and treading the by wayes to Rhemes and Doway make a double partin Man Reason and Sensuality the one of them they stile Spirit the other Flesh dishonouring thereby the sacred Doctrine of our Apostle as if Reason and the Spirit sounded alike in regard of the Inward man Flesh and Sensualitie in respect of the Outward But this were to rivall Philosophy with Scripture Acts 19.9 send S. Paul to Stagyra and Aristatle to the Schoole of Tyrannus for the same Divinity the great Peripateticke preacheth in the first of his Ethicks where hee divides the Minde into two parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 13. where Reason dwelleth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Passions reigne These drawing one way and That another Appetite in an incontinent man being towards Reason ut membrum paraliticum as a limme that is strucke with the dead Palsie turne it to the right hand and it falls to the left whatsoever Reason dictates for the Better Sensuality straineth to the worse and what is that say they but the Flesh and the Spirit Thus they would confound Nature with Grace the meere Carnall men with the Regenerate making the struglings of the one betweene Sensuality and Reason the others combate betweene the Flesh and the Spirit Lib. 6. cap. 11. But S. Augustine tells Julian the Pelagian who first hatch'd this dangerous Cockatrice that in these words of the Apostle Sunt gemitus sanctorum contra carnales concupiscentias dâ—rnicantium the deepe sighes and groanes of the Saints breath'd out against their remainders of corruption and their carnall frailties their minde serving the Law of God but the Flesh the fraile Flesh lead captive by the Law of Sinne. Now in Scripture you know the word Caro Flesh Isa 40.6 is taken either properly pro carnulentâ illâ mole for the body which is compos'd of Flesh or else Tropically Gen. 6.3 for her fleshly qualities and in this latter sense it sometimes signifies the corruptions of the Flesh sometimes the lusts of the Flesh sometimes men expos'd to Both which are nothing else but Flesh and hold a direct Antipathy with the Spirit And therefore the learned African tells his Consentius Epist 164. that he that will be Eminent in vertue must be free of the Flesh And hence is the Apostles Vos non estis in carne Yee are not in the flesh but in the spirit Rom. 8.9 And the Evangelists Quicquid natum de carne caro est Whatsoever is borne of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever is borne of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3.6 Againe Caro goes sometimes for Concupiscentia Cornel. a lap in Canon verb. Epist Sancti Pauls pag. 22. not properly as if Flesh were Concupiscence it selfe but Metonimically because the Flesh is as it were the shop of the Soule where it moulds and workes as the Potter doth his clay Concupiscentiarum imagines portenta I know not what strange Anticks and Monsters of concupiscence And therefore some Philosophers are of opinion that as the censations so the motions of the sensitive appetite are as well in the body and organs of it as in the soule though others more subtilly and indeed more rationally say that as they are spirituall vitall and animall so they are in the soule onely since that alone is said of it selfe to live and the body by that life and yet the body as they conceive by the Organs Spirits and Blood doth dispose and assist the soule in these and the like motions and operations whereas Saint Cyprian will by no meanes heare that the affictions should any way belong unto the body but to the soule Hoc ipsum quod dico carnis affectus impropriè dico saith the Father For vices indeed are principally the Soules to which sinne is directly and properly imputed for as much as it is indowed with judgement will knowledge power by which it may eschew that which is evill and cleave to that which is good the Soule using the Body as the Smith his hammer or his Anvile by which hee forgeth and fashioneth Omnium turpitudinum idola quarumcunque voluptatum simulachra all her voluptuous and filthy Idols of lust and sensualitie The Flesh doth neither dictate nor invent nor forme nor dispose no project no thought no malice no sinne from her not from her but by her S. Cyp. in prol de Card navirt Christi the soule not sinning neither but by the flesh Saltem mediatione remotâ And yet the Flesh as it is Flesh meerely without the Soule can neither sinne nor serve sinne knowing that when the Flesh is separated from the Soule Idem ibid. it is nothing else but Putredinis massa paludis Acervus a putted and corrupt Masse or Bog and when it is joyned with it It is at best but Quadriga Animae as Galen calls it the Chariot of the Soule in which it jogs for a time in Triumph and then it is Seneca's Carcer animae the Goale and Fetters of the Soule nay his Sepulchrum animae the Greekes calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tombe or Sepulchre a living death a sensible carrion a portable grave Vbi homo in vitijs est sopultus ubi corrupti corporis scatent scelera ubi homo hominis est sepulchrum ubi in homine non homo cernitur sed cadaver as the golden tongu'd iChrysologus in his 120. Sermon upon the fifth of S. Matthew But what then is it this Carkasse and Tombe and Sepulchre St. Paul here so much complaines of is it the bodie and the frailetties there that are here meant by this word Flesh noe But as before wee tooke the word Mens Theologically not Phisically so doe wee here the word Caro Flesh not for the fleshly lumpe this fraile masse of shinne bloud and nerves kneaded and incorporated into one substance but for the Carnall and as yet unregenerate part of man Will Minde Affections soil'd and corrupted from the old Adam so Gal. 5.20 Heresies are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Workes of the flesh Now Heresies you know flow from the minde not from the bodie so that the minde is in some sort Flesh as well as the other not flesh sensible and materiall but Metaphorically taken insomuch that the very Saints and servants of God as long as they have the dregs and remainders of sinne about them not only in the inferior part of the soule but even in the minde and the will are said to bee Flesh and the reason is because that that sinne by which wee consent unto the lusts of the flesh is not committed but in the will where it hath his originall and foment The Schooleman defining Concupiscence to bee nothing else but Voluntatem improbam Altissiod lib. 3. tract 2. cap. 3. q. 2. qua Anima appetit fornicari in creatura A depravednes of the will by which the Soule desireth to play the strumpet with the creature And hence it is that
