ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the Lords of the High Court of Parliament, in their solemn Fast held on Ash-wednesday, Feb. 18.  
And by their appointment published:  
By Ios: Exon.  
LONDON, Printed by M. Flesher, for Nath. Butter.  
1629.   
Acts 2. 37, 38, 40. 
37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said to Peter, and the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren what shall we do?  
38, Then said Peter unto them, Repent and be baptised, etc. etc.  
40. And with many other words did he testify, and exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.  
WHo knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher? that was his trade both by Sea and Land, if we may not rather say, that as Simon, he was a Fisherman, but, as Peter, he was a fisher of men; He that called him so, made him so; And surely his first draught of fishes, which, as Simon, he made at our Saviour's command, might well be a true type of the first draught of men, which, as Peter, he made in this place; for, as then, the nets were ready to crack, and the ship to sink, with store; so here, when he threw forth his first drag net of heavenly doctrine, & reproof, three thousand souls were drawn up at once. This text was as the sacred cord, that drew the net together; and pulled up this wondrous shoal of converts to God; It is the sum of Saint Peter's Sermon, if not at a Fast, yet at a general humiliation, which is more and better; (for wherefore fast we but to be humbled? and if we could be duly humbled, without fasting, it would please God a thousand times better, then to fast formally, without true humiliation; Indeed, for the time, this was a feast, the feast of Pentecost; but for the estate of these jews, it was dies cinerum, a day of contrition; a day of deep hunger, and thirst after righteousness, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Neither doubt I to say, that the festivity of the season added not a little to their humiliation; like as we are never so apt to take cold, as upon a sweat: and that wind is ever the keenest, which blows cold out of a warm coast; No day could be more afflictive than an Ash-wednesday, that should light upon a solemn Pentecost; so it was here: Every thing answered well; The Spirit came down upon them in a mighty wind; and behold, it hath rattled their hearts together; the house shook in the descent, and behold here, the foundations of the soul were moved; Fiery tongues appeared, & here their breasts were inflamed; Cloven tongues; and here their hearts were cut in sunder. The words were miraculous, because in a supernatural, and sudden variety of language; the matter divine, laying before them both the truth of the Messiah, and their bloody measure offered to that Lord of life, and now Compuncti cordibus, they were pricked in their hearts. Wise Solomon says, The words of the wise are like goads, and nails; here they were so; Goads, for they were, compuncti, pricked; yea, but the goad could not go so deep, that passeth but the skin; they were nails, driven into the very heart of the auditors, up to the head; the great Master of the Assembly, the divine Apostle had set them home, they were pricked in their hearts. Never were words better bestowed. It is an happy blood-letting that saves the life, this did so here: we look to the sign commonly in phlebotomy, it is a sign of our idle and ignorant superstition, Saint Peter here saw the sign to be in the heart, and he strikes happily, Compuncti cordibus, they were pricked in their hearts, and said, Men and brethren, what shall we do?  
Oh, what sweet Music was this to the Apostles ear? I dare say, none but heaven could afford better; what a pleasing spectacle was this anguish of their wounded souls? To see men come in their zealous devotions, and lay down their monies (the price of their alienated possessions) at those Apostolic feet, was nothing to this; that they came in a bleeding contrition, & prostrated their penitent and humbled souls at the beautiful feet of the messengers of peace; with Men and brethren what shall we do? Oh when, when shall our eyes be blessed with so happy a prospect? How long shall we thunder out God's fearful judgements against wilful sinners; how long shall we threaten the flames of hell to those impious wretches, who crucify again to themselues, the Lord of life, ere we can wring a sigh, or a tear from the rocks of their hearts or eyes? Woe is me that we may say too truly, as this Peter did of his other fishing; Master, we have travailed all the night and caught nothing. Surely, it may well go for night with us, whiles we labour and prevail not. Nothing? not a soul caught? Lord what is becomne of the success of thy Gospel? Who hath believed our report, or to whom is the arm● of the Lord revealed? Oh God, thou art ever thyself, thy truth is eternal, hell is where it was; if we be less worthy than thy first messengers; yet what excuse is this to the besotted world, that through obduredness and infidelity it will needs perish? no man will so much as say with the jews, What have I done, or with Saint Peter's auditors, what shall I do? Oh foolish sinners, shall ye live here always; care ye not for your souls; is there not an hell that gapes for your stubborn impenitence? Go on, if there be no remedy, go on, and dye for ever; we are guiltless, God is righteous, your damnation is just; But, if your life be fickle, death unaavoydable, if an everlasting vengrance be the necessary reward of your momentany wickedness, Oh turn, turn from your evil ways; and in an holy distraction of your remorsed souls say, with these jews, Men and brethren what shall we do? This from the general view of the occasion; we descend to a little more particularity.  
