Works Volume 4

SERMON XVIII.

THE chief business of our Apostle S. Paul in all his Epistles is, what the main of every Preacher ought to be, Exhortation. There is not one doctrinal point, but contains a precept to our understanding to believe it; nor moral Discourse, but effectually implies an admonishment to our Wills to practice it. Now these Exhortations are proposed either vulgarly in the downright garb of Precept, as, These things command and teach, &c. or in a more artificial, obscure, enforcing way of Rhetoric, as, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ, whereby the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world ; which though in words it seems a protestation of St. Paul's own resolution, yet in effect is a most powerful exhortatory to every succeeding Christian, to glory only in the Cross of Christ, and on it to crucify both the World and himself. This method of reducing S. Paul to Exhortation, I observe to you for the clearing of my Text. For this whole Verse at the first view seems only a mere Thesis or point of belief, that Christ came into the World to save Sinners, illustrated and applied by the Speaker as one, and the chief of the number of those Sinners to be saved. But it contains a most Rhetorical powerful Exhortation to both Understanding and Will ; to believe this faithful saying, That Christ came, &c. and to accept, lay hold of, and with all our might to embrace and apply to each of ourselves this great mercy, toward this great Salvation bestowed on Sinners, who can with humility confess their sins, and with Faith lay hold on the promise. And this is the business of the Verse, and the plain matter of this obscure double Exhortation, to every man's Understanding, that he believe that Christ, &c. to every man's affections, that he humble himself, and teach his heart, and that, his tongue to confess, Of all Sinners, &c. This Text shall not be divided into parts (which were to disorder and distract the significancy of a proposition) but into several considerations; for so it is to be conceived either absolutely as a profession of S. Paul of himself, and there we will inquire, whether, and how Paul was the chief of all Sinners. Secondly, respectively to us, for whom this form of confessing the state, and applying the Salvation of Sinners to ourselves, is set down.

And first, whether, and how Paul was the chief of all Sinners; where we are to read him in a double estate, converted and unconverted, expressed to us by his double name, Paul and Saul, Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, Saul a Persecutor, mad against the Christians; and that both these estates may be contained in the Text, although pen'd by Paul regenerated, may appear, in that the Pronoun 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I, signifying the whole complete person of Paul, restrains not the speech to his present being only, but considers also what he had been; more especially set down at the thirteenth Verse, Who was before a blasphemer, &c. So then, Paul in his Saul-ship being a Blasphemer, a Persecutor and injurious, and in sum, a most violent, perverse, malicious Unbeliever, was a chief Sinner, rankt in the Front of the Devil's Army; and this needs no further proof or illustration. Yet seeing that that Age of the World had brought forth many other of the same strain of violent Unbelief, nothing inferior to Saul, as may appear by those many that were guilty of Christ's Death (as Saul in person was not) and those that so madly stoned S. Stephen, whilst Saul only kept the witnesses clothes, and as the Text speaks, was consenting unto his death ; seeing, I say, that others of that Age equalled, if not exceeded Saul's guilt, how can he be said above all other Sinners to be the chief. I think we shall no • wrest or enlarge the Text beside or beyond the meaning of the Holy Ghost or Apostle, if in answer unto this, we say, that here is intended, not so much the greatness of his sins above all Sinners in the World, but the greatness of the miracle in converting so great a Sinner into so great a Saint and Apostle. So that the words shall run, Of all Sinners that Christ came into the World to save, and then prefer to such an eminence, I am the chief, or as the word primarily signifies, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I am the first, i. e. Paul was the chief of all Converts, and Paul was the first, that from so great a Persecutor of Christ was changed into so great, so glorious an Apostle. For so it follows in the Verses next after my Text, For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all long suffering, &c. The issue of all is this, that Saul unconverted was a very great Sinner, yet not the greatest of Sinners absolutely, but for ought we read in the New Testament, the greatest and first that was called from such a degree of infidelity, a Blasphemer, a Persecuter, to so high a pitch of Salvation, a Saint, an Apostle, yea, and greater than an Apostle; whence the observation is, that though Saul were, yet every blasphemous Sinner cannot expect to be called from the depth of sin to regeneracy and Salvation. Although Saul being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the chief of sinners, was called and saved; yet Saul was also in another sense, for ought we read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and perhaps the last that from so great a riot of sin obtained so great Salvation. Wherefore, O Sinner, be not presumptuous from Paul's Example, but from Paul's single Example, begin to suspect thy state, and fear that such a miracle of Salvation shall not be afforded thee. There hath been an opinion of late revived, perhaps original among the Romans, that the greatest Sinner is the more likely object of God's mercy, or subject of his grace, than the mere moral man, whom either natural fear, or the like, not spiritual respects, hath restrained from those outrages of sin. The being of this opinion in the primitive Romans, and the falseness of it, is sufficient • y proved by that expo •• ulation of St. Paul, Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. In answer to some, who, hearing that Christ came into the world to save sinners, thought that the excess of sin was the best qualification, and only motive, to provoke and deserve a more abundant grace and certain salvation. As if that spirit, which once to manifest its power, called Saul in the midst of his madness, breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the Church, would not call any but those who had prepared themselves by the same degree of madness, but required that men should make themselves almost Devils, that they might be called into Christians ; as if that God, which could out of stones, could not also out of men, raise up Children unto Abraham ; as if that Christ which raised up Lazarus, being dead four days, and as they thought stinking in his grave, could not as easily have healed him whilst he was yet alive: whereas we read, that Christ dealt more on the cures of the impotent, than resurrections of the dead; that is, in a spiritual application, healed more from the Bed of languishment, of their weaknesses and diseases, than he raised out of the graves of trespasses and sins; though some also hath he out of death quickened, to exalt the power and miracle of his mercy. Yet hath not this doctrine too, been most confidently maintained among some of our times? That there is more hope of the debauched man, that he shall be called or saved, than of the mere moral, honest man, who y •• is in the state of unregeneracy. Have not some men, defining this moral man by the formal hypocrite, set him in the greatest opposition to Heaven? As if that degree of innocence, or rather, not being extremely sinful, which a moral care of our ways may bestow on us, were a greater hindrance than promotion toward the state of grace, and the natural man were so much the further from God, the nearer he were to goodness, and no man could hope to come to Heaven, but he that had knocked at Hell -gates. I confess indeed, that the Holy Ghost where he means to inhabit, hath no need of pains to prepare him a room, but can at his first knock, open and cleanse, adorn and beautify the most uncouth, ugly, and unsavory heart in the World. That omnipotent convincing spirit can at the same instant strike the most obdurate heart, and soften it, and where it once enters, cannot be repuls'd by the most sturdy habituate sin, or Devil. I confess likewise, that some have been thus rather snatched than called, like the fire-brands out of the fire, and by an ecstasy of the spirit inwardly in a minute changed from incarnate Devils into incarnate Saints. So was Mary dispossessed of seven Devils, who was after so highly promoted in Christ's favor, that she had the honor to be the first witness of the Resurrection. So that Gadarene who had intrencht and fortified himself among the Tombs, and was garrison'd with an Army of Devils, so that he brake Fetters and Chains, and could not be tamed or kept in any compass, yet in a minute at Christ's word, sent forth a Legion of Fiends, sufficient to people and destroy a Colony of Swine. And so was Paul in my Text, in a minute at Christ's Call, delivered of a multitude of blasphemous malicious spirits, and straight became the joy of Angels, the Apostle of the Gentiles. Yet mean time, these miraculous, but rarer Examples must not prescribe and set up, must not become a rule, and encourage any one to Saul's madness, on confidence of Paul's Conversion, to a more impetuous course of sinning, that he may become a more glorious Saint. 'It is a wrong way to Heaven, to dig into the deep, and a brutish arrogance to hope, that God will the more eagerly woo us, the further our sins have divorcit us from him. If some (as hath been said) have been caught or stricken in the height of their Rebellions, or in the fullness of the evil spirit called to a wane (as Diseases in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or top-pitch, are wont to decay and weaken into health again) if there have been some of these, as my Apostle, raised from the depth of sin, as Lazarus from the stench of the grave, yet these in respect of others more softly and ordinarily called, are found few in number; and such as were appointed for the Miracles, as well as the objects of God's mercy. Hence it is, that a strange disorder hath most times accompanied this extraordinary conversion of more violent outrageous Sinners. Our Apostle (to go no farther) was to be cast into a trance, and his regeneration not to be accomplisht without a kind of Death and Resurrection; whereas others who are better morally qualified, or rather are less hardened in the sins of unregeneracy, do answer at the softest knock or whispering'st call of the Spirit, and at his beckon will come after him. More might be said of this point, how St. Paul was most notably converted; that he had the alleviation of ignorance, for which cause (as he says himself) he found mercy ; and that others are not probably to expect the like miracle, who have not those insuperable prepossessions from custom and religion ; but that this is not the business of the Text, but a praecognoscendum or passage to the clearing of it. Briefly therefore to conclude this note, Paul is the chief example mentioned in Scripture, and there be not many, though some more, that were called from the height of impiety, from the gall of bitterness, to this mystical third Heaven, or so high degree of Saint and Apostle. The more ordinary course of God's proceeding (if we may possibly judge of the Decree by events and examples) is to call such to the state of grace, and so consequently of glory, who have passed their unregeneracy most innocently, and kept themselves least polluted from the stains of habituate wickedness, that is, have lived as much as natural men can do, in the plainest, honestest course of morality, it being presupposed that among all other moral virtues they have purchased humility, the best (if there be any preparative ) for the receiving of grace. Mean while we are not to be mistaken, as if we thought God's purposes tied to man's good behavior, or man's moral goodness to woo and allure God's spirit, as that the Almighty is not equally able to sanctify the foulest Soul by his converting grace, and the less polluted, or that he requires man's preparation: but our position is, that in ordinary charitable reason we ought to judge more comfortably, and hope more confidently of a mere moral man naturally more careful of his ways, that he shall be both called and saved, that God will with his spirit perfect and crown his morally good, though imperfect endeavors, than of another more debauchit Sinner, utterly negligent of the commands of either God or nature. Which position I have in brief proved, though nothing so largely as I might, in confutation of them who do utterly condemn unregenerate morality, and deject it below the lowest degree of profaneness, as if they would teach a man his way to Heaven, by boasting arrogantly, what Paul converted confesses humbly ▪ I am the nearer to Christ's Salvation, because of all sinners I am the chief. The Use in brief of this Thesis, shall be for those, who not as yet find the power of the regenerating spirit in them (for I am to fear, many of my auditors may be in this case, and I pray God they feel, and work, and pray themselves out of it) the Use, I say, is for those who are not yet full possessors of the spirit, to labor to keep their unregeneracy spotless from the greater offense, that if they are not yet called to the preferment of Conv • rts and Saints, the second part of Heaven, that Earthly City of God ; that yet they will live orderly in that lower Regiment, wherein they yet remain, and be subject to the law of nature, till it shall please God to take them into a new Common-wealth, under the law of grace ; to improve their natural abilities to the height, and bind their hands and hearts from the practice and study of outrageous sins, by those ordinary restraints which nature will afford us; such as are a good disposition, education, and the like; not to leave and refer all to the miraculous working of God, and to increase our sins for the magnifying of the virtue in recalling us. God requires not this glory at our hands, that we should peremptorily over-damn ourselves, that he may be the more honored in saving us. His mercy is more known to the World, than to need this woeful foil to illustrate it. God is not wont to rake Hell for Converts, to gather Devils to make Saints of; the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer great violence, if only such should take it. If Saul were infinitely sinful before he proved an Apostle, (though by the way, we hear him profess, he had lived in all good Conscience;) yet expect not thou the same Miracle, nor think that the excess of sins is the cue that God ordinarily takes to convert us. The Fathers in an obedience to the discipline and pedagogy of the old Law, possessed their Souls in patience, expecting the prophesied approach of the new, did not by a contempt of Moses, precipitate and hasten the coming of the Messias. Cornclius lived a long while devoutly, and gave much alms, till at last God called him, and put him in a course to become a Christian: and do thou, if thou art not yet called, wait the Lord's leisure in a sober moral conversation, and fright not him from thee with unnatural abominations. God is not likely to be wooed by those courses which nature loathes, or to accept them, whom the World is ashamed of. In brief, remember Saul and Cornelius; Saul, that he, not many, were called from a professed Blasphemer; Cornelius, that before he was called, he prayed to God always: and do thou endeavor to deserve the like mercy, and then in thy Prayer confess thine undeserving, and petition grace, as grace, that is, not as our merit, but as his free-will favor, not as the desert of our morality, but a stream from the bounty of his mercy, who (we may hope) will crown his common graces with the fullness of his spirit. And now, O powerful God, on those of us which are yet unregenerate, bestow thy restraining grace, which may curb and stop our natural inordinacy, and by a sober, careful, continent life, prepare us to a better capability of thy sanctifying spirit, wherewith in good time thou shalt establish and seal us up to the day of redemption. And thus much concerning Saul unconverted, how of all Sinners he was the chief, not absolutely, that he surpassed the whole World in rankness of sin; but respectively to his later state, that few or none are read to have been translated from such a pitch of sin to Saint-ship. Now follows the second consideration of him being proceeded Paul, i. e. converted, and then the question is, Whether, and how Paul converted, may be said the chief of all Sinners.

