THE souls Misery AND RECOVERY: OR, The Grieving of the SPIRIT, How it is caused, and how redressed.  
Wherein is shewed( among other things) the nature of presumptuous sins, with Preservatives against them, and Remedies for them.  
By SAMUEL HOARD, B. D. and person of Morton in Essex.  
The second Edition, with many large Additions.  
LONDON, Printed by J. G. for JOHN clerk, and are to be sold at his shop under St Peters Church in Cornhill. 1658.   

To the Right Honourable, my very good Lord, ROBERT Earl of Warwick, and Baron of Leez, &c. all increase of true Honour and virtue.  
Right Honourable and my singular good Lord,  
I Make bold to sand this slender piece into the World under your Lordships Name and Patronage, presuming it shall find acceptance at your hands, because I well know the candour& goodness of your Honours disposition to be such, as cannot but cherish the smallest sparks and evidences of their affections who aclowledge themselves unfeignedly and always to be your humble Servants. My principal end in presenting it to your Hoble Lordship, is, that it may stand for a pledge in the view of the World, of that humble respect and duty which I shall ever confess myself to owe your Lordship, for those former expressions of affection, which you have been pleased to make me, while I was a member of your family, and for that present livelihood, which by your Honours only bounty I do enjoy. The case of meaner persons is the same with all Sublunary bodies; as these, receiving from the Sun, Moon and Stars, much light& warmth, and vigour, can return nothing again to those heavenly creatures; so men of inferior condition, while they receive very much from Personages of greater place, can pay back little, if any thing again. Love they can, for, ad amandum nemo pauper, no man is so poor, but he can love his Benefactor; and their Love they can acknowledge, but how? only in Words, at most in deeds( like themselves) poor& despicable, except( perhaps) their good intentions stamped upon their actions, like Caesars image on his coin, may chance to advance their price, as the Widows charitable mind in the Gospel, did raise the Value of her Mite. My utmost Ambition therefore in this poor tender, is no more than that Persian's was, 
Sinaetas.  who having nothing to present the King Artaxerxes with, ran to the River, and brought him his handful of water: no more t●● to give your honour some cause t● think that there is such thankfu● affection within, as would brea● into acts proportionable without, did not the distance betwixt greatness and meanness make it impossible. Your Honour therefore will( I doubt not) courteously receive it,( as that King did that signification from his subject) for the ends sake. And so you will for the Argument too; it being a Discovery of the nature and danger of presumptuous sins, with preservatives against them, and remedies for them; things necessary for all men to think of, and be informed in, but especially for great men. 1. Because they are subject to the same presumptions that others are; and in so much the greater danger of living and dying in them, by how much the more obnoxious they are to such temptations as use to occasion them. High mountains, tall ships, stately trees lye very open to blustering storms; and so do men of high conditions to manifold and great provocations to evil. For they commonly enjoy such superfluities of worldly contentments, as make them more able to sin then others, if they have any mind to it, and more inclinable also; fullness of meat and drink, and company, begetting pride, idleness, sensual lusts, and forgetfulness of God; and these producing ill-favoured brats, contrary to true godliness: Besides, they are great eye-sores to the devil, when they walk in a way of godliness, who therfore bendeth his strength to get them down, that with their fall, as shrubs with the fall of a mighty Cedar, men of meaner rank that live by their example may be crushed& ruined. 2. because they are guilty also of the same mistakes that other men are, that is, to misjudge their sins; with the unjust Steward, for a hundred to writ down fifty,& to say of their greatest exorbitancies, as Lot of Zoar, is it not a little one,& my soul shall live? to take presumptions for infirmities, and so to be less careful in preventing, or forsaking them. And with these mistakes they are usually more possessed, than inferior men; partly through custom in sinning 
Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati.  which ( hinc illae lach●ymae) Persons of quality sometimes are too guilty of; and partly through flatterers, those tame beasts, with which it is their unhappy chance to be always haunted. 3. Because they are obnoxious to the same sentence& doom, if they sin wilfully, which other offenders lye open to; for so S. Paul telleth us, Rom. 2. Tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soul of every one that doth evil; and he giveth a reason of it; For there is no respect of persons with God. He is not {αβγδ}, or {αβγδ}, a hater of the rich and honourable, nor doth he envy thē a place in Heaven, because they have a plentiful portion in earth; the examples of Abraham, Job, David, and Salomon show the contrary; but he is {αβγδ}, an hater of the sinful man,& a revenger of wilful impiety, where ever he findeth it. It is their duty therefore to shun these rocks of proud and presumptuous sins, at which the souls that dash must needs be split or battered: and it should be their discretion to accept and use all helps which may further the discovery of them; that so, when the ships of their souls are making toward them, they may upon the apprehension of their present danger, turn and steer their courses another way, and bring their barks with safety at last into the Haven of eternal happiness. And this, I hope, shall ever be your Lordships chief endeavour; that so the peace of conscience may accompany your present Honour while you live, and the fruition of Gods face in Heaven may be your portion when you die. And so with my vows to God for your Lordship, your Noble Lady, and Posterity, I rest  
Your Honors Chaplain in all duty and service most bound, SAMUEL HOARD.   

To the Courteous and Christian Reader.  
MInutius telleth us, 
Min. Foel. pag. 85. ●ad solat●ū calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi jam perdere, &c.  that those wicked spirits whom God hath for ever banished his kingdom, being damned themselves, do earnestly desire the destruction of men, that by consortship in misery, they might gain some comfort. What they have malice to desire, they have policy and industry to effect: mill artes necendi, a thousand arts and ways they have to do mischief, and those, deep ones too, {αβγδ}, as St. Paul calleth them, 2 Cor. 2.11. considerate reaches and devices {αβγδ}, Ephes. 6.11. artificial courses and designs. All which drive at two things, Presumption, and despondency of mind or desperation: at one of these two rocks every soul that perisheth doth split itself, as S. 
Aug. Hom. 2.50 Inter sperando& desperando pereunt homines: sperando malè in vitâ, desperando pejus in morte.  Austin saith.  
To presumption the devil draweth men many ways, and among the rest by 4 false principles with which he corrupteth their understandings. 1. That their sins( though foul enough for matter and manner of committing) are but infirmities, easily remitted, and consequently not much to be feared, or over-studiously avoided. 2. That men being once converted, are carried so high on Eagles wings, and kept so closely in the secret of the Almighty, that they can never sall into presumptuous sins. 3. That if through temptatitation they do chance to commit them, they shall be but small and petty losers by them 4. That admit they do sustain some notable i● conveniences for the present by their fouler sins, and receive some wounds& gashes in their souls, yet, a little sorrow, a few tears will quickly heal and help all again.  
For preventing, or curing these misconceits, 1. I have laid open the difference between Presumptions, and Infirmities; that being informed aright of the true nature and difference of these two sorts of sins, no man may so easily hid his proud and wilful insolences, under the favourable name and mask of infirmities; but may behold them as they are,& maintain in himself a propo●tionable fear,& care to avoid thē.  
2. I have endeavoured to show, that the Saints,( though th●y have grace enough vouchsafed them, both in their conversion,& in the hour of temptation 
Kempis l. 2. de Imitat. Chr. c. 9. Satis su●viter equitat, quem gratia Dei portat.  to make them able to avoid sin,& to live virtuously, yet) have not so much strength afforded them as shall make them unable to sin grossly, to live wickedly; this being the blessed privilege and portion of the life to come, that other most agreeable pro statu viae, to our condit●on, while we are in the way to our heavenly country. And this I have made plain, so that all false persuasions of an ●mpossibility of falling being rooted up the greater care of standing first might be planted in  
3. For the preventing of foolish hopes, that the hurts arising from deliberate sins are but very trifles, I have given in a List, or Catalogue of such several mischiefs as fall upon the souls of those men unavoidably, that do live in wilful sins.  
Fourthly, that no man might flatter himself,& say, though my sins do bring foul weather for the present into my soul, and make some clouds of wrath, and spiritual afflictions hang over me; yet a little sorrow, a few tears w●ll empty those clouds,& make the beams of Gods favour shine out upon me again. I have briefly intimated, that a little sorrow will not scatter the clouds which great sins gather; nor yet the greatest sorrow, without actual forsaking of the sins. It must be a substantial sorrow, and a sincere forsaking of the sins, that must blow away the storms occasioned by them. By these four things, I have laboured to set a Countermine against the Devils mine of Presumption.  
The other engine, by which he seeks the possession of mens souls, is, despondency, dejection of spirit, or despair, one while of Gods mercy, another while of mans ability by grace, to avoid sin, or come to repentance.  
To this despair he drives men. 1. By showing them their sins in a false glass,& where he meets with sad spirits, by persuading them, that their lighter delinquencies are very great enormites: from hence many times spring sundry distresses and agonies of soul for trifles in comparison, and perhaps, some degrees of despair, where there is cause apparent of comfort and hope. 2. By suggesting the exceeding great difficulty, if not the absolute impossibility, of avoiding even greatest exorbitancies, by reason of the temper of nature, and the manifold necessities of life, that seem to enforce them. Hereby he weakeneth feeble hands,& hindereth many honest endeavours to avoid sin. 3. By telling men when they have sinned, that their sins are too great to be repented of, and remitted; that, as Esaus sin found no place for repentance, nor the fault of Iudas because they were foul ones; so, theirs are irremissible, and their repentance for them unprofitable, they must needs die in them, and be damned for them. From this temptation, if it fasten, cometh either a desperate death, as in Judas, or a dissolute life, as in Cain.  
For the securing therefore of the Christian soldier against this dangerous dart of despair: 1. I have  told him in this following Treatise, what sins they be which are but infirmities, and how full of these the lives of Gods best children are, though free, by the grace of God, from any great store of Presumptions. 2. I have set down some antidotes effectual, if carefully used, to keep out presumptuous sins; and thereby implied the Saints possibility of avoiding them,( preservatives being to no purpose against diseases not avoidable) 3. I have proved the Lapsed Christians recovery out of the worst and most mortal sins, to be by true repentance not impossible.  
In all these( as 
Frederick Abbot of S. Albans, to secure his monastery from the destruction of the Normans, did cut down multitudes of great trees: whereat the conqueror wondering and freting, sent for the Abbot, and demanding the cause why he did so, Frederick answered, I have done the duty of my birth and profession, and if others of my rank had performed the like( as they well might and ought) it had not been in thy power to have pierced the land thus far. Speeds Chron. land. print. 1614. p. 416.  Frederick once an Abbot at St. Albans who caused many trees to be felled in the highways, to stop the conquerors passage and to secure his monastery) I have endeavoured to make the passages of the Devil, that great conqueror, into mens souls, less easy. If my intent be without success, yet, I hope, it shall not be without acceptance, at thy hands( good Reader) to whom the Preservation of thy soul is thy greatest care. And so I leave thee, and thine endeavours after thy own best good, to the Blessing of God Almighty: And rest  
Thine in Christ Jesus, SAMUEL HOARD.   

THE souls MISERY AND RECOVERY.  EPHES. 4.30. 
Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption.  
IN the Creation of Man, God intended two things: 1. That Man should serve him here. 2. That he should be saved hereafter; as we may see Acts 17.26, 27. where the Apostle in his Sermon at Athens, saith, That God hath made of one blood all mankind, to dwell on the face of the earth, &c. that they should seek the Lord, if they might haply feel him and find him: and the accomplishment of these two he doth unfeignedly wish, himself saying, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth: wherefore turn ye, and live. Ezek. 18.32. And because there is onely one thing which opposeth and hindereth this aim and desire of God, namely sin,( which is a privation of our due obedience to God, and consequently a bar to salvation) therefore God seeketh the preventing of our commission of it, or continuance in it, partly by the influence of his grace within us, and partly by hearty and pithy dissuasions without us: or( to speak in other terms) by the work of his Spirit, and of his Word; by the one enabling us, and by the other exciting us to mortify the deeds of the flesh, that we might live. His instrument for the one of these works, is his Spirit: his workmen for the other, are his Prophets and Apostles, together with all other Ministers,( all of them of what degree or title soever, being given as a royal Legacy to the Church, at the ascension and coronation of our Saviour, for the gathering together of the Saints, and the building up of the body of Christ, Ephes. 4.11.) And therefore we see, that the writings of the Prophets under the Law, and the Apostles under the Gospel, are full of sad and serious expostulations, threatenings, and dissuasory arguments, that thereby the slumbering consciences of sinful men being awakened to see the danger into which their sins would led them, they might forsake them, and embrace better courses. Here Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, doth earnestly dissuade the converted Ephesians, who were a part of his charge, from living in dissolute and wicked courses, like the ignorant and unconverted Nations with whom they conversed: his arguments are of two sorts. 1. Particular, fitted and squared to those several sins which he laboureth to beat down. 2. general, such as might serve to draw them from any kinds of sin whatsoever. These later may be referred to two heads: The first is drawn à praesenti statu, from their present condition, ver. 20. Ye have not so learned Christ; they were now enlightened, and by the knowledge of Christ sanctified, and called to a lively hope of eternal life. Christians they were, and therefore they should not( to use Tertullians phrase) Gentes agere sub nomine Christi, under the name and mask of Christians, live like ignorant and unconverted Pagans. The second is taken à periculoso effectu, from the dangerous fruit that would spring from their continuance in sin, verse 30. Grieve not the Spirit, &c. if they who were sanctified, and sealed by the holy Spirit of God to the day of Redemption, should live in uncleanness, theft, wrath, malice, or any other impieties, which were rife enough among unbelievers; they would thereby grieve that blessed Spirit who had done such great works in them; and then what would become of their sanctification, their seal, and consequently of their redemption?  
This is the Coherence.  
As for the words themselves, they are Complexa propositio, a proposition compounded of a dehortation, and a reason to enforce it; the dehortation is included and couched in the reason, or, the reason is given in form of a dehortation: the plain dehortation is implyed, lye not, steal not, sin not; the reason enforcing this, is expressed,( though in a borrowed form) Grieve not the holy Spirit: It is as much, as if in more words he should have said thus, Cast off all the works and lusts of the old man, lasciviousness, lying, stealing, filthy-speaking, &c. for if you commit these sins, you will certainly grieve Gods Holy Spirit. And this manner of speaking is not unusual; for when we give children or servants( whom we love, and whose proneness to offend we have cause to suspect) good counsel, we commonly use such words as these, Grieve not your father, or mother, displease not your Master. Our meaning, when we say so, is, Be not taken in such faults, for if you be, you will grieve your parents, anger your masters, &c.  
Now for the driving of this admonition home to the reason couched in the dehortation, our Apostle insinuates two reasons more, and they are drawn from a double work of the Spirit in them: The first is sanctification, in the word [ holy.] For as he is a holy Spirit formally and in his nature, so he is causally too; he is the Author and worker of our sanctification. The second is obsignation,[ whereby ye are sealed, &c.] and this work is amplified, either by the time of duration, [ till the day of redemption] for so some Expositors understand them; or by the end of their obsignation and sealing [ for the day of redemption.] The end or intent, for which the Spirit of God sealeth the sons of God, is, that( as Rahabs house was known by her read thread, and Communicants that ought to Receive, are in some Parishes known by their Tokens, so) when that great and joyful day of our actual redemption is come, they might be known from others who are to have no part in the purchased redemption, by the seal and stamp of the Spirit which is upon them.  
This for the Division.  
Now, before I pitch the Point on which I mean to build my discourse, and into which I shall draw, in some degree, most of that which is material in the Text, I must inquire into the meaning of so many of the words, or so much of the Text, as I intend to insist chiefly upon. Let us see therefore, 1. what is meant by [ Spirit;] 2. what by [ Grieving] him; 3. why the Spirit is said to be grieved, rather then the Father, or the Son.  
For the first, most Interpreters agree, that by [ Spirit] we are to understand the holy Ghost: 1. Because it is set down with such an emphasis, and accents,( {αβγδ}) a demonstrative article being put before Spirit and Holy: And 2. because, to the Spirit here, is ascribed the work of sealing, which is proper to the H. Ghost, {αβγδ}, by whom ye are sealed. Yet whether by the holy Ghost here, we should understand the holy Ghost in other men, or in ourselves, their judgments differ.  
Haymo, Aquinas, and some others, think the Apostle means the Spirit in other men; as if he should have said, Take heed that by your filthy words and unseemly carriage, you offend not the ears, nor grieve the hearts of Gods people, in whom the Spirit of God is abiding. It is true, whensoever a Christian walks not worthy of his Calling, he grieveth the godly, and troubleth the good Spirit of God in them: But this is not the meaning of this place.  
Zanchius therefore and others, understand the Apostle, of the Spirit of God in relation to ourselves, as he abides in us. For he speaks of that Spirit by whom we ourselves are sanctified and sealed; and therefore of him, as he dwells in us, filling our hearts with his graces and consolations: And consequently the subject of this dissuasion, is not profane and unconverted persons, but regenerate men, of whom we may truly say, The Spirit of God hath sealed them.  
But secondly, What is meant by grieving the Spirit? Can the Spirit of God in any good sense be said to be grieved? or if he may, how here?  
Answ. He may be said to be grieved three manner of ways.  
1. When men do enough to grieve him, were he a subject capable of grief. It is ordinary to entitle men to such acts or works, as they do enough to procure, though through some let they be not done, or take not effect. He that shall put fire to a house,( especially with a purpose to burn it) may be said in reason to burn that house, though through some accident it be not fired; and he that accuseth a man falsely of some capital offence, deserves the name of a murderer, though the accused party, through the discovery of his innocency, the mercy of his Judge, or some other occasion, die not: and therefore by the judicial law, such an one was to be punished as a murderer. And such kinds of speaking are not unusual in Scripture. In Ezech. 24.13. saith God to the people, I have purged thee, and thou art not purged: In which words, the work of purging is affirmed of God, though the people through their contumacious resisting the work of grace, were not purged indeed. S. Austin upon the words of Saint Paul. 1 Thess. 5.19. Quench not the Spirit,( a speech like to this in the Text) hath this observation. 
Aug. ep. 23 ad Bonif. Sic dicit Apostolus, non quia ille extingui potest, said quantum in ipsis est, extinctores meritò vocantur, qui sic agunt ut ex inctum velint.  The Apostle calls men quenchers of the spirit, not because they do quench him, but because they carry themselves as if they would quench him. And in another place speaking of the same words, he saith. 
Id. l. 2. contr. epist. Pa●meniani.  Quench not the spirit, i. As much as in you lies; do not you so behave yourselves, as if you went about to quench him. The same Father proveth this Exposition of his by a place in S. Cyprian, 
Cypr. ep. de lapsis.  which must needs be so understood, where speaking of Infants by their parents carried to Idols, he saith, They lost that which they had received in Baptism, i. saith Saint Austin,[ Quantum attinebat ad scelus parentum,] so far forth as lay in their wicked Parents. Wicked men are said to pollute the name of God; Why? To speak properly, his name cannot be defiled, as the sun in a proper sense cannot be darkened or defaced; but therefore are they said to pollute it, because they do enough by their sins to pollute it, were it capable of any blemish. In like manner, the Spirit of God, who indeed is {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, uncapable of passion and alteration, and consequently of sorrow, may be said to be grieved by men, when by their sins they do what they can to grieve him. Thus do some understand the words.  
2. He may be said to be grieved, when he is displeased: to dislike a thing is the formality of sorrow, and the principal part of it: of which the Spirit of God is capable, and therefore may be justly said to grieve when he hath occasion of grief.  
Two things there are in all the passions of the mind.  
1. A material part, and that is, the alteration which by the passions is caused in the body: for every affection produceth some changes there. For instance; when a man is angry, the blood about the heart is inflamed, and the choler put into motion; when he grieveth, the vital spirits are contracted and stisted; when he rejoiceth, the heart is opened, and the spirits are diffused throughout the body: and from hence it hath fallen out, that sundry persons have dyed in a fit of passion, or received some notable change in the body. I have red of one who thinking he should die the next day, and therefore possessed with a vehement fear, turned all gray in one night, his hair before being of another colour. In Sacred Writ we red that Nabal upon his wife's relation of the danger, into which through his churlish carriage towards David he was likely to have plunged himself and his servants, was so terrified, ut omnem sensum amiserit,& instar lapidis obriguerit, That he became senseless like a ston, which we have often red( saith Tyrinus on the place) to have happened in sudden affrights: Which made the Poets feign, that Niobe, hearing of the slaughter of her sons, through sudden grief was turned into a ston.  
One of the Roman Emperours, Valentinian, 
Socr. hist. l. 4 c. 26. Graec. 31.  chasing upon the sight of some Goths, that such a base people should be able to molest and shake so great an Empire as the Roman was, dyed in that angry fit. And 
awl. Gell. l. 3. c. 15. & Cic. 1. Tusc.  Diagoras a Rhodian,( as Gellius tells us) when he saw his three sons crwoned with olympic garlands, the same day, fell down dead for joy: and so did three others, whom the same Author there mentions. Now, this material part of joy or grief, or any other passion cannot be in the Spirit of God, for God is subject to no changes.  
2. There is a formal part also in every passion, which is nothing but the very nature of the passion abstracted from the changes which it maketh in the body. For example, in anger there is a formal part, and that is, desire of revenge; and in love, and that is, complacence, or contentment taken in the thing beloved; and so in grief there is formale, a formal part, which is displicentia, a dislike taken at the presence of any thing apprehended to be evil. Now the blessed Trinity is capable of the nature, or principal things of which the affections do consist, and so of that which is principal in, or essential to grief. i. dislike. God doth truly dislike mens miseries, because they are contrary to the creatures good; but especially their sins, because they are repugnant to his laws, and to his nature, he being a God of pure eyes, who cannot abide iniquity, Hab. 1. And therefore he may not improperly be said to be grieved, when sin is committed, because he is displeased, for that is the principal thing in grief. And thus do others understand our Apostle.  
3. He may be said to be grieved, when he carries himself ( ad modum contristati hoins) after the manner of a man in heaviness. As the parts of a man are ascribed to God, viz. eyes, ears, hands, feet and face, because he doth all those things which men do with these members: so all the passions of the mind are affirmed of him, ( propter similitudinem effectus) for the likeness of the effect; because when occasions are offered, he doth such things as men in such passions are wont to do. For instance; when a man is in joy, he looketh pleasantly, speaketh cheerfully, is kind and free in his actions; when he is angry, he frowneth, chideth, fighteth, &c. and when he is in heaviness, he withdraweth himself from company; and, if it be a grief mixed with anger( as our Saviours was, Mark 3.5. who looked upon them angrily, grieving for the hardness of their hearts; and as the Spirits is, when he is offended) he withdraweth his courtesies, and his speech too from such as are the occasion of his grief. Now all these things doth Gods holy Spirit, as he hath occasion; sometimes he dwelleth in the soul contentedly, and shineth upon it with the light of his countenance, working in it a liberty and freedom in Gods service, and filling it with joy and peace in believing; and then he may be said to rejoice: sometimes he hideth his face from the soul, and suspendeth his gracious operations there, leaving men to themselves, and the ways of their own hearts, in which they have delighted to walk: and when he doth so, he may be said to be angry, to be grieved. And this is it,( I take it) which the Apostle meaneth here, when he saith, Grieve not, &c. i. Drive him not by your insolences and impieties from the temples of your souls, disturb him not in his gracious and comfortable operations there: but so demean yourselves, that he may stay in those temples which he hath seized on for his own residence, and there may manifest without any disconsolate interruptions and eclipses, his sweet and powerful presence. And thus do most Expositors which I have met with, construe the sentence. Nolite fugare, says Thomas on the place Drive him not away. Ne turbetis, trouble not the spirit, saith Theophylact. Nolite per mala opera fugare; Grieve him not, that is, chase him not away by your evil deeds, is Haymo's paraphrase. For as an Inhabitant( saith he) when he is hunted out of an house, which he had provided for his use and dwelling, is grieved; so is Gods Spirit grieved, when he is by the filthiness of sin forced as it were out of that heart, which in Baptism he had cleansed and sanctified for his own habitation. Calvin also on this place speaketh to this effect, Seeing the Spirit dwelleth in us, we ought to consecrate our souls and bodies unto him. For if we prostitute them to any foul sin, we do( as it were) cast him out of his lodging. Which that the Apostle might the more familiarly express, tribuit Spiritui, &c. he giveth to the Spirit human affections, joy and grief; then we please him, when we permit him to dwell quietly in our hearts; then we grieve him, when by our sins we expel him. And a little after, he hath these words to the same purpose, Reputet apud se, &c. Let every one consider seriously with himself, what a horrible impiety it is to affect the Spirit with heaviness, ut tandem à nobis discedere cogatur, that he should be forced at length to depart from us. I will end this with the judgement of Zanchius and Pareus. Zanchy speaking of some woeful effects of presumptuous sins in the soul, 
Zanch. Misell. p. 151.  saith, Ista peccati effecta, these bitter fruits of sin are those perturbations of mind, of which the Apostle saith, Nolite contristare spiritum, grieve not the Spirit: by which words he shows us, that to grieve the Spirit, is to trouble him in his workings in the soul.  
When the flesh overcometh the spirit( saith Pareus,) as it did in David, when he fell, Non ideo desinit esse in sanctis, he doth not therefore cease to be in the soul, said manet superatus, conturbatus, but remaines vanquished and troubled, as the Apostle affirms, Ephes. 4.30. By which, you may see how he understands the phrase. I do but glean a testimony or two, where I might gather a whole harvest. So much for the meaning of the phrase. Grieve not.  
3. The last thing to be explained for the making way to our point, is, why doth Saint Paul here mention onely the third person, the Spirit? Is not God the Father grieved, and God the son too, by mens sins?  
Yes, sin is irksome and odious equally to each person in the Godhead, and as here the holy Ghost is said to be grieved at sin; so the Creator of the world, God the Father, is said to be grieved, when the wickedness of men waxed great on the earth, Gen. 6.6. And God the son in the dayes of his flesh mourned for the hardness of mens hearts, Mark 3.5. And doth not he grieve still? But the reason why the Apostle doth as it were appropriate Grieving at mens sins, to God the holy Ghost, is,  
Because all sins, especially presumptuous, are ( contra signatam operationem) against the proper working of the Spirit, as it is the peculiar work of the Father to create, and of the son to redeem; so, it properly belongeth to the Spirit, to enlighten the mind with knowledge, and to sanctify the heart with grace; and therefore where there are sins against knowledge and conscience, crossing& defacing these works of the Spirit, he is the person which is principally offended and grieved at them.  
Quest. But are the works of the blessed Trinity thus divided? have not all the persons an equal hand in each external work, such as the work of sanctifying is?  
Answ. Yes, they have: in every work that is without themselves, done in or upon, or for the creature, they do all cooperate, as our Saviour intimates, where he saith, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work, Joh. 10. And in other places of Scripture, these external works are affirmed of the persons in Trinity promiscuously, which sheweth, that they are not so partend among them, but that they have a joint hand in every one of them: and it hath been a rule of constant credit among all Divines, that opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa, the external operations of the Trinity are undivided. But yet it hath pleased God to appropriate as it were, 
Aq. 1. q. 39. art. 7.  and affix some of these works to the Father, some to the son, and some to the Holy Ghost, that we who are of weak capacities in conceiving such deep mysteries, as that of the Trinity is, might by this means be enabled in some measure to apprehended the truth of it. We say and believe, that there are three subsistences or persons in the divine Essence, and that each of these persons is truly and properly God, the Father is God, the son God, and the Holy Ghost God. Now because this can never be demonstrated to us, to the begetting of an evident and exact knowledge of it in our minds; therefore God is pleased to illustrate and declare it to us, by appropriating such essential attributes and works, as appertain to the whole nature of the Deity, to the several persons subsisting in that divine nature, some to one person, some to another; that so when we red, that the world was created by God the Father, that mankind was redeemed by God the son, and that believers are sanctified by God the Holy Ghost, we may the better conceive, and the more firmly believe the {αβγδ}, that there are in the Godhead 3. real and substantial subsistences, distinguished one from another, and that every one of these three is very God: because there is never an one of them, but is entitled to some great work which can be done by none, but by very God.  
Thus far for the meaning of the words.  
Now to the point upon which I mean to insist; it is this:  
The sins of regenerate men do grieve the Spirit of God.  
For proof of which, I might quote Gen. 6.6. Psal. 78.40. Psal. 95.10. Esay 63.10. Ezek. 6.9. Amos 2.13. In which places, God complains that he is grieved at the heart, broken with grief, and like a Cart over-laden with sheaves he is pressed down with sorrow, by the sins of men. But letting go these proofs of a point so generally believed, for the opening and applying of it, I will inquire into these five particulars.  

1. What the sins are, by which the regenerate may be said properly to grieve the Spirit: this I mean to speak of 1. Negatively, 2. Affirmatively, and to show the reasons of both.  
2. Whether the regenerate can fall into such sins as do grieve him, and whence it comes to pass.  
3. What are the woeful fruits and effects of the Spirit grieved, or what the mischiefs are which befall the souls of such as do grieve him.  
3. What are the Antidotes by which such sins may be prevented.  
5. Whether, and how the Spirit grieved by such sins may be pleased again, and the parties fallen may be restored.   

