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 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 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 pleasuâ—e 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 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 hear 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 2 with the world 3 with themselves First 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 but hates all that Christ hath chosen out of it Ioh. 15. 19. and this is a strong tye to flesh and blood though our Saviour calls this a cursed condition Luk. 6. 26. Yea how doth the indifferent worldling applaud himselfe therein together with his owne discretion and mediocrity for seeing this man vexed for his zeale that other hated for his knowledge a third persecuted for the profession of his saith c. he saith within himselfe welfare a quiet ignorance so his body is but like a lumpe of scarce moving earth and his soule a standing puddle in the midst of it 3 They have farre more peace if it may be called peace with their owne hearts then the Godly for their consciences being either brawned with the custome of sinne or cast into a dead sleepe by Sathan they feele not those perilous wounds which sinne impaires them withall yea being past feeling they can with more ease digest the hardest and foulest offence then the stomacke of an Estridge can digest Iron whereby they esteeme of their sinnes as Paul speakes of an Idoll that it is nothing in the world as for oathes yea the sinne of blasphemy it is a very mite a moate a nothing in a word how sick soever their soules be I meane how wicked and detestable soever their lives yet they have healthfull consciences which never complaine or once paine them no they heare not a Syllable of ill language from them they never check them doe they what they will neither did they ever doubt in all their lives or were once troubled in mind or conscience as many scrupulous fooles are and hereupon they thinke
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 andrepentance 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 the mortifying of sinne Romans 6. 5 6. Christs blood saith Zanchie was shed as well for ablâ—tion as for absolution as well to cleanse from the soyle and silth of sin as to cleare and assoyle from the guilt of sin God hath thosen us in Christ before the fouâ—dation 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 Tituâ— 2. 12. The grace of God which bringeth salvation teachethus that we should â—eny 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 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 and obediently keep his Commandements the better thereby to expresse thy thankfulnesse towards him for so great a benefit 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 thou art regenerate hast repented and doest believe in Christ as well as the best Indeed 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 righteousnese 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 ex ample 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
the Sunne of the soule Reason and Faith the two Eyes I am the light of the world saith our Saviour he that followeth me meaning by a lively Faith shall not walke in darknesse but shall have the light of life Iohn 8. 12. and more see two eyes then one Yea the day with one eye doth for more things descry then night can doe with more then Argus eyes Vnregenerate men who want faith are like blind Sampson without his guide So that we must have minds lifted above nature to see and love things above nature heavenly wisdome to see heavenly truth or else that truth which is saving will be to us a mystery yea seeme foolishnesse 1 Cor. 2. 7 8 14. wheras the spirit reveales all things to the beleiver even the deepe things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10 12 15 16. giving him a mouth and wisdome where agâ—inst all his adversaries shall not be able to speake or resist Luke 21. 15. Wherefore get faith and thou hast mounted another step to wisdome entred a third roome of this Palace Fourthly he must be frequent and fervent in prayer to God for the direction of his holy Spirit for First humble and faithfull prayer ushered in by meditation is the cure of all obscurity especially being accompanied with fervor and fervency If any lacke wisdome saith St. Iames let him aske of God which giveth to all men liberally and reproacheth no man and it shall be given him Iam. 1. 5. marke the words it is said if any wherefore let no man deny his soule this comfort againe aske and have it cannot come upon eaâ—ier termes yea God seemes to like this sute so well in Solomon as if he were beholding to his Creature for wishing good to it â—elfe yea more whatsoever we aske in prayer if we beleeve we shall have it Math. 21. 22. And in vaine doe we expect that Almes of Grace for which we doe not so much as beg Secondly as Sampsons companions could never have found out his Riddle if they had not plowed with his heyfer so no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. And as none can behold the light of the Sunne but by the benefit of the Sunne so none can know God who is called the Father of lights in the plurall number because of the degrees and diversities of his gifts nor the things of God but by the revelation of God 1 Cor. 12. 8. Math. 16. 17. with the Spirits helpe the meanes can never be too weake without never strong enough One excellent and necessary prerogative of the spirituall man is this he hath God for his teacher he learnes the counsells of God of that spirit which only knoweth God's counsells Luke 21. 15. For though his outward man receives the elements and rudiments of Religion by breeding and education yet his inward man receiveth them by heavenly infpiration For as spirituall wisdome is not the fruite of time and study as the naturall is so it hath a higher fountaine then nature to feede it even the Spirit of God which is no small priviledge for the Scholler learnes quickly when the Holy Ghost is his teacher the eye sees distinctly when the Holy Ghost doth enlighten it When Christ taught in the Temple they askt how knoweth this man the Scriptures seeing he never learned them so it is a wonder what learning some men have that have no learning like Priscilla and Aquila poore Tent-makers which were able to schole Apollos that great Clarke a man renowned for his learning What can we say to it for no other reason can be given for it but as Christ said Father so it pleaseth thee For as Iacob came so soone with his Venison that his father askt him how he came by it so suddenly and Iacob answered because the Lord thy God brought it suddenly to my hands so holy and righteous men can give no other reason why they understand the words of God so easily and the wicked doe conceive them so hardly but that God brings the meaning suddenly to their hearts as we reade Luk. 24. that Christ standing in the midst of his Apostles after he was risen from the dead opened their understandings that they might understand clearely the Scriptures and what vvas vvritten of him in the lavv of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalmes vers 44. 45. Loe hovv suddenly their knovvledge came unto them But see vvhat a generall promise God in the person of vvisdome hath made to all that serve him Pro 1. 23. Wherefore importune God the Father for the dirâ—ction of his holy Spirit and thou shalt at the least have light enough on earth to bring thee to the light of Heaven But in praying for wisdome observe one caution doe not pray for it without putting difference There is a speculative knowledge in the braine common to hypocrites with Gods children Heb. 6. 4. and there is an experimentall and saving knowledge in the heart peculiar to the godly alone Eph. 4. 8. and 5. 8. pray especially for the last of these let thine hearts desire be to know God in Christ Christ in faith faith in good workes to know Gods will that thou mayst doe it and before the knowledge of all other things desire to know thy selfe and in thy selfe not so much thy strength as thy weakenesse pray that thine heart may be insteed of a Commentary to helpe thee understand such points of religion as are most needfull and necessary and that thy life may be an exposition of thy inward man that there may be a sweete harmony betwixt Gods truth thy judgement and whole conversation that what the naturall man knowes by thinking thou mayst double by feeling the same in thine heart and affections as indeed experimentall and saving knowledge is no lesse felt then knowne and I cannot tell how comes rather out of the abundance of the heart then by extreame study or rather is sent by God unto good men like the Ramme that was brought to Abraham when he would have sacrificed his Sonne Isaac But if thou shalt pray unto God for knowledge without making a difference and shalt stand more upon the quantity then the quality so resembling the curre in the fable which preferred the shadow to the meate or those parents among the Heathen which sacrificed to the gods for children but not for good children or Nero's Mother who being told that her Sonne should be Emperour but to her griefe and sorrow answered so my Sonne have the Empire let my sorrow and griefe be what it will or Eudoxus whose wish and prayer to the gods was that hee might once view the Sunne neere at hand to comprehend his forme greatnesse and beauty on condition he were immediately burnt and consumed by it God will either crosse thee in thy desire as he did those anticke builders Gen. 11. 3. to 10. who purposed a Tower the top whereof should reach unto Heaven
for no other cause but to get them a Name And what if the height had answered their desire Or as he doth dayly men and women that had rather be rich or honourable then good or if he doe grant their desires yet he will grant it them in judgement as he did a King to the Israelites and Quailes with which he fed their bodies but withal sending leannesse into their soules or as he granted a Boy to Sr. Thomas Moor's Lady who being sicke of Daughters prayed importunately for a Boy and nothing but a Boy would serve whereupon she had a Boy which as Sr. Thomas wittily and twittingly told her would be a Boy so long as he lived or as Christ committed his purse to Iudas when as he gave his holy Spirit to his faithfull Apostles or as Bacchus is feighned to deale with Midas who desiring of him that whatsoever he touch't might instantly bee converted into gold granted his request but so as it became his bane for his wine became gold his bread gold the feathers of his bed his shirt his garments and every thing else were all turned into that hard mettall whereby he was halfe starved with hunger and halfe with cold as Fulgentius relates he would gladly now have unprayed his prayers Alas even the wicked for the most part have their desire yea more then their hearts can wish as the Psalmist speakes Psal. 73. 7. 9. but what 's the issue they set their mouthes against Heaven like an unruly jade that being full fed kickes at his master yea how often doth wisdome without grace prove like a faire estate in the hands of a foole which not seldome becomes the ovvners ruine or like Absolom's haire which vvas an ornament vvherevvith he hanged himselfe yea vvisdome vvithout grace is nothing else but a cunning way of undoing our selves at the last for is not many mens knowledge to them like the Arke to the Philistâ—nes which did them more hurt then good A wicked mans knowledge may make him prouder not better more rebellious not more serviceable thy wisdome and thy knowledge saith Isay they have caused thee to rebell Isa. 47. 10. O how many doe mischiefe insteed of good with their knowledge like Hâ—rod whom you shall see turning over the Bible searching the Scriptures examining the Prophets but to what end and purpose to know good but to doe evill yea the greatest evill under the Sunne slay Christ in the cradle with many their knowledge and learning is not for God and for Gideon but for Antichrist and for Babylon And so of all other gifts how many are the worâ—e for them As give Saul a Kingdome and he will tyrannize give Nabal plenty and he will be drunke give Iudas an Apostleship and he will sell his Master for money Wherefore in praying for wisdome pray not so much for braine-knowledge as to be soule-wife nor more for wisdome it selfe then for a blessing upon it that God will so sanctifie it unto thee that he may have glory thy selfe and others good by the same for for want of this many are able to speake like Angells in the Church while they live like Devills abroad Ob But I cannot pray or not to purpose Answ As we poure some water into the Pumpe that thereby we may fetch up more so let us pray that we may pray more and better When the Mill is set on going an easie wind keepes it so and a stronger encreaseth the motion Ob But I have often prayed and yet remaine as stupid as a stone Answ Though with Peter thou hast fished all night and caught nothing yet cast out thy net againe pray still and the issue shall more then recompence the delay yea thy perseverance in prayer will prove that thou hast mounted another step to wisdome entred a fourth roome of this Palace § 165 FIftly he must use the meanes as well as pray acquaint himselfe with the Scriptures for they and they alone are able to make a man wise unto salvation as St. Paul tells Timothy 2 Tim. 3. 