infirmity but when it wants the grace of God or is mastered with passâ—ons and sinfull appetites and that infirmity is the state of unregeneration 3. The violence or strength of a temptation is not sufficient to excuse an action or to make it accountable upon the stock of a pitiable and innocent infirmity if it leaves the understanding still able to judge because a temptation cannot have any proper strengths but from our selves and because we have in us a principle of basenesse which this temptation meets and onely perswades me to act because I love it Joseph met with a temptation as violent and as strong as any man and it is certain there are not many Christians but would fall under it and call it a sin of infirmity since they have been taught so to abuse themselves by sowing fig-leaves before their nakednesse but because Joseph had a strength of God within him the strength of chastity therefore it could not at all prevail upon him Some men cannot by any art of hell be tempted to be drunk others can no more resist an invitation to such a meeting then they can refuse to die if a dagger were drunk with their heart blood because their evil habits made them weak on that part And some man that is fortified against revenge it may be will certainly fall under a temptation to uncleannesse for every temptation is great or small according as the man is and a good word will certainly lead some men to an action of folly while another will not think ten thousand pound a considerable argument to make him tell one single lie against his duty or his conscience 4. No habituall sin that is no sin that returns constantly or frequently that is repented of and committed again and still repented of and then again committed no such sin is excusable with a pretence of infirmity Because that sin is certainly noted and certainly condemned and therefore returns not because of the weaknesse of nature but the weaknesse of grace the principle of this is an evil spirit an habituall aversation from God a dominion and empire of sin and as no man for his inclination and aptnesse to the sins of the flesh is to be called carnall if he corrects his inclinations and turns them into vertues so no man can be called spirituall for his good wishes and apt inclinations to goodnesse if these inclinations passe not into acts and these acts into habits and holy customs and walkings and conversation with God But as natural concupiscence corrected becomes the matter of vertue so these good inclinations and condemnings of our sin if they be ineffective and end in sinfull actions are the perfect signes of a reprobate and unregenerate estate The sum is this An animal man a man under the law a carnall man for as to this they are all one is sold under sin he is a servant of corruption he falls frequently into the same sin to which he is tempted he commends the Law he consents to it that it is good he does not commend sin he does some little things against it but they are weak and imperfect his lust is stronger his passions violent and unmortified his habits vitious his customs sinfull and he lives in the regions of sin and dies and enters into its portion But a spirituall man a man that is in the state of grace who is born anew of the Spirit that is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ he is led by the Spirit he lives in the Spirit he does the works of God cheerfully habitually vigorously and although he sometimes slips yet it is but seldom it is in small instances his life is such as he cannot pretend to be justified by works and merit but by mercy and the faith of Jesus Christ yet he never sins great sins If he does he is for that present falne from Gods favour and though possibly he may recover and the smaller or seldomer the sin is the sooner may be his restitution yet for the present I say he is out of Gods favour But he that remains in the grace of God sins not by any deliberate consultive knowing act he is incident to such a surprize as may consist with the weaknesse and judgement of a good man but whatsoever is or must be considered if it cannot passe without consideration it cannot passe without sin and therefore cannot enter upon him while he remains in that state For he that is in Christ in him the body is dead by reason of sin and the Gospel did not differ from the Law but that the Gospel gives grace and strength to do whatsoever it commands which the Law did not and the greatnesse of the promise of eternall life is such an argument to them that consider it that it must needs be of force sufficient to perswade a man to use all his faculties and all his strength that he may obtain it God exacted all upon this stock God knew this could do every thing Nihil non in hoc praesumpsit Deus said one This will make a satyr chast and Silenus to be sober and Dives to be charitable and Simon Magus himself to despise reputation and Saul to turn from a Persecutor to an Apostle For since God hath given us reason to choose and a promise to exchange for our temperance and faith and charity and justice for these I say happinesse exceeding great happinesse that we shall be Kings that we shall reigne with God with Christ with all the holy Angels for ever in felicities so great that we have not now capacities to understand it our heart is not big enough to think it there cannot in the world be a greater inducement to engage us a greater argument to oblige us to do our duty God hath not in heaven a bigger argument it is not possible any thing in the world should be bigger which because the Spirit of God hath revealed to us if by this strength of his we walk in his wayes and be ingrafted into his stock and bring forth his fruits the fruits of the Spirit then we are in Christ and Christ in us then we walk in the spirit and the Spirit dwels in us and our portion shall be there where Christ by the Spirit maketh intercession for us that is at the right hand of his Father for ever and ever Amen Sermon III. THE DESCENDING AND ENTAILED CVRSE Cut off Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements IT is not necessary that a Common-wealth should give pensions to Oratours to disswade men from running into houses infected with the plague or to intreat them to be out of love with violent torments or to create in men evil opinions concerning famine or painfull deaths Every man hath
longer it lasts the more obiections it runs through it still should shew a brighter and more certain light to discover the divinity of its principle and that after the more examples and new accidents and strangenesses of providence and daily experience and the multitude of miracles still the Christian should grow more certain in his faith more refreshed in his hope and warm in his charity the very nature of these graces increasing and swelling upon the very nourishment of experience and the multiplication of their own acts And yet because the heart of man is false it suffers the fires of the Altar to go out and the flames lessen by the multitude of fuel But indeed it is because we put on strange fire put out the fire upon our hearths by letting in a glaring Sun beam the fire of lust or the heates of an angry spirit to quench the fires of God and suppresse the sweet cloud of incense The heart of man hath not strength enough to think one good thought of it self it cannot command its own attention to a prayer often lines long but before its end it shall wander after some thing that is to no purpose and no wonder then that it grows weary of a holy religion which consists of so many parts as make the businesse of a whole life And there is no greater argument in the world of our spiritual weaknesse and falsnesse of our hearts in the matters of religion then the backwardnesse which most men have alwayes and all men have somtimes to say their prayers so weary of their length so glad when they are done so wiâ—â—e to excuse and frustrate an opportunity and yet there is no manner of trouble in the duty no wearinesse of bones no violent labours nothing but begging a blessing and receiving it nothing but doing our selves the greatest honour of speaking