on without much opposition From which if that worke of Church-Government so seriously and long debated by You had beene exempted I should have joyned with those that had most questioned it But now a great and effectuall dore is opened unto you God having so blessed the way you have resolved to goe that he hath given it a free entrance into the hearts of many of his people And you have many adversaries and it cannot be otherwise so long as there are such a number amongst us who are like bad Wares which are for Darke shops or like unto Bleare-eyes that cannot endure the Light Most worthy Sirs I dare not flatter you and I shall not if I tell you that it hath been ever my thoughts as the thoughts of very many more who have best meanes to know you that you have done your parts in this great worke The advantage of whose prayers you shall never want to carry you on in it through it and then whatsoever the successe be you may wash your Hands The Lord who only can most graciously assist and abundantly recompence the unwearied paines of you All I have this only to adde in relation to your particular Selves that if my deare and tender respects unto you cannot your pardon may excuse him for this boldnesse who is Your Worships in all Christian observance Edward Terry TO THE READER Reader EVer since the world hath been planted with two different Seedes all the words and actions of men have been exposed unto severall interpretations as this following Sermon expected and found which occasioned this preface at which if they who tooke most exception could but know how tender I am of thinking amisse much more of saying or doing any thing that may justly grieve the spirits of any who truely feare God He would enter into consideration whether I in reprooving or he in meriting just reproofe deserved most blame It would trouble any one who hath not quite lost himselfe to consider how these present times have distracted a very great number amongst us by variety of opinions Many of which though they agree in the maine when a great number goe very much further and doe not so quarrell and contend about the list and fringe of Christs garment as if they meant to rend in peeces that seamelesse coate which must cover our nakednesse Alas Christ hath suffered abundantly for us already why then deale we so injuriously with him as to teare open his wounds afresh by sad oppositions as if he were now to be divided twixt Paul and Apollo and Cephas which thing the Apostle reproves and complaines of 1 Cor. 1. 12. amongst whom some were taken with St. Pauls ministry some with Apollo some with Cephas admiring one of them to the prejudice of the rest And there were some that said I am of Christ And what were these But people of severall factions in the Church of Corinth the last of which though we may parallel them all were of the very selfe same minde that many amongst us are growne such perfectists that they esteeme themselves above all ordinances and therefore shamefully neglect them So depending as they say upon Christ that they care not for any Preacher in the world they regard them not they refuse to heare or pray with them especially if they be orthodox or rightly principled God hath sent forth abundance of light and truth Psal. 43. 3. Truth sufficient to establish annd light sufficient to guide us and it would be very sad if an over curious search after new light should put us out of the way the old way the good way 〈◊〉 6. 16. and so make us to hazard the losse of old truth Alas what would we have What doe we expect A new Christ a new Passion a new Resurrection What would we be Members of a glorious Church that hath neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing Ephe. 5. 27. we must wait for that hereafter Why in the meane time doe so many sad quarrells sharpe contentions arise amongst us When we have said and done what we can Knowing Beleeving Doing or Faith Practise well studied that they may be known include in them a Christians whole duty here And doubtlesse a number shall one day finde if ever they returne againe unto themselves themselves most miserably deluded that have hoped to finde some other some nearer and more safe and certaine way to Heaven then that by which all the holy men of God have passed then that which hath been pointed out unto us by the lives of the Saints and enlightned for us by the flames of the Martyrs Yet it is most notoriously manifest that there are too too many amongst us that prescribe a shorter passage to Heaven then any of those worthies have sound by removing all those blocks and rubs which the Law of God casts in a Christians way thither to make it more difficult Which Doctrine if it were as true as it is plausible he were worthy to perish without party that would not close with it But this I am sure of that not any one of those holy men of God mentioned in the sacred story before the comming of Christ nor any since whose praises are in the Gospel have made it appeare unto the world that