stupendious Prodigies that the World ever beheld the Sun at Noon-day loosing his light the Air darkened the Earth quaking the Rocks rent the Sun of God crying out Eloi Eloi c. his fellow Thief now recanting of an old Malefactor and late scoffing Blasphemer while upon the Cross of a sudden a Penitent a Convert a Believer a Confessor a Preacher a Prayer preaching to him Repentance praying to his Saviour for forgiveness yet all this wrought not upon him The hard Rocks rent and cleft but his more then rocky heart rent not His Bones Arms and Legs were broken his heart unbroken We may as well almost expect a second Crucifying of Christ said one as a second Thief Mr. Dike nay I may say if there could be a second Crucifying there might also be found a second Impenitent Thief Some man said that great Andrews going a Journey hath found a Purse of money by the way were it not madness in hope of like hap to us to leave our money behind us hear Mr. Greenbam again Besides this one there is not one more in all the Bible and for this one that sped a thousand thousands have missed and what folly is it to put our selves in a way where so many have miscarried It is as if one should spur his Asse till he spake because Balaam's Asse did once speak so grosly doth Satan abuse us and our own folly blind us The remaining part of this Chapter is to speak of sundry Observations that many 2. Sundry Observations have made whence they have gathered Excuses to confirm themselves in their evil wayes As in the first place The quiet â— The quiet end of some wicked men and peaceable end of some wicked men I have observed saith one how good an end they have made died like Lambs I wish I may make such an end my self Answer Like Lambs indeed like Jeremy's Lambs Jer. 51. 39 40. They rejoyce and sleep a perpetual sleep like Lambs led to the Slaughter Like Lambs indeed as having neither apprehension of Death the second Death nor hope of eternal life But when did you see a wicked or worldly man die like that Lamb of God lifting up his Eyes to Heaven praying with a Heart full of hope joy peace assurance saying John 17. 4. I have glorified thee on Earth have finished the Work thou gavest me to do Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Or singing like that Swan 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. I have fought a good Fight finished my course kept the Faith there is now a Crown of Righteousness laid up for me c. I am not secure Si securus hinc exit ego non sum securus about his eternal state said St. Austin that died secure of his own Such may rather be said to lie like Stocks and Stones and to die like Nabal whose heart was dead within him ten dayes before he died and became 1 Sam. 25. like a stone It matters not much said a godly Divine Whether a godly man Dr. Harris be in Heaven the day before his death his Understanding being clouded his Faith assaulted so he be there ever after nor whether a wicked man be secure at and before his death and descend from a Heaven of security into a Hell of misery There is no conclusion to be made from the Epilogue and last act of ones life Qualis vita finis ita From the former course of his life we may more rationally argue according to that of the Father He cannot Aug. l. de Disc Chris c. 2. dye ill that lived well nor well that have lived ill You may possibly see some eminently godly person encountring the last Enemy with dread and horror yet goes to Heaven as they Rev. 11. 12. In a Cloud or as Elias in a Whirlewind and Storm 2 Kings 2. 11. while the wicked steal into Hell without noise For my part said that famous Greenham speaking to one in distress in Sickness As I look for no great matters in my death for my self so I would not think the more hardly of you if you should die in this discomfort nor would I wish any to judge otherwise of God's Child in that state of death for we shall not be judged according to that particular instant at our death but the general course of our life You may see much more to this purpose in our famous Perkins His right way to dying well Another is stumbled and takes offence 2. The low parts of the Religious as he pretends at the mean Condition and weak parts of those that are Religious looking upon them as so many shallow heads And it was not for nothing therefore when our Saviour had related That the Poor receive the Gospel that he added Blessed is he that is not offended in me In respect of Math. 11. 