our self-guiltiness Quae in alto quaeris intus in visceribus haerent Thou O man saith the Apostle that condemnest another dost the same things thy self or if not the self same as bad or worse Thou abhorrest a sin it may be some sin thou dost not practise some sin will not yield thee any profit or no surther profit some sin will do thee no pleasure now Thou abhorrest Idols or thou dost not commit Adultery but thou committest Sacrilege Is there not a Vbi tu for thee Will there not be a calling to Judgement one day for that and then where art thou And so against all fig-leaves against all pretences and excuses here 's nothing in this Vbi in this place but bare and naked Tu. Thou mayest condemn the Serpents envy and thy wive solicitation thou mayst as well lay thy gluttony unto the Cook or to thy friend inviting thee God singles out his Dear and shoots this ungaged arrow deep into our several brests but yet such wounds from his hand are better then the kisses of an enemy All flattering all false inflations of the Serpent will but make us Pharisees With Lord I am not like other men But such a touch of this would take out that venom make us all strike on our proper bosoms and every man answer God Where art thou with Lord Here I am But Lord be mercifull to me a sinner and so Lord be mercifull to us all miserable sinners Be mercifull O Lord to us not for ours but for his sake who was made sin for us the second Adam that bore all our sins in his body on the Tree even Jesns Christ the Righteons to whom c. S. D. G. THE THIRD SERMON ON THIS TEXT GEN 3.9 The Lord God called unto the man and said Adam where art thou THIS is now the third Entrance on this Entrance of Gods Judgement upon man after his Lapse which is the first of all the three pieces of Divinity And this Third this our new consideration of this Judgement and Gods Method in proceeding may open by his assistance another door of utterance and so we may make another and another Method of proceeding with this or any other Text of Scripture For as there is little reason for that Painter who uses to inscribe his pieces to bind all other Work-men to his device So though it is impossible for any man dividing the Truth aright and speaking out of the pure Word of God things consentaneous thereunto for instruction of Gods people to avoid Doctrine or for any but grraceless Hearers not to suffer the Word of Exhortation of Reproof of Consolation to have a gracious use in their hearts and hands for Religion should be hearted first and handed after in their Understanding first and then in their Life and Conversation Yet I never found in the Sermons of the Lord Jesus himself nor in those of his Apostles nor in their Successors the Primitive Fathers of the first well-formed Churches nor in those of the now deformed Church of Rome nor in those of the first Reformed Churches that they confin'd themselves much less bound over all others on pain of sin or absurdity to one and such only form and way of Teaching which beside the violence offered to mens spirits is to my Understanding a kind of Restraint put upon the free Spirit of that God which works all in all yet deals by a diversity of gifts and distributes in variety of those gifts to every mans necessity and Capacity So that in this for the Divine that rule of the Moralist will hold Nullius addictus c. tied to none nor ever to a mans own Methode witness this attempt of mine in this farther process upon this very Text as it includes a Judgement and the Method of that Judgement These are now our two and all our parts 1. For the first When the story hath told us of Man and Womans Disobedience it shews us after their sin their shame for that 's the first born issue of sin Now they saw and knew themselves every way outwardly and inwardly in bodies and souls naked despoil'd and destitute They run from God and would hide themselves then both from him and themselves Arguments ever of guilty minds fore casting cruel things and then enters the Text with Judgement but what is here begun spreads as far as v. 20. before the sentence be ended 2. Whence the point of Doctrine on easie Inference may be that our Judgement shall certainly overtake and come upon us Hath the Senate condemned me to die saith he Why so Hath Nature condemned them to die too So hath God called me to sit and judge other men perchance those other men might better sit upon me and peradventure they shall yet ere I die If that be unexampled it is not impossible but it is impossible to escape the Judgement of God There is a Prevision of that and of the Conflagration and of the Consternation which shall be then all as old as the visions of Daniel chap. 9. verse 9. When the Thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit A fiery stream issued and came forth before him Thousands of thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened And another vision of that as new and as late as the last piece of all Gods Revealed Will to men in Rev. 20.11 12 13. verses I saw a white Throne saith St. John and him that sat thereon from whose face the earth and the heaven fied away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and the sea gave up his dead and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And these proofs these large allegations from the old and new Testament we may use instead of larger reasons for if those reasons men speak so much of rise clearly from the fountain Truth of Gods eternal Word they are worthy of some higher and nobler names then Reasons but if not taken from clear Scripture Grounds or if they flow from other principles then to the clearing of divine Truth what reasons are they Two things only then I would gladly print on every soul and from this double vision which opens and closes up this Instruction 1. Put you first in mind of St. Pauls Caveat Rom. 14.10 where the Doctrine is not to judge Not to set at nought our Brother and this is made the reason We shall all stand before the Judgement-seat of Christ and every one of us give account of himself to God 2. The other is St. Judes Induction remembring us of Gods constant course preceding in destruction
