Courtship Swaggering Gallantry Qâ—arrelling Manhood Ribaldry Urbanity Fallit enim vitium sptcie virtutis umbra Juven Drunkenness Good-fellowship c. That as Physicians gild over their Pills to cover the bitterness of the Ingredients so do these gild over their Sins and so they are more easily swallowed down But though the Physician hath put upon many Diseases specious Names and calls a Plague-Sore a Carbuncle and the white filme which taketh away the sight of the Eye a Pearle Yet who can be brought saith a late learned Doctor by such slender Dr. Spurflow in his Meditations Artifices into Opinion That a Carbuncle is less loathsome or mortal then another swelling which hath not so gay a name or that that blindness which is caused by the Pearle in the Eye is more comfortable then the loss of sight by any other accident There is a sad Woe pronounced to both of these Woe to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that put Esay 5. 20. Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Sweet for Bitter and Bitter for Sweet CHAP. VI. Excuses taken from certain Doctrines and Scriptures misunderstood and Observations ill applyed THere are others yet behind and too Doctrines misapplyed many that think themselves safe and excusable by many Doctrines and Scriptures misunderstood and misapplying sundry Observations they have made As first That great and mysterious 1. That of Election Doctrine of Election and Reprobation which is indeed of that altitude and depth that as those waters in the Sanctuary there is no wading through or passing over them without that Reason-silencing and abrupt admiration of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the amazing Depth and riches of the Rom. 11. 33. Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out yet how do many argue from this Doctrine If I am elected I am safe though I do nothing Election will take his effect and I shall obtain On the other side if reprobated all endeavours are of no effect for God's Decrees cannot be frustrated I shall unavoidably perish But I Answer Who taught thus to reason Thy business is not to pry into God's secret will but attend his revealed and thy own duty Secret things belong to God things revealed to us Deut. 29. 29. And first For Election know there is no such absolute Election as to be exclusive of the means but doth include and imply all the Cum predestinatio ad finem includit media non potest hunc sperare qui negligit ista Prideaux wayes and means preparing for glory as effectual Calling Faith Repentance holy Obedience See Ephes 1. 4. God hath chosen us before the Foundation of the World that we should be holy and without blame before him in Love So 2 Thess 2. 13. God hath chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth As there is no such absolute Promise of Harvest and Fruitfulness exclusive of man's industry and endeavours in ploughing and sowing but the means are included in subordination to the end 2. And as for Reprobation not to wade Deus ordinans ad paenas propter peccata non est magis injustus quam cum paenas infligit propter peccata Paraeus into the Controversie It will be acknowledged to be as just in God to decree to punish men for Sin as to inflict the punishment when the Sin is committed As it is the same justice in the Magistrate to Enact such a Penalty for such an Offence as to execute it after the Offence committed God punisheth none but for Sin nor doth decree to punish any but such in whom he findeth Sin unrepented of 2. As for thy Reprobation look not into this Abyss neither cast thy self from this Pinacle But study thy duty which is to work out thy Salvation with fear and trembling 3. Be assured no man can know himself or any other to be a Reprobate though some may have assurance of their Election Because 1. God can call and change the heart of the most wicked man at the last hour 2. All God's Elect were sometimes Children of wrath as well as others Ephes 2. 3. 3. And some of God's own Children have fallen sometimes into most foul sins and sometimes layen long in sin 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. Tit. 3. 3. 4. Therefore it is not God's secret Decree thou shouldst so much fear and startle at as thy own Sin and Disobedience which is that which prepares the Vessels of wrath to their destruction As Rehoboam had no reason 1 Kings 12. 13. to say There is a fatall Decree that my Kingdom shall be rent from me therefore all is one what course I take or whose counsel I follow but he should have hearkened to the Counsel of those ancient men and trusted God with his Crown Nor could Zedekiah say There is a fatall Doom on Jerusalem that it shall be sacked and burnt to ashes But he should have hearkened to Jeremy who besought him to Jer. 38. 20 23. yield to the Caldean assuring him then all should be safe Otherwise saith he not God's Decree or Sentence denounced but thou will set Jerusalem on fire A second Doctrine abused is That all Doct. 2. That all are Sinners are Sinners and there is none Righteous no not one Both branches are true the first is affirmed 1 John 1. 8. The other Rom. 3. 10. But what then therefore sayst thou I may do well enough though a vile Sinner and be saved though not so righteous and religious as some seem to be But mark there is a great difference between Sin and Sin All indeed are guilty of Original Sin and all of years of Actual But all are not Sinners alike some are obstinate wilful presumptuous desperate Sinners that make a mock of Sin a trade of Sin Prov. 14. 9. Prov. 4. 17. It is their Meat and Drink Others are humbled trembling penitent mourning reforming believing self-abhorring Sinners who watch pray resist Sin shun the occasions of it What is this to thee who goest on in sin Their's are Gnats thine Camels Their 's Moats thine Beams There are certain Sins one may call them the spots of God's people and have not excluded them Salvation As first 1. It is not sin remaining in the Regenerate but sin reigning in the Unregenerate that damns else what had become of Paul Rom. 7. 18. 2. Not sin loathed but loved what else had become of the Publican Luke 18. 3. Not sin bewailed but cherished what had else become of Peter 4. Not sin faln into but continued in what had else become of David 5. Not sin resisted as Joseph but pursued and persisted in as Ahab and Jeroboam 6. Not of Ignorance but Presumption else what had become of Noah 7. Not against Resolution as Peters but resolved on as Judas's 8. Not out of infirmity and fear as Abrahams but of design and premeditated
indeed and I might have known where to begin but not where to end I have here gathered and set a many Stocks which a more skilful Hortulane would have set in a better and more comely Order and likely have graffed better fruit upon more pleasant to the Eye and Tast of the Reader by a more substantial handling a more smooth pithy and taking stile and a more gracious and spiritual strain of Spirit But I must say I write not to Scholars â—r quaint Citizens the Stile is as the Author Subrustick and Inurbane I write not to you Fathers and able Learned ones whose Unction and Abilities teach you in a much higher way I only say I write to you Children you weaker ones who look not for the strong meat of strong Lines and high Language but best relish the plain and uncompounded milk of the word Indeed Ornari res Sancta negat contenta doceri And without dissembling think that Title best becomes it which Reverend Perkins prefixed to one of his which he Inscribed To all Ignorant people which desire to be instructed And now it is gone out of my Hand say to it as once a Wit said to his Vade sed Incultus yet do I read that Samson once did great Execution with the Jaw-bone of an Ass and never was there a more unlikely Battle-Ax used and Gideon again with his Earthen Pitchers never such weak Ordinance employed and David with a Sling-stone never more contemptible Arrow shot But it was in the Name of the Lord that he went out And who knows what a day of small things may produce The Lord saveth not by Sword or Spear not by Might or Power Zech. 4. 6. not by Learning and Eloquence but he can make the feeble to be as David Zech. 12. 8. and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 1. 