Oil of Scorpions

SECT. I.

OF this profitable Consideration, I desire this may be the first step or degree: Let us consider and esteem our Miseries as the strokes of wrath, even of an offended Creator. That we may the better perceive this Truth, let us look steadfastly upon them, and behold the breadth and depth of these stripes, and I think they will show unto us the very Print and Stampe of divine Indignation. It is almost an Impression in Nature; surely, it seldom fails in the Sons of Grace, when plagues are notable in Greatness, vn wontednesse, or vnsutablenesse to their Causes, they cry out, Digitus Dei, The finger of the Lord. The men of Ashdod being stricken with Emerods, acknowledge that the hand of God was •… ore upon them. The very Heathen Mariners, in an extraordinary storm, cry upon their gods, believing strange punishments to be the effects of a divine Wrath. Even Fools being plagued for their Transgressions, cry unto the Lord, and by crying to him acknowledge that their plagues come from him to whom they cry for deliverance. No marvel then, if Moses the friend of God understood God's punishments, to be the effects of God's wrath; who when the plague was begun after the Rebellion of Korah, said plainly, Wrath is gone out from the Lord. And that we may know in some measure, what punishments are the strokes of that wrath, God himself gives the Names of some of them Now let us look on our Chastisements, and see if we can find the Names of them, in those Rolls of God's Judgments. Yea, let us see whether there be not in them that greatness or strangeness which hath drawn an acknowledgement of God's wrath, I say, not from Saints only, but from Heathens and Fools.

SECT. II. The first Judgment.

ANd here in the first place, let us call to remembrance a Judgment of Note, whose stroke by the weight of it, looks like the blow of provoked Omnipotence, whose name is found in the Catalogue of God's Judgments, and whereof it hath been said in the Word of Truth, that the wrath of God hath given less blows with the same Rod. The punishment which I speak of, is the Pestilence, which almost devoured our chiefest City, and with the sickness of the Head, the Body of this Land was also distempered. I doubt not, but some that have forgotten it, will be almost angry to have it remembered; but it were better to have a profitable remembrance of the same plague, then to have a revengeful remembrance by another. It is the forgetfulness of God's old chastisements that makes us so soon to have need of new ones: for if we laid the former to our Hearts, the latter perchance would not be laid afresh on our backs. Surely, it ought not to be forgotten until it hath done the errand for which God sent it. This it seems is not yet done, for then new punishments would not be sent upon the same errand. Let us therefore remember it, until we have dispatched the business of it; and then may we best forget it, when it hath once been soundly and effectually remembered. For in this case Remembrance is the best way to forgetfulness▪ and forgetfulness is an especial reason of Remembrance. But herein let us see the baseness and barrenness of our Hearts. We can for our pleasure read in a Chronicle the story of a great Mortality, how so many thousands died in one week, so many were laid in one pit, so few, or so none left to attend, and bury, the dying and the Dead. But to read of such things for our profit, in a work of Application is noisome and troublesome. What is this else but to make a mere Recreation of misery, to 〈◊〉 the benefit of so re •… 〈◊〉 a Chastisement, and 〈◊◊〉 vnlearning dullness, to call unto God to make us a matter of like recreation to others? But to the wise of Heart the remembrance will be profitable, for the wisdom of God hath not been scrup •… lous to record a less plague in the Scriptures, and God's wisdom will be justified by the children of Wisdom. Moses the Almighty's Secretary vouchsafeth to speak of fourteen thousand and seven hundred dying by a plague; yea of that plague he says unto Aaron, That wrath was gone out from the Lord. If then so small a plague was a stroke of God's wrath, what shall we think but, that a far greater stroke comes of a far greater Wrath? When David received a pestilence whereof there died seventy thousand Men, it is recorded, that the Wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel. What shall we think, but the like blow comes from the like Wrath, except out of Security or Self-love, we will think, that in the same punishment God was diversely affected, and that he loved us more in these last sinful Times, then he did Israel in the Time of David? If we would yet doubt whether the pestilence be a chief Rod of God's Wrath, God himself will resolve 〈2 pages missing〉 maintenance to many. Neither is this decay of Trade in some lesser limbs and farthest from the Heart of it, but in a principal Member, even a Member wherein consists, almost the Life of our Liuelihood. For if a man in a Word would name the chief Commodity of this Land, which it nourisheth most, and by which it is most nourished, it is the Fleece of the Flock; and a loss in such a general Good, is a general punishment. It was reckoned among God's promised blessings, That Israel should be blessed in the flocks of his Sheep; And it was reckoned among the curses, That Israel should be cursed in the flocks of his Sheep. The substance of that blessing is the benefit that Israel should take by the Flock, and the substance of the Curse was a Loss. So then if we want the benefit of the Flock, and have a loss instead of it, the substance of the Curse is upon us, though the manner may differ. And if we will doubt whether this Loss be a punishment of God's wrath, Let us but look about us, and see with what Miseries it punisheth us. The Landlord feels a loss in his Rents and Fines; the Tenant, a disability in paying either; but especially the Poor, in his whole Liuelihood. So that to the Poor, the vility of this Commodity is both a Famine and Nakednesse. For, whereas •… eretofore by their Labors they got both Bread and Clothing, now their Labors are so little worth, that they they can pay for neither. And if it be so, then to the Poor even a plenty is a famine, and abundance of wool is Nakednesse. For what is the Bread to him that he cannot buy, and the Clothes which •… ee cannot put on? A pitiful thing when men would labor for their living, but cannot get their living by their Labor. And though some by the greatness of their E states, and dullness of their Souls, may put from themselves a feeling of this judgment (though they can hardly some part of the Loss) yet Christian Hearts by Compassion feel the Miseries of others, and by Sorrow or Succor bear a part of their Burden, knowing that it is their own flesh that is hungry and naked, though it be worn by others. Not to do this, were not to be so good, as one that was evil. For, in the Famine of Samaria when a woman complained to Jehoram, that she had boiled her Son and eaten him, the Abomination of this Miserie made him to tear his clothes. And if yet we would see more plainly a hand out of Heaven reaching this blow to us, Let us mark in what an unlikely season it falls upon us. It is fallen in a time of our universal peace with the World, and Peace is usually the Nurse of Trafficke, but with us the child pin •… s at the breasts of the Nurse. War the Step-mother of Trade, hath sometimes nourished more Returnes, then now Peace the Natural Mother, and what shall we say unto this, but that a Curse, even the Curse of David is upon us? Let their Table be made a s •… are, and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a Trap. Which how shall we separate from that which follows? That God's Indignation is poured out, and his wrathful Anger takes hold on us: And yet his Anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

SECT. IIII. The third Judgment.

FOr another Misery hath over-taken us. And as a Man decayeth two ways, either by debarring food that should come from without, or wasting the blood that is already within, so do we decay both for want of that supply which Trade might return, and by the wasting of that which is returned in an inward Consumption. Whither by the gain of Transportation, or the practice of some that wish well to our poverty, but sure I am by God's permissiue displeasure, the Treasure of the Land is abated, if the voice of the people be the voice of Truth. And though Disproportion of Trade, and this Scarsitie be some Kin, yet hath this more kindred besides, for poverty comes more ways then one. By the loss of this blood the Commonwealth faynteth, and the limbs thereof grow feeble. Hospitalitie dieth, Alms are diminished, and Neede increasing, the supply of Neede decreaseth. Commerce deceiveth and is deceived, and even Honesty it self grows like Dishonestie, while it faileth to perform what it promised, because another promise failed it. No Trade prospers so steadily as the Trade that deuours trades; for the scarcity of Money makes a plenty of Usurers; their hunger devouring most Money, when least is to be gotten. A strange absurdity, that Money should bring most to the Lender, when it brings least to the Borrower; and that the Rent of Money should be dearest, when the Rent of Land is cheapest. By this Means poverty in the Body Politick, is like poverty in the Body Natural. For poverty in both breeds store of Vermin, which being bred of poverty, do increase that which bred them. And while Poverty by the mediation of Usury increaseth Poverty, Usury in the middle of these two Pouerties grows the richer by both of them. A Plague begot of a Plague, the effect of an old Want, and the Cause of a New. So while the Dragons give their breasts to their young ones, and each thing relieveth and preserveth his Kind, Man only is cruel to his own Flesh, and enjoyeth the Miseries of his own Kind; he relieveth not Want, but relieves him self upon it. Yet men must be mannerly in touching this Vice, for else they will amend their fault with a worse, and instead of a leisurable undoing by lending, they will undo men at once by calling in suddenly what they have Lent. And so from the unmercifulness of an over-cruel Lending, they fall into the unmercifulness of not Lending. I wish they could find the middle way between hurting by lending, and hurting by not lending, which perchance might be this, when such a Rent is set upon money, as both the Borrower and Lender might be able to thrive. For this I think is the golden Mean of lending in Commerce; though I know there is a Lending beyond this, a work of Alms and Mercy, which lends to the Lord in the poor, and neither looks for lending again in exchange, nor for any other earthly Reward. But avoiding those Rocks in our Sea of Miserie▪ which both make wrack, and yet seem to entertain the wracked, I arrive at this safe and true Conclusion; That if the increase of silver as stones, was recorded as a blessing in Solomon's time, then may this Want be taken for a punishment. Yea, this is the putting of money into a broken bag which the Prophet Haggai names for a punishment, inflicted by God upon the Jews. And if it be a blessing when Israel lends to many Nations and doth not borrow, then is it a Curse when Israel borrows and doth not lend. This is a Consumption, which in many hath consumed the Eyes, and caused sorrow of Hart, and yet the wrath of God is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

SECT. V. The fourth Judgment.

FOr to us of late, even the Laws of Heaven, have seemed to change, and the Covenant with Noah from his general Course, hath had a particular exception. While the Earth remaineth, saith the Lord, Seedtime & Harvest, Cold and Heate, Summer and Winter, Day and Night shall not cease. True is that which the Lord saith, The course of these things shall never generally fail, neither by their ceasing (as in the Verse before) will he smite every living thing. But in particular Cases and for the sins of particular Nations. The Sun stands still upon Gibeon, and the Moon in the Valley of Aialon. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap: yea, be ye ashamed, O ye Husband-men, for the Wheat and for the Barley, because the harvest of the Field is perished. And such hath been of late our punishment. Our Summers have been changed into Winters, the Seasons of the Yeere have inverted their order, and resembled them that have perverted their Liues. The Sun even in the pride of his Ascending, hath covered his face, with black mourning Clouds, as loath to look upon vnmourning sinners. Yea, the tears of Heaven, unseasonably in regard of the year, but seasonably in regard of our sins, have fallen down to wash away the filthiness with which we are defiled. The fall of the Leafe hath been in Summer, and a Spring in the fall of the Leafe. The Husbandman this while stands amazed, at the strange displacing, and confounding of his husbandry. By incessant showers the Corn brings forth in the same place where it self was bred; and the same womb where it self was bred, is also the womb in which it brings forth. So that which should have made bread for food, is turned to an unkindly Seed; which will neither be Bread nor Seed. Yea, we have had a strange kind of Reaping, and that Reaping hath been also an unkindly Sowing. For, the Wind hath reaped much Corn, and that Reaping hath been also a Sowing. So the Husbandman hath saved three labors of Reaping, Threshing, and Sowing, but by all this saving he hath been a great Loser. What shall I say of it? Acerba res est terrae sterilitas & frugum pernicies, &c. A bitter thing is the barrenness of the Earth, and the destruction of Corn, now flattering us with Hope, and drawing near to the Barn. A bitter thing is an unseasonable Harvest, and to see the Husbandman sighing over his Labors, and looking upon them as upon untimely Births. We looked for much and it came too little, God hath blown upon our Labors, and what is this but a punishment pronounced by the mouth of the Lord of Hosts, in his Prophet? And I wish the present Time show •… us the worst of this Judgment, and that it do not grow as Time increaseth. The great poverty of many dri •… es their Corn to the Market in the beginning of the Yeere; but in the end of the year, when Poverty can sell cheap no longer, because it hath no more to sell, then commonly the wealth of wretched worldlings sells cruelly, because it may choose whether it will sell or no. So Poverty in the beginning of the veere, takes less because it hath more need; and Riches in the end of the year, crave more because they have less need. Yea, Poverty sometimes at the end of the year pays dear, for that which at the beginning of the yere it self sold cheap. This is a Judgment of God provoked to anger; and yet thus the Wrath of God is not turned away, but his Hand is stretched out still.

For many other Miseries have been upon us, a Canker and Caterpillar Injustice and the Proiector, losses in the East Indies, a Massacre in the West; most lamentable losses in the Palatinate; Losses by Pirates of Ships goods and Men, and I wis •… with those Men no losses of Souls. But I desire not to be over-large or vehement in expressing our Miseries, for their smart of it self would make them well known. Only I take such a part and pattern of them as may enforce upon us an acknowledgement of God's wrath, and by that acknowledgement set our feet one step in the way of removing it. Else we are like Fools that go laughing to the Stocks, and we call for Greater strokes by not feeling the Lesser. Let us therefore consider these Judgments, until we acknowledge, Paena patient is, ira creditor decernentis. The pain of the Sufferer, is the Wrath of the Inflicter.

SECT. VI. The unseasonable kind of curing these Judgments, confuted.

BVt here the Politician gives me the stop, and is himself at a stand, for hearing these Evils he will go no further, but falls into a •… rance, and therein cleaves his Brayne in two parts, and with the forepart he will discourse to you of the Causes, and with the hinder part of the Remedies, but in both sets God aside, and thinks not of him either as a Cause, or a Remedy. But first for his Causes, I would fain know of this wizard, when ever this Kingdom had more likely Causes of prosperity, then it now had, in the Union of the whole Island under one King, of the same Religion, and settling us in an universal Peace. And then for his Remedies; how can we trust any Remedies of his, when Parliaments, that here to ford •… aue been the Remedies of most weighty grievances have not lived themselves, unto •… ipenesse and perfection▪ If then such great Remedies prove sick, what will become of the small Remedies of the political Discourser? Alas, if we be bound in •… uen, how can a piece of Earth not seven foot high, reach up thither to untie the Knot? especially, since he that binds us, hath said himself, when he shuts, no man can open. When God hath a Rod in his Hand, and chasteneth sinners, it is little good manners, and as little possibility by craft or force to wrest the Rod out of his Hand. But the only way and Method to get away the Rod, is first to work on his Will, and next upon his Power. If his Will be vn moved, the World cannot master his Power; but his Will being moved, that moveth his Power▪ Now God himself hath shown us Means how to move his Will, but he never shown any means, his Will being vnmoued, how to master his Power. Let us therefore follow his own Order in prevailing with him, for the God of strength as Sampson the strong, hath shown us the only way, how he may be overcome. And when once God is overcome, and his Furie turned into Love, then shall we be loosed above, and set free below: for the higher Cause being pleased, will give a blessing to the Causes below. If Heaven and Earth be at odds, let the •… sbandman sow and plant never so diligently, the Heaven can make fruitless all his Labors on Earth. The Sun and the Clouds by abundant absence or presence can destroy his Hopes. But when Heaven and Earth are friends, then Summer and Winter▪ Seed-time and Harvest run on their Race. When God was displeased what was the effect? Ye have sowed much and reaped little. Again, when God was pleased; Mark that very day, for from that, day I will bless you Wherefore▪ let us follow God's own order of Remedies, and strive to be first healed abo •… ▪ and then expect a success on our Remedies below; and to this end let us pass on to a second Consideration, which may be this.

Sect. I.

