cold to his heart and the Text saith He went away sorrowfull And ever mark it in something or other the Hypocrite bewrayeth himself what he is if not to the observation of others yet at least sufficiently for the conviction of his own heart if he would not be wanting to himself in the due search and triall of his heart A mans bloud riseth when he heareth a stranger swear an Oath but if the same man can hear his prentice lye and equivocate and cosen and never moove at it let him not be too brag of his zeal his coldnesse here discovereth the other to have been but a false fire and a fruit not of true zeal but of Hypocrisie A Iesuite maketh scruple of disclosing an intended treason revealed to him in confession but he maketh no bones of laying a powder-plot or contriving the Murther of an annointed King A Pharisee is very precise in Tithing Mint and Cummin but balketh justice and mercy One straineth at a Gnat and swalloweth a Camel maketh conscience of some petty sinnes neglecting greater Another casteth out a beam but feeleth not a moat maketh conscience of some greater sinnes neglecteth smaller Shame of the world the cry of people maketh him forbear some sins an eye had to his own private and secret ends other some fear of temporal punishment or it may be eternall other some hope of some advantage another way as in his credit profit c. other some the terrours of an affrighted conscience other some but if in the mean time there be no care nor scruple nor forbearance of other sins where there appeareth no hinderance from these or the like respects all is naught all is but counterfeit and damnable hypocrisie The rule never faileth Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit True obedience as it disputeth not the command but obeyeth cheerfully so neither doth it divide the command but obeyeth equally David had wanted one main assurance of the uprightnesse of his heart if he had not had an equal and universal Respect to all Gods Commandements That is the first note of Sincerity Integrity The other is Constancy continuance or lasting The seeming Graces of Hypocrites may be as forward and impetuous for the time as the true Graces of the sincere believer nay more forward oftentimes as in the stony ground the seed sprang up so much the sooner by how much it had the lesse depth of earth But the very same cause that made it put up so soon made it wither again as soon even because it wanted deepnesse of earth So the Hypocrite when the fit taketh him he is all on the spurre there is no way with him but a new man he will become out of hand yea that he will Momento turbinis But he setteth on too violently to hold out long this reformation ripeneth too fast to be right spiritual fruit As an horse that is good at hand but naught at length so is the Hypocrite free and fiery for a spurt but he jadeth and tyreth in a journey But true grace all to the contrary as it ripeneth for the most part by leisure so it ever lasteth longer as Philosophers say of Habits that as they are gotten hardly so they are not lost easily We heard but now that the Faith Repentance Reformation Obedience Ioy sorrow Zeal and other the graces and affections of Hypocrites had their first motion and issue from false and erroneous grounds as Shame Fear Hope and such respects And it thence cometh to passe that where these respects cease which gave them motion the graces themselves can no more stand than a House can stand when the foundation is taken from under it The Boy that goeth to his book no longer than his Master holdeth the rod over him the Masters back once turned away goeth the Book and he to play and right so is it with the Hypocrite Take away the rod from Pharaoh and he will be old Pharaoh still And Ahab here in this Chap. thus humbled before God at the voice of his Prophet this fit once past we see in the next Chap. regardeth neither God nor Prophet but through unbelief disobeyeth God and imprisoneth the Prophet Now then here is a wide difference between the Hypocrite and the godly man The one doth all by fits and by starts and by sudden motions and flashes whereas the other goeth on fairly and soberly in a setled constant regular course of humiliation and obedience Aristotle hath excellently taught us to distinguish between colours that arise from passion and from complexion The one he saith is scarce worth the name of a Quality or colour because it scarce giveth denomination to the subject wherein it is If Socrates be of a pale or an high-coloured complexion to the question Qualis est Socrates What a like man is Socrates it may be fitly answered saith Aristotle that he is a pale man or that he is an high-coloured man But when a man of another complexion is yet pale for fear or anger or red with blushing we do not use to say neither can we say properly that he is a pale man or a high-coloured man Accordingly we are to pronounce of those good things that sometimes appear in Hypocrites We call them indeed Graces and we do well because they seem to be such and because we in Charity are to hope that they be such as they seem but they are in true judgement nothing lesse than true graces neither should they indeed if we were able to discern the falsenesse of them give denomination to those Hypocrites in whom they are found For why should a man from a sudden and short fit of Repentance or Zeal or Charity or Religion be called a Penitent or a Zealous or a Charitable or a Religious man more than a man for once or twice blushing an high-coloured man Then are Graces true when they are habitual and constant and equal to themselves That is the second Note Constancy I will not trouble you with other Notes besides these Do but lay these two together and they will make a perfect good Rule for us to judge our own hearts by and to make tryall of the sincerity of those good things that seem to be in us Measure them not by the present heat for that may be as much perhaps more in an hypocrite than in a true believer but by their Integrity and Constancy A man of a cold complexion hath as much heat in a sharp fit of an Ague as he that is of a hot constitution and in health and more too his bloud is more enflamed and he burneth more But whether do you think is the more kindly heat that which cometh from the violence of a Fever or that which ariseth from the condition of a mans Temper No man maketh doubt of it but this is the more kindly though that may be more sensible and intense Well then a man
through precipitancy prejudice or otherwise is deceived with fallacies instead of substance and mistaketh seeming inferences for necessary and naturall deductions Partly in the Will when men of corrupt minds set themselves purposely against the known truth and out of malicious wilfulnesse against the strong testimony of their own hearts slander it that so they may disgrace it and them that professe it Partly in the Affections when men overcome by carnall affections are content to cheat their own souls by giving such constructions to Gods Truth as will for requitall give largest allowance to their practices and so rather choose to crooken the Rule to their own bent than to levell themselves and their affections and lives according to the Rule Thirdly on Gods part who suffereth his own Truth to be slandered and mistaken Partly in his Iustice as a fearfull judgement upon wicked ones whereby their hard hearts become yet more hardened their most just condemnation yet more just Partly in his goodnesse as a powerfull fiery triall of true Doctors whose constancy and sincerity is the more approved with him and the more eminent with men if they flye not when the Wolf cometh but keep their standing and stoutly maintain Gods truth when it is deepliest slandered and hotliest opposed And partly in his Wisdome as a rich occasion for those whom he hath gifted for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awaken their zeal to quicken up their industry to muster up their abilities to scour up their spirituall armour which else through dis-use might gather rust for the defence and for the rescue of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that precious truth whereof they are depositaries and wherewith he hath entrusted them These are the Grounds The Uses for instruction briefly are to teach and admonish every one of us that we be not either first so wickedly malicious as without apparent cause to raise any slander or secondly so foolishly credulous as without severe examination to believe any slander or thirdly so basely timorous as to flinch from any part of Gods truth for any slander But I must not insist This from the slander Observe fourthly how peremptorily the Apostle is in his censure against the slanderers or abusers of holy truths Whose damnation is just Some understand it with reference to the Slanderers As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just who thus unjustly slander us Others understand it with reference to that ungodly resolution Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just for the evil they do who adventure to do any evil under whatsoever pretence of good to come of it Both expositions are good and I rather embrace both then prefer either I ever held it a kind of honest spiritual thrift where there are two senses given of one place both agreeable to the Analogie of Faith and Manners both so indifferently appliable to the words and scope of the place as that it is hard to say which was rather intended though there was but one intended yet to make use of both And so will we Take it the first way and the slanderer may read his doom in it Here is his wages and his portion and the meed and reward of his slander Damnation And it is a just reward He condemneth Gods truth unjustly God condemneth him justly for it whose damnation is just ◠If we be countable and we are countable at the day of Judgement for every idle word we speak though neither in it self false nor yet hurtful and prejudicial unto others what less than damnation can they expect that with much falshood for the thing it self and infinite prejudice in respect of others blaspheme God and his holy Truth But if it be done of purpose and in malice to despight the Truth and the professors thereof I scarce know whether there be a greater sin or no. Maliciously to oppose the known Truth is by most Divines accounted a principal branch of that great unpardonable sin the sin against the Holy Ghost by some the very sin it self I dare not say it is so nor yet that it is unpardonable or hath finall impenitency necessarily attending it I would be loth to interclude the hope of Repentance from any sinner or to confine Gods Mercy within any bounds Yet thus much I think I may safely say it cometh shrewdly neer the sin against the Holy Ghost and is a fair or rather a foul step toward it and leaveth very little hope of pardon That great sin against the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost it self in the Scriptures chuseth rather than by any other to expresse by this name of Blasphemy Mat. 12. And whereas our Apostle 1 Tim. 1. saith That though he were a Blasphemer yet he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief he leaveth it questionable but withall suspicious whether there may be any hope of Mercy for such as blaspheme maliciously and against knowledge If any mans be certainly such a mans damnation is most just But not all Slanderers of GODS truth are of that deep die not all Slanderers sinners in that high degree GOD forbid they should There are respects which much qualifie and lessen the sin But yet allow it any in the least degree and with the most favourable circumstances still the Apostles sentence standeth good Without Repentance their damnation is just Admit the Truth be dark difficult and so easily to be mistaken admit withall the man be weak and ignorant and so apt to mistake his understanding being neither distinct through incapacity to apprehend and sort things aright nor yet constant to it self through unsetlednesse and levity of judgement Certainly his misprision of the Truth is so much lesser than the others wilfull Calumny as it proceedeth lesse from the irregularity of the Will to the Iudgement And of such a man there is good hope that both in time he may see his errour and repent expresly and particularly for it and that in the mean time he doth repent for it implicitè and inclusively in his generall contrition for and confession of the massie lump of his hidden and secret and unknown sins This Charity bindeth us both to hope for the future and to think for the present and S. Pauls example and words in the place but now alledged are very comfortable to this purpose But yet still thus much is certain He that through ignorance or for want of apprehension or judgement or by reason of whatsoever other defect or motive bringeth a slander upon any divine Truth though never so perplexed with difficulties or open to cavil unless he repent for it either in the particular and that he must do if ever God open his eyes and let him see his fault or at leastwise in the generall it is still a damnable sin in
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
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