28. the base and contemptible things and those which are not just nothing accounted to bring down the things which are That no part of the glory may fall to the Instrument but the whole redound to the praise of the glory of his Grace who worketh all things according to the Councel of his own Will But to the matter it self Excuses are the Subject of this Discourse which I can look upon as no other then Satans Master-piece and can call them by no fitter Name then that Common Black Art wherein he doth instruct the most of the sons of men and by this he doth inveigle more and hold them almost as fast as he doth those whom he hath trained up to the study and practice of that which is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Black Art The Fox and Serpent have advantaged Satans Interest more with his Neq aquam moriemini and his Eritis sicut Dii ye shall not Die at at all but shall be as Gods than to appear a Lyon and Dragon in his own colours saying Cast thy self down head-long or fall down and worship and make a fâ—rmal Compact with me We find by Experience that our English Flocks the Glory and Wealth of our Land are more prejudiced by the subtle Foxes lurking in their Dens than by the more savage Wolves which our prudent Forefathers have happily rid the Land of And our spiritual Pastors find more prejudice done to the Souls of men our Spiritual Flocks otherwise the glory of the Christian Name by these lurking Excuses than by those ravenous Wolves of Rome Jesuites and Seminaries whom our pious Princes have formerly chased out of the Land by their just Interdicts These are the great Abaddon and Apollyon the Destroyers of Souls the Mice that near the Land 1 Sam. 6. 5. The Samsons destroyers of our Countrey that lay Heaps upon Heaps not of Philistins but Israelites The opprobria Theologorum By these is the Ministry of Gods faithful Servants baffled and rendred unsuccessful not by open contradiction but by a tacit reserve and resolvedness aforehand how far they will go no further Excuses they are Satans Off-spring Sins great Grandmother that came in with the Fall begotten between Sin and Guilt Sin the Father Guilt the Mother God created Man upright it is said but Man faln sought out many Inventions among which Excuses to cloke and cover Sin were the first and are the chiefest An Epidemical Evil and as General almost as Original Sin and â—ath as that Universal Deluge in Noah's time overspread the face of the whole Earth They are the old Primitive Language learnt of Satan in Paradise and though other Languages have been lost or so confounded that we hardly know what remains of them this remains entire and may be called the Universal Character of the World and the Mother Language of all Nations who as soon as born and learn to go and speak learn to go astray and speak Lies An Evil so much the more to be lamented because Hereditary Connatural born with us No Nation so barbarous Religion so gross Worship so impious Superstition so fond Manners so brutish Opinion so irrational but hath borrowed somwhat from Excuses to defend them No Age Sex Nation Condition sort and rank of men without them The youngest Child hath learned one and the elder Father more none so simple and ignorant as to be destitute of one and the more knowing and cunning the more the pity the more store Take any man without Excuses and you may say Rara avis that you have seen a strange Sight Peganisme and Idolatry had never been known in the World nor had continued had it not been for them Popery had never stood so long had it not been underpropt by them No Wars Murder Rapine Adulteries Witchcrafts False Wiâ—â—ess Perjury Cheating Lying Equivocation Pride Revenge firing Towns and Cities Blowing up of Parliaments Assassination of Princes Butchering and Massacring of People had ever been in the World had it not been for this great Mother of Abominations No Heresie Schisme Doctrine of Devils Corruption of Worship had ever troubled the Church No Sedition Treason Rebellion Conspiracies Factions Innovations Oppressions Tumults had ever troubled the State had it not been for these the setters on or Abetters No such persecutions opposition and slighting of faithful Ministers and sound Doctrine no such scorn cast upon wayes of Godliness where the Gospel is professed no such backwardness as repent reform believe and obey and become true practisers of Godliness in the power but for them Nothing but Piety Charity Peace Love Concord Friendship Faithfulness Truth Sincerity in the World were it not for them Take away these and you take away all that is hurtful rid the World of them and what a World should we see weed these out of the Church and it becomes a Paradise a Garden or Well inclosed Yea take these from a man and you restore him to his Integrity and you have a real terrene Saint Take a view a little and consider what is the great Propugnaculum or Bulwark under which all Evil shelters it self against the weapons of
I. The Common Sin of Excuses OUr first Parents having eaten the sowr Grape their own and their Childrens Teeth have been set on edge still hankering after forbidden Fruit. And as if Sin and Excuses were Twins as Esau and Jacob holding each other by the heel we still run after the Taste of the Tree of Evil to the Fig-tree to borrow some Leaves to make an Apron and think if we get into the Thicket of Excuses and can say All hid that we may say All 's well not remembring the Voice we shall hear in the Cool of the Day the Evening of our Life Adam where art thou This is a great and fore Evil which hath tainted our Nature and is the remain of that first poyson wherewith the old Serpent in Paradise infected our first parents Excuses have first shut us out of Paradise and now obstruct our way to Heaven The great Supplanter then took away our Birthright now our Blessing Excuses obstruct our way to Heaven being still a Block or Bar in our way thither Whensoever God calls to a Duty Excuses are a Block to hinder Obedience that we cannot go forward When God calls again from Sin Excuses are a Bar to hinder Repentance that we cannot go backward But all the way to Hell is thick strew'd with Excuses and under covert of them most deluded Souls as Ahab in his Disguises once run confidently and fearlesly upon their certain and unavoidable ruine Our Blâ—ssed Saviour in that Parabolical Scheme Luke 14. 16 17 18 19. doth as in a Map set down how all the Race of Mankind is tainted with this Evil. A certain man made a great Supper and bade many and sent his Servants at Supper-time to â—â—y to them that were bidden Come for all things are now ready But they all with one consent began to make Excuses The first said I have bought a piece of Ground and must needs go see it I pray thee have me excused Another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused And another said I have married a Wife therefore I cannot come I pray thee have me excused and I pray thee have me excused is the answer of them all in effect In which Scripture you may as in a Map see on the one side the kindness of God to Man on the other Mans unkindness to God and to himself In the one Gods rich Grace displaied in the other Mans vile Ingratitude described Gods care of Mans Salvation Mans carelesness What could God do more to make them happy He provides invites waits sends out again What could they do more to make themselves unhappy They put off all by evasions and shifts and subterfuges St. Matthew Mat. 22. 5. hath it They made light of it Here you may see the nature of that sin we are about to discourse of Excuses 2. The universality of this sin They all with one consent began to make Excuses as if they had laid their Heads together and resolved there would none of them go 3. The particularity yea singularity of this sin not a man of them to seek of his Excuse The first had his Excuse the second his the third a third So many men so many Excuses It is the sin of all it is the sin of every one whence this shall be our Observation upon which this Discourse shall run viz. It is the General sin of the World and of those in the Church too All and every Mans sin to slight and reject the Grace of God and to endanger their own Eternal Salvation by a company of fair and specious in shew but indeed slight vain and frivolous Excuses It is the sin of the World Wo to the World because of Excuses It is the sin of the Church Wo to the Church and to many that are called to partake of rich Gospel-grace which they reject and make void by Excuses It is the most common sin of the World Divide the World into three parts The first and best is the least of such as gladly receive the Gospel and say with Samuel Speak Lord thy Servant heareth 1 Sam. 3. 10. or with St. Paul Lord what wilt thou have me to do A little Flock of these there are but few of them 2. There is a far greater and worse number of them that in stead of accepting shew foul contempt of the Gospel which breaks out in their opposition and persecution of it as in that Parable akin to this appears Mat. 22. 6. The remnant took the servants and intreated them shamefully and slew them A Remnant but a vile and very great Remnant of prophane Persecuters and Opposers But the greatest though not the worst part is of our Excuse-makers It is not said they all with one consent came in All are not Accepters Nor all with one consent persecuted and opposâ—d but the Remnant Too great a Remnant too All are not Persecuters But all with one consent made excuse All are Excuse-makers all guilty here more or less A sin it is in which the most godly sometimes have been faulty as well as the most wicked Abraham Sarah Moses Jeremy as well as Cain Saul Judas The most ancient of sins and the First-fruits of the first sin When Adam and Eve had eaten that forbidden Fruit the next thing was to frame an excuse Hast thou Gen. 3. 