'Twere too speculative a depth for a popular Sermon, to discuss the inherence and condition of sin in the regenerate; the business will be brought home more profitably to our practice, if we drive it to this issue, That Paul in this place intending by his own example to direct others how to believe the truth, and embrace, and fasten on the efficacy of Christ's Incarnation, hath no better motive to incite himself and others toward it, than a recognition of his sins, that is, a survey of the power of sin in him before, and a sense of the relics of sin in him since his Conversion. Whence the note is, That the greatness of ones sins, makes the regenerate man apply himself more fiercely to Christ. This faithful saying was therefore to Paul worthy of all acceptation, because of all Sinners he was the chief. S. Paul, as every regenerate man, is to be observed in a treble posture, either casting his Eyes backward, or calling them in upon himself, or else looking forward and aloof; and accordingly is to be conceived in a treb • e meditation, either of his life past, or present state, or future hopes. In the first posture and meditation, you may see, first Paul alone, who was before a Blasphemer, a Persecuter and injurious; secondly, all the regenerate together: For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin did work in our members, &c. and many the like. In the second posture and meditation, you may observe him retracting an error, Acts xxiii. deprecating a temptation with earnest and repeated intercessions, 2 Cor. xii.7. fighting with and harrasing himself, beating down his body, and keeping it in subjection, lest while he preached to others, he himself might be a cast-away, 1 Cor. ix.27, &c In the third posture we find him, Rom. vii.25. where after a long disguise he cries out, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And again, Phil. iii.13. most evidently, Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching out to those things which are before, I press toward the mark, &c. like a racer in the heat of his course, whose Eyes desire to anticipate his feet, and enjoy the goa • before he reach it. These three carriages of the regenerate man fully prove our observation: for if either of the two former sights could afford him any content; if either his former or present state did not sufficiently terrify him, he would not be so eager on the third, it being the folly of human pride and self-love, to contemn any foreign aid, as long as it finds either appearance or hope of domestic. If in the view of his former life he should find anything either good or not extremely bad and sinful, he would under-prize the mercy of that Savior, that redeemed him from so poor a guilt; if he could observe in his present state any natural firmness or stability, any inherent purity, any essential justice, he might possibly sacrifice to his own nets, and reckoning himself in perfect peace with God, neither invoke and seek, nor acknowledge a Mediator. But when in his former life he shall find nothing but the matter and cause of horror and amazement, nothing but hideous ghastly affrightments, yea, and a body of damnation: when in hope to mend himself, and ease his fears, he shall fly to the comfort of his present converted state, and yet there also espy many thorns of temptations, how can he but be frighted out of himself? How can he but fly from the scene of those his torments, and seek out and importune the mercy of a Savior, which may deliver him out of all his fears? after the example of our Apostle in my Text, where he does more peremptorily apprehend Christ, and more bodily believe, That he came into the world to save sinners, because of all sinners he was chief, making his own sinfulness (being the object and external motive of God's mercy) an argument and internal motive of his own Faith and confidence. The [ I] plain meaning of this Thesis is, that among men, things are not always valued according to the merit of their nature, for then each commodity should be equally prized by all men, and the man in health should bestow as much charges on physic as the diseased: but each thing bears its several estimation by its usefulness, and the riches of every merchandize is increased accordingly as men to whom it is proffered, do either use or want it. Moreover, this usefulness is not to be reckoned of according to truth, but opinion, not according to men's real wants, but according to the sense which they have of their wants; so a man distracted, because he hath not so much reason about him as to observe his Disease, will contemn Hellebore, or any other the most precious Recipe for this Cure: and generally, no man will hasten to the Physician, or justly value his art and drugs, but he whom misery hath taught the use of them. So then, unless a man have been in some spiritual danger, and by the converting spirit be instructed into a sense and apprehension of it, he will not sufficiently observe the benefit and use of a deliverer: unless he feel in himself some stings of the relics of his sin, some pricks of the remaining Amorit • , he will not take notice of the want and necessity which he hath of Christ's mediation. But when he shall with a tenderness of memory survey the guilt of his former state, from the imputation, not importunity whereof, he is now justified ; when he shall still feel within him the buffetings of Satan, and sensibly observe himself not fully sanctified, then, and not before, will he with a zealous earnestness apprehend the profit, yea, necessity of a Savior, whose assistance so [ II] nearly concerns him. The second ground of this position is, That an extraordinary undeserved deliverance is by an afflicted man received with some suspicion: the consideration of the greatness of the benefit, makes him doubt of the truth of it, and he will scarce believe so important an happiness befallen him, because his misery could neither expect nor hope it. Hence, upon the first notice of it, he desires to ascertain it unto his sense, by a sudden possession of it, and not at all to defer the enjoying of that mercy, which his former misery made infinitely worthy of all acceptation. Thus may you see a ship-wracked man, recovered to some refuge, cling about, and almost incorporate himself unto it, because the fortune of his life depends on that succor. The new regenerate man finding in the Scripture the promise of a Redeemer, which shall free him from those engagements, which his former bankrupt estate had plunged him in, cannot delay so great an happiness, but with a kind of tender fear and filial trembling runs, and strives (as the Disciples to the Sepulcher) to assure his necessitous Soul of this acceptable salvation: even sets upon his Savior with a kind of violence, and will seem to distrust his promise, till his seal shall authorize and confirm it. Thus did the greatness of the work of the unexpected resurrection, beget in Thomas a suspicion and incredulity, I will not believe, &c. where our charity may conjecture, that he above all the rest, was not absolutely resolved not to believe the Resurrection, but that he being absent at the first apparition, would not take so important a miracle upon trust, but desired to have that demonstrated to his sense, which did so nearly concern his faith ; that so by putting his finger into the print of the nails, and thrusting his hand into his side, he might almost consubstantiate and unite himself unto his Savior, and at once be assured of the truth, and partake of the profit of the Resurrection. Hear but the voice of the Spouse, and any further proofs shall be superfluous, where, in violence and jealousy of love, she importunes the Eternal presence of the beloved, Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a vehement flame. She had before often lost her beloved, which made her so fiercely fasten on him, for having roused him, ruit in amplexus, she rusht into his embraces, she held him and would not let him go. Thus you see the jealousy and eagerness of love produced by either a former loss, or present more than ordinary want of the object; both which how pertinent they are to the regenerate man, either observing his past sins, or instant temptations, this Discourse hath already made manifest.

