haters of him Now because we cannot conceive any thing of God almost but in some proportion that we finde in the creature to him Removing all imperfections I will instance in three good things wherein they goe about to wrong God First In the content and tranquillity of minde or if you will his pleasure by displeasing him Secondly In his good name and honor due to him by dishonoring him Thirdly In his Riches and possessions by dammaging him yea even his Kingdome it selfe in a manner de-throning and deposing him I will but briefely give a touch of every one of these because otherwise I shall not compasse to dispatch so much as I desire The first then is the displeasing of God Without faith it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle and so it is impossible for the unregenerate man butto displease God their best actions stinke in his nostrills The prayers of the wicked is abomination to the Lord in the Proverbes My Soule abborreth your new Moones and appointed feasts they are a trouble unto me I am weary to beare them as the Lord himselfe complaineth of the Iewes by the Prophet Esay 1. 14. But my purpose is not to shew how much the Lord is displeased with them because I shall have better opportunity for that in the next point but how much they displeased the Lord it is their whole course and study so to doe almost I know saith Moses to the Israelites that evill will befall you in the latter dayes because ye will doe evill in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the workes of your hands Deut. 31. 29. And the Prophet threatens in Gods name 1 King 14 15. The Lord shall smite Israel and shall roote him out of this good Land because they have made their Groves to provoke the Lord to anger and Ieroboams sinnes wherewith he sinned against God are termed in the same Booke 15. 30. His provocations wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger And in the second Booke 17. 17. Where you have a Catalogue of the sinnes of Israel this concludes all They caused their sonnes and their daughters to passe through the fire and used divinations and inchantments and sold themselves to doe evill in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight Out of which places you may see what is the issue of the sinne of the wicked what the scope upon which their wit and will and wayes are wholly set namely to provoke the Lord to anger and that sinne in this respect is enmity to God and sinners enemies I thinke it is plaine enough for is not this enmity to doe all things that we know will thwart and crosse a man and to omit and neglect any thing that might in any sort be to his liking to delight to grieve and vexe and fret him which the wicked doe in sinning against God Secondly I might further illustrate this from another peevishnesse which the Apostle Paul hath observed in our nature which is such that the Law of God which should be a bridle to restraine and curbe our lawlesse luft is a spurre to provoke and pricke it forward to runne more violently the more God forbids sinne the more we bid for it the more greedily we desire it Sinne saith the Apostle Rom. 7. 8. Taking occasion by the Commandement wrought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the Law sinne was dead for I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sinne revived and I dyed And the Commandement which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sinne taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me As if we did sinne upon purpose so much the more because it is offensive to God to displease him and as you had it even now to provoke him to anger and if God had need to deale with us as he did in the story who was wont to command the contrary when hee would have any thing done because he knew they would crosse him and as the Philosopher cousend Alexander who thinking that he would make sute to him to restore his Country which he had ruined from which he was utterly averse when he saw him come toward him swore he would deny whatsoever he should desire and he therefore demanded the cleane contrary of what he intended that he would not restore his Country and by that wile sped in his sute because he did not speed Thirdly I might further presse this because our disposition is such naturally toward God for the most part as we will be most refractary in those things which he most earnestly requires at our hands if there be any service more pure to him any performance of ours more precious then other in his sight any duty that he delights in we are more aukward and untoward to that as if we did it of purpose to displease him and to provoke him to anger and I could instance here particularly in the Sanctifying of his day in private and frequent prayer and many other the like but this that hath beene said already may suffice concerning the first the displeasing of God to shew that it is a character of enmity a badge of hatred and as it is said in the Gospell of the Tares sowne while the husbandman slept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy hath done this so the wicked that doe this continually may be branded in the forehead with this marke and knowne to bee an enemie Secondly the second act of enmity whereby the wicked men seeke to bring evill upon God is by dishonouring him which they doe in sinning many wayes both in conceiving very meanely and basely of him in their minde or else they could not sinne and so speaking diminitively of his Majestie yea blaspheming his holy Name as also in the very sinne it selfe which as it brings a deformity upon themselves is dishonourable to him as the Creator and as it is a