surprisall here but in a church triumphant where the Palme and the Crowne and the white Robes are layd up and insteed of Drums and Ensignes Hallelujahs to the Lambe for ever I have done now with the text Applicatio ad Magistratum and the two lawes there lex Dei and lex peccati But the occasion of this meeting listen's after a third law and that 's lex Regni which though it be grounded or at least should bee on the lex Dei yet it sometimes fall's unhappily upon the lex peccati Now a warre there is in this law as betweene the former two Inveterate sometimes Irreconciliable and not to be decided but by Deaath war much of the nature of the other between Spirit Flesh a proud spirit for the most part and a stubborne peece of flesh for if there were either humility on the one side or patience on the other the noise of discord would not bee so loud in our streets but the voyce of the turtle would bee heard better in our land There would bee more peace within our walls I am sure more plentiousnes within our habitations What in the first institution was intended as a shield or buckler is us'd at length as a semiter or sword That which should defend mee from the blowes of another is the engine by which I wound him at last and my selfe too The law which in case of in jury or trespasse was ordain'd of old for a Sanctuary is made sometimes little better then a house of correction If I malice another 't is not I must seourge him but the law though it be in mine own power to chastise him with whips yet the law doe it with more state and more fury too for that shall chastise him with Scorpions when all this while the lash falls not so much on the back of the transgressor as his purse and the bleeding of that as the world goe's is as fatal as the other Sed hominum sunt ista non legum the fault is not in the law but in some of her touchy and waspish votaries or if it bee in the law I am sure it is not in the lex Dei nor I hope in this lex Regni but in the lex peccati 'T is the law of sin is to blame here the mighty Holofernes as Castrusian tolde S. Ierom that rebellious lust of ours which thus plaie's the tyrant with our selves and others Ille criminum leno Ille par asitus vitiorum that bawd and parasite of vices which in one act flatters and betraies us This is the Fox with a Fire-brand in the taile that burnes up the corne field of the Philistines the prime wheele and stirrer of all our turbulent motions our unpeaceable proceedings which first sets our pride a-gog and then our malice and at length our revenge and in such a high way of distaste that no sorrow of the partie offending no mediation of friends no tender of sitisfaction no interposing of the Magistrate himselfe can attone or pacifie But as if there were no Gospell upon earth or else no mercy by that Gospell they are still Jewishly bent with their crucifige crucifige the Law the Law And let such implacable Spirits have their fill of it let it enter like water into their bowels and like oyle into their bones let the Law at last be their comfort and not the Gospell let justice have her full swindge and not mercy and so if they will needs have it so Currat Lex let the Law goe on á lege ad legem from one Law to another from the Lex Regni to the Lex Dei from the Court of Common Pleas here below to the great Starre-chamber above where every man shall receive either doom or recompence according to his works The Law all this while is unreproveable you heare no staine nor blemish there but either in the malicious Clyent or Sollicitor or both It being true in this case what Saint Paul spake in another Lex quidem spiritualis illi vero carnales venundati sub peccatò Rom. 7. v. And here some may expect that I should have a fling at the Gowne or at least as the custome of this place is instruct or counsell it But this were to bring drops to a River offer a few mites or pence to a Treasury that is full for no charity can be so barren as to conceive that those should be ill husbands in counselling themselves that so abundantly dispense and communicate to others And indeed how or to what purpose should they receive instructions in a Church here that are taking so many in a Chamber How make use of the Doctrine of the Preacher that are so busie with the breviat of a Clyent But by their leave for I must have leave to tell them so God is herein dishonour'd and the solemnity both of this time and place disparag'd if not prophan'd They are not I presume so straightned with time nor so throng'd with the multitude of affaires but they might sequester one solemne houre for the service of the Lord The hearing of a Sermon can be no great prejudice to the debating of a cause if it bee just and honest and a few Orisons first offer'd in the Temple are a good preparative and prolog to a conscionable and faire pleading at the Barre As for any error else either in their practise or profession I have not to obtrude here or if I had I would not Every man or at least every good man is a Temple to himselfe and hath a Pulpit in his owne bosome where there is a continuall Preacher or Monitor a conscience either accusing or excusing him and one lash of that toucheth more at the quicke than a thousand from the tongue or pen of another Cor hominis saith Saint Augustine aut Dei Thuribulum aut Diaboli every mans heart is an Altar for God or for the Divell and according to the nature or quality of the Sacrifice so it smoakes either to his doome or glory and this is enough for an understanding eare without farther boring it And indeed it is not my practise to pull Gravitie by the beard bring backe the grey haire to the Rod and the Ferule Schoole as some doe a Magistrate and catechise a Judge nay traduce him too with their borrowed and affected Epithites Rampant Couchant Dormant and the like unreverent and saucie follies which are nothing else but the leakings of bottles which are not sound the noyse of Caskes which are both foule and emptie fragments of that broken vessell Salomon speakes of which can containe nothing no not the droppings of their owne vanities For mine own part I have been taught what the word Iudge meaneth both by representation and by office a King one way and a God another and what is that but a God and a God and therefore a God shall admonish him not I and one God I presume may speake roundly to another Hearke then what the God Iekosaphat
and veines and the joynts swimming with marrow and fatnesse there is a kinde of macelency and famine and leannesse in the soule all goodnesse is vacant and banish'd then and Lust keepes her revell and rendevouz A fit caution and mements as I conceive for this place and meeting that those dayes which the Church hath of Old solemnely consecrated to the service of the Spirit we devote not another way in making provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof That the time shee hath set apart for Fasting and Prayer whereby we should magnifie the Lord upon the strings and pipe and so make the tongue Cymbalum jubilationis A wel-tun'd Cymball wee over-lavish not to feasting and excesse and so make our throate Sepulchrum apertum An open sepulchre I know that Noble assemblies require something extraordinary both for State and Multitude and let them have it But withall I beseech them to consider what Lent is Preached in Lent ad Magstratum and with what devout strictnesse observ'd by the Christian Church for many hundred yeeres together though in these dayes of Flesh cryed downe by some pretenders to the Spirit as a superstitious observation of our blinded Ancestours But let them know or if they doe not let them reade reade Antiquity in her cleere though slow streamings unto us not the troubled and muddy waters novelty hath cast upon our shore and then they shal know that it is a time of Sackcloth and Ashes and casting earth upon the Head for the humbling and macerating of the Sinner not of putting on the glorious apparell your vaine shinings in silkes and trssues for the ruffling of the Gallant A time like that in the mountaine of restraint and scarcity when a few barly loaves and some small Fishes should suffice a Multitude Ioh. 6.9 Not of pomp or magnificence when the stalled Oxe and the pastur'd Sheepe and the fallow Deere 1 King 2.4 and the satted Fowle are a service for the Lords Anointed For mine owne part I am not so rigid either in practise or opinion or if I were in both it matters not where a higher judgement and authority overballac'd me to deny sicknesse or age or in respect of travell or multitude of imployments the publike Magistrate what in this case were either convenient or necessary or enough however I desire them to remember that both the Sword and the Keyes have a stroke here and so that they would feed onely not cloy nourish not daintie up the body knowing that when it is cocker'd and kept too high the Soule it selfe is manacled and more than lame and heavie in sacred operations And therefore let us not be altogether men of Flesh but as the Father hath it occasionally on this Text D. Aug. 43. Ser. de verb. Dom. Vincat spiritus carnem aut certè nè vincatur a carne let the spirit have a sway too and though not wholly a Conquerour yet make her not a captive let our Devotions goe along with our entertainments our Acts of Charity with our Acts of Iustice Foeneratur Domino qui miseretur pauperis saith the Wiseman He that hath pitty upon the poore lendeth or as the Latine implies putteth to use unto the Lord Prov. 19.17 Now Qui accipit mutuum servus est foenerantis The borrower is a Servant to the lender Prov. 22.7 So that the Lord is as 't were a Servant unto him that hath pitty on the poore because in that pitty hee lendeth to the Lord. And indeed who would not be a lender to the Lord when his interest may be a Crowne and his reward everlastingnesse who would not exchange a morsell of bread for the celestiall Manna and almes for the food of Angels a few earthly ragges for the white Robe of the Saints Since most of these are not so properly a lending or benevolence as a due The gleanings of the Cor-field Levit. 23.22 and the shakings of the Vintage were a Legacie long since bequeath'd the poore man by the Law when the Gospel was yet in her non-age and minoritie But now it is not onely the crums and fragments from thy Table and so feed the hungry or the courser shearings of thy Flock and so cloath the naked But visit the sicke too and those which are in prison Mat. 25.26 So that our charity should not onely reach the impotent and needy but the very malefactor and legall transgressor The groanings of the prison should bee as well listned to as the complainings in the streets and at this time more specially more particularly that those bowels which want and hunger have even contracted and shrivel'd up and those bodies which cold and nakednesse have palsied and benumm'd not finding it seemes so much pitty as to cloath and feed them as they should whilst they were alive may at last meet with such a noble and respective charitie as to shroud and interre them like Christians when they are dead In the meane time I have that humble suit to preferre to the Gods of Earth here which David had of old to the God of Heaven Oh let the sorrowfull sighing of the prisoners come before you Psal 79.12 according to the greatnesse of your power have mercy on those which are appointed to dye Let your Vinegar be tempered with Oyle Iustice suger'd o're with some compassion that where the Law of God sayes peremptorily Thou shalt restore and not dye let not there the Law of Man be writ in blood and say except to the notorious and incorrigible offender Thou shalt dye and not live There will a time come when wee shall all appeare before the Iudgement seate of God 2 Cor. 5.10 And what then what The Sinners Plea will bee generally then Job 9.3 Lord I cannot answer thee one for a thousand And what if I cannot yet O Lord with thee there is mercy and plenteous redemption Psal 130.7 But now and then it falls out so unhappily at the Judgement seate of Man that parties arraign'd though they answer a thousand in one multitudes of inditements in one innocence yet sometimes naked circumstances and meere colourable conjectures without any solid proofe at all shall so cast them in the voyce of a dazled Iury that there is neither hope of mercy nor redemption Gen. 40.22 Esther 7.10 but Pharohs Baker must to the Tree and Haman to the Gallowes fifty cubits high But in this case Bee learned and wise yee Iudges of the Earth serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce to him in reverence Psal 2.10 But I have here digress'd a little and perhaps a little too sawcily in this point of charity let charity have the blame if shee have deserved it whilest I returne where I formerly left you and that was at a feast in time of fasting Good LORD how preposterously nay how rebelliously and in one act crossing both the civill and ecclesiasticke power which prohibite it And therefore since nature saies for the better
too subtle or too toylesome for the Pulpit because they somewhat over ballace their muddy intellectualls but abundantly also from sacred Scriptures Where wee shall finde that sinnes have oftentimes the style of Ignorance and Error as if without them there were no sinne at all So the Psalmist Erraverunt ab utero Psal 58. that is Peccaverunt and so the Prophet Omnes nos quasi O ves erravimus Isai 59. that is peccavimus And so the Apostle too Si quis ex vobis erraverit Iames 5. that is peccaverit So that both with the Psalmist and Prophet and Apostle Erring all this while is but Sinning and this sinning an ignorance of the right way And therefore David joynes both his sinnes and his ignorances together and prayes against both in one Delicta juventutis meae ignorantias meas ne memineris So the old translation runnes Remember not the sins and ignorances which we render the transgressions of my youth Psal 25.7 Hereupon some of the Auncient Platonists who doubtlesse had a taste of divine truth drawing most of their Philosophy from the bookes of Moses brought all vertues within the lists of knoweldge and all sinnes of ignorance Insomuch that it is not only a Stale or Bawde to their sinnes but also whorish in it selfe Sinne too And if a sinne what colour can there be for the excuse they talke of Except we make one sinne to excuse another and this Ignorance cannot doe Since he that can please divine justice saith Leo must of necessity know I am sure that under the law a sinne of ignorance went hand in hand with a sinne of violence and had a like Guilt and Sacrifice If a soule sinne though he wist not sayes the Text yet he is guilty and he shall beare his iniquity Levit. 