when Christ is so plainly preached in their own law search the scriptures saith Christ for they are they which testify of me John 5. 39. And yet they remain as judiciarily so wilfully blind and ignorant 2 Cor. 3. 14. as a just punishment of their own imprecation when they cryed His bloud be on us and our children 4. Papists who nourish ignorance teaching it to be the mother of devotion when as we know that ignorance is the cause of sin Matth. 22. 29. and punishment of sin Rom. 1. 21. Esa 6. 9. surely that religion cannot be good which hateth the light He that doth evill hateth the light John 3. 10. Neither is it likely that that should be the mother of devotion that is the mother of Atheisme idolatry and superstition as appeares Act. 17. 22. Psal 10. 4. Gal. 4. 8. But thus they pul out the peoples eyes as the Philistims did Sampsons and then they make sport with them And further though they know Christ to be a Saviour yet they make him not the alone Saviour but joyne with Christ their owne workes and make themselves at least in part their owne saviours But if wee adde but one mite to Christs treasure we say Christ is not rich enough to save us and so we make him no Saviour Rom. 10. 3. Gal. 5. 4. 5. And lastly it reproveth all ignorant An ignorant man little differs from a beast Psal 32. Ier. 4. 22. Esa 1. 2. Eph. 4. 17. persons among our selves a man would wonder how they can make a shift or study to be so ignorant who are even like the horse and mule that have no understanding As in the creation Darknesse covered the face of the earth so of their soules Ask them what Christ is They answer some of them that he is a God some a man some an angel a spirit c. Learned Master Pemble reports of a man dying being asked what Christ was he said he thought he was a towardly young youth c. But let all thus grosly ignorant consider first their ignorance is inexcusable because the Gospell shines so clearly in their faces The light shineth in the darkness but the darkness comprehendeth it not Joh. 1. 10. There is a three-fold ignorance 1. A privative ignorance 2. A wilfull ignorance 3. A negligent ignorance Now their ignorance is not ignorantia privationis invincibilis that is negative or invincible ignorance but first it is ignorantia pravae affectionis as the Schoolmen speak That is wilfull from corrupt affection It is one thing nescire not to know and another thing nolle scire not to be willing to know And these are they that shut their eyes least they should see with their eyes Math. 13. 15. Depart from us say they for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21. 14. Or secondly at least it is supina ignorantia supine careless or negligent ignorance when men will use no meanes nor take any paines for knowledge these are said to hate knowledge Prov. 1. 19. And this ignorance doth much aggravate their sin and make it without any cloake or colour of excuse if I had not come among you saith Christ you had had no sin but now you have no cloake for your sin John 15. 22. How shall you escape that neglect so great salvation saith Paul Heb. 2. 3. 2. An ignorant heart is an evill heart Iohn 9. 41. without knowledge the mind is not good saith Solomon Prov. 19. 2. surely if the head be leprous the body cannot be sound If the head be giddy the body must needs stagger If the eye be dark all the body is dark Matth. 6. 22. 3. All their workes are evill and workes of darknesse they can yeeld no obedience to God acceptably because it is brutish and not rationall service for how can we shun evill when we know not what is evill Or do our duty when we know not our duty The blind eates many a fly and who so bold as blind Bayard Ignorance made them lay violent hands upon Christ himselfe but had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 4. Fourthly They can have no repentance for how can we repent and be greived for our sins untill we know them and how can we cry for mercy when we see not our misery Ionas while he was asleepe in the ship feared not the tempest till awakened the child in the dark womb cryes not till it come into the light 5. How full of feare are they that walk Light is sweet but darknesse terrible in the dark The Egyptians when the plague of darknesse was upon them how uncomfortable was their condition But what horrour will possesse thy darke soul in that hour of darknesse how terrible will death be to thee The Sun ecclipsed at the death of Christ was dreadfull but more dreadfull will it be when the face of God is ecclipsed toward thee 6. Sixthly Such have no part in Christ for as in the creation the first work God made was light so in the regeneration Iohn 17. 3. Iohn 4. 10. the first grace God gives is light Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 14. The Eagle tryes her young whether they be her owne by this signe if they can endure to look upon the Sun or else she ownes them not as they say but casts them upon the hard stones And certainly thy ignorance or knowledge discovers thee to be a child of light or a child of darknesse for God hath sworne an ignorant person shall never come into heaven It is a people that do erre in their hearts and have not knowne my wayes wherefore I sweare in my wrath they Hos 6. 