conscience it self dares not expect it SERMON XX. Part II. WE have already opened this dunghill cover'd with snow which was indeed on the outside white as the spots of leprosie but it was no better and if the very colours and instruments of deception if the fucus and ceruse be so spotted and sullyed what can we suppose to be under the wrinkled skin what in the corrupted liver and in the sinks of the body of sin That we are next to consider But if we open the body and see what a confusion of all its parts what a rebellion and tumult of the humors what a disorder of the members what a monstrosity or deformity is all over we shall be infinitely convinced that no man can choose a sin but upon the same ground on which he may choose a feaver or long for madnesse or the gout Sin in its naturall efficiency hath in it so many evils as must needs afright a man and scare the confidence of every one that can consider * When our blessed Saviour shall conduct his Church to the mountains of glory he shall present it to God without spot or wrinkle that is pure and vigorous intirely freed from the power and the infection of sin Upon occasion of which expression it hath been spoken that sin leaves in the soul a stain or spot permanent upon the spirit discomposing the order of its beauty and making it appear to God in sordibus in such filthinesse that he who is of pure eyes cannot behold But roncerning the nature or proper effects of this spot or stain they have not been agreed Some call it an obligation or a guilt of punishment so Scotus Some fancy it to be an elongation from God by a dissimilitude of conditions so Peter Lombard Alexander of Ales sayes it is a privation of the proper beauty and splendor of the soul with which God adorn'd it in the creation and superaddition of grace and upon this expression they most agree but seem not to understand what they mean by it and it signifies no more but as you describing sicknesse call it a want of health and folly a want of wisdome which is indeed to say what a thing is not but not to tell what it is But that I may not be hindred by this consideration we may observe that the spots and stains of sin are metaphoricall significations of the disorder and evill consequents of sin which it leaves partly upon the soul partly upon the state and condition of a man as meeknesse is called an ornament and faith a shield and salvation a helmet and sin it self a wrinkle corruption rottennesse a burden a wound death filthinesse so it is a 3 defiling of a man that is as the body contracts nastinesse and dishonour by impure contacts and adherencies so does the soul receive such a change as must be taken away before it can enter into the eternall regions and house of purity But it is not a distinct thing not an inherent quality which can be separated from other evill effects of sin which I shall now reckon by their more proper names and St. Paul comprises under the scornfull appellative of shame 1. The first naturall fruit of sin is ignorance Man was first tempted by the promise of knowledge he fell into darknesse by beleeving the Devill holding forth to him a new light It was not likely good should come of so foul a beginning that the woman should beleeve the Devill putting on no brighter shape then a snakes skin she neither being afraid of sin nor afrighted to hear a beast speak and he pretending so weakly in the temptation that he promised only that they should know evill for they knew good before and all that was offered to them was the experience of evill and it was no wonder that the Devill promised no more for sin never could perform any thing but an experience of evill no other knowledge can come upon that account but the wonder was why the woman should sin for no other reward but for that which she ought to have fear'd infinitely for nothing could have continued her happinesse but not to have known evill Now this knowledge was the introduction of ignorance For when the understanding suffered it self to be so baffled as to study evill the will was as foolish to fall in love with it and they conspir'd to undoe each other For when the will began to love it then the understanding was set on work to commend to advance to conduct and to approve to beleeve it and to be factious in behalf of the new purchase I do not beleeve the understanding part of man received any naturall decrement or diminution For if to the Devils their naturals remain intire it is not likely that the lesser sin of man should suffer a more violent and effective mischief Neither can it be understood how the reasonable soul being immortall both in it self and its essentiall faculties can lose or be lessened in them any more then it can die But it received impediment by new propositions It lost and willingly forgot what God had taught and went away from the fountain of truth and gave trust to the father of lies and it must without remedy grow foolish and so a man came to know evill just as a man is said to taste of death for in proper speaking as death is not to be felt because it takes away all sense so nether can evill be known because whatsoever is truly cognoscible is good and true and therefore all the knowledge a man gets by sin is to feel evill he knowes it not by discourse but by sense not by proposition but by smart The Devill doing to man as Esculapius did to Neoclides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave him a formidable collyrium to torment him more the effect of which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devill himself grew more quick-sighted to abuse us but we became more blinde by that opening of our eyes I shall not need to discourse of the Philosophy of this mischief and by the connexion of what causes ignorance doth follow sin but it is certain whether a man would fain be pleased with sin or be quiet or fearlesse when he hath sinned or continue in it or perswade others to it he must do it by false propositions by lyings and such weak discourses as none can beleeve but such as are born fools or such as have made themselves so or are made so by others Who in the world is a verier fool a more ignorant wretched person then he that is an Atheist A man may better beleeve there is no such man as himself and that he is not in being then that there is no God for himself can cease to be and once was not and shall be changed from what he is and in very many periods of his life knowes not that he is and so it is every night with him when he sleeps but none of these can
