graine of grace is more worth then many pounds of naturall parts But learning and grace do not alwayes keepe company together yea oh Lord how many are there that have a depth of knowledge yet are not soule wise that have a library of Divinity in their heads and not so much as the least catechisme in their consciences No rare thing for men to abound in speculation and be barren in devotion to have full braines and empty hearts clear judgement and defiled affections fluent tongues but lame feet yea you shall heare a flood in the tongue when you cannot see one drop in the life But see how justly they are served they might bee holy and will not therefore though they would bee soule wise yet they shall not the scorner seeketh wisdome but findeth it not Pro. 14.6 Let them know never so much they are resolved to be never the better and they which are unwilling to obey God thinks unworthy to know § 51. NO wicked man is a wise man That no wicked man is a wise man for as God is the giver of wisdome so hee reveales himselfe savingly to none but his children the godly First God only is the giver of it For as no man can see the Sunne but by the light of the Sunne so no man doth know the secrets of God but by the revelation of God Mat. 16.16 17. to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven wee must have hearts eyes and eares sanctified from above Deut. 29.2 3 4. Ps 111.10 Luk. 24.45 Ioh. 15.15 Rom. 8.14.15 No learning nor experience will serve to know the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 1.17.18 and 3.19 for as meere sense is uncapeable of the rules of reason so reason is no lesse uncapeable of the things that are supernaturall Yea the true knowledge of the nature and state of the soule must come by his inspiration that gave the substance As the soule is the lamp of the body and reason of the soule and religion of reason and faith of religion so Christ is the light and life of faith 2. God reveales himselfe savingly to none but the godly and such as he knows will improve their knowledge to his glory even as husbandmen will not cast their seed but into fruitfull ground which will returne them a good harvest the secrets of the Lord saith David are revealed to them that feare him and his covenant is to give them understanding Psa 25.14 these secrets are hid from the wicked neither hath hee made any such covenant with them the faithfull are like Moses to whom God shewed himselfe Exod. 3. like Simeon that imbraced Christ in his armes Lu. 2.28 like Iohn the beloved Disciple that leaned on his bosome Ioh. 13.25 like the three Disciples that went with him up the mount to see his glory Matth. 17. like the Apostles whose understandings he opened Luk 24.45 and to whom hee expounded all things whereas to unbelievers he speakes all things as it were in Parables Mar. 4.34 see this in Abrahams example shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do saith God Gen. 18.17 As if this were an offence in God if he should tell the righteous no more then hee tells the wicked They which love God saith S. Iohn know God but they which have not this love know not God though they have never so much knowledge besides 1 Iohn 4.7 Yea suppose a man be not inferiour to Porcius who never forgat any thing he had once read to Pythagoras who kept all things in memory that ever hee heard or saw to Virgil of whom it is reported that if all Sciences were lost they might bee found in him to Bishop Tunstal whom Erasmus called a world of knowledge to A ristotle who was called wisdome it self in the abstract to that Romane Nasica who was called Corculum for his pregnancy of wit that Grecian Democritus Abderita who was also called wisdome it selfe that Britaine Guildas called Guildas the sage that Iew Aben Ezra of whom it was said that if knowledge had put out her candle at his braine shee might light it againe and that his head was a throne of wisdome or that Israelitish Achitophel whose words were held as Oracles to Iosophus Scaliger who was skil'd in thirty languages yet if he want faith holinesse the love of God and the Spirit of God to be his teacher he shall not be able really and by his owne experience to know th◠chiefe points of Christian religion suc◠as are Faith Repentance Regeneration◠the love of God the presence of the Spifrit the Remission of sins the effusion o◠grace the possession of heavenly comforts not what the peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost is nor what the communion of Saints means when every one of these are easie and familiar to the meanest and simplest believer Now will you know the reason the feare of the Lord saith Salomon is the beginning of wisdome Prov. 1.7 as if the first lesson to be wise were to be holy For as the water ingendereth yce and the yce againe ingendereth water so knowledge begets righteousnesse and righteousnesse again begetteth knowledge It is between science and conscience as it is betweene the stomack and the head for as in mans body the raw stomack maketh a rheumatick head and the rheumaticke head maketh a raw stomack so science makes our conscience good and conscience makes our science good It is not so much scientia capitis as conscientia cordis that knowes Christ and our selves whence Salomon saith give thine heart to wisdome Pro. 2.10 and let wisdome enter into thine heart Proverbs 4.4 Againe if it be ask'd why the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God S. Paul answers he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 and indeed if they be spiritually discerned how should they discerne them that have not the Spirit Now if it be so that men may bee exquisitely wise and incomparably learned in the worlds opinion and yet very fools in the judgement of heaven if not many wise men after the flesh are called but that a great number of them go the wrong way yea if God turnes their wisdome into foolishnesse that abuse their gifts and reveales himselfe savingly to none but such as feare and serve him then is their no safety in following their example or in building our faiths upon their judgements Indeed we are too prone to imitate the learned and to thinke we go safe enough if wee tread in their steps although they tread awry for say wee they know the will of God what hee requires and practise what they thinke will bring them to happinesse especially so much as is absolutely necessary to salvation and they do so and so or else they speake not as they think because they do not as they speake for none live worse then many of them But
dayes but most rageth on the Lords day this mad and unruly sin that knowes neither Magistrate nor Minister nor Father nor King nor Caesar this murtherous sin which kill more then the sword this adulterous sin which fils all corners with whore dome and uncleannes this thievish sinne that steals away mens time wealth wits that robs the poore of their due this flanderous sin that loades the world with tales and slanders against the Host of the living God this Atheisticall sinne that believes no more the threates and promises of God then if some Imposter had spoken them this hellish sinne which hardens and makes up the heart against all repentings this unnaturall sinne 1 Lay to heaeâ—â— the things delivered that puts off al thoughts of ones familie ones selfe and sends him on grazing with Nâ—buc hadnezzar this sinne this vile sinne thus transcendent let him first dwell upon and lay to heart the things formerly delivered that by this tast hee may learne to detest the drunkards qualities 2. Avoid the causes formerly haâ—dled let him remove and take heed of all the forenamed causes especially of affecting popular applause and reputation of good fellowship that so the causes being removed and taken away the effect may cease to unlearn evill is the best kind of learning Next observe these Rules which I shall but touch whereof some are generall some more proper and peculiar The generall meanes are § 174. FIrst 3 Believe their state danâ—ero us and that there is no â—ay to help ut by a change to the couâ—trary believe thine estate dangerous and that there is but one way to helpe thee viz. to repent what thou hast done and never more to doe what thou hast repented not fostering one knowne sin in thy soule for the only way to become good is first to believe that thou art evill and by accusing our selves we prevent Sathan by judging our selves we prevent God And lastly one hole in a Ship may sinke her one Bullet may kill a man aswel as twenty neither is repentance without amendment any more then to pump and never stop the leake 2. Secondly if thou beest convinced and resolvest upon a new course 4. Be constant and peremptory in their resolutiou let thy resolution bee peremptory and constant If with these premonitions the Spirit vouchsafes to stirre in thy heart by good motions and holy purposes to obey God in letting thy sinnes go as once the Angel in the Poole of Bethesda take hold of opportunity and having eares to heare hark en what the Spirit saith and take heed you harden not againe as Pharaoh and the Philistins did Thou knowest Pharaoh had many purposes to obey God in letting the children of Israel goe but still hardens againe as often as he purposed untill God had almost destroyed the whole Land yea after hee had stood out nine plagues when death entred within his Palaces he dismissed the people but presently after in all hast makes after them to fetch them back againe yea he could seeme religious when the fit tooke him every great plague put him into a Feaver and then he was godly of a sudden O pray for me now but when the fit was over Pharaoh was Pharaoh againe as prophane as ever nine times hee began to relent and nine times againe hee hardened his heart but he was never good egg nor bird his beginning was naught his proceeding worse and who could looke for better at his later end and the Philistins being five times punished five times repented themselves and at last returned to their old by as againe in which they remained constant 1 Samuel 5. and 6. Chapters Againe Pilate had strong purposes and desires to let Christ goe yet at lenght condemned him to content the people Luke 23.22 to 25. The young man in the Gospel resolved verily to follow Christ but turned backe and went away sorrowfull when hee heard the condition propounded of giving that he had to the poore Mat. 19.22 Iudas was grieved for murthering Christ yet no change ensued hee after murthered himselfe all these conceptions dyed before they came to the birth therfore take heed least it should fare so with thee How many thousand good motions of the Holy Ghost prove still-borne and abortive through our negligence or be over-laid with our vanities we use them as Iulius Caesar did the Paper that concerned his owne life all the other petitions he read only that he put in his pocket and never look'd on it Men commonly regard the songs of Sion as they doe musicke which they heare at night in the streets whiles they are in bed perhaps they will step to the window and listen to it awhile as if they lik'd it but presently to bed againe O doe not like the Israelites who are said to heare God and in the same Chapter to worship the Calfe quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 If thou be upon the mountaine looke not backe againe upon Sodome as Lot's wife did If thou be within the Arke fly not out againe into the world as Noah's Crow did If thou bee well washed returne not againe to the mire as the Hog doth If thou beest clean purged turne not againe to thy filthy vomit as the Dog doth If thou be going towards the land of Canaan think not of the flesh-pots of Egypt If thou have set thy hand to the plow looke not behind thee for better not begin then leave off having begun better remaine cold then first bee hoâ— then luke-warme and after key-cold againe For as in naturall things as water that which hath beene a little warmed becommeth more cold then if it had never had any heat in it so in spirituall the evill spirit having once forsaken a man if he returnes to that house after it is empty swept and garnished he bringeth with him seven more spirits worse then himselfe and the latter end of that man is worse then his beginning Matth. 12.43.45 Thus it fared with Iulian the apostate and Iudas the traitor who suffering the divell to enter into him when he had newly received the Sacrament he could never afterward be driven out againe so if the divell enter into thee after thouhastreceived this warning had these good purposes and made these holy resolutions he will possesse thee like Iudas stronger then he did before Oh it is a fearefull thing to receive the grace of God in vaine and a desperate thing being warned of a Rock wilfully to cast our selves upon it Wherefore resemble not the Chelidony stone which retaineth his vertue no longer then it is rub'd wiâ—h gold nor the Iron which is no longer soft then it is in the fire Be not like those which are Sea sicke who are much troubled while they are on ship-board but presently well againe when they come to shore for that good saith Gregory will doe us no good which is not made good by perseverance § 175 3 NOw if thou intendest to hold
some crime or other putting him to his choice either of Drunkennesse Adultery or Murther he chosing the first in his drunkennesse he abused the wife of him in whose house he was and her husband comming in the whilst he slew him and so in chosing that one he committed all three which being rightly considered me thinkes a man had neede to be drunke before hand that shall admit of more wine then enough that shall for one houres mad mirth hazard a whole age of griefe and shame together with his displeasure that is able to destroy both body and soule in Hell § 13. BUt you have not heard all Drunkennesse disables and indisposeth men to all good yea to all the meanes thereof for as others observe it is a queller of all good notions motions actions a sinne which decayes all a mans good parts and morall vertues which disables men from all good imployments either in Church or Common-wealth making them unprofitable which otherwise might be serviceable and indisposeth them to grace and godlinesse yea to all the meanes thereof For as by too much raine saith St. Austin the earth is resolved into dirt and made unfit for tillage so Drunkards by excessive swilling are altogether so unfitted for the spirituall tyllage that they can bring forth no good fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse but rather like bogs and marishes are fit to breed nothing but vermine frogs and serpents that is all manner of abominable sinnes and lothsome wickednesse More particularly it keepes them from repenting Esa 22.12.13 and all saving knowledge Esa 28.7 debarreth them from regeneration Christs righteousnesse and that heavenly inheritance Rom. 13.13.14 Gal. 5.21 1 Cor. 6.10 by it the spirit is quenched Eph. 5.18 and the body of sinne with all it's lusts strengthened 1 Pet. 2.11 yea the soule by it is made like a City broken downe and without walls Pro. 25.28 besides it keepes them in finall impenitencie Esay 5.11.12 Pro. 23.35 Neither can that soyle which brings forth this vice like ground sown with salt bring forth any other thing which is good I meane so long as a man is such The roote of all evill the rot of all good as snow can never be made hot so long as it is snow yea where drunkennesse reignes or carries the raynes there cannot dwell the least good that heart is empty of all grace and indeed how should such a worthy princesse as grace is endure such rogues for her bed-fellowes so many filthy lusts as are in the Drunkards heart to lodge with her yea as smoake drives Bees from