there is any such way to be discovered That blessed Apostle himselfe who was such a chosen vessell who had such abundance of Revelations 2 Cor. 12 7. was never acquainted with this if he had certainely he would never have complained so much so often of the Law which gives such a strength to sin and such a sting to death 1 Cor. 15 56 He would never have so complained of that body of sin of that body of Death which was in him And therefore Reader let me entreate thee now before thou leave me to have the patience seriously to consider of these following particulars First and in a speciall manner to take heede of spirituall Pride that great sin which banes thousands by sad and severall mistakes in entertaining a floating knowledge for true wisdome a distempered heate for true Zeale Conceits and conceivings about Religion to be true Religion indeede Oh how doth this Pride swell bladder puffe up thousands like empty vessells to make a great sound Putting low and base esteemes upon others Like the people of China who boast that themselves only have two eyes when all the people in the world beside have but one Know thou that the most excellent Christian in the world is most humble And that a good man is first in another mans last in his owne commendation Secondly know that there is a naturall aptnesse and propensity in all to set up Idols in their hearts and heads Ezek. 14. Where they are hardly discovered and whence not easily remooved which they doe not only love but dote on and therefore they hug and dandle those deformed issues of their owne braines as women doe the Children of their bodies and esteem what ever others
them Ro. 5. 19. Their Persons infected their Nature but our nature ever since infects our persons Ne mali fiant times nascuntur We are borne bad as well as become so our sin sticking more close to our nature then our skin doth to our flesh And it is no marvell now if our nature so marvellously corrupted be ready to break every branch of the tree of Good which God commands and of the tree of Evill which God forbids this sinfull corruption being like a violent stream which the longer and further it runnes from the fountaine runnes with the greater violence After the flood when the people began to multiply they grew heady exorbitant violent unruly little lesse then mad for they went about an impossible worke to build a towre whose top might reach to heaven Gen. 11. And God there sayth of them v. 6. that they would be restrayned in nothing they imagined to doe that is if they were let alone therefore Almighty God caused their tumultuous action then begun in Pride to end in Confusion In whose example that rebellious spirit which is in every one by nature is drawne out to the very life And doubtlesse were it not for these bands and cords in my Text and for those hookes and bitts which God hath put in the jawes and nostrils of men they would be more unruly more untamed then all the creatures of the world beside Man being estranged from the wombe is ready to goe astray as soone as he is borne Ps. 58. 3. Being of a disobedient and a gainsaying spirit There is a pertinent story to this purpose which Valerius as I remember relates of a Roman who had very long and voluntarily confined himselfe within the walls of Rome and with very much content but afterwards when he was commanded not to goe forth the gates of that City that place which before was his Paradise now by reason of that word of restraint became his Prison And Reason It must needes be thus because rebellion and disobedience is â—â—naturall as kindly to man in generall as the very flesh and bones he carries about him Adam left it as a Patrimony as an inheritance unto all his Posterity and Eue gave perversnes in her milke every one naturally harbours a Rebell in his breast Nitimur in veritaâ— which causeth him to thinke forbidden fruit most faire forbidden pleasures most sweet forbidden waies most secure This made the blessed Apostle himselfe sadly to complaine Rom. 7. 23. of a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind I see a law in my members that is sin ruling like a law in my members in the faculties of my soule and body or like a law governing and ruling my actions Rebelling against the law of my minde that is against that renued spirituall part in me which like a Law too commands me another way Vse I shall not adde much by way of inference or use in the application of this particular because that which I might here insert will fall into that which followes from this text But I beseech you give me leave before I proceed to let fall a very sad complaint and to leave a most just reproofe behind me A complaint and reproofe of some particulars which former times were scarcely acquainted withall A complaint and reproofe of the Preachings and Printings and actings of thousands at this time in this Kingdome a very lively comment on this particular in my text Boâ—â—Deus ad quâ— tempora reservati sumus Good God in what times doe we