from our Parents Psal. 51. Behold sayth Dauid I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceiue me The originall word is warme me as if the first heate deriued to him were not without contamination I was borne a sinner sayth a Saint It is saide Gen. 5. that Adam begate a sonne in his owne likenesse after his image and called his name Seth. This image and likenesse cannot bee vnderstood of the Soule for this Adam begate not Nor properly and meerely of the Bodies shape so was Cain as like to Adam as Seth of whom it is spoken Nor did that image consist in the piety and purity of Seth Adam could not propagate that to his sonne which hee had not in himselfe vertues are not giuen by birth nor doth grace follow generation but regeneration Neyther is Seth said to bee begotten in the Image of Adam because mankind was continued and preserued in him But it intends that corruption which descended to Adams posterity by naturall propagation The Pelagian error was Peccatum primae transgressionis in alios homines non propagatione sed imitatione transisse that the guilt of the first sinne was deriued to other men not by propagation but by imitation but then could not Adam be said to begette a sonne in his owne image neyther could Death haue seazed on Infants who had not then sinned But all haue sinned Rom. 5. As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed vpon all men for that all haue sinned This title then the sonnes of men puts vs in mind of our originall contamination whereby we stand guilty before God lyable to present and eternall iudgements Dura tremenda refers You will say with the Disciples Ioh. 6. This is an hard saying who can heare it beare it nay be ready to conclude with a sadder inference as the same Disciples after a particular instance Math. 19. Who then can be saued I answere We deriue from the first Adam sinne and death but from the second Adam Grace and Life As we are the sonnes of men our state is wretched as made the sonnes of God blessed It is a peremptory speech 1. Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and bloud cannot inherite the kingdome of God neyther doth corruption inherite incorruption It is a reuiuing comfort in the 6. Chapter of the same Epistle Such wee were but wee are washed but we are sanctified but we are iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus by the spirit of our God The conclusion or inference hereon is most happy Now therefore there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walke not after the flesh but after the spirite Wee may liue in the flesh but if after the flesh wee shall die Si voluntati voluptati carnis satissacere conemur If our endeuours bee wholy armed and aymed to content the Flesh but if we bee led by the spirit cum dilectione cum delectatione with loue with delight wee are of the sonnes of men made the sonnes of God It is our happinesse not to bee borne but to bee new borne The first birth kills the second giues life It is not the seed of man in the wombe of our mother but the seed of Grace in the wombe of the Church that makes vs blessed Generation lost vs it must bee regeneration that recouers vs. As the tree falls so it lies and lightly it falls to that side which is most loden with fruites and branches If wee abound most with the fruits of obedience wee shall fall to the right hand life if with wicked actions affections to the left side death It is not then worth the ascription of glory to what wee deriue naturally from man Dauid accepts it as a great dignity to be sonne in law to a King To descend from Potentates and to fetch our pedegree from princes is held mirabile et memorabile decus a dignity not to bee slighted or forgotten But to bee a Monarch Imperium Oceano famam quiterminat astris Whose fame and Empire no lesse bound controules Then the remotest sea and both the Poles Oh this is Celsissima gloria mundi the supremest honour of this world yet Princes are but men saith the Psalmist Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe His breath goeth forth hee returneth to his earth They may bee high by their calling Princes yet they are but low by their nature sons of men And meerely to bee the sonne of man is to bee corrupt and polluted They are sinfull the sonnes of men weake there is no helpe in them corruptible their breath goeth forth dying they returne to their earth It is registred as an euident praise of Moses his faith that for the rebuke of Christ he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter There is no ambitiō good in the sons of men but to be adopted the sons of God vnder which degree there is no happines aboue which no cause of aspiring 2. Our Corruptiblenesse is heere also demonstrated A mortall Father cannot beget an immortall sonne If they that brought vs into the world haue gone out of the world themselues we may infallibly conclude our owne following He that may say I haue a man to my Father a woman to my mother in his life may in death with Iob say to Corruption Thou art my Father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister It hath beene excepted against the iustice of God that the sinne of one man is deuolued to his posteritie and that for the fathers eating sowre grapes the childrens teeth are set on edge according to the Iewish Prouerbe Ier. 31. 