unnaturall killings selfe murthers pollutions against nature passions of dishonour and the like Satan hath no naturall affection in him nor lust as lust hath none neither Satan hath no naturality in him for he lost all in his fall the law of nature was not given to him hee was not to hold order and termes of civillity and humanity amongst men and therefore there was not use of any such law to bee given to him All wee can say of him is that Satan is kept under held in awe by God restrained by feare within and ordered by Gods providence without it is awe not naturall law that keepes Satan within bounds Man hath indeed in him naturalnesse but lust which is our Originall sin hath no naturall affection in it some sins then are called unnaturall because they are against the law of nature in us which law of nature is no part of Originall sin for in it selfe it is good and the very unwritten law of God which law of nature as it is now in us doth neither see nor greeve at all sinnes but only at some greater sins which sins are therefore called unnaturall In every man there are two things the law of nature is one Originall sin the other for the law of nature some say it is a relique of the old Image left in Adam I thinke not for then man in Adam lost not all the Image of God then in man by nature there is some peece of goodnesse but the frame of mans heart is onely evill There is none that doth good no not one wee are all together become filthy Then it would follow that man brings w th him of his own into the world the seeds of vertue some roots of goodnesse which is Pelagianisme and condemned by the Church of God The seeds of vertue are not saith Prosper in the soule of man because they are utterly lost in the first sin of Adam neither can wee come by them except GOD who first gave them restore them againe I thinke rather to say that in things usefull to hold in the wild lusts that be in man GOD presently after all was lost by the fall all and every peece of the Image of God I say to maintaine discipline amongst men GOD planted in the heart of all mankinde an inward law checking many sins against God but more against men and accordingly GOD hath made a fuller and greater revelatiō to nature in the things of the second Table than in the first and what else is meant by the phrase where speaking of the power of nature to see into the booke of the creature it is said God shewed it unto them viz. by the law and light of nature which God hath given to all men as men they shewed it not to themselves God is said to shew it unto them Now then to come home to ou◠point Sins against nature are such as are against the law of nature lust hath in it all sins and when it is so great and breaketh out so grossely that nature cries shame of it why then wee call that sin an unnaturall lust a sinne against nature which sinnes have their roote in Original sin and would shew themselves and appeare were there no divell albeit herhaps not in that manner and measure as wee see some men who cannot bee said to bee haled to it by the divell but onely by their owne wicked lusts who when their lusts are in care no more for wife children friends brother father than they doe for a dog are moved no more with the teares of their owne bowels than with the whinening of a pigge Let lust alone and without any help from Satan it will make a man give over to bee a man shake off all humanity go beyond all shame all sense put off all naturall affection deliver a man up to obdurate heart not discerning betwixt good and evill either in morall or naturall respects as Paul shewes how some men put off all manhood become dogs yea worse than dogges for dogge with dogge useth not to commit filthinesse and some women shaketh off all woman-hood also for there is no who with lust for were it not for the watching providence of God over us and the restraining power of God with us and the law of nature in us men would fling out into all kind of wickednesse there would bee no being no living amongst men we would all bee such fooles as to thinke with our hearts and say with our mouthes there is no God Originall sin hath all Atheisme in it there will bee nothing but murther amongst us Husband would kill the wife and wife the husband father son sonne the father brother brother Caine Abel our houses and townes would bee full of parracides and fratricides and men would doe execution on themselves as common as might be oh the bottomlesse depth of Originall sin Our own lust is a fearefull murtherer it comes immediately from Satan at the first and he is a murtherer from the beginning Men would bee Wolues Beares Tygers Divels one to another neither would any shame keepe men and women from monstrous adulteries most infamous uncleanenesse Incests Rapes Beastiality what not Looke wee what is in any man that is by nature in the heart and lust of every man were it not for God restraining and natures law curbing should our Originall sinne be drawne forth and let out we should all doe as Caine did as Absalom did as Ammon did as the Sodomites did for what sin soever is forbidden in the Word and hath bin ever practised in the world that sin every man carries in his bosome there is no man but is of himselfe a dead dogge for why should God forbid that in the word to all if the nature of all were not subject to it Bestiality the foulest sin is forbidden to thee as well as to any other therefore it is in thy corrupt nature as well as in the nature of any other Besides wee are cut all out of the same cloth we are al alike in the guilt of Adams sinne one man hath not sinned more in Adam than another and therefore our Originall sin being the penalty of Adams sin must needs bee one and the same in all where the cause is just the same there the effect must needs bee the same Originall sin then by nature is no more no worse in one than in another it differs not so much as Magis minus In some what by reason of the tempter of the body education occasion tentations influences of Gods providence and chiefly by reason of the liberty of mans will man having his will at some command to sin I say by reason of that and other things lust is drawne forth more in one than in another and more to one sinne than another and that breakes out in the life of one which doth not in another but
as the plot of all diseases lyes in the humours of the body so for certaine in the lust of the soule there is in all a kinde of pronesse a very aptitude to the worst of sinnes I know that the power of man is finite and no way able to runne upon divers horrible impieties in all extremitie at once chiefly sith many sinnes in the act doe crosse one another though all concurre in the Roote as in a Common Center but yet now one then another there is no sinne under heaven but man is subject unto by turnes chiefly should the LORD give Satan leave to blow the fire and to baite our lust man would presently shew himselfe in his colours and sinne many divelish sins That which is said is true that there is no sin so bad so base so unnaturall but mans nature is if no enclinable to it yet capable of it If the sin bee but so so an ordinary crime that then our nature is inclinable to it but if most unnaturall and most abhorrent from the principles of nature yet wee are capable of it in some degrees Lust is of it selfe past shame and past sense I may adde that though at first sin against nature sit not with us tast not of our nature by reason of that law and light that is in us yet after a little space when lust hath overcome the law of nature a man is as sicke after sins against nature as hee was after common sins and worse for the greater and fowler a sin is the more headlong is our lust after it wee being by Originall sin most eager after those transgressions which are worst an ordinary stomacke is most of it selfe earnest after usuall dyet that is wholesome but wee see a custome brings children to eate coales and an humour in the stomacke makes young women eate leather to choose and what more usuall than for breeding women to lust after such things which would make the stomacke of another to rise so I may say that as long as our lust is kept in and held downe it is for ordinary faults while the law of nature can rule it against the force and cunning of Originall sinne such unnaturall passions seeme to finde some Antipathy in us but when by custome occasion or tentation lust shewes it self and the light of nature can doe little why then man is not onely capable of unnaturall sins but inclinable to them and more impudent and impotent that way than after other sinnes As wee see Ammon is sick after his owne Sister an unnaturall crime and hungers more after her than ordinary and Caine had rather kill his owne brother than any man else in the world had there bin any Many are more mad after Hee lusts who care not for Shee lusts as in Sodome we see Lots daughters were not worth the looking after they must know the men they went after strange flesh saith Iude strange in their Sex and kinde so Paul saith Rom. 1. 26. that women more shamefast and modest by nature than men did not care for the naturall use which they had lawfully but changed it into that which is against nature thus we see delights against nature are when Originall lust is let out more looked after than naturall our corrupt affections are not more capable of but more inclinable at last to unnaturall sins which they did stare at at the first as long as the law of nature doth fight it out against Originall sin and can carry it we love not to heare these sins named but when nature in the Law of it is suppressed and our lust rules all no sinne in such request as some unnaturall sinne or other these passions of fedity and dishonour doe then burne as it is in Saint Pauls English Wee reade much of Ganimedes and the jest went of Nero and his Sporus that it had beene well for the world if Domitius Neros father had had no other wife In a word a man whose Originall sinne is kept in order doth but hunger after sins of ordinary quality but when nature is out of office and lust doth all men will then long after unnaturall lusts Passions worke more strongly the wrong way and the streame is most swift when it is not in the right channell And in the other passion of bloud how men do put off all naturall affection wee see it for men are more cruell when they take to their own children their owne parents than to any enemies aye the fire of a mans unnaturall sins are not satisfied but with a mans owne bloud and many thinke to lay this divell by killing themselves who have not a thought of murthering any body else Oh that men could once come within sight of the depth of their owne lust Man would then learne not to bee so bold with occasions of sin against nature what if at first nature doth even spit at them yet if once they fire and take they worke strongly and come with a greater swing of delights than naturall sinnes doe and therefore I would we could learne as to be humble for our Originall sinne so to thanke GOD for keeping us and ours that those unnaturall courses have not bin and broken forth in our persons or houses to our shame and scandall as have bin done in houses and families of better than our selves And to pray that God would keepe us as from all other so from taking after unnaturall passions What if wee have grace yet sith these sinnes are not sins against the holy Ghost t is possible for good people to bee infected with them as long as we have Originall sin we want but occasion and a tentation and Gods permission and then we fall sith Originall sin is the same it was and was at first the same it is now there bee perhaps new actuall sins because never drawne out into practise before but no new Originall sin Originall sin is but one and it is the selfe same in kind and degree in all persons and at all times It may and doth in some beare new fruites but it never had nor hath nor shall have new rootes it ever had in it the rootes of all sins and it can never have but the rootes of all Wee must ever stand bound to the goodnesse of our God who hath so kept us hitherto that we have not broken forth into more and into worse sins than we have There is no abhomination so prodigious but our Originall sinne would quickly water at it it is his meere favour alone who hath kept us and our families from occasions of such sins or such occasions from us Blesse God then that Caine hath not killed Abel in our houses that Ammon hath not defloured our Tamar that our Absalom hath not been the death of his brother Ammon 〈◊〉 that our brother Absalom hath not sought our lives also that Reuben hath not gone up to his fathers Couch
What are we what are our fathers houses that we have beene preserved in our houses from such scandalous sins are we better are wee so good as these fathers were Should God sit still and the law of nature stand still and looke on and let our Originall sin our lust within shew it selfe the next would be sin upon sin against Scripture against Nature no Bonds no Bounds would hold us worse and worse still with greatest violence we should long after the greatest sins and the end would be a reprobate sense from the which good Lord deliver us The Summe is that the cause why wee feele not such pronenesse to the sin against nature is not because Originall lust is not as prone in it selfe if not more prone to those sins as to others but because there is by God for necessary causes a law of nature superadded to Originall sin in all mankinde holding us off from such unnaturall passions which law of nature doth suffer when such sins are committed and therefore the Apostle fitly cals them Passions as water suffers when it is made hot and therfore as long as the law of nature is not suppressed a man is not patient about such lusts But when our lust hath gotten the better of natures law then to what sins are such men more eager than to those Therefore such lusts are by the Apostle stiled the lusts of their owne hearts We said with St. Paul that God doth deliver men into a reprobate sense and then they fall into such lusts Here a doubt may arise whether such sins are done onely by those who are Reprobates sith one would thinke that this Reprobate sense were onely in Reprobates and therefore so named This is I confesse out of my way yet because I would not stumble any mans conscience I am bold to speak a word to the point and the thing I affirme is that unnaturall sinnes are done sometimes by such as are no Reprobates and I thinke there are many reprobates who nein all their lives committed and acted these sins It is a fearfull estate to be cast by God into a reprobate sense and the danger is so much that hee is not himselfe who dares to venture on such rocks because some onely escape There is no sin except the sin against the holy Ghost but an elect person may commit all sins else may stand with the grace of Election but this reprobate sense is not that sin against the holy Ghost what ever it bee what ever a man may repent of may stand with our estate in Christ Now to say that this is a condition which admits not of repentance is hard neither can it be proved and 1 Cor. 6. Instance is given in one of the worst of all unnaturall sins and yet the Apostle saith Such were some of you and they were Elect repented and are now in heaven GOD forbid then that we should bee so sâ—uer to the conscience of man as to thinke that all those Rom. 1. and all others like to those who are in Gods Iustice for a time given up to a reprobate minde are past all hope of reconciliation and salvation There is a sacrifice for those sins some have gotten out of that estate and others may It is then called a Reprobate minde not because it is the minde of none but Reprobates but because such have in regard of their present condition a mind as one saith rejected disallowed abhorred of God yet not a mind past all hope of cure and recovery or if you will a minde as another speakes worthy of reprobation making choice of matters reprobated Wee have a phrase in St. Paul That Christ is in you except you bee reprobates but such are in such an estate that except they get Christ into them it is all one with them as with Reprobates they are as it were for the preâ—ent in the state of reprobation for any goodnesse that is in them but Reprobates they are not and as Beza notes the scope and dispute of the Apostle will not beare this sense sith hence hee proves that no man can be justified by the law of nature because it is in all men to breake the law of nature and that the Apostle proves by this that all men except GOD stay them all run on to a reprobate minde by a reprobate minde then he will have meant a mind going against the dictates of conscience and the principles of Nature out of which estate it pleaseth GOD to call some to grace God doth call in some that are cast farre behind hand by their sins and therefore we must not say that there is such a point of sinning that no man doth ever come backe from it againe for no man goes so far but hee might have done worse and gone farther and therefore when and where can one fix the measure to rest that a man going so farre can never come to good againe There is a fullnesse I know of sinning which some must come unto ere the Iudgement can come on them but that all who fill up sinne or sins to the height are Reprobates or that none are reprobates but such as make up the extremity of sinning I deny for the conscience must have some where to rest and to pitch a degree of sinning that hee that comes not to that degree may repent and returne hee that comes to that degree of sinning and may not returne would trouble the wit of the acutest Disputer in all the world Neither doth indeed the Greeke word properly carry the sense of one cast away but of one reproved not as contrary to the word Elect but as contrary to the word reproved so Paul useth it 1 Corin. 9. 27. Lest I my selfe be a Reprobate that is reproved for Paul knew full well by confession of all Papists that hee neither was nor could be a Reprobate and the learned Borgius expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reprobates minde to be a minde that no man hath cause to glory in but rather to be much ashamed of which is indeed the right and full sense of the Greeke word Roffensis therefore is in an uncomfortable errour who writes that when a man is hardened as Pharaoh was or given up to a Reprobate sense as those of whom Saint Paul speakes were that God doth cast them off for ever without ever tendring to them the offer of his grace again that God doth forsake some such is true but that hee doth forsake all such which is his assertion is false And sundry learned amongst the Papists have a dreame that when a man comes to such a number and such a measure of sinnes then God is bound in Iustice not onely not to give him though that were too much but to deny him favour and grace ever after aud so saith Abulensis it is all one as though such a man were already actually in hell This unsound and unsafe opinion is also confessed to
pay use and to shew a contentednesse that the Vsurer should hold it when he hath it because of great inconveniencies in that he else cannot have money to serve his need against another time this is a mixt act of willingnesse which is construed to be naturally done unwillingly but willingly accidentally All this is grounded on the law of God which makes usury a sin and a sinne against justice too Zacheus did offer to restore that which hee did fetch in by forged cavillation he might like enough have kept it and no man have thought much of it it was gotten by sin and restore he would and what the Vsurer takes is his by sinne and restore he must The Law I know permitted it to the Iewes to the stranger what of that It followes the rather that it is of it selfe a sin because permission is of sins not of duties but the thing I say is there was a law to kill the Canaanite and yet I hope that killing was not murther no more was that usury to them a sin The Law doth urge it most that it be not done to the poore was it not because the Iewes were then too noble and generous to goe a borrowing except it were the poorer sort What should the Law then forbid that to bee done by rich men which most rich men never did but after wee have prohibitions plenty that are indefinite we are forbidden wee must not rob the poore because hee is poore good sport for theeves if therefore it may bee thought to follow that it is a lawfull matter to rob the rich neither can the law against usury be thought to be a judiciall law of Moses for such lawes as such are knowne only by some intelligence from the bookes of Moses but Heathens of all sorts who never once heard of Moses's writings have with one voice cryed sinne upon usury and shame upon Vsurers Poets Orators Historians Philosophers all They have condemned this sin by the instinct and light of nature and therefore it could not be a politicall law of Moses Besides we have it forbidden in the New Testament wheÌ„ judicials were out of date lend saith the LORD IESUS looking for nothing againe Question is made whether children bee bound to restore that which their Parents have gotten by use upon use and left unto them The negative seemes to bee affirmed by a most holy man but my thinkes reason would that we say such goods should be restored though not we but our predecessors have gotten them unlawfully the saddle is anothers still in equity and conscience and it ought to bee set on the right horse meere possession cannot give us a right title to that which in truth Coram Deo is anothers And what if the property be altered yet that makes nothing against restitution sith a child is bound by the grant of all to restore the price now in his hands of any thing his father first stole and then turned into money Restitution is to be in the very kinde if that may bee if not then in that which is answerable and equivalent The Schooles are divided in setting downe the reason of restitution one side will have it to be because the Vsurer is a dammage to the borrower the other sort with whom I joyne say that it is because by usury there is no true title Iure Divino no not in justice to that which comes in that way and sith this is the truth I conclude and say that the child is bound to make restitution because his father hath conveyed that to him which never was his fathers right and therefore cannot be the sonnes some cases may free the child which also would have freed the father as when it is not in his power hath not the ability to doe it and the like but in ordinary course it is not his owne it is anothers and by that reason he is not to keepe it but to restore it Papists teach us that in case a man be in very necessity when he tâ—kes use and makes profit by his money yet if after this necessity cease he is not bound to make restitution when hee hath wherewithall and this necessity they stretch and will have reach to his estate A large field for a man to lose his conscience in for when will a man say that he is not in some necessity in respect of his estate and condition and when will hee bee out of need to beare up his port Men will make necessities enough might this goe for good doctrine But dangerous it is and the ground of it is most false for say they by the law of nature all things are common mine thine came in after by law positive Now say they necessity dispenseth with all positive lawes and makes the goods of another mine and mine againe his and so they say that when a man to fill up his necessities doth gaine by use from another indeed and in right it is but his owne because then and in that case all things are common no man is after bound to restore that which when he tooke it was but his own Write false upon these conclusions for the truth is that meere necessity of a mans person doth not take away propriety in great extremity for a man to take this or that which is anothers is to lay hands on that which is not ones owne what ever it should have beene had not Adam fallen I enquire not but since Adams fall there is such a propriety of Meum Tuum that no necessity bee it never so urgent can dissolve Tully resolves the case thus that say a man bee on the point to starve yet rather than hee should take the least matter from another he should rather famish it being better to dye the death than to violate any man for ones owne cause Erasmus doth descant on this quidâ—â—y of the Schooles what saith he merrily and truly is not theft theft in case of necessity nay though one do it with a minde to make it good again say one must lose his life if hee doe not perjure himselfe and beare false witnesse doth that necessity make it no sin say one by committing adultery without offering violence to the person of the adulteresse may save his owne life doth the necessity of saving ones life make adultery lawfull now Put the case saith he that a man must dye or tell a lye is it not a sinne in this case of necessity to lye If then meere personall necessity doth not dispence with these Commandements Thou shalt not lye Not beare false witnesse Not commit adultery what colour of truth can there bee in this to affirme that any necessity whatsoever can make that law to be no law when he saith Thou shalt not steale If necessity cannot make an others wife at my command no more can necessity make an others goods mine owne Gods Ten
