mind yea and good helps withal to the attainment of a farther degree of Contentment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a desire that will not be confined within reasonable bounds and a solicitous anxious care whereby we create to our selves a great deal of vexation to very little purpose with taking thought for the success of our affairs are the rank weeds of an earthly mind and evident signs of the want of true Contentment 17. And so is also thirdly that pinching and penurious humor which because it is an Evidence of a heart wretchedly set upon the World we commonly call Miserableness and the persons so affected Misers When a man cannot find in his heart to take part of that which God sendeth for his own moderate comfort and for the convenient sustenance of his Family and of those that belong to him in some measure of proportion sutably both to his Estate and Rank Servorum ventres modio castigat iniquo Ipse quoque esuriens For whereas the contented man that which he hath not he wanteth not because he can live without it this wretch on the contrary wanteth even that which he hath because he liveth beside it He that is truly contented with what God hath lent him for his portion can be also well content to use it as becometh him and as his occasions require because that which God intended it for when he lent it him was the use not the bare possission Not that the owner should behold it with his Eyes and then neither receive farther good from it not do farther good with it but that it should be used and employed to the glory of the Giver and the comfort of the Receiver and others with all Thankfulness and Sobriety and Charity 18. And do we not also fourthly too often and too evidently bewray the discontentedness of our minds by our murmuring and repining at the ways of Gods providence in the dispensation of these outward things when at any time they fall out cross to our desires and expectations The Israelites of old were much to blame this way and the Lord often plagued them for it insomuch that the Apostle proposeth their punishment as a monitory Example for all others to take warning by 1 Cor. 10. Neither murmur ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer In Aegypt where they had meat enough they murmured for want of liberty and in the wilderness where they had liberty enough they murmured for want of meat There by reason of the hard bondage they were in under Pharaoh and his cruel Officers they would have exchanged their very Lives had it been possible for a little Liberty Here when they wanted either bread or water or flesh they would have exchanged their liberty again for the Onions and Garlick and flesh-pots of Aegypt Like wayward children that are never well full nor fasting but always wrangling so were they And as they were then so have ever since been and still are the greatest part of mankind and all for want of this holy learning Whereas he that is well versed in this Art of Contentation is ever like himself the same full and fasting always quiet and always thankful 19. Yea and charitable too in the dispensation of the temporals God hath bestowed upon him for the comfortable relief of the poor distressed members of Jesus Christ which is another good sign of a Contented mind For what should make him sparing to them who feareth no want for himself As the godly man is described in Psal 112. His heart is fixed and established and his trust is in the Lord and thence it is that he is so chearfully disposed to disperse abroad and to give to the poor Some boast of their Contentedness as other some do of their Religiousness and both upon much like slender grounds They because they live of their own and do no man wrong these because they frequent the house of God and the holy Assemblies Good things they are both none doubteth and necessary Appendices respectively of those two great Vertues for certainly that man cannot be either truly Contented that doth not the one or truly Religious that neglecteth the other But yet as certain it is that no man hath either more Contentment or more Religion than he hath Charity You then that would be thought either contented or religious now if ever shew the truth of your Contentation and the power of your Religion by the works of Mercy and Compassion The times are hard by the just judgment of God upon a thankless Nation and thousands now are pinched with famine and want who were able in some measure and in their low condition to sustain themselves heretofore By this opportunity which he hath put into your hands the Lord hath put you to the Test and to the Trial and he now expecteth and so doth the World too that if you have either of those Graces in you which you pretend to you should manifest the fruits of them by refreshing the bowels of the needy If now you draw back and do not according to your Abilities and the Necessities of the times seriously and seasonably bring forth out of your treasures and dispence out of your abundance and that with more than ordinary liberality somewhat for the succour of those that stand in extreme need how dwelleth the love of God in you How dare you talk of Contentedness or make semblance of Religion Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their Afflictions and to keep ones self unspotted of the world The same will serve as one good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among others whereby to make trial of the truth of our Contentedness also 20. Lastly it is a good sign of Contentedness when a man that hath any while enjoyed Gods blessings with comfort can be content to part with them quietly and with patience when the Lord calleth for them back again The things we have are not properly data but commodata When God lent us the use of them he had no meaning to forgo the property too and therefore they are his Goods still and he may require them at our hands or take them from us when he will and dispose of them as he pleaseth I will return and take away my corn and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wooll and my flax Osea 2. What we have we hold of him as our Creditor and when he committed these things to our trust they were not made over to us by covenant for any fixed term Whensoever therefore he shall think good to call in his debts it is our part to return them with patience shall I say yea and with thankfulness too that he hath suffered us to enjoy them so long but without the least grudging or repining as too often we do that we may not hold them longer
Miracles in compiling of Legends in gelding of good Authors by expurgatory indexes in jugling with Magistrates by lewd equivocations c. Practices warrantable by no pretence Yet in their account but piae fraudes for so they term them no less ridiculously than falsly for the one word contradicteth the other But what do I speak of these but petty things in comparison of those her lowder Impieties breaking covenants of truce and peace dissolving of lawful and dispensing for unlawful marriages assoyling Subjects from their Oaths and Allegiance plotting Treasons and practising Rebellions excommunicating and dethroning Kings arbitrary disposing of Kingdoms stabbing and murthering of Princes warranting unjust invasions and blowing up Parliament houses For all which and divers other foul attempts their Catholick defence is the advancement forsooth of the Catholick Cause Like his in the Poet Quocunque modorem is their Resolution by right or wrong the State of the Papacy must be upheld That is their unum necessarium and if heaven favour not rather than fail help must be had from hell to keep Antichrist in his throne But to let them pass and touch nearer home There are God knoweth many Ignorants abroad in the world some of them so unreasonable as to think they have non plus'd any reprover if being admonished of something ill done they have but returned this poor reply Is it not better to do so than to do worse but also what necessity of doing either so or worse when Gods law bindeth thee from both He that said â— Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill and he that said Do not steal said also Do not lye If then thou lye or kill or do any other sin though thou thinkest thereby to avoid stealth or adultery orsome other sin yet thou art become a transgressor of the Law and by offending in one point of it guilty of all It is but a poor choice when a man is desperately resolved to cast himself away whether he should rather hang or drown or stab or pine himself to death there may be more horrour more pain more lingring in one than another but they all come to one period and determine in the same point death is the issue of them all And it can be but a slender comfort for a man that will needs thrust himself into the mouth of hell by sinning wilfully that he is damned rather for lying than for stealing or whoring or killing or some greater crime Damnation is the wages of them all Murther can but hang a man and without favour Petty Larceny will hang a man too The greatest sins can but damn a man and without Gods mercy the smallest will damn a man too But what will some reply In case two sins be propounded may I not do the lesser to avoid the greater otherwise must I not of necessity do the greater The answer is short and easie If two sins be propounded do neither E malis minimum holdeth as you heard and yet not always neither in evils of pain But that is no Rule for evils of sin Here the safer Rule is E malis nullum And the reason is sound from the Principle we have in hand If we may not do any evil to procure a positive good certainly much less may we do one evil to avoid or prevent another But what if both cannot be avoided but that one must needs be done In such a strait may I not choose the lesser To thee I say again as before Choose neither To the Case I answer It