trust in him or arme us with undaunted confidence against an appearance of danger but as if there were no God or as if that God slumbered and slept Psal 121.4 and intermedled not in the government of the world as the Stoicks fondly dreamed we shrinke and tremble at sight of every danger and to secure our selves thinke it a surer way to run to unlawfull shifts then relye on the assureance of Gods providence And as if Gods hand were too short to reach from Heaven we thinke it a farre safer way to catch hold of that which is next us even any poore unlawfull and therefore helpes shift which our owne reasons shewes unto us So wanting that eye of faith which is the evidence of things not seene and looking onely with the eye of sence Heb. 11.1 we judge that God nor sees nor regards because we see not him Each new danger awakes a new distrust What testimonies had God given to the captive Jewes of Egypt of an especiall love to them that for their sakes had shewed the strength of his mighty arme Exod. 13.14.16 in so many unheard of wonders Is it in the belief of man that any danger could beget their distrust Yet see Exod. 12.29 they are no sooner redeemed by the death of so many soules as that night of horrour caused that might indeed be red for them and blush at their so fowle so monstrous distrust but they on the first occasion are ready to undervalue their deliverance and wish rather to have served the Egyptians Exod 14.10.11.12 then to dye as they feared in the Wildernesse A deliverance may yeild us comfort for the present but as if of a transeunt nature it ends there and seldome doe we improve it to arme us in the future so relying on transitory and vaine helpes every assault of danger looses the joynts and shakes the strongest of our weak built resolutions If God should say to us in our misery as he did unto the two blind men Matt. 9.29 According to your faith be it unto you it would be ill with us each affliction would overcome us and the shrinking of our faith soone call on us misery enough to overwhelme us our owne despaire would open us a gulfe a grave wherein we should bury together both our selves and hopes Matth. 27.60.60 upon which like that great stone rowled upon Christs Sepulcher our miseries should lye with so great weight as would crush and at last shrinke us into the lowest pit of hell If God should not finde a better motive in his owne infinite goodnesse a better cause in his own Sonne to deliver us when we are oppressed alasse what danger what misery so poore that is not too strong for the weakenesse of man What could our knowledge foresee What could our wisedome prevent of those evils we did foresee What could our vaine and transitory helpes overcome Nay the Eye of our knowledge being disturbed by our feare would present evils with more horrour nay should not our knowledge hurt not help us whiles it lookes through the false perspectives of confidence and feare it so making evils greater or lesse then indeed they are Yea and should not our wisedome rather hurt then helpe us while relying on the opinion of it own abilities it rather makes us secure when it could not make us safe Yea and should not the best meanes our owne wisedome could supply us with rather hurt then helpe us when they should prove onely like broken reeds to which when we should leane Isa 36 6 they breake and so runne into our hands Pessimus in dubiis augur timor Statius lib. 1. Thebaid Feare is the worst Counsellor Yet these transitory helpes are the forts of our greatest strength and they to which we owe both the most of our trust and thanks We deifie nature and relye on selfe-unable meanes as if a redeemed captive should reverence the sword and not the man that used it to his rescue Alas these things we trust to they are but agent of the first and prime cause things which in themselves carry an equall indifference to be as well the Ministers of his vengeance as mercy Heat the greatest comfort of sublunary things so that it is called the Father of generation yet how often hath that father like Saturne eaten his owne children Moysture the mother of generation yet often hath her wombe proved a tombe and swallowed up her owne issue There is nothing in the world proved either by more frequent or more demonstration then providence yet nothing in our practise more questioned Who beleeves God further then he sees him Where is the faith of those ancient worthies that beleeved above against hope Heb 11. against the evidence of sence Rom. 4.18 and beyond the possibility of nature when naturall reasons might call their faith absurd foolish impossible If God come Luk. 18.8 shall be finde faith upon the earth shall he not finde it is vanished into its object and become a thing not seene Heb. 11.1 Or if we have any faith 't is but all sensitive and must take information from our eye our eare our senses Ioh. 4.48 Give the Jewes a signe and then perhaps they will beleeve Ioh. 20.25.27.28 Give Thomas an ocular demonstration Let him see the print of the Nailes in our Saviours hands let him thrust his fingers into his side and then he will acknowledge my Lord and my God Give me some ground for my faith to walke on otherwise I must needs be at the brink of despaire I cannot like Peter walke upon the water Matth. 