10 11 12 13. eaten of that Tree Adam The Woman that thou gavest me Hast thou eaten Eve The Serpent beguiled me said she Dost thou hide thy self from me Adam I saw I was naked said he again Nothing but Excuses and so sin upon sin Cain the first born of Adam when he had shed his Brothers blood thinks to put it off with an Excuse Am I my Brothers keeper But Gen. 4 9. it is wonderful to observe what ado the Prophet had with Saul after he had so grosly transgressed the Commandment to get him speak that hard word Peccavi But one while he pleads innocency he had spared the Cattel indeed some of them 1 Sam. 15. 13 15 c. but it was for Sacrifice and they were fat ones Then would he cast it upon the People then upon his Fear No owning but excusing his sin till Samuel told him downright he was rejected for his halting and disobedience Excuses are the most general and prevailing sin of the World the Peccatum in deliciis the sin that is made most of by Simple and Gentle High and Low none but cherish and harbor it The greatest Persons as Saul a King greatest Politicians as Jeroboam and the simplest Swain The Sluggard hath an excuse to spare his pains A Lion is in the way And take any Prov. 26. 13. one without his excuse and call him a very poor Man indeed What the Prophet noteth of the Idolater he that is so empoverisht Isa 4â— â—â— that he hath no Oblation yet seeketh a piece of Timber that will not rot to make an
to him as 2. We do to them as they to us he did to me and is not this warrantable Solomon shall answer thee No saith he Say not thou I will recompence evil but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Prov. 20. 22. And more plainly Prov. 25. 29. Say not I will do to him as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his work We are often warned not to avenge our Rom. 12. 19. Mat. 5. 39. 1 Pet. 3. 9. selves or resist evil or return railing for railing but to overcome evil with good A divine Victory and a double Victory this is the one over thy own passion the other over thy Enemies fury By this means thou mayst heap coals of fire on his head to melt him either into repentance or self-condemnation as Saul seemed once to be when 1 Sam. 24. 16 17. 26 21. malice was repayed with mercy He lift up his Voice and wept This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the singular thing wherein our Saviour would his Followers should out-do all others And is a great degree of Perfection To be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5. 47 48. To return good for good is Publicanish Evil for evil is Heathenish Evil for good Devilish But to return good for evil is Divine Christ like who forgave and pray'd for his Enemies God like who is kind to the unkind and to make the nearest approach and proximity to the life of the blessed yea to the Deity it self 3. Some are Strangers to us And we 3. Exâ—uses from strangers are apt to think we may do what we will to them we never saw them before and shall never buy or sell with them more But the Divine Precept strictly forbids all ill usage of Strangers in many places and requires he should enjoy the same Priviledges with themselves Ye shall not oppress Exod. 22. 21. and 23. 9. Lev. 19. 33. or vex the Stranger saith he for thou wast a Stranger in Egypt and thou knowest the heart of a Stranger Therefore put thy self in his case and do as thou wouldst be Exod 12. 48. 49. done unto One Law was both for the Home-born and the Stranger for the Forreigner and the Native The same Ephah Shekel Weight Measure Price Truth Equity Behaviour How courteous were Abraham and Lot to the Strangers that resorted to them And Philoxeny which properly signifies love of Strangers is as much pressed in the New-Testament as a duty of Christians and Ministers as most Heb. 13. 2. 1 Tim. 3. 2. others As therefore it were an unworthy thing to lay a stumbling-block before the Blind though he can never see it an unhumane thing to curse the Deaf because he cannot hear it So a most unchristian thing to deal injuriously with the Stranger because he may never discern it Thus have I done with Excuses taken from other men CHAP. IV. Excuses taken from God and from Satan NEither are Men content to fetch Excuses Excuses taken from God from themselves or others but they will open their mouths against Heaven Some have been so bold as to challenge God seeking any starting hole to creep out at as we have too many instances whereof some follow 1. Such as go about to excuse themselves 1. From his Providence and fault Gods Providence The first Excuse that ever was made seemed to glance this way The woman thou gavest me gave it me and so I did eat q. d. Hadst thou not given me that woman I had never offended But God gave her to be a help not a snare to the man Thus the Drunkard faulteth the Wine and therein God's Providence Had not the Wine such fragrancy delicacy of taste and that intoxicating quality I had not been overcome And the riotous Gallant had I not had such an Estate fallen to me I had never been so luxurious Thus must all be cast upon God and every man innocent But God gave the Woman to be an inciter to Good not an enticer to Evil It was thy own fault Adam not thy Makers Thy own intemperance Drunkard not the Vine Grape or Wine that is in fault And thou riotous person It is thy wicked abuse of thy State not the State it self which is to be condemned that was given for better Uses But how ill is God dealt withall in the mean time when his own favours are turned against him to his dishonour Suppose now a Prince should advance a Servant or a Son to the highest degrees of Honour and Dignity and should as some of the Roman Emperors have done and once a King of England did give him a Partnership in the Empire If this Servant Henry 11. or Son should afterwards lift up the heel against his Soveraign and break out into Rebellion and then should say You should never have raised me to this height of Honour but have kept me lower we would think he pleaded fair for his deprivation and destruction How justly may the Lord say Shall I not be avenged on such a Jer. 5. 7 8. Nation as this When I fed them to the full they assembled themselves by troops in Harlots houses And in another place When I gave them Corn and Wine and Oyl and multiplyed their Silver and Gold they bestowed it all on Baal spent it all on their Lusts Therefore he threatens to return and take all away again as fast as he gave it them Hosea 2. 8 9. 2. Some fly higher and pick a quarrel 2. From Gods Decrees at Gods Decrees as if they would charge all their Sin and Condemnation upon God themselves being either innocent or inevitably destined thereunto For thus are such black-mouthed persons represented cavilling Ezek. 33. 10. If our Sins and our Transgressions be upon as and wepine away in them how can we then live q. d. It is no fault of ours if we perish God Almighty might have helpt all this iâ— he had pleased But who art thou O man that thus disputest with Rom. 9. 30. God Yet let us reason the case together and see where the fault is in God or thy self First Thou wilt confess it was free for the Soveraign Creator to make his Creatures of what form and for what use he pleased as some Rational others Bruits Plants c. Nor have any of them cause to say why hast thou made me thus not us Men Angels us Bruits Men and Women 2. That God creating Man should endue him with such excellent faculties of understanding to discern Good and Evil of Liberty of will to make Election of his own acts thou wilt not say this was evil yet 3. To prescribe to man thus formed holy Precepts commanding Good forbidding Evil nor can this be called Evil but most Just that God's Soveraignty might be owned in the World and Man's Subjection exercised 4. To hedge Man in by Promises and Threats of Rewards and Punishments to