live when so much lawlesse unwarrantable unjustifiable liberty is taken by men to doe what they please without controll Oh how hath the Pulpit been abused since the hedge hath been downe about our Church by a liberty which without doubt Posterity will not beleeve could be taken at such a time at this when he that pleaseth consecrates himselfe when the lowest among the people without any lawfull Call or Commission take upon them to be publique Teachers of others For an outward call or commission I am sure they have none and if they have an extraordinary and an immediate call from God which would manifest it selfe in more then ordinary guifts let them make this appeare and we will hold our peace and moreover we will reverence them and lay our selves at their feete as they in the fourth of the Acts and 34. 35. verses when they had sold their possessions brought the money and laid it downe at the foote of the Apostles But till they can make this appeare I know not with whom more fitly to compare them then with those vagabond Jewes â—â—â—ists which tooke upon them great matters to dispossesse those which were troubled with evill spirits Acts 19. 13. and there were seven sonnes of 〈…〉 which did so verse 14. and the evill spirit answered and said to them Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are yee The Devils could easily espie the want of Commission in the sonnes of Scâ—va when they adjured him by the name of Jesus whom Paul preached saying Jesus I acknowledge and Paul I know but who are yeâ— As if he had said your warrant is not good your 〈…〉 are not strong enough to remove me And doubtlesse there are no such chaines of Authority no such linkes of iron to binde the Nobles and Princes of the earth and to restraine Devills as in those tongues which God hath armed from above and enabled and set apart and sent cut in his service Or these which before we named are like those mockers of the true Prophets for they want no slighting nor reviling tearmes for them those mockers mentioned Jer. 23. 25. who call the people together and tell them they have dreamed they have dreamed when they deliver dreames indeed Now as Pauls spirit was stirred up at Athens so should the spirits of all godly honest and Orthodox Ministers and people be now stirred up in England when we doe further consider how that all those ancient and damnable heresies recorded by Irenaeus and Epiphanius which we hoped had been long since buried in forgetfullnesse are rack't up againe out of their corruption and preached by some and applauded by others and defended by more And no marvel for they are a people in generall to give a breife character of them that shall doe them no wrong of proud uneven unquiet untractable unpeaceable uncharitable spirits differing and dissenting much amongst themselves carried away headlong by the violence of their owne wills which they improperly and by misconceiving call their consciences whose wills are very much too hard for their understandings which makes them so wedded to their owne conceivings that you may assoone remove Rocks from their places as these from their conclusions and therefore nor fit to be disputed withall being like mil-horses in the evening just there where they began their morning circuit having two generall all replies for all objections as if you proove a thing plainely by Scripture their usuall answere
and an inferiority a command and a subjection a mastery and a Dominion in every order of men specially designed The body Politike is very fitly compared unto a naturall body which must not be all head or hand or foot but distinguished into superior and inferior parts for every member to doe its particular office The Heart or Soule sitting in the middest of the body as a King upon his Throne and according to the dictates of the heart the tongue speakes the eyes looke the feete move the hands stir c. Now a body Politike may most fitly be resembled to this Naturall body wherein there are parts as the Apostle speakes more and lesse honourable 1. Cor. 12. yet all tending to the mutuall decency service and succour of the fame body The Aegyptians made an Eie and a Scepter the Embleme by which they figured their government a Scepter for Jurisdiction and power an Eie for watchfulnesse and discretion And certainely a Kingdome without order and government is like the body of that fayned Giant Polyphemus without an eie or rather like a body without an head or which most fitly resembles it like that confused Chaos before the Creation where heighth and depth light and darkenesse were mingled together In the beginning therefore when heaven and earth were first made God established a superiority and rule in other creatures after their kinde and afterwards in man So Gen. 1. 16. God made two great lights the greater to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the starres also And one starre to differ from another in glory 1. Cor. 15. 