MUNITION AGAINST MAN'S MISERY AND MORTALITY. A TREATISE CONTAIning the most effectual remedies against the miserable state of man in this life, selected out of the chiefest both human and divine authors; BY RICHARD SMYTH preacher of God's word in Barstaple in Devonshire. The second Edition. AT OXFORD, Printed by joseph Barnes. 1612. TO THE RIGHT Worshipful the Lady ELIZABETH BASSET, his singular good Lady, RICHARD SMYTH heartily wisheth all happiness in jesus Christ. IN reading of Authors either divine or human, Dear Madam, men have ever propounded to themselves different ends according as they have been diversely affected; which is not to be wondered at, saith a Senee ep. 109. the most sage heathen, sith in one and the same meadow the ox seeks grass, the dog a hare, the stork a snake or lizard. b Bernard. in Cantie. serm. 36. Bernard the best author that lived in so bad a time, reduceth these ends to five. There are, saith he, some that desire to know only that they might know, and this is filthy curiosity; and there are some that desire to know that they themselves might be known, and this is filthy vanity; and there are some that desire to know that they may sell their knowledge, and this is filthy greediness, and there are some that desire to know that they may edify others and this is charity, and there are some that desire to know that they themselves may be edified, ●nd this is wisdom. So that of these five ●ndes of knowledge only the two latter are commendable, namely, when we covet knowledge either to better ourselves or others in virtue and piety. Which two ends for my own part I have through God's grace ever principally intended in the course of my poor studies, seriously considering with myself how vain even the lawful knowledge of all other things is without the knowledge of those things which concern our own welfare and happiness: which your Ladyship may find expressed with profitable particularity in the second section of the first Chapter of this Treatise. Now because there is nothing the knowledge whereof so nearly toucheth us as of our misery, and true and effectual remedies against our misery, therefore have I in these my first labours published in print made choice of that argument, not only to edify others, but also to edify myself, and to have in a readiness necessary antidotes and preservatives against such crosses as I both heretofore have felt, and also must feel still as long as my habitation is in this vale of tears. Touching the manner of my handling this so important a subject I may say as c Just Lips. Politic. in prooemio. a great Scholar of these times said of a work of his of another nature, that all things in this Treatise are mine, and nothing mine: all things mine in regard of the collection and disposition of them, & nothing mine in regard of the things themselves, which I have taken out of others, or at least very little mine. I held this course best for sundry reasons which I cannot but impart to your good Ladyship. First hereby I laid a necessity upon myself to rank and put in order my best observations in reading both human and divine authors concerning these two so material points before specified, namely man's misery, and his relief. Secondly distrusting mine own sufficiency to handle any matter laudable out of mine own meditations, I thought it good to make myself beholden to others, whose names & credit could not but procure authority to the work and stir up attention in the readers. Thirdly forasmuch as it is impossible for a man to avoid concurrence and coincidence both of notions and terms with others that have written long before, which in this malignant age of ours might breed suspicion both of theft & vain glory, as if I had rob others of their meditations, and would derive the praise thereof to myself, I have therefore alleged the authors themselves where I needed not, in very many things which mine own thoughts suggested unto me. As for the style, saving where I tie myself to the words of others, it is plain and familiar without pomp, art, or affectation, which I naturally as much abhor as any man living: and that specially in such an argument as this, where I labour to comfort myself and others against the two main branches of man's misery, the evils of pain, and the evils of fault, that is, the evils we suffer, and the evils which we do, sin, and the punishments for sin. d Fab. Quintilian. Instit Orator. lib. 9 c. 3. & l. 11. cap. 1. The very heathen Orator hath wisely observed that they are altogether unworthy of mercy, that can talk artificially of their misery: & c Arnob. contra Gentes lib. 1. a Christian author well saith, that when we deal in matters that cannot stand with affectation & ostentation, that is, that admit no flourishes of art, unless men will bewray palpable both absurdity and hypocrisy, we must regard what is said, not with what delight it is said. For it is an argument of too vain and wanton a mind to seek for pleasure in earnest and important matters. Now as for the reasons that have moved me to dedicate these meditations to your Ladyship, something must be said thereof, I am not ignorant that men in the dedications of their labours are led with sundry and very different respects; some intent the eternising of their fame and memory to whom they dedicate their writings, as we read of that intolerable arrogant Appion f Plinius nature. hist. praefat ad Vespasian. who was wont to brag that he made all them immortal to whom he vouchsafed to entitle any of his books. But as for this benefit, neither doth your Ladyship esteem it, whose thoughts are not confined within the compass of this world were it eternal, nor can I bestow it, being so mean and obscure, that it were madness in me to think that I could ennoble others by any monuments of mine, although otherwise wish, I were as able to do it, as I know your Ladyship worthy thereof, & that as he g Sen ep 23 saith of Pomponius Atticus, Cicero's letters will not suffer the name of Articus to perish, so it were in my power to perpetuate your memory. Others by their dedications hope to extort some benevolence or gift from their benefactors, need being, if I may so speak, the fatal penance of most Scholars. And indeed h Gulielmus Xylander as Lewen Clai. us reports praefat. in Dionem a se editum. a worthy Scholar of our time (an eternal blot and reproach to the time) confessed to a friend of his, that famine not fame had caused him to publish diverse of his works But neither was this any motive with me herein, sith your ingenuous bounty towards myself, and others (so far as your intricated and distracted state will permit) is so open that it rather needs restraint then provocation, or excitation, and for my own particular, it hath ever been far beyond not only my desert, but also my desire. But to come to the more ordinary ends of such dedications, they are principally three, comfort, honour duty, or rather discharge of duty, all which I confess, have prevailed with me, in the dedication of these my slender discourses unto your Lady ship. Many have not only dedicated their writings, but directed their whole Treatises to such as they desired to comfort, as i Plutarch. consolat ad Apollonium Plutarch, k Senee consolat. ad Polyb. Abin. Martiam. Seneca, and others. Now this Treatise of mine, tending only to comfort us in general against all misery, whereunto our life in this frail and transitory world is subject, I have dedicated the same to your Ladyship, that if it afford any use of that nature, your Ladyship might principally have the benefit thereof, whose almost insupportable crosses yea without great measure of grace, merely insupportable, stand not a little in need thereof: I must in discretion omit particulars, which are to well known to them that know you, & your state. Secondly, whereas many in their dedications, as much as in them lie, seek to honour their virtues to whom they entitle their works, I profess, that I have here in much respected the same, in behalf of your Ladyship. For having been a long time an eye witness of your virtuous and religious conversation, & occasionally as it were enforced to take notice of the manifold and excellent graces of God shining in you, I could not but most willingly embrace any opportunity to give some public testimony thereunto, and a fit could not occur then the publishing of this Treatise. And yet here I must do you wrong by omitting particulars, who of your excessive modesty would hold yourself wronged if I should in particular give you but your due praises, and specify your most eminent virtues. I therefore rather choose to wrong you indeed, than you should conceive and complain that you are wronged. Lastly, as for obligation and duty, mine towards your Ladyship is so great, that this consideration alone without any other motive would have been sufficient to make me strain my best endeavours to the highest, to strike out some part of my score, if paper payment may be currant, and verbal acknowledgement may satisfy for real benefits, which indeed cannot be, but by the favourable acceptance of generous and noble minds, who deem that mercenary beneficence is no beneficence. Of which temper knowing your ladyships spirit to be, I have been encouraged to shift out by this kind of beggarly recompense. I hear therefore, dear Madam, present unto you the Anatomy of my best thoughts, entreating your favourable acceptation thereof. To you are they due above all others, such as they are being the fruits of that tree, to wit my unworthy self, that hath continually been watered and cherished by your manifold Christian favours. But here again, I must forbear particulars, lest I should be offensive; and therefore I end, mosis affectionately commending your good Ladyship to the grace of God in Christ. Barstable in Devonshire 1609. januarie 1. alias newyear's day. Your ladyships most obliged RICHARD SMYTH. THE CONTENTS of the several Chapters. Chap. 1. The vanity of all knowledge without the right knowledge of ourselves. Chap. 2. Agenerall consideration of man's misery. Chap. 3. The Gentiles miserable ignorance of the true cause of man's misery. Chap. 4. That as the Gentiles knew not the true cause of man's misery, so neither did they know the utmost and height of it. Chap. 5. That the Gentiles being ignorant both of the cause and the greatness of man's misery have grossly erred in the true remedies against the same. Chap. 6. That true religion revealed unto us by God's word only discovereth unto us the cause of our misery. Chap. 7. The true remedies which Christian religion affordeth against the first kind of man's misery, that is, the evils of pain. Chap. 8. That the Christian religion only affordeth us true remedy against the second kind of evils, that is, the evils which we do, or our sins. Chap. 9 Consolations against certain circumstances of sin, namely long continuance therein before our conversion, and relapse into it after our conversion. Chap. 10. Of the greatness of God's mercy, wherewith the greatness of sin hath no proportion. Chap. 11. The Christians peculiar comforts against death and the terror thereof. Chap. 12. Consolations against the terrors of the general judgement. Chap. 13. The joys of heaven, and glorious state of the faithful after death. The sinner's counsel to his soul. A Sonnet of the Authors. A wake o Soul, and look abroad, Shake off this drowsy sleep of sin, Shake off the clogs that thee so load, And to be wise at length begin. Thou comest of a race divine, Derived from the Deity, And therefore shouldst with virtue shine Such parentage to testify. But thou through Satan's guile and spite Didst shamefully degenerate, And now to sense and appetite Thyself dost basely captivate. And so with vice art thou defiled, Which fowler is than leprosy, That now thou seem'st no more Gods child But one of Satan's progeny. Appointed heir of heavenly joys With God himself above to reign, Thou dotest here on earthly toys, On ciphers, shadows merely vain. And here thou foolishly dost think In pleasures vain, content to find, While thou dost but thy poison drink, Such deadly dregs they leave behind. For pleasure which in sin men take Is in a moment gone and passed, Whereas the wounds which it doth make Remain behind and ever last. And of such wounds thou bear'st the print And with them foully gashed art, Although that thou more hard than flint Fellst not at first their deadly smart. But now that God in mercy great Good thoughts into thee daignes to send, And everlasting death doth threat Except with speed thou dost amend. O fly thou from that monster vile From subtle and enchanting sin. That hath so wronged thee all this while And cause of such annoyance been. The birds and beasts that scape the snare Back to the same no bait can train, So wary afterwards they are, As never to come there again. Then blush o soul, that creatures mute The dangers passed should after shun, And thou shouldst be so mad and brute, As into them again to run. Think how thou dost thyself expose To danger deep by every sin, Even heaven and heavenly joys to lose, And bell and bellish woes to win. For who so ventures to rebel Against the Lord and follows vice, His soul he to the devil doth sell, And takes vain pleasure for her price. Then loath this world sofull of snares A maze of errors. shop of lies, A stage of shadows, cage of cares, An Echo of complaints and cries. Thou seest all worldly joys deceive: They promise to content the mind, And yet still empty do it leave, Which shows they feed it but with wind. Then cleave to God thine only stay Who for himself did first thee make, From whom as long as thou dost stray, In vain thou seekest rest to take. And shame not unto him to fly, Nor let not terror hope confound: Although thy sins for vengeance cry, Yet grace shall more than sin abound. MUNITION AGAINST MAN'S MISERY, AND Mortality. CHAP. 1. The vanity of all knowledge without the right knowledge of ourselves. CURIOSITY, that is, excessive care for things impertinent, and little or no care for things important, is a vice so gross and sensible, that the very Gentiles by the light of nature in part perceived it, and so far as they perceived it, reproved and condemned it. a Plut. de Curiositate. One of them hath written a whole treatise of this argument. b ●encca ad Luc epist. 1. An other complains that a great part of our life slideth away while we do evil things, a greater while we do nothing, the greatest of all while we do things impertinent, and that concern us not. No marvel then if the sons of light, that is, they that have been called to the saving knowledge of God in Christ, revealed by the Gospel have so sharply censured this vice, as c August. de Trin. l. 4. c, 1. one of them doth in this manner, The knowledge of the world for the most part is accompanied with arrogancy, and curiosity, whence it cometh to pass, that the world is ignor an't of things necessary to be known, because it learneth things needless to be known. Alas what folly is it for men to take such pains in the search of things, that, as the d Sen. ep. 45 sage gentle saith, neither hurt him that is ignorant of them, nor profit him that knows them; & in the mean season neglect the things that tend to their true happiness, & can only procure their sound comfort & content: at whom e Bernat▪ de Consid. l. 4. Bernard justly scoffeth, Doubtless, saith he, they very wisely weigh and measure things, who have: greatest care for the smallest things, and small or no care for the greatest things. But the check which f Luk. 10 v. 41.43. our Lord jesus Christ himself giveth to this fault in reproving Martha that in some sort was guilty thereof, should most move us. Martha, Martha, saith he, thou art troubled about many things, one thing is necessary, Marie hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her. 2 And this vice & vanity is so much the greater, because not only the knowledge of things merely impertinent, and superfluous, is unprofitable without the knowledge of those things that belong to our true happiness: but even the knowledge of things in part and in some degree necessary is so also. * Grammar. What is the skill of Grammar worth, to know how to speak by rule, Rhetoric. and in the mean season to live without rule? * What another the art of Rhetoric, that our language be eloquent, Logiek. and our manners barbarous? * What good can Logic do us, to be perfect in art of reasoning, and yet that all our actions & courses are without reason yea flat repugnant to reason? to be so armed therewith, that words shall not deceive us, and all the while to be deceived with things themselves; with covetousness under pretence of thrift, and good husbandry; with prodigality under colour of liberality, with cruelty under show of severity, and so forth, which are the most pernicious errors of all, Artithmetick and far exceed all sophistical fallacies of words? * What benefit can Arithmetic yield us, to be able to number all other things, & to have no care to number either our many sins, or our few days in this transitory life? Geometry. * What can Geometry avail us, if we be cunning in measuring all other things, and yet to set no measure nor prescribe any bounds to our infinite affections and passions, & to keep no measure either in our hopes or fears, prosperity or adversity, joys or sorrows? Music. * What can Music steed us to discern between concord's and discords of sounds, to be pleased with the former, and offended with the latter, and yet to have our whole life consist of nothing but discords, jarring not only with others, but also with ourselves, having desires contrary to desires, resolutions contrary to resolutions? * What will knowledge in Physic advantage us: Physic. if we have learned what medicine or receipt is good against the gout, the dropsy, the stone, and other bodily maladies; and yet have no remedy for anger, envy, lust, covetousness, and other diseases of the mind? To conclude, * What are we the better to be never so learned Lawyers, Law. and able to plead never so sufficiently either in our own or other men's causes for debts, houses, lands and the like, & to have never a word to say for our selves when we must plead for our own souls, how our infinite debt towards God in regard of our innumerable sins may be discharged, and our title to a heavenly inheritance maintained & justified? 3 Now if the knowledge of things in their place, and degree necessary, be so unavailable, and of so small account, without the knowledge of those things which belong to our everlasting happiness and welfare: much more is the knowledge of things superfluous, unprofitable, and merely vain. It behoveth us then to have special care to know those things which so deeply concern us, and to make use of that excellent speech * Aeschylus. of the very profane Greek Poet, that he is wise, not who knows many things, but who knows profitable things: and doubtless true it is which a famon● Christian author wrote long ago, that g August do trin. l. 4. c. 1. that soul is more to be commended which knows her own infirmity, then that which not knowing this labours to know the compass of the world, the courses of the stars, the bottom of the earth, the height of the heavens. Digressions in speech and words are odious much more indeeds and action, and not only odious, but also dangerous and pernicious. And yet if we duly examine our courses, we shall find our whole life to be nothing else but digressions, and impertinencies: and it is greatly to be lamented that many thousands even of those that profess christianity, go out of the world before they consider wherefore they came into it. CHAP. 2. A general consideration of man's misery. 1. OF what importance the knowledge of ourselves is, we have heard in the former Chapter. Now this knowledge of ourselves consists in these two points: the knowledge of our misery, and of the remedies against our misery. Our misery is two fold, or lieth in two kinds of evils, the evils which we do, and the evils which we suffer, or as a Tertull, contra Martion. l. 2. c. 14. Divines long ago have distinguished them, the evils of fault, & the evils of pain, that is, sin and the punishment of sin. Now although the laws of Method & order require that I should first speak of the first▪ namely the evils of fault, as being the cause of the later, to weet the evils of pain: yet because we are more moved with the punishments of sin, then with sin itself, I will begin with that which is most sensible, applying myself herein to our corruption and grossness. 