6. his Followers But shall we say That Lucian Porphiry and Julian and such atheistical Scoffers are the onely wits of the World Tell me if thou art able to Judge and hast any Candor If St. Paul's Rhetorick in his Answers and in his many ex tempore Apologies doth not equal or exceed his who was Sir-named the Orator Tertullus And not to mention his other Epistles read and weigh that short one to Philemon and tell me If thou findest any where better Oratory such Flowers and Flouds of Eloquence Were not those great Worthyes of their times Justin Martyr Clemens Tertullian Origen Basil Nazianzen Chrysostom Austin Jerom able to cope with match and over-match all the learned Opposers of Religion in their times And will not any one that hath any savour of piey or fancy confess our Herbert to have as good a vain in Poetry and to have as lofty strains as any of our frothy and wanton Poets And hath not our Nation had as choice wits and profound Schollars in all kind of Polite Literature as were to be found in the World again Such our Jewell Perkins Abbot Andrews Reynolds Whitaker Davenant and those two great Luminaries Vsher and Gataker whom their very Adversaries admired for their Learning yet all not onely Champions for the Truth but Exemplary for a strict and holy Life 3. Another takes the like distaste when Religion doth not raise men to Riches c. he sees Religion not accompanyed with Riches and outward Prosperity but the most Religious often in Straits Wants Trouble Persecution whereas our Preachers say That godliness is so profitable to all things having the Promise of this Life as well as that to come yet they see whatever the godly may meet with in another World in this they fare not better often worse then others Is godliness the great gain and contentment say they we can find neither the one nor the other True if we call Riches Honour Preferments the great gain and contentment to consist in a bruitish Epicurean satisfying the Flesh These the godly count but petty gains and little contentment in them But
Malice as Ananias his lye Acts 5. 9. Not repented of but sin unrepented of as the two Theeves are Examples 10. Not sin confessed but covered and smothered Prov. 28. 13. Lastly Sin forsaken never damns sin not forsaken ever damns Prov. 28. 13. Ezek. 18. 21. Manasseh an example of the one Pharaoh of the other 1. We must distinguish of Righteousness 1. There is a Legal and Evangelical Righteousness 2. A Righteousness before God and before men Before God there is none Righteous according to the strictness of the Law But Zachary Elizabeth Abel and Lot and all truly godly are called and counted righteous by an Evangelical righteousness while they endeavour to fulfil all righteousness though in many things fall short But though they dare not plead their righteousness before God in whose Eyes the Heavens are not pure yet can they before men say Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblamably 1 Thess 3. Po. we have had our Conversation among you Whose Oxe or Asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded There are sins Quotidianae Incursionis as Tertullian calls them some over-sights which the best are not free from but bewail and they consist with Grace But there are other gross sins Vastantia Conscientiam which make foul work with Conscience and denominate a man unrighteous in a high measure these shut out of Heaven 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. A third Doctrine much abused to strengthen Doct. 3. Christ died for Sinners men in sin is That Christ dyed to save Sinners which is the most comfortable Doctrine in all the Bible a saying worthy of all acceptation and due consideration But what use doth the presumptuous Sinner make of it Then saith he shall I do well enough though I live in sin for I can't out-sin the Merits of Christ's Blood which is said to cleanse from all sin And thus would he make Christ the Minister and Maintainer of sin as if he came not to destroy the Works of the Devil but to Patronize 1 John 3. 8. them But if thou wilt understand know That Jesus Christ came not to save us in and with but from our sins Matth. 1. 21. that is from the practice love and dominion of sin He gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to Tit. 2. 14. purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Every word of which Text speaks life to the Sinner but death to his sin Christ came indeed to reconcile God and the Sinner not the Sinner and Sin He pulls down the partition-wall between God and the Believer but sets up a partition-wall between the Believer and his Sin But many deal with Christ said a worthy Dr. Hall Bishop as some do with their Prince or some great noble man they care not how much they take up and how far they run in debt and when payment should be made they get a Protection to elude the course of Justice So do many fly to Christ for his Protection saith he and this is a common cheat 4. There is no Doctrine more abused then Doct. 4. We are saved by grace that of free grace That we are saved by Grace not Merit The Scripture ascribeth all to Grace we are justified by Grace Rom. 3. 28. Saved by Grace not Works Ephes 2. 8. Where Sin aboundeth Grace superaboundeth Rom. 4. 20. Hence the Libertine assumeth I will rely on the Grace of God and not doubt of Salvation though I am such a Sinner The Apostle easily foresaw that such an Antinomian and Antievangelian Inference would be made by some ungodly ones as Jude calls them who would turn grace into wantonness therefore doth twice obviate and refute it in one Chapter Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound And verse 15. Shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace And knocks down both with the same short answer of defiance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid Shall Grace act against it self and destroy Grace shall gratia gratis data become Ingratum faciens 1. These do quite and clean corrupt the Doctrine of Grace which teacheth to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Tit. 2. 