difformitie from his holy Will and disobedience thereto is dishonourable to him as the King and Governour of all things for as the mangling and defacing of some noble Pictures robs the Artificer of his deserved praise and so tends to his disgrace and as the disobedience of the Subjects is a dishonour to their Soveraigne so we blurring and mangling of our owne soules with sinne and the Image of God in them doe impaire the glory of his Wisedome and Workemanshippe of which hee made them to have beene Statues and Monuments and rebelling against him deny him the glory of his power and Soveraignetie and make both his Wisedome and Power to be called in question the defects that be in us redounding in some sort to the discredit of him that made us as though hee wanted either power or wisedome to have prevented or to redresse it Now ye know that God made all things to
THE HEAVENLY CONVERSATION AND THE NATVRALL MANS CONDITION In two Treatises By IOHN STOVGHTON Doctor in Divinitie sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge and late Preacher of Gods Word in Alderman-bury London Printed at London by T. G. for John Bellamie and Ralph Smith and are to be sold at the three Golden Lyons TO THE RIGHT Honorable HENRY Earle of Holland and Baron of Kensington chiefe Gentleman of his Majesties Bedchamber chiefe Justice and Justice in Eyre of all his Majesties Forests Chases Parkes and Warrens on this side Trent Chancellor of the Vniversitie of Cambridge Constable of the royall Castle of Windsor one of his Majesties most Honorable privie Conncell and Knight of the most noble order of the Gaâ—ter Right Honorable A Debtor I acknowledge my selfe unto the Church of God by calling a speciall ingagement lieth upon me both of trust and promise to serve the Church in this way in bringing towards the furtherance of the building of it that which hath beene squared and framed to my hand by a wise Master builder who hath showed himselfe approved unto God a workeman that needeth not to be ashamed This I doe here humbly present unto your Honours protection I may perhaps from some incurre the censure of too much boldnesse in using your Honours name but your courtesie and sweet affabilitie springing from your native gentelnesse of disposition doth secure me and the rather since I present this unto your Honour not in my owne name but in the name and behalfe of the Widdow who though she may claime the priviledge of her Sex from appearing in Print herselfe yet shee is desirous that the living and lasting Monuments of her deare husband should be brought forth for the good of Gods Church under the patronage and protection of your Honour to whom the Author was every way so much oblieged now I have no reason to doubt but that as your Honour was pleased to take the Reverend and learned Author into the protection of your noble family for you will bee pleased to countenance these his owne legitimate children which are now sent abroad as Orphans deprived of their father Their owne worth cannot but gaine them esteeme but I know your Honour will prize them the more for their fathers sake who whilest hee was alive did secure your Honour by his Prayers which he did daily offer up to God not pro forma as a legall and dead ceremony but pro Anima as a spirituall and lively sacrifice in the behalfe of your honour and happinesse and now that he is dead yet speaketh in these and those other Sermons of his which beare your honours name If you be pleased to patronize countenance and peruse them they will reflect much brightnesse upon your noblenesse as they receive splendour from it Thus under your Honours protection I doe present them unto the world humbly craving the priviledge of your pardon for my boldnesse and heartily beseeching the Lord to mak you still and still to doe worthily in Israel and to inrich your Honour more and more with grace here and glory hereafter Your Honours humbly devoted in all duty and observance A. B. To the Christian Reader GIve mee leave with thy acceptation to doe the office of a Timothy in bringing to thee the Parchmonts lest behind by that worthy man of God Doctor Iohn Stoughton These should have attended a larger Volumne but other of his Sermons having gotten the start of them and being left alone they are now presented to thee in this little Manuell They were left written with his owne hand and Preached in one of the Schooles of the Prophets and so fitted for a learned Auditorie That which did sway with me in the Publishing of these and rhose other Sermons of his that are already brought forth into publike view next to the desire of the publike good was the feare of wrong that both the Church and Authour might sustaine by the publishing of more imperfect Coppies Those private and imperfect Coppies which passed from hand to hand did runne the hazzard of a surreptitious Edition I clearely saw for some of them and had just cause to suspect it in the rest that if I would not publish them others would they falling into the hands of some mercinary persons whose boldnesse is such as that it is not restrained eirher by the good of the Church or credit of the Author whilst they looke no higher than their owne private gaine which is all their godlinesse though many times their immaginary gaine proves their reall losse What is here presented to thee is intirely the Authors owne without adding the least tittle to them least my Addition should detract from them They are now published for the ingenious Readers benefit and not the Critickes censure and are recommended not to a bare reading but to thy practise The blessing of these labours I commend to him that alone must give the increase and the God of Heaven give a rich blessing to them for thy soules good Thine in the Lord A. B. A Methodicall Analysis of the chiefe heads handled in this Treatise on Phil. 3. 