which was not in that measure afforded them when they were tempted And from whom can we think that restraint to come but from that God who is the Author and the Lord of nature and hath the power and command and rule of nature by whose grace and goodnesse we are whatsoever we are and to whose powerful assistance we owe it if we do any good for it is he that setteth us on and to his powerful restraint if we eschew any evil for it is he that keepeth us off Therefore I also withheld thee from sinning against me And as to the third point in the Observation it is not much lesse evident than the two former namely that this Restraint as it is from God so it is from the Mercy of God Hence it is that Divines usually bestow upon it the name of Grace distinguishing between a twofold Grace a special renewing Grace and a Common restraining Grace The special and renewing Grace is indeed so incomparably more excellent that in comparison thereof the other is not worthy to be called by the name of Grace if we would speak properly and exactly but yet the word Grace may not unfitly be so extended as to reach to every act of Gods providence whereby at any time he restraineth men from doing those evils which otherwise they would do and that in a threefold respect of God of themselves of others First in respect of God every restraint from sin may be called Grace in as much as it proceedeth ex mero motu from the meer good will and pleasure of God without any cause motive or inducement in the man that is so restrained For take a man in the state of corrupt nature and leave him to himself and think how it is possible for him to forbear any sin whereunto he is tempted There is no power in nature to work a restraint nay there is not so much as any pronenesse in nature to desire a restraint much lesse then is there any worth in Nature to deserve a restraint Issuing therefore not at all from the Powers of Nature but from the free pleasure of God as a beam of his merciful providence this Restraint may well be called Grace And so it may be secondly in respect of the Persons themselves because though it be not available to them for their everlasting salvation yet it is some favour to them more than they have deserved that by this means their sins what in number what in weight are so much lesser than otherwise they would have been whereby also their account shall be so much the easier and their stripes so many the fewer Saint Chrysostome often observeth it as an effect of the mercy of God upon them when he cutteth off great offenders betimes with some speedy destruction and he doth it out of this very consideration that they are thereby prevented from committing many sins which if God should have lent them a longer time they would have committed If his observation be sound it may then well passe for a double Mercy of God to a sinner if he both respite his destruction and withall restrain him from sin for by the one he giveth him so much longer time for repentance which is one Mercy and by the other he preventeth so much of the increase of his sin which is another Mercy Thirdly it may be called Grace in respect of other men For in restraining men from doing evil God intendeth as principally his own glory so withall the good of mankinde especially of his Church in the preservation of humane society which could not subsist an hour if every man should be left to the wildenesse of his own nature to do what mischief the Devill and his own heart would put him upon without restraint So that the restraining of mens corrupt purposes and affections proceedeth from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle somewhere calleth it that love of GOD to mankinde whereby he willeth their preservation and might therefore in that respect bear the name of Grace though there should be no good at all intended thereby to the person so restrained Just as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those spiritual gifts which God hath distributed in a wonderful variety for the edifying of his Church though they often-times bring no good to the receiver are yet stiled graces in the Scriptures because the distribution of them proceedeth from the gracious love and favour of God to his Church whose benefit he intendeth therein God here restrained Abimelech as elsewhere he did Laban and Esau and Balaam and others not so much for their own sakes though perhaps sometimes that also as for their sakes whom they should have injured by their sins if they had acted them As here Abimelech for his chosen Abrahams sake and Laban and Esau for his servant Iacobs sake and Balaam for his people Israels sake As it is said in Psal. 105. and that with special reference as I conceive it to this very story of Abraham He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm He reproved even Kings by restraining their power as here Abimelech but it was for their sakes still that so Sarah his anointed might not be touched nor his Prophet Abraham sustain any harm We see now the Observation proved in all the points of it 1. Men do not alwaies commit those evils they would and might do 2. That they do not it is from Gods restraint who with-holdeth them 3. That restraint is an act of his merciful providence and may therefore bear the name of Grace in respect of God who freely giveth it of them whose sins and stripes are the fewer for it of others who are preserved from harmes the better by it The Inferences we are to raise from the premises for our Christian practise and comfort are of two sorts for so much as they may arise from the consideration of Gods Restraining Grace either as it may lye upon other men or as it may lye upon our selves First from the consideration of Gods restraint upon others the Church and children and servants of God may learn to whom they owe their preservation even to the power and goodnesse of their God in restraining the fury of his and their enemies We live among Scorpions and as sheep in the midst of Wolves and they that hate us without a cause and are mad against us are more in number than the hairs of our heads And yet as many and as malicious as they are by the Mercy of God still we are and we live and we prosper in some measure in despite of them all Is it any thanks to them None at all The seed of the Serpent beareth a natural and an immortal hatred against God and all good men and if they had hornes to their curstnesse and power answerable to their wils we should not breath a minute
vouchsafed us his holy word to instruct us what we are to believe and to do either as Men or as Christians We are now furnished with as perfect absolute and sufficient a Rule both of Faith and Manners as our condition in this life is capable of And it is our duty accordingly to resign our selves wholy to be guided by that Word yet making use of our Reason withall in subordination and with submission thereunto as a perfect Rule both of Faith and Life This being clearly so and the Scripture by consent of both parties acknowledged to be the perfect Rule of what we are to believe as well as of what we are to do I earnestly desire our Brethren to consider what should hinder a Christian man from doing any thing that by the meer use of his Reason alone he may rightly judge to be lawful and expedient though it be not commanded or exampled in the Scriptures so as it be not contrary thereunto more then from believing any thing that by the like use of his Reason alone he may rightly judge to be true or credible though the same be not revealed or contained in the Scripture nor is contrary thereunto I do without scruple believe a Mathematical or Philosophical truth or a probable historical relation when I read it or hear it and I believe an honest man upon his word in what he affirmeth or promiseth though none of all these things be contained in the Scripture and thus to believe was never yet by any man that I know of thought derogatory to the sufficiency of Scripture as it is a perfect Rule of Faith Why I may not in like manner wear such or such a garment use such or such a gesture or do any other indifferent thing not forbidden in Scripture as occasions shall require without scruple or why thus to do should be thought derogatory to the sufficiency of scripture as it is a perfect Rule of Manners I confess I have not the wit to understand Since there seemeth to be the like reason of both let them either condemne both or acquit both or else inform us better by shewing us a clear and satisfactory reason of difference between the one and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the main hinge upon which the whole dispute turneth and whereunto all other differences are but appendages The true belief and right understanding of this great Article concerning the Scriptures sufficiency being to my apprehension the most proper Characteristical note of the right English Protestant as he standeth in the middle between and distinguished from the Papist on the one hand and the sometimes styled Puritan on the other I know not how he can be a Papist that truly believeth it or he a Puritan that rightly understandeth it § XXII Having thus answered the several Objections aforesaid wherewith it may be some that stand freer from prejudice then their fellows will be satisfied if any shall yet aske me why I plead still so hard for Ceremonies now they are laid down and so no use either of them or of any discourse concerning them I have this to say First I saw my selfe somewhat concerned to prevent if I could the mis-censuring of these Sermons in sundry of which the Questions that concern Ceremonies are either purposely handled or occasionally touched upon which could not be done without vindicating the Ceremonies themselves as the subject matter thereof Secondly hereby they that were active in throwing them down may be brought to take a little more into their consideration then possibly they have yet done upon what grounds they were thereunto moved and how sound those grounds were that if it shall appear they were then in an Error and they consider withall what disorder confusion and libertinisme hath ensued upon that change they may be sensible of it and amend But Thirdly whatsoever become of the Ceremonies which are mutable things the two Doctrines insisted on concerning them the one touching the Power that Governors have to enjoyn them the other touching the Duty that lyeth upon Inferiours to observe them when they are enjoyned being Truths are therefore alwayes the same and change not It is no absurdity even at mid-winter when there is never a flower upon the bough to say yet Rosa est flos Lastly a time may come when either the same Ceremonies may be restored or others substituted in their rooms and then there may be use again of such reasons and answers as have been pleaded in their defense For I doubt not but those that shall from time to time have the power to order Ecclesiastical affairs if disorders or inconveniencies shall continue to grow after the rate and proportion they have done for some years past will see a necessity of reducing things into some better degree of Decency and Vniformity then now they are Which it is not imaginable how it should be done without some Constitutions to be made concerning Indifferent things to be used in the publick worship and some care had withall to see the Constitutions obeyed Otherwise the greatest part of the Nation will be exposed to the very great danger without the extraordinary mercy of God preventing of quite losing their Religion Look but upon many of our Gentry what they are already grown to from what they were within the compasse of a few years and then Ex pede Herculem by that guess what a few years more may do Do we not see some and those not a few that have strong natural parts but little sence of Religion turned little better then professed Atheists And othersome nor those a few that have good affections but weak and unsetled judgments or which is still but the same weakness an over-weening opinion of their own understandings either quite turned or upon the point of turning Papists These be sad things God knoweth and we all know not visibly imputable to any thing so much as to those distractions confusions and uncertainties that in point of Religion have broken in upon us since the late changes that have happened among us in Church-affairs What it will grow to in the end God onely knoweth I can but guesse § XXIII The Reverend Arch-Bishop Whitgift and the learned Hooker men of great judgment and famous in their times did long since foresee and accordingly declared their fear that if ever Puritanism should prevail among us it would soon draw in Anabaptism after it At this Cartwright and other the advocates for the Disciplinarian interest in those dayes seemed to take great offence as if those fears were rather pretended to derive an odium upon them then that there was otherwise any just cause for the same protesting ever their utter dislike of Anabaptism and how free they were from the least thought of introducing it But this was onely their own mistake or rather Jealousie For those godly men were neither so unadvised nor so uncharitable as to become Judges of other mens thoughts or intentions
without Gods mercy the smallest will damne a man too But what will some reply In case two sins be propounded may I not do the lesser to avoid the greater otherwise must I not of necessity do the greater The answer is short and easie If two sins be propounded do neither E malis minimum holdeth as you heard and yet not alwaies neither in evils of Pain But that is no Rule for evils of sin Here the safer Rule is E malis nullum And the reason is sound from the Principle we have in hand If we may not do any evil to procure a positive good certainly much lesse may we do one evil to avoid or prevent another But what if both cannot be avoided but that one must needs be done In such a strait may I not choose the lesser To thee I say again as before Choose neither To the Case I answer It is no Case because as it is put it is a case impossible For Nemo angustiatur ad peccandum the Case cannot be supposed wherein a man should be so straitned as he could not come off fairely without sinning A man by rashness or feare or frailty may foully entangle himself and through the powerfull engagements of sin drive himself into very narrow straits or be so driven by the fault or injury of others yet there cannot be any such straits as should enforce a necessity of sinning but that still there is one path or other out of them without sin The perplexity that seemeth to be in the things is rather in the men who puzzle and lose themselves in the Labyrinths of sin because they care not to heed the clue that would lead them out if it were well followed Say a man through heat of blood make a wicked vow to kill his brother here he hath by his own rashnesse brought himself into a seeming strait that either he must commit a murther or break a vow either of which seemeth to be a great sin the one against the fifth the other against the third commandement But here is in very deed no strait or perplexity at all Here is a fair open course for him without sin He may break his vow and there an end Neither is this the choice of the lesser sinne but onely the loosening of the lesser bond the bond of charity being greater than the bond of a promise and there being good reason that in termes of inconsistencie when both cannot stand the lesser bond should yield to the greater But is it not a sin for a man to break a vow Yes where it may be kept salvis charitate justitia there the breach is a sin but in the case proposed it is no sin As Christ saith in the point of swearing so it may be said in the point of breach of vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never was any breach of vow but it was peccatum or ex peccato the breaking is either it self formally a sin or it argueth at least a former sin in the making So as the sin in the case alledged was before in making such an unlawfull vow and for that sin the party must repent but the breaking of it now it is made is no new sin Rather it is a necessary duty and a branch of that repentance which is due for the former rashnesse in making it because a hurtfull vow is and that virtute praecepti rather to be broken then kept The Aegyptian Midwives not by their own fault but by Pharaohs tyrannous command are driven into a narrow strait enforcing a seeming necessity of sin for either they must destroy the Hebrew children and so sin by Murther or else they must devise some hansome shift to carry it cleanly from the Kings knowledg and so sin by lying And so they did they chose rather to lye then to kill as indeed in the comparison it is by much the lesser sinne But the very truth is they should have done neither they should flatly have refused the Kings commandment though with hazard of their lives and have resolved rather to suffer any evil than to do any And so Lot should have done he should rather have adventured his own life and theirs too in protecting the chastity of his Daughters and the safety of his guests then have offered the exposall of his Daughters to the lusts of the beastly Sodomites though it were to redeeme his guests from the abuse of fouler and more abominable filthinesse Absolutely there cannot be a case imagined wherein it should be impossible to avoid one sin unlesse by the committing of another The case which of all other cometh nearest to a Perplexity is that of an erroneous conscience Because of a double bond the bond of Gods Law which to transgress is a sin and the bond of particular conscience which also to transgress is a sin Whereupon there seemeth to follow an inevitable necessity of sinning when Gods Law requireth one thing and particular conscience dictateth the flat contrary for in such a case a man must either obey Gods Law and so sin against his own conscience or obey his own conscience and so sin against Gods Law But neither in this case is there any perplexity at all in the things themselves that which there is is through the default of the man onely whose judgement being erroneous mis-leadeth his conscience and so casteth him upon a necessity of sinning But yet the necessity is no simple and absolute and unavoydable and perpetual necessity for it is onely a necessity ex hypothesi and for a time and continueth but stante tali errore And still there is a way out betwixt those sins and that without a third and that way is deponere erroneam conscientiam He must rectifie his judgement and reform the error of his Conscience and then all is well There is no perplexity no necessity no obligation no expediency which should either enforce or perswade us to any sin The resolution is damnable Let us do evil that good may come I must take leave before I pass from this point to make two instances and to measure out from the Rule of my Text an answer to them both They are such as I would desire you of this place to take due and special consideration of I desire to deal plainly and I hope it shall be by Gods blessing upon it effectually for your good and the Churches peace One instance shall be in a sin of Commission the other in a sin of Omission The sin of Commission wherein I would instance is indeed a sin beyond Commission it is the usurping of the Magistrates Office without a Commission The Question is whether the zealous intention of a good end may not warrant it good or at least excuse it from being evil and a sin I need not frame a Case for the illustration of this instance the inconsiderate forwardness of some hath made it to my hand You may read it