is no Case because as it is put it is a case impossible For Nemo angustiatur ad peccandum the Case cannot be supposed wherein a man should be straitned as he could not come off fairly without sinning A man by rashness or fear or frailty may foully entangle himself and through the powerful engagements of sin drive himself into very narrow straits or be so driven by the fault or injury of others yet there cannot be any such straits as should enforce a necessity of sinning but that still there is one path or other out of them without sin The perplexity that seemeth to be in the things is rather in the men who puzzle and lose themselves in the Labyrinths of sin because they care not to heed the clue that would lead them out if it were followed Say a wicked man through heat of blood make a wicked vow to kill his brother here he hath by his own rashness brought himself into a seeming strait that either he must commit a murther or break a vow either of which seemeth to be a great sin the one aga inst the fifth the other against the third Commandment But here is in very deed no strait or perplexity at all Here is a fair open course for him without sin He may break his vow and there 's an end Neither is this the choice of the lesser sin but only the loosening of the lesser bond the bond of charity being greater than the bond of a promise and there being good reason that in terms of inconsistency when both cannot stand the lesser bond should yield to the greater But is it not a sin for a man to break a vow Yes where it may be helpt salvis charitate justitia there the breach is a sin but in the case proposed it is no sin As Christ saiâ—h in the point of swearing so it may be said in the point of breach of vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never was any breach of vow but it was peccatum or ex peocato the breaking is either it self forâ—ally a sin or it argueth at least a former sin in the making So as the sin in the case alledged was before in making such an unlawful vow and for that sin the party must repent but the breaking of it now it is made is no new sin Rather it is a necessary duty and a branch of that repentance which is due for the former rashness in making it because an hurtful vow is and that virtute praecepti rather to be broken than kept The Aegyptian Midwives not by their own fault but by Pharaoh's tyrannous command are driven into a narrow strait enforcing a seeming necessity of sin for either they must destroy the Hebrew Children and so sin by Murther or else they must devise some handsome shift to carry it clean from the King's knowledge and so sin by lying And so they did they chose rather to lye than to kill as indeed in the compatison it is by much the lesser sin But the very truth is they should have done neither they should flatly have refused the King's Commandment though with hazard of their lives and have resolved rather to suffer any evil than to do any And so Lot should have done he should rather have adventured his own life and theirs too in protecting the chastity of his Daughters and the safety of his Guests than
on Here is all the choice that is left thee either Repent or Suffer There is a generation of men that as Moses complaineth When they hear the words of Gods curse bless themselves in their hearts and say they shall have peace though they walk in the imagination of their own hearts that as Saint Paul complaineth Despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not taking knowledge that the goodness of God would lead them to repentance that as Saint Peter complaineth Walk after their own lusts and scoffingly just at Gods judgments saying Where is the promise of his coming But let such secure and carnal scoffers be assured that howsoever others speed they shall never go unpunished Whatsoever becometh of God's Threatnings against others certainly they shall fall heavy upon them They that have taught us their conditions Moses and Paul and Peter have taught us also their punishments Moses telleth such a one however others are dealt with that yet the Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the Curses that are written in God's Book shall light upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under heaven St. Paul telleth such men That by despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance they do but treasure up unto themselves wrath against the great day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Saint Peter telleth them howsoever they not only sleep but snort in deep security That yet p their judgment of long time sleepeth not and their damnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as slumbreth Do thou then take heed whoever thou art and whatsoever thou dost that thou abuse not the Mercy of God and to divorce it from his Truth is to abuse it If when God threatneth thou layest aside his Truth and presumest on his bare Mercy when he punisheth take heed he do not cry quittance with thee by laying aside his Mercy and manifesting his bare Truth God is patient and merciful Patience will bear much Mercy forbear much but being scorned provoked and dared Patience it self turneth furious and Mercy it self cruel It is Mercy that threatneth it is Iustice that punisheth Mercy hath the first turn and if by Faith and Repentance we lay timely hold of it we may keep it for ever and revenging Iustice shall have nothing to do with us But if careless and secure we slip the opportunity and neglect the time of Mercy the next turn belongeth to Iustice which will render Iudgment without Mercy to them that forgat God and despised his Mercy That for the Secure Now thirdly and generally for All. What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder God hath purposely in his threats joyned and tempered Mercy and Truth together that we might take them together and profit by them together Dividat haec si quis faciunt discreta venenum Antidotum sumet qui sociata bibet as he spake of the two poisons Either of these single though not through any malignant quality in themselves God forbid we should think so yet through the corrupt temperature of our Souls becometh rank and deadly Poison to us Take Mercy without Truth as a cold Poison it benummeth us and maketh us stupid with careless security Take Truth without Mercy as a hot Poison it scaldeth us and scorcheth us in the flames of restless Despair Take both together and mix them well as hot and cold Poisons fitly tempered by the skill of the Apothecary become medicinable so are God's Mercy and Truth restorative to the Soul The consideration of his Truth humbleth us without it we would be fearless the consideration of his Mercy supporteth us without it we would be hopeless Truth begetteth Fear and Repentance Mercy Faith and Hope and these two Faith and Repentance keep the soul even and upright and steddy as the ballast and sail do the ship that for all the rough waves and weather that encountereth her in the troublesom sea of this World she miscarrieth not but arriveth safe and joyful in the Haven where she would be Faith without Repentance is not Faith but Presumption like a Ship all Sail and no ballast that tippeth over with every blast and Repentance without Faith is not Repentance but Despair like a Ship all ballast and no Sail which sinketh with her own weight What is it then we are to do to turn away God's Wrath from us and to escape the Iudgments he threatneth against us even this As in his Comminations he joyneth Mercy and Truth together so are we in our Humiliations to joyn Faith and Repentance together His threatnings are true let us not presume of forbearance but fear since he hath threatned that unless we repent he will strike us Yet his threatnings are but conditional let us not despair of forbearance but hope although he hath threatened that yet if we repent he will spare us That is the course which the godly guided by the direction of his holy Spirit have ever truly and sincerely held and found it ever comfortable to assure them of sound peace and reconciliation with God That is the course which the very Hypocrites from the suggestion of natural Conscience have sometimes offered at as far as Nature enlightened but unrenewed could lead them and found it effectual to procure them at the least some forbearance of threatned Judgments or abatement of temporal evils from God Thus have you heard three Uses made of God's mercy in revoking joyned with his truth in performing what he threatneth One to chear up the distressed that he despair not when God threatneth another to shake up the secure that he dispise not when God threatneth a third to quicken up all that they believe and repent when God threatneth There is yet another general Use to be made hereof which though it be not directly proper to the present Argument yet I cannot willingly pass without a little touching at it and that is to instruct us for the understanding of God's Promises For contraries as Promises and Threatnings are being of the like kind and reason either with other do mutually give and take light either to and from other God's Threatnings are true and stedfast his Promises are so too promisit qui non mentitur Deus which God that cannot lye hath promised saith the Apostle in one place and in another All the Promises of God are Yea and Amen and where in a third place he speaketh of two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye his Promise is one of those two The Promises then of God are true as his Threatnings are Now look on those Threatnings again which we have already found to be true but withal conditional and such as must be ever understood with a clause of reservation or exception It is so also in the