their hive so drunkennesse drives all the graces from such an heart And how should the Holy-Ghost which delights to dwell in the heart of an holy man but scorne to be an inmate where drunkennesse is an inhabitant noysome lusts and evill cogitations drive him away if the Divell comes in the Holy-Ghost will goe out And therefore the Scripture tells us that the spirit went from Saul when he sinned 1 Sam. 16.14 and so on the contrary when the Holy Spirit enters into the heart of a man all sinnes in some measure are abandoned as when the King comes into the Tower all the prisoners goe out The Drunkards heart is like Mare mortuum The Drunkards heart a Mare Mortuum for as no fish will live there so no grace will thrive here it is the roote of all evill the rot of all good Much traveling makes bad way if one goe but now and then over a Meadow the grasse will neverthelesse grow but when it is made a common through-fare and beaten roade for all passengers this maketh the path bare so the frequent custome of sinne in any heart when there is a perpetuall concourse of all filthinesse hinders yea kills every good motion as fast as it springs up and this is a sinne which turnes a man wholly into sinne The Drunkard resembles Vejovis that Heathen god who could doe no good but hurt at will and is like Ahab who sold himselfe to worke wickednesse yea worse if worse can be for the Drunkard wholely dedicates resignes surrenders and gives himselfe up to serve sinne and Sathan his whole imployment is onely to drinke drab quarrell sweare scoffe slaunder and seduce as if to sinne were his trade and he could doe nothing else like the Devill who was a sinner from the beginning a sinner to the end To say that sinne were in him would be improper for hee is nothing else but sinne in the abstract as St. Austin speakes even a very Chaos of sinne bunged up for as when a man is overcome with anger we say hee is in heate and when wee say such a man is in drinke wee imply more then that drinke is in him yea when we call a man a Drunkard we imply more then that he is drunke or hath beene drunke for it argues frequency and lastly as when Simon Peter told Simon Magus thou art in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity hee implyed that not onely these were in him but hee in them so both more is implyed and it is more proper to say of a sotted and fordid Drunkard hee is sinne then a sinner yea that man of sinne is not fuller of sin then such an one so that as Solomon saith speaking of the vertuous woman many daughters have done vertuously but thou surpassest them all so may I say of a Drunkard many sinners have done wickedly but thou surpassest them all § 14. BUt to roave no longer in generalls The Drunkard cut up and anatomized having given you a superficiall view of this Monster and the summe of that which he makes his onely Summum bonum in a lumpe or as it were wrapt up I come now to strip him naked and turne his inside outward by acquainting you with such speciall and particular observations as best deserve our discovery and the worlds notice In handling whereof it is not to be expected that I should observe a distinct propriety in referring all particulars to their generall heads for as much as many of them are coincident one with another Neither will I undertake to observe an exact order in his description seeing hee keepes none at all in his life my principall care being to paint him really and historically not poetically every way as he is his words as he speakes them his deeds as he acts them even to the very life and present him upon the Stage such as the Spectators may verily thinke they either see him or the Devill in his likenesse as Sr. Tho. More concluded touching Erasmus when he but heard him speake having never before seene the man § 15. The first thing I 'le fall upon shall be His body touching which I will lay open 1 his outward deformities 2 His inward infirmities 1 HIs outward bodily deformities are many and those odious His outward deformities as if you observe it The Drunkard commonly hath Vertumnus like a brasill Nose a
became an Apostate As Iohn groweth in the spirit so Ioash decayeth in the spirit 2 Chro. 24.17 c. As Zacheus turneth from the world so Demas turneth to the world and God is no lesse the permitter of the one then the cause of the other if we consider him as a righteous Iudge punishing one sinne with another by way of retaliation Hereupon when Christ meets with good Nathaniell a true Israelite in whom there was no guile he saith unto him beleevest thou because I saw thee under the Figg-tree thou shalt see greater things then these Iohn 1.50 whereas to the obstinate Iewes he saith by hearing ye shall heare and shall not understand and seeing yee shall see and not perceive Math. 13.14 Even like Hagar that had the Well before her but could not see the water Gen. 21.19 make the heart of this people fat make their eares heavy and shut their eyes least c. Isaiah 6.10 which words with the former examples are written for our learning and warning for was the Talent thinke we onely taken from him in the Gospell Did none lose the spirit but Saul Have none their hearts hardened for their obstinacy but Pharaoh Doe none grow out of favour with him but Haman Doe none become Infidels besides the Iewes None prove Apostates but Iudas Have none their eyes darkened and their hearts hardened for their sinnes but the Gentiles O yes the idle servant was but a type of many that should have their Talents taken away Saul was but a type of many that should Iose the spirit Sampson was but a type of many that should lose their strength the Gentiles were but a type of many Christians which should have their minds darkened and their hearts hardened whom God should give up to a reprobate minde c. It 's true this is not meant of naturall or speculative knowledge wherein the wicked have as large a share as the godly but of spirituall experimentall and saving knowledg which is supernaturall and descendeth from above Iames 3.17 And keepeth a man from every evill way Pro. 2.12 Wherein the wicked have no part with the Godly the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2 14. Now God esteemes none wise that are not so in this latter sense yea naturall and worldly wisdome without this is meere foolishnesse in Gods account 1 Cor. 1.20 and 3.19 and no lesse then twelve times infatuated by the wisdome of God in one Chapter 1 Corinthians 1.2 Whence it is that the Scribes and Pharisies who were matchlesse for their knowledge and learning and that in the Scriptures Gods Oracles which will make a man wise or nothing are called by our Saviour who could not be deceived foure times in one Chapter blind and twice fooles Math. 23. and Baalam who had such a propheticall knowledge that scarce ever any of the holyest Prophets had so cleare a Revelation of the Messiah to come is called by the Holy Ghost foole 2 Peter 2.16 and good reason for though he was a Seer hee could not see the way to Heaven and the same may be said of Iudas who knew asmuch as the wisest naturall man for if he had beene wise he would not have taught others the way to Heaven and gon himselfe the direct way to Hell Alasse the greatest Clarkes and they that know most are not always the wisest men many of the wise and the ancient and the learned with Nicodemus are to learne this lesson that except they be borne againe they cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven Iohn 3.4 9. and they that give themselves to be so bookish are often times so blockish that they forget God who made them Now as our Saviour said to him which thought he had done all One thing is behind Luk. 18.22 so may I say to these who thinke they know all one thing is behinde and that is the true knowledge of God of Christ of themselves and how they may be saved and hee which knowes not thus much although I cannot say he is a starke foole yet I may truely say hee is halfe a foole and halfe a wise man as Ona-Centaure was halfe a man and halfe an Asse for all learning and knowledge without this is but as a wodden Diamond in a Lattin ring and others who know lesse and are lesse learned may be more wise It was a true and just reprehension wherewith the High Priest snib'd the Councell as they were set to condemne Christ and a great deale better then hee meant it Ye know nothing at al Iohn 11.49 hee spake right for if wee know not the Lord Iesus we know nothing at all our knowledge is either nothing or nothing worth What saith Aristotle no more then the knowledge of goodnesse maketh one to be named a good man no more doth the knowledge of wisdome onely cause any person properly to bee called a wise man saving knowledge of the trueth workes a love of the trueth knowne yea it is an uniforme consent of knowledge and action hee onely is wise that is wise for his owne soule he whose conscience pulleth all hee heares and reades to his heart and his heart to God who turneth his knowledg to faith his faith to feeling and all to walke worthy of his Redeemer he that subdues his sensuall desires and appetites to the more noble faculties of reason and understanding and makes that understanding of his serve him by whom it is and doth understand he that subdues his lusts to his will submits his will to reason his reason to faith his faith his reason his will himselfe to the will of God this is practicall experimentall and saving knowledge to which the other is but a bare name or title for what is the notionall sweetnesse of honey to the experimentall tast of it It is one thing to know what riches are and where they be and another thing to be master of them it is not the knowing but the possessing of them that makes rich Faith and Holinesse are the nerves and sinewes yea the soule of saving knowledge the best knowledge is about the best things and the perfection of all knowledge to know God and our selves as being the marrow pith or kernell of Christianity and it is much to know a little in this kinde What said Aristippus to one that boasted how much hee had learned learning consisteth not in the quantity but in the quality not in the greatnesse but in the goodnesse of it Wee know a little gold is of more worth then much drosseâ—a precious stone is a very little thing yet it is preferred before many other stones of greater bulke yea a little Diamond is more worth then a rockie mountaine so one drop of wisdome guided by the feare of God is more worth then all humane learning one sparke of spiritual experimental and saving knowledge is worth a whole flame of secular wisdome and learning one scruple of holinesse one drame of faith one
they are amazed Whereas they should eate and drinke and doe all things to the glory of God they drinke to this end onely that they may the easier forget God forget him in his threats which sticke in their soules after some Sermon forget him in his judgments which have taken hold of some of their companions they drinke to the end they may drowne conscience and put off all thoughts of death and Hell and to hearten and harden themselves against all the messages of God and threats of the Law as that franticke Musition fell to tuning his Violl when his house was on fire about his eares For most men take no notice at all of the strokes of Gods wrath but with the mirth and madnesse of wine and pleasures take away the knowledge of it and the noyse of conscience when it cryes as the Sacrificers in the valley of Hinnon by the noyse of Instruments tooke away the cryes of their sacrificed children and so much the rather that others may not take notice thereof for though their consciences be often in paine yet they will not complaine that this shoe wrings them Their consciences would faine speake with them but they will by no meanes heare them whereas if they had wit and were not past grace they would both invite and welcome this Angell or messinger of the Lord so soone as the waters be troubled with sackcloth ashes fasting going into the house of mourning and pouring forth whole Buckets of water as is the manner of Gods people 1 Sam. 7.6 But many a time is poore Christ offering to be new borne in thee thrust into the Stable while lewd companions by their drinking playes and jests take up all the best roomes in the Inne of thine heart Indeed blind worldlings and besotted sinners may call it melancholy or what they will but in Gods Dictionary the holy Scriptures it hath no such name And they may thinke to drive it away with carnall delights but this will not doe it yea letten Consorts of musicke be added it shall not drowne the clamorous cryes of conscience These are but miserable comforters and Physitians of no value and no way a fit expiation for a griefe of this nature neither can the world afford an expurgation of this melancholy Alasse this is but like some spritly musicke which though it advanceth a mans mind while it sounds yet leaves him more melancholy when it is done as Euripides observes Yea I 'le appeale from your selves in drinke to your selves in your sober fits whether it fares not with you as it did with Menippus who went downe into Hell to seeke content for what is this other in mitigating the pangs of conscience then as a saddle of gold to a gal'd Horse or a draught of poyson to quench a mans thirst Alasse Let being expuls't Sodom dranke somewhat freely to drive away melancholy as we may conjecture but what came of it the wine made him commit incest whereby he became ten times more melancholy then he was before And surely they which strive to cure their present misery with present mirth have not their misery taken away but changed and of temporall made eternall thou hast taken thy pleasure saith Abraham to Dives therefore art thou now tormented Luke 16.25 I love no such change I love not to cure one evill by another yea by a worse mischiefe as Empiricks in curing one disease cause another which is worse And let them looke to it for surely if men call for pleasure to please the conscience as the Philistins did for Sampson to make them sport it will but pull downe the house upon their heads No sooner were the bellies of Adoniah's guests full of meat and their heads full of wine but their eares were full of clangor their hearts of horror the Trumpets at once proclame Salomon's Triumph and their confusion the feasts of the wicked end in terror as it fared with Belshazzar Daniel chap. 5. v. 1. to 7. after the meale is done ever comes the reckoning Wherefore let my spirit never come and enter into their Paradise yea ever abhor to partake of their brutish pleasures lest I partake of their endlesse woes And indeed who would buy repentance and misery so deare as Demosthenes answered Lais the harlot when she asked him ten thousand Drachmes of money for her company but one night who would pay so deare for so short a lease as the Country man replyed seeing the great preparation labour cost and study for a great triumph when they told him it was to last but an houre for could they have Nectar and Ambrosia to swallow yea could they drinke with Cleopatra the riches of Egypt at a draught and that upon free cost which as Diogines conceived did adde sweetnesse to the wine yet it is but a draught and quickly downe the throat Yea as vaine and comfortlesse are all worldly joyes when they are used to mitigate the panges of conscience as it was for Callico to stuff his pillow a brasse pot with straw to make it soft Indeed your charmes may with their pleasantnesse bring conscience into some short slumbers but it waketh eftsoones and in spite of all your spells rageth as before Yea if but sicknesse come these carnall delights will runne from you affrighted like Rats from a house on fire pleasure like Orpah kisses but parts only griefe like Ruth weeps and tarries with you no joy will downe till there be hope of a pardon so that no hand can heale you but the very same which wounded you the wounds of the mind can only be cured by the word of God which teacheth what may bee said what is to bee known what to bee believed what to bee avoyded yea and what not Thus instead of repenting and labouring in a lawfull calling which is the only cure of Melancholy Fulgentius aptly terming exercise the death of diseases the destruction of all vices and only cure of Melancholy they adde sinne to sinne leaving Gods remedies to seeke remedy of the divel whose office is not to quench fire but to kindle it even the fire of lust with the fire of drunkennesse here and with those two the fire of hell hereafter § 64. SEcondly 2. To drive away time they drinke that they may drive a way time for every houre seemes a day and every day a moneth to an idle person which is not spent in a Tap-house whereby with that Strumpet in the Proverbs Chap. 7. Vers 11. their feet can never abide in their owne howses for you shall seldome finde a drunkard at home when you need him but lay your plot to seeke him in a Taverne as whether next but to all the Tavernes in the Town or perhaps at a Play house for a Play-house or so onely keeps him sober and makes him an afternoone's man and it stands upon a good foundation Yea they seeme to have nailed their eares to the doores of a Taverne and to have agreed with Sathan Master it
