desire and intention of a farther renting to animate our mutinous contenders and egg on their contentions that look that way I hope there are no such crafty Interlopers as he terms them that put in their stock among the brawling Bankers help to trouble the Waters supposing in time to make another good fishing for themselves Though it is to be feared some Consciences there may be in the world extensive enough and patent to swallow even a Cathedral on the top of an Abby and never trouble the Stomach of it much with the digestion neither It little matters for Sacriledge they abhor Idols and that is sufficient But this appertains not so properly unto Ambition as unto Avarice the second of these earthly affections but no less contentious and turbulent than the former The Apostle well terms it radix omnium malorum the root of all evil and especially so it is by being the root of dissention for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work This therefore a second Parent and Nurse too of this viperous brood of errour and contention For what a multitude of erroneous but gainful pardons and dispensations purgations and expiations of sin what indulgences to commit or else to continue in manifest wickedness what translation of other mens merits on those that want of their own and the like hath this affection conceived and brought into the world and that not for morsels of bread or handfuls of barley only as that Prophet but all like Judas for pieces of Silver Such Silverlings what are they indeed but Judas's quaestui habentes pietatem saith St. Paul to Timothy that make other mens goodness their own gain yea and their wickedness too Both are equally the Churches Treasure that may not be dispensed nor these purged without money So that Purgatory is but a Subterraneous Vault digged only to come at a Mine and that ignis fatuus though it be but fantastical and imaginary yet it serves turn to melt Bullion into his Holinesses Mint more abundantly than any Princes fire else that is real And therefore it is not to be wondred at if much stir be made and many bellows ever blowing to keep it from going out On the other side are there not others to whom the Apostle long since prophesied that speak perverse things to draw Disciples after them out of whom they suck no small advantage such as can lead silly women Captive laden with sins and divers lusts that like their fore-Fathers the old Pharisees can creep into Widows houses and devour too under pretence of long Prayers that can teach the Son of a profelyte to say unto the Father or rather the Wife Corban unto the Husband if not a proselyte as themselves Nay until they become such that neither the one nor the other hath any just title unto his own goods which therefore may be purloyned from them with a good Conscience if it be to supply the necessity of the Saints the right owners of them Is not this likewise as the same Apostle Veritatem cauponari to make merchandise of the Gospel of truth or rather of their own fancies and falshood Against all which questuous errours of such sheepskin'd Wolves on either side when the true and faithful sheepheard shall oppose himself when these Flints and this Steel begin to knock and collide together out fly the sparks of dissention that inflame presently and set the world in combustion Hence Luther stoutly opposing the Marts and Markets of the Roman Indulgencies and whipping those buyers and sellers out of the Temple first began that battery which since we see hath made such a wide breach in the very Towers of their Babel But these wars and contentions are sensual saith St. James as well as earthly and sure pleasure is of little less power with us than profit And whether we take it strictly for the concupiscence of carnal things or more generally for a desire of sinning freely and without sting of Conscience hath her part in these Tragedies and brings not a little oyle unto the flames of contention For this affection finding the doctrine of the Cross grievous unto it whose chief desire it is to injoy the delights of this life and from them to pass into the joys of a better hath for this purpose sought out Doctors such as may comply with her desires and it seems hath found them too and that by heaps so saith the Apostle they heap up unto themselves Teachers after their own Lusts. I confess I should not a little admire why the Romanist that is so strict in discipline should yet in life be as loose as any whence it should be that pressing the necessity of good works so vehemently in their Doctrine few men yet seem to want them or commit the contrary with less trouble to their Conscience did not their enormous dispensing with Oaths of fidelity and horrible Incests their supplying of some mens empty Lamps with other mens Oyl their enlarging of Veâ—al Sins and their easiness of Absolution in such as are Mortal and serving others the like take off that admiration Not that I dislike the distinction of Mortal Sins and Venial rightly stated or yet the use of dispensation in the Church much less of Absolution but only the abuse of these things which yet I think are more abused by particular Persons sensual Priests and presumptuous people than by the general Doctrine of that Church though so abused also And I would we had no abuses tending that way at home For some there are so strict in profession and yet withal so dissolute in their Doctrine and the unavoidable inferences of it as would make