Works Volume 4

SERMON XIV.

IN this most accurate Epistle, that ever the Pen of man could lay title to, in which all the counsels, and proceedings, and methods of God in the work of our Salvation, are described, our Apostle in his Discourse goes on the same way that God is said to do in his Decree; lays the foundation of it as low and deep as possible, begins with them as it were in Massa, and though they were already Romans and Christians, yet before he openeth Heaven Gates to them, and either teaches or suffers them to be Saints, he stays them a while in the contemplation of their impurity, and damned neglected estate of the stock they come from; looks upon them as polluted or trodden down in their own blood as the phrase is, Ezek. xvi.6. He plows and harrows, and digs as deep as possible, that the seed which he meant to Sow might be firm rooted, that their Heaven might be founded in the Center of the Earth; and their faith being secured by the depth of its foundation, might increase miraculously both in height and fruitfulness. Thus in the latter part of this first Chapter doth he show them the estate and rebellions, and punishment of their Heathen Ancestors, that the unregenerate man may in that Glass see his Picture at the length, the regenerate humble himself in a thankful horror, over-joyed, and wondering to observe himself delivered from such destruction. And that all may be secured from the danger of the like miscarriage, he sets the whole story of them distinctly before their Eyes. 1. How the Law and light of nature was sufficient to have instructed them into the sight and acknowledgment of God; and therefore that they could not pretend want of means to direct them to his worship. 2. That they contemned and rejected all the helps and guidances that God and nature had afforded them; and that therefore, 3. God had deserted, and given them up unto the pride, and luxury, and madness of their own hearts, all vile affections : for this is the force of the illation, They abused those instructions which God had printed in the Creature to direct them, and therefore he will bestow no more pains on them to so little purpose; their own reason convinced them there was but one God, and yet they could not hold from adoring many, and therefore he'l not be troubled to rein them in any longer; for all his ordinary restraints, they will needs run riot, And for this cause God gave them up to vile affections. So that in the Text you may observe the whole state and history of a heathen, natural, unregenerate life, which is a progress or travel from one stage of sinning to another, beginning in a contempt of the light of nature, and ending in the brink of Hell, all vile affections. For the discovery of which we shall survey, 1. The Law or light of nature, what it can do; 2. The sin of contemning this law or light, both noted in the first words ( for this cause ) that is, because they did reject that which would have stood them in good stead; 3. The effect or punishment of this contempt, sottishness leading them stupidly into all vile affections ; And lastly, the inflicter of this punishment, and manner of inflicting of it, God gave them up : and first of the first, the law and light of nature, what it can do.

To suppose a man born at large, left to the infinite liberty of a Creature, without any terms or bounds, or laws to circumscribe him, were to bring a River into a Plain, and bid it stand on end, and yet allow it nothing to sustain it; were to set a Babe of a day old into the World, and bid him shift for a subsistence; were to bestow a being on him, only that he may lose it, and perish, before he can ever be said to live. If an Infant be not bound in, and squeez'd, and swathed, he'l never thrive in growth or Feature, but as Hippocrates saith of the Scythians, for want of Girdles, run all out into breadth and ugliness. And therefore it cannot agree either with the mercy or goodness of either God or nature, to create men without laws, or to bestow a being upon any one, without a Guardian to guide and manage it. Thus, left any Creature for want of this law any one moment, should immediately sin against it's Creation, and no sooner move than be annihilated; the same wisdom hath ordered, that his very Soul should be his Law-giver, and so the first minute of its essence should suppose it regular. Whence it is, that some Atheists in Theophilus ad Auto. which said that all things were made by chance, and of their own accord; yet affirmed, that when they were made, they had a God within them to guide them, their own conscience, and in sum affirmed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that there was no other God in the World. Aristotle observes, that in the Creatures which have no reason, fantasy supplies its place, and does the Be as much service to perform the business of its kind, as reason doth in the man. Thus farther in them whose birth in an uncivilized Country, hath deprived of any laws to govern them, reason supplies their room, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Arius Didymus, Reason is naturally a law, and hath as sovereign dictates with it, pronounceth Sentence every minute from the tribunal within, as authoritatively, as ever the most powerful Solon did in the Theatre. There is not a thing in the World purely and absolutely good, but God, and nature within, commends and prescribes to our practice; and would we but obey their counsels, and commands, 'twere a way to innocence, and perfection, that even the Pelagians never dreamt of. To speak no farther than will be both profitable and beyond exception, the perfectest Law in the World, is not so perfect a rule for lives, as this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Methodius calls it, this law of nature born with us, is for these things which are subject to its reach. Shall I say, Scripture itself is in some respect inferior to it? I think I shall not prejudice that blessed Volume; for though it be as far from the least spot, or suspicion of imperfection, as falsehood; though it be true, perfect and righteous altogether ; yet doth it not so evidence itself to my dull Soul; it speaks not so clearly and irrefragably, so beyond all contradiction, and demur, to my Atheistical understanding, as that law which God hath written in my heart. For there is a double certainty, one of Adherence, another of Evidence, one of Faith, the other of sense; the former is that grounded on God's Word, more infallible, because it rests on divine authority; the latter more clear, because I find it within me by experience. The first is given to strengthen the weakness of the second, and is therefore called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ 2 Pet. i.19. A more firm sure word ; the second given within us, to explain the difficulties and obscurities of the first, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , verse 16. we saw it with our Eyes: so that Scriptures being conceived into words, and sentences, are subject either not to be understood, or amiss; and may either be doubted of by the ignorant, or perverted by the malicious. You have learnt so many words without Book, and say them minutely by heart, and yet not either understand, or observe what you are about: but this unwritten Law, which no Pen but that of nature hath engraven, is in our understandings, not in words, but sense, and therefore I cannot avoid the intimations; 'tis impossible either to deny or doubt of it, it being written as legible in the tables of our hearts, as the print of humanity in our Foreheads. The commands of either Scripture or Emperor ▪ may be either unknown or out of our heads, when any casual opportunity shall bid us make use of them: but this law of the mind is at home forever, and either by intimation or loud Voice, either whispers or proclaims its commands to us; be it never so gag'd, 'twill mutter, and will be sure to be taken notice of, when it speaks softliest. To define in brief what this law of nature is, and what offices it performs in us, you are to know, that at that grand forfeiture of all our inheritance, (goods truly real and personal) all those primitive endowments of Soul and Body upon Adams Rebellion, God afterwards, though he shined not on us in his full Image and Beauty, yet c • st some rays and beams of that eternal light upon us; and by an immutable Law of his own counsel hath imprinted on every Soul that comes down to a body, a secret, unwritten, yet indelible Law, by which the Creature may be warned what is good or bad, what agreeable, what hurtful to the obtaining of the end of its creation. Now these commands or prescriptions of nature, are either in order to speculation or practice ; to increase our knowledge or direct our lives. The former sort I omit, as being sitter for the Schools than Pulpit to discourse on, I shall meddle only with those that refer to practice, and those are either common, which they call first principles, and such are in every man in the World equally, & secundum rectitudinem, & notitiam, saith Aquinas ; everyone doth both conceive them in his understanding, what they mean; and assent to them in his will, that they are right and just, and necessary to be performed; and of this nature are the Worship of God, and justice amongst men: for that lumen super nos signatum, in Bonaventures phrase, that light which nature hath sealed, and imprinted on our Souls, is able to direct us in the knowledge of those moral principles, without any other help required to persuade us; or else they are particular and proper to this or that business, which they call conclusions drawn out of these common principles; as when the common principle commands just dealing, the conclusion from thence, commands to restore what I have borrowed, and the like. And these also if they be naturally and directly deduced, would every man in the World both understand, and assent to; did not some hindrance come in, and forbid, or suspend, either his understanding or assent. Hindrances which keep him from the knowledge or conceiving of them, are that confusion and Chaos, and black darkness, I had almost said that Tophet and Hell of sensual affections, which suffers not the light to show itself, and indeed so stifles and oppresses it, that it becomes only as Hell fire, not to shine but burn; not to enlighten us what we should do, but yet by gripes and twinges of the conscience to torment us for not doing of it. And this hindrance the Apostle calls, ver. 21. the vanity of imaginations by which a foolish heart is darkened. Hindrances which keep us from assenting to a conclusion in particular, which we do understand, are sometimes good; as first, a sight of some greater breach certain to follow the performance of this: So though I understand that I must restore every man his own, yet I will never return a Knife to one that I see resolved to do some mischief with it. And 2. Divine laws, as the command of robbing the Egyptians, and the like; for although that in our hearts, forbid robbing, yet God is greater than our hearts, and must be obeyed when he prescribes it. Hindrances in this kind are also sometimes bad: such are either habitude of nature, custom of Country, which made the Lacedemonians esteem theft a virtue; or again, the Tyranny of passions ; for everyone of these hath its several project upon the reasonable Soul, its several design of malice either by treachery, or force, to keep it hood-winked, or cast it into a Lethargy, when any particular virtuous action requires to be assented to by our practice. If I should go so far as some do, to define this law of nature to be the full will of God written by his hand immediately in every man's heart after the fall, by which we feel ourselves bound to do everything that is good, and avoid everything that is evil; some might through ignorance or prejudice, guess it to be an elevation of corrupt nature above its pitch, too near to Adams integrity; and yet Zanchi, who was never guest near a Pelagian, in his 4. Tome 1. l. 10. c. 8. Thesis, would authorize every part of it, and yet not seem to make an Idol of nature, but only extol God's mercy, who hath bestowed a Soul on everyone of us with this character and impression, Holiness to the Lord ; which though it be written unequally, in some more than others, yet saith he, in all in some measure so radicated, that it can never be quite changed, or utterly abolished. However I think we may safely resolve with Bonaventure out of Austin against Pelagius, Non est parum accepisse natural indicatorium, 'tis no small mercy that we have received a natural glass, in which we may see and judge of objects before we venture on them, a power of distinguishing good from evil, which even the malice of sin and passions in the highest degree, cannot wholly extinguish in us; as may appear by Cain, the Voice of whose Conscience spake as loud within him, as that of his Brothers blood: as also in the very damned, whose worm of sense, not penitence for what they have done in their flesh, shall forever bite, and gripe them hideously. This Light indeed may either first be blindness, or secondly delight in sinning, or thirdly peremptory resolvedness not to see, be for the present hindered secundum actum, from doing any good upon us. He that hath but a veil before his Eyes, so long cannot judge of colors; he that runs impetuously, cannot hear any one that calls to stop him in his career; and yet all the while the light shines, and the voice shouts: and therefore when we find in Scripture, some men stupefied by sin, others void of reason; we must not reckon them absolutely so, but only for the present besotted. And again, though they have lost their reason, as it moves per modum deliberationis, yet not as per modum naturae, their reason which moves them by deliberation and choice to that which is good, is perhaps quite put out, or suspended; but their reason which is an instinct of nature, a natural motion of the Soul to the end of its creation, remains in them, though it move not, like a Ship at hull and becalmed, is very still and quiet, and though it stir not evidently, yet it hath its secret heaves and plunges within us.

Now that the most ignorant, clouded, unnurtured brain amongst you, may reap some profit from this Discourse, let him but one minute of his life be at so much leisure, as to look into his own heart, and he shall certainly find within him, that which we have hitherto talked of, his own Soul shall yield him a comment to my Sermon ; and if he dare but once to open his Eyes, shall show him the law and light of nature in himself, which before he never dreamt of. Of those of you that ever spared one minute from your Worldly affairs to think of your spiritual, there is one thought that suddenly comes upon you, and makes short work of all that spiritual care of yourselves. You conceive that you are of yourselves utterly unable to understand, or think, or do anything that is good; and therefore you resolve it a great pain to no purpose, ever to go about so impossible a project. God must work the whole business in you, you are not able of yourselves so much as either to see, or move, and that is the business which by chance you fell upon, as soon as shook off again, and being resolved you never had any Eyes, you are content to be forever blind, unless, as it was wont to be in the old Tragedies, some 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , some new supernatural power come down, and bore your Foreheads, and thrust, and force Eyes into your Heads. 'It is a blessed desire and gracious humility in any one, to invoke God to every thought they venture on, and not to dare to pretend to the least sufficiency in themselves, but to acknowledge and desire to receive all from God: but shall we therefore be so ungratefully religious, as forever to be a craving new helps and succors, and never observe, or make use of what we have already obtained, as 'tis observed of covetous men, who are always busied about their Incomes, are little troubled with disbursements, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , without any proportion betwixt their receipts and expenses. Shall we be so senseless as to hope that the contempt of one blessing will be a means to procure as many? I told you that God had written a law in the hearts of everyone of you, which once was able, and is not now quite deprived of its power, to furnish with knowledge of good and evil: and although by original, and actual, and habitual sin, this inheritance be much impaired, this stock of precepts drawn low; yet if you would but observe those directions which it would yet afford you, if you would but practice whatever that divine light in your Souls should present and commend to you, you might with some Face Petition God for richer abilities, and with better confidence approach and beg, and expect the grace that should perfect you to all righteousness. In the mean time bethink yourselves how unreasonable a thing it is, that God should be perpetually casting away of Alms on those who are resolved to be perpetually Bankrupts: how it would be reckoned prodigality of mercies, to purchase new lands for him that scorns to make use of his inheritance. As ever you expect any boon from God, look, I conjure you, what you have already received, call in your Eyes into your Brains, and see whether your natural reason there, will not furnish you with some kind of profitable, though not sufficient directions, to order your whole lives by; bring yourselves up to that staidness of temper, as never to venture on anything, till you have asked your own Souls advice whether it be to be done or no; and if you can but observe its dictates, and keep your hands to obey your head; if you can be content to abstain, when the Soul within you bids you hold; you shall have no cause to complain that God hath sent you impotent into the World; but rather acknowledge it an invaluable mercy of his, that hath provided such an Eye within you to direct you, if you will but have patience to see; such a curb to restrain and prevent you, if thou wilt only take notice of its checks. 'It is a thing that would infinitely please the Reader to observe, what a price the Heathens themselves set upon this light within them, which yet certainly was much more dimmed and obscured in them by their Idolatry and superstition, than I hope it can be in any Christian Soul, by the unruliest passion. Could ever any one speak more plainly and distinctly of it, than the Pythagoreans and Stoics have done, who represent Conscience not only as a guide and moderator of our actions, but as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a tutelary spirit, or Angel, or genius, which never sleeps or dotes, but is still present and employed in our behalf? And this Arian specifies to be the reasonable Soul, which he therefore accounts of as a part of God sent out of his own Essence, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a piece or shread, or as others more according to modest truth call it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a ray or beam of that invisible Sun, by which our dull, unactive, frozen Bodies, after the fall, were warmed and re-inlivened.. Now if any one shall make a diligent inquisition in himself, shall, as the Philosopher in his Cynical humor, light a Candle to no purpose, or as the Prophet Jeremy, seek and make huy and cry after a man through all Jerusalem, and yet not meet with him: if, I say, anybody shall search for this light in himself, and find all darkness within; then will you say, I have all this while possessed you with some fancies and Ideas, without any real profit to be received from them; you will make that complaint as the Women for our Savior, We went to seek for him, and when we went down all was dark, and emptiness, They have taken him away, and I know not where they have laid him. Nay, but the error is in the seeker, not in my directions: he that would behold the Sun, must stay till the Cloud be over; he that would receive from the fire, either light or warmth, must take the pains to remove the ashes. There be some encumbrances, which may hinder the most active qualities in the World from working, and abate the edge of the keenest metal. In sum, there is a cloud, and gloom, and veil within thee, like that darkness on the face of the deep, when the Earth was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , without form and void, Gen. i.2. or like that at Lots Door among the Sodomites, or that of Egypt, thick and palpable: and this have we created to ourselves, a sky full of tempestuous, untamed affections; this cloud of vapors have we exhaled out of the lower part of our Soul, our sensitive faculty; and therewith have we so filled the air within us with sad, black meteors, that the Sun in its Zenith, the height or pride of its splendor, would scarce be able to pierce through it. So that for to make a search for this light within thee, before thou hast removed this throng, and crowd of passions which encompass it, and still to complain thou canst not meet with it; were to bring news that the Sun is gone out, when a tempest hath only masked it, or to require a Candle to give thee light through a Mud-wall. Thou must provide a course to clear the Sky, and then thou shalt not need to entreat the Sun to shine on thee; especially if this Cloud fall down in a shower, if thou canst melt so thick a viscous meteor as those corrupt affections are, into a soft rain, or dew of penitent tears, thou mayest then be confident of a fair bright Sun-shine. For I dare promise that never humble, tender, weeping Soul, had ever this light quite darkened within it, but could at all times read and see the will of God and the law of its Creation, not drawn only, but almost engraven and woven into its heart. For these tears in our Eyes will spiritually mend our sight; as what ever you see through water, thought it be represented somewhat dimly, yet seems bigger and larger than if there were no water in the way, according to that rule in the Opticks, Whatever is seen through a thicker medium, seems bigger than it is. And then by way of use, shall we suffer so incomparable a mercy to be cast away upon us? Shall we only see and admire, and not make use of it? Shall we fence, as it were, and fortify our outward man with Walls and Bulwarks, that the inner man may not shine forth upon it? Or shall we like silly improvident Flies, make no other use of this Candle, but only to singe, and burn, and consume ourselves by its flame; receive only so much light from it, as will add to our hell and darkness? 'It is a thing that the flintiest heart should melt at, to see such precious mercies undervalued; such incomparable blessings either contemned, or only improved into Curses. Arian calls those, in whom this light of the Soul is, as I shown you, clouded and obscured, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , dead trunks and carcasses of flesh, and to keep such men in order, were human laws provided, which he therefore calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , miserable hard laws to keep dead men in compass, and again, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Earth and Hell, the places to which dead bodies are committed. And certainly, if so, then by way of contrary, all the life that we possess, is but by obedience to this law within us; and 'tis no longer to be called life, but either sleep, or death, or lethargy, every minute that we move out of the circle of its directions. There is not a step, or moment in our lives, but we have a special use, and need of this law to manage us: every enterprize of our thoughts or actions, will yield some difficulty which we must hold up, and read, and judge of by this Candle; nay, sometimes we have need of a Glass, or instrument to contract the beams and light of it, or else 'twould scarce be able to get through to our actions; passion, and folly, and the Atheism of our lives, hath so thickened the medium. Wherefore in brief, remember that counsel, Mal. ii.15. Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth ; the Wife of his youth, i. e. saith Jerome’s gloss, legem naturalem scriptam in cord, the law of nature written in his heart, which was given him in the Womb as a Wife and help to succor him. Let us set a value on this polar Star within us, which hath, or should have an influence, at least directions on all our actions; let us increase, and nourish, and make much of the sparks still warm within us. And if Scholars, and Antiquaries prize nothing so high as a fair Manuscript or ancient Inscription, let us not contemn that which God's own Finger hath written within us, lest the sin of the contempt make us more miserable, and the mercy profit us only to make us inexcusable. And so I come to my second part, the sin of contemning or rejecting this law. For this cause he gave them up, i. e. because the contempt of his law thus provoked him.

