without Gods mercy the smallest will damne a man too But what will some reply In case two sins be propounded may I not do the lesser to avoid the greater otherwise must I not of necessity do the greater The answer is short and easie If two sins be propounded do neither E malis minimum holdeth as you heard and yet not alwaies neither in evils of Pain But that is no Rule for evils of sin Here the safer Rule is E malis nullum And the reason is sound from the Principle we have in hand If we may not do any evil to procure a positive good certainly much lesse may we do one evil to avoid or prevent another But what if both cannot be avoided but that one must needs be done In such a strait may I not choose the lesser To thee I say again as before Choose neither To the Case I answer It is no Case because as it is put it is a case impossible For Nemo angustiatur ad peccandum the Case cannot be supposed wherein a man should be so straitned as he could not come off fairely without sinning A man by rashness or feare or frailty may foully entangle himself and through the powerfull engagements of sin drive himself into very narrow straits or be so driven by the fault or injury of others yet there cannot be any such straits as should enforce a necessity of sinning but that still there is one path or other out of them without sin The perplexity that seemeth to be in the things is rather in the men who puzzle and lose themselves in the Labyrinths of sin because they care not to heed the clue that would lead them out if it were well followed Say a man through heat of blood make a wicked vow to kill his brother here he hath by his own rashnesse brought himself into a seeming strait that either he must commit a murther or break a vow either of which seemeth to be a great sin the one against the fifth the other against the third commandement But here is in very deed no strait or perplexity at all Here is a fair open course for him without sin He may break his vow and there an end Neither is this the choice of the lesser sinne but onely the loosening of the lesser bond the bond of charity being greater than the bond of a promise and there being good reason that in termes of inconsistencie when both cannot stand the lesser bond should yield to the greater But is it not a sin for a man to break a vow Yes where it may be kept salvis charitate justitia there the breach is a sin but in the case proposed it is no sin As Christ saith in the point of swearing so it may be said in the point of breach of vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never was any breach of vow but it was peccatum or ex peccato the breaking is either it self formally a sin or it argueth at least a former sin in the making So as the sin in the case alledged was before in making such an unlawfull vow and for that sin the party must repent but the breaking of it now it is made is no new sin Rather it is a necessary duty and a branch of that repentance which is due for the former rashnesse in making it because a hurtfull vow is and that virtute praecepti rather to be broken then kept The Aegyptian Midwives not by their own fault but by Pharaohs tyrannous command are driven into a narrow strait enforcing a seeming necessity of sin for either they must destroy the Hebrew children and so sin by Murther or else they must devise some hansome shift to carry it cleanly from the Kings knowledg and so sin by lying And so they did they chose rather to lye then to kill as indeed in the comparison it is by much the lesser sinne But the very truth is they should have done neither they should flatly have refused the Kings commandment though with hazard of their lives and have resolved rather to suffer any evil than to do any And so Lot should have done he should rather have adventured his own life and theirs too in protecting the chastity of his Daughters and the safety of his guests then have offered the exposall of his Daughters to the lusts of the beastly Sodomites though it were to redeeme his guests from the abuse of fouler and more abominable filthinesse Absolutely there cannot be a case imagined wherein it should be impossible to avoid one sin unlesse by the committing of another The case which of all other cometh nearest to a Perplexity is that of an erroneous conscience Because of a double bond the bond of Gods Law which to transgress is a sin and the bond of particular conscience which also to transgress is a sin Whereupon there seemeth to follow an inevitable necessity of sinning when Gods Law requireth one thing and particular conscience dictateth the flat contrary for in such a case a man must either obey Gods Law and so sin against his own conscience or obey his own conscience and so sin against Gods Law But neither in this case is there any perplexity at all in the things themselves that which there is is through the default of the man onely whose judgement being erroneous mis-leadeth his conscience and so casteth him upon a necessity of sinning But yet the necessity is no simple and absolute and unavoydable and perpetual necessity for it is onely a necessity ex hypothesi and for a time and continueth but stante tali errore And still there is a way out betwixt those sins and that without a third and that way is deponere erroneam conscientiam He must rectifie his judgement and reform the error of his Conscience and then all is well There is no perplexity no necessity no obligation no expediency which should either enforce or perswade us to any sin The resolution is damnable Let us do evil that good may come I must take leave before I pass from this point to make two instances and to measure out from the Rule of my Text an answer to them both They are such as I would desire you of this place to take due and special consideration of I desire to deal plainly and I hope it shall be by Gods blessing upon it effectually for your good and the Churches peace One instance shall be in a sin of Commission the other in a sin of Omission The sin of Commission wherein I would instance is indeed a sin beyond Commission it is the usurping of the Magistrates Office without a Commission The Question is whether the zealous intention of a good end may not warrant it good or at least excuse it from being evil and a sin I need not frame a Case for the illustration of this instance the inconsiderate forwardness of some hath made it to my hand You may read it
that other collection may be yet I hold it the safer resolution which is commonly given by Divines for the justification of this fact of Phinehes that he had an extraordinary motion and a peculiar secret instinct of the Spirit of God powerfully working in him and prompting him to this Heroicall Act. Certainly God will not approve that work which himself hath not wrought But to this Action of Phinehes God hath given large approbation both by staying the plague thereupon and by rewarding Phinehes with an everlasting Priesthood therefore and by giving expresse testimony of his zeal and righteousnesse therein as it is said in the next verse after my Text And it was accounted to him for righteousnesse Which words in the judgement of learned Expositors are not to be understood barely of the righteousnesse of Faith as it is said of Abraham that he believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse as if the zeal of Phinehes in this act had been a good evidence of that faith in Gods promises whereby he was justified and his Person accepted with God though that also but they do withall import the justification of the Action at least thus far that howsoever measured by the common rules of life it might seem an unjust action and a rash attempt at the least if not an haynous murder as being done by a private man without the warrant of authority yet was it indeed not onely in regard of the intent a zealous action as done for the honour of God but also for the ground and warrant of it as done by the speciall secret direction of Gods holy Spirit a just and a righteous action Possibly this very word of standing up importeth that extraordinary spirit For of those Worthies whom God at severall times endowed with Heroicall spirits to attempt some speciall work for the delivery of his Church the Scriptures use to speak in words and phrases much like this It is often said in the book of Judges that God raised up such and such to judge Israel and that Deborah and Iair and others rose up to defend Israel that is The spirit of God came upon them as is said of Othoniel Iudg. 3. and by a secret but powerfull instinct put them upon those brave and noble attempts they undertook and effected for the good of his Church Raised by the impulsion of that powerfull spirit which admitteth no slow debatements Phinehes standeth up and feeling himself called not to deliberate but act without casting of scruples or fore-casting of dangers or expecting commission from men when he had his warrant sealed within he taketh his weapon dispatching his errand and leaveth the event to the providence of God Let no man now unlesse he be able to demonstrate Phinehes spirit presume to imitate his fact Those Opera liberi spiritûs as Divines call them as they proceeded from an extraordinary spirit so they were done for speciall purposes but were never intended either by God that inspired them or by those Worthies that did them for ordinary or generall examples The errour is dangerous from the priviledged examples of some few exempted ones to take liberty to transgresse the common rules of Life and of Lawes It is most true indeed the Spirit of God is a free Spirit and not tied to strictnesse of rule nor limited by any bounds of Lawes But yet that free spirit hath astricted thee to a regular course of life and bounded thee with Lawes which if thou shalt transgresse no pretension of the Spirit can either excuse thee from sinne or exempt thee from punishment It is not now every way as it was before the coming of Christ and the sealing up of the Scripture Canon God having now setled a perpetuall form of government in his Church and given us a perfect and constant rule whereby to walk even his holy word And we are not therefore now vainly to expect nor boastingly to pretend a private spirit to lead us against or beyond or but beside the common rule nay we are commanded to try all pretensions of private spirits by that common rule Ad legem ad testimonium to the Law and to the Testimony at this Test examine and Try the spirits whether they are of God or no. If any thing within us if any thing without us exalt it self against the obedience of this rule it is no sweet impulsion of the holy spirit of God but a strong delusion of the lying spirit of Sathan But is not all that is written written for our Example or why else is Phinehes act recorded and commended if it may not be followed First indeed Saint Paul saith All that is written is written for our learning but Learning is one thing and Example is another and we may learn something from that which we may not follow Besides there are Examples for Admonition as well as for Imitation Malefactors at the place of execution when they wish the by-standers to take example by them bequeath them not the Imitation of their courses what to do but Admonition from their punishments what to shunne Yea thirdly even the commended actions of good men are not ever exemplary in the very substance of the action it self but in some vertuous and gracious affections that give life and lustre thereunto And so this act of Phinehes is imitable Not that either any private man should dare by his example to usurpe the Magistrates office and to do justice upon Malefactors without a Calling or that any Magistrate should dare by his Example to cut off gracelesse offenders without a due judiciall course but that every man who is by vertue of his Calling endued with lawfull authority to execute justice upon transgressors should set himself to it with that stoutnesse and courage and zeal which was in Phinehes If you will needs then imitate Phinehes imitate him in that for which he is commended and rewarded by God and for which he is renowned amongst men and that is not barely the action the thing done but the Affection the zeal wherewith it was done For that zeal God commendeth him Numb 25. verse 11. Phinehes the sonne of Eleazar the sonne of Aaron the Priest hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel whilest he was zealous for my sake among them And for that zeal God rewardeth him Ibid. verse 13. He shall have and his seed after him the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood because he was zealous for his God And for that zeal did Posterity praise him the wise sonne of Sirac Eccl. 45. and good old Mattathias upon his death-bed 1 Macc. 2. And may not this phrase of speech He stood up and executed judgement very well imply that forwardnesse and heat of zeal To my seeming it may For whereas Moses and all the Congregation sate weeping a gesture often accompanying sorrow or perhaps yet
