to be understood as the Scriptures well teach us Augustine saith that the tree of life served not only ad alimenta sed etiam ad sacramenta for doubtlesse as Adam in his estate of innocency had a bodily Sabbath so therein he had a spirituall use of these trees in the mid'st of the Garden and that in this sort First for the tree of life it was not so called as if it gave life to him for God breathed that into him at the first But besides that the tree of life was a means to preserve it It was also a Symbolum and memoriall also to put him in minde to know that it was not 〈…〉 virtute arboris but vi virtute divina by which he had life at first and by which his life and length of dayes shall be continued hereafter In the middest of the Garden was the Pulpit and this is the Sermon which was preached unto him by these things which the trees did represent namely That God was his life and length of dayes 〈◊〉 30. 20. And that this gratious visitation did preserve his life Job 10. 12. As he breathed out his life into him at the first Again it did put him in minde that seeing he had received a spirituall life of immutability in esse so also he received a spirituall life of eternity in posse Therefore he had matter and just occasion of thankfulnesse for the one and of obedience for the other Adam had two things injoyned him the one was praeesse Creaturis the other subesse Creatori he had no need of a Caveat for the one for he was ready enough to govern and bear soveraignty but for his duty to God he had great need to be put in minde and for the try all and practise thereof he caused this tree of knowledge to be planted there with an inhibition not to eat of it upon pain of death which now and ever hath offended many Some wish it had not been in the Garden Others wish Adam had never tasted it But Saint Augustine saith if it were good and pleasant why should it not be there Gods purpose therefore in planting the forbidden tree was that it might be a triall of his obedience and practise of his duty that if he should continue as he might and had ability given him then he should have the greater reward afterward 〈◊〉 saith Rev. 2. 7. Vincenti dabo edere de ligno vitae in medio Paradisi Well saith St. Paul But no man can overcome except he strive first and fight the good fight 2 Tim. 2. 5. And no man that will or can strive well but he abstaineth from something 1 Cor. 9. 25. For which cause therefore that we might be rewarded it was necessary that there should be a commandement and forbidding for his abstinence that when there should be a tryall of the Tempter saying Eat of this he should strive and say I may not and so get the victory and be crowned that is eate of the tree of everlasting life and live for ever with God in Heaven On the contrary side 17. verse if in triall he should wilfully fall then for transgression the tree of life should be a tree of death Mortem morieris And the reason of this choice why God should prescribe him a law and form of obedience is because this should be primor dialis lex as one saith ut nostrum obsequi sit nostrum sapere Deut. 30. 20. This is our wisdome to know and doe that which God will have us to doe if God give a Law at large every one will consent to it As if God had said No man shall disobey or transgresse my will none will deny it But let it come to positive law and bring the triall and practise of that generall to a particular as to say I forbid and restrain this tree none shall break my will nor eat of it then is the triall of obedience indeed Object But some may say What hurt is it to know good and evill For we read Esay 7. 15. that Christ shall doe that And therefore it is no sinne Resp. I answer that God forbiddeth not to eat the fruit nor that he would have us ignorant of that knowledge quam quis quaerit a Deo sed quam quis quaerit a seipso And no doubt Adam had the knowledge both of good and evill per intelligentiam si non per experientiam And he knew how to choose the one and to refuse the other to pursue the one and to fly from the other he understood it then but when he would know both by experience Gen. 3. 6. He could not see why God should forbid him and therefore the Tempter taking occasion by it made him make an experiment of it This is the cause then why at last Adam came to know evill by sense and experience and saw to his shame what evill was for to take he knew and confessed by experience that bonum erat adhaerere Deo as the Prophet saith Jer. 2. 19. And now he knew by tast how bitter a thing it was to forsake the Lord And that he knew it appeareth Gen. 3. 8. by hiding himself for fear he shewed that he knew it when he did feel ante-ambulatores mortis which is sorrow and sicknesse and when he saw the Statute of death that now it must necessarily come to him and all his posterity to dye the death then he knew evill by wofull experience You see the cause of the Law and of his sinne of good and evill it remaineth that we believe Adam in his knowledge and in his experience both of good and evill For by his good lost we come to the knowledge of the means by which our good may be lost that is if we seek to satisfie our lusts and curiously not contented with the open knowledge of his revealed will shall try conclusions with God and say what if we should break the Law Wherefore abandoning these faults which by experience we see were the cause of evill in him it behoveth us to receive more thankfully of God the good things we have and live obediently resting on the Sonne of God for good things to come And so at last Christ will be unto us the tree of eternal life hereafter as we have made him the tree of knowledge wisdome and sanctification to us in this life Fluvius autem procedit ex Hedene ad irrigandum hunc hortum inde sese dividit ferturque in quatuor capita Primi nomen est Pischon hic est qui alluit totam Regionem Chavilae ubi est aurum Et aurum illius Regionis praestans ibidem est Bdellium lapis Sardonyx Gen. 2. 10,11,12 June 10. 1591. THe verse going before containeth as we have seen the planting of the Garden and the devise of God framed and set in the middest of Paradise which is a plain resemblance of all Divinity both touching our duty in knowledge and
contain the Serpents rejoynder or replie in his second Dixit to the Woman in which he now having occasion doth plainly lay himself open and discover himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blasphemous mouth opposing himself to the holy word of God wherefore though at the first sight he was hid under a Mask yet now he seeing the time doth uncover himself bewraying how foul a spirit he is by his impudent lies and horrible impiety by which one would think that she might now at last and not too late have espied him though at the first sight in simplicity she took him for a Serpent indeed for she might well know that no Creature of God unless he had by Apostacy rebelled and oppugned the truth and will of God that ever could speak such horrible and impious blasphemies and lies as these But it may seem that she giving such eare and credit to the spirit of lies having the knowledge of Gods truth that by Gods just judgements she was blinded and could not see as it oftentimes commeth to pass Rom. 1. 21. 24. 26. Now we are come to speak of the particulars of this reply in which we see first his drift and intent is to remove and take away that little fear of Gods judgements which was yet remaining in her and kept her from eating the forbidden fruit wherefore in this speech he seemeth friendly to reprove her q.d. Alas you are more timerous and fearfull a great deal than needs you are all this while in an error if you perswade your self that you shall die for eating this fruit for I tell you and will prove to you that without all peradventure you shall be so sarre from any danger of death hereby that you shall not once taste of death at all Thus we see him with an impudent face and blasphemous mouth to face her out with his bragging argument drawn from his own authority for if we consider the matter of his speech it is nothing at all but that which commeth out of his forge of lies for he is a lier from the beginning John 8. 44. Thus he opposeth his own word to the infallible word of Gods truth and would have it taken and believed before that which God hath said q.d. You are too credulous to beleeve all that God saith to be true for I tell you in this point it is not true for you shall not die Now because there might be a question and doubt whether all this that the Devill saith be gospell and true therefore he craftily rendereth a reason for the proof and confirmation of his assertion His first reason to 〈◊〉 is scit deus which is a calling of God to witness by way of protestation and oath to appeal to the knowledge of God for 〈◊〉 that he saith true which ever since hath been the practise of the Devill in wicked men to teach them by swearing to call God to witness against the truth as if he were the maintainer of their falsehood and lies which is not only the taking of Gods name in vanum but also in falsum which is most divelish Secondly he will take in hand by a plain demonstration that they should not die by eating of this fruit after this sort God doth envy your good estate which by eating this fruit you may come unto for God knowing that by eating it you should become equall to himself doth therefore take this order and course to keep you from it namely to tell you and make you beleeve that if you once eat of it you are poysoned and undone as if it were deadly whereas indeed it is most sovereign and precious In which you see how impiously and bla phemously he chargeth Almighty God of envy and of a malicious minde and that of a Serpentine malice such as is indeed the Devill namely that he under the colour and pretence of good will doth cover and hide his hatefull and spitefull minde withall which might have made her to say of the Devill as Paul did of Elimas the Childe of the Devill Acts 13. 10. O pater mendacii plenus omni dolo O inimice veritatis justitiae For as blasphemous Rabshakeh did Isaiah 36. 15. so doth the Devill here facet Deum falissimum falacissimum the rather to deceive simple men Now for the second part of his speech it conteineth a promise to open their eyes to deifie them and make them as God if they eat this q.d. Tush what talk you of dying the death God which maketh a shew of loving you as a friend doth goe about to hide and keep from you the fruit which is most precious and more beneficiall to you than all the trees of the Garden besides for it is not only good and wholesome for meat but also of such rare and divine virtue that it will make them that eat thereof as God knowing all c. So that by advice ye should rather forbear all the trees in the Garden than this one which is forbidden you This may seem to be the effect of his speech but now particularly he will goe forward to shew her what the speciall hidden virtues of this tree are first saith he it hath a power to open your eyes In which speech he seemeth to perswade her that as yet they were in the state of blinde men as if the eyes of their mindes were hooded and blinde-folded so long as they had not the knowledge of evill as well as of good So the Devill misliketh their estate because they knew not evill but God would have had them so holy harmeless and good that they should not so much as once know what any evill should mean much less to doe or seell evill but the Devills intent and desire was to make them know evill both by act and also by wofull experience to their utter overthrow But suppose that it were a want and imperfection in them we know that their duty had been to have sought to God for remedy who in Revel 3. 18. willeth all such blinde ones to buy eye salve of him but they making the Devill their Physitian became indeed starke blind and had both eyes 〈◊〉 clean out The second bait wherewith hee doth fish to take and entrap her is sicut Dei in which hee doth promise to deifie her and canonize her as a God in heaven he would perswade her that it were too base an estate for her still to remain as a Lord and Prince on earth he would have them to aspire to all Honor Power Glory and Majesty that they might once come to bee as God without check or controll of any other superior power This apple of preferment renown and dignity is the bait at which all ambitious and vain-glorious men doe greedily gape after and are taken by the Devill By this then appeareth that the devill was the first which went about to make and have more gods than one and his speech is to this effect q.d. Your God
root of all bitternesse is infidelity for Adam seeing Eves case that though she had eaten of that pleasant and forbidden tree yet she was living and that there was as yet no apparent signe of any ill thought the rather surely God spake not this in earnest neither for the eating of a small apple shall man dye But should have accounted Gods word to be infallible and that mortem moriêris was a sentence of condemnation Faith should be rooted in Gods word but from incredulitie which is the root of bitternesse it commeth that he beleeveth Eve by an inordinate love not of lust but of necessitie to his wife which we call a bashfulnesse and the Fathers call it noxia verecundia In 1 Kings 2. 4. So long as Davids sonnes shall walk in the way of truth with all their hearts and all their souls their posteritie shall inherit the Kingdome Adam by eating this fruit shewed a desire in him to grant her request he loved her entirely for that she was taken out of him and given unto him by God and then there were no more women in the world He did eat that he might be accounted indulgens maritus a most loving husband that as Austin saith In unitate peccati etiam socius sit that even in the unitie of iniquitie he might be her companion The Heathen call necessarium 〈◊〉 mulierem a woman to be a necessarie evill So intire is his love to his wife that as S. Gregorie saith well Plus credit uxori quà m 〈◊〉 he beleeveth more his wife who is his helper than God who is his maker St. Ambrose saith Man will be content to hear blasphemous and obscene speeches ut offendatur Deus ne offendatur amicus that God may be offended rather than his friend displeased Now by the 22. verse you may see the ambitious desire of Adam to become as God himself to know good and evill therefore it is by the Fathers presumed That by Eves information he presumed to be so He was now wearie of credere and obedire to beleeve and obey God and his word He desired now to command and controll to be non sub Deo sed sicut Deus to be no longer under God but as God his faith and obedience became a burthen he was not content with his knowledge of good alone but he would needs by eating attain the knowledge both of good and evill he began frige fieri in affectu to waxe cold in his affection toward God And lastly he made full account that he should be preferred he should not be punished none should be so excellent he should be equall with God But if that God were angrie with him yet Adam had his excuse that he for the love and entire affection to her which was taken out of himself for a good minde which he had to her gave her his consent to eat of the forbidden fruit which they gather out of the twelfth verse of this chapter where Adam saith The woman which thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eat He did behold what Eve did see and thought that thereby he should attain knowledge But here the Holy Ghost to avoid rediousnesse briefly without any farther repetition saith And he did eat Adams understanding it was corrupted his will it was infected he was perswaded that he should be as a God and that there was great virtue in the tree whereupon he transgressed that is he went beyond the Commandement God said he should not eat but he did eat Whereas Paul saith 1 Tim. 2. 14. Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and was in the transgression The Serpent deceived Eve and Eve was Sathans instrument to deceive Adam Upon which place the Fathers doe make inquirie of Adams sinne saying That Adam yeilded to Eve though he were not properly deceived by her this his sinne say they is the sinne of necessity not of his will Salomon for the love he did bear to his wives was tempted to Idolatry Ahab for fear committed murther It was neither love nor fear of God could keep man in Gods commandement and yet they impute malice to God and they are even set on mischief Exod 32. 22. Adams sinne came out of himself out of Eve which was his rib Wickedness first came from the Devill himself and his Cockatrioe egge that hatcheth iniquitie is malice he that imagineth to doe evill men call the author of wickednesse Prov. 24 8. According to the old and ancient proverb in 1 Sam. 24. 14. wickednesse proceedeth from the wicked Sathans wickednesse is of malice Eves wickednesse is of error Adams is of infirmitie then cometh noxia verecundia a guilty shame fac'dness Adam he fell of infirmitie in that he loved his wife more than he loved God The ancient Divines considering Adams sin doe consider the same by the circumstances which are seven 1. The person The first circumstance is of the person Adam he was Gods vassal from whom he received infinite benefits whom he made governour of Paradise as if a Countie Palatine to whom he gave a short Law and an easinesse not to sinne to whom he gave strength to withstand all violence to whom he permitted all the trees in the Garden reserving but one to himself for whom also being alone he made woman to be to him a meet help The bond of love unto God was before ever there was any Eve It was love that linked Adam unto Eve it was fear love that linked Adam unto God he therfore should have regarded more the word of God than of woman 2. The Object The second Circumstance is in respect of the object against whom he offended he sinned against God that created him that gave unto him the government of Paradise as a Father saith well Quem nunc despicitis 〈◊〉 fecit he whom now you despise is your maker Besides it was he that made her to be an help but now she setteth her self against God He gave to Adam a commandement brevissimum levissimum that was most short to be remembred and most easie to be observed seeing that he will offend him that is so gracious seeing he will break that Law which so easily may be kept this circumstance maketh the sin of Adam to be the greater 3 The motive and retentive to and from sinne Thirdly They doe consider the motive to sin and the retentive from sin What was it that moved Adam to sinne and to lose Gods favour It was but an Apple a small fruit that seemed pleasant to the eyes wherein there was but a short and transitorie pleasure while the fruit was a eating and in the mouth But the retentive was in the highest degree mortem 〈◊〉 thou shalt dye the death thou shalt dye eternally the fear was 〈◊〉 greater than the pleasure Paul Philip. 2. 8. faith of Christ That he humbled himbled himself and became obedient unto the death even the death of the crosse