The guilt arising from this contempt shall sufficiently be cleared to you, by observing and tracing of it, not through every particular, but in general through all sorts of men since the fall, briefly reducible to these three heads, First, The Heathens, Secondly, The Jews, Thirdly, Present Christians ; and then let every man that desires a more distinct light descend and commune with his own heart, and so he shall make up the observation.

The Heathens sin will be much aggravated, if we consider how they reckoned of this law, as the square, and rule, and canon of their actions; and therefore they will be inexcusable, who scarce be ever at leisure to call to it to direct them, when they had use of it. The Stoic calls it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the promise that every man makes, the obligation that he is bound in to nature at his shaping in the Womb, and upon which condition his reasonable Soul is at his conception demised to him; so that whosoever puts off this obedience, doth (as he goes on) renounce and even proclaim his forfeiture of the very Soul he lives by, and by every unnatural, that is, sinful action, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , destroys the natural man within him, and by a prodigious regeneration is in a manner transubstantiate into a Beast of the Field. Which conceit many of them were so possessed with, that they thought in earnest, that 'twas ordinary for souls to walk from men into Cocks and Asses, and the like, and return again at natures appointment; as if this one contempt of the law of nature, were enough to unman them, and make them without a figure, comparable, nay coessential to the beasts that perish. 'Twere too long to show you what a sense the wisest of them had of the helps that light could afford them: so that one of them cries out confidently, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. If all other laws were taken out of the world, we Philosophers would still live as we do; those directions within us, would keep us in as much awe, as the most imperious or severest Law-giver. And again, how they took notice of the perverseness of men in refusing to make use of it: for who, saith one, ever came into the knowledge of men, without this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this knowledge and discretion of good and evil, as old in him as his soul? And yet who makes any use of it in his actions? nothing so ordinary as to betray, and declare that we have it, by finding fault, and accusing Vices in other men; by calling this Justice, this Tyranny, this Virtue, this Vice in another: whilst yet we never are patient to observe or discern ought of it in ourselves. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. Who ever spares to call injustice, which he sees in another, by its own name, for his own reason tells him 'tis so, and he must needs give it its title? But when the case concerns his own person, when his passions counsel him against the law within him, then is he content not to see, though it shine never so bright about him; and this was one degree of their guilt, that they observed the power of it in their speculations, and made use of it also to censure and find fault with others; but seldom or never strived to better themselves, or straighten their own actions by it. Again, to follow our Apostles Argument, and look more distinctly upon them in their particular chief sins which this contempt produced in them, you shall find them in the front to be Idolatry and Superstition, in the Verses next before my Text: When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, Verse 21. But changed his glory into an Image, &c. Verse 24. And then we may cry out with Theodoret in his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the errors and vanities of their worship, hath rased out all the characters that God anciently had written in them. And can any man show a greater contempt to a Book, or Writing, than to tear, and scrape, and scratch out every Letter in it? The first voice of nature in the Creature, which it uttered even in the Cradle, when it was an infant in the World, and therefore perhaps, as Children are wont, not so plainly, and syllabically, and distinctly, as could have been wished, is the acknowledgement and worship of one Eternal God, Creator of that Soul we breath by, and World we live in; as one simple, incorporeal, Everlasting Essence; and thus far (no doubt) could nature proclaim in the heart of every Gentile, though it was by many of them, either silenced, or not hearkened to, which if it were doubted of, might be deduced out of the 19. verse of this Chap. God hath shown unto them, &c. Now this light shining not equally in all Eyes; some being more over-spread with a film of ignorance, stupid conditions and passions, and the like; yet certainly had enough to express their contempt of it, so that they are without excuse, ver. 20. All that would ever think of it, and were not blind with an habit of sottishness, acknowledged a God, yet none would think aright of him. Some would acknowledge him a simple Essence, and impossible to be described, or worshipit aright by any Image; as Varro an Heathen observes, that the City and Religion of old Rome continued 170. years without any Images of the gods in it. Yet even they which acknowledged him simple from all corporeity and composition, would not allow him single from plurality. Jupiter and Saturn, and the rest of their shole of God's; had already got in, and possessed both their Temples, and their hearts. In sum, their understandings were so gross within them, being fatned and incraslate with magical phantasms, that let the truth within them say what it would, they could not conceive the Deity without some quantity, either Corporeity, or number; and either multiply this God into many, or make that one God corporeous. And then all this while how plainly and peremptorily, and fastidiously they rejected the guidance of nature, which in every reasonable heart, counseled, nay proclaimed the contrary; how justly they provoked God's displeasure, and desertion, by their forsaking and provoking him first by their foolish imaginations, I need not take pains to insist on. Aristotle observes in his Rhet. that a man that hath but one Eye, loves that very dearly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and sets a far higher price on it, is much more tender over it than he that hath two ; so he that hath but one Son, cannot choose but be very fond of him, and the greatest lamentation that can be expressed, is but a shadow of that which is for ones only Son, as may appear, Amos viii.10. Zach. 12.10. when 'tis observed that, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the only begotten, and the beloved are taken in Scripture promiscuously, as signifying all one. And then, what a price should the Heathen have set upon this Eye of nature, being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , having no other Eye to see by? having neither Scripture nor Spirit, those two other glorious Eyes of the World, to enlighten them; and therefore being sure, by the contemning and depriving themselves of this light, to turn all into horrible darkness. 'Twould strike a man into agony of pity and amazement, to see a World of Gentiles for many years thus imprisoned, and buried in a Dungeon, and grave of invincible idolatrous ignorance; and from thence engaged in inevitable Hell, as 'tis in the Book of Wisdom ; and all this directly by contemning this first, and only begotten light in them, which God set in the Firmaments of their hearts, to have led and directed them a more comfortable way. And this, or as bad, is every unregenerate man's case exactly, if they be not forewarned by their elder Brethren the Heathens Example: as we shall anon have more leisure to insist on.

Secondly, among the Jews, under which name I contain all the people of God, from Adam to Christ, 'tis a lamentable contemplation to observe, and trace the law, and the contempt of it, like a Jacob at the heels, supplanting it in every Soul which it came to inhabit. Those Characters of verum and bonum, which in Adam were written in a statelier Copy and fairer Manuscript, than our slow undervaluing conceits can guess at; nay, afterwards explained with a particular explication to his particular danger; Of the tree of knowledge, &c. thou shalt not eat, Gen. ii.17. Yet how were they by one slender temptation of the Serpent, presently sullied and blurred? so that all the aqua fortis, and instruments in the World, will never be able to wash out or erase that blot; or ever restore that handwriting in our hearts to the integrity and beauty of that Copy in its primitive estate. And since, when by that sin darkness was in a manner gone over their hearts, and there remained in them only some tracks and relics of the former structure, the glory whereof was like that of the second Temple, nothing comparable to the beauty of the first; instead of weeping with a loud Voice, as many of the Priests and Levites did, Ezra iii.12. or building, or repairing of it with all alacrity, as all Israel did through that whole Book; their whole endeavor and project was even to destroy the ruins, and utterly finish the work of destruction which Adam had begun, as being impatient of that shelter which it would yet, if they would but give it leave, afford them. Thus that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , two sparks of that primitive sacred flame, which came from Heaven, still alive and warm, though weak in them, intended by God to direct them in his will, and forever set either as their Funeral Pile, or their Ordeal Fire, their punishment, or acqu • ttal, either as their Devil, or their God, to accuse, or else excuse them, were both in their practice neglected, and slighted; nay in a manner oppressed and stifled. For any natural power of doing good, (God knows) it was utterly departed; and therefore this thin measure of knowledge or judgment betwixt good and evil, that was left them (which my awe to God's sincere love of his Creature, makes me hope and trust he bestowed on them for some other end than only to increase their condemnation, to stand them in some stead in their lives, to restrain and keep them in from being extremely sinful:) This, I say, they horribly rejected, and stopped their Ears against that charmer in their own bosoms, and would not hear that soft Voice which God had still placed within them, to upbraid their ways, and reprove their thoughts. What a provocation this was of God's justice, what an incentive of his wrath, may appear by that terrible promulgation of the ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. They despised the law in their hearts, where God and nature whisper'd it in calmly, insensibly, and softly; and therefore now it shall be thunder'd in their Ears in words, and those, boisterous ones, at which the whole mount quaked greatly, Exod. xix.18. And in the 16. verse, it must be ushered with variety of dismal meteors upon the Mount, and the Voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp, trembled. Thus upon their contempt and peevishness, was this manuscript put in print, this Privy Seal turned into a Proclamation, and that a dreadful one, bound and subscribed, with a Cursed is he that continues not in every tittle of it to perform it. Mean while the matter is not altered, but only the dispensation of it. That which till then had taught men in their hearts, and had been explained from tradition, from Father to Son, Adam instructing Seth, and Seth Enoch in all righteousness; is now put into Tables, that they may have Eyes to see, that would not have hearts to understand, that the perverse may be convinced, and that he that would not before see himself bound, may find, and read himself accursed. And after all this, yet is not the old Law within them, either cast away or canceled by the promulgation of the other: for all the Book is Printed, the old Copy is kept in archivis, though, perhaps, as it always was, neglected, soil'd, and moth-eaten, and he shall be censured either for ambition or curiosity, that shall ever be seen to inquire, or look after it. Still I say, throughout all their ways, and arts, and methods of Rebellions, it twing'd, and pricked within, as God's judgments attended them without, and as often as sword, or plague wounded them, made them acknowledge the justice of God, that thus rewarded their perverseness. Nay you shall see it sometimes break out against them, when perhaps the written Law spake too softly for them to be understood. Thus did David's heart smite him, when he had numbered the people; though there was no direct commandment against mustering or enrolment, yet his own Conscience told him that he had done it either for distrust, or for ostentation, and that he had sinned against God in trusting and glorying in that arm of flesh, or paid not the tribute appointed by God on that occasion. To conclude this Discourse of the Jews, every Rebellion and Idolatry of theirs was a double breach, of a double Law, the one in Tables, the other in their heart; and could they have been freed from the killing Letter of the one, the wounding sense of the other would still have kept them bound, as may appear in that business of Crucifying Christ, where no human Law-giver or Magistrate went about to deter them from shedding his blood, or denying his Miracles, yet many of their own hearts apprehended, and violently buffeted, and scourged, and tormented them. At one time when they are most resolved against him, the whole Senate is suddenly pricked, and convinced within, and express it with a Surely this man doth many miracles, John xi.48. At another time at the top and complement of the business, Pilate is deter'd from condemning, and though the fear of the people made him valiant; yet, as if he contemned this Voice of his Conscience against his will, with some reluctance, he washes his hands when he would have been gladder to quench the fire in his heart, which still burnt and vext him. Lastly, When Judas had betrayed and sold him, and no man made huy and cry after him, his Conscience was his pursuer, Judge, and Executioner; persecuted him out of the World, haunted him, would not suffer him to live, whom otherwise the Law of the Country would have reprieved, till a natural death had called for him.

Lastly, Even we Christians are not likely to clear ourselves of this Bill; 'tis much to be feared, that if our own hearts are called to witness, our Judge will need no farther Indictments. 'Twas an Heathen Speech concerning this rule of our lives and actions, that to study it hard, to reform and repair all obliquities and defects in it, and then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to set it up strong and firm as a pillar in our hearts, was the part and office of a Philosopher ; and then afterwards, to make use of it in our whole Conversation, this was the part of a virtuous man complete and absolute. And how then will our contempt be aggravated, if Christianity, which Clemens calls spiritual Philosophy, and is to be reckoned above all moral perfections, hath yet wrought neither of these effects in us? if we have continued so far from straightning, or setting up, or making use of this rule, that we have not so much as ever inquired or markit whether there be any such thing left within us or no? Theodoret in his second 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . is very passionate in the expression of this contempt of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the light of truth shining in our understandings. There be a sort of Birds, saith he, that fly or move only in the night, called from thence Night-Birds, and Night-Ravens, which are afraid of light, as either an Enemy to spy, to assault, or betray them; but salute, and court, and make love to darkness as their only Queen, and Mistress of their actions, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as a creature sent on purpose to preserve them: and these, saith he, deserve not to be chid but pitied, for nature at first appointed them this condition of life, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 'tis their birthright and inheritance, and therefore nobody will be angry with them for living on it: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. But for them who were made Creatures of light, and, had it not been for their willfulness, had still continued light in the Lord, who are altogether encompassed and environed with light, light of nature, light of reason, light of religion, nay, the most glorious asterism, or conjunction of lights in the World, the light of the Gospel to walk in; for these men merely out of perverseness of willful hearts, to hate and abjure, and defy this light, to run out of the World almost for fear of it; to be forever a soliciting and worshipping of darkness, as Socrates was said to adore the Clouds, this is such a sottishness, that the stupidst Element under Heaven would naturally scorn to be guilty of: for never was the earth so peevish, as to forbid the Sun when it would shine on it, or to s • ink away, or subduce itself from its rays. And yet this is our case, beloved, who do more amorously, and flatteringly court, and woo, and solicit darkness, than ever the Heathens adored the Sun. Not to wander out of the sphere my Text hath placed me in, to show how the light of the Gospel and Christianity is neglected by us, our guilt will lie heavy enough on us, if we keep us to the light only of natural reason within us. How many sins do we daily commit, which both nature and reason abhor and loath? How many times do we not only unman, but even uncreature ourselves? Aristotle observes, that that by which anything is known first, that which doth distinguish one thing from another à priore, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is to be called the beginning or cause of that thing ; and that the light of reason distinguishing one action from another, being the first thing that teaches me that this is good, that otherwise may from thence be termed the beginning of every reasonable action in us, and then where ever this cause or beginning is left out, and wanting, there the thing produced is not so called a positive act, or proper effect, but a defect, an abortion, or still-born frustrate issue; and of this condition indeed is every sin in us. Every action where this Law within us is neglected, is not truly an action, but a passion, a suffering or a torment of the Creature. Thus do we not so much live and walk, which note some action, as lie entranced, asleep, nay, dead in sin; by this perverseness 'tis perpetual night with us, nay, we even dy daily ; our whole life is but a multiplied swoon or lethargy, in which we remain stupid, breathless, senseless, till the day of Death or Judgment with a hideous Voice affrights and rouses us, and we find ourselves awake in Hell; and so our dark Souls having a long while groped willfully in the Sun, are at last lead to an Everlasting, inevitable darkness, whither the mercy or rays of the Sun can never pierce; where it will be no small accession to our torment, to remember and tremble at that light which before we scorned. Thus, I say, do we in a manner uncreature ourselves, and by the contempt of this Law of our Creation, even frustrate and bring to nothing our Creation itself; and this is chiefly by sins of sloth, and stupid, sluggish, unactive Vices, which, as I said, make our whole life a continued passion, never daring, or venturing, or attempting to act or do anything in Church or Commonwealth, either toward God or our Neighbor; and of such a condition'd man, nobody will be so charitable as to guess he hath any Soul, or light of reason in him, because he is so far from making use of it, unless it be such a Soul as Tully saith a Swine hath, which serves it only instead of Salt, to keep it from stinking. For 'tis Aristotle's observation, that everyone of the Elements, besides the Earth, was by some Philosopher or other defined to be the Soul. Some said the Soul was fire, some that 'twas air, some water ; but never any man was so mad, as to maintain the earth to be it, because 'twas so heavy and unwieldy. So then this heavy, motionless, unactive Christian, this clod of Earth, hath, as I said, uncreatured himself, and by contemning this active reason within him, even deprived himself of his Soul. Again, how ordinary a thing is it to unman ourselves by this contempt of the directions of reason, by doing things that no man in his right mind, would ever have patience to think of? Beloved, to pass by those which we call unnatural sins, i. e. so in the highest degree, as too horrid for our nature, set down in the latter end of this Chapter, for all Christian Ears to glow and tingle at, and I had hoped for all English spirits to abhor and loath: To pass these (I say) our whole life almost affords minutely sins which would not argue us men, but some other Creatures. There be few things we do in our age, which are proper peculiar acts of men; one man gives himself to eating and drinking, and bestows his whole care on that one faculty which they call the vegetative growing faculty; and then what difference is there betwixt him and a Tree, whose whole nature it is to feed and grow? Certainly unless he hath some better employment, he is at best but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a plant-animal, whose shape would perhaps persuade you that it hath some sense or Soul in it, but its actions betray it to be a mere plant, little better than an Artichoak or Cabbage: another goes a little higher, yet not far; doth all that his sense presents to him, suffers all that his sensitive faculties lust and rage to exercise at freedom; is as fierce as the Tiger, as lustful as the Goat, as ravenous as the Wolf, and the like; and all the Beasts of the Field, and Fowls of the air, be but several Emblemes, and Hieroglyphics concurring to make up his character, carries a Wilderness about him, as many sins as the nature of a sensitive Creature is capable of: and then, who will stick to compare this man to the beasts that perish? For 'tis Theophilus his note, that the Cattle and Beasts of the Field were created the same day with man, Gen. i.25. to note, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the brutish condition of some men, and that therefore the blessing was not bestowed on them, but reserved for the man which should have the dominion over them, Verse 26, 28. In sum, every action which reason, or Scripture, or God's spirit guides not in us, is to be called the work of some other Creature of one of these three sorts; either earthly, the work of a plant, or sensual, the work of a Brute, or thirdly, above the condition of both these, devilish.