11. 2. These do pervert the use of Grace set down Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the Law but under Grace 3. These frustrate the main end of Grace which is set down Rom. 5. ult That as Sin hath reigned unto Death Grace might reign by Righteousness to eternal life To abuse Grace is the greatest Sin imaginable and to despight the Spirit of Grace is the Sin unpardonable Heb. 10. 29. And if any are ungodly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in God's Black-Book as destined to condemnation Jude verse 4. they are such as turn the Grace of God into wantonness A fifth Doctrine much abused is That Doct. 5. That we are saved by Faith we are justified and saved by Faith alone which is most true and consonant to Scripture Rom. 3. 28. Gal. 2. 16. Ephes 2. 8. I will therefore believe saith the careless Christian and then hope I shall do well enough though I have no good works which I hear are excluded in those fore-cited Scriptures in the matter of Justification But know O vain man That Faith and Works are only opposed in the matter of Justification but are never separated and parted As the Eye and Ear are opposed in the matter of seeing the Eye only sees not the Ear but where God gives Eyes he gives Ears also So to whom Grace is given to believe it is given to obey Faith is not an idle but active and operative Grace It works by love Gal. 5. 6. Is of a heart purifying nature Acts 15. 9. It unites the Soul to Christ so that Christ is said to dwell in the Soul by Faith Ephes 3. 16. And to live in the Soul Gal. 2. 20. The right Epithete of true Faith is most holy Faith Jude verse 20. His right property is sanctifying Acts 26. 28. True Faith is never solitary but attended and known by her good many Companions Vertue 2 Pet. 1. 5. Love Ephes 1. 15. Fear Heb. 11. 7. Repentance Mark 1. 15. Righteousness 2 Tim. 2. 22. Obedience Heb. 11. 8. Patience Heb. 6. 12. Sanctification 2 Thess 2. 13. Good Works Tit. 3. 8. Her Exercises are holy Duties Therefore we read of the Prayer of Faith James 5. 15. Living by Faith Heb. 11. 28. Walking by Faith 2 Cor. 5. 7. And as to our spiritual warfare it is of singular use we read of the fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6. 22. Resisting the Devil quenching his fiery Darts overcoming the World and all by Faith So that such know little of the nature of Faith who dream that Faith hath nothing to do but to look on a Promise and sit still Faith hath Promises Conditions Precepts Threats
had made a prey of a poor Widow thinks his sin expiated by a long Prayer which he meant to say ere he went to Bed And thus I fear do many Professors now a-days for whom my Heart bleeds who like the Inn-Keeper cleanse their Rooms in the Morning to be fouled again by all Comers ere Night Or like the Monks who have their Mattins and Even-song and all day do what they list only with this difference The one mock God in saying what they understand not And the other deceive themselves in plain English praying that which they after mind not But as one said once Tell me not what the man is in Affliction but what after So say I Tell me not what a man is in Duty but what after it Again there are others who think to expiate their many Sins in their Life by doing some notable act of Charity at their Death by their Goods ill gotten Debts are to be paid before Legacies and Restitution is to go before Charity as we see in Zacheus We speak not against good works but would have them done in a good manner that they may redound to the good of the Donor Many rich men once cast in great Giâ—â—s into the Treasury and all did not amount to one Farthing The poor Widow cast in no more and all theirs was not so much God hates Robbery for Burnt-Offering Esay 61. 8. Deut. 23. 18. and the price of a Dog or the hire of a Harlot was not to come into his Offering Remarkable is that story of Selimus he First who near his end was counselled by Pyrrhus the Bassa to lay out a great mass of Treasure taken from Persian Merchants upon a notable Hospital for the Poor No saith he God forbid I should bestow those Goods so ill gotten upon Works of Charity and Devotion for mine own vain-glory and praise I will never do it but command that they be all restored to the right Owners It is true indeed wicked men may do some magnificent acts much cryed up by men yet nothing available to the Doer What a splendid Temple was that which Herod built Josephus saith Not much inferior if any thing at all to that built by Solomon far beyond that built by Cyrus and Darius Tacitus calls it Immensae opulentiae Templum yet he as very a Miscreant as ever breathed 26. I may not forget the vulgar Excuse 26. Fair inside and good heart of many ignorant persons Their fair inside and good heart Charge them with their gross Ignorance neglect of God's Service in Family or otherwise loose and lewd talk c. They are ready to answer Though I can't talk so well and have not so much knowledge yet for a Heart to God-ward I have as good as the best I have so strong a Faith as I never yet doubted and for loving God I do and ever did with all my heart Poor Souls thy Heart good without knowledge is as an Eye good without sight Prov. 19. 