which fall so daily and thick upon us from Heaven whether to warn us or to plague us are but arrows which our selves first shot up against heaven and now drop down again with doubled force upon our heads Omnis poena propter culpam all evils of pain are for the evils of sinne I say fourthly All such evils are for our own sinnes The Scriptures are plain God judgeth every man according to his own works Every man shall bear his own burden c. God hath enjoyned it as a Law for Magistrates wherein they have also his example to lead them that not the fathers for the children nor the children for the fathers but every man should be put to death for his own sinne Deuteron 24. If Israel take up a Proverb of their own heads The fathers have eaten sowr grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge they doe it without cause and they are checked for it The soul that sinneth it shall dye and if any man eat sowr grapes his own teeth and not anothers for him shall be set on edge thereby For indeed how can it be otherwise or who can reasonably think that our most gracious God who is so ready to take from us the guilt of our own should yet lay upon us the guilt of other mens sins The only exception to be made in this kind is that alone satisfactory punishment of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ not at all for his own sins far be the impiety from us so to imagine for He did no sin neither was there any guilt found in his mouth but for ours He payed that which he never took it was For our transgressions that he was wounded and the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him Yet even those meritorious sufferings of his may be said in a qualified sense to have been for his own sins although in my judgement it be far better to abstain from such like speeches as are of ill and suspicious sound though they may be in some sort defended But how for his own sins his own by Commission by no means God forbid any man should teach any man should conceive so the least thought of this were blaspemy but his own by Imputation Not that he had sinned and so desâ—rved punishment but that he had taken upon him our sins which deserved that punishment As he that undertaketh for another mans debt maketh it his own and standeth chargeable with it as if it were his own personal debt so Christ becomming surety for our sins made them his own and so was punishable for them as if they had been his own personal sins Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree 1 Pet. 2 That he was punished for us who himself deserved no punishment it was because He was made sin for us who himself knew no sin So that I say in some sense the assertion may be defended universally and without exception but yet I desire rather it might be thus Christs only excepted all the Pains and Evils of men are brought upon them for their own sins These three points then are certain and it is needfull they should be well understood and remembred because nothing can be objected against Gods Iustice in the punishing of sin which may not be easily removed if we have recourse to some one or other of these three Certainties and rightly apply them All the three doubts proposed in the beginning have one and the same resolution answer one and answer all Ahab here sinneth by Oppression and yet the evil must light though not all of it for some part of it fell and was performed upon Ahab himself yet the main of it upon his son Iehoram I will will not bring the evil in his days but in his sons days will I bring the evil upon his house It is not Iehorams case alone it is a thing that often hath and dayly doth befall many others In Genesis 9. when Noahs ungracious son Ham had discovered his Fathers nakedness the old man no doubt by Gods special inspiration layeth the curse not upon Ham himself but upon his son Canaan Cursed be Canaan c. And God ratified the curse by rooting out the posterity of Canaan first out of the pleasant Land wherein they were seated and then afterwards from the face of the whole earth Ieroboams Idolatry cut off his posterity from the Kingdom and the wickedness of Eli his sons theirs from the Priesthood of Israel Gehasi with the bribe he took purchased a leprosie in fee-simple to him and his heirs for ever The Iewes for stoning the Prophets of God but most of all for crucifying the Son of God brought blood-guiltinesse not only upon themselves but upon their children also His blood be upon us and upon our Children The wrath of God therefore comming upon them to the utmost and the curse of God abiding upon their posterity even unto this day wherein they still remain and God knoweth how long they shall a base and despised people scattered almost every where and every where hated Instances might be endless both in private persons and families and in whole Kingdoms and Countries But it is a needlesse labour to multiply instances in so confessed a point especially God Almighty having thus far declared himself and his pleasure herein in the second commandement of the Law that he will not spare in his Iealousie sometimes to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation There is no question then de facto but so it is the sins of the Fathers are visited upon the Children but de jure with what right and equity it is so it is as Saint Chrysostome speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a question famous and much debated The considerations which I find given in for the resolution of this question by those that have purposely handled it are very many But multitude breedeth confusion and therefore I propose no more but two only unto which so many of the rest as are material may be reduced and those two grounded upon the certainties already declared The former concerneth the Nature of those Punishments which are inflicted upon the Children for the fathers sins the later the Condition of those Children upon whom such punishments are inflicted As to the first The punishments which GOD bringeth usually upon the Children for the fathers sins are only temporal and outward punishments Some have been plagued with infectious diseases as Gehazies posterity and Ioabs also if that curse which David pronounced against him took effect as it is like it did Some have come to untimely and uncomfortable ends as Davids children Amnon and Absalon and the little ones of Dathan and Abiram and others Some have had losses and reproaches and manifold other distresses and
bonum est eligibile Cajet in hunc locum a Aquin. 1. secundae qu. 18. art 4. ad 3. qu. 19. art 6. ad 1. ex Dionysâ—o cap. 4. de Divin nomin b Non est actio bona simpliciter nisi omnes bonâ—tates concurrant sâ—d quilibet defectus singularis causat malum Aquin. 1.2 qu. 18. art 4. ad 3. c 1 Sam. 15.20 c. d 2 Sam. 6.6 7 e Mat. 16.22 23. a Greg. lib. 28. Moral cap. 13. Euseb. Emiss hom 26. and others b Mat. 12.33 c Mat. 6.12 d Sed videte ne fortè non sit verè oculus simplex qui fallatur Been de praecept dispensat a Sancta Hypocrisis was Dominicus his word b Horat. lib. 1. Epist. 1. c Gaudeo sive per veritatem sive per occasionem Romanae Ecclesiae dignitatem exâ—olli Joseph Stephanus de Osc. pe in Epist ad lect a James 2.10 11. b Eâdem doctrinâ qua horremus facere mala ut eveniant bona horrere debemus fâ—cere mala ut evitemus pejora Evitare enim pejora multò minus bonumest quà m evenire bonum Cajetan hic a Non enim datuâ— pâ—rplexio ex parte reruÌ„ sed contingâ—re potest ex pâ—rte hominis nescientis evadere nec videntis aditum evadeÌ„di absque aliquo peccato Cajer hic See the Glosse on dist 13. item adversus where he proveth against Gratian that there can be no perplexity b Non docet eligere minus peccatum sed solutionem minoâ—is nexâ—s Cajetanus hic speaking of thâ— Councell of Toledo See c. 22. q. 4. per tot c Mat. 5.37 d Exod. 1.16 c. e See August contra mendâ—c cap. 19. * Gen. 19.8 Pâ—rturbatio animi fuiâ— â—â—n consilium Hist. Scholast in Gen. cap. 5 f Sin is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3.4 g Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14.23 Omne quod fit contra conscientiam aedificat ad gehenam c. 28. q. 1. Omnes sec. Ex his a Num. 25.7 8. a Rom. 2.22 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 2 Kings 18.44 45. a Nâ—c Samson aliter excusatur quòd sâ—ipsum cum hostibus ruinâ domûs oppressit nisi quod latenter Spiritus Sanctus hoc â—usserat qui per illum miracula faciebat Aug. lâ—b 1. de Civ Dei ca. 21 Si defenditur non fuisse peccatum privatum habuisse consilium indubitanter credendus est Bern. de prec dispâ—nsaâ— b Gen. 22.2 c Chyâ—r in Gen. 14. in Exod. 3â— d 1 Sam. 17. e Jud. 10.30 f Exod. 2.12 g Judg. 3 â—5 c. h 2 Kings 1.10 12. i Imitando ab aliis exprimi nec possunt nec debent nifi eâ—dem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritûs exciteatur Chyâ—r in Exod. 2. k Luke 9.53 l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 9.55 m De Phinees autem dicendum est quòd ex inspiratione divina zelo Dâ—i commotus hoc fecit Aqui. 2.2 qu. 60. art 6. ad 2. Theologi passim a Sacerdos debitor est ut veritatem quam audivit à Deo liberè praedicet 11. qu. 3. noli timere Ex Chrysost. a Moulin Buckler of Faith part 2. sect 4. and not onely ours but some of their own too See Espenaecus ad Tit. cap. 1. b In quibus plus proficit vitiorum ignoratio quà m cognitio virtutis Justin. lib. 2. Hist. cap. 2. c Quis veterum Poetarum plus obscoenitatis impuritatis flagitiorum professus est quà m docet Poenitentiale Burchardi Quot sunt qui ignorarent multa quae ibi leguntur nisi ex ipso didicissent I.R. in confut fab Burdon p. 305. Qui Principum sacerdotum negotiatorum ac praecipuè mulierum vitia in câ—ncionibus suis iâ—sectentur quae saepius ita depingunt ut obscoenitatem doceant Erasm. in Adag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 9.26 b Fight neither with small nor great save onely with the King of Israel 2 King 22.31 c Esay 58.1 d If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battell 1 Cor. 14.8 e Amos 1 2. f Penè idem est fidem nolle asserere negare Fulg. l. 1. ad Thrasim. c. 1. Sicut incauta locutio in errorem pâ—rtrahit ita indiscrâ—tum silentium in errore relinquit Greg. in Mor. g Acts 20.26 27. a 1 â—oh 3.20 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17.11 Non requiritur quis vel qualis praedicet sed quid praedicet Distinct. 19. Secundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in Charmide c Phil. 1.15 16 17 18. d Gal. 1.8 9. e Mat. 23.23 f Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Mat. 23.13 14 c. g Gal. 5.15 a Verse 1. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. in 1 Cor. hom 29. a Verse 8 10. b Verse 11. c Verse 1. a Verse 1. b Verse 4 6. c Verse 11. d Verse 38. a James 1.17 b Ephes. 4.7 c Ne gratia donum divisum sit per personas Patris Filii Sp. Sancti sed indiscretae unitatis naturae tâ—ium unum opus intelligatur Ambros in 1 Cor. 7. c. 61. a V. Aquin. 1. qu. 39.7 a Act. 10.45 46. b Id est donum spiritûs quo dono spiritus suam in homine praesentiam declarat Metonymia effâ—cti Pisca in schol hic a V. Aquin. 1.2 qu. 111.1 b Duplex est operatio sancti spiritús operatur enim in nobis aliud propter nos aliud propter proximos Bern. in parvis Sâ—r. 55. c Geminae operationis experimentum Unius quâ nos primo intùs virtutibus solidat ad salutem alterius quá foris quoque muneribus ornat ad lucrum Illas nobis haec nostris accepimus Bernard in Cant. Ser. 18. a Gal. 5.22 b 1 Cor. 7.7 c Verse 8. d Mat. 5.16 a Exod. 35.30 c. a Eph. 4.11 13 b Mat. 28.20 a 1 Cor. 7.17 b Mat. 25.30 c Mat. 20.6 a 1 Cor. 14.37 b John 20.22 c 2 Tim. 1.6 d Rom. 1.11 e Tit. 2.7 8. a John 2.10 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restringâ—ndum est ad praesentem hypothesin Piscat schol in Luc. 20.38 Instances see John 11.7 Ro. 5.18 c. c Unicuique datur intellige Unicuique cui datur Piscat in schol hic a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. in 1 Cor. hom 29. 1 Cor. 12.8 c. c Ibid. d Verse 29. e Ephes. 4.11 f 1 Cor. 12.28 g Jam. 1.17 h 1 Cor. 4.7 a 1 Cor. 4.7 b Cum illius sit gratiae quod creatus es Hieron Epist. 139. Attendamus gratiam Dei non solùm quâ fecit nos Aug. in Psal. 144. c Deut. 8.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dictum Agamâ—mnonis ad Achillem apud Homer Iliad â— d 1 Cor. 12.11 e Ibid. 18. f Rom. 11.35 g Esay 64.8 h Rom. 9.21 a Hab. 1.16 b Heb. 12.9 c 1 Cor. 15.41 d James 1.17 a James 1.5 a Jam. 1.6 7. b Hoskins
any thing I know at all to trouble this place any more hereafter Let us all now humbly beseech Almighty God to grant a blessing to what hath been presently taught and heard that it may work in the hearts of us all charitable affections one towards another due obedience to lawfull authority and a conscionable care to walk in our severall callings faithfully painfully and peaceably to the comfort of our own souls the edification of Gods Church and the glory of the ever-blessed Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons and one God To whom be ascribed by us and the whole Church as is most due the Kingdome the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AD CLERUM The Second Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 24. Apr. 1621. ROM 3.8 And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just A Little before at the fourth verse S. Paul had delivered a Conclusion sound and comfortable and strengthened it from Davids both experience and testimony in Ps. 51. A place pregnant and full of sinews to enforce it The Conclusion in effect was that Nothing in man can anull the Covenant of God Neither the originall unworthinesse of Gods Children through the universall corruption of nature nor their actuall unfaithfulnesse bewrayed through frailty in particular trials can alienate the free love of God from them or cut them off from the Covenant of Grace but that still God will be glorified in the truth and faithfulnesse of his promises notwithstanding any unrighteousnesse or unfaithfulnesse in man But never yet was any Truth so happily innocent as to maintain it self free from Calumny and Abuse Malice on the one hand and Fleshlinesse on the other though with different aimes yet doe the same work They both pervert the Truth by drawing pestilent Corollaries from sound Conclusions as the Spider sucketh poyson from medicinable herbs But with this difference Malice slandereth the Truth to discountenance it but Fleshlinesse abuseth the Truth to countenance it selfe by it The cavilling Sophister he would faine bring the Apostles gracious Doctrine into discredit The carnall Libertine he would as faine bring his own ungracious behaviour into credit Both by making false yet colourable Inferences from the former Conclusion There are three of those Inferences but never a good The first If so then cannot God in reason and justice take vengeance of our unrighteousnesse The Colour for why should he punish us for that which so much magnifieth and commendeth his righteousnesse But if our righteousnesse commend the righteousnesse of God what shall we say Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance The second Inference If so then it is injust either in God or Man to condemne us as sinners for breaking the Law The Colour for why should that action be censured of sin which so abundantly redoundeth to the glory of God For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner The third and last and worst Inference If so then it is a good and wise resolution Let us sin freely and boldly commit evil The Colour for why should we fear to do that from which so much good may come in this verse of my Text And not rather let us do evil that good may come This last cavilling Inference the Apostle in this Verse both bringeth in and casteth out again bringeth in as an objection and casteth out by his answer An answer which at once cutteth off both it and the former Inferences And the Answer is double Ad rem Ad hominem That concerneth the force and matter of the objection this the state and danger of the objectors Ad rem in the former part of the Verse And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come Ad hominem in the latter end Whose damnation is just In the former part there is an Objection and the Rejection of it The Objection And not rather Let us do evil that good may come The Rejection thereof with a Non sequitur implying