great verification of any new revelation and therefore it proceeding from an Almighty God must needs be the testimony of a Divine truth and if it could have been brought for a lye there could not then have been sufficient instruction given to mankind to prevent their beleef of false Prophets and lying doctrines But when Christ proved his doctrine by miracles that no enemy of his did ever doe so great before or after him then he also told that after him his friends should doe greater and his enemies should do some but they were fewer and very inconsiderable and therefore could have in them no unavoydable cause of deception because they were discovered by a Prophesie and caution was given against them by him that did greater miracles and yet ought to have been beleeved if he had done but one because against him there had been no caution but many prophesies creating such expectations concerning him which he verified by his great works So that in this sense of working miracles though it was infinitely true that the blind man said then when he said it yet after that the case was alter'd and Sinners Magicians Astrologers Witches Hereticks Simoniacks and wicked persons of other instances have done miracles and God hath heard sinners and wrought his own works by their hands or suffered the Devill to doe his works under their pretences and many at the day of Judgment shall plead that they have done miracles in Christs name and yet they shall be rejected Christ knows them not and their portion shall bee with dogs and goats and unbeleevers There is in this case onely this difference that they who doe miracles in opposition to Christ doe them by the power of the Devill to whom it is permitted to doe such things which wee think miracles and that is all one as though they were but the danger of them is none at all but to them that will not beleeve him that did greater miracles and prophesied of these lesse and gave warning of their attending danger and was confirmed to be a true teacher by voices from heaven and by the resurrection of his body after a three days buriall So that to these the proposition still remains true God hears not sinners God does not work those miracles but concerning sinning Christians God in this sense and towards the purposes of miracles does hear them and hath wrought miracles by them for they doe them in the name of Christ and therefore Christ said cannot easily speak ill of him and although they either prevaricate in their lives or in superinduced doctrines yet because the miracles are a verification of the Religion not of the opinion of the power or truth of Christ not of the veracity of the man God hath heard such persons many times whom men have long since and to this day call Hereticks such were the Novatians and Arrians For to the Heathens they could onely prove their Religion by which they stood distinguished from them but we find not that they wrought miracles among the Christians or to verifie their superstructures and private opinions But besides this yet we may also by such means arrest the forwardnesse of our judgments and condemnations of persons disagreeing in their opinions from us for those persons whose faith God confirmed by miracles was an intire faith and although they might have false opinions or mistaken explications of true opinions either inartificiall or misunderstood yet we have reason to beleeve their faith to be intire for that which God would have the Heathen to beleeve and to that purpose prov'd it by a miracle himselfe intended to accept first to a holy life and then to glory The false opinion should burn and themselves escape One thing more is here very considerable that in this very instance of working miracles God was so very carefull not to hear sinners or permit sinners till he had prevented all dangers to good and innocent persons that the case of Christ and his Apostles working miracles was so clearly separated and remarked by the finger of God and distinguished from the impostures and pretences of all the many Antichrists that appeared in Palestine Cyprus Crete Syria and the voicinage that there were but very few Christians that with hearty perswasions fell away from Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Galen It is not easie to teach anew him that hath been taught by Christ And St. Austin tels a story of an unbeleeving man that being troubled that his wife was a Christian went to the Oracle to aske by what means hee should alter her perswasion but he was answered it could never be done he might as well imprint characters upon the face of a torrent or a rapid river or himself fly in the air as alter the perswasion of a hearty and an honest Christian I would to God it were so now in all instances and that it were so hard to draw men from the severities of a holy life as of old they could be cousened disputed or forced out of their faith Some men are vexed with hypocrisie and then their hypocrisie was punished with infidelity and a wretchlesse spirit Demas and Simon Magus and Ecebolius and the lapsed Confessors are instances of humane craft or humane weaknesse but they are scarce a number that are remarked in Ancient story to have fallen from Christianity by direct persuasions or the efficacy of abusing arguments and discourses The reason of it is the truth in the text God did so avoyd hearing sinners in this affair that he never permitted them to doe any miracles so as to doe any mischief to the souls of good men and therefore it is said the enemies of Christ came in the power of signes and wonders able to deceive if it were possible even the very elect but that was not possible without their faults it could not be the elect were sufficiently strengthened and the evidence of Christs being heard of God and that none of his enemies were heard of God to any dangerous effect was so great that if any Christian had apostatized or fallen away by direct perswasion it was like the sin of a falling Angell of so direct a malice that he never could repent and God never would pardon him as St. Paul twice remarks in his Epistle to the Hebrews The result of this discourse is the first sense and explication of the words God heareth not sinners viz. in that in which they are sinners a sinner in his manners may be heard in his prayer in order to the confirmation of his faith but if he be a sinner in his faith God hears him not at all in that wherein he sins for God is truth and cannot confirm a lye and when ever he permitted the Devill to doe it he secur'd the interest of his Elect that is of all that beleeve in him and love him lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting 2. That which yet concerns us more neerly is that God heareth not sinners that
