A Key Opening Mysterious Texts of Scripture

THE CHECKE OF CONSCIENCE. THE XL. SERMON.

NO speech of wisdom can be so discrectly uttered, but it may by ignorance be depraved: no action of virtue can be so exactly performed, but it may through malice be mis-construed. It is not more proper to God to bring light out of darkness, peace out of trouble, joy out of sorrow, and out of sin (the greatest of all evils) to extract much good, by governing and disposing it to the declaration of his mercy and justice; than it is natural to the Devil and his imps, out of the light of truth to endeavor to draw darkness of error, and out of the best speeches and actions to strain and force out somewhat, to maintain and nourish their corrupt humors and bosom sins. And what marvel, since even in Paradise, amidst the sweetest flowers and wholesomest herbs and plants, a Serpent could live, and find there something to feed upon? Paradise was the seat of man's happiness, the garden of pleasure, the soil of the tree of life, seated in the clearest air, watered and environed with sweetest rivers, enamelled with pleasantest flowers, set by God himself with the choicest plants, and yet was it not free from the serpent, which turned the juices of those sovereign and medicinal simples into poison. Aristotle writeth of the Cantharides, that they are killed with the sent of the sweetest and most fragrant ointments: and it is morally verified in those graceless hearers, to whom the Word, which is the sweet smelling savor of God to life, becometh a savor of death. Such hearers the blessed Apostle Saint Paul sharply censureth in this chapter, who when he preached to them salvation by the free grace of Christ, hence concluded free liberty of sin: when to the comfort of all that are heavy laden with the burden of sin, he set abroach that heavenly doctrine, where sin abounded, there grace superabounded; they subsumed, Let us therefore continue in sin, that grace may more abound: whereas indeed they should have inferred the clean contrary conclusion, thus: Grace hath abounded much more to us; therefore we of all men should not continue in sin, because God offereth us so good means to escape out of it. The dew of heaven hath fallen plentifully upon us; therefore we ought to be most fruitful in good works, not only because God hath better enabled us to do them, but also in a duty of thankfulness we are to offer him our best service, who hath enriched us with the treasures of his grace. Therefore to beat them, and in them all carnal Gospellers from the former hold, St. Paul in this chapter planteth ordnance of many most forcible arguments, drawn from three principal heads.

• 1. Christ and his benefits.
• 2. Themselves and their former condition.
• 3. The comparison between a sinful and a holy course of life, and their contrary effects.

1 From Christ and his benefits after this manner: The effect of grace is to mortify sin, how then can they who have received a greater measure of grace by the merit of Christ's death and burial, continue in sin? How can they that are dead to sin live therein? Whereas they urged grace for liberty of sin, the Apostle from grace enforceth sanctity of life: whereas they alleged their redemption for their exemption from all service, Saint Paul strongly concludes from so great a benefit, a greater tie and obligation to serve the Lord their Redeemer: whereas they built a fort of sin with the wood of Christ's cross, he maketh an engine of the same wood to overthrow it: by grace we are united to Christ, and planted in him; therefore we must live the life of the root, & bring forth the fruit of the spirit: If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, &c.

2 From themselves and their former condition, thus: When ye were free from righteousness, ye were servants unto sin; now therefore being freed from sin, ye ought to be servants unto righteousness: As ye yielded your members servants of uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness, &c.

3 From the comparison between the state of sin and grace, thus: When you were in the state of sin, you had no profit at all of your works, and you were confounded with shame for them, and by them were brought to the very brink of death; but now being in the state of grace, you reap fruit here in holiness, the fruit of peace and joy, and hereafter you shall reap the fruit of everlasting life and glory.

Thus you see the scope of the Apostle, the occasion and coherence of the words, which carry this sense:

Having taken a general survey of the whole, let us come to a more particular handling of the parts, which are three forcible arguments, to deter all men from all vicious and sinful courses.

• 1. The first ab inutili, What fruit had ye?
• 2. The second ab infami, Whereof ye are now ashamed.
• 3. The third à pernicioso or mortifero, The end of these things is death.

What fruit. This word fruit is fruitful in significations; it is taken:

• 1 Properly, for the last issue of trees, and so it is opposed to leaves or blossoms: for nature adorneth trees with three sorts of hangings as it were; the first leaves, the second blossoms, the third fruits: in this sense the word is taken in the first of Genesis, and in the parable of the fig-tree cursed by our Savior, because he found no fruit thereon.
• 2 Improperly, either for inward habits, which are the fruits either of the spirit, whereof the Apostle speaketh, The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; or of the flesh, reckoned up by the same Apostle; or for outward works, which are the fruits of the former habits: whereof we read, Being filled with the fruits of righteousness: and in the Epistle of S. James, Full of mercy and good fruits: Or for the reward of these works, either inward, as peace, joy, and contentment; whereof those words of S. James are to be meant, The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace: and those of S. Paul, No affliction for the time is joyous, but grievous; but in the end it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousness to those that are exercised thereby: Or lastly for outward blessings, wherewith God even in this life recompenseth those who are fruitful in good works, as the Prophet Isaiah and David assure them: Surely it shall be well with the just: for they shall eat the fruits of their works: Utique est fructus justo; Verily there is fruit for the righteous, verily there is a God that judgeth the earth.

Had. It is written of the Lynx, that he never looketh back; but Homer contrarily describeth a wise man,

In those things whereof ye are now ashamed. As after the wound is healed there remains a scar in the flesh; so after sin is healed in the conscience, there remains as it were a scar of infamy in our good name, and of shame also in the inward man. The act of sin is transcunt, yet shame the effect, or rather proper passion of it, is permanent: sin is more ancient than shame, but shame out liveth sin. It is as impossible that fire should be without scorching heat, or a blow without pain, or a fever without shaking, as sin, especially heinous and grievous, without a trembling in the mind, and shame and confusion in the soul. For, as Macrobius well observeth, when the soul hath defiled her self with the turpitude of sin, pudore suffunditur, & sanguinem obtendit pro velamento, she is ashamed of her self, and sends forth blood into the outward parts, and spreadeth • t like a veil before her; just as the Sepia or Cuttle fish, when she is afraid to be taken, sends from her blood like ink, whereby she so obscureth the water that the angler cannot see her. If it be objected, that some men as they are past grace, so past shame also, and some foreheads of that metal that will receive no tincture of modesty, such as Zeno was in Nicephorus his story, who held it a disparagement to himself to commit wickedness in secret, and cover his filthiness with the dark shadow of the night; for that it became not sovereign majesty to fear anything: he thought he could not show himself a Prince, unless without fear or shame he committed outrages in the face of the sun. Such were those Jews whom the Prophet Jeremiah brands in the forehead with the mark of a Strumpet that cannot blush; Were they ashamed when they committed abominations? nay, they were not ashamed, neither could they blush. I answer,

1 By distinguishing of shame, which is sometimes taken for the inward affection and irksome passion of a sinner, that hath cast any foul stain upon his conscience; sometimes for the outward expression, by dejection in the countenance, faultring in the speech, a cloud in the eye, and flushing in the forehead and cheeks. No sinner is without shame in the first sense, though many by custom in sin grow senseless thereof, and consequently shameless in the latter sense; and in the end they come to that height of impudency, that they blush for it if they blush, and are ashamed of their shamefacednesse, & pudet non esse impudentem. But this hardiness doth them no good at all; for they do but stop the mouth of the wound that it bleed not outwardly, it bleedeth inwardly the faster, and much more dangerously.

2 A sinner may be considered either before or after his regeneration; before his regeneration he committeth many sins, whereof he is not then ashamed, either because he accounteth them no sins, or not such sins as may any ways trench upon his reputation. For though the dim light of corrupt nature discovereth some works of darkness, yet not all, nor any in the right hiew. As a man that is in the water feeleth not the weight of it; so the sinner whilst he is in the state of corruption feeleth not the weight of sin. For he accounteth great sins small, and small none at all: but when he is out of that state, then he feeleth the smallest sin unrepented of as heavy as a talent of lead, able to drown his soul in eternal perdition; as it followeth:

For the end of these things is death. That is the end of all these things. By end here the Apostle meaneth not the final cause moving the sinner, but the final effect of sin: for the sinner propoundeth to himself a divers end; either gain, which the covetous man shooteth at; or glory, which the ambitious; or pleasure, which the voluptuous: but they miss their mark, and instead of gain, which the covetous man promised himself in his sinful course of life, in his return by weeping cross he findeth irrecoverable losses; (for what fruit had ye?) instead of glory and honor, which the ambitious aimeth at, shame and infamy; (whereof ye are now ashamed:) instead of a pleasant temporal life, which the voluptuous shot at, a painful and eternal death. For the end of these things

Is death. That is death temporal which is the sinners earnest as it were, and death eternal, which is his full hire and wages; death corporal, which is the separation of the soul from the body, is hastened by sin; death spiritual, which is the separation of the soul from God, is sin; and death eternal, in Scripture termed the second death, which is the tormenting of body and soul forever in the lake of fire and brimstone, is the full reward of sin; and this death is here principally meant, as may be gathered from the words ensuing my text; but the gift of God is eternal life: for that death which is opposed to eternal life can be no other than eternal death.

The meaning of the text being thus cleared, the special points of observation are easily discerned; the first is, That the smart of the wound of conscience for sins past is a special means, through grace, to keep us from sin to come. Upon this the Apostle worketh in the words of my text, What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? The burnt child doth not more dread the fire, nor the scholar severely corrected beware the fault for which he smarted, nor the Pilot keep off from the rock at which he formerly dashed his bark, and hazarded his life and goods, nor the intemperate gallant, tormented with an extreme fit of a burning fever, forbear the pouring in of wine and strong drinks, which were the oil that kindled and maintained the flame within his bowels, than he that hath felt the sting of sin in his conscience, and been formerly confounded with the shame thereof, dreadeth and flieth, and seeketh by all means to shun those sins which have left so sad a remembrance behind them. As some parts of our bodies are more sensible than others, (the sinewie parts more than the fleshly) yet all that have life in them have some sense of pain: so some consciences are more tender, that feel the least prick of sin; some harder, and more stupid and benumbed, like the Numidian Bears, which scarce feel stripes or wounds: yet all that have any life of grace in them, or use of reason, have some touch of conscience at sometimes, which marreth all their mirth, and overcasteth their fair weather with clouds of grief, pouring down showers of tears. I know the wicked seek to dissemble it, like the man in Plutarch, who having a fox under his cloak, never quatched, though the beast bit through his sides and devoured his bowels. The fool, saith Solomon, maketh a mock of sin, but the heart knoweth the bitterness of his soul: for even in laughing the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is mourning. I speak not of a melancholy dumpe, but of an habitual and constant pensiveness, arising from the sting of sin left in the soul. No tongue can sufficiently express it, only the heart that feeleth it can conceive the nature of this grief, and smart of this pain which the lash of conscience imprinteth:

This observation is not more pregnant in the proof, than poignant in the use, both for trial and instruction. For if the experience of the unfruitfulness and shamefulness of sin be a special curb of sin in the regenerate; they surely who are not persuaded hereof, who taste no bitterness in the forbidden fruit, who can think of their former sins not only without grief and remorse, but also with some delight and contentment, were never thoroughly converted. For there can be no vivification without precedent mortification; no mortification where the old man is yet alive. There is a struggling in the soul in the travel of our new birth between the flesh and the spirit, as there was in the womb of Rebecca at the time of her labor between Jacob and Esau. Everyone, that is renewed in the spirit of his mind, delighteth in the Law of God, as touching the inward man; and therefore cannot approve the law of the members rebelling against the law of the mind. He that truly returneth to God, and placeth his chief happiness in his union with him, cannot but be offended grievously at the remembrance of those things that made a separation between him and his God. The weeds that have taken deep root, cannot be plucked up without stirring the earth. Such are the weeds of sin rooted in our heart; they cannot be plucked up without tearing and breaking it through contrition. That heart which hath never been so broken up, was never thoroughly weeded. Wherefore (beloved Christians) if ye desire to know whether ye are in the way of life, whether ye are effectually called, whether ye are in the state of grace, whether ye have any part in the promises of salvation; loe here is a touch-stone to try your spiritual estate. When ye recall your former profaneness, and uncleanness, and worldliness, and maliciousness to mind, is the remembrance of these sins grievous unto you? is the burden of them intolerable? are ye pricked in heart with the sting of conscience? do your eyes melt into penitent tears? then are you quickened by the Spirit of grace, then have you sense and life in you, then have your eyes been anointed with the eye-salve of the spirit, then stand ye recti in curiâ. But on the contrary, Are ye tickled with the remembrance of your former follies? can ye think of them without remorse? can ye speak of them without shame? can ye glory in them, and your heart not smite you? then in vain do ye flatter yourselves with the name of Professors, ye falsely arrogate to yourselves the title of Sons of God, ye know not what regeneration or the new creature meaneth, the sun of righteousness never shone upon you, but ye are still frozen in the dregs of your sins. Wherefore examine your own hearts and consciences, take a view of your whole life past, run over in your minds the vanity of your childhood, the lusts of your youth, the audacious attempts of your riper years, and the covetousness, frowardness, worldliness, and distrustfulness of your old age: call yourselves to an account for your unlawful gaming and sporting, your immoderate drinking, your Lord's day breaking, your lascivious dancing, your chambering and wantonness; and if the remembrance of these your former sins be loathsome unto you, if the sent of them in the nostrils of your soul be like a stinking fume exhaled from the finke of original corruption, then have your senses been purged, then have you smelt the savor of life. But on the contrary, if the cogitation of these things be delightful unto you, if the traversing these thoughts in your mind blow the coals of your former lusts, if the Sodom of your unregenerate estate seem to you as a Paradise of pleasure, then certainly ye were never redeemed from the corruption of the world, ye never felt the pangs and throes of a new birth, your understanding was never enlightened, nor your will reformed. He that can take delight to play at the hole of the Cockatrice, or behold the shining color of the Snake, was never stung by them; but the truly regenerate Christian, who hath been grievously stung by the fiery Serpent the Devil, and by fixing his eyes upon the brazen Serpent Christ Jesus, hath been cured, dares not come nigh the Serpents hole, much less gaze upon his azure head and forked tongue.

2. If the experience of the unfruitfulness and shamefulness of sin be a special means to restrain God's children from it, certainly the recounting of their former ways, and the survey of the whole course of their life, cannot but be a profitable exercise for them. It was the practice of Solomon, who beheld all the works of his hands, and the delights of his life, and passeth this censure upon them, Vanity of vanities, all is but vanity and vexation of spirit. It was the practice of David, I know mine own iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. It was the practice of Saint Augustine, who a little before his death caused the Penitentiall Psalms to be written about his bed, which he looking upon, out of a bitter remembrance of his sins, continually wept, giving not over, long before he gave up the ghost. Mee thinks, I hear you say, we have buried those sins in oblivion long ago, and we hope God hath done so: put not these stinking weeds to our noses, but gather us a posy of the sweet flowers of Paradise, the promises of God in Christ Jesus, in which there is a savor of life, and we will smell unto it. I had rather do so, but the other are more proper, and fitter for many of you; for those whose senses are overcome with over-sweet ointments, can by no better means recover their smell, than by strong and unpleasant savors: and therefore in the country of Arabia, where almost all trees are savoury, and frankincense and myrrh are common fire wood, Styrax (as Pliny writeth) is sold at a dear rate, though it be a wood of an unpleasant smell; because experience proveth it to be a present means to recover their smell, who before had lost it. Beloved brethren, we all that have lived in the pleasures of sin, have our senses stuffed and debilitated, if not overcome; and the best remedy against this malady will be the smelling to Styrax, the unsavory and unpleasing smell of our former corruptions. Let the covetous man recall to mind his care in getting, his anxiety in keeping, his sorrow in losing that which nature hath put under his feet: how to increase his heaps he hath not only taken from others, but robbed his own belly and back. Let the Glutton think of the loathsomeness of his sin, which subjecteth him to divers diseases, and maketh him a burden to himself: the Drunkard his drowning of his reason, distempering of his body, and exposing himself to the laughter and scorn of all men: the Adulterer the corruption of his own body, the transgressing the covenant of God, the wronging and provoking his neighbor, the stain of his own reputation, the rottenness of his bones, and besides all this, the heavy wrath of God for his sins, and fear of hell fire due to him for them. I know no man willingly remembereth that whereof he is ashamed; and therefore no exercise of Christianity more tedious and irksome than this, because it withdraweth the mind from pleasant and delightful objects, to behold her own deformity: yet none more necessary, none more profitable. And though it begins in sorrow, yet it ends in joy: for even this is an exceeding delight to the soul, to find a change in her self, and an alteration in her affections: it is pleasant unto her that she now distasteth the forbidden fruit, and she rejoiceth that she can be heartily sorry for her sins. And God (as Cyprian saith sweetly) wipeth away these tears from the soul, Ut magis ploret, & gaudeat fletibus, that she may weep the more, and take pleasure in her weeping. For after we have pricked our hearts with the sting of conscience for our grievous sins, after they bleed with compunction, after we have poured out our souls with sighs and groans into the bosom of our Redeemer, his heart will melt within him, and his repentings will roll together; he will bind up our wounds, and show his wounds to his Father: then shall we see the frowns of an angry Judge, turned into the smiles of a loving Father, the crimson color of our sins into the whiteness of wool, our mourning weed into a wedding garment, our sighs and sobs into exultation of spirit, and the fearful cloud, which before overcast our minds, into a clear sky, into peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, the true taste and beginning of the joys of heaven. To which the Lord bring us for his Son Jesus Christ his sake. Cui, &c.

THE VINE OF SODOME. THE XLI. SERMON.

ALL the advised thoughts and purposes of men that are not elevated above the level of earthly desires to a higher mark than the top of worldly happiness, fall and fasten themselves upon such things as most nearly concern either life it self, and the commodities or necessities of life, or their credit and reputation among those with whom they live. These three, life, estate, estimation, are their portion in this life; and therefore the maintenance of them their chief care. The world hath nothing besides these to allure and draw on the love of her darlings: for the pleasures that are, spring out of these, and are either their fruits or their blossoms; honor is the pleasure of the ambitious, wealth of the covetous, and the pride of life of all. As for those sensual delights, which now (I know not how) have engrossed the name of pleasures to themselves, they receive their birth from youth, the spring of our age, their nourishment and maintenance from wealth and prosperity. So that the former limits, within which I have confined the aim and desires of the natural man, stand sure and immovable. Of all things in this life, or rather of this life, nothing is so dear and precious as life it self: for without it neither honor, nor riches, nor pleasures can bring forth any fruit, because they can have no root; life oftentimes surviveth them, they never survive it. Howbeit, because a miserable and painful life is a kind of sensible death, and to live and not to be reputed of, is in effect to be reputed not to be, infamy and obscurity being the death of our name, and oblivion the burial of our best parts: hence it cometh to pass, that the restless desires and endeavors of men for riches and honor, especially if they be pricked on forward by covetousness and ambition, are not much less eager and violent, than is the striving and struggling for life it self. The pursuit of these is the highest flight of the natural man: but the regenerate Christian, who is of a nobler breed, soareth far higher in his desires and affections; the life he pursueth is immortality, the riches he esteemeth of are celestial graces, the honor he aspireth unto is a crown of glory.

Now the means to attain the ends of both, viz. temporal happiness, and happy eternity, the glory of the Kingdoms of the earth, and a Kingdom of glory in heaven, is one and the self same, the religious service of the only true God, in whose gift they are: for godliness is great gain, and hath the promises of this life, and the life to come: therefore by the law of contraries, ungodly and sinful courses must needs be incommodious, and to our greatest loss, as having the curses of this life, and the life to come. Whereby (as by many other things else) we may perceive the folly and blindness of the natural man, who taketh a wrong course to compass his ends: for his way lieth in the straight paths of God's Commandments; but he taketh by-paths laid out by Satan, and treadeth endless mazes. As the Athenians, against whom Diogenes whet his cynick tooth in the feasts of Aesculapius, even when they sacrificed to health, banqueted riotously against health; so the worldly wise man, by inordinately desiring, and craftily pursuing, and immoderately affecting the blessings of this life, loseth them and his life too: for these his desires and pursuits are sins, and by sin all the promises and covenants of God, which are the only deeds by which we hold our estate in the blessings of this life, are forfeited. Good God, how doth the god of this world delude the children of the world! whom he persuadeth that the ready way to purchase all the comforts and contentments of this life, is to fall down and worship him, and to sell themselves with Ahab to work wickedness against God: whereas sin unrepented of, not only depriveth them of all hope of a better life hereafter, but of all the joy of a good life here. For it consumeth their substance, it blasteth all the fruits of their labors, it disableth and wasteth their body miserably, troubleth their consciences, staineth their name, and shorteneth the days of their life. I fear there are too many in the world, who have no mind of, because no knowledge of spiritual riches and celestial joys; yet there is no man in his right senses, who regardeth not either his estate, or his credit, or his life here. The ambitious man little esteemeth worldly gain, because (Chamelion-like) he feedeth upon the air and breath of men's commendations. Again, the covetous man setteth light by praises and honor, because he (like the worm) feedeth upon the earth. The voluptuous man careth not much for honor or wealth, because (like the Beetle) he feedeth upon the dung of unsavory pleasures; yet there is none of all three but tender their life: and therefore none who can be unsensible of the Apostles incision in my Text. Doth any desire the commodities of this life? let them fly sin: for sin bringeth no fruit at all (What fruit, &c.) Do any desire glory and honor? they must eschew sin: for sin bringeth shame (Whereof ye are now ashamed.) Do any desire continuance of life? they must abhor sin: for sin bringeth death; the end of these things is death. Sin is altogether sterill and unfruitful, and therefore to be set at naught: it is shameful, and therefore to be loathed: it is deadly, and therefore to be fled from as from a Serpent. Here we have three peculiar adjuncts of sin; sin is unfruitful for the time past, shameful for the present, and deadly for the time to come: the first adjunct the unfruitfulness of it is so fruitful of observations, that this hour may be fruitfully spent in gathering them.