I bow in the house of Rimmon as doth the King the Lord be merciful to me and hold me excused herein The like also might Pilate have pleaded if that would excuse him My Place is to release one at the Feast though a Murderer and to condemn the most Innocent if the people shall importune it Thus also no question did those persecuting Bishops in Queen Mary's dayes flatter themselves when they burnt those Innocents We have taken an Oath to the Pope and our Place tyes us to condemn them to the Flames whom the Pope declareth Haereticks And when they gave Sentence they said They did it ex Officio that is by vertue of their Office How much better had it been for them to have refused those Preferments with a Nolo Episcopari in good earnest as Nazianzen Sozom. l. 6. c. 3. Socr. l. 3. c. 19. Bal. in vitis pont sometimes did And Jovinian the Empire crying out Ego sum Christianus or to have resigned those places as Caelestine the Fifth is said to have the Papacy returning to his solitariness and privacy again Or they might all of them have inscribed that on their Monuments which Bishop Hall reporteth that Hadrian the Sixth Ordered to be engraven on his viz. That nothing in all his life befel him so unhappy as his Preferment 3. Others alledge the example of their 3. Example of their Predecessors Predecessors They who have gone before them have done so and so made so much of their Places but quo jure qua injuria would be enquired Godly Nehemiah came after such and might have fleeced and exhausted the people and enricht himself if he could have satisfied himself with this Plea But thus did he not do because of Neh. 5. 15. the fear of the Lord Yea the very Servants of the former Rulers bare Rule and got Estates But he considered the people over whom he was set were now poor and had groaned under many Pressures and Taxes Therefore he received not the Perquisites of his place nor did he eat the Bread of the Governor but spent his own Estate among them and fed many at his own Charge chusing rather to be a poor Prince over a rich People then Rich over a Poor Non sibi sed Patriae is a good Motto for a Prince or Patriot Praesis ut Prosts a good Motto for a Prelate as Bernard counselled Eugenius It is a memorable story that Luther relates of a German Luth. Coll. Prince at a time when many of the Princes were together and discoursed of their several States Territories and Revenues This Prince said Though his Territory and Revenue was not equal to theirs yet in one thing he counted himself as happy as any of them that was the Love of his Subjects For he said He could venture himself to take a Nights-lodging in the house of any of his Subjects and sleep securely without a Guard A rare example of clemency and confidence in a Prince and of Love and Loyalty in a People 4. A fourth saith I am not the first nor shall be the last like enough But what a pittiful 4. I am not the first nor shall be the last Excuse is this to excuse thy sin by the sin of others As Job said of the Grave A many are gone before and innumerable shall Job 21. 33. follow after it may be said of Sin and Hell-Lamech could speak of a Murderer before him Jeroboam was not the first that made a golden Calf to be worshipt Aaron had done so before him nor was he the last for all or most of the Kings of Israel that followed continued in the same Idolatry It is not safe sinning by Example Many Fashions are new few new Sins nothing new under the Sun This Sin that all our Discourse is about viz. Excuse-making had both our first Parents deeply in it Thus did Adam thus did Eve from the beginning it hath been thus and bears the oldest date of any other Act viz. Anno primo Creationis mense primo if not Die primo too as some conceive Polygamy had a President in the old World in Lamech Gen. 4. 19. Gen. 6. 11. Oppression was before the Flood Fornicators had Zimri and Cozbi put to death Num. 25. 8. for this Sin long before they were born Seditious Opposers of Magistracy and Ministry had a Corah Dathan and Abiram Num. 16. 3. Predecessors The Sabbath-Breaker reads of one stoned to death for that Sin long ago Numb 15. 36. And the Blasphemer of another Levit. 24. 23. The wicked Witch and painted Strumpet had a Jezabel their foundress Now these are our Examples and recorded not to Excuse but admonish us 5. And he that saith The rest and greatest 5. The rest do the same in the place do so and why may not I thinks if he have not a great deal of reason on his side yet he hath good Company to back him But the greatest man in the Parish is not alwayes the best He who is highest in the King's Books for matter of Subsidy may be lowest in God's Book for matter of Piety The best Living and the best Liver dwell sometimes a great way asunder In our Saviour's time the Poor Mat. 11. 5. were they who received the Gospel And in the Apostles dayes not many Wise or 1 Cor. â— 26 27. Mighty or Noble owned it but the Poor and Simple In after-times of Apostacy the purity of Religion was preserved among the Waldenses and the Poor men of Lyons as they were commonly called And long before them the great Worthies of the World of whom the World was not worthy were clad in Sheep-skins and Goats-skins and dwelt in Caves and Cottages out of the Worlds notice unless to be persecuted afflicted tormented 6. A good intention is a great Plea and 6. A good intention we think nothing excuseth more But though an ill intention is enough alone to mar a good action yet is not a good intention enough to render an ill action good Bonum ex integriss malum ex quolibet defectu There must be a concurrence of all due circumstances to make an action good Vzzah doubtless had no ill intention 2 Sam. 6. 7. when he put forth his hand to hold the Ark yet perisht for his Error Saul paid 1 Sam. 15. 23. dear notwithstanding his good meaning for sparing the best of the Cattel for Sacrifice What could they have other then a good meaning who sacrificed their own Children to Moloch in imitation it is likely of Abraham's forwardness to Sacrifice his Son yet never did the Sun see a greater abomination This Weed hath pestered the Church from time to time and hath Jer. 7. 31. 19. 5. turned Sharon into a Forest Bethel into Bethaven This brought in at first adoration of Images Crosses Reliques Invocation of Saints Prayer for the Dead Blind Zeal the Father and good Intention the Mother have hatched most of the
Creature in the Universe that only lives to it self The Sun communicates his light the Springs are free of their waters to every thirsty Passenger God's direction is to thee to drink the waters of thy own Cistern to Prov. 9. 15 16. take part of what he hath given thee thy self and that thy Fountain should be dispersed abroad to the relief and benefit of others God the Church State the Poor thy Family and Friends challenge a share in thy State The Prodigal thinks he can answer it as well or better I have not been base or sordid keeping and hoarding up I have lived on what I had and like a man I count him next door to a mad man that is too saving for his next heir Parcus ob haeredis curam nimiumque severus Assidet insano And him to be stark mad that Horat. spares all his life to die rich Est furor haud dubius est manifesta Phrenesis Juvenal Vt locuples moriaris egenti vivere fato But how hast thou spent upon thy Lusts what is the account thou wilt make to God to thy Ancestors or Posterity I had some thousands left me some may say One part spent on my Back and Belly another in Gaming a third on Pleasures Hawks Hounds Harlots a fourth in Taverns Plays Entertainments Thus what the Palmer-worm hath left the Locust hath eaten what the Locust the Caterpillar Joel 1. 4. what the Caterpillar the Canker-worm hath eaten Thus at last all is gone where is Christ's part all the while what hath been laid out on pious and charitable Uses Here is a sad account a State ruined and a Soul ruined This man is as sad a monster as the other and as to his House and Posterity worse Thou shouldst have followed the same direction of the wise man Drink water out of thy own Cistern Prov. 5. 15. and let streams run to others yet let them be only thy own saith he that is retain the principal still The Sun indeed gives light to others but withall preserves the principal and wasts not his stock It were prodigious if in a prodigal Vain it threw it self out of its Orb The Springs water the Earth yet so as to keep a stock still going If Naboth said God forbid I should 1 Kings 21. 3. sell the Inheritance of my Fathers Let sober men say God forbid I should make away the Inheritance of my Fathers by Riot and Luxury We are but Stewards remember that And all good men know it is their duty to honour God with their Purses as well as with their Persons A David would say What shall I do for the Name and House and Service of God A Nehemiah What shall I do for the Publick and my Country A Zacheus What shall I do for the Poor All good men How shall I give account of my Talent with joy and not with grief 13. Others think they make a lawful What I do is in it self lawful excuse when they say What I do is in it self lawful But Licitis perimus omnes There may be danger in the use abuse rather of lawful things Poyson is often given in a golden Cup or wholsome Dish sometimes in a Nosegay Be not too bold with things lawful there may be a snare in Company Employments Mirth Recreations Pastimes yea in thy very Calling To swear in it self is lawful but unnecessarily and frequently sinful The old World and Sodom perisht in these Licitis these lawfuls They eat they drank bought sold Luke 17. 26 27. built planted But minded nothing else Lawful and sinful are near Neighbours If we go to the utmost of lawfuls ground we tread ere aware on sinfuls Our Saviour gives an Item against worldly cares which are sometimes commanded sometimes Luke 21. 34. commended yet a surfeit and over-plus of them is as dangerous as of eating and drinking when immoderate though all lawful in their measure though few consider it There is somewhat more necessary which must be observed above lawful e. g. To rest on the Lord's day and forbear work lawful but the sanctifying the day is the necessary To read a good Book very lawful and commendable that day but if nothing hinder to forbear coming to the Publick Worship is sinful and scandalous So in many other cases Sacrifice sometimes best sometimes Mercy better In the use of things lawful therefore the Apostle gives three good Cautions 1. All 1 Cor. 6. 