2 The evils of pain are of two sorts. For the punishment of sin is either temporal, to weet all the miseries of this present life; or eternal, that is to say, the torments of hell in the life to come. The former are so palpable, that the mere natural man feels them, & groans under the burden of them, as the complaints of the very heathen manifestly testify. b Sen. praefat, in natural. question. Seneca the miracle of nature for moral learning, cries out thus, Ah what a base and abject creature is man, except he advance & lift up himself above man, that is, above the condition and state of man, c Plin. natural. hist. l. 2, cap. 7. An other says that this only is certain that nothing is certain, and that there is not a more miserable, nor yet for all that a more proud creature than man. And d Idem lib. 7 in prooem. again, that it is uncertain, whether nature be a kinder mother, or harder step mother to man kind. e Cic. de repub. lib. 3. apud August. contra julian. lib. 4 c. 14, & 15 A third renowned for his learning and eloquence, complains, that Nature hath brought man forth into the world, not as a mother but as a step mother with a body, naked, weak, and sickly, and a mind, distracted with cares, dejected with fears, faint for labour, and addicted to lust, and pleasures. And hence grew that common speech among the Gentiles related by f Aristot. in Eudemo apud Plutare consolat. ad Apolon. Aristotle, repeated g Cic. Tu●c. quaest. lib. 1. by Cicero, & h Plut. ibid. Plutarch, & fathered by all three upon Silenus, that the best thing in the world was not to be borne, the next to die soonest. And i Senec. consolat. ad Polyb. e 28. Seneca again exclaims that our whole life is a penance. Which the Thracians confirmed by their practice, celebrating their children's birth with weeping and lamentation, but their death with joy & mirth, as k Herodot. lib. 5. Solin. Poly. hist. cap. 15 Val Maxim. lib. 2 cap. 6. diverse ancient writers record, thereby insinuating that our life was nothing but misery, and death the end of misery. But l Bern de consid. l. 2. a Christian author more effectually expresseth this point thus in substance, that if the greatest man in the world do in a holy meditation strip himself out of his robes and ornaments of state, which he neither brought into the world with him at his birth, nor shall carry out of the world with him at his death, he shall find himself to be nothing but a man naked, poor, pitcous, and to be pitied, lamenting that he is a man, blushing that he is naked, weeping that he is borne, and murmuring that he is at all. 3 And thus much in general (for particularity would be infinite) of man's misery in regard of temporal pain, which is all that the heathen & infidel apprehendeth For as for any eternal punishment for sin after this life, he never dreams of it, nay makes a jest of it, as we by God's assistance shall see * hereafter. Chap. 4, Sect. 3. 4. But the Christian proceedeth further, and touching evils of pain is most troubled with fear of eternal punishment for sin in the world to come. He hath learned out of God's word m Exod. 20. v. 5. that God is a jealous God and full of indignation when he is dishonoured, and we know that jealousy is the anger of angers, n Exod. 34. v. 7. that the will in no wise absolve the wicked and ungogly, o Hab. 1. v. 13 that his eyes are so pure, that they cannot endure to behold iniquity, p Rom. 2, v. 6 that he rewardeth every man accerding to his works, q Verse 9 that tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul that sinneth, that the sinner daily heapeth up wrath against the day of wrath, and declaration of the righteous judgement of God, s Heb. 10. vers. 31. that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, t Rom 5. vers. 12. that death came into the world by sin, u Rom. 6. vers. 21. and is the end & reward of sin, x Heb. 9 vers. 27. that after death cometh judgement. y 2. Cor. 5. vers. 10. and that we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive our meed according to that which we have done in the flesh, whether it be good or evil, z Matth. 8. vers. 12. & Marc. 9 v. that whosoever shall be condemned in this judgement, shall be cast for ever into utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. a Aug. in locos aliquot ep. ad Rom. numero. 42. Finally, the Christian considers as Saint Augustine says, that every man by sinning selleth his soul to the devil, taking the sweetness of temporary pleasure for the price thereof. And thus much for the evils of pain that make man's state so miserable. 5 The second branch of man's misery, are the evils of fault, or his sins, which indeed is the greatest part of his misery, although commonly it be least felt, and the Infidel scarce feels it at all. For as b Sen. ep. ●8 a Heathen himself well observed, Men are not greaved for their faults before they be grieved with the bad success of their faults; that is, they are not sorry for doing ill, but for speeding ill, not that they are nought, but that they are wretched, in a word, they grieve that they are miserable, not that they are wicked and worthy to be miserable, that they are punished, not that they have deserved to be punished. Which is verified not only in the common sort of whom he meant it, but of the best amongst the Gentiles, yea of himself too. For howsoever they seem to teach sometimes that vice is an evil of itself, as c Plato de Repub l 4. Plato divinely affirms that no man can do wrong to another, but first he must do wrong to himself, and d Plutarch. quod solum vitium sufficiat ad hominem miserum reddendum. another hath written a whole Treatise to prove, that vice alone is sufficient to make a man miserable which work of his is pitifully mangled by injury of time yet they only apprehend vice as a political or at the most a moral evil: a political evil for as much as it made men subject to punishment, and obnoxious to public justice; or as a moral evil that stained and impaired their reputation and credit in the world, & hindered that delight which they took in admiration of their own imaginary excellency, which was a mere shadow or rather a detestable idol. 6 But the Christian, at least the true Christian is more moved with sin than with the punishment of sin and apprehends sin not only as a political or moral evil, but as a spiritual evil, that is to say, as it defileth the soul and makes it odious unto God, and defaceth his image in us, after the which we were first made, transforming us into the image & likeness of Satan his and our sworn enemy, in a word as it daily worketh in us in gratitude, disobedience and rebellion against the most high, in whom we live, move, and have our being. Our sins then are the evils of evils, and it is an uncontrollable principle in Divinity, that the least evil of fault is worse than the greatest evil of pain and that we are bound rather to endure the greatest evil of pain, then to commit the least evil of fault. For as long as we be merely passive and suffer only, although the things be not only grievous, but also infamous, they cannot hurt us, nor endanger us, but that rule will ever hold that no man is hurt but by himself. Wherefore e August. de Civit. Dei lib ●. cap. 19 S. Augustine says of the ravishing of Lucretia by Tarqvinius, that Tarquinius & Lucretia were two, & yet it was but one of them that committed adultery. 7 Sin than I say is that which principally makes a man miserable, sin is the very leprosy of the soul, sin transforms a man into a monster, and makes him a base degenerate creature, yea the worst of all sensitive creatures. This hath so altered man, that, as f Idem Ibid. lib 1▪ c. 2●. S. Augustin elegantly expresseth it, he that should have been spiritual in his flesh, is now fleshly in his spirit: his meaning is, that whereas if man had continued in his innocency, his flesh should have been in a manner spiritual, because all the senses and motions of the flesh should have been comely, regular and holy, now his very spirit is become fleshly, because all the operations and motions of the very mind and soul are inordinate and vicious. And how foully sin hath deformed us, and distempered nature, and what confusion it hath wrought in us appeareth by this, that whereas the soul in man, whom some have sitly termed a little world, is the principle agent, & the body the instrument, reason the Sovereign, and appetite and sense the subjects, sin hath turned this little world quite upside down. The body is become the master, and the soul the servant; or rather, the body a Lord, and the soul a slave: appetite and sense command and sway, reason is brought into subjection unto them, and must do as they will have it. Thus as the common saying is, the cart draws the horse. The soul should lift up the body, but the body pulls down the soul, and forceth her to suspend her proper operations, that appetite and sense may act all. We place cur happiness not in things proper to us, as the right use of reason, contemplation of heavenly things, union with God, and the like, which indeed are the life of the soul, but in things common to us, and beasts, in the satisfying, or rather glutting of appetite & sense, although g Sen. ep 93 the very gentle could say, that pleasure is the chief good of beasts. Nay sin makes us worse than beasts. For although beasts are guided in all their actions with sense and appetite only, yet are sense and appetite in them so regular and uniform, that they hold one constant course, only seeking to satisfy nature, not to oppress it, and therefore neither surfe it with eating, nor are drunken with drinking, nor in copulation between male and female exceed the necessity of generation for multiplication and continuance of their like, which being accomplished, they afterwards live most temperately, and in all these things, as we use to say do but their kind. And all this they do being destitute of reason and discourse, herein more happy than man h Bernard. in Cantic. serm. 8. as S. Bernard well saith, that they are not judged, because they themselves cannot judge. But man on whom God hath bestowed reason to conduct, and direct him in his doings, disdaineth to be governed by reason, yea purposely rebelleth against it, & thinks it his glory to be unreasonable, he despiseth even pleasure itself if it be natural, and such as God alloweth him, using artificial enforcements as it were to disguise God's ordinances, and to forge new delights of his own, although sometimes they be rather torments than delights. Of all material and visible creatures he only knows order, and yet only breaks order, herein inferior not only to beasts▪ but to senseless and lifeless creatures. The sea in ebbing & flowing, the sun and moon in rising and setting, the stars in moving and turning, the very earth in springing and withering keep a certain order whereas man must needs be exorbitant and out of course, as if his reason had been given him to make him mad and void of reason. 8 And which not a little aggravates this part of his misery, he is so entangled in the snares of sin, that of himself he cannot possibly untwine himself, nay to speak properly, he truly desires not to untwine himself, but whereas all other prisoners loath and hate their fetters the sinner loves his, he is in bondage and yet is well pleased with his bondage. One would think that necessity and willingness were incomparible, and could not stand together, yet sin hath joined them in one, men cannot choose but sin, and yet are willing to sin Thus, i Bernar in Cant. serm. 81. as a divine author complaineth after a strange manner, neither necessity can excuse the will, be cause it is willing, nor yet the will shake of necessity because it is content to be alured to evil, and to be overruled by such necessity; So that this is after a sort a willing necessity, a favourable or gentle violence, flattering us while it forceth us, and forcing us while it flattereth us. 9 And hence it is, that men often relapse into the very same sins which they had formerly renounced and abjured The very Gentiles perceived and condemned this vanity or rather madness of men so far forth as it was a moral evil, the extent whereof we have seen before, k See Barth Keckerman System. Eth. lib. 3. cap. 3. Polybius was wont to say, that others thought a man to be the wisest creature that was, but for his part he thought him to be the most foolish, because other creatures would beware of those things by whom they had been once hurt, whereas man oftentimes falls back again into the same vices: And l Sen. ep. 20▪ & de vita beata ca 28 as Seneca expresses it, returneth to the things which he had given over, and condemned, forsaking what he longed for, and again longing for what he had forsaken, thus our love and loathing of the very same things play their parts by turns, and desire and remorse divide our life between them. And herein again we must needs acknowledge that sin makes us worse than beasts. For saith m Hieron. ep. 10. ad. Furiam. S. jerom, the very silly beasts and wandering birds will not be taken twice in the same traps or snares, & yet foolish man relapseth often into the same vices, that is indeed, is often taken in the very same snares of sin and Satan. This is the sinner's Labyrinth, or maze, whereinto being once entered he of himself can never get out of it. 10 This I say is the evil of evils, & makes man miserable, even sin considered in itself, without regard of any punishment either temporal or eternal, which notwithstanding inseparably accompany the same. And surely the spiritual man cannot choose but be ashamed of himself, yea loathe himself, and conceive indignation against himself when he seriously considereth his sins barely in themselves, both for the important reasons before specified, and also because it is an intolerable ingratitude against God, that he having made all other things for man, and man for himself, those other things do still serve man, & yet man will not serve God. O what unkindness is this that God should make all creatures serve us, yea and a great many of them to maintain our life by their death, and yet we should refuse to serve him? This should most pinch man; & doth the spiritual man. And this is the proper difference between moral repentance, & Theological repentance, that by the former men are grieved that they have offended against honesty, but, by the latter that they have offended against piety. This made n Rom. 7, ●. 24. the blessed Apostle to cry out against the bondage of sin in this passionate mann●r. O wretched man that I am, who shall diliuer me from the body of death? He o 2. Corinth 11. verse 23. else where makes mention of his imprisonments, his whip, his stoning, and sundry other extremities, which he had endured, but none of these made him cry when he spoke of them, only when he comes to speak of his bondage under the tyranny of sin, than he cannot choose but break out into woeful exclamation. And the same affection although not the same degree of affection is in all the godly, that abhor sin even as hell itself p Aug epist, 144. as S. Augustine notably saith. He that is afraid of hell fire, is not afraid to sin but to burn; he is afraid to sin, that hateth sin itself as he hateth hell fire. And thus have I in general deciphered and discovered man's misery, I say only in general, for to anatomize it in particular, were to roave in a sea that hath neither bottom nor shore. It remaineth that we should now come to the true remedies thereof but that I think it expedient first to speak of the cause thereof, sith the knowledge of the cause of any evil brings great light to the cure; and before that again to show man's gross ignorance of the right causes of his misery, and this God willing shall be the argument of the next Chapter. CHAP. 3. The gentiles miserable ignorance of the true cause of man's misery. 1 We have heard in the former chapter, that man's misery is so sensible, that the very heathens have apprehended it, and much complained thereof, specially of the evils that man suffers in this world: for as for the evils which he doth, which are far the greater, & of greater force to make him miserable, they were but coldly touched therewith. But as concerning the cause, either of the one, or the other kind of misery, they were altogether ignorant thereof, & therefore no marvel if they knew not the true remedies either against the one or the other. And surely touching the cause of man's misery their conceits & conjectures were so strange, that it is doubtful whether we should more piety them, or laugh at them. 2 The general conceit of the most sufficient among them, much more of the vulgar sort was that the first branch of man's misery, namely the manifold and grievous evils which he suffereth in this life, grew from this, that God's providence was confined in the higher parts of the world, and descended not nor extended to things below the moon. Of this opinion were many Philosophers. Many▪ saith a August. de Genesi ad literam. S. Augustine, have thought, that indeed the high parts of the world are governed by God's providence, but that this low part of the earth and the air next above it, where winds and clouds do rise, are rather tossed to & fro by casual motions. In this error was Aristotle himself, who thought that God's care for the affairs of the world, reached not below the moon, as a great many of the chiefest ancient fathers report of him, but above the rest b Ambrol. de office lib. 1. ca 13. S. Ambrase, who most excellently confures that his profane fancy at large, and I cannot here omit one golden speech of his that way, * Qu●s ope●ator negligat operis ●ui curam? Quis deserat aut destitute at quod iple condendun putatits Si iniutia est regere, non ne est maior iniuria fecil se● Cum aliquid non fecisse nulla sit iniustitia non curare antem quod feceris summa est inclementia. What workman, saith he, can neglect the care of his work? who can forsake and abandon that which himself thought meet to make? if it be a wrong to God to rule, was it not a greater wrong in him to make? Sigh not to have made a thing at all is no injustice, but not to care for that which one hath made, is greater cruelty. Thus the most judicious Philosopher dreamt that God had no care of men nor their affairs, and therefore no marvel if he in c Plaut cap. in prologo. the Poet, speaking popularly cry out, * Enim vero Dii no● qua fipilas homines habent. that the Gods made tennisbals of men, tossing them to and fro they cared not how Hence then, namely from God's neglect and contempt of men & their affairs, some held that man's so miserable state in this world did proceed. 3 Others thinking this too gross, & that such an imputation did much derogate from the wisdom & goodness of god, devised another shift and starting hole to help the matter, to weet that men's souls were created long before their bodies, and lived in heaven, but committing some great offence there, were condemned to be joined unto bodies here on earth, and so to endure those infinite miseries whereunto man's life is subject, by way of penance for the faults they had done in heaven. And this being first forged by heathens, seemed so probable, and was so plausible, that afterwards many great persons in the very Church also greatly liked it, and set it abroach. Touching the Gentiles d Cicero in Hortensio apud Aug. contra Iuli● an. l. 4. c. 12. & 15. Tully himself professed his approbation of this opinion, namely that we were borne into this wretched world for some fowl matters committed before in a former world to suffer punishment here for the same. Who also compares man's case herein to that of those, which fell into the hands of thieves of Tuscany mentioned by Aristotle, who were dealt with after this lamentable manner The one half of them were left alive the other half murdered, than the living were bound back to back to the dead, and so rotten with them; and that even so our souls were coupled with our bodies, as the living with the dead for the greater torment And as for Divines in the Church, that they also applauded to this invention and vain imagination, appeareth by the testimony of S. e Hieronim. epist. 