lurch And make thy self a servant of righteousness binde thy self to it not to the grave like stinking menstruous rags of sin for otherwise thy wages is set here down determinative say the Schools i. e. death which is indeed ultima linea rerum the determination and period of all our natural dayes whereas the reward of others is eternall life the duration if I may so call it and why not of a day without a night Whence S. Rev. 21.22 23. Exp. Ps 84.6 John most Divinely sets forth his heavenly Temple The path-way to it is the street of the Citie of pure Gold not the vally of Baca as it were transparent glass Ecce puritatem claritatem And I saw no Temple therein Hic Ecce Theologum the word of God sine Templo in vitâ aeternâ and the vail of the Temple here rent at his death And I would I might not justly take up the same complaint I have a people or Congregation But my Temple as Jerusalem was the Wall of it burn't down Neh. 1.3 I wish I might not say by a perfidious brother and the Gates thereof were burn't with fire Exp. for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple he that was on earth the sacrifice agnus ille mactatus And the Citie had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glorie of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof In the pacifical Prophet we read of the Lion and the Lamb lying down together but here he who was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah now the Lamb of God fits alone Col. 3.1 Ecce Solstitium perpetuim solis Juscitiaeâ— Christ the Sun of righteousness sits Exp. in praesenti implicat aeternitatem at the right hand of God Mal. 4.3 Never again to descend with healing in his wings till that general day of doom When he shall change our vile body Phil 3.21 Exp. that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body similitudinem non paritatem aut aequalitatem according to the working no more passion Exp. but action onely whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Let not sin then or therefore reign in your mortal body Rom. 6.12 Exp. as the Apostle speaks least it as another Haman exalted swelling with pride even against Mordecai's humility that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield your Members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin the former against thy Neighbour the latter against thy God but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your Members as instruments of righteousness unto God 2. Use Is none but that of S. Hierom. That men would not aspire too high in this sinfull World but be content with that lot which is cast into the lap It may be it is not so good for them to be high the power they have being abused may make them the more servants unto sin As it did Haman in his cruel design against Gods people the Jews Esth 7.4 Exp. if God had not appointed Esther to prevent it Who boldly delivers her message as to God Ecce virilitatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sexus imo foeminini For we are sold I and my people to be destroyed Exp. I whom thou hast chosen as an instrument to increase and enliven thy own to be slain secundum corpus and to perish as our enemies think secundum animam This I take to be the meaning of the holy Ghost here But if we had been sold for bond-men and bond-women I had held my tongue an admirable Rhetorical insinuation although the enemy could not countervail the Kings dammage If men then will be no more in slavery then they are let them content themselves with those lower places which are freest from the commission of sins I speak not this to bite or back-bite but to caution any authority Occasio facit furem The higher the place the more occasion is offered unto sin and our corrupt nature as Children about this time on sweet and gilded Marchpans is apt enough to lay hold of it I le end this use with the words of the forenamed Father do not repine in thy low or so servile citate for Satis est potens sayes he qui servire non cogitur For thus thou art high and powerfull enough in that thou art not so much in service to or under the dominion of sin Thus much for the uses of the first doctrine I hasten now to the second part of the Text which is the Wages of sin particularly specified in this word death The Wages of sin is death And here before we proceed any further I pray note the earnestness of the Apostle in the following of this argument he was very loath to leave it being so enforceable to them Why was it not enough once to tell them so Vers 21 as he doth in the end of the 21. verse The end of these things is death No non frustra aliis verbis idem iterum repetit sed terrore duplicato magis detestabile reddere peccatum voluit Jo. Calv. It is Mr. Calvins note upon the Text. If the first reason would not serve he repeats it again in other words that by often inculcating he might make the sin the more odious to them He speaks it the more urgently that as Children with their lesson if they will not learn at first by often reciting it he would even beat it into their heads So then the second Doctrine we may gather from the words without any wresting of them are no other but the words themselves Doct. The Wages of sin is death and that three wayes All which before I insist on receive a modern recapitulation of my foregoing discourse D. Fâ—aâ—ly Sin eclipseth the light of the understanding disordereth the desires of the Will weakneth the faculties of the Soul distempereth the Organs of our body disturbeth the peace of our conscience