to the greatest person and greatest king of the world and that we should be unwilling to do this so unable to continue in it so backward to return to it so without gust and relish in the doing it can have no visible reason in the nature of the thing but something within us a strange sicknesse in the heart a spiritual nauseating or loathing of Manna something that hath no name but we are sure it comes from a weake a faint and false heart And yet this weak heart is strong in passions violent in desires unresistable in its appetites impatient in its lust furious in anger here are strengths enough one would think But so have I seen a man in a feaver sick and distempered unable to walk lesse able to speak sence or to do an act of counsel and yet when his feaver hath boild up to a delirium he was strong enough to beat his nurse keeper and his doctor too and to resist the loving violence of all his friends who would faine binde him down to reason and his bed And yet we still say he is weak and sick to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these strengths of madnesse are not health but furiousnesse and disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is weaknesse another way And so are the strengths of a mans heart they are fetters and manacles strong but they are the cordage of imprisonment so strong that the heart is not able to stir And yet it cannot but be a huge sadnesse that the heart shall pursue a temporal interest with wit and diligence and an unwearied industry and shall not have strength enough in a matter that concerns its Eternal interest to answer one obiection to resist one assault to defeate one art of the divel but shall certainly and infallibly fall when ever it is tempted to a pleasure This if it be examined will prove to be a deceit indeed a pretence rather then true upon a just cause that is it is not a natural but a moral a vicious weaknesse and we may try it in one or two familiar instances One of the great strengths shall I call it or weaknesses of the heart is that it is strong violent and passionate in its lusts and weak and deceitful to resist any Tell the tempted person that if he act his lust he dishonours his body makes himself a servant to follie and one flesh with a harlot he defiles the Temple of God and him that defiles a Temple will God destroy Tell him that the Angels who love to be present in the nastinesse and filth of prisons that they may comfort and assist chast souls and holy persons there abiding yet they are impatient to behold or come neer the filthynesse of a lustful person Tell him that this sin is so ugly that the divels who are spirits yet they delight to counterfeit the acting of this crime and descend unto the daughters or sons of men that they may rather lose their natures then not help to set a lust forward Tell them these and ten thousand things more you move them no more then if you should read one of Tullies orations to a mule for the truth is they have no power to resist it much lesse to master it their heart fails them when they meet their Mistresse and they are driven like a fool to the stocks or a Bull to the slaughter-house And yet their heart deceives them not because it cannot resist the temptation but because it will not go about it For it is certain the heart can if it list For let a Boy enter into your chamber of pleasure and discover you folly either your lust disbands or your shame hides it you will not you dare not do it before a stranger Boy and yet that you dare do it before the eyes of the All-seeing God is impudence and folly and a great conviction of the vanity of your pretence and the falsenesse of your heart If thou beest a man given to thy appetite and thou lovest a pleasant morsell as thy life do not declame against the precepts of Temperance as impossible Try this once abstain from that draught or that dish I cannot No Give this man a great blow on the face or tempt him with twenty pound and he shall fast from morning till night and then feast himself with your money and plain wholesome meat And if Chastity and Temperance be so easie that a man may be brought to either of them with so ready and easie instruments Let us not suffer our hearts to deceive us by the weaknesse of its pretences and the strength of its desires For we do more for a Boy then for God and for 20. pound then Heaven it self But thus it is in every thing else take an Hereticke a Rebel a person that hath an ill cause to mannage what he wants in the strength of his reason he shall make it up with diligence and a person that hath Right on his side is cold indiligent lazie and unactive trusting that the goodnesse of his Cause will do it alone But so wrong prevails while evil
persons are zealous in a Bad matter and others are remisse in a Good And the same person shall be very industrious alwayes when he hath least reason so to be That 's the first particular The heart is deceitfull in the mannaging of its naturall strengths it is Naturally and Physically strong but Morally weak and impotent 2. The Heart of man is deceitfull in making judgement concerning its own Acts. It does not know when it is pleased or displeased it is peevish and trifling it would and it would not and it is in many Cases impossible to know whether a mans heart desires such a thing or not Saint Ambrose hath an odde saying Facilius inveneris innocentem quam qui poenitentiam â—â—gne egerit It is easier to finde a man that hath lived innocently then one that hath truly repented him with a grief and care great according to the merit of his sins Now suppose a man that hath spent his younger yeers in vanity and folly and is by the grace of God apprehensive of it and thinks of returning to sober counsels this man will finde his heart so false so subtil and fugitive so secret and undiscernable that it will be very hard to discerne whether he repents or no. For if he considers that he hates sin and therefore repents Alas he so hates it that he dares not if he be wise tempt himself with an opportunity to act it for in the midst of that which he calls hatred he hath so much love left for it that if the sin comes again and speaks him fair he is lost again he kisses the fire and dies in its embraces And why else should it be necessary for us to pray that we be not lead into temptation but because we hate the sin and yet love it too well we curse it and yet follow it we are angry at our selves and yet cannot be without it we know it undoes us but we think it pleasant And when we are to execute the fierce anger of the Lord upon our sins yet we are kinde-hearted and spare the Agag the reigning sin the splendid temptation we have some kindnesses left towards it These are but ill signes How then shall I know by some infallible token that I am a true Penitent What and if I weep for my sins will you not then give me leave to conclude my heart right with God and at enmity with sin It may be so But there are some friends that weep at parting and is not thy weeping a sorrow of affection It is a sad thing to part with our long companion Or it may be thou weepest because thou wouldest have a signe to cozen thy self withall for some men are more desirous to have a signe then the thing signified they would do something to shew their Repentance that themselves may beleeve themselves to be Penitents having no reason from within to beleeve so And I have seen some persons weep heartily for the losse of six pence or for the breaking of a glasse or at some trifling accident and they that do so cannot pretend to have their tears valued at a bigger rate then they will confesse their passion to be when they weep and are vexed for the durting of their linnen or some such trifle for which the least passion is too big an expence So that a man cannot tell his own heart by his tears or the truth of his repentance by those short gusts of sorrow How then Shall we suppose a man to pray against his sin So did Saint Austin when in his youth he was tempted to lust and uncleannesse he prayed against it and secretly desired that God would not hear him for here the heart is cunning to