Garden This argues the height of the malignity of sin that it hath poysoned the Vitals as of that Infection under the Law which had taken Warp and Woofe and was therefore adjudged Lev. 13. 52 to the Fire David and other holy men have sadly lamented the corruption of their nature and shall any make that an excuse Holy St. Austin confesseth of himself That before his Conversion he was wont to please and flatter himself with some such excuse and fain would have Non mihi videhatur esse nos sed nescio quam etiam in nobiâ— naturam Excusare me amabam accusare nescio aliud quod mecum esset non ego essem Conf. l. 4. c. 10. charged his sin upon somewhat else his nature or any thing he saith he could not tell what But saith he my case was the more desperate and incurable because I thought not my self to be such a sinner And I went on saith he ad excusandas excusationes to make excuse upon excuse But yet this he said was his practice before he knew God but after sadly bewails it 5. Another is not ashamed to plead Custom 5. Custom to excuse himself It is an ill custom I have got I am sorry for it God forgive me but I know not how to help it Thus tell the Swearer of his Oaths the Drunkard of his Bruitishness the Prophane of his scurrilous Language all excuse it with this pretence Custom is a Tyrant and hath overmastered them But did ever Prisoner at the Bar plead thus for himself before the Judge My Lord I beg your pardon I was so brought up I have long used to cut a Purse It hath been my Trade many a day to set upon men in the High-way I know not how to leave it And shall this pass for a good excuse at Gods Bar do you think Our Laws do justly deny the Book to such as stand convicted of the second Offence And the Law of God did appoint of the dumb Beast That if the Ox had got a haunt of pushing with the Horn and the Owner knew of it and did not keep him in but he gored one to death Ox and Owner Ex. 21. 29. both should be put to death Or if the Leprosie should break out afresh in the House after two or three viewings of the Priest it was to be pulled down to the ground And Lev. 14. 45. shall any be so void of Reason as to think custom in sin may plead Prescription and obtain a License The vast Ocean is made up of Drops multiplied and the greatest sum of multiplied Units or Cyphers and the most desperate Estate of a sinners reiterated and repeated Acts which beget a custom and habit St. Bernard describes the steps by which a man comes to the height of sin saying At first hand sin is modest and ashamed and heavy then less heavy after not heavy at all but light then sweet at last natural and unavoidable So that at first what was intolerable to be done is impossible to be left undone And St. Austin tells us of his Mother Monica Conf. l. 9. That having once got a taste of the Wine by now a sip and then a sip she grew to such pass that she would take up her full Cups till she got the name of a Meribibula and was taunted for it as if she had been an unreasonable Tospot or wicked Gossip And speaking of himself When time was Satan saith he got me into his clutches when he had prevailed over my Will to yield then did he make of it an Iron Chain Conf. l. 8. c. 7. wherewith I was bound and this Iron Chain was no other but my ferrea voluntas made of no other Matter or Metal but my Iron and stiffnecked Will Give not way therefore at first and keep out of the Devils Circle For out of the Will saith the same Father once beginning to yield springs Lust out of whiâ—h when it hath conceived ariseth Custom out of Custom not resisted Necessity out of Necessity Death As much to this puâ—pose the holy Apostle Jam. 1. 13. Custom is not such a Tyrant but if the fault were not in a Man 's own perverse Will it might be overmastered The Father once refuted this vain Argument of Customs Plea by a plain Demonstration The Common People saith he were wont time out of mind to wash in such a Bath the King sets out a Proclamation that none should come into it more there 's none so hardy as to attempt it We have seen in our time some who had been in Arms and wont constantly to go with Swords by their sides when commanded to depart the City or lay by their Swords present obedience was yielded So it would be if men had the like regard to God's Commands as they have to Man's Precepts this Plea of Custom would fall to the ground 6. Another comes and hath for his Excuse 6. It was in Drink That he was not himself he knew not what he did he was in Drink And is it not good reason he should be excused think ye and that one sin should excuse another This