choaketh the motions of the spirit in us killeth the fruits of grace enthralleth the Soul of the body and the body and Soul to Satan Lastly it depriveth us of the comfortable fruition of all temporal and if continued in of the fruition possession of all eternal blessings First The first is a death unto grace which sin causes in regard of the absence of grace altogether or in respect of the suspersion of the acts of grace for some certain time which is plainly proved in that Epistle to the Ephesians in two places where the Apostle especially opposeth living in grace Eph. 2. Zanch. or by it and death in sin i.e. death to grace so it is in the first verse And you hath he quick'ned who were dead in trespasses and sins Exp. loci It was time for S. Paul to praefix a conjunction copulative since sin had made such a separation Quick'ned is raised from death or restores unto life ex
nihilo by grace For there the Apostle compares these two states of us what we are by nature and sin and what we are by grace And in the fifth verse 't is more plain yet Even when we were dead in sins hath he quick'ned us together with Christ Aquinas By grace are you saved gratia gratis datâ These last words very well explain the former to our present purpose And this is the first death which is the Wages of sin and is truely called a spiritual death The second follows upon it and that is a natural death Magnus or Temporal which is dissolutio corporis animae the dissolution of the body and Soul Therefore sayes the Apostle 〈◊〉 5. 〈◊〉 Vers 11. As sin hath reigned unto death And before that you finde this deaths head more plainly presented in an ugly shape as it were upon a stage acting a part â— R. or at least moving above-board Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the World and sin by death and so death did pass upon all men for that all have sinned The words at least in sense and meaning of the forenamed Doctrine This is the second Though S. John in the Revelation calls my third in order the second death And so it is indeed in Divinity He is the Divine But I have made bold as a spiritual Physician in these distempered times to present you with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to give you a mixt Dosis or taste of the naturall and the spiritual The third is that which is the worst a death unto life eternal Bolton Isai 66.24 and yet a death that never dies Their Worm shall never die their Fire shall never be quenched The former death is but as the prick of a lancet or flea-biting unto this 1 Cor. 15. for that is but for a time we shall rise again after that at the last day but this is to all eternity I what if I did say determined from all eternity Constitutum est omnibus semel moriâ— Hebâ—â— 2â— Exp. i. e. in this death continually alwayes dying and yet never dead quae ab ipso momento dependet aeternitas as the Father elegantly an eternity for ever succeeding our sudden departure By the former the body is but kill'd fear not him that kills the body but by this both body and Soul are utterly destroyed Matth. 10.26 Rather fear him that is able to destroy both body and Soul in Hell Whence S. Austin Lib. de Civit. Dei 21. Prima mors animam nolentem pellit de corpore secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in corpore The first death driveth the Soul out of the body being unwilling to part with it The second death keepeth the Soul against her will in the body The first death is the separation of the Soul from the body The second is the separation of Soul and body from God and by how much God is more excellent then the Soul by so much the second death is worse then the first Prima mors bonis bona est malis mala Austâ—â— Civit. Dei Lib. 13. secunda ut nullorum bonorum est ita nulli bona The first death is good to good men because it endeth their sorrows and begins their joyes but evil to evil men because it ends their joyes and begins their everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth The second as it belongeth to none that are good so it is good to none Both these are the due Wages of sin and shall be paid at the Audit day of doom The sentence pronounced against Adam mortâ— morieris By the reduplication of the word seems to imply as much as thou shalt die again and again iterum atque iterum the first and second death The first is as the earnest penny the second as the whole hire both make up the Wages of sin The first is like the splitting of a Ship and casting away all the goods and wares the latter as the burning of both with unquenchable fire This is the Wages of every sinner that dies in sin unrepented off Such must go down even quick into Hell Psal 55 15. sayes King David and Christ sayes God shall pronounce the sentence of condemnation upon them at the last day Matth. 