41. And presently after when he had created man he invested him immediately with imperiall authority to subduethe earth and to rule in it v. 28. And to what other end is it called the host of Heaven Gen. 2. 1. but to shew how that Metaphor is taken from an Army where there must be superiority and subordination command and obedience without both which it cannot subsist For if the spirit and soule of obedience be taken away what can follow but Ataxie and Confusion Reason 2. Secondly there must be Government and Discipline for necessities sake to curbe and restraine all tumultuous and heady spirits all offensive and disordered persons whether in Church or Common-wealth The Lawes of God were first written in the fleshy tables of mans heart but sin did either blot or wear them out thence Then the wisedome of God thought fit to write them upon tables of stone that they might be lasting durable permanent But these Lawes of God thus written and commended and commanded unto man where slighted and neglected and forsaken by him and therefore Irenaus well observes in his first booke against heresies that therefore God appointed Kingdomes and men to rule in them because man forsaking God did wax feirce lawlesse masterlesse and being not sufficiently awed by the feare of the Lord God therefore put upon them the feare of man that fearing humane Lawes they should not devoure destroy consume one another as the fishes of the Sea and the beasts of the wildernesse and the fowles of the aire doe And for this reason there is an absolute necessity of Lawes to curbe and restraine and to keepe people under obedience for were it not for these our beds would not be suffered to lie under us our meate would be pulled out of our mouths our clothes would be torne off our backes rapine and violence would destroy us Vse Now for application this being so as it must needs be granted to be truth What just cause have all people who live under good Lawes to blesse God for them To one who asked the question why the City Sparta had no wals t was answered that the Citizens had good weapons in their hands unanimity in their hearts and to both these good Lawes to order them We want no weapons and these sad times have made almost every one amongst us a man of war And would to God that we had just cause to boast of unity and mutuall agreement amongst our selves But for good Lawes certainly we of this Nation have as great cause to be thankfull as any people under the Cope of Heaven ever had And oh that we had as just cause to prayse God for their due execution likewise But alas we have not Oh justice how faintly doest thou draw thy breath while thou sufferest so many desperate sinners and so many dangerous seducing Schismaticks to march boldly by thee and not bidst them stand Alas how doth the whole Land stinke of that beastly sin of drunkennesse that sin which robs a man of himselfe and leaves a beast in the skin of a man That sin which is like the serpent that stings two waies for it kills the body and slaies the soule too yet how doe those Tents of wickednesse those Thrones wherein Satan dwells those unnecessary tipling houses which so multiply Transgressors and transgressions amongst men increase amongst us How doe Pride and Luxury strive for the upper end of the table How doth the very breath of most desperate swearers and blasphemers even poyson the very aire of the Kingdome wherein we live And how doth the stone out of the Wall and the Beame in the Chamber cry out aloud against oppression And how hath the Error of Religion made many amongst us so wanton that they know not what to have nor what to hold Surely as the Prophet Isaiah complaines Isai. 24. 20. The transgression of the earth of this earth whereon we live lies heavy upon it And now O justice how doest thou degenerate from thy selfe while thou sufferest thy sword for want of drawing to rust or else for feare or for some other â—ie respects to be lock't up in the scabbard I am not come hither to declame against the administration of justice in this honorable City this City so renowned for exemplary government the world over though I must tell you that if I knew any just cause to invite me hereunto I should not spare But this I am sure of that there is an intollerable an unanswerable fault some where when so much wickednesse goes unpunished when so many errors schismes heresies some of which destroy as the rest doe blast the profession of Religion are suffered amongst us though we have lifted up our hands unto the most high God in a solemne League and Covenant to the contrarie Or if they meet with any rebuke from some it is but such a one as that too-too much indulgent Ely who brought up his sonnes to bring downe his house gave his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. 23. saying why doe you so or such things A strange thing in Ely to punish the Thefts Rapines Sacriledge Adulters Incests of his sonnes with why doe you so what was this but to shave that head which deserved to be cut off Doubtles as I find it excellently observed to my hand it is with sins in the soule as with humors in the body a
