as they were wont to do at no greater charge then again to confess it They beg that the acknowledgements of their faults may procure leave to practice the same again with no greater trouble but only to make a new acknowledgement It speaks only that they are sinners that they desire the favour to be so still and they will not stick continually to make Confession of it Confession is the condition of sinning more freely in their Divinity they disburden their consciences by it that they may lay on more load As the mariners unlade the ship to take in new stowage and as the drunkard vomits up his former draughts to continue the merry meeting so do men that are weary with sinning bring up all before God that troubles their stomack that so under the severity as they imagine of his pardon they may fill themselves again when they have a mind unto it They think it not good manners to come to Gods Table smelling rankly of a debauch and so against some such high time they may confess their sins as a means to cleanse and purge their souls Or their consciences are griped and their sins make them sick and ill at ease and so they go to disgorge themselves for by no better name can I call it and make a relation of their case to the great Physitian But then as many patients if they hear but a word drop from the Physitians mouth that their disease is not dangerous but they may easily recover will take no Physick at all but throw away their Bills of advice so if these sinners can but hear one good promise any merciful saying that gives men encouragement to hope away they go with it in their mouthes and with no amendment in their lives And yet many times these Confessions come not from so high a cause but owe their birth to meer custom and imitation being as common as to say Lord have mercy upon us we are all sinners and God help us 3. But whatsoever men may mean by them such Confessions as these signifie nothing at all unto God For the sins that men rehearse unto him are all known by him before and lie continually in his eyes If this be all they have to say that they are sinners and have committed such and such acts against him they may as well let their tongues rest in quiet there is nothing new in all this Then Confession is significant when it is an act of shame and reproach to our selves an act of grief and hatred a disavowing and disclaiming for ever such practices Now we say something unto God this is a new business the case is quite altered and there is forgiveness with him for such persons So the Apostle tels us 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Which is to the same sense with that of the wise man Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy And what Solomon prayes for in the behalf of such supplicants 1 King 8.47 48. God himself promises to them 1 Chron. 7.14 as you may see if you will take the pains to read the places True confession signifies that we are ashamed and blush to look up unto heaven that we have nothing to say for our selves but much against them that we cannot but cry out upon our own baseness and falsness unto God that we had rather not be then do one such vile act again that we are grieved and pained at the very heart and cannot but give vent to our souls in sighs and groans that we cannot with patience think upon our selves nor hold from proclaiming our own guiltiness that we remember nothing with so much sadness as that we have been offenders and that we resolve by Gods assistance and our utmost endeavours to grow better may we but be pardoned such offences It is begotten by a deep sense of the nature of sin and the high affront which it puts upon on God The soul is stounded with such thoughts and struck with a strange palsie and a fearful trembling that it should dare to adventure upon such a contempt The multitude of these depsperate acts makes it groan earnestly for a deliverance from them Every groan every word grates upon the heart as a file doth upon iron which at every rub fetches off some of the rust And the further it proceeds in such Confessions the more is all affection to sin diminished and impaired 4. Now God loves such a pungent sorrow as pricks to the very heart and gives a deadly wound to all our sins Such words are acceptable to him as strike like darts through the very life of our lusts and nail them to the Cross He loves when we look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn so bitterly that our hearts are shot through with an incurable wound to the flesh and all the affections and desires thereof And he loves such a Confession as expresses this sorrow this pain and this torment of our hearts which will be mixed with a vehement displeasure and hatred both against our selves and our sins This he loves more then all sacrifices or such like gifts whereby they thought many times to flatter him And therefore the returning sinners promise as God bids them Hos 14.2 that they will render the calves of their lips i. e. as Kimchi interprets it humble and penitent Confessions instead of sacrifices for thou lovest saith he the words of repentance best And therefore he observes that the scape-goat Lev. 16.21 on which the wickedness of the children of Israel was laid that he might carry them away was not offered upon the Altar but Confession only was offered to God which was far better But then this Confession of ours is to be 1 with a promise never to do so any more and 2 it is to be