reward for the service he did against Tyrus because therein though he neither intended any such thing nor so much as knew it he yet was the instrument to work Gods purpose upon and against Tyrus And then how much more will God reward temporally the service and obedience of such as purposely and knowingly endeavour an outward conformity unto the holy will and pleasure of God though with strong and predominant mixture of their owne corrupt appetites and ends therewithall Now the Reasons why God should thus outwardly reward the outward works of Hypocrites are First the manifestation of his own Goodnesse that we might know how willing he is to cherish the least spark of any goodness in any man be it natural or moral or whatever other goodnesse it be that he might thereby encourage us so to labour the improvement of those good things in us as to make our selves capable of greater rewards Secondly his Iustice and equity in measuring unto Sinners and Hypocrites exactly according to the measure they mete unto him They serve him with graces which are not true graces indeed he rewardeth them with blessings which are not indeed true blessings Somewhat they must do to God and therefore they affoord him a little temporary obedience and there is all the service he shall have from them Somewhat God will do for them and in requitall alloweth them a little temporary favour and there is all the reward they must look for from him Here is Quid pro Quo. They give God the outward work but without any hearty affection to him God giveth them the outward benefit but without any hearty affection to them For want of which hearty affection on both sides it cometh to passe that neither is the outward work truly acceptable to him nor the outward benefit truly profitable to them A third reason of Gods thus graciously dealing even with Hypocrites may be assigned with reference to his own dear Children and chosen for whose good especially next under his own glory all the passages of his divine providence both upon them and others are disposed in such sort as they are as for whose comfort this manner of proceeding maketh very much and sundry wayes as I shall by and by touch in the Inferences from this Observation whereunto I now come because it is time I should draw towards a Conclusion And first by what hath been already said a way is opened for the clearing of Gods Holinesse in these his proceedings If sometimes he temporally reward Hypocrites is it not either for their own or for their works sake as if he either accepted their Persons or approved their Obedience No it is but Lex Talionis he dealeth with them as they deal with him They do him but eye-service and he giveth them but eye-wages Indeed God can neither be deceived nor deceive yet as they would deceive God in their service with such obedience as falleth short of true obedience so they are deceived in their pay from him with such blessings as fall short of true blessings And all this may well stand with Gods both Iustice and Holinesse Secondly it appeareth from the premises that Gods thus dealing with wicked and unsanctified men in thus rewarding their outward good things giveth no warrant nor strength at all either to that Popish corrupt doctrine of Meritum congrui in deserving the first grace by the right use of Naturals or to that rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Pelagianisme Facienti quod in se est Deus non potest non debet denegare gratiam We know God rewards his own true and spirituall graces in us with increase of those graces here and with glory hereafter we see God rewardeth even false and outward and seeming graces natural and moral good things with outward and temporal favours And all this is most agreeable to his infinite both Iustice and Mercy and may stand with the infinite Purity and Holinesse of his nature But this were rather to make God an unjust and unholy God to bind him to reward the outward and sinfull works of Hypocrites for the best natural or moral works without grace are but such with true saving grace and inward sanctification Other Inferences and uses more might be added as viz. Thirdly for our Imitation by Gods example to take knowledge of and to commend and to cherish even in wicked men those natural or moral parts that are eminent in them and whatsoever good thing they do in outward actual conformity to the revealed will and law of God And fourthly for Exhortation to such as do not yet find any comfortable assurance that their obedience and good works are true and sincere yet to go on and not to grow weary of well doing knowing that their labour is not altogether in vain in as much as their works though perhaps done in Hypocrisie shall procure them temporal blessings here and some abatement withall I adde that by the way of stripes and everlasting punishment hereafter But I passe by all these and the like Uses and commend but one more unto you and that is it which I named before as one Reason of the point observed viz. the Comfort of Gods dear Children and Servants and that sundry wayes First here is comfort for them against a Temptation which often assaulteth them and that with much violence and danger arising from the sense and observation of the prosperity and flourishing estate of the wicked in this world We may see in the Psalmes and elsewhere how frequently and strongly David Iob and Ieremy and other godly ones were assailed with this temptation For thy instruction then and to arm thee against this so common and universal a temptation if thou shalt see fooles on horseback ungodly ones laden with wealth with honour with ease Hypocrites blessed with the fat of the earth and the due of heaven and abundance of all the comforts of this life yet be not thou discomforted at it or disquieted with it Do not fret thy self because of the ungodly neither be thou envious at evil doers Thou expectest for thine inward obedience an unproportionable reward in the life to come do not therefore grudge their outward obedience a proportionable reward in this life Some good things or other thou mayest think there are in them for which God bestoweth those outward blessings upon them But consider withall that as they have their reward here so they have all their reward here and whatsoever their present prosperity be yet the time will come and that ere long be when The hope of the Hypocrite shall wither and The end of the wicked shall be cut off Again here is a second Comfort for the godly against temporal afflictions and it ariseth thus As Gods love and favour goeth not alwayes with those temporal benefits he bestoweth so on the other side Gods wrath and displeasure goeth not alwayes with
strength though it be never so great that he shall be able to avoid any sin though it be never so foul When a Heathen man prayed unto Iupiter to save him from his Enemies one that overheard him would needs mend it with a more needful prayer that Iupiter would save him from his Friends he thought they might do him more hurt because he trusted them but as for his Enemies he could look to himself well enough for receiving harm from them We that are Christians bad need pray unto the God of Heaven that he would not give us up into the hands of our professed enemies and to pray unto God that he would not deliver us over into the hands of our false-hearted Friends but there is another prayer yet more needful and to be pressed with greater importunity than either of both that God would save us from our selves and not give us up into our own hands for then we are utterly cast away There is a wayward old-man that lurketh in every of our bosoms and we make but too much of him than whom we have not a more spightful enemy nor a more false friend Alas we do not think what a man is given over to that is given over to himself he is given over to vile affections he is given over to a reprobate sense he is given over to commit all manner of wickednesse with greedinesse It is the last and fearfullest of all other judgements and is not usually brought upon men but where they have obstinately refused to hear the voice of God in whatsoever other tone he had spoken unto them then to leave them to themselves and to their own counsels My people would not hear my voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and let them follow their own imaginations As we conceive the state of the Patient to be desperate when the Physician giveth him over and letteth him eat and drink and have and doe what and when and as much as he will without prescribing him any diet or keeping back any thing from him he hath a minde unto Let us therefore pray faithfully and fervently unto God as Christ himself hath taught us that he would not by leaving us unto our selves lead us into temptation but by his gracious and powerful support deliver us from all those evils from which we have no power at all to deliver our selves Lastly since this Restraint whereof we have spoken may be but a common Grace and can give us no sound nor solid comfort if it be but a bare restraint and no more though we ought to be thankful for it because we have not deserved it yet we should not rest nor think our selves safe enough till we have a well grounded assurance that we are possessed of an higher and a better grace even the grace of sanctification For that will hold out against temptations where this may fail We may deceive our selves then and thousands in the world do so deceive themselves if upon our abstaining from sins from which God with-holdeth us we presently conclude our selves to be in the state of Grace and to have the power of godlinesse and the spirit of sanctification For between this restraining Grace whereof we have now spoken and that renewing Grace whereof we now speak there are sundry wide differences They differ first in their fountain Renewing grace springeth from the special love of God towards those that are his his in Christ restraining grace is a fruit of that general mercy of God whereof it is said in the Psalm that his mercy is over all his works They differ secondly in their extent both of Person Subject Object and Time For the Person restraining Grace is common to good and bad Renewing Grace proper and peculiar to the Elect. For the Subject Restraining Grace may binde one part or faculty of a man as the hand or tongue and leave another free as the heart or ear Renewing Grace worketh upon all in some measure sanctifieth the whole man Body and soul and spirit with all the parts and faculties of each For the Object Restraining Grace may withhold a man from one sin and give him scope to another Renewing Grace carrieth an equal and just respect to all Gods Commandements For the Time Restraining Grace may tye us now and by and by unloose us Renewing Grace holdeth out unto the end more or lesse and never leaveth us wholly destitute Thirdly they differ in their Ends. Restraining Grace is so intended chiefly for the good of humane society especially of the Church of God and of the members thereof as that indifferently it may or may not do good to the Receiver but Renewing Grace is especially intended for the Salvation of the Receiver though Ex consequenti it do good also unto others They differ fourthly and lastly in their Effects Renewing Grace mortifieth the corruption and subdueth it and diminisheth it as water quencheth fire by abating the heat but Restraining Grace only inhibiteth the exercise of the corruption for the time without any real diminution of it either in substance or quality as the fire wherein the three Children walked had as much heat in it at that very instant as it had before and after although by the greater power of God the natural power of it was then suspended from working upon them The Lions that spared Daniel were Lions still and had their ravenous disposition still albeit God stopped their mouthes for that time that they should not hurt him but that there was no change made in their natural disposition appeareth by their entertainment of their next guests whom they devoured with all greedinesse breaking their bones before they came to the ground By these two instances and examples we may in some measure conceive of the nature and power of the restraining grace of God in wicked men It bridleth the corruption that is in them for the time that it cannot break out and manacleth them in such sort that they do not shew forth the ungodly disposition of their heart but there is no reall change wrought in them all the while their heart still remaining unsanctified and their natural corruption undiminished Whereas the renewing and sanctifying Grace of God by a reall change of a Lion maketh a Lamb altereth the natural disposition of the soul by draining out some of the corruption begetteth a new heart a new spirit new habits new qualities new dispositions new thoughts new desires maketh a new man in every part and faculty compleatly New Content not thy self then with a bare forbearance of sin so long as thy heart is not changed nor thy will changed nor thy affections changed but strive to become a new man to be transformed by the renewing of thy minde to hate sin to love God to wrastle against thy secret corruptions to take delight in holy duties to subdue thine understanding and