T Hat these punishments of Wrath, and the wrath that inflicts these punishments, are provoked by our Sins. Whē the Harts of Men, are according to the Heart of GOD, when the Image of God is in their Souls, and their Actions proceed from that Image, then is there a most excellent Con •… ort and Harmonie between Heaven and Earth, and from thence issue the most ravishing sounds of earthly, and heavenly Benedictions. To this Harmonie the Choir of Angels adjoynes it self, and sings a Dittie expressing the Music: Glory be to God on High, Peace on Earth, and Goodwill towards Men. When Man gives God in heaven his Glory, then God reacheth out to Man on earth Peace and Goodwill. Now the Peace and Goodwill of God though they pass our Understanding, yet we understand so much of them, that from them flow all the Mercies and Blessings that we can conceive and understand, and those also which the Heart of Man cannot conceive, nor his Tongue express. For the Lord having in himself, a boundless fullness of Joy, and pleasures for evermore, his Goodwill and Peace doth unlock unto Man that Treasury, and from thence flow forth the innumerable bounties of heavenly and earthly blessings. Hence are those manifold promises of GOD unto Man, of God I say unto Man, when Man is conformable unto God. To Noah, pleasing God in holiness, is an Ark of Salvation given amidst a general destruction. To Abraham, pleasing God in the Sacrifice of his Son, is a promise given that he should be the Father of the Son of God. To the Israelites walking in God's statutes, and keeping his Commandments, God promiseth rain in due season, the Land shall yield her increase, they shall eat their bread to the full; in sum, he will be their God, and they shall be his people; which is the knot of perfect Blessedness. The like is repeated in Deuteronomy, where to the keepers of God's Laws are promised, blessings in the City, the Field, the Sheep, and the Cattle, &c. And Saint Paul testifies the whole substance of this Truth, in this one sentence, Godliness hath the promises of this Life and that to come. But on the Contrarie, Sin makes a discord between God and Man, and from that discord flow forth infinite punishments. There is no quarrel between God and Man but Sin, and this is a main one, for it sets Heaven and Earth each against other. Man walketh contrary to God in his sinful disobedience; and God walks contrary to Man in his wrathful Judgments; but woe be to Man, for he striveth with his Maker, the potsherd with the Potter, and he must needs be battred and broken in pieces. This also is strong by the powerful confirmation of the word of Truth. Even the Kings of the Earth, if they band themselves against the Lord, the Lord shall laugh at them, but with a laughter most lamentable. For God's Laughter is the fore-runner of Judgment, as a blast of Sun-shine to a mighty Tempest. And behold the Tempest; He shall speak to them in his Wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure; yea, he will break them with a Rod of Yron, and dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel. Neither is God terrible only to the Princes of the earth, but to the People also. If ye do wickedly (saith Samuel ) ye shall be consumed, both you and your King. And the same places that promise Blessings to Man being at peace with God▪ denounce heavy and bitter Curses unto Man being at odds with God by disobedience. If ye walk contrary unto me, I will walk contrary unto you in •… urie, I, even I, will chastise you seven Times for your sins. Cursed shalt thou be in the City, and cursed in the Field. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy Land, the increase of thy Kine, and thy flocks of Sheep. Cursed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and thy going out; the Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke. And the conclusion brings with it the reason of these Curses, which is the Burden of a Burden; Because Israel hearkens not to the Lord his God, to keep his Commandments and his Statutes. Neither are these words only, but they are turned into deeds, and what was threatened was also surely inflicted. Accordingly the whole story of Israel under Moses, Judges and Kings is a Mirrour of this Truth, the wickedness of Israel being attended by the plagues of Israel. And even this Moral doth the Prophet Micah give of Israel's Miseries. For the transgressions of Israel is all this come upon them. And lest we should think this attendance of punishment upon sins to belong only to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles; to the time of the Law, and not to the time of the Gospel, let us hear Christ affirming it, and the Apostles after Christ, and the Saints after the Apostles. Christ himself having spoken of the bloody sins of Jerusalem, (with tears) doth second the mention of their bloodiness, with a prediction of Judgment: Behold your house is left unto you desolate. The Apostle Paul saith to the Corinthians; That for their unworthy receiving some of them were sick, and some were dead. Yea, he in •… ers a general rule, That not judging ourselves we are judged of the Lord. Saint John in the Revelation, or an Angel in Saint John; Because they have shed the blood of the Saints, therefore hast thou given them blood to drink: And the partakers of the sins of the Whore, shall be partakers of the plagues of the Whore. And since the time of the Apostles, the holy Fathers followed this rule in the interpretation of God's Judgments, not looking for a Spirit of Revelation, but guided by the Spirit of Sanctification. Saint Cyprian: Intelligendum est & confitendum, &c. We must know and acknowledge, that the troublesome desolation of this pressure, which hath greatly wasted our Flock, and yet doth waste it, is come to us according to our sins; while we tread not stedily the path of the Lord, nor keep his heavenly precepts given for our salvation. Ambrose saith, The City doth not perish but for the sins of the Citizens. Gregory Nazianzen, when in his Time a great Hayle had spoiled the fruits of the Earth, he adviseth the people that it is most safe to take it for a punishment of sin, that they may be humbled thereby. Gregory Nyssene: When we hear that pains and vexations, are inflicted by God upon Men, we must understand that the beginnings and causes of those vexations proceeded from our selves. And Jerome (according to his manner) most resolutely. It is manifest that Famine, Pestilence, noisome Beasts, or whatsoever other Evils we suffer in this world, they come upon us for our sins. Gregory the Great: Quia sentio poenam, recogito culpam. Punishments felt, bring to my consideration sins committed.

SECT. II. The greatness of our sins amounts to a proof that God's wrath is upon us.

THus we see a cloud of witnesses confessing Saint Paul's assertion, That for sin comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. And as we see that the wrath of God cometh for sins, l •… t us also look upon our sins, and their greatness will show them to be such, which may justly draw down the wrath of God. To reckon all our sins, our numberless sinning hath made it almost impossible. And •… here are other works that have in some measure described them, only I will give a pattern of some of the chiefest either in weight or custom, and which I cannot avoid because they meet me everywhere. A first that flies in a man's face is blasphemous Swearing, wherein if in any other there is a pride taken in offending God; for other benefit of it, I think no man can assign. Yet if their dullness would see it, is it easy to reason; If there be no God, why do I swear by him: If there be a God, how dare I to offend him? If thou swear by nothing, thou art a fool in thy swearing; and if thou swear to thy torment, thou art a veryer fool. God hath said himself, The taking of his name he will not hold guiltless: And by Zechariah, that there is a Curse flying out against Swearers: and by Hosea, that the wrath of God issues out against a Land for swearing. In all this, thou either believest not God, and yet swearest by him in whom thou believest not; or else thou believest that thou shalt be cursed for swearing, and swearest that thou mayest be cursed. But for my part, I think generally the Swearers belief in God is very bad. And surely, if he believe not in God by whom he swears, let him excuse me for believing him when he swears by that God in whom he believes not. But of swearing we may consider two kinds. The one is this voluntary rash and unnecessary swearing, which issueth commonly from a profane heart and careless of God. Of this I have twice elsewhere more largely spoken, and I think it would be best confuted by a Law whereof there was a conception at the last Parliamentary meeting. For before that time, I knew an order made at a meeting of recreation, that a penalty should be paid for every oath, and that but a little one, and yet it wrought such effect, that they scarce swore three oaths in an afternoon, that by proportion of usual swearing should have sworn threescore, if that order had not been. To a Law against this sin is there this encouragement, That his Majesty in his book to his son with strong reasons diswadeth him from it, as being a sin of neither pleasure nor profit, and gotten only by custom. Which exhortation I wish might take place, chiefly in the Cour •… , where it was borne; and next in the Country, to which it is come. For that saying of the Prophet, The soul that sinneth shall die, I take to be general, and to comprehend as well the souls at Court, as the souls in the Country. The other is a more solemn and formal swearing, and that by oaths proposed and offered. Surely in this also God hath been much offended, and that diverse ways. One is, when the Taker of the oath swears against known truth, for which indeed there is a penalty which can hardly be too great, since the sin out-grows it. Another, when oaths are offered of things infinite unlawful or unknown, and of these I wish a survey were taken. It is a hard thing for a man to swear at once to numberless things, since consideration should go before swearing; and he that sweareth inconsiderately, sweareth dangerosly. Now, how hard is it to swear considerately of many things a •… once, and but once proposed? Secondly, I wish there were a search for swearing to things unlawful, since I have heard it by credible information, that there remains yet an oath of persecuting the Lollards proposed to one of the chief of the Country-Offices. Thirdly, it is a miserable thing to give oaths unknown. And an oath is unknown either where neither the words nor matter of the oath are known, or when the words are known, but not the matter. For these two latter kinds of oaths, a search and cure were very necessary. And as in all other places so I wish especially they were examined in the University; That is the Salt of the Land, and if the Salt have lost his savor, how shall the Land be salted; yea, how shall it self be made savory? The doctrine of swearing from thence should flow most clear and untainted, and with the clearness of doctrine should be joined the purity of example. And there I wish might be considered, whether the first degrees have no oaths given them of the Statutes which they know not, and whether it be easy to know them. I have heard it complained of; and it is pity that he should first have a torn conscience himself that coms to heal the broken consciences of others. There is an excuse, that the submission to the penalty is a performance of the Oath, but I wish it were well proved, that penalties were added to Laws to dissolve them and not to bind them, to make them safely not to be kept, and not to make them safely kept. And if this be the intent of the Oath, it were good it were made known to the Takers by the Giuers. Besides, I wish it were considered whether there be no Oaths given to young men of the first degrees, whereof the words they know, but have not judgment of the matter. The Bishop of Oxford. in his Sermons against the Popes Supremacy, saith of young Academics, They are led impetu & temeritate non delectu aliquo aut sapientia ad judicand •… m. Now that which I infer, is this, That questions diversely held by old Divines, seldom come with in the Resolution of young Judgments that are without judgment; and if they in their Judgments know not what they swear, they do not swear in Judgment, which condition I think is required by God himself in his prescribed Rule of swearing. God is taken as a Witness of their Rashness and not of their Judgment; and while they swear, that they believe what they know not, God is inuoked to behold their Ignorance, and not their Beliefe. Neither doth it appear to me a sufficient answer, That it is a Truth which is sworn, for it sufficeth not to the Swearer that it be a Truth which he swears, except it be known to him for a Truth. In civil Causes I have heard it taxed in a Swearer, when he hath sworn that such a Man at such a time was at such a place, when himself at that time was not at the place, but heard that, which he swore, reported by others. And this meets with another Objection, That elder Judgments may be a ground to the younger. But how is it safe to lay the safety of a man's conscience upon another man's judgment, since it is certain that man is subject to error, and for ought the ignorant Swearer knows, that may be the error, which he swears to be a Truth. Is not this to believe as the Church believes, and to swear a belief in Men, and not the knowledge of a Truth. How pertinent is his Majesty's advice in this Cause? Ye must neither lay the safety of your conscience upon the credit of your own conceits, nor yet of other men's humors how great Doctors of Divinity soever they be, but ye must only ground it upon express Scripture. For Conscience not grounded upon sure Knowledge, is either an ignorant fantasie, or an arrogant vanity.] And, if conscience not surely grounded be an ignorant fantasie or an arrogant vanity, then what is an Oath issuing from such a conscience, but the fruit of an ignorant fantasie or an arrogant vanity?

A second Sin. SECT. III. Drunkenness.

ANother loathsome Sin of this Land, that calleth for wrath, is beastly Drunkenness; yea, it is a wrong to beasts to call it their sin, for generally they are sober. And if the Swine be drunk, who is the Drunkards emblem, it is by Mans acquaintance, for I never heard of a wild Boar that was drunk. Wherefore it should have a name inferior to Beasts, as indeed it makes Men, at least for the time of it; for a Man having lost the use of his Soul, is worse then a beast, that keeps the use of his instinct. Yea, a man that hath lost his senses, is therein worse then a Beast that hath them; as sure, as a living Dog is better then a dead Lion. And as in the natural body the liquor fumes from below▪ and works up on high, so I wish in the body of this Land, this Vice which had his first seat in the dregs of Men, did not aspire to places of Eminence. Yet the higher it is the more hurtful it is, as the greater the light is, the greater is the darkness by the loss of that light. So the darkening of many Stars doth not so much impair our Light as the Eclipse of a Sun or a Moon. This sin in the great doth double harm, for by putting out their light, there is lost both the Light of Direction and the Light of Example. If to entertain a great Man, a Roome should be dressed as this sin doth dress it; I think he would loath both his Host and his Lodging. How much more abominable is it to do filthiness then to see it; yea, to do that Filthiness which he cannot abide to fee? I may be the more earnest with the greater, because this sin is like to part from the Lesser, and hath most possibility to remain with the Greater. For God hath met it with most kindly Judgments, even with Judgments most proper to pierce the heart of it. For Poverty & Scarsitie are the great Enimies of Drunkenness; the Drink by dearness calls for more Money; and the Money that should be more, grows Lesser; so, the Drink departs farther from the Money, and the Money farther from the Drink. Then how shall a poor Drunkard continue his Trade, since it is the equal meeting of Drink and Money that gives him his drunkenness, and how shall they meet that are still going farther asunder? These are punishments, I confess, but most proper for our sins and how can we spare them, or with them away until that Disease be rem •… oued, whose Cure they are working? A poor Sobriety is better then a rich Drunkenness. When a Player was turned Christian (a far better change then for a Christian to turn Player) he would continue his Playing by this reason, because Playing was his maintenance: But what saith Cyprian, Contentus sit frugalioribus sed innocent thus ci •… s, let •… im be content with a more sparing but a guiltless maintenance. So may I say of that Scarsitie that brings forth Sobriety, that a sober Scarsitie is better then a drunken Plenty. Yet were it best of all if we could both beg and obtain (and by begging we may obtain) the grace of Sobriety. Then should we practice Virtue out of a love of Virtue, and should not need a constraint by Scarsitie. Then God would be pleased while our Sobriety is voluntary, and we should be blessed while a needless Scarsitie would be turned into Plentie. But if we will needs continue our sins, let us look for continuance of wrath, it being far better that a Man should be miserable then drunken, and most just that he that is drunk should be miserable. A man of God (saith Huntingdon ) fore-told great punishments to this Land for great sins, and one of them was Drunkenness. Surely, if punishment and that sin be tied together, when have we more strongly then in this Age drawn punishment upon us, by a huge Cart-rope of Drunkenness? And lest we should think that this sin and punishment may be parted, we have other prophesies, above all doubt and exception, that tie woes unto Drunkenness, Woe unto him that giveth his Neighbor drink, that puttest thy Bottle to him and makest him drunken also: the Cup of the Lord's right Hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be for thy glory. And another woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. All the beasts of the field are called to devour; yea, all the Beasts of the forest: For, come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill our selves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. But the Drunkard (and it is no wonder) knows not what he says, for where he promiseth abundance tomorrow, behold, scarcity today; yea, Scarsitie and her sister Poverty. The Flesh prophesies prospe •… itie to sin, but God's Spirit Affliction, God is true and all Flesh is a Lyar. And howsoever it goes here, it is most certain, that if this life be today, and the next life be tomorrow, abundance of drink today, shall have scarcity tomorrow. He that pours in Gallons here, shall lack Drops hereafter. The fire is hot, the thirst is great, a drop of water is but little; yet in this hot fire and great thirst, the little drop •… l be denied. Wherefore drink less here that ye may drink more hereafter, drink not without thirst here, that you may not thirst without drink hereafter. But a larger Antidote I have elsewhere allowed this sin, to which I remit him that would see more cause to be sober, which upon the matter is nothing else but to see reasons to preserve Reason, then which nothing is more reasonable

A third Sin. SECT. IIII. Vnthankfulnesse.