made good by actual forsaking of sin and 3 it is to be done presently in such instances as we have been most guilty in So we read in Numb 5.7 and the Hebrew Doctors Comments upon it The text saith that in case of a trespass a man was to confess his sin that he had done and to make a recompence for any wrong by a full restitution with some addition to it And Maimon saith the form of Confession was this O God I have sinned V. Ainsw in loc I have done perversly I have trespassed before thee and have done thus and thus but lo I repent and am ashamed of my doings and I will never do this thing again And he saith no atonement could be made for a man no not when he had made satisfaction for the damage he had done his neighbour till he had confessed and did promise to turn away from doing so again for ever And therefore when Ezra exhorts the people to make Confession unto the Lord God of their Fathers he adds and do his pleasure and separate
then secondly you must further note that the use of it is to learn our appetites to feed upon spiritual things upon God and all his holy truths When the soul is at liberty from its attendance upon the necessities of the body it should stir up its own hunger and satisfie it self with its own proper nutriment When it is not the palates Taster it should labour so to taste and relish the sweetness of its own food that ever after it may have a longing for it and observe set times for its own repast And so the bodies fast should be the souls festival wherein it not only relieves and refreshes it self for that present but affects its palate also with such a delicious savour of Gods holy commands that they seem sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb and make the soul break for the longing that it hath unto those judgements at all times 7. Thirdly In respect of the time present fasting is an help to self-examination prayer and holy meditation and so it is to be used It frees the mind from clouds and obscure vapors it sets it at liberty from bodily mixtures and interposals that it may altogether attend upon its own business and concernments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Eclog. saith the forementioned Clemens Fasting voids and discharges the soul of that matter which clogs its spirits and renders it pure and clear light and cheerful together with the body in heavenly employments We cannot at the same time eats and drink and taste pleasant things Porphyr l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be conservant with things separate from all matter and that are within the knowledge of the mind only as a Philosopher could determine And therefore it may be to very good purpose to abstain from our daily food that thereby our souls being lightened and exonerated of that dull heavy matter which oppresses them they more freely and clearly mind their own most proper objects which are perfectly spiritual When there is this universal intendment in our fasting it becomes of excellent use and singular advantage to us and it may deserve all those great names which Ephraim Syrus bestows upon it The chariot to heaven the raiser of Prophets the teacher of Laws and Wisdom the custody of the soul the secure companion of the body with many more too long to be recited But when we understand no more by it then the Pharisees did who fasted indeed twice every week but were still full of covetousness rapine and excess we shall be so far from being able by it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks to make our excuse to God that we shall the more accuse our selves and become very loathsom things to him with all this kind of Religion For this is not the Fast which God hath chosen to pinch and use our bodies unkindly for a day 8. And yet alas who is there that makes his fasting serve for any other matters but the ends of his reputation or silence of conscience Orat. 1. de jejun I may take up the complaint of Saint Basil in one of his Sermons Thou eatest no flesh but thou devourest thy brother thou abstainest from wine but thou art full of violence and wrong Wo to them that are drunk but not with wine Anger is a drunkenness of the soul and makes it beside it self And so is sorrow which drowns and drinks up the understanding And so is fear which quite takes away the spirits And so is every other passion which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and puts the soul out of its truly natural temper Fast therefore from all these for if thou still retainest thy sins thou dost but pour thy tears into a tub with holes as Ephraim Syrus speaks in this case and losest all thy labour as well as thy reward CAP. III. 1. Mourning and sad lamentations were another art of moving God to pitty them 2. But very unsuccessful also though it was practised among them with a great deal of ceremony 3. The true nature of godly sorrow briefly opened in many particulars heaped together 4. The small hopes that we can build upon such a watrish foundation as our tears which are shown to be things oft times of little worth 1. AND this will lead me to another thing which was usually a companion of their fasting and a means whereby they hoped to insinuate themselves into Gods favour Weeping I mean wailing and making lamentation for their sins which they were wont to do with no small sadness and with many doleful complaints as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that 7. of Zach. 5. gives us to understand It is said of Mordecai Esth 4.1 that he cryed with a loud and bitter cry Their Planctus or mourning used to be with howling beating of their heads or knocking of their breasts and sometimes tearing of their hair with such like expressions of inward grief whereby they thought to move God as they are apt to do men to compassion and pitty toward them For they ask the Question Zach. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall I weep in the fifth moneth c. intimating that they took it to be pleasing to him and therefore they durst not leave it off unless they understood he would be pleased with the ceasing of it 2. Now God returns an answer to them ver 5. which grants more then they spoke of and saith When you fasted and mourned i. e. wept with wailing and lamentation c. you did it not to me For that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 3. v. is altered here into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weeping is changed into mourning and it is as if he had said To what purpose is your weeping yea where you make a pittiful moan a lamentable deal of do most bitter complaints and pour out your tears with loud cryes it is nothing at all to me God could by no means be brought to a good liking of their sins though they were content to be at this trouble for them and wash them out of his memory with their tears He could not be moved to mercy with blubbered eyes and sad looks and fearful scritches and owl like howlings in the night of their affliction And there was as little in all the appendices of this weeping which here we may reasonably conceive not to have been excluded Such as rending of the garments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. de Isid Osir putting on of sackcloath next their loyns wearing of dirty apparrel strowing ashes on their heads lying on the ground a thing in fashion among Heathens themselves as Plutarch tells us of the Athenian women hanging down their heads and sitting in silence Which last was an expression of sadness as well as their bitter cryes excess on either side being an indication of great grief All this I say signified nothing to God but that they were miserable for alas the deep and hearty sorrow for
your selves from the people of the Land and from the strange wives Ezra 10.11 And it may be added that it is part of Gods will and pleasure that we should confess our faults one to another as well as unto him Jam. 5.16 when the heart is truly humbled it will be glad of any wayes to shame it self or to make satisfaction to others that are offended or to convince sinners that they may cease to offend But whatsoever volumes we bring against our selves either before God or others without such a sense of sin as I have described it is but lying unto the Lord and telling him hypocritical stories which will remain as matter of new accusation upon our account We shall but more provoke and incense his anger against us when we think for to avert it and by our own breath kindle a flame that will devour us CAP. V. 1. Prayer is another refuge they betook themselves unto in their misery 2. And so now men expect great things from it 3. But self-love indites them 4. And mens love to their sins makes non-sense of them 5. For when they pray against sin they labour to uphold it 6. And so neither their own prayers nor the prayers of good men will prevail for them 7. What prayers are acceptable to God 8. And for what 1. IT is a saying ascribed unto an Angel in the book of Tobit cap. 12. 8. that Prayer is good with Fasting And of this the people of the Jews had such an opinion that they never neglected it on those solemn dayes but thought that it could fetch down any blessings from heaven upon them God himself commands when he calls for a Fast that they should cry unto him Joel 1.14 This they used to do saith the Book of Judith with great fervency with earnestness with all their power cap. 4. 9 12 15. And sometimes as is there expressed cap. 6. 21. they called on the God of Israel all night for help Their hearts were even dissolved into petitions They seemed to be so far from stoniness that they were more yielding then flesh and could melt into water Their eyes could not flow with tears so plentifully as their hearts did with prayers For so in the Chaldee those words are paraphrased 1 Sam. 7 6. They drew water and poured it out before the Lord i. e. They poured out their hearts in supplications unto him 2. And so now at this day men are content to pump hard for as many buckets full of prayers as will hold them pouring out from morning until night Devouter persons the heavens never saw if this be to be Religious How can God chuse but pour down his blessings on such men who are so free and open-hearted to him and could be content to do nothing else but present him with such services Prayer passing under such a magnificent name as the Key of heavens Gate and having those Scriptures applyed to it which speak of having power with God and prevailng men think that by it they can do great matters and place no small confidence in its authority So I call it because they are ready to apply those words to its office Isa 45.11 concerning the work of my hands command you me Though good Interpreters which I think fit to admonish the Reader of by the way do read that verse with an Interrogation to this sense Do you command me what I shall do and ask me what I mean to deal so with