5.17 On the other side If a soule sinne in a thing taken by violence he is guilty too Levit. 6 4. Here is the guilt plaine in both Now what s the Sacrifice They shall both bring a Ramme without blemish out of the flocke for a trespas offering to the Priest In the 5. and 6. chapters of Levitcus the 6. and 18. verses Well then if this sinne under the law were of that magnitude and the guilt of it of such a tincture that it even touch'd with bloud and violence How comes it so spotlesse and innocent under the Gospell How growes it disputable whether it be a sinne or no Or if a sinne whether not excusing because of ignorance the old Moralist will tell us Plut. lib. 1. moral Vulgaris quidem sed frigida excusatio est Insciens feci 'T is indeed a popular but frozen excuse I did it unknowingly And Iners malorum Remedium Ignorantia saies the brave Tragaedian Sen. in Oedip. Ignorance is but a sluggish Remedy of evills and rather pretends to excuse then makes it I deny not that there is some thing this way which may Rarifie or Extenuate an offence Nullify it cannot Takes it of a tanto eo quod minuit Voluntarium Because it lessens that which is voluntary in sinne but it doth not totally expunge it not so wholly wash it out but that there is some staine and blemish remaining still which without divine dispensation wil prove at length both evidence condemnation T is true that those doe lesse offend Christ that offend him exignorantia And yet even those except God out of his singular grace and goodnesse enlighten with repentant faith Damnandos esse liquet their doome is no lesse then Damnation Vide Bezae annot in 2. Thes 1.8 if the Authority of Beza will passe for Authentique who doth thus sentence them from that of the Apostle threatning a flaming fire to take vengeance on those that know not God and obey not the Gospell of Iesus Christ 2. Thess 1.8 Here then is fire and vengeance due and the flame of both And to whom Nescientibus Deum To those that know not God know not God How Out of a wilfull blindnesse only No but also of a simple Nescience which excuseth no man so absolutely Vt aeterno igne non ardeat sed fortasse ut minus ar deat So Lombard him selfe in his 2 booke 22 Distinction lit k. And now we are fallen upon the very Pikes of the Schoolemen who here presse home upon us for the justification not only of their invincible ignorance Thom. 1.2 q. 76. Art 1. in corp which they say is not conquerable by Diligence nor Endeavour and therefore excuseable but of that ignorance also which is vincible and may bee master'd concluding it to bee no sinne if it bee of those things which a man by nature is not apted and by duty not bounde to know proportioning withall certaine limits for the necessity of that knowledge which every man is ingag'd under the paines of eternall death to knowe Franciscus a sancta Clara problem 15. whether in respect of the means or precept Now where they charge too hotly or too maliciously upon us wee will endeavour in what we can to returne their points upon their owne breasts But where they flourish only as if they would but dazle and not wound us let us be contented to wheele faire about take what we may for our own advantage and not as some of our angry declaimers doe come on in lightning and goe off in smoake Raile and vilifie when they should consute Calling doubt by the name of Heresie and opinion if not theirs Antichristian And so Dum vix mactarint excoriant As Honorantius hath it before they scarce wounde their Adversary lib. 1. cap. 18. they flay him I would have such to know that Reason here is better then violence and solid Allegation then a sweatish and feaverish Invective And here Lomb. lib. 2. dist 22. the Master himselfe will acquaint us with a threefold Ignorance the first of those Qui scire nolunt cum possint who wil not know when they may And this is so farre from excusing sin that it is a sinne itselfe A Sinne to condemnation The second of those Qui scire vellent sed non possunt which would but cannot knowe And this saith he doth excuse and is only a punishment of sinne no sinne itselfe The third of those Qui simpliciter nesciunt which simply know not Neither refusing nor yet proposing to know which doth not fully excuse any Sed fortasse ut minus punietur but for their milder punishment And upon this Anvile the Scholemen have hammer'd that common Trident of theirs Estius in 2. sent d st 22. sect 7. Ignoranttam purae negationis privationis and pravae dispositionis which the Syntagmatist hath Analized and contracted into two a Negative and a Privative Ignorance pol. Syntag. lib. 6. cap. 15. pag. 1919. D. A Negative Ignorance is when a man knowes not those things which by nature he cannot know and by duty he is not tyed to know And this is not so properly Ignorance as