whereof we now speak had been more timely discovered and more fully and frequently made known to the world than it hath been Fourthly let that doctrine be once admitted and all humane authority will soon be despised The commands of Parents Masters and Princes which many times require both secrecy and expedition shall be taken into slow deliberation and the equity of them sifted by those that are bound to obey though they know no cause why so long as they know no cause to the contrary Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causae genus deliberativum It is a nice obedience in S. Bernards judgement yea rather troublesome and odious that is over-curious in discussing the commands of superiours boggling at every thing that is enjoyned requiring a why for every wherefore and unwilling to stir untill the lawfulness and expediency of the thing commanded shall be demonstrated by some manifest reason or undoubted authority from the Scriptures Lastly the admitting of this doctrine would cast such a snare upon men of weak judgements but tender consciences as they should never be able to unwind themselves thereout again Mens daily occasions for themselves or friends and the necessities of common life require the doing of a thousand things within the compasse of a few dayes for which it would puzzle the best Textman that liveth readily to bethink himself of a sentence in the Bible clear enough to satisfie a scrupulous conscience of the lawfulnesse and expediency of what he is about to do for which by hearkening to the rules of reason and discretion he might receive easie and speedy resolution In which cases if he should be bound to suspend his resolution and delay to do that which his own reason would tell him were presently needfull to be done untill he could haply call to mind some precept or example of Scripture for his warrant what stops would it make in the course of his whole life what languishings in the duties of his calling how would it fill him with doubts and irresolutions lead him into a maze of uncertainties entangle him in a world of wofull perplexities and without the great mercy of God and better instruction plunge him irrecoverably into the gulph of despair Since the chief end of the publication of the Gospel is to comfort the hearts and to revive and refresh the spirits of Gods people with the glad tidindgs of liberty from the spirit of bondage and fear and of gracious acceptance with their GOD to anoint them with the oyl of gladness giving them beauty for ashes and instead of sackcloth girding them with joy we may well suspect that doctrine not to be Evangelicall which thus setteth the consciences of men upon the rack tortureth them with continuall fears and perplexities and prepareth them thereby unto hellish despaire These are the grievous effects and pernicious consequents that will follow upon their opinion who hold that we must have warrant from the Scripture for every thing whatsoever we do not onely in spirituall things wherein alone it is absolutely true nor yet onely in other matters of weight though they be not spirituall for which perhaps there might be some colour but also in the common affairs of life even in the most slight and triviall things Yet for that the Patrons of this opinion build themselves as much upon the authority of this present Text as upon any other passage of Scripture whatsoever which is the reason why we have stood thus long upon the examination of it we are therefore 〈…〉 next place to clear the Text from that their mis-interpretation The force of their collection standeth thus as you heard already that faith is ever grounded upon the word of God that therefore whatsoever action is not grounded upon the word being it is not of faith by the Apostles rule here must needs be a sin Which collection could not be denied if the word Faith were here taken in that sense which they imagine and wherein it is very usuall taken in the Scriptures viz. for the doctrine of supernaturall and divine revelation or for the belief thereof which doctrine we willingly acknowledge to be compleatly contained in the holy Scriptures alone and therefore dare not admit into our belief as a branch of divine supernaturall truth any thing not therein contained But there is a third signification of the word Faith nothing so frequently found in the Scriptures as the two former which yet appeareth both by the course of this whole Chapter and by the consent of the best and most approved interpreters as well ancient as modern to have been properly intended by our Apostle in this place namely that wherein it is put for a certain perswasion of mind that what we do may lawfully be done So that whatsoever action is done by us with reasonable assurance and perswasion of the lawfulnesse thereof in our own consciences is in our Apostles purpose so far forth an action of Faith without any inquiring into the means whereby that perswasion was wrought in us whether it were the light of our own reason or the authority of some credible person or the declaration of Gods revealed will in his written Word And on the other side whatsoever action is done either directly contrary to the judgement and verdict of our own consciences or at leastwise doubtingly and before we are in some competent measure assured that we may lawfully do it that is it which S. Paul here denieth to be of faith and of which he pronounceth so peremptorily that it is and that co nomine a sin About which use and signification of the word Faith we need not to trouble our selves to fetch it from a trope either of a Metonymie or Synecdoche as some do For though as I say it do not so often occur in Scripture yet it is indeed the primary and native signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith derived from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perswade Because all kinds of Faith whatsoever consist in a kind of perswasion You shall therefore find the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly to believe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly not to be perswaded to be opposed as contrary either to other in Iohn 3. and Acts 14. and other places To omit the frequent use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Fides in Greek and Latine authors in this signification observe but the passages of this very Chapter and you will be satisfied in it At the second verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one believeth that he may eat all things that is he is verily perswaded in his conscience that he may as lawfully eat flesh as herbs any one kind of meat as any other he maketh no doubt of it Again at the fourteenth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know and am perswaded that there is nothing
multiply disputes without end but by direct and full evidence either of Scripture-text or Reason which for any thing I know was never yet done neither as I verily believe will ever be done But if it cannot be shown that these things are forbidden without any more adoe the use of them is by that sufficiently warranted He that will not allow of this doctrine besides that he cherisheth an errour which will hardly suffer him to have a quiet Conscience I yet see not how he can reconcile his opinion with those sundry passages of our Apostle Every creature of God is good To the pure all things are pure I know nothing is of it self unclean All things are lawfull c. From which passages we may with much safety conclude that it is lawfull for us to do all those things concerning which there can be nothing brought of moment to prove them unlawfull Upon which ground alone if we do them we do them upon such a perswasion of faith as is sufficient Provided that we have not neglected to inform our judgements the best we could for the time past and that we are ever ready withall to yield our selves to better information whensoever it shall be tendred unto us for the time to come It may be demanded fourthly Suppose a man would fain do something of the lawfulnesse whereof he is not in his conscience sufficiently resolved whether he may in any case do it notwithstanding the reluctancy of his Conscience yea or no As they write of Cyrus that to make passage for his Army he cut the great river Gyndes into many smaller chanels which in one entire stream was not passable so to make a clear and distinct answer to this great question I must divide it into some lesser ones For there are sundry things considerable in it whether we respect the conscience or the Person of the doer or the Action to be done As namely and especially in respect of the conscience whether the reluctancy thereof proceed from a setled and stedfast resolution or from some doubtfulnesse onely or but from some scruple And in respect of the person whether he be sui juris his own Master and have power to dispose of himself at his own choice in the things questioned or he be under the command and at the appointment of another And in respect of the Action or thing to be done whether it be a necessary thing or an unlawfull thing or a thing indifferent and arbitrary Any of which circumstances may quite alter the case and so beget new questions But I shall reduce all to three questions whereof the first shall concern a resolved Conscience the second a doubtfull conscience and the third a scrupulous conscience The First Question then is if the Conscience be firmly resolved that the thing proposed to be done is unlawfull whether it may then be done or no Whereunto I answer in these two conclusions The first conclusion If the Conscience be firmly so resolved and that upon a true ground that is to say if the thing be indeed unlawfull and judged so to be it may not in any case or for any respect in the world be done There cannot be imagined a higher contempt of God than for a man to despise the power of his own conscience which is the highest soveraignty under heaven as being Gods most immediate deputy for the ordering of his life and waies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heathen man could say Wofull is the estate of those men unlesse they repent who for filthy lucre or vain pleasure or spitefull malice or tottering honour or lazy ease or any other reigning lust dare lye or sweare or cheat or oppresse or commit filthinesse or steal or kill or slander or flatter or betray or do any thing that may advance their base ends nothing at all regarding the secret whisperings or murmurings no nor yet the lowd roarings and bellowings of their own consciences there against Stat contra ratio secretam gannit in aurem It doth so but yet they turn a deaf eare to it and despise it Wonder not if when they out of the terrours of their troubled consciences shall houle and roare in the eares of the Almighty for mercy or for some mitigation at least of their torment he then turn a deafe eare against them and despise them To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin James 4. sin not to be excused by any plea or colour But how much more inexcusably then is it sinne to him that knoweth the evill he should not do and yet will do it There is not a proner way to Hell than to sinne against Conscience Happy is he which condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth but most wretched is he that alloweth himself to the practise of that which in his judgement he cannot but condemne Neither maketh it any difference at all here whether a man be otherwise sui juris or not For although there be a great respect due to the higher powers in doubtfull cases as I shall touch anon yet where the thing required is simply unlawfull and understood so to be inferiours must absolutely resolve to disobey whatsoever come of it Gods faithfull servants have ever been most resolute in such exigents We are not carefull to answer thee in this matter belike in a matter of another nature they would have taken care to have given the King a more satisfactory at least a more respective answer but in this matter Be known to thee O King that we will not serve thy gods Da veniam Imperator c. You know whose answers they were If we be sure God hath forbidden it we sinne against our own consciences if we do it at the command of any mortall man whosoever or upon any worldly inducement whatsoever That is the first Conclusion The second is this If a man be in his conscience fully perswaded that a thing is evil and unlawfull which yet in truth is not so but lawfull the thing by him so judged unlawfull cannot by him be done without sin Even an erroneous conscience bindeth thus far that a man cannot go against it and be guiltlesse because his practise should then run crosse to his judgement and so the thing done could not be of Faith For if his reason judge it to be evil and yet he will do it it argueth manifestly that he hath a will to do evil and so becometh a transgressour of that generall Law which bindeth all men to eschew all evil Yet in this case we must admit of some difference according to the different nature of the things and the different condition of the persons For if the things so judged unlawfull be in their own nature not necessary but indifferent so as they may either be done or left undone without sin and the person withall be sui juris in respect of such
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
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
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