8 ad Demetriad. jerem, who warneth a religious woman of his time to take heed of the Origenists who used to buzz into the ears of the simpler, that very reason constrained them to believe, that men's souls had lived in heaven first, and that for some old faults committed there, they were punished here, & adjudged to be put into bodies as into prisons, and to do penance in this vale of tears. And the reason that constrained them to be of this mind, was forsooth, that young children many times were borne deformed and monstrous, were subject to sickness, and grievous pangs, & often times were punished with death itself before they had actually offended, which could notstand with God's justice, unless they had sinned before their coming into the world. The vanity of which imagination shall, God willing appear hereafter. Thus they ceiling this part of man's misery and not knowing the cause thereof, run into many sottish errors f August. ●bi supta hac s●●ct. lit. margin. d. as S. Augustine saith of Tully, He saw the thing but knew not the cause of it. 4 And as for the cause of the other and greater evil, namely sin, the general opinion and conceit was, that it proceeded only, either from ill education, or at the least from man's bad husbanding of his own free will which was equally inclinable to good or evil. Which if they had understood of the first man Adara when he fell, had been true and sound: but of this they never dreamt. They thought that man considered in the state of corrupt nature, or as he is now of himself, was without sin by birth, and had equal power to do good or evil, to be virtuous or vicious, and as I said, that it was only bad education and imitation of the bad, or bad employment of his free-will & natural faculties of his soul, that made him nought; in which error we find the very best and wisest to have been g Cic., Aead. quae 〈◊〉 lib. ●woud●: & Tusculan lib. 4. The Stoics, the best of all Philosophers for morality, were so blinded herein, that they thought even good and lawful affections to be merely of ill custom, not of nature, much more that corrupt and evil affections were so. And h Seneca epist 22. Seneca brings in nature complaining of her children as degenerate, and telling them that she brought the forth with out passions, and evil desires & lusts, without fears, without superstition, without treachery, & the like; & i Seneca c. pist. 116. in an other place makes this the only cause that we are nought, because we will not use the strength which nature hath given us to shake of our vices, which is abundantly sufficient to do it. Not to be willing saith he, is the cause hereof: but not to be able is made the pretence and colour. Chap 5. Sect. 8. We shall have occasion * hereafter to speak more of this blindness and madness of the Gentiles touching the cause of this part of man's misery, namely sin, when we shall come to handle the remedies which they prescribed for the same. And as for the falsehood thereof it shall be showed * in place convenient. Chap. 6. Sect 4. CHAP. 4. That as the Gentiles knew not the true cause of man's misery so neither did they know the utmost height of it. 1 AS we have seen in the former Chapter that the blind heathens knew not the cause of man's misery, so it resteth to be here declared that they knew not the true measure and greatness thereof, nay were merely ignorant of many principal branches of it. 2 One special point of our misery is, that by sin we incur the displeasure of God, and become liable to his wrath and vengeance, who by nature is an adversary to all sin and sinners, Chap. 3. sect. 1. as hath been * before showed at large But this the heathens apprehended not. For not only a Ovid. Amor lib 3. eleg. 3. & de arte amandi. lib. 1. the profane Poet imagined, that God did wink at men's sins, yea allow them, nay laugh at them, but also the chief Philosophers thought & taught that God was not offended with any thing that men did, much less would punish it. b Sen. ep. 31. Seneca the most moral of them, and the wonder of wit tells us, that no man knows God, and that many think ill of him, and that without any danger. In c Idem de bene fici●s lib. 7. c. 1. another place he thinks he hath spoken wisely, when he speaks most beastly, saying that one principal point for the attainment of perfect happiness is, to shake of all fear of God and man, and to resolve that we are not to fear much from man, but from God nothing at all. d Idem de ira l. 2. c. 27. In another, that there are some that have neither will nor power to hurt, as the Gods, whose nature is wholly mild and gentle, and who are of power only to relieve and cherish, but not to annoy or affl ct. And e Plutarch. tractat de superstit. another famous both for his learning and diligence, yea for his virtue too, so far as heathenish blindness would permit, makes it flat superstition, to think that God would hurt any, being superlatively good, yea goodness itself: both being childishly deceived in this, that they thought, that for God to punish any for their wickedness, and to do harm were all one, * See Tertul cent. Marci● on. lib. 2. c. 14. & Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 17. whereas it is a main branch of his goodness to hate evil, & take vengeance on evil doers. Without the which no earthly Prince deserves the name, nor can maintain the reputation of good. 3 Secondly they bewray most gross ignorance touching man's misery in this, that they think it is all ended by death: whereas the far greater and more grievous part thereof followeth after death, as we have hard * Chap. 2. sect. 4. before. Yet herein the most renowned of them have shamefully erred, & drawn others into error. f Cic. Tusc. quaest ●ib 1. Tully in a large discourse takes it for granted, that after death men either shall be happy, or else not be at all. g Senec de remediis fortui. orum Seneca peremptorily avoucheth, that all things are ended by death, yea death itself. Which speech of his h Tertul. de resurrect. carnis cap. 2. & de ani. ma cap. 42. Tertullian both justly reproves, and pithily confutes. And in i Sen. conso sat, ad Matriam. c. 19 another place the same Seneca more distinctly affirmeth, that those things that make bell so terrible unto us, are but a mere fable, that no darkness, no prison, no lake of fire are appointed for any after death, that there shall be none arraigned, no judge to condemn, that those that devised these things have but frighted us with scarecrows, that death is the dissolution and end of all griefs, beyond which our evils do not reach. The same in effect is delivered by k Epict. dissertat. lib. ●. cap. 13. Epictetus, otherwise almost more than an human author. But most blindly and profanely of all others writes l Plin. hist. ●at. lib 7. cap 55. Pliny hereof, although in most elegant words and plausible language. The sum whereof is this that all men are in the same case after their last day, as they were before the first day, and that there is no more feeling either in the body or soul after the day of their death than there was before the day of their birth, that they may think otherwise are foolish and absurd, as if there were any difference between the manner of man's breathing, & other creatures, or as if there were not many other creatures of longer continuance than man, of whose eternity notwithstanding no man dreams, that these are but childish imaginations, and false conceits of mortality that affects immortality. and would never have an end, etc. Thus were the heathens ignorant of the chiefest branches of man's passive misery, namely God's vengeance on sinners, and the full execution thereof after death in the world to come. CHAP. 5. That the Gentiles being ignorant both of the cause and the greatness of man's misery, have grossly erred in the true remedies against the same. 1 NOw the blind heathens being so grossly ignorant both of the cause, & also of the measure & greatness of man's misery, it must needs be that they were ignorant of the true remedies for the same. The things that make man's state so miserable, as hath * formerly been said, are principally two, the evils we suffer, Chap. 2. sect. 1, and the evils which we do, with the former whereof carnal & natural men are most moved, although they should be most moved with the latter, Chap. 2, sect. 6. * as hath been showed. Touching the evils which we suffer, as sickness, famine, pestilence, war, poverty, banishment, imprisonment, torments at our enemy's pleasure, unhappy matches, and the like both innumerable and intolerable crosses, and last of all death itself, which although to natural men it hath seemed the end of all evils, yet withal they have taken it for the highest evil, the remedies which they by their best meditation and study could devise against them, are very poor, yea miserable, and therefore unfit to relieve misery. 2 For let us hear what they can say touching these things that so much trouble & vex us in this world. Indeed men have strained their spirits to the highest, & wondrously laboured to fortify their minds against all occurrents of that nature, but with poor and pitiful success For if we read those which with most particularity have handled this argument, as two specially have done a Senec. de remediis fortuit. the one ancient, b Petrarch. de remed. utriusque fortunae. the other of later times, we shall see they feed us with words and wind, and give us only verbal comforts against real evils. I must forbear the particulars, and insist only in those general remedies wherein all agree. The first was devised by the founder of the Stoical profession Zeno, and carries a goodly show of securing us that way. c Cic Tuse. quaest. lib. 2. His best munition against this branch of human misery was that nothing could make a man miserable but evil, that only vice is evil, and therefore that only vice could make a man miserable; that poverty, sickness, banishment, imprisonment, cold, hunger, famine, whipping, racking, cruel kinds of death, were no vices, and therefore no evils; no evils, and therefore could not make us miserable. And d Sense. de constant. sapient. sive de tranquil. vi●e. lib. 2. Seneca strains the point yet farther telling us, that a wise and virtuous man cannot be wronged by any. But alas, what poor and cold comforts are these? What, is sickness, imprison. famine, whipping, racking, hanging, burning, and other like, or greater torments the less or easier, because I am told they are no evils? What fond cavillation and sophistical delusion is this, that because these be not evils of fault, therefore they be not evils of pain, or no evils at all. e Cicer. qu● supra hac sect. lit. mar. giu c. A heathen author himself justly laughs at this vanity, and pithily confutes it The Stoics, saith he, conclude by certain urine cavillations, that pain●, or grief is no evil, as though the word [evil] did trouble us not the thing. Why dost thou mock me o Zeno? for when thou deniest that which is so terrible to me to be an evil, thou dost but cousin me, and I would glodly know of thee, why that which seems to me most miserable, should not be evil. Thou sayst that nothing is evil, but that which is nought and dishonest. In so saying thou dost but return to thy old fooleries: for by all this thou dost not take away the things that torment me. I know well enough that pain is not wickedness. Never tell me what I know well enough already, prove to me that there is no odds in the matter, whether I be in pain or not in pain. And here it is worthy of observation, that when these Gallants that thus in words braved all outward pain and grief incident to the body, came to practice & action, they recanted these brags, which they had uttered in their idle speculations. So Tully himself who much inclined to this paradox of the Stoics, and laboured to fortify his spirit thereby against these evils of pain, when it came to trial, miserably discovered his weakness, & that in the least and lightest of these external crosses, namely banishment f Dio Cassious hist Roman. lib. 38. For he so basely behaved himself therein, that one Philiscus of his old acquaintance sharply reproved him for the same: and specially because himself had spoken and written so stoutly in contempt of all such casual grievances, & given very good counsel to others. Whose poor excuse of such his weakness was, that it was one thing to advise others, and another to comfort ourselves when the case was our own. But most memorable to this purpose is the behaviour of g Cic. Tusc. quaest. lib 2. Heracleotes Dionysius zeno's own scholar, by whom having been taught this stout contempt of pain, as being no evil, afterwards having a bitter and extreme fit of the stone, he recanted his error, and cried out that all which his master had maintained touching that point was false, & that he now found and felt the contrary, namely that pain was an evil. 3 A second supposed remedy against these evils of pain both taught and practised by carnal men is voluntary death, or self murder, whereby men at their pleasure might free themselves from all these evils of pain. Hereupon h Oedipus apud Sense The●ai act 1. Sen. 1. he cries out in the Tragedy, that death is to be found every where, and that God in this hath provided wondrous well for mankind: that, whereas any man may take our life from us, none can take death from us, meaning that none can let us from dying, having power to kill ourselves when we please. And lest we should think this to be but a Poetical fiction whereby men are made to speak what the Poet pleaseth, let us hear the wisest and worthiest of the Gentiles speaking in good earnest of this matter. i Quintil. instit. or at. li●. ●●n pro●emio. Quintilian affirms that no man is long in pain, or sorrow, unless it be through his own fault, meaning that by killing himself he may be rid of it when he pleaseth. Yea even Seneca himself approves of this self-murder or killing ourselves to end all pain. Are we in distress and misery? Why, k Sen ep. 12 saith he, there are many and short and easy ways to free ourselves. Let us give thanks to God, that no man can be compelled to live whether he will or no. And i Idem ep. 70. again, If thou wilt follow my counsel, so prepare thyself, that thou mayst entertain death, nay if need be, that thou mayst send for it. For it makes no matter whether death come to us, or we go to death. Yea m Sen. ep. 71 he mocks and derides those that made any scruple thereof. And n Idem de ira lib. 3. c. 15 in another place, saith he, Which way soever thou lookest, there is an end of all evils to be found. Dost thou see an high and steep place, by falling down from it, thou shalt fall into liberty; feast thou such a sea, such a river, or such a pit, liberty lies in the bottom of them, if thou have the loart to cast thyself into them. Dost thou see a tree whereon others have been hanged, there hangs liberty, if thou wilt hang thyself. Dost thou see thy own neck, throat, heart▪ etc., they are all places of escape to fly away from bondage. Are these too hard and painful means to get out, and wouldst thou yet know the way to liberty? Every vain in thy body is a way to it. o Sen. ep, 89. Again he tells us, that if sickness be incurable, and disable the soul to execute her proper actions, she may as well go out of such a body at her pleasure, as a man may out of a rotten and ruinous tenement, or dwelling house. So p Epict. dissertat lib. 2. cap. 16. Epictetus himself the wonder of human both wisdom and piety, says that as they are fools, who when they have sufficiently refreshed themselves at a feast, yet will sit longer, yea even until they loathe their meat, and are ready to vomit, so they are fools, that having had their fill of this present life, yet will live longer. And in q Epict. lib. 1 dissert. c. 24 another place, Even as, quoth he, boys when they are weary of any player sport use to say, I will play no longer: so men when they are weary of living, must say, I will live no longer. And therefore in r Idem lib. 1. cap. sen. dissertat. 9 an other place he laughs at their simplicity that complain of poverty & want, What fools, saith he, are they that when they have filled their bellies to day, sit weeping and pensive bethinking what they shall eat to morrow. Base slave, if thou have meat, thou hast it: if thou hast it not, thou mayst be packing out of the world, the door is open. So s Sen. ep. 12. Seneca highly commends that speech of Epicurus, that indeed it was a misery to live in necessity, but that there was no necessity for a man to live in necessity. Meaning that every man by killing himself might free himself from it. Yea which is strange t Plato de legibus l. 9 Plato himself, that approached so near to Christian truth in many points, although he appoint some public infamy in the manner of burial for those that kill themselves, yet it is with diverse exceptions, and amongst others this is one, if a man so do by means of poverty and want. And to conclude u Plin. nat. hist. lib. 2. cap. 63. Pliny would have us believe, that our mother the earth having pity upon us, doth bring forth poisons, that we may dispatch ourselves out of this wretched world when there shall be due occasion. And this was practised by those that were counted very worthy men, x Plutarch. in vita Caton. Do Cassius ●ist Roman, lib. 43. as by Cato when Pompey whose part he had taken was overthrown by Caesar, killing himself, as it was conceived, principally because he would not be beholding to Caesar for his life, or at least would not be put to death at his pleasure. y Cornel. Nepo● in vita Tit● Pompon. Attici. Likewise by Pomponius Atticus, who being impatient of a cruel diseale that took him in his old age, willingly famished himself to death, and could not be dissuaded from so doing by the prayers and tears of his nearest and dearest allies and friends. But particulars of this nature are infinite, and therefore let these suffice. 4 Now how poor a remedy this is for a man to kill himself when he is in misery, may sufficiently appear by that which hath already been spoken touching the woeful state of man after this life dying out of God's favour, as they that thus make away themselves needs must. So that this is not to avoid misery, but to change misery, yea to change the lesser miseries for the greater, and as we use to speak, to leap out of the frying pan into the fire. Yea the Gentiles themselves saw at last the vanity & absurdity of this remedy, deriding those that because they would not be put to death by others, put themselves to death. z Sen. ep. 71 Seneca, who as we have seen so much favoured this profane conceit, yet in some places forgetting himself, truly says, that it is folly for a man to die for fear of death: and a Martial epigt. lib 22. epigram. 80 another says it is madness, * Hic rogo no ●uror est ne moriare mo●i●. I pray thee, saith he, is not this madness to die lest thou shouldst die? Others have seen the unlawfulness hereof, namely b Cicero de senect. & in somnio Scipionis. that this is to forsake the standing wherein God our General hath placed us, and to refuse & shun the office which God hath assigned us in this world: c Arist. Eth lib 3. cap. 7. others, observe the baseness of it, that it is a token of a coward, and not of a valiant man, sith valour consists in a patiented enduring of all extremities. And therefore d Martial. epigram. the very profane Poet scoffs at Cato for killing himself, of whom we have heard before, truly affirming, that it is an easy matter to contemn death in our misery, & that he is the valiant man that can patietly bear misery. Yea e Virgil, Aed. lib. 6. some have gone farther, and seen the danger hereof also, namely that it is punished in the life to come, placing those that have offended that way in hell, & that in such torments, as they wish themselves back again, & upon that condition would be content to endure all the miseries incident to this life. Lo the poor remedies that nature can teach us against this first kind of evils, namely the evils which we suffer. 5 Now touching the evils which we do, which as hath been showed, we should hold the greatest, as natural men have less known and felt them than the former, so have they been less either careful or able to find out any sound and effectual remedies against them, nay I may boldly speak it, that as they give us foolish Physic against the former, so they give us rank poison against the later. And as it falls out in bodily diseases, that i● the Physician mistake the causes of them, they apply medicines clean contrary, and such as exasperate the evil not assuage it; so it fareth with the maladies of the mind, if they that profess skill to cure them err in the original ground of them, instead of healing them they poison them and make them far worse. 6 The guilt of sin which all men carry in their bosom tells them that sin needs some purgation and expiation, or else they must incur the indignation and vengeance of God. But when it comes to particulars, what the true means of delivering us from the danger of sin should be, here the wit of man is a ground and utterly amazed and confounded, and the best remedies it can devise in this case are either foolish as we have seen they were against the first kind of evils, namely of pair, or else impious and wicked. 7 f See Natal. Comes Mythiol. l. 1. c. 11.12. Some thought that sin was blotted out & God's wrath appeased by offering of flowers, frankincense, and other sweet perfumes, but suppose that every mean person could be as liberal that way as Alexander the great, g Plutarch. Apopht Regum. & Imperat. who used to sacrifice with so much frankincense at a time, that Leonidas his steward reproved him for it, telling him that he must first conquer the country where frankincense grew, before he wasted it so prodigally, suppose, I say, every man could be so costly in that respect. yet who that is well advised, can dream, that the sweet smell of herbs & perfumes can take away the filthy stink of sin? Others thought by certain washigns with peculiar & hallowed waters the filth of sin was washed away, as if that which made the skin clean, made the heart also clean, and that purify the mind which never came near the mind. Others truly judging these cures to be light, and superficial, though it must be death and blood at least that must do away sin, usually killed beasts of all sorts in great abundance, and sacrificed them to appease God's anger, and make satisfaction for their transgressions. But hear again reason awaked will tell us, that if all men còuld be as bountiful as julian the Roman Emperor usually was, h Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 25. of whom the jest went, that if he had returned with victory in his last actions against the Parthians, the very kind and race of bulls, oxen, and kine would have been extinguished by means of his monstrous excess in sacrificing of beasts, if, I say, every man could and should be at such cost that way: yet what strange blindness were it to think that the blood of beasts could purge the sins of men, or that man should commit the fault, and beasts should bear the punishment of it? 8 But the remedies which the natural man devised against this second branch of our misery namely sin, were not only foolish, but also wicked & pernicious For first, some looking further into the matter, and considering that it was no reason, that man should offend and beasts should be punished, & die for his offences, perceived that in all equity man must be punished for the faults of man. i See Natal. Comes Mythol. l. 1. c. 8. And therefore most nations used to sacrifice certain men at certain times of the year to make an atonement for the sins of all the rest. So k Plutarch tractat. de supe●stit. the Carthaginians sacrificed their own children to Saturn, being present thereat, and looking on, and such as had no children of their own, bought the children of the poorer sort, as if they had been lambs, or goats, and the order was, that the very mothers of them must be present at the sacrifice without making any show of sorrow or compassion at the sight, and if they did, they forfeited the price of them, and yet their children were sacrificed nevertheless. The wickedness whereof is so palpable, that l Silius Ita li cousin lib. 4. Lucret. lib. 2. some of the heathenish idolaters themselves perceived it, and cried out against it, yea m Plutarch. quo supra. some were so moved therewith, that they disputed the point whether Atheism were not far better, than superstition, and much inclined to the affirmative part. n Lucret. quo supra. Others here upon directly became Atheists, crying out that religion was the cause of all impiety. And which is yet more strange, the Gentiles were so blind in this point, that some of them, o Strab. 