[ I] The Use of this Thesis (to wit, that the greatness of ones sins makes the regenerate man apply himself more fiercely to Christ) is first by way of caution, that we mistake not a motive for an efficient, an impulsive for a principal cause. For where we say, It makes him apply himself, &c.] we mean not that the increase of sin produces faith formally, but only inciteth to believe by way of instruction, by showing us what distress we are in, and consequently, in what a necessity of a deliverer. The meditation of our sinful courses may disclose our misery, not redress it; may explore, not mend a Sinner, like a touchstone to try, not any way to alter him. It is the controlling spirit which must effectually renew our spirits, and lead us to the Christ, which our sins told us we had need of. The sense of sin may rouse the Soul, but it is the spirit of God that lays the toils; the feeling of our guilt may beat the Waters, but it is the great Fisher of our Souls which spreads the Net, which entraps us as we are in our way to Hell, and leads us captive to salvation. The mere gripings of our Conscience being not produced by any Pharmacon of the spirit, but by some distemper arising from sin, what anxiety doth it cause within us? What pangs and twinges to the Soul? O Lord, do thou regenerate us, and then, thy holy spirit shall sanctify even our sins unto our good; and if thy grace may lead us, our sins shall pursue and drive us unto Christ. Secondly, By way of character, how to distinguish [ II] a true convert from a false. A man which from an inveterate desperate malady shall meet with a miraculous unexpected cure, will naturally have some art of expression above an ordinary joy; you shall see him in an ecstasy of thanksgiving and exultancy, whilst another, which was never in that distress, quietly enjoys the same health, and gives thanks softly by himself to his preserver. So is it in the distresses of the Soul, which if they have been excessive, and almost beyond hope of recovery; as the miracle must, so will the expression of this deliverance be somewhat extraordinary. The Soul which from a good moral or less sinful natural estate, is magis immutata quam genita, rather changed than regenerate into a spiritual, goes through this business without any great noise, the spirit entering into it in a still small voice, or at a breathing: but when a robustous obdurate Sinner shall be rather apprehended than called, when the Sea shall be commanded to give up his ship-wrackit, and the Sepulcher to restore her dead, the Soul surely which thus escapeth, shall not be content with a mean expression, but will practice all the Hallelujahs and Magnificats, which the triumphant Liturgies of the Saints can afford it. Wherefore, I say, if any one out of a full violent course of sinning conceive himself converted and regenerated, let him examine what a degree of spiritual exultancy he hath attained to, and if he find it but mean, and flight, and perfunctory, let him somewhat suspect, that he may the more confirm the evidence of his calling. Now this spiritual exultancy of the regenerate, consists both in a solemn humiliation of himself, and a spiritual rejoicing in God his Savior; both expressed in Mary's Magnificat, where she specifies in the midst of her joy the lowliness of his handmaid, and in S. Paul's victory-song over Death. So that if the conversion of an inordinate Sinner be not accompanied with unwonted joy and sorrow, with a godly sense of his past distress, and a godly triumph for his delivery ; if it be not followed with a violent eagerness to fasten on Christ; finally, if there be not somewhat above ordinary in the expression, then I counsel not to distrust, but fear, that is, with a solicitous, not suspicious trembling, to labor to make thy calling and election sure ; to pray to that Holy Spirit to strike our hearts with a measure of holy joy and holy sorrow, some way proportionable to the size of those sins, which in our unregeneracy reigned in us; and for those of us whom our sins have separated far from him, but his grace hath called home to him, that he will not suffer us to be content with a distance, but draw us close unto himself, make us press toward the mark, and fasten ourselves on that Savior, which hath redeemed us from the body and guilt of this so great death. The third Use is of comfort and confirmation to some tender [ III] Souls who are incorporate into Christ, yet finding not in themselves that excessive measure of humiliation which they observe in others, suspect their own state, and infinitely grieve that they can grieve no more. Whereas this Doctrine being observed, will be an allay to their sorrow, and wipe some unnecessary tears from their Eyes. For if the greatness of sin past, or the plentiful relics of sin remaining, do require so great a measure of sorrow, to expiate the one, and subdue the other; if it be a deliverance from an habituate servitude to all manner of sin, which provokes this extraordinary pains of expression; then certainly they who have been brought up with the spirit, which were from their baptism never wholly deprived of it, need not to be bound over to this trade of sorrow, need not to be set apart to that perpetual humiliation, which a more stubborn sin or Devil is wont to be cast out by. I doubt not but a soul educated in familiarity with the spirit, may at once enjoy herself and it; and so, that if it have an humble conceit of itself, and a filial of God, may in Earth possess God with some clearness of look, some serenity of affections, some alacrity of heart, and tranquility of spirit. God delights not in the torment of his children, (though some are so to be humbled) yea, he delights not in such burnt-offerings, as they bestow upon him, who destroy, and consume, and sacrifice themselves; but the Lord's delight is in them that fear him filially, and put their trust, i. e. assurance, confidence in his mercy ; in them that rejoice, that make their service a pleasure, not an affliction, and thereby possess Heaven before they come to it. 'It is observed in husbandry, that soil, laid on hard, barren, starved ground, doth improve it, and at once deface and enrich it, which yet in ground naturally fruitful, and kept in heart, and good case, is esteemed unnecessary and burdensome. You need not the application. Again, the husbandman can mend a dry, stubborn, wayward, fruitless earth, by overflowing of it, and on such indeed is his ordinary requisite discipline, to punish it for its amendment. But there is a ground otherwise well tempered, which they call a weeping ground, whence continually water soaks out, and this proves seldom fruitful (if our learned Husbandmen observe aright) wherefore there is sometime need of draining, as well as watering. The application is, that your Soul which either hath been naturally dry and barren, or else over-wrought in the business of the World, needs a flood of tears to soften and purge it. But the well tempered Soul which hath never been out of heart, but hath always had some inward life, some fatness of, and nourishment from the spirit, is rather oppressed than improved by such an overslow. The Christian is thereby much hindered in his progress of good works, and cannot serve the Lord with alacrity, that so perpetually hangs down his head like a Bulrush. Wherefore, the Country rule is, that that ground is best which is mellow, which being crushed will break, but not crumble, dissolve, but not excessively. Hence, I say, the habituate believer need not suspect his estate, if he find not in himself such an extremity of violent grief, and humiliation, as he observes in others; knowing, that in him such a measure of tears would both soil the face of his devotion, and clog the exercise of it. His best mediocrity will be to be habitually humbled, but actually lively and alacrious in the ways of godliness; not to be too rigid and severe a Tyrant over his Soul, but to keep it in a temper of Christian softness, tender under the hand of God, and yet man-like and able both in the performance of God's worship and his own calling. And whensoever we shall find ourselves in either extreme, either too much hardened, or too much melted, too much elevated, or too much dejected; then to pray to that Holy Spirit, so to fashion the temper of our Souls, that we neither fail in humbling ourselves in some measure for our sins, nor yet too cowardly deject and cast down ourselves, below the courage, and comfort, and spiritual rejoicing which he hath prescribed us.

And thus much of this point, and in brief, of the first consideration of these words, to wit, as they are absolutely a profession of Paul himself, to which end we beheld him in his double estate, converted and unconverted. In his unconverted state we found, though a very great Sinner, yet not absolutely greater than those times brought forth, and therefore we were to think of him relatively to his future estate, and so we found him the greatest Sinner that ever was called in the New Testament into so glorious a Saint. Whence we observe the rarity of such conversions, that though Saul were, yet every blasphemous Sinner could not expect to be called from the depth of sin to regeneracy and salvation: and this we proved, both against the ancient Romans, and modern Censors of morality, and applied it to the care which we ought to have, of keeping our unregeneracy spotless from any reigning sin. Afterward we came to Paul converted, where we balkit the Discourse of the condition of sin in the regenerate, and rather observed the effect of it ; and in it, that the greatness of his sin made (as Paul, so) every regenerate man more eagerly to fasten on Christ. Which being proved by a double ground, we applied first by way of caution, how that proposition was to be understood; 2. By way of character, how a great Sinner may judge of his sincere certain Conversion; 3. By way of comfort to others, who find not the effects of humiliation and the like in themselves, in such measure as they see in others; and so we have past through the first consideration of these words, being conceived absolutely as St. Paul's profession of himself, we should come to the other consideration, as they are set down to us as a pattern or form of confessing the estate, and applying the Salvation of Sinners to ourselves, which business requiring the pains, and being worthy the expense of an entire hour, we must defer to a second exercise.

Now the God which hath created us, hath elected, redeemed, called, justified us, will sanctify us in his time, will prosper this his ordinance, will direct us by his grace to his glory; To him be ascribed due the honor, the praise, the glory, the dominion, which through all ages of the world have been given to him that sitteth on the Throne, to the Holy Spirit, and Lamb for evermore.

SERMON XIX.

IN all Human Writings and Learning, there is a kind of poverty and emptiness, which makes them, when they are beheld by a Judicious Reader, look starved and Crest-fallen; their Speeches are rather puffed up than filled, they have a kind of boasting and ostentation in them, and promise more substance and matter to the Ear, than they are able to perform really to the understanding: whence it falls out, that we are more affected with them at the first hearing, and, if the Orator be clear in his expression, we understand as much at the first recital, as we are able to do at the hundredth repetition. But there is a kind of Excellency in the Scripture, a kind of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or sublimity above all other Writings in the World. The reading of every Section of it, leaves a sting in the mind, and a perpetual conceit of a still imperfect understanding of it. An intelligent man at every view finds in it a fresh mystery, and still perceives that there is somewhat beyond, not yet attained to: like men digging in Mines, the deeper he dives he finds the greatest treasure, and meets with that under ground, which looking on the outward turf, or surface, he never imagined to have been there. This I observe unto you, to show you the riches both of all, and especially of this Scripture, whereinto the deeper I dig, the more Ore I find: and having already bestowed one hour in the discussing of it; without any violence, or wresting, or wire-drawing, find plenty of new materials.

We have already handled the Words at large in one consideration, as they are a profession of Paul himself ; I will not repeat you the particular occurrence. We now without anymore delay of Preface, come to the second consideration of them, as they are spoken by Paul respectively to us, i. e. as they are prescribed us for a form of confessing the estate, and applying the Salvation of Sinners unto ourselves, teaching each of us for a close of our Faith and Devotion, to confess, Of all, &c.

Where first, the cadence, or manner how Paul falls into these words, is worthy to be both observed and imitated: the chief and whole business of this Verse being the truth, the acceptable truth of Christ's Incarnation, with the end of it, the saving of sinners ; He can no sooner name this word sinners, but his exceeding melting tenderness abruptly falls off, and subsumes, Of all sinners, &c. If there be anything that concerns Sinners, I am sure I have my part in that, for of that number I am the chief. The note by the way briefly is, that a tender conscience never hears of the name of sinner, but straight applies it to itself. It is noted by Aristotle, the Master of Human Learning, that that Rhetoric was very thin and unprofitable, very poor and like to do little good upon men's affections, which insisted on general matters, and descended not to particulars; as if one should Discourse of sin in general, and Sinners, without reference to this or that particular sin or Sinner; and the reason of his note was, because men are not moved or stirred with this Eloquence. The intemperate person could hear a declamation against Vice, and never be affected with it, unless it stooped to take notice of his particular enormities; and so it is with other Criminals. This reason of his, was grounded upon the obdurateness of men's hearts, which would think that nothing concerned them, but what was framed against the individual Offender, all such being as dull and unapt to understand anything, that being applied might move or prick them, as men are to take notice of a common national judgment, which we never duly weigh, till we smart under it in particular. This senselessness may also seem to have been amongst St. Paul's Corinthians, which made him use Aristotle's counsel, in driving his Speech home to their private persons, 1 Cor. vi. Where telling them, that neither Fornicators nor Idolaters, and the like, shall inherit the Kingdom of God ; for fear they should not be so tender-conscienced, as of their own accords to apply these sins to themselves, and read themselves guilty in that glass; he is fain to supply that office, and plainly tell them, what otherwise perhaps they would not have conceived, and such were some of you, ver. 11. This senseless hard-heartedness or backwardness in applying the either commands or threatenings of the Law to ones self, is by the Apostle called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which we ordinarily translate a reprobate mind, but may be brought to signify a mind without judgment, that hath no faculty of discerning, that cannot in a general threatening, observe something that may concern the danger of his particular state: or as it may be rendered, a mind without sense, not apprehensive of those things which are manifestly proposed to them, like those walking Idols described by the Psalmist, Eyes have they and see not, Ears and hear not, Noses and smell not, only beautiful Carcasses of Christians, which have nothing but their shape and motion to persuade you that they live: unless we add this most unhappy symptom, which indicates a state more wretched far than Death itself, that there is strength and vigor to oppose recovery, that amidst Death there yet survives a hatred, and antipathy to Life. In such a Soul as this, there is a perpetual re-action, an impatience of the presence of anything which may trash, incumber, or oppress it: a judgment or denunciation is but cast away upon it, it shall be sure to return unprofitably, and neither move nor mend it. This hath been, and much more might be observed to you, of the carriage of the hard, stupid heart, toward either Scripture or Preacher, to the plain opening of this point; for you shall more clearly understand the tender heart, by observing the obdurate, and learn to be affected aright with God's Law or punishments, by knowing and hating the opposite stubborn senselessness. Now in brief, this tender heart in the discovery of a sin, or denunciation of a judgment, needs not a particular, Thou art the man ] to bring it home to his person: The more wide, and general the proposal is, the more directly and effectually is this stricken with it. In a common Satire or Declamation against sin in general, it hath a sudden art of Logic, to anatomize and branch this sin in general, into all its parts; and then to lay each of them to its own charge; it hath a skill of making every passage in the Scripture, a glass to espy some of her deformities in, and cannot so much as mention that ordinary name of sin or Sinner, without an extraordinary affection, and unrequired accusation of itself. Of all sinners, &c. The plain reason of this effect in the tender heart is, first, because it is tender. The soft and accurate parts of a man's body, do suffer without re-action, i. e. do yield at the appearance of an Enemy, and not any way put forward to repel him. These being fixed on by a Be, or the like, are easily penetrated by the sting, and are so far from resisting of it, that they do in a manner draw it to them, and by their free reception allure it to enter so far, that the owner can seldom ever recover it back again. Whereas on a dead Carkase, a thick or callous member of the body, a Be may fix and not forfeit her sting. So doth a tender heart never resist or defend itself against a stroke, but attenuates its self, lays wide open its pores; to facilitate its entrance; seems to woo a threatening, to prick, and sting, and wound it sharply, as if it rejoiced in, and did even court those torments, which the sense of sin or judgment thus produced.