walke by for the Kings of the earth band themselves and the Princes are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ Psalme 2.2 and in 1 King 20.26 we read of no lesse then 32 Kings in a cluster which were every one drunke and elsewhere that a thousand of the chiefe Princes of Israel committed fornication and were all destroyed for their labour in one day Numb 25.9 1 Cor. 10.8 Yea of twenty Kings of Iudah which the Scripture mentions we read of but six that were godly and of eighteene Kings of Israel all but two are branded by the Holy Ghost for wicked and yet this nation was Gods peculiar and chosen people out of all the world And lastly when the Rulers sate in Councell against Christ none spake for him but Nichodemus Ioh. 7.50 51. All which shewes that it is neither a good nor a safe way to imitat other mens examples be they never so rich never so great Or if we avoid not their sinnes wee shall not escape their plagues if we sinne together we shall be sure to perish together as when those three and twenty thousand Israelites committed fornication after the example of their chiefe Princes they were every one destroyed both leaders and followers Num. 25.9 1 Cor. 10.8 And as when those other Cities followed Sodoms lust they were all consumed with Sodoms fire Iud. 7. Onely there shall be this difference as the errors of the eminent are eminent errors and the more noble the person the more notorious the corruption for great Persons like the great lights of Heaven the most conspicuous planets if they be eclipsed all the Almanacks of all nations write of it whereas the small Starres of the Galaxy are not heeded all the country runnes to a Beakon on fire no body regards to see a shrub flaming in a valley whereby sinne in them is not onely sinne but subornatione quae in Vulgaribus nugae in Magnatibus blasphemia so these great offenders shall meete with great punishments and as their fault is according to the condition of their place so shall the nature and proportion of their retribution be § 50. 3 BUt thirdly 3 Of the greatest schollers suppose most of the Learned and greatest Shcollers in the land were given to this vice which notwithstanding is a vanity to conceive yet all were one this could be no excuse for thee For first not many wise men after the flesh are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise that no flesh should rejoyce in his presence 1 Cor. 1.26.27.29 yea the preaching of Christ crucified was foolishnesse to the wise Sages of the world 1 Cor. 1.23 It pleaseth God for the most part to hide the mysteries of salvation from the wise and learned and reveale them unto babes Math 11.25 Luk. 10.21 yea the saving knowledge of Christ is hid to all that are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 But if once men abuse their knowledge and learning to Gods dishonour and comply with Sathan and the world against the Church then he taketh that knowledge which once they had from them as he tooke heate from the fire when it would burne his children Dan. 3.27 I will destroy the tokens of the Southsayers and make them that conjecture fooles I will turne the wise men backward and make their knowledge foolishnesse saith the Lord Isa 44.25 he taketh the wise in their craftinesse and the counsell of the wicked is made foolish Iob. 5.13 As how many wise and learned men among the Gentiles have turned fooles and worshipped gods that were not able to wipe off the dust from their owne faces How many Papists that are great clarkes and wise men maintaine a thousand absurd and ridiculous Tenents yea such brainesicke Positions that never any old woman or sicke person doted worse To nominate two of two hundred Iohn Baptist with them hath so many heads that they cannot tell which is the right God made him but one Herod left him none they as if he were another Hydra have furnished him with a great many Christs crosse is so multiplied with them that the same which one ordinary man might beare if the peeces were gathered together would now build a Pinnace of a hundred Tunne yet they will tell us that every shiver came by revelation and hath done miracles but this appeares to me the greatest miracle that any man should beleeve them yea is not their folly and blindnesse such as to maintaine those things for truth which the Holy Ghost plainely calls the Doctrine of Devills 1 Tim. 4.1.2 And justly are they forsaken of their reason who have abandoned God yea most just is it that they who want grace should want wit too If Idolaters will needs set up a false god for the true is it not equall that the true God should give them over to the false and because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore saith the Apostle God sendeth them strong delusions that they might believe lyes that all they might be damned which beleeve not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.10.11.12 God giveth to every man a stocke of knowledge more or lesse to occupy withall and to him which useth the same well viz. to his glory and profit of himselfe and others he giveth more as to the Servant which used his Talents wel hee doubled them which makes the Holy Ghost frequent in these and the like expressions If any will doe Gods will hee shall understand the Doctrine whether it be of God or no Ioh. 7.17 A good understanding have all they which keepe the Commandements Psal 111.10 The Spirituall man understandeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 to a man that is good in his sight God giveth knowledge and wisdome Eccles 2.26 wicked men understand not judgment but they that seeke the Lord understand all things Pro. 28.5 But as for him which useth it not much more if he abuseth his knowledge to his owne hurt and Gods dishonour as too many doe he taketh from him even that which he had formerly given him as he tooke away the odd Talent from the servant which had but one and did not use the same Luk. 19.24 That this is Gods manner of dealing you may see Mat. 21.43 Gen. 4.11 Acts 26.18 Isaiah 29.14 and 44.25 and 6.9.10 Dan. 2.19.23 Iob 5.13.14 Ioh. 9.39 and 12.37.40 Rom. 1.28 Eph. 4.18.19 1 Cor. 1.20 2 Thes 2.10.11.12 Hee is not more the author of light in Goshen then of blacke darkenesse in Aegypt hee doth not more open the heart of Lydia then harden the spirit and make obstinate the heart of Sihon King of Hesbon Deut. 2.30 If there be a Mordecay growing into favour with him there is also an Haman growing out of favour As Eliah's spirit is doubled upon Elisha so the good Spirit departed from Saul As the Gentiles became beleevers so the Iewes became Infidells As Saul became an Apostle so Iudas
considering how small hope there is of their amendment if any at all § 57. IT may be you have not noted it No dispossessing of a drunken Devill purpose the drunkard never so oft but it is a very difficult and hard thing to name one habituated infatuated incorrigible cauterised Drunkard that ever was reclamed with age What said an experienced Gentleman being informed that his Sonne was given to gaming whores prodigality c There is yet hope age experience and want of meanes will cure all these but when in the last place it was added that he was poysoned with drunkennesse then hee absolutely gave him for lost and dead his case for desperately forlorne and so disinherited him because this sinne hee knew increased with age and would not part till death A Gamester will hold out so long as his purse lasts an Adulterer so long as his loynes last but a drunkard so long as his lungs and life lasts What is noted by Philosophers of every motion namely that it is swiftest toward the Center may fitly bee applyed to every drunkard and covetous wretch for as good men grow better and better so these grow worse and worse Ier. 9.3 2 Tim. 3.13 they grow in sinne as worldlings grow in riches and honours O that we could grow so fast in grace Yea suppose the drunkard hath every day purposes to forsake his sinne as I have knowne some purpose and strive against this sinne yea so detest and bewaile it in himselfe and whomsoever that it hath been an Hazael in his eyes and thereupon indent with himselfe and his friends for the relinquishing of it and yet if he meete with a companion that holds but up his finger he followes him as a foole to the flockes and as an Oxe to the slaughter-house having no power to withstand the temptation but in hee goes with him to the tipling house and there hee continues as one bewitched or conjured with a spell out of which he returnes not till he hath emptied his purse of money his head of reason and his heart of al his former seeming grace so that in purposing he doth but imitate S. George who is alwayes on horseback but never rides or the Ostrich that hath winges but cannot fly he may make a shew of turning as the doore upon the hinges but never moves a foot from the post of his old custom and evill society unto which hee is fast revited and so mends as sower Ale doth in Summer or like a dead hedge which the longer it stands is the rottener O this is a difficult divel to be cast out for when a man is once possest with this evill spirit a drunken divell it is a miracle if ever hee become his owne man after This sinne is like a desperate plague that knows no cure it may be called the Kings evill of the soule as Chrysostome calls the envie of wicked men against the godly for it cannot bee cured with the Balme of Gilead nor by any Phisitian there untill God himselfe sayes to the heart awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead for by a long and desperate custome they turne delight and infirmity into necessity and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst that they will as willingly leave to live as leave their excessive drinking As it fares with some sicke Patients touching their bodies who think as good be buried as so much debarred of their appetites so fares it with these touching their soules for use what meanes you will to reclame them they will reject it What saith S. Basil shall we speake to drunkards wee had as good round a dead man in the eare yea certainly saith another he is drunk himselfe that prophanes reason so as to urge it to a drunken man in regard whereof S. Augustine compares drunkennesse to the pit of hell into which when a man is once fallen there is no redemption Whoring is a deep ditch yet some few shall a man see returne to lay hold on the wayes of life one of a thousand but scarce one drunkard often thousand Indeed S. Ambrose mentions one and another by a moderne Divine of ours is confest and but one a peece of all that ever they knew or heard of I speake of drunkards not of one drunken such who rarely and casually have Noah like beene surprised and overtaken at unawares but if once a custome ever a necessity Drunkennesse beastiates the heart and spoiles the braine overthrowes the faculties and organs of repentance and resolution It is a sinne of that nature that it hardens and makes up the heart against all repentings Yea the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Hosea tells us that it takes away the heart Hosea 4.11 And we find it too true for commonly it is accompanied wâ—th finall impenitence which is the greatest evill that is incident to man in this life in that it is a certaine forerunner of eternall condemnation yea it is much to bee feared Commoly such as a mans delights and cores are in health such are both his thoughts and speeches on his death-bed that the Lord hath done by them as by Ieremiah hee threatneth the Babylonians even given them over to a perpetuall drunkennesse Ier. 51.39 And is it not most just with God that hee who will put out his naturall light should have his spirituall extinguished he that will deprive himselfe of reason should loose also the guide and pylot of reason Gods Spirit and Grace he that will wittingly and willingly make himselfe an habitation of uncleane spirits should not dispossesse them at his owne pleasure that their deaths should bee answerable to their lives as commonly such as a mans delights and cares are in health such are both his thoughts and speeches on his death-bed Some that have beene used to swearing have dyed with oathes and curses in their mouthes Some persecutors have dyed raging blaspheming and despiting the Spirit of grace Some Usurers have died while in their conceit they were telling their money and casting it up after ten in the hundred Yea one being used to play at Tables all his life with great delight cried out upon his death-bed size-ace cater-trey c. I deny not but God may raise a Lazarus of this kind though he bee dead in excesse dead in sense yea though he be buried and stinkes againe thorow long custome in filthines and breath into his nosthrils againe the breath of life whereby he may become a living soule but rarely is it seene that he doth so § 58. NEither speak I of what God can do Were there any possibility of their leaving it they would abstaine in the heate of the plague for with him all things are possible but with men with drunkards it is in a manner impossible for surely if there were the least possibility of their leaving it if they were not altogether hardened past feeling and past grace then would they now abstaine whilst the plague is hot amongst us