is so far from extenuating that it doth highly aggravate the sin Wine indeed is a mocker strong Drink is raging It is a Quarreller Fighter Dueller Murderer Adulterer what not any thing every thing that is naught But he that is deceived thereby is not wise saith Solomon nor guiltless but double guilty The Sword is also a bloody and mischievous Instrument hath taken away the life of thousands but must the Weapon or Metal be blamed or the Man that abused it Drunkenness is a great and big-bellied sin who knows what monstrous Births it may bring forth Eating was the Mother of Original sin but Drinking may go for the Mother of all Actual sins The Cup of Drunkenness is like the Harlots full of all abominations and filthiness of Fornication like Circe's Cup hath an inchanting Vertue to transform Men into Swine So that here you may see one Swine wallowing in the mire of his own Vomit another in the Streets another in the Bed of Uncleanness and another in the Blood of his Comrade It hath a strange operation even upon the most sober when once tasted of How did it expose the Holy Patriarch to the derision of Gen. 9 22. his wicked Son Another mortified Saint it turned for the present into an incestuous Sodomite Look not therefore on the Wine Gen. 9. 35. when it shews its colour and sparkles in the Glass remember at last it will bite and sting like an Adder and Serpent and thou knowest not what it may make thee see and say or do Thine eye shall behold Pâ—ov 23. 31 32. strange Women and thy mouth will speak strange words and when Wine is in thou knowest not what strange things thou mayst be put upon Oh England England This is one of thy National and Crying Sins Drunkenness and the
I bow in the house of Rimmon as doth the King the Lord be merciful to me and hold me excused herein The like also might Pilate have pleaded if that would excuse him My Place is to release one at the Feast though a Murderer and to condemn the most Innocent if the people shall importune it Thus also no question did those persecuting Bishops in Queen Mary's dayes flatter themselves when they burnt those Innocents We have taken an Oath to the Pope and our Place tyes us to condemn them to the Flames whom the Pope declareth Haereticks And when they gave Sentence they said They did it ex Officio that is by vertue of their Office How much better had it been for them to have refused those Preferments with a Nolo Episcopari in good earnest as Nazianzen Sozom. l. 6. c. 3. Socr. l. 3. c. 19. Bal. in vitis pont sometimes did And Jovinian the Empire crying out Ego sum Christianus or to have resigned those places as Caelestine the Fifth is said to have the Papacy returning to his solitariness and privacy again Or they might all of them have inscribed that on their Monuments which Bishop Hall reporteth that Hadrian the Sixth Ordered to be engraven on his viz. That nothing in all his life befel him so unhappy as his Preferment 3. Others alledge the example of their 3. Example of their Predecessors Predecessors They who have gone before them have done so and so made so much of their Places but quo jure qua injuria would be enquired Godly Nehemiah came after such and might have fleeced and exhausted the people and enricht himself if he could have satisfied himself with this Plea But thus did he not do because of Neh. 5. 15. the fear of the Lord Yea the very Servants of the former Rulers bare Rule and got Estates But he considered the people over whom he was set were now poor and had groaned under many Pressures and Taxes Therefore he received not the Perquisites of his place nor did he eat the Bread of the Governor but spent his own Estate among them and fed many at his own Charge chusing rather to be a poor Prince over a rich People then Rich over a Poor Non sibi sed Patriae is a good Motto for a Prince or Patriot Praesis ut Prosts a good Motto for a Prelate as Bernard counselled Eugenius It is a memorable story that Luther relates of a German Luth. Coll. Prince at a time when many of the Princes were together and discoursed of their several States Territories and Revenues This Prince said Though his Territory and Revenue was not equal to theirs yet in one thing he counted himself as happy as any of them that was the Love of his Subjects For he said He could venture himself to take a Nights-lodging in the house of any of his Subjects and sleep securely without a Guard A rare example of clemency and confidence in a Prince and of Love and Loyalty in a People 4. A fourth saith I am not the first nor shall be the last like enough But what a pittiful 4. I am not the first nor shall be the last Excuse is this to excuse thy sin by the sin of others As Job said of the Grave A many are gone before and innumerable shall Job 21. 