What fruit had ye? It was the usual demand of one of the wisest among the Roman Judges, Cassius surnamed the Severe, in all cases of doubt, in matter of fact about the person of the delinquent, Cui bono? who gained by the bargain? on whose side lay the advantage? assuring himself, that no man of understanding would put himself into any dishonest or dangerous action, without hope of reaping some fruit by it; as also that there can be no enterprise so beset with difficulties and dangers, which some men for apparent hope of great gain and profit would not go thorough with: no arguments conclude so necessarily in the opinion of the greater part of men, as those that are drawn ab utili. This topick place the Devil made choice of above all other, Haec omnia tibi dabo, in tempting our Savior: and though this his sharpest dart could not enter into our Savior, yet it pierceth the heart of most that are mere men, whom when he cannot terrify with fears, he setteth upon them argenteis hastis, suggesting after this manner, Haec omnia tibi dabo, thus and thus it shall be with thee: by usury, and oppression, and sacrilege, and cozenage, thou shalt gather much wealth, and become a great man. Wherefore it standeth us much upon to be able to rebate the edge of this sharp and dangerous weapon of Satan, or to wrest it out of his hands, and fight against himself with it, as the Apostle here doth, What fruit had ye? What advantage have you made of sin? what cometh in by your unjust and ungodly courses? what do ye gain by ventring your bodies and souls in Satan's bottom? what commodities do your hellish voyages bring you?

If the Apostle had framed his interrogation thus: What pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? they might easily have put it by, saying, No wise man maketh pleasure his summum bonum, or the mark he chiefly aimeth at. If he had shaped it thus, What honor or credit got you by those things whereof ye are now ashamed? a colorable answer might have been, We are not vain-glorious, we build not our fortunes in the air upon the breath of other men's mouths: but when he thus brandisheth his sword, What fruit had ye in those things? he toucheth them to the quick, and enforceth them to answer directly to his interrogatory, or condemn themselves of greatest folly; which imputation of all other, men cannot brook. It is acutely observed by Aristotle, who with the same sharpness of wit pierced into the secrets of nature, and mysteries of policy, that if you deal with a Counceller of state about any motion of his in any public consultation, and prove unto him, that what he propounded stood not with equity, or the honor of the state (as for example, to take advantage upon the weakness of our neighbors and confederates, to bring them under us, though they never offered us any wrong) he will give you the hearing, and not vehemently contest with you: but if you go about to demonstrate, that such a proposition of his, if it had taken place, would have proved disadvantageous to the Common-wealth, he will be at daggers drawing with you, and never be brought to yield to you in that point. Whereupon he inferreth, that howsoever justice, honesty, the dignity and honor of the Common-wealth are things to be thought upon, and serve for ornaments of speech, and motives to some few, yet that which turneth the balance, and carrieth the greatest sway in all political consultations, is matter of profit and emolument, which he there determineth to be the end of all deliberations. And though Tully in his books de oratore disliketh Aristotle's opinion herein, alleging against it the practice of the Roman state, which (as he there would bear us in hand) ever stood more upon nobler terms of their honor and sovereignty, than upon baser respects of gain and profit; yet when he grew elder, and experience better instructed him, in his book of partitions he concurreth with Aristotle in judgment, and the Lacedaemonians in practice, who though they were otherwise commended for their upright dealing, and harmless carriage, yet were noted always to wave the point of honesty, ubi de commodis Reipublicae ageretur, when the commodity of the Common-wealth was interested therein. That Maxim of the Parthians, Nulla fides nisi prout expedit, no faith (or keeping touch with any) but as it maketh for advantage, is not more abhorred by Statesmen in their words, and confuted in their discourses, than exemplified by them in their actions.

Wherefore, since the consideration of profit and emolument is of so great importance in all affairs and passages of life, let us see whether the vines of Sodom, or the trees of Paradise are more fruitful; or rather whether sin be not altogether unfruitful. For if it appear so, then hath the worldly man no cover or shelter for his sin; and that it is so, appeareth not only by this interrogatory of the Apostle, and the paralleled Text thereunto, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them rather: but also by the most usual names of sin in Scripture,

• 1. Folly.
• 2. Vanity.
• 3. A Lye.

1. Sin is called folly, because the sinner is very witty in inventing sleights to deceive himself withal, cunning and secret in spreading a net, and laying a snare to catch his own soul in: he taketh great pains, and keepeth much ado to undo himself, and can there be greater folly than this? As the wisdom of God made known by the preaching of the Gospel seemeth foolishness to the worldly man; so it is most true, that the wisdom of this world is folly with God, and often called by that name in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

2. As sin is called folly, so it is called also vanity: for sin is vain, because empty of all goodness, because it hath nothing in it, because the projects and enterprises of the sinner take no effect, or not such as he promised himself.

3 In the same respect all sins in general are termed lies: because they promise and make show of great gain, comfort, and contentment to be reaped by them; whereas they bring nothing less, but are like the deceitful ground in the Poet that mocketh the husbandman:

The first is, Psal. 12.8. Impii ambulant in circuitu, the wicked walk in a circle, or a ring; which the Holy Ghost affirmeth of them, not so much because they often traverse the same thoughts, and tread a kind of maze in their minds, as because their labors and travels prove in the end fruitless and unprofitable. For in a circle, though we run never so fast, we gain no ground, but the faster we go forward the nearer we come to the same point we set out at: as we see the laboring horse or ox in the mill travelleth all the day long, and wearieth it self, yet at night it is in the same place where it was in the morning; so the wicked spendeth his strength, and runneth himself out of breath in the ways of vanity, and yet maketh no progress at all.

The second Emblem is a Spider weaving a curious web, or a foolish man hatching the eggs of a Cockatrice: They trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They weave the Spiders web, and hatch the Cockatrice eggs: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a Viper. Their webbes shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

A third we have drawn by the Prophet Hosea; a man going about to sow the wind: They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal.

Desire you yet a fourth? you shall find it in the Prophet Isaiah; a man dreaming of great feasts and riotous banqueting all night long, and in the morning finding his belly lank, and his stomach empty: He shall be as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth; but he awaketh and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold he is faint, and his soul longeth for drink.

Now although where we have divine authority and human experience for any truth, we need not crave aid from reason: yet to furnish you with all sorts of arguments against this most common, yet most dangerous temptation of Satan, whereby he deludeth most men, persuading them that the ready way to thrive is to enlarge their consciences, and take fraudulent, violent, or unjust courses; I will propose some arguments now, and more hereafter, to demonstrate sin to be altogether unfruitful, all things being reckoned together. For if the pretended commodities accruing by sin no way countervail the certain losses growing from it, it cannot be denied that sinful courses are unprofitable and disadvantageous. What then is that which may be gained by sin, if anything may be got by it? Earthly commodities, houses, grounds, money, plate, stuff, and the like. But what loseth the sinner by it? Heaven, and the glory of an immarcessible garland: so that as Demades sometime spake to the Athenians, Cavete ne dum de coelo contendatis, terram amittatis; Take heed lest while ye strive about the heaven or situation, you lose your land; we may thus invert, cavete ne dum de terrâ contendatis, coelum amittatis, taketh heed lest while ye strive for earth, ye lose heaven. What loss can be comparable to this, except the loss of our own souls, which cometh by sin also, and what profiteth it a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall he receive in recompense for his soul? without which he is made uncapable of receiving anything at all. What good can melodious music, or sweet ointment, or banqueting dishes, or costly jewels do to a carcass? and what are we else when we have lost our souls? Dearely beloved Christians, think of these words of our Savior when the Devil openeth his pack, and setteth out his counterfeit wares before you, crying, O come hither, what lack ye? buy of me honors, and pleasures, and lands, and possessions, and gardens of delight, and stately palaces, and rich furniture, and what heart can desire; Alas, what will it advantage you to gain these things, and lose your soul? what joy, delight, or comfort can these things bring to you when your soul is gone, that is, when you are not? Moreover, consider what are these wares whereof Satan maketh such ostentation, gilding them over with the names of honors, riches, and pleasures: no other than such as you see in some Haberdashers shop, feathers and glasses, things of small value, less use, and no continuance; and yet so impudent is he, that he is not ashamed to ask for these trifles, for these crepundia, these

I forbear to number reasons, and deliver you arguments as it were by tale. I beseech you weigh these which I have brought, in the scales of the Sanctuary, and grieve not from henceforth though wicked men become rich, and the glory of their house be increased; for they shall carry nothing away with them when they die, neither shall their pomp follow them: they shall carry nothing with them, but they shall be carried by evil Angels to the dungeon of hell; neither shall their pomp follow them, but shall rather go before them to the place of mourning, shricking, and endless disconsolation. Stoop not, O stoop not to take up those golden apples, which Satan casteth before you in your holy race, to stay your course, and deprive you of your garland: for either they have but a show of fruit, and are not apples indeed; or if they are true apples, sin beareth them not: for God hath cursed the forbidden tree, as Christ did the fig-tree in the Gospel, saying, Let no man gather fruit of thee forever.

What fruit had ye? Propound unto yourselves (Beloved) often this question of the Apostle, and the other of our Savior, What will it advantage a man to win the whole world, and to lose his own soul? that ye may be ready with an answer when the Devil assaulteth you, as he did our Savior, with an Omnia dabo, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me, Avoid Satan father of lies; thou give all these things! neither doest thou give anything, but sellest at the dearest rate; neither are those things thou offerest in thy hands, but in God's; neither are they to be gotten by worshipping thee, but by serving him: for thus it is written, He that feareth the Lord, his soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth. Blessed is he that feareth the Lord, and walketh in his ways; for he shall eat the labor of his hands, and happy shall he be: his wife shall be as the fruitful vine by the walls of his house, his children shall be like Olive branches round about his table: and, godliness hath the promises of this life, and the life to come.

Howbeit a weak Christian may be troubled in mind, when he seeth houses full of the treasures of wickedness, and he heareth it as a common Proverb, that fawning and cozenage are the gainfullest trades in the world:

Or God bloweth upon the fruits of their labors, and blasteth the increase of their wealth; according to the words of St. James, Your riches are corrupt, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are cankered, and the rust of them shall be as a witness against you, and eat your flesh as it were fire.

And as they got their goods, so they shall lose them; Salis onus unde venerat illuc abit, saith the Latin Proverb, the burden of salt is returned thither from whence it was first taken. The occasion whereof was a ship laden with salt by a wrack torn in pieces, let the salt fall into the sea from whence it came: so for the most part goods gotten by the spoil, are lost likewise by the spoil. For we see daily that they which spoil others are spoiled themselves, and that which is gotten by extortion, is extorted again out of the hand of the extortioners. Vespasian his covetous officers that by rapine and exaction filled themselves like sponges, after they were full were squiezed by the Emperor: and as the Prophet Micah observeth, that which was gathered by the hire of a whore, returneth to the wages of an harlot.

