruitfulnesse in his ministry hath beene a good proficient in the schoole of temptation himselfe and therefore the fitter as a skilfull Watch-man to give warning and aime to others for there be spirituall exercises of Ministers more for others than for themselves If by this he shall attaine in some measure what hee intended God shall have the glory thou the benefit and he the incouragement to make publike some other Labours Fare-well in the Lord. R. SIBBS Faults escaped PAge 40. line 20. for sinne this reade this sinne p. 123. l. 7. for who can say r. who can say p. 183. l. 23. for stake r. slake p. 212. l. 9. for blame r. flame p. 225. l. 5. after againe put in who can say p. 380. l. 22. for manner r. Manour p. 416. l. 18. for we keep r. keep we p. 549. l. 23. for alienated r. alienum p. 203. l. 17. for freed once r. freedome p. 58. l. 24. for will r. would p. 65. l. 8. after not put in only In the Epistle to the Reader for desart r. desert p. 18. l. 20. r. armand p. 387. l. 18. for thoughts r. faults p. 239. l. 21. r. sinfull affections p. 240. l. 18. for both r. back p. 238. l. 20. for grave r. growne p. 190. l. 17. for we r. he p. 191. l. 10. for the sure r. sure the. p. 136. l. 15. for doth God r. God doth p. 137. l. last for from r. for p. 108. l. 21. put out and. p. 75. l. 23. for reproved r. approved p. 61. l. 18. after certaine put in of all sinnes p. 138. l. 10. for suffer r. chuse p. 290. l. 18. put out Art p. 342. l. 19. after man put in may 362. l. 7. in the margent after they dranke put in they married p. 84. l. 9 r. liking p. 376. l. 8. r. convenient p. 384. l. 3. put out the point at heard p. 337. l. 7. put out to p. 377. l. 25. the point at not put at will p. ibid. l. 22. first of Timothy 5. 11. put in the margent the first 227. must be 225. THE TABLE A ADams first sinne from himselfe Page 〈◊〉 How sinne came first into the Angels 〈◊〉 Adam deprived himselfe of righteousnesse 〈◊〉 We must keepe all our Armour about us 〈◊〉 An Angell without God serves not 〈◊〉 Afflictions no proofe that God loves us not 〈◊〉 Atheisme how tempted to it and how cured of 〈◊〉 Satan neither is nor can be an Atheist 〈◊〉 Adultery a great sinne how prevented and how cured 〈◊〉 B TEntations of Blasphemy what and how cured 270 Blasphemy against the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 Baptisme properly no vow â—88 Beastiality Tentations that way and their 〈◊〉 3â—6 The Body a great occasion of uncleannesse 〈◊〉 Helps against such as have hurt their Bodies by the sinnes 〈◊〉 C COnscience simply is not our Iudge 309 Sinnes the worse or lesse for that they trouble the Conscience how and why 370 D DEceits of sinne 22 Men doe wrong the Devill 39. 40. Wee must not lay our faults on the Devill 44 Dispute not with sinne and Satan 96 Desertion in it selfe no sinne 137 Discontent is caused by sinne not by crosses 337 Despaire in lusts of uncleannesse prevented 419 F FVlnesse of sin what and when 75 Fly not in tentations 97 Faith our weapon in Tentations 100 Fight and conquer 104 Friends to be chosen to helpe us in tentations 188 After Fals rise againe 212 Feare a meanes to prevent hurting ones selfe G GOd to bee our God wee must hold in Tentations 131 H Sinne against the Holy Ghost not in the old Testament 40 Sinne against the Holy Ghost a part of Originall sinne 41 Sinners in Hell doe not demerit 146 I INclosure a great sinne 27 28 Infirmities what and how knowne 118 K KIndred must take heed one of another in the lusts of uncleannesse 40â— L LVst unconsented forbidden in each Commandement 17 Long-suffering a great meanes to helpe in Tentations 166 Love of God keepes us from relapsing 226 M FIrst Motions to sinne are great sins 12 Abuse of Mercies brings Tentations 81 Tentations of Murther and their cure 322 Selfe Murther discovered and the cure of it 324 â—â—ch as have the gift ought not to Marry 375 Marriages are to be provided for children in due time 375 Marriage not appointed to make men rich but chaste 383 Rules how to Marry and how to order our selves in the married estate 386 N SInnes against Nature 53 Law of Nature no part of originall sin 55 How men become inclinable to sinnes against Nature 63 O ORiginall sinne is properly a sinne 11 Originall sinne for bidden by the Law 14 Originall sinne is virtually every sinne 38 Originall sinne equall in all men 41 Old Christians most tempted 51 Occasions of sinne to be avoyded 83 The helpe of Others in tentations 183 Avoyding Occasions of sinne a signe of grace 205 Old people must see they avoyd lusts of youth 400 No Ordinary conquest against sinne without putting away the occasions 411 Opinion prevailes too much in judging of sins 350 P THe Pharisies held all inward motions to bee no sinnes 20 Spirituall Pride makes worke for tentations 79 Pride the master sinne in all 88 Prayer brings
What are we what are our fathers houses that we have beene preserved in our houses from such scandalous sins are we better are wee so good as these fathers were Should God sit still and the law of nature stand still and looke on and let our Originall sin our lust within shew it selfe the next would be sin upon sin against Scripture against Nature no Bonds no Bounds would hold us worse and worse still with greatest violence we should long after the greatest sins and the end would be a reprobate sense from the which good Lord deliver us The Summe is that the cause why wee feele not such pronenesse to the sin against nature is not because Originall lust is not as prone in it selfe if not more prone to those sins as to others but because there is by God for necessary causes a law of nature superadded to Originall sin in all mankinde holding us off from such unnaturall passions which law of nature doth suffer when such sins are committed and therefore the Apostle fitly cals them Passions as water suffers when it is made hot and therfore as long as the law of nature is not suppressed a man is not patient about such lusts But when our lust hath gotten the better of natures law then to what sins are such men more eager than to those Therefore such lusts are by the Apostle stiled the lusts of their owne hearts We said with St. Paul that God doth deliver men into a reprobate sense and then they fall into such lusts Here a doubt may arise whether such sins are done onely by those who are Reprobates sith one would thinke that this Reprobate sense were onely in Reprobates and therefore so named This is I confesse out of my way yet because I would not stumble any mans conscience I am bold to speak a word to the point and the thing I affirme is that unnaturall sinnes are done sometimes by such as are no Reprobates and I thinke there are many reprobates who nein all their lives committed and acted these sins It is a fearfull estate to be cast by God into a reprobate sense and the danger is so much that hee is not himselfe who dares to venture on such rocks because some onely escape There is no sin except the sin against the holy Ghost but an elect person may commit all sins else may stand with the grace of Election but this reprobate sense is not that sin against the holy Ghost what ever it bee what ever a man may repent of may stand with our estate in Christ Now to say that this is a condition which admits not of repentance is hard neither can it be proved and 1 Cor. 6. Instance is given in one of the worst of all unnaturall sins and yet the Apostle saith Such were some of you and they were Elect repented and are now in heaven GOD forbid then that we should bee so sâ—uer to the conscience of man as to thinke that all those Rom. 1. and all others like to those who are in Gods Iustice for a time given up to a reprobate minde are past all hope of reconciliation and salvation There is a sacrifice for those sins some have gotten out of that estate and others may It is then called a Reprobate minde not because it is the minde of none but Reprobates but because such have in regard of their present condition a mind as one saith rejected disallowed abhorred of God yet not a mind past all hope of cure and recovery or if you will a minde as another speakes worthy of reprobation making choice of matters reprobated Wee have a phrase in St. Paul That Christ is in you except you bee reprobates but such are in such an estate that except they get Christ into them it is all one with them as with Reprobates they are as it were for the preâ—ent in the state of reprobation for any goodnesse that is in them but Reprobates they are not and as Beza notes the scope and dispute of the Apostle will not beare this sense sith hence hee proves that no man can be justified by the law of nature because it is in all men to breake the law of nature and that the Apostle proves by this that all men except GOD stay them all run on to a reprobate minde by a reprobate minde then he will have meant a mind going against the dictates of conscience and the principles of Nature out of which estate it pleaseth GOD to call some to grace God doth call in some that are cast farre behind hand by their sins and therefore we must not say that there is such a point of sinning that no man doth ever come backe from it againe for no man goes so far but hee might have done worse and gone farther and therefore when and where can one fix the measure to rest that a man going so farre can never come to good againe There is a fullnesse I know of sinning which some must come unto ere the Iudgement can come on them but that all who fill up sinne or sins to the height are Reprobates or that none are reprobates but such as make up the extremity of sinning I deny for the conscience must have some where to rest and to pitch a degree of sinning that hee that comes not to that degree may repent and returne hee that comes to that degree of sinning and may not returne would trouble the wit of the acutest Disputer in all the world Neither doth indeed the Greeke word properly carry the sense of one cast away but of one reproved not as contrary to the word Elect but as contrary to the word reproved so Paul useth it 1 Corin. 9. 27. Lest I my selfe be a Reprobate that is reproved for Paul knew full well by confession of all Papists that hee neither was nor could be a Reprobate and the learned Borgius expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reprobates minde to be a minde that no man hath cause to glory in but rather to be much ashamed of which is indeed the right and full sense of the Greeke word Roffensis therefore is in an uncomfortable errour who writes that when a man is hardened as Pharaoh was or given up to a Reprobate sense as those of whom Saint Paul speakes were that God doth cast them off for ever without ever tendring to them the offer of his grace again that God doth forsake some such is true but that hee doth forsake all such which is his assertion is false And sundry learned amongst the Papists have a dreame that when a man comes to such a number and such a measure of sinnes then God is bound in Iustice not onely not to give him though that were too much but to deny him favour and grace ever after aud so saith Abulensis it is all one as though such a man were already actually in hell This unsound and unsafe opinion is also confessed to
