leave them worse than they found them Stomach will not bear out a matter without strength and to encounter an adversary are required Shoulders as well as Gall. A good cause is never betrayed more than when it is prosecuted with much eagernesse but little sufficiency This from the Method Observe secondly the Apostles manner of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Translators render it As we are wrongfully blamed As we are slandered As we are slanderously reported And the word indeed from the Originall importeth no more and so Writers both profane and sacred use it But yet in Scriptures by a specialty it most times signifieth the highest degree of Slander when we open our mouths against God and speak ill or amisse or unworthily of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly the sin we call blaspemy And yet that very word of Blaspemy which for the most part referreth immediately to God the Apostle here useth when he speaketh of himself and other Christian Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we are slandered nay as we are blasphemed A slander or other wrong or contempt done to a Minister quà talis is a sin of a higher strain than the same done to a Common Christian. Not at all for his persons sake for so he is no more Gods good creature than the other no more free from sins and infirmities and passions than the other But for his Callings sake for so he is Gods Embassadour which the other is not and for his works sake for that is Gods Message which the others is not Personall Slanders and Contempts are to a Minister but as to another man because his person is but as another mans person But slanders and contempts done to him as a Minister that is with reference either to his Calling or Doctrine are much greater than to another man as reaching unto God himself whose Person the Minister representeth in his Calling and whose errand the Minister delivereth in his Doctrine For Contempts S. Paul is expresse elsewhere He that despiseth despiseth not man but God And as for Slanders the very choice of the word in my Text inferreth as much The dignity of our Calling enhaunceth the sin and every slander against our regular Doctrines is more than a bare Calumny if no more at least petty blasphemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we are slandered as we are blasphemed That from the word Observe thirdly the wrong done to the Apostle and to his Doctrine He was slanderously reported to have taught that which he never so much as thought and his Doctrine had many scandalous imputations fastened upon it whereof neither he nor it were guilty As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say The best truths are subject to mis-interpretation and there is not that Doctrine how firmly soever grounded how warily soever delivered whereon Calumny will not fasten and stick slanderous imputations Neither Iohns mourning nor Christs piping can passe the pikes but the one hath a Devil the other is a Glutton and a Wine-bibber Though Christ come to fulfill the Law yet there be will accuse him as a destroyer of the Law Matthew 5. And though he decide the question plainly for Caesar and that in the case of Tribute Mat. 22. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars yet there be that charge him as if he spake against Caesar Iohn 19. and that in the very case of Tribute as if he forbade to give Tribute unto Caesar Luke 23. Now if they called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold If Christs did not think we the doctrine of his Ministers and his Servants could escape the stroke of mens tongues and be free from calumny and cavill How the Apostles were slandered as Seducers and Sectaries and vain bablers and Hereticks broachers of new false pestilent doctrines their Epistles and the book of their Acts witnesse abundantly to us And for succeeding times read but the Apologies of Athenagoras and Tertullian and others and it will amaze you to see what blasphemous and seditious and odious and horrible impieties were fathered upon the Ancient Christian Doctors and upon their profession But our own experience goeth beyond all Sundry of the Doctors of our Church teach truly and agreeably to Scripture the effectuall concurrence of GODS Will and Power with subordinate Agents in every and therefore even in sinful actions Gods free election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves The immutability of Gods Love and Grace towards the Saints elect and their certain perseverance therein unto Salvation The Iustification of sinners by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ apprehended and applied unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable doctrines And yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme GOD and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarmine Gretser Maldonate and the Jesuits but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the rable of that crew freely spend their mouths in barking against us as if we made God the author of sin as if we would have men sin and be damned by a Stoicall fatall necessity sin whether they will or no and be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousnesse and profanenesse let them believe it is no matter how they live heaven is their own cock-sure as if we cryed down good works and condemned charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These imputations upon us and our doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that thus mis-report us know that without repentance their damnation