by this he doth whatsoever he pleaseth in the Heavens and in the Earth The former will which stands in commanding promiseing and the like may be and is too oft resisted and made ineffectuall by men this latter neuer possibly except men be stronger then God By it his power availeth to make things to be which were not to continue them that are to work all good and to order all evill unto good And as the works of Gods power according to his will are manifold so hath he wrought them all in wisdom For notwithstanding both the absolutenesse of his will and infinitenesse of his power in regard whereof one saith It is more becoming God to ascribe any power to him then to make him impotent yet is he neither wilfull in willing nor unwealdy in working By his wisdom he not onely eternally and infallibly knoweth himself and all Creatures that are or can be and what either he or they or both together will do or can do and that upon supposition of whatsoever can be supposed but both willeth and doth in time himself what he willeth and doth it also for good cause and to good purpose and accordingly either on the one side hinders or on the other sustains effects and orders everie motion of everie Creature By exerciseing these Attributes God worketh all his works whether immediate by himself alone or mediate by the creatures which he useth of all kindes and everie one according to his kinde whether good or evill reasonable or without reason By Gods works I mean all things whatsoever are in the World or haue any being and existence In nature For He hath made the whole World and all things therein In him we live and move and have our being He giveth all to all things And of him and through him and for him are all things As he gives being unto all things that are by communicateing the effects of his being with them so is there nothing either so casuall in regard of men as that he directs it not or so voluntarie as that he determines it not Nothing so firm but he sustains it nor so small but he regards it nor so great but he rules it nor so evill but he over-rules it Neither can any of the works of God possibly be other then verie good and righteous seeing they are all wrought by the exerciseing of his holy will divine power and godly wisdom And if a simple man ow the honour to him that is of greater wisdom and understanding then himself to think upon occasion that the other hath reason for that which he speaks or does though he in his shallownes cannot reach unto it how much more do all men and Angels ow this honour unto God to beleev alwaies that whatsoever he saith is true and whatsoever he doth good and righteous though they discern not the reason of it Some of the works of God are such as we can rather admire at them then discern of them Some again are such as at which proud flesh is ready to repine and murmur Amongst the works of Gods most wise and powerfull providence upon bodily things it is most admirable that the Heavenly bodies the Sun Moon and Starres should by their influence and operation have such power and effects upon the bodies here below as to change order and dispose the Ayer Earth and Water with all things framed and compounded of them as they appear to do by Scripture sence and experience Yet if we consider besides the two greatest lights and most powerfull agents the Sun and Moon the numberlesse number of the Stars their huge greatnesse the varietie and excellencie of vertues wherewith they are furnished far above the most precious Pearls or any earthly quintessence and with all these the infinite power and wisdom of him that made and constituted them it will not seem incredible unto us that the least suddainest naturall change in the Ayer Water or other Elementarie bodies should be wrought by the position and disposition of the Stars and Celestiall bodies Neither doth this at all diminish or detract from the honour of the Lord in governing the World but rather amplifieth it as it ads to the honour of the skilfull Artificer so at the first to frame his Clock or other work of like curious deuise as that the severall parts should constantly move and order ech other in infinite varietie he as the Maker and first Mover moveing and ordering all Where yet this difference must alwaies be minded that the Artisan leavs his work being once framed to it self but God by continuall influx preservs and orders both the being and motions of all Creatures Here also we except both unnaturall accidents and specially supernaturall miraculous events which are as it were so many particular creations by the immediate hand of God In them that are made partakers of the grace of God the remainders of corrupt reason is readiest to rise up at the work of Gods providence in the prosperitie of the way of the wicked and workers of iniquitie especially if they themselvs be pressed with any singular afflictions as we may see in David Ieremy and other But the same men of God who were in their persons present exampls of humain frailtie do in their writeings by the Holy Ghost affoard us matter sufficient for Divine comfort and direction As first that before we come to plead with God how his works are righteous we know and acknowledg them all to be righteous that so we may learn how and wherein their righteousnesse consists Secondly that God is both as good to those whom he loves in their afflictions as in their prosperitie and as wroth with his enemies in their momentarie prosperitie as if his rod were already upon their backs Thirdly that he hath appointed a day in which he will right whatsoever seemeth crooked in the mean while and will fully and for ever recompence both the good and evill In the expectation of which day and of the work of the Lord in it we should satisfie our selvs for the present and suspend our thoughts till the manifestation of his righteous Iudgment therein In them that desire to establish mans righteousnesse rather then Gods either righteousnesse or power fleshly reason is most apt to quarrell partly that work of Gods mercie by which he freely justifies a sinner and partly those his just dispensations upon which followeth the Creatures sin and miserie for sin But for the former It stands not with the riches of Gods mercie and grace whereof he would make full manifestation in the justifying of sinners to borrow any thing of mans merit but well becomes his bountie freely to bestow both the gift and hand to receav it For the latter It must be considered that Gods work so far as it is his is good as well in the sinfull doings or miserable sufferings of men as in their most holy and happy estate The