tend to honour and excellency this work of ours sheweth our own basenesse that we are but fimus and limus the creeping worm called in Hebrew Adama hath alliance with Adam which man who is but a worm as saith Job he confesseth himself to be vile Job 39. 37. In the 22. Jeremy 29. the prophet exclameth saying O Terra Terra Terra Adam or Man is not every kinde of Earth he is not sandy but of a serviceable and profitable gleeb for he is for Gods especial use and made to his own likenesse In Gods temple there was no tymber but of fruitfull trees aliquid Deus creavit exnihilo hîc ex infimo maximum at homo malus otiosus ex aliquo facit nihil Though David were an holy man yet did he see corruption Acts 13. 36. For man is of the Earth earthly and born mortal subject to corruption Galen the Heathen saith that the Anatomy of a man is Hymnus Dei He saith to the Epicure take an hundred year to work but one part of a man and thou canst not mend it for in man God hath been so absolutely a work-man that nothing in him may be mended Miranda fecit pro homine sedmagis miranda in homine I will praise thee O Lord saith David Psal. 139. 14. for I am wondrously made 3. The form of Man Thirdly The form of man in our Image juxta similitudinem nostram though man be de terra in terra yet he is not propter terram God created his former Creatures secundum speciem suam according to their kinde God createth man secundum similitudinem suam Man is Microcosmos so say the Heathen but divinity saith he is Imago Dei in omnibus Creaturis vestigia sunt Dei sed in homine non solùm sua vestigia sed imago sua Est enim non solum opus sed imago Dei Miscen upon this place saith upon Imago Dei that in una hac voce innumer as habemus voces Who fo sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed the reason is this for in the image of God hath he made man Gen. 9. 6. So there is no exchange of mens souls in imagine sua we are created without blemish Now when Adam was an hundred and thirty yeers old he begat a childe in his own likenesse after his image chap. 5. 3. that was blemished by his sinne Our perfection in the image of God is esse constmiles filio Dei for we are predestinate to he made like the image of his Sonne that he might be the first born of many Brethren Rom. 8. 29. We are changed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. Perfect felicity is the Image of God virtue is the way to this felicity sinne deformeth this Image in us Here is Imago similitudo Similitudo Similitudo is the genus and comprehends both similitudo is as a union in quality here it is added as a perfection to the Image the lineaments hereof by the Fathers are said to be first The essence of the soul is in the body in omni unaquaque parte as God is in the world ☜ Secondly the soul is immortal God is so Thirdly there is a triple power of the soul Understanding Memory and Free-will Understanding is every where in Heaven in Earth in the deep on this side and beyond the Seas there is an ubiquitie of the soul as of Gods presence every where Memory the infinitenesse thereof is as that of God who is without limitation quae est haec immensa hominum capacitas saith a Father the will and conscience cannot be bound but it is free to think so God what him pleaseth that can he doe God by his power createth man and make h a natural World And Man likewise maketh artificialem mundum as ships for carriage temples for service lights and candles as artificial starres creavit etiam homo alteram quasi naturam Imago Dei nata creata There is a primitive Image which is Imago nata that is of Christ the Sonne of God Imago autem creata Dei is of man Christ is the Image of the invisible God the first born of every Creature Coloss. 1. 15. Zeleb in the original tongue is nata Imago quae est Christi Tohar creata Imago quae est Adami In the Redemption Christ made himself as our Image Man planted may fall so did Adam but being replanted by Christ he cannot fall The first man Adam was made a living soul the last man Adam was made a quickning spirit 2 Cor. 15. 45. ad similitudinem nostram Imago Dei est omnium hominum similitudo autem est paucorum the one is the bare face the other is the robe royal the one we have by essence the other by virtue the one by nature the other by grace We ought to put off the old man with his works and put on the new man which his renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Colloss 3. 10. and love is the bond of perfectnesse so that knowledge is recommended in the Image and love in the likenesse which two are as the Urim and Thummim of the Law Our soul is as a glasse to behold his virtues and humble precepts Luke 6. 27. In his similitude to be as he is as farre as we may Hence have we a thankfull remembrance that he will crown us with glory everlasting if we finne not against nature and draw on instead of his similitude larvam Demonis the visor of the Devil but put on the new man which after God is created unto righteousnesse and 〈…〉 and give not place unto the Devil Ephes. 4. 24. We have in us Earth in regard of the body and Heaven in regard of the soul in the one is time in the other eternity Christ calleth the Gospel The Gospel of every Creature Mark 16. 15. Ambrose saith posuit Deus in homine Terram Coelum non ut Terra mergat Coelum sed ut Coelum elevet Terram totum hoc est 〈◊〉 se assimulare Deo Let thy inward thoughts and outward conversation be good and agreeable for this is the end of all Fear God and keep his commandements this is the whole duty of a man for God will bring every work with every secret thing unto Judgment whether it be good or evil Ecclesiastes 12. 13. 4. The end of mans creation to rule other creatures After God hath crowned man with knowledge and love in the latter part of this verse he giveth him a Scepter and maketh him Vicegerent over the Sea the Aire the Earth over all the fishes fowls beasts and creeping things therein bidding him to rule over them He brought before man the beasts and fowls he had created to whom Adam gave their names Gen. 2. 19. The Image is of perfection the Similitude is in wisdome in knowledge in the Sonne in love in the Holy Ghost
may be resolved two wayes as the School-men say Quando actio cadit super materiam indebitam that is either when an action is forbidden from lighting on it which should not or when it is invested with all his due circumstances In speaking of this we will take this course first to entreat of the subject and action here expressed and then of the application of it to us The subject is a Tree and that but one tree of knowledge which tree with the fruits of it were without question no more evill than the other trees for all alike God saw to be good as we have seen and therefore it was such as might have been eaten as well as the other if this restraint had not been And again if this restraint had fallen on any other tree in the Garden as it did on this it had been as unlawfull to eat as this So that it is not the nature of the tree but of Gods word which made it evill to eat for there was no difference between them but in respect of Gods word and charge which said Thou shalt not eat thereof In which respect it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill We must understand that this tree hath not his name of every quality in it but of the event and effect which should come by it Exod. 15. 25. The Wise man calleth it lignum dolorum Eccles. 38. 5. of the effect and event it had of these waters So in Gen. 35. 8. there is a tree called Arbor lamentationis not that the fruits thereof would make a man sorrowfull but for the casualty and event which happened and befell Israel there not that it was the cause of any lamentation So we must know that whereas Adam before knew good both wayes both by contemplation and experience now having broken the Law he knew evill both wayes also we had the knowledge of good and evill morall by naturall contemplation Gen. 4. 7. so long as thou doest good to thy self men will speak well of thee So that to know good is bene pati while he did bene agere Dicite justè quia bene Esay 3. 10. 11. The just shall eat the fruit of their righteousnesse and the wicked the fruit and reward of their sinne and this is the other knowledge of good and evill Numb 11. 18. there was knowledge of good and evill by sight sense and experience Psal. 133. 1. this is shewed that malum culpae was the cause of malum poenae and by feeling the bitternesse of the punishment he knew how bitter a thing it was to forsake God and not to fear him So he knew the good of obedience by the good of reward which was the sweetnesse of pleasures before his fall and after his fall he knew the evill of sinne by the evill of his punishment The one knowledge is Gen. 18. 19. the other kinde of knowledge is Gen. 22. 12. If we follow St. Augustine and Tertullian we may say truly that it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill both wayes both in respect of the effect and also of the 〈◊〉 Tertullian conceiveth that it was called so of the effect and duty which was to arise and be taught out of it in which respect he calleth it Adam's little Bible and the fountain of all divinity for as the Bible is the perfect rule of knowledge to us So was that to him and should have been 〈◊〉 if he had not fallen for by this dicendo it should have plainly 〈◊〉 Gods will and so it should exactly teach that to be good which was according to it in obedience and that to be evill which is contrary to it by transgression for the knowledge could not be more 〈◊〉 set down then by this object and action Thou shalt eate of these and shalt not eat of this God then by forbidding them to eat of the tree of knowledge did not envy or grudge that they should have knowledge but rather made this rule the root of all knowledge to them that the science of good and evill is taken only from Gods dicendo that is things are therefore good because God by his word alloweth them and are evill because he forbiddeth them Now touching St. Augustine He saith this is called the tree of knowledge in respect of the event in regard of the exeperimentall knowledge which man had by it both because by it he had felt the reward of obedience so long as he stood upright and also by it he found and felt by experience the reward and penalty of disobedience for when he had contrary to Gods word reached his hand to the tree and eaten of it he had experimentall knowledge by and by both how birter a thing it was to sinne and forsake God Jer. 2. 19. and also how good and sweet a thing it was to stick fast to God by obedience Psal. 73. 28. He found that in the action of obedience was life and happinesse and in the act of sinne was death and wretchednesse 〈◊〉 before Adam had eaten of the tree he had knowledge of good by contemplation and experience and so for ever should have had and then he had argumentall knowledge by presumption and contemplation also of evill for he by the argument of privatives must presume this conclusion that if he doe that which is forbidden he should be deprived of the tree of life and that happy estate and so consequently must needs come to death and all misery which he found to be most true by wofull experience so soon as he had put it in triall And thus much of the object and of the name given to it Touching the Action which is the second part in which I mean thus to proceed by way of certain positions and grounds the one necessarily arising out of the other We lay then for the first ground that it was not lawfull for God nor behoofull for us that God should make triall of Adam who he had made for it is equally expedient and right in the practice and behaviour of men first to make proof and triall of 〈◊〉 before they will make any reckoning or commendation of them as good laborers so God tried Abraham Gen. 22. 12. that he might have experimentall knowledge of his obedience and say nunc scio c. Now I know that thou fearest God seeing for my sake thou hast not spared thine only sonne So he proved Israell at the waters of striffe and Job by an other triall So God had knowledge of man whom he made that then he was good but he would by triall see whether he would continue so or not 2. Second it was meet that seeing a triall must be made that it should be by some externall thing in which this outward obedience and practice might appear as masters doe make triall of their servants obedience in some such work Doe this Goe thither So seeing Gods will was that Adam should be a spectacle in obedience
shall see the nature of sinne that sinne bringeth sinne unlesse it be extinguished by repentance for Austin saith well of sinne Quod nisi deleatur duplicatur which unlesse it be extinguished it is doubled In Esay 14. 29. the Prophet saith That out of the Serpents root shall come a Cockatrice and from the Cockatrice egge shall come a firie flying Serpent and here from the Serpents malice came Eves sinne and from Eves sinne came Mans fall the Serpents temptation brought forth Eves disobedience and that Cockatrice egge hatched Adams downfall and so they were both robbed of their righteousnesse This is their discending from Jerusalem to Jericho Luke 10. 30. Rebellion with sinne Againe after the woman hath eaten this her giving of the fruit to her husband to eate is a further circumstance in the nature of sinne to add rebellion unto sinne for the devill will not only seduce the woman but by her will seduce man for he draweth also the mighty by his power Job 24. 22. The Serpent will destroy both the weak and the strong the foolish and the wise The sociablenesse of sinnes Thirdly Sinne will be associate for the sinner will try the righteous if he will offend that even here Adam may be as deep a sinner as her self for indeed good fellowship is not so apparently seen as among sinners for they joyn hand in hand manum in manu saith Salomon Prov. 16. 5. They doe consult in heart and make a league against the Lord Psal. 83. 5.6 The Ishmaelites and Moabites c. Sinners are as thornes folded one in the other Nahum 1. 10. This is the sociablenesse of sinne Sinne infectious Fourthly it is hence observed that sinne is infectious The Serpent he infected Eve with his breath of craft and maliciousnesse made her beleeve him and eat of the fruit and she being infected her self infected him This is called Pollution He that toucheth pitch is defiled She went not only out of the way her self but she caused many to fall from the Law Malach. 2. 9. her word did fret as a canker as Paul speaketh 2 Tim. 2. 17. for sinne is contagious it poysoned Eve and Adam also See 1 Tim. 1. 6. Austin upon this saith well That if God strook blind the soul of Eve she could not see her own miserie from her originall righteousnesse The Serpent gave and Eve gave the fruit The Serpent gave to Eve and Eve gave to Adam the same material fruit but not with like affection She in giving to Adam of the fruit thinks she doth him an especial favour and that whereof he needs not fear for though by the giving him the same she take away from him original righteousnesse the favour and fear of God yet she accounteth that she makes him a great reward But this her reward may well be compared to the present of Ehud Judges 3. 16. who presented Eglon the King of Moab with a curious made dagger wherewith after he killed him The Apple wherewith Eve presented Adam was his destruction but yet as I said she did it not with the minde of the Serpent for he caused her to eat of a malicious minde knowing it would be her bane Yet Eve she gave it to Adam of a good affection not of any malicious intent 2. Means that women seduce men Now the means wherewith she induceth man to bring him to eate are of two sorts which are the two means that women use to seduce men withall both are by the voice as you may see in 17. verse following Adam obeyed the voyce of his wife so that it should seem that she used some oration to perswade him blanditiarum verba 1. Flatterie and flatterring words 1 King 11. 4. The idolatrous wives of Salomon turned his heart to Idolatrie blanditiis by their flatterie And here Eve saith to Adam as it were thus You may see that I have eaten and find the fruit to be pleasant I have eaten and yet I am living and thus with a protestation of love she wisheth Adam that he would eate Adam in the mean while as a Father saith well stood in doubt either to eat or not to eat inter preces uxoris cōminationes Creatoris between the prayer of his wife and the threats of his Creator God had said in the day they did eat thereof they should die he saw she had eaten and yet was living Salomons wives blanditiis by flatterie overcame Salomon 2. Importunity The other thing wherewith women overcome men is Importunity It was this that Delilah used to overthrow Sampson she was importunate with him continually and therefore he told her all his heart Jud. 16. 16. So that these are the two means wherewith woman overcommeth man namely blanditiis importunitatibus by flatterie and importunitie And he did eat Now it followeth to speak of Adams sinne And he did eat In the 17 verse of this chapter God curseth man because he had obeyed the voice of his wife and for that he had eaten of the tree whereof God had commanded him that he should not eat whereby you see that not only the giver of the forbidden fruit but the taker thereof also both the perswader and the consenter to sinne deserve death The manner how he consented is in this with her Adam he came to her not she to him say the Fathers For although God had created Man in uprightnesse though he were placed by God in Paradise and though Gods love to man were shewed in making Eve to be his help yet he gave no eare to the speeches of Gods love nor to his threats but rather hearkned unto Eve and her allurements The woman hereby is convicted of carelesnesse and the man of negligence in that he permitteth her to wander from him where she pleaseth but the woman must not depart no not a little lest she fall A third thing is Eve and Adams curiositie of this tree they would eat it to try what virtue was in it they would try a conclusion if they should eat thereof whether they should dye as God had said or be as Gods knowing good or evill Moses commanded That there should be no manna reserved till the morning yet Exodus 16. 20. some there were that would try conclusions that obeyed not Moses but reserved it till the morning and it was full of worms and it stank Again as it appeareth in that chapter to try conclusions some there were contrarie to Moses words that upon the Sabbath day went forth to gather Manna Paul 2 Cor. 11. 3. saith I fear lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupt from the simplicitie that is in Christ. In Adam his body from his soul his sense from his reason should not have swerved Eve beleeved not God but the Serpent Adam beleeved not God but Eve Paul Coloss. 2. 7. would have us rooted and builded in Christ and stablished in the faith But the