20. 1. TExt 1 Dependance of the words they looke backe 1 As part of a collation to the immediatly precedent verses 2. As a ground of illation to the 17. verse 2. The sence of them The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred 1 Our city 2 Our municipall state and degres 3. Our politique bent and aime 4 Our politicall and civill administration 5. Our carriage and behaviour as citizens 1 Observation The conversation of a Christian is in heaven 1 There is explained what it is and how a Christian hath his conversation in heaven 1 In affection 2 In indeavours expressed in much 1 Alacrety 2 Diligence 3 Resolution 3 In act by a double Analogy and conformity with heaven 1 Conformity of sanctitie which appeares in his 1 Heavenly meditations 2 Divine communications 3 Conscionable operations expressed in his obedience 1 In the great things of the Law such as are 1 Delight in Gods Day 2 Exercise of Prayer and other workes of Piety 3 Helping forward the salvation of others 2 In the lesser things expressed in 1 Doing all 1 With the same care 2 By the same rule 2 Drawing the practise of Divinity to his earthly Domesticall and dayly affaires II Conformitie of felicitie Two things make a difference betwixt a Christians happinesse here and hereafter Misâ—y Sin yet these doe rather deprive us of the 1. Degree than truth 2. Perfection than possession 1. Misery may 1. Eclipse but not 2. Extinguish it 2. Sin doth not 1. Seperate us from Christ but 2. Drives us closer unto him II. Here is examined whether the life of ordinary Christians be according to this Rule Many beare the name of Christ and yet doe not answer it as 1. Prophane persons whose conversation is in Hell 2. Worldlings whose conversation is in the earth 3. Hypocrites whose conversion is betwixt heaven
thinkes it the best thrift and most saving bargaine when he can offer himselfe wholly to God a living Sacrifice pleasing and acceptable in his sight and therefore resolves with David I will not serve the Lord of that which cost me nothing and followes our Saviour whose counsell it is Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doth doe not anxiously compute the charge of a good worke as men doe some Summe upon the fingers end consult not with flesh and blood for what can be so bard that hee is affraid to undergoe or what so sweete that he is not resolved to forgoe that he may gaine heaven The way is straight and narrow yet he will strive to enter for the way to heaven is not easie he is like to meete scoffes and scarres and a thousand Scarcrowes for many thwarting inconvenience and discouragements lie crosse in the way to heaven but hee accounts these the glory of his triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fought the good fight saith the Apostle Paul as a word in a boasting it is a goodly thing to goe to heaven any way lame maimed or blind even the right foote the right hand the right eye if it offend him cut it off plucke it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a goodly thing Burne my foote if you will that it may dance everlastingly with the blessed Angels in heaven stil'd the Martyr in Basel nobly He is a wise Merchant that can purchase heaven at any price To conclude hee knowes this life is but a way to life as the Spartan mother comforted her sonne who in a battell where hee fought valiantly had received a wound of which he was like to limpe ever after that his halting would but make him remember vertue every step so the worst that can happen to him doth but make him remember vertue every steppe that every steppe may set him so much nearer to heaven hee thinkes hee is placed in this world as in a royall Theatre the Earth the Stage the Heavens the Scaffolds round about the spectators God men and Angells himselfe an Actor his part Piety his reward Eternity his conscience alwayes prompting him behinde the Curtaine it skils not what the spectators thinke or say looke to the Iudge be ambitious to please God who beholds thee and therfore resolves though the world hisses me yet I heare I eare not so I may heare a plaudite from him Well done good servant enter into thy masters joy O blessed plaudite he stirres his hands to clappe them and droppes a crowne of life from betweene them upon my head Thirdly Actu In act for hee cannot be out of heaven whose conversation makes that place heaven wheresoever he is and that by a double Analogie and conformity with heaven of sanctity and felicitie of happinesse and holinesse First Conformit as sanctitatis a conformity of sanctitie which appeares in every part of his life as the light of the candle breakes out at every side of the Lanthorne and as the leaven in the Gospell which the woman put into three pecks of meale insinuates it selfe into his thoughts words and deedes all which it makes to rise and swell toward heaven for what shall wee say of his Heavenly Meditations in which methinkes hee resembles a Bird of Paradise so called which is reported by the Naturalists to flie continually without any rest and was never observed so much as to touch upon the earth no more doth this blessed Bird of Paradise but is alway upon the wing in divine mediâ—â—tious unlesse perhaps you may thinke he comes nearer the Phoenix which is said to beget her heire of her owne ashes to which she is resolved in her bed of spice her neast being nothing else but a pile of the most precious spices of Arabia curiously collected by