15. we must not in the search of heavenly matters either follow the blind guide carnall reason or the deceitfull guide our corrupt hearts but the undeceiveable guide of Gods Word which is truth it selfe And great need there is For as we cannot see the foulenesse of our faces unlesse it be told us by some other or wee take a glasse and looke our selves therein so neither can we see the blemishes of our soules which is a notable degree of spirituall vvisdome but either God must make it knovvne unto us by his Spirit or vve must collect the same out of the Scriptures that Coelestiall glasse though this also must be done by the Spirits helpe Now if thou wilt truly profit by reading the Scriptures resolve to make them the rule of thy life What is the reason many are conversant in those divine and heavenly mysteries all the dayes of their life and yet are neither the wiser nor the better resembling Wormes in a booke or fish in the Sea which though they are bred and nourished therein yet the one is never the more learned nor the other one jot the salter or like some Athenian Gentlemen in our City who were wont to spend all their time in measuring of Pauls yet know not the length of it or some Innes of Court Gentlemen that studie the Law but being borne to great meanes never intend to practise it or rather some Physitians who learne the use of Physicke and prescribe it to others finding sweetnesse and profit thereby but will not once tast thereof themselves knowing it unpleasant Yea what is the reason that in studying the Scriptures they resemble the rustick Sayler who sees Gods wonders in the deepe but so as they rather appeare his playfellowes then the stirrers of his zeale yea that the very meanes of their reformation should become the very fuel of their wickednesse whereas the story of God makes others no lesse good then wise who improve their time by it as some do at a game at Chesse who by way of returne learn both Arithmeticke and Geometry The reason is this naturall and ungodly men read and heare the Scriptures and mind not or mind and understand not or understand and remember not or remember and practise not no this they intend not of all the rest and they which are unwilling to obey God thinks unworthy to know When the Serpent taught knowledge hee said if ye eat the forbidden fruit your eyes shall be opened and you shall know good and evill Gen. 3. 5. But God teacheth another lesson and saith if ye will not eat the forbidden fruit your eyes shall be opened and you shall know good and evil Rom. 12. 2. Indeed an holy submission to the word is the A B C the Primmer and Grammar the first lesson and the last lesson of a Christian so to know the good and perfect and acceptable will of God that wee our selves
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 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 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 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 Seventhly be diligent in hearing God's Word which is the sword of the Spirit that killeth our corruptions and that unresistable cannon-shot which battereth and beateth downe the strong holds of sinne Eighthly 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 ponder and meditate 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 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 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 beever or at least often thinking of the last and terrible day of Iudgment when we shall all be called to a reckoning 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 that thou maist master and subdue this abominabâ—e sin does 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 grievously 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 pleantifull 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 calings 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 impovershing 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 mind that as it is the cause of sinne so also of many heauy and grievous punishments as making a man lyable to a fearefull woe and Gods heauy curse subjecting his name to infamy his state to beggery his body to diseases infirmities deformities and immature death his soule to senselesse sottishnesse and deprivâ—ng the whole man of the joyes of Heaven entereth him into the possession of eternall hellish torments and this will be a good meanes to make thee moderate thy greedy desires mortifie thy carnall affections and curbe thy unruly appetite by putting a knife to thy throâ—â—e as Salomon adviseth saying I could but I will not take more then is good or fit Yea the consideration of these things and of the wofull condition that drunkards are in will provoke thee to hate their opinions to strive against their practice to pity their misguiding to neglect their censures to labour their recovery and to pray for their salvation For O how ugly doth this monster appeare to the eye of that soule which hath forsaken
workes and the Ships were broken that they were not able to goe to Tâ—rshish 2 Chro. â—0 37. But admit they can not infeâ—ffe us either in their sinne or punishment yet their society will be a shrewd vexation to us As let a religious man fall into their company as an honest man may fall into the hands of theeves they will conspire how to afflâ—ct his eyes with unchast visions his eares with fearefull oathes his unwilling appetite with drunken healths which even a civilized Pagan would abhor We read that Clitomachus the wrestler though a great company-keeper yet if he had heard but one filthy word would presently depart How was just Lot vexed with the uncleanly conversation of his wicked neighbours Sodom was worse then a Jaile to his righteous soule and report lyes if our Jailes be not much like to Sodom the very dens of mischiefe the Scholes of wickednesse a Malefactor learnes more vilany there then ever he knew before drunkennesse and blasphemy usurpe the place of mortification and humility Or lastly if their society be not a vexation to our minds at least it will be a great disparagement to our names every one will conclude almost infallibly such as our company is such is our disposition The common Proverb is like will to like And Birds of a feather will flock together When Iepthah was himselfe in banishment there gathered to him idle fellows such as himselfe Iudges 11. 3. When David was in trouble and vexed in minde himselfe their flockt unto him all those that were in trouble vexed in mind or that were in debt even foure hundred of them to the Cave of Adullam 1 Sa. 22. 2. Yea our Saviour meetes no lesse then ten Lepers in one knot Fellowship is that we all naturally affect though it be in Leprosie even Lepers will flock to their fellows where shâ—ll wee finde one spirituall leper alone drunkards prophane persons hereticks will be sure to consort with their matches And hereupon the Lacedâ—m onians when they would certainly bee informed what the disposition and behaviour of any one was would wisely inquire with what persons they were linked in fellowship And indeed he that makes himselfe a companion of all sells his reputation very cheape it being as great an indecorum for a holy Christian to be in the company of gracelesse persons as it is for a reverend Divine to sit upon the Stage in a publike Theater or an old man to dance with little children in the streetes Base company saith one kills both our fame and our soules it gives us wounds which will never admit of healing How many have irrecoverably lost their good names by keeping company with suspected persons and whether the report bee true or false it is no easiething to disprove a slaunder for like an unruly spirit once raised 't is hard to conjure downe againe A mans good name is much easier kept then recovered And thus you see that evill company endangers our soules or could our soules be free yet our persons are in danger or could our soules and persons both bee safe yet our estates are in jeopardy or could our soules bodies and estates be secure yet our fame would suffer and our good name lye at the stake Wherefore c. § 200. BUt admit we could keepe them company without harme yet this inconvenience would ensue their company would bereave us of much good which otherwise we should enjoy being alone it fareing with the godly wise as with Saint Ambrose who was wont to say I am never lesse alone then when I am all alone for then I can enjoy the presence of my God without interruption They are able to say as Duâ—artus and before him Scipio I have never better company then when I have no company for then can I freely entertaine my owne thoughts and converse with all the learned which have beene in former ages Antisthenes being asked what fruit he had reaped of all his study made answer I have learned by it both to live and walke with my selfe And Alphonsus King of Arragon being demanded what company he liked best replyed Bookes for these saith he without feare or flâ—ttery or any reward tell me faithfully all that I desire to know Cicero was and I am of his minde and though I bee no Hermit to sit away my daies in a dull Cell yet will I choose rather to have no companion then a bad one When Cato Vtican in vacation times and at his best leasure went to recreate himselfe in the country hee used to cary with him the best Philosophers and choisest bookes Algerius an Italian Martyre said Hee had rather be in prison with Cato then with Caesar in the Senate house so was it more comfortable to bee with Philpot in his Cole-house then with Bonner in the Palace Boner's conscience made his Palace a Cole-house and a dungeon whiles Philpot's made the Cole-house a Palace The state of grace is heaven upon earth and he that knowes the sweetnesse of Gods presence wil deeme it more tollerable to bee ever alone then never able to be so When I read of Hiero the Tyrant of Syracusa and other such that gave over their Kingdomes to live a solitary life I somewhat wonder I should not to heare of a religious and Christian King that did so It is impossible for the naturall man to be so merry in company as the believer alone yea saith S. Augustine the teares of those that pray are sweeter then the joyes of the Theater Indeed a witty jest may make a man laugh more and lowder but he who hath an inheritance fallen to him feeles a more solid joy within so hee that enjoyes his Saviour and hath the assurance of heaven is truly merry at the heart and keepes Hilary Tearme all his life And indeed nothing in the world is worth envie besides the condition of a true Christian. But to what end doe I tell a blind man how glorious and bright a creature the Sunne is or a poore man what summes of money are in the Kings Exchequers To so many as are unrenewed I speake in Parables Revel 2. 17. Yea this seemes to them a Paradox that the people of God should be a merry people for contrariwise they dreame of nothing but solitarinesse and melancholly as the common people thought Tully to bee most idle when he studied most or as the Husbandman in Aesope objected idlenesse to the Poet but as he replyed I am never so idle as in thy company so may the religious we are never so solitary never so melancholly as when in society with you that are vicious This was David's case which maketh him cry out Wâ—e is me that I must remaine in Mâ—seck and dwell in the Tents of Kedar he found it a heavie yoke to bee yoked with irreligious companions And a double reason may be given of it though we feare not to suffer either in our persons goods or good names as before you have it For
laught at for my labour as he was I only offer it to your censure and dispose that it might therather creeâ— forth under the safe conduct of your goodnesse unto the hands and use of others and even therin feare also that I have coveted too high and intruded too much on your Lordships more weighty affaires Indeed to alter a little of what is yours would interdict mee all Apologie since that were to use the pensile upon a picture finished by Apelles or to write the destruction of Troy after Homer which with ease may be marred but cannot be mended Suppose with Epicurus you loath to repeate any thing againe be it never so pleasing or profitable as it appeares by your compositions you do yet far be it from you to barre others that benefit when the same God by whose Spirit your Pen was guided gave command that his children should lay up his words in their hearts and souls bind them upon their hands and between their eyes teach them their children repeat them sitting and walking lying down and rising up yea write them upon the posts and gates of their houses Besides experience shewes that the oftner these Nayles are hammered the deeper they pierce and pierce too deep they cannot for five words remembred are better then a thousand forgotten and every help to our devotion deserves to be precious It was an envious humour not befitting your Lordships worth whose ayme is God's glory not your owne which caused Alexander to bee angry with Aristotle for making his Bookes common and a peevish condition which made Aspendius that cunning Musitian to play always so softly on his Harpe that none conld heare but himselfe Vertue is destributive and had rather accommodate many with selfe-injury then bury benefits that might pleasure a multitude and that which is good of it selfe is so much the better by how much the more it is communicated yea to conceale goodnesse is a vice I need not tel your Lordship that gray advisements in a fine filed phrase are like 〈◊〉 Fire Water the more breathed the clearer the more extended the warmer the more drawne the sweeter or the bright Sun whose beames are not the worse for shining in every corner but the places the better If then I detract not from their worth who may not benefit by their use in which my care and desire was with the Bee to 〈◊〉 my selfe and others without prejuaice to any one flower Put case I have faâ—otted and piled one thing upon another independantly and without forme or order precious stones willshine though set in Lead and