it was seemly to cover his shame for to cover a starre or the Sunne is a blemish to either a Rose or a Lilie are best uncovered in their proper natures and so Adams nakedness in his innocencie was best without apparel The just man shall shine like the Sunne in the Kingdome of his father the thirteenth of Matthew the fourty third verse The second regard out of this covering or clothing is That the birds are covered with their own feathers the beasts with their haire and wooll but man must die for nakednesse unlesse he hath his cloathing from others Thirdly Goe to the brute beasts and wear their skinnes and by looking on them learn that if thou hadst been obedient thou hadst not need of such clothing and repeat that of the fourty ninth Psalm the twentieth verse Man was in honour and understood it not and now he is become like beasts that perish Lastly From the beasts being slain To put him in minde that though he may preserve his bodie for a while yet in the end in pulverem revertêris though these must die to feed and cloath thee yet in the end thou must die thy self These penitentiall meditations may be taken from this modell of apparell The nakedness of the soul. Now touching the nakednesse of the soul and the covering thereof spiritually hereto may be applied that of the sixteenth of Ezekiel the seventh verse Jerusalem was naked and barren but thou hast got thee excellent garments we are wretched poor and naked the third of the Revelations the seventeenth verse then this nakednesse which is of the soul it must be covered it is that whereto that of the sixteenth of the Revelations the fifteenth verse hath relation Blessed is he that keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and men see his filthinesse And God through his mercie covereth our sinne and it must be covered with a covering of skinne the brutish affection must be covered with morall virtues the brutish affection of anger of the Lion must be covered with patience the brutish affection of 〈◊〉 of the Goat must be clothed with chastity the pride the skinne of the Lamb of God which was the 〈◊〉 of the Serpent with the humilitie of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world the thirteenth of the Revelations the eighth verse must be thy cloathing and we put on Christ by Baptism the third to the Galathians the twenty seventh Jacob was clothed with skinnes which did represent this If then we goe to the soul it is to be clothed analogically with the bodie the nakednesie thereof is to be clothed by faith with Christ Jesus the Lamb of God Et dixit Jehova Deus Ecce homo estne sicut unus ex nobis cognoscendo bonum malum nunc igitur videndum ne extendens manum suam accipiat etiam de fructu arboris vitae ut comedat victurus in seculum Gen. 3. 22. Januar. 14. 1598. IN the former verses of the Sentence I told you their several uses and that in the last of them was matter for penitentiall meditation The execution of the Sentence I told you was laid in these three last verses This verse containeth a deliberation or a resolution of what God should doe and it is as it were the writ for execution In the two next verses is conteined the execution it self God hereby seemeth so respective of them that he is so unwilling to execute upon them yet is he carefull of his truth for he said at the first restraint in the seventeenth verse of the former chapter Thou shalt die the death if thou eat the forbidden fruit and that God hath said must be performed for his words are not bruta fulmina and therefore that all may concur in his Sentence was imposed on him a painfull life and that it may be more painfull he is here deprived of Paradise and likewise the corruption of life was appointed him which in him and his posterite we see daily verefied that dust returneth to dust and here it is made more manifest by the taking away of the tree of life This verse divideth it self into two general parts the one in these words Behold the Man is become as one of us to know good and evill the other in that which remaineth For the first part I agree fully with the opinion of the ancient fathers which are the most wise and the most learned that these words the man is become as one of us c. is no Ironie but as one of them saith very well est vox magni fragoris it is a voice of great thunder wherein is written the misery that Adam is in as Christ at his death had a superscription whereby was expressed wherefore he suff red Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judeorum or as Malefactors have written in Papers on their heads wherefore they are punished So these words are a publishing wherefore they are thus used because they would become as God knowing good and evill that they and others may know the cause of their fall that as it is in the twenty ninth of Deuteronomie the twenty fourth verse If any shall aske wherefore hath the Lord done thus They shall answer because they have broken the 〈◊〉 of the Lord their God because they went and served other Gods and worshipped them even Gods which they knew not And here because Adam obeyed the Serpent whom he knew not and disobeyed God whom he knew because he would be as God and know good and evil he tasted the deserved punishment of Gods wrath The form of the words Now for the matter conteined herein the ancient Fathers doe gather hence Matter of faith first matter of faith quasi unus ex nobis Adam is like one of us hereby is taken a certain apprehension of the Trinity to refute the Jews that God speaketh not as Princes doe and like Emperors We charge you It is our pleasure c. that though he be one that speaketh yet he useth the plurall number but this doth resute them for what Prince or Monarch saith Like one of us to shew the unity of Godhead and trinity of persons he said not like unto Angells but like one of us In which words he sheweth both a remembrance or token of the unity and the Trinity in the fourth of John the twenty third verse the person of the Father in the twenty seventh verse there following the person of the Sonne saith I am he So that in one is the Godhead in us is the persons So much of the character Ironie Secondly It may seem God speaketh this as an Ironie in a scorning sort for surely it cannot be spoken directly for he is not become like God that knoweth all things but rather like the brute beast without understanding he is become by his disobedience liker the Serpent that seduced him than God that made him Sarcasmus Some take them as Ironicall or which is more as a Sarcasmus or
biting speech Behold they are as God they would have a quaternity instead of a trinity they know both good and evill in the first of the Kings the eighteenth and the twenty seventh Eliah mocketh the Priests of Baal saying Cry aloud for he is a God it may be he sleepeth and must be awaked surely this was a scoffing speech Hitherto apply the first to the Corinthians the twelfth chapter the thirty first verse Salomon in the first of his Proverbs the twenty second verse saith the Scorner taketh pleasure in scorning so doth not God yet in the twenty sixt verse of the same chapter Because you have despised my counsell and not regarded my correction I will laugh at your destruction and mock when your fear commeth and yet surely this speech is not altogether without an Ironie though it be not altogether Ironicall for according to that of the Proverbs before cited God scorneth them that scorne and despise him but it is unusual and not to be shewed in any one part of the Scriptures that God useth scorning to the penitent sinner though to the obstinate whom neither love of mercy nor fear of punishment can draw to repentance So then this speech is not a triumphing over them in miserie or a derision of their simplicitie but rather a publishing or laying open of their sinne by Ecce behold Jacob in the thirty second of Genesis the thirty second verse though he wrestled with the Angell and had a blessing yet the sinew of Jacobs thigh shrank A speech of affection This speech of God here is with an affection it is the speech of affection an unperfect speech without a period it breaketh off before it be full like that speech of our Saviour Christ the nineteenth of Luke the fourty second verse Oh if thou haddest known at the least in this thy day those things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thee affection stayeth the course of the speech it is a speech of commiseration ecce homo pitie breaketh off the period In the nineteenth of John the fist verse when Christ was shewed to the People crowned with a crown of thornes Pilate said Ecce homo Behold the man And Austin upon that place saith they are words of commiseration and why are not the very same words here also So much for the character or form of the words The matter in them Now of the matter of the same It was concupiscence desire of honor beleef of error that they should be as God that made them sinne The Serpent promised them that they should not dye at all and that they should be as Gods eritis sicut Dei they heard the voice of the Devill and obeyed him Now remember that promise of the Devill is false hereafter beleeve me and be not deluded by the Devil So that God giveth them an audible word to ring in their eares in this and a lesson to continue in their heart for ever that so he may say with David Psalm 43. Deliver me O God from the 〈◊〉 and wicked man for he lyeth in wait for blood and lurketh for their lives the first of the Proverbs the eighteenth verse and so detest him that mislead them from life to death from the sight of God to the heavie indignation of the Lord. This must work compunction to see the losse of Paradise and the separation from Gods presence and that through the illusion of Satan they had fallen from so great blessednesse to so great miserie So much shall suffice for the matter of the publication of his fall The Divills promise The Serpent as you remember in the chapter before made them two promises the one eritis tanquam Dei the other 〈◊〉 mini God here in his Sentence sheweth that they have found the contrary of both Falsified for he saith Pulvis es in pulverē 〈◊〉 that is a bar to their immortalitie and in labore 〈◊〉 comedes 〈…〉 tuae So they shall neither be Gods nor immortall The tree of life was the ordinarie means to maintain him in time of innocencie but here God deprives him of that means he was placed in Paradise where was the tree of life he is deprived both of the tree and of Paradise it self privatur loco indumento He must labor and clothe himselfe or 〈◊〉 and die The tree of life as the ancient Fathers say well was symbolum or tessera vitae a seale or token whereby life was warranted them for God gave them life and not the tree of life and they were excommunicated from this seal and banished from this place of Paradise Deus est vita God was their life and being severed from God so they were severed from life Adams banishment This was the very first patern of civill banishment He would needs tast of the tree which was to him the tree of death and would not keep the Commandement nor the Law of Paradise wherein he was and wheresoever one liveth under a Law and breaketh the Law where he liveth deserveth punishment the reason why he should be banished lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life And this we see to be the general desire of all men that they are willing to prolong their life even in miserie rather then he would die he would take of this tree and live in miserie eternally for saith a Father well Cupidiores homines vitae producendae quà m terminandae men doat more upon the prolonging than upon ending their life God saw that this desire was inconvenient to live for ever Christ himself died but now being risen from the dead jam non moritur mors illi ultrà non dominabitur the sixt to the Romans the 〈◊〉 verse Christ hath triumphed over death but Adam after his fall had lived if he had had his own desire in misery perpetuall an evil eternal Our labour and pain is but temporall till thou return to dust but the Devils shall be perpetual God turned the desire of Adam of evill eternall to an evill temporal with a donec This also is another reason why it is not expedient that he should have his desire God before hath promised life in the very promise of the seed of the Woman If God have promised a better life by another means than Adam desired or the tree of life yeelded that is in his Sonne our Saviour to live a Heavenly life in eternitie both in soul and bodie for he changeth the terrestrial life of the bodie subject to pain and misery which he desired to a heavenly life full of joy and endlesse glorie So that in that God debarred him to put forth his hand to the tree of life was mercie even in judgement St. Gregorie upon this place saith well Materia est misericordiae in providentia divina God by his providence sheweth great mercy even in Judgment it was just that he should die but if you consider it well in
this Judgement here is not only a conjunction of mercy and justice but here mercie triumpheth over justice for though God depriveth us of this tree yet he planteth a better the seed whereof giveth a fruit better than of that that is of eternal life Zecharie in his third chapter the eight verse telleth you that the branch of this tree is his servant He is the green tree spoken of in the twenty third of Luke the thirty first verse And the right of them that doe his commandement is to be ingrafted in this tree of life Revelations 22. 14. and in the second of the same book the seventh verse Christ is called that tree of life in the Paradise of God Ne jam The ancient Fathers out of ne jam lest now he put forth his hand doe gather that though he were now debarred to put forth his hand and take of that tree of life yet God gives him comfort that yet hereafter he should not be debarred of the putting out of his hand to take hold of the other tree of life Jesus Christ. Mans pride God saith here that Man would be like one of us such was his pride and disobedience Christs humility to help that the Sonne of God will be like one of us such was his love and humility The Fathers upon the fiftieth of Esay the sixth verse say that Christ was Vir doloris he was smitten scoffed and spit upon like one of us He was tempted in all things sinne excepted like one of us the fourth to the Hebrews the fifteenth verse though he were not subject to our infirmities yet was he subject to our passions he lived he suffered he dyed like one of us Ecce homo God saith here of Adam in his judgement Ecce homo and 〈◊〉 in Christs judgement saith Ecce homo behold the man So that God became man like one of us to meet with this that Adam would be like God He suffered all miserie like one of us And he himself bare our sinnes in his body on the tree that we being delivered from sinne might live in righteousnesse the first Epistle of Peter the second chapter the fourth verse In a word behold the Sonne of God is become like one of us that we may become like unto him and hath sound in himself the tryall of our infirmities He I said is become like one of us according to that place in the 17. of Johns Gospel 21. verse which are Christs own words that as I am in the Father and the Father in me so you all may be also one in us and in the twenty fourth verse there following Christ saith Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me even where I am This then is here the separation of us from God but by Christ we are reunited into Christ as he is into his Father and hereby is a restitution to the place where Christ is there shall we be And to conclude we shall be restored to life to glorie to 〈◊〉 to be indeed like to God by incorporating us into this tree of life Whereby most great and pretious promises are given unto us that by them we should be partakers of the heavenly nature and that we should fly this earthly corruption the second of Peters Epistles the first chapter and the fourth verse And though the miseries of this life be great yet according to St. Pauls words they are not to be compared to the joyes of the next life which are eternall Emisit itaque eum Jehova Deus ex horto Hedenis ad colendum terram illam ex quâ desumptus fuerat Gen. 3. 23. Januar. 21. 1598. THat which was lest before as a broken speech and unperfect is here supplyed and at large expressed The execution of Adams Judgement for in these two are conteined the execution of the former Precept And in these two are the two parts of the Execution His sending out of Paradise In this is the first part the sending him out of Paradise Four parts hereof and this very verse doth offer in it self four several points to be handled First The sending forth Secondly from Eden Thirdly Whither To the Earth Fourthly To what end To till the Earth whence he was taken 1. His sending First then touching the sending Sending as a motion from place to place as an ordinarie moving it is indifferent The Angel in the sixteenth of this Book the eighth verse asketh Hagar from whence and whither she goeth and biddeth her returnback So that we must come to the other part Whither for the sending is known to be good or evill by knowing whether the place whereto they are sent be good or evill as to be sent with the Children of Israel out of captivity is good from bad to better But when the place from whence is good and the place whither is bad the sending from such a place to a worse is a penal punishment as here it was to Adam and Eve 2. To the Earth Secondly then They were sent to the Earth from Paradise To live then in the Earth is the state of us all yet we had no experience with Adam of this blessed state of Paradise but they had tryall and experience of all the pleasures of Paradise so much more penall was it to them to be deprived of a garden of a garden of Gods own planting full of all variety and contentment of a garden the like whereof all the cunning and travail of man shall never make and to come from thence to a ground untilled barren and full of thistles whereof he that had lived before at ease must now be the tiller himself for it shall not be tilled nor dressed to his hand God dealt not here with Adam as he dealeth with the Children of Israel He bringeth them from capativity to a Land filled with Cities which they builded not full of goods which they brought not of wells which they digged not vineyards olive trees which they planted not Deut. 6. 11. There is a great difference from the sending them to a land so dressed and provided and to a place shall bear naught but thistles and thornes which with all his labor and travail he shall not recover to the least part of the excellencie of this garden If Adam had been sent to a place where fruit had grown without labor or fruitfull with labour it had been somewhat but he is sent to the Earth cursed before by God in the seventeenth verse from a place fully blessed from a garden to the ground from pleasure to labour 3. From whence he was taken Thirdly Unto the earth whence he was taken This is not unprofitably added for there is use of this interram de quâ sumptus The ancient Fathers doe gather hence first this use That it is a remedy against pride and for humility hereby they should remember their former and present state they should