CHAP. I.  
1. What the sins are by which the regenerate may be said properly to grieve the Spirit.  
IT was the stoical doctrine, that all sins were equal, as we may see in Tullies Paradoxes; 
Parad 3.  and it was afterwards taught by some heretics in the Church( who grounded their opinion on the stoical tenant) that all punishments in Hell were equal. 
Aqu. 1.2. q. 73.  So Aquinas tells us. But neither of these are true: For we red in Scripture, that there are moats and beams, Matth. 7. greater and lesser things of the Law, Matth. 23. and by consequence, greater and lesser breaches of the Law: that some shall be beaten with few stripes, some again with many, Luk. 12. that some shall have an easier, others a greater damnation, Mat. 11. Joh. 19. What will follow from hence, but this, that there is a great disparity and difference between sins, 
Cap. 1.  both in respect of the sins themselves, and of the punishments which belong to them? And therefore it will not be lost labour to examine, whether all sins do grieve the Spirit in the sense of the Apostle; if not, what be the sins that do, and why.  
There be some sins which do not grieve the Spirit. Of which I will 1. show which they be, or lay them out to the view: 2. prove them to be such.  
1. Concerning the first of these, we are to know, that the Papists cast these lighter sins into 3. ranks.  
1. Such as are light in their nature, of which sort are, idle words, immoderate laughter, small excesses in the use of lawful liberties, 
Aug. l. de mend. Mendacium offi●iosum peccatum est, said veniale, quod benevolentia excusat.  foolish jesting, and officious lies, of which Saint Austine hath determined, mendacium officiosum, an officious lye is a sin, but a pardonable one, which a mans good will to his neighbour excuseth.  
2. Such as are heinous perhaps in their nature, but light in regard of the small object about which they are exercised. Stealing( they say) is a great sin in its own nature, but the stealing of a pin, or a point, or some trifle, is accidentally a small one, because the thing which is stolen, is a matter of little worth, or moment. These they account petty sins, though a man should commit them deliberately, and allow himself in them.  
3. Such as are committed in a light and favourable manner, either ignorantly, or indeliberately, though perhaps they lye in materia gravi, and be heinous enough in their own nature and quality. All these they make to be in their own nature and merit venial,( such as God cannot in justice punish with the privation of grace or glory) without any relation to predestination, 
Sec Bel. l. 1. de. stat. peccati c. 9. &c. Becan. t●col. schol. part. 2. tra. 1. c. ●. q. 1. &c.  or to the mercy of God, or to the state of the person that commits them.  
In this Doctrine of theirs, I dislike two things especially.  
1. That among their venial sins they reckon idle words, officious lies, &c. though committed witting and willingly, and continued in without reluctancy against them, or repentance for them. Two things I will not unwillingly grant them:  
First, That such sins are in themselves of a lighter nature then many others, even for the reasons which they allege.  
1. Because they carry not in them so great a repugnancy to Gods Law, which is the rule of obedience, and the touch-stone of good and evil: as such sicknesses as swerve but a little from the due mixture and measure of humours, in which consisteth the health of the body, are but small and light sicknesses in comparison of those that do much decline from that due proportion and commensuration; so, I think that those irregular actions, which want but a little of conformity to the Law, in which the required soundness of our actions lies, are comparatively light and little offences.  
2. Because they bring not any notorious dishonour to God, or injury to men: no man, except he be exceedingly ill-minded, and glad of any occasion to blaspheme, will for an idle word, or a little excess of mirth, with which a good man is overtaken, revile his God, or his religion. Nor doth any man sustain much harm by another mans stealing of a point from him, or putting of a merry jest upon him. And therefore these and the like are( if any) sins of an inferior degree.  
Secondly, I grant, that sins of this nature prove venial for the most part, and are usually pardonned in the regenerate, because they are ordinarily committed by them ignorantly, or indeliberately, either through their smallness, or their daily incursion. 1. Because they are small, therefore the best men set not so strict a watch against them, as in rigour God might require they should: as men do not use to watch narrowly for small thieves, nor to walk with as much circumspection among Bees, as among bears, so these smaller sort of sins are commonly neglected, as sins which we think will do but little harm: and for this cause they slip from us rashly and inconsiderately before we are ware. And 2. these sins are daily assaulting us, and therefore are fitly called by a Father, 
Tertul. de pudicitiâ  peccata quotidianae incursionis, sins of daily incursion; for in regard of the indifferent conditions of life we are to pass through, the several occasions and provocations we meet with, and the many duties of Piety and Charity which we are to perform, many a sin comes frequently, yea daily upon us: our Callings put into our heads many covetous, unjust, and ambitious desires and fancies, and draw us unawares into some actions not altogether warrantable and just; our devotions which are our daily sacrifices, do give occasion for dulness, weariness, and formality to show themselves in us: domestic crosses do put us into daily sudden fits of impatience, and discontentedness. Now, because for these reasons such kind of sins do slip from the best of Gods children; therefore they may be reputed among venial sins, which grieve not the Spirit. This may be yielded. But that they are venial, ex genere suo, in their nature, howsoever they are committed, whether willingly, or unwillingly, is more then can be justified. For Gods Word requires the resisting and bewailing, even of those lesser sins, as a necessary disposition to their pardon, as we may see, Rom. 7. of which more anon. So thought Saint Augustine, who therefore compareth them to small drops of water, and grains of sand, which being multiplied, are able to sink a ship, though singly and severally they cannot. His words are these, Quomodo minuta peccata, &c. 
Aug. tract. 12. in Joh. Quomodo minuta peccata, si negligantur, occidunt? minuta sunt grana arenae, said si multa arena imponatur, prem●t, &c.  How do small sins kill the soul if they be neglected? The drops which fill whole Brooks are small, and grains of sand are small; but yet if many of them be put together, and laid on( either on a mans shoulder, or in a ship) they will press down either. A Pump in a ship if it be neglected, doth that mischief to the ship which a violent storm would do; it enters through the Pump by little and little, but if it enter long, and be not pumpt out, it drowns the ship. So small sins, if a man allow himself in them, and deliberately multiply them, will destroy the soul as well as greater; for that is the application of his comparison, which is to be supplied. In another place 
Aug. ep. 108. ad Seleuc. Peccata quae humanae fragilitati quamvis parva, tamen crebra subrepunt; si collecta contra nos fuerint, ita nos gravabunt, sicut unum grande p●ccatum. Quid. n. interest ad naufragium, &c.  he saith, That the small sins which do often steal upon us, if they be wilfully repeated, and so gathered into a number, will sink the soul as much as one great and wasting sin. For what mattereth it to the loss of the ship, whether it be swallowed up with one great wave, or drowned by degrees, through the water that is suffered by negligence to get in at the Pump and to fill the ship? This was S. Bernards opinion too of these smaller sort of sins. Haec venialia, &c. These sins ( saith he) are accounted venial, not criminal, except when through contempt they grow customary. 
Bern. de praecep.& dispens. c. 14. Haec venialia non criminalia reputantur, excepto cum per contemptum in usam& consuerudinem vertuntur. Et ibid. Elat●o contemnentis,& impoenitentis obstinatio in minimis qucque m●ndatis culpam facit non minimam:& convertit in crimen gravis rebellionis naevum satis levem simplicis transgressionis.  Elatio contemnentis, &c. Proud contempt and impenitent obstinacy makes a very great fault in the smallest Commandements, and converts the light blemish of a single transgression, into the crime of a grievous rebellion. This is one thing therefore that is faulty in their Doctrine, concerning light or venial sins.  
The second thing to be disliked in it is, that they make these sins to be venial in their own nature, not by the grace of God. For thus saith Bellarmin, 
Bel. l. 1. de amiss. grat. c. 14. resp. ad 1. obj. Negamus, posse Deum justè punire peccatum quodlibet etiam veniale, poena omnium gravissima, quae est mors aeterna.  Negamus, &c. We deny that God can justly punish every sin, yea such as are venial, with the greatest punishment of all, which is eternal death. A bold speech: but this they strive to maintain, that on this foundation they may build their presumptuous Babels, their proud Doctrines, I mean, of a possibility of keeping the Law perfectly, and consequently of Merits, and Supererogations. I am sure the Scripture learneth us another lesson, where it telleth, that the wages of sin is death, Rom. 6. ult. of sin indefinitely, without exception of any; and Gal. 3.10. where it denounceth a curse against every man that continues not in all things, which are written in the book of the Law to do them. But I will leave them in their by-way with the passionate exclamation of S. Augustine, Woe to that life which is most praise-worthy, 
Aug. lib. 9. conf. c. ult. Vae etiam laudabili vitae hominum, si rem tî misericordiâ discutias eam.  if thou( O Lord) lay aside thy mercy when thou dost examine it.  
The sins( I take it) which do not grieve the Spirit, nor put a man out of favour, are onely such as are committed in a light& favourable manner,& they are of two kinds, sins of ignorance, which are committed ignorantly, and sins of infirmity, which are done indeliberately. Of both these I must speak somewhat distinctly,& then show that they grieve not the Spirit, and why.  
First, for sins of ignorance: That they find favour( though in themselves they be sometimes great enough) even for the circumstance of ignorance with which they are accompanied, is evident, by the speech of our Saviour, joh. 15.22. If I had not spoken to them, they had had no sin; no inexcusable sin: and by his prayer, Luk. 23.34. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Here he pleads their ignorance, as a motive to persuade God to pardon their sin. It is plain too by Act. 3.14. &c. Ye denied the Holy One, and killed the Lord of life: A foul sin in itself; yet he extenuates it by their ignorarice, v. 17. I know ye did it ignorantly, &c. 1 Tim. 1.13. I was an oppressor( saith Paul) but I was received to mercy, because I did it ignorantly, through unbelief. In all these places it is implied, that ignorance is an ingredient which much diminisheth the sin with which it is compounded. Now because there be as many sorts of sins of ignorance, as there be of ignorance itself; and as every kind of ignorance is more or less faulty, so is the sin with which it is compounded, and of which it is denominated; let us see therefore what the kinds of ignorance be.  
First, we may distinguish it into ignorance of the Law, and the fact.  
Ignorance of the Law, is when a man knoweth not that there is any Law of God forbidding such things, and consequently that those things which he doth amiss, are evil and sinful. Such was the ignorance of Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and a great many more of the Fathers, in their Polygamy; it was a sin, and none of the least neither, for a man to have many wives at once, and clearly enough against the first institution of marriage, and Gods example, in the first match that was made; and yet these good men did not know it to be so, they were ignorant that there was any law forbidding that course of theirs; and therefore they did commonly live and die in it too, without any particular repentance for it.  
Ignorance of the fact, is that whereby a man knoweth the Law well enough, but not his own act. This was in Lot, Gen. 19.33, 35. He knew that incest was a foul sin, damned by the light of Nature, abhorred among the very Gentiles, 1 Cor. 5.1. but being overtaken with drunkenness, he was ignorant of that incestuous act which he did upon his two daughters. For he perceived not( saith the Text) when they lay down, nor when they rose up. Such also was the ignorance of Abimelech, in his intended sin, Gen. 20. He knew that Gods Law did forbid Adultery, and that it was a foul sin( for this was known well enough, and a great many more too of a lesser nature, to the profaner sort of Gentiles, Rom, 1.31.) but he was ignorant that Sarah was Abrahams wife( for Abraham had  told him that she was his sister, ver. 2.) and that his lying with her, had it gone forward, would have been a sin of Adultery: and therefore when Gods punishing hand began to arrest him and his whole Court, he pleads his innocency, verse 4, 5. Lord wilt thou slay the righteous Nation? said not he unto me, she is my sister? yea, she her self said, he is my brother: with an upright mind and innocent hands have I done this. Such also was the ignorance of those Christian Souldiers, 
Sozom. Eccl. hist. l. 5. c. 16.  who being circumvented by the Emperour Julian, cast a little incense into the fire. They knew not that this act of theirs was Idolatry in the Emperours account, and his heathenish Souldiers, till they were upbraided with it at dinner, by their fellow-soldiers: for when they knew they had sinned, they carried the Emperour his money again( which he had given to them and all the Souldiers that had done so) and cried out, Errarunt manus, non mentes, our hands have done amiss, but not our minds.  
This kind of ignorance is for the most part in the actions of men in drink, or half asleep, or mad men. For in all these, the use of the understanding by which they are enabled to reflect upon themselves, and know what they do, is intercepted. Of this kind also are all casual actions and events, of the prevision and prevention of which there is no moral possibility: an example of which we have, Deut. 19.4. where first the Lord makes an order, that he that slays a man through ignorance of the fact, should have the benefit of the Cities of refuge: then he putteth a case, wherein it may so fall out, that one may kill a man, and yet be ignorant of it, namely, when a labouring man felling a three, through the flying off of the axe from the handle, hitteth and killeth a man that is casually passing by him at that time. Such is the ignorance of him that shoots at a man whom he takes to be a beast, or lies with a stranger, thinking her to be his own wife.  
Secondly, we may distinguish ignorance into invincible; and vincible.  
1. Invincible ignorance is that which a man cannot overcome; either because he discerns not himself to be ignorant, or because he wants means for the expelling of it, or hath not capacity enough to conceive the things whereof he is ignorant, though they should be sufficiently revealed and propounded to him. The things or objects about which this ignorance is exercised, are of two sorts. 1. Positive Laws, Divine, or human, or any other things which have not their foundation in the light of nature, viz. That if a thief should be punished with restoring fourfold, that beasts should be slain and offered up in sacrifice to God, that Jesus Christ should be born of a Virgin, that the body should rise again at the last day, and many other Articles of the Christian faith. 2. The obscurer and inferior sort of natural Laws or Dictates, which are not plain and undoubted principles, but conclusions rather, fetched out of those principles by the help and strength of discourse; such are these that follow, That it is not lawful to lye for the saving of a mans life or goods; nor to kill a man, though it be to sacrifice him to God; nor to repel an injury by private authority; nor to murder ones self for the avoiding of some notable disgrace, or some death more terrible. Of such things as these, a man may possibly be invincibly ignorant; through the tyranny of bad education, general evil customs, and the sway of times and places in which they live. But of the prime laws of nature, which are, that God is to be worshipped, parents honoured, justice done to every man, of these none can be invincibly ignorant, because they are written in such clear Characters in mens hearts, that no man, who is not wilfully blind, can choose but red them. And therefore S. Paul Rom. 2.15. saith, that the Gentiles do by nature the things of the Law; that when they do them, their consciences excuse and clear them; when they do them not, they accuse and terrify them: and the cause of this is, because the law is written in their hearts.  
2. Vincible ignorance is that which may be overcome and out-grown, if the party be not in fault: if a man be ignorant of some divine truths, the articles of the Creed, or some other of inferior rank, not because they are not revealed to them by God, or not propounded sufficiently by the ministry of men, nor because he wanteth liberty to inquire into them, or capacity to understand them, but merely because he useth not his own endeavour, but neglecteth such means, either human or divine, as might, if he would use them, expel his ignorance; his ignorance in such a case is vincible and removable. Now, this may be subdivided into two sorts.  
1. Simpliciter vincibilem, simply and merely vincible, of which all that we can say, is, It might possibly be overcome, were not men wanting to themselves. When men want knowledge, not out of a wilful contempt, but onely through negligence and incogitancy, because being taken up,( as they in the Gospel were) with their farms, their oxen, their profits, and pleasures, they think not of getting the true knowledge of those heavenly mysteries which would make them wise to salvation: then their ignorance may be called simply vincible. Thus were the sons of Zebedee and the rest of the Apostles ignorant of the resurrection of Christ, and the nature of his kingdom, as we may see luke. 24.21, 25, 26, &c. Mat. 20.21. Acts 1.6.  
2. Affectatam, affencted and gross ignorance, which is also called ignorantia pravae dispositionis, ignorance of an evil mind, because it ariseth out of an ill temper of heart, by which men wilfully refuse to know such things as might hinder them from sin, or further them in godliness. This is the ignorance which is spoken of Job 21.14. They say to the Almighty, depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. And 2 Pet. 4. v. 3, 4, 5. Of this they are willingly ignorant, that by the word of God the Heavens were of old, &c. The persons he speaks of were scoffers at religion, the ignorance which was in them, was voluntary and wilful, and the reason why they would be ignorant, is insinuated in their description, v. 3. that they might the more freely walk after their own lusts. And it is the humour of every man that loves to do evil,( as our Saviour tells us, Jo. 3.20.) to hate the light, and never to come at it( though it be an unnatural humour: for it is the natural desire of the soul to search and inquire into things not known.) And the reason is there given, lest his evil deeds should be reproved, i.e. discovered unto his conscience thereby: as thieves and adulterers love the twilight, yea the blackest midnight, because it covers many of their sins; so ungodly men love the thickest and grossest ignorance of Gods commandements and their own duties, because it hides many a sweet sin from themselves, which they have a mind to live in, but could not so freely and so peaceably commit, were it made known unto them.  
The third distinction which makes for our purpose, is, the distinction of ignorance into 1. Causing, and 2. accompanying ignorance.  
1. Causing ignorance, is that which is a cause by accident of the sin which is committed; for, as knowledge, general and particular, is an informer of men what is good and evil, and a director of them in their several actions, and consequently an impediment to many a sin; so, ignorance, which is the privation of knowledge, and a withdrawer of that which( were it present) would with-hold from sin, is many times a cause why men sin. Knowledge is compared to light; now the light( we know) is a guide to us in our actions, in our walking, in our riding, &c. when we go or ride abroad, it keepeth us from stumbling at many a stub, from running upon trees or men, from falling into ditches, &c. and on the other side, darkness, which is a privation of light, is usually an accidental cause, why men riding on the high way, knock themselves against a three, or ride into a pit: so, knowledge in the mind, dictating what is good and bad, with-holds a man from many a sin, which in the several actions and employments of life he would else fall into:& ignorance causeth him to sin sometimes, when otherwise he would not. Of this ignorance speaketh the Apostle, 1 Cor. 2.8. Had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory: this was also in S. Paul, when he said to the high Priest, God shall smite thee thou whited wall; and it was the cause why he reviled him. For being charged with it, he pleadeth for his excuse, that he did not know him to be the high Priest, Act. 23.5. for if he had known him, as he knew he ought not, so he would not have spoken evil of him.  
2. Accompanying ignorance, is that which is present in the sinner when he doth evil, but hath no influence at all upon the sin; the sin would be done, though the doer, who by chance is ignorant, should know it to be a sin, because he hath a mind to it. A drunken man goeth abroad in the night, he stumbleth, or perhaps falleth into a pit; of this man we may truly say, The night was his companion when he fell, but not the cause of his falling; his drunkenness was the cause. For, if he had gone abroad in the clearest day, when he had had light enough to make him see his way, being in drink, he would have fallen: he stumbled in the night, but not because it was night. So, a man viciously minded, and drunk with the love of sin, sinneth being ignorant, but not because he is ignorant: peccat ignorans( as the School-men speak) but not ex ignorantiâ.  
Now let us apply these distinctions in a word or two to our purpose, and so proceed.  
These sins of ignorance are very rife and frequent in the regenerate, as David tells us, Ps. 19.12. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults: daily experience also proves it. Now these ignorances do not grieve the Spirit,( whether the ignorance of which they are so name, be ignorance of the Law, as the ignorance of Abraham was in his Polygamy; or ignorance of the dead, as Lot's was, when he lay with his two daughters) if they be accompanied with these conditions.  
1. If their ignorance be invincible, such as they cannot be thought in the judgement of reason, able to remove by any means they can use, or any pains they can take.  
2. If their ignorance be vincible, but not wilful, such an ignorance, of which we can onely say, that men might overcome it, if they had their thoughts and wits a little better about them, and would be but so industrious as in duty and discretion they should be.  
3. If their ignorance be the cause of their sin, and not a bare companion of it; but if their sins proceed from affencted ignorance, they are equivalent to sins of knowledge and presumption, and consequently of a higher nature, then slips of which the Spirit taketh little notice.  
Thus far of the first sort of sins which do not grieve the Spirit, namely sins of ignorance.  
The second sort are sins of infirmity, which though a man knoweth to be sins, and such as he should avoid, yet he is not able to avoid. These are called surreptions, because they suddenly steal from us, or upon us; sins of inadvertency, because the understanding observeth them not till they are past; 
tart. de. Pudic. c. 19  sins of daily incursion, because of their daily rushing upon us; and sins of infirmity, because they are committed through our weakness and inability to master them. Now, these sins may be divided into 1. mere infirmities, 2. mixed infirmities.  
1. mere infirmities are such, as are committed onely through the weakness of the flesh, without any deliberation of the mind, and consent of the will at all. 1. Without any deliberation or observation of the mind, till it be too late to prevent them: like sly thieves or souldiers that lye in ambush for their enemies, they show themselves in us, when we think them far enough from us.  
2. They are committed without any consent and choice of will; it hath no voice in them, giveth no placet to them, but they crowd in upon us, without saying, By your leave. This kind of sins is like those sudden actions which shoot out, and are put forth by the force of the imagination onely, such as are stroking of the beard, scratching of the head, playing with a stick, sitting down, rising up, and many other inconsiderate actions of the body. These and the like stay not till reason approve and command, and the will consent to them, but they are done in a moment upon the command of phantasy, in the twinkling of an eye. So many sudden flashes of evil thoughts, words and deeds there are, which break out from us, that prevent all operation of mind or will. And these I call sins of mere infirmity, which for orders sake I will cast into these four ranks, 1. Defects, 2. Omissions, 3. evil motions, 4. evil actions.  
1. Defects, and ill qualities, of which there be very many in the best; in our devotions we meet with dulness, dryness, weariness,& wandring thoughts; in our obedience there is want of love; in our faith unbelief: our good actions are sprinkled with the dust of pride, vain-glory, and hypocrisy; in our afflictions we are sensible of much impatience and discontentedness, in our prosperity of high-mindedness, and in the prosperity of others, of envy and male-contentednesse. These and a great many more inseparable blemishes and wrinkles, are in the very face of the Spouse in this life. In David there was dulness: and therefore he prays, Lord quicken me, Psal. 119. There was distrust of Gods providence too, for he wrangleth& reasoneth with his soul about it, Ps. 43. Why art thou so cast down O my soul? still trust in God: In the good Israelites, who came willingly to keep the Passeover, there was some want of due preparation, which giveth occasion of the Kings prayer for them, The good Lord be merciful to him that prepareth his whole heart to seek the Lord, though he be not purified according to the purification of the Sanctuary, 2 Chro. 30.18, 19. In Hezekiah there was pride of heart, for he must needs brag of his treasures to the Babylonish Ambassadors, 2 Kings 20.13. In Jonah was a peevish& a froward heart, as we may see in his Story: In Peter self-confidence, Though all men should forsake thee, yet would not I, Mat. 26. And in all the Disciples weakness of faith; for, Lord increase our faith, was their joint prayer. And in all are some defects( even in actu exercito) which they cannot help. These are the first kind of indeliberate sins or mere infirmities.  
2. There are in them omissions of good duties, when occasions and seasons for the doing of them are afforded. I do not the good I would, saith Paul, Rom. 7.19. Ye cannot do what ye would, saith he of all the faithful, Gal. 5.17. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, saith our Saviour of his Disciples, when they omitted a necessary duty, the comforting of their distressed Master, Matth. 6.41. We find by daily experience, that we let many fair opportunities of praying, hearing, reading, meditating, examining our consciences, mourning for our sins, ministering to the wants of our afflicted brethren, and the like, slip from us inconsiderately, not knowing what we have omitted, till the omission be past.  
3. There are in them evil motions, which the Apostle calls, Rom. 7.5. motions of sin, not onely injections or evil motions cast in, or rising up in the heart; but delectations, or evil motions embraced: and both these indeliberate too, and these latter are inseparable to the first. For, if evil motions which arise in us, be of things pleasing to nature, they delight as soon as they arise, though a man consent not they should do so; as wine, because it is naturally delightful to the taste, it pleaseth the relish as it goes down the throat, its touching of the palate and the pleasure of the palate are inseparable. And therefore I say, that in the Saints, both the primò primi motus, the first evil motions, and the secundò primi, the delectations in those evil motions, are both indeliberate; though sometimes these latter prove to be morosae, and are entertained in the mind by the allowance of the will. With swarms of these noisome and unsavoury thoughts are we daily molested, they are our companions alone and in company, at bed& at board, in Gods house& our own, like Abrahams fowls, Gen. 15. that fell upon the sacrifices, they are ever with us, to hinder and distracted us in the best employment.  
4. Besides these, many are the outward evil actions, which through the presence of occasions, and power of sudden passions and provocations, break from us suddenly; Such was Davids inconsiderate exclamation, I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul, 1 Sam. 27.1. and such was Sarahs lye, I laughed not. Such, Jobs imprecations, Let the day perish wherein I was born, &c. And such Jonahs selfe-justification, I do well to be angry, Jonah 3.9. Thus sinned David, when upon Zibaes accusing of his Master, he suddenly without mature deliberation, gave him all his Masters lands, 2 Sam. 16.4. And such a sin was Peters, when in anger he drew a sword& smote off Malchus his ear, joh. 18.26. Thus for mere infirmities.  
Besides these, there are mixed infirmities, 
II.  which have some presumption in them, but not enough to denominate them presumptuous sins: some advertency and consent is in them, but not a stayed and fixed apprehension, or election: A simplo apprehension perhaps, without any practical judgement of the understanding concerning the object, whether it be to be prosecuted, or avoided ( pro hic& nunc) considered with all circumstances of time& place. As it must be a good deal of water that must give the wine with which it is mingled, the name and nature of water: so there must be more degrees of wilfulness, then weakness in the sin, or else it cannot receive the name and nature of a wilful and presumptuous sin. The sins therefore that hang in the understanding flotingly and lightly, as colours in the air, and not firmly, as colours on a wall; and are like the answers of a man to questions asked him, when he is between sleeping and waking, or seriously intent upon some businesses, which fall not under a perfect deliberation: the sins which a man knoweth not well whether they steal from him or no( like the drunkard in the Proverbs, c. 23. ult. They have smitten me, but I was sick; they have beaten me but I felt it not:) These are mixed infirmities, and do not grieve the Spirit. Now it falleth out, that these are often committed by the very best, either through many businesses, or violent passions.  
1. Through many businesses: for these first, draw the mind away upon many things at once, and do weaken it in its operations: As the eye cannot look attentively on one single object, at such time as it looks upon many; so the mind cannot think upon any one thing deliberately, at that time when it thinks upon many things.  
And as many businesses distracted: So secondly they attract, and draw away the thoughts from other things to themselves; from whence it comes to pass, that other matters( though perhaps of greater importance) are but little and weakly thought upon, during the attention and stay of the mind on those businesses: for, as the eye, when it is fixed upon one certain object, cannot at that time look seriously upon other things, though never so visible in themselves, or visibly presented before it, it being but of a finite& determinate activity; so the mind,( which cannot possibly attend two vehement and intensive operations at once, but is exhausted by one) when it is intent upon some urgent affairs in hand, cannot bestow any solid and settled thoughts on other matters at that time, though they be such matters as concern much.  
Now from this distraction of the thoughts, or from the attraction of them to some one thing, by occasion of such businesses as men are to manage, it may and doth fall out, that many sins steal from them now and then, without due observation.  
2. Through the sway of head-strong passions, men sin sometimes without a perfect deliberation. For they do often deprive the understanding of the power, at least the use and exercise of its power to consider, and conclude. Though the mind and will be the King and Queen of the soul, yet they are too often at the will and mercy of these rebells. These passions when they rage, sometimes command the tongue, and the hand, or any of the other members, to do a sin which they would have done, before the understanding and will can take up arms and make head against them, as a company of base rebells may do mischief in the land, before the King is ware of them, or can levy forces against them. Sometimes, like a thick smoke, or fog, or an ill humour falling from the head into the eyes, they blind the understanding, which is the eye of the soul, and make it to err in its verdict, and consequently give sentence on their side, and say as they would have it, and conclude that to be good, which at another time it knoweth full well to be evil. A gift( says Moses) blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the just, Deut. 16.19. The meaning is, that a Judge( though for his understanding he be a wise man, and for his disposition a just man; yet) if he hath a strong affection to bribes, will be blinded by that passion in his understanding, and made to give false judgement. If a man be surprised with a passion of lust, perhaps it will for the time corrupt his judgement, and make the cause go that way, which it would have it. This made the Philosopher say, 
Arist. l. 7. Ethic. c. 3.  that the syllogism of an incontinent person hath four propositions in it: two of reason; viz. 1. that no fornication is to be committed, 2. that therefore he must not commit this or that act of whoredom, that he is about: and two of passion, or of reason perverted by passion; namely, 1. that things which are delectable are good, and to be embraced. 2. That therefore the act of fornication which is about to be done, is good, because delectable. Now( says he) every incontinent person is lead by the two latter, which proceed from passion perverting the understanding. Passio ligat rationem, ne concludat pro primo, Passion blinds, or binds reason, that it may not conclude for the first, namely, that whoredom is always evil, never to be committed, and therefore not in this or that particular case, nor at this or that particular time. The like may be said of all other sinners. If passion reign for a fit in their souls, it overcloudeth the understanding: and as the clouds and vapours, through which we look upon the moon in her rising or setting, make her seem greater to our eye than she is: so, our unruly affections, through which our minds too often behold such objects as please them, make those objects very frequently appear to the understanding far better and fairer then indeed they are. And, sometimes again they puzzle the mind, and make it inattentive for the time; as a man by brawling with his servant, taketh off his attention from his business, and maketh him do he scarce knoweth what. All which effects of head-strong passions are couched together by the Philosopher in a verse or two. 
Boet. de consolat. Philos. metro ultimo.   
— Gaudia pelle,  
Pelle timorem, spemque fugato, nec dolor adsit.  
Nubila mens est, vinctaque fraenis, haec ubi regnant.  
Now from this predominancy of passions come many sudden and unadvised sins; All which are in Gods account light, and pardonable; such as grieve not the Spirit, except this indeliberation be voluntary. For it often falls out, that men who are fully set to do evil, as they will be, or would be ignorant of the evil which is inherent in such actions as they have a mind to, so they would be sudden and inconsiderate in the commission of them: That they may have this to say, when their consciences accuse them for their sin, Non putaram, we did little think to have done so, we were overtaken in our sin unawares. Now, if men sin inconsiderately, de industriâ, of purpose, notwithstanding their inadvertency, their sin is presumptuous, and interpretativè, in Gods account wilful.  
Quest. But when may a mans inadvertency be judged voluntary?  
Ans. Whensoever he ought and might deliberate if he would. More particularly.  
1. When he hath some warnings and items given him by some friends without, or some good motions within, that such a sin is near him, and likely( if he take not heed) to seize upon him: if he neglect these intimations, and so fall into the sin,( though perhaps besides his expectation or purpose) his indeliberation is voluntary, and his sin too, virtually, though not formally. Sometimes a Physician, or peradventure a discreet friend, by some signs in the face, perceiveth that such a man is ready to fall into a swoon, or into some dangerous sickness if he prevent it not; and sometimes one traveller upon the high-way, is able to tell another whom he meeteth, that there are dangerous fellowes in the way in which he is riding, ready to rob and rifle him, if he go forward. If now the parties thus premonished, by slighting this good counsel, fall into those dangers,( though besides their expectation) their sudden miscarrying is upon the matter wilful. Such was the death of Julius Caesar in the Senate-House; though he did not formally will his own death; yet because he neglected that good warning of it, which in reason he should have taken, he may without a scepticism be said to perish wilfully. And the men of the old World, though the flood came upon them unawares like a snare, and swept them away,( for it is said, They knew nothing till the flood came, Matth. 24.39. i. they considered or minded no such matter) yet because they slighted Noahs good counsel, who  told them it was a coming, they might not improperly be said to be swept away wilfully. The same judgement we may pass upon such men as fall into any sin, be it whoredom, drunkenness, theft, perjury, or any other, at a time when they are informed by some prudent observer of concurring occasions and dispositions, of the probable danger they are in of committing such sins, and admonished to have an eye to themselves. If such men commit any of these inordinate acts, though with no previous purpose to do so, nor currant observation of themselves at the time when they do so, yet may that inconsiderateness with which the sin is accompanied, together with the sin, be interpnted and pronounced voluntary.  
2. When being sensible of his own weakness and facility to fall into some determinate sin, he putteth himself notwithstanding into such temptations, of time, place, persons, or occasions, as will 'allure him to that sin, though with no purpose of committing it, but rather a contrary. If he do fall, inadvertency will not help him, nor much qualify his sin, because it is voluntary: he might, if he would, have easily foreseen what the issue would have been of a temptation so strongly drawing, and a disposition so readily inclining, of such iron and loadstone, such fire and tinder meeting together.  
This in some degree was the case of Alipius in St. Austin, 
Aug. conf.  who being entreated by an importunate friend to go along with him to a play-house, went( though with no intention to see the play, but a clean contrary of shutting his eyes, and stoping his ears, that he might neither see nor hear the vanities which might work in him an inordinate and unlawful delight) and being there after a little while, fed his eyes, and his ears with those profane sights and vain speeches. This sin of his was a sin of inadvertencie, if we look strictly to the formality of it, but this inadvertencie of his was voluntary. For he had reason to think, that the devil having him there under so great a temptation, would not let him come undefiled away. And so, though S. Peters denial of his Master were an indeliberate sin, yet it was wilfully indeliberate, because he might easily have considered, that the high Priests Hall was a likely place to prove a snare to him in that particular.  
3. When a man cherisheth any sinful motions: Suppose it be of fornication, with an intent to reap a little pleasure by the motions, but no meaning to commit the fornication: if he do commit it through sudden surprisal& presence of occasions, his indeliberation is voluntary, and his sin equivalent to a deliberate sin: For he might have foreseen his danger, and red his own destiny if he would, and he ought to have turned such bad motions out of doors, before they had inflamed his lust, and made it able to conceive and bring forth so foul a brat. The Law which God himself made, Deut. 22.23, 24. proveth as much as I have said. The Law was. That a betrothed maid if she lay with a man, and did not cry out, and to her power make resistance against the attempt, should be stoned to death: the reason( I suppose) was, because her nor crying out for help, did intimate her willingness& consent to the sin. If a woman in this case were judged to have consented to the sin, because she did not resist the onset; then they may be thought to have given consent to the act of uncleanness, who cherish& delight themselves with the thoughts of uncleanness. For in such a case a man is bound ( excutere pravam suggestionem) to cast out the suggestion to that sin.  
4. When indeliberation falls frequently upon the same sin, it is voluntary. For in such any case a man is more able and obliged to look to himself. We use to say, Ictus piscator sapit, and The burnt child dreads the fire, and He is not a wise man that will easily stumble twice at the same ston. The meaning is, that men ought to be afraid of such things as have once, or oftener done them hurt, and carefully either to keep out of occasions inducing to them, or to watch over themselves in the presence of such occasions: and so is he bound to be of every sin that hath often mated him. As he is bound, so he is enabled to prevent such a sin more then many others, because it will be ever before him, gnawing upon his conscience, and upbraiding him. A man that hath often played the glutton at a full table, or been oft overtaken with drink in the company of loose friends, can very hardly be overcome with these sins without wilful indeliberation: for his heart, if the same snares be presented, will misgive him, and bid him away, or else look to himself, and stand upon his guard.  
I have given these few rules, for a help to such as would be directed how to discover the deceitfulness of their hearts in this particular, and the nature of their sin. If they find their inadvertencie in sinning to be voluntary, let them know, that their sins exceed the nature of infirmities, which do not grieve the Spirit. And therefore Melancthon having discoursed of sins of surreption and infirmity, referreth sins of affencted ignorance, and omission, to sins against conscience; and concludeth all Turks, Jews, Pagans, and Pharisees who are guilty of affencted idolatry, Ignorance, and unbelief, to be guilty of mortal and damning sins.  
We see what the sins are which grieve not the Spirit, as the phrase is to be understood in the Text. And now we come to prove them to be such: only I will premise this one thing; namely, that look what proofs evince infirmities to be sins which have a general pardon, the same do prove, that sins of ignorance are so too: for they both agree in this qualifying circumstance, which is, that they are involuntary, infirmities for want of observation, ignorances for want of knowledge. And therefore they agree in the effect, remission. This being premised, I prove it briefly three ways. 1. By testimony of Scripture. 2. By the judgement of Divines, ancient and modern. 3. And by reason.  
1. By testimony of Scripture, Saint Paul, Rom. 7. and 8. hath a pretty large discourse on this argument. Wherein 1. he sheweth by himself, as by an example, what a proneness there is in the regenerate to some kinds of sins, ver. 14. I am sold under sin, ver. 18. I find no means to perform what is good, ver. 19. The good which I would, I do not; the evil which I would not, that I do, ver. 21. When I would do good, evil is present with me. ver. 23. I see a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind, and leading me captive to the law of sin, &c. In all these verses he signifieth, that the Regenerate are strongly inclined by their inward corruption to some kind of sins. But what sins? The Libertines understood the Apostle of all sins, even the foulest that are, and defended their greatest insolences with these words of his, as Pet. Martyr admonisheth. 
P. Martyr in Rom. 7. Hic cavendi sunt Libertini, p●stes& suriae nostrorum temporum, qui his Apostoli verbis gravissima sua scelera volunt excusare.  Here, saith he, we must take heed of the profane gloss of the Libertines, the very plagues and furies of our times, who by these words of the Apostle, maintain their greatest impieties.  
The Apostle cannot be understood of such sins. For 1. he committed no such, neither before, nor after his conversion. Before his conversion, while he lived a Pharisee, he was free from wilful gross sins: for so he saith of himself, Act. 22.3. I was zealous toward God: and Phil. 3.6. Touching the righteousness of the Law, I was unrebukable. After his conversion he was much more free from them, as we may see, Act. 24.16. I do exercise myself to have always a conscience voided of offence toward God and men: and 2 Cor. 1.12. Our rejoicing( saith he) is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in sincerity and godly purity we have had our conversation in the world. 2. This very place which is rhus perverted by these miscreants, proveth the contrary. For 1. he speaketh of inward lustings, which are sins so small, as that he should not have known them to be sins, except the Law had said, Thou shalt not lust, ver. 7.2. He speaketh of such sins as he hated, ver. 15. as he resisted to the utmost of his power, ver. 19. the evil that I would not, that I do, and ver. 21. when I would do good, evil is present with me; as also ver. 23, 24, &c. and therefore not of deliberate and wilful rebellions.  
But the sins which( he saith) the godly are subject to in this wretched mortality, are indeliberate sins, which they are soiled, and foiled with, their inward man reclaiming and endeavouring the contrary.  
That is the first thing to be noted in that Chapter.  
2. For the comfort of the regenerate, who might perhaps from this sinful condition of theirs, have inferred their dangerous condition, and eternal condemnation, he telleth them, that they are safe enough for all this: in the last ver. of the 7. Chapter, He thanketh God through Jesus Christ. For what? Certainly, for his deliverance from the guilt of these sins, by the mercies of God in Christ. For haec verba[ qui me eripuit] these words, who hath delivered me, must be put in to fill up the sense, saith Rolloc truly on that place. Ex hoc sensu, out of the feeling which he had of his deliverance from the condemning power of these his inevitable failings, he breaketh out into this thanksgiving, saith Pareus on the place; So that this is one proof of the consistency of these sins with justification and the favour of God. He proveth it also, Rom. 8.1. Now therefore there is no cond●mnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. In which words, 1. from the sense of his own deliverance from the hurt of these sins, he concludeth the safety of all them which are in Christ Jesus, though there be some remaining sins in them. 2. He addeth a restriction or limitation, if they walk not after the flesh, &c. If these men in Christ keep themselves within the compass of right infirmities, and break not out into licentious enormities, why, then all is well, not else. Out of the 13. ver. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, ye shall live. Melancthon collecteth a distinction of sins in respect of their guilt, 
Melanct. lo co. de discr. peccati mort.& ven.  and the safe condition of the regenerate: Si actionibus corporis, i.e. vitiosis corruptae naturae motibus& negligentiis repugnent, If they resist those evil motions and negligences, to which they are subject, to the utmost of their ability. And this was signified sufficiently in the daily sacrifice, which was appointed to be offered for sins of error and infirmity.  
So much for the proofs from Scripture.  
Secondly, it may appear by the judgement of Divines of elder and later times.  
It seems to have been the opinion of Saint Augustine, that sins which are wholly indeliberate, 
Aug: l. de animab. contr. Manich. c. 10.  are not truly and properly sins: and therefore far enough from grieving the Spirit. For in one place he reasoneth on this manner: If one should take a mans hand who is asleep, and make it writ down some dishonest and uncomely speeches; if I should ask you, whether this man who is thus abused, hath sinned or no, you would quickly answer me, No: or, if one should abuse after the same manner the hand of a man who is fast bound in all other parts of his body, you will easily grant me, that the man so handled, sinneth not at all in that writing, and you would be angry with any man that should put to you such a senssesse question. By this you grant( saith he) Non esse nisi in voluntate peccatum, that there is no sin but in the will. In another place he saith, 
L. de mend. ad consent. c. 7. Quod violenter non praecedente libidine patitur corpus, vexatio potius quam corruptio est.  that look what the body suffers violently, no lust going before, is a vexation of it, rather then a violation. In which speech he alludeth to Deut. 22.26, 27. where God giveth a charge, that if a maid were forced, she should not die; for there is no more desert of death in her, then in a man that receiveth a deadly wound, whether he will or no. And it is well known, that the definition of sin( to be dictum, factum, concupitum[ voluntarium] contra legem Dei, a voluntary word, dead, or thought against the Law of God) which is in such request among the Schoolmen, is S. Augustines, and serveth to show what his deliberate opinion was of these indeliberate sins. 
Ambros. l. 1. de sac.& vitâ beatâ c. 3. N●mo tenetur ad culpam, nisi propriâ defl●x●rit voluntate; non habent crimen quae inferuntur reluctantibus.  S. Ambrose also is thought to have been of the same mind: for these are some of his words; No man is held guilty of sin, unless he have declined of his own will; those evils which are forced upon persons resisting, have not the nature of sin.  
But the contrary to this seemeth to be determined by the ninth Article of our Church, in the end of which are these words; Although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin. And the Doctrine which is entertained by most of our modern Divines, is; That concupiscence and all her necessary fruits, even the first evil motions before or without consent, are truly and properly sins, hecause they are privations of that original justice which ought to have been still within us, and because they are voluntary, though not immediately in themselves, yet in their first cause, to wit, the sin of Adam. And those harsher speeches of S. Augustine, wherein he seemeth to deny the nature of sin of the first inordinate lustings and motions of the soul, some of our Writers have taken pains to mollify, and to put a favourable construction on them. For example, the Reverend Bishop of Salisbury qualifies them thus; S. Austin, when he denies concupiscence to be sin, meaneth peccatum reatu involutum,& damnandi potestate armatum, Sin joined with guilt, and armed with a damning power. 
Daven. praelectiones de just. habit. p. 262. Non enim secus ac si quis viperam frigore torpescentem ac penè emortuam, quia nocere non potest, non jam viperam appellet said innoxium verm●culum: sic Augustinus concupiscentiam gratia baptismali constractum,& reatu mortifero spoliatam, quia post remissionem non potest renatis in spiritu ambulantibus noxam infer, non horrē do peccati nomine, said emollito languoris vocabulo solet indigitare  Non enim secus, &c. For no otherwise( saith he) then a man should call a viper( frozen even to death with could, because it can do no hurt,) not a viper, but harmless worm, doth S Austin call concupiscence,( because it is by baptismal grace disarmed of its guilt, so as it cannot hurt the regenerate while they walk after the Spirit) not by the fearful name of sin, but by the soft name of infirmity or weakness.  
But to leave this as I found it, it hath been ever held and taught for good Divinity, that original sin together with all such blemishes in our persons or actions, as arise from the weakness of nature, rather then the wickedness of the will in men regenerate, are not such sins as put the person in whom they are found, into a state of wrath and damnation: and this the following testimonies will make good.  
To begin with S. 
l. de. c. Dei. 21. c. 27. Oratio quotidiana quam docuit ipse Dominus( unde& Dominica nuncupatur) delet quidem quotidiana peccata, cum quotidè dicitur, dimit nobis debita nostra.  Austin, 
Ench. c. 71. &c. 79. Quotidiana, brevia, leviaque peccata, sine quibus haec vita non ducitur, etiam minima quotidiana fidelium oratione delentur.  The daily, light, and short sins of the faithful, saith he, without which this life is not lead, are blotted out by their daily prayers. And in another place he saith, 
L. de Symb. ad Catech. l. 1. c. 7. c. l. De civit. dei. c. 2. Hodiè non imprudentur vocamus beatos, quos justè ac piè videmus cum spe futurae immortalitatis hanc vitam ducere sine crimine vastante conscientiam: facile impetrantes peccatis hujus infirmitatis divinam misericordiam.  That against these sins is invented the Lords Prayer, and more especially that Petition, Forgive us our trespasses, which he therefore calls Quotidianam ainae medicinam, the daily physic of the soul. We do not unwisely ( or without cause) call those men blessed ( saith he) whom we see leading their lives piously and righteously, under the hope of immortality to come, without any foul sins which waste the conscience. For they easily obtain Gods mercy for their sins of human frailty. In these words he plainly distinguisheth between sins of infirmity and presumption, affirming an easy pardon to belong to infirmities. Many other speeches may be found in him 
August. hom. 20.& 40.& epist. 108.  to the same purporse.  