with application to the present state of things is not to hold decorum but hath an appearance more oratour then preacher-like We are never simply to desire crosses because they are naturall evils nor to abhor from them because we know they work together with our election calling justification and sanctification for our good Not as causes thereof as the forenamed are for the effects of sin cannot be the causes of righteousnes or happines nor yet as means properly as are the word sacraments prayer and examples of good men but onely as occasions capable of sanctification to our use which sins properly are not as having no good in them as such whereas afflictions have a morall good in them as they are of God and by him inflicted Though to speak of crosses most properly God sanctifies us to them in giving us grace to make a right use of them And considering how it is both good for us to be afflicted and that God hath promised that no good thing shall be lacking to them that fear him we are thus to make account that God afflicts us as he doth not onely in justice for sin but in faythfulnes also that is both in mercy and in truth of promise and must accordingly confesse with the man of God I know O Lord that thy judgments are righteous and that thou in faithfulnes hast afflicted me and so must learn to take our severall crosses at Gods hands not onely patiently but thankfully We have cause to thank our selvs and our sins that wholesom things both for body and soul are for the most part bitter and greivous to our nature and to thank God that makes afflictions bitter-sweets by turning deserved curses into fatherly corrections to us It is commonly receaved for truth that in all adversitie the greatest miserie is sometimes to have been happy But we must here use a distinction If we onely respect the time in which we are in miserie apart from the former time we are both more sensible of our present miserie by remembring our former happines and also more tender and delicate and so lesse able to bear it But if we consider our whole life together then the lesse time we are afflicted the lesse our afflictions are in that respect and so must be mynded of us It is not nothing that God hath given us to passe over some part of our dayes in peace and with comfort neyther must we be so unthankfull as to account it no benefit because it is past but we must contrarywise something quiet ourselvs in our present affliction with the remembrance of Gods goodnes in our former peace as did our example of patience who in the extreamitie of his present distresse sayd shall we receav good at the hand of God and shall we not receav evill Reason teacheth this except in a case when God lifts up a man on high that he may the more violently through him down how much more fayth which perswades the godly mans heart that the Lord loves him as well as much in his after afflicted estate as he did before in his prosperous as the gold-smith esteems his gold as much though melting in the furnace as glittering in the shop and that the same God will both give patience and strength of fayth according to the tryall and encrease of strength if he encrease the affliction as also full deliverance in due time He will redeem Israel from all his trouble As even good men perform their whole duetie to God with some corruption mingled among so God promiseth and performeth accordingly the good things of this life with exception of the crosse and tribulation If we could amend the one God would leav out the other The Lord who tryed Abraham in his son Isaak whom he loved and the rich young man in his riches which he loved knows well in what veyn to strike a man that the blood may follow The more we love any earthly thing we are the more in danger to be crossed in or about it Not that God envyes our delights as one man often envyes anothers but eyther because we do or lest we should surfet in affections towards it Most men are moved too much with their own miseryes in this world melting in them as wax in the sun so as they are unapt to hold any impression eyther of fayth or reason but are too litle moved with other mens calamities not affoarding them so much as a compassionate affection Yet may and doth the contrary extream of over pittying others also prevayl with some Against both which it is good to consider that eyther we and they reap spirituall benefit by our afflictions or no. If the former that may and ought to moderate the greif If not there is cause of greater greif for after greater afflictions to come upon us and them A man may much encrease or lessen a crosse by the course which he suffers his mynde to run in it seeing all crosses have some conveniencies joyned with them as all commodities have some discommodities If a man set his thoughts a work upon the inconveniencies and discommodityes alone which are in it he shall heap sorrow upon sorrow But if on the contrary he draw into consideration such conveniencyes as usually fall in with their contraryes he shall alwaies finde some matter of ease and sometimes that meat comes out of the eater and that which at first seemed a crosse is rayther a benefit It is a most dangerous thing for any to deem his afflictions extraordinarie least by so doing he prejudice himself against ordinary comforts which we should with readynes and thankfulnes embrace and not look for angels from heaven to comfort us or for manna from heaven to feed us CHAP. XXXIIII Of Injuries AN Injurie say the Lawyers is whatsoever is not done justly In one and the same act may be found both sin against God and injurie against man And therefore in cases of wrong done either by violence or deceit the offender under the law was bound both to make restitution to the wronged and also to bring his trespas offering to the priest to make an atonement for him before the Lord. Sometimes the sin is taken away and the iniurie remayns as when the person which hath wronged another truly repents but is not able to make satisfaction Sometimes on the other side the injurie is taken away and the sin remayns viz. when the offender makes satisfaction by compulsion or for shame but repents not before God Sometimes both are taken away and sometimes neyther as both or neyther satisfaction to men and repentance towards God is performed Between the injurying and offending of a man there is this difference that we may injurie him that is altogether ignorant of it but can offend onely him that takes knowledg of some evil in truth or appearance done by us whether with injury or not The more power any hath to