Thus do you see the sin of the contempt of the light of nature, which although it be dim'd in us by our corruption, yet shined so bright in the Heathen, that they were left without excuse; in the Jews, that even their own hearts accused them for their rebellions; and in us Christians, that unless we move according to its directions, we are fallen below the condition of men, almost of Creatures. 'Twere now superfluous farther to demonstrate it; our time will be better spent, if we close with some use of it; and that will prove manifold, first by way of caution, not to deify or exalt too high, or trust in this light of nature. It was once a perfect glorious rule, but is now distorted and defaced; it once was light in the Lord, almost an Angel of light, it shone as the Sun in the Firmament, in majesty and full brightness, but is now only as the Moon, pale and dim, scarce able to do us any service, unless it borrows some rays from the Son of righteousness. The fall hath done somewhat with it, I know not what to call it, either much impaired it, and diminished its light in its Essence, or else much encumbered, or oppressed it in its operations, as a Candle under a Vail, or Lanthorn▪ which, though it burn, and shine as truly as on a Candlestick, yet doth not so much service in enlightening the room: the Soul within us is much changed, either is not in its Essence so perfect, and active, and bright, as once it was; or else being infused in a sufficient perfection, is yet terribly overcast with a gloom and cloud of corruptions, that it can scarce find any passage to get through, and show itself in our actions; for the corruptible body presseth down the soul, &c. Wisd. ix.15. And from this caution grow many lower branches, whence we may gather some fruit; as in the second place, infinitely to humble ourselves before God for the first sin of Adam, which brought this darkness on our Souls, and account it not the meanest, or slightest of our miseries, that our whole nature is defiled, and bruised, and weakened: to aggravate every circumstance and effect of that sin against thyself, which has so liberally afforded fuel to the flames of lust, of rage, and wild desire, and thereby, without God's gracious mercy, to the flames of Hell. This is a most profitable point, yet little thought on; and therefore would deserve a whole Sermon to discuss to you. 3. To observe and acknowledge the necessity of some brighter light, than this of nature can afford us, and with all the care and vigilancy of our hearts, all the means that Scripture will lend us, and at last with all the importunities and groans, and violence of our Souls, to petition and solicit, and urge God's illuminating spirit to break out and shine on us. To undertake to interpret any ancient Author, requires, say the Grammarians, a man of deep and various knowledge, because there may be some passage or other in that Book, which will refer to every sort of learning in the World, whence 'tis observed that the old Scholiasts and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , were most exquisite Scholars. Thus certainly will not any ordinary skill serve turn to interpret and explain many dark sayings, which were at first written in the Book of our hearts, but are now almost past reading; only that omniscient spirit, that hath no shadow of ignorance, the Finger that first writ, must be beseeched to read and point out the riddle. We must make use of that rotten staff of nature, as far as its strength will bear, and that very gingerly too, never daring to lean, or lay our whole weight upon it, lest it either wound with its splinter, or else break under us: our help and stay, and subsistence, and trust must be in the Lord, our Eyes must wait on his enlightening spirit, and never lose a ray that falls from it. Fourthly, to clear up as much as we can, and re-enliven this light within us. And that first,

By stirring up and blowing, and so nourishing every spark we find within us. The least particle of fire left in a Coal, may by pains be improved into a flame; 'tis held possible to restore, or at least preserve for a time, anything that is not quite departed. If thou findest but a spark of Religion in thee, which saith, A God is to be worshipit; care, and sedulity, and the breath of Prayers, may in time by this inflame the whole man into a bright fire of Zeal towards God. In brief, whatever thou dost, let not any the least atom of that fire, which thou once feelest within thee, ever go out: quench not the weakest motion, or inclination even of reason towards God, or goodness: how unpolishit soever this Diamond be, yet if it do but glissen, 'tis too precious to be cast away. And then secondly,

By removing all hindrances, or incumbrances that may any way weaken or oppress it; and these you have learnt to be corrupt affections. That democracy, and crowd, and press, and common people of the Soul, raises a tumult in every street within us, that no voice of law or reason can be heard. If you will but disgorge, and purge the stomach, which hath been thus long oppressed, if you will but remove this Cloud of crudities, then will the brain be able to send some rays down to the heart, which till then are sure to be caught up by the way, anticipated, and devoured. For the naked simplicity of the Soul, the absence of all disordered passions, is that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Aphrodiseus, that kindly familiar good temper of the Soul, by which it is able to find out and judge of truth. In brief, if thou canst crop thy luxuriant passions, if thou canst either expel, or tame all the wild Beasts within thee, which are born to devour anything which is weak or innocent, then will that mild voice within thee, in the cave, take heart and show itself. In the mean time this hurry of thy senses drowns that reason, and thou canst not hope to see, as long as like old Tobit, the dung, and white film doth remain upon thine Eyes. If thou canst use any means to dissolve this dung of affections, which an habit of sin hath baked within thee, the scales will fall off from thine Eyes, and the blind Tobit shall be restored to his sight. In brief, do but fortify thy reasonable Soul against all the undermining, and faction, and violence of these sensual passions, do but either depose, or put to the Sword that Atheistical Tyrant, and Usurper, as Jamblichus calls the affections, do but set reason in the Chair, and hear, and observe his dictates, and thou hast disburdened thyself of a great company of weights, and pressures: thou wilt be able to look more like a man, to hold thy head more courageously, and bend thy thoughts more resolutely toward Heaven: and I shall expect, and hope, and pray, and almost be confident, that if thou dost perform sincerely what thy own soul prompts thee to, God's spirit is nigh at hand to perfect, and crown, and seal thee up to the day of redemption.

In the next place, thou mayest see thine own guilts the clearer, call thyself to an account even of those things which thou thinkest thou art freest from; that which the Apostle in this chap. and part of my Discourse hath charged the Heathens with: and if thou lookest narrowly, I am afraid thou wilt spy thine own picture in that glass, and find thyself in many things as arrant a Gentile, as any of them. For any sincere care of God, or Religion, how few of us are there, that ever entertained so unpleasant a guest in their hearts: we go to Church, and so did they to their Temples: we pray, and they sacrificed; they washed and bathed themselves before they durst approach their deities, and we come in our best cloths, and cleanest linen; but for any farther real service we mean towards God there, for any inward purity of the heart, for any sincere worship of our Soul, we are as guiltless, as free from it, we do as much contemn, and scorn it, as ever did any Heathen. Again, what man of us is not in some kind guilty even of their highest crime, Idolatry? Some of them took the brain to be sacred, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Athenaus ; and therefore hearing some cry God help, when one sneezed, the ignorant sort worshipped that noise as an expression of a deity in the brain : and so as senselessly many of us deify our own brains, and adore everything that ever comes out of them. Every conceit of ours must be like the birth of Jupiter's brain, a Minerva at least; be we never so ignorant or mechanical, every device, every fancy of our own (especially in matters of Religion) is straight of divine authority; and having resolved ourselves the Children of God, every crochet we fall upon, must be necessarily Theopneust, and inspired, and others accused for irreligious, or singular, that will not as soon give homage to it. In sum, every imagination becomes an Image, and the Artificer deifies his own handy-work, forgetting that he made it, as 'tis described in the xiii. of Wisd. toward the end; and this is one kind of Idolatry. Again, who is there that hath not some pleasure in his heart, which takes place of God there? They had their Sun and Moon, most glorious Creatures, their Heroes, whose virtues had even deified their memory, and silly men they admired, and could not choose but worship. The Devil, and a humor of superstition customary in them, fee'd and bribed the law in their hearts to hold its peace, and not recall them. But how basely have we outgone their vilest worships? How have we outstripped them? Let but one appearance of gain, like that golden Calf of the Israelites ; a beautiful Woman, like that Venus of the Heathens; nay in brief, what ever Image, or representation of delight thy own lust can propose thee, let it but glance, or glide by thee, and Quis non incurvavit? Shew me a man that hath not at some time or other fallen down and worshipped. In sum, all the lower part of the Soul, or carnal affections are but a picture of the City of Athens, Acts xvii.16. Wholly given to Idolatry. The basest, unworthiest pleasure or content in the World, that which is good for nothing else, the very refuse of the refuse, Wisd. xiii.13. is become an Idol, and hath its shrines in some heart or other: and we crouch and bow, and sacrifice to it; and all this against the voice of our Soul, and nature within us, if we would suffer it to speak aloud, or but hearken to its whisperings: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Philoponus, Nature only bids us feed ourselves with sufficient; lust brought in superfluity and pleasure. But this only by the way, lest you might think that part of my Sermon concerning the Heathens contempt of this law, did belong little to you, and so might have been spared.

Lastly, Not to lade every part of my former Discourse with its several use, or application, take but this one more. If this Light shines but dimly within us, then let us so much the more not dare contemn it. That Master that speaks but seldom, then surely deserves to be obeyed; he that is slow in his reproofs, certainly hath good reason when he falls foul with anybody. If Croesus his dumb Son in Herodotus, seeing one come to kill his Father, shall by violence break the string of his tongue, that formerly hindered his Speech, and he that never spake before, roar out an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Sir, Kill not Croesus, I wonder not that the Persian held his hand: a very Barbarian would be amazed, and stopped by such a Prodigy; it must needs be an odious thing, when the Child which can scarce speak, expresses indignation. Wherefore if ever our bestial soul, that of our sense, shall seduce us to anything that our manly soul, that of our reason, which is now somewhat decrepit, and dim-sighted, shall yet espy and find fault with: if in any enterprize this natural law within us shall give the check, let us suddenly remove our project, and not dare to reject such Fatherly, sage admonishments; if all the means in the World can help to avoid it, let us never fall into the snare. And if at thy audit with thy own Soul, and examination of thyself, amongst the root of thy customary ignorant sins, (and O Lord deliver me from my secret faults) if in that heap and Chaos, thy own heart can pick out many of this nature, and present them to thee, which it before forewarned thee of; then let the saltest, most briny tear in thy heart be called out to wash off this guilt: let the saddest mortified thought thou canst strain for, be accounted but a poor unproportionable expiation. Think of this seriously, and if all this will nothing move you, I cannot hope that any farther Rhetoric, if I had it to spare, would do any good upon you. Only I will try one suasory more, which being somewhat rough, may chance to frighten you, and that is, the punishment that here expects this contempt, and that a dismal hideous one, all the wild savage devourers in the Wilderness, Vile affections, which punishment together with the inflicter, and manner of inflicting it, are the last parts of my Discourse, of which together in a word. God gave them up to vile affections.

A punishment indeed; and all the Fiends of Hell could not invent, or wish a man a greater: there is not a more certain presage of a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or total subversion of Body and Soul, not a more desperate prognostic in the World. 'It is observed in Photios, as a sure token that Jerusalem should be destroyed, because punishment came upon it in a chain, every link drew on another, no intermission, or discontinuance of judgments, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. A single judgment that brings no train after it, is cheaply entertained, and is therefore called not a calamity, but a visitation : but when one plague shall invade, shall supplant another, when the pestilence shall fright out the famine, and the sword pursue the pestilence, that neither may slay all, but each join in the glory of the spoil; then must the beholder acknowledge 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that God is resolved to make them the Scene of his rage, not only of his wrath. Thus also in the spiritual 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the estate of the Soul, some sins may be suffered to invade us, and stick as did the Amorites, to goad our sides, not destroy, but humble us. But when sins shall come like gaol-birds linked, and chained together; when our corruptions, and insolent tyrannical passions shall make us contemn the light and law of reason, and nature; when that contempt shall bring forth Idolatry, and the like, either worship of Idol-gods, or vain conceits, or imaginary delights, every lust of our baser Soul; then can it not be expected, that God will have so little to do, as to take anymore care of us, that he will have so much mercy as even to punish us any longer. The next voice that we can expect, is that horrible mercy of his, Why should you be smitten anymore? Any restraint either of chastisement, or instruction, would be scarce seen upon us; and therefore 'tis but lost labor to beat the air, or to lay stripes upon the Sea with Xerxes. The height of God's wrath in this World, is but our just reward, and that is desertion, or dereliction, and giving us over, and giving us up, which will suddenly bring us to that which our corrupt nature posts after, all vile affections.

The issue of all is this; that those that contemn God's ordinary restraints, God ordinarily leaves to themselves, and suffers them to run into most horrible sins. 'It is justice that they which delight in error, should be let alone in their course, that they may see and acknowledge the error of their delight, that they which have contemned God's Voice, and natures within them, should be forsaken and left without either, ungodly, unnatural; that they which lulled their reasonable Soul into a Lethargy, for fear it should awake them, or disturb their delights, should not have life enough without it, ever to awake or rouse themselves or it; that they which have maliciously, and contemptuously put out the Sun, should forever suffer a continued night. 'It is Hippocr. his observation, that the Africans are very libidinous: they are neither hardy nor valiant, nor laborious, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Lust hath so effeminated them, that they are fit for nothing, but for softness: and therefore saith he, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , there be among them beasts of all sorts of strange shapes, the heat and violence of the same lust, makes the very Beasts unnatural, the confusion of species is ordinary among them; and so almost every birth a Monster; nature is almost lost amongst them, and many Beasts may be found in Africa, which never had any of their kind in the Ark; Africa semper aliquod apportat novi, whosoever hath a mind to a strange sight, there he shall have store of them. Thus is it in the Soul, if the upper, the manly part of it be overswell'd with lust, it straight becomes effeminate, and enervate, hath neither strength, nor sinews, nor courage for any undertaking: and then the Beasts of the field, the lower, baser, sensual faculties of the Soul, are not only lusty, but outrageous, having no keeper to govern them, they become wild: scorn any limits, or bounds of nature, do every day conceive horrid, unnatural, vile imaginations, and every season grow big, and bring forth Monsters, monstrous oaths, monstrous delights, monstrous vanities. Some new art or trick of sinning, that was never heard of before, is invented against every solemn season of our jollity; and this we carry about, and show, and brag of as a new Creature, or strange sight, and get a great deal of applause, and admiration, and perhaps some money by the employment. 'Twere too long to point out the several sorts of these vile affections, which contempt of this light, hath produced in everyone of us; only let us strive, and strain, and stretch the Eyes that are left us, to examine, and observe, every degree and Symptom, and prognostic of them in ourselves, and never leave poring till we have pierced through that carnal security that blinded us, and fully humble ourselves in a sense of that desperate estate, and almost the Hell that we are fallen blindfold into. And if we are still blinded, still unable to see, or move, or relieve ourselves, let us then lay hold of the next Post or Pillar we meet with, and there fix and dwell▪ and weep, and pray, to that Omnipotent Physician of our Souls, that Restorer of reasonable Creatures, that he will by some spiritual Eye water, recover us to that sense. 'It is impossible, saith Tobias, for any one to restore us to the Image of the Father which was once on us, but him only who was the eternal Image of the Father, he only could 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , turn out that unreasonable blind soul within us, made up of our sins which move us, and reduce us to the dignity of reasonable creatures. He hath already by his Incarnation, delivered us from one long night, the dark gloom of our Heathen Ancestors; O that he would be born again spiritually in our Souls, to deliver us from other more Cimmerian darkness, the night, and Hell of habituate sin, wherein we grope. He once breathed on us the breath of life, to make us men ; O that he would again but breath on us the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , His holy breath, his hallowing breath, his breath of holiness, to make us Saints. It is he that must prevent us with his Spirit, or else we run headlong into all vile affections.

