Adams sinne may be thus farre said to be unto posterity imputed as that by reason of it they become obnoxious unto Death namely to an eternall dissolution of body and soule without any reunion and an eternall losse of the divine vision without any paine of sense yet that death which to Adam in his person was a punishment is not so to his posteritie but onely the condition of their nature Thirdly they say that that which is called originall sinne is nothing else at all but onely the privation of originall righteousnesse and that concupiscence was 〈◊〉 contracted and brought upon nature by sinne but was originally in our nature suspended indeede by the presence but actuated by the losse of that righteousnesse Fourthly they say That that Privation was not by man contracted but by God inflicted as a punishment upon Adam from whom it comes but onely as a condition of nature unto us that man in his fall and prevarication did not Throw away or actually shake off the Image of God but God pull'd it away from him which if God had not done it would have remained with him notwithstanding the sinne of the first fall Fifthly they say That in as much as the privation of originall righteousnesse was a punishment by God upon Adam justly inflicted and by Adam unto us naturally and unavoidably propagated It is not therefore to be esteem'd any sinne at all neither for it can God justly condemne any man nor is it to be esteem'd a punishment of sinne in us though it were in Adam because in us there is no sinne going before it of which it may bee accounted the punishment as there was in Adam but onely the condition of our present nature Lastly they say that Adam being by God deprived of originall righteousnesse which is the facultie and fountaine of all obedience and being now constituted under the deserved curse all the debt of legall obedience wherein he and his posteritie in him were unto God obliged did immediately cease so that whatsoever outrages should after that have beene by Adam or any of his children committed they would not have beene sinnes or transgressions nor involv'd the Authors of them in the guilt of iust damnation That which unto us reviveth sin is the new covenant because therein is given unto the law new strength to command and unto us new strength to obey both which were evacuated in the fall of Adam Vpon which premises it doth most evidently follow that unlesse God in Christ had made a covenant of grace with us anew no man should ever have beene properly and penally damned but onely Adam and he too with no other then the losse of Gods presence For â—… Hell and torments are not the revenge of Legall but of Evangelicall disobedience not for any actuall sinnes for there would have beene none because the exaction of the Law would have ceased and where there is no Law there is no transgression not for the want of righteousnesse because that was in Adam himselfe but a punishment and in his posteritie neither a sinne nor a punishment but onely a condition of nature not for habituall concupiscence because though it be a disease and an infirmitie yet it is no sinne both because the being of it is connaturall and necessary and the operations of it inevitable and unpreventable for want of that bridle of supernaturall righteousnesse which was appointed to keepe it in Lastly not for Adams sinne imputed because being committed by another mans will it could bee no mans sinne but his that committed it So that now upon these premises we are to invert the Apostles words By one man namely by Adam sinne entered into the world upon all his posterity and death by sinne By one man namely by Christ tanquam per causam sine quâ non sinne returned into the world upon all Adams posteritie and with sinne the worst of all deaths namely hellish torments which without him should not haue beene at all O how are wee bound to prayse God and recount with all honour the memorie of those Worthies who compiled Our Articles which serue as a hedge to keepe out this impious and mortiferous doctrine as Fulgentius cals it from the Church of England and suffers not Pelagius to returne into his owne country There are but three maine arguments that I can meet with to colour this heresie and two of them were the Pelagians of old First that which is naturall and by consequence necessarie and unavoidable cannot be sinne Originall sinne is naturall necessarie and unavoidable therefore it is no sin Secondly that which is not voluntarie cannot be sinfull Originall sinne is not voluntarie therefore not sinfull Thirdly no sinne is immediatly caused by God but originall sinne being the privation of originall righteousnesse is from God immediately who pull'd away Adams righteousnesse from him Therfore it is no sinne For the more distinct understanding the whole truth and answering these supposed strong reasons give me leave to premise these observations by way of Hypothesis First there are Two things in originall sinne The privation of righteousnesse and the corruption of nature for since originall sinne is the roote of actuall and in actuall sinnes there are both the omission of the good which we ought to exercise and positive contumaâ—…ies against the Law of God therefore a vis formatrix something answerable to both these must needs be found in originall sinne This positive corruption for in the other all agree that it is originall sinne is that which the Scripture cals flâ—…sh and members and law and lusts and bodie and Saint Austin vitiousnesse inobedience or inordinatenesse and a morbid affection Consonant whereunto is the Article of our Church affirming that man by originall sinne is farre gone from righteousnesse which is the privation secondly that thereby he is of his owne nature enclined unto evill which is the pravitie or corruption and this is the doctrine of many learned papists Secondly the Law being perfect and spirituall searcheth the most intimate corners of the soule and reduceth under a law the very rootes and principles of all humane operations And therefore in aâ—… much as well being is the ground of well working and that the Tree must be good before the fruite therefore wee conclude that the Law is not onely the Rule of our workes but of our strength not of our life only but of our nature which being at first deliver'd into our hands entire and pure cannot become degenerate without the offence of those who did first betray so great a trust committed unto them Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God Exâ—…ni valdâ—… tuo with all thy might saith the Law it doth not only require us to love but to have mindes furnish'd with all strength to love God so that there may be life and vigoâ—… in our obedience and love of him The Law requires no
against the Kingdome of Christ in â—…e and I find by daylie experience what foiles he gives me what captivitie he holds me under how unable I am to hold conflict with but some one of his Lusts how unfurnish'd with such generall strength as is requisite to meet so potent an adversary in this case a man will bee very apt to faint and bee wearied in his striving against sinne And therefore to encourage and quicken us unto patience wee must not seeke our selves in our selves nor fix upon the measure and proportion of our former graces but runne to our faith and hold fast our confidence which will make us hope above hope and bee strong when wee are weake Wee must looke unto Iesus and consider first his grace which is sufficient for us Secondly his power which hath already begunne faith and a good worke in us Thirdly his promise which is to finish it for us Fourthly his compassion and assistance he is our second ready to come in in any danger and undertake the quarrell Fifthly his example he passed through alike contradiction of sinners as wee doe of lusts Sixthly his neerenesse he is at the dore it is yet but a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Seventhly his Glory which is in our quarrell engaged and in our weakenesse perfected Eighthly his reward which hee brings with him it is for an eternall weight of glory that wee wrestle Ninthly his faithfulnesse to all that Clowd of witnesses those armies of Saints whome he hath carried through the same way of combates and temptations before us and whose warfare is now accomplished Lastly his performances already First he maketh the combate every day easier then before our Inner man growes day by day the house of David is stronger and stronger and the house of Saul weaker and weaker And Secondly as in all other afflictions so in this especially hee giveth unto us a peaceable fruit of righteousnesse after wee have beene exercised in it But you will say these are good encouragements to him that knowes How to do this worke but how shall I that am Ignorant and impotent know how to suppresse and keepe downe so strong an enemie with any patience or constancy that all this workes in me To this I answere first consider wherein mainely the strength of lust lies and then applie your preventions and oppositions accordingly The strength of lust is in these particulars First it 's wisdome and cunning craftinesse whereby it lies in waite and is upon the catch of every advantage to set forward its owne ends Secondly it's suggestions perswasions titillations treaties flatteries dalliances with the soule which like the smiles of a harlot entice and allure the heart to condescend to some experience and practice with it Thus Evah being deceived fell into the transgression For the suggestion quickly begets delight and delight as easily growes into consent and when the Will like the Master-Fort is taken the inferiour members 〈◊〉 no longer stand out Thirdly its promises and presumptions its threatnings and affrightments for Hopes and fear as are the edges of temptation Lust seldome or never prevailes till it have begotten some expectation of fruit in it till it can propose some wages and pleasures of iniquitie some peace and immunitie against dangers or judgements denounced wherewith men may flatter themselves some unprofitablenesse toyle and inconvenience in a contrary strictnesse Lust deales with the soule as Iael with Sisera first it calls a man in gives him milke and butter coveâ—…s him with a mantle and casts him into a quiet and secure sleepe and then after brings out the naile and hammer to fasten him unto death and yet all this while a man saith not within himselfe What have I done there is no hope after all this my wearinesse in the tent of Iael in the promises of lust but like the Mother of Sisera cherisheth vast expectations and returneth answers of spoyles and purchases to himselfe We will 〈◊〉 Incense to the Queene of Heaven say the people to â—…my we have not onely great and publike examples 〈◊〉 Fathers our Kings our Princes our Cities but great Rewards to encourage us thereunto for then had wee pleâ—…y of victuals and wâ—…re well and saw no evill I will go after my Lovers that give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax mine oyle and my drinke neither did shee ever returne to her first husband till shee found by evident experience that it was then better with her then amongst her idoles So that which made that hypocriticall people weary of the wayes and worship of God was the unprofitablenesse which they conceiv'd to be in his service and the unequalnesse of his wayes whereas indeed the fault was in their owne unsincerity and evill ends For the Word of the Lord doth good to those that walke vprightly as the Prophet speakes Fourthly its Lawes and Edicts whereby it setteth the members aworke and publisheth its owne will and that either under the shew of reason for sinne hath certaine Maximes and principles of corrupted reason which it takes for indubitable and secure wherewith to countenance its tyrannicall commands or else under the shape of Emoluments and Exigences and Inevitablenesse which may serve to warrant those commands that are otherwise destitute even of the colour of reason Like that device of Caiaphas when they knew not how to accuse Christ or charge him with any face of capitall crimes yet hee had found out a way that though there were no personall reasons nor iust grounds to proceede upon yet admitting and confessing the innocencie of the person of Christ the Expedience notwithstanding and Exigencie of state so requiring it fitter it was for one innocent person to perish and thereby the safety of the common wealth which depended upon their homage to the Romanes to be secur'd then by the preservation of one man to have the welfare of the whole people lie at hazard and exposed to the feaâ—…es and jealousies and displeasures of the Romans who by publike fame were very suspicious of an universall prince which was to arise out of Iudea and none so likely to be the man as he who could raise dead men out of their graves and so be never destitute of armies to helpe him so though there was no â—…quum est yet there was an expâ—…dit though no reason or iustice yet there was Exigence and Expediencie why hee ought to die though not as a malefactor to satisfie for his owne offence yet as a sacrifice to expiate and to prevent those evils of state which the fame of his mighty workes might have occasion'd And thus doth sinne deale with men sometimes by the helpe of corrupt reason and counterfeite maxi neâ—… it makes the sinnes which are commanded seeme warrantable and equall sometimes where the things are apparantly evill and cannot bee iustified yet by pretence of
cares not for the things of this World because he is in Law dead and so reserv'd to an execution and utterly devested of any right in the things hee was wont to delight in the sight or remembrance of them doth but afflict him the more A divorc'd man cares not for the things of his wife because in law she is dead vnto him and hee unto her So should it bee with us and sin because we are dead with Christ therefore we should shew it no affection Thirdly Deadnesse argues liberty unsubjection justification He that is dead is freed from sinne as the woman is from the husband after death And therefore being freed thus from sinne we should not bring our selves into bondage againe but stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free and sinne should appeare in our eyes as it is in it selfe a dead thing full of noisomenesse horrour and hideous qualities We therefore should labour to shew forth the power of the death of Christ in our dying to sinne for this is certaine we have no benefit by his sufferings except we have fellowship in them we have no more fellowship in them then we can give proofe of by our dying dayly to sinne For his blood clenseth from all sinne Let us not by raigning sinne Crucifie Christ againe for he dieth no more In that hee died hee died once unto sinne Death hath no more power ovâ—…r him to shew that sinne must have no more power over us but that being once dead to sinne we should thenceforth live unto him that died for us There is a speech in Tertullian which though proceeding from Novatianisme in him doth yet in a moderated and qualified sense carry the strength of the Apostles argument in it Si possit fornicatio moechia denno admitti poterit Christus denno mori If fornication and adultery may bee againe committed by a man dead to sinne in that raging and complete manner as before if raigning sinne after it hath beene ejected out of the Throne and nail'd to a Crosse can returne to its totall and absolute soveraigntie as before Christ may dye againe for the sinnes of a Iustified and regenerate man are Crucified upon his Crosse and in his body Now I proceede to the maine thing in the Text namely the Regall power of sinne It is an observation of Chrysostome and Theodoret on the Text which though by some rejected as too nice I shall yet make bold to commend for very pertinent and rationall The Apostle did not say say they Let not sinne Tyrannize for that is sius owne worke and not ours as the Apostle sayeth Now then is it no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me all the service which is done to a tyrant is out of violence and not out of obedience But he sayes Let it not raigne in you for to the raigne of a King the obedience of the Subjects doth as it were Actively concurre whereas the subjects are rather patients then agents in a tyranny So then in a Raigning King there is a more Soveraigne power then in a Tyrant for a Tyrant hath only a Coactive power over the persons but a King hath a sweete power over the wills and affections of his Subiects they freely and heartily love his person and rejoyce in his service which rule though it be not perpetuall in the letter and in civill governements for the unwillingnesse of a people to serve a Prince may not onely arise from his tyrannie but even when he is just and moderate from their owne rebellion yet it is most generall and certaine in the state of sinne which is never a King over rebellious subjects who of themselves reject its yoke and governement For the better discovery then of the power of sinne we must note first that there are but three wayes after which sinne may be in a man First as an usurping Tyrant and seditious commotioner either by surprizall invading or by violence holding under or by projects circumventing a man against his will taking advantage of some present distemper of minde or difficultie of estate as in David of idlenesse in Peter of teare and danger or the like And thus sinne doth often incroach upon the Saints of God and play rhe Tyrant use them like Captives that are sold under the power of sinne It was thus a Tyrant in Saint Paul we reade of him that hee was sold under sinne and wee read of Ahab that hee was sold to sinne but with great difference the one sold himselfe and so became willingly the servant of sinne the other was sold by Alam from which bondage hee could not utterly extricate himselfe though hee were in bondage to sinne as the Creatures are to vanity not willingly but by reason of his act that had subjected him long before Secondly As a stâ—…ve a Gibeonite or Tributarie Cananite as a spoyled mortified crucified dying decaying sinne like the house of Saul growing weaker and weaker and thus sinne is constantly in all the faithfull while they are iâ—… the field the chaste is about them Thirdly As a raging and commanding King having a throne the heart servants the members a counsell the world flesh and Divell a complete armorie of lusts and temptations fortifications of ignorance malice rebellion fleshly reasonings lawes and edicts lastly a strict judicature a wise and powerfull rule over men which the Scriptures call the gates of Hell And of the Power of this King we are to speake In a King there is a Two fold Power A Power to command and a Power to make his commands be obeyed Sinne properly hath no power to command because the kingdome of it is no way subordinated to Gods Kingdome over us but stands up against it And even in just and annointed kings there is no power to command any thing contrary to that Kingdome of Christ to which they are equally with other subject But though sinne have not a just power to command the soule yet it hath that upon which that power where it is is grounded namely a kinde of Title and right over the soule Sinne is a spirituall Death and man by his first fall did incurre a subjection to every thing which may be called Death so that then a man did passe into the possession of sinne whence that phrase spoken of before Thou hast sold thy selfe to worke evill Now Quod venditur transit in potestatem ementis when a thing is sold it passeth into the possession of that to which it is sold. This is the covenant or bargaine betweene a Sinner and Hell Man purchaseth the pleasures and wages of sinne and sinne takes the possession of man possession of his nature in Originall sinne and possession of his life in Actuall sinne The tryall of this title of sinne that wee may discerne whether we are under it or no must be as other Titles are we must first