29. As if we might say to euery sonne of man as Horace sung to his friend Delicta maiorum immeritus lues Thou being innocent doest suffer for thy nocent superiours This a Philosopher obiected against the gods strangely conferring it as if for the fathers disease physicke should be ministred to the sonne I answere Adam is considered as the roote of mankind that corrupt masse whence can bee deduced no pure thing Can we bee borne Morians without their blacke skins It is possible to haue an Amorite to our father and an Hittite to our mother without participation of their corrupted natures If a man slippe a syense from a hawth orne hee will not looke to gather from it grapes There is not then a sonne of man in the cluster of mankind but eodem modo nodo vinctus victus it is lyable to that common and equall law of death Vnde superbis homo natus satus ortus ab hum◠Proud man forgets Earth was his natiue wombe Whence he was borne and dead the Earth's his Tombe Morieris non quia aegrot as sed quia viuis sayth the Philosopher Thou shalt die oh sonne of man not because thou art sicke but because
sayth the Prouerbe Let the buyer take heed in this let the seller looke to it Make no marte nor market with Sathan Non benè pro multo libertas venditur auro The heart is ill solde what euer the price be Thirdly for the borrower Lend not thy heart in hope of interest lest thou lose the principall Lend him not any implement in thy house any affection in thy heart but to spare the best vessell to such an abuser is no lesse then mad charity Lastly ware the theefe and let his subtilty excite thy more prouident preuention Many a man keepes his goods safe enough from beggers buyers borrowers yet is met withall by theeues Therefore locke vp this vessell with the Key of faith barre it with resolution against sinne guard it with supervisiting diligence and repose it in the bosom of thy Sauiour There it is safe from all obsidious or insidious oppugnations from the reach of fraud or violence Let it not stray from this home lest like Dinah it be defloured If wee keepe this vessell our selues wee indanger the losse Iacob bought Esau's birth-right Satha stole Adams Paradise whiles the tenure was in their owne hands An Apple beguiled the one a messe of pottage the other Trust not thy heart in thine owne custody but lay it vp in heauen with thy treasure Commit it to Him that is the maker and preseruer of men who will lappe it vp with peace and lay it in a bed of ioy where no aduersary power cā inuade it nor theefe break through to steale it 3. The Liquor this vessel holds is euill Euill is double eyther of Sinne or of Punishment the deseruing and retribution the one of mans owne affecting the other of Gods iust inflicting The former is simpliciter malum simply euill of it owne nature the latter but secundum quid in respect of the sufferer being good in regard of Gods glory as an act of his Iustice. For the Euils of our sufferings as not intended here I pretermit Onely when they come we learne hence how to intertaine them in our opinion as our due rewards in our patience as men as Saints that tribulation may as well produce patience as sinne hath procured tribulation Non sentire mala sua non est hominis non ferre non est viri He that feeles not his miseries sensibly is not a man and he that beares them not couragiously is not a Christian. The iuyce in the heart of the sonnes of men is euill all haue corrupted their wayes Solomon speakes not here in indiuiduo this or that sonne of man but generally with an vniuersall extent the sonnes of men And leauing the plurall with the Possessors by a significant salaecisme he names the vessell in the singular the heart not hearts as if all mankind had cor vnum in vnitate malitiae one heart in the vnity of sinne the matter of the vessell being of one polluted lumpe that euery man that hath an hart hath naturally an euill heart Adam had no sooner by his one sinne slaine his posterity but hee begote a sonne that slew his brother Adam was planted by God a good Vine but his Apostasie made all his children sowre grapes Our nature was sowne good behold wee are come vp euill Through whose default ariseth this badnesse God created this vessell good man poyson'd it in the seasoning And being thus distayned in the tender newnesse seruat odorem testa diu it smels of the olde infection till a new iuyce bee put into it or rather it selfe made new