especially in tempering the spirits received from the heart I mean in using those spiritual admonitions and instructions which he shall receive from the minister of the Gospel for the good and benefit of all those that are under him As the body is in best estate when all these are well disposed so it is most miserable when there is a dyscrasie and distemperature in any of them So in the state likewise Wo unto that Common-wealth where the Physitian for wholsome physick ministreth hemlock and the Divine for sound doctrine broacheth heresie and the Magistrate turneth justice into wormwood Of all these three the brain is subject to most diseases and of all these three the Magistrate is most obnoxious to fals both because he hath many ineitements unto sin which others want and because he is deprived of a benefit which others have that is he is not so freely reproved for his offences as commonly others are And lastly because of those Cubiculares consiliarij as Lipsius cals them tinea sorices Palatij as Constantine tearmed them the very mothes and rats of a court which live by other mens harmes à quibus bonus prudens cautus venditur imperator as Dioclesian an ill Emperour said well which sell the magistrates favours as if one would sell smoak as did Zoticus the faire promises of Heliogabalus and are alwayes ready for their own advantage to give an applause unto his worst actions By these he is ledde whithersoever they will have him Ducitur ut nervis alienis mobile lignum Even as an arrow is led by the bow-string Therefore David in this Psalm maketh a sharp sermon against the corruption of Magistrates out of which I have made choyce of this one branch I have said yee are Gods but ye shall die like men As if he had said truth it is your authority is great your power extraordinary ye are Gods yet set not up your horns on high and speak not with a stiffe neck ye are no transcendents ye have no more reason to boast of your superiority then the moon hath to bragge of the light which she borroweth from the sunne or the wall of the beam which it receives in at the window ye have it only from me I have said and though ye be Gods yet ye are but earthly Gods ye are Gods in office not Gods in essence ye are made of the same metal that others are and your end shall be like other mens you shall die like men In which words not to stand upon the divers acceptions of any of them may it please you to observe these three points 1. The party from whom Magistrates receive their authority it is from God I have said and Gods saying is his doing 2. Their preheminence above others in that they are called Gods ye are Gods 3. The limitation of their dignity ye shall die as men Out of which I collect these three propositions 1. Magistrates and Judges of the earth do receive their authority from God 2. They are Gods deputies to minister justice and to judge between party and party 3. Though they be extolled above their brethren according to their office yet they must die as other men where is implied this general conclusion that it is the lot of all men once to die These are the pillars of my intended discourse of which while I shall plainly entreat in the same order that I have now proposed them I beseech you all to afford me your Christian attention 2. Of all the corporeal creatures that God made none is more exorbitant then man The highest moveable is constant in his motion He doth not hasten nor neglect his course The Sunne is precise in his course under the Ecliptick line and turneth not an hair breadth unto the right hand or unto the left but cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a gyant to run his race The rest of the Planets though they turn to both sides of the Zodiacke and are the most of them sometimes direct and sometimes stationarie and sometimes retrograde as Astronomers speak by reason of their motion in their imaginary Epicicles yet they have their constancie in this inconstancie Thou O God hast given them a law that shall not be broken The elements keep themselves within their bounds The beasts of the forrest in their kinde have their policie and society The raging sea goes not beyond his limits God hath bound it to use Jobs words as a child in swadling bands he hath given it doores and barres and said unto it hither shalt thou go and thou shalt go no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves But man is more exorbitant then all these no bounds can keep him in Therefore God hath written in the heart and conscience of every man that comes into the world a law which we call the law of nature as that God is to be worshipped good is to be embraced evil is to be avoided That which thou wouldest not another man should do unto thee thou must not do to another man And according to these general notions hee would have every person to direct his actions But this law like an old inscription upon a stone is written in the stony heart of man in such blind characters that he is put to his shifts before he can spell it And howsoever he understand it in Thesi yet in Hypothesi in the particular he makes many soloecismes and oftentimes calls good evil and evil good Therefore God hath written with his own finger a paraphrase upon it which we cal the moral law and added a large commentary of judiciall lawes by the hand of Moses Which benefit though not the same numero he hath not onely granted unto Christian Common-wealths but even to the heathen also amongst whom in all ages he hath stirred up men of excellent spirit to make lawes for the better government of their several states The best of which did acknowledge that they had them from God Howbeit after the custome of nations which held a plurality of Gods they did not all agree in one name Lycurgs affirming that he received his lawes from Apollo Minos from Jupiter Solon and Draco from Minerva Numa from the Nymph Egeria Anacharsis from Zamolxis the Scythian God 3. But all this will not confine man within his bounds for it is true of him which was spoken of the Athenians that they knew what was to be done and yet did it not And which was objected by the Cynick against the old Philosophers of Greece that they gave good rules but put none in practise video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor said Medea when she was overcome with passion It is true of most men though they know the law how that they which commit sinne are worthy of death yet they do not only the same themselves but also favour them that do it The law of it self is but
hath for iron Glaucus made no good market with Diomedes when he changed his golden armour for armour of brasse but many clients complain that they meet with worser merchants who for a puâ—se full of angels give them nothing but a black boxe full of papers Procrastinations and unnecessary delayes for filling of the lawyers coffers and pilling of the poor clients is a fault which I have glanced at heretofore and might a thousand times hereafter ere ever it be reformed For never was it more spoken against then now and never was it so much practised as now Well fare the old Athenian lawes which as Anacharsis once said were like unto Spider-webs that catched the little Flies and let the Waspe and the Bee and the Beetle burst though them in respect of them that hold Waspe and Bee and Beetle and all and scarce any can burst through them But what do I now Condemn I the law I do wrong Is the law sinne saith Paul he speaks of the moral law Nay the law is holy and just and good but I am carnal sold under sinne So say I is our law sin Nay our law is just and good Here is the break-neck of all too many of our Solliciters Atturnies and learned Scribes are meerly carnal and sold under sinne using it not to that end for which it is ordeined the glory of God and the peace of the common-wealth But as the fowler doth his net for catching of plovers to inrich themselves withal making that which should be for the common good a Monopolie for themselves a profession of mockerie and a meer shop of most horrible and detestable covetousnesse But it is the worst thriving in the world to rise with an other mans fall It was a short but a sharp quip which a captive gave unto Pompey the great Nostrâ misiriâes Magnus It is our misery that gave thee thy surname It is so in this case Nostrâ miseriâ es Magnus may the client say to his counsellour As the swelling of the splene argueth the consumption of other parts so the inriching of the lawyer the impoverishing of the client If then his cause be good alas why is it never ended If it be nought why is it still defended If the cause be nought the defence is worse then nought Understand me rightly it may be a Counsellours hap to be a speaker in an ill cause and yet he not worthy any blame The party may misinform him in the truth of the cause Judgements in the like case may be different or some other circumstance may deceive him But where it plainly appears to be nought indeed by nimblenesse of wit and volubility of tongue to smooth it over with colourable probabilities thereby as farre as thou canst to give the truth an overthow this is but to guild over a rotten post to call good evil and evil good to let loose Barabbas and destroy Jesus to make the devil who is a fiend of darknesse to appear in the likenesse of an angel of light and therefore worse then nought Better with Papinian to have thy head parted from thy shoulders then to be a common Advocate in such causes There is a kind of men in the world who though they know before they begin their suits or at least before they have waded farre in them as well as they know their own names and the number of their fingers that the matter which they prosecute by extremity of law is manifest wrong yet either out of a malitious humour to give their adversaries an overthrow or because their ability is such that it will hold them out or because others do joyn with them and make it a common quarrel or because they love Salamander-like to be broyling in the fire of contention can by no means be disswaded from their wicked enterprise This matter so wickedly and mischievously begun one counsellour or other that loves with the Eele-catchers in the old comedie to be fishing in muddy waters and desires alife to bathe himself in any pool that an Angel shall trouble must manage He must find some probable title in the law for it he must as long as the law will afford him any kind of weft weave it out in length and when it fails he must Spider-like spinne it out of his owne bowels He must prolong judgement and deferre the matter from one day to another from one tearm to another from one year to another from one court to another till at length he who hath both God and the law and a good conscience on his side for very wearinesse be enforced to give it over or be brought to extreme beggery that he can follow his suit no longer or till Atropos have cut in sunder the thred of his dayes and so made an end of the quarrell Well were it for the Commonwealth if such seditious quarrellers and make-bates were by some severe punishment taught not to delude justice and oppresse the truth that others by their example might be terrified from such wicked attempts and that honest and godly men might live in more peace and tranquillity If my words do sound harsh to som of my hearers I must say of them as Hierom saith of som in his epistle to Rusticus dum mihi irascuntur suam indicant conscientiam multoque pejùs de se quam de me judicant If they be offended with me they bewray their own guilty consciences and have a farre worse opinion of themselves then they have of me I name none I know none I speak in generall against sinne and if any mans conscience condemn him God is greater then his conscience and knoweth all things and therefore let him goe his way and sinne no more lest a worse thing happen unto him My hope is that all you are of a better disposition But I kow ye are all men and therefore subject to the like passions and infirmities that others are Let me therefore once againe to returne to that from which I have a little digressed beseech you in all your pleadings and legall proceedings to remember that account that yee must make unto God when yee shall be called hence Remember that there is woe denounced against them that call good evill and evill good Remember the end of your profession it is not to sowe dissention to fill your own coffers to make a mart to utter your own wares to shew your ready wits and voluble tongues in speaking probably of every subject good or bad but to help every man to his right to cut away strife and contention and to restore peace and unitie in the common-wealth that all the Members of the body politick may be of one heart and one soule Even as there is one hope of our vocation one Lord one faith one baptisme one God one father of all which is above all and through all and in us all Remember that our God is called the God of peace his Gospel
