for Christ he came down in the similitude of sinfull flesh for the nonce to destroy sinne in the flesh to save the sinner and slay his sinnes He lived without preacht against it prescribed antidotes to prevent remedies to cure it He raised forces armed his Souldiers against it and Himselfe at last by hanging upon the Tree the most sad and gastly spectacle in the eyes of God Angels Men and Devils that ever was or shall be seen full of the stings of this Serpent for his poore sinfull peoples sake gave thereby an incomparable Record to the world of his Fathers wrath against it and also at that time and encounter broke the head of it and yet it lives and is lively though this was above 1600 yeares agoe 3. When Christ in his person went off the field he presently dispatched away the Holy Ghost what to doe why to begin there where he had left and to convince the world of sinne and of righteousnesse and of judgement John 16. 8. And accordingly this good spirit of God hath been striving pleading perswading arguing threatning using sinners now gently and kindly anon roughly and sharply The South winde hath breathed the North blustred all windes blewn and yet sinne though chaffe is not winnowed out 4. What shall be yet farther done peradventure sinners had rather deale with Moses than with God Man it may be will heare reason from Man like himselfe God hath therefore gone that way to worke and hath set up the Office of Ministers and Leger-Ambassadors whose very businesse in the world is to Reprove Instruct correct exhort knowing the terrours of the Lord to perswade men To be overseers and watchmen To haunt and follow and cry after and give sinners no rest Nay yet further because Ministers words may and doe too often prove winde and be slighted he hath raised up and ordained Magistrates and given them power from himselfe Rom. 13. to be Avengers of Evill as farre as to life it self and ever and anon besides all this he fights against sinne himselfe even from Heaven by Plagues Famines Warres desolations of Countryes throwing down mighty ones for their mighty provocations from their places of Dignity and lifting up others in their steads to try conclusions who have neverthelesse dared to succeed them and sometimes out-sin them in their vices as well as places And still Iniquity abounds and Sinne lives Vivit vivit non ad deponendam sed ad confirmandam audaciam as was said of Catiline And now therefore seeing I have proved it that the point I have pitcht upon is so needfull to be preacht suffer me to furbush it and make it glitter in your eyes like a sword and let it like that flaming sword that turned every waies move round about this Congregation 1. In the first place I beseech you All Saints and Sinners in the fear of God To be more and more convinced of and confirmed in this truth which flesh and bloud would faine have disputed and confuted Keep it as fixt and immoveable in your soules as the Sun is in Heaven and let it have its influence Oh be satisfied concerning the true nature of Sin against God and God against Sin that one Heart can never hold them here no more than one Heaven above Oh good people stop your eares and blesse your selves from all those cursed hellish opinions of Epicures of old and of Atheists now raised up afresh out of the bottomlesse pit by Rebellious Ranters Hectors and Hereticks To extenuate sin to apologize for sin yea to finde out Arguments Providences Successes to make a plea for sin and would fain finde out a Gospell to reconcile not a sinner to God our Gospel doth that but God to sin Oh beware of the witchcraft all you young Students that is in books take heed of those which beat about for Arguments to gratifie the flesh and accommodate broken and corrupt nature as all Familisme Antinomianisme Arminianisme and Popery doe But especially that cursed devilisme of Socinianisme which goes deeper into the heart of Christ than the Spear which let out his life-blood and in comparison of which all other Heresies are but as the nailes in his hands and feet And which in a word stands more in need of an Arraignment than any Argument Secondly be alarmd awakned and look about you all Christlesse gracelesse and unsanctified natures who have attained to more clear and distinct knowledge of sin and what it deserves then these poor Heathens in my Text had but no more minde will or power to forsake it though it cost you the life of your Souls than they and yet have more to answer for and for want of grace the meanes of which you slight and the worke of which in your hearts you resist are like if there come no change to goe to Hell with this Gospell of Mercy like a Mill-stone about your necks Alas my Brother as safe and civill as thou thinkest thy self because of thy ingenious