Peter and Iohn rejoycing when they suffered for the name of Jesus and Saint Paul so farr from fearing that he longed after his dissolution and the blessed Martyrs running to a faggot as to a feast Verily Gods children see great good in these things which others account evils and therefore they take them not as bare punishments sent to afflict them but as glorious tryals to exercise them as gracious corrections to humble them as precious receipts to purge and recover and restore and strengthen them So that it is not any of the temporal evils of this life but much rather the everlasting pains of hell wherein the just reward and punishment of sinne properly and especially consisteth The wages of sinne is death the proper wages of sinne eternal death For so the Antithesis in that place giveth it to be understood viz. of such a death as is opposed to Eternal Life and that is Eternal Death The wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is Eternal life Rom. 6. By the distribution of those Eternal punishments then we are rather to judge of GODS righteousness in recompensing sinners than by the dispensation of these temporal evils It was a stumbling block to the heathen to see good men oppressed and vice prosper it made them doubt some whether there were a God or no others nothing better whether a providence or no. But what marvel if they stumbled who had no right knowledge either of God or of his providence when Iob and David and other the dear children of God have been much puzzled with it David confesseth in Psal. 73. that His feet had welnigh slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked and certainly down he had been had he not happily stepped Into the Sanctuary of God and there understood the end of these men Temporal evils though they be sometimes punishments of sinne yet they are not ever sent as punishments because sometimes they have other ends and uses and are ordinabilia in melius and secondly they are never the only punishments of sinne because there are greater and more lasting punishments reserved for sinners after this life of which there is no other use or end but to punish since they are not ordinabilia in melius If we will make these temporal evils the measure whereby to judge of the Iustice of God we cannot secure our selves from erring dangerously Gods purposes in the dispensation of these unto particular men being unsearchable But those everlasting punishments are they wherein Gods Iustice shall be manifested to every eye in due time at that last day which is therefore called by Saint Paul Rom. 2. The day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Implying that howsoever God is just in all his judgements and acts of providence even upon earth yet the Counsels and Purposes of God in these things are often secret and past finding out but at the last great day when He shall render to every man according to his works his everlasting recompence then his vengeance shall manifest his wrath and the righteousness of his judgement shall be revealed to every eye in the condign punishment of unreconciled sinners That is the second Certainty Temporal evils are not alwayes nor simply nor properly the punishments for sinne If any man shall be yet unsatisfied and desire to have Gods justice somewhat farther cleared even in the disposing of these temporal things although it be neither safe nor possible for us to search farr into particulars yet some general satisfaction we may have from a third Certainty and that is this Every evil of pain whatsoever it be or howsoever considered which is brought upon any man is brought upon him evermore for sinne yea and that also for his own personal sinne Every branch of this assertion would be well marked I say first Every evil of pain whatsoever it be whether natural defects and infirmities in soul or body or outward afflictions in goods friends or good name whether inward distresses of an afflicted or terrours of an affrighted conscience whether temporal or eternal Death whether evils of this life or after it or whatsoever other evil it be that is any way grievous to any man every such evil is for sinne I say secondly every evil of pain howsoever considered whether formally and sub ratione poenae as the proper effect of Gods vengeance and wrath against sinne or as a fatherly correction and chastisement to nurture us from some past sinne or as a medicinal preservative to strengthen us against some future sinne or as a clogging chain to keep under and disable us from some outward work of sinne or as a fit matter and object whereon to exercise our Christian graces of faith charity patience humility and the rest or as an occasion given and taken by Almighty God for the greater manifestation of the glory of his Wisdom and Power and Goodness in the removal of it or as an act of Exemplary justice for the admonition and terrour of others or for whatsoever other end purpose or respect it be inflicted I say thirdly Every such evil of pain is brought upon us for sinne There may be other ends there may be other occasions there may be other uses of such Evils but still the original Cause of them all is sinne When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sinne It was not for any extraordinary notorious sinnes either of the blind man himself or of his parents above other men that he was born blind Our Saviour Christ acquitteth them of that Iohn 9. in answer to his Disciples who were but too forward as God knoweth most men are to judge the worst Our Saviours answer there never intended other but that still the true cause deserving that blindnesse was his and his parents sinne but his purpose was to instruct his Disciples that that infirmity was not layd upon him rather than upon another man meerly for that reason because he or his parents had deserved it more than other men but for some farther ends which God had in it in his secret and everlasting purpose and namely this among the rest that the works of God might be manifest in him and the Godhead of the Sonne made glorious in his miraculous cure As in Nature the intention of the End doth not overthrow but rather suppose the necessity of the Matter so is it in the works of God and the dispensations of his wonderfull providence It is from Gods mercy ordering them to those Ends he hath purposed that his punishments are good but it is withall from our sinnes deserving them as the cause that they are just Even as the rain that falleth upon the earth whether it moysten it kindly and make it fruitfull or whether it choak and slocken and drown it yet still had its beginning from the vapours which the earth it self sent up All those Evils