particular yet nothing but what wee have faith for one way or other if not in the particular yet in the generall viz. we beleeve that wee shall conquer all the tentations we see and all others wee neither see nor feele such as we doe know and those wee does not know of wherein a kinde of implicite faith is sufficient thus and then wee aske nothing but what wee have faith for one way or other In the generall we aske in the general and we have many things whereof wee have no faith for in the particulars Vp then and bee doing worke it out by having and using our faith Satan flyes at the sight of faith there is such an Antipathy betwixt Satan and the faith of a Christian that faith no sooner comes in place but Satan is gone Other graces have their use and place to resist the impulsions of the divell some one some another but faith as Paul showes doth quench all I say all the fiery darts of the divell because it doth take in Christ Iesus with all his merits Value Virtue and Power And thus much for the first meanes to get out of tentations which is by Beleeving 2. The second is by Resisting Resist saith Peter how resist Stedfastly how stedfastly In the faith and what then why then Satan will flye The Apostle showes us in another phrase Stand saith hee and then Sathan hee fals It is not here saith Chrysostome as it fares w th wrastlers for there except we cast down our adversity we conquer not here wee conquer Satan if hee cast not us down we are then in acceptation as though we did cast him down alas Satan is quelled and as it were cast downe and killed already he is too far in hell ever to come out againe Satan can looke for no crowne hee is in perdition his aime is to cast us downe into the same destruction he himselfe is in so that if we doe resist and but keepe our Stand this is our conquest we must not looke for a greater victory than is to bee had in this world That which troubles some with discomfort is because no sooner doe they begin to resist but it is rather worse with them than it was before these consider not that it will be thus for if we will let sin and Satan alone they will let us alone sleepe in sinne and spare not we may have quiet enough and come by degrees to be past feeling but resist wee sin and Satan and the divell will play his part to hold his hold hee is a strong man and will not out except hee be forced now possession by force wee know is with some stir struggle sin will and must when we labour to cast the old man off it will because it is now a dying and all dying things that dye by peeces as sin doth reluct and struggle and stirre for life it must because else a godly man would not so well discerne the going out of sin the Candle blazeth most stinketh worst when it burnes in the Socket and so it fares with sin when it is towards it's last There is a double death of sin one in respect of the guilt of sinne which then is killed when we have our pardon this is in Iustification and when we beginne to get our pardon the Conscience is more out of quiet greater stirs being there than when wee sate still and did nothing that way But when the pardon is had once then the conscience is alive sin is dead and our hearts are at quiet being justified by faith wee have peace with God The other death of sin is in respect of the power of sin and this is in our sanctification and this wee meane chiefest here when a godly man sets about it to kill up and dry up this running disease the plucking out of the weapon the removing of the guilt of sin is done on a sudden but the healing of the wound the mending of the languor is done gradualy now a little and then a little and when a man is come to abhor his lusts then he hath given his sin it 's deaths wound as touching the power of it so on now some then some sinne doth dye more and more Now when a man can once come to resist sinne hee is dead to sin both wayes to the guilt of it and to the power of it for had hee not the pardon of it he could not resist it had hee not some power against it hee could not resist it Now looke how much power we get to resist it so much power sin loseth And now because sin will not give ground and lose the Field without fighting and some opposition hence it is that when wee begin to resist sin and Satan make to feele to the greater head and wee take our case to bee the worse wee cannot sleepe in a quiet skinne here except wee will sit downe here by Satans fire for if wee once goe about to get off from him hee will not lose us so but some stir he will make but we must live by faith and know that Satan is going and sin is a dying When the divell went of out of the mans body he tare him and puld him miserably he would not take his far-well but he should feele it so when wee doe by prayer conjure and charm him out of our soules he will make all the hurly burly he can when he is going out but bee of good heart our faith doth assure us that there is never a prayer we make nor act of resisting that we doe use but gives Satan a knock and sin a mortifying blow when ones hands do ake for cold yet when wee come first to the fire the fingers ends ake worse which makes children cry when they first come to the fire the cause is because the heat doth draw out the cold to the utmost parts and ends of every finger like to this it is that our sinnes doe make us ake worse when first wee bring our selves to the enlightning and healing ordinances of God our sinnes then are drawne out more therefore they vex more wee doe stirre them more and therefore they stinke worse wee see them more then and are troubled at the sight of them I confesse But yet so as a man is at the sight of many huge enemies whom yet hee knowes that through the helpe of his Captaine by fighting he shall beate and conquer by resisting and fighting what ever we see and feele at first wee doe and shall conquer sin and the lusts thereof and save our selves from the tentation of the divell Some questions may here come in by the way Quest. 1. When lust is sufficiently resisted Ans Some kind of faint resisting may bee made by generall and common graces and some againe against some sins by the law of nature but for the resisting that proves effectuall and is against all sin as sin is against
because himselfe cannot bee tempted with evill by nature he doth hate sin and therefore he cannot tempt to sinne and Satan could not tempt Eve till he had sin nor Eve Adam till shee had sin her selfe all this proves not but that Sathan may and doth tempt us to Atheisme a sinne which he himselfe hates not for though he cannot sin the sin himselfe as the divell cannot do the act of many sins as Adultery yet hee loves the sinne it is not for want of will that he is not an Atheist for he would give any thing he could turne Atheist and finde some kind of ease by thinking there were no God at all and it is a sin which is incompatible with the estate of a damned Angell but now his desire being to damne soules and this being the most damning sinne that is he doth use all meanes to wipe out of the heart of man all impression of the God-head and the best men that be have too many thoughts this way and as I shewed it is the master-veine in our Originall lust and were it not for the law of nature our sinne and Satan would make monstrous flat Atheists of us all out of hand but God hath so wrought in us an impression of a Deity being the maine pillar of the law of Nature that we never can possibly nor all the divels in hell comming in with their forces bring our hearts to an utter extinguishment of that law and that principle of natures law and we doe finde that our deepest Atheists in the world when in extremity and put to it with some sudden affrightment to use to cry O God aloud and therefore this corruption and tentation is with the more ease opposed and answered a man hath on his side the workes of nature the law of nature the law and fire of his conscience fearing and trembling at the wrath to come but when all is done that which must and only will hold us against the tentation when it is strongly put to by Sathan is to flye to the word of God The Word saith that there is a God and therefore I will beleeve that there is a GOD out of tentation other considerations taken from nature and divers acts of Divine providence may stop the mouth of our Lust which would not have God in all that is in any of our thoughts but when once wee are set upon with some fierce tentation I would wish al Christians to do these things the first is not to enter into dispute with his owne reason for the understanding of man is too weak too short to reach the comprehension of a Deity hee that shall take in his owne thoughts and muse about the nature and infinite Being of God shall but let in Satan the more the counsell then I am bold to give to the poore Christian is in any hand not to study this point but to take his minde off from thinking disputing this argument lest