THere are yet many sins full of horror and danger, And among them there is one as fearful and dangerous as the rest, and that is Vnthankfulnesse. But there are so many sins between that and the Physician, that there is almost no hope of coming near it with a Cure. For before this sin can come to be cured, the manifold abuses of God's blessings must be removed. For how can men be thankful to God for his benefits, until they leave to offend God by his Benefits? Can they (though it were but in Words) give God any praise for his blessings, when in their deeds by these blessings they dishonor him. We have had great deliverances, we have the Gospel set at liberty among us. We have not yet been given up into the hands of our Enemies but our merciful God hath hitherto chastised us with his own hands, even with fatherly Corrections. But how shall a man look that a Drunkard, a Glutton, or a Player-like Fashionist, should be thankful to God, I say not for the light of the Gospel, which Owls cannot see, but for meat drink or apparel, when they all abuse these blessings unto Luxury, pride and vanity? Surely if they should give GOD thanks for them, it must be in these words, I thank thee for giving me these blessings which I have converted unto the fuel of eternal Cursednesse. Therefore first I wish they might be brought to leave the abuse of God's blessings, and then would there be some hope that they would give God thanks for them; if once by a right indgement they saw them to come from God, and returned them to the honor of him that gave them, then would they give him thanks both for the blessings and the blessed use of them. And then indeed do they only become blessings unto us when we blessedly use them: In the mean time I expect only of the righteous that they be thankful, for it becometh well saith David the righteous to be thankful. These by their thankfulness retain the blessings for which they are thankful, for thankfulness being bred of God's blessings preserveth that which bred it. On the other side unthankfulness looseth the blessings, which thankfulness might have preserved, for it is not fit man should receive blessings from God when God from Man for such blessings hath no return of glory. It is a small thing to return thanks for real and great blessings, which if we do we are infinite gayners. Yea, the more we thank God, the more cause shall we have to thank him. For thanks for old benefits draws an increase of the benefits for which we gave thanks, as else-where more at large I have shown.

A fourth Sin. SECT. V. Deceitfulness of Trade.

ANother great sin of this land is deceitfulness of Trades. Single trades are grown to be double, for there are two Trades in one; the one is a skill of doing it truly, the other of doing it deceitfully. And he is the more skillful Tradesman that knoweth the falsehood of his trade, rather then •… ee that knoweth the truth of it. He that can make an excellent Counterfeit, and sell the Counterfeit at the price of the true, is an expert Tradesman. Thus men take money not for ware but for cozenage, they sell deceit and with the price thereof buy damnation. The Scripture saith that false weights be an abomination to the Lord. The force of that speech lies not in the word weights but in the word false. For God hateth not weights more then any other Instrument of Trade, but he hateth falsehood, as in weights, so in all things else. Therefore let every Tradesman that deals not by weights, take out the word Weights, and put in the subject of his falsehood, and then let him take the verse to himself, and say, The falsehood of my Trade is abomination unto the Lord. These be they that make the shekel great and the Ephah small, the goods sold as little worth as they may, and the price of the goods as great as they can and these are as C •… affe and the wrath of God is as Fire. How should they escape, yea, how should a Land escape where they are, since God hath not only said but sworn it. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the Land tremble for this, and everyone mourn that dwelleth therein? I will turn your Feasts into Mourning, and all your Songs into Lamentation, and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Neither let every man look for this sin in others but in himself, for few there be that in dealings do not work upon the ignorance or need of the buyer or borrower. Neither hath this sin gone without attendance of an immediate punishment, for I have heard a credible report, that amongst other natural causes of the decay of Cloathing, this hath been one, that Clothes have been deceitfully both made and coloured; and men will not give money again, to be again deceived. It seems to me the very profit of honesty should be powerful with those, with those that measure all their actions by profit. For honesty though it gain but a little at once, yet it gains that little often and long; for it keeps the Customers which it hath gotten. But deceit when it gets extraordinarily, gets it but once, for nothing but mere Necessity will bring a man into a trap where he hath once been taken, nor make him join with a known thief in his own robbing.

A fifth Sin. SECT. VI. Carnal and unnatural Filthiness.

THere is another sin which I would willingly pass by, but that the wrath of God doth not use to pass by it. In regard of the filth of it, a man can hardly speak of it, and in regard of the wrath of it, a man may not hold his peace. This wrestling of thoughts Epiphanius expresseth, when he writes against the Gnostics. He is pained in speaking, and pained in not speaking; if he speak he fears to discover the face of a Basilisk, which may rather bring death then amendment. If he speaks not he fears the Curse, Cursed is he that knows a murder and doth not reveal it. And it may be (says he) some seeing the ugliness of this Monster will not only avoid him, but go about to destroy him. O the drunkenness of Lust, which like the drunkenness of Lot, takes away all sight of the vgliest filthiness even in acting it, when yet to a sober mind the abomination of it is painful even in speaking it. O the wildness of Lust, which like a fed Horse, breaks over hedge and ditch, and will not be bounded but with Diseases, Death and Hell; God hath given a bound and that bound is a Remedy for this ranging Furie. It is better to marry then to burn, saith Paul. But some love single filthiness, rather then honorable marriage, some fly from Paradise and run into Sodom, some leaving God's Remedies seek Remedies of the Devil, whose office is not to quench fire but to kindle it, even the fire of Lust here, and the fire of Hell hereafter. Therefore art thou inexcusable O man whosoever thou art, That preferrest thine own Diseases before God's Remedies, That wilt not suffer the Creator to give Laws to his own Creation; but transgressing the Law which by Nature he hath set upon his Creature, thou makest unnatural Laws to cross thy Creator. A most abominable absurdity, that God should be the Creator of us, & not the disposer of us, that his own order should not be observed in his own Creatures, and that blind Lust should change the Law which infinite wisdom hath given. Surely the Wisdom that was wisest to make us, was no doubt wisest to order us, this wisdom gave the woman to the man, all other gifts are presents of Lust and gifts of the Devil, the first peruerter of Nature, and a destroyer of the Creation as soon as it was borne. These sins of filthiness were wont to be the fruits of Romish Chastity, and I wish that Romish Love have not brought with it Romish Lust, for we see that spiritual and corporal filthiness are oft tied together; Israel whoring with Moab fell to Moab's Idols, and the Gentiles turning God's glory to Idols fell to abominable filthiness. But let us remember that carnal filthiness is a sin that hath cast out the Amorites, and burnt the Sod •… mites, and brought vengeance on the Israelies, and how may we escape the punishment of this sin, when so many for this sin have been punished? The same God and the same sin▪ and why not the same wrath? Who hath given us a Patent of privilege from God's general Law, but he only who is a Lyar from the beginning, and told our first Parents, they should not die at all, when his whole dri •… was to make them to die even by a belief of not-dying. So doth he deal with us still, he shows us the fairness of sin, but hides the misery that attends it, he affirms the pleasure and denies the torment, he showeth us the Bayte and hideth the Hooke. But let every soul that would not be caught by this Fisher of souls, deal quite contrary to the Devil. As he hideth the punishment and showeth the pleasure, so let the soul that would be safe, fixe her eye on the punishment, and turn her eye from the pleasure. A miserable exchange, an eternal punishment for a short pleasure; yea, a wretched Method, that short pleasure should be first, and eternal punishment after. For what auayles thee that thou hast had pleasure, when now thou art in pain, thy pleasure is not, and thy pain is, and shall be forever. Therefore fight against all unnatural fire of Lust in this world, where men may fight and overcome; for to fight against the Fire to come there is no hope but it will overcome thee forever. Bind thyself to the order wherein the great Creator hath ranged his Creatures, and be not found out of thy rank; for, if thou wilt not be righted by his Law of Nature, thou shalt be ordered by his Law of Justice; for Payne shall set in order what wicked Pleasure hath confounded. Be chastely single; but if thy singleness do endanger thy chastity, be chaste by being double; take no other remedy but what God hath allowed thee. All strange fires, and strange remedies begin and end in Hell; Learn not of the Devil the abuse of Creatures whereof he is not the Maker but the Destroyer; and if thou wilt needs have him to be thy Schoolmaster, be thou assured that he which teacheth thee, shall also cruelly scourge and torment thee. And here is the Mystery of that Infernal School of Iniquity, they which learn most there shall be most tormented.

A sixth Sin. SECT. VII. Declination to profaneness.

THere is yet another Sin that calleth for Judgments, and it is a declination from Religion to profaneness. The ordinary means which Christ hath left to maintain the life of Religion is the Word and sacraments by the dispensation of his Ministers. Now this Word and Sacraments, and the Ministers that dispense them, for the due performance of this work must have a fit maintenance, a fit time, and a fit place. If any of these be wholly wanting Religion falls to the ground, and as much as they are impaired, so much Religion is diminished. For the maintenance of the Ministry, Tithes are allowed; for the place, the Church; and for the time, the Lord's day. Therefore, the abatement of tithes, the ruinousnesse or the neglect of the House of God, and the profaning of the Lord's day must needs be corrosiues to Religion. Yet the first hath long since been done by Popish superstition, neither hath it yet been healed by a due Reformation. I have spoken elsewhere, and now heartily pray, That in such places where teaching wants for want of maintenance, that there might be a supply of it, by a supply of maintenance, which it seems to me doth not exceed the wit of man to devise. And till that time that it would please Authority either to allow them some help from the adjoining Ministers, or permit them to buy bread for themselves, or by some other means provide for that want; since howsoever fullness of bread be suspected of niceness and wantonness, yet it is pity that want of bread should therefore lack that compassion which belongs to it. As for the place allotted to the Ministry, it hath of late received decent Reformation, but I wish the houses be not emptier as they grow fairer. For Mans corrupt Nature is apt to make ill use of Liberty and Impunity, and as there is a Recusancy of a deceived Conscience, so there is a Recusancy of a No-Conscience; and I wish the latter Recusants make no ill use of any Liberty given to the former, neither that they grow bold upon any Impunity not intended to them. Lastly, for the Time, which is the Lord's day, to lay aside all Jewish superstition, it is most assured, That as the Church cannot ordinarily consist without the Word, nor the Word without a Place; so neither can the Word in his place be profitably communicated without an appointed Time. If so; then the Time appointed for the Ministry of the Word is a main preservative of the Church; and on the contrary, the perverting of that Time is a very corrosiue and consumption to the Church: Then how wary should men be of encroching upon that time by any unfit or derogatory action, since the overthrow thereof hath such a fearful effect as the overthrow of the Church? It is fit that men should keep off from the borders of such a capital Sin, as they would keep themselves a good ways off from the brink of a bottomless pit. And a good and tender Conscience should cast with himself, how he may be sure with discretion to go far enough from it, rather then how he may safely come nee •… e it. Again, it being confessed that the worship of God hath as much need of a determinate time as a determinate place, and that one work even the public service of God hallowes both the Time and the Place, why should we not think it a profaneness in turning the time as the place from the work appointed to it. To turn the place of God's service into a place of sporting, even when God's service is not there, is in most men's eyes a profane incongruitie and indecencie. And why is it not a like profaneness to turn the day appointed to God's service into a day of sporting, even then when the service of God is not doing? Surely, to do the days work in the day seems to be most proper and reasonable. If so; then works, or if you will, plays of distraction that make the proper works of the day less profitable and more forgotten, how can they be justified? Yet men are not bound wholly and only to the chief works of the day, which are Prayer and Teaching, but any action is lawful that furthers them and is agreeable to them, as works of mercy and charity, profitable and comfortable conference, and any such refreshing as without scandal makes us more cheerful and able in the duties of the day. So that a Christian is not bound from any •… it Liberty, but •… om that licentiousness •… ch unnecessarily turneth the day from and against his proper works, which as much as it is, so much it decays Religion, and admits profaneness. Yet herein men have been most audaciously violent; and especially such Gentlemen who having played the six days have least need to play the seventh, yet are in greatest pain if they may not make it out a whole week. For, three hours labor of sitting (if not sleeping) in the Church, is so full of weariness, though a Dinner come in the middle, that a whole six days recreation cannot expiate it, without an evening sacrifice to the Boules or Cards on the seventh. And these men yet would fain be excused, and to that end are glad to lay hold on any •… hew of protection; But thereby they plainly show their partial Love to a carnal liberty, since it is common to hear from them any pretence for their pastimes on God's day, but I could never hear three men to speak of his Majesty's Proclamation forbidding pastimes on that day. And therein this is remarkable, that it agrees almost in words with the Decrees of ancient Emperors, cited by Chemnioius, to this effect. The holidays dedicated to the highest Majesty we will not have to be bestowed in our pleasures, nor profaned by the vexation of exactions. Therefore we decree that the Lord's day shall be kept with honor & reverence, &c. and a little after; Neither do we give such liberty to the leisure of this day, that we should suffer any to employ himself in obscoene pleasures. Let the Stage that day challenge nothing to it self, nor the conce •… tations of the Circus, nor the lamentable spectacles of beasts; yea, if the solemnity of our own birth light on that day, let it be deferred: The words of the Proclamation do thus parallel them; For that we are informed, that there hath been heretofore great neglect in this Kingdom of keeping the Sabbath day: for better observing of the same, and avoiding of all impious profanation of it, we do straightly charge and command, that no Bear-baiting, Bul-baiting, Interludes, common Plays, or other like disordered or unlawful Exercises or Pastimes be frequented, kept, or used, at any time hereafter upon any Sabbath day.

A seventh Sin. SECT. VIII. Back-sliding to Idolatry.

I Might here add as grievous a Sin; a backsliding to Idolatry, but that the falling of some is overcome by the strong constancy of many. It is comfortable to hear, that the blasts of Superstition have been to so many like the wind to a Traveler, that makes him to bind his loose garment the faster. This is to follow the very pattern of the Apostles, of whom it is said, that the unbelieving Jews stirring up the Gentiles, and making their minds ill affected to the Brethren, Therefore they abode long time speaking in the Lord. Where the truth is much opposed, there it ought most strongly to be maintained. And I think it to be the very end of God in permitting opposition; that the truth which before was held too remissly, and perchance too indiscreetly, might be held with a more inflamed love, a greater constancy, and sounder Judgment. And surely there is no better means of keeping the Truth, then a hearty love and strong affection. It is the doctrine of Christ to the Churches of Asia, and in them to the Churches of Europe, yea, to all that have ears to hear, That the holding of the first and dearest love is the means of keeping the Candlestick, and the loss of that Love the cause of removing it. Let us therefore increase in our love to the Truth, as much as we would increase the keeping of the Truth; And let us assuredly believe that God may well be careless of giving that to us, which we our selves are careless to keep being given. But to them that withdraw themselves basely or willfully from Truth to Superstition, I need not say, for the Lord hath said it, his Soul hath no pleasure in them. But this I say, and desire that all me •… may know it; That such Back-sliders, besides the Egyptian darkness of Ignorance, & a multitude of errors fall by reuol •… ing into three most gross absurdities of miserable consequence.

A first wretched absurdity. SECT. IX. Apostasy from the spiritual worship of God unto Idolatry.