my sons the people of Israel who I say shall go into captivity which agrees well with ver 9 10. Wo be to him that strives with his maker c. Wo be to him that saith to his Father What begettest thou c. And as the words lie in our translation their meaning is only this that they should enquire of Isaiah and the rest of his Prophets concerning the future state of their Nation and bid them tell them what he was about to do with them from whom they should receive good satisfaction both of his Justice in their captivity and his Mercy in sending them deliverance by Cyrus which in that Chapter he is treating of But so I say it is that men advance their prayers to such a prerogative that they have ingrossed the name of Religion to themselves and they have learnt to call praying going to duty as if this were all or the chief of what we have to do And so if in their Confessions they should be dejected and cast down yet their petitions are able to lift them up very high in hopes again Especially since some have taken this new way of boldness to tell God in plain English that he must not that he cannot deny them and that they will have audience and that without any delay also Which are no devised expressions of mine but those which some of name have uttered and which their followers may be apt to imitate as an high token of a zealous Faith If any be offended at this plainness it is their own fault that occasion it and they cannot be more offended then many good souls are at their saucy language 3. But it is now as it was then in another regard also The prayers of the Jews were commonly to no other purpose but that God would pardon them turn again to them and save their Nation from their enemies hands whilest they thought not of turning unto him and putting all his enemies out of their souls Nothing was sadder to them then to be in bondage and slavery and therefore that made their hearts sigh more then their sins Their prayers differed from the desires of good men as the Mahometans Lords prayer from that of the Christians The last thing that we beg of God is that no temptation may prevail over us to make us fall again into those sins for which we beseech forgiveness But the Turks conclude that prayer which they call the prayer of Jesus the Son of Mary in this fashion Let not such an one rule over me See M. Greg. observ p. 165. which will have no mercy on me for thy mercies sake O thou most merciful Self-love and sense of misery can indite good store of petitions adorn them with eloquence inspire them with fervency and thrust them forward with a lusty degree of confidence But as they say of some sort of precious stones that though they are of soveraign vertue yet they lose all their force if they be put into a dead mans mouth So it is with this Christian Jewel which doth wonders when it is it self but languishes and dies when it is in the mouth of unreformed sinners Such mens prayers are but a stinking breath which is very offensive to the nostrils of God They are so far from being a grateful voice unto him that he turns away his ears from them as we do from the braying of Asses or the talk of fools And therefore he tells the people of Israel Isa 58.4 that he would not have them fast
eyes the other way we shall find that justice and mercy pitty and compassion forgiveness and doing good to others especially to those who have wronged us will fall out sometimes with a mans worldly interest and carnal desires and will put him to learn that hard lesson of self-denyall and besides they make no such great noise in the world but must be content to pass with many men for a piece of dull morality It was most truly said by a wise and a great Master Ren. Des Cartes Nulli facilius ad magnam pietatis famam perveniunt quam superstitiosi hypocritae None sooner obtain a great fame for piety then superstitious persons and hypocrites One reason I conceive of it may be that men who have nothing else to shew for their sanctity but their religious performances will be most nice exact and even ceremonious about them and do them with a greater pang of zeal then many cordial Christians And this easily obtains for them the name of holy and devout persons among men when honesty mercy and a sober religion and piety cannot prevail for so much credit because they make not such a buzzle in the world Now you all know how ready men are to stickle for that which draws the eyes of all men to it and if you do not the Apostle will tell you how soon this disease began in the Christian Church For that which St. Paul reproves in the Corinthians was this that they made most stir about that which brought them the greatest glory and most credit preferring gifts of tongues before prophecy and prophecy before love and charity 4. And besides you must consider further how fair an occasion men have to be dishonest when others rely so much upon their credit that they will thank them even when they deceive them and think they have used them very kindly because they say so when they have dealt very hardly with them This makes many dress themselves up religiously because it is a more cleanly way of catching the prey when the Wolf puts on the Sheeps skin He may devour a silly Lamb in a corner and wipe his mouth and none can say that he hath done any harm The well minded people flock very innocently and simply to a man who is famed for piety and now if he be a beast of prey there is no such opportunity as this to devour and raven because he is taken for one of the sheep of Christ And therefore it was anciently observed that no man could so securely commit all wicked actions as he who had gained the repute of an honest man Which made the Poet in Plutarch advise this as a piece of craft Plut. De aud Poetis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do all thou canst to be accounted just and spare to do nothing whereby thou maist be a gainer But then that I may come nearer to our discourse what may not what will not he do that hath secured not only other mens opinion but his own also of his honesty and piety though he hath none and yet hath very gainfull opportunities This man may spoil and devour with a good conscience because he takes himself to be a sheep And having arived to a conceit of his godliness without these paultry vertues of justice and mercy he cannot take it to be any part of his godliness to maintain them If it be a great piece of that policy whereby the Devil rules the world for a man so notably to counterfeit piety that even when he doth most destroy it he shall be counted pious as it was said of Tereus Ipso sceleris molimine Tereus Creditur esse pius He was cryed up for a Saint even when he was committing the greatest villany What a notable piece then it is of the Devils craft so to perswade and inflame a zealous man in religious duties that he shall pass in his own judgement for a Saint How certainly will he ruine both himself and others in what a ready way is he to commit all injustice when he is out of all danger of having his own conscience secretly reprove him of hypocrisie and simulation which the other had not so secured When out of Conscience perhaps he is forward in some things which make such a noise that they quite drown the voice of conscience in other matters how easie is it for him to commit all other wickedness with safety though it be no less dangerous then that which he avoids 5. But there is an higher secret in this hypocritical godliness then hath been yet named and that is when even injustice it self is accounted but a piece of zeal for God When men are so hot that they will even sin against their conscience for Gods sake they take themselves you must needs think to have highly merited at his hands Thus some Greek Christians in Creet did once handle the poor Jews getting their riches from them by false and slanderous accusations of them before the Magistrate and thinking that they did God good service in so doing In so much that their Patriarch Metrophanes was fain to write to them to forbear such violence and injustice under pain of being excommunicated and cast out of the Church Câ—â—s Turcograec L. 4. In which letter he hath this remarkable passage worthy of the consideration of all fiery Zealots Let no man think he is excused of his injustice by saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did not wrong the godly but a fellow that was not Orthodox For our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel said Luke 3.14 Do violence to no man Where he makes no difference of persons nor permits any man for any cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do wrong to those that are of a wrong belief or not of our opinion You see with what absurd fancies a false godliness inspires mens hearts When they are once intoxicated with an high conceit that their religious affections have made them Gods darlings they think that all the world should be theirs that nothing is too good for them but that others deserve to be turned out of all It easily swells them into this fierce belief that it is no wrong to take from those that love not Jesus Christ especially seeing it is to be given to themselves Yea it lifts them up even to a throne it self makes them think it no injustice to thrust another out that one of Gods beloved children may sit in the place And though you shall hear nothing more in such peoples mouths then Justice Justice yet by that they mean nothing else but to have that done which is agreeable to their own desires which are the only rule of right and justice 6. For the Lords sake therefore for your own and the Nations sake mind these things that have been said more seriously And do not look upon these as matters of a less moment and inconsiderable nature which need not be so much
And indeed it is very strange if God should be so free and liberall as to give a way all his own rights and let his creatures do even as they list If men swallow once this conceit they will not be so kind as to give him any thing back again Witness the Manichees and the Borborites of old who thought that sin did not hurt Gods elect but as gold thrust into the dirt still retained its nature and lustre so they thought they rolled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any kind of filthy and fleshly actions Irenaeus yet were not hurt at all nor did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lose their spiritual nature or subsistence And witness the ranting crew among us whom we may call as the Jews do us sometimes in spite not Kedoshim but Kedishim not Sancti but Cinaedi not Saints but Sinners in the worst use of the word I cannot tell how true it is but I have read it as a speech of some amongst us That God oftimes saves his people even contrary to his own rules I am sure the actions of many are so conformable to it as if they fed upon nothing but such poisonous