unto Christs First it must have the same principle and seedâ—… with Christs namely his Spirit As in Christ there were two natures so in either nature there was Holynesse after a severall manner In his Divine nature he was holy by essence and underivatively in His humane by consecration and unction with the Spirit and in this wee are to beare proportion unto him Our holynesse must proceede from the same Spirit whereby he was sanctified onely with this difference The Spirit of Holynesse was Christs Inrâ—… proprio by vertue of the by postaticall union of the humane nature with the divine in the unitie of his person By meanes whereof it was impossible for the humane nature in him not to bee sanctified and filled with Grace But to us the Spirit belongs by an inferior union unto Christ as our Head from whom it is unto us derived and dispensed in such proportions as Hee is in mercy pleased to observe towards his members But yet though wee have not as Hee a plenitude of the Spirit yet wee have the same in Truth and substance with Him As it is the same light which breaketh forth in the dawning of the day and inhereth in the Glorious body of the Sunne though here in fulnesse and there but in measure So the Apostle saith we are all changed into the same Image with Christ by the Spirit of our God And he that is ioyned unto the Lord is one spirit and that there is but one Body and one Spirit betweene Christ and his members Secondly our Holynesse must bee conformable to Christs in the Ends of it First the Glory of God Father saith hee I have gloryfied thee on earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest me to doe Wherein there are three notable things for our imitation First that God must first give us our workes before we must doe them We must have his warrant and authoritie for all we doe If a man could bee so full of selfe-zeale if I may so call it of irregular and unprescribed devotion as to offer rivers of oyle or mountaines of cattell or the first borne of his body for the sinne of his soule should neglect and macerate his body and dishonour his flesh into the gastlynesse and image of a dead carcasse yet if the Lord have not first shewed it nor required it of him it will all prove but the vanitie and pride of a fleshly minde Secondly as wee must doe nothing but that which God requires and gives us to doe so we must therein aime at his Glory as his Authoritie must bee the ground so his Honour must be the End of all our workes and thirdly God is never glorified but by finishing His workes To beginne and then fall backe is to put Christ to shame Secondly all Christs workes were done for the good of the Church He was given and borne for us He was made sinne and curse for us For our righteousnesse and redemption he came and for our expediencie he returned againe When the Apostle urgeth the Philippians not to looke to their owne things but every man also on the things of others hee presseth them with this argument Let the same minde bee in you which was in Christ Iesus Hee thought it no robbery to be equall with God and therefore to him there could be no accession all that he did was for his Church and this Saint Paul sealeth with his owne example If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I ioy and reioyce with you all And else where I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more aboundantly I love you the lesse I beloved Onely here is the difference Christs obedience was meritorious for the redemption of His Church ours onely ministeriall for the edification of the Church we doe all things saith the Apostle for your edification When the Apostle saith I fill up that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ for his Bodies sake which is the Church We are not to conceive it in our adversaries glosse that it was to merit expiate satisfie for the Church but only to benefit and edifie it Let him expound himselfe The things which happened vnto mee namely my bonds in Christ have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospell and againe I endure all things for the Elects sake that they may also obtaine the Salvation not which my sufferings merit but which is in Christ Iesus To note that the sufferings of the Saints are ministerially serviceable to that Salvation of the Church unto which the sufferings of Christ are alone meritorious and availeable Thirdly our holinesse must bee Proportionable to Christs in the parts of it It must be universall the whole man must bee spiritually formed and organiz'd unto the measure of Christ. Every part must have its measure and every ioynt its supply Holynesse is a resurrection all that which fell must be restored and it is a generation all the parts of him that begetteth must be fashioned The God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your whole spirit soule and body may bee preserved blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Lastly our Holinesse must bee proportion ed unto Christ in the manner of working I shall observe but three particulars of many First it must be done with selfe-denyall He that will follow Christ must deny himselfe Christ for us denyed himselfe and his owne will His naturall love towards his owne life yeelded to his mercifull love towards his members not as I will in my naturall desire to decline dissolution but as thou wilt in thy mercifull purpose to save thy Church Many men will be content to serve God as long as they may with all advantage themselves but to serve him and deny themselves is a worke which they have not learned Ephraim loveth to treade out the corne saith the Prophet You know the mouth of the Oxe was not to be muzled that trod out the corne he had his worke and reward together But plowing is onely in hope for the present it is a hungry and a hard worke So saith he while Ephraim may serve me and himselfe make religion serve his other secular purposes he will be very forward but when he must plow that is serve in hope of a Harvest but in paine for the present hee hath an easier plow going of his owne as it followes ye have plowed wickednesse Secondly it must bee done in obedience unto God Christ emptied himselfe and became obedient It was his meate and drinke to doe the Will of his Father even unto that bitter worke of his Passion he was annointed with the oyle of gladnesse to note that though as made of a woman partaker of the same passions and naturall affections with us hee did decline it and shrinke from it yet as made under the Law hee did most voluntarily
the whole savour of my distractions and caused more escapes in the Print then otherwise should have been The principall I have here corrected those which are smaller may in the reading be easily discerned Page 92. line 17. for Ieroboam reade Iehosaphat p. 122. l. 16. f. dependant r. dependence p. 130. l. 16 f. hastned r. hartned p. 134. l. 21. f. enticeth r. entitleth p. 140. l. 14. f. bow r. bough p. 148. l. 9. f. he r me p. 159. l. 33. f. honour in r honour of God in p. 167. l. 6. blot out the. p. 212. l. 15. leave out these p. 278. l. 20. f. rageing r. raigning p. 295. l. 18. f. darkenes r. darke p. 299 l. 28. f. possessions r. passions p. 355. l. 16. f. we r. hee p. 401. l. 34. f. fulfill r. fulfild p. 405. l. 26. f. terrifire r. testifies p. 407. l. 27. f. discourses r. discoveries p. 434. l. 23. after even as wee are knowne adde Secondly in regard of accomplishment and consummation p. 440. l. 33. f. reiect r. eiect p. 442. l. 16. f. that faith or made unable r. faith or made that unable p. 464. l. 34. f. it r. them p. 484. l. 34. f. as r. was p. 485. l. 19. f. conviction r. conclusion p. 487. l. 26. f. were r. weare p. 501. l. 11. f. the r. these THE VANITIE OF THE CREATVRE ECCLESIASTES 1. 14. I have seene all the workes that are done under the sunne and Behold All is Vanitie and Vexation of Spirit TO have a selfe-sufficiencie in being and operation and to bee unsubordinate to any further End above himselfe as it is utterly repugnant to the Condition of a Creature so amongst the rest to Man especially who besides the limitednesse of his nature as he is a Creature hath contracted much deficiencie and deformitie as he is a Sinner God never made him to be an End unto himselfe to be the Center of his owne motions or to be happy onely by reflection on his owne excellencies Something still there is without him unto which he moves and from whence God hath appointed that he should reape either preservation in or advancement and perfection unto his nature What that is upon which the desires of man ought to fixe as his Rest and End is the maine discoverie that the Wise Man makes in this Booke And he doth it by an historicall and penitentiall review of his former Enquiries from whence he states the point in Two maine Conclusions The first the Creatures Insufficiencie in the beginning of the Booke Vanitie of Vanities All is vanity The second Mans Duty to God and Gods All-sufficiencie unto man in the End of the Booke Let us heare the Conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keepe his Commandements for this is Totum hominis the whole Duty the whole End the whole Happinesse of Man The former of these two namely the Insufficiency of the Creature to satiate the desires and quiet the motions of the Soule of man is the point I am now to speake of out of these words For understanding whereof wee must know that it was not God in the Creation but sinne and the curse which attended it that brought this Vanity and Vexation upon the Creature God made Every thing in it selfe very Good and therefore very fit for the desires of man some way or other to take satisfaction from As prickes and quauers and rests in musicke serue in their order to commend the cunning of the Artist and to delight the Eare of the hearer as well as more perfect notes so the meanest of the Creatures were at first fill'd with so much goodnesse as did not onely declare the glory of God but in their ranke likewise minister content to the minde of man It was the sinne of man that fill'd the Creature with Vanitie and it is the Vanitie of the Creature that fils the Soule of man with Vexation As sinne makes man come short of Glory which is the rest of the Soule in the fruition of God in himselfe so doth it make him come short of Contentation too which is the rest of the Soule in the fruition of God in his Creatures Sinne tooke away Gods favour from the Soule and his Blessing from the Creature It put bitternesse into the Soule that it cannot relish the Creature and it put Vanity into the Creature that it cannot nourish nor satisfie the Soule The Desires of the Soule can never be satisfied with any Good till they finde in it these two qualities or relations wherein indeed the formalitie of Goodnesse doth consist namely Proportion and Proprietie First nothing can satisfie the desires of the Soule till it beares convenience and fitnesse thereunto for it is with the minde as with the body the richest attire that is if it be either too loose or too straite however it may please a mans pride must needs offend his body Now nothing is Proportionable to the minde of man but that which hath reference unto it as it is a spirituall Soule For though a man have the same sensitive appetites about him which we finde in beasts yet in as much as that Appetite was in man created subordinate unto reason and obedient to the spirit the case is plaine that it can never be fully satisfied with its obiect unlesse that likewise be subordinate and linked to the Obiect of the superior faculty which is God So then the Creature can never bee Proportionable to the Soule of Man till it bring God along with it So long as it is emptie of God so long must it needs be full of Vanitie and Vexation But now it is not sufficient that there be Proportion unlesse withall there be Propriety For God is a Proportionable Good unto the nature of divels as well as of men or good angels yet no good comes by that unto them because he is none of their God they have no interest in him they have no union unto him Wealth is as commensurate unto the mind and occasions of a beggr as of a prince yet the goodnesse and comfort of it extends not unto him because he hath no propriety unto any Now sinne hath taken away the Proprietie which we have in Good hath unlinked that golden chaine whereby the Creature was joyned unto God and God with the Creature came along unto the minde of man So that till we can recover this Vnion and make up this breach againe it is impossible for the Soule of man to receive any satisfaction from the Creature alone Though a man may have the possession of it as a Naked Creature yet not the fruition of it as a Good Creature For Good the Creature is not unto any but by vertue of the Blessing and Word accompanying it And man naturally hath no right unto the Blessing of the Creature for it is Godlinesse which hath the Promises and by consequence the Blessing as well of this as of the other life And God is not in