a man admire on the other side why they should not either teach as they profess or else profess plainly as they teach such as can distinguish also of Venial and Mortal Sins but in another manner not from the Nature of the Sin but the Condition of the Person The best works they can do are deadly unto some whilst the deadliest iniquities they commit shall be but Venial in the mean time unto themselves as not making any breach between God and their Souls even then when they commit them yea as pardoned with a non obstante before they are committed such as having no part of true righteousness in themselves yet even then by Faith and Faith alone may have the Merits imputed and Righteousness too of another such as can actually commit Mortal iniquities and yet at the same time remain still habitually Righteous such as can exclude good works from the gaining of their justification and when they have gained it can lose it no more by any works that are evil such as need not care what sins their flesh committeth so long as they act them not without some reluctancy of the spirit For so sin the godly and since no Reprobates have any commerce with the internal motions of the Spirit as being altogether flesh they can even from
would not have him fall instantly into such a fit of hideous Oaths as if with Jobs Wife they were resolved presently to curse God and die If the former were profanations these sure are direct blasphemies when men enraged with their trifling misfortunes pour forth floods of direful Oaths as the desire to wreak their anger upon that God whose providence they know doth guide them and because they cannot reach unto his Essence they will at least this way avenge themselves on his Name For you shall see such Tear-Gods sometimes swear a whole Catologue of Oaths over and over still swear them and still say nothing else as having no other end in their swearing but to swear for they swear not to affirm a truth or confirm a promise yet they swear and to no other purpose but to offend God by swearing Their Tongue as the Psalmist speaks walketh through the Earth and they set their mouth against heaven and yet as if neither Heaven nor Earth could afford them Oaths enow to swear by they set their invention on work for strange uncouth and unheard of blasphemies which not without rancor of mind they dart at God himself and spit with more than Epicurean Liberty in the very face of the Almighty The Tongue saith St. James is but a little member yet it hath in it a world of wickedness it sets the world on fire and its self is set on fire of Hell Which though it were spoken of the malicious and slanderous Tongue yet it may be no less true also of the blasphemous for this if any is certainly set on fire of Hell and flames with a sin hot enough and likely enough to set fire on the whole world in the last day when for that world of wickedness it shall find a world of sorrow and torment and as it was fired from Hell before so it shall now be fired in Hell where like Moses bush it shall ever burn and never be consumed for this later fire none shall ever escape but such as with a River of penitent Tears do quench the former before they come there But omitting such high and horrid blasphemies the hellish impiety whereof every one must needs perceive and none that have any goodness remaining can choose but abhor We will a little insist only on those lesser Prophanations in the vain and frequent Oaths of common speech which though men can be content to account a sin yet they would willingly esteem it such as may easily be excused It is only a Custom that is grown upon me I like it not but I cannot leave it the plea of the world as common as the swearing and if it might stand for an excuse it were easily excused indeed But consider it well and you will find it such an excuse as only seems to make the sin more inexcusable since that very reason which they give to lessen the Crime is the principal thing that augments the offence for sin never becomes above measure sinful until it grow into Custom that heaps it up infinitely and so makes it immensurable until it rule and reign in our mortal bodies which alone can stile us not only sinful but the slaves and vassals of sin and then we are sinners indeed There is no man not the best of us without sin yet all are not sinners it is not the falling into sin but the habit and serving of sin that gives the denomination A man may sin and be the servant of God for what servant of Gods doth not sometimes sin but to serve sin and be the servant of God is impossible And therefore of all things else the habit and custome of sin especially mortal and presumptuous sin is most dangerous as being incompatible with the state of Grace and reconciliation with God who never gives remission of the sin unless we abhor and utterly renounce the custom for which cause the Swearer and no man hath the name of a swearer but from the habit of swearing is set down in the same Catalogue with the Adulterer the Drunkard and other heinous sinners which St. Paul tells us shall never enter into the kingdom of God And therefore let no man flatter himself and deceive his own Soul it is a custom that we must leave one time or other or God will eternally leave us The which that we may be the better induced to do I beseech you do but consider besides the greatness of the sin already shewn to how little or rather no purpose it is committed and with what severity it will be