doctrine And either God must act contrary to himself as they do and break his word in favour of base pretenders or else such unrighteous covetous persons such extortioners lyars c. shall never enter into heaven 9. But yet as if heaven were full of none but such as they I have known some have the impudence to justifie bad actions by the Examples of the Saints miscarriages which are recorded in Holy Writ Who methinks are just like to bad painters who as Plutarch observes because they are not able by their skill to represent in their colours a beautifull face De discrim Adul am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they draw the likeness of things in wrinkles and scars and wounds When men cannot imitate the good that is in those Examples they will pick out all the bad and draw the copy of it in their lives It is the fault of the world that they carp at the failings of good men when they are alive and take no notice of their piety and holiness and yet they will imitate those failings when they are dead and think to crust over all their sins by those Examples which they would have railed at before If Vice be ugly then it is most ill favoured in those who are good and if these men were good they would be of that judgement And as the Lacedemonians brought their children to behold their slaves when they were drunk not that they might learn of them but that they might abhor that dirty and sottish sin so would these men look upon the sins of others not to be like them and do the same but the more to abominate and detest them which leave such a foul blemish upon them that commit them And at the day of judgement they will be condemned not only for sinning but for falling into those sins which they had fair warning to watch against by the Examples of others before them 10. You must come near therefore to those that make a fair shew and examine their actions before you believe all their excellent speeches and pious discourses about some matters in Religion If you stand at a distance from them you would take them to be very glorious Saints they do so glitter in an outward profession and perform such splendid works of devotion but if you come near to them and handle them you will find them hot without and cold within full of fierceness and violence in their external motions but void of all true love and goodness in their hearts I have sometimes compared them in my own thoughts unto those Indian Calicoes which when we behold afarr off seem to be a rare needlework of all sorts of silk but when we come close to them are only thin painted stuff that hath neitheir substance nor cost in it These men look like the Kings daughter whose garments were of needle work and wrought gold whereby you would imagine that they were all glorious within also but if you come to deal with them you shall see by many of their actions that this outward bravery is a meer varnish and gloss that they set upon themselves some painted raiment to hide their nakedness but which an observant eye may easily look thorough it is so thin and beggerly 11. Especially observe how many of them change with times and occasions and say that they must follow Providence If you follow them close you will soon find that as their profit leads them so they cry up particular pieces of godliness Just like Alcibiades who as Plutarch saith of a flatterer at Athens was a gallant De discrim adul amic and at Sparta wore a thred-bare cloak in Thracia was a warrier and at Tissapherne gave himself to pride and luxury So do these men vary according as several humours stir within them Sometimes they would have all Gods people be no less then Kings and at other times they must be as poor as beggars Sometimes they pine and macerate themselves with fasting and again they think that none but they may make a free use of the creature Many of them there are that will sail with every wind if it blow them any profit and all of them are carried as the fierce gusts of their various passions do make a zealous bluster in them But a good man who directs his life not by his worldly interest or mutable fancies but by the word of God he alwayes steers the same course and remains constantly the same man as that word doth whose righteousness is everlasting We may say of him as the same Plutarch doth of those brave men Epimanondas and Agesilaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had every where a becoming deportment and as he saith of Plato who was the same at Syracuse that he was in his Academy and before Dionysius such an one as he was before Dion He changes not his behaviour with places and persons for he walks before God who is alwayes the same and changes not 12. And if any of these men we have been treating of be so hardy as to suffer for their Opinion for I can call it nothing else and not alway cast to be on the thriving side yet it is with a full bad will And they are so far from bearing it meekly and patiently that they struggle by all means to throw the cross from off their shoulders If there be any way to ease themselves they inquire not much whether it be good or bad but are easily inclined to think that Providence makes an offer to them for their deliverance though it be by unlawfull means Such as they would not have spared Saul if they had been in Davids case when he had him at his mercy but they would have applauded Abishai for a Saint who said God hath delivered thine enemy into thy hand and