teach us that he is our per quem and must be our propter quem in all our actions therefore as it is he per quem sumus so we must make here his glorie and praise the end of all our thoughts words actions or devises whatsoever Psal. 96. 5. Elohim is said to make all and therefore we must with praise tell it out among the Heathen So there we are taught to remember him in our youth as our Creator to knit our selves and our wills to him as our Governor and in trembling to fear him as our Judge for he commeth to judge the world in truth Psal. 96. 13. for if we shall amend our lives we shall rejoyce and wish for his comming as we rejoyce and praise him for our making and this is the perfection of a Christian man contremiscere when we think how wonderfully God hath made us and with joy and gladness say with David Psal. 119. 52. I remembred thy judgements of old and received comfort and as we know that in him and by him we live move and have our being Acts 17. 28. so we must live move and breath only for him that is so farre forth as may make for his glorie that at last we may with joy commend our souls to him as to a faithfull Creator 1 Pet. 4. vers 19. 4 Point The fourth point was the things made namely Heaven and Earth which comprehended all in them that one being the upper bound above and the other below between both which are all The use is that if we look upward we see Heaven if we cast our eyes down the earth will be seen for our eyes and light are given to see both which two if we ask them they will tell us Job 12. 7. If we will not ask them yet they will preach and declare Gods glorie Psal. 19. 1. that not once a week but night and day not for an hour in the night or day but continually though their preaching doe not trouble our ears being dumb yet they cry aloud and though they speak not English yet their voyce is intelligible to all Nations and Languages in the world wherefore seeing they still cry aloud and tell us of the Creator that he made all these for us it is required of us that we be ready with our tribute and homage which is to yeild due and continuall praise and thanksgiving to God for them for heaven and Earth have a fellow feeling of the good and evill which either we doe or God doth for us Esay 39. 1. and they rejoyce with us when we doe or have any good done to us And so when we offend God in paying our duty Jer. 2. 12. then it is enough to make heaven and earth stand still and be amazed and astonished at it because we forget God and our duty Thus doth our sinne and ungratefullness overthrow and prevent and stain the whole course and order of Nature Jer. 12. 4. so there is a concurrent of them with us in honoring serving and praising the Creator both of them and us Therefore it is our duty and part to give heedfull care to those preachers which preach God without the Church alwayes in silence and so give our duty and tribute to serve and praise God with them amongst his Saints here that we may be glorified with them in Heaven that we may praise and magnifie him with his Creatures in earth that we may be glorified with his Saints in Heaven quod faciat Deus per Christam Terra autem erat res informis inanis tenebraeque erant in superficie abyssi Gen. 1. 2. verse THE former verse was delivered to us an abstract of the whole work of Gods Creation now lest we should think that when he mentioned Heaven and Earth before he should mean that all things in Heaven and Earth were made in the very moment of the beginning even as we see them now therefore Moses 〈◊〉 haste to tell us that though at the beginning and first moment God made quecunque nunc sunt yet he made them not qualia nunc sunt but did that in six distinctions of severall times It had been as easie to him to have created all things even in the perfection and order they are in a moment and instant and in that beautifull form in which they present themselves now to our eyes But it pleased God though in power he could doc it yet in wisdome to proceed after these three degrees mentioned before First to create the beginning both of all times and of all things as the matter and beginning of all superior bodies and the beginning of all inferior bodies of nothing After the work of creation followeth the work of distinction from this 2. verse to the 11. And lastly ensueth the work of persection with beauty to adorn all his works and to finish them which is from the 11 verse to the 16. It pleased God thus to proceed in this work as well that he might shew himself to be the God of order as also to discover to us the mysterie of the Trinity in the three properties of the three persons which appear in the Creation For all was made by his Power which is the property of God the Father By his Wisedome which is the property of God the Sonne by which all things were orderly disposed and distinguished And by the riches of his Goodness which is the property of the holy Ghost by which all things were adorned and made perfect these three properties are remembred in the Revel 5. 12. and Acts 17. 28. We live by his power we and all things move in this order by his wisdome and we have this our being by his grace and goodness by his power we are taught to acknowledge him to be our beginning and originall ex quo sumus by his wisdome we acknowledge him to be the upholder per quem sumus by his goodness we confess him to be the Chief propter quod sumus For considering his goodness we and all Creatures must endeavor to doe all that we can for him and his praise and honour All which three are plainly and orderly set in the 11. Rom. 36. God also took this orderly proceeding partly that we entring into the meditation of Gods works might by this means have as it were a thread to direct us orderly therein for by this means we come to know this difference between Creatum ordinatum ornatum esse as the Hebrews say by this means we shall know not only the beginning and being of all things but also how orderly and excellently all things were made in this Creation And thus much of the reasons of this course of Gods proceeding in this work Moses having therefore in the first verse set down the materials of the World and all in them now to the 11. verse he sheweth the work of distinction And after the work of adorning and perfecting all But first of all he handleth
carnall men for our fleshly understanding 1 Cor. 3. 1. It is said that God spake familiarly to Moses Exod. 33. 11. that is plainly both touching the matter and also for the phrase and manner of his speech My meaning is that Moses seemeth to tell us that God did as men use to doe which when they have done any worke they will after return to it and take a view thereof and look on it that if any thing be amiss he may mend it and to the end he may allow and approve of it if it be well and according to his minde So God after the same manner is said to doe here having made the light he considered of it and seeing it according to his minde and liking he expresseth his love liking and allowing of it Wherefore it is as much to say as placuit Deo for as his word fiat lux expressed his Counsell and secret purpose which it pleased and liked him to determine to bring to pass so now this approbation expresseth his good pleasure that it should continue and abide to our good use and benefit So that God is not like the potter which sometime having made a pot doth not like it but breaketh it again but God will have his work continue and therefore doth authorise it to be good Gen. 1. 4. We set our eyes upon things that are good and beautifull so when God is said to like any thing it is said that he looked and beheld it yea and that he smelleth also to it as a pleasant thing Gen. 8. 21. The use fruit and profit of 〈◊〉 Doctrine is of two sorts The first is in respect of our minds and affections The second in respect of our actions and practise For our judgement it teacheth us to know that Deus vidit that is we are the work of his hands and he doth behold and consider us and our doings whether they be good Gen. 16. 14. God is there called Deus vivens videns and Job 7. 18. nos indies visitar that is he doth see us often every morning he doth visit us for that is a frequentative of seeing so that he by his providence and care doth behold and visit us and our doings continually not only when it is morning and in the light but also in secret and in the dark and hidden places Psal. 139. 12. for the darkness is no darkness to him the night and day light to him are both alike yea the 16. vers of that Psalm God saw David when he was secretly in his mothers wombe if we could dig down into hell he seeth us there Amos 9. 2. if we fly to the uttermost parts and corners of the earth there he is and seeth us Psal. 139. 8.9.10 sive lucerna ardet videt te sive extincta est videt te saith one there is nothing so hid but that he knoweth it and he will reward it openly be it good Matth. 6. 4. 6. 18 or bad 2 Sam. 12. 12. Then this that God watcheth and seeth hath relation to these two ends He looketh on it that if it be good it may please and delight him and so he may be moved therewith to save and preserve and commend us and our actions but if he seeth it evill it is his intent to condemn dislike and destroy it and us Thus we see Gods view is profitable for our thoughts and judgment to know his approbation or reprobation The second sort is for our practise for God is said in the Scriptures to doe many things that we may doe like and resemble our Father If God look on his and our works much more it is our duty and behoveth us to doe the like If he be grieved and sorrowfull and repent when he seeth our works evill how much more doth it concern us to doe the like Examen in mente est quod visas in oculo Therefore we must consider often of our doings to see whether they be good or bad which thing is contrary and against a humor of ours for when we have done any thing we never consider whether it be good or bad we have no regard of it afterwards Therefore the Prophets oftentimes beat upon this exhortation Vadite in cor vestrum Consider your own doing in your hearts Esay 46.8 Preach 2.12 The wise man often saith that he returned to consider the fruit and labor of his hands to see the vanity or good of them And if we thus consider our waies and works whether they be good or evill and repent or rejoyce approve or disprove them then we doe like Children imitate our Father If God return to behold his light how much more should we return to see and consider of our works of darknesse and to acknowledge with repentance how evill they are It is our custome and fashion if we doe any thing for our inferiors as God doth here not to regard it wherefore seeing he doth carefully consider and regard the things he maketh for us being so base as worms how much more doth it concern us doing things for him that is our Creator to doe the like For if we doe any thing for a Prince or a Noble man what great care and pains and consideration doe we take in doing and viewing that it may be well wherefore much more must we doe in our works for him who is King of Kings Last of all touching the use If God were so carefull to look to this work which could bring no gain or profit to him at all then how much more doth it concern us to look to our works which we doe to him seeing to them is great reward promised Psal. 19.14 he did his gratis without any hope of reward but we have promise and hope of reward for our well doing and therefore it behoveth us to behold and see that our works be good which we shall the rather doe if we consider the seldomnesse of our attempting any good and the sillynesse of our well doings when they are at the best for God every day doth many good things perfectly for us but we scarce doe any good once in a week yea not one good thing though never so unperfect to a thousand sinnes which therefore must humble us and make us look to our works Lux er at bona Now we are to consider the goodnesse of this creature Light Touching which this is the generall regard and rule of Divinity Nemo bonus est nisi Deus Mark 10.18 therefore if any man or any thing created be good or have any goodnesse ascribed to it we must know that it was derived from God which is the fountain of all goodnesse Psal. 104. 2. for goodnesse is his garment and we are naked and destitute of it until he doth cast the lap of his own garment over us Light is good because God made it and partaketh the quality from God For it is impious to think that any thing in the World should be evill defective or
good we must not call light darkness nor good evill Esay 5. 16. Secondly In regard of the light of grace we see as Job saith that there are some which are Lucifugae which fly and hate the light such Creatures are unclean Levit. 11. 19. 30. as Batts and Owles among birds Moules and Rats among Beasts they are odious to all men so among places Dungeons and darksome Roomes are odious also And as this is so in things natural so in things spiritual lucifugae actiones are of the like evill nature and odious to God and good men because both such men and their doings have an opposition to light and the author of light They come from darkness of the minde that is ignorance and unbelief and they are begotten by the Prince of darkness the Divell Ephes. 6. 12. and in the end they goe to utter darkness and therefore they are called the works of darkness Rom. 13. 12. And so no marveil though they love darkness and hate light if any cannot abide the light of Gods word to be reproved by it as Herctiques and Hypocrites such dig deep pits to hide their Counsells Esay 29 15. because they see the light is to them evill and as the shadow of death Job 24. 17. The emptiness of good things and the bottomlesnesse of ill things and the deformity of both proceedeth and commeth from darknesse and was inclosed in it as we have seen in it And so spiritually is all found in the ignorance of the truth Ephes. 4. 18 19. either the blindness of mens mindes which is natural or else that which is wilfull when men doe wittingly winke and will not see the light Wherefore we see God made light first before any other good And so our selves must receive spiritual light of knowledge before he will give us any better grace The third sort of men are catchers and fault finders with Gods Creatures such which think to know how Gods works which now are good might have been farre better as if God might have done well to have craved their counsell and help but Gods works both in particular and general are so good and perfect that they could not be mended Wherefore if the light seem ill for us we must confesse and acknowledge that the fault is not in Gods work but in the illnesse and infirmity of our eyes and understanding If the Word seem evil to us know that it seemeth so to us because we and our works are evil and therefore cannot abide the light John 3. 20. Wherefore to conclude that which God hath called and sealed up to be good let no man presume to call and count to be evill Act. 10. 15. For a work belongeth to such which call that is good evill and evill things good and darknesse light Esay 5. 20. But if we love the light of nature and praise God for it Psalm 148. 5 6. And if we love the spirituall light of grace in his word and glorifie and praise God for it 1 Pet. 2. 9. that hath called us out of darknesse into his marveilous light then God will at last reward us with his light of glory and bring us to that inaccessible light wherein he dwelleth which is the father of lights unto which no man can attain unlesse Christ the light of the World bring him and therefore let us pray that the father for his sonnes sake will make a way for us by his spirit of light to which three persons in unity be all praise and glory for ever Amen Et distinctionem fecit Deus inter hanc lucem tenebras Gen 1. 4. verse THere was in the first verse nothing before God made something of nothing after which at the first we saw it to be a 〈◊〉 dark heap without any good form or ability to receive any better But after followed the impregnation and indowment which God gave by which the things first created had a faculty and power given to receive this form which now they have Fourthly ensued the essence and being of all creatures they were prepared by the Spirit and perfected by the word of God where we considered first the essence and being of light and then the nature of it And lastly of all the goodnesse of the light both in regard of the presence of God who in his counsell thought it to be good and also after the creation by his approbation allowed the use and continuance of it unto us Now followeth the distinction and dividing which giveth yet a degree of perfection to the former light more than it had before for at the first he gave light such a being which should prodire in actum and not every being but a speciall good being which is a degree further of order and distinction against disorder and confusion to be in all respects laudible and that not every good being but that which is more an ordered and distinguished and comely good being which work of all other is the perfection of Creation as we shall see in the rest for things though they be never so good in them selves as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 14. 7. of another thing in the like case yet they cannot be discerned of men to be so neither are they meet for any good use of men unlesse they have a certain distinction and order Order Therefore order is as some say very goodnesse of goodnesse it self for there are many good things which doe cease from being good to us yea become hurtfull being without the rank order and degree either of their set and distinct place or time As fire though it be good in the Chimney yet it is not good nay it is very evill in the top of the house Fire is very good in the Winter to warm us but in the Summer it is not so good but shunned of men So the light not being tempered and proportioned orderly but being any degree too-bright it hurteth and blindeth our eyes that we cannot see Act. 22.6 11. Excellens objectum corrumpit sensum So the fire being in any degree too fierce and too hot in the Chimney and Winter that is not moderated and ordered in a good degree it doth us no good Wherefore we see that a set and a distinct order must be observed in good things both touching the place time and degree And that the contrarie inordination deordination or want of order in these things which is called Babell hereafter that is a confusion maketh things to cease from being good to us which in their own nature are very good It was necessary therefore that God should proceed to this work of distinction as he in wisdome doth This then is as if Moses had said the light was good for else extingueret non distingueret Deus si non esset bonum he would not else have distinguished it but dashed it in peeces and destroyed it again Therefore because it was good he separated it and set it apart from darknesse by it self