14.29.30 or if I doe the rising of a wave shall dash my confidence into despaire and as if every hollow of the waves were to become my grave my faith and I must both sinke and I cry out with him in despaire Lord save me I perish But O Lord doe not thou make good our feares to us O be not in so remote a distance as our diffidence would set thee nor yet as a judgement of our distrustfull fears withdraw thy protecting favours What use shall I make of that hath beene said but even that of the Psalmist I will go unto the mountaine Psa 121.1 2. from whence my help cometh Learne to looke with the eye of faith more than reason or sense and then shall we see a guard of innumerable Angels incircling us pitching their Tents about our Tâ—bernacles 2 Kin. 6.17 Psal 34.7 and let the miseries of wanting it increase our desire to get it one graine of which even no bigger than a graine of Mustard-seed Matt. 17.20 if we were owners of we might remove a mountaine but wanting faith a danger that is but as a graine of Mustard-seed is able to move us But be that trusteth in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion Psa 125.1 that shall never be moved but standeth fast for ever No evill shall come
given a being to that eye of the world there are no such distinctions Here then for a word of use let us see the vanitie of many men who think with the colour of an excuse which our ignorance hath unskilfully doubted to bleare the eyes of that all discerning wisedome to which thoughts themselves things of weakest essence and neerest nothing are open and apparent Heb. 4.13 Psal 139.2 From the Asteriske and note of attention behold now I come to Lots reasons to urge his affirmative request which argue more the good mans affection then enforce his conclusion Innocenti a melior est quam eloquentia Quintilian Innocence saith Quintilian is better then eloquence and a good cause then a good Orator Magna est veritas praevalebit O there 's a considence in truth better then all the flourishes of Rhetorick all the proofes of reason Each colour implies some defect and each proofe some doubt that doubt a possibilitie of the contrary And therefore it hath usually beene the guise of innocence to make no argument her best argument and the slight of reason the reason why she should not be slighted It was a brave and heroicke scorne in the Affrican Scipio Titus Livius when being accused of treason against the common wealth he in stead of answering led the people to the Temple to give thankes for that renowned victory that day twelve moneths before by him obtained Scipio's vertue scorned to bee defended let his actions not words speake for him And me thinkes more could not have been said for Scipio then this silence and his disdaine of defence did out doe all oratorie And verily truth like a perfect cube needs not these poore props let falsehood and a weake cause strengthen their weake credit with these mercenaries that like Tartars or Switzers will be hired to either side for the better pay For indeed our corrupted reason is become the onely advocate to passion and affection and so vassatized unto them that as it is the greatest of our taskes so is it that wherein she shewes the best of her abilities in making good the most desperate and forlorne cause Our affections first resolve and then make reason harrow all the Topicks of invention to finde defences if not excuses using herein poore reason as a great Potentate not long a goe his clergie For having a desire to marry within degrees unlawfull he set his learned men on worke to prove it lawfull and againe after a while being cloy'd and desiring change set them againe on worke to prove the former marriage unlawfull Nay so monstrous is the folly of our credulitie when our affections claime a strong interest in the cause that the same arguments shall serve us to prove contradictions yea and the same reasons perswade or confirme the lawfullnesse of that which in themselves prove it most unlawfull Witnesse the words of my Text with the two precedent verses in which Lot would prove Gods Counsell as full of danger as his owne of convenience and safety when as all the reasons he can alleadge prove the flat contrary For first This Citie is neere to flye unto and it is a little one This Citie Is it a Citie and not the more likely to be sinfull It is Bela a Citie of the Plaines and not more likely to be in the same manner and degree sinfull Secondly is it neere Sodom and not the more dangerous nay is it neere as well in condition as place how much more likely to