punished both here and hereafter for so highly to offend God and no way in the world to pleasure our selves is the utmost of folly and treads on the very heels of madness Why he that burns in Hell for his Mistris had once yet some delight for that torment he shall ever suffer All other sins have their strong provocations in our corrupt nature whereunto they give some content but this idle and wanton sin is without all instigation of the depraved flesh and can give satisfaction to no one appetite of our frail condition unless death and everlasting sorrow dwell in our desires And as it can give no pleasure and delight because it hath no affection in nature to fulfil and content so neither that you may perceive it to be utterly vain can it plead any other benefit there being no just pretence or reason or end for it why it is used And if neither pleasure nor profit be in it the malice of the Devil is in it if to gain nothing here we will run headlong into eternal destruction hereafter If there be any end of it in the world or benefit that we may reap by it it can be no other than the gaining of credit to our speech and to be believed of others when we speak which is indeed the true and proper end of an Oath but an end which the trivial and customary swearer of Oaths in reason cannot expect and if he deal with rational and wise men shall never obtain though they urge it often and think it their best plea to stop the mouth of reproof for this sin Why they would not believe me whereby notwithstanding instead of excusing they do but condemn themselves and yet gain not their purpose with others For first if they mark it what doth it argue but that they do not usually speak truth that cannot be believed without an Oath Qui jurat suspectus est de perfidia The very use of swearing is a manifest sign that he is suspected of perfidy saith Philo. And therefore rightly St. Basil Turpe omnino stultum c. he doth no less basely than foolishly accuse himself as unworthy of credit and belief that perpetually flies unto the safeguard and sanctuary of an Oath for which cause the Esseni saith Josephus did avoid and abhor swearing no less than perjury as conceiving that he was before-hand condemned for lying that could not be credited without
too as well as any man but bring them to the Commandments to the corporal works either of Charity to the distressed or of bounty for the publick honour and worship of that God whom they pretend to fear and then they leave you This they begin to doubt whether it may be any part of their duty or no But however the soul of the old and outward man may be immortal though severed from the body yet is it not so with the new man Sever the fear of God from the observance of his Commandments and it will instantly cease to be fear As St. John of love so may we say of this fear that includes it He that saith he feareth God and keeps not his Commandments is a liar Again observe the Commandments but not in the true fear of God and it will be not observance but dissimulation A Liar this of all Liars whose hypocrisy can make the very spirit of wickedness to inform and actuate the comely limbs and members of true holiness A prodigious conjunction and therefore a Monster detestable both to God and man It is but right then and as it should be that these two here make but one whole conclusion one whole duty one whole matter one whole man They may be distinguished they may not be divided God hath joined them together and let no man seek to put them asunder but he that fears God let him keep his Commandments also Keep his Commandments durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying and the world sure will be hardly brought to this part of the conclusion yea it were something well if those that seem purest amongst us did not conclude clean contrary That the Commandments were not given to be kept yea that there is no possibility for any man though under the state of grace at any time or in any action to keep without violation even the least Commandment But two things there are that seem especially to deceive men in this point First an erroneous opinion that a spiritual action cannot be good so long as it may be bettered as having so much of sin as it wants of absolute perfection which they suppose the Law under the high terms of eternal death doth require at every mans hands But this is apparently mistaken for evident it is that the Law under the penalty enforceth only essential goodness not so that which is gradual otherwise the holy Angels may now sin in Heaven for they excel one another as in nature so in their zeal and operations yea he that is holier than the Angels Christ himself would be endangered of whom the Scriptures do plainly affirm that he prayed at one time more earnestly than at another And rightly for goodness is not seated in puncto in any precise nick or indivisible Center but hath its just latitude and is capable of degrees of comparison in the Concrete bonus melior optimus So Priscian will instruct them with this opinion not admitting it hath false Latin in it and false Divinity both at once This the first The Second thing is another supposal too and little less erroneous than the former That in every good and divine action the flesh lusting against the spirit doth by that malignant influence corrupt and vitiate even with sin the whole operation But what if the lusting flesh do not always move and in every action What if when it moves