Luke, the beloved Physician, describes Saint Peter's proceeding here, much after his own trade; as of a true spiritual physician; who finding his Countrymen the jews in a desperate, and deadly condition, gasping for life, struggling with death, enters into a speedy and zealous course of their cure; And first he begins with the v part; and finding them rank of blood, and that foul, and putrified, he lets it out (compuncti cordibus) where we might show you the incision, the vein, the lancet, the orifice, the anguish of the stroke: The incision, compuncti, they were pricked; The vein in their hearts; Smile not now, ye Physicians, if any hear me this day, as if I had passed a solecism, in telling you these men were pricked in the vein of the heart, talk you of your Cephalica, and the rest, and tell us of another cistern from whence these tubuli sanguinis are derived; I tell you again (with an addition of more incongruities still) that God and his divine Physicians do still let blood in the median vein of the hart; The lancet is the keen and cutting reproof of their late barbarous crucifixion of their holy and most innocent and benign Saviour; The orifice, is the ear, (when they heard this:) what ever the local distance be of these parts; spiritually, the ear is the very surface of the heart; and whosoever would give a medicinal stroke to the heart must pass it through the ear, the sense of discipline and correction: The anguish betrays itself in their passionate exclamation; Men and brethren what shall we do?  
There is none of these, which my speech might not well take up, if not as an house to dwell in, yet as an Inn to rest and lodge in; but I will not so much as bait here; only we make this a thorough fare tothose other sacred prescriptions of saving remedies: which are three in number. The first is, evacuation of sins by a speedy repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; The second, the sovereign bath or lauer of regeneration, Baptism. The third, diet●ticall and prophylacticall receipts of wholesome caution: which I mean (with a determinate preterition of the rest) to spend my hour upon, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. But, ere I pitch upon this most useful and seasonable particularity, let me offer to your thoughts the speedy application of these gracious remedies; The blessed Apostle doth not let his patients languish under his hand in the heats and colds of hopes and fears; but so soon as ever the word is out of their mouths, Men and brethren, what shall we do? he presently administereth these sovereign receipts, Repent, be baptised, save yourselves. In acute diseases wise physicians will lose no time; only delay makes some distempers deadly. It is not for us to let good motions frieze under our fingers; How many gleeds have died in their ashes, which if they had been speedily blown, had risen into comfortable flames? The care of our zeal for God must be sure to take all opportunities of good; This is the Apostles (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) serving the time; that is, observing it; not for conformity to it when it is naught, (fie on that baseness, no let the declining time come to us, upon true and constant grounds, let not us stoop to it, in the terms of the servile yeeldance of Optatus his Donatists, Omnia pro tempore, nibil pro veritate) not, I say, for conformity to it, but for advantage of it; The emblem teaches us to take occasion by the forelock, else we catch too late. The Israelites must go forth and gather their Manna, so soon as it is fallen; if they stay but till the Sun have reached his noone-point, in vain shall they seek for that food of Angels. Saint Peter had learned this of his Master; when the shoal was ready, Christ says, Laxate retia, Luk. 5. 14. what should the net do now in the ship? When the fish was caught, Christ says, Draw up again, what should the net do now in the Sea? What should I advise you Reverend Fathers and brethren (the Princes of our Israel, as the Doctors are called, judges 5. 9) to speak a word in season; what should I presume to put into your hands, these apples of gold, with pictures of silver? What should I persuade you (to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) to wing your words with speed, when the necessity of endangered souls calls for them? Oh let us row hard whiles the tide of grace serves; when we see a large door, and effectual opened unto us, let us throng in, with a peaceable and zealous importunity to be sure; Oh let us preach the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In season, out of season; and carefully watch for the best advantages of prevailing, and when the iron of men's hearts is softened by the fire of God's Spirit, and made flexible by a meet humiliation, delay not to strike, and make a gracious impression, as Saint Peter did here Repent, be baptised; Save yourselves from this untoward generation.  
Now to the main, and all-sufficient Recipe for these feeling distempers; save yourselves. This is the very extracted quintessence of Saint Peter's long Sermon; in which alone is included and united the sovereign virtue of Repentance, of Baptism, of whatsoever help to a converting soul; so as I shall not need to speak explicitly of them, whiles I enlarge myself to the treating of this universal remedy, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.  