O That he would but Sanctify us; and then, the most plausible flattering sin in the World, nay, the most boisterous, impetuous lust, should not be able to tyrannize over us. In the mean time, let us remain men, till it shall please that free voice to call us into Saints. Grace is never placed but in a reasonable Creature; and is therefore said to be sent to make reason see, what by nature only it cannot, never to blemish it in what it can comprehend, as the Learned Bishop hath observed against the Jesuit. Let us make much of all the light that nature and reason will afford us, let us not suffer one precious ray to be cast away upon us, but improve it to the extent of its virtue, for the direction of our lives. And whensoever this light shall fail that it cannot guide us, or our Eyes dazzle that we cannot follow, let us pray to the Father of lights, and God of Spirits, that he will shine spiritually in our hearts, and fulfil us with his light of grace here, which may enable us to behold him, and enjoy him, and rejoice with him, and be satisfied with that eternal light of his Glory hereafter.

Now to him that hath elected us, hath created, redeemed, &c.

SERMON XV.

AMongst all other encumbrances, and delays in our way to Heaven, there is no one that doth so clog and trash, so disadvantage and backward us, and in fine, so cast us behind in our race; as a contentedness in a formal worship of God, an acquiescence and resting satisfied in outward performances, when men upon a confidence that they perform all that can be required of a Christian, they look no farther than the outward work, observe not what heart is under this outside, but resolve their estate is safe, they have as much interest in Heaven as any one. Such men as these the Apostle begins to character and censure in the twelfth Verse of the Chapter, As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, &c. They that stand only on a fair specious outside, and think all the sap and life of Religion lies in the bark, they do this and this, these will have you circumcised, and constrain you to a many burdensome Ceremonies; measuring out Religion to you by the weight, thus much is required of you to do (as Popish Confessors set their deluded Votaries their task of Ave Mary's and Pater nosters by tale) and thus you may be sure to be saved. In brief, the Apostle here shows the unprofitableness of all these, and sets up the inward sanctity and renewedness of heart against them all, as the only thing that will stand us instead, and appear to be of any weight in the balance of the Sanctuary. If you observe all the commands, and submit yourselves to all the burden of both Law and Gospel, and bear it upon your shoulders never so valiantly; if you be content to be circumcised as Christ was; or, because he hath now abrogated that, make use of Christian liberty, and remain uncircumcised, notwithstanding all inducements to the contrary: In brief, be you outwardly never so severe a Jew or Christian; all that is nothing worth; there is but one thing most peremptorily required of you, and that you have omitted; For neither circumcision availeth anything, neither uncircumcision, but a new Creature.

The particle but in the front of my Text, is exclusive and restrictive, it excludes everything in the World from pretending to avail anything, from being believed to do us any good. For by circumcision the Church of the Jews, and by uncircumcision the whole profession of Christian Religion being understood; when he saith neither of these availeth anything, he forcibly implies that all other means, all professions, all observances, that men think or hope to get Heaven by, are to no purpose, and that by consequence, it exactly restrains to the new creature ; there it is to be had, and nowhere else: thus doth he slight and undervalue, and even reprobate all other ways to Heaven, that he may set the richer price, and raise a greater estimation in us of this. The substance of all the Apostles Discourse, and the ground-work of mine shall be this one Aphorism, Nothing is efficaciously available to salvation, but a renewed, regenerated heart. For the opening of which, we will examine by way of doctrine, wherein this new Creature consists, and then by way of use, the necessity of that, and unprofitableness of all other plausible pretending means; and first of the first, wherein this new creature consists.

'It is observable, that our state of nature and sin is in Scripture expressed ordinarily by old age, the natural sinful man, that is, all our natural affections that are born and grow up with us, are called the old man, as if since Adams fall we were decrepit, and feeble, and aged as soon as born, as a Child begotten by a man in a Consumption, never comes to the strength of a man, is always weak, and crazy, and puling, hath all the imperfections and corporal infirmities of age before he is out of his infancy. And according to this ground the whole Analogy of Scripture runs; all that is opposite to the old decrepit state, to the dotage of nature, is phrased new ; The new Covenant, Mark i.27. The language of believers, new tongues, Mark xvi.17. A new Commandment, John xiii. 34. A new man, Ephes. ii.15. In sum, the state of grace is expressed by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all is become new, 2 Cor. v.17. So that old and new, as it divides the Bible, the whole state of things, the World; so it doth that to which all these serve, man ; every natural man which hath nothing but nature in him, is an old man, be he never so young is full of Years, even before he is able to tell them. Adam was a perfect man when he was but a minute old, and all his Children are old even in the Cradle, nay, even dead with old age, Eph. ii.5. And then consequently, every spiritual man which hath somewhat else in him than he received from Adam, he that is born from above, John iii.3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (for it may be so rendered from the original, as well as born again, as our English read it) he that is by God's spirit quickened from the old death, Ephes. ii.5. he is contrary to the former, a new man, a new creature ; the old Eagle hath cast his beak and is grown young; the man, when old, has entered the second time into his mothers Womb, and is born again, all the gray hairs and wrinkles fall off from him, as the Scales from blind Tobits Eyes, and he comes forth a refined, glorious, beauteous new Creature, you would wonder to see the change. So that you find in general, that the Scripture presumes it, that there is a renovation, a casting away of the old Coat, a Youth and spring again in many men from the old age and weak Bed-rid estate of nature. Now that you may conceive wherein it consists, how this new man is brought forth in us, by whom it is conceived, and in what Womb 'tis carried, I will require no more of you, than to observe and understand with me, what is meant by the ordinary phrase in our Divines, a new principle, or inward principle of life, and that you shall do briefly thus. A man's Body is naturally a sluggish, unactive, motionless, heavy thing, not able to stir or move the least animal motion, without a Soul to enliven it; without that, 'tis but a Carcass, as you see at Death, when the Soul is separated from it, it returns to be but a stock or lump of flesh; the Soul bestows all life and motion on it, and enables it to perform any work of nature. Again, the Body and Soul together considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity, are as impotent and motionless, as before the Body without the Soul. Set a man to remove a Mountain, and he will heave perhaps to obey your command, but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it, than a stone in the street could do: but now, let an Omnipotent Power be annexed to this man, let a supernatural spirit be joined to this Soul, and then will it be able to overcome the proudest, stoutest difficulty in nature. You have heard in the Primitive Church of a grain of Faith removing Mountains, and believe me, all Miracles are not yet out-dated. The work of Regeneration, the bestowing of a spiritual Life on one dead in trespasses and sins, the making of a Carcass walk, the natural old man to spring again, and move spiritually, is as great a miracle as that. Now the Soul, in that it produces life and motion, the exercise of life in the body, is called a principle, that is, a Spring or Fountain of Life, because all comes from it; in like manner, that which moves this Soul, and enables it to do that which naturally it could not; that which gives it a new life, which before it lived not; furnisheth it with spiritual powers to quell and subdue all carnal affections, which were before too hard for it; this, I say, is called properly an inward principle; and an inward, because it is inwardly and secretly infused, doth not only outwardly assist us as an auxiliary at a dead lift, but is sown and planted in our hearts, as a Soul to the Soul, to elevate and enable it above itself, hath its seat and palace in the regenerate heart, and there exercises dominion, executes judgment, and that is commonly either by Prison or Banishment, it either fetters, or else expels all insolent rebellious lusts. Now the new principle, by which not the man, but the new man, the Christian lives, is, in a word, the spirit of God, which unites itself to the regenerate heart, so that now he is said to be a godly man, a spiritual man, from the God, from the Spirit, as before a living reasonable man, from the Soul, from the reason, that informed and ruled in him; which is noted by that distinction in Scripture betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate, expressed by a natural or animal, and a spiritual man. Those Creatures that have no Soul in them, are called naturals, having nothing but nature within to move them; others which have a Soul, animals, or living Creatures; by both which the unregenerate is signified indifferently, because the Soul which he hath, stands him in little stead, his flesh rules all, and then he is also called a carnal man, for all his Soul, he is but a lump of flesh, and therefore, whether you say he hath a Soul, and so call him an animal, or hath not a Soul, and so call him a mere natural, there is no great difference in it. But now the regenerate man which hath more than a Soul, God's spirit to enliven him, he is of another rank, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a spiritual man, nay, only he properly a Christian, because he lives by Christ, He lives, yet not he, but Christ liveth 〈◊〉 him, Gal. ii.20. This being premised, that now you know what this new Creature is, he that lives and moves by a new principle, all that is behind will be clearliest presented to you by resolving these four questions; first, whence it comes; secondly, where it lodges; thirdly, when it enters; fourthly, what works it performs there.

To the first, whence it comes, the answer is clear and punctual, John iii.3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from above, from whence comes every good, and especially every perfect gift, James i.17. but this most peculiarly by a several and more excellent way than anything else. Since Christ's Ascension, the Holy Ghost of all the persons in the Trinity, is most frequently employed in the work of descending from Heaven, and that by way of mission from the Father and the Son, according to the promise of Christ, John xv.26. The comforter whom I will send from the Father. Now this spirit being present everywhere in its essence, is said to come to us by communication of his gifts, and so to be peculiarly resident in us, as God is in the Church, from which Analogy our Bodies are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us, 1 Cor. vi.19. God sends then his spirit into our hearts ; and this, I said, by a peculiar manner, not by way of emission, as an Arrow sent out of a Bow, which loses its union which it had with the Bow, and is now fastened in the Butt or White; nor properly by way of infusion, as the Soul is in the Body, infused from God; yet so also, that it is in a manner put into our hands, and is so in the man's possession that hath it, that it is neither in any man's else, nor yet by any extraordinary tie annexed to God from whom it came: but by way of irradiation, as a beam sent from the Sun, that is in the air indeed, and that substantially, yet so as it is not separated from the Sun, nay, consists only in this, that it is united to the Sun; so that if it were possible for it to be cut off from the Sun, it would desist to be, it would illuminate no longer. So that you must conceive these beams of God's spirit at the same time in the Christians heart and in the spirit, and so uniting that spirit to the heart, as you may conceive by this proportion. I have a Javelin or Spear in my hand, if I would mischief anything, or drive it from me, I dart it out of my hand at it, from which God's judgments are compared to shooting and lightning, He hath bent his bow, he hath sent forth his arrows, he cast forth lightnings, Psalm xviii.14. But if I like anything that I meet with, if I would have it to me, I reach out my Spear and fasten in it, but still hold the Spear in my hand, and having piercit it, draw it to me. Thus doth God reach forth his graces to us, and as I may so say, by keeping one end in his hand, and fastening the other in us, plucks and unites us to himself; from which, regeneration is ordinarily called an union with Christ, and this union by a strong able band, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Euseb. his phrase, which no man can cut asunder. 'It is impossible to divide or cut a spirit; and this Bond is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a spiritual one; and that made St. Paul so confident, That no creature should ever separate him, Rom. viii.39. And this God does by way of emanation, as a Loadstone sending out its effluvia or magnetick atoms, draws the Iron to itself, which never stays till it be united. Thus do you see from whence this principle comes to me, and in what manner, from God's spirit by this means uniting me to himself.

To the second question, where it lodges, my answer is, in the heart of man, in the whole soul ; not in the understanding, not in the will, (a distinction of faculties invented by Philosophers, to puzzle and perplex Divines, and put them to needless shifts) but, I say, in the whole Soul, ruling and guiding it in all its actions, enabling it to understand and will spiritually; conceived, I say, and born in the Soul, but nursed, and fed, and increased into a perfect stature by the outward Organs and actions of the body, for by them it begins to express and show itself in the World, by them the habit is exerted and made perfect, the Seed shot up into an Ear, the Spring improved to Autumn, when the tongue discourses, the hands act, the feet run the way of God's commandments. So, I say, the Soul is the Mother, and the operations of Soul and Body the Nurse of this Spirit in us; and then, who can hold in his spirit without stifling, from breaking out into that joyful acclamation, Blessed is the womb that bears this incarnate spirit, and the paps that give him suck! Now this inward principle, this grace of regeneration, though it be seated in the whole Soul, as it is an habit, yet as it is an operative habit, producing, or rather enabling the man to produce several gracious works, so it is peculiarly in every part, and accordingly receives divers names, according to several exercises of its power in those several parts. As the Soul of man sees in the Eye, hears in the Ear, understands in the Brain, chooses and desires in the heart, and being but one Soul, yet works in every room, every shop of the Body, in a several trade, as it were, and is accordingly called a seeing, a hearing, a willing or understanding Soul: thus doth the habit of grace seated in the whole, express and evidence itself peculiarly in every act of it, and is called by as several names, as the reasonable Soul hath distinct acts, or objects. In the understanding, 'tis first, spiritual wisdom, and discretion in holy things; opposite to which, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. i.28. an unapproving, as well as unapproved or reprobate mind, and frequently in Scripture, spiritual blindness. Then as a branch of this, it is belief or assent to the truth of the promises, and the like. In the practical judgment, 'tis spiritual prudence, in ordering all our holy knowledge to holy practice: In the will, 'tis a regular choice of whatsoever may prove available to Salvation, a holy love of the end, and embracing of the means with courage and zeal. Lastly, in the outward man, 'tis an ordering of all our actions to a blessed conformity with a sanctified Soul. In brief, 'tis one principle within us, doth everything that is holy, believes, repents, hopes, loves, obeys, and what not? And consequently, is effectually in every part of Body and Soul, sanctifying it to work spiritually, as an holy instrument of a divine invisible cause, that is, the Holy Ghost that is in us and throughout us.

For the third question, when this new principle enters ; first, you are to know, that comes into the heart in a threefold condition; first, as an harbinger ; secondly, as a private secret guest ; thirdly, as an inhabitant, or Housekeeper. As 'tis an harbinger, so it comes to fit and prepare us for itself; trims up, and sweeps, and sweetens the Soul, that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside; and that he doth (as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria) by skirmishing with our corruptions, before he comes to give them a Pitch-Battle; he brandishes a flaming Sword about our Ears, and as by a flash of lightning, gives us a sense of a dismal hideous state; and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury; first, by a momentary remorse, then by a more lasting, yet not purifying flame, the Spirit of bondage. In sum, every check of Conscience, every sigh for sin, every fear of judgment, every desire of grace, every motion or inclination toward spiritual good, be it never so short-winded, is praeludium spiritus, a kind of John the Baptist to Christ, something that God sent before to prepare the ways of the Lord. And thus the spirit comes very often; in every affliction, every disease, (which is part of God's Discipline, to keep us in some order,) in brief, at every Sermon that works upon us at the hearing: then I say, the lightning flashes in our Eyes, we have a glimpse of his spirit, but cannot come to a full sight of it: and thus he appears to many, whom he will never dwell with. Unhappy men, that they cannot lay hold on him, when he comes so near them! and yet somewhat more happy, than they that never came within ken of him; stopped their Ears when he spake to them even at this distance. Every man in the Christian Church, hath frequently in his life, a power to partake of God's ordinary preparing graces: and 'tis some degree of obedience, though no work of regeneration, to make good use of them; and if he, without the Inhabitance of the spirit, cannot make such use as he should, yet to make the best he can: and thus I say, the spirit appears to the unregenerate, almost every day of our lives. 2. When this spirit comes a guest to lodge with us, then is he said to enter; but till by actions and frequent obliging works, he makes himself known to his Neighbors, as long as he keeps his Chamber, till he declare himself to be there, so long he remains a private secret guest: and that's called the introduction of the form, that makes a man to be truly regenerate, when the Seed is sown in his heart, when the habit is infused, and that is done sometimes discernibly, sometimes not discernibly, but seldom, as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness, Acts ix. he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his Change, of his being made a new Creature. Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course, do many times find themselves stricken on a sudden, and are able to date their regeneration, and tell you punctually how old they are in the spirit. Yet because there be many preparations to this spirit, which are not this spirit; many presumptions in our hearts false-grounded, many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it, great affinity between Faith natural and spiritual: seeing 'tis a spirit that thus enters, and not as it did light on the Disciples in a bodily shape, 'tis not an easy matter for any one to define the time of his conversion. Some may guess somewhat nearer than others, as remembering a sensible change in themselves; but in a word, the surest discerning of it, is in its working, not at its entering. I may know, that now I have the spirit, better than at what time I came to it. Undiscernibly God's supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the Mothers Womb, as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Mary's salutation, Luke i.41. and perhaps in Jeremy, Jer. i.5. Before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and in Isaiah, Isa. xlix.5. The Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant. But this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism, when the spirit accompanying the outward sign, infuses itself into their hearts, and there seats and plants itself, and grows up with the reasonable Soul, keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds; and as they come to an use of their reason, to a more and more multiplying this habit of grace into holy spiritual acts of Faith and Obedience: from which 'tis ordinarily said, that Infants baptized have habitual Faith, as they may be also said to have habitual repentance, and the habits of all other graces, because they have the root and seed of those beauteous healthful Flowers, which will actually flourish then, when they come to years. And this, I say, is so frequent to be performed at Baptism, that ordinarily 'tis not wrought without that means, and in those means we may expect it, as our Church doth in our Liturgy, where she presumes at every Baptism that it hath pleased God to regenerate the infant by his holy Spirit. And this may prove a solemn piece of comfort to some, who suspect their state more than they need; and think 'tis impossible that they should be in a regenerate condition, because they have not as yet found any such notable change in themselves, as they see and observe in others. These men may as well be jealous they are not men, because they cannot remember when their Soul came to them: if they can find the effects of spiritual life in themselves, let them call it what they will, a religious Education, or a custom of well doing, or an unacquaintedness with sin; let them comfort themselves in their estate, and be thankful to God who visited them thus betimes; let it never trouble them that they were not once as bad as other men, but rather acknowledge God's mercy, who hath prevented such a change, and by uniting them to him in the Cradle, hath educated, and nursed them up in familiarity with the Spirit.