continueth untill his crowne be put upon him in the meane time our comfort is that ere long wee shall bee out of the reach of all tentation the God of peace will tread downe Satan under our feet A carnall mans life is nothing but a strengthning and feeding of his enemie a fighting for that which fighteth against his soule Since Satan hath cast this seed of the Serpent into our soules there is no sin so prodigious but some seed of it lurketh in our nature It should humble us to heare what sins are forbidden by Moses which if the Holy Ghost had not mentioned we might have beene ashamed to heare of they are so dishonourable to our nature the very hearing of the monstrous outrages committed by men given up of God as it yeelds matter of thanks to God for preservation of us so of humility to see our common nature so abused and abased by sinne and Satan Nay so catching is our Nature of sin that the mention of it in stead of stirring hatred of it often kindles Fancie to a liking of it the discovery of divellish policies and stratagems of wit though in some respects to good purpose yet hath no better effect in some than to fashion their wits to the like false practises and the innocencie of many ariseth not from love of that which is good but from not knowing of that which is evill And in nothing the sinfulnesse of sin appeares more than in this that it hindereth all it can the knowledge of it selfe and if it once be knowne it studieth extenuation and translation upon others sin and shifting came into the world together in Saint Iames his time it seemes there were some that were not afraid to father their temptations to sinne upon him that hateth it most God himselfe whereas God is only said to try not to tempt Our Adversaries are not far from imputing this to God who maintaine Concupiscence the mother of all abominations to be a condition of Nature as first created onely kept in by the bridle of originall righteousnesse that from hence they might the better maintaine those proud opinions of perfect fulfilling the Law and meriting therby This moved Saint Iames to set downe the true descent and pedegree of sin wee our selves are both the Tempters and the Tempted as Tempted wee might deserve some pity if as Tempters wee deserve not blame in us there is both fire and matter for fire to take hold on Satan needs but to blow and often times not that neither for many if Concupiscence stirre not up them they will stirre up to Concupiscence So long as the soule keepes close to God and his truth it is safe so long as our way lieth above we are free from the Snares below all the danger first riseth from letting our hearts loose from God by infidelity for then presently our heart is drawn away by some seeming good whereby we seeke a severed excellencie and contentment out of God in whom it is only to be had After we have once forsaken God God forsakes us leaving us in some degree to our selves the worst guides that can be and thereupon Satan joynes forces with us setting upon us as a friend under our owne colours hee cannot but miscarry that hath a Pirate for his guide This God suffereth to make us better knowne to our selves for by this meanes corruption that lay hid before is drawne out and the deceitfulnesse of sinne the better knowne and so wee are put upon the daily practice of repentance and mortification and driven to fly under the wings of Iesus Christ Were it not for temptations we should be concealed from our selves our graces as unexercised would not bee so bright the power of God should not appeare so in our weaknesse we would not be so pitiful and tender towards others nor so jeâ—lous over our owne hearts nor so skilfull of Satans method and enterprises we should not see such a necessity of standing alwayes upon our guard but though by the over-ruling power of God they have this good issue yet that which is ill of it selfe is not to be ventured on for the good that commeth by accident The chiefe thing wherein one Christian differs from another is watchfulnesse which though it require most labour yet it bringeth most safety and the best is no farther safe than watchfull and not onely against sinnes but tentations which are the seeds of sinne and occasions which let in tentations the best by rash adventures upon occasions have beene led into temptations and by temptation into the sin it selfe whence sin and temptation come both under the same name to shew us that we can bee no farther secure from sinne than we be carefull to shun temptations And in this every one should labour so wel to understand themselves as to know what they finde a temptation to them that may be a temptation to one which is not to another Abraham might looke upon the smoake of Sodome though Lot might not because that sight would worke more upon Lots heart than Abrahams In these cases a wise Christian better knowes what to doe with himselfe than any can prescribe him And because God hath our hearts in his hand and can either suspend or give way to temptations it should move us especially to take heed of those sins wherby grieving the good Spirit of God wee give him cause to leave us to our owne spirits but that he may rather stirre up contrary gracious lustings in us as a contrary principle There is nothing of greater force to make us out of godly jealousie to feare alwayes Thus daily working out our salvation that God may delight to goe along with us and be our Shield and not to leave us naked in the hands of Satan but second his first Grace with a further degree as temptations shall encrease it is he that either removeth occasions or shutteth our hearts against them and giveth strength to prevaile over them which gracious providence you cannot be too thankfull for it is a great mercy when temptations are not above the supply of strength against them This care onely taketh up the heart of those who having the life of Christ begun in them and his Nature stampt upon them have felt how sweet communion and acquaintance with God in Christ and how comfortable the daily walking with God is these are wary of any thing that may draw away their hearts from God and hinder their peace And therefore they hate temptations to sin as sin it selfe and sinne as hell it selfe and hell most of all as being a state of eternall separation from all comfortable fellowship with God A man that is a stranger from the life of God cannot resist tentation to sin as it is sin because hee never knew the beauty of holines but from the beauty of a civill life he may resist tentations to such sins as may weaken respect and from love of his owne quiet may abstaine from
sin is a privation an Obliquity no effect but a defect and therefore wee are not to trouble our selves to enquire after any proper and efficient cause God cannot bee a deficient cause bee cause there can bee no defect in him and therefore the defect must bee in the Angell and wee must rest in the will of the Angel who without motion from with in or any tentation from without fell from his estate abode not in the truth as Iudes Phrase is left his habitation voluntarily and maliciously left it because he would leave it The first sin or Lust was a sinne then whose cause was such cause as a sinne could have not sinne for then the first sinne could not bee the first sinne if there were a sinne the cause of that sin and againe we are where we were and are left to inquire the cause of that sin to which if wee say sinne to have bin the cause of that then wee may aske after the cause of that sinne againe and so in infinitum Here then we must stop and say that Eves sinne and Adams sin came not from any Lust within but from an act of their owne free will drawne out by the tentation of the devill and of the devils first sin no internall Lust no externall tempter at all was the cause for there was neither but we must say that of that sin sin was not the cause but the will of the Angell created good but mutable and free no good I confesse can be the univocall cause of any sin but an equivocal cause and accidentall cause of sin good may be for the will of the Angels good in it selfe was the cause not by working neither but by not working Adam then to come to him turning himselfe of himselfe from God God then took away his assisting and actuall grace and then Adam did put away from him his original righteousnesse put out his owne eyes and so came in Originall sin viz. this Lust that ever after tempts all meere men that are tempted by drawing them aside from good and entiâ—ing them to evill They dreame then who say that God tooke away originall righteousnesse from Adam and that hee by an act of his will did not thrust it away T is safest to say that hee deprived himselfe fell off from God else wee come to neare to make God some kinde of author of his sinne Thus came in this Lust the fewell of all sinful tentations whatsoever What cause have wee then to looke about us sith our righteousnesse within in the regenerate is very weak and exceeding imperfect our lusts strong a world of sins lurking up and downe in our soules For did the Angels in heaven whose innate holinesse and righteousnesse was most perfect in whom there was a concurrence of all grace in all perfection did they fall and did Adam in whom there was no spice of sinne oh then how stands it us upon to implore the continuall assistance of the actuall grace of God and incessantly to call in for the supply of the spirit of Iesus Christ else we fall and sin most miserably we have strange lusts within the devils souldiers warring against our soules Satan ever blowing at the divine Candle of the spirit of God hee never gives over by a circle and round of tentations to powre cold water on our faith Looke wee ever upward then for the daily ayd of Gods assisting grace that hee would ever blow the bellowes to keepe this holy fire in for we see by Adam and the Angels that it is not the perfect habit of internall grace no nor the absence of external tentations neither that can keepe a man from sinne t is onely the actuall worke of the right-hand of the most high must doe the deed else if Adam having no lust fell we having little else but lust must needs be drawne aside and enticed Say day and night Lord lead me not into tentation Habits of grace are like the fire of a Smith be they never so pure and perfect they burne not in us no longer than they bee blowne if God withhold or withdraw his assisting hand Lust drawes us aside presently and down we fall CHAP. 2. Of drawing aside QVestion is made whether this first drawing of lust be sin I say it is for if lust be sin then the effect of it must needs be sin Evill may come out of good by accident but out of sinne comes nothing but sinne Lust is sin and cause of sin and of nothing but sin Let it goe for a weake opinion of the Iesuites who tell us of vicious things that are no sin for Becanus no babe doth confesse that God doth hate this concupisence with a true hatred but forsooth not redounding on the person in whom this lust is as though that were not sin and all that sin which God hateth God can hate nothing but what is against his nature and will and whatever is against his nature and will is sin Originall sin is properly sinne and to make it a sin it is enough that it is voluntary in the will of Adam so Bonaventure Besides as soone as ever wee come to have the power to do it we doe all give a full and a free consent to that sin and the motions of it which after-consent makes the sin in the guilt of it the more ours wee then have no excuse left but to cry peccavi and to fetch all from the sin as David did in which we were conceived In originall sin lies a tacite consent eminently to all sin 2 Iames makes this drawing aside to be a fruit of sin 2. to be a sin 3. to be a cause of sin therfore these drawings aside are sins 3. They bee sins whether wee like them or mislike them because they are against the Law of God For that which is urged that there is no consent I think there is some consent as the offers of the understanding are quicke so the Acts of the will are quicke and sudden I rather say that there is some sudden inchoate imperfect consent given to all motions that arise that an actuall sin should bee without all consent I cannot conceive Paul did sin against his Iudgement I confesse for so he meanes when hee saith he did that hee would not but to speake in proper tearmes he neither did no nor could sinne either without or against all motion or any inclination of his will Paul did sin this sinne with his will for else hee would not do it it was an act of his will and it is impossible to coact and force the will of man though the consent makes it not properly a sin but rather our sin to be imputed to us yet I thinke ther is no motioÌ„ no first thought that riseth out of our Lust but as the thought is so the consent is sudden short quicke
and almost insensible a consent such as it is then ever goes with our desires and motions but say that they were unconsented to yet being against the Law of God sins they are and for sins they must goe For if concupiscence it selfe and Originall lust be sin because it is against the Law of God then all the operations of it must also be of the same kind By the way then they are deceived who would faine say that original sin is not forbidden by the Law Directly indeed and immediately it is not but forbidden it is because it is condemned by Gods Lawes Now the Law doth curse none but such as breake it Originall sinners the law doth curse and if not in CHRIST God will damne therefore they doe against the Law and the Law then is given to them Directly the Law forbids actions of sinne by consequence the Law forbids the habits of sin But to return the Law of God is so pure and perfect that it doth binde the most sudden thoughts that arise for thoughts being acts of a man the whole man being bound those must needs stand bound there sin begins and our thoughts are not free thoughts of sinne arising out of our Lusts are sinfull thoughts Consent or not consent doth not make an act to bee simply a sin or not a sin Sin is not defined to be a thing done with or against our assent but against Gods Law and Gods Law doth bind our very first and originall thoughts A meere and single apprehension or cogitation of a sin suggested by another is not straight a sin for this was or I know might have beene in Christ and Adam before his fall might dutifully have thought of the thing forbidden him without sin but the difference is that in him they could not have risen as they doe in us on such a sudden the sudden moving of the thinking power proves that they come from an evill fume and are not right besides in Adam there must have bin a perfect meditation of the naughtinesse of them and lastly a true affection of perfect hatred of them where as in the naturall man now there is no hatred at all in the most regenerate the hatred that is is but in part it commeth in nature ever in time most an end after the motion or if with it yet that is not sufficient in Adam it would have beene antecedent to the thought of his minde These drawings aside moving the powers of our soules out of the right place dislike wee them as much as we can they are sins forbidden in all the Commandements of God for looke in what Commandement the finished sin is forbidden in the same Commandement is the first motion of that sin forbidden also Neither in my minde doe they distinguish the Cōmandements aright who reserve these kind of sins to the last Commandement The Lust St. Iames speakes of is forbidden in all the ten Commandements but these unconsented motions as many cal them are the drawings aside of this lust and therefore forbidden in every Commandement as Lust is All desires to a sinne are forbidden where the sin it selfe is forbidden the only argument for that opinion worth the while is out of Rom. 7. 7. I had not known Lust saith Paul except the Law had said thou shalt not Lust that by Lust Paul here meanes a Lust forbidden in one single Commandement cannot be proved but as the Law that is the whole body and context of the Law saith thou shalt not Lust that is thou shalt not sin sin and Lust being synonimaes the word Lust is as broad in extent as the word sin The reason by which many thinke to carry it is in my opinion very weake Paul say they did know when he was a Pharisie that Lusts consented unto were sins for the Philosophers and heathens as blind as they were saw so much But here Paul speakes of such a Lusting which Paul had not known had he not knowne the Law and therfore Paul takes the Law to forbid Lust without consent Grant all this and much is not made of it That Paul did not know those first motions before his conversion to be sin is a truth and that by the Law too such Lusts are forbidden is as true Doth it follow then that by the Law forbidding such Lusts must be meant the tenth or one distinct Commandement Why may not the sense run thus that Paul did not know that in any of the Cōmandements such Lusts were forbidden at all but now being made a Convert his eyes were so opened that hee now saw such lusts to be forbidden in every Commandement as the first rising to Idolatry in the first Commandement sic in caeteris But now to answer all I say that it is disputable whether the Philosophers and Heathens did confesse Lusts consented unto to be sin if of all Lusts that Gods Law doth forbid I flatly deny many went with them for vertues as to Lust after the hurt of an enemy is commended by the wisest and purest of the heathens and so in a world of Instances as a man may see in Aristotle Plato Seneca and the rest If of any Lusts and desires that goe no further than a meere inward consent of the minde and will Philosophers doe rather deny such motions affections to be vices except they swel and rage putting still a difference betwixt passions and vices But for Pauls case it is not the like hee was no morall Philosopher but a Pharisie and I affirme it that Paul did hold that in ward motions consented unto ever so much were no sins at all T is too late to say that nature morallized and generally inlightened is able to finde out such consented Lusts to bee sins for Paul was otherwise doctrinated his judgment was carried another way it being the constant Tenet of the Schoole of the Pharisies to hold that the Law of God did only forbid the outward action without having to doe at all with any inward motion and affections whatsoever This hee learn'd at the feet of Gamaliel He was a Zelot among the Pharisies and this was a Case among the Pharises received and beleeved by them all that the inward desires stood free and no way obligated by the Law of the Decalogue give a man what assent and consent to them in the motions thereof he would This to have bin the generall and constant opinion of the Pharises is made so plaine by Doctor Raynolds out of the fifth of Mathew that there is no denying of it and therefore it was Pauls religion to hold that deeds and acts onely where sins and not affections And so wee conclude that Paul had not knowne any inward Lust whatsoever albeit consented unto with a free consent and liked of with a full delight to have bin sin had not the Law said thou shalt not Lust and so for all this place of Paul our assertion stands good