he come to say in his heart I cannot conceive what God is and therefore I doubt me there is no such being Away then with all reasoning and syllogismes about that subject 2. Then cleave to the Word say though my reason cannot tell what to make of it tho lust in me say there is no God at al tho Satan say it that there is no God and most doe live as though there were no God yet because it is in the Word the Scripture saith it and I must and will and doe beleeve it wee must see both God and Heaven and all in the Word Doubts I know that have any ground ought to bee scanned disputed answered but Atheisme is a deniall of the first principle of all Religion and therefore the best way is to begin and end with the Word and to know that such a principall as is the essence and existence of a GOD ought not to bee so much as questioned It is a meere scruple and the safest way is to reject it as soone and as often as it doth come put it off as a thing neither worth nor fit for consideration wee shall finde that by often rejecting such scruples the conscience will be better confirmed and setled than by going about by reason and arguments to answer them Hee that shall goe about by the force of his owne wit to conquer his Atheisme is in great danger to fall into some degrees of it for when he sees that reason cannot doe it and find out what this God is he wil come to question all and to thinke that there is no such being He then doth best who doth dispute least and in the heate of the tentation rests himselfe wholy on the Word 2. For tentations of Blasphemy as Curse God and dye the servants of God are more afraid of them than hurt they are rather bugbeares than such as use to produce in them any reall effects they carry with them such a deale of horror that they seldome take for when once wee confesse a true GOD it will make our haire stare to thinke of blaspheming him and so we fall into pitious moodes of terrour and horror which keepes us from the sin it selfe but wee must set downe what we conceive may doe us helpe this way 1. We must get an assurance that God doth love us and then we shall love him and love alwayes thinks and speakes well but if wee once take a thought and it grow firme in us that God doth hate us and wil curse us we will hate him againe and be ready to curse him and this is incident to us in times of some great afflictions as in Iobs case when God doth handle us sore and worse than hee commonly doth others and wee finde some circumstances that we cannot fetch a president for in the world never was the like before then wee begin to apprehend some hard dealing in it and we grow to conclude that sure God doth hate us and then we will be even with him and hate him again It is natural and usuall for hatred to breed hatred and when wee abhorre and hate God we begin to enter into some termes of Blasphemy we all hate God by nature but yet there is a further measure of hatred wrought in us to God when we conceive that out of very malice and spleene towards us he doth use us as he never did nor doth use any other and in this case our very stomacks will rise and our bloud will swell against the LORD GOD Almighty To prevent and cure this wee are to know that no afflictions bee they ever so great usuall and unheard of are any certaine signes at all of Gods anger much lesse of his hatred Iob was the first who was ever used as hee was and his wife shewed her selfe a weake and a foolish woman thence to gather the hatred of God to her and her husband Ionas had a crosse that the world never saw the
like before yet it was no fruit of Gods hatred Iacob had sore and heavy afflictions yet it went ever for truth Iacob have I loved hee loved him when When hee afflicted him Esau had more outward matters to his minde than ever Iacob saw and many great Lords were of his family and yet Esau have I hated hold it then that God doth love us and when wee have this perswasion in us all the divels in hell and all the lusts in Originall sin can never make us blaspheme our GOD whom we love and of whom wee have this minde that hee doth love us say then he loves me and I love him then one cannot be brought to sin the sin of Blasphemy 2. We must get the pardō of our sins repent we of all our iniquities and then the Crosse can never wring frō us words of blasphemy when we are in great sorrowes Satan will tempt very strongly that way and we feare what we shal doe in times and cases of great extremity I feare me saith the poore Christian what I shall do in great afflictions repent wee of our sins and feare nothing it is not the greatnesse of the Crosse but it is the guilt of sin working with the sting of the Crosse which makes men in their tribulation to blaspheme Rev. 16. 11. we read that the fifth Angell powred down his viol on the seat of the Beast and it is written that they gnawed with their tongues for pain and blasphemed the GOD of heaven because of their paines and their sores now marke repented not of their deeds Here wee see that it was not for their paine so much as for that they repented not of their deeds that they blasphemed Have we repented or have we not If wee have not then though our pain be not so much we are in danger to blaspheme but if we have repented be our paine ever so much wee need not feare wee shall not blaspheme 3. Say the worst have wee blasphemed Yet we must repent of our blasphemy and hope in God to despaire is to put our selves out of Gods mercy and protection to despaire by reason of Blasphemy is a worse sinne than Blasphemy they are both against the goodnesse of GOD but yet despaire is against his goodnesse his mercy and his truth I confesse it is an horrible crime to blaspheme against God and so much the worser because it is a sin somewhat like the impardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost neither is it in the wil of every man to say where the difference lies betwixt them Besides other sinnes are against God in his Greatnesse Governement but this of Blasphemy doth speake against the Goodnesse of God and God as he is represented to us stands more on his Goodnes than his Greatnesse and therefore also this sin of Blaspeming hath beene ever held amongst the greatest of sins all which must teach us by all meanes to beware of this sin and we may the easier take heed of it and save our selves from it because it being against our naturall inbred principle of a Deity Nature it selfe is afraid of this sin which is a great meanes to stay us from the sin-it selfe Satan I know is a great blasphemer and he will assay hard to it to make us to blaspheme but wee must set the Word Spirit of God against it and let the Law of nature doe all it can against it too And if at any time we have bin to blame this way yet we must know that there is a pardon to bee had I was saith Paul a blasphemer and Paul is in heaven and which is worse he compelled men to blaspheme yet on his true repentance all went well with Paul and so it may and will with us if we returne as Paul did Christ hath it Mat. 12. 31. That blasphemy against God is a sin which may on the same termes that any the least sinne that is shall and must bee forgiven I meane on our repentance There is a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which is a sin unto death and there is no repentance for this sin nor no hope the cause is because no man can repent unto life except God give him the grace and wee have it revealed that there is a decree passed in heaven that the Lord will never afford this sinner the grace to repent Divers other sinners never have this favour done to them as to repent but all sinners of this sort are past all hope for ever There is a difference betwixt this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and this blasphemy against God and Christ not onely in the measure but in the very kinde I know Satan would faine put it upon us that we have sinned against the Holy Ghost when it is no such matter on ignorant Christians hee layes this that when they sin against their knowledge and conscience that then it is the sin against the holy Ghost when the Spirit hath bin at them not to sin yet they sin and grieve and vex the Spirit of God then Satan makes his advantage oh saith he this is to sin against the Holy Ghost that it is a sin against the Holy Ghost I doe not deny but that it is the sinne against the Holy Ghost is false I prove it to be false because this sin is pardoned Moreover we speake of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost now that every sinne against the Holy Ghost must needs be Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost cannot be proved and when we goe so farre as to blaspheme God then we make a cry now it is too late to thinke of repenting this is saith he that unrepentable and unpardonable sinne against the Holy Ghost Our answer must be by denying this to bee that sin our reason must be because we are sorry for it and were it to doe againe wee would not doe it for a world but the sinner against the Holy Ghost is no whit sorry for his sinne his heart never akes for his offence but would have all do it as well as himselfe and is desirous to have hell as full as hee could and he doth even wish withall his heart that wife that children that parents that brethren that neighbours that all might blaspheme the Holy Ghost as well as himselfe It is then nothing but a policy of Satan to play upon the ignorance of men as touching the nature and effects of this sinne and to beare them in hand that when they have blasphemed God they have blasphemed the Holy Ghost but wee must hold a maine difference to lye betwixt this blasphemy against God the Father and the Holy Ghost that as the persons differ so doth the sins against the severall persons As long then as our blasphemy is against the first and not against the third we may be safe it is but to repent and all is well they doe not prize the infinite mercy of God according to the infinite worth of it who thinke