sed Caro Not us but the Flesh the Flesh that must be are the blame whatsoever the Sinne be Their minde they pretend is prone enough to matters of Religion but the flesh as a violent Tide or Torrent drives them another way and no sinne so capitall but findes S. Paul's evasion Non nos sed peccatum in nobis 'T is no more we that doe it but Sinne that dwelleth in us Lyes and Oathes and Blasphemies and Prophanations are at length but a businesse of the Flesh to wallow in Surfets and Vomitings and Excesse of Riots till the wine inflame and the eyes looke red and startle a toy of the flesh too Raylings and Envies and Scandalls and Back bitings the Cut-throates of neighbourhood and amity but a frailty of the flesh neither Chambering and watonnesse and a lustfull neighing after thy neighbours wife nay the ranke sweat of an Incestuous Bed a tricke of the flesh also and that 's a tricke of the flesh indeed to grinde a poore man or steece a Tenant or pillage a Church cheate God himselfe of his dues imbeazle his tithes and offerings Imbrue our hands in the bloud of his Sacrifices but a trifle of the Flesh neither In a word be their Sinnes dyed in Graine never of so sanguine and deepe a Tincture so mighty so hainous so inexpiable the Flesh shall be their excuse still and the words of the Apostle are ever ready to plead for them Rom. 7.25 With the mind I serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sinne. But let such corrupt Glossers on the Text consider who S. Paul was that us'd those words and of what sins for let the Pelagian bray what he list the words are S. Paul's S. Pauls of himselfe and of himselfe as an Apostle Vide D. Aug. Ser. 5. de verbis Apost not as a Pharisee not of publike and scandalous and notorious sinnes from which even his Pharisaisme was exempt but of bosome and inward infirmities whereby he felt his sanctified intentions strangled by the counter-plots of the Flesh Moreover the Text properly belongs to those that struggle not to them that lye soaking and weltring in their sinnes the Spirit must be still lusting against the Flesh and the Flesh still lusting against the Spirit This Sea of Ours never lying calme unruffled without some storme So that those which tugge not and beare up stiffe Saile against this Tide but plunging themselves headlong in all manner of Vices yet still pretending a rectitude of their mind and will have nothing to doe with this prerogative of the Saints For as a grave Neoterick of ours strictly observes None can say The mystery of selfe deceiving by D. D. cap. 14. that sins are not Theirs but the Fleshes but such have the Spirit besides the Flesh contending with the Flesh Now those saith he which are so ready with their Non nos sed caro Not us but the flesh are oftentimes themselves nothing else but flesh no Spirit at all to make the least resistance but give up themselves in a voluntary subjection to the lusts and corruptions of the Old man So that this non Nos sed Caro is but a vaine Pretence of Theirs sounding nothing else but us and our selves For in understanding will memory affections soule and body too they are altogether flesh Nature speaking of These as sometimes Adam did of Eve Adest Os ex ossibus meis et Caro de carne mea Here is Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh Gen. 2.23 Notwithstanding in the committing of some grievous sinne they have no doubt a kinde of inward murmuring and reluctation Pilate will not condemne Christ but hee will first wash his hands pretending that hee is innocent of his bloud Mat. 27.24 Felix will give S. Paul liberty of speaking for himselfe before hee will deliver him mercilesly to the Iewes bound Acts 24.27 There is a grudging and recoyling in the consciences of most men even In and Before the act of their mistreadings but this resistance is not from a minde renewed but enlightned only not from a religious feare of offending God for this or that sin but the fearfull apprehension of punishments which shall follow upon those sins so that they doe it only saith S. Austine timore poenoe non amore justitiae rather to avoide a hovering vengeance Serm. 59. de diversis then for any filiall obedience or respect to God and his commaunds And herein as in a mapp or glasse wee may see the difference of the combat betweene the regenerate and the meere carnall man that of the regenerate is in the same faculties of the soule betweene the will and the will the affections and the affections these faculties even in the renovated soule being partly spiritual and partly carnall whence it followes that when the renewed part of the will which is the spirit invites us to good the unregenerate part which is the flesh swayes us to evill But the combate in the meere carnall man is betweene diverse faculties of the soule betweene the understanding and the will betweene the conscience and the affections hee neither resisting temptations to sin nor the swindge of them when hee is tempted neither hating the sinne forbidden nor loving the law forbidding it but still drawes on cords with cart-roaps vanities with iniquities and these in a full measure drinking them like water untill hee come even to the overflowing of ungodlines Iob. 15.16 so far from holding backe from mischiefe that hee doth it with greedinesse and swiftnesse committing all uncleanes with greedines Ephes 4.19 Et pedes festinanter currentes ad malum his feete are swift in running to mischiefe Pro. 6.18 the regenerate man checkes evill motions when they are offered the carnall man gives them line and liberty of accesse without controule Sinne to the one is like the booke Saint Iohn mentions causing bitternes in the belly Revel 10.9 To the other like Ezekiels scroule 't is to him as honey and sweetnes Ezek 3.3 That doth utterly distast this doth affect and rellish it hee in the temptation of sin strives to avoyde the action to this the action is as ready as the temptation so that insteed of the rayne or the snaffle hee is altogether for the switch and the spurre veloces sunt pedes ejus ad effundendum sanguinem his feete are swift to shed bloud Rom. 3.15 Once more The one keepeth his tongue from evill and his lips that they speake no guile 1. Pet. 3. The others tongue frameth deceit and deviseth mischiefe and the poison of Aspes is under his lips proudly vaunting with those in the Psalmist Quis est Dominus nobis with our tongues we will prevaile wee are they that ought to speake who is Lord over us Psal 12.4 I deny not but the same sin according to the act may bee both in the regenerate and the meere carnall man but not without this qualification in the one for
SERMONS VPON Solemne Occasions PREACHED IN Severall Auditories BY HVMPHREY SYDENHAM Rector of Pokington in SOMERSET D. Aug. Serm. 46. de Tempore Multa sunt ora ministeriorum Sermonis gerentium sed unum est os ministros implentis LONDON Printed by IOHN BEALE for Humphrey Robinson and are to be sold at the Signe of the Three Pigeons in PAULS Church-yard M.DC.XXXVII TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD MY VERY GOOD LORD VVILLIAM Lord Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY his Grace Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitane and Chancelour of the Vniversity of OXFORD MOST REVEREND IN matters of Bounty or Benefit received He that speaks thanks Sigratum dixeris omnia dixcris Sen. lib. de Ben. 2. commonly Speakes all The Divine not so His profession requires aswell Devotion as Gratitude and what is onely Acknowledgement in others should be Prayer in him These have made way for this Ambition of mine for so it will be censur'd in seeking your Grace's Patronage to which by your former great Favours and Incouragements I have met with a double staire The one in my first admission to spirituall preferment The other in setling it when it was disturb'd Both these here bound up by a thankfull and zealous obligation in this Tender of my poore Endeavours which though I feare will scarce hold waight in the Scale of your stricter Iudgement yet in that of your Charity They may passe perhaps with a Graine or two as