and Hispaa the chiefe Cities of the Arsacidans being accustomed to lye with their sisters and mothers it taught all Parthia incest A City of Phoenicia having stolen Io the daughter of Inacus from the Graecians Herod l. 1. it soon set the Cretians on work to steal Europa from the Phoenicians and the Grecians to steal Medea from Colchis and Troy to steal Helena from Menelaus the Prince of Lacedemenia So that ye see that a Cities bad example is like a Gangrene it will not rest where it first began but convey a contagion to all the members and at last to the vitall parts Thus much in generall for your selves in particular as God hath made you a City so do ye principle out goodnesse to the Land for a shame it were for the sowrest fruit to grow upon the top-branch or the worst Schollars to be in the upper form Shall ye be taught duty from abroad or learn conscience of the Country shall the man in russet direct thee in thy furrs the leathern girdle instruct the gold Chain Shall there be more noble motions and pious resolutions in the rurall Swain then the Citisen Shalt thou mind nothing but the vent of thy ware and the fale of thy merchandise yes thou hast another trade to look after A Citisen should shew to his Customers the best Patterns of holy life and open the packs of religious presidents A City should be the Burse and Magazine of vertuous demeanours or else it wil be said that the Citizen doth study nothing but himselfe and that his Counting-house is his conscience and his penny his God Oh therefore God hath given you honour maintain your honour let the great wheel of vertue stir here and the morning star of grace shine here Let not the mirery waies be cleaner then your paved streets and the thatched shuds be nearer built then your tiled houses Let not the Country man when he commeth amongst you be lothed with the smell of your intemperance or recoyl at the sight of your fraud or blush at your neutralizing or be ready to deride your pride or to hisse at your malice or to freeze with your indevotion or to drop down dead with seeing the blood of oppression sprinkled upon the stones of your streets but prepare choise sights for the Country mans eye that he may go home and say I have seen the Phoenix of religion the Paradise of Piety the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Suburbs of Heaven I have learned grace out of every Citizens mouth and bought bargains of sanctity at every shop enough to stock my self and supply all my neighbours Thus shall ye shew your selves to be a flourishing City when ye are as full of Professours as Traders and of Saints as Merchants when ye have trafficked for godlinesse at every Port and fetched home the true Pearl further then the Indies Well remember that To whom much is given of them much will be required Ye should have a priority of duty because ye have a priority of dignity A City should serve God before others because God would spare a City before others Should not I spare Nineveh a City 4. This sheweth that if God would spare a City because a City that the City should spare it self not suffer her immunities to be infringed when she can preserve them nor her rights to be injured when she can vindicate them What were this but for a Citizen to dig down the walls of his own City or to unbody his own Incorporation It was a famous saying 2 Sam. 10.12 Be of good courage let us play the men for our people and for the Cities of our Gods Doubtlesse every one ought to expresse much fidelitity and prowesse for these Cities or else he doth conspire against his own Society and the open enemy is not worse then such a secret Traitor Sceva would not deliver up Epidamnum to the enemy Plut. though he had received 220 darts in his shield and lost one of his eyes but held it out till Caesar came in to his rescue Livius The Citizens of Saguntum burnt themselves rather then they would submit to Hanibal The Citizens of Bizantium held out a siege of two years against Severus Herodian and when their weapons were spent they threw their imagery and brasen statues at the faces of their enemies The Citizens of Numantia held out a siege of forteen years against Scipio Florus and after that they gathered all their goods mony and armour and laying them all upon an heap they fired them and their selves that they might leave nothing to the Conquerour but the name of Numantia Bonfin The women of Aquilegia made bowstrings of their hair that their souldiers might shoot against their enemies Vincent The women of the Vindelici for want of military preparation threw their own children instead of darts against their besiegers rather then they would yield to Drusus the Father of Germanicus Such resolute spirits have men expressed in former ages in defence of their Cities and they which were wanting in relieving or assisting them how are they branded with infamy It is Pompeyes shame to this day that he would not come in to the relief of his faithfull City Laurea but suffered it to be taken and burnt though he were so nigh that he might have warmed his hands with the heat of the devouring flames The timerousnesse of those perfidious souldiers who seeing a great army of the Turks besieging them at Alba Graeca as Bonfinius calleth it capitulated with their enemies to deliver it up was so hatefull to Paulus Knisius Kinisius he calleth him that taking them alive he caused them to be roasted and by degrees to eat one another Cities then are vigorously and valiantly to be defended yea if many men have fought so stoutly for the walls of the Cities how ought others to strive as earnestly for the freedom of their Cities Ignominy to them that do desert them or basely betray them Rights Liberties and honours go at a low rate amongst such heartlesse and faithlesse Factours Citizens should spare them for God hath set them a Copy Should not I spare Nineveh a City 5. This reproveth them which in stead of sparing take delight in nothing more then demolishing of Cities It was a searching question which the wise woman from the wall put to Joab concerning Abel Why seekest thou to destroy a City a Mother in Israel 2 Sam. 20.19 It was a blemishing objection that Hezekiah propounded to Rabshakeh that like a man of a brutish spirit he held himself appointed to lay waste senced Cities into ruinous heaps Furius Camillus doth hear ill to this day Sabell l. 9 Aenead 3. Bern. Saccus lib. 8. Hist Ticinens Nich. Olaus in Atila Guliel Paradinus de statat Burg. c. 8. that he destroyed the famous City Veii because it was so pleasantly seated that men were ready to leave Rome it selfe to go live at Veij and so doth Antonius
upper rooms or Planchers but onely in the lower rooms and that divers times under Pots and other Vessels where it was impossible in mans apprehension that any thing should come for the out-sides were untouched which caused an high affrightment in the Housholders that he and his family were ready to leave the house yet by prayer in a short time this strange and unheard of accident ceased I know a man which hath wrought some miracles in the world but yet his conscience doth more rejoyce in his repentance then in all the testimonies of Gods power yea then in the finger of divine Omnipotency lent unto him to make him instrumental in admired events Whatsoever your gifts and endownments characteristicall or charismaticall priviledges be yet feel it as your chief consolation and write it down as your prime prerogative that God hath caused the lips of them that were asleep to speak that the eyes of the blind do see out of obscurity that ye stand up from the dead and have sorrowed to repentance Rejoyce not in these things but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven Let others look to be Scient but look ye to be Penitent Lord who am I that I should go unto Pharoah and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt Exod. 3.11 So who am I that I should summon a whole City to repentance and bring such vast numbers out of the bondage of their corruptions and destruction yet God hath given the motion and he may by such a stammering tongue make his message effectuall Who knows but that this Cake of barley bread may overthrow the tent of the Midianites that this lump of dry figs may heal the sore that this clay and spittle by the blessing of God may open the eyes of the blind I venture therefore upon the work and call forth you as my Assistants in the enterprize Bring forth your repentance and what may not such an Hester appearing do to reverse a Decree God is not so offended with the City but Repentance can yet end the distast To assure you of this I set before you Nineveh not halfe so glorious in being a Potent as in being a poenitent people they are poenitent and God is instantly asswaged Will ye observe the sum of the passage if I do but lead you into the City there are very delectable things at the entrance even between the Prophet and God Do ye love a Prophet truly then here is Jonah active in his pertinent duty a weighty errand Do ye honour God faithfull then here is God busied about his proper work a work of mercy What more consonant to the Prophet then to impart his Masters mind What more congruous to God then to interpret his own meaning Jonah doth denounce a judgement God doth pronounce a pardon the Prophet must not spare and yet God doth spare The Prophet had threatned them into repentance then God doth not threaten but comfort not adjudge and accurse but accept and acquit Repentance hath renewed the people and revoked the sentence It is true the Prophet was very opposite to it but God doth bring in very apposite reasons to satisfie his contradicting spirit God doth plead for the City and doth plead against his own Prophet He doth shew him how the Prophet cannot be justified without menacing an overthrow and how God cannot be justified without hindring this overthrow This is the Dilemma how the Prophecie may stand and the City may stand The Prophecie is obeyed and therefore there could be no overthrow there was repentance and therefore there cannot be rejection and revenge this is the middle way which God doth make use of to answer the Dilemma God will not approve of his Prophets if they do not proclaim judgement God will not listen to his Prophets if they do declaim against repentance Though the Prophets must thunder yet God doth keep the thunder-bolt in his own hand A sinfull people must be warned a penitent people must not be destroyed No this is one of the Riddles of Gods mercy which Jonah not being able to unfold God doth expound it yea the whole debate is about the resolving of this difficult demur God doth shew to Jonah how he could prophesie no lesse and yet how he himself could spare no lesse Shouldst not thou thus cry Should not they thus reform Should not I thus spare God had taught Jonah many things and now he doth reveal to him the aenigma of his mercifull justice how justice and mercy can meet together in the same subject without violation to either The Prophet at first was in a great blindnesse concerning this secret and the City had like to have paid dearly for his want of understanding But God hath satisfied the doubt and saved the City Nineveh hath repented Pergameae jam fas est parcere genti It is requisite now that Nineveh should be spared So that I trust neither Jonahs cry nor Gods plea the courage of the one nor the compassion of the other the message nor the mercy the Prophets scruple or Gods scrutiny the Prophets dark eye or Gods bright mouth Nineveh's sacrifice or Nineveh's safety Nineveh's repentance or Nineveh's remedy the change of the City or the change of the sentence the compunction or compassion the threatning or the sparing shall be displeasing subjects to you No be ye Patrones to this Riddle the contestation of Jonah the replication of God the explication of the Problem Oh that we could see such a Riddle in your City and thus explained Jonah doth cry but is God believed the overthrow is proclaimed but do men fly from is the City is warned but is it humbled it is threatned buâ— shall it be spared Oh that the willfull impenitency of the City after millions of cryes should not be a greater riddle how it can be spared than Gods inclination to mercy after serious repentance is a Riddle fully expounded before and half expounded now that the City may be spared As intelligent as this City doth seem to be I wish it could answer one question Is it Nineveh Is there expression or almost expectation of such humbling and cleansing For this end is this cry sent forth and oh that the Prophet might onely cry or the Prophet so cry that he might cry up a Nineveh Be ye not deafe and open the cares of others that ye may not be my Patrones only but of the City not of her sinnes but of her repentance If ye fail in this work the City is past remedy Be ye your felves therefore as penitent as ye can and diffuse your repentance to others have ye burthened consciences and draw others to feel the weight of those guilts which may sink them into ruine The City is in perill what is the preservative Policy may invent many expedients for security but I doe know none but that of repentance To prevent a generall overthrow shall we ever see a generall conversion What will
sealed and signed without binding Articles on our side It is a returning to our first husband Hos 2.7 and dare we return to our former husband without a new plighting of that fidelity which we promised at our first espowsalls It is a rising from the dead Ephes 5.14 can we come out of our graves without resurrection-cheeks It is a translating of us into the Kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 and shall we be carried no further to Heaven then a throat-puffe or a lungpipe-pant can blow us Oh beware these Temple larves Congregation Mummeries will do us little good We must be other men and more expressive men then ever we were before we must declare somthing that is signal yea set up a Monumental repentance the Ninivites did so they made their Beasts to fast and wear sackcloth 13. An anguish for sin for how is Nineveh at her contrition She is turned a most disconsolate Creature every street of the City doth proclaim her Mourner yea every gesture and motion doth testifie her sad apprehension of sin there is nothing to be seen it but afflicting buffets it doth eccho with ejulations and is drenched and showred with tears So a true Penitent should be the troubled Creature of his age the sight of sin should daunt him yea exanimate him this child-birth must be in sorrow this ague must be with a shaking sit this fining with an absolute melting The Sun should not seem to shine upon the day of thy repentance no there must be a clowded sky a black eclipse dark mists tempests and thunder to be discerned He is a strange Penitent that doth not change countenance that doth feel no inward gripes and hath not every heart-string aking The humbled spirit must be a contrite spirit Nullus potest nobam inchoare vitam nisi eum veteris vitae poeniteat Aug. de medic Poenit c. 2. poenitentia est poenae tenentia Nav. Poenitentia est punientia Sylvest prier Erubescentia de peccato Rich. in 4. dist 18. q. 4. ad 3. Est vindista quaedam semper puniens in se quod dolet commisisse Aug. de vera falsa poen c. 8. tom 4. repentance cannot be without godly sorrow No man can begin a new life but he which is afflicted for his life past Repentance is a torturing with pain or Repentance is a chastising punishment There must be a blushing for sin Yea it is a self-avengement whereby a man is ever correcting in himself that which he feeleth with distresse he did commit Thus then ye see how repentance doth pierce and pinch grind the heart and soak the eyes at the first entrance Contrition is full of collisions and convulsions rough waves and rushing Surges sparkling and scaldings bosom-thrillings and eye-drippings A true Penitent is brought to the Aliar and would even make a sacrifice of himself he seemeth to have no more life left in him but to vent out his own anxiety there must be the torment of sin in repentance that which the infernall spirits should do below a contrite spirit must here perform the Penitent for a time must feel the Chains of darknesse the gnawing worm the fiery lake the weeping and gnashing of teeth if he would not suffer the everlasting curses he must try what a Tophet he can raise up in his own conscience Oh my gentle Penitent I know not how to comfort him the insensible Sinner doth go for an impenitent the remorseles for a Reprobate he that hath not a rent heart hath a Pharohs heart they which are not weary and heavy laden I find no refreshments for them as Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance so no more did he ever open his lips to invite them which are not conscious of their own unrighteousnesse there are no plaisters but for smarting wounds nor wine but for the sorrowfull nor brests of consolation but for the crying children nor garment of beauty but for the spirit of heavinesse God doth light up his candle to none but those which sit in darknesse nor cast out his Anchor to none but where the Ship doth crack and is ready to sink he doth lift up onely the hands which hang down and strengthen onely the weak knees he doth hold onely the aking temples and wipe onely the blubbered cheeks They whose hearts are as fat as brawn and as hard as the nether milstone which are at ease in Sion setled upon their lees frozen in their dregs whose eyes are blind their ears uncircumcised and consciences seared with an hot iron which cannot answer crimes with cries nor provocations with vexations let them perish in their steely and flinty condition Let the broken-hearted only be bound up consolations be shed into the brest of them which recount their sins in bitternesse of soul let the golden Thau be set only upon the foreheads of the Mourners of Jerusalem let the distressed Publican only depart out of the Temple justified let Paradise be promised only to the penitent theef Shall the childrens bread be cast unto dogs shall God feed the secure with the dainties of the perplexed It is an easie matter to rise out of bed but is it so to rise out of sin to put on garments but is it so to put on the Robe of innocency to get an interest in nature but is it so to get an interest in Heaven It is an easie matter to take up a Bible to walk to Church to pen down a Sermon to professe the Gospell to Saint a fancied cause but is it an easie matter to repent No is it a difficult thing to fight a Battle and not to obtain this conquest to run a race and not to win this prize to pacifie mans wrath and not to appease Gods indignation Yes oh that thou sawest how a Sinner must be broken in pieces before he can procure his reconciliation doth repentance require no passions yes greater then those of Esau for the losse of his birthright or those of the Egyptians for the slaughter of their firstborn Oh the sharp-pointed weapon of compunction oh the grinding milstone of contrition this red Sea and Wildernesse must be past before the desired Canaan can be entred the Penitent must lye as it were for a while in Hell and feel though not specifically yet analogically some of the torments of the damned Initium omnis peccati est superbia per quam homo sensui suo inherens à mandatis divinis recedit ideo â—portet quod illud destruit peccatum hominem à proprio sensiu discedere faciat Ille autem qui in suo sensu perseverat rigidus durut vocatur unde frangi dicitur aliquis quando à suo sensu divellitur Tho. Suppl q. 1. art 1. before he can have a sense of inward satisfaction For the beginning of all sin is pride whereby a man cleaving to his own senses doth recede from Gods commandements therefore it is fit that these senses
from the greatest of hazards thou keepest Nineveh safe when after a thousand years triumphant state she had but forty daies respit either to repent or to have utter destruction by thee for that time she reteined all her pristine greatnesse for Penitent Nineveh was Nineveh the Glorious This can I say of Nineveh but can I expresse the like confidence or assure the like bliss to you Oh that I could I shall make it my Prayer but I cannot yet bring it into my Creed I look with doubtfull eyes upon you and carry a jealous heart towards you ye stand but what is your foundation ye may stand by your prudence and policy your tradings and truces your armes and artifices your formidable numbers and dreadfull Navies but do ye stand upon repentance Here is much profession and formality hunting of Sanctuaries and presenting your selves at Sacraments but what repentance Ye would be Nineveh but are ye Nineveh ye would be prosperous Nineveh but are ye penitent Nineveh are ye not to seek for repentance in the midst of all priviledges and Ordinances your exquisitie principles and accurate Preachers If ye would limit your confidence to your conversion might ye not expect rather coâ—â—ounding judgements then preserving mercy Gods correcting hand than his comforting hand chaines of vengeance then bands of love If ye would come to your triall doth not the triall of your countenance testifie against you if ye would stand to your discovery and to the remembrances that ye have left of your selves have ye not discovered your transgressions and made your iniquity be remembred it is true ye live in the Lords eye but ye are sinners before the Lord exceedingly ye tread upon Gods ground and walk every day upon his consecrated earth but ye have polluted the Lords land ye have turned Bethel into Bethaven an house of Prayer into a den of Theeves ye are rather Jezreel then Israel Sodom than Nineveh Ye would be reprieved but where are your qualifications for pardon ye would be spared but are ye Nineveh ye may have Ninevehs wishes but have ye Ninevehs fruits ye may match sinnes with Nineveh but can ye match repentance with Nineveh â—â—grave ne rediret seculum Pyrrhae nova monstra questae Horat. ipso sceleris molimine Tereus Creditur esse pius Ovid 6. Met. Vitrum pro Crystallo Adage no this age of Pyrrba hath nothing but Monsters in it Tereus as bad as he was might have been esteemed innocent in respect of us Nineveh as guilty as it was might have been a Saint in comparison of us We have Ninevehs crimes but not Ninevehs conscience Ninevehs prevarications but not Ninevehs humilations we are but shining-glasse in respect of that bright crystal Shall we make an experiment of it then answer to your charge and see how ye can clear your selves upon triall First Nineveh heard God in his Messenger But our Messengers may cry in the streets and deliver their errands and neither their presence nor prophecies regarded Alas we use Ministers as Tapestry hangings to look upon or as the statues of old Worthies to adorn our houses we love to have such to procure credit to our Country and to set up the fame of a reformed Church but we bestow little attendance upon them or yield little attention to them One Octavius a Nobleman of Rome wore a Jewel in his ear and yet he told Tully that he could not heare him it is strange Cicero in Brutor Habes aures perforatas said Tully when thou hast thy ears bored through So our Auditors though they wear in their ears the Jewel of a Christian calling yet they cannot hear us though their eares be bored through with profession Antimachus read in his school his rare Thebais but all his Disciples forsook him saving Plato Plut. in Apoph Plato instar omnium whereupon he said that Plato was instead of all So deliver we never such serious messages it is onely some choise Plato which will stay out the publication of them The truth is many people have little opinion of a Temple they have unconsecrated the walls the Ordinances every one takes upon him our calling so that a true Preacher is not distinguished from the Rustick or Mechanick men in generall are so perfected that they need none of our literature and so replete with principles that they are brimfull of mysteries every one is a Phoenix nay our birds can fly with their shels upon their heads they have tapped so much out of their own Runlets that they need not broach any thing out of our Vessels yea their showers of infusion are so abundant that they count it a madnesse to go to the Academical spring Every stripling is a Theologue and can divine without Authors the well is not so deep that they need to draw up waters with the ancient bucket nor the trade so difficult that they must endure an Apprentiship to learn it that though I do not see yet that men can fight without Captains nor sayl without Pilots nor know the laws of men without Counsailers yet every man can take up this leading-staffe and steer this ship and expound the lawes of God without gloss or Commentary there is such a strange revelation as if they could create a new world out of nothing or they could find Honey in a dead carkass or Iron could swim or Rocks gush with water or they could blow down walls with Rams hornes or Balaams Ass could speak again or a Virgin the second time could bring forth a child or they had been all touched with fiery tongues from heaven to speak to the world the wonderfull things of God all the miracles of former ages must be appropriated to their inspirations an absolut generation that need none to counsail them pray for them teach them no they are all Preachers Tythes are unnecessary Ministers are superfluous they live they say upon the bread of other men and eat up the far of the Land with their university teeth other men can do the Church-duty as well as they therefore they are Burthens Pressures Robbers Theeves they heare God in their mysticall Meditationmen not heare God in his Messenger so that what between the formall and phanatick Gospeller the Minister is quite cast out of doors They will fetch nothing from the Temple or be relieved by Gods Almoner howsoever not take their repentance out of a Prophets mouth whatsoever necessary Agent there is in the Nation yet Jonah might be spared he might forbear his cryes in our streets 2. Nineveh was not curious in her Counsailers a stranger was received there but here not the home-born can be admitted for though we know many Messengers their persons and their parts their Country and their calling their Commission and their competencies their gifts and graces their labors and language yet they cannot be entertained A Prophet is without honour in his own Country Native commodities are of no price Grapes of our own growth
cry mightily We have an house without noise a Church without Orisons we fish for Pearls without this drag and would break open the Castle without this petard set to the Gate of it we have much indigency but little ardency much fear but little fervency we scarce consider the subject of our requests our Petitioners might be taken up for strayes if we do pray we are deviating in our prayers our supplications pererrate praying is a kind of dreaming I sleep but my heart waketh but we are oftentimes in a deep sleep for both tongue and heart do sleep very drowzy devotions come from us Hilarion threatned his body in prayer that it might not trouble him with carnall motions and he threatned the Devill that he might not assault him with temptations for when on a time that evill spirit as he was at prayer counterfeited the shrieking of Children the bleating of Calves the lowing of Oxen the roaring of Lions Orare perstitit donec cessaret tumultus Jeron in vita Hilar. the clashing of armed men he would not be frighted from his devotions but went on in his prayer till the tumult ceased But we are not so intent and uncessant in our prayers the flesh and the Devill can soon take us off Anthony told the Jews that though he had met with many dul and heavy people in the world Vobis inertiores non comperi C. Rhod. lect Antiq. l. 5. c. 10. as the Marcomannians Quadians and Sarmatians yet saith he Than you did I never find any more fluggish so we are more reckless then the most undevour our prayers do shew what an oscitant and torpulent people we are for we must carry all at the first charge or we doe lay down our weapons we do not rally our forces and renew the fight Oh what light skirmishes do we use how do we retreat upon the first Justs we do not hold up our hands till they be weary as Moses did we do not with wrestlings obtain blessings as Jacob did No we may be sent away with repulse for we press but faintly we may be smitten dead with curses for we avert judgements in a very languishing manner Besides divers times our devotions are but designs for our own ends and not for the safety of Nineveh we would fetch in judgements rather then prevent them as the Disciples in their requests would have fire brought down from heaven to consume their enemies Caligula wished that Rome had but one neck that he might strike it off at a blow and the 2d Councill of Rhemes desired that their enemies eyes might be blind their hands wither and their members rot and so many men in their prayers in stead of just Petitions insert their own distempered passions but this is rather to execrate then to pray yea to curse then to cry Yet what strange fire doth there oftentimes burn upon the altar what unclean beasts are there offered up for sacrifice what hatefull Bills are there sent up into the Pulpit Oh the Petitions smell of brimstone they seem to be brands that come flaming out of â—ophet yea rather Bullets then Bills or imprecations then prayers yet further prayers too often are impertinencies for whereas we should cry for crying sinnes we feign sinnes to our selves and invent criminall things which God himselfe was never offended with and about these we exercise our zeal not about those sins which Gods law hath prohibited and our own consciences are convinced of which are the stains of the Nation and all Christendom abhor which are ready to sink States and subvert Kingdoms thus with the noise of imaginary sinnes we still the noise of our proper personall detestable and execrable sinnes The children of Jacob by talking of a wild beast that had devoured Joseph concealed their own murther Nero by calling the Christians City-wasters blanched over his own firing of Rome Arbogastes by telling the people of a strange Messenger which should bring such sad news to Valentinian the second that it should make him to lay violent hands upon himself suppressed his own villanous destroying him so we in our prayers have the art of conveyance to slip-in other mens sinnes rather than our own or to bewail invented sinnes rather than apparant sinnes Can we not dissemble in our Petitions yes as well as in our practices why else doth God complaine of mens howling upon their beds rather than whining out their own errours They have not cryed unto me with their hearts when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 Their feare towards me is taught by the precepts of men Isai 29.13 as if there were rather State-prayers then Penitents prayers Ye dissembled in your hearts when ye sent me unto the Lord saying Pray for us unto the Lordour God Jer. 42.20 The Pharisees made long prayers but short enough of their own guilts there was not a word of their own Superstitions wicked Traditions devouring widows houses teaching children to cheat their own Parents There is a craft in Prayers we are the greatest Impostours in our devotions that can be imagined there is some speech of sinnes in generall but not of sinnes in speciall of sinnes that our own fancies have fixed a blemish upon but not of the deep spotted the crimson and scarlet sinnes When shall we lift up pure hands 2 Tim. 2.8 Lift up our hearts with our hands unto the God in the heavens Lamen 3.41 Leave counterfeiting falsifying and tergiversating in our suits No we can powre out our hearts like oyntment where when much is run out a great deal will stick to the sides but we cannot powre out our hearts like water Lam. 2.19 that our sins may be drayned forth to the last drop Oh if this Nation could but speak out and lament and deplore the grand and horrid guilts of the times without reservation or partiality I would think that God might yet be intreated for the Land and that our prayers might preserve us but we are guilefull in that wherein we ought to be most sincere the hypocrite cannot be cast out of our prayers our devotions are delusions we endeavour to fetch over heaven with a circumvention we cry cunningly artificially dis junctively by parts by halfes rather then cry really accumulatively mightily We cannot speak out our proper sins nor launce the wound to the bottom when we are begging balsome from heaven Now will God pardon that Malefactor which will not confesse his own crime Can this Nation ever be secure if indevotion or hypocrisie doth conceal one capitall sin no so long as Achan layes lurking the whole Camp may be cursed so long as Shebah be shut up within the walls the City is exposed to danger so long as the Calves bleat in the Host and Agag walk up and down with his head on his shoulders the whole Kingdom may be rent away One heinous sin suppressed may break out with a generall destruction Oh then that all the sins of the Land without diminution retrusion
yet he that rideth upon the heavens as an horse may trample down all before him though our sword may lay on feeble stroaks yet the sword of his excellencies may strike home and strike down though we have impotency yet he hath Omnipotency though we cannot yet he can though our ability cannot relieve us Illo dante habetur illo adju vante completur Aug. de sancta Virg. Vbi defi cit humanum auxilium incipit divinum Ferus yet may we not be supplyed out of his power Yes He giving it is had he helping it is compleated For Is there any thing impossible to him No the finger of God can do more then Briareus with his hundred hands Where mans help doth fail Gods help doth begin God doth visit his Church when the whole earth doth seem to neglect her and doth shoot out his arrow of deliverance when her quiver is empty he doth make his people go upright when they are bowed down so low that that they have no hopes of rising again and he doth heal them when all the money is spent upon Physitians and the disease doth continue when no shoulder is thrusting for their dedefence then they dwell between his shoulders when all their Towers of defence are battered down then he is a wall of fire round about them how glorious is God in extremities how wonderfull in exigents When Senacherib had rifled Jerusalem even taken away all the treasures of the Kings house and the treasures of the Lords house even to the golden Plates of the Temple and not so contented he sent up taunting Rabshakeh to threaten the Jews that if they would not yield he would make them eat their own dung and drink their own water and Hezekiah was so frighted that he clad himselfe and his Nobles in sackeloth and cryed out This is a day of trouble rebuke and blasphemy How did God in one night free the City of all dread and lead back this insulting Army with an hook in their Nostrils When Asah was brought so low that he had nothing but the heavenly aid to depend upon for he said Help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee How did God disperse an Army of ten hundred thousand When Jehosaphat feared and even fainted for he said Oh Lord our God wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company which is come out against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee How did God tell them that he would cleare the coasts of that formidable Army without giving a stroak for ye shall not need to fight at all go down onely to see the slayn and take the prey for God had raised up such a division amongst the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites that they drew upon themselves and as the Scripture saith helped to destroy one another insomuch that Jehosaphat came but forth to see their slaughtered bodies and to take their rich spoyl and was three dayes in gathering it and could not carry it all away 2 Chron 20.25 When the Barbarians brake in with such power against Theodosius Sozomen l. 7. c. 43. that he had nothing but prayers left for his chiefe strength how did God on the suddain strike dead Ruges their Captain miraculously from heaven and consumed the rest of the Army with Pestilence and with fire and lightning from heaven When the Soldan of Egypt came with such forces into Jury that the Christians were as astonished persons how did God put such courage into them Aemil l. 4. that the next day the very faces of the Christians amazed the Infidels and they slew an hundred thousand in the field and got such infinite prey that there was never the like seen in the holy Wars When the Iathuanians and the Jaziges then Heathens brake into Polonia with such fury that they had wasted a great part of the Country Cromer l. 10. and taken a multitude of Captives insomuch that Lâ—scus Niger even despaired to oppose them how did God by an apparition of Michael the Arch-angell so animate him and his Souldiers that a very small Army feared not to encounter them and fought against them puissantly and successfully yea he stirred up the Captives to break off their Chayns and fight magnanimously and the women which they had taken prisoners frighted them with showts and their own Doggs which they had brought with them welcomed the Polonians into the field and flew upon their Masters and by multitudes worried them in pieces oh then when our hearts tremble under miseries and our eyes are dimmed with continuall weeping and our joynts loosened with fraying terrors what an excellent thing is it to wrap up our selves in Gods providence and to hide our selves under the shadow of his protection for how can the hand of the Almighty draw us out of the bottom of despairing distresses yes he is powerfull when we are impotent he can when we cannot Which cannot Discerne 2. Now let us come to the determination to what subject this defect is limited and that is to a matter of knowledge they did not know Which cannot discern From hence observe That God doth not discern where man doth not discern that is God will not inflict judgement where men want judgement he counts it no reason to judge them which are destitute of reason where there is an imbecillity in the intellect God is so far from punishing such that he is pleading for them so that a state of ignorance is a kind of state of innocency inscius and innocuus the not knowing and the not guilty do usually go together for knowledge is the ground of guilt therefore where there is carentia scientiae a want of judgement there is almost carentia reatûs Melior est sidelis ignorantia quà m temeraria scientia Aug. Tolâ—rabilius est Deo quenptiam cum ignorantia in humilitate jacere quà m cum clatione alta sapere Greg. l. 17. Moral Non tibi deputabitur ad culpam quod in vitus ignoras Aug. a want of guilt Better is a pure ignorance then a rash knowledge It is a more tolerable thing with God that one lye in an humble ignorance then soar aloft in an elate wisdome That shall not be imputed to thee for sin which against by will thou art ignorant of for first there may be a naturall incapacity and then the dulnesse of the understanding is a blunting of sharp reason That ignorant man may be excused from punishment which doth not find that which should instruct him Or secondly There may be an ignorance per difficultatem materiae By the difficulty of the matter when objectum 〈◊〉 radians non percipitur A dazling object cannot be discerned by a weak eye Now there is a great indulgence for such an ignorance for explicit faith is for an explicit judgement Hâ—bâ—tudo mâ—ntis est acutae rationis obtusio Hugo Ille ignor in s potâ—st excusari à potâ—â—a qui quod