Lonum malum in Creatura arguit quid Creator materia corum erat Which thing doth teach us that all things created be they never so good they carry in them as well a mark and signe of the matter whereof they were made as of the Creator who made them that is as by some goodnesse in them they shew the excellencie of their maker in some part so by some ill and vicious quality in them they bewray the imperfection and rudenesse of the matter of which they came As for example Corn hath his chaff with it Light hath adjoyned his contrarie darknesse Honey bringeth his unsavory wax Metals have their drosse and Liquors and Wines their lees and dreggs the one sheweth the goodness of the maker the other the rudenesse deformity and emptinesse of the matter Now then we see that untill there be a distinction and separation between the lees grounds or drosse of the Wine or Beer and untill a tryal be made to refine and put apart and try the drosse from the pure Metal and sift the chaff and sever it from the Wheat and Corne we can have no good and sit use profitable for us and convenient Even so we say of the Light for according to the course of this mixt world light was brought forth in his mixture that is in darknesse John 1.5 Therefore as God doth here try and discover and separate light from darknesse so in Math. 3.12 he is a Fanner and Winnower of the chaff from the Wheat and by separation cleanseth his floare leaving there only the Children of light Ob. But touching this action let us consider this first Wherefore he left any darknesse at all and why he did not clean cut off all darknesse considering that it is opposite to the light which is good Whether darknesse be evill Where first ariseth this question to be discussed Whether Darknesse be evill seeing it is opposite to light which is good Touching which I have told you before That darknes is but a defect absence and want of the light and mere privation and no substantial thing of it self And therefore it is said when God created darknesse we must understand it to be spoken in this sense and phrase of speech That when God created no light at the beginning therefore he is said to create darknesse for God caused it by withholding light Wherefore as emptinesse is nothing but a want and defect of stuffing and fullnesse and as nakednesse is nothing but a want of cloaths and covering and as silence is nothing but a withholding of words and speech Tâ—nebrae Naturalis Moralis So darknesse being no substance and nothing but a mere and bare privation and that not privatio moralis but naturalis not a want or defect of virtue which indeed is vitious but of light which hath a use commodious Therefore in that regard it cannot be said to be evill but in regard of the morality as we say i. as it hath a resemblance similitude and proportion to that which is moral as knowledge and ignorance in that respect it is blanched among evill and vitious things Ob. But it may be objected That if natural darknesse be not evill why then did not God say before also that it was good I answer That light is an essence and hath an essential goodnesse in it but darknesse being nothing no essence of it self therefore it could have no essential goodnesse to commend it self but it 〈◊〉 as we say in the Schools an ordinate goodnesse 〈…〉 for this rule we hold in divinity that Deus bons 〈◊〉 facit 〈◊〉 So that things have either Bonum essentiale as the light or Bonum ordinatum as the darknesse And God 〈◊〉 many things which have no essential goodnesse in them because by his ordination disposing them he can and doth bring them to our great good use and commodity As silence hath a great good use even in 〈◊〉 and sometime holding a part gives a great grace to the Atte. Ignorance hath this use that it is a spurre to prick men forward to the knowledge of liberal Sciences So darknesse in the Art of Painting hath a great necessarie use for shadows and the darkness of parts give it greater grace and beauty Afflictions have a good use by Gods ordination So hath adversity for it is made good for our instruction and amendment So this darknesse and absence of the light hath bonum ordinatum given it for God in wisdome and mercy disposeth and ordereth it to be a Cabbin and Chamber in which men can best sleep and take their rest Psal. 104. 20. and in Justice he ordeineth it to a good use and end namely to be the 〈◊〉 and place of torment punishment to the wicked in the world to come You see then why he made not such a light which should compasse 〈◊〉 overspread all the world with his bright beams without admitting any shadow at all Job 38. 27. And you see the reason why God suffered not the light to be mingled confusedly with darknesse but distinguished the one from the other without taking other clean away 2d part Now in the second place we will consider first the things divided and distinguished here and then the division and separation it 〈◊〉 Distinction Touching the first we must as St. 〈◊〉 saith Phil. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 between things different and opposed which we call membra dividentia and we must not conjoyn and confound them together for God doth confound such which make a separation and breach in Gods things which should not be divided Math. 23. 37. as the Chickens which separated themselves from the Hens call and also he consoundeth those which agree and joyn together in evill things from which they should be separated and divided Gen. 11. 8. they have a woe which confounds these membra dividentia calling good evill and light darknesse for God will and doth divide things that are noble from things unnoble and good things from that which is bad and he will have no agreement between them but the Divils art of dividing is contrary for it is his study to glew and mash together ill things with good Nahum 1. 10. and to divide and separate good things one from another and therefore never leaveth untill he maketh Gods Church regnum divisum Mat. 12. 26. So the Divell shuffleth good things to bad that there may be an equality between them which should have no coherence which is mater confusionis as he is author and pater confusionis Wherefore this must teach us to divide as God doth things of different and contrary nature As for the division it self the manner of it is after four sorts 1. For first he devided them in cause for the bright and fair clean bodies as fire have their fulgorem Ezech. 1. 4. and is the cause of it the firmament hath his splendorem and is the cause of it So he divided them that so he
darknesse and on the other side joyn darknesse to light which should be separated not come together Non est aliud Abyssus aliud facies Abyssi they are not two things severed and therefore if it be dark or light in the deep it will appear so in the face of the deep So we must appear and shew plainly and outwardly by our face and deeds what we are within the bottome and depth of our hearts and indeed as the shewing his darknesse over the face of all was a preparation to have light sent to all so when we professe and manifest outwardly how evill we are by repentance it is the very note of reformation and 〈◊〉 we begin to be good Thus we see God is our pattern for imitation to teach us to separate and distinguish good and evill Touching our selves first which thing Gods word also resembling God himself doth teach us Heb. 5. 10. For it discerneth and separateth the will in the hearts and thoughts of men aswell as in actions and setteth his mark on them saying to us this is evill avoid it this is good receive it Two things in light There are two things in light which are the marks and notes of his goodnesse by which it is known that is brightnesse and comfortablenesse So Gods Spirit is called the light and oyle of knowledge for knowledge instruction and direction and in the 45. Psal. 7. He is called the oyle of gladnesse and comfort and consolation so Gods word is a lanthorne and also a joy and comfort Psal. 119. 105. but e contra ignorance and darknesse is melancholy and uncomfortable So we may make our marke of distinction on things for if we see them uncomfortable to the soul and conscience set a mark on it that knowing them we may eschue such things and ensue such things as are good and comfortable And thus much for our selves Now touching others we learn also that in Common-wealths the Magistrate must have his stone of Tynne Zach. 4. 10. that is his marking stone for that is the word also here to set his mark of difference on the evill to discover them from the good The Minister hath belonging to him only vision to discern them Jer. 15. 19. but the Magistrate hath division to doe it so that he may by deed approve and commend the good and reprove and condemn the bad and if all did keep this difference the world would be a light world but because the good and the evill without any distinction or regard are shuffled together 1 Sam. 8. 1. this confusion in Common-wealths is the cause by Gods just judgement of the confusion and renting a sunder of Common-wealths and Churches Dan. 5.18 This just division then looked to in the Governor would avoid confusion in the popular sort as God doth here begin to distinguish light from darknesse so doth he the same continually by his word Heb. 4. 12. separating and marking the works of darknesse from the armour of light for it sheweth to us daily which are ignorant and negligent these things are evill and not to be done that is good and must be done these things the ignorant Gentills and Infidells did therefore thou must not doe the like which hast knowledge these things doe they which are desparate and without hope of comfort therefore thou which hast peace and joy with God must not doe so Thus we must be carefull in separating evill from good untill the great day of separation when God shall sever all evill from good for ever for here God is a Fisher and Common-wealths and Churches are as a Net which hath in them good and bad together children of light and darknesse but then at the last day of separation when a full finall and perfect distinction shall be made all shall not be taken into Gods Boat Math. 25. 32. but the good fish only shall be taken into Gods Boat and the evill shall be cast away Then God will be a Sheepherde Math. 25. 32. and divide the Sheep from the Goats for ever setting this eternall marke venite Benedicti ite Maleaicti Untill the last day of perfect separation there will be still confusion and disorder both in private men and publique Weales but they which cease not to confound themselves in themselves Justice with unrighteousnesse qui confundunt confundentur Thus we have seen the order of separation in God also the manner of it in us both privately and publickly And what confusion will be unto the last day And thus much of the natural separation and the spiritual use thereof Now as here we see divisio rerum so in the next place is set down divisio nominum denominationum which ever ensueth the other for it is the sinne of the world not to divide things in their denominations and names which are perfectly and plainly distinguished in their natures for they call repentance and remorse sullennesse and melancholy and Davids spiritual joy foolishnesse covetousnesse they call honest thrift profuseness providence and riot liberality patience they call cowardlinesse and quarrelling manhood light darknesse and darknesse light So they confound the names when they cannot the natures But such shall give account for it to the great distinguisher in the great last day of division We have in this distinction many things to consider as The names given The Athcists objection And sundry other matters of which the next time Lucemque Deus vocavit diem tenebras verò vocavit noctem Gen 1. 5. verse AFTER God had distinguished and divided light from darknesse as being things in nature opposite and in degree unequall which contrariety and inequality not being separated are the authors of all confusion Now he proceedeth to divide them in name for as the natural division serveth for all things so this distinction of denominations and names in respect of us men serveth for our knowledge to distinguish them which inducement moveth us to think that God had respect to mankinde even from the beginning in all things that he created as if he purposed to make them for men for though light and darknesse affecteth all Creatures even beasts yet the name and title given to them concerneth only man who understandeth and discerneth things by their names and therefore as soon as he made man he gave him a gift to know by what names to call and distinguish one thing from another Gen. 2. 19. for God hath in the Creation ordained things that they should be known and that they might be known he giveth names of distinction which are symbola rerum as it were notes to know them by and because we cannot in this life know all that God made we look for a clearer light after this life by which our knowledge shall be perfect 1 Cor. 13. 12. Touching this division of names we have four things to consider First the manner of denominations Secondly the cause Thirdly the ende Fourthly the dependance of the day on the light and not on
in excellent order The Astronomers doe say that the standing of the Sunne and the course of all the starres is in uneffable wisdome The Sunne riseth and goeth down and draweth to his place where it riseth the winde goeth towards the South and compasseth towards the North the winde goeth round about Preach 1. 5 6. The Starres nor Planets could not be placed neither higher nor lower By the removing of the Sunne the corn when it is sowed receiveth moisture at the spring it maketh the Corn to appear it by its heat ripeneth the same God by making them set them in order he made them after the Heavens He made the Earth first Herbs after and the Sea before the Fishes the leaves are after the Tree All the Host of Heaven saith the Lord shall fall as the leaf falleth from the Vine Esay 34. 4. They lighten the Earth they are called oculi mundi we doe see good and evill and yet we doe doubt but the light giveth discretion to discern but the light of mine eyes is not mine own Psal. 38. 10. By their light we number we measure and order the Earth It receiveth no light by mans industry this light is lucerna pedibus by them God doth impregnate and extracteth the fruits they rule the day and the night and they serve for the use of man Abimelech lay in ambush in the dark night but he rose as soon as the Sunne was up to fight with Gaal Judge 9. 33. So they have imperium ministerium the evening and morning is ruled by the Starres the night by the Moon and the day by the Sunne yet they doe serve the use of man by the devotion of the Sunne the dayes are longer and shorter by them the light is separated from the darknesse by the course of Heaven we have hot and cold dayes the year the moneth the day are reckoned and distinguished by the Hoste of Heaven Ezechiel 31. 1. The Moon in the full is the Summer of the Moneth the conjunction is as it were the Winter They are to divide light and darknesse this is for mans sake in respect of the Creatures The Sunne is the protector of man and when he ruleth it is the time of labour but when the Moon ruleth the night commeth and restoreth strength Who may abide the comming of the day of the Lord Malach. 3. 2. darknesse is as it were the drosse of light the purest metals have their drosse Now of the Approbation and God saw that it was good No evill is to be ascribed to the constellation of any starre for all the starres that God made are good The good of the light is visible there is in it a morall goodnesse for malus odit lucem quaerit tenebras The Adulterer the Theef the Murtherer are the Children of darknesse so that in light there is a morall goodnesse Therein also there is a pleasant good The light is a pleasant thing it is a good thing to the eyes to see the Sunne Preach 11. 