were when they had throwne him into the pit who sate downe to eate with no more compunction then Esau having sold his birthright fell to his pottage but farre be this from us It 's true the onely meanes to prevent a judgment is for the wicked to repent for the Godly to pray yet since there is great neede of mourning neede of great mourning for heauy judgments will not be turned away without deepe sorrowes and considering we have but a few to share with us in the worke let us double our knockes at the gate of Heaven the greater the number of these mad men and the greater their mirth the greater had neede to be the company of mourners or the mourning of that company it is the mourning of the penitent that maintaines the mirth of the delinquent it is the ten righteous men that keepes fire and brimstone from these abominable Sodomites Yea let them pray that could never pray in their lives as Athis Sonne to King Croesus being dumbe from his nativity seeing his Father ready to be slaine by one of King Cyrus his souldiers suddenly brake forth into words of entreaty and by his passionate speeches saved his Fathers life And this done So many as repent shall be singled out for mercy we shall at least deliver our selves that is the plague shall not touch us nor our families or if it doe it shall be so sanctified that it shall rather pleasure then hurt us First it 's probable it shall not touch us as when Sodom was destroyed Lot and his family were singled out the Angel could do nothing till he was safe Gen. 19. And when the Lord smote all the first borne throughout the land of Egypt he spared all the children of Israel whose dore-posts were sprinkled with the blood of the Passeover Exod. 12.22 And when all Hierusalem both old and yong were utterly destoyed all the mourners were marked on their foreheads to the end the destroying Angell should passe by and not touch them Eze. 9.4.5.6 The like wherof we have Revel 7. where the Angell useth these words hurt ye not the earth neither the Sea neither the Trees till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads ver 3. Or if the corne be cut downe with the weeds it shall be to a better purpose for the one shall be carried into God's Barne as Lazarus was the other cast into the fire like Dives one Hypocrite was saved with the godly for Noah's sake not one righteous person was swept away with the rest for company The world may be compared to some great Farme wherein each Nation is a severall field the inhabitants so many plants God the owner whose manner is if he meete with a very good field he pulls up the weeds and lets the corne grow if with an indifferent he lets the corne and weeds grow together if very ill he gathers the few eares of corne and burnes the weeds but never destroyes both Indeed that every Mother's sonne of us have not perished by the Pestilence as the old world did by the Deluge it is not because we are lesse wicked but because God hath beene more mercifull And so much of the perpetuity of this sinne only let it teach and encourage us to hold out and persevere in good for if they be obdurate in vice it is a shame if we be not constant in vertue § 63. NOw if you will know the reason 7 Causes of excessive drinking why their Heaven is the Taverne whence they never depart untill thy have cast up the reckoning why like Horses they are onely guided by the mouth in short it is mostly that they may drive away time and Melancholy First 1 To drive away melancholy which is increased thereby the pot is no sooner from their heart so heavy as if a milstone lay uponit somewhat resembling the flye Pyrausta which dyeth if out of the fire I call it melancholy because they call it so but the truth is they are vexed like Saul with an evill spirit which nothing will drive away but drinke and Tobacco which is to them as David's Harpe was to him 1 Sam. 16.23 They so wound their consciences with oathes intentionall murthers rapes and other actuall uncleanesse and so exceedingly provoke God that they are even in this life rewarded with the strappadoes of an humane soule rackt in conscience and tortured with the very flashes of Hell fire which makes them many times lay violent hands upon themselves being never well nor in their owne place till they be in Hell Acts 1.25 though mostly they bribe conscience to hold the peace as Cerberus must be made with a sop by him that goes to Hell You know Caine having murthered his brother Abel to put away the sting of his conscience fell to building And Ahab having kild Naboth went to recreate himselfe in his Vineyard Gen. 4.17 1 King 21.16.19 And Saul when God had cast him off would have pleased himselfe with the honour of the people 1 Sam. 15.30 so these when the horror of their oathes blasphemies thefts whoredomes and other prodigious uncleannesse hath caused a dejection of spirit and the worme of conscience to sting them how should they remedy it How why as if Sathan alone could expell Sathan straight to the Taverne and drinke sorrow and care away or perhaps there is a Factor of Hell present that cheares him up as Iesabel did Ahab when he was sicke for want of Naboth's Vineyard 1 King 21.7 crying come you are melancholy let us both to the Taverne and Brothel-house and so cures all his sadnesse for that time with a charme wherein neverthelesse the principall ingredient is drinke the common refuge of melancholy sinners their constant and never failing friend to which also they are as constant for when did the Sunne ever see some men sober and how are our Cities and Townes pestered and our streets strewed with these filthes and this is the maine ground of all For as they that have curst and shrewish wives at home love to stray abroad so these men being molested with a scoulding conscience are faine continually to drinke play riot goe to bed with their heads full of wine and no sooner awake then to it againe so that their consciences must knocke at the dore a thousand times and they are never within or at leasure to be spoke withall indeed at last they must be met and found by this enemy even as Ahab was by Eliah stay they never so long and stray they never so farre they must home at last sicknesse will waken them conscience must speake with them as a Master with his truant Scholler after a long absence and then there are no men under Heaven who more neede that prayer Lord have mercy upon them for a wicked mans peace will not alwayes last in the end his guilt will gnaw him with so much a sharper tooth yea they are not more jocund in prosperity then in disasters
a grave and worthy States-man of this Kingdome I will pray for the Kings health but drinke for mine owne And surely none but sots will bring themselves into grievous diseases by drinking healthes to other men and such is the case of health drinkers What said Callisthenes to one that urg'd him to drinke at Alexanders Feast as others did I will not for who so drinketh to Alexander had need of Aesculapius meaning a Physitian Examples of some that have drunke other menâ— healthes and their owâ—e deaths Nay it 's well if they prevent not the Physitian and drinke not themselves past all hope of recovery for not seldome doe they save the Physitian a labour and drinke at once anothers health their owne death as I could instance in sundry examples I 'le onely give you two but they are as good as twenty At one supper which Alexander prepared for his Favourites and Captaines there was no lesse then one and forty which kild themselves in that goodly conflict of carousing healthes Where Promachus having swallowed downe foure Gallons of wine got the prize and victory And at another drinking feast or combat which he appointed for the Indians himselfe dranke his death and ruine in quaffing off a whole carouse or health out of Hercules cup and to beare him company there was five and thirty more at the same time dranke themselves dead in the place and never revived more with carousing healthes and rounds There is another example recorded which is so remarkable that I am loth to passe it though the circumstances vary It is recorded of Popelus the second King of Poland that having incurred the displeasure of his Nobility through his ill government for which they intended to depose him he feigned himselfe to be very sicke by his Queenes advice and thereupon sent for twenty of the chiefe Princes of Pomerania who had the principall voice in the election of the Polonian Kings to come and visit him in this his sicknesse which they did accordingly the King upon their comming requested them to elect his sonne to the Kingdome after his decease which thing they answered they would willingly doe if the rest of the Nobility would consent the Queene in the meane time provides a cup of sudden poyson of purpose to dispatch them and presents it to them all to drinke the King her husbands health they to testifie their love and alleagiance to the King dranke off the cup as their manner was unto his health but to their owne instant confusion and immediate death and to the subversion of all the stocke and race of the Polonian Princes a sudden and fearefull yet a just judgement of God upon these Princes who were much addicted to the drinking of healthes formerly But loe the infinite justice of God on both hands for out of the dead and poysoned Carkases of these Princes there issued such infinite troopes and swarmes of Rats and Mice as chased Popelus his wife and all his children from place to place both by Sea and land till at last they were forced to flye to the strong castle of Oraccovia where they were drowned and eaten up of these Rats and Mice in despite of Guard and Garisons and all those Arts and policies of fire and water-workes that were used to secure them as the Polonian Histories doe at large declare But not to travell so farre for examples how many health-sokers and drunkards may we see or heare of every yeare within the verge and compasse of our land who doe suddenly consume perish and come to a fearfull end being cut downe by strange and unexpected deathes in the very act of their sinnes before they had any time or space to repent whose deathes even charity it selfe must needs judge most miserable seeing they dye in their sinnes and are taken away in Gods just wrath even whilst they are sacrificeing their soules to Sathan And doth not the very Eccho of these drunken and excessive healthes dayly cry in the eares of God for vengeance on all that use them if not upon the whole Land for their sakes yea undoubtedly § 82. THen let no drunkard force thee Original of the word pledge either against thy stomack or thy inability to pledge his healths yea let quaffers quarrell rage and scoffe threaten curse and loade thee with a thousand censures yet hold thou thine owne still It is true they will be strangely importunate what then a shamelesse begger must have a strong denyall Indeed if the word pledge were used seriously properly opportunely and not altogether mistaken and used in a wrong sense I should grant it a duty when any shall bee called thereunto But sotted drunkards understand not what they speake when they use the phrase for the word pledge implies no intention of drinking as looke we but to the originall and first institution thereof and we shall find that when in the borders of Wales twelve Welchmen had treacherously stabb'd 12. Englishmen as they were holding the cups to their mouths it grew to that that none would drinke at any publike meeting except they had some friend present who would undertake to be their pledge and carefully see that none should hurt them the while but hee who useth the word now makes himselfe ridiculous the occasion being taken away for God bee thanked we have no such cause of feare having the Lawes of God to guide the vertuous and the Lawes of the Land to restraine the wicked Yet their mistake is no more in this their challenge then it is in the combate it selfe and the victory they get by it for whereas they make a sport of drunkennesse counting him a malefactor in the highest degree that departs without staggering and fit to be carried before a Magistrate to render an account of his contumacie and delight to make men drink till they vomit up their shame againe like a filthy Dog or lye wallowing in their beastlinesse like a brutish Swine this is the most sad and woefull spectacle that can be to a rectified understanding And whereas they brag of the conquest when with the weapons of full charged cups they have overcome the rest it is both the basest office and lamentablest overthrow to themselves that can possibly be imagined For what a barbarous gracelesse and unchristian practise is this to take pleasure in making others drunke as if it were their glory and pastime and they tooke delight to see God dishonoured his Spirit grieved his name blasphemed his creatures abused themselves and their friends soules damned surely such men clime the highest step of the ladder of wickednesse thinking their owne sins will not presse them deepe enough into Hell except they also lode themselves with other mens And how sottish is their opinion of victory In conquering they are most overcome when even in conquering they are most overcome for whilst they triumph in a drunken victory or conquest over their friends Sathan gets the victory over them in excessive
in the time of Queene Mary if one profest himselfe a Protestant he was sure to be burnt so in Spaine at this day some have beene burnt and others put into an agony of seven yeares continuance which is worse for having a Testament about them in the English tongue or a Bible in their house or declaring their faith some other way And can any doubt but drunkards would deale as cruelly with us if they might be permitted It is easie to guesse how cruell their hands would be in case the Law restrained them not who even draw blood with their tongues as how will drunkards shoot their shafts up to the feathers in the disgrace of such as will not humor them and never give over so long as they have an Arrow in their Quiver to heare them would even make a man think they were generated out of the Dragons tooth as Orpian is said to be made by Pallas In briefe for I might be endlesse in the prosecution of this take one example 3 By the experience of our Saviour who suffered twenty two wayes onely for his goodnesse which might serve insteed of all that hath beene spoken What was the reason our Saviour Christ the Master himselfe was envied Math. 26 15 contemned Math. 12.24 and 13.55 rejoyced at in his misery and distresse Math. 27.29 hated Iohn 7.7 murmured against Luk. 15.2 had his Doctrine withstood and contraried Luk. 5.21 Math. 9.34 his actions misconstrued Math. 11.19 tales carried of him Math. 12.14 devilish counsell given to Pilate and the people against him Math. 27.20 scoft at Math. 27.42 nick-named Math. 13.55 rayled on Luk. 23.39 slandered Math. 28.13 which slander is beleeved amongst the Iewes unto this day ver 15. cursed Gal. 3.13 threatned Iohn 11.53 undermined in talke that they might accuse him Math. 22.15 why did they use disdainefull gestures before him Math. 27.29.39 combine together and lay devilish plots to destroy him Math. 12.14 take him Prisoner Math. 26.57 smite him Luk. 22.64 hurt and wound him Mat. 27.29 Iohn 19.34 and lastly put him to death even that cursed death of the Crosse Math. 27.35 Not for any evill they found in him for their owne words are he hath done all things well Mark 7.37 He hath done such was his power all things such was his wisdome well such was his goodnesse and yet crucified and abused every way he must be it was onely indeed for his zeale purity and holinesse and because his life and practice was cleane contrary to theirs his Doctrine too powerfull and pure for such carnall hearts to embrace or endure so that it 's plaine and all men may see who are not dead in sense how it would fare with us might our enemies Drunkards Swearers c. have their wills § 104. VVHen Politicians Rhetorick once failed But they cannot doe as they would though their punishment shall be the same as if they did it Carters Logicke should doe the feate their Arguments should be all Steele and Iron they would speake Daggers points as Ioab discoursed with Amasa in the fift rib or as Zedekia disputed with the Prophet a word and a blow yea a blow without a word for he smote him first and spake to him afterwards Every wicked man especially a drunkard is like Iulius the second who threw St. Peter's keyes into the River Tiber protesting that thence forth he would use and helpe himselfe with St. Peter's sword if reason should faile and rayling would doe no