From motions regular about his Poles Shall even deadly sins in disaray Keep off our minds from his Diurnal sway Under the Law made he his resting place And chose the cutse to leave us under Grace But still to morals tied our hearts and hands Scorn not his easie yoak nor break his bands Without those Grates all fire of vertue cools None lawless thus but Devils Popes and Fools An Hymn on Trinity Sunday 1625. Tuned according to S. Bernards Cur mundus militat c. SIDesideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus agere gratias O pater Luminum pater illius Qui pater noster est tibi filius Per quem Coelestia singula feceris Quicum fundamina terrae conjeceris Quorum mens agitat molem mirabilis Atque operarius est ineffabilis OTRINE rejici quanquam sim meritus Me tamen refici dignare spiritus Re visas obsecro sol semper oriens In Lutum recidens Cor meum moriens Vt quae refulserit exinde Puritas Sit illi salus sancta securitas Heu sines animam hac in putredine Mundani pulveris omni dulcedine Supernae Gratiae privatam degere Quam nutu facili possis protegere Si Desideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus reddere gratias Ad Iesum Redemptorem Tu qui Serpentis caput contuderis Qui Preces Lachrymas sanguinem fuderis Orcum post tumulum qui penetraveris Et mortis Dominum morte prostraveris Et super nubium tractus ascenderis Ac modis milites mille defenderis Labimur labimur Heu dicto citiùs Jesu suavissime ni sis propitius Menteis irradians faveris lumine Ac labes diluens cruoris flumine Et sancti spiritus accendens flamine Nos incredibili leves solamine Si Desideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus habere gratias On the Holy SACRAMENT LOrd to thy flesh and blood when I repair Where dreadfull joyes and pleasing tremblings are Then most I relish most it doth me good When my soul faints and pines and dies for food Did my sins murder thee To make that plain Thy pierc'd-dead-living body bleeds again Flow sad sweet drops what diffring things you do Reveal my sins and seal my pardon too A Psalm for Christmass day morning 1 FAirest of morning Lights appear Thou blest and gaudy day On whom was born our Saviour dear Make haste and csme away 2 See See our pensive breasts do pant Like gasping Land we lie Thy holy Dews our souls do want We faint we pine we die 3 Let from the skies a joyfull Rain Like Mel or Manna fall Whose searching drops our sins may drain And quench our sorrows all 4 This day prevents his day of Doom His mercy now is nigh The mighty God of love is come The day-spring from on high 5. Behold the great Creator makes Himself an house of clay A Robe of Virgin flesh he takes Which he will wear for ay 6 Heark heark the wise Eternal Word Like a weak Infant cries In form of servant is the Lord And God in Cradle lies 7 This wonder struck the world amaz'd It shook the stary frame Squadrons of spirits stood and gaz'd Then down in Troops they came 8 Glad Shepherds ran to view this sight A quire of Angels sings And Eastern Sages with delight Adore this King of Kings 9 Bis. Joyn then all hearts that are not stone And all our voices prove To celebrate this holy One The God of Peace and Love PRAYER and PRAISE TO work strong lines and wreath a Crown of Baies For Jesus Brows Take servent Prayer and Praise 1. That runs and flows and bears a deeper sense Then winding Verse or ratling Eloquence It rises first and breaks through hearts of stone But not till Aarons rod be struck thereon Cleft with Remorse then climbs through weeping eyes With silver feet transcending far the skies To wash his feet whose purple drops divine Will turn this water into Angels wine 2. This made of words which are but vapor pent In forge of flesh by panting bellows sent To mix with mother Air yet this to me Shall both a blessing and an honor be Saith God who cals those things as if they were Which are not so or do not so appear To us And look how sweet it strikes the sense When vernal winds inspire their Influence On flowery Meads so thanks like Incense rise And Heavan takes praise as perfum'd sacrifice A Psalm for Sunday Nights 1 COme Ravisht souls with high Delight In sweet immortal Verse To crown the day and welcome night Jehovahs praise Reherse 2 O sing the Glories of our Lord His Grace and Truth resound And his stupendious acts Record Whose mercies have no bound 3 He made the All informing Light And hosts of Angles fair 'T is he with shadows cloaths the night He clouds or clears the Air. 4 Those restless skies with stars enchaste He on firm hindges set The wave embraced earth he plac'd His hanging Cabinet 5 Wherein for us all things comply Which he hath so decreed That each in order faithfully Shall evermore proceed 6 We in his Sommer sun-shine stand And by his favour grow We gather what his bounteous hand Is pleased to bestow 7 When he contracts his brow we mourn And all our strength is vain To former dust in death we turn Till he inspire again 8. Then to this mighty Lord give praise And all our voices prove The Glory of his name to raise The God of Peace and Love The Christians Reply to Christs Venite POssum good Lord by thee inclinal Volo sometimes with ease I find Nolo yet runs so in mind Male still makes me lag behind PRIDE will fall but Grace to the Humble 1. THis fall Fell Lucifer first tries Who endlong fell never to rise Woman the next then man and all Proud flesh from them have caught the fall 2. From this foul falling sickness shall The fall of one recover all Mankind that medcin'd by his Spirit His best of Graces shall inherit Whereby he still in it doth fall Upon his humble servants all His conjugal Prayer Domestick GOD infinitely Great and Good Purge all our sins by Jesus blood From serpentine three deadly foes The Gardens of our souls enclose That Spirit which Grace and Truth affords Rule all our actions thoughts and words Our hearts into his Temples raise Our tongues loud Organs of his praise Lord make our selves and Race throughout Pure humble sober chast devout Loyal and gratefull wise and just On thee and industrie to trust Blest with a low but glad estate In food and Rayment moderate Nor rich of poor to be en ied Nor poor to be by rich supplied Give freedom Order Health and Peace Then in thy favour to decease When Nature here by Grace prepar'd May look for Glory afterward Vpon a Bible presented to a young Lady the Lady Kath. C. 1624. THE world is Gods large Book wherein we learn Him in his glass of wonders to discern But