her afore for that purpose and kindled by the heate of the Sunne-beames as a Christian kindles by frequent meditation the sweete notes that hee hath collected in reading or hearing which like the Angel in the sacrifice of Manoach carries him up to heaven in a flame of heavenly affection and leaves her selfe an heire behinde of her owne ashes a never failing succession of the like heavenly meditations I know this practise is not vulgar or easie for the Monke said truely that to be a Monke in outward shew was easie but to be a Monke in inward reality was hard it is no hard matter in comparison to make the outward man the visible man a Monke immure him in a Cloyster and retire him from worldly distractions nor is it any easie matter to circumscribe the infinite libertie of the inward man But a Christian labours to be the same without that he is within like the beautie of a Diamond not skinne deepe onely like the ordinary beauty for if you could have a window in his breast you should see nothing within but heavenly thoughts hee breathes not oftner than hee thinkes on God according to the Father he climbs often into Mount Nebo the mount of Meditation for a prospect of the land of Promise from whence his blessed eyes of Faith and Hope like Calib and Joshua the faithfull Spies animate him to a noble resolution by their happie tidings The land is good let us goe up and fight for it and if he chance to step aside sometime among worldly affaires you must understand he is there not as a turne-coate Traytour but as a wise Intelligencer as a Spie was the Spies that went to Iericho to avoid being snared by any ambush he returnes by the Hill-countrey that is as I interpret it improves even humane occurrences to some divine expedience and reduceth temporall occasions to spirituall use Wherefore saith Chrysostome very sweetly The literall foules of the heaven have wings and these mysticall foules of the heaven have wisedome to flie aloft that the snares and lime-twigges of the world may not entangle them surely in vaine is the net spread before the eye of all that hath wings as Salomon speakes Such in the second place is their Conversation for as our Saviour after his Resurrection conversing with his Disciples spake of such things as concerned the Kingdome of God and Moses descended from the Mount where he had conference with God brought the Tables of the Law to the people so the Law of Grace is in his lippes and out of the Abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh As the posts of the doore of the house without were sprinkled with the blood of the Lambe which was eaten within so the heart that is washed with the blood of Christ cannot be ashamed to have their lippes painted with the same It is Nazianzens comparison for this is the beauty of the Spouse in her Lords eye who like some elegant Lover makes this a great part of her commendation Thy lippes are like a threed of scarlet this is the safetie of the Spouse as the blood
steppes take hold of Hell saith Salomon of the Harlot to leave a Sermon to goe to a Play is to forsake the Church of God to betake ones selfe to the Synagogue of Satan to fall from Heaven to Hell And what are they who doe nothing else all their life but warre against heaven more properly than the barbarous Scythians who thought they did it valiantly when they shot their arrowes against heaven which fell upon their owne pates the true Antipodes of God and all goodnesse that by a new found Art of memory never remember the Name of God that made them but in their oathes and blasphemies and by a new found Art of forgetfulnesse seeme to have forgotten their owne name as they say Messala did that they are called Christians that rather than faile of sinning with mutuall emulation like unhappie boyes strive who shall goe furthest in the dirt they thinke it a foule shame to be ashamed of sinne and their ambition is who shall be most famous for infamy The Jewes observe that the same word diversly pronounced Bethsheba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shibboleth signifies the well of Oath and Bethsaba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibboleth the well of plentie I am sure for Oathes the Land mournes of which there is such store as if men by an easie mistake of the point used to draw and drop oathes as it were out of the well of plentie But I shall shew you greater abominations then these it is the Apostles exhortation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see God the word indeede is ambiguous and signifies sometime to follow and sometime to persecute the Apostle delivers this with the right hand and would have us follow and pursue holinesse as it were withdrawing our selves from earth and retiring to heaven and that apace for feare we overtake them not but many take this with the left hand and running upon a wrong sent follow neither peace nor holinesse but breake the peace by proclayming open warre and persecuting holinesse without which no man shall see God the tongue is set on fire on hell and they set their mouths against heaven and blaspheme the Saints Good Lord that ever the reformed Church should verifie that which the Poet wrote once of Rome Omnia cùm licet non liceat esse pium When it is lawfull to bee all things but to be piously disposed and these times to be the prophesie of the morall Philosopher when Honour is attributed to vice Gideon received those for his Souldiers that bowed not the knee to drink but lapt like a Dog and Iephta made that the tryall of life or death if they could pronounce Shibboleth and is not now swearing a sufficient pasport for entertainement