and lusts of the flesh as the Hebrews by little and little rooted out the Cananites it seeketh to represse this rebellion as David did the plots of his son Absalom Experience we have in the main pillars of the spirituall Temple David a man after Gods owne heart so moved at the prosperity of the wicked that he begins to say that certainly he hath cleansed his heart in vain and washed his hands in innocencie there is a carnall David which make his feet almost to goe and his steps well-nigh to slip but when he goeth in the Sanctuarie of God then he understandeth the end of these men there is spirituall David which makes him condemn his former thoughts and speeches so foolish was I and ignorant even as it were of a Beast before thee Peter who sometime was so confident as to continue true unto his Master that he made protestation that if all should deny him yet he would never doe it presently after he begins to follow afarre off and anon after the rock of Peters faith is so shaken with the voice of a damosel that he begins to curse and sweare that he never knew him but presently again at the crowing of a Cock the spirit is awakened and goes about to take some avengement of the flesh he went out and wept bitterly who more strong in the spirit then Paul was in zeale fervent in labours abundant in nothing inferiour to the chief Apostles and yet he hath given him a prick in the flesh the Messenger of Sathan to buffet him which makes him say when he would doe good evill is present with him and that he finds a Law in his Members rebelling against the law of the mind and carrying him captive to the law of sinne and good reason it should be so for if the spirit should so domineer over the flesh then there were no resistance and reluctation then would we not have an earnest and longing desire to be out of this world we would not with the faithfully say Come Lord Jesus come quickly we would not desire to be cloathed with our house which is from Heaven but would say as Peter did Master it is good for us to be here To end then that wee should long after our future perfection when corruption shall put on incorruption and mortallity shall be swallowed up of immortallity we find this conflict in our own bowels that we may be wearie of this present state and say as Rebecca did when Esau and Iacob strugled in her womb if it be so why am I thus Only here is our comfort that though the flesh be still lusting against the spirit and we have more flesh then spirit for flesh is like to Goliath the spirit is like to little David yet the spirit shall be in the end sure to prevaile as David prevailed against Goliath for though it be little in quantity yet it is fuller of activity as a little fire hath more action though lesse resistance then much earth for it fareth with these two as with the house of Saul and David the spirit like the house of David waxeth stronger and stronger but the flesh like the house of Saul waxeth weaker and weaker it is with them as it was with John Baptist and Christ I must decrease saith John but he must increase the flesh which like John is before it must decrease but the spirit which like Christ comes after whose shoe latchet the flesh is not worthy to loose it must grow and increase and this is plain and of this place for whereas the flesh objecteth that man is sick and perisheth and where is he and again If a man dye shall he live again the Spirit replyeth and puts the flesh to silence All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my changing shall come Is it true beloved Christians That the Children of God yea even in such as have obtained the greatest perfection that a meer man hath obtained in this life there is reluctation between the flesh and the spirit Oh then let as many of us as long after life and desire to see good daies even life everlasting and daies which never shall have an end Let us I say labour to subdue this Rebel and bring it into subjection to the Spirit for it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh will profit nothing The flesh is like Caligula who as Tacitus saith of him was a good servant but an ill master It will be a good servant if we keep it in subjection to the spirit but it will be an exceeding bad master if it once get the upper hand and it will use the spirit as the Scythians servants dealt with their masters who when their masters had for many years warred in the Southern parts of Europe and Asia in the mean time married their wives and got possession of whatsoever they had and therefore we must use it as these Scythians used their servants who when they could not prevail against them with open war at length handled them like servants and slaves took rods and beat them and so recovered their ancient possessions We must not proceed against the flesh as against an equal enemy but we must use rods and scourges we must chasten and correct it and so bring it again in subjection to its lawful commander It is like the dumb divel which could not be cast out but by prayer and fasting we must implore the assistance of Gods spirit being of our selves unable that we may be strengthened and enabled to overcome it we must by fasting withdraw its food wherewith it is nourished I do not mean only our meat and drink but all worldly delight and enticing allurements to sin wanton and idle spectacles they be food of our carnal eyes these we must withdraw away and with Job Make a covenant with our eyes that we will not look upon wantonness foolish and undecent speeches be the delight of the tongue those we must remove away and pray with David Set a watch O Lord before our mouthes and keep the dore of our lips In a word whatsoever will be an incitement to sin and is like to strike fire in the tinder of our corrupt affections that must be debarred and kept from them Let us then use the flesh as the enemy useth a besieged City observe and watch the by-wayes that there be no intercourse or secret compact between it and Sathan that there be no provision carried by Sathan and his vassals into it that so it may be inforced to yeild it self or as the Hunters use Mole and Foxes in the earth stop the passages that through hunger it may be at last inforced to come out and leave its habitation otherwise if by excessive eating and drinking we nourish it if by gorgeous and costly attire wee deck it if by epicureous and voluptuous delights wee pamper it what doe we but arme our enemies against us and
SERMONS PREACHED UPON Severall Occasions BY LANCELOT DAWES D. D. Now Minister of Barton in Westmorland and sometimes fellow of Queens Colledge in Oxford MATH 23. 37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered c. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Robinson at the three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCLIII The Contents First Sermon Gods Mercies and Jeusalems miseries Ieremie 5. 1. Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem and behold now and know and inquire to the open places thereof If yee find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgment and seeketh the truth and I will spare it pag. 1. Second Sermon Matth. 26. 15. What will yee give me and I will deliver him unto you pag. 53. Third Sermon Matth. 27. 3 4. Then Judas which betrayed him saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Prieâ—ts and Elders saying I have sinned betraying the Innocent bloud but they said what is that to us see thou to that and when he had cast down the silver pieces in the Temple c. pag. 89. Fourth Sermon Psal 82. 6 7. I have said ye are gods but you shall dye like men pag. 105. Fift Sermon Galat. 3. 10. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them pag. 139. Sixt Sermon preached at the funeral of Dr. Senhouse Bishop of Carlile Job 14. 14. If a man die shall he live again all the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my changing come pag. 159. The second part Four Sermons on this Text. Luk. 12. 32. Fear not little flock for it is your fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome pag 1. The second Sermon upon the same pag. 30. The third Sermon upon the same pag. â—5 The fourth Sermon upon the same pag. â—â— Fifth Sermon Matth. 7. 22 23. Many will say unto me that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied and then I will professe to them I never knew you pag. 93. Sixth Sermon Jer. 22. 3. Thus saith the Lord Execute yee Judgement and Righteousnesse pag. 129. GODS MERCIES AND IERVSALEMS MISERIES JEREMIE 5. 1. ¶ Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem and behold now and know and inquire to the open places thereof if ye can find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgement and seeketh the Truth and I will spare it MAny means did the Lord use to reclaim Jerusalem from her rebellion against him by sundry commemorations of his benefits he wooed her by the sweet promises of the Gospel he incited her by the captivity of her sister Samaria he forewarned her but yet she continued like her forefathers a faithlesse and stubborn generation a generation that set not her heart aright she runs still on a wrong Bias in stead of being a faithfull Spouse she becomes a filthie harlot and playeth the Whore upon every hie mountain and under every green tree her wine is mixed with water her silver is become drosse her Princes rebels and companions of theeves and as she growes in years so she increaseth in all impieties she which at the first did onely pull little sinnes with the small cordes of vanity doth now draw greater transgressions with the huge cartropes of iniquity so that now from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head there is nothing sound in her but wounds and swellings and sores full of corruption In this case God which cannot abide wickednesse neither can any evil dwell with him as the Psalmist speaketh begins to loath her and to give her up into the hands of her most savage and cruell enemies the Chaldeans who shall defile the holy Temple and make Jerusalem a heap of stones Oh but shall the husband be so unkind to his Spouse whom he hath married unto himself shall a Father be so severe to his child shall the God of mercy be so unmerciful unto his chosen Shall not the judge of the world do right farre be it from God that hee should slay the righteous with the wicked God answereth that there is no reason why she should repine against him or accuse him of cruelty her Apostasie is so generall her disease like a Gangraena is spread through every member of the body her malice is so incurable that he cannot without impeachment of his justice spare her any longer Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem c. as if he had said O yee men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem do not say that your teeth are set on edge because your fathers have eaten sowre grapes do not object that my wayes are not equal it is your wayes that are unequal it is your sins that brings this heavy doom upon your heads whether this be so or not you your selves be Judges for I beseech you seek up and down not in the Countrey towns onely and villages of Judah but in the Metropolis of the whole Kingdome in the holy City run through every corner of it search and enquire in the houses and allies and back-lanes and high streets thereof marke their conditions observe their practises consider their behaviour take a full view of their whole carriage if after such enquiry there be found but one man amongst the whole multitude that feareth me or maketh any conscience of his wayes and I will spare the whole City for that one mans sake but if after you have sought man by man there be not one godly man found amongst them all think it not cruelty if now at length I inflict in justice my judgements upon her the summe is contained in this short proposition I will spare Jerusalem if there can one righteous man be found in her Wherein wee may observe these two principall points Gods mercy in that hee would have spared Jerusalem for one mans sake Jerusalems misery in that not one righteous man can bee found in her the former I deliver in this proposition Gods mercy in sparing doth exceed his justice in punishing and with this wee will beginne But alas who am I dust and ashes that I should intreat of this Subject it is a bottomelesse depth who can dive into it it is an unaccessible light who can behold it if the Heathen Simonides after three dayes study how to describe God was further from any resolution in the latter end then when he first began nay if Moses a man more familiar with God then any that ever lived upon the face of the earth when he was put in a clift of a rock and covered with Gods hands could not behold the glory of his face then may it not seem strange if the tongues of men and Angels faile in describing the very back parts of this one
away his posterity as one wipeth a dish when it is wiped and turned upside down Ahab hath no sooner rented his clothes at the Prophets words then God repenteth him of what he had threatned Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me a simple humiliation God wot only in outward shew and yet shall suffice to revoke part of Gods judgements against him because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his dayes upon his house Nineve had multiplyed her transgressions as the sand upon the sea shore she had by her sins blown upon the coals of Gods anger against her but yet he will not come upon her as a thief in the night to destroy her she shall have fourtie dayes warning and if in the mean time she will turn her playing into praying and her feasting into fasting and by covering her self with sack cloth hide from his eyes her broad sails of pride he will make it known unto her that he was not so ready before to lend a left ear of justice to her crying sins as he is now to afford a right ear of mercie to the cry of her sinners he will repent of the evil that he had denounced against her and will not do it The old world had so defiled the earth with her cruelties and the smoak of her sins did so fume up to Heaven into the Nostrils of God that he was sorry in his heart that ever he had made man yet he will not presently destroy this wicked generation there shall be an hundred and twenty years for repentance before he will purge this Augaeum stabulum with a deluge of waters Nay such is the never drying stream of his mercies that for the righteous sake the wicked though they do not repent shall fare the better God is not like to the Emperour Theodosius who for the offence of a few put all the Thessalonians to the sword but rather if without offence the Potter may be compared to the clay like to that Persian General who spared Delos because that Apollo was born there or Caesar who made the Cnidians free men for Theopompus his sake it was an opinion of the Heathen that for one evil mans sake many good men were put to the worse Pallas exurere Gentem Argivûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Pallas overthrew the whole navie of the Argives Vnius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei for the sin of one man by name Ajax the son of Oileus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God punisheth a whole City for one mans sin and sends upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famine and plague for the sin of some particular it is not so God never punisheth one man for anothers offences if thou object unto me that the Israelites were plagued for Davids trespasse I answer Davids sin did occasion that punishment which the Israelites did justly deserve for their own iniquities for howsoever David in respect of himself who deserved more called them sheep yet indeed they were Wolves in sheep-skins and verily in this particular we have an evident demonstration of his mercies for first of three several punishments he gives him leave to chuse which of them he would When David had chosen the Pestilence for three dayes indeed he sent his destroying Angel but before his sword was half drawn he puts it up again and repenteth him of the evil and abridgeth the time Now we know that every substraction from his judgements is a multiplication of his mercies and how far he is from punishing the righteous with the wicked let Sodom witnesse a sink of the filthiest sins a cage of the uncleanest