will be just It would be time not ill spent to discover the grounds of this observation and to presse the uses of it something fully But because my aim lyeth another way I can but point at them and passe If seldome Truth scape unslandered marvel not the reasons are evident On Gods part on Mans part on the Devils part God suffereth Man raiseth and the Devil furthereth these slanders against the Truth To begin ordine retrogrado and to take them backwards First on the Devils part a kind of Contrariety and Antipathy betwixt him and it He being the Father of lies and Prince of darknesse cannot away with the Truth and with the Light and therefore casteth up slanders as Fogs and Mists against the Truth to bely it and against the Light to darken it Secondly on Mans part And that partly in the understanding when the judgement either of it self weak or else weakened
any thing I know at all to trouble this place any more hereafter Let us all now humbly beseech Almighty God to grant a blessing to what hath been presently taught and heard that it may work in the hearts of us all charitable affections one towards another due obedience to lawfull authority and a conscionable care to walk in our severall callings faithfully painfully and peaceably to the comfort of our own souls the edification of Gods Church and the glory of the ever-blessed Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons and one God To whom be ascribed by us and the whole Church as is most due the Kingdome the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AD CLERUM The Second Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 24. Apr. 1621. ROM 3.8 And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just A Little before at the fourth verse S. Paul had delivered a Conclusion sound and comfortable and strengthened it from Davids both experience and testimony in Ps. 51. A place pregnant and full of sinews to enforce it The Conclusion in effect was that Nothing in man can anull the Covenant of God Neither the originall unworthinesse of Gods Children through the universall corruption of nature nor their actuall unfaithfulnesse bewrayed through frailty in particular trials can alienate the free love of God from them or cut them off from the Covenant of Grace but that still God will be glorified in the truth and faithfulnesse of his promises notwithstanding any unrighteousnesse or unfaithfulnesse in man But never yet was any Truth so happily innocent as to maintain it self free from Calumny and Abuse Malice on the one hand and Fleshlinesse on the other though with different aimes yet doe the same work They both pervert the Truth by drawing pestilent Corollaries from sound Conclusions as the Spider sucketh poyson from medicinable herbs But with this difference Malice slandereth the Truth to discountenance it but Fleshlinesse abuseth the Truth to countenance it selfe by it The cavilling Sophister he would faine bring the Apostles gracious Doctrine into discredit The carnall Libertine he would as faine bring his own ungracious behaviour into credit Both by making false yet colourable Inferences from the former Conclusion There are three of those Inferences but never a good The first If so then cannot God in reason and justice take vengeance of our unrighteousnesse The Colour for why should he punish us for that which so much magnifieth and commendeth his righteousnesse But if our righteousnesse commend the righteousnesse of God what shall we say Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance The second Inference If so then it is injust either in God or Man to condemne us as sinners for breaking the Law The Colour for why should that action be censured of sin which so abundantly redoundeth to the glory of God For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner The third and last and worst Inference If so then it is a good and wise resolution Let us sin freely and boldly commit evil The Colour for why should we fear to do that from which so much good may come in this verse of my Text And not rather let us do evil that good may come This last cavilling Inference the Apostle in this Verse both bringeth in and casteth out again bringeth in as an objection and casteth out by his answer An answer which at once cutteth off both it and the former Inferences And the Answer is double Ad rem Ad hominem That concerneth the force and matter of the objection this the state and danger of the objectors Ad rem in the former part of the Verse And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come Ad hominem in the latter end Whose damnation is just In the former part there is an Objection and the Rejection of it The Objection And not rather Let us do evil that good may come The Rejection thereof with a Non sequitur implying not onely the bare inconsequence of it upon the Apostles conclusion but withall and especially the falsenesse and unsoundnesse of it taken by it self As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil c. My aime at this present is to insist especially upon a Principle of practick Divinity which by joynt consent of Writers old and new Orthodox and Popish resulteth from the very body of this verse and is of right good use to direct us in sundry difficulties which daily arise in vita communi in point of Conscience The Principle is this We must not do any evil that any good may come of it Yet there are besides this in the Text divers other inferiour observations not to be neglected With which I think it will not be amisse to begin and to dispatch them first briefly that