25.41 Go you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Every word is able to break yea grind in pieces a heart of Adamant Loco super I cannot let pass S. Austin his observation Nemo hic propriè moriens seu in morte dicitur sed ante mortem aut post mortem i.e. viventes aut mortui ibi è contrario non erunt homines ante mortem aut post mortem sed sine fine morientes nunquam pejus erit homini in morte quam ubi erit mors ipsa sine morte In this life men cannot be said properly to be dying or in death but alive or dead for whil'st the Soul remains in the body we are living after the separation thereof we are dead Whereas they that are in Hell cannot be properly said to be dead because they are most sensible of pain nor to be alive because they suffer the punishment of the second death but continually dying And never shall it be worse with man in death then where death it self is without death where life perpetually liveth according to that of Isaiah A worm continually gnawing Lib. 9. Mor. cap. 45. so a fire continually burning S. Gregory sweetly quavers upon this sad lesson or note of death Mors sine morte finis sine fine defectus sine defectu quia mors vivit finis incipit deficere nescit defectus The death of the damned is a deathless death an endless end and undefiable defect For their death alwayes liveth and their end beginneth and their consumption lasteth is permanent and eternal And this death is especially meant in my Text The correspondency of this Member to that which follows makes it manifest all which shall suffice also for the second Doctrine For I can't now dilate or enlarge my self 1. Use This in the first place confutes that common errour of the Papists concerning venial sin whereas every sin is mortal For the Apostle speaks here very plainly The Wages of sin is death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in that he saith it of all sins it may be said of every sin A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia is an undoubted truth of the Logicians from as to all the consequence is very good And our Apostle saith as sinner so worthy of death Rom. 5. And therefore every sin is mortal in it self and deserves even eternal death For I can give no more credit then Robert Bellarmine doth to the Popish Legend who professedly refutes those of his own side who give credit to the Legend which relates that by the prayers of S. Gregory the Soul of Trajan was delivered out of Hell
preces habent efficaciam as in Jacobs wrestling with God but it made him halt ever after O no death ever living Gen. 32.31 and not dying is their wages in presenti continually Neither is this proceeding of Gods any wayes unjust to punish him with death I even eternal in regard the impenitent sinner if he should alwayes live upon the earth would alwayes hold on his sinfull course had he still the use of his tongue sayes a modern he would still blaspheme curse had he still the use of his eys he would still look after vanity had he still the use of his feet he would still walk in wicked wayes had he still the use of his hands he would work all manner of wickedness had he still the free use of all the faculties of his Soul and Members of his body Lib. de 4. Noviss he would still make them weapons of unrighteousness Inchinus the Romish postiller giveth some light to this truth by an inch of Candle whereby two play at Tables in the night and are very earnest at their game but in the midst of it the Candle goeth out and they perforce give over who no doubt if the light had lasted would have played all night This inch of the Candle is the time allotted to a wicked man who is resolved to spend it all in pleasures and pastimes if it would last perpetually he would never leave his play therefore sith he would sin eternally though by reason the light of his life goes out he cannot he deserves eternal punishment Yea he must needs know his Wages and that is death that eternal without repentance on mans infinite mercie on Gods part 2. Use Is of exhortation to all to leave of their sins and that betimes Agree with thine adversary and that too quickly And if that will not serve it is a use of terrour to you all for here is that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most terrible of terribles whose ugly grim face in the Churches body may affright the beholder much more his violent and unexpected presence in our trembling bodies which are or ought to be the Temples of the holy Ghost Eunuchus That as Terence of Phaedria to Thais paint him never so lively and with old-bald-pated time by him I shall cry out Tremo horreoque cùm primum aspexi hanc Death it is I mean the Wages of sin A death to grace and that is miserable here A natural or temporal death and that I know is loathsome to most And the more you are addicted to this sublunary world the more grief it breeds within you Else what mean those out-cries and roarings with those wilde Irish at graves as men and women without hope Hone Hone c. O my dear Father one cries my sweet and aged Husband another and a third mine onely friend is dead and to whom shall I make my moan with him O me miserum quis dabit in Lachrymas fontem But there is a third death that is more terrible then all that from which there is no recovery no release When you shall without repentance be bound in chains in Hell where I am sure that of the Poets will take no place Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris But here the screeching of your companions shall add but greater grief and horrour to your distressed and distracted minde And do you not yet stand amazed and tremble at the hearing of these things Me thinks every one should cry out with himself now as the affrighted Jaylor to Peter what shall I do to be saved Or else as trembling Foelix to S. Paul Too much learning hath made thee mad go away now I will hear thee of this matter i. e. the judgement to come another time But alas it is too true We may now again cry out as the Prophet once to an obdurate and stifnecked Nation Ho every one that thirsteth Come unto the waters c. Isa 55.1 Your poor and dejected if not ejected Ministers may long enough wish that their heads may become Fountains of tears and withall complain no