linkes of Gold have their true value and lustre though a bungler make the chaine Indeed if in borrowing the matter I impaire the forme as many times it commeth to passe that sentences translated or repeated doe like silke twise dyed loose their glosse if I adulterate or sophisticate any one peece let the Author reward me as Archelaus and Philoxenus did some which sang their â—eeters illfavâ—uredly and undecently who either kickt them on the shinns or broke their potts using these words you breake mine I breake yours or as learned Musurus Candiot served Marsilius Ficinus in correcting his translation of Plato all over with a Sponge finding it to imitate the copy originall no more then Cicero the younger did his Father which was only in name or take the same course with my Book which Philoxenus did with a Tragedy that Dionysius sent him to correct who finding it not worthy to bee published tooke a knife and rased it in peeces For praise I seeke none as I have deserved none and I am so farre from expecting thanks as that I humbly crave pardon yea a conditionall acceptance is all I aske Wherefore vouchsafe it your favourable aspect and let this meane but faithfull testimony of my humble thankfulnesse be shrowded under the wings of your learned Patrociny as was Persius under the wings of Pallas and Teucer under the Shield of Ajax And your deserved greatnesse shall make it more acceptable and by consequence the more profitable yea your name to which it is consecrate shall add life to it as the Sunne to a withered Plant and your protection will no lesse support it then bones do the flesh of a mans body or walls the building of an house True Alexander at first disdained the Corinthian Embassadors who offered him the freedome and Burgueship of their City but when they told him that Bacchus and Hercules were likewise in their Registers he kindly thanked them and accepted their offer If there be any thing herein worthy let it induce your acceptance if not it may please you to imitate Caesar who never rejâ—yced more then to heare how they talked of his valiant exploits in simple Cottages Divers doe dedicate their heavenly labours according to earthly respects and I have often seene an heavenly Pearle presentted to the hand of an earthly and sensuall Patron but such incongruous and untuneable de dications have ever beene harsh to my judgement wherefore that I might avoid the like incongruity I was bold in nuncupating my Booke to fixe upon your Lordship in whom to the outwaâ—d gifts of nature and fortune are conjâ—yned the inward endowments of grace as piety humility affability temperance justice wisdome with maturity of judgement and the like which by a rare and happy combination have met together as Diamonds set in a border of Gold or Sapphirs placed in a Cabinet of Ivory touching which your vertues for I will not use many words of your selfe to your selfe I shall rather praise God and pray for the continuance and increase of them in the secret closet of mine own heart than make any publike proclamation of the same in the eares of others knowing that your selfe affects no other the ater for your worth then your owne conscience And in regard of others it were as needlesse as to lend Spectâ—cles to Lynceus an Eye to Argus or to wast gilding on pure Gold for who hath heard of your name that is not driven to admiration and veneration of your singular sufficiencies Againe Alexander's victories and vertues to which I may fitly resemble them were not to be drawne in the compasse of a signet neither did it become any to paint them but Apelles to grave them but Pyrgoteles to carve them but Lysippus Wherefore I will passe over with a dry Pen that which neither befits the person to write in regard of his meannesse nor the place of an Epistle to containe in regard of it's expected briefnesse though It is detraction to conceale due praise When good related might more goodnes raise True glasses both our deformities and favours tell and precepts never shine so much as when they are set in examples nor examples as when they are set in curious persons nor is it easie to finde so fit a person so meet a patterne for imitation for incitation The which benefit that we may long enjoy as a set Copy in the
and Heathens have censured this vice and judged of this sinne though indeed the odiousnesse of it is beyond all expression neither have I dehortation answerable to my detestation of it onely what cannot be spoken your meditation supplying the defect of my speech may be implyed as under a curtaine which was the Painters shift in deliniating the picture of Venus and the wont of Timanthes who in each picture hee drew occasioned more to be understood then was painted § 11. THe Learned of all ages have concluded yea drunkennesse it selfe if it could speake as it can take away speech would confesse that it is a flattering Devill a sweet poyson a voluntary madnesse an invited enemy the author of outrages quarrells debates murthers the nurse of fury the mistris of pride the fountaine of all vice the originall of all diseases and bane of the soule that it is a fire whose flame is lust whose sparkes are oathes and evill words whose smoake is pride and infamy whose ashes are diseases and poverty and whose end is hell That it is a sinne which cracks mens credits consumes their estates distempers their constitutions dulls their spirits infatuates their senses intoxicateth their braines stupefies and besots their understandings perverteth their wills troubleth reason overthroweth the judgment infeebleth the memory corrupteth all the affections excludeth counsell and without Gods infinite mercy and their sound repentance damnes the soule That it is a bewitching sweete in the mouth which turnes to deadly poyson in the heart the revealer of secrets the ship wrack of chastity the shame of honesty the ruine of good manners the thiefe of time the disgrace of mankind a sinne which makes man an abomination to the Lord odious to the Angells scorned of men abandoned of all good society and above all makes men subjects and vassalls to Sathan a sinne of all others the most spreading most infectious most incurable most inexcusable a sinne which makes no difference of times places persons c. A sinne which is against the lawes of God of grace of nature and of all nations against sense and reason a sinne which brings wrath and judgment upon the whole land a sinne which is a griefe to friends a ruine to families which separates from the society and company of Gods Saints on earth excludes and shuts them out of the Kingdome of Heaven as Plutarch Solon Pittacus Boetius St. Austin St. Ierom St. Chrysoftome and others stile and define it That it is of sinnes the queene as the goute is of diseases even the most prodigall wastfull unthrifty unprofitable unnaturall unseemely insatiable unreasonable sinne the most base brutish beastly foule filthy odious execrable detestable horrible abominable state disturbing heathenish infernall prodigious damnable gracelesse and shamefull sinne of all others as some of our Moderne writers render it In fine it is a sinne odious and lothsome in any but in us who have so much light so many lawes of God and man against it most unsufferable but as it was once observed that Philosophy was taught in Athens but practised in Sparta so now temperance and sobriety is taught in England but practised in Spaine and Turky § 12. ANd as it is a most grievous and matchlesse sinne in it selfe so it is the cause of all other sinnes a monster with many heads the roote of all evill the incendiary of all vice the Magazine of all misery the mother and metropolis of all mischiefe As tell mee was there ever any sinne committed which wine hath not beene an occasion of for notwithstanding wine doth first serve and obey the drinker yet by little and little mixing it selfe with the blood in the veynes it doth rule over him and like Saules evill and controlling spirit makes him it 's vassall whereby like the Centurions servant he no sooner heares the word from Sathan doe this but instantly hee doth it whether it be to the committing of adultery with Holofernes inces◠with Lot murther with Alexander Cambyses and Philopater one of which in his drinke slew his deare and faithfull friend Clytus who was his chiefe Captaine in all his exployts though it so troubled him being sober that he would have made away himselfe the second his onely Sonne the third his deare father and mother or treason with him that confest to King Pyrrhus upon his arraignment all this wee did and spake against thee and much more should have done had not the wine failed us or blasphemy with Belshazzar and his Princes Dan. 5. 23. and what not for even to rehearse the severall examples which history affords and experience hath made knowne were endlesse Some examples I have given you and he is a very young man and unobservant that cannot adde forty out of his owne experience And doe not our reverend Judges in their severall circuits finde by experience that few brawles murthers manslaughters rapes c. are committed which arise not from this roote of drunkennesse And indeed as in Justice all vertues are couched together summarily as Aristottle affirmes so in drunkennesse all vices are lapt up together as it were in a bundle for it is a confluence or collection of all the rest and as he said of old prove a man to be ingratefull and you prove him naught all over so prove one to bee a Drunkard and you prove him guilty of every thing that is evill reprobate to all that is good for what sinne is it which a drunken man will sticke to commit when wee reade that Cyrillus his Sonne being drunke slew his Father and his Mother great with child hurt his two Sisters and defloured one of them as St. Austin affirmes when another being tempted by the Devill as Philip Lonicer witnesseth to commit 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 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 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 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 we 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 sordid 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 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 as if you observe it The Drunkard commonly hath Vertumnus like a brasill Nose a swolne and inflamed Face beset with goodly Chowles and Rubies as if it were both rost and sod swimming running glaring gogle Eyes bleared rowling and red a Mouth nasty with offensive fumes alwayes foaming or driveling a fevorish Body a Sicke and giddy Braine a Mind d spearst a boyâ—ing stomacke rotten Teeth a stinking Breath a drumming Eare a palsied Hand gouty staggering Legs that â—aine would goe but cannot a drawling stammering temulentive Tongue clambd to the roofe and gumms in fine not to speake of his odious gestures lothsome nastinesse or beastly behaviour his belching hickups vomittings his ridiculous postures and how easily he is knockt downe whose hamstrings Bacchus hath already cut in two nor of the unmeasurable grosenesse of such whose onely element is Ale especially your Ale-wives who like the Germane Froas are all cheekes to the belly and all belly to the knees whose dugs and chins meete without any forceing of either because you may dayly see such fustilugs walking in the streets like so many Tunnes each moving upon two pottle pots his essentiall parts are so obscured his Sense so dulled his Eyes so dazeled his Face so distorted his Countenance so deformed his Ioynts so infeebled and his whole body and minde so transformed that hee is become the child of folly and derision of the world a laughing stock to fooles a lothing stock to the Godly ridiculous to all Yea