〈◊〉. as the Leucades, yearly made choice of some notorious malefactor, & sacrificed him for the whole, as though his death could expiate the sins of others, who had deserved many deaths for his own sins: whereas indeed p Bernard. ad Milites templi, c. 4. the death of the best man now in the state of sin cannot profit an other, si●h every man oweth a death for himself. But as hath been said, this remedy is not only foolish & unprofitable, but also impious and detestable, q Ang. de civet. Deili. 6. cap. 12. making God more cruel than any man; for what man, although justly angry, would be appeased by such a bloody & barbarous means? How were they blinded that thought one sin was a remedy for an other, & that so heinous a sin as murder; that they purged sin, when they added sin to sin, that they appeased God's wrath when they most grievously kindled it? 9 Secondly for cure of this so great an evil, namely sin, they sent us to a supposed power in ourselves, whereby we are able, if we please, to shake of all sin, yea utterly to conquer the least evil motions and affections of the mind as we have heard * Char. Sect. 4. before, and so instead of healing sin thrust us into one of the greatest sins in the world, namely pride & self liking. Hence came that saying that went for a principle among them, r Vnusqui●que fortune suae faber. that every mon was the forger of his own fortune, that is, had power to frame and shape his own state and condition, & to make himself good or bad, happy or miserable. So s Ovid. de Ponto eleg. ●. ad Germanicum. one flatters a great man. The Gods grant thee l●ng life, for as for other things thou wilt give them to thyself; and t Horat, ep. 18. lib. 1. another flatters himself to the same effect, saying, It is enough that I pray to jupiter for long life and riches, for as for a good mind and virtue, I will give that to myself. Neither are we to think that these were only Poetical flourishes, sith the best Philosophers in their most serious discourses and meditations affirm & maintain as much or rather more sometimes. u Arist. Eth. Aristotle layeth this for a ground, that both virtue and vice are in our power, or else we were neither to be praised for well doing, nor dispraised for ill doing: & x Cie de natura Deorum lib. 3. Cicero, most profanely a voucheth, that we truly & justly glory of our virtue, which we would never do, if it were the gift of God, and not a thing of our own. And y Sen. ep 31 Seneca is angry with those that trouble the Gods with their prayers that they might be happy, saying withal, make thyself happy, as if he had said. It is a matter in thine own power, what needest thou be beholden to God for it? Nay z Idem ep. 54. he goeth farther and tells us, that in some respect, man hath the advantage of God himself; sith God is happy by the benefit of nature, but that man is happy by his ow●e good hushanding of his mind, being indifferent liable to felicity or misery: that is, God is happy of necessity, but a wise and virtuous man by election and choice, for as much as whereas he might be either miserable or happy, he by his free choice & wise managing of his will makes himself happy▪ To conclude a Senec. de vita beata c. 8. he affirms that one principal step and degree unto happiness is for a man to admire himself, that is, to dote upon his own excellency. 10 But alas what poor comfort is there in all this. For first, so far of is it that man hath any such power to shake of sin, as he is of himself in irremediable bondage unto it, as hath b Chap. 2. Sect. 8. already been declared, neither is he nought by ill education, or custom, but by birth, or rather before his birth, as shall God willing appear c Chap. 6. Sect. 4.1. hereafter: so that to bid a man not to sin, is to bid him not to eat when he is hungry, not to drink when he is thirsty, not to sleep when he is drowsy, and overwatched, or rather indeed, to bid him not be hungry, not to be thirsty, not to be sleepy or drowsy; yea it is all one, as to bid water not to moisten, fire not to heat, the sea not to ebb or flow, the sun not to move, sith he can no more of himself forbear to sin, than those creatures can suspend such their natural actions and motions. 11 Yea not only is this remedy also vain, but here under colour and show of remedy, is there most deadly poison ministered unto us. Being dead lie sick we are made believe we are hole, being by nature d Eph 2.3. as the Apostle tells us the children of wrath, and e Psal 51.7. as the kingly Prophet saith, form and conceived in sin, we are told, that we may choose whether we will be guilty of sin, or no, and that sin comes only of ill custom; being most miserable bondflaves, we are borne in hand that we are free men, or might be free men if we would ourselves, the falsehood whereof hath been showed before; having just occasion to hang down our heads we are counseled to bear them aloft, & to look big, and whereas we should be ashamed of ourselves, & loathe ourselves we are taught to admire ourselves & dote upon ourselves, which is the very high way to make us incapable of mercy and favour. For as f Aug. delibe●o Arbitrio lib. 3. S. Augustine well saith, What can be more unworthy of mercy than proud misery? And indeed he makes himself unworthy of pity, that stands upon high & proud terms, when nothing can relieve him, but pity. The dissembling of misery, saith g Ber. serm. quodam. Bernard, shuts out mercy: and they shall never be accepted as worthy, that presume they are worthy. Many in regard of this life have perished without mercy, because in their stoutness they would not be beholden unto mercy. It were easy to give instances hereof both in ancient and later times, but generality herein is sufficient It must be humiliation and submission, that must procure offenders favour; not presumption or peremptory standing upon their justification in a bad cause. To counsel the malefactor to plead his innocency when his capital offence is notorious and manifest, what is it else, but to help him the sooner to the gallows? Whereas perhaps by confessing himself guilty, and suing for a pardon in time, he might have been acquitted. And thus we have seen that all the remedies which natural reason hath been able to devise against our misery, that is, against the evils which we suffer, or the evils which we do, against our pains and punishments, or against our sins which are the cause thereof, are either vain and ridiculous, or impious and pernicious. CHAP. 6. That true religion revealed unto us by God's word only discovereth unto us the cause of our misery. 1 HOw ignorant the natural man is touching the cause of his misery, hath sufficiently appeared by things already spoken. It remaineth that we now show the true cause thereof, which only a Gen c. 3. God's word notifies unto us: and that is, that our first parents Adam and Eve being created by God and placed in Paradise in a most happy and pleasant state of life, only restrained from tasting of the fruit of one only tree, to weet the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as a trial of their subjection and loyalty, by the devils suggestion God's deadly enemy & theirs, presumed to eat thereof, and so lost the love, and favour of God, and incurred his displeasure and indignation, and consequently became subject to all misery & calamity not only in this life, but also in the life to come. 2 It may seem that this offence was not so heinous nor deserved such severe punishment. But we must consider that many and grievous iniquities yea abominations lurked in this fact. For first of all, God having expressly told them that whensoever they should taste of this forbidden fruit, they should die the death, that is, they should surely die, they hearkening to the serpent telling them the contrary make God a liar, yea take the Devil's word before his. Now how great a wickedness this was, the simplest may easily perceive. Secondly here was great ingratitude and unthankfulness. The Devil tells them that God had dealt craftily with them in telling them there was such danger in eating of that fruit, whereas indeed it had that virtue to make them equal to himself, and therefore in policy he forbade them to taste of it. Which necessarily argues that they were malcontent with their present estate, as if God had dealt niggardly with them, and had not bestowed so much upon them as he might have done, and so in effect, that the Devil would by his counsel and advise do more for than then God had done or would do. Thirdly & principally, here was high treason against the most high, accompanied with detestable blasphemy. For they eating of the forbidden fruit, because as the Devil informed them thereby they should be equal to God, manifestly showed that they disdained to be God's underlings, and to hold a happiness from him by inferiority and dependency, and would be happy absolutely, and of themselves without being any way beholding to God for the same. Now when the subject denieth homage and fealty to the Sovereign, the Creature to the Creator, man to God, what can it be but high treason, yea highest treason as committed against the highest? Besides it could be no less than abominable blasphemy, that a mortal man should so much as admit a thought to make himself equal to the immortal God, much more to desire it, yea to attempt it. 3 And yet further this doth not a little aggravat their sin, that they then had absolute power not to sin. To express this point, I had rather use Saint Augustine's words then mine own. If, saith b Aug. de eivitat Dei li. 14. c. 15. he, any man think that Adam's condemnation was either too heavy, or unjust: surely he knows not how to weigh the matter, namely how great the iniquity of sinning was, when there was so great easiness not to sin. And a little after, Where there is great punishment threatened for disobedience, and the matter commanded by the creator to be obeyed, so easy, who can sufficiently declare how great a wickedness it is not to obey in a matter so easy, & where there is so great power to obey and so great danger for not obeying? 4 I omit many other considerations which might farther aggravat the greatness of our first parent's sin. But that which hath been already said may suffice. Only this I thought good not to omit, that it may be replied by some, that how great soever their personal offence were, yet what reason is it that their posterity should bear the smart thereof, and that in so hard measure, as we see and feel by common experience, that they do? The answer is easy, that Adam had either happiness or misery in his own hands, not only for himself but for all his: and therefore by making himself miserable willingly, I mean, at least, willingly doing the thing that justly made him miserable he also justly drew misery upon all his. We see that even human justice punisheth the children for the offence of the fathers. He that commits treason not only dieth himself for it, but brings misery upon all his children, who by his offence lose all their goods and lands that otherwise should have descended unto them, as also if the parties so offending be of such quality and rank, their nobility and advantages of birth, and parentage. Again, we as commonly kill the young foxes, wolves, and such like ravenous and noisome beasts as the old, although as yet they have done no actual harm, because we know they are of the same nature, that the old are, and lack not malice but time to hurt and destroy. Much more therefore may God, that more hates malignity of nature in man, than man doth in beasts, manifest his wrath against mankind even in their infancy, knowing that the root and seed of all evil lurks in them from the womb, yea in the womb, and that the poison of sin and wickedness is even incorporated into their essence. And this is the cause of all those miseries and extremities which many times we see young children to endure. The ignorance of which point drew the Gentiles out of the Church, and heretics in the Church into that ridiculous error * before specified, Chap. 3. Sect. 3. that men's souls had committed some foul fault in heaven for the which they were sent into bodies here on earth to do penance for the same. Now man having thus willingly separated himself from God his Creator, and the only author of his happiness, it is no marvel if he became subject to all kind of misery. This was, saith c Aug. de civet Dei lib. 6 cap. 13. S. Augustine, a perverse haughtiness, to forsake that original cause whereunto only the soul ought to cleave, & after a sort to become his own original, that is, to leave God, and go about to be his own God, and to be happy without being beholding to God for it. And a little after, Man by affecting to be more than he was, is now less than he was: and while he made choice to be sufficient of himself, forsook him that only could be sufficient for him. And d Ambro. de Elia & ieinmio cap 4. S. Ambrose brings in God expostulating & reasonning the matter with man after his fall, thus, Didst thou think to be like unto us? therefore sith thou wouldst be what thou wast not, thou hast ceased to be what thou wast. And c Bernard. tractat. de gratia & libero arbit. S. Bernard very sweetly expresseth this point, saith he, they (to wit our first parents) which would needs be their own, became not only their own, but the Devils also, that is, the devils slaves, held in bondage by him at his pleasure, as f 2. Tim. 2.36. the Apostle speaks. This was a woeful alteration that man who was the son of God, while he would be Gods equal, ceased not only to be his son, but also his servant and became the servant of sin and Satan And what a misery it is to be in bondage unto sin, yea what an evil sin of it self is, Chapt. 〈◊〉. sect. 5. & 6. hath * already been sufficiently declared. CHAP. 7. The true remedies which Christian Religion affordeth against the first kind of man's misery, that is, the evils of pain. 1 WHat poor & cold comfort natural men, yea the best of natural men, and as it were the flower of them have been able to find out against man's double misery, namely the evils of pain, and the evils of fault, that is, the evils which he suffereth, and the evils which he doth, sufficiently appeareth by things * before spoken. Chap. 5. throughout. Let us now see what better relief and remedy true religion yieldeth us in that behalf. As for the evils of fault, that is, sin the cause of all evils of pain, the remedy that Christianity affordeth us, is free pardon of our sins and reconciliation to God by faith in jesus Christ. As for the evils of pain, they are of two sorts: either of temporary pain in this world; or of eternal pain in the world to come. The remedies against the former, namely temporary pains in this world, are the gracious change of them unto many profitable uses: the remedy against the latter, namely eternal pains in the world to come is all one with the remedy against the evils of fault, or sins. For the same mercy of God which frees us from sin, doth withal free us from the eternal punishment due unto sin, and therefore I will join them both in one in the next Chapter. For howsoever the strict laws of order require I should first speak of the evils of fault as the cause of all evil of pain, and then of the evils of pain that proceed there of: that is, first of sin; and then of the punishments for sin: yet, because the evils of pain, that is, punishments for sin, specially temporary punishments, whereof I only entreat here, that is, the miseries and afflictions of this life, are more sensible to our nature then the evils of fault, that is, than sins themselves, as also because they be the lesser evils of the two, howsoever more felt, I rather regarding the conveniency of matter, than curiosity of method, will speak of them first. 2 The first consolation then against all worldly miseries, is this, that whereas of themselves they are tokens of God's wrath & displeasure, and a part of his justice upon sinners beginning in this world, and ending in the world to come, or rather to speak properly never ending, and are a taste, and as it were forerunners of hell torments; now clean contrary, unto all that are in Christ, and by faith in Christ stand reconciled unto God, whereof by God's assistance we shall ●eare more at large in the next Chapter, they are signs and pledges of his love and favour. A strange alteration, that they which before were heralds of defiance, should now be messengers of peace, and proclaimers of amity and love: yet that the case thus standeth, is manifest by God's express testimonies. My son, saith a Prov. 3 11. & 12. Solomon, that is God by Solomon, despise not the chastisement of the Lord, nor be weary of his correction: For the Lord correcteth every one that he loveth▪ as a father doth the son to whom he wisheth good. And the b Heb. 12.5. & 6. Vers. 7. & 8. Apostle repeating it almost word for word, * inferreth out of it by necessary consequence, that affliction being the badge of all God's sons, therefore they that tasted not of it were bastards and not sons. And so c Apoc. 3.19. Christ himself professeth to the Church of Laodicea, that he dealt thus with all that he loved, namely that he exercised them with affliction As many, saith he, as I love, I rebuke, and chastise. Thus all afflictions & worldly crosses to the faithful are so many tokens, sent from heaven to earth from God to man, from Christ to the Christian, to assure us of love and favour; & who would not be glad, nay proud to receive love tokens from an earthly king, how much more from the king of heaven? 3 Secondly it is to be considered that these evils of pain are not only comfortable for testification, but also proficable in operation, & bring forth most notable effects in the godly. So saith d Ps 119. v. 67. & 71. David, Before I was afflicted, went astray: but now do I keep thy commandments. And again, It is good for me that I have been in trouble, that thereby I might learn thy statutes. And e Heb. 12.10. the holy Apostle is bold to say, that God chastiseth us for our good, that we may be made partakers of his holiness: now all chastisement for the present seemeth not to be joyous, but grievous; but afterward it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. And f Rom. 5. ●. 3.4.5. S. Paul goeth yet further, affirming that afflictions to those that are in Christ, minister matter not only of profit, but also of glory. Therefore, saith he, We glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation bringeth patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. 4 And hence it is that Divines reach that afflictions to speak properly, unto the godly are not punishments but aught to be termed by some other name So saith g Chrysost. in 1. Corin. hom. 28. S. Chrysostome; we are not punished, but instructed: so that our affliction is for admonition, not for condemnation; for Physic, not for torment; for correction, not for vexation. That is in a word, all our tribulations are for instruction, not for destruction. 5 The very heathens could see that some benefit did grow from trouble & misery. As first, that it was a counterpoison against the danngers of too much prosperity, as pride, riot, wantonness, and the like, which have been the bane of many men. h Herod. l. 3 Amasis' king of Egypt desired that he & his might taste of adversity, and understanding of the incomparable prosperity of Polycrates Prince of Samos, who was so lucky in all his affairs, that when of purpose he had cast his signet that had in it an Emerald of wondrous value, into the sea, he had it brought to him again in the belly of a fish that shortly after was served in at his table, he presently renounced the amity and league that had been long between them, suspecting that some great mischief would befall him, wherein he would be loath to share with him: as indeed it fell out; for being craftily trained into the hands of his enemies he was crucified alive. Yea i juvenal. Satyr. 