gives an excellent reason in the same place No man can by any meanes redeeme his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the Redemption of their Soule is Pretious And secondly it may teach them as not to Trust so not to Swell with these things neither It is an argument of their windinesse and emptinesse that they are apt to make men swell whereas if they cannot change a haire of a mans head nor adde an inch to his stature they can much lesse make an accession of the least dramme of merit or reall value to the owners of them And surely if men could seriously consider That they are still members of the same common bodie and that of a twofold body a civill and a mysticall body and that though they haplie may bee the more honorable parts in one body yet in the other they may be the lesse honorable that the poore whom they despise may in Christs body have a higher roome then they as the Apostle saith Hath not God chosen the poore in this world Rich in faith Iam. 2. 5. I say if men could compare things rightly together and consider that they are but the greater letters in the same volume and the poore the smaller though they take up more roome yet they put no more matter nor worth into the word which they compound they would never suffer the tympanie and inflation of pride or superciliousnesse of selfe-attributions or contempt of their meaner brethren to prevaile within them Wee see in the naturall body though the head have a Hat on of so many shillings price and the foot a Shooe of not halfe so many pence yet the head doth not therefore despise the foot but is tender of it and doth derive influence as well unto that as to any nobler part and surely so should it be amongst men though God have given thee an Eminent station in the body cloath'd thee with purple and scarlet and hath set thy poore neighbour in the lowest part of the body and made him conversant in the dirt and content to cover himselfe with leather yet you are still members of the same common body animated with the same spirit of Christ moulded out of the same dirt appointed for the same inheritance borne out of the same wombe of natural blindnesse partakers of the same great and pretious promises there was not one price for the Soule of the poore man and another for the rich there is not one table for Christ's meaner guests and another for his greater but the faith is a Common faith the salvation a Common salvation the rule a Common rule the hope a Common hope one Lord and one Spirit and one Baptisme and one God and Father of all and One foundation and One house and therefore wee ought to have Care and Compassion one of another Secondly consider that Goodnesse and value which is fix'd to the being of the Creature implanted in it by God and the institution of nature and even thus we shall finde them absolutely unable to satisfie the desires of the reasonable and spirituall soule God is the Lord of all the Creatures they are but as his severall monies he coin'd them all So much then of his Image as nay Creature hath in it so much value and worth it carries Now God hath more communicated himselfe unto man then unto any other Creature in his Creation we finde man made after the similitude of God and in his restauration we finde God made after the similitude of man and man once againe after the similitude of God And now it is needlesse to search out the worth of the Creature Our Saviour will decide the point What shall a man gaine though he winne the whole World and lose his owne soule or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule To which of the Creatures said God at any time Let us create it after our image of which of the Angels said He at any time Let us restore them to our image againe there is no Creature in heaven or earth which is recompence enough for the losse of a Soule Can a man carrie the world into hell with him to bribe the flames or corrupt his tormentors No saith the Psalmist His glory shall not descend after him Psal. 49. 17. but can hee buy out his pardon before he comes thither no neither the Redemption of a Soule is more pretious vers 8. we know the Apostle counts all things Dung Phil. 3. 8. and will God take dung in exchange for a soule Certainely Beloved when a man can sow grace in the furrowes of the field when he can fill his barnes with glory when he can get bagges full of salvation when he can plow up heaven out of the earth and extract God out of the Creatures then he may bee able to finde that in them which shall satisfie his desires But till then let a man have all the exquisitest Curiosities of nature heap'd into one vessell let him be moulded out of the most delicate ingredients and noblest principles that the world can contribute let there be in his body a concurrency of all beauty and feature in his nature an Eminence of all Sweetnesse and ingenuity in his minde a conspiration of the politest and most choice varieties of all kinde of learning yet still the spirit of that man is no whit more valueable and pretious no whit more proportionable to Eternall Happinesse then the soule of a poore and illiterate begger Difference indeed there is and that justly to bee made betweene them in the eyes of men which difference is to expire within a few yeeres and then after the dust of the beautifull and deformed of the learned and ignorant of the honorable and base are promiscuously intermingled and death hath equall'd all then at last there will come a day when all mankinde shall be summon'd naked without difference of degrees before the same tribunall when the Crownes of kings and the shackles of prisoners when the robes of princes and the ragges of beggers when the gallants braverie and the peasants russet and the statists policie and the Courtiers luxurie and the schollers curiosity shall be all laid aside when all men shall be reduc'd unto an equall plea and without respect of persons shall bee doom'd according to their workes when Nero the persecuting emperor shall be throwne to Hell and Paul the persecuted Apostle shall shine in glory when the learned Scribes and Pharises shall gnash their teeth and the ignorant and as they terme them cursed people shall see their Saviour when the proud antichristian prelates that dyed their robes in the bloud of the Saints shall be hurried to damnation and the poore despised martyrs whom they persecuted shall wash their feet in the bloud of their enemies when those puntoes and formalities and cuts and fashions and distances and complements which are now the darling sinnes of the upper
spue and rise up no more even that fierce and bitter indignation in the pouring out of which the Lord shall put to his right hand his strong arme not onely the terror of his presence but the glory of his power I say the Lord could let drunkards alone till at last they meet with this Cup which undoubtedly they shall doe if there be either truth in Gods word or power in his right hand if there be either Iustice in heaven or fire in hell till with Belshazzar they meet with dregs and trembling in the bottome of all their Cups but yet oftentimes the Lord smites them with a more sudden blow snatcheth away the Cup from their very mouths and so makes one Curse anticipate and preuent another Though Haman and Achitophel should have liv'd out the whole thred of their life yet at last their honor must have laine downe in the dust with them Though Iudas could have liv'd a thousand yeares and could have improv'd the reward of his Masters bloud to the best advantage that ever Vsurer did yet the rust would at last have seiz'd upon his bags and his monie must have perished with him but now the Lord sets forward his Curse and that which the moth would have been long in doing the gallows dispatcheth with a more swift destruction Thus as the body of a man may have many summons and engagements unto one death may labour at once under many desperate diseases all which by a malignant conâ—…unction must needs hasten a mans end as Cesar was stabd with thirty wounds each one whereof might have serv'd to let out his soule so the Creatures of God labouring under a manifold corruption doe as it were by so many wings post away from the Owners of them and for that reason must needs be utterly disproportionable to the condition of an Immortall Soule Now to make some Application of this particular before wee leave it This doth first discover and shame the folly of wicked worldlings both in their opinions and affections to earthly things Love is blinde and will easily make men beleeve that of any thing which they could wish to bee in it and therefore because wicked men wish with all their hearts for the love they beare to the Creatures that they might continue together for ever the Divell doth at last so deeply delude them as to thinke that they shall continue for ever Indeed in these and in the generall they must needs confesse that one generation commeth and another goeth but in their owne particular they can never assume with any feeling and experimentall assent the truth of that generall to their owne estates And therefore what ever for shame of the world their outward professions may be yet the Prophet David assures us That their inward Thoughts their owne retir'd contrivances and resolutions are that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations and upon this Immortality of stones and monuments they resolve to rest But the psalmist concludes this to be but brutish and notorious folly This their way is their folly they like sheepe are laid downe in their graves and death feeds upon them And indeed what a folly is it for men to build upon the sand to erectan Imaginarie fabrick of I know not what Immortality which hath not so much as a constant subsistence in the head that contrives it What man will ever goe about to build a house with much cost and when he hath done to inhabit it himself of such rotten and inconsistent materials as will undoubtedly within a yeere or two after fall upon his head and bury him in the ruines of his owne folly Now then suppose a man were lord of all the World and had his life coextended with it were furnished with wisedome to manage and strength to runne through all the affaires incident to this vast frame in as ample a measure as any one man for the governement of a private family yet the Scripture would assure even such a man that there will come a day in which the heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt up and that there is but one houre to come before all this shall be Behold now is the last houre And what man upon these termes would fix his heart and ground his hopes upon such a tottering bottome as will within a little while crumble into dust and leave the poore soule that rested upon it to sinke into hell But now when we consider that none of us labour for any such inheritance that the extremitie of any mans hopes can be but to purchase some little patch of earth which to the whole World cannot beare so neere a proportion as the smallest molehill to this whole habitable earth that all we toyle for is but to have our loade of a little thicke clay as the Prophet speakes that when wee have gotten it neither wee nor it shall continue till the universall dissolution but in the midst of our dearest embracements we may suddenly be puld asunder and come to a fearefull end it must needs be more then brutish stupidity for a man to weave the Spiders webs to wrappe himselfe up from the consumption determined against the whole earth in a covering that is so infinitely too short and too narrow for him Wee will conclude this particular with the doome given by the Prophet Ieremy As the Partridge sitteth on egges and hatcheth them not shee is either caught by the fowler or her egges are broken so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and in the end shall bee a foole Secondly this serves to justifie the wisedome and providence of God in his proceedings with men The wicked here provoke God and cry aloud for vengeance on their owne head and the Lord seemes to stop his eares at the cry of sinne and still to loade them with his blessings he maketh their way to prosper they take roote and grow and bring forth fruite they shine like a blazing Comet and threaten ruine to all that looke upon them they carry themselves like some Tyrant in a Tragedy that scatters abroad death with the sparkles of his eyes and darts out threats against the heaven aboue him they are like Agag before Samuel clothed very delicately and presume that there is no bitternesse to come And now the impatiency of man that cannot resolve things into their proper issues that cannot let iniquitie ripen nor reconcile one day and a thousand yeeres together begins to question Gods proceedings and is afraid leâ—…t the World be governed blindfold and blessings and curses throwne confusedly abroad for men as it were to scramble and to scuffie for them But our God who keepeth times and seasons in his owne power who hath given to every Creature under the Sunne limits
prevent or correct the naturall crookednesse of the smallest things much lesse make a man solidly and substantially happy Thirdly That which is crooked cannot be made straite It is impossible for a man by the exactest knowledge of naturall things to make the nature of a man which by sinne is departed from its primitive rectitude strait againe to repaire that Image of God which is so much distorted When they knew God they glorified him not as God they became vaine in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned It is the Apostles speech of the wisest heathen Aristotle the most rationall heathen man that the world knowes of in his Doctrine confesseth the disability of moral knowledge to rectifie the intemperance of nature and made it good in his practice for he used a common strumpet to satisfie his lust Seneca likewise the exactest Stoick which wee meet with then whom never any man writ more divinely for the contempt of the world was yet the richest usurer that ever wee read of in ancient stories though that were a sinne discovered and condemned by the heathen themselves A second Ground of vexation from knowledge is The Defects and Imperfections of it That which is wanting cannot be numbred There are many thousand conclusions in nature which the most inquisitiue Iudgement is not able to pierce into nor resolve into their just principles Nay still the more a man knowes the more discoveries he makes of things which he knowes not Thirdly in much wisdome is much griefe and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow In civill wisdome the more able a man is the more service is cast upon him the more businesses runne through him the lesse can hee enjoy his time or liberty His Eminence lodes him with envy jealousies observation suspicions forceth him oftentimes upon unwelcom compliancies upon colours and inventions to palliate unjust counsels and stop the clamors of a gainsaying Conscience fills him with feares of miscarriage and disgrace with projects of honour and plausibility with restlesse thoughts touching discoveries preventions concealements accommodations and the like in one word is very apt to make him a stranger to God and his owne soule In other learning let a man but consider First The confusion uncertainty involvednesse perplexities of causes and effects by mans sinne Secondly The paines of the body the travell of the minde the sweate of the braine the tugging and plucking of the understanding the very drudgery of the soule to breake through that confusion and her owne difficulties Thirdly the many invincible doubts and errors which wil stil blemish our brightest notions Fourthly the great charges which the very instruments and furniture of learning wil put men to Fifthly the general disrespect which when all is done it findes in the world great men scorning it as pedantry ordinary men unable to take notice of it and great schollers faine to make up a theater amongst themselves Sixthly the Insufficiency thereof to perfect that which is amisse in our nature the malignant property thereof to put sinne into armour to contemne the simplicity and purity of Gods Word And lastly the neere approach thereof to its owne period the same death that attendeth us being ready also to bury all our learning in the grave with us these and infinite the like considerations must needs mingle much sorrow with the choisest Learning Secondly let us take a view of pleasure There is nothing doth so much disable in the survey of pleasure as the mixture either of folly or want When a man hath wisdome to apprehend the exquisitnes of his delights and variety to keepe out the suâ—…fet of any one hee is then fittest to examine what compasse of Goodnesse or satisfaction is in them First then Salomon kept his wisedome he pursued such manly and noble delights as might not vitiate but rather improve his intellectuals Chap. 2. vers 1. 2. 3. Secondly his wisedome was furnish'd with variety of subjects to enquire into he had magnificence and provisions suteable to the greatnesse of his royall minde Sumptuous and delicate diet under the name of wine vers 3. stately Edifices vers 4. Vineyards and Orchards yea very Paradises as large as Woods vers 5. 6. Fish-ponds and great Waters multitudes of attendants and retinue of all sexes Mighty heards of Cattell of all kindes vers 7. Great treasures of silver and gold all kinds of musick vocall and instrumentall Thirdly Salomon exceedes in all these things all that ever went before him vers 9. Fourthly As he had that most abundant so likewise the most free undisturbed unabated enjoyment of them all Hee with-held not his heart from any joy there was no mixture of sicknesse warre or any intercurrent difficulties to corrupt their sweetnesse or blunt the tast of them Here are as great preparations as the heart of man can expect to make an universall survay of those delights which are in the Creature and yet at last upon an impartiall enquirie into all his most magnificent workes the conclusion is they were but vanity and vexation of spirit vers 11. Which vexation he further explanes First by the necessarie divorce which was to come betweene him and them Hee was to leave them all vers 18. Secondly by his disability so to dispose of them as that after him they might remaine in that manner as hee had ordered them vers 19. Thirdly by the effects which these and the like considerations wrought in him they were so farre from giving him reall satisfaction as that First he Hated all his workes for there is nothing makes one Hate more eagerly then disappointment in the good which a man expected When Ammon found what little satisfaction his exorbitant lust received in ravishing his Sister Tamar he as fiercely hated her after as he had desir'd her before Secondly He Despaired of finding any good in them because they be get nothing but travell drudgery and unquiet thoughts Lastly let us take a view of Riches the ordinarily most adored Idol of all the rest The wise man saies first in generall neither Riches nor yet abundance of Riches will satisfie the soule of man Eccl. 5. 10. This he more particularly explanes First from the sharers which the encrease of them doth naturally draw after it vers 11. and betweene the Owners and the sharers there is no difference but this an emptie speculation one sees as his owne what the other enjoyes to those reall purposes for which they serve as well as he Secondly from the unquietnes which naturally growes by the encrease of them which makes an ordinarie drudge in that respect more happy vers 12. Thirdly from the hurt which usually without some due corrective they bring vers 13. either they hurt a man in himselfe being strong temptations and materials too of pride vaine-glory couetousnesse luxurie intemperance forgetfulnesse of God love of the world and by these of disorder dissolutenesse and diseases in the body or else at least