serpentis the spawn of the old Serpent children of their father the Devil And they do not shame the store they come of for the works of their Father they readily do That Hellish Aphorisme they so faithfully practise is one of his Principles it was he first instilled it into them Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Smite with the tongue and be sure to smite home and then be sure either the grief or the blemish of the stroke will stick by it A Devillish practise hateful both to God and Man And that most justly whether we consider the sin or the injury or the mischief of it the Sin in the Doer the Injury to the Sufferer the Mischief to the Common-wealth Every false report raised in judgement besides that it is a lye and every lye is a sin against the truth slaying the soul of him that maketh it and excluding him from heaven and binding him over unto the second death it is also a pernicious lye and that is the worst sort of lyes and so a sin both against Charity and Iustice. Which who so committeth let him never look to dwell in the Tabernacle of God or to rest upon his holy Mountain GOD having threatned Ps. 50. to take speciall knowledge of this sin though he seem for a time to dissemble it yet at lest to reprove the bold offender to his face Thou satest and spakest against thy brother yea and hast slandered thine own mothers son These things hast thou done and I held my tongue thou thoughtest wickedly that I was even such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set before thee the things that thou hast done And as for the Injury done hereby to the grieved party it is incomparable If a man have his house broken or his purse taken from him by the high way or sustain any wrong or losse in his person goods or state otherwise by fraud or violence or casualty he may possibly either by good fortune hear of his own again and recover it or he may have restitution and satisfaction made him by those that wronged him or by his good industry and providence he may live to see that losse repaired and be in as good state as before But he that hath his Name and Credite and Reputation causlesly called into question sustaineth a losse by so much greater then any theft by how much a good name is better than great riches A man may out-weare other injuries or out-live them but a defamed person no acquittall from the Iudge no satisfaction from the Accuser no following endeavours in himself can so restore in integrum but that when the wound is healed he shall yet carry the markes and the scarres of it to his dying day Great also are the mischiefs that hence redound to the common-wealth When no innocency can protect an honest quiet man but every busie base fellow that oweth him a spite shall be able to fetch him into the Courts draw him from the necessary charge of his family and duties of his calling to an unnecessary expence of money and time torture him with endlesse delayes and expose him to the pillage of every hungry Officer It is one of the grievances God had against Jerusalem and as he calleth them abominations for which he threatneth to judge her Ezek. 22. Viri detractores in te In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood Beware then all you whose businesse or lot it is at this Assises or hereafter may be to be Plaintiffs Accusers Informers or any way Parties in any Court of Justice this or other Civil or Ecclesiasticall that you suffer not the guilt of this prohibition to cleave unto your Consciences If you shall hereafter be raisers of false reports the words you have heard this day shall make you inexcusable another You are by what hath been presently spoken disabled everlastingly from pleading any Ignorance either Facti or Iuris as having been instructed both what it is and how great a fault it is to raise a false report Resolve therefore if you be free never to enter into any action or suite wherein you cannot proceed with comfort nor come off without injustice or if already engaged to make as good and speedy an end as you can of a bad matter and to desist from farther prosecution Let that golden rule commended by the wisest heathens as a fundamentall Principle of morall and civill Iustice yea and proposed by our blessed Saviour himself as a full abridgement of the Law and Prophets be ever in your eye and ever before your thoughts to measure out all your actions and accusations and proceedings thereby even to do so to other men and no otherwise then as you could be content or in right reason should be content they should do to you and yours if their case were yours Could any of you take it well at your neighbours hand should he seek your life or livelyhood by suggesting against you things which you never had so much as the thought to do or bring you into a peck of troubles by wresting your words and actions wherein you meant nothing but well to a dangerous construction or follow the Law upon you as if he would not leave you worth a groate for every petty trespasse scarce worth half the money or fetch you over the hippe upon a branch of some blind uncouth and pretermitted Statute He that should deal thus with you and yours I know what would be said and thought Griper Knave Villain Divel incarnate all this and much more would be too little for him Well I say no more but this Quod tibi fieri non vis c. Doe as you would be done to There is your generall Rule But for more particular direction if any man desire it since in every evil one good step to soundnesse is to have discovered the right cause thereof I know not what better course to prescribe for the preventing of this sinne of sycophancy and false accusation then for every man carefully to avoid the inducing causes thereof and the occasions of those causes There are God knoweth in this present wicked world to every kind of evil inducements but too too many To this of false accusation therefore it is not unlikely but there may be more yet we may observe that there are four things which are the most ordinary and frequent causes thereof viz. Malice Obsequiousnesse Coverture and Covetousnesse The first is Malice Which in some men if I may be allowed to call them men being indeed rather Monsters is universall They love no body glad when they can do any man any mischief in any matter never at so good quiet as when they are most unquiet It seemeth David met with some such men that were enemies to peace when he spake to them of peace they made themselves ready to battell Take one of these men it is meat and drink
judgement upon Zimri and Cosbi did withall lift up his heart to God to blesse that action and to turn it to good In which respects especially if the word withall will bear it as it seemeth it will some men should have done well not to have shewn so much willingnesse to quarrell at the Church-translations in our Service-book by being clamorous against this very place as a grosse corruption and sufficient to justifie their refusall of subscription to the Book But I will not now trouble either you or my selfe with farther curiosity in examining Translations because howsoever other Translations that render it praying or appeasing may be allowed either as tolerably good or at least excusably ill yet this that rendreth it by Executing Iudgment is certainly the best whether we consider the course of the Story it selfe or the propriety of the word in the Originall or the intent of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture And this Action of Phinehes in doing judgement upon such a paire of great and bold offenders was so well pleasing unto God that his wrath was turned away from Israel and the plague which had broken in upon them in a sudden and fearfull manner was immediately stayed thereupon Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God above the blood of Bulls and of Goates is the death of a Malefactor slaughtered by the hand of Iustice