man hath believed our report and that especially in this matter of death Our subject subjecting all Give me leave as by deaths head presented at the beginning of a Feast to affect the Soul by the terrible presence of the body And now you may imagine the Sermon is drawing to an end if not done O no It is then onely done when it is applied received understood and practised There is no Physick but if it works maketh the patient sick for the present and for the most part the most smarting plaister most speedily cures the wound These observations are true in corporal Physick and much more in spiritual because the smart of sin and trouble of conscience for it are as so many signs of maladies as the beginning of cures Some say the fear of the plague brings it But if we speak of this plague and other judgements of God for sin it is certain that the fear of them not servile but filial is the best preservative against them He onely may be secure of the avoiding of Hell torments and escaping the pangs of eternal death who feareth them as he ought and he that fears them not as another Stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a most fearfull case Ecclus 41.1 O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee Admirable upon which is that strict Dr. Lake his meditation that reverend B. of Bath whom I rather quote by reason of the proximity to Bristol which though it hath scorned those old prayers hath need now of a Lord have mercy upon me where I have been verè vir dolorum afflictionum Which made me bring to light first these dark thoughts of death being lately thanks be to God drawn by a Divine power out of the snares of Hell and death We have no abiding place on earth none have But of those that would have there are many here below singing an undeserved requiem to the Soul saying with the fool Soul take thy rest Many there are O Lord that though they must die cannot endure to minde death Nothing more unsavoury to them then that their memorie should be exercised with the memory thereof Eccles 12.1 Whereas sayes Solomon Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth And it was Moses wish O that men would be wise consider their latter end Let me a little raise your thoughts before I leave you from doting upon Lachrymae to much which was the first my Master taught me in Musick We have look'd long enough upon Hell and death Let us now look up to our Saviour it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who Triumphed over both Let the sight of the one as much raise your hope for without it we may not we must not be as the other dejecteth us in fear Now the Sermon being finished let
Homo ab Humo The former intends the sublimity of his Soul this the terrestreity or mortality of his body But alas quantum mutatus ab ipso What a sudden yea strange alteration I had almost said altercation do we finde Behold now another kinde of man the Elements begin in his body and the towring thoughts of his Soul to commence a civil uncivil war within themselves He which before with Dives sate as it were in an imperial Throne of Majesty is presently cast down with Lazarus full of sores i. sins into an unexpected dungeon of misery He who was to day Lord Paramount of all to morrow yea even the very same day strangely dejected and cast down Calv. for some Divines hold that he fell in the very same day in which he was created He I say though he were in the morning chief master of all was by the following night for what if his sin which is a work of darkness was then committed fain to crave aid and help of those which were his servants even the very Creatures and not the best but the worst of them a few Fig-leaves to keep him as he thought from the sight of his jealous incensed and al-seeing omniscient Creatour But sure he who like a Courtier was at the top Pinacle of honour was not thus suddenly cast down and out of favour for nothing No sure This would argue a kinde of rashness and imprudence too in him Who was wisedom it self God the Son I mean coessential and coeternal with the Father yea coequal sayes the Apostle yea Athan. Phil. 2.9 certainly there was a cause for the infliction of this punishment Sin it was which made that liberum animal Ames that had liberam voluntatem arbitrium That Majestical creature who onely of all the rest had the benefit of free-will and arbitrement thus to be captivated to and yield obedience to the baser disaffections of his Soul His unbelief his pride his despair his overcuriosity in prying into Gods secret knowledge Inst l. 1. with many other sins which Calvin and other Divines reckon up in the tasting of the Apple or Fig which for all it hung so high on the Tree caused man arborem inversam thus to fall Some imagine about Autumne the fall of the leaf I am sure he had brought forth little or no fruit being arbor not onely nata but sata between the four great waters These were the things Gen. 2. B. of Wells in Ps 1. Luke 10.7 which brought him into bondage and made him that was free become a servant at least if not a slave And sure the labourer is worthy of his hire says the Evangelist from Christ But it must be in the same kinde and agreeing to the nature of the service Now Adam and so consequently his whole posterity for as is the root so are the branches which had this sin not onely by imitation Aust which was the errour of the Pelagians but by propagation to The nature it self is corrupted And for this act of infamy man is too famous for this unworthy act worthy of a recompence