that in every commandement where the act of sin is forbidden there the motion of the same sin is forbidden aye the first motion this drawing aside spoken of by the Apostle S. Iames. CHAP. 3. Of the enticing of Lust AFter Lust hath drawn us aside from God it doth entice us and wooe us the word signifies baiting us as men doe bait for fishes coozening sometimes the eye sometimes the of the silly fish so doth sin use us puts on guises and maskes making the sin to appeare in an other colour than it is Thus our own Lust doth nibble at us with some delight proposeth it to us under tearmes of pleasure profit honour alluring us with the seeming sweetnesse that to our sancies and senses do appeare to be in several sins and all to bring us to accept of the motion to finish sin and to finish it is to act it indeed so meanes S. Iames. Lust I know doth worke by force but nothing so much as by enticing Man is a creature guided by his will and where will is there constraint and violence prevailes little wee love not to be forced and therefore our Lust doth goe most an end the other way to worke to bring us on to sin by licorish courses sawcing us with a proposall of some seeming sweetnesse to bee found in the doing of sin for then is sin like to breake out into act when it hath gained consent within and enticing is the likeliest way to wooe us to consent and assent to sinne the sin in question sin useth not to come against the haire but when wee are caught with the spiced pleasures of sin then we goe a maine downe the streame and wee give too free consent and allowance to sinne when wee are besotted with the deceits of sin T is very often that wee read in the Word of the deceitsulnesse of sinne and I doe desire all Christians to beware lest that their owne hearts that is their owne lusts doe not goe beyond them with cunning and get within them by some enticing sleight For Lust is such an enticing harlot as will undoe the party enveagled for ever and leave him nothing but shame and misery loocheth him from his right master and makes him a slave of slaves even to delight in his slavery robs a man of his liberty honesty comfort salvation and all Goe to GOD then that hee would bee pleased to stand betwixt us and this Coozener that our concupisence having great advantage in that it is within us may not cheate us with golden mountaines and leave us in the suds at last I meane not to enter into the description of the particular veynes that sinne hath to entice us Bookes are full of admirable matter about the deceitfulnesse of sin shewing how the heart first deceives us with colours and when we are once a doting after sin then wee joyne and deceive our hearts using fallacious and specious Sophismes to make our selues thinke that to be lawfull to day which we our selves held to be unlawfull but yesterday Lye therefore day and night at God for wisdome to prevent the stratagems of sinne by nature our imaginations are vaine our hearts are foolish and willing to be deceived by sin little suspecting to find a Serpent and a Snake in the grasse of sin Lust would allure us to pleasure it in the tents of Meshecke God will perswade and allure his to dwel in the tents of Sem Only I must coÌ„mend to the honest Christian the two maine treacheries of Lust to goe beyond us 1. Lust sits upon our upper part and by probable reasons to see to strives to win our judgements and in case a man looke not well to the matter Lust will so bleare his understanding with mysts that he shall think he hath reason to bee mad and that there is great sence in sinning Man being a reasonable creature is apt to be caried by reason and if lust can once bring us over w th pretended reasons why then the will is glad of the motion the affections wait on the will as on their Queen and Mistris and the sin is like to be finished and bring forth death Against this we are to set the Word and sith sin can shew no reasoÌ„ out of the Word say my reason is corrupt and I am onely for the Word 2. Lust works on our inferiour parts and slatters our affections with pausible perswasions and a man is soone taken by faire offers to satisfie his affections they be quick and sudden and it is hard to hold them in when the fume of sin hath wound it self into the affections it quickly creeps up into the very judgment and eates out all faculty of discerning and then good goes for evill and evill for good Watâ—h we over our selves both wayes before hand in making head at the very first against these entisings of lust lest both our reason and affections go after sin a world of difficulties will come in when we are not onely to bring in our affections but our judgement too That Fort lost is not had againe with a song remember that we have not a novice in hand but are to deale with an old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts so Paul Most dangerous of all is the deceit of lust when it seemes to carry with it our reason because then it is next to an impossible thing to keepe out of the snare and clutches of sin an instance or two and then an end Why is it past the power of our Divines with their pens and tongues to cry downe vsury the cause is because most men doe thinke that they have reason to make the most of their money and as yet they will see no reason against it there is an unanimous consent I thinke amongst all the Divines that to inclose is an oppressio of an high degree and yet many of our Gentry inclose more and more every day and that they doe it with an high hand is too plain else they would not have us in derision as they have and dare proclaime that they will inclose say all the Preachers in the world the contrary A proud word and well might they if GOD did not say the contrary as hee doth the best is God is not mocked for we see that the posterity of the great inclosers would be right glad with all their harts to feed a poore beast in some common and cannot Thus the Lord doth laugh at their calamity and mocke when their feare commeth but why are men so set in that sin Because they thinke that they have reason to inclose Thus when Lust hath enticed and bewitched our reason wise men grow to desperate resolutions all I say is in a word He that keepes from sinne because reason is against it and not because the Word of GOD is against it that man obeyes reason and not GOD. CHAP. 4. Of our being tempted by our lust GOD
I know is often said to tempt us but never to sin we speake not of his tempting us for our triall but of our tempting our selves His tentation meant often for our good wee abuse and take occasion thence to sin and so wee turne it in the event to be our owne As for our tempting our selves it is a reflect act wee are the tempters we are the tempted t is not hard for a man to make himselfe a worse sinner than hee is And is not Sathan said to tempt us hee is hee is the Grand tempter he brought sin into mankind first and he is still by tentations keeping of it in and increasing of it sometimes though seldome Satan tempts us and we joyne not with him sometimes and but seldome neither we tempt our selves and Satan doth not joyne with us but most times our tentations are mixt hee and we concurre and make one act of tempting the sin finished is his and ours too SECT I. Of Satans Tentations SAtan at first sinned without a Tempter for hee had no lust in him to draw him or intice him having sinned without a tentation and without any remedy he sets upon man by his beguiling he wrought upon that power he had in his will and man was overcome As the case stands with us Satan could not hurt us were it not for our lust He did set upon Christ but found no matter in him he had no power over him not simply because in Christ there was no sin but because hee was also so supported by the eternall Spirit that Satan had not to doe with him Eve had no sin yet his tentations went beyond her and her first listening to him and his Syren song was a sinne in her his first tempting her to the first sinne could not possible presuppose a former sinne in her to worke with and upon T is onely the power of God not of our will that doth keepe us from the fiery darts of the Divell how farre Satan can goe I cannot set downe onely I say that hee cannot goe so farre as to force the wil of man by plain violence will were no will if it could be compulsed or constrained by any It is held to be the priviledge of God alone immediately to inflow into the worke upon that noble part the soule of man much lesse is any created power able directly to turne and winde the will of man it is beyond the sphere of Satan and quite out of his element to reach so farre but to trouble the spirits poteâ—tly to raise the humours to proceed by presenting matter immediately to the phantasie of man is within his reach that the divell can doe and therefore having leave hee is able to put those acts into a man and to worke with power in the children of disobedience In the phrase of the Scripture it is said Hee put it into the hart of Iudas to betray his Lord and Master He filled the heart of Ananias to lye to the holy Ghost The best is Satan hath no kinde of command over nor power in us to force us and therefore the care of a Christian is to resist him and not to feare him he is a coward and trembles all over fly not but stand and he will fly for Satan must have a double leave ere he can say or doe any thing unto us 1. Hee must have leave of God as we see in Iob hee was faine to come morning after morning to have his Commission renewed GOD must bid him goe and doe or else we need not care thus much for all his power hold in with God and then let Satan doe his worst hee doth of himselfe wish us all evill but for the effect how farre hee shall goe it is in the hands of God not of Satan according as we read Luke 22. 31. Satan hath desired to have you to winnow you as a challenger desireth to have one of the other side to combate with so did Goliah So we see Satan must desire leave of God to harme us our prayer then is that God would not lead us into temptation what a matter of comfort is this that our case is in the hands of Christ who is our head 2. So he must have leave of us I meane we must give way to his Tentation else his Tentation will be frustrate so Acts 5. 3. Why hath Satan filled thy heart hee doth there expostulate the matter with Ananias not with Satan and askes him what he meant to give Satan occasion to fill his heart with such wickednesse wee must then thanke our selves if the Divell snare us he had a consent from our first Parents hee did wooe them to it and hee must winne us to yeeld else the sinne is his not ours I am perswaded that many men do discourage themselves over and above by reason of the too much feare they have of Sathan I would wee would feare God more and Satan lesse and then the divell and we should be lesse accquainted wee yeeld often out of a base feare feare of yeelding occasions us to yeeld when it is too much Many dispute it how to find out the point of difference betwixt tentations that are ours and such as are wholly diabolicall I thinke hee doth best who doth study how to resist them rather than to difference them That there is a difference I know but where the indivisible point of the difference doth stand I know not some tell us that a man may finde them out by their suddennesse and because they are independent and not consequent of any former occasion but to say that our lust doth not push out as sudden or as independent motions and suggestions is hard Besides for a man to determine the difference betwixt the independency and suddennesse of Satans tentations and our corrupt flying motions I conceive to be a worke to hard for most men And for the other note commonly produced that they bee unnaturall and terrible it satisfies not in that originall sin worketh unnaturally and violently and terribly deny it who can and where the act of our sinne ends and Satans begins who can tell What needs all this if we reject them whether they come from him or us in the matter of justification wherein lies our salvation and our peace they are not imputed to us no more being ours than we accept and assent unto In a naturall corrupt motion Paul saith When I doe that I would not it is no more I that doe it therefore no more is imputed by God than is seene and allowed by us wee shall doe well then not to perplex our selves with needlesse queries which be Satans and which be ours sith that we all find that the act of our owne minde the motion of our fancy the wishes of our owne will in those things wee have no reason to suspect Satan hath any thing to doe I say wee
hath no hope to speed Iudah went about an honest businesse yet because hee tooke not his armour with him in the morning he fell ere night we must carry our Antidotes about us because wee walke in places that are infectious and chiefly we must see to our matters in sins wee are given unto if to pride then goe not where fashions are without a commission and weapon if wee be apt to quarrell goe without a sword and when we have not our weapon about us wee shall not bee so tempted to brawle if to the lust of unelcannesse come not neere the doores of her house and that will keepe our hearts free having our hearts still an end full of serious meditation of the presence of God Almighty sith our nature is so apt to be tempted by our lust and we are so soone afoot after every sin that like children wee had rather be in the dirt than in the cleane have wee not cause to looke after these directions and such as these are that we may not be lead into tentation that our lust may not draw us aside frō God and entise unto evill 2. Rules for the remedy in the Tentation To him that would know what hee is best to doe when the tentation is come or comming we prescribe him to follow this order 1. To make a right use of it 2. To get by good meanes out of it For the use to be made of the Tentation doe thus 1. Know that the tentation is suffered to come upon us by God for our humbling whether it bee to commit a sin or to despaire for some sin committed when it is to some fault as in this case most times it is which is against our mindes and to the trouble of our soules God he knowes that if any thing under heaven will humble us this will doe it what else will so gaule and cut the heart of a Christian man what else will so set us a praying a whining a watching a fasting this hee see will even vile a man in his owne eyes and make him base to himselfe this will season and fit us for Gods building and the use wee are to make of it is to see our selves what we are and to looke up to Christ Iesus God sees and wee must see that wee cannot well come to heaven without such a purge and therefore wee must joyne with God make his end our end hee doth it to breake us and humble us and wee must humble our selves humbly our selves saith St. Iames and God will exalt us it is to humble us and doe us good when In the latter end saith the Text this is not done in a day and therefore we must waite Gods time It is a plaster and it must lye on some time if God meane us any good the tentation shall not over straight but hover and hang about us some long time some good space GOD doth drive out one naile with another Pride with a tentation of Lust but this is not done in an houre if it be somewhat long a doing yet it is worth our while Let us stay and waite upon God from whom commeth our humiliation the cause of a tentation is pride the use of the tentation is to take away our pride there is great dispute which is and which is the way to finde out our master-sin but when all is done pride is the master-sin in all Wee all hold of Adam in Capite pride was the first and and great sin in Adam and so it is in all his see wee had our lust from him He his from the Angels the sinne of sins in the Angels was pride it gave them their fall so it was in Adam it gave him his fall and so it is in us There is we say in trees a master-roote and that roote in Originall sinne is no other than pride indeed there is in most some other particular streame and vaine which carries one one way another another arising from Complexion Education Condition and other causes and occasions which often varies as the temper of our bodies and the order of our estate doth change and this yeere it is one sin seven yeere henc as every seven yeere there is a sensible change in the humour of the body it is another when poore it is one when rich it is another sin but that sin of all sins which goes thorow all the race of man kinde is pride the universall and general Captaine Sin in all the world Vnbeleefe may have that name and be well called our master-sin in respect of our Iustification instrumentally taken because it hinders our union with Christ but the chiefe sin which is our greatest morall vice and carries the greatest straine and power with it in respect of sanctification is this same sin of Pride and spirituall pride is the pride of all prides all other sins doe a kind of homage to pride as to their king and Lord. Austine hath it that the Romans did forbeare many vices that carried shame with them and did many commendable acts and all to serve their sin of of vaine-glory and Scipio by name and others did abstaine from that which their nature would have beene right willing to have enjoyed and all to keepe their name and to maintaine their credit and outward reputation amongst men so that all other sins doe as it were vaile to this and therefore God may bee said to resist all other sins but this sin he resists afarre off he cannot abide the sight of it and so wee say that God doth use to give us up for some time in some measure to some base tentations he lets out some vile corruptions and why but all to take down this sin of pride it is say wee all little enough to humble us affliction without the true sight and sound feeling of some of our corruptions will not doe it a man is then humble when hee is humbled before his Originall sin and amonst all the bitter fruites of that cursed lust pride is chiefe and doth play the Rex amongst the rest other sins that wee speaking from feeling doe call our master-sin or sins our predominant lusts are but made use of by God to humble us and to eate out this dangerous sinne of pride and therefore it cleares it selfe my thinkes to say that this sinne of pride is in every man his cheefest sin sith other beloved sins are let to have their swing in men all to master this Master of sins our pride The use then that wee are to put our tentations unto when they come is to humble our hearts to abase us to pluck away the feathers of our pride 2. The next use wee are to make of our tentation is that we see a mercy in it whatsoever it be if wee feele nothing but what is common to man and others have had and have the like we must learne to beare it with a kinde
of impatient patience why should not wee beare what others beare what are wee is our nature better than others here must bee a kinde of content else it is like it will be worse yet else as yet we are neither truly nor sufficiently humble it must teach us to thinke better of others than of our selves and wee must learne to render thanks to God considering what our deserts are and what our nature is that we are no worse that wee are broken out no more 3. The last use is that we must consider a providence in it in that we are kept from sinning by being tempted for sin God doth suffer us to fall into the thoughts and affections that so we might not fall into the outward deed and action of sinne better have a motion in the wil than the will and the deed too the will is taken for the deed in good things but not in sinne for that Gods accepting and rewarding our good deeds comes out of his grace and favour it is a matter of mercy drawes out of the merits of Christ and therefore God may and doth many times take the hearty will and desire for the deed but in sin it is not so for there the punishment is according to the desert and merit of the sin it is more or lesse as the desert of the sin is more or lesse now there is more guilt in the act and will too than is in the will alone evill workes really deserve punishment and the punishment is never more than the guilt that is in the sin and therefore the will is not so bad as the deed There be more degrees of malice and evilnesse in the act than in the purpose alone and therefore of the two it is better to have it in the affection within than in the act without too chiefly when the thoughts be such as we cannot abide doe not allow but abhor we fall soonest into the outward act of that sin which thrusts in upon us on a sudden whereof wee felt not the drawing tentation first within had David bin haunted with pestilent and violent suggestions motions to adultery and murther he had then felt those corruptions to have beene strong in his flesh his care then would have been to have beene earnest with God by prayer to be pardoned healed and preserved and so hee had found such strength that hee would not nor should not have done those faults what if we finde that wee doe loath such lusts when they begin to fire yet we must not stay there as though it were impossible that wee should ever fall into the sinnes themselves David would have taken it in as much scorne as another had one spoken before to him as touching adultery and murther our disliking the inward motion is not thorow enough except it bring us on our knees and beg of God that it proceed no further and so we see by accident it is a mercy to be held under some such profitable tentations and wee must make this mercy of it that the tentation drive us to God to keepe us from finishing the sin it selfe our tentation must bee a meanes of our prevention we must take it as a warning peece to arme us against falling into the foule fault it selfe The second maine branch is how we should get the tentation off and draw our selves out of the snare and here we are to show what wee must not doe and then what we must doe 1. We must not dispute with sin nor Satan Satan when they came to arguing was too hard for our first parents in their innocency when they had wit at will and their reason at command and now that wee are as we are we loose all if once wee begin to enter into disputation with such an old Sophister and crafty fox as Satan is and our owne lust is the greatest both deceiver and distembler in the world He as one saith shootes with Satan in his owne Bow who thinkes by disputing and reasoning to put off Satan our reason is corrupt and on his side and it will betray us into his hands 2. Wee must not flye away from Satan a run-away never makes a good conclusion of his tentations from Idolatry and from Adultery and Fornication wee must flye such sins are best conquered by flying and we are to hold our selves from all occasions of all sins whatsoever when and where we may doe it without offending of God but from the divell it is neither possible nor lawfull to flye from him not possible because the divels are exceeding many and they are spirits and there can bee no flying from them nor lawfull because wee are bid to resist him and therefore forbid to flye from him and then againe because it is a kinde of service done to Satan a yeelding to him some kinde of worship sith that it is to feare him and we are commanded to feare GOD and not the divell A feare there is granted so as to send us to God and to the use of Gods meanes but such a feare as to make us run a fainting feare is unlawfull and dangerous and after a sort a serving of Satan the deadly enemy of the Lord Iehovah Make the case thus a man is on just occasion alone by himselfe aye in the darke too and hath reason so to be now sinne and Satan let flye at him with their fiery bloudy dartes here wee must not runne not avoid the place it is a kind of serving Satan and a yeelding to the divell God is angry with it and it is often the way to great danger what if by this shifting the roome we finde ease for the present yet it is but his skill like a lightening before death it leades us securely into the hands of the same or some other tentation what must wee doe Even stand it out hold there as we have a calling to be there what if wee quake better quake than serve Satan better tremble every veine than sin better dye in the place than flye from the place because it is a flying from Satan and hee that in this sense flyes from Satan for feare seemes to distrust Gods providence on him for that particular Thus far for what wee must not doe now next is what we must do and here we have many things the heads are these 1. The first thing is beleeving get faith saith Paul and then wee shall quench all the fiery darts of the Divell Our faith will doe wonders if wee apply the victory that Christ hath made over Satan for us what if wee bee Cowards yet Christ did not play the Coward His victory Mat. 4. was ours and for us Hee stood in our place plaid our prize beate Satan to our hands His glorious triumph over Satan is a kinde of satisfaction for all our yeelding so much aye too too much to the divell what