When the Magistrate who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister and Priest of God for this very thing putteth his knife to the throat of the beast and with the fire of an holy zeal for GOD and against sin offereth him up in Holocaustum for a whole burnt-offering and for a peace-offering unto the Lord. Samuel saith that to obey is better than sacrifice and Salomon that to do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice Obedience that is the prime and the best sacrifice and the second best is the punishment of Disobedience There is no readier way to appease GODS wrath against sinne then is the rooting out of sinners nor can his deputies by any other course turn away his just judgements so effectually as by faithfull executing of Iustice and judgement themselves When Phinehes did this act the publick body of Israel was in a weak state and stood in need of a present and sharp remedy In some former distempers of the State it may be they had found some ease by dyet in humbling their soules by fasting or by an issue at the tongue or eye in an humble confession of their sinnes and in weeping and mourning for them with teares of repentance And they did well now to make triall of those remedies again wherein they had found so much help in former times especially the remedies being proper for the malady and such as often may do good but never can do harm But alas fasting and weeping and mourning before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation had not strength enough against those more prevalent corruptions wherewith the State of Israel was then pestered This Phinehes saw who well perceived that as in a dangerous pleurisie the party cannot live unlesse he bleed so if there were any good to be done upon Israel in this their little lesse than desperate estate a vein must be opened and some of the rank blood let out for the preservation of the rest of the body This course therefore he tries and languishing Israel findeth present ease in it As soon as the blood ran instantly the grief ceased He executed judgement and the plague was stayed As God brought upon that people for their sinnes a fearfull destruction so he hath in his just wrath sent his destroying Angel against us for ours The sinnes that brought that Plague upon them were Whoredome and Idolatry I cannot say the very same sinnes have caused ours For although the execution of good Lawes against both incontinent and idolatrous persons hath been of late yeares and yet is we all know to say no more slack enough yet Gods holy name be blessed for it neither Idolatry nor Whoredome are at that height of shamelesse impudency and impunity among us that they dare brave our Moseses and out-face whole Congregations as it was in Israel But still this is sure no plague but for sinne nor nationall Plagues but for Nationall sinnes So that albeit none of us may dare to take upon us to be so far of Gods counsell as to say for what very sinnes most this plague is sent among us yet none of us can be ignorant but that besides those secret personall corruptions which are in every one of us and whereunto every mans own heart is privy there are many publick and nationall sinnes whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty abundantly sufficient to justifie GOD in his dealings towards us and to cleer him when he is judged Our wretched unthankfulnesse unto GOD for the long continuance of his Gospel and our peace our carnall confidence and security in the strength of our wooden and watry walls our riot and excesse the noted proper sinne of this Nation and much intemperate abuse of the good creatures of GOD in our meates and drinkes and disperts and other provisions and comforts of this life our incompassion to our brethren miserably wasted with War and Famine in other parts of the world our heavy Oppression of our brethren at home in racking the rents and cracking the backes and Grinding the faces of the poor our cheap and irreverent regard unto Gods holy ordinances of his Word and Sacraments and Sabbaths and Ministers our wantonnesse and Toyishnesse of understanding in corrupting the simplicity of our Christian Faith and troubling the peace of the Church with a thousand niceties and novelties and unnecessary wranglings in matters of Religion and to reckon no more that universall Corruption which is in those which because they should be such we call the Courts of Iustice by sale of offices enhauncing of fees devising new subtilties both for delay and evasion trucking for expedition making trappes of petty penall Statutes and but Cobwebs of the most weighty and materiall Lawes I doubt not but by the mercy of God many of his servants in this Land are free from some and some from all of these common crimes in some good measure but I fear me not the best of us all not a man of us all but are guilty of all or some of them at least thus farre that we have not mourned for the corruptions of the times so feelingly nor endeavoured the reformation of them to our power so faithfully as we might and ought to have done By these and other sinnes we have provoked Gods heavy judgement against us and the Plague is grievously broken in upon us and now it would be good for us to know by what meanes we might best appease his wrath and stay this Plague Publick Humiliations have ever been thought
those temporal afflictions he inflicteth For as he rewardeth those few good things that are in evil men with these temporall benefits for whom yet in his Iustice he reserveth eternall damnation as the due wages by that Iustice of their grace-lesse impenitency so he punisheth those remnants of sin that are in Godly men with these temporal afflictions for whom yet in his mercy he reserveth Eternall salvation as the due wages yet by that mercy only of their Faith and repentance and holy obedience As Abraham said to the rich glutton in the Parable Luke 16. Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented As if he had said If thou hadst any thing good in thee remember thou hast had thy reward in earth already and now there remaineth for thee nothing but the full punishment of thine ungodlinesse there in Hell but as for Lazarus he hath had the chastisement of his infirmities on earth already and now remaineth for him nothing but the full reward of his godlinesse here in Heaven Thus the meditation of this Doctrine yieldeth good Comfort against temporal afflictions Here is yet a third Comfort and that of the three the greatest unto the godly in the firm assurance of their Eternal reward It is one of the Reasons why God temporally rewardeth the unsound obedience of natural carnal and unregenerate men even to give his faithfull servants undoubted assurance that he will in no wise forget their true and sound and sincere obedience Doth God reward Ahabs temporary Humiliation and will he not much more reward thy hearty and unfeined repentance Have the Hypocrites their reward and canst thou doubt of thine This was the very ground of all that comfort wherewith the Prodigal sonne sustained his heart and hope when he thus discoursed to his own soul If all the hired servants which are in my Fathers house have bread enough and to spare surely my Father will never be so unmindfull of me who am his Son though