not onely the bare inconsequence of it upon the Apostles conclusion but withall and especially the falsenesse and unsoundnesse of it taken by it self As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil c. My aime at this present is to insist especially upon a Principle of practick Divinity which by joynt consent of Writers old and new Orthodox and Popish resulteth from the very body of this verse and is of right good use to direct us in sundry difficulties which daily arise in vita communi in point of Conscience The Principle is this We must not do any evil that any good may come of it Yet there are besides this in the Text divers other inferiour observations not to be neglected With which I think it will not be amisse to begin and to dispatch them first briefly that so I may fall the sooner and stay the longer upon that which I mainly intend Observe first the Apostles Method and substantiall manner of proceeding how he cleareth all as he goeth how diligent he is and carefull betimes to remove such cavils though he step a little out of his way for it as might bring scandall to the Truth he had delivered When we preach and instruct others we should not think it enough to deliver positive truths but we should take good care also as near as we can to leave them clear and by prevention to stop the mouths of such as love to pick quarrells at the Truth and to bark against the light It were good we would so far as our leisure and gifts will permit wisely forecast and prevent all offence that might be taken at any part of Gods truth and be carefull as not to broach any thing that is false through rashnesse errour or intemperance so not to betray any truth by ignorant handling or by superficiall slight and unsatisfying answers But then especially concerneth it us to be most carefull herein when we have to speak before such as we have some cause before-hand to suspect to be through ignorance or weaknesse or custome or education or prejudice or partiall affections or otherwise contrary-minded unto or at leastwise not well perswaded of those Truths we are to teach If the wayes be rough and knotty and the passengers feeble-joynted and dark-sighted it is but needfull the guides should remove as many blocks and stones out of the way as may be When we have gone as warily as we can to work Cavillers if they list will take exceptions it is our part to see we give them no advantage lest we help to justifie the principals by making our selves Accessories Those men are ill-advised how ever zealous for the Truth that stir in controversed points and
such is every sinne Another reason is grounded upon that Principle Bonum ex caâ—sa integra Malum ex partiali Any partiall or particular defect in Object End Manner or other Circumstance is enough to make the whole action bad but to make it good there must be an universall concurrence of all requisite conditions in every of these respects As a disfigured eye or nose or lippe maketh the face deformed but to make it comely there is required the due proportion of every part And any one short Clause or Proviso not legall is sufficient to abate the whole writ or instrument though in every other part absolute and without exception The Intention then be it granted never so good is unsufficient to warrant an Action good so long as it faileth either in the object or manner or any requisite circumstance whatsoever Saul pretended a good end in sparing the fat things of Amalek that he might therewith do sacrifice to the Lord but God rejected both it and him 1 Sam. 15. We can think no other but that Vzzah intended the safety of Gods ark when it tottered in the cart and he stretched out his hand to stay it from falling but God interpreted it a presumption and punished it 2 Sam. 6. Doubtlesse Peter meant no hurt to Christ but rather good when he took him aside and advised him to be good to himself and to keep him out of danger yet Christ rebuked him for it and set him packing in the Divels name Get thee behind me Satan Matth. 16. But what will we say and let that stand for a third reason if our pretended good intention prove indeed no good intention And certainly be it as fair and glorious as we could be content to imagine it such it will prove to be if it set us upon any sinfull or unwarranted meanes indeed no good intention but a bad For granted it must be that the Intention of any end doth virtually include the meanes as in a Syllogisme the Premises do the Conclusion No more then can the choice of ill means proceed from a good intention then can a false Conclusion be inferred from true Premises and that is impossible From which ground it is that the Fathers and other Divines do oftentimes argue from the intention to the action and from the goodnesse of the one to the goodnesse of both to that purpose applying those speeches of our Saviour in the twelfth and in the sixth of Matthew Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt And if thine eye be single the whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darknesse The light of the body is the eye and of the work the intention No marvell when the eye is evil if the whole body be dark and when the intention is evil if the whole work be naught That which deceiveth most men in judging of good or bad intentions is that they take the end and the intention for one and the same thing betwixt which two there is a spacious difference For the end is the thing propter quid for which we work that whereat we aime in working and so hath rationem causae finalis but the intention is the cause à qua from which we work that which setteth us on working and so hath rationem causae efficientis Now between these two kinds of causes the finall and the efficient there is not onely a great difference but even a repugnancy in such sort as that it is impossible they should at any time coincidere which some other kindes of causes may do It is therefore an error to think that if the end be good the intention of that end must needs be good for there may as well be a bad intention of a good end as a bad desire of a good object Whatsoever the end be we intend it is certain that intention cannot be good which putteth us upon the choice of evil meanes Methinkes the Church of Rome should blush if her forehead died red with the blood of GODS Saints were capable of any tincture of of shame at the discovery of her manifold impostures in counterfeiting of Reliques in coyning of Miracles in compiling of Legends in gelding of good Authors by expurgatory Indexes in juggling with Magistrates by lewd Equivocations c. Practises warrantable by no pretense Yet in their account but piae fraudes for so they terme them no lesse ridiculously than fasly for the one word contradicteth the other But what do I speak of these but petty things in comparison of those her lowder impieties breaking covenants of truce and peace dissolving of lawfull and dispensing for unlawfull marriages assoyling Subjects from their Oaths and Allegiance plotting Treasons and practising Rebellions excommunicating and dethroning Kings arbitrary disposing of Kingdomes stabbing and murthering of Princes warranting unjust invasions and blowing up Parliament-houses For all which and divers other foul attempts their Catholick defence is the advancement forsooth of the Catholick Cause Like his in the Poet Quocunque modo rem is their Resolution by right or wrong the State of the Papacy must be upheld That is their unum necessarium and if heaven favour not rather than faile help must be had from hell to keep Antichrist in his throne But to let them passe and touch neerer home There are God knoweth many Ignorants abroad in the world some of them so unreasonable as to think they have sufficiently non-plus't any reprover if being admonished of something ill done they have but returned this poore reply Is it not better to doe so than to doe worse But alas what necessity of doing either so or worse when Gods law bindeth thee from both He that said Doe not commit adultery said also Doe not kill and he that said Doe not steale said also Doe not lye If then thou lye or kill or doe any other sinne though thou thinkest thereby to avoâ—d stealth or adultery or some other sinne yet thou art become a transgressour of the Law and by offending in one point of it guilty of all It is but a poore choyce when a man is desperately resolved to cast himself away whether he should rather hang or drown or stab or pine himself to death there may be more horror more paine more lingring in one than another but they all come to one period and determine in the same point death is the issue of them all And it can be but a slender comfort for a man that will needs thrust himself into the mouth of hell by sinning wilfully that he is damned rather for lying than for stealing or whoring or killing or some greater crime Damnation is the wages of them all Murther can but hang a man and without favour Petty Larceny will hang a man too The greatest sinnes can but damne a man and
And if Phinehes Act also was as most think it was such as these it can no more justifie the usurpation of Magistracy Then Davids act can bloody Duels or Samsons self-murther or Moses's secret slaughter or Ehuds King-killing or Eliahs private revenge I have stood the longer upon the discovery of this sin that men might take right judgement of it and not think it either warrantable or excusable by any pretension of zeal or of whatsoever other good and that both such as have gone too far this way in their practice already for the time past may acknowledge their own over-sight and be sorry for it and others seeing their errour may for the time to come forbear such outrages and keep themselves within the due bounds of Christian sobriety and their particular Callings And thus much of the former instance in a matter of Commission I am to give you another in a matter of Omission Every Omission of a necessary duty is simply evil as a sin But affirmative duties are but sometimes necessary because they do not obligare ad semper as being many it is impossible they should And many times duties otherwise necessary in case of Superiour reason and duties cease to be necessary pro hîc nunc and then to omit them is not to do evil Among other necessary duties this is one for a Minister furnished with gifts and abilities for it to acquaint Gods people with all material needful truths as he can have convenient occasion thereunto And such conveniency supposed not to do this is simply evil Now then to make the Case and the Question The Case thus A Minister hath just opportunity to preach in a Congregation not his own where he seeth or generally heareth some errour in judgement or outragious sin in practice to be continued in with too publick allowance He hath liberty to make choice of his Text and Theme and leisure to provide in some measure for it and his conscience telleth him he cannot pro hîc nunc direct his speech with greater service to Gods Church then against those errours or sins He seeth on the other side some withdrawments his discretion may perhaps be called in question for medling where he needed not he shall possibly lose the good opinion of some with whom he hath held fair correspondence hitherto he shall preserve his own peace the better if he turn his speech another way This is the Case The Question is Whether these latter considerations and the good that may come thereby be sufficient to warrant unto him the omission of that necessary duty The rule of my Text resolveth it negatively they are not sufficient The Duty being necessary pro hîc nunc it is simply evil to omit it and therefore it may not be omitted for any other good I deny not but a Minister may with good discretion conceale many truths from his flock at least the opening and amplifying of them if they be not such as are needfull for them to know either for the establishment of Faith or practice of Life as not onely many nice School-points and Conclusions are but also many Genealogies and Levitical rites and other things even in the Scriptures themselves Nay more a Minister not onely in discretion may but is even in Conscience bound at least in the publick exercise of his Ministry to conceal some particular truths from his Auditory yea though they be such as are needful for the practice of life and for the setling of mens Consciences if they be such with all as are not fit to be publickly spoken of as are many Resolutions of Cases appertaining to the seventh Commandement Thou shalt not commit Adultery and some also appertaining to the eighth Thou shalt not steal Our men justly condemn the Popish Casuists for their too much liberty in this kind in their Writings whereby they reduce vices into an Art under colour of reproving them and convey into the minds of corrupt men Notions of such prodigious filthiness and artificiall Legier-du-main as perhaps otherwise they would never have dreamed on or thirsted after The loose writings of the unchaste Poets are but dull tutors of Lust compared with the authorized Tomes of our severe Romish Votaries There be enormous sins of this rank which a modest man would be ashamed so much as to name especially in publick Now of these onely the generalities would be touched in the publick the specialties not unfolded but in the private exercise of our Ministry nor yet that promiscuously to every one that should out of curiosity desire satisfaction in them but onely to such men and that but onely so far as they may concern in point of conscience and of practice Besides these there are other Cases many in which it may be more convenient to conceale than to teach some divine truths at some times and in some places But yet in the Case is here proposed if it be a truth questioned about which GODS people are much distracted in their opinions much mistaken by some through error in judgement much abused by sinful especially publick practice occasioning Scandals and offences among brethren likely to be overwhelmed with custome or multitude of those that think or do against it and be otherwise of material importance I take it the Omission of it upon seasonable opportunity is a grievous sin and not colourable by any pretence Beloved the Minister is not to come into the Pulpit as a Fencer upon the Stage to play his prize and to make a fair flourish against sin Here he could have it and there he could have it but hath it no where but rather as a Captain into the Field to bend his forces specially against the strongest Troops of the Enemy and to squander and break thorow the thickest ranks and to drive at the fairest It is not enough for a Prophet to cry aloud and to lift up his voice like a trumpet and to tell Iudah and Israel of sins and of transgressions at large but if he would whet them up to the battel he must give a more certain sound he must tell Iudah of her sins and Israel of her transgressions If there be in Damascus or Moab or Ammon or Tyrus or Iudah or Israel three transgressions or four more eminent than the rest it is fit they that are sent to Damascus and Moab and Ammon and Tyrus and Iudah and Israel should make them hear of those three or four more than all the rest Sins and Errours when they begin to get head and heart must be handled roughly Silence in such a case is a kind of flattery and it is almost all one when sins grow outragious to hold our peace at them and to cry Peace Peace unto them Our Apostle in Act. 20. would not have held himself sufficiently discharged from the guilt of other mens blood if he had shunned as occasion was offered to have declared unto them