the written Word and Law of God it is done by faith and saving grace and by the Spirit of GOD giving lust such a wound that let Satan lick it all hee can it never recovers nor comes to it selfe againe Should we take the word sufficiently in a legall sense then while we breath we neither do nor can resist sin but it may be and it ought to be more and better resisted still but if we take it in an Evangelicall sense so as to be sure that our sin is dead at the heart as some trees be that yet carry boughs that we may bee sure that wee are in Christ here I say that a man hath sufficiently resisted sin and Satan when he doth not allow the sin when he doth no way consent to the tentation Some expresse it by a distinction and say that if a man doe not allow infirmities and doe not live in the practise of grosse sinnes then all is well and there is comfort enough to bee had to stay our thoughts against the day of refreshing as a little will stay the stomacke for a time so will an assurance that wee have broken the heart of sinne binde in our hearts from despaire The answer which is made hath this sense in it that if we allow not infirmities 2. If wee doe not practise grosse sins then there is sufficient resisting as touching the maine That there is a difference betwixt infirmities and presumpuous sins is not to be denied it is expresly in the holy scripture Papists say that the man who doth a mortal sin is not in the state of grace But for venials a man may commit in their Divinity who can tell how many of them and yet be in Christ for all that I hope there is no such meaning in any of our Divines as to tye up mens consciences to hang on such a distinction of sins sith it is beyond the wit of man to set downe a distinct point betwixt mortall and veniall sins now when it is an impossible matter punctually to set downe to the understanding of man which is and which is not a veniall sin they must pardon mee from giving the least way to such Divinity as must needs leave the conscience of man in a maze and Labyrinth I finde that the nature of infirmities doth so depend upon circumstances that that is an infirmity in one man which is a grosse sin in another and some men pleade for themselves that the things they doe are but infirmities He that will sin and when hee hath done will say not to comfort his soule against Satan but to flatter himselfe in his sin that it is but an infirmity for ought I know he may goe to hell for his infirmities Besides if that be good that a man who is in grace may doe infirmities but not practise grosse sinnes Then I would I could see a man that would undertake to finde us out some Rule out of the word by which a sinner may finde by his sin when hee is in Christ and when out of Christ at what degrees of sinning where lies the Mathematicall point and stop that a man may say thus far I may goe and yet bee in grace but if I step a step farther then I am none of Christs Wee all know that sinnes have their latitude and for a man to hang his conscience on such a distinction as hath no rule to define where the difference lyes is not safe Divinity The conscience on the racke will not be layd and said with formes and quiddities the best and neerest way to quiet the heart of man is to say that be the sinne a sinne of infirmity when we strive and strive but yeeld at last or of precipitancy when we be taken in haste as he was who said in his haste all men are lyers or a meere grosse sin in the matter aye say it be a presumptuous sin yet if we allow it not it hinders not but wee are in Christ though wee doe with reluctancie act and commit it and I say that we doe resist it if wee doe not allow it For let us not goe about to deny that a godly man during his being a godly man may commit grosse and presumptuous sins and for infirmities if wee allow them and like them that we know to be sinnes then wee doe not resist them and such a man who allowes himselfe in one is guilty of all and is none of Christs as yet bee the sinne what it will Iames makes no distinction and where the law distinguisheth not there wee must not distinguish I speake not of doing a sin but allowing for a man may doe it and yet allow it not as in Paul that which I would not that I doe and hee that allowes not sinne doth resist it therefore a man may resist it and yet doe it all the difference that I know is this 1. That a man may live after his conversion all his dayes and yet never fall into a grosse sin by grosse I meane presumptuous sinnes so Psal 19. David saith not cleanse but keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins we may then be kept from them I speake not that all are but some be and therefore in it selfe all might be 2. For lesser sinnes secret faults we cannot live without them they are of dayly and almost hourely incursion but yet wee must bee clensed from them as David speakes dayly get your pardon and there is a pardon of course for them and they doe not usually distract and plunge the conscience but yet we must not see them and allow them if we do our case is to be pittied wee are none of Christs as yet 3. Great staring sins a man cannot usually and commonly practise them but hee shall allow them So Ps 19. 13. Keepe back thy servant from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over mee Implying that except wee be kept back from them they will have dominion over us it followes then shall I be upright So that the man in whom presumptuous sinne or sins have no dominion he is an upright man To practise a sin is one thing to live in the practise is another how farre a man being and remaining in grace may goe in the committing of great sinnes is past my skill to determine The case of Salomon and others proves that a man may goe farre tentations may hang long if a day a week if a weeke a yeere if a yeere many yeeres and how many Who can say a man lives in a sin when he loves it though he doe not practise it at all as hee is a Drunkard who is never â—â—unke if hee love drinke and he Covetous who loves money though he have not a penny in his purse So say a man never act the sin yet if hee love it if hee doe not hate it hee lives in it As in the Body a man is said to have his health albeit he hath
we must hold our owne and keep in this perswasion to dye for it that wee are the children God Say we have ever so many afflictions desertions corruptions yet that ought not to shake us out of our assurance for David had as many afflictions as any of us and more and for desertions wee finde him all over the Psalmes making heavy complaints that way He that runs may reade all over that Book many a dolefull song and for corruptions and such corruptions too as use to pay us home sins great sins I meane committed after his calling and conversion hee laid hands on another mans wife hee defiled her her husband loving David as his own soule and then fell upon an horrid plot of murther he did art it with hellish skill and shed the bloud of sundry that hee might be the death of one and did hee not number the people against all reason and stood it out too say all the Captaines what they could And yet I hope David added not this sin to all the rest to wit to question it whether God were his God or not I have saith hee done foolishly I have sinned and that greatly Lord forgive what The infirmity No the iniquity of whom Of thy Servant He holds this fast that for all his sins his great sinnes yet hee was Gods servant still let go this and though our sins were but a few or but ordinary yet Satan will sinke us with one tentation or other but now keepe wee our ground in this point never deny the conclusion that God is our God and say our corruptions were more were worse than they are well may Sathan shake his chaine at us but we stand on a rock and the flouds of his tentations cannot come so much as at our feet For we know that our sins are but the sinnes of a creature his mercies are the mercies of an infinite Creator without either banke or bottome keepe wee the maine chance that he is our father and then well may our sins humble us but Satan with all his setting on shall never be able to discourage us we know that Christ died for sinners and for the chiefe of sinners no man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badnesse but many are for their supposed goodnesse In a word this only point that hee is our father kept up in our consciences will make us fit and able to dash and blow off al the powers of darknes and push away all the darts of the divell therefore sith it is his method to lay all upon this point hold this fast and wee hold all fast If the Enemy assault one way and the Garrison defend another way the Towne is lost the Enemy will carry the strongest peece We must not bee taken up about other matters and lye open here here Satan will try his skill and doe his utmost to bring us out of conceit with God and to make us think that God hath no love unto us no care of us and then we are gone Live and dye then with this in thy heart and mouth Hee is my God and I am his servant and so we shall bee able to lay all the divels in hell Say God hath confirmed his love to mee so much so often that now I hope I shall never call that matter into question againe And next for afflictions we must frame a new Bible ere we can with any colour finde any thing out of Gods afflicting us to prove that hee doth not love us of the two abundance and plenty and outward peace would yeeld matter to say that God doth not care for us and yet it would be long ere a Christian will come to a Minister and say I have such a deale of wealth of health and so many friends and so much friendship that I feare mee I am not in the right but when afflictions comes and stormes arise then wee come and make a pitious moane sure God is not my father I am not his child and grow we doe into hard conceits concerning God and heavy thought as touching our selves now all this comes out of our fancy who doe so highly prize the things of this life that sure if God did love us we should not bee in such and such wants A very foolery the Text is cleere he correcth every son whom he receiveth let the word bee heard speake and then we may conclude the contrary and say thus doth God afflict me and hee doth withall make mee to make a right use of his afflictions say but of one and by this I am sure that he is mine and I am his for affliction is a part of the curse in its owne nature and God doth never chang the nature of it and turne it to a mercy but onely to those hee loves it should it would hurt me I finde it did me doth mee good and therefore I am a son of his love And lastly for desertion that is but a mist before our eyes Desertion is in it selfe no sin for Christ was without sense aye he was so deepe in it that when he dyed he said why hast thou forsaken me A totall a finall desertion ours is not partiall the best have had and have GOD turnes away his face David himselfe is troubled The just doth live by faith and not by feeling and in that very Psalme where hee complaines that his spirit was over-whelmed within him and that his very heart within him was desolate I say in that selfesame Psalme David saith Thou art my God I passe not whether this Desertion bee for sinne or from sin a chastisement of sin or an effect of sin all comes to one for our dispute it hath is and may bee the case of a right godly man Looke up then and if from want of sight and feeling wee doe say Why hast thou forsaken me yet then let us by faith withall say my God my God and we are safe Sith then this is the order Satan useth to follow us in his tentations to make us to distrust our being in Christ and our standing in grace we must make that our method too and rather suffer to dye at Gods feet than to suffer our assurance to be taken away from us Lose this and lose all our comfort hold this and all is ours let Satan say and doe his worst I confesse it is a heavy hand when a man is put to it to walke without his feeling David was a man for naturall and spirituall cheerefulnesse both above men yet hee had his heart full and say his case were ours that for very sorrow of heart arising from the absence of the light of his countenance wee be like a bottle in the smoak we doe shrim away to nothing become a very Sceleton a bagge of bones an Anatomie of a man yet then our faith must shew it selfe and we must hold up our heads above water no great thankes
to swim when God doth hold us up by the chin w th comfortable feeling But he is a man of faith that can then say God is my God my King when hee sees nothing but the promise Oh Blessed is the man who beleeves and sees not for want of sense their song once was mine 1. eyes failes my 2. flesh failes my heart faile my 2. knees faile my all failes but my faith which never failes well then though a mans marrow be consumed like the drought in Summer say not onely ones flesh be pined which after sicknesse will come againe but ones very bones be consumed which when once dried they say never come to themselves againe aye and ones juice whithin the bones do wast away yet there wee must hope against hope and set faith against sense when wee cannot see one shine in the face of God yet we may fetch support out of the promise Gods countenance doth change and turne away but the promise is ever the same and al in al is in the promise we are childern of what of the promise heires of what of the promise sight and sense lookes onely on the face of God but our faith lookes onely on the promise and it is the Evidence of thingâ— not seene it gives a being to that which in existence is not and thus living by faith a Christian on all occasions may say God is mine and so mine as though hee were nones but mine he is all mine and what we speake out of feeling a tentation may make us unspeake it againe but what we say by faith once wee say it ever and all the tentations Satan can devise cannot make us unsay it againe I mourne Blessed not shall be but are those that mourne why They shall be not are comforted He then is a blessed man who mournes though hee be without present comfort 3. We must keepe this order as to begin with the right end and the right end is then to finde out what the sin is that is chastise or punised when the tentation to a lust is a punishment for some other sin it is all in vaine and meere lost labour for a man to thinke to get off the sin which is the punishment when we let the sin punished alone hence it is that we doe finde many a good man strive and strive even his very heart out to master a lust and are where they were or rather worse and why But because that vexing sin is a correction for some other sin which wee over-see and say nothing unto and thus men run upon flats of discomfort as though they were none of Gods and all because they cannot conquer a sin which is not because they are not Gods nor for want of faith neither but for want of art and method The effect cannot bee taken away untill such time the cause be removed now wee must know that one sin is the cause of another two wayes 1. First by effecting and producing by a very efficiency another sin as Covetousnesse is a very Caust working oppression Vsury rapine buying and selling for dayes and enclosure now I confesse it is hard to bee convinced that that which is an effect of a former sin is a sin till we be convinced that the sin which is the cause is a sin as hee that knowes not what covetousnesse is or is not convinced that covetousnesse is a sin cannot bee cured of Vsury Enclosure hoarding up of Corne c. and therefore the sin which is the cause must bee pardoned and healed first So pride of life is the cause why men doe follow fashions to follow that which was a fashion is no sinne but to bee in that which is the fashion whilst it is called the fashion is a sin else there is no such sin as following of fashions which Scripture and Nature have condemed for a sin I say this sin comes out of pride as out of a working cause and t is not possible for a man to bee mended in one except hee dig out the other So Passion springs out of pride of heart as out of his very next cause and so doth Envy too many are troubled with their Passions and disquieted with Envy and make a great marvell of it that they cannot get the victory all this while I will tell you the reason they pray against passion but not against the cause not against pride they stop at the streame but choake not up the spring they lop the boughs and it growes thicker after and pluck not up the roote Therefore if we meane to cast out of our heart and life such a sinne as is an effect of a former sin wee must first begin with the causing sin or else he doth wash a stone and Satan will hold him where he was doe what he can and what a weary hand is this for a man to pray to reade to heare to fast against a sinne and yet to make nothing of it 2. By meriting which Schoole Divines call demeriting and deserving to bee cast into some sin by God as a just Iudge for some other offence and this as it comes from God is a Good of justice thinke not that wee meane it as though God did infuse or put into a man the matter or forme of the punishing sin it needs not there is matter enough in our hearts already God cannot breath sin in the minde or breast of any man but by letting lust out and setting Satan loose upon us we are punished and corrected by one sin for another Some say it ought not to be said that God doth punish sin with sin why then say they that sin which is the punishment doth deserve more punishment and so it doth What say they and doth that deserve another no for albeit God may and doth punish sin with sin it followes not that the second sin must bee punished with another sin but with some other punishment it must and what if in some cases sins in a row be punished with sins yet there is no processus in Infinitum because as the Schooles have agreed when once it comes to hell there is no demerit sinnes on earth merit further punishment but sins in hell doe not because there is satisfaction given and so full a point put to the Iustice of God Besides the damned are in actuall possession of their last punishment and therefore there is in them no demerit of more or further torment God in justice then doth and may punish one sinne with another here some say with a greater that is not alwaies so for hee punisheth Idolatry with Fornication yet Fornication must not bee held to bee a greater sin than Idolatry it is sufficient that the sin which is made the punishment be a more vexing sin bringing more shame and more inward or outward distresse that so the sinner may be made the more