Yea Wine so inflames the Drunkard with Lust that were his power equall to his desire were his dreames and wishes all true hee would not leave a Virgin in the world might but his acts answer the number of his desires nature could scarce supply him with severall objects or could his wishes take effect Popery might have many Nuns it should have no maids Now what decayes health and strength and consequently shortens a mans dayes more then whoredome when so many dye of the Pox a disease which slayes thousands though they will not be known of it for because of the whorith woman a man is brought to a morsell of bread Pro. 6. 26. yea shee causeth many to fall downe wounded and all the strong men are slaine by her her house is the way unto the grave which leadeth downe to the chamber of death Pro. 7. 26. 27. And so much of the drunkards body § 21. SEcondly if wee dive deeper into him and Search into his soule what one sinne more mangles and defaces Gods Image and mans beauty then this how doth it damme up the head and spirits with mud how doth it infatuate the understanding blind the judgement pervert the will and corrupt all the affections how doth it intrap the desires surprise the thoughts and bring all the powers and faculties of the soule out of order which occasioneth one to say where drunkennesse raignes as King there reason is banished as an exile the understanding is dulled counsell wandereth and judgment is overthrowne And with this accordeth Seneca who defines drunkennesse to be a voluntary madnesse or a temporary forfeiture of the wits yea the Holy Ghost affirmes that the excesse of wine makes men mad foolish and outragious Pro. 20. 1. for being worse then the sting of an Aspe it poysoneth the very soule and reason of man Yea wee finde this and a great deale more by experience for many a man drinkes himselfe out of his wits and out of his wealth and out of his credit and out of all grace and favour both with God and good men Neither is the Scripture lesse expresse for Salomon calls wine a mocker and tells us that strong drinke is raging And Hosea affirmes that wine takes away the heart Chap. 4. 11. And wee reade elsewhere that wine makes men forget God and his lawes Pro. 31. 5. Yea utterly to fall away from God and to be incapable of returning for it is commonlie accompanied with hardnesse of heart and final impenitence Esa. 5. 11. 12. and 56. 12. Pro. 23. 35. For admonish such as are bewitched and besotted with the love of wine you speak to men senseles past shame and past grace Tell them of some better imployment they will say as once Florus an idle fellow was wont I would not be Caesar alwayes marching in armor to whom Casear replyed and I would not be Florus alwayes drinking in a Taverne Yea being wrapt in wine and warme cloathes they so like their condition that they would not change upon any termes no not to be glorified Saints in Heaven as those swine and other brutish creatures which Circe transformed would by no meanes be perswaded to become men againe though they were put to their choice by the said goddesse or forceresse rather upon the earnest request of Vlysses You shall never perswade a Drunkard that the water of life is the best wine In a word by long custome they turne delight into necessity and bring upon themselves such an insatiable thirst that they will as willinglie leave to live as leave their excessive drinking in regard whereof St. Austin compares drunkennesse to the pit of Hell into which when a man is once fallen there is no redemption Yea this vice doth not onely rob men of reason but also of common sense so as they can neither prevent future danger nor feele present smart But of this enough having already proved them as much worse then beasts as beasts are better then Devills Besides I shall occasionallie treate more of the soules Character in sundry particulars which follow § 22. 5 FIfthly as hee deformes his body impaires his health shortens his life beastiates his soule c. so he consumes his estate and brings himselfe to poverty and want as to whom is poverty as Salomon speakes but to Drunkards who thinke no cost too much that is bestowed on their bellies who consume their wealth at the wine even while they have swallowed downe their whole estates As let the Drunkard have but a groate it burnes in his purse till it be drowned in drinke if hee have gold he will change it if plate hee will pawne it and rather then not satisfie his gut away goes all to the coate on his backe yea rather then hee will scant as they say his belly had hee a jewell as rich as tenne Lordships or as Cleopatra's was that womanlike swaggerer his throate shall have it O that either wealth or any other blessing should be cast away thus basely Or suppose he bee a labouring man and must earne it before he have it he will drinke as much in a day saith St. Ambrose as hee can get in a weeke spend twelve pence sooner then earne two pence And hence it commeth to passe that the company keeper goes commonly in a ragged coate as it is seldome seene that they offend the Statute against excesse in apparell for rather then so they will goe naked and count that too a voluntarie penance Thus the Drunkard having spent all in superfluities in the end hee wants necessaries and because in youth hee will drinke nothing but wine in his old age he is constrained to drinke water yea hee throwes his house so long out at windowes that at last his house throwes him out at doores And when all is gone glad would he be to be a Swineheard like the Prodigallson but knowing himself unworthy of any mans entertainment hee growes weary of his life and is ready to make himselfe away like Peter the Cardinall base son to Sixtus the fourth that monstrous Epicure the shame of the latter times or like Apicius the shame of the ancient age wherein he lived All which the Scriptures make good where it is said that the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and the sleeper shall be cloathed with raggs Pro. 2◠21. And againe peremptorily he that loveth wine and oyle shall not bee rich Prov. 21. 17. Now that this is so every officer of a Parish knowes to his great trouble and the inhabitants cost yea were I enjoyned to take up a ragged regiment I should thinke it no hard taske to muster up a thousand men admit but drunkards to be men out of the very suburbs that in sheere drinke spend all the cloaths on their beds and backs yea that drinke the very bloods of their wives and children for hee brings not this misery upon himselfe alone but his whole family wife children servants all are impoverisht yea nere
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 Aristotle 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 reallyâ— and by his owne experience to know thâ— chiefe points of Christian religion sucâ— as are Faith Repentance Regenerationâ— the love of God the presence of the Spiâ— rit the Remission of sins the effusion oâ— 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 ageine 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 should this be should we thinke ever the better of error though a thousand of the learned should countenance and maintaine the same no one Micaiah a single Prophet speaking from the Oracles of God is more worthy of credit then 400. Baalites 1 Kin. 22. 6 12 13 14 17 22 23. One Luther a mean man is worthy to bee believed before the Pope and so many legions of his creatures which were throughout Christendom for what hee wanted in abbettors was supplyed in the cause yea did not Paphnuti us a weak scholler shew more wisdome in defending the truth against the whole Councell of Nice then all those great Clarks and learned men to his great renowne and their everlasting shame Did not Pharaoh find more wisdome in Ioseph a poore Hebrew servant and receive more solid advice from him wherby a famine through out the whole world was prevented then hee could in all the Wisemen and Southsayers of Egypt Gen. 41. 8. to 32 Did not Nebuchadnezzar finde more depth in Daniel a poore captive Iew then he could in all the wise men of Babylon Daniel 2. and 4 yes and the reason is one eye having sight is better then a thousand blind eyes and one poore crucified thief being converted had a clearer eye then all the lews Rulers Scribes and Pharisies who being naturall and wicked condemned and crucified JESUS CHRIST In the Councell of Trent there was of 270. Prelates 187. chose out of Italy and of the rest the Pope who was himselfe Moderator and his creatures excluded and tooke in whom themselves would and none else what marvaile then if they concluded what they listed Yea how many Schollers in all ages of the world have resembled Trajan who was endued with great knowledge and other singular vertues but defaced them all by hating Christianity and opposing the power of godlinesse How many are so farre from doing good that they doe great hurt with their gifts and not seldom the more gifts they have the more harme they do For as the best soyle commonly yeelds the worst aire so without grace there is nothing more pestilent then a deepe wit Wit and learning well used are like the golden earerings and bracelets of the Israelites abused like the same gold cast into a molten Idoll then which nothing more abominable No such prey for the Devill as a good wit unsanctified great wits oft times mislead not only the owners but many followers besides as how many shall once wish they had been born dullards when they shall finde their wit and learning to have barred them out of heaven And let them looke to it for as in respect of others their offence is greater for better many Israelites commit adultery or idolatry then one David or Salomon The least moate that flies in the Sun or between our eyes and the light seemes a greater substance then it is and the more learned the person the more notorious the corruption as the freshest sommers day will soonest taint those things which will putrifie so in respect of themselves their sinne is and their punishment shall bee greater for the more glorious the Angels excellency the more damnable their apostacie If the light become darknesse how great is that darknesse If Achitophel prove a villaine how mischievous is his villany Putrified
against them And indeed if thou wert not a foole thou wouldest thinke it better to be in the small number of Christs little flocke which are to be saved then in the numerous heards of those Goates which are destinated to destruction And so your excuses are taken away and all proved vaine coverings even no better then Fig-leaves which though they may seems to cover thy nakednesse from such as thy selfe yet they will stand thee in no steede another day Wherfore drink not without thirst here that you may not thirst without drink herafter Lu. 16. 24. 25. Play not the foole as Lysimachus did who being in battell against the Scythians for the satisfying of his appetite onely and to procure a little drinke to quench his thirst gave himselfe over into his enemies hands and when he had drunke his fill and was haled and leading away captive into perpetuall misery while he saw his countrimen returne home with joy began to acknowledge his folly in these words O said he for how little pleasure what great liberty what sweet felicity have I lost and forgone Yea turne your laughter into sorrow your feasting into fasting be revenged of your selves of your lusts and meete your God and make your peace while now we call and you heare yea the Lord of his mercy awaken men out of the dead sleepe of this sinne that so seeing their danger they may be brought to confesse and forsake it that so they may be saved Pro. 28. 13. § 56. BUt what doe I admonishing or speaking sence to a drunkard this is to make him turne the deafe eare and a stone is as capable of good counsell as hee besides they have no faith in the Scriptures they will not beleeve what is written therefore they shall feele what is written In the meane time it were very fit if it pleased Authority they were debarred both of the blood of the Grape and the spirit of Barley a just punishment for consuming the countries fat for even cleere rocke water were good enough for such Gormundizers except we had the water of Clâ—torius a Well in the midst of Arcadia which causeth the drinker of it to loath wine for ever after I doe not wish them stoned to death as God commanded such ryoters and drunkards to be under the Law Deut. 21. 20. 21. nor banished the land as the Romans did all vicious and voluptuous persons that the rest might not be endangered and Lycurgus all inventers of new fashions least these things should effeminate all their young men for then I thinke the land would be much unpeopled Indeed I could wish there were Pest-houses provided for them in all places as there are for infected persons or that they were put by themselves in some City if any were big enough to receive them all as Philip King of Macedon built a city of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and irregular persons of all his subjects and having so done called it Poneropolis that is the City of wicked persons And certainely if it were considered how many Brokers of villany which live onely upon the spoyles of young hopes every populous place affords whose very acquaintance is destruction the like meanes of prevention would be thought profitable for our times Yea this were marvelously expedient considering the little good they doe being as so many loose teeth in the Mandible of the Common-wealth which were better out then in and the great hurt by their ill examples by devouring the good creatures of God which they never sweat for by disturbing the peace of the Church and Common-wealth by pulling downe heauy judgments upon the land and considering how small hope there is of their amendment if any at all § 57. IT may be you have not noted it 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 Tâ—m 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 stockes 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 olds 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