12. 10. 23. things are lawful that is things indifferent and not sinful in their nature but all things are not expedient profitable convenient Here I must have regard to my self saith learned Paraeus how much how far how long expedient 2. All things are lawful but all things edifie not though lawful to me here I must have regard to my Neighbour The third is All Turpe est esse servus gulae aut ventri Par in locum things are lawful to me but I will not be brought under the power of any I must see I be not enslaved to my Belly Pleasure Recreation c. but that I can as well forbear as use them As St. Austin said of Alipius he having been once at the Play grew mad of them Abstulit secum insaniam quastimularetur redire c. That he could not for his life keep from them till he was afterwards changed 14. There be many that will plead Christian liberty Christian liberty and think that may excuse many things which savour rankly of unchristian Libertinism rather then of Christian Liberty They can travell or work on the Lord's day sit up Night by Night at Cards and Dice frequent Taverns and Plays day by day drink Health after Health go to Mass be present at Idol-worship and cover all with the Veil of Christian liberty while they understand not well what Christian liberty meaneth It is a pretious and costly Jewel purchased with the blood of Christ And as all pretious Jewels are to be charily looked to so this as much as any I shall therefore 1. Briefly tell you wherein it stands not 2. Wherein it stands 1. It frees us not from the observation of the holy Laws of God 2. Nor from Civil subjection to the just Laws of Authority over us or Servants to the command of their Masters c. as St. Peter at large declares 3. Nor doth 1 Pet. 2. 13 14 c. it set us free from the Bonds and Rules of Sobriety Temperance Modesty Chastity c. to give scope to Riot Excess Luxury or any Misdemeanour 1. But it stands in freeing us from the Bondage of the old Ceremonial Law Gal. 5. 1. 2. Frees Believers from the Curse of the Moral Law Gal. 3. 13. 3. From our Sins 1. As to the Guilt 1 John 1. 7. 2. As to the Dominion and Power Rom. 6. 14. 8. 2. 3. As to the Condemnation of Sin Rom. 8. 1. 4. Believers are freed from the Wrath of God
for us to say with David if we respect our own desert but when the Lord makes his Promise we may embrace it and desire he should make it good saying Though this is not the manner of men yet is alwayes the manner of God Thou art worthy is only a Note fit for the Song of the Lamb Merit is a Rev. 5. 9. strange word in Heaven never heard there of any Saints only Christ's Merits When the Proclamation was made Who is worthy to open the Book in the Angels hand and to unloose the Seals there was not any stood up nor one found worthy but the Son of God Nor is there Man or Angel now in Heaven worthy of that Celestial Glory they there injoy The Angel holds his station there of free Grace Men by Mercy neither by Merit The Angel by Donation Man by Condonation 4. Some again do sometimes in a sad 4. Sad and fixt misgiving of mind manner lie down under their Burden and say with the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 10. 19. It is my burden my hard lot and I must bear it and thereupon give up the Forts of Faith and Hope and give all for lost and themselves too by intertaining immovable invincible and pertinacious misgivings of mind with which they are possest having sad apprehensions of themselves and dreadful misapprehensions of God being at the same time possibly overwhelmed with Distress over-gone with Melancholy over-come with Impatience tyred out with a short wayting fiercely and furiously assaulted by Satan and deserted of God and then as men swallowed up of sorrow are ready to cry out Vicisti Satana Thou hast over-come Satan This is thy hour and power of darkness and there is no perswading them to the contrary A sad and doleful case yet in some such like seemed the Psalmist to be in that dark night of his desertion when in a disconsolate manner he sighed out That his Sore his anguish of Spirit ran all night and Psal 77. 2. ceased not and his Soul refused to be comforted And then did he reason as if he had no Faith at all That God had cast him off forgotten him yea almost forgotten himself forgotten to be gracious which is all one and both alike impossible and impious to conceive And then there is no speaking to such at all but they will reply to all that seek to satisfie and perswade them Esay 22. 4. Look away from me labour not to comfort me And no other reason is to be expected they will not believe because they will not In this temper or distemper rather was Thomas who when all the Apostles said They had seen the Lord positively Replyed I will believe none of you all I must see a sign and put my hands in his side or I will not believe wilful Thomas holy Bradford might well call him In the like plight was that distressed Mrs. Honywood Mrs. Bretergh and Mr. Glover of whom I spake before We have a saying Dolores leves loquuntur Ingentes stupent Lesser Griefs have Tongues and vent themselves but the great amazing Griefs convert men into stocks and stones they have neither Eyes nor Ears nor Sense nor Reason nor any thing But as in the first Chaos darkness covers the face of the deep and all darkness is hid in their secret places as it is Job 20. 26. till God speak Peace and say Let there be light Thus it was with Israel when stunned with Grief and Oppression they would not receive any Message from Moses no nor from God He spake to them but they would not hearken unto him for anguish of Spirit and for cruel Bondage Exod. 6. 9. 5. Carnal reason makes many Exceptions 5. Unlikely means against Divine Precepts and Promises from the improbability and incongruity of the means Thus Naaman excepts against 2 Kings 5. 10 11 12. washing in Jordan for Cure of his Leprosie why not in Abana and Pharpar He expected some more extraordinary matter the Prophets Touch or Prayers and goes his way dissatisfied till upon better consideration This the most common and universal bar to the Faith of the World Both Jews and Gentiles have stumbled at this stumbling stone The one required a Sign the other call for Wisdom To both a Christ crucified and Faith in a God 1 Cor. 1. 22. made Man and more humbled and abased then ever mortal was seems an absurd and irrational Article of Faith And to this day the Jew can't get this Beam out of his Eye nor this Vail off his Face nor the wiser World to whom the Wisdom of God goes for foolishness get over this stumbling-block Now we may take notice that God all along delights to make use of contemptible means to atchieve the greatest ends The weak things of the World to confound the mighty the foolish to confound the wise That all glory may redound to the Supreme Author and no part of it stick to the Instrument Quid Philosophiae Theologiae Quid Hierosolymis Athenis Tertull. The Worlds Wisdom is this greatest Enemy to Divine and the whole business of Faith and that upon the account of the unlikeliness of the means What makes the Papist stand up so much for Merits and stick so fast to a Righteousness of Works but his mean Opinion he hath of Faith What makes so many among us have so little esteem of the Preachers and preaching of God's Word but the mean esteem they have for the calling of the one and of the efficacy of the other 6. Present Providences being cross to 6. Present Providences unlike former Presidents former Presidents is a great Remora and rub in the way to the Faith of many for relying upon God in time of distress This we may see in Gideons Reply to the Angel who came and said to him The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of Valour He demurs and replies If the Lord be with Judges 6. 12 13. us why then is all this befaln us And where be all his Miracles which our Fathers told us of saying Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt But now the Lord hath forsaken us and sold us into the Hands of the Midianites q. d. Israel of old was wont to have God's presence manifested to them by his marching before them with a victorious Hand and stretched out Arm But now we see not our Signs There is no more a Prophet Moses how can we think other then that God hath forsaken us Thus would weak-sighted and short-spirited man prescribe and tye up God to oâ—e constant method not being able to reconcile God's chastening his people to his owning of them or to read his Love in any other thing then outward Prosperity or speedy deliverance nor doth Distress signifie any other to them then Rejection But as sometimes the Lord creates a new thing in way of Judgment Numb 16. 30. So again sometimes in way of Mercy he leads his people by unknown Paths Esay 42. 16.