birds a den of the wickedest theeves that ever the earth bred yet he will not rashly come upon her but first he will go down and see whether they have done altogether according unto that cry which was come unto him and if there can but fifty righteous men be found in five Cities which was but for every City ten nay if but fourty nay if but thirty nay if but twenty nay if but ten can bee found amongst them all which was but for every City two he will not destroy the Citie for those mens sake when none can be found save just Lot he will not subvert Sodom before he be brought out of the City nay he will spare the whole City of Zoar for Lots sake if good Paul be in the ship all that are with him even the barbarous Souldiers shall for his sake come safe to land But of all others that I may end this point where I began it Jerusalem in my Text is most famous whom the Lord doth so tenderly compassionate that if within her spatious walls amongst so many millions of souls one righteous man could have been found either among the Nobles or Magistrates or Priests or people he would have spared Jerusalem for that mans sake And is this true be not then dismayed thou fainting and drooping soul whom the burden of thy sins hath pressed down to the brink of hell is there such a thunder-threatning Cloud of Gods justice set before thine eyes that thou thinkest it impossible that the Sun of his favour should pierce through it into thine heart deceive not thy self where sin aboundeth there grace super-aboundeth thou aâ—t a fit Subject for God to work upon where should the Physitian shew his skill but where the greatest maladies do reign and where can God better shew his mercie then where is the greatest aboundance of mans misery the desperatest diseases that can befall the soul of man dead Apoplexies unclean Leprosies dangerous Lethargies remedilesse Consumptions whatsoever they be God can as easily cure them as the smallest infection and as he is able so is he most willing to do it because his mercy as I have already proved is his chiefest attribute and every attribute of God is the Essence of God so that he can no more cease from his works of mercy then the eye being well disposed from seeing or the fire from heating or the Heaven from moving or the Sun from shining he that denyeth this is a Traytor to the King of Heaven because he gain-sayeth that stile wherein God especially delighteth There is no sin of it self 〈◊〉 but God can wipe it away he will forgive 〈…〉 as welâ— as righteous Abraham ten thousand talents aâ— one peny Suppose that all the sins that ever were committed from the murther of Cain to the treason of Judas laid upon thy shoulders there is no more proportion between them and Gods mercie then between stillam muriae mare Aegaeum betwixt a drop of brine and the Aegean nay the great Ocean the snuff of the Candle and the light of the day or a mote in the Sun and the Globe of the high Heaven Flie unto the throne of grace and though thy sins were bloody like Scarlet he will make them as Wool and
reason is very plain for though the understandings of the wicked be so darkned that they call good evil and evil good sowre sweet and sweet sowre though their appetites and affections be so perverted that they swallow up sinne with greedinesse and drinke iniquity like water yet there is some reliques of the image of God in their understanding whereby they have a glimpse of good and evil which though it cannot moderate the will and affections from running into sinne yet it doth so farre forth bridle them as that they will not commit any hainous impiety but when some thing is offered which puts as it were a vizard upon the object of the will and makes it chuse that which otherwise it would refuse For the will by nature is alwayes carried unto his proper object which is good and abhorreth that which is evill So that when it chuseth evill it is not as it is a will but as it is depraved and as the understanding which judgeth of the object before the will choose or refuse it counteth that good which indeed is evil 3. Here two sorts of men are to be censured the first is such as think themselves sufficiently excused for committing any sinne if they can bring any occasions or the allurements which have moved them to commit it The drunkard will say that company hath drawn him to forget himself and therefore he must be pardoned The adulterer will plead for himselfe that his own corrupt affection hath moved him and that the circumstances of time and place have caused him and therefore he must be excused But these excuses are such as that if they would serve the turn the wickedest reprobate upon the face of the earth might be found not guilty For might not Judas have pleaded for himself that he would never have betrayed Christ but that he expected some reward from the high Priests Might not Ahab have sworn that he would never have sought Naboths bloud if it had not been for his vineyard which was so commodious for his house Might not Achan have avouched that he would never have transgressed the Lords commandment by taking of the excommunicate thing but that it so offered it self that he thought he might have taken it and none been privy to it Might not Cain have excused the slaughter of his guiltlesse brother that he would not have killed him if the Lord had not had a greater respect unto Abels sacrifice then unto his It is true indeed that such objects may occurre such inducements may happen as that the dearest of Gods children which as long as they remain in these houses of clay do taste too much of the old Adam may thereby be led to commit grosse impieties We know that the fear of death moved Peter to deny his master That idlenesse and the sight of Bathsheba caused David to adultery That Lots daughters brought their father to commit incest That Solomon by his wives was drawn to Idolatry That the fear of the Egyptians made faithfull Abraham to distrust Gods providence and to say that his wife was his sister But this onely shews their imperfections it excuseth not their facts that they had sundry provocations to these sinnes If Peter had thought that the fear that the Jews put him in by reason of the great cruelty which they used against his master might have excused him for denying Christ he might have spared his teares If occasion and time and place might have purchased a pardon for David he would never have been so vehement and passionate in confessing his fault and craving a pardon for the same And indeed this is the onely course to be freed from Gods plagues not to excuse our sinnes and say that such and such provocations brought us to them for so the wickedest reprobate might be innocent but to humble our selves before the Majesty of God and to confesse our misery that he may receive us to mercy 4 There is another sort of men which if they commit not such iniquities as others do either because their natures are not so prone and bent to those vices of because such objects and allurements are wanting as others have had will boast at least within themselves that they have attained unto a farre greater measure of holinesse then others which by their naturall pronenesse or some external cause are drawn to wickednesse But alas what credit is it for the Scythians that they were no drunkards when they never got wine nor strong drink What commendation for the old Germanes that they abstained from the unlawfull company of women when by nature they were not addicted to wantonnesse What credit is it for a young childe or withered old man to abstain from carnal pleasure when the heat of youth in the one is quelled and the other never knew what lust meant What grace for a weak spirited man who was never moved with any excessive anger not to be a murtherer This is rather commendation worthy if we shall abstain from those vices to which our corrupt nature doth most propend If the Dutch can leave his drunkenness the Italian his lustfulness the French his factiousness the Spaniard his haughtiness the English his gluttony and greediness if the cholerick can lay aside his anger and rashness the phlegmatick his sloath and idleness the melancholick his hatred and enviousness the sanguine his concupiscence and wantonness in a word if Herod can be contented to part with Herodias and every man his beloved sin to which by nature he is most addicted When a certain Physiognomer looking upon Socrates gathered by his complexion that he was given to lust and wantonness the people which knew the continencie and vertuous life of Socrates mocked him as unskilful of his art thinking that Socrates was not addicted to any such vice But Socrates acknowledged the judgement of the Physiognomer to be true and confessed that by naturall disposition he was prone unto it thinking it a greater vertue to conquer and keep under the corruptions of the flesh then to keep himself under and within the bond of reason when he had nothing to draw him away And yet this is little worth unless it be at such time when some externall means and provocations do concurre for bringing that into act which depraved nature most affecteth The drunkard will sometimes abstain from his beastliness but it is when he can get no wine The oppressor from grinding and grating the faces of the poore but it is when he lacks matter to worke upon The wanton from his pleasures but it is when he wants time and place to effect his desires The glutton from his excessive eating but it is in a dearth or scarcity when he knowes not how to fill hâ—s paunch It had been praise-worthy in Judas if having a covetous minde the high Priest had come unto him and offered him a large summe of mony upon this condition that he would have betrayed his Master and he should
must live with the Cananites with the Spouse in the Canticles thou must be as an apple tree amongst the wild trees of the forrest or as a lilie amongst the thornes Let not these wild trees which are moved with every blast of winde by the shaking of their boughes beate downe thy fruit and though the thornes pricke thee yet keepe still a lilies beautie Thou must touch pitch but beware of being defiled with it Thou must walk upon coales beware of burning thy feet though thou lie among the pots among the washpots of the Lord as Moab is called among the vessels of dishonour that are kept for the day of wrath yet must thou be as the wingr of a dove that is covered with silver wings and her feathers like gold Be not like the Apothecarie that carryeth the smell of his shop about him nor like the River Jordan which looseth his sweet waters in the lake Asphalites But like the fish in the salt sea which still retaine their freshnesse passe through the brinish Ocean of this world as Arethusa doth under the Sicilian sea Doris amara suâ—â—â— non intermiseat undam In a word though thou canst not wholy separate thy selfe from the workers of darknesse yet have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknesse but even reprove them rather Nay from such works as much as thou mayest lawfully separate thy selfe for thou wilt in time joy in the latter if thou long enjoy the former it is a matter of some difficulty to be continually handling pitch and birdlime and to have none cleave to thy hands Aristotle noteth it of his master Plato that conversing long with the Pythagorians he learned from them many erronious opinions which afterward he stifly maintained Alexander by conversing with the effeminate Persians and Annibal by living in Capua did abate so much of their former valour that it was doubted whether they were the same men they had been before Julian in profession sometimes a Christian by conversing with Libanius and Maximus became an Apostata To go no further with the examples of heathen men you know that Joseph living in Pharaohs Court began to swear by the life of Pharaoh And the Hebrewes dwelling among the Idolatrous Egyptians which worshipped an oxe did meetly well imitate them for they worshipped a calfe And pitching for a time in the plain of Moab they sacrificed to Baal Peor and ate the offerings of the dead An infected sheep will sooner spoile a whole flock then a whole flock will cure an infected sheep It is no hard matter to change wine into vineger but to turn vineger or to change water into wine Hoc opus hic labor est This is such a miracle as will never be wrought unlesse Jesus be at the feast It is an easie matter to be infected with the plague of sinne If thou remove out of the fresh ayre into the company of contagious persons And though thou be regenerate and the old man hath got his deadly wound yet is there a sympathy between thee and the wicked Thy affections are like tinder ready to kindle with every sparkle that the wicked shall strike in them And sinne once kindled is like wilde-fire it will not be quenched with every kinde of water This poison perhaps will not be perceived at the first yet like the biting of a madde dogge it will never cease infecting thy blood till it come at thy heart Beware then of dogs Avoid as much as is possible such contagious places as are dangerous to infect and keep thy selfe in the fresh ayre where the spirit that quickneth doth blow But whereas thou canst not wholly avoid the company of sinners for as before was said the good and bad fish swim together in Gods net avoid their sinnes hearken unto Solomon My sonne if sinners intice thee consent thou not My sonne walk not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their path but contrariwise when they entice thee to evil perswade them unto that which is good Be to them as Noah was to the old world a preacher of righteousnesse as Lot was to the Sodomites who dwelling amongst them vexed his soul with their unlawful deeds as Christ was to the woman of Samaria who by desiring of the water of Iacobs well to quench his thirst brought her to desire the water of life whereof whosoever drinketh shall never more thirst and as he was with Publicans and sinners who refused not to go to their corporall banquets that he might feed them with spirituall food as Iohn was with the Pharisees and Saducees who preached unto them faith and repentance and as Paul was amongst the Idolatrous Athenians who went with them through their idolatrous temples and read the titles and inscriptions written upon their altars but to this end to take a text and argument thence to perswade them to the worship of the true God So much of the person delivering The action followeth deliver 13. Treason is a sinne so odious that even the heathen which were guided but with a glimpse of natures light howsoever sometimes for their own advantage they approved the fact yet they could never away with the author of it It was Augustus his saying of Rimotalchus the King of Thrace which vanted himself for the betraying of Antonie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may love the treason but I hate the traitour And it was the saying of Antigonus Proditores tantisper amo dum produnt ast ubi prodiderint odi I love a traitour when hee commits the treason but when he hath done it I detest him These speeches though plausible at the first argue corruption in the speakers For if the traitour be evil surely the treason cannot be good The old Romanes could abide neither For when Pyrrhus his physitian seeking to gratifie the Romanes promised to give his master poyson the Romanes made Pyrrhus acquainted with it and willed him to look unto himselfe And when the schoolmaster of the Phalascides children offered to betray those which were committed to him to Camillus his hand Camillus sent them bak again and made his own schollers to beat him This fact of it selfe so hainous is further aggravated by the person betrayed If Judas had betrayed one of his fellowes the sinne had been horrible but he makes it farre worse he betrayeth his master He goes yet further for behold whither man doth fall if the spirit of God do not direct his steps he delivereth him into the hands of his hatefull enemies who came to deliver us from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us He delivereth him to death who came to restore us that were dead in our sinnes to life who to satisfie for our hunting after vanities was himselfe hunted like a Pelican in the wildernesse to satisfie for our carnal and sensual pleasures left the bosome of his