so I may fall the sooner and stay the longer upon that which I mainly intend Observe first the Apostles Method and substantiall manner of proceeding how he cleareth all as he goeth how diligent he is and carefull betimes to remove such cavils though he step a little out of his way for it as might bring scandall to the Truth he had delivered When we preach and instruct others we should not think it enough to deliver positive truths but we should take good care also as near as we can to leave them clear and by prevention to stop the mouths of such as love to pick quarrells at the Truth and to bark against the light It were good we would so far as our leisure and gifts will permit wisely forecast and prevent all offence that might be taken at any part of Gods truth and be carefull as not to broach any thing that is false through rashnesse errour or intemperance so not to betray any truth by ignorant handling or by superficiall slight and unsatisfying answers But then especially concerneth it us to be most carefull herein when we have to speak before such as we have some cause before-hand to suspect to be through ignorance or weaknesse or custome or education or prejudice or partiall affections or otherwise contrary-minded unto or at leastwise not well perswaded of those Truths we are to teach If the wayes be rough and knotty and the passengers feeble-joynted and dark-sighted it is but needfull the guides should remove as many blocks and stones out of the way as may be When we have gone as warily as we can to work Cavillers if they list will take exceptions it is our part to see we give them no advantage lest we help to justifie the principals by making our selves Accessories Those men are ill-advised how ever zealous for the Truth that stir in controversed points and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the whole counsel of God In my Application of this Instance and Case blame me not if I do it with some reference to my self Being heretofore by appointment as now again I was to provide my self for this place against such a meeting as this is as in my conscience I then thought it needful for me I delivered my mind and I dare say the Truth too for substance something freely touching the Ceremonies and Constitutions of our Church And I have now also with like freedome shewed the unlawfulnesse of the late disorderly attempts in this Town and that from the ground of my present Text. I was then blamed for that I think unjustly for I do not yet see what I should rerract of that I then delivered and it is not unlikely I shall be blamed again for this unless I prevent it You have heard now already both heretofore that to judge any mans heart and at this time that to slander any truth are without repentance sins justly damnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that offend either in the one or the other their damnation is just To preserve therefore both you from the sin and my self from the blame consider I pray you with reason and charity what I shall say You that are our hearers know not with what hearts we speak unto you that is onely known to our own hearts and to God who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things That which you are to look at and to regard is with what truth we speak unto you So long as what we preach is true agreeable to Gods Word right reason you are not upon I know not what light surmizes or suspicions to judge with what spirits or with what dispositions of heart we preach Whether we preach Christ of envy and strife or of good will whether sincerely or of contention whether in pretence or in truth it is our own good or hurt we must answer for that and at our perill be it if we do not look to that But what is that to you Notwithstanding every way so long as it is Christ and his truth which are preached it is your part therein to rejoice If an Angel from Heaven should preach any untruth unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him be accursed but if the very Devil of hell should preach the truth he must be heard and believed and obeyed So long as Scribes and Pharisees hold them to Moses's Text and Doctrine let them be as damned Hypocrites as Scribes and Pharisees can be yet all whatsoever they bid you observe that you are to observe and do Let me then demand Did I deliver any untruth It had been well done then to have shewn it that I might have acknowledged and retracted it Did I speak nothing but the truth with what conscience then could any that heard me say as yet I heard some did that I preached factiously That I came to cast bones among them That I might have chosen a fitter Text That I might have had as much thanks to have kept away For Faction I hate it my desire and aim next after the good of your souls was above all the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Brethren For casting bones if that must needs be the phrase they were cast in these parts long before my coming by that great enemy to peace and unity and busie sower of discord the Devil otherwise I should not have found at my first coming such snarling about them and such biting and devouring one another as I did My endeavour was rather to have gathered up the bones and to have taken away the matter of difference I mean the errour in judgement about and inconformity in practice unto the lawfull Ceremonies of the Church that so if it had been possible all might hâ—ve been quiet without despising or judging one another for these things For thanks I hold not that worth the answering alas it is a poor aim for Gods