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 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 drinking they have overcome all their companions this they see and boast of but they see not how they are overcome shamefully foyled and utterly overthrown by the dâ—vell their chief enemy under whose lash they are like to be everlastingly But let him that delights to make another drunk reade his doome Habakâ—k 2. 15 16. where he shall finde not onely shame and spewing appointed for his glory but also that a cup of vengeance even the cup of the Lords right hand is preparing for him And lastly what office so base as this for men to resemble Crowes which live upon carrion or those winglesse Flies which sucke a living out of the corrupt blood of uncleannesse is bad enough but to bee a tempter to weare the Livery of Sathan to bee the Pentioner of hell at the command of that malignant and degenerous Spirit this is the most ignominious and dishonourable name and shame that can be to be the Hang-mans servant is an honour to it for to erre is the part of a man but to seduce is the part of a divell It is ill to play the wanton worse to play the beast worst of all to play the divill But thou wilt say This is true onely of the ruder sort and more debauched and so pertaines not to thee Yes it doth For though thou doest not force men to pledge thy healths yet thou wilt intreat and perswade them to it by all the Art and oratory thou canst use and in case they still refuse thou wilt think the worse of them censure them in thy thoughts and beare them an inward grudg and splene in thine heart if not slander and revile them with thy tongue Nay doest thou not like the Graecian drunkards use some such phrase as this let him drinke or else be packing let him carrouse or carry him out of the house whereby a further wrong from others is occasioned so imitating the Ephesians who as Cicero reports having banished their Prince Hermodorus made proclamation that none should excell another or if he did so that hee should no longer there dwell but else where inhabit How ever it likes thee well enough that others of thy company shall by violence enforce them and this alone makes thee as guilty as if thou didst it thy selfe so that to come fairely off even from thy company and neither drink nor quarrell is impossible or at least a wonder § 83. ANd thus you see that drunkards not only traffick to enrich hel with their owne soâ—les but others also yea that they are so pernicious that to damne their owne soâ—les is the least part of their mischiefe for they commonly draw vengeance upon thousands by seducing some and giving ill example to others O the multitude of drunkards that one true drunkard makes especially if he be well accomplished with ingenuity and gifts of nature as when Achitophel's head stands upon Simon Magus his shoulders there is a world of mischiefe towards A will bent to doe harme and a wit able to prosecute it like Cannon shot makes a lane where it goes For tryall let such an one tell me if he can how many hee hath drawne into the same sinne with him were he willing I feare his memory would faile him though his conscience hereafter will not faile to evidence the same against him with the severall aggravations of each circumstance As Ovid said of himselfe I am second to none in trifles so the drunkard may truly say I am second to none in tempting yea tell me who are such pandors to sinne such factors for hell as these men who doe the Divell such service who deserve so great pay from him as drunkards A true drunkard is like the Bramble Iudg. 9. 15. which first set it's selfe on fire and then fired all the Wood or like one sick of the Plague who as they say is carried with an itching desire to infect others that are cleare or like a house on fire in the midst of a City which if the winde blowes vehemently stayeth not in the burning of an house or two but sets on fire al adjoyning one on this side another on that a third behind it a fourth over against it neither doth the fire cease there but every one which it hath set on fire kindles as many more and so one another till it may be half or all the whole City bee consumed for this is the drunkards case directly who is the bane of many poore soules besides his owne It is S. Basil's observation that one whore makes many fornicators but experience shewes that one drunkard makes ten times as many drunkards Yea the more they can seduce the more they glory as when Theudas had got foure hundred followers he thought himselfe a jolly fellow Acts 5. 36. But this is no other then the setting a mans owne house on fire it burnes many of his nighbours and hee shall answer for all the ruines And surely he who gives a man wine to deceive him is first drunke in soule before he can procure the others bodily distemper and to glory in giving weake braines a drench to see them wallow in their filthinesse is but to brag how far they are become the Devils children § 84. TOuching their manner of seducing A drunkard as if his braines were fired with all the plots projects and cunning Stratagems that Hell can yeeld is as rarely gifted in drawing to sinne as the Devill himselfe and is become the child of Hell by as proper a right so that if Sathan would change his office or were to surrender his place to any man alive it should be to some good fellow or other for as the Chamaeleon can change himselfe into any colour that it sits upon but white and red or as the Polypus can change colour at the sight of every object but blew onely so a drunkard can be any thing save good he hath learned to handle a
that his thirst was for all his Army and not alone for himselfe There is a greate dearth of reason and charity in that man who would bee happy alone much more doe they desire the blessednesse of others that are of the communion of Saints all heavenly hearts are charitable and it is a great presumption that hee will never finde the way to heaven who desires to go thither single yea a desire to win others is an inseparable adjunct or relative to grace for it is impossible that a man should be converted but having got himselfe out of Sathans clutches he will seeke to draw others after him yea where the heart is thankfull and inflamed with the love of God and our neighbour this shall be the principall aime as that vertuous Lady which Camden speakes of having beene a Leper her selfe bestowed the greatest part of her portion to build an Hospitall for other Lepers Neither can enlightened soules choose but disperse their rayes we are no whit thankfull for our owne illumination if we doe not looke with charity and pity upon the grosse misse-opinions and misprisions of our brethren It is a duty commanded by God Iud. 22. 23. 2 Tim. 2. 25. 26. Heb. 3. 13. And every good mans meat and drink is to doe the will of him that sent him and though he cannot do what he would yet he will labour to do what he can to win others not to deserve by it but to expresse his thanks § 115. ANd as Gods people would not bee saved alone but winne all they can knowing society no small part of the very joyes of heaven no more would wicked men be damned alone but mislead all they can thinking it some ease and comfort in misery to have companions As for example What made the Scribes and Pharisies compasse Sea and Land to make one of their profession but that they might make him twofold more the child of hell then themselves as out Saviour expresly witnesseth Matth. 23. 15. Yea they shut up the kingdome of heaven so farre forth as they could and would neither goe in themselves nor suffer others that would have entred to come in v. 13. And what else but this love of community made Baalam being a cured reprobate himselfe so willing first to curse all Israel and after when that would not fadge to give such divellish counsell against them Nnmb. 22. Or what is the reason thinke you of all their practises against the just now of their tempting them and attempting what they can against them but this they would discourage us in the way to heaven beat us off from our holy profession or being religious and draw us backe to the world that so they might have our company here in sinne and hereafter in torment as if this were not to carry brimstone to their own fire and to make their own bed in hell And let such know that how many Novices or Apprentises of Religion soever have beene beaten off by meanes of their scoffs slanders reproaches or other their malicious practises against the godly how many soever they have forestalled with prejudice against the religious by making their favour to stinke before their neighbours and acquaintance through their lies and forgeries so putting a sword into their hand to slay them as the children of Israel unjustly charged Moses and Aaron touching Pharaoh and his servants Ex. 5. 21. or how many soever are drawn to do and commit the like sinnes by their example even so many of Christs band they have as much as in them lyeth diminished and shall one day be arraigned and condemned not only for high treason against our Soveraign Lord Christ but also for slaying so many soules with death eternall which sin having a reward of torment answerable as I shall shew anon must of necessity bring upon them more then double damnation Wherefore let them more wisely then Dives looke to it in time take heed of powring water upon the fire of the Spirit which had more need of kendling then of quenching and beating down the weake hands and knees which should rather bee listed up for God and against Sathan And thus you see that drunkards and all wicked men whose meat and drink it is to doe the will of their Father ayme at our eternall ruine as the divell did at the ruine of our first Parents and their off-spring and how could they doe so if they did not partake of the divells nature yea if they were not quite changed from men into divels § 116. BUt see other two reasons why they desire community in the burning lake and why they make no bones of soule-murther the first is this they know themselves irrecoverably lost and therefore they are desperate because they cannot rise themselves they would ruine all they know they have so grievously offended God and so despited the Spirit of grace so â—inned against knowledg and conscience and so often reiterated theirabominations that they are become so incurable and past hope of remedy that no medicine can helpe them as God speaks touching the sorrowes of the Iewes by Ieremiah Chap. 30. 12. 13. 15. as sometimes it fares with a sicke patient who while he hath hope of cure is willing to abstaine from such meats as are dangerous and hurtfull for him but knowing his disease incurable forbeareth nothing that he likes and likes onely those things which are most forbidden him so the Proverb is verified in them Over Shoes over Bootes yea which is desperate over shoulders As a man sinking into the deepe water catcheth hold of him that is next him so men diving into the bottome of iniquity pull downe their adherents and how can they more lively prove themselves the Divells children whose ayme it hath ever beene seeing hee must of necessity bee wretched not to bee wretched alone It is little content to them to bee reprobates except they have company Wherefore as falling Lucifer drew numerous Angells with him so all his agents and adherents as firebrands in burning themselves burne others the Divell out of malice misleades them and they others what wretched companiouns then are these men the Lord grant wee may know no more of them then by hearesay § 117 SEcondly there is another winning reason why they strive so after community for you must know the Devill propounds to them and they to themselves some appearance of good in every thing they doe They thinke it some ease and comfort in misery to have companions yea the more the merrier thinke they as sorrowes devided among many are borne more easily it is some kinde of ease to sorrow to have partners as a burthen is lightned by many shoulders divers backs will carry a greater burthen with lesse paine or as clouds scattered into many drops easily vent their moysture into ayre many small brookes meeting and concurring in one channell will carry great vessells yea our griefes are lessened our joyes enlarged our cares lightned
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 Spirit 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 man have a lot in Canaan let him bee a sure to bee a true Israelite And so we see there must of necessity bee a manifest change that fruitfulnesse is the best argument he hath begotten us anew that the signes of salvation are to be sought in our selves as the cause in Iesus Christ that wee must become new creatures as S. Paul hath it 2 Cor. 5. 17. talk with new tongues Mar. 16. 17. and walk in new wyaes Matth. 2. 12. hating what we once loved and loving what we formerly hated then shall we have new names Rev. 2. 17. put on new garments and have a portion in the new Ierusalem Revel 21. otherwise not Take notice of this all ye carnall worldlings who are the same that yee were alwayes even from the beginning ' and think the same a speciall commendations too though you have small reason for it for that wee need no more to condemne us then what we brought into the world with us Besides doe you live willingly in your sinnes Let mee tell you ye are dead in your sinnes this life is a death and wee need no better proofe that you are dead then because you feele not your deadnesse § 150. SEcondly that thou hast not repented nor doest yet believe is plaine for as faith is a gift of God whereby the elect soule is sirmly perswaded not only that the whole word of God is true but that Christ and all his benefit doe belong unto her so it is an honourable and an operative grace alwayes accompanied with other graces over bearing fruit and repentance being a fruit of faith is a whole change of the mind and a very sore displeasure against a mans selfe for sinne as it is sin and a breach of God's holy Lawes and for offending so good a God so mercifull a Father with a setled purpose of hateing and for sakeing all sinne and yeilding universall obedience for the time to come wherefore hast thou a true lively and a justifying faith it will manifest it selfe by a holy life For as fire may bee decerned by heat and life by motion so a mans faith may bee decerned by his workes for though faith alone justifieth yet justifying faith is never alone but ever accompanied with good workes and other saving graces as the Queene though in her state and office shee be alone yet shee goeth not without her Maids of honour Tttus 3. 8. spirituall graces the beauties of the soule and good workes the beauty of graces and our justification is to bee proved by the fruits of our sanctification faith and workes are as inseparable as the root and the sap the Sun and its light and wheresoever they are not both present they are both absent I am 2. 17. 24. faith purifies the heart Act. 15. 9. worketh by love Galath 5. 6. and sanctifieth the whole man throughout 1 Thes. 5. 23. Act. 26. 18. for as if our repentance bee sound it will make us grieve for sins of all sorts secret as well as known originall as well as actuall of omission as of commission lesser viz. thoughts as well as greater yea as well for the evill which cleaves to our best workes as for the evill workes Rom. 7. 21. and as heartily and unfainedly desire that we may never commit it as that God should never impute it 2. Tim. 2. 19. Againe it will worke tendernesse of conscience and such a true filiall feare of God that we shall feare to displease him not so much because hee is just to punish us as for his mercy and goodnesse sake and more feare the breach of the Law then the curse which we may know by asking our owne hearts these questions Whether we would refuse a booty if we had as fit an opportunity to take it and no man perceive the same as Achan had Whether wee would refuse a bribe like Elisha though wee should meet with one which were as willing and able to give it as Naaman Whether we would not deceive though we were in such an of fice as the false Steward whose Master referred all unto him and knew not when he kept any thing backe Whether wee would not yeeld in case it should be said unto us as the Divell said to Christ all this will I give thee if thou wilt commit such a sinne Whether we have a Spirit without guile Psa. 32. 2. and be the same in Closet and Market as being no lesse seene in the one then in the other Whether we more love to be then seeme or be thought good as Plato spake of his friend Phocion and seeke more the power of godlinesse then the shew of it Iob 1. 1. For Christians should be like Aples of gold with Pictures of silver whose inside is better then their outside but both good and hee serveth God best who serveth him most out of sight that wheresoever hee is keepes a narrower watch over his very thoughts then any other can doe of his actions and no mans censure troubles him more then his owne Againe whether wee are as carefull to avoide the occasions of sinne as sinne