nature and well-educated Soule Thou art very tender to any spark of sin that falls There is no safety on this side of Regeneration no man gentle or simple untill God hath made him and created him a new can tell what kinde of sinner he himselfe shall prove ere he dies A Cain an Esau a Pharoah an Hezael a Iudas a Demas a Iulian an incarnate Devill Well might Austin say after his conversion He would not be an unregenerate man againe no not for halfe an houre for the whole world 3. Is it the voice of Divine Iustice death to every sinner double death to every knowing sinner Then let me be true to my trust who am sent hither to be the voice of a Cryer Oh suffer me to cry aloud and not spare Tremble at your condition and station all ye bold and impenitent sinners who came in hither to judge the Sermon and little thought of an attachment tremble at your fickle hold at your slippery standing You cannot set your feet upon one foot of safe ground you are sinking every moment though you are not like Corah and his company swallowed up in a moment yet a little while and you are gone Oh how can you buy or sell worke or play eat drink or sleep what poppy stuffes your pillowes what opium is in your cups seeing you know that Judgement sleeps not and your Damnation slumbers not The Philistims are upon you look about you the wrath of God abides upon you it is like Fire already upon your cloaths which as yet you feel not but it will burn through and be at your flesh presently Death is gone out against you to apprehend you and carry you away and why he may not doe his office at the next turning I know not If you be in your sinnes there is nothing betwixt your Bodies and the Grave your Soules and Hell but Gods Patience and you have abused that too much already and cannot be sure of it a
day longer This night this houre your Soules are required or as it is in the Greek They require your Soule They who Oh enough the Law the Iustice of God the Devills tanquam satellites lictores like so many black officers and Serjeants as Calvin observes in that place O ye distracted sinners who feel your Consciences those wormes with venomed teeth gnawing you within more or lesse when will you yeild Plutarch tells a story of a bold and hardy Boy who having stolne a Fox a live Fox was pursued and overtaken by the Owners and whilst he was examined he held the Fox close and secretly stoutly denying the fact The Fox gnawes the Boy feels and yet denies and held it out denying untill the very bowells of him were pulld out and himselfe fell downe dead before them Such desperadoes there are among men who account Confession cowardize and Repentance sneaking and a tender conscience womanish and will hold out and carry it high and stifly though horrors within doe twinge and teare their hearts and they ready to fall down under the wrath of the Almighty 3. Oh hearken and give me leave to expostulate especially with all those selfe-condemned sinners who not onely know and have lived to see Gods judgements even to desolation ruine death upon their neighbours have also had as Paul in Stephens some speciall hand therein justly it may be enough as Magistrates Justices Committees Prosecutors Witnesses Juries Sequestrators c. and yet live to doe the same the like or worse things themselves Oh inexcusable men how will you escape the righteous judgement of God Of a truth nothing goes so deep with me and makes me horribly afraid for poor England as this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} selfe condemnation My Brethren suppose the Judge of Heaven and Earth who stands before the door were this morning come down that you saw the Court set the Books open all men summoned and appearing and you heard such a voice as this Set by a while all Nations of the earth and bring forth before me the Inhabitants of England to the Barre that Land of Mercies that Land of Knowledge where a man could scarce commit a sinne of Ignorance that Land of Bibles and good Books at such cheap rates that Land of rare Deliverances rich Providences and precious Ordinances that Land of Vowes and Covenants of Reformation reall nationall personall Oh how would those Magistrates men of Power Place and Interest be able to look Iesus Christ the astonisht Angels and those grimme Ghosts in the face who shall cry to be their Tormentors whom they have punished ruined and cut their lives short for those very crimes which they now doe themselves and farre worse Oh my Soul what deplorable and unparalleld spectacles of Heaven daring Hypocrisie and Apostacy hath this age produced Men who have pretended to walke so Spiritually as if they had no Bodies and yet have practised so carnally as if they had no Soules Men who have talkt as if they had cloven Tongues yet have walkt as if they had cloven Feet Iamjam tacturos sydera summa putes Iamjam tacturos Tartara nigra putes Sometimes they offer so fair for Heaven as if they would with Elijah enter it though in the fiery-Chariot of Martyrdome A little after they fall like Lightning from Heaven as low as Earth or earthy trash yea as low as Hell in plots designes and contrivements as if Satan himselfe had been their onely Tutor And Secondly where would those Ministers and Preachers appeare or how could they stand in judgement who should have been as unchangeable as the Truth which they delivered but yet have turned like the Cock on their Steeples to every winde that hath blown strongest who have formerly much declaimed against non-preaching Prelates Prebends and Priests yet now adempto fine cessat motus begin to have the same Quinsey in their own throats who have heretofore accounted it and that very justly to be Jesuiticall to reserve meanings private senses and to equivocate and yet have at a pinch rather than give out and suffer done so themselves who have taken other mens livings and quickly learned to live their lives who have like thunder-clowds made a noise and ratled over the heads of sinners but yet have been as black and darke in themselves Gentlemen such worke as this will come as sure as the Heavens are over our heads and what will the guilty doe at that day Oh let us lay it to heart this day I beseech you 5. Lastly One word of Exhortation brings my errand to an end Doth the Justice and wrath of God deservedly follow {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Oh then my Honourable and Reverend Lords the Judges and all yee Worshipfull Magistrates of this City and County who are solemnly met at this time to doe God and your Countrey what service you can against sinne and sinners Hearken I beseech you to one who though he doe like Amos dwell in Tekoa yet is called now to drop a word in Bethel and hear me of your Clemency a few words By your Christianity and Holy Religion by your high Callings and worthy Offices and professions by your considerable Interests and wealthy possessions by your experiences and what you have seen of Gods judgements by your ponderous Oaths and Obligations and by Iesus Christ the Judge of all men I beseech you if there be any sparkes of this vindictive Justice of God in you as there ought and I hope is some of that heavenly Fire in you all Oh let my poor breath blow it up into a Flame that it may blaze out scorch burne and consume sin Oh let not sinners warme themselves by that Fire which should either refine them or burn them to ashes You are great Trees trees of righteousnesse let not any unclean Foules build their nests in your branches or perch themselves upon your Armes let not any noisome Beast or Vermine lodge under your shadow Shall the righteous suffer or the ungodly escape this day that be farre from you to doe on this manner The Lord hath imparted his very owne name to you oh be not Idol-Gods that have eyes and see not eares and hear not hands to handle Briars and Thornes roughly and to pull them up but yet handle not Much lesse be ye as the Gods of the Heathens patrons and protectors of villany He that committeth sin is of the Devill but he that commits connives commands commends it when he is intrusted to punish it is not onely of the Devill but a Devill and a great one too It was charged home and stoutly by an Advocate once to a Judge in Germany who was laying the Law to a Malefactor before him and aggravating the guilt in as much as he had murdered now six men by times no my Lord cries the advocate he 〈◊〉 but one and your self kill'd the other five who had him before you for the first
and let him escape Fiat Iustitia pereat mundus Oh be severe the drossy case of our Land calls for it and God looks for it Better ungodly men should fall by your hands who can but kill the body then that you and they should together fall into the hands of the living God who can cast Soule and Body into Hell fire Oh remember what the Lord our God hath done hath done to unjust Officers and Magistrates and what your eyes have seen Let none of your hearts entertaine or tongues expresse that vile opinion and speech of Lysander That children are to be cheated with Checkstones men with Oaths But doe you this day remember the presence and the great and terrible name of the Lord our God by which you are sworn and shall swear who will be avenged speedily on all that take his name in vain Be ye holy and just all of you and consider what sad offices and places of all men wicked and profane Magistrates and Ministers are in If they doe not preach against sinne and punish sinners they are guilty and if they doe discharge their Consciences whilst they let fly