Minister to preach for thanks For the choyce of my Text and Argument both then and now how is it not unequall that men who plead so as none more for liberty and plainness in reproving sin should not allow those that come amongst them that liberty and plainness against themselves and their own sins I dare appeale to your selves Have you never been taught that it is the Ministers duty as to oppose against all errors and sins in the general so to bend himself as neer as he can especially against the apparent errors and sins of his present auditory And do you not believe it is so Why then might I not nay how ought I not bend my speech both then against a common errour of sundry in these parts in point of Ceremony and now against the late petulancy or at least oversight of some mis-guided ones The noise of these things abroad and the scandall taken thereat by such as hear of them and the ill fruits of them at home in breeding jealousies and cherishing contentions among neighbours cannot but stir us up if we be sensible as every good member should be of the damage and loss the Church acquireth by them to put you in minde and to admonish you as opportunities invite us both privately and publickly Is it not time trow ye to thrust in the sickle when the fields look white unto the harvest Is it not time our Pulpits should a little eccho of these things when all the Countrey far and neer ringeth of them For my own part however others censure me I am sure my own heart telleth me I could not have discharged my Conscience if being called to this place I should have balked what either then or now I have delivered My Conscience prompting me all circumstances considered that these things were pro hîc nunc necessary to be delivered rather than any other if for any outward inferiour respect I should have passed them over with silence I think I should have much swerved from the Rule of my Text and have done a great evil that some small good might come of it But many thousand times better were it for me that all the world should censure me for speaking what they think I should not than that my own heart should condemn me for not speaking what it telleth me I should And thus much of things simply evil I should proceed to apply this Rule We must not do evil that good may come unto evils not simply but accidentally such and that both in the generall and also in some few specials of greatest use namely unto evils which become such through Conscience Scandall or Comparison In my choice of the Scripture I aimed at all this and had gathered much of my provision for it But the Cases being many and weighty I foresaw I could not go onward with my first project without much wronging one or both either the things themselves if I should
vernaculum a meer device such as was that of Iezebels instruments against Naboth which cost him his life and that of Zibah against Mephibosheth which had almost cost him all he had This first kind of Report is false as devoyd of Truth The second way which was so frequently used among the Roman Accusers that Custome had made it not onely excusable but allowable and is at this day of too frequent use both in private and publick calumniations is when upon some small ground of truth we run descant at pleasure in our own informations interweaving many untruths among or perverting the speeches actions of our adversaries to make their matters ill when they are not or otherwise aggravating them to make them seem worse than they are As tidings came to David when Amnon only was slain that Absalom had killed all the Kings sons It is an easie and a common thing by misconstruction to deprave whatsoever is most innocently done or spoken The Ammonitish Courtiers dealt so with David when he sent Ambassadors to Hanun in kindness they informed the King as if he had sent Spies to discover the strength of the City and Land And the Iews enemies dealt so with those that of devotion repaired the Temple the Wall of Ierusalem advertising the State as if their purpose had been to fortifie themselves for a Rebellion Yea and the malicious Iewes dealt so with Christ himself taking hold of some words of his about the destroying and building of the Temple which he understood of the temple of his body and so wresting them to the fabrick of the Materiall Temple as to make them serve to give colour to one of the strongest accusations they had against him This second kind of Report is false as devoid of Ingenuity The third way is when taking advantage of the Law we prosecute the extremity thereof against our brother who perhaps hath done something contrary to the letter of the Law but not violated the intent of the Lawgiver or offended either against common Equity which ought to be the measure of just Lawes or against the common good which is in some sort the measure of Equity In that multitude of Lawes which for the repressing of disorders and for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity among men must needs be in every well-governed Common-wealth it â—annot be avoided but that honest men especially if they have much dealings in the world may have sometimes just and necessary cause to do that which in regard of the thing done may bring them within the compasse of some Statute or branch of a statute yet such as circumstances duly considered no wise and indifferent man but would well approve of Now if in such câ—ses alwaies rigour should be used Lawes intended for the benefit should by such hard construction become the bane of humane society As Solomon saith Qui torquet nasum elicit