know further of this Divine Method which is the Aquaeduct the Ventiduct the Luciduct which way still doth Christ in his Spirit conveigh this Holy water this gentle Air this blessed Light to our Spirits I confess this is one of the most necessary important and most usefull Queries we can make and which being clearly resolved will shame both Papists that hide away as much as they can and other Hereticks that blaspheme the Scriptures and pretend to a Spirit enthusiastick which is nothing but the Devil of delusion and spirit of Giddiness And therefore for our best Resolve upon this question Let us do as our Saviour in the point of marriage enquire how it was in the Beginning Look back then to the Creation consider how came Light at first At first the Spirit moves and broods over that which is in it self a confusion a depth and a darkness and then his mighty Word Fiat Lux. He spake and it was Light then Then when all was dark he made material Light and Christ Jesus is the WORD 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as Speech is the Image of the mind so he the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his person Heb. 1.3 The immaterial Light that was never made and the Spirit of the true God in declaring the true Way of his Worship and mans true way thereby to obtain eternal life as the very heathen trusted to the false gods fained Oracles which of necessity must be revealed before man could find or follow it goes that way still that is by the WORD His Word wherein is his Will revealed from Heaven both makes and is our Light This world is Gods Book wherein as in a Glass of wonders we discern him but that print being Dim to us that are sin-blind it pleased him by lively Oracles to make a Mirror far more clearly revealing his mind And as God engraved his form on his Son before all worlds so what that Son is and what the Father is to us in him the Spirit proceeding from both delivers in the Scriptures of both Testaments And as the Sun guilds and enamels clouds and streams and hill Tops with his raies but thrusts his own pure Light his own living sire through the bodies of the stars so other Authors can but yield a faint reflexion of that beam which is direct and native in his book where the very Law he stiles a flaming Light The Prophecies a more sure Word then any Eye-evidences of the Apostles to which we do well to look saith St. Peter himself as to a Light shining in a dark place till the day dawn the day-star rise in our hearts But then the Gospel written and spread by his Evangelists and held out by his spouse the Catholick Church is his marvellous Light He brought life and immortality to Light by the Gospel 2 Tim 1.10 and in Acts 26. 16. I have appeared to thee saith our Saviour to that choice vessel of his Grace and name to make thee a Minister and a witness c. And now behold I will send thee to the Gentiles to what end A glorious end to open their eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light from the power of Satan unto God and accordingly we find it 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid in them that perish in whom the god of this world hath blinded their unfaithfull minds that the Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ who is the Image of God should not shine unto them And in the sixth verse he shews the Walk and Circuit of this Light God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our hearts there first and then the casting of the beam to give light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ O then you have the means of Light and Grace among you Ministers you are the Light and Salt of the earth and who shall question that truth which the Truth himself hath testified And would it not be a very dark and desolate and a very flash and unsavory world without a publique Ministry of the Word and Sacraments The Clergie however despised are all out Spiritual Fathers Propter quos hanc suavissimam Lucem aspeximus But yet you and they both must know how they have it and the Apostle tells us that too in the next words We have this Treasure in our earthen vessels that the excellency of the Power might be of God and not of us You are not sent to a Means and Medicine of our preparing or any humane but to Gods Divine Ordinance that which is his Power and Wisdom to Salvation to every one that believes And therefore this may be enough to give all humble Christians satisfaction and acquiescence Speak then thy Word O Lord and thy servant shall be healed shall be undarkened and though like Bartimeus though sin-blind have my eyes opened with a word Mar. 10.12 St. Peter spake but words unto Cornelius but words whereby he and his house should be saved words so richly blest that the Text saith while Peter spake these words the holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word Did not our hearts burn within us said those Disciples Luke 24. to whom our Saviour opened the Scriptures And the Apostles hearers prickt at their Hearts cried Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved And what a large field of the Fathers testimonies do I here forsake to break by your patience into an Inclosure or two of the very Papists our enemies and the enemies of the Scripture Yet see the excellency of Gods word even those enemies being Judges Cardinal Bellarmine himself is in his superlatives Certissima tutissima regula credendi lib. 1. de verb. Dei ca. 20. and need we any more after so full a witness I 'le name but another but one Instar omnium 'T is he that in a traiterous itch of wit took on him purposely the abuse of Scripture that by mis appliance and prophane wresting he might so abuse our Princes and our Church Mark yet what he is forc'd to say and sure 't is worth our observation if I diminish him not in my English There is in Scripture sayes he an invisible Majesty an hidden splendour a Glory unperishable a wisdom in-exhaustible The solace of humane and the beginning of a Divine life made by the holy Spirit making our spirits holy compat'd with which the Egyptian sages will look pale and poor the Chaldee impure the Grecians blockish Plato no body and Philosophy it self a fool 'T is the print of Heaven on earth and if any where the Joy of Paradise or at least a brave Resemblance of Divine Light be shewed 't is in Scripture containing all that is severed from the actual Vision of God himself Again The paper burns me not yet am I all inflamed in reading it 'T is no composure no artificial tread the Scripture uses