message God grant unto all of us that by our hearty sorrow and repentance for our sinnes past by our stedfast resolutions of future amendment and by setting our selves faithfully and uprightly in our severall places and callings to do God and the King and our Country service in beating down sin and rooting out sinners we may by his good grace and mercy obtaine pardon of our sinnes and deliverance from his wrath and be preserved by his power through faith unto salvation Now to God the Father the Sonne c. THE FIRST SERMON AD POPVLVM At Grantham Linc. Octob. 3. 1620 3 Kings 21.29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days but in his sons days will I bring the evil upon his house THe History of this whole Chapter affordeth matter of much Variety and Use but no passage in it so much either of Wonder or Comfort as this in the close of the whole both Story and Chapter That there should be Mighty-ones sick with longing after their meaner neighbours Vineyards That there should be crafty heads to contrive for greedy Great-ones what they unjustly desire That there should be officious Instruments to do a piece of legal injustice upon a Great mans letter That there should be knights of the Post to depose any thing though never so false in any cause though never so bad against any man though never so innocent That an honest man cannot be secure of his life so long as he hath any thing else worth the losing There is instance in the fore-part of the Chapter of all this in Ahab sickning and Iesabel plotting and the d Elders obeying and the VVitnesses accusing and poor Naboth suffâ—ring But what is there in all this singularly either Strange or Comfortable All is but Oppression Active in the rest Passive in Naboth And what wonder in either of these stupet haec qui jam post terga reliquit Sexaginta annos himself may passe for a wonder if he be of any standing or experience in the world that taketh either of these for a wonder And as for matter of Comfort there is matter indeed but of Detestation in the one of Pity in the other in neither of Comfort To passe by the other Occurrents also in the latter part of the Chapter as That a great Oppressour should hugge himself in the cleanly carriage and fortunate successe of his damned plots and witty villanies That a weak Prophet should have heart and face enough to proclaim judgement against an Oppressing King in the prime of his Jollity That a bloody Tyrant should tremble at the voice of a poor Prophet and the rest some of which we shall have occasion to take in incidentally in our passage along mark we well but this close of the Chapter in the words of my Text And it will be hard to say whether it contain matter more Strange or more Comfortable Comfortable in that Gods mercy is so exceedingly magnified and such strong assurance given to the truly penitent of finding gracious acceptance at the hands of their God when they find him so apprehensive of but an outward enforced semblance of contrition from the hands of an Hypocrite Strange in that Gods Mercy is here magnified even to the hazard of other his divine perfections his Holinesse his Truth his Iustice. For each of these is made in some sort questionable that so his mercy might stand clear and unquestioned A rotten-hearted Hypocrite humbleth himself outwardly but repenteth not truly and God accepteth him and rewardeth him Here is Gods mercy in giving respect to one that ill deserved it but where is his Holiness the while being a God of pure eyes that requireth Truth in the inward parts and will not behold iniquity thus to grace Sinne and countenance Hypocrisie A fearfull judgement is denounced against Ahabs house for his Oppression but upon his humiliation the sentence at least part of it is reversed Here is Mercy still in revoking a sentence of destruction and if somewhat may be said for his Holinesse too because it was but a temporal and temporary favour yet where is his Truth the while being a God that cannot lye and VVith whom is no variablenesse neither so much as the bare shadow of turning thus to say and unsay and to alter the thing that is gone out of his lipps A Iudgement is deserved by the Father upon his humiliation the execution is suspended during his life and lighteth upon the Son Here is yet more Mercy in not striking the Guilty and if somewhat may be said for Gods truth too because what was threatned though not presently is yet at last performed yet where is his Iustice the while being a God that without respect of persons rendreth to every man according to his own works and will Not acquit the guilty neither condemn the innocent thus to sever the Guilt and the Punishment and to lay the Iudgement which he spareth from the Father upon the Son from the more wicked Father upon the lesse wicked Son Thus God to magnifie the riches of his Mercy is content to put his Holiness and his Truth and his Iustice to a kind of venture That so his afflicted ones might know on what object especially to fasten the eyes of their souls not on his Holiness not on his Truth not on his Iustice not only nor chiefly on these but on his Mercy He seeketh more general glory in and would have us take more special knowledge of and affordeth us more singular comfort from his Mercy than any of the rest as if he desired we should esteem him unholy or untrue or unjust or any thing rather than unmercifull Yet is he neither unholy nor untrue nor unjust in any of his proceedings with the sons of men but Righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works and true in in all his words And in this particular of his proceedings with King Ahab at this time I hope by his blessed assistance so to acquit his Holiness and Truth and Iustice from all sinister imputations as that he may be not only magnified in his mercy but justified also in the rest and Clear when he is judged as we shall be thereunto occasioned now and hereafter in the handling of this Scripture Wherein are three main things considerable First the Ground or rather the occasion of Gods dealing so favourably with Ahab namely Ahabs humiliation Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not c. Secondly the great Favour shewed to Ahab thereupon namely the suspension of a Judgement denounced I will not bring the evil in his days Thirdly the Limitation of that favour it is but a suspension for a time no utter removal of the judgement But in his sons days will I bring
Secondly here is a Warning for us to take consideration of the losse of good or usefull men and to fear when they are going from us that some evil is comming towards us The Prophet complaineth of the too great and general neglect hereof in his times The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Esa. 57. When God sendeth his Angel to pluck out his righteous Loâ—s what may Sodome expect but fire and brimstone to be rained down upon them When he plucketh up the fairest and choicest flowers in his garden and croppeth off the tops of the goodliest poppies who can think other than that he meaneth to lay his garden waste and to turn it into a wild wildernesse when he undermineth the main pillars of the house taketh away the very props and buttresses of Church and Common-weal sweepeth away religious Princes wise Senatours zealous Magistrates painfull Ministers men of eminent rancks gifts or example who can be secure that either Church or Common-weal shall stand up long and not â—otter at least if not fall God in Mercy taketh such away from the evil to come we in wisdom should look for evil to come when God taketh such away Thirdly here is instruction for wordlings to make much of those few godly ones that live among them for they are the very pawns of their peace and the pledges of their security Think not yee filthy Sodomites it is for your own sakes that ye have been spared so long know to whom you are beholden This Fellow that came in to sojourn among you this stranger this Lot whom you so hate and malign and disquiet he it is that hath bayled you hitherto and given you protection Despise not Gods patience and long suffering ye prophane ones neither blesse your selves in your ungodly wayes neither say We prosper though we walk in the lusts of our hearts This and thus we have done and nothing hath been done to us God holdeth his hand and holdeth his tongue at us surely He is such a one as our selves Learn O ye despisers that if God thus forbear you it is not at all for your own sakes or because he careth not to punish evil doers no he hath a little remnant a little flock a little handfull of his own among you a few names that have given themselves unto him call upon him daily for mercy upon the land and that weep and mourn in secret and upon their beds for your abominations whom you hate and despise and persecute and defame and account as the very scumme of the people and the refuse and off-scowring of all things to whom yet you owe your preservation Surely if it were not for some godly Iehoshaphat or other whose presence God regardeth among you if it were not for some zealous Moses or other that standeth in the gap for you Gods wrath had entred in upon you long ere this as a mighty breach of water and as an overflowing deluge overwhelmed you and you had been swept away as with the Besome of destruction and devoured as stubble before the fire It is The innocent that delivereth the land and repriveth it from destruction when the sentence of desolation is pronounced against it and it is delivered by the purenesse of his hands O the goodnesse of our GOD that would have spared the five Cities of the Salt Sea if among so many thousands of beastly and filthy persons there had been found but Ten righteous ones and that was for each City but two persons nay that would have pardoned Ierusalem if in all the streets and broad places thereof replenished with a world of Idolaters and Swearers and Adulterers and Oppressours there had been found but one single man that executed judgement and sought the truth from his heart But O the madness of the men of this foolish world withall who seek to doe them most mischief of all others who of all others seek to doe them most good thirsting most after their destruction who are the chiefest instruments of their preservation On foolish and mad world if thou hadst but wit enough yet yet to hugge and to make much of that little flock the hostages of thy peace and the earnest of thy tranquillity if thou wouldst but Know even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace Thou art yet happy that God hath a remnant in thee and if thou knewest how to make use of this happinesse at least in this thy day by honouring their persons by procuring their safety and welfare by following their examples by praying for their continuance thou mightest be still and more and ever happy But if these things that belong unto thy peace be now hidden from thine eyes if these men that prolong thy peace and prorogue thy destruction be now despised in thy heart in this day of thy peace God is just thou knowest not how soon they may be taken from thee and though he do not bring the evil upon thee in their days when they are gone thou knowest not how soon vengeance may overtake thee and Then shall he tear thee in pieces and there shall be none left to deliver thee I have now done Beseech we God the Father of mercies for his dear son Iesus Christ his sake to shed his Holy Spirit into our hearts that by his good blessing upon us that which hath been presently delivered agreeably to his holy truth and word may take root downwards in our hearts and bring forth fruit upwards in our lives and conversations and so to assist us ever with his grace that we may with humble confidence lay hold on his mercies with cheerfull reverence tremble at his judgements by unfeigned repentance turn from us what he hath threatned and by unwearied Obedience assure unto us what he hath promised To which Holy Father Sonne and Spirit three persons and c. THE THIRD SERMON AD POPVLVM At Grantham Linc. Iun. 19. 1621 3 Kings 21.29 I will not bring the evil in his dayes but in his sons dayes will I bring the evil upon his house I Come now this third time to entreat of this Scripture and by Gods help to finish it Of the three parts whereof heretofore propounded viz. 1. Ahabs Humiliation 2. The suspension of his judgement for his time 3. And the Devolution of it upon Iehoram the two former having been already handled the last only now remaineth to be considered of In the prosecution whereof as heretofore we have cleared GOD'S Holiness and Truth so we shall be now occasioned to clear his Iustice from such imputions as might seem to lie upon it from this Act. And that in three respects accordingly as Iehoram who standeth here punishable for Ahabs sin may be considered in a threefold