detestable to himselfe or others the greatest sins doe not alwayes vex they should I know but they doe not To come to our point Wee say that sin doth cause sin by way of desert when GOD doth by Permission Desertion and Tradition give a man up to some sinne of shame or inward biting sorrow to judge him for some other sin bare permission it is not for so we sin all sins we commit I hope wee cannot sin any sin except he suffer and his power doe permit yet wee finde that Pharaoh had his heart hardened worse for manner and measure than other common sinners had but all sinners are sinners by permission therefore there was a delivering up an act of justice and power in hardening the heart of Pharaoh and so it is when God doth plague one sin with another the thing I educe is this that it is impossible with all our whining to get off the sin merited except we first deale with the sin meriting we cannot affront the justice and power of God when he doth inflict and lay it on for some other fault it is out of our element to take it off till first wee have removed and done away the guilt and power of the former sin when sin doth worke and produce another sin by its own force then it comes from the power of sin when sin doth demerit to have another sin made a punishment of it that comes out of the guilt of sinne and justice of God therefore we must make our peace for the sinne which is is the cause and subdue that ere wee can possibly make any hand with the other sin which is the punishment That then wee may cleere our selves of some tentations wee must looke see what brought it if wee try and try and can make nothing of it then wee may see it is for some other sin which sin wee must finde out and then cast out that corruption and the worke is done we finde some what to the purpose in Ionas a good old Prophet he fled away from God was found out throwen into the Sea swallowed by a Whale and God in his goodnesse did deliver him and yet after hee fell into the like sin againe no doubt he did aske God forgivenesse in the Whale for his first sin yet hee after fell into the same way againe and did chafe because Ninive was not destroyed now see here the roote of sinne was not moared up he did at first flye out of pride because hee would not bee thought to preach the destruction of so famous a place hee thought none would be well pleased w th such a message and therefore do it whose would for Ionas This fact hee was sorry for but saw not the cause of all to be pride and therefore after when hee saw that Ninive was not destroyed what a chafe was hee in and was not this horrible pride too that so many must be destroyed rather than Ionas should bee thought to misse in denouncing a judgment which should not come had he found out the Canker at the first and killed it he had not fallen this second fall T is certaine that as in diseases in the body if one disease bee caused by another that is more in the spirits and humours of a man the disease causing must bee done away ere the disease caused can be remitted it may be eased for a time but it will returne again as long as the sicke matter is there to feed it and therefore wise Physitians strike alwayes at the roote so must wee and when Satan is upon us with some vexing lust and we cannot with all our power put it off Let us say sure it is for some other sinne that must bee killed ere this will bee cured and so we must cast out the mother-lust we must not say that we cannot find what it is what the sin is for which we are vexed with these or those afflictions for the Word and the Spirit will show it if wee aske it at the hands of God the Lord will point it out unto us so David Psal 139. 24. See saith he if there be any wicked way in mee and leade me into the way everlasting See if there be any wicked way in mee see it and show it unto me it being the office of the Spirit to convince a man of his sins it followes that the Spirit if we secke it in sincerity with a desire to be healed will finde out our sinnes for us and shew them unto us and when by the line of the Word and Spirit we have found out that Nest we are to turne our griefe upon those lusts rather than upon the present tentation the matter is that when wee are thus haunted and dogged with such tentations as are corrections say it is rather for some sins either 1. Past So some when maried are tempted but not brought to adultery because when single they were uncleane one way or other and thought to mend all by marying without repentance and so when once maried they grow secure and lay all on the Physick and not on God as Asa did in another case and then when they feele that sinne urgeth and Satan tempteth as much and perhaps more after than before because the sinne is worse men faint and sing many a heavy song and hang up their sword and say as good not at all as never the better Now here the right and ready way to heale all is to repent truly and thorowly of former uncleannesses lusts and then the Coasts will cleere first doe that and then marry bring not old sins to the mariage bed and when the knot is knit tentations as many as strong perhaps more perhaps greater may come but they shall not overcome and therefore they must not say better not marry at all if it be so I say he that hath the gift let him not marry but hee who hath not the gift as all have not hee were best marry or he must and will doe worse Resolve the case thus such a man if hee marry not use what helpes naturall morall spirituall he can yet he burnes still and the more he opposeth the more strong his affections grow a man maried cannot say that hee shall not bee tempted to defile the bed but this I say that using all GODS meanes and calling in for Gods blessing on the ordinance hee shal not fal his soule will heale Now in case one finde that for all his care his lusts grow exorbitant and violent look back and humble for what are past before this is to pluck us by the eares for what we were before we were maried make all that well compound with God for old matters and then ease and peace will come 2. Present As say a worldly man to bee told and convinced of his sin and yet will not mend as wee see a man may see a sin to be a sin and yet
goe on in it witnesse that young Gentleman who went away like one well beaten when it came to selling all Now many times in such a case God will have such an one to be tempted by Satan as his Instrument with strong passions to adultery which usually of all sins he could never abide and this goes to the heart of him He whines and wrings his hands teares his haire is weary of himselfe knowes not what to doe and is even angry with God because he cannot finde ease and is often upon the point to despaire here I say it will not off the tentation will not away till it hath done its cure till I meane we finde out that all that is for our covetousnesse by which sin wee vex and anger God and therefore hee doth order Satan to follow us with wave upon wave in that sinne of uncleannesse which God sees will vex us Hee would not have us sit and rest quiet in that sinne of earthlinesse the worst of the two and for that it is that wee are terrified with those or some other passions of shame dishonour 3. To come so we are tempted to some sins we thought our hearts till now had no minde unto now in this case we must know that it is a mercy and so to be taken to let us see and feele that by tentation when we might justly be suffered to fall into the action it self that we may know that it was neither in our worth nor in our strength but onely in the preventing grace of God that wee have stood cleere all this while and that it must bee by the same supporting grace of God that wee must stand firme for the time to come Looke what is past present forward backward every way to see what it is for that wee may remove the cause for which wee are thus tempted and then the tentation will away even of it selfe when that is once cured of all wee must beware of Sathans Sophistry when hee would needs perswade us to ease our selves of the vexation by yeelding once or twice or so to the sinne in hand and then no more now this is quite against Reason and Experience against Reason for in all morall acts whether vertuous and vicious chiefly vicious because our nature is so strong that way this is certaine when we once commit it it doth leave a wonderfull pronenesse to doe it againe When then Satan saith doe it once and then no more no Satan must we say should I commit it once I should be more earnest to commit it the second time than ever I was the first Against Experience for wee doe finde that when wee once sin a sin the power of grace and faith doth decay we have not that heart to pray against it and so wee are ready to turne that way againe as put fewell to the fire it burnes the more so doth hee who thinkes to satisfie the motion to a sinne by sinning the sin the onely way to satisfie a lust is not to satisfie it 3. The third Generall Rule is to make use of the Ordinances to put off the tentation and they are chiefly two 1. Prayer Watch and Pray Watching is but a preparation to and a fortification of Prayer Prayer is a turning of our selves to God and so a turning of us from the tentation some turne to some other sin as to thinke of the world when they are tempted to some unpleasing Passions some to that which is lawfull in it selfe and here they finde some kinde of respite but the cure is not done except we doe by prayer come to God and call unto him for favour and succour A man is never overcome in and by the tentation as long as one can pray against it the tentation prevailes not till it please it pleaseth not as long as we can pray in earnest against it Some for forme doe pray as Augustine saith once hee did against the lust but would not for any thing part with the profit or pleasure of them as yet this is to say rather than to pray a prayer delight in prayer and in the Lord and then the tentation doth not delight wee cannot promise that you shall pray away the suggestion but the consent and delight you shall But you will say I pray and yet I finde some delight in the sin what of that This is the delight of the flesh which Paul instancing in himselfe dates call it a serving the law of sin with his flesh but the matter is whether we doe take delight in that delight which way the delight of our inward man is carried as long as wee finde that our delighting in the lust doth grive and trouble us more than the lust it selfe doth Our case is good and our prayer is of force and what if for all that sinne bee there yet it raignes not there and what if worse haunted than when I set my selfe against it then before It is common to bee worse sick when we first take our Physick we thinke of the sinne and the circumstances of it most when in our prayers we set our selves to aggravate it and out of that Satan picks matter to delight us with and when we oppose the lust the lust then doth most oppose us and Satan will come upon us then with his greatest impressions to see if now hee can allure us with some fleshly delight then hee cals upon us to give over prayer that sure our prayer is naught that wee are naught that God hath no mind to us that sin hath dominion in us sith it stirres and pricks most even then when at prayer but wee must beleeve that sith we aske according to his will hee heareth us wee know that we have the petitions wee desire of him what ever wee feele say our prayers prove an occasion to ripen a disease when it must ripen ere it will cure all is to drive us out of all selfe confidence and then the malady will heale Go then on in praying with perseverance all manner of prayer and the end will be that if we doe not give over to pray Satan must and will give over to tempt The three maine matters I could wish Christians to sue for in their prayers are 1. Strength to conquer satan when he sets upon us w th main force and plaine violence and seidge I know hee cannot compell us for then the sinne were his not ours but yet forall that he can and doth w th a strong hand drive and make us to consent bringeth us to yeeld and in that sense we cannot of our selves stand in his hands when hee comes against us with his power no standing against him and his tentation except we bee underlaid by the power of God he wil wrest a consent from us and worke us to a delight doe we what wee can for wee can doe nothing of our selves it is out of our hands
her and put her off from that and so she fell perhaps she halted in adding to the Lords words for IEHOVAH had forbid them to eate it but hee did no where forbid them to touch it yet this shewes that therein she was strict and more strict than the words wil beare but for the theatning where God said yee shall dye she falters and hath it thus least yee dye and for certaine when we doe not keep to the threatning wee shall not hold our selves to the commandement it goes with us as it did with our first fathers a want of holding the threatning fast did cast them downe and if we be short there and doe not oppose the threatning wee cannot stand as soone as ever Satan is at us to yeeld to our lust say no it is forbidden by God let it be to Adultery answer it is written thou shalt not commit adultery then adde to the prohibition the commination Adulterers and Fornicators God will judge I must not I am forbidden I dare not yeeld if I do I shall dye the death I shall damne and so Satan hath his answer The last generall Rule wee propose is to aske helpe of other men and the directions which come in here to bee set downe are these 1. Never to let any man know what the matter is if by any meanes we can have comfort from GOD acquaint no man with it if we can get him to doe the cure in ordinary matters see what the use of ordinary prayer will doe in cases extraordinary stretch our strength to the most that our prayers may bee strong and long let us wing them with faith and with a fast that they must up to the bosome of the father to say I have prayed and can finde no ease and therefore I will make use of a friend is well enough but I have prayed fasted and waited too as long as ever I can and yet it will not come then we must but til then till we have tried the utmost I could wish men to secret their tentations from the world God will not take himselfe to be wel used for us to goe to others when wee may have it for the comming at his hands with comfort and encouragement A father loves not a child shold run to neighbours for physick when hee may have it of him besides it is sweetest when we have it immediately from the hands of God our father when a child is sick the same cordiall or sweet meat sent by a servant is not so accepted when father or mother brings it and gives it with their owne hands we see many must have mother give it else they will not take it so it is with us it cannot but be best welcome when God doth give us our comforts with his owne hands and tell us good tydings of peace and mercy with his owne mouth and then againe we do not conceive how it wil wound out hearts that we have let any man know our state and case when wee are to come to our selves againe if so be then wee finde and conceive that all might have beene well and the cure done betwixt God and our selves without the knowledge of any man the trouble that way many times wounds more than ever the tentation did and some have even wished them dead and fairely buried to whom in times of their heavinesse they have broken their mindes and therefore the counsell I give is first to try all meanes to use all patience to watch to pray to fast to waite and if God at any time will come in with comfort let him doe all and have all the praise we hiding our grifes from all the world in great inward sorrowes wee are too apt to open our selves more than needs therefore this counsell is in season 2. See whether we can cure our selves as thus what would I say to or think of another should he come to me with my sore complaint the same say wee to our selves and see what that will do 3. When all will not doe and we finde that GOD doth look straying yet and wee can hold no longer then wee must know that GOD doth call us to vent and open our griefe to some one or other now the griefe must be opened God doth call us to a free discovery of our selves to another and without wee doe breake open the matter the end is not like to be good So Iames Confesse your sinnes one to another and pray one for another and there shall bee an healing and in this case without this mutuall and reciprocall confession there shall not be an healing I know God could make all well without this but he will not there is a naturall reason why we find ease by this venting because it doth open the sore and make it as it were runne and so there comes some ease but the spirituall cause is it which carries it and it is because God will have acommunion of Saints amongst us he will not have us straying one to another and hee knowes that by curing another we cure our selves upon that it is that the pain of the foule in this case doth not nor shall not stake till we have acquainted one or other with our case so wee see that tho the party to whom we confesse say no more to us than wee knew before yet the very venting brings some ease Satan I know cannot abide this for few ever open all but there is a remedy and his tentation is at an end and therefore hee urgeth hard upon the point to hinder us by all meanes from telling any body What saith he it will all the Country over hee will tell his friend and that friend another friend and out it will and thou art either shamed or undone for ever Indeed when God doth not call us to this it is dangerous to tell our veriest friend for though he be our friend yet commonly we are not his confident friend but he bath some other and hee must know it under benedicite and then he is sick til his friend knowes it too who is commonly some third man and so there is great danger that it will abroad wherefore if wee can doe up our matters by telling God alone let no man know but now when wee have tried and it will not be then say God hath called mee to out with it and out with it I must and will live by faith that God will make them keepe my counsell or if they doe not yet shame mee no shames I will follow God and confesse I will what ever comes of it and here we must know that when we find a great disposition in us to keep it from all the world that then Satan meanes us some great danger and therefore hee will fill our heads with a thousand proclamations of shames and dangers and all to make us keepe all close to our owne undoing and ruine say then I know by this that great hurt comes
tempter will come and bring seven worse with him than before and our lust will come againe and take us at some advantage and doe us a spoile in case wee thinke the tentation ended when there is a politike giving over to bite for a season onely What must wee doe to know when the ceasing is because the tentation is conquered and when it is onely by withdrawment for a time Many things might here bee said that which satisfies is to affirme that if wee have taken paines used Gods meanes waited Gods time then the worke is done as it should be but if meanes or all ordinary meanes to bee had have not beene used wee have not set God and prayer against the motion if we find that the lust is gone we know not how on a sudden no sooner come almost but gone hereis cause of suspicion to feare that all is but a practise of our great enemy a purpose to rock us in security that he may come and take us in the sinne or some other when we least thinke of it and and stand unprepared Againe if wee finde no good fruits and effects to follow no good to come of it to our heart and life that wee are no more humble no more if not lesse spirituall than before here is great doubt that the tentation is gone the wrong way for if we do drive this Divell away by GODS meanes which are spirituall as prayer reading watching spirituall seed-corne will leave behind it some spirituall fruit prayers and holy exercises use not to bee lost they fall not in the dust but mortifie and sanctifie they both must and doe and therefore if wee finde ease but not grace some quiet but not the quiet fruit of righteousnesse for all that I know as good the tentation had stayed as depart thus But if we finde that we have not onely a bare freed once from the stirre and power of the tentation but the tentation is over and good is left behind more modest humble fearefull of sin carefull of God then the worke is done by God and we have our comfort when a man then doth finde some respit by turning his thoughts over to thinke of the world that this or that is to be got or saved be set or sold here or there is a purchase to bee made this is not Gods cure but if the liberty we now have over we had be made ours by turning to God and his wayes then wee may boldly tell our selves and bid our consciences rest upon it that we have gone the right way to worke and that there is no mistake in the matter and as wee must not thinke wee have it when wee have it not so wee must not think we have it not when indeed and in truth we have Satan doth play on both sides and his devices to coozen us of our comfort this way are many what saith hee all that is nothing but a forbearing of old and wonted occasions and a wicked man may doe this indeed we must not lay the fault on the occasion as the Tipler doth on drinke that it is made so strong and the Glutton on his fare it is so choice that who can choose but feed by the belly for the creatures are no kind of cause Before the Floud when men did as great Divines conceive drinke water and feed upon plants wee see there was a world of abominations and therefore we must lay the fault on our lusts within not on the occasions without yet this I say that if a man finde that by the use of prayer and the word a man doth in conscience and with constancy shun all the occasions of that sin which heretofore hee neither could nor would there is a cure wrought for a brunt in some fit an unregenerate man may but to doe it still alwayes forever hereafter thus to doe is a signe of power of grace and after constancy we must see that wee doe it in conscience that we do not avoid the thing or person which were to us occasions of sinning out of hatred to the person or to the thing but to the sin that our stomack doth not rise at them as they are such or such things materially but formally as they are to us occasions of offending and that by reason of coruption not in them but in us He that can doe that that man may say that Sathan lyes when hee tels him that a wicked man may surcease by hiding himselfe from his old occasions for in this sense nothing but grace and the spirit and some power of the Holy Ghost can make a man shake off his old occasions a man in his sins will be so far from refusing occasions when they come in his way that hee will look and make after them and have them he will if hee may have them for love or money An hungry man will thorow stone wals for meate so where the love and raigne of sin is there a man will and must breake thorow fire and water to have his desires finished the occasions of that sin hee must and will follow what ever come of it I say it that nothing but grace can make a man abstain from the occasions of sinne when hee is tempted when not tempted the matter is not so much and some men without the strength of grace may forbeare but when the tentation is up and the passion is on fire though a man dye and without Gods mercy damne in the place he cannot possibly forbeare without the force of the spirit I dare affirme it that hee that can and doth in the order and manner I have set down either put the occasion from him or himselfe from the occasion of a sin he hath been and is tempted unto that man hath made an acceptable conquest of that lust and wee doe wrong our selves I cannot say how much when we suffer Satan to perswade us the contrary The next thing wee are to looke to is that we doe not coozen and deceive our selves so as to thinke we have not overcome the tentation why Because we are not rid of evill thoughts it is conquest enough that evill thoughts are borne as a burthen and that lust and Satan for their hearts are not able to bring it any further than thoughts I know God could if he would and would if hee saw it good and fit take away the swarme of evill thoughts but for our good they are suffered to flye up and down in our imaginations not onely to humble us for as the thoughts are so we should be if we were let alone they show our nature and when wee are come to some practise and growth wee are then apt to heave up with conceits of our selves above what is written to thinke that wee are not as other men are and therefore to prevent and discure the malady evill thoughts are left in us to remember us what wee are of our selves as also that by feeling the thoughts
