THE Primitive Christian JUSTIFIED, AND Jack Presbyter REPROVED; OR, A Scripture Demonstration, That to be Innocent and Persecuted, is more Eligible than to be Prosperously Wicked. Delivered in a SERMON IN THE Abby-Church of BATH.  
By WILLIAM GOLD.  No Flames of Civil Dissensions are more Dangerous, than those which make Religious Pretensions, Grounds of Factions. K. CHARLES the First. 
LONDON, Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King's Most Sacred MAJESTY. 1682.   

TO THE READER.  
THIS Discourse following had never seen the light, if Jack Presbyter would have permitted the Author to be quiet; the Principle here defended is a plain Truth, justified by our Saviour's life, That an Afflicted, is more Eligible than a Sinful state, which I presume was sound Primitive Doctrine, and will be always so esteemed by the Regular Protestant: Notwithstanding it gave great Distaste to the Presbyterian Brotherhood. One Gentleman would have had me Whipped for saying it was Irrational and Irreligious to commit a Sin that Good might come thereof. Another told me I forgot to Preach Jesus Christ and him Crucified; and yet (if I mistake not) he was a man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief, yet knew no sin, niether was guile found in his mouth. A third Zeal-drunk Monseur Complimented me in the Queen's Bath, that Mr. Topham (a Sergeant at Arms, I think) was my very good Friend, and desired a Copy of what I delivered, and that if I had any Service to him, he would effectually present it; my Answer was very sharp, and being publicly known abroad, needs not now be repeated. Hang the Rascal, said a fourth, He Preached for a Cardinal's Cap at the coming in of the Pope; by which you may guests what will become of William Gold, if these Gentlemen once give Law to the Church and State. But I have however printed it, to show I dare be honest, and will not be huft out of my Integrity by Noise and Tumult, for I have learned to fear him who can cast body and soul into Eternal torment, more than a Speaker, or a Pope, or the Reprimand of either or both.  
In this Discourse I affirm and will prove it, that by the Laws of God, by the Principles of the true Protestant Religion, publicly Professed in the Church of England, the Bill against the Duke of York is not to be Justified, and my Reason is grounded in the Text, It is not lawful to choose Sin to avoid being Persecuted; and that Bill which renders a man dead in Law for want of Grace, will bring more Confusion unto a State than it pretends to avoid, and approaches too near the Doctrine of the Conclave, of the Pope's power in disposing the Kingdoms of an Heretic.  
I declare myself as free from Popery, as any Zealot of the Kirk, and in two great Points, the Regal and Episcopal Government, I have a greater Value for these than any Presbyterian or Independent either Rigid or Moderate. He that shall consider how the Jesuitical Party in the Conventicle of Trent, undermined the Power of King and Bishop to give the Jurisdiction of both to their Lord God the Pope, and compare it with the practices of the Covenanting Presbyter against Prince and Bishop, to make them both Truckle under the Lay-Elder-Government, will think it unreasonable to excuse these later, whilst the others are subject to the Penalties of the Act of the 35th. of Queen Elizabeth. If Jack-Presbyter think any Injury done him, I hope the two following Arguments will clear me from his Charge in all moderate men's Judgement. First, The Votes of Non-Addresses to, or receiving any Messages from the late Martyred Monarch, was certainly Cousin-german (if not more nearly related) to the Bull of Pope Pius against Queen Elizabeth, be it remembered that those Votes were never recalled, till the King was under the Armed Power of the Independent. Secondly, The Bill against Bishop's root and branch, solemnly attending upon the League and Covenant, was as much prejudicial to the Episcopal Government of the Church of England, as any thing said or Acted against that Ancient order, by any Jesuit Papists in the Council aforesaid. Of these two Arguments (if the Reader dares be Honest and Candid) he is left to be the Judge between the Presbyterian Brotherhood and  
William Gold.   
JOB xxxvi. 21. Verse. Regard not Iniquity; for this thou hast Chosen rather than Affliction. 
TO have the favour to receive Commands, and the Meekness to obey them, is the satisfaction of Angels: and it is hence concluded by Gerson (the late learned Chancellor of Paris) that if an Angel were to set out himself in lustre and triumph in a Magnificat, it would be rather in the blessed Virgins style as a servant of God, than a Prince of so many Myriad of Subjects: would the Scripture allow me that kind of Idolatry, the binding my Faith or obedience to any one infallible earthly Judge or Prince, were it reconcileable to my Creed, it would be certainly with my interest to get into that posture of Obedience; yet we find Subjection so hard a lesson to the Sons of men, that neither Wrath nor Conscience can prevail with us to obey God, (or for his sake) to submit to our lawful Superiors: This is so well understood by wise Princes and States, that they have invented new ways to entertain busy and active Spirits, to keep them from tampering with their public Laws and Constitutions. The body of a Flea or an Ant, will afford a Vertuoso many choice Observations, demonstrating Problems, solving Phaenomena's and drawing Schemes and Diagrams, may divert your busy Mercurial Wits, from making new Ideas and Platforms for Churches and Kingdoms: the ground of which Averseness is the want of a right understanding of that great principle of our Christian Religion, the going the highway of the Cross to the Kingdom of heaven; and hence it comes that Christianity is scandalised by Recusants, Popish and Puritan, who prefer Rebellion before Martyrdom, and so are liable to Elihu's reprehension for choosing iniquity rather than affliction. I shall sum up the substance of the whole Text into one plain and Genuine Observation, That Sin is neither eligible in its self, nor to be chosen to avoid the suffering of Persecution.  