good they would come to Plow-mans Logick Gun-powder arguments open violence they would take up swords to strike or stones to cast at us But our comfort is they cannot do as they would though their punishment shall bee never the lesse For as the will to doe God acceptable service is accepted as if it were service indeed so the intent and offer of wrong shall be judged for wrong in that Court of Justice good and evill thoughts and desires in Gods account are good and evill workes and hee which in good accepts the will for the deed condemnes the will for the deed in evill now these men in their hearts and Gods account are murtherers and for murtherers they shall be arraigned at the great day of accounts for they would kill us if they durst they doe kill so farre as they can It were no living for godly men if their enemies hands were allowed to bee as bloody as their hearts if they were not stinted by a divine and supreame power but for our comfort as men and divels are under the restraint of the Almighty so blessed bee God and blessed bee our Gracious Soveraigne the very breath of our nosthrills feare of authority swayes thousands who are not guilty of a conscience Alasse if lewd men should not feare the Magistrate more then they feare God or the Devill there were no living among them Besides how often are they curbed by a Divine hand How often doe the Angells those ministring Spirits sent forth for the good of the Elect resist their Actions even in those sinnes which their hearts stand to It is no thanke to lewd men that their wickednesse is not prosperous whence is it that the world is not over-runne with evill but from this that men cannot be so evill as they would It is with these men as it was with Zoilus that common slanderer who being demanded why he spake evill of such and such answered because I cannot do them evill or else like another Parisian Vigils we should feele their swords before we heard their alarums Wicked men have courage above their strength and their dareing is above their skill they have courage to attempt much more then their ability is to performe not like David who did as much as he undertooke in killing Goliah When the Devills hands are bound he vomits a flood of reproaches with his tongue Rev. 12.15 The Master keepes the Mastive chain'd up from hurting his friends yet sets him on the theife if he see cause so God doth by Sathan it is not that Mastives fault that he tares not all in peeces wherefore we may be glad we scape so as we doe as a Iustice upon the Bench told a condemned person at the Barre who sued to him for mercy § 105 NOw of this their savage disposition 5 Reasons of their savage disposition there are five maine reasons to be rendered 1 First 1 They must doe the workes of their father the Devill because they would doe the workes of their Father the Devill he is a murtherer and so his children are given to blood Iohn 8.44 and what can the Lambe expect of the Butcher but killing yea and so given to it that often times it contents them not to shed the blood of others except also they shed their owne blood as Nero who was so artificiall in cutting of throats that at last he runnes upon his owne sword saying I have lived dishonourably I will dye shamefully and Saul who being blooded
as ther is a disparity betweene God and Sathan no certainely the corporall sympathy is nothing in comparison of the spirituall antipathy which is between the two natures Divilish and Divine If Athens and Sparta could never agree Vertue and vice can never accord for that the one was addicted to serve Minerva the other Mars being each of them Heathens there must needs bee a greater enmity betweene a regenerate man and him that is wholly carnall for what fellowship as the Apostle speaks can there be betweene righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse what communion betweene light and darknesse and what concord betweene Christ and Beliall and what peace between the Believer and the Infidel 2 Cor. 6.14.15 and wherein doe these godlesse persons drunkards though they live in our Church differ from infidels onely in name An enemy may be reconciled enmity cannot A vicious person may bee made vertuous but vice and vertue can never accord these are so diametrically opposite that the two Poles shall sooner meet then these be reconciled A wicked man saith Salomon is abomination to the just and he that is upright in his way is abomination to the wicked Prov. 29.27 and S. Iames witnesseth that the amity of the world is the enmity of God and that whosoever will bee a friend of the world maketh himselfe the enemy of God Iames 4.4 Michael and the Dragon cannot agree in one heaven nor Nehemiah and Sanballat in one City nor the cleane and the Leprous in one Campe nor the Arke and Dagon in one house nor God and Idols in one Temple nor Iohn and Cerinthus in one Bath nor Isaac and Ishmael in one family nor Iacob and Esau in one wombe In vaine then shall any man attempt to make an agreement betwixt a wicked and a godly man except the one of wicked becomes godly or the other of godly becomes wicked for there is such an enmity or mutuall malevolence between person and person That as the fish Lexus is poyson to man and man to him so these can no way brooke one another Yea that cannot properly bee said to ridd this enmity out of them which rids them out of the world death it selfe for what wee reade of those two Birds Aegithalus and Achanthus namely that they so hate one another living that being dead their bloods will not mix but presently separates and that which is recorded of Florus and Anthus Polynices and Etheocles viz. that the two former being killed their bloods would not bee mixed the two latter being burnt together their ashes instantly parted is truly verified in this enmity and antipathy which is in the seed of the Serpent against the seed of the Woman for it is so deadly and mortall that dureing life it is altogether irreconcileable and after death they part and separate as farre asunder as is hell from heaven Mat. 25.32.41 and 10.16 § 107. A Wicked man can agree with all that are wicked be they Papists or Turks They can brooke all conditions of men save practisers of piety or Athiests prophane and loose persons for all these agree with him in blindnesse and darknesse yea they are all haile fellow well met but with sincere Christians and practisers of piety he cannot agree the Religious shall be sure of opposition because their light is contrary to his darknesse grace in the one is a secret disgrace to the other Yea let wicked men bee at never so much odds one with another But the Religious shall be sure of opposition yet they wil concurre and joyne against the godly As for example Edom and Ishmael Moab and the Hagarins Gebal and Ammon Amaleck and the Philistims the men of Tyre and Ashur each had severall gods yet all conspire against the true God Psalm 83.5 to 9. Manasses against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasses but both against Iudah Herod and Pilat two enemies will agree so it bee against Christ they will fall in one with another to fall out with God The Sadduces Pharisies and Herodians were Sectaries of diverse and adverse factions all differing one from another and yet all these joyne together against our Saviour Matth. 22. the Libertines Cyrenians Alexandrians Cilicians and Asians differ they never so much will joyne in dispute against Steven Act 6.9 Herod neither loved the Iews nor the Iewes Herod yet both are agreed to vex the Church Thus wicked men like Sampsons Foxes though they be tyed taile to taile yet they joyntly set on fire and burn up the Barley field of Gods Church I cannot think of a fitter Emblem of a naturall man then Lyme which agreeth well with all things that are dry and of it's owne nature but meeting with water a thing directly opposite it breaks burns swels smoaks crackles skips and scatters so nature will give a man leave to be any thing save a sound Christian and agree well with all others bee their conditions never so contrary provided they agree in the maine are all seed of the same Serpent but let the naturall man meet with one that is spirituall they agree like heat and cold if the one stayes the other flies or if both stay they agree like two poysons in one stomack the one being ever sick of the other bee they never so neere allied And no marvaile for though they dwell in the same house yet they belong to two severall Kingdomes and albeit they both remaine on earth yet they are governed by two severall Laws the ones Burgueship being in Heaven Phil. 3.20 and the other being a Denison belonging to Hell as Irishmen are dwellers in Ireland but Denisons of England and governed by the Statutes of this Kingdome Neither is it strange that wicked men should agree one with another Not strange that wicked men should agâ—â—ess well for even savage beasts agree with themselves else the wildernes would soone be unpeopled of her foure footed inhabitants we know the Lion is not cruell to the Lion nor the Leopard to the Leopard nor one Tiger to another nor the Dragon to the Dragon saith Aristotle but every one will fight with and against the Lambe one Crow never puls out another Crows eyes one Wolfe will not make warwith another but every Wolfe will make war with a Sheepe yea the Snakes of Syria the Serpents of Tyrinthia and the Scorpions of Arcadia are gentle and sparing to them of their naturall soyle though cruell to others as Plinie reports Yea even Divels themselves while they so mortally hate and violently oppose God and his Image in all the sonnes of Adam are not at enmity with themselves but accord in wickednesse and Iudas the very worst of men he that would be false to his owne Lord and Master would yet be true to his chapmen the high Priests even evill Spirits and the worst of men keepe touch one with another § 108. THis also is the sole cause They strive to be supar lative in sinne why they strive so after perfection of evill
the circumstances that shall go to the same place of torment how every sinne receiveth weight and increase in regard of circumstances and how thou after thine hardnes and heart which cannot repent heapest unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and of the declaration of the just judgment of God who will reward every man according to his workes Rom. 2.5 6. The particulars which greaten aggravate and adde weight to thy sinnes and make them above measure sinfull are so diverse and sundry that I may not insist upon all yet some are of such import that I dare not omit them First the civill justitiary who omitteth the performance of those good duties which the Law requireth First the civily righteous have heâ— for their portion but drunkards are notoriously wicked is in a damnable condition but thou in a farre worse who wilfully runnest on in the commission of those sinnes which the Law flatly forbids It was the not slaying of Agag 1 Sam. 15. that lost Saul his Kingdome and the favour of God The not circumcising of Moses his first borne Exodus 4. had like to have cost him his life The not relieving of poore Lazarus Luk. 16. was the rich mans ruine It was not the evill servants spending his Masters money which cast him into prison but the not gaining with it he did not evill with his Talent no it was enough to condemne him that he did nothing with it Now if barrennesse bee sent into the fire how can rapine looke to escape if omission of good works be whipped with Rodds surely commission of impieties shall be scourged with Scorpions The old world did but eat and drink build and plant marry and bee merry and were swept away with the Beesom of an universall deluge which things were in themselves lawfull what then shall become of Lyers Swearers Drunkards Adulterers malicious monsters scandalous sinners whose workes are in themselves simply unlawfull If the civily righteous shall not bee saved in that great and terrible day where then shall all ungodly drunkards and deboyshed swilbowles appeare Heaven is our Goale we all runne loe the Scribes and Pharisies are before thee what safty can it bee to come short of those that come short of heaven Except your righteousnes exceed c. Meroz was cursed by the Angell because they came not to helpe the Lord in the day of battell Iudges 5.23 they fought not against God yet because they did not fight for him they are cursed And if they that stand in a luke-warm neutrality shall be spewed up sure the palpable and notorious offender who takes up armes against God and opposes all goodnesse shall bee trodden under foot of a provoked justice O consider this and lay it to heart you that commit sinnes of all sorts and sizes you that can tear heaven with your blasphemies and bandy the dreadfull name of God in your impure mouthes by your bloody oaths and execrations yee that dare exercise your saucy wits in prophane scoffes at Religion yee that can neigh afterstrange flesh c. § 122. SEcondly 2. His sine are against knowledge and conscience the sinnes which thou committest are against knowledge and conscience and so farre greater then the same sinnes if another should doe them ignorantly The servant that knowes his masters will and if he doe it not is a greater sinner and shall indure a greater punishment then hee which neglects the same not knowing it Luk. 12.47.48 to know and not obey doth but teach God how to condemne us the greater light wee have the more shame it is for us to stumble Anaxagoras that saw the Sunne and yet denyed it is condemned not of ignorance but of impiety The infidell disputes against the faith the impious lives against it both deny it the one in termes the other in deeds both are enemies to the Gospell but of the two it is worst to kick against the thorns wee see then to stumble in the darke at a block which we see not it shall go ill with sinnefull Pagans but worse with wicked Christians for the Thistell in the Forrest shall not fare so ill as the barren Figgtree in the Vineyard the Vine fruitlesse is of all Trees most uselesse the daughter of Sion would never have beene so notorious an Harlot had shee not first beene so rare a Virgin Iulian and Lucifer had been lesse damned if the one had not beene a Christian and the other an Angell of light Reade wee not that the sinnes of the Iewes were greater then the sinnes of the Gentiles because in Iury God was known and his name great in Israel it was not so saith the Holy Ghost with other Nations neither have the Heathen knowledge of his wayes so the sinnes of us Christians other circumstances being matches are greater then the sinnes of the Iewes because our knowledge is more or may be more they had but an aspersion line to line here a little and there a little we have an effusion Asts 2.17 I will powre out my spirit upon all flesh For if simple ignorance find no mercy what Cloak is long enough to cover wilfull and affected ignorance certainly if nescience be beaten with stripes willfull impiety shall be burned with fire sinne even in ignorance is a Talent of leade but sinne after knowledge is a milstone to sinke a man to the lowest If flaming fire be their portion that know not God and could not how terrible shall their vengeance be that might know him and would not howsoever men live or dye without the pale of the Church a wicked Christian who either doth or may know the whole revealed will of God shall bee sure of plagues O how many at that dreadfull day when God's revenges have found them out shall unwish themselves Christians or wish that the Gospell and they had never beene acquainted yea how will they in hell curse their knowledge and unprofitably wish that they had beene Ideots or infidels and never had so much as heard of Christ when they shall find this glorious light a meanes to promote them to a higher place in the kingdome of darknesse and procure to them a greater revenew of torment then others have who know lesse for he who is ignorant of or neglects his owne salvation all his knowledge tendeth to his greater condemnation to know good and doe evill makes a mans owne mittimus to Hell If with Baalam and Iudas we have knowledge in the head without holinesse in the heart we shall with Vriah and Bellerophon but carry letters to cut our owne throates or with that servant in the comedy carry Sathan a speciall warrant to bind us hand and foot and cast us into everlasting fire § 123. THirdly 3. He sins not of infirmity but presumtuously and of set purpâ—se as in sin there is sundry steps and degrees whereby one and the same sinne may be lessened or increased so thou doest mightily increase the guilt of thy sinne this way As