Lastly, The spirit sometimes enters into our hearts upon occasional emergencies, the sense of God's judgments on ourselves or others, the reflection on his mercies, the reading good books, falling into virtuous acquaintance, but most eminently at, and with the preaching of the Word: and this, by degrees, as it seems to us; but indeed, at someone especial season or other, which yet perhaps we are not able to discern; and here indeed are we ordinarily to expect this guest, if we have not yet found him: here doth it love to be cherished, and refreshed, and warmed within us, if we have it, for even it is the power of God unto salvation, Rom. i.16. The third condition in which this spirit comes into our hearts, is as an inhabitant, or House-Keeper. The spirit, saith Austin, first is in us, then dwells in us: before it dwells, it helps us to believe: when it dwells, it helps, and perfects, and improves our faith, and accomplishes it with all other concomitant graces. So I say here, the Spirit is then said to inhabit, and keep House in us, not as soon as it is entertained and received; but when it breaks forth into acts, and declares itself before all men, When men see our good works, and glorify our Father, Matth. v.16. Before, we were said to live in the spirit, now to walk, as you shall see the phrases used distinctly, Gal. v.25. To walk, that is to go about conspicuously in the sight of all men, breaking forth into works, (as the Sun after the dispersions of a mist or Cloud) whereby all men see and acknowledge his Faith and Obedience, and find their own evil ways reprehended, and made manifest by his good, as is noted in 13. verse, All things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light. Semblable to which is that of the Atheists repining at the godly man, Wisd. ii.14. He is made to reprove our thoughts. Thus is the third Quaere resolved also, when this inward principle enters. 1. It comes as an Harbenger, in every outward restraint by which God keeps us from sinning. 2. It enters as a guest, in some season or other, once for all; In the Womb, at Baptism, at some Sermon, sometimes at a notable tempest, shaking and stirring us violently, ordinarily and for the most part, not to be discerned by us: and lastly, it comes and dwells with us, and shows itself in its works; yet that, not at any set time after his Entrance, not constantly without ever covering his Face, but when and as often as it pleases, and the flesh resisteth not.

To the last Quaere, What works it performs, the answer shall be brief; everything that may be called spiritual, Faith, Repentance, Charity, Hope, Self-denial, and the rest: but these not promiscuously, or in an heap altogether, but by a wise dispensation, in time and by degrees. The Soul being enabled by this inward principle, is equally disposed to the producing of all these, and as occasions do occur, doth actually perform and produce them; so that in my conceit, that question concerning the priority of Repentance, or Faith, is not either of such moment, or difficulty, as is by some Disputers pretended. The Seeds of them both are at one time planted in the Soul: and then, there is no Faith in any Subject, but there is Repentance also; nor Repentance without Faith. So that where it is said, Without Faith 'tis impossible to please God in anything else, 'tis true; but argues no necessary precedence of it before other graces: for the habits of them all are of the same age in us; and then also will it be as true, that without Repentance, or without Love, Faith itself cannot please God : for if it be truly acceptable • aith, there is both Repentance and Love in the same Womb to keep it Company. Thus are we wont to say, that only Faith justifieth, but not Faith alone: and the reason these promises in Scripture are made sometimes to one grace precisely, sometimes to another, is, because they are all at once rooted in the man, and in their habits chained together inseparably. Faith saves every man that hath it; and yet, the believing'st man under Heaven, shall not be saved without Charity. Charity hides a multitude of sins ; and yet the charitablest man in the World, shall never have his score crossit, without Repentance. A Catalogue of these fruits of the spirit you may at your leisure make up to yourselves for your trial, out of the fifth to the Gal. from the 22. verse, and 1 Peter i.5. All these graces together, though some belonging to one, some to another faculty of the Soul, are yet all at once conceived in it, at once begin their life in the heart, though one be perhaps sooner ready to walk abroad, and show itself in the World than another. As in the 2 of Kings iv.34. Elisha went up on the bed and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and eyes upon his eyes, and hands upon his hands, and stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm, and verse 35. the Child sneezed seven times, and opened his eyes. Thus I say, doth the spirit apply itself unto the Soul, and measure itself out to every part of it; and then the spiritual life comes at once into the Soul (as motion beginning in the center, diffuses itself equally through the whole sphere, and affecteth every part of the Circumference) and the flesh of the child waxed warm ; where the flesh indefinitely signifieth every part of it together, and in the spiritual sense the whole Soul; and this is when the inward principle, when the habit enters. Then for acts of life, one perhaps shows itself before another, as the Child first sneezed seven times, a violent disburthening itself of some troublesome humors that tickle in the head; to which may be answerable our spiritual clearing and purging ourselves by Self-denial, the laying aside every weight, Heb. xii.1. then opened his eyes, which in our spiritual Creature, is spiritual illumination, or the eye of Faith ; these I say, may first show themselves as acts, and yet sometimes others before them, yet all alike in the habit, all of one standing, one Conception, one plantation in the heart: though indeed ordinarily, (like Esau and Jacob ) the rougher come out first. We begin our spiritual life in Repentance and contrition, and with many harsh twinges of the spirit; and then comes Faith like Jacob at the Heels, smooth and soft, applying all the cordial promises to our penitent Souls. In brief, if any judgment be to be made, which of these graces is first in the regenerate man, and which rules in chief; I conceive Self-denial and Faith to be there first, and most eminent, according to that notable place, Matth. xvi.24. where Christ seems to set down the order of graces in true Disciples. Let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, that is, forgo all his carnal delights, and embrace all manner of punishments and miseries, prepare himself even to go and be Crucified, and then follow me ; that is, by a lively Faith believe in Christ, and prize him before all the World besides: and indeed in effect these two are but one, though they appear to us in several shapes: for Faith is nothing without Self-denial, it cannot work till our carnal affections be subjected to it. Believe, a man may, and have flesh and fleshly lust in him; but unless Faith have the pre-eminence, Faith is no Faith. The man may be divided betwixt the law of his members, and the law of his mind ; so many degrees of flesh, so many of spirit: but if there be constantly but an even balance, or more of flesh than spirit, if three degrees of spirit, and five of flesh, then can there not be said to be any true Self-denial, and consequently any Faith, no more than that can be said to be hot, which hath more degrees of cold, than heat in it. In brief, 'tis a good measure of Self-denial that sets his Faith in his Throne, and when by it Faith hath conquered, though not without continual resistance, when it hath once got the upper hand, then is the man said to be regenerate; whereupon it is, that the regenerate state is called the life of Faith. Faith is become a principle of the greatest power and activity in the Soul. And so much for these four Queries; from which I conceive everything that is material, and directly pertinent to instruct you, and open the estate of a new Creature, may be resolved. And for other niceties, how far we may prepare ourselves, how cooperate and join issue with the spirit, whether it work irresistibly by way of physical influence, or moral persuasion, whether being once had, it may totally or finally be lost again, and the like; these I say, if they are fit for any, I am resolved are not necessary for a Country Auditory to be instructed in. 'Twill be more for your profit to have your hearts raised, than your brains puffed up; to have your spirits and souls inwardly affected to an earnest desire and longing after it, which will perhaps be somewhat performed, if we proceed to show you the necessity of it, and unavailableness of all things else, and that by way of use and application.

And for the necessity of renewedness of heart, to demonstrate that, I will only crave of you to grant me, that the performance of any one duty towards God is necessary, and then it will prove itself; for it is certain no duty to God can be performed without it. For 'tis not a fair outside, a slight performance, a bare work done, that is accepted by God: if it were, Cain would deserve as much thanks for his Sacrifice as his Brother Abel ; for in the outside of them there was no difference, unless perhaps on Cain 's side, that he was forwardest in the duty, and offered first, Gen. iv.3. But it is the inside of the action, the marrow and bowels of it, that God judges by. If a sum in gross, or a bag sealed up, would pass for payment in God's audit; every man would come and make his accounts duly enough with him: and what he wanted in gold for his payment, should be made up in Counters. But God goes more exactly to work, when he comes to call thee to an account of thy Stewardship: he is a God of thoughts, and a searcher of the hearts and reins, and 'twill then be a harder business to be found just when he examines, or clear when he will judge. The least spot and blemish in the Face of it, the least maim or imperfection in the Offering, the least negligence or coldness in the performance, nay the least corruption in the heart of him that doth it, hath utterly spoiled the Sacrifice. Be the bulk and skin of the work never so large and beautiful to the Eye, if it come not from a sanctified, renewed, gracious heart, it will find no acceptance, but that in the Prophet, Who hath required it at your hands? This is not it that God is taken with, or such as he commanded, it may pass for a complement, or a work of course, but never be valued as a duty or real service. Resolve thyself to dwell nowhere but in the Church, and there (like Simeon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Euseb. ) plant thyself continually in a Pillar, with thy Eyes, and words, fixed, and shot up perpetually towards Heaven. If there be not a spirit within thee, to give light to the Eyes, to add sighs and groans to the Voice, all this that thou hast done is nothing but as a blind man's pretensions to sight, and a dumb man's claim to Speech; and so in like manner in all our duties which the World and carnal men se • a price on. And the reason is, because every spiritual seeming work done by a natural man, is not truly so: 'tis nothing less than that which it is said to be; his Prayers are not Prayers, Lip-labor perhaps, but not devotion; his serving of God is formality, not obedience; his hope of Heaven, not a hope but a fancy. If God, or Satan, a Judge, or a Tempter, should come to reason with him about it, he would soon be worsted, never be able to maintain his title to it.

In brief, the fairest part of a natural man, that which is lest counterfeit, his desire and good affections to spiritual things (which we call favourably natural desires of spiritual obedience, ) these I say, are but false desires, false affections. 1. They have no solidity or permanency in the will, only fluid and transitory, some slight sudden wishes, tempests and storms of a troubled mind, soon blown over: the least temptation will be sure to do it. They are like those wavering Prayers without any stay of Faith, Jam. i.6. like a wave of the Sea driven by the wind and tost. 2. That being which they have, is counterfeit, they are not that which they are taken for. We are wont to say, that acts are distinguished by their objects, he sees truly which judges the thing to be that that it is: 'tis true indeed, that another man sees, he that takes blew for green, but he does not see truly: so also he only willeth a good thing, that wills that in it, which is truly good. Now the natural man, when he is said to choose spiritual things, as Heaven, happiness, and the like, he desires not a spiritual but a carnal thing: in desiring Heaven, he desires somewhat that would free him from misery in happiness, a natural or moral good, that would be acceptable to any Creature under Heaven: and so a Turk will desire Paradise, and that very impatiently, in hope that he shall have his fill of lust there. Generally you may mark, that in such desires of spiritual things, 'tis some carnality that moves unregenerate men; somewhat it is, that may please the flesh; and then, 'tis not the spiritual but the carnal part of it, that is their object which they woo, and make love to: which you may judge of by this, that they are frequent and importunate in their wishes for glory, seldom or never for grace (though that also may be wished for carnally, to make us more renowned and better esteemed in the World.) For the most part, I say, they desire glory, for that will make them happy, and out of danger of Worldly misfortunes; remission of sins, for these lie heavy on their Consciencies, and give them many a twinge that they would fain be eased of: but seldom petition for grace, as if holiness without other conveniencies or gains, were not worth the having. And this arises from hence, that our love of Christ grows by sending out and fastening our affections on him as an object fittest for our turns, that will advantage us most; but not by receiving in, his Image and shape into our Souls: this indeed would make us not only love, but imitate him, and having once tasted, long after him: this would sanctify our Souls, whereas the other doth but only satisfy our greedy affections.

By what hath been said, 'tis plain enough (though it might be much more amplified) that grace is of absolute necessity to performance of any holy work acceptable to God: that without it, whatsoever is done in spiritual matters, is carnal, not indeed spiritual, but equivocally and absurdly so called. The natural man's desires of Heaven, are not desires of Heaven: his Faith, no Faith: his believing of the Scripture, infidelity; because he doth not apply them particularly to himself to obey them. In sum, when he prays, hopes, or gives alms, he does somewhat indeed, and 'tis well done of him: but he doth not truly either pray, or hope, or give alms, there is some carnality in them that hath poisoned them, and quite altered the complexion, the constitution, and inward qualities of the work. And then indeed how impatient should every Christian be of this Coloquintida within him? There's mors in ollâ, as the Prophet once spake, that's Death in the pot, that so infects and kills everything that comes out of it. How should we abhor, and loath, and detest this old leaven that so besowres all our actions; this Heathenism of unregenerate carnal nature, which makes our best works so Unchristian? To insist longer upon this, were but to increase your thirst, not to satisfy it: to make you sensible of that marasmus and desperate drought that hath gone over your Souls, but not to help you to any waters for the cure: that shall come next, as the last work of this exercise to be performed, in a word.

Having learnt what this new creature is, and how absolutely necessary to a Christian ; O let us not defer one minute longer to examine our estates, whether we are yet renewed or no, and by the acts which we daily perform, observe whether the sanctifying habit be as yet infused into our Souls. If the grounds of our best duties, that which moves us in our holiest actions, be found upon search to be but carnal; if a careful religious Education, custom of the place which we live in, fear of human Laws, nay perhaps a good soft tender disposition, and the like, be the things that make thee love God, and perform holy duties, and not any inward principle of sanctity within thee: I counsel thee to think better of thine estate, and consider whether the like motives, had it so happened that thou hadst been born and brought up in Turkey, might not have made thee worship Muhammad. I would be sorry to be rigid; I fear thou wilt find they might: well then, a new course must be taken, all thy former heathen, carnal, or at best good moral life, all thy formal performances, the best of thy natural desires must be content to be rankit here with circumcision and uncircumcision, availing nothing ; there is no trust, or confidence to be placed on these Egyptian staves of reed, Es. xxxvi.6. And then, if thou wilt not live heartless forever, if ever thou meanst to move or walk, or do anything, you must to that Creator of Spirits and Lover of Souls, and never leave soliciting, till he hath breathed another breath into your nostrils, another Soul into your Soul: you must lay yourself at his feet, and with all the violence and Rhetoric, and humility, that these wants will prompt thee too, [and] woo, and importune the Holy spirit to overshadow thee, to conceive all holy graces spiritually in thee: and if thou canst not suddenly receive a gracious answer, that the Holy Ghost will come in unto thee, and lodge with thee this Night; yet learn so much patience from thy Beggarly estate, as not to challenge him at thy own times, but comfortably to wait his leisure. There is employment enough for thee in the while, to prepare the room against his coming, to make use of all his common graces, to cleanse and reform thy foul corruptions, that when the spirit comes, it may find thee swept and garnishit. All the outward means which God hath afforded thee, he commands thee to make use of, and will require it at thy hands in the best measure, even before thou art regenerate ; though thou sin in all thy unregenerate performances, for want of inward sanctity, yet 'tis better to have obeyed imperfectly, than not at all: the first is weakness, the other desperate presumption ; the first, material partial obedience, the second, total disobedience. Yet whilst thou art preparing, give not over praying; they are acts very competible; thou mayest do them both together. Whilst thou art a fortifying these little Kingdoms within thee, send these Ambassadors abroad for help, that thou mayest be capable of it when it comes. But above all things be circumspect, watch and observe the spirit, and be perpetually ready to receive its blasts; let it never have breathed on thee in vain; let thine Ear be forever open to its whisperings: if it should pass by thee either not heard, or not understood, 'twere a loss that all the treasures upon Earth could not repair, and for the most part you know, it comes not in the thunder. Christ seldom speaks so loud nowadays as he did to Saul, Acts ix. 'tis in a soft still voice, and I will not promise you, that men that dwell in a mill, that are perpetually engaged in Worldly loud employments, or that men asleep, shall ever come to hear of it. The sum of all my Exhortation is, after Examination, to cleanse, and pray, and watch; carefully to cleanse thyself, incessant • y to pray, and diligently to watch for the Sun of Righteousness, when he shall begin to dawn, and rise, and shine in thy heart by grace.