base corruptions or some dishonourable passions then this is from spirituall pride and all this is no true trouble of conscience at all we may know whether it be thus or not if that other sins as grosse and great in Gods sight which have in them or after them no shame nature shames not at them the world doth not cry shame of them but rather as many sinnes of profit and delight are in credit in the world and doe bring respect amongst men now if wee finde that such sins do passe without any such trouble the conscience saith as much as nothing though wee be convinced that they are sins if thus then the case is cleare that it is a trouble which wee make and not which sinne or God doth make It is shame as shame not sinne as sin that doth cause all this cry it is not for the sin but for the effect of sin that we thus complaine 2 If bad and not base whether to the face of the world or to the naturall principles which are in us then the troubles that wee feele in the conscience are spirituall and sincere they are for sinne as sinne because it is naught or rather because it is for bidden by God for many things have no morall naughtinesse in them yet are sins because they are forbidden by God and if these things trouble the minde such wounds come the right way and God will cure them as because wee heare not the Word receive not the Sacrament which in the dictates of nature were no sinnes had not Gods written law bin In a word when we finde that the blow our conscience doth give us is because the fact is a fault a thing forbidden by God here the matter doth run right and it is very conscience which moves in that case 3. When bad and base both the terror is great and it proves an occasion of great humiliation and casting a man downe wee are so proud and high in our owne conceits that base tentations which produce inward shame to the minde of a man and if they come abroad outward shame and scorne amongst men doe mightily abase a man and are an excellent cure for spirituall pride Here wee shall finde a mixt passion working feares in the heart and complaints in the conscience of a man for as the sin is bad so it doth trouble because it threatens the wrath of God and is accompanied many times with a fore-feeling of the wrath to come As it is base so it doth draw over the heart and conscience of a man an inward blushing and shame and I may say it that true internall shame making the conscience red againe with blushing testifies repentance more and rather than sorrow A wicked man may grieve but for this spirituall intrinsicall shame it is not in wicked men we must note that an outward shame is in the unregenerate when they have sinned some sins which the world doth point at this is a shame before man and there is some inward shame also which wicked men do feele in themselves too and that is in and for such sins as are against the law of nature and such conviction as generall illumination and common graces doe cause here the heart will blush but in such sins as are not knowne to be sins but by the conviction of the spirit here to shame to have an heart as red as fire with a blushing before GOD this is a good thing and proper to the godly and it is most when the sins are base thinke not that there is any sin which is not base in it selfe but to us and in comparison we use to name some speciall sins base sins this is that shame Paul meanes what fruit have you in those things wherof ye are now ashamed Ro. 6. 21 Yee are now which showes that when and whilst they were in the state of nature they were not ashamed of them Well then a wicked man may grieve for sin because of the punishment feared or felt or both because there is wrath hanging over his head by an haire because sins lyes at the doore and here are selfe-respects out of love and care to our skin because we would not be punished here or hereafter but this shame is not because sin is punishable but by reason that it is filthy it ariseth from the turpitude of sin and this is hearty to make a stand at sin because it is filthy and ugly To be ashamed of some effects of sin as Adam in his fall I meane at his nakednesse is in wicked men but to have this inward shame in the coÌ„science because of the innate filthinesse and turpitude of sin this is not in the wicked nor in their trouble of minde and was not in Iudas when I say there is not onely griefe for sin as bad as punishable as bad respecting God as punishable respecting our selvs but also a shame in the mind of a man that he cannot looke up for blushing then it is as it should be and the pang of conscience which comes from this sorrow and shame is many times very great and this is a troublesom estate while it doth last but it is not danger ouâ— To apply the three sins I mentioned viz. Theft Vncleannesse Murther doe smite home partly because they be bad and partly because they be base 1. To begin with Theft wee must beware that wee doe not filch the worth of a penny froÌ„ any man that which in our common notation is called theft is more base than the great sin of Rapine and Robery because that in rapine there is som manhood and fortitude showed such as it is but in theft is nothing but a base minde and because the law is so strict and flat against theeving the name of a theefe is odious and it doth pay our hearts home and there is very much trouble of minde because men doe use to spit at this sin and the reason is rather because it is a wrong to man than for that it is a sinne against God and sure wee must see that wee doe keepe cleane fingers that by no kinde of unjust alienation wee either take or keepe any thing from any body which in right is his wee all love to be truly and justly dealt with and therefore nature it selfe if it may bee heard speake will cry fye and shame upon a false finger Because then it maks a breach into the meum tuum of mâ—n which we see rather than for that it doth make a breach in the law of GOD which wee see not this sinne doth clogge the consciences of men what ever the ful cause be we finde that it doth pester the minde of man and the conscience held and hampered with a clogge is like a distempered lock which no key will open we must therefore to keep our conscience as free as may bee beware that wee doe not touch that which is anothers but if
go for another usefull consideration to move us by all meanes to keepe from the lust of uncleannesse And lastly the sinne many times weakens the body and pines away that darkens ones semes shortens ones life and then comes in a huge cry that wee have rotted away our life are guilty of hastning our own death and much adoe there is to quiet the storme which comes in this way Wherfore for this cause also abstain from fleshly lusts We see then that it leaves the greater brand on the conscience because of the dishonour and blot of this sin as well as by reason of the dishonesty of it as also for that there is a degree of uncleannes in this sin over there is in any else which foulenesse the heart of man doth rise against and this cannot but touch us with some degrees of terrour also and that this sinne doth carry some speciall staine of dishonour with it read it in Solamon A wound dishonour shall he get and his reproch shall not be wiped away And in Paul Who cals chastity a mans honour Vpon these grounds and considerations it was that Saint Peter saith That fleshly lusts doe warre against the soule These are the devils Captaines and doe meaning to kill us smite at the head war against the soule other lusts doe war against the soule too but there is some speciall matter in it that these fleshly lusts are said to warre against the soule shall I say that it is because that the other lusts doe warre as much against the graces of the soule yet there is not any that doe war more no nor in some respects so much against the peace of the soule and therefore in Peters words we are to be beseeched of all lusts to abstaine from fleshly lusts Wee will now enter into a particular discovery of such speciall branches as may make the matter the plainer Lust of uncleannesse are committed either First with ones selfe Secondly with others First we will begin with that committed with ones selfe which are greater in themselves abtract them from all other circumstances than with any other as selfe-murther is worse than the murther of another so in and of it selfe this sin is worse than of another For the rule is that the sin that doth breake the order of love is the worst love being the keeping of the Commandement I must not defile my neighbour because I am to love my neighbours chastity but I am to love my selfe and mine owne chastity before the chastity of any else and this is a foule sinne much against nature and therefore the worse for the more unnaturall the sin is the greater the guilt is still in that respect and whereas it is thought that there is not that wrong in it as is in taking away the chastity of another I urge that there is most wrong when a man doth wrong himselfe and as the theefe doth in the candle so these selfe defilements doe rot and weaken the body by the curse of God exceedingly And as in all such inordinate practises there is a secret kinde of murther what if not in the intention of the doer yet in the condition of the thing done God is much displeased with these kinde of sins they are execrable in his sight pay the conscience home when they are set before us in their true and right colours make people unfit for mariage without the great mercy of God ever after I could wish people to marry on ever so poore termes rather than to fall into such illicite darke and abominable practises which doe grieve the very principals of nature say let the worst come that can for outward things it is better to beg than burne in hell I will trust in God I will follow him he that feeds the Ravens he will provide I will rather bring trouble on the outward man than on the soule it is wisdome to look to the soule what ever becomes of the body whatsoever comes it cannot bee worse than sinne nay whatsoever it be it cannot bee bad with us so long as we obey For howsoever there may bee some difference of Estates in the generall yet sure