in the world and drunkennesse as good as letters of Commendation for preferment he that is so precise hee cannot kneele to Bacchus and carouse it so hee that lispes at an oath Sibboleth and cannot thunder them out thicke and threefold with a full mouth Shibboleth dismisse him for a coward he is an Ephramite and as he was wont to doe note him in your Calendar for a Priscillianist a Puritan but they that can do both and with a grace he is a brave lad a true trojan a Gileadite For those two for the most part are companions in evill Simeon and Levi as though wine sprung out of the earth from the blood of the Gyants that fought against the Gods as they in Plutarch imagined so it armes the Tongue against God all his Saints whose persons because they are out of reach they rend and teare their names Poore blind men that offer violence to the Saints as Sampson laid hand upon the Pillars to plucke the house upon their owne heads For this I feare will be the end of this sport and I would to God onely the Princes of the Philistims as indeede they doe sate and laught at this the Poets say Iupiter never throwes his thunderbolt but when the Furies wrest it out of his hand I feare these Furies will draw Gods judgements upon us I know not what vaine hopes like false guides which set a man out of the way beare us in hand that we may goe by sinne and hell to holinesse and shut our eyes against the light of the Gospell and yet at last come to heaven the way indeede to hell is easie for as Bias scoffed the dead goe thither blindfold with their eyes closed but let no man thinke any life will bring a man to heaven as though Christ sent blood out of his side to redeeme us and not water also to purge his redeemed and wash them from their sinnes As though those whom the divell drives headlong to hell as once hee did the Gadarens hogs into the deepe had any reason to conceive they were mounting to the pinacle of the Temple to some high place in heaven who if there were as many heavens as there be dayes in the yeare as the Basilidians foolishly dreamed are not like to come to the lowest point of the lowest without more then ordinary repentance Secondly wordlings whose conversation is in earth who degenerate so far from all noble thoughts that they had rather be Terrae filii sonnes of the earth then heires of heaven which deface the Image of the heavenly Father stamped in the soule not in their coines with continuall rubbing against the earth Wormes and no men that doe not walke upright to heaven but crawle upon the earth the seede of the Serpent inheriting his curse to creepe upon their belly and licke the dust and like that better then the choice delicates the foode of Angels like the Israelites of whom Tertullian whose pallats rellish Garlick or an Onion of the Aegyptian earth better than the Angelicall viands of heaven whom the earth hathwholly swallowed up as once it did Corah who lulled asleepe with the flattering blandishment and faire entertainement they meete with in the world are nayled to the earth as Sisera was by Iael and will not so much as lift their eyes to heaven unlesse it be as the moralist observes that Hogs doe who goe nodling downe and rooting in the earth all their life and never looke upward till being ready to be kild they are laid flat upon their backe and forced so those men are all their life scraping in the dunghill and never thinke upon God or heaven till wrastling with the pangs of death they are even overcome and laid flat upon their backe then they that were prone to earthly cares like Martha like the woman in the Gospel that had a spirit of infirmitie and was bowed downeward and carelesse and supine to all heavenly things are forced to thinke of heaven but perhaps can brook them little better then Cerberus did the light at which he startled and strugled so when Hercules had brought him so farre that he had well nigh twitcht him downe backe againe
to his honour with this prophane Epitaph The sweetest life is to understand nothing Lastly Love is witty in devising meanes to injoy the party beloved if wanting to procure it if gotten to perpetuate if lost to rerecover union with him But is there any such thing in the wicked towards God No truely For my people saith the Lord in Jeremie 4. 22. is foolish they have not knowne me they are sottish children and they have no understanding they are wise to doe evill but to doe good they have no knowledge I might inlarge this but I must passe to that which is behinde for though wee have viewed the intellectuall part of the carnall man and can observe no footsteps of the love of God yet perhaps his will and affections are better which are indeede the proper reason of Love but if there be so little light in the understanding I am afraid there is little heate to be expected in them What the eye sees not the heart rues not is so of sorrow a and a liking is derived from looking and who knowes not b Ignoti nulla cupido The will moves when the understanding gives the watch-word and depends upon it as the Verdict of the Iury upon the Judges information and that as wee have seene that his understanding hath no tang of the love of God in the first place so it must needes follow Secondly in the second place Not his will and affections neither which you shall understand if you runne over in your minde but three kind of affections First such as are conversant immediately about the good wee love either absent as Desire or present as Joy where there is no joy in the presence of God in the light of his countenance nor desire of it where there is no delight in his Ordinances nor desire to them which should