Again, a tender heart ordinarily meets with more blows, more oppressions than any other: its very passiveness provokes every ones malice; the fly and dust, as if it were by a kind of natural instinct, drive directly at the Eye, and no member about you shall be oftener rubbed or disordered, than that which is raw or distempered; the reason being, because that which is not worthy notice to another part, is an affliction to this, and a mote which the hand observes not, will torment the eye. So is it with the Conscience, whose tenderness doth tempt every piece of Scripture to afflict it, and is more encumbered with the least atom of sin or threat, than the more hardened sinner is with a beam or Mountain.

Thirdly, One that hath any solemn business to do, will not pass by any opportunity of means, which may advantage him in it. One that hath a search to make, will not slip any evidence which may concur to the helping of his discovery ; one that hath any Treatise to write, will be ready to apply anything that ever he reads, to his Theme or purpose. Now the search, the discourse, the whole employment of a tender heart, is the enquiry after the multitude of its sins, and in sum, the aggravation of each particular guilt, in and against itself, that so having sufficiently loaded itself, and being tired with the weight and burden of its sins, it may in some measure perform the condition which Christ requires of them which come to him, and be prepared to receive that ease, which Christ hath promised to the weary and heavy laden. So then if the tender Conscience doth never repel, or reverberate any mention of sin, but doth draw out the sting of it to its length; if it be much affected with the least atom of sin, and therefore meets with frequent disorders; if lastly, it make its employment to gather out of all the Scripture, those places which may advantage her in the sight and sense of her sins: then certainly doth she never hear of the name of sinner, but straight she applies it to herself, which was the point we undertook to show.

The direct use of this Proposition is for a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or judgment of our estate. 'It is observed in the body, that the rest of the senses may be distempered, and lost without impairing of it, but only the touch cannot, which therefore they call the sense of life, because that part or body which is deprived of feeling, is also at Deaths Door, and hath no more life in it, than it hath relics of this sense. So is it also in spiritual matters: of all other symptoms this of senselessness is most dangerous, and as the Greek Physicians are wont to say of a desperate Disease, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , very very mortal. This feeling tenderness is necessary to the life of grace, and is an inseparable both effect and argument of it. Wherefore I say, for the judgment of yourselves, observe how every piece of Scripture works upon you. If you can pass over a Catalogue of sins and judgments▪ without any regret, or reluctancy, if you can read Sodom and Gomorrhah, Babylon and the Harlot Jerusalem, and not be affected with their stories, if thou canst be the Auditor of other men's faults, without any sense or griping of thine own, if the name of sin or Sinner be unto thee but as a Jest or Fable, not worthy thy serious notice; then, fear thy affections want of that temper, which the softening spirit is wont to bestow where it rests, and accordingly, as thou findest this tenderness increasing or waning in thee, either give thanks or pray: either give thanks for the plenty of that spirit which thou enjoyest, or in the sense of thy wants importune it, that God will give us softened relenting hearts, that the recital of other men's sins may move us, other men's judgments may strike us, other men's repentance melt us with a sense, with a confession, with a contrition of our own. But above all, O Holy Spirit, from hardness of heart, from an undiscerning, reprobate spirit, from a contempt, nay neglect, a not observing of thy Word, as from the danger of Hell, Good Lord deliver us.

And thus much of this point, of this effect of a tender heart, noted to you out of the cadence of the words. I now come to observe somewhat more real out of the main of the words themselves, Of whom, &c. We find not our Apostle here complementing with himself, either exc • sing or attenuating his guilt, but as it were glorying in the measure of his sins, striving for preeminence above all other Sinners, challenging it as his right, and as eager upon the preferment, as his Fellow-Labourer Peter his Successor for a Primacy (as he professes) of all Bishops, yea the whole Church; so our Apostle here, Of all sinners I am the chief. The note briefly is this, That everyone is to aggravate the measure and number of his sins against himself, and as near as he can, observe how his guilt exceedeth other men's. This was S. Paul's practice, and our pattern, not to be gazed on but followed, not to be discust, but imitated. In the Discourse whereof I shall not labor to prove you the necessity of this practice, which yet I might do out of David's Example in his penitential Psalms, especially 51. out of Nehemiah's Confession, and the like; but taking this as supposed, I shall rather mix doctrine, and reason, and use, altogether, in prescribing some forms of aggravating ourselves to ourselves; yet not descending to a particular dissection of sin into all its parts, but dealing only on general heads, equally appliable to all men, briefly reducible to these two, 1. Original sin, or the sin of our nature, of which we are all equally guilty; 2. Personal sin, grounded in and terminated to each man's person.