get a feather on their backs have builded in those rocks where eagles should nestle and many which have never put down their buckets into either of the two fountains of this land or if they have it hath been but tanquam canis ad Nilum they have onely wet their lips and taken a lappe by the way are advanced to Ecclesiasticall preferments and made Pastors of flocks being not able to feed themselves and are become captains in the Lords field being not able of themselves to take one stone out of Gods brook to cast at the forehead of the spiritual Goliath I confesse some of them will now and then be flinging in the pulpit but they be mentita tela other mens weapons they fight with they have indeed as good a property in them as they have in their benefices and as Paulus in Martial had in his verses which he used to bragge of Such wandring Levites as these are the fittest merchants that sacrilegious Judasses can meet withal for they will be contented to dwell with every base filching Michah and will serve him for ten shekles of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and meat and drink and withal their hearts will be contented to part with beautiful Rachel though they serve for her so that they may be assured of blear-eyed Leah They will never say as much as Iacob did to Laban Wherefore hast thou done thus with me did I not serve thee for Rachel wherefore then hast thou beguiled me Truth it is that even these would gladly mend their estates and who can blame them but they are withholden with a triple cord which as the wise man saith is not easily broken 1. The Patrons bounty which though it be little yet it is more perhaps then they deserve 2. Their own promise or hand-writing which if it be not of sufficient validitie then comes a third cord to make all sure and that is want of ability A spiders webbe you know is strong enough to hang a silly flie withall God forbid that I should object this sacriledge as a generall fault of these times not admitting any limitation or say that these devouring Caterpillers have eaten up all the houses of God in the land I remember what the Lord answered Elias when he complained against Israel that they killed his Prophets and diged down his Altars and that he was left alone I have said the answer of God reserved unto my selfe seven thousand men which have not bowed their knees unto Baal Even so at this present time by the grace of God there is a Remnant though I thinke farre fewer then seven thousand yet a remnant there is which have never digged down the Altars of God to build their owne houses with the ruines thereof which have not bowed unto their angle nor sacrificed unto their net nor burnt incense unto their yarne nor monopolized that unto themselves which of right belongs unto Gods Ministers So that in this case they may say with good Samuel Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Asse have I taken or of whose hand have I received any bribe They bate such sinnes of unfaithfullnesse and they will not suffer the least chip of Gods bread to stick on their fingers By the means of such faithfull Nehemiahs thanks be to God and remember them herein O God and wipe not out that unkindnes they have shewed on thy house and on the offices thereof the glorious Gospell of Christ doth give a goodly lustre in many places of this land But the great number of the other which I purpose not to leave as yet for I would gladly make a rod of such small cords as I have to whip these buyers and sellers out of the Temple is such that it doth almost overshadow these that they seeme but as it were a handfull and do bear I take it the like proportion that Gideons army did to the huge hoast of the Midianites 16. The donation of ecclesiasticall livings was at the first for avoiding of faction and confusion amongst the ignorant and seditious multitude which otherwise should have made choice of their Pastours commended to some particulars which for their worth and wisedome and uprightnesse were thought fittest both to make choice of such as could sufficiently discharge the places and to protect them and their right against such ravenous harpyes and Eagle-clawed Nebuchadnezzars as would scrape and gather into their hands the vessels of the temple and hereupon they were ledled Patrons But time is like a river Nec enim consistere flumen Nec levis hora potest That is not my meaning but as a river sins that which is heavy and substantiall and carryeth downe that which is light and naught so hath time in this point The uprightnesse and faithfulnesse that is sunke long agoe in a great number their carefulness in protecting the minsters right that swims not downe so low as to our time and yet as Tully said of a tyrant that he gives life to those that he doth not kill So we could willingly account them worthy maintainers of the Levites portion if they would take nothing from them But the name of patron this is light and the current of time hath conveyed it unto us But alas alas it is but as he said Sine corpore nomen It is secunda notio a shadow of a name and yet a name is no more then a shadow of a thing And verily it may be feared that the great house of the thing will in future ages make the word to be of a contrary signification as the name tyrannus which at the first signified any Prince which had a care of his Subjects safety and protected them against their foes by the cruelty of the governours handling them as Samuel told the Iewes their King should use them or as the Storke in the fable dealt with the Frogs when he was made their King or as Vespasian used his nobles squeezing them like a spunge when they were full is now degenerate from its ancient sense and used for the contrary We have occasion of doubting the same in this point For Iudas claimeth Christs bag by prescription Is not now the advouson of a benefice accounted as a mans proper inheritance Is it not offered to him that will bid the most as an Oxe in the shambles or an Asse in the Market Is it not accounted a good patrimonie to many younger brothers which scorn forso oth to be Priests and would God they would scorne the Priests portion too then would they abate a little from the height of their own conceits and would at length be enforced for their delicate fare to eate husks and to turne their Satten Suits into Country russets But they are of the same opinion as was William Rufus sometimes King of this Realme who kept diver Bishopricks in his owne hands as they fell and would not restore them unto ecclesiasticall persons
the threatnings of the law would not mollifie his stony heart When the High Priests and Elders send Officers to apprehend Christ Judas goes with them as their captain and brings them to the place where Jesus was and though the barbarous Souldiers and pittilesse Officers and cruel servants were so appaled and daunted with his speech that when he told them that he was the man whom they sought they were so farre from apprehending him that presently they started back veluti qui sentibus anguem pressit humi nitens as a man doth when he treads upon a snake and were beaten down with the breath of his mouth For the text saith they went backward and fell to the ground John 18. 6. and moreover were struck into such amazement and astonishment of heart that when Peter drew his sword and smote off one of their eares they scarce or as it is probable not at all observed it For when they were come into the High Priests hall and Peter amongst them though they could say this is one of them and sayth his speech betrayeth him yet none could say this is he that cut off Malchus his eare yet all this wind shakes not Judas Is seu dura silex stat vel Marpesia cautes all the thunderbolts of the law will not make a breach in his flinty heart whereby repentance might enter in For all this when hee heares that Christ is condemned then he begins to repent The conscience is of marvellous great force saith the heathen Oratour and that two wayes for those that have done well are not afraid poenam ante oculos semper versari putant qui peccaverunt and those which have done amisse think that God is alwayes shaking his rod over them The righteous is bold as a Lyon his conscience hath passed upon him and found him not guilty but the wicked flieth when none pursueth his own guilty conscience hath condemned him He may perhaps be hid from the eyes of men but he can never assure himselfe that he cannot be catched as Epicurus in Seneca speaketh Suppose his sinne be hid from the eyes of men let him think that the Angels that are about him do not take the least notice of it let him imagine that he hath drawn a curtain before the eyes of God so that he cannot behold it let him say with those Epicures in the Psalmist tush God doth not regard it there is no knowledge in the most highest He hideth away his face and he will never see it yet there is one within him that noteth it in the table of his heart as it were with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond it is a witnesse to accuse him a bayliffe to arrest him a prison to contain him a jury to convince him a judge to condemn him an hangman to kill and torment him The Poets fable of Prometheus that he was tied to the mountain Caucasus and had an Eagle still gnawing upon his heart for offending Jupiter me thinks it is a fit embleme of a sinner who for offending his God is as it were tied to a stake and hath the worme of conscience as a hungrie eagle still gnawing upon his heart Plutarch compares it to a boyle or impostume in the flesh For as a boyle pricketh and eateth the flesh so doth a sinners conscience his mind Now as those that have cold or hot agues within them are more troubled then when they are made cold without by the frost or heated by the beams of the sunne So those grievances which happen by some external cause are farre easier then this inward sting of conscience and therefore saith he a mind void of sin were more to be wished for then houses then lands then dignities then riches then any thing which this greedy world doth so much gape after The saying of Diogenes is notable for this purpose who seeing his host in Sparta making great provision for a feast what needeth all this said he for an honest man hath a feast every day meaning that an honest man hath a good conscience and a good conscience is a continual feast Prov. 15. 13. Those that were to be crucified amongst the old Romanes did beare the Crosse upon which they were to suffer So the wicked do carrie with them the crosse of a guilty conscience which though for a little they may lay it down yet can they never cast it from them till they come to the place of execution indeed they willmake a goodly shew outwardly as though nothing did trouble them within they laugh they jest they quaffe they play but all this is but from the teeth outward they are like theeves saith one in aprison which are condemned to death who will sometimes play at dice or cards to put out of their mindes the cogitation of their future execution but all in vaine for haeret lateri laethalis arundo It is so rooted in their hearts that no spunge of oblivion can wipe it out they are in Damocles his case they see Gods sword of vengeance still hanging over their heads readie to fall upon them and to hewe them in pieces that deep wise man saith Tacitus said not without cause that if Tyrants hearts and what he spake of Tyrants is true of all such as sinne with a high hand were laid open a man should see them torne and rent asunder for as the body is torne with stripes so their minds are rent with the sting of conscience for their cruelties their lasciviousnesse their oppression and such other sinnes as they have committed for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the conscience of a sinner doth whip and scourge his soule therefore saith the Poet Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time When thou art about to doe any unlawfull act feare thy selfe though thou want a witnesse for thou art not alone Nocte dieque tuum gestas in pectore testem Thou carriest a witnesse withthee thy bosome and that is thy conscience which is as good as a thousand witnesses wretched and desperate is thy case if thou make not account of this witness 3. Examples will make this point plaine begin with the first man that ever sinned and the first sinne that ever he committed Our great Grandfather Adam had no sooner transgressed Gods commandement by eating of the forbidden tree but presently his conscience accused him and made him ashamed for when he heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the coole of the day he hid himselfe from the presence of the Lord among the the trees of the garden Why was Adam so afraid of Gods presence had he not been with him before He had made him he had made a helper for him he had made him Lord over the whole world and put all things in subjection under his feet all Sheep and Oxen yea and all the Beasts of the feild the fowles of the aire and the fishes of the seas and therefore a man would thinke that