yet am I drawn and rapt to follow her and she lifts me up beyond and above my nature so that I am no more mine own but with a secret violence and new fire I am consum'd and compell'd to acknowledge the voyce of God that speaks therein Thus far that Papist But I speak I hope to men enlightened such as prove and find in their own souls the power and Energy of the Divine Word both when t is read when it is sincerely preacht for I have in my Discourse mingled both those wayes of Gods delivering it And I would know of you beloved in our Blessed Jesus did you never in the preaching and hearing the Scriptures read feel the Gale the sweet and gentle assistance of Gods Spirit pass into your souls Did the Preacher never come with darkness and disconsolation with Isaiahs anxious and perplexing thoughts All the day long have I stretcht out my hands c. And didst thou never meet him in the vanity of thy mind to mock or else to catch and betray And yet you both discern'd before you parted a blessing of a good God upon you both Both that he was sent of God and that the power of God was there to heal thee Luke 5.17 And if thou hast sound it so Take heed of quenching the Spirit nec in te nec in alio saith Aquinas in thy self by despising in the Preacher by discouraging or disparaging which is all injuries in one to an ingenuous spirit Rbet 2. For the Philosopher reduces them all to parvi-pension I mean not a small pension or salazy for our recompence but dis-esteeming under valuing those that are the Ambassadours of Christ and Secretaries in the great affairs of his Spirit Bethink your selves could any Angel in Heaven have said to man as our Lord to Peter Feed my Lambs my sheep Go preach baptize whose sins you retain they are retained c. Are these sayes one terrestrial sounds or are they uttered from the clouds above But look not so high descend into your own bosoms were not you once darkness are you now made light in the Lord Which way came that Influence was it not by the work of the Ministery That 's our part and that 's the end of our second part which brings us to the third part of our Catechism Gratitudo or mans duty in these last words of the Text Walk as children of light SERMON 2. PAssing the former part of the Text I past you through the cloud through Darkness the Lapse the fall of man the first part of the Catechism And I brought you thence to the second The Pillar of Fire which gives Light in the night of Ignorance Lux in Domino the workmanship of God in Christ Jesus The Restauration Now remains only Gratitudo Our duty Mans obedience due to Dominus here for our Redemption from the bondage of corruption and restoring us to the glorious liberty of the sons of God brought from darkness to be light in the Lord. Which Duty is here called A Walking Walk as children of Light which is the third and last part of our Catechism And it would afford a walk of many hours I shall strive to reduce it into one The Stations the Pauses I shall keep are these First there is a Bivium figured in the Pythagorean Y two wayes and but two There have been can be shall be but two wayes from the beginning to the end and after the end of the world for all shall walk in light or darkness and both are in the verse You were darkness but are light there is the Bivium But our way is the way of Light and even this is of comfort by the way that the way of Gods servants is a lightsome and a delight some way a clear and open passage Secondly this way may be gone For the words are the only wise Gods own Exhortation and then it must be gone for the words are his own commandment and our duty Thirdly Here are Pullies Evidences Inducements three 1. Quia Filii because Children 2. Etiamsi though but Children 3. Ω's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Children of Light taking the Light for our example direction and that will be double first the Light of Heaven the Sun and then he that is our Heaven of Light the true Light the Way the Truth and the Life Christ Jesus Thus far the explication then a word of application will finish this walk set us onward and encourage us in the way and cause us to walk as Children of Light First then there is a Bivium and both here but the Darkness is past the worst is over then For this is a way foul and deep and dangerous The way the vilest way that ever man went Will you hear them both briefly described in language the best that ever man heard What! mine God forbid I should mean so No not my rusty iron No nor any glittering tin-soild enticing words of humane wisdom but the clear fiery tryed and seven times purified silver of the Word of God dictated by the holy Ghost In that language we find this way and walk called Tenebrae abstract and plural Darkness and termed elsewhere the way of the Gentiles their own way after their own imaginations in the vanity of their mind inordinately walking as men i. e as meer men according to the course of this world in crastiness in the hidden thing of dishonesty after the flesh in lasciviousness lusts uncleanness excess riot revellings c. according to the prince of the power of the Air the spirit that works in the Children of disobedience till the paths of their ways saith Job come to nothing and perish till they arrive at the issues of death saith Solomon and all their Foundations Plots Projects Hopes Aims be out of course saith David going on so long and departing from God till he be forced to say Depart for ever Go ye cursed and so ends that walk O no! well were it for them if it might end but it never ends for this dark and slippery way slips them into Hell and that Gulf enlarges her self that horrible pit opens her mouth wide upon them from whence there is no Redemption but they shut out from the Father of Lights reserved in endless chains of Darkness to abide eternal eternal Damnation Methinks I hear you now upon that Respond in the Litany From thy wrath and from everlasting damnation good Lord deliver us The good Lord hath and doth and will deliver us if we will be delivered If we will but walk the other the better way the way of Light which elsewhere is called the good old way Jer. 8. The way of old Enoch Noah Abraham a walking with and before and after God in his Laws Statutes Ordinances cleaving to the Lord with all the soul A walking in liberty and safety over Lions Dragons through Darkness through the valley of the shadow of death A people walking humbly with their God and