too too unworthy of that name as to let me perish for hunger Every temporal blessing bestowed upon the wicked ought to be of the child of God entertained as a fresh assurance given him of his everlasting reward hereafter Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his Concubines and sent them away but his onely son Isaac he kept with him and gave him all that he had Right so God giveth temporal gifts to Hypocrites and Cast-awayes who are bastards and not sonnes not sonnes of the free woman not sons of promise not born after the spirit and that is their portion when they have gotten that they have gotten all they are like to have there is no more to be looked for at his hands But as for the inheritance he reserveth that for his dear Children the godly who are Born after the spirit and Heires according unto promise on these he bestoweth all that ever he hath all things are theirs for on them he bestoweth his Son the heir of all things in whom are hid all the treasures of all good things and together with whom all other things are conveyed and made over unto them as accessories and appurtenances of him and on them he bestoweth Himself who is All in all In whose presence is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore To which joy unspeakable and glorious O thou the Father of mercies who hast promised it unto us bring us in the end for thy dear Sonnes sake Jesus Christ who hath purchased it for us and given into our hearts the earnest of his and thy holy Spirit to seal it unto us To which blessed Son and holy Spirit together with thee O Father three persons and one only wise gracious glorious Almighty and eternal Lord God be ascribed by us and all thy faithfull people throughout the world the whole kingdome power and glory for ever and ever Amen Amen THE SECOND SERMON AD POPVLVM At Grantham L inc Febr. 27. 1620 3. Kings 21.29 because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his dayes I Will not so farr either distrust your memories or straiten my self of time for the delivery of what I am now purposed to speak as to make any large repetition of the particulars which were observed the last time from the consideration of Ahabs person and condition who was but an Hypocrite taken joyntly with his present carriage together with the occasion and successe thereof He was humbled It was the voyce of God by his Prophet that humbled him Upon his humbling God adjourneth his punishment From all which was noted 1. that there might be even in Hypocrites an outward formal humiliation 2. the power and efficacy of the word of God able to humble an oppressing Ahab 3. the boundlesse mercy of God in not suffering the outward formal humiliation of an ungodly Hypocrite to passe altogether unrewarded All this the last time by occasion of those first clauses in the verse Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not We are now next to consider of the great Favour which it pleased God to shew to Ahab upon his humiliation what it was and wherein it consisted It was the Removal at least for a time that is the suspension of an heavy judgement denounced against Ahab and his house most deservedly for his bloody and execrable oppression Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days The Evil which God now promiseth he will not bring I will not bring the evil in his days is that which in verse 21. he hath threatned he would bring upon Ahab and upon his house Behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will make thy house like the house of Ieroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Abijah for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin A great judgement and an heavy but the greater the judgement is when it is deserved and threatned the greater the mercy is if it be afterwards forborn as some of this was But whatsoever becommeth of the judgement here we see is mercy good store God who is rich in mercy and delighted to be stiled the God of mercies and the Father of mercies abundantly manifesteth his mercy in dealing thus graciously with one that deserved it so little Here is mercy in but threatning the punishment when he might have inflicted it and more mercy in not inflicting the punishment when he had threatned it Here is mercy first in suspending the Punishment I will not bring
which fall so daily and thick upon us from Heaven whether to warn us or to plague us are but arrows which our selves first shot up against heaven and now drop down again with doubled force upon our heads Omnis poena propter culpam all evils of pain are for the evils of sinne I say fourthly All such evils are for our own sinnes The Scriptures are plain God judgeth every man according to his own works Every man shall bear his own burden c. God hath enjoyned it as a Law for Magistrates wherein they have also his example to lead them that not the fathers for the children nor the children for the fathers but every man should be put to death for his own sinne Deuteron 24. If Israel take up a Proverb of their own heads The fathers have eaten sowr grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge they doe it without cause and they are checked for it The soul that sinneth it shall dye and if any man eat sowr grapes his own teeth and not anothers for him shall be set on edge thereby For indeed how can it be otherwise or who can reasonably think that our most gracious God who is so ready to take from us the guilt of our own should yet lay upon us the guilt of other mens sins The only exception to be made in this kind is that alone satisfactory punishment of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ not at all for his own sins far be the impiety from us so to imagine for He did no sin neither was there any guilt found in his mouth but for ours He payed that which he never took it was For our transgressions that he was wounded and the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him Yet even those meritorious sufferings of his may be said in a qualified sense to have been for his own sins although in my judgement it be far better to abstain from such like speeches as are of ill and suspicious sound though they may be in some sort defended But how for his own sins his own by Commission by no means God forbid any man should teach any man should conceive so the least thought of this were blaspemy but his own by Imputation Not that he had sinned and so desâ—rved punishment but that he had taken upon him our sins which deserved that punishment As he that undertaketh for another mans debt maketh it his own and standeth chargeable with it as if it were his own personal debt so Christ becomming surety for our sins made them his own and so was punishable for them as if they had been his own personal sins Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree 1 Pet. 2 That he was punished for us who himself deserved no punishment it was because He was made sin for us who himself knew no sin So that I say in some sense the assertion may be defended universally and without exception but yet I desire rather it might be thus Christs only excepted all the Pains and Evils of men are brought upon them for their own sins These three points then are certain and it is needfull they should be well understood and remembred