of pay for his work In which because he did nothing else but as it were seek his own destruction and dissolution of his body and soul God rewarded him accordingly gave him that he sought for even death it self Which both according to Philosophers and Divines to is dissolutio corporis animae Arist A divorce of the body from the Soul Which was according to Gods own composition with him he agreed with him for so much and no more Gen. 2.17 nor no less In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die dying thou shalt die the Hebrew signifies as the marginal Notes declare And he who was the truth it self would not be worse than his word All which our Apostle here considering and withall setting down Man as he was indeed in the form of a servant the master was so Phil. 2. the servant is not above the master where he mentions the hire it self that was paid him for his service The summe total of which is significantly exprest in the first Metaphorical words of the Text. The wages of sin is death Where S. Paul following this apposite allegory of service and freedom because righteousness is a state of freedom and sin of slavery which state it may be of service by reason of the indiscretion of their depraved nature agrees better to them than power or dominion therefore the Apostle bids them if they will needs be servants to make choice of the best masters they can not tyrannizing and domineering sin but meek and heart-winning righteousness vers 18. of this Chapter Rom. 6.22.18 Being then made free from sin ye become servants of righteousness In which approbation of their present state is a kinde of exhortation for their continuance in the same But yet if they would by no fair means be recalled from the service of sin he would trie whether terrour would divert them from it And therefore lays down the words of the Text as a terrifying reason and dehortation unto them for the wages c. A thing accounted most terrible amongst the Heathen except some of their Heroes or noble spirits their high-minded volunteers but of others much feared and hated As if the Apostle should have thus expostulated with them why you O Romanes who have heretofore lived by the light of nature wanting or at least being without the light of grace and so have been superstitiously ignorant of the deity and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man birds c. changeing the truth of God unto a ly worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creatour 1 Rom. 21. and in this have committed most abominable Idolatry with many other most execrable sins I tell you now even weeping the end of these ways of these sins is none other but sorrow and even death it self The catastrophe and conclusion of sorrow it ought be at least for we must not be sorry as men without hope You therefore that accounted so much of life that as the Orator speaks quaevis sit ratio expediendae salutis Tullie any way to save life and health Arist and that death as the Philosopher speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most terrible of terribles Let it then work the same effect upon you as it is in it self to wit fear For the end of these sinfull wayes of yours is no better the wages of your sins is death In which words you may observe with me these two general parts 1. Here is the slavery bondage and service of man signified and expressed unto us by the first word of the Text wages being a thing properly belonging unto servants which is likewise declared unto us by the matter of the service which was sin The wages of sin 2. Here is the stipend or pay that he
descend to some particulars and that more clearly yet to demonstrate unto thee most courtious Reader the truth of that general I propounded man a sinner is truly called a servant And that both according to the inward and outward part of man His body is nothing else but the meer embleme of slavery and servitude which seems to be born to little else but labour toil and trouble He hath greater variety of work belonging to the body then he hath members to perform them Those feet which were so swift to commit the sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are now slow enough to undergo the service The hands which were so nimble to reach the forbidden fruit prepared without their labour must now labour and toil and that tediously before they can obtain it No fruits of the ground but they must be the fruits of their own labour Experience tells us the young mans dayes are nothing but a time of labour and for old men they do hoc morbo laborare they labour of this disease that they cannot work Psal 104.23 Psal 90.10 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour untill the evening yet is their strength but labour and sorrow And he who was wise enough to judge of these things The Scripture stiles him the wisedom of the Father he layes this down for an infallible truth Eccl. 1. All things are full of labour And again in the fourth Chapter of the same book of the Preacher he who was the truest and most powerfully pathetical preacher of God preaches this Doctrine or definite proposition unto you That there is no end of the same And as for his Soul Divinioris spiritus afflatus the breath of that Divine spirit P. Cons. of that purest act and being of God himself now behold by reason of its sin how impure it is become peccatorum sterquilinium Burton Nothing else but a meer dunghill of beastly uncleanness in a nastie case of vile and base servitude Behold now those faculties of