For Original sin, it is the Fathers complaint, and ought more justly to be ours of these times, that there is no reckoning made of it, 'tis seldom thought worthy to supply a serious place in our humiliation; 'tis mentioned only for fashions sake, and as it were to stop God's mouth, and to give him satisfaction, or palliate the guilt of our willful Rebellions; not on any real apprehension, that its cure and remedy in Baptism is a considerable benefit, or the remanent weakness (after the killing venom is abated) were more than a trivial disadvantage. So that we have a kind of need o • original clearness of understanding, to judge of the foulness of original sin, and we cannot sufficiently conceive our loss, without some recovery of those very faculties we forfeited in it. But that we may not be willfully blind in a matter that so imports us, that we may understand somewhat of the nature and dangerous condition of this sin, you must conceive Adam, wh • committed this first sin, in a double respect, either as one particular man, or as containing in his Loins the whole nature of man, all mankind, which should ever come from him. Adams particular sin, i. e. his personal disobedience is wonderfully aggravated by the Fathers, 1. From his original justice, which God had bestowed on him; 2. From the near familiarity with God, which he enjoyed, and then lost; 3. From the perpetual blest estate, which had it not been for this disobedience, he might forever have lived in; 4. From the purity and integrity of his Will, which was then void of all sinful desire, which otherwise might have tempted to this disobedience; 5. From the easiness of both remembering and observing the Commandment, it being a short prohibition, and only to abstain from one Tree, where there was such plenty besides; 6. From the nature and circumstances of the offense, by which the Fathers do refer it to all manner of heinous sins, making it to contain a breach of almost each moral Law, all which were then written in the tables of his heart, and therefore concluding it to be an aggregate or mixture of all those sins which we have since so reiterated, and so many times sin'd over. So then this personal sin of Adam was of no mean size, not to be reckoned of as an every days offense, as an ordinary breach, or the mere eating of an apple. In the next place, as Adam was no private person, but the whole human nature, so this sin is to be considered either in the root, or in the fruit, in its self, or in its effects. In its self, so all mankind, and every particular man, is, and in that name must humble himself as concerned in the eating of that fruit, which only Adams teeth did fasten on; is to deem himself bound to be humbled for that pride, that curiosity, that disobedience, or whatsoever sin else can be contained in that first great transgression; and count you this nothing, to have a share in such a sin, which contains such a multitude of Rebellions? 'It is not a slight, perfunctory humiliation that can expiate, not a small labor that can destroy this monster which is so rich in heads, each to be cut off by the work of a several repentance. Now in the last place, as this sin of all mankind in Adam is considered in its effects, so it becomes to us a body of sin and death, a natural disorder of the whole man, an hostility and enmity of the flesh against the spirit, and the parent of all sin in us, as may appear Rom. vii. and Jam. 1.14. Which that you may have a more complete understanding of, consider it as it is ordinarily set down, consisting of three parts, 1. A natural defect, 2. A moral affection, 3. A legal guilt, i. e. a guiltiness of the breach of the Law; for these three (whatsoever you may think of them) are all parts of that sin of our nature, which is in, and is to be imputed to us, called ordinarily original sin in us, to distinguish it from that first act committed by Adam, of which this is an effect. And first, that natural defect is a total loss, and privation of that primitive justice, holiness and obedience, which God had furnished the Creature withal; a disorder of all the powers of the Soul, a darkness of the understanding, a perverseness of the will, a debility, weakness, and decay of all the senses, and in sum, a poverty and destruction, and almost a nothingness of all the powers of Soul and Body. And how ought we to lament this loss with all the veins of our heart? to labor for some new strain of expressing our sorrow, and in fine, to petition that rich grace, which may build up all these ruins? to pray to God that his Christ may purchase and bestow on us new abilities? that the second Adam may furnish us with more durable powers and lasting graces, than we had, but forfeited in the first? The following part of this sin of our nature, viz. A moral evil affection, is word for word mentioned, Rom. vii.5. For there the Greek words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ordinarily translated motions of sins, and in the margin the passions of sins, are more significantly to be rendered affections of sins, i. e. by an usual figure, sinful affections. That you may the better observe the encumbrances of this branch of this sin, which doth so over shadow the whole man, and so fence him from the beams and light of the spiritual invisible Sun, I am to tell you that the very Heathen that lived without the knowledge of God, had no conversation with, and so no instruction from the Bible in this matter, that these very Heathens I say, had a sense of this part of original sin, to wit, of these evil moral lusts and affections, which they felt in themselves, though they knew not whence they sprang. Hence is it that a Greek Philosopher out of the ancients, makes a large Discourse of the unfatiable desire and lust which is in every man, and renders his life grievous unto him, where he useth the very same word, though with a significant Epithet added to it, that S. James doth c. 1. ver. 15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , infinite lust, with which, as S. James saith, a man is drawn away and enticed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , so saith he, that part of the mind in which these lusts dwell, is persuaded and drawn, or rather fall backward and forward, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which lust or evil concupiscence he at last defines to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an insatiable intemperance of the appetite, never filled with a desire, never ceasing in the persecution of evil; and again he calls it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our birth and nativity derived to us by our parents, i. e. an evil affection hereditary to us, and delivered to us as a Legacy at our Birth and Nativity: all which seems a clear expression of that original lust, whose motions they felt, and guest at its nature. Hence is it, that it was a custom among all of them, I mean the common Heathen, to use many ways of purgations, especially on their children, who at the imposition of their names, were to be lustrated and purified with a great deal of superstition and ceremony, such like as they used to drive away a plague, or a cure for an House or City. As if nature by instinct had taught them so much Religion, as to acknowledge and desire to cure in everyone this hereditary disease of the soul, this plague of man's heart, as 'tis called 1 Kings viii.38. And in sum, the whole learning of the Wisest of them (such were the Moralists ) was directed to the governing and keeping in order of these evil affections, which they called the unruly citizens and common people of the soul, whose intemperance and disorders they plainly observed within themselves, and labored hard to purge out, or subdue to the government of reason, and virtue; which two we more fully enjoy, and more Christianly call the power of grace, redeeming our Souls from this Body of sin. Thus have I briefly shown you the sense that the very Heathen had of this second branch of original sin, which needs therefore no farther aggravation to you but this, that they who had neither Spirit nor Scripture to instruct them, did naturally so feelingly observe and curse it, that by reason of it they esteemed their whole life but a living death, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; and their body but the Sepulcher of the soul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , both which together are but a periphrasis of that which S. Paul calls in brief the body of death. And shall we who have obtained plenty of light and instruction, besides that which nature bestowed on us with them, shall we, I say, let our Eyes be confounded with abundance of day? shall we see it more clearly, to take less notice of it? Shall we feel the stings of sin within us (which though they do but prick the regenerate, prove mortal to the rest of us) and shall we not observe them? Shall we not rather weep those Fountains dry, and crop this luxury of our affections with a severe, sharp sorrow and humiliation? Shall we not starve this rank, fruitful Mother of Vipers, by denying it all nourishment from without, all advantages of temptations and the like, which it is wont to make use of, to beget in us all manner of sin? let us aggravate every circumstance and inconvenience of it to ourselves, and then endeavor to banish it out of us, and when we find we are not able, importune that strong assistant the Holy Spirit, to curb and subdue it, that in the necessity of residing, it yet may not reign in our mortal bodies ; to tame and abate the power of this necessary Amorite, and free us from the activity and mischief, and temptations of it here, and from the punishment and imputation of it hereafter. And so I come to the third part, or brach of this original sin, to wit, its legal guilt, and this we do contract by such an early prepossession, that it outruns all other computations of our life. We carry a body of sin about us, before we have one of flesh, have a decrepit, weak old man with all his crazy train of affections and lusts, before even infancy begins. Behold saith the Psalmist, Psal. li.5. I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me: as if guilt were the plastick power that formed us, and wickedness the Minera and Element of our being, as if it were that little moving point, which the curious inquirers into nature, find to be the rudiment of animation, and pants not then for life, but lust, and endless death. So that the saying of St. James c. i.15. seems a description of our natural birth, When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Nor does this hasty inmate leave us when grown up: no, it improves its rancor against God and goodness, mixes with custom, passion, and example, and whatever thing is apt to lead us unto mischief, somenting all the wild desires of our inferior brutal part, till it become at last an equal and professed Enemy, making open hostility, setting up its Sconces, fortifying itself with munition and defense, as meaning to try the quarrel with God, and pretending right to man, whom God doth but usurp. Thus shall you see it encampt, and setting up its banners for tokens, under that proud name of another law, Rom. vii.23. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and as if it had got the better of the day, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in the members, i. e. unto its self. And shall we feel such an Enemy within us, laying siege at God and grace in us, and fiercely resolving, whether by deceit or battery to captivate us unto himself, and shall we not take notice of him? Shall we not think it worthy our pains and expense, to defeat him, or secure ourselves? Beloved, that will be the best stratagem for the taking of this Enemy, which is nowadays most ordinary in Sieges, to block up all passages, and hinder all access of fresh provision, and so by denying this greedy devourer all nourishment from without, to starve and pine him into such a tameness, that he may be taken without resistance; which how really you may perform by these means of mortification and repentance prescribed you in Scripture, you shall better learn by your own practice than my discourse.

The fourth aggravation of this guilt is, that its minera and fuel lurks even in a regenerate man, wretched, &c. and enforceth Paul into a conflict, a War against himself. And is it possible for one otherwise happy (as the regenerate man inwardly surely is) to sleep securely, and never to try a Field with the Author of its so much misery, or finding it to be within its self, part of itself, not to think it a sin worthy repentance, and sorrow, by which God's Holy Spirit is so resisted, so affronted, and almost quelled and cast out?

Fifthly and lastly, the guilt of it appears by the effects of it, 1. inclination, 2. consent to evil: for even every inclination to sin, without consent, is an irregularity and kind of sin, i. e. an aversion of some of our faculties from God; all which should directly drive amain to him and goodness. That servant which is commanded with all speed and earnestness, to go about anything, offends against his Masters Precept, if he any way incline to disobedience, if he perform his commands with any regret or reluctancy Now secondly, consent is so natural a consequent of this evil inclination, that in a man you can scarce discern, much less sever them. No man hath any inordinate lust, but doth give some kind of consent to it, the whole will being so infected with this lust, that that can no sooner bring forth evil motions, but this will be ready at hand with evil desires: and then, how evident a guilt, how plain a breach of the Law it is, you need not mine eyes to teach you. Thus have I insisted somewhat largely on the branches of Original sin, which I have spread and stretched the wider, that I might furnish you with more variety of aggravations on each member of it, which I think may be of important use, for this or any other popular Auditory, because this sin ordinarily is so little thought of, even in our solemnest humiliations. When you profess that you are about the business of repentance, you cannot be persuaded that this common sin, which Adam, as you reckon, only sinned, hath any effect on you. I am yet afraid that you still hardly believe that you are truly, and in earnest to be sorry for it, unless the Lord strike our hearts with an exact sense, and professed feeling of this sin of our nature, and corruption of our kind.

And so I come briefly to a view of each man's personal sins, I am the chief: where I might rank all manner of sins into some forms or seats, and then urge the deformity of each of them single and naked to your view; but I will for the present, presume your understandings sufficiently instructed in the heinousness of each sin forbidden by the Commandments. For others, who will make more or less sins than the Scripture doth, I come not to satisfy them, or decide their Cases of Conscience. In brief, I will propose to your practice only two forms of confessing your sins, and humbling yourselves for them, which I desire you to aggravate to yourselves, because I have not now the leisure to beat them low, or deep to your Consciences. Besides original sin already spoken of, you are to lay hard to your own charges, first, your particular chief sins, secondly, all your ordinary sins in gross. For the first, observe but that one admirable place in Solomon's Prayer at the dedication of the Temple: If there be in the land famine, &c. Whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness, what prayer or supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hand to this house; then hear thou in Heaven, &c. Where the condition of obtaining their requests from God is excellently set down, if they shall know, i. e. be sensible of, be sorry for, and confess to God every man the plague of his own heart, that is, in the bulk and heap of their sins, shall pick the fairest loveliest sin in the pack, the plague, i. e. the pestilential, reigning, sweeping offense, on which all the lower train of petty faults do wait and depend, do minister and suppeditate matter to work: If, I say, they shall take this Captain sin, and anatomize, and cut up, and discover every branch of him without any fraud or concealment before the Lord, and then Sacrifice that dear darling, and with it their whole fleshy lust, as an Holocaust, or whole Burnt-offering before the Lord: then will he hear from Heaven his dwelling place, and when he heareth, forgive even their other concealed sins, because they have disclosed so entirely, and parted so freely from that. For there is in every of us one master sin that rules the rabble, one fatling which is fed with the choicest of our provision, one Captain of the Devils Troop, one the plague in every man's heart. This being sincerely confessed and displayed, and washed in a full stream of tears; for the lower more ordinary sort, for the heap or bulk, we must use David's penitential compendious art, Psa. xix.12. who overcome with the multitude of his sins to be repeated, folds them all in this Prayer, Who can tell how oft he offendeth? &c.

And thus much be spoken of this Proposition, that, and how every man is to aggravate the measure and number of his sins against himself. The whole doctrine is, and in our whole Discourse hath been handled for a store of uses ; for in setting down how you are to aggravate your sins, especially your original sin against yourselves, I have spoken all the while to your affections, and will therefore presume that you have already laid them up in your hearts to that purpose. Only take one pertinent use for a close, which hath not been touched in the former discourse. If everyone be to aggravate his own sins, and to reckon himself of all sinners the chief ; then must no man usurp the privilege to see or censure other men's sins through a multiplying glass, i. e. double to what indeed they are, as most men do nowadays. What so frequent among those, who are most negligent of their own ways, as to be most severe inquisitors of other men's? and to spy, and censure, and damn a mote or atom in another man's Eye, when their own is in danger to be put out by a Beam? Hence is it, that among lay-men the sins of clergy are weighed according to the measure of the Sanctuary, which was provided for the paying of their Tithes, Lev. xxvii.25. i. e. double the ordinary balance; and their own, if not under, at most according to the common weight of the Congregation. In a Minister every error shall become an heresy, every slip a crime, and every crime a sacrilege; whereas, beloved, he that means to take out St. Paul's Lesson, must extenuate every man's sins but his own, or else his heart will give his tongue the lie, when it hears him say, Of all, &c.