riding on his horse of wood over all the surges that devoured the world of the ungodly So in the time of Ahab and in the time of Queen Mary in our own land when the waves of persecution rouled high and raged horribly God reserved many Prophets in a cave by means of Obadiah and many thousands that bowed not the knee to Baal or were won to crouch to the Romish superstition or shrink from the Reformed Religion This is the mercy of God that when sometimes the wicked are swept away as the house of a Spider when the arrow flies by day and terror by night then comes out the Indulgence and Dispensation Touch not mine Anointed a thousand shall fall before thee and ten thousand at thy right hand Psalm 91.7 Or if God do not ever in publique calamity give his own a temporal deliverance for Cadit Ripheus yet he promises to redeem their soul from deceit and violence and precious shall their death be in his sight Psalm 72.14 Secondly The day of making up these Jewels is understood by some of the time of powerfull preaching of the Gospel principally when Christ himself and his fore-runner the Baptist entered on the office of converting the world so much also is intended here of that Sun of Rightcousness rising with healing in his wings his day-star coming in the Spirit of Eliah cap. 4.2 And we find indeed the time of our Saviour called the time of Reformation surely by that powerable Instrument of his Word it is that his Jewels are made up John prepared the Way and cleansed the people by baptism to repentance Christ wrought up many by himself more by his Apostles after St. Peter at one Sermon three thousand at another five thousand souls And in that time of our Saviour those Jewels were made bright and manifest even to their Despisers See Anna Elizabath Zachary Simeon whom the curious Pharisees reckoned among the base vulgar that knew not the Law but they then were known for Jewels and the other for a generation of Vipers Thus when the World in the Wisdom thereof knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe and to make what the world accounts weakness his Power to salvation For to this is ascribed first the birth and breeding of these Jewels For to which of the Angels said God at any time This day I have begotten thee But as that speech hath a natural Interpretation of Christ our elder Brother so applyed to us in a supernatural Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 which is therefore stil'd the uncorruptible seed 1 Pet. 2.12 God makes thee as he made this All a work of power but in recreating in producing Light of Christianity uses his Word and Wisdom to give thee form so in the New Testament his Word precedes his Miracles and the Donative to the Apostles first was Fieri Vehicula scientiae such as enliven the Receivers For man lives not by bread only and for this cause the Saints are called living stones built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself the chief Corner-stone Again The word as it breeds and gives life so Light Grace and Lustre We cannot with the waxen wings of sense or reason flie up to the Deity not as revealed in Christ and ripeness and perfection and rectifying of meer Reason gains us nothing It loses rather and builds downward disclosing the earthly Globe and shutting up Heaven Only God is able by the power of his word to take hold of our souls and like so many keyes apply the graces of Faith and Hope and Love to the wards of prepared rational Nature For the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is that which by original Purity and perfect obedience and satisfaction in his death he hath acquired to and for all his members But the noble Instrument to work that Grace a way into our souls is the declaration of his Gospel in use and Ministry of his Word Yea the Scripture informs us of Illumination by this same means in the very Angels Eph. 3. But the purest Saints are all in darkness till this flaming light be held from heaven no previous disposition in the soul no Platonick Recordation would ever bring us to the least glympse of salvation were it not for this dew of Grace which from the Word we drink into our understanding and thereby direct our Wills and even in their imaginations find it powerfull against all those starts and exorbitancies reducing and bringing into Carptivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Jesus For as health is the absence of sickness and serenity nothing but the avoidance of clouds and shadows so the Word where it comes hath an innate and genuine property to dispel sin like Davids harp driving out Sauls devil You are clean saith our Saviour propter Sermonem by reason of the Word therefore resembled to rain medicines fonntains Such an eager and piercing operation and opposition as it penetrates the closest sin and is a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart so Magdalens whoredom and nest of Devils dislodged Zacheus swoln to a Camels grosseness abated to the smalness of a thred fit to be drawn through the eye of a Needle fit to enter into the kingdom of Heaven with this was Lydia's heart opened all other appliances but charms or holy water This mighty word of stones able to raise up children unto Abraham this the double edged sword of the spirit this the fire and the hammer and file to frame and work out Gods Jewels from the rough till piece by piece God thereby hath removed those ruines which through Adams fall opprest all humane nature and hid away the primitive beauty and perfection of our souls Lastly 'T is this that transforms from Prophaness Rebellion Hypocrisie and purges the most dissolute Were with shall a young man reform of all other the most difficult by taking heed according to thy Word and then this Word it is which adorns and teaches how to hang about the neck and ears of Gods holy ones all those shinning graces of precious Faith and Hope and Charity and Meekndss and heavenly-Mindedness c. And therefore in our passage are we not to take notice of this I say we both Preachers and people we first as Jewellers to sever the precious from the vile if speak to speak as the words of God and yet to furnish themselves with all helps of learning the better to insinuate by Similes and riches of discourse and so to raise the imagination and fill the understandings of their hearers but above all it points directly at the curiosity of our pains and carefull industry to be work-men needing not to be ashamed They must be work-men indeed that dcal with Jewels specially with cuting them to the life and perfect beauty and fashioning them in all their points that the man of God may be