A First is that main and capital point of Apostasy, The turning unto dumb Idols from the living God. For if Paul make that the Character of a Conuert, even the turning from dumb Idols to the living God, then it is a notable Character of an Apostate to turn from the living God unto dumb Idols. For in the same path wherein the Conuert walks from Idols unto God, in the same doth the Apostate go back from God unto Idols. And whereas there hath been a sleight excuse for so gross a fault, That an Idol is the Image of nothing in the world; surely, this answer is nothing in the world. For the Image of those things that are, may be Idols, if divine worship be given unto them, as Aquinas teacheth, and Bellarminc himself proveth against himself. Yea, which is more, even the things themselves may be turned into Idols, for so the Stars of Heaven were turned into Idols by the Israelites, and the Licaonians would have made Idols of the Apostles themselves. The meaning therefore of the Apostle is manifestly this, That an Idol is not at all that thing for which it is worshipped; or in regard of that Godhead which by worship is attributed to it, it is nothing in the world. This interpretation doth Aquinas himself give, and reason it self doth show it. For though as it is a piece of Metall, or a Star, or Man, it hath a being, yet as it is an Idol, and by worship made a God, the Idol of it is nothing in the world. It is a mere lie, as the Prophet says, even an affirmation of that which is not, For it tells the People it is a God when it is not. And for this reason do we detest this wickedness of the Romanists, because by curious shapes, rich ornaments, forged miracles, and dangerous Doctrines, they draw the people to give divine worship to that which is nothing. And lest we should doubt much whether divine worship be by their Doctrine ascribed to Images, we shall find that in plain terms they have confessed it. Indeed the Council of Trent hath herein dealt most cunningly, yet withal most cōtrarily to the intent of a Coun cell; since herein it only deserves to be called a general Council, because it covers many Questions with general Termes; and so in this Question it says, we must worship Images debit a veneratione, with due worship. Surely, a Council should have resolved doubts, and not have continued them, but hereby it appears that they would not, or could not resolve, either of which is faulty. But if their Councils will not tell us their Doctrine, we must ask next of their Doctors, and some of them plainly show us that Doctrine of Idolatry. Aquinas though he saith that Idolatry is the giving of divine worship to a Creature, yet he excepteth the Image of Christ, and says, divine worship belongs to that. His reason is most weak for so mighty a Doctor, but we must remember his judgment was prejudiced by Custom and Education. Because of Christ's Deity, saith he, Christ must be worshipped, & the Image for representing Christ. But what doth Christ's Deity to the deifying of a piece of wood? Not by Representation, for the Godhead, as Paul saith, is not like silver or stone. Neither by Union or Communication, for the Deity hath by no means given it self so much unto stone that it should be worshipped. Yea, the Deity hath sworn clean contrary, that it will not give his glory to graven Images. Another Doctor, Gregory de Valentia, amending the niceness of some, in this point plainly confesseth, that he gives divine worship to the Image of Christ. And Azorius saith, that the Image of that which is worshipped with divine worship, may with divine worship also be worshipped. But Christ may so be worshipped, and therefore his Image. And Bellarmine himself cites many great Doctors of the Church of Rome, in these latter times, that maintain Idolatry. Alexander, Th. Aquinas, Cardinal Cajetan, Bona •… enture, Marsilius, Almayne, Carthusianus, Capreolus, and others. These hold that the Image of Christ is to be worshipped with Latria. And Latria, by Bellarmine's own testimony, is a chief worship due to the true God, and being given to an Image, it is true Idolatry. And though for his own part, he would fain in this point, as in others, be somewhat neater then his fellows, yet shall we find in his Doctrine two main props or parts of Idolatry: the one, where he says▪ That the worship given to the Image, is determined or bounded in the Image. And herein he doth no other, but make the Image, a very object of worship. And secondly, lest by making it a lower kind of worship, and an improper Latria, he might fly out at a back-door, which he usually leaves open for that purpose: he saith further, That an Image may properly be worshipped with Latria, if we join the Image and the Paterne in one Imagination. Then a strong or intense Imagination, may worship Images with divine worship, which is flat Idolatry. This strong imagination is indeed one of the strong delusions, belonging to the Chair of Pestilence, by which men are led to believe lies. A noble subtlety, and mere trick of a Iuggler, which makes things really divided, seem to be one; and from a seeming Unity, will enforce a real Unity of worship: The Image and the Paterne are asunder in themselves, and together only in the Imagination, then how can they scape Idolatry, that give divine worship, to a thing really and truly divided from the Deity? Surely, Bellarmine's reason, if it be holpen, will only go so far, That men may worship the Image which is in their Brayne, and not the Image before their Eyes. For the Image in their Brayne, hath an imaginary Union with the Paterne, but the Image before their eyes hath none at all. But what is this, but to become vain in imaginations, & while men profess themselves to be wise in their subtleties, to become stark Fools, as Saint Paul speaks upon the same subject. It must be a real Union, as that is between the Deity and Humanity of Christ, that must give a real Communitie of worship. I would fain know of Bellarmine, if he came into the Popes Wardrobe, and there saw the Robes of the Pope, and imagined them on the Popes body, whether he would fall down, and give the same honor to the Clothes, that he would do to the Pope himself, if the clothes were worn by him. And yet I may tell him farther, That the clothes being worn by him, there is no real or personal union between them, and therefore there is some difference of honor, given to the Man, and to the clothes which are no part of the Man.

Now, if these great Doctors maintain sdolatrie, what shall the blind Multitude do but stumble, at these stumbling-blocks laid before them by the Learned? The flesh inwardly is prone to Idolatry, as the Scripture teacheth; the object without by beauty and conformity is fit to tempt to Idolatry; Ducit enim & affectu quodam infirmo, rapit infirma corda mortalium, formae similitudo, & membrorum imitata compago. As Jonah Aurelianensis hath out of Saint Augustine. The likeness of shape, and a resembling jointure of the members, draws the weak hearts of men, to an yielding affection. And to the two temptations inward and outward, is joined in the Middle a Doctrine to consummate the work of Idolatry, by joining a carnal Heart, to the beloved Image, in a wretched worship. I may notdenie an election of grace, which was found in Israel, when their estate was outwardly so desperate, That Elias could not see one true worshipper besides himself. But I find both by Doctrine and Practice, that Church is generally and maynly given to Idolatry. Agobardus, a reverend Bishop, and near to eight hundred years Antiquity, saith, Nullus antiquorum Catholicorum &c. None of the ancient Catholics did believe that Images were to be worshipped. But now this error by growing is made so manifest, that it is come near to Idolatry, or the Heresy of the Anthropomorphites, men worshipping Images, and putting their trust in them. So we see how it was in the time before him; the Fathers generally denied worship to Images. But withal we see how it began to be in his time, That Idolatry came to be taught and practiced, as more largely in the same Treatise he showeth. Long after this time Claudius Taurnie •… sis, saith, That when he came to his Bishopric in Italy, he found his Churches full of accursed Images, & that men did worship them, neither doth his Adversary Jonah deny it in his answer, but acknowledgeth it to be lamentable, Largissimis fidelium lachrymis lugendum & plorandum. And now for these last times, we see before, how Idolatry hath been improoued by the writings of many Doctors; we have seen with our eyes how it hath been increased by a mighty stock of miracles tied to many of them; and we see no reformation by the Pope, but rather an approbation, by his •… cribes and Inquisitors. Accordingly, a good Author of ours shows out of Authors of theirs, That a certain Canon was condemned at Si •… il of heresy, for denying the worship of Latria to the Cross. But now if any man will see the danger of this sin, let him take the story of the Israelites and look steadily upon it, and there will arise to his sight a most fearful apparition of grievous plagues, successively tormenting them for this sin in their successive generations. And to this day the remembrance of them is so terrible, that of all other sins, the Jews will by no means be brought to Idolatry. And in this respect, I think, the Church of Rome by her Idolatry, is a main obstacle to their Conversion; and it seems by the same reason, the taking away of that fountain of Idolatry, would further much the conversion of the Jews. Certain it is, that the Jews shall be called, and that their Calling shall be to a pure and primitive Truth, for their Calling shall be glorious, even as a rising from the dead? Neither shall the Gentiles begin their Calling in a primitive purity, and the Jews have their uprising clouded with the Errors and impurities of the Gentiles. If it should be so, where is that privilege of love for the Fathers sakes? If then the Jews shall be called by a Doctrine of purity, what must become of the Romish impurity, the Mother of superstitions and abominations? But in the mean time, let this be our grief, that a Nation denieth Christ which hateth Idolatry; and a People maintayneth Idolatry that professeth the Name of Christ. To conclude this point, if any would feel the weight of the jealousy of God (and jealousy is the rage both of God and Man) threatened in his Commandment; if any man would fain have the Judgments of God poured on him, which were heretofore on the Jews, of which themselves are weary: If any would be partaker of the plagues of Babylon, let them be also partakers of Babylon's Idolatry, even the worship of Gold, Silver, Wood, and Stone.

A second dangerous Absurditie. SECT. X. Partaking of a Religion laden with blood.

ANother gross absurdity and step into Miserie, is the entering into a Religion laden with blood, even the blood of the Prophets and Saints, and those which are slain upon earth. When a Murderer is convinced of some cruel blood-shed, who would infect himself with his guilt, and take part to himself of a Murderers guilt and punishment? But in this purple Congregation, is the blood of many thousands; yea, the blood of many Prophets & Saints, and of all that were slain upon earth. A most grievous burden, and pressing down into hell. This mountain of blood will make blood-guilty men to cry for Mountains of earth to fall upon them, & cover them. And as upon the last Jerusalem that slew Christ, the sin of the first Jerusalem that slew the Prophets; yea, even before Jerusalem the blood of Abel the righteous, came altogether in one reckoning of punishment; So by the like proportion upon the latter Rome by which is shed the blood of latter Christians, shall come the blood of the first Christians shed by the first Rome. Yea, I may say that from Abel the Righteous unto the last Protestant slain for Religion, all the bloodshed shall be required of Rome. For first it is said, That in her shall be found the blood of the Prophets, and all slain upon Earth. And secondly, why should not Rome be as guilty of the blood of Abel as Jerusalem, and if of Abel, much more of the blood of nearer succeeding Prophets. Neither is it without Reason; for the Communication of bloodiness, is the Communication of blood, the incorporating into a sinful society, partakes the Judgments of that Society. For as Saint Agustine well observes, There is one City of the Devil which began first in Cain, and endeth in the last sinner, and they that come to be a part of that City shall receive the Cursed privileges of that City; they have a Communitie of plagues by partaking the fellowship of that Communitie. Neither are men in danger only of partaking their plagues, by partaking the Communitie of Association, but because by the community of Association usually comes the community of Infection. So the associating of a bloody Society often infects men with a bloody Conformitie. Romish Religion (if it shall be called Religion) herein is most contrary to true Religion. For whereas true Religion, turneth cruelty into meekness, and makes the Lyon to sleep with the Lamb, this Religion hath turned Lambes into Lions, and made men of excellent natures to become Sauage and Cruel. There are too many examples to prove this Truth, and we need not to set sail for the fetching of them; for even in this land to the foulest Treason upon Earth, hath this Religion perverted the fairest dispositions. And howsoever the fact being by God's mercy defeated, now it is styled by some the deed of desperate and forlorn persons (for such facts Non laudantur nisi peracta ) yet these men neither in estate nor disposition were such, but in both eminent; and I pity much that ever it should come to pass, that sweet dispositions should be made cruel by anything called Religion. But as pitiful as it is, yet true it is, That a Popish proselite, being transplanted by a Jesuit, doth too often prove a stock on which Murder and Crueltie is grafted. Let us therefore fear the Communion of this bloody City, lest we get a Communion of their bloodiness, which if we do, let us look for a communion of their plagues, let us expect a part in all the vengeance belonging to innumerable Murthers. Then may we fear that the blood of former days shed in this Realm, will light upon us, when we partake with the Doctrine that shed it. If the Son see his Fathers sins, and avoid them, they shall not be imputed to him. But if a bloody Father bring a bloody Son, then the bloodiness of the Father descends on the Son. In Josiah's time after Manasseh bloodiness, the destruction of Israel was stayed, and he had a promise of ending his days in peace, which he did, for no man fought against him, but he sought war against himself. But when Zedekiah reigns that cuts Jeremiah's Roll, and casts him into Prison, whē Iehoiakin is full of blood and violence, when the Prophets are misused, and there is no Remedy. Then comes the blood of the Fathers upon a bloody posterity, and Jerusalem is carried away into Captivity. So if we join hands with a bloody Doctrine, then let us look for a share in the whole reckoning of blood which that Doctrine hath shed. Our sins are great and grievous, but yet in this sin, let us give Rome leave to outcry us, that the greatness of their cry may cover ours, and stop it from hearing. And indeed, though our sins be grievous, yet their sins herein have an eminence, because theirs are sins of Antiquity, and sins of Doctrine; Ours, though grievous, are latter and of fleshly Corruption, not of Doctrine and Instruction. We are naught as we are men, not as we are Protestants; Their bloodiness and Idolatry hath been theirs, as they are Papists. Let us take heed then that we bind not sin unto sin, since one sin will not escape unpunished. Let us not join the sins of Antiquity to the sins of latter Ages, nor the sins of Doctrine to the sins of natural Corruption.

A third Dangerous Folly. SECT. XI. To run from God preserving, unto God destroying.

A Third dangerous Absurditie, is to forsake the Religion wherein God hath given us miraculous deliverances, and to run to that Religion which in the same deliverances of us, God hath blasted with fatal overthrows. This was the folly and destruction of Amaziah, that he would seek after the God's of that people, which could not deliver their own people out of his hand. What a madness is this to fly from strength unto weakness, from safety into danger, from God's protection into God's desertion, to rest on the help of that, to which God hath shown himself an Enemy. Surely if all the Nations of the earth would fly from God to Superstition, this Kingdom above all other should say with Joshua, I and my people will serve the Lord. For our deliverances have been so eminent, that they cry aloud, The hand of God and not of Man. It is beyond belief if it had not been seen, That half of an Island should stand strongly, as it hath done, amid great oppositions, & many Treasons, without any notable supply or help from any other Nation. Yea, it is stranger, that it should be more then able to help it self, and have a supererogation of help for others. For the help of this Kingdom overflowed to Henry the Fourth of France, and to the distressed Provinces of the Low-Countries; yea, it maintained and ended a most consuming War in Ireland. And in the midst of public oppositions, a multitude of private Treasons issued out of Hell, against the person of the most glorious Princesse of the world. Yet was she safe in the midst of dangers; yea safe without danger. For though their malice reached at her, yet she was in no danger, because their chain was so short, that she was out of their reach. God at once defended her, and limited them; yea, she 〈2 pages missing〉 and resist that which he hates; an irreconciliable Enemy is then most harmless, when he hath no power of hurting. If at any time he hurt not by nothurting, he endeavours that he may hurt the more hereafter; An Enemy seems not to hurt, while he is gathering of men, and mustering of his forces, but even then when he hurts not, he is commonly in the way to do •… the more hurt. Implacable enmity hath mischief still for the end of it, so that the very smiles and benefits of it are dangerous, and aim stedily to this end. A third Conclusion, That there is a main difference of goodness between our Religion and that of Rome, and of God's dispensation to either: The Religion of Rome in the Queens time, made her own Subjects traitors, and sent forth Assasines against her, but God wholly defeated them. Our Religion never suborned private Assasines against any King, but GOD gave us publicly great success and oduantage. Wherefore let me here note, that our Religion agrees better with the ancient Religion of the Sea of Rome, then the Religion of present Rome. For this was the Religion of Gregory the great. If I would have to do with the death of the Lombards, the Nation of the Lombards, this day had been without a King. But because I fear God, I fear to medle with the death of any man.

Neither hath God alone defended us in the days of that happy Queen, for even in the reign of our King, we have received a miraculous deliverance. It was God that delivered us, and he delivered us so, that he would be known to be our Deliverer. For when God sends a delivery by the hands of our Enimies, the delivery that cannot be imputed to our Enimies, must be imputed unto God. Our Enimies would have destroyed us, God would preserve us, and God resolving to preserve us, performs it by our Enimies that would destroy us. By Traitors he sends notice of the Treason, and so defeats the Treason by the same that should effect it. And he that was wonderful in sending the words, was wonderful in giving the Interpretation. And as once the words on the Wall were by God vnvsually written, and by him in Daniel strangely interpreted; so it pleased God that directed the Letter, to give his Majesty an unusual interpretation of it, so that God's wonderful Providence by that Letter, spake to them to whom the Letter meant not to speak, and spake a meaning in the words, in which the Letter had no such meaning. So are there two Senders and two Indi •… ers; God sends the Letter one way, the Traitors another; God writes one sense in the words, and the Writer another. A strange delivery, both in respect of the prodigious danger from which we were delivered; in regard of the means of delivery; and lastly, in regard of the opportunity of it. For our delivery from danger was almost in the time when we should have been delivered into it.