2. Tell me thou hast a strong Faith and a Heart full of love to God when thy life and talk is loose and vain and perswade me thou hearest Thunder when I see it snows The one is not more the old man's wonder then this the Christians Or that the Spring is sweet when the water 's bitter Or that the Tree is a Pear-tree when it beareth Bramble-Berries Or that the man is sound who is alway Coughing in my Ears and spits up his Lungs and putrid matter in my sight As is the Treasure of the Heart such is the Communcation and Conversation Tell this to thy Child not to me Thy Child would perswade thee he loves thee with all his heart and will strike on his Breast when thou askest him Where he loves thee yet let him have an Apple ask him to give it or a part of it or bid him go into the next Room if dark to fetch thee any thing he shrinks and shrugs but will do neither So if the Lord bid thee part with the least sin or go into the darks of seriousness and mortifying any lust thou flingest away and wilt do neither And now tell me whose Speech and Carriage is more Childish thine or his 27. In the last place comes in one who 27. Little did I think it saith Little did I think and we may soon discern whose Language this is Insipientis est c. Even the greatest Fool hath his after-wit and after-repentance Had I been aware or were it to do again I would do otherwise Thus it is in Temporals thus in Spirituals thus in this Life thus after Who would have thought saith the Prodidal that I should ever come to beg a morsel of Bread That did I may the provident man say Who would have thought said Haman and Jezabel that we should have come to such ends We never expected other say the godly but that so proud a Wretch should have a shameful downfall and that a Whore a Witch a Murderer should come to an infamous end Who would have thought said the foolish Builder that such a storm should have come and on such a sudden And the foolish Virgins that the Bridegroom should surprize us that we had not time to trim our Lamps That did we say the wise Builder and wise Virgin and we provided against both Who would have thought saith Dives there had been such a place of Torments and that I should after all my Ease and Plenty have come hither and that I should see Lazarus taken into Heaven and my self shut out What did Moses and the Prophets tell thee other saith Abraham And who would think saith the careless Professor at the last day that I Mat. 8. 12. should see Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and so many of the Children of the Kingdom so many Professors cast into utter darkness That did I forewarn you of may our Saviour then Luke 13. say It is a remarkable passage that in Wisd 5. 3. 4 5. Where the prophane Atheist and Scoffer are brought in condemning themselves We Fools counted the life of the Godly madness and his end without honour And now is he reckon'd among the Sons of God and his Inheritance is among the Saints How have we erred from the Truth c. What hath all our Pride and all our Riches and Glory profited us seeing they are vanisht and gone c. Thus have we done with the first sort of Excuses those we called Home-bred or from our selves we come now to those that we call Forreign or borrowed from others CHAP. III. Excuses taken from Others EXcuses taken from Others are either from 1. Men. 2. God 3. Satan We shall begin with those relating to men And to take in all sorts of men shall reduce them into three Classes 1. All men may be considered as Superiors Equals or Inferiors 2. As good or bad 3. As Friends Foes or Strangers 1. The first sort of men from whom Excuses
them alone Thus Mat. 23. 14. could the Pharisee devour a poor Widows house yet keeping on his constant course of Prayer and Divine-Service the noise of the Widows cry never troubled him So they that crucified the Lord of Glory when they had such a pretence as had a face of Law Habemus Legem were not at all scrupulous and so squearnish as Pilate who called for water to cleanse himself of that Blood they never call for water to wash their hands but take his Blood and all Pilate's guilt upon themselves His Blood Mat. 27. 24 25. be no us and our Children they cry without the least remorse Only they must have it done before the Passover and must not go into Pilate's house that day of Preparation that they might not be defiled when they came next day to the holy Passover which Jo. 1◠28. they conscientiously were preparing themselves for 4. This is a profitable way to save charges 4. To spare pains cost pains and trouble about Religion and their own Souls And what a wonder is it to see those very men who will spare for no cost pains or charge for their Bodies Diet Apparel Physick Recreations or their Buildings and Furniture yea their Horses Dogs Hawks every thing stick only to be at cost and pains about their Souls The easiest and cheapest Religion is alway best The shortest way to Heaven pleaseth most Now these Excuses fit their turn for that and nothing