grosse sin done after true repentance could not be the sinne against the Holy Ghost I need not prove because no mā can or wil affirme it 2. T is on al hauds granted that a man may fall into some other grosse sinne but not say they into the same But of this they neither can nor doe give good reason there being no place in the word nor no ground in the nature of faith or of repentance but that a man may as well fall into the same grosse sin as another as great because that another sinne as great is as contrary to the habit of grace and act of repentance as the same 3. What may stand with the grace of God that a godly man may do but to sin the same grosse sin after repentance is not incompatible with the grace of God as now it is in us for what may stand with Christ may stand with grace It is written that one act of sinne cannot destroy the habit of grace as though many might indeed one act of a great and foule fault hath done it as we see the Angels fell in heaven and the fall of Adam in Paradise in whom one act did cast out grace there grace being not the grace of Christ the grace of justification and Philosophers hold it in some ferall vices but now as the case stands with us to double that act againe and often and I cannot say how often cannot of it selfe thrust a man out of Christ why Because wee are kept in him and his graces in us by the power of God and the spirit of Christ now for a man to say to sin such a sin wee treat of cannot stand with grace in us sith that grace is kept in by the power of God and of Christ is to me uncomfortable divinity 4. That Doctrine cannot hold which leaves the conscience of man without a stay and so doth this when a man shall be set on the rack for ever that he is not in Christ why Because hee doth sinne the same grosse sin after true repentance or at least that his repentance was not true and if I were not a true Christian I know not when I shall be and if this my repentance were not true I feare I shal never repent aright It must bee held against all true repentance or else there can be no state of the question made for true repentance hath a breadth with it and doth admit of degrees and if they say that when a man hath attained to a great measure of repentance then it will carry it for him that he shall never sin the same grosse sin againe Here the heart of a man can finde no sooting because by this their assertion no man can possibly set downe when a man hath attained to the point and degree of true repentance and therefore they must affirme it of any true repentance that whosoever hath truly in the least degree and measure repented for a grosse sinne shall never while hee lives commit the same againe and if hee doe then as yet he is not nor never yet was in Christ which is a tenet very uncomfortable and no way agreeable with the sweet principles of the covenant of grace and the free and infinite mercies of God proposed to us in the Gospell Lastly this cannot stand because no man can satisfie the conscience of man when the sin he hath committed is or is not a grosse sinne They say that a man may sinne smaller sins of infirmity againe and again after repentance and I say that there can be no sound reason why a man may not after his repentance doe the same grosse sin againe as well as an infirmity humbled for and repented of But to passe that the thing I urge is that it passeth the skill I thinke of any man living to set me downe a limit that so farre I may goe and my sin is but an infirmity but if I goe a point further that then it is a grosse sin for if I may step one degree and point further and yet my sin be an infirmity still then I say why not another degree further and so why not another and so another and who can say when and where we must stay The conscience of a man in perplexity must have a rock to settle upon but when it is a grosse sin and when it is not cannot be punctually defined circumstances after the case and many sins of the first table are grosse and great enough which yet to many of us are accounted of as no such sins many determine a grosse sin from the matter but the forme is it that chiefely gives name and nature to a sin and the manner is the forme of a sin rather than the matter and hence somtimes when the matter is not so great yet the manner may be such that it may well goe for a grosse sin the only reason that ever I heard is for that after a man comes to repent of a foule fault a mans sorrow is so great hee feeles such smart that hee will never come there againe because hee will drinke of that bitter cup no more T is true that such a man will goe his wayes and doe so no more if hee can doe withall but I hope our Divinity tels us that what ever our sorrowes hath been how much soever the griefe was yet except God doe keepe us the remembrance of former compunctions cannot preserve us when the winde and Sun the occasion and tentation doe meet Now show mee a place that hath in it a promise that when our greefe hath beene so great that then God will preserve us from ever falling into the same fault I know GOD doth so tender us that he useth not to let us come to that passe againe and he makes our fits of former sorrow a meanes thorow his blessing for to preserve us but that a godly man shall ever be so preserved is besides the Text I thinke Againe I desire proofe that still an end a regenerate man doth when ever hee repents of a grosse crime entertaine his heart with a great deale of sorrow some I know doe and many and if you will the most but that ever it is so that we never after conversion repent truly of a grosse sinne but our sorrow is much and great I thinke there is no such thing in the word of God many have that initiall repentance brought about by the pricking of a pin without a Lance by the sweet musicke of the Gospell without any great noise of the law and so I say there after repentance too when they by occasion and tentation fall into some foule fact and then againe how much this sorrow must bee that will keepe one from relapsing and ever doing so againe is past my wit to conceive the quantity of it and the conscience must be able to spell it out and to say thus much I must grieve else my repentance is not right for
for feare lest hee be out who could say perfect till hee came to say and a girle being threatned and terrified breaks the glasse only for feare of breaking it so when we are in feare joyned with discouragement Satan hath a great advantage and those sinnes amplified and set up doe mightily faint and discourage the heart and spirits of men and who can fight with any heart against an enemy that hee hath little or no hope to conquer Now when we doe make our sins worser than they are then it doth secretly steale away our hope and so we make no great hast to resist nor have no great heart to fight we then must learne not to make it lesse lest we be too slothful nor more lest we be too fearefull but just as the matter is as neere as we can that so wee may bee fitted and prepared to fight the good fight of faith with diligence and watchfulnesse 2. Wee must not suffer the thoughts of these horrible tentations to tarry in our mindes they are Gods and our greatest enemies and we must shut the doore against them what if we dislike and distaste them yet as one notes this rowling of them up and downe in our heads doth show that there is an insensible likening of them in our hearts we must set our hatred against them and thrust them away presently and hold it a dangerous thing to thinke of them God cannot take it well if wee mislike a thing in judgement and doe not set against it with the meanes God hath appointed and sanctified to that use Satan will coozen us as though that our very misliking of them were enough in things foule and that there were no feare of danger wheras nature it selfe doth looke sadly at these tentations and the mislike we feele may well come from the influence of the law and light of nature I have learned that we are never the further off from a tentation for our misliking it onely but the nearer except withall in affection we humble for it as well as distaste it in our judgments what if the dislike be not because it is a sin but because there is some feare or shame This is selfe-love and pride and this will worke in the sin if we goe no further and that by Gods just judgement our duty then is not to suffer the thoughts of such wounding and terrifying tentations to tumble up and downe in our mindes though we have no minde to them for either by discouraging us or enticing us they will get further hold but wee must cast them off set the word against them and turne our thoughts to some better subject and chiefly to thinke on those two great Dayes the day of Death and the day of Iudgement 3. Wee must of all see that we set not against those of our owne strength we can doe nothing by our owne power against any lust but least in these because what through feare horror in som what through the swinge and violent torrent of these two passions of anger and lust a man hath but little use of that reason he hath and so the more he strives this way the worse it is it doth but encrease our desires to the sinne our strength is here to pray and expect and laying all naturall and carnall weapons aside let God alone to doe all and out of grace it is that hee doth doe for us what he doth in our trials and conflicts and therefore Paul had his answer that all was to bee done by the grace and mercy of God and so we finde that the Lord said not to him my power but my grace is sufficient for thee wherefore we must put al upon the power and grace of God turne Satan to God to Christ for his answer set the grace of God against our sins when comming to prevent them when come to pardon them set the power of God against the strength of them all beleeve it that the grace of God is sufficient either to prevent us or preserve us He is in great danger who in any but of all in these potent tentations goes by his owne wit or reason or worth or strength Hee is in safe case who can say I deserve nothing I can doe nothing but hurt my selfe and make worke for sinne and Satan I meane to put all upon GOD who will worke mightily in me and for me but the grace of God which is with me he is all in all hee will doe all or nothing that he may have all the praise of his grace The helpes which serve in severall for every particular assault might be many some we will propose and first for those tentations which are in things of God then in things of man for God we are much assaulted to Atheisme and Blasphemy to Atheisme as the greatest sin that is in that it smites at the roote of all for to say the truth all sin is from Atheisme for who would sin did he then verily thinke that there were a God that saw all and would punish all and such a God God must be or no God and to Atheisme for when we have sinned sinne doth draw towards Atheisme exceedingly wipes out all notions of a Deity as much as it can and when wee are in sin wee must bee either willing to get out of it by repentance or else wee shall bee willing to turne Atheists the best of our play then being to feed our selves with a conceit that all is but talke to hold men in awe and that there is indeed neither heaven nor hell no place of torment that when wee dye all is gone no otherwise than with a Beast when the conscience will not get quiet by turning to God by repentance then it will seeke to quiet it selfe by unbeliefe bearing it selfe in hand that there is no such thing as hell to torment men in consider withall that Sathan doth all he can to make men Atheists because when there is no feare of God before mens eyes they will sinne all manner of sinnes that the divell would have them sin So Psal 14. The foolish hath said in his heart there is no God what followes They are corrupt they have done abominable works thus then when once men take to Atheisme they grow most corrupt and doe abominable workes there is no hoe in sinning then for what shold or can keep the wit and wil of man in when once wee conceit that there is no such thing as God the divell cannot bee a flat Atheist for he beleeves trembles and were it nothing but the sence he hath of the wrath of God tormenting why That is enough to prove that Satan doth fully undoubtedly acknowledge a Divine power He is not an Atheist because he cannot because he shall not but yet he beares good will to Atheisme because that sin doth much advantage his kingdome Saint Iames doth prove that God tempts no man
their sin of blasphemy against God too great for him to pardon as though it were possible for man to sinne a sinne which Gods mercy being simply infinite had not enough in it to forgive it This their errour is worse than the first to thinke so meanly of the rich and high and boundlesse mercy of the most Eternall and Infinite GOD we must now learne better to prize the mercy of God and say I cannot once repent of a sin bee it ever so great and maine but the mercy of God is ready to forgive it Could the Blasphemer against the Holy Ghost repent he must have his pardon conceive wee hope of pardon and then we will returne to the Lord by repentance and the Lord will take away the guilt and wash away the staine of this great sin The third tentation is of perjury Here we must take great heed that we doe not forsweare our selves chiefly in open Court where if any where a man should shew himselfe a religious a true a just and an honest man a fruit it is of deep Atheisme to perjure ones selfe and perjured persons bee hated of God and man wherefore the conscience will deepely and bitterly accuse for this sinne of perjury I could wish all men who love their owne quiet and have a desire to sleep in a whole conscience that they would take heed that they do not take a false oath come what will rather dye a thousand deaths it is much against the light of nature and more against the light of Scripture and these two will flye in our faces with wild fire and except God bee mercifull to us make us weary of God and of our selves And me thinkes by the way Women may comfort themselves against the infirmities and troubles which have ever bin afflicted on their sex since they were first in the transgression I say that sex may see a mercy that they are not so subject to this sinne of formall perjury as men are they serve not in Iuries grand or petty they are not brought in Courts to take oathes in Homages and the like they serve not the office of Church-wardens and so are not sworne and deposed any thing so often as men hence they have a great freedome from sinning this vexing sinne over men have which I would have them thanke God for and amongst other matters take this as a recompence for those many inflictions and revenges which God at first laid on that sex so that in respect of this sin and some other tentations that they are free from over men bee they may when they doe thinke of it even thanke God that they were made women and not men let not then Satan bring us into this brake it is hard getting out of it Feare an oath and of all such oathes wherein wee doe wrong and hurt to men for though there be sometimes some corruption in it as tasting of selfe-love to our selves yet for certaine sins wherein wee wrong men whom we see doe so much the more torment and racke the conscience of man and many men have mightily miscarried for this offence and sin of perjury wherefore beware and now to provide for the worst we must tell the man who hath done this sin that there is hope in Israel concerning this sinne also David himselfe was not still as good as his oath as in the case of Mephibosheth hee fell short of that oath of the Lord which hee made to Ionathans house and family and because instances work easier on weake spirits than Rules I would have such to thinke of Peter who did forsweare and renounce the person of Christ and when But in his troubles and where But in the High Priests Hall and who Why Peter a chiefe Apostle in the love and favour of Christ his master and is not Peter in heaven Teares of repentance will fetch out the deepest staine that this sinne of perjury can possibly make but it is the Rule must settle us at last and it is that if wee repent of any sin bee it never so great in substance in circumstances it is as no sinne to us I said I will acknowledge my sin he was but about to doe it and God forgave the iniquity the guilt of his sin If we confesse our sins indefinitely set downe our sins without exception GOD is faithfull and just to forgive them it stands upon him in respect of his Iustnesse to be as good as his word to forgive all repentant sinners all their sins S. Iob 33. 27. If one say I have sinned hee will deliver his soule say peccavi and cry GOD mercy and we shall saith Salomon have mercy mercy presently in pardoning of our sins and mercy now some and then some in healing our iniquities Never did any man confesse his sin to God but hee went away with his pardon wicked men may confesse to their fellowes and to good men they may as Saul did to David but it is an harder matter than so for a man to confesse to God except it be for company or for outward glory but for a man to take God aside to confesse alone to him I thinke a wicked man cannot doe that I finde no instance in the Word that ever any unregenerate man did it A man had need have hope of pardon to confesse to the Iudge Adam did flye from God fell to shifting and so wee doe all while wee are as hee then was out of the state of grace I meane not the grace of election no man can have hope of pardon but by faith and by that I doe hold that it is a signe of a godly man to confesse all alone to God and then I can never beleeve that a man will confesse his sin honestly and ingeniously betwixt GOD and his owne soule except he hate that sinne Now how a wicked man can come to the hatred of his sinne is past my skill to understand To come backe I say despaire not it is worse than perjury it makes GOD a lier or worse than a lier it accuseth him of a kinde of perjury for a man to say there is no hope no pardon to be had repent we never so much sith God hath not only said it but sworne it that he will not the death of a repentant sinner repent and bee pardoned The fourth is breaking of Vowes a vow broken doth crack the comfort of mans conscience exceedingly A vow is defined to bee a religious promise made to God I say that every vow is such a promise but al such promises are not vowes for a vow properly and strictly taken is when a promise is made to GOD of this or that within our power with condition of obtaining some what at Gods hands other promises are simply made and absolutely without any such condition of getting any thing from the hands of God and thus Baptisme is soundly and learnedly denied to bee formally
a vow The Schooles teach us that two things are of the very Essence of a vow 1. A promise 2. An obligation and binding of a mans selfe and thus we see hee that breakes his vow violates two things 1. His duty 2. His fidelity hee deales undutifully and unfaithfully with God and from this it is that breach of a solemne vow doth so bite the conscience because we doe not onely faile but which goes nearer forfeit our fidelity A double bond is broken and a double blow is given to the conscience and the minde is made to be full of trouble and now because there breeds such a stirre in the conscience of a man when once hee hath broken his vow therefore I would wish that men would bee but sparing in making of vowes there is use and place for vowes and great good they doe but it is a duty â—â—â—â—er for a strong Christian than for every young beginner It is strange to see how Satan doth push on every boy and girle on any occasion to runne into a corner and there to make vowes it showes that the duty is not so spiritual for a man to tye himselfe to do that he should doe without any such obligation in that we find our selves too too forward to run into vowes whereas to comfortable duties we are unwilling enough God loves a willing people and wee should serve him with a free spirit and vowes which are as shackles are not to bee used but in some cases of some necessity when otherwise we cannot hold our selves to some particulars in the worship of God or in our daily life and his opinion is not sound as I thinke who saith that a worke done with a vow is more laudable and acceptable than the same worke and duty done without a vow A vow broken doth punish the heart of a Godly man extreamly no man can say how much but they who have felt the smart of it and when rash vowes are made Satan was never so earnest to move us to make theÌ„ but he doth as much to make us breake them and then thou art a child of God and a breaker of vowes Awâ—v man never once goe about to thinke that there is any favour for thee in heaven My advice is then First that wee bee sparing in vowing sith we breake many and keepe few Doctor Stanpicius saith Luther was wont to say I have vowed to GOD above a thousand times that I would become a better man but I never performed that which I vowed hereafter I wil make no such vow for I have now learned by experience that I am not able to performe it This is too much to say one will never vow again who can say what need one may have what good a vow may doe one I rather follow him who wils us to vow but for a time as a man who hath beene overtaken with drinke in such and such places company or so may doe well to tye himselfe by a vow not to come where they are for a Moneth or so and then see what he can doe whether he can forbeare without a vow and if hee can that is taken best at the hands of GOD but if we finde some relique of the humor still then vow for a Moneth more and so at length by times the conquest will be had to bind our selves by perpetuall vowes is not so convenient because our nature is even made to break those bonds that wee doe binde our selves with for continuance and our mouthes will water our flesh will itch the more to breake them wherefore I have held it an high point of wisdome first to vow no oftner than needs must and then to doe it but for a short period of time whether wee doe it oftner or seldomer for a longer or a shorter space to doe all by the grace of God and never once thinke to make or to keepe our vow so made but by and through the onely and the speciall hand of God his strength must doe it and therefore a vow made without prayer is never kept Secondly but to provide for the worst make the case that we have broken our vowes yet wee must not spend our spirits too much with hellish melancholy so we shall carry an hell in our consciences our tormenting our selves with extremities of legall sorrowes will doe us no good nor God no pleasure we may hurt our selves by it and that is all the good which comes of punishing our selves over and above The way is to returne to the Lord with all speed and to bring us to God wee must know that it is no such sinne as bad as it is but that we may be Gods servants for all that for hardly was there over a more godly man than Iacob and hee wee know vowed a vow and it was to make that stone to be GODS Chappell and hee being now but a poore man doth promise that in case God would give him but bread to eate and cloathes to put on that God should bee his God and have the tenth of all but wee finde that God did not onely give him necessaries but abundances hee came over with his staffe but he returned with two armies and now being made rich we finde no great remembrance of nor haste to performe his vow One would thinke if ever man were bound to bee as good as his vow it was Iacob yet we find he did nothing in it for a great time but lingred as though he had no care of his promise made to God for wee read Gen. 31. 13. some twenty yeeres after the making of that his vow God was faine by an Angell to pluck him by the eare to give him an Item in plaine words saying I am the God of Bethell where thou annointedst the pillar and where thou vowedst a vow now arise get thee out from this land and returne unto the land of thy kindred One would thinke here were plaine English and round dealing enough and yet for all this Iacob is slow and makes no speed to hie him up to Bethel View the particulars 1. I am the God of Bethel 2. Where thou annointedst the Pillar 3. Where thou vowedst a vow unto me all are as so many instances to put him in minde of his promise and vow made to God that he might now arise at last and be as good as his word to God yet for all this Iacob lies behinde delayes the performance of his vow which sloth and sin of his God did punish First by Esaus lying in waite for him Secondly by having his onely daughter deflowred Thirdly by the rage and murther committed by his sonnes upon which horrible and hypocriticall Massacre the good old man cried out that they had made him stinke and that now the next would be that the Nations would unite and destroy him and his house Now the Lord tooke him when his heart was downe