6. Ioh. 7. 49. should never enter into my rest Heb. 3. 10. Neither will God shew them any mercy which is usually their excuse if they be ignorant as appeares Esa 27. 11. They are a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will have no mercy on them Nay Christ hath said he will come in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not God 2 Thes 1. 8. Ignorance will end in vengeance Neither will voluntary or negligent ignorance excuse a tanto but aggravate thy wrath John 3. 19. this is condemnation that is this makes their Ignorantia minuit à peccato quantum minuit à voluntario Aq. 2. 2. Qu. 76. condemnation the greater because light is come among them but they loved darknesse more then light and therefore it is affected darknesse Quest What should ignorant men do to come to the knowledge of Christ and their own salvation I answer First I advise them to get a Catechisme and if they cannot get it by heart yet let them read it over and over againe and againe and for poore servants let this be a part of their Sabbath dayes work I could wish likewise that Parents Masters
one Son without sin but no son without punishment One Sonne sine corruptione but no sonne sine correptione 12. Lastly Christ was crucified in his condēnatiō in that they condemned him Ioh. 19 6. Luk. 13. 24 to death 1. acknowledging him innocent saying I am innocent of the bloud of this just man and then condemning the innocent because he stood in our stead that were nocent and to teach us that we are all by nature condemned men before the Lord till we get our pardon by Christ And lastly that by him we might escape the sentence of eternall condemnation for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. CHAP. IV. The sufferings of Christ at and upon the Crosse HAving finished the sufferings of Christ in his life we now come to his suffering in his death on the Crosse in these words And him crucified For greater love saith Christ hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his freinds John 15. 13. If as the Jewes dream he had come as a great Monarch had trod on nothing but Crownes and Scepters and the necks of Kings and had had the Potentates of the earth to attend his traine it had beene great love to us Yea it had beene some love if he had onely pitied us in our misery and wept for us as David did for Absalom Or if he had pleaded for us and spake a good word for us as Jonathan did for David Or if he had sent an Angel for us Or if himselfe had suffered disgrace reproaches Cant. 2 5. opprobryes c. But greater love he could not show then to dye for us skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give to save his life yet Christs life was not too dear for us the spouse indeed was sick of love but Christ exceeded her for he died for love This is our Pellican that hath nourished and fed us with his bloud Many mothers can endure crying of their children and bearing them with paine that would hardly dye for them but the love of Christ passed the love of women for he dyed for us Yea greater love had Christ towards us then barely to dye for us in three respects 1. A man may dye for another Codrus for the Athenians Curtius to preserve Rome if perhaps it be an honourable death to get renoune after his death as some of the heathens have done 2. If it be an easie death 3. If it be for a dearly beloved freind to whom he hath been much ingaged Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye saith Paul that is that hath lived justly Yet for a good man that hath beene very beneficiall to him peradventure one would even dare to dye and Rom. 5. 8. yet it is but a peradventure neither But first Christ died not an honourable death the people applauding him as they did sometimes the Martyrs But the shamefull death of the Crosse Heb. 12. 2. He endured the Crosse and despised the shame Now dishonour and shame to a noble spirit is as bitter as death it selfe And surely if to live with infamy be worse then death what is it then to dye with infamy It was shamefull in five respects 1. In that they made him carry his owne Crosse or gallowes whereupon he was hanged as when malefactors go with halters about their necks to execution 2. It was shamefull in that he was 1 Ioh. 19. 23. stript naked to the scorne of Angels and men even he that covers the heavens with starres the earth with flowers the beasts with skins and men with raiment even he was stript naked so farre as modesty would permit say some and clothed Rev. 3. 17. 18. onely with his own innocency To teach us we are naked of all righteousnesse and deserve to be stript naked of all comforts earthly and spirituall And that he might cloath us with the robes of his righteousnesse 3. It was shmeful in that he was hang'd a death meet for theeves murtherers and execrable sinners we count it a death too base for noble bloud although they turn traytors and therefore they have liberty to exchange the gallowes for the block To see a King hang'd what a shamefull suffering were it but for God to be hang'd on a gallowes much more The Turks mock us at this day with our crucified God and some of the heathens said they would not beleeve in a hang'd God But the greater his sufferings were the greater was his love and our misery who deserved to hang in hell for ever 4. It was shamefull in that he was hanged with two theeves and in the midst as the Prince of theeves and murtherers and as the greatest malefactor Esay 53. 