a great evill be committed in a small matter Hereupon he that but gathered sticks on the Sabaoth with a high hand viz. in contempt of Moses and of God in him was to be stoned to death without mercy The sin is also greater as the temptation or occasion is lesse and therefore the rich man that having many sheep of his own took his poore neighbours lamb to enterteyn his stranger withall was adjudged worthy of death whether we take the words as they seemed to David or as Nathan meant them Likewise the forecasting of evill exceedingly aggrevates it as with him who devised mischeif upon his bed and after set himself in a way to practise it Others are overtaken by sin but such overtake sin So doth it not a litle if men sin that they may sin as it seems many swear that they may swear and as Austin confesseth of himself that being a boy he stole apples and cast them away when he had done He stole that he might steal Lastly sin becomes more sinfull if it have scandall and offence of men or other damage joyned with it Yet even for the least sin if any sin by any being against Gods infinite majestie may be accounted litle if God should presse the same upon the conscience and suffer Sathan to urge it to the full it would be a burthen intollerable and such as neyther the heavens could bear for the angels that sinned were cast from thence nor paradise for Adam for transgression was driven from thence nor the earth for that swallowed up Dathan and Abiram for their sin neyther could any men or angels undergo it without being born down into the bottom of hell by it and there onely it rests as in its proper center Happy are they who in the sense and feeling of the intollerable burthen therof come to Christ by fayth that he may ease them The sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven in this world or the world to come is not onely committed by them who have sometimes professed the gospell but by others also though never coming so far but being convinced of the truth thereof do maliciously hate blaspheme and persecute it and therein sin against the work of the Holy Ghost in their own hearts And this Christ insinuates against the Scribes Pharisees who yet never came to professe Christianitie The reason of the 〈◊〉 of this sin is not any deâ—ect eyther in the mercy of God or merâ—â—s of Christ as though the evill in it were greater then the good in them but for that God hath sâ—t those boâ—nds of his grace and mercy that he will never voâ—câ—â—afe fayth and repenâ—â—â—ce to that person who once so despyteth his spirit in that its holy work And considering how oft the Scriptures speak of this sin not onely for warning of persons in themselvs but also for direction â—oâ—ching others so â—inning it is to be feared that the same is more ordinarie where the gospell is preached then the most make account of and that many malitiously haâ—eing and persequuting specially after some singular profession made and forsaken true and conscionable gospellers would do the same by the gospell it self if they were not restreyned by fear of men and shame of the times The Lord oftens punisheth men in the same kinde wherein they have sinned and causeth to be â—eaâ—â—d unto them with the measure wherewith they meat to others Thus he drâ—â—â—ed Phâ—raoâ— in the sea who had formerly drowned the Israelitish infants and served king Aâ—oâ—â—bezek as he had served other kings before And this God doth to make his justice the more conspicuous and that mens punishments may be as glasses wherein their sins may be seen more clearly if not for their repentance yet for the warning of others When I seriously weigh and consider the fearfull greivous punishments which God so good and gratious hath partly exequuted in this life as upon the old world Sodom and Gomorrah Corah and his company and the like and partly threatned as in the end of this life in the soul so in the end of the world both in soul and body and the same for measure intollerable and endles in continuance Lord think I what sin can procure such punishment But when on the contrarie I consider the horrible contempt of God his word even in them to whom it is dayly and diligently offered Lord think I what punishment can be sufficient for such sin What is it then Man is fearfully wicked in sinning and God fearfully just in punishing where by fayth and repentance mercy is not obteyned My flesh trembleth for dread of thee and I fear for thy judgments CHAP. LIII Of Rewards and punishments by men MEN that are able and ready accordingly to reward the vertues of good men and well-deserving do therein not onely give them and God in them their due but doe give others incouragement also to apply themselvs to vertuous courses which finde so good acceptance and reward at mens hands specially at theirs who are of place and abilitie in the world Whereas on the contrarie for such to favour wicked and leaud persons is really to invite and perswade men to evill and litle better then plainly to hyre both them and others to doe naughtily The former in that their approbation and remuneration of goodnes and vertue bear the Image of God who plenteously rewards the well-doers the latter plainly resemble the divell who offered Christ the glorie of the kingdoms of the earth if he would fall down and worship him It is a known and approved saying that by rewards and punishments societies are preserved And of these two though occasion of rewards be more to be desired yet the exequution of punishments is more diligently to be looked unto for the preserving of humayn societies The reason is because whereas vertue as the phylosopher sayd rewards it self or more truely if it be true expects it reward from God vice and vileny on the contrary can be restreyned in the most and worst onely by the fear of punishment Neyther serv humayn laws to make men good but to keep them from such outrages and extreamities of evill as into which otherwise they were in danger to break The speciall use of the law of God it self where by his spirit he puts it not in mens minde and writes it not in their hearts is to restreyn lawlesse persons as murtherers whoremongers and the like how much more of mens There is then a mercifull crueltie when men save by severitie the persons themselvs that are punished and others also the punishment reaching to one or a few and the fear and warning to many There is on the other side a cruell mercy when men by spareing spoyl both the persons offending and others who by their impunity take boldnes to offend This foolish pitty spoyls the cittie if the magistrate use it so doth the