the evil upon his house Wherein we shall be occasioned to enquire how the first of these may stand with Gods holiness the second with his Truth the third with his Iustice And first of Ahabs humiliation Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me This Ahab was King of Israel that is King over those ten Tribes which revolted from Rehoboam the Son of Salomon and clave to Ieroboam the son of Nebat Search the whole sacred story in the Books of Kings and Chronicles and unless we will be so very charitable as notwithstanding many strong presumptions of his Hypocrisie to exempt Iehu the son of Nimshi and that is but one of twenty we shall not find in the whole List and Catalogue of the Kings of Israel one good one that clave unto the Lord with an upright heart Twenty Kings of Israel and not one or but one good and yet than this Ahab of the twenty scarce one worse It is said in the sixteenth Chapter of this Book that Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him at verse 30. and at verse 33. that He did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the Kings of Israel that were before him and at verse 25. of this Chapter that There was none like unto Ahab which did sell himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord. An Oppressour he was and a Murderer and an Idolater and a Persecuter of that holy Truth which God had plentifully revealed by his Prophets and powerfully confirmed by Miracles and mercifully declared by many gracious deliverances even to him in such manner as that he could not but know it to be the Truth and therefore an Hypocrite and in all likelyhood an obstinate sinner against the holy Ghost and a Cast-away This is Ahab this the man But what is his carriage what doth he he humbleth himself before the Lord. Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me The manner and occasion of his humbling is set down a little before at V. 27. And it came to passe when Ahab heard those words the words of Eliah the Prophet dealing plainly and roundly with him for his hatefull Oppression and Murther That he rent his cloathes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly And that is the humbling here spoken and allowed of and for which God here promiseth that he will not bring the evill in his dayes Lay all this together the man and his ill conditions and his present carriage with the occasion and successe of it and it offereth three notable things to our consideration See first how far an Hypocrite a Cast-away may go in the outward performance of holy duties and particularly in the practice of Repentance here is Ahab humbled such a man and yet so penitent See again secondly how deep Gods word though in the mouth but of weak instruments when he is pleased to give strength unto it pierceth into the consciences of obstinate sinners and bringeth the proudest of them upon their knees in despight of their hearts here is Ahab quelled by Eliah such a great one by such a weak one See yet again thirdly how prone God is to mercy and how ready to apprehend any advantage as it were and occasion to shew compassion here is Ahab humbled and his judgement adjourned such a real substantial favour and yet upon such an empty shadow of Repentance Of these three at this time in their order and of the first first An Hypocrite may go very farre in the outward performances of holy duties For the right conceiving of which assertion Note first that I speak not now of the common graces of Illumination and Edification and good dexterity for the practising of some particular Calling which gifts with sundry other like are oftentimes found even in such apparently wicked and prophane men as have not so much as the form much lesse the power of Godlinesse but I speak even of those Graces which de tota specie if they be true and sincere are the undoubted blessed fruits of Gods holy renewing Spirit of sanctification such as are Repentance Faith Hope Ioy Humility Patience Temperance Meeknesse Zeal Reformation c. in such as these Hypocrites may go very farr as to the outward semblance and performance Note secondly that I speak not of the inward power and reality of these graces for Cast-aways and Hypocrites not having union with God by a lively faith in his Son nor communion with him by the effectual working of his Spirit have no part nor fellowship in these things which are proper to the chosen and called of God and peculiar to those that are his peculiar people but I speak only of the outward performances and exercises of such actions as may seem to flow from such spiritual graces habitually rooted in the heart when as yet they may spring also and when they are found in unregenerate men do so spring from Nature perhaps moralized or otherwise restrained but yet unrenewed by saving and sanctifying grace Note thirdly that when I say an Hypocrite may go very farre in such outward performances by the Hypocrite is meant not only the grosse or formal Hypocrite but every natural and unregenerate man including also the Elect of God before their effectual calling and conversion as also Reprobates and Cast-awayes for the whole time of their lives all of which may have such fair semblances of the forenamed Graces and of other like them as not only others who are to judge the best by the Law of Charity but themselves also through the wretched deceitfulnesse of their own wicked and corrupt hearts may mistake for those very graces they resemble The Parable of the seed sown in the stony ground may serve for a full both declaration and proof hereof which seed is said to have sprouted forth immediately Springing up forthwith after it was sown but yet never came to good but speedily withered away because for want of deepnesse of earth it had not moysture enough to feed it to any perfection of growth and ripenesse And that branch of the Parable our blessed Saviour himself in his exposition applieth to such hearers as When they hear the Word immediately receive it with gladnesse and who so forward as they to repent and believe and reform their lives but yet all that forwardnesse cometh to nothing they endure but for a short time Because they have no root in themselves but want the sap and moysture of Grace to give life and lasting to those beginnings and imperfect offers and essayes of goodnesse they made shew of Here are good affections to see to unto the good word of God they receive it with joy it worketh not only upon their judgements but it seemeth also to rejoice yea after a sort to ravish their hearts
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
the Evil and mercy again in suspending it for so long a time I will not bring the evil in his days Of these two points we shall entreat at this time and first and principally of the former I will not bring the evil It is no new thing to them that have read the sacred stories with observation to see God when men are humbled at his threatnings to revoke them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome more than once this is ever Gods manner when men change their deeds to change his doom when they renounce their sins to recall his sentence when they repent of the evil they have done against him to Repent of the evil he had said he would doe against them Search the Scriptures and say if things run not thus as in the most ordinary course God commandeth and Man disobeyeth Man disobeyeth and God threatneth God threatneth and Man repenteth Man repenteth and God forbeareth Abimelech thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his wife untouched and God spareth him and he dyeth not Hezekiah make thy will and Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live but Hezekiah turneth to the wall and prayeth and weepeth and God addeth to his days fifteen years Nineveh prepare for desolation for now but forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed but Nineveh fasted and prayed and repented and Nineveh stood after that more than forty years twice told Generally God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place but if they repented he either with-held it or deferred it or abated it or sweetned it to them for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisedom he hath thought good some way or other he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour wherein he threatned it A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto and which he often and openly professeth he will hold Two remarkable testimonies among sundry other shall suffice us to have proposed at this time for the clear and full evidencing hereof The one in Ierem. 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evil that I thought to doe unto them The other in Ezek. 33.13 14. When I say to the wicked thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawfull and right If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die And every where in the Prophets after Denunciations of judgement follow exhortations to Repentance which were bootlesse if Repentance should not either prevent them or adjourn them or lessen them You see God both practiseth and professeth this course neither of which can seem strange to us if we duly consider either his readiness to shew mercy or the true End of his threatnings We have partly already touched at the greatness of his mercy To shew compassion and to forgive that is the thing wherein he most of all delighteth and therefore he doth arripere ansam take all advantage as it were and lay hold on every occasion to doe that but to punish and take vengeance is opus alienum as some expound that in Esay 28. his strange work his strange act a thing he taketh no pleasure in Vivo nolo in Ezek. 33. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked c. As the Bee laboureth busily all the day long and seeketh to every flower and to every weed for Hony but stingeth not once unlesse she be ill provoked so God bestirreth himself and his bowels yearn within him to shew compassion O Ephraim what shall I doe unto thee O Iudah how shall I entreat thee Why will ye dye O ye house of Israel Run to and fro through the streets of Ierusalem and seek if you can find a man but a man that I may pardon it But vengeance commeth on heavily and unwillingly and draweth a sigh from him Heu consolaâ—or Ah I must I see there is no remedy I must ease me of mine adversaries and be avenged of mine enemies Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets how oft would I c. How shall I give thee up Ephraim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together So is our God slow to anger and loath to strike Quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox but plenteous in mercy as David describeth him in Psal. 103. Never was a man truly and inwardly humbled but God in the riches of his special mercy truly pardoned him never was man so much as but outwardly humbled as Ahab here but God in his common and general mercy more or lesse forbare him Secondly the end of Gods threatnings also confirmeth this point For doth he threaten evil think ye because he is resolved to inflict it Nothing lesse rather to the contrary he therefore threatneth it that we by our repentance may prevent it and so he may not inflict it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom he foretelleth what he will bring upon us for this very purpose that he may not bring it upon us and warneth before he striketh to make us carefull to avoid â—he stroke In the antient Roman State and discipline the manner was before they made warr upon any people first to send Heralds to proclame it Bellum indicere â—e inserrent to the end that if they would make their peace by submission they might prevent the warr nor so onely but be written also in albo amicorum enrolled as their friends and confederates So God sendeth his Heralds the Prophets to threaten vengeance against sinners not thereby to drive them from hope of mercy but to draw them to repentance and humiliation whereby they may not only turn away the vengeance threatned but also if they perform them unfeignedly and with upright hearts interest themselves farther in his favour and love Nor is it to be accounted among the least of Gods mercies when he might in his just displeasure over-whelm us in the very act of our sinnes as Zimri and Cosbi were runn thorow in the very act of filthinesle and as Uzzah and Annanias and Sapphira and some few others whom God picked out to shew exemplary judgement upon were strucken dead upon the sudden for their transgressions When God might in justice deal with the same rigour against us all I say it is not the least of his mercies that he forbeareth and forewarneth and foretelleth and threatneth us before he punish
that if we will take any warning he may do better to us than he hath said and not bring upon us what he hath threatned A point very usefull and comfortable if it be not derogatory to Gods truth Let us therefore first clear that and then proceed to the Uses If God thus revoke his threatnings it seemeth he either before meant not what he spake when he threatned or else after when he revoketh repenteth of what he meant either of which to imagine farr be it from every Christian heart since the one maketh God a dissembler the other a changeling the one chargeth him with falshood the other with lightness And yet the Scriptures sometimes speak of God as if he grievedâ—or â—or what he did or repented of what he spake or altered what he had purposed and for the most part such like affections are given him in such places as endeavour to set forth to the most life his great mercy and kindnesse to sinfull mankind We all know we cannot indeed give God any greater glory than the glory of his mercy yet must know withall that God is not so needy of means to work out his own glory as that he should be forced to redeem the glory of his mercy with the forfeiture either of his Truth or Stedfastness We are therefore to lay this as a firm ground and infallible that our God is both truly Vnchangeable and unchangeably True The strength of Israel is not as man that he should he nor as the son of man that he should repent his words are not Yea and Nay neither doth he use lightness But his words are Yea and Amen and himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heaven and Earth may passe away yea shall passe away but not the least tittle of Gods words shall passe away unfulfilled They may wax old as a garment and as a vesture shall he change them and they shall be changed but he is the same and his years fail not neither doe his purposes fail nor his promises fail nor his threatnings fail nor any of his words fail Let Heaven and Earth and Hell and Angel and Man and Devil and all change still still Ego Deus non mutor God he is the Lord of all and he changeth not As for those Phrases then of Repenting Griâ—ving c. which are spoken of God in the Scriptures that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof Saint Chrysostom so often speaketh salveth them God speaketh to us and therefore speaketh as we use to speak and frameth his language to our l dulness and teacheth us by our own phrases what he would have us learn as Nurses talk half syllables and lipse out broken language to young children But what is so spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God after the manner of men must yet be understoo◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as befitteth the Majesty and perfection of his divine nature When he repenteth then we are not so to conceive it as if God changed his mind or altered any thing of his everlasting purpose and counsell either in substance or circumstances it only importeth that he now doth not that which so farr as we could reasonably conjecture