mell. 10. c. de bonis operibus, 5. quest. de descri. peccat.  Melancthon is of this mind too. For in his Common places expounding a place of S. Paul. Rom. 8.13. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: he saith, Hic tradit Paulus, &c. Here Paul delivereth a difference of sins. There remain in the regenerate many internal evils, to wit, an in-bred darkness and pravity of nature, and many defects: though there be some light and obedience begun, and some faith, yet is this faith but a small spark shining in thick darkness which daily wrestleth with doubtings. There is not so much fear of God, such a love& confidence as thereshould be. Besides, there are vicious affections of divers kinds, as self-conceitedness and self-confidence;& many sorts of evil motions, flames of lust, and unjust emulations, as in Aaron and miriae against Moses. Also, many sins of omission are committed by them, and neglects of duties, civill, ecclesiastical and domestical. But because the Saints do oppose these evil motions and vicious affections, and believe that their infirmities are forgiven them for Christs sake, Ideo manent in gratia, &c. therefore they remain in favour, and retain their faith and the Spirit of God. Hoc sentit Apostolus, thus thought the Apostle, when he said, If ye mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, ye shall live. Finely have our Divines in their Suffrage set down their judgements in this point. 
Suffrag. Brit. Thes. 2. de Persev. art. c. 5.  These are sins( say they) for which God threateneth wrath and banishment out of Heaven, and eternal death even to his own children, and they are spoken of, 1 Cor. 6.10. Gal. 5.25. Col. 3.6. And there be certain other sins, for which the merciful God is not wont to deprive his children( no not for a moment) of the light of his countenance, nor to terrify them with the fear of damnation. Of these they reckon up three sorts; 1. Rebellious motions of lust, 2. Blemishes and defects cleaving to their best works, 3. daily sins of human infirmity, committed without any certain purpose of doing them. Of all these they say, They are remitted by the daily craving of pardon.  
Many passages to this purpose are to be found in the fore-named Reverend Bishop. One is to this effect. 
Dav. Prae. l. de just. act. c. 35. p. 433. Quicquid vetus adam tumultu●tur& reluctetar legi, non imputatur homini renato normam legis pro posse suo sequenti,& rebellionem concupiscentiae aversanti, &c.  Quicquid vetus &c. Whatsoever old rebellious Adam doth repugnant to the Law, it is not imputed to the regenerate man, following the rule of Gods Law according to his ability, and opposing his lust in its rebellions.  
Another is this. 
Ib. Labes quae oriturà veteri Adamo, non est illi imputabi●is qui inseritur in novum, modò per illam non sinat voluntatem suam vel à been agendo avelli, vel ad malum perpetrandum impelli.  Labes quae oritur, &c. That blot which comes from old Adam, is not imputable to the man who is engrafted into the new, so that he suffer not his will by the power of that to be drawn away from well-doing, or driven to do evil.  
M. Gataker speaking of these sins, saith, 
Gatak. Spir. Watch. p. 120.  That God in mercy vouchsafeth his children a daily pardon of course for them; and is content graciously to pass them by, and put them up in them, though in rigor of justice he might deservedly call them into a strict account for them. And afterward, mentioning the good which a Christian might gain by watching over himself, 
Ib. p. 130.  he hath these words: We shall have a pardon of course signed us upon general svit, for these sins that either through ignorance, or mere frailty escape us: and for the proof of it, he citeth in his margin two places of Scripture, Psal. 19.12. Matth. 6.12.  
Out of all these testimonies, the sum which doth result, is this, that ignorances and infirmities do not grieve and drive away the Spirit; they are generally and daily pardonned: provided, 1. That the person be in Christ, 2. That to his power he resist them. 3. That he aclowledge and bewail them, and pray hearty for the forgiveness of them. And this is all that I contend for. Thus far for proofs drawn from authority.  
Now in the last place, the reason by which it may be proved, that these sins are not damnable, nor grieve not the Spirit, is,  
Because they are no breach of any Evangelicall precept. For we are to know, that the Gospel, though it take away none of the commandements of the Law, nor free believers from that obligation which the light of nature layeth upon them of obeying them, yet it disarmeth those commandements of their sting, and power of bringing unavoidable damnation upon transgressors, if they be in Christ. For example, Thou shalt not lust; this is a commandement of the Law, Rom. 7. It forbids evil motions and sins, which fall not under perfect deliberation: to this commandement every man is bound, the Gospel frees him not: but yet this commandement is backed with no penalty, or curse: that is taken from it by the Gospel. See Rom. 8.1. The meaning of which words in reference to the former Chapter, is, that notwithstanding these involuntary sins, there is no condemnation, &c. therefore the curse is by the Gospel separated from this commandement. Now, as it taketh this curse from some commandements of the Law; so it affixeth and restraineth it to some precepts of its own, which it imposeth upon every soul under the unavoidable pain of eternal death. Those precepts are three. 1. To believe, 2. To repent, mark 1. Repent and believe the Gospel. 3. To abstain from reigning sins, Rom. 6.12. Let not sin reign, &c. Of these commandements the breach is threatened with eternal death: He that believeth not shall be damned, Mark. 16. Except ye repent, ye shall all perish, Luk. 13. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, Rom. 8.13. There be no sins which are a violation of these, but bring death eternal on the soul; and the sins which are not, do not bring destruction: now involuntary sins, whether of ignorance or infirmity, are not breaches of these; as appears, Rom. 6.12. where to let sin reign, to obey it in its lusts, and to yield up our bodies to the service of it, are used as promiscuous terms: but, to give ones self to obey sin, to yield up ones body to be a slave to its commands, is to give a willing consent. sins therefore of deliberate will and consent, are here forbidden, and not indeliberate and unwilling sins.  
Quest. But why doth not God forbid infirmities and indeliberate sins in the new covenant under the pain of his heavy displeasure, as well as reigning and wilful sins?  
Ans. Though it be enough to quiet our understandings, to know that God will have it so, yet because his will is rational( for he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, Ephes. 1.9.) We may guess at some reasons why God is so favourable to sins of this sort.  
1. Because they are not much repugnant to the love of God, and men; which is the end of the law, 1 Tim. 1.5. They be like the lighter unobserved and ordinary misbehaviours of a woman to her husband, which may consist with a true affection towards him: and therefore occasion no good husband to seek or desire a divorce. Usually the matter of an indeliberate sin is small, such as God reaps but little dishonour by, or our neighbours little inconvenience, and therefore God in mercy doth commonly forgive them in his children, Quorum pedes impingunt, dum oculi justitiam spectant, whose feet slide from them, while their eye is upon Gods commandements to do them.  
2. Because they are unavoidable by that grace which God is pleased ordinarily to dispense in this life. Adam had power to forbear all inordinate lustings, together with the lapses into which they hurry men unawares; and therefore they were forbidden him under the penalty of Gods curse: but such a power have not we. Though our wounded natures be healed in our conversion, yet not so perfectly, as to yield exact obedience. And therefore these sins cannot be long avoided, much less all a mans life time( though Pelagius did erroneously think and teach the contrary, and so did Vega too. 
Vega. l. 14 de justif. e. 21. ) I am carnal( saith the Apostle, Rom. 7.) and sold under sin. How sold? not as Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, 1 Kings 21.25. and was a willing servant to sin: but as the Israelites were sold to Pharaoh, whose drudges they were, but against their wills: so Saint Paul and the regenerate are sold to sin, i. they lie under a necessity of falling into some sins, though unwillingly. And v. 18. I find no means( saith he) to perform what is good, i. Though he had a mind to avoid every sin, and obey in every thing, yet he had no ability to do so; like a weak man, who hath better heart then legs, more mind then power to walk: so it fared with the Apostle, and so it is with all the regenerate. Out of the apprehension of this, sprung those acknowledgements of the Prophets and Apostles, Psal. 143.2. In thy sight shall no man living be justified. Eccles. 7.20. There is not a just man upon earth that doth good, and sinneth not. Jam. 3.2. In many things we offend all. And 1 Joh. 1.8. If we say we have no sin, we decieve ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The sins spoken of in these places, are not sins of presumption,( for many good men by the grace of God forbear them, living in the world sine querelâ, without any remarkable blemish or just blame;) but sins of ignorance and inadvertencie, these hang upon the very best, 
Aug. l. 10. c. 35. Talibus vita mea plena est,& una spes mea in magna valde misericordia tua.  notwithstanding their endeavour to shake them off.  
Of these delinquencies S. Austin confesseth his life to be full. 
Aug. l. 10 Conf. c. 33. Cum mihi accid●t, ut me ampliùs cantus, quàmres quae canitur moveat, poenaliter me peccare confiteor.  When the congregation was singing in the Church, though he should have been more affencted with the matter then the music, and endeavourd to be so; yet the Songs themselves did many times more delight him, then the thing that was sung. When his mind should have been musing of serious and substantial things, it was taken up with troops of vain imaginations, for which he asketh God forgiveness. 
Ib. E● an te conspectum tuum dum ad aures tuas vocem cordis in endimus, nescio unde irruentibus nugatoriis cogitationibus res tanta praeciditur.  And when he was at his prayers, with the rushing in of by-thoughts he was so hindered, that he scarce knew what he said. 
Ebrietas long est à me, misereberis ne appropinquet mihi. Crapula autem non nunquam surrepit servo tu●, misereberis ut long fiat à me.  At other times, when he was doing service to nature, and to take his necessary food, he did often unawares overshoot himself, and eat more then was sufficient for the repairing of his bodies ruins. Drankennesse, he saith, was far from him, but not some small gluttonies. And these excesses he thought to be common frailties, and therefore cries out, 
Quis est Domine, qui non ●liqu●ndo rapiatur extra metas necess●tis? Quisquis est, magnus est, magni ficet nomen tuum.  Who is the man, O Lord, who is not sometimes carried beyond the limits of necessity? Whosoever he be, he is an extraordinary man, and let him praise thy name. And do not the best of us,( do what we can) find by experience, that when we would pray and hear attentively, by-thoughts crowd in upon us, and steal away our attention? And when we Preach well, doth not pride and vainglory assault us? When we feed, doth not some degree of gluttony? when we are crost, do not some intemperate fits of anger over-take us? Some one lust( perhaps) which a man sets himself against with all his might, he may overcome, but very hardly; yet while he endeavours to avoid one, he is entangled by another. 
Aug. in Psal. 18. conc. 3. A●iquando adversus majora vigilantibus quaedam incautis minorasubrepunt,& proper hoc mihi videtur quod qui ambulant in viis Domini, dicunt, Dim●t●e nobis debita nostra.  Aliquando adversus majora vigilantibus quaedam incautis minuta subrepunt, &c. Sometime while men are watching against greater faults( saith the same Father) smaller slips do unawares take hold upon him: and for this cause it seem●th to me, that they which walk in the ways of the Lord, do say; Forgive us our trespasses. This the School-men set out by a man in a barrel, full of holes, let down under water: This man( say they) may with his finger stop any one hole, but he cannot stop them all; but while he is keeping the water out at one hole, it cometh in apace through the others. And we may as fitly express it by a man assaulted with many adversaries at once, though he may peradventure beat and prevent the blows of any one of them, whom he thinks fit to single out, yet he cannot keep off the blows of all; for while he is warding off the stroke of one, he is liable to wounds and bangs from the rest. And therefore we use to say, Ne Hercules contra duos, Hercules himself can hardly bear up the bucklers against two, much less against many.  
Even so it is with the regenerate in their warfare with sin and Satan; though by special assistance they may chance to set their foot upon the neck of any one lust at one time, yet while they are chasing away that one, they a●e foiled by some others; if they have a motion to uncleanness, they may by diversion of their thoughts, by prayer to God for help, or by flying from occasions, expel that motion, and prevent consent to the sin: but while they are employed in the conquering of that, some other motion, or perhaps some external act of pride, hypocrisy, or envy may prevail against them. Obsessa mens hoins &c. 
Cypr. de mortalit. Obsessa mens hoins,& undiq d●aboli inf●statione vallata, vix occurrit siagulis, vix resistit. Si ava●itia prostrata est, exurgit libido; si libido come p●●ssa est, succedit ambitio; si ambitio coatempta est, ira ex●●perat, insl●● superb●a, vi●olentia invitat, inv●d a concordiam ●u●pit, im●●●tiom z●lus abscindit.  The mind of man( saith S. Cyprian) being besieged by the devil on every side, finds itself hardly sufficient for one of his fiery darts: if covetousness be thrown to the ground, lust riseth up; if lust be quelled, ambition steps in; if ambition be despised, anger inflames, pride puffs up, drunkenness allures, envy breaks unity, and ●mulation parts friends. Hydra-like lust multiplieth, and holdeth the best Christian soldier tack all his life long. Indeliberate sins then are inevitable: And because they are so, God is pleased in the covenant of grace to pass them by, and the Spirit to continue his habitation contentedly in the Saints: For,  
1. Inevitable actions are scarce human, and moral, but natural rather, like the actions in creatures, in whom necessity of nature carrieth all: the morality of action is founded in the liberty a man hath of choosing or refusing it; and those actions( good or bad) are properly human, which are determinable by the will of man. It is a mans free choice, that maketh a maid his wife; and so it is consent to any sin, that maketh it his: and therefore inevitable sins, which break from a man whether he will or no, are not in strictness of speech his sins, and therefore God winketh at them.  
2. sins inevitable to men under the Covenant of grace, cannot in reason be punished with eternal separation from Gods favour and glory: at least they cannot be so punished without great show of much severity and rigour, and such as might give men occasion to say to God, as the ungracious servant in the Gospel said to his Master, 
Mat. 25.24.  Thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. But Gods justice in punishing sin, is so clearly mixed with mercy, that even his enemies being Judges, it will free itself from all imputation of rigour or hard dealing. We may then conclude, that our merciful God will not take strict notice of such unavoidable sins in his children.  
3. If God should punish in severity such sins, who could be saved? God would have never a child, the Spirit of God would have never a Temple, Christ never a member, if such sins as these should be straitly observed; because there never was, is, or will be, a man whose life is not full of these.  
So much of the negative part, viz. of those sins which do not grieve the Spirit. In which because I have been long, I will be the shorter in showing the affirmative, namely, what the sins be which do grieve him.  
As there be sins of ignorance, and inadvertency, which we either know not to be sins, or well observe not when we do them; so there be {αβγδ}, sins directly opposite unto them, as, sins of knowledge and perfect deliberation. These are called by divers names; Presumptuous sins, because no man can sin with knowledge and deliberation, but he must needs presume upon God: Sins against conscience, because they are against both parts of conscience; against the directing part, which is called {αβγδ}, and is nothing but the intellectual habit or storehouse of principles, by which we are able to judge between some good and evil, and consequently directed in our courses, what to do, and what to shun; and against the reflecting part, which is called {αβγδ}, and by which a man is  told what he hath done, and chidden if he have done evil. They are sometimes called reigning sins, because they reign like a King over that man, who knoweth them to be evil, and yet resolveth in his mind to do them. St. Austine calls them, 
Aug. l. 2. de civit. Dei. c. 32.  Peccata vastantia conscientiam, sins that waste the conscience( as a hog doth a garden) rooting up and overturning all the quietness& peace that lodged there before.  
By the Schoolmen they are called mortal sins, and by our 
Vide Ursin Car. de pec. dist. p. 59. Melan. lo. come. de pec. art. pag. 131. Daven. praelect. de just. act. c. 35. p. 431.  Divines they are permitted to enjoy that name, because they bring death upon the persons that commit them inevitably, except they be forsaken. And according to the phrase in the Text, they may bear the name of sins that grieve the Spirit, as fitly as any other.  
Concerning these sins, two things are briefly to be said, 1. That there are such sins; 2. that they are mortal: or, to keep to the phrase in my Text, contristantia Spiritum, such as grieve the Spirit.  
I. There are such sins; or, there are sins( 1.) of knowledge;( 2) of perfect deliberation.  
1. There are sins which may truly and properly be styled sins of knowledge. Gods word and our own experience prove it, both of them affording us many examples of men so offending. The Gentiles committed many sins against knowledge, as we may see Rom. 1.32. where the Apostle having reckoned up a great many flagitious pranks of theirs, concludeth thus, Though they knew the Law of God that they who commit such sins are worthy of death; yet they do not only do the same, but {αβγδ}, have pleasure in them that do them. If the Gentiles who had only the light of nature to guide thē, did many sins of knowledge; much more are they, who, besides the dim light of nature, have the written Law of God to instruct them, capable of such sins. Rom. 2.18, 19, 20, 21, &c. the Apostle telleth us, that the Jews who knew the will of God, and approved the same; who knew it so well, that they were able to teach it to others, and to tell them, they must not steal they must not commit adultery, nor idolatry; were yet guilty of these sins, which in their judgements they condemned. And Luke 12.47. our Saviour intimateth that there be too many evil servants, who know their Masters will, and yet do it not. And who of us is there, but hath a bide in his bosom that can tell him, that many a sin of knowledge in the several passages of his life hath broken from him?  
But it may be objected.  
1. That( as all creatures, so) mans will is carried onely toward that which is good, either indeed, or at least in the apprehension; and therefore cannot give consent to that which is known to him to be evil.  
2. That the will always followeth the judgement of the understanding: if that conclude a thing to be evil, the will fleeth it; if to be good, the will consenteth to it, and doth it: and therefore no man can do a sin, if his understanding tell him that it is a sin; and so there is no sin of knowledge.  
To the first I answer, That the will inclineth and consenteth onely to that which is good one way or other; which it may do, and yet consent, or commit that which is known to it to be bad enough too. There are three sorts of good things; 1. Honestly good, which are agreeable to that honesty and integrity of manners which the Law of God and of nature requireth, 2. Profitably good, and they are such things as by which a man reapeth some commodity or other, 3. Delightfully good, which bring some pleasure to the mind or body. The difference between these is, that the first sort of these good things, are properly and absolutely good, the latter are onely respectively good: very bad they may be in themselves; and yet good in regard of some profit or pleasure inherent in them, or obtainable by them. Now, to one of these good things every mans will hath respect in every action, but not to all. And men being compounded of divers natures, a body and a soul, a fleshly and a spiritual substance, propound to themselves accordingly different good things, moral and spiritual, earthly and sensual: and because they know these sensible goods of profit and pleasure better then the spiritual, they too too often prefer them before the spiritual, and propound them onely to themselves in their intentions and actions. Many a man is carried strongly to that which he knoweth to be evil in manners, because he thinketh to reap some sensible good, as profit or pleasure thereby. And therefore that objection concludeth nothing against sins of knowledge.  
To the second I answer, 1. That it is not absolutely, and every way true, that the will is determined by the understanding; because,( 1.) the will is acknowledged to be free in its operations; which it could not be, did the understanding tie it of necessity to do as it dictates.( 2.) The will( in regeneration) may as truly and properly be said to be sanctified, as the understanding: but what needs it be sanctified in the work of regeneration, if it do always obey the Understanding? For set but the Understanding right, inform that, and make it able to judge well, and the Will without any more ado will be ready to do well. 'tis therefore manifest, that the Will, when she listeth, sits as a Queen in the councel-chamber of the Soul, sometimes obeying, and sometimes crossing the advice of the Understanding, and sometimes advising with her self about the thing propounded, and staying for a while the execution of it. 2. But secondly, I grant that the Will in some sort follows the judgement of the Understanding, and doth what the Mind concludeth may be done; so nearly are the one and the other united, that, as it is with a chain, he that toucheth or lifteth up one link, stirs the rest; so it is with those two faculties: Look what object moveth Reason, the same puts also the Will into action. Reason leads the dance, and the Will follows it; but it is, after it hath corrupted the Understanding, and made it say as it would have it. Two ways therefore the understanding may be considered.( 1.) Simply, and by itself, and in that power and ability which it hath to discern between things that differ, and conclude, quid aequum, quid iniquum, what is good, and bad.( 2.) Compoundedly, as it is mixed, and corrupted with& by the will and affections. Take it the first way, the will doth not always obey it, but pro imperio, doth many things clean contrary to the verdict of it, according to the speech of Medea in the Poet, Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor, I see the best things, and approve them, but I follow the worst: take it the last way,& it always doth what it alloweth,& judgeth is good to be done. It is a known conclusion, that intellectus practicus est in potestate voluntatis, the practical understanding is in the power of the will, that is,( though while it doth nothing but contemplate, it doth& may without disturbance discern and judge of things as they are, yet) when it is to give judgement of a thing to be done, it is under the hands& at the mercy of the will and affections, to say what pleaseth them( as the Prophets were, to whom the people imperiously said, prophesy to us smooth things, Esay 30.10.) And when it hath contrary to its own knowledge( like a Judge corrupted, or Aaron overpowered, Exo. 32.) given in the thing to be good which is evil; then( as the Israelites obeyed Aaron, after he had said, as they would have him, These be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt) the will consenteth to the doing of it, and commandeth it to execution. Now, it is enough to constitute a sin of knowledge, that the sin be against that judgement which the understanding left fairly to itself, can and would give of it, though the judgement of reason, corrupted and besotted by the will and affections for the present, be for it. There are then sins of knowledge.  
2. There are sins also of deliberation; which a man may be said to commit, when he doth not onely know, in universali, in the general, that such a thing is evil, but knoweth in particular, and observeth, that he is about to do a thing which is evil, and yet resolveth to go forward with it; when the sin to which he is tempted, cannot( either through the smallness, or suddenness of it, or the distraction and distemper of his mind) escape him, but he must needs have it in his eye and thoughts. and yet consenteth( as I may say) in could blood, and with perfect deliberation this I call a sin perfectly deliberate.  
By an example or two of deliberate actions we may judge what are deliberate sins: take we therefore the actions of easter and Moses for our instances.  
Of Esters we red, easter 4. v. 11, 14. There is a Law( saith easter to her Uncle) that whosoever presumes to go uncalled into the Kings presence, shall die, except he hold out his golden sceptre: here was her knowledge and judgement of the dangerousness of that action, not onely in general, but in her self too; yet( saith she) I will go, and if I perish, I perish, ver. 16. Here was her consent to the action, after sufficient knowledge and consideration of the danger. Such also was the departure of Moses out of Egypt, Heb. 11.24, 25, 26. He first considered seriously what it would cost him, if he left the Court of Egypt, loss of many pleasures, with certain and unavoidable afflictions; then having well considered, and digested the discouragements, he concluded to leave Egypt. He choose rather, &c. saith the Apostle, ver. 25. esteeming, accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches, &c. which words imply, that he seriously weighed things, and then concluded what he would do.  
By these considerate actions we may see what are deliberate sins. A sin is propounded to a man, he findeth it clearly to be a sin, he apprehendeth it to be dangerous to his soul; yet for Dinahs sake, for the profit or pleasure which it bringeth perhaps with it, he will do it: this man sinneth with full deliberation. Too many there be that sin thus. Thus sinned Cain, when he murdered his brother Abel, Genes. 4. thus Simeon and Levi, when they slaughtered the Shechemites, Gen. 34. and thus Josephs brethren, when they sold him into Egypt, Gen. 37. For the sins were so foul, that they could not choose but know them; and by their plotting how to execute them, it appeareth that they had a serious and sufficient consideration of them: they stolen not from them suddenly. Such also was Herods beheading of John Baptist in prison, Matth. 14. For it is said,( when the wanton, that had pleased him in her dancing, requested to have the Baptists head in a platter) he was sorry, ver. 9. but yet for the oath, he yielded. This his sorrow and anguish of mind argueth that he knew and considered it to be a foul sin, before he consented: for his anguish proceeded from the sense which he had of the greatness of it. This was therefore a sin of advertency and deliberation; and too full is the world of such sins.  
Now both these acts of the understanding are required to make up a presumptuous and mortal sin: a sin of knowledge, if it be not also espied before it break out, and that thoroughly too, reacheth not to the height of a presumption. For the sins which S. Paul speaketh of, Rom. 7. were not presumptuous sins and yet they were such as he knew to be sins, as we may see, ver. 15. I allow not that which I do, what I hate that I do: if what he did amiss, he allowed not, but hated; then doubtless he knew them well enough to be sins: and many things we do daily, which we know to be sins, but yet they are not such as grieve the Spirit, because they are little or nothing observed, till they be past recalling. S. Austin compareth a sin which hath not our complete consent, to Eves taking and tasting of the Apple; and a sin which is committed with full consent, to Adams eating it. And he saith, that as while Eve onely tasted it, the sin was but an Embryo, an imperfect birth; but when Adam came once to eat it, then it was fully finished: So while a sin propounded, is onely cherished by the affections, and committed suddenly through their alone work, it is but an imperfect brat; but if the rational parts of the soul conclude and embrace it, if the Will, after the Understanding hath well noted it, do give consent to it, then it is a deep and a complete transgression.  
But some Writers 
Vide Zanch. l. 2. m●sc●l. c. 2.  seem to require two things more to the constitution of a Spirit-grieving sin, namely that it be done totâ voluntate, with the whole will, without any reluctancy, and solâ voluntate, with the will alone, without any strength of passion inclining the will unto it; if it be committed with reluctation, or through the sway of passion, though it be deliberately consented to and committed, yet( say they) it is but an infirmity.  
This Objection consisteth of two parts, and therefore must be answered by parts. 
To the 1. Obj. Asw   
To the first part therefore, namely, that full consent without any reluctation, is required to a presumptuous sin, I answer  
1. If this be true, then there are very sew, or rather no presumptuous sinners,( set the devil and some few that sin of malice, aside.) For whensoever an evil( especially if it be in mate●ia gravi, of a high nature in itself) is propounded; if there be any sense of it, there will be a giving back, a bearing off, even in the worst. The understanding and the conscience will hold off for a time, because it apprehendeth it to be offensive to God, and destructive to the soul, and so will the will too, because it is moved by the judgement, and putteth on or flies back, as the mind adviseth him: as there is in a dog, when a piece of meat is presented to his eye, under the reach of a man standing by with a cudgel in his hand, forwardness to take it, because he apprehends it to be good for him; and yet a backwardness, because he seeth it cannot be fallen upon without some danger: So, there is in most men that have use of understanding, a willingness to some pleasing or profitable sin, presented to the consideration, and yet some unwillingness, because they know God stands over them with an iron rod in his hand, and that, though the sin( as the forbidden fruit was) be in some respects to be desired, yet in regard of the dangerous consequences, it is to be avoided. Love or fear breedeth some degree of reluctancy in all.  
2. The renitency of a mans conscience and will against the sin propounded, addeth to the weight of the sin, if it be committed. For it argueth the rebellion and presumption to be the greater, and the action of the will to be the stronger. In all those actions in which a man is encountered with opposition, he putteth forth more strength, then in such as are done without: if he be to wade against a full stream, or a strong wind, he gathereth up his scattered spirits together, and goeth with all the power and endeavour he can: but if he be onely to walk in a smooth path, where he meeteth with no rubs or resistance, his action of going is a great deal more remiss. And so it is in wrestling, fighting, or any other action of that nature. It is so in the actions of inanimate creatures too: fire burneth more strongly in the Winter, then it doth in the Summer; because of the antiperistasis of could, which standeth about the fire, and doth after a sort seek to keep it from burning: And so it doth, when ye put in water. Now the reason why all creatures do fortius agere in pugnâ, put forth more strength in all such actions as they meet with opposition in, is, because they have a double work to do: 1 to do the simplo action itself: 2 to overcome that which hindereth them from doing it. So it is with men in all sinful actions; if when an evil is propounded to be done, Reason, or Will, or the Spirit of God, make no resistance, then a remiss and weak consent will serve the turn, the sin will be easily done: but if Conscience put in objections, or the Spirit of God by his secret motions, breed some unwillingness in the will, and so seek to hinder the sin; then it cannot be done without an obstinate and wilful consent: A man in such a case must, valde velle, will it strongly, because he hath two works to do,( 1) to yield to the sin;( 2) to overcome the reluctancy which is made against it. Davids numbering of the people was the more wilful, because Joab opposed him in it, and insinuated arguments why he should not do it, 2 Sam. 24.3. And so are all those sins, which any man, regenerate or other, doth with an inward reluctancy: reluctancy therefore saveth no sin which is committed with deliberation from being a presumption.  
3. A man may be said to sin with his whole will, though he have some reluctation against it: Because,  
( 1.) His reluctation is but a velleity, not a will; an imperfect, weak woulding, not an effectual resolute willing. A man( to speak properly) is said to will that onely which he doth, if it be within his power. For why is God said to accept the will for the dead, but because where there is a will to do a work of mercy, or any thing that is good, the dead will follow, if there be no let that over-powreth? If therefore a man give a deliberate consent to any sin, his whole will may be said to go that way, and if he have any renitency against it, it is like the sluggards desires, a mere languishing, ineffectual velleity, which is as good as nothing.  
( 2.) Because, before the sin be done, the reluctation ceaseth; as long as the will is in dubio, in doubt whether it be best to do the sin, or no, all that while there is nothing done; but when the strife ceaseth, and the scales are cast toward the sin, then it is committed, and not before: otherwise two things would follow.  
1. That about the same act there may be a contrary will, a will to do it, and a will to forbear it; which cannot be with reason imagined; for the will determines itself one way, ere any thing be done. A man is walking in the street about his business; no man will say that this man hath a will to walk, and a will to sit still; as long as he seeth him walk, he will conclude, it is his will to walk; before he went abroad, he had perhaps a mind to go forth, and a mind to stay at home but this mind of staying at home gave place to his will of walking forth, or else he had not gone abroad: So, a man is committing a sin; no man can with reason say, he hath a will to commit it, and a will to forbear it, when he sees him doing it. His doing of it is an argument that his will did fully resolve upon it, though before it came to execution, it had perhaps some averseness from it.  
2. It would follow, that the Spirit may be overcome by the flesh, even while he is resisting and opposing the propounded sin, if in a regenerate man, the reluctation did not cease ere the sin were done. But this must not be granted, For he that is in you( saith Saint John, 1. Epist. c. 4. v. 4.) is greater then he that is in the world: When a man sinneth, the Spirit of God that lusteth against the sin, is not vanquished while he lusteth, but he giveth over lusting against the flesh, when he perceiveth the party in whom he lusted, wilfully bent to the sin, and so the sin is committed.  