Would you think that Saint Luke hath given me the division of this, whether Text, or, sermon of Saint Peter? ye shall not find the like otherwhere; here it is clearly so: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He testifies, he exhorts; he testifies what he thinks of the times; he exhorts or beseeches, (as the Syriac turns it) to avoid their danger; both of them, as St. Austen well, refer to this one divine sentence: The parts whereof then, are in Saint Luke's division; Peter's reprehensory attestation, and his obtestation; His reprehensory attestation to the common wickedness, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; His obtestation of their freedom and indemnity, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Save yourselves.  
To begin with the former; what is a generation? what is an untoward generation? Either word hath some little mist about it; The very word, generation, hath begot multiplicity of senses: without all perplexedness of search, we will single out the properly intended for this place; As times, so, we in them, are in continual passage; every thing is in motion; the Heavens do not more move above our heads, in a circular revolution, than we here on earth do by a perpetual alteration; now all that are contained in one list of time, whether fixed, or uncertain, are a generation of men; Fixed; so Suidas under-reckons it by seven years; but the ordinary rate is an hundred; It is a clear text, Gen. 15. 16. But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again; when is that? (to the shame of Galatinus, who clouds it with the fancy of the four kinds, or manners of man's existence:) Moses himself interprets it, of four hundred years, verse. 13. Uncertain; so Solomon; One generation passeth, another cometh; The very term implies transitoriness: It is with men, as with Raspices; one stalk is growing, another grown up, a third withered, & all upon one root; Or, as with flowers, & some kinds of flies, they grow up, and seed, and dye; Ye see your condition, oh ye great men of the earth, It is no staying here; Orimur, morimur; after the acting of a short part upon this stage, ye must withdraw for ever; make no other account, but, with Abraham, to serve your generation, and away; ye can never more fitly hear of your mortality then now, that ye are under that roof which covers the monuments of your dead, and forgotten Progenitors.  
What is an untoward generation? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is promiscuously turned froward, perverse, crooked; The opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All is as one, what ever swerves from the right is crooked; The Law is a right line, and what crookedness is in nature, frowardness, and untowardness is in morality. Shortly, there is a double crookedness and untowardness; One negative, the other, positive; The first, is a failing of that right we should either have, or be; The second, a contrary habit of vicious qualities; and both these, are, either in credendis, or agendis; In matter of faith, or matter of fact. The first, when we do not believe, or do what we ought; the second, when we misbeleeve, or mis-live.  
The first is an untowardness of omission; the second of commission. The omissive untowardness shall lead the way; and that, first, in matter of belief. This is it whereof our Saviour spoke to the two Disciples in their warm walk to Emaus, O fools, and slow of heart to believe; whereof the proto-martyr Stephen to his auditors, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉;) The stiff neck, the uncircumcised ear, the fat heart, the blinded eye, the obdurate soul (quae nec movetur precibus, nec cedit minis, as Bernard) are wont to be the expressions of this untowardness.  
If these jews, then, after so clear predictions of the Prophets, after so miraculous demonstrations of the divine power of Christ; after so many graves ransacked, dead raised, devils ejected, limbs and eyes new-created; after such testimonies of the star, Sages, Angels, God himself; after such triumphs over death and hell, do yet detract to believe in him, and to receive him for their Messias, most justly are they, in this first kind, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a froward generation; And so is any Nation under heaven, that follows them in the steps of their peevish incredulity, more or less; shutting their eyes upon the glorious light of saving Truth; like that sullen Tree, in the Indies, which, they say, closes itself against the beams of the rising Sun, and opens only to the dampish shades of the night; where we must take this rule with us; a rule of most just proportion; that the means of light to any Nation aggravate the heinousness, and damnableness of their unbelief: The time of that ignorance God regarded not, but now: saith Saint Paul to the Athenians, Acts 17. If I had not comen, and spoken to them, they should have had no sin; saith our Saviour, joh. 15. 22. Those that walk in Cimmerian, in Egyptian darkness, it is neither shame, nor wonder, if they either err, or stumble; but, for a man to stumble the Sun in the face, or to grope by the walls at noon in the midst of Goshen, is so much more hateful, as the occecation is more willing.  
The later, which is the negative untowardness in action, is, when any Nation fails palpably in those holy duties of Piety, justice, Charity, which the royal Law of their God requireth. Of this kind are those usual complaints; The fear of God is not before their eyes. God looked to see if there were any that looked after God, and behold there was none; The righteous is perished from the children of men; Behold the tears of the oppressed, and none comforted them. The Prophets are full of these querulous notes; there is not a page of them free; yea hardly shall ye meet with one line of theirs, which doth not brand their Israel with this defect of holiness.  