remembers me there are others whom this prohibition concerneth besides you or rather above you whose case it must be not to receive a false report A thing so weighty and withall so pertinent to the generall argument of this Scripture thâ—t some Translations have passed it in the Text. And the Original word comprehendeth it For albeit the Raiser indeed be the first taker up yet the Receiver taketh it up too at the second hand As it is commonly said of stollen goods There would be no thieves if there were no receivers and therefore some Laws have made the Receiver equal thief with the Stealer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so certainly there would be fewer false reports raised in judgement if they were more sparingly received And therefore in this case also the Receiver must goe pari passu with the Raiser who if he give way or countenance to a false report when he may refuse or hinder it by being an Accessary maketh himself a Party and becometh guilty of the same sins the same wrongs the same mischiefs with the first offender the false Accuser David as he inveigeth against Doeg in the Psalm for telling so he elsewhere expostulateth with Saul for hearing unjust reports of him The Raiser and Receiver are both possessed with the same evil spirit they have the same Devil the same Familiar onely here is the difference The Raiser hath this Familiar in his tongue the Receiver in his eare Whosoever then sitteth in the place of Magistracy and publick judicature in foro externo or is by vertue of his calling otherwise invested with any jurisdiction or power to hear and examine the accusations of others I know not how he shall be able to discharge himself in foro interno from a kind of Champerty if my ignorance make me not abuse the word or at leastwise from misprision of Calumny and unjust accusations if he be not reasonably carefull of three things First let him beware how he taketh private informations Men are partiall and will not tell their own tales but with favour and unto advantage And it is so with most men the first tale possesseth them so as they hear the next with prejudice than which there is not a sorer enemy to right and indifferent judgement A point so material that some Expositors make it a thing principally intended in this first branch of my Text Ut non audiatur una pars sine alia saith Lyra. Suiters will be impudent to forestall the publick hearing by private informations even to the Iudge himself if the accesse be easie or at leastwise which indeed maketh lesse noyse but is nothing less pernicious to his servant or favourite that hath his ear if he have any such noted servant or favourite He therefore that would resolve not to receive a false report and be sure to hold his resolution let him resolve so far as he can avoid it to receive no report in private for a thousand to one that is a false one or where he cannot well avoid it to be ready to receive the information of the adverse part withall either both or neither but indeed rather neither to keep himself by all means equal entire for a publick hearing Thus much he may assure himself there is no man offereth to possesse him with a cause before-hand be it right be it wrong who doth not either think him unjust or would have him so Secondly let him have the conscience first and then the patience too and yet if he have the conscience certainly he will have the patience to make search into the truth of things and not be dainty of his pains herein though matters be intricate and the labour like to be long and irksome to find out if it be possible the bottome of a business and where indeed the fault lieth first or most It was a great over-sight in a good King for David to give away Mephibosheths living from him to his Accuser and that upon the bare credit of his accusation It had been more for his honour to have done as Iob did before him to have searched out the cause he knew not and as his son Solomon did after him in the cause of the two Mothers Solomon well knew what he hath also taught us Prov. 25. that it was the honour of Kings to search out a matter God as he hath vouchsafed Princes and Magistrates his own name so he hath vouchsafed them his own example in this point An example in the story of the Law Gen. 18. where he did not presently give judgement against Sodome upon the cry of their sins that was come up before him but he would go down first and see whether they had done altogether according to that cry and if not that he might know it An example also in the Gospel-story Luc. 16. under the parable of the rich man whos 's first work when his Steward was accused to him for embezeling his goods was not to turn him out of doors but to examine his accounts What through Malice Obsequiousness Coverture and Covetousness counterfeit reports are daily raised and there is much cunning used by those that raise them much odde shuffling and packing and combining to give them the colour and face of perfect truth As then a plain Countrey-man that would not willingly be cousened in his pay to take a slip for a currant piece or brasse for silver leisurely turneth over every piece he receiveth and if he suspect any one more than the rest vieweth it and ringeth it and smelleth to it and bendeth it and rubbeth it so making up of all his senses as it were one naturall touchstone whereby to try it such jealousie should the Magistrate use and such industry especially where there appeareth cause of suspicion by all means to sift and to bolt out the truth if he would not be cheated with a false report instead of a true Thirdly let him take heed he do not give countenance or encouragement more then right and reason requireth to contentious persons known Sycophants and common Informers If there should be no Accusers to make complaints Offenders would be no offenders for want of due Correction and Laws would be no Laws for want of due Execution Informers then are necessary in a Common-wealth as Dogs are about your houses and yards If any man mislike the comparison let him know it is Cicero's simily and not mine It is not amisse saith that great and wise Oratour there should be some store of Dogs about the house where many goods are laid up to be safe kept and many false knaves haunt to do mischief to guard those and to watch these the better But if those Dogs should make at the throat of every man that cometh neer the house at honest mens hours and upon honest mens businesse it is but needful they of the house should sometimes
before him but so did not I because of the fear of God Neh. 5. What did not Nehemiah bear rule over the people yes that he did there is nothing surer His meaning then must be so did not I that is I did not suffer my servants so to do as they did theirs implying that when the servants of the former governours oppressed the people it was their Masters doing at leastwise their Masters suffering Even their servants bare rule over the people but so did not I because of the fear of God The Magistrate therefore that would speedily smoke away these Gnats that swarm about the Courts of justice and will be offering at his ear to buzze false reports thereinto he shall do well to begin his reformation at home and if he have a servant that heareth not well deservedly to pack him away out of hand and to get an honester in his room Say he be of never so serviceable qualities and useful abilities otherwise so as the Master might almost as well spare his right eye or his right hand as forgo his service yet in this case he must not spare him Our Saviours speech is peremptory Erue Abscinde Projice if either eye or hand cause or tempt thee to offend pull out that eye cut off that hand cast them both from thee with indignation rather want both then suffer corruption in either Davids resolution was excellent in Psal. 101. and worthy thy imitation Who so privily slandereth his neighbour him will I destroy whoso hath a proud look and high stomach I will not suffer him Mine eyes look to such as be faithfull in the Land that they may dwell with me whoso leadeth a godly life he shall be my servant There shall no deceitfull person dwell in my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight He that will thus resolve and thus do it may be presumed he will not knowingly give either way to a false report or countenance to the reporter And so much for our first Rule Thou shalt not raise a false report My first purpose I confess was to have spoken also to the Witness to the Iurer to the Pleader to the Officer from the other four Rules in my text as punctually particularly as to the Accuser from this first for I therefore made choice of a Text that taketh them all in that I might speak to them all alike But if I should enlarge my self upon the rest as I have done in this my meditations would swell to the proportion rather of a Treatise then a Sermon and what patience were able to sit them out Therefore I must not do it And indeed if what I have spoken to this first point were duly considered and conscionably practised I should the lesse need to do it For it is the Accuser that layeth the first stone the rest do but build upon his foundation And if there were no false reports raised or received there would be the lesse use of and the lesse work for false and suborned Witnesses ignorant or packt Iuries crafty and slie Pleaders cogging and extorting Officers But unto these I have no more to say at this time but onely to desire each of them to lay that portion of my Text to their hearts which in the first division was allotted them as their proper share and withall to make application mutatis mutandis unto themselves of whatsoever hath been presently spoken to the Accuser and to the Magistrate from this first rule Whereof for the better furtherance of their Application and relief of all our memories the summe in brief is thus First concerning the Accuser and that is every party in a cause or tryall he must take heed he do not raise a false report which is done first by forging a meer untruth and secondly by perverting or aggravating a truth and thirdly by taking advantage of strict Law against Equity Any of which who ever doth he first committeth a haynous sin himself and secondly grievously wrongeth his neighbour and thirdly bringeth a great deal of mischief to the Common-weal All which evils are best avoyded first by considering how we would others should deal with us and resolving so to deal with them and secondly by avoyding as all other inducements and occasions so especially those four things which ordinarily engage men in unjust quarrels Malice Obsequiousness Coverture and Greediness Next concerning the Iudge or Magistrate he must take heed he do not receive a false report Which he shall hardly avoid unless he beware first of taking private informations secondly of passing over causes slightly without mature disquisition and thirdly of countenancing Accusers more than is meet For whose discountenancing and deterring he may consider whether or no these five may not be good helps so far as it lyeth in his power and the Laws will permit first to reject informations tendred without Oath secondly to give such interpretations as may stand with Equity as wel as Law thirdly to chastise Informers that use partiality or collusion fourthly to allow the wronged party a liberal satisfaction from his adversary fifthly to carry a sharp eye and a strait hand over his own Servants Followers and Officers Now what remaineth but that the several premises earnestly recommended to the godly consideration and conscionable practice of every one of you whom they may concern and all your persons and affairs both in the present weighty businesses and ever hereafter to the good guidance and providence of Almighty God we should humbly beseech him of his gracious goodnesse to give a blessing to that which hath been spoken agreeably to his word that it may bring forth in us the fruits of Godliness Charity and Iustice to the glory of his grace the good of our brethren and the comfort of our own souls even for his blessed Son's sake our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom with c. AD MAGISTRATUM The Third Sermon At the Assises at Lincolne 4. Aug. 1625. at the request of the High Sheriffe aforesaid WILLIAM LISTER Esquire PSALME 106.30 Then stood up Phinehes and executed judgement and the plague was stayed THe abridgement is short which some have made of the whole Book of Psalmes but into two words Hosannah and Hallelujah most of the Psalmes spending themselves as in their proper arguments either in Supplication praying unto God for his blessings and that is Hosannah or in Thanksgiving blessing God for his goodnesse and that is Hallelujah This Psalme is of the later sort The word Hallelujah both prefixed in the title and repeated in the close of it sufficiently giveth it to be a Psalm of Thanksgiving as are also the three next before it and the next after it All which five Psalmes together as they agree in the same general argument the magnifying of Gods holy name so they differ every one from other in choyce of those speciall and topicall arguments whereby the praises of God are set forth