oftentimes light peeces doe and so vindicate me from the imputation of that loose and lazie Ignorance which the very Spirit of Ignorance would put upon me where Vociferation is cried-up for Industrie and Faction for Holinesse and a bitter and unbridled Zeale for sound knowledge But notwithstanding the foaming of those muddie waters Springs may runne cleare and I doubt not but Mine shall if they finde a Current in your Graces Protection with whom though in the most Criticall and envious Eye All things are cleare and pure without the least taint or tincture of corruption like waters in their own Source and Fountaine yet the Waters of Marah have been round about you and no doubt but your Grace hath had a taste no lesse than others of that Hierarchy of their Gall of Bitternesse Witnes their divine Tragedies and impudent Appeales their late Curranto's Acts 8.23 and Legends of Ipswich and since I know not by what poore Haberdasher of smal wares Their Looking glasse for Lordly Prelates In which they have not so much wounded the particular Honours of eminent and learned men as strucke through the sides of Religion it selfe in blemishing the outward face of the Church not onely by obtruding to her her former Spots and Moles as what Church was ever yet without them but over-spreading it with a kinde of Leprosie And so insteed of being blacke Cant. 1.5 like the Tents of Kedar They would make her uglie like the Tent of Korah thereby exposing her to the scornefull eyes of her enemies abroad and if possibly of her owne Sonnes at home Now if bold men dare thus play with the very Beard of Aaron Psal 133.2 what will they doe to the Skirts of his Rayment If the goodly Oake and the Cedar be thus beaten on with their Tempests what shall become of the slender Firre Tree and the poore Shrub of the valley If Schismaticall hands be catching at the Mytre and the Rotchet how will they rend the contemptible Hood and Surplesse Certainely if the maine Pillars and Buttresses of the Church be once shaken the weather-beaten Tiles and Rafters will be tumbling about their eares However in despight of the envious Basiliske Psalm 57.4 this poyson of the Aspe and Gall of the viper the speares and arrowes and sharpe Swords of these holy Libellers O blessed for ever be the God of Heaven and under him here His God of earth Ezra 7.6 a most Gratious Soveraigne Ezra is in high Favour and The King hath granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him So that your Grace is still above danger and shot-free of their Power though not of their Envie which no doubt is curst enough but that her hornes are short and if they were not I might appositely enough bring home That to your fatherly Care of the Church here a word onely or two exchang'd which in the like case S. Ierom did to the learned Bishop of Hippo the great Repairer of the primitive Faith In orbe celebraris Canonici Te Epist 57. D. Aug. circa sinem Conditorem antiquae rursum Fidei venerantur quod signum majoris eft gloriae omnes Schismatici detestantur Tuos pari persequuntur odio ut quos Gladio nequeunt voto intersiciant Pardon this Digression most Reverend Father Obscure men may without offence deplore the miseries they cannot redresse Those that are more eminent may doe both A Generall Harmony aswell in Doctrine as in Discipline is yet wanting in the publike practice of our Church though not in the Principles thereof which is the maine Anvile most of my Sermons hammer on where though you shall meete belike with much dust and rubbish yet there is a way begunne to a richer Myne which more elaborate and higher wits may dig after if they please And as in publike Vineyards there are tà m Vvae quà m Labruscae here a wilde Grape there a Greene one yonder a Third in its full bloud more ripened for your Palate So it is in this mixture of my labours according to the disposition of their severall Dedications where though every peece may finde an Incourager None a Vindicator justly but in a religious and learned Metropolitan to whose Gracious hands are in all obedience offered These and all the Powers of Your Graces most obliged Honourer and Servant HVM SYDENHAM THE WEL-TVNED CYMBALL OR A Vindication of the moderne Harmony and Ornaments in our Churches AGAINST The Murmurings of their discontented OPPOSERS A SERMON Occasionally preached at the Dedication of an ORGAN lately set up at Bruton in Sommerset By Humphrey Sydenham PSAL. 150. v. 4 5. Laudate Dominum in Chordis Organo laudate eum in Cymbalis Iubilationis LONDON Printed by IOHN BEALE for Humphrey Robinson at the Signe of the Three Pigeons in PAULS Church-yard 1637. TO MY HONOURABLE Friend JOHN COVENTRY Esquire Sonne to the Right Honorable THOMAS Lord COVENTRY Baron of Alesborough and Lord Keeper of the Great SEALE of England SIR I Presume a musicall Discourse can neither bee improper nor unseasonable for him that hath so much harmony in himselfe that holds such a consonancy with the practice of the Church he lives in And this is both your happinesse and your ayme Too many there are which imploy their wit and greatnesse a contrary way and delight altogether in the jarring of the string as if there were no Melody but in Discords but such are not within your fingering nor indeed your fancie knowing that a Song
seate of finne but the soule and yet the soule new borne by the spirit serves principally the Law of God which is indeed rather a freedome than a service a perfect freedome sayes our Lyturgie and because made perfect by the Spirit the spirit of freedome too Non accepistis spiritum serviiutis sedlibertatis And if Christ have made us free we are free indeed otherwise our freedome is no better than a bondage Rom. 8.15 This made the Singer of Israel warble sweetly Psa 19.7 The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soule And the Soule in this manner converted is a kinde of undefiled soule because it so serves the Law of the Lord. Thus He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 One Spirit How Essentially no how then accidentally one in charity consent of will grace and glory too Cornel. Lap. 1. Cor. 6.17 Quae hominem saciunt quasi Divinum Deum which make a man as t were divine so farre forth God that with God he is as one and the same spirit And therefore a chaste and a holy soule the Fathers often stile Deisponsam the Betrothed of the Lord. Now Serm. 7. sup Cant. Sponsa and Sponsus as S. Bernard notes Maximè indicant internos animi affectus And doubtlesse God doth so intimately affect a religious and a sanctified soule that in his Armes he doth imbrace it even as his Spouse and with the Beloved in the Canticls doth even kisse it with the kisses of his mouth and therefore as at first in the matrimoniall Vnion betweene man and wife Cant. 1.2 Two were made as one flesh so in this mysticall union betweene God and the Soule two are become as one spirit Againe The Commandement of the Lord is pure and giveth light unto the eyes Psal 19.8 Light unto the Eyes what Eyes the eyes I told you of before the eyes of our intellectualls the eyes of our minde which being dimm'd and clouded by the fall of the first man God doth illuminate againe by the beames of the spirit and the Eyes thus opened behold instantly the wonderfull workes of his Law and so Psa 36.10 In lumine tuo videbimus lumen In this light wee shall see light Psa 119.105 the Light of