sanguinem He that wringeth the nose too hard forceth blood Guilty this way are not onely those contentious spirits whereof there are too many in the world with whom there is no more adoe but a Word and an Action a Trespasse and a Processe But most of our common Informers withall Sycophâ—nts you may call them for that was their old name like Verres his blood-hounds in Tully that lye in the wind for game and if they can but trip any man upon any breach of a penall Statute there they fasten their teeth and tugge him into the Courts without helpe unlesse he will dare offam Cerbero for that is it they look for give them a sop and then they are charmed for that time Zacheus besides that he was a Publicane was it seemeth such a kind of Informer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word Luk. 19. If I have played the Sycophant with any man if I have wronged any man by forged cavillation or wrung any thing from him by false accusation A report of this third kind is false as devoid of equity But it may be thought I injure these men in making them raisers of false reports and am my selfe a false accuser of them whilst I seek to make them false accusers of others when as they dare appeale to the world they report not any thing but what is most true and what they shall be well able to prove so to be At once to answer them and clear my self know that in Gods estimation and to common intendment in the language of Scripture it is all one to speak an untruth and to speak a truth in undue time and place and manner and with undue circumstances One instance shall make all this most cleer Doeg the Edomite one of the servants of the house of Saul saw when David went into the house of Ahimelech the Priest and how Ahimelech there entertained him and what kindnesse he did for him of all which he afterwards gave Saul particular information in every point according to what he had seen Wherein though he spake no more than what was true and what he had seen with his own eyes yet because he did it with an intent to bring mischief upon Ahimelech who had done nothing but what well became an honest man to do David chargeth him with telling of lyes and telleth him he had a false tongue of his own for it Psal. 53. Thy tongue imagineth wickednesse and with lyes thou cuttest like a sharp rasour Thou hast loved unrighteousnesse more then goodnesse and to talk of lyes more then righteousnesse thou hast loved all words that may do hurt O thou false tongue Conclude hence he that telleth the truth where it may do hurt but especially if he tell it with that purpose and to that end that it may do hurt he hath a false tongue and he telleth a false lye and he must pardon us if we take him for no better than the raiser of a false report We see what it is to raise a false report let us now see what a fault it is The first Accuser that ever was in the world was a false Accuser and that was the Devil Who as he began betimes for he was a liar from the beginning so he began aloft for the first false report he raised was of the most High Unjustly accusing God himself unto our mother Eve in a few words of no fewer than three great crimes at once Falshood Tyranny and Envy He was then a slanderous accuser of his Maker and he hath continued ever since a malicious accuser of his Brethren Sathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he hath his name from it in most languages Slanderers and Backbiters and false Accusers may here hence learn to take knowledge of the rock whence they were hewn here they may behold the top of their pedigree We may not deny them the ancienty of their descent though they have small cause to boast of it semen
serpentis the spawn of the old Serpent children of their father the Devil And they do not shame the store they come of for the works of their Father they readily do That Hellish Aphorisme they so faithfully practise is one of his Principles it was he first instilled it into them Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Smite with the tongue and be sure to smite home and then be sure either the grief or the blemish of the stroke will stick by it A Devillish practise hateful both to God and Man And that most justly whether we consider the sin or the injury or the mischief of it the Sin in the Doer the Injury to the Sufferer the Mischief to the Common-wealth Every false report raised in judgement besides that it is a lye and every lye is a sin against the truth slaying the soul of him that maketh it and excluding him from heaven and binding him over unto the second death it is also a pernicious lye and that is the worst sort of lyes and so a sin both against Charity and Iustice. Which who so committeth let him never look to dwell in the Tabernacle of God or to rest upon his holy Mountain GOD having threatned Ps. 50. to take speciall knowledge of this sin though he seem for a time to dissemble it yet at lest to reprove the bold offender to his face Thou satest and spakest against thy brother yea and hast slandered thine own mothers son These things hast thou done and I held my tongue thou thoughtest wickedly that I was even such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set before thee the things that thou hast done And as for the Injury done hereby to the grieved party it is incomparable If a man have his house broken or his purse taken from him by the high way or sustain any wrong or losse in his person goods or state otherwise by fraud or violence or casualty he may possibly either by good fortune hear of his own again and recover it or