and sincerity in the Worship Service and Obedience which we do perform to to God The word of God is quick and Heb. 4. 12. powerful piercing to the dividing of the Soul and Spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart Now did men believe and were sensible of the quick and lively Power the Majesty and Authority of the Word and did remember those Rules to walk with God and be upright In all our wayes to acknowledge him That whatsoever we do we should do it as to the Lord and not to Men and Col. 3. â—3 withall consider That by this word we shall be judged in the last day It is not possible Joh. 12. 48. they should study such shifts and flatter themselves in them for there would be no more need of them then for the man that doth well to hide his head and fly from the light when he can make out his Joh. 3. 21. works to be wrought in God 3. Very few have heard the sound of the last 3. Or the day of Judgment Mal. 3. 17. Trumpet sounding in their Ears nor do they believe there is a Book of Remembrance written before God And that a dreadful day of account is coming when these Books shall be brought forth and that Rev. 20. 12. then God will set all in order before the Sons of men with all the circumstances of their evil Actions and then bring every Secret to light and reward all according to their Works For did they so it is not possible there would be so much base dealing and wickedness in the World making Lyes their Refuge as if they had made an Agreement with Hell and a Covenant with Death But there is a world of Atheism in Christendom and of Infidels among Christians that seek â—o dig deep to hide their Counsel from the Lord and their Works are in the dark and they say Who sâ—eth us and who knoweth us They turn things up side-down saith the Prophet turn a fair side outward and a Esay 29. 15 16. foul side inward 4. In the fourth place There is little 4. Want of Conscience of that we call Conscience in the World and the want of it is a main deficient or efficient I may say of Excuses There is much talk of Conscience every where but where is it to be found almost Right Conscience is Cordis scientia saith Bernard Or cum Deo scientia say others not Scientia simplicis Intelligentiae as I may say a bare speculation but an active practical and uniform Concurrence of Breast and Brain of Profession with Practise yea of Man with God when words deeds agree with the heart and the heart with God But alas there is much of Science in the World little of Conscience much Head-knowledge little Heart-knowledge much studying men little minding of God Were there more of this in the World there would neither be carrying on of Designs nor studying Excuses but Acts 24. 16. a serious and sincere endeavour to be without offence both before God and before men 2. For the ends which Excuses are 2. Ends of Excuses made use of 1. Many fly to them as we say For shame of the World and Speech of 1. To avoid shame the People as did they who took up stones to throw at Christ who pleadâ—d They did it not for any of the goods works John 10. 33. he had done that had been too bad but for Blasphemy Better a bad excuse then none at all People woud have cryed Shame on them it they had not covered their Malice with some plausible pretence So again when Pilate urged his Accusers for Reason Reason as they cryed out to him for Justice Justice why what Evil hath he done I find no faule in him They would have been thought inexcusable if they could not have said We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die But none could they name that he had ever violated So whâ—n the Scribes and Pharisees never John 19. 6 7. left persâ—cuting Christ John Baptist and the Apostles and all that were better then themselves People would have cryed shame on them for their Impiety But when they could say You see we Reverence the true Prophets Moses Samuel Jeremy Daniel c. We Celebrate their Memorials garnish their Sepulchres and for those Mat. 23. 30. good men we lament their loss Had we been in our Fathers dayes we would have Sainted â—ot Slain them But Jesus and the Baptist we know not whence they are The one hath a Devil the other is a Wine-Bibber a Samaritan Heretick a Mover of Sedition and what not So that now they must not be thought any wayes ill affected to true Piety but honoured as the Piâ—lars of the Church the zealous Asserters of Truth Unity and Order and the only Sappressors of Heresie Schism Fâ—ction Sedition and Novelty Just so do the Papists St. Peter St. Paul St. Lawrence c. we keep dayes in their Memory preserve their Reliques pray to them honour them with a kind of Worship shew more Piety towards them then all you Protestants do But if Luther Calvin Cranmer Ridley c. teach the very same Doctrine that Peter and Paul they shall be Anathematized or burnt to Ashes if they can light of them 2. A second end Is to gain a repute of 2. To gain a Repute of Religion Religion And such is the luster and beauty of Religion that though few affect the power of it yet all court the Name and are ambitious of the Reputation of it Thus Machiavel instructs his Prince to put on the Vizor of one Religious yet to scruple nothing mean while whereby he may more enlarge his Dominion or drive on his Designs Thus those very Jews again John 10. 33. make their defence We stone thee not for any Cures or other good Works wrought or thy shews of Sanctimony but thy Blasphemy and Arrogance To make thy self the Son of God and equal to God we cannot bear Very pious Souls Though many have been so wicked as to do it none ever was so weak as to own it that they hated Piety and Virtue for its own sake A fair Pretence is fittest to cover so foul a Disposition Those that hated and cast out their Brethren of old as the Prophet said for owning the Name of God no other Crime yet said Let God be magnified Esay 65. 5. All was done out of zeal to God's Glory and the Churches Peace What do the Papists and other Persecutors pretend less 3. A third end Is to stop the mouth 3. To stop the mouth of conscience of Conscience and still its Clamors Conscience would lead the man an unquiet life and would be clamorous if he had not somewhat to pretend Therefore some grave shews of Religion some form of Godliness some Sins forborn some good Works done some Duties performed must bribe Conscience to let
them alone Thus Mat. 23. 14. could the Pharisee devour a poor Widows house yet keeping on his constant course of Prayer and Divine-Service the noise of the Widows cry never troubled him So they that crucified the Lord of Glory when they had such a pretence as had a face of Law Habemus Legem were not at all scrupulous and so squearnish as Pilate who called for water to cleanse himself of that Blood they never call for water to wash their hands but take his Blood and all Pilate's guilt upon themselves His Blood Mat. 27. 24 25. be no us and our Children they cry without the least remorse Only they must have it done before the Passover and must not go into Pilate's house that day of Preparation that they might not be defiled when they came next day to the holy Passover which Jo. 1◠28. they conscientiously were preparing themselves for 4. This is a profitable way to save charges 4. To spare pains cost pains and trouble about Religion and their own Souls And what a wonder is it to see those very men who will spare for no cost pains or charge for their Bodies Diet Apparel Physick Recreations or their Buildings and Furniture yea their Horses Dogs Hawks every thing stick only to be at cost and pains about their Souls The easiest and cheapest Religion is alway best The shortest way to Heaven pleaseth most Now these Excuses fit their turn for that and nothing like them For should they be at charge to mind Religion as some do it would ask pains study care diligence fear trembling there must be reading praying meditating reforming repenting and I know not what more To what end all this wast saith the Sluggard I have heard of a more compendious way and I will venture upon it A good excuse will save all this labour And he is a very poor man indeed that is to seek an Excuse These deal with their Souls as many Thread-bare Gentlemen do with their Backs and Garments who must be in the fashion and loth to be at charge of new inside and outside buy some handsome fashionable outside put a little Trimming on it and care not what the inside is who can look into that or as others who get a long Vest or Cloak to cover all whereas to Subueula pexae trita subest Tunicae Hor. have all new and good would ask more cost CHAP. X. The sinfulness vanity and frivolousness of Excuses HAving given an account of the Causes The sinfulness of Excuses and Reasons of Excuses in general not intending to speak of each particularly I come now to give an account why in our Proposition at first I called them sinful and frivolous 1. I shall speak to their sinfulness 2. To their frivolousness Their sinfulness appears in three things 1. They are Maxima impeditiva bonorum The greatest hinderances of any one thing 1. The great hinderers of good in the World of all good 1. They keep men from the good of Duty Faith and Obedience which they are call'd to 2. From the duty of Repentance which they might have upon failour of the former 3. Then from the comfort they might have had from Faith Obedience and Repentance had it not been for them 4. They keep from God that Subjection Honour and Obedience which we owe to him All which is to be seen in those Guests in that Parable Luke 14. 