so as they feel a kind of tickling pleasure and delight in it which the Apostle calleth Tasting of the heavenly gift and the good word of God and the powers of the world to come Hebreus 6. And as they receive the seed joyfully so it appeareth quickly it springeth up anon in the likeness of Repentance and Faith and Obedience and newnesse of life They may be touched with a deep feeling of their sins and with heavy hearts and many tears confesse and bewail them and not only promise but also purpose amendment They may be superficially affected with and find some overly comfort and refreshing from the contemplation of those gracious promises of mercy and reconciliation and salvation which are contained in the glorious Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ and have some degrees of perswasion that those promises are true and some flashes of confidence with all of their own personal interest therein They may reform themselves in the general course of their lives in sundry particulars refraining from some grosse disorders and avoiding the occasions of them wherein they have formerly lived and delighted and practising many outward duties of Piety and Charity conformable to the letter of the Laws of both Tables and misliking and opposing against the common errours or corruptions of the times and places wherein they live and all this to their own and others thinking with as great zeal unto Godliness and as through indignation against sinne as any others All this they may doe and yet all the while be rotten at the heart wholly carnal and unrenewed quite empty of sound Faith and Repentance and Obedience and every good grace full of damnable Pride and Hypocrisie and in the present state of damnation and in the purpose of God Reprobates and Cast-aways Examples hereof we have in Sauls care for the destroying of Witches in Iehu's zeal in killing Baals Priests in Herods hearing of Iohn Baptist gladly and doing many things thereafter and to omit others in this wicked King Ahab present fit of Repentance and Humiliation At all which and sundry other like effects we shall the less need to marvell if we shall seriously consider the Causes and Reasons thereof I will name but a few of many and but name them neither First great is the force of Natural conscience even in the most wicked men especially when it is awakened by the hand of God in any heavie affliction or by the voice of God threatning it with vengeance It pursueth the guilty soul with continual and restless clamours and he seeth that something he must needs doe if he knew what to stop the mouth of Conscience and so he falleth a repenting and reforming and resolving of a new course which though it be not sincere and so cannot work a perfect cure upon a wounded conscience but that still it rankleth inward yet it giveth some present ease and allayeth the anguish of it for the time Secondly God will have the power of his own Ordinance sometimes manifested even upon those that hate it as he got himself honour upon Pharoah and the Aegyptians that his own faithfull ones may see and admire the power of that holy seed whereby they are begotten again from the dead not doubting but that the Gospel will prove The power of God unto salvation to all that beleeve when they behold in it the power of conviction upon many that beleeve not Thirdly God in his most wise and unsearchable providence so ordereth and disposeth not only outward things but even the hearts and wills and thoughts and actions of men permitting his children to fall backwards into sins and bringing on his enemies towards goodness so far as he thinketh good as for other purposes so for this end also among the rest the man might not be able from those things he seeth happen unto other men or done by them to judge infallibly of the state of his brothers soul. God reserving this Royalty unto himself to be the only Searcher of the hearts and reins of others For these and sundry other Reasons it commeth to pass that Hypocrites and Cast-aways doe oftentimes goe so far as they doe in the outward performances of holy duties Now if men may goe thus far and yet be in the state of damnation what hope then First of Heaven for such prophane ungodly wretches as are so far from having the power as that they have not so much as the least shew of godliness What will become of those that Sit them down in the chair of scorners and despise the good Word of God and make a scoff of those men that desire to square their lives by that rule when some of them that hear it gladly and receive it with joy and are content to be ordered by it in many things shall yet goe to hell Certainly Ahab and Herod and such cursed miscreants shall rise up in judgement against these men and condemn them and they shall have Their portion with Hypocrites shall I say Alas wofull is their case if their portion fall but there but let them take heed lest their portion be not so good as the Hypocrites and that it be not ten times easier for Ahab and Herod and the whole crew of such Hypocrites at the day of judgement than for them Secondly what a stark shame would it be for us who have received the First fruits of the Spirit not to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in some good abundance in the frequent and comfortable and actual exercises of those habitual graces that are in us of Faith Repentance Love Reformation Zeal and the rest seeing the counterfeits of these graces are oftentimes so eminent even in Hypocrites and Cast-awayes Shall a piece of rotten wood or a Gloworm shine so bright in the dark and our holy Lampes fed with Oyl from Heaven burn so dim Nay Let our Lights also as well as theirs shine before men yea and outshine theirs too that men may see our truly good works as well as their seeming ones and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Although all be not gold that glistereth yet pity it is that true gold should gather rust and lose the lustre for want of using when Brasse and Copper and baser metals are kept bright with scowring Let not blear-eyed Leah have cause to rejoyce against beautifull Rachel or to insult over her barrenness neither let us who profess our selves to be Wisdoms children suffer our selves to be out-stript by Natures brats in justifying our Mother Rather let their splendida peccata provoke us to a godly jealousie and emulation and spur us up to the quickning of those Graces God hath given us that the power of Godliness in us may be at least as fruitfull in all outward performances as the shew of it is in them Thirdly this should teach us caution in our judging of other mens
the Evil and mercy again in suspending it for so long a time I will not bring the evil in his days Of these two points we shall entreat at this time and first and principally of the former I will not bring the evil It is no new thing to them that have read the sacred stories with observation to see God when men are humbled at his threatnings to revoke them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome more than once this is ever Gods manner when men change their deeds to change his doom when they renounce their sins to recall his sentence when they repent of the evil they have done against him to Repent of the evil he had said he would doe against them Search the Scriptures and say if things run not thus as in the most ordinary course God commandeth and Man disobeyeth Man disobeyeth and God threatneth God threatneth and Man repenteth Man repenteth and God forbeareth Abimelech thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his wife untouched and God spareth him and he dyeth not Hezekiah make thy will and Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live but Hezekiah turneth to the wall and prayeth and weepeth and God addeth to his days fifteen years Nineveh prepare for desolation for now but forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed but Nineveh fasted and prayed and repented and Nineveh stood after that more than forty years twice told Generally God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place but if they repented he either with-held it or deferred it or abated it or sweetned it to them for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisedom he hath thought good some way or other he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour wherein he threatned it A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto and which he often and openly professeth he will hold Two remarkable testimonies among sundry other shall suffice us to have proposed at this time for the clear and full evidencing hereof The one in Ierem. 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evil that I thought to doe unto them The other in Ezek. 33.13 14. When I say to the wicked thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawfull and right If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die And every where in the Prophets after Denunciations of judgement follow exhortations to Repentance which were bootlesse if Repentance should not either prevent them or adjourn them or lessen them You see God both practiseth and professeth this course neither of which can seem strange to us if we duly consider either his readiness to shew mercy or the true End of his threatnings We have partly already touched at the greatness of his mercy To shew compassion and to forgive that is the thing wherein he most of all delighteth and therefore he doth arripere ansam take all advantage as it were and lay hold on every occasion to doe that but to punish and take vengeance is opus alienum as some expound that in Esay 28. his strange work his strange act a thing he taketh no pleasure in Vivo nolo in Ezek. 33. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked c. As the Bee laboureth busily all the day long and seeketh to every flower and to every weed for Hony but stingeth not once unlesse she be ill provoked so God bestirreth himself and his bowels yearn within him to shew compassion O Ephraim what shall I doe unto thee O Iudah how shall I entreat thee Why will ye dye O ye house of Israel Run to and fro through the streets of Ierusalem and seek if you can find a man but a man that I may pardon it But vengeance commeth on heavily and unwillingly and draweth a sigh from him Heu consolaâ—or Ah I must I see there is no remedy I must ease me of mine adversaries and be avenged of mine enemies Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets how oft would I c. How shall I give thee up Ephraim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together So is our God slow to anger and loath to strike Quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox but plenteous in mercy as David describeth him in Psal. 103. Never was a man truly and inwardly humbled but God in the riches of his special mercy truly pardoned him never was man so much as but outwardly humbled as Ahab here but God in his common and general mercy more or lesse forbare him Secondly the end of Gods threatnings also confirmeth this point For doth he threaten evil think ye because he is resolved to inflict it Nothing lesse rather to the contrary he therefore threatneth it that we by our repentance may prevent it and so he may not inflict it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom he foretelleth what he will bring upon us for this very purpose that he may not bring it upon us and warneth before he striketh to make us carefull to avoid â—he stroke In the antient Roman State and discipline the manner was before they made warr upon any people first to send Heralds to proclame it Bellum indicere â—e inserrent to the end that if they would make their peace by submission they might prevent the warr nor so onely but be written also in albo amicorum enrolled as their friends and confederates So God sendeth his Heralds the Prophets to threaten vengeance against sinners not thereby to drive them from hope of mercy but to draw them to repentance and humiliation whereby they may not only turn away the vengeance threatned but also if they perform them unfeignedly and with upright hearts interest themselves farther in his favour and love Nor is it to be accounted among the least of Gods mercies when he might in his just displeasure over-whelm us in the very act of our sinnes as Zimri and Cosbi were runn thorow in the very act of filthinesle and as Uzzah and Annanias and Sapphira and some few others whom God picked out to shew exemplary judgement upon were strucken dead upon the sudden for their transgressions When God might in justice deal with the same rigour against us all I say it is not the least of his mercies that he forbeareth and forewarneth and foretelleth and threatneth us before he punish
necessity of the whole requireth that some should drudge in baser and meaner offices If all the body were Eye where were the Hearing And if there were none to grind at the Mill there would soon be none to sit upon the Throne Salomons Temple had not been reared to this hour if there had not been burden-bearers and labourers as well as curious workers in stone and brasse and gold There should be no shame in that whereof there can be no want nay Much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary Grudge not then at thine own lot for not the meanest Calling but hath a promise of Gods blessing neither envy anothers lot for not the greatest Calling but is attended with worldly vexations Whatsoever thy Calling is therein abide be Content with it The second is faithfulnesse and Industry and Diligence What is here called Abiding in it is at v. 17 called Walking in it and in Rom. 12. Waiting on it Let him that hath an office wait on his office It is required in stewards that a man be found faithfull and every man in his Calling is a Steward He that professeth a Calling and doth nothing in it doth no more abide in it than he that leaveth it or he that never had it Spartam quam nactus es orna Whatsoever Calling thou hast undertaken therein abide be painfull in it The third is sobriety that we keep our selves within the proper bounds and limits of our Callings For how doth he abide in his Calling that is ever and anon flying out of it or starting beyond it like an extravagant souldier that is alwayes breaking rank Uzza had better have ventured the falling than the fingering of the Ark though it tottered It is never well when the Cobler looketh above the Ankle nor when Lay-men teach us what and how we should teach them The Pope should have done well to have thrown away his keyes as they say one of them once did before he had taken the sword into his hands and Midwives well to go teach all Nations before they baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Let it be the singular absurdity of the Church of Rome to allow Vicars to dispose of Crownes and Women of Sacraments As for thee whatsoever thy calling be therein abide keep within the bounds of it But yet abide with God That clause was not added for nothing it teacheth thee also some duties First so to demean thy self in thy particular Calling as that thou do nothing but what may stand with thy general Calling Magistrate or Minister or Lawyer or Merchant or Artificer or whatsoever other thou