his Word and Commandements which he called A Lanthorne unto our feet and a light unto our pathes and without which we grope in ignorance and error walking in blindnesse and in the shadow of Death the way of the wicked being darknesse saith Salomon and a continuall stumbling Prov. 4.18 19 but the way of the Just as a shining Light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day And therefore S. Peter cals the word of Prophecie which is the Word of God and of his Law A Light which shineth in a darke place untill the Dawne and the Day-starre arise in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 Our hearts which were but the Chambers of darknesse the couch and resting place of our blinded minde God who hath commanded light to shine out of darknesse hath shin'd into 2 Cor. 4.6 shin'd into the darker corners of them To give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ who is the spirituall day-star that day-spring from on High Luk. 1.79 which through the tender mercies of God hath thus visited us giving light to them that sit in darknesse and guiding their feet in the way of everlasting peace Hereupon the Kingly Prophet ravish'd it seemes with the joy of the inward man tells us That the statutes of the Lord are right and rejoyce the heart Psal 19. V. 8. The heart which was before meerely sensuall a rude lumpe of flesh a cage of uncleane birds a bundle of sinfull and impure thoughts they new brush and sweepe and so garnish with spirituall gifts and graces that insteed of drooping they cheere and elevate it making that which was before the ground of Terror the meanes of rejoycing more desiring it now than gold than fine gold sweeter than the hony or the hony combe that to the mind regenerate the Law of God is not a service barely but a delight His delight is in the Law of God and in that Law doth he exercise himselfe day and night Psal 1.2 And indeed wherein should he be exercised what object more proper or more blessed what should the Spirit minde but the things of the Spirit what the Righteous aime at but his center and eternall resting point God hath created man for his own Glory and as Man is the end of the world so is God the end of man and his Glory of both And therefore he is call'd The Temple of the Living God and his minde the Sanctum Sunctorum in that Temple in which God is said not onely to dwell Serm. 27. Sup. Cant. but to walke 1 Cor. 6.16 O quanta illi Animae latitudo quanta meritorum praerogativa quae divinam in se praesentiam digna invenitur suscipere sufficiens capere saith S. Bernard That Soule is of a boundlesse circuit and goodnesse that can comprehend the incomprehensible God Cannot the greater World containe him and is he involv'd in the lesse Is the Minde a Temple for him to dwell in that dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Is there in Man a Tabernacle for his service at whose seete both Men and Angels fall downe and worship This then should mount him above the world and all the base Lees and dregs thereof disrobe him of his earthly garment make him put on the New man in Righteousnesse and Holines shake off the very dust from his feete those dusty corruptions which sticke so fast on his feet of frailty lifting himselfe above himselfe and retiring from all outward things into the Soule the soule unto the minde and the mind unto God may seeke his conversation in Heaven onely minding nothing but Heaven and Heavenly things every true sanctified soule being not only Heavenly saith S. Bernard but Heaven it selfe Sâ—rm 27. sup Cant. and sitting in the body tanquam Deus in suo mundo where his understanding shines as the Sunne his vertues as the Starres and his Faith as the Moone which he calls Psal 89.36 The faithfull witnes in Heaven And so Man being a kinde of Heaven to himselfe and having a God within him ruling and commanding it should alwayes have his Contemplation wing'd his thoughts towring upwards to the God of Gods in the Heaven of Heavens where there is joy unspeakeable for evermore And now you have heard what the Front of the Text meaneth by the word Mind what her office and properties and how they looke to the Law of God In the next ranke I am to sew you how the Flesh comes up with all her Forces and how that joynes with the Law of Sinne. PARS II. With the Flesh I serve the Law of Sinne. SOme Expositors leaving the Geneva Rode
surprisall here but in a church triumphant where the Palme and the Crowne and the white Robes are layd up and insteed of Drums and Ensignes Hallelujahs to the Lambe for ever I have done now with the text Applicatio ad Magistratum and the two lawes there lex Dei and lex peccati But the occasion of this meeting listen's after a third law and that 's lex Regni which though it be grounded or at least should bee on the lex Dei yet it sometimes fall's unhappily upon the lex peccati Now a warre there is in this law as betweene the former two Inveterate sometimes Irreconciliable and not to be decided but by Deaath war much of the nature of the other between Spirit Flesh a proud spirit for the most part and a stubborne peece of flesh for if there were either humility on the one side or patience on the other the noise of discord would not bee so loud in our streets but the voyce of the turtle would bee heard better in our land There would bee more peace within our walls I am sure more plentiousnes within our habitations What in the first institution was intended as a shield or buckler is us'd at length as a semiter or sword That which should defend mee from the blowes of another is the engine by which I wound him at last and my selfe too The law which in case of in jury or trespasse was ordain'd of old for a Sanctuary is made sometimes little better then a house of correction If I malice another 't is not I must seourge him but the law though it be in mine own power to chastise him with whips yet the law doe it with more state and more fury too for that shall chastise him with Scorpions when all this while the lash falls not so much on the back of the transgressor as his purse and the bleeding of that as the world goe's is as fatal as the other Sed hominum sunt ista non legum the fault is not in the law but in some of her touchy and waspish votaries or if it bee in the law I am sure it is not in the lex Dei nor I hope in this lex Regni but in the lex peccati 'T is the law of sin is to blame here the mighty Holofernes as Castrusian tolde S. Ierom that rebellious lust of ours which thus plaie's the tyrant with our selves and others Ille criminum leno Ille par asitus vitiorum that bawd and parasite of vices which in one act flatters and betraies us This is the Fox with a Fire-brand in the taile that burnes up the corne field of the Philistines the prime wheele and stirrer of all our turbulent motions our unpeaceable proceedings which first sets our pride a-gog and then our malice and at length our revenge and in such a high way of distaste that no sorrow of the partie offending no mediation of friends no tender of sitisfaction no interposing of the Magistrate himselfe can attone or pacifie But as if there were no Gospell upon earth or else no mercy by that Gospell they are still Jewishly bent with their crucifige crucifige the Law the Law And let such implacable Spirits have their fill of it let it enter like water into their bowels and like oyle into