well considered would make them cherish all good desires in the weake and to deale in this case as we use when we carry a smal Light in the winde hide it with our lap or hand that it may not go out Oh how much easier is it to subvert or cast down a thing then to erect it when even a base fellow could destroy that Temple in one day which was six and thirty yeares in seting up True it is None but counterseits wil be beaten from Christs standard by their scoffes and reproaches if the barking of these Currs shall hinder us from walking on our way it is a signe we are very impotent yea if our love be so cold to Christ that we are ashamed for his sake to beare a few scoffs and reproaches from the world it is evident we are but counterfeits for for our comforts it shall not bee so with those whom God hath any interest in notwithstanding all the scoffes of Atheists and carelesse worldlings they shall not onely loose their labours herein but themselves too The faithfull will neither buy peace with dishonour nor take it up at interest of danger to ensue wel may they serve as Snuffers to qualifie our zeale and make it burne brighter but never become such Extinguishers as to put it quite out either by persecutions or by perswasions So that their spitefull adversaries imagine but a vaine thing they shall be no more able to hinder any one from salvation whom God hath chosen to his Kingdome of grace and glory then Saul with his Courtiers could hinder David from attaining the promised Kingdome of Israel they may move the godly but not remove them They have oftentimes afflicted me from my youth may Israel now say but they could not prevaile against me Psal 129.1.2 It is given to the great Dragon and the Beast in the thirteenth of the Revelation to make warre with the Saints as well as with the rest which dwell upon the earth but hee shall not prevaile with any save those whose names are not written in the Booke of Life vers 8. if so let them not spare to doe their worst the winds may well tosse the Ship wherein Christ is but never overturn it if Christ have but once possest the affections there is no dispossessing him againe as that Cloth which is throughly dyed black will afterwards take no other colour The League that Heaven hath made Hell wants power to break who can separate the conjunctions of the Deity Whom God did predestinate saith Paul them also hee called and whom he called them also he justified and whom hee justified them hee also glorified Rom. 8.30 They shall sooner blow up Hell with traines of Powder then breake the chaine of this dependant truth No power of man is able to withstand the will of God it shall stand firmer then the Firmament it is as possible to stop the motion of the Sun as the course of Gods predestination A fire in the heart overcommeth all other fires without as wee see in the Martyres which when the sweet doctrine of Christ had once gotten into their hearts it could not bee got out again by all the torments which wit and cruelty could devise and the reason is they over-looke these bug-bears and behold Christ calling the Spirit asisting the Father blessing the Angels comforting the Word directing and the Crown inviting Alasse if their scoffes and all they can say could flout us out of the integrity of our hearts when our fore Fathers feared not the flames we were feareful cowards Indeed the timorous Snaile puts out her hornes to feele for danger and puls them in againe without cause If the sluggard heares of a Lion in the way hee quakes but tell it to a Sampson or a David they wil go out to meet him yea let Aggabus tel Paul of bands at Ierusalem he answers I am ready not only to be bound but to dye at Ierusalem for the name of Iesus Act. 21.13 The Horse neighs at the Trumpet the Leviathan laughs at the Speare so tell the resolved Christian of enemies or danger hee feares not hee cares not to carnall friends he sayes I know yee not to diswaders get yee behind me Sathan But what of all this What though none of Christs owne band can be diminished When thou dost the utmost of thy power and so farre as in thee lyes flout men out of their faithes and slay them with death eternall and when the intention and offer of this mischiefe shall be judged as if thou hadst done the mischiefe God regards not so much what is performed as what was intended and measures what we doe by what we meant to doe He that shot at a Marke and kild a man by the Law of God was not held a murtherer but he that shall purpose to kill a man though he be prevented is as guilty of his blood as if he had actually killed him One man wills the knowledge of anothers wife he never attaines it perhaps never attempts it yet he is an Adulterer A man would steale if he durst he is a Thiefe though he have stolne nothing A strang thing saith Augustine wittily the man is still alive and yet art thou a murtherer the woman is still chast and untouched and yet art thou an Adulterer Good and evill thoughts and desires in Gods account are good and evill workes and as mostly he accepts the will for the deed so usually hee mesures the deed by the will Men indeed looke on the outward appeareance 1 Sam. 16.7 and so measure the will by the worke but God beholdeth the heart Ier. 11.20 and measures the worke by the will for though our persons shall be judged according to our workes yet our workes shall be judged according to our hearts as was the widdowes Mite Marke 12.43 the Lord accepts affecting for effecting willing for working desires for deeds purposes for performances Abraham had onely an intention to offer Isaac and yet the Holy-Ghost tells us that Abraham did offer Isaac and 't was rewarded as done Neither had David beene lesse guilty of Vriah's death in that he wrot to Ioab to put him in the fore-front of the battell that he might be smitten and dye although he had escaped the sword then he was it being performed 2 Sam. 11.15 nor Iesabel of Naboth's in that she sent her Letters to the Elders of his City to that purpose 1 King 21.10.19 Their intention of soule murther shall be rewarded as if they bad doue the same actually so he that murthers soules intentionally is as guilty as if he had done the same actually and shall speed thereafter for God who punisheth or rewardeth nothing but the will will even arraigne and condemne thee for doing the same in fact § 141. TO which may be added as another aggravation 11. Their sin doth not extend it selfe to 〈◊〉 this or that person only but to milions yea after ages belonging to this circumstance the
sent for before Samuel he went pleasantly saying the bitternesse of death is past but his welcome was immediately to be hewen in peeces 1 Sam. 15.33 The rich man resolves when he hath filled his Barnes then soule rest but God answers no then soule come to judgement to everlasting unrest Luk. 12.19.20 The hope of an hypocrite is easily blown into him and as soone blowne out of him because his hope is not of the right kind yea it is presumption not confidence viz. hope frighted out of it's wits an high house upon weak pillars which upon every little change threatens ruine to the inhabitant for a little winde blowes down the Spiders-web of his hope wherby like the foolish builder he comes short of his reckoning That heart which Wine had even now made as light as a feather dyes ere long as heavie as a stone 1 Sam. 25.36 37. § 143 IT is Sathans method VVicked men are altogether in extreames either God is so mercifull that they may live hâ—w they list or so just that he wil not pardon them upon their repentance first to make men so senselesse as not to feele their sins at all and then so desperate that they feele them too much In the first fit men live as if there were no Hell in the last they dye as if there were no Heaven While their consciences are asleepe they never trouble them but being stirred by Sathan who when he sees his time unfolds his Ephemerides and leaves not the least of all their sinfull actions unanatomized but quoats them like a cunning Register with every particular circumstance both of time and place they are fierce as a mastive Dog and ready to pul out their throatâ— This Serpent may bee benummed for a time through extreamity of cold but when once revived it will sting to death The Divell is like Dalilah who said to Sampson the Philistims be upon thee when it was too late and she had taken away his strength Iudges 16. Wicked men are altogether in extreams at first they make question whether this or that be a sin at last they apprehend it such a sin that they make question whether it can bee forgiven either God is so mercifull that they may live how they list or so just that hee will not pardon them upon their repentance no meane with them betweene the Rocke of presumption and the Gulfe of despaire now presumption encourageth it selfe by one of a thousand and despaire will not take a thousand for one If a thousand men be assured to passe over a Foord safe and but one to miscarry desperation sayes I am that one and if a thousand Vessels must needs miscarry in a Gulfe and but one escapes presumption sayes I shall be that one as we read of but one sinner that was converted at the last howre of millions that had lesse iniquity yet have found lesse mercy But see further the strength of their argument Objection of the thief upon the crosse answered The Thiefe was saved at the last howre and therefore I shall Thou maist as well conclude the Sunne stood still in the dayes of Ioshua therfore it shall doe so in my dayes for it was a miracle with the glory whereof our Saviour would honour the ignominy of his Crosse and wee may almost as well expect a second crucifying of Christ as such a second Thiefes conversion at the last howre Hee were a wise man that should spurre his Beast till hee speake because Baalams Beast did once speake yet even so wise and no wiser is hee that makes an ordinary rule of an extraordinary example Againe the Thiefe was saved at the very instant of time when our Saviour triumphed on the Crosse tooke his leave of the world and entered into his glory Now it is usuall with Princes to save some heinous malefactors at their Coronation when they enter upon their Kingdomes in triumph which they are never knowne to doe afterwards Besides the Scripture speaks of another even his fellow in that very place and at that very instant which was damned There was one saith S. Augustine that none might despaire there was but one that none should presume That suddaine conversion of one at the last howre was never intended in Gods purpose for a temptation neither will any that have grace make mercy a Cloak or warrant to sinne but rather a spurre to incite them to godlinesse well knowing that to wait for Gods performance in doing nothing is to abuse that Divine providence which will so worke that it will not allow us idle and yet by Sathans policie working upon wicked mens depraved judgements and corrupt hearts in wresting this Scripture it hath proved by accident the losse of many thousand soules The flesh prophesies prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the Powder traitors but death and damnation which Gods Spirit threatens will prove the crop they will reape for God is true and all flesh is a lyer § 144. BUt God sets forth himselfe to bee incomparably gracious Object God in mercyis in finitly transcenâ—ent mercifull long-suffering abundant in goodnes c. Ezâ— 34.6 and is acknowledged to bee so by David Psalm 86.5 by Ioel Chap. 2.13 by Ionah Chap. 4.22 by Micha Chap. 7 18. and in many other places It is very true Answ for it is a part of his title Exodus 34.6 hee is mercy in the abstract 1 Iohn 4.16 2 Cor. 1.3 1 Tim. 4.10 rich and abundant in mercy Ephesians 2.4 1 Pet. 1.3.19 his love is without height or depth or length or breath or any dimensions even passing knowledge Ephes 3.18 yea the Scripture advanceth God's mercy above his justice Psa 36.5 to 12. not in it's essence for God in all his Attributes is infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in it's expressions and manifestations It is said of mercy that it pleaseth him Micha 7.18 whereas justice is called his strange worke Esay 28.21 Lamentation 3.33 that he is slow to anger but abundant in goodnesse Exodus 34.6 hee bestowes mercyes every day inflicts judgements but now and then sparingly and after a long time of forbearance when there is no remedy 2 Chron. 36.15 Esay 65.2 that he visiteth the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation onely whereas hee shewes mercy to thousands Exodus 20.5.6 so that by how much three or foure come short of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it Againe that his love to his people outstrips a Father's love to his sonne Matth. 7.11 and a Mothers too Esay 49.15 for he is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 as being himself most mercifull and the author of mercy and compassion in others In fine he is so mercifull that the Kingly Prophet repeates it over six and twenty times together in one Psalm that his mercy endures for ever Psal 136. But what makes this for
and shall not be able how shall they be able who seek not at all Luk. 13.24 And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shal the ungodly and sinner appeare as the Scripture speakes 1 Pet. 4.18 And thus you see that mercy is for vessels of mercy Mat. 5. and not for vessels of wrath that he which is truth it selfe hath a like threatned the eternal death and destruction of the wicked as promi sed the salvation of the godly § 146. BUt thy carnall heart VVicked men believe no part of Gods word really and in deed which is flint unto God wax to the divell will believe the promises let goe the threatnings you shall dye saith God is heard but you shall not dye saith the divell is believed as it fared with Eve when she eate the forbidden fruit yea thou believest his promises that thou shalt have them but thou believest not his precepts to doe them nor his threatnings that thou shalt suffer them for thy not believing and disodedience which sheweth that thou truly believest neither yea this makes it apparant that either thou believest there is no God at al or else that God is not just and true nor speakes as hee meanes in his Word which is worse or if thou doest believe that hee is a just and true God thou believest also that thou shalt bee punished as hee threatens for thy provoking of him and thou provokest him that thou mayest be punished which is worst of all so that take thee in the best sense thou art but one of David's fooles which say in their heart there is no God and livest therafter which is never a whit strange for it is usuall with them to thinke there is no God for whom it would make that there were none what we would have to bee we are apt to believe I confesse it is hard for men to believe their owne unbeliefe in this case much more hard to make them confesse it for he whose heart speakes Atheisme will professe with his tongue that he believes there is a God and that hee is just and true and that every tittle of his word is equally true which being but granted this must necessarily follow that God will as well punish the impenitent as pardon the repentant Wherefore bee no longer faithlesse touching what is threatned against obstinate sinners but faithfull for he that will not believe these witnesses of Gods severity against sin shall everlastingly perish But suppose the Scriptures were lesse expresse and cleare in this point the Law must not be interpreted according to the delinquents judgement but after the will and meaning of the Law-giver which made the same Indeed a world of men believe with Origen that God is so mercifull that al in the end shall bee saved both reprobate men and Divells they presume that God must needs save them because hee made them without any other ground though in another fit they are as apt to despaire and to say with the same Origen should all other sinners obtain mercy yet not I yea it is to be feared that many die with this fond presumption of mercy in their minds as the Israelites with meat in their mouths but shall they therefore be saved because they think they shal be saved no no more then Esau had the blessing and Agag his life given him because they confidently thought they should § 147. SEcondly All the promises in tailed to believers and limited with the condition of faith repentance looke upon the promises single and thou shalt finde that they are not made indefinitely to al but with a restriction to such only as are qualified and made capeable thereof by grace from above The Penmen of holy Writ have set out Gods mercy in high and stately termes Heb. 4.17.18 Ion. 4.2 1 Pet. 1.2.3 Ephesians 3.18 but withal they declare that hee resembles Augustus Caesar in his dispensing the riches thereof of whom they which write his life note that in his military discipline hee was exceeding liberall and lavish in his gifts to such as were of any desert but withall as sparing and straite handed to the undeserving What though Christ in the Gospell hath made many large and precious promises there are none so generall which are not limited with the condition of faith and the fruit therof unfained repentance and each of them are so tyed and entailed that none can lay claime to them but true believers which repent and turne from all their sinnes to serve him in holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12 14. Esay 59.20 So that hee must forsake his sinne that will have God to forgive it 1 Samuel 2.30 As for instance our Saviour hath made publike Proclamation Mark 16.16 that whosoever shall believe and be baptized shall be saved but marke what withall is added he that will not believe shall be damned Againe Heb. 5.9 he is said to be the author of eternall salvation unto all that obey him not unto them which continue in their rebellious wickednes and never submit themselves be ruled by the scepter of his word These and many the like promises yeild joyful assurance to the sinner that repents no comfort to him that remaines impenitent Or in case the condition of faith and repentance is any where unexprest yet every promise must be understood with such condition yea it was never heard that any ascended into heaven without going up the staires of obedience and good works that any have attained unto everlasting life without faith repentance and sanctification for even the Thiefe upon the Crosse believed in Christ and shewed the fruits of his faith in acknowledging his owne sinne reproving his fellow in confessing our Saviour Christ even then when his Apostles denyed and forsooke him in calling upon his Name and desiring by his meanes everlasting life For know this that whosoever Christ saveth with his blood he sanctifieth with his Spirit and where his death takes away the guilt and punishment of sinne it is also effectuall for rhe mortifying of sinne Romans 6 5 6. Christs blood saith Zanchie was shed as well for ablution as for absolution as well to cleanse from the foyle and filth of sin as to cleare and assoyle from the guilt of sin God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that wee should be holy and without blame before him in love Eph. 1.4 they therefore that never come to be holy were never chosen Hee is said to have given himselfe for us that hee might redeeme us from all iniquity and purge us to bee a peculiar people unto himselfe zealous of good workes Titus 2.14 and Luk. 1.74 75. Yea the Lord binds it with an oath that whomsoever hee redeemeth out of the hands of their spirituall enemies they shall worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life 1 Peter 2.24 Other Scriptures to this purpose are many as Matth. 19.17 hee that will
enter into life must keepe the Commandements viz. so farre forth as hee can And Titus 2.12 The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that we should deny ungodlines and worldly lusts and that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world By all which it is plain that as Christ's blood is a Charter of pardon so withall it is a covenant of direction and hee that refuseth to live as that covenant prescribes may perish as a malefactor that is hanged with his pardon about his necke And yet every drunken dissolute and deboyshed person doubts not to fare well while they feare not to doe ill § 148. BUt secondly One part of the covenant of grace is that weâ—e wil forsake the Divell and all his workes constantly believe c. what else did thy vow in Baptisme which is a seale of the covenant import but that there are Articles and conditions viz. certaine duties on thy part to be performed aswell as promises on Gods part to be fulfilled A Sacrament is the sealing of a League with Covenants betweene party and party saith Pareus Now as God hath covenanted and bound himselfe by his Word and Seale to remit thee thy sinnes adopt thee his child by regeneration and give thee the Kingdome of heaven and everlasting life by and for his Sonnes sake so thou didest for thy part bind thy selfe by covenant promise and vow that thou wouldest forsake the Divel and all his workes constantly believe Gods holy Word Mark 61.16 and obediently keep his Commandements the better thereby to expresse thy thankfulnesse towards him for so great a benefi 1 Pet. 3.21 Ps 116.12.13.14 And we know that in Covenants and Indentures if the conditions be not kept the Obligation is not in force whereby many even Magus-like after the water of Baptisme goe to the fire of Hell Yea except wee repent and believe the Gospell that holy Sacrament together with the offer of grace instead of sealing to us our salvation will bee an obligation under our owne hand and seale against us and so prove a seale of our greater condemnation § 149. BUt for ought thou knowest Object thou art regenerate hast repented What it is to be born againe and doest believe in Christ as well as the best Indeed Answ some will not believe they have the Plague till they see the Tokens but to put this out of question know that to be regenerate is to bee begotten and borne anew Iohn 1.13 by the ministery of the Word Iames 1.18.21 and the Spirits powerfull working with it Ioh. 3.3.5.8 and of the children of wrath and bondslaves of Sathan by nature to be made by grace through faith in Christ the Sonnes of God Titus 3.3 to 9. and that they which are thus borne have Christ formed in them Galathians 4.19 are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 and live uprightly 1 Iohn 3.9 and exercrse righteousnesse ver 10. Regeneration will alwayes manifest it selfe by a just and holy life by the innocency of our actions and the sobriety of our speeches God's children are known by this marke they walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 they are translated from the raigne of sin to the raigne of grace they confesse him ore with the mouth professe him opere with the life love him corde with the heart for these are the three objects of a Christians care the devotion of his heart the profession of his mouth and the conversation of his life It is the summ of all Religion to imitate him we adore he that follows Christ's example is a true Christian hee that squares his life according to the rule of Gods Word is godly and none else for otherwise if we be drunkards and swearers wel may we boast that wee are the Sonnes of God as the Spanyards did to the West Indians when they came first amongst them but he that knowes any hing will certainly conclude with those poore Salvages that hee cannot bee a good God who hath such evill Sonnes well may he be the god of this world as the Divell is called 2 Cor. 4.4 If Christ be formed in any he destroyeth the Divells power which formerly he had in them Heb. 2.14.15 and his wicked works 1 Ioh. 3.8 he is not subject to the dominion of sin sinne doth not raign in him Psa 19.13 wherefore be resolved against transgression as you would be resolved of your regeneration and salvation True conversion workes a manifest change the old man changeth with the new man worldly wisdome with heavenly wisdome carnall love for spirituall love servile feare for Christian and filiall feare idle thoughts for holy thoughts vaine words for holy and wholsome words fleshly workes for workes of righteousnesse c. as if a man were cast into a new mould Otherwise if godlinesse hath not made us good what power hath it wrought A feeble godlines it is that is ineffectual if it hath not wrought us to bee devout to God just to men sober and temperate in the use of Gods creatures humble in our selves charitable to others where is the godlinesse where is the power When the heart is changed and set towards God all the members will follow after it as the rest of the creatures after the Sunne when it ariseth the tongue will praise him the foot will follow him the eare will attend him the hand will serve him nothing will stay after the heart but every one goes like hand-maides after their Mistresse which makes David presenting himself before God summon his thoughts speeches actions c. saying all that is within me praise his holy name Psal 103.1 Prov. 23.26 so that it is a true rule he that hath not in him all Christian graces in their measure hath none and he that hath any one truly hath all For as in the first birth the whole person is borne and not some peeces so it is in the second the whole person is borne againe though not wholly how much the regenerate man is changed from what hee was wont to be may be seene 1 Corinth 6.9.10.11 Tit. 3.3 to 8. Rom. 6.4 to 23. and here upon Christ is compared to purging fire and Fullers Sope to signifie how hee should fine and purg purifie and cleanse his people Mal 3.2.3 God never adopteth any his children but he bestowes love tokens upon them which are the earnest of his Spirits in their hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 and his saving graces as an earnest and for a signe that they shal overcome their Ghostly enemies and live everlastingly with him in heaven as he gave Hezekiah the going backe of the Sunne tenne degrees for a signe that hee should be delivered out of the hands of the King of Ashur and have added to his dayes fifteene yeares 2 Kings 20.6.8.11 Alasse though there bee scarce a man on earth but he thinks to goe to heaven yet heaven is not for every one but for the Saints would any
no more then wee can do and accepts of what we are willing to doe for if we purpose before hand not to sin and in the act doe strive against sinne and after the act be sorry for the sinne sin shall never bee laid to our charge if wee hate our corruptions and strive against them they shall not be counted ours It is not I saith Paul but sin that dwelleth in me for what displeaseth us shal never hurt us and wee shall bee esteemed of God to be what we love and desire and labour to be Now let this point bee argued in the Court of thy conscience for although others may give a shrewd guesse yet the mother knowes best whether the child bee like the Father or no Say whether thou art guilty of these graces or not guilty He who makes not conscience of sin hath no true faith and the true method of grace is first cease to do evill then learne to do well Isa 1.16.17 for as we die to nature ere we live to glory so we must dye to sin ere we can live to righteousnesse there can be no fellowship between light and darknesse Christ and Belial the Arke and Dagon cannot lodge under one roof the house must first be cleansed ere it can be garnished in a payre of Tables nothing may well bee written before the blots and blurs be wiped out the good husbandman first stubs up the thorns and puls up the weeds then soweth the good seed if the wax receive a new image the old doth cease at least as the increase of light makes a decrease of darknesse it being impossible that two things of contrary natures should bee together in one subject the one not expelling the other either wholly or in part so it is betweene grace and corruption In a word if thou canst say I deprecate all sin I repent heartily of that is done I abhor to commit it I earnestly pray against it I strive with all my power to avoid it I thirst for more grace I am ready to all good works I rest wholly and onely on my Saviours merits thou mayest goe on and say I therefore rightly believe I believe and therefore am justified I am justified therefore called I am called therfore elected I am elected therefore I shal be glorified Otherwise if thou beest as it were a dead man continuing under the burthen of notorious crimes without sorrow or feare or remorse or care of amendment Ephes 2.1 if thou art a drunkard if thou art frequent in the language of hell viz. swearing cursing c without feare or sorrow or striving to leave it if thou delightest to boast of sinne and mischiefe or seekest to defend it Psal 52.1 if thou art of a reprobate judgement touching actions and persons esteeming good evill and evil good if the divell hath so bewitched thee that thou preferrest hell to heaven and blamest those that do otherwise if thou imitatest a bad stomack in turning â—â—ery thing to an evil construction so making a temptation of every thing Titus 1.15 if Ishmael-like thou mockest or Cham-like thou scoffest at the religious or usest bitter jests against them Psal 1.1 Ephesians 5.4 if thou raisest slanders of them or furtherest them being raised Psalme 4.2 and 31.18 and 35.20 as the red Dragon Revelation 12. cast a flood of water out of his mouth after the woman when hee could not reach her with his clawes verse 15. or any way opposest them for the opposition of goodnesse gives thee the title of wickednesse which alone is the enemy thereof and shewes thou art a souldier of the great Dragon who goes out to make warre with that blessed seed that keepe the Commandements of God Revel 12.17 these or any one of these especially the last shew that thou never camest where regeneration repentance and faith grew that thy soule like Venus Altar in the I le Paphos was never yet rained upon by grace from above for if the Image of God by faith were repaired in thee thou couldest not but bee delighted with those that are like thy selfe thou couldest not but love the godly because they are godly for the very first part of conversion is to love them that love God 1 Iohn 3.10 And in vaine shall a mans heart absolve him that is condemned by his actions for vertue and vice are both Prophets forewarning us of things to come the one of certaine good the other of paine