art remember thou art withall a Christian. Pretend not the necessities of thy particular Calling to any breach of the least of those Lawes of God which must rule thy general Calling God is the author of both Callings of thy General Calling and of thy Particular Calling too Do not think he hath called thee to service in the one and to liberty in the other to Iustice in the one and to Cousenage in the other to Simplicity in the one and to Dissimulation in the other to Holinesse in the one and to Prophanenesse in the other in a word to an entire and universal Obedience in the one and to any kind or degree of Disobedience in the other It teacheth thee secondly not to ingulfe thy self so wholly into the businesses of thy particular Calling as to abridge thy self of convenient opportunities for the exercise of those religious duties which thou art bound to perform by vertue of thy general Calling as Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Meditation c. God alloweth thee to serve thy self but he commandeth thee to serve him too Be not thou so all for thy self as to forget him but as thou art ready to embrace that liberty which he hath given thee to serve thy self so make a conscience to perform thâ—se duties which he hath required of thee for his service Work and spare not but yet pray too or else work not Prayer is the means to procure a blessing upon thy labours from his hands who never faileth to serve them that never faile to serve him Did ever any man serve God for nought A man cannot have so comfortable assurance that he shall prosper in the affaires he taketh in hand by any other meanes as by making God the Alpha and Omega of his endeavours by beginning them in his name and directing them to his glory Neither is this a point of Duty only in regard of Gods command or a point of Wisdome onely to make our labours successefull but it is a point of Iustice too as due by way of Restitution We make bold with his day and dispence with some of that time which he hath sanctified unto his service for our own necessities It is equal we should allow him at least as much of ours as we borrow of his though it be for our necessities or lawfull comforts But if we rob him of some of his time as too often we do employing it in our own businesses without the warrant of a just necessity we are to know that it is theft yea theft in the highest degree sacrilege and that therefore we are bound at least as far as petty thieves were in the Law to a fourfold restitution Abide in thy Calling by doing thine own part and labouring faithfully but yet so as Gods part be not forgotten in serving him daily It teacheth thee thirdly to watch over the special sinnes of thy particular Calling Sinnes I mean not that cleave necessarily to the Calling for then the very Calling it self should be unlawfull but sinnes unto the temptations whereof the condition of thy Calling layeth thee open more than it doth unto other sinnes or more than some other Callings would do unto the same sinnes and wherewith whilest thou art stirring about the businesses of thy Calling thou mayest be soonest overtaken if thou doest not heedfully watch over thy self and them The Magistrates sinnes Partiality and Injustice the Ministers sinnes Sloath and Flattery the Lawyers sinnes Maintenance and Collusion the Merchants sinnes Lying and Deceitfulnesse the Courtiers sinnes Ambition and Dissimulation the Great Mans sinnes Pride and Oppression the Gentlemans sinnes Riot and Prodigality the officers sinnes Bribery and Extortion the Countrey mans sinnes Envie and Discontentednesse the Servants sinnes Tale-bearing and Purloyning In every State and condition of life there is a kind of opportunity to some special sinne wherein if our watchfulnesse be not the greater mainly to oppose it and keep it out we cannot abide therein with God All that I have done all this while in my passage over this Scripture is but this I have proved the Necessity of having a Calling layed down directions for the Choyce and tryal of our Callings and shewed what is required
admirable and inexpressible and unconceivable perfections that are in him There is no beholding of the body of this Sun who dwelleth in such a Glorious light as none can attain unto that glory would dazle with blindnesse the sharpest and most Eagly eye that should dare to fixe it self upon it with any stedfastnesse enough it is for us from those rayes and glimmering beams which he hath scattered upon the Creatures to gather how infinitely he exceedeth them in brightness and glory De ipso vides sed non ipsum We see his but not Him His Creatures they are our best indeed our only instructers For though his revealed word teach us what we should never have learned from the Creatures without it yet fitted to our capacity it teacheth no otherwise than by resemblances taken from the Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Paul calleth it Rom. 1. the whole Latitude of that which may be known of God is manifest in the Creatures and the invisible things of God not to be understood but by things that are made St. Basil therefore calleth the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very School where the knowledge of God is to be learned and there is a double way of teaching a two-fold method of trayning us up into that knowledge in that school that is to say Per viam negationis and per viam Eminentiae First Viâ negationis look whatsoever thou findest in the Creature which â—avoureth of defect or imperfection and know God is not such Are they not limited subject to change composition decay c Remove these from God and learn that he is infinite simple unchangeable eternal Then Viâ Eminentiae look whatsoever perfection there is in the Creature in any degree and know that the same but infinitely and incomparably more eminently is in God Is there Wisdom or Knowledge or Power or Beauty or Greatness or Goodness in any kind or in any measure in any of the Creatures Affirm the same but without measure of God and learn that he is infinitely wiser and skilfuller and stronger and fairer and greater and better In every good thing so differently excellent above and beyond the Creatures as that though yet they be good yet compared with him they deserve not the name of good There is none good but one that is God Mar. 10. None good as he simply and absolutely and essentially and of himself such The creatures that they are good they have it from him and their goodness dependeth upon him and they are good but in part and in some measure and in their own kinds Whensoever therefore we find any good from or observe any goodness in any of the creatures let us not bury our meditations there but raise them up by those stairs as it were of the Creatures to contemplate the great goodness of him their Creator We are unhappy truants if in this so richly furnished school of GODS good creatures we have not learned from them at the least so much knowledge of him and his goodness as to admire and love and depend upon it and him Look upon the workmanship and accordingly judge of the workman Every Creature of God is good surely then the Creator must needs excel in goodness Thirdly there is in men amongst other cursed fruits of self-love an aptness to measure things not by the level of exact truth but by the model of their own apprehensions Who is there that cannot fault anothers work The Cobler could espy something amisse in Apelles his master-piece because the picture was not drawn just according to his fancy If a thousand of us hear a Sermon scare one of that thousand but he must shew some of that little wit he hath in disliking something or other There the Preacher was too elaborate here too loose that point he might have enlarged contracted this he might have been plainer there shewed more learning here that observation was obvious that exposition enforced that proof impertinent that illustration common that exhortation needless that reproof unseasonable one misliketh his Text another his Method a third his style a fourth his voice a fifth his memory every one something A fault more pardonable if our censures stayed at the works of men like our selves and Momus-like we did not quarrel the works of God also and charge many of his good Creatures either with manifest ill or at leastwise with unprofitableness Why was this made or why thus what good doth this or what use of that It had perhaps been beter if this or that had never been or if they had been otherwise Thus we sometimes say or think To rectifie this corruption remember this first clause of my Text Every Creature of God is good Perhaps thou seest not what good there is in some of the creatures like enough so but yet consider there may be much good which thou seest not Say it giveth thee no nourishment Possibly it may doe thee service in some other kind Say it never yet did that yet it may doe hereafter Later times have found out much good use of many Creatures whereof former ages were ignorant and why may not after times find good in those things which doe us none Say it never did nor ever shall doe service to man although who can tell that yet who knoweth but it hath done or may doe service to some other Creature that doth service to man Say not that neither yet this good thou mayst reap even from such Creatures as seem to afford none to take knowledge of thine own ignorance and to humble thy self thereby who art so far from comprehending the essence that thou canst not comprehend the very works of God The most unprofitable Creatures profit us at least this way Visu si non usu as Bernard speaketh if not to use them yet to see in them as in a glasse Gods wisdom and our own ignorance And so they do us good if not cedendo in cibum if not exhibendo ministerium in feeding and serving us yet exercendo ingenium as the same Bernard speaketh in exercising our wits and giving us a sight of our ignorance But yet those creatures which are apparently hurtfull to us as Serpents and Wild-beasts and sundry poysonous plants but above all the Devils and cursed Angels May we not say they are ill and justly both blame and hate them Even these also are good as they are the creatures of God and the workmanship of his hands It is only through sin that they are evil either to us as the rest or in themselves as the Devils These now wicked Angels were glorious Creatures at the first by their own voluntary transgression it is that they are now the worst and the basest And as for all the other creatures of God made to doe us service they were at first and still are good in themselves if there cleaveth to
this branch of our Christian liberty is the Church of Rome whom Saint Paul in this passage hath branded with an indeleble note of infamy in as much as those very doctrines wherein he giveth instance as in doctrines of Devils are the received Tenets and Conclusions of that Church Not to insist on other prejudices done to Christian liberty by the intolerable usurpation of the man of sin who exerciseth a spiritual Tyranny over mens Consciences as opposite to Evangelical liberty as Antichrist is to Christ let us but a little see how she hath fulfilled S. Pauls prediction in teaching lying and Devilish doctrines and that with seared consciences and in Hypocrisie in the two specialties mentioned in the next former Ver. viz. forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats Mariage the holy Ordinance of God instituted in the place and estate of innocency honoured by Christs presence at Cana in Galilee the seed-plot of the Church and the sole allowed remedy against incontinency and burning lusts by the Apostle commended as honourable in all men and commanded in case of ustion to all men is yet by this purple strumpet forbidden and that sub mortali to Bishops Priests Deacons Subdeacons Monks Friers Nuns in a word to the whole Clergy as they extend that title both Secular and Regular Wherein besides the Devilishness of the Doctrine in contrarying the Ordinance of God and in denying men subject to sinful lusts the lawfull remedy and so casting them upon a necessity of sinning see if they do not teach this lye with seared consciences For with what Conscience can they make the same thing a Sacrament in the Lay and Sacrilege in the Clergy With what conscience permit stewes and forbid Marriage With what conscience allege Scriptures for the single life of Priests and yet confesse it to be an ordinance only of Ecclesiastical and not of Divine right With what conscience confesse fornication to be against the Law of God and Priests marriage only against the Law of holy Church and yet make marriage in a Priest a farr fouler sinne than fornication or incest With what conscience exact a vow of continency from Clerks by those â—anons which defend their open incontinency With what conscience forbid lawful marriages to some and yet by dispensation allow unlawful marriages to others And is not the like also done in the other particular concerning Meats The laws of that Church forbidding some Orders of men some kinds of meats perpetually and all men some meats upon certain dayes and that not for Civil respects but with opinion of satisfaction yea merit yea and supererogation too In which also besides the Devilishness of the Doctrine in corrupting the profitable and religious exercise of fasting and turning it into a superstitious observation of Dayes and Meats judge if they doe not teach this lye also as the former with seared consciences For with what conscience can they allow an ordinary Confessour to absolve for Murder Adultery Perjury and such petty crimes but reserve the great sin of Eating flesh upon a Friday or Ember day to the censure of a Penitentiary as being a matter beyond the power of an ordinary Priest to grant absolution for With what Conscience make the tasting of the coarsest flesh a breach of the Lent fast and surfetting upon the delicatest fishes and confections none With what Conscience forbid they such and such meats for the taming of the flesh when they allow those that are farre more nutritive of the flesh and incentive of fleshly lusts With what conscience enjoyn such abstinence for a penance and then presently release it again for a peny Indeed the Gloss upon the Canon that doth so hath a right worthy and a right wholesom note Note saith the Glosse that he who giveth a peny to redeem his fast though he give mony for a spiritual thing yet he doth not commit Simonie because the contract is made with God If these men had not seared up their consciences would they not think you feel some check at the broaching of such ridiculous and inconsistent stuff as floweth from these two heads of