their bones let the Law at last be their comfort and not the Gospell let justice have her full swindge and not mercy and so if they will needs have it so Currat Lex let the Law goe on á lege ad legem from one Law to another from the Lex Regni to the Lex Dei from the Court of Common Pleas here below to the great Starre-chamber above where every man shall receive either doom or recompence according to his works The Law all this while is unreproveable you heare no staine nor blemish there but either in the malicious Clyent or Sollicitor or both It being true in this case what Saint Paul spake in another Lex quidem spiritualis illi vero carnales venundati sub peccatò Rom. 7. v. And here some may expect that I should have a fling at the Gowne or at least as the custome of this place is instruct or counsell it But this were to bring drops to a River offer a few mites or pence to a Treasury that is full for no charity can be so barren as to conceive that those should be ill husbands in counselling themselves that so abundantly dispense and communicate to others And indeed how or to what purpose should they receive instructions in a Church here that are taking so many in a Chamber How make use of the Doctrine of the Preacher that are so busie with the breviat of a Clyent But by their leave for I must have leave to tell them so God is herein dishonour'd and the solemnity both of this time and place disparag'd if not prophan'd They are not I presume so straightned with time nor so throng'd with the multitude of affaires but they might sequester one solemne houre for the service of the Lord The hearing of a Sermon can be no great prejudice to the debating of a cause if it bee just and honest and a few Orisons first offer'd in the Temple are a good preparative and prolog to a conscionable and faire pleading at the Barre As for any error else either in their practise or profession I have not to obtrude here or if I had I would not Every man or at least every good man is a Temple to himselfe and hath a Pulpit in his owne bosome where there is a continuall Preacher or Monitor a conscience either accusing or excusing him and one lash of that toucheth more at the quicke than a thousand from the tongue or pen of another Cor hominis saith Saint Augustine aut Dei Thuribulum aut Diaboli every mans heart is an Altar for God or for the Divell and according to the nature or quality of the Sacrifice so it smoakes either to his doome or glory and this is enough for an understanding eare without farther boring it And indeed it is not my practise to pull Gravitie by the beard bring backe the grey haire to the Rod and the Ferule Schoole as some doe a Magistrate and catechise a Judge nay traduce him too with their borrowed and affected Epithites Rampant Couchant Dormant and the like unreverent and saucie follies which are nothing else but the leakings of bottles which are not sound the noyse of Caskes which are both foule and emptie fragments of that broken vessell Salomon speakes of which can containe nothing no not the droppings of their owne vanities For mine own part I have been taught what the word Iudge meaneth both by representation and by office a King one way and a God another and what is that but a God and a God and therefore a God shall admonish him not I and one God I presume may speake roundly to another Hearke then what the God Iekosaphat
and veines and the joynts swimming with marrow and fatnesse there is a kinde of macelency and famine and leannesse in the soule all goodnesse is vacant and banish'd then and Lust keepes her revell and rendevouz A fit caution and mements as I conceive for this place and meeting that those dayes which the Church hath of Old solemnely consecrated to the service of the Spirit we devote not another way in making provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof That the time shee hath set apart for Fasting and Prayer whereby we should magnifie the Lord upon the strings and pipe and so make the tongue Cymbalum jubilationis A wel-tun'd Cymball wee over-lavish not to feasting and excesse and so make our throate Sepulchrum apertum An open sepulchre I know that Noble assemblies require something extraordinary both for State and Multitude and let them have it But withall I beseech them to consider what Lent is Preached in Lent ad Magstratum and with what devout strictnesse observ'd by the Christian Church for many hundred yeeres together though in these dayes of Flesh cryed downe by some pretenders to the Spirit as a superstitious observation of our blinded Ancestours But let them know or if they doe not let them reade reade Antiquity in her cleere though slow streamings unto us not the troubled and muddy waters novelty hath cast upon our shore and then they shal know that it is a time of Sackcloth and Ashes and casting earth upon the Head for the humbling and macerating of the Sinner not of putting on the glorious apparell your vaine shinings in silkes and trssues for the ruffling of the Gallant A time like that in the mountaine of restraint and scarcity when a few barly loaves and some small Fishes should suffice a Multitude Ioh. 6.9 Not of pomp or magnificence when the stalled Oxe and the pastur'd Sheepe and the fallow Deere 1 King 2.4 and the satted Fowle are a service for the Lords Anointed For mine owne part I am not so rigid either in practise or opinion or if I were in both it matters not where a higher judgement and authority overballac'd me to deny sicknesse or age or in respect of travell or multitude of imployments the publike Magistrate what in this case were either convenient or necessary or enough however I desire them to remember that both the Sword and the Keyes have a stroke here and so that they would feed onely not cloy nourish not daintie up the body knowing that when it is cocker'd and kept too high the Soule it selfe is manacled and more than lame and heavie in sacred operations And therefore let us not be altogether men of Flesh but as the Father hath it occasionally on this Text D. Aug. 43. Ser. de verb. Dom. Vincat spiritus carnem aut certè nè vincatur a carne let the spirit have a sway too and though not wholly a Conquerour yet make her not a captive let our Devotions goe along with our entertainments our Acts of Charity with our Acts of Iustice Foeneratur Domino qui miseretur pauperis saith the Wiseman He that hath pitty upon the poore lendeth or as the Latine implies putteth to use unto the Lord Prov. 19.17 Now Qui accipit mutuum servus est foenerantis The borrower is a Servant to the lender Prov. 22.7 So that the Lord is as 't were a Servant unto him that hath pitty on the poore because in that pitty hee lendeth to the Lord. And indeed who would not be a lender to the Lord when his interest may be a Crowne and his reward everlastingnesse who would not exchange a morsell of bread for the celestiall Manna and almes for the food of Angels a few earthly ragges for the white Robe of the Saints Since most of these are not so properly a lending or benevolence as a due The gleanings of the Cor-field Levit. 