33. follow after it may be said of Sin and Hell-Lamech could speak of a Murderer before him Jeroboam was not the first that made a golden Calf to be worshipt Aaron had done so before him nor was he the last for all or most of the Kings of Israel that followed continued in the same Idolatry It is not safe sinning by Example Many Fashions are new few new Sins nothing new under the Sun This Sin that all our Discourse is about viz. Excuse-making had both our first Parents deeply in it Thus did Adam thus did Eve from the beginning it hath been thus and bears the oldest date of any other Act viz. Anno primo Creationis mense primo if not Die primo too as some conceive Polygamy had a President in the old World in Lamech Gen. 4. 19. Gen. 6. 11. Oppression was before the Flood Fornicators had Zimri and Cozbi put to death Num. 25. 8. for this Sin long before they were born Seditious Opposers of Magistracy and Ministry had a Corah Dathan and Abiram Num. 16. 3. Predecessors The Sabbath-Breaker reads of one stoned to death for that Sin long ago Numb 15. 36. And the Blasphemer of another Levit. 24. 23. The wicked Witch and painted Strumpet had a Jezabel their foundress Now these are our Examples and recorded not to Excuse but admonish us 5. And he that saith The rest and greatest 5. The rest do the same in the place do so and why may not I thinks if he have not a great deal of reason on his side yet he hath good Company to back him But the greatest man in the Parish is not alwayes the best He who is highest in the King's Books for matter of Subsidy may be lowest in God's Book for matter of Piety The best Living and the best Liver dwell sometimes a great way asunder In our Saviour's time the Poor Mat. 11. 5. were they who received the Gospel And in the Apostles dayes not many Wise or 1 Cor. â— 26 27. Mighty or Noble owned it but the Poor and Simple In after-times of Apostacy the purity of Religion was preserved among the Waldenses and the Poor men of Lyons as they were commonly called And long before them the great Worthies of the World of whom the World was not worthy were clad in Sheep-skins and Goats-skins and dwelt in Caves and Cottages out of the Worlds notice unless to be persecuted afflicted tormented 6. A good intention is a great Plea and 6. A good intention we think nothing excuseth more But though an ill intention is enough alone to mar a good action yet is not a good intention enough to render an ill action good Bonum ex integriss malum ex quolibet defectu There must be a concurrence of all due circumstances to make an action good Vzzah doubtless had no ill intention 2 Sam. 6. 7. when he put forth his hand to hold the Ark yet perisht for his Error Saul paid 1 Sam. 15. 23. dear notwithstanding his good meaning for sparing the best of the Cattel for Sacrifice What could they have other then a good meaning who sacrificed their own Children to Moloch in imitation it is likely of Abraham's forwardness to Sacrifice his Son yet never did the Sun see a greater abomination This Weed hath pestered the Church from time to time and hath Jer. 7. 31. 19. 5. turned Sharon into a Forest Bethel into Bethaven This brought in at first adoration of Images Crosses Reliques Invocation of Saints Prayer for the Dead Blind Zeal the Father and good Intention the Mother have hatched most of the
Damnation it is some peevish Baruch that instigates the Prophet shall this man the Minister that came to sojourn amongst us became a Lord over us and the like now I may say if Cain shall be punished sevenfold surely Lamech seventy fold if they that know not the Masters Will are punished how many stripes shall he have that knew and did not if these in the Text who made such plausible Excuses were shut out what shall become of them who made light of it fell upon the Messengers and slew them many there be if they will speak out have made worse less tolerable Excuses some accusing Satan some God his Decrees have made them careless his Severity desperate his Mercy presumptuous the Bloud of Christ more filthy his Grace wanton his Patience impenitent yea hast thou not said in thy heart who is the Lord I know him not what will the Lord do for us what profit shall we get if we walk humbly before him Let us to Egypt let who will go to Canaan that hard Land that eateth up maintaineth not the Inhabitants give us Flesh-pots take you the Manna give us the Pleasures take you