leade us as it were by the hand to him to heare him speake in his Word to us or to speake in our prayers to him to walke with him in obedience of his Commandements where there is no cheerefull intertainment of messengers that come froÌ„ him no delight or desire to heare of him which is evident of the naturall man to God you shal pardon me if I beleeve not that there is any here Secondly looke upon such affections as are occupied about the will that are contrarie to the good 1 of love either absent as feare or present as griefe where there is no feare of the losse of the former good even now mentioned or griefe if through our fault or negligence wee have lost them I thinke my caution will not deserve blame if I dare not trust with such a rich Jewell such a precious grace as the Love of God is without better security than their simple word a better pawne than their bare profession Thirdly looke upon their anger a mixt affection the object it selfe being evill indeede but the motive good whereby the mind rises against some evill of difficulty that hinders it in the prosecution of some good where there is not an holy anger a zeale an indignation against sinne or Satan the world or the flesh that either diminisheth the good of God or derogates from his glory as wee love him for him selfe amore benevolentiae or desturbs our union and conjunction with God as we love him for our onely happinesse amore concupiscentiae in this cause t is true that Phavorinus in Collins saith of of anger in great wits It is well neigh or almost a noble passion and where this is not to be found at least in some measure and it is impossible it should be found in wicked men and carnall that is true which Austin saith in a like case Qui non zelat non amat and you may conclude The love of God dwells not in him You see then how a naturall man doth not love God with all the minde nor with all the heart and perhappes it will be needlesse to touch the third with the whole strengh because as the understanding composes the Ditty so the will chants the Song and after these the rest of the powers and parts will dance yet we will mention this too as we have done the rest and but mention it and that may note the highest intension of the other that they must be set at the highest pegge and pitch that can be and that both in actu primo secundo but wee will take it now for all other things by which the former doe use to manifest their love and they are three First a mans tongue secondly the rest of his members thirdly his goods All these how willingly will they be imployed about that we love with what dexteritie what diligence what expedition will they behave themselves therein Well might Plato descant upon the word Whom men call Love the immortall call winged for love hath two wings when it is to goe to or for the thing that is loved but on the contrary what dulnesse what deadnesse what difficulty is there for a carnall man to performe any service for God which is an evident argument there is no love but I doe but name this I should come to the Positive Hatred which I principally and onely intended My purpose is not to repeate any thing that hath beene said concerning those two degrees of hatred of God which are to be found in every naturall and unregenerate man Comparativè whereby he comes short both of that which he owes him and that which he bestowes most freely upon other things and Negativè whereby hee denies him that love that he requires in all particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither loving him with all his minde or all his heart or all his might neither will inlarge any of them but proceede rather to shew The third degree the positive hatred that every carnall man hath towards God and as this is most properly Hatred so it is principally to be considered for though that be a pittifull condition man in whom the Image of God is should so farre degenerate from his nature as to preferre in his affections the creature before the Creator and as the Apostle speakes Rom. 1. 25. They worshipped and served the creature before the Creator who is God blessed for ever and that yet worse to yeeld him no love no service at all yet to harden the forehead to professe open enmity to proclaime warre against him to make our understandings or wills and affections our tongues together with all our members which â—hee hath formed and fashioned with all our outward good things which his providence hath fastened upon us to make all these as so many weapons of unrighteousnes to fight against him I know not whether I should say that it stirres more misery or more madnesse but this I thinke you all conceive that it is the toppe and heighth of both But so it is with every sonne of Adam in his naturall condition by the same reason that
he is the Heire of Originall and the Father of Actuall sinne his soule and all the powers thereof being but a shop of sinne his body and all the parts of it tooles of sinne his life and all his actions of both soule and body a trade of sinne by the same reason I say he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Gyant-like doth fight against Heaven and against God I must desire you here to remember onely the distinction which I propounded when I spake of this last degree of positive hatred that it is either explicite when it is purposed and intended upon actuall consideration or inplicite when the same thing is done which we would doe if we did purpose and intend hatred against God the use and ground of which I then shewed you out of some places of Scripture Secondly remember the difference of the degrees of corruption in men for though