person that sinneth with all his parts and powers of soul and body is Gods work so is the preservation and sustentation of both person and personall abilities so is the naturall motion it self whether within or without the person in which the sin is like the halting in the Horses going and lastly so is not onely the voluntarie permission of the sin which he could easily hinder by his omnipotent power if he would oppose it but also the ordering both of sin and sinner to his own supernaturall ends For example The act of Iudah and Thamar morally considered was sinfull and impure but naturally good and blessed of God with a Son of whom Christ came according to the flesh So the abhominable sins of Absolom were ordered of God unto most just punishments of the sins of his Father David There is a two-fold use of the world and works of God in it the one naturall the other supernaturall The former is common to men with beasts who are alike cherished with the heat and influence of the Sun alike nourished by the Fruits of the Earth The other is peculiar to men with the holy Angels by which they behold the face of the Creators power wisdom goodnesse c. as in a most clear Looking-glasse and are provoked accordingly to praise and glorifie him in his wonderfull works even as by beholding some curious piece of workmanship much more if therewith we have singular use of it of a skilfull Artificer we are led in the view of the work to the commendation of the workman And look how much the Soul excelleth the body yea the Spirituall man the naturall so much is this use of Gods creatures more excellent then the former And so the opinion of the Philosopher who thought he was born to look upon the Sun and Heavens was not wide but short nor absurd but defective For he should have pierced further even through the Heavens unto him that made and governs them whose glorious power and goodnesse shineth in them that so he might have glorified him as God in his works For though by that glimpse of light in the Creatures we cannot attain to the knowledg of God as our Father in Christ yet are we both to honour him according to it and to be provoked by it to further search and enquirie after him in such means of revelation as by which he further manifests himself which are his Word and Gospel of Salvation Even as he that lying in a dark Dungeon spies some small glimpse of light will groap toward it by the wall hoping to finde some dore or window by which it comes in For neglect of this the verie wisest of the Heathens were left inexcusable and not glorifying God whom they knew in his works of creation of the World but vanishing in their own imaginations and serving the Creature rather then the Creator who is blessed for ever were given over of God to a minde void of judgment to do the things which are inconvenient Now of how much sorer punishment shall we be guiltie if together with this lesser glimpse of Divine light by the creatures we despise also the more glorious light of the Gospel not honouring God aright either as our powerfull Creatour or mercifull Redeemer by Christ Iesus But if we so honour him and make him great in our own hearts and before men what we can as he hath manifested and made known himself in his Word and Works he will honour us with himself for ever in glorie CAP. V. Of created goodnesse EVerie thing that is and hath being is in that regard good and of God The naturall parts and powers of body and Soul of most wicked men remain in themselvs notwithstanding all infection of evill in them Gods good Creatures so do the naturall acts and motions of those parts and powers in themselvs considered notwithstanding any morall accessorie of evill in them ariseing either from the evill affection wherewith or unlawfull object upon which they are performed There can be no evill in the Work which is not first in the Worker as the cause And so a wicked person being worse then a wicked action if the sin prevail not so far as to make the part or facultie of the person in which it is to cease to be a part or power created of God neither doth it so far prevail in the action or work as to make it cease to be in it self a created motion and therein a naturall good thing God is and so by all is to be acknowledged for the giver of everie good gift that is of everie thing save sin which sin is nothing that hath being in nature but an absence of and crosnesse to that which should be as darknesse is of and unto light And so the good Father would not say that his Mother gave him Milk but God by her And though the good which we enjoy come unto us by never so ready and ample means yet must we alwaies religiously minde that both the means are of Gods raysing and ordering and the blessing upon them for our good And if Iob saw by Faith that all the evils and harms that came unto him and his though by the Divels and wicked mens means were from the Lord as supream orderer of all things how much more should we look upon God as the Authour and worker of all the good that befalleth us Notwithstanding if God so far honour any persons as to make them hands and instruments specially voluntarie for the reaching of any blessing unto us from himself we also and that even therefore are to love and honour them as David not onely blessed the Lord as the Authour but Abigail also as the Minister of the good counsell which she gave him for the not avenging of himself upon Nabal Actions besides their naturall entitie or being are by one distinguished and that aptly according to a four-fold goodnesse First An action is sometimes good in it self and to them to whom it is done but not to the doer as works of mercie done but not for God Secondly Good in it self and in the doer but not to him to whom it is done as the Preaching of the Word to them that despise it Thirdly Good in it self and the doers and to them to whom it is done as the same Preaching to him that receivs it Fourthly Though neither good in it self nor in the doer nor for him to whom it is done as an evill or injurie yet good as it is ordered by God to an end supernaturally good Who as saith another would not suffer evill but as knowing how to work good out of it In actions of the third kinde onely goodnesse is entire in all it parts and relations A man should never glorie in that good how great soever which is common to a beast with him nor a wise man in that which is common to a fool with him no