And so much for answer to the first part of the objection, which is, that a sin to which a man giveth deliberate consent, is not a presumptuous, Spiritgrieving sin, except he find in himself no reluctation at all against it.  
To the second part of the Objection, namely, that a presumptuous sin must be done, sola voluntate, with the alone will, without any strength of passion impelling it; I answer,  
1. That sins of mere will, are greater then sins of will and passion together:( as colours in the face which arise from the complexion alone, are deeper then such as show themselves in a fit of passion) for( 1) they argue a greater distemper of heart, then sins of passion do, and declare the will to be, malè disposita quoad finem habitualiter, habitually ill-disposed toward that which is good.( 2) They are more frequently committed; as weaknesses which come from a sickly temper of body, come more often, then those which are gotten by accident; by heats, or colds, or surfeits, or such like occasions.( 3) And they are a great deal worse circumstanced, more voluntary, and therefore more odious in the sight of God. And this perhaps may be one cause, why the sin of the apostate Angels, was more severely punished, then the transgression of our fi●st Parents. They sinned ex mero motu voluntatis, out of the mere motion of their wills, our first Parents through the suggestion of the devil seducing their wills, which of themselves were well bent.  
2. But for all this, passions are no cause why deliberate sins should not be presumptuous; for if they be, then two great absurdities will follow.  
( 1.) That the sins of carnal men are less presumptuous then the sins of the regenerate; because there is more passion in those, then in these. As women and children are more full of unbridled passions then men are commonly, because they are weaker in their intellectuals,& have less ability to suppress and govern them: So are carnal persons more full of turbulent and unruly passions, then men regenerate are, because( though they have the common bridle of reason, yet) they want the special and the best bridle of sanctifying grace, which is able to hold in, and command the stoutest passions that are. But that the sins of carnal persons are less presumptuous then the sins of the regenerate will not be granted. Therefore passions are not enough to turn deliberate sins into infirmities.  
( 2.) It will follow, that the greatest sins that are ordinarily committed are not presumptuous sins: for passions are the roots of the most and worst offences. It was the passion of emulation and anger, that stirred up Cain to murder his brother; Simeon and Levi to kill the Shechemites; Theodosius to slaughter the innocent Thessalonians. It was the passion of lust that occasioned the incest of Amnon, the adultery of David. Absalom's rebellion against his own father, Ziba's false accusation of his innocent Master, Ahab's oppression of harmless Naboth, Judas his perfidious betraying of his Lord, Demas his forsaking of his religion and company, arose from their unmortified ambition and covetousness. And what drew Origen to offer sacrifice, and Saint Peter to deny his Master, and Spira to renounce his religion, but a strong passion of fear? The love of money, saith the Apostle, is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6.10, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, &c. And so is the love of pleasure, and the love of promotion. These Devills which are bread and brought up with us, except they be corrected, entice us to many foul enormities. The force of one of which Nisus in the Poet feeling in himself, cried out,— Diine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt Euriale, an sua cuique Deus fit dira cupido? 
Virgil. Aeneid. 9.  Have the gods, O Euriales, put these burning lusts into the souls of men, or rather is not every mans lust a god unto him? And so I may say of all the rest. Are not Joy, Grief, hope, fear, desire, and whatsoever passion else, for their power to draw men into sin, like so many Deities? Certainly, their power is great where it is not suppressed by reason and grace, and the first promoters of the foulest sins they are. But what? shall we therefore call these sins infirmities, because they are cherished and occasioned by passions: This were to open a door to all licentiousness, and to make men careless either in preventing, or repenting their foulest impieties.  
3. Great reason there is why a sin should be denominated by that faculty which giveth it a being; and that is, in a deliberate sin, the will, not the affections. For notwithstanding them, the will may refuse the sin suggested: they can do no more then the devil did to Eve, persuade, and incline, they cannot determine the will: for that is Lord of its own actions, and determinable only by itself. The passions are the midwife, the will is the mother of a deliberate sin, and therefore as in other things we use to ascribe the effect to the cause which produceth it, not to inferior adjuvant causes which onely contribute to it: so in this, the sin which is beholden to the will for its being, though passions help it forward, is rather to be given to the will then to the affections, and to be denominated a sin of wilfulness, rather then a sin of weakness. The reason is, because there is in such a sin, a great deal more of the producing cause, the will, then of the helping causes, the passions: and every denomination is à praestantiori, or à majori, from that which is in the thing denominated, either in the chiefest manner, or greatest measure. We do not use to call a Blackmore white; Why? because he is more black then white( being white onely in the teeth;) nor to say, that that water is could, which hath in it more degrees of heat then could: nor can we call a deliberate sin an infirmity( though some good store of passion be in it) because there is more of wilful stubbornness in it, then human frailty and weakness.  
One distinction I will add for the better explaining of this, and that shall be of sins about which passions are busied. They are either present, or after sins.  
1. Present sins, are such as must be done suddenly without any demurs at all, sub gravi incommodo, upon the peril of some great inconvenience. Thus was Peters first denial of his Master, John 18. ●6, 17. At the Hall door, as he was seeking to get in, he was encountered with a sudden dangerous question, Art not thou one of this mans Disciples? which he had no liberty to pause upon, ere he gave his answer, but was presently to say, Yea, or No The question being asked, fear of death and danger surpriseth him, and he denieth his Master. Such was the sin of that 
Bod in. de Repub. l. 5. c. 6.  Italian, who being suddenly assaulted on unequal terms by an old enemy( though feignedly reconciled) with a drawn Rapier, was put to this hard choice, either to deny God presently, or to die: fear of death seizeth on this miserable man, and to save his life he denieth his God. And yet that did not save it neither: for when he had denied God and blasphemed, that devil incarnate who urged him to it, ran him through the body, with these words, O this is a noble revenge, which doth not onely deprive the body of temporal life, but bring the immortal soul into endless flames.  
2. After-sins, are such as are not to be done suddenly, but at our leisure, or at a convenient time, when we think good. Of this kind was the sin of Judas in beheading his Master, the sin of Herod in betraying John Baptist, the sin of Amnon in defiling his sister. These persons were not limited to a minute, an hour, or any short space of time, after that they were tempted either by their own lusts, or friends to these sins: they had liberty enough to pause, and consider with themselves, whether these things were lawful to be done or no: they had time( as we use to say) to sleep upon it, and to take counsel of their pillows. And of this sort commonly are the grosser sort of sins.  
Now of these sins, the first are extenuated by passions: if a man being in a fit of passion commit a sudden sin, it is but an infirmity, because it hath little or nothing of the will and understanding in it; the suddenness of the sin, and the strength of the passion preventing deliberation about it, and intercepting that aid which the superior faculties might sand it, if they had time. But the second sort, future sins, are not extenuated( so far as to change their nature, and become but human frailties) by the passions which do accompany them: because he that committeth them, hath time and liberty to bridle and subdue those unruly passions, and bring them under the dominion of reason and grace, and consequently to forbear the sin to which they do but incline, not determine him. As our Saviour turned Peter off, when he gave him bad counsel, Math. 16. with, a Get thee behind me Satan; So a man may and should shake off his seducing lusts, when they persuade him to offend God. God  told Cain that he had put his rebellious affections of anger and emulation under his power, Gen. 4.7.( if that be the meaning of the place, as it is in the judgement of most interpreters, if we may believe Vatablus upon his word: 
Vatabl. notae in Gen 4. ver. 7.  For he saith, Omnes fear referunt haec ad peccatum, all in a manner refer these words to sinful affections, not to Abel.) And so he hath put them under ours, at such times especially, when they lie persuading us to any sin, which is to be committed hereafter, not presently. And therefore such sins cannot be excused by them. I will shut up this with a similitude; When the winds are so high, and the rocks so near, that the Pilot hath no time to use his skill and industry for the saving of the Ship, or no wits about him through fear; if the Ship in which he is, run upon some rock, and be wracked; it is in respect of him an involuntary shipwreck; but when the rocks be afar off, and the storm somewhat favourable, so as if he will but bestir himself and use his skill, he may keep the Ship from a rock, and so preserve it; if then it run upon a rock, it may be truly said to be wilfully lost, notwithstanding the storm. So, when strong passions and present occasions of sin meet, and the man thus beset hath no time or ability to use his intellectual faculties for the avoiding of the sin, if he fall into it, it may well be reputed involuntary and an infirmity: but it the winds of passion b●ow gently, and the rock of sin toward which they would drive him, be not so near, but that he may easily shun it if he use his care and skill, if then he split himself against this rock, and commit the sin, it is a wilful and so a presumptuous sin, notwithstanding his passions. And so much for answer to the two objections.  
2. By this that I have said, may be seen what the sins be, which grieve the Spirit. I should now prove that such sins do grieve him; but that I shall do at large, when I come to show what the woeful effects are of grieving the Spirit, which is my third general head. I hast●n now to show the reasons why these kinds of sins do grieve him.  
1. The first reason is, because they may without much difficulty be avoided by the help of that habitual grace, and those actual aids which God affords men in the time of temptation: as we may see, 2 Cor. 12. where we red, 1. that S. Paul was troubled with a prick in the flesh, and buffeted by the messenger of Satan; 1. tempted to some gross sin, some inordinate fleshly act, as expositors think; 2. that being thus assailed, he besought the Lord thrice; i.e. called and cried earnestly for help; 3. that upon his svit he received this gracious answer, My grace is sufficient for thee. From all this laid together, it appeareth, that the regenerate are sufficiently enabled by the grace of God, to prevent those fouler sort of sins, to which they are tempted, if they be not wanting to themselves, but are careful to seek God, and to use convenient helps. Cogimur peccati motus sentire, said non consentire. Bern. Which also is evident by reason: For,  
( 1.) The grosser sort of sins,( for such are all deliberate sins commonly) are familiarly known to be sins, both by the light of nature, and the help of Scripture, as the Apostle intimateth, Gal. 5.19. where he saith, The works of the flesh are manifest, that is, apparent to mens understandings to be works of the flesh,( what pretences soever a naughty heart may bring to the contrary.) Vix in talibus hallucinatur intellectus, seldom or never doth reason mistake in them.  
( 2.) They are easily observed, because ( 1) the occasions and opportuties leading to them, and serving for the acting of them, are not daily or suddenly presented: no man hath occasions thrust into his mouth at all times of being drunk, of stealing, of murder, perjury, &c. they are for the most part sought after:( 2.) When the temptation, time, place, and all circumstances inducing to such sins are met, being they are so well known to be sins, the conscience commonly giveth back,( as a man upon the assault of a mastiff dog) and by propounding reasons against them, doth as it were back-bias the will, and the Spirit putteth in too. For these causes they are for the most part espied, before they can be committed. And because they are so well known, and observed, they may without much difficulty be avoided, if a man provide for them;( as the rifling of a mans house may, when he knoweth before-hand, that thieves are coming to his doors.) Now because they may be thus easily prevented, they are usually most wilfully committed, and therefore cannot but grieve the Spirit.  
2. Because by such sins a man revolteth from Christ, and as much as in him lieth, giveth his sceptre into the hands of sin: as we may see, Rom. 6.12, 13, 14, 16, &c. where 1. the Apostle exhorteth us, not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. 2. Sheweth us, when it is that we permit sin to reign, namely, when we yield up ourselves thereunto, and willingly obey it in the lusts thereof, when upon its command we run into any deliberate wickedness. Sin reigns( saith S. Augustine) 
Aug in Psal. 51. Inest peccatum cum delectaris, regnat peccatum si consenseris.  if thou consentest: Sin reigneth( saith Pet. Martyr) when we 
P. Mart. in Rom. 6. Regnat peccatum cam paremus cupiditatibus, d●vini Spiritus i●pulsum pellimus,& agimus contra conscien●am, aut conscientiâ vitiatâ.  obey the lusts of it, when we check and chase away the impulsions of the Spirit, and do that which is evil, against our consciences. And Ursin defineth a reigning sin to be that, which 
Ursin. Catech. de pec. dis●r. Peccatum regnans est, cu● peccans non repugnat per Spiritus sancti gratiam.  the sinner doth not resist by the grace of the holy Ghost. What though he be not one that letteth sin reign in him habitually? Yet he suffereth it to reign over him actually, in that particular sin: And what though he do not in his sinning formally intend this? yet virtually he doth that which is a transferring of the kingdom from Jesus Christ to sin, and so God will account it. When that enemy of God and his laws, Antiochus would have a Jew to renounce his religion, all that he required was, that he should taste Swines flesh: esteeming that one particular breach of one law, a revolting from the whole, as we may see, 2 Mac. chap. 
Euse. eccl. hist. l. 4. c. 15. Engl.  6.& 7. And Eusebius telleth us; that when Nicetes and Herod, two Governours under Verus the Emperour, would have had Polycarpus to forsake the Christian religion, that he might save his life; they importuned him but to sacrifice, and to say, Lord Caesar: they deemed this act in a Christian, or Jew, enough to make and signify an apostasy from their God. And therefore the Worthies mentioned in those two Stories, choose rather to be tormented to death, then to do so. And so is a wilful consenting to one single evil act, accounted a cashiering of Christ, and a choosing of sin to be our Lord, both by God who grieveth at it, and by the devil, who glorieth in it. Which being so, no marvel of a voluntary sin do trouble Gods Spirit. It is high treason for a subject to withdraw his allegiance from his natural Prince, and become a servant to his enemy: and it cannot be less then arrant treason against Jesus Christ the King of the Church, to leave him, and become a servant to sin, which is not onely an enemy, but enmity itself against him. It is a rebellion, and an odious rebellion.  
1. It is a rebellion, because we have no power to dispose of ourselves. So the Apostle telleth us, 1 Cor. 6.19. Ye are not your own, we are not our own: and why? 1. because he hath bought us, and bought us dearly, with a price, 1 Cor. 6.20. and with a great price too, not with corruptible things, but with his own precious blood, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19. 2. Because we have by a voluntary act in our Baptism, and many times since resigned up ourselves unto him.  
2. It is an odious rebellion too: the reason is, because it is a leaving of a good for a bad, a royal for a base King, as the Apostle reasoneth, Rom. 6.20, 21, 22. When ye were servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? but now being freed from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit in holinesse, and the end everlasting life. In these words S. Paul compareth both services, and that in two things.  
( 1.) In their present condition, the service of sin( saith he) is a base, ignoble service: and that is intimated in these words; Whereof ye are ashamed now. The service of Christ is an honourable service, and that is implied in those ( Ye have your fruit in holinesse.) There cleaveth to every foul sin a turpitude, which blemisheth the reputation of sinful men, who therefore are called in Scripture vile persons; and such is the excellency of virtue and holinesse, that good men though clothed in rags, are honoruable in the esteem, not only of such as fear God, but of the wicked too( though they are loth to confess it always.)  
( 2.) He compareth them in their issues: the service of sin is unprofitable, ( what fruit had ye then?) the service of Christ is very gainful, ( Your end everlasting life.) Can it choose therefore but be irksome to God, when a man forsaketh a Lord so great and good, for a master so base and bad? 
1 Cor. 6.15.  Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? As if he should have said, If I should do such a thing, I should horribly disgrace my head, and therefore I will never do it. So doth every wilful sinner, because he maketh himself of a subject of Christ a servant of sin, offer a notorious affront and indignity to Christ, and therefore grieveth his spirit.  
3. The third reason why such sins grieve him, is, because they argue a contempt of his gracious works in the soul. It is the Spirits work in the regenerate to sanctify and draw over the defaced image of God again in their souls, to seal them for the day of redemption, and mark them for Gods children, to testify unto their spirits that they are the sons of God, and ( which is most proper for our purpose) to led them in the ways of God, as a counsellor directing them, and as a Monitor exciting them to goodness; and 
Gal. 5.17.  by his effectual motions dissuading them from every way of wickedness. Now they that sin presumptuously, as they venture the blotting of Gods image, the breaking of that seal, the loss of that testimony, for the satisfying of some base lust; so they oppose such sweet inspirations as he breatheth into their minds to withhold them from sin. The Spirit seeketh to hold in the sinner, he again shaketh off the Spirit in his motions, that he may commit his sin: this must needs add much to the weight of that sin; And so it doth, as we may see Heb. 10.26, 29. where the Apostle argueth the great danger of them that sin willingly, after they have received the knowledge of the truth, by two reasons. 1. By the disgrace which they bring to the blood of the covenant, They tread it under their feet, as if it were some vile and cheap thing. 2. By the contempt which they offer to the Spirit of Grace: because in spite of him and his good motions, they will go forward to perfect their sin which they have in chase, therefore they contemn him: and therefore their sin for the greatness of it, is almost an unpardonable sin. It was a great aggravation of Balaams sin, that when an Angel was sent from heaven to stand in his way with a drawn sword to hinder him in his sin, yet he would on. And it was not so much the matter of the Israelites sins,( though in that respect they were foul enough, pollutions of the Lords house with heathenish abominations) as their manner of committing them, that brought inevitable calamity upon them. 2 Chro. 36.14, 15, 16. They mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and misused his Prophets; and what then? The wrath of the Lord came upon them, and there was no remedy. If by a mans slighting the good will of an angel, or the work of a Minister in seeking to restrain him from his sin, the sin be increased; how much more will a neglect of the Spirit himself add to its greatness? O ye stisse-necked( saith Stephen to the Jews) ye have always resisted the holy Ghost, Act. 7.51. They are part of the last words in his invective against them, which he putteth in to make up the weight of their sins.  
4. A fourth reason why such sins grieve the Spirit, is because they pervert and put the patience and mercy of God, and the merits of Christ to a wrong use, an use clean contrary to Gods intention. What Gods end in bearing patiently, and dealing mercifully with men, is, we may see, Rom. 2.4. Despisest thou the patience, &c. Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? The Apostle is not to be understood of the event of Gods goodness, for that is, through mens folly, too often, obstinacy in sin; but of Gods intent, he aimeth at their tepentance in his patience. And S. Peter telleth us, 2 Pet. 3.9. The Lord is patient toward us: and why is he so? not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance: this is the end of his patience. And so it is of CHRISTS death too, 1 Pet. 2.24. He bare our sins( saith S. Peter) in his body on the three, that we being dead to sin, should live to righteousness. But now, he that sinneth witting and willingly, turneth them about to a contrary use; namely to the emboldning of himself in sin. For no man sinneth willingly, but he presumeth and beareth himself boldly upon Gods mercy in Christ, and secretly saith to himself when he is about to sin, as Jonah did when God would have him go to Ninive and he hung back, God is a merciful God, and repents him quickly, if( perhaps) he be angry for the present, and intend me any punishment. And for this cause do we commonly call these deliberate sins presumptions. It is true, men will not for shane aclowledge that they continue in sin upon such bold hopes, but they do, and durst not for their lives sleep so long and so soundly in many a gross sin, if they had not this pillow to lye on. do we not read of men, saying, 
Deut. 29.19.  I shall have peace though I walk after the imaginations of my heart, and add drunkenness to thirst. i.( as Vatablus hath it in his Notes on that place) Satiate my sinful desires to the full? and, We have made a covenant with death, &c. when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come near us, Esay 28.15. Doth not Solomon tell us, that because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil? Eccl. 8.11. And our Saviour too, that the evil servant doth encourage himself in abusing his place by this presumption, my master doth defer his coming, Matth. 24.48, 49. It is that oil, which( through gross abuse) maintains the wicked flames of wilful lusts in most men;( some few perhaps with the Devills, their brethren in sin and misery, hardening themselves in sin, ex desperatione, out of despair to find mercy.) If this be so, that the deliberate sinner thus presumptuously beareth himself on Gods mercy,& the merits of Christ while he sinneth, he must needs grieve Gods Spirit, and provoke him against his own soul. For, God will not put up the abuse of the least creature to a wrong end, much less of his patience and mercy. S. Peter speaking of some that perverted the Scriptures, saith, They pervert them to their damnation, 2. Pet. 3.16. So they that pervert his mercies, pervert them to their destruction. Patientia laesa fit furor, lenity abused is converted into fury. And no marvel, for it is no better then a contempt of the salvation offered in it, and a fighting against God and his kingdom with his own weapons. This is the fourth reason.  
5. A fifth reason of it is, because they are a preferring of the creature above the creator. It is no solecism to say of some, that they set a higher price on some created good things, then they do on God. For the Apostle says of some,( 2 Tim. 3.4.) that they are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God: and of others( Phil. 3.19.) that their God is their belly. In like manner may we truly say of too many, that they love their profits, or their preferments, or their reputation, or their ease, more then God. This men do two ways.  
1. Directly and intentionally: and so do Atheists, who deny God, and place their happiness in the comforts of this life; and Epicures, who believe that happiness lieth in pleasure, and that therefore nothing is to be regarded, but to eat and drink and be merry, and leave some tokens of their jollity in every place, as we may see Wisd. 2.9. and 1 Cor. 15.32. Of this sort also, are professed haters of God, who despairing of the happiness of the world to come, turn God upon their backs, and as Cain, fall to building, oppressing, and hunting after their gain in this world.  
2. Consequently and implicitly: and so do all deliberate sinners. The reason is, because, for the gaining of somewhat that pleaseth them, they do that with deliberation, which is a forsaking and casting off of God. For the doing of a deliberate sin is no better, as we may see, 1 Sam. 15.23. where Saul is said to have rejected God, when he did witting and willingly spare Agag and the fat beasts of the Amalekites against Gods express commandement. As he that to save his life cuts off a limb, sheweth hereby, that he prizeth his life above his limb: and as mariners who in a storm to save the ship, cast their goods into the Sea, show plainly, that they esteem the ship more then the goods; and as folk that go to market, and for some commodities which they see there, part with their money, declare by so doing, that they think the commodity better for them then their money: So, they that to enjoy profit, pleasure, or any created good, are content in sober thoughts to commit some sin, and to cast off God and his commandement, do plainly discover, that they think that profit, or pleasure to be better for them then God is, and that they do more highly account of them then they do of God. For otherwise they would never for the getting or keeping of them, let go God and his Commandements, and his salvation too, as much as in them lieth. We think that the young man in the Gospel did more account of his goods and substance, then of the service of Christ, and the heavenly treasures attainable thereby; because he did part with Christ to keep them still, Matth. 19.22. And that Judas did think better of the thirty pieces of silver, then he did of his Lord, because for the obtaining of them, he was content to betray him. And we cannot but think that a woman who leaveth her husbands house and company to enjoy the bosom of another man, loveth and respecteth that man more then her husband. So we must needs believe, that he doth value his earthly content at an higher rate then God and his kingdom, who for the enjoyment of it, sinneth willingly, and rejecteth God and his Commandement. 
Eusch. eccle. ●●st. l. 7. c. 14.  And therefore Theotecnus the Bishop of Caesarea, when he would have the noble Gentleman Marinus( who was then accused to be a Christian) to let him see whom he esteemed most, God, or his worldly honours, he did set the New Testament an● his sword( representations of God and the world) before him, and said, Let me see whether of the two thou wilt choose. His intent was by the election of Marinus, to conclude his affection. For when he had taken up the Testament, the Bishop convinced by that, that he had preferred God above the world, encouraged him to be constant even to death, and God whom he had chosen would be constant to him. If he had chosen his sword, the wise Bishop would have gathered that he had esteemed that and the world above God and his Word. And therefore we may conclude, that that man who for the getting of money, or preferment, will lye, or flatter, or forswear himself, or over-reach a neighbour in a bargain, is a lover of profit more then of God: and that he, that for the pleasing of his palate, the filling of his belly with good cheer, or the enjoyment of any carnal pleasures whatsoever, will deliberately steal, be drunk, neglect his calling, spend the maintenance of his family, or commit fornication, adultery, or any other uncleanness, is a lover of pleasures more then a lover of God.  
Now, to prefer any created good before God, it is a very great indignity, contrary to Gods express command, and to reason too. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great Commandment, saith our Saviour, mat. 22.38. Where note, 1. that to love God, is to esteem him as a lovely thing, and to desire the enjoyment of him: for love in the reasonable creature includeth the act of the understanding, which is appretiatio, a prising of the thing beloved; and the act of the affections, which is appetitus unionis, a desire to be united to it, if it be absent; or conplacentia, a satisfaction of heart in it, if it be enjoyed. Hence is that known distinction which the Schools make of love into ( amorem appretiativum,& affectivum) love of appretiation, or of affection. And 2. to love God with all the heart, &c. is to love him cord simplici, 
Vasq. in 1. 2. dis. 194. c. 3. sub finem.  with a single, or sincere heart, in quo nihil contrarii amoris admiscetur, in which there is no mixture of a contrary love. What is a contrary love? Not a love of ourselves, or of our neighbours, or of Gods good creatures which he hath given us for our use:( for we must love ourselves, and neighbors, Mat. 22.39. it is the second great Commandment: and we may love the creatures, see 1 Cor. 7.31.) but a love of ourselves, or any thing else in the highest degree. For thus must we love nothing but God: that is the meaning of the phrase. And why must God be loved in this manner? Our Saviour telleth us, This is the great Commandment: i. the greatest of all Commandements. And therefore I may well say, That to love any created good more then God, is the 
Ps. 16.13.  great transgression, i. the greatest of all transgressions.  
This commandement which is given us concerning the whole Trinity, our Saviour taketh and applieth to the second Person, himself; and in one place forbiddeth us under the pain of eternal rejection from him, to love father, or mother, son, or daughter more then him, Matth. 10 37. and in another enjoineth us as it were, under the pain of his high displeasure too, to hate father and mother, wife and children, brethren and sisters, yea and our own life too 
Luk. 14.  for his sake, if need be, i. e. to love him more then them. It is a great sin and a dangerous then, to set a higher price on any creature then on God our creator and Redeemer. And good reason why. For,  
1. Is is a robbing of God. It is the Kings right to be better loved and more esteemed by his subjects, then their own wives and children, yea or then their own lives; because he is the father of the country, the root and principle of their prosperity, and the very breath of their nostrils, Lam. 4.20. And therefore good subjects out of this dictate of nature, have had a special care to preserve the lives of their sovereigns, as we may see, 2 Sam. 18.3. Thou shalt not go forth to fight; for thou art worth ten thousand of us: and to hazard their own lives to save the Kings. For we red, 2 Sam. 21.17. that when David was assailed by a mighty Giant, and almost oppressed, Abishai( with the danger of his own life) runs in, succours the King, and kills the Philistim; upon this, swearing with the rest of the Army, that the King should go in his own person to the battle no more, lost he quenched the light of Israel. So, it is Gods right to be more highly set by, then any thing in the world, because he is, Bonum primum& summum, the primitive and chief good, the Author of ourselves and all that we have, The Father of lights, as S. James calleth him, Chap. 1. v. 17. from whom cometh every good and perfect gift. He is the Author of our beings, and of our continuance in being: If he should draw in his breath, all things would come to nothing, as the beams of the sun do, when the sun withdraweth his presence. On him we depend for all things, even from life everlasting to a bit of bread. Sacrilegious therefore are they to God, who prefer the beams before the sun, the rivers before the Sea, the creature before the Creator of all.  
2. It is also a disparaging and debasing of God; and so an act contrary to our indebted act of advancing and glorifying his name. To pull a King down, and set a mean subject in his Throne, is a dishonour to that King: to make the servant ride, and the Master walk by his horse on foot, is a disgrace to that Master. So it is a reproaching of God, to under-value him, and account of any creature, as the chief good, which he onely is. Now, how that God who hath said, I am the Lord, there is none but me, and my glory I will not give to another, how he will take such an act as is sacrilegious, and ignominious unto himself, let any man judge. Every inordinate act, whereby the creature is lifted above the Creator, is like the images of the false gods whom the people choose to worship before Jehovah; of which God says, Ezech. 8.3. They are idols of jealousy, they provoke to jealousy: such idols are eye-sores to God, he cannot abide the sight of them. As a man who is wronged in his bed, cannot away with the sight of that person of whom he hath a jealousy: so God cannot abide those sins for whose sake he seeth the base creature exalted above him. No marvel therefore though a deliberate sin, by which the creature is advanced above the Creator, and the Creator thereby deprived of his due, and debased in his honour, be a sin of a high nature, a sin which grieves the Spirit. The soul that doth ought presumptuously, the same reproacheth the Lord, 
{αβγδ}  and shall be cut off, Num. 19.30.  
6. A sixth and last reason, why such sins grieve him, is, because they are scandalous, and do much hurt by their example, to others. I say they are scandalous, but not so much in respect of the manner, because they are done deliberately, as of the matter, because for the most part, deliberate sins lye in materia gravi, and are sins in the matter and nature heinous. A scandal is a ston in a way, at which a man stumbleth and receiveth some hurt: and scandalous sins are such as other men receive hurt by in their souls. Now by the gross faults of baptized and regenerate persons, much hurt is done to other men.  
1. They make men doubt whether that good way in which such persons profess themselves to walk, be a good way or no: and so, whether they were best keep where they be,( though it be a way of error or profaneness) or leave it for that way wherein they see so many notorious stumblers. And many are hereby made resolute too, to continue in their wicked& ungodly faith, or life, rather then to receive that faith, or live by those rules of life, which such stumblers make profession of. For proof of this, take Salvians testimony, for he in many places aggravateth the sins of Christians, on this very ground: Non potest dici de gentibus, &c. It cannot be said saith he, of the Gentiles, 