23.22 and the shakings of the Vintage were a Legacie long since bequeath'd the poore man by the Law when the Gospel was yet in her non-age and minoritie But now it is not onely the crums and fragments from thy Table and so feed the hungry or the courser shearings of thy Flock and so cloath the naked But visit the sicke too and those which are in prison Mat. 25.26 So that our charity should not onely reach the impotent and needy but the very malefactor and legall transgressor The groanings of the prison should bee as well listned to as the complainings in the streets and at this time more specially more particularly that those bowels which want and hunger have even contracted and shrivel'd up and those bodies which cold and nakednesse have palsied and benumm'd not finding it seemes so much pitty as to cloath and feed them as they should whilst they were alive may at last meet with such a noble and respective charitie as to shroud and interre them like Christians when they are dead In the meane time I have that humble suit to preferre to the Gods of Earth here which David had of old to the God of Heaven Oh let the sorrowfull sighing of the prisoners come before you Psal 79.12 according to the greatnesse of your power have mercy on those which are appointed to dye Let your Vinegar be tempered with Oyle Iustice suger'd o're with some compassion that where the Law of God sayes peremptorily Thou shalt restore and not dye let not there the Law of Man be writ in blood and say except to the notorious and incorrigible offender Thou shalt dye and not live There will a time come when wee shall all appeare before the Iudgement seate of God 2 Cor. 5.10 And what then what The Sinners Plea will bee generally then Job 9.3 Lord I cannot answer thee one for a thousand And what if I cannot yet O Lord with thee there is mercy and plenteous redemption Psal 130.7 But now and then it falls out so unhappily at the Judgement seate of Man that parties arraign'd though they answer a thousand in one multitudes of inditements in one innocence yet sometimes naked circumstances and meere colourable conjectures without any solid proofe at all shall so cast them in the voyce of a dazled Iury that there is neither hope of mercy nor redemption Gen. 40.22 Esther 7.10 but Pharohs Baker must to the Tree and Haman to the Gallowes fifty cubits high But in this case Bee learned and wise yee Iudges of the Earth serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce to him in reverence Psal 2.10 But I have here digress'd a little and perhaps a little too sawcily in this point of charity let charity have the blame if shee have deserved it whilest I returne where I formerly left you and that was at a feast in time of fasting Good LORD how preposterously nay how rebelliously and in one act crossing both the civill and ecclesiasticke power which prohibite it And therefore since nature saies for the better
shall be opened And lee a Vision saith the Text such a Vision as had alwayes God in it or his Angell A whirle-wind and a fire Ezeck 1.4 To shew belike that the true Prophet of the Lord must have Light with him aswell as Noyse Vnderstanding as Reproofe And thus addressed he is now sent to the house of Israel That house of stubbornnesse and rebellion where he must set his fore-head against theirs bid them reade in it the Prophet of the true God tell them that the gods which they blindly worship are no gods but their owne fancies the Prophets they dote on no prophets but their own Lyes And for their better unmasking and discovery hee doth first blazon them by their attribute Foolish then by their properties and they are two 1. Headstrong lead by their owne spirit 2. Ignorant see nothing for these he sayes there is an Woe denounced not meerely from himselfe but the very mouth of God Sic dicit Dominus Deus Thus saith the Lord God Here is all the businesse of our Prophet to the Israelite and mine to this reverend and learned Throng which by reason of some late distraction through my secular imployments I shall be enforc'd to present you in a broken discourse peec'd up from the remainders of my former more elaborate endeavours presuming that where there is so much Piety and Worth there is not onely an attentive patience but some charity A weake man wants all I beg them And now Woe to the Foolish prophets that follow their owne spirit and have seene nothing Which words are literall to the Hebrew text to the Greeke not so where we finde no mention at all of the Foolish prophet nor the Spirit which he followes onely the Vaticination of the heart and the Blindnesse which attends that Vae his qui prophetant de corde suo omninò non vident so S. Ierom reades it from the Septuagint Woe unto them which prophecy from their heart and see not at all It seemes the Father there understands the heart for the spirit and the wild conjectures of that he rivals with the folly of those which too much indulge the other the Blindnesse is alike in both so that the sence runnes the same way though the words doe not the Prophet after his owne heart being as Foolish as the other after his owne spirit and the non vident of the same latitude in both except the Omninò make the difference and so we divide between a Prophet that sees nothing and one that sees not at all And now the words being thus at peace for the matter of the Text Loe what warre in the manner of it Not seeing and yet a Prophet Following a Spirit and yet Foolish A Prophet and a Spirit at one and yet an Woe denonunc'd How can this be This word Propheta is no more than videns no lesse neither S. Bernard tells me and I am sure Prophets of old were call'd seers How comes then the Blind here to have his eyes unscal'd and the Non videns in the Text to be a Prophet Besides All wisedome and knowledge is from the Spirit saith Saint Paul How is it then that our Prophet is subject to Malediction and he that followes his Spirit to be thus entitled to Ignorance and Folly Saint Ierome labours the answer but not home Non quempiam meveat quod Prophetae appellantur Let it not trouble any that they are called Prophets for 't is the custome of the Scriptures Vnumquemque vaticinationis suae sermonis Prophetam nuncupare Every vision or Divination though delusive is a kinde of Prophecy and he that hath either a Prophet doubtlesse But a Prophet by way of restriction with his reproachfull Epithites of Falsus or Vanus or Insipiens They are all three in this Chapter though not in the Text in the Chapter within foure verses of the Text at the sixth verse we finde a lying Divination there is the falsus Propheta at the seventh a vaine Vision there is the vanus too And if we weigh the dependances of words with matter we shall bring this Vanus and Falsus within the verge of the Text too and so make the foolish Prophet the vaine and the Lying all one For whatsoever is false must be vaine and what is vaine is Foolish too Novit Deus homines vanos God knoweth vaine man Job 11.11 Vanus there is in the roote Naboüb which is as much as Concavum or Vacuum any thing that is hollow or empty a word which the Rabbines usually bestow on fooles who have nothing in them solid and compact and therefore in Scripture resembled not onely to an empty but to a broken vessell In the like manner the French as their Bolducus tells mee hath the word Folls quasi Follis Bolducus in Iob c. 2. metaphorically borrowed from a paire of Bellowes which as they take in Ayre so they give it and when they are full are nothing else Hence is that word of contumely and disgrace mention'd by the Evangelist Racha or more properly Richa from the Hebrew Rick Evacuare or offandere so that