due in Religion we hust have him both for the Object and Appointer of our worship The Apostate Israelites of old and Antichristians since are said to have worshiped Divels not for that they did at least ordinarily direct their worship unto Divels but for that at least more commonly they followed their suggestions in the devised manner of worshiping though even the true God As in directing our worship unto him alone we honour and acknowledg his Majestie and Fatherhood as being our Father in heaven so in receaving it from him as the onely Institutor we honour and acknowledg both his love in providing and his wisdom in contriving and his authoritie in commanding the manner of his service and means of our salvation thereby This Religion is the means of Gods worship and withall of mans happinesse which two main ends God in great wisdom and mercie hath joyned togither inseperably that the desire of the latter might provoke to conscience of the former and the exercise of the former effectually promote and further the obtaining of the latter And this being the onely way to happinesse ought to be common to all men rude and skilfull base and honourable high and low And so all Chistians are one in Christ and Christ one in and unto them For though the terrene and worldly state of the persons who are Christians be verie different yet is their Spirituall estate of Christianitie all one There is one Lord Christ through whom and one Faith by which they are justified and that equally one Spirit by which they are sanctified though in different degrees One calling of God begun and perfited by the same Gospel and Ordinances thereof No mans highnesse of worldly estate can set him above the lowest part of it or them nor anyes mean-nesse keep him down from flying as high a pitch of Christianitie as any other An afflicted outward state stands in need of Religion to sustain it a prosperous to perfit it in eternall happinesse besides the moderating of it in the mean while And seeing our Religion is to God alone and onely the manifestation of it to men we ought to be alike grounded in it and resolved of it and zealous for it whether we enioy the fauour of the times or the contrarie All things requisite for the performance of Religious exercises are not parts of Religion but some are of naturall necessitie others for civill order and comlinesse The former need neither be taught nor commanded being imposed by absolute necessitie which is the strongest Law and most pressing Master that may be The other are such as without which all exercises of Religion would be confused and unorderly and like the Chaos which God made in the beginning void and without form and whose face darknesse covered For these the generall rules of the Word with common sence and discretion are sufficient Notwithstanding though things be not therefore comely and orderly because they are done of custom or commanded by authoritie but are therefore both used and commanded lawfully because they are comely and orderly yet if either custom commend or authoritie command things that are such indeed wise godly and peaceable men should hold themselvs even therefore the more bound unto them Religion is the best thing and the corruption of it the worst neither hath greater mischief and villanie ever been found amongst men Iewes Gentiles or Christians then that which hath marched under the Flag of Religion either intended by the seduced or pretended by Hypocrites The Iews in zeal of God such as it was persecuted Christ himself to the death and Saul in a kind of zeal of the Law was no lesse then a blasphemer persecuter and oppressor Pompey the Roman having erected that arcem omnium turpitudinum would not call it the stage or stews as it was but the Temple of Venus And what shall we think of the Spaniards Romish zeal who by their own Bishops relation in his first instance of Spanish cruelty hanged upon one Gallows thirteen innocent Indian women in honour of Christ and of his twelue Apostles But God is not pleased with good intentions exercised in evill actions much lesse either pleased or deceaved with the vizzards of impietie and inhumanitie But as he will repay unto the wicked according to their evill works of all kinds so will he render double vengeance unto them who under the liverie of Religion seek countenance for impietie and wickednesse A man hath in truth so much Religion as he hath between the Lord and himself in secret and no more what shews soever he makes before men and makes sound proof of his Religion both before God and men so far as he is forward and readie to everie good work especially to the works of mercie towards them that need Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widows in their affliction and to keep a mans self unspotted from the World There are many civill Hypocrites who if they converse honestly and kindly with men presume of great acceptance from God though they have little care to know his will in his Word and lesse to observe his Precepts and Ordinances of Worship There are also Religious Hypocrites not a few who because of a certain zeal which they have for and in the duties of the first Table repute themselvs highly in Gods favour though they be far from that innocencie towards men specially from that goodnesse and love indeed which the Lord hath inseperably joyned with a truly-Religious disposition Such persons vainly imagine God to be like unto the most great men who if their followers be obsequious to them in their persons and zealous for them in the things which more immediately concern their honours and profits do highly esteem of them though their dealings with others specially meaner men be far from honest or good But God is not partiall as men are nor regards that Church and Chamber Religion towards him which is not accompanied in the House and Streets with loving kindnesse and mercie and all goodnesse towards men Such are also stuffed with selflove in their verie service of God and do but flatter him for their own advantage For if they love not and that in truth and deed their brother whom they see how can they love God whom they see not Besides they sacrilegiously divide the two Tables of the Law one from another making the two great Commandments which Christ saith are like one to another to be unlike in effect In these Pharisaism lives and Faith is dead who as they shame Christianitie and Christ in it what in them lyes so shall their recompence from him be answerable at that day when everie man shall receav honour or shame according to the works specially of mercie and goodnesse that way which he hath done or not done in the flesh The common saying As good never a whit as never the better