6. the very Poet observed and complained, * Heu patimur longae pacis malasaevior armis Luxuria incumbit etc. that in his time they were even sick with ease & prosperity; & more plagued with peace, than ever they had been with wars. And k Sen. ep 52. the Philosopher wittily says of Hannibal effeminated by ease & delicacy, that he overcame by arms: but was himself overcome by vices: l Idem ep. 19.115. who also notes, that this was the spoil of Maecenas, and not only of him, but generally of very many whom prosperity brought to a madness of vanity & luxury. Again they saw that sometime crosses occasioned increase of judgement, and bred an experimental knowledge which was not a little to be esteemed. So m Chion in ep. quadam Chion gave hearty thanks to the cross winds that kept him at Byz anrium against his will: because by this means he grew acquainted with Zenophon arrived there during his constrained stay, & greatly benefited himself by conference & intercourse with him. And n Plutarch. Apopht. Regum & Imperat. Themistocles being banished by his unkind country, was wont to say to his followers, Except we had been undone we had been undone. So much did he think he had gained by his banishment; because he thereby grew in favour with the king of Persia, and was greatly advanced and enriched by him. 6 How much more than may Christians pick profit out of adversity, yea such profit as the blind Gentiles never dreamt of? For all that they gained or possibly could gain by adversity, was but a civil & moral wisdom, or reformation of their outward behaviour in this present world and in regard of men: But the Christian taketh out far higher lessons from adversity. 7 For first hereby they learn contempt of the world, which is no small matter. For how dangerous a thing the love of the world is appears by this that it is incompatible with the love of God, & cannot stand with it. Know ye not, saith o jam. 44, S. james, that the friendship of the world, is enmity with God? Whosoever then will be n friend of the world, becometh the enemy of God. And saith p joh. 1.2. vers. 15. S. john, See that ye love not the world, nor the things of the world: if any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. Thus we see that of necessity we must be out of love with the world, if we would be in love with God: enemies with the world, or else we cannot be friends with God. The contempt of the world than toucheth us as nearly as our very salvation, neither can there be any salvation without it. But now what can so well teach us the contempt of the world, as experience of the vanities and miseries of the world? It is then a special token of God's love and favour when he by afflictions & crosses makes the world bitter and unsavoury unto us, thereby to wain us from the love thereof. As mothers or nurses when they would weyne sucking children do use to anoint their teats with wormwood or some other bitter thing, thereby to make them weary of sucking, and to leave the sweet for avoiding of the bitter, so God when he would weyne his children from the love of the world, by adversities and crosses maketh it bitter and unsavoury to them, lest they should too deeply suck in the poison thereof, yea even suck themselves to death, as carnal men that live in all prosperity & jollity usually do, according to that saying of wise q Pro. 1.32. Solomon, that the ease of fools killeth them, and the prosperity of the foolish destroyeth them; by fools meaning the wicked, whom prosperity makes wanton and foolish, depriving them of all spiritual understanding, if they had any, or else keeping them from ever having any. And this as r jer. 48.11. jeremy or rather the Lord by jeremy witnesseth was the over throw and ruin of the Moabits, because r jerem. 48. ver. 11. Moab was quiet even from his youth, and sat upon the Lees, nor was powered out from vessel into vessel, nor lead into captivity. Thus a flattering world poisoneth▪ but a frowning world preserveth: a flattering world defileth, a frowning world purifieth: in a word, a flattering world damneth a frowning world saveth. And who would not be content to have the world his stepmother, so that he may have God his father? And how necessary it is that the world should be a stepmother unto us that we might not over love it, appears by that golden speech of s Augustine. an ancient divine; Behold, saith he, the world is stormy and tempestuous, and yet we love it, what should we do if it were calm? How wouldst thou embrace and coal a beautiful world, that makest so much of a fowl and deformed world? how greedily wouldst thou gather the roses of it, that canst hardly hold thy hands from the thorns of it? That is, how should we door upon the world, if it were an indulgent mother; that can scarce forbear to love it, being a cursed stepmother? 8 Besides the miseries of this life do serve notably to mortify our lusts, and concupiscenses. For, as prosperity is oil to kindle them: so adverfity is water to cool and quench them. Hereby anger is mitigated, lust abated, pride dejected, and in a word, all inordinate affections & desires rectified. Hence it is that affliction in holy scripture is often termed a furnace, yea a fiery furnace: because it purgeth out our corruptions, and maketh separation between the gold and the dross of our souls, between our vices and our virtues. And hence it cometh, that our very enemies are our servants and procure our good, when they seem most to hurt & annoy us. Wouldst thou know how this comes to pass, saith t Augustin. de tempor. sermo 78, S. Augustine? Why they so serve us as files and hammers serve gold; as mills serve wheat, as ovens serve for the baking & making of bread, finally as straw, and chaff in the furnace serveth gold, where the chaff is consumed to nothing, but the gold remaineth yea is made better than it was, being purified thereby. Which resemblances, if we well mark them, are very proper & excellent. For one would think that the file by galling, & the hammer by beating should mar the gold; & yet they both better it: one would think that the chaff which nourisheth the fire in the Goldsmith's furnace should be hurtful to the gold, as also the mil to the wheat which it grindeth to powder, and the oven to the loaves which it burneth and scorcheth with so violent hear; and yet are all these things brought to their perfection by the things which in show so much annoy them: gold by the file, hammer, & burning chaff; where by the mill, & loaves by the oven; And so a true Christian is purified and perfected by the things that threaten him destruction, namely by crosses and afflictions. 9 Neither do the miseries of this life only mortify our vices, but also either breed, or at least increase many excellent virtues in us, as hath in part * already been touched. And therefore u In this chap. sect. 3. ● 2. Corinth 4 vers. 16. the blessed Apostle joineth both these benefits together, saying that while our outward man perisheth, our inward man is renewed thereby: meaning, that as afflictions do weaken and consume our natural life; so they strengthen & further our spiritual life. And o happy loss that causeth such gain, o happy smart that causeth such ease, yea o happy death that causeth such a life. Thus we ever come out of affliction better than we were before. Whereof we have a notable resemblance, or rather a type & prefiguration in the children of Israel's bondage in Egypt recorded by x Genes 15. ver. 13. & 14 Moses in his holy history. God foretold that they should be slaves in Egypt for many years, and suffer great affliction there: but yet that in the end they should come out of it, and that with advantage, namely with gold, silver, jewels, and far greater substance than they had when they went thither, as y Exod 12. v. 35.36, & the event indeed manifestly showed. Even so it fareth with all true Christians; they must go into Egypt, and endure bondage there, that is, they must suffer many troubles and miseries in this life: but they shall come out of them in better case than they were before. But what? do God's children come out of their troubles and adversities with more gold, and silver, or with better apparel than they had before, as the Israelites did out of Egypt? No surely: but yet with far more precious things than gold, or silver, or gorgeous attire, namely with more knowledge, with more wisdom, with more potience, with more humility, with more zeal, with more contempt of this transitory life, aed more longing after the life to come, which is eternal. Now what goodly treasures are these, and how far more precious than those which the Israelites brought out of Egypt after their long bondage and manifold grievances there? z Tertull de p. ●. entia. c. 7 Tertullian saith strangely, Let the whole world perish so that I may gain patience. If he held that one virtue of patience worth the buying at so high a rate, even with the loss of the whole world: how much more should we think so many other virtues together with it, worth the buying with some short & transitory adversities and crosses of the world? 10 Last of all a true Christian hath by the benefit of his holy profession this notable comfort against the miseries of this present life, that making such religious uses thereof, as hath been said, he is acquitted of eternal miseries of the life to come. So a Luc. 16. ver. 25. Abraham from heaven tells the rich glutton in hell, Remember, saith he, that thou receivedst good thing in this life & Lazarous evil: therefore now is he comforted, at thou art tormented. And, saith b 1 Corinth. 11. vers. 32. S Paul, When we are judged of the Lord, we are corrected to the end we should not be damned with the world. Thus, if God correct us, the Devil shall have nothing to do with us. And how happy would the son think himself, that having deserved to be strangled by the hangman, might scape by whipping, and the whipping too referred to his own father? Thus the evils of pain or the afflictions of this life to a true Christian minister many comforts, & yield them many benefits, so that we should rather desire them, then be overmuch afraid of them, or dismayed with them, Therefore c Bern in Cant. ser. 42 S. Bernard's meditation is excellent touching this point, that God is never more angry than when he is not angry, that is, when he showeth no tokens of his displeasure by correcting us. For although this may seem to be mercy and favour, yet saith he I will none of this mercy; this mercy is worse than all wrath or anger. To conclude, let us make such holy uses of the miseries which we endure in this life, as hath been showed; and they shall serve us for an acquittance of all miseries, and torments in the life to come. CHAP. 8. That the Christian religion only affordeth us true remedy against the second kind of evils, that is the evils which we do, or our sins. 1 THAT the greatest evils in this world, are the evils which we do, that is, our sins hath been * Chap. 2. Sect 5. already sufficiently declared: * Chap. 5. Sect. 7. & 8. as also that the best remedies that natural men, though never so wise & learned have been able to devise against the same, are of no force, nay that they are rasher poisons than medicines. Let us now see what helps and comforts Divinity and true religion will afford us again the same. 2 And first we must admit it for a ground that neither ourselves, nor any other like unto ourselves, (that is, mere men) can remedy this matter; that is, deliver us from sin. For both we and they are so captivated & enthralled thereunto, that we cannot possibly free ourselves from it, as hath been * Chap. 2. Sect. 8.1 & Chap. 6. Sect 4. before declared, whereunto we may add that golden speech of a Bern. trac● de gratia & libero arbitrio. Bernard, that although power were given to man's will to stand & not fall: yet not a power to rise again, if it did fall. For it is not so easy for a man to come out of a pit, as to fall into a pit. It is in vain then to seek help either from ourselves or others like unto ourselves, in this case, namely against sin. 3 Here man's state being both so miserable, and also so remediless, God steps in to stelpe him, when he was not able to help himself, and after an incomprehensible manner so tempered mercy and justice one with the other, that neither sin should be simply pardoned, nor yet the sinner be condemned, but that both the offence should be punished, and yet the offender absolved. This may seem strange, and indeed is most strange, & therefore b Rom 16. ver. 25. & Colos. 1. verse, 20. in the scriptures is called a mystery, yea a hidden mystery, yea a mystery hidden from the beginning of the world until the fullness of time, that is, until the time appointed by God in his infinite wisdom for the revelation thereof. This mystery in few words is, that God sent his only son jesus Christ into the world to take upon him the nature of man in the womb, and of the substance of the virgin▪ Mary, and in this nature to preach all truth and to fulfil all righteousness in his life, and afterwards to suffer a most both ignominious and painful death upon the cross, that by his blood he might wash away man's sins, & so reconcile to himself all those that by faith embraced him as their redeemer, and applied to themselves that most glorious and sovereign sacrifice of his death and passion. The sum whereof, c joh. 3.16. the Evangelist comprehends in these few but golden words; So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, to the end that whosoever believed in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting. For the better understanding whereof we must observe that the human nature in Christ is not a distinct and several person by itself, as Peter, john, and such like: but so united to the divine nature that did assume it, as they both make but one person, so that all that is in it, is truly said to be Gods, and all that was done by it; to be done by God; d Act. 20.28. his blood was God's blood, his death God's death, &c: which necessarily: implieth the perfection of all his actions, being the actions of him that was God as well as man, and both God and man in one person. Secondly we must note that all that he did or suffered in his human nature thus united to the divine, he did and suffered for us, that we might have the benefit of it: he took our evils upon him, our sins and death due to our sins; and imparted his good things to us, his innocency, obedience, holiness and righteousness, & finally his sufferings partly in his life time, but principally at his death upon the cross his humiliation is our exaltation, his condemnation our absolution, his death our life. 4 This course was most effectual and available in this case, yea in the apprehension of man only of force & possibility to remedy this branch of our misery, namely our sins, and condemnation for sin. For first, e Chrysost. in prior ep. ad Timoth. hom. 7. he that is to reconcile persons that are at variance & difference one with the other, must have interest in both; else is he unfit to reconcile them, and bring them friends: wherefore God and man being at variance, it was requisite that he which should reconcile them should be both God & man. Again man having sinned, justice required that man should be punished, & having sinned unto death should be punished with death; but now a mere man's death could not salve the matter for as formerly hath been showed, the death of one sinner cannot pay the debt and death of another, every sinner owing a death for himself. And beside, he that was to deliver others from the danger of penalty and death was not only to suffer death, but also to vanquish & overcome death which a mere man could never have done God could not die, & man could not recover himself, when he should die: wherefore the Mediator was to be man to suffer death, and God to vanquish death Thus as f Anse●m. tract cur Deus homo a Divine of middle times sweetly saith, Sith such a satisfaction was requisite as none but God could make, & none but man was bound to make: he that was to make it, was to be both God and man. Thus our Christian religion only directs us to the means wherein there is possibility of saving us from our sins, and hence it is, g Mat. 1. v. 2● that Christ had the name of jesus, that is, of a Saviour, as he that only could and would do this so great a work. 5 And that he as well would do it, as could do it, yea therefore only was incarnated and suffered death that he might do it, is most evident. h Cyp. de Idolor. vanitate. Christ was made that which man was, that man might be made that which Christ was. And, as i Bernard. in vigilia nativit. Domini. Bernard saith, why was the son of God made the son of man, but that the sons of men might be made the sons of God? Surely k Gregor. homi● 34. in evangel. this cannot but yield man boldness with God, that God himself is become man. l August in Psal. 148. There is no cause now why man should doubt of living for ever, sith God hath died for him. For shall not he live for ever, for whom he died that lives for ever? Verily it is nothing so strange that mortal man should live, as that ●he immortal God should die, specially since this death of the son of God was unjust & without cause in respect of himself, and therefore must needs be available for some others, as m August de temp. serm. 101. S. Augustin excellently says, Death could not be conquered but by death, therefore Christ suffered death that an unjust death might overcome just death, and that he might deliver the guilty justly, by dying for them unjustly. And thus n August. de verbis Domini second Lucan; & de temp. serm. 141. by taking upon him our punishment, without taking upon him our fault; he hath discharged us both of the punishment, and the fault. And that by good right, o Bernard. ad milites templi, c. 4. sith although because he was man he could die, yet because he was just, he ought not to have died, & he that had no cause to die for himself, in reason and equity should not die for others unprofitably. Neither surely did he, but to greatest purpose, namely, that the son of God dying for the sons of men, the sons of men might be made the sons of God, as we heard before out of S. Bernard, yea that of bad servants men might be made good sons, as p Aug. ser. 28 Saint Augustine speaketh: and this glorious mystery of our Saviour's incarnation and passion must needs bring forth glorious effects, q Ansel. in c ●. ep. ad Eph this strange and unspeakable love of God that his only son should die for us, that a Lord should die for servants, the creator for the creature, God for man, this strange love I say, must needs be of strange operation, as it is r Bern. feria 4. heb dom. paenolae. even to make of sinners just men, of slaves brethren, of captives fellow heirs, and of banished persons kings. 6 Why then should our sins dismay us, if we be unfeignedly sorry for them, and by faith have recourse unto Christ that hath borne the punishment of them? O let us think upon this comfortable change, s August. m Psal. 2●. c. narrat. 2. that Christ made our faults his faults, that he might make his righteousness our righteousness. t just. Martyr ad Diagnetum. O sweet exchange, o unsearchable skill, that the unrighteousness of many should be hidden in one that is righteous, & the righteousness of one should cause many that are unrighteous to be accounted righteous. Although we be not, nor cannot be without sin, yet as long as our sins are not imputed to us, they cannot hurr us. The princely prophet David as u August. in Psal. 32. c▪ na●rat. 2. S. Augustine well observes, says not they are happy that have no sin, but whose sins are covered. Surely if God have covered our sins, he will not see them; if he will not see them, he will not examine them; if he will not examine them, he will not punish them. x August. in Psal. 119. According to the grounds of our Christian faith, they are accounted for no sinners, to whom their sins are not imputed, & y Idem de nuptiis & concupise. cap 26. not to be held guilty of sin is not to have sin, or, to be without sin. Do we fail in our obedience to the law of God & many times break his commandments? Why z Idem retract. lib 11▪ cap. 19 all the commandments are then held to be kept, when all is pardoned that is not kept. a Bernard in Cantic. serm 33 & in Annunciat Mariae serm It is then a sufficient righteousness to have our unrighteousness forgiven, and to have him only favourable to us whom only we have offended. True it is that that which is done cannot but be done, and yet not being imputed, it is all one, as if it had not been done. 7 This plea must needs confounded the Devil, and put him to silence. For b Bernard. if Adam's sin could make us guilty shall not Christ's righteousness much more make us innocent? Shall there be more virtue in the seed of the first Adam, then in the blood of the second Adam? Doubtless the greatest force and efficacy is ever in the greater and stronger agent, and therefore Christ is fat more able to save then Adam to condemn, and why should not we have righteousness from another, as well as we had guiltiness from another? 