by his words or works or our deserts or otherwise seemed to us to have been his purpose to have done This for the Phrases but yet the main doubt for the thing it self standeth uncleared Abimelech and Hezekiah shall dye and yet Abimelech and Hezekiah shall not dye Nineveh shall be destroyed and yet Nineveh shall not be destroyed I will bring evil upon Ahab's house and yet I will not bring it is not this Yea and Nay is not this a plain contradiction How is there not here a plain change of Gods will If not for substance because the things were at length performed yet at least in circumstance because they were not performed at those times and in that manner as they were threatned and foretold That wretched miscreant Vorstius instead of untying this knot cutteth it who to maintain Pelagian conclusions from blasphemous Principles trembleth not to affirm In parte aliquà divini decreti fieri aliquam mutationem that there may be some change made in some part of Gods decree An assertion unbeseeming an ingenuous Pagan and to be for ever abhorred and held accursed by every soul that professeth it self Christian. Admit this once and let Man yea and the devil too be true and only God a lyer Leave we him therefore to the judgement of that great God whom he hath blasphemed and seek we better satisfaction That of Aquinas and the Schoolmen is true but subtile that God doth sometimes Velle mutationem though he doth never mutare voluntatem that though he never changeth his will yet he sometimes willeth a change That of Gregory is plainer and no lesse true Mutat Deus sententiam non consiliumâ— God sometimes changeth the sentence which he hath denounced but never the Counsell which he hath decreed Others otherwise diverse men conceiving the same answer for substance in divers and different termes That which is plainest and giveth fullest satisfaction and whereinto the answers of Gregory and Aquinas and the rest as many as have spoken with any truth and pertinency to the point in the last resolution fall is briefly this In the whole course of Scripture Gods threatnings and so his promises too have ever a condition annexed unto them in Gods purpose which though it be not ever indeed but seldome expressed yet is it ever inclucluded and so to be understood All Gods promises how absolutely so ever expressed are made sub conditione Obedientiae and all his threatnings how absolutely so ever expressed sub conditione Impoenitentiae And these Conditions viz. of continuing in Obedience in all Promises and of continuing in Impenitency in all Threatnings are to be understood of course whether they be expressed or not This is plain from those two famous places before cited Ier. 18. and Ezek. 33. When I say to the wicked thou shalt surely dye if the wicked turn from his sinne c. he shall surely live he shall not dye Where Almighty God plainly teacheth us that we ought so to conceive of all his threatnings be they never so peremptorily set down as what more peremptory than this Thou shalt surely dye as that he may reserve to himself a power of revocation in case the parties threatned repent The examples make it plain Abimelech shall dye for taking Sarah understand it unlesse he restore her Forty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed understand it with this reservation unlesse they repent And so of all the rest But why is not that clause expressed then may some demand I answer first it needeth not secondly it booteth not First it needeth not For God having in Ierem. 18. and Ezek. 33. and elsewhere instructed us in the general
then are they of all other times most effectual for then do they most of all accomplish their proper end and the thing for which they were intended in thy amendment Neither let his truth make thee despair but remember that the tenor of all his most peremptory threatnings runneth with an implicite reservation and conditional exception of Repentance which condition if thou on thy part faithfully perform the judgement shall be turned away and yet Gods Truth no whit impaired This for the Distressed Now for the Secure Moses in Deut. 29. speaketh of a certain root that beareth gall and wormwood that blesseth it self when God curseth and standeth unmoved when God threatneth Here is an Axe for that root to hew it in pieces and unless it bring forth better fruit to cleave it out for the fire If there be any sprigs or spurns of that root here let them also consider what hath been said and tremble Consider this I say and tremble all you that make a mock at God and at his word and imagine that all his threatnings are but Bruta â—ulmina empty cracks and Powder without shot because sundry of them have fallen to the ground and not done the hurt they made shew of But know whosoever thou art that thus abusest the Mercy and despisest the Truth of God that as his Mercy never did so his Truth shall never fail Thou sayest some of his threatnings have done no harm I say as much too and his mercy be blessed for it but what is that to secure thee If any where Gods threatnings did no harm and wrought no destruction it was there only where they did good and wrought repentance If they have turned thee from thy sins as they have done some others there is hope thou mayest turn them away from thee as some others have done But if they have done no good upon thee in working thy repentance certainly they hang over thee to doe thee harm and to work thy destruction GODS threatnings are in this respect as all other his words are sure and stedfast and such as Shall never return void but accomplish that for which they were sent if not the one way then without all doubt the other If they doe not humble thee they must overwhelm thee if they work not thy conversion they will thy ruine As some strong Physick that either mendeth or endeth the Patient so are these And therefore when judgements are denounced resolve quickly off or on Here is all the choice that is left thee either Repent or Suffer There is a generation of men that as Moses complaineth When they hear the words of Gods curse blesse themselves in their hearts and say they shall have peace though they walk in the imagination of their own hearts that as Saint Paul complaineth Despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not taking knowledge that the goodness of God would lead them to repentance that as S. Peter complaineth Walâ— after their own lusts and scoffingly jest at Gods judgements saying where is the promise of his coming But let such secure and carnal scoffers be assuted that howsoever others speed they shall never go unpunished Whatsoever becometh of Gods threatnings against others certainly they shall fall heavy upon them They that have taught us their conditions Moses and Paul and Peter have taught us also their punishments Moses telleth such a one how ever others are dealt with that yet The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in Gods Book shall light upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven Saint Paul telleth such men that by despising the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance they doe but Treasure up unto themselves wrath against the great day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Saint Peter telleth them howsoever they not only sleep but snort in deep security that yet Their judgement of long time sleepeth not and their damnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as slumbereth Doe thou then take heed whosoever thou art and whatsoever thou dost that thou abuse not the Mercy of God and to divorce it from his Truth is to abuse it If when God threatneth thou layest aside his Truth and presumest on his bare Mercy when he punisheth take heed he do not cry quittance with thee by laying aside his Mercy and manifesting his bare Truth God is patient and mercifull Patience will bear much Mercy forbear much but being scorned and provoked and dared Patience it self turneth furious and Mercy it self cruel It is Mercy that threatneth it is Iustice that punisheth Mercy hath the first turn and if by Faith and Repentance we lay timely hold of it we may keep it for ever and revenging Iustice shall have nothing to doe with us But if carelesse and secure we slip the opportunity and neglect the time of Mercy the next turn belongeth to Iustice which will render judgement without mercy to them that forgat God and despised his Mercy That for the Secure Now thirdly and generally for All. What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder God hath purposely in his threats joyned and tempered Mercy and Truth together that we might take them together and profit by them together Dividat haec si quis faciunt discreta venenum Antidotum sumet qui sociata bibet as he spake of the two poysons Either of these single though not through any malignant quaâ—ity in themselves God forbid we should think so yet through the corrupt temperature of our souls becommeth rank and deadly poyson to us Take Mercy without Truth as a cold Poyson it benummeth us and maketh us stupid with careless Security Take Truth without Merâ—y as an hot poyson it scaldeth us and scorcheth us in the flames of restless Despair Take both together and mix them well as hot and cold poysons fitly tempered by the skill of the Apothecary become medicinable so are Gods Mercy and Truth restorative to the soul. The consideration of his Truth humbleth us without it we would be fearlesse the consideration of his Mercy supporteth us without it we would be hopelesse Truth begetteth Fear and Repentance Mercy Faith and Hope and these two Faith and Repentance keep the soul even and upright and steddy as the ballast and sail doe the ship that for all the rough waves and weather that encountereth her in the troublesome sea of this World she miscarrieth not but arriveth safe and joyfull in the Haven where she would be Faith without Repentance is not Faith but Presumption like a Ship all sail and no ballast that tippeth over with every blast and Repentance without Faith is not Repentance but Despair like a Ship all ballast and no sail which sinketh with her own weight What is it then that we
Peter and Iohn rejoycing when they suffered for the name of Jesus and Saint Paul so farr from fearing that he longed after his dissolution and the blessed Martyrs running to a faggot as to a feast Verily Gods children see great good in these things which others account evils and therefore they take them not as bare punishments sent to afflict them but as glorious tryals to exercise them as gracious corrections to humble them as precious receipts to purge and recover and restore and strengthen them So that it is not any of the temporal evils of this life but much rather the everlasting pains of hell wherein the just reward and punishment of sinne properly and especially consisteth The wages of sinne is death the proper wages of sinne eternal death For so the Antithesis in that place giveth it to be understood viz. of such a death as is opposed to Eternal Life and that is Eternal Death The wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is Eternal life Rom. 6. By the distribution of those Eternal punishments then we are rather to judge of GODS righteousness in recompensing sinners than by the dispensation of these temporal evils It was a stumbling block to the heathen to see good men oppressed and vice prosper it made them doubt some whether there were a God or no others nothing better whether a providence or no. But what marvel if they stumbled who had no right knowledge either of God or of his providence when Iob and David and other the dear children of God have been much puzzled with it David confesseth in Psal. 73. that His feet had welnigh slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked and certainly down he had been had he not happily stepped Into the Sanctuary of God and there understood the end of these men Temporal evils though they be sometimes punishments of sinne yet they are not ever sent as punishments because sometimes they have other ends and uses and are ordinabilia in melius and secondly they are never the only punishments of sinne because there are greater and more lasting punishments reserved for sinners after this life of which there is no other use or end but to punish since they are not ordinabilia in melius If we will make these temporal evils the measure whereby to judge of the Iustice of God we cannot secure our selves from erring dangerously Gods purposes in the dispensation of these unto particular men being unsearchable But those everlasting punishments are they wherein Gods Iustice shall be manifested to every eye in due time at that last day which is therefore called by Saint Paul Rom. 2. The day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Implying that howsoever God is just in all his judgements and acts of providence even upon earth yet the Counsels and Purposes of God in these things are often secret and past finding out but at the last great day when He shall render to every man according to his works his everlasting recompence then his vengeance shall manifest his wrath and the righteousness of his judgement shall be revealed to every eye in the condign punishment of unreconciled sinners That is the second Certainty Temporal evils are not alwayes nor simply nor properly the punishments for sinne If any man shall be yet unsatisfied and desire to have Gods justice somewhat farther cleared even in the disposing of these temporal things although it be neither safe nor possible for us to search farr into particulars yet some general satisfaction we may have from a third Certainty and that is this Every evil of pain whatsoever it be or howsoever considered which is brought upon any man is brought upon him evermore for sinne yea and that also for his own personal sinne Every branch of this assertion would be well marked I say first Every evil of pain whatsoever it be whether natural defects and infirmities in soul or body or outward afflictions in goods friends or good name whether inward distresses of an afflicted or terrours of an affrighted conscience whether temporal or eternal Death whether evils of this life or after it or whatsoever other evil it be that is any way grievous to any man every such evil is for sinne I say secondly every evil of pain howsoever considered whether formally and sub ratione poenae as the proper effect of Gods vengeance and wrath against sinne or as a fatherly correction and chastisement to nurture us from some past sinne or as a medicinal preservative to strengthen us against some future sinne or as a clogging chain to keep under and disable us from some outward work of sinne or as a fit matter and object whereon to exercise our Christian graces of faith charity patience humility and the rest or as an occasion given and taken by Almighty God for the greater manifestation of the glory of his Wisdom and Power and Goodness in the removal of it or as an act of Exemplary justice for the admonition and terrour of others or for whatsoever other end purpose or respect it be inflicted I say thirdly Every such evil of pain is brought upon us for sinne There may be other ends there may be other occasions there may be other uses of such Evils but still the original Cause of them all is sinne When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sinne It was not for any extraordinary notorious sinnes either of the blind man himself or of his parents above other men that he was born blind Our Saviour Christ acquitteth them of that Iohn 9. in answer to his Disciples who were but too forward as God knoweth most men are to judge the worst Our Saviours answer there never intended other but that still the true cause deserving that blindnesse was his and his parents sinne but his purpose was to instruct his Disciples that that infirmity was not layd upon him rather than upon another man meerly for that reason because he or his parents had deserved it more than other men but for some farther ends which God had in it in his secret and everlasting purpose and namely this among the rest that the works of God might be manifest in him and the Godhead of the Sonne made glorious in his miraculous cure As in Nature the intention of the End doth not overthrow but rather suppose the necessity of the Matter so is it in the works of God and the dispensations of his wonderfull providence It is from Gods mercy ordering them to those Ends he hath purposed that his punishments are good but it is withall from our sinnes deserving them as the cause that they are just Even as the rain that falleth upon the earth whether it moysten it kindly and make it fruitfull or whether it choak and slocken and drown it yet still had its beginning from the vapours which the earth it self sent up All those Evils