the same before time the favourites of God the King of Kings thus miserably by reason of their own defaults cast out of favour of Lords and Masters become mean vassals and servants I remember what the story sayes of the Lord Cromwell and Frisgobald of France the one the Master the other the servant But in process of time the case was plainly altered according to the Lawyers The Master was degraded the servant exalted The Master a beggar the servant rich highly promoted I do not mean to touch the Mountains least they smoak dominering over the Master Thus it is with the affections of poor distressed man This little World by reason of the vertigo in the brain is meerly turned upside down Those higher powers of the Soul are made servants to the inferiour and lower affections of the same The understanding and will which were in the Soul tanquam Rex Regina beati in solio as King and Queen highly be-efied in their Throne now captivated and enslaved to the meer outward senses which are onely as so many Porters to the Court-Gate to let in and out guests for every object is a guest entertained by the Soul I say which serve to let them in or out as they are liked or disliked of by the royalty and government of the understanding and the will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle heretofore called the minde or understanding the eye of the Soul which could see and foresee to all kinde of danger by way of prevention that might happen unto the same But now this eye is darkened with Ignorance and Superstition And if thine eye be evil Math. 6.23 how great is that darkness i.e. altogether darkness the question doth seem to imply no less For the cause being removed the effect presently ceases according to the Logician And this was the plot of sin or rather the Devils by sin First to bring the King the understanding into bondage that then the inferiour parts of the subjects for very fear if nothing else might not resist him It is with the minde in this case as it was with Sampson amongst his enemies he was not absolutely captivated unto the Philistines untill they had put out his eyes and deprived him of sight So it is with the Soul of man if the understanding the eye of it is not blinded so long it is not Satans slave nor sins servant But if this eye once be blinded it works in this sinfull World like the horse that is hood-wink't in the Mill Arist not so much as seeing at least not seeing so far as to understand what it doth It was the axiome of the Philosophers and a true one secundum apparentiam Voluntas sequitur dictamen intellectus The will follows the dictate of the understanding But sure this seems to be quite contrary in our present cause of Divinity Not the understanding the will but the lower affections draw the will and the will in sinning seems to force the understanding or else why die men in these bright sun-shine times of the Gospel when they see and understand too that they are against the word of God yet they will commit so various and hainous sins And I can give no present reason for it but this That they are tanquam noctuae coram sole unless they are as Owles which become blinde before the Sun that enlightens all other creatures but darkens onely those This Sun of righteousness in Malachi his Evangelical Prophecie enlightens many other poor Souls Mal. 4. when as these miserable it is to see become start blinde It is with our understanding and will as with a Justice of Peace and his Clerk The silly and indiscreet Justice not able to judge sufficiently of matters himself is faign to be guided and ruled by his Clerk And our understanding by reason of sin blinded with ignorance is now content to be overswayed by the will which indeed should be onely his Clerk to follow his dictate precept and Commandment And thus far you see mans understanding appear plainly to be a servant if not a prisoner yea worse then that a very slave Neither is the will free This as a comate with the former in ill husbandry must taste of the same sauce They both have sin for their master like to those beasts they draw in the same yoake It is there said Sam. 1.6.12 when the Kine were yoaked together under the Ark of the Lord they went along the high-way lowed as they went so these two our will and understanding draw as these Kine in the same yoake under the Ark as it were where was the rod of Aaron and that budding too for correction as well as the two Tables of the Law for instruction heretofore under the same burden of sin And I know no reason but they should with these Kine low and grieve for the same and cry out in this Aegyptian darkness as those Israelites in old Aegypt our
burdens are to heavy for us and yet at the same time say they want straw i. e. small sins to play withall For your very will that liberum arbitrium that freest part of man is now become servile Imagination so far over-rules the will that it doth not onely make you to offend man by iniquity but sin against God by impiety To this purpose are those words of the Apostle Coll. 2.23 These things indeed have a shew of wisedom in will-worship c. Ovid. Sic volo sic jubeo was the Poets description of the wills imperial government But alas now the meer imaginative faculty of the Soul the fancie of man seems to have this supremacy It is not what I will that I fancie But these are termini convertibiles as the Logician speaks The proposition is convertible and thus it is true What we do but imagine that we will The least titillation or tickling of the fancie