it seemes Folly is nothing else but a leaking or pouring out or spilling on the ground as Expositors glosse that place Mat. 5.22 And indeed meere simplicitie is but the poverty or emptinesse of the mind and therefore to bee empty and poore and foolish sounds one Omnis stultus eget saith Saint Augustine omnis qui eget stultus est every foole wants and every one that wants is a foole The Father doubling on the words doth at last distinguish them Egestas est verbum non habendi and Stultitia verbum sterilitatis habet egestatem aliquis habet non habere habet stultitiam habet nunquam habere Folly and poverty are names of barrennesse and want the one may have some expectation or at least hope of supply the other never Folly is not capable of alteration poverity is Folly will be folly though you bray it in a Morter 't is not onely feebts or shallow but perverse and thou shalt sooner beare it into Atomes than breake it of that course in which it is a driving 't will be alwayes following her owne Spirit the worst of Spirits Spiritum Eratoris where once captivated it can see nothing neither indeed desires to see And therefore the Father tells us that 't is not Quaevis but Vitiosa ignorantia such an ignorance as is not onely darke or pur-blind but refractory impatient as well of direction as restraint head-strong will not endure the curbe nor the snaffle but the Reynes loose on the necke gallops where it list not where it should carried meerely by the precipitation of the will without any guide or convoy of reason or understanding A Ship without Sterne or Rudder unman'd unballac'd without Pole or Compasse the scorne of every blast and billow Hence it is that the Holy Ghost puts the foole on those that are the Lackeys and Slaves of their owne
Plea of all Innovators especially those of the refin'd and nimbler cut who in mysterious and abstruser points the very Riddles and Labyrinths of Divinity elevate their Acumen whet and sharpen the very point of their Spirit by which they thrust into the closet of the Almighty nay into his very Bosome ransacke his secrets there call out his Prescience his Will his Decree his Justice bring them to the Barre Arraigne them Censure them know at a haires breadth whom he will save or damne or else they will devest him of his God-head make him unjust and so manacling his Incomprehensiblenesse to their Reason belch sometimes their prouder blasphemies that God must doe this if he be God or else he is no God And thus whilst they follow too much the heat of their owne Spirit they come within the lash of our Prophet the Insipiens takes them by the sleeve the Foole here in the Text the holy Ghost puts it on them Not I Thus saith the Lord God Woe to the foolish Prophet that followes his owne Spirit Nil Sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio your richest wits are neither over-stor'd with wisedome nor holinesse neither with the subtilty of the Serpent nor the innocency of the Dove The ordinary way of knowledge they contemne nothing pleases them but the Curvet and the Levolto Vp they must in their metaphisicall Speculations their sublimate Raptures the high built scaffolds of their owne pride and spirit which indeed are but the fury of braines intranc'd and good for nothing but the torment of themselves and others There was never any great wit without a touch of madnesse which not rightly modifi'd as it ought is a fit stocke to graft a villaine on whither in Church or State I have observed some my selfe that have past for Master-peeces and petty miracles in their way when their discourse hath beene closely Atheisme and their jeast the Scripture And he that hath but traverst a little Ecclesiasticke story shal finde That in primitive times it was the only Seminary of Heresie and Revolt witnesse those two Fire-brands of their age Iulian and Arrius T was the greatnesse of their Braines made them lose their Bowells and the foule Blasphemies they breath'd thence purchas'd them a just Herse and Tombe in their owne dung It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God a dangerous into the hands of men but a most pernicious into the hands of our selves When in a presumptuous and proud dotage of our owne parts a foolish following our own spirit we commit idolatry with our owne bosome adore our selves worship the thoughts of our owne hearts not looking up to our primus Motor who rules and turnes this Machine and Frame of our little world but without any reflecting on our personall imperfections wee deifie these moulds of Earth as if wee could raise Eternity out of ashes or build Immortality on pillars of dust saying to our selves We shall bee as Gods when God saies we are but men and that man in his best honour is as the beast that perisheth You know there is a proverbe current now in our language but originally from the Spaniard O Lord keepe my selfe from my selfe and this is the tenour of our daily prayers Libera nos a malo Lord deliver us from evill What evill Ego sum malus libera me a me malo si bonus liberaverit me a malo me a me malo ero de malo bonus so the Father runnes his descant in his 30 Sermon de verbis Apostoli And doubtlesse if wee but ransacke the inward man sift the chinks and crannies of our owne breasts wee must acknowledge with the Apostle That in mee that is in my flesh dwelleth no good and therefore Libera me a malo me a me malo Lord deliver my selfe from my selfe my selfe from that evill in my selfe and my selfe from my selfe that am all evill High thoughts are but the vaine Alarums of the heart and 't is the pride of it that beats them Omnis homo qui sequitur spiritum suum superbus est Every man that followes his owne spirit is a foole we know but why a proud man good Saint Augustine the Father answers putatse aliquid esse cum nihil est He thinkes himselfe something when he is nothing and in such a thought there is both Pride and Folly and this Pride and Folly a very nothing Insomuch that we finde a blessednesse promised to those who are poore in Spirit pauperes Spiritu suo saith the Father divites autem Spiritu divino Serm. 30 de verb. Apost poore in their owne Spirit but rich in the Spirit of the Lord. True humility was ever a step to glory and to a sence and feeling of that Spirit which can either make us to know God or God us or us our selves as we should doe When my spirit was overwhelmed within mee saith David then thou knewest my path Psal 142.3 Quare defecit Spiritus tuus O Martyr in tribulatione posite When thou wert in tribulation O blessed Martyr why was thy spirit so troubled in thee the Father that made the Quaere answers it Vt non mihi arrogem vires meas ut sciam D. Aug. ut supra quod alius in me operatur istam virtutem that I might not be blowne up with a conceite of mine owne spirit not arrogate to my selfe mine owne strength but know that thou art the Fountaine of all vertues and that their streames runne from and by thee who doest only so replenish them and me that out of mine and their bellyes shall flow Rivers of living waters Thus as we are emptied of our own spirit God fils us up with his otherwise when we are full we are but empty still empty as well of knowledge as of grace groap after shadowes and refemblances of things and so are coze'nd with probabilities for truth There is but one certainty upon Earth and that is that there is nothing certaine there and there is but one knowledge in man and that is a great knowledge if he knew it well that hee knowes nothing nothing in himselfe as he should know Nosce teipsum was a wise mans Motto and indeed a hard taske if it be impartially done It is a twisting of our vanities a little closer a bringing of our selves within our selves that we may say we are men indeed that is understand our selves weigh our actions with our words and our deportment with our actions and then the Insipiens in the Text hath no reference to us we are Prophets of a diviner straine There are many Plausibilities in the world which passe currently for Gold glitter and spangle hansomely a farre off which brought unto the touch will prove at best but Alchimy or copper meere counterfeite peeces which have stamp and colour right but the mettall is naught Vniversus mundus exercet histrioniam the whole world is a meere Play where he that best dissembles acts best And such a one carries