now and then check them will accuse them will condemne them yea when the world doth take little notice of it that which made Caligula to hide himself under his bed made Faelix to tremble and Nero to cry Ego nec amicum habeo nec inimicum I have so wickedly misdemeaned my selfe that I have neither friend to save me nor for to rid me out of my miserie And Pharaoh whose heart was harder then brass or the nether milstone to say I have sinned God is righteous but I and my people are wicked The storie of Theodoricus King of the Gothes is notable for this purpose When the Romans being backed by Symmachus and Boatrius two worthy men would not give leave to the Arrians to erect any churches where they might promulgat their blasphemous heresie against the son of God Theodorick sent for those two to Ticinum and there after he had for a time kept them in close prison and confiscated their goods commanded that they should both be executed Theodoricus was a man of that power that few could none would revenge the blood of these two famous men neither did God presently inflict any outward punishment upon him yet his guilty conscience would not suffer his sinne to sleepe for a little while after when the head of a fish was set before him on the Table he calling to minde how he had beheaded those two men thought that he saw the head of Symmachus with horrible jawes and fierie eyes threatning death and destruction unto him at the fight whereof being suddenly astonied and cast downe he willed his Servants to carry him to his bed where lying some short space after much sorrow of his offence he gave up the ghost And here another storie comes in my mind which I find recorded by Plutarch of one Bessus who had killed his father but so secretly that none knew of it as this Bessus was going to supper with some of his acquaintance finding a swallowes nest in the way he thrust it downe with his speare and killed the young swallowes when the rest reproved him for it telling him it argued a cruell mind to kill the innocent birds especially seeing they were not good for meat why should I not kill them said Bessus seeing they objected unto me that I had killed my Father hereupon he was examined before the Magistrate where he confessed the Fact and suffered condigne punishment The young Birds could not speake and yet his guilty conscience made him thinke that they cried to Heaven for vengeance here then wee may note another difference between the consciences of the godly and the wicked the wicked though their consciences be not so soon touched as the consciences of the godly yet when they once begin to feel their sinnes then they feel as it were daggers stabbing their hearts which seldome leave them before they be overwhelmed in the pit of desperation The children of God are said to have hearts of flesh and the wicked to have hearts of stone now the flesh will be easikly wounded and oftentimes quickly cured so Gods children are easily wounded with the feeling of their sinnes but as Pliny faith of the Harts that when they have eaten any poysonful hearb then they runne unto the hearb Cinara and by eating thereof are cured and when they are wounded with an arrow they have recourse unto the hearb Dictamnum by which they are healed So these when they feel the poyson of sinne working in their bowels then they runne unto the good Physitian of their soules which giveth them a potion of his blood to cure them when Satan that hunter of men hath wounded them with his poysonful arrowes they have recourse unto Christ who with a plaster of his merits healeth them A stone will hardly receive any characters but when they are once graven in then they stick fast and cannot easily be rased out nor will the characters of sinne be quickly graven in the sinners conscience but when they are once stamped in they remain for ever so that they may be read in this book in the day of judgement Thus have I proved that sinne is a burthen unto the sinners conscience a doctrine if ever in these dayes most needful to be urged where in the practise of the greater part doth seem to crosse the truth of that which hath been delivered It was an old complaint of one that there was in his dayes multum scientiae but parum conscientiae much science but little conscience another of later years doth aggravate the complaint and saith that in his time the two first syllables con and sci were taken away and nothing remained but the latter end of the word entia pure beings without knowledge or honesty the complaint is too true at this time conscience seemeth to be banished from most men and knowledge from may so that nothing is left but the metaphysical notion entia mere beings pure naturalists They lade themselves with sinne as a cart is loaden with sheaves and yet they feel no weight It is storied of Milo of Croton that accustoming himself every day to carry a calfe into the fields he was able to hear it when it became an oxe and these have so accustomed themselves to lesser sinnes that great and terrible sinne seem not a whit burdensome unto their consciences There is a story of Mithridates King of Pontus that he had so used himselfe to take poyson that in fine his stomack would digest it as well as wholsome meat and these men have so inured themselves to feed upon sinne as the monkie doth upon the spider that they make as good nay more reckoning of it then the best meats wherewith their soules should be fed unto eternal life wretched and unhappy men which have their consciences so feared that they cannot feel their sinnes Verily Pharaoh and Cain and Judas and Caligula shall arise against these at the day of Judgement and shall condemn them Those sinnes which they drink with greedinesse even as the beast drinketh water will one day prove like Ratsbane to poyson them they will prove like Johns book which was sweet as honey in the mouth but bitter in his belly or like the head of Polypus which is sweet in eating but afterward it causeth fearful dreams they will in the end sting like a Serpent and bitelike a Cockatrice let them not say to their soules peace peace when there is no peace for there is no peace saith my God unto the wicked When they promise unto themselves most security when they shall say with the fool in the Paâ—able eat and take thy pastime even then shall sorrow come upon them as travail upon a woman with child when they shall carouze in their golden cups and enjoy their greatest pleasure then shall their sinnes like that palm of an hand Dan. 5. Write such a lesson in their consciences that it will make their countenance changed and their thoughts troubled and the joynts of their loynes loosed
they should offer sacrifice for their sinnes who amongst the new people holier then the Apostles and yet the Lord commanded them to say in their prayers forgive us our debts To this Bellarmine answereth that we may say forgive us our debts for veniall sinnes which in this life we seldome or never want But I object Either these sinnes which they call veniall are against the law of God or not if the former then the faithfull doe not fulfill the Law if the the latter then they are not debita and therefore wee need not say in respect of them forgive us our debts This assertion is further confirmed by the testimonies of Hierom and Austin Hierom against the Pelagians lib. 2. I confesse that there are just men but that there are any without sinne this I deny againe behold the Apostles and all the faithfull cannot doe that which they would Austin de spiritu litera cap. ultimo Siquanto major notitia tanto major dilectio profecto quantum nunc deest dilectioni tantum perficiendiae justitiae deesse credendum est and de perfecta iustitia tunc erit plena iustitia quando plena sanitas tunc plena sanitas quando plena charitas tunc plena charitas quando videbimus eum sicuti est neque enim erit quod addetur ad dilectionem cum sides pervenerit ad visionem And in the same book as long as there remaineth any carnall concupiscence wee cannot love God with all our heart Now what these Father 's maintained was the opinion of the Church at that time Bernard came long after them when the Church had gathered much corruption and was becom like Glaucus the Sea God who having sundrie parts of his bodie worne and consumed by beating upon the rocks and the shelves hath the same parts repaired with shels and wreck yet what was his opinion in this point we may gather out of his fiftieth Sermon upon the Canticles Si placet tibi de effectuali charitate datum fuisse mandatum non inde contendo dummodo acquiescas tu mihi quod minime in ista vita ab aliquo homine possit vel potuerit impleri Thus wee have proved our assertion by reason by Scripture and by testimonie of the antient Church Contra rationem nemo fobrius contra Scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit Against reason no sober man against the Scriptures no Christian man against the Church no peaceable man will judge Thus much concerning the connexion Now I proceed to the first proposition It is to no purpose to begin a good course of life unlesse thou hold it out and continue till the end For to forsake sinne for a time and to returne againe unto it is as ill as not to forsake it at all If the righteous turn away from his righteousnesse and commit iniquitie and doe according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth all the righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be metioned but in his transgressions that he hath committed and in his sinne that he hath sinned in them he shall die Ezech. 14. 24. nay it is farre worse for if after they have escaped the filthiness of the world they be yet intangled againe therein their latter end is worse then their beginning for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have knowne it to tuâ—ne aside from the commandements given unto them 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. And if we sinne willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no sacrifice for sinne but a fearefull looking for of judgement and of violent fire which shall devoure the adversaries Heb. 10. 26. And the Apostle elswhere saith that it is impossible for such to repent Judas runne well but Sathan hindred him he cast before him a golden Apple which brought him out of his way it had been better for Judas to have been a stranger unto Christ as Pilate was then to have forsaken him after he was chosen for though both of them did most grievously transgresse in that they put to death the Lord of life yet Judas that delivered him had the greater sinne Iohn 19. 11. as it is in bodily diseases so it is in the sicknesse of the soule if the sick person be well guided oftentimes there is hope of recoverie but if while he is in recovering he by negligence fall into a relapse his disease is more dangerous then it was before and for the most part proveth incureable Even so in spirituall sicknesses those that sleep in their sinnes may be awaked those that are sick with sinne may be cured yea those that are dead in their sinnes may be raised but if after they be awaked they begin to snort again if after they be cured they fall sick againe if after they be raised they die againe this is a spirituall relapse their case is dangerous if not altogether desperate The reasons hereof are divers 1. Because such men refuse the meanes of salvation when they have been offered unto them and therefore their sinne is greater then if they had been hood-winked with a vizard of ignorance which though it doth not altogether excuse yet doth it extenuate the offence This made the Jewes more inexcusable in that when Christ offered himself unto them they rejected him This is the condemnation saith our Saviour that light is come into the world and men love darknesse rather then light Againe if you were blind you should not have sinne but now ye say we see therefore your sinne remaineth 2. Such men commonly sinne upon presumption neglecting the commandements contemning the threatnings abusing the patience and long-suffering of Almighty God now these sinnes of all others that great sinne against the holy Ghost excepted are most pernitious and therefore David prayeth God that he will keep him from presumptious sinnes 3. Such men do crucifie unto themselves the Sonne of God and make a mock of him they tread under foot the blood of the Covenant as an unholie thing they make Christ like Sisiphus in the Fable to begin his worke of redemption anew after that he hath once finished it as if the sick person after that his Physitian hath recovered his health should of purpose eate such meats as would renew his disease and that to this end that he may put his Physitian to a new labour and trie his skillin recovering him again or as if a banckrupt after that his friend out of his love hath discharged all his debts and undertaken to be his suretie he should of purpose runne upon a new score in hope that his friend will pay it againe and therefore this may be the fourth reason the Lord giveth them over unto reprobate minds and vile affections to do those things that are not convenient and to commit iniquitie even with greediness Now as when the Pillar upon which the house standeth is taken away the house must