against the faces of others their guilt like a foul and rusty Gun recoyles and flyes in their owne faces Beware therefore that this accursed thing sinne be not in your own Tents as in Achans and then look to your Sonnes Servants Clerks your Gehizies that this Leprosie cleave to none of them Let not your eyes spare nor pitty but cry out with Canutus a King of the poor barbarous Vandalls when he was pleaded with to spare his owne Sonne found guilty of a capitall crime Filio nostro sublimiorem crucem ponite Make the Gallowes higher for my Sonne who durst break the Laws not onely of his King but of his Father Secondly Would you be free from the sinnes of others Then look to your Edicts your Warrants your Orders your Licences Let not any iniquity be established by a Law or any thing like it Not by a Testimony not by a Plea not by a Verdict not by a Sessions order Publick persons like Briareus have an 100 hands to doe good or evill withall There is a Woe and that little word hath the whole wrath of God and Hell in it hang'd over the heads of them that decree unrighteous decrees When Saul set Doeg to fall upon the innocent Priests 1 Sam. 22. he had better have gone the nearest way and have destroyed them with his owne hands for then he had not been a sinner and a sinner-maker Oh beware all you that have good heads great parts acute wits eloquent tongues how you imploy them They were among these Gentiles their wise men Philosophers Poets Orators that became both practitioners and Patrons of vice some of them would for a fee or in an humour or to shew their parts openly defend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That there was no such thing as Vertue or Vice That Revenge Incest Sodomy were but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things indifferent Gentlemen Schollers and Lawyers better it were that any of you had been born dumb or Ideots or had not known Letters than to prostitute your faire and beautifull parts for base gaine as an Harlot doth her body and to sell arguments to uphold or under prop the work of the Devill which must and will down and fall upon your heads that doe offer to buttris up any basenesse Take heed Sirs when God is the Plaintiffe Iehovah litigat Hos. 4. 1. that none of you be Sollicitors Attorneyes Councell or pleaders for the Defendants Thirdly Take heed that you intrust not knowne Knaves and wicked men in any place or office under you for all the Evill which they doe will be found lying at your doores And here I must begge leave that I may pay my Vowes which I made to God in my distresse when I was a prisoner some yeares agoe in yonder Castle the common Jayle of this county It was something like that of the cheife Butler to Ioseph that if ever it should goe well with me and I came to be restored to my office and liberty and should have such a duty and opportunity put into my Hands as I have now this day I would then remember them that are in bonds bound Body and Soule poore wretches who from the time of their Imprisonment are commonly made seven times more the children of wrath than they were before And all for want of good doctrine good discipline and good example I do verily beleive that in that place where the condition of men require Prayer and Teaching and Mortification more then any I saw more drinking and fighting and heard more swearing and cursing that in many a yeare abroad Two things Gentlemen would make your Jailes not to be such Hells as they are A godly Keeper and a powerfull preacher Oh if any wealthy worthy person would do good and lay out a summe of money well indeed He could not thinke of a better way than to allow a good stipend to keept a godly grave zealous Minister not only to preach but even to dwell there to be allwaies preparing those poore creatures to live or dy better then I feare they doe The blessing of them that are ready to perish would light on such a Benefactour Fourthly One request more Beware whom you trust with that great but too common Trust and Licence of Selling Ale and strong drinke and of connivance at any that are lawlesse and unlicens'd all which I looke upon as so many open pits and Sepulchres for men Never expect so long as this deluge of drink still covers our English earth that ever the Arke of Gods presence should settle or rest amongst us As much as men whine and complaine of Taxes I doe believe that there is that drink needlesly sinfully and shamefully guzled away in England which would pay the Tax thrice told and no man feele it For justice and mercy sake doe something vigorously for reforming this sinne which like a Trojan horse hath an army of sins in the bowels of it and now lay your Axes to the root of those rotten trees the signe-posts I must give over Seeing that