Salv. l. 4. p. 130. Non potest dici de gentibus, Evangelia● l●gunt,& impudici sunt; Apostolos audiunt,& inebriantur; ch●istum sequuntur,& rapiunt; vitam improbam agunt,& p●obam legem se ha●ere dicunt, &c.  
In nobis igitur Christus patitur oppro●rium, in nobis pati●ur lex Christiana maledi●tum.   they read the Gospels, and are unchaste; they hear the Apostles, and are drunk; they follow Christ and steal; they led a bad life, and have a good Law; but it may be said of us. Well, what of this? he tells us, in nobis igitur, &c. In us therefore doth Christ suffer reproach, in us doth the Christian Law endure disgrace: for they say of us, lo what manner of men they be that worship Christ. It is false that they have a good Law, as they say they have: for if they learned good things, they would be good persons, without doubt; such is the sect, as are the sectators and followers of it. A little after, he brings in the Pagans thus speaking, 

Ib. Vide Christianos quid agunt,& evidenter potest de ipso Ch●isto sciri, quid doceat.  
Vide multa ibid de hoc argumento.   Vide Christianos, &c. Look upon the Christians, see what they do, and by that you may easily know what their Christ teacheth. This is somewhat general. Salvian therefore speaks more particularly: They think basely of our holy Assemblies, which they call incestuous, as if we lay with matrons; and of our Eucharist, as if we did kill children, and suck their blood( ad placandum Deum) to appease our God:( whom we aclowledge to be more highly offended with nothing then with this) But why do they charge us Christians and ●u● God thus? Cur utique, &c. Why? onely for their sakes who are called Christians, but are not; who by their flagitious and filthy lives do defame the Christian name. By these speeches we may gather, how ill the bad lives of Christians made Pagans judge of the Christian way, and consequently what a shadow and blurr, the evil conversation of Professo●s may occasionally cast upon their profession, though in itself never so pure and glorious. A further confirmation of this, is the story of that Indian Nobleman, 
Heylins Geog. of. America, pag. 772. V Barthol. case. Narrat. R●gionum Judic. p. 41.  Hathvey by name, who by the cruelties& insolences of the Spaniards, of which his miserable Country had woeful experience, was so strongly possessed against the Christian religion, that he refused to be baptized. His story briefly is this. This man was persuaded by many plausible arguments to become a Christian: he demanded first, what place was appointed after this life for such as were baptized; answer was made Heaven, and its joys: secondly, what place they that were not baptized should go to; it was answered, to Hell and its torments: thirdly, which of these places was appointed for the Spaniards. And when answer was made, that Heaven was; he resolved against his intended baptism, protesting, that he had rather go to hell with the unbaptised, then to Heaven with so cruel a people.  
2. These foul sins done by such men, encourage others to do the like: as we may see Gal. 2.11, 12. where it is said, that Peters dissimulation( of the equality of Jews& Gentiles in respect of Christ and his kingdom, now that the ceremonial law, the partition-wall was pulled down) drew other Jews, yea and Barnabas himself into the like dissimulation. And the cause why they do so, is, partly, because they serve mens turns for the justification and countenancing of their own faults; and partly, for that they fill their heads with secret hopes, that they shall do well enough for all their sins, seeing that such persons who were reputed good men, and are now believed to be in Heaven, were guilty of the same or worse. An example of the first we have in the voluptuous Deacon Sabinianus, who when he was taxed for his looseness in some things, defended himself by the example of S. Hierom,( though he belied that good man) which made S. Hierom expostulate with him to this purpose, Why 
Heir ep. 48. ad Sab. Quid neglecto vulnere proprio alios ●iteris infamare? Esto, ego flagitiosus sim, ut vulgò jactitas: saltem mecum age poenitentiam. Num mea peccata virtut●s tuae sunt? &c.  dost thou, neglecting thine own wound, defame other men? But be it as thou braggest, that I am a vicious liver; as thou hast played the wanton with me, so become a true penitent with me also. Must my vices be thy virtues? &c. And, examples of the latter may many among us be to ourselves. For our own hearts will tell us, that we have too often whispered thus much to our souls, Was not Noah drunk? Did not Jacob over-reach his brother? played not Samson the wanton with an harlot? And did not David defile his neighbours wife: and Peter dissemble his religion,( as I may say) and deny his Master? And was it not well with all these in the end? Why should I be nicer then these men were? Or why should not I believe, I may do as well, notwithstanding my drunkenness, whoredom, fraudulent courses, adulterous pranks, &c. as Noah, Jacob, Samson, David, &c. did? Well doth S. Paul therefore compare such sins to Leaven, 1 Corinth. 5. because a whole society of men may be infected by bad examples in these, as easily as doughty may be over-spread with the Leaven that is in it. This was it that moved him to writ so earnestly to the Corinthians, to excommunicate that incestuous wretch that was among them, that so they might not by that bad example be drawn into the like lusts, 1 Cor. 5.7, 13. And for this cause among othets, do the Churches of Christ thrust such open and notorious offenders ou● of their society, till their repentance procure their re-entrance. And for this reason too doth God most sharply punish them; 
Quicunque sine blasphemiâ aliorum graviter erraverit, sibi tantum affert damnation●m; qui ●utem alios blasphemare fe●erit, multos s●cum p●aecipitat i● mortem;& necesse est ut sit pro tantis reus, quantos secum traxer●● in reatum.  Whosoever sinneth greatly( saith Salvian) without the offence of others, doth purchase damnation onely to himself; but he that causeth others to blaspheme, casteth very many together with himself into destruction; and it is needful that he be for so many guilty, as he hath drawn with himself into guilt.  
3. Such sins occasion wicked men to speak evil of God, whose professed servants the sinnners are, as we may see 2 Sam. 12.14. By this dead( saith Nathan to David) thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. This the Apostle intimates in the reason of his exhortation, 1 Pet. 2.12. Have your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of their visitation. And v. 15. It is the will of God( saith he) that by well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. The meaning is plainly this, that by their good conversation they will either keep thē from railing at the Christian faith and name, or else silence them when they are railing;& so by their evil and unseemly deeds, they would open their black mouths to blaspheme Christ and his gospel: and therefore they should have a great care of their lives.  
So that we see, that open sins done by men regenerate, are scandalous, and do much hurt. I may add, they do much hurt a great while together, it may be to the worlds end. Four things there are considerable in sin; the act, the guilt, the slain, and the scandal. The act is quickly past, but the rest have long lives: the guilt remaineth for ever, if it be not taken off by repentance; the filth or slain continueth even when the guilt is removed. Sanato vulnere manet cicatrix, as the scar remaineth after the wound is healed, so doth the infamy and disgrace of the sin, when that is remitted. witness jeroboam; it lieth, and will lye as a blemish upon his name to the worlds end, that he made Israel to sin. And so the scandal continueth too, after the sin is committed, and the sinner deceased. As an arrow when it is out of the bow, though it be shot into a place where it may do much mischief, cannot be recalled; so a sin once done cannot be undone, though it do never so much hurt. The persons and sins of Solomon, David, Peter, and many more, are passed away long since; but not the hurt which they did to others by their examples. It is a question in the Schools, whether the damned have their greatest punishment at first: and some conclude it negatively, they have not: their reason is, because they have not finished all the mischief at their death which they will do. For when their bodies are in the grave, and their souls in hell, their sins are above ground, and live in the memories of men, and so may do mischief daily, even to the worlds end; and therefore as the hurt of their bad examples increaseth, so doth their punishment. Whether the pains of the damned be increased by this, I know not; but sure I am, the thing is true, mens sins do hurt, when they themselves are turned to ashes.  
And therefore such sins cannot choose but grieve Gods spirit exceedingly, and provoke him to just anger. For he is very jealous of his own glory, and desirous of the eternal good of men, and by consequence much moved at any thing which eclipseth the one, or hindereth the other. Because by this dead thou hast made Gods enemies blaspheme, 
2 Sam. 12.  the child sholl die, and the sword shall not depart from thy house, saith the Prophet from the Lord to the King.  
Our Saviour says more, Mat. 18.7. Woe to the world because of offences; he meaneth not passive offences, actions which men( though they have no just cause,) do( through ignorance, ill affections, rashness, pride, or any other cause) stumble at: for then woe to every man; for who can walk so wisely, or so blamelessly, as to prevent all captious exceptions or cavils? Nay then, woe to our Saviour himself; for his Disciples  told him, that the Pharisees were offended at him, Mat. 15. But he meaneth active scandals, scandals truly and properly given, such things as carry somewhat in their foreheads, which men cannot choose but be offended at. Now, to them that cast in these stumbling blocks, woe; and to them that stumble at them, woe too: for he that is the bad example, and they that follow the bad example, shall be punished for company, the one for giving, the other for taking.  
We see by these affections and proper passions of deliberate sins, how ill they become Gods children,( their spot is not the spot of his children, Deut. 32.5. 
{αβγδ} ) and consequently why they grieve Gods Spirit. And so we have done with the first general part.   

CHAP. II.  