it doth not yet enter into composition with that act that subdues and quells it as indeed it doth not what if the vertue of such conquering acts be the greater by the opposition as indeed it is ever the more excellent by how much it breaks through stronger resistance according to that of our Saviour virtus mea in infirmitate perficitur Lastly what if every act of lust it self be not in true propriety a Sin As if it be meerly natural great Clerks conceive it is not because sin is ever voluntary and moral They take it for a true Rule â—Lex datur non appetitui sed voluntati and so they conceive our Saviour doth interpret it when he makes not every one whose flesh lusteth but him only that lusteth in his heart that is with his will to be an Adulterer St. Paul they suppose follows his Masters interpretation and though no man doth define lust more than he yet he doth it with caution as the sin not of the person a subject properly not capable of sin but of the flesh I know that in me but with correction that is in my flesh there is no good thing It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me And that we take it not for such a sin as transgresseth the Law he is bold to say that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in those that walk not after the flesh not that have no carnal motions but after the Spirit St. Austin therefore they conceive said well that when the appetite doth lust but the will doth not like it is as when Eve had eaten but not Adam And as we sinned at the first not in Eve but in Adam so is it still for unless Adam eat as well as Eve the will consent as well as the appetite water the fall is not finished The lusts therefore and appetites of Nature if they arise immediately out of the Body and be not raised by our unhappy fancy which the Will sets on work or by some act or custom of Sin which the Will hath already wrought they are not in their opinion sinful unless we will make God the Author of Sin who is the creator of nature and natural appetites yea and Christ too the subject of sin that was not without a natural inclination directly opposite to the known will of God otherwise he could never have said as he doth not my will but thy will be done No doubt but by the lustings of the flesh humane frailties and imperfections more than enough may and do too often cleave like moles and stains unto the divinest actions of the most spiritual men but a mole of frailty is one thing and the corruption of mortal-sin another One thing claudicare in via to go on though halting sometimes and interfering in the way to Heaven and another to cross out of it run counter directly towards Hell And therefore from such surreptitious and involuntary defects to conclude that no man can love God with all his heart clean contrary to the testimonies of the Scripture That the just man falleth seven times a day to wit into sin though that Scripture intend no such matter that all his righteousness is but a defiled rag and the divinest action in the eye of the Law but a mortal and deadly Sin is an exaggeration that doth but rack and tenter a truth until it burst into two errors and dangerous ones both in Gods regard and mans As if men were bound unto meer impossibilities and God that hard man in the Gospel reaping where
any of them precisely secundùm opera according to their works Indeed some there are that like well enough of the secundùm but can by no means away with the propter in this case But yet St. Gregory for this reason conceives otherwise and since the reward is ever beyond or on this side the work takes the propter to be more properly spoken than the secundùm opera But the truth is both are true and the reward shall be now given both for and according to their works not indeed in a strict Arithmetical adequation but yet in a proportion exactly Geometrical for bonis bona retribuet melioribus meliora God shall now give good things as Aquinas hath it unto the good and though not in precise equality unto the goodness of their works in themselves considered yet comparatively in what degree of goodness they exceed others the excess of their reward shall arise ever in the same proportion And so on the other side malis mala pejoribus pejora in like manner Neither will the Parable of the Labourers and their penny any way destroy this though we have not leisure at this time to consider it because of another difficulty arising from hence which as it shall be the last so it seems to be the greatest of all other For be it that good works are rewarded beyond their merit yet how should those that for short and momentany pleasures burn in perpetual and everlasting fires be said to be punished short of their desert yea how should not their desert rather seem much short of their punishment For that the Sins of a Mortal Man acted in an instant and the pleasure thereof perishing even with the act should be rewarded with infinite and interminable sorrows is more than earthly mans wit I suppose can easily reach unto And therefore is well termed by St. Paul Ira revelata de Coelo wrath revealed from Heaven as being without those brighter beams of Revelation not fully penetrable by the Star-light of reason For what reason may well be rendred why or from whence it should be that limited and finite works should arise and grow up to an infinite and unlimited demerit Is it that men are born in an aversion from God and but for God might they never die would never leave