And so much of this Doctrine of aggravating our sins to ourselves, which we are to perform in our daily audit betwixt us and our own Consciences. There is another seasonable observation behind in a word to be handled; this particle 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of whom, hath a double relation, either to Sinners simply, and so it hath been handled already; or to Sinners as they are here set down, to wit, those Sinners which Christ came into the World to save; and so St. Paul here is changed from the chief of Sinners to the chief of Saints, and then the Doctrine is become a Doctrine of comfort fit for a Conclusion, that he who can follow Paul's Example and Precept, can sufficiently humble himself for his sins, accept that faithful saying, and rightly lay hold on Christ, may assure himself that he is become a chief Saint, for so could Paul say, Of all sinners I am the chief, and therefore of all those Sinners that Christ came into the World to save, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I am the chief too. I shall not discuss this point at large, as being too wide to be comprehended in so poor a pittance of time, but show the condition of it briefly. He that by God's inward effectual working, is come to a clear sight and accurate feeling of his sins; that hath not spared any one minute [of] circumstance for the discovery of them, not one point of aggravation for the humbling of himself, he that being thus prepared for his journey to Christ with his burden on his back, shall then take his flight and keep upon the wing, till he fix firmly on him, may be as sure that he shall dy the Death, and reign the Life of a Saint, as he is resolved that God is faithful in his promises: then may he live with this syllogism of confidence, not presumption in his mouth, 'It is a faithful saying, that Christ came into the World to justify, sanctify, and save believing humbled sinners ; but I find myself an humble and believing, and consequently, a justified, sanctified Sinner; therefore 'tis as certain a truth, that I shall be saved. And thus you see Paul's, I am the chief, ] interpreted by that assured persuasion, Rom. viii.38. that neither death nor life, nor any creature shall be able to separate him, &c. I will not discuss the nature of this assurance, whether it be an act of faith or hope, only thus much, it seems to be derived or bestowed upon hope by Faith, an expectation of the performances of the promises grounded upon a firm Faith in them, and so to be either an eminent degree of Faith, or a confirmed Hope. The use of this point is, not to be content with this bare assurance, but to labor to confirm it to us by those effects which do ordinarily and naturally spring from it. Such are first joy, or glorying, mentioned Heb. iii.6. the confidence and rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end ; secondly, a delight in God, mentioned, 1 Pet. i.3.6. a lively hope, &c. wherein 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , you exult, you greatly rejoice and are delighted; thirdly a patient adhering to God in a firm expectation of this state, even in the midst of all manner of Worldly evils, mentioned Isa. viii.17. I will wait upon the Lord which hideth his face, and I will look for him, i. e. I will wait his leisure patiently, for I am sure he will uncover his face. And Job more plainly and vehemently, Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him. So verbatim, Rom. viii.25. then do we in patience wait for it, and 2 Thes. iii.5. The patient waiting for Christ. Fourthly, As an effect of this patience, a silence and acquiescence in the Will of God, without any desire of hastening or altering any effect of it. So Psa. xxxvii.7. Rest in the Lord, where the Hebrew hath it, be silent to the Lord, and wait patiently for him, i. e. as the consequents interpret it, quarrel not with God for anything that happens according to his will, but against thine, as the prosperity of the wicked, and the like. Fifthly, A confirmation of the mind, as making our hope the anchor of our soul, sure and steadfast, Heb. vi.17. that we may thereby in patience possess our souls, Luke xxi.19. And lastly, a desire of sanctifying ourselves, according to that 1 Jo. iii.3. Every man that hath this hope in him, purifies himself, even as Christ is pure. These six effects briefly set down, may be certain marks to you, by which you may judge how just grounds your assurance stands on, and whereby it is to be distinguished from presumption.

Thus have I with all possible haste made an end of these words; and at this time, out of the cadence of them, observed to you the tenderness of St. Paul and every regenerate man, at the least mention of a sin or Sinner, illustrated by the opposite hardness of heart, proved of soft, tender parts of our body, and made use of for a crisis or judgment of our estate and livelihood in grace. Secondly, out of the words themselves we observed the necessity, and method of aggravating our sins, especially original sin against ourselves, which we made use of against those that are more quick-sighted in other men's estates and guilts than their own. Thirdly, We closed all with that comfortable doctrine of assurance, discussed to you in brief with six effects of it, proposed for an Example to your care and imitation.

Now the God which hath created us, redeemed, called, justified us, will sanctify in his time, will prosper this his ordinance to that end, will direct us by his grace to his glory; To him be ascribed due the honor, the praise, the glory, the dominion, which through all ages of the world have been given to him that sitteth on the Throne, to the Holy Spirit, and to the Lamb for evermore.

CAP. I.

§. 1. S Olenne illud inter plerosque Presbyteranae paritatis assertores semper fuit, à Mysterio Iniquitatis, ipso Apostolorum aevo, lacertos movente, exordium sumere; hoc Antidoto seu 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 saluti suae se quadantenus providisse, & contra primorum seculorum ex adverso propositam praxin, quam sibi satis infestam esse agnoscunt, hoc jam scuto obtectos, abunde se causae suae consuluisse, censentes.

§. 2. Sic, ut alios taceam, Al. Hendersonus Scotorum foedera • orum antesignanus, Optimo Regi Carolo 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Episcoporum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & superioritatem (ut & alia omnia, quae in Reformatione Anglicanâ, ut essentialia, retinebantur) ab Apostolis ipsis, & universali Primitivae Ecclesiae praxi ad nos deductam affirmanti, hoc statim reponendum existimavit, Diotrephen ipsis Apostolorum temporibus praeeminentiam affectasse, mysteriúmque iniquitatis jam tum operari coepisse.

§. 3. D. Blondello tritum illud Mysterii Iniquitatis effugium, ut videtur, non placuit. At, quod eodem recidit, prolixiore 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quinque notissima, sub Apostolorum aevo, Christiani nominis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 complectente, sic demum hypothesi suae praeludere voluit.

§. 4. Nos, ut in posterum isti praejudicio reditum omnem intercludamus, simúlque ne ad hujus unici 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mentionem perculsi, statim ab omni Primitivae Ecclesiae (cui, Deo providente, ipsum Scripturarum Canonem acceptum debemus) fide, praxíque, tanquam à Syrtibus & scopulis, tanquam ab ipsissimo Antichristi prodromo, & faeciale, ad Novatorum castra transfugiendum putemus, Ne hoc unico stratagemate, universum Christi depositum prodi patiamur, Ne denique, quicquid 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ex fidei aut disciplinae Christianae matriculâ expunctum aliquando optaturus sit (seu sit illud sacrosanctae Trinitatis doctrina vere mystica, seu Ecclesiasticae censurae, seu ipsorum Ecclesiae Christi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , i. e. sacramentorum administratio) id sub odioso mysterii iniquitatis titulo deturpatum (quoties cuiquam male feriato alastori libuerit) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , statim rejiciatur, statuimus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 rem integram ab exordio petitam ad examen vocare, & quàm nihil aut nostrae causae officiat, aut ad Presbyteranam 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 astruendam conducat, quod ab Antichristis, 1 Joh. 2.18. (aut, quod ejusdem monetae est, à mysterio iniquitatis ) quod à schismate Corinthiaco, quod à Diotrephis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , aut singulis, aut universis, concludi possit, paucissimis, quibus res tanta comprehendi potest, verbis monstrare. Illud interim pro confesso sumentes, effossa umbratica Synagogae elementa, Act. 15.1. & abjuratam â Nicolaitis sanctitatem, aliáque, magnifice, & ut cumulum augeant, à D. Blondello memorata, non magis ad Episcoporum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quàm Presbyteranorum paritatem impugnandam, quâvis ration accommodari posse. Nec igitur opus esse, ut de iis lectori molestiam creemus.

CAP. II.

§. 1. IMprimis igitur, quod ad Antichristum, & ut ait Johannes, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , simúlque quod ad 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (inquit Apostolus, 2 Thess. 2.7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , spectat, nos, prolixius forsan, quàm pro instituti nostri ration par erat, at sic, ut Scripturarum studioso lectori rem non ingratam nos facturos speremus, Origines rerum sectabimur; Et primo quid sit illud, quod utroque Johannes, & Pauli ad Thessalonicenses loco describitur: Secundo, quàm nihil ad Primitivae Ecclesiae authoritatem minuendam, aut ad Episcoporum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quatenus à nobis asseritur, enervandam pertineat, explicabimus.

§. 2. Quod ut recte fiat, illud fundamenti loco jaciendum est, Christum mox discipulis suis ipsique mundo valedicturum, Matthaei 24. (capite integro) adventum suum, v. 3.27, 37, 39. (non illum ad judicandos vivos & mortuos novissimum, sed) medium, post annos non adeo multos, brevi futurum, ad ultionem de 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Judaeis sumendam, destinatum (cujus igitur Mat. 16.27, 28. Joh. 21.23. & alibi saepiùs in Evangeliis & Epistolis mentio occurrit) solenniter praenuntiásse, additis insuper 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quibus adventus iste, seu, quae idem sonat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Judaici, aut Mosaici seculi consummatio, eâ ipsâ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 34. sive ea 30. sive, quod aliquando fit, 40. annorum spatio definienda sit) i. e. quibusdam qui tunc interfuerunt (& Joanne praecipue) adhuc viventibus Mat. 16.28. obventura, praenosci potuit.

§. 3. Inter ea, pro tribus certis temporibus, tres Pseudoprophetarum, & id genus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , mentiones occurrunt. Prima v. 5. ultima v. 24. media v. 11. Primus locus Pseudochristis tribuitur, non multis post ascensionem Christi annis, (quibus certissimum est Judaeos Messiam expectasse, licet Christum verum & unicum Messiam repudiaverint) se pro Messiâ frequenter venditantibus. De quibus vere dictum illud [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] per hos nempe non praesignificari instantem, aut subito ingruentem hunc Christi adventum adeo Judaeis exitialem, sed eum aliquot jam annis protelatum iri, ut tandem ferociori & certiori ruinâ universos obrueret. In his erat Theudas (non ill Judâ Gaulonitâ antiquior, Act. 5.36, 37. sed cujus apud Josephum, Fado Judaeam procurante, sub Claudii imperio, mentio est) qui, ut ex Josepho Eusebius affirmat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , seduxit multos. Quod ipsum hîc Christus praedixit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , inquiens, multos decepturi sunt. His itidem Aegyptius, apud Lucam, Act. 21.38. ut & apud Eusebium ex Josepho. His Dositheus Samaritanus apud Originem, (qui se Christum esse suis persuasit) aliique, singuli se Liberatores Patriae futuros spondentes, & sic (ex definitione Lucae. c. 24.21. qui pro Christo [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , eum qui Israëlem liberaturus est ] poni voluit) Messiae titulum sibi vindicantes.

§. 4 Sic & tertio seu ultimo loco, v. 24. Pseudochristi itidem, & Pseudoprophetae ponuntur, non iidem, qui prius memorabantur, sed (ex distincta rerum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 dignoscendi) qui post obsessam v. 15. Hierosolymam prodibant, idque sub ipso temporis articulo, quo Christiani Judaeâ fugam capessebant, v. 16. Cùm scilicet factâ primùm per Sestium Gallum Hierosolymae obsidione, v. 15. statimque ( Deo sic volente) recedente ad tempus obsessore, Judaeorum fideles (quotquot fuerunt, & qui Christo monenti morem gesserunt) factam sibi evadendi copiam amplecterentur. Quod quidem multis feliciter cessisse nos docet Josephus, ut & Eusebius l. 3. c. 5. Qui illud 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , secundum oraculum quoddam probatis illic viris per revelationem traditum, factum esse affirmat: eóque fretos oraculo, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ante bellum ex urbe migrasse, & Pellam usque superato Jordane, confertim transcurrisse. Tunc enim sub isto calamitosissimo temporis articulo, v. 20, 21. (ipsaque opportunitate fugam suadente) non mirum est plurimos se labascentis populi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & statores venditasse, si quis uxorem Lothi imitatus, iis aurem praebiturus esset.