Or if their goods and honors stick by them, and they have wrought themselves into so great favor with the Prince, that they have no fear at all of being called to an accompt, much less of being discomposed and turned out of their offices, honors, wealth and all, yet they can take no comfort in their estate, no joy in that they enjoy. For what doth music delight him who hath an aposteme in his ear? or gold, silver, or precious stones him who hath a pearl in his eye? or dainty dishes him whose taste is distempered with sickness? This is the worldlings case, he hath goods laid up for him many years; but they are not goods to him, because they do him no good; he is no whit the better for them, but the worse; no whit the richer in mind, but the more wretched and poorer:

Yea, but it will be objected, that no such thing appears: for none seem so merry and frolic as some of these albae galinae filii, the worlds darlings. I answer with Saint Paul, That they laugh in the face, but not in the heart: and with Solomon, That all their mirth is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot, soon turned into ashes and mourning. Their merriment is like to that of those who have eaten the herb Sardonia in Sardinia, who are said to die laughing: or like that of Hannibal, which the Historian calleth amentis risum, the laughing of a man distracted, which is suddenly accompanied with tears. Lastly, add we to all these disadvantages, the price we are to pay for Satan's commodities in the prison of hell, whereof one farthing shall not be abated: and I doubt not but as the Prophet Daniel spake of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, This dream be to the Kings enemies; so ye will all say, the gain that is gotten by evil means and ungodly practices be unto God's enemies; let them trucke with Satan who have no part in God: but let all that desire to thrive both in their outward and inward estate, and to be rich in God, follow the advice of our Savior, Lay not up for yourselves treasures, especially treasures of wickedness, upon earth, where the canker of covetousness corrupteth, and the moth of envy fretteth, and restless cares, and watchful fears like thieves in the night break through the walls of your body, and enter into the closet of your heart, and steal away all your joy and contentment; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the moth nor canker corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be.

THE GRAPES OF GOMORRAH. THE XLII. SERMON.

SOlinus writeth of the Egyptian fig-tree, that it beareth fruit not only on the branches, but also on the main stock & trunck; so fruitful is this parcel of Scripture, on which my meditations have pitched and rested themselves these three Lord's days: it beareth fruit, and that in great variety, not only upon the branches, but upon the main stock▪ which yieldeth us this fruitful observation, That the sense and taste of the bitterness of sins past, and remorse of conscience for them, are most forcible motives and means to restrain the desires, and wean the affections of God's children from them. This fruit we gathered heretofore, and since plucked to us the first branch of the Text, which affordeth this most wholesome observation. That sin is altogether unfruitful. As no meditation is more serious, than upon the vanity of the world; no contemplation more pleasant to a regenerate Christian, than of the unpleasantnesse of impure delights: so no observation is more fruitful, than of the unfruitfulness of sin. Who cannot copiously declaim against sin, against which it is a sin not to declaim? Who cannot easily recount all the evils which sin hath brought into the world, which are summarily all that are in the world? insomuch that all sciences, arts, and professions have a blow at sin. The Metaphysicke Philosopher demonstrateth, that sin is non ens, naught: and therefore to be set at naught. The Naturalist showeth that it destroyeth nature: and therefore ought to be exterminated out of nature. The Moralists muster all the forces of virtue against it, as being the chiefest enemy of man's chief good, which they define to be actio virtutis in vitâ perfectâ, the continual practice of virtue in a happy life. The Physicians observe, that the greater part of the diseases of the body arise from sins, which are the diseases of the soul: Plures gulâ, quàm gladio, more come to their end by gluttony, drunkenness, and incontinency, than by the halter or the sword. The Grammarians condemn sin as incongruous; the Logicians as illogicall, that is, unreasonable; and all other arts and sciences as irregular: but Divinity alone knocketh it down and battereth it to pieces with the hammer of the Word. There is more weight of argument in this one Verse of the Apostle, than in all the Orators declamations, and Poets satyres, and the Philosophers invectives against vice that ever were published to the world.

What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. As the same metal running upon divers moulds is cast into divers forms; so the words of this Text admit of divers divisions, according to several moulds and frames of art. It shall suffice to give you your choice of three.

• 1. The Rhetorical, which breaketh them into
  • 1. A poignant interrogation, What fruit had ye?
  • 2. A forcible reason, For the end of those things is death.
• 2. The Logical, which observeth in them
  • 1. The persons, Ye.
  • 2. The object, Those things.
  • 3. The attributes: which are three,
    • 1. Loss, What fruit had ye?
    • 2. Confusion, Whereof ye are now ashamed.
    • 3. Perill, For the end of those things is death.
• 3. The Theological, which considereth sin in a three-fold relation,
  • 1. To the time past; and so it is unfruitful: What fruit.
  • 2. To the time present; and so it is shameful: Whereof, &c.
  • 3. To the time to come; and so it is dreadful or deadly: For the end of those things is death.

First of sin, considered in a relation to the time past.

What fruit had ye? Xerxes (as Herodotus reporteth) bare a strange affection to the Plane tree, which he hung about with chains, and decked with jewels of greatest price. A fond and foolish affection, as being to a tree, and such a tree as is good for nothing but to shade us out of the Sun. This folly of so great a Monarch very well resembleth the humor of all those, who are not guided by the Spirit of God into the ways of truth and life, but are led by the spirit of error, or the error of their own spirit, to ungodly and sinful courses, the very beaten paths to hell and death. The tree they are in love with, adorn, and spend so much cost upon, is the forbidden tree of sin, altogether as unfruitful as that of Xerxes; it hath neither fair blossoms, nor sweet fruit on it, only it is well grown, and hath large arms and broad boughs, and casteth a good shade, or to speak more properly, a shadow of good. For the shade it self of this tree is like the shade of the Cyprus tree, gravis umbra, a noisome or pestilent shade, making the ground barren, and killing the best plants of virtues, by depriving them of the Sun-shine of God's grace. Yet, as divers Nations in the days of Pliny paid tribute to the Romans for the shade of these trees; so do these men pay for the seeming pleasure and delight of sin, being indeed but a shadow of vanity to the Devil, the greatest tribute that can be paid, the tribute of their souls. To reprove this folly to be bewailed with bloody tears, I have heretofore produced divers passages of holy Scripture: the point of doctrine I beat upon, and labored especially to fasten in your hearts, was the unprofitableness and the unfruitfulness of sin: which was proved

1. By the three names of sin imposed by the Holy Ghost, folly, vanity, and a lie. The reason whereof was, because all sin maketh a show of, and (as it were) promiseth to the sinner either pleasure, or profit, or honor, or some good; whereas indeed it bringeth not anything to him but shame, nor him to anything but death.

2. By divers lively comparisons and resemblances in holy Scripture of sinful labors and travels, as the running in a ring or circle, whereby he that moveth and tireth himself, getteth no ground; impii ambulant in circuitu: the weaving of the Spiders web, which maketh no garment: the sowing of wind, whereof nothing can be reaped but the whirlwind, storms, and tempests of conscience.

3. By the judgments of God falling upon them, who seem to drive the most gainful trade with Satan. For either they themselves are taken away in the midst of their prosperity, and as soon as they have gotten the wealth of the world, are constrained to leave a world of wealth; Stulte, hac nocte eripient tibi animam tuam: or God bloweth upon their ill gotten goods, and they are suddenly consumed, or pass the same way that they came; as the fogs that are raised by the Sun, when they come to their height, are dispelled by his beams: Or they prove like the horse of Sejanus, or the gold of Tolous, or the vessels and treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem, which became the bane and ruin of all that laid hands on them: Or if they long enjoy their wealth, yet they joy not in it at all. For howsoever none lay claim to their unrighteous Mammon, yet they can never persuade themselves that it is their own; and between care of keeping, and fear of losing, and expectation of punishment for ill getting them, by tyranny, exaction, oppression, forged cavillation, fraud, simony, or sacrilege, no place is left for any joy or comfort in possessing, or well using them.

4. By putting the seeming profits and advantages of sin in one scale, and the losses and disadvantages by it in the other: which being done, the scale of damages and losses will bear down to the ground, nay to hell. In all bargains we are to consider not so much what the commodity is we trade or traffic for, as what the price is: for though the merchandize we bargain for be of great value, yet if we must over-buy it, giving for it an unreasonable rate, the bargain cannot be good. By which rule, if we examine our traffic, we shall find, that if we hold on our trade with Satan, our merchandize will no way countervail our charge, our gains in the beginning will be no way answerable to our losses in the end: for we shall lose the inheritance of a Kingdom in heaven, and our own souls. Unfruitfulness, shamefulness, and deadliness are three proper adjuncts, and (as the Logicians usually speak) passions of sin. For all sin is mortal, that is, deserving death; and nothing is mortal in that sense but sin: all sin is shameful, and nothing shameful but sin: all sin is unfruitful, and nothing absolutely is unfruitful but sin. The Serpents feed upon, and consume that poisonous matter, which otherwise would infect the earth, water, and air. Physicians make treakle and antidotes of poison: the ashes of a Viper, the oil of a Scorpion, the wings of the Cantharides, are sovereign remedies against the poison of those Serpents: yea, the very dung of the earth serveth for very good use, and fatteneth the ground; only sin, as it is deprived of the good of being a nature, so it depriveth nature of all good. If any things come near to sin in this, they are the grapes of Gomorrah, and apples of Sodom, which have no taste at all in them, but as soon as they are touched fall to dust; and the dust is of that nature, that it serves not as dung to fatten the earth, but rather as unsavory salt, which maketh it barren. All the endeavors & operations of nature, when they are not set out of their course by sin, forcibly tend to some good, and obtain it also. For if they produce not, and leave behind them some work, the worth whereof may recompense the labor about it; yet the very contention and exercise of the faculty breedeth a dexterity and facility of doing the like: it perfecteth the skill, strengtheneth the faculty, accommodateth the organ, and thereby maketh the whole body more serviceable to the soul, and the soul better disposed to virtuous acts and habits. The Archer, who often misseth the mark set before his eyes, yet in some sort hitteth the mark he aimed at in his mind, which was the exercise of his arm, and learning to shoot. As the sons of the husbandman in the fable, who being told by their father lying on his death-bed, that he left much gold buried under the ground in his Vineyard, fell on delving and digging all about the Vines; and though they found no gold, yet by stirring the mold about the roots of the trees, gained a great vintage that year: even so it falleth out in the labors and travels of our calling; though by them we reap not always that profit we expect, yet thereby we may manure (if I may so speak) the ground of our hearts, and gain great store of those fruits, which the branches that are graffed into the true Vine Christ Jesus, bear. But in sinful labors and travels it fareth otherwise; they are not as moderate exercises which strengthen, but as violent fits which weaken nature. Sin in the understanding darkeneth the thoughts, in the will depraveth the desires, in the sensitive appetite disordereth the affections, in the outward sense corrupteth the organs, and in the whole body breedeth loathsome and painful diseases. Sin is not only unfruitful, (to speak in the language of the Schools) formaliter, but also effective; not only unfruitful in it self, as the fig-tree in the Gospel cursed by our Savior, but also in its effects, as that other tree which was to be plucked up, ne terram redderet infructuo sam, that it might not make the ground barren. For sin maketh the spirit barren of the fruit of good motions, the understanding barren of the fruit of good meditations, the will barren of the fruit of good resolutions, the sensitive appetite barren of the fruit of good affections, the whole man barren of the fruit of good works: nay, the earth and trees also barren of their fruit and increase. For the sin of man God cursed the earth, and it brought forth thorns and thistles; and the heaven and sky also, and it became as iron over men's heads: the experience whereof brought the Heathen to acknowledge this truth,

Would ye know all the miseries that sin hath brought into the world? reckon then all that are, or ever were in the world. For they are all concomitants, effects, or punishments of sin. Sin cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell, thrust man out of Paradise, drowned the old world, burnt Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, ruinated the greatest Monarchies, destroyed the ancientest Cities, and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches; and shall we look for better fruit of it?