From the negative, cast your eyes upon the positive crookedness, or untowardness; That is, in matter of faith, the maintenance of impiety, misbelief, heresy, superstition, atheism, and what ever other intellectual wickedness. In matter of fact, Idolatries, profane carriage, violation of God's days and ordinances; disobediences, murders, adulteries, thefts, drunkenness, lies, detractions, or any other actual rebellion against God. Behold, I have drawn forth before you an hellish rabble of sins, enough to mar a world; what ever Nation now or succession of men abounds either in these sinful omissions, or these heinous commissions; whether in matter of judgement, or manners, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an untoward generation; That which makes a man crooked, or untoward, makes a generation so; for what is a generation, but a resultance of men? their number doth not vary their condition. But let not our zeal (as it oft doth) make us uncharitable; when a whole generation is taxed for untowardness, think not that none are free, No, not one, saith the Psalmist; by way of servant aggravation; All seek their own, saith the Apostle; all, in comparison: but, never time's were so over grown with iniquity, as that God hath not left himself some gracious remainders; when the thievish Chaldeans and Sabeans have done their worst, there shall be a messenger, to say I am escaped; Never was harvest or vintage so curiously inned, that some glean were not left in the field; some clusters among the leaves: But these few, if they may give a blessing to the times, yet they cannot give a style; the denomination still follows the greater (though the worse) part; let these bee never so good; the generation, is, and is noted for evil. Let me therefore here commend to your better thoughts these three emergent considerations: 1. The irreparable wrong, and reproach that lewd men bring upon the very ages and nations where they live. 2. The difference of times, and ages, in respect of the degrees of evil. 3. The warrant of the free censure of ill-deserving times, or Nations.  
It were happy if the injury of a wicked man could be confived to his own bosom, that he only should far the worse for his sins; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. as the Greek rule runs; If it were but selfe-do, selfe-have, as the old word is; But as his lewdness is (like some odious sent) diffused through the whole room where he is; so it reacheth to earth and heaven; yea to the very times and generations, upon which he is unhappily fall'n. Doubtless there were many worthy Saints in these very times of Saint Peter; there was the blessed mother of Christ, the paragon of sanctity; there was a beavye of those devout, and holy dames that attended the doctrine, bewailed the death, and would have embalmed the corpse of our blessed Saviour; there were the twelve Apostles; the seventy Disciples; the hundred and twenty names that were met in one room at jerusalem, Acts 1. 25. The ●iue hundred brethren that saw Christ after his glorious and victorious resurrection; besides those many thousands, that believed, through their word, in all the parts of judea, and Galslee, yet, for all that, the Apostle brands this with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an untoward generation.  
It is not in the virtue of a few to drown the wickedness of the more; If we come into a field that hath some good plenty of corn, and some store of weeds, though it be red with poppy, or yellow with ca●locke, or blew with wild bottles or scabious, we still call it a corn field; but, if we come into a barne-floore, and see some few grains scattered amongst an heap of chaff, we do not call it a corne-heape, the quantity of the offal devours the mention of those insensible grains: Thus it is with times, and nations; A little good is not seen amongst much ill; A righteous Lot cannot make his City to be no Sodom; wickedness as it helps to corrupt, so to shame a very age. The Orator Tertullus, when he would plead against Paul, says, We have ●ound this man (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a pestilence● Act. 24. 5. Foolish Tertullus, ●hat mistook the Antidote for the poison, the remedy for the disease▪ but had S. Paul been such ●s thy mesprison supposed 〈◊〉 he had been such as thy unjust 〈◊〉 now makes thy sel●e, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the plague of thy people▪ A 〈◊〉 he infects the world with sin, the very age with infamy; Malus vir malum publicum, is not a more old, then true word; Are there then in any nation under heaven lewd miscreants, whose hearts are Atheists, whose tongues are blasphemers, whose bodies are ● stews; whose lips are nothing but a factory of close villainy; let them please themselves, and let others (if ye will) applaud them for their beneficial contributions to the public affairs, in the style of bonu● ciui● a good patriot; as men whose parts may be useful to the weal-public; but, I say, such men are no better than the bane of their Country, the stain of their age; Turpis est pars quae suo toti ●on ●●n●e●it as G●rson well; It is an ill member, for which all the body fares the worse: Hear this then, ye glorious sinners, that brag of your good affections, and faithful services to your dear Country; your hearts, your heads, your purses, your hands (ye say) are pressed for the public good; yea, but are your hearts godless? are your lives filthy? let me tell you, your sins do more disservice to your nation, than yourselves are worth: All your valour, wisdom, subsidiary helps cannot counterpoise one dram of your wickedness; Talk what ye will; sin is a shame to any people, saith wise Solomon; ye bring both a curse, and a dishonour upon your Nation; It may thank you for the hateful style of (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a froward generation: This, for our first observation.  