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
our selves truly thankfull we should take notice so far as possibly we could and in the species at least of all Gods blessings small and great and bring them all before him in the Confession of praise We should even Colligere fragmenta gather up the very broken meats and let nothing be lost those small petty blessings as we account them and as we think scarce worth the observation Did we so how many baskets full might be taken up which we daily suffer to fall to the ground and be lost Like Swine under the Oaks we grouze up the Akecornes and snouk about for more and eat them too and when we have done lye wrouting and thrusting our noses in the earth for more but never lift up so much as half an eye to the tree that shed them Every crum we put in our mouths every drop wherewith we coole our tongues the very ayre we continually breath in and out through our throats and nostrils a thousand other such things whereof the very commonness taketh away the observation we receive from his fulness and many of these are renewed every morning and some of these are renewed every minute And yet how seldome doe we so much as take notice of many of these things How justly might that complaint with GOD maketh against the unthankfull Israelites be taken up against us The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider The second degree of our Unthankfullness to God and that also for want of faithfull Acknowledgement is in ascribing the good things he hath given us to our own deserts or indeavours or to any of thertâ—ing or Creature either in part or in whole but only to him Such things indeed we have and we know it too perhaps but too well but we bestirred our selves for them we beat our brains for them we got them out of the fire and swet for them we may thank our good friends or we may thank our good selves for them Thus doe we Sacrifise unto our own nets and burn incense to our drag as if by them our portion were fat and our meat plenteous And as Pilate mingled the bloud of the Galileans with their own sacrifices so into these spiritual Sacrifices of Thanksgiving which we offer unto GOD we infuse a quantity of our own swinke and sweat of our own wit and fore-cast of our own power and friends still some one thing or other of our own and so rob God if not of all yet of so much of his honour This kind of unthankfulness God both fore-saw and forbad in his own people Deu. 8. warning them to take heed verse 17. lest when they abounded in all plenty and prosperity They should forget the Lord and say in their hearts my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth The very saying or thinking of this was a forgetting of God But saith Moses there Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is hee that giveth thee power to get wealth c. The whole Chapter is none other but a warn-word against unthankfulnesse All glorifying in our selves all vain boasting of the gifts of God or bearing our selves high upon any of his blessings is a kind of smothering of the receipt and argueth in us a kind of loathness to make a free acknowledgement of the Givers bounty and so is tainted with a spice of unthankfulness in this degree If thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it saith my Apostle elsewhere He that glorifieth in that for which he even giveth thanks doth by that glorying as much as he dareth reverse his thanks The Pharisee who thanked God he was not like other men did even then and by those very thanks but bewray his own wretched unthankfulnesse Besides a faithfull Recognition in freely acknowledging the benefit received there is required unto thankfulnesse a just Estimation of the benefit in valuing it as it deserveth Wherein we make default if either we value it not at all or under value it The third Degree then of our Ingratude unto God is the Forgetfulnesse of his benefits When we so easily forget them it is a sign we set nought by them Every man readily remembreth those things he maketh any reckoning of insomuch that although old age be naturally forgetfull yet Tully saith He never knew any man so old as to forget where he had hid his gold or to whom he had lent his monies In Deut. 8. Moses warneth the people as you heard to beware lest being full they should forget the Lord that had fed them and David stirreth up his soul in Psal. 103. to bless the Lord and not to forget any of his benefits Wee all condemn Pharaohs Butler of unthankfulness to Ioseph and so we may well do for he afterwards condemned himself for it in that having received comfort from Ioseph when they were fellow-Prisoners he yet forgat him when he was in place where and had power and opportunity to requite him How inexcusable are we that so condemn him seeing wherein we judge him we condemn our selves as much and much more for we do the same things and much worse He forgat Ioseph who was but a man like himself we forget God He had received but one good turn we many It is like he had none about him to put him in mind of Ioseph for as for Ioseph himself we know he lay by it and could have no accesse we have God himself daily rubbing up our memories both by his word and Ministers and also by new and fresh benefits He as soon as a fair occasion presented it self confest his fault and remembred Ioseph thereby shewing his former forgetfulnesse to have proceeded rather from negligence than Wilfulnesse we after so many fresh remembrances and blessed opportunities still continue in a kind of wilfull and confirmed resolution still to forget Well may we forget these private and smaller blessings when we begin to grow but too forgetfull of those great and publick Deliverances GOD hath wrought for us Two great Deliverances in the memory of many of us hath God in his singular mercy wrought for us of this Land such as I think take both together no Christian age or Land can parallel One formerly from a forein Invasion abroad another since that from an hellish Conspiracy at home both such as we would all have thought when they were done should never have been forgotten And yet as if this were Terra Oblivionis the land where all things are forgotten how doth the memory of them fade away and they by little and little grow into forgetfulnesse We have lived to see Eighty-eight almost quite forgotten and buried in a perpetual Amnesty God be blessed who hath graciously prevented what we feared herein God grant that we nor ours ever live to see
our so great Unthankfulness which taken away the effect will instantly and of it self cease Now those Causes are especially as I conceive these five viz. 1. Pride and Self-love 2. Envy and Discontentment 3. Riotousness and Epicurism 4. Worldly Carefulness and immoderate desires 5. Carnal Security and foreslowing the time Now then besides the application of that which hath already been spoken in the former Discoveries and Motives for every Discovery of a fault doth virtually contain some means for the correcting of it and every true Motive to a duty doth virtually contain some helps unto the practice of it besides these I say I know not how to prescribe any better remedies against unthankfulness or helps unto thankfulness than faithfully to strive for the casting out of those sins and the subduing of those Corruptions in us which cause the one and hinder the other But because the time and my strength are near spent I am content to ease both my self and you by cutting off so much of my provision as concerneth this Inference for Direction and desire you that it may suffice for the present but thus to have pointed at these Impediments and once more to name them They are Pride Envy Epicurisme Carefulnesse Security I place Pride where it would be the formost because it is of all other the principal impediment of Thankfulness Certainly there is no one thing in the World so much as Pride that maketh men unthankfull He that would be truly thankfull must have his eyes upon both the one eye upon the Gift and the other upon the Giver and this the proud man never hath Either through self-love he is stark-blind and seeth neither or else through Partiality he winketh on one eye and will not look at both Sometimes he seeth the Gift but too much and boasteth of it but then he forgetteth the Giver he boasteth as if he had not received it Sometimes again he over-looketh the Gift as not good enough for him and so repineth at the Giver as if he had not given him according to his worth Either he undervalueth the Gift or else he overvalueth himself as if he were himself the Giver or at least the deserver and is in both unthankfull To remove this Impediment who ever desireth to be thankfull let him humble himself nay empty himself nay deny himself and all his deserts confess himself with Iacob less than the least of Gods mercies and condemn his own heart of much sinfull sacrilege if it dare but think the least thought tending to rob God of the least part of his honour Envy followeth Pride the Daughter the Mother a second great impediment of thankfulness The fault is that men not content only to look upon their own things and the present but comparing these with the things of other men or times instead of giving thanks for what they have repine that others have more or better or for what they now have complain that it is not with them as it hath been These thoughts are Enemies to the tranquillity of the mind breeding many discontents and much unthankfullness whilest our eyes are evill because God is good to others or hath been so to us To remove this impediment who ever desireth to be truly thankfull let him look upon his own things and not on the things of other men and therein consider not so much what he wanteth and fain would have as what he hath and could not well want Let him think that what God hath given him came from his free bounty he owed it not and what he hath denied him he with-holdeth it either in his Iustice for his former sins or in his Mercy for his farther good that God giveth to no man all the desire of his heart in these outward things to teach him not to look for absolute contentment in this life least of all in these things If he will needs look upon other mens things let him compare himself rather with them that have lesse than those that have more and therein withall consider not so much what himself wanteth which some others have as what he hath which many others want If a few that enjoy Gods blessings in these outward things in a greater measure than he be an eye-sore to him let those many others that have a scanter portion make him acknowledge that God hath dealt liberally and bountifully with him We should do well to understand that saying of Christ not barely as a Prediction but as a kind of Promise too as I have partly intimated before The poor you shall alwaies have with you and to think that every Beggar that seeketh to us is sent of God to be as well a Glass wherein to represent Gods bounty to us as an Object whereon for us to exercise ours And as for former times let us not so much think how much better we have been as how well we are that we are not so well now impute it to our former unthankfulness and fear unless we be more thankfull for what we have it will be yet and every day worse and worse with us Counsell very needfull for us in these declining times which are not God knoweth and we all know as the times we have seen the leprous humour of Popery secretly stealing in upon us and as a leprosie spreading apace under the skinne and penury and poverty as an ulcerous sore openly breaking out in the very face of the Land Should we murmure at this or repiningly complain that it is not with us as it hath been God forbid that is the way to have it yet and yet worse Rather let us humble our selves for our former unthankfulnesse whereby we have provoked GOD to with-draw himself in some measure from us and blesse him for his great mercy who yet continueth his goodnesse in a comfortable and gracious measure unto us notwithstanding our so great unworthinesse and unthankfulnesse Thousands of our brethren in the world as good as our selves how glad would they be how thankfull to God how would they rejoyce and sing if they enjoyed but a small part of that peace and prosperity in outward things and of that liberty of treading in Gods Courts and partaking of his ordinances which we make so little account of because it is not every way as we have known it heretofore The third Impediment of Thankfulnesse is Riot and Epicurism that which the Prophet reckoneth in the Catalogue of Sodoms sins Fulnesse of bread and abundance of Idlenesse This is both a Cause and a Sign of much unthankfulnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fulnesse and Forgetfulnesse they are not more near in the sound of the words than they are in the sequel of the things When thou hast eaten and art full Then beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God Deut. 8. It much argueth that we make small account of the good
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
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