But this interrogatory of the Apostle, What fruit had ye? seemeth to me rather to aim at the particular endammagement and detriments of sin, which every soul that committeth it sustaineth within it self, whereof many have been already recounted, yet the greater part is behind, among whom this is not the least, that it blindeth the eyes of the mind, and infatuateth the sinner. Whereupon Saint Augustine's observation is, If a thief or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes, everybody would say, that it was the judgment of God upon him. Oculum cordis amisit, & ei pepercisse putatur Deus: behold God hath taken away the sight of his souls eyes, and doest thou think that he spareth him, or letteth him go unpunished? What greater loss to a noble mind than of liberty, which is forfeited by sin? Sin enthralleth our soul to our body, and our body and soul to the Devil. If captivity of the body be so grievous a calamity, what may we judge of the captivity of the soul? If we so disdain to be slaves to men, how much more should we to be vassals to beastly lusts? To speak nothing of peace of conscience, which crying sins disturb; and divine motions, which worldly cares choke; and heavenly comforts, which earthly pleasures deprive us of; and sanctifying graces, which impure thoughts and sinful desires diminish: to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses; by that which hath been already delivered, all that are not besotted by sin, and blind-folded by Satan, may see great reason for this question of the Apostle, What fruit had ye? A question which the proudest and most scornful sinners, who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawful gain, shall propound unto themselves one day, and check their own folly therewith, as we read in the book of Wisdom: What hath pride availed us? or what profit hath the pomp of riches brought us? Then shall they change their minds, when they cannot their estates, and sigh for grief of heart, and say within themselves, looking up to Heaven, and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternal glory: This is he whom we sometimes had in derision, and in a parable of reproach. We fools thought his life madness, and his end without honor. But now how is he accounted among the children of God? and what a portion hath he among the Saints? Therefore we have erred from the way of truth: and the light of righteousness hath not shined upon us. We have wearied ourselves in the ways of wickedness, and have gone through many dangerous paths: and the way of the Lord we have not known.

Howbeit, two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seem to make great gain of sin; the covetous and the ambitious: the former is indebted to his extortion, oppression, and usury for his wealth; the other to his glozing, dissembling, undermining, perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honor, and advancement in the Court of Princes. The spirit of the former hath been conjured down heretofore, by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or money by unjust and indirect means, putteth it into a broken bag, and that his money shall perish with him, unless he break off his sin by repentance, and make friends of unrighteous Mammon. I come to the Politicians, who correct, or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul, Godliness is great gain, thus; a show of godliness is great gain: of whom I would demand what show of reason they have for this their political aphorism? If they believe there is a God that judgeth the earth, they cannot but think that he will take most grievous vengeance on such as go about to root out the fear of God out of men's hearts, and make Religion a masque, and God himself an Image, the sacred Story a fable, Hell a bug-bear, and the joys of Heaven pleasant phantasies. If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them, shall not God much more hate the hypocrite, who doubleth with his Maker, maketh show of honoring and serving him, when he indeed neither honoreth nor serveth him at all: Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas, counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity, and accordingly it shall receive double punishment. When our Savior threateneth the most heinous transgressors, that they shall have their portion with hypocrites, he implieth that the condition of none in Hell is less tolerable than of the hypocrite. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God, and even in that he shown himself the more fool, in that he said it in his heart, supposing that none should hear it there: whereas God heareth the word in the heart, before it be uttered in the tongue; and what though other know it not, since he whom he wrongeth, who is best able to revenge it, knoweth it?

But to wound the Politician with his own sword: If a show and appearance of Religion is not only profitable, but necessary in political respects, shall not Religion it self be much more? Can there be a like virtue or power in the shadow or image, as in the body it self? If the grapes painted by Zeuxis, allured the Birds to peck at them, would not the Birds sooner have flown at them, had they been true grapes? All the wit of these sublimated spirits, wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others, cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes: If it be a bad thing to be good, why do they seem so? If it be a bad thing to seem bad, why are they bad? For if it be a good thing to seem good, it cannot but be much better to be so: If it be a bad thing to seem bad, it cannot but be worse to be so. Videre ergo quod es, vel esto quod videris, seem therefore what thou art, or be what thou seemest: especially considering, that as Astyages in Xenophon wisely adviseth, the best means to seem learned, is to be learned; to seem wise, is to be wise; to seem religious, is to be religious. He that is not so, cannot long seem so; and he that is so, cannot but seem so. Fraud and guile cannot go long but it will be espied. No Stage-player can so act another's part, but that he may be discerned to be a player: dissembling will not always be dissembled; and when it is once detected, it disableth the dissembler from ever after using his cozening trade.

2. It is not to be omitted, that fraud, guile, and deceit bear no fruits of themselves, but gather them from the honesty and simplicity of others, whom they circumvent. If all were such as themselves, lying upon the catch, they would make little advantage of their cheating trade; neither could there be any true friendship or society among men: and is that the best policy that overthroweth all policy and civil conversation?

3. Lastly, faithfulness and honesty are like natural beauty and strength of body, which preserve themselves; but all fraudulent and deceitful dealing, and cunning fetches, like complexion, where nature is much decayed, must be daily laid on: or like physic potions continually taken, and yet will not long help. All devices, plots, and fabrickes in the mind for advancing our estate, which are not built upon the foundation of faithfulness and integrity, continually need repairing, and upon a strong assault are easily cast down, and fall upon the builders themselves. It will not be amiss to consider the ends of some of these men. Of two that were most famous in this political craft, Achitophel and Hannibal, the one hanged, the other poisoned himself. Theramenes, who in the civil dissensions at Athens dealt under hand on all sides, in the end was discovered, and all parts joining against him, made a spectacle of misery and scorn. A singular Artificer in this kind, who put tricks upon all men, was sent for by Lewis the French King, saying, that he had need of such an head, and when he came to him, upon detection of divers of his cunning pranks, he was condemned by him to be beheaded. I should much wrong Alexander the sixth, and Borgias his son, not to put them in this Catalogue: for it was the common voice of all men (as Bodine writeth) that the father never spake what he meant, the son never did what he spake: both held it for a Maxim, Fidem omnibus dandam, servandam nemini. According to which rule, when Borgias the son by fairest promises and deepest protestations of amity, and burying all former injuries, had drawn in the Captains of the opposite faction, as soon as he had them in his power, contrary to all promises and oaths, put them all to death: whereof the Pope his father having notice, could not conceal his joy, but brake out into that execrable exclamation, O factum been, Well done, thou art a son after mine own heart. But he escaped not the heavy judgment of God: for shortly after having caused a poisonous cup to be tempered for some of the Cardinals, whose deaths he had vowed, through a mistake he drank off the same cup himself, and so ended his wretched life.

I seal up this whole discourse with the words of the blessed Apostle; since all dishonest, false, and unjust courses of thriving are not only disgraceful and shameful, but also (all things considered) disadvantageous: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things, and the God of peace shall be with you. To whom, &c.

THE HIEW OF A SINNER. THE XLIII. SERMON.

I Have long dwelt upon this text of Scripture, because I find it richly stored with spiritual armor, and all necessary provision for our Christian warfare against sin and Satan. Here we may furnish ourselves with those weapons against our ghostly enemies, that will pierce the strongest proof of impudency, and draw blood even from a seared conscience. There is none so hardy and insensible, whom the loss of invaluable treasures will not touch to the quick: present shame and future infamy wound at the heart, but eternal death kills outright. In comparison of these all the weapons which Philosophy forgeth upon the anvil of reason, are but like arrows with blunt heads, or blades with a soft edge,

• 1 External, in the world.
• 2 Internal, in the conscience.
• 3 Eternal, in hell.

The arguments that are hence drawn to deter men from sin and wickedness, are of a stronger metal, and have another manner of edge than reason can set upon them: For the word of God is quick and powerful, & sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Hyperbolicall commendation which the Orator giveth of the Roman laws, published in twelve Tables, of right belongeth to this member of the Apostles exhortation: it hath more weight of reason, and forcible arguments of persuasion to holiness of life, and detestation of vice in it, than all the discourses of moral Philosophers extant in the world. Hence we learn, that their losses who trade with Satan are inestimable and irrecoverable: that wicked and ungodly courses and means to gain & thrive by, not only deprive us of the comfortable fruition of all earthly, but also of the possession of all heavenly blessings: that even small offenses when they come to light are sufficient to cover the sinner with shame and confusion: that all the filthiness that lieth in the skirts of the soul, shall be discovered in the face of the sun, before men & Angels: that not only outward acts, but inward motions and intentions; not only loud & crying sins, but also still and quiet, that lie asleep as it were in the lap of our conscience; not only heinous crimes, and transgressions of an high nature, but also those seeming good actions that have any secret filthiness or stain in them, if it be not washed away with the tears of our repentance, and blood of our Redeemer, shall be brought into judgment against us, and we for them condemned to death both of body and soul in hell. No tragical vociferation, nor the howling and shricking of damned ghosts can sufficiently express the horror and torments of that endless death, which is the end of sin.

What sin hath proved for the time past, ye have heard; we are at this present to consider what it is for the present: it hath been unfruitful, what fruit had ye? it is shameful, whereof ye are now ashamed.

Shame is defined by Aristotle, Agriefe and trouble of mind, arising from such evils as seem to tend to our infamy and disgrace: somewhat more fully it may be described, A check of conscience condemning us for some intention, speech, or action, whereby we have defiled our conscience before God, or stained our credits before men. This affection is in all men, even in those that are shameless and impudent; who are not so called because they are without this irksome passion, but because they show no sign thereof in their countenance, nor effects in their lives. As impossible it is that in the conscience of a sinner thoughts should not arise accusing him, as that there should be a fire kindled and no sparks fly up. To pollute the conscience with foul sin, and not to be ashamed, is all one as to prick the tenderest part of the body, and to feel no pain. Tiberius, who let loose the rains to all licentiousness, yet when he gave himself to his impure pleasures, caused all the pictures to be removed out of the room: and Alexander Phereus that cruel tyrant, when he beheld a bloody Tragedy in the Theater, and therein the ugly and monstrous image of his barbarous cruelty drawn to the life, was so confounded therewith, that he could no longer dissemble his terror of mind, nor expect the end of that dismal Scene.