all men be equally infected in regard of the roote and originall of sinne yet it doth not equally breake forth into actuall but in great variety according as they be more or lesse bridled and curbed by Gods restraining grace which makes that though all men have the seedes of all sinnes and all the degrees of sinne in them yet they doe not bud and bring forth fruite in all alike These things being remembred I shall easily cleare the point in hand which in plaine termes is this That Sinne in which all men are naturall is direct enmity to God and hatred of him And so consequently all men as they are in this estate of sinne in which they are all naturally are direct enemies and haters of God To Illustrate this you may consider The definition of Love and so compare hatred with it according to the nature of opposition and that is this as you have it in Aristotle To love is to will to any one the things be thinkes good for his sake but not for his owne sake and to practise them according to his ability and others say the same in substance in which description there be three things observeable especially First the affection it selfe the willing of good to the party we love Secondly the ground and formalis ratio of this affection not for our owne benefit or any good that redounds to us therefrom but sincerely for his sake Thirdly the effect or fruite of it which is a forward disposition and indeavour to procure the good we wish him so farre as it shall lye in our power to doe it and the contrary to these three will shadow forth unto us the nature of hatred which hath therefore three things in it First a wishing of evill to the party hated Secondly not for any injury of his offered to us but simply for himselfe Thirdly a disposition to endeavour so much as lyes in us to bring those evills upon him which we wish unto him for though the second condition be not so necessarily required to make up that hatred which the Schoolemen call odium immicitiae but rather makes that other kind which they use to call odium abominationis which is not needfull to finde in sinners toward God yet because it doth indeed agree to them and therefore to set it out so much the more fully and because it then agrees better with the description of love alleaged out of Aristotle and therefore to parallell it more fitly I would not omit it Now that all three are in the carnall man First A wishing of all evill to him Secondly and that not for any injury done to him or good that would redound to him for his evill Thirdly and both with a disposition and indeavour to bring the evill upon him so much as lyes in him it were no hard thing to shew distinctly and severally if I did not feare I should exceed the time and excercise your patience too much in a tedious discourse upon one and the same argument and therefore were not forced in a manner to contract as much as I may conveniently I will insist therefore onely which vertually includes the rest in the last and make it plaine how naturall men study and labour to the utmost of their power to bring all evill upon God 'T is true indeed that he by reason of the excellency of his nature is not capable of any suffering in that kinde and therefore as he answered them that told him the company laughed at him These men scoffe at thee but I scoffe not said hee againe so though these men wrong God he is not wronged yet no thanke to them for they doing their good will to doe it though it succeed not for another reason beyond their reach nay so farre are they from hurting God that it reflects all upon themselves as the bigge and boistrous waves swolne as it were with pride as well as exhalations rushe furiously upon some solid rocke thinking surely to overturne it or eate it up and swallow it presently but what is the issue the rocke remaines unmoveable and they doe but dash themselves in a thousand peeces so it is with the wicked that rise up against God and yet this doth not excuse them nay more God hath such an over-ruling hand in all their actions that what is done by them to his hurt is directed by him to his honour non fit praeter Dei voluntatem quod fit contra ejus voluntatem saith Austin And againe Non sineret omnipotens fieri mala nisi sciret de malis bonum facere the wicked in breaking his command fulfill his counsell in opposing his will they doe but accomplish it and yet this doth not excuse them for though the hand that acts whether it will or not be an instrument of God yet the wicked minde which aimes at another thing quite contrary makes them culpable though the execution must needs suite with his decree and cannot crosse it yet the wicked intention whereby they would faine makes them as guilty before him Jason had little cause to thanke his enemy that meant to kill him by shedding his blood though he chanced to cure him by opening his Imposthume which the Physitians could not doe As little thanke may Iudas looke for at Gods hand for betraying his Lord and Master the Lord of life though he did that which God had determined And the Iewes as little as Iudas who crucified Christ Him have ye taken being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God Act. 2. 23. and all sinners as little as the Iewes for the wages is given according to the worke indeed but the worke is judged according to the will of him that doth it so that the wicked doing those things whereby they bring evill to God as much as they can it must be imputed to them as if they had indeed power to doe it and had done it And thus I come to the point which is this That all naturall men doe wish and worke all evill to God and therefore are direct enemies and