Devilish Doctrines of forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats I deny not but the bawds of that strumpet the Doctors of that Church have their colourable pretences wherewith to blanch over these errours else the lyes would be palpable and they should not otherwise fill up the measure of their Apostacy according to the Apostles Prophecy in teaching these lyes in Hypocrisie But the colours though never so artificially tempered and never so handsomly laid on are yet so thinn that a steddy eye not bleered with prejudice may discern the lye through them for all the Hypocrisie As might easily be shewen if my intended course led me that way and did not rather direct me to matter of more profitable and universal use Having therefore done with them it were good for us in the third place that we might know our own free-hold with better certainty and keep our selves within our due bounds to enquire a little what is the just extent of our Christian liberty unto the Creatures and what restraints it may admit A point very needfull to be known for the resolution of many doubts in conscience and for the cutting off of many questions and disputes in the Church which are of very noysom consequence for want of right information herein I have other matter also to entreat of and therefore since I may not allow this enquiry so large a discourse as it well deserveth I shall desire you to take into your Christian consideration these Positions following The first Our Christian liberty extendeth to all the Creatures of God This ariseth clearly from what hath been already delivered and the testimonies of Scripture for it are expresse All things are pure All things are lawfull All are yours elsewhere and here Nothing to be refused The second Position Our Christian liberty equally respecteth the using and the not using of any of Gods creatures There is no Creature but a Christian man by vertue of his liberty as he may use it upon just occasion so he may also upon just cause refuse it All things are lawfull for me saith S. Paul but I will not be brought under the power of any thing Where he establisheth this liberty in both the parts of it liberty to use the Creatures or else they had not all been lawfull for him and yet liberty not to use them or else he had been under the power of some of them Whence it followeth that all the Creatures of God stand in the nature of things indifferent that is such as may indifferently be either used or not used according as the rules of godly discretion circumstances duely considered shall direct The third Position Our Christian liberty for the using or not using of the creature
have so much as named among the Saints not named with allowance not named with any extenuation not named but with some detestation But the very thing for which I have spoken all this is to shew how inexcusable the Adulterer is when even those of the Gentiles who by reason of the darknesse of their understandings and the want of Scripture-light could espy no obliquity in Fornication could yet through all that darknesse see something in Adultery deservedly punishable even in their judgements with death They could not so far quench that spark of the light of nature which was in them nor hold back the truth of God in unrighteousnesse as not by the glimpse thereof to discern a kinde of reverend Majesty in Gods holy ordinance of Wedlock which they knew might not be dishonoured nor the bed defiled by Adultery without guilt They saw Adultery was a mixt crime and such as carried with it the face of Injustice as well as Uncleannesse nor could be committed by the two offending parties without wrong done to a third And therefore if any thing might be said colourably to excuse Fornication as there can be nothing said justly yet if any such thing could be said for Fornication it would not reach to excuse Adultery because of the injury that cleaveth thereunto Against Fornication God hath ordained Marriage as a Remedy what a beast then is the Adulterer and what a Monster whom that remedy doth no good upon In the marriage knot there is some expression and representation of the Love-covenant betwixt Christ and his Church but what good assurance can the Adulterer have that he is within that Covenant when he breaketh this Knot Every married person hath ipso facto surrendred up the right and interest he had in and over his own body and put it out of his own into the power of another what an arrant Thief then is the Adulterer that taketh upon him to dispose at his pleasure that which is none of his But I say too well by him when I compare him but to a thief Solomon maketh him worse than a Thief Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfie his soul when he is hungry c. But who so committeth adultery with a Woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own soul c. Where he maketh both the injury greater and the reconcilement harder in and for the Adulterer then for the Thief Nay God himself maketh him worse than a Thief in his Law in his Moral Law next after murther placing Adultery before Theft as the greater sin and in his Iudicial Law punishing Theft with a mulct but Adultery with Death the greater Punishment To conclude this first point Abimelech an Heathen man who had not the knowledge of the true God of Heaven to direct him in the right way and withall a King who had therefore none upon earth above him to controll him if he should transgresse would yet have abhorred to have defiled himself knowingly by Adultery with another mans Wife although the man were but a stranger and the woman exceeding beautifull Certainly Abimelech shall one day rise up in judgement and condemn thy filthinesse and injustice whosoever thou art that committest or causest another to commit adultery Who knowing the judgement of God that they which do such things are worthy of death either doest the same things thy self or hast pleasure in them that do them or being in place and office to punish incontinent persons by easie commutations of publick penance for a private pecuniary mulct dost at once both beguilty thine own conscience with sordid Bribery and embolden the adulterer to commit that sin again without fear from which he hath once escaped without shame or so much as valuable losse And thus much for that first Observation The next thing we shall observe from Gods approving of Abimelechs answer and acknowledgement of the integrity of his heart is That some Ignorance hath the weight of a just excuse For we noted before that Ignorance was the ground of his Plea He had indeed taken Sarah into his house who was another mans Wife but he hopeth that shall not be imputed to him as a fault because he knew not she was a married woman the parties themselves upon inquiry having informed him otherwise And therefore he appealeth to God himself the trier and judger of mens hearts whether he were not innocent in this matter and God giveth sentence with him Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thy heart Where you see his ignorance is allowed for a sufficient excuse For our clearer understanding of which point that I may not wade farther into that great question so much mooted among Divines than is pertinent to this story of Abimelech and may be usefull for us thence viz. whether or no or how far Ignorance and Errour may excuse or lessen sinful Actions proceeding therefrom in point of Conscience let us first lay down one general certain and fundamental ground whereupon indeed dependeth especially the resolution of almost all those difficulties that may occur in this and many other like Questions And that is this It is a condition so essential to every sin to be Voluntary that all other circumstances and respects laid aside every sin is simply and absolutely by so much greater or lesser by how much it is more or lesse voluntary For whereas there are in the reasonable soul three prime faculties from whence all humane Actions flow the Understanding the Will and the sensual Appetite or Affections all of these concur indeed to every Action properly Humane yet so as the Will carrieth the greatest sway and is therefore the justest measure of the Moral goodnesse or badnesse thereof In any of the three there may be a fault all of them being depraved in the state of corrupt Nature and the very truth is there is in every sin every compleat sin a fault in every of the three And therefore all sins by reason of the blindnesse of the Understanding may be called Ignorances and by reason of the impotency of the Affections Infirmities and by reason of the perversenesse of the will Rebellions But for the most part it falleth out so that although all the three be faulty yet the obliquity of the sinful Action springeth most immediately and chiefly from the special default of some one or other of the three If the main defect be in the Vnderstanding not apprehending that good it should or not aright the sin arising from such defect we call more properly a sin of Ignorance If the main defect be in the Affections some passion blinding or corrupting the Judgement the sin arising from such defect we call a sin of Infirmity If the main defect be in the Will with perverse resolution bent upon any evil the sin arising from such wilfulnesse we call a Rebellion or a sin of Presumption And
and dyed in Idolatry and so are damned And if they were saved in their faith why may not the same faith save us and why will not you also be of that religion that brought them to Heaven A motive more plausible than strong the Vanity whereof our present Observation duly considered and rightly applyed fully discovereth We have much reason to conceive good hope of the salvation of many of our Fore-fathers who led away with the common superstitions of those blinde times might yet by those general truths which by the mercy of God were preserved amid the foulest overspreadings of Popery agreeable to the Word of God though clogged with an addition of many superstitions and Antichristian inventions withal be brought to true Faith in the Son of God unfeigned Repentance from dead works and a sincere desire and endeavour of new and holy Obedience This was the Religion that brought them to Heaven even Faith and Repentance and Obedience This is the true and the Old and Catholique Religion and this is our Religion in which we hope to finde salvation and if ever any of you that miscal your selves Catholiques come to Heaven it is this Religion must carry you thither If together with this true Religion of Faith Repentance and Obedience they embraced also your additions as their blinde guides then led them prayed to our Lady kneeled to an Image crept to a Cross flocked to a Mass as you now do these were their spots and their blemishes these were their hay and their stubble these were their Errors and their Ignorances And I doubt not but as S. Paul for his blasphemies and persecutions so they obtained mercy for these sins because they did them ignorantly in misbelief And upon the same ground we have cause also to hope charitably of many thousand poor souls in Italy Spain and other parts of the Christian World at this day that by the same blessed means they may obtain mercy and salvation in the end although in the mean time through ignorance they defile themselves with much foul Idolatry and many gross Superstitions But the Ignorance that excuseth from sin is Ignorantia facti according to that hath been already declared whereas theirs was Ignorantia juris which excuseth not And besides as they lived in the practise of that worship which we call Idolatry so they dyed in the same without repentance and so their case is not the same with Saint Pauls who saw those his sins and sorrowed for them and forsook them But how can Idolaters living and dying so without repentance be saved It is answered that ignorance in point of fact so conditioned as hath been shewed doth so excuse à toto that an Action proceeding thence though it have a material inconformity unto the Law of God is yet not formally a sin But I do not so excuse the Idolatry of our Fore-fathers as if it were not in it self a sin and that without repentance damnable But yet their Ignorance being such as it was nourished by Education Custom Tradition the Tyranny of their leaders the Fashion of the times not without some shew also of Piety and Devotion and themselves withall having such slender means of better knowledge though it cannot wholly excuse them from sin without repentance damnable yet it much lesseneth and qualifieth the sinfulness of their Idolatry arguing that their continuance therein was more from other prejudices than from a wilful contempt of Gods holy Word and Will And as for their Repentance it is as certain that as many of them as are saved did repent of their Idolatries as it is certain no Idolater nor other sinner can be saved without Repentance But then there is a double difference to be observed between Repentance for Ignorances and for known sins The one is that known sins must be confessed and repented of and pardon asked for them in particular every one singly by it self I mean for the kindes though not ever for the individuals every kinde by it self at least where God alloweth time and leisure to the Penitent to call himself to a punctual examination of his life past and doth not by sudden death or by some disease that taketh away the use of reason deprive him of opportunity to do that Whereas for Ignorances it is enough to wrap them up all together in a general and implicite confession and to crave pardon for them by the lump as David doth in the 19. Psalm Who can understand all his Errors Lord cleanse thou me from my secret sins The other difference is that known sins are not truly repented of but where they are forsaken and it is but an hypocritical semblance of penance without the truth of the thing where is no care either endeavour of reformation But ignorances may be faithfully repented of and yet still continued in The reason because they may be repented of in the general and in the lump without special knowledge that they are sins but without such special knowledge they cannot be reformed Some of our fore-fathers then might not only live in Popish Idolatry but even dye in an Idolatrous act breathing out their last with their lips at a Crucifix and an Ave-Mary in their thoughts and yet have truly repented though but in the general and in the croud of their unknown sins even of those very sins and have at the same instant true Faith in Jesus Christ and other Graces accompanying salvation But why then may not I will some Popeling say continue as I am and yet come to heaven as well as they continued what they were and yet went to heaven If I be an Idolater it is out of my Errour and Ignorance and if that general Prayer unto God at the last to forgive me all my Ignorances will serve the turn I may run the same course I do without danger or fear God will be merciful to me for what I do ignorantly Not to preclude all possibility of mercy from thee or from any sinner Consider yet there is a great difference between their state and thine between thine ignorance and theirs They had but a very small enjoyance of the light of Gods Word hid from them under two bushels for sureness under the bushel of a tyrannous Clergy that if any man should be able to understand the books he might not have them and under the bushel of an unknown tongue that if any man should chance to get the books he might not understand them Whereas to thee the light is holden forth and set on a Candlestick the books open the language plain legible and familiar They had eyes but saw not because the light was kept from and the land was dark about them as the darkness of Egypt But thou livest as in a Goshen where the light encompasseth thee in on all sides where there are burning and shining lamps in every corner of the land Yet is thy blindeness greater for who so blinde as he that will
interrogatories are unanswerable what saith he was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized in the name of Paul even so was either Luther or Calvin crucified for you or were ye baptized into the name either of Luther or Calvin or any other man that any one of you should say I am of Luther or any other I am of Calvin and I of him and I of him what is Calvin or Luther nay what is Paul or Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed that is to say instruments but not Lords of your belief To sum up and to conclude this first point then To do God and our selves right it is necessary we should with our utmost strength maintain the doctrine and power of that liberty wherewith Christ hath endowed his Church without either usurping the maestery over others or subjecting our selves to their servitude so as to surrender either our judgements or consciences to be wholly disposed according to the opinions or wills of men though of never so excellent piety or parts But yet lest while we shun one extreme we fall into another as the Lord be merciful unto us we are very apt to do lest while we seek to preserve our liberty that we do not lose it we stretch it too far and so abuse it the Apostle therefore in the next clause of the Text putteth in a caveat for that also not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse Whence ariseth our second observation We must so maintain our liberty that we abuse it not as we shall if under the pretence of Christian liberty we either adventure the doing of some unlawful thing or omit the performance of any requisite duty As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse The Apostles intention in the whole clause will the better appear when we know what is meant by Cloak and what by Maliciousnesse The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is no where else found in the whole new Testament but in this verse only signifieth properly any covering as the covering of badgers skins that was spread over the Tabernacle is in the Septuagints translation called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is very fitly translated a cloak though it do not properly so signifie in respect of that notion wherein the word in our English tongue is commonly and proverbially used to note some fair and colourable pretence wherewith we disguise and conceal from the conusance of others the dishonesty and faultinesse of our intentions in some things practised by us Our Saviour Christ saith of the obstinate Iewes that had heard his doctrine and seen his miracles that they had no cloak for their sin Ioh. 15. he meaneth they had no colour of plea nothing to pretend by way of excuse And Saint Paul professeth in the whole course of his ministery not to have used at any time a cloak of covetousnesse 1 Thess. 2. that is he did not under colour of preaching the Gospel endevour to make a prey of them or a gain unto himself In both which places the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a fair shew pretence or colour which we use to call a cloak It is a corruption very common among us whatsoever we are within yet we desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a fair shew outwardly and to make bright the outside of the platter how sluttish soever the inside bee We are loath to forbear those sins which we are ashamed to professe and therefore we blanch them and colour them and cloak them that we may both do the thing we desire and yet misse the shame we deserve A fault of an ancient original and of long continuance ever since Adam first patcht together a cloak of fig-leaves to cover the shame of his nakednesse Since which time unlesse it were some desperately prophane wretches that being void of shame as well as grace proclaim their sins as Sodom and hide them not but rather glory in them what man ever wanted some handsome cloak or other to cast over the foulest and ugliest transgressions Saul spareth Agag and the fatter cattel flat contrary to the Lords expresse command and the offering of sacrifice must be the cloak Iezabel by most unjust and cruel oppression murthereth Naboth to have his Vineyard and the due punishment of blasphemy must be the cloak The covetous Pharisees devour widowes houses and devotion must be the cloak So in the Church of Rome Monkery is used for a cloak of idlenesse and Epicurism The seal of confession for a cloak of packing treasons and diving into the secrets of all Princes and Estates Purgatory Dirges Indulgences and Iubilees for a cloak of much rapine and avarice Seneca said truly of most men that they studied more excusare vitia quam excutere rather solicitous how to cloak their faults than desirous to forsake them and S. Bernards complaint is much like it both for truth and elegancy that men did not set themselves so much colere virtutes to exercise true vertue and the power of godlinesse as colorare vitia to mask foul vices under the vizard of vertue and godlinesse Alas that our own daily experience did not too abundantly justifie the complaint in the various passages of common life not needful being so evident and being so many not possible to be now mentioned We have a clear instance in the text and it should grieve us to see it so common in the world that the blessed liberty we have in Christ should become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cloak and that of maliciousnesse You see what the Cloak is see now what is Maliciousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which is properly rendred by malice or maliciousnesse And as these English words and the Latine word malitia whence these are borrowed so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek is many times used to signifie one special kinde of sin which is directly opposite to brotherly love and charity and the word is usually so taken wheresoever it is either set in opposition to such charity or else ranked with other special sins of the same kinde such as are anger envie hatred and the like And if we should so understand it here the sense were good for it is a very common thing in the world to offend against brotherly charity under the colour of Christian liberty and doubtlesse our Apostle here intendeth the remedy of that abuse also Yet I rather conceive that the word maliciousnesse in this place is to be taken in a larger comprehension for all manner of evil and of naughtinesse according to the adequate signification of the Greek and Latine adjectives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and malus from whence the substantive used in the Text is derived Of which maliciousnesse so largely taken that special maliousnesse before spoken of is but a branch The Apostles full purpose then in this
the other And that either unto good or unto evil Of the former sort are such outward actions as being in Morall precepts indefinitely commanded are yet sometimes sinfully and ill done as giving an Alms hearing a Sermon reproving an Offender and the like Which are in themselves good and so be accounted rather than evil though some unhappy circumstance or other may make them ill Of the latter sort are such outward actions as being in Moral precepts indefinitely prohibited are yet in some cases lawfull and may be well done as swearing an oath travelling on the Sabbath day playing for money and the like Which are in themselves rather evil than good because they are ever evil unless all circumstances concur to make them good Now of these actions though the former sort carry the face of good the latter of evil yet in very truth both sorts are indifferent Understand me aright I do not mean indifferent indifferentiâ contradictionis such as may be indifferently either done or not done but indifferent onely indifferentiâ contrarietatis such as suppose the doing may be indifferently either good or evil because so they may be done as to be good and so they may be done also as to be evil But yet with this difference that those former though indifferent and in some cases evil are yet of themselves notably and eminently inclined unto good rather than evil and these later proportionably unto evil rather than good From which difference it cometh to passe that to the Question barely proposed concerning the former actions whether they be good or evil the answer is just and warrantable to say indefinitely they are good and contrarily concerning the later actions to say indefinitely they are evil Which difference well weighed to note that by the way would serve to justifie a common practice of most of us in the exercise of our Ministry against such as distaste our doctrine for it or unjustly otherwise take offence at it Ordinarily in our Sermons we indefinitely condemn as evil swearing and gaming for money and dancing and recreations upon the Sabbath day and going to Law and retaliation of injuries and Monopolies and raising of rents and taking forfeitures of Bonds c. and in our own coat Non-residency and Pluralities c. Most of which yet and many other of like nature most of us do or should know to be in some cases lawfull and therefore in the number of those indifferent things which we call Indifferentia ad unum You that are our hearers should bring so much charitable discretion with you when you heare us in the Pulpits condemn things of this nature as to understand us no otherwise than we either do or should mean and that is thus that such and such things are evill as now adaies through the corruptions of the times most men use them and such as therefore should not be adventured upon without mature and unpartiall disquisition of the uprightnesse of our affections therein and a severe triall of all circumstances whether they carry weight enough with them to give our consciences sufficient security not onely of their lawfulnesse in themselves and at large but of their particular lawfulnesse too unto us and then But this by the way Now to proceed There are divers meanes whereby things not simply evil but in themselves either equally or unequally indifferent may yet become accidentally evil Any defect or obliquity any unhappy intervening circumstance is enough to poyson a right good action and to make it stark naught I may as well hope to graspe the Sea as to comprehend all those meanes I make choice therefore to remember but a few of the chiefest such as happen oft and are very considerable Things not simply evil may accidentally become such as by sundry other meanes so especially by one of these three Conscience Scandall and Comparison First Conscience in regard of the Agent Though the thing be good yet if the Agent doe it with a condemning or but a doubting Conscience the Action becometh evill To him that esteemeth any thing to be uncleane to him it is uncleane and he that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith chap. 14. of this Epistle Secondly Scandall in regard of other men Though the thing be good yet if a brother stumble or be offended or be made weake by it the action becometh evill All things are pure but it is evill for that man who eateth with offence verse 20. there Thirdly Comparison in regard of other actions Though the thing be good yet if we preferre it before better things and neglect or omit them for it the action becometh evill Goe and learne what that is I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9. The stuffe thus prepared by differencing out those things which undistinguished might breed confusion our next businesse must be to lay the rule and to apply it to the severall kinds of evill as they have been differenced I foresaw we should not have time to goe thorow all that was intended and therefore we will content our selves for this time with the consideration of this Rule applyed to things simply evill In them the Rule holdeth perpetually and without exception That which is simply evill may not for any good be done We know not any greater good for there is not any greater good than the Glory of God we scarce know a lesser sinne if any sinne may be accounted little than a harmlesse officious lye Yet may not this be done no not for that Will you speake wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Iob 13.7 If not for the glory of God then certainly not for any other inferiour end not for the saving of a life not for the conversion of a soul not for the peace of a Church and if even that were possible too not for the redemption of a world No intention of any end can warrant the choice of sinfull meanes to compasse it The Reasons are strong One is because sinne in its own nature is de numero ineligibilium and therefore as not eligible propter se for it own sake there is neither forme nor beauty in it that we should desire it so neither propter aliud with reference to any farther end Actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem is the common resolution of the Schooles In civil and popular elections if men make choice of such a person to beare any office or place among them as by the locall Charters Ordinances Statutes or other Customes which should rule them in their choice is altogether ineligible the election is de jure nulla naught and void the incapacity of the person elected making a nullity in the act of election No lesse is it in morall actions and elections if for any intended end we make choice of such meanes as by the Law of God which is our rule and must guide us are ineligible and