like them For should they be at charge to mind Religion as some do it would ask pains study care diligence fear trembling there must be reading praying meditating reforming repenting and I know not what more To what end all this wast saith the Sluggard I have heard of a more compendious way and I will venture upon it A good excuse will save all this labour And he is a very poor man indeed that is to seek an Excuse These deal with their Souls as many Thread-bare Gentlemen do with their Backs and Garments who must be in the fashion and loth to be at charge of new inside and outside buy some handsome fashionable outside put a little Trimming on it and care not what the inside is who can look into that or as others who get a long Vest or Cloak to cover all whereas to Subueula pexae trita subest Tunicae Hor. have all new and good would ask more cost CHAP. X. The sinfulness vanity and frivolousness of Excuses HAving given an account of the Causes The sinfulness of Excuses and Reasons of Excuses in general not intending to speak of each particularly I come now to give an account why in our Proposition at first I called them sinful and frivolous 1. I shall speak to their sinfulness 2. To their frivolousness Their sinfulness appears in three things 1. They are Maxima impeditiva bonorum The greatest hinderances of any one thing 1. The great hinderers of good in the World of all good 1. They keep men from the good of Duty Faith and Obedience which they are call'd to 2. From the duty of Repentance which they might have upon failour of the former 3. Then from the comfort they might have had from Faith Obedience and Repentance had it not been for them 4. They keep from God that Subjection Honour and Obedience which we owe to him All which is to be seen in those Guests in that Parable Luke 14. 18. when invited to come to the Gospel-Supper to partake of Christ and his benefits they shew little Faith to believe the report of so much Grace and Mercy tendered little Obedience to come in upon a Gospel invitation persuming those were just Excuses they alledged of the Farm Oxen and Marriage 2. Having those Excuses in readiness they never trouble their minds with Repentance as if they had been at all to blame 3. Then are they frustrated of all that good and benefit which should have accrued to them upon acceptance They rejected the Councel of God against themselves as was said of some Luke 7. 30. They were in a fair possibility of well-doing had they not barred up the way to Salvation by these excuses 4. The Lord seeing his Grace so slighted upon such sleeveless and frivolous pretences is justly incensed sendeth to call in others resolving whosoever should these should not participate of his Grace and Mercy 2. They are secondly The maxima 2. The great Seminary of Evils productiva malorum The greatest Nursery and Seminary of Evils A world of evil springs from them They may be called Progenies Viperarum A Generation of Vipers or Semen Maleficentissimum as Junius or Malignantium as Ar. Montanus renders that of Esay 1. 4. A Seed of evil Doers a pestilent Seed of a very lewd Race Of these Excuses that may be said which Solomon chargeth the Whore withall She increaseth Transgressors among men Prov. 23. 28. and maketh them ten times worse then they would be Or what was charged on Jeroboam an active Ring-leader unto general Sin who lay under much guilt He sin'd and made Israel to Sin Yea which is worse then both that may be charged upon Excuses which the Lord chargeth upon the false Prophets That they strengthened the Jer. 23. 14 17. Hands of evil Doers that none doth return from his wicked way by promising them life Encouraged and animated with these they have made a Covenant with Death and Agreement with Hell not as if in a Esay 28. 15. regardless and desperate manner they slighted them but as being in their own conceit and apprehension sufficiently secured against them So Junius gives the See Jun. in locum sense 3. Whatever men may pretend these 3. They are all one with flat denial Excuses are upon the matter none other then plain refusals and flat denials but in a more smooth and complemental garb They speak as if the men were wondrous well affected onely sorry they could not magnifie their religious Inclinations by reason of these diversions But the truth is they had no real intention at all Verbalis excusatio realis recusatio An excuse in words is a refusal in deeds And the Lord interprets it for no orher therefore sends to call in others more cordially willing These have rejected me and I will reject them Hence our word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 14. 18. rendred excuse is often rendred to refuse renounce reject deny as Acts 23. 11. 1 Tim. 4. 7. 5. 11. Tit. 3. 10. Heb. 11. 25. So that they might as well have spoken out in plain English as Corah did Numb 16. 14. We will not come up for they never meant it though they made such a fair pretence for a blandation and colour 2. Their frivolousness appears in that 2. Their frivolousness they are not able to stand 1. Before the presence of God 2. The tryal of his Word 3. The strict examen of Conscience 4. A fiery tryal of Affliction