prodest quod baptisetur nisi justificetur Aug. l 21. de civi Deiâ—e 17. Neminem eorum qui accesserant ad Christum per fidem sana sides sana doctrina putabit exceptum â—sse à remissione peccatorum Aug de pec merit remiss l. 1. c. 28. Per Baptismi Sacramentum nativitais sordes deponuntur propterea baptizantur parvuli Origen Hom. 14. in Lue. Parvulus ad acci piendam remissionem peccatorum faciliùs accedit quod illi remittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata Cyp ep 59. ad Fidum Saint Augustine saith that In baptised Infants though they know it not yet there doth dwell in them the Holy Ghost Yea What doth it profit any man that he is baptised if he be not justified Nay the same Father saith expressly that sound â—aith and sound doctrine will never think them excepted from the pardon of sins which do come to Christ by Baptism Origen saith that by the Sacrament of Baptism the pollutions of birth are removed and therefore Infants are baptised Cyprian saith that a child doth come to receive remission of sins more easily because not his own but anothers sins are pardoned Fulgentius saith that a little Infant mox ut baptisatus fuerit si de hac vita discedat factum esse haeredem Dei l. 1. de veritate praed c. 12. if it should depart out of the world so soon as it is baptised it is already made the Heir of God Saint Augustine in his 23. ep calleth him an Infidell which will not believe this The Councell of Valent. c. 5. saith that in Baptism there is a true washing from sins regeneration and redemption and that there is nothing in that Sacrament vain or mocking The Councel of Mllevi Can. 2. saith That Infants are therefore baptised unto remission of sins that that might be cleansed away by regeneration which was contracted by Birth The like I could shew many of Forraign and hombred Protestants It is sufficient to propound the judgment of our whole Church Rubrick before the Catechism for Confir mation of children at the end of it which saith That no man shall think that any detriment shall come to their Children by deferring Confirmation for he shall know for truth that it is certain by Gods word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved I know the main seruple in opposition to this is about election that if any Infant were not decreed from everlasting to be saved his Baptism wil nothing avail him but it is evident that these were elected for God suffered them to live so long till they were baptised and so made members of Christs mysticall body therefore if they should dy instantly after they have been hallowed by the Sacrament their Baptism is a confirmation of their Election and that not onely by the judgement of Charity but by the judgement of Certainty wee may pronounce and determine that the Ordinance hath purged them and will crown them Oh therefore leave tearing open a bleeding wound and casting wildfire into the flames of a Parents burning heart to double his distresses for the losse of his dear Infant as if it were dead and may be damned no blesse your own work loose not the consecration of your own function ye have the commission to baptise as well as to preach shew the parent Heaven for his Soul in your Pulpit shew him Heaven for the Soul of his Infant in the Laver assure him that his deceased child is flown to Heaven with Ordinance-wings The Infant hath been clensed in the Church and what can it do afterwards to deserve Hell what corrupted understanding disordered will or misguided affections can an Infant have it is free from guilt for it is free from evill motions it knows not how to provoke for it knows not how to sin oh therefore spare them whom God would spare God would not destroy Infants because Infants cannot discern they cannot discern criminall things for they cannot discern small things they cannot discern between their right hand and their left which cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand Fourthly this doth serve to exhort all chiefly them which have a special relation to tender the estate of Infants For who should not deal justly with them which understand not their own right who should not discern as much as may be for their advantage which cannot discern any thing for their own behoof not so much as discern between their right hand and their left If thou oughtest to open thy mouth in the case of the dumb then much more for them whose tongue strings are not yet unloosened to plead their own case if thou oughtest to be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame then much more for them who have not an eye to read an evidence to see the strength of a title nor a foot to walk to a bar to demand justice Is there a more noble thing then the Patronage of Innocents and the protection of fatherlesse children Famous for this is David who tenderly regarded his friend Jonathans children and Abraham who rescued and redeemed his cousin Loth out of Prison and Mordecai who took the charge of his Kinswoman Ester upon him bringing her up with all respect and faithfulnes at home when she was called to be Ahashuerosh's Queen he walked every day before the Court of the womens house to know how Ester did Strabo l. 10. Geog. and to inquire what would become of her Ester 2.11 And Lycurgus to whom his elder brother Polydectes having left the government of Sparta till his Heir yet unborn came to age though the wife of the deceased offered to destroy the fruit of her womb if he would marry her and take the sole government upon himself yet he would not accept of it but in shew wishing her not to endanger the fruit of her womb but suffer her self to be delivered and send the child to him and he could soon make it away the birthday being come and the child sent to him in stead of murthering it it proving a man-child he presented him to the Spartanes saying Behold your King and naming him Charilaus he stoutly defended him in his right against his Mother and Leonidas And Micithus who most worthily gave high education to the Sons of Anaxilas and when they were come to full age though they entreated him to continue the government yet he would not Diodor. l. 11. but left their Honours of Zanctes and Roegium to them and went himself and lived with much honour at Tagaea Cuspinian 92. And Isdigerd King of Persia who being appointed Guardian to Theodosius by his dying Father Arcadius he sent Antiochus his chief Eunuch to take the charge of the young Infant and to bring him up in a most Princely manner and faithfully to preserve the Empire for him And Ferdinand King of Aragon who being appointed by Henry King of Castile his