18. when invited to come to the Gospel-Supper to partake of Christ and his benefits they shew little Faith to believe the report of so much Grace and Mercy tendered little Obedience to come in upon a Gospel invitation persuming those were just Excuses they alledged of the Farm Oxen and Marriage 2. Having those Excuses in readiness they never trouble their minds with Repentance as if they had been at all to blame 3. Then are they frustrated of all that good and benefit which should have accrued to them upon acceptance They rejected the Councel of God against themselves as was said of some Luke 7. 30. They were in a fair possibility of well-doing had they not barred up the way to Salvation by these excuses 4. The Lord seeing his Grace so slighted upon such sleeveless and frivolous pretences is justly incensed sendeth to call in others resolving whosoever should these should not participate of his Grace and Mercy 2. They are secondly The maxima 2. The great Seminary of Evils productiva malorum The greatest Nursery and Seminary of Evils A world of evil springs from them They may be called Progenies Viperarum A Generation of Vipers or Semen Maleficentissimum as Junius or Malignantium as Ar. Montanus renders that of Esay 1. 4. A Seed of evil Doers a pestilent Seed of a very lewd Race Of these Excuses that may be said which Solomon chargeth the Whore withall She increaseth Transgressors among men Prov. 23. 28. and maketh them ten times worse then they would be Or what was charged on Jeroboam an active Ring-leader unto general Sin who lay under much guilt He sin'd and made Israel to Sin Yea which is worse then both that may be charged upon Excuses which the Lord chargeth upon the false Prophets That they strengthened the Jer. 23. 14 17. Hands of evil Doers that none doth return from his wicked way by promising them life Encouraged and animated with these they have made a Covenant with Death and Agreement with Hell not as if in a Esay 28. 15. regardless and desperate manner they slighted them but as being in their own conceit and apprehension sufficiently secured against them So Junius gives the See Jun. in locum sense 3. Whatever men may pretend these 3. They are all one with flat denial Excuses are upon the matter none other then plain refusals and flat denials but in a more smooth and complemental garb They speak as if the men were wondrous well affected onely sorry they could not magnifie their religious Inclinations by reason of these diversions But the truth is they had no real intention at all Verbalis excusatio realis recusatio An excuse in words is a refusal in deeds And the Lord interprets it for no orher therefore sends to call in others more cordially willing These have rejected me and I will reject them Hence our word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 14. 18. rendred excuse is often rendred to refuse renounce reject deny as Acts 23. 11. 1 Tim. 4. 7. 5. 11. Tit. 3. 10. Heb. 11. 25. So that they might as well have spoken out in plain English as Corah did Numb 16. 14. We will not come up for they never meant it though they made such a fair pretence for a blandation and colour 2. Their frivolousness appears in that 2. Their frivolousness they are not able to stand 1. Before the presence of God 2. The tryal of his Word 3. The strict examen of Conscience 4. A fiery tryal of Affliction
fallen too Well might the ancient Israelite weep who had seen the former Temple in Ezra 3. 12. its glory to see so mean a one now like to succeed in the room of it Well might Israel bewail the change in Rehoboam's dayes from what it was in Solomons when Wisdom and Justice sate in the Throne and now folly was set in high degree weakness and wilfulness ruled and misruled and lost all The golden age and 2 Chron. 12. 10. sheilds of Solomon turned into brazen Well might Job bemone his condition so much altered he had sate chief among Princes and was now all alone upon a Dunghill a Companion of Owls and Worms and Job 30. 29. 1â— 14. Vermin his Associates Well might Nebuchadnezzar have lamented could a Beast speak who had commanded the Empire of the World now driven from the Throne and grazing among Bruits I may take up the words of the Lamentation and say What shall I take to witness for thee what shall I liken to thee Thy breach is great like Lam. 2. 13. the Sea who can heal thee Where is man's Wisdom now have they no understanding Psal 14. 4. to call Light Darkness and Darkness Light and what is become of his Conscience now that when he is called from Sin to Duty Repentance Faith Obedience he flies from all by and to Excuses Woe to the World because of Offences was Mat. 18. 7. once said And woe to the World because of Excuses They are the sin of the World of the Church of all of every one When we are called off from sin we make Excuses when to confess sin Excuses when to Duty we put off with Excuses when to believe we make Excuses when the highest Grace is tendred we make all void by Excuses Nothing but Excuses Excuses none so young so ignorant but is skilled in them none so poor but is stored with them none so good but one time or other hath had one none so bad but hath many of them I have named an hundred in this Discourse and another may come after and find an hundred more and yet leave gleanings to them that come after us both few good Excuses but store of bad from self others God Satan any thing every thing Let us take a short Survey 1. When we are called to avoid sin or break it off how do we shrug and shrink When the Lord cryes out to Lot Hast thou escape for thy life linger not how do we cry loath to depart as the Sluggard out of his Bed When the Lord calls as Jonathan 1 Sam. 20. 38. to his Lad make speed hast stay not Cito longe tarde as we say of the Pestilence we invert it and say Tarde prope cito we should fly from Sin speedily fly far off from it return slowly or never We remove slowly loath to part with it as Jacob with Benjamin Cry out for it as Micah Judg. 18. 14. for his gods go along as far as we can or dare as Phaltiel did to Michal his wife from whom he was to be divorced and 2 Sam. 3. 15. can't part without tears and in stead of going far we do as Hagar sit down within a bow shoot loath to see sin die and return Gen. 21. 