with those heavy tydings and grievous feares and just in the nick God said unto him Arise goe up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an Altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled'st from the face of Esau thy brother and then both long and late yet at least being drawne to it Iacob doth performe his vow It is true he did it though it were long first yet wee see the Lord was faine to fire him out of his negligence and to force him to remember himselfe His putting off so often his long delaying was as great a sinne as our very breaking of our vow neither had he ever done it had he bin let alone and yet Iacob was all this while a deare servant of God and he was pardoned his delaying his vow and he is in heaven let us not thinke but our case is good albeit we have made and broken many a vow Repentance will come heale all againe The summe is that we make no more vowes than needs must sith Satan is apt to thrust us on our vows knowing that our nature is sick to breake out when it is so bound and when we have failed then hee roares and cries there is nothing left but hell and desperation for a covenant-breaker with God and therefore wee must be choice this way never to vow but when we are truly called unto it and when we are called to it to vow and feare nothing sith wee vow not on our owne strength but only on the power and grace of God were we to performe the vow by any force any wit of our owne men should rather vow never to vow than to vow at all but sith we go by the help presence and assistance of God when wee have a calling to it vow and spare not and if wee doe fall so farre as to breake our vowes yet let us hold our own we are not the first others have done it and are in heaven it is a pardonable sinne repentance will take up the matter betwixt God and us make us as good and perhaps better friends than ever The best friendship is often after a falling out and wee must know that many times repentance pleaseth God better than never to have done the sin because it humbles a man more and drives a man more out of himselfe and there is as much saith in it for a man to beleeve that God on his meere repenting will forgive him as there is in holding out against the tentation and not breaking the vow at all neither is it besides the booke to say that there is as much grace in it for a man when hee is downe to repent and returne as there is in not falling at all for by our fall the powers of the soule are weakened the force of grace is decaied and the strength of our sinfull matter is confirmed and the conscience of a man after a fall is as a distempered lock the more wee tamper with it the worse all this showes that it is a signe of much love great favour of God to repent of a great and foule fault it is the vomit of the soule and of all physick none so difficult and hard as it is to vomit and therfore we must comfort our selves and say I confesse I did God great wrong in breaking my promise and did highly provoke him but I now see that hee meaneth all good to my soule in that he hath given mee the heart and grace to repent of my sin and this is a fruit of an upright heart to take displeasure at sin There is I know an uprightnesse and that is of obedience when we sin but a few sins in comparison so Ezekiah comforted himselfe in that he walked uprightly before the Lord. 2. Another of repentance when we catch many sore fals sin many great heynous sins but yet we pick up al againe by mourning and repentance so David did and his heart was all out as upright as ever Hezekiahs was he was a man after Gods owne heart and carries as large-testimonies of his uprightnesse and sincerity as the Old testament hath any Now this uprightnesse of repentance is as sincere and showes as true an heart to God as the other of obedience rest wee then our comfort on this point that say we have not kept our selves to our covenant and our vow yet saving that it must and wil cost us sorrow upon sorrow our repenting of our breach of promise is as pleasing to God and ought to bee as comfortable to us as our Not sinning would have been and sith God thinks never the worse of us for our breaking our vow we must not be more just or more holy than God we must not thinke ever the worse of our selves The last is unbeleefe and a kind of Atheisme as touching Christ Iesus Atheisme I call it with the Apostle sith he that is without Christ is without God and when a man is a spirituall man hee shall finde that his unbeleefe this way will mightily punish his cōscience for lose our hold here and all is lost it being not faith in God but Christ which doth save us and this is an high and an hard point of Divinity here a man is put upon a totall deniall of himselfe sense reason and all but meere pure faith is against it A man hath a law of nature and principles answerable which teach him somewhat concerning the Being of God a man hath in him as hee is a man somewhat which will give a kind of sight of GOD but for Christ his Nature his Birth his Offices his Death his Resurrection natures law hath not a letter in it to teach us any thing concerning these matters they are Mysteries heavenly Riddles nothing can spell them and find them out but faith alone they are ours onely by revelation as good goe about to fore-see future contingents as to finde out any thing as touching Christ Iesus except by the Word and Spirit only Things in the morall law finde some seeds in the light and law of nature but ask nature at the best as touching Christ and the answer is that the Gospell is foolishnesse God to be made man by dying to conquer death to rise and not rot in the grave and for manhood to put it selfe for the maine of heaven happinesse on one who 〈◊〉 as the worst of the three was crucified betwixt two theeves these are things impossible and incredible to flesh and bloud to beleeve Now here is a field yeelding a world of perplexities to the disputer and therefore our only course must be to become fooles in our selves that we may be wise in Christ to rely only on the Word of God to find out our Christ in the word to circumcise the eyes of reason it is faith must doe it I shall lose my selfe except I put my selfe upon It is written Say though
base corruptions or some dishonourable passions then this is from spirituall pride and all this is no true trouble of conscience at all we may know whether it be thus or not if that other sins as grosse and great in Gods sight which have in them or after them no shame nature shames not at them the world doth not cry shame of them but rather as many sinnes of profit and delight are in credit in the world and doe bring respect amongst men now if wee finde that such sins do passe without any such trouble the conscience saith as much as nothing though wee be convinced that they are sins if thus then the case is cleare that it is a trouble which wee make and not which sinne or God doth make It is shame as shame not sinne as sin that doth cause all this cry it is not for the sin but for the effect of sin that we thus complaine 2 If bad and not base whether to the face of the world or to the naturall principles which are in us then the troubles that wee feele in the conscience are spirituall and sincere they are for sinne as sinne because it is naught or rather because it is for bidden by God for many things have no morall naughtinesse in them yet are sins because they are forbidden by God and if these things trouble the minde such wounds come the right way and God will cure them as because wee heare not the Word receive not the Sacrament which in the dictates of nature were no sinnes had not Gods written law bin In a word when we finde that the blow our conscience doth give us is because the fact is a fault a thing forbidden by God here the matter doth run right and it is very conscience which moves in that case 3. When bad and base both the terror is great and it proves an occasion of great humiliation and casting a man downe wee are so proud and high in our owne conceits that base tentations which produce inward shame to the minde of a man and if they come abroad outward shame and scorne amongst men doe mightily abase a man and are an excellent cure for spirituall pride Here wee shall finde a mixt passion working feares in the heart and complaints in the conscience of a man for as the sin is bad so it doth trouble because it threatens the wrath of God and is accompanied many times with a fore-feeling of the wrath to come As it is base so it doth draw over the heart and conscience of a man an inward blushing and shame and I may say it that true internall shame making the conscience red againe with blushing testifies repentance more and rather than sorrow A wicked man may grieve but for this spirituall intrinsicall shame it is not in wicked men we must note that an outward shame is in the unregenerate when they have sinned some sins which the world doth point at this is a shame before man and there is some inward shame also which wicked men do feele in themselves too and that is in and for such sins as are against the law of nature and such conviction as generall illumination and common graces doe cause here the heart will blush but in such sins as are not knowne to be sins but by the conviction of the spirit here to shame to have an heart as red as fire with a blushing before GOD this is a good thing and proper to the godly and it is most when the sins are base thinke not that there is any sin which is not base in it selfe but to us and in comparison we use to name some speciall sins base sins this is that shame Paul meanes what fruit have you in those things wherof ye are now ashamed Ro. 6. 21 Yee are now which showes that when and whilst they were in the state of nature they were not ashamed of them Well then a wicked man may grieve for sin because of the punishment feared or felt or both because there is wrath hanging over his head by an haire because sins lyes at the doore and here are selfe-respects out of love and care to our skin because we would not be punished here or hereafter but this shame is not because sin is punishable but by reason that it is filthy it ariseth from the turpitude of sin and this is hearty to make a stand at sin because it is filthy and ugly To be ashamed of some effects of sin as Adam in his fall I meane at his nakednesse is in wicked men but to have this inward shame in the coÌ„science because of the innate filthinesse and turpitude of sin this is not in the wicked nor in their trouble of minde and was not in Iudas when I say there is not onely griefe for sin as bad as punishable as bad respecting God as punishable respecting our selvs but also a shame in the mind of a man that he cannot looke up for blushing then it is as it should be and the pang of conscience which comes from this sorrow and shame is many times very great and this is a troublesom estate while it doth last but it is not danger ouâ— To apply the three sins I mentioned viz. Theft Vncleannesse Murther doe smite home partly because they be bad and partly because they be base 1. To begin with Theft wee must beware that wee doe not filch the worth of a penny froÌ„ any man that which in our common notation is called theft is more base than the great sin of Rapine and Robery because that in rapine there is som manhood and fortitude showed such as it is but in theft is nothing but a base minde and because the law is so strict and flat against theeving the name of a theefe is odious and it doth pay our hearts home and there is very much trouble of minde because men doe use to spit at this sin and the reason is rather because it is a wrong to man than for that it is a sinne against God and sure wee must see that wee doe keepe cleane fingers that by no kinde of unjust alienation wee either take or keepe any thing from any body which in right is his wee all love to be truly and justly dealt with and therefore nature it selfe if it may bee heard speake will cry fye and shame upon a false finger Because then it maks a breach into the meum tuum of mâ—n which we see rather than for that it doth make a breach in the law of GOD which wee see not this sinne doth clogge the consciences of men what ever the ful cause be we finde that it doth pester the minde of man and the conscience held and hampered with a clogge is like a distempered lock which no key will open we must therefore to keep our conscience as free as may bee beware that wee doe not touch that which is anothers but if
is towards him albeit for the present wee feele not our hearts and affections to move towards him our affections are usually most deepe when they run on without any noise wherefore what ever Satan puts upon us we must hold our owne that for all him and his tentations and those impulsions of Originall sin we doe love our selves and love our second selves full dearely and would be full loth to suffer any wrong to bee done to them 2 The true and right meanes of helpe in these bloudy tentations are First to labour to bee contented with our selves the peace wee have the comfort wee have the health wee have the meanes we have and considering what we doe deserve to blesse God that it is no worse with us A cheerefull heart is not subject to such malicious motions of the divell he useth to worke on man whom hee takes to bee discontented We are alone thinking on heaven by some Well-side he seeing us alone taking us to bee there in some discontented moode thrusts at us with a tentation to cast our selves into the water here runne not away walke on still proceed in good meditations thrust away these thoughts that are put in by the divell and know that our Originall sin is the receiver worse than the theefe 2. Humble for that wee carry about with us such a corrupt heart as will on such occasions take thought of discontent it is our proud flesh that will not sit downe under some heavey crosse and because we have not al we would have and cannot bee that wee would be we care not to be at all we must have as others have else wee fall a powting presently we must learne to be thankfull for any life downe with the proud humour bee not high minded these thunders and lightnings of tentations are to fright us and by such feare to bring us to walke humbly before the Lord. 3. See what sin wee live in if in any that is a true cause of deepe discontent repent of that doe the contrary duty sin is the proper cause not to the crosse which makes us weary of our lives Satan sets our eyes onely on the crosse for he knowes it is out of our reach to remove that but indeed it is some sinne that doth pinch us and put a sting into the affliction and we have it in our hands by repentance to remove the sin and the crosse will remove it selfe Goe to God to finde out the sinne for us and away with that if there bee any and as when the tooth is once drawne we shall finde ease and peace presently if we bee not weary of sinne it is but fit wee should be made to be weary of our selves if no sin then know it is to humble us and to fit us for some great peece of service that the Lord meanes to imploy us in Waite and joyne with the tentation to rend the heart to bring the minde low and then it will be gone 4. See whether we do not abuse God and our selves in our wives and children perhaps we dote upon them make so many Gods of them and if so then it is reason that they shold by this tentation be made bitter unto us that wee may have wives and children as though wee had none at all or if otherwise we sinne against God in them oâ— for them let this goe for the cause why Satan is set on and let on us with such killing suggestions that we may be corrected in the very thing wherein wee have offended 5. That which must hit it on the head and doe the deed it selfe is to get it off by prayer by a fast if need bee and by the Word There are some which will not off but by prayer and fasting but there are none so terrible so strong but prayer and fasting will give us ease and comfort against them but the matter must bee sanctified to us by the Word wee must bring Scripture not reason To tell Satan or our selves of the shame of the danger to us to ours will not doe the deed that which will worke the worke is to set the word of commandement of promise of the threatning against the powers of Sathan I shall sin if I doe I shall offend God It is written thou shalt not kill if not an enemy then not a friend if not a friend then much lesse my selfe Love to mine enemy is the reason why I must not murther him love doth begin at home and it runs warmest in mine owne veines in mine owne bosome therefore I will not lay hands on my selfe I shall dye the death if I doe The word and prayer will fright him away sin and Satan care for nothing feare nothing but the word they are the Ordinances and the power of God and by his might do extinguish all the fiery darts of the divell 6. Never thinke of making any mends or satisfaction by destroying ones selfe for any sin perhaps Iudas thought by killing himselfe to make some amends for his horrible murther committed against the person and life of Christ Iesus Satan never doth a man more hurt than when hee comes preaching and sets upon us with holy ends that because we have done this or that grand offence and abuse to God that therefore they are to pacifie him or to satisfie him by sacrifising of our selves This corrupt Divinity growes in our flesh as we see by those who fetch their penniworth as they thinke out of themselves by whipping themselves a mad part it is for a man to thinke that by committing murther the greatest of all murthers upon himselfe to make any an ends for their sinfull life and yet so foolish doth the divell make som men Beware of this deceit fire is not put out with fire no satisfaction can possibly bee made but by the bloud of the Lambe that holy Lambe Christ Iesus and I would have men beware how they plead for such as draw their owne bloud because thereby they doe make way for Satan to push hard on the consciences of weake Christians by bearing them in hand that they may ease themselves of some present horrors by killing themselves and yet be saved in heaven for all that such cases perhaps may possibly be but for man to pleade for such to exempt them out of the rule may make foule worke for Satan to play upon the weaknesse of many poore Christians souls I know no medicine next to the Word and prayer of better use to hold such mens hands from their own lives than feare of being damned in hell an indirect plea it is for any to speak for such and full of danger some think thereby to ease perplexed consciences but it is the ready way to perplex the hearts and engulsie the soules of feeble Christians they doe not know what hurt they doe to men under this tentation to vent such unsavory Doctrine that a man do well for the main for all this that