Cap. 2.  Whether the regenerate may fall into these sins, and whence it cometh to pass.  
I Would not have made this a question, but that I find that there have been heretofore, and are( no doubt) still, some proud and self-conceited spirits who have pleaded for, and do defend the impeccability of the Saints in this life. Of this humour was Jovinian: for he taught that men have no sin after baptism; and after him those Phantasticks of whom we red in Vincentius, That they 
Vincent. Lyrin. commonitor. c. 37. Audent polliceri& docere, quòd in Ecclesiâ suâ, hoc est, in communionis suae conventiculo, magna, specialis, ac planè personalis quaedam sit Dei gratia, adeo ut sine ullo labour, sine ullo study, sine ulla industria, etiansi nec quaerant, nec petant, nec pulsent, quicunque ad numerum suum pertinent, tam●n ita divinitùs dispensentur, ut angelicis evecti manibus nunquam possi●t offender ad lapidem pede suum, nunquam scandalizari.  presumed to promise and teach, that in their Church, i. in their Communion and conventicles, there is to be found a singular personal grace of God, with which without any labour, study, industry, though they neither ask, seek or knock, whosoever they be that belong to their number are so blessed, that being carried in Angels hands, they can never dash their feet against a ston.  
These men the Father inveigheth against very sharply, calleth them the ministers of Satan,& compareth them to him: and well he might do so in three respects. 1. Of the similitude of three doctrine with the devills, when he came to Christ, Math. 4.6. The devil taught that the Angels should keep Christ so safely, that he could not dash his foot against a ston; and they taught that God and his holy Angels do so keep the Saints, that they could not fall. 2. Of the similitude of the devills deceitful handling of Scripture: he grounded his doctrine on the 91. Psal. v. 11. but he corrupted the text, leaving out a main clause, namely ( in all thy ways) and understanding that promise absolutely, which that clause intimates was to be understood& taken conditionally, thus; His Angels shall keep thee, if thou beest careful to keep thyself in the right way: so, these men grounded their doctrine( without question) on some promises of Gods word; but here was the mischief, they gave them an absolute and unlimited construction, which were to receive a conditional and a limited construction onely, and so corrupted those places. 3. In respect of the likeness of their intention. That which the devil intended in repeating this promise to Christ, was not, that he might be comforted hereby, and encouraged to loyalty and constancy in the service of God, but that he might draw him to presume upon his Fathers protection, and throw himself from the pinnacle of the Temple: so, these men aimed at the subversion of mens souls in this presumptuous doctrine of theirs, not at their conversion and edification in godliness. Sicut tunc caput Capiti, &c. as then the head of unbelievers set upon the head of the faithful, that he might bring him to ruin: Ita nunc membra membris( saith he,) so do the members of Satan now set upon the members of Christ; pretending to comfort them, they intend onely to corrupt them. I will not say this is the intent of all those that teach the like doctrine, but yet I will be bold to say, it is the natural issue and resultance of their doctrine.  
Like unto this was the Doctrine of the Anabaptists in latter times, who babbled, 
Osiand. Centur. 16. l. 2. c. 4. p. 119.  That believers and regenerate persons are so perfect, that they cannot sin, though they do what is directly against the Law of God: and that therefore( here followeth the mischief of it) it is lawful for such an one to carry about with him another mans wife in stead of his own. Modò& ipsa sit Anabaptisticae sectae dedita, so she be an Anabaptist. I would these wild brains were alone in this error; and that some men of better note came not within the verge of it; while they teach,( as I have said in the former point) that the regenerate, though they fall into sin for the matter heinous, yet never for the manner, or rather the stamp, presumptuous. A Doctrine it is( I take it) in its own genius so loose and licentious, that I know not how to fit it with a better censure, then 
Sands Survey of Religion. For a man that were desirous to save his soul at his dying day, and yet denied his body no wicked pleasure in his life time, no such Church as that of Rome, no such country as Italy p. 17.  that which Sir Edwin Sands hath put upon Rome and Italy; That for a man that were desirous to save his soul at his dying day, and yet deny his body no wicked pleasure while he liveth, no Doctrine like to this.  
The contrary to it we may be bold to affirm with good warrant from Scripture, from testimony,& good reason.  
First, from Scripture: for that teacheth us, that the Saints are not so confirmed in grace, while they are in viâ, traveling through the wilderness of this world to their heavenly country, but that they possibly may,& actually do, fall into many sins, for matter and manner of committing them, presumptuous and grievous. This it teacheth three ways.  
1. By the admonitions and serious exhortations which it giveth the Regenerate to look to themselves, and beware of sin, Joh. 5.14. go, sin no more,( saith Christ to the man whom he had cured of the palsy,) lest a worst thing come unto thee. 1 Tim. 1.18. This charge I commit unto thee( saith S. Paul to Timothy) to hold fast faith and a good conscience, which some have put away, &c Heb. 3.12. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, 1 Pet. 2.11. Dearly beloved, as Pilgrims and Strangers, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, Rom. 11.20. Be not high minded, but fear, &c. Now, as Gods admonition to Adam to beware of eating the forbidden fruit, did intimate that there was in him a possibility of eating it; so do all those earnest admonitions given in the word of God to the Saints, to take heed of foul sins, signify their power, yea and their propensenesse too, to fall into them. For else, they are but idle and unprofitable, such as effect just nothing. A serious admonition to an Angel, to take heed that he catch nor a surfet, or that he kill not himself, would be ridiculous; because an Angel is not capable of sickness or death: so would exhortations given to men regenerate be, if they be not capable( through the protection of God) of the sins which they are admonished to take heed of. In all admonitions of this nature, one thing is chiefly intended, and another supposed. That which is intended chiefly, is, the prevention of their sins, I say, that which is chiefly intended; for other things are looked at too, viz. the stirring up of vigilancy, care, fear and prayer in them; but these are intended in a subordination to the other, that by these as by means the Saints might be kept from sin, which is the end principally and directly aimed at. That which is supposed, is, their possibility of falling into sin; for, to no purpose should God by admonitions seek so studiously to hinder it, if by his Almighty decree, protection, promise or otherwise, there were in them an absolute impossibility of committing it.  
2. By clear and lively propositions of their danger, if they do defile themselves with sin, doth the Scripture also signify that they may be defiled. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, &c. if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance. Heb. 6.4, 5, 6. If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation. Heb. 10.26, 27. If after they have escaped the filthiness of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them then the beginning, &c. 2 Pet. 2.20. Now, all these demonstrations of the dismal condition of lapsed Christians, would be no better then vana terriculamenta, mere scar-crowes, if they were {αβγδ}. out of Gun-shot; free from all possibility of falling into sin.  
3. But thirdly, Gods word affordeth us many examples of regenerate and good men, for matter, and manner sinning presumptuously. I will begin with Saint Peter, though he be one of the last in order; he fell into a very great sin: for the quality of it, it was a denial of Christ before men, a sin which Christ promised to requited in the same kind, Matth. 10.33. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven. And it was not a single denial, but a denial with an oath, an imprecation, Matth. 26.74. He began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. The Word {αβγδ} {αβγδ}, which is there used, may be referred to himself, or to his Master, either he denied cursing himself, or else he cursed his Master; it was fearful to do either, and yet thus did Peter deny his Master. A very great sin for the kind and quality. And as great it was for the manner of committing it. The first denial was( doubtless) indeliberate, for he was suddenly surprised with a dangerous charge; Thou wast with Jesus of Galilee, ver. 69. But the second& third denial( it may seem) had sufficient deliberation in them to fill up his sin. For first, there was a whole houres distance between the first and last denial, as we may see, Joh. 22.59. time enough( one would think, considering other circumstances) to gather up his scattered thoughts, and consider what he had done, that if he were set upon again, he might be provided for the assault. Secondly, he had warning enough given him of his danger, both by his Lord whom he so cowardly denied, as we may see, Matth. 26.34. This night before the Cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice: and by the maid that affronted him, she accused him at the door before he entred into the Hall, Joh. 18.16, 17. And therefore he had reason to think, that there was no safe being for him in that place, and liberty he had to have shifted away and prevented any further temptations. Either then he did, or at least might, and ought to have considered thoroughly of his first fault, before he made a second, and a third. If any of these may be said, his sin could be no less then a presumption: for as we have shewed before, negative and interpretative deliberation is of force to constitute a presumptuous sin, as truly as positive and formal, though not in the same degree of presumption altogether.  
But it may be objected, that it is sa●d, Mark. 14.72. That when S. Peter thought thereon, he wept, It seemeth therefore that he did not consider, during that time of his combat, what a sin he committed.  
I answer, that those words may be understood of a deep and exact remembrance and consideration of his sin, and they imply this onely, that S. Peter, till Christ looked back upon him, did not think so sadly and seriously of his sin, as then he did. This is my opinion concerning S. Peters sin, with submission notwithstanding to better judgments.  
If his sin were a presumption, what was King Davids? for he shall be my second instance. Two sins he committed, Adultery, 2 Sam. 11.4. and murder, ver. 15. Foul sins for the nature of them: for of adultery it is said, 1 Cor. 6.9. No adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God: and Heb. 13.4. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. It is not onely a sin against chastity, and that holinesse wherein every man should possess his vessel, 1 Thes. 4.4. but against justice too, which requireth that we deal by others, as we would be dealt by ourselves. And it is a sin of greater injustice then theft: for this many men will patiently bear, but very few will endure that, as Solomon tells us in that place where he compareth them together, Prov. 6.30, 31. &c. His other sin was yet a greater then this, a scarlet sin; of murder and blood, of which S. John saith, 1 Joh. 3.15. Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him: It was the murder of a subject, one that lived under his shadow and protection; of a man innocent and guiltless, of a man whom having lately abused by polluting his bed, he should have recompensed; and of a most deserving servant too, who refused to refresh himself with the company and comforts of his wife and family, because the Kings General& the Army were in the field. They were committed too in as bad a manner as may be: the very first act of his sin could not be done suddenly without inquiries who she was, and devices how to enjoy her company, and consequently without deliberation; much less the future: when he had committed adultery with the wife, he was so far from repenting of it, that he plotted very studiously how he might kill the husband, adding drunkenness to thirst, and binding two great sins together. The politic progress of his sin the Scripture sets down distinctly. 1. He hated Uriah, when he saw he could not get him to go home, and father his sin. 2. He projecteth his murder. 3. He executeth it. 4. Having tidings of it, he smoothly dissembleth his knowledge of it and hand in it, as we may see in the story. 5. After the man by his means was dead, he did {αβγδ} voluptatibus, obey his fleshly lusts( as Divines think) about nine moneths together, before he repented. I delight not to have unguem in ulcere, my fingers in the sores of Gods Saints, or to rak out of the ashes their old sins to their disgrace: the point which I am to prove, putteth me to it: and therefore, I hope, it may be my excuse.  
Come we therefore to a third example. King Solomon was not onely a regenerate man, but a man of eminency for his parts, a man of extraordinary wisdom and understanding, one that knew Gods will, and his own duty to the full: and for his interest in God, a man so highly beloved, that he was chosen to be the builder of Gods house, a type of Christ and his kingdom, and a Pen-man of holy Scripture, and therefore exceedingly bound to be loyal and constant to his God. Yet he falleth, and into great sins too, into the fond and inordinate love of women, and insatiably too, of many women, saith the Text, 1 King. 11.1. he had seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, ver. 32. and that which was worse, into the love of strange women, ver. 1. idolaters, of whom the Lord had given a charge to Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they go in to you, ver. 2. unto these did he cleave in love. This was not all his sin neither: but to outward incontinency he added spiritual adultery. His wives turned away his heart from God, ver. 4. and he went after Astaroth the goddesse of the Zidonians, and after Milchom the abomination of the Ammonites, ver. 5. and built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon, v. 7. and the like he did for all his strange wives, &c. ver. 8. And who will doubt whether he did these things deliberately or no? for such was his course, this was the trade of a great part of his life, and therefore foul was his fall: so foul, that divers of the Ancients, considering seriously the greatness of his sin, did not onely question his salvation, but conclude against it.  
And what a gross sin did Aaron commit in the 32. Chap. of Exodus? He made a golden Calf for the people to worship, he built an Altar on which they might sacrifice to it, and he consecrated a day for the solemn adoration of it, ver. 4, 5. perfect sin, fully finished, as St. James phraseth it, Jam. 1.13. And it was committed against his knowledge and conscience too: he could not but know, that it was idolatry to worship God in the Calf, and that it was his duty to have dissuaded the people from a sin so vile, and to have stood to their mercy, rather then have yielded to their idolatry. It was committed deliberately too; he considered, first what an unlawful thing they desired, and therefore he sought to put them off, and to cool their hot desires of the Calf, by asking them for their golden ear-rings to make it with, v. 2. And when he saw they were content to buy their wills dearly, and to part with their jewels for the satisfying of their lusts, he could not but consider also what himself did: He received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a melted calf, ver. 4.  
To these I might add the examples of Saul, Judas, Demas, Hymenaeus, and Philetus, &c. who all fell into desperate sins; but because their regeneration is a thing questioned, I will wave them. And hither also I might refer the parables of the lost sheep, the lost groat, and the prodigal son; but that I think these four instances of good men falling, de facto, into foul sins both for matter and manner, to be abundantly enough to make good my point; That the regenerate may possibly commit gross sins.  
This hath been the constant opinion of Divines in all ages: of whose speeches declaring this their opinion, I will give you a taste and no more. 
Tertul. praes. c. 3. Estne hoc mirum, ut probatus aliquis retrò postea excidat? Saul, bonus praecaeteris, livore postea evertitur: Solomon omni gratia,& sapientia donatus à Domino, ad idololatriam à mulieribus inducitur. Quid ergo si Episcopus, si Diaconus, si vidua, si virgo, si doctor, si etiam martyr lapsus à regula fuerit?  Is this a wonder( saith Tertullian) that any man of approved goodness should fall back into sin? Saul who was better then the rest, was overthrown by envy: and Solomon who was enriched with all kind of grace and wisdom, was drawn by women into idolatry. What wonder therefore, if a Bishop, if a Deacon, if a widow, if a virgin, if a Doctor, yea if a Martyr, fall from the rule, viz. of Gods Commandements? 
Cypr. l. de unit. eccl. Nec quisquam miretur, &c. N●que enim confessio immanem facit ab insidiis Diabol●, aut contra tenta jones,& impe●us seculares adhuc in seculo positum perp●tuâ securitat● defendit.  Let no man wonder( saith S. Cyprian) that some of those who have confessed the Name of Christ, fall afterward into sins so great, so foul. For it is not their confession that can free them from the snares of the devil, or defend them who live in the world, from the temptations, dangers, and assaults of the world. 
Hier. l. 2. contr. Pel. Ne beatum d●xeris quempiam ante mortem; quà●in vivimus, in certamine sumus; qu●mdiu in certamine, nulla est c●●ta victoria.  Call not any man blessed( saith Saint. Hierom) before he be dead; for as long as we live in this world, we are in sight, and as long as we are in fight, there is no certain victory: he meaneth, there is no absolute certainty of victory, and by consequent, no impossibility of being foiled by sin. 
Ambr. in ser. Quad. In hujus itaque mundi pelago voluatatibus nobis valde pertimescendum est, ne navem nost ā aut procella tempestatis abripiat, aut fluctus absorbeat, aut in aeternam praedam pirata crudelis abducat. le Bern. in vigil. nat. Dom. ser. 3 Si essemus in domo illa non maau facta, ●et●rna in caelis, ubi tullus ininicus in●rat, nihil ess t timerium, &c.  While we are tumbling and tossed upon the sea of this world, we are to be much afraid, lest some tempest or wave swallow up the ship of our souls, or that cruel Pirat the devil carry it away for a prey. It is the speech of S. Ambrose. e If we were in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, where no enemy cometh in, we need not be afraid. But now we lye open to three most boisterous and pestilent winds, the flesh; the devil, and the world, who all seek to blow out the lamp of an enlightened conscience, blowing into our hearts evil desires, unlawful motions, and troubling thee so suddenly, that thou canst scarce know before-hand, whence they come, or whither they tend. Of which winds, though two do sometimes lye quiet, yet from the blast of the third,( he meaneth the flesh) there is no respite to be expected, saith devout Bernard.  
Fall we a little lower, even to our own times, and we shall see them teach the same Doctrine too.  


Ursin. Catech. de discrimin. peccat.  
Quod etiam renati possunt ruere in peccatum regnans, satis ostendunt tristissimi lapsus sanctissimorum hominum, Aaronis, &c.   That the regenerate may rush into reigning sin, the most sad falls of most holy men, Aaron, David, &c do sufficicently show, saith Ursin. And Doctor Abbot acknowledgeth, 

Abbot. de intercis. gr. p. 206.  
Non dubitamus hic, plena interdum voluntate à justificatis peccari; ita ut nihil sit ad tempus quod resistat, idque non in minutis tantùm said etiam in majoribus.   That the regenerate may sin with full consent of will, in this or that particular act, though not habitually, and destroy that, in particulari, in particular, which they aim at in their general intention; and concludeth thus, Non dubitamus hic, We doubt not here, that justified persons do sometimes sin with a complete will, so as there is nothing in them for the time, that maketh resistance against the sin: and this, not in the smaller onely, but even the greater sins. 
Zanch. misc. depuls. call. p. 307. Quod negem electos in atrocissima scelera ruere posse, calumnia est; quasi nesciam,& non doceam, Davidis scelera fuisse atrocissima& gravissima.  They say( saith Zanchy) that I deny that the elect can fall into the fouler sort of sins: but it is a calumny; as if I did not know and teach, that the heinous acts of David, his murder and adultery, were sins of a high nature. Beza also confesseth, Electis& reprobis omnia peccata esse communia, uno excepto, finalis impoenitentiae; That 
Beza. annot. in 1. Joh. 5.  all sins are common to the elect and reprobate, except only the sin of final impenitency  
To conclude, this is the Doctrine of our Mother the Church of England: 
Articles of relic. Art. 16.  for thus she saith, After we have received the holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin: her meaning is into vile sins, and into vile sins willingly, as we may see in the first words of that Article; Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism, is a sin against the Holy Ghost, &c. she speaketh of mortal sins willingly committed, and saith a man in grace may fall into them. So much shall suffice for the proof of it by testimony.  
Now let us see the causes from w h. this their possibility and proclivity of falling into great deliberate sins ariseth.  
They may be reduced to two heads. 1. Their inward constitution. 2. Their outward condition.  
1. Their inward constitution; which standeth in two things: 

1. The diversity of their principles.  
2. The liberty of working, or walking according to each principle.    
From both these springeth a possibility in the Regenerate of falling into gross sins.  
First, from the diversity, or contrariety rather of their principles, which are two, flesh and spirit, corruption and grace, as we may see, Rom. 7.23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, &c. and ver. 25. with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin: and in Gal. 5.17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, &c. By which words in both places, we are not to understand the soul and body, which are common to all, both good and bad, nor yet reason and sensuality; but nature and grace, which are peculiar onely to the good. These two powers or principles there are of contrary natures and tempers in all the regenerate, as appeareth by these mentioned places, and by Gal. 5.17. where it is said, these two are opposite one to another.  
( 1.) There is grace in them, which grace is called by divers names, a new heart and a new spirit, Ezek. 36.26. the law of the mind, Rom. 7.23. the inner man, ver. 22. the new man, Ephes. 4.24. and the spirit of the mind, verse 23. By this they are,( 1) enabled to avoid sin, and walk in Gods ways, Ezek. 36.27. which S. Paul confesseth, where he saith, Rom. 7.25. In my mind I serve the law of God, but in my flesh, &c. as if he should have said, Ita sum per gratiam constitutus. I am so framed by grace, that I am made able to take delight in Gods law, and to obey it. The same thing S. John teacheth, 1 Joh. 3.9. where he saith, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin: for his seed remaines in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. And 1 joh. 5.18. We know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not: but he that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not: that is, there is a seed, there is a principle within him, by which he is made able to abstain from such sins as bring back men into the power and bondage of that wicked one the devil: and if he be careful to live according to the operation of this seed, and principle of grace, he neither will, nor can commit any such sins. By this they are also( 2) inclined and excited to that which is good; The spirit( says Christ) Mat. 26.41. is willing, i.e. inclinable to do well. And when I would do good, evil is present,( saith S. Paul) Rom. 7.21. He had a mind then to that good, which he had not so much strength as to do. It doth not only set the scales even, but casteth them toward that which is good; it turneth the face of the soul heaven-ward, which before was set the other way.  
( 2.) But secondly, there is beside this, another principle of corrupted nature, remaining still in the best and most regenerate; of which we read under the names of Sin that dwelleth in us, the old man, the body of sin, the law of the members, &c. Rom. 6.6. and chap. 7. And by this they are enabled and inclined still to that which is evil, as we may see, Rom. 7.23. I find a law in my members rebelling, &c. i.e. opposing whatsoever my renewed understanding telleth me should be done; and disposing me to the contrary. And Gal. 5.17. The flesh( saith the Apostle) lusteth against the Spirit, i. as Agar was of a contrary disposition to Sarah, and was always envying and murmuring against her, and withdrawing the affections of Abrahams servants from her, another way: so, is that emulous adversary of grace always whispering against it, and alluring our souls to those evils which are against the desires of it. Hence it is that Saint James saith, Chap. 1.13. that every man is drawn away by his lust, to the committing of many a sin, and sometimes, of sins so complete and full, that they bring forth death. And as it inclineth us to all sorts of sin, so to two sorts especially. 1. To such as we are most fitted for by our callings, our occasions, and our bodily constitutions; as soil upon earth enables it, especially, to bear such fruits, or weeds, 

Propter pristinam malam consuetudinem solent diu sapita vitia sacillimè reviviscere.  
Climacus grad. 3. de pereg.   as are most suitable to the nature and quality of the ground. 2. To such as we have formerly been most used to before our conversion, Vices that are laid asleep, do soon awaken after regeneration, because of our former ill custom, saith Climac. Now, thus much the flesh doth, because God hath not substituted this Grace into its room: for Grace finds flesh, when it cometh into the soul,( as Israel did the Canaanites in the land of Promise;) nor hath he brought this in, to drive that out, as fire is sometime laid on a wet hearth to drink up the water( except haply by degrees, as a cooling and moistening julep is given to a dry choleric body, to contemperate that humour, and to purge it {αβγδ}, by the gradual alteration of it:) but it is super-added to the soul, for two ends and uses especially: 1. To abate its power, and make it less irregular then it was before,( as mending is bestowed on a bad clock, to lessen those disorders that were before in its wheels and motions.) 2. To restrain it actually in its exorbitancies: it is given for a bridle to corruption, to hold it in when it offers to fly out, but so, that this bridle is put into the hands of the person, and receiveth its efficacy in working this restraint, from the will and skill, and industry of the man. A bit and bridle( though never so good) put into th● mouth of a head-strong Jade, will no● be able to hold it in, if it be not well handled and used for that end by a skilful and careful Rider; if either he neglect the holding of it, or the pulling in of the reyns stiff, the horse notwithstanding the good bridle, will run away with bridle and Rider also: so, this golden bridle of Grace, will not be able to over-rule the flesh in its unruly actions, except it be applied by the gracious man to that purpose; the flesh will hurry him notwithstanding his Grace, if he be negligent, into dangerous delinquencies.  
But it is said, 2 Cor. 5.17. Old things are passed away: behold all things are become new: And Gal. 5.24, it is said, That they which are Christs, have crucified the flesh, with the affections& lusts. It should seem therefore, that there is but one principle in the regenerate,& that corruption is wholly swallowed up by grace.  
These speeches are of that sort which Logicians call extensa; which note not a present and transient, but a continued and permanent act. And the mean●ng is, they that are in Christ have crucified, and do crucify still: it is their daily work to beatdown the flesh:& old things are passed away, and are passing away still. More particularly, Christians are said to have crucified the flesh two ways:  
1, Voto, in desire. As S. Paul, Rom. 7.23. crieth out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? so do they. It was his earnest wish, that some good hand would strike it dead, and it is theirs too.  
2. Conatu, they endeavour it, and they have begun it, with a mind to hold on till they have finished this their mortification. I beat down my body, saith S. Paul, 1 Cor. 9.27. & bring it into subjection, &c. As he was always clubbing of this body of sin, and kerbing his corrupt nature; so it is more or less with all the regenerate. And therefore it is said, They have crucified the flesh. It is not unusual in Scripture to speak of a work as quiter done, when it is begun with an intent to be finished; as we may see by a parallel kind of speech, Col. 1.23. Saint Paul saith, The Gospel is preached to every creature under heaven: i. in purpose it is, and in respect of the beginning of the work; as fire is said to have taken a house, when it hath but seized on a little corner of the house, because it will through, if it be not quenched. And thus in these places we are to conceive of the meaning of the Apostle; and not to understand him of a complete suppression and dissolution of corrupt nature, contrary to other places of the text, and universal experience.  
The second part of their inward constitution, is, their liberty of working and doing afrer either of these principles; from whence as from a second cause followeth their possibility of falling into sin. As we doubt not, but the Regenerate have power to follow their Captain the Spirit; for else, why hath God appointed it to be their Leader? Rom. 8.14. And why doth God exhort them to be lead by it, and threaten them if they be unruly? so, without question, they have a liberty and power to apply themselves to the commands of the flesh: when the flesh biddeth them steal, or lye, or commit uncleanness, or oppress a poor neighbour, or deceive an ignorant buyer, or counterfeit religion for advantage, or do any other work of wickedness: as they have power to forbear these sins, and to follow the contrary breathings of the Spirit, so they have power to do them. For else these things would follow.  
1. That the flesh is left in them to no purpose: we use to say in Philosophy, Unumquodque operatur secundum propriam formam, Every thing worketh according to the principle of action that is in it, whether it be a thing without life, or with it, a sensible or a reasonable creature: onely here is the difference; creatures unreasonable follow the leading of their principles, of necessity; but such as are endued with understanding work with a kind of liberty. For example, fire, which we know hath a fountain of heat in it, worketh accordingly, it heateth and burneth; and water a moist element, wetteth; so plants which have in them a vegetative soul, they live and grow, and sprout out of the earth: and brute creatures, which have in them a sensitive soul, they see, hear, smell, taste, feel, all actions suitable to that principle of sense which is in them. And men, which have in them the nature of vegetables, brutes,& reasonable creatures, do such actions as are agreeable to these natures, they grow till they come ad terminum magnitudinis, to their appointed pitch; they hear, see, taste, smell, and do every thing answerable to their sensitive nature: and they do such things also as a reasonable soul requireth, they understand, discourse, distinguish, and many such things, though with a freedom to do or forbear these actions as occasion requireth. This maxim as is true in Divinity; and therfore every regenerate man, who hath in him two natures, an old or corrupted, and a new or sanctified nature, hath ability of working& walking agreeably to both. He hath a new nature, and therefore he can love and fear God, he can be charitable, just, patient, obedient to Gods commandement, even in actu secundo, in the second act, that is, he can exercise these virtues, and show them in his actions. And he hath an old nature, and therefore hath power to be unjust, unmerciful, ungodly, unchaste, intemperate, and licentious in his actions. For, what should fire do with heat, if it had not power to burn? or a man with an eye, if he had not power to see; or with reason, if he could not understand? And so, what should a Regenerate man do with his grace if he had not power to manifest it in his life; or his natural corruption, if he could not obey it in the lusts thereof? No communicated power is to any purpose, if the subject in whom it is, be made unable to use it: no more is the power and principle of natural pravity in the Regenerate, if God have determined their wills to the actions of the contrary principle of grace bestowed on them, and left them no liberty to the other.  
2. The admonitions, exhortations, promises& threatenings which in the word of God are given to men Regenerate, to keep them from consenting to the enticements of the flesh, if they had no liberty in practise of yielding to them, would be of little use: no more would the ministry of the Word and Sacraments, nor the inward lustings and risings of the spirit against the flesh be. For wherefore are all these used but to keep the man of God from yielding up himself to the sinful commands of the flesh, which otherwise would be obeied? S. John saith of Heaven, I saw no Temple there, Revel. 21.22. His meaning is, that there is no preaching, no calling upon men to serve God, no dissuasions of them from sin. And why are no such things in Heaven? because there is no corruption remaining in the Saints there, they are made perfect, Heb. 12.23. and because there is no liberty left them of hearkening to any seducing spirit, should there come any such into Heaven; for they are confirmed.  
3. Besides, the fidelity and obedience of the Regenerate would not be tried, were not this liberty left them. In this life we all stand upon our trial, and qualis vita, finis ita, as we live so we shall die and be judged, as we may see, 2 Cor. 5 10. where S. Paul saith, That we must all receive according to what we have done in the body, be it good or evil: There is no trial of us after this life, no retribution for any good or evil that we shall do then. While we are in the body, we are upon our making or marring for ever. Here God will try our faith, 1 Pet. 1.7. and all our graces, and will crown no man before he have proved him: as we may see Jam. 1.12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. And as God trieth all, and trieth them in this life; so he trieth them( among many other means) by the remainders of corruption in them, as he did the Israelites by the Canaanites. But what trial could God have made of the Israelites by the Canaanites, if they had had no power to have danced after their pipes, and hearkned to their allurements? and how can he prove the loyalty of his servants by the flesh remaining in them, if they cannot be enchanted by the witchcrafts of this harlot?  
4. Lastly, Earth would be Heaven, grace would be glory, the way would be the Country, if the Regenerate could not obey the flesh. For one of the greatest differences between earth and heaven is this; here we have a possibility of not falling, there an impossibility; here we need not, but there we cannot fall.  
Against this may be objected the words of S. Paul. Gal. 5.17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. It should seem by this place, that as by reason of the flesh's lusting against the spirit, a Regenerate man cannot do what good he would, so because of the spirits lusting against the flesh, he cannot do what evil he would, i. what evil the flesh would; and therefore it is not true, that he hath liberty of applying himself to the flesh.  
I answer two things.  
1. That the words are not to be understood of the bare act,( for then it will follow, that the Regenerate man, because the flesh in him lusteth against the spirit, can do nothing that is good, which is not true) but of the measure and quantity of it: ye cannot do so much good or evil as ye would, because of these contrary lustings and inclinations that are in you, as a man cannot go so much with a heavy clog at his heels, as without. This is a truth in itself, and may be part of the meaning of this place.  
2. I answer, that they are to be taken in sensu composito, non diviso, in a compounded, not a divided sense; while the Regenerate are careful to join themselves to the Spirit,& yield to the motions and inclinations of the regenerate part, they cannot( because this spiritual part is opposite to the carnal) do what evil their carnal part would have them: the grace they have will hold them in, and turn their minds another way. But if they chance to grow careless in following the dictates and impulsions of Gods grace within them, they may do what they would, i.e. what the flesh and sin that dwelleth in them would. And that this is the meaning, the former verse sheweth plainly, where it is said, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. It is as if he should have said, Would ye know how to avoid the lusts of the flesh? Take this rule, Walk in the Spirit: And would you have me prove this my rule to be good? I prove it thus: The Spirit is contrary to the flesh, and lusteth against it. Now ye cannot follow two contraries at once: if therefore ye will take my counsel, doubt not but ye shall be far enough from oheying the flesh; you cannot do what you would, i.e. what corrupt nature would, as long as ye follow my direction, and be careful to walk in the Spirit.  
Now, if this be the meaning of these words, they conclude nothing against the possibility which is in the Saints of yielding to the flesh: for they do not at all times show themselves Saints, they do not always walk in the Spirit, and then the flesh leads them captive to the law of sin. Thus far of the first cause of the possibility or propensity of the Saints falling into sin, their inward constitution.  
The second cause is their outward condition. Concerning which that which I mean to say, I will resolve into these particulars. There be many snares laid for them. These snares are very shrewd ones: therefore it is possible for them to be intrapt and drawn into foul sins.  
( 1) There be many snares laid for thē. By snares I mean all sensible objects which with S. John I may cast into three ranks. 1. The lust of the flesh, pleasures, and carnal delights; 2. The lust of the eyes, gold, silver, houses, lands, and all kind of profits; 3. The pride of life, dignities, superiorities, popular acclamations, and all sorts of preferments, for these things are men naturally proud of. These th ngs I call snares; not because they are so in their original institution, or in Gods intention( for God intended& gave them to us to be miserrimae necessitatis solatia,( as S. Hierom calls them) helps and comforts to men in this miserable mortality:) but because they prove so, through that strong affection which we bear to them. Now, that these tria numina, three gods of this world: profits, pleasures, and promotions, are snares, in which thousands have been and are daily caught, to the grieving of Gods Spirit, and the danger of their own souls, I might prove by many testimonies and examples of Scripture: I will single out but a few.  
In 1 Tim. 6.9, 10. we have these words, They that will be rich, fall into temptations and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, &c. In these words S. Paul 1. Delivers a doctrine, The love of money is the root of all evil: he meaneth the immoderate love of it, as the words adjoined, will be rich, and coveted after, do show. 2. He proveth it by an instance in some, who while they coveted after it, did renounce their religion, and depart from the true faith formerly embraced. To these then these earthly profits were a woeful snare, and so they are to many others. Now what the Apostle saith of money and the love of money, may be said of honor, promotion, and pleasure, and the love of them. And therefore our Lord telleth the Pharisees, that it was popularity, and love of credit among the people, that kept them in their unbelief: How can ye believe, saith he, which receive honour one of another? Joh. 5.44. And S. John telleth us, that many of the godly Jews, who believed in Christ, did yet dissemble their faith, through inordinate love of profit and credit, that they might keep their stations and reputations still. They did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the Synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God, Joh. 12.42, 43.  
To deny ones faith, or but to dissemble it when in duty we ought to confess it, are very great sins; yet those godly men who believed, through money, credit, and other vanities which they lusted after, were stained with them: and therefore money and credit are snares. We have another place which fully sheweth it, namely 1 Joh. 2.16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, &c. Here the Apostle 1. seeketh to draw the regenerate from the immoderate love of the world, by an argument drawn from the original of all worldly things, negatively, they are not of the Father, affirmatively, but of the world: and therefore fitter for the children of the world to look after, then for the children of God. 2. He sheweth that the lustings after worldly things, are the causes of all those sins which are committed in the world. For I suppose that it is his intent under these words, lust of the flesh, &c. to comprehend all sorts of sins which do abound in the world, and to point out the true causes of them: and therefore this place were sufficient alone to prove these earthly objects to be quoad eventum, in the event, no better then snares to mens souls. We may prove it also by the examples of Adam, Samson, Solomon, David, and a great many other good men, who through the enticements of sensible vanities fell into foul sins. Hence it is that God doth so earnestly labour to beat off his children from the love of the world, Matth. 6.19. Lay not up treasures for yourselves upon earth, &c. Joh. 6.27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, &c. Col. 3.2. Set not your affections on the things below, &c. and 1 Joh. 2.15 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. And answerable to this, is that of S. James, Chap. 4.4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? These exhortations have their edge: and why doth God use them? why doth he labour by them so seriously to mortify our affections to these things, but because they are attractives of our affections, and persuade us to many sins? Ordinarily we love them so well, that we are very prove to sin, 1. in them, and 2. for them.  
1. How often do we sin in them? I mean in using them; while we forget those rules by which God would bound us in their use. Two bounds especially God hath set us: first abound of equity, Prov. 5.15. Drink water out of thine own cistern, and rivers out of the midst of thine own well: and 17. let them be thine, and onely thine, and not a strangers, &c. So that he that eateth bread, which he pulleth from the teeth of other men, he sinneth in eating: and he that companieth with a woman which is not his own wife, he sinneth in his carnal act, and a great sin too; of fornication, if she be a single woman; of adultery, if married; of incest, if a kinswoman. Secondly, a bound of sobriety, 1 Cor. 7.29, 30. Let them that have wives, be as if they had none; they that weep, as if they wept not, &c. i. in our affections towards the world, and in our actions, which consist in using the world, we must carry ourselves very indifferently, as if we were doing something else; and therefore he that eateth and drinketh immoderately, he sinneth greatly in the use of lawful and necessary delights. Now to keep these bounds, nay not to exceed them notoriously, is a very hard matter, because of our vehement affection toward the●●e have a Proverb among us, Qui medicè vivit, miserè vivit, he that liveth physically, lives miserable: and why miserable? because he is constrained in his eating, drinking, sleep, and recreation to live by rules: which sheweth our disposition and desire, to have as much scope, and to be as deep in the use of these pleasing liberties as we can. With S. Austin, we are apt to say, Non placet ire per istas angustias, to be limited by order, 
Omnis humana perversitas est, utendis frui velle, fruendis uti. Aug.  or measure, doth not please us: this is the common humour. It is the general perverseness of men, to enjoy the things that are to be but used, and to use the things that should be enjoyed.  
2. And secondly, how often do we transgress for them? for the gaining of them, if we want them; and for the keeping of them, if we have them? As Merchants adventure their persons and estates, by sea and land, for the love and hope of profit: so are we prove to venture souls and consciences in evil ways, for the love of pleasure, gain, or glory. 
Aurum per medios ●re satellites,& perrumpere amat sax●, potentius ictu fulmineo. Horat. carm. l. 3. ad Maecen.  Many that are a little more conscientious then others, if profit, or preferment may be had, will now and then strain too far, to get these Helena's. Si jus violandum, regnandi causâ violandum; a very faire offer indeed putteth a good man sometimes to it. It is noted, Revel. 19.13.( where the merchandise of the whore of Babylon is computed) that one of her commodities was the souls of men( for so the Geneva and the Kings Translation red it.) If we may understand it of a commodity which she bought with her silk, and cinnamon, her wine, and oil,( as many do:) why then is she a very fit resemblance of this bewitching strumpet which we are speaking of. For she with her three staple-commodities of profit, pleasure, and preferment, so much desired by her Chapmen of all sorts, is able to buy from men their very souls. We see they are fit matter to make snares of; that is the first thing.  
Secondly, they do usually prove, though( considering the help of grace which God affords) they need not, very great snares. The reasons why they prove so, are specially three: 