it that flew Abimelech and endanger'd David it was a sword in manu linguae Doeg in the hand of Doegs tongue By this Siba cut off the legs of Mephibosheth and made his reputation lame for ever it thrust Jeremy into the dungeon and carryed Susanna to her stake and our Lord to his Crosse and therefore against the dangers of a slandering tongue all laws have so cautelously arm'd themselves that besides the severest prohibitions of God often recorded in both Testaments God hath chosen it to be one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them a party for those whose innocency and defencelesse state makes them most apt to be undone by this evill spirit I mean pupils and widows the poore and the oppressed And in pursuance of this charity the Imperiall laws have invented a juramentum de calumniâ on oath to be exhibited to the Actor or Plaintiff that he beleevs himself to have a just cause and that he does not implead his adversary calumniandi animo with false instances and indefencible allegations and the Defendant is to swear that he thinks himselfe to use onely just defences and perfect instances of resisting and both of them obliged themselves that they would exact no proofe but what was necessary to the truth of the Cause And all this defence was nothing but necessary guards For a spear and a sword and an arrow is a man that speaketh false witnesse against his neighbour And therefore the laws of God added yet another bar against this evill and the false Accuser was to suffer the punishment of the objected crime and as if this were not sufficient God hath in severall ages wrought miracles and raised the dead to life that by such strange appearances they might relieve the oppressed Innocent and load the false accusing Tongue with shame and horrible confusion So it happen'd in the case of Susanna the spirit of a manwas put into the heart of a childe to acquit the vertuous woman and so it was in the case of Gregory Bishop of Agrigentum falsely accused by Sabinus and Crescentius Gods power cast the Devill out of Eudocia the Devill or spirit of Slander and compelled her to speak the truth St. Austin in his book De curâ pro mortuis tels of a dead Father that appeared to his oppressed Son and in a great matter of Law delivered him from the teeth of false accusation So was the Church of Monts rescued by the appearance of Aia the deceased wife of Hidulphus their Earle as appears in the Hanovian story and the Polonian Chronicles tell the like of Stanislaus Bishop of Cracovia almost oppressed by the anger and calumny of Boleslaus their King God relieved him by the testimony of St. Peter their Bishop or a Phantasme like him But whether these records may be credited or no I contend not yet it is very materiall which Eusebius relates of the three false witnesses accusing Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem of an infamous crime which they did affirming it under severall curses the first wishing that if he said false God would destroy him with fire the second that he might die of the Kingsevil the third that he might be blind and so it came to passe the first being surprised with fire in his owne roofe amaz'd and intricated confounded and despairing paid the price of his slander with the pains of most fearfull flames and the second perished by pieces and Chirurgeons and torment which when the third saw he repented of his fault cryed mightily for pardon but wept so bitterly and found at the same time the reward of his calumny and the acceptation of his repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Cleanthes nothing is more operative of spitefull and malicious purposes then the calumniating Tongue In the Temple at Smyrna there were Looking-glasses which represented the best face as crooked ugly and deformed the Greeks call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so is every false tongue it lies in the face of heaven and abuses the ears of justice it oppresses the Innocent and is secretly revenged of vertue it defeats all the charity of laws and arms the supreme power and makes it strike the Innocent it makes frequent appeals to be made to heaven and causes an oath in stead of being the end of strife to be the beginning of mischief it calls the name and testimony of God to seale an injury it feeds and nourishes cruell anger but mocks justice and makes mercy weep her selfe into pity and mourne because she cannot help the Innocent 5. The last instance of this evill I shall now represent is Cursing concerning which I have this onely to say that although the causelesse curse shall return upon the tongue that spake it yet because very often there is a fault on both sides when there is reviling or cursing on either the danger of a cursing tongue is highly to be declined as the biting of a mad dog or the tongue of a smitten serpent For as envy is in the evill eye so is cursing in the reproachfull tongue it is a kinde of venome and witchcraft an instrument by which God oftentimes punishes anger and uncharitablenesse and by which the Devill gets power over the bodies and interests of men For he that works by Thessalic ceremonies by charmes and non-sense words by figures and insignificant characterismes by images and by rags by circles and imperfect noyses hath more advantage and reall title to the opportunities of mischief by the cursing tongue and though God is infinitely more ready to doe acts of kindnesse then of punishment yet God is not so carelesse a regarder of the violent and passionate wishes of men but he gives some over to punishment and chastises the follies of rage and the madnesse of the tongue by suffering it to passe into a further mischief then the harsh sound and horrible accents of the evill language By the tongue we blesse God and curse men saith St. James 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reproaching is cursing and both of them opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blessing and there are many times and seasons in which both of them passe into reall effect These are the particulars of the second 3. I am now to instance in the third sort of filthy communication that in which the Devill does the most mischief by which he undoes souls by which he is worse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Accuser For though he accuses maliciously and instances spitefully and heaps objections diligently and aggravates bitterly and with all his powers endeavors to represent the separate souls to God as polluted and unfit to come into his presence yet this malice is ineffective because the scenes are acted before the wise Judge of Men and Angels who cannot be abused before our Father and our Lord who knows whereof we be made and remembreth that we are but dust before our Saviour and our elder Brother who hath felt our infirmities and knows kow