in many Nations And many particular persons have doted wonderfully after this preposterous lust and have taken more bruitish and hellish delight in it than in those passions which are according to nature This then must be avoided by all meanes and all occasions of it warily eschewed he sinne is great it is a corrupting and a rotting of the very rudiments of nature in all things looke what corrupts the foundation and principall of things must needs be worst The punishment was great in that utter overthrow of Sodome In the Deluge water from heaven drownds here as in their sinne they had over-turned the law of nature so in their punishment there was an inversion of the course of nature for not water but fire came from heaven and burned them whose lusts were thus set on fire of hell It is used as a type of hell it is a crying sin The cry of Sodome and Gomorrah is great Gen. 18. 20. There is no sin but hath a voice but this amongst many and above most other sins hath a lowd and a crying voice it is heard to heaven it hath a lowd mouth to accuse which cry is nothing else but the guilt of conscience and the justice of God the conscience being full of matter and ready to accuse and God to heare As a man through importunity is drawn to execute justice against his minde so this sin doth so put God to it that hee must needs proceed except we come with hearty repentance hee cannot res nor be just till hee have sorely and sharpely punished it The thing I urge then sith the sin and the guilt is so great and will make such a noise in the conscience is by all meanes to keepe from the sin and from all spice of it to shun all occasions of it to take heed of that which Quintilian puts off in a Schoole-Master which is Nimium est quod intelligitur and he is so strict this way that he will not have bigger and lesser youths sit much together We may see what wrought Sodome to this sin Idlenesse pride fulnesse of bread these must be heedfully avoided and such sins as wee read Rom. 1. were in the justice of God punished with and by this passion of dishonour we must be thankfull to God for the light we have and in some measure walke according to the truth wee see They made God like a foure-footed beast and GOD gave them up to a sin which did abase them into a worse condition than of beasts and for such as are unmaried and have not the gift and by the use of al the meanes cannot get it such must know that it is better to marry than to burne and if they will rather burne than marry they are in a foule way to fall into this scalding sin which sin if they commit brings with it a world of misery and after when such shall happen to marry by the just hand of God they are suffered for a punishment of the former wickednesse to forsake as Paul saith the naturall use and run into that which is unnaturall and these are most monstrous lusts when all is done by way of preparation disposition of our hearts and thoughts against these corruptions that which will save us from the staine of these filthy puddles must be the pure and holy Word of God Set the Word against the sin and the sin is laid set the Word against Satan in this his tentation and â—atan cannot abide by it Satan 〈◊〉 no more abide the light of 〈◊〉 Word than an Owle can 〈◊〉 â—â—ining of the Sun say I 〈…〉 doe it I may not I 〈◊〉 it is forbidden in such 〈◊〉 place and againe in such a place It is called not onely a sinne but which shewes an height of sinning abomination both of them have committed abomination saith the text The punishment of it by Gods own Law was death no lesse than death present death they shall surely bee put to death their bloud shall bee upon them and the law was flat and peremptory that no Sodomite must bee amongst the sons of Israel and in that never the like reformation Iosiah brake downe the houses of the Sodomites which were by the house of the Lord 2 Kings 23. 7. Asa the father and Iehosaphat the sonne had swept away those unclean nests in their dayes but we see they grew on againe till Iosiah came and made a ful purgation These and such other places show that this sin is strong â—â—â—den and severely 〈◊〉 to which adde the wrath 〈◊〉 God on such in hell 1 Cor. â— These are the best medicines that bee which being rightly used and applied doe ever doe the cure Next to provide against the worst say a man be a sinner in this great wickednesse yet he must not run away from his father that will marre all There be I know degrees in this sinne but say it bee at the worst yet there is mercy with God repentance will make it up againe it is good to make all hast to returne sith lasciviousnesse is a sin which useth to seare up the conscience till the time of reckoning for al comes and God doth sometimes after a while shut up his gates of mercy and then as Chrysostome notes often though Noah Iob Moses Samuel and Daniel shold intercede it would bee to no purpose They were men of God who in their times did by their prayers do great things and compasse marvellous matters for particular persons for Families for Countries and yet when the glasse is out and the decree determined is past when the time is over wherein God may be found their prayers for others come in too late it is good then to bee at it with the soonest I meane not that ever it is too late to repent or that if we repent we can misse of mercy No no the fountaine stands open alwayes open in the house of David for sin and for uncleannesse and this unclean person as Paul cals him if he repent he shall finde mercy God forbid we should have such a thought as though this sin could staine so deepe that the bloud of Christ could not fetch it out our meaning is that whilst the conscience is awake and we have a faire offer made us by the Word and Spirit knocking at our hearts it is good wisdome to take Gods offer delaies be dangerous for if we will not know the day of our visitation God may and what if in justice he shall refuse to give us to repent then let our friends move for us God will not heare were they as good at praying as ever Iob Daniel Noah and Samuel were Let such then who are in this offence come in by all meanes in all hast to the Lord and when the Angell moves the water step into this Bath this Fountaine know that GOD would never
move our hearts to repent and returne had hee not a meaning to pardon and to accept as looke into the 1 Cor. 6. and there we read that some who were thus sinfull were yet sanctified were washed and are now with Christ and if they then why not some now It is not to the purpose that they were so before their callings sith Divines do agree that there is no one sinne that a man may commit before his calling but should God leave that man to himselfe to his lust to Satan he might and would and should commit the same sin after neither lies there any reason why on our repentance a sin done before is pardoned and the same sin if wee repent after must stand unpardonable or that a man may repent of a sin done before ones conversion and not repent of the same sin after adde but this that the sin committed before is in it selfe greater than the same sin committed after for before it is done with a full swing saving that perhaps the law of nature and in-bred modesty doth at the first make some recoile but after calling there being some seeds at least of grace in the wil there is some inward opposition made it is not done without some saying nay in the law of their minde and so the sin is the lesser Now if repentance could doe it at first when the sin was greater can wee question whether repentance doth fetch it off when the sin is lesser Indeed if no repentance no healing no not of the least knowne sin but if we repent all our Divinity lies upon it that such shall bee pardoned and that God hath not peremptorily bound himselfe to deny repentance unto life to any sinner except the blasphemer against the Holy Ghost is point agreed on in our Schooles and Pulpits Indeed if such as are in this foule fault doe finde that it workes a stupifying that it seares takes away the inward power of discerning things that are not convenient deadens our tast if such finde that their inward touch-stone hath now lost its vertue the danger is a great deale the greater because such having little or no feeling of their estate are not as yet in the way to repentance but if such finde it a fiery dart burning like any poyson working a world of troubles in the minde and a fearefull consternation in the conscience then there is the more hope that true humiliation and mercy is not far off such have a faculty in them which will worke out of their feares a desire to be eased and if once upon sight of the promises they conceive hope of mercy they are in a faire way to repent of their wickednesse and that God who hath made tender of his mercy to worse than Sodomites will receive those to favour upon true sorrow for what is past and stedfast resolution to doe so no more for the time to come And here I will leave this uncomfortable argument wishing all who meane not say they do scape hell to carry the smoke of this sinne to their graves to flye from it Now because I said that when in committing a sinne the conscience is against it the sin is the lesse I will not conceale what a late Divine saith that the sin is the greater when it is done when the conscience doth say no for saith he if this were any signe of a mans having grace that in acting his sin he feeles a moving within against those sinnes he doth doe it would follow that great sinners aye all sinners might perswade themselves that their estate were good because there is a con-flicting against vices out of the principles of natures light which are in the brests more or lesse of all men living that in an unregenerate man sins against the naturall conscience are the worse even in that respect because he doth them against his conscience is most true We must then say that when the sin is done against the voice of the conscience sometimes it makes the sinne the lesse sometimes the worse If we take part with the sinne against the conscience are angry that our conscience would not let us take that fill of Delight and content in committing the sinne and are not willing that conscience should say any thing unto us when we have done here the sin is much the worse because it was done against conscience but now if we take part with the voice within and are heartily sorry that the temptation and our passion meeting together doe beare downe the power of our conscience and doe what wee can to take part with the reluctation while it is a doing and when it is done nothing in the world troubles us so much as that wee did not give way to the act of conscience and keepe from the sinne and doe joyne with our conscience against our lust and are putting more strength into the power of grace and conscience against another time In this case when wee take part with the conscience against the sinne it makes the sinne the lesser which the ungodly never doe but doe joyne with the sinne against the conscience and for inward combates there are some in the unregenerate where no grace is betwixt originall sinne and other habituall lusts and the Law of Nature but not with such sinnes as nothing saith are sinnes but the Word and Spirit of GOD. In unnaturall Lusts wee grant there is some strife in some yea in most unregenerate men but in other more spirituall sinnes there neither is nor can bee that civill warre within because there is not a power of grace to make the resistance how-ever the wicked doe take part with Lust even against the Law and rules of Nature which circumstance doth aggravate theiâ— sinnes but of the difference betwixt the combate which is onely in the good and that combate which is also in the bad there is enough and enough said by Divines to Satisfie any man and in this point all care must bee used to keepe off unnaturall passions the sting of conscience is great the cure is hard and so much the more difficulâ—â— because what for the danger and what for the shame of them men cannot be easily brought to make their minde knowne to any man which gives the greatest advantage to Satan to worke his will upon us but if any be overtaken in any hand let him send up to God and in case GOD put him off out with it to some spirituall man who must and will and as God shall be pleased to blesse his labours shall restore him with the Spirit of meekenesse Next wee are to looke over those which are naturall called naturall because that nature hath an end in them for though the wrong way in unlawfull lust yet they tend to the propagation and continuation of mankinde and first for such as are single then for such as are married 1. Such are single if God give them by the use of
be up and down in the world and have much society where men are and yet must not bee maried except some one will come and have her with nothing Examples of any that have so done are so rare that in my experience I never knew any 2. Next when we are to enter our selves and ours into mariage we must see to the chiefe and the principall end which is as the state of man is since the fall to keep a man chast he that maks mariage to be the meanes in his intention to make him rich maries in the flesh and not in the Lord hee cannot with any face invite the Lord to the wedding Mammon not the Lord doth lead the Bride to Church the Apostle saith it is not good for a man to touch a woman but yet saith he to avoid fornication he saith not to pay debts to get money to make one rich let every man have his owne wife but to avoid fornication Matrimony then was ordained to make men and keepe men chast and not to make men rich And we doe finde that many of those who marry to bee rich which is their end and have rich widdowes too after mariage doe attaine neither their owne end nor Gods marry and after are neither rich nor chast and then they fall upon mariage with many heavy complaints and cries and that if there bee any hell above ground it is in mariage We must then be before hand and marry so seasonably for time and so wisely proportionably for age and other convenient circumstances that it may preserve our chastity It is too late to bring water when the house is burnt as soone as the sparkes arise and it begin to grow toward burning and we see the smoke up goe to Physick there must be no time of lusting what ever there bee of woing many complaine of too much trouble in that estate because they bring sin with them thither there bee too many who are afraid to marry but not to sin and at last when it is heard late marry they doe and rue it all daies of their lives did we conceive what the horror of uncleannesse is like to be and that there is in the sinne of fornication a staine above other sins that it makes ones body the member of an harlot it doth defile the soule as in their manner all sins do it doth defile the body in making it an actor in the sin as many other sins doth it doth abuse the body in making it the member of an harlot which no other sin but the sin of uncleannesse doth and this will presse hard on the conscience when time shall serve that in sinning this sin the body is thus made the member of a strumpet 3. When entred into the estate we must be convinced of the greatnesse and foulnesse of the sin of adultery it gives a deadly blow to the 〈◊〉 it selfe it is cried out of exceedingly in the Word it cuts a-sunder the sinews of families we must judge of it by the Word not by the world Once I am sure amongst the Papists it was placed among the lesser sinnes and because too many every where stand guiltie of this sin the world hath not a right â—â—dgement of this sinne it doth corrupt the mind of a man and takes away the use of the power and faculty of discerning it brought Salomon the Wise to run into all idolatry against common sense And Sampson the strong made Iudge of Israel by a miracle from the Lord and therefore no foole though he knew that the harlot would betray him yet when he had once tasted of it hee did so lose his right wits that for his heart he could not forbeare we must not then thinke of this sinne as the world doth but as the LORD doth wee see customs takes away 〈◊〉 and judging exactly of any sin in the very Church it selfe and that a non after Christ we find that by reason of use the Christian Gentiles held fornication to be scarce a sin as we may see in that Synode in the Acts and the second Chapter of the Revelations a tricke of youth it was counted and is amongst too many but for a tricke of youth ye for such tricks God the just will damne men in hell unlesse they repent In 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. we reade that fornicators as distinct from adulterers and adulterers shal not inherit the kingdom of God and againe fornicators adulterers though men doe not as they should yet God wil judge Yea but say a man lye in the least knowne sinne that is he must not inherit the kingdome of heaven and therefore this is no argument to prove these sins to be great because they keepe out of heaven But these sins are named above others to shew that a man cannot be fornicator or adulterer and be in Christ A common practicer of those sinnes one cannot be but he must and shall allow them they are of that nature that they will lord it where they be but other lesser infirmities a man may practice them commonly and yet not allow them and so notwithstanding bee in Christ Iesus These then be sins whose ordinary use cannot stand with grace nor is compatible with ones being in Christ and by that meanes they are said to barre out of heaven over lesser and smaller thoughts and thus the argument is good and firme hence to prove them to be great sins what then love cannot doe let fear doe for God doth puniâ—â— these sins with a chiefly see this in Peter The Lord knoweth how to preserve the unjust to the day of judgement to bee punished but chiefly them that walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse Being convinced of the hainousnesse of this crime the next is that the mariage-bed must with all care be preserved in all purity the tentation is strong to fornication stronger to adultery for the worser a sin is the stronger is the impulsion of Originall lust unto it and Satan is more eager to make men adulterers after than fornicators before but here is the difference that as I shewed before except a man hath the gift hee that will not take Gods medicine and marry let him doe what he can use any use all other meanes yet he hath no promise it shal do but when married use the meanes and we have a promise and an assurance that we shall be kept undefiled let sin and Satan doe their worst The chiefe and necessary meanes to maintaine conjugall chastitie is for such to-love one another it is not the having but the loving of a yoake-fellow which doth keepe us cleane and chast 2. To keepe in with God in other matters for that man with whom the Lord is angrie for some other former matter shall fall into the hands of a filthy woman We must not then by lying and living in any other crime give God cause
nature would have lasted or might have lasted longer in almost all were it not for some defect excesse or default in our selves and therefore this accusation lies against almost all Secondly this is besides a mans intention to give his yeeres to the cruell The Libidinous intention is to satisfie this sin in the lusts thereof in that there is withall a waste of the radicall moysture and thereby a cutting off of his dayes this is by accident only and a consequent of the thing done not a thing meant by the door Thirdly sith repentance heales the pollution intended by the offender it is against Religion reason both to question whether it will heale the coÌ„sequent consumption not intended Amen OF VSURY Nehemiah 5. 11. Restore to them even thâ—◠〈◊〉 their Lands theiâ—â—â—â—e-yards their Olive 〈…〉 and their houses also the hundred part of the Money the Wine and the Oile that yee exact of them THE matter here is a case of Restitution of Lands Monies gotten froÌ„ the poore by usury so our last translation reades it Ver. 7. The Hebrew is Burden because usury is a great burthen and carries an heavy weight with it The hundred part of the money is meant either of the yeare then it is but one in the hundred or of the moneth as some thinke then it is twelve in the hundred We see that covetousnesse is rightly tearmed the roote of all evill of al wrongs and evill dealings besides other sins else it could not bee imagined that in their bondage the Iewes should thus have grated one upon another The place the time the scandall besides the expresse law of God one would have thought shold have made them forbeare but a covetous heart cannot hold he cares more for money than all reports of God and man The next thing of note is that what comes in by usury aswell as by other extortion must ordinarily be restored out of hand even this day it is not safe to give the heart of man time in any sin but of all not in this wilely sin of covetousnesse if ever Satan bee a fox and a serpent it is here give him but a space to play and angle a little with our hearts with this sin of worldlinesse he will quickly catch us with a golden hook It is great wisdome to be present the wit of man will distinguish else and creepe out by one evasion or other we are too apt to be pleased with any leafe and shift to beare our selves in hand that we may lawfully continue in such practises as feed this greedy humour this eating Wolfe doe it then while it is called to day doe it now lest our hearts deceive us and wee deceive our hearts and so we doe it never Delayes are ever dangerous but in nothing like as in getting out of the hands of sin but of no sin so as to get out of the snare of this sinne of covetousnesse The last thing is that Vsurers are bound by the Law of God to make restitution What ever comes in this way comes in at the wrong doore and it must out againe If the conscience be not â—eared it makes it sick againe there is paine there is no quiet till the conscience take a vomit and up comes all We use to Saint the man who doth but give over this golden trade of usury but the truth is that such come but halfe way our repentance is not thorow our sorrow comes not home except as it is here we doe restore When we leave the practise of usury we doe not properly leave the sin as sin except wee restore and turne the stolne dog home againe when we have not wherwithall there necessity hath no law The King of heaven must and will lose will part with his right where nothing is to be had and there the will doth stand for the deed but where there is no such answer that wee cannot but we see that we ought wee have wherewithall and will not here I say it is right and reason that the Lord should make use of his authority and use us according to law and justice Now as this act of restitution secures our hearts so that the bels ring not backwards in our consciences within in like manner it makes much for the safety of our estate without it sets a marke upon our goods and they are safe thereby under the Kings Seale whereas a little of these ill-gotten profits like fellons goods endanger all a little you know brings all the rest into the tenure of the Crowne and all must bee as it were in capite I am certaine that a golden wedge will fire all the rest of the stuffe and therefore hee that hath been or is an Vsurer he must leave his usury and make all well by restitution as hee meanes good to his soule as he intends safety to his estate and it is his happinesse that his sin lies in such a thing wherein he may make restitution and lick the parties wronged whole againe this makes the conscience quiet helpes us to peace when as in murders adulteries in such and some other the like sins where there is no place left for restitution an hard matter it is to set such in comfort when once the conscience fals a complaining but here let the conscience accuse at the worst yet as it is a sinne godly sorrow makes all well and as it is a wrong repaire is made by restoring repenting takes up the matter as it is to God restoring helpes heales all as it is to men The most that can be said is that the Vsury-taker paies the use willingly and where a man parts with his money willingly restitution is not of force Iudas might have retained the money with the good content of the Priest who gave it willingly yet hee did restore it and was bound to doe it and were this good Divinity then a great deale of that which comes in by bribery and dicery may bee lawfully and comfortably kept Then I say that though it bee not against the will of the borrower that the Vsurer keepe the use yet it should bee what if hee thinke that to take use be no sin in the Vsurer What if he bee not convinced that the fact of the Vsurer herein is a fault in this case he may be willing he should keepe it for want of true light and sound judgement wheras were he aware of what is truth that the Vsurer had no right to take it he would withall thinke that the Vsurer hath no reason to keepe it and this kinde of willingnesse is an interpretative unwillingnes And lastly I say that he seemes many times to be willing because hee cannot tell how to helpe it the Travellor gives his purse to the theefe because hee cannot doe otherwise or at least dares not and there is a morall necessity which is of force to cause a man to