The Points then that arise from this part of my Text are these 1. Men do not always commit those evils their own desires or outward temptations prompt them unto 2. That they do it not it is from Gods restraint 3. That God restraineth them it is of his own gracious goodness and mercy The common subject matter of the whole three points being one viz. Gods restraint of mans sin we will therefore wrap them up all three together and so handle them in this one entire Observation as the total of all three God in his mercy oftentimes restraineth men from committing those evils which if that restraint were not they would otherwise have committed This Restraint whether we consider the Measure or the Means which God useth therein is of great variety For the Measure God sometimes restraineth men à Toto from the whole sin whereunto they are tempted as he with-held Ioseph from consenting to the perswasions of his Mistress sometimes only à Tanto and that more or less as in his infinite wisdom he seeth expedient suffering them perhaps but only to desire the evill perhaps to resolve upon it perhaps to prepare for it perhaps to begin to act it perhaps to proceed far in it and yet keeping them back from falling into the extremity of the sin or accomplishing their whole desire in the full and final consummation thereof as here he dealt with Abimelech Abimelech sinned against the eighth Commandement in taking Sarah injuriously from Abraham say he had been but her brother and he sinned against the seventh Commandement in a foul degree in harbouring such wanton and unchaste thoughts concerning Sarah and making such way as he did by taking her into his house for the satisfying of his lust therein but yet God with-held him from plunging himself into the extremity of those sins not suffering him to fall into the act of uncleanness And as for the Means whereby God with-holdeth men from sinning they are also of wonderful variety Sometimes he taketh them off by diverting the course of the corruption and turning the affections another way Sometimes he awaketh natural Conscience which is a very tender and tickle thing when it is once stirred and will boggle now and then at a very small matter in comparison over it will do at some other times Sometimes he affrighteth them with apprehensions of outward Evils as shame infamy charge envy loss of a friend danger of humane lawes and sundry other such like discouragements Sometimes he cooleth their resolutions by presenting unto their thoughts the terrors of the Law the strictness of the last Account and the endless unsufferable torments of Hell-fire Sometimes when all things are ripe for execution he denyeth them opportunity or casteth in some unexpected impediment in the way that quasheth all Sometimes he disableth them and weakeneth the arm of flesh wherein they trusted so as they want power to their will as here he dealt with Abimelech And sundry other ways he hath more than we are able to search into whereby he layeth a restraint upon men keepeth them back from many sins and mischiefs at least from the extremity of many sins and mischiefs whereunto otherwise Nature and Temptation would carry them with a strong current Not to speak yet of that sweet and of all other the most blessed and powerful restraint which is wrought in us by the Spirit of Sanctification renewing the soul and subduing the corruption that is in the Flesh unto the Obedience of the Spirit at which I shall have fitter occasion to touch anon In the mean time that there is something or other that restraineth men from doing some evils unto which they have not only a natural proneness but perhaps withal an actual desire and purpose might be shewn by a world of instances but because every mans daily experience can abundantly furnish him with some we will therefore content our selves with the fewer Laban meant no good to Iacob when taking his Brethren with him he pursued after him seven days journey in an hostile manner and he had power to his will to have done Iacob a mischief Iacob being but imbellis turba no more but himself his wives and his little ones with his flocks and herds and a few servants to attend them unable to defend themselves much more unmeet to resist a prepared enemy yet for all his power and purpose and preparation Laban when he had overtaken Iacob durst have nothing at all to do with him and he had but very little to say to him neither The worst was but this Thus and thus have you dealt with me And It is in the power of mine hand to do you hurt but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight saying Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad See the story in Gen. 31. The same Iacob had a Brother as unkinde as that Uncle nay much more despightfully bent against him than he for he had vowed his destruction The days of mourning for my Father are at hand and then I will slay my Brother Jacob and although the Mother well hoped that some few days time and absence would appease the fury of Esau and all should be forgotten yet twenty years after the old grudge remained and upon Iacobs approach Esau goeth forth to meet him with 400. men armed as it should seem for his destruction which cast Iacob into a terrible fear and much distressed he was good man and glad to use the best wit he had by dividing his Companies to provide for the safety at least of some part of his charge And yet behold at the encounter no use at all of the 400. men unless to be spectatours and witnesses of the joyful embraces and kinde loving complements that passed between the two brothers in the liberal offers and modest refusals each of others courtesies in the 32. and 33. of Genesis A good Probatum of that Observation of Solomon When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him Balaam the Conjurer when the King Balac had cast the hook before him baited with ample rewards in hand and great promotions in reversion if he would come over to him and curse Israel had both Covetousness and Ambition enough in him to make him bite so that he was not only willing but even desirous to satisfie the King for he loved the wages of unrighteousness with his heart and therefore made tryal till he saw it was all in vain if by any means he could wring a permission from God to do it But when his eyes were opened to behold Israel and his mouth open that he must now pronounce something upon Israel though his eyes were full of Envy and his heart of Cursing yet God put a parable of Blessing into his mouth and he was not able to utter a syllable of any thing other than
good concerning Israel in 22. 24. of Numbers In all which and sundry other instances wherein when there was intended before-hand so much evill to be done and there was withall in the parties such a forward desire and such solemn preparation to have it done and yet when all came to all so little or nothing was done of what was intended but rather the contrary it cannot first be imagined that such a stop should be made but by the powerful restraint of some superiour and over-ruling hand neither may we doubt in the second place that every such restraint by what second and subordinate means soever it be furthered is yet the proper work of God as proceeding from and guided by his Almighty and irresistible providence As for that which happened to Balaam that it was Gods doing the evidence is clear we have it from the mouth of two or three witnesses The Wisard himself confesseth it The Lord will not suffer me to go with you Num. 22. The King that set him on work upbraideth him with it I thought indeed to promote thee to great honour but lo the Lord hath kept thee back from honour Num. 24. And Moses would have Israel take knowledge of it The Lord thy God would not harken unto Balaam but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing because the Lord thy God loved thee Deut. 23. It was God then that turned Balaams curse into a blessing and it was the same God that turned Labans revengeful thoughts into a friendly Expostulation and it was the same God that turned Esaus inveterate malice into a kinde brotherly congratulation He that hath set bounds to the Sea which though the waves thereof rage horribly they cannot pass Hitherto shalt thou go and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves and did command the waters of the Red Sea to stay their course and stand up as on heaps and by his power could enforce the waters of the River Iordan to run quite against the current up the Channel he hath in his hands and at his command the hearts of all the sons of men yea though they be the greatest Kings and Monarchs in the world as the Rivers of waters and can winde and turn them at his pleasure inclining them which way soever he will The fiercenesse of man shall turn to thy praise saith David in Ps. 76.10 and the fiercenesse of them shalt thou retain the latter clause of the verse is very significant in the Original and cometh home to our purpose as if we should translate it Thou shalt gird the remainder of their wrath or of their fiercenesse The meaning is this Suppose a mans heart be never so full fraught with envie hatred malice wrath and revenge let him be as fierce furious as is possible God may indeed suffer him and he will suffer him to exercise so much of his corruption and proceed so far in his fiercenesse as he seeth expedient and usefull for the forwarding of other his secret and just and holy appointments and so order the sinful fiercenesse of man by his wonderful providence as to make it serviceable to his ends and to turn it to his glory but look whatsoever wrath and fiercenesse there is in the heart of a man over and above so much as will serve for those his eternall purposes all that surplusage that overplus and remainder whatsoever it be he will gird he will so binde and hamper and restrain him that he shall not be able to go an inch beyond his â—eâ—der though he would fret his heart out The fiercenesse of man shall turn to thy praise so much of it as he doth execute and the remainder of their fiercenesse thou shalt refrain that they execute it not Be he never so great a Prince or have he never so great a spirit all is one he must come under No difference with God in this betwixt him that sitteth on the Throne and her that grindeth at the Mill He shall refrain the spirit of Princes and is wonderfull among the Kings of the earth in the last vers of that Psalm Now of the truth of all that hath been hitherto spoken in both these branches of the Observation viz. that first there is a restraint of evill and then secondly that this restraint is from God I know not any thing can give us better assurance taking them both together than to consider the generality and strength of our Natural corruption General it is first in regard of the Persons overspreading the whole lump of our nature there is not a childe of Adam free from the common infection They are all corrupt they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one General secondly in regard of the subject over-running the whole man soul and body with all the parts and powers of either so as from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no whole part Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and To them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their minde and Conscience is defiled and All the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually General thirdly in regard of the object averse from all kinde of good In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing and prone to all kinde of evil He hath set himself in no good way neither doth he abhorre any thing that is evill Adde to this generality the strength also of our corruption how vigorous and stirring and active it is and how it carrieth us headlongly with full speed into all manner of evill As the horse rusheth into the battell so as we have no hold of our selves neither power to stay our selves till we have run as far as we can and without the mercy of God plunged our selves into the bottome of the bottomlesse pit Lay all this together and there can be no other sufficient reason given than this restraint whereof we now speak why any one man should at any one time refrain from any one sin being tempted thereunto whereinto any other man at any other time hath fallen being alike tempted Every man would kill his brother as Cain did Abel and every man defile his sister as Amnon did Thamâ—r and every man oppresse his inferiour as Ahab did Naboth and every man supplant his betters as Zâ—bah did Mâ—phâ—bosheth and every man betray his Master as Iudas did Christ every man being as deep in the loynes of Adam as either Cain or Iudas or any of the rest Their nature was not more corrupt than ours neither ours lesse corrupt than theirs and therefore every one of us should have done those things as well as any one of them if there had not been something without and above nature to withhold us and keep us back therefrom when we were tempted
Is it any thanks to our selves Nor that neither we have neither number to match them nor policy to defeat them nor strength to resist them weak silly little flock as we are But to whom then is it thanks As if a little flock of sheep escape when a multitude of ravening Wolves watch to devour them it cannot be ascribed either in whole or in part either to the sheep in whom there is no help or to the Wolf in whom there is no mercy but it must be imputed all and wholly to the good care of the shepherd in safe guarding his sheep and keeping off the Wolf so for our safety and preservation in the midst and in the spight of so many Enemies Not unto us O Lord not unto us whose greatest strength is but weaknesse much lesse unto them whose tenderest mercies are cruel but unto thy Name be the glory O thou Shepheard of Israel who out of thine abundant love to us who are the flock of thy Pasture and the sheep of thy hands hast made thy power glorious in curbing and restraining their malice against us Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Wonders we may well call them indeed they are Miracles if things strange and above and against the ordinary course of Nature may be called Miracles When we read the stories in the Scriptures of Daniel cast into the den among the Lions and not touched of the three children walking in the midst of the fiery furnace and not scorched of a viper fastning upon Pauls hand and no harm following we are stricken with some amazement at the consideration of these strange and supernatural accidents and these we all confesse to be miraculous escapes Yet such Miracles as these and such escapes God worketh daily in our preservation notwithstanding we live encompassed with so many fire-brands of hell such herds of ravening Wolves and Lions and Tygers and such numerous generations of vipers I mean wicked and ungodly men the spawn of the old Serpent who have it by kinde from their father to thirst after the destruction of the Saints and servants of God and to whom it is as natural so to do as for the fire to burn or a viper to bite or a Lion to devour Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for this his goodnesse and daily declare these his great wonders which he daily doth for the children of men Secondly since this restraint of wicked men is so only from God as that nothing either they or we or any Creature in the world can do can with-hold them from doing us mischief unlesse God lay his restraint upon them it should teach us so much wisdome as to take heed how we trust them It is best and safest for us as in all other things so in this to keep the golden mean that we be neither too timorous nor too credulous If wicked men then threaten and plot against thee yet fear them not God can restrain them if he think good and then assure thy self they shall not harm thee If on the other side they colloague and make shew of much kindnesse to thee yet trust them not God may suffer them to take their own way and not restrain them and then assure thy self they will not spare thee Thou maist think perhaps of some one or other of these that sure his own good nature will hold him in or thou hast had trial of him heretofore and found him faithfull as heart could wish or thou hast some such tye upon him by kindred neighbourhood acquaintance covenant oath benefits or other natural or civil obligation as will keep him off at least from falling foul upon thee all at once Deceive not thy self these are but slender assurances for thee to abide upon Good nature alas where is it since Adam fell there was never any such thing in rerum natura if