the Recompence of Reward we see no such Excellency in Christ Beauty in Holiness Preciousness in the Promises Glory in Heaven as to make us willing to die to Sin and the world and our selves and give up our selves to this strange life of Austerity strictness watching praying Repenting and renouncing the world If those fair Excuses were condemned what shall become of them that make foul repulses and persist in their Rebellions yet the one or the other is the case of most But that you may not think so slightly of Excuses we shall tell you a little more of their sinfulness They are the grand Sin of the world the great Apollyon the oldest mother of Iniquity the closest Sin that doth so easily beset us a Big-bellyed Monster hath in it all manner of sins rip it up and you will find it guilty of every Breach of the Law and every miscarriage against the Gospel First it stands guilty of the Breach of the whole Law both of the first and second Table and particularly of every several Command e. g. The first Command which requires that inward natural holy worship and honour which is due to God is broken 1. By omission the Knowledge Love Joy Delight in God obedience to him calling upon praising and serving him is neglected upon pretence of the Marchandize Farm Oxen c. 2. By commission this fills the world with false Gods sets up others in his stead which are preferred esteemed trusted in sought after more than God Hence some charged to have loved their Belly Pleasures Profit Children Mammon more than God The Papists honour their He and Lud. Viâ—â—es she Gods saith one of their own and worship them no otherwise then God himself They pray to the Virgin Mary as to God and preferr her sometimes to Christ himself they call her Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy pray to her to deliver them from Satan save them from Hell yea some have been so shameless as to say God hath divided his Kingdom between himself and her reserving Justice to himself and settling Mercy upon her so that it is lawful to appeal from the Sons Justice to her Mercy and that the Souls Plaister is compounded of the Mothers Milk and the Sons Bloud no greater Blasphemy or Impiety can be uttered yet have they their Arguments their Authority their priviledged and allowed Books of Offices to excuse them These things are notoriously known I do therefore spare Quotations So had Saul somewhat to Excuse his leaving 1 Sam. 28. 15. God to go to the Witch viz. Because God would not honour him with an Answer at his Desire Ahaz had somewhat to plead for his renouncing God and setting up the Gods of Edom because 2 Ch. 28. 23. he was smitten by the Edomites 2. As for the second Commandment concerning Instituted Worship a world of Excuses have been found out to evacuate it till they at Rome have turned it out of the Decalogue and set an Et Caetera only in the room of it Jeroboam had an Excuse for his neglect of the Instituted Worship in the Temple and setting up his Calves it was to ease the People of much unnecessary Labour The Papists 1 K. 12. 28 think the spiritual and simple Worship prescribed in the Gospel to be low mean untaking therefore set up Image Worship to stir up Devotion call their Images good Lay-mens Books affirm the Image may be worshiped with the same worship with the Prototype as the Crucifix with Latreia the same worship whch is given to the Deity so it be with these Excuses and Crotchets of distinctions improperly reductively c. 3. For the third comes in the Swearer with his Excuses may I not swear so long as it is to the Truth again so long as I do not swear by the Name of God but by the Mass this Light my Hand Faith or Troth c. But this is forbidden by the Prophet Jer. 5. 7. By our Saviour Mat. 5. 35 36. By the Apostle Jam. 5. 12. Or again if I did not swear by the Name of God I may be excused I should not otherwise have been believed or I was urged to it or was in passion c. 4. Excuses are the great Sabbath breakers If I rest though I sanctifie not that Day to the solemn service of God publick and private may I not be excused I plow not market not if I go to the Church though I do nothing at home besides before or after If I hear a Sermon once a day what need I go again the second time If I keep it my self though my Servants or Children travel sleep play what is that to me These forget the Commandment runs Thou thy Son thy Daughter c. 5. If we come to the second Table we shall find Excuses as faulty there as injurious to men as guilty of impiety against God These fill Church State Families with confusion and disorder The Mother of Sedition Rebellion and Disobedience in the State of Schism contempt of all good Order and Ministry in the Church Somtimes in Defect If Magistrates be bad they think they may be contemned if weak resisted If Parents old poor indigent they think they may be neglected so taught the Corbanists Mar. 7. 