or degrees of perfection in them in some of them not all Oculus corporis est anima animae mens the soule is the eye of the body and the minde is the eye of the soule and as the eye is the beautie of the face the bright Starre of that Orbe it moves in so is this the beautie and bright Starre of the soule and therefore that is called Mens quod emineat in Anima Minde because it shines in the soule as a light in the spheare it rolls in Hence some would derive the Etimology of Mens from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Aug. ut supra cap. 11. which signifies the Moone not so much for varietie of change as brightnesse or else Mens a mensurando from a dexteritie it hath in measuring or contriving Now Dijudicare mensurare estactus intellectus Parte 1. q. 79. Art 9. ad 4. sayes Thomas to judge and to measure is an art of the understanding and the understanding is the very forme and selfe-being of the soule or rather the soule of the soule as the apple of our eye is the very Eye of our eye so that the minde is the beame and splendor of the soule as the soule is of the body so neere Divinity and so much resembling it that the Romanes of old ador'd the Minde as a Goddesse and by Marcus Aemilius Scaurns there was a Temple dedicated Deae menti ut bonam haberent mentem as S. Augustine observes in his 4. Booke De civitate Dei 21. chapter Well then that we may now looke backe unto the Text we take not here the word Mens physically for reason and understanding as they are in Meris naturalibus but Theologically for the spirituall and regenerate part of man And so taken it stands at some distance with the word Anima though not with the word Spiritus For though every Soule be a kinde of Spirit yet every Spirit is not a Soule nor every Soule a Minde at least a Minde regenerate but Minde and Spirit for the most part kisse in Scripture Saint Paul in the latter end of this chapter calling that Mens which in the very beginning of the next he names Spiritus so that Minde and Spirit in a sacred sympathy goe hand in hand but soule and spirit doe sometimes justle My Soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoced in God my Saviour Luk. 1.46 Here the blessed Virgin makes a difference betweene her * Non in hoc gemmo vocabule gemina substantia intelligitur sed cum ad distinctionem ponitur gemina vis ejusdem substantiae una superior per spiritum altera inserior per animam designatur in hac utique divisione anima quod animale est in imo remanet spiritus autem quod spiritale est ad summum evolat ab infimis dividitur ut ad summa sublimetur ab anima seinditur ut domino uniatur De Spiritu Anima cap. 34. soule and her spirit and why why It is called soule in respect of vivification spirit of contemplation Soule as it is a leiger and sojourner with the body quickning and informing that Spirit as it is mounted and imbarqu'd for Heaven and rapt with the beatitude of that caelestiall Host the soule doth onely magnifie God as a God the spirit rejoyceth in that God as a Saviour In a word the soule in man as it is a soule is like Fire raked up in embers the spirit like that fire extenuated and blowne into a flame the one glowing in our ashy part the other sparkling in our intellectuall And this distinction the great Doctour himselfe useth to his Thessalonians where after some benediction at length he prayeth that their whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Thes 5.23 Marke hee begins with the spirit O culatissima hominis parte the Eagle part of man which eyes things divine that like another Mary alwayes sits at the feet of Iesus then comes the soule Stella in cap. 1. Lucae Quae naturales exercet ratiocinales this like another Martha is cumbred with much serving busied about Reason and the naturall faculties but the unum necessarium it hath not chosen yet And lastly the Body that villa Marthae the Village where our Martha dwells those earthly affections of ours which so taste of the body and earth that if they be not restrain'd make man as it were all body that is all carnall for which cause we finde some men call'd spirituall some animall and some carnall 1 Cor. 2.3 Thus the spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Pilot or Governour squaring and fashioning new motions in the regenerate and subjecting their will to the will of God The soule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under whose Lee come the sensitive faculties Reason Iudgement not yet wash'd and purified by the spirit the body Organum illorum the engine and Instrument of both which they imploy in their diversities of actions and operations These three are the integrall parts of a man regenerate when of the earthly man there are only two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aret. in Ep. 1. Thess cap. 5. v. 23. soule and body no spirit he it is foolishnesse unto him Hence proceedes that double man so frequently mentioned in the Scriptures the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animall or carnall and lives yet in the state of Nature the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentall or spirituall and in the state of Grace shewing his profession by his Faith and his Faith by his Workes Now as with man there is a double man spirituall and secular so with the spirituall man there is a double man too inward and outward the one in the Text here call'd Minde the other Flesh that serving the Law of God and this the Law of sinne And here by the Law of God wee understand not that onely on Mount Sinai first promulgated by Moses and after him taught by the Prophets but that also on Mount Sion by Christ and his Apostles to wit The eternall will of God declared in the Doctrine of the Gospell which is no lesse a Law than the other and this Law every regenerate man doth serve serve though not fulfill serve with the minde a willing minde crying out with the Prophet My heart is ready Psal 42.1 my heart is ready so ready that it panteth and gaspeth for the water-brooke the Commandements of God which are as deepe waters But on the other side the Flesh playes the Craven and as if it had received some deadly wound makes him complaine with the same Prophet Thine Arrowes sticke fast in me there is no health in my flesh nor any rest in my bones by reason of my sinne Psal 38.3 You heare then how sinne still lyes at the doores of the Flesh though the Flesh be not properly the