or penitence § 151. BUt behold an other starting hole For if the evill spirit sees thee convinc'd of the necessity of repentance he will perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter But he can repent when siâ—knes comes knowing that if he can prevaile therein it is all one as if thou hadst never purposed to repent at all for as experience may informe us not one of a thousand which take this course ever attaine unto it for either they adjourne the time prefixt from next yeare to next yeare c. or else they attaine not to that repentance which is true and sound But see the particulars laid open Thou promisest thine owne soule that thou wilt repent when thou art sicke though indeed the farthest end of all thy thoughts is the thought of thy end and to make thy reckoning at the last day Death may be sudden and give a manne leasure to be sicke the last and least thing thou makest reckoning of But hark in thine eare Oh secular man thy life is but a puff of breath in thy nosthrils and there is no trusting to it yea the least of a thousand things can kill thee and give thee no leasure to be sicke Surges may rise on suddaine ere wee think And whiles we swim secure compel us sink Saul being minded to aske counsell of the Lord concerning the Philistins was prevented for want of time 1 Samuel 14.19 And commonly wee never have so much cause to feare as when we feare nothing When Sampson was sporting with his Dalilah he little thought that the Philistins were in the chamber lying in waite for his life Iud 16. Full little doe sinners know how neare their jollity is to perdition judgement is often at the threshold while drunkennesse and surfeit are at the table § 152. BUt admit what thou imaginest 2 Orif death be not sudden repentance is no easie worke and late repentance is seldome true namely that death be not suddaine much the better for is it not commonly seene that the purpose of proroging for a day or a weeke doth not onely last for a yeare as the suspension of the Councell of Trent made for two yeares lasted tenne but as ill debtors put off their creditors first one weeke then another till at last they are able to pay nothing so deale delayers with God they adjourn the time prefixt from next yeare to next yeare whereby they and that good howre never meet as you shall observe one Coach wheele followes another one minute of a Clock hastens after
out in thy good purposes 5 Shame not to confesse thy dislike of it in thy selfe and others and meanest to bring thy thoughts to the birth thou must not be ashamed to confesse with that honest theife upon the crosse even before thy companions and fellow drunkards that thou art not now the same man thou wast both thy mind and judgement is changed and so shall thy practise God assisting thee nay thou wilt not only forsake thy sin but their company too except they will forsake their old customes of drinking and scoffing and jeering at sobriety and goodnesse And so doing thou mayst perchance winne thy Brother even as that penitent wanton in St. Ambrosse did his old love who when she courted him according to her accustomed manner and wondred at his overmuch strangnesse saying why doe you not know who I am answered yes I know you are still the same woman but I am become another man I am not I now neither would You be You any longer if yee knew so much as I doe 4 But if yet they persist 6 Fly evill company and seeme incorrigible flye their company for feare of infection least it happen with thee as once it did with a chast person among Penelopes suters who went so often with his friend till in the end he was caught himselfe for if thou keepest them company there is no possibility of thy holding out to the end though thou shouldest for a time as a man may make some progresse in a good way and yet returne before he is halfe at his journeys end as Saul kept himselfe well for two yeares Iudas for three yeares and as it is storied Nero for five yeares yet all fell into damnable wickednesse scarce three worse in the world But of this more in it's proper place Besides how hard a thing is it for thee a coward to shew thy dislike of this sin in some companies where thou shalt be scoff't at thy selfe if thou dislike their drinking and scoffing at others Fiftly 7 Take heede of delayes another thing which I had need to advise thee of is to take heede of delayes for to leave sinne when sin leaves us will never passe for true repentance besides if the evill spirit can but perswade thee to deferre it untill hereafter he knowes it is all one as if thou hadst never purposed to leave thy sinne at all as you have it largely proved Sections 151.152.153 Sixtly 8 Omit not to pray for divine assistance omit not to pray for the assistance of God's spirit to strengthen thee in thy resolution of leaving this sinne St. Ambrosse calls prayer the key of Heaven yet prayer without answerable endeavour is but as if a wounded man did desire helpe yet refuseth to have the sword puld out of his wound Sevently be diligent in hearing God's Word which is the sword of the Spirit 9 Be diligent in hearing that killeth our corruptions and that unresistable cannon-shot which battereth and beateth downe the strong holds of sinne Eighthly 10 frequent in the use of the Lords-Supper be frequent in the use of the Lord's Supper wherein we dayly renew our covenant with God that we will forsake the Devill and all his workes of darkenesse Ninthly 11 Meditaâ—e what God hoth done for thee ponder and med tate on Gods inestimable love towards us who hath not spared to give his Sonne to death for us and the innumerable benefits which together with him he hath plentifully bestowed upon us both in temporall and spirituall things say unto the Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits but love my Creator and become a new creature Tenthly meditate on that union 12 Meditate on that union we have with Christ c which is betweene Christ and us whereby wee become members of his glorious body and so shall we stand upon our spirituall reputation and be ashamed to dishonour our Head by drawing him as much as in us lyeth into the communication of this swinish sinne consider that our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost the which we shall exceedingly dishonour if by drinking and swilling we make them to become like wine vessells Eleventhly 13 Consider that the Lord beholdeth thee whersoever thou art consider that the Lord beholdeth thee in all places and in every thing thou doest as the eyes of a well drawne picture are fastned on thee which way soever thou turnest much more while in a brutish manner thou liest wallowing in this sinne and consider him as a just judge who will not let such grosse vices goe unpunished Twelftly be ever or at least often thinking of the last and terrible day of Iudgment when we shall all be called to a reckoning 14 Often thinke of the day of judgment not only for this sinne but for all other our sinnes which this shall occasion to our very words and thoughts And lastly if thou receivest any power against this great evill forget not to be thankfull and when God hath the fruite of his mercies he will not spare to sow much where he reapes much § 176. MOre especially 15 Morcespecially consider the heinousnesse of thiâ— sin and the evills which accompany it that thou maist master and subdue this abominable sin doe but set before thee in a generall view the heinousnesse thereof and the manifold evills and mischiefes which doe accompany it of which I have already spoken as that it is a vice condemned by God and men Christians and infidells that thereby we grievoussy offend God by making our bellies our god by unfiting and disabling our selves for his service by abusing his good creatures which with a plentifull hand he hath bestowed upon us the necessary use whereof many better then we want that thereby we sinne in a high degree against our neighbours generally and particularly against the whole Church and common wealth strangers and familiar acquaintance and most of all against our owne family that hereby we most grievously sinne against our selves by making us unfit for our callings and for the performance of all good duties by disgracing our profession and bringing our selves into contempt by making our selves the voluntary slaves of this vice by impoverishing our estate and bringing upon us want and beggery by infatuating our understandings and corrupting our wills and affections by deforming disabling weakning and destroying our bodies and bringing our selves to untimely death by excluding our selves out of the number of Christs members by quenching the gifts of the Spirit and strengthening the flesh and lusts thereof by causing our soules to be possessed with finall impenitency which is inseparably accompanied with eternall damnation Also remember that as in it selfe it is most sinfull so it is also the cause of almost all other sinnes as of the manifold and horrible abuses of the tongue of many wicked and outragious actions and particularly of those fearefull sinnes of murther and adultery Also call to
Preachers this yea certainly where Sathan hath once set this his porter of prejudice though Christ himselfe were on earth that soule would never admit him take no good from him no not so much as think well of him as we see in the Scribes and Pharisies who made an ill construction of whatsoever he did or spake for when he wrought miracles he was a Sorcerer when he cast out divels it was by the power of divels when he reproved sinners he was a seducer when hee received sinners he was their favourer when he healed the sick he was a breaker of the Sabbath c. And even so it fares with these men for as an ill stomacke turnes all it receives into ill humours or as the Spider converts every thing she eates and the Viper every thing shee touches into poyson so they whatsoever they heare or see in the godly In fine as Beggers with Scumea make their owne flesh raw so these with prejudice make their owne eyes blind whereby it fares directly with such an one as it doth with the Serpent Regulus no charming can charme him for prejudice 6. If gentle perswasions wil not seâ—ve they will compeâ—â— by violence like the goddesse Adrasteia or Sorceres rather takes memory wit and grace from all that entertaine it and leaves them in Pyrrhon's condition who would not believe what his eyes saw and his eares heard Sixthly they have a great advantage of Gods servants in this when they have tryed in vaine all faire meanes they can use violence as it is the use and manner of all those that are agents for vice factors for the divell first to use gentle perswasion but if that will not serve compulsion They handle us as once that Praetor did a Souldier who to make him renounce Christ first as Ierome notes imprisoned him in his owne house allowes him a chamber vvell furnished soft lodging dainty cheare vvine musick all delights vvhen this vvould not do yet Lord how many are thus prevailed vvithall to leave their Saviour then hee casts him into a darke dungeon loades him vvith irons starves him vvith the hungry allowance of husks and puddle vvater vvhen nothing would do he burnes him or as Bonner handled the Martyres whose custome was first to allure them vvith faire promises of honours favours preferments c. if that vvould not do send them to Smithfield for as bloody as he was hee had sometimes in his mouth butter and oyle as vvell as fire and faggot § 182. AGaine secondly Againe as in getting so in keeping such â—s they have got as Sathans instruments have great advantage of Gods servants in getting so no lesse in keeping such as they have got both in regard of pleasure peace freedome and many the like priviledges which the worldling hath above Gods people 1 In regard of pleasure 1. In regard of pleasure first whereas others that turne to God barre themselves of such delights and pleasures as here they might enjoy these may satisfie themselves and their lusts to the full live at ease and pleasure and give their affections the full swing yea and be so applauded for it as if with the people of China they of all others saw with two eyes both which makes them like their condition so vvell that they would not change upon any tearmes and hence it was that many Schollers of every Sect become Epicures but none of the Epicures became of other Sects as one objected to Archelaus True it is the godly even here have more true joy and pleasure then the most happy worldling alive but none can know the spirituall joy and comfort of a Christian but he that lives the life of a Christian Iohn 7.17 as none could learne the virgins song but they that sang it Revel 14.3 no man can knovv the peace of a good conscience but hee that keepes a good conscience no man knovves vvhat that hid Mannah and vvhite stone vvith a nevv name vvritten in it is but they that receive the same Rev. 12.17 The World can see a Christians outside but the raptures of his soule the ravishing delights of the invvard man and joy of his spirit for the remission of his sinnes and the effusion of grace with such like spirituall priviledges more glorious then the states of Kingdomes are as a covered messe to the vvorldling and so abates nothing of the advantage vvhich Sathan and his instruments have above Gods servants in winning soules and keeping such as they have vvon Secondly 2 In regard of freedome in regard of freedome they have a free scope and liberty to doe or say what they please whereas Gods people are restrained even in their very thoughts Yea many times in things of an indifferent nature as even actions of indifferency when once they are felt to trench upon the conscience lay deepe obligations upon the soule even whiles they are most slighted by carelesse hearts there being no lesse difference in consciences then stomackes of which some will digest the hardest meates and turne over substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest foode and complaine even of dainties Everygracious heart is in some measure scrupulous and finds more safety in feare then in presumption O what a poore slave doe they hold the man of a tender conscience they dare sweare and blaspheme why their tongues are their owne whereas we feare an oath They dare spend their time in dalliance and after make it their glory we dare not make the members of Christ the limms of an Harlot fearing least Heaven should be shut against us for the sinne and Hell swallow us for boasting of the sin They dare deny any fact and wager lyes with that Grandfather of lyes and lyers we dare not tell an untruth though it were to save our selves to relieve the poore to honour God They dare drinke themselves into beasts we dare not least we should never be recovered againe unto Men. They dare oppresse the poore revenge all wrongs done them c. we dare not so reproach our Maker nor wring Gods weapon out of his hand They dare sinne God in the face and presume upon his patience we feare him as a consuming fire In fine they dare hazard the breaking of their necks we would not willingly breake our shins § 183. THirdly in regard of peace 1 with Sathan 3 In regard of peace and that 2 with the world 3 with themselves First 1 With Sathan they have farre more peace with Sathan then Gods people for he fights not with his owne subjects or souldiers as hath largely beene proved yea well may these have more peace then others seeing the barques of their soules are rowed with farre lesse labour having the wind of Sathans temptations and the tyde of their owne affections to drive them then the other who rowe against both 2 In regard of their peace with the World the World loves her owne 2 VVith the VVorld but