Sin I say cannot (properly taken) be the object of a rational man's, or true Christians choice; First, if considered in its self or Consequences; Secondly, if we look on Sin as opposite to God's Essence and Attributes; Thirdly, if we consider it as the transgression of God's Laws; Fourthly, as destructive to our own Souls; Fifthly, as the Original of all the distempers of our Bodies; and Sixthly, as the occasion of Death in all kinds, Temporal, Spiritual, and Eternal, as Divines distinguish according to the Scriptures; Lastly, (which includes the second branch of the Thesis,) it cannot be the object of a rational choice as put in the balance with the greatest Pressures, Afflictions and Difficulties. None can deny (considering the present juncture of Affairs) but that I have pitched on a seasonable Subject of Discourse, and (if you will pardon my hasty Conceptions) I resolve to speak what is very Plain, Innocent, and Honest; consonant with the primitive rule of Reforming, and preserung Churches recommended by Christ and his Apostles, and their immediate and best Successors.  
First, Sin is not the object of a Rational man's choice considered either in its self or Consequences. 1. Not with respect to its self, for it is de numero ineligibilium (as the Schools speak.) There is no Form nor Beauty in it that we should desire it: Election is the act of the Will, whose adequate object is good; and so Sin, which is malum in se, evil in its self, cannot be properly said to be elected: hence it comes to pass that such who have not their Senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil, choose Sin by a mistake, thinking it to be good, putting light for darkness and darkness for light (Isaiah 5. 20.) thus Saint Paul (rather Saul) before he was Converted, verily thought with himself, that he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth; and Christ tells his Disciples, that some that Killed them by a mistaken zeal, should think they did an acceptable service unto God: thus Iniquity in practice passeth for Duty, and Error in opinion for Truth, and Evil is chosen sub ratione boni, not for its own sake, but under the notion of being at least seemingly good. Others choose Sin that good may come thereof, that God may have glory or themselves advantage by it: This was objected against St. Paul and his Doctrine, which in great Disdain he rejected, not as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil, that good may come: whose damnation is just. (Rom. 3. 8.) Others choose evil, to escape Danger by it, elect the evil of Sin to avoid thereby the evil of punishment; So Demas resolving to sleep in a whole skin and not to be persecuted for Christ's sake, forsaken St. Paul and embraced the present world: now in all these three respects, whether Sin be chosen under the notion of good, by a mistake, or that good may come thereof, or that Danger be escaped by it; each of these single, and much more united, are a clear demonstration that Sin is not eligible for its self. Sin indeed is the worst of any thing that is enemy to God or man, it is very much worse than Hell, not only as its cause or parent, but considered in its self; for Hell is good for something, even to glorify God's Justice, but Sin serves only to abuse his grace and goodness; Hell was of God's making, Sin of the Devil's; Nay God made Hell as well to terrify men from coming there, as to punish the wilful intruders into that place of torments: And hence the chief end of Christ's taking our flesh, was to save us from our sins, (our worst kind of enemies:) Hence in Scripture when God is said to be angry to the highest pitch, the stile runs thus; I will give him up that is filthy, to be filthy still; I will choose your delusions, give them over to their iniquities; so that were there no Hell, 'twere in this sense a kind of Damnation to be sinners: Of all sorts of punishments sin itself is the greatest, and so not the proper object in its self of a Rational man's, or true Christians choice.  
Secondly, As Sin is not to be chosen in and for its self, so neither with respect tooth Consequences thereof. The first and most immediate fruit of Sin is ignorance, man was first tempted by the promise of Knowledge, and fell into darkness by believing the Devil holding forth his new lights; Adam and Eve knew what was good before the Devil promised them the knowledge of evil, and had they not embraced this temptation they had continued in their happiness: This knowledge of evil was the introduction of ignorance, the Understanding being baffled, the Will became foolish, and both conspired to ruin each other; for the Will beginning to love Sin, the Understanding was set on work to commend and advance it, and so became both Factious in approving their new miserable Purchase: for ever since Adam and Eve yielded to the Tempter, who told them they should be as Gods in knowledge, Man hath a double disadvantage; for the Devil is hence grown more quicksighted to abuse us, and we the more blind by his opening of our eyes, as is sufficiently manifest by the prevalence of Atheism, and Idolatry in the world, than which nothing can be more ridiculous, occasioned originally by the Fall of our first Parents from their native paradise.  