sinning and so in the proportion well deserve punishment without ceasing as St. Gregory would have it voluissent utique sine fine vivere ut potuissent sine fine peccare But no man is now judged for what he would have done upon suppositions but what he really hath done and that in the body otherwise Tyre and Sidon should have been saved and peradventure even Enoch himself have perished of whom the Wiseman affirms raptus est nè malitia mutaret intellectum ejus This therefore is but vain and for this reason the Learned Schoolmen rest not on it but relie rather on the common answer that the full estimate of sin is taken not from the person that sins or the time and continuance of the sin but from the object the person offended And this person being the infinite God the sin therefore deserves an infinite punishment But even this way is lyable to many and great difficulties For though offences do otherwise arise in proportion unto the dignity and greatness of the Person that is hurt or wronged by them yet it seems not so in this case where the party offended is infinite First because such a Person is clear out of the reach of Man out of danger of any real lesion or hurt by him or any of his actions Secondly for that infinity I conceive is a proper Attribute of God's and absolutely incommunicable to any creature unless it be where he communicates his own Essence and Person as in our blessed Lord by union hypostatical though yet even then he made not the Humane Nature infinite or yet gave the actions of that nature an estimate so much as morally infinite any other way but by assuming it into the unity of his Person which alone could make the sufferings of Man the passions of God also from whence only they receive the infinity of merit But between the act and the object there is no such union to affect that with a demerit as infinite on the other side And lastly à posteriori were the act after that infinite manner affected by the object how then should not all sins be equal and equally to be punished since in Infinites there is no inequality of magnitude nor can there be made any augmentation or diminution by any thing we can do or imagine unto them For to that which is once conceived as such nothing can be added to make it greater or taken away to render it lesser than before no not though we should take away finite parts or yet add one infinite to another For one infinite divided will but make two and two yea two thousand infinites clapt together would run all into one For as one indivisible point amounts to as much as a million so a million of united infinites will arise to no more than one because all those have not any and every of these hath all quantity in it He that once should conceipt an infinite number of Towers though his imagination should furnish every Tower with six Bells yet he could not with reason say for all that there were more Bells than Towers for more than infinite may not be imagined And this is alike true even in moral magnitudes as well as mathematical whether discrete or continued And as nothing is to be gained by Addition so Substraction on the other side will lose as little He must of necessity take half whosoever will take any thing from that which is infinite As the circle that hath no bounds is every where Center so an infinite line the Diameter of that Circle having no extremities is therefore all middle cut it where you list you shall still divide it into two equal parts and which is stranger both parts will be equal to the whole for either part will still be infinite in regard of one end and therefore of quantity immensurable and that can be no more which is infinite on both ends The Product of this will be not only that all sins are equal because infinite but that one sin is equal in demerit unto all to all that have been committed yea and to infinite sins too if they might be imagined As appears plainly in the sufferings of our Saviour which though of different degrees in regard of the sorrow and torment yet because infinite through his Person they were all equal in respect of the merit Whence it is that that satisfaction which was required for any one sin could even in strictness of Justice expiate all though never so many and that which had faln short of expiating all could never have given satisfaction for any one even the least sin that is mortal Neither will this be avoided by that
answer of the Schoolmen that sin hath infinity only secundùm quid that is in regard of the object and that therefore other circumstances there are which may add degrees unto it because not simply infinite For even that which is but one way infinite cannot be enlarged by any finite additions the other way As a line that should run on without end though pieced out never so much at the beginning would yet be never a whit the longer If the world be supposed eternal à parte ante though days and months and years be added yet it would be no older an hundred years hence than it is at this very day or if having had a beginning yet conceived to be perpetual à parte post it would then be as near the end this very day as an hundred years hence But this peradventure comes to pass because the addition is still made in the same kind that is in length and longitude only Nothing hinders for all that but that two things equally infinite in one dimension may yet be unequal in another and capable of augmentation The Mast of a Ship and the Spear of a Souldier that