deceive it self For no man did ever heartily pray against his sin in the midst of a temptation to it if he did in any sence or degree listen to the temptation For to pray against a sin is to have desires contrary to it and that cannot consist with any love or any kindnesse to it We pray against it and yet do it and then pray again and do it again and we desire it and yet pray against the desires and that 's almost a contradiction Now because no man can be supposed to will against his own will or choose against his own desires it is plain that we cannot know whether we mean what we say when we pray against sin but by the event If we never act it never entertain it alwayes resist it ever fight against it and finally do prevail then at length we may judge our own heart to have meant honestly in that one particular Nay our heart is so deceitfull in this matter of Repentance that the Masters of spirituall life are fain to invent suppletory Arts and stratagems to secure the duty And we are advised to mourn because we do not mourn to be sorrowfull because we are not sorrowfull Now if we be sorrowfull in the first stage how happens it that we know it not Is our heart so secret to our selves But if we be not sorrowfull in the first period how shall we be so or know it in the second period For we may as well doubt concerning the sincerity of the second or reflex act of sorrow as of the first and direct action And therefore we may also as well be sorrowfull the third time for want of the just measure or hearty meaning of the second sorrow as be sorrowfull the second time for want of true sorrow at the first and so on to infinite And we shall never be secure in this Artifice if we be not certain of our naturall and hearty passion in our direct and first apprehensions Thus many persons think themselves in a good estate and make no question of their salvation being confident onely because they are confident and they are so because they are bidden to be so and yet they are not confident at all but extreamly timerous and fearfull How many persons are there in the world that say they are sure of their salvation and yet they dare not die And if any man pretends that he is now sure he shall be saved and that he cannot fall away from grace there is no better way to confute him then by advising him to send for the Surgeon and bleed to death For what should hinder him not the sin for it cannot take him from Gods favour not the change of his condition for he sayes he is sure to go to a Better why does he not then say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Romane gallants when they decreed to die The reason is plainly this They say they are confident and yet are extreamly timerous they professe to beleeve that Doctrine and yet dare not trust it nay they think they beleeve but they do not so false is a mans heart so deceived in its own Acts so great a stranger to its own sentence and opinions 3. The heart is deceitfull in its own resolutions and purposes
nights intemperance much lesse for the torments of eternity Then we are quick to discern that the itch and scab of lustful appetites is not worth the charges of a Surgeon much lesse can it pay for the disgrace the danger the sicknesse the death and the hell of lustfull persons Then we wonder that any man should venture his head to get a crown unjustly or that for the hazard of a victory he should throw away all his hopes of heaven certainly A man that hath tasted of Gods Spirit can instantly discern the madnesse that is in rage the folly and the disease that is in envy the anguish and tediousnesse that is in lust the dishonor that is in breaking our faith and telling a lie and understands things truly as they are that is that charity is the greatest noblenesse in the world that religion hath in it the greatest pleasures that temperance is the best security of health that humility is the surest way to honour and all these relishes are nothing but antepasts of heaven where the quintessence of all these pleasures shall be swallowed for ever where the chast shall follow the Lamb and the virgins sing there where the Mother of God shall reign and the zealous converters of souls and labourers in Gods vineyard shall worship eternally where S. Peter and S. Paul do wear their crown of righteousnesse and the patient persons shall be rewarded with Job and the meek persons with Christ and Moses and all with God the very expectation of which proceeding from a hope begotten in us by the spirit of manifestation and bred up and strengthened by the spirit of obsignation is so delicious an entertainment of all our reasonable appetites that a spirituall man can no more be removed or intied from the love of God and of religion then the Moon from her Orb or a Mother from loving the son of her joyes and of her sorrows This was observed by S. Peter As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious When once we have tasted the grace of God the sweetnesses of his Spirit then no food but the food of Angels no cup but the cup of Salvation the Divining cup in which we drink Salvation to our God and call upon the Name of the Lord with ravishment and thanksgiving and there is no greater externall testimony that we are in the spirit and that the spirit dwels in us then if we finde joy and delight and spirituall pleasures in the greatest mysteries of our religion if we communicate often and that with appetite and a forward choice and an unwearied devotion and a heart truly fixed upon God and upon the offices of a holy worship He that loaths good meat is sick at heart or neer it and he that despises or hath not a holy appetite to the fooâ— of Angels the wine of elect souls is fit to succeed the Prodigal at his banquet of sinne and husks and to be partaker of the taâ—le of Devis but all they who have Gods Spirit love to feast at the supper of the Lamb and have no appetites but what are of the spirit or servants to the spirit I have read of a spiritual person who saw heaven but in a dream but such as made great impression upon him and was represented with vigorous and pertinacious phantasmes not easily disbanding and when he awaked he knew not his cell he remembred not him that slept in the same dorter nor could tell how night and day were distinguished nor could discern oyl from wine but calâ—d out for his vision again Redde mihi campos meos floridos columnam auream comitem Hieronymum assistentes Angelos Give me my fields again my most delicious fields my pillar of a glorious light my companion S. Jerome my assistant Angels and this lasted till he was told of his duty and matter of obedience and the fear of a sin had disincharmed him and caused him to take care lest he lose the substance out of greedinesse to possesse the shadow And if it were given to any of us to see Paradise or the third heaven as it was to S. Paul could it be that ever we should love any thing but Christ or follow any Guide but the Spirit or desire any thing but Heaven or understand any thing to be pleasant but what shall lead thither Now what a vision can do that the Spirit doth certainly to them that entertain him They that have him really and not in pretence onely are certainly great despisers of the things of the world The Spirit doth not create or enlarge our appetites of things below Spirituall men are not designd to reign upon earth but to reign over their lusts and sottish appetites The Spirit doth not enflame our thirst of wealth but extinguishes it and makes us to esteem all things as lâ—sse and as dung so that we may gain Christ No gain then is pleasant but goalâ—nesse no ambition but longings after heaven no revenge but against our selves for sinning nothing but God and Christ Deus meus omnia and date nobis ammas caetera vobis tollite as the king of Sodom said to Abraham Secure but the souls to us and take our goods Indeed this is a good signe that we have the Spirit S. John spake a hard saying but by the spirit of manifestation we are also taught to understand it Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God The seed of God is the spirit which hath a plastic power to efform us in similitudinem filiorum Dei into the image of the sons of God and as long as this remains in us while the Spirit dwels in us We cannot sin that is it is against our natures our reformed natures to sin And as we say we cannot endure such a potion we cannot suffer such a pain that is we cannot without great trouble we cannot without doing violence to our nature so all spirituall men all that are born of God and the seed of God remains in them they cannot sin cannot without trouble and doing against our natures and their most passionate inclinations A man if you speak naturally can masticate gums and he can break his own legs and he can sip up by little draughts mixtures of Aloes and Rhubarb of Henbane or the deadly Nightshade but he cannot do this naturally or willingly cheerfully or with delight Every sin is against a good mans nature he is ill at case when he hath missed his usual prayers he is amazd if he have fallen into an errour he is infinitely ashamed of his imprudence he remembers a sin as he thinks of an enemy or the horrors of a midnight apparition for all his capacities his understanding and his choosing faculties are filled up with the opinion and perswasions with the love and with the
but that they are too big for man to hope for And yet he certainly beleeves that a holy life shall infallibly attain thither Is it I say imaginable that this man should for a transient Action forfeit all this Hope and certainly and knowing incur all that calamity Yea but the sin is pleasant and the man is clothed with flesh and blood and their appetites are materiall and importunate and present And the discourses of Religion are concerning things spirituall separate and apt for spirits Angels and souls departed To take off this also We will suppose the man to consider and really to beleeve that the pleasure of the sin is sudden vain empty and transient that it leaves bitternesse upon the tongue before it is descended into the bowels that there it is poison and makes the Belly to swell and the Thigh to rot That he remembers and actually considers that as soon as the moment of sin is past he shall have an intolerable Conscience and does at the instant compare moments with Eternity and with horrour remembers that the very next minute he is as miserable a man as is in the world Yet that this man should sin Nay suppose the sin to have no pleasure at all such as is the sin of swearing Nay suppose it really to have pain in it such as is the sin of Envy which never can have pleasure in its actions but much torment and consumption of the very heart What should make this man sin so for nothing so against himself so against all Reason and Religion and Interest without pleasure for no reward Here the heart betrayes it self to be desperately wicked What man can give a reasonable account of such a man who to prosecute his revenge will do himself an injury that he may do a lesse to him that troubles him Such a man hath given me ill language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My head akes not for his language nor hath he broken my thigh nor carried away my land But yet this man must be requited Well suppose that But then let it be proportionable you are not undone let not him be so Oh yes for else my revenge triumphs not Well if you do yet remember he will defend himself or the Law will right him at least do not do wrong to your self by doing him wrong This were but Prudence and self-Interest And yet we see that the heart of some men hath betrayed them to such furiousnesse of Appetite as to make them willing to die that their enemie may be buried in the same Ruines Jovius Pontanus tells of an Italian slave I think who being enraged against his Lord watched his absence from home and the employment and inadvertency of his fellow-servants he locked the doors and secured himself for a while and Ravished his Lady then took her three sons up to the battlements of the house and at the return of his Lord threw one down to him upon the pavement and then a second to rend the heart of their sad Father seeing them weltring in their blood and brains The Lord begd for his third and now his onely Son promising pardon and libertie if he would spare his life The slave seemed to bend a little and on condition his Lord would cut off his own Nose he would spare his Son The sad Father did so being willing to suffer any thing rather then the losse of that Childe But as soon as he saw his Lord all bloody with his wound he threw the third Son and himself down together upon the Pavement The story is sad enough and needs no lustre and advantages of sorrow to represent it But if a man sets himself down and considers sadly he cannot easily tell upon what sufficient inducement or what principle the slave should so certainly so horridly so presently and then so eternally ruine himself What could he propound to himself as a recompence to his own so immediate Tragedy There is not in the pleasure of the revenge nor in the nature of the thing any thing to tempt him we must confesse our ignorance and say that The Heart of man is desperately wicked and that is the truth in generall but we cannot fathom it by particular comprehension For when the heart of man is bound up by the grace of God and tied in golden bands and watched by Angels tended by those Nurse-keepers of the soul it is not easie for a man to wander And the evil of his heart is but like the ferity and wildnesse of Lyons-whelps But when once we have broken the hedge and got into the strengths of youth and the licenciousnesse of an ungoverned age it is wonderfull to observe what a great inundation of mischief in a very short time will overflow all the banks of Reason and Religion Vice first is pleasing then it grows easie then delightfull then frequent then habituall then confirmed then the man is impenitent then he is obstinate then he resolves never to Repent and then he is Damned And by that time he is come half way in this progresse he confutes the Philosophy of the old Moralists For they not knowing the vilenesse of mans Heart not considering its desperate amazing Impiety knew no other degree of wickednesse but This That men preferred Sense before Reason and their understandings were abused in the choice of a temporall before an intellectuall and eternall good But they alwayes concluded that the Will of man must of necessity follow the last dictate of the understanding declaring an object to be good in one sence or other Happy men they were that were so Innocent that knew no pure and perfect malice and lived in an Age in which it was not easie to confute them But besides that now the wells of a deeper iniquity are discovered we see by too sad experience that there are some sins proceeding from the heart of man which have nothing but simple and unmingled malice Actions of meer spite doing evil because it is evil sinning without sensuall pleasures sinning with sensuall pain with hazard of our lives with actuall torment and sudden deaths and certain and present damnation sins against the Holy Ghost open hostilities and professed enmities against God and all vertue I can go no further because there is not in the world or in the nature of things a greater Evil. And that is the Nature and Folly of the Devil he tempts men to ruine and hates God and onely hurts himself and those he tempts and does himself no pleasure and some say he increases his own accidentall torment Although I can say nothing greater yet I had many more things to say if the time would have permitted me to represent the Falsenesse and Basenesse of the Heart 1. We are false our selves and dare not trust God 2. We love to be deceived and are angry if we be told so 3. We love to seem vertuous and yet hate to be so 4. We are melancholy and impatient and we know not why 5. We
short space he shall be extreamely miserable and if he does not remember it he does but secure it the more And that God defers the punishment and suffers evil men to thrive in the opportunities of their sin it may and does serve many ends of providence and mercy but serves no end that any evil men can reasonably wish or propound to themselves eligible â—ias said well to a vitious person Non metuo ne non sis daturus paenas sed metuo neid non sim visurus He was sure the man should be punished he was not sure he should live to see it and though the messenians that were betrayed and slain by Aristocrates in the battle of Cyprus were not made alive again yet the justice of God was admired and treason infinitly disgraced when twenty years after the treason was discovered and the the traitor punished with a horrid death Lyciscus gave up the Orchomenians to their enemies having first wished his feet which he then dipt in water might rot off if he were not true to them and yet his feet did not rot till those men were destroyed and of a long time after and yet at last they did slay them not O Lord lest my people forget it saith David if punishment were instantly and totally inflicted it would be but a sudden and single document but a slow and lingring judgement and a wrath breaking out in the next age is like an universal proposion teaching our posterity that God was angry all the while that he had a long indignation in his brest that he would not forget to take veangeance and it is a demonstration that even the prosperous sins of the present age will finde the same period in the Divine revenge when men see a judgement upon the Nephevvs for the sins of their Grand-fathers though in other instances and for sinnes acted in the dayes of their Ancestors We knovv that vvhen in Henry the eighth or Edvvard the sixth dayes some great men pulled dovvn Churches and built palaces and robd religion of its just incouragements and advantages the men that did it were sacrilegious and we finde also that God hath been punishing that great sin ever since and hath displaied to so many generations of men to three or four descents of children that those men could not be esteemed happy in their great fortunes against whom God was so angry that he would show his displeasure for a hundred years together When Herod had killed the babes of Bethlehem it was seven years before God called him to an account But he that looks upon the end of that man would rather choose the fat of the oppressed babes then of the prevailing and triumphing Tyrant It was fourty years before God punished the Jews for the execrable murder committed upon the person of their King the holy Jesus and it was so long that when it did happen many men attributed it to their killing S. James their Bishop and seemed to forget the greater crime but non eventu rerum sed fide verborum stamus we are to stand to the truth of Gods word not to the event of things Because God hath given us a rule but hath left the judgement to himself and we die so quickly and God measures althings by his standard of eternity and 1000 years to God is but as one day that we are not competent persons to measure the times of Gods account and the returnes of judgement We are dead before the arrow comes but the man scapes not unlesse his soul can die or that God cannot punish him Ducunt in bonis dies suos in momento descendunt ad infernum that 's their fate they spend their dayes in plenty and in a moment descend into hell in the meane time they drink and forget their sorrow but they are condemned they have drunk their hemlock but the poison does not work yet the bait is in their mouths and they are sportive but the hook hath strook their nostrils and they shall never escape the ruine And let no man call the man fortunate because his execution is deferd for a few dayes when the very deferring shall increase and ascertain the condemnation But if we should look under the skirt of the prosperous and prevailing Tyrant we should finde even in the dayes of his joyes such allayes and abatements of his pleasure as may serve to represent him presently miserable besides his final infelicities For I have seen a young and healthful person warm and ruddy under a poor and a thin garment when at the same time an old rich person hath been cold and paralytick under a load of sables and the skins of foxes it is the body that makes the clothes warm not the clothes the body and the spirit of a man makes felicity and content not any spoils of a rich fortune wrapt about a sickly and an uneasie soul. Apollodorus was a Traitor and a Tyrant and the world wondered to see a bad man have so good a fortune But knew not that he nourished Scorpions in his brest and that his liver and his heart were eaten up with Spectres and images of death his thoughts were full of interruptions his dreams of illusions his fancie was abused with real troubles and phantastick images imagining that he saw the Scythians flaying him alive his daughters like pillars of fire dancing round about a cauldron in which himself was boyling and that his heart accused it self to be the cause of all these evils And although all tyrants have not imaginative and phantastick consciences yet all tyrants shall die and come to judgement and such a man is not to be feared nor at all to be envied and in the mean time can he be said to escape who hath an unquiet conscience who is already designed for hell he whom God hates and the people curse and who hath an evil name and against whom all good men pray and many desire to fight and all wish him destroyed and some contrive to do it is this man a blessed man Is that man prosperous who hath stolen a rich robe is in fear to have his throat cut for it and is fain to defend it with the greatest difficulty and the greatest danger Does not he drink more sweetly that takes his beaverage in an earthen vessel then he that looks and searches into his golden chalices for fear of poison and looks pale at every sudden noise and sleeps in armour and trusts no body and does not trust God for his safety but does greater wickednesse onely to escape a while un punished for his former crimes Aâ—robibitur venenum No man goes about to poison a poor mans pitcher nor layes plots to forrage his little garden made for the hospital of two bee hives and the feasting of a few Pythagorean herbe eaters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that admire the happinesse of a prosperous prevailing Tyrant know not the felicities that dwell in innocent
and when he hath delivered up our bodies will rescue our souls from the hands of unrighteous judges I remember in the story that Plutarch tels concerning the soul of Thespesius that it met with a Prophetick Genius who told him many things that should happen afterwards in the world and the strangest of all was this That there should be a King Qui bonus cum sit tyrannide vitam finiet An excellent Prince and a good man should be put to death by a rebell and usurping power and yet that Prophetick soul could not tell that those rebels should within three yeers die miserable and accursed deaths and in that great prophecy recorded by Saint Paul That in the last dayes perillous times should come and men should be traitours and selvish having forms of godlinesse and creeping into houses yet could not tell us when these men should come to finall shame and ruine onely by a generall signification he gave this signe of comfort to Gods persecuted servants But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all men that is at long running they shall shame themselves and for the elects sake those dayes of evil shall be shortned But you and I may be dead first And therefore onely remember that they that with a credulous heart and a loose tongue are too decretory and enunciative of speedy judgements to their enemies turn their religion into revenge and therefore do beleeve it will be so because they vehemently desire it should be so which all wise and good men ought to suspect as lesse agreeing with that charity which overcomes all the sins and all the evils of the world and sits down and rests in glory 4. Do not trouble your self by thinking how much you are afflicted but consider how much you make of it For reflex acts upon the suffering it self can lead to nothing but to pride or to impatience to temptation or apostacy He that measures the grains and scruples of his persecution will soon sit down and call for ease or for a reward will think the time long or his burden great will be apt to complain of his condition or set a greater value upon his person Look not back upon him that strikes thee but upward to God that supports thee and forward to the crown that is set before thee and then consider if the losse of thy estate hath taught thee to despise the world whether thy poor fortune hath made thee poor in spirit and if thy uneasie prison sets thy soul at liberty and knocks off the fetters of a worse captivity For then the rod of suffering turns into crowns and scepters when every suffering is a precept and every change of condition produces a holy resolution and the state of sorrows makes the resolution actuall and habituall permanent and persevering For as the silk-worm eateth it self out of a seed to become a little worm and there feeding on the leaves of mulberies it grows till its coat be off and then works it self into a house of silk then casting its pearly seeds for the young to breed it leaveth its silk for man and dieth all white and winged in the shape of a flying creature So is the progresse of souls when they are regenerate by Baptisme and have cast off their first stains and the skin of worldly vanities by feeding on the leaves of Scriptures and the fruits of the vine and the joyes of the Sacrament they incircle themselves in the rich garments of holy and vertuous habits then by leaving their blood which is the Churches seed to raise up a new generation to God they leave a blessed memory and fair example and are themselves turned into Angels whose felicity is to do the will of God as their imployments was in this world to suffer it fiat voluntas tua is our daily prayer and that is of a passive signification thy will be done upon us and if from thence also we translate it into an active sence and by suffering evils increase in our aptnesses to do well we have done the work of Christians and shall receive the reward of Martyrs 5. Let our suffering be entertained by a direct election not by collateral ayds and phantastick assistances It is a good refreshment to a weak spirit to suffer in good company and so Phoeion encouraged a timerous Greek condemned to die and he bid him be confident because that he was to die with Phocion and when 40. Martyrs in Cappadocia suffered and that 〈◊〉 souldier standing by came and supplyed the place of the one Apostate who fell from his crown being overcome with pain it added warmth to the frozen confessors and turnd them into consummate Martyrs But if martyrdom were but a phantastick thing or relyed upon vain accidents and irregular chances it were then very necessary to be assisted by images of things and any thing lesse then the proper instruments of religion But since it is the greatest action of the religion and relies upon the most excellent promises and its formality is to be an action of love and nothing is more firmely chosen by an after election at least then an act of love to support Martyrdom or the duty of sufferings by false arches and exteriour circumstances is to build a tower upon the beams of the Sun or to set up a woodden ladder to climbe up to Heaven the soul cannot attain so huge and unimaginable felicities by chance and instruments of fancy and let no man hope to glorifie God and go to Heaven by a life of sufferings unlesse he first begin in the love of God and from thence derive his choice his patience and considence in the causes of vertue and religion like beams and warmth and influence from the body of the Sun Some there are that fall under the burden when they are pressed hard because they use not the proper instruments in fortifying the will in patience and resignation but endeavour to lighten the burden in imagination and when these temporary supporters fail the building that relies upon them rushes into coldnesse recidivation and lukewarmnesse and among all instances that of the main question of the Text is of greatest power to abuse imprudent and lesse severe persons Nullos esse Deos inane coelum Affirmat Selius probatque Quod se videt dum negat haec beatum When men choose a good cause upon confidence that an ill one cannot thrive that is not for the love of vertue or duty to God but for profit and secular interests they are easily lost when they see the wickednesse of the enemy to swell up by impunity and successe to a great evil for they have not learned to distinguish a great growing sin from a thriving and prosperous fortune Vlla si juris tibi pejerati Poena Barine noeuisset unquam Dente si nigro fieret vel uno turpior ungui Crederem They that beleeve and choose because of idle fears and unreasonable fancies or by
had need pray that we be not led into temptation that is not onely into the possession but not into the allurements and neighbour-hood of it least by little and little our strongest resolutions be untwist and crack in sunder like an easie cord severed into single threds but if we by the necessity of our lives and manner of living dwell where a temptation will assault us then to resist is the signe of a great grace but such a signe that without it the grace turns into wantonnesse and the man into a beast and an angel into a Devil R. Moses will not allow a man to be a true penitent untill he hath left all his sin and in all the like circumstances refuses those temptations under which formerly he sinned and died and indeed it may happen that such a trial onely can secure our judgement concerning our selves and although to be tried in all the same accidents be not safe nor alwayes contingent and in such cases it is sufficient to resist all the temptations we have and avoid the rest and decree against all yet if it please God we are tempted as David was by his eyes or the Martyrs by tortures or Joseph by his wanton Mistris then to stand sure and to ride upon the temptation like a ship upon a wave or to stand like a rock in an impetuous storm that 's the signe of a great grace and of a well-grown Christian 10. No man is grown in grace but he that is ready for every work that chooses not his employment that refuses no imposition from God or his superiour a ready hand an obedient heart and a willing cheerful soul in all the work of God and in every office of religion is a great index of a good proficient in the wayes of Godlinesse The heart of a man is like a wounded hand or arme which if it be so cured that it can onely move one way and cannot turn to all postures and natural uses it is but imperfect and still half in health and half wounded so is our spirit if it be apt for prayer and close fisted in almes if it be sound in faith and dead in charity if it be religious to God and unjust to our neighbour there wants some integral part or there is a lamenesse and the deficiency in any one duty implyes the guilt of all said Saint James and bonum ex integrâ causâ malum exquâlibet particulari every fault spoils a grace But one grace alone cannot make a good man But as to be universal in our obedience is necessary to the being in the state of grace so readily to change imployment from the better to the worse from the honourable to the poor from usefull to seemingly unprofitable is a good Character of a well grown Christian if he takes the worst part with indifferency and a spirit equally choosing all the events of the divine providence Can you be content to descend from ruling of a province to the keeping of a herd from the work of an Apostle to be confined into a prison from disputing before Princes to a conversation with Shepherds can you be willing to all that God is willing and suffer all that he chooses as willingly as if you had chosen your own fortune In the same degree in which you can conform to God in the same you have approached towards that perfection whether we must by degrees arrive in our journey towards heaven This is not to be expected of beginners for they must be enticed with apt imployments and it may be their office and work so fits their spirits that it makes them first in love with it and then with God for giving it and many a man goes to heaven in the dayes of peace whose faith and hopes and patience would have been dashed in pieces if he had fallen into a storm or persecution Oppression will make a wise man mad saith Solomon there are some usages that will put a sober person out of all patience such which are besides the customes of this life and contrary to all his hopes and unworthy of a person of his quality and when Nero durst not die yet when his servants told him that the Senators had condemned him to be put to death more Majorum that is by scourging like a slave he was forced into a preternatural confidence and fel upon his own sword but when God so changes thy estate that thou art fallen into accidents to which thou art no otherwise disposed but by grace and a holy spirit and yet thou canst passe through them with quietnesse and do the work of suffering as well as the works of a prosperous imployment this is an argument of a great grace and an extraordinary spirit For many persons in a change of fortune perish who if they had still been prosperous had gone to heaven being tempted in a persecution to perjuries and Apostacy and unhandsome complicances and hypocricy and irreligion and many men are brought to vertue and to God and to felicity by being persecuted and made unprosperous and these are effects of a more absolute and irrespective predestination but when the grace of God is great and prudent and masculine and well grown it is unalter'd in all changes save onely that every accident that is new and violent brings him neerer to God and makes him with greater caution and severity to dwell in vertue 11. Lastly some there are who are firme in all great and foreseen changes and have laid up in the store-houses of the spirit reason and religion arguments and discourses enough to defend them against all violencies and stand at watch so much that they are safe where they can consider and deliberate but there may be something wanting yet and in the direct line in the strait progresse to heaven I call that an infallible signe of a great grace and indeed the greatest degree of a great grace when a man is prepared against sudden invasions of the spirit surreptions and extemporary assaults Many a valiant person dares sight a battle who yet will be timorous and surprised in a mid-night alarme or if he falls into a river And how many discreet persons are there who if you offer them a sin and give them time to consider and tell them of it before hand will rather die then be perjured or tell a deliberate lie or break a promise who it may be tell many sudden lies and excuse themselves and break their promises and yet think themselves safe enough and sleep without either affrightments or any apprehension of dishonour done to their persons or their religion Every man is not armed for all sudden arrests of passions few men have cast such fetters upon their lusts and have their passions in so strict confinement that they may not be over run with a midnight flood or an unlooked for inundation He that does not start when he is smitten suddenly is a constant person and that is it which I intend
desperate but left it easily recoverable yet it is a condition that is quite out of Gods favour although they are not far advanced in their progresse to ruine yet they are not at all in the state of grace and therefore though they are to be pitied and relieved accordingly yet that supposes the incumbency of a present misery 3. There are some very much to be pitied and assisted because they are going to hell and as matters stand with them they cannot or they think they cannot avoid it Quidam ad alienum dormiunt somnum ad alienum edunt appetitum amare odisse res omnium maximè liberas jubentur There are some persons whose life is so wholly in dependance from others that they sleep when others please they eat and drink according to their Masters appetite or intemperance they are commanded to love or hate and are not left free in the very Charter and priviledges of nature Miserum est servire sub Dominis parùm felicibus for suppose the Prince or the Patron be vitious suppose he calls his servants to bathe their souls in the goblets of intemperance if he be also imperious for such persons love not to be contradicted in their vices it is the losse of that mans fortune not to lose his soul and it is the servants excuse and he esteems it also his glory that he can tell a merry tale how his Master and himself did swim in drink till they both talked like fools and then did lie down like beasts Facinus quos inquinat aequat There is then no difference but that the one is the fairest bull and the master of the heard And how many Tenents and Relatives are known to have a servile conscience and to know no affirmation or negation but such as shall serve their Land-lords interest Alas the poor men live by it and they must beg their bread if ever they turn recreant or shall offer to be honest There are some trades whose very foundations is laid in the vice of others and in many others if a threed of deceit do not quite run thorow all their negotiations they decay into the sorrows of beggery and therefore they will support their neighbours vice that he may support their trade And what would you advise those men to do to whom a false oath is offered to their lips and a dagger at their heart their reason is surprized and their choice is seized upon and all their consultation is arrested and if they did not prepare before hand and stand armed with religion and perfect resolutions would not any man fall and think that every good man will say his case is pitiable Although no temptation is bigger then the grace of God yet many temptations are greater then our strengths and we do not live at the rate of a mighty and a victorious grace Those persons which cause these vitious necessities upon their brethren will lie low in hell but the others will have but small comfort in feeling a lesser damnation Of the same consideration it is when ignorant people are Catechized into false doctrine and know nothing but such principles which weaken the nerves and enfeeble the joynts of holy living they never heard of any other those that follow great and evil examples the people that are ingaged in the publike sins of a kingdom wihch they understand not and either must venture to be undone upon the strength of their own little reasonings and weak discoursings or else must go quâ itur non quâ eundum est there where the popular misery hath made the way plain before their eyes though it be uneven and dangerous to their consciences In these cases I am forced to reckon a Catalogue of mischiefs but it will be hard to cure any of them Aristippus in his discourses was a great flatterer of Dionysius of Sicily and did own doctrines which might give an easinesse to some vices and knew not how to contradict the pleasures of his Prince but seemed like a person disposed to partake of them that the example of a Philosopher and the practise of a King might do countenance to a shamefull life But when Dionysius sent him two women slaves fair and young he sent them back and shamed the easinesse of his doctrine by the severity of his manners he daring to be vertuous when he was alone though in the presence of him whom he thought it necessary to flatter he had no boldnesse to own the vertue So it is with too many if they be left alone and that they stand unshaken with the eye of their tempter or the authority of their Lord they go whither their education or their custome carries them but it is not in some natures to deny the face of a man and the boldnesse of a sinner and which is yet worse it is not in most mens interest to do it these men are in a pitiable condition and are to be helped by the following rules 1. Let every man consider that he hath two relations to serve and he stands between God and his Master or his neerest relative and in such cases it comes to be disputed whether interest be preferred which of the persons is to be displeased God or my Master God or my Prince God or my Friend If we be servants of the man remember also that I am a servant of God adde to this that if my present service to the man be a slavery in me and a tyranny in him yet Gods service is a noble freedom And Apollonius said well It was for slaves to lie and for free men to speak the truth If you be freed by the blood of the Son of God then you are free indeed and then consider how dishonourable it is to lie to the displeasure of God and onely to please your fellow-servant The difference here is so great that it might be sufficient onely to consider the antithesis Did the man make you what you are Did he pay his blood for you to save you from death Does he keep you from sicknesse True You eat at his table but they are of Gods provisions that he and you feed of Can your master free you from a fever when you have drunk your self into it and restore your innocence when you have forsworn your self for his interest Is the change reasonable He gives you meat and drink for which you do him service But is not he a Tyrant and an usurâ—per an oppressor and an extortioner if he will force thee to give thy soul for him to sell thy soul for old-shoes and broken bread But when thou art to make thy accounts of eternity will it be taken for an answer My Patron or my Governour my Prince or my Master forced me to it or if it will not Will he undertake a porâ—tion of thy flames or if that may not be will it be in the midst of all thy torments any ease to thy sorrows to remember all the rewards and
and render to every man according to his works and what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when the Lord taketh away his soul Tollendum esse ex rebus contrahendis omne mendacium That 's the sum of this rule no falshod or deceit is to be endured in any contract 5. Christian simplicity hath also its necessity and passes obligation upon us towards enemies in questions of law or war Plutarch commends Lysander and Philopaemen for their craft and subtilty in war but commends it not as an ornament to their manners but that which had influence into prosperous events just as Ammianus affirms nullo discrimine virtutis ac doli prosperos omnes laudari debere bellorum eventus whatsoever in war is prosperous men use to commend But he that is a good souldier is not alwayes a good man Callicratidas was a good man and followed the old way of downright hostility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Lysander was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crafty man full of plots but not noble in the conduct of his armes I remember Euripides brings in Achilles commending the ingenuity of his breeding and the simplicity and noblenesse of his own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The good old man Chiron was my Tutor and he taught me to use simplicity and honesty in all my manners It was well and noble But yet some wise men do not condemn all souldiers that use to get victories by deceit Saint Austin allows it to be lawful and Saint Chrysostome commends it These Good men supposed that a crafty victory was better then a bloody war and certainly so it is if the power gotten by craft be not exercised in blood But this businesse as to the case of conscience will quickly be determined Enemies are no persons bound by contract and society and therefore are not obliged to open hostilities and ingenuous prosecutions of the war and if it be lawful to take by violence it is not unjust to take the same thing by craft But this is so to be understood that where there is an obligation either by the law of nations or by special contracts No man dare to violate his faith or honour but in these things deal with an ingenuity equal to the truth of peaecfull promises and acts of favour and endearment to our relatives Josephus tells of the sons of Herod that in their enmities with their Vncle Pherora and Salome they had disagreeing manners of prosecution as they had disagreeing hearts some railed openly and thought their enmity the more honest because it was not concealed but by their ignorance and rude untutor'd malice lay open to the close designes of the elder brood of foxes In this because it was a particular and private quarrel there is no rule of conscience but that it be wholly laid aside and appeased with charity for the opennesse of the quarrel was but the rage and indiscretion of the malice and the close designe was but the craft and advantage of the malice But in just wars on that side where a competent authority and a just cause warrants the arms and turns the active opposition into the excuse and licence of defence there is no restraint upon the actions and words of men in the matter of sincerity but that the laws of nations be strictly pursued and all parties promises andcontracts observed religiously by the proportion of a private Christian ingenuity We finde it by wise and good men mentioned with honour that the Romans threw bread from the besieged Capitol into the stations of the Gauls that they might think them full of corn and that Agesilaus discouraged the enemies by causing his own men to wear crowns in token of a Navall victory gotten by Pisander who yet was at that time destroyed by Conon and that Flaccus said the city was taken by Emilius or that Joshua dissembled a flight at Ai and the Consul Quinctius told aloud that the left wing of the enemies was fled and that made the right wing fly or that Valerius Levinus bragged prudently that he had killed Pyrrhus and that others use the ensigns of enemies colours and garments concerning which sort of actions and words Agesilaus in Plutarch said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is just and pleasant profitable and glorious but to call a parley and fall in upon the men that treat to swear a peace and watch advantage to entertain Heralds and then to torment them to get from them notices of their party these are such which are dishonorable and unjust condemned by the laws of nations and essential justice by all the world and the Hungarian army was destroyed by a divine judgement at the prayer appeal of the Mahumet an enemy for their violating their faith and honour and prophaning the name of Christ by using it in a solemn oath to deceive their enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to dispise God when men first sware by him and then violate their oathes or leagues their treaties or promises In other cases liberty hath been taken by all men and it is reproved by no man since the first simplicity of fighting down right blows did cease by the better instructed people of the world which was as is usually computed about the end of the second Carthaginian war since that time some few persons have been found so noble as to scorn to steal a victory but had rather have the glory of a sharp sword then of a sharp wit But their fighting gallantry is extrinsecal to the Question of lawful or unlawful 6. Thus we see how far the laws of ingenuity and Christian simplicity have put fetters upon our words and actions and directed them in the paths of truth and noblenesse and the first degrees of permission of simulation is in the arts of war and the cases of just hostility But here it is usually inquired whether it be lawful to tell a lie or dissemble to save a good mans life or to do him a great benefit a Question which Saint Austine was much troubled withal affirming it to be of the greatest difficulty for he saw generally all the Doctors before his time allowed it and of all the fathers no man is noted to have reproved it but Saint Austin alone and he also as his manner is with some variety those which followed him are to be accounted upon his score and it relies upon such precedents which are not lightly to be disallowed for so Abraham and Isaac told a lie in the case of their own danger to Abimelech so did the Israelitish midwives to Pharaoh and Rachab concering the spies and David to the King of Gath and the prophet that anointed Saul and Elisha to Hazael and Solomon in the sentence of the stolen childe concerning which Irenaeus hath given us a rule that those whose actions the Scripture hath remarked yet not chastised or censured we are not without great reason and certain rule to