because nothing can be objected against Gods Iustice in the punishing of sin which may not be easily removed if we have recourse to some one or other of these three Certainties and rightly apply them All the three doubts proposed in the beginning have one and the same resolution answer one and answer all Ahab here sinneth by Oppression and yet the evil must light though not all of it for some part of it fell and was performed upon Ahab himself yet the main of it upon his son Iehoram I will will not bring the evil in his days but in his sons days will I bring the evil upon his house It is not Iehorams case alone it is a thing that often hath and dayly doth befall many others In Genesis 9. when Noahs ungracious son Ham had discovered his Fathers nakedness the old man no doubt by Gods special inspiration layeth the curse not upon Ham himself but upon his son Canaan Cursed be Canaan c. And God ratified the curse by rooting out the posterity of Canaan first out of the pleasant Land wherein they were seated and then afterwards from the face of the whole earth Ieroboams Idolatry cut off his posterity from the Kingdom and the wickedness of Eli his sons theirs from the Priesthood of Israel Gehasi with the bribe he took purchased a leprosie in fee-simple to him and his heirs for ever The Iewes for stoning the Prophets of God but most of all for crucifying the Son of God brought blood-guiltinesse not only upon themselves but upon their children also His blood be upon us and upon our Children The wrath of God therefore comming upon them to the utmost and the curse of God abiding upon their posterity even unto this day wherein they still remain and God knoweth how long they shall a base and despised people scattered almost every where and every where hated Instances might be endless both in private persons and families and in whole Kingdoms and Countries But it is a needlesse labour to multiply instances in so confessed a point especially God Almighty having thus far declared himself and his pleasure herein in the second commandement of the Law that he will not spare in his Iealousie sometimes to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation There is no question then de facto but so it is the sins of the Fathers are visited upon the Children but de jure with what right and equity it is so it is as Saint Chrysostome speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a question famous and much debated The considerations which I find given in for the resolution of this question by those that have purposely handled it are very many But multitude breedeth confusion and therefore I propose no more but two only unto which so many of the rest as are material may be reduced and those two grounded upon the certainties already declared The former concerneth the Nature of those Punishments which are inflicted upon the Children for the fathers sins the later the Condition of those Children upon whom such punishments are inflicted As to the first The punishments which GOD bringeth usually upon the Children for the fathers sins are only temporal and outward punishments Some have been plagued with infectious diseases as Gehazies posterity and Ioabs also if that curse which David pronounced against him took effect as it is like it did Some have come to untimely and uncomfortable ends as Davids children Amnon and Absalon and the little ones of Dathan and Abiram and others Some have had losses and reproaches and manifold other distresses and
is the harmony and conjuncture of the Parts exceeding in goodnesse beauty and perfection yet so as no one part is superfluous or unprofitable or if considered singly and by it self destitute of its proper goodnesse and usefulnesse As in the Natural Body of a Man not the least member or string or sinew but hath his proper office and comelinesse in the body and as in the artificial Body of a Clock or other engine of motion not the least wheel or pinne or notch but hath his proper work and use in the Engine God hath given to every thing he hath made that number weight and measure of perfection and goodnesse which he saw fittest for it unto those ends for which he made it Every Creature of God is good A truth so evident that even those among the Heathen Philosophers who either denied or doubted of the worlds Creation did yet by making Ens and Bonum terms convertible acknowledge the goodnesse of every Creature It were a shame then for us who Through Faith understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God if our assent unto this truth should not be by so much firmer than theirs by how much our evidence for it is stronger than theirs They perceived the thing we the ground also they saw it was so we why it is so Even because it is the work of God A God full of goodnesse a God who is nothing but goodnesse a God essentially and infinitely good yea very Goodnesse it self As is the Workman such is his workmanship Nor for degree that is here impossible but for the truth of the Quality not alike good with him but like to him in being good In every Creature there are certain tracks and footsteps as of Gods Essence whereby it hath its Being so of his goodness too wherby it also is good The Manichees saw the strength of this Inference Who though they were so injurious unto the Creatures as to repute some of them evil yet durst not be so absurd as to charge the true God to be the cause of those they so reputed Common reason taught them that from the good God could not proceed any evil thing no more than Darkness could from the light of the Sun or Cold from the heat of the fire And therefore so to defend their Errour as to avoid this absurdity they were forced to maintain another absurdity indeed a greater though it seemed to them the lesse of the two viz. to say there were two Gods a Good God the Author of all good things and an Evil Good the Author of all evil things If then we acknowledge that there is but one God and that one God good and we doe all so acknowledge unless we will be more absurd than those most absurd Hereticks we must withall acknowledge all the Creatures of that one and good God to be also good He is so the causer of all that is good for Every good gift and every perfect giving descendeth from above from the Father of lights as that he is the causer only of what is good for with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning saith S. Iames. As the Sun who is Pater Luminum the fountain and Father of lights whereunto S. Iames in that passage doth apparently allude giveth light to the Moon and Stars and all the lights of heaven and causeth light wheresoever he shineth but no where causeth darkness So God the Father and fountain of all goodness so communicateth goodness to every thing he produceth as that he cannot produce any thing at all but that which is good Every Creature of God then is good Which being so certainly then first to raise some Inferences from the premisses for our farther instruction and use certainly I say Sin and Death and such things as are evil and not good are not of Gods making they are none of his Creatures for all his Creatures are good Let no man therefore say when he is tempted and overcome of sin I am tempted of God neither let any man say when he hath done evil it