you into the lap of your enemies 2 Kings 6. 19. And sutable to this is their gesture and actions for like Acco they will evermore seeme to refuse what they most desire and to desire what they most despise Yea they can hardly be read though like Hebrew letters you spell them backwards for admit the stander by conceives their going to be like that of a Crab-fish contrary to the way they looke as our Saviour knew it fared with the Pharisees and Sadduces Mat. 16. 1. 3. which made him conclude with O Hypocrites yet having not the spirit of discerning he can but guesse at it and so give over onely this he may be sure of that they doe not intend what they pretend like as in jugling feates though we know not how they are done yet we know well that they are not done as they seeme to be Now if they can any way advantage themselves by anothers ruine and doe iâ— cunningly as Iesabel did when she kild Naboth by suborning false witnesse against him and proclaimed a Fast before the murther though all such policy be but misery and all such knowledge ignorance yet ô how wise they thinke themselves now they are able to blind the Devill with a Cushion but they are grossely mistaken for wherein doth this their great wisdome consist but first in being wise to deceive others as the old Serpent did our first Parents or secondly in the end to deceive themselves as the same Serpent did which brought a curse upon himselfe for so doing Gen. 3. The crafty Fox hug'd himselfe to thinke how he had cosened the Crow of her breakfast but when he had eaten it and found himselfe poysoned with it he wish't the Crow her owne againe Wealth got by deceit is like a peece of buttered sponge an Italian tricke it goes downe glib but in the stomack swells and will never be got out againe The gaines a man gets by deceiving at last he may put in his eye and yet see himselfe miserable Sinne is the greatest cheater in the world for it deceives the deceiver That it is so with them and all others who goe to counsell and leave the God of wisdome behind them let their case be viewed in other persons What â—aith Pharaoh to his deepe counsellers Come let us doe wisely when indeed he went about that which destroyed him and his countrey The Scribes Pharisees and Elders tooke counsell against Christ as though they would most wisely prevent their owne Salvation Ioseph's Brethren to prevent his having dominion over them as his dreames imported thought they had taken a very wise course in selling him to the Ishmalitish Merchants which was indeed the only meanes to effect it See here in these three examples you have the depth solidity of our great est and wisest politicians and yet lewd men most absurdly and ridiculously call wicked policies wisdome and their successe happinesse but herein Sathan makes them of all Fooles the superlative in mistaking villany and madnesse for the best vertues And what is the summa totalis of all but this Faux like they project other mens over-throw purchase their owne neither hath any man beene wise to doe evill but his wisdome hath had an evill end as O the multitude of examples which are recorded to give credit to this Doctrine Was not the wisdome of the Serpent turned into a curse the wisdome of the Pharisees into a woe the wisdome of Achitophel into folly the wisdome of Nimrâ—d into confusion the wisdome of the unjst Steward into expulsieâ— out of Heaven the wisdome of Iesabel into a shamefull death and shall not the deceivers wisdome the extortioners wisdome the sorcerers wisdome the hypocrites wisdome the matchevilians wisdome and the persecutors wisdome have their severall ends answerable yes undoubâ—edly for in the issue their case will be but like the Spiders that was weaveing a curious net to catch the Swallow who when she came bore away both net and web and weaver too Wherefore O God make me but soule wise and I shall never enuy their knowledge that pity my simplicity yea let me be weake in policy so I may be wise to salvation But to make it more manifest that they are starke Fooles come we to particulars though I 'le give you but one of ten being loth to surfer my Reader § 159 The particulars wherein the Polâ—tician is a Foole are these six 1 He is improvident and without foresight 2 He saith in his heart there is no God 3 Let him be brayed in a Morter he will not depart from his foolishnesse 4 Uertue is in farre lesse esteeme with him then riches 5 He proves cruell to himselfe 6 Hee rates not things according to their true value FIrst like a naturall Foole he is improvident and without foresight Matth. 7. 26. never bethinking himselfe what a reckoning he is to give untill it is too late untill he is bearen with his owne Rod for if such an one have wealth which lasteth but for the present day of this natural life it may be but a day naturall as the same Sunne saw Iob both rich and poore to a proverbe and as sometimes by reason of fire or water there hath beene but one day betwixt a great City and none as Seneca observes or an earth quake which this present yeare hath in the Province of Calubria the inferiour in the Kingdome of Naples utterly destroyed many Cites Townes and Castles kild drowned and suncke into the earth about fifty thousand persons within the circuite of 70. miles compasse in one instant of time viz. betweene three and foure of the clock in the afternoone being Saturday the 17. of March 1637. they take no care or thought for the morrow of eternity how they shall fare then yea they runne on in sinne and so upon score with Sathan without feare or wit how they shall satisfie the same yea all that he offers them whether it be this Orphant's good or that Heires lands this enemies life or that great mans office be the meanes never so indirect and horrid they will greedily embrace the same and never thinke what a wofull reckoning will come in the end As Item for falsehood Item for forgery Item for hypocrisie Item for bribery Item for sacriledge Item for murther and treachery but come they once into those flames with Dives and finde that of Samuel to Agag 1 Sam. 15. 33. verified upon them as thou hast done to others so shall it be done to thee O then I had not thought but now I see I have spun a faire thread when I must answer for all my sinnes that am not able to answer for one of the least of them then woe is me that ever I was borne and then gladly would every Ahab restore to Naboth his Vineyard every Iudas his bribes every Achan would willingly cast downe his gold gotten by Sacriledge and every Gehazi his goods gotten by forgery and deceit But which of these
the divell and drunkards consider in the first place that out of the premises ariseth this conclusion how we live in so corrupt an aire that wee need many Antidâ—tes to keepe us from being infected for lay altogether and the summe is that Sathan and his instruments are ever and every way practising to lift us out of vertues seate that we are compassed round with temptations even as the Sea compasseth the earth watching where it may conveniently get in here kissing the banks with flattering waves there swelling against it with roring billowes for if the divel can not winne men to hell as hee seemes an Angell of light hee will strive to accomplish it as he is a spirit of terror and what he cannot do by himselfe hee will by his instruments wicked men More particularly Consider that every man hath two great and importunate suters for his soule vertue and vice whose agents are good and evill men those that are agents for vertue leigers for Christ are chiefly his faithfull Ministers their commission is the Word the weapons of their warfare their tongues the only meanes they use is to intreat and beseech men by the mercies of Christ that they will be reconciled unto God the only motive to induce men hereunto is that if they will part with the sinfull pleasures of this life they shall have a glorious kingdome prepared for them in heaven which few have faith to believe and of them which doe fewer will undergo those grievous temptations and persecutions which usuaully accompany the profession of the Gospell For though the Gospell brings remission of sinne and remission of sinne occasions all true joy and peace internall and eternall peace with God and peace of conscience yet our warre with Sathan the World and the Flesh is wonderously increased thereby which makes divers that seeme to be of Christs band forsake him for with many like mutinous Souldiers no longer pay no longer fight as that desperate mercenary said he came not to fight for his country he came to fight for his money like the Law-logick and the Switzers they are for his service that gives them the best ready wages here Sathan takes his hint to usurpe upon the children of perdition religion briâ—gs crosses Ecclesia est haeres crucis they find their devotion answered with tribulation and cannot be quiet because they seeme to bee good Now steps in the Divell why should you buy misery with want when as you may want misery why will you embrace certaine cares in hope of uncertaine comforts why doe you take paines to bee poore when you may be rich with case Here they that have not the grace nor the face to give the divell the lye throw the plow into the hedge and will not waite till harvest but lay hold on these new offers of the world and for a messe of pottage sell their patrimony Whereas on the other side those that are agents for vice factors for the divell have diverse and sundry ways to prevaile whether of policy to allure and perswade or of strength to compell and enforce us to yeeld Sathan as you have heard hath many strings to his bow that if some breake the rest may hold many traines of powder some likely to take fire yea he is like some cunning Enginere that can invent new instruments according to the present occasion and inventeth all he can and puts in practice al that he inventeth and when old tricks of cheating can doe no good Sathan and his instruments will find out new O the many advantages that Sathans instruments have above Gods servants both in wooing and winning to sinne by faire meanes and in keeping such as they have wonne and likewise in compelling and enforcing by foule you have seene sundry of them in the former Treatise I will shew you yet more § 179. AS for winning by faire meanes first how ready at hand is an evill suggestion good counsel is like unto Well-water that must be drawne up with a Pump or Bucket ill counsell is like to conduit-water which if the cock be but turned runs out alone Secondly how easie a Rhetorick drawes us to the worse yea it is hard not to doe evill uninvited even Virgil a heathen could say that it was an easie thing in sinne to go on amaine and with much facility to descend into hell which is below as a man that goeth downe a hill cannot choose but run or at least one man hath more power to pull him downe then halfe a dozen the contrary but to goe forward in goodnesse and vertue to ascend so steepy a hill as heaven which is above is hard and difficult yea we had need be drawn by many strong helpes for in this case we resemble the Spider which can descend with a ladder of her owne making be the place never so low but cannot ascend one inch without some prop or rather a very stone which descends naturally is not raised but by violence facilis descensus Sed revocare gradum down streame the Boat goes fast enough to stop it is all the cunning before it strike on a Shelfe Those things which the ground naturally produceth of it selfe she soone and easily brings forth and that in abundance you shall find your furrowes full of Cockle and Darnell though you never sowe them but what is sowen not without much labour and that sparingly because she is to those a mother to these a step-dame And commonly it fares with counsels as it doth with meates those which are least wholesome are most requested and the faction of evill is so much stronger in our nature then that of good that every least motion prevailes for the one scarce any sute for the other and seldome shall wee see truth so successefull as falshood Whence it was that Theodota and Calisto two beautiful harlots could each of them boast that they excelled Sâ—crates for that they when they pleased could draw away by their allurements his disciples and auditors from him whereas he could not with all his great wisdome and learning draw from them any of their lovers whose answer was No marvaile for I draw with an unpleasing hooke to vertue whose way is difficult and hard whereas you draw with a pleasing With of down to vice which is easie and men are naturally of themselves prone to it § 180. THirdly the world like Iael beginns with milke and ends with an hammer whereas Christ keepes backe the good wine untill afterward and makes his servants break their fast with the rod. Yea he that offered our Saviour all the kingdomes of the world and the glory thereof is ready to yeeld a man more then hee shall require as the same Iael did Sisera for as when he ask'd her water she gave him milk when he only desired shelter shee made him a bed and when he beg'd but the protection of her Tent she covered him with a mantle giving him more then he asked but