As Dauid prayes Create in me oh Lord a cleane heart and renew a right spirit within me GOD made vs good we haue mar'd ourseluesa nd behold wee call on him to make vs good againe Yea euen the vessel thus recreated is not without a tang of the former corruption Paul confesseth in himselfe a body of Death as well as Dauid a natiue vncleannesse The best graine sends forth that chaffe whereof before the sowing it was purged by the fanne Our contracted euill had been the lesse intolerable if we had not been made so perfectly good Hee that made heauen and earth ayre and fire Sunne and Moone all elements all creatures good surely would not make him euill for whom these good things were made How comes he thus bad Deus hominem fecit homo se interfecit In the words of our Royall Preacher Eccles. 7. Loe this onelie I haue found that God hath made man vpright but they haue sought out many inuentions Man was created happy but hee found out trickes to make himselfe miserable And his misery had been lesse if he had neuer beene so blessed the better wee were we are the worse Like the posterity of some profuse or tainted Progenitour wee may tell of the Lands Lordshippes honours titles that were once ours and then sigh out the song fuimus Troes we haue been blessed If the heart were thus good by creation or is thus good by redemption how can it bee the continent of such euill liquour when by the word of His mouth that neuer erred A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruits I answere that saying must be construed in sensu composito a good tree continuing good cannot produce euill fruites The heart borne of God in quanto renatum est not peccat doth not commit sinne so farre as it is borne of GOD. Yet euen in this vessell whiles it walkes on earth are some droppes of the first poyson And so Dat dulces fons vnus aquas qui et praebet amaras The same fountaine sends forth sweet water and bitter though not at the same place as Saint Iames propounds it But Solomon speakes here of the heart as it is generate or degenerate not as regenerate what it is by nature not by grace as it is from the first Adam not from the second It is thus a vessell of euill Sinne was brewed in it hath brewed it into sinne It is strangely I know not how truely reported of a vessell that changeth some kind of liquour put into it into it selfe as fire transformes the fuell into fire But heere the content doth change the continent as some minerall veynes doe the earth that holdes them This euill iuyce turnes the whole heart into euill as water powred vpon snow turnes it to water The wickednesse of man was so great in the earth that it made euery imagination of the thoughts of his heart onely euill continually Here if wee consider the dignity of the vessell the filthinesse of the euill it holds or is rather holden of for non tam tenet quam tenetur the comparison is sufficient to astonish vs. Quà m malè conueniunt vas aureum atrumque venenum Oh! ingrate in considerate man to whom God hath giuen so good a vessell and hee filles it with so euill sappe In a great house there be vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour some for better
what thou complainest against Caro non est mala si malo careat But Christ was more fauourable to the Adulteresse and sent her away with impunity yet not in allowance to the vice of the accused but to conuince the wickednes of the accusers Putauit lapidandam non à lapidandis Noluit talem noluit à talibus He might thinke her worthy to die but not by them that were worthy to die Hee would not haue her polluted nor yet to perish by so polluted hands I conclude the madness of these men with the Poet. Ludit amor sensus oculos perstringit aufert Libertatem animi mira nos fascinat arte Credo aliquis Daemon subiens praecordia flammam Conâ—itat raptam tollit de cardine mentem Amor est amaror error Lust blinds the senses and with witching arte Brings into fatall seruitude the heart A subtill Fiend the cause and plague of badnes Poysons the bloud and filles the braine with madnesse If they will not see this yet as what frantick man perceiues his owne madnes they shall feele it vnder the hands of an ill Surgion on earth or a worse in hell 4. The Hypocrite Playes the mad-man vnder couert and concealement He is proud vnder the shadow of humility But hee cannot say with Dauid Psal. 131. Mine heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty Cor oculi fons rivuli The tongue that brags of humility deserues little credite Frons vultus oculi saepè mentiuntur lingua verò saepissimè The forehead eyes and countenance do often deceiue the tongue most commonly The worst Inne hath sometimes the biggest Signe and the baser mettall the lowdest sound Turpiora sunt vitia cum virtutum specie celantur Vices are then more vgly when they haue put on the robes of vertues Hypocrita solus vult omnibus