ye sont of men Arise and come to Judgement Let us do so Arise quicken our thoughts prepare for since prevent we cannot that last by considering of this first Judgement 2. Wherein the parts we made at first are four The two first the two parties appearing in the Judgement God the Judge and Man the Delinquent then the manner of the process by way of calling and last the matter of the process and summons Where art thou in literal sense Whither fled But in the mystick caries a secret increpation and touch of pitty as if he had said How is man the glory of my works fallen to be the shame of all my creatures And of this sense I must entreat you to be mindfull now in special because now I shall make special use of this sense only 3 Both the parties God and Mâ—n and how far the divine Nature is laid forth in these names and then how far we were enabled to take notice of mans condition by the help of two books this book of Genesis first and then another volum which we cary about us the book of Conscience I have already shewed at large as also what we are to think of and what to learn both by the manner and matter of this summons in literal sense Of all which things I will make no repetition nor will I touch any more upon that review of the Text wherein I divided it into two parts only namely a Judgement and the methode of that Judgement Nor of that Doctrine on easie inference and uses thence deducible That our Judgement shall certainly overtake and come upon us to cause us first to stand in aw and not sin against God and then yet to love the Lord for beginning a foundation of a mercy-seat where he first erected his Throne for Justice even in Paradise in that promise of the womans seed to bruise the serpents head Nor will I speak any further of the Methode of Gods proceeding first calling to the man before the woman or the Serpent Nor of the different addressing of this Judgement against the first Monarch of mankind wherein he proceeds by himself immediately and that Judgement afterwards against the two first Kings of his own people wherein he doth all by Delegates by sending his Prophets of which divers reasons are rendred by Interpreters But passing all over that hath passed in several handlings of the words come we only to reflect on that which I called the mystick sense of the last part which is the question Where art thou that is for so I find it opened Where is thy former happiness To what a miserable state art thou now by sin reduced How hath thy fall bruised the seal and defaced that glorious Image I created in thee Alas Adam where art thou From which passionate Increpation and Rebuke mixt with a gracious bemoaning of mans fall divers doctrinal points might be raised as the term is if a man should raise as some do such things as would sleep and be quiet or lie for dead if no such Raisers and Wresters would enforce them up That I only intend and yet will crave leave to insist upon is what this question seems to others to imply and is no coacted no violent expression namely the mifery and desolation of Adam and consequently of all his race by Disobedience Quanta de re decidit 4. In which consideration first the sin was disobedience from a double root of evil An inordinate Covetize of what God had prohibited and pride of heart to be as God which was the fall both of man and devil The losses by this fall which disperst the whole flock of divine Graces were life of body to be perpetuated as the Angels plenary knowledge with a supernatural influx of divine Faith in admirable clearness both of the object and the internal power with lucide notions of the Trinity and the then future incarnation But above all that choicest Jewel of original Justice And now the Doctrine from this part of the Text in this sense opened and dropping thus from the mouth of God himself will as an Influence coelestial if we open our bosoms our hearts and Understandings and Affections to receive and cherish it with care and conscientious Devotion produce many usefull flowers 5. The first flower or use if so we will call it that is the first good way to take in appliance of this Truth is to sit down like the mourning Levite in the Psalm by the waters of Babylon and looking back and remembring Sion reflecting on the pleasures of the first state in the Garden of Eden turn words to sighs and melt our brains to tears in doleful recounting our lost beatitude and sight of our deplorable condition Where first in stead of a glorious is inferred a sordid nakedness with internal turpitude and privation of all those excellencies Rebellion in the flesh and appetite drawing on black guiltiness and Deformity and a liableness to eternal damnation all sprung from that bitter root of Pride cloven into two one explicite of eating the forbidden fruit the other implicite of unthankfulness to God which was doubtless their sin of omission Ingratitude being the principle and primipile of sin then as it continues the core and bottom of all ill nature ever since 6. Secondly Weigh mans misery in that only term of Destitutus the state of dereliction whereby the appetite becomes enormous having now no guide which is a thing we are so far from missing or hating that from our youth up 't is fatally affected by us all Tandem custode remoto What then why then Cereus in vitium flecti flexible and moldable into any form of vanity or wickedness For it is just so with all the children of Adam as with a child left of his Parents and Tutors to himself which rooted inborn Pravity is bound with Iron round and close unto our souls that even Gods own reborn sons and daughters feel and bewail it in themselves So far St. Paul will witness to the whole world and gives Glory to God in that woful confession O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from that body of sin and death And thither I must not scorn tocome and Thou and He though thou upon the ground or in a Dungeon and he as high as ever man was mounted on a Throne or in a Palace We all though admitted with open face to contemplate the joyes of heaven in the face of Jesus Christ shining in a Gospel of Peace and Salvation yet in our selves with shame and confusion of face and spirit must pronounce that Wo that Vae misero mihi to every one of our selves single and in a deep sense of our own perversness and infirmity before we can come with comfort to take up that following Antheme of our Apostle I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us then labor beloved in our Lord and Saviour to be truly humble in the sense of this our Orphan
notice that in every gross sin we are as gross and foul as they For instance Do but weigh the madness of whoredom He follows her as an Ox to the slaughter and as a fool to the stocks for correction As a Bird hastes to the snare till a dart strike through his liver the seat of his lust Is not this man bewitcht drawn by the devil down to hell so saith Solomon Her feet go down to death and her steps take hold on hell And that the hiss of such a Serpent should be acceptable musick is it not as strange as Eves tentation here Doth not the Wisdom of God lead men to find this true in wofull trial confessed so Prov. 5.12 He wonders how he was so bewitcht How have I hated Instruction and then mourning bewails the shame and lasting brand of Infamy upon that sin I was almost brought into what into all evil And where In the midst of the Congregation in the face of the world But above all is that of the Apostle which makes it more horrible then Witchcraft or their Converse with foul spirits for he tels us it is in mystick sense an Abasing a corrupting of the flesh and bones of Christ Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot Is not he or she worse then a Devil would draw me to do that Thirdly Sins advantage was on the womans easiness to sleight Gods prohibition where Satans deadliest dart as ever since we find it was thrown upon the fear of God which being in all good souls the beginning of all Wisdom he therefore strives to rob us of that Jewel first to put out that eye and then Polyphemus-like we rome about in Darkness and Distemper Let the fear of the Lord then be the Levite in every private family in every bosom not to be parted from it all the dayes of our lives Believe the Lord and love not to trie conclusions The ambitious man knows by a thousand Trials in others how hard his condition is upon the wheel how unsafe to tarry and how difficult to dislodge from his mountain-situation and yet this Pill is swallowed This shirt of the soul must not off till skin and all go with it So every lying Gthazi every corrupt and bribing Courtier knows how uncurable a plague will pursue him and yet ventures for two talents and two change of Rayment So to the Sacrilegious may we not say as the Prophet of Oppression Do not these Oppressors that suck the blood of Orphans and rifle widdows houses and they that like Bels Prists eate up the house of God and all his provision and yet jeast it away with the Apothegme of the wise Silver-smith Sirs you know that by this Craft we have our livings our livings indeed of which some one man may be qualified and dispenced with all in his own safe conscience to hold twenty marry they are impropriations or rather Sequestrations And do not all these several Oppressors know the sentence of God gone out against them Do not they against their own conscience with-hold the truth of God in unrighteousness and yet they would have us say nothing as if we were bound to this immodest forbearance of pronouncing and denouncing Gods Judgements But the Word of God is not bound saith our Apostle So let me apply in a word to the Blasphemer and the false Swearer He hears indeed a rumor from a Prophet a great while ago in another Country far of of a roul of plagues flying in the air and entering into the Swearers house and destroying foundations but he rowls in wealth and ease and believes it not And these startlers at oaths whose stomacks are so queasie he hath markt it he can tell you that commonly they die Beggars I have but one advantage more of sin in one word more to note unto you of which we yet may make our best advantage it is not in but will fairly comply with the Text It is Despair which many times the Tempter begets upon presumption He makes them first presumptuous and then desperate sinners At first it is Rejoyce O young man What needst thou fear at last there is no repenting now perscelera The safest way is to go through But then against this charm remember thou the voice of thy Creator As I live and the voice of thy Redeemer As I was content to die I would not have the death of a sinner Think of that second Adam the Restorer of all our losses and in the lowest of thy declination to a desperate sadness use this question here Where art thou man Why art thou so heavy O my soul so disquiet within me Put thy trust in God I know in whom I believe there is all I can hope for wish for above all that I am able to ask or think His blood shall wash away all my sins though scarlet bloody sins His Robe is pure and large and odorous I will put it on I will put him on and then my soul Where art thou to what an height of bravery to what illustrious Enobling to what a Royalty to what a Crown and Dignity art thou advanet and if our rising thoughts shall mount from hence and take their flight into the presence and before the Throne of Grace and Glory there how might this consolation be up-heaped and yet run over and exceed all humane apprehension â— to which Glory let us therefore pray him to bring us that hath so dearly purchased the same for us even Jesus Christ the Righteous to whom c. S. D. G. A Collection of several mens Discourses and Opinions concerning Duels On t of the Spanish History transtated into French by Mayerne this Discourse following was excerpted and thus englished IF of two evils we must make choice of one as some men say in this case of Duels is necessary the fashion of single Combats practised by our Ancestors will easily appear more tolerable then that in use at this day For by the former was discovered a kind of proof in things ambiguous and in them the Princes Pleasure or his lawfull Delegates was requisite who first of all took notice whether the cause deserved to put two persons of honor or quality in danger of life who might better serve the publique under their Soveraign or be usefull in their proper families If after mature deliberation they judged the matter must come to that trial and issue it was with very great caution and manifold Ceremonies to testifie how carefull men were in that age of mens lives There was Order taken for the equaling of the Combatants to see that no advantage was given in arms or in the strength or furniture of their horses or otherwise They were both deposed concerning wrong accusation of each other and that they came both freely for a good and just quarrel and only for the maintenance of their honor The point and substance of which honor in those days was placed in the worship of