was Gods doing God indeed preserveth the Man actuateth the Power and ordereth the Action to the glory of his Mercy or Iustice but he hath no hand at all in the sinfull defect and obliquity of a wicked action There is a natural or rather transcendental Goodnesse Bonitas Entis as they call it in every Action even in that whereto the greatest sin adhereth and that Goodness is from God as that Action is his Creature But the Evil that cleaveth unto it is wholly from the default of the Person that committeth it and not at all from God And as for the Evils of Pain also neither are they of Gods making Deus mortem non fecit saith the Author of the Book of Wisdom God made not death neither doth he take pleasure in the destruction of the living but wicked men by their words and works have brought it upon themselves Perditio tua exte Israel Osea 13. O Israel thy destrâ—ction is from thy self that is both thy sin whereby thou destroyest thy self and thy Misery whereby thou art destroyed is only and wholly from thy self Certainly God is not the Cause of any Evil either of Sin or Punishment Conceive it thus not the Cause of it formally and so farr forth as it is Evil. For otherwise we must know that materially considered all Evils of Punishment are from God for Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 In Evils of sinne there is no other but only that Natural or Transcendental goodness whereof we spake in the Action which goodness though it be from God yet because the Action is Morally bad God is not said to doe it But in Evils of Punishment there is over and besides that Natural Goodness whereby they exist a kind of Moral Goodness as we may call it after a sort improperly and by way of reduction as they are Instruments of the Iustice of God and whatsoever may be referred to Iustice may so farr forth be called good and for that very goodness God may be said in some sort to be the Author of these evils of punishment though not also of those other evils of Sin In both we must distinguish the Good from the Evil and ascribe all the Good whatsoever it be Transcendental Natural Moral or if there be any other to God alone but by no means any of the Evil. We are unthankfull if we impute any good but to him and we are unjust if we impute to him any thing but good Secondly from the goodness of the least Creature guesse we at the excellent goodness of the great Creator Ex pede Herculem God hath imprinted as before I said some steps and footings of his goodness in the Creatures from which we must take the best scantling we are capable of of those
give place by subjection no not for an hour lest we be ensnared by our own default ere we be aware For indeed we cannot be ensnared in this kinde but meerly by our own default and therefore S. Paul often admonisheth us to take heed that none deceive spoil or beguile us as if it were in our power if we would but use requisite care thereunto to prevent it and as if it were our fault most if we did not prevent it And so in truth it is For we oftentimes betray away our own liberty when we might maintain it and so become servants unto men when we both might and ought to keep our selves free Which fault we shall be the better able to avoid when we shall know the true causes whence it springeth which are evermore one of these two an unsound head or an unsound heart Sometimes we esteem too highly of others so far as either to envassal our judgements to their opinions or to enthrall our consciences to their precepts and that is our weaknesse there the fault is in the head Sometimes we apply our selves to the wills of others with an eye to our own benefit or satisfaction in some other carnal or worldly respect and that is our fleshlinesse there the fault is in the heart This latter is the worst and therefore in the first place to be avoided The most and worser sort unconscionable men do often transgresse this way When for fear of a frown or worse displeasure or to curry favour with those they may have use of or in hope either of raising themselves to some advancement or of raising to themselves some advantage or for some other like respects they become officious instruments to others for the accomplishing of their lusts in such services as are evidently even to their own apprehensions sinful and wicked So Doeg did King Saul service in shedding the bloud of fourscore and five innocent Priests and Absalons servants murdered their masters brother upon his bare command and Pilate partly to gratifie the Iewes but especially for fear of Cesars displeasure gave sentence of death upon Iesus who in his own conscience he thought had not deserved it In such cases as these are when we are commanded by our superiours or required by our friends or any other way solicited to do that which we know we cannot do without sin we are to maintain our liberty if we cannot otherwise fairly decline the service by a flat and peremptory denial though it be to the greatest power upon earth As the three young men did to the great Nebuchadnezzar Be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up And the ancient Christians to the heathen Emperors Da veniam Imperator tu carcerem ille gehennam And the Apostles to the whole councel of the Jewes Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judge ye Acts 4. He that will displease God to please men he is the servant of men and cannot be the servant of God But honest and conscionable men who do not easily and often fail this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is Rom. 16. men that are not evill are yet apt sometimes to be so far carried away with an high estimation of some men as to subject themselves wholly to their judgements or wills without ever questioning the truth of any thing they teach or the lawfulnesse of any thing they enjoyn it is a dangerous thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Iude speaketh to have mens persons in admiration though they be of never so great learning wisdome or piety because the best and wisest men that are are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the like infirmities as we are both of sin and error and such as may both deceive others and be themselves deceived That honour which Pythagoras his Scholars gave to their Master in resting upon his bare authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a sufficient proof yea as a divine Oracle many judicious even among the heathen altogether misliked as too servile and prejudicial to that libertas Philosophica that freedom of judgement which was behooveful for the study of Philosophy How much more then must it needs be prejudicial in the judgement of Christians to that libertas Evangelica that freedome we have in Christ to give such honour to any other man but the man Christ Iesus only or to to any other writings than to those which are in truth the Oracles of God the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament There is I confesse much reverence to be given to the writings of the godly ancient Fathers more to the Canons and decrees of general and provincial Councels and not a little to the judgement of learned sober and godly Divines of later and present times both in our own and other reformed Churches But we may not jurare in vèrba build our faith upon