to diuers occasions as the hand remains the same whether closed into a fist or extended abroad or bended this or that way as occasion servs Of all enemies this vertue hath none greater then pride which deprives men able otherwise of much and fools of all use of discretion as making them either rash by which they do not or so presumptuous in themselvs as they wil not restrain and humble their understanding to due consideration of circumstances of conveniencie in the ordering whereof discretion stands And hence it is that proud persons above others fall into many things uncomely and inconvenient On the contrarie God guides the humble in this way of discretion amongst others Lastly as the discerning of Spirits is one of the gifts of Gods Spirit so are we by prayer to beg at his hands this grace that we may be enabled to discern both of persons and things which differ so far as concerns us in our places without which we go but by peradventures and may do more harm then good even when we both mean well and do the thing which is good in it self if unseasonably CAP. XVIII Of Experience ONely God is not taught by experience to whose knowledg all things are present at all times and before all times But there is no Creature so perfit in wisdom and knowledg but may learn something for time present and to come by times past The day following saith one is Shcoller to that which went before And the vertue saith another which Nature denies experience brings to wise men So as though it be the Mistresse of fools who will learn no wisdom but that which is beaten into them with rods through a torn skin yet are the wisest taught many things by it and so become of commendable admirable as Antigonus being asked who was the best Captain in his time answered Pirrhus if he grew old And even experience teacheth that there are many particulars and those tending both to our naturall and spirituall state which neither our own wit art studie or conscience nor the information counsell or example of others can teach us which yet we learn by this dull Mistresse Experience This if it be ripe and but ioyned with any indifferent capacitie and diligence to compare together events past and present occurrances will affoard better help for direction in doubtfull cases then any other ordinarie rules as a man can better in the dark finde the way to which he hath been used then another that never went it can do by the best instructions and directions that can be given him And it seems to have been one end why God gave our great grand-fathers in the first Age of the World so long life that by experience and observation they might learn the skill and art of sundry courses specially of the Starres the knowledg whereof otherwise without myracle would hardly if at all have been attained to I conclude upon the premises that men of experience with which wit and sometimes authoritie without wit is still at jar are not lightly to be gainsaid or neglected in their facultie seeing experience is gotten by sense which easily ers not in its proper object whereas the discourse of reason is verie subject to swarv in inferring and concluding of things Yet hath this plodding guide experience this danger in it that it leads men on in the beaten way to which it hath been used without due consideration of such variable circumstances as fall in and make cases past and present though alike in generall nature yet in particular applycation and consideration verie unlike of which differences wit and art make men more able to discern Though all knowledg be good in it self as tending to perfect the understanding yet the getting of it is not alwayes good as when it is gotten by experience of punishment specially of sin as our first Parents got the knowledg of evill both wayes to their and our cost in eating the forbidden fruit A man may buy Gold so may he experimentall knowledg too dear Salomon seeking by experience to try the delights of all things under Heaven being too bold in wading in that stream that he might know the depth of it fell in and without Gods speciall helping hand had been drowned therein for ever Wofull then is the experience which is gotten by sin and miserie our own or other mens either like that of Hexophilus the Physition that butchered six hundred men that he might search into mans bodily nature destroying man that he might know him The Servants of God are sometimes so pressed with the sense of present temptations as that their speciall comfort ariseth from the recourse they have to the experience of the dayes of old and yeers of antiquitie considering that God casts not off for ever nor forgets to be favourable to his any more So some in age and under temptations have receaved more comfort from their former experience though of a weaker measure of grace in their Childhood then they could of a greater in their riper yeers CAP. XIX Of Examples THe rules in some Sciences especially speculative and for truth onely are grounded upon examples and gathered by wise observation and induction of particulars but so are not Divine and Morall rules Neither is any thing to be reputed good and just in it self and so exemplarie to us because such and such men have done it but they have done it if doing their dutie therein because it is good just and lawfull and so are unto us examples of Faith patience mercie and the like as they in their particular courses expressed these and the like vertues and not otherwise Onely he that can do nothing but good is our absolute example in things which concern us Particular facts commended in Holy Scripture are generall examples and binde to imitation when either the same thing is els-where commanded in generall or where either the ground or drift or equitte of the thing in generall And thus the verie both myraculous and meritorious works of Christ though in their particular nature causes and ends inimitable are so far forth our examples and to be followed by us as the Holy vertues of Faith patience and obedience towards God and of love and compassion towards men shine forth in them Morall examples serv first for confirmation and commendation unto others of the truth and goodnesse contained in precepts and are therefore called by some the pledges of rules Secondly for direction in particulars agreeable unto precepts but not expressed in them Thirdly to till men on in obedience active or passive for even lazie travellers will hold out with good companie which beat the path before them And this help examples specially affoard by taking away the excuse of frailtie that we are readie to make against the obedience which yet we confesse and are convinced that we ow. Now the presidents and examples of godly men as