videri melior solus est omnibus peior The Hypocrite would seeme better then any man and is indeed the worst of all men His respect is not to the reward of vertue but regard of men as if vertue were not sibimet pulcherrima merces a sufficient compensation to it selfe Being the Sonne of a hand-maide and a bramble indeed as Iotham spake of Abimelech hee bragges as much of his shadow as eyther Vine Oliue Figge-tree or the tallest Cedar in Lebanon Hee mournes for his sinnes as a hasty Heyre at the death of his Father Haeredis luctus sub Larua risus est Hee is at once a close mourner and a close reioycer When the wicked man counterfeits himselfe good he is then worst of all Dissembled sanctitie is double iniquity quia iniquit as est simulatio because it is both sinne and simulation Hypocrites are like Iugglers that shew trickes of Legerdumaine seeming to doe the feates they doe not by casting a mist before mens eyes Howsoeuer it was once sayde Stultitiam simulare loco prudentia summa est I thinke it not so intolerable as the speech of Protagoras in Plat. somewhat agreeing to Machiauel Hee is a madde-man that cannot counterseit Iustice and dissemble integrity I am here rather occasioned to say Hee is a mad-man that doth counterfeit good things because hee doth but counterfeit And in that great Epiphany and manifestation of the secrets of all hearts he shal be found a mad-man Meane time he is a franticke too for hee incurres the worlds displeasure in making a shew of good lines Gods double displeasure in making but a shew Hee that would purchase the hatred both of God and man is he lesse then mad 5. The Auarous Is a principall in this Bedlam Soft if it were granted that the Couetous were madde the world it selfe would runne of a garget for who is not bitten with this madde dogge It is the great Canon of the Deuil charged with chaine-shot that hath killed charity in almost all hearts A poyson of three sad ingredients whereof who hath not to speake sparingly tasted Insatiability rapacity tenacity In concupiscendo acquirendo retinendo Couetousnesse hath three properties saith Ambrose Concupiscere aliena cupita inuadere celare quod ruadit To couet not her own to get what she couets and to keepe what shee gets And yet Oh Auarous why art thou so mad after money Non habentes inficit habentes non refecit It hurts them that it possesseth and helpes not them that possesse it The brood that couetousnesse hatcheth is an ofspring intricated with cares terrestriall infected with desires carnall blinded with passions subiected to affections infirmed by tentations informed by lusts infolded in errors in ambiguities difficult obnoxious to suspicions Is hee not madde that will foster in his bosome a damme with such a damned littour Tria retia habet Diabolus in mundum extensa vt quicquid euaserit de retibus gulae incidat in retia inanis gloriae quicquid euaserit his callidius capiatur retibus auaritiae De his nullus perfectè euasit The Deuils three nettes are Ryot Vaine-glory Couetousnesse The second catcheth them that scape the first and the last misseth not to apprehend the deliuer'd from both the former He that flies from the Lion the Beare meets him and the escaping both these the Serpent Couetousnesse bites not vnlike the prediction of God to Elias concerning Hazael Iehu and Elisha whom hee was commanded to annoint It shall come to passe that he that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Iehu slay and him that escapeth from the sword of Iehu shall Elisha slay If this bee madnesse who are well in their wittes And yet madnesse it is and infatuate frenzy What is it els to forsake Paradise for Sodome heauen for earth God for Mammon when as by most irreconcileable enmity they cannot bee embraced at once Howsoeuer you will say those things you couet are good creatures and call them goods yet nemo bonus bona bonum aestimat male vtenti no good man will account those goods good for him that can not commaund his affections to their sober vsage Hee that shall preferre profite to vertue his body to his soule his purse to his body his eye to his purse time to eternity let him goe for a mad-man The Epicure feedes on fowle a hundred times that it may feede him but once the Couetous feedes his purse a thousand times and starues himselfe He cares not to destroy his soule to please his lust yet for the saluation of his soule will not holde his purse short of the smallest gaine To conclude the God whom hee serues cannot helpe him the God whom hee should serue will not helpe him because hee hath forsaken him There is no other helpe or hope to reclayme the auarous but Lord haue mercy on them for they are lunatike and sore vexed as that Father spake of his possessed sonne Math. 17. Lunatike they are perpetually and not at some fittes by the Moone as that word seemes to intimate Sore vexed with the