Now to him that hath elected us, hath, &c.

SERMON XVI.

THAT we may take our rise luckily, and set out with the best advantage, that we may make our Preface to clear our passage to our future Discourse, and so spend no part of our precious time unprofitably, we will by way of introduction examine what is here meant, 1. By Scoffers, 2. By walking after their own lusts. And first, Scoffers here, do not signify those whom confidence joined to a good natural wit, hath taught to give and play upon every man they meet with, which in a moderate use is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , facetiousness, in an immoderate, scurrility. But Scoffers here, are of a more special stamp, those who deal out their scoffs only on God and Religion. The word in the Original signifies to mock, to abuse, and that either in words, and then 'tis rendered scoffing, or in our actions, when we promise any man to perform a business, and then deceive his expectation, and then 'tis rendered deluding. So Matth. ii.16. when Herod saw he was mocked, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that he was deluded by the magicians. So that in the first primitive sense, Scoffers must signify those who either laugh at God, or else delude him in not performing what he expects, and they by their profession promised. In the secondary notion, to scoff, is by way of argument to oppose any truth contumeliously or bitterly, as Solomon begins his Discourse of the Atheists scoffs, Wisd. ii.1. The ungodly said reasoning with themselves ; and these are said to set their mouth against Heaven, managing disputes, which have both sting and poison in them; the first to wound and overthrow the truth spoken of, the other to infect the Auditors with a contrary opinion. And these rational scoffs, for which Socrates anciently was very famous, are ordinarily in form of question, as in the Psalmist often, Where is now their God? i. e. Certainly if they had a God, he would be seen at time of need, he would now show himself in their distress. In which they do not only laugh at the Israelites, for being such Fools as to worship him that will not relieve them, but implicitly argue, that indeed there is no such God as they pretend to worship. And just in this manner were the Scoffers in my Text, who did not only laugh, but argue, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Verse 4. persuading themselves, and laboring to prove to others, that what is spoken of Christ's second coming to Judgment, was but a mere Dream, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Bugbear, or Fable, to keep men in awe, and therefore laugh at it, as the Athenians did at the resurrection, Acts xvii.32. and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, &c. i. e. disputed sarcastically and contumeliously against it, that certainly there was no such matter. And thus also is the same word used of those which joined their reason and malice to disprove Christ's Omnipotence, Mat. xxvii.42. where they reviled and mocked him, saying, He saved others, himself he cannot save. In which speech the bitterest part of the scoff, was the reason there used, plausible enough amongst ignorant Jews, that surely if he had any power, he would make use of it for himself.

Thirdly, To scoff is sometimes without words or actions to show a contempt or neglect of anybody. So Herod's mocking of Christ, is set as an expression that he did not think him worthy talking with, Luke xxiii.11. He set him at naught, and mocked him, and sent him back to Pilate, he would not vouchsafe to take notice of him, nor to be troubled with the Examination of so poor contemptible a fellow. And so in Aristotle, not to know a man's name, not to have taken so much notice of him, as to remember what to call him, is reckoned the greatest neglect, the unkindest scoff in the World, and is ordinarily taken very tenderly by any one who hath deserved anything at our hands. So that in brief (to gather up what we have hitherto scattered) the Scoffers here meant, are those, who promising themselves to God's service, do delude him when he looks to find them amongst his Servants, i. e. remain errand Atheists under a Christian profession, who by letting loose either their wits to profane jests, or their reason to Heathenish conceits and disputings, or their actions to all manner of disobedience, demonstrate that indeed they care not for God, they scarce remember his name, Neither is he in all their thoughts, Psalm x.4.

In the next place, walking after their own lusts, is giving themselves liberty to follow all the directions of corrupt polluted nature, in entertaining all conceits and practices which the pride of their understandings and rankness of their affections shall propose to them in opposition to God. And this without any reluctancy or twinge of conscience, walking on as securely and confidently, as if it were indeed the right high-way.

So that now you have seen the outside of the Text, and looked it over in the gross, 'tis time to survey it more particularly in its parts; and those are two: 1. The sin of Atheism, and the subjects in which it shows itself, There shall come in the last days Scoffers. 2. The motive and impellent to this sin, a liberty which men give themselves, to walk after their own lusts.

And first, of Atheism, and the subjects in whom it shows itself, In the, &c. Where you may note, that the words being in form of a prophecy, do note a sort of people which were to come in respect of St. Peter, who writes it. And though in its first aspect it refers to the period of the Jewish Nation, and destruction of Jerusalem ; takes in the parallel state of things under the last Age, and dotage, and declination of the Word. Accordingly we see at the 24. of St. Matthew, the Prophecy of both, as it were interwoven and twisted into each other; so that what St. Peter saith shall be, we may justly suspect is fulfilled amongst us, his future being now turned into a present, his prophecy into a story. In the Apostles times, when Christianity was in the Cradle, and wanted years and strength to move, and show itself in the World, there were but very few that would acknowledge it, many Sects of Philosophers, who peremptorily resolved themselves against this profession, joined issue with the Apostles in assiduous disputation, as we may find in the seventeenth of the Acts. Amongst those, the Epicureans did plainly deny that there was any God that governed the World, and laughed at any proof that Moses and the Prophets could afford for their conviction. And here a man might think that his Prophecy was fulfilled in his own days, and that he needed not to look beyond that present Age for store of Scoffers. Yet so it is, that the infidelity which he foresaw should in those last Ages reign confidently in the World, was represented to him in a larger size and uglier shape, than that of the present Philosophers. The Epicurean unbelief seemed nothing to him, being compared to this Christian Atheism, where men under the Vizard of Religion, and profession of Piety, are in heart arrant Heathens, and in their fairest Carriages, do indeed but scoff, and delude, and abuse the very God they worship. Whence the note is, that the profession of Christianity is mixed with an infinite deal of Atheism, and that in some degree above the Heathenism of the perversest Philosophers. There were in St. Peters time Epicureans, and all Sects of Scoffers at Christianity; and yet the Scoffers indeed, the highest degree of Atheism was but yet a heaving; it would not rise and show itself till the last days.

'It is worth observing what variety of stratagems the Devil hath always had, to keep us in defiance with God, and to nourish in us that hostility and enmity against Heaven, which is so deep and predominant in himself. He first set them a work to rebel and fortify themselves against God, and make themselves by building of a Tower, so impregnable, that God himself could not be able to disperse them. Gen. xi.4. Afterwards, when by the punishment and defeating of that design, the World was sufficiently instructed, that no arm of flesh, no bodily strength could make resistance against Heaven; when the body could hold out in rebellion no longer, he then instructs the inward man, the Soul to make its approaches, and challenge Heaven. Now the Soul of man consisting of two faculties, the Understanding and the Will, he first deals with the Understanding, and sets that up against God in many monstrous fashions; first, in deluding it to all manner of Idolatrous worship, in making it adore the Sun, the Moon, and the whole Host of Heaven, which was a more generous kind of Idolatry. Afterwards, in making them worship Dogs and Cats, Onions and Garlic, for so did the Egyptians ; and this was a more sottish stupid affection; a man would wonder how the Devil could make them such Fools. Afterward he wrought still upon their understanding, in making them (under pretence of two laudable qualities, admiration and gratitude, admiration of any kind of virtue, and gratitude for any good turn) to deify and worship as gods, any men which had ever done, either their Nation, or private persons, any important good or favor: So that every Heros or noble, famous man, as soon as he was dead was worshipped. 'Twere long to show you the variety of shifts in this kind, which the Devil used to bring in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Gentiles, i. e. their worshipping of many gods. In brief, this plot lasted thus, till Christianity came into the World, and turned it out of Doors, and at Christ's Resurrection all the gods of the Heathen expired. However, the Devil still stuck close to that faculty of the Soul, which he had been so long acquainted with, I mean the understanding, and seeing through the whole World almost, the Doctrine of Christ had so possessed men, that he could not hope to bring in his Heathen gods again, he therefore hath one design more on the understanding: seeing 'tis resolved to believe Christ in spite of Heathenism; he then puzzles it with many doubts about this very Christ it is so possessed with. He raises up in the first Ages of the Church, variety of Heresies concerning the union of his natures, equality of his person with the Father, and the like: and rung as many changes in men's opinions, as the matter of Faith was capable of. There was no truth almost in Christianity, but had its Heretic to contradict and damn it. Now since at last, reason and truth, and the power of Scripture having out-lived in a good degree, fundamental error in opinion, hath almost expuls'd the Devil out of the head, or upper part of the Soul, the Understanding; his last plot is on the heel, i. e. the Will and Affections ; and that he hath bruised terribly, according to that Prophecy, Gen. iii.15. He deals mainly on our manners, and strives to make them, if it be possible, sinful beyond capability of mercy. And this design hath thrived with him wonderfully: he hath wrought more opposition against God, more heresy against Christ in our lives, than ever he was able to do in our doctrine. In a Kingdom, where the custom of the Country and Education hath planted purity of Faith in the Understanding, he there labors to supplant and eradicate Charity and devotion in the will; and crucifies Christ more confidently in our corrupt Heathenish practices, than ever the Jews did in their incredulity. And on this Plot he hath stuck close, and insisted a long while, it being the last and most dangerous stratagem that the policy of Hell can furnish him with, to corrupt, and curse, and make abominable a sincere belief by an Atheistical conversation. And this doth prove in general, that 'tis the Devils aim, and from thence probably the Christians Curse, to have more hostility against God in our Wills, and so to be more horrible Atheists, than ever the Heathens had in their Understandings. Now that we may the more distinctly discover the Christian Atheist, who is very Orthodox in his opinion, very heretical in his practice; we will observe how every part of his Life, every piece of his Conversation doth directly contradict his Doctrine, and pluck down, and deface the very Fabric of Godliness, expunge those very notions of Piety, which reason and Scripture hath erected in the Soul. And first,

He is in his knowledge sufficiently Catechiz'd in the knowledge of Scripture, and is confident that all its dictates are to be believed, and commands practice'd. But if you look to find this assent confirmed by his practice, and expressed in his carriage, you are much mistaken in the business. Is he such a Fool as to order his life according to the rigor of them? No, no doubt, 'tis not one man's work to believe the Scripture, and obey it. Suppose I should tell you, that there are but a few of you that read Scripture to that purpose, that observe any Edict of Piety or Virtue, only because the Scripture hath commanded it. There be many restraints that keep unregenerate men from sinning, a good disposition, religious education, common custom of the place or times where we live, human laws, and the like; and each or all of these may curb our forwardness, and keep us in some order. But who is there amongst us, that being tempted with a fair, lovely, amiable Vice, which he may commit without any regret of his good nature, scandal to his former Carriages, fear or danger of punishment, either future or present, or any other inconvenience; Who is there, I say, that from the mere awe and respect that he bears to Scripture, retires and calls himself off from that sin which he had otherwise fallen into? If I should see all manner of conveniences to sin in one scale, and the bare authority of the Scriptures in the other, quite out-weighing all them with its heaviness, I should then hope that our hearts were Catechiz'd as well as our brains in the acknowledgment of this truth, that Scripture is to be believed and obeyed. But I much fear me, if I should make an enquiry in everyone of our hearts here single, the greatest part of the Jury would bring in an evidence of guilt, that in any our most entire obediences, some other respect casts the Scales: and this is one piece of direct Atheism, that though our Understandings affirm, yet our Will and Affections deny that Scripture is for its own sake to be obeyed.

Secondly, Our brains are well enough advised in the truth of the Doctrine of God's Essence and Attributes, our Understandings have a distinct conceit of awe and reverence, to answer every notion we have of God; and yet here also our conversation hath its postures of defiance, its scoffs and arts of reviling, as it were to deface and scrape out every of these notions out of our Wills, and to persuade both ourselves and others, that that knowledge doth only flote in our brains, but hath no manner of weight to sink it deep into our hearts. To glance at one or two of these: we believe, or at least pretend we do so, the immensity, i. e. the ubiquity and omnipresence of God, that he indeed is everywhere, to fill, to see, to survey, to punish; and yet our lives do plainly proclaim, that in earnest we mean no such matter; we shut up our hearts against God, and either as the Gadarenes did Christ, being weary of his presence, fairly entreat, or else directly banish him out of our Coasts, because he hath been or is like to be the destruction of some Swine, i. e. bestial affections in us. And in sum, those bodies of ours, which he hath marked out for his Temples, we will scarce allow him for his Inn to lodge with us one night. Again, can we expect to be credited, when we say we believe the ubiquity and omnipresence of God, and yet live and sin as confidently, as if we were out of his sight, or reach? Do we behave ourselves in our out-rages, in our luxury, nay, even in our gravest devotions, as if God were within ken? Without all doubt, in every minute almost of our lives, we demonstrate that we doubt either of his omnipresence to see, or else his justice to punish us: for those very things which we dare not to venture on in the sight of an earthly magistrate that may punish us, nay, of a spy that may complain of us, nay, of an enemy that will upbraid us, nay, of a friend that will check and admonish us; we never doubt, or demur, or delay to practice in private, or the dark, where still God is present to oversee and punish. And if this be not a scoffing, a deluding, a mere contemning of God, to do that without any fear or regret in his sight, which we never offer to attempt before a man, nay, a Friend, I know not what may be counted Atheism. In like manner, we acknowledge God to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all-sufficient ; and if we should be examined in earnest, we would confess that there is no ability in any Creature to bestow or provide any good thing for us: and yet our will here also hath its ways and arguments of contradiction. Our whole life is one continued confutation of this piece of our Faith, our tremblings, our jealousies, our distrusts, our carefulness, our Worldly providence, and importunate carking, our methods and stratagems of thrift and covetousness, and the whole business of our lives in wooing, and soliciting, and importuning every power of nature, every trade and art of the World, to succor, to assist and provide for us, are most egregious evidences that we put no trust or confidence in God's All-sufficiency, but wholly depend and rely upon the arm of flesh, both to raise and sustain us. This very one fashion of ours, in all our distresses, to fly to and call upon all manner of second causes, without any raising or elevating our Eyes or thoughts toward God, from whom cometh our help, plainly shows that God still dwells abroad in Tents: we have seen or heard of him, but have not yet brought him home into our hearts, there to possess, and rectify, and instruct our wills, as well as our understandings.

Thirdly, The whole mystery of Christ articulately set down in our Creed we as punctually believe, and to make good our names, that we are Christians in earnest, we will challenge and defy the Fire and Faggot to persuade us out of it: and these are good resolutions, if our practices did not give our Faith the lie, and utterly renounce at the Church Door whatsoever we professed in our Pews. This very one thing, that he which is our Savior, shall be our Judge, that he which was crucified, dead, and buried, sits now at the right hand of God, and from thence shall come to judge the world ; this main part, yea, sum of our belief, we deny and bandy against, all our lives long. If the story of Christ coming to judgment, set down in the xxv. of Matthew after the 30. Verse, had ever entered through the doors of our Ears to the inward Closets of our hearts, 'tis impossible but we should observe and practice that one single duty there required of us. Christ there as a Judge exacts and calls us to account for nothing in the World, but only works of mercy, and according to the satisfaction which we are able to give him in that one point, he either entertains or repels us; and therefore our care and negligence in this one business, will prove us either Christians or Infidels. But alas! 'tis too plain, that in our actions we never dream either of the Judgment or the Arraignment: our stupid neglect of this one duty, argues us not only unchristian but unnatural. Besides our Alms-deeds, which concern only the outside of our neighbor, and are but a kind of worldly mercy, there are many more important, but cheaper works of mercy, as good counsel, spiritual instructions, holy education of them that are come out of our loins, or are committed to our care, seasonable reproof, according to that excellent place, Lev. xix.17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, but in any wise reprove him: a care of carrying ourselves that we may not scandal, or injure, or offer violence to the Soul and tender Conscience of him that is flexible to follow us into any riot: These and many other works of mercy in the highest degree, as concerning the welfare of other men's Souls, and the chief thing required of us at the day of Judgment, are yet so out-dated in our thoughts, so utterly defaced, and blotted out in the whole course of our lives, that it seems we never expect that Christ in his Majesty as a Judge, whom we apprehend, and embrace, and hug in his humility as a Savior. Beloved, till by some severe hand held over our lives, and particularly by the daily study and exercise of some work of mercy or other, we demonstrate the sincerity of our belief; the Saints on Earth, and Angels in Heaven, will shrewdly suspect, that we do only say over that part of our Creed, that we believe only that which is for our turn, the sufferings and satisfactions of Christ, which cost us nothing, but do not proceed to his office of a Judge, do not either fear his Judgments, or desire to make ourselves capable of his mercies. Briefly, whosoever neglects or takes no notice of this duty of exercising works of mercy, whatsoever he brags of in his theory or speculation, in his heart either denies or contemns Christ as Judge, and so destroys the sum of his Faith; and this is another kind of secret Atheism.