them as upon a sure foundation nor pin our belief upon their sleeves so as to receive for an undoubted truth whatsoever they hold and to reject as a grosse error whatsover they disallow without farther examination Saint Iohn biddeth us try the spirits before we beleeve them 1 Ioh. 4. And the Beroeans are remembred with praise for so doing Act. 17. We blame it in the Schoolmen that some adhere pertinaciously to the opinions of Thomas and others as pertinaciously to the opinions of Scotus in every point wherein they differ insomuch as it were grande piaculum a heinous thing and not to be suffered if a Dominican should dissent from Thomas or a Franciscan from Scoâ—us though but in one single controverted conclusion And we blame it jâ—stly for S. Paul blamed the lâ—ke sidings and partakings in the Church of Corinth whilest one professed himself to be of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas as a fruit of carnality unbeseeming Christians And is it not also blame-worthy in us and a fruit of the same carnality if any of us shall affect to be accounted rigid Lutherans or perfect Calvinists or give up our judgements to be wholly guided by the writings of Luther or Calvin or of any other mortal man whatsoever Worthy instruments they were both of them of Gods glory and such as did excellent service to the Chuâ—ch in their times whereof we yet finde the benefit and we are unthankful if we do not blesse God for it and therefore it is an unsavoury thing for any man â—o gird at their names whose memories ought to be precious But yet were they not men had they received the spirit in the fulnesse of it and not by measure knew they otherwâ—se than in part or prophesied otherwise than in part might they not in many things did they not in some things mistake and erre Howsoever the Apostles
to none but God Submit your selves c. but yet as free and as the servants of God and of none besides Boundâ— to our Liberty that the freedome of our judgements and consciences ever reserved we must yet in the use of indifferent things moderate our liberty by ordering our selves according unto Christian sobriety by condescending sometimes to our brethren in Christian charity and by submitting our selves to the lawful commands of our governours in Christian duty In any of which respects if we shâ—ll fail and that under the pretension of Christian liberty we shall thereby quite contrary to the expresse direction of both the Apostles but abuse the name of liberty for an occasion to the flesh and for a cloake of maliciousnesse As free but not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse but as the servants of God And so I passe from this second to my third and last observation wherein if I have been too long or too obscure in the former I shall now endevour to recompense it by being both shorter and plainer The Observation was this In the whole exercise both of the liberty we have in Christ and of those respects we owe unto men we must evermore remember our selves to be and accordingly behave our selves as those that are Gods servants in these last words But as the servants of God containing our condition and our carriage By our condition we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the servants of God and our carriage must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the servants of God I shall fit my method to this division and first shew you sundry reasons for which we should desire to be in this Condition to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the servants of God and then give some directions how we may frame our carriage answerably thereunto to demean our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the servants of God For the first We cannot imagine any consideration that may be found in any service in the world to render it desireable which is not to be found and that in a far more eminent degree in this service of God If Iustice may provoke us or Necessity enforce us or easinesse hearten us or Honour allure us or Profit draw us to any service behold here they all concur the service of God and of Christ is excellently all these It is of all other the most just the most necessary the most easie the most honourable the most profitable service And what would you have more First it is the most just service whether we look at the title of Right on his part or reasons of Equity on ours As for him he is our Lord and Master pleno jure he hath right to our best services by a threefold title like a treble cord which Satan and all the powers of darknesse cannot break or untwine A right of Creation Remember O Iacob thou art my servant I have formed thee thou art my servant O Israel Esay 44. Princes and the great ones of the world expect from those that are their Creatures rather that are called so because they raised them but in truth are not so for they never made them yet they expect much service from them that they should be forward instruments to execute their pleasures and to advance their intentions how much more may the Lord justly expect from us who are every way his creatures for he raised us out of the dust nay he made us of nothing that we should be his servants to do his will and instruments to promote his glory Besides this Ius creationis he hath yet two other titles to our services Ius redemptionis and Ius liberationis He hath bought us out of the hands of our enemies and so we are his by purchase and he hath won us out of the hands of our enemies and so we are his by conquest We read often in the Law of servants bought with money 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is but reason he that hath paid a valuable consideration for a mans service should have it Now God hath bought us and redeemed us not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with his own most precious bloud And being bought with such a price we are not our own to serve the lusts of our own flesh nor any mans else that we should be the servants of men but his only that hath bought us and paid for us to glorifie him both in our bodies and souls for they are his jure redemptionis by the right of Purchase and Redemption Again when we were mancipia peccati diaboli the devils Captives and slaves to every ungodly lust in which condition if we had lived and died after a hard and toylsome service in the mean time our wages in the end should have been eternal death God by sending his Son to live and dye for us hath conquered sin and Satan and freed us from that wretched thraldom to this end That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the daies of our lives I am thy servant I am thy servant and the Son of thine handmaid thou hast broken my bonds in sunder Psal. 116. That is jus liberationis the right of Conquest and deliverance Having so many and so strong titles thereunto with what Justice can we hold back our services from him It is the first and most proper act of Justice jus suum cuique to render to all their dues and to let every one have that which of right appertaineth unto him And if we may not deny unto Caesar the things that are Caesars it is but right we should also give unto God the things that are Gods by so many and just titles Especially since there are reasons of Equity on our part in this behalf as well as there is title of right on his part You know the rule of equity what it is even to do to others as we would be done to See then first how we deal with those that are under our command We are rigid and importunate exactors of service from them we take on unreasonably and lay on unmercifully and bewray much impatience and distemper if they at any time slack their services towards us How should this our strictnesse in exacting services from those that are under us adde to our care and conscience in performing our bounden services to our Lord and Master that is over us But as it is with some unconscionable dealers in the world that neither have any pity to forbear their debtors nor any care to satisfie their creditors and as we use to say of our great ones and that but too truly of too many of them that they will neither do right nor take wrong such is our disposition We are neither content to forgoe any part of that service which we take to be due to us nor willing to perform any part
Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him speak without all truth and reason For verily never man truly served God who gained not incredibly by it These things among other the servants of God may certainly reckon upon as the certain vails and benefits of his service wherein his Master will not fail him if he fail not in his service Protection Maintenance Reward Men that are in danger cast to put themselves into the service of such great personages as are able to give them protection Now God both can and will protect his servants from all their enemies and from all harms Of thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul for I am thy servant Psal. 143. Again God hath all good things in store both for necessity and comfort and he is no niggard of either but that his servants may be assured of a sufficiency of both when other shall be left destitute in want and distress Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but he shall cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit Esa. 65. And whereas the servant of sin besides that he hath no fruit nor comfort of his service in the mean time when he cometh to receive his wages at the end of his term findeth nothing but shame or death shame if he leave the service and if he leave it not death What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death The servant of God on the contrary besides that he reapeth much comfort and content in the very service he doth in the mean time he receiveth a blessed reward also at the last even eternal life He hath his fruit in holiness there is his comfort onward and the end everlasting life there is his full and final reward A reward far beyond the merit of his service And so the service of God is a profitable service And now I pray you what can any man alledge or pretend for himself if he shall hang back and not with all speed and cheerfulness tender himself to so just so necessary so easie so honourable so profitable a service Me thinks I hear every man answer as the Israelites sometimes said to Ioshua with one common voice God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve any other Nay but we will serve the Lord for he is our God Iosh. 24. But beloved let us take heed we do not gloze with him as we do one with another we are deceived if we think God will be mocked with hollow and empty protestations We live in a wondrous complemental age wherein scarce any other word is so ready in every mouth as your servant and at your service when all is but meer form without any purpose or many times but so much as single thought of doing any serviceable office to those men to whom we profess so much service However we are one towards another yet with the Lord there is no dallying it behoveth us there to be real If we profess our selves to be or desired to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the servants of God we must have a care to demean our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all respects as becometh the servants of God To which purpose when I shall have given you those few directions I spake of I shall have done Servants owe many duties to their earthly Masters in the particulars but three generals comprehend them all Reverence Obedience Faithfulness Whereof the first respecteth the Masters person the second his pleasure the third his business And he that will be Gods servant in truth and not only in title must perform all these to his heavenly Master Reverence is the first which ever ariseth from a deliberate apprehension of some worthiness in another more than in a mans self and is ever accompanyed with a fear to offend and a care to please the person reverenced and so it hath three branches Whereof the first is Humility It is not possible that that servant who thinketh himself the wiser or any way the better man of the two should truly reverence his Master in his heart Saint Paul therefore would have servants to count their own Masters worthy of all honour 1 Tim. 6.1 he knew well they could not else reverence them as they ought Non decâ—t superbum esse hominem servum could he say in the Comedy A man that thinketh goodly of himself cannot make a good servant either to God or man Then are we meetly prepared for this service and not before when truly apprehending our own vileness and unworthiness both in our nature and by reason of sin and duly acknowledging the infinite greatness and goodness of our Master we unfainedly account our selves altogether unworthy to be called his servants Another branch of the servants reverence is fear to offend his master This fear is a disposition well becoming a servant and therefore God as our Master and by that name of Master challengeth it Mal. 1. If I be a Father where is my honour and if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts Fear and reverence are often joyned together and so joyntly required of the Lords servants Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce to him with reverence Psal 2. And the Apostle would have us furnished with grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. From whâ—ch fear of offending a care and desire of pleasing cannot be severed which is the third branch of the servants Reverence to his Master Saint Paul biddeth Titus exhort servants to please their masters well in all things So must Gods servant do he must study to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing not much regarding how others interpret his doings or what offence they take at him so long as his Master accepteth his services and taketh his endeavours in good part Who so is not thus resolved to please his Master although he should thereby incur the displeasure of the whole world besides is not worthy to be called the servant of such a Master If I yet sought to please men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. And all this belongeth to Reverence Obedience is the next general duty Servants be obedient to your Masters Eph. 6. Know you not whom you yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6. As if there could be no better proof of service than obedience And that is twofold Active and Passive For Obedience consisteth in the subjecting of a mans own will to the will of another which subjection if it be