Now how deep an impression shame and infamy make in the soul, we may perceive by those who preferred death before it. Panthea solemnly wished that she might be buried alive, rather than constrained to stain her blood and good name, by keeping company with any, how great soever he were, contrary to her vow to her dearest Abradatus. And Phillis having lost her honor, voweth to make amends for it by her voluntary death.

If shame and infamy were not the sharpest corrasives to a guilty conscience, the Prophet David would not so oft use these and the like imprecations against the enemies of God: Let them be confounded and perish that are against my soul: and, let them be counfounded and vexed evermore, let them be put to shame and perish, let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloak.

Yea but if shame and confusion are the very gall and wormwood of God's vengeance against the wicked, most bitter to the taste of the soul; what construction are we to make of those words of the Prophet, O ye house of Israel, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways? doth the Prophet here give them counsel to pull down God's vengeance upon themselves? Nothing less. To clear this point therefore we must distinguish of shame; which is taken

1 Sometimes for a virtuous habit and disposition of the mind, consisting in a mediocrity between two extremes; impudency in the defect, reproved in the Jews by the Prophet Jeremy (were they ashamed when they committed abominations? nay they were not ashamed, neither could they blush:) and bashfulness, or rather cowardice, in the excess, reproved by our Savior in white livered professors; Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his fathers, and of the holy Angels.

2 Sometimes for a perturbation of the mind, or irksome passion, when our hearts smite us for some grievous sin, wherewith we are confounded within ourselves; and with holy Job, even abhor ourselves for the time.

3 Sometimes it is taken for infamy and public disgrace, when a man is made a spectacle of shame and derision to others.

According to the first signification, men are said to be modest or shamefaced; according to the second, ashamed and confounded in themselves; according to the third, shamed, or put to shame, or branded with a note of infamy and shame. Shame in the first acception is the curb of sin, in the second the sense and smart of sin, in the third the scourge of sin: shame in the first sense is in us by nature, and groweth more and more by custom, and is improved by the grace of humility: in the second it is brought to us by sin; for as smoke sutteth, so sin blacketh, soyleth, and shameth the soul: in the third sense men are brought to it by justice, according to the words of the Psalmist, Let them be brought to shame. When the Apostle saith, that it is a shame to name those things that are done by impure persons in secret, he taketh shame in the first sense, and his meaning is, the things they do in secret are so foul, so unnatural, so abominable, that a modest or shamefaced man cannot endure to hear of them, much less to rip them up and relate them, with all their odious circumstances. But when Ezra prayeth in these words, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our heads, and our trespasses are grown up to the heavens; he taketh shame in the second sense. Lastly, when the Prophets threaten sinners with shame, or by imprecations wish it unto them, they take shame in the third acception: Thou hast consulted shame to thine own house, by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul: for the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it; that is, thou hast taken a course, and advisedly studied how to bring ruin, shame, and disgrace upon thyself. Behold, I come upon thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame: that is, I will expose thee unto ignominy and disgrace, as the Prophet there expoundeth himself; I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and set thee at a gazing stock.

In this place the Apostle evidently taketh the word in the second sense: What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? that is, for which you now condemn yourselves, and seem filthy and abominable in your own eyes. This shame, though it come always from evil, yet good may come of it, if we seriously consider what brought this shame and confusion upon us, and turn our anger upon it which set us at odds with ourselves: and to this end the Prophet Ezekiel endeavoreth to stir up this perturbation, or troublous passion in the Jews; O ye house of Israel, be ashamed and confounded for your ways; that is, consider your own follies, give glory to God, and take shame to yourselves; abhor yourselves for those sins, for which ye have made God to abhor you. Shame in this sense may be a means to keep us from shame in the third signification, and everlasting confusion: for though shame be always a sign of evil past or present, yet it is not always an evil sign, but oftentimes a sign of grace. I cannot hold altogether with him in the Poet, who seeing a young man die his cheeks with the tincture of virtue, said,

Ye are ashamed. The godly and wicked are both ashamed, sin affecteth them both with the like malady, but they both apply not the like remedy: the godly seek to pluck out the sting, that is, sin in the conscience, which causeth all their anguish and pain; but the ungodly and wicked liver endeavoreth only to dead the flesh, and thereby asswage the pain for the present, leaving the sting of death in their soul, sin festering in their conscience. The one abstaineth from sin, that he may avoid the shame of it; the other accustometh himself to it, that he may be less sensible of it: he hardeneth his brow, and maketh it in the end of that metal, that it will not yield, or change hiew. He is like to him, that going into the water, and finding it extreme cold by lightly touching it with the soles of his feet, casteth himself suddenly into the river, and plungeth himself over head and ears, that he may be less sensible of the frigiditie of that element: so this hardy sinner finding himself confounded at lesser sins, throweth himself headlong into greater, that he may be the sooner past all shame.

Ye. To whom doth Saint Paul address his speech? to those whose loathsome sores were upon them, or to those who had washed them in the laver of regeneration, and now were clean and sound? Surely to the latter, as appeareth by the words ensuing: But now ye have your fruit in holiness. Notwithstanding these (though free from the guilt of sin, yet) are not freed from the shame of it: Whereof (saith he) ye are now ashamed. For as in the finest cloth and stuff, after the spot is taken out, there remaineth some stain: and as in the flesh of a man hurt, after the wound is cured, there remains some scar; so though the spot of our sins be washed out, and the wounds of our conscience cured, yet there remains somewhat like a scar or stain, defacing the image of God in us, which when the soul beholdeth, she is ashamed of her self. All other evils which sin bringeth, are in some sort curable: the fire of God's wrath kindled against us may be quenched by the tears of our repentance: the anguish of conscience may be asswaged by the balm of Gilead: the breach of charity may be made up by satisfaction to the party whom we have wronged, and unfeigned reconciliation: only the shame of sin, and the stain of our reputation and credit, can never be got out: Haec macula nec sanguine eluitur, our winding sheet which covereth our bodies, covereth not our shame; neither is our infamy buried in our grave with us.

1. Now ashamed. Now after the commission of sin, or now after your conversion unto God. It is with all of us, as it was with our first Parent in Paradise; we first taste the forbidden fruit of sin, and then see our nakedness, and are ashamed. We are now ashamed of those sins whereof we were not ashamed when we committed them. What? Doth sin then clear the sight of the mind, and enlighten it with knowledge, because we see more in sin after we have committed it? Nay, rather sin darkeneth the understanding, and putteth out the eyes of the mind. Surely Adam got no knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit, but lost by it, as all we his posterity find by our palpable ignorance in those things which most concern us. Why then was the tree of the fruit whereof he tasted, called the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Because thereby Adam came to experience and feeling of the good he lost, and the evil he brought upon himself and his posterity: as the horse may be said to know the lash or spurr, and a child the rod, when they feel the smart and pain of them. If this be true, that sin rather infatuateth a sinner, than any way instructeth him, or increaseth his knowledge; how cometh it then to pass, that sin present should not work much more shame and confusion upon us, than when it is past? that we should not discover the deformity and loathsomeness of pleasures as they are coming to us, but as they are going from us? Whence is that Latin Proverb, Voluptates intuere abeuntes, non venientes? Why? do they come unto us naked, and put off their masques when they take their leave of us? Nay, rather our eyes are shut when they come to us, and they are open when they go from us: or, to speak more plainly, when they come towards us, and our desires run to meet them, we contemplate only that which is amiable and lovely in them, we take no notice of the turpitude and deformity in them: not but that we might see it also if we would, but that we are not willing to look that way, lest the sight of that which is filthy and nasty in them, should mar our mirth, and interrupt our pleasure. The ignorance of an incontinent man is not like the blindness of Regulus, which was forced; but of Oedipus, who pulled out his own eyes. Aristotle in this point saw day-light as it were at a chinke, when propounding this question, Utrum scientia sit in incontinente? whether an incontinent man hath knowledge of what he doth? resolveth it thus: An incontinent man hath a general knowledge, and a confused notion, that incontinency is many ways hurtful and prejudicial to him; but not a particular knowledge, that the action or pleasure wherewith he is then taken is of that nature. Why may not the particular be deduced out of the general? It may, but he will not deduce it; he is not at leisure to enter so far into the point, his heart is possessed with the present pleasure, which his sense thirsteth after, and all his thoughts and affections are set upon it; so that for the present he cannot, or will not withdraw his mind from the delightful object before him, to look behind him, & consider the danger he incurreth: like beasts that are drawn by the sweet smell of the Panther, but never take notice of his ugly head, before he turn upon them and devour them: But after the intemperate person hath taken his fill of sinful pleasure, he is at leisure to bethink himself what he hath done. Reason in the natural man, and the Spirit of God in the regenerate Christian, bloweth the coal of knowledge within him, which lay hid under the ashes; and by the light thereof he seeth what manner of guests he hath entertained, and how they have soyled & slubbered his inward rooms, & made them most filthy and loathsome. The Eagle, before he setteth upon the Hart, rolleth himself in the sand, and then flieth at the Stagges head, and by fluttering his wings so dustieth his eyes that he can see nothing, and then striketh him with his talons where he listeth. Beloved, ye have heard of the unclean spirit in the Gospel, which led the possessed man into dry places: the sand and dust, with which this Eagle filleth his wings, are earthly desires and sensual pleasures, wherewith after he hath put out the eyes of the carnal man, he dealeth with him as he listeth. Mercury could not kill Argus till he had cast him into a sleep, and with an enchanted rod closed his hundred eyes. The Devil so tempereth the poisoned cup, which he offereth to the voluptuous person, that he feeleth nothing in the going down of it but sweetness: but after he hath swallowed down his draught, he feeleth a fire kindled within his bowels, and unless he take suddenly a great quantity of heavenly balsamum, it proveth the bane of his soul.

2 Now ye are ashamed. After your conversion & renovation, now God hath anointed your eyes with the eye-salve of the Spirit, and ye discover the works of darkness, and clearly see the filthiness of your former unregenerate estate, ye are now ashamed. For now ye have some sense of the wrath of God, ye have some remorse of conscience, ye perceive what ye have lost, ye see the mark of infamy burnt into your name and credit by the hot iron that hath scared your consciences.