weake dose doth but stir and anger and more dangerously disperse them not purge them out So that t is certenly a great violation of justice not to proportion the punishment to the offence To whip a man for murther or to punish the purse for Adultery or Incest to burne treason in the hand or to award the Stocks for Burglarie is to patronize evill instead of avenging it Of the two extremes rigor is more safe for the publique-weale because the over punishing of one offence keepes many from committing the same Elies sonnes did thus wickedly while they acted a part in Religion And are not there some amongst us who under specious pretences to advance persist in courses that undoubtedly in conclusion if God prevent it not will undermine roote out Religion from amongst us Religion I say then which nothing should be mor deare unto us yet this is knowne and suffered and if it receive any cheeck from some it it such a one as doth rather encourage then daunt offenders ubi nunc Lex Anglica dormis Oh yee Lawes of England what doe yee where are yee are yee asleepe I told you even now what great cause we of this Nation have to blesse God for good Lawes and suffer me to acquaint you in the next place how dearly in many respects a number in this Kingdome have missed these last few yeares while destruction hath been amongst us the benefits which otherwise might have been enjoyed by the execution of those good Lawes if their current had not been more or lesse obstructed I cannot deny but that while the sword of war is in a Land it cannot chuse but marvellously clash with the sword of justice and many things will be done and cannot be avoided while it continues under such a sad condition and in regard the sword hath beene in the hands of many of such ill principled hearts I speake not of all for there be many whom God hath stirred up personally to appeare in this his great worke who deserve all honour as well for their Piety as Valour but of some the very refuse and dregges of Mankinde in whom that old Proverbe is verified Armatis Divum nullus Pudor That they feare neither God nor Man as you may observe in their most debauched lives in doing what they please and in their Hellish language too whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse which they belch out setting their mouthes even against Heaven for they seldome take that Sacred dreadfull Name of GOD into their most desperate prophane lippes but when they blaspheme that Name which should not be once mentioned but with awfull Reverence or when they desire God to damne to refuse them Now by the way let me adde this that if God should ratifie that in heaven which they desire miserable wretches as they are against themselves on earth and say ex ore tuo from thine owne mouth will I now condemne thee Oh! how sadly miserable would their condition be Nemo miserius misero non miserante seipsum Who can be more miserable then those which will not be mercifull unto themselves Yet besides all these give me leave to speake it though it be a very sad a very horrible truth that divers things have beene done or if not very many in this Kingdome deserve to be punished for crying and complayning without just cause by some others of those who have most shamefully abused that trust reposed in them by our most deservedly honored Parliament that needed not that ought not that should not have been done Things which no language can excuse things which scarce any act of oppression in former times can parallell Very horrible things have beene committed in the Land pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli The consideration whereof should put colour in our faces and cover us with shame if we be not past beyond a blush when wee consider that many griping evills might have been and have not beene prevented or because boldly acted have not beene most severely most exemplarily punished And therefore it is high time for us who are the Lords Remembrancers to speake by the pound and talent to reprove in words of weight for the gentle spirit of Eli is not sufficient to amend children that are past grace and therefore we must crie aloud speake out speake home speak all though we lived in times that would hamper us in those bands and cords in my Text for our plaine and impartiall dealing Now that things have beene so we may sit downe and sadly complaine but why they have beene so we need not much to wonder when we consider the next particular in this Text that Obs. 2. Rebellious spirits affect nothing so much as Lawlesse liberty to doe what they please without controll Rebellious spirits who are they Such as cast off subjection such as breake the yoke burst the bands as the Prophet speakes Ier. 5. 