be left it spread abroad and consume the whole building Sinne is as dangerous to a mans soule as fire in the chimny top is dangerous to the house he that would avoid the danger must not cast water in some corner not medling with the rest but he must do his best to quench it all and not willingly leave one spark remaining lest it spread abroad and he at the length be burned with unquenchable fire Christ never healed any man but he healed him all Mary Magdalen was possessed with seven Devils Christ did not cast out six leaving the seventh but he cast them out all And when a Legion of Devils did possesse one man he did not deliver him that was possessed from some of them but from them all to teach us as the Authour of the booke of true and false repentance which goeth under Austins name doth moralize the storie that he would not have us to forsake some of our sinnes but leave them all Whosoever shall keep the whole Law saith James and yet faileth in one point he is guilty of all which place Austin understandeth of love which is the fulfilling of the law this Exposition is good for he that coveteth or stealeth or committeth adulterie loveth not his Neighbour as himselfe and he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Now of these two hang the whol law and the Prophets But I suppose that the meaning of James is rather this that God would have us to keepe the whole Law and to leave no commandement great or small unobserved This exposition James seemeth to approve in the next words for he that said Thou shalt not commit adulterie said also Thou shalt not kill now though thou doest not commit adulterie yet if thou killest thou art a transgressor of the Law he then that offendeth in one is guilty of all because he offendeth against him who is the law-giver of them all and who would have us without respect to observe them all and like wise because he is lyable to that curse though not according to the same degree which shall come upon such as shall breake them all For Cursed is everie man that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them God is not like the false mother which would have had the child to be divided he will either have all or none he useth not to hire by halfes he will either have all our service or else he will have none at all wee cannot serve him and Mammon too he likes no Mermaids which are half fish and half flesh no Ambidexters shal dwell in his house no such Satyrs as can blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth no such Monsters as the Romane Legate saw at Alexandria which was halfe white and half black no such worshippers as those Assyrians which served God and their Idols no such Jewes as sweare by God and by Malcolme no sacrificers like to him in the Poet which offered one sacrifice to summer and another to winter one to God and another to the Devill But alas how farre are the most from the practise of this duty Some nay the greater part make no more conscience of sinning then an hungrie man of eating his dinner as if they had no God but the Devil to serve Others are like those Easterne people called Coords which worship both God and the Devill God because say they he is good the Devill lest he should doe them harm these will with Herod fear Iohn Baptist the Preacher of the word and reverence him and heare him gladly and doe many things which he exhorts them to doe but they had rather see his head off then part with their beloved sinnes Saul was contented at Gods commandement to kill the leane kine of the Amalekites but the fat and well liking Beasts he kept So these at the commandement of the Lord by the mouth of his Preachers can be contented to kill their leane sinnes their little sinnes but they have some fat sinnes they must needs enjoy these must of necessity be spared Naaman the Syrian was contented to worship no other God save the God of Israel but yet he must needs goe with his Maaster into the house of Rimmon the Lord must be mercifull to him in this point so it is with very many which would be counted good Professors they can forgoe most of their sinnes yet some beloved sinne they must needs enjoy the Lord must be mercifull unto them in this point the Covetous man can abstaine from excesse in eating and drinking but usurie and oppression this is a fat sinne he will not kill it the Lord must be mercifull unto him in this point the Drunkard can be contented to hate usurie and oppression but he must needs drinke till the wine doe inflame him oh this is a merrie sinne the Lord must be mercifull unto him in this point the wanton perchance can be contented to bid them both adieu but his carnall appetite he must needs obey this is a pleasant sinne the Lord must be mercifull unto him in this point these men are like unto those double pictures which if they be viewed one way have the fices of men looke upon them another way and they have the shape of Foxes or Goats or some deformed Creatures behold them directly and you shall see no perfect picture but a mixture of divers So looke upon these in some of their actions and you will take them for good Christians behold them in other things ye will think them wicked Miscreants take a view of all at once and you shall find a mixture and confusion of both but God loves no such confusion the livery of his Children is white not party-coloured Some there be that have stept a foot further in Christianitie and will be loath to commit any of these grosse sins but yet they have some little sinne which they must needs enjoy the Lord must be mercifull unto them in this point Oh said Lot when he came out of Sodome Let me flee into this little Citie Zoar behold it is a little one and my soule shall live so it is with these when with Lot they are fled out of Sodome they must needs goe with him to Zoar when they have left their great and grosse sinnes they have some little one as they call it oh let them enjoy this and their soul shall live but Beloved Christian thou must remember what I told thee before that no sinne of it self is venial for the wages of the least sinne is death and therefore thou must beware of these little ones as well as the other what helpeth it a man to escape the edge of the sword if he stab himselfe with a pen-knife to escape drowning in the great Ocean if he drown himself in a little brook and what will it profit thee to cast away the great Cart-ropes of iniquitie
the Fundamentals but differ in the Ceremonies and circumstances of Religion that hold with us the substance but as David did to Saul would pull a lap of our Garment and hew down the carved work of our Temple as it were with Axes and Hammers I never thought it a sound Argument that Ceremonies must be abolished because they have been abused for if the abuse should make the thing unlawfull there is nothing in the world which a tender conscience might not make scruple of the Sun the Moon and all the Hoast of Heaven the Earth which we tread upon the Aire which we breath our Meat and Drink which nourish us our Apparell which cover us the Bells the Pulpit the Font the Church and what cannot have been wickedly abused We abridge the liberty of the Church too much if we think that it may not use any thing which the Pope or others misused saith Peter Martyr in an Epistle written to Hooper Bishop of Gloce â—er there being some cavelling at that time between him and Ridly then Bishop of London about some Ceremonies of the English Church the one seeking to abolish them the other to maintain the lawfull use of them yet were they both so far from Popery that he that stood so stiff for those Ceremonies was as ready as the other in Queen Maries daies to spend his best blood in defence of the Gospell Our Elders if not before the Egge was laid yet before the cockatrice of Popery was hatched were of another opinion when they converted the Temples that were erected to heathenish Gods and the reverence which were due to the Vestall Virgins and Idolatrous Priests to the service of the true God And this is the meetest sense that can be taken in the Judgment of any that is not wedded to his owne conceit to take away the abuse and keep the thing we have no commandement to deale with false Religion as Saul was commanded to do unto Amelek to root out good and all that belonged unto it but rather as Joshuah was instructed to deale with Jericho to destroy the execrable things to reserve the Silver and Gold and Vessels of Brasse and Iron for the Treasury of the Lord. It is a pritty saying of Austine non debet ovis pellem deponere quod lupi aliquando eam jâ—duunt the Sheep must not therefore put off his Skin because Wolves are sometimes cloathed in Sheeep-skins Let no man then take me to be a Pleader for such although I must confesse that I have partly learned Judes Rule to have compassion of some in putting difference such as not out of a spirit of contradiction but out of a tendernesse of conscience choose rather to forgoe all worldly preferment then to have the Eye of their Soules their Consciences troubled with the least mote I cannot chuse but lament their cases as he did the seduced Prophet Alas my Brother 1 King 13. 30. and beâ—one the Churches loss as the Israelites did theirs of the Benjamites because a Tribe was perished out of Israel Judg. 21. 6. But now to return to that from whence for mine own excuse I have somewhat digrest that such as neither make any Donatisticall Separation from our Church neither any Rent in our Church but allow and approve as well the Ceremonies as the fundamentall points of our Religion if they strive to sail against Wind and Weather and to swim against the Stream and as much as humane practise will permit to keep themselves unspotted in the World Should in Streets in Markets in Tavernes on Stages yea in Pulpits and Bookes too be branded for Puritans because by their Lives and Conversations they give Evident Demonstration that they are of this Flock for other Reason I cannot give Quis talia fando temperet a lacrimis This shewes that all they are not Israel which are of Israel but woe unto them that call Good evill If thou abhor that beastly and swinish sinne of Drunkenness and either envy against or refuse to be an ordinary Companion to such Thou art a Puritan if thou canst not indure that blasphemous horrible hellish swearing which is so common almost in all Professions that we may iustly renew St. Austins Complaint Et cum creduntur jurant cum non creduntur jurant horrentibus hominibus jurant plura sunt plerumque juramenta quam verba Thou art but a Puritan if thou exclaim against the Chemarims and Baalites of Rome thou art with Elias a Troubler of Israel inclining to Puritanisme if thou make a Conscience of keeping the Sabboth and call it a Delight to consecrate it as glorious to the Lord as thou art commanded Isa 58. 13. Hic nigrae succus loliginis haec est aerugo mera it is a strong strain of a Puritan Hereupon it falls out that as of old Arius for avoiding of Sabellianisme fell into a more dangerous Heresie and Eutiches for fear of Nestorianisme defended a contrary but worse Errour And Pelagius out of dislike of Manichisme founded a proper heresie of his own So many amongst us verifying Horace his Verse In vitium ducit culpae fuga si caret arte like unskilfull husbandmen who going about to make straite a crooked peice of wood bend it so far the other way that instead of striaightning of it they break it for avoiding of Puritanisme fall into more pernicious Erours then either the old or new Catharists ever maintained to wit Papisme Neutralisme and Libertinisme and Epicurisme and Arminianisme and Atheisme They care not what they be so they be not counted Puritans Hos populus ridet multumque torosa juventus The name is so generally derided they cannot indure it Thus then it hath been thus it is at this day and thus no doubt it will be in times to come they that are in the sight of God the dearest shall commonly in the eyes of men be of little and base account The Reason of this Proposition are cheifly two The first ariseth from the difference of Judgment between the World and the Sons of God The second from the enmity and Antipathie of the Serpents Seed against the Womans For the first Gods Wayes are not as Mans Wayes nor his Thoughts as mans Thoughts The Wisdome of the World is foolishnesse with God and the Wisedome of God to a naturall man seems foolishness The reason is because a naturall man cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God such knowledge is too wonderfull and excellent for him he cannot attain unto it he wants a Spirituall Eye to discern Spirituall things The Milesians objected to Thales that the Study of Astronomie and other liberall arts was idle and fruitlesse because it commonly fell out that those that study them the most were the poorest and when the same of Aristotle his learning was spread abroad through all the Regions of Greece many desirous to be acquainted with that which they heard by Report from others flocked to Athens to hear him read a
us out of darknesse into his marvellous light Aristotle notes of the Eagle whether truly or no I will not dispute that when her Birds are pen-feathered in a hot sun-shining day shee holds their eyes directly towards the beames of the Sun those that cannot endure that intensive light she casts out of her nest as degenerous such as directly eye the Sun she loves and feeds as her owne Hereby it will appeare whether we be Jovis aquila Gods birds or no if we look upward upon the Son of righteousnesse and have our eyes the eyes of our soules fixed on Heaven and heavenly things then are we of this Feather if downwards and have our cogitations Swine-like rooting in the earth and wallowing in the filthy puddle of worldly vanities then are we a degenerous of-spring not worthy to be called Sonnes of such a Father What an absurd and indecent thing were it if a Gally-slave or a Kitchin-boy should have that honour as to be made the adopted Son and Heire of some great Prince and he not considering his high advancement should continue in his former sordidnesse and basenesse of condition Much more undecent it is that a man when he is advanced from a child of wrath and a bondslave of the Devill to that transcendency of honour as to be made a Son of the King of Kings should continue as before in his blindnesse of heart crookednesse of will uncleannesse of affection and perversness of action Shall such a man as I flee said Nehemiah to Shemaiah and shall such a man as hath God for his Father debase himselfe like the Cat in the Fable who being turned into a Gentlewoman kept her old nature and leapt at a Mouse Or like the Popes Asse who adorned with golden Furniture as soon as he came to a Carriars Inne began to smell at a Pack-saddle Cyrus when of a Shepheards Son for so he was then supposed to be he was made a King in a Play began to shew himselfe like a King and Saul when he was annoynted by Samuel to be King had his heart changed He had another heart 1 Sam. 10. 