he may have restitution and satisfaction made him by those that wronged him or by his good industry and providence he may live to see that losse repaired and be in as good state as before But he that hath his Name and Credite and Reputation causlesly called into question sustaineth a losse by so much greater then any theft by how much a good name is better than great riches A man may out-weare other injuries or out-live them but a defamed person no acquittall from the Iudge no satisfaction from the Accuser no following endeavours in himself can so restore in integrum but that when the wound is healed he shall yet carry the markes and the scarres of it to his dying day Great also are the mischiefs that hence redound to the common-wealth When no innocency can protect an honest quiet man but every busie base fellow that oweth him a spite shall be able to fetch him into the Courts draw him from the necessary charge of his family and duties of his calling to an unnecessary expence of money and time torture him with endlesse delayes and expose him to the pillage of every hungry Officer It is one of the grievances God had against Jerusalem and as he calleth them abominations for which he threatneth to judge her Ezek. 22. Viri detractores in te In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood Beware then all you whose businesse or lot it is at this Assises or hereafter may be to be Plaintiffs Accusers Informers or any way Parties in any Court of Justice this or other Civil or Ecclesiasticall that you suffer not the guilt of this prohibition to cleave unto your Consciences If you shall hereafter be raisers of false reports the words you have heard this day shall make you inexcusable another You are by what hath been presently spoken disabled everlastingly from pleading any Ignorance either Facti or Iuris as having been instructed both what it is and how great a fault it is to raise a false report Resolve therefore if you be free never to enter into any action or suite wherein you cannot proceed with comfort nor come off without injustice or if already engaged to make as good and speedy an end as you can of a bad matter and to desist from farther prosecution Let that golden rule commended by the wisest heathens as a fundamentall Principle of morall and civill Iustice yea and proposed by our blessed Saviour himself as a full abridgement of the Law and Prophets be ever in your eye and ever before your thoughts to measure out all your actions and accusations and proceedings thereby even to do so to other men and no otherwise then as you could be content or in right reason should be content they should do to you and yours if their case were yours Could any of you take it well at your neighbours hand should he seek your life or livelyhood by suggesting against you things which you never had so much as the thought to do or bring you into a peck of troubles by wresting your words and actions wherein you meant nothing but well to a dangerous construction or follow the Law upon you as if he would not leave you worth a groate for every petty trespasse scarce worth half the money or fetch you over the hippe upon a branch of some blind uncouth and pretermitted Statute He that should deal thus with you and yours I know what would be said and thought Griper Knave Villain Divel incarnate all this and much more would be too little for him Well I say no more but this Quod tibi fieri non vis c. Doe as you would be done to There is your generall Rule But for more particular direction if any man desire it since in every evil one good step to soundnesse is to have discovered the right cause thereof I know not what better course to prescribe for the preventing of this sinne of sycophancy and false accusation then for every man carefully to avoid the inducing causes thereof and the occasions of those causes There are God knoweth in this present wicked world to every kind of evil inducements but too too many To this of false accusation therefore it is not unlikely but there may be more yet we may observe that there are four things which are the most ordinary and frequent causes thereof viz. Malice Obsequiousnesse Coverture and Covetousnesse The first is Malice Which in some men if I may be allowed to call them men being indeed rather Monsters is universall They love no body glad when they can do any man any mischief in any matter never at so good quiet as when they are most unquiet It seemeth David met with some such men that were enemies to peace when he spake to them of peace they made themselves ready to battell Take one of these men it is meat and drink
not see and more inexcusable because thou shuttest thine eyes against the light lest thou shouldst see and be converted and God should heal thee Briefly they wanted the light thou shunnest it they lived in darkness thou delightest in it their ignorance was simple thine affected and wilful And therefore although we doubt not but that the times of their ignorance God winked at yet thou hast no warrant to presume that God will also in these times wink at thee who rejectest the counsel of God against thine own soul and for want of love and affection to the truth art justly given over to strong delusions to believe fables and to put thy confidence in things that are lies So much for that matter Secondly here is a needful admonition for us all not to flatter our selves for our ignorance of those things that concern us in our general or particular Callings as if for that ignorance our reckoning should be easier at the day of judgement