for our convenience or necessity which need not yea must not be forborne as wherefore serves discretion but that as a glasse window it may let in the light and keepe out the winde Neither can wicked men in this case be avoided but so long as wee are in this World we must converse with men of the World and we know it is lawful enough in tearms of civility to deale with infidels yea even thesavage Cannibals may receiue an answer of outward courtesie If a very dog fawne upon us we stroke him on the head and clap him on the backe much lesse is the common bond of humanity untyed by grace disparity in spirituall professions is no warrant for ingratitude yet a little friendship with such is enough the lesse communion with any of Gods enem es the more safety and sure I am that those who affect a familiar entirenesse with such bewray either too much boldnesse or too little conscience Yea we may not only converse with evill men but communiâ—ate with them also without harme so it be not in evill things as in the Sacrament the unworthy receiver eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe sibi non tibi to himselfe not to thee But as touching a familiar enâ—irenesse and leagues of amity that they are unfit unwarrantable dangerous is easie to prove As what saith the Holy Ghost by S. Paul Wee command you brethren in the name of our Lord Iesus christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that malketh inordinately and not after the instruction which 〈◊〉 received of us 2 Thes. 3. 6. And againe speaking unto the converted Ephesians touching others among them who were whoremongers uncleane persons covetous men and idolaters hee saith be not companions with them Ephesians 5. 5. 7. And lastly in that case of the incestuous Corinthian hee doth not only excommunicate him but makes a rule upon it that if any one which professeth himself a Christian shall live in any scandalous course that they shall not afford him so much as civill and familiar converse I Corinth 5. 11. If any man that is called a brother saith he be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a raiter or a drunkard or an extortioner with such an one eate not Marke this all ye swinish drunkards and beastly livers that God dischargeth us your society But to proceed Why was that Law â—nacted for the strict avoiding of Leprous persons it was not the body only that was herein respected by the God of spirits those that are spiritually contagious must be still and ever avoided they must be separated from us we from them they from us by just censures or if not wefrom them by a voluntary declination of their familiar conversation or if they can joyne our heart to theirs they will disjoyne it from God to let passe Saint Pauls charge 2 Corinthians 6. 17. come out from among them and separate your selves And that of the Angell Revelation 18. 4. come out of her my people which especially have relation to Idolaters see what hath beene the practise of Gods people since Noah Lot Abraham and Israel which have beene alledged already Doth not David say I have not sate with vaine persons neither kept company with the dissemblers I have hated the assembly of evill doers and will not company with the wicked Psal. 26. 4. 5. And was not Ioseph whom the Holy Ghost stileth a just man fully minded before the Angell forbad him to put away Mary after he was betrothed unto her when hee but supposed her to bee dishonest Matthew 1. 19. And was not all this to shew us what we should doe in the like cases Wherefore let us tread in their steps and say with a worthy Divine though I may have many bad acquaintance yet I will have no bad companions for even the tame beasts will not keepe with the wild nor the cleane dwell with the leprous But above all let us keepe no drunkards nor swearers in our houses Psalme 101. 4 5 6 7 8. no nor scoffers Ismael must be turned out of doores when hee once fals a jeering of Isaac and indeed if we doe it is a shrewd suspition we are not sincere our selves for grace as it is resembled to heate so like heat it gathereth together things of one kind separateth things of a contrary nature as drosse from Gold In fine if they have forsaken all honesty and good conscience it is time for us to forsake them if they depart from us in the foundation of faith and good workes let us as justly wee may depart from them in the building of brotherly fellowship they build on the sand let us build on the rock yea if they forsake the right way wee must forsake them or Christ will forsake us § 196. BUt least this should not suffice see some reasons to enforce thee thereunto which all Gods people propound to themselves when they bid adue to their old associates in the broad way and purpose to pledge them no more in their wicked customes The reasons are principally 5. and they are weighty 1. That they may come to the sight of their errors 2. That we may not be Infected by them nor partake of their sinnes 3. That we may not be infeoffed in their punishments 4. That So farre as is possible we may be at peace with all men 5. Because their company would bereave us of comfort which otherwise we should enjoy being alone First that thereby they may come to the sight of their errors and consequently be reclaimed S. Paul when hee commands the Corinthians to shut the incestuous person out of their society and fellowship gives this reason that his Spirit might bee saved in the day of the Lord 1 Corinth 5. 5. Againe when he writ to Timothy that he had done the same touching Hymeneus and Alexander he yeeldeth this to be the reason that they might learn not to blaspheme 1 Tuâ—othy 1. 20. And in another place If any man obey not our saying note him by a letter and have no company with him that hee may bee ashamed 2 Thes. 3. 14. It was the practise of the primitive Church in her first love that shee might shine in beauty and fairenes above alother Synagogues not to admit any scandalous person or open offender into the Communion of Saints untill their foule spots were carefully washt off and taken away by the teares of repentance The bread of the children was not given unto dogs neither by an equall bounty to the godly and the wicked was there an equall encouragement to godlinesse and iniquity but a separation was made betweene the sick and the whole and this separation had no other intent but edification even an edification of the spirit by the destruction of the flesh so that men could find no fault with the dispensers of this power having nothing to complaine of but that their lives thereby were sought to be amended and their soules to be saved I
their God deceiveth them with needlesse feares and scruples as once Rabshekâ—h would have perswaded the Iewes touching their trust and confidence 2 King 18. 22. 25 30. 32. 33. 35. The beleive what they see and feele and Know they beleeve the lawes of the Land that there be places and kinds of punishment here below and that they have bodies to suffer temporall smart if they transgresse and this makes them abstaine from Murther Fellony and the like but they beleeve not things invisible and to come for if they did they would as well yea much more feare him that hath power to cast both body and soule into Hell as they doe the temporall Magistrate that hath onely power to kill the body they would thinke it a very hard bargaine to winne the whole world and lose their owne soules Luk. 9. 25. but enough of this having proved the Drunkard an Atheist Sect. the 146. § 155. SEcondly another maine reason is ignorance yea ignorance if we rightly consider it is the cause of all sinne sinne indeed at first was the cause of ignorance but now ignorance is the cause of sinne Swearing and lying and killing and steaâ—eing and whoring I may well adde drunkennesse abound saith the Prophet because there is no knowledge of God in the Land Hosea 4. 1. 2. It is a people that doe erre in their hearts saith God why because they have not knowne my wayes Psal. 95. 10. yee are deceived saith our Saviour because ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God Matth. 22. 29. when Christ wept over Hierusalem what was the cause even their blindnesse If thou hadst knowne saith he at the least in this thy day those things which how are hid from thine eyes Luk. 19. 42. Because men know not the wages of evill therefore they doe it and because they would securely doe it therefore they refuse to know it Oh that men knew how good it is to obay to disobay how evill then should we have a new world but the Devill takes an order for that where he can prevaile and therefore he hath the Poâ—e in one part of the world who will allow his subjects I meane the Layty no divine learning the Turke in another who denies to his any learning at all and this is no small advantage unto him for that Edict of Iulianus the Emperour whereby it was interdicted unto Christians to be admitted into Scholes Lectures and other exercises of learning was esteemed a more pernicious engine and machination against the Christiâ—n faith then were all the sanguinary perâ—ecutions of his predecessors Ob But blessed be God and our gracious Soveraigne may some say this is not our case we have plenty of light in our Horizon our Land abounds both with humane and divine learning Aâ—sw Very true and it is a blessing which we can never be sufficiently thankfull for and yet the Devill takes such an order that the odds is not much betweene our light and their darknesse for either Wizard-like he preseâ—â—s things in a false glasse or Sorcerer-like he makes things appeare other then they are by deception of our spirituall sight or Sophister-like he darkens the truth which the Word will not suffer to bee conceald with subtils distinctions as a man that puts out the candle with snuffing it or Casuistlike he fills mens heads with a world of Problemes and Paradoxes their hearts and consciences with a thousand needlesse and endlesse questions unprofitable cold and bloodlesse impertinencies whereby the sound and saving knowledge of Iesus Christ and him crucified which was the onely care and studie of St. Paul I Cor. 2. 2. is the portion but of a few even amongst us as the effect shewes for are not most men to whom the Gospell is so gloriously preach't cheifely guided according to the Rudiments of the world and not after Christ Col. 2. 8. Quest. But will any now in this cleare Sunne-shine of the Gospell be perswaded that they know not Christ crucified Answer It is too true that few know him for if they knew Christ they could not but love him and loving him they would keepe his commandements Iob. 14. 15. for hereby saith St. Iohn is it knowne that we know him if we keepe his Commandements 1 Ioh. 2. 3. but he that saith I know him and yet keepeth not his Commandements is a lyer and there is no truth in him ver the 4. Rightly a man knowes no more then he practiseth it is said of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 21. that he knew no sin because he did no sin in which sense he knowes no good that doth no good and he may know much that cannot utter much as a Martyr answered Bishop Bonner My Lord I cannot dispute for the truth but I caâ— dye for the truth a good argument to prove that he knew Christ for mens actions expresse their knowledge better then their words Vertue is ordained a wife for knowledge and where â—hese two joyne there will proceede from them a Noble prodiene a generation of good workes but they that wander in by pathes declare themselves ignorant of the right way of salvation Rom. 3. 17. That is but a raw knowledge which is not digested into practise What 's the difference betweene Christianity and infidelity but holinesse For as Rhetoricke is the Art of speaking well and Logicke the art of disputing well and Magistracy the art of governing well so Christianity is the art of liveing well It is not worth the name of knowledge that may be heard onely and not seene good discourse is but the froth of wisdome the pure and solid substance of it is in well framed actions when we are wise in our hands as the Dutch are said to be These things if ye know happy are ye if ye doe them Iohn 13. 17. and in Deut. 4. 6. keepe the Commandements of God and doe them for this is your wisdome and understanding before God and men The Knowledge that saves us is more then a bare apprehension of God it knowes his power and therefore feares him knowes his justice and therefore serves him knowes his mercy and therefore trusts him knowes his goodnesse and therefore loves him c. for he that hath the saving knowledge of God hath every other grace there is a sweete correspondence betweene every one where there is any one in truth As in the generation the head is not without the body nor the body without each member nor the soule without it's powers and faculties so in the regeneration where there is any one grace in truth there is every one 2 Cor. 5. 17. but see it in particulars They that know thy name saith the Psalmist will trust in thee Psal. 9. 10. there 's saith Let him that rejeyceth rejoyce in this that he understandeth and knoweth me Ier 9. 24. ther 's joy Hee that knoweth God heareth us I Ioh. 4. 6. there is an awfull attention to the Word preach't If thou knewest me