9. Honours change manners if then we be advanced to this high dignity let us be ashamed of our natural basenesse let us have our hearts changed and walke worthy so high a calling not doing our owne will but his who when we were of no strength Rom. 5. nay when we were worse then nothing sent his own naturall Sonne to dye for us that we might be his Sonnes by grace of adoption I urge this point the rather because it is not onely a necessary duty which God requires at our hands but also the most certaine and infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gods child and consequently a matter of the greatest moment in the World upon which depends the everlasting salvation or damnation of our soules If at these Assâ—ses a man shall in a case criminall be convict of Felony perhaps his Book may save him suppose not he at the worst but looses his life for it his soule if he repent is in no danger If in a civill controversie a Verdict shall go against him he looseth but the thing in question but he that hath not God for his Father and none have him but such as work righteousnesse and in holinesse of life endeavour to resemble him looseth all his title and claime to the Kingdome of Heaven and is for evermore in body and soule a Bond slave to the worst Master that ever man shall â—erve unlesse God in mercy shall effectually call him and ingraft him into the body of his onely Son by faith And it is lamentable to see so many Marthaes and so few Maries in the World so many that drowne themselves in worldly imployments and doubt where there is cause and use meanes to clear their doubts and neglect this Vnum necessarium as if it were a matter not worthy the regarding If a mans body be ill affected he will send to the Physician if he doubt of the weight of his Gold he will seek to the Ballance if of the goodnesse of the mettall he will try it by the Touchstone if the title of his Lands be questionable he will have the opinion of a Lawyer but whether he be a Son of God and consequently whether he shall be saved or no he never doubts but whatsoever he doe or thinkes or speaks hee takes it as granted The most wicked and hellish liver who serves no Master but the Devill will as I have â—ayd direct his prayers to God as to his Father others we have whoâ—e practice is farr better being kept from grosse sins by Gods restraining grace our careles and carnall Goâ—pellers our sleepy and drowâ—e Protestants who content themselves with the shadow and let fall the substance of Religion these if they be Baptized and can say that in their Baptisme they were made children of God if they come once or twice in a week to hear Prayers or Sermons if at usual times they receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper if they give their assent to the Law and the Gospel that they are both true and with a generall faith believe all the Articles of the Creed and withal have a care to lead a civill life amongst men then they perswade themselves their case is good they are sound Christians children of God and sheep of that little flock to whom our heavenly Father will of his good pleasure give a Kingdome But alas a man may doe all these and more then these and be a sonne of the Devill He may do all these 1. He may be baptized so was Simon Magus 2. He may heare the word preâ—ched so did Pharaoh 3. He may receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper so did Judas 4. He may believe the Law and the Gospel and all the Articles of the Creed to be true so doth the Devil 5. He may lead an honest and civill life amongst men so Socrates and divers Pagans if ye look to the matter of good works have out-stripped many Christians in the practise of sundry morall duties He may do more then all this and be a reprobate and child of the Devill 1. He may be sorry for his sinnes and make satisfaction both these we see in Judas 2. He may confesse them even in particular and desire good men to pray for him both these we see in Pharaoh He may have a delight in the Word and love the Preacher both these did Herod He may for a time be zealous of Gods glory so was Jehu He may be humbled for his sinnes and declare his humiliation by fasting and weeping so did Ahab and the Ninivites Hee may have a certaine tast of faith which much resembleth a justifying faith so had Simon Magus Hee may in many things reforme his life so did Herod and Maxentius Hee may tremble at the threatnings of Gods judgment so did Falix and so doth the Devill Now then how can such drowsie
fulfilled the Commandements of God yet wantest thou one thing for that work which must merit must be Opus indebitum Now obedience to every branch of Gods law is a debt which we are owing to God by the law of creation and God may say to every one of us as Paul said to Philemon Thou owest to mee even thine owne selfe Doth a Master thank that servant which did that which he was commanded to do I trow not so likewise When yee have done all things which were commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have but done that which was our duty to do Inutilis servus vocatur saith Austin qui omnia fecit quia nihil fecit ultra id quod debuit And Theophylact upon that place The servant if he work not is worthy of many stripes and when he has wrought let him be contented with this that he hath escaped stripes 3. That work by which thou must merit must be thine own but thy good works if thou look to the first cause are not so Quid habes quod non accipisti 1 Cor. 4. It s God that worketh both the will and the deed Phil. 2. 13. Not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 13. So then put case thou couldst fulfill the law and it were not a payment of debt yet is no merit due to thee but to him whose they are Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Every good and perfect gift comes from above even from the father of lights And Deus sua dona non nostra merita coronat 4. Admit it were in thy power to fulfill the law that it were no debt that thy works were wholly thine and God had no part in them this is not enough there must be some proportion between the work and the reward or no proper merit Now between thy best works and the Kingdome of heaven promised to Christs little flock there is not that proportion that is Inter stillam muriae mare Aegeum as Tullie speaks between the light of a candle and the light of the Sunne between the least grane of sand that lies on the Sea-shore and the highest heaven as shall presently appear 5. Last of all that thy work may merit at Gods hands some profit or honour must thereby accrue to him But my goodnesse saith David O Lord reacheth not unto thee but to the saints that are on the earth If thou be righteous saith Elihu what givest thou to God or what receiveth he at thine hand Job 35. Who hath given unto him first Rom. 11. 35. All these five things are requisite for the merit of works but not onely some but all of them are wanting to our best works and therefore we must with the Scriptures ascribe our whole salvation to the grace of God and acknowledge nothing inherent in us to be the prime cause of all his graces but his owne good will and pleasure I count the afflictions of this world not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. And in another place he tells us That wee deserve hell for our evill workes The wages of sinne is death but not heaven for our good deeds and sufferings but of Gods bounty and mercie Eternall life is the gift of God Rom. 6. Not by the works of righteousnesse which wee had done but according to his mercie he saved us Tit. 3. And ye are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. And how doth he prove that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works because Ei qui operatur merces non imputatur secundū gratiam sed secundum debitum And if Abraham had been justified by works he had wherein to rejoyce but not with God Rom. 3. These are places of Scripture and let me build upon this occasion to produce an assertion which once I brought upon another point which some that I see here present were pleased to except against as savouring of blasphemy though the words excepted against were none of mine but of Justin Martyr who lived above 1400. years agoe and confidently brought by him in his discourse with Tryphon a Jew if any I will not say Pelagian or Arminian or Papist but if all the Fathers of the Primitive Church if all the ancient Councels if Moses and all the Prophets if Paul and all the Apostles if an Angel from heaven nay if God himself these are the words of Justin the Martyr should deliver any doctrine repugnant to that which is contained in this booke I would not believe him Agreeable unto these places of Scripture was the doctrine of the ancient Church Gratia evacuatur si non gratis donatur sed meritis redditur Aug. Epist 105. Non dei gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo And in a third place Non pro merito quidem accipimus vitam aeternam sed tantum pro gratia Tract 3. in Ioh. And thus have I confirmed my proposition by reason by Scriptures and by the testimonie of the Church and Contra rationem nemo sobrius contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus contra scripturas nemo Christianus senserit as a Father saith Unto all these might be added if it were needfull the confession of the learnedst of our Adversaries let our Enemies be Judges who cry down this blasphemous doctrine of Merit God saith one of them doth punish Citra condignum but rewards Vltra condignum and Scotus as Bellar confesseth holds that Bona opera ex gratia procedentia non sunt meritoria ex condigno sed tantum ratione pacti acceptationis divinae And of the same opinion saith he were other of the old Schoolmen and of the new Writers Andreas Vega. Ferus as in many other points between us the Pontificians so in this he is as sound a Catholique and as good a Protestant as Calvin himselfe or any that hath written on this subject in Math. cap. 20. vers 8. Gratis promisit gratis reddit si dei gratiam favorē conservare vis nulla meritorum tnorum mentionem facito And in Acts 15. Qui docet in operibus confidere is negat Christi meritum sufficere Both which places many others of the same Author their Index Expurgatorius hath wiped out using him the ancient fathers as Tereus dealt with Progne who cut out her tongue lest she shold tel the truth Yea and Bellarmine himselfe after he hath spent seventeen leaves in defence of merit of works and scrapt and catcht and drawn in by the shoulders whatsoever he could out of the Scriptures or ancine Fathers for colouring that Tenent at length brings this Orthodoxall conclusion with which I will conclude this point Very Orthodoxall indeed if two letters be transposed Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae let it be Propter certitudinem propriae injustitiae propter periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate
life will not produce that effect which they would do if they went hand in hand together but rather as if a man should blot with one hand that which he writes with another Our lives will doe as much harm as our Doctrine good It 's a true speech of a reverend Divine that the sins of Teachers are teachers of sinnes as in a Scriveners table when any letter wants its due proportion the Schollar that takes the Copie for his guide will imitate that as well as those which are perfectly written A bove majore discit arare minor not by doctrine but by example It 's to no purpose for the old Crab in the fable to bid her young ones goe forward when she goes backward her selfe Sivis me flere dolendum est primum ipse tibi Quod mihi praecipis cur ipse non facis Aug. de doct Christ. lib. 4. cap. 27. Gallo similis est praedicator saith Gregorie Wherein doth the comparison consist Inter tenebras praesentis vitae studet venturam lucem praedicando quasi cantando nunciare dicit enim nox praecessit c. That is true but not all and therefore others stretch the comparison further thus As the Cock claps his wings and beats and ronzeth up himselfe before he awake others so we must first give an example in our selves of that to which we exhort others otherwise they will say unto us this proverb Physitian heale thy selfe Quis coelum terra non misceat mare coelo Si fur displiceat Verri homicida Miloni That then the seed of Gods Word which we shall sow may take deeper root and more abundantly bring forth fruit in our hearers let us give example in our selves Non sic inflectere sensus Humanos edicta valent ut vita docentis Let every of us say with our Saviour Learn of mee for I am meeke Learn of me for I am thus and thus And as Gideon said to his Souldiers Learn of me and do ye likewise even as I have done so doe ye But what is either the fruit of our Ministrie or the credite of our calling in respect of Gods glory which we should so tender as that we should rather wish our selves accursed and razed out of Gods book then that by our meanes the least staine or spot of dishonour should be imputed unto him Now as God is honored by the holy life of a Preacher so nothing brings more disgrace then the wicked and scandalous conversation of him that carries the vessels of the Lord. If a stranger who belongs not unto me mis-behave himselfe and be a common drunkard a blasphemer an uncleane person c. that is no disgrace unto me but if one of my familie my sonne my friend whom I trust as my right hand fall into any of these the disgrace lights not only on him but it reflects upon me So if a stranger from God a Pagan c. shall fall into these or the like the matter is not great it shews what man is without God But if he who in outward profession is one of the houshold of faith a steward in Gods house appointed to give every one of his familie their portion of meate in due season Christs Embassadour and Vice-gerent shall miscarry and like Hophni and Phineas of sons of Eli prove a son of Belial Gods name is dishonoured and his offering abhorred O heavenly Father that thy Name may be hallowed sanctifie the Tribe of Levi whom thou hast separated from the multitude of Israel to take them neer unto thy self Let thy Vrim thy Thummim be with thy holy ones Let thy Priests be cloathed with righteousnesse that thy Saints may sing with joyfulnesse Shall many Preachers be damned as having not expressed that in their lives and conversations which they have delivered to others what then shall become of them that are called to this honour and preach not at all that cannot say so much for themselves as Iudas Lord have not I by thy name prophesied shall they not be condemned at that day upon a nihil dicit Purgatory as the authors of it confesse will then have an end Limbus Patrum is long since destroyed the Earth at that day shall be burnt up and whether there will be any room in Heaven for them that neglect the works of their particular calling I have reason to doubt Pietas honestas probitas privata bon a sunt said he in the Tragoedy nay pietas honestas probitas publica bona sunt they be generall duties which no Christian whatsoever his calling be may want He cannot be bonus civis which is not bonus vir and yet it is not sufficient for a man that would beare Office in a Corporation that he is bonus vir unlesse he be also bonus civis qualified with such particular vertues as are requisite to that Place I commend Gregory Nazianzens resolution who when they would needs chuse him Bishop fled into Pontus and having afterward accepted the Dignity and from that translated to another and then to one of the greatest Bishopricks in the World insomuch that some of his Successors contended with the Bishop of Rome for primacy did afterward voluntarily relinquish it For indeed though he was a fluent Oratour and a great Divine which got him the sur-name of Theologus and so acute a Disputant that the Arians counted great Athanasius a Childe in respect of him yet was he not fit especially in those turbulent times for Church Government If I be desirous to be resolved in some doubtfull points of Law concerning mine Inheritance and a Friend advise me to go to such a man telling me that he is a very honest man what better am I for that unlesse he be skilfull in the Lawes and able and willing to resolve me in that where I am doubtfull If I have a Garment to be made I will not go to this or that man whom I heare to beare the name of an honest man I will suppose every man to be such unlesse I know the contrary but to him that is a professed Taylor and able to do the work So for us that I may bring that which hath been spoken home to my purpose It is not sufficient for us that the World carries an opinion of us that we are good men in respect of generall vertues unlesse we be good Ministers and put in practise those Gifts which are proper to that state of life wherein our Master hath set us Now preaching is the best flower that growes in our Garden it s the very grace and ornament nay the very life and esse and specificall form of a Minister being the only ordinary meanes for ought that I know which God hath appointed for saving of Soules This was meant as some moralize it by the Bell and Pomegranet on Aarons Garment The Bell signified the preaching of the Gospell and the Pomegranet the merits of Christ implying thus much that the merits of Christ are by no other