And now let this great example of God's wonderful preservation, make us strongly resolute in the Truth which he defendeth; and confident in God such a Defender of the Truth. Let us be ashamed to be afraid, since our fear can but betray us, and make us weaker, and so more subject to that which we fear. We see here was no fear, nor preventions carnally politick, the Bastard-issues of fears; and yet while we feared not, nor by fear prevented not, we were delivered from a destruction most fearful. Yea, whatsoever plots, either fear or policy shall hereafter unlawfully actuate, let it still be remembered, That a delivery, wherein there was neither fear nor policy gives us our being. And in that delivery it was the Truth to which God gave our lives as a prey, wherefore it stands us upon, to preserve confidently that Truth, by which our lives have been preserved. To run to Popish superstition is to run to destruction. Let us therefore abide rather with the Israelites then with the Egyptians, with those that were miraculously delivered, then with those that strangely perished. I will add for a Corollary some sentences of Gregory the great, which I desire the Reader to give to them to whom most fitly they belong. Surely, to me it seems he had in his Nostrils a strong savor of Antichrist, as if he were not far from the place where he wrote.

SECT. XII. Some marks of Antichrist discovered by witnesses, not to be refused by Antichrist.

ANtichristus veniens ipsas etiam summas huius saeculi potestates obtinebit; qui duplicierrore saeuiens conatu •… ad se corda hominum, & missis praedicatoribus trahere, & commotis potestatibus inclinare.

Antichrist when he comes, shall be powerful with the Princes of this world; and raging with a twofold wickedness, endeavors to bow the hearts of men to him, both by emissarie Preachers, and by incensed Princes.

Quale illud tempus persecutionis apparebit, quando ad peruertendam fidelium pietatem alij ver his saeuiunt, alij gladijs? Quis enim etiam infirmus Leviathan istius dentes non despiceret si non •… os per circuitum potestatum saecularium terror muniret?

How great a persecution will that be, when some shall rage with words, and some with swords, to overthrow the godliness of the Faithful? For what man, though he were but weak, would not despise the teeth of this Leviathan, if the terror of secular powers did not fortify them.

Bene eundem Antichristum Psalmista descripsit dicens; Sub lingua eius labor & dolor; sedet in insidijs cum diuitibus in occultis▪ Propter •… nim peruersa dogmata su •… lingua eius labor & dolor est. Propter Miraculorum vero specie, sedet in insidijs propter s •… cularis autem potestatis gloriam, cum diuitibus in occultis. Quia enim simul & miraculorum fraud, & terrena potestate vtitur; & in occultis & cum diuitibus sedere perhibetur.

Well did the Psalmist describe the same Antichrist, saying: Under his tongue is labor and mischief; he sitteth in ambush with the rich in secret places. For by perverse doctrine labor and mischief is under his tongue. By the show of miracles, he sitteth in ambush. By the glory of secular Power, he sits with the rich in secret places. And because he useth both the deceit of miracles, and worldly power, he is said to sit both in secret places and with the rich.

Praedicatores Antichristi quomodo veram numismatis qualitatem tenent, qui in his quae agunt intentionis rectae vim nesciunt quia per haec non coelestem patriam, sed culmen gloriae temporalis exquirunt? Quomodo à monetae figura non discrepant qui ab omni pietate iustorum iustos persequendo discordant? Quomodo in se integritatis pondus ostendunt qui non solum humilitatis perfectionem, sed ne{que} ipsam primam eius januam contigerunt? Hinc ergo hinc electi cognoscant quomodo •… orum signa despiciant, &c.

How can the Preachers of Antichrist have the quality of currant money, who in their actions have not the power of a right intention; since by them they do not seek the heavenly Country, but the top of temporal glory. And how do they not differ from the Image of true coin, who by persecuting the Righteous, differ from all godliness of the righteous? How do they show the weight of soundness, when they attain not the perfection of humility; yea, they have not touched her first and uttermost Gate? Hence, hence then let the Elect know, how they may despise their miracles, &c.

Sicut incarnata Veritas in praedicatione sua, paupers, idiotas & simplices elegit, sic e contrario damnatus ill homo, quem in fine mundi Apostate Angelus assumit, ad praedicandam falsitatem suam, astutos ac duplices atque buius mundi scientiam habentes electurus est.

As the incarnate Truth, in his preaching chose poor, unlearned, and simple men; so on the contrary, that Man of perdition, whom the Apostate-Angel shall put on in the end of the World, to preach his false-hood, shall choose crafty and double-hearted men, and such as shall be skillful in worldly policy.

In fine Mundi Satan hominem ingrediens quem sacra Scriptura Antichristum appellate, tanta elatione extollitur, tanta virtute principatur, tantis signis & prodigijs in sanctitatis ostensione eleuatur, vt argui ab homine eius facta non valeant, quia cum potestate terroris, adiungit etiam signa ostensae sanctitatis.

In the end of the world Satan entering into the Man, whom the holy Scripture calleth Antichrist, is lifted up with so great pride, doth reign with so great power, is exalted in the show of holiness by so great signs and wonders, that his deeds may not be reproved by any man; because with terrifying power, he conioyneth the signs of seeming holiness.

Tu quid Christo vniuersalis sanctae Ecclesiae capiti in extremi iudicij es dicturus examine, qui cuncta ei •… s membra tibimet conaris vniuersalis appellatione supponere? Quis rogo in hoc tam peruerso vocabulo nisi ill ad imitandum proponitur, qui despectis Angelorum legionibus secum socialiter constitutis, ad culmen conatus est singulantis erumpere, vt & nulli subesse, & solus omnibus praeesse videretur.

What wilt thou answer in the trial of the last •… udgement, unto Christ the Head of the holy universal Church, who wouldest bring all his members into subjection to thee by the Title of Universal? I pray thee, who is herein set before thee to be imitated, but he that despising the Legions of Angels, which were placed in fellowship with him, strove to ascend into a Top of Singularitie, that he might appear to be under none, and to be alone above all.

Ego fidenter dico, quia quisquis se Vniuersalem Sacerdotem vocat, vel-vocari desiderat, in elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit, quia superbiendose caeteris praeponit.

I say confidently, that whosoever doth call him self Universal Bishop, or desires to be so called, by his pride, he is a fore-runner of Antichrist, because by pride he lifts himself up above the rest.

Let Saint Jerome before him in time, but below him in Ecclesiastical dignity, speak a little after him.

Tantum vt Romanum Imperium quod nunc vniuersas gentes tenet, de medio fiat, & tunc Antichristus veniet, Fons Iniquitatis.

It remains that the Roman Empire which now commandeth all Nations, be taken out of the way, and then Antichrist shall come; a Fountain of Wickedness.

And that you may see what is become of the Roman Empire, let Bellarmine though a Cardinal, yet less then a Saint, speak after Jerome.

Annon Gothi, Vandali, Hunni, Longobardi Romanae Vrbis Imperium fere ad nihilum redegerunt?

Have not the Goths, Vandals, Huns, Lombards, brought the Empire of Rome almost to nothing?

Latini non amplius regnant in toto orbe terrarum, sed Turcae sunt qui verissime regnant, & apud nos Hispani & Galli, non Latini.

The Latins do no longer Reign over the whole world, but •… e Turks are they which may be said most truly to reign; and among us, the Spaniards and French-men, not the Latins.

Let a Jesuit and no Cardinal attend a Cardinal and no Jesuit.

Romanus Pontifex vtriusque Regni, terreni & coelestis claues accepit.

The Pope of Rome hath received the Keys of both Kingdoms; the Earthly and the Heavenly.

An eighth Sin. SECT. XIII. Monstrousnesse of Apparel, &c.

ANother sin which presents an ugly sight to the face of Heaven, is Monstrousnesse of Apparel. Monstrous it is even in the ordinary sense of the word. For, when we see a thing excessive in measure or extraordinary in shape, we account it a Monster. So the Poet describing a Monster, he doth it principally by these two Epithits, Informe & ingens, Huge and vnshapely. Either of these stick as fast to our Fashionists, and therefore makes them to be Monsters. And first deformity cannot be avoided; •… or if there be an vnshapely shape in the World, then have they found i •… , and worn it, while they have found all shapes and worn them all. Besides, if little be handsome, then great is deformed; if great be handsome, then little is uncomely, and yet by following the Tide of Fashion, men fall both into the great and little deformity, for sometime both men and women swell in Ruffes, and Puffes, and Gownes, and Garments; yea, Beards and Curles; and sometime they •… bbe away 〈2 pages missing〉 windows. An ancient Father gives better counsel: Nullo modo pe •… mittendum est mulieribus vt nudam aliquam partem corporis offerant viris, ne ambo prolabantur; hi quidem, vt qui ad videndum inuitentur, illae vero quae in se virorum intuitum attrahant. It is by no means to be permitted unto women to show unto man any naked part of their body, lest both offend: the men in being prouokod to behold their nakedness, and the women in tempting men to behold it.] Surely, a good Woman is a private good, reserved from all except preserved for one, and even her face, which Use and Nature allow to be seen, should be modestly shown. The rest of the body should be like Christ's Spouse, the pattern of Purity, even a Garden shut up, and walled about. As much of it as thou doest publish in so much thou art common; and if single, thou hast in so much lost thy virginall reseruednesse; and if married, thy husbands particular interest: the first thou shouldst keep for thine own sake, and the second for his sake whose only thou shouldst be. Leave off then this naked foolishness, which makes only for thy shame; Neither let Nakednesse be the Ladies pride which is the Beggars disgrace. Yea, it is more disgraceful in the Lady then in the Beggar, as a want affected is far worse then a want necessarily endured. And take heed lest God send thee or thine a true nakedness instead of a false one, as he did heretofore to the women of Israel, which were as fine as most of our fine Ones. In the mean time we see God hath met our Nakednesse with a suitable Judgment. For, nothing is more contrary to Nakednesse then Cold and Rain, and these heretofore have met this vnmodest Nakednesse, even in the strength of Summer against the nature of the Time. Yea, Poverty grows on, that may cure a counterfeit Nakednesse with a true one. But yet behold another special Monster of Apparel; and that is, when Apparel goes about to make an alteration of sexes. For such an hideous confusion hath Impudence attempted; & by a curious invention hath wittily found out the chiefest fashion of Lothsomnesse. This Earth that beareth and nourisheth us, hath been turned into a Stage, and women •… aue come forth acting the parts of men. It seems this Monster was seen at Rome in Saint Jerome's time, for he •… aith, Virili habitu, vest mutata, erubescunt esse quod natae sunt, crinem amputant, & impudenter erigunt facies Eun •… chinas. Wearing Mans apparel, and changing their garments, they are ashamed to be that which they were borne, they cut off their hair, and impudently look up with their Eunuchs faces. But let us withal remember, that in Jerome's time Rome also was taken; And as when a strange and uncouth birds do come into the Country, the people take it for a sign of some plague that will follow; So may we justly think that these prodigious apparitions, and monstrous shapes, are both the causes and signs of ensuing misery. But see with Solomon the foolishness of madness. A man by creation is the most excellent creature. A woman by creation is inferior to the man. The excellency wherein Man excelleth the Woman is the knowledge and power of goodness; Therefore, if women would be taken for men, they should strive to do it by a likeness of wisdom and goodness. But now while they do it, in •… olly and vanity, they go f •… rthest from them, when they strive to come nearest them. Surely, it is very far from the power of a Taylor or a Barber to make a foolish woman resemble a wise man. What an endless Maze of Vanity is this, that after the change of all fashions, Nature her self is grown out of fashion, and violent hands are laid on the Creation? Is it not time that the universal Fire should cancel all creatures, when the chief of creatures cancel their own creation? Surely, it seemeth to me that these sins against nature, as the sins of Sodom, above all other sins, that run not immediately against the Deity, cry aloud for brimstone, and fire, and utter destruction. For why should they be any longer, who themselves will no longer be that which they are? Why should the Heaven, the Sea, and the Earth keep their courses steadily, to maintain a Creature that runs all out of course? A strange Patience of the Almighty, that order should continue the nourishment of disorder, and Nature should go on to maintain them that sin against Nature. But let all Vnnaturalists be fully assured, that Damnation sleepeth not though presently she strikes not; the blow is the greater, the longer it is coming; God shall take part with his Creation, and justify it against all that violate it; yea, he shall condemn such, and cast them far below beasts and insensible Creatures; For these have generally kept their courses and kinds, but Man, who by his Reason should best have kept his course, he hath most forsaken it, yea, he hath made head against it. For the height and perfection of Vice is now no other but a main opposition against Nature, and a turning of kinds out of kind, by abominable Pride and Luxury.

A second kind of monstrousnesse hath been described to be excessiuenesse of measure, or an immeasurable greatness. This great excess in Apparel hath been too apparent; for it was made of purpose to be seen, and yet the more it is seen the more is our sham •… and vanity seen. Hospitalitie, Charity, yea the Patrimony it self hath been cut up into Clothes; for an excess both in costliness and variety hath diminished House-keeping, Alms; yea, sometimes clothes hereby have taken away the maintenance of Clothes. Virtues by starving themselves have nourished Vice, and that which should have lived is dead, that what should have died may live. Besides, this excess of Ap parell hath removed the whole Land out of his place, and lifted it out of the hinges. For by the ambition of clothes there is a general remove, and the Lower is stepped into the place of the Higher, and each goes about to be like them who are unlike him. Besides, the whole shape of this Nation is changed, and clothes are no longer interpreters of the wearers, but need themselves an interpretation. So that if a man that for sooke this land some forty years since, should now return again; in good manners he could not but say your Lordship to a Gentleman, and your Worship to the Son of a Farmer. But (which is another mischief) if by an interpreter he once be brought to know a man, the next time he meets him he hath need of a second interpretation, for the old man is lost in some new disguised fashion. Such a confusion hath this vice bred, That by it both men and their degrees are grown out of knowledge; for unknown they are both to themselves and others. Surely if ever that were true which Hunting don speaks, That the vanity of men's minds should express it self in the strangeness of Apparel, these are the times wherein as we have committed the sin, why should we not expect our deserved punishment. Our Ancestors were wise in seeking remedies for this Vice, and I wish it were seconded; and that it would please Authority to enjoin some rules of distinction, and that the ordinary sort of men might be tied to our own Clothes, especially now when our own Clothes lack money to buy them, and men lack money to buy the Clothes of other Countries. Why should such buy the stuffs of other Nations, when our own will very well become them, the Poor shall be kept in bread by their work, flocks and Pastures shall at least keep their value, and the Land shall keep her money? It is a most-proper Cure when in one Act a Vice and a Loss are removed, for the removing of the Vice is the true way of removing the Loss. For till God be pleased, by the removing of Vices, it is in vain to talk of the removing of Losses. But if no other Remedy be given, Poverty the natural Remedy of Pride, I think, at last will cure it. And that either a particular poverty which is commonly the fruit of prodigality; or a general while needless Commodities abroad fetch away the money that we need at home. In the mean time this is most certain, That the wrath of God and the punishments of that wrath are denounced against this Monster of Apparel. The changeable suits shall be taken away, and instead of a Girdle shall be a Rent, instead of welset hair shall be baldness. Yea, God threateneth this sin by the Prophet Zephaniah, saying; In the day of the Lord's sacrifice I will punish all those that are clothed with strange Apparel. And that we may know what kind of day that day of the Lord is, he gives us the sight of it. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of darkness and gloominesse, a day of clouds and thick darkness. And because these general vices are usually accompanied with a general security (for if men did generally fear, they would not generally sin.) Even to such fearless men thus settled on their lees, and that say, the Lord will do neither good nor evil to them, it is said; Even their goods shall become a bootie, and their houses a Desolation.