saith our Saviour thou wouldest have asked of me Iohn 4. 10. ther 's the Spirit of prayer and supplication He that knoweth God loveth God and the children of God I Iohn 4. 7. 8. He that knoweth God keepeth his Commandements I Iohn 2. 3. Now I know thee saith Iob to God I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Iob. 42. 5. 6. He that knoweth God is borne of God I Iohn 4. 7. there is love obedience hurnility godly sorrow regeneration I might goe on and instance in every other grace For as feeleing is inseparable to all the Organs of sense the eye sees and feeles the care heares and feeles the palat tastes feeles the nosthrills smell and feele so knowledge is involved in every grace faith knowes and beleives charity knowes and loves patience knowes and suffers temperance knowes and abstaines humility knowes and stoopes repentance knowes and mournes obedience knowes and does confidence knowes and rejoyees hope knowes and expects compassion knowes and pities Yea as there is a power of water in every thing that growes it is fatnesse in the Olive sweetnesse in the Figg cheerefulnesse in the Grape strength in the Oake talenesse in the Cedar rednesse in the Rose whitenesse in the Lilly c. so knowledge is in the hand obedience in the mouth benediction in the knee humility in the eye compassion in the heart charity in the whole body and soule piety Alasse if menhad the true knowledge of Iesus Christ it would disperse and dispell all the blacke clouds of their raigning finnes in a moment as the Sunne doth no sooner shew his face but the darknesse vanisheth or as Caesar did no sooner looke upon his enemies but they were gone Egypt swarmed with Locusts till the west winde came that left not one He cannot delight in sinne nor dote upon the world that knowes Christ savingly § 156. OB. But the objection which as they thinke cannot be answered like the invincible Nauy in 88. is this We see by experience that the strictest livers are seldome the wisest men yea who more vicious then many that know most Answ I am not ignorant that some Fooles have made other Fooles beleeve that none trouble themselves about Religion but the simplest yea the most holy and religious in all ages have beene accounted Fooles and mad men El sha was counted no better by that man of the Sword 2 King 9. 11. in Hosea's time the Prophet was esteemed a foole and the spirituall man mad Hosea 9. 7. yea our Saviour Christ with open mouth was proclaimed mad by his carnall hearers Iohn 10. 20. Mar. 3. 21. and Paul the like by Festus Acts 26. 24. yea all the Apostles were reputed Fooles 1 Cor. 4. 10. and this hath beene the worlds vote ever since the sincere Christian was so reputed in Pliny's time and after in St. Austins time yea Iulian the Pelagian could gibe St. Austin that he had none of the wise Sages nor the learned Senate of Philosophers on his side but onely a company of meane trades-men and handycrafts-men of the vulgar sort that toke part with him whose answer was thou reproachest the weake things of the world which God hath chosen to confound the things which are mighty And is it otherwise now Is not the honest devout orthodox Christian the plain dealing and religious man hee that declares his meaning by his words that cannot or will not lye and desemble shift and flatter temporise and accommodate buy promotion supplant growe rich take bribes he that will rather suffer then do evill ordinarily esteemed an idiot or silly asse yes by all that are craftily wicked as you may heare out of their owne mouths Wisd. 5. 3. to 9. To worldly men Christian wisdome seemes folly saith S. Gregory and well it may for even the wisdome of God is foolishnesse with the world 1 Cor. 1. 18. 23. But shall we therfore take it for grant that they are wisest because they suppose and say they are no for first as he must have a sweet breath that can judge who hath a sweet breath so to judge who is a wise man is onely the office of a wise man Secondly the Lawes of our Land wil not admit a delinquent for a witnesse af-after he is found guilty neither will Irand they stand convicted of folly Sections the 34. 38. 39. 40. 51. 91. 157. 184. 190. But if they will put themselves upon a faire tryall they shall have an equall proceeding or if they will heare the case argued if reason give not sentence on the good mans side let mee suffer as a slanâ—erer Indeed wisdome hath alwayes carried that shew of excellency that not only the good have highly affected it as Salomon who prayed for wisdome and Moses who studied for wisdome and the Queene of Sheba who travelled for wisdome but the very wicked have laboured for it who are ashamed of other vertues so that wisdome is not only justified of her children but also of the children of folly Knowledge is so faire a virgiâ—â— that every cleare eye is in love with her it is a pearle despised of none but Swineâ—O the pleasure that rationall men take in it they that care not for one dramme of goodnesse would yet have a full scale of knowledge though they never mind to do good yet there is no good which they would not know among all the trees of the garden none so pleaseth them as the tree of knowledge As wisdome is excellent above all so it is affected of all as oyle was both of the wise and foolish Virgins it hath beene a mark which every man hath shot at ever since Eve sought to be as wise aâ— her Maker But as an hundred shootes for one that hits the marke some short some over and some aside so an hundred ayme at wisdome for one that lights upon it â—cclesiastes 7. 28. Yea as many thinke themselves good fellowes for one that is a good-fellow indeed so many thinke themselves wisemen for one that is wise indeed Of all sorts of men in the world none repute themselves or are reputed by others wiser then the profound humanist and cunning politician and the yet neither of these may compare with the goâ—ly 〈◊〉 for wisdome and knowledge § 157. FIrst not the humanist for they are not alwayes the wisest which know most as I have proved at large â— 50. 51. I will further confirme it There are a generation of men that mightily thirst after wisdome and knowledge and to get it they are no niggards of their labour for they leave nothing unstudied but themselves they know all parts and places of the created world can discourse of every thing visible and invisible divine humane and mundane whether it bee meant of substances or accidents are ignorant of nothing but the way to heaven are acquainted with all Lawes and customes save the Law of God and customes of Christianity they are strangers no where but in the Court
from passion and affection touching either party and as our eyes could not aright judge of colours except they were void of all colours nor our tongues discerne of tastes unlesse freed from tasts so no man can jndge aright of passions except his mind be altogether free from passions Wherefore bee not so much led by lust passion or affection as by reason Wee know appetite in a burning Feavor will call for cold drink even to the overthrow of our lives if reason gainsay it not But as they that would see more sharply and certainly shut one eye so doe thou let the eyes or windowes of thy affections bee shut to the allurements of the world and the flesh least they draw thee from the right line of obedience yea shut to humane reason also least it make thee mistake and swerve from faiths injunctions And then if thou canst but bring thy flesh with it's lusts a little asleep while thy soule is waking thou hast entred â—hrough the gate into the porch of this heavenly Palace But he that will doe this must shunne all dispute with Sathan of which else where Secondly he must get an humble conceit of his owne wisdome The first step to knowledge is to know our owne ignorance we must become fooles in our owne judgements before we can be truly wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. And indeed the opinion of our knowing enough is one of the greatest causes of our knowing so little for what we presume to have attained we seeke not after Humble eyes are most capable of high mysteries he will teach the humble his way saith David Psal. 25. 9. yea the first lesson of a Christian is humility Matth. 11. 29. Pro. 1. 7. and he that hath not learnt the first lesson is not fit to take out a new One would thinke that a worldly wise man might most easily also make a wise Christian but St. Paul saith no except first he becomes a foole that is acknowledge his cleare light and wisdome which he hath so magnified for clearenesse to be blindnesse and ignorance he cannot be wise in this case 1 Cor. 3. 18. Yea saith St. Cyprian it is as much lost labour to preach unto a man the things of God before he be humbled with the sight of hiâ— wants as to offer light to a blind man to speake to a deafe man or to labour to make a brute beast wise Pride is a great let to true wisdome for God resisteth the proâ—d aâ—d onely gives grace to the humble Iames 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 5. hence it comes to passe that few proud wits are reformed I am come unto judgement into this world saith our Saviour to the Pharisees that they which see not might see and that they which â—ee meaning in their owne opinion might be made blind Ioh. 9. 39. which was the reason he propounded his woes to the Pharisees and his Doctrines to the people An heart full of Pride is like a vessell full of aire this selfe-opinion must be blowne out of us before saving knowledge will be powred into us Humility is the knees of the soule and to that posture only the Lamb will open the booke Christ will know none but the humble and none but humble soules truly know Christ. Now this grace of humility is obtained by taking a serious view of our wants the Peacock's pride is abated when she peâ—ceives the blacknesse of her legs and feete Now suppose we know never so much yet that which we doe knovv is farre lesse then â—hat which we are ignorant of and the more we know the more we knovv vve vvant at all both vvise and holy â—en have felt and confest yea this vvas the judgement of the vvisest even amongst the Heathen 〈◊〉 being demanded vvhy the Oracle of Delphoâ— should pronounce him the vvisest man of Greece made ansvver I know nothing but this that I knoâ— nothing neither can there be any thing in me to â—â—rifie the Oracle eâ—cept this that I am not wise and know it whereas others are not wise and know it not and to be ignorant and knovv it not is by farre the greater ignorance So the renovvned Orator Cicero even bevvayled his own emptinesse I would quoth he I could light on the truth as easily as I can 〈◊〉 fasehood a negative knovvledge vvas the greatest knovvledge he vvould acknovvledge in himselfe He is wise that can truly see and acknowledge his ignorance he is ignorant that thinkes himselfe wise I 'le cleare it by a similitude being here below we thinke one Iland great but the whole earth unmeasurably if we were above in the firmament with these eyes the whole earth were it equally enlightned would seeme as little to us as now the least Starre in the firmament seemes to us upon earth and indeed how few Stars are so little as it even such is the naturall mans mistake in judging of and comparing what he hath with what he wants naturall wisdome with spirituall and Heavenly Wherefore if thou perceivest not more strength and wisdome to be in the weaknesse and foolishnesse of Gods truth 1 Cor. 1. 25. which therefore only seemes weaknesse and foolishnesse because the strength and wisdome of it is not perceived by the fleshly eye then in the strength and wisdome of the profoundest Naturian and if thou beleivest not the godly to be most wise doe not blame them for foolishnesse but thy selfe for blindnesse and desire the Lord as Elisha did for his servant to open thine eyes Thus as by mortification and dying unto sinne we come to vivification and living unto grace or as by dying the death of nature we obtaine the life of glory so by becomming a foole a man may attaine to wisdome Wherefore get humility and thou hast mounted another step toward wisdome entred a second roome of this Palace § 164. THirdly let him get faith For as without faith no man can please God so without faith no man can know God Faith doth clearely behold those things which are hid both from the eye of sense and the eye of reason I am come into the world saith our Saviour that whosoever beleeveth in me should not sit in darknesse Iohn 12. 46. Reason and faith are the two eyes of the soule Reason discernes naturall objects faith spirituall and supernaturall We may fee farre with our bodily eye sense farther with the minds eye reason but farther with the soules eye Faith then with both Yea the rationall doth not so farre exceede the sensuall as the spirituall exceeds the rationall and though reason and humane learning is as oyle to the Lampe of our understandings which makes them burne clearer yea so doubles the sight of our minds as Menander speakes that there is as much difference betweene the learned and unlearned as there is betweene man and beast yet Faith and illumination of the spirit adds to the sight of our minds as a Prospective glasse adds to the corporall sight Matth. 16. 17. Christ is