proper and fit to ingender these sicknesses as these sickenesses are to bring desolution It is our owne worke to make death better then a better life or continuall sicknesse that our meate giues no more sent nor sauour then an offering doth to an Idoll He that sinneth before his maker let him fall into the hands of the Physitian 6 Spirituall sicknesse for sinne is yet farre more perilous and mortall nay well were it for some thus sicke if it were mortall If the disease would decease the soule might reuiue and liue It varies as some diseases doe in the body according to the constitution of the sicke thereafter as the soule is that hath it whether regenerate or reprobate The malignancie is great in both but with far lesse danger in the former 1 In the Elect this spirituall sicknes is an afflicted conscience when God wil suffer vs to take a deepe sense of our sinnes and bring vs to the life of grace through the valley â—f death as it were by hell gates vnto heauen There is no anguish to that in the conscience a wounded spirite who can beare They that haue been valiant in bearing wrongs in forbearing delights haue yet had womannish and cowherd spirits in sustaining the terrors of a tumultuous conscience If our strength were as an army and our landes not limitted saue with East and west if our meat were manâ—a and our garments as the Ephod of Aaron yet the afflicted conscience would refuse to be cheared with all these comforts When God shall raise vp our sinnes like dust and smoake in the eyes of our soules and the arrowes of his displeasure drinke vp our bloud and his terrors seeme to fight against vs when he buffets vs from his presence and eyther hides his countenance from vs or beholds vs with an angry looke loe then if any sicknes be like this sicknes any calamity like the fainting soule Many offences touch the body which extende not to the soule but if the soule be grieued the sympathizing flesh suffers deepely with it The bloud is dried vp the marrow wasted the flesh pined as if the powers and pores of the body opened themselues like so many windowes to discouer the passions of the distressed Prisoner within It was not the sense of outward sufferings for meere men haue borne the agonies of death vndaunted but the wrastling of Gods wrath with his spirite that drew from Christ that complaint able to make heauen and earth stand agast My soule is heauy vnto the death There is comfort euen in death when the clocke of our life runs vpon her last minutes but is there any disease during the torments of a racked conscience This wearisome guest doth God often lodge with his owne children suffring the eye of faith to be shut and the eyes of flesh and bloud open that sorrow is their bread and teares their drinke and the still perplexed mind knows not where to refuse it selfe Alwayes reseruing and and preseruing his Children but neuer dâ—ing grace of his Spirite in their hearts a substance of blâ—ssing 〈◊〉 the oke though it hath cast the leaues though the barrennes of the boughes drines of the barke giue it for dead and withered Faith being in a swoune may draw the breath inwardly not perceiued but destroy it not for there is a blâ—ssing in it Neyther is this sicknesse and trouble of conscience properly good in it selfe nor any grace of God but vsed by God as an instrument of good to his as when by the spirite of bondage he brings vs to adoption So the Needle that drawes the thread through the cloth is some meanes to ioyne it together This is the godly soules sicknesse for sin full of sharpe and bitter ingredients but neuer destitute of a glorious euent and victorious triumph I may say of it as Physitians speake of agues which make a man sicke for a while that hee may bee the sounder a long time after This sickenesse is physicke to procure better health 2 Spirituall sickenesse for sinne in the reprobate hath other effects To restraine their number they principall appeare in two diseases or disasters rather Impenitency and Despaire 1. Impenitencie the symptome of an obdurate and remorselesse heart Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lasciuiousnes to worke all vncleannesse with gredinesse Saint Paul cals it a reprobate minde a death rather then a sickenesse He that labours hereof is rather deceased then diseased This is a heart so hard and impenetrable that all the holy dewes of instructions cannot soften it all the blowes of Gods striking rod put no sense into it It is inuulnerable to any stroke saue that which makes a fatall and finall end with it Thou hast stricken them but they haue not grieued c. It is iust with God but fearefull on whom soeuer this iuâ—gement lights to plague sin with sinne that peccatum sit paena peccantis For there is euermore some precedent impietie in those vngratious persons procuring God to deale thus with them For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue a lie That they all might be damned that beleeued not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse First Pharaoh hardens his owne heart c. God all this while holds his peace giues him the hearing and looking on In the end he saith I will harden Pharaohs heart and then puts yron to yron adamant to adamant and there is perfected a relentlesse repentlesse obduracy This is that retaliation of sinne which God returnes into their bosomes that foster it that since they loued cursing it shall be vnto them So Dauid in the Psalme Though indeed it was not in him Precantis votum but Prophetantis vaticinium he did not desire it should be so but he knew it would be so Adde iniquitieto their iniquitie Neither doth God this by infusion of wickednesse but by substraction of his spirit He is causa deficiens not efficiens as the reuoking of the sunne from vs causeth darkenesse the priuation of grace the position of all vngodlines It is in him not peccatum sed iudicium not sinne but iudgement When he leaues vs to our selues it is no wonder if we fall into horrid and prodigious sinnes Peccatum est malum in se effectum prioris mali causa subsequentis est supplicium causa supplicij Sinne is euill in it selfe the effect of former euill the cause of future It is both punishment it selfe and the cause of punishment In all the store house of Gods plagues there is not a greater vengance With other punishments the body smarteth the soule groneth vnder this Hence sinnes multiply without limits that the plagues may be without end Euery affliction is sore that offends vs but that is direfull which withall offends God Such do at once act and suffer it is both an actiue and a passiue sinne The punishment
â—oâ—le and full of corruption that there could no temptation be shot from vs to wound the breast of Christ with loue Sported wee were and nothing but nakednesse was left to couer vs sicke but without care of our own cure deformed and luxate with the persecution of vanities quadrupedated with an earthly stooping groping groucling couetousnes not onely spotted and speckled in concretâ— but spots and blemishes in abstracto pollution it selfe As Micah cals Ierusalem and Samaria not pecâ—antes but peccata What is the transgression of Iacob Is it not Samaria and what are the high places of Iudah are they not Ierusalem Or as Lucan speakes of the wounded body Totum est pro vulnere corpus The whole body is as one wound Bloud touched bloud and sore broke out into sore all vleers were coagulated into one by a generall rupture that euen our righteousnes was as filthy ragges Oh then how vgly were our sinnes If olde iniquities could prouoke or new ones reuoke his fauour we had store to tempt him If the raw and bleeding wounds of voluntary sinnes if the halting foote of neuterality the bleare eye of ignorance the eare deafe to his word the tongue dumbe in his praise if the sullen brow of auersenesse or the stinking breath of hypocrisie if these could inflame his loue â—oe our beautie What moued thee then Oh Sauiour to loue vs besides the incomprehensible delight and infinite content which God hath in himselfe thousands of Angels stand about him and ten thousands of those glorious spirits minister vnto him What then is man Lord that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest account of him the meditation of Saint Augustine is pertinent to this consideration and what sonne of man may not confesse it with him Neque enim equistime aut egotale bonumsum quo tu adiâ—veris nec minor sit potestas tun carens obsequio men Neither didst thou lacke me Oh Lord nor was there that good in me whereby thou mightest bee helped neyther is thy power lessened through the want of my seruice If wee had been good yet God needed vs not being bad whence ariseth his loue what a roughnesse of soule findest thou Oh Christ when thoâ— embracest vs what deformity when thou beholdest vs what stinch of sinne when thou kuâ—est when thou discoursest what rotten speeches drop from vs when thou takest vs into thy garden what contrariety of affection to thy expectation our embraces haue been rougher then thy crosses our persecutions like vineger hidden in the spunge of our sacrifices our words swordes our oathes as bitter as crucifige our kisses haue been treasonable to thee as Iudas his our contempts thy thornes our oppressions a speare to gore thy side and wound thy bowels Such was our kindenesse to thee Oh blessed Redeemer when thou offeredst thy selfe to vs and to the Father for vs The best thing in vs yea in the best man of vs had nothing of merite nothing neere it Our wages is death thy gift is life bona naturae melior gratiae optima gloriae Thou gauest vs a good life of nature thou gauest vs a better of grace thou wilt giue vs the best of glory Whether it bee pro via or pro vita for the way or the end it is thy gratuitall goodnesse who hast promised of thy mercy both donaere bonatua condonare mala nostra both to giue vs thy good things and to forgiue vs our euill things Wee had miserie from our parents and haue beene parents of our owne greater misery Miseri miserum in hanc lucis miseriam 〈◊〉 Miserable parents haue brought sorth a miserable offspring into the misery of this world And for our selues euen when we were young in yeares wee had an 〈◊〉 about vs Tantillus pâ—er tantus pecâ—â—tor A little child a great sinner Sic generant pater 〈…〉 regeneraâ—â—nt pâ—ter caâ—sstis So wretched our generation left vs so blessed our regeneration hath mad vs. So beggerly were wee till Christ enriched vs. If you aske still what moued Christ I answere his owne free mercy working on our great miserie A fit obiect for so infinite a goodnes to worke on He was not now to part a sea or bring water out of a Rocke or raine Bread from heauen but to conquer Death by death to breake the head of the Leuiathan to ransom captiues from the power of hel to satisfie his owne iustice for sinne and all this by giuing his owne Sonne to die for vs by making him man who was the maker of man This was dignus vindice nodus a worke worth the greatnesse and goodnesse of God Decet enâ—m magnum magna facere For it becommeth him that is Allmighty to doe mighty works Thus to make the Daughter of Ierusalem faire cost the Sonne of God the effusion of his bloud This giues vs strong consolation Qui dilexit pollutos non deseret politos He that loued vs when we were not when we were nought will not now loose vs whom he hath bought with his death interessed to his life Hauing loued his own which were in the world hee loued them vnto the end vsque ad finem nay absque fine vnto the end in the end without end Hee will not neglect Dauid in the Throne that did protect him in the folde He that visited Zacheus a sinner will not forsake him a Saint If he bore affection to vs in our ragges his loue will not leaue vs when highted with his righteousnesse and shining with his rewels If Ruth were louely in the eyes of Boâ—z gleaning after the Reapers what is shee made Mistresse of the Haruest Hee neuer meant to loose vs that laide out his bloud to purchase vs. Sathan hath no tricke to deceiue him of vs vs of him As hee had no power to preuent the first so none against the second Redemption Christ was Agnus in passione but Leo in Râ—surrectione a lambe suffering death but a Lion rising from death If he could saue vs being a Lambe hee will not suffer vs to bee lost being a Lion Feare not thou daughter of Sion he that chose thee sicke sinneful rebellious will preserue thee sound holy his friend his Spouse There is neyther death nor life nor principalâ—itie nor power nor hâ—â—ght nor depth that shall bee able to separate vs from his loue or plucke vs out of the armes of his mercy But tremble yee wicked if yee haue not fought in his Campe you shal neuer shine in his Court. To presse this point too farre 1. were but to write Iliades after the Homers of our Church 2. Besides there are many that offer to sit downe in this chayre before they come at it and presume of God that they shall not bee forsaken when they are not yet taken into his fauour Enow would bee saued by this priuiledge if there were no more matter in it then the
Father here the Father is content to bee called after the name of his children The God of Abraham the God of Isaacke c. So Darius proclaimes in his decree The God of Daniel Esa. 44 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himselfe by the name of Iacob and another shall subscribe with his hand vnto the Lord and surname himselfe by the name of Israel Thus sayth the King of Israel c. And Esa. 45. For Iacob my seruants sake and Israel mine Elect I haue euen called thee by thy name I haue surnamed thee though thou hast not known me Here might be inferred the inutterable compassion of God to Israel It is my people that is thus sicke But I haue not scanted this obseruation before That which I would now direct my speech and your attention to is the strangenesse of this complaint agrota t Israel Others to haue been sicke not so rare It had beene no wonder in Aegypt Ammon Edom Babilon Israel hath the best meanes for health therfore the more inexcusable her sicknes They should haue beene so maner'd as they were manur'd and brought forth grapes according to their dressing Sidon shall iudge Chorazin Niniuch Ierusalem In Sidon where was no Prophet was lesse wickednesse in Niniueh where lesse prophesying greater repentance This conuiction was demonstrated in many particulars The prayse of the Centurion is the shame of Israel The mercy of the Samaritan the Priests and Leuits condemnation The very dogges licking Lazarus fores confute the stony bowels of Diues The returning of the strange Leper with a song of thanksgiuing in his mouth was an exprobration to all the nine when Christ had the tythe of a person he least expected God reproacheth this daughter of Sion Ezek. 16 that Samaria and Sodoâ—â—e were of her Sisterhood yea as if their abominations were a very little thing thou wast corrupted more then they in all thy wayes Nay thou hast iustified thy sisters in that their abominations came short of thine by the one half The people of thy holines as the Prophet Esay cals them are become by the same Prophets testimony a sinfull nation a people laden with iniquity They that were not called by thy name are not so rebellious Eâ— sunt deteriores quo meliores Deus reddere conatus est It is grieuous that Gods goodnes should make men worse and the more kinde God hath beene to them the more vnkind they should be to themselues the more vnthankefull to him Christ for the Iewes turned their water into wine the Iewes for Christ turned their wine into vineger offered it him to drinke They that were the richest of Gods own making became the most bankroute sin religion They changed CathedraÌ„ magistery wherin God placed their Doctors in sodem pestilentiae into the scorners chayre contemning his benefits they had a Vineyard at an easie rate yet payed no fruites of obedience It is hard to say whether God was more gracious to them or they more greeuous to him This boldly neuer was more piery required with lesse piety God sowed mercy and reaped a crop of iniquity God can brooke this in none but as hee forsooke his Temple in Sion when it became a denne of theeues so he will take out his ornaments where with he graced the temple of the soule when we set vp the Dagon of this world in it and withdraw his riches as from a diuorced Spouse running after other louers Whiles Adam serued God God serued him he prouides for him a 〈◊〉 a companion and sustentation We read of nothing that God did sixe dayes together and his works were not small nor few but work for Adam as if hee had beene hired to labour for him Is it not strange that such a childe should rebell to such a father Let none thinke his fault was small in eating an apple or that his punishment waighed heauier then his trespasse His sinne was so much the greater because against a God and so good vnto him The more gloriously the Sunne and Summer haue apparrelled a tree the more wee admire the blazing when God hath planted a soule in his owne holy ground watered it with those sacred purifying dewes of his graces shone on it with the radiant beames of his soule reuiuing mercies spent much opera olei both of care and cost vpon it and hath his expectation required abused with a meere flourish of seaues with eyther anequam ornequic quam fructus none or euill fruites there goes out a curse Neuer fruit grow on thee more When God hath put his grace into our vnworthy vessels how abusiue is it to empty our selues of that precious liquor and swell our spirites with the poyson of hell How iust is it with him to take away what hee gaue Luke 8. and to put a consumption into our vitall parts Hence without wonder our iudgement rusts like a neuer drawne sword our knowledge looseth the rellish like the Iewes putrified Manna Our faith dissolues as a cloud our zeale trembles as if held with a palsie our loue freezeth the harder as water that once was warme Our repentance turns to yce our hope to snow which the heat of affliction melts to water not to be gathered vp the image of death is vpon all our religion Was this strange in Israel and is it nothing in England Looke vpon the inhabitants of the earth somwhat remote from vs to whose face the Sunne of the Gospell hath not yet sent his rayes people blinded with ignorance blended with lusts What were our desires or deserts former mater or latter merite congruity before conuersion or condignity after more then they might shew that God should put vs into the Horizon of his Grace whiles they sit in darkenesse and shade of death Want they nature or the strength of flesh are they not temperd of the same morter are not their heads vpward toward heauen haue they not reasonable soules able for comprehension apt for impression if God would set his Seale on them as well as we Are they not as likely for flesh and bloude prouident to forecast ingenuous to inuent actiue to execute if not more then we Why haue wee that starre of the gospell to light vs to Christ Iesus standing ouer our Country whiles they neither see it nor seeke it It is clearely meerly Gods mercy Now why are our liues worse our knowledge is better Why deuoure wee their venome refusing our owne healthfull foode whiles they would feed on our crums and haue it not Woe vnto vs if we scant God of our fruites that hath not scanted vs of his blessings Bring presents to the King of glory yee childrn of his holinesse and worship before him Indanger not your selues to the greater misery by abusing his great mercy Hee hath loued vs much and long in our election when we could not loue him in our redemption
when wee would not loue him His loue was not merited by ours let our loue bee deserued inflamed by his If God preuent vs with loue we can doe no lesse then answere him in the same nature though not it is impossible in the same measure Publicans will loue those that loue Publicans The Poet could say Ut prastem Pyladen aliquis mihi praestet Oreslen Hoc non sit verbis Marce vt ameris 〈◊〉 Giue me Orestes I shall Pylades proue Then truely that thou mayest be loued loue But God loued vs euen being his enemies Eitu charitas est substantia nostra accidextalis His loue is a substance ours onely accidentall His ignis accendens ours ignis accensuâ— His loue is that holy fire that inkindles ours If wee returne not our little mite of loue for his great treasures his great loue shall turne to great anger and wee shall fare the worse that euer we fared sowel God as he hath aduanced vs into his fauor so hath he set vs as a light on a hill among the Nations if darknesse bee on the hill what light can bee in the valley A small scar on the face is eminent If one eye-brow be shaued how little is taken from the body how much from the beauty We are now the worlds enuy oh let vs not become their declamation Is the daughter of Gods people sicke it may then bee in ferred that the Church may be sicke though not die and perish die it cannot The bloud of an eternal king bought it the power of an eternall spirit preserues it the mercy of an eternall God shall crowne it The heathens haue imagined to vaunt themselues and daunt vs with the downfall of our Church Ad certum tempus sunt Christiani postea perihunt râ—dibunt Idola quod fuit antea These Christians are but for a time then they shall perish and our Idols shal bee returned to their former adoration To whom that father replies Verum in cum expectas miser Infidelis vt transeunt Christiani traÌ„sis ipse sine Christianis But whilst thou O wretched Insulei expâ—â—test the Christians to perish thou doest perish thy selfe and leaue them safe behinde thee Whiles they boast in their selfe flatteries that we had a time to begin and shall haue a time to continue themselues vanish and wee remaine to prayse the Lord our God from generation to generation Indeed Matth. 15. Euery plant which my heauenly Father hath not planted shall bee rooted vp But whom he loues for euer he loues Yet may his Church whiles it is not freed from militancy bee very sicke in the visible body of it Aegrotat Israel yet in Israel was the true Church of God It was so sicke in Elias time that Rom. 11. he complayneth Lord they haue killed thy Prophets and digged downe thine altars and I am left alone and they seeke my life The Church was sicke you see yet the next verse of Gods answere frees it from being dead I haue reserued to my selfe seuen thousand men that neuer bowed the knee to the Image of Baal What Church since hath been so happy as to ioy in her freedome from this cause of complaint The Church was from the beginning shall be to the end without limitation of time of place Yet she is a Garden Cant 4. A garden inclosed is my sister my spouse sometime by diligence kept neate and cleane sometimes by negligence ouer-run with weedes She is a Moone est cleare and beautifull est waning and waxing dark esome Die then it cannot be sicke it may Time was saith Chrysostome that Ecclesiacalum fuit spiritu cuncta administrante c. The Church was a heauen the holy Spirit gouerning all things c. Now the very steps and tokens thereof doe but scarcely remaine Mali prosiciunt boni deficiunt Wickednesse grows strong goodnesse faints The lambes are few the goates swarme Little faith shall be found When the last trumpe shall sound We haue read often the Church compared to a body Cuius caput Christus whose head is Iesus Christ. In the 4. 10 the Ephesians we haue it likened to a man Cuius anima Christus whose soule is Christ. Till we all come to a perfect man c. Now the soule encreaseth in a man not augmentatiuely but secundum vigorem transfusing into the body her virtuall powers and operations more strongly Christ is semper Idem obiectiuè subiectiuè effectiuè euer the same in himselfe and to vs but this body growes vp with the head this man with the soule this Church encreaseth with the encreasing of God Sickenesse then to the Church cannot be mortall yet may the body be distempered her doctrine may be sound her members want health Why is not the health of the daughter c. But to descend from the vniuersall to a particular from the inuisible to a visible Church this may be sicke 1. Either by some inbred distemperature 2. or by the accession of some outward malady There may be grieuances in eyther respect to afflict the daughter of Israel 1 Inwardly Corruption may gather on it by degrees put it in neede of physicke For as the naturall body of man when it is ouer charged in the veines and parts with ranke and rotten humours which it hath gathered by misdiet surfetting or infest ayres the man growes dangerously sicke til by some fit euacuation he can be discharged of that burthen So the body of a Church being infected with humours and swolne with tumours of vnsound doctrine of vnsounder life superstitious ceremonies corrupting the vitall pores and powers therof troubled with the colde shakings of indeuotion or taken with the numnesse of induration or terrified with windy passions of turbulent spirits cannot be at ease till due reformation hath cured it Now such a Church sometimes is more swelling in bignes oftents a more bulky shew but once truly purged of such crude superfluities it becomes lesse great and numerous but withall more sound apt and fit for spirituall promotions Our particular Church of England now fined from the drosse of Rome had a true substantiall beeing before but hath gotten a better being by the repurgation wrought by the Gospell maintained of our Christian Princes the true defenders of the faith of Christ. God had doubtlesse his Church among vs before for it is Catholike and vniuersall but his floore was full of chaffe The Papists demand where our Church was before Luthers time We answere it lay hid vnder a great bulke of chaffe and Mat. 3. since Christ vouchsafed to come with his fanne to purge it of the chaffe it now shewes it selfe with greater eminence and is clearer both in shew and substance It was before a wedge of pure gold but comming into the hands of impostors was by their mixtures sophistications for gain and such sinister respects augmented into a huge body and masse retaining