not so much as our affections do encline but that on the contrarie we wholly abhor from it in the very first rising we may gather it to be rayther by suggestion from Sathan then of our own concupiscence And as it is not in our power to avoyd the outward presentations of evill by wicked men to our eye or ear but we are compelled oftens to see and hear their unlawfull works and words as did Lot the Sodomites so neyther seemeth it to be in our power to avoyd the bare thoughts of evill which are not alwayes evill thoughts by Sathans Suggestions but that he being a spirit and spirituall wickednes can present them to our spirits more effectually then can any man object and offer outward and corporeall provocations to our outward and bodily senses As Christ our Lord after the glorious testimonie given of him by his Father from heaven and by the Holy Ghost sitting upon him in the form of a dove and by Ihon the baptist both in word and deed was immediately led into the wildernes by the spirit to be tempted of the divell so must christians make account after the speciall testimonies of Gods love receaved of some singular combat of temptation for their tryall wherein if they overcome the love of God is thereby as it were sealed up unto their hearts Holy men therefore prospering in vertue must exult and count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations and are exercised in them by the divine providence for the tryall of their fayth and therewith of Gods gratious power which is perfited in their weaknes this way There are none of Gods servants but in the case of temptation have reaped the fruit of his singular providence towards them sometimes in preventing such temptations as if they had come upon them in their full strength would have been most like if not clean to have overthrown them yet to have caused their greivous fall by which they have through Gods providence sitting at the stern glyded as a ship by the side of a rock sometimes in guyding them even in the verie midst of temptations compassing them about like so many sands and sometimes by helping and haleing them off even when they have stuck fast and been ready to sinck in them Many have been the bodily dangers known and not known which by Gods good providence we have escaped but how many more those that are spirituall in which we had been utterly swallowed up a thousand times if his gratious hand from heaven had not releived us Now besides those common to all everie person hath his speciall temptations arising eyther from his temper of body or sex or age or education or custome or state or calling or company or other occasion against which he must watch most carefully as men use to watch in the gates of a câ—ity beseiged and in such other places as in which the enemy is likest to make his assault in which if we quit our selvs as men and stand fast we shall have our part in his comforts who sayd I was upright with him and I kept my self from mine iniquitie Some have thought it a wise Christian course in the confession of our secret sius resydeing in the heart unto God not to use the outward voyce for fear of acquainting Sathan with them thereby and so of advantageing him to tempt us by applying himself to that wherein he seeth us likest to sin As it is certain that he knows not our hearts at all as God doth by immediate insight but gathers them by the motions and manifestations of the body so considering that he himself is the originall of all evill mediately or immediately it is like he is for the most part acquainted with his own work in men And so it is good wisdom in us to prefer the best manner of acknowledging our sins to God for the advantaging of our repentance before the fear of discovering our corruption to the divell Christ our Lord teaching us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evill one would warn us not to lead our selvs into temptations nor to deliver our souls into Sathans hands which yet we do by affecting familiaritie with wicked men which are as it were his brokers by omitting duties of religion publiquely or privately or doing them unfruitfully by neglecting our speciall callings and doing nothing and thereby giveing him opportunitie to tempt us to do evill and lastly by opening too wide the windows of our outward senses towards allureing objects By these means we not onely tempt God to leav us but the divell after a sort to tempt us We have a promise that if we resist him he will fly from us but that is when he assalts us and not when we challenge him as it were with his own weapons wherewith he hath foyled so many He that thus puts himself within the reach of his paws shall hardly scape being torn in peices by him Let us commit our selvs unto Gods safe keep-in all our wayes but not come in Sathans way lest we advantage his mallice and put our selvs out of Gods protection As the saylers skill is seen in carrying his ship through a storm so is the strength of fayth in vanquishing dangerous temptations Yet must we not measure the state of a man too much by that which befals him in some or other such dangerous tryall There are few so evill but have at times their temptations that I may so speak to some particular good by which they are caryed lesse or more that way and few or none so good but on the contrarie have temptations to evill in which at times something humayn befals them Now to judg of mens persons according to some such few particulars contrary to their generall course were partiallitie The wicked fall not into evill but lye groveling in evill The godly fall sometimes by occasion but God is faythfull who with the temptation maketh a way for his to escape by their renuall of repentance and victorie of fayth And though in those their wrestlings they get a wrench and limp afterwards as Iacob did yet they have power and prevayl and go on as he did in their way CAP. XLVII Of Conscience EVerie mans conscience is as it were a second God within him both to judg of his actions within and without him and also of his person and personall state and whether in it he be accepted of God or not And surely a great good work of God it is that he hath created and set such an overseer as this conscience is in the soul of man by which if he doe any thing amisse he is checked in secret that so by repentance he may finde mercy at Gods hands And how good is it sayth one that this worm should be felt whilst it may be killed and gnaw for a time that it may be