Fourthly, Our Creed leads us on to a belief and acknowledgment of the Holy Ghost ; and 'tis well we have all conn'd his name there, for otherwise I should much fear that it would be said of many nominal Christians, what is reported of the Ephesian Disciples, Acts xix.2. They have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no. But not to suspect so much ignorance in any Christian, we will suppose indeed men to know whatsoever they profess, and inquire only whether our lives second our professions, or whether indeed they are mere Infidels, and Atheistical, in this business concerning the Holy Ghost. How many of the ignorant sort, which have learnt this name in their Catechism or Creed, have not yet any further use to put it to, but only to make up the number of the Trinity, have no special office to appoint for him, no special mercy, or gift, or ability to beg of him in the business of their Salvation, but mention him only for fashion sake, not that they ever think of preparing their Bodies or Souls to be Temples worthy to entertain him, not that they ever look after the earnest of the spirit in their hearts, 2 Cor. i.22. Further yet, how many better learned amongst us, do not yet in our lives acknowledge him in that Epithet annexed to his title, the Holy Ghost, i. e. not only eminently in himself holy, but causally, producing the same quality in us, from thence called the sanctifying and renewing spirit? How do we for the most part fly from, and abandon, and resist, and so violently deny him, when he once appears to us in this Attribute? When he comes to sanctify us, we are not patient of so much sowreness, so much humility, so much non-conformity with the world, as he begins to exact of us; we shake off many blessed motions of the spirit, and keep ourselves within garrison, as far as we can out of his reach, lest at any turn he should meet with, and we should be converted. Lastly, The most ordinary morally qualified tame Christians amongst us, who are not so violent as to profess open arms against this Spirit, how do they yet reject him out of all their thoughts? How seldom do many peaceable orderly men amongst us, ever observe their wants, or importune the assistance of this Spirit? In sum, 'twas a shrewd Speech of the Fathers, which will cast many fair out-sides at the bar for Atheists, That the life of an unregenerate man is but the life of an Heathen, and that 'tis our Regeneration only that raises us up 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from being still mere Gentiles. He that believes in his Creed the Person, nay, understands in the Schools the Attributes and gifts of the Holy Ghost, and yet sees them only in the fountain, neither finds nor seeks for any effects of them in his own Soul; he that is still unregenerate, and continues still gaping and yawning, stupid and senseless in this his condition, is still, for all his Creed and Learning, in effect an Atheist. And the Lord of Heaven give him to see, and endeavors to work, and an heart to pray, and his spirit to draw and force him out of this condition.

Fifthly, Not to cramp in every Article of our Creed into this Discourse, we will only insist on two more. We say therefore that we believe the forgiveness of sins, and 'tis a blessed confidence, that all the treasures in the World cannot equal. But do ourselves keep equipage, and hand in hand accompany this profession? Let me Catechize you a while. You believe the forgiveness of sins, but I hope, not absolutely, that the sufferings of Christ shall effectually clear every man's score at the day of Judgment: well then, it must be meant only of those that by repentance and faith are grafted into Christ, and shall appear at that great Marriage in a wedding garment, which shall be acknowledged the livery and colors of the Lamb. But do our lives ever stand to this explication, and restriction of the Article? Do they ever expect this beloved remission by performing the condition of repentance? Do we ever go about to make ourselves capable of receiving this mercy conditionally offered us? Nay, do we not by our willful stupidity, and pertinacious continuing in sin, nullify, in respect of us, all that satisfaction of Christ, and utterly abandon those means which must bring home this remission to us? The truth is, our Faith runs only on general terms, we are willing to lay all our sins on Christ's shoulders, and persuade ourselves somewhat slightly and coldly, that he will bear them in the root, and in the fruit, in the bullion, and in the coin, in the gross, and in the retail, i. e. both our original and our actual transgressions: but we never take any course to rest satisfied, that we in particular shall participate of this happiness. This requires the humiliation of the whole man, the spirit of bondage for a while, afterwards a second purity and virginity of the Soul recovered by repentance, and then a soberly grounded faith and confidence, and an expressing of it by our own forgiving of others. And till this piece of our Creed be thus explained and interpreted in our conversation, we remain but confident Atheists, not able to persuade anybody that hears us, that indeed we believe what we profess.

Sixthly and lastly, The resurrection of the body, and its consequent, everlasting life, is the close of our Faith, and end, and prop, and encouragement, and consummation of our hope; and yet we take most pains of all, to prove ourselves Infidels in this: our whole carriage, both in the choice and observance of our Religion, show that we do not depend on it, that we put no confidence in the Resurrection. If we went on this assurance, we should contemn any worldly encouragement, and make the same thing both the object and end of our service. We should scorn to take notice of so poor a thing as profit or convenience is, in a matter of so high importance, knowing and expecting that our reward shall be great in Heaven. This one thought of a Resurrection, and an infinite reward of any faithful undertaking of ours, would make us disdain, and almost be afraid of any temporal recompense for our worship of God, for fear it should, by paying us beforehand, deprive us of that everlasting one. We should catch and be ambitious of that expression of devotion, which were most painful and least profitable as to worldly advantage: and yet we in the stupidity of Atheistical hearts, are so improvidently covetous, so hasty and impatient in our Religion, that unless some present gain allure and draw us, we have no manner of life, or spirit, or alacrity to this, as we count it, unprofitable service of God. The least incumbrance in the world will fright us from the greatest forwardness, and nimbleness, and activity in Religion: and the least appearance of promotion, or other like encouragement, will produce and raise in us these affections and expressions of zeal, which the expectation of the resurrection could never work in us. Our religion is somewhat like that of the Samaritans ; before Christ's time, either Jews or Heathens, according as their King Antiochus would have them; after Christ's time, were perpetually either Jews or Christians, according as the Romans, their new Lord's and Masters either threatened, or granted privilege ▪ to the Jews. If there were anything to be gotten by the profession, they would be as solemn Christians as any. So when the Goths and Vandals over-run Italy, and (whether upon good affection or compulsion from God, I know not) spared them that fled to the Basilica in Rome, the place where the Christians exercised: then, I say, they which formerly persecuted the Christians, now bore them Company very friendly to their Churches, and to save their lives fled to the Temple for a refuge, which before they abomin'd; and made use of Christianity for their safe-guard, which they would not own for their religion, and hurried to that Sanctuary for their lives, which they would not visit for their Souls. The condition of our Religion is like that which is upbraided to Ephraim, Hos. x.11. Ephraim is like an Heifer that loveth to tread out the Corn. 'Twas prohibited by the Law to muzzle the Ox or Heifer that treadeth out the Corn ; 'twas allowed them to feed as long as they did the work; and that made Ephraim love the toil so well, because that at the very time he performed the labor, he enjoyed the fruit of it; had, as we say, his wages in his hand; had some present emolument that would ingratiate his work to him; was not left to such a tedious expectation, to so long a date as to wait for his reward till the Resurrection: those were too hard terms for him, he could not endure to be tied so long up to the empty rack, or feed upon the bit. And thus hasty are we in the exacting of our reward for our service of God: we will never set our hands to it, unless we may make our conditions: we are resolved not to be such Fools, as to serve God for naught, to spend the quickest of our spirits in a sour crabbed profession, and expect our thanks at Dooms-day. This plainly demonstrates, that however our theory be possessed, our practice places no trust, no confidence, no assurance in that part of our Creed, the resurrection. Again, 'twas an excellent argument to persuade doubtful Christians in the youth and non-age of the Church, of the certainty of the Resurrection, that religious men, and those whom undoubtedly God loved, were full of sufferings in this World, and lived and died many of them without any expression of God's favor to them, which made them certainly to conclude, that no doubt God hath some other course to exhibit himself in the riches of his mercy to them; and seeing there was no hope but in another World, Verily there should be a reward for the righteous, doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth: and by this argument we may try ourselves for the sincerity of our Faith in this business. If we can be patient to endure afflictions here, and not complain or grumble for a respite and deliverance, but keep all our hopes to be accomplishit, defer all our happiness to be performed to us at the Resurrection, and though God kill us, yet trust in him, and be able to see through Death, in a trust That our Redeemer lives, and that with these eyes we shall behold him ; then may we cheer up, and persuade ourselves on good grounds, that our hearts and lives do assent to the Resurrection, which our tongues brag of; Take no heaviness to heart, but drive it away and remember the end. But if this consideration cannot digest the least oppression of this life, cannot give us patience for the lightest encumbrance, but for all our Creed, we still fly out into all outrages of passion and ecstacies of impatience, we plainly betray ourselves men of this present World, whose happiness or misery is only that which is temporary, and before our Eyes, are not able by the perspective of faith to behold that which easily we might, all our wants relieved, all our injuries revenged, all our wounds bound up, in the day of the Resurrection: but all our life long we repine and grumble, and are discontented as men without hope ; and whilst we do thus, what do we but act the part of these Atheists here in my Text, scoffing and saying, Where is the promise • f his coming, in the next Verse to my Text. This very impatience and want of skill in bearing the brunts of this our warfare, is but a piece of cowardly Atheism, either a denying or mocking at the Resurrection. Every sigh is a scoff, every groan a gibe, every fear a sly art of laughing at the stupidity of those who depend upon the fulfilling of the promise of his coming. Lastly, say we what we will, we live as if there were no Resurrection, as Sadducees, if not as Atheists ; all our designs look no further than this life, all our contrivances are defeated and frustrate in the Grave; we manage ourselves with so little understanding, that any Spectator would judge by our actions, that 'tis no injury to compare us to the beasts that perish and never return again. Certainly if we had any design upon Heaven or another life, we would here make some provision for it, Make ourselves friends of our unrighteous Mammon, that when we fail, they may receive us into everlasting habitations, i. e. use those good things that God hath given us, with some kind of providence, that they may stand us instead when we have need of them, i. e. not only as instruments to sin (for that is to get us more Enemies) but as harbingers to be sent before us to Heaven. 'Twas a bitter sarcasm of the fool to the Abbot on his Death-Bed, that the Abbot deserved his staff, as being the verier Fool of the two, that being straight to die, to remove his Tent to another World, he had sent none of his household-stuff before him. The truth is, we live generally as men that would be very angry, much displeased if any should persuade us there were a Resurrection, the very mentioning of it to us, might seem to upbraid our ordinary practices, which have nothing but the darkness of death, and silence of the Grave to countenance them. I may justly say, that many ignorant Heathens, which were confident there was nothing beyond this life, expected certainly with death to be annihilated, and turn again into a perpetual nothing; yet either for the awe they bore to virtue, or fear of disgrace after death, kept themselves more regularly, lived more carefully, than many of us Christians. And this is an horrid accusation, that will lie very heavy upon us, that against so many illuminated understandings, the ignorance of the Gentiles should rise up in judgment, and the learned Christian be found the most desperate Atheist. I have been too large upon so rigid a Doctrine as this, and I love, and pray God I may always have occasion to come up to this place upon a more merciful subject: but I told you even now out of Lev. xix.17. that 'twas no small work of mercy, 'twas the most friendly office that could be performed any man, to reprehend, and, as the Text saith, Not to suffer sin upon thy neighbor, especially so sly a covert lurking sin as this of Atheism, which few can discern in themselves. I shall now come to Application, which, because the whole Doctrine spoke morally to your affections, and so in a manner prevented Uses, shall be only a recapitulation and brief knitting up of what hitherto hath been scattered at large.

Seeing that the Devils policy of deluding, and bewitching, and distorting our Understandings, either with variety of false gods, or Heresies raised upon the true, is now almost clearly out-dated, and his skill is all bent to the deforming of the Will, and defacing the character of God, and the expression of the sincerity of our Faith in our lives; we must deal with this Enemy at his own Weapon, learn to order our munition according to the assault, and fortify that part most impregnably, toward which the tempest binds and threatens. There is not now so much danger to be feared from the inroad of Heretics in opinion, as in practice, not so much Atheism to be dreaded from the infidelity of our brains, as the Heathenism and Gentilism of our Lusts, which even in the midst of a Christian profession, deny God even to his Face. And therefore our chiefest Frontiers and Fortifications must be set up before that part of the Soul, our most careful Watch and Sentinel placed upon our affections, lest the Devil enter there and depopulate the whole Christian, and plant the Atheist in his room. To this purpose we must examine, what Seeds are already sown, what treachery is a working within; and no doubt, most of us at the first cast of the Eye shall find great store, unless we be partial to ourselves, and bring in a verdict of mercy, and construe that weakness, which indeed signifies Atheism.

When upon examination we find our lives undermining our belief, our practices denying the authority of Scripture, and no whit forwarder to any Christian duty upon its commands: When we find God's Essence and Attributes reviled and scoffed at in our conversation, his omnipresence contemned by our confidence in sinning, and argued against by our banishing God out of all our thoughts, his all-sufficiency doubted of by our distrusts, and our scorn to depend upon it: When we perceive that our carriages do fall off at this part of our belief in Christ, that he shall come again to be our Judge, and by our neglect of those works especially of mercy, which he shall then require of us, show that indeed we expect him not, or think of him as a Judge, but only as a Savior: When we observe our Wills resisting the gifts, and falsifying the Attribute, whilst our Creed confesses the Person of the Holy Ghost ; and see how little, how nothing of the sanctifying spirit, of the earnest of our Regeneration, is in our hearts, and we still stupidly senseless of the want: When we believe forgiveness of sins, and that only upon condition of repentance, and yet abhor so much as to hear or think of the performing of it, or to make good that mercy to others which ourselves challenge of God: Lastly, When we prove to ourselves, and all the World beside, by our requiring of a present reward for all our goodness, and ruling our Religion to our Earthly profit, by our impatience of any affliction, by our Heathenish neglect, and stupidity, and riot, that we do not in earnest look for the Resurrection to Life: When, I say, by a just, but exact survey and inquest we find these so many degrees of secret Atheism in us; then must we shrift, and purge, and cleanse, and rinse our Souls from these dregs of Heathenism; then must we humble ourselves below the dust, and not dare to look the veriest Gentile in the Face, 'till we have removed this plague from us.

Now to him that hath elected us, hath, &c.

SERMON XVII.

IT is an excellent observation of Aristotle's, that rich men are naturally most contumelious, most given to abuse and deride others, which he expresses thus, in the seventh of his Pol. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The contentment which they enjoy in the continuance of their worldly happiness, the perpetual rest, and quiet, and tranquility, which their plenty bestows on them, makes them contemn and despise the estate of any other man in the World. Upon this conceit, saith the same Aristotle, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ,) that their happiness is elevated infinitely above the ordinary pitch; that whatever contentments any other sort of people can glory or delight in, is but some imaginary, slight, poor happiness that men are fain to solace themselves withal, to keep them from melancholy, all far enough below the size of their felicity, which all agreeable circumstances have conspired to make exactly complete. Hence is it, that you shall ordinarily observe the rich man, in this confidence of his opinion, that no man is happy but himself, either contemn or pity the poverty, and improvidence, and perhaps the sottishness of such Spirits, that can rejoice or boast in the possession of Wisdom, knowledge, nay even of God's graces ; no object is more ridiculous in his Eye, than either a Scholar, or a Christian, that knows not the value of riches: for saith Aristotle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Money is reckoned the price of all things else, that which can easily purchase whatever else we can stand in need of; and therefore the rich man, if he could think Learning and Religion worth anything, having his money by him, (which is in effect everything,) thinks he can call for them when he pleases. In the mean, he hath more wit than to forsake his pleasures, and go to School to the Stoic, to divest himself of his Robes, and put on the sowreness, the rigid, sad behavior which the profession of Wisdom or Christianity requires. He is better pleased in his present pomp, than to go and woo that misery and ruggedness, which the severity of Discipline looks for. Let silly beggars boast of the contents of Wisdom, or hopes of Heaven, at mihi plaudo domi, his Coffers at home are better Companions than all the melancholy of Books, or sullen solaces of the spirit. He hath learnt by experience, that he ought to pity and contemn these fictions of delight which the Poets fetch from the fortunate Islands, to delude, and cozen, and comfort Beggars: his glory, and pride, and riches, are happiness indeed, and whatever else the poverty of the World can boast of, are objects not of his envy but his scorn.

What we have hitherto noted to you concerning the rich man, is appliable on the same grounds to any sort of people which have fixed upon any worldly content, and resolved upon someone object, beside which they will never value or prize anything. Thus the Epicure or voluptuous man, who hath set up his Idol Lust, to whom he owes all his Sacrifice, and from whom he expects all his good Fortune, that hath fixed his Pillars, and cast his Anchor, and is peremptorily constant in his course, that he is resolved forever to walk in: This man I say, being possessed with an opinion of the happiness which he is placed in, like the Sun in his pride, rejoices to run his course, and scorns any contrary motion that he meets or hears of; and only observes the ways of virtue, and Religion, to hate and laugh at them: and the farther he walks, the deeper he is engaged in this humor of self-content, and contempt of others, of security, and scoffing. For this is the force and implicit argument, covertly contained in the close of these words, There shall come in the last days, scoffers, &c. i. e. this resolution to walk on in their own Lusts, hath brought them to this pitch of Atheism, to scoff and deride both God and goodness. There shall, &c.