sinne and wickednesse is that which deserves Gods judgement and eternall death and that this is made known to all men Oh let us all arme and engage against it ye that love the Lord hate evill The Lords people are not like to be all of a minde in all things till they come to Heaven but whoever are not of this minde are none of the Lords people Oh therefore let Magistrates punish it let Ministers preach against it Lawyers plead against it Souldiers fight against it Scholers study and write books against it all the Inke in the world is not enuogh nor black enough to paint it and though the world be full of books yet still there are too few on this subject One little piece of the sinfulnesse of sinne and Aggravation of Sinnes against Knowledge will goe further and doe more good than a whole Library of learned wranglers Finally my Brethren let us all in the feare of God arise and practise against it whilst we live let us cry out Vivat Christus Moriatur Barrabbas Let God arise and sinne and sinners be scattered and when we dye let us give up our ghosts with the words of Sampson Let me dye with these Phylistims Amen FINIS Iudg. 5. 11. Campanella de Monarch Hispan ver. â—â— * 1. The Judge 2. The prisoners 3. The Inditement 4. The Law c. 5. The Iury 6. The Verdict 7. The Sentence 2. Cor. 10. 3. 4. 5. 6. Heb. 4. 12. Soe Aristotle defines it Ethic. Lib. 5. chap. 6. Pareus in Locum Doct. Prov. 14. 34. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ethic. lib. 5. Rom. 3. 4. Rom. 13. 7. Arist. l. Ethic. 5. cap. 7. Certae justissimae Dei voluntas atque decretuâ—â—lciscendi injurias sibi suisque factas Zanch. Deus potest potentiâ executivâ quicquid non involvit contradictionem procedere ab aliis attributis perfectionibus simplicibus Quis nescit hoc esse dei proprium velle ac voluisse constâ—â—â—sse punire iniquitates Iâ—ò Deus justâ—â— non esset nisi hac fecisset Si Deus pâ—ssâ—t sui naturiâ sceleratos non odisse puniâ—e sed amare non Deus esset sed diabolus quod est horrendum cogitatu Par. in locum Es. 30. 33. Math. 25. 41. Jude 6. Sic Iustitia pix osculabantur c. Psal. 85. â—1 Bernard Ruth 3. 12. Acts 17. 31. 1. Psal. 82. 6. Rom. 13. 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1. 20. Laâ—â— lib. de Irâ dei Pareus in Gen. cap. 2. ver. 17. Dr. Owens Diatrib Lactant. Ob hoc inflexibilis obstinatae meniis malum punitur aeternaliter quiâ— si nunquam moreretur nunquam velle peccare defineret urò semper vivere vel â—et ut semper peccare posset Ber. in Ep. 252. Ad magnam Iudicaâ—is justitiam pertinet ut nunquam carcant supplicio qui in bâc vita nunquam noluerunt carere peccato Greg Hom. 13. in Evang. Third Partic. Gen 3. 9. Gen 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. Suidas Virgil Usurpatur de iis qui 〈◊〉 custodia detinentur Leigh Crit. Sacr. Caligula Psal. 11. 7. Exod. 31. Psal. 11. 6â— The book of Esther Fourth Partie Gen. 7. Gen. 19. Rom. 8. 3. Cant. 16. Exod. 20. 19. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2 Cor. 5. 11. Vses {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luk. 12. In vitâ Licurgi Ovid Dr. Reynolds Mr. Tho. Goodwin
houshold and kingdome of light the Church A farre more glorious Sun-shine hath appeared The Bible a book sent out of heaven made by the true God hath like wisdome cried out in our streets continually and aloud from one end of the Scripture to the other The Lord the Lord beholds from Heaven all the children of men the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse he is a just God a jealous God one that hates sinne and all iniquity one that will by no meanes let the guilty goe unpunished one that will raine snares fire and Brimstone and give it to the wicked as their portion c. An houre would not serve us to hear all the evidences of this book for truly though some Criticks have found out one Canonicall Book which hath not the word God in it yet is the Word of God yet I thinke none can finde a book in the Bible which hath not some proof or testimony of Gods eternall displeasure against sin Not withstanding all which knowledge both of the Almighties words and deeds against sin set on oftentimes closer then Conscience can doe it by the heavy hand of God himselfe upon the Soules and Spirits of guilty ones even kindling an Hell fire in their bosomes and making them like poor Spira to yell and shreek and to have such Devills in them as no Disciple can cast out no Minister can quiet Yet oh wonder How rife rank is all manner of wickedness to this very day in the world nay in the best part of it in the civilized cultivated inlightned baptized part of the world In England whose sinnes are her onely shame and I feare will be her ruine In England old England as much as anywhere and that not onely for the multitude of