so far to have respect to that of persons as to hate evill most in them whose persons we most love and so in our wives children and friends more then in strangers and in our selvs most of all And he that hath not learnt to bear things amisse in others which he will not bear in himself hath eyther too much fleshly zeal or too litle spirituall or both which two oftens lodg in one breast by which it comes to passe that many are earnest to pluck the moat out of their brothers eye that perceav not the beam in their own Notwithstanding as it doth not detract eyther from the dignitie or necessitie of naturall heat in our bodyes that there is found in some an agueish and unnaturall heat far greater then the naturall so neyther in truth and just valuation of things doth it derogate from the excellencie and necessitie of the heat of true zeal and life of grace in the godly consisting therein that many are zealous amisse whether knowing and so deceaving others or not knowing and so deceaving themselvs of what spirit they are CAP. LI. Of Hypocrisie HYpocrites have their names from stage-players as rayther playing then working that which is good and vertuous and the same onely upon the stage and to please lookers on And as amongst stage-players the same persons act divers parts at divers times and those very different one from another so is it with the actions of hypocrites They hold no correspondencie one with another but some of them cover and others discover their masters shame as Noahs sons did their fathers And as such persons are never constant for none can long play the counterfeyt untyred so neyther are they free in any one kinde of good but have a goodnes rayther like the water in a dead pit forced out at tymes with buckets then of a living spring which sends out its streams freely and constantly Yea further as Iacob though for his fathers blessing he covered his hands and neck very cunningly was bewrayed by his tongue and voyce so hardly can a counterfeyt carry his matters so close but that oft times even in one and the same work there will be found a jarr of the parts one with another so as eyther the tongue will check the hands or the hands the tongue or both mutually to the shewing and shaming of all When great hypocrites and deep dissemblers are left of God to fall into any grosse or scandalous evill they seldom or never recover their former shew of religion neyther as one sayth will the lambs skin which the wolf wears being once shorn ever grow agayn but God in judgment leaving them in some speciall temptation to grosse wickednes in which they loose their credit in the world which alone they sought and so break the hedg which formerly restreyned them doth punish their former close dissimulation with after open profanenes Young hypocrites commonly prove old Atheists It may well be sayd as it is in the Proverb that Hypocrisie is spun with a fine thread considering how hypocrites deceav and over-reach others and oft times weaker persons those that are wiser then they how much more considering how thereby they deceav themselvs In which latter there is a transgression and evill both in deceaving and being deceaved For albeit a man may often without sin be deceaved by another yet never so by himself seeing the spirit of a man may if it do not alwayes know the things of a man This self deceavablenes ariseth in men eyther from presumption when they think they need not or from slouth that they will not take the payns or from an evill conscience that they dare not trye and examine themselvs and their works and estates with God as they ought Besides hypocrites by false appearances getting credit with others come to esteem themselvs better then they are because others esteem them so This hypocrisie is indeed not onely a base but a foolish evill Base in dissembling the evill which it hath and is ashamed of and in counterfeyting the good which it hath not and is ashamed to seem to want And therefore notably proud people scorning as they use to boast to dissemble seldom come under this coat but do usually appear to men as voyd of grace and goodnes as they are before God Foolish it is if in nothing els yet in covering from men that evill which God seeth and hateth and will punish with infinitely greater both losse and shame and torment then any or all men will or can and not onely the evill dissembled but therewith the dissimulation also which men legally do not Great must the hypocrites portion be in Gods plagues with whom as the principall the apparantly evill as but an accessorie hath his portion appointed It is one thing to doe a work in hypocrisie which onely hypocrites doe and an other thing to do it with hypocrisie which is still ready alasse to mingle it self with the work of Gods grace in all our best actions as Tobyah and the rest of the heathen would have mingled themselvs with the Lords people in the building of his temple The same may be sayd of unbelief indevotion the like corruptions It is no marvayl that Atheist and Epicures judg all that make shew of pietie and godlynes specially above the size custome of the times conceipted fantasticall and very hypocrites seeing they measure others by themselvs And knowing that if they should make the semblance of godlines which the others do it should be no better in them then hypocrisy and fancie they conclude the same roundly upon others from their own premises And of this they are also desirous to perswade both themselvs and others Themselvs for a kinde of envious comfort in evill that others are as ill as they and for their own hardning out of that imagination Others for their miserable credit when they are not thought leaud alone They being themselvs Sadâ—cees would fayn think others have them thought Pharisees by others A tang of this also is to be found even in them who are not voyd of all goodnes towards such as a litle overstep them in the wayes of godlynes Though hypocrisie be in it self a verie odious thing and so evill as it corrupts all good in him in whom it reigns making both his works of devotion and of mercy abhominable to the Lord yet considering how litle true good is in the world it were well for others at least that there were more hypocrisie in many then there is Which would help both to represse in them many grosse enormities for shame and to keep credit with men which now shamelesly they practise and also provoke them to many outward good works for the good of others at the least which now they wholy and boldly neglect in professed godlesnes and dishonesty Besides hypocrisie yeilds though it intend it not a full and loud testimonie to true vertue and godlines seeing