and dyed in Idolatry and so are damned And if they were saved in their faith why may not the same faith save us and why will not you also be of that religion that brought them to Heaven A motive more plausible than strong the Vanity whereof our present Observation duly considered and rightly applyed fully discovereth We have much reason to conceive good hope of the salvation of many of our Fore-fathers who led away with the common superstitions of those blinde times might yet by those general truths which by the mercy of God were preserved amid the foulest overspreadings of Popery agreeable to the Word of God though clogged with an addition of many superstitions and Antichristian inventions withal be brought to true Faith in the Son of God unfeigned Repentance from dead works and a sincere desire and endeavour of new and holy Obedience This was the Religion that brought them to Heaven even Faith and Repentance and Obedience This is the true and the Old and Catholique Religion and this is our Religion in which we hope to finde salvation and if ever any of you that miscal your selves Catholiques come to Heaven it is this Religion must carry you thither If together with this true Religion of Faith Repentance and Obedience they embraced also your additions as their blinde guides then led them prayed to our Lady kneeled to an Image crept to a Cross flocked to a Mass as you now do these were their spots and their blemishes these were their hay and their stubble these were their Errors and their Ignorances And I doubt not but as S. Paul for his blasphemies and persecutions so they obtained mercy for these sins because they did them ignorantly in misbelief And upon the same ground we have cause also to hope charitably of many thousand poor souls in Italy Spain and other parts of the Christian World at this day that by the same blessed means they may obtain mercy and salvation in the end although in the mean time through ignorance they defile themselves with much foul Idolatry and many gross Superstitions But the Ignorance that excuseth from sin is Ignorantia facti according to that hath been already declared whereas theirs was Ignorantia juris which excuseth not And besides as they lived in the practise of that worship which we call Idolatry so they dyed in the same without repentance and so their case is not the same with Saint Pauls who saw those his sins and sorrowed for them and forsook them But how can Idolaters living and dying so without repentance be saved It is answered that ignorance in point of fact so conditioned as hath been shewed doth so excuse à toto that an Action proceeding thence though it have a material inconformity unto the Law of God is yet not formally a sin But I do not so excuse the Idolatry of our Fore-fathers as if it were not in it self a sin and that without repentance damnable But yet their Ignorance being such as it was nourished by Education Custom Tradition the Tyranny of their leaders the Fashion of the times not without some shew also of Piety and Devotion and themselves withall having such slender means of better knowledge though it cannot wholly excuse them from sin without repentance damnable yet it much lesseneth and qualifieth the sinfulness of their Idolatry arguing that their continuance therein was more from other prejudices than from a wilful contempt of Gods holy Word and Will And as for their Repentance it is as certain that as many of them as are saved did repent of their Idolatries as it is certain no Idolater nor other sinner can be saved without Repentance But then there is a double difference to be observed between Repentance for Ignorances and for known sins The one is that known sins must be confessed and repented of and pardon asked for them in particular every one singly by it self I mean for the kindes though not ever for the individuals every kinde by it self at least where God alloweth time and leisure to the Penitent to call himself to a punctual examination of his life past and doth not by sudden death or by some disease that taketh away the use of reason deprive him of opportunity to do that Whereas for Ignorances it is enough to wrap them up all together in a general and implicite confession and to crave pardon for them by the lump as David doth in the 19. Psalm Who can understand all his Errors Lord cleanse thou me from my secret sins The other difference is that known sins are not truly repented of but where they are forsaken and it is but an hypocritical semblance of penance without the truth of the thing where is no care either endeavour of reformation But ignorances may be faithfully repented of and yet still continued in The reason because they may be repented of in the general and in the lump without special knowledge that they are sins but without such special knowledge they cannot be reformed Some of our fore-fathers then might not only live in Popish Idolatry but even dye in an Idolatrous act breathing out their last with their lips at a Crucifix and an Ave-Mary in their thoughts and yet have truly repented though but in the general and in the croud of their unknown sins even of those very sins and have at the same instant true Faith in Jesus Christ and other Graces accompanying salvation But why then may not I will some Popeling say continue as I am and yet come to heaven as well as they continued what they were and yet went to heaven If I be an Idolater it is out of my Errour and Ignorance and if that general Prayer unto God at the last to forgive me all my Ignorances will serve the turn I may run the same course I do without danger or fear God will be merciful to me for what I do ignorantly Not to preclude all possibility of mercy from thee or from any sinner Consider yet there is a great difference between their state and thine between thine ignorance and theirs They had but a very small enjoyance of the light of Gods Word hid from them under two bushels for sureness under the bushel of a tyrannous Clergy that if any man should be able to understand the books he might not have them and under the bushel of an unknown tongue that if any man should chance to get the books he might not understand them Whereas to thee the light is holden forth and set on a Candlestick the books open the language plain legible and familiar They had eyes but saw not because the light was kept from and the land was dark about them as the darkness of Egypt But thou livest as in a Goshen where the light encompasseth thee in on all sides where there are burning and shining lamps in every corner of the land Yet is thy blindeness greater for who so blinde as he that will
the other And that either unto good or unto evil Of the former sort are such outward actions as being in Morall precepts indefinitely commanded are yet sometimes sinfully and ill done as giving an Alms hearing a Sermon reproving an Offender and the like Which are in themselves good and so be accounted rather than evil though some unhappy circumstance or other may make them ill Of the latter sort are such outward actions as being in Moral precepts indefinitely prohibited are yet in some cases lawfull and may be well done as swearing an oath travelling on the Sabbath day playing for money and the like Which are in themselves rather evil than good because they are ever evil unless all circumstances concur to make them good Now of these actions though the former sort carry the face of good the latter of evil yet in very truth both sorts are indifferent Understand me aright I do not mean indifferent indifferentiâ contradictionis such as may be indifferently either done or not done but indifferent onely indifferentiâ contrarietatis such as suppose the doing may be indifferently either good or evil because so they may be done as to be good and so they may be done also as to be evil But yet with this difference that those former though indifferent and in some cases evil are yet of themselves notably and eminently inclined unto good rather than evil and these later proportionably unto evil rather than good From which difference it cometh to passe that to the Question barely proposed concerning the former actions whether they be good or evil the answer is just and warrantable to say indefinitely they are good and contrarily concerning the later actions to say indefinitely they are evil Which difference well weighed to note that by the way would serve to justifie a common practice of most of us in the exercise of our Ministry against such as distaste our doctrine for it or unjustly otherwise take offence at it Ordinarily in our Sermons we indefinitely condemn as evil swearing and gaming for money and dancing and recreations upon the Sabbath day and going to Law and retaliation of injuries and Monopolies and raising of rents and taking forfeitures of Bonds c. and in our own coat Non-residency and Pluralities c. Most of which yet and many other of like nature most of us do or should know to be in some cases lawfull and therefore in the number of those indifferent things which we call Indifferentia ad unum You that are our hearers should bring so much charitable discretion with you when you heare us in the Pulpits condemn things of this nature as to understand us no otherwise than we either do or should mean and that is thus that such and such things are evill as now adaies through the corruptions of the times most men use them and such as therefore should not be adventured upon without mature and unpartiall disquisition of the uprightnesse of our affections therein and a severe triall of all circumstances whether they carry weight enough with them to give our consciences sufficient security not onely of their lawfulnesse in themselves and at large but of their particular lawfulnesse too unto us and then But this by the way Now to proceed There are divers meanes whereby things not simply evil but in themselves either equally or unequally indifferent may yet become accidentally evil Any defect or obliquity any unhappy intervening circumstance is enough to poyson a right good action and to make it stark naught I may as well hope to graspe the Sea as to comprehend all those meanes I make choice therefore to remember but a few of the chiefest such as happen oft and are very considerable Things not simply evil may accidentally become