7. Herein bonum and jucundum doe meet together Falshood and wickednesse dwelleth in dark places but veritas non quaerit angulos Fear was upon the Mariners when neither Sunne nor Starres in many dayes appeared Acts 27 20. But Sol and solace dwell together they have bonum utile Their use and profit is to light the Sunne is clavus vitae by them we have direction to judge and discerne Hereby is the managing of dayes and of nights alternatio temporum vicissitudo rerum Hereby is a time to sow and a time to reap Hereby is confusion of times avoided So God saw it was good in all goodnesse God maketh his Sunne to arise upon the evill and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust Math. 5. 45. So that the light is an argument of Gods goodnesse The spirituall use For Admonition Now we will give you some small spiritual use Out of them we may learn admonition of our end by their end for the Heavens shall be dissolved and folden like a book all their hosts shall fall as the leaf falleth from the Vine Esay 34. 4. so that out of the book of the Heavens we may learn admonition Admonition Let us not be a disobedient and gainsaying people Rom. 10. 21. but let us doe good under the Sunne sub bono simus boni For the proceeding The course of the Sunne and the Moon is good and still in motion Let not us then be idle non vivamus ignavos annos vanos dies lest that come on us which came upon the AEgyptians Psal. 78. from Heaven God rained down Heavenly Manna the wheat of Heaven the bread of Angels as it is in the same Plalme wherefore cast off lying and speak every man truth unto his neighbour Ephes. 4. 25. Austin saith well Cum occidit visibilis Sol occidat iracundia tua ne occidat tibi Christus Sol invisibilis The Sunne and Starres are wonderfull works of God Ambrose saith Sapientes admirantur magna stulti admirantur nova ut cometas the Starres the Sunne and Moon are the vessels of his goodnesse David saith When I behold the Heavens the works of Gods fingers the Moon and the Starres which thou hast ordeined What is man said I that thou shouldest remember him or the sonne of man that thou shouldest regard him Psal. 8. 3. And as the visible Sunne doth daily arise so saith Malachie Unto them that fear Gods name shall the Sunne of righteousnesse arise Malach. 4. 2. Christ is this Sunne of righteousnesse And the Church is fair as the Moon pure as the Sunne Cant. 6. 9. The Church is full of spots but cleared by the Sunne of righteousnesse the Church waxeth and waineth and still is renewed as the Moon the words of the Prophet is as a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day-starre arise in your hearts 2 Pet. 1. 19. In the time of the Prophets was darknesse but at Christs comming there was a perfect light The knowledge of faith is as the morning light which groweth lighter the knowledge of reason is as the evening which groweth darker and darker Imitation Out of the Heavens we have an use for imitation The Sunne riseth visibly and continueth his course We must continue in the good we have begun we must learn courage of the Sunne which rejoyceth like a mightie man to runne his race that we may shine among the crooked Nations as lights in the World Philip. 2. 15. that we should not only have light in our selves but learn by the Moon the Sunne and Stars to give also light unto others Men light not a candle and put it under a bushell but on a candlestick to lighten those in the house Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your father which is in Heaven Matth. 5. 16. Let the streams of our light succour the poor be you liberal
and Decree to make him a help the form of both which standeth thus I will make her to be a help to him because it was not good for him to be without help Touching which the Fathers doe say That now a pawse is to be made because this form of speech which is first used is to set down the true and right use of Logick which is the art of right reasoning or cause which moveth God to make Eve in these words Non est bonum c. the other is his purpose by argumentall conclusion for they observe well that all the speeches which hitherto have been used have been imperative absolutely commanding things to be done So that Gods authority and will is the only reason of all that hath been done But now at the making of Woman God useth a speech of argument and reason concluding and informing the absolute necessitie of this work which also must teach us to be â—…ule to direct us in the immortality of our actions namely to consider as here God doth what is good touching our actions and what evil may come by doing and not doing it if we in sound judgment can say bonum est then we are to conclude this ergo faciendum est If right reason telleth us this malum est we are taught to resolve upon this conclusion ergo non faciam So that the rule of reason is in all things to consider whether it be good or bad Again He saith not Non est bonum mihi sed non est bonum domino that is he respecteth more the good of others than of himself this is Christs reason which he used and moved in all his actions expedit vobis ut hinc abeam John 16. 7. which is to teach us to doe the like for it is q.d. all one because it shall be better for his and the perfecting of his estate therefore for his sake I will make him a meet help which example must teach superiors how to frame all their reasons and actions alwaies respecting the common good of their inferiors more than their own private commoditie for we shall see it both here and elsewhere that God maketh the good and welfare of his people the ground of his Decrees so may we observe the like in the reversing that which he had decreed to punish them and destroy them for sin yet if they repent of their evill God will reverse his Decree for their good which Jonas knowing Jon. 4. 7. saith that God doth oftentimes by this means seem to make his Prophets lyars because that for the good of mankinde he doth often reverse and revoke the sentence denounced by them against wicked men wherefore we may well say that Gods goodnesse is as much seen in caring for the good of man being made as in creating man which was nothing before All which he doth that the consideration of his love and goodness to us might be as it were cords links of love to tie us unto him in all duty and obedience Ose 11. 4. and to teach us to frame all our thoughts words and deeds to the augmenting of the glorie of God As to say Because it is good and acceptable to his glorie I will doe this è contra I come now to the reason and first to the antecedent thereof in which we see that God doth set his heart upon Man being made that now he taketh a speciall view to see whether he can espie any good thing to be wanting about him which he might supply We read in the end of the first Chapter that God looking upon man saw all to be very good yet here he that thought man by creation to be very good saw a detect of one good thing yet which might make much for his perfection And therefore he taketh order here to furnish him with it that nothing might be wanting to those that he loveth By this therefore it appeareth that solitarinesse is counted an imperfection in Mankinde but not in God for he being most perfect yea the perfection of all things needeth not any other thing to be adjoyned to him as a companion or help meet for him Therefore he is and ever will be set alone and will be called solus sapiens Deus as the Psalmist saith Thou art God alone But among the Creatures this sheweth all things to be imperfect in that it is not well with them if they be alone For the perfection of Angells is in multitude being an Host The perfection of Mankinde touching the civill perfection is in societies by which Families Cities and Common-wealths are made so we may mark that solitarinesse God in the Creation doth at least double every thing that it might not be alone In the firmament he made great lights and lesser lights The waters were made double the upper and nether waters The Earth had herbs and trees And as for Fish Fowl and Beasts he made all things in aboundance Salomon sheweth in the 4. Eccles. 9 10 11. that above all other Creatures it is most meet and convenient for man in divers respects not to be alone and concludeth the point with vae Soli because it is not good for man especially to be alone And therefore when our Saviour Christ calleth his Disciples it is said he sent them out by pairs two and two because he would not alwaies they should be solitary and alone Matth. 10. 4. Luke 10. 1. But there is no rule so general but that hath his particular exceptions in some speciall causes unlesse it be in moral rules of good things commanded by God for against such there is no exceptions to be taken But in the rules of naturall goodnesse touching conveniency we may ever in some instance make an exception As Husay 1 Sam. 17. 7. this counsell is good but not at this time So we may say the light is good for all yet it is evill and hurtfull to ill eyes So may we say of solitarinesse that sometimes it is most good meet for a man to be alone in solitarinesse so it is good and most meet for some man to be alone without companie for so Moses said Leprosus habitabit solus that is to avoid infection God saith of his Schollars Ducam eos in solitudinem docebo eos shewing oftentimes solitarinesse is best for Students and so our Saviour Christ often frequented solitarie places for private prayer as most fit for it Thus we see generally how this is to be taken but more particularly we must consider of it in the speciall case of Marriage to see how this is verified in a single and unmarried life whether in that respect it be not good for all men to be alone It is not good for man to be alone Object A question may be made here of the truth and true meaning of the word of God in this speech Resp. In resolving of which we must make a concordance and agreement between these two verses of the
When a man hath done 〈◊〉 either he shameth which as we say is a signe of grace or else he hardneth his face like a stone and is not ashamed but shamelesse this is objected against the People of the Lord in Jeremie 3. 3. that though they were wicked and punished for their wickednesse yet they would not be ashamed Harlots were wont to cover their faces to cover their shame but now Harlots are become shimelesse this was the reason that Judah supposed Tamer to be an whore chap. 38. 15. for that she had covered her face God cannot abide the sinfull man but he will punish sharply those that will not be ashamed when they have committed abhomination Jeremy 6. 15. Now we are clothed and ashamed for the minde condemneth the deformity of sinne by shame and to be ashamed at our faults now is accounted a virtue shame now bewrayeth the sinne that is covered Adam and Eve were naked in body innocent in minde and were not ashamed of their nakednesse But since the Fall it is otherwise as in chap. 9. 22. Ham saw the nakednesse of Noah his father and was accursed but Shem and Japheth went backward and covered the nakednesse of their father whose nakednesse they saw not and for that they shamed to see their fathers nakednesse they were blessed God in the 20. of Exodus 20. commandeth Moses not to make steps up to his altar lest when he went up by the steps his filihinesse were discovered thereon when the young man in Mark 14. 52. that was clothed in lynnen upon his bare body and they would have caught him he left his linnen cloth and fled from them naked as being ashamed In the 21. of John 7. when Christ appeared to Peter and heard him speak he cast himself into the Sea not naked as he was but gyrded to him his coat But what maketh nakednesse lawfull and laudable what maketh want of shame commendable in Adam and Eve to be now a thing blamable and whereof to be ashamed There were certain Cynical Philosophers and notable Hereticks called Adamites that went naked but at length they were weary of their opinion they were not able long to continue naked and were at last ashamed of their nakednesse But to answer the said question we will consider first Adams original state and then the state of him and of Mankinde by his Fall The 〈◊〉 of Adams Innocencie was when the word of God was above all when mans reason was subject to Gods word when his will was obedient to his reason when his concupiscence to his will and when his flesh was subject to his concupiscence so all in Man was straight and right he was upright within and without his reason was obedient his will was not perverse his concupiscence was chaste the nakednesse of the body corrupted not the soul it was original righteousnesse that was the complexion of Mans soul when Man was innocent there was then no hindrance of good nor any inclination to evill All this while there was no shame for there was nothing whereof man had cause to be ashamed Innocencie and uprightnesse brought forth chastity chastity brought forth courage and this it is that made them though they were naked not to be ashamed But after the Fall when all came out of joynt as Paul speaketh our concupiscence became a Rebell to our will our will to our reason our reason to the Law of God mans body would not yeeld obedience to his soul nor his soul unto God according to that of Paul Rom. 7. 23. I delight in the Law of God concerning the inner man but I see 〈◊〉 Law in my members rehelling against the Law of my minde and lending me captive to the law of sinne which 〈◊〉 in my members the corruption of the fleshrebelleth and riseth against our spirit our carnall members doe raise up the flesh against the Law of the minde and against our will and these members 〈◊〉 called the fire-brands of 〈◊〉 It is not the hand not the leg not the arme not the seemly parts but the basest part the unseemliest member that striveth against the spirit Yet by Marriage upon those members of the body which we think most unhonest put we most honesty on and our uncomely parts have more 〈◊〉 for our comely parts need it not but God hath tempered the body together and hath given the more honor to that part 〈◊〉 lacked by this bond of Marriage whereby they two become one flesh Levit. 18. 6. And in diverse other places God faith 〈◊〉 shalt not come neer any of the kinred of his flesh to 〈◊〉 her shame though it be under title of marriage the uncovering of which shame turpe est vobis dicere it is a shame to tell though marriage be honest and honourable yet there is a shame in marriage which is the shame of the carnall members whereof both Man and Woman have their shame Man may be ashamed of his fire-brand of concupiscence all finnes are to be shamed at but lust above all is to be ashamed of which causeth other sinnes as in 〈◊〉 Adultery and Murther and the members of lust and carnalitie we are to cover and so to cover our shame and to this shame of 〈…〉 men are subject which sinne 〈◊〉 us more like bruit beasts than othervices the theef by the Law might make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that committesh adultery destroyeth his own 〈◊〉 the wound and 〈◊〉 of that teacher 〈◊〉 man was death Prov. 6. 33. neither the Law of God nor the Law of Nature admitted any 〈◊〉 for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before Amnon committed his inceft 2 Sam. 13. 13. she said to him Commit not this folly how shall I put away my shame and than 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 of the fools of Israel he should be accounted even as a beast that hath no regard of kinred he should for that inoest be esteemed as a 〈◊〉 person He that is inticed by the flattery of an Harlot and felloweth her is as an one that goeth to the slaughter 〈◊〉 7. 22. He is like 〈…〉 neighing after his neighbours wife 〈◊〉 5. 8. 〈…〉 God that begat him and that formed him Deus 32. 18. It is 〈◊〉 begetteth sinne and sinne begetteth 〈◊〉 there was no sinne no filthinesse in Adam and Eve at the first where fore though they were naked yes they were not ashamed But in chap. 3. 7. after their Fall when they knew they were naked they made them 〈◊〉 to cover their privie and incomely parts and yet the covering of their shame takes not away 〈◊〉 shame And we should 〈◊〉 thus of apparel that it is to defend our nakednesse we being passible of weather to cover our shame and we have 〈◊〉 great cause 〈…〉 thereof seeing it is but as a clout wherein we doe wrap and cover our own shame we must take heed that we make not our shame to be our glory apparel should be a covering to shame but alas it is even now become a provocation and an