5. The yoke the bands which should restraine regulate order them and all because they affect nothing so much as Lawlesse liberty Lawlesse liberty and what is that When men doe what they please not what they should notwithstanding all restraint of Lawes and government to the contrary This too too much belov'd liberty without doubt is marvailously affected by the corrupt nature of man T is a sin of a very ancient growth for it tooke its first rise from the very first transgression In the garden of Eden amongst those many plants which God made some for ornament and some for use some for sight and some for sent and some for taste not farre from the goodliest trees of Life and Knowledge grew the bitter root of disobedience I call it so because the forbidden fruit grew on that tree of which our first Parents tooke and tasted though they were commanded not so much as to touch it Gen. 3. 3. The taste whereof did not only infect themselves thorowout but the corrupt nutriment thereof did also convert it selfe into the whole body of their succeeding linage Mee thinkes there is very much in that first story of Disobedience to illustrate this point when our first Parents in their estate of Holinesse who had power in them to Obey as well as Disobey and God had told them that of every tree in the garden they might freely eat the tree of Knowledge only forbidden Gen. 2. 16. 17. And though there was no comparison betwixt the Maker and the murtherer of Mankinde the Father of Truth and the father of lies betwixt a God and a divell and the one had forbidden but one tree and had fenced it as it were with a double hedge of a double death temporall eternall yet when the Serpent came to the woman with a meere contradiction to the voyce of God Ye shall not surely die Gen. 3. 4. how credulous and forward was shee to entertaine his suggestion Our first Parents tooke their fall by their owne wilfull Disobedience and we fell in
laced This I am sure is true in experience that the longer it is before a colt be backt the more unwillingly by farre at the first doth he endure his Rider and the longer it is before a Bullocke comes to the yoake the more hardly is he brought to it and the more at first he struggles and strives with it And doubtlesse the longer a people goe under reines let loose the harder will it be by farre to curbe and restraine them The law saith the Apostle was not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient for the ungodly and sinners c. 1. Tim. 1. 9. for the lawlesse and disobedient sayth the Apostle and because it curbes and restrains them therefore they esteem themselves in bondage or as prisoners in bonds being required to yield obedience unto it For Reason 1 This is the principall reason why all rebellious spirits think thus because good Lawes meet and crosse and contradict and oppose them in their evill wayes in their unjustifiable courses because they meet them and reprove them and set in order before them the things that they have done as it is Ps. 50. 21. In every commission of evill in every omission of good in every even the least fayling in duty whatsoever they shake the secure man out of his seat they disturbe the filthy persons upon their beds of lust who undoe one another by their filthy embracements all shameles prostitutes who sell their soules with their bodies dealing with all those they pretend to love as Monkeys and Apes sometimes doe with their little-ones they kill them with kindnes they tell these who thus stretch themselves upon the bed of lust that though they sleepe securely there their destruction sleepes not their damnation slumbers not â—â— in 2. Pet. 2. 3. They awake the Drunkards crying out Ioel 1. 5. Awake yee Drunkards weepe and bowle c. They debase proud ones foretelling their fall Luc. 18. 14. Every one that exalts himselfe shall be abased They startle the bold prophane swearers with the weight of their guilt Exo. 20. 7 They acquaint Oppressors with those screech owles of woe which cry aloud from the beames of their chambers And they tel the Covetous who are like the Mole that bury themselves under every clod of earth or like the barren wombe or unsatiable Death that will never be satisfied of enough mould in the grave and of enough fire in hell They meet with Formall professors of Religion who make Religion nothing but a complement and they tell them that of all tempers in Religion a luke-warme temper is the worst Because thou art neither hot nor cold but luke-warme I 'le spue thee out of my mouth sayth the Spirit to the Church of Laodicea Re. 3. 16. That is I will make thee who art but a Church in shew to be no Church at all it being all one in the account of God to deny the Faith and not soundly and sincerly to professe it They unmaâ—ke the double faced hypocrites who only act Religion play devotion who are all for shew and nothing for substance making Religion a cloake and they tell them that as Religion is the best armour in the world so it is the worst cloake and whosoever put it on for no other end it shall in conclusion do them no more good then that disguise which Ahab put on in which he perished when he fought with the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead 1. Ki. 22 They convince blinde errors by cleere and orthodox truths And tell them that receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved that for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they might beleeve a lie that they might be damned who beleeve not the truth c. 2 Thes. 2. 