A second effect of Sin, is Shame, which is an immediate consequence of all sort of wickedness, what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? Rom. 6. 21. We see the truth of this by a too sad Experience, what Arguments, what Preaching, what Necessity can persuade men to confess their sins, how do men choose to involve Sin in excuses and denials, in the clouds of Lying and the white Linen of Hypocrisy, to show that a man's spirit is amazed and his face confounded when he is dressed of so shameful Disease? It was the unhappy Patrimony which our first Ancestors bequeathed us, first to Sin, and then to be ashamed of ourselves and Actions; The woman which thou gavest me, said Adam, charging his sin upon God; The Serpent beguiling me, said Eve, imputing it to the Devil, both betraying the nakedness of their Souls, as well as bodies, and proportionably making Aprons of Excuses as well as Leaves: And you may read the Character of the Parents in the children's foreheads, for Shame makes us as backward to reveal our sins as we are forward to confess our Sicknesses, and less desirous to trust God with the diseases of our Souls, than the Physician with those of our Bodies. None will own sin amongst all its acquaintance. If a man pursue Vengeance he will christian it Justice; he that hates another man's person pretends enmity to his sins, and the theft of Rachel shelters its self under the modesty of her sex, Genesis 30. 34, 35. he that designs to play the Devil, first personates the Saint, and Rebels call themselves the people of the Lord; thus Sacrilege and Schism are a godly through Reformation; popular Fury is Zeal; Obstinacy against Laws, tenderness of Conscience; Treason and Nonsense, praying by the Spirit; to die in Rebellion, a glorious Martyrdom; and the madness of the Commons against the King and the Priests, is courage in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ; oppression of our brethren Subjects, calls its self a High Court of Justice; and such as seize our Estates, were the Keepers of our Liberties; and Doctors, Elders and Deacons, the only Sceptre of Christ; and (to avoid Arbitrary Government) we kneel at the bar of our fellow-Subjects, and are imprisoned for new unheard of Crimes, to preserve our Properties and Privileges: A clear Argument that Sin dares not appear in its own colours, and that Shame is its never failing consequence, and so ineligible in both respects. Absalon's Rebellion was covered over with a fit of Devotion; one Herod murders with worshipping the blessed Babe, and another Herod strikes off the Baptists Head, to avoid being perjured; Saul excused his sin by bringing it to the Altar, and the worst of men (incarnate Devils) of whom St. Paul speaks, 2 Timoth. 3. chap. from the 2. to the 7. ver. had a form of godliness. Now were Sin an eligible thing, the proper object of a rational Choice, what need were there of excuses or denials, after the commission of any wickedness, or giving it glorious, or borrowed titles to cover its deformities? And so Sin is not to be chosen, either for its self, or with respect to its immediate fruits or consequences.  
Thirdly, Sin is not the object of a rational Man's, or true Christians choice, because every way opposite to all Gods glorious Attributes, and his very Being and Essence: If we consider God's sovereignty, Sin is Rebellion; if his Justice, it is Iniquity; if his Goodness, sin is Unkindness; If God's holiness and pureness, Sin is defilement: Consider God's holiness as a Rule, Sin is a Transgression; if as an Excellency, Sin is Deformity: Thus it is contrary to the whole nature of God, and strikes at his Attributes and Essence. As God is every way in himself good, so Sin is evil in its self, and good in no respect; and as God is to be loved for himself, because the chiefest good, so Sin is to hated for itself. The holy Ghost could not call it by a worse name than its self, as Rom. 7. 13. Sin that it might appear sin, and Sin by the commandment appeared exceeding sinful. Again, God is the great reward of himself, and Sin the punishment of its self, (Dyametrically opposite.) We are hereby enemies to God, Coloss. 1. haters of God, Rom. 1. 30. Sin is contrary to the glory of God essential, and manifestative; it denies the glory due to God, Rom. 1. 21. Titus 1. 16. despiseth and reproacheth his glory, and misimployes it, by giving it to men, to ourselves, or to the Devil, (as they who told our Saviour that he cast out Devils by Belzeebub.) Sin wrongs God in his very Nature and Being, as Psal. 14. 1. every sinner wisheth there were no God, and saith it in his heart (as David observeth.) Upon each of these Heads I might insist very largely, but to avoid trespassing on your patience, I pass to the following particulars.  
Fourthly, Sin is the transgression of God's Laws, and so not the object of a Christians Choice: In the Law there is a Rectitude, every thing in God's Commands is just, and right, Sin is crookendness: the Law teacheth wisdom, Sin is folly, and the Wicked man a fool, and both in Scripture (and very frequent in the Proverbs) made convertible terms: God's Commands are pure, Sin is filthiness, Rom. 7. 12. there is liberty in the Law, James 2. 8. Sin is a bondage, 2 Timothy 2. 26. the keeping of the Law brings a reward, but Sin shame and death, Rom. 6. 22, 23. but that which aggravates the sinfulness of Sin upon this account is, that it is the transgression of such Laws as are not grievous. 1. Laws reasonable and suitable to our nature, and advantageous to our interest; 2. Such Laws as the Author of which hath given us sufficient power and strength (if not wanting to ourselves) for the performance; 3. Such Laws by obedience to which we arrive at an Eternity of happiness.  
1. The Laws of God (of which Sin is a transgression) are reasonable, suitable to our Nature, and advantageous to our Interest; He hath showed thee O Man, what is good, and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do Justice, and love Mercy, and walk humbly with thy God? This is the sum of the natural Law, that we behave ourselves reverently and obediently to the divine Majesty, and justly and Charitably towards men; and for the better discharge of both, to govern ourselves in sensual delights with Temperance and Moderation; and what is there grievous in all this? That we inwardly reverence and love God, and express it by external worship and our readiness to obey his will revealed, testify our dependence on him in all Dangers and Wants, by offering up to him our constant Prayers and Supplications, and acknowledge our obligations by continual Praises and Thanksgivings for all his mercies; to entertain of God no unworthy thoughts, nor give to others that honour and reverence, which is only suitable to his Excellence and Perfections, carefully to avoid the profanation of his Name, and take heed of the neglect and contempt of his Worship, or any thing belonging to it; this is the first part of Natural Religion, the generals of those Duties which every man's reason tells him he owes to God; and here thus far there is nothing commanded but what agrees very well with the reason of Mankind. As for the six last precepts of the Decalogue relating to the good order and government of ourselves, with respect to ourselves, Equals, Inferiors or Superiors; these are such Laws as tend to our own peace, and the happiness of humane Socieites, and as expounded in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, nothing more can be devised for the welfare of Mankind, by sweetening their Spirits, and allaying their Passions and Animosities.  