Never generation was so strait, as not to be distorted with so me powerful sins, but there are differences; and degrees in this distortion; even in the very first world were Giants, as Moses tells us Gen. 6. 4. which, as our Mythologists add, did (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) bid battle to heaven.  
In the next, there were mighty hunters; proud Babel-builders; after them followed beastly Sodomites; It were easy to draw down the pedigree of evils through all times, till we come to these last, which the holy Ghost marks out for perilous; yet some generation is more eminently sinful than other; as the Sea is in perpetual agitation, yet the Spring tides rise higher than their fellows; hence Saint Peter notes this his generation with an emphasis of mischief (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) here is a transcendency of evil; what age may compare with that, which hath embrued their cruel hands in the blood of the Son of God? That roaring Lion is never still, but there are times, wherein he rageth more, as he did and doth in the first, in the last days of the Gospel. The first, that he might block up the way of saving truth; The last, for that he knows his time is short. There are times that are poisoned with more contagious heresies, with more remarkable villainies, It is not my meaning to spend time in abridging the sacred Chronologies of the Church, and to deduce along the cursed successions of damnable errors from their hellish original; only let me touch at the notable difference betwixt the first, and the last world; In the first (as Epiphanius observes) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, there was neither diversity of opinion, nor mention of heresy, nor act of idolatry, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: only piety, and impiety divided the world; whereas now, in the last (which is the wrangling and tetchy dotage of the decrepit world) here is nothing but unquiet clashings of opinion, nothing but foul heresy, either maintained by the guilty, or imputed to the innocent, nothing but gross idolatry in paganism, in misbelieving Christianity; and (woe is me that I must say it) a coloured impiety shares too much of the rest; My speech is glided, ere I was aware, into the third head of our discourse; and is suddenly fall'n upon the practice of that, which S. Peter's example here warrants, the censure of ill deserving times: which I must crave leave of your honourable & Christian patience, with an holy and just freedom, to prosecute.  
It is the peevish humour of a factious eloquence to aggravate the evils of the times; which, were they better than they are, would be therefore cried down in the ordinary language of malcontented spirits, because present; But, it is the warrantable, and necessary duty of S. Peter, and all his true evangelical successors, when they meet with a froward generation, to call it so.  
How commonly do we cry out of those querulous Michaiahs', that are still prophesying evil to us, and not good? No theme but sins, no sauce but vinegar: Might not one of these galled jews of S. Peter's auditory have started up; and have thus challenged him for this tartness; what means this hard censure? why do you slander the time? Solomon was a wise man, and he says, Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this: this is but a needless rigour; this is but an envious calumny: The generation were not untoward; if your tongue were not uncharitable. The Apostle fears none of these currish oblatrations; but contemning all impotent mis-acceptions, calls them what he finds them, A froward generation: And well might he do so; his great Master did it before him, an evil and adulterous generation; and the harbinger of that great Master foreranne him in that censure, O generation of Vipers, Mat. 3. 7. and the Prophets led the same way to him in every page. And why doenot we follow Peter in the same steps wherein Peter followed Christ, and Christ his forerunner, and his forerunner the Prophets? Who should tell the times of their sins, if we be silent? Pardon me, I beseech you, most noble, reverend, and beloved hearers; necessity is laid upon me; in this day of our public mourning, I may not be as a man in whose mouth is no reproofs. Oh let us be thankful for our blessings, wherein, through the mercy of God, we outstrip all the nations under heaven; but withal, let us bewail our sins, which are so much more grievous, because ours. Would to God it were no less unjust, then unpleasing to complain of this as an untoward generation; There be ●oure things that are wont both to make up and evince the pravity of any generation; (woe is me that they are too apparently met in this) multitude of sins, magnitude of sins, boldness of sin, impunity of sinning; Take a short view of them all: you shall see that the multitude is such, as that it hath covered the earth; the magnitude such, as hath reached to heaven; the boldness such as out-faceth the Gospel, the impunity such as frustrates the wholesome laws under which we live.  
For the multitude, where is the man that makes true conscience of any the Laws of his God? and if every man violate all the laws of God, what do all put together? our forefather's sins were but as drops, ours are as torrents. Instance in some few; Cannot we ourselves remember, since a debauched Drunkard was an Owl among birds, a beast of men, a monster of beasts; abhorred of men, shouted at by children? Is this sight now any news to us? Is not every Tavern a sty of such swine? Is not every street indented with their shameful staggerings? Is there not now as much spent in wanton smoke, as our honest forefathers spent in substantial hospitality?  