I must stop myself from running on in a boundless waste of sin, for sin is almost boundless and gives me no stop. And though this Land be an Island, bounded by the Sea, yet even in this Island our Sins are a continent. For a limit of their extent will hardly be found, I wish we might at length find them bounded with a Sea of penitent tears. In the mean time it sufficeth if I have said enough, in that which is too much, though I have not said all; Surely this is enough for my present purpose, if I show▪ sins enough to deserve our Miseries; But I think those which I have shown are so much enough, that they are enough to bring the Torments of Hell upon Earth, or to carry down •… the dwellers on Earth alive into Hell. We may rather wonder at the Mercy of GOD in sparing, then at his Justice in punishing; how it can be that he punisheth no more, rather then that he punisheth so much: Therefore let us confess with Daniel, The curse is come upon us because we have sinned against GOD. And with Maurice the Emperor, when before his face his Children were slain, Righteous art thou O Lord, and Just are thy Judgments.

SECT. XIIII. A fault of the Vulgar.

BVt before I pass to a farther Consideration, I must needs meet with an ill custom of the Vulgar. When Miseries are upon them, they have commonly mutinous and tumultuous thoughts; and from thence issue their censures of government, their outcry for want of Laws, or want of keeping them. In this is a fault, and I desire they may know it. For whither their censure beetrue or false, they are in either to be blamed. If it be false, an apparent falsehood is an apparent fault, and therefore needs not to be proved. But if it be true, they are to blame in the vn-due effects that issue from it. For besides that, Mutinie is an ill remedy of Miserie, the greatest Miserie being a bad help of the lesser, they are to blame in this, That they look so far from them, and above them, for the finding and amending of faults, which they should have done most aptly at home. For if sins be the radical cause of Miseries, then it is also the Cause of the Causes of Miserie. So, if faults in government be the causes of Miserie, sin may be thought to be the cause of those Causes. Accordingly Solomon saith, That for the sins of the Land the Princes are many, that is, because a Land is wicked, it is punished with a confused government. And when God was angry with Israel, then he left David to a sin, that by the occasion of David's sin, the sins of Israel might be punished. Herevpon Gregory the Great inferreth, That according to the qualities of the Subjects, are disposed the acts of the Rulers, so that for the sin of the Flock, there may be a fault in the life of a good Shepherd. If this be true, let the People amend the faults in themselves, which they seek to amend beyond themselves, and by quitting their own evil, escape that evil which dependeth upon it. If the sins of Israel be the cause of the sins of David, the taking away of the sins of Israel, had been the readiest way of preventing that sin of David. Therefore, if thou wilt have anything amended abroad, amend it at home in thyself, for there is thy work which properly belongs to thee. But if thou look to faults abroad, and leavest faults at home, which may be their causes; surely, wonder not if the faults abroad be not mended, while the faults at home which caused them be nourished. Leave then the Governors to their Lord and Governor, who if they offend can punish them himself. Therefore Gregory saith of David, be cause he of his own will growing proud, was not without fault, therefore he also received the punishment of his fault; for the raging wrath that struck the Bodies of the people, struck the Heart of the Governor. But which is far more comfortable on all sides, Let the amendment of thy heart please the heart of God. For▪ God being pleased, frames the heart of Governors, that they shall be pleasing to God, and from the abundance thereof send forth that which shall be pleasant to the hearts of the people.

sins, humiliation for sin, and justifying of God in his punishments for sin, he will then remember his Covenant with their Fathers. By Ezekiel he telleth us, Repent and turn yourselves from all your Transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin; yea, he gives us there particular cases of this Doctrine. If the Son see his Fathers sins and considereth, and doth not the like, he shall not die for the iniquity of his Father, he shall surely live. Yea, the same Man that hath committed iniquities, if he turn from his sins which he hath committed, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live he shall not die. Yea, all the transgressions that he hath committed shall not be so much as mentioned to him. In Jeremiah there is a passionate conference between GOD and Ephraim, which is a lively Table and Representation of God's dispensation unto Man, formerly expressed in these passed considerations. First, Ephraim acknowledgeth to God that his chastisements were upon him, Thou hast chastised me, O Lord, and I was chastised. Secondly, that his sins were the cause of his chastisements: He confesseth that he was like a Bullock, unaccustomed to the yoke. Thirdly, he shows the operation of God's chastisement in him; it stirred him up to call on God for the grace of Repentance, Turn thou me and I shall be turned: And fourthly, the tenderness of God's mercy to Ephraim, being penitent in most affectionate words; Ephraim my dear Son and a pleasant Child, since I spake to him I do earnestly still remember him: Therefore, my Bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy on him. This one president, if there were no more, doth sufficiently give a perfect plat-form of the Cure of our Miseries, either to the Teacher or the Practiser. The wrath and punishments which sin hath twisted together, Penitence vntwineth and dissolveth. Sin calleth for punishments, Punishments call for conversion from sin, and conversion from sin expelleth punishments. Infinite it were to accumulate God's Promises of mercy to repentance, or examples of such Promises performed. Back-sliding Israel under the Judges often fell back to their sins, yet often returning from their sins, were delivered from their miseries. Yea, even Ahab by the outside of repentance, which he wore on his body, in his garment of sack-cloth and gesture of going softly, deferred the rooting out of his Family for the term of his life. When Manasseh had laden himself, and Judah with the roaring sins of blood and Idolatry, yet Manasseh by repentance is vnladen himself, and to Judah it is offered by Jeremiah, That yet they should hearken and repent, that God might repent of the evil, which for their evil doings he purposed to do unto them. Accordingly in Josiah's time, which was a time of reformation, God spared Judah, though burdened with these sins, for one and thirty years. And yet to say the truth, it seems that Judah all that while was but outwardly reformed, and inwardly rotten. Such a blessing to a people is a godly Prince, striving for a true reformation, though attaining but to a seeming one. Yea, it seems that God did not punish Judah, until they committed sins like to those of Manasseh. So doth Tremellius interpret that place; yea, Jeremiah affirmeth the substance of this interpretation. For he saith it was well with Josiah, who did Justice and Judgment, but the eyes and the heart of Iehoiakin the son of Josiah were not, but for his Covetousness, for to shed innocent blood, for oppression and for violence. Behold, a true pattern of the sins of Manesseth; but that yet we may be sure to find none of them wanting, let us hear the Scripture plainly affirming, He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to ALL that his Fathers had done. And what follows immediately thereupon, In his days Nebuchadnezzar came up, and Iehoiakin became his servant, and when he rebelled against him, the Lord sent the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against him; yea, he sent them against Judah to destroy it. Thus we see that Repentance for sin preserveth a Kingdom, though taynted with crimson and crying sins, but the same Kingdom returning from Repentance unto sins, and by new sins resembling the old, beareth the burden in a fearful destruction both of the new and the old. Neither hath the mercy of God extended it self only to the penitence of the Jews, and the Children of the Covenant, but even to Nineveh, a City of the Heathen, and strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel. Yea, by fact he there approveth what by word elsewhere he publisheth. That the sentence of punishment though outwardly never so positive, and resolutely affirmative, yet inwardly it hath an implied negative, upon the condition of conversion and amendment. The Lord saith by Iermie, When I shall speak of a Nation, and of a Kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy it; behold a peremptory sentence of destruction, If that Nation against whom I have pronounced it turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them; behold a negative of that Affirmative upon a Condition. God in his deed to Nineveh, is as good as his word by Jeremiah, and as he is yesterday, today, and the same forever, so at the beginning of days, today and forever, He speaks the word and it is done, his words are most certainly turned into works. A Nation, not the Nation, not the Nation of the Jews only, but any Nation of the Gentiles, Nineveh, Tyrus and Sidon, yea Britain it self, hath an assured interest in this promise of God; If we repent of the evil of our doings, God will certainly repent of the evil of our sufferings. Neque enim Deus hominibus sed vitijs irascitur, quae eum in homine non fuerint, nequaquam punit quod mutatum est. God is not angry with men but with sins; which sins when they are removed, he punisheth not a man for the sin which is not in him.

SECT. II. The sum of the premisses cast up, ariseth to a perfect Medicine of our Miseries.

NOw if this four-fold Consideration of God's Judgments hath discovered to us these Truths, that the wrath of God and the punishments of that Wrath are upon us, That this Wrath and punishments are upon us for our sins. That these Punishments which are upon us for sins, call for Repentance, And that Repentance removeth the Punishments, What doth offer it self here plainly as the fruit of this Consideration, but an excellent cure of our Miseries. Repentance which our Miseries call for, is an absolute Remedy to remove and heal our Miseries. Ita fit vt qui in nobis abutendo sanitate, infirmitatem peperimus, per infirmitatem sanitatis beneficia reparemus. Et qui per lae •… tiam in tribulationis incidimus per tribulationem ad laetitiam recurramus. By Repentance it will come to pass, that we who by the abuse of our health have gotten diseases, may by our diseases again recover our health. And we who by our Mirth are fallen into Sorrowes, may again by our Sorrowes, recover our Mirth.

But as the former truths have been copied to us out of the infallible word of Truth, so from thence also let us take the true pattern of an healing Repentance; There shall we see that plat▪form of Repentance, by which God hath been pleased and miseries remoned, and let us firmly believe that the same prescription is left for a perpetual Remedy, and is now as able to cure us ever; For the Word of God, and the Mercy of God endureth forever. For one entire place there is scarce a fuller to be found then that in Joel; Turn unto me, saith the Lord, with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. And Rent your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. And the manner of the Fast he describeth, Blow the Trumpet in Zion, sanctify a Fast, call a solemn Assemblie; Gather the People: sanctify the Congregation: assemble the Elders: gather the Children, and those that suck the breasts: let the Bride-groome go forth out of his Chamber, and the Bride out of her Closet. Let the Priests, the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar, and let them say; Spare thy People, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach; that the Heathen should rule over them, wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his Land, and pity his People. This is the Repentance which God telleth us is acceptable, Let us therefore consider it, do it, and be confident of acceptation.

SECT. III. Sound Repentance is found to have in it. First, A confession of sins.

ANd if we will by the direction of this place, jointly with others take a view of the main parts of Repentance, we shall especially discover these. We must confess our iniquities, confessing we must loath them, and bewail them, and loathing and lamenting we must turn to the contrary Righteousness, and to this we must join vehement invocation. We may well confess our sins in Repenting them, for we have confessed them in acting them: Our sins with Sodom were not hid in the doing, let them not with Adam be hid in the curing. Yea, those that are more secret, God by punishments hath now publicly proclaimed, As in Absalom's open Incest, David's secret Adultery was punished. Wherefore, if we had not shame to do that sin by which God was offended, and we are punished; Let us not take shame to tell what we have done by a confession, wherein God is appeased and we are eased. Shame properly belongs to sin done, though denied, but shame belongs not to sin undone, though confessed. And surely, what by corruption hath been done, by repentance is undone. In confessing our sins, we accuse our sins rightly as the causes of our punishments, and we glorify God clearing him and his Justice in punishing. This is that which God calleth the accepting of his punishment, which is one condition of removing it; for we cannot but approve and accept that punishment, which we confess hath been justly deserved. Accordingly Daniel •… eginnes with confession, and therein gives the shame to Man, and glory to God. Confession by Solomon is made the first step to God's favor, an •… Saint John saith, If we acknowledge our sins, God •… s faithful and just to forgive our sins. Let us therefore open our diseases to our Physician, and let us not be ashamed to be healed. For certainly, except we acknowledge our sickness, the Physician that came only to heal the sick will not heal us, being healthie in our own opinion. Let us therefore confess our sickness, that we may be healed, and not cover it with the show of health, that we may never be recovered. When we confess our sins unto God, we tell God no more then he knows before, for our sins as all things else are naked before his eyes: But by the telling of our sins God knows, that we know them to be sins, without which knowledge and acknowledgement there can be no conversion, and without conversion there can be no cure. How can any turn from those deeds which they acknowledge not to be sins, and how can that be amended which is not known to be a fault? Then is a Man wakened, and ceaseth to dream when he telleth his dreams, and when we tell the vain fantasies of our sinful actions, it is a sign we are departed from them. Therefore Confession must be the first step to Conuersio •… , and by Conversion the first step unto Healing.

SECT. IIII. Secondly, a detestation of sin: and from thence a revenge on our selves for doing that which we detest.

TO this Confession of sins, should be joined a Detestation of the sins confessed. We must detest the sins that we have done, and our selves for doing them, and out of this detestation must arise an anger, yea, a resolution of revenge against our selves. That our sins may appear loath some, we need no more but in one view to look upon them, and look upon God's Law, and the purity of the one will show us plainly the filthiness of the other. And if we cannot well discern the ugliness of our sins, Let us view the shapes which the servants of God have drawn of them, whereof some models are given in this Treatise, and else where enlarged. Surely, there is nothing more ugly then a sinner. For the face and character of his Creation is like a face whose parts are either scratched away, turned upside down, or covered with most loathsome corruption. This ugly deformity the Lord seeth plainly, and showeth it to us by most forcible comparisons. He expresseth the loathsomeness of Sinners, by the most loathsome estate of a Child in the blood of his birth. Ezek. 16. Again, A sinful Land is compared to the body of a Man from the head to the •… oot turned into one scab or sore; so that sinners are as ugly as a Man covered over all with blisters, swellings and corruption. Again, if the Righteousness of sinful man be compared to a cloth of extremist pollution, what comparison can we fit for his sinfulness? Let us then look on our selves, with the same eyes that God looks on us, and then shall we see our selves just as loathsome as God doth see us. A spiritual eye-sight, quickened by the eye-salve of the Spirit, will make both us and Laodicea plainly to behold our Blindnes, our Nakednesse, and our Miserie. If a Drunkard with sober eyes could see himself drunk, he would appear to himself as a most loathsome and beastly apparition. If a Swearer, with a temperate soul and awful of his Creator, could hear himself swearing, cursing, and tearing his Maker and Savior, he would think he heard a mad man, and one far madder then he that curseth his Father, and draggeth his Mother by the hair of her head. Surely, the greater the Father, the greater the madness of the Son that dishonors and despiseth him. If a Fashionist should with an ordinate and composedjudgment, see himself feathred, and fluttred, and ragged, and turned into a block, upon which must be set an hundred shapes, and most of them ugly ones, he could not but think himself some great Mans Fool, or an Ape that changeth himself into a thousand postures. If the Grinder of the Poor with an impartial eye (and such is the spiritual) could behold his grating and eating of the Poor by fretting Oppression, if he did but see how his heart pants for the day that approacheth, and his bread dimini •… heth by the day when it is approached, how the children's faces are both made moist with tears, and yet dried 〈2 pages missing〉 God the chief and sovereign of Spirits seeth, so we in our measure shall see; and by our seeing we shall see in the sins of the flesh a most loathsome corruption. To give us but a little pledge of this Truth, take but a natural Man with the small piece of God's Image, given in the Cration, and left by the Fall, and behold him in the Chamber of Death, when the Flesh being quieted & deadded by weakness, gives the Soul leave in some small measure to use her own Light, and therewith to behold the sins done in the body. For then doth sin appear out of measure sinful, and it looks just in its own ugliness. Tunc veras voces emittunt pectore ab imo. Then a man beholdeth the crookedness of his actions with a right eye, shows and shadows being taken away, & Truth remaining. Secum reputat & considerat num quempiam aliqua affecerit injuria, at{que} ita qui multa •… e in vita improbe gessisse inuenit, vt e somno perinde at{que} pueri solent identidem euigilat, meticulosus{que} est, & cum spe mala viu •… t. Then doth a Man truly weigh and consider the wrongs which he hath done, then doth he truly find that he hath committed many evils, and then doth he spend the remaynder of his Time in wretched despair. But let us prevent this fearful and late sight of our sins, by a timely discou •… rie performed by the Spirit. If this work be done in our lives, then will our deaths be pleasant and cheerful; our work being done before hand in our lives, we shall have leisure in our ends to think on the joys of Heaven, the terrors of Hell being put away by a preventing examination. It is a woeful thing to have much work to do, when the power of working is almost done. Yea, it is a pitiful Case, when to the terror of Death, shall be joined the terror of an affrighting Conscience; whereas on the other side, a comfortable Conscience is an absolute Remedy for the terror of Death. There are late and lamentable sights of sin which he that had seen before, and cured, he needed not at the hour of death, with horror to have seen them. Let us therefore, in the time of our life, which is called To day, and by the Light of the Spirit which is the Day-star of our life; behold, the ugliness of our sins, and by seeing them put away both them and their terror. Let us not defer this serious business to the Night of Death, wherein men cannot well work, and wherein ugly sights do usually most affright us. But let us in our lives with Joshua put off the rags of our filthiness, and with the invited Guests put on the wedding Garment, that when the Bridegroom calls, we may have no other business, but to enter with him to his eternal Ioyes.