2. The Author of those Laws (of which Sin is the Transgression) hath not left us destitute of Strength or Power for performance; 'tis true, We have Contracted a great deal of Weakness by our wilful Degeneracy from goodness, but that grace which the Gospel offers to us for our Assistance, is sufficient for us; greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world, 1 John 4. 4. and if so, than it clearly followeth, that such as apply themselves seriously to Religion, and yield themselves tractable to good Motions, will find the Spirit of God more ready and active for their Encouragement, than the Devil to pull them back; unless we think God hath given a greater power and a larger commission to the Devil to do us mischief, than to his holy Spirit and his holy Angels to do us good, which were Blasphemy to assert, and the calling in question the goodness of God. Some say we cannot keep the Commandments, and its true, of ourselves (as of ourselves) we are not able to think a good thought, much less to do a good work. (As of ourselves. Note that) for the same Apostle saith, I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me, and these two must be reconciled, we cannot, and we can keep the Commandments; that is, we cannot of ourselves, but we can, through Christ that strengthens us, and whose grace is never wanting to us, unless we are wanting to ourselves: To say we cannot keep the Commandments without adding Saint Paul's Comment (as of ourselves) I look upon as a Crude position, incourageing Idleness, for God inquestionably offers us an assistance equal to the difficulty of his Commands, or else St. John was in an Error, (which may not be supposed) when he tells us that his Commandments are not grievous, (1 John 5. 3.) and grievous they must be, if God's grace (we being weak of ourselves) be not sufficient for the performance in such Evangelical measures and degrees as God expects from us. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me, Philip. 4. 13. Observe here three things, 1. The strength of Christ is the original and fountain of all ours, 2. The strength of a Christian, derived from Christ, hath a kind of Omnipotence, sufficient for the whole duty of Christians, (it can do all things.) 3. The strength and power thus bestowed, is the work of a Christian, (the man strengthened by Christ) I can do all things: I Paul can (through Christ's strength, and assisted by grace) keep the Commandments in the Gospel sense. If this be not the Apostles meaning, I must even go to School again to understand English. Through God who strengthens us, we are able to perform what he is able to enjoin; we can suffer by his Patience, what in his Wisdom he can inflict; choose, by his direction what in his goodness he can propose. In short, we can believe his promises and do his will; we can resist his enemy and drink his Cup; but by his Wisdom, and by his Grace, by his Power, and by his Patience; and if Arminius say more than this, or Calvin less, with submission to better Judgements, the middle way between both extremes, is certainly the safest, and proves God's Commands, the only measure of our Obedience, not to be Grievous; and consequentially to choose Sin, which is the transgression of such just and reasonable Laws, must be Irrational and Irreligious.  
3, That Law of which Sin is the Trangression, is such a Law by obedience to which we attain (through Christ) Eternal happiness; and well did David speak upon this account, Thy Commands, O God, are Righteous, and in keeping of them there is great reward, Psal. 19 11. An exceeding Eternal weight of Glory, such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive, (as St. Paul speaks) a happiness that doth silence invention, nonplus Hyperboles, exceeds all our Conceptions, and Imaginations, and the Oratory of Men, or Angels. Now to choose Sin, which is the transgression of such Laws as are suitable to our Natures, advantageous both to our Temporal and Eternal Interest; Laws, Holy, Good and Just in themselves, and not Grievous to us; to choose Sin, which is opposite to such Laws as these, is the greatest folly and madness, we hereby degrade ourselves from our very Essences, and bid defiance to our understanding (the candle of the Lord in our own breasts.)  
Fifthly, As Sin is not eligible for its self or Consequences, not with respect to God's Attributes and Essence, nor with reference to his Laws, so not the object of a rational Choice, because it is destructive to our own Souls; As 1. to the purity of the Soul, (Sin takes away its beauty.) 2. to its Dignity, (so sin casts down the Soul from its Excellency.) 3. to the Souls Liberty (Sin makes it a Captive.) 4. to the strength of the Soul, Ezek. 16. 30. Impotens libido, (Sin makes us weak, and Impotent.) 5. to the peace of the Soul, (ubi peccatum ibi procella,) there is no peace (saith my God) to the wicked; and Lastly, to the safety and life of the Soul, (2 Thessal. 1. 9) there are known Topical heads which may be enlarged upon in your private Meditations. Sin is Expoliatio gratuitorum, (say the Schools) a stripping of the Soul of all those supernatural Excellencies that God gave men when created after his own image; and 'tis Vulneratio Naturalium, Sin wounds the Soul as to its Naturals and Morals, as well as Spirituals.  