16. to it again as soon what means this bleating else Oh not so my Lord Is it not a little one a venial sin If I never do worse I hope I may do well enough I have tasted but a little of this Honey and must I die for it Have not others done as bad or worse and yet done well I have Examples multitude great ones some that go for good men my Leaders I hope my place calling quality profession common custom may excuse me beside I live civilly and peaceably and do what the Law will bear me out in 2. Again when men are dealt with to confess and acknowledge their sin what ado is here how long was Samuel ere he could get Saul speak that hard and unpleasing word Peccavi how many shifts and evasions first I have done my duty as far as I thought my self bound I am not in fault at all we sometimes deny the fact as Gehazi sometimes extenuate it It was my ignorance saith one It is my nature another an ill custom I have got a third I was not my self A fourth I was in drink in passion in hast anger or in fear Or but in jest say others my zeal good meaning Conscience must excuse me say others I had passed my word made a Vow bound my self under an Oath and Curse and what would you have me do my Credit and Honour lay at stake my Shame was prevented Profit advanced my Calling followed such benefit to my self or friend procured Besides the matter was not so great and was but once nor had I any ill intention in the earth I should have been singular and I know not what if I had done otherwise and made scruple I am civil painful peaceable pay every one his own and if I never do worse I make no question 3. If we can't but yield it to be a sin then have we other Excuses Let others look to it I am faultless it was their doings not mine I was a Child and must do what my Father bad me a Servant and must keep my Masters Secrets and do his Commands I had my dependance on my Superiors and must comply with their will I had Commands to encourage me Promises to allure Threats to terrifie me Examples to draw me Friends and Companions to importune me how could I refuse Besides what some scrupulous persons more precise then wise make such a matter of is the custom of the Time Place Country and Company that I converse with God help if so few as some men say should be saved and the way to Heaven should be so narrow 4. When we are pressed to repent of Sin and forsake it how do we still Conscience and justifie our selves Are we not all Sinners have not the best their infirmities There is no perfection in this life sometimes we cast it upon Satan he dogged me sometimes upon God he denied me the Grace gave me not his Spirit or ought me a shame 5. When called upon to more seriousness and amendment of life we are ready to plead God's great Mercy gracious Promises Christ's Merits the Doctrines of free Grace justification by Faith remission of Sins imputed Righteousness and our purposes of Repentance hereafter 6. When excited to holiness we plead the disrepute Holiness is in the inconveniences we may meet with the Aspersions cast upon the Godly the Afflictions and Tryals they meet with the difficulties in the way of Salvation the scandalous Lives of some Preachers the foul Miscarriages of some Professors and one great Observation above all the rest the quiet and peaceable end that some great Sinners have made 7. When we are warned to take heed of security and slothfulness some
out all our Sins so is Gods promise Ezek. 18. 21. Now where there is a removal blotting out and remission of Sin there needs no more Excuse or covering of Sin when sin is pardoned it is therefore said to be covered Psal 32. 1. Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth not sin c. All these Blessings came upon the truly penitent And therefore there is no more need of Excuses where there is no Sin Repentance is the best Excuse Apology or clearing of our selves as the Apostle calls it 2 Cor. 7. 11. Beza renders it Excusatio and so is the signification of the word grammatically it procures a Pardon which no other Plea or Apology can and that gives a Covering which all the Excuses in the world can never do Of other Coverings that may be said which the Prophet speaks Ezek. 30. 1. They cover with a Covering but not of my Spirit adding sin to sin add Excuses to Excuses and you add Sin to Sin He that so covereth Prov. 28. 13. his sins shall never prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy you will cover and God will discover But true Repentance is a great Cover-sin This was the way which David took for clearing himself and to have his Sin covered he confessed repented cryed out I have sinned 2 Sam. 12. 13. done foolishly wickedly and the Prophet said The Lord hath taken away thy sin thou shalt not die Not guilty is the worst Plea we can make at Gods Tribunal and to stand upon our Innocency Because thou sayest I am Innocent I will plead with thee Jer. 2. 35. Job durst not stand to this plea If I am righteous said Job 9. 15. he I would not answer God so but make my supplication as an humble Delinquent to my Judge our best way of speeding in Gods Court contrary to what of man's is to sue in forma pauperis in forma peccatoris If I should wash my self in Snow water saith Job again and make v. 30. 31. my Hands never so clean yet thou shalt plunge me in the Ditch and make my Clothes to abhor me my Excuses with which I would cover my Sin would leave me in a worse pickle of pollution That vile Shimei sped better at Davids hands upon 2 Sam. 19. 19 20. his speedy and humbe submission and acknowledgement of his offences then either the innocent Amalekite that brought 2 Sam. 1. 15. 2 Sam. 4. 12. Saul's Crown or those perfidious Brethren that brought Ishbosheths Head when the one knew himself to be an offender and the three last thought they had merited and looked for a reward The penitent Prodigal had better Entertainment at the Fathers hands that cryed out Father I have sinned then the elder Brother that pleaded he had never offended Judahs Ingenuous confession of the miscarriage what shall we say or how can we clear our selves the Fact is apparent God hath brought our Sins to light we are all thy Servants c. so wrought upon Josephs Bowels that he could not speak one rough word more but fell to embracing and comforting them 3. In the third place because both Obedience and Repentance are defective our next Remove is to fly to the bloud of Christ by Faith and this three-fold Cord will be sure to hold fast the Anchor of thy Soul This is the only safe remove to trust to and this gives a supersedeas to all other Excuses Repentance is a good Cover-sin in some cases and goes a great way but the Bloud of Christ is all in all when all is 1 Joh. 1. 7. 9. done to cover and take away Sin it cleanseth us from all unrighteousness It was not all sorrow and contrition but the offenders highing and flying to the City of Refuge and abiding there which Num. 35. 25. did Excuse and secure him from the hands of the Avenger And the death of the High Priest did fully acquit him from his Crime Christ is our great and only Excuse-maker our only Advocate and Mediator and if be he our Apologist we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Excuse in a good sense Who is he that will contend with me saith the penitent and believing Soul flying to Christ He is near that Justifieth me who Esay 50. 8 is he that will condemn Christ hath died c. and he maketh Intercession for us and his Intercession is above all the Pleas we can make for our selves Benjamin came off better by Judahs interceding for him and Nabal by Abigals then if either had spoken the best they could in their own behalf This made the Apostle desire to be found in Christ not in his own righteousness The Righteousness of Phil. 3. 9. Christ if we speak properly is the only Cover-sin and his Bloud the only Expiation and his Intercession our best plea and defence and true Faith our best Title and Claim By him all that believe are Justified there 's our safety from all which we could not be Justified by the Law Acts 13. 39. And to this give all the Prophets Act. 10. 43 witness that whosoever believeth in him shall receive forgiveness of Sins and where Remission is granted there is no more need of Excuses Christ saith to the troubled Soul that is perplexed to think what answer to make as to Mary Magdalen mourning why weepest thou what troubleth thee is it any want He saith as the good old man to the Levite that knew not where to Lodge Peace be to thee let Judg. 19. 20. all thy wants be upon me Is it Debt He hath undertaken and speaks to his Father in thy behalf as Paul for Onesimus If he Philem. 6. 18. bath wronged or oweth any thing put that on my account Is it Sin He saith in thy behalf interceding for thee as Abigal to David Vpon me upon me let this Iniquity be charged He was made Sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. Is it the Fathers Wrath and Curse thou fearest as Jacob did his Fathers He satisfieth thee in the words of Rebecka to her Son Fear not upon me be the Curse Gen. 27. 13. only obey my voice Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law having been made a Curse for us Gal 3. 13. 4. The fourth and last way to make sure against all sorry and beggarly Excuses is to furnish thy self with solid substantial and unexceptible Excuses such as can't be excepted against such as the Servants of God of old were wont to repel any motion to sin or diversion from duty by whereof I shall instance in five out of the Old Testament and as many out of the New And the first is that known one of Joseph when thou art sollicited to any base and sinful act resist it with this How can I do this great wickedness and sin against Gen. 39. 9. God 2. Get Tamars Excuse when