himselfe to pacifie his wrath and prevent the danger by praying to God and offering presents to him but of all his follies which are yet seen herein it most appeareth in that which Adam here useth for his purpose maketh most against him in that this which he useth and challengeth for his defence and appoligie is indeed the very occasion of his condemnation as we shall see in the next verse in which God maketh this his confusion of his nakedness wherewith he chargeth God to be the very ground of his occasion and interrogatorie which he cannot avoid nor finde any colour nor evasion for but to confess himself guilty Dixit verò Deus Quis indicavit tibi nudum esse te An de fructu illius arboris de quo interdixeram tibi ne comedas ex eo comederis Gen. 3. 11. February 5. 1591. NOW we are come to proceed in the judiciall part of Gods cause and manner of judgment concerning which we have seen before this order to have been observed First God sent a Sergeant to arrest him and ascite him to make his appearance to answer for that which should be laid and objected against him in the seventh verse Secondly he sent out an attachment more forcibly to lay hold on him and to apprehend him which he fled from in the eighth verse Then God came himself making search for him being hid and brought the Malefactor out to his arraignment and to answer to ubi es in the ninth verse which is his inditement and accusation Then God will have him make his plea to his inditement which he doth in the tenth verse pleading not guilty for though he confesseth the fact laid against him that he is out of his ubi and is fled and hid yet we see that he so confesseth it that he traverseth the right and lawfulness of that deed done by him which is quia and ergo saying God was the cause of it he could not doe otherwise for God spake so fearefully to him that he could not but flie and God made him naked and therefore he hid himself In saying which he seemeth so to maintain and uphold his doings as if he had said I have therefore done well in thus saying and hiding yea I should not have done well if I had done otherwise and so his plea is that he is not to be charged of any ill or offence in this behalf Now to this answer God maketh a rejoynder and answereth that plea of his by a double interrogation In which God first of all joyneth issue with him in that one point which is plain and evident between them both by his own confession namely that he was naked and then bringeth in such an ergo against him that Adam could not choose but confess his offence and could not conceal or shift it off any longer For God proveth to him that it could not be that he should come ever to the knowledge of his evill and shamefull nakedness but only by the act of eating the forbidden tree so that he taketh out of his own mouth and words confested that whereby he will make matter enough to judge and condemn him namly that he knew that he was naked and ashamed to shew his face for upon this point he joyneth issue with him and upon the strongest part of his quia and reason as who should say be it true which you have said stand to the words confessed already let us both grant and agree in this point and issue that you know that you were naked and ashamed I demand of you but this one thing answer me if you can How came you to know that you were naked thus he beginneth to debate the matter to the proofe let us therefore now see how he traverseth this point with him his reason must be framed after this form That which was evill Adam might not doe this is a morall ground but it was evill that Adam being naked should know it to be a shamefull thing and to hide therefore Adam in knowing this his nakedness hath done some ill Thus standeth the reason Now God would know of Adam how he knew nakedness to be evill and the reason of the doubt and question is because it is certain that Adam presented himself naked before he sinned without any shame or hiding therefore here groweth the question how he knew it to be so now Adam knew his nakedness was evill God asketh how he came to the knowledge of any evill q.d. who brought thee acquainted with this knowledge of evill there is no man in the world to teach it thee and there is no other means in the world by which thou maist attain to it but only by eating the forbidden tree which of this effect hath his name to be the tree of knowledge of good and evill Ex arbore didicisti ergo de arbore comedisti for there was no ordinary way or means to come to this knowledge by the decree and counsell of God either to the knowledge of evill by privation of God or else to the science of evill by wofull experience and sense of evill but only this way by eating of this tree forbidden This then is that point in which God joyneth issue with him to make and enforce him to confess the truth by which two points the one of joyning issue in one instance and so closing with Adam therein The other concluding by an invincible proof the breach and transgression of that negative Law of God non comedes c. We gather necessarily thereout that this is the right and orderly course of proceeding in upright judgment and determining of causes here taught and allowed by of God to be imitated and put in practise namely that after the indictment and accusation laid against any man for transgressing a Law either for doing evill forbidden or not doing a necessary God commanded that then the party so accused must be brought to his answer personally and permitted quietly and freely to put in his answer thereunto for the acquitting himself if he can For these are two other parts of Justice and right Judgment according to Gods Law and this is a good and a lawfull proceeding as we may see by the example and practise of the Church of God and this is called a course of Judgment according to law and equity 〈◊〉 10. 3. and as St. Paul saith Judge aright according to Law Acts 23. 3. of which every good just Judge must have a speciall care Another point of this proceeding further is that after the party accused and arraigned hath put in his answer and pleaded not guilty that then the Accusant doe goe forward and see the issue joyned with the Defendant and a plaine evidence and proofe of his act done to convince him and prove him guilty by his own words or deeds if he can For so doth God deale with Adam here saying thus It appeareth by your own confession that you knew your selfe to be
the 14. of the 11. Thy pompe and pleasure is brought down to the grave the worms shall cover thee then with Job 17. 14. 〈◊〉 maist say to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother and Sister and as it is in the 26. of Isaiah and the 19. the dust must be our dwelling joy not then in the joyes of this world which are but dust and corruptible they are as Austin saith gaudia privanda but sorrow for gaudia aeterna privanda sorrow lest 〈◊〉 be deprived of eternall joyes 3. Our life unconstant or death uncertain The third use for instruction is out of 〈◊〉 〈…〉 The state of our life is alwaies in motion and in revolving like a Ship a sailing Job in his 14. chapter and 14. verse called the resurrection after death a changing it is like a shadow it is still turning and returning Paul saith in the thirteenth to the Hebrews the fourteenth verse Wee have here no continuing City but wee looke hereafter for one our life is unconstant our death uncertain alwaies changing this the inconstancie of mans life is the motive to good as the other is the retentive from evill Paul saith hee dieth daily from sin here on the earth wee must not seeke for the hill of certain repose but look in heaven for a perpetuall City The Tents and Tabernacle are taken away therefore with Abraham Wee must looke for a City having a foundation whose builder and maker is God the eleventh of the Hebrews and the tenth verse 4. A time to return The fourth use is out of donec revertêris untill thou returne a time of returning where wee must learne to returne by repentance unto God before wee returne to dust that so wee may returne againe from dust 〈◊〉 God let men bee alwaies ready spend not thy daies with the wicked that goe suddenly down to the grave the twenty first of Job and the thirteenth the fourty fifth of I saiah and the eighth And as they live so they die like beasts the third of the Preacher and the ninteenth 5. We must return to God The fifth and last is that we must return to God For shall the dust give thanks unto thee the thirtieth I salme and the ninth verse The godly shall be delivered out of temptation though the unjust be reserved to judgement the second of Peter the second and the ninth We must return to God per poenitentiam Let it not be thought incredible that God should raise again the dead the twenty sixth of the Acts and the eighth the first of Jea and the eighth So a man shall return to God very well by due consideration of these things from the first pulvis es thou art dust to return to God by humility by the second not to joy in this world but in God by the third to rest our turning and returning in God and by the fourth to comfort our selves that out of the grave we shall rise to live with God Abraham addeth ashes to dust But what made Abraham to add ashes to dust the eighteenth of this Book and the twenty seventh he saith I am O Lord but dust and ashes The Fathers upon this place say that dust is our beginning and if we doe not obey God by fire we shall be turned into ashes ashes will be our ending We are all naturally dust and we are all by desert also but ashes and although by no means you cannot avoid to be dust yet by an upright life you may avoid to be ashes though we cannot but incurre the first death let not the second death take hold of us Though the grave inclose us let not hell swallow us All we eat all that we care for in this world is but for dust and for that will turn to dust If we be nothing but dust if we hope for nothing but dust if we care for nothing but dust we shall be swallowed up in dust Let us remember we are clay but God is the Potter Isaiah 64. 8. Above all regard thy soul. Above all regard thy soul then shall thy body of dust return to dust and from dust shall return again to God that made it and thee thou and thy body shall return to glory Vocavit autem Adam nomen uxoris suae Chavvam eò quòd ipsa mater sit omnium hominum viventium Gen 3. 20. December 10. 1598. ADam here calleth his Wife by a new name not by the former name in the 23. of the former which was Woman The mysterie of this name compared with the former Sentence is great she is called here Hevah she hath no name of dejection and despair but of life and of comfort Hereby is to be gathered that notwistanding the sinne committed and sentence pronounced yet there was in Adam some matter of hope for he beleeved the promise made in the 15. verse before that the seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head This was as it is in the 〈◊〉 to the Corinthians 2. 16. The savour of life unto life Abraham beleeved in Gods promise the 15. of this book the 6. by this Scripture Adam left a Monument of his beliefe as in the other Abraham left a Monument of his faith The seed of Abram in his age was promised to be in the 5. verse of that chapter as the starres of heaven Abraham desired to see the day of Christ and he saw it by faith Herein we will consider these two things first the imposition of a name and then of this name For the first the imposing of names is an argument of superiority and power in the 19. of the former chapter it is shewed in the naming of all the Creatures by man which names were properly given by him In the thirty fifth chapter and the eighteenth verse Jacobs Wife before her death called her sonnes name Ben-oni but his Father changed that name and called him Benjamin from the sonne of sorrow to the sonne of 〈◊〉 Jacob was after called Israel the tenth of the same chapter the name of Sarai was turned to Sarah the seventeenth of Genesis and the fifteenth verse as of Jacob by the Angell into Israel the two and thirtith chapter and the twenty eighth verse and out of these new names is taken matter of great mystery And Adam before called her Ishah woman as another from man but here hee changeth that to Hevah which is a name of life to others Now then touching the imposition of this name wherein wee will consider the signification of this name and then the qualitie thereof In the seventh of the former chapter God 〈◊〉 into man the breath of life and man was a living soule and here her name is a name of life now life is two fold either for a time or for ever shee is a mother of life in regard of this life for that her birth is not of an abortive it is a blessednesse production and education are in
wicked which are the ofspring of cursed Cain For albeit it seemed God had no care of his faithfull servant Abel in that he suffred him to be slain yet we see he takes care for his blood so that it shall not be shed but he will call Cain to account for it So that they may learn this for their comfort that howsoever we reckon of it Yet the death of Gods Saints is pretious and of high estimation in Gods eye Psalm the one hundred and sixteenth and that whether they live or dye they are the Lords in the fourteenth chapter of the Romans for as both our bodies and souls are Gods in the first to the Corinthians the sixth chapter and the twentieth verse so no doubt but he takes care of both wherewithall we are to observe that God is so carefull of his servants that he careth not for himself to shew his care to them for he had received many indignities himself from Cain in that he without any regard offered to God that which came first to his hand not making choice of his sacrifice as Abel did Note And again when notwithstanding the Sermon which God preached to him he doubted not to proceed from one sinne to another till at last he had murthered his Brother but yet God calls him not to account for these but only for the wrong which he did to Abel his Servant A comfort and so the godly see to their great comfort God seeth our wrong to revenge it that howsoever in regard of present afflictions God seemeth to have cast off all care of them yet he will forget himself that he may be mindfull of them The point of terror to Cain and his posterity is that howsoever they 〈◊〉 themselves Psalm the ninety fourth and the seventh verse The Lord shall not see neither will the God of Jacob regard it yet here we have a plain instance that God doth see Cain murther his Brother though he doe it in the field He seeth Sarah laugh within her self behinde the Tent dore Genesis the eighteenth chapter His eyes behold the way of the Adulterer though he wait for the twie light and say no eye shall see me Job the twenty fourth chapter and he doth not only see them and their works but videt requiret in the second of the Chronicles the twenty fourth chapter and the twenty second verse that is as Job and Salomon affirm Hee will after this life call them to an account and bring them to judgment for every thing they have committed be it never so secret whether good or evill Job chap. 19. Ecclesiastes the twelfth chapter and the fourteenth verse wherewithall we are to note that that is here verified which Jehu spake in the second of Kings and the tenth chapter that is that no word of the Lord shall fall to the ground For before Cain had committed this murther God told him If thou doe evill sinne lyeth at the dore And we see here that albeit Cain used all the means he could to cover his fact yet it is discovered by God and though his sinne seemed to be asleep while he concealed it within himself yet God will not suffer him but wakes him out of his sleep Note And so we are to know whosoever are guilty of these or the like sinnes that we cannot keep them so closs but he that hath the key of David will open the dore of our consciences and bring them to light The Examination standeth upon two parts first Gods Question and secondly Cains Answer In the Question we shall see that the wayes of God are Mercy and Justice Psalm the twenty fifth First Touching his Mercie if we ask what was Gods intent in asking Cain this Question we shall finde doubtless that it was not to learn where Abel was for he knew that Cain had slain him though Cain thought within himself that his fact was unknown to any For his intent St. Ambrose tells us what it was ignorantiam simulat ut confessiones urgeat and as Austen saith non interrogantis ut discat sed invitantis ut poeniteat The gate of repentance is confession of sinne the gate of repentance is confession of sinne and God makes as if he were ignorant what was become of Abel that so he might provoke Cain to confess his fact and so consequently shew himself sorry for it for the sore or wound cannot be healed so long as it is kept secret but when it is disclosed the Physition is willing to cure it and as a Judge is the more provoked by the importunacy and obstinacie of the offendor so nothing doth appease him so much as when the offendor doth willingly confess his fault and by voluntary confession shew that he hath grace This was that which God desired in asking this Question and the reason is that Cain by his voluntary confession if he had not been hindred with the hardness of his heart might as Joshua said to Achan Joshua the seventh chapter Give glory to God that is by accusing himself to clear God We must confesse that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was Cains part to have confessed that as he was the cause of Abels death so he slew him being not inforced thereunto but using all means he could to dispatch him and that God is not to be charged for his death in any respect for that he laboured before by all means to diswade withdraw him from that vile fact Touching which voluntary confession and accusing of our selves the Fathers out of Proverbs the eighteenth chapter and the seventeenth verse say justus in principio sermonis est accusator sui and they read these words of the Prophet Isaiah the fourty third chapter and the twenty sixt verse dic tu iniquitates prior utjustifioeris for the way to be justified before God is to accuse and condemn our selves for it is a thing acceptable to God that we accuse and judge our selves worthy to be destroyed for our iniquities Ezekiel the thirty sixt chapter and the thirty first verse Judging our selves we prevent Gods judgement for as the Apostle saith the judging of our selves is the way not to be judged of God in the first to the Corinthians the eleventh chapter for by this means we prevent his judgment so that Gods intent herein was an intent of mercy wherein we are to observe these three qualities whereby God draweth men to repentance his goodness and his long suffering and patience Romans the second chapter and the first verse which goodness of God towards Cain appeares herein that having already used perswasions and preservative physick to keep Cain from sinning he contents not himself but ministreth medicine curative now he hath sinned Here the words of the Prophet are fulfilled Psalm the sixty second and the eleventh and twelfth verses Semel atque iterum loquutus est Deus and both speeches of mercy the first in the seventh verse ne peccet the