be joyned in punishment Thirdly is it little how much more reason to be destroy'd For saith God to Jonah should not I then spare this great Citie Nineveh wherein are more then sixescore thousand persons that cannot discerne betwixt their right hand and their left and also much cattle Jonah 4.11 How contrary is Gods argument to Lots God will have a Citie spared because it is great Lot because it is little But these rich and fruitfull plaines had much endeared the heart of the good Patriarch loath he was to change a Citie and a plenteous valley for a mountainous and rockie desert and therefore though God be his immediate Counsellor the end his safety yet being interested by affection against the authoritie of his Lord the dutie of a servant the mercie of a deliverer doth Lot struggle first by delayes and then with forced reason to prove Gods Counsell full of danger as his own request of conveniency and safety Nay so farre hath his affection blinded him worse then the Sodomites at his doore for they could not see because the Angels blinded them Lot could not see when the Angels directed him I think misguided unsanctified reason doth rather breed suspitions then cleere them Syllogismes never compounded controversies seldome the law friends There is indeed an abstracted Logicke which prescribes formes and motions but follow it into the practice of men it hath still one terme more then it should affection or passion The Lawyer hath not he his rationem tinnulam for his quartum argumentum and what wonder then if in a double sence he commit fallaciam in quatuor terminis Nor is it thus onely in our every dayes actions and occurrents which according to our interest reason must justifie or at least excuse but as if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that circle of Arts had made them mad too with walkking in it the Schooles themselves and Vniversities have matriculated the same dotage Who would not unstudie reason and befoole all arguments that should see a thesis affirmative proved by many reasons his true Negative proved also yet both answered and after a long progresse with inquisition and industry arrive fairely at the same point where it begun and end in the greater doubt Quid leo est nisi insanire cum ratione What 's this but to be a learned foole and with great labour to make Cob-webs to be swept away Magno conatu◠nugas Would not this under things of faith be enough to make a man a Skeptick Sure we need not to the native weaknesse of our understanding and reason make it more wretched by this slavery and mancipation to our affections and passions unlesse to a weake eye we would throw in dust But I leave them in their maze and come to Lots arguments themselves to enforce his request and first of the object of his behold the first reason of Lots affirmative request being à qualitate This Citie 't is a Citie In which as in the rest of his arguments I might propose to my selfe this order Every argument or reason hath veritatem or veritatis speciem First then I might shew the probabilitie of his argument Secondly the fallacie Thirdly we might draw from either some use for our selves I might thus improve the matter of my text unto a large compasse if I should dilate particularly pro and con on every of his arguments As first in this first argument that it is a Citie the other a mountaine I might
is the more cunning Why beleeve it he askes as much in a poriphrasis now he askes thee but this thy little he askes thy soule and aymes though he seeme to play at small games indeed at thy whole stock He askes thy soule but more slyly least thou shouldst deny him And therefore thou oughtest to be the more circumspect against his cheating modestie by how much there 's the more reall danger in his seeming lesse desire It is so farre from any care of thee that it is indeed but a cunning tolling of thee on by a seeming carelessenesse and the innocence of a little sinne For know undoubtedly that of these littles is made the devils skrew and the staires that lead to bell are winding Nemo repentè fit turpissimus No man at onst jumps into the extremity of sin Invenal Sat. 2. and the kingdome of hell like that of Heaven commeth not with observation Luk. 17.20 but by an insensible progresse we goe downeward and therefore are bid to remember from whence we are falne Rev 2.5 and the servants come to their Lord with wonder in their mouthes Matth. 