§. 5. At quod rem nostram imprimis spectat, illud à mediâ temporis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (v. 11. descriptâ) petendum est. Ibi enim immediate ante 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , abominationem desolationis stantem in loco sancto, seu (ut explicatiùs Lucas) Hierosolymam (Romanis) exercitibus obsessam, Haec quinque simul praenuntiari videas, singula ab eodem fonte scaturientia: Primo, Judaeos in Christianos rabide desaevituros esse, ipsosque ad 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 necemque tradituros, v. 9. Secundo, Christianos multos saevitia persecutionum, v. 9. perterritos, scandalizatum iri, v. 10. i. e. Christo plane abrenuntiaturos. Tertio, desertores hosce, statim Christianos Christo crucíque constantius adhaerentes, internecino odio prosecuturos, ipsísque persecutoribus ad supplicium tradituros, v. 10. Quarto, surrecturos Pseudoprophetas, multósque secum in perniciem seducturos. Quinto, ex hâc ingruentium calamitatum mole (quam Apostolus per 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 dies malos, Christus per 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , multiplicationem iniquitatis indigitat) faturum esse, ut multorum charitas refrigesceret, i. e. ut fidelium, & satis jamdiu constantium Christi athletarum, & consessorum quammulti, de perfectâ istâ, & ardenti Christi (& veritatis, 2 Thess. 2.10.) dilection multum remitterent.

CAP. III.

§. 1. HIS quinque mirum est quàm dilucide, & signanter integram fere Gnosticorum Historiam, à Paulo, sub titulo 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (at 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) 1 Tim. 6.20. & alibi non semel designatam, à Christo per 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Apoc. 2.24. (quae ipsi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 appellabant) à Barnabâ itidem per universam Epistolam, obscurius adumbratam, & postea à scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis uberiùs descriptam, Christus delineaverit, &, quatenus ea excidio Hierosolymitano praelusura erat, Apostolis hîc praenunciaverit.

§. 2. Quod ad primum, i. e. Judaeorum in Christianos rabiem, attinet, Post ea quae Christus Apostolis praedixit, Mat. 10.17. & 23. Mar. 13.9. multis opus non erit. Consulatur prae aliis capitis immedia • e praecedentis ( Mat. 23.) perioche ultima, ubi (ad implendam mensuram patrum suorum, qui sic se Prophetarum jamdiu sanguine foedaverant) praedicit Christus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , à se mittendos, ab ipsis statim neci traditum iri, Sic ut veniat super eos (istis decessorum suorum vestigiis perdite insistentes) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , omnis sanguis justus, vel justorum, ab Abele ad Zachariam (filium Barachiae, ait Matthaeus, Baruchi Josephus, sic ut Ananus Josepho dictus, Lucae Ananias dicitur) ill enim 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in medio templi, inquit Josephus, Matthaeus vero, quod idem est, inter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sanctuarium ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Luc. 11.51) & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( altare scil. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 positum) occidebatur, idque à Judaeorum zelotis immediate ante obsidionem Hierosolymitanam, sic ut Abeli 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 diserte, & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 respondeat novissimus Zacharias. De quo [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] jam tum dixit Christus, Ad illud vel Prophetarum more, • utura per praeterita enunciantium, vel forte Aoristo non praeterita, sed futura etiam comprehendente, [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quem futurum est à vobis occisum esse ] (sic enim manifestum est ipsius Christi, Stephani, Jacobi Hierosolymitani Episcopy, nondum peractas 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hâc 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mentione continendas esse) sic ut ill (adhuc vivus, vidensque) ante divinam hanc ingruentem vindictam occisus praevideatur. Idem itidem in universum ab Apostolo in thesi affirmatur, Gal. 4.29. Ut tunc secundum carnem genitus (Ishmael scilicet, & sub • cjus nomine, Judaei) persequebatur eum qui secundum Spiritum genitus est, i. e. Isaacum, & sub eo Christianos, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , nos hoc nunc fieri videmus. Illud etiam ubi{que} & fuse in Apostolorum Actis, seu potius Martyrologio patet, per modum historiae. Videatur, sic placet, Act. 17. ubi Paulo jam primum Thessalonicae fidem Christi annunciante in Judaeorum synagogâ, statim adjicitur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 5. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (ii sunt 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , aut Lictores, qui in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 aut comitiis civitatis illius 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 inserviebant) convocato populo contra eum tumultum ciebant, statímque eum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ad comitia, adeóque ad supplicium protrahere cupiebant: Paulóque non invento, Jasonem 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 6. Sic & postea Beroeae praedicantem 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 insectabantur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 13. Sic & Corinthi, Act. 18.12. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Judaei unanimiter Paulo obsistebant, statimque eum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ad tribunal ducebant, violatae Legis Mosaicae eum postulantes, v. 13. Sic denique & Hierosolymis, (Act. 21.27.) Judaei itidem Asiatici 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , eíque manus inferebant, clamantes, Hic est ill qui omnes instituit 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 28. statímque sequitur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 31. Videatur 2 Cor. 11.24. A Judaeis, inquit, quinquies 39. plagas sustuli, ter virgis (ab iisdem Judaeis) caesus sum, semel lapidatus, v. 25. saepius 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , à contribulibus illi imminentibus periculis, v. 26. (ut & à Gnosticis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 saepius) Hinc itaque rectissimum illud Tertulliani contra Gnost. c. 10. Synagogas Judaeorum fontes persecutionum fuisse, Earum nempe quae Christi discipulis intentabantur; Ut & illud Justini de Barchochebâ, postea quidem, sub Adriani imperio, exorto, sed notissimo Judaeorum Ductore, & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Qui, inquit ill, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , solos Christianos, ni Christum abjuraturi essent, ad saeva supplicia dari jussit, Apol. 2. Quod & de Judaeis, in universum, prius pronunciaverat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , inquit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Judai nos hosts aestim • nt, punientes & occidentes quandocunque possunt.

§. 3. Ad secundum quod attinet, De Christianis ad crucis scandalum impingentibus, clarissimum fuit, quod in sementis parabola Petrosae terrae obventurum praedixit Christus, Mar. 4. ubi de 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , radicem non habentibus sic pronunciat, v. 17. post receptam alacriter, & cum gaudio fidem, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quamprimum persecutiones & procella Fidem impetant, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , statim scandalizantur. Quod quidem sic intelligendum putârim, ut qui Christo semel crediderint, hoc crucis scandalo deterriti, non statim ad priorem 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 recessuri essent, sed ad aliud aliquod vitae genus, quod incolumitatem & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , pacata, & prospera, & jucunda omnia ipsis sponderet, lubentes diverterent, eo quidem ipso remedio tristissimum fidei Christianae, cujus potissima pars est crucis gestatio, naufragium facientes, statim etiam & alia non pauca malae mentis retrimenta, Universae Christianae doctrinae ruinam interminantia, huic fundamento superstructuri. Quod quidem hîc statim factum apparet, cûm, grassante in Christianos (à Judaeis praecipue invectâ) persecutione, eâque non diu ante hunc supremum Judaeis dilucentem diem, multi Christianae fidei professores, ob mala Christiano nomini intentata, à verâ fide ad Gnosticorum dogmata, ipsis pro scutis & antidotis futura, deficerent. Quo, sine dubio illud Petri spectat, 1 Pet. 2.8. multos ad Evangelium Christi impingere, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 scilicet, qui, inquit Petrus, ad illud 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; decerneute quippe Christo, ut quod terrae petrosae inseminabatur, incalescente sole exaresceret, ut insinceri Christiana fidei professores, ingruentibus persecutionibus, ad haereticorum & Apostatarum castra catervatim transfugerent, seque eo indicio 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 monstrarent; quod & Simeon praedixit, Luc. 2.34. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ad ruinam 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 constitutus est.

§. 4. Illud enim de Simonis asseclis, aliísque istius seculi Gnosticis ex hoc fonte oriundis, imprimis notandum est. Duplici eos illecebrâ, non eâ solum, quâ libidinibus, sed & alterâ quá incolumitati & securitati omnium consulebatur, carnales quidem, sed & timidos, ad partes suas pellexisse; ideóque simul positos inveniri ex parte unâ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , timidos & infidels, ex alterâ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , abominandos & impuros, Apoc. 21.8. quibus Gnosticos istius seculi designari, reliqua 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 caterva simul posita, mihi satis persuasum dedit.

§. 5. Quod ad primam attinet, id satis omnibus notum est, hos 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (quibus ubique Clemens 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Pios & vere dictos Gnosticos opponit) multos Christi professores ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 2 Pet. 2.18.) hâc voluptatum carnalium illecebrâ inescasse, & quotquot ad eorum partes accedebant, (seu, ut ait Eusebius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) iis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , infandam impuritatum omnium licentiam intulisse, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , inquit Theodoretus, ut & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , incontinentiam, molliciem & nefanda omnia pro legibus discipulis suis proponentes. Sic & alibi idem Eusebius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hi Magi & deceptores, eandem cum Christianis doctrinae denominationem induentes, Christianos, quotquot fraudibus eorum capti sunt, in perditionis profunditatem secum trabunt, I.IV. c. ζ. (quo pertinet illud Petri de istis dictum, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , inescant instabiles animas, 2 Pet. 2.4.) Simúlque iisdem technis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , alios fidei rudes à salutari viâ, aditúque ad fidem iis patente avertunt.

§. 6. Istas 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , & nefanda piacula recensere non vacabit. Ex quibus interim quam plurima Epistolarum Apostolicarum loca, Rom. 1.29. & 13.13. 1 Cor. 5.10, 11. & 6.9. 2 Cor. 12.21. Gal. 5.9. Ephes. 4.19. & 5.3. 1 Thess. 4.6. 1 Pet. 4.3. 2 Pet. 2.14. Jud. 4. Col. 3.5. de 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (non ut nummorum amor, sed ut masculae veneris usus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 voice notatur) de 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 item, & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 explicare pronum est.

§. 7. Sic in Epistol â Barnabae, ubi ad 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 viam tenebrarum (quam priora ad Gnosticos pertinere monstrant [ Peribit homo habens viam veritatis scientiam ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) & se à via tenebrosâ non continens adhuc ]) referuntur 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (alibi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quibus viva Gnosticorum imago delineatur.