Ignorance indeed excuseth sometimes sometimes lesseneth a fault but yet not all ignorance all faults not wilful and affected ignorance any fault Nay it is so far from doing that that on the contrary it maketh the offence much more grievous and the offender much more inexcusable A heedless servant that neither knoweth nor doth his Masters will deserveth some stripes A stubborn servant that knoweth it and yet transgresseth it deserveth more stripes But worse than them both is that ungracious servant who fearing his Master will appoint him something he had rather let alone keepeth himself out of the way beforehand and michâ—th in a corner out of sight of purpose that he might not know his Masters will that so he may after stand upon it when he is chidden and say He knew it not such an untoward servant deserveth yet more stripes Would the Spirit of God think you in the Scripture so often cal upon us to get the knowledge of Gods will and to increase therein or would he commence his suit against a land and enter his action against the people thereof for want of such knowledge if ignorance were better or safer O it is a fearful thing for a man to shun instruction and to say he desireth not the knowledge of God Nâ—â—uerunt intelligere ut bene agerent When men are once come to that pass that they will not understand nor seek after God when they hate the light because they take pleasure in the works of darkness when they are afraid to know too much lest their hearts should condemn them for not doing thereafter when like the deaf Adder they stop their ears against the voyce of the charmer for fear they should be charmed by the power of that voyce out of their crooked and Serpentine courses when they are so resolved to take freedom to sin that they chuse to be still Ignorant rather than hazard the foregoing of any part of that freedom what do they but even run on blindfold into hell and through inner poast along unto utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Frustrà sibi de ignorantiâ blandiuntur saith S. Bernard qui ut liberiùs peccent libenter ignorant Saint Paul so speaketh of such men as if their case were desperate If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant as who say if he will needs be wilful at his peril be it But as many as desire to walk in the fear of God with upright and sincere hearts let them thirst after the knowledge of God and his will as the Hart after the rivers of waters let them cry after knowledge and lift up their voices for understanding let them seek it as silver and dig for it as for hid treasures let their feet tread often in Gods Courts and even wear the thresholds of his house let them delight in his holy Ordinances and rejoyce in the light of his Word depending upon the ministery thereof with unsatisfied ears and unwearted attention and feeding thereon with uncloyed appetites that so they may see and hear and learn and understand and believe and obey and increase in wisedom and in grace and in favour with God and all good men But then in the third place consider that if all ignorance will not excuse an offender though some do how canst thou hope to finde any colour of excuse or extenuation that sinnest wilfully with knowledge and against the light of thine own conscience The least sin thus committed is in some degree a Presumptuous sin and carryeth with it a contempt of God and in that regard is greater than any sin of Ignorance To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is a sin saith Saint Iames Sin beyond all plea of excuse Saint Paul though he were a Persecutor of the Truth a Blasphemer of the Lord and injurious to the Brethren yet he obtained Mercy because he did all that ignorantly His bare ignorance was not enough to justifie him but he stood need of Gods mercy or else he had perished in those sins for all his ignorance But yet who can tell whether ever he should have found that mercy if he had done the same things and not in ignorance Ignorance then though it do not deserve pardon yet it often findeth it because it is not joyned with open contempt of him that is able to pardon But he that sinneth against knowledge doth Ponere obicem if you will allow the phrase and it may be allowed in this sense he doth not only provoke the Iustice of God by his sin as every other sinner doth but he doth also damb up the Mercy of God by his contempt and doth his part to shut himself out for ever from all possibility of pardon unless the boundless over-flowing mercy of God come in upon him with a strong tide and with an unresisted current break it self a passage through Do this then my beloved Brethren Labour to get knowledge labour to increase your knowledge labour to abound in knowledge but beware you rest not in your knowledge Rather give all diligence to adde to your knowledge Temperance and Patience and Godliness and brotherly kindeness and Charity and other good graces Without these your knowledge is unprofitable nay damnable Qui apponit scientiam apponit dolorem is true in this sense also He that increaseth knowledge unless his care of obedience rise in some good proportion with it doth but lay more rods in steep for his own back and increase the number of his stripes and adde to the weight and measure of his own most just condemnation Know this that although Integrity of heart may stand with some ignorances as Abimelech here pleadeth it and God alloweth it yet that mans heart is devoid of all singlenesse and sincerity who alloweth himself in any course he knoweth to be sinful or taketh this liberty to