12. He was numbred among the transgressour◠His good name was as deare to him as ours to us Now which of us especially being innocent could be content to be esteemed as murtherers adulterers theeves or the like Yet perhaps this might figure out the last judgement when repentant sinners shall be set on the right hand and the reprobates on the left as one observeth * the one sort to be saved Sir John Heyward knight the other to be condemned 5. It was shamefull because he was insulted over in his misery as Sampson was mocked by the Philistines at his death he saved others said they but cannot save himselfe Come drwne from the Crosse and wee will beleeve in thee All that see me laugh me Psal 22. 7. to scorne they shoot out the lip c. Secondly as Christ died not an honorable death so he suffered not an easie but a most bitter and painfull death he was Phil. 2. Heb. 12. 2. obedient to death even to the death of the Crosse he endured the Crosse This appeares even in what he suffered from men in his body which yet was lesse then what many Martyrs suffered being rouled naked in a barrel of nailes racked burned c. First before he was laid upon the Crosse They gave him gall and vinegar to drink as Matthew reads it Matthew 27. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or wine mingled with mirh as Mark reads it Mark 15. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one explaines the other That is wine as sharp as vinegar and imbittered with mirh like gall but not gall it selfe as Beza Or rather I think it was mingled with both gall and mirh as Gerard. Some indeed think this no part of his sufferings and that it was not to torment him but ut mors ejus esset celerior so Calvin And Beza thinks the good women brought the wine to chear him and that it was Vinum dulce sweete Calvin in Ioc. Baroni Annal. An. no Christi 34. c. 84. Bera in Ioc. Prov. 31. 6. wine a kind of Nectar and so thinks Baronius according to that of Solomon Prov. 31. 6. Give wine to him that is of a heavy heart But this cannot be for it is not likely
with flowers and adding as it were vermilion to the colour And yet Plus horret orationis inâ—legantiam quà m vitae deformitatem he regards not sordescere vita moribus how foule his life and conversation is And in conclusion they are but so many painted words or wise words at the best good onely to tickle wanton eares and deceive the simple But solid reality good matter clothed with decent words takes more with the wise Hence Demosthenes feared Phocion vera ad rem pertinentia simpliciter dicentem that is speaking home and to the purpose more then all other Orators And he called him securim orationum suarum the hatcheâ— of his orations Hence many of the wiser heathens despised this art Socrates cals it Nec artem nec Scientiam sed sagacitatem servilem adulationem Neither an art nor Science but subtilty and flattery Plato esteemed them but as stage-players calumniators and sycophants Hinc innocens ut nocens damnatur contra making the guiltlesse guilty and the guilty guiltlesse Cato Refused that Rhetoricians should plead quia Orationis facundiâ facile possent aequa iniqua persuadere because by eloquence of words they could easily perswade to right or wrong Demosthenes boasted he could change the sentence of the judges at his pleasure and Cicero was cald Rex oratione sua omnia regens playing Rex with his oratory thereby ruling all things at his pleasure 3. The Logician he will tell you that he Irrationale hominuÌ„ genus si absque Disciplina nesciat ratiocinari studyes how to see clearly with the eye of reason and therwith oft times he puts out the eye of faith which though never against yet it is oft times above our reason But we must walke by faith and not by sence or reason 2 Cor. 5. 7. Heb. 11. 1. 3. It s true voluntas est caeca sine ratione the will is blind without reason but it is also as true Theologia est sepulchrum rationis Divinity is the grave that burieth reason where we must learn oft times to shut the Plato Cicero Socrates and the Athenians condemned this Art Aug. cals it Vinum erroris Hier. Cibum daemonum Democritus Non artem sed insaniaâ—â— eye of reason that we may see the better with the eye of faith 4. Fourthly The Poets how light and emply are they Like fits of musick which delight us for the present while the musick is in our eares but after leave us malancholy Of whom wee may say as Aug. said of Homer that they are Dulcissime vani but pleasantly vaine And what do they else but please the eares of foolish men with wanton Rhimes with measures and weights of words and syllables with fables and lyes Yea they are so given to lying saith one that they study nil sani