God Almighty allegiance to the King and service to those Lords of whom they had dependencies and in loyalty and truth towards all men courteous peaceable and modest among friends feirce valiant and full of courage against their enemy in war And if upon this point of honor upon knowledge that any man had been falsly accused offended or out-raged in word or deed by advantage either of time place company inequality of Weapons or Arms unlawfull or unusual or otherwise had just cause to complain there was ready means for Redress of the injury as the case required Order taken according to Law or military custom which would not admit any Duel saving only when there was no other Remedy much lefs would they suffer any Gentleman of honor to put himself upon an uncertain proof of arms with any one convict of rash or manifest calumny And then the fashion was that he that was vanquisht was esteemed culpable and counted thenceforth a Lyar and Slanderer and if he had his life yet he was ever punisht with some disgrace or degradation Besides For the most part the Combate was continued or ended at the discretion of the Prince or his Substitutes which also did most commonly part the Duellists and not suffer them to proceed to the utterance but pronounced them both good and approved Cavaliers upon the place which was a token of their prudent affection to preserve noble spirits for better uses But if any were found of so proud contumacious stomack as having no power to procure leave to fight whether in place near adjacent or further remote where they could obtain room and liberty to combate they might never after return unto their native home again but were esteemed as Mutinous in the condition of Felons and Traitors to their Prince unless they obtained Letters Patent of abolishing their crime But amongst us all this is out of use and the Procedure of our modern Duellists far different For if it chance that some light or ignorant young fellow do now give affront or offence unto another without cause the point of Honor forsooth obliges the Offendor to make good his insolent deed and he must neither confess nor frame any excuse of his fault for that is held a sign of vanity and cowardise And better it is to appear rash and proud then abase himself to a modesty which among men of the sword is counted Pusillanimity Another resenting too deep what is but spoken by his friend in jeast or freedom of language which contains no real injury at all will yet be so transported that no repair or satisfaction shall serve and why because he stands upon the Punctilioes of Reputation And a Gentleman must rather preserve himself thus disdainfully and incompatibly then use any such facility or weakness as shall derogate from true Chivalrie Nor can any former conversation or Amity restrain his fury but fight he will If it so happens that the Prince or any grand Magistrate will intermedle or enquire after their quarrel O then these Gallants are more fearfull of such Judgement then of Thunder They avoid it by all means and you must run after them and they will fight in private whether the reason be that they are ashamed to discover the ground of their debate which is oftentimes so feeble and impertinent that themselves know not how to speak of it without blushing or whether the head-long and unquenchable desire of shedding mans blood have prepossessed them with an eager appetite of revenge mingled with extream haughtiness and folly Better it is say they to shew themselves indocible and rebellious then to submit to such a Discipline for then every man would taunt them for want of courage and that their cowardize constrained them to shun the field Hence they grow upon the point of honor to conclude that it belongs to no Prince by Justice to limit their appointments And that a Gentleman is to acknowledge no other Equity or Law but what the continued custom of Gallants hath introduced which gives them authority to do any thing and suffer nothing and by the sword to maintain themselves in that priviledge most unjustly and falsly usurpt which the manners of the age have set before them So that men in this age must pretend neither fear of God nor King nor royal Edicts to the contrary but upon the challenge readily present themselves in the field or else refusing be reputed for base Poultroons faln from all franchise and nobleness of mind and from thence ever to be exposed to all outrages of the Challenger at his will and pleasure For the point of honor teaches a man to chuse rather the appellation of an Assasine then to enter the combate with any such as are bafled and have refused to answer a Challenge And when these men meet upon the encounter of a self-chosen Duel though but in their shirts yet must they run desperately brutishly upon one anothers swords rather then turn aside from a thrust that presents it self or to rebate put it by with any care of ones own safety and die rather then shew the least gesture or countenance of fearing death so that the wonder is how this kind of Bravoes which seem born into the world for butcheries and massacres either to kill or to be killed can yet when they go to the wars think it no abasement to cover themselves with strong armor after the example of the antient Warriors But yet behold a more refined and quintessential point of Honor for it is permitted to our Duellists to invite a second and a third if so they please which are all engaged and obliged to fight it out to the last against an equal number chosen on the other part and so to kill those with whom they never had quarrel or debate but on the contrary are their own intimate friends as it is often seen This is forsooth the law of Duel and you must chuse rather saith the point of Honor to murder a dear friend then refuse the request of a Cavalier that doth you the special favour and honor of being his Second in a quarrel be it right or wrong This is counted a kind of lawfull and honourable murder and then you are to account it upon the advantage more noble to kill your opposite outright then to give him his life when he is at your mercy unless peradventure he be so base to beg it So there is a double harvest of Renown to be reaped from Duels that is either to murder a man or else be able to vaunt that you gave him his life If the Vanquisher come off wounded and die shortly after it yet he comforts himself in point of honor still that he bath done himself reason with his own sword and that his Adversary is dead before him But for any remedy of their souls health they conceive they have sufficiently provided if going to the combate with hearts full of rancorous hate and mortal despight