§. 8. Sic & in Epistolâ Polycarpi, monitum illud p. 22. [ut abstineatis ab avaritiâ ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sine dubio) ut fitis casti ] cui statim adjicitur, si quis non abstinuerit ab avaritiâ ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) ab Idololatriá coinquinabitur. Multos interim, quibus crux non placuit, tam molli, & delicato, & impuro dogmate, adeo carni & sanguini gratissimo, irretitos esse, 2 Pet. 2.18. quis mirabitur?

§. 9. Secundum dogma (quo praecipue 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ignavis, & timidis, & à crucis scandalo abhorrentibus se conciliabant) his verbis proponebatur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Inter licita & adiaphora ponendum esse, si quis temporibus persecutionum (si à Paganis periculum esset) Idolothyta gustaret, (quoties vero à Judaeis metueret) ipsam demum fidem abjuraret. Sic eorum sententiam descripsit Agrippa Castor in Elencho suo contra Basilidem ; Sic & Irenaeus, si quis, inquiunt, confitetur crucifixum, adhuc servus est, & sub potestate eorum qui corpora fecerunt; Qui autem negaverit, liberatus est.

§. 10. Illud quidem certum est, Basilidem post haec excidii Hierosolymitani tempora, venena sua Ecclesiae propinasse; At & illud constat, ipsum ea antecessoribus suis, & diserte Simony accepta debuisse, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Non ill suopte ingenio periculosa, & exitialia dogmata primus excogitabat, sed à Saturnilo & Simone argumenta eorum mutuatus est, inquit Epiphanius haer. 24. &, ut semel dicam, semina universae segetis, quâ postea omnes fere Ecclesiae 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , tanquam ad 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 tristem & exitialem 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in hac unâ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 heresy jacta sunt.

§. 11. Quod de Basilidianis Agrippa, & Irenaeus, idem etiam de Helk • saitis (ab Helk • i, Trajani tempore, oriundis) Epiphanius notavit, haer. 19. & 53. ex eorum sententiâ, Fidem persecutionis tempore abjurari sine peccato posse, modo quis cord eam retinuerit ; Ut & Eusebius ex Origen, in Psal. 82. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (non dubitarim legendum esse, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) i. e. qui semel ore Christum confessus est, si à confession ad martyrium voice • ur (illud enim per 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , necessitates, angustias, extremum scilicet vitae periculum, intelligendum est) illi tunc fidem abnegare licet, modo in cord non fiat. Quibus concordat illud Justini mox producendum, hos nempe qui Idolothytis se libere vesci affirmant, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , se tamen dicere Jesum confiteri, in Dial. cum Tryph.

§. 12. Sic de Prodico, & Valentino ab eâdem hâc stirpe ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , inquit Epiphanius, ab hâc magnâ Gnosticorum profession) prognatis affirmat Tertullianus in Scorpiaco, ubi martyrii bonum ex instituto demonstrate, illúdque ab his Martyriorum, quos vocat, refragatoribus, dogma recenset, Non esse palàm confitendum Christum, nec pro eo subeundum Martyrium.

§. 13. Imo & argumentis eos dogma suum fulciendum putasse, c. 1. Semel nempe Christum pro nobis obiisse, occisum semel, ne nos occideremur, nec ideo à nobis vicem repetendam esse, nisi & ill salutem de nostrâ nece expectat, nec igitur hìc, aut apud homines confessionem constitutam, sed in coelo, c. 10. nec enim Deum sanguinem humanum sitire, nec Christum vicem passionis, quasi ipse de eá salutem consecuturus esset, reposcere, cap. 15.

§. 14. Adversus hos, ill Divinissimus Scriptor valide & prolixe militat, Primo, à praeceptis Dei contra Idololatriam latis, ducto argumento, c. 2. ex quibus, inquit, tota Martyriorum ratio constabit, c. 3. dein ex notissimo Johannes loco ad hanc materiam accommodatissimo, In dilection timorem non esse, timorem scilicet, qui negationis author sit; cùm dilectio, quae eum foras mittit, sit animatrix confessionis, c. 12.

§. 15. Longum esset ex isto Scorpiaco, seu contra Gnosticorum Scorpios parato alexipharmaco, omnia recensere. Quae ipsa ad verbum frequenter imitatur Beatus Cyprianus, lib. de Exhort. ad Mart.

§. 16. Isto imbutos semel, & munitos dogmate, Christum abnegaturos, statimque, quotiescunque Christianis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , dies mali impenderent, Fidei nuntium remissuros, quis sanus dubitaverit? Quod quidem ubique ante excidium Hierosolymitanum, hoc ipso, de quo jam loquebatur Christus, tempore, solenniter factum est.

§. 17. Si à Paganis periculum esset, Gnostici illico Idolothyta comedendo se coram illis purgabant, contra Christianos interim se tuentes ex eo, quôd Idolum nihil sit; & contra hoc dogma disputantem Paulum 1 Cor. 8. à 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mentione ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 quippe 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) exordium fecisse videas, v. 1. eámque 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (dilectioni scilicet isti aut Christi, aut veritatis Christianae 2 Thess. 2.10. quam hîc refrigescentem praevidit Christus) opponendam censuisse, v. 2. cujus geminata itidem mentio est, v. 7. & 10. Sic de Gnosticis Irenaeus; Idolothyta contemnere, & nihil arbitrari, sed sine aliquâ trepidatione iis ut • , l. 1. c. 23. ut & ante Irenaeum Justinus in Dial. cum Tryphone. Cùm enim Judaeus ill Justino objiceret, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , multos eorum qui se Christum confiteri dicerent, idolothyta edere, & se nihil ex eo detrimenti capere affirmare ; Respondet Justinus, ex hoc ipso quod tales essent, Christianos in fide confirmatiores reddi, cùm quae Christus futura praedixerit, [ Surrecturos scilicet multos Pseudochristos, &c. multósque decepturos ] sic impleta conspiciant.

§. 18. Si autem à Judaeis procella oriretur, Gnostici itidem statim fidem abnegare, se Judaeos mentiri, & discipulis suis, ut circumciderentur, persuasis, in carne eorum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Mosaicae legis zelum omnem prae se ferre, Gal. 6.12. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , coram ipsis gloriari, v. 13. diligentissimos se ipsorum disciplinae observatores venditare; Non quod ad normam istam, vita, moresque eorum quovismodo amussitarentur, non quod certo affirmari possit, ipsos circumcisionem suscepisse, (nec enim necessum est, ut illud v. 13. [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] sic reddatur, ut circumcisos illos fuisse, magis quàm legem observasse, exinde concludatur, sed sic, ut [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] integram periodum afficiat [ neque ipsi circumcisi legem servant ] i. e. [ neque ipsi circumciduntur, neque legem observant. ] Quo & illud Ignatii spectat, Ep. ad Philadelph. Satius est à circumciso Christianismum, quàm 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ab incircumciso (haeretico, aut Gnostico) Judaismum, i. e. circumcisionis legem accipere) sed tantummodo, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ut persecutionem à Judaeis, Christianis, quà legis desertoribus, intentatam evitarent.

§. 19. Id illis aliquandiu satis feliciter, & ex animo ipsorum successisse notârunt antiqui, cùm alii omnes Christiani, aut à Judaeis, aut Paganis infestarentur, neminem tamen illorum, aut 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , aut 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , aut molestiam à Judaeis, aut à Paganis persecutoribus mortis supplicium passum esse; Sic de ipso Simone, & ipsius sectatoribus, Gentiles alloquens, Justinus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Apol. 2. à vobis persecutionem non sunt passi, & iterum, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , An infamia illa, & in vulgus sermonibus sparsa facinora in se admittant, nescimus, Persecutione quidem eos non peti, neque occidi à vobis, ob ipsa etiam dogmata, satis novimus.

§. 20. Hinc illud putarim S. Petri, 2 Epist. 2.1. de his ipsis temporibus, & Pseudoprophetis (introducentibus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sectas perditionis, quas ex v. 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18. Gnosticorum heresies fuisse statim dignosces) verba facientis, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , eos Christum ipsum, qui sanguine eos suo redemerat, cum sanguinis sui periculo confiteri nolle, sed ingruente calamitate statim abnegare, eos interim, cùm saluti suae, & incolumitati sic consulant, vitas, quas sic solicit servare cupiunt, disperdere, junctísque cum Judaeis manibus, in eandem se cum illis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 praecipitare, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) subitaneam sibi ruinam accersentes eam nempe Judaeis jamdiu appropinquantem, Mat. 3.2. & 10.7. & 24.33. Mar. 13.29. Luc. 10.11. & 21.30, 31, &c. ut & aliam postmodum funestiorem) ex quâ, qui fidei constanter adhaesurus sit, eum ante omnes evasurum Christus praedixerat, Mat. 10.22. & 24.13. & Mar. 13.13. ut & vitam aeternam in lucro accepturum. Quo respexisse Sanctum Barnabam nullus dubito, cùm de Gnosticis verba faciens, eósque cum fidelibus Christi asseclis componens, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , inquit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In regno Christi, mali, & sordidi, aut luctuosi dies erunt, in quibus (pereuntibus Gnosticis) nos incolumitatem consequemur, & statim, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , nobis quidem lucida, illis tenebricosa obventura sunt.

§. 21. Idem de temporibus suis Judas edixit, v. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , irrepsisse tunc in Ecclesiam nonnullos, gratiam Dei in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 transmutantes, Jesumque solum Dominum suum abnegantes, quos Gnosticos fuisse universa Epistola luculenter monstrat; Et de iis diserte dicitur in initio versus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ad hoc judicium praescriptos, i. e. praedicente Christo, & Apostolis designatos fuisse.

§. 22. Quid sit illud [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] ex prius-laudato Petri commate liquebit, nempe 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 istá 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , repentina perditio (vel, ut sequitur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 3.) que Gnosticos, quà tales, aliósque, ex mente Gnosticorum, saluti suae solicit prospicientes, ipsóque, quo se tutos sperabant, dogmate se prodentes, oppressura erat. Illud Eusebius sub Claudii imperio factum narrat, Simon, inquit, transfossus, & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , potentia ejus statim extincta est, Et iterum, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , dicto citiùs penitus extincti sunt. Idemque Christus praemonstraverat, obscuriùs quidem, cùm 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , eos esse peculiariter affirmaret, quibus ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) ista ex Judaicâ clade evasio, seu incolumitas speranda esset; At & luce clarius, Mat. 16.25. Cùm de crucis tollendae disciplinâ illud adderet, eum, qui animam suam salvam facere voluerit, perditurum esse, quod de aeternâ animae salute neutiquam dici potuit, cùm eam servandi, aut incolumem praestandi consilium, nullo modo culpabile, aut puniendum fuerit, sed de vitae