they expose him to the envie accusations violences of wicked men Fourthly from their uncertainty of abode they perish by an evill travell either Gods curse or some particular humour lust or project overturnes a great estate and posterity is beggerd Fifthly from the certainty of an everlasting separation from them vers 15. 16. and this he saith is a sore evill which galles the heart of a worldly man that hath resolved upon no other heaven then his wealth when sicknes comes to snatch him away from this his Idoll there is not onely sorrow but wrath and â—…ury in him vers 17. Sixthly from the disability to use or enjoy them when a man through inordinate love or distrustfull providence or sordidnesse of spirit or encumbrances of employments will not while he lives enjoy his abundance and when he dies hath not either by his owne covetous prevention or his successors inhumanity an honorable buriall Chap. 6. vers 1. 2. 3. Seventhly from the narrownesse of any satisfaction which can be received from them vers 7. All the wealth a man hath can reach no higher then the filling of his mouth then the outward services of the body the desires of the soule remaine empty still A glutton may fill his belly but he cannot fill his lust a covetous man may have a hovse full of monie but hee can never have a heart full of mony an ambitious man may have titles enough to overcharge his memorie but never to fill his pride the agitations of the soule would not cease the curiosity of the understanding would not stand at a stay though a man could hold all the learning of the great library in his head at once the sensualitie of a lascivious man would never be satiated it would be the more enrag'd though hee should tyâ—…e out his strength and waste his spirits and stupifie all his senses with an excessive intemperance When men have done all they can with their wisedome and wealth they can fill no more but the mouth and poverty and folly makes a shift to doe soe too vers 8. the desires wander the soule â—…oves up and downe as ever vers 9. Eighthly from their disability to protect or rescue a man from evill to advance the strength of a man beyond what it was before vers 10. Though a man could scrape all the wealth in the woâ—…ld together he were but a man still subject to the same dangers and infirmities as before nothing can exalt him above or exempt him from the common Lawes of humanity neither shall he be ever able to contend with him that is mightier then he All his wealth shall be never able to blinde the eye or bribe the Iustice or testraine the power of Almighty God if hee bee pleased to inflict the strokes of his vengeance vpon his Conscience The fourth degree of vexation is from the Review of them First if a man consider the meanes of his getting them His conscience will oftentimes tell him that peradventure he hath pursued indirect and unwarrantable wayes of gaine hath ventured to lye flatter sweare deceive supplant undermine to corrupt and adulterate wares to hoard up and dissemble them tâ—…l a dearer season to trench upon Gods Day for his owne purposes that so he might not onely receive but even steale away blessings from him Secondly if a man consider the manner the inordinate and over-eager way of procuring them How much pretious time hast thou spent which can never be recal'd againe for one houre whereof a tormented soule in hell would part with all the World if he had the disposall of it to be but so small a space within the possibilities of salvation againe how much of this pretious time hast thou spent for that which is no bread and which satisfieth not How many golden opportunities of encreasing the graces of thy soule of feeding thy faith with more noble and heavenly contemplations on Gods truth and promises on his Name and Attributes on his Word and worship of rouzing up thy soule from the sleepe of sinne of stirring up and new enflaming thy spirituall gifts of addressing thy selfe to a more serious assiduous durable communion with thy God of mourning for thine owne corruptions of groning and thirsting after heauenly promises of renewing thy vowes and resolutions of besieging and besetting heauen with thy more vrgent and retired prayers of humbling thy selfe before thy God of bewayling the calamities the stones the dust of Sion of deprecating and repelling approching Iudgements of glorifying God in all his wayes things of pretious spirituall and everlasting consequence how many of these golden opportunities hath thy too much absurd love and attendance on the world stolne from thee and surely to a soule illightned these must needs be matters of much vexation Thirdly if a man consider the use he hath made of them How they have stolne away his heart from trusting in God to rely on them how they have diverted his thoughts from the life to come and bewitched him to dote on present contentmens to love life to feare death to dispence with much unjust liberty to gather rust and securitie in Gods worship How much excesse and intemperance they have provoked how little of them have been spent on Gods glory and Church how small a portion we have repaid him in his Ministers or in his Members how few naked backes they have clothed how few empty bellies they have filled how few langvishing bowels they have refreshed how few good workes and services they have rewarded These are considerations which unto sensible consciences must sometime or other beget much vexation Fourthly if a man consider his owne former experiences or the examples of others that bring the vanitie of these earthly things into minde How some of his choysest pleasures have now out-liv'd him and are expir'd how the Lord hath snatched from his dearest embracements those Idols which were set up against his glory how many of his hopes have fail'd of his expectations and presumptions proved abortive how much mony at one time a Sicknesse at another a Suite at a third a Thiefe at a fourth a shipwrack or miscariage at a fifth yea at a twentieth time a lust hath consum'd and eaten out How many examples there are in the world of withered and blasted estates of the Curse of God not onely like a moth insensibly consuming but like a Lyon suddenly tearing asunder great possessions The last Degree of Uexation from the Creature is from the Disposing of them All Creatures sinners especially that have no hope or portion in another life doe naturally love a present earthly Immortality and therefore though they cannot have it in themselves yet as the Philosopher saith of living Creatures the reason why they generate is that that Immortality which in their owne particulars they cannot have they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so farre as they are able procure in the species or kinde which they thus preserve so rich and worldly
his worship Thus all those phantasticall felicities which men build upon the Creature prove in the end to have been nothing else but the banquet of a dreaming man nothing but lies and vanitie in the conclusion Lastly They Deceive us likewise in respect of evill No Creatures however they may promise Immunitie and deliverance can doe a man any good when the Lord will be pleased to send evill upon him And yet it is not for nothing that a truth so universally confessed should yet bee repeated in the Scripture That silver and gold and corruptible things are not a fit price for the soules of men Doubtlesse the holy men of God forsaw a time when false Christs and false Prophets should come into the world which should set salvation to sale and make merchandise of the Soules of men as wee see at this day in popish Indulgences and penance and the like no lesse ridiculous then impious superstitions Neither is it for nothing that Salomon tells us That riches yea whole Treasures doe not profit in the day of death a speech repeated by two prophets after him For surely those holy men knew how apt wealth and greatnesse is to bewitch a man with conceits of Immortality as hath been shewed Who were they that made a covenant with death and were at an agreement with hell to passe from them but the scornfull men the Rulers of the people which had abundance of wealth and honour Who were they that did put far away the evill day in despight of the Prophets threatnings did flatter themselves in the conceite of their firme and inconcussible estate but they who were at ease in Sion who trusted upon the Mountaines of Samaria who lay upon beds of I◅orie and stretch'd themselves upon their couches But we see all this was but deceite they go captive with the first of those that go captive the banket of them that stretched themselves is removed All earthly supports without God are but like a stately house on the sand without a foundation a man shal be buried in his owne pride He that is strong shall be to seeke of his strength he that is mighty should deliver others shall be too weak for his own defence he that is swift shall be amaz'd and not dare to fly if he be a bowman at a great distance if he be a rider have a great advantage he shal yet be overtaken and he that is couragious adventures to stand out shall be faine to flye away naked at the last What ever hopes or refuges any Creature cā afford a man in these troubles they are nothing but froth vanity the Lord challenges derides them al. And the Prophet Esay gives a sound reason of it all The Egyptians are men and not God their horses are flesh not spirit when the Lord shal stretch out his hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is helpen shal fal down and they al shal faile together Before wee proceed to the last thing proposed here is a question to be answered If the Creatures be so full of Vexation It should seeme that it is unprofitable and by consequence unlawfull either to labour or to pray for them Which yet is plainely contrary to Christs direction Give us our daylie bread and contrary to the practice of the Saints who use to call for the fatnesse of the earth and dew of heaven peace of walls and prosperity of Palaces upon those whom they blesse To which I answere That which is evill by accident doth not prejudice that which is Good in it selfe and by Gods ordination Now the vexation which hath been spoken of is not an effect flowing naturally out of the condition of the creature but ariseth meerely by accident upon the reason of its separation from God who at first did appoint his owne blessed communion to goe along with his Creatures Now things which are good in themselves but accidentally evill may justly be the object of our prayers and endeavours And so on the otherside many things there are which in themselves alone are evill yet by the providence and disposition of God they have a good issue they worke together for the best to them that love God It was good for David that he had been afflicted yet wee may not lawfully pray for such evils on our selves or others upon presumption of Gods goodnesse to turne them to the best Who doubts that the calamities of the Church doe at this time stirre up the hearts of men to seeke the Lord and his face and to walke humbly and fearefully before him yet that man should be a curse and prodigie in the eyes of God and men who should still pray for the calamities of Sion and to see the stones of Ierusalem still in the dust Death is in it selfe an evill thing for the Apostle calles it an enemy 1. Cor. 15. yet by the infinite power and mercy of God who delights to bring good out of evill and beauty out of ashes it hath not onely the sting taken away but is made an entrance into Gods owne presence with reference unto which benefit the Apostle desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. Now notwithstanding this goodnesse which death by accident brings along with it yet being in it selfe a Destructive thing we may lawfully in the desires of our soule shrinke from it and decline it Example whereof we have in the death of Christ himselfe which was of all as the most bitter so the most pretious and yet by reason of that bitternesse which was in it hee prayes against it presenting unto his Father the desires of his Soule for that life which he came to lay downe as his obedience to his Father and love to his Church made him most willingly embrace death so his love to the integritie of his humane nature and feare of so heavy pressures as he was to feele made him as seriously to decline it And though the Apostle did most earnestly desire to be with Christ yet he did in the same desire decline the common rode thither through the darke passages of death 2. Cor. 5. 4. Vnlawfull indeed it is for any man to pray universally against death because that were to withstand the Statutes of God Heb 9. 27. but against any particular danger wee may as Ezechiah did 1. King 20. 1 2. reserving still a generall submission to the will and decrees of God For we are bound in such a case to use all good meanes and to pray for Gods blessing upon them which amounts to a prayer against the danger it selfe So then by the Rule of contraries though the Creatures be full of vanitie and vexation yet this must not swallow up the apprehension of that goodnesse which God hath put into them nor put off the desires of men from seeking them of God in those just prayers which he hath prescribed and in those
lawfull endeavours which he hath commanded and allowed The third thing proposed was the consideration of that Vse which we should make of this vexation of the Creature And first the consideration thereof mingled with faith in the heart must needes worke humiliation in the spirit of a man upon the sight of those sinnes which have so much defaced the good Creatures of God Sinne was the first thing that did pester the earth with thornes Gen. 3. 17. 18. and hath fill'd all the Creation with vanitie and bondage Sinne is the ulcer of the soule touch a wound with the softest Lawne and there will smart arise so though the Creatures be never so harmelesse yet as soone as they come to the heart of a man there is so much sinne and corruption there as must needs beget paine to the soule The palate prepossest with a bitter humour findes it owne distemper in the sweetest meate it tastes so the soule having the ground of bitternesse in it selfe finds the same affection in every thing that comes neere it Death it self though it be none of Gods works but the shame and deformitie of the Creature yet without sinne it hath no sting in it 1. Cor. 15. 55. how much lesse sting thinke we have those things which were made for the comforts of mans life if sinne were not the Serpent that did lurke under them all Doest thou then in thy swiftest careere of earthly delights when thou art posting in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes feele a curbe privily galling thy conscience a secret dampe seizing upon thy soule and affrighting it with dismall suspicions and trembling pre-occupations of attending judgements see a hand against the wall writing bitter things against thee Dost thou in all thy lawfull Callings finde much sweat of brow much toyle of braine much plunging of thoughts much care of heart in compassing thy just and lawfull intendments Doe not lose the opportunitie of that good which all this may suggest unto thee take advantage to fish in this troubled water Certainely there is some Ionah that hath raysed this storme there is some sinne or other that hath caused all this trouble to thy soule Doe not repine at Gods providence nor quarrell with the dumbe Creatures but let thine indignation reflect upon thine owne heart and as ever thou hopest to have the sweat of thy brow abated or the care of thy heart remitted or the curse of the Creature removed cast thy selfe downe before God throw out thy sinne awake thy Saviour with the cry of thy repentance and all the stormes will be suddenly calmed Certainely the more power any man hath over the corruption of his nature the lesse power hath the sting of any Creature over his heart Though thou hast but a dinner of herbes with a quiet conscience reconciled unto God thou dost therein finde more sweetnesse then in a fatted Oxe with the contentions of a troubled heart When ever therefore we finde this Thorne in the Creature wee should throw our selves downe before God and in some such manner as this bewaile the sinne of our heart which is the roote of that Thorne Lord thou art a God of peace and beauty and what ever comes from thee must needs originally have peace and beauty in it The Earth was a Paradise when thou didst first bestow it upon me but my sinne hath turned it into a Desert and curs'd all the increase thereof with Thornes The honour which thou gavest me was a glorious attribute a sparkle of thine owne fire a beame of thine owne light an impresse of thine owne Image a character of thine owne power but my sinne hath put a Thorne into mine honour my greedinesse when I look upward to get higher and my giddinesse when I looke downeward for feare of falling never leaves my heart without angvish and vexation The pleasure which thou allowest mee to enjoy is full of sweet refreshment but my sinne hath put a Thorne into this likewise my excesse and sensualitie hath so choaked thy Word so stifled all seeds of noblenesse in my minde so like a Canker overgrowne all my pretious time stolne away all opportunities of grace melted and wasted all my strength that now my refreshments are become my diseases The Riches which thou gavest me as they come from thee are soveraigne blessings wherewith I might abundantly have glorified thy Name and served thy Church and supplyed thy Saints and made the eyes that saw mee to blesse mee and the â—…ares that heard me to beare witnesse to me wherewith I might have covered the naked backe and cured the bleeding wounds and filled the hungry bowels and satisfied the fainting desires of mine owne Saviour in his distressed members but my sinne hath put in so many Thornes of pride hardnesse of heart uncompassionatenesse endlesse cares securitie and resolutions of sinne and the like as are ready to pierce me thorow with many sorrowes The Calling wherein thou hast placed me is honest and profitable to men wherein I might spend my time in glorifying thy Name in obedience to thy will in attendance on thy blessings but my sinne hath brought so much ignorance and inapprehension upon my understanding so much weakenesse upon my body so much intricatenesse upon my employments so much rust and sluggishnes upon my faculties so much earthly-mindednesse upon my heart as that I am not able without much discomfort to goe on in my Calling All thy Creatures are of themsâ—…lves full of honour and beauty the beames and gliâ—…pses of thine owne glory but our sinne hath stained the beauty of thine owne handy-worke so that now thy wrath is as well revealed from Heaven as thy glory we now see in them the prints as well of thy terrours as of thy goodnesse And now Lord I doe in humblenesse of heart truly abhorre my selfe and abominate those cursed sinnes which have not onely defiled mine owne nature and person but have spread deformitie and confusion upon all those Creatures in which thine owne wisedome and power had planted so great a beauty and so sweet an order After some such manner as this ought the consideration of the thornynesse of the Creature humble us in the sight of those sinnes which are the rootes thereof Secondly the consideration hereof should make us wise to prevent those cares which the Creatures are so apt to beget in the heart those I meane which are branches of the Vexation of the Creature There is a two fold Care Regular and Irregular Care is then Regular First when it hath a Right end such as is both suteable with and subordinate to our maine end the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse Secondly when the meanes of procuring that end are right for we may not do evill to effect Good Recovery was a lawfull end which Ahaziah did propose but to enquire of Baalzebub was a meanes which did poyson the whole businesse nay Saint Austin is resolute that if it were possible by an
â—…are with hearing It is of vast and infinite desires and the more it is supplied with that in which it seeketh satisfaction the more greedy it growes as naturall motions the longer they continue the swifter they are A sinner if he should live for ever would sin for ever never say it is enough Every imagination every Creature that is shap'd form'd in the hart every purpose desire motion ebullition is onely evill every Day saith the text no period no stint Evill from the childhood Ex quo excussus est ex vtero from the time of breaking forth out of the wombe as the learned observe from the propriety of the word Evill comes out of the heart as sparkles do out of the fire never cease rising while the fire continues Notably is this insatiablenesse of lust expressed by the Prophet in two excellent similitudes First from Drunkennesse which makes a man still more greedy doth not extinguish but enflame the perverse desire none cal in for wine faster then they which have had too much before Secondly from Hell and the grave which have no stint nor measure The Cloud which the Prophet shewed his servant was no bigger at first then a hand after it grew to cover all the Heavens and the reason was it rose out of a Sea so the sin of man will continually grow and overflow all his life and the reason is it hath a Sea of lust continually to supply it Therfore in the Scripture it is call'd an effusion a rushing out an aestus like the foaming or boyling of the Sea a strange excesse of ryot unto which saith the Apostle wicked men runne a Greedinesse a covetous improvement of uncleanenesse a burning of lust a fulnesse of all mischiefe Now from this insatiablenesse of lust must needs follow the indefatigablenesse of it too When a thing is out of the place of its owne rest it neuer leaves moving naturally till it have gotten to it therefore in as much as lust can never carry the hart to any thing which it may rest in needs must it flutter about be alwayes in motion If there were an infinite space of aire the motion of a stone in that space if there were any motion must needs be infinite because it would no where have a Center or middle place to hold it for there can be no medium where there are no extremes Desires are the wings upon which the soule moves if there be stil things found to entice the desires and none to satisfie them no marvell if the soule be stil upon the wing in perpetual agitation like the wind which continually whirleth about or the Rivers which never leave running into the Sea because they never fill it But it may be objected that the Scripture makes mention of the wearinesse which sinne brings upon men of that impotency of sinning which growes upon them The Sodomites wearied themselves in their rage against Lot So the Prophet saith of wicked men that they weary themselves to commit iniquity I answer that these very places prove the indefatigablenesse of lust in that it never gives over even when the instruments thereof are tiâ—…'d The Israelites were weary of gathering straw but were the Task-masters weary of exacting it The members may be weary of serving their law but is the law of the members weary of quickning or commanding them Nay herein is seene the cruell tyranny of lust against us that it never leaves drawing enticing heartning supplying us for sinne even when wee are quite wearied in the service of it Thou wert wearied in thy way yet saidst thou not There is no hope Thou never didst consider I have thus long drudg'd in the service of sinne and have found no fruit received no such satisfaction as I promis'd my selfe and therefore why should I weary my selfe any longer Why should I labour for that which is no bread and which satisfyeth not Thou never didst bethinke thy selfe of returning to the right way but wentest on with wonted madnesse and rage still though thou foundedst for certaine that there was no profit in thy evill way that thou didst sow nothing but winde and shouldst reape nothing but a whirlewinde Baalams lust was too swift for his weary beast when the Asse was frighted and durst goe no further yet the Prophet was as unwearied as at the first Lust is like a furious Rider never weary of the way though the poore beast which must serve the Riders turne may quickly bee worne out Woe to him that lodeth himselfe with thicke clay saith the Prophet How long He may have enough to loade him he can never have enough to weary him He may lodâ—… his house his memory his bagges his wits his time his conscience but he can never fill his Hell He may quickly have enough to sinke him but hee can never have enough to satisfie him As a ship may be overladen with Gold or Silver even unto sinking and yet have compasse and sides enough to hold ten times more so the heart will quickly be loaded unto sinking but never filld unto satiety In one word wee must in sinne distingvish betweene the Act and the Concupiscence from whence that Act ariseth or in the faculties betweene the Life and the Lust of them betweene their naturall strength and activitie and their law of corruption The livelinesse and strength of the faculties may quickly be wasted and yet the lust strong still Sinne in Act hath a concurrence of the powers of the soule and services of the body which in their motions may quickly langvish But yet as the Philosophers say of the soule though it may seeme tyr'd and spent and waxen old because the body in which it resides growes unfit for its service yet the soule indeed itself doth not grow old but if it had equall instruments would be as vigorous in the oldest man as in the youngest so we may say of sin though the body may grow weary of adultery or the mind weary of plodding mischiefe or the thoughts weary of contriving deceit yet concupisceâ—…is non senescit Lust it selfe growes never old nor weary Nay as the water when it is stopt in its principall course yet one way or other where it best may it will make a shift to finde a vent and to discover it selfe even so lust in the heart will one way or other when the minde and faculties the body and members are quite tyr'd out in the principall service make a shift to breake forth into some easier vent When the adultery in the heart hath worne out the body and spur'd it so long in this uncleane race that it now sinkes under the burden and hath no more blood to lose yet even then it will finde a vent and such a man will have eyes full of adultery a tongvefull of adultery thoughts and speculations full of adultery a memorie in the review of former lewdnesse full of
adultery The thiefe on the Crosse had as good a will to crucifie Christ to naile him and pierce him as any others but hee was fast enough for doing this yet his malice will finde a vent into his tongve to revile and raile upon him Balaams tongve could not execute the office to which hee was hir'd yet it will have a vent and shew it selfe in journeying counselling and consulting how the people might draw a curse upon themselves As a dogge may have his stomack cram'd usque ad vomitum and yet his appetite unsatisfied for hee presently returnes to his vomit so though a man may lode and weary himselfe in the acting of sinne yet lust it selfe is never satisfied and therefore never wearied What a watch then should we keepe over our evill hearts what paines should wee take by prayer and unweariednesse of spirit to suppresse this enemy If there were any time wherein the flesh did sit still and sleepe wherein the water did not runne and seeke for vent wee might then haply slacken our care but since it is ever stirring in us wee should bee ever stirring against it and using all meanes to lessen and abate it since the heart is unwearied in evill we should not faint nor be weary of well-doing Since the heart is so abundant in evill wee should abound likewise in every good work of the Lord alwayes considering what advantage this labour will give us against the toyle of sinne in lust a man wearieth himselfe and hath no hope but here our labour is not in vaine in the Lord wee shall reape if wee faint not and a little glory in heaven nay a little comfort in earth though neither one nor other may be called little will be a most plentifull recompence pressed downe and running over for any the greatest paines that can bee taken in this spirituall watch Yee have need of patience saith the Apostle to goe through the will of God to bee in a perpetuall combate and defiance with an enemy that will give no respite nor breathing time The temptations of Satan the solicitations of the world are not so many nor heauie clogs to men in their race as that to which they are fastned this weight that presseth downe this besieging sinne which is ever enticing clamouring haling rebelling intruding with love with strength with law with arguments with importunities calling a man from his right way From this consideration the Apostle immediately inferres this duty of patience Lay aside every waight saith the Apostle and the sinne that doth so easily beset us and runne with patience unto the race that is set before us And we must not cast our eye alwayes to the clog which wee draw that may much dis-hearten us but looke unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith hee that can carry us through all these difficulties that gives us weapons that teacheth our hands to warre and our fingers to fight that is our Captaine to leade us and our second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our fellow-Combatant that fighteth against sinne in us by his grace Looke what hee did what contradiction hee endured lest yee bee wearied and faint in your minds Looke what he promiseth a victory against our lusts and a Crowne after our victory Looke when he commeth 't is yet but a little while The comming of the Lord draweth nigh the Lord is at hand Call to him he is within the voyce of thy prayer hee will come to strengthen thee waite upon him he is within the eye of thy Faith he will come to reward thee Looke upon the Cloud of witnesses those that are now the Church of the first-borne and have their Palmes in their hands they all went through the same combate they were all beset with alike infirmities they were all men of the same passions with us let us bee men of the same patience with them Now lastly consider the Propagation of this sinne Which may therefore well be called an old man because it dies not but passeth over from one generation to another A mans Actuall sinnes are personall and therefore Intransient they begin and end in himselfe but originall sinne is naturall and therefore with the nature it passeth over from a man to his posteritie It is an entaile that can never be cut of it hath held from Adam and will so continue to the worlds end holding al men in an unavoidable service and villanage unto Satan the Prince of this world In Humane Tenures if a man leave a personall estate to all his children indefinitely without singling out and designing this portion to one and that to another though it bee true to say that there is nothing in that estate which any one of the children can lay an entire clayme unto as his owne but that the rest have joynt interest in it for the children though many in persons are yet but one proprietarie in regard of right in the estate of their father till there be a severance made yet notwithstanding a Partition may be legally procur'd and there is a kinde of virtuall or fundamentall severance before which was the ground of that which is afterwards reall and legall But now in this wretched Inheritance of sin which Adam left to all his posterity we are to note this mischiefe in the first place that there is no virtuall partition but it is left whole to every childe of Adam All have it and yet every one hath it all too Soe that as Philosophers say of the Reasonable soule That it is whole in the whole and that it is whole in every part so wee may say of originall concupiscence It is Tota in Genere Humano and Tota in quolibet homine All in mankinde and all in every particular man There is no law of partition for one man to have to him in peculiar the lusts of the eye another to him the lusts of the tongue another to him the lusts of the eare c. but every man hath euery lust originally as full as all men together have it Secondly we are to note a great difference further between the Soule sin in this regard though all the soule be in every member as wel as in the whole body yet it is not in the same manner and excellency in the parts as in the whole For it is in the whole to all the purposes of life sense and motion but in the parts the whole Soule serves but for some speciall businesses All the soule is in the eye and all in the eare but not in either to all purposes for it sees onely in the eye and it heares onely in the eare But originall sinne is all in every man and it serves in every man to all purposes Not in one man onely to commit adulterie in another idolatry in another murther or the like but in every man it serves to commit sinne against all the Law to breake every one of Gods commandements A whole thing may belong wholly
the good and refuse the evill Ro. 7. 18. Secondly no evil lust riseth or stirreth though it prevent the consent of the will but the wil may be esteemed faultie not in this that it consented unto it but in this that it did not as it ought to have done hinder and suppresse it For the stirrings of lust before the will is their usurpation and inordinatenesse not their nature which therefore the will according to that primitive soveraignty which in mans nature shee had ought to rectifie and order againe Thirdly originall sin though to persons it be not yet to the nature it was voluntarie and to the persons in Adam as in their common Father for with them otherwise then in him no covenant could be made and even in humane lawes the Acts of parents can circumscribe their children To the third wee utterly deny that God did take away originall righteousnesse from man but he Threw it away himselfe God indeed with-holds it and doth not obtrude againe that upon us which wee rejected before but he did not snatch it away but man in sinning did nullifie it to himselfe For what was righteousnesse in Adam but perfect and universall rectitude whereby the whole man was sweetly order'd by Gods law and within himselfe now Adams sinne having so many evils in it as it had pride ambition ingratitude robberie luxurie idolatry murther and the like needs must that sinne spoile that originall righteousnesse which was and ought to bee universall Secondly wee grant that originall sinne is not onely a fault but a punishment too but that the one of these should destroy the other wee utterly denie for which purpose wee may note that a punishment may be either by God inflicted in its whole being or by man in the substance of the thing contracted and by God in the penall relation which it carries ordered It is true no punishment from God inflicted upon man can bee in the substance of the thing sinfull but that which man brings upon himselfe as a sinne Gods wisedome may order to be a punishment too When a prodigall spends his whole estate upon uncleannesse is not his povertie both a sinne and a punishment when a drunkard or adulterer brings diseases upon his bodie and drownes his reason is not that impotencie and sottishnesse both sinne and punishment did not God punish Pharaoh with hardnesse of heart and the gentiles with vile affections and yet these were sinnes as well as punishments To expedite this point in one word as I conceive of it Two things are in this sinne Privation of Gods Image and lust or habituall concupiscence The privation is in regard of the first losse of righteousnesse from Adam alone by his voluntarie depraving of the humane nature and excussion of the image of God but in regard of the Continuance of it so deficienter Gods justice and wisedome hath a hand in it who as he is the most just avenger of his owne wrongs and the most free disposer of his owne gifts so hath hee in both respects been pleased to whith-hold his image formerly rejected and not to obtrude upon ingratefull and unworthy men so pretious an endowment of which the former contempt and indignitie had justly made them ever after destitute Concupiscence wee may conceive both as a disorder and as a penaltie Consider it as a punishment and so though it bee not by God effected in nature for he tempteth no man much lesse doth hee corrupt any yet is it subject to his wisedome and ordination who after he had been by Adam forsaken did then forsake him likewise and give him up into the hand of his owne counsell leaving him to transmit upon others that seminarie of uncleannesse which himselfe had contracted Consider it as a vice and so wee say that lust or flesh doth not belong to the parts as such or such parts but is the disease of the whole nature either part whereof though it doe not equally descend from Adam yet may hee justly bee esteem'd the Father and Fountaine of the whole nature because though generation doe not make all the materials and parts of nature yet doth it worke to the uniting of them and constituting of the whole by them So then naturall corruption is from Adâ—…m alone meritoriously by reason of his first prevarication from Adam by our parents seminally and by generation and contagion but under favour I conceive that it is not from the body in the soule but equally and universally from the whole nature as a guilty forsaken and accursed nature by some secret and ineffable resultancie therefrom under those relations of Guilt and cursednesse This with submission to the learned I conceive in that great question touching the penalenesse and traduction of originall concupiscence reserving to others their libertie in such things wherein a latitude of opinions may consist with the unitie of faith and love But to returne to those things which are more for practice This doctrine of originall sinne doth direct us in our humiliations for sinne shewes us whither wee should rise in judging and condemning our selves even as high as our fleshly lusts and corrupt nature Let not any man say saith S. Iames that he was tempted of God I shall goe further Let not any man say of himselfe by way of excuse extenuation or exoneration of himselfe I was tempted of Satan or of the World and who can be too hard for such enemies who can withstand such strong solicitations Let not any man resolve his sinnes into any other originall then his owne lusts Our perdition is totally of our selves wee are assaulted by many enemies but it is one onely that over commeth us even our owne flesh Saint Paul could truly say It was no more I that sinned but did he charge his sinnes therefore upon Satan or upon the World No though it was not he yet it was something that did belong unto him an inmate a bosome enemie even sinne that dwelt within him It is said that Satan provoked David to number the people and yet Davids heart smote himselfe and did not charge Satan with the sinne because it was the lust of his owne heart that let in and gave way to Satans temptation If there were the same minde in us as in Christ that Satan could finde no more in us to mingle his temptations with all then hee did in him they would be equally successelesâ—…e but this is his greatest advantage that he hath our evill nature to helpe him and hold intelligence with him And therefore wee must rise as high as that in our humiliations for sinne For that will keepe us ever humble because concupiscence will be ever stiâ—…ring in 〈◊〉 and it will make us throughly humble because thereby sinne is made altogether our owne when wee attribute it not to casualties or accidentall miscarriages but to our nature as David did In sinne was I shaped and in iniquitie did my mother conceive me
visible and scandalous blame Secondly the naturall is onely a combate there is no victory followes it sinne is committed with delight and persisted in still but the spirituall diminisheth the power and strength of sinne Thirdly the naturall if it doe overcome yet it doth onely represse or repell sinne for the time like the victory of Saul over Agag it is kept alive hath no hurt done it but the spirituall doth mortifie crucifie subdue sinne Some plaisters skinne but they do not cure give present ease but no abiding remedie against the roote of the disease so some attempts against sinne may onely for the present pacifie but not truely clense the conscience from dead workes Fourthly the naturall makes a man never a whit the stronger against the next assault of Temptation whereas the spirituall begets usually more circumspection prayer faith humiliation growth acquaintance with the depth and mysteries of sinne skill to manage the spirituall armour experience of the truth power and promises of God c. Lastly they differ in their end The naturall is onely to pacifie the clamors of an unquiet conscience which ever takes Gods part and pleads for his service against the sinnes of men The spirituall is with an intent to please and obey God and to magnifie his Grace which is made perfect in our weakenesse Now for a word of the third Case Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man for answere whereunto we must First know that Properly it is originall sinne which raignes and this king is very wise and therefore sends forth into a man members and life as into severall provinces such viceroâ—…es such actuall sinnes as may best keepe the person in peace and encouragement as may least disquiet his estate and provoke rebellion Secondly we are to distinguish betweene the Raigne of sinne actuall and viâ—…tuall or in praeparatione animi for if the state of the king requires it a man will be apt to obey those commands of â—…ust which now haply his heart riseth against as savage and belluine practices as we see in Hazael Thirdly though Originall sinne be equall in All and to all purposes yet Actuall sinne for the most pâ—…t followes the temper of a mans minde bodie place calling abilities estate conversings relations and a world of the like variable particulars Now as a river would of it selfe caeteris paribus goe the neerest way unto the sea but yet according to the qualities and exigencies of the earth through which it passeth or by the arts of men it is crooked and wried into many turnings So Originall siâ—…e would of it selfe carry a man the neerest way to hell through the midst of the most divellish and hideous abominations but yet meeting with severall tempers and conditions in men it rather chooseth in many men the safest then the speediest way carries them in a compasse by a gentler and a blinder path then through such notorious and horrid courses as wherein having hell still in their view they might haply be brought some time or other to start backe and bethinke themselves But lastly and principally the different administration of Gods generall restraining Grace which upon unsearchable and most wise and just reasons he is pleased in severall measures to distribute unto severall men may bee conceived a full reason why some men are not given over to the rage and frenzie of many lusts who yet live in a voluntary and plenary obedience unto many others To conclude By all this which hath beene spoken we should bee exhorted to goe over unto Christ that wee may be translated from the power of Sathan for he only is able to strike through these our kings in the day of his wrath Consider the issue of the raigne of sinne wherein it differs from a true King and sympathizeth with Tyrants for it intendeth mischiefe and misery to those that obey it First sinne raignes unto Death that which is here called the raigne of sinne â—…s before called the raigne of Death and the raigne of sinne unto Death Rom. 5. 17. 21. Rom. 6. 16. Secondly Sinne raigneth unto feare and bondage by reason of the death which it brings Heb. 2. 15. Thirdly Sinne raigneth unto shame even in those who escape both the death and bondage of it Fourthly It raigneth without any fruite hope or benefit What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 21. Lastly the raigne of sin is but momentary at the length both it selfe and all its subjects shall be subdued The World passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever 1. Ioh. 2. 17. Of Christs Kingdome there is no end We shall reape if we faint not Our combate is short our victorie is sure our Crowne is safe our triumph is eternall his Grace is All-sufficient here to helpe us and his Glory is All-sufficient hereafter to reward us THE POLLVTION OF SINNE AND VSE OF THE PROMISES 2. COR. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearely beloved Let us clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit Perfecting holinesse in the feare of God HAving set forth the State Guilt and Power of Sinne I shall now in the last place for the further opening the exceeding sinfulnesse thereof discover the pollution and filthinesse which therefrom both the flesh and spirit the Body and Soule doe contract The Apostle in the former chapter had exhorted the Corinthians to abstaine from all communion with Idolaters and from all fellowship in their evill courses Severall arguments he useth to enforce his exhortation First from the Inequality of Christians and unbeleevers Bee not yee unequally yoked with unbeleevers v. 14. It hath a relation to the Law of Moses which prohibited to plow with an Oxe and anâ—… Asse or to put into one yoke things disproportionable Secondly from their contrarietse and by consequence uncommunicablenesse to each other there is as everlasting and unreconciliable an hatred betweene Christ and Beâ—…al righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse as betweene light and darknesse ver 14. 15. Thirdly from those pretious and excellent Promises which are made to Christians they are the Temples of God his people and peculiar inheritance hâ—… is their Father and they his Sonnes and daughters ver 16 17 18. And there are many reasons in this one argument drawn from the Promises to inferre the Apostles conclusion First by that unction and consecration whereby they are made Temples unto God they are separated from profane uses designed to Divine and more noble imployments sealed and set apart for God himselfe and therefore they must not be profaned by the uncleane touch of evill society Secondly by being Gods Temples they are lâ—…fted to a new station the eyes of men and Angels are upon them they offend the weake they blemish and deface their Christian reputation they justifie comfort encourage settle the wicked in their sinfull courses by a deepe pollicie of the deceitfull heart of man apt to
my furie to rest upon thee We have considered the Quod s◅ that sinne is full of filthinesse and pollution I will but name the Quid ◅it What this filthinesse is It hath Two things belonging to the nature of it First a privation of the nitor or beauty which the image of God brought into the soule with it A difformity to the holinesse and brightnesse of the Law The Law was both Holy and Good not onely the Rule but the beauty of our life and nature So that as evill is a declination and swarving from the Law as a Rule so it is sinne and as it is a swarving from the Law as our beauty so it is the staine and pollution of the soule Secondly it notes a positive foulenesse an habituall both naturall and contracted defilednesse of minde and conscience an introducing of the image of Satan hideous markes of hellishnesse and deformity in the soule body and conversation Every desire motion and figment of the heart being nothing but the exhalations of an open sepulcher the dampe and steame of a rotten soule Now in the last place let us see the Quale sit those Evill Properties which accompanie this pollution Foure woefull qualities belong unto it First it is a deepe pollution of a Crimson dye of a skarlet tincture that will not weare out Esai 1. 18. Like the spots of a Leopard or the blicknesse of an Ethiopian which is not by way of accidentall or externall adherencie but innate and contemper'd belonging to the constitution Ier. 13. 23. It is engraven upon their heart written with an iron pen and the claw of a diamond and so fashion'd even in the very substance of the soule Ier. 17. 1. It is an iniquitie marked which cannot bee washed away with niter and much sope no more then markes imprinted and incorporated in the substance of a vessell Ier. 2. 22. The whole inundation and deluge of Noah could not wash it of from the earth but it return'd againe A showre of fire and brimstone from heaven hath not so clensed it out of the country of Sodome but that the venome and plague of it doth still there appeare in a poisonous and stinking l◅ke The plague which came amongst the Israelites for the abominations of Baal Peor had not clensed the filthinesse all away but many yeeres after the staine remained Ios. 22. 17. Nay the very flames of Hell shall not in all eternity be able to eate out the prints or to fetch away the staines of the smallest sinnes from the nature of man Nay which is yet stronger then all this though Grace be of it selfe apt to wipe out and conquer sinne yet that measure and portion of Grace which here the best receive though it may shorten weaken abate yet it doth not utterly roote ◅t out Who can say I have made my heart cleane I am free from my sinnes The best of us have yet our sores running upon us and stand i◅ neede of a garment to cover our pollutions Secondly It is an universall pollution I said unto thee when thou wast In thy bloud live We are by nature all overdrown'd and plung'd in the filthinesse of sinne The Apostle here cals it filthinesse of flesh and spirit to note the compasse of the staine of sinne For notwithstanding some sinnes belong principally to the spirit as pride heresie idolatry superstition c. and others to the flesh as drunkennesse gluttonie uncleannesse c. yet certaine it is that every sinne defiles both flesh and spirit by the reason of their mutuall dependencie in being and working and of the contagious quality of sinne Sinnes of the flesh soake and sinke and eate in to the bottome of the spirit to drowne that with hardnesse insensibility errour security inconsideratenesse contempt of God c. and the sinnes of the spirit breake out like plague sores into the flesh pride into the eye malice into the hand heresie◅ to the tongue superstition and idolatry into the knee c. the soule and body have so neere communion that one can no more sinne al◅e without the contagion of the other then one wheele in an Engine move without the motion of the other Thirdly it is a spreading pollution A leprosie a gangrene a plague that diffuseth poison and infection upon others First it spreades in a mans selfe An evill lust will infect the thoughts and they the desires and they the words and actions and they grow into habits and reflect backe againe upon the heart and conscience to harden and defile them Secondly this infection staies not in a mans selfe onely but runnes forth upon others to leade and misguide them we will certainely doe as we have done We and our kings our princes and our fathers in the cities of Iudah and in the streetes of Ierusalem To drive and compell them why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as doethe Iewes To comfort and hearten them Thou hast justified and art a comfort to thy sisters Sodome and Samaria To exasperate and enrage them Thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme To deceive and seduce them as the old Prophet of Bethel did the Prophet of the Lord by his lie To teach and instruct them the Israelites by their idolatry taught their children to walke after Baalim And by how much the more authority over the persons of men or emmencie of place or reputation of piety any man hath by so much the more spreading and infectious are his sinnes being taken with the more trust and assurance If a minister be loose and scandalous a magistrate carelesse and rustie a gentleman rude a◅d uncleane a man that professeth the power of godlinesse unjust and worldly strange it is how the lower and more ignorant ranke of men who beleeve that surely such men as these are not by their places so farre from or by their learning and studies so unacquainted with God as they will be hereby strengthned in their deadly and formall courses Thirdly which is yet worse the vory godly are apt to be infected by the sinnes of the wicked It is not so strange to see a godly man misguided and seduc'd by the errours of others like himselfe the estimation of whose persons may over-rule the opiniō of their actions and so make a man take them upon trust from them But that a Holy man should carch infection from the example of another who is in the gall of b◅ternesse is a thing that wonderfully sets f◅th the corruption of our nature and the contagion of sin◅e The sonnes of God saw the daughters of men and were polluted the people of Israel saw the Midianitish women and were ensnared A Holy mans conversing with loose carnall and formall men diswonts him from the wayes of God brings a deadnesse of spirit and insensible decay of grace upon him secretly and therefore the more dangerously conveyes a mediocritie and compliancie of Spirit with formes onely of godlinesse
shewed me in my distempers but I am but a ioynt of the foote or a meane dishonourable and lesse serviceable member therefore though I am tormented with a goute or stone the tongue will not speake the head will not worke the hand will not distribute any thing for me The Children in a family would not so argue my father is carefull to provide physicke and cure the diseases of my brother because hee is growne up to doe him credit and his countrie service but I am but a childe that lie upon him and doe no worke I am unable for any employments and therefore I shall perish in my disease without care or regard Surely if the members of a body or the children of men who are evill would not thus argue how much lesse reason have any of Christs who have a head entrusted with the care of his meanest members and a father tender of the fals and failings of his weakest children Thus rather should the soule resolve Though Paul had more grace then I yet he had no more meâ—…t then I. All the compassion which was shewed unto him was out of favour and mercie not out of debt or dutie and my wants and miseries make me as fit for mercie as he was and the compassion of a father is most commended toward the unworthiest and most unprofitable childe Secondly ' Promises in themselves are certaine but the wayes of performance are often undiscernable and hidden therefore wee must live by Faith and not by reason and measure the Truth of Gods Words by the strength of his Power and not by our owne conceits or apprehensions When wee looke upon God in his Promises wee must conceive of him as a God infinite in wisedome to contrive and in Power to bring about the execution of his owne will There is a Promise made of calling the Iewes unto Christ and causing them to turne from their transgressions The Redeemer shall come unto Sion and unto them that returne from transgression in Iacob Esai 59 20. But hee who should consider the extreme obstinacie and stubbornnesse of that people against the Gospell would thinke it impossible that they should ever bee pull'd out of the sâ—…are of the Divell therefore the Apostle makes Gods Power the ground of certaintie in this promise They also shall be grafted in againe for God is able to graffe them in As it is written There shall come out of Sion the deliverer and shall turne away ungodlynesse from Iacob Rom. 11. 23. 26. The Sadduces and Gentiles derided the Doctrine and Promise of the Resurrection from the deade and our Saviour carrieth the one from their owne prejudice unto Gods Power ye erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God Math. 22. 29. And Saint Paul the other from their reason unto Faith in God Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead Act. 26. 8. Therefore wee shall finde mens unbeliefe in Scripture hath risen partly from apprehension of power in those whom they feare and partly from apprehension of impotencie in those whom they should trust When the Israelites heard of Giants and sonnes of Anâ—…k in the promised laâ—…d presently they murmâ—…ed against the Lord and his Servants and provoked him by their unbeleefe of his mighty power which they had had so frequent experience of How long will this people provoke mee How long will it be ere they beleeve me for all the signes which I have shewed amongst them Numb 14. 1 11. They provoked him againe by infidelitie in the wildernesse when they asked meate for their Iust and that was by calling the Power of God in question They spake against God they said can God furnish a table in the Wildernesse Behold hee smote the Rocke that the Waters gushed out and the streames overflowed but can hee give bread also can he provide flesh for his people Psal. 78. 19. 20. They measured God by their owne reason and charged God with that impotencie which they found in themselves This was the sinne of that noble man who attended upon the king of Israel in the great famine at Samaria when the Prophet foretold a marvellous plentie which should suddenly come to the place hee measured Gods Power by his owne conceits of possibility in the thing If the Lord would make windowes in heaven this thing could not be 2. King 7. 2. There was a Promise made unto Israel to restore them out of that great captivity of Babylon and this seemed to them as incredible as for men to bee raised out of their Graves after so many yeeres consumption therefore they said our bones are dried up and our hope is lost and we are cut off for our parts Wee have no more reason to beleeve any promise or to rest upon any expectations of deliverance then dead bones have to revive againe Therefore the Lord acquainteth them with his Power together with his Promises O my people ye shaâ—â— know that I am the Lord that is that my wayes and thoughts are infinitely above your shallow apprehensions when I shall have brought you out of your Graves Ezek. 37. 11. 13. Though there should bee famine and mountaines betweene Gods people and his promises famine to weaken their feete that they could not crawle away and mountaines to stop their passage which they could not climbe nor overpasse yet when there was no might nor power left in them the Spirit of the Lord should be their strength their feete should be like Hindes feete to skippe over the mountaines and the mountaines should be as a plaine before them Hab. 3. 17. 18. 19. Zach. 4. 6 7. All doubts and distrusts arise from this that men make their owne thoughts the measure of Gods strength and have low and unworthy conceits of his Power This therefore in all difficulties wee must frame our hearts unto to looke of from second causes from the probabilities or possibilities which are obvious to our reason and admire the unsearchablenesse of Gods Power and wisedome which is above all the thoughts of man If a rich man should promise a begger a great summe of money and hee should discomfort himselfe with such plodding scruples as these Alas these are but the words of a man who meanes well and takes compassion on my povertie but how can hee possibly make good this promise If I should engage my selfe thus to another poore man I should be sure to faile his expectations and â—…latter him with winde what quiet or comfort could he have but he would have more wisedome then to measure rich men by his owne povertie and basenesse So should we doe in any difficulties and distresses either from sinnes afflictions or temptations As Abraham did 〈◊〉 not at the Promise of God through unbeliefe but was strong in faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to performe Rom. 4. 19 20. And after he offered vp his Sonne in faith because he
that Spirit revealeth and confirmeth unto us so every smaller sinne doth in its manner and measure grieve this spirit even as every distemper in the body doth bring paine in some measure unto the naturall soule A living member is sensible of the smallest pricke whereas a body in the Grave is not pained nor disaffected with the weight and darknesse of the earth the gâ—…awing of wormes the stinch of rotteâ—…nesse nor any violences of dissolution because the principle ofsense is departed so though wicked men lie in rotten and noysome lusts have the guilt of many millions of sinnes like so many rockes and mountaines of Lead on their soules doe dayly cut and teare themselves like the Lunaticke in the Gospell yet they feele nothing of all this because they have no spirit of life in them whereas another in whom Christ is formed would bee constrain'd with teares of blood and most bitter repentance to wash the wound of spirit which but one of those fearefull oathes or uncleane actions which the others multiply and wallow in with delight would make within them Now Hee who hath the Sonne hath holynesse upon two grounds according to that double relation which Holinesse hath unto Christ. For it respecteth Him as the Principle and Fountaine from whence it comes and as the rule or patterne unto which it answeres Holynes is called the Image of God now as the face is both the Fountaine of that Image or species which is shed upon the glasse and likewise the exact patterne and example of it too so Christ is both the Principle of Holinesse by whom it is wrought and the Rule unto which it is proportioned First Christ is the Principle and Fountaine of Holinesse as the head is of sense or motion from him the whole body is joyned together and compacted and so maketh encrease and edification of it selfe in Love The oyntment ran downe from Aarons head unto the skirts of his garment to note the effusion of the spirit of Holinesse from Christ unto his lowest members Ye have received an unction from the holy One saith the Apostle What this influence of Christ into his members is wee shall more particularly open in the consequent parts of this discourse Secondly Christ is the Rule and Patterne of holinesse to his Church Our Sanctification consisteth onely in a conformitie unto his wayes For more distinct understanding of which point we must note first that Christ had severall waies and workes to walke through Sometimes we finde him walking to Golgotha and the Garden which was the worke of his merit and passion Sometimes to the Mount with Peter Iames and Iohn which was the worke of his glory and trans-figuration Sometimes upon the sea and through the midst of Enemies which was his worke of power and miracles Sometimes in the midst of the seven golden Candlestickes which was his worke of government guidance and influence on the Church Lastly we finde him going about and doing good submitting himselfe unto his parents going apart by himselfe to pray and in other the like workes of his ordinary obedience Secondly of these workes of Christ we must note that some are uncommunicable others communicable Vncommunicable are first his workes of Merit and Mediation There is but one Mediator betweene God and man the man Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which a man may be saved but the name of Christ. There is no Redemption nor intercession to bee wrought by any man but by Christ. None have to doe with the Censer to offer incense who have not to doe with the Altar to offer Sacrifice Secondly his worke of Governement and Influence into the Church his dispensing of the spirit his quickning of his Word his subduing of his enemies his collecting of his members are all personall Honours which belong unto Him as Head of the Church Those which are Communicable and wherein wee may be by his Grace made partakers are such as either belong to the other life or to this In the other life our Bodies shall bee made Conformed to the transfigured and Glorious body of Christ when Hee appeareth wee shall be made like unto Him by the power whereby Hee subdueth all things unto Himselfe Here some are againe extraordinarily Communicable being for ministery and service not for sanctity or Salvation Such were the miraculous workes of the Apostles which were unto them by way of priviledge and temporary dispensation granted Others ordinarily and universally to all his members So then it remaines that our formall and complete Sanctification consists in a Conformitie to the wayes of Christs ordinary Obedience The whole Life of Christ was a Discipline a Living Shining and exemplary Precept unto men a Visible Commentary on Gods Law Therefore wee finde such names given unto Him in the Scriptures as signifie not onely Preeminence but exemplarynesse A Prince a Leader a Governour a Captaine an Apostle and high Priest a chiefe Sheepeheard and Bishop a Forerunner or Conduct into Glory a Light to the Iewes a Light to the Gentiles a Light to every man that entereth into the World All which titles as they declare his Dignitie that He was the first borne of every Creature so they intimate likewise that Hee was proposed to be the Author and Patterne of Holynesse to his people All other Saints are to be imitated onely with limitation unto Him and so farre as they in their conversation expresse his Life and Spirit Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ. But we must 〈◊〉 pinne our obedience to the example of any Saint lest we happen to stumble and breake our bones as they did Wherefore are the falls and apostacies the errors and infirmities of holy men in Scripture registred Certainely the Lord delighteth not to keepe those sinnes upon record for men to gaze on which himselfe hath put behinde his owne backe and wiped out of the booke of his owne remembrance Hee delighteth not in the dishonour and deformities of his worthies But they are recorded for our sakes set up for landmarks to warne euery man to take heed of adventuring on any mans authority upon those rockes where such renowned and noble Saints have before miscarried Children of light indeed they are but their light is like the light of the Moone subject to mixtures wainings decayes eclipses Christ onely is the Sunne of righteousnesse that hath a plenitude indeficiencie unerring holinesse which neither is deceived nor can deceive Now further this conformity unto Christ must be in all his obedience First in his actiue obedience unto the Law Learne of me saith he for I am meeke and lowly I have given you an Example that you should doe as I have done unto you The action was but temporarie and according to the custome of the place and age but the affection was universall the humility of his heart Let the same minde saith the Apostle be
us to the uttermost and to preserve his owne mercies in us to whose office it belongs to take order that none who are given unto him be lost undoubtedly that Life of Christ in us which is thus underpropped though it be not priviledg'd from temptations no nor from backeslidings yet is an abiding Life He who raised our Soule from death will either preserve our feete from falling or if we doe fall will heale our backflidings and will save us freely Infinitely therefore doth it concerne the Soule of every man to bee restlesse and unsatisfied with any other good thing till he find himselfe entitled unto this happy Communion with the Life of Christ which will never faile him As all the Creatures in the world so man especially hath in him a twofold desire a desire of perfection and a desire of perpetuitie a desire to advance and a desire to preserve his Being Now then till a mans Soule after many rovings and inquisitions hath at last fixed it selfe upon some such good thing as hath compasse enough to satiate and replenish the vastnesse of these two desires impossible it is for that Soule though otherwise filled with a confluence of all the glory wealth wisedome learning and curiositie of Salomon himselfe to have solid contentment enough to withstand the feares of the smallest danger or to outface the accusations of the smallest sinne Now then let us suppose that any good things of this World without the Life of Christ were able to satisfie one of these two desires to perfect and advance our nature though indeede it bee farre otherwise since without Christ they are all but like a stone in a Serpents head or a Pearle in an Oyster not our perfections but our diseases like Cleopatra her pretious stone when she wore it a Iewell but when she dranke it an excrement I may boldly say that as long as a man is out of Christ he were better be a begger or an idiote then to bee the steward of riches honours learning and wisedome which should have beene improv'd to the Glory of Him that gave them and yet to bee able to give up at that great day of accompts no other reckoning unto God but this Thy riches have beene the authors of my covetousnesse and oppression thy honours the steppes of my haughtinesse and ambition thy learning and wisedome the fuell of my pride But now I say suppose that nature could receive any true advancement by these things yet alas when a man shall beginne to thinke with himselfe may not God this night take me away like the foole in the Gospell from all these things or all these from mee May I not nay must I not within these few yeeres in stead of mine honour be laid under mens feete In