1. Corinth. vers. 1. specially sith c p. 190. Christ was made righteousness unto us by God the father: and shall not that righteousness be ours which was made over to us, and made over by God himself? Carnal generation from Adam shall never be of such force to damn us, as spiritual regeneration in Christ to save us. And if Satan say unto us that a bad father sold us, we may presently answer that a good brother hath ransomed us. 8 Finally, what could we wish more? d An●elm. cur Deus homo lib▪ 2. Being miserable creatures, and not able to free ourselves from the bondage of sin and Satan, God the father says unto every one of us, take my son and give him for thee, and the son himself saith, take me & redeem thyself with me. e Idem in meditat. What sweeter entreaty can there be, then to entreat the father in the sons name, yea for his only begotten and most dearly beloved sons sake? By this kind of mediation many captives have been set free, many malefactors have obtained their pardon, many that every hour looked for the stroke of death have had their lives given them. O happy and thrice happy are they that are allowed this favourable and gracious access unto the father in the name of his son, & can plead thus, O Lord remember what a good son hath suffered, and forget what a bad servant hath done. 9 There remaineth yet another singular consolation against so great an evil, to wit sin, and that is, that God in his infinite wisdom turneth our very sins themselves to our benefit and advantage, so far of is it that they shall condemn us. f Rom 8. vers. 28. The Apostle saith that all things work together for the good of those that love God, g Bernard. serm. de falac praesentis vitae, & in Psal. 15. serm. 2. which is so true, that even the things which properly are not things but the corruptions of things, as grief, sickness, death, and finally sin itself do so. The latter may seem strange, and yet it is true, namely that even sin worketh for the good of the faithful, yea sin is made a medicine for sin. We know how foul a sin pride is, and how deeply it is rooted in our corrupt nature, or rather incorporated into it, h Hier. ep. 30 we had rather be without gold itself then without pride and self liking. i Bernard. ●pist▪ 143. To do great works and have humble thoughts is far a harder matter then much fasting, long watching, and other the like corporal afflictions. Nay to do any good work be it never so mean and not to glory in it, is a virtue that is found but in few, and yet to be proud of well doing, is little better than ill doing. And k August de tempor. serm. 49. some have ventured to affirm that an humble sinner is better than one that is proud for doing good, and that God is more pleased with humility in ill doing, then with pride in well doing. At least this we may be bold to say l Gregor. Moral. lib. 19 c, 12. & 13. that pride mars the lustre & grace of our best actions and makes them merely unprofitable unto us, and they that overcome their vices, by being proud of it, are overcome by that which they had overcome, & foiled by their own victory. We see then of what necessity humility is, without which all virtues are no virtues, and how abominable pride is, that in a manner turneth all virtues into vices. Whence m Aug. ep. 52 S. Augustin professeth, that if he were demanded what were the first point of Christianity, he would answer humility, if what were the second, he would likewise say humility, if what the third, his answer also should be, humility, n Cic. de orat. lib. 3. even as the Orator being asked what was the first, second and third point of eloquence, answered still, utterance. Now there is nothing so effectual to kill that monster of pride, and to breed this excellent virtue of humility, as sin itself, when God gives us grace to be humbled with the consideration thereof. o August. ●e Civ. Dei. lib. 11. c. 14. We may then be bold to say that it is profitable even for good men to fall into some manifest sin that they might be displeased with themselves, who fell by pleasing themselves. In a word the sin of pride cannot be cured but by other sins which makes us ashamed of ourselves, p Ezech. 6. vers. 9 & 20. vers. 43. & 36▪ vers, 31. yea and even to loathe ourselves, and to blush to ourselves, when sometimes others commend and extol us, that are not privy to our faults. So by this means we are preserved both from flattering ourselves and also from applauding to others when they flatter us, yea from taking pleasure in their just praises, q Hieron. ep 32. Aug. ep 64. which is exceedingly dangerous, & yet almost impossible to be avoided saving by this means. And as our sins and slips keep us in humility, so do they also teach us fear, care, and circumspection, that afterwards we will not so easily be overtaken again, so that we may well conclude with r Bern. quo supra lit. mark g. S. Bernard, Do not his sins turn to his good, that riseth from his sins more humble, more fearful, more careful and wary than he was before? Doubtless his very fall is happy that is taken up by humility. This is the unsearchable wisdom and inestimable goodness of God to cure sin by sin, and to turn poison itself into a medicine. CHAP. 9 Consolations against certain circumstances of sin, namely long continuance therein, before our conversion; and relapse into it after our conversion. 1 Thus we have heard what remedies Christian religion affordeth against sin, in respect of the substance thereof. But now there are certain circumstances of sin which do not a little aggravate the same, and wherewith the conscience many times is much terrified. Which are principally two, late repentance for sin, and relapse into sin after repentance. 2 Touching the former, to weet late repentance, there is no cause, why we should be dismayed therewith. For first we are to consider, that although we live an hundred years, yea many hundred years, if it could be, which without extraordinary privilege never to be hoped for, cannot possibly be: yet the distance of time between the day of our birth & the day of our death is nothing unto God. a Psal. 90. v. 4. 2. Pet. 3. v. 8. For as the Prophet says, & the Apostle from him repeats it, a thousand years with the Lord are but as one day. Howsoever then to us things are said to be done early or late: yet in respect of God nothing is sooner or later, no time is long or short, nay no time is either past or to come, but all time is present unto him. Let our care be that our repentance be unfeigned, & it shall never be too late. Again for our farther comfort herein, let us observe, b Mat. 20. v. 1.3. etc. that most divine parable of our Saviour Christ touching the labourers hired by an owner of a vinyeard to work therein, some of them early in the morning, some at the third hour of the day, some at the ninth, some at the eleventh, & yet when they came to receive their wages, they that were taken up last had as much as they that were entertained first. which insinuats that so we be brought to serve God truly & faithfully, our late coming to his service, shall no way prejudice our comfort, but that we shall be as well accepted, as they that begun long before us. c Epieur apud Laert, The very heathen could say, that no man was too old to learn those things which concerned the health of the mind: much more should we resolve that no man is too old to learn and practise those things which pertain to his eternal happiness, & welfare. d joh. 11. vers. 32. Christ raised Lazirus our of his grave; even after he had lain so long there that he stunk: & therefore can raise us out of the grave of sin, although we have lain so long therein, that we seem past recovery, as the sisters of Lazarus imagined of their brother. Let us therefore assure ourselves ᵒ that while we be yet in this world, e Cyp. count Demetrianun our repentance can never be too late, but that there is a passage from our mortal stroke to immortality, f Hier. ep. 7. And that we should not despair in this regard, God hath left us a notable example g Luc. 23. v. 40.41▪ 4●. 43 in holy Scripture, where we read that the penitent thief found present passage from the gibbet to heaven. Nay where God vouchsafeth the grace to repent truly, there may be a benefit in repenting lately, yea a double benefit, namely fervency and constancy in the worship and service of God Fervency, because having lost so much time we should labour to fetch it up and recover it by diligence and industry, & think we can never serve God enough, because it was so long before we begun to serve him, whom we should▪ have served ever h Seneca Nat quaest. l. 3. in praef. And herein we are to imitate travellers, which by reason of some impediments and lets have staid behind their fellows: the later they set out, the faster they travail, and by haste & speed make amends for their slowness and slackness. So late conversion should not discourage us from serving of God: but encourage us to serve him more fervently. The second advantage that may be made of late repentance is constancy. And indeed this benefit doth ordinarily follow it. Many seem to repent for sin before they know what sin is, or at least effectually apprehend the danger thereof, and therefore commonly are soon drawn into sin again, & so drawn again into it, as they will never after be drawn out of it, therefore never attaining to sound repentance, because their repentance was too young, not repenting when they should, because they repent before they truly could. But contrarily they most loath sin, that see their folly and madness in serving it so long, i Luc. 7.47. and the more & greater the wounds of a sinful soul are, the more & greater will her love be to Christ her heavenly Physician. In a word k Sen. ibid. as the very heathen hath well observed, The surest passage from vice to virtue is by the bridge of repentance; and we then most constantly cleave to that which is good, when we have been oftenest, and deep liest stung by evil. Thus when God giveth spiritual wisdom to the sinner, his late repentance shall rather be advantageous, than damnable to him. 3 The second circumstance which maketh sin to terrible in our apprehension, & indeed so dangerous in itself is relapse into the same sins after repentance. How great an evil this is * Chapt. 2. Sect. 9 hath already in part been declared. But we may further consider, that this is a step & degree to the fearful state of those, of whom l 2. Pet. ●. ●2. S. Peter speaketh, the same is happened unto them which is used to be spoken in the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, & the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. We should with fear and trembling think upon that, m Mat 13, 43. etc. which our Saviour Christ delivereth in the Gospel, that when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, if he return & enter into him again, he bringeth seven other spirits with him worse than himself, & taketh stronger possession in him than he had before, so that the last state of that man is worse than the first. 4 But yet if through frailty we be overtaken even thus far also as to relapse into the same offences: yet must we not despair by & by, but there are some comforts, & remedies left us against this so dangerous a temptation. 5 And first let us consider, that the worthiest servants of God were not all together free from this relapse into the self same sins. n Gen. 1●. 8. etc. & 20.2. & ●. Abraham twice denied & disclaimed his own wife, there by greatly engaging & endangering her chastity, & after a sort becoming a bawd unto her; which proceeded from infidelity, for that he could not rest upon God's protection, but would provide for his safety by devises and shifts of his own. And o Mat. 26. 6●. etc. Peter denied his Master Christ not once, nor twice but thrice, & that every time in worse so t than other, first by simple denial, secondly by oath, thirdly by imprecation and cursing. p Rom. 7.15. & 1●. The Apostle Paul when he says of himself, that which I do, I allow not: for what I would that do I not, but what I hate, that do I, speaks not of some one evil act, but of the whole course of his life, which argues not only his doing, but his often doing of what he would not, and offending sundry times in the same things. But more manifest is that which he testifieth of himself q 2 Cor▪ 12.7 etc. in an other place, that he was vexed with a prick or sting in the flesh, even the messenger of S●●ā that buffeted him, as he speaketh, & that he had prayed thrice to have it taken away, but could not prevail in that his suit, but yet received sufficient comfort against all danger thereof. Here it is apparent that the Apostle oftentimes offended in the something, although he do not specify what it was, & it were fond curiosity in us to be inquisitive that way. 6 Furthermore most comfortable in this case is the doctrine of our Saviour Christ, r M●t. 18. v. 21.22. where being a●ked of Peter, how often he was to forgive his brother that offended against him, whether until seven times or no, answereth him, that he was to do it not seven times, but seventy times seven times. So s Luk. 17.4. in an other place instructing his disciples in general touching the same point he saith. If thy brother sin against thee seven times in a day; & seven times a day come again unto thee, & say, it repenteth me: thou shalt forgive him. Doubtless he that enjoineth us to be merciful one to another, although we often commit the same offences one against an other, upon acknowledgement of the faults and sorrow for the same: will be merciful unto us upon our repentance & submission, although we often offend him in the same manner. He will not practise less mercy towards us, than he requireth that we should practise one towards another. Our mercy is but a sparkle of his infused into us by his spirit: and shall a spark do more than the whole fire? shall there be more in the stream then in the fountain, more in the river than in the main sea? 7 And here we are farther to note that the true nature of our justification consists not only in a general pardon of sins past, but in a particular application of the pardon of sin granted us in Christ to our particular offences committed in the whole course of our life, and that there is place not only for our first repentance, but for daily repentance according to our daily sins. And surely t ●●●sat. 6▪ 1●. Christ would not have commanded us to pray for daily forgiveness of sins, if he would not daily forgive them, not often invite us to repentance, if he would not pardon us upon our repentance, and as u Ter●ul de paenit. ca 5. Tertullian pithily says God would not threaten him that doth not repent: if he would not pardon him that doth repent. This is the state of a Christians life x August. de Temp ●erm. 47 & G●eg. in Cant. c. 4. that notwithstanding their sins, they continue righteous through the daily forgiveness of sin, and recaine their righteousness by bewailing their unrighteousness, so it be under faith in Christ. y Aug quest. Evang▪ ●ib. 2. quae●t. 33, S. Augustine is bold to say, that Christ is then slain to every man, when he believeth that be was slain. Thus saith for often wounds hath often salves, or rather one and the self-same salve, which being often applied is sufficient to cure our often wounds. Wherefore let us not be ashamed to be beholden to this remedy. z Bernard. ep. 112. Let us be ashamed that we ran away, but not ashamed to return into the field again, and fight again after flying away. a Tertul. d● poenit. ca.▪ 7. Let it grieve us to offend again; but not to repent again: let it grieve us to come in danger again but not to be delivered again. When we are in danger let it g●●eu● us to fall sick again; but not to be cured again. Indeed we should desire and strive not to sin: but b Cypri. ep. 33. as the first degree of happiness is not to sin; so the second is to confesie our sins, & to be sorry for them. And true sorrow for sin in a manner maketh sin to be no sin, as not only the Gentle saith c Sen. Agamemn. act 2 in the Poet. * Quem poenitet pecaste pene est innocens. He that is sorry that he hath done evil is almost innocent: but also d Tertull ad Senator. Apo●tolat. Non erit in culpa quem poeniter ante fuisse. an ancient Christian author sticks not to say; * He shall not be in fault, that is sorry he hath been in fault. Wherefore to conclude this point, let this be our resolution e Tertul. de poenit c. 7. that how often so ever we have offended, yet there is place for reconciliation, and that God not only may be pacified by ou● submission and humiliation, but that he is very willing and desirous it should be so, and that therefore f Epiphan. haeres. 59 five lib. 2. Tom, 1. While as yet we are in this wo●ld combating with sin, there is a rising after our falling, there is yet hope, as yet a salve, as yet time, for confession, & pardon. CHAP. 10. Of the greatness of God's mercy, wherewith the greatness of sin hath no proportion. 1 IF yet we desire to be farther comforted and armed either against the substance of sin, or those foresaid circumstances thereof, that so augment the terror of it, we must lastly consider the infinite greatness of God's mercy and goodness, that needs must be of greater force to save us than our sins can be to condemn us. Here we are entering into a sea that hath neither bottom, nor shore. For as all other of God's attributes are infinite, so is his mercy also; which that we may the better know, it is to be noted, that there are no qualities in God, but that all that is in him is his very essence. God then is not accidentally just wise, merciful, and the like: but essentially, that is, to speak properly he is not just, but justice itself; not wise, but wiledome itself; not merciful, but mercy itself. This shows how great his mercy is, or rather it shows it not, for what can show us that which is incomprehensible? But yet this in part insinuates the greatness of God's mercy, namely that it is as great as himself, and that no mar● vail, sith it is himself. But first let us hear what himself testifieth of himself that way that only is able perfectly to know himself. 