In short, Sin is the disease of our Souls, and no rational man that knows what Health is, will choose a sickness, and be in love with a Disease: Sin is as destructive of the Souls health, beauty and safety, as distempered Humours defect in any Member, Solution of Parts, or Dislocation of a Joint can be to the Body: An ignorant Mind is equivalent to a blind Eye; a Will disabled worse than a lame hand; and vile Affections more ugly than deformed Members; an evil Conscience is more afflictive than a Cancer in the Breast; Pining Envy, more vexatious than the knawing of our Stomaches; the furies of Lust, Rage and Intemperance, are as unnatural Distempers, as Feverish heats, and the insatiable desire after Worldly Wealth; and Greatness is an Hydropique thirst; and hence in Scripture the sicknesses and diseases of our Bodies, are used to represent those of our Souls, which he that attentively reads and meditates on, will furnish himself with many Instances of great usefulness and advantage: our First Parents got this disease by eating of an Apple which the Devil had poisoned, and infected all their Posterity with the Venom of it; Adam fell in Paradise, and all his Offspring are Mephiboseth's line from their Mother's Womb. Sin now runs in a Blood, and flies higher and higher instead of abating its first Vigour, 'tis Morbus epacmasticus, epidemicus & contagiousus; as Symptoms still heighten, it is a catching and contagious Disease seizing upon those that come near such as are infected with it, Flee from Sin (Ecclesiasticus 21. 2.) as from the face of a Serpent, for if thou comest near, it will bite thee, the teeth thereof are as the teeth of a Lion slaying the Sons of men; This was the poison that lay under the teeth of the old Serpent the Devil, when he bit our first Parents: Nay Sin is (Morbus compositus) so complicated a Disease, that all other diseases are indeed but the Symptoms of this: Which brings me to the Sixth Particular, That Sin is not only the Souls Sickness, but the source and fountain of all the Maladies and Distempers that happen to our Bodies, and so an enemy to Body and Soul at once; and as so, not the proper object of our Election or Choice: Hast thou a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? Does thy head ache? 'tis Sin, it may be, Pride, or Self-conceit have distended the membranes of thy Brain. Hast thou an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? are thine Eyes inflamed? Sin is the cause thereof; perhaps thou hast been too vain, in gadding after sinful Objects. Hast thou an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉?— is thy Speech taken from thee? 'tis Sin hath struck thee dumb; perhaps thy harkening after Lies, profane, idle and libidinous Discourses. Hast thou an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? do thy Loins chasten thee in the night season? Sin is the occasion; perhaps thou hast given thy youth and thy strength unto strange women. Hast thou a Volvulus intestinorum, a miserere mei, and forced to cry out, Oh my bowels, my bowels, (as 'tis expressed Jer. 14. 19) 'tis Sin, perhaps thy Gluttony, Riot, and Debaucheries. Hast thou a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉?— is thy Body turned black and sallow, and thy beauty faded? 'tis probably occasioned by a too great delight and content in admiring the excellency of thy frail Complexion. Hast thou a Paralysis? is the use of thy Limbs taken from thee? 'tis Sin is the cause; perhaps thy Hands have been shut to the Poor, or thy Feet swift to shed Blood, or to walk in the paths of ungodliness. Sin therefore is not the object of a rational man's Choice, because it is the Souls Sickness and the source of all bodily Distempers and Diseases.  
Seventhly, Sin is not a sit Object to be elected, because it is the unhappy parent of Temporal, Spiritual and Eternal Death.  
By Sin, Death entered into the World, Rom. 5. 12. Death is the Child of sin, not of Nature; Nay, it destroys our Souls as well as our Bodies, The Soul that sinneth shall die; the death of Nature and the death of Grace, Sin occasioned both; and not only so, but the death that never dies is sins Wages; 'tis Sin keeps in the fire of Hell to all Eternity, that lays on those everlasting torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels; 'tis sin that not only feeds the Worm with our Bodies, but the never-dying worm with our Souls likewise; it kindles the slames of Lust here in our hearts, and blows the coals in Hell to torment both our bodies and souls to eternal Ages; and who can dwell with everlasting burnings?  
Lastly, Sin is not the object of a rational Man, or good Christians Choice, if put in the balance with Afflictions, and that is the last Branch of the Thesis, which I laid down at the beginning of my Discourse, occasioned by Elihu's Reprehension of Job, under the notion of choosing wickedness rather than sufferings, and this I shall demonstrate briefly and plainly, and make Application to ourselves.  
My Position is this, without any Equivocation; it is the property of a good Man to choose the greatest Affliction before the least Sin, or there is more evil in one sin, than in all whatsoever Suffering. This appears in ten Particulars, 1. Sin separates from God, but Affliction not. 2. Affliction is not, Sin is evil in its self. 3. A sinful state cannot, but an afflicted may consist with the love of God. 4. The evil of Suffering is but momentany, of Sin everlasting. 5. We are called to Suffering, commanded by Christ to take up our Cross, and to follow him, but not called to sin. 6. The end of Suffering is glory, of Sin shame. 7. By suffering we lose some outward good, by Sin the soul. 8. Suffering speaks our conformity to Christ, Sin to the Devils. 9 God is the Author of Affliction, not of Sin; Lastly, Afflictions may be good if sanctified to us, but not Sins. I shall not observe a strict order, as to every one of these Heads, but single out the chiefest and most useful for a mixed Audience.  