such as by sundry other meanes so especially by one of these three Conscience Scandall and Comparison First Conscience in regard of the Agent Though the thing be good yet if the Agent doe it with a condemning or but a doubting Conscience the Action becometh evill To him that esteemeth any thing to be uncleane to him it is uncleane and he that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith chap. 14. of this Epistle Secondly Scandall in regard of other men Though the thing be good yet if a brother stumble or be offended or be made weake by it the action becometh evill All things are pure but it is evill for that man who eateth with offence verse 20. there Thirdly Comparison in regard of other actions Though the thing be good yet if we preferre it before better things and neglect or omit them for it the action becometh evill Goe and learne what that is I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9. The stuffe thus prepared by differencing out those things which undistinguished might breed confusion our next businesse must be to lay the rule and to apply it to the severall kinds of evill as they have been differenced I foresaw we should not have time to goe thorow all that was intended and therefore we will content our selves for this time with the consideration of this Rule applyed to things simply evill In them the Rule holdeth perpetually and without exception That which is simply evill may not for any good be done We know not any greater good for there is not any greater good than the Glory of God we scarce know a lesser sinne if any sinne may be accounted little than a harmlesse officious lye Yet may not this be done no not for that Will you speake wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Iob 13.7 If not for the glory of God then certainly not for any other inferiour end not for the saving of a life not for the conversion of a soul not for the peace of a Church and if even that were possible too not for the redemption of a world No intention of any end can warrant the choice of sinfull meanes to compasse it The Reasons are strong One is because sinne in its own nature is de numero ineligibilium and therefore as not eligible propter se for it own sake there is neither forme nor beauty in it that we should desire it so neither propter aliud with reference to any farther end Actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem is the common resolution of the Schooles In civil and popular elections if men make choice of such a person to beare any office or place among them as by the locall Charters Ordinances Statutes or other Customes which should rule them in their choice is altogether ineligible the election is de jure nulla naught and void the incapacity of the person elected making a nullity in the act of election No lesse is it in morall actions and elections if for any intended end we make choice of such meanes as by the Law of God which is our rule and must guide us are ineligible and
a good man as well as a great and being good he was by so much the better by how much he was the greater Nor was he onely Bonus vir a good man and yet if but so his friends had done him much wrong to make him an Hypocrite but he was Bonus Civis too a good Common-wealths-man and therefore his friends did him yet more wrong to make him an Oppressour Indeed he was neither the one nor the other But it is not so useful for us to know what manner of man Iob was as to learn from him what manner of men we should be The grieved spirit of Iob indeed at first uttered these words for his own justification but the blessed spirit of God hath since written them for our instruction To teach us from Iobs example how to use that measure of greatness and power which he hath given us be it more be it lesse to his glory and the common good So that in these words we have to consider as laid down unto us under the person and from the example of Iob some of the main and principal duties which concern all those that live in any degree of Eminency or Authority either in Church or Common-wealth and more especially those that are in the Magistracy or in any office appertaining to Iustice. And those Duties are four One and the first as a more transcendent and fundamentall duty the other three as accessory helps thereto or subordinate parts thereof That first is a Care and Love and Zeal of Iustice. A good Magistrate should so make account of the administration of Iustice as of his chiefest businesse making it his greatest glory and delight Ver. 14. I put on righteousnesse and it clothed me my judgement was a robe and a diadem The second is a forwardnesse unto the works of Mercy and Charity and Compassion A good Magistrate should have compassion of those that stand in need of his help and be helpful unto them ver 15. and part of 16. I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a father to the poor The Third is Diligence in Examination A good Magistrate should not be hasty to credit the first tale or be carried away with light informations but he should hear and examine and scan and sift matters as narrowly as may be for the finding out of the truth in the remainder of ver 16. And the cause which I knew not I searched out The Fourth is Courage and Resolution in executing A good Magistrate when he goeth upon sure grounds should not fear the faces of men be they never so mighty or many but without respect of persons execute that which is equall and right even upon the greatest offender Ver. 17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth Of these four in their order of the first first in these words I put on righteousnesse c. This Metaphor of clothing is much used in the Scriptures in this notion as it is applyed to the soul things appertaining to the soul. In Psalm 109. David useth this imprecation against his enemies Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloke And the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ and his Kingdome and the righteousnesse thereof Chap. 11. thus describeth it Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulnesse the girdle of his reins Likewise in the New Testament Saint Paul in one place biddeth us put on the Lord Iesus Christ in another exhorteth women to adorn themselves instead of broydered hair and gold and pearls and costly aray with shamefastness and sobriety and as becoming women professing godlinesse with good works in a third furnisheth the spirituall souldier with Shooes Girdle Breastplate Helmet and all necessary accoutrements from top to toe In all which and other places where the like Metaphor is used it is ever to be understoood with allusion to one of the three speciall ends and uses of apparell For we clothe our selves either first for necessity and common decency to cover our nakednesse or secondly for security and defence against enemies or thirdly for state and solemnity and for distinction of offices and degrees Our cloaks and coats and ordinary suits we all wear to cover our nakednesse and these are Indumenta known by no other but by the generall name of Clothing or Apparel Souldiers in the warres wear Morions and Cuiraces and Targets and other habiliments for defence and these are called Arma Armes or Armour Kings and Princes were Crowns and Diadems inferiour Nobles and Judges and Magistrates and Officers their Robes and â—urres and Hoods and other ornaments fitting to their severall degrees and offices for solemnity of state and as ensigns or marks of those places and stations wherein God hath set them and these are Infulae Ornaments or Robes It is true Iustice and Iudgement and every other good vertue and grace is all this unto the soul serving her both for covert and for protection and for ornament and so stand both for the garments and for the armour and for the Robes of the soul. But here I take it Iob alludeth esecially to the third use The propriety of the very words themselves give it so for he saith he put righteousnesse and judgement upon him as a Robe and a Diadem and such things as there are worn not for necessity but state Iob was certainly a Magistrate a Iudge at the least it is evident from the seventh verse and to me it seemeth not improbable that he was a King though not likely such as the Kings of the earth now are whose dominions are mider and power more absolute yet possibly such as in those ancient times and in those Eastern parts of the world were called Kings viz. a kind of petty Monarch and supreme governour within his own territories though perhaps but of one single City with the Suburbs and some few neighbouring Villages In the first Chapter it is said that he was the greatest man of all the East and in this Chapter he saith of himself that When he came in presence the Princes and the Nobles held their tongues and that He sate as chief and dwelt as a King in the Army and in this verse he speaketh as one that wore a Diadem an ornament proper to Kings Now Kings we know and other Magistrates place much of their outward glory and state in their Diadems and Robes and peculiar Vestments these things striking a kind of reverence into the subject towards their Superiour and adding in the estimation of the people both glory and honour and Majesty to the person and withall pomp and state and solemnity to the actions of the wearer By this speech then of putting on Iustice and Iudgement as a Robe and a Diadem Iob sheweth that the glory and pride which Kings and Potentates
and he must pity the Poor as a father doth his children so pity them that he do something for them Princes and Iudges and Magistrates were not ordained altogether nor yet so much for their own sakes that they might have over whom to bear rule and to dominiere at pleasure as for the peoples sakes that the people might have to whom to resort and upon whom to depend for help and succour and relief in their necessities And they ought to remember that for this end GOD hath endued them with that power which others want that they might by their power help them to right who have not power to right themselves Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens c. Prodesse miseris supplices fido lare Protegere c. This is the very thing wherein the preeminence of Princes and Magistrates and great ones above the ordinary sort singularly consisteth and wherein specially they have the advantage and whereby they hold the title of Gods that they are able to do good and to help the distressed more than others are For which ability how they haue used it they stand accountable to him from whom they have received it and woe unto them if the accounts they bring in be not in some reasonable proportion answerable to the receipts Potentes potenter into whose hands much hath been given from their hands much will be required and the mighty ones if they have not done a mighty deale of good withall shall be mightily tormented And as they have received power from God so they do receive honours and services and tributes from their people for the maintenance of that power and these as wages by Gods righteous ordinance for their care and paines for the peoples good God hath imprinted in the naturall conscience of every man notions of fear and honour and reverence and obedience and subjection and contribution and other duties to be performed towards Kings and Magistrates and other superiours not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake and all this for the maintenance of that power in them by the right use whereof themselves are again maintained Now the same conscience which bindeth us who are under authority to the performance bindeth you who are in authority to the requitall of these duties I say the same Conscience though not the same wrath for here is the difference Both Wrath and Conscience bind us to our duties so that if we withdraw our subjection we both wound our own Consciences and incurre your just wrath but onely Conscience bindeth you to yours and not Wrath so that if ye withdraw your help we may not use wrath but must suffer it with patience and permit all to the judgement of your own consciences and of God the judge of