11. If Ministers be not Eminent or live as you would have them slight them and slight the Service and Offerings of the Lord as they did upon the account of Elies Sons If Magistrates be remiss and 1 Sam. 2. 17. 2 Chron. 13. 7. weak cast off their Yoke as did Jeroboam who conspired to depose his Lord and Soveraign Sometimes again in Excess what Superiours command we must obey as they lead we may follow what they prescribe we must follow They shall answer for us c. If I have to do with my Equal then I am
Brats of Popish Superstition 7. Next comes Antiquity and looks to 7. Antiquity be heard with some Reverence and respect Thus it hath been time out of mind that which hath been good is good still our Fathers did thus before us Answer Then let us to Mass again from thence to Judaism thence to Paganism for that is the elder Religion of the three Let us to our Mast and Acorns again for that is the elder Diet. Paganism was the Mother or Nurse of many Popish Rites and Customs borrowed from the Heathens as their holy Water Lustrations Lights Images tutelar and local Saints c. True it is Popery is ancient so is Error so is Sin The fall is more ancient then the Gospel which was brought in upon it Mahumetism is ancient too can plead a thousand years standing breaking out much about the same time with Popery Six hundred years after the Incarnation But Judaism is before both and Paganism elder then them all if ancientry must carry it But there is an Antiquity senior to them all Idverum Tertull. quod primum That which was from the beginning saith the Apostle 1 John 1. 1. Thither we appeal thither we provoke To the Law and to the Testimony To Christ Esay 8. 8â— and to his Apostles we will refer our selves to decide all the Points in Controversie between us and Rome And I think it is as equal a motion that which Christ and the Apostles taught shall go for the best Religion be it Popish or Protestant as that once The God that answereth by fire shall be 1 Kings 18. 24. acknowledged the true God whether Jehovah or Baal when there was such halting between two Opinions as there is now adayes by too many If therefore the Papists can shew us out of the Old or New Testament their Pope's Supremacy Purgatory plurality of Mediators Pardons Invocation of Saints Image-worship praying for the Departed their Opus operatum Transubstantiation Elevation Adoration Circumgestation of the Host forbidding Marriage to Priests or Ministers c. We shall promise to subscribe the Tridentine Creed and confess our Error and return into the lap of Rome But if they be not to be found there let them cease to accuse us of Novelty Lutheranism or Calvinism and accuse us of Petrinism Paulism Scripturism or Christianism if they please So that in fine all the great flourish that Papists boast of Antiquity is but like that of the Jews to Jeremy We will be of our Fathers Religion Jer. 44. 16. Thus did our Kings Princes and our Fathers offering Incense to the Queen of Heaven It was not their ancient Fathers in Moses's Joshua's Samuel's dayes or in the best Kings David's Solomon's but after the Defection in Jeroboam's dayes and under the degenerating Kings Ahaz Manasseh Ammon Zedekiah c. 8. Tradition succeeds Antiquity and 8. Tradition pleads for its continuance and the observing such things as have been handed to them by their Guides and Elders Therefore did the Pharisees quarrel with Christ and his Disciples charging them with too little respect to the Tradition of the Elders And our Saviour chargeth them again with too little or no respect to the Commandments of God Their traditional Corban Mat. 7. 9. had expunged the fifth Commandment As the Papists Image-worship after the II. Nicene Council hath justled out the Second Commandment and made but an caetera of it The Samaritan woman Joh. 4. 