now in this state of corruption in a manner forces the will to the willing of the object let it be never so bad The adulterous man fancies his lascivious mistress and he makes presently to her The drunkard fancies his pot-companions and then he can no longer be from them c. The fancie accounts them to be sweet sins and therefore the will must to the acting of them But alas In vino venenum In the sweetest Wines lies that poisonous sin of drunkenness Latet anguis in herbâ on their green and pleasant bed lies that riggeling insinuating yea serpent-like sin of adultery Yet for all this the Will wills them they are sweet and therefore she must have them And in all this seems to be but the baser the more vile a servant and slave And for all the understanding pronounces it to be against reason yet like an ill-affected patient she is still inclining most to that which doth her most hurt As a silly sullen prisoner though shown the way to be free yet still will stay in prison and therefore the more a vassal the more a servant And thus you see the will and the understanding having their Necks in the same chain of misery There is a third if that be any comfort to them the fancie and imagination have the same fetters about them for they seem to be subject to the meer outward senses eyes ears c. which are onely as so many windowes to let in sinfull objects into the palace of the Soul to rob her of her proper liberty to convey enemies into her as Tarpeia the Sabines into the capitol at Rome to captivate and enthral her In a word All the affections that belong unto our Souls as joy grief fear c. are no better then so many servants and slaves to as many sins and vices Alius libidini servit alius ambitioni omnes spei omnes timori c. Macrobius as Evangelus well discourses whence the Poet stiles them no less then servants Qui metuis qui parva cupis qui duceris ira servitii patiere jugum c. Not to speak of the Countrey-mans life for that is nothing but a meer epitome of slavery I mean for outward service not inward contention Lovers are slaves to their Mistresses Rich men to their Gold Courtiers generally to lust and ambition and all slaves to our affections The one with Alexander is a slave to his fear the other with Caesar to pride another with Vespasian to his mony and the last with Heliog abalus to his gut or belly All servants of sin Omne sub regno graviore regnum Even Princes themselves are under another And it were to be wished that that subjection were not under the Tyranny of sin and Satan Court sins being commonly now set forth which are flattery dissimulation c. as books cum privilegio committed with a Licence because they suppose none are able to control them But let them know even Nobles may be bound with lincks of iron as well as Manasses was in chains No This is no priviledge in the Court of heaven God commands his Prophets to tell Israel of her sins and Judah of her transgressions Jer. 17.1 Exp. yea hear more The sin of Judah is written with a Pen of Iron which is hard to enter but being once entered is dureable and with a point of a Diamond our sins being as glass very perspicuous and they must be cut asunder as Samuel cut King Agag in pieces though in sumptuous apparrel And therefore since they had sinned and given themselves to it Pemb. God gives them also up to it obdurando cor detrahendo gratiam he punishes them with the same slavery Vers 3 Therefore sayes God will I give thy high places for sin i. e. the most sumptuous Temples and fairest Churches is it not so O that I in my particular had not reason to mourn in sable for my Bedeminster now as yet lying in its own ashes and ruinous heaps of indigested stone God send us living Temples and that also re-aedification And this is all the difference between the Courtiers and the poor mans miserie The one is in Iron chains the other in golden fetters and is it not all one to be bound in Irons and Gold Both are in bondage and if there be any difference at all it is that of S. Austins There 's as Gold are splendidiora peccata ther 's more illustrious and notable sins howsoever they are sins and are as so many clogs unto the Soul And this which is worse the opener the sin the closer prisoner he is who is captivated unto it O miserum principem ideòque miseriorem quod miseriae sensum perdidisti cries that tragick Poet of pious Herminigildus I am sure I may more boldly say it of these impious sinners Miserable they are in themselves but more miserable yet in that they perceive not themselves to be miserable Servants they are but the more in slavery the more subject unto sin in that they account themselves not to be so And that with which I will conclude this position of ours concerning mans service unto sin that I say which is said of the Soul in general may be also affirmed of every Soul in particular Anima est in corpore tanquam in carcere The Soul is in the body as in a prison where every outward sense almost is as so many Jaylors or Keepers domineering over her And from this none are exempt Every one by sin is made of a servile condition In many things we offend all James 3.2 Rom. 5.12 And all men have sinned sayes S. Paul And therefore all must suffer All by reason of this are in bondage and service Plato And therefore that Divine Naturalist calls it as siduam servitutem extremam meluct abilem A continual and almost inevitable slavery to be so captivated to vices And who is free That is nemo no not so much as one is free all servants captivated by sin and that to