all mens consciences But yet still in Conscience the obligation lyeth equally upon you and us As we are bound to give you honour so are you to give us safety as we to fear you so you to help us as we to fight for you so you to care for us as we to pay you tribute so you to do us right For For this cause pay we tribute and other duties unto you who are Gods ministers even because you ought to be attending continually upon this very thing to approve your selves as the ministers of God to us for good Oh that we could all superiours and inferiours both one and other remember what we owed each to other and by mutually striving to pay it to the utmost so endeavour our selves to God! But in the meane time we are still injurious if either we withdraw our subjection or you your help if either we cast off the duty of children or you the care of Fathers Time was when Iudges and Nobles and Princes delighted to be called by the name of Fathers The Philistims called their Kings by a peculiar appellative Abimelech as who say The King my Father In Rome the Senatours were of old time called Patres Fathers and it was afterwards accounted among the Romans the greatest title of honour that could be bestowed upon their Consuls Generals Emperours or whosoever had deserved best of the Common-wealth to have this addition to the rest of his stile Pater patriae a Father to his Country Naamans servants in 4 King· 5. call him Father My Father if the Prophet had commanded thee c. And on the other side David the King speaketh unto his Subjects as a Father to his children in Psal. 34. Come ye children c. and Solomon in the Proverbs every where My sonne even as Iob here accounteth himself a Father to the poor Certainly to shew that some of these had and that all good Kings and Governours should have a fatherly care over and bear a fatherly affection unto those that are under them All which yet seeing it is intended to be done in bonum universitatis must be so understood as that it may stand cum bono universitatis stand with equity and justice and with the common good For Mercy and Iustice must go together and help to temper the one the other The Magistrate and Governour must be a Father to the poor to protect him from injuries and to relieve his necessities but not to maintain him in idlenesse All that the Father oweth to the Child is not love and maintenance he oweth him too Education and he oweth him correction A Father may love his Childe too fondly and make him a wanton he may maintain him too highly and make him a prodigall But he must give him Nurture too as well as Maintenance lest he be better fed than taught and correct him too as well as love him lest he bring him most grief when he should reap most comfort from him Such a fatherly care ought the civil Magistrate to have over the poor He must carefully defend them from wrongs and oppressions he must providently take order for their convenient relief and maintenance But that is not all he must as well make provision to set them on work and see that they follow it and he must give them sharp correction when they grow idle stubborn dissolute or any way out of order This he should do and not leave the other undone There is not any speech more frequent in the mouthes of beggars and wanderers wherewith the Country now swarmeth then that men would be good to the poor and yet scarce any thing so much mistaken as that speech in both the termes of it most men neither understanding aright who are the poor nor yet what it is to be good to them Not he onely is good to the poor that delivereth him when he is oppressed nor is he onely good to the poor that relieveth him when he is distressed but he also is good to the poor that punisheth him when he is idle He is good to the poor that helpeth him when he wanteth and he
is no lesse good to the poor that whippeth him when he deserveth This is indeed to be good to the poor to give him that almes first which he wanteth most if he be hungry it is almes to feed him but if he be idle and untoward it is almes to whip him This is to be good to the poor But who then are the poor we should be good to as they interpret goodnesse Saint Paul would have Widowes honoured but yet those that are widowes indeed so it is meet the poor should be relieved but yet those that are poor indeed Not every one that begges is poor not every one that wanteth is poor not every one that is poor is poor indeed They are the poor whom we private men in Charity and you that are Magistrates in â—ustice stand bound to relieve who are old or impotent and unable to work or in these hard and depopulating times are willing but cannot be set on work or have a greater charge upon them than can be maintained by their work These and such as these are the poor indeed let us all be good to such as these Be we that are private men as brethren to these poor ones and shew them mercy be you that are Magistrates as Fathers to these poor ones and do them justice But as for those idle stubborn professed wanderers that can and may and will not work and under the name and habit of poverty rob the poor indeed of our almes and their maintenance let us harden our hearts against them and not give them do you execute the severity of the Law upon them and not spare them It is Saint Pauls Order nay it is the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost and we should all put to our helping hands to see it kept He that will not labour let him not eat These Ulcers and Drones of the Common-wealth are ill worthy of any honest mans almes of any good Magistrates protection Hitherto of the Magistrates second Duty with the Reasons and extent thereof I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a Father to the poor Followeth next the third Duty in these words The cause which I knew not I searched out Of which words some frame the Coherence with the former as if Iob had meant to clear his mercy to the poor from suspicion of partiality and injustice and as if he had said I was a Father indeed to the poor pitifull and mercifull to him and ready to shew him any lawfull favour but yet not so as in pity to him to forget or pervert justice I was ever carefull before I would either speak or do for him to be first assured his cause was right and good and for that purpose if it were doubtfull I searched it out and examined it before I would countenance either him or it Certainly thus to do is agreeable to the rule of Iustice yea and of Mercy too for it is one Rule in shewing Mercy that it be ever done salvis pietate justitiâ without prejudice done to piety and justice And as to this particular the commandment of God is expresse for it in Exod. 23. Thou shalt not countenance no not a poor man in his cause Now if we should thus understand the coherence of the words the speciall duty which Magistrates should hence learn would be indifferency in the administration of Justice not to make difference of rich or poor far or near friend or foe one or other but to consider onely and barely the equity and right of the cause without any respect of persons or partiall inclination this way or that way This is a very necessary duty indeed in a Magistrate of justice and I deny not but it may be gathered without any violence from these very words of my Text though to my apprehension not so much by way of immediate observation from the necessity of any such coherence as by way of consequence from the words themselves otherwise For what need all that care and paines and diligence in searching out the cause if the condition of the person might over-rule the cause after all that search and were not the judgement to be given meerly according to the goodnesse or badnesse of the cause without respect had to the person But the speciall duty which these words seem most naturally and immediately to impose upon the Magistrate and let that be the third observation is diligence and patience and care to hear and examine and enquire into the truth of things and into the equity of mens causes As the Physician before he prescribe receipt or diet to his patient will first feel the pulse and view the urine and observe the temper and changes in the body and be inquisitive how the disease began and when and what fits it hath and where and in what manner it holdeth him and inform himself every other way as fully as he can in the true state of the body that so he may proportion the remedies accordingly without errour so ought every Magistrate in causes of Justice before he pronounce sentence or give his determination whether in matters judiciall or criminall to hear both parties with equall patience to examine witnesses and other evidences advisedly and throughly to consider and wisely lay together all allegations and circumstances to put in quaeres and doubts upon the by and use all possible expedient meanes for the boulting out of the truth that so he may do that which is equall and right without errour A duty not without both Precept and Precedent in holy Scripture Moses prescribeth it in Deut. 17. in the case of Idolatry If there be found among you one that hath done thus or thus c. And it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently and behold it to be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel Then thou shalt bring forth that man c. The offender must be stoned to death and no eye pity him but it must be done orderly and in a legall course not upon a bare hear-say but upon diligent examination and inquisition and upon such full evidence given in as may render the fact certain so far as such cases ordinarily are capable of certainty And the like is again ordered in Deut. 19. in the case of false witnesse Both the men between whom the controversie is shall stand before the Iudges and the Iudges shall make diligent inquisition c. And in Iudg. 19. in the wronged Levites case whose Concubine was abused unto death at Gibeah the Tribes of Israel stirred up one another to do justice upon the inhabitants thereof and the method they proposed was this first to consider and consult of it and then to give their opinions But the most famous example in this kinde is that of King Solomon in 3 Kings 3. in the difficult case of the two Mothers
those temporal afflictions he inflicteth For as he rewardeth those few good things that are in evil men with these temporall benefits for whom yet in his Iustice he reserveth eternall damnation as the due wages by that Iustice of their grace-lesse impenitency so he punisheth those remnants of sin that are in Godly men with these temporal afflictions for whom yet in his mercy he reserveth Eternall salvation as the due wages yet by that mercy only of their Faith and repentance and holy obedience As Abraham said to the rich glutton in the Parable Luke 16. Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented As if he had said If thou hadst any thing good in thee remember thou hast had thy reward in earth already and now there remaineth for thee nothing but the full punishment of thine ungodlinesse there in Hell but as for Lazarus he hath had the chastisement of his infirmities on earth already and now remaineth for him nothing but the full reward of his godlinesse here in Heaven Thus the meditation of this Doctrine yieldeth good Comfort against temporal afflictions Here is yet a third Comfort and that of the three the greatest unto the godly in the firm assurance of their Eternal reward It is one of the Reasons why God temporally rewardeth the unsound obedience of natural carnal and unregenerate men even to give his faithfull servants undoubted assurance that he will in no wise forget their true and sound and sincere obedience Doth God reward Ahabs temporary Humiliation and will he not much more reward thy hearty and unfeined repentance Have the Hypocrites their reward and canst thou doubt of thine This was the very ground of all that comfort wherewith the Prodigal sonne sustained his heart and hope when he thus discoursed to his own soul If all the hired servants which are in my Fathers house have bread enough and to spare surely my Father will never be so unmindfull of me who am his Son though too too unworthy of that name as to let me perish for hunger Every temporal blessing bestowed upon the wicked ought to be of the child of God entertained as a fresh assurance given him of his everlasting reward hereafter Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his Concubines and sent them away but his onely son Isaac he kept with him and gave him all that he had Right so God giveth temporal gifts to Hypocrites and Cast-awayes who are bastards and not sonnes not sonnes of the free woman not sons of promise not born after the spirit and that is their portion when they have gotten that they have gotten all they are like to have there is no more to be looked for at his hands But as for the inheritance he reserveth that for his dear Children the godly who are Born after the spirit and Heires according unto promise on these he bestoweth all that ever he hath all things are theirs for on them he bestoweth his Son the heir of all things in whom are hid all the treasures of all good things and together with whom all other things are conveyed and made over unto them as accessories and appurtenances of him and on them he bestoweth Himself who is All in all In whose presence is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore To which joy unspeakable and glorious O thou the Father of mercies who hast promised it unto us bring us in the end for thy dear Sonnes sake Jesus Christ who hath purchased it for us and given into our hearts the earnest of his and thy holy Spirit to seal it unto us To which blessed Son and holy Spirit together with thee O Father three persons and one only wise gracious glorious Almighty and eternal Lord God be ascribed by us and all thy faithfull people throughout the world the whole kingdome power and glory for ever and ever Amen Amen THE SECOND SERMON AD POPVLVM At Grantham L inc Febr. 27. 1620 3. Kings 21.29 because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his dayes I Will not so farr either distrust your memories or straiten my self of time for the delivery of what I am now purposed to speak as to make any large repetition of the particulars which were observed the last time from the consideration of Ahabs person and condition who was but an Hypocrite taken joyntly with his present carriage together with the occasion and successe thereof He was humbled It was the voyce of God by his Prophet that humbled him Upon his humbling God adjourneth his punishment From all which was noted 1. that there might be even in Hypocrites an outward formal humiliation 2. the power and efficacy of the word of God able to humble an oppressing Ahab 3. the boundlesse mercy of God in not suffering the outward formal humiliation of an ungodly Hypocrite to passe altogether unrewarded All this the last time by occasion of those first clauses in the verse Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not We are now next to consider of the great Favour which it pleased God to shew to Ahab upon his humiliation what it was and wherein it consisted It was the Removal at least for a time that is the suspension of an heavy judgement denounced against Ahab and his house most deservedly for his bloody and execrable oppression Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days The Evil which God now promiseth he will not bring I will not bring the evil in his days is that which in verse 21. he hath threatned he would bring upon Ahab and upon his house Behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will make thy house like the house of Ieroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Abijah for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin A great judgement and an heavy but the greater the judgement is when it is deserved and threatned the greater the mercy is if it be afterwards forborn as some of this was But whatsoever becommeth of the judgement here we see is mercy good store God who is rich in mercy and delighted to be stiled the God of mercies and the Father of mercies abundantly manifesteth his mercy in dealing thus graciously with one that deserved it so little Here is mercy in but threatning the punishment when he might have inflicted it and more mercy in not inflicting the punishment when he had threatned it Here is mercy first in suspending the Punishment I will not bring
it for his time I will not bring the evil in his dayes As if God had said This wretched King hath provoked me and pulled down a curse from me upon his house which it were but just to bring upon him and it without farther delay yet because he made not a scoff at my Prophet but took my words something to heart and was humbled by them he shall not say but I will deal mercifully with him and beyond his merit as ill as he deserveth it I will do him this favour I will not bring the evil that is determined against his house in his dayes The thing I would observe hence is That When God hath determined a judgement upon any people family or place it is his great mercy to us if he do not let us live to see it It cannot but be a great grief I say not now to a religious but even to any soul that hath not quite cast off all natural affection to forethink and foreknow the future calamities of his countrey and kindred Xerxes could not forbear weeping beholding his huge army that followed him onely to think that within some few scores of years so many thousands of proper men would be all dead and rotten and yet that a thing that must needs have happened by the necessity of nature if no sad accident or common calamity should hasten the accomplishment of it The declination of a Common-wealth and the funeral of a Kingdome foreseen in the general corruption of manners and decay of discipline the most certain symtomes of a totering State have fetched teares from the eyes and bloud from the hearts of heathen men zealously affected to their Countrey How much more grief then must it needs be to them that acknowledge the true God not only to foreknow the extraordinary plagues and miseries and calamities which shall befall their posterity but also to fore-read in them Gods fierce wrath and heavy displeasure and bitter vengeance against their own sins and the sins of their posterity Our blessed Saviour though himself without sinne and so no way accessory to the procuring of the evils that should ensue could not yet but Weep over the City of Ierusalem when he beheld the present security and the future ruine thereof A grief it is then to know these things shall happen but some happinesse withall and to be acknowledged as a great favour from God to be assured that we shall never see them It is no small mercy in him it is no small Comfort to us if either he take us away before his judgements come or keep his judgements away till we be gone When God had told Abraham in Gen. 15. that his seed should be a stranger in a land that was not theirs meaning Egypt where they should be kept under and afflicted 400 years lest the good Patriarch should have been swallowed up with grief at it he comfortteth him as with a promise of their glorious deliverance at the last so with a promise also of prosperity to his own person and for his own time But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace and shalt be buried in a good old age vers 15. In Esay 39. when Hezekiah heard from the mouth of the Prophet Esaiah that all the treasures in the Lords house should be carried into Babylon and that his sonnes whom he should beget should be taken away and made Eunuches in the palace of the King of Babylon he submitted himself as it became him to do to the sentence of God and comforted himself with this that yet there should be peace and truth in his dayes verse 8. In 4 Kings 22. when Huldah had prophesied of the evil that God would bring upon the City of Ierusalem and the whole land of Iudah in the name of the Lord she pronounceth this as a courtesie from the Lord unto good King Iosiah Because thy heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place verse last Indeed every man should have and every good man hath an honest care of posterity would rejoyce to see things setled well for them would grieve to see things likely to go ill with them That common speech which was so frequent with Tiberius was monstrous and not favouring of common humanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I am gone let Heaven and Earth be jumbled again into their old Chaos but he that mended it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea saith he whilest I live seemeth to have renounced all that was man in him Aristotle hath taught us better what reason taught him that Res posterorum pertinent ad defunctos the good or evil of those that come after us doth more than nothing concern us when we are dead and gone This is true but yet Proximus egomet mî though it were the speech of a Shark in the Comedy will bear a good construction Every man is neerest to himself and that Charity which looketh abroad and seeketh not only her own yet beginneth at home and seeketh first her own Whence it is that a godly man as he hath just cause to grieve for posterities sake if they must feel Gods judgements so he hath good cause to rejoyce for his own sake if he shall escape them and he is no lesse to take knowledge of Gods Mercy in sparing him than of his Iustice in striking them This point is usefull many ways I will touch but some of them and that very briefly First here is one Comfort among many other against the bitternesse of temporal death If God cut thee off in the middest of thy days and best of thy strength if death turn thee pale before age have turned thee gray if the flower be plucked off before it begin to wither grudge not at thy lot therein but meet Gods Messenger cheerfully and imbrace him thankfully It may be God hath some great work in hand from which he meaneth to save thee It may be he sendeth death to thee as he sent his Angel to Lot to pluck thee out of the middest of a froward and crooked generation and to snatch thee away lest a worse thing than death should happen unto thee Cast not therefore a longing eye back upon Sodome neither desire to linger in the plain it is but a valley of tears and misery but up to the mountain from whence commeth thy salvation lest some evil overtake thee Possibly that which thou thinkest an untimely death may be to thee a double advantage a great advantage in ushering thee so early into GODS glorious presence and some advantage too in plucking thee so seasonably from Gods imminent Iudgements It is a favour to be taken away betimes when evil is determined upon those that are left