dicere but stultis auribus cantillare And all their study is that they may not claudicare pedibus halt in their feet but yet they regard not claudicare moribus to halt in their manners 5. Fifthly The Historian he can tell you a long story of Nations cityes and countryes and of the lives and actions of other men but neglects to study the history of his own life he never studyes his own heart but is a stranger at home though busy abroad And how often do they take things upon trust by hearesay from others flattering some and detracting from others that as one saith Plerumque aliorum auditu nihil certi scribunt Non quod est sed quod cupiunt volunt That is very often they have things onely by relation and do not write the naked truth as things were but as they desired and would have them to be 6. Sixtly The Arithmetician he will tell you that he can number all things yea he can number the starres but never studyes to number his dayes that he might apply his heart unto wisedome 7. The Astrologian he will tel you that he was nuper è coelis delapsus lately dropt out of heaven And his thoughâ—s are celestiall as high as the starres but not supercelestiall above the starres And Quid futurum erit divinatur he can divine by the starres and tell you your fortune what shall happen to you hereafter And yet he knowes not Quid sibi ipsi quotidie imminet what hangs over his own head every houre or what shall happen to himself to morrow Jam. 4. 14. And let men phancy what they please certainly to conjecture of mens fortunes endâ— vertues vices c. * Picut Mirand Quae solius dei sunt astris tribuunt nos liberos natos siderum servos faciunt Some of the Heathens cald this art superstitiosorum hominum conjectura fallax 1. they know not certainly vires stellarum and therefore cannot give certain judgement of their effects 2. Propter innumeras cooperantes cum caelo alias causas 3. because influxus stellarum inclinant say they non cogunt 4. Si vita fortuna est abastris quid timemus 5 Saepe iis quibus maximè confidunt maximè infaelicissimi sunt as they were to Nebuchadnezzar Pharaoh Caesar Pompey Nero c. by the starres is I conceive very impious for as Picus Mirand saith they attribute those things to the starres which belong to God alone Esa 8. 20. 8. The musician he will tell you he studyes to tune his strings aright to make sweet harmony and will not endure a jarring string in his instruments of musick and yet forgets to tune the strings of Dulcisonum reficit tristia corda mâ—los his untun'd affections It is true it cannot be denyed but it is a great refresher of the spirits yet it is but vanity for the birds in the aire seeme to sing as sweet as any artificiall melody can be made The Egyptians denyed it to be learn'd by their youth because they thought it would make them effeminate Antigonus hearing Alexander making musick Citharam fregit inquiens aetati tuae regnare convenit non canere he brake his harpe and told him it beseem'd him rather to learn to reigne then learn to sing and make musick 9. The Philosopher he will tell you he studyes to know the nature of the whole fabrick of Gods creation as Birds and Beasts and creeping things foules of the aire fish in the sea c. And yet knowes nothing of God and Christ and his own corrupt nature he knoweth not that himselfe is wretched and miserable 10. The Physician he will tell you he studyes to know how to cure the diseases of other mens bodyes but regards not to cure the diseases of his own soule who lookes upon his own sins as he doth upon his Patients deseases as in a glasse wherein he sees other mens diseases rather then his own and is not pained with Dum dolet accipe ergo agit sepè ut dolcaâ— them And though I will not say saepè plus periculi est à medico quà m à morbo that is
Yet ever remember the more sin is mortified the more faith is vivified the more the disease weakens the more health strengthens Doubt 7 Yea but I have relapsed into my old sins that I have vowed and covenanted against a thousand times and therefore I am but a dog that have returned to my former vomit or as a sow that was washed I have returned to my former mire I answer there are relapses into enormities which are peccata vastantia conscientiam these a godly heart doth seldome relapse into though sometimes through weaknesse of grace they may as Peter and others Secondly there are relapses into infirmities which are peccata quotidianae incursionis which we cannot help and God hath left daily to humble us with all and of which none are free as rash anger idle words vaine thoughts distraction in prayer c. And these the best do daily relapse into for originall sin doth still retaine its inclination to sin in the most sanctified heart Rom. 7. 23. Col. 3. 4. 5. Again there are relapses of wilfulnesse Ier. 31. 18. 19. 