any one man for another and to the third Why God should punish the lesser offender for the greater In which and all other doubts of like kind it is enough for the clearing of God's justice to consider that when God doth so they are first only temporal punishments which he so inflicteth and those secondly no more than what the sufferer by his own Sins hath most rightfully deserved All those other considerations as that the Prince and People are but one Body and so each may feel the smart of others sins and stripes That oftentimes we have given way to other mens sins when we might have stopped them or consent when we should have withstood them or silent allowance when we should have checked them or perhaps furtherance when we should rather have hindred them That the punishments brought upon us for our fathers or other mens sins may turn to our great spiritual advantage in the humbling of our Souls the subduing of our Corruptions the increasing of our Care the exercising of our Graces That where all have deserved the punishment it is left to the discretion of the Iudge whom he will pick out the Father or the Son the Governour or the Subject the Ring-leader or the Follower the Greater or the Lesser Offender to shew exemplary justice upon as he shall see expedient I say all these and other like Considerations many though they are to be admitted as true and observed as useful yet they are such as belong rather to God's Providence and his Wisdom than to his Iustice. If therefore thou knowest not the very particular reason why God should punish thee in this or that manner or upon this or that occasion let it suffice thee that the Counsels and purposes of God are secret and thou art not to enquire with sorupolous curiosity into the dispensation and courses of his Providence farther than it hath pleased him either to reveal it in his Word or by his manifest Works to discover it unto thee But whatsoever thou dost never make question of his Iustice. Begin first to make inquiry into thine own self and if after impartial search thou there findest not corruption enough to deserve all-out as much as God hath laid upon thee then complain of Injustice but not before And so much for the Doubts Let us now from the premises raise some instructions for our use First Parents we think have reason to be careful and so they have for their children and to desire and labour as much as in them lieth their well-doing Here is a fair course then for you that are parents and have children to care for do you that which is good and honest and right and they are like to fare the better for it Wouldest thou then Brother leave thy lands and thy estate to thy Child entire and free from Incumbrances It is an honest care but here is the way Abstineas igitur damnandis Leave them free from the guilt of thy sins which are able to cumber them beyond any statute or mortgage If not the bond of God's Law if not the care of thine own Soul if not the fear of Hell if not the inward checks of thine own Conscience At peccaturo obstet tibi filius infans at the least let the good of thy poor sweet infants restrain thee from doing that sin which might pull down from heaven a plague upon them and theirs Go to then do not applaud thy self in thy witty villanies when thou hast circumvented and prospered when Ahab-like thou hast killed and taken possession when thou hast larded thy leaner Revenues with fat collops sacrilegiously cut out of the sides or flanks of the Church and hast nailed all these with all the appurtenances by Fines and Vouchers and Entails as firm as Law can make them to thy child and his child and his childs child for ever After all this stir cast up thy bills and see what a goodly bargain thou hast made thou hast damned thy self to undo thy Child thou hast brought a curse upon thine own Soul to purchase that for thy Child which will bring a curse both upon it and him When thy Indentures were drawn and thy learned Council fee'd to peruse the Instrument and with exact severity to ponder with thee every clause and syllable therein could none of you spy a flaw in that clause with all and singular th' appurtenances neither observe that thereby thou didst settle upon thy Posterity together with thy Estate the wrath and vengeance and curse of God which is one of those appurtenances Hadst thou not a faithful Counsellor within thine own Breast if thou wouldst but have conferred and advised with him plainly and undissemblingly that could have told thee thou hadst by thy Oppression and Injustice ipso facto cut off the entail from thy Issue even long before thou hadst made it But if thou wouldst leave to thy posterity a firm and secure and durable estate do this rather purchase for them by thy charitable works the prayers and blessings of the poor settle upon them the fruits of a religious sober and honest education bequeath them the legacy of thy good example in all vertuous and godly living and that portion thou leavest them besides of earthly things be it much or little be sure it be well-gotten otherwise never look it should prosper with them A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and sowereth it and a little ill gotten like a Gangreen spreadeth through the whole estate and worse than Aqua fortis or the poisoned shirt that Dejanira gave Hercules cleaveth unto it and feedeth upon it and by little and little gnaweth and fretteth and consumeth it to nothing And surely God's Iustice hath wonderfully manifested it self unto the World in this kind sometimes even to the publick astonishment and admiration of all men that men of ancient Families and great Estates well left by their Ancestors and free from Debts Legacies or other Encumbrances not notedly guilty of any expenceful sin or vanity but wary and husbandly and careful to thrive in the World not kept under with any great burden of needy friends or charge of Children not much hindred by any extraordinary losses â—or casualities of fire thieves suretiship or sutes that such men I say should yet sink and decay and run behind hand in the World and their Estates crumble and moulder away and come to nothing and no man knoweth how No question but they have sins enough of their own to deserve all this and ten times more than all this but yet withal who knoweth but that it might nay who knoweth not that sometimes it doth so legible now and then are Gods Iudgments come upon them for the greediness and avarice and oppression and sacrilege and injustice of their not long foregoing Ancestors You that are parents take heed of these sins It may be for some other reasons known best to himself God suffereth you to go
Magistrates some Ministers some Merchants some Artificers some one thing some another as to their particular Callings But as to the General Calling there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common Salvation all called to the same State of being the servants and children of God all called to the performance of the same duties of servants and to the expectation of the same inheritance of children all called to be Christians Of both which Callings the General and Particular there is not I take it any where in Scripture mention made so expresly and together as in this passage of our Apostle especially at the 20. vers Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called Where besides the matter the Apostles elegancy is observable in using the same word in both significations the Noun signifying the Particular and the Verb the General Calling Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called bearing sence as if the Apostle had said Let every man abide in the same Particular Calling wherein he stood at the time of his General Calling And the same and no other is the meaning of the words of my Text. Whence it appeareth that the Calling my Text implieth and wherein every man is here exhorted to abide is to be understood of the Particular and not of the General Calling And of this Particular Calling it is we now intend to speak And that in the more Proper and restrained signification of it as it importeth some setled course of life with reference to business office and employment accordingly as we say a man is called to be a Minister called to be a Lawyer called to be a Tradesman and the like Although I cannot be ignorant that our Apostle as the stream of his argument carried him here taketh the word in a much wider extent as including not only such special courses of life as refer to employment but even all outward personal states and conditions of men whatsoever whether they have such reference or no as we may say a man is called to Marriage or to single life called to riches or poverty and the like But omitting this larger signification we will hold our selves either only or principally to the former and by Calling understand A special setled course of life wherein mainly to employ a mans gifts and time for his own and the common good The Necessity whereof whilest we mention you are to imagine not an absolute and positive but a conditional and suppositive necessity Not as if no man could be without one de facto daily experience in these dissolute times manifesteth the contrary but because de jure no man should be without one This kind of Calling is indeed necessary for all men But how Not as a necessary thing ratione termini so as the want thereof would be an absolute impossibility but virtute praecepti as a necessary duty the neglect whereof would be a grievous and sinful enormity He that will do that which he ought and is in conscience bound to do must of necessity live in some calling or other That is it we mean by the necessity of a Calling And this Necessity we are now to prove And that First from the Obedience we owe to every of Gods Ordinances and the account we must render for every of Gods Gifts Amongst those Ordinances this is one and one of the first that in the sweat of our faces every man of us should eat our bread Gen. 3. The force of which precept let none think to avoid by a quirk that forsooth it was laid upon Adam after his transgression rather as a Curse which he must endure than as a Duty which he should perform For first as some of Gods Curses such is his Goodness are promises as well as curses as is that of the Enmity between the Womans seed and the Serpents so some of Gods Curses such is his Iustice are Precepts as well as Curses as is that of the Womans subjection to the Man This of eating our bread in the sweat of our face is all the three it is a Curse it is a Promise it is a Precept It is a Curse in that God will not suffer the earth to afford us bread without our sweat It is a Promise in that God assureth us we shall have bread for our sweat And it is a Precept too in that God enjoyneth us if we will have bread to sweat for it Secondly although it may not be gainsaid but that that injunction to Adam was given as a Curse yet the substance of the Injunction was not the thing wherein the Curse did formally consist Herein was the Curse that whereas before the fall the task which God appointed man was with pleasure of body and content of mind without sweat of brow or brain now after the Fall he was to toil and forecast for his living with care of mind and travel of body with weariness of flesh and vexation of spirit But as for the substance of the Injunction which is that every man should have somewhat to do wherein to bestow himself and his time and his gifts and whereby to earn his bread in this it appeareth not to have been a Curse but a Precept of divine institution that Adam in the time and state of innocency before he had deserved a Curse was yet enjoyned his Task To dress and to keep the garden And as Adam lived himself so he bred up his children His two first born though heirs apparent of all the world had yet their peculiar employments the one in tillage the other in pasturage And as many since as have walked orderly have observed Gods Ordinance herein Working with their hands the thing that is good in some kind or other those that have set themselves in no such good way our Apostle elsewhere justly blaming as inordinate or disorderly walkers And how can such disorderly ones hope to find approvance in the sight of our God who is a God of Order He commandeth us to live in a Calling and wo to us if we neglect it But say there were no such express Command for it the very distribution of God's gifts were enough to lay upon us this necessity Where God bestoweth he bindeth and to whom any thing is given of him something shall be required The inference is stronger than most are aware of from the Ability to the Duty from the Gift to the Work from the Fitting to the Calling Observe how this Apostle knitteth them together at the 17. Verse as God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk God hath distributed to every man some proper gift or other and therefore every man must glorifie God in some peculiar Calling or other And in Eph. 4. having alledged that of the Psalm He gave gifts unto men immediately he inferreth He gave some Apostles some
knowledge 35 3. nor exempt from his punishment 36 The Inference thence Sermon III. Ad Magistratum on 1 SAM xii 3. Sect. 1 3. THe Occasion 4 Scope and 5 7 Division of the Text. 8 POINT I. Samuels voluntary offering himself to the trial 9 13 Five probable Reasons thereof 14 15 POINT II. Samuels confidence of his own Integrity 16 18 The Inference and Application 19 21 POINT III. Samuels Justice I. In disclaiming all unjust gain II. In general 22 24 With the general inference thence 25 26 and special application to Judicature 27 30 in the Particulars viz. 1. Fraud 31 34 2. Oppression 35 39 3. Bribery 49 41 a special property whereof is to blind the eyes 42 c. III. In offering Restitution Sermon VIII Ad Populum on PROV xix 21. Sect. 1 3. BEtween Gods ways and ours 4 5 Three remarkeable Differences in the Text. 7 14 DIFF I. in their Names 15 17 II. in their Number 18 21 III. in their manner of Existing 22 REASONS thereof taken from 23 24 1. The Soveraignty of God 25 26 2. The Eternity of God 27 28 3. The Wisdom of God 29 30 4. The Power of God 31 INFERENCES thence 32 3 The First 34 The Second 35 37 The Third 38 39 The Fourth 40 41 The Fifth 42 An Objection 43 44 Answered AD AULAM. The first Sermon WHITE-HALL November 1631. Eccles. 7. 1. A good Name is better than precious Oyntment and 1. WHere the Author professeth himself a Preacher it cannot be improper to stile the Treatise a Sermon This Book is such a Sermon and the Preacher being a King a Royal Sermon He took a very large but withal a very barren Text. His Text the whole World with all the pleasures and profits and honours and endeavours and businesses and events that are to be found under the Sun From which so large a Text after as exact a survey thereof taken as unwearied diligence in searching joyned with incomparable wisdom in judging could make he could not yet with all his skill raise any more than this one bare and short Conclusion proposed in the very entrance of his Sermon as the only Doctrinal Point to be insisted upon throughout Vanity of Vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of Vanities all is vanity This he proveth all along by sundry Instances many in number and various for the kind to make the induction perfect that so having fully established the main Doctrine which he therefore often inculcateth in his passage along that all things in the World are but Vanity he might the more effectually enforce the main Use which he intended to infer from it and reserveth as good Orators use to do for the close and Epilogue of the whole Sermon namely that quitting the World and the Vanities thereof men should betake themselves to that which alone is free from vanity to wit the fear and service of God Hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man 2. To the men of the world whose affections are set upon the World and who propose and promise to themselves much contentment and happiness from the things of this World as the main Doctrine it self is so are most of the Proofs and passages of the whole Sermon very Paradoxes We may not unfitly therefore call this Book Solomons Paradoxes Look no further than a few of the next following verses of this very Chapter To prefer the house of mourning before the house of feasting sorrow before laughter rebukes before Praises the end of a thing when it shall be no more before the beginning of it when it is ing and coming on a soft patient suffering spirit before a stout and haughty mind and learning before riches as the Preacher here doth what are all these and other like many if we respect the common judgment of the World but so many Paradoxes The Writings of Zeno and Chrysippus if we had them extant with the whole School of Stoicks would not afford us Paradoxes more or greater than this little book of Solomon doth There are no less than two in this short verse Wherein quite oppositely to what value the World usually setteth upon them Solomon out of the depth of that Wisdom wherewith God had filled his heart preferreth a good Name before precious Oyntment and the day of death before the day of ones birth Paradoxes both Besides the common opinion but most agreeable to truth and reason both as to him that shall duly examine them both will clearly appear It will find us work enough at this time to examine but the former only in those words A good name is better than a precious Oyntment 3. Wherein before I come to the pith of the matter I cannot but take notice of an Elegancy observable in the very bark and rind of the Letters in the Hebrew Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Figure Paronomasia as Rhetoricians call it a near affinity both in the Letters and Sound between the words whereby the opposite Terms of the Comparison are expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Oyntment Such allusions and agnominations are no strangers in either of the holy Tongues but of frequent use both in the Old and New Testaments Examples might be alledged many As out of the Old Testament Jer. 1. 11. 12. Ose. 9. 15. Amos 5. 5. and 8. 2. Ezek. 7. 6. And out of the New many more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 15. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes. 3. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three together as it were with a breath Rom. 1. 29. 31. But omitting the rest I shall commend unto you but two but those very remarkable ones out of either Testament one The one in Isa. 24. where the Prophet expressing the variety of Gods inevitable judgments under three several appellations The Fear the Pit and the Snare useth three several words but agreeing much with one another in letters and sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pachadh the Fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pachath the Pit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pach the Snare The other in Rom. 12. where the Apostle exhorting men not to think of themselves too highly but according to sobriety setteth it off with exquisite elegancy thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The more inconsiderate that I say not uncharitable and unjust they that pass their censures very freely as I have sometimes heard some do fondly and rashly enough upon Preachers When now and then in their popular Sermons they let fall the like Elegancies scatter in here and there some flowers of Elooution among As if all use of Rhetorical ornaments did savour of an unsanctified spirit or were the rank superfluities of a carnal Wit or did adulterate corrupt and flatten the sincere milk
was troubled at it not a little He might fear lest the cashiered Souldiers should do him some displeasure as they returned back and so they did and that a shrewd displeasure too but the thing he stuck at most was the moneys he was out What shall we do saith he for the hundred talents which I have given to the Army of Israel He thought it went hard to part with such a round sum for nothing Indeed the Prophet put him into the right way even to give it for lost and to rest upon the goodness of God who was able to give him much more than that And the King did very well and wisely to hearken to the counsel of the Prophet and to be content to sit down with the loss And so he came well off at the last though he was dangerously engaged onward 42. Besides that Verbal and this Real there is yet a third which I call a sinful Engagement because it is such originally and à principio for the two former also are sinful à termino and in the Event far worse than either of both And that is when a man hath already done some evil from which he cannot handsomly acquit himself but to his loss or shame or other punishment unless he either cover it or maintain it or some other way help himself by laying another sin upon it as untoward Children and naughty Servants are wont when they have done a fault and yet would shun the blame to shift it off with a lie This is the most dangerous tye of all other and there is nothing that so desperately casteth a man upon a wilful resolution of sinning as when the committing of one Sin bringeth with it a seeming necessity of doing another This makes men like the Giants in the Poets imponere Pelion Ossoe to heap sin upon sin to pile up transgressions one upon another and to add thirst to drunkeness It was Davids very case in the matter of Uriah He had never proceeded to such black thoughts as to plot the murther of a person so worthy and so innocent in so base a manner and with so much palpable hypocrisie had he not been deeply ingaged before by another dishonest act already by him committed He had lain with the wife she proving with child and all his other shifts whereby he had attempted to cloak it taking no effect the thing was like to come to publick knowledge to his everlasting disgrace if not also to the great reproach of Religion No way now to help it but to take the husband out of the way and to marry the widow He resolveth upon it therefore so it must be come what will come on it Iacta est alea David was already in and now no remedy but he must on 43. These be fearful things Therefore as wary men in the world love to keep themselves out of bonds so do thou beware of these Engagements Seldom doth a man fall into a Presumptuous Sin but where the Devil hath got such a hank over him as one of these three I have now mentioned But he that hath suffered himself to be thus ensnared hath this only way left for his escape even to disengage himself out of hand by breaking through the snare if he cannot fairly unty it as Alexander cut the great knot in pieces with his sword which he could else never have unloosed Know that neither Oath Vow nor other tye whatsoever is allowed by Almighty God to be Vinculum iniquitatis to bind thee to any sinful inconvenience Whatsoever seeming necessity there is of doing evil consider it groweth but by a latter contract but God is able to plead a precontract be vertue whereof there lieth upon thee an absolute necessity of obedience Oppose then against all thy rash promises and vows that solemn promise and vow thou madest unto God in the face of the Congregation and tookest the holy Sacrament upon it in thy Baptism to keep his holy Commandments and to continue his faithful servant and souldier unto thy lives end Let Equity teach thee that the first bond should be first discharged and Reason that if an Oath or Vow must stand the first should rather That is the Third Preservative 44. Lastly and in a word Obdura Harden thy self with a holy obstinacy and wilfulness and Obtura stop thy ears like the deaf Adder against all the inchantments of Satan and his instruments when they would by any cunning inticement charm thee into any kind of Sin It is Solomons receipt and a sure one no antidote like it My Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not Yet even from these Sinners thou mayest learn this point of Wisdom behold how resolute and wilful they are in their courses Disswade them therefrom with the best art you can devise they will it may be give you the hearing perhaps confess you speak reason But they hold the Conclusion still in despite of all Premisses when you have said what you can they will do what they list Why canst thou not be as obstinately good as they are obstinately evil And notwithstanding all the sophisms of Satan perswasions of carnal Reason allurements or discouragements in the world say and hold that thou wilt not for all that depart from the obedience of thy Maker Away from me ye wicked for I will keep the Commandments of my God saith David Psal. 119. As if he had said Talk no more of it save your breath I am resolved of my course I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep the Commandments of my God with Gods help there will I hold me and all the world shall not wrest me from it 45 The Divel is an errand Sophister and will not take an answer though never so reasonable and satisfactory but will ever have somewhat or other to reply So long as we hold us but to Ob. and Sol. to argument and answer he will never out but wrangle in infinitum You may see it in Mat. 4. how ready he was with his Replies even upon our blessed Saviour himself and that with Scriptum est too as if he meant to drop quotations with him But as there Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avoid Satan non-plust the Tempter beyond all the Reasons and Authorities that could be produced so the safest way for us to come off clear from him is to give him a flat denial without further reason and let him take that for an answer if he will any Thus to be Wilful is a blessed wilfulness a resolution well becoming the servant and child of God and a strong preservative against wilful Presumption The fort is as good as half lost having to treat with such a cunning enemy if you do but once admit of a Treaty therefore stand off 46. But when we have done all we must begin again When we have resolved and endeavoured what we can unless the Lord be pleased to set his Fiat unto it and
Consider thirdly how willing our Master is to teach us Come ye children I will teach you the fear of the Lord and let that provoke in us the like willingness to learn speak Lord for thy servant heareth Consider Fourthly the usefulness of this learning We desire all of us and good reason we have to learn perfectly the Mysteries of those Trades and Professions which we intend to exercise as our particular Callings because thereof we shall have continual use in the whole course of our lives This learning we now speak of is a holy mystery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostles word for it in the next verse and it is a most useful and behoofeful and necessary mystery for us all in the whole practice of Christianity there is indeed no good to be done in our Christian Profession without it See some benefits of it and then judge if it be not worth the learning It sweetneth all the bitterness of this present life To labour and to be content with that a man hath is a sweet life saith the Son of Sirac in his 40th Chapter It keepeth the mind in a constant equal tranquillity amidst all the changes and chances of this mortal life It maketh us rich in despite of the world for what riches is like this for a man to want nothing He may be without many things that others have but he wanteth them not even as the Angels in heaven that have neither meat nor drink nor cloaths nor houses nor lands nor any of those bodily things yet want none of them because they are well enough without them And so the contented man though having nothing yet is in the self-sufficiency of his mind as if he possessed all things It giveth a wonderful improvement unto the meanest of these outward things and by disesteeming them setteth a better value upon them For he that hath once well learned this Art is able by his learning to make a dinner of green herbs as serviceable as a stall-fed Ox and a little Pulse and water as comfortable and savoury as all the delicacies in the Kingdom of Babylon How should the consideration of these things whet our desires and resolutions not to suffer our eye to sleep till we had made some entrance into and some fair proceedings in this so excellent and profitable a learning 14. A needful Exhortation may some say for those that are yet to learn but as for us we have been long acquainted with it and have as contented minds as any man would desire The happier men they if it prove so but the heart of man is very wicked and deceitful and it were good for us not to think well of our selves above what we ought to think Sure I am that in all Secular learnings the old saying is most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no greater hinderance unto proficiency than is an over weening conceit in any man of that learning he hath already And not unlikely but in this spiritual learning also that man that wanteth skill the most may see his own want the least That therefore we may deal soundly in the trial of our own hearts and not deceive our selves herein upon false grounds as we may soon do and as too many do it will be expedient in the third place to lay down some rules for the examination of our proficiency if not rather for the conviction of our non-proficiency in this kind of learning 15. And first if a man have once attained to a good mediocrity in this Art it will not suffer him to transgress the bounds of Iustice and Charity for the getting of the things of this life He knoweth very well according to the Principles he hath been taught That a little with righteousness is better than great revenues of the ungodly That the treasures of wickedness will do a man little profit in the evil day nor yield him any comfort when he will most of all stand in need thereof upon his death-bed That though an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning yet the end thereof shall not be blessed And that bread gotten by deceit however it may be sweet in the mouth will turn to gravel in the belly Abraham would not take to himself of the spoils of Sodom to the value of a shoo latchet that it might never be said in after-times that the King of Sodom had made Abraham rich So neither will any godly man that hath learned the Art of Contentation suffer a penny of the gain of Ungodliness to mingle with the rest of his estate that the Devil may not be able to upbraid him with it afterwards to his shame as if he had contributed something towards the increasing thereof Try thy self now by this first Rule thou that boastest thy self so much of thy contented mind but shewest not thy self over-scrupulous where gain is before thee If thy resolutions have been or are according to the common guise of the World Quocunque modo rem to gain and gather treasure and to feather thy nest whether by right or wrong If thou hast adventured to encrease thy substance by bribery or forgery by usury and extortion by sacrilegiously detaining or invading the Churches Patrimony by griping and wringing excessive fees from poor men by delays of justice by racking of Rents to an unreasonable proportion by false weights and measures and lies and oaths If thou canst dispense with thy conscience so as to take advantage of thy neighbours poverty or simplicity or to make advantage of thy own either power to oppress him or cunning to circumvent him be not too confident of thy learning in this Art Injustice and Contentment cannot certainly stand together 16. Neither secondly hath he attained to any good degree of knowledge herein whose thoughts are too intent upon and whose desires too eager after the things of this earth although he should not attempt the compassing thereof by any other than lawful means only A greedy eye and a craving heart importunately hungring and thirsting after the Mammon of unrighteousness whereas the hunger and thirst of a through Christian should be after Christ and the righteousness of his Kingdom is a certain symptome of a mind not truly contented And so are those carking and disquieting cares likewise which our Saviour so much condemneth Mat. 6. The Apostle therefore so speaketh of Covetousness and Contentment as of things that stand in direct opposition either to other Let your conversation be without covetousness saith he and be content with such things as ye have Heb. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a studious care to walk faithfully and diligently in the duties of our Vocations and a moderate desire of bettering our Estates by our providence in a fair way without the injuring of others are not only lawful and expedient in themselves but are also good signs of a contented
it is this a very good one too viz. That when we are to try the Doctrines we should duly examine them whether they be according unto Godliness yea or no. Our Saviours direction for the discovery of false Prophets Mat. 7. is to this very purpose Ex fructibus Ye shall know them by their fruits Meaneth he it trow you of the fruits of their lives in their outward Conversation Verily no not only no nor principally neither perhaps not at all For Falshood is commonly set off by Hypocrisie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the next following verse here Shews of Sanctity and Purity pretensions of Religion and Reformation is the wool that the woolf wrappeth about him when he meaneth to do most mischief with least suspicion The Old Serpent sure is never so silly as to think his Ministers the Ministers of darkness should be able to draw in a considerable party into their communion should they appear in their dismal colours therefore he putteth them into a new dress before he sendeth them abroad disguising and transforming them as if they were the Ministers of righteousness and of the light Our Saviour therefore cannot mean the fruits of their lives so much if at all as the fruits of their Doctrines that is to say the necessary consequents of their Doctrines such Conclusions as naturally and by good and evident discourse do issue from their Doctrines And so understood it is a very useful Rule even in the Affirmative taking in other requisite conditions withal but in the Negative taken even alone and by it self it holdeth infallibly If what is spoken seem to be according to Godliness it is the better to like onward and the more likely to be true yet may it possibly be false for all that and therefore it will be needful to try it farther and to make use of other Criterions withal But if what is spoken upon examination appear to have any repugnancy with Godliness in any one branch or duty thereunto belonging we may be sure the words cannot be wholsom words It can be no heavenly Doctrine that teacheth men to be Earthly Sensual or Devilish or that tendeth to make men unjust in their dealings uncharitable in their censures undutiful to their superiors or any other way superstitious licentious or prophane 32. I note it not without much rejoycing and gratulating to us of this Church There are God knoweth a-foot in the Christian World Controversies more than a good many Decads Centuries Chiliads of novel Tenents brought in in this last Age which were never believed many of them scarce ever heard of in the Ancient Church by Sectaries of all sorts Now it is our great comfort blessed be God for it that the Doctrine established in the Church of England I mean the publick Doctrine for that is it we are to hold us to passing by private Opinions I say the publick Doctrine of our Church is such as is not justly chargeable with any Impiety contrarious to any part of that Duty we owe either to God or Man Oh that our Conversations were as free from exception as our Religion is Oh that we were sufficiently careful to preserve the honour and lustre of the Truth we profess by the correspondency of our lives and actions thereunto 33. And upon this point we dare boldly joyn issue with our clamourous adversaries on either hand Papists I mean and Disciplinarians Who do both so loudly but unjustly accuse us and our Religion they as carnal and licentious these as Popish and superstitious As Elijah once said to the Baalites that God that answereth by fire let him be God so may we say to either of both and when we have said it not fear to put it to a fair trial That Church whose Dostrine Confession and Worship is most according to Godliness let that be the Church As for our Accusers if there were no more to be instanced in but that one cursed position alone wherein notwithstanding their disagreements otherwise they both consent That lawful Soveraigns may be by their Subjects resisted and Arms taken up against them for the cause of Religion it were enough to make good the Challenge against them both Which is such a notorious piece of Ungodliness as no man that either feareth God or King as he ought to do can speak of or think of without detestation and is certainly if either St. Peter or St. Paul those two great Apostles understood themselves a branch rather of that other great mystery 2 Thes. 2. the mystery of Iniquity than of the great mystery here in the Text the mystery of Godliness There is not that point in Popery besides to my understanding that maketh it savour so strongly of Antichrist as this one dangerous and desperate point of Iesuitism doth Wherein yet those men that are ever bawling against our Ceremonies and Service as Antichristian do so deeply and wretchedly symbolize with them The Lord be judge between them and us whether our Service or their Doctrine be the more Antichristian 34. I have done with the former Inference for the trial of Doctrines there is another yet behind for the bettering of our lives For sith Christianity is a mystery of Godliness it concerneth every Christian man so to take the mystery along with him that he leave not Godliness behind That is whatsoever becometh of doubtful Controversies to look well to his life and to make conscience of practising that which without all Controversie is his Duty I know Controversies must be looked into and it were well if it were done by them and by them only whose Gifts and Callings serve for it For Truths must be maintained Errors must be refuted and the Mouths of gain-sayers must be stopped All this must be done it is true but it is as true when all this is done still the shortest cut to heaven is Faith and Godliness 35. I know not how better to draw my Sermon towards a conclusion than by observing how the great Preacher concludeth his Eccles. last After he had taken a large and exact survey of all the travels that are done under the Sun and found nothing in them but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit he telleth us at length that in multitude of Books and much reading we may sooner meet with weariness than satisfaction But saith he if you will hear the end of all here it is this is the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole business of man upon which all his care and employment in this world should be spent So I say we may puzzle our selves in the pursuit of knowledg dive into the mysteries of all Arts and Sciences especially ingulph our selves deep in the studies of those three highest Professions of Physick Law and Divinity For Physick search into the Writings of Hippocrates Galen and the Methodists of Avicen and the Empyricks of Paracelsus and the Chymists for Law wrestle through the large bodies
not fashion themselves according to this present evil world But as at their Baptism they renounced the world with all the Pomps Lusts and Vanities of it so they take themselves bound in the whole course of their lives to be as unlike the evil world as they can by walking in all holiness and purity of conversation So long as they continue in this Vale of misery and live here in the world they must have to do in the world and the world will have to do with them and daily occasion they shall have for the necessities of this life to use the things of this world But then they are careful so to use them as neither to abuse themselves nor them Going through the vale of misery they use it for a Well drawing out thence a little water as occasions require for their needful refreshing but they will take care withal to drain it well from the mud to keep themselves so far as is possible unspotted with the World and to escape the manifold pollutions and defilements that are in the World through lust But the children here spoken of immerse and ingulf themselves in the affairs of this world with all greediness walking as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 2. after the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air in the lusts of the flesh doing the will of the flesh and of the mind There is a combination you see of our three great Spiritual Enemies The Devil the Flesh and the World against us and these three agree in one to undo us and to destroy us Now he that yieldeth to the temptations of the Devil or maketh provision for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof or suffereth himself to be carried with the sway of the world to shape his course thereafter preferring his own will before the known will of God is a child of this world in respect of his Conversation 8. Thirdly The Children of this World are so called in regard their Portion is in this World The children of Light content themselves with any small pittance which it pleaseth their heavenly Father to allow them here being assured they shall be provided for with so much as shall be sufficient for them to maintain them during this their minority with a kind of subsistence But the main of their portion their full childs-part their rich and precious inheritance they expect not in this world They well know it is laid up for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is laid up for me the Crown of righteousness and that in a safe place reserved in the heavens and that in safe hands kept by the power of God till they be grown up to it As Ioseph gave his brethren Provision for their Journey but the full sacks were tied up not to be opened till they were gotten home Indeed rather God himself is their portion both here in part and hereafter in full But the Children we now speak of if there be any natural or moral goodness or usefulness in them by the superabundant bountifulness of a gracious God in any respect or degree rewardable habent mercedem They have all they are like to have in hand there is nothing for them neither for the most part do they expect any thing in reversion which have the portion in this life saith David Psal. 17. If they have done him any small piece of service though unwittingly they shall have their wages for it paid them to the uttermost as Nebuchadnezzar had Aegypt assigned him as his wages for the service he did against Tyrus If they be but bastard-sons they shall yet have their portion set out for them far beyond what they can either challenge as of right or pretend to as by desert But yet in this world only The heavenly inheritance in the world to come which is to descend unto the right heir when he cometh to age is preserved for the legitimate Children only such as are become the Sons of God by faith in Christ Iesus As Abraham gave gifts to the Sons of his Concubines and sent them away and so we hear no more of them nor of any thing their father did for them afterwards but Isaac in fine carried the inheritance though he had not so much as the other had in present 9. Those are the children of this World but the Children of Light who are they I should enter into a very spacious field if I should undertake to declare the sundry significations of the word Light as it is metaphorically used in the Scriptures or pursue the resemblances between the metaphorical and spiritual Light and the natural To our purpose briefly Light is either spoken of God or of the things of God First God himself is light a most pure clear and simple light without the least allay or mixture of darkness God is light and in him is no darkness saith St. Iohn The Father of lights without so much as the least shadow of turning saith St. Iames. And if God be rightly stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the father of lights it cannot be unproper that his children be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of light 10. Next the Word of God that is a light too Thy Word is a light unto my feet Psal. 119. so called from the effect because when it goeth forth it giveth light and understanding to the simple The Law which is but a darker part of that word enlightneth yet the eyes Psal. 19. Lex lux The Prophecies the darkest part of all yet are not without some degree of lustre they shine saith St. Peter though but as a candle in a dark place But then the light of the Gospel that is a most glorious light shining forth as the Sun when he is in his greatest strength at noon day in Summer 11. Hence also ariseth as one light commonly begetteth another a third light the light of grace and saving knowledge wrought in the hearts of men by the holy word of God set on by his holy Spirit withal accompanying it God who bringeth light out of darkness hath shined in your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 12. And where the light of grace is there is another light also fourthly that always attendeth thereupon the light of comfort For Grace and Comfort are Twins the blessed inseparable effects of one and the same blessed Spirit Lux orta est justo there is sprung up or as some translate it there is sown a light for the righteous and joyful gladness for such as be true hearted Psal. 97. The true heart that is the light heart indeed Light in both significations light without darkness and light without sadness or heaviness 13. There is yet remaining a fifth light the light of Glory Darkness is an Emblem of horror We have not
so much wisdom as they have neither if we do not and even hereby justifie our Saviours doom in the comparison and yield The children of this world wiser in their generations than we are Which is the next Point 17. The justice of the sentence cannot be questioned where the Iudge that giveth it is beyond exception Here he is so so wise that he cannot be deceived so good that he will not deceive Mistaken he cannot be through ignorance or mis-information in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge If Solomon were able in a very intricate case to judge between the two mothers shall not a greater than Soloman be able in a case of less difficulty to give a clear judgment between these two sorts of Children Nor was there any such correspondence between our blessed Saviour the Iudge that pronounceth sentence in the Text and the world that we should suspect him at all inclinable to favour that side The world hated him and a great part of the business he came about was to condemn the world If it could have stood with the integrity of so righteous a Iudge to have favoured either side he that pronounced of himself Ego sum lux I am the light would sure have leaned rather towards his own side than towards the contrary party and so have pronounced sentence for the children of light and not against them And that he should be awed with fear as Iudges too often are to transgress in judgment there is of all other the least fear of that since he hath not only vanquished the world in his own person Ego vici mundum Joh. 16. but hath also enabled the meanest person that belongeth to him and believeth in him to do so too This is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith 1 Joh. 5. 18. It was not then either ignorance or favour or fear or any thing else imaginable other than the truth and evidence of the thing it self that could induce him to give sentence on that side Of the truth whereof every days experience ministreth proof enough For do we not see daily how worldly men in temporal matters shew their wisdom infinitely beyond what Christians usually do in spiritual things Very many ways handling their affairs such as they are for the compassing of their own ends such as they are to omit other particulars with greater sagacity greater industry greater cunning greater unity ordinarily than these do Which particulars when we shall have a little considered for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew the truth of the observation and that so it is we shall for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enquire into the reasons thereof and how it cometh to be so 19. First they are very sagacious and provident to forethink what they have to do and to forecast how it may be done very wary and circumspect in their projects and contrivances to weigh all probable as far as is possible all possible inconveniences or whatsoever might impede or obstruct their designs and to provide remedies there-against All Histories afford us strange examples in their several kinds of voluptuous beasts who for the satisfying of their raging lusts of ambitious spirits who for the grasping of a vast and unjust power of malicious and cruel men who to glut themselves with blood and revenge have adventured upon very desperate and almost impossible attempts and yet by the strength of their wits have so laid the Scene before-hand and so carried on the design all along that they have very many times either wholly accomplished what they intended or brought their conceptions so near to the birth that nothing but a visible hand of an over-ruling providence from above could render them abortive But omitting these because I have yet much to go through I chose rather to instance in the worldling of the lowest sphere indeed but best known by the name of a worldling I mean the covetous wretch It were almost a wonder to consider but that by common experience we find it so that a man otherwise of very mean parts and breeding is of so thick a nostril that he can hardly be brought by any discourse to be sensible of any thing that savoureth of Religion Reason or Ingenuity should yet be so quick scented where there is a likelihood of gain towards to smell it as speedily and at as great a distance as a Vultur doth a piece of Carrion Strange to see what strange fetches and devices he can have the eagerness of his desires after the world sharpning his wits and quickning his invention to hook in a good bargain to enveigle and entangle his necessitous neighbour by some seeming kindness towards him in supplying his present needs till he have got a hank over his estate to watch the opportunities for the taking up and putting off commodities to the most advantage to trench so near upon the Laws by engrossing enhaunsings extortions depopulations and I know not how many other frauds and oppressions and yet to keep himself so out of reach that the Law cannot take hold of him 20. Secondly the children of this world as they are very provident and subtile in forecasting so are they very industrious and diligent in pursuing what they have designed Wicked men are therefore in the Scriptures usually called Operarii iniquitatis Workers of iniquity because they do hoc agere make it their work and their business and follow it as their trade Ut jugulent homines surgunt de nocte Whilst honest men lay them down in peace and take their rest suspecting no harm because they mean none thieves and robbers are up and abroad spreading their nets for the prey and watching to do mischievously They that were against Christ were stirring in the dead time of the night and marched with Swords and staves to apprehend him when they that were about him though bidden and chidden too could not hold from sleeping two or three hours before Martyres Diaboli How slack we are to do God any service how backward to suffer any thing for him and how they on the other side can bestir them to serve the Devil and be content to suffer a kind of martyrdom in his service The way sure is broad enough â—nd easie enough that leadeth to destruction yet so much pains is there taken to find it that I verily believe half the pains many a man taketh to go to Hell if it had been well bestowed would have brought him to Heaven 21. Thirdly the children of this world are marvellous cunning and close to carry things fair in outward shew so far as to hold up their credit with the abused multitude and to give a colour to the cause they manage be it never so bad Partly by aspersing those that are otherwise minded than themselves are and dare not partake with them in their sins in what reproachful manner they please wresting their most innocent speeches and
actions to an evil construction and taking up any slanders or accusations against them whether true or false they matter not so they can but thereby render them odious to the World Partly by their hypocrisie stealing away the hearts of well-meaning people from those to whom they owe honour or subjection and gaining reputation to themselves and their own party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is Rom. 16. with fair speeches and specious pretences the glory of God the asserting of liberty the propagation of the Gospel the reformation of abuses and the like Right Pharisees by their long-winded prayers winding themselves into the opinions of some and estates of others The main of their care is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set the fairest side forward to enoil a rotten post with a glistering varnish and to make bright the outside of the vessel whatsoever nastiness there remaineth within Thus the grand rebel Absolom by discrediting his Fathers Government pretending to a great zeal of Iustice and making shews and promises of great matters to be done by way of reformation therein if the Supreme Power were setled upon him did by little and little ingratiate himself with the people ever easily cheated into rebellion by such smooth pretences insensibly loosen them from the conscience of their bounden allegiance and having gotten together a strong Party engaged them in a most unjust and unnatural war against his own Father and their undoubted Soveraign 22. Lastly the children of this world the better to effectuate what they have resolved upon are at a marvellous great unity among themselves They hold all together and keep themselves close Psal. 56. They stick together like burs close as the scales of Leviathan And although they be not always all of one piece but have their several aims and act upon different particular principles yet Satan well knowing that if his kingdom should be too much divided it could not stand maketh a shift to patch them up so â—as to make them hang together to serve his turn and to do mischief Herod and Pilate at some odds before must now be made friends Pharisees and Sadduces Sectaries of contrary opinions and notoriously factious either against other will yet conspire to tempt Christ. The Epicureans and the Stoicks two Sects of Philosophers of all other the most extremely distant and opposite in their Tenents and Doctrines came with their joynt forces at Athens to encounter Paul and discountenance Christianity And to molest and make havock of the people of God the Tabernacles of the Edomites and Ismaelites the Moabites and the Agarens Gebal and Ammon and Amalek with the rest of them a Cento and a Rhapsody of uncircumcised nations could lay their heads together with one consent and combine themselves in confederacies and associations Psal. 83. Faciunt unitatem contra unitatem To destroy the happy unity that should be among brethren they that were strangers and enemies to one another before grow to an unhappy cursed unity among themselves 23. Thus whilest Christian men who profess themselves children of light by their improvidence sloth simplicity and dis-union too often suffer themselves to be surprised by every weak asâ—ault and so to become a prey both to their spiritual and temporal enemies the children of this world the while by their subtilty industry hypocrisie and unity do shew themselves so much beyond the other in all points of wisdom and prudence in their way that we cannot but subscribe to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth of the sentence here pronounced by our Saviour that certainly the children of this world are wiser in their generations than the children of light 24. But then for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be not satisfied how it should come to pass that they are judged the wiser For that First they have a very able Tutor to direct them the Old Serpent Wisdom belongeth to the Serpent by kind he hath it by nature Be ye wise as Serpents And that wisdom improved by the experience of some thousands of years must needs increase and rise to a great proportion Now this Old subtile Serpent infuseth into the children of this world who are in very deed his own children also semen serpentis the seed of the serpent some of his own spirit is not that it think you which in 1 Cor. 2. is called Spiritus Mundi the Spirit of the World and is there opposed to the Spirit of God I mean some of his own serpentine wisdom Not that wisdom which is from above that is from another alloy and is the only true wisdom indeed but that which is from beneath which St. Iames affirmeth to be earthly sensual devilish From this infusion it is that they do patrissare so right having his example withal to instruct them in all the Premisses Their providence in forecasting to do mischief they learn from him he hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his devices and his methods his sundry subtile artifices in ordering his temptations with the most advantage to ensnare us Their unwearied diligence from him who never resteth compassing the earth and going to and fro in it as a hungry Lion hunting after prey Their double cunning both in slandering others and disguising themselves from him who is such a malicious accuser of others to make them seem worse than they are that he hath his very name from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the primary signification of the word is no more than an Accuser and withal such a perfect Dissembler that to make himself seem better than he is he can if need be transform himself into an Angel of light Their unanimous accord from him who though he have so many legions of cursed Angels under him yet keepeth them together all at such unity among themselves that they never divide into factions and parties By this infusion to give you one instance he taught Iudas to be so much wiser as the world accounteth wisdom and according to the notion wherein we now speak of it than his fellow-Apostles that whereas they rather lost by their Master than gained having left all to follow him who had not so much as a house of his own wherein to harbour them he played his game so well that he made benefit of him He first got the keeping of the bag and out of that he got what he could by pilfering and playing the thief but because his gettings there could not amount to much his Masters store being not great he thought he were as good make a handsome bargain once for all to bring him in a pretty lump together and so sold his Master outright for present money Silly fellows the Eleven this Puny you see out-witted them all But let him not impute it wholly to himself