is the harmony and conjuncture of the Parts exceeding in goodnesse beauty and perfection yet so as no one part is superfluous or unprofitable or if considered singly and by it self destitute of its proper goodnesse and usefulnesse As in the Natural Body of a Man not the least member or string or sinew but hath his proper office and comelinesse in the body and as in the artificial Body of a Clock or other engine of motion not the least wheel or pinne or notch but hath his proper work and use in the Engine God hath given to every thing he hath made that number weight and measure of perfection and goodnesse which he saw fittest for it unto those ends for which he made it Every Creature of God is good A truth so evident that even those among the Heathen Philosophers who either denied or doubted of the worlds Creation did yet by making Ens and Bonum terms convertible acknowledge the goodnesse of every Creature It were a shame then for us who Through Faith understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God if our assent unto this truth should not be by so much firmer than theirs by how much our evidence for it is stronger than theirs They perceived the thing we the ground also they saw it was so we why it is so Even because it is the work of God A God full of goodnesse a God who is nothing but goodnesse a God essentially and infinitely good yea very Goodnesse it self As is the Workman such is his workmanship Nor for degree that is here impossible but for the truth of the Quality not alike good with him but like to him in being good In every Creature there are certain tracks and footsteps as of Gods Essence whereby it hath its Being so of his goodness too wherby it also is good The Manichees saw the strength of this Inference Who though they were so injurious unto the Creatures as to repute some of them evil yet durst not be so absurd as to charge the true God to be the cause of those they so reputed Common reason taught them that from the good God could not proceed any evil thing no more than Darkness could from the light of the Sun or Cold from the heat of the fire And therefore so to defend their Errour as to avoid this absurdity they were forced to maintain another absurdity indeed a greater though it seemed to them the lesse of the two viz. to say there were two Gods a Good God the Author of all good things and an Evil Good the Author of all evil things If then we acknowledge that there is but one God and that one God good and we doe all so acknowledge unless we will be more absurd than those most absurd Hereticks we must withall acknowledge all the Creatures of that one and good God to be also good He is so the causer of all that is good for Every good gift and every perfect giving descendeth from above from the Father of lights as that he is the causer only of what is good for with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning saith S. Iames. As the Sun who is Pater Luminum the fountain and Father of lights whereunto S. Iames in that passage doth apparently allude giveth light to the Moon and Stars and all the lights of heaven and causeth light wheresoever he shineth but no where causeth darkness So God the Father and fountain of all goodness so communicateth goodness to every thing he produceth as that he cannot produce any thing at all but that which is good Every Creature of God then is good Which being so certainly then first to raise some Inferences from the premisses for our farther instruction and use certainly I say Sin and Death and such things as are evil and not good are not of Gods making they are none of his Creatures for all his Creatures are good Let no man therefore say when he is tempted and overcome of sin I am tempted of God neither let any man say when he hath done evil it was Gods doing God indeed preserveth the Man actuateth the Power and ordereth the Action to the glory of his Mercy or Iustice but he hath no hand at all in the sinfull defect and obliquity of a wicked action There is a natural or rather transcendental Goodnesse Bonitas Entis as they call it in every Action even in that whereto the greatest sin adhereth and that Goodness is from God as that Action is his Creature But the Evil that cleaveth unto it is wholly from the default of the Person that committeth it and not at all from God And as for the Evils of Pain also neither are they of Gods making Deus mortem non fecit saith the Author of the Book of Wisdom God made not death neither doth he take pleasure in the destruction of the living but wicked men by their words and works have brought it upon themselves Perditio tua exte Israel Osea 13. O Israel thy destrâ—ction is from thy self that is both thy sin whereby thou destroyest thy self and thy Misery whereby thou art destroyed is only and wholly from thy self Certainly God is not the Cause of any Evil either of Sin or Punishment Conceive it thus not the Cause of it formally and so farr forth as it is Evil. For otherwise we must know that materially considered all Evils of Punishment are from God for Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 In Evils of sinne there is no other but only that Natural or Transcendental goodness whereof we spake in the Action which goodness though it be from God yet because the Action is Morally bad God is not said to doe it But in Evils of Punishment there is over and besides that Natural Goodness whereby they exist a kind of Moral Goodness as we may call it after a sort improperly and by way of reduction as they are Instruments of the Iustice of God and whatsoever may be referred to Iustice may so farr forth be called good and for that very goodness God may be said in some sort to be the Author of these evils of punishment though not also of those other evils of Sin In both we must distinguish the Good from the Evil and ascribe all the Good whatsoever it be Transcendental Natural Moral or if there be any other to God alone but by no means any of the Evil. We are unthankfull if we impute any good but to him and we are unjust if we impute to him any thing but good Secondly from the goodness of the least Creature guesse we at the excellent goodness of the great Creator Ex pede Herculem God hath imprinted as before I said some steps and footings of his goodness in the Creatures from which we must take the best scantling we are capable of of those
not see and more inexcusable because thou shuttest thine eyes against the light lest thou shouldst see and be converted and God should heal thee Briefly they wanted the light thou shunnest it they lived in darkness thou delightest in it their ignorance was simple thine affected and wilful And therefore although we doubt not but that the times of their ignorance God winked at yet thou hast no warrant to presume that God will also in these times wink at thee who rejectest the counsel of God against thine own soul and for want of love and affection to the truth art justly given over to strong delusions to believe fables and to put thy confidence in things that are lies So much for that matter Secondly here is a needful admonition for us all not to flatter our selves for our ignorance of those things that concern us in our general or particular Callings as if for that ignorance our reckoning should be easier at the day of judgement Ignorance indeed excuseth sometimes sometimes lesseneth a fault but yet not all ignorance all faults not wilful and affected ignorance any fault Nay it is so far from doing that that on the contrary it maketh the offence much more grievous and the offender much more inexcusable A heedless servant that neither knoweth nor doth his Masters will deserveth some stripes A stubborn servant that knoweth it and yet transgresseth it deserveth more stripes But worse than them both is that ungracious servant who fearing his Master will appoint him something he had rather let alone keepeth himself out of the way beforehand and michâ—th in a corner out of sight of purpose that he might not know his Masters will that so he may after stand upon it when he is chidden and say He knew it not such an untoward servant deserveth yet more stripes Would the Spirit of God think you in the Scripture so often cal upon us to get the knowledge of Gods will and to increase therein or would he commence his suit against a land and enter his action against the people thereof for want of such knowledge if ignorance were better or safer O it is a fearful thing for a man to shun instruction and to say he desireth not the knowledge of God Nâ—â—uerunt intelligere ut bene agerent When men are once come to that pass that they will not understand nor seek after God when they hate the light because they take pleasure in the works of darkness when they are afraid to know too much lest their hearts should condemn them for not doing thereafter when like the deaf Adder they stop their ears against the voyce of the charmer for fear they should be charmed by the power of that voyce out of their crooked and Serpentine courses when they are so resolved to take freedom to sin that they chuse to be still Ignorant rather than hazard the foregoing of any part of that freedom what do they but even run on blindfold into hell and through inner poast along unto utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Frustrà sibi de ignorantiâ blandiuntur saith S. Bernard qui ut liberiùs peccent libenter ignorant Saint Paul so speaketh of such men as if their case were desperate If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant as who say if he will needs be wilful at his peril be it But as many as desire to walk in the fear of God with upright and sincere hearts let them thirst after the knowledge of God and his will as the Hart after the rivers of waters let them cry after knowledge and lift up their voices for understanding let them seek it as silver and dig for it as for hid treasures let their feet tread often in Gods Courts and even wear the thresholds of his house let them delight in his holy Ordinances and rejoyce in the light of his Word depending upon the ministery thereof with unsatisfied ears and unwearted attention and feeding thereon with uncloyed appetites that so they may see and hear and learn and understand and believe and obey and increase in wisedom and in grace and in favour with God and all good men But then in the third place consider that if all ignorance will not excuse an offender though some do how canst thou hope to finde any colour of excuse or extenuation that sinnest wilfully with knowledge and against the light of thine own conscience The least sin thus committed is in some degree a Presumptuous sin and carryeth with it a contempt of God and in that regard is greater than any sin of Ignorance To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is a sin saith Saint Iames Sin beyond all plea of excuse Saint Paul though he were a Persecutor of the Truth a Blasphemer of the Lord and injurious to the Brethren yet he obtained Mercy because he did all that ignorantly His bare ignorance was not enough to justifie him but he stood need of Gods mercy or else he had perished in those sins for all his ignorance But yet who can tell whether ever he should have found that mercy if he had done the same things and not in ignorance Ignorance then though it do not deserve pardon yet it often findeth it because it is not joyned with open contempt of him that is able to pardon But he that sinneth against knowledge doth Ponere obicem if you will allow the phrase and it may be allowed in this sense he doth not only provoke the Iustice of God by his sin as every other sinner doth but he doth also damb up the Mercy of God by his contempt and doth his part to shut himself out for ever from all possibility of pardon unless the boundless over-flowing mercy of God come in upon him with a strong tide and with an unresisted current break it self a passage through Do this then my beloved Brethren Labour to get knowledge labour to increase your knowledge labour to abound in knowledge but beware you rest not in your knowledge Rather give all diligence to adde to your knowledge Temperance and Patience and Godliness and brotherly kindeness and Charity and other good graces Without these your knowledge is unprofitable nay damnable Qui apponit scientiam apponit dolorem is true in this sense also He that increaseth knowledge unless his care of obedience rise in some good proportion with it doth but lay more rods in steep for his own back and increase the number of his stripes and adde to the weight and measure of his own most just condemnation Know this that although Integrity of heart may stand with some ignorances as Abimelech here pleadeth it and God alloweth it yet that mans heart is devoid of all singlenesse and sincerity who alloweth himself in any course he knoweth to be sinful or taketh this liberty to