We have heretofore divided these words, and in them observed and handled already the sin of Atheism, together with the subjects in which it works, Christians of the last times, noted from this prophetic Speech, There shall come in the last days Scoffers. We now come to the second particular, the motive, or impellent to this sin, a liberty which men give themselves, and a content which they take, to walk after their own lusts.

The second Chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon, is an excellent description of the Atheist: and though it be of Apocryphal authority, yet 'tis of most divine Canonical truth. I could find in my heart, nay I can scarce hold from reading, and paraphrasing the whole Chapter to you: 'tis so solid, so strong, so perfect a Discourse upon this theme, it contains so many strains of Atheistical reason in opposition to godliness, and the root, and growth, and maturity of this tree of knowledge, and death; that the clear understanding of that one place, might suffice without any enlargement of proofs or expressions. But for brevity sake, and on promise that you will at your leisure survey it, I will omit to insist on it: only in the end of the 21 Verse, after all the expressions of their Atheistical counsels, you have the reason, or motive, or first worker of all, For their own wickedness hath blinded them ; their stupid perseverance in those dark ways, in that black Tophet on Earth, habituate custom of sinning, had so thickened their sight, had drawn such a film over their Eyes, that in the judgment of divine affairs, they were stark blind: they could see nothing in all the mystery of godliness which was worth embracing; and therefore had no employment, but to walk on after their own Lusts, and to scoff at those that were so foolishly friendly to them, as to call them out of their way: they were well enough acquainted with their own paths, they could walk them blindfold, and therefore had more wit than forsake the road for a nearer by-way. The issue of all is this, that a voluptuous course of life is a great promoter and advancer of Atheism: there had never been so many Scoffers in the World, had there not been also those that were resolute to walk after their own Lusts.

In the first Verse of the Psalms, there be steps, and rounds, and gradations of a Sinner specified, 1. Walking in the counsel of the ungodly, 2. Standing in the way of sinners, 3. Sitting in the seat of the scorner: The two first being degrees in his motion, several stages of his Journey to this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or top pitch of sinning in the last. Walking in the counsel of the ungodly, is the first entrance to his course: and he that hath such a rise as this, hath a great advantage of all other Sinners; he will perform his race with speed, and come suddenly to his goal. This deliberate walking in the ways, and with the Companions and contrivers of ungodliness, this partaking and prosecuting of the counsels, the enjoying this familiarity with sin, proves a strong engagement to continue and persevere, and delight in its acquaintance. Yet because walking is a laborious motion, and will tire the Sinner in time, he is fain to betake himself to an easier posture, and that is standing in the way of sinners, continuing in a still, sober, quiet, stupid tranquility of sinning, standing like a Mercury 's Post in the midst of a rode, never removed or stirred an inch, though never so justled by the Passengers. Let all the contrary virtues never so thwart and cross him, he hath fixed his station, and neither force, nor allurements shall make him move. Yet because standing also is a painful posture, with which the valiantest Legs will at last be numbed, if not tired, he hath in the last place his Chair of ease and state, and here he sets up his rest, here he sins with as much Majesty as delight. 1. In cathedrâ, as a seat of greatness, lording it, and sinning imperiously, commanding every Spectator to follow his example of scoffing at God and goodness. 2. In cathedrâ, as a seat of authority, sinning doctorally, and magisterially, by his practice defining the lawfulness of these scoffs, even setting up a School of Atheism. And thirdly in cathedrâ, as a seat of rest, and ease, and pleasure, which he is resolved never to rise out of, which he hath reposed himself in, that he may laugh at ease, and without any pains or trouble, or charges, blaspheme God forever. And for the most part indeed he proves as bad as his resolution, having once given himself this license of laughing at and deriding Religion, he seldom ever recovers himself to a sober countenance, like men whose custom of scoffing hath made wry-mouthed, he lives and continues, and for the most part, dies scoffing. He comes as it were laughing into Hell, and seldom forsakes this habit of profaneness, till horror hath put smiling out of date. There is not a sin in the World, that sits closer to him which hath once entertained it; and he that is once a merry Atheist, seldom, if ever proves a sad sober Christian. He is seated in his Chair of scorning, and contemns the mercy of that spirit, that should take him out of it. Thus you see, that walking in the steps, and standing in the way, i. e. following the commands of their own lusts, they are soon arrived to the pitch of Atheists, to the chair of scorners ; and then, there is but little preferment more that they are capable of, unless they will strive with Lucifer for preeminence in Hell, or else challenge Rabshakeh to rayl, or Julian to blaspheme. But this is the highest degree of Scoffers, and I hope the Devil hath but few such valiant, bold, forward Champions in the World, since Julian or Lucian 's time. And therefore I hope I have pricked no man's Conscience here, whilst I have spoke of them: but I have formerly proved, that there be some lower, tamer, secret degrees of Atheism, which every man may chance to spy in some angle or corner of his Soul, some implicit artificial ways of scoffing, or abasing God, which most of us are guilty of: and 'twill be worthy our pains to show how these seeds are warmed, and cherished, and animated by a licentious life. Hippocrates observes of the Scythians, that they do not swathe themselves, nor bind in their Loins with any kind of girdle, but go with their bodies very loose, that they may ride the easier, which is the only exercise they use: and from hence, saith he, they grow so corpulent and fleshy, so broad and bulky, that they are both ugly and unwieldy, an Eye-sore to others, and cumbersome to themselves: those accessions which in other people extend themselves proportionably in length, and breadth, in height, as well as bulk, in them grow all into thickness: so that you shall see a Pygmy in stature, as big as a Giant in the girt. Thus is it with those whose affections are not ruled, and restrained in order, and within limits, are not swathed and kept in, have not some set terms of temperance, and other virtues, beyond which they suffer not themselves to fly out. If, I say, these affections within us, be by the owners left ungirt, to their own freedom; they will never grow upward toward Heaven: they will still be dwarfish, of small growth in Religion: but yet like those Scythians, they will run into a strange bulk and corpulence, into some unwieldy mis-shapen forms of Atheism, or the like. Certainly they will grow into a greater breadth than the reasonable Soul will be able to manage: unless the spirit vouchsafe to come down and contract, and call it into bounds, it will increase beyond all proportion, beyond all acknowledgment of God or Religion. We are used to say in nature, that all moist things are apt to be contained in other terms, but hardly in their own: the water is easily cooped up in a Glass or Bucket, where there are boundaries to keep it in; but being let loose on a table or a floor, it flies about, and never stays again, till it meet with some Ocean, or hollow place which may inclose, and bestow the consistency on it, which it has not of itself. Thus may you see a River whilst it is kept within the Chanel, go on in its stream and course very soberly and orderly; but when it hath over-swelled the Banks which before kept it in, then doth it run about the pastures, scorns to be kept within any compass. Thus is it with the soul of man; if it be ordered within terms and bounds, if it have a strict hand held over it, if it be curbed and brought to its postures, if it have reason and grace, and a careful Tutor to order it, you shall find it as tame a Creature as you need deal with: it will never straggle or stray beyond the confines which the spirit hath set it; the reason is, because though it be in itself fluid, and moist, and ready to run about like water, yet Deus firmavit Aquas, God hath made a Firmament betwixt the waters, as he did Gen. i.7. i. e. he hath established it, and given it a consistency, that it should not flow or pour itself out beyond its place. But if this Soul of man be left to its own nature, to its own fluid, wild, incontinent condition, it presently runs out into an Ocean, never stays, or considers, or consults, but rushes head-long into all inordinacy, having neither the reins of reason nor God to keep it in, it never thinks of either of them, and unless by chance, or by God's mercy, it fall into their hands, 'tis likely to run riot forever. Being once let loose, it ranges, as if there were neither power on Earth to quell, nor in Heaven to punish it. Thus do you see how fluid, how inconstant the Soul is of its own accord, how prone it is, how naturally inclined, to run over like a stream over the Banks, and if it be not swathed, and kept in, if it be left to the licentious condition of itself, how ready is it to contemn both reason and God, and run head-long into Atheism. Nay we need not speak so mercifully of it, this very licentiousness is the actual renouncing of Religion, this very walking after their own lusts, is not only a motive to this sin of scoffing, but the very sin itself.

A false Conception in the Womb, is only a rude, confused, ugly Chaos, a mere lump of flesh, of no kind of figure or resemblance, gives only disappointment, danger, and torment to the Mother. 'It is the soul at its entrance which defines, and trims, and polishes into a body, that gives it Eyes, and Ears, and Legs, and Hands, which before it had not distinctly and severally, but only rudely altogether with that mass or lump. Thus is it with the Man, till Religion hath entered into him as a Soul to inform, and fashion him; as long as he lives thus at large, having no terms, or bounds, or limits to his actions, having no form, or figure, or certain motion defined him, he is a Mola, a mere lump of man, an arrant Atheist: you cannot discern any features or lineaments of a Christian in him; he hath neither Eyes to see, nor Ears to hear, nor hands to practice any duty that belongs to his peace. Only 'tis Religion must take him up, must smooth and dress him over, and according to its Etymon, must religare, swathe and bind up this loose piece of flesh, must animate and inform him, must reduce him to some set form of Christianity, or else he is likely after a long and fruitless travel to appear a deformed monstrous Atheist. But not to deal any longer upon simile's, lest we seem to confound and perplex a truth by explaining it, I told you the licentious voluptuous life was itself perfect Heathenism. For can you imagine a man to be any but a Gentile, who hath abandoned all love, all awe, all fear, all care of God (any one of which would much contract and draw him into compass) who hath utterly put off every garb of a Christian, who hath enjoyed the reins so long, that now he is not sensible, or at least contemns the curb or snaffle if he be but checkit with it, gets it in his teeth and runs away with it more fiercely. The Heathen are noted not so much that they worshipped no God at all, but that they worshipped so many, and none of them the true. Every great friend they had, every delight and pleasure, everything that was worth praying for, straight proved their God, and had its special Temple erected for its Worship. So that do but imagine one of them every day worshipping every God whom he acknowledged, in its several Oratory, spending his whole life, and that too little too, in running from one Temple to another, and you have described our licentious man posting on perpetually to his sensual devotions, worshipping, adoring, and sacrificing every minute of his life, to some Idol-vanity, and bestowing as much pains and charges in his profane heathenish pleasures, as ever the Gentiles did on their false gods, or the most supererogating Papist on their true.

We are wont to say in Divinity, and that without an Hyperbole, that every commission of sin is a kind of Idolatry, an incurvation, and bending down of the Soul to some Creature, which should always be erect looking up to Heaven, from whence it was infused, like water naturally inclined to climb and ascend, as high as the Fountain, or Head from whence it sprang. And then certainly a licentious life is a perpetual Idolatry, a supineness, and proneness, and incurvation of the Soul to somewhat that deserves to be called an Idol, i. e. either in St. Paul's acceptation of it, nothing (an Idol is nothing, 1 Cor. viii.4. ) or else in the most honorable signification, only an Image, or some rude likeness or representation of God. We are the Image of God ourselves, and whatsoever is below us, is but an imperfect draught of him, containing some lineaments, some confused resemblances of his power which created them, have no being of their own, but only as shadows which the light doth cast. And therefore every love, every bow, every cringe which we make to any Creature, is the wooing and worshipping of an Image at best, in plain terms of an Idol, nothing. What degree then of Idolatry have they attained to, who every minute of their lives bow down and worship, make it their trade and calling forever to be a soliciting some pleasure or other? Some exquisite piece of sensuality to bless and make them happy, which have no other shrines to set up, but only to their own lust, to which they do so crouch, and creep, and crawl, that they are never able to stand up right again: like those Trees which the Papists talk of, which by bowing to our Ladies House, when in walks by the Wood toward Loretto, have ever since stood stooping. Thus do you see how the latter part of my Text hath overtook the former: the walking after his own lusts, becomes a scoffer, the licentious man proceeded Atheist, and that with ease, his very voluptuous life is a kind of Atheism; and the reasons of this are obvious, you need not seek or search far for them.

For first, this walking in their own lusts, notes an habit gathered out of many acts: he hath walked there a long while, and therefore now hath the skill of it, walks on confidently, and carelessly, without any rub or thought of stopping. And contrary to this, the Worship of God, of which Atheism is a privation, is an holy, religious habit of Piety and Obedience. Now we know, two contrary habits cannot consist or be together in the same subject. An habit, and its opposite, privation, are incompetible ; light, and darkness at the same time, though they may seem to meet sometimes, as in twilight: but for two opposite positive habits, never any man's conceit was so bold or phantastical as to join them: you cannot imagine one, but you must remove the other. You may suppose a man distempered or weak, which is a privation of health, and yet suppose him pretty healthy, as long as his natural strength is able to overcome it; but can you suppose a man in a violent fever actually upon him, and yet still imagine him in perfect health? Thus is it with a Sinner, who hath given himself over to the tyranny, and impotency of his lusts, he hath utterly put off all degrees, all sparks of any habit of Religion, according to that of our Savior, You cannot serve God and Mammon, where Mammon signifying in a vast extent, the god of this World, imports all lusts, all earthly vanities, which any habituate Sinner deifies.

Secondly, Every habit notes a delight, an acquiescence, and joy in enjoying of that, which through many actions, perhaps some brunts and rubs, he hath at last arrived to. Now this delight and contentation, that it may be complete, is impatient of any other incumbrance, which at any time may come in, to interrupt or disorder it. If anything so happen, 'tis never quiet, till it have removed it. The Scholar that hath all his life labored, and at last attained to some habit of knowledge, and then resolves to enjoy the happiness and fruits of learning, in the quiet and rest of a perpetual contemplation, is impatient if any piece of ignorance cross or thwart him in his walk, he'l to his Books again, and never rest till he hath overcome and turned it out. Thus doth the sensual man, being come to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and pitch, and entered into the Paradise of his worldly joys, if he do but meet with any jar, if he feel any pluck or twinge from his Conscience, any grudge or compunction of the spirit within him, any spark or heat, or warmth of re • igious fear in his breast, he'l never rest till he hath abandoned it, he is impatient of such a qualm of godliness, he must needs put it over, he is sick at heart till he hath disgorged himself of this choler, and then returns securely godless to his walk, having banished God out of all his thoughts. Thus shall you see the Atheist on his humor, for want of some compunction at home, grumble at every godly man or action which they saw in the street. In the second of Wisdom at the 14. He is grievous unto us to behold, he was made to reprove our thoughts ; and they do not return to their content, they are not pleased again, till they have gotten him into their inquisition, to examine him with despightfulness and torture, ver. 19. Thus do they abhor and stifle, and strangle every godly action in others, or motion in themselves; because the holiness of the one, is an Exprobration to their profaneness, and the other was a pang of Conscience, made as it were on purpose by God to reprove their thoughts.

Thirdly, This walking in the Text, though it be with some motion, yet it is a slow one, a kind of walking in ones sleep, or that of a Melancholy Man, that can walk till he be wet through, and not mark that it rained. I say, it notes here an heavy, drowsy, unactive habit, expressed by the Psalmist, by sitting in a chair, as we shown you: it notes a kind of churlish resoluteness, to walk on what ever come in his way; he is grown even a passive to his lusts, he doth not so much act as suffer them, he walks on snorting in his rode, do what you can, you shall neither turn nor wake him. Now this slow, drowsy, unactive habit, begets a kind of numness in him, a sluggish, sullen stupidity over all his faculties, that even a spur or goad cannot rouse him; all the pores as it were and passages, and entries to the Soul are so stopped, and bung'd up; all his affections are grown so gross and brawny, so hardened and incrassate, that no air or breath from Heaven can pierce it. He that tells him of Religion, or God, or Virtue, is as he that waketh one from a sound sleep: he that telleth such a Fool a tale of Wisdom, speaketh to one in a slumber, and when he hath told his tale, he will say, What is the matter? Ecclus. xxii.8. Thus do you see, 1. The repugnance and inconsistence of a voluptuous life, and Religion. 2. The delight. 3. The stupidity of this habit. Each of which have made a place for the Libertine, and set him in the Chair of the scorner. And all this while methinks I have but talked to your Ears: Now that your hearts and affections may partake of the sound, that the softer waxy part of you, may receive some impression from this Discourse, let us close all with an Application.

And first, from the guilt and dangerous condition of a licentious life, to labor by all means possible to keep out of it. He that is once engaged in it, goes on with a great deal of content, and in the midst of his pleasures on the one side, and carnal security on the other, his Understanding, and Will, and Senses are lulled into a Lethargy ; nay, the very fancy in him is asleep, which in other sleeps, is most active: he never imagines, never dreams of any fear, or danger, either God, or Devil. O what a lamentable woeful estate is it, to be thus sick beyond a sense of our Disease, to be so near a spiritual death, and not so much as feel our weakness! Oh what an horrid thing it were, to pass away in such a sleep, and never observe ourselves near death, till Satan hath arrested beyond bail; to sleep on and snort, as men without dread or danger, till the torments of Hell should awake us! You cannot imagine how easy a thing it is, for an habituate Sinner to fall into the Devils paws, before he thinks of it; as a melancholy man walking in the dark, may be drowned in a Pit, and no man hear him complain that he is fallen.