20 22. pleaded hard with our Saviour for their old Worship Our Fathers said she worshipped in this Mountain But you Jews anathematize us and tell us Jerusalem is the only place of Worship Our Saviour tells her Ye know not what ye worship But we do For salvation is of the Jews you have Tradition we Scripture We may say the like to the Papists you have Tradition but give us Scripture or we can't expect Salvation in your Church you have Tradition for auricular Confession Purgatory extreme Unction Invocation of the Saints the blessed Virgin especially c. But where is the Scripture all this while Quod non scribitur non creditur 9. But universality makes a great noise 9 Universality and pleadeth next Why should not we do as do the most what our Fore-Fathers Kings Priests People all do is safe for us to follow Just as good Divinity as his was Loyalty who said Whom God by his permissive providence and all the people choose for King him will I follow though they had a rightful David for their Soveraign 2 Sam. 16. 18. and the other a rebellious Miscreant The Jews might have disputed Christ out of the World by this argument Do any of Jâ—h 7. 48. the Rulers or Pharisees believe in him but this people that know not the Law are accursed The greater part is most an end the worst Where was universality in Noah's Lot's Elias's dayes when each of them were left alone The godly have been ever almost over-born with numbers The Ephesians Acts 19. talked of no less then all Asia and the World besides for their Diana Elias was opposed by four hundred Prophets of Baal One Athanasius against the whole World So Luther had Pope Emperour Cardinals Bishops Priests all against him Christ's is still a little Flock Luke 12. 32. The loose Protestant would bear down the serious by this account the Papist the whole Society of Protestants the Mahumetan the Christian the Pagan all Learned Brerewood divides the World into thirty parts and finds Christianity to have but five Mahumetism six and Paganism hath the other nineteen parts The whole World was once all Pagan another while Arrian since Antichristian when all that dwelt on the Earth worshipped the Beast but a small Remnant whose Names were written in the Lambs Book of Life in Red Letters but in the Popes Registry in Black The World was never so happy as to be all Christian What it may be in those last dayes prophesied of Esay 2. 1 2. I know not When the Mountain of the House of the Lord shall be exalted on the top of the Mountains and all Nations shall flow to it 10. To this of universality I may subjoyn 10. Singularity his opposite singularity and the excuse made thereupon would you have me singular like no body stand alone Shall I presume that I have more wisdom piety conscience then all the World This Luther confesseth was a great stumbling-block to him when he discovered first the gross Errors of Popery what shall I be wiser then all the World what is become of our Fathers Had I not better Cum Platone errare quam cum aliis recte sentire Had I not better subscribe to the received Doctrines and Opinions of School-men Universities Councils then hold a private belief of my own But Noah was content to be singular though it is likely the World condemned him sufficiently in their Censures He is said to condemn the World upon a true
Creature in the Universe that only lives to it self The Sun communicates his light the Springs are free of their waters to every thirsty Passenger God's direction is to thee to drink the waters of thy own Cistern to Prov. 9. 15 16. take part of what he hath given thee thy self and that thy Fountain should be dispersed abroad to the relief and benefit of others God the Church State the Poor thy Family and Friends challenge a share in thy State The Prodigal thinks he can answer it as well or better I have not been base or sordid keeping and hoarding up I have lived on what I had and like a man I count him next door to a mad man that is too saving for his next heir Parcus ob haeredis curam nimiumque severus Assidet insano And him to be stark mad that Horat. spares all his life to die rich Est furor haud dubius est manifesta Phrenesis Juvenal Vt locuples moriaris egenti vivere fato But how hast thou spent upon thy Lusts what is the account thou wilt make to God to thy Ancestors or Posterity I had some thousands left me some may say One part spent on my Back and Belly another in Gaming a third on Pleasures Hawks Hounds Harlots a fourth in Taverns Plays Entertainments Thus what the Palmer-worm hath left the Locust hath eaten what the Locust the Caterpillar Joel 1. 4. what the Caterpillar the Canker-worm hath eaten Thus at last all is gone where is Christ's part all the while what hath been laid out on pious and charitable Uses Here is a sad account a State ruined and a Soul ruined This man is as sad a monster as the other and as to his House and Posterity worse Thou shouldst have followed the same direction of the wise man Drink water out of thy own Cistern Prov. 5. 