To proceed from farther explication to a seasonable use and application. The Apothecaries draw an oil out of the Scorpion which overcometh the poison of that Serpent, and applied to the part that is stung, giveth present ease. Let us imitate them, and of that which issueth from sin, make a sovereign antidote against it. Let us lay open and naked before the eyes of our mind the loathsome filthiness and ugly deformity thereof, that being agashed and confounded thereat, we may turn away from it with greatest detestation. Let us apprehend thoroughly, as heretofore the unfruitfulness, so now the odiousness, loathsomeness, turpitude, and shame of sin. A lewd conceit is an inconceivable pollution, a profane or impure speech an unspeakable wrong to God, a sudden joy a lasting grief, a tickling of the sense for a moment a perpetual torment, with a scar in the conscience, and stain in our good name, never to be fetched out. The advice which Seneca giveth to Lucilius, very sage and good: Wheresover thou art, and whatsoever thou art about, suppose that Cato or Socrates is with thee, or some such other reverend or grave personage, before whom thou wouldest be ashamed to do anything that were unseemly. Beloved Christians, we need not feign to ourselves, or make in our thoughts an imaginary presence of any mortal man, were he never so venerable, grave, or austere: for we are always in the presence of our Judge. Wheresoever we are, whatsoever we go about, we have a thousand witnesses thereof within us, and the blessed Angels without us; and, which we are to take special notice of, malignant spirits our ghostly enemies, observers and noters thereof. They who tender their credit and estimation, saith the Oracle of reason, if they imbarke themselves into any dangerous or questionable action, most of all shun and avoid the company of Poets, Stage-players, Libellers, Registers, Notaries, Promoters, and the like: because if anything should be done amiss, these kind of men were like to blab it out, act it upon the stage, or make a by-word of it to their utter disgrace. Such we have always about us, when we are about any wickedness, I mean the accusers of the brethren, fiends of Hell, who keep a register of all our secret and open sins, wherewith they will often upbraid us in our life, grievously burden us with them at our death, and which is worst of all, rip them up all at the day of judgment, and insult upon us for them. No women among the Romans might under a great penalty prostitute their bodies for gain, except they first made open profession thereof before the Aediles: and the reason of this law was, because they thought the very shame of making open profession of such lewdness, would deter and keep back all of that sex from such infamous courses of life. Likewise I read in the ancient Greek stories of the Milesian women, that upon some discontent, divers of them laid violent hands upon themselves, and could not be restrained from this desperate practice, till a law was made, that all they that in such sort made away themselves, should be carried naked with a halter about their necks, before the rest of their sex: after which law none were sound to attempt the like villainy. Those with whom neither love of life, nor fear of death could prevail, shame yet manacled, and kept perforce from that unnatural and execrable crime of felony de se, or self-homicide.

Deare Christians, were Adam and Eve so ashamed to see the nakedness of their bodies, and the Milesian women to behold the naked carcasses of their sex? how then shall we be confounded with shame, when our souls and consciences shall be laid open & naked to the eyes of the whole world? that all may see all our deformities, sores, marks, botches, blanes, gashes, scars, spots, and abominable pollutions and uncleannesses? When a godly father amplifying upon that Text of the Apostle, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, pricked the veins of his auditory in this manner: How many things are there which we know by ourselves, but would not for all the world, that two or three should know as much besides? how then shall we look? how shall we be covered with shame and confusion, when all these things shall be laid out before the eyes of all men? At these words observing divers of his hearers to blush, and hide their faces, he thus grows upon them, Nunquid? nunc erubescitit? What? and do ye now blush? are ye now ashamed at the hearing of these things? what will ye be when ye see them? how will ye blush and hang down your heads, when the books of your consciences shall be opened, and men and Angels shall see and read what is written in them? Men and brethren, what shall we do to avoid the terror and horror, the shame and confusion of that day? Let us now be ashamed of our sins, that we may not then be: for as

THE WAGES OF SINNE. THE XLIV. SERMON.

TO everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be borne, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance, &c. In which distribution of time, according to the several affairs of our life, all actions and accidents, all intents and events, all counsels and acts, all words and works, all motions and cessations, businesses and recreations, beginnings and endings, inchoations and perfections: yea, affections also, as joy and grief, love and hatred, have some part and portion of time laid out for them; sin only is exempted, that is never in season. As the Apostle spake to Simon Magus, Non est tibi pars, neque sors: it hath neither part nor lot in this partition; and yet it intrudeth upon us, and usurpeth upon either the whole or the greatest part of our demised time. We hear of a time to build, and a time to pull down: a time to spare, and a time to spend; but not in like manner a time to do good, and a time to do ill: a time to live godly, and a time to sin: a time well to employ, and a time to misspend: neither God nor Nature hath bequeathed any legacy of time to sin. Sin should have no existence at all, and therefore no time: no estate, and therefore neither term. Sin is none of God's creatures, nor the issue of nature: therefore hath no just claim or title to time, the best of Natures temporal goods; much less to happy eternity, which is the purchase of the Son of God, to the price whereof Nature cannot come near. Moreover, sin mis-spendeth, spoileth, maketh havoc of our time, abridgeth it, and often cutteth it off: and therefore deserveth, that not a moment of time should be given to it. Will you have yet more reasons? ye have them in the Text, drawn from all the differences of time: sin hath been unfruitful, is shameful, and will prove pernicious and deadly; therefore no portion or part of time is to be allowed to it, against which all times give in evidence. The time past brings in against it all sorts of damages and losses sustained by it: (What fruit had ye?) The present time layeth open the shame & filthiness of sin: (Whereof ye are now ashamed.) The future produceth the great and grievous penalties, which the sinner by the breach of the eternal Law incurreth, (The end of those things is death.)

A wise man holdeth intelligence with the time past by memory, with the present by prudent circumspection, with the time to come by providence: by re-calling that which was, & fore-casting what will be, he ordereth that which is; and therefore he cannot but be sufficiently advertised of those heinous and grievous imputations laid upon sin by the Spirit of God in my Text. It is altogether unfruitful and unprofitable, good for nothing: What fruit had ye? It is shameful and infamous, Whereof ye are now ashamed. Nay, it is pestilent and pernicious: For the end of those things is death. If this forcible interrogatory of the Apostle, so full of spirit of persuasion, work not in us newness of life, and a detestation of our former sinful courses, we are not only insensible of our profit, prodigal of our credit and reputation, but also altogether careless of our life. Nihili est, saith the Poet, qui nihil amat, he is of no account, who makes account of nothing: Non spirat, qui non aspirat, he breathes not, who gaspeth not after something. What then is that ye desire? How bestow ye your affections? What object hath the command of your thoughts, and sovereignty over your wills and desires? Is it gain, wealth, and affluence of all things? fly then sin: for it is altogether unfruitful and unprofitable. Is it glory, honor, and reputation? eschew then vice: for it bringeth shame and infamy upon you and your posterity. Is it long life? nay, with Melchizedek to have no end of your days? abandon all wicked courses: for they have an end, and that end is death, and that death hath no end.

That sin is unfruitful, not only formaliter, but also effective, not only negatively, by bringing forth no fruit, but also positively, by bringing forth evil & corrupt fruit, by making the soul of man barren of the fruits of righteousness, yea, and the earth also and trees barren of the fruit which they would otherwise have brought forth to our great joy and comfort; hath been the subject of our former discourses, spent especially in the proof of these particulars: That sin eclipseth the light of our understanding, disordereth the desires of the will, weakeneth the faculties of the soul, distempereth the organs of our body, disturbeth the peace of our conscience, choketh the motions of the spirit in us, killeth the fruits of grace, inthralleth the soul to the body, and the body and soul to Satan; lastly, depriveth us of the comfortable fruition of all temporal, and the fruition and possessions of all eternal blessings. All which laid together will make a weighty argument, bearing down, and forcing our assent to this conclusion, That sin is sterill and barren: and consequently, that every sinner is an unthrift, and in the end will prove bank-rupt, how gainful a trade soever he seem to drive with Satan: for as Christ cursed the fig-tree in the Gospel, so God curseth all trees that bear the forbidden fruit of sin; and therefore the Apostle truly termeth the works of darkness unfruitful, saying, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them rather. The godly man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, is likened to a tree planted by the rivers of waters, which bringeth forth fruit in due season: but the wicked to chaff which the wind scattereth abroad. For although they may sometimes build palaces upon the ruins of the Church, and fill their houses with the treasures of wickedness, and their coffers with the Mammon of unrighteousness, yet in the end they will appear to be no gainers, no nor savers neither by their traffic with the Devil. For if they gain wealth, they lose grace; if they gain glass, they lose pearl; if they gain earth, they lose heaven; if they gain an estate for term of years among sinners, they lose an eternal inheritance with the Saints in light; if they gain a small portion of the world, they lose their whole soul: and what advantageth it a man to gain the whole world, and to lose his own soul? Alas, what gained Achan by his Babylonish garment, and wedge of gold? nothing but a heap of stones wherewith he was battered in pieces. What gained Gehazi by his great bribe? a leprosy, that cleaved to him and his posterity after him. What gained Zebah and Zalmunna by taking the houses of God in their own possession? a fearful and most shameful end. What gained Ahab and Jezebel by Naboth's vineyard? the vine of Sodom, and the grapes of Gomorrah; it cost them their lives and their kingdoms. What gained Balthasar by the plate of the Temple? the division of his crown between the Medes and Persians. What gained Ananias and Sapphira by their fraudulent keeping back part of the price for which they sold their possessions? a sudden and most fearful death. What gained Judas by his thirty pieces of silver, which he received to betray innocent blood? a halter to hang himself. As Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, this dream be to the Kings enemies; so I will be bold to say, such gain as is made by commerce with Satan be to God's enemies. Godliness hath the promises of this life, and the life to come, ungodliness of neither, but contrariwise threats of judgments in both; which sometimes fall upon the estate of those that are rich, and not in God; sometimes upon their bodies, but always upon their souls: either God suddenly bloweth them away from their great estates, or he bloweth upon their estates and the fruits of their labors, and they subscribe probatum est to the Latin proverbs: Male part a male dilabuntur; and

In the second place I treated of the second attribute or consequent of sin, shame; and by evidence of Scripture, and testimony of every ones conscience proved that sin shameth us three manner of ways:

• 1 Within ourselves, making us seem most vile, filthy, loathsome and odious to ourselves.
• 2 In the world, staining our credit, and branding us with a note of infamy.
• 3 At the tribunal of Christ, before God, Angels and men, when our consciences, which now like a scroll of parchment lie folded together, shall be opened and spread abroad, that all men may read what is written there. If the consideration of the unfruitfulness and shame of sin affect us not much, nor make any sensible alteration in our lives and conversations, behold yet stronger physic which will work with us if we be not dead already:

The end of those things is death. Here are three bitter pills that are to be taken by all them that surfeit in sinful pleasures and worldly vanities, whether they be lusts of the flesh, or lusts of the eye, or appertain to the pride of life.

• 1 These things will have an end, The end.
• 2 The end of these things is fearful, Death.
• 3 This death is the second death, and hath no end.

I see, saith David, that all things come to an end: but thy commandments are exceeding broad, yea so broad, that all ways and courses besides the path of God's laws, come to a speedy end, and very short period. What the Historian observed concerning the race of men, Vita hominum brevit, principum brevior, pontificum brevissima; that the life of man is shorter than of other creatures, of Princes than of other men, of Popes than of Princes; may be applied thus to our present purpose: The lives of men are but short, their actions and endeavors of a shorter date, but indirect and sinful courses of the shortest duration of all. All the fruit that comes of them, like the fig-tree cursed by our Savior, withers suddenly. Crassus enjoyed not long the fruit of his covetousness, but was slain in war, and had melted gold poured into his mouth by the Parthians: Julius Caesar enjoyed not long the fruit of his ambition, but was stabbed with twenty five wounds in the Senate: Heliogabalus enjoyed not long the fruit of his pleasure, but was slain and thrown into a jakes: Dionysius enjoyed not long the fruit of his sacrilege and tyranny, but was constrained to change his scepter for a ferular, and teach Scholars for a small stipend, to keep him from starving. If the prosperity of the wicked be an eye-sore unto us, as it was sometimes unto David, Let us enter into the sanctuary of God, and we shall see the end of these men; namely, that God doth set them in slippery places, and casteth them down to destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? they are utterly consumed with terrors. Achan spent not his wedge of gold, nor ware out his Babylonish garment, but was soon discovered, and stripped of all he had, and came to a fearful end. It was not long after Ahab and Jezebel purchased a vineyard at the dear rate of the blood of the owner, but they watered it with their own blood. Belshazzar had scarce concocted the wine in his stomach, which he carowsed in the bowles of the Sanctuary, before he saw a hand writing his doom on the wall, and soon after felt the arm of Cyrus executing it upon him. Achitophel his policy took not long, for within a short space after he had animated the son against the father, his counsel was rejected, and he hanged himself. The price of innocent blood was not long in Judas his hands before with the same hands he fitted his own halter. Titus exhibited to the people stately pageants, pomps, carosels, and triumphant festivities for an hundred days; Asuerus kept royal feasts for half a year together: of both after the prefixed term was expired, nothing remained but infinite spoil of God's creatures, and an excessive bill of charge. He that thriveth most by sinful courses, and gurmandizeth all sorts of pleasures, and keepeth continual holy-days a great part of his life; yet before he goeth out of the light of this world, seeth an end of all his worldly happiness, and there remains nothing unto him but a sad remembrance, distempers in his body, wounds in his conscience, and a fearful account to be given to his Lord and Master for thus lavishing out his goods, and wasting his substance in riotous living. Pleasures like blossoms soon fall, the garlands of honor are withered in a few years, the treasures of wickedness soon rust, all lewd and sensual, all base and covetous, all proud and ambitious, all false and deceitful ways have a short period, and a downfall into a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.

Gorran summeth up all briefly thus: There is a threefold inconvenience of sinful courses; because they who pursue them reap no fruit from them, sustain much loss by them, come to an evil end through them: for the

End. The end is taken

• 1 Either physically,
• 2 Or morally.

• 1 Intermediate, as wealth, honor, or pleasure.
• 2 Ultimate, as happiness.

• 1 Peccantis, of the sinner, that is, the end which the sinner intendeth.
• 2 Peccati, of sin, that is, the end to which sin tendeth: this distinction seemeth to me coincident with the first.

Of those things. By those things he understandeth the state of the unregenerate, or those sins which were rife among the Romans, and are reckoned up, chap. 1. which may be reduced to three heads:

• 1 Impiety against God.
• 2 Iniquity against their neighbors.
• 3 Impurity against their own body and soul, yea and against nature also.

• 1 Impiety; with this he brandeth them ( verse. 21.)
• 2 Iniquity; with this he chargeth them ( verse. 29.)
• 3 Impurity; with this he shameth them ( verse. 24, 27.) Of those things the end is

Death. The second death, say some; for he that hath no part in the first resurrection, hath his portion in the second death. A double death, saith Saint Ambrose, à morte enim ad mortem transitur, for a sinner from one death passeth to another. Others more fully thus: The end of those things is death,

• 1 Of your estate, by ruin of your fortunes.
• 2 Of your good name, by tainting your reputation.
• 3 Of your body, by separation from the soul.
• 4 Of your soul, by separation from God.

The most natural interpretation, and most agreeable to this place, is, That by continuing in a sinful course all our life, we incur the sentence, penalty and torment of eternal death: for that death is meant here which is opposed to eternal life, Verse. 23. which can be no other than eternal.

Yea, but is sin in general so strong a poison, that the least quantity of it bringeth death, and that eternal? are all sins mortal, that is, in their own nature deserving eternal death? It seemeth so, for he speaketh indefinitely, and without any limitation; and as before he implied all sin to be unfruitful and shameful, so also now to be deadly. What fruit had ye in those things, that is, in any of those things whereof ye are now ashamed? Now it is certain that the regenerate are ashamed of all sins, therefore in like manner it followeth that the end of all sins is death. For the Apostle here compareth the state of sin and state of grace in general; and as he exhorteth to all good works, so he endeavoreth to beat down all sin, as unfruitful, shameful, and deadly. See what will ensue hereupon; first, that there are no venial sins; secondly, no pardons for them in purgatory; thirdly, no fee for pardons. If all sins are mortal, and, which all Papists will they nill they must confess, no man is free from all sin; for, in many things we offend all, saith Saint James; and, if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, saith Saint John: what will become of their Romish doctrines concerning the possibility of fulfilling the law, the merit of congruity or condignity, and works of supererogation? Si nulla peccata venialia nulla venalia, if no sins are venial, then no sale to be made of sins, no utterance of pardons, no use of the Church treasury, no gold to be got by the Monks new found Alchymy. Ye will say, this is but a flourish, let us therefore come to the sharp:

Sins may be termed venial or mortal two manner of ways:

• 1 Either comparate, in comparison of others:
• 2 Or simpliciter, simply, and in themselves: and that three manner of ways: Either

• 1 Ex naturâsuâ, of their own nature.
• 2 Ex gratiâ, by favor or indulgence.
• 3 Ex eventu, in the issue or event.

Their second allegation is out of Matth. 7. and Luk. 6. and 1 Cor. 3. and such other texts of Scriptures, in which some sins are compared to very light things, as to hay, to stubble, to a moat, to a farthing. Surely, say they, they cannot be grievous and weighty sins, which are compared to such light or vile things of no value.

Their third allegation is out of Saint James, Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death: Mark, say they, not every sin, nor sin in every degree, but when it is come to its perfection bringeth forth death; whereby he insinuateth, that no sins are mortal but those which are consummate, brought into act, and committed with full consent of the will.

The fourth is out of Matth. 12. I say unto you, ye shall give an account for every idle word at the day of judgment. He saith not, we shall be condemned for every idle word, but only that we shall be called to answer for it, as we shall be for all sins.

[Sol. 1] To the first allegation we answer, That no doctrine of faith may be grounded upon a mere parable, as the Schools rightly determine; Theologia parabolica non est argumentativa. Now that which our Savior here speaketh of three several punishments, is spoken by allusion to the proceedings in the Civil Courts in Judea; and all that can be gathered from thence is but this, That as there are differences of sins, so there shall be differences of punishments hereafter. Secondly, hell fire is no more properly taken for the torment of the damned, than the other two, the danger of the Council, and of Judgment, which all confess to be taken figuratively and analogically. Thirdly, Maldonado the Jesuit ingenuously confesseth, that by Council and Judgment the eternal death of the soul is understood; yet with this difference, that a less degree of torment in hell is understood by the word Judgment than Council; and a less by Council than by gehenna ignis, that is, the fire in the valley of Hinnom.

[Sol. 2] To the second allegation we answer, First, that though some sins in comparison of others may be said light, and to have the like proportion to more grievous sins, as a moat in the eye hath to a beam, a farthing to a pound; yet that no sin committed against God may be simply termed light, but like the talent of lead mentioned Zech. 1.5. Whereupon Saint Gregory inferreth, Every sin is heavy and ponderous: and Saint Jerome writeth of Paula, That she so bewailed light sins (that is, such as are commonly so esteemed) that a man would have thought her guilty of grievous crimes: and he elsewhere yieldeth a good reason for it; Because, saith he, I know not how we may say anything is light, whereby the divine Majesty is slighted. Secondly, admitting that some sins are to be accounted no bigger than moats, yet as a moat it it be not taken out of the eye hindereth the sight, so the least sin hindereth grace, and if it be not repented of, or pardoned for Christ's sake, is sufficient to damn the soul of the sinner. Thirdly, neither Christ by the farthing in the fifth of Matthew understandeth sin, nor the Apostle by hay and stubble lesser or venial sins; but Christ by farthing understandeth the last payment of debt, Saint Paul light and vain doctrines, which are to be tried by the fire of the Spirit. For in that place the Apostle by fire cannot mean the fire of Purgatory, because gold and silver are tried, that is, precious doctrines or good works, by the fire Saint Paul there speaketh of: whereas Purgatory fire is for men's persons, to cleanse and purge them from their lesser sins, as the Papists teach.

[Sol. 3] To the third allegation we answer, That the Apostle is so far from denying in that place that all sins are mortal, that on the contrary he there showeth how all sins become mortal, and in the end bring the sinner to eternal death. What lesser sin than lust, or a desire in the mind? yet this (as Saint James affirmeth) hath strength enough to conceive sin, and sin when it is finished to bring forth death.

[Sol. 4] To the fourth allegation we answer, That the same phrase is used concerning all kinds of sins: yea, those that are greatest and most grievous; as we read in Athanasius Creed, All men shall rise again with their own bodies, and give an account of their own works: and if their account be not the better, that dreadful sentence shall pass against them, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire.

Let us lay all these particulars together, and the total arising out of them will be this, That though there be a great difference of sins, whereof some are lighter, compared to a fescu, or mote; others heavier, compared to a beam: some smaller, likened to gnats; others greater, to camels; some easier to account for, resembled to mites or farthings; others with more difficulty, as talents: and in like manner, although there are divers degrees of punishments in hell fire, as there were divers degrees of civil punishments among the Jews; yet that we are accountable for the least sins, and that the weakest desire and suddenest motion to evil is concupiscence, which if it be not killed in us by grace, will conceive sin, and that sin when it is consummate will bring forth death. We need no more fightings the truth hath already gotten the victory by the weapons of her sworn enemies, and Goliath is already slain with his own sword; yet that ye may know how strong the doctrine of our Church is, I will bring forth, and muster some of her trained band.

First, we have two uncontrollable testimonies out of the book of Deuteronomy, Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them: and, Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil, blessing and cursing. The former is cited by Saint Paul, to prove that all that hoped to be justified by the Law were under the curse: for it is written, saith he, Cursed is every man that confirmeth not all things that are written in the Law to do them. Now there is no commandment which is not written in the book of the Law, to which whosoever addeth, is accursed. To these plain and evident passages of Scripture may be adjoined three like unto them, The soul that sinneth shall die. The wages of sin is death: and, The sting of death is sin. These pregnant testimonies the Cardinal endeavoreth to elude with these and the like glosses; The soul that sinneth, that is, mortally, shall die: and the wages of sin, that is, of mortal sin, is death: and the sting of death is sin, that is, deadly sin. With as good color of reason in all Texts of Scriptures wherein we are deterred from sin, he might interpose this his gloss, and say, eschew evil, that is, all deadly evil: fly sin, that is, mortal sin: and consequently deny that venial sins are anywhere forbidden. But as when we read in the common or civil law these and the like titles, the punishment of felony, murder, treason, fimony, sacrilege, we understand the law of all crimes of the same kind; so in like manner when the Apostle saith indefinitely, the wages of sin is death, we are to understand him of every sin: for,