13.27 Master didst not thou sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it tares It escap't their notice for a long while even till the blade sprung up and the fruit appeared Thou seest here it is wisedome to be a precisian and that a nice and tender conscience is the best antidote against secretly insinuating poyson Had David before made a covenant with his eyes Iob. 31.1 he had not so neerely unmade his covenant with his God when he beheld Bathsheba from his tarras 2 Sam. 11.13.17 Little thought David that little thiefe lust that through the windowes of his eyes stole into his heart should have opened the doore to those two great sinnes adultery and murther 2 Sam. 12.9 Little thought he the fruitfulnesse of that sinne of lust would for one infant have doublely lost a man first in drink and then in bloud Little thought Peter when he ment at first Mark 14.66 67. c. with a plaine deniall handsomely to have shitted of the dangerous inquisition to 01 have runne into oaths and execrations By stepping but aside he little thought to have run so farre from Christ even further then they that before forsooke him and fled from him Matth. 26.56 You see then how one sinne ushers an other and like one wave cals another till at last the deepe waters goe over thy soule Canst thou pull one linke of a chaine and thinke the rest will not follow In that little sin thou art dejectus de statu gradu discomposed and disordered in thy posture so that thine enemie may close with thee Such is the fruitfulnesse and improvement of sin Since then it is sins method to winne upon us by little and little here a snatch and there let us be wise as serpents Matth. 10.16 and countermine against the policy of that grand serpent Let us arme our selves with a sacred jealousie and well wrought resolution which as Satan in vaine by force at onst should attempt to breake let us take heed that he never by his policie unravell Seneca and as Seneca counsells nobis quia regredi non est facile optimum est non progredi because we cannot easily return ' it s best way not to goe forward I have thus farre insisted out this argument of Lots in a three fold sense naturall morrall and theologicall In the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in way of essay I inquired into the reason why men are naturally compassionate and indulgent to little things Secondly I inquired what this is which we call little and whether i import any essence or quiddity positive and absolute or onely comparative and of relation In the morall sense of the words I endevoured by some Ethicall precepts to stop the voracitie and greedinesse of our desires both to God and man to cure men of that wolfe and to traine them up unto a discreet modesty in all requests that what we aske may be without a blush and given without a straine which will then be when like Lot of his Zoar we can say for our request it is a little one and nonne perexigua est is it not a very little one The Theologicall sense I have shewed might be twofold in regard of a twofold object that may be supposed Gods power or His justice 1. His power and then would the words involue an errour as dangerous as popular viz. that any thing were easier or harder to God whereas this is so onely in a measured and finite strength It is a little one is a good argument in that it implies our modestie but it is a little one is a bad argument if it looke at Gods power 2. The second sense supposing the second object which is Gods justice is likewise dangerous as confessing that Bela or Zoar a Citie of the plaines of Sodom doth partake with the rest of the Cities in the communitie of the same sinnes but it is but a little Citie and Gods justice cannot be impeached as partiall in sparing so few men so little a Citie Hitherto I have proceeded and though perhaps I have made much adoe about a little yet I am unwilling to let goe the same theme Who will not there most fortifie where he knowes his enemie will make the greatest battery It is this way and almost this way onely the devill winnes upon us The Serpent thus by little and little windes himselfe in He never delt with any except our Saviour Matth 4.6 to bid him cast down himselfe from the highest pinacle of the Temple it is his wont to us to cozen us by degrees from the height of our zeal and vertue as by winding stayres and this way he 's so much the more like to obtaine his end by how much we are lesse able to discerne either the declination or danger of the way I had almost vented a paradox and yet though I call it so I will adventure to expose it to the hazard of your censure and am much deceived if it be not acknowledged for more than halfe a truth and this it is Little sinnes or those sins which we take for little ones are many times of greater guilt and danger than those which we esteeme great ones Be pleased to suspend your censure till I acquaint you with two or three reasons First they are committed in greater numbers and so numero si non pondere valent their number will weigh against the others weight The fruit of this forbidden tree growes if not great in bulke yet in branches and clusters Secondly they are done with greater boldnesse and holdnesse is the very formale of a sinne that which dies in the deepest guilt and aggravates it beyond all excuse as if forsooth by the priledge of some extraordinary familiarity with God we might be borne out in a little boldnesse