10. 11. 12 They cast downe imaginations and every high thing which exalts it selfe against God 2 Cor. 10. 5. In a word They meet with sinners at every turne and because they doe so these cannot away with them and therefore may be fitly compared unto that fiery meteor which causeth thunder the more streightly it is wrapt and bound up in the cloud it breaketh forth with the greater violence and noise Or they are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest to which the Prophet compares them Isaiah 57. 20. foming and raging most against those truths of God which oppose them most as the tempestuous Sea doth against those Rocks and Bankes and bounds which hinder its course and keep it in Vse Breifely now for application of this point I shall addresse my speech unto every loose lawlesse libertine in the world and first desire to let him know that there is no liberty but servitude in sinne no liberty but in the freedome from sin and secondly they whosoever they be that cast off Gods yoke whose service is freedome and yeeld obedience unto the commands of Satan for every one in the world serves one of these two Masters they are meere bondslaves unto him they serve for all the services that the Devill imploies his servants in are whatsoever men may thinke otherwise of them no better then a very toilesome drudgery a very base bondage Heare the truth of this in some particulars as in the sin of covetousnesse wherein Ahab may be our example who because he could not possesse Naboths Vineyard according to his coveting desire it troubled him so that he was heavy and sad and spiritlesse immediately upon it 1 Ki. 21. we may observe the like in that sin of envy which Solomon tels us is the rottennesse of the bones Prov. 14. 30 a sin that is plagued by it selfe that hath much justice in it as one well observes for it eateth up the heart marrow of her Master as he desireth to eate up the heart of another And againe Surgunt de nocte Latrâ—nes The Theife wakes while the true man sleepes and is more troubled to breake open than the true man is to guard his house The not Adolterer the filthy uncleane person useth the twilight the evening the blacke and darke night Prov. 7. 9. that he may compasse his lust while the chast man sits quietly in his house How did the unnaturall Lust of Amnon vex him till he had obtained his desire so that he fell sick for his Sister Tâ—â—â—â—â—r and after he had satisfied his unnaturall appetite he was as sick of her as he was before for her he hated her exceedingly saith the text his Lust ended in loathing so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her 2 Sam. 13. 15. what fruit had yee in thâ—se things whereof yee are now ashamed saith the Apostle to the Romans Rom. 6. 21. for as sin makes men past shame that they may commit it so it brings shame if the sinners conscience awake after the committing thereof See this farther in that most beastly sin of drunkennesse how it causeth woe and sorrow and contention and babling
and wounds Pro. 23. 29. Nay who can count the hurts that by drunken distempers come both to the body and soule First to the whole body especially to the head and stomach and liver and those more noble parts as also the rheumes gouts dropsies palsies apoplexies inflammations and other distempers hence arising Oh how doth the excesse of wine and any other strong liquor fire the bloud casting the body into feavers c And secondly how doth it inflame the soule too filling that with lusts as hot as hell So that drunkards shall one day be forced to confesse what they will not now beleeve as it was spoken in another case 2 Ki. 4. 40. Oh there is death in the pot And therefore the Greeke Poet spake wittily that if the head-ach were to be before the wine men would be sober if those sad consequences which oftentimes follow beastly distempers were to be endured before hand people would not be drunke And if those most filthy and loathsome diseases the just consequence of incontinency were to be suffered before these acts of filthinesse were committed people would be chast yee heare what oftentimes befalls those two brethren as one of the Ancients calls them Drunkennesse Lust saying Nunquaâ— ego ebrium putavi castum drunkennesse and chastity being incompatible yee heare how it s often with these two sworne servants of the Devill whereas the sober chast temperate man who desires to possesse his vessell in holinesse at the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 4. 4. to glorifie God in his life feeles knowes none of those things You may helpe me with your meditations herein for the like may be said of many other worker of darkenesse which the Devill imploies his servants in serving divert lusts as the Apostle speakes Tit. 3. 