2 The Lord, a Psal. 113. ver 8. & seq. saith David, is merciful and gracious, of long suffering, and pienteous with goodness, he chideth not for ever, nor keepeth his anger always, he dealeth not with us according to our sins, nor rewardeth us according to our iniquities, but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so much doth his mercy give beyond them that fear him, as far as the East is from the w●st, so far doth he remove our sins from us, as a father hath pity on his children, so hath the Lord pity on them that fear him; for he knoweth whereof we are made, he remembreth that we are but dust. Here we have not only a profession of the greatness of God's mercy in express words, but also a lively resemblance thereof by most proper comparisons, yea most forcible arguments also and reasons for proof thereof, as God willing, shall hereafter be observed. b Esai 49. vers. 15. Again saith the Lord, Can the mother forget her young child, and not have pity of the son of her womb? but be it that a mother may forget, yet will not I forget thee saith the Lord. And c Esay 55. v 7. ●9. in the same Prophet, to weet Esay, Let the wicked forsake his evil ways, & the ungodly his imaginations, & return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he is full of compassion. For my thoughts are not as your thoughts nor my ways as your ways, but as high at the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. And so d ser. 3. ●. in jeremy, If a man be divorced from his wife, & she departing from him shall be married to an other, shall he take her again, should not the land be defiled thereby? But thou hast played the whore with many lovers, & y●t return to me, ●aith the Lord. And in e Ezech 18. ver. 23 31. Ezechiell he even mourneth for the folly and obstinacy of his people, that would not return unto him and live. Am I delighted with the death of a sinner, saith the Lord, and not rather with this that he should return from his ways and live? Why will ye die o house of Israel? Out of these Scriptures & the like we may gather many consolations whereby to be persuaded of the forgiveness of our sins. And first let us consider that Gods love infinitely exceedeth any love that is to be found in the creatures, being as far above it as the heavens are above the earth, or the utmost ends of the world are distant one from an other. And yet we see that the love which is in the creatures is of great force, and produceth very strange effects; and specially that love wherewith God here compareth his, namely that of parents towards their children, who love them, yea tenderly love them, even when they are unworthy of their love, and gladly embrace any submission from them. f Teren. Andr●a. Act. 5. scen. 3. Propeccato magno paulum ●upplicii satis est patri. Even nature hath taught men to plead this, * That a father is satis fied with a little punishment for a great offence. Nay we see that fathers cannot but love their stubborn children, that refuse to submit themselves. yea that stand at open defiance with them, whereof the Scripture affordeth us a notable example. g 2. Sam. 15 ver. 1.2, etc. Absalon most unnaturally rebelled against his father king David▪ after that he had pardoned him for a cruel and odious murder; and sought to deprive him both of crown and life. For ●in kings these both go together, who leave to be men when they leave to be kings, & can no longer hold their lives than they hold their sovereignty. He I say, unnaturally rebelled against so kind a father, and was up in arms against him. And yet see how his father was affected towards him Having raised an army to suppress him, h Chap. 18.5. & 12. he chargeth his two principal captains that they should deal gently with Absalon for his sake. i Vers. 31.32 33. And when afterward he had news that he was slain, he made most pitiful lamentation for him, crying out; My son Absalon, my son, my son Absalon, would God I had died for thee, would God I were in thy steed, o Absalon my son, my son. Thus nature forced him to love even a rebellious son. But most memorable is that which happened in our age at Castillion upon Loing in France. k Bodin de repub. lib. 1. cap. 4. A father offering to give his son a blow for some misdemeanour, the son ran him through with his sword. Here the miserable father perceiving himself wounded to death, never left crying after his son as long as he could cry, that he should fly and shift for himself, least justice should take hold on him. O admirable force of fatherly love, that the father should tender the sons life that deprived the father of life. But God doth not only compare his love to a father's love but also to a mother's love, which commonly is the more tender of the two, that sex being passion arely indulgent And of what force a mother's love is even towards wicked and ungracious children the same author in the same place specifieth by the example of a woman of the same nation, who having a son that used her most outrageously, reviled her, bear her, threw her at his feet, and amongst many other indignities committed one against her which I think unmeet to be mentioned in particular; yet would never complain to authority of him: and when the magistrates of their own accord took notice thereof▪ and holding the example into lerable, convented him before them, & gave sentence of death against him; the mother came crying and howling in most pitiful sort, denying all the wrongs and outrage, he had done unto her. And no marvel that the parents love of their children is so tender, and vehement, sith we see how strong and strange the affection of very beasts is towards their young ones. The love of their young ones, l Sen ep. 75 saith Seneca, forceth wild beasts to run upon the hunter's iavelin or spear; m Nat. Comes de venat. lib. 2. and they usually either recover them or die in attempting to recover them. Now these strong instincts of love in the creatures are derived from God, and infused into them by him. I speak of the substance and soundness thereof. For as for the irregularity of it specially in men, it proceeds not from creation, but from corruption & depravation. But I say, this love, yea this fervency of love in the creatures comes from divine instinct. Now if God himself infuse so much love into his creatures, how great is the love that is in himself? Doubtless here that principle in Philosophy must needs be verified, that that which makes another thing to be so or so, must needs be more so itself. And therefore sith God makes the creatures to love so strongly, doubtless he himself doth love more strongly, as we herd before out of Esay that the tenderest human love was inferior to his, even the love of a mother towards her child, and that although a mother might forget her child, yet he would not forget his people. And no marvel that his love is so great, he being love itself. For so we find in Scripture, not only that God is loving, n 1. joh. 4. ● 16. but also that God is love. God saith not that he is power, or justice, although he might truly say so, but when he would define himself and tell what he is, he makes choice of this attribute of love and saith he is love, which notably argueth how great and strong his love is. 3 Furthermore we see by the former testimonies of Scripture, that his love is transcendent, and above rule. He hath limited man's love, & mercy, and there are many cases wherein men may not show mercy. The husband as we heard out of jeremy, might not take his wife again, that had played the whore, and departing from him had coupled herself to another man. o 1 Sam. 2. v. 37. etc. Elie the high Priest was severely punished for being too merciful to his profane sons. Saul & Ahab both lost their kingdoms for showing mercy to their prisoners contrary to God's mind, p 1. Sam. 15. the former to Agag. q 1 King ●0 the later to Benhadad: yea r Deut 13. 〈◊〉. 6 7 8. God made a general law in express terms, that parents should not pity nor spare their own natural children if they became Idolaters, and worshipped strange Gods, nor brother the brother, nor husband the wife, no not his tenderly beloved wife; that their eye should not spare them, but their hands should be upon them first, to stone them to death. In these, and many other cases men might not show mercy: and if they notwithstanding would be merciful to others, they became cruel to themselves, pulling down God's vengeance upon their own heads. Thus man's mercy is bounded, but Gods is boundless, and transcendent, so that he can and doth show mercy even in the cases that men may not. As appears by that before alleged out of jeremy, that although the husband might not take again his wife that had gone a who ring from him: yet God was ready to receive his people although they had committed spiritual whoredom, & that with many lovers, that is, had defiled themselves with many sorts of Idolatry. And by this privilege of unlimited mercy God comforteth his Church and people s Esay 55. v. v. 7, 8, 9 in Esaie, as we have heard, chiding them for their infidelity, that reasoned thus, We have so grievously sinned against the Lord, that there is no returning unto him, or hope of pardon. What? Saith God, Will you measure my mercy by your mercy? Why, there is as great odds between my ways, and your ways; my thoughts and your thoughts, that it, between my mercy and your conceits of my mercy: as there is distance between heaven and earth. O comfort more worth than a thousand worlds if there were so many. The Lord doth not say, that his ways and thoughts of knowledge and wisdom, but his ways and thoughts of mercy, are as far above ours, as the heavens are above the earth. And why then should we doubt whether a mercy of such extent either could not, or would not relieve our misery? 4 Besides this, let us weigh how the Lord inviteth us to return unto him, speaking thus in effect to the sin full soul; I know thou hast shamefully strayed from me; I know thou hast given me too too many occasions utterly to cast thee off, and to accept of no submission: but yet return to me and thou shalt be welcome. Thou hast monstrously defiled & deformed thyself: yet wash and purify thyself, nay suffer me to wash & purify thee, t Esa. 1.18. and if thy sins were as purple, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they were as red as scarlet, they shall be as wool. Nether doth God desire only that we should return to him, but pitieth our obstinacy when we will not return, as he saith in Ezekiel, O house of Israel, why will ye die? u Luk. 19 vers. 41.42. And so Christ in the Gospel bemoaneth the incorrigible perverseness and frowardness of the jews that would not embrace mercy when it was offered unto them, even weeping for the same, x Matth 23. vers▪ 13. and breaking out into an affectionate complaint, saying, O jerusalem, jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, even as a hen gathereth her chicken under her wings. but ye would not? Now he that inviteth us to return unto him, yea that lamenteth our folly and frowardness, that we will not return; will he not receive us when we do return? Yes doubtless. For sure, y Tertul. de poenit. c. 8. as an ancient Divine pithily & comfortably saith, God would not threaten him that repenteth not, except he would pardon him that doth repent. 5 Moreover let us out of the same places of Scripture observe that God doth not only promise to be merciful, but also showeth reasons, why he will be merciful, nay in a sort he must be merciful. Besides that which hath been spoken hereof incidentally & as it were by the way, namely that his mercy is not a quality in him but his very essence, and that there is no proportion between man's tenderest mercy and his; it is more specially to be considered, that he duly weigheth our case and frail state, namely that we cannot but offend, & that if he should deal extremely with us, we must needs be destroyed, but he graciously beareth with our frailty, knowing of what brittle mettle we are made, and promiseth z Esay. 57 v. 15▪ 16. that although he be most high, and inhabit eternity, yet he will vouchsafe to dwell with the humble and contrite, that he will not always strive, nor be angry for ever, because if he should, every spirit should be overwhelmed and the souls which he had made. Thus he counteth us no match for him, and thinks it no conquest to destroy us, nay rather rekons this to be his honour and glory to pardon and forgive, and to save where he hath just cause to condemn. In a word, as a man disdains to show his strength upon a child: so God disdains to show his strength upon man. Which speeches and the like plainly testify how easily God will accept of our submission, and what wrong we do not only to ourselves but also to him, when we imagine he is so severe and righteous that he can not or will not pardon our sins, when we confess them and are heartily sorry for them, whereas he even delighteth to do it, and taketh pleasure in it, a Psal. 51. v. 18. according to that in the Psalmist, that a bruised spirit and a contrite heart are a sacrifice to God. Thus God draws arguments both from our imperfection, and his own perfection, to persuade us of his readiness to pardon, and to let us see how easily it may be done. 6 To conclude looking back to the foundation of his mercy, namely the incomprehensible mystery of the incarnation and passion of his son jesus Christ * Chap. 8. throughout before declared, we must needs see that his love towards mankind is infinite, and because infinite, therefore greater than our greatest sins. b Cyprian. sermon de patientia. Christ's blood washed even them that shed it, upon their repentance; and whom then can it not wash? God would have his own and only son to die, that man might live, & was content that his blood should be our ransom. Doubtlesle then, saith c Augustin. Ie●m. 100LS. Augustine, he that bought us with so great a price, will not have us cast away. Let us then have refuge to this infinite mercy of God▪ and our sins will vanish away as a bubble. Our sins, saith d Basil in. regul. contract quaest. ●3. Basil, may both be measured & numbered; but it is impossible that God's goodness should be measured, or his mercies numbered. Let us then resolve, e Anselm. in Meditat. that, although our offences have deserved damnation, & our repentance be not sufficient for satisfaction: yet God's mercy is greater than all transgression, yea that as far as God is superior to man, so far is our wickedness inferior to his goodness. We may then with f Bernard. feria 4. hebdom. poenosae. Bernard reason thus; What, shall mis●rie overcome mercy; & shall not mercy rather conquer misery? Yes sure g Chrysost. proaem in E●ai. our sickness hath measure; but the medicine is without measure: and shall not unlimited goodness prevail against limited wickedness? or shall not a salve of infinite virtue, cure a soar of finite malignity? God's mercy is a huge, yea a boundless, and bottomless sea, and our sins compared thereunto are but as a little sparkle: now, saith Chrysostome, suppose that a little sparkle should fall into the main sea, could it abide there, would it not instantly be extinguished, and never appear more? Doubtless so great a water must needs out of hand quench so small a fire, yea a sparkle only of fire. Away then with despair, and let us assure ourselves, h Gregor. Moral. lib. 3● cap. 11. as Gregory well saith, that despair for sin is worse than sin it self. CHAP. 11. The Christians peculiar comfories against death and the terrors thereof. 1 DEath being the greatest temporal punishment for sin, it may seem to some that I should have spoken thereof * Chap. 7. sect. 2. & se● before, when I hanled the remedies against all temporary evils which we suffer in this life. Notwithstanding I have purposely, reserved the handling thereof unto this place; because it may be objected against our deliverance from sin by Christ declared in the Chapter next before going, that for all that the faith full die as well as other men, and cannot not possibly escape death, but must be and are subject to the universal law of inevitable mortality. Besides, the chief and sovereign remedy against this evil namely death is our deliverance from sin, & therefore I thought good to speak of that before, that so I might be the briefer here, referring the Reader to the former chapter, for particularity, and contenting myself here with a general repetition and application thereof. 2 First then as for death, we are to consider, that it is chief sin that makes it so terrible unto us, & therefore a 1 Corinth. 15. vers. 56. the Apostle saith, that sin is the sling of death. Now, as we have seen at large * 8.9.10. in some former chapters, we are so delivered from sin in Christ that it cannot hurt us, nay is converted to our benefit and profit, & therefore Death having her strength from sin is not to be feared, sith sin which is her sting, is overcome. What need we fear the snake that hath lost her sting? Surely the snake that hath lost her sting can only hiss, and keep a noise, but cannot hurt: & therefore we see that many having taken out the sting will carry the snake in their very bosoms without any fear. Even so although we carry death in our bodies, yea in our bosoms and bowels: yet sin which was her sting being pulled out, she can only hiss and stir, she may, and ordinarily doth look black and grim, but yet cannot any way annoy us. 3 Which will be the more manifest, if we weigh that Christ our head hath conquered and quelled this Giant; so that none that be his, need stand in fear thereof Death b 1. Corinth 15. v. 55 saith S. Paul, is swallowed up in victory; &, c Revelat. 1. v. 18. Christ was dead, but now he liveth, and that forever, and hath the keys of hell and death, as he himself testifieth of himself. Now he that hath the keys of a place hath the command of it; it is as much then as if it had been said he had the command of death, & power to dispose of death at his pleasure. And will Christ that hath such an enemy at his mercy let him annoy his dear friends, nay his own members, and so in effect himself? No, no, he conquered death for us not for himself, sith death had no quarrel to him; by his unjust death than he hath vanquished our just death, as we heard * Chap. 8. Sect. 5. before out of Augustin. d Bernard. ad mi●i●es Templi sermon. 4. The death of Christ is the death of our death, sith he died that we might live, and how can it be, but that they should live for whom life itself died? Surely death by usurping upon the innocent fors●●ted her right to the guilty, & e Hieron ad Heliodor. While she devoured wrongfully, was herself devoured. 4 Yea, in that Christ hath vanquished death, we also may be truly said to have vanquished it, he being our head, and we his members, for where the head is a conqueror, the members cannot be captives. f Tertul de resurre●t. carms. ●. ●1. Let us then rejoice, we have already seized upon heaven in Christ, who hath carried our flesh thither in his own person, as an earnest penny and pledge of the whole sum that in time shall be brought thither. We may then boldly say, g Augustin. in Psal, 148. there is somewhat of ours above already; yea, the best part of us namely our head, and are the members far from the head? h Idem in Psa●. 88 Yea, we may assure ourselves, that, being members of such a head. yea body to it, we are in ●ff●ct where ou● head is For saith Augustin, this body cannot be beheaded: but if the head triumph forever, the members must needs triumph for ever also. And that we have this benefit by Christ's ascension into heaven before hand for us, i Bern. serm. de eo quod legitur apud job. in sex tribulatio. nibus etc. Bernard excellently showeth, Be it, saith he, that only Christ is entered into heaven: yet I trow, whole Christ must enter, and if whole Christ, than the body as well as the head, yea every member of the body. For this head is not to be found in the kingdom without his members. Hence it is that the Scripture speaks of the faithful as already raised from the dead, & placed in heaven with Christ, yea as of them that shall not, nor cannot die, as k joh. 11. vers. 26. He that liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. And l Ioh 5. v. 24. again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever heareth my word, and believeth in him that sent me hath eternal life, and shall not come into judgement, but hath passed from death to life. And, He saith m Ephes. 2. v. 6. S. Paul, hath raised us up together, & hath placed us together in heaven with Christ. He saith not, he will raise us up, he will place us in heaven with Christ: but he hath so raised and placed us, which is spoken both for the certainty thereof, & also for the straight union between the head and the body, by means whereof that which is already actually accomplished in the head, is said to be so also in the body. In a word, the head being above water, the body can never be drowned, although it be never so much beaten and tossed with waves. And thus much for our first and principal defence against death, the sum whereof is this, that it is not only a weakness, but also a shame for the members to fear an enemy which the head hath already conquered & subdued. 5 There are also divers other Christian comforts against death, which I will briefly touch. And first, as we heard * Chap. 7. Sect. 2. & leq before, that all other evils of pain are to a Christian changed into another nature, and of punishments become favours and benefits: so is it also in this of death. For now it is not a token of God's anger for sin, but an argument of his love and mercy; it is not properly death, but a bridge by which we pass to a better life, from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from earth to heaven, that is in a word, from vanity and misery, to joy and felicity. And who would not willingly pass over this bridge whereby he passeth from all cares and sorrows, and passeth to all delights and pleasures; leaveth all miseries behind him, & hath all contentation and happiness before him? 6 The Gentiles taking it for granted that after death either we should be happy, or not be at all, and so concluding that at least death would free us from all evil and misery, thereupon made little reckoning of death, nay many times voluntarily procured their own death, and embraced it as a rich treasure, as we have * Chap. 4. Sect 3. & Chap. 5. Sect 3. already heard. But how foully they were mistaken herein, hath withal been sufficiently declared. It is the Christian only that enjoyeth this benefit by death, namely the exemption from all cares and troubles, and an end of all sorrows. Wherefore the death of the godly is called n Esai. 57 vers. 2. Dan. 12. v. 2. 1. Thes. 4. vers. 13.14. Revel. 14. v. 13. in Scripture by the names of bed, of rest, sleep▪ peace, and such like. being all names of benefit and commodity. How sweet is peace to them that have been vexed with wars and broils; how pleasant is the bed, rest, & sleep to the weary and those that are overwatched? The labourer is glad when his days work is done; the traveller rejoiceth when he is come to his ways end; the mariner and passenger think themselves happy when they arrive in the harbour; and all men shun pain and desire ease abhor danger and love security. It were madness then for a Christian to fear so advantageous a death; and to wish for continuance of so wretched a life. I conclude this point with that elegant laying o Tertul. de testim. animae. cap. 4. of Tertullian; That is not to be feared which sets us free from all that is to be feared. And indeed what weakness & folly is it to fear a superfedeas against all the things which hear we do fear? 7 But the true Christian hath yet a far greater benefit by death. For it doth not only put an end to the evils of pain, but also to the evils of fault; not only to the punishments for sin, but to sin itself, Now we have often heard before, that the evils of fault are far worse than the evils of pain; yea, that the least sin is more to be abhorred and shunned, than the greatest punishment for sin. H●w welcome then should death be unto us, that endeth not only our sorrows, but also our sins? As long as we live here, and bear about us these earthly tabernacles, we daily multiply our rebels against God, and sustain a fierce conflict, and continual combat in our very bosoms, while p Galat. 