old man is corrupt through lust and the abandoning of that corruption must bring us to the participation of the divine nature and it is comparance that makes us avoid this corruption For unlesse we temper our affections we shall never be partakers of the divine nature Secondly It follows the natural power of 〈◊〉 Having placed Knowledge which is a virtue of the reasonable part he comes next to the affectioned part that is Desire 〈◊〉 temperance answers he would not have sensuality grow 〈◊〉 nor the body to govern the soul The upper part 〈◊〉 already perfected the lower part must next in order be made perfect as in the first epistle to the Corinthians the fifteenth chapter That which is natural is first and then that which is spiritual So moral virtues are the perfections of men in this life and theological virtues are the perfections in the life to come Thirdly Knowledge being the virtue that teacheth what is good or evil Temperance follows it very well in as much as it is a helper forward and a preserver of good It keeps us from the graves of lust Numbers the eleventh chapter It preserves reason which is the power of the minde For by worldly cares we doe gravare cor overcome the heart Luke the twenty first chapter and the thirty fourth verse but this temperance makes it and therefore is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of keeping the minde and understanding safe And for the body we see the effect of this virtue in Daniel the first chapter and the fifteenth verse therefore the Apostles counsel to young men is in the second epistle of Timothy the second chapter and the twenty second verse Flye the lusts of youth and Titus the second chapter and the third verse To be temperate and sober minded It preserves knowledge not only by keeping the body in order but Proverbs the twenty third chapter the fourth verse and Romans the twelfth chapter and the third verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to deal in genealogies and curious questions which are unprofitable but to be wise with sobriety Titus the third chapter and the ninth verse and the first epistle to Timothy the first chapter and the fourth verse So it follows by good order in as much as it preserves the virtue going before Secondly Touching temperance what it is and wherein it stands When knowledge hath taught what to chuse the next thing is nullis inde illecebris avocari and that is it which Temperance performs For in the beginning this corrupter of the world sought to draw our Parents away from their duty by a baite he shewed them bonum delectabile that was the goodly fruit so fair to behold the allurement being offered concupiscence flyeth to it as a bird to the snare Proverbs the seventh chapter and the twenty third verse Every man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 James the first chapter and the fourteenth verse There is a bait offered to lust to catch at therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebrews the twelfth chapter sinne is so pleasant that if concupiscence be not weaned there is no child desires the mothers breast more than it desires sinne Psalm the hundred thirty first and the second verse men being in this case and add drunkennesse to thirst Deuteronomie the twenty ninth chapter and the nineteenth verse and seek baits to allure concupiscence therefore our concupiscence needs a bridle to wean and restrain this soul. Lust is two fold the first Epistle of John the second chapter and the sixteenth verse carnis occulorum The corruption of the 〈◊〉 is either for the belly as it is in the sixth chapter of St. Luke or that carnall pleasure that Felix and Drusilla were over come with Acts the twenty fourth chapter so that he could not abide to heare Paul dispute of temperance the eye lusteth for faire apparell as Luke the sixteenth chapter to bee cloathed in purple for that is a hait of 〈◊〉 as Achan when hee saw the Babylonish garment desired it Joshuah the seventh chapter So also the eye delighteth in bedding and furniture for houses as Jer the twenty second chapter and the fourteenth verse to have it shine with Cedar to lye on beds of Ivory Amos the sixt chapter and the fourth verse Temperance is the refrainer of all these For the desire of the belly the first of the Corinthians and the ninth chapter They that run a race absteyne from all meat that may hurt For carnall pleasure If they cannot contein let them marry the first epistle to the Corinthians and the seventh chapter And for apparell that must bee done in temperance the first epistle to 〈◊〉 and the second verse thus wee see what is the object of temperance which virtue performes two things First to bee able to want those things as Philipians the fourth chapter possum deficere then having them to use them moderatly as the Apostle counsels in Timothie 1 Timothy 5. modico vino utere for many comming to have the possession of these things exceede in Ryot For the first it is a dangerous lust how pleasant soever it bee not to bee able to want them if wee make necessary lusts of them so as wee must have our lusts satisfied though it cannot bee without sinne wee bring our selves under the power as it is in the second epistle to the Corinthians and the eight chapter if wee make our selves debtors to the flesh so farre Romans the eighth chapter A man that cannot refraine his appetite hee is like a City broken downe and without walls Pro. 25. 28. Thirdly for the end why the Apostle exhorts to this virtue It is first to eschue corruption and so to bring us to the divine nature and Temperance is the virtue by which wee eschue corruption both of soule and body for as those things that are sweete doe stop and putrisy the body so doe those corrupt desires of the minde and the corruption of mankinde desires to corrupt man with these allurements If wee love wee are not the servants of sinne we are servi corruptionis as it is in the second epistle of Peter and the second chapter For the body it corrupts it also for so hee sinneth against his owne body the first epistle to the 〈◊〉 and the sixt chapter and such doe corrupt the Temple of God the first epistle to the Corinthians and the third chapter The flesh spotteth the garment as it is in the epistle of Saint Jude the bed desiled Hebrewes the thirteenth chapter so that wee cannot possesse our vessels in holinesse Fourthly that it bee not so Temperance must effect this so it disposeth us to the participation of the divine nature who is a spirit John the fourth chapter as they that are spirituall minded are for they that take care to fulfill the lusts of the flesh Romans the thirteenth chapter doe make their bellies their God the thirteenth chapter of the epistle to the Philippians and minde earthly things such are
we can doe is to bruise his head And many are so 〈◊〉 from that that they fetch balmes and oyntments to heal his head so soon as it is wounded Instead of treading him under our 〈◊〉 many doe tread under their feet the Law and word of God as Samuel speaks in the first book of Samuel the fifteenth chapter and the twenty third verse and tread under feet the blood of the Covenant Hebrews the tenth chapter and the twenty ninth verse which God appoints as a means to 〈◊〉 us in this fight By nature we are enemies to God and to the crosse of Christ Philippians the third chapter and the eighteenth verse except God vouchasafe us the benefit of this promise and make this enmity between the Devil and us We see this enmity was fulfilled between the Devil and Christ that was the seed of the woman for they say What have we to doe with thee Jesus Matthew the eighth chapter and the twenty ninth verse and between him and the wicked Jews which were of the Serpents seed which said to Christ Behold a glutton and a wine drinker a friend to Publicans and sinners Matthew the eleventh chapter and the nineteenth verse And thus still the Devill and his generation doe oppose themselves against Christ and the faithfull that are born anew of the immortal seed of the word the first epistle of Peter the first chapter and the twenty third verse But as for the ungodly the Devil doth never disturb them for in them the strong armed man bath 〈◊〉 full possession so as all that he hath is in peace Luke the eleventh chapter and the twenty second verse And the Devil doth no sooner hold up his hand to them but they are ready to doe whatsoever he will But he that hath not his part in this hostility and spiritual conflict with the Serpent shall have no part in the promise of victory which is made to the godly Hoc conteret tibi caput tu autem conteres buic calcaneum Gen. 3. 15. Aug 10. 1598. IN this last part of the Curse pronounced by God upon the Serpent there are two points First a proclaiming of warre Secondly a promise of Victory the summe whereof is the breaking of the Serpents head as the holy Ghost speaks here or as the Apostle saith in the first epistle of John and the third chapter the loosing of the works of the Devil In the proclaiming of enmity we have to consider First the enmity it self Secondly the persons between whom it shall be Touching the enmity we shewed first That it is kindly that preposterous love and amity should end in hatred and mortal enmity as it fell out between the Serpent and the woman Secondly That God is the author of this enmity who saith of himself I will put enmity Whereupon we gather That as God is the stirrer up of all affections so especially of that hatred which is between good and evil 〈◊〉 and error between Babel and Sion the Tents of the godly and the wicked as they are opposed in the eighty fourt Psalm And therefore as it is Christs rule That no man should separate that which God hath joyned Matthew the nineteenth chapter so where God promiseth that he will 〈◊〉 the wicked and the godly let no man seek to conjoyn them nor make peace when his will is there should be mortal hatred and warre The persons are the Woman and the Serpent By the Woman is meant not Eve as she is the mother of them that dye but the Church which is signified by her in regard whereof she is called The mother of the living Genesis the third chapter and the twentieth verse As allo the bodily Serpent is not meant but the Devil that old Serpent The first thing then to be noted in the persons is That as there is naturally a hatred between the Woman and the visible Serpent so God threatneth this as a punishment to be laid upon the Devil That there shall be continual warre and harred between him and the Church Secondly This enmity shall not be for a time for he contents not himself to say I will put enmity between thee and the Woman but that it shall continue between their seed that is it shall be hereditary to abide till the worlds end so long as God hath a Church By the seed of the Woman is understood the faithfull that are born and begotten in the Church which is the mother of us all Galatians the fourth chapter By the Serpents seed is meant the wicked whom Christ calls Serpents and a generation of Vipers Matthew the twenty third chapter and the thirty third verse Thirdly It shall be no light harred but deadly and mortal for it shall proceed to grinde one another to powder The hatred which the Church beareth towards the Devil is such as shall break his head in peeces as an earthen vessel is broken so that it shall not be fit for any use not so much as to fetch fire in any peece of it Isaiah the thirtieth chapter and the fourteenth verse Wherefore touching this former part As it is a great punishment for a proud man to have them set before him whom he thinks to be farre under him so for as much as the Devil hold us captive at his will the second epistle to Timothy and the second chapter it is a grievous curse which God layeth upon him that we shall not only be set at libetry from him but have the mastery over him and trample him under our feet Secondly for our selves As it is a blessing for a man not to be deceived of him whom he thinks to be his friend so God vouchsafeth us a great blessing in that he promiseh to ftirre up in us a hatred against sinne and the Devil so that we shall not make a league with hell nor an agreement with death Isaiah the twenty eighth chapter but shall still be at enmity with him Contrari wise if we make truce with the Devil and please our selves in our sinnes then are we accursed and like the fool that laugheth when he is lead to the Stocks to receive correction Proverbs the seventh chapter Thirdly It is a general Prophecie That if God 〈◊〉 not enmity between us and the Serpent in this life he will set enmity between us and himself in the life to come so that we shall say How have we hated instruction and our hearts despised correction proverbs the fift chapter and the twelfth verse Sinne goeth down sweetly but in the end it will bite like a Serpent Proverbs the twenty third chapter and the thirty second verse Thus we see that because we did abuse that general peace that was between us and the Creatures God hath thought it necessary to stirr up war between us so that we shall have the Devil an adversary to us And as he tempted us to evil so we shall still be enemies to him God indeed might easily have destroyed the Devil for causing us
imperfect and therefore not commendable and the cause and fault of it not to be in the matter of which it was made but of the efficient which made it But if any thing be good perfect and commendable the cause of it is the goodnesse of the maker not of the matter for the matter of all things is nothing or a thing rude and unperfect and therefore of it can proceed nothing of worth In mens works if the matter whereof we make things were as permanent and durable as the form which the work-man setteth to it our works would be long and very lasting for we see that if the matter of a house or garment would continue and were perfect the form and fashion of it would continue and not decay but because the matter is ruinous and subject the one to be rotten and the other to be thread-bare Therefore our works cannot last so all the defects and imperfections both of Body and Soul doe come from the defects of the matter of which we were made not of the form in which God made us from thence therefore had Adam and his posterity an ability and possibility to be subject to return to emptinesse to darknesse and to deformity to be without goodnesse and full of evill because he was made of the rude matter which was so But if any good thing remain in us it is because of the relicks of that form in which God made us Thus much of goodnesse in generall now for a more particular consideration of the goodnesse of light We see that God first praiseth that which indeed causeth all other things to be praised and therefore it must needs be good and most commendable Secondly God is the testis and witnesse which affirmeth it to be so Who dare deny it Thirdly yea who can deny it for our own eyes being judg and witnesse we must needs also with God say it is good for it hath aspectabilem in se bonitatem yea it is a means by which we see how good God is Psal. 34. 8. Behold and see how good God is Goodnesse hath two respects the one is in regard of it self the second in respect of others when it is good to other things and in asmuch as it doth good and delighteth others besides it self by communication of his quality to others And hereunto ariseth the threefold distinction of bonum which all Philosophers gaze at and speak of so much The first is bonum honestum Second bonum jucundum Third bonum utile all which doe much differ Psal. 133. 1. unity and amity of brethren is bonum atque jucundum Titus 3. 8. many things may be bonum utile jucundum but this light is good in all respects 〈◊〉 47 3. verse For the first That is good which is desired in and for it self as Eve therefore desired the Apple Gen. 3. 6. but we desire to see the light only for it self propter videre lumen and therefore having no pleasant object at all Yet we still love to have our eyes open because it is good to see and behold the light of the Sunne Also all good things and vertues are in a league of great affinity friendship and amity with the light which argueth that it is somewhat like it in goodness Ezek. 13. 9. 17. 22. veritas non quaerit angulos for truth feareth and hateth nothing more then to be kept and imprisoned in darkness and all evill things cannot abide the light but hate it as deadly because light is contrarie to their evill nature but honest and good things delight in the light Secondly It is delightfull for others to behold as the apple Gen. 3. 6. as well as Bonum in se for we count it a miserable thing to eate our meat in darkness though our meat be good Preach 11. 7. and 5. 6. It is a pleasant thing to see the Sunne Preach 11. 7. Blindness is an uncomfortable thing as Tobie confesseth yea such things as have not sufficient light are less comfortable and delightfull for the house which hath little store of light we finde fault withall as melancholy and uncomfortable Therefore it hath a nature to be comely also and amiable or beautifull Psal. 147. 1. Lux habet venustatem it is sightly for the pleasure of the eye and therefore is called mater pulchritudinis the colours that have most brightness and light in them are best liked and so are the silks which have the greatest and fairest gloss But without light there is no beauty the eye is without pleasure or delight in any object for in the dark a russet coat and a scarler robe is all one no difference between a ruinous Dungeon and a princely Pallace Therefore in this degree of good light is very good Thirdly touching the profit of it Which utile also caused the desire of the Apple Gen. 6. 3. light is very profitable and commodious both in matters of expediencie and also in things of necessity for all our knowledge cometh of light and is compared to light Ephes. 5. 8.9 In Job 37. 22. it is compared to gold both propter venustatum utilitatem necessitatum and if you will know throughly the price value and estimation of it then see the value and estimate of the eye for one would rather lose all his gold and treasure for a ransome than depart from one eye for that did grieve Israel most 1 Sam. 11. 2. and why should one make any reckoning of his eyes if it were not for the light for without it our eye and our nose can see both alike yea we have no use but trouble of it without light we may know and consider the price of light by this that in the night which is a naturall absence of light rather than we will sit in the dark and want the benefit of light we will redeem and buy it with money and some know what cost some are at in buying of light Out of this consideration ariseth matter of meditation both for our profit and amendment of life And first it sheweth the condemnation and rebuke of three faults in three sorts of men For we say that the action which crosseth Gods action is very ill but the judgment and opinion which crosseth contradicteth and denieth Gods judgment and approbation of a thing is farre worse God when he saw the light said it is good How dare any person be so ill as when he seeth the light to say it is evill Yet there are three sorts of men which doe thus It is a usuall thing in the sale of such Wares and Merchandise which are adulterate evill and corrupt men will say this light is evill it is not good for us what soever God saith and therefore they doe frame and make false and deceiveable lights But seeing the light the brighter it is the beter it is they which will sell good and lawfull Merchandise must not make to themselves dimme and deceiveable lights for seeing this visible light is