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} being as slaves to lusts engaging them to every sin one lust drawing a wretched sinner into one sinfull course others haâ—ing and pulling him into other evill waies making poore wretches thus miserably distracted and seduced as it is Jer. 9. 5. to weary themselves to commit iniquity or to moile and toile to goe to hell How have many miserable people been content meerely led by the instigation of the Devill and enflamed by him the Devill who is most tyrannicall where he is most obeyed to submit unto commands that have been most heavy hatefull yea most unnaturall as those who caused their Sonnes and Daughters to passe through the fire to Molach Levit. 20. 3. I could aboundantly inlarge I le only ad this that if Satan have had such power to perswade poore mis-led seduced creatures to submit themselves unto such unreasonable imposiâ—ions nâ—â— thinks every one who hath not quite lost himself should be more readily induced to yeeld a most cheerefull obedience unto God his most holy righteous equall just commands whose Commandements are not grievous 1 Iohn 5. 3. To put their neckes under that yoke which rebellious spirits here in my text throw off because his yoke is easie his burthen is light Mat. 11. 30. And that thy heart may not be hardned that thou maiest not be quite undone by the deceitfullnesse of sin observe but this one rule when ever thou art tempted unto any thing that is evill to view the tentation on both sides to take notice as well of the certaine bitternesse as of the apparent sweete that is in sin which sin is fitly resembled by those Locusts mentioned in the 9 C. of the Rev. who had the faces of men and the haire of women but to these they had the teeth of Lions and the tailes of Scorpions and there were stings in those tailes The Devill when he tempts a man unto any thing that is evill presents nothing unto the sight of man but what may please content his corrupted nature those most fearefull and sad consequences of sin as death hell judgement and everlasting separation from the presence of God the Devill keepes out of sight that the misery of a wretched sinner may not be knowne till it be felt not felt till it cannot be possibly avoyded And to conclude this point Let all be exhorted who wilfully rebell against the just commands of God to read their sinnes acted in the examples and smitten too upon the backes of others How was it with Ahab who cast off God and joyned himselfe to Idols as the Prophet Hosea phraseth it Hos. 4. 17. T is sayd of him 1. Kin 21. 20. That he sold himselfe to worke wickednesse in the sight of the Lord but afterward he lives to rue to repent his bargaine No sooner had Pharaoh asked that bold blasphemous question Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go Ex. 5. 2. but presently the frogs the licâ— the flies the caterpillars which the Prophet calls Gods great Army Ioel 2. 25. rise up in armes to tell him and these poore weake despreable creatures will not give proud Pharaoh over till they have humbled him and magnified their Maker Pharaoh and all Aegypt might heereseâ— how weake they were and what in impotent power they served when they could neither resene themselves nor yet be delivered from the incursions of frogs lice and flies There is a very memorable story which I dare affirme for truth that many yeares since I brought from the Easterne India where I lived at the Court of the Great Mogol for more then two yeares The story is this There was a great Cavalier and Nobleman of that Court that was much in credit with that King and that he might keepe that favour esteemed it the highest point of Religion to flatter the King which made him a great neglecter and contemner of God Upon a time this wretched man sitting in dalliance with one of his women she pluckt an hayre from his breast his nipple in wantonnesse I conceive without the least thought of doing him hurt the little wound that small and unexpected instrument of death made presently began to foster and in short time after become a Cancer incurable When the poore wretch saw that he must needs die he uttered these words which are very well worth the recording and remembring Who would not have thought sayd he but that I who was bred a Soldier should have died in the face of mine enemy either by a sword or a lance or an arrow or a bullet or the like instrument of death but now too late I am forced to confesse that there is a great God above whose Majesty I have ever despised who needs no bigger a Lance then an Haire to kill an Atheist Oh let us further collect out of those many menaces and threatnings denounced against this sin in the booke of God what their end is like to be that obey not the truth but obey unrighteousnes that obey not the Gospel of God And what in conclusion this sinne is like to cost and when we haue cast up our whole reckoning we may borrow those words to