5.17. the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and q Rom. 7. 2●. the law in our members rebelleth against the law of our mind, as S. Paul speaketh, and leadeth us captives to the law of sin which is in our members. O bondage of all bondages, to be in bondage unto sin. r Sen ep 37. & 39 The Gentle that apprehended vice only as a moral evil, could say, that men being in bondage to their lusts were more cruelly handled by them, than any slaves were by the most cruel masters. How much more should we that feel sin as all spiritual evil, and groan under the burden thereof, account the bondage there of intolerable, and worse than subjection to the most barbarous Tyrant in the world? And how welcome should he be that would set us free from the same? Now it is death and only death that can do this for us, and indeed doth it for us. What great cause them have we with all willingness to embrace it? s Diogenes Laertius vit, Phil. l●●, 7. Zeno the founder of the Stoical sect held it lawful for them that had loathsome diseases, which were incurable to kill themselves, that so they might be rid of them and t Con. Nepos in vita Titi Pomp. Attici. See also the like of Tullius Marcellinus in Seneca ep. 78. Pomponius Atticus, & others put it in practice. If they counted it a benefit to be delivered from a loathsome disease of the body by an unlawful and wicked death: we have reason to think it a benefit, yea a singular benefit to be rid of a loathsome and incurable disease of the soul, namely sin, by a lawful death, which it pleaseth God to send unto us. 8 But death doth more for us than all this. For it doth not only free us from all evils, and from that evil of evils, sin; but puts us into actual possession of all good things, yea of such good things as our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, neither are our hearts able to conceive; & brings us to that place, where if there were place for any passion, we should be angry with death for not bringing us thither sooner. But I reserve a more particular declaration of that point, unto the thirteenth and last chapter. CHAP. 12. Consolations against the terrors of the general judgement. 1 THERE is yet an other thing which considered in itself is a greater branch and part of man's misery in regard of passive evils, than all the rest; namely, the last and general judgement, where all flesh shallbe arraigned before God's Tribunal bar to give an account of all they have done, & to receive their recompense accordingly. The terror whereof I had rather express in a Anselm. in libro medita tionum. Anselmes' words, than in mine own O hard distress, saith he, on one side will be our sins accusing us, on the other side justice terrifying us; under us the gulf of hell gaping, above us the judge frowning; within us a conscience stinging, without us the world burning. Which way then shall the sianer thus surprised turn himself? To hide ourselves will be impossible; to appear will be intolerable. Wherewithal then shall miserable man arm himself against this so great terror, & danger? Surely our Christian profession affordeth munition against this assault also. 2 And first that which hath been spoken against the fear of death in the former chapter, serveth also here against the fear of the last judgement. For that which made the first death so terrible and dangerous, the same maketh the second death also so to be, namely sin: and as deliverance from sin doth, as we there heard, free us from all annoyance by the first death; so doth it also from all annoyance by the second death, that is, eternal condemnation at the last judgement. They that in Christ are conquerors over the first death; shall not, nor cannot be conquered by the second death: and b Rev. 2c. 6. on those that have their part in the first resurrection; the second death shall have no power, saith the spirit. That is, condemnation cannot take hold on those whom God hath graciously called to the knowledge and love of his saving truth revealed by the Gospel. 3 But to come to more peculiar comforts against this matter of terror and amazement, let us farther consider that Christ had mercy on us when we were mere strangers to him, nay even, when we were his enemies, as c Rom. 5. v. 8.9.10. S. Paul well urgeth, God herein, saith he, commended his love towards us, that when we were sinners Christ died for us: being then now justified by his blood; much more shall we be saved by him from that wrath. Note that he saith, from that wrath, that is, from the wrath of the last judgement. For if, saith he, when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God, by the death of his son: much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. We may easily perceive the force of the Apostles comfortable reasoning: to wit, that sith Christ died for us when we were sinners, that is, nothing but sin; surely he will save us being now righteous in him: if we were pardoned through his death, when we were enemies; we shall much more be saved by his life, now that we are friends. For how incredible is it, nay rather, how impossible, that he which pardoneth an enemy, should condemn a friend? He loved us, when we bore the image of the devil: and will he not much more love us now since he hath in part repaired his father's image in us, and confirmed us to himself. We were dear to him, when there was no jot of goodness in us: & can he reject us now that we have some good things in us, although but weak, specially he himself being the author and former of them by the grace of his holy spirit? And so d Bernard. epist. 190. Bernard reasons. For having spoken of our calling unto the grace of the Gospel, he infers this; being thus pulled out of the power of darkness, I will not now fear to be rejected by the father of light, being justified freely in the blood of his son. Why it is he that justifieth, & who is it that shall condemn? Surely he will not condemn the just, that had mercy on a sinner, etc. Thus we see he reasoneth from that which GOD hath done for us already, to that which he will do; yea, in a sort, must do for us here after. And we must all reason after the same manner, and say every one to his own soul with e Augustin. in Psal. 96. Saint Augustine, Thou wast wicked, and he died for thee; thou art now justified, and will he forsake th●e? 4 Moreover, to take away the terror of the last judgement, consider who shall be the judge: even Christ himself that was thy redeemer. And how can we fear such a judge? How happy in our case, that he must be our judge, that was himself judged for us? He is our husband and we his wife; & by whom would the wife choose to be judged, but by the husband, specially by so kind a husband as we have * Chapt. 10. Sect. 2. marginal. letter d. before heard him to be, who showeth that favour that no husband doth: yea he is our head, & we are his members, & will the head give sentence of condemnation against his own members? This in effect were to give sentence against himself He is our advocate and Proctor, & how happy would we think ourselves if in causes touching this life our own attorney might be our judge? He is now thine advocate, f August. in Psal. 51. saith Augustine that hereafter shall be thy judge. Let us then assure ourselves, he will not condemn us, that hath already been, condemned for us. 5 Yea, so far of is it, that the last and general judgement should be terrible unto us, that it should rather minister matter of great joy and comfort unto us. And therefore our Lord and Saviour jesus Christ having set down the chief signs and tokens that should go before the day of judgement, saith to the faithful, g Luc. 21.28 When ye see these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth near. So that by Christ's own exhortation in this place, when we think upon the last judgement, we have cause to rejoice, not to fear; to lift up our heads, not to hang them down. And that for sundry reasons, but I will specify one or two that are most material, & fittest to clear this truth. 6 And first, for as much as the dissolving of the world is for our full deliverance from the bondage of the world, the manner of dissolving it must needs be comfortable unto us, although in itself otherwise terrible. We see that in particular human judgements, the things that are terrible to malefact ours, are comfortable to good subjects; and that which amasseth the thief, reviveth the true man. The majesty of the judges, their scarlet robes, whose very colour threatens death, their guard that environ them with holdbards, yea the gibbet, & the hangman are pleasing sights to the good who know that all this is for their maintenance, and safeguard, although they miserably terrify the wicked, for whose destruction they are prepared. Even so the coming of Christ in majesty and glory, the troop and train of Angels that attend on him, the shrill sound of the trumpet summoning all flesh to appear are before his judgement seat, at this great and general assizes, and all other solemnities belonging to the pomp and magnificence thereof. will cheer up the faithful; knowing that all this is to do them justice touching all the wrongs and oppressions which they have sustained at the hands of the wicked, and terrify and daunt the wicked only, that now must come to an account for all their enormities and outrages. And as it fareth with them that are narrowly besieged in a strong castle, when a puissant army is raised to rescue them, & draweth near to the place, and is come within sight, the neighing and trampling of the horses, the glitring of the armour, the clashing together of the weapons, the noise of drum & trumpet are most pleasing unto them, yea the very roaring of the canon is the sweetest music that ever they heard because they know that all this is to raise the siege, and set them free: even so the faithful, being straightly besieged in this world as in an impregnable fort, by the flesh, sin and the devil, when Christ shall come in the clouds with power and majesty, when the glorious army of Angels shall march onward with him as their general, when the last trumpet shall be sounded, yea when the earth shall tremble, the sea roar, the sun shall be darkened, the moon turned into blood the stars fall from heaven, in a word the elements dissolved, and the heavens shall melt, and be shrivelled up like a scroale of parchment, the faithful shall reiolce at the sight, as knowing that all this is but to raise the long and grievous siege which they endured in this world, & to set them at liberty for ever; yea to put them in possession of a heavenly kingdom where they shall reign for ever in unspeakable bliss. 7 Finally, that we may see what folly it is to be afraid of this judgement, we must remember, that we ourselves shall be judges there. So Christ telleth Peter, Mat. 19.39. that he and the rest that had followed him in the regeneration, that is, at the last judgement, when the world should be refined. should sit upon twelve thrones, & judge the twelve tribes of Israel: which being somewhat obscurely uttered, Christ there alluding to the present state of things, the number of the twelve tribes of Israel, and of his twelve Apostles, i 1. Cotin●● c. v. 2.3. S. Paul expresseth more clearly, applying it in general to all the faithful under the new Testament, affirming that the Saints shall judge the world yea the Angels, that is to say, wicked men and wicked spirits. And hence k Tertul. exhortat. ad Martyrs cap. 2. Tertullian notably comforteth and encourageth the Martyrs that were in durance daily expecting the judges coming, and to receive sentence of death. Perhaps, saith he, the judge is look for; yea but you shall judge your judges themselves. Were it not then great folly to fear that judgement, wherein we ourselves shall sit as judges, judges, as I have said, of all wicked both men and spirits, that is, of all our enemies that have oppressed us? For although Christ our head principally and properly shall be the judge: yet we that are his members, shall have a branch of his authority, and shall be as it were, joined in commission with him. Let us not then fear this last and general judgement: the bench, not the bar, is our place there. CHAP. 13. The joys of heaven, and glorious state of the faithful after death. 1 BUT that which most of all should comfort us against our misery & mortality here, and the terror either of particular judgement by death, or universal judgement at the last day, is this, that not only all these cannot hurt us, nay are made many ways profitable unto us in this world, but that through them we pass to a most happy state in the world to come, the excellency whereof requires the tongue and pen rather of Angels then of men to describe it, or rather cannot be perfectly expressed by Angels themselves. I must be content then darkly to shadow it out, sith lively representation of it is merely impossible. 2 And first the benefits and comforts of this life although miserable, as we have heard, do argue that a far better state is reserved for us in heaven. We see that God even here on earth notwithstanding our sins, whereby we daily offend him, vouchsafeth us many pleasures, and furnisheth us not only with matters of necessity, but also of delight. There is a Pas● 100L a whole Psalm spent only on this matter, a Psalm worthy to be written in letters of gold in papers, walls, & windows, but specially to be imprinted in every godly heart for the admirable excellency thereof. God causeth, b Cyprian. de patienti● saith S. Cyprian, the sun to rise & set in order, the seasons to obey us, the elements to serve us, the winds to blow, the springs to flow, corn to grow, fruits to ripen, gardens and orchards to fructify and about, woods to rustle with leaves, meadows to shine with flowers etc. And c Chry●ōst. de compunct cordis, lib. 2. Chrysostome excellently handling the same point, further shows that God hath in a sort made the night more beautiful than the day by infinite variety of bright, and glittering stars, that he hath been more merciful to man then man would have been to himself, who of greediness would have overtoiled himself, but that God made the night of purpose for his rest; in a word he says, and truly says even of these earthly benefits & commodities, that although we were never so virtuous, nay if we should die a thousand deaths we should not be worthy of them. And d Silu. Italic lib. 15. the very heathen Poet considering this, could not chule but break out into admiration, saying * Quantas ●pse Deus ●●●tos generavit in usus Res homini plenaque dedit bona, gaudia de●tra O how many things hath God created for man's delight, and heaped joys upon him with a bountiful hand? And all this hath God done, as Cyprian says in the place before alleged, to good and bad, to the harmless and harmful, to the just and unjust, to the religious and profane, finally to the thankful and unthankful. Whence we may well reason thus, that if God deal so graciously with us on earth, he will do much more to us in heaven; if he bestow such benefits upon strangers, nay upon enemies, he hath better things for his friends; if he deal so bountifully with slaves, he will be more bountiful towards his sons. For who ever used his slaves as well as his children? 3 Again the excellency of his creatures argues a greater, yea incomparably greater excellency in the Creator, c Bernard. in festo omniū●●●vorum as Bernard well observes: Thou wonder'st, saith he, at brightness in the sun, beauty in flowers, savoury relish in bread, fertility in the earth; now consider that all these are the gifts of God, & there is no doubt, but he hath reserved much more to himself, than he hath communicated & imparted to the creatures. Therefore when we meet with any thing that is excellent in the creatures we may say to ourselves, how much more excellent is he that gave them this excellency; when we find admirable wisdom in men, f Seneca de beneficiis lib. 2. cap. ●9 how they rule all creature's, by cunning overcome them that are far stronger than themselves, overtake them that are swifter than themselves, out run the sun and moon in discourse, telling many years before hand what courses they must hold when they shall be eclipsed, etc. let us say to ourselves, how wise is that God that gave such wisdom unto men? When we see any thing strong, as the Elephant, the Whale, wind, Thunder, & the like, let us say, how strong is that God that made them so strong; when we see rare beauty in men or women, or most glorious colours in flowers, birds, & other creatures, let us say, how fair is that God that made these so fair; when we taste things that are exceeding sweet and comfortable, let us say how sweet is that God that gave them this sweetness? And from all these let us conclude, that if the creatures can afford us such delight, what will the creator himself do, when we shall immediately enjoy his presence in the world to come. Surely this world compared to the world to come, is but the gate house or porters lodge to the most magnificent palace, and if the gatehouse be so fair, how fair and glorious is the palace itself. 4 Moreover consider what odds there is between God's mediate presence and his immediate presence, to enjoy him in the creatures, and to enjoy him in himself. The creatures, yea the most excellent creatures, are as it were a vail or curtain drawn between God and us. Now then when this curtain shall be drawn aside, and we shall see God face to face, how glorious will that sight be? We are here, saith g Bernard. de consid. Divine Bernard, beholden to the creatures, yea to the creatures inferior to ourselves: For the very sun, moon, and slartes although they be superior to us in place, yet are they our inferiors in dignity, and it is a kind of disgrace for the superior to stand in need of the inferior, and yet from this need are none of the sons of men free, until they be brought into the gracious liberty of the sons of God. Then indeed shall the glorified person be no more beholden to the creatures. For what need is there of any stairs to ascend by, when he is now set in the throne, there he sees the word, and in the word all things made by the word, neither needeth to beg of the things that are made, the knowledge of him by whom they were made. Yea not only this curtain of the creatures shall be taken away, but also that of the word and sacraments; For h Corinth. 13. v. 8. as the blessed Apostle saith, prophesy shall cease & tongues shall fail, and knowledge shall be abolished, that is to say, knowledge gotten by outward instruction, and the ministry of men, yea faith and hope shall resign their offices, neither shall we have any more use of them, we shall have both immediate knowledge and actual fruition of all good things, yea of God who is goodness itself, and who there shall be all in all to us. i Ibid. We see here in a glass, & as it were in a mist or fog, but there we shall see face to face, we know here but in part, but there we shall know perfectly. The Apostle is bold to lay that all the knowledge we have here is as the knowledge and stuttering of a young child, yea that his own knowledge too was such, although he were an Apostle, and a principal Apostle, and thereby insinuates that our knowledge here is as far inferior to the knowledge which we shall have there, as the knowledge of a child that stuttereth, and cannot yet speak plain is to the knowledge of the greatest clerk in the world. k Plate in Phaed. The very heathen thought this to be one great benefit, that men, specially wise men had by death, that their knowledge was perfected in the other world, and that none could possibly attain to perfect wisdom until they came thither. How much more should we count this an inestimable benefit, that in the life to come we shall have the perfect knowledge of heavenly things? Doubtless as far as this wide world exceeds for light and comfort the narrow and dark womb of the mother wherein the child was wrapped before it was borne, so much doth that other world whereinto the faithful after this life are received, exceed this world; and consider then how great and glorious this alteration and change will be. There shall be tranquillity without storm, liberty without restraint, society without loathsomeness, serenity without cloud, joy without interruption, eternity without cessation. l Revel. 2●. vers. 23. This heavenly city shall have no need of the light either of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And here, m 1. Corin●. 15. v. 28. as the Apostle saith, God shall be all in all: meat to our taste, beauty to our eyes, perfumes to our smell, music to our ears. what shall I say more, n Psalm 87 vers. 3. glorious things are spoken of this city of God but all that can be spoken thereof is under truth, and o 1. King. 10 v 7. as the Queen of Saba said of salomon's court, much more will the faithful say of the Court of heaven when they come there, that the one half of the excellency and glory thereof was not told unto them. To the which place God for his Christ's sake bring us, to whom with the holy Ghost, three persons & one God be ascribed all glory, honour, and praise for ever and ever. Amen. Christianus Ouranopolitanus.