15. and let streams run to others yet let them be only thy own saith he that is retain the principal still The Sun indeed gives light to others but withall preserves the principal and wasts not his stock It were prodigious if in a prodigal Vain it threw it self out of its Orb The Springs water the Earth yet so as to keep a stock still going If Naboth said God forbid I should 1 Kings 21. 3. sell the Inheritance of my Fathers Let sober men say God forbid I should make away the Inheritance of my Fathers by Riot and Luxury We are but Stewards remember that And all good men know it is their duty to honour God with their Purses as well as with their Persons A David would say What shall I do for the Name and House and Service of God A Nehemiah What shall I do for the Publick and my Country A Zacheus What shall I do for the Poor All good men How shall I give account of my Talent with joy and not with grief 13. Others think they make a lawful What I do is in it self lawful excuse when they say What I do is in it self lawful But Licitis perimus omnes There may be danger in the use abuse rather of lawful things Poyson is often given in a golden Cup or wholsome Dish sometimes in a Nosegay Be not too bold with things lawful there may be a snare in Company Employments Mirth Recreations Pastimes yea in thy very Calling To swear in it self is lawful but unnecessarily and frequently sinful The old World and Sodom perisht in these Licitis these lawfuls They eat they drank bought sold Luke 17. 26 27. built planted But minded nothing else Lawful and sinful are near Neighbours If we go to the utmost of lawfuls ground we tread ere aware on sinfuls Our Saviour gives an Item against worldly cares which are sometimes commanded sometimes Luke 21. 34. commended yet a surfeit and over-plus of them is as dangerous as of eating and drinking when immoderate though all lawful in their measure though few consider it There is somewhat more necessary which must be observed above lawful e. g. To rest on the Lord's day and forbear work lawful but the sanctifying the day is the necessary To read a good Book very lawful and commendable that day but if nothing hinder to forbear coming to the Publick Worship is sinful and scandalous So in many other cases Sacrifice sometimes best sometimes Mercy better In the use of things lawful therefore the Apostle gives three good Cautions 1. All 1 Cor. 6. 12. 10. 23. things are lawful that is things indifferent and not sinful in their nature but all things are not expedient profitable convenient Here I must have regard to my self saith learned Paraeus how much how far how long expedient 2. All things are lawful but all things edifie not though lawful to me here I must have regard to my Neighbour The third is All Turpe est esse servus gulae aut ventri Par in locum things are lawful to me but I will not be brought under the power of any I must see I be not enslaved to my Belly Pleasure Recreation c. but that I can as well forbear as use them As St. Austin said of Alipius he having been once at the Play grew mad of them Abstulit secum insaniam quastimularetur redire c. That he could not for his life keep from them till he was afterwards changed 14. There be many that will plead Christian liberty Christian liberty and think that may excuse many things which savour rankly of unchristian Libertinism rather then of Christian Liberty They can travell or work on the Lord's day sit up Night by Night at Cards and Dice frequent Taverns and Plays day by day drink Health after Health go to Mass be present at Idol-worship and cover all with the Veil of Christian liberty while they understand not well what Christian liberty meaneth It is a pretious and costly Jewel purchased with the blood of Christ And as all pretious Jewels are to be charily looked to so this as much as any I shall therefore 1. Briefly tell you wherein it stands not 2. Wherein it stands 1. It frees us not from the observation of the holy Laws of God 2. Nor from Civil subjection to the just Laws of Authority over us or Servants to the command of their Masters c. as St. Peter at large declares 3. Nor doth 1 Pet. 2. 13 14 c. it set us free from the Bonds and Rules of Sobriety Temperance Modesty Chastity c. to give scope to Riot Excess Luxury or any Misdemeanour 1. But it stands in freeing us from the Bondage of the old Ceremonial Law Gal. 5. 1. 2. Frees Believers from the Curse of the Moral Law Gal. 3. 13. 3. From our Sins 1. As to the Guilt 1 John 1. 7. 2. As to the Dominion and Power Rom. 6. 14. 8. 2. 3. As to the Condemnation of Sin Rom. 8. 1. 4. Believers are freed from the Wrath of God