it is that is the best for us in the particular which God cals us unto there lyes our peace our joy our comfort 2. With others and here comes many kindes we will begin with the worst first and that is Beastiality forbidden in the Word and therefore our corrupt nature and originall sin is capable of it and when once in too too prone unto it The worst things when the law of nature is suppressed yeeld strongest delight such as it is this must be looked unto it turnes man into a very beast makes a man a member of a bruite creature a sinne that man would soone fall into if the Lord shold let sin and Satan alone with us what one man doth that another may possibly doe wee being all of the same masse and cloth and that since the law was given men have run upon this horrible abomination Stories and experience and law have shewed and doe show wherefore by all meanes this soule corruption must be avoided over familiar usage of any bruite creature is to bee abhorred And the Iewish Doctors doe charge their novices by no meanes to feed their eyes with staring on the generation of beasts for feare of the worst It is a pit out of which those few that do fall into it do hardly recover it is like a winter plague some doe recover but in comparison of those that perish a poore few 2. The next is Sodomy Iud. v. 7. A going after strange flesh not onely strange in the law of God as in fornication it is but strange in nature a sin to which our law of nature hath no great minde unto at first but if our corrupt lust our originall sin bee let out wee see how it carries too many after this abomination God would never have forbidden it in the law but that our nature is subject to it we see how it did over-run Sodome and Gomorrah when it once takes how doth the sinfull flesh of man runne after it Lots daughters were young fresh and maides too and yet they would not serve they must have the men And Ro. 1. they forsooke the naturall use of the women therefore it is spoken of such as had wives else how could it bee said that they forsooke the naturall use of the women and it is said that such doe burne or scald and not only men with men working that which is unseemely but women also when given up to this unnaturall passe doe as Paul said change the naturall use into that which is against nature that is so against nature that posterity which is natures end is utterly lost by it and such as are acquainted with Stories and Poets know that this sin hath beene too much
in many Nations And many particular persons have doted wonderfully after this preposterous lust and have taken more bruitish and hellish delight in it than in those passions which are according to nature This then must be avoided by all meanes and all occasions of it warily eschewed he sinne is great it is a corrupting and a rotting of the very rudiments of nature in all things looke what corrupts the foundation and principall of things must needs be worst The punishment was great in that utter overthrow of Sodome In the Deluge water from heaven drownds here as in their sinne they had over-turned the law of nature so in their punishment there was an inversion of the course of nature for not water but fire came from heaven and burned them whose lusts were thus set on fire of hell It is used as a type of hell it is a crying sin The cry of Sodome and Gomorrah is great Gen. 18. 20. There is no sin but hath a voice but this amongst many and above most other sins hath a lowd and a crying voice it is heard to heaven it hath a lowd mouth to accuse which cry is nothing else but the guilt of conscience and the justice of God the conscience being full of matter and ready to accuse and God to heare As a man through importunity is drawn to execute justice against his minde so this sin doth so put God to it that hee must needs proceed except we come with hearty repentance hee cannot res nor be just till hee have sorely and sharpely punished it The thing I urge then sith the sin and the guilt is so great and will make such a noise in the conscience is by all meanes to keepe from the sin and from all spice of it to shun all occasions of it to take heed of that which Quintilian puts off in a Schoole-Master which is Nimium est quod intelligitur and he is so strict this way that he will not have bigger and lesser youths sit much together We may see what wrought Sodome to this sin Idlenesse pride fulnesse of bread these must be heedfully avoided and such sins as wee read Rom. 1. were in the justice of God punished with and by this passion of dishonour we must be thankfull to God for the light we have and in some measure walke according to the truth wee see They made God like a foure-footed beast and GOD gave them up to a sin which did abase them into a worse condition than of beasts and for such as are unmaried and have not the gift and by the use of al the meanes cannot get it such must know that it is better to marry than to burne and if they will rather burne than marry they are in a foule way to fall into this scalding sin which sin if they commit brings with it a world of misery and after when such shall happen to marry by the just hand of God they are suffered for a punishment of the former wickednesse to forsake as Paul saith the naturall use and run into that which is unnaturall and these are most monstrous lusts when all is done by way of preparation disposition of our hearts and thoughts against these corruptions that which will save us from the staine of these filthy puddles must be the pure and holy Word of God Set the Word against the sin and the sin is laid set the Word against Satan in this his tentation and â—atan cannot abide by it Satan 〈◊〉 no more abide the light of 〈◊〉 Word than an Owle can 〈◊〉 â—â—ining of the Sun say I 〈…〉 doe it I may not I 〈◊〉 it is forbidden in such 〈◊〉 place and againe in such a place It is called not onely a sinne but which shewes an height of sinning abomination both of them have committed abomination saith the text The punishment of it by Gods own Law was death no lesse than death present death they shall surely bee put to death their bloud shall bee upon them and the law was flat and peremptory that no Sodomite must bee amongst the sons of Israel and in that never the like reformation Iosiah brake downe the houses of the Sodomites which were by the house of the Lord 2 Kings 23. 7. Asa the father and Iehosaphat the sonne had swept away those unclean nests in their dayes but we see they grew on againe till Iosiah came and made a ful purgation These and such other places show that this sin is strong â—â—â—den and severely 〈◊〉 to which adde the wrath 〈◊〉 God on such in hell 1 Cor. â— These are the best medicines that bee which being rightly used and applied doe ever doe the cure Next to provide against the worst say a man be a sinner in this great wickednesse yet he must not run away from his father that will marre all There be I know degrees in this sinne but say it bee at the worst yet there is mercy with God repentance will make it up againe it is good to make all hast to returne sith lasciviousnesse is a sin which useth to seare up the conscience till the time of reckoning for al comes and God doth sometimes after a while shut up his gates of mercy and then as Chrysostome notes often though Noah Iob Moses Samuel and Daniel shold intercede it would bee to no purpose They were men of God who in their times did by their prayers do great things and compasse marvellous matters for particular persons for Families for Countries and yet when the glasse is out and the decree determined is past when the time is over wherein God may be found their prayers for others come in too late it is good then to bee at it with the soonest I meane not that ever it is too late to repent or that if we repent we can misse of mercy No no the fountaine stands open alwayes open in the house of David for sin and for uncleannesse and this unclean person as Paul cals him if he repent he shall finde mercy God forbid we should have such a thought as though this sin could staine so deepe that the bloud of Christ could not fetch it out our meaning is that whilst the conscience is awake and we have a faire offer made us by the Word and Spirit knocking at our hearts it is good wisdome to take Gods offer delaies be dangerous for if we will not know the day of our visitation God may and what if in justice he shall refuse to give us to repent then let our friends move for us God will not heare were they as good at praying as ever Iob Daniel Noah and Samuel were Let such then who are in this offence come in by all meanes in all hast to the Lord and when the Angell moves the water step into this Bath this Fountaine know that GOD would never
move our hearts to repent and returne had hee not a meaning to pardon and to accept as looke into the 1 Cor. 6. and there we read that some who were thus sinfull were yet sanctified were washed and are now with Christ and if they then why not some now It is not to the purpose that they were so before their callings sith Divines do agree that there is no one sinne that a man may commit before his calling but should God leave that man to himselfe to his lust to Satan he might and would and should commit the same sin after neither lies there any reason why on our repentance a sin done before is pardoned and the same sin if wee repent after must stand unpardonable or that a man may repent of a sin done before ones conversion and not repent of the same sin after adde but this that the sin committed before is in it selfe greater than the same sin committed after for before it is done with a full swing saving that perhaps the law of nature and in-bred modesty doth at the first make some recoile but after calling there being some seeds at least of grace in the wil there is some inward opposition made it is not done without some saying nay in the law of their minde and so the sin is the lesser Now if repentance could doe it at first when the sin was greater can wee question whether repentance doth fetch it off when the sin is lesser Indeed if no repentance no healing no not of the least knowne sin but if we repent all our Divinity lies upon it that such shall bee pardoned and that God hath not peremptorily bound himselfe to deny repentance unto life to any sinner except the blasphemer against the Holy Ghost is point agreed on in our Schooles and Pulpits Indeed if such as are in this foule fault doe finde that it workes a stupifying that it seares takes away the inward power of discerning things that are not convenient deadens our tast if such finde that their inward touch-stone hath now lost its vertue the danger is a great deale the greater because such having little or no feeling of their estate are not as yet in the way to repentance but if such finde it a fiery dart burning like any poyson working a world of troubles in the minde and a fearefull consternation in the conscience then there is the more hope that true humiliation and mercy is not far off such have a faculty in them which will worke out of their feares a desire to be eased and if once upon sight of the promises they conceive hope of mercy they are in a faire way to repent of their wickednesse and that God who hath made tender of his mercy to worse than Sodomites will receive those to favour upon true sorrow for what is past and stedfast resolution to doe so no more for the time to come And here I will leave this uncomfortable argument wishing all who meane not say they do scape hell to carry the smoke of this sinne to their graves to flye from it Now because I said that when in committing a sinne the conscience is against it the sin is the lesse I will not conceale what a late Divine saith that the sin is the greater when it is done when the conscience doth say no for saith he if this were any signe of a mans having grace that in acting his sin he feeles a moving within against those sinnes he doth doe it would follow that great sinners aye all sinners might perswade themselves that their estate were good because there is a con-flicting against vices out of the principles of natures light which are in the brests more or lesse of all men living that in an unregenerate man sins against the naturall conscience are the worse even in that respect because he doth them against his conscience is most true We must then say that when the sin is done against the voice of the conscience sometimes it makes the sinne the lesse sometimes the worse If we take part with the sinne against the conscience are angry that our conscience would not let us take that fill of Delight and content in committing the sinne and are not willing that conscience should say any thing unto us when we have done here the sin is much the worse because it was done against conscience but now if we take part with the voice within and are heartily sorry that the temptation and our passion meeting together doe beare downe the power of our conscience and doe what wee can to take part with the reluctation while it is a doing and when it is done nothing in the world troubles us so much as that wee did not give way to the act of conscience and keepe from the sinne and doe joyne with our conscience against our lust and are putting more strength into the power of grace and conscience against another time In this case when wee take part with the conscience against the sinne it makes the sinne the lesser which the ungodly never doe but doe joyne with the sinne against the conscience and for inward combates there are some in the unregenerate where no grace is betwixt originall sinne and other habituall lusts and the Law of Nature but not with such sinnes as nothing saith are sinnes but the Word and Spirit of GOD. In unnaturall Lusts wee grant there is some strife in some yea in most unregenerate men but in other more spirituall sinnes there neither is nor can bee that civill warre within because there is not a power of grace to make the resistance how-ever the wicked doe take part with Lust even against the Law and rules of Nature which circumstance doth aggravate theiâ— sinnes but of the difference betwixt the combate which is onely in the good and that combate which is also in the bad there is enough and enough said by Divines to Satisfie any man and in this point all care must bee used to keepe off unnaturall passions the sting of conscience is great the cure is hard and so much the more difficulâ—â— because what for the danger and what for the shame of them men cannot be easily brought to make their minde knowne to any man which gives the greatest advantage to Satan to worke his will upon us but if any be overtaken in any hand let him send up to God and in case GOD put him off out with it to some spirituall man who must and will and as God shall be pleased to blesse his labours shall restore him with the Spirit of meekenesse Next wee are to looke over those which are naturall called naturall because that nature hath an end in them for though the wrong way in unlawfull lust yet they tend to the propagation and continuation of mankinde and first for such as are single then for such as are married 1. Such are single if God give them by the use of
to give us over unto this sinfull sinne 3. Such must be chast betwixt themselves beware of excesse and defect Divines tâ—ll of excesse but if there be too much there may be too little else what meanes that phrase of S. Paul lest Satan tempt you for your incontinencie there must bee quenching nor provoking of lust raging lust is a great enemie to love and it is raging and is loth to be contented with one and if not with one then indeed and upon the matter with none Dalliances are forbidden First words and talke full of obscenity betwixt them two is not lawfull they must not by words corrupt one anothers chastitie worse than to taint the chastitie of a stanger for that here is or ought to be most love What if no body be by yet God is by and chastity the honour and honesty of the estate is by Secondly the eyes must be pure and chaste else the next will be that the eyes of such will be full of adultery it crosseth the end of matrimony which is not to fire but to extinguish lust I have read that it is against the Law of Nature for one without necessary cause to see his owne nakednesse but what ever credit we give to the judgement of men we have it in the Word that Adam and Eve when there was no living creature by the very instinct of nature did teach them to make coverings to hide their nakednesse from the sight one of another this I am sure that the Lord doth use to correct such intemperate couses and practises with strong and vexing tentations after strange flesh this is the ordinary effect of this abuse and they who shall avoid such irregular prankes shall finde a sweet enjoyment one of another and true affections stirred up with more naturall delight and heavenly content Isaac I know sported with his wife but it was no body being by and what if it were such that the King who over-saw all knew thereby that shee was his wife yet it was in all modesty for no dâ—lliance nor sporting is allowed to a man with another woman this sporting did discover to an heathen that hee was her husband although he gave it out that he was her brother But it was not of that nature we now treat of that the Patriarches and Matriarches carried it with all possible modesty in those dayes we may see it cleare by the story of Iacob and Leah Beleeve it modesty is the best preserver of nuptiall chastity mariage is no stale nor cover to any uncleane and base practises love doth no unsightly nor unseemely thing 4. The bed must be sanctified and kept undefiled by the Word and Prayer The Word is as Divines show us up and downe a mighty healer of this corruption and it stands like a strong Tower against all these base and uncleane lusts To the Word there must be Prayer adjoyned else wee rely too much on the Physick and it is not like to doe and if Physicke workes not right it makes one worse and so here as we finde none so uncleane as some married people God must then be sent for to blesse the physick to the soule other things we know as eating and drinking must be sanctified by prayer prayer is then rather and more to bee used here because the passion is so strong and reason so weake where reason is in a manner put besides its present use there I hope prayer hath greatest place eating is to take away the naturall passion of hunger and drinke of thirst yet we are to pray over our meales but here the ordinance is to cure sin to worke on the soule to heale a strong corruption which cannot usually bee done without the influence of heaven and thence it followes that wee have cause to pray more in this case than in eating and drinking praying I say there ought to bee say by way of supposition that prayer at meat should take away ones minde to ones meate why then wee would counsell one to pray for a blessing before-hand so here to pray will bring in the blessing of God which is all in all in spirituall medicines as this is being as I said to cure the sin of the soule prayer will keepe men that they shall not surfet and so come to a loathing nor fall into a defect here must be a satisfying as Salomon sayes and drinking away our thirst at our owne Cesterne lest wee hanker after a strange fountaine prayer will make a man keepe himselfe from all base and absurd and abusive dalliances it will make and keepe the bed undefiled and encrease love and mutuall affection Love hath a sure foundation when it is built not on beauty or wealth but upon prayer and grace Satan cannot abide to see men and women in this estate to live in quiet and love and this makes him to use all the art and power hee hath to trouble the waters to blow up the affections after a wrong object for then when such lusts are in love goes out he knowes that the droppings of love will keepe us from such immoderate desires which makes him to goe all the wayes he can to worke to fill the head full of surmises and jealousies the heart full of extravagant lusts and all to marre the harmony which ought to be betwixt couples the house the towne is out of quieâ— when such are out of love all which cals upon such as are married to be as watchfull and carefull to keepe all right to remember that it is the convenant of the Lord that it is not made by man but by the Lord all covenants else that are lawfull are a far off the covenant of the Lord and done in his sight but here the Lord is a party and God hath a speciall hand in this bargaine and he sees as within book quite â—horâ—w and is acquainted with all our thoughts a far off wherefore wee must in thought in word and in deed keepe close to the party the Lord hath bound us unto and wherein we have entred into bond to the Lord for our faithfulnesse such then must be a covering to one anothers eyes else the heart will not stand cleane and the meanes before prescribed and other both naturall and morall directions which wee finde up and downe in Writers must be used with all care and conscience and much diligence and all little enough our nature is catching this way and once in it is not so easie to come off but rather to runne in this case further and further off or else grow into discontents pangs of conscience terrours of heart inward gripings out of which if wee come the right way it must bee with much bitternesse after we have waded first 〈◊〉 a kinde of purgatory if we never claw off those gripings the right way then such run into a seared conscience or which is worse breake prison and thrust themselves out of this
pay use and to shew a contentednesse that the Vsurer should hold it when he hath it because of great inconveniencies in that he else cannot have money to serve his need against another time this is a mixt act of willingnesse which is construed to be naturally done unwillingly but willingly accidentally All this is grounded on the law of God which makes usury a sin and a sinne against justice too Zacheus did offer to restore that which hee did fetch in by forged cavillation he might like enough have kept it and no man have thought much of it it was gotten by sin and restore he would and what the Vsurer takes is his by sinne and restore he must The Law I know permitted it to the Iewes to the stranger what of that It followes the rather that it is of it selfe a sin because permission is of sins not of duties but the thing I say is there was a law to kill the Canaanite and yet I hope that killing was not murther no more was that usury to them a sin The Law doth urge it most that it be not done to the poore was it not because the Iewes were then too noble and generous to goe a borrowing except it were the poorer sort What should the Law then forbid that to bee done by rich men which most rich men never did but after wee have prohibitions plenty that are indefinite we are forbidden wee must not rob the poore because hee is poore good sport for theeves if therefore it may bee thought to follow that it is a lawfull matter to rob the rich neither can the law against usury be thought to be a judiciall law of Moses for such lawes as such are knowne only by some intelligence from the bookes of Moses but Heathens of all sorts who never once heard of Moses's writings have with one voice cryed sinne upon usury and shame upon Vsurers Poets Orators Historians Philosophers all They have condemned this sin by the instinct and light of nature and therefore it could not be a politicall law of Moses Besides we have it forbidden in the New Testament wheÌ„ judicials were out of date lend saith the LORD IESUS looking for nothing againe Question is made whether children bee bound to restore that which their Parents have gotten by use upon use and left unto them The negative seemes to bee affirmed by a most holy man but my thinkes reason would that we say such goods should be restored though not we but our predecessors have gotten them unlawfully the saddle is anothers still in equity and conscience and it ought to bee set on the right horse meere possession cannot give us a right title to that which in truth Coram Deo is anothers And what if the property be altered yet that makes nothing against restitution sith a child is bound by the grant of all to restore the price now in his hands of any thing his father first stole and then turned into money Restitution is to be in the very kinde if that may bee if not then in that which is answerable and equivalent The Schooles are divided in setting downe the reason of restitution one side will have it to be because the Vsurer is a dammage to the borrower the other sort with whom I joyne say that it is because by usury there is no true title Iure Divino no not in justice to that which comes in that way and sith this is the truth I conclude and say that the child is bound to make restitution because his father hath conveyed that to him which never was his fathers right and therefore cannot be the sonnes some cases may free the child which also would have freed the father as when it is not in his power hath not the ability to doe it and the like but in ordinary course it is not his owne it is anothers and by that reason he is not to keepe it but to restore it Papists teach us that in case a man be in very necessity when he tâ—kes use and makes profit by his money yet if after this necessity cease he is not bound to make restitution when hee hath wherewithall and this necessity they stretch and will have reach to his estate A large field for a man to lose his conscience in for when will a man say that he is not in some necessity in respect of his estate and condition and when will hee bee out of need to beare up his port Men will make necessities enough might this goe for good doctrine But dangerous it is and the ground of it is most false for say they by the law of nature all things are common mine thine came in after by law positive Now say they necessity dispenseth with all positive lawes and makes the goods of another mine and mine againe his and so they say that when a man to fill up his necessities doth gaine by use from another indeed and in right it is but his owne because then and in that case all things are common no man is after bound to restore that which when he tooke it was but his own Write false upon these conclusions for the truth is that meere necessity of a mans person doth not take away propriety in great extremity for a man to take this or that which is anothers is to lay hands on that which is not ones owne what ever it should have beene had not Adam fallen I enquire not but since Adams fall there is such a propriety of Meum Tuum that no necessity bee it never so urgent can dissolve Tully resolves the case thus that say a man bee on the point to starve yet rather than hee should take the least matter from another he should rather famish it being better to dye the death than to violate any man for ones owne cause Erasmus doth descant on this quidâ—â—y of the Schooles what saith he merrily and truly is not theft theft in case of necessity nay though one do it with a minde to make it good again say one must lose his life if hee doe not perjure himselfe and beare false witnesse doth that necessity make it no sin say one by committing adultery without offering violence to the person of the adulteresse may save his owne life doth the necessity of saving ones life make adultery lawfull now Put the case saith he that a man must dye or tell a lye is it not a sinne in this case of necessity to lye If then meere personall necessity doth not dispence with these Commandements Thou shalt not lye Not beare false witnesse Not commit adultery what colour of truth can there bee in this to affirme that any necessity whatsoever can make that law to be no law when he saith Thou shalt not steale If necessity cannot make an others wife at my command no more can necessity make an others goods mine owne Gods Ten
lawes are in the substance of them the very lawes of nature and by the Decalogue there is in all cases of necessity still a propriety of goods the argument in Melancthon is firme The eight Commandement is a naturall law it stands Iure Divino but by the eighth Commandement there is established a distinction between mine and thine so it concludes strongly that propriety of things is not by law positive but by law Divine and naturall Moreover if that community of things were a law of nature it had bin immutable and al things shold and ought to be common in all times and cases Neither can any man shew why the eighth Commandement being a law of nature should be subject to be dispensed with by cases of necessity any more than any other or al the ten Commandements Al the rest stand firme in the body of theÌ„ against all necessities whatsoever and therefore this Next we prove our case out of the Word There is a stealing for need saith Salomon but if this be so that need maks all things common there can bee no stealing for need sith in cases of necessity what ever a man takes to supply his need he takes but his owne say they I am sorry then that any Protestant should write and print that in this case necessity taketh away all reason of sinning This is but to close with Bellarmine as though now in extreame necessity it were alienated no longer The onely objection worth the answering is from Mat. 12 1. where we read that the Disciples being an hungred did pluck and eate the eares of câ—rne and that therefore they doing well in it it is a lawfull thing to take that which is anothers in case of necessity The answer is that this was not done by theÌ„ on this ground because necessity tooke away propriety but because it was their owne they tooke by the gift of God who is the right chiefe owner of all the creatures in the World In Deut. 23. 25. God had given them a warrant so to doe in the Land of Canaan and that things were not then made common by necessity it is plaine by the words which follow in that very text But thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbours standing corn which might have been done without offence to GOD or wrong to man if this were true which Iesuites teach that in point of necessity not onely in respect of one person but also in respect of ones condition nothing is any mans but all things are every mans for the case may bee that a man and his family may be cast upon extreame need that a sickle put in his neighbours corne will not supply the hunger of him and his so much as the plucking the eares of corne did stay the stomacks and the hunger of the Disciples and yet I think that it was never held but as a thing forbidden to the Iewes by that law for a man in never so great necessity to put his sickle in his neighbours corne and that a Iew was rather to famish than so to doe which shewes the little truth that is in that assertion that necessity maks things common amongst men The Disciples did it because they had warrant and leave from God who was the owner of that corne and the law of God was on their side And for our times I doubt not but it is lawfull for one to pluck an apple or to take an eare or so of corne and eate it not only for ones very need but for ones delight and content The equity of that judiciall law of Moses saith somewhat but my ground is because a man in such cases hath an implicite and tacite consent the owner sometimes is by when we pluck plums and apples or so and wee never aske him leave though he looke on and in this case hee that saith not no saith yea and say he be absent and we know not who is the owner neither yet I thinke this lawfull because we have an interpretative consent wee have a morall perswasion that were the owner by hee would give us leave to pluck an eare to catch a peare with heart and good will which motion being in the heart of man doth free him from any theft and also wee see it a common matter which ordinarinesse of the thing helpes to make this good that there is in all men a kinde of consent and leave vertually given to all passengers and the like to pluck an eare an apple or apples a plum a peare or so and this is warrant enough if it bee not abused to save the conscience of a man harmelesse against that law of God Thou shalt not steale here is no stealing because here is a kinde of consent of the owner though not actuall yet vertuall and implicite and such a tacite consent is enough whether the fact be done before the owners face or behind his back Againe if need did make things so far forth common as might satisfie our need then where no need is we sin if we pluck a peare or so but wee may lawfully doe it onely for delight so also were this new Divinity right in case of need wee might satisfie our soule even against the consent of the owner he flatly forbidding us for in their sense who thus teach wee take but our owne all which is false wherefore we must rather speake with the truth and say that not only for need but for our very delight in the owners absence in case he directly forbid us not wee may I say lawfully pluck an â—are of corne or so by vertue of a common supposed consent intimated in the equity of that law of Moses which in such cases doth run thorow the veines of all mankinde Lastly I conceive this matter to bee put past al peradventure by the very law of God once in force amongst the Iewes commanding the theefe stealing for very need to make restitution to the forth and fifth and in a case to the seventh degree and if selling all to his very shirt would not make up the summe then by law hee was to bee sold and lose his liberty to make restitution for the principall not for the over-plus of his theft Now this Law of God had gone against sense if need did dispence with propriety and give a right and title to so much of ones neighbours substance as would serve to satisfie ones want for I hope reason it selfe is flat against it that a man should be thus bound to make restitution for taking that which by their Doctrine is his owne Aye common understanding it selfe at the first sight is against it that a man can be said to steale his owne can stand bound by Gods law thus to restore his owne and therefore to returne home again I conclude and say that our main point doth stand free and firme viz. That albeit in case of need as of some
Orphans a man take use yet hee is to make restitution sith usury in the law of God of conscience carries a false finger need is no salve it onely excuseth á Tanto neither can the Iesuits or any else make any sound proofe to the contrary FINIS a 1 Sam. 2. 30. b Mat. 5. 19. Prius actionem posuit mox Doctrinam Chrysost Hem. 72. ad Pop. Antioch c Luke 1. 79. d 1 Tim. 31. Iam. 5. 20. e Mat. 5. 14. f Isa 55. 2. g Iohn 6. 55. h Luke 10. 18 i Luke 10 20. k Iob 1. 7. 1 Pet. 5. 8. l 2 Tim. 2. 19. m Iob. 10. 29. n vers 28. o Luke 22. 31. * Iam. 2. 19. p Matth. 4. 9. * Luke 16. 11. q Heb. 5. 14. r 2 Cor. 12. 7. Å¿ Ephes 6. 12. t 1 Cor 15 32. u Ephes 6. 12. * Ephes â— 10. x Prov. 1â— 25. y 2 Cor. 10. 5. z Rom. 16. 23. a 3 Ioh. 2. Cedren 2 Pet. 1. 4. Rom. 16. 20. Domine quis vadet lâ—â—ueos isto â—â—nultos 〈◊〉 videat istos 〈◊〉 vidâ— iistos nis◠〈◊〉 illuminaveris â—â—mine 〈◊〉 ipse enim pater tenâ—â—â—â—rum 〈◊〉 queoâ— sous abscondit Soliloq cap. 16. Which goeth under Augustines name Tome 9. Diaboli hoc opus est ut faciat â—â—ultos potius corpus Dâ—um proximum quam corruptum animum accusare ne scîliâ—cet inventa peccandi cousa a malorum radice liberentur Chrys in 1 Cor. 6. Hom. 17. Roff art 39. Contra. Luth. Sandf De Dese l. 3. Sect. 96. Iude v. 6. Vid. Scot. Collat. 5. Censur Remonst in ca. 7. Becan Sum. part 2. c. 9. q. 6. concl 6. Aquin 2. 2. q. 24 art 10. Bradward Sum. contr Pelag. l. 2. c. 9. a Phil. 1. 19. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Rom. 7. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non friglde repugnat Pro. 20. 27 Zuâ—res Opuse 8. l. 3. c. 4. â—â—m 1. VVard Grat. Discrim Summ. part 2. tract 2. cap. 9. q. 3. 8. Psal 45. â— a Voluntate Adae In sent Lib. 2. Dist 41. 4. 2. q. 1. in Resoint Psal 51. 5. Aliquid dicitur voluntarium quia estab aliquo potente prohibere non tamen prohibente hic primus motus dicitur esse voluntarius Bonav l. 2. D. 41. Dub. 3. Semper in tentatione carnis est aliquis consensus Durand li. 2. Dist 21. q. 1. Num. 11. Scot. l 3. Diâ— 34. Sect. Ad. arg Absolute nullus vitiose agit nisi ex deliberatione Intelligere enim propter quod agit est deliberare quasi imperceptibiliter deliberat propter promtitudinem in Syllogizando practice Moulin Anat Armin. ca. 8. VVotton on Ioh. pag. 146. Can. relict part 4. That which Iames here cals Lust Paul Rom. 7. 8. names it sin sin taking occasion by that Commandement Praeelectio videtur esse maxime propria virtutis Iudicare mores magis quam Actiones Arist Eth. l. 2. c. 2. The affirmative of the tenth Commandement is such a contentation with our owne estate as not to desire ought of our neighbours no not for our mony without his free consent to love our neighbour for degree fully as ones selfe vid. Sum. of Divin published by Mr. Downam lib. 1. c. 14. Hic id est precepto 20. non prohibetur Ancilla pro usu concubinae usu voluntatis quia sic prohibetur prohibitione qua prohibetur concupiscentia carnis sed quantum ad servilem actum usum utilitatis Azmand De Bello visu tract 2. cap. 128. vid. Bonav in 3. Sent. 14. Dub. 1. Inimicos ulcisci potius quam illis reconciliari honestum censetur Arist Rhet-lib 1. cap. 9. Homo saepe non potest apprehendere ver itatem quia illa sequitur quibus est assuetus educa ti enim in scriptis quae inter ipsos magni fiunt Sic ut prae a more illarum opinionum quibus quispiam innutritus est ab illis dimoveri nequeat Rabbi Maimon More Nevochim part 1 ca. 31. Act. 22. 3. Phil. 3. 56. Confer c. 8. Dia 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inest peccatum cum delectatis regnat si consenseris August in Psal 50. Iam. 1. 26 Gen. 9. 27. Pro. 13. 23 12 11. 28. 19. Pro. 26. 31 Audaciam existimo de bono divini precepti disputare nec quia bonum est auscultare debemus sed quia deus praec epit Terâ—â—l de poenit Aug. Tract 13. in Ioan. Evang. Deus neminem tentat secundum eam teutationem quae decipit Deus neminem tentat formaliter loquendo tentatione ad peccandum Caiet in Iacob 1. vid Twisse Vindic Grat. l. 2. Criminat 3. Digress 2. cap. 5. Ioh 14. 30. Pisâ— Maâ—don in loâ—cum Heb. 9. 14 Tileâ— De malis Angelis Th. 31 32 de Pro. 24. Bonav lib. 2. Dist 8. part 2. per. totum Act. 5. 3. 1 Kin. 22. 22. Calvin Instit l. 1. c. 14 Sect. 17. Diabolum potentem ad homines sibi subdendos in captivitate retinendos non virtus ejus facit sed humana peccata Mat. 12. 29 August in Psal 71. Rom. 5. 1. Râ—m 7. 20. All câ—â—e used Mat. 15. 19. Peccatum non infunditur de novo sed elicitur educitur de potentia peccati Originalis Rom. 5. 12. Aquin. 1. 2. q. 82. a. 4. Scot. 4. Sentent D. 14. q. 1. Ier. 17. 9. 2 Chro. 21. 1. Mat. 16. 23 2 Thes 3. 2 Exod. 1. 10 The new King said Come let us deale wisely Yet every oppressor is a soole Pro. 28. 1â— Isa 1. 16. Gal. 6. 1. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Ioh. 15. 5. Non ait sine me deâ—iClius potestis facers sed ait sine me nihil potestis facere Concil Milevit cap. 5. Luk. 4. 13. 1 Cor. 10. 13. a 2 Chron. c. 18. b 2 Chron. c. 16. c Mat. 16. 16. d Mat. 16. 22 23. Eph. 6. 4. All sins are in a sense against nature as nature was and should be these are so called because they are against natures law as nature is Vid. Aquin. in Rom. 1. Rom. 1. 26. Vid. Sclater on Rom. p. 170 171. Ames Theolog l. 2. c. 2 Sect. 15. This law of Nature tho it bee good in it selfe yet in us it is no part of our Regeneration nor of our New man Vid. Twisse Vindie â— lib. 3. errat 8. Sect. 11. Vid. Scla oâ— Rom. 1. v. 31 Gen. 6. 5. Ps 14 1. 3. Contr. Collator c. 27. Sclat of Tythes pag. 171 172 173 174. Morton Appeale l. 5 c. 17. Sect. 2. Sclat of Tythes p. 171 172 173 174. Feild Appendix part 2. Sc. 6. p. 54 Vid. Harris Serm. on the Covenant pa. 15. Rom. 1. 17. Deu. 23. 18 The price of a Dog id est of a Buggerer Iun. Deodare in Loc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocil Psa 14. 1. Ioh. 8. 44. Homo homini Lupus 2 King 8 13. Lev. 18 23 The morall law was indeed given immediately to Moses but Moses stood as a common father and was then and there every man