there be any good thing in any man it is all from Grace nature is all naught even that which seemeth to have the preheminence in nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is stark naught We may talk of this and that of good natured men and I know not what But the very truth is set grace aside I mean all grace both renewing and restraining grace there is no more good nature in any man than there was in Cain and in Iudas That thing which we use to call good nature is indeed but a subordinate means or instrument whereby God restraineth some men more than others from their birth and special constitution from sundry outragious exorbitancies and so is a branch of this restraining Grace whereof we now speak And as for thy past Experience that can give thee little security thou knowest not what fetters God layed upon him then nor how he was pleased with those fetters God might full sore against his will not only restrain him from doing thee hurt but also constrain him to do thee good as sometimes he commanded the Ravens to feed Eliah a bird so unnatural to her young ones that they might famish for her if God did not otherwise provide for them and therefore it is noted in the Scripture as a special argument of Gods providence that he feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him But as nothing that is constrained is durable but every thing when it is constrained against its natural inclination if it be let alone will at length return to his own kinde and primitive disposition as these Ravens which now fed Eliah would have been as ready another time to have pecked out his eyes so a Natural man is a natural man still howsoever ouer-ruled for the present and if God as he hath hitherto by his restraint with-held him shall but another while withhold his restraint from him he will soon discover the inbred hatred of his heart against good things and men and make thee at the last beshrew thy folly in trusting him when he hath done thee a mischief unawares And therefore if he have done thee seven courtesies and promise fair for the eighth yet trust him not for there are seven abominations in his heart And as for whatsoever other hanck thou maiest think thou hast over him be it never so strong unlesse God manacle him with his powerful restraint he can as easily unfetter himself from them all as Sampson from the green wit hs and coards wherewith the Philistines bound him All those fore-mentioned relations came in but upon the bye and since whereas the hatred of the wicked against goodness is of an ancienter date and hath his root in corrupt nature and is therefore of such force that it maketh void all obligations whether civil domestical or other that have grown by vertue of any succeeding contract It is a ruled case Inimici domestici A mans enemies may be
Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him speak without all truth and reason For verily never man truly served God who gained not incredibly by it These things among other the servants of God may certainly reckon upon as the certain vails and benefits of his service wherein his Master will not fail him if he fail not in his service Protection Maintenance Reward Men that are in danger cast to put themselves into the service of such great personages as are able to give them protection Now God both can and will protect his servants from all their enemies and from all harms Of thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul for I am thy servant Psal. 143. Again God hath all good things in store both for necessity and comfort and he is no niggard of either but that his servants may be assured of a sufficiency of both when other shall be left destitute in want and distress Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but he shall cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit Esa. 65. And whereas the servant of sin besides that he hath no fruit nor comfort of his service in the mean time when he cometh to receive his wages at the end of his term findeth nothing but shame or death shame if he leave the service and if he leave it not death What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death The servant of God on the contrary besides that he reapeth much comfort and content in the very service he doth in the mean time he receiveth a blessed reward also at the last even eternal life He hath his fruit in holiness there is his comfort onward and the end everlasting life there is his full and final reward A reward far beyond the merit of his service And so the service of God is a profitable service And now I pray you what can any man alledge or pretend for himself if he shall hang back and not with all speed and cheerfulness tender himself to so just so necessary so easie so honourable so profitable a service Me thinks I hear every man answer as the Israelites sometimes said to Ioshua with one common voice God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve any other Nay but we will serve the Lord for he is our God Iosh. 24. But beloved let us take heed we do not gloze with him as we do one with another we are deceived if we think God will be mocked with hollow and empty protestations We live in a wondrous complemental age wherein scarce any other word is so ready in every mouth as your servant and at your service when all is but meer form without any purpose or many times but so much as single thought of doing any serviceable office to those men to whom we profess so much service However we are one towards another yet with the Lord there is no dallying it behoveth us there to be real If we profess our selves to be or desired to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the servants of God we must have a care to demean our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all respects as becometh the servants of God To which purpose when I shall have given you those few directions I spake of I shall have done Servants owe many duties to their earthly Masters in the particulars but three generals comprehend them all Reverence Obedience Faithfulness Whereof the first respecteth the Masters person the second his pleasure the third his business And he that will be Gods servant in truth and not only in title must perform all these to his heavenly Master Reverence is the first which ever ariseth from a deliberate apprehension of some worthiness in another more than in a mans self and is ever accompanyed with a fear to offend and a care to please the person reverenced and so it hath three branches Whereof the first is Humility It is not possible that that servant who thinketh himself the wiser or any way the better man of the two should truly reverence his Master in his heart Saint Paul therefore would have servants to count their own Masters worthy of all honour 1 Tim. 6.1 he knew well they could not else reverence them as they ought Non decâ—t superbum esse hominem servum could he say in the Comedy A man that thinketh goodly of himself cannot make a good servant either to God or man Then are we meetly prepared for this service and not before when truly apprehending our own vileness and unworthiness both in our nature and by reason of sin and duly acknowledging the infinite greatness and goodness of our Master we unfainedly account our selves altogether unworthy to be called his servants Another branch of the servants reverence is fear to offend his master This fear is a disposition well becoming a servant and therefore God as our Master and by that name of Master challengeth it Mal. 1. If I be a Father where is my honour and if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts Fear and reverence are often joyned together and so joyntly required of the Lords servants Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce to him with reverence Psal 2. And the Apostle would have us furnished with grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. From whâ—ch fear of offending a care and desire of pleasing cannot be severed which is the third branch of the servants Reverence to his Master Saint Paul biddeth Titus exhort servants to please their masters well in all things So must Gods servant do he must study to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing not much regarding how others interpret his doings or what offence they take at him so long as his Master accepteth his services and taketh his endeavours in good part Who so is not thus resolved to please his Master although he should thereby incur the displeasure of the whole world besides is not worthy to be called the servant of such a Master If I yet sought to please men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. And all this belongeth to Reverence Obedience is the next general duty Servants be obedient to your Masters Eph. 6. Know you not whom you yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6. As if there could be no better proof of service than obedience And that is twofold Active and Passive For Obedience consisteth in the subjecting of a mans own will to the will of another which subjection if it be
such is every sinne Another reason is grounded upon that Principle Bonum ex caâ—sa integra Malum ex partiali Any partiall or particular defect in Object End Manner or other Circumstance is enough to make the whole action bad but to make it good there must be an universall concurrence of all requisite conditions in every of these respects As a disfigured eye or nose or lippe maketh the face deformed but to make it comely there is required the due proportion of every part And any one short Clause or Proviso not legall is sufficient to abate the whole writ or instrument though in every other part absolute and without exception The Intention then be it granted never so good is unsufficient to warrant an Action good so long as it faileth either in the object or manner or any requisite circumstance whatsoever Saul pretended a good end in sparing the fat things of Amalek that he might therewith do sacrifice to the Lord but God rejected both it and him 1 Sam. 15. We can think no other but that Vzzah intended the safety of Gods ark when it tottered in the cart and he stretched out his hand to stay it from falling but God interpreted it a presumption and punished it 2 Sam. 6. Doubtlesse Peter meant no hurt to Christ but rather good when he took him aside and advised him to be good to himself and to keep him out of danger yet Christ rebuked him for it and set him packing in the Divels name Get thee behind me Satan Matth. 16. But what will we say and let that stand for a third reason if our pretended good intention prove indeed no good intention And certainly be it as fair and glorious as we could be content to imagine it such it will prove to be if it set us upon any sinfull or unwarranted meanes indeed no good intention but a bad For granted it must be that the Intention of any end doth virtually include the meanes as in a Syllogisme the Premises do the Conclusion No more then can the choice of ill means proceed from a good intention then can a false Conclusion be inferred from true Premises and that is impossible From which ground it is that the Fathers and other Divines do oftentimes argue from the intention to the action and from the goodnesse of the one to the goodnesse of both to that purpose applying those speeches of our Saviour in the twelfth and in the sixth of Matthew Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt And if thine eye be single the whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darknesse The light of the body is the eye and of the work the intention No marvell when the eye is evil if the whole body be dark and when the intention is evil if the whole work be naught That which deceiveth most men in judging of good or bad intentions is that they take the end and the intention for one and the same thing betwixt which two there is a spacious difference For the end is the thing propter quid for which we work that whereat we aime in working and so hath rationem causae finalis but the intention is the cause à qua from which we work that which setteth us on working and so hath rationem causae efficientis Now between these two kinds of causes the finall and the efficient there is not onely a great difference but even a repugnancy in such sort as that it is impossible they should at any time coincidere which some other kindes of causes may do It is therefore an error to think that if the end be good the intention of that end must needs be good for there may as well be a bad intention of a good end as a bad desire of a good object Whatsoever the end be we intend it is certain that intention cannot be good which putteth us upon the choice of evil meanes Methinkes the Church of Rome should blush if her forehead died red with the blood of GODS Saints were capable of any tincture of of shame at the discovery of her manifold impostures in counterfeiting of Reliques in coyning of Miracles in compiling of Legends in gelding of good Authors by expurgatory Indexes in juggling with Magistrates by lewd Equivocations c. Practises warrantable by no pretense Yet in their account but piae fraudes for so they terme them no lesse ridiculously than fasly for the one word contradicteth the other But what do I speak of these but petty things in comparison of those her lowder impieties breaking covenants of truce and peace dissolving of lawfull and dispensing for unlawfull marriages assoyling Subjects from their Oaths and Allegiance plotting Treasons and practising Rebellions excommunicating and dethroning Kings arbitrary disposing of Kingdomes stabbing and murthering of Princes warranting unjust invasions and blowing up Parliament-houses For all which and divers other foul attempts their Catholick defence is the advancement forsooth of the Catholick Cause Like his in the Poet Quocunque modo rem is their Resolution by right or wrong the State of the Papacy must be upheld That is their unum necessarium and if heaven favour not rather than faile help must be had from hell to keep Antichrist in his throne But to let them passe and touch neerer home There are God knoweth many Ignorants abroad in the world some of them so unreasonable as to think they have sufficiently non-plus't any reprover if being admonished of something ill done they have but returned this poore reply Is it not better to doe so than to doe worse But alas what necessity of doing either so or worse when Gods law bindeth thee from both He that said Doe not commit adultery said also Doe not kill and he that said Doe not steale said also Doe not lye If then thou lye or kill or doe any other sinne though thou thinkest thereby to avoâ—d stealth or adultery or some other sinne yet thou art become a transgressour of the Law and by offending in one point of it guilty of all It is but a poore choyce when a man is desperately resolved to cast himself away whether he should rather hang or drown or stab or pine himself to death there may be more horror more paine more lingring in one than another but they all come to one period and determine in the same point death is the issue of them all And it can be but a slender comfort for a man that will needs thrust himself into the mouth of hell by sinning wilfully that he is damned rather for lying than for stealing or whoring or killing or some greater crime Damnation is the wages of them all Murther can but hang a man and without favour Petty Larceny will hang a man too The greatest sinnes can but damne a man and