1. To choose Affliction is a hard choice, for Affliction is not good in its self, but however it may be useful to us; happy is the man that endureth temptations, and chastenings, the Scripture speaks in many places; but happy is the man that commits Iniquity, hath not the patronage of one single Text: David could say upon trial, Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy Statutes; but he never said, It is good for me that I have sinned, unlearned thy Precepts, or broke thy Commandments: David pleased himself in being afflicted, but not in thinking he had sinned, as is visible enough in his seven Penitential Psalms; and particularly if we compare the 2 Sam. 10. chap. 11. ver. with Psalm 51. we shall find David reckoning his sins. as the 1, 2, 3. greatest punishment in all the World; David did not first pray, that his House might be delivered from the fury of the Sword, or that his Wives might not be violated before his face, his Children might not be Rebels; the good man passed by these things as temporal and trivial punishments, but he cries upon his Sins, his Sins, his Sins, three times in a breath, Psal. 51. 1. as so many haunting Devils that disturbed his rest. When Paul, of a Persecutor, became a persecuted Apostle, and was delivered from his sins, he was immediately so ravished with the love of his deliverer, and the joy of his deliverance, that he cared not to be delivered from any misery besides; he even gloried in tribulation, as very useful both to exercise and feed his patience, as Rom. 5. 3. Acts 21. 13. he was ready, not to be bound only, but die for the Lord Jesus. Sickness and Plunder, Banishment and Bonds, and every kind of Persecution, are heavy burdens to the Flesh, but light, being wighed in the balance with the pressures and miseries of Sin and Wickedness; when God the Father of Spirits afflicts his Sons and Daughters, he doth it that they may be partakers of his Holiness, as Heb. 12. 10, 11. but Sin is the sting of all afflictions, 'tis the suffering as Evil doers that keeps men from being Martyrs, but they are happy who suffer in a good cause, for even hereunto are ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should tread in his steps who did no sin, neither was guile found in his lips. Moses well understood himself when he chose rather to be afflicted with the people of God, than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, Heb. 11. 25. So the old Martyrs, Will you have a Prison, or deny your Saviour and your Lord? Will you burn in this fire, or commit that Idolatrous Act? Will you die by a Halter, or forsake the Faith? Oh, say they, give us Prisons, Fires, Axes, Gibbets, Wheels, Lions, all the Torments invented by Men or Devils, rather than we will comply with Sin and Wickedness.  
This is a Point necessary in all, but especially these Times, wherein men boast of a Zeal for God, but not according to Knowledge; and seek to avoid future possible Afflictions by present unlawful Actions: As in the Duke of York's Case, no man that understands the Scriptures, and will not suffer his Reason by passion to be eclipsed, can believe it lawful by God's Laws, to bar any man of his Right of Succession to a Crown (of all temporal Rights, the greatest) to avoid future probable Inconveniences, in Sacred and Civil Administrations; nor do I believe that any the framers of this Bill would think it a piece of Justice to have their Children (or in default of Issue) their Brethren in the flesh, thus debarred of their Rights, for different modes of Worship from what is now Legally Established.  
That which is simply evil, may not for any good be done; (the Case we are now upon) if Saint Paul, or the Holy Ghost (speaking by him) understood the Christian Religion, 'tis not lawful to tell an officious Lie for the glory of God, as Job 13. 7. Will ye speak wickedly for God? or talk deceitfully for him? If not for the glory of God, than not for an inferior End, not for the saving of a Life, or the peace of a State. Nay, (as Anselm, Austin, and others observe) we should rather hazard the Salvation of mankind than commit a sin to save it: If St. Paul say true, (and 'tis hard to say he does not) Damnation is due to such as do a present evil, upon the prospect of a future good, Rom. 3. 8. Suppose there were Precedents to justify a Bill of this nature by the Laws of England, shall humane Laws evacuate the Laws of God? How often hath Jack-Presbyter (the framer of that Bill) pleaded that God must be obeyed rather than man, etc. Let him stand to his own Argument, or give a Reason for the why not? 'tis strange to me, that men calling themselves Protestant's— can be guilty of such Votes as these, which are disowned by the true Protestant Religion by Law established in this best of Reformed Churches. I am neither Papist nor Popishly affected, but I assert a true Protestant Principle founded on Holy Writ, that Sin is not to be elected if there be no other expedient left to avoid being Persecuted: As for the distinction which some make, that we may not do evil that good may come, that is not for a private good end, but we may for a public benefit; I have not so learned Christ, I thank God, and I defy the Jesuitical, and Presbyterian Brotherhood, to give me one Scripture Text, or any one sound Reason to justify that Distinction aforesaid; and till that be done, let the lawful Successor be Zealot for the interest either of Kirk, or Conclave; as I will not read Mass, nor swallow the Covenant, so I will not Rebel against the Ordinance of God, but leave God to govern his own World, Who restrains the spirit of Princes, and is wonderful among the Kings of the earth. God, who turns the hearts of Kings as the rivers of Water, as it pleaseth himself: the God who remembers mercy in his wrath, and punisheth less than our sins deserved; and this was the judgement and practice of the Saints and Churches Apostolically Primitive. A Parisian Masacre, a Guiscan League, a Powder Treason, a Covenant Reformation, a Spanish Inquisition House, and an English High Court of Justice, the fighting for Reformation, and bidding Defiance to Heaven, by whom King's reign; these are Abominations so scandalous and Antichristian, as do nonplus Hyperboles, and silence Invention; and next to these there is scarce any thing more Criminal than the equally sinful and ridiculous Bill against the Succession of his Royal Highness, (in case he survive the King) to the Crown and Sceptre of this Nation. I wish the King may outlive his Brother, and put a Period to this Question; but I believe the framers of that Bill had a farther Design than the Duke's person, and am clearly of opinion, that there is both a Popish Plot, and a Presbyterian one at this time against the Church, or the King, or both in Conjunction, and hath been more or less so, ever since the Reformation; and I am heartily sorry, that since Papists and Presbyterians call themselves Christians, that by their Seditious Principles and Actions, they should rather seem Proselytes to Mahomet, (the Victorious) than to the Humble, Innocent and Persecuted Jesus; and yet that the latter Saints should be so far insensible of this, as to call all that will not concur with them in their actions, Tantyvies, and Tories, and French Pensioners, is very insolently Ridiculous.  
2. Afflictions are the Exercises of our Graces, as Faith, Patience, Humility, and Charity, in which Christ in his life (who was a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs) was pleased to be exemplary to us, and we should and ought to look up to this Jesus who endured the Cross, etc. Heb. 12. 2. 'tis an excellent Expression of Charles the Martyr to his Son, (our Sovereign) this advantage you have above other Princes, that you have begun, and now spent some years in the experience of Troubles, and exercise of Patience, wherein Piety, and all Virtues are commonly better planted to a thriving, as Trees set in Winter, than in the warmth and serenity of Times: He gives instance in David and Rehoboam, the one prepared by many Afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom, the other unsoftned by the unparallelled prosperity of the Court of Solomon; and this is indeed the great advantage of Afflictions above earthly Greatness, that this last makes us Proud, and Insolent, and to say, who is the Lord? and by the other our graces are exercised and increased; Ye have heard of the patience of Job, saith St. James, but we had never heard of any such thing but for his afflictions, and we have heard of Job, saith, though he kill me, yet will I trust in him; but this was the fruit of his patience in suffering. St. Stephen's Charity had never been upon Record for our imitation, but for his Persecution. Had the old Army of Martyrs took up Arms against their Emperors (being Heathens) instead of being Patient, and Charitable, and Humble, and Meek, like men that understood Christ's Religion, they had neither been Precedents to us, nor found for themselves a place in Heaven. The assaults of Affliction may be terrible, like Sampson's Lion, but they yield much sweetness to those, who can encounter, and overcome; who know how to outlive the witherings of their Gourds, without Discontent or Peevishness whilst they may yet converse with God, as the Royal Martyr Charles the First, rarely expresseth it.  
3. Afflictions wean us from the World, and bring us nearer to God, and Sin makes us earthly minded, and makes a separation between God and us: The sufferings of the Saints are the sum of Christian Philosophy, they are sent to wean us from the vanities and affections of this World, and create in us strong desires after Heaven, whilst God here treats us rudely, that we may long to be in our Country, where God shall be our Portion, and Angels our Companions, and Christ our perpetual Feast, and never ceasing Joy the entertainment of all injured and patient Sufferers. Oh Death! how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease and rest in his Possessions? but he that is uneasy in his Body, and unquiet in his Fortunes, vexed in his Person, and discomposed in his Designs, who here finds no pleasure or rest, he will be glad and rejoice to fix his heart where he shall have the full of his desires, and what can only make him partaker of real Happiness. As long as the waters of Persecution are upon the earth, (the Allusion is pardonable I conceive) so long we dwell in the Ark, but where the Land is dry, the Dove its self will be tempted to a wand'ring course of life, and never return to her house of safety; this blessed effect afflictions had upon Job, in making him bid adieu to the World, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither, etc. and the same effect Affliction wrought in the late Martyred King of England (who as he imitated the Piety, so he had the troubles of David (I shall not want (saith he) the heavy and envied Crowns of this World, when my God hath mercifully crowned and consummated his Graces with glory, and exchanged the shadows of my earthly Kingdoms among men, for the substance of that heavenly Kingdom with himself. Thus Afflictions wean us from the World and bring us nearer to God, but Sin and the World, are a Kin, and of a blood, and Sin is a departure from God; the Lord saith to sinners, you are departed and gone, your iniquities have separated between you and your God, as the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it.  
4. We are full of Worldly mindedness, adhaesit pavimento, as David spoke; but in another sense, our soul cleaveth to the dust: we all complain the World is naught, and so it is, the whole World lieth in wickedness, and yet as bad as it is, it finds an entertainment in our hearts proportionably to our outward Prosperities; the faster Riches, and Honours, and other Vanities increase, the more eagerly we pursue and dote on these Transitory things. 'Tis Affliction that takes off their seeming pleasantness, and imbitters the lusciousness of them to our taste; that we have any apprehension at all of the Vanity of the World, is due to those vexations of Spirit, that are interwoven with it.  
5. To be innocent and to be Afflicted, is the body and soul of Christianity its self; I John your Brother, and partaker of tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus, said good St. John. These were the Titles and Ornaments of his profession, that is to say, I John your fellow Christian, for the former descant this is the plain Song. Love is the Soul of Christianity, and the soul of Love is Suffering; God hath given a single Blessing to other graces, but a double to this; it is a double kindness we receive at God's hands, first to be Innocent, and then to be persecuted with Jesus Christ. The Church is like Moses his Bush, when it is all on fire it is not at all consumed, but made full of Miracle, full of Splendour, and full of God; and unless we can find something that God cannot turn into Joy, if he so please, we have reason, not only with the well instructed Heathens, to be patient under, but (with St. Paul) to rejoice exceedingly in Tribulation, not to think a Fiery Trial strange, but rejoice that we are partakers of Christ's Sufferings; as St. Peter (Paul's beloved Brother and our fellow Soldier under the banner of the Cross,) exhorts us, and proportionably his brother James, My Brethren, Count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations. Take the Prophets, saith St. James, as an example of Suffering Afflictions; but Jesus Christ is beyond all these, for he suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. These things considered, is it not a barbarous thing, for a grave Society of men to press their Sovereign wholly to lay aside the Rightful Successor of his Crown, by the Laws of Heaven, which is the doing evil, to commit a known Sin, to secure thereby the Protestant Religion, that is, (that good may thence come) or rather that the Zeal-drunk Presbyterian, who prefers Rebellion before Martyrdom, may not run the hazard of showing himself no Christian, by remonstrating against suffering Persecution? A Papist cannot be a worse King than a Nero, or Dioclesian, and when St. Paul said we should stand to our Faith, to imagine he intended we should stand to our Arms, is a new and strange Interpretation. But the Mischief is deeper yet, for we cannot Disinherit this Gentleman but by a known Principle of the Court of Rome, That Grace gives a a title to Dominion, and accordingly the Pope disposeth of an Heretic Kingdom, and bars the Successor, and gives it to another Man of his own nomination, and to the next of the Line, if he be of the Romish Persuasion: and with what Conscience can these men (mutatis mutandis) press the King to an imitation of the Pope of Rome, whilst they condemn in this very point his unjust Usurpation? When St. Paul preached Obedience to the Higher Powers, and the Primitive Christians prayed that the Father might be succeeded by the Son, or the next of the Blood, and Line; could they be supposed to mean unless he were of this or that Religion, and then it should be lawful to Disinherit them? He that maintains such a point in a Parliamentary Session, and at the same time calls himself a Christian, is not so well qualified for Westminster as Bedlam. The Doctrine of taking away the Right of Succession came from Rome, the Pope had it from the Devil without question, for St. Peter his pretended Predecessor, taught no such thing, but quite contrary exhorts all Christians (and so includes the Presbyterian) to endure the Fiery Trial, and rejoice in being partakers of Christ's sufferings; now Christ came to give us an Heavenly, not to take away any man's earthly Crown, and accordingly, as he knew no Sin, so he underwent all sorts of Affliction. He that saith I will not have this man to Reign, because a Papist, or a Puritan; or saith, this is the Heir, let us by all means bar him of Possession, is a much worse Christian than he that saith, It is the Lord, let him do as it pleaseth him, I will bear his Indignation because I have sinned against him; This is the present Question under debate, with reference to the Succession, and not the Fighter for Reformation, but the Patient under God's Correction, is the best Defender of Christ Religion, I can, and will prove against all the Papists and Sectaries in Christendom. I ask the Presbyterian these Questions, and request an Answer to them. 1. Doth the wrath of man work the Righteousness of God? 2. Doth the Saviour of the World (who came to save us from Sin, not from Affliction) stand in need of the sinful man to promote his Religion, or the Interest of his Kingdom? 3. Did Christ teach us by his Example or Doctrine, to prefer Rebellion before Martyrdom, and is not the contrary Position equal to a Mathematical Demonstration? 4. Can the Pope in Cathedra, or Pope Populus in Parliament, by voting Evil good, and Good evil, sanctify an unlawful action done with a good intention? If these things be so, I require him to prove it, if not, St. Paul's Doctrine will be found Billa vera in the Court of Heaven, That we may not commit a present known Sin to avoid a future probable Persecution, all the Bills, Votes and Resolves of Froward men to the contrary notwithstanding. I understand not the overlooking the lawfulness to pass to the expedience of the thing, for Strafford lost his Head to please the Faction, and then it was Voted on again, by making it no Precedent for the Peers of the Kingdom. Suppose it be his Majesty's judgement, and persuasion (as he hath declared) that he cannot give consent to the Bill of Exclusion; Is it either Religion or good Manners (my Brethren) to persuade our lawful Sovereign against St. Paul's advice (which the Presbyterians quote sometimes to serve their own Interest and Turn) Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin? Have not Princes Consciences as well as other men, and may they not as well plead their Judicium discretionis, who are only responsable to the God of Heaven, as any private person, who is, and aught to be accountable both to God and Man. Is it not sufficient for his Majesty to say (what his Father Exemplified) better one Man unjustly perish, than the People be displeased, is a fallacious Maxim, especially considering the late King's conclusion hereupon; I see it a bad exchange to wound a man's own Conscience, thereby to salve State sores, to calm the storms of Popular Discontents, by stirring up a Tempest in a man's own bosom. I hope the Commons of England will never arrive to that Insolence, as to answer with Bradshaw to their Sovereign, your Reasons, Sir, are not to be heard against the Supreme Jurisdiction of this Nation; and yet they have lately hussed their Brethren, and made them do Penance for being Jurymen, and pay excessive Fees for no crime, under the notion of Abhorrers of Petitioning. And now we are upon the Petitioning point, I remember a passage in Mr. Calamies Sermon Preached in 1645. at Michael Basing-Shaw London, to the Lord Mayor, and his Brethren, when the Solemn League and Covenant was Renewed with Prayer and Fasting.  
You have (saith Holderforth) shot one Arrow already, shoot another, and if that miscarry, shoot another; He that cuts down a Tree, though he cut it not down at the first or second blow, yet the first and second blow, prepare to the speeding blow that cuts it down: You have delivered one Petition, deliver another; if that miscarry deliver another, the speeding Petition will come at last. That is in plain English, Worry out your Prince with perpetual Noise and Clamours, give him no rest till he submit to your Requests. What this Fellow Preached in 1645. hath been practised for two years past, yet must not I say so, during the sitting of the Commons, for fear of a Reprimand in such language as was never given a Priest by Imperial Princes. But I bless God, I have the spirit of an English man, and my Knees, due to God and the King, shall never be yielded up to Usurpers, come what will, come Hanging, Burning, or any other, or all the Torments that exercised the Patience of the Primitive Christians, and herein I show myself a Protestant, whose great Principle it is, rather than Sin, to choose Affliction.  
FINIS.