1. Our inclination toward them.  
2. Their continual presence with us.  
3. Their cunning presentation by the devil before us.    
1. Our inclination toward them. We are usually with eagerness carried toward them, because they are good things, and such good things too, as are accompanied with three pleasing properties; cleanness to our natures, comfortableness to our senses, and necessarinesse for our uses.  
( 1) They are suitable to our natures. We are of mixed natures, and consist of a fleshly and spiritual part to our spiritual part, spiritual good things are proportionable, and therefore the soul is carried with desire towards them: to our fleshly part carnal and sensible contentments are suitable, and therefore the body reacheth after them. So saith St. Hierom, 
Hier. ad Gal. 1. Caro p●aesentibus delectatur& brevibus; spiritus futuris& aeternis.  The flesh is delighted with present and momentany, the soul with future and durable good things: and a great deal more strongly doth the body covet these, then the soul those, because we use to live most in our worst part. It is an old saying, Simile gaudet simili, every thing deligheth in that which is like it;& this saying we might exemplify in all creatures, but I forbear that.  
( 2) They are comfortable to our senses. music delighteth the ear, brave sights and spectacles the eye, wine and good cheer the taste, sweet smells the brain; and clothes, fire, bed, food, and many such things, are known to be sweet refreshings to the body. How then can a soul that liveth in a body endowed with senses, choose but affect them? and where we affect, we are prove to affect too much, even to our danger.  
( 3) They are necessary for our uses. Your heavenly Father knoweth( saith Christ, Matth. 6.32.) that ye have need of these things. God knoweth it, and by experience we find lt. For our beings, well-beings, persons, callings, conditions, and occasions of life so necessary are they, that we cannot subsist without them: and for these causes, they commonly have too deep an interest in our affections, and become strong temptations to sin. 
Gen. 6 2.  The sons of God see these daughters of men, that they are faire, and therefore they take them for their wives, though often to their cost.  
2. A second cause why they prove great snares, is their daily presence with us. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me, saith the Psalmist, Psal. 141. and in the way and places wherein we are daily walking and traveling, do these baits lye: they are the things which we continually look upon, hear of, handle, taste, feel, and make use of. And therfore, as those snares which are laid for a bide, in the places where it is frequently hoping up and down, do much endanger it: so these necessary evils, which therefore we live among, and make continual use of, because they are necessary, do the more strongly 'allure us into danger, because they are always before us. And therefore, the Romans did not well provide for the keeping of their law which they made, that Virgins should drink no wine, when they permitted them to see it. For their maids could not have had a greater temptation to drink it, then to have been suffered to look upon it. Solomons wisdom went beyond theirs, when to a man that loveth wine well, and is apt to be ensnared by it, he giveth counsel, not to look upon it, when it giveth its colour in the cup, and moveth itself aright, Prov. 23.31. And so did S. Hieroms, who in one of his Epistles, 
Hier. ep. ad Laetā. Et licet quidam putent majoris esse virtutis praesentem contemnere voluptat●m; tamen ego arbitror securioris esse contin●ntiae, nescire quod quaeras.  where he giveth direction to Laeta how to bring up her daughter virtuously, among other things adviseth her not to suffer her daughter to see those meats, which when she seeth, she might be moved to desire: and this his counsel he shuts up with these words; Though some there be who think it a point of greater virtue to contemn a pleasure when it is present; yet I judge it to be a thing of more security, not to know or see that thing which one may not safely desire. Agreeable to his judgement was his practise; for he turned his back upon Rome, and the tempting objects there, and betook him to his hermitage at Bethleem, lest by the sight and presence of those objects he should be drawn into sin. He durst not try his strength and encounter them being before him, but fearing if he lived among them, they would overthrow him, he fled, as he saith himself, that he might not be overcome by them. Like to St. Hierom did that young man carry himself, of whom we red in Cassian, that have received( after he had left the world many yeares, 
Cass. l. 5. Instit. c. 32. item cogitationes patriae, pariter concremamini, ne me ulterius ad illa quae fugi, revocare tentetis.  and betaken himself to a Monastery) a packet of letters from his father and mother, and divers of his dear ftiends, he durst not look upon them, but threw them all into the fire, with these words, item cogitationes, &c. Be gone ye thoughts of my country, and burn for company, for fear lest ye tempt me to look again toward the things which I have forsaken. He feared, the story saith, that by the reading of their lines, and the sight of their names, he should have been persuaded to warp towards their company and the world again. Though we have an habitual inclination to sensible goods, even when they are absent, yet we have not a full apprehension of their goodness, nor a zealous affection of love, or joy, or desire unto them, but when they are present. Hence we say, a looking eye hath a liking heart; look not where thou mayst not like. Now where can we live,( except with Jeremy and Jerom, we would make a cottage in the wilderness) but we shall be using and beholding some of these earthly beauties? They are ever with us, and for this cause, in the second place, they are the greater snares unto us.  
3. The third cause is, their cunning presentation before us. For they are presented to our thoughts, or senses, by the devil, with all the subtlety and efficacy he can, for this very end, that he might by them beguile us, and draw us into sin. For,  
( 1) He presenteth us with fit Objects, such as are most agreeable to our desires and dispositions. He hath scientiam mediam, that middle knowledge, which the Jesuits have devised for the reconciling of free-will and the absolute decree, and by which, they say, God bringeth to pass his eternal determinations concerning the salvation and damnation of men. This knowledge, I say, the devil hath and maketh good use of. For he is able to reason thus, If I set for Absalom a bait of promotion, he will surely take it; for he is ambitious: if for Samson a bait of pleasure, he will swallow it; for he is voluptuous; if I show Judas how he may get money by the betraying of his Master, he will not stick much at it; for he is covetous: And therefore I will be sure to furnish them with temptations answerable to their inclinations. And in this he doth wisely: for if a temptation hit, it must be when it is a fit one. Fish, except they be very hungry, or adventurous, will not bite at every bait; and therefore skilful Anglers are careful when they go to fish, to trim their hooks with such baits as they know by experience to be delightful to the fishes which they desire to take. So, no men( that are not desperately wicked, and such as esteem their souls base baggage things, and such are not these men of whom we are speaking) will be drawn to sin by every object that hath any goodness in it: some things( perhaps) they care little for; a man by temper voluptuous, esteemeth not profit much; nor an earthworm, pleasure; nor an ambitious man, either:& therefore the devil, who is wise,( as Isidore saith, 
Isidor. l. 1. de sum. bono. daemons triplici acumine praescientiae vigentem subtilitate naturae, experientia temporum, revelatione superiorum potestatum. ) hath his {αβγδ}, Ephes. 6.11.& his {αβγδ}, Revel. 2.24. his artificial ways, and deep reaches; and presenteth men suddenly with suitable objects, for the love of which he thinketh they will be content to strain their consciences, and break Gods Law.  
( 2) He presenteth them at fit times. Every time is not a season, all houres are not opportunities; as men have their dayes of visitation for the good of their souls, so he hath his dayes of temptation for the hurt of mens souls. This is your hour and the power of darknesses, says our Saviour. Luk, 22.53. his meaning is, that though he had been daily amongst them for above three yeares together, and as it were under their hands and power, yet they could do him no mischief, because it was not a fit time: but now they had obtained their desires, and taken him in their snares, because it was the Devills hour, who set them on work. Many are his times of advantage: who can number them? and among them, these are not the least:( 1) the time of pleasure and prosperity; for then men are apt to be regardless of themselves, and of their duties, or dangers:( 2) the time of adversity and want; for then, if we see a way( though it be a bad one) how to supply our wants, and shake off our afflictions, we are apt to take it:( 3) the time of solitariness, when we are alone; and the time of our weakness, when we are deprived wholly of such friends or governours, as might by their watchful observation of our courses restrain us from sin, or by their counsels uphold us, or by their rebukes and corrections recover us if we fall: ( 4) the cloudy times of melancholic passions, when, being discontented through some crosses which we meet with in our preferments, or the unjust aspersions which are cast upon us for well-doing, or the unexpected strangeness of friends, our understandings are distracted, or our honest resolutions unsettled. At such times therefore as these are, he setteth his engines against our walls, and seeketh to make some breach in our souls. As for example, he presented a faire woman unexpectedly before the eyes of King David, that he might draw him to adultery: but when? when he was in peaceable possession of his kingdom, and had a little more leisure then ordinary to think of his pleasures, as we may see, 2 Sam. 11.1. At another time he standeth up against Israel, 
1 Sam. 24.1.  and tempteth the King to number the people, that thereby offending God, he might procure some mischief against the people: and the time wherein he did this, was in Davids prosperity, when he was full of people, and had rest round about, as may be gathered out of the story. Such was also the boldness of this common adversary, that he set upon our Saviour, represented unto him the beauty and glory of the world,  told him that all was to be had for a small matter, a little bodily worship: but when was this bait presented, but in our Saviours seeming necessity, when he had fasted forty dayes, and might be thought to want his sustenance? mat. 4. He tickled Israel in the head with a Calf, propounding to their fantasies and thoughts the carnal worships of their neighbours, to win them to Idolatry: but this was done when their governor was gone, when Moses was in the Mount, as we may see, Exodus 32. At such times he usually enticed that people to apostasy from their God, as we are  told, Jud. 2.19. And it came to pass when the Judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more then their fathers, in following other gods, to serve and bow down to them. The meaning is, that it was their custom, when any of their good Magistrates died, to take that opportunity, and to fall to idolatry, no doubt through the Devills industry, who watched for such advantages. Such a time also he choose to bring back the Disciples to infidelity, by propounding( it is likely) unto their minds, the pleasures, ease, credit, &c. which they should lose by cleaving to the Doctrine of Christ. When the shepherd who should look to them, was to be smitten, and the sheep scattered, then he desired to have them, that he might sift them as wheat, Luk. 22.32. compared with Matth. 26.31. He fell upon Judas, and shewed him a way, how he might fill his purse, if he would betray his Lord: and the time which he picked out to lay this snare in, was, when Judas was in a fit of melancholy, for want of preferment: when he had been in Christs service a good while, and had gotten nothing, nor was likely to get any thing thereby, then he tempted him. At such a time( we may think) doth he set upon those unstable souls among us, whom he draweth into the Romish faith and faction: when he seeth them dejected, because p●omotions, expected and( as they think) deserved, come not; then he suggesteth to them, the ingratitude of their country, and the little regard which is there had of learned and able men; and withall filleth their heads with hopes of respect suitable to their worth among the Papists, and so sendeth them packing beyond-sea. He knoweth his own opportunities full well, and therefore in this too, he doth like an expert angler, who knowing that fish will not bite in all weathers, throweth in his line in a likely time, for the most part with good success.  
( 3) Having laid his snares with as much subtlety as he can, he followeth his game, and by inward whisperings and suggestions seeketh to drive it in. After the Devil had shewed Judas a way how to get money by a base piece of treachery, he got within him, and by some secret impressions made upon his affections, he stirred him up to do according to the temptation. And therefore it is said, Luk. 22.3. that the Devil entred into Judas. And so he dealeth with every man whom he seeketh to draw into sin; he windeth himself into their fancies, perverteth them,& maketh them judge the profit, the pleasure, or promotion propounded to be a great deal bigger and better then it is: next he insinuateth into the affections, setteth them agogg, and strongly inclineth them toward the intended snare; nay he creepeth into the understanding too, cunningly persuading that of the lawfulness of that sinful action which he aimeth at, though not in itself, yet to that man, at that time,& for those reasons which the tempted hath to do it. And herein he dealeth like fowlers, who when they have spread their nets, or laid their lime-twigs, they do with a lure call the poor birds into them: or like some fishermen, who, after they have cast their nets, and( as I may say) way-laid the fish, use to go back and beate the waters, that so they may drive the fish into those nets that they have laid.  
And thus we see that these worldly idols do usually prove great snares to men.  
Let us lay these things together then. Before the Regenerate lie many snares in the world,( for every profit, pleasure, preferment, is a snare; our meat, drink, sleep, apparel, companions, friends, &c. are all snares:) These snares are shrewd ones, because they are always before us, and about us, and are laid with as much cunning and efficacy as the devil can, for the intrapping of us: and the product which ariseth will be this; That the Regenerate,( as by their inward constitution, so) by their outward condition in the world, lye, not onely under a possibility, but great probability also( if they be not very watchful) of falling into great and dangerous sins.  
And so much be said for this second general part, which is, Whether the Regenerate possibly may, and whence it comes to pass that they may, sin grossly and presumptuously.   

CHAP. III.  

Cap. 3.  What mischiefs or inconveniences do accompany this grieving of the Spirit.  
ALL this while I have said little of the mischief● of presumptuous sins; and now therefore,( lest any root of gull and wormwood may chance to rise up and say, What though deliberate sins be great ones, and grieve the Spirit? and what though Regenerate persons may possibly commit such sins? What of all this? this wind shakes no corn: if the Spirit be grieved, he must be pleased again, &c. it is high time for me to break open Pandora's box, and present to your view in particular, those woeful and dangerous effects or mischiefs which are wrapped up together in this one phrase, Grieve not the Spirit. And this is the third general part, which I propounded to myself in the beginning of my discourse to treat of.  
do but remember what I said in the opening of the text concerning the meaning of this phrase, Grieve not, that to grieve him, is to disturb him in his operations of grace or comfort in the soul; So Theophylact. To drive him( at least in some degree and kind) out of those temples of our souls, which he hath taken up for his own residence; So Calvin, Pareus and many others. do but take this along with you, and you will be able to infer and conclude with me, that the soul in, or by which, the Spirit of God is grieved, must needs be for the present in a s●d and mournful condition. For, ●s the air is dark and chill, the earth could and wet, and the face of the sublunary world uncomfortable, when the Sun, which is the life and light of it, hath withdrawn its light: so must the face and state of the soul needs be very gloomy, when the Spirit, who is the Comforter, hath withdrawn his presence. In setting down the effects of presumptuous sins, there is some difference among Authors, but my purpose is to wave all disputations, and to speak of those mischiefs which are agreed upon by Writers of all sides. And those I may refer to these five heads, or losses: loss 1. of present fitness to be saved. 2. Of the certainty of salvation, with that peace and joy which are annexed thereunto. 3. Of their habitual graces in some great degree. 4. Of divine protection, or actual graces. 5. Of acceptation of former and present acts of obedience.  
loss of present fitness to be saved. A man lying under such a sin, is in a state inconsistible with salvation. And if he die in that state, he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven. This I prove, first by testimony of Scripture. In the 18. of Ezek. 24. it is said, But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done, shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them he shall die. In these words; 1. The person spoken of, is a righteous m●n falling into wicked actions or courses: 2. The thing affirmed of him, is, he shall not live but die: that is, if he so continue. For all such speeches are conditional, grounded upon a supposition of final impenitency, but withall they show praesentem statum, their present state, that it is a state of death. 3. The manner which the Prophet useth in affirming this, is strong and forcible: by way of interrogation, shal he live? i. without all question he shall not. 2. By way of anticipation, a scruple might be moved to this effect; This man in his time may have done much good. No matter, saith the Prophet, God will forget his former good and take him in that sinful condition, in which he findeth him, and deal with him accordingly. These words therefore are a full proof of the po●nt. Again, Rom. 8.13. saith the apostle there, If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mo tifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live. In these words, Two final states are intimated; eternal death, and everlasting life. And the two ways to these unavoidable ends are shewed, living after the flesh is the way to death, mortification of the flesh is the way to life. Hence it followeth, that, as he that mortifieth the flesh, is in a way to salvation, in a state in which if he die, he shall be saved, so he that liveth after the flesh(& so doth every one that deliberately doth any work of the flesh) is in a condition in which living and dying he cannot be saved. In Gal. 5.19, 20, 21. we have this sentence, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, &c. of which I tell you before, as I have also  told you in times past, that they that do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Here are two things cleared avouched, 1. That they who do any works of the flesh, shall not inherit Gods kingdom, and therefore are not fit to enter therein. 2. That it is a clear case unto them.( 1) By the light of nature; the works of the flesh are manifest, every one knoweth what they be, and what is their merit.( 2) By the help of instruction; I have  told you before, and now tell you again, so that you cannot possibly be ignorant of it. Like to this is that place, Ephes. 5.5, 6. For this ye know, that no whoremonger nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ: Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Here, after he had affirmed the inconsistency of salvation with a bad life, he appealeth to their consciences for the proof; and lest any might put in, and say, Why Paul? we are called to salvation, we are justified from our sins, we are Gods elect, your proposition doth not reach us; it is true of such whoremongers, idolaters, or covetous persons, as were never converted, they cannot indeed be saved, as long as they continue in their disobedience, but there is hope we may: to prevent this, the Apostle saith, Let no man deceive you with vain words, for, &c. as if he should have said, If your hearts tell you, that a whoremonger once converted, may be saved for all that, your hear●s delude you, these are but vain thoughts: and, if any man, to flatter you( as some do the Regenerate now adays) shall tell you so, his words are but vain words: For, for such things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience, whatsoever they have formerly been. Neither was this S. Pauls doctrine onely, but S. Johns too, 1 Joh. 3.15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. As no murderer, so no presumptuous sinner hath life abiding in him, that is, he is not for the present in a state of salvation. It was S. Iame's also, chap. 1. v. 15. lust when, &c. and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. In these words the Apostle seemeth to make a difference between sins, not in their merit,( for all are deadly in their own nature) but in the event. Some sins produce not death, others do, through Gods free dispensation in the Gospel; but for that matter let the text be praeda victoris: thus much the words import, that a complete sin( such as every one is that is committed with full consent) putteth the sinner under certain danger of damnation; and therefore supposeth an unfitness in such an one to be saved. There is not any one thing more fully& peremptorily concluded in the word of God, then this that I am proving: and therefore it is not without great reason affirmed by Divines, some of whose testimonies it will not be amiss now to bring in after plain Scriptures, as handmayds to wait upon their mistress.  

Ursin. Cateh. de pec. contr. cons. p. 64. Damnarentur si in iis usque ad finem perseverarent, said in illis non pereunt, quia in hâc vita paenitentiam agunt.  Ursin speaking of sins against conscience, and fundamental errors, saith, That the regenerate when they fall into them, lose a good conscience, and the gifts of the holy Ghost, and should be damned, if they should continue in them to their lives end; but they do not perish in them, because in this life they repent. And Pareus saith, 
Par. l. 1. de amist. gr. c. 7. Prope finem. Iustificatis lapsis Deus non imputat peccata, nempe poenitentibus: ante pae●itentiā ●u en imputat in fl●g●ndo poen●s temporales,& imputaret etiam, infl●gendo poenas aeternas, nisi r●scipisc●rent.  To such as being justified, fall into sin, God doth not impute their sins, but it is when they repent. Before their repentance he doth certainly impute them by inflicting temporal punishments, and would impute them by inflicting eternal punishments, if they repent not.  
Bishop Abbot 
Abbot de interc. gr. contra. Thoms. c. 22. p 209. Nondum igitur David spirituali vitâ exutus nondum orbatus justification●: said dignus, qui exuatur: et planè exuendus, nisi quam primum redierit ad mentem suam.  answering an objectection of Thomson, about the case of David, after he had committed adultery and murder, saith thus, David was not as yet deprived of spiritual life, nor stripped out of his justification, but yet he was worthy to be deprived of it, and should have been, unless he had quickly come to himself again.  

Suffrag. Brit. de 5. art. 1. par. expli. thes. 3. p. 72. Denique pro praesenti conditione amittunt aptitudinem id ingrediendum regnum coelorum.  The Divines of great Britain speaking of the falls of the Regenerate into grievous sins, say three things. 1. That while they rest and lye still in these sins, Gods fatherly anger riseth against them; and because this is somewhat too short and general, they add 2. that those regenerate persons contract a damnable guilt,( of which more by and by.) 3. As touching their present condition, they lose their fitness of entering into the kingdom of Heaven. This doctrine of theirs Baron: taketh up, and maketh it his own, and saith, 
Baron. disput. de pec. mort.& ven. sect. 7. p. 42.  That the third effect of mortal sin is, that a justified person when he lieth under the guilt of it, loseth his present fitness of entering into the kingdom of Heaven: and he proveth it by the places which they allege, Apoc. 21.27. 2 Tim. 4.8. What those our Britain Divines affirm for our purpose, I may illustrate by their own allusion to the Leper in Israel, of whom, that which they say is to this effect 
Suff. Brit. ib. expl. Thes. 6. p. 76. Filius adoptivus, adulterii, bomicidii, aut cujuscunque a trocis peccati leprâ corruptus, non potest quidem caelum ingredi, nisi per fidem& poenitentiam renovatam, ab hac contagione prius repurgetur,& tamen, &c.  As he that did chance to fall into a leprosy, was compelled to want his own house, till he was cleansed from that discase; though in the mean time he lost not his right to his house: so the adopted Son of God being corrupted with the leprosy of adultery, murder, or any gross sin whatsoever, cannot indeed enter into the kingdom of God, except he be first made clean again by a renewed faith and repentance; and yet his right to that heavenly inheritance in the mean time is not extinguished. What good their right to heaven will do them when their fitness to enter therein is gone, I know not; if it be granted( as it is) that in such a case their fitness is gone, it is all that I say, or contend for. But what need I seek for the voices of particular men, to confirm this, seeing the truth of it is avouched by the consent of all Christian Churches? For by the use of the keys, which the head of the Church hath given into their hands, they do evidently declare that men fallen into foul sins, are pro praesenti, in respect of their present, actual condition, shut out of the kingdom of Heaven.  
First, it is clear that Christ hath given to the Ministers of his Church the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven, i.e. an effectual real power of shutting some men out of Heaven who were in before, and letting others in who were out before; as we may see, Mat. 16.19. And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shal be bound in heaven; whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. In these words we may note, 1. The persons to whom he giveth these keys, this power. The words are in this place directed to S. Peter, because he by the confession which he made in the verses before, gave occasion to our Saviour of mentioning this prerogative and power of the Church; but they were intended for all the Apostles,( and in them for all Ministers successively) as appeareth by the parallel places, Mat. 18.18. & Joh. 20.23. In both which places, he useth the plural number; and in the latter, by a solemn ceremony of breathing upon them, he investeth them all with this authority. 2. We may note the gift which Christ bestowed upon them: this is laid down, 1 Metaphorically, in a borrowed speech, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. 2. More plainly, You shall bind on earth, and you shall loose on earth: which is as much as if he had said, You shall shut and open heaven. Now these actions of opening and shutting do more properly denote the use of a Key, then binding and losing do; but the phrase is changed, to signify that Heaven is then opened and shut, when men are loosed from their sins, ot bound in them. This power is authoritativè in respect of supreme authority in God; excellenter in Christ; because he hath by his blood set open the kingdom of heaven for all believers; but it is ministerialiter, ministerially given here to the Pastors of the Church, because as a King cleareth and condemneth his Subjects by his Judges, so God bindeth and looseth, saveth and damneth by the ministry of his servants. 3. We may note the ratification of this high power which is given to the Church; Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven; it is no scarecrow that he putteth into their hands, no frivolous, ridiculous, vain, empty power, which he dignifies them with, but a serious and efficacious authority: when they use these keys, and bind and loose, open and shut, God ratifieth their act in Heaven, with the proviso of clavae non errant, if they abuse not their power, but exercise it duly upon fit persons.  
Secondly, it is evident, that the Church of Christ in all ages hath made use of her keys, and exercised this her power, 1. Of shutting men out of heaven, who were in before, by her excommunications. 2. Of letting men in who were put out for their unworthiness, by her general, or particular absolutions; as we may see 1 Cor. 5.4, 5. where S. Paul giveth commandement to the Corinthians to deliver up to Satan that incestuous person which was among them, i. to cast him out of heaven, and the Church, by the sentence of excommunication: and 2 Cor. 2. where he writeth unto them, to let him into the Church again, having declared his repentance by his sorrow, &c. ver. 6, 7, 8. The first work of this power was also done by S. Paul upon Hymeneus and Alexander, of whom he telleth Timothy, that he had delivered them unto Satan, &c. And downward, from the Apostles times to our present age, hath this power been used, by the several Churches of Christ, upon their several members and children, as histories make manifest.  
And thirdly, by the use of this power when there is occasion, all Christian Churches do declare, what their opinion is of persons falling into heinous sins.  
1. They declare it by their shutting of heaven. For whom doth the Church thrust out of heaven by her Excommunications? gross sinners, scandalous offenders; whether they be such as have been always vicious, or such as having lived better, she findeth lying for the present in open and notorious faults; for she maketh no difference between men in this, but taketh them as at the present she findeth them. These gross offenders therefore she judgeth to be for the present exiles from the kingdom of Heaven: for else she would not shut them out of the Church on earth, and by her sentence upon them, pronounce them publicly to be persons excluded out of Heaven.  
2. The Church declareth it also by her other work of the keys, her opening of Heaven, and receiving men in again by absolutions. For whom doth she absolve, and let into Heaven, but such as for gross sins she had formerly shut out; and among those, such onely as have in her judgement seriously repented of those foul sins? By which her act she intimateth, that such as lye under any notorious sins, are not onely worthy to be shut out of Heaven, but shut out ipso facto, till by a true repentance, and a new remission, heaven be opened, and they received in again.  
You see then that the proofs of my conclusion drawn from Authority, are plain and evident.  
But, why doth a justified person falling into mortal sin, lose his fitness of entering into Heaven?  
For two reasons.  
1. Because by such a sin he contracteth an actual guilt of eternal death; and an actual guilt of eternal death cannot stand with a fitness of entering into life. Both parts of this reason are given me to my hand, by these Authors which I have alleged.  
Touching the first, namely, that when such a sin is committed, an actual guilt of damnation is contracted, we are to know, that it hath been an old question among Divines, Whether in such a case, peccata remissa redeant, the former sins that have been pardonned, return again upon the sinner, or no? This question some held affirmatively, grounding their opinion on such places of Scripture as these: 1. Kings 17.18. O thou man of God, art thou come to call my sin to remembrance? &c. Job. 13.26. Thou writest bitter things against me,& makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. Ps. 25.7. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Ps. 79.8. O remember not against us former iniquities: and mat. 18. where we read that the cruel servant, who trespassed against the rules of charity in his dealing with his fellow-servant, was made to pay all that debt which his Lord had formerly forgiven him, with this application to us, ver. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if, &c. By all these places it seemeth that God useth sometimes to require old debts, and bring back the guilt of former sins upon transgressors: and therefore many have been of that opinion. But others( notwithstanding these Scriptures) do think, that the former justification hath for ever taken away all sins past, so as they shall never be imputed, or charged upon the justified person again, though he chance to fall into some great sin. Their grounds are, Ezek. 18.22. where it is said of the wicked man returning home, All his transgressions which he hath committed shall not be mentioned: Rom. 3.25. where it is said, That Christ is a propitiation through faith in his blood for the remission of sins, that are past, through the fo●bearance of God: and Rom. 11.29. where St. Paul saith, that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance: and all those Scriptures where God is said, to cast out sins behind his back, to throw them into the bottom of the sea, to scatter them as a cloud, to blot them out, &c. But howsoever this question be resolved, it is by all concluded, That when a man regenerate falleth into gross sin, a new guilt of eternal death is contracted: and therefore the passage to salvation intercluded, till it be opened again by a new remission and repentance.  