SECT. V. Anger and Reuenge, the true issues of Detestation of sin.

ANaturall and kindly issue of this detestation of sin, is an anger or indignation with our sins, and our selves for sinning. The penitent sinner is at odds with himself for his sins; yea he, hateth himself, and from this Indignation, ariseth a desire of Reuenge upon himself for sinning. A commendable wrath and an excellent revenge. He confesseth himself worthy of all the punishments of God because he hath offended him, and taking God's part as it were against himself, he pronounceth sentence of punishment against himself, and executeth it soundly. His body he appointeth to the punishment of sackcloth, ashes, watching, labor and fasting, or other Asperities; on his heart he puts the sack-cloth of compunction and sorrow. And indeed this inward sackcloth is that which gives worth to the outward, for the hanging down of the head without the humbling of the heart is to God a detestable sacrifice. It can hardly be, that a heart duly humbled, should not communicate some humbling to the body, but if it might be, it were far better that the heart should be humbled without the humbling of the body, then that the body should be humbled without the humbling of the heart. But it is fittest that since both have sinned, both should be humbled; so to avoid the fault of the superstitious that with a proud and supererogating heart, have a fasting body, and to avoid the dissoluteness of the Licentious that say they are grieved in heart, when the grief of the heart imparteth not it self to the body, that had a chief part in the sin. The Law of sin Paul calleth the law of the members, Why should not then the members also be punished wherein is the Nest of the law of sin? Lust when it defiles the soul by sin, the sin of Lust is commonly vshered with some filthy pleasure. Now when Repentance goes about to cleanse the soul, by a godly sorrow it purgeth away the filth which sinful pleasure hath left behind it. Yea it is not only content to sweep the filth of sinful lust out of the soul by the besom of sorrow, but by it and exercises suitable to it, it would sweep it out of the body also, if it were possible, and so make all clean by sweeping all filth out of doors. Therefore as by sorrow it casteth the dregs of sinful Lust out of the heart, so by fasting and other mortifying exercises it seeks to drive it out of the body, that both soul and body may be clean. Neither let the Papists have any advantage on us in the exercises of humiliation, but only in doing it more arrogantly, and more indiscreetly. To do it for Merit, or to disable the body, Let these be their privileges; But in doing it for a penitent humiliation, and with a measure that keeps the body serviceable to the soul, true Doctrine gives them no precedence. And therefore, though they brag to their Disciples of their Religion as the only teacher of Discipline, and accuse ours as the teacher of Licentiousness, they deceive and are deceived. Licentious men there are on both sides; and as some of ours puff themselves up with Liberty after sinning, so some of theirs glut their flesh before their penance for sin; witness the most mad Licentiousness that commonly fore▪runs their Lenten-fasting. Upon this is grounded an Apothegme of an Heathen, that the Christians are mad one time of the year, until one come and cast Ashes on them, and then they recover their wits again. But there are among us holy and devout men, that practice and aproue a revenge on the flesh, and even in these times desire it; For most true it is that either for the weakening of sin in us, or for humbling us having sinned, the punishment of the flesh is an excellent Medicine. But of a voluntary punishment for satisfaction to Justice I have no Intelligence; I have received from a better Pope then ever was since him, to the contrary. Confessionem nostram ex puro cord desiderat, & cuncta quae delinquimus relaxat, &c. God desires the confession of our sins from a pure heart, and then he forgives all our offenses. The Mercy of the Redeemer hath tempered the rigor of the Law, for in the Law it is written, He that offendeth let him die the death, or be over-whelmed with stones. But our Maker hath appeared in our flesh, and to the confession of sins (Non paenam fed vitam promittit) he doth not promise a punishment but life; he receives a woman confessing her wounds, and sends her away whole. And again, Non in fletibus nostris, non in actibus nostris, sed in Aduocati nostri allegatione confidamus, Let us not trust in our tears, nor our works, but in the Mediation of our Advocate. Let us therefore be humbled by outward humiliation, thereby to cleanse our filthiness, but not trust in it as a satisfaction that merits forgiveness. This were in humbling not to be humble, but to be proud upon our humbling. Again, in humiliation everyone that is weak may have respect to his weakness. Ne dùm hostem oppugn •… t ciuem perimant, But let men take heed, that herein their favor of themselves be caused by the weakness of their bodies, and not by the weakness of their anger against sin; In good duties let us be fervent, and only slow unto evil. What though carnal liberty by Dis-use hath made some strangeness of it, while it abhorreth to diminish one morsel of pleasure, for any degree of spiritual; yea, eternal consolation? yet the upright in heart mourn and pine in secret for the sins of the time; yea, David a King, he humbled his soul with fasting, and Jehoshaphat a King fasted; yea, Ahab a wicked King fasted, and by it for a time deferred the wrath of the Lord. And I must needs tell thee that lovest the ease of thy flesh, when wrath is upon us, it is most for the ease of thy flesh to punish thy flesh. For we see that a short fast hath procured a long time of plenty and fullness, and so for fasting our eating may be the longer continued. If I say that the fast of Eightie eight hath left us alive this day, to enjoy that portion of God's blessings which is now allotted us, I think I might do it by the warrant of great example, and no man can confidently deny it. But under the standard of the Scriptures I may march valiantly, because irresistibly. In the story of Jehoshaphat, first is the fast, and then the deliverance; In the prophesy of Jonah, first is the fast of Nineveh, and then the deliverance, and without these deliverances both the stomach and the meat had been lost. In the prophesy of Joel, first a Fast is prescribed, then a Blessing is promised. Yea, in this very point of plenty is the blessing promised, He will send them Corn, and wine, and Oile, and they shall be satisfied therewith. A short emptiness, shall bring a long fullness; and therefore fast that ye may be full, for in this point also, Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled. True it is, that turning must be joined with fasting, but fasting also by God's own prescription is fit to be joined with turning. And why should we not willingly fast, since we see it so inseperablie attended with deliverances and plenty? We may be confident in Mercy, since it may not be thought that what hath never failed others, should now begin to fail us. We have read that the wrath of God endureth but a moment, but we read that his Mercy endureth forever. Surely, God is not changeable in his Mercy, wherefore let us be the same with others in our humiliation, and let us be assured that God will be the same forever in his Mercy.

SECT. VI. A clearing of the doctrine of Humiliation.

BVt here by the way, I desire to prevent Error, and to put Truth in the stead of it, in this Doctrine of Humiliation. To this end I would show how God comes to be pleased with Man, by these exercises of revenge upon sin in our bodies. So that the licentious Man should not think them unprofitable in true Penitence, nor the Iusticiarie believe them to be satisfactions unto Justice. True it is, that with this exercise of humiliation God is pleased, and his wrath for sin appeased, but not as it pays the price of sin, but as it is the abolition and expulsion of sin. God is satisfied with the Man humbled for sin, but not with that humiliation as a satisfaction to his Justice, but as a condition accepted by this mercy and goodness. It is the blood of Christ only that pays God's justice, the just price of punishment for our sins, but the punishment of our selves is a part of our penitence, and penitence fitteth us for the receipt of the merits and satisfaction of Christ Jesus. For Christ that paid an equal price for our sins by his death, doth not impart this satisfaction of his Death, but to those that by his Spirit are made conformable to his Death. As Christ died for sin, so Christians must die to sin, and therefore by one Spirit Christ gives us both the Death for sin, and the Death of sin; Now in this humiliation and self-judging for sin, we give his Spirit leave and power to ransack our harts and to kill the sin that offended God; yea, by the same we express and testify our hatred of that sin, and our conversion to God. And we being thus conformed to the death of Christ, the death of Christ doth give it self to us, or rather unto God for us. For his justifying Death is imparted by a mortifying and sanctifying Spirit, our penitent Conversion is the condition of God's Absolution, and then the Death of Christ is the ransom of our sins, when the Spirit of Christ in penitence purgeth the sin that defileth us. For as elsewhere I have shown, in sins there is guilt and a blot; The soul is thereby guilty, & thereby filthy. Now, God hath so ordered it, that the taking away of the filth should go with the taking away of the guilt, and therefore Christ's justifying blood is given us by the sanctifying Spirit, & with the taking away of the filth, the taking away of the guilt is conjoined. The Parable of Christ, with some likeness, and some difference, may make it more clear to lower capacities. The Father hath two Sons, and the younger calls for his portion and spends it; yea, he makes a debt beyond it, and sets it on his Fathers Account. Afterward, he is sorry for his prodigality, he returns to his fathers house, and there desires his elder brother to mediate for him. The Brother entreats the Father, he offers payment of the debt, only he intreats mercy and pardon for his Brother. The Father looks as well for amendment, as for satisfaction, and will not accept this elder Sons satisfaction, until he be assured of his younger Sons penitence and conversion. To testify this, it appears to the father that he hateth his former life, because he hateth himself for it, and out of that hatred he punisheth himself with fasting, lying on the ground, and humbling himself to an equality with servants. Upon this penitent humiliation, his brothers satisfaction is accepted. It is the elder brother that satisfies, but the penitence of the younger makes him capable of that satisfaction. So after our sins, Christ's blood is still the propitiation of our sins, but by serious penitence (the fruit of his mortifying Spirit, & whereof these exercises of humiliation are fruits) that propitiation is made ours, and is received for us. This is no new Truth, but hath been anciently known and approved. Poenitens anima damnatam pristinam vitam odio persequi, & ipsam memoriam execrari debet. Deinde comminationem aeterni judicij ac supplicij pro timoris Dei doctrina complecti, & tempus poenitentiae tempus esse lachrymarum cognoscere, certa quod mundatio peccatorum sit per sanguinem Christi in amplitudine Misericordiae, & multitudine miserationem Dei. The penitent Soul must hate and detest his old sinful life. Next, he must receive the threatenings of eternal condemnation and punishment, as a Doctrine of the fear of God; and he must be assured that the cleansing of his sins is by the blood of Christ, through the largeness of God's mercy, and the multitude of his compassions. And again, Persuaderi potest anima &c. A Soul may persuade her self that her sins are forgiven her, if she can behold in her self the affection of him that said, I have hat •… d iniquity. For, he that sent his only Son for the forgiveness of our sins, hath done his part that the sins of all might be forgiven. But because the Psalmist sings both of Mercy and Judgment, and thereby testifies that God is both merciful and righteous, it is needful that the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles concerning Repentance, be applied by us; that so both the Judgments of God's Righteousness and Mercy, may be fully bestowed upon us unto the forgiveness of our sins.] 〈◊〉 of this seems to be th •… sense. That the honor of God's Righteousness would be endangered, if he should accept Christ's satisfaction for impenitent sinners, but if by penitence we hate our iniquities, then both his Righteousness and Mercy agree to forgive us. Jerome also most plainly, Quod autem scriptum &c. That place of Scripture, and the blood of Christ shall cleanse us from all sin, doth belong both to the confession in Baptism, and to the Mercy in Penitence. Gregory the Great thus, In assiduis fletibus, in quotidiana nostra poenitentia &c. In our continual tears, and daily penitence, we have a Priest in Heaven that makes intercession for us. Of whom it is said by John, If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.

SECT. VII. A third part of Repentance, Turning from Sin unto the contrary Righteousness.

TO the detestation of sin, and revenge on our selves for sinning, must inseparably and principally be joined a conversion from sin unto Righteousness. This •… rning is that which sanctifies our confession, our detestation, sorrow and humiliation, without which all other actions or passions of Repentance are but dead ceremonies; bodies without souls: for, turning is the very life of them all. Then only do the punishments for sin take their leave of us, when we are thus turned from sin. For, this turning sets our souls in joint again, which sin had displaced; yea, having set us in tune within our selves, it tuneth us also at once to our Maker; And when we are in Harmonie with our Maker, and in Harmonie within our selves, then follows a sweet Harmonie and agreement with the Creatures; so we see the true way how to have peace with the Creator, our own selves and the Creatures. If God be with us, how can anything be against us, how can we be tormented by anything? Therefore let us fasten our eyes and hearts on this turning, as the very key that openeth the door, by which we pass from Miserie unto Felicitie. For on this side of that door is Darkness, Wrath, and Judgment, even sin, and the punishments of sin▪ But on the other side is Light, Joy, the most glorious Countenance of a pleased Creator; In sum, The most excellent gifts, Holiness and Happiness. Turn unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the Earth, saith the Lord. And again by Joel, Turn to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great mercy, and repenteth him of the evil. And by Jeremiah, Return ye back-sliding children, and I will heal your backsliding; what remains but that we give the same answer which there is given: Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Yea, let us continue our song unto God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. For shame hath devoured the labor of our Fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds. And then God will continue his promise of Mercy; If thou wilt return, Return unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. Take to you words, saith Hosea, and turn to the Lord, say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we give the calves of our lips. And if we take words unto us the Lord will take words unto him, I will heal their back-sliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away. Seeing then we have such promises, let us by true turning and repentance, cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let us confess, and with mourning detest, and detesting forsake the sins of the Time, and the sins of our persons. Nullus id quod peccatum esse confessus est deinceps debet admittere, quia confessio peccati professio desinendi est. When we have confessed our sins, we are bound to forsake them, because the confession of sin is a profession of forsaking sin.

SECT. VIII. This turning from sin to be done, First, In our selves.