20. and of weaknesse now thy relapses are of weaknesse and not of wilfulnesse thy heart still is on Gods side there is a great difference between a woman forced and an alluring adulteresse between our entertainment we show to a friend whom we rejoyce to see and bid welcome c. and to a thief that breakes into our house of whose company we are weary and long to be rid of He is not a swine that is driven into the mire but he that delights to wallow in the mire Now if thy relapses are of weaknesse feare not for he will forgive us that so offend not seventy times 7 times but seventy thousand times every day as long as we live we must pray Lord forgive us our trespasses neither do future sins repeal former pardons Peccata semel remissa nunquam redeunt Neither can a child of God so sin as some think as to be in the stata of damnation by them no not for an houre And because it is an assertion that hath much troubled many I shall be larger in setting downe the arguments some make gainst it with the answer to their objections Object Some affirme that grosse sins of beleevers are not pardoned no not in heaven till they do actually repent of them that they cannot say My God and my Christ c. but do incurre an actuall guilt of eternall damnation redundant upon the person at least pro tempore so as if David should have died before his actuall repentance c. he should have been damned It s answered the sins of beleevers are not only actually pardoned in heaven after actual repentance but before any subsequent act of repentance even at once in the first act of Beleeving and Repenting So as if David and Peter had died one in the act of his adultery and the other in the act of his denyal of Christ yet they had been saved though as they say they cannot conceive a regenerate person can commit a known actual sin without some present act of repentance some resistance of spirit cald displicentia vel renisus voluntatis Cum peccant ea tantum parte qua non sunt regeniti peccant secundum vero interiorem partem nolunt detestantur peccatum ergo non plena voluntate peccant Zanch. Epist 91. p. 114. And to this agrees that in Gal. 5. 17. 1 John 3. 9. Rom. 7. 13. 24. But that he stands a condemned man till solemn acts of repentance as confession petition c. they deny 1. Because in the first act of beleeving our sinnes are so pardoned as there is no place or time after left for condemnation he that believeth hath everlasting life John 3. ult and cap. 5. 23. but if at any time any one sin were not pardoned he were for that time under the curse in the state of condemnation Gal. 3. 10. but can a man have right to heaven and hell at the same time 2. Because still he is regenerated 1 Iohn 3. 9. the seed of God remaineth in him but he that is in the state of regeneration cannot be in a state of condemnation at the same time 3. Still hee remains a beleever and a penitent person in habit at least except by his fall he hath lost all grace as the Arminians hold but a beleever is still a justified person Rom. 5. 1. they say they cannot see how that man can be properly said to be justified though he be acquitted of a thousand offences if he stands guilty of any one offence for which at that time he is in the state of condemnation except we will say a man may be in a state of Justification and condemnation of life and death at the same time 4. In the present act of his sinne he is united to Christ and a member of Christ but a member of Christ cannot be in the state of condemnation for then at the same time a member of Christ may be a member of the Devill 5. He is still an adopted child of God notwithstanding his fall John 1. 12. 13. but every adopted child is an heire of heaven if sonnes then heirs Rom. 8. therefore till he loseth his son-ship he cannot lose his right to life it would seem strange that God at the same time should be pater hostis reconciliatus infensus a father and an enemy 6. If greater sins are not forgiven till after actuall repentance then neither are the least and smallest sinnes committed every moment forgiven till after actuall repentance for all sinnes deserve condemnation as well the least as the greatest though some deserve a greater degree of torment Gal. 3. 10. Rom. 6. ult secondly there is the same way appointed by God for the pardon of the smallest sins as of the greatest viz. faith and repentance but it cannot be true of the smallest sins because then a beleever should never be justified a minute together for as for idle thoughts c. we are continually acting and so a beleever should almost every minute be in the state of death and then they see not but in ictu mortis he may perish except the last operation of his spirit be actuall repentance Yea if lesser sinnes peccata quotidianae incursionis need daily repentance surely that daily repentance is actuall repentance and then even those sins are not forgiven till actuall repentance 7. Then it is certain a beleever after his fall into some grosse sinnes shall live so long by Gods decree till he actually repents as the elect shall till they beleeve but they conceive this hath no warrant from scripture that a beleever shall not die in the act of a grosse sin as adultery selfe-murther bitter and malicious speeches when perhaps the provoked party may immediately run him through kill him yea this they say seems to judge too rigidly of those that die by selfe-murther as drowning hanging stabbing themselves