should stand by it though both allowed to run on in insinitum and so of one and the same length yet notwithstanding in bulk and body there would be great difference still between them and might be greater as we should add unto the one or withdraw from the other And so in like manner all sins may well have a punishment equal in duration because all offences against God and yet by reason of other different circumstances that give the bulk and magnitude not all receive punishment equal in degree and intension but some a sorer punishment than others though not a longer But this though it look well will not satisfy for the punishment is one thing and the sin another In that indeed we may distinguish the duration from the magnitude or intention but in the sin we cannot so distinguish This doth not receive longitude in one respect body and bulk in another but the sin is infinite in magnitude only not in length and deserves a punishment infinite even in intension that it becomes so only in duration is accidental for being that a punishment intensively infinite as the sin deserves may not possibly be actually inflicted not through any impotence in God but incapacity in the Creature hence in this supposition it comes to pass that what could not after an infinite manner be at once received should yet in a finite manner as it may be perpetually suffered The punishment therefore by succession is only potentially infinite not in act nor shall be ever but the sin is actually infinite otherwise the punishment should be even actually finite The instance therefore of the Spear and the Mast is besides the matter and yet even in these though this be greater in sound than that yet not in matter and substance For still not an inch of wood or an ounce of weight in the one more than in the other Others therefore propound a third way and that is from the infinite reward that is proposed unto the righteous whence they conceive it but right that as infinite a punishment should be prepared for the wicked when two infinites are laid in the ballance the scales cannot but hang the more equal for what injury is there done unto any if an eternal Heaven or an everlasting Hell be set open unto all and then every man accordingly rewarded as he shall freely through Gods grace or his own perversness â—run himself into either And sure it seems but reason and every way just that they who for temporary and trifling pleasures neglect full and never fading joys should receive for their meed no less great and never ending sorrows And indeed we our selves that by the condition of our birth without any sin of our own came at first to be plunged into that pit of everlasting misery by the transgression of another could not it seems with Justice have been so through the meer nature of sin for then all the sins of our intermediate fore-Fathers should lie upon the Children also but only by virtue of a Covenant grounded in this very equity that we who were in his loins should not incur more hurt by his fall than receive benefit by his standing For he was to stand or fall not to himself alone but to all his posterity This notwithstanding may be subject to some objections though not so unanswerable which the time now forbids me to discuss However be it this upon what regard it may be that so it shall be is most certain and that without injury unto any God is a righteous Judge and will clear himself both when he is judged and when he judgeth also For my part I am satisfied with this last reason and were I not with it or any other yet in a point so clearly delivered in the Scripture my reason should be led captive by my Faith For it abundantly sufficeth that it is as I said at first wrath revealed from Heaven And I would it were a little better considered on upon Earth what a miserable ruine and calamity it will then bring upon all the Sons of Pride and Children of disobedience sorrows no less insufferable than interminable in both by Man in this life inconceiveable For who knoweth or can know the power of his wrath But this destruction is nor near enough to affect us now though as that learned Man says there is only that puff of breath which is in our Nostrils betwixt us and it and that God knows how suddenly too may be taken from us Yet I say it is not near enough to affect us now but in novissimo intelligetis planè in the end ye shall understand all things clearly In the end indeed when the Son of Man shall come in Glory and his reward with him then they shall understand and know when they begin to feel their sorrows the strange folly of their ways and truly then apprehend the vanity of their pride and pleasures here only this one way of value that once they might have been given in exchange for their Souls In the mean time what a misery is it transire hinc in Infernum ut ibi discant quod bîe crederâ— noluerunt To pass from hence into Hell there to learn the truth which here they refused to believe How much better were it for us to believe and practise too whilst we may and whilst it may do us good Profit in any thing else there is not any though a man should gain the whole world For most assuredly whosoever hath the wealth and honour now yet the Righteous only shall have the dominion in the morning In the morning of this great day when God shall shew himself no less terrible unto Sinners than as David speaks marvellous in his Saints Happy men are we if in that manner we shall compose our lives as may enroll