as if he should have said I know my self better than you do and therefore so long as I know nothing by my self of those things wherein you censure me I little reckon what either you or any others shall think or say by me We may by his example make use of this the inward testimony of our hearts being sufficient to justifie us against the accusations of men but we may not rest upon this as if the acquital of our hearts were sufficient to justifie us in the sight of God S. Paul knew it who durst not rest thereupon but therefore addeth in the very next following words Yea I judge not mine own self for I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Our hearts are close and false and nothing so deceitful as they and who can know them perfectly but he that made them and can search into them Other men can know very little of them our selves something more but God alone all If therefore when other men condemn us we finde our selves agrieved we may remove our cause into an Higher Court appeal from them to our own Consciences and be relieved there But that is not the Highest Court of all there lyeth yet an appeal further and higher than it even to the Iudgement-seat or rather to the Mercy-seat of God who both can finde just matter in us to condemn us even in those things wherein our own hearts have acquitted us and yet can withall finde a gracious means to justifie us even from those things wherein our own hearts condemn us Whether therefore our hearts condemn us or condemn us not God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things To conclude all this point and therewithal the first general part of my Text Let no Excusations of our own Consciences on the one side or confidence of any integrity in our selves make us presume we shall be able to stand just in the sight of God if he should enter into Judgement with us but let us rather make suit unto him that since we cannot understand all our own errors he would be pleased to cleanse us from our secret sins And on the other side let no accusations of our own Consciences or guiltiness of our manifold frailties and secret hypocrisies make us despair of obtaining his favour and righteousness if denying our selves and renouncing all integrity in our selves as of our selves we cast our selves wholly at the footstool of his mercy and seek his favour in the face of his only begotten Son Iesus Christ the righteous Of the former branch of Gods reply to Abimelech in those former words of the Text Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart hitherto I now proceed to the latter branch thereof in those remaining words For I also with-held thee from sinning against me therefore suffered I thee not to touch her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifieth properly to hold in or to keep back Retinui or Cohibui or as the Latine hath it Custodivi te implying Abimelechs forwardness to that sin certainly he had been gone if God had not kept him in and held him back The Greek rendreth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I spared thee and so the Latine Parcere is sometimes used for impedire or prohibere to hinder or not to suffer as in that of Virgil Parcite oves nimium procedere Or taking parcere in the most usual signification for sparing it may very well stand with the purpose of the place for indeed God spareth us no less indeed he spareth us much more when he maketh us forbear to sin than when having sinned he forbeareth to punish and as much cause have we to acknowledge his mercy and to rejoyce in it when he holdeth our hands that we sin not as when he holdeth his own hands that he strike not For I also with-held thee from sinning against me How Did not Abimelech sin in taking Sarah or was not that as every other sin is a sin against God Certainly if Abimelech had not sinned in so doing and that against God God would not have so plagued him as he did for that deed The meaning then is not that God with-held him wholly from sinning at all therein but that God with-held him from sinning against him in that foul kinde and in that high degree as to defile himself by actual filthiness with Sarah which but for Gods restraint he had done Therefore suffered I thee not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non dimisi te that is I did not let thee go I did not leave thee to thy self or most agreeably to the letter of the Text in the Hebrew Non dedi or non tradidi I did not deliver or give That may be non dedi potestatem I did not give thee leave or power and so giving is sometimes used for suffering as Psal. 16. Non dabis sanctum tuum Thou wilt not suffer c. and elsewhere Or non dedi te tibi I gave thee not to thy self A man cannot be put more desperately into the hands of any enemy than to be left in manu consilii sui delivered into his own hands and given over to the lust of his own heart Or as it is here translated I suffered thee not We should not draw in God as a party when we commit any sin as if he joyned with us in it or lent us his helping hand for it we do it so alone without his help that we never do it but when he letteth us alone and leaveth us destitute of his help For the kinde and manner and measure and circumstances and events and other the appurtenances of sin God ordereth them by his Almighty power and providence so as to become serviceable to his most wise most just most holy purposes but as for the very formality it self of the sin God is to make the most of it but a sufferer Therefore suffered I thee not To touch her Signifying that God had so far restrained Abimelech from the accomplishment of his wicked and unclean purposes that Sarah was preserved free by his good providence not only from actual adultery but from all unchaste and wanton dalliance also with Abimelech It was Gods great mercy to all the three parties that he did not suffer this evil to be done for by this means he graciously preserved Abimelech from the sin Abraham from the wrong and Sarah from both And it is to be acknowledged the great mercy of God when at any time he doth and he doth ever and anon more or less by his gracious and powerful restraint with-hold any man from running into those extremities of sin and mischief whereinto his own corruption would carry him headlong especially when it is set a gog by the cunning perswasions of Satan and the manifold temptations that are in the world through lust
Hell into one band to do us any harm in our souls in our bodies in our children in our friends in our goods no not so much as our very Pigs or any small thing that we have without the special leave and sufferance of our good God He must have his Dedimus potestatem from him or he can do nothing Fourthly since this restraint is an act of Gods mercy whom we should strive to resemble in nothing more than in shewing mercy let every one of us in imitation of our Heavenly Father and in compassion to the souls of our brethren and for our own good and the good of humane society endeavour our selves faithfully the best we can to restrain and withhold and keep back others from sinning The Magistrate the Minister the Housholder every other man in his place and calling should do their best by rewards punishments rebukes incouragements admonitions perswasions good example and other like means to suppress vice and restrain disorders in those that may any way come within their charge Our first desire should be and for that we should bend our utmost endeavours that if it be possible their hearts might be seasoned with grace and the true fear of God but as in other things where we cannot attain to the full of our first aims Pulchrum est as he saith in secundis tertiisve consistere so here we may take some contentment in it as some fruit of our labours in our Callings if we can but wean them from gross disorders and reduce them from extremely debaucht courses to some good measure of Civility It ought not to be it is not our desire to make men Hypocrites and a meer Civil man is no better yet to us that cannot judge but by the outward behaviour it is less grief when men are Hypocrites than when they are Profane Our first aim is to make you good yet some rejoycing it is to us if we can but make you less evil Our aim is to make you of Natural holy and Spiritual men but we are glad if of dissolute we can but make you good Moral men if in stead of planting Grace we can but root out Vice if in stead of the power of Godliness in the reformation of the inner-man we can but bring you to some tolerable stayedness in the conformity of the outward-man If we can do but this though we are to strive for that our labour is not altogether in vain in the Lord. For hereby first mens sins are both less and fewer and that secondly abateth somewhat both of the number and weight of their stripes and maketh their punishment the easier and thirdly there is less scandal done to Religion which receiveth not so much soil and dis-reputation by close hypocrisie as by lewd and open prophaneness Fourthly the Kingdome of Satan is diminished though not directly in the strength for he loseth never a Subject by it yet somewhat in the glory thereof because he hath not so full and absolute command of some of his subjects as before he had or seemed to have Fifthly much of the hurt that might come by evil example is hereby prevented Sixthly the people of God are preserved from many injuries and contumelies which they would receive from evil men if their barbarous manners were not thus civilized as a fierce Mastiffe doth least hurt when he is chained and muzled Seventhly and lastly and which should be the strongest motive of all the rest to make us industrious to repress vicious affections in others it may please God these sorry beginnings may be the fore-runners of more blessed and more solid graces My meaning is not that these Moral restraints of our wilde corruption can either actually or but virtually prepare dispose or qualifie any man for the grace of Conversion and Renovation or have in them Virtutem seminalem any natural power which by ordinary help may be cherished and improved so far as an Egge may be hatched into a Bird and a kirnel sprowt and grow into a tree far be it from us to harbour any such Pelagian conceipts but this I say that God being a God of order doth not ordinarily work but in order and by degrees bringing men from the one extream to the other by middle courses and therefore seldom bringeth a man from the wretchedness of forlorn nature to the blessed estate of saving grace but where first by his restraining grace in some good measure he doth correct nature and moralize it Do you then that are Magistrates do we that are Ministers let all Fathers Masters and others whatsoever by wholesome severity if fairer courses will not reclaim them deter audacious persons from offending break those that are under our charge of their wills and wilfulness restrain them from lewd and licentious practises and company not suffer sin upon them for want of reproving them in due and seasonable sort snatch them out of the fire and bring them as far as we can out of the snare of the Devil to God-ward and leave the rest to him Possibly when we have faithfully done our part to the utmost of our power he will set in graciously and begin to do his part in their perfect conversion If by our good care they may be made to forbear swearing and cursing and blaspheming they may in time by his good grace be brought to fear an Oath If we restrain them from grosse prophanations upon his holy-day in the mean time they may come at length to think his Sabbath a delight If we keep them from swilling and gaming and revelling and rioting and roaring the while God may frame them ere long to a sober and sanctified use of the Creatures and so it may be said of other sins and duties I could willingly inlarge all these points of Inferences but that there are yet behinde sundry other good Uses to be made of this restraining Grace of God considered as it may lye upon our selves and therefore I now passe on to them First there is a root of Pride in us all whereby we are apt to think better of our selves than there is cause and every infirmity in our brother which should rather be an item to us of our frailty serveth as fuel to nourish this vanity and to swell us up with a Pharisaical conceit that forsooth we are not like other men Now if at any time when we see any of our brethren fall into some sin from which by the good hand of God upon us we have been hitherto preserved we then feel this swelling begin to rise in us as sometimes it will do the point already delivered may stand us in good stead to prick the bladder of our pride and to let out some of that windy vanity by considering that this our forbearance of evill wherein we seem to excell our brother is not from nature but from grace not from our selves but from God And here a little let me close with