NOw toward the forsaking of sin, let us observe this order; first, to forsake sin our selves, and next to draw others to forsake it. First, let every man according to the King of Nineuehs proclamation, put away the evil that is in his own hands. Let us first be turned our selves, and put away the beams which are in our own eyes. Let every man sit in Judgment on himself, and take a survey of his life, and examine by what sins he hath offended, and from those very sins let him turn with full purpose of heart never to do them again. Let there be a solemn hatred, a •… dissention; yea, an utter separation between our souls and our sins; and let us cast them out as garments that carry in them the infection of the plague; yea, of all God's plagues and punishments. As we would shut out Poverty, Anguish, death, and Hell it self, so let us shut out our sins; for our sins bring in all these with them inseparably attending them. And when we see, feel or hear of any of those punishments which are now upon us, or may hereafter afflict us, let the punishment presently bring thee into remembrance of thy sin, and as much as the punishment is grievous, so much let the sin that caused it be loath some. For punishments and sins are like counterparts each to other, and in one is expressed the shape of the other. Our sins are that part which we present unto God, and punishments are the part which God delivereth unto us; and such a loathsome look as the punishments express unto us, such and a more loathsome look do our sins present unto God. So in the one we shall read the other, in our punishments we shall read our sins. But if we blot out that counterpart of our sins, God will also blot out that counter part of his Judgments; and until then, let us complain of our sins, and not of our punishments; of our sins that willfully continue them, and not of the Judgments which are necessarily continued by our sins. For surely it were pity, that sin should prosper and grow greater by impunity. Let our malice therefore be converted from anything that punisheth us, to the sin, by which it came to punish us; and let us be assured, that when we are turned from sin, the creatures shall be turned from punishing. In our selfeiudging let us take greatest notice of our greatest sins, and next of our strongest sins, which though lesser in show, yet coming thicker by their usual prevailing, must have a great strength of opposition and repentance. We must turn greatly from our great sins, and weep bitterly for them, we must strive mightily with our strong sins, and beseech the Lord thrice for them; yea, let us not leave prayer and unutterable groans, until the house of Saul grow weaker, and the house of David grow stronger. Let the Drunkard strive to turn from his drunkenness, and though he find it a little hard in the beginning, yet at length he shall feel it more easy; and that a custom of Sobriety, is far more comfortable to be kept, then a custom of Beastlinesse. The dry soul is the wisest and best soul, & so most fit for divine contemplation, not being dimmed by the smoking vapors of drink, which like a gross cloud do cover it with darkness.] Let the profane Blasphemer strive a little with his custom of Swearing, and he shall find that it is as hard for a man to swear that disuseth it, as it is for him not to swear that hath long time abused it. Let the Extortioner by turning merciful, once taste the sweetness of Mercy, and of that Manna of Charity, which is the very Honey of Heaven, and he will say, that the taste of brotherly love is far sweeter then the taste of the heart-blood of his brother. Let the Sacriligious person strive to turn from his Covetousness, and see what odds of comfort there is in the soul of him that hath given of his own to the Church, or given freely to the Church the things of the Church, & of him that hath starved the Church or a Church-man, and he will not spare the Heaven of a good conscience, for all the earthly benefits, that have Hell by their sides. Yea, let every sinner look upon his every sin, either in this Treatise named, in others justly reproved, or in his own Conscience registered and he shall gain thereby to himself the joys of a good Soul, and shall procure to himself and us all, a freedom from the evil of punishments. Neither let us only search out our sins and forsake them, but let us strive to plant in our selves a solid and powerful goodness. For such a goodness is only able to keep out sin, when it is thrust out, since we have to do with strong temptations, and a strong tempter. Thinne and shadowie holiness, and a show of goodness, betrays us to all offers of sin; and let it be sufficient that hereby we have already received so many hurts, armed with too sleight an armor for a Christian soldier, even with a talking and not a walking holiness. But let us strive by all means to fortify the spirit in us, by which we are fortified against the spirit which is in the world; and let us not leave praying, fasting, reading, meditating, until we feel the pulses of the spirit beat strongly, whose strength is the great prefernatiue against sin, and the main stablisher of our feet in the way of peace and holiness.

SECT. IX. Secondly, We should procure others to turn from their sins.

NEither must we move our selves only to confess, detest, and forsake sins; but we must endeavor to draw others also to the same duties of Repentance. There is among us a Natural communion, a Politic communion, and a Spiritual communion. We are of one flesh and blood, of one Common-wealth, of one Communion of Saints. And each of these Communions are forcible motives and reasons, that incite us to communicate goodness each unto other; The members we are of one Nation, of one Kingdom, of one Church; It were a monstrous thing if the hand should not set a plaster on a bruised foot, nor the head study a remedy for a sickly body. Yea, there is yet another Communitie, and that is, a Communion of Misery, and this usually procures mutual Pity, and this pity, succor and relief. As the good Thief rescued Christ from the reuyling of the bad one, saying; We all are under one condemnation; So should we say, General punishments have inflicted general smarts, and losses; Let us therefore strive to save one another with compassion, and to pull one another out of the fire of God's Indignation. If you ask where this should begin, I will tell you where it hath begun. When a general Danger threatened Judah, Jehoshaphat the King of Judah feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah. When Josiah heard but the threatenings of God against sins, and knew that those sins were committed, to which those threatenings did belong, the King stood in his place, & made a Covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his Commandments, and his Testimonies, and his Statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, and caused all that were present to stand to it. When Jonah did but pronounce the sentence of Destruction upon Nineveh, (we hear of no Plagues present upon it, no Enemies undermining it by policies, nor oppugning it by force) the King of Nineveh arose from his Throne, he laid his Robe from him, and covered him with Sackcloath, and sat in Ashes, and it was proclaimed through Nineveh, by the King and the Nobles; Let neither Man, nor Beast, Herd nor Flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sack clothe, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. And as sure as they repented, so sure they were preserved. Now S. Paul saith, That the things which were written here to fore, were here to fore written for our instruction. Surely, the greatest power worketh greatest effects, and a Reformation is never so public, as when they that have the most power on the public set it on work. The Magistrate by good Laws, by causing good execution of good Laws, and by good Example is a most Catholic Reformer. The people took notice of David's fasting for the murder of Abner, and it pleased them, for whatsoever the King did that pleased the people. And not only the higher Magistrates are causes of Reformation, but the Lower in being careful to suppress Vice by lawful punishments, and to strengthen Virtue by lawful encouragements. Yea, their examples also may communicate, either much goodness, or much infection. Next to the public Magistrate, the Minister is a most public-Person. Therefore it concerns him also to tell the People their sins, and to call them from their transgressions. Ezra the high Priest prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel Statutes and Iudgments. Yea, he rent his Garment for the sins of the People, and called them to the reuersing of their sins, until the fierce wrath of the Lord should be turned away from them. Yea, this hath been the main office of the Priests, and Prophets of God to turn them from their sins, and so to turn away the punishments belonging to their sins. These are the Watch-men set upon the Tower of divine Speculation, looking a far off to see both the sins of the People, and the punishments of God coming for their sins, and to give notice of both to the People. Thus standing in their watch, if with the servant of Elijah they see but a little cloud arising, they call to Ahab's, to Sinners, to escape betime from the Tempests that will follow. In Isaiah, a Watchman standeth in the watch-tower and speaks unto Sinners. The Morning comes and also the Night, if ye will inquire, inquire, return and come. Jeremiah was set in a watch-tower, and then the Word of the Lord comes to him, Make your ways good and your actions right, And think not to steal and kill, and swear falsely, and to worship Idols, and to trust in the Temple of the Lord, for as I destroyed Shiloh for the wickedness of Israel, so will I destroy the Temple for the wickedness of Judah. Ezekiel is set on a watch-tower to receive the Word from God, and to deliver it to the People. If God say to the wicked he shall die, the Prophet himself shall die, if he do not tell this message of Death to the wicked: Habakkuk stands in his watch, to hear what the Lord will say unto him, and having received the Word of the Lord, he proclaims it to the people. Woe be to him that couets an evil Covetousness, to set his nest on high above the reach of Miserie. Woe be unto him that builds a City with blood, and that establisheth it by Iniquity. Woe be unto him that giveth drink to his Neighbor, adding his Bottle, and making him drunk, that he may behold his shame Yea, Christ Jesus himself the Mediator of the New Testament, and our chiefest King, Priest, and Prophet, to the Scribes and Pharisees expresseth their sins, and denounceth the woes belonging to them. And Jerusalem her self with tears he calleth to repentance, offering to gather her under the wings of an Almighty protection; Our Savior would, but Jerusalem would not. Saint Peter also, an excellent Scholar of that highest Teacher, tells the Jews plainly, that they have denied the holy One, and desired a Murderer, and killed the Prince of Life; and withal he calls them to Repentance and Conversion, that their sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come. Now, whereunto doth all this amount being cast up into a sum? That it is the office of the Ministers to see the sins of the People, to see the Judgments of God coming upon those sins, and by Repentance to call the People from their sins, and so to save them from the Judgments. Therefore even at this Day must the Ministers be Seers, they must see sins, and see judgments. And they must be Criers as well as Seers, for when they see the sins, they must give Men notice of the punishments that attend them, and when they see the plagues, they must give men notice of the sins that cause them; yea, when they see both, as at this Time, they must give notice of both. Even now is the word Clama sent out to the Ministers, to cry aloud and spare not, even to lift up their voice as a Trumpet. Wherefore, let them not be silent, nor hold their peace for Zion's sake, lest the Prophet die for not spea king, and the People for not hearing: Better it is to cry aloud a cry of penitence that brings forth safety and rejoicing; then to cry bitterly hereafter in a cry of torment, when there shall be none to deliver. Therefore, let each Pastor of a Flock take heed to the Flock, whereof the Holy Ghost hath made him Ouer-seer, and in his Flock search and discover the sins that are there most dangerous, and show his Flock both the sins & the danger. Let him cal upon them strongly for Repentance, even this three-fold duty of Repentance: Confession, Detestation, and Conversion, by them striving to dismount the sins of the Time, which like so many Canons are planted against us, being full charged with the Judgments of God. There is none that spareth his flock more, then he that spares the sins of his flock least. You see a strong Ground and impregnable Examples, warranting this Action. And if carnal Security could truly say (as it is ready to say anything; yea, to sin quietly unto Death, rather then to take the pains of Repentance) that there is no fear of such a wrath, as speculative men may forge out of the strength of Imagination, yet this is all the danger of this side, That by persuading Repentance, men are less sinful, more just, and more safe; whereas on the other side, If our Sins, and God's Judgments be so near together, as the foresaid Proofes do enforce, the danger of vnrepentance is no little one, but an utter overthrow, and an abomination of desolation. Let us therefore strive by the profitable practice of penitence, to make our selves assured of safety, rather then by an unprofitable Impenitence to hazard an utter ruin and destruction. Repentance is a thing never to be repented of; But hardness of heart, and a heart that cannot repent, heapeth up wrath against the day of wrath; And then there will be no place for repentance; yea, though thou shouldest seek it with tears. Next to the Minister, let us speak to the Master of a Family, who is a kind of public private person. For an House, is a little Church, and a little Commonwealth; and of many such little Churches, and little Commonwealths, doth the great Church and the great Commonwealth consist. Accordingly in this little Church, the Master of the Family hath leave to reform by instruction, and in this Common-wealth he hath power to reform by Correction, when Instruction will not serve. Abraham is loved and commended, because he will command his children, and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord. Jacob also purgeth and reformeth his house, putting out the strange gods that were therein. Joshua is resolute, though all Israel be contrary to him, he and his house will serve the Lord. David promiseth reformation in his house, as well as in his Kingdom. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in mine house, he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. These patterns should the Masters of the Families propose; which if they were followed, the reformation of all particulars, would be a reformation of the general. Therefore let every man see what swearing and blasphemy, what drunkenness and luxury, what extortion & oppression; yea, what any sin is in his house, and cast out from it the sin, leaving the person; or the sin with the person, if the person will not leave the sin. The house of the wicked, saith Solomon, shall be overthrown; but the Tabernacle of the Righteous shall flourish. Wilt thou then keep that wickedness that may be the overthrow of thine house, and not make Righteousness thy Guest, which will make thy house to flourish? Again, as wickedness makes one house to decay, so many wicked houses together by proportion make a Land to decay; so by not reforming thy house, thou art an vndoer of thy family, and a Traitor to thy Country. Lastly, let every friend to his friend, every neighbor to his neighbor (yea, though he be but such a neighbor as the Jew was to the Samaritan) let him by admonition, and instruction call him to reformation. If thou feest thy enemies Ox go out of the way, thou must turn him into the way, how much more thine enemies soul, wandering in the way that leadeth to destruction. Yea, for thine own sake thou shouldest do it, for by his sin, the Land and thou in the Land may perhaps be punished; but by reforming his sin, the Land and thou in the Land may be spared. But if the wicked will not be reclaimed from his wickedness, let the righteous mourn for the wicked, and strengthen each other in Righteousness. Let them mourn for the wicked, that so all sins may be repented, if not by the sinners them selves, yet by the righteous, which lament, even for this that sinners do not lament. Let that which wanteth in the wicked be made up by the godly, and let them mourn a double mourning, one for their own, and another for other men's sins. So shall no sins be left unrepented, and hereby shall they at the least have this benefit, they shall be God's marked mourners, and they shall be like the marked posts of the Israelites in Egypt; God's plagues shall pass over them. Let the godly also strengthen each other in goodness and godliness. For the godly are the buttresses of a Kingdom, and the more ruinous a Kingdom is, the stronger should the buttresses be that support it. Ten such Pillars would have supported Sodom from falling, and their prayers would have cried louder in God's ears for mercy, then the sins of thousands did for vengeance. And if they cannot save a multitude of sinners, yet themselves shall be saved from wrath in the Day of wrath. When the wicked were slout against God, they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another, the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a Book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the Day that I make up my Jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

SECT. X. To Repentance must be joined vehement Prayer.

LAstly, to our Repentance let us join undeniable prayer. I call it undeniable, because it was never known that prayer joined to Repentance was denied. Therefore in Joel, when God shows how he may be overcome, having enjoined Penitence; even a confession of sin, and a detestation o •… sin ( 〈◊〉 pressed in fasting and weeping) and a conversion from sin unto God; he also adds; Let the Priests and the Ministers of the Lord between the Porch and the Altar say, Spare thy people O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the Heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? And see what follows immediately, Then will the Lord be jealous for his Land, and pity his People. The prayer of a penitent heart is a most acceptable Sacrifice; yea, it is an acceptable Sacrifice offered up by an acceptable Sacrifice. For, first a penitent heart it self, as David says, is by excellence the Sacrifice of God; and next the calves of our lips are an acceptable sacrifice of that sacrifice. So the penitent heart, which of it self is a sacrifice, is to prayer an Altar. An excellent Altar from which ascends a sacrifice of sweet savor into the presence of the Almighty. Therefore David rightly orders his song, when he saith; first, Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it, And when he seconds it thus; The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to his cry. children of Israel had mocked with God oft in a false and short repentance, so that God had put them off with a denial; yet putting away their Idols, and to their repentance joining vehement invocation, they were heard in that which they feared. So true is that of Elihu, The penitent man shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him, and he shall see his face with joy. It is sin only that clogs our prayers, and keeps them from ascending unto God. The stinking smoke of our sins infects the smoke of our prayers, and makes them unsavory in the nostrils of the Almighty. If therefore our sins be put away, and a pure heart send up pure prayers, let it be confident, for there is no doubt of hearing. The Lord hath said it, whose word is stronger then the Covenant of the Sun and Moon. Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer, thou 〈◊〉 and the Lord shall say; Here I am. Wherefore let us depart from evil, and then confidently call upon the name of the Lord, Let us be as sure of hearing as we are of Repenting and Praying. Luxt •… Io •… annis vocen •… ▪ •… . John. 3. Tunc cor •… iduciam in oratione accipit, cum sibi vitae prauit •… nulla contradicit, & bonorum operum ratio orationi conuenit. According to Saint John's Doctrine, 1. John. 3. Then is the heart confident in prayer when it hath not the check of a wicked life, but good works do accompany good prayers.] If it be thus, Then do we know a sure way to prevail with God, and what remains but that we prevail? Let us never complain of God but of our selves, if we be not saved, for God hath promised deliverance to the prayer of the penitent; Let us therefore never leave reponting and praying, for we may be assured that the end will be prevailing. This is the way, let us walk in it, yea let us lie down in it, and with the woman of Canaan, let delays or seeming denials increase the strength of our Cries, for there is no doubt but Importunitie will prevail; and if our prayers mount up incessantly to God, our Savior will come to us assuredly with health under his wings.