sinners take so many for so many but for the variety of sinnes Blush ô ye Heavens over our heads and thou Earth tremble under us for I fear there is not a sinne naturall or unnaturall to be found upon record in this sad Chapter to have been committed by the Gentiles against their starâ—light but after an 100 yeares Gospel in this Island and now of late 12 or 14 yeares judgements of an angry God amongst us is still to be found amongst our debaucht ones and I pray God your Lordships doe not to the grief of your hearts meet with most of them even in this one Circuit before you returne Surely surely these dayes are the dreggs and very bottome of Time and if the abounding of Iniquity be one of the signes of the worlds end it cannot be long before the Iudge of Quick and Dead rend the Heavens and comes down Alas for us How doe men sinne with their eyes open their cares open their Consciences wide open In the face of the Sun of the Minister of the Magistrate of God himselfe Men every where know that he is a jealous God a just Iudge an Avenger of all impieties and unrighteous courses that themselves are such and that God hath his quiver full of arrowes and some arrowes upon the very string and they the mark against which they are level'd that they are within shot that hell gapes for them and in Hell everlasting torments that there is no Gospell in the grave and they may be there the next steâ— that vengeance like the sword hanging over Damocles by an horse hair is ready to drop In brief men generally great ones too and Schollers too as too too many know all this and a thousand times more and yet sinne and sinne and sinne and make a mock of sinne delight in it defend it and them who doe it as if Religion were but a piece of Pageantry and this Holy book the Bible but a Romance Tell not me any nice and curious Auditor among you that I might have brought hither some other subject not so common as this is to have discourst of in such an Assembly I know I might and confesse to you that the commonnesse of it stuck a while with me in my Study and pleaded so hard that I cast it by twice or thrice but it was my foolishnesse and I could not well be at quiet untill I returned to it againe being convinced that it was indeed one of the best and most seasonable subjects in the world And you all will say so too if you will but lay to heart these few things First there is not one Soule here or that could be here but is concerned very neerly in this point having too often finned presuming so to doe himselfe against this Iustice of God made known to him and also one way or other to countenance it in others 2. Preaching and declaiming against sinne as loud and allow'd as it is and the Lord make it seven-fold more common and powerfull then it is is not neither can be so common as committing it 3. It is that one common enemy of Heaven and Earth of God and Men of the Creater and all his Creatures against which God Christ the Holy Spirit Ministry Magistracy all meanes possible have been engaged ever since it first entred into the world and yet it will not yeild but fights it out by Inches 1. The Lord when it had of old over-spread all mankinde and fill'd the Earth with Corruption such as poisoned the very Aire and ascended up and stunk in his nostrills and caused him to repent that ever he made such a Creature resolved that he would wash this filth away or else he would wash his hands of all the world and accordingly he did by the Deluge destroy all the race of Adam with a purpose to get rid of sinne save onely eight persons the best he could pick out whom he kept alive to preserve a better seed to people the world againe And yet ' would you think it Sinne scap't drowning though the Sinners did not that crept into the Ark and came out safe and fell to work afresh and made ashift quickly to drown Noah himself in wine whom all the waters could not touch and with that small stock of Eight set up and thrived againe so fast that it soon recovered that ground which it had before lost A while after the Lord tried it with another fierce Element to see if he could fire it out of a place Raining down fire and brim stone upon sinfull Sodome and burning it to ashes carrying out but one righteous Lot to save alive and yet in saving onely him sinne enough was saved to fetch out of his loynes two cursed Nations enough to people all the world with sinners if there had been no more left but they Thus did sinne like Pauls Viper leap out of the fire of Sodome it leapt upon Lot who could not so easily shake it off but it stuck and stung him Neither Water nor Fire have prevailed over it but it hath lived and reigned and will doe I doubt till the Universall Fire come down from God and burn the world about sinners eares 2. As