Bucer. script. A●g. p 225. Si concupiscent●ae cedamus, novus reatus contrahitur, singulari poenit●ntia& remissione delendus.  If we yield up ourselves to our lusts,( saith Bucer) a new guilt is contracted, which is by a new particular repentance& remission to be blotted out. When David pronounced of the supposed rich man, which Nathan  told him had oppressed the poor man, he is but vir mortis, a man of death, or as we use to say, a dead man; Nathan  told him plainly, that he was the man. He meaneth, the man that had done that great wrong, and consequently, the man of death, that is,( saith Bishop Abbot) 
Abbot contr. Thoms. c. 22. p. 209. Reus mortis, cavitali crimine constrictus, cujus merito morti adjudicandus si●, licet nondum judicatus.  Reus mortis, guilty of death, bound fast in the chain of a deadly sin, by the merit of which he was to be judged to death, though he were not as yet judged. A little after, these are his words; 
Id ibid. pag. 210. Verissimum est, Davidē in morte mansisse, i. in r●atu mortis, quousque mansit in homicidio, &c.  It is most true that David did abide in death, i. in the guilt of death, as long as he remained in his sin of murder, &c.  
In these two places, the Reverend Bishop granteth thus much to his adversary, that David by those his foul sins was fallen into a new guilt of death eternal.  
More fully is this set down in the Suffrage, where we have these words; 
Suffrag. Brir. de 5. art. expl. Thes. 4. pag. 72. Quinetiā rea●um damnabil●m contrahunt, ità ut dum in eo statu impoenitentes persistunt, nec debeant, nec possintaliter sibi persi●adere, quam se esse morti obnoxios. Sunt en in capitali crimine constricti, cujus m●rito secundum divinam ordinationem morti subjacent, &c.  The Regenerate while they lye in gross sins, do bring upon themselves a damnable guilt; so that while they continue impenitently in that condition, they neither ought nor can persuade themselves of any other thing, then that they are obnoxious to death:[ If ye live after the flesh ye shall die.] For they are held under a capital crime, by the desert of which, according to Gods order and appointment, they lye open to death, although they are not yet delivered to death, nor, if we look at Gods Fatherly love, to be delivered; but to be freed from the sin first, and from the guilt of death next I will end this with the words of Bishop Davenant: 
Davena●̄. de act. justit. c. 35. pag. 432. Quoties renati fraena laxantes carni,& concupiscen●●is ejus obedientes, in idunt inf●rnicationē, homicide ū aut simi●●a peccat●, imp●●can●ur reatu mortisero, nec u●quam perfrui poterunt vita aeterna, nisi per renovatum actum poenitentiae& fidei ab eo liberantur.  As oft as the R●generate, giving the reins to the flesh, and her lusts, fall into whoredom, murder, or the like sins, they are entangled in a guilt of death, and cannot enjoy eternal life, unless they be freed by a renewed act of repentance and faith.  
By these testimonies the first part of the reason is made clear, viz. That men justified, if they fall into presumptuous sins, contract a damnable guilt.  
The second part of it is; That therefore they lose their present fitness to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and are in a state incompatible with salvation. This followeth evidently from the other:  
For 1. death and life are contrary: and to be under the guilt or sentence of death, and to be in a fitness for eternal life, are two contrary states: and therefore cannot be affirmed of one and the same person at the same time. If a man be actually in a state of life, we cannot say that at that very time he is in a state of death; and if he be a dead man, in a state under a sentence of death, we cannot say he is in the way of life. When a man for murder or felony lieth under a judgement of death, we use to say, He is but a dead man, i.e. a dead man civilly, or in law,( though naturally a living man) and we neither do, nor can properly say, that he is a living man in law, till by a new pardon, the sentence of the law which was in force against him, be taken off. In like manner, when a justified person hath committed some heinous sin, we must account and call him,( if we will speak according to Scripture) a dead man, i. a man lying under the sentence of death▪ and therefore how can we either call or account him a living man, i.e. a man fit to enjoy eternal life, though he should die in that condition?  
Secondly, a man lying under the guilt of death, stands in need of a new absolution, and of a new repentance for that sin that holds him under death 
Remissio peccatorum fons est salutis& poenitentiae munus. Paenitentia medicamentum est peccatum extinguens. Chrys. de Poen Hom 5. Poenitentia debet prius damnare peccatum, ut gratia posset abolere. Ambros. epist. 76 ; and therefore we cannot say, that while he lies in the sin, he is in a state actually safe: for if he be, what needs new repentance, and new remission to make him a fit man again, and to open heaven? 
Suffrag. Brit. art. 5. thes. 6. p. 77. Dicere itaque possum●s, effectum justificationis interveniente particulari tali peccato ad tempus suspendi: qui a persona ex hoc novo reatu indiget particulari absolutione.  Dicere possumus, &c. We may truly say( says the Suffrage) that the effect of justification is suspended for a time by the intervenience of a particular foul sin; because the person by reason of this new guilt standeth in need of a particular absolution, &c. 
Dr. Field of the Church, Book; c. 21. p. 474.& 475.  The force of the keys( saith Doctor Field) is not onely expressed by the acts of opening and shutting, but of binding and losing also; thereby to show, that heaven is then opened to men that they may enter into it, when they are loosed from their sins that hindered them from entering in thither, &c. In which words he implieth, that to men fallen into sin heaven standeth shut, as long as they remain bound, i. unpardoned,& that to them only it is opened, who are by a new act of remission loosed from their sin,& consequently, that men regenerate lose their fitness to be saved, when they commit any foul sin, because by that they are bound under a guilt of damnation; which is the first reason of their unfitness.  
The second reason why the Regenerate falling into presumptuous sins lose their fitness of being saved, is, because by such sins they bring such a blemish upon their souls, as is not compatible with a state of glory. It is Gods peremptory will, that holinesse should be the way to happiness, the way exclusively, the onely way, and that they whom he receiveth into his kingdom, should be found when he cometh, without spot and blameless, 2. Pet. 3.14. And therefore our Saviour telleth us, That except a man be regenerate and born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, Joh. 3.3. and St. Paul telleth us, That without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Hebr. 12.14. and St. John, that into the new Jerusalem shall in no wise enter any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination, Apoc. 21.27. And therefore he saith, Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the three of life, and may enter in through the gates into the City, for without shall be dogges, &c. i. persons like dogs for their filthiness, Apoc. 22.14, 15. The reason may be this; Salvation is an enjoyment of God, an immediate society with himself in heaven, and therefore it is called a seeing of God, Mat. 5.8. and a beholding of his face, Mat. 18.10. a being with Christ Phil. 1.23. a being present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.8. Now, for men polluted with foul sins to enjoy God, to have immediate communion with him, is a thing most unseemly; for he is a Holy God, Esay 6. a God of pure eyes, that cannot behold iniquity: so pure, that he will reveal himself and his presence in this life,( darkly& through a glass) to none but Saints, much less fully and gloriously in the life to come. It is an old Proverb, Omnis societas est inter pares, All true society is among equals, as in other things, so in dispositions. Hence saith Amos, Can two walk together except they be agreed? 
Amos 3.3.  God therefore will never walk with men in this world, or that other, between whom and him there is no harmony, no conformity of dispositions: It is not fit.  
If then men defiled cannot be saved, in the Regenerate falling into sin, there is a present unfitness to be saved; because the sin in which they lye, defileth them. No pitch defileth the body more then sin doth the soul; whensoever a man committeth it, he receiveth by it such a blemish as doth denominate him spotted, wrinkled, polluted, unclean. I am black,( saith the Church, Cant. 1.5.) If the regenerate may be styled black, by the remainders of corruption inherent in them, much more by voluntary sins: Matth. 15.11, 18. sin is said expressly to defile the man: and Ephes. 5.27. that turpitude and deformity which sin leaveth behind it, is called {αβγδ}, a spot, or blot. This Aquinas illustrateth by a fit comparison: 
Aquin. 1. 2. q. 86. art. 1.  As a comely body( saith he) is said to be polluted. and debased by the touch of some other body which is viler and base then itself: so the soul of a just man, which is neat and pure through the work of the sanctifying Spirit, is defiled through any sinful touch of earthly things, which are mean and vile in comparison of it. 
Bec. par. 2 summae tract. 2. c. 7 q. 2. sect 1.& Baronius disp. de pec. mort.& v●n. par. 2 sect. 1. p. 60.  Becanus sets it out by another: As a limb( saith he) is counted ugly and ill-favoured, when it hath not its natural proportion and due place in the body; so is the reasonable soul deformed, when by sin it swerveth from that due place and respect it should carry towards God, for whom as for its last end it is created. And thus you have the second reason, why a presumptuous sin taketh away the justified mans fitness for salvation, namely, because it defileth him.  
Now, what a misery it is for a man justified to be devolved into a state in which he cannot die but he must be damned, and in which he dareth not die, lest he should die for ever, let any one judge; especially considering two things. 1. The uncertainty of his continuance in life. So many are the secret diseases which lurk in mens bodies,& the external mischances which they lie open to in the world, that death may seize on this man suddenly, and oppress him in hoc devio errantem, wandring in this by-way, and then where is he? 2. The uncertainty of his repentance,( especially if he have sinned in hope to recover his losings again by repentance.)  
It is a known saying of S. Austin, 
Augustin Qui semper dat poenitenti gratiam, non semper dat peccatori poenitentiam.  Qui semper dat, &c. He which always shows favour to the repentant, doth not always give repentance to the sinner. 'tis true, as long as a man liveth, he is under some means and hope of repentance, but not under such powerful means, if he have abused them, as perhaps he was before.  
The second sad effect of Gods grieved Spirit, is the loss of present assurance, and all those comforts that are annexed to it, or issuing from it. The Regenerate while they keep their sincerity, enjoy some certainty of this present blessed condition. For the Spirit of God which is in them, sheddeth abroad the love of God in their heart, Rom. 5.5. enableth them to cry Abba Father, Rom. 8.15. and beareth witness with their Spirits, that they are the children of God, and joynt-heires with Christ, ver. 16. and( as it is in our text) sealeth them to the day of redemption. With this assurance are conjoined two sweet companions: The one is, peace of conscience, of which Solomon saith, That it is a continual feast, Pro. 15.16. and S. Paul, That it passeth all understanding, Phil. 4.7. The other is, the joy of the holy Ghost, of which S. Peter saith, That it is unspeakable and glorious, 1 Pet. 18. From these three roots spring sour sweet and comfortable fruits. The first is, cheerfulness in obedience; as we may gather from that speech of David, Psal. 119.32. When thou shalt enlarge my heart, I mill run the way of thy commandements. It may be understood of the enlargement of it by grace or comfort. It may be gathered also by the speech of S. Paul, Acts 24.15, 16. where he saith, I have hope toward God, that there shall be a resurrection of the just& unjust, and that I shall have part in the resurrection of the just: for that is to be understood to make up the full sense,( for a man hopeth for himself, and hope is an expectation of a mans particular interest in some good thing) Well; what follows this his hope? Herein I exercise myself to have always a conscience voided of offence toward all men. By which we see that hope and assurance is the mother of a good conscience, and a notable spur to a godly life. Which is also intimated by that speech of S. John, 1 Joh. 3.3. He that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure, as God is pure to whom he hopeth he shall one day be like. The intent of our deliverance from the hands of our enemies, was, that we might serve him without fear, i. cheerfully and gladly, Luk. 1.74. and the fruit that must needs come from the particular knowledge of this deliverance, is a cheerful obedience. For, as nothing maketh a well-disposed servant so ready to do his Masters commands, as knowledge that he is in his Masters favour, and that his obedience( if willing, though weak) shall be accepted: so, there is nothing of equal force with an assurance that person and work are under Gods gracious acceptation, to stir up a son and servant of God to alacrity in well doing. The second fruit is, courage in tribulations, either with Christ, or for Christ, as we may see Rom. 5. ●, 3. where the Apostle speaking of such as have a sense of their justification and peace with God, saith, We glory in tribulations. This made Job hold up his head under all those armies and changes of sorrows that were upon him. I know( saith he) that my Redeemer liveth,& that I shall see him with these eyes, &c. Job 19.25. This made Paul and Silas sing for joy, when they were in prison. 
Acts 16.  This made the godly Hebrewes sustain many foul indignities with cheerfulness. You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that in heaven ye have a better and more enduring substance, Heb. 10.34. And this is the greatest cause why the faithful are so confident in their troubles, as David reporteth them to be, Psal. 46.1, 2. God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea, &c. Those crosses that would crush an unbeliever, are many times stoutly endured by him that hath in him a hope of Salvation. Of all the faithful it is Solomons assertion, The righteous is bold as a Lion, Pro. 28.1. For this cause is it, that this blessed hope is compared to an Anchor, Heb. 6.19. because as that upholdeth and stayeth a Ship in a storm, that it be not hurried away and overwhelmed by the tempest; so this doth settle the soul in the midst of turbulent tribulations, that it be not swallowed up by them. And for the same cause it is compared to a helmet, 1 Thes. 5.8. because as a helmet in that it secureth the head, putteth courage into the soldier, and maketh him fight the more stoutly; so, hope, by which a man is secured of the main chance, putteth life and mettall into the Christian soldier in all those combats which he hath with afflictions. This effect of a quiet conscience, is intimated in that phrase, Phil. 4.8. The peace of God shall guard your hearts, {αβγδ}, shall defend you like a wall, or garrison,( for so the word signifies) and what shall it defend? Non fortunas aut corpora, Not your bodies, or goods; for they are subject to violence, and we may have storms without, when all is in peace within; said mentes, but your hearts and spirits, that you sink not by any weight of afflictions, nor fall from your steadfastness by any crosses. And there is reason why this joyful hope of heaven should do this. For he that hath this certainty in him, that God, and Christ, and salvation are his, is able to reason thus with himself, I am in trouble and want, my friends fail me, my health forsaketh me, my goods, my credit, my promotions leave me, many crosses lye heavy upon me: but yet for all this, God is my God, Christ is my Redeemer, heaven is my inheritance, and the happiness of it is my portion for ever. If so, afflictions can do me no great hurt, they are not able to make me miserable, they can but batter, and at most pull down my earthly house, but that building which is not made with hands, eternal in the heavens they cannot touch; they can but deprive me of my goods, my friends, and my worldly contentments; separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord, they cannot; that is beyond the power of height, or depth, life or death, men or Angels, things present, or things to come, &c. Rom. 8.39. And therefore why should I sink under them, why should I be quailed by them? The experience of this effect of a quiet conscience made S. Bernard to say, Premat corpus, 
Bern p. 1070.  trahat mundus, terreat diabolus, illa erit secura; Let my flesh trouble me, the world worrie me, the devil scar me, yet my conscience shall be secure. The third fruit is, undauntedness in death; this King of terrou s which holdeth the stoutest worldlings in bondage, is no more able to affright him who hath a fixed hope of heaven, then Moses's rod was able to make him afraid; because he knoweth that death to him is not a Scorpion to sting him to death eternal, but a Key to open him 〈◇〉 a passage to a better life. He is able in a triumphant manner with the blessed Apostle to say, O death where is thy sting! O grave where is thy victory! 
Bern. p. 1070. c. 21 Bona conscientia secura erit ●um corpus morietur, secura cum anima praesentabitur coram Deo, secura cum utrumque in die judicii ante tribunal terri sicum justi judicis statuetur.  1 Cor. 15. A good conscience( saith S. Ber.) will be out of fear, when the body is to die, it will be out of fear, when the soul shall be presented before God, and it will be without fear, when both soul and body in the day of judgement shall be presented before the terrible tribunal of the most just Judge. The fourth fruit of this certainty of our adoption, is boldness towards God, as we may see 1 Joh. 3.21. If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God; when any thing troubles us, we may go to him and ease our griefs in his bosom,& make all our requests known to him freely, as a son who knoweth he is in his fathers favour, may look him in the face without fear, and come into his presence boldly upon all good occasions. By this we may see what a precious jewel this same certainty of our justification is, how like it is to a cluster of ripe grapes, of which men use to say, There is a blessing to it, Esay 65.8.  
But now by falling into wilful transgressions, and so grieving the Spirit, this assurance, with all the companions and fruits of it, is lost for the present. For these do follow the fortune of that: they live together, and they die together. If a pinn on which things hang, chance to fall to the ground, all that hangeth thereon must needs fall with it; so with assurance, peace, joy, and all the rest do fall and vanish.  
This I prove out of Heb. 10.26, 27. where it is said, If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; but a fearful looking for of judgement, and fiery indignation, &c. Admit that this place be to be understood of an universal apostasy into wilful and known sins, after a man hath received the knowledge of the true faith; yet that which is affirmed of this sin, may be predicated of any wilful sin in some degree and proportion. As a wilful apostasy from the true faith bereaveth a man of the hope of Heaven for ever, and filleth him with final despair; so a wilful apostasy from God in a particular sin, bereaveth him of present hope and assurance, and affrighteth him with apprehensions of wrath, till he recover himself again. 
J●venal. satire. 3. E● mplo quo● 〈◇〉; ma●o commi●titur ipsi d s●●icet au●●or●, prima ●st ●ae●●●●●o quod s● j●dice● 〈◇〉 noc●●s absolvitur. Sen. l. ep. 16 Sen. ep 98. Potest nocenti co●tinger● ut lateat ●tendi fi●● s non p●● st. ib. ●uta ●●●● ra●ss●, se●u●a non po●●unt; 〈◇〉 s●eleris in scelere supplicium ●s●; multes fo●tuna ib●rat ●aenâ, motu ne●●●em.  This is the fi●st revenge which God taketh on a guilty soul, and that which seldom fails, that in its own judgement the sin committed, is detained, till repentance dismiss it, and that the sinner is under wrath. From which judgement of the conscience, must needs follow a suspension of assurance, and the peace and joy which do accompany it.  
Many are the examples which make th●s good. When our first parents had eaten the forbidden fruit, the guilt of their sin did fill their souls with such fear and horror, that they durst not look God in the face, but at the hearing of his voice ran among the bushes to hid themselves( bad it been possible) from his presence, Gen. 3.8.  
When David had committed those two great presumptions of adultery and murder, in what condition his soul was, let himself teach us, Ps. 51.1. He saith, My sin is ever before me, v. 3. i. e. like an hellish fury it always haunteth me: I can go no whither, be no where, but it is my daily, though unwelcome companion: which maketh me remember a worthy speech of Sir 
Cic. orat. ni L. Pison. Nolite putare. P. C.( ut in scenâ videtis) homines consceleratos impulsu deorum terreri furiarum tedis ardentibus: sua quemque sraus, suum facinus &c. de mente deturbat ac ●anitate: hae sunt impiorum furiae, stammae, hae faces. & in Orat. pio Roscio. Amer. Sua quemque fraus,& suus error maximè vexat, suum quemque scelus agitat, &c. Hae sunt impiis assiduae demesticaeque furiae.  Ralph Fane, who, when he was condemned to die by the practise of the Duke of Northumberland, protesting his innocency, said no more but this, My blood shall be the Dukes bolster as long as he liveth. His meaning, I suppose, was, that his conscience would be daily affrighted with the guilt of innocent blood, and would make him pass many restless nights. To these expressions is somewhat like that phrase in Gen. 4.7. If thou do evil, peccatum prae foribus, sin lieth before thy door; i. the conscience of sin like a bawling bandog shal ever be barking at thee: when thou goest out, or comest in, it shall be ready to fill thine ears with terrifying clamours, it shal be evermore disquieting thee, 
Cambd. Remaines p. 252. alias 294. & shall be lashing thee with many a smart though secret stroke. A guilty conscience 
Juven. Sat. 3. Cur tamen hostes evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti mens hab●t attonitos,& surdo verbere caedit, occultum quatione animo tortore flagel ū Poena autem vehemens,& mu●to saevior illis quas& Ceditius gravis invenit,& Rhadamnanthus nocte d●eque s●um g●stare in pectore testem  ( saith S. Bernard) is that evil man, from which David prayeth God to deliver him, 
Bern. p. 1073. Eripe me Domine de homine malo. i. meipso, à quo recedere non possum.  Psal. 140.1. Even such an evil man as one cannot get away from. It was a custom among the Romans, when they permitted a prisoner to go abroad upon any occasion, to lock the arms of the prisoner and a keeper together, that so having a keeper inseparably joined with him, the prisoner might be sure to return to prison when he had done his business. In like manner is this evil man of an evil conscience joined to the sinner, where ever he goeth, this keeper or jaylor will be his companion, and will keep his soul in bondage under the apprehension of Gods displeasure. But to return to David: in the 8. verse thus he prayeth, Make me to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. In these words, First, his prayer for inward joy was an argument of the absence of it, he wanted it: and therefore he cries for it. 2. The broken bones which he speaketh of, show how his soul was shattered and tormented by his sins: as the state of a mans body when all his bones are broken, is lamentable and restless, for such a man, if he lye upon the softest bed, can find no ease: so was the state of Davids soul; full of grief and disquietness he was, through the remembrance of his sin, and the sense of Gods anger.  
Again, in the 12. verse he prayeth, Restore to me the joy of thy salvation: and uphold me with thy free spirit. This prayer implies that after his sin his joy was gone: for otherwise how could it be restored? In all these passages we see, that David by his sin had deprived himself of that joyful sense of Gods love which he was wont to have, and had turned it into fear and anguish of spirit. His example therefore is alone sufficient to prove, that the regenerate by deliberate sins do lose for the time the joyful certainty of their salvation, with their boldness towards God, and all the other fruits of assurance. So evident is the truth of this, that it is generally assented to by Writers. 
Zanch. misc. l. 1. p. 150. Quis est, qui ●um peccavit, non mox sentiat conscient●am suam sse poll● ā, reāque mortis aeternae quod ad se attinet, effctā,& 〈◇〉 ū sibi esse tratum, atque ita iratum, ut novam cum D●o in grt ā reditione, novâque peccati adm●ssi remission,& nova cordis purificat one sibi opus esse omnino non persentiat?  Who is there( saith Zanchy) that having sinned findeth not his conscience presently defiled, and as far as in him lieth, made guilty of eternal death; and that God is angry with him, and so angry too, that he standeth in need of a new reconciliation with God, and a new remission of the sin committed, and a new purification of heart? And a little after he saith, 
Ib. p. 151 In ve●è piis inest vtra pax conscientiae, vera mundities cordis, vera fiducia in Deum, vera acc dendi ad Deum parr● sia, ve ū gaudium, vera salutis certitudo. Hos Spiritus sancti motus& fructus ex animis piorum, cum peccant, et si non penitus, m●gnâ tanē ex parte excuti, infirmari,& quasi extingui quis neget?  In those that are truly godly, there is true peace of conscience, true purity of heart, a lively confidence in God, true boldness of access to God, true joy, true assurance of salvation. But that these motions and fruits of the Spirit are greatly, though not wholly, shaken out of the souls of the godly when they sin, and are after a sort extinguished, who is there that will deny? 
Fideles in atrocia peccata lapsi, sensum gratiae Dei ad tempus ami●tunt. Jud Theol. palate.  The faithful when they fall into gross sins, lose the feeling of Gods favour for a time: it was the judgement of the Palatine Divines on this article. Much like to which was concluded by the Embdans in the Synod. 
Jud Embdan. de hoc artic. Actus peccati ex q●odam consensu p●rpetrati, cu● actuali fiduciâ de remissione peccatorum nequit consistere.  That an actual sin committed by consent, cannot stand with an actual assurance of remission of sins. More pitthily and presly speak our Divines to this purpose. 
Suffrag. Brit. de art. 5. expli. thes. 3. Quinet●ā r●atum damnabilem contrahunt, ita ut dum in co statu impaenitentes persistunt, nec debeant, nec possint aliter sibi persuadere, quam se esse morti obnoxios.  The Regenerate when they fall into foul sins, contract a damnable guilt: so as while they continue impenitently in that estate, they neither ought nor can persuade themselves otherwise then that they lye open to eternal death. And a few leaves after, they deliver this for their position, That the persuasion of faith( that a man shal be saved) cannot put forth itself into act without the study of holiness, and the use of means. And they give this reason of it in opening their thesis. Because sanctification which is the companion of justification, cannot consist without a purpose of obedience. Which habitual purpose, 
Ib. thes. 2. art. 5. de cert. persev. Extra studium sanctitatis,& usum mediorum, non potest in actum exire haec fidei persuasio.  though interrupted with many slips, is sufficient to the Elect to keep their state of justification whole; but yet to the having a comfortable assurance of their justification, an actual purpose is necessary. Neither can any man by the testimony of the Spirit speaking to his Spirit, say, I do firmly believe, that I shall continue without deficiency in a state of grace, unless he can also out of a sincere heart add this, I do firmly resolve to walk in the ways of Gods holy commandements. Much less can a lively act of confidence stand with an actual and direct purpose of sinning: neither can we without an unsavoury contradiction imagine any man saying thus with himself, I am verily persuaded that eternal life cannot be taken from me; and yet it is my purpose to serve my lusts. That these are inconsistible, our Saviour sheweth, where he saith, No man can serve two masters, Matth. 6.24. By all these testimonies it appeareth to be true, that a state of sin and assurance of salvation cannot stand together.  
And the reason is, because assurance is the testimony of a good conscience, which the Regenerate man wanteth when he falleth into wilful transgressions. I say, it is the testimony of a good conscience, and I prove it, 2 Cor. 1.12. where it is said, Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in sincerity and godly purity, we have had our conversation in the world: It is as much as if he had said, Our assurance that we are in grace, is the testimony of our conscience: for this must go before rejoicing, as smoke before fire. The testimony of a good conscience is rejoicing, effectivè,( for the fruit of it is joy) assurance also, formaliter, for the very nature of assurance is the testimony of conscience. This therefore is one plain proof. Another we have in 2. Tim. 4.7, 8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, &c. Here 1. is a double certainty mentioned by S. Paul,( 1) A certainty of his salvation. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown.( 2) A certainty of his final sanctification. I have finished, &c. 2. This latter certainty is impliedly demonstrated by the first: for it is as if he had said; I shall wear the crown of righteousness, I know I shall: my conscience telleth me so, because it beareth me witness, that I have fought a good fight, &c. And what is this in effect, but that which I say, that assurance of salvation is the testimony of a good conscience? Thirdly, I prove it, Rom. 8.16. where St. Paul saith; The Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. These words may be thus resolved. 1. Here is a thing supposed, viz. that the Saints know that they are the children of God. 2. The means by which they come to this assurance are mentioned: they are two; first the testimony of Gods spirit; next the testimony of their own spirit; the Spirit witnesseth it to their spirits, &c.  
Gods Spirit doth witness this three ways;( 1) by laying down marks in the Scriptures, by which Gods children may be known from such as are not. Some of which are these; As many as are lead by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, Rom. 8.14. Hereby we know that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren, 1 Joh. 3.14. and before, ver. 10. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doth not righteousness, is not of God, &c.( 2) