weake or treatable that either victorie may bee quickly gotten or some pacifications and compositions concluded But no such things here Seventhly therefore consider the wisedome the policies the unsearchablenesse of this sinne The Scripture cals it The wisedome of the flesh earthly sensuall divellish wisedome wisedome to doe evill Reasonings strong holds Imaginations high thoughts And all this wisedome is emploi'd to Deceive the Soule therefore is fleshly wisedome calld by Saint Iames Divellish because it hath the Divels end to Draw away men from God and to entice and beguile them Therefore in Scripture the heart of man is said to bee Deceitfull and unsearchable and lusts are cald Deceiveable lusts and the deceitfulnesse of sinne Saint Paul hath a heape of words to expresse this serpentine quality of sinne by cogging or cheating cunning craftinesse methods deceit Eph. 4 14. But a man may be very wise that wisedom look upon none but mischievous and deceitfull ends and yet for all this no great hurt done by him because he may be unwilling to take the paines like him in the historian that was innocent not out of good nature but meerely out of lazines Therfore thirdly this Deceite of sinne is actuated and set on work with very strong desires and universall lustings the Apostle cals them not lusts onely but wills or resolutions of the flesh and of the minde it selfe Hence those secret sins which David himselfe was so troubled withall those swarmes of lusts which the soule forgeth in it selfe as so many Creatures that which Salomon saith of the Kings heart is true of that fleshly King in every mans bosome It is unsearchable a Gulfe a Hell of sinnefull profoundnesse Policies to keepe from good policies to poison and pervert good policies to make good unseasonable policies to bring to evill policies to keepe in evill policies to maintaine justifie extenuate evill Policies to make meâ—… rest in false principles policies to glosse and corrupt true principles policies on the right hand for superstition and flattering of God with will-worship policies on the left hand for open profanenes Infinite are the windings and labyrinths of the heart of man the counsels and projects of the flesh to establish the Kingdome of sinne in it selfe It is an argument of one of the grandest consequences in Divinity this one of the wisdome of the flesh those wiles and principles that hold up the throne of the Prince of this world What man is there who will not in profession be ready to spit at the name of Satan and to defie him and the workes of his Kingdome and yet what man is there in whose bosome Satan hath not a Counsell-table a troupe of statists by whom hee worketh effectually the designes of his owne Kingdome The more time any man will spend to make himselfe acquainted with himselfe the more light of Gods Law hee will set up in his heart the more he will begge of God to reveale the secrets of his evill nature unto him to make him see that abundance of the hart That treasure of the hart that Hell of the heart that panoplie and magasin of sinne and temptation which is there the more with the prodigall hee comes unto himselfe and views that evill heart that bitter roote which is in him Certainely the more confusion and silence and abhorrencie condemnation will there be of himself the more adoration of that boundlesse mercie of that bottomles puritie which is able to pierce into every corner of so unsearchable a thing able to clense every hole and dungeon and to enlarge it into a fit receptacle for the Prince of glory Notable to this purpose is that place of S. Paul If all prophesie and there come in an unbeleever or unlearned man he is convinc'd of all he is iudged of all and thus are the secrets of his hart made manifest and so falling downe on his face he will worship God As soone as a man is convinc'd and Iudg'd out of the word and hath the secret filthinesse of his heart laid open before him hath his Conscience cut open and unridg'd by that sacrificing sword which is a discerner of the very intents of the heart he presently fals downe upon his face in the acknowledgment of his owne unworthinesse and acknowledgeth all worship to be due to that most patient and mercifull God that had all the former dayes of his ignorance endured such an uncleane vessell which was from the very wombe fitted for wrath and now at last revealed his Gospell of salvation opened the bowels of Christ for a sanctuarie and refuge against all that vengeance that attendeth and against all those spirituall enemies which did hunt his soule When men have their owne evil waies revealed unto them which is ever done by Gods spirit when hee will please to bee pacified with them then must they needs be confounded and be loathsome in their owne sight and never open their mouths any more nor hold up their faces or stand before God with their wonted confidences and presumptions This was the bottome of Davids repentance That hee was conceiv'd in sinne that was not the first time that hee was an adulterer hee had it in his nature from the very wombe Men testifie their pride in their looks and fashions in their eies and tongues 't is the deepest the closest and yet one of the openest sinnes as a great Oke that spreadeth much in sight and yet is very deepe under ground too But now if men did truly consider what black feete they are which doe hold up these proud plumes what a stinking roote it is which beares these gawdie flowers what a sulphury and poisonous soile it is that nourisheth these painted apples they would beginne a little to new rate themselves It is nothing but ignorance that keepes men in pride If to be wise to doe evill and foolish to doe good if to take endowments from the hand of God and to fight against him with them if to pervert the light of reason and Scripture to plead for sinne and the purposes of Satan as lascivious poets use the chast expressions of Virgil to notifie their fordid and obscene conceits If to be so wise as to make evill good and good evill light darkenesse and darknesse light to distingvish idolatry into religion superstition into worship Belial into Christ bee matters to be proud of then there is in every mans nature a crop and harvest of just pride Else wee must all conclude that hee which glorieth in any thing which is meerely from himselfe hath chosen nothing to glory in but his owne shame Eightly consider the strength and power of this sinne to command to execute to bring about what ever it hath projected for the advancement of Satans kingdome It hath the power of a King It reignes in our members and it hath the strength of a Law it is a Law in our members and a Law without strength is no
because they are sure it will bring them home at last but wicked men in a fairer way are never satisfied because they have not before them that rest which their soule desires For inordinate lusts are ever infinite What made the heathen burne in lust one towards another but because the way of nature is finite but the way of sinne infinite What made Nero that wicked emperour have an officer about him who was called Arbiter Neroniana libidinis the Inventer and Contriver of new wayes of uncleannesse but because lust is infinite What made Messalina that prodigie of women whom I presume Saint Paul had a particular relation to Rom. 1. 26. Profluere ad incognitas libidines as the Historian speakes prostitute her selfe with greedinesse unto unnaturall and unknowne abominations but because lust is infinite What makes the ambitious man never leave climbing till he build a nest in the starres the covetous man never leave scraping till he fill bagges and chests and houses and yet can never fill the hell of his owne desires the epicure never cease swallowing and spuing and staggering and inventing new arts of catches and rounds and healths and caps and measures and damnation the swearer finde out new gods to invocate and have change of oathes as it were of fashions the superstitious Traveller runne from England to Rhemes and from thence to Rome and from Rome to Loretto and after that to Ierusalem to worship the milke of our Lady or the cratch and tombe of our Saviour or the nailes of his Crosse or the print of his feete and I know not what other fond delusions of silly men who had rather finde salvation any where then in the Scriptures what is the reason of these and infinite the like absurdities but because Lust is infinite and infinite Lust will breed infinite occasions and infinite occasions will require infinite wealth and infinite wit and infinite strength and infinite instruments to bring them about and this must needs beget much Vexation of minde not to have our possessions in any measure proportionable to our occasions The third and last ground is the Creatures deceitfulnesse there is no one thing will more disquiet the minde then to be defeated Those things wherein men feare miscarriage or expect disappointment they prepare such a disposition of mind as may be fit to beare it but when a man is surpriz'd with evill the novelty encreaseth the vexation And therefore the Scripture useth to expresse the greatnesse of a judgement by the unexpectednesse of it When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for The unexpectance doth adde unto the Terror A breach in an instant a momentary a sudden destruction a swift damnation a flying roule a winged woman such are the expressions of a severe Iudgement And therefore it was a wise observation which Tacitus made of a great Romane he was Ambiguarum rerum sciens eoque intrepidus He foresaw and by consequence was not so much troubled with evill events as those whom they did surprize Now men are apt to promise themselves much conâ—…entment in the fruition of earthly things like the foole in the Parable and to be herein disappointed is the ground of much vexation When a man travels in deepe way sees before him a large smoothe plaine he presumes that will recompence the wile he was formerly put to but when he comes to it and findes it as rotten as full of sloughs and bogs and quagmires as his former way his trouble is the more multiplied because his hopes are deceiv'd The divell and the world beget in mens mindes large hopes and make profuse promises to those that will worship them and a man at a distance sees abundance of pleasure and happinesse in riches honors high place eminent employments and the like but when he hath his hearts desire and peradventure hath out-climb'd the very modesty of his former wishes hath ventur'd to breake through many a hedge to make gaps through Gods Law and his owne conscience that he might by shorter passages hasten to the idoll he so much worshipped he findes at last that there was more trouble in the fruition then expectation at the distance that all this is but like the Egyptian Temples where through a stately frontispice and magnificent structure a man came with much preparations of reverence and worship but to the Image of an vgly ape the ridiculous idoll of that people A man comes to the world as to a lottry with a head full of hopes and projects to get a prize and returnes with a heart full of blankes utterly deluded in his expectation The world useth a man as Ivie doth an Oke the closer it gets to the heart the more it clings and twists about the affections though it seeme to promise and flatter much yet it doth indeed but eate out his reall substance and choake him in the embraces First then they deceive our judgements make us thinke better of them then they deserue they deale with us as the Philistines with Sampson they begin at our eyes Thus the divell began to beguile Eve When she saw that the Tree was good and pleasant to the eyes then being thus first deceived she became a transgressor and thus Esau disputes himselfe out of his birth-right I am at the point of death the pottage will make me live the birth-right will not goe into the grave with me I will preferre my life before my priviledge Secondly they deceive our hopes and expectations Achan promised himselfe much happinesse in a wedge of gold and Babylonish garment but they were denoted and cursed things they did not only deceive him but undoe him The wedge of gold if I may so speake did serue to no other purpose but to cleave asunder his soule from his body and the Babylonish garment but for a shrowd Gehazies presumptions were vast and the bargaine he thought very easie to buy garments and olive yards and vineyards and sheepe and oxen and man-servants and maide-servants at the price of an officious and mercenarie lye he thought he had provided well for his posterity by the reward of Naaman but the event proves quite contrarie he provided nothing but a leprosie for himselfe and his seede forever They deceive our hopes in respect of Good They promise long life and yet the same night a mans soule is taken from him and they the instruments of that calamity How many men have perished by their honours how many have beene eaten up by their pleasures how many hath the greedy desire of wealth powred out into the grave They promise peace and safety as we see how Israel boasted in their mountaines confederacies supplies from Egypt and Assyria in their owne counsels and inventions and yet all these end in shame and disappointment They promise liberty and yet make men slaves unto vile lusts they promise fitnesse for Gods service and nothing more apt to make men forget him or
end that so we may receive a Crowne of Life For God doth not fulfill his promises in us onely but by us too and those things which in regard of his Word are his promises are also in regard of his commaund our Duties And therefore we must take the promises in that Connexion and dependencie which they have amongst themselves Fourthly promises though alwayes necessary are yet most usefull in Extremities and therefore it is best for us to store up of all sorts though wee see no present use of some particulars yet we know not what time may bring forth what wayes God my please to try us by Secondly It is best to acquaint our hearts with those which are most generall pretions fundamentall wherein Gods Power and Goodnesse is principally seene and from them it will be easie to inferre the rest As Iob argues from the finall resurrection to a deliverance from the dunghill And David from the deliverance of his Soule from Hell to the deliverance of his feete from falling And Habakuk from the deliverance out of Egypt and the wildernesse to the deliverance out of Babylon And Abraham from a miraculous generation in a dead wombe to a miraculous restitution of Isaak from the dead againe And Paul from a deliverance out of the mouth of the Lion to a deliverance from every evill worke Some notable act of Gods mercy and providence may bee applyable to severall more particulars because experience worketh hope Thirdly It is good to bring a mans selfe to a view of extremities in himselfe to keepe fresh in his eye the nakednesse poverty and utter disability that is in him to further his owne happynesse and that will fitte him to goe with Patience and Faith through any other exigencies which he may bee brought to There is as little ground why a sinner should beleeve and trust God for the forgivenesse of his sinnes as Hope foÌ„r any comfort and support in his distresses If a man can therefore now keepe before him a distinct view of the filthynesse of his sinnes and that anguish and extremities which it brings and live by Faith in the remission of them he will bee much the more fitted to trust and leane on God in the middest of any other distresses There is not so much evill so much unremoveablenesse and unmitigablenesse in any 〈◊〉 or misery as there is in sinne and therefore if we can trust God for pardon purging and extinguishing of sinne we may much more trust him for the supporting of us under or delâ—…vering us from any other evill Fifthly experience of Gods Wisedome Truth and Power in some promises will settle and establish the heart in dependance and expectation of the like in others Sense doth corroborate and confirme Faith And this wee shall observe to be a very frequent argument in Holy Scriptures to conclude Gods favour for the present or future by his proceedings past When the Israelites were afraid of the Anakims and Giants of the Land this was Moses his argument Dread not neither bee afraid of them the Lord your God which goeth before you hee shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wildernesse c. And againe I commanded Iosua saith he at that time saying Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two Kings So shall the Lord doe unto all the kingdomes whither thou passest So David argued against Gâ—…liah The Lord did deliver me from a Lyon and a Beare therefore he will deliver me from this Philistime And S. Paul The Lord hath delivered from a sentence of Death and doth deliver therefore I trust that hee will deliver So the faithfull argue in the Prophet Art not thou hee that didst cut Rahab and wound the Dragon that didst dry the Sea the waters of the dâ—…pe and madâ—…st a passage through the dâ—…pths of the Sea for the ransomed to passe over Therâ—…fore the Redeemed of the Lord shall returne and come with singing unto Sion c. These and sundry the like examples were written for our learning that wee also through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope that wee might learne to store up the passages of Gods providence in our lives that they may bee for presidents and rules in after times Men are apt to sinke under the present sense of any evill that presseth them because they doe not looke baâ—…kward to Gods former wayes of mercy towards them whereas if men could thus argue I have knowne a famine and felt a pinching season so long agone and I did then out-live it and Gods providence cared for me and â—…arried mee through that plunge and distresse I have felt a sore disease and beene in the mouth of the Grave and yet I live to prayse Gods power The buffets of Sathan have heretofore bruized my soule and I have beene even drencht in mine owne sorrowes and swallowed up of despairing and uncomfortable thoughts and yet out of them all the Lord hath delivered me and let his countenance shine upon me againe And hee is the same God still as full of compassion to comâ—…iserate my calamities as full of power to effect as full of wisedome to contrive as ful of fidelity to performe his owne Promises as hee was before And therefore I will waite upon him in the wayes of his owne mercy and rest in the constancie immutability indeficiencie of that God with whom there is no variablenesse neither shadow of changing I say if men could thus learne to comfort their hearts by their experiences and review of Gods former proceedings they might with the more quietnesse and silent affections expect the salvation of the Lord againe Sixthly The same thing in temporall and inferior blessings may belong to one man only ex largitate out of that generall providence which causeth the Sâ—…nne to shine on the good and the bad alike and to another ex promisso out of Gods promise because godâ—…ynesse hath the promises of this life as wâ—…ll as of that to come Now there is a vast difference betweene these two to have a thing onely out of patience and forbearance and to have it out of engagement and promise For by the promise there is a discharge of all the forfeitures incumbrances vexations perplexities which attended the same thing As in temporall so in spirituall and theologicall respects there is a great difference in Tenures touching the same things The wicked in the earthly things they enioy are wholly Tenants at will they have no engagement at all from God they may be thrust out every houre for all their right was forfeited in Adam and restored unto them only by a Generall providence during Gods good pleasure as a condemned malefactor till the time of his execution hath some thing allowed him out of favour but may at pleasure bee cut off from it But the faithfull have all things by