stead of my purple and scarlet be cloathed with rottennesse In stead of my luxurie and delycacies become my selfe the foode of wormes Is not the poore soule in my bosome an immortall soule Must it not have a being as long as there is a God who is able to support it And will not my bagges and titles my pleasures and preferments my learning and naturall endowments every thing save my sinnes and mine adversaries and mine owne Conscience forsake mee when I once enter into that immortalitie When a man I say shall beginne to summon his heart unto such sad accompts as these how will his face gather blacknesse and his knees tremble and his heart be even damp'd and blasted with amazement in the middest of all the vanities and lyes of this present world What a fearefull thing is it for an eternall soule to have nothing betweene it and eternall misery to rest upon but that which will moulder away and crumble into dust under it and so leave it alone to sinke into bottomlesse calamitie O Beloved when men shall have passed many millions of yeeres in another world which no millions of yeeres can shorten or diminish what accession of comfort can then come to those glorious joyes which we shall bee filled with in Heaven or what diminution or mitigation of that unsupportable anguish which without ease or end must bee suffered in Hell by the remembrance of those few houres of transitorie contentments which we have here not without the mixture of much sorrow and allay enjoyed What smacke or rellish thinke you hath Dives now left him of all his delicacies or Esau of his pottage What pleasure hath the rich foole of his full Barnes or the young man of his great possessions What delight hath Iezabel in her paint or Ahab in the Vineyard purchased with the innocent blood of Him that owned it How much policie hath Achitophel or how much pompe hath Herod or how much rhetoricke hath Tertullus left to escape or to bribe the torments which out of Christ they must for ever suffer O how infinitely doth it concerne the Soule of every man to finde this Life of Christ to rest upon which will never forsake him till it bring him to that day of Redemption wherein he shall be filled with blessednesse infinitely proportionable to the most vast and unlimited capacities of the Creature And now when we can secure our Consciences in the inward true and spirituall renovation of our heart in this invincible and unperishable obsignation of the spirit who knitteth us as really though mistically unto Christ as his sinewes and joynts do fasten the parts of his sacred body together how may our heads bee crowned with joy and our hearts sweetly bathe themselves in the perfruition and preoccupation of those rivers of glory which attend that Spirit wheresoever he goeth Many things I know there are which may extremely disharten us in this interim of mortalitie many things which therein encounter and oppose our progresse The rage malice and subtilty of Satan the frownes flatterles threates and insinuations of this present World the impatience and stubbornnesse of our owne flesh the struglings and counterlustings of our owne potent corruptions the daily consciousnesse of our fall's and infirmities the continuall entercourse of our doubts and feares the ebbing and languishing decaying and even expiring of our Faith and Graces the frequent experience of Gods just displeasure and spirituall desertions leaving the Soule to its owne dumpes and darknesse Sometimes like froward children we throw our selves downe and will not stand and sometimes there comes a tempest which blowes us downe that we cannot stand And now whither should a poore Soule which is thus on all sides invitoned with feares and dangers betake it selfe Surely so long as it lookes either within or about it selfe no marvell if it be ready to sinke under the concurrent opposition of so many assaults But though there be nothing in thee nor about thee yet there is somthing above thee which can hold thee up If there be strength in the merit life kingdom victories Intercession of the Lord Iesus If there be comfort in the Covenant Promises and Oath of
uncleane and so by consequence into usefull and unusefull so that now by any immediate tie of conscience we are not prohibited the free enjoyment of any Creature of God Secondly by all things we understand not all simply but all requisites All that in regard of our state and course are necessary to life and godlinesse O woman saith our Saviour great is thy Faith Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Math. 15. 28. This is a large grant to aske what we will and to have promise of obtaining it but hee who promiseth to beleevers what they will doth likewise regulate and confine their wills to desire nothing but with subordination to His Will nothing but their owne portion that which is food convenient for them The heathen man could say That man hath as much as hee desires who desires nothing but what he hath So we may say of a Christian hee hath indeede whatsoever hee will because God gives him a heart to desire nothing but that which is Gods promise and his owne necessitie Now all these things Faith gives us first because it gives us the Fountaine and secondly the Promises of them all First Faith carries us to the Fountaine that is to God With thee saith the Prophet David there is the Fountaine of Life Psal. 36. 9. And we are of God in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 1. 30. Now wee know there is a kinde of All-sufficiencie in a Fountaine what ever water a man wants hee may have his supply at the Fountaine whereas Cisternes and broken pits will bee presently exhausted Wee may observe in many fountaines that to the eye they seeme to have far lesse water in them for the time then some greater torrent or winter flood which overâ—…unnes whole valleyes and carries away woods and stones before it yet Iob tell 's us that a Torrent will make men ashamed in summer when they turne aside for water to refresh them and can finde none Iob. 6. 19. 20. But hee that comes to a Fountaine for refreshment shall never be ashamed because it is living and growing water and so makes a perpetuall supply So the Faithfull oftentimes have lesse wealth and aboundance of earthly things then other men yet notwithstanding they have therewith all the Fountaine and so by consequence they have more certainty and more sweetnesse First more certaintie for Fountaine water is Living water and so it multiplies whereas other men have their water in Cisterns that are broken full of holes and chinkes to let it out at againe so the Prophets tels us of some that drudge and labour but it is in the fire their worke perisheth as fast as it growes and of others that eatne wages but put it in a bagge with holes it falles out as fast as it is put in What are these holes this fire that melts and le ts out the estates of wicked men they are principally these two First the lusts of their owne harts Te aske and receive not because yee spend it upon your lusts saith the Apostle and as lust keepes it away so lust lets it out when wee have it How many great estates have Wine and women Hawkes and Hounds fashions and complements pride and vaine-glory humours and projects quarrels and dissentions the backe the belly the eye the eare the tongue the many inventions of an idle head the many exorbitancies of a wandring heart melted away and reduced to nothing Every member of the body every appetite of the soule so many chinkes to let out an estate But now the faithfull have their lusts abated their hearts ordered the dropsie and intemperancie of their affections removed and so all the holes at which Gods blessings might soke away are stopped up Secondly the cisternes of wicked men are broken and their bagges full of holes by the secret iudgement and curse of God punishing their sinfull lusts in their sinfull gaine blasting and withering their fruitlesse estates as Christ did the barren fig-tree We see how the Lord threatens to curse the people for their sinnes in their going out and comming in in their basket and in their store to breake the staffe of their bread to take away their cup from their mouth to take his Wine and his Oyle to himselfe againe to consume their palaces with fire to remove their bankers to discover their treasures and to seeke out their hidden things to heare the cry of the beame and of the stone out of the wall and to pull them out of their nests even from among the Starres with infinite other the like expressions in which the Lord useth to shew unto us the power and vigilancie of his Iustice in the administration of the World Wheras the faithfull have the Bread and the Word the Creatures and the blessings of God together and so have more certaintie in these things The Womans Oyle and Meale was not much yet it encreased and went along with her occasions there was a Spring in the Cruse and in the Barrell it was living Oyle and living Meale that grew and held out in the famine As a mans occasions are so the Fountaine supplies him If he want a Cup a Bucket a Cisterne full there is in the Fountaine answerable to all his wants so whatever necessitie the Lord brings the faithfull unto he gives them an eye to see a heart to rest in and to expect in the use of honest meanes a supply proportionable to each of them And as they have more certaintie so have they more sweetnesse in the waters which they fetch from the Fountaine Water in pits and cisternes rots and growes muddy and unfavorie so doe the Creatures of God to wicked men Cares feares jealousies desires hopes ends infinite commixtures and disturbances deprive the Creatures of their native rellish and purenesse The sweetest wine to an aguish palate tastes of that bitter humour which it there finds So lusts and curses interweaving themselves with the Creatures in a wicked mans hands must needs take away the sense of their simple goodnesse turne their table to a snare and the things which should have been for their good into an occasion of falling Whereas the faithfull by the Word and Prayer have the Creature sanctified seasoned and perfumed unto their use againe have the curse of God removed and their owne lusts corrected and with-held from mingling with them Thus faith gives us all things in the Fountaine more certaine and more sweet by stopping the holes which did let them out and by removing the lusts and curses which did before embitter them Secondly Faith gives us all things by giving us the Promises Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come 1. Tim. 4. 8. Wicked men haue good things onely by Gods generall providence which maketh his Sunne to shine as well on them as on the just by a common bounty But this manner of tenure is liable to many forfeitures curses taxations many inrodes and devastations by
Gods Iustice and hereby the heart is framed to an humble feare of reproaching voiding nullifying unto it selfe the Death of Christ or by Continuance in sinne of crucifying the Lord Iesus againe It is made more distinctly in the sufferings of Christ to know that infinite guilt and hellish filthinesse which is in sinne which brought so great a punishment upon so great a person And hereupon groweth to a more serious Hatred thereof and carefulnessâ—… against it as being a greater enemie unto his Iesus then Iudas that betraid or the Pharisees that accuâ—…ed or the souldiers that Crucified him as being more sharpe to the soule of Christ then the nailes or speares that pierced his sacred body How shall I dare thinkes the faithfull soule to live in those sinnes by which I may as truely be denominated a betrayer and Crucifier of him that saved mee as Iudas or Pilate were Thirdly It lookes on him as Our Forerunnerinto Glorie whither he Eâ—…tred not but by away of bloud From whence the heart easily concludes if Christ Entred not into his own glory but by suffering how shall I enter into that glory which is none of mine if I shed not the bloud of my lusts and take order to Crucifie all them before I goe So then none can Conclude that Christ died for him who findes not himselfe Set against the life of sinne within him in whom the body of Corruption is not so lesned as that it doth no more â—…ule to wast his conscience or enrage his heart If a man grow worse and worse his heart more hard his Conscience more senselesse his resolutions more desperate his â—…are more dead his courses more carâ—…all and worldly then before certainely the fellowship and vertue of the bloud of Christ hath hitherto done little good to such a man And what a wofull thing is it for a man to live and die in an estate much more miserable then if there never had beene any Iesus given unto men For that man who hath heard of Christ at whose heart he hath knocked unto whose Conscience he hath beene revealed and yet never beleeveth in him unto righteousnesse or sanctification but lives and dies in his filthinesse shall be punished with a farre sorer Condemnation then those of Tyre Sydon or Sodome that knew nothing of him O then let us labour to shew forth the power of Christs Death and that he died not in vaine unto us Though wee cannot yet totally kill yet let us crucifie our corruptions weaken their vigor abate their rage dispossesse them of the throne in our hearts put them unto shame and in as much as Christ hath Suffered for sinne let us cease from sinne and live the rest of our time not to the will of the flesh nor to the lusts of men but to the will of God The second part of our fellowship in sufferings with Christ is the conformitie of ours to His. In all our afflictions he is afflicted and Saint Paul cals His sufferings the filling up of that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ. Not as if Christs sufferings were imperfect for By one offering Heâ—… hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But as Christ hath Personall sufferings iâ—… corpore proprio in His humane Body as Mediator which once for ever He finished So He hath generall sufferings in corpâ—…re mystico in His Church as a member with the rest Now of these sufferings of the Church we must note that they have no conformitie with Christs in these two things First not in Officio in the office of Christs sufferings for His were meritorious aâ—…d satisfactorie Ours onely miniâ—…teriall and for edification Secondly not in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the weight and measure of them not so bitter heavie and wofull as Christs were For the sufferings of Christ vpon any other Creature would have crushed him as low as Hell and swallowed him up for ever In other respects there is a conformitie of our sufferings to Christs so that He esteemeth them His. Our sufferings are First such as wee draw upon our selves by our owne folly and even in these afflictions which Christ as the King â—…ver His people inflicâ—…eth upon them yet as their Head and fellow member Hee compassionateth and as it were smarteth with them For Christ is so full of tendernesse and so acquainted with sorrowes that wee may justly conceive Him touched with the feeling of those paines which yet He Himselfe seeth needefull for them Secondly such as are by God imposed for triall and exercise of those graces which himselfe gives and in these we have a twofold Communion and conformitie to Christ First By association Christ giveth us His Spirit to draw in the same yoke with us and to hold us under them by His strength That Spirit of Holynesse by which Christ overcame his sufferings helpeth our infirmities in ours Secondly in the manner of undergoing them with a proportion of that meeknes and patience which Christ shewed in His sufferings Thirdly such as are casâ—… upon us by the injuries of Satan and wicked men And these also beare conformitie unto Christs as in the two former respects so thirdly in the cause of them for it is Christ only whom in his members Satan and â—…he world doe persecute All the enmitie that is betweene them is because of the seede of the woman If Christ were now amongst us in the fashion of a servant and in a low condition as once he was should convince men of their wickednesse as searchingly as once he did Hee would doubtlesse be the most hated man upon the Earth Now that Hee is conceived of as God in glory men deale with him as Ioaâ—… with Abner they kisse and flatter him in the outward profession of His Name and Worship and they stabbe and persecute Him in the hatred of His wayes and members And this is the principall reason why so many stand of from a through embracing of Christ and his wayes because when they are indeede in His body they must goe His way to Heaven which was a way of suffering They that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution and be by wicked men esteemed as signes and wonders to bee spoken against and that not onely amongst pagans and professed enemies to the Truth but even in Israel and amongst those who externally make the same profession But this should comfort us in all our sufferings for Christs sake and for our obedience to His Gospell that wee drinke of our masters owne Cuppe that wee fill up that which is wanting of His afflictions that Christ Himselfe was called a Samaritane a Divell a wine-bâ—…bber entrapped spied snared slaine and Hee who is now our Captaine to leade us will hereafter be our Crowne to reward us wee may safely looke upon Christs issue and know it to bee ours First wee have Christs fellowship in them and if it were possible