Cannot we remember, since oaths were so geason, and uncouth, that their sound startled the hearer, as amazed at the strange language of treason against the God of heaven▪ now they fill every mouth, and beat every ea●e in a neglected familiarity? What should I tell you of the overgrown frequency of oppressions, extortions, injurious and fraudulent transactions, malicious suits; the neighbour walls of this famous adjoining Palace can too amply witness this truth, whose roof if (as they say) it will admit of no Spiders, I am sure, the floor of it yields venom enough▪ to poison a Kingdom: What should I tell you of the sensible declination to our once loathed superstitions; of the common trade of contemptuous disobediences to lawful authority, the scornful undervaluing of God's messengers; the ordinary neglect of his sacred ordinances; what speak I of these and thousands more? There are Arithmeticians that have taken upon them to count how many corns of sand would make up the bulk of heaven and earth; but no Art can reckon up the multitude of our provoking sins.  
Neither do they more exceed in number, than magnitude; Can there be a greater sin than Idolatry? Is not this (besides all the rest) the sin of the present Romish generation? One of their own confesses (as he well may) that were not the bread transubstantiate, their Idolatry were more gross, than the heathenish; lo, nothing excuses them but an impossible figment▪ Know, O ye poor, ignorant seduced souls, that the bread can be no more turned into God; then God can be turned into bread, into nothing; the very omnipotent power of God bars these impious contradictions. My heart trembles therefore and bleeds to think of your highest, your holiest devotions. Can there be a greater sin than robbing of God? This is done by our sacrilegious Patrons: Can there be a greater sin than tearing God out of heaven with our bloody and blasphemous oaths; then the affamishing of souls by a wilful, or lazy silence; then rending in pieces the bowels of our dear Mother the Church, by our headstrong, and frivolous dissensions; then furious murders; then affronts of authority? These, these are those huge mountains which our Giantlike presumption rolls upon each other, to war against heaven.  
Neither are the sins of men more great, then audacious; yea it is their impudence that makes them heinous; bashful offences rise not to extremity of evil; The sins of excess as they are opera tenebrarum, so they had wont to be night-workes, They that are drunken are drunk in the night, saith the Apostle; now, they dare, with Absaloms' beastliness, call the Sun to record: Saint Bernard tells us of a Daemon meridianus, a noone-devill, out of the vulgar mistranslation of the 90. Psalm; Surely, that ill spirit walks about busily, and haunts the licentious conversation of inordinate men.  
Unjust exactions of griping Officers had wont to c●eepe in under the modest cloak of voluntary courtesy, or fair considerations of a befriended expedition, now they come like Elies' sons, Nay but, Thou shalt give it me now, and, if not, I will take it by force, 1 Sam. 2. 16.  
The legal thefts of professed usurers, and the crafty compacts of sly oppressors, dare throw down the gauntlet to justice; and insolent disobediences do so to authority; And when we denounce the fearful judgements of God against all these abominable wickednesses; the obdured sinner dares jeer us in the face, and▪ in a worse sense ask the disciples question, Domine quando fient haec; Master when shall these things be? yea their selfe-flattering incredulity dare say to their soul, as Peter did to his Master, Favour thyself, for these things shall not happen to thee.  
Neither, lastly, would sin dare to be so impudent, if it were not for impunity; it cannot be but cowardly, where it sees cause of fear; Every hand is not to be laid upon evil; If an error should arise in the Church; it is not for every unlearned tradesman to cast away his yard-wand, and take up his pen; Wherefore serve Universities, if every blue apron may at his pleasure turn Licenciate of Divinity, and talk of Theological questions which he understands not, as if they were to be measured by the elle. O times! Lord whither will this presumption grow? Deus, omen, etc. If folly, if villainy be committed in our Israel, it is not for every man to be an Officer; Who made thee a judge? was a good question, though ill asked. But I would to God we had more cause to complain of the presumption of them who meddle with what they should not, than the neglect of them who meddle not with what they should; Woe is me the floodgates of evil are (as it were) lift open, and the full stream gusheth upon us; Not that I would cast any aspersion upon sacred sovereignty; No, blessed be God for his dear anointed; of whom we may truly, and joyfully say, that in imitation of him whom he represents, he loves justice, and hates iniquity; It is the partiality or slackness of the subordinate inferior executions that is guilty of this prevalence of sin; what can the head do where the hands are wanting? to what use is the water derived from the cistern, into the pipes, if the cock be not turned? What avails it that children are brought to the birth, if there want a midwifery to deliver them? Can there possibly be better Laws, then have in our times been enacted, against drunkenness? where, or when are they executed? Can there be a better Law made for the restraint of too too common oaths? who urges, who pays that just mulct? Can there be better laws against wilful Recusancy, against Simony, against Sacrilege? how are they eluded by fraudulent evasions? Against neglect of Divine Service; yet how are they slighted? against the lawless wand'ring of lazy vagabonds; yet, how full are our streets, how empty our Correction-houses? Lastly, (for it were easy to be endless) can there be better laws than are made ●or the punishment of fornications, adulteries, and all other fleshly inordinatenesses? how doth bribery & corruption smother these offences, as if the sins of men served only to enrich covetous Officers? Now, put all these together, the multitude, the magnitude, the boldness, the impunity of sin, and tell me whether all these do not make this of ours, generationem pravam, a froward generation; So as we may too well take up Isaiah complaint, Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters. Esa. 1. 4. Honourable & beloved, how should we be humbled under the hand of our God, in the sense of our many, great, bold and lawless sins? What sackcloth, what ashes can be enough for us? Oh that our faces could be covered with confusion; that we could rend our hearts, and not our garments; Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, and thus Save yourselves from this froward generation.  
And so from St. Peter's attestation to their wickedness, we descend to his obtestation of their redress, Save yourselves. We must be so much shorter in the remedy, as we have been longer in the disease. The remedy is but of a short sound, but of a long extent, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I urge not the passiveness of this advice; that it is not, Save yourselves, but, Be ye saved: God is jealous of ascribing to us any power unto good; we have ability, we have will enough to undo ourselves; scope enough to hellward; neither motion nor will to good; that must be put into us by him that gives both posse, & velle, & posse velle; power to will, and will to do. This (Saving) comprises in it three great duties, Repentance for our sin; Avoidance of sinners; Reluctation to sin and sinners.  
Repentance. Perhaps, as St. Chrysostome, and Cyril think, some of these were the personal executioners of Christ; If so, they were the worst of this generation; and yet they may, they must save themselves from this generation, by their unfeigned repentance: Howsoever, they made up no small piece of the evil times, and had need to be saved from themselves, by their hearty contrition; Surely those sins are not ours, whereof we have truly repent; The skin that is once washed is as clean from soil, as if it had never been foul; Those legal washings, and rinsings showed them what they must do to their souls, to their lives; This remedy, as it is universal, so it is perpetual; the warm waters of our tears, are the streams of jordan to cure our Leprosy, the Siloam to cure our blindness, the pool of Bethesda to cure all our lameness, and defects of obedience; Alas, there is none of us but have our share in the common sins; The best of us hath helped to make up the frowardness of our generation; Oh that we could un-sin ourselves by our seasonable repentance; Cleanse your hands ye sinners, and purge your hearts ye double minded.  
Avoidance is the next; Avoidance of all unlawful participation; There is a participation natural, as to live in the same air, to dwell in the same earth, to eat of the same meat; this we cannot avoid, unless we would go out of the world, as St. Paul tells his Corinth's. There is a civil participation, in matter of commerce, and humane necessary conversation; This we need not avoid with Jews, Turks, Infidels, Heretics. There is a spiritual participation in moral things, whether good, or evil: In these lies this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; and yet, not universally neither; we are not tied to avoid the services of God, and holy duties for the commixture of lewd men, as the foolish Separatists have fancied; it is participation in evil that we are here charged to avoid; although also entireness, even in civil conversation, is not allowed us with notoriously wicked and infectious persons; The Israelites must hie them from the Tents of Corah; and, Come out of her my people. Chiefly, they are the sins from which we must save ourselves, not the men; if, not rather, from the men for the sins; Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, saith St. Paul, Ephes. 5. 12. commenting upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Peter.  
There is nothing more ordinary with our Casuists, than the nine ways of participation, which Aquinas, and the Schools following him have shut up in two homely verses, jussio, consilium, etc. The sum is, that we do not save ourselves from evil, if either we command it, or counsel it, or consent to it, or soothe it, or further it, or share in it, or dissuade it not, or resist it not, or reveal it not; Here would be work enough (you see) to hold our preaching unto St. Paul's hour, midnight; but I spare you, and would be loath to have any Eutychus: Shortly, if we would save ourselves from the sin of the time, we may not command it, as jezebel did to the Elders of jesreel; we may not advise it, as jonadab did to Amnon; we may not consent to it, as Bathsheba did to David; we may not soothe it, as Zidkijah did to Ahab; we may not further it, as joab did to David; we may not share in it, as Achitophel did to Absalon; we may not forbear to dissuade it, as Hira● the Adullamite to judah; to resist it, as partial Magistrates; to reveal it, as treacherous confessaries.  
But, of all these, (that we may single out our last and utmost remedy) here must be a zealous reluctation to evil; All those other negative carriages of not commanding, not counselling, not consenting, not soothing, not abetting, not sharing, are nothing without a real oppugnation of sin. Would we then thoroughly quit ourselves of our froward generation? we must set our faces against it to discountenance it; we must set our tongues against it, to control it; we must set our hands against it, to oppose it; It goes ●arr● that of the Apostle, Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, Heb. 12. 4. Lo here is a truly heroical exercise for you great Ones; to strive against sin, not ad sudorem only, as Physicians prescribe, but ad sanguinem; Ye cannot better bestow yourselves then (in a loyal assistance of sacred authority) upon the debellation of the outrageous wickedness of the times. These are the Dragons, and Giants, and Monsters, the vanquishing whereof hath moralised the Histories of your famous Progenitors. Oh do ye consecrate your hands, and your hearts to God in beating down the headstrong powers of evil; and as by repentance, and avoidance, so, by reluctation, S●ue yourselves from this untoward generation.  
Now, what need I waste the time in dehorting your Noble and Christian ingenuity from participation of the Epidemical sins of a froward generation? It is enough motive to you, that sin is a base, sordid, dishonourable thing; but, withal, let me add only one dissuasive from the danger, employed in the very word Save; for how are we saved but from a danger? The danger both of corruption, and confusion.  
Corruption; ye see before your eyes that one yawning mouth makes many; This pitch will defile us; One rotten kernel of the Pomegranate infects the fellows; Saint Paul made that verse of the heathen Poet, Canonical, Evil conversation corrupts good manners; What woeful experience have we, every day, of those, who by this means from a vigorous heat of zeal, have declined to a temper of lukewarm indifferency and then, from a careless mediocrity, to all extremity of debauchedness; and of hopfull beginners, have ended in incarnate devils? Oh the dangerous, and insensible insinuations of sin; If that crafty tempter can hereby work us but to one dram of less detestation to a familiarly enured evil, he promiseth himself the victory; It is well noted by Saint Ambrose, of that chaste Patriarch joseph, that, so soon as ever his wanton Mistress had laid her impure hand upon his cloak, he leaves it behind him, that he might be sure to avoid the danger of her contagious touch; If the Spouse of Christ be a Lily among thorns; (by the mighty protection of her omnipotent husband) yet take thou heed, how thou walkest amongst those thorns, for that Lily: Shortly▪ wouldst thou not be tainted with wickedness, abhor the pestilent society of lewd men; and by a seasonable subduction, thus, Save thyself from a froward generation.  
The last and utmost of all dangers is confusion; That charge of God by Moses is but just, Numb. 16. 18. Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye perish in all their sins; Lo, the very station, the very touch is mortal. Indeed, what reason is there to hope or to plead for an immunity; If we share in the work, why should we not take part of the wages? The wages of sin is death; If the stork be taken damage faisant with the Cranes, she is enwrapped in the same net, and can not complain to be surprised. Qui cum lupis est, cum lupis ululet, as he said; He that is with wolves, let him howl with wolves: If we be fratres in malo, brethrens in evil, we must look to be involved in the same curse; be not deceived; honourable and beloved, here is no exemption of greatness; nay, contrarily, eminence of place aggravates both the sin, and the judgement; when Ezra heard that the hand of the Princes and Rulers had been chief in that great offence, than he rend his clothes, and tore his hair, Ezra 9 3.  
Certainly this case is dangerous and fearful, wheresoever it lights; Hardly are those sins redressed that are taken up by the great; Easily are those sins diffused, that are warranted by great examples: The great lights of heaven, the most conspicuous Planets, if they be eclipsed, all the Almanacs of all Nations write of it; whereas the small Stars of the Galaxy are not heeded; All the Country runs to a Beacon on fire, no body regards to see a shrub flaming in a valley; Know then, that your sins are so much greater, as yourselves are; and, all the comfort that I can give you with out your true repentance, is, That mighty men shall be mightily tormented; Of all other men therefore be ye most careful to keep yourselves untainted with the common sins; and to renew your covenant with God; No man cares for a spot upon a plain, russet, riding suit; but we are curious of a rich robe, every mote there is an eyesore; Oh, be ye careful to preserve your honour from all the foul blemishes of corruption; as those that know virtue hath a greater share in nobility, than blood; Imitate in this, the great frame of the Creation, which still, the more it is removed from the dregs of this earth, the purer it is; Oh save ye your selves from this untoward generation, so shall ye help to save your nation from the imminent judgements of our just God▪ so shall ye save your souls in the day of the appearance of our Lord jesus Christ; to whom with the Father, and the holy Ghost, one infinite God, be all honour, and glory ascribed, now, and for ever.  
FINIS.