and peradventure from worse exercise they shall both benefit their hearers and receive at least some tincture of Divinity as he that tarries long in an Apothecaries shop will carrie the smell of it about him and hee that walkes in the Sun will be coloured by the heat of it The second sort is of such as will not my censure must be sharper against these then against the former Hee that hath his Garners full of graine and will not bring it out to the Market in such a yeare as this but rather suffer the people to starve then sell a bushell unlesse he may have an excessive price for it is worse in the judgment of all men then a poore man that doth not furnish the Market because he wants The mother is worse that hath breasts full of milke and will not give suck which the Dragons deny not the young ones Lam. 4. 3. then shee that hath dry breasts and cannot and is not he worse that hath a candle and hides it under a bushell and will not give light then he that is dark and cannot that hath eyes and winks and will not see then he that is blind and cannot that hath a tongue and will not speak then he that cannot because he is dumb It 's true of a Lawyer Scire tuum nihil si te scire hoc sciat alter If every man knew as much in the Laws as the Lawyer doth none would seek unto him for Counsell But it befits a Minister better if a ni be put to it as Persius hath it Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter His knowledg must not be shut up in the Ventricles of his braine like Timons monie in his chest but like that precious oile that was poured on Aarons head it must discend to the skirts of his cloathing the meanest of them that are committed to his charge It must fall from the braine to the tongue and from thence Drop as the raine and still as the dew as the shower upon the Herbs and as the great raine upon the grasse Deut. 32. 2. The Priests lips must preserve knowledge Mal. 2. 7. The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned to minister a word in season to him that is weary Isa 50. 4. And he that makes no conscience of this is liable to a double curse 1. A curse in his gifts they will rust and canker away The faithfull servant that employeth not his masters talent shall have it taken from him Matth. 25. This idoll Shepheard that feedeth not his flock shall prove a right idoll indeed for as he hath a tongue and speaks not so shall he have eyes and shall not see His arme shall be dryed up and his right eye shall be utterly darkned Zach. 11. ult 2. A curse upon his soule Matth. 25. Cast him into utter darkenesse I am not credulous in believing ill reports of any man especially of a Minister but if it be true which I have heard and by reason of the late Visitation I have somewhat more then a bare report it is to be lamented even with teares of blood that some of extraordinary gifts as they would be deemed and the greater their gifts are the greater shall their judgment be if they be found negligent do scarce once in 12. or 13. years visite a great part of their Flock Their little ones cry for bread and there is none to give them any And in the place where they reside like Atheists very often mew themselves up in their private houses when they should be in the house of God feeding their Flocks and when they go to the Church ordinarily continue there like images without a word speaking and so frustrate their poor hunger-starv'd sheep of their hopes Like as when a barren cloud hangs in the aire in time of a drought and yeelding no drops to water the dry and gasping Earth the expectation of the Husbandman is made frustrate If they afford them once in the year or at most once in the quarter a dish of Strawberries as Latimer spake in the same case it 's a dainty they must hold themselves contented I wish it were as good as a dish of Strawberries and not rather like Caligula's banquet where all the banquetting stuffe was made of gold which did only feed the eye but not the bellie this banquet is not of gold but for the most part of a worse mettall Latin which with a tinkling noise may tickle the eare but never fill the stomack Plinie writes of some people of Mount Atlas that were without names it seems these men think their Parishioners to be without souls or else that the calling of a Minister is not Virtutis exemplum sed vitae adjumentum atque subsidium non munus reddendae rationi obnoxium sed imperium liberum reddendarum rationum metu solutum as Nazianzen speaks Oh beloved brethren that I may speak to all let us beware of these things Let the doing of his will that hath sent us be our meat and drink our joy and crown and the gathering together of his dispersed Flock our game and advantage our names may put us in mind of our duties Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis We are called Shepheards If we love the great Shepheard of our soules let us feed his sheep feed his lambs We are watchmen let us stand upon our watch and give warning to the Citie of God of the approach of the Enemie We are lights of the world let us consume our selves that we may inlighten others We are voyces of cryers or crying voyces for Sions sake let us not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake let us not keepe silence but lift up our words like Trumpets And tell the house of Jacob their transgressions and Israel their sins Let us be like that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec Dedonaei cessat tinnitus aheni No more should we remembring that strict adjuration of the Apostle I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and in his kingdome preach the word be instant in season and out of season 2. Tim. 4. 1. We are Captains of the Lord of Hosts Let us fight a good fight and resist unto blood striving against sinne Where should a Captain dye but in the field and where should a Preacher die said learned Jewel but in the Pulpit Adde for a second Motive that joy and comfort which will attend us when we shall leave these houses of clay and these earthen pitchers shall be ready to be broken at the Well if our consciences can bear us witnes that we have continued faithful in our Masters service No doubt it was no small comfort to Cyrus when Lysander admired the sweetnesse of his Gardens and fit ordering of trees in his Groves that hee was able to tell him they were his own work and that he had planted them
with his own hands No lesse comfort will it be to us when we can perswade our owne soules that such trees we have planted in the Lords garden such sheep we have brought into Christs sheepfold if every of us can say to the great Arch-bishop of our souls when he shall keep his visitation Here am I and the children thou hast given me Adde last of all that Crown of righteousnesse wherewith our service shall be rewarded at the last day Those that have beene his faithfull witnesses here on earth when the earth shall be no more shall be as the Moon and as the faithfull witnesse in heaven And whereas those which follow wisdome shall shine ut expansum as that which is stretched out over our heads the Firmament those that turne many unto righteousnesse and let no painful Minister be discouraged if the fruit of his labours fall short of his expectation We are but Gods Instruments Except the Lord keep the Citie the watch-man watcheth but in vaine Except the Lord build the house their labour is but lost that build it Paul may plant and Apollos water but to no purpose unless God give an encrease Jeremiah thundered out Gods judgments against the sins of Jerusalem the space of 50. yeares and she was more obstinate in the end then at the beginning Esay preached 64. some say 74. years and profited little for all his pains Noah preached 120. years to the old World and we do not read of one person he converted Let it be our desire and studie to turne many unto righteousnesse and our reward shall be with our God He that accepteth the will for the deed will as surely reward us as if we had done the deed So then as I was about to say whereas those that follow wisdome shall be as the thinner parts of heaven or as the Lacteus Circulus which is caused of the confluence of the beames of those heavenly torches Those that turne many unto righteousnesse shall be as the thicker parts of the celestiall Orbe and shall shine as the starrs of heaven for evermore The sixth Sermon JER 22. 3. Thus saith the Lord Execute yee Judgement and Righteousnesse THREE things there were amongst the Gentiles to which they dreaming they had them from God trusting too much disadvantaged themselves and gave occasion of rejoycing to their Enemies First their twelve Ancilia or Targets one of which they say fell from Jupiter into the hands of Numa Secondly their Palladium which fell from Heaven into a certain Temple in Phrygia being then without Roofe Thirdly and the Image of Pessinuntia dea or Idaea mater the Mother of their Gods which the Romans with great cost and paines brought from Pesinuns a Town in Asia the lesse to Rome and placed in the Temple of their Goddesse Victoria as a meanes to perpetuate and eternize the felicity of that State The Jewes likewise had three things which they said and said truly they had from God The Temple and the Ark and the Law which because they looked no further into then the out-side and externall Superficies of them as if a man should busie himselfe with picking and licking the Shell of a Nut and neglect the Kernell or rest satisfied with keeping a true measure and ballance in his house and never use them or as if a Scholler should content himselfe with looking on the Cover and Strings of his Book and never open it nor learn the Contents thereof brought many Calamities upon them and at length proved their destruction as long as the Temple was in the City and the Ark in the Temple and the Law in the Ark they thought all sure they themselves were called the people of God their City the City of God in it they had the Temple of God and the Ark of God and the Law of God What was wanting verily as much as is wanting to a good Souldier when he hath his Sword hanging by his side and never offers to draw it when the Enemy assaults him or to the Office of a Judge when he sits on the Bench having the Scales painted over his head but speaks not a word Against this remisnesse not to give it a worse name the Prophet exclaimes the Law is dissolved then the Letters remain in the Book the practise is perished Judgment never goes forth Defluxit lex Hab 14. its a metaphor borrowed from the Pulse a mans bodily constitution may be known by his Pulse if it be fallen down and give over beating the man is in the pangs of Death or dead already if vehement he is in a hot Feaver if temperate he is in good health The Law is the Pulse of the Common-Wealth if it move not the Body Politick is dead if its motion be violent its sick of a hot Ague if moderate and equall it s well affected In the dayes of our Prophet the Pulses of the Law were quiet no more motion in them then in the dead Sea which neither ebbs nor flowes Judgment was fallen and Justice could not enter the faithfull City was become an Harlot her Princes Rebells and Companions of Theeves every one loved Gifts and followed after Rewards they judged not the Fatherlesse neither did the cause of the Widow come before them Isa 1. They had altogether broken the Yoke and burst the Bonds Jer. 5. 5. Whereupon the Lord sends his Prophet to the King of Judah and his Servants that is his chiefe Officers and Magistrates with this Charge that if they desired to continue their Possessions in that good Land which he had given them and to escape a miserable slavery and captivity under cruell Tyrants in a strange and Idolatrous Country into which for their sinnes he was ready to bring them they should put life into the Law that the Pulses thereof might be perceived to move Execute Judgment And because the corruption of mans nature commonly runs from one extream to another in vitium ducit culpae fuga here quires that this Judgment be not too violent but moderate and equitable Execute Judgment and righteousnesse that is righteous Judgment For the Law like a mans shooe Si pede major erit subvertit si minor urit if it be too wide it will give Liberty to the Foot to tread awry if too strait it will pinch it But what hath a private man to do in matters of State what Commission hath Jeremy a Priest to come to the Court of a mighty King and to tell him and his Nobles of their duties Surely a very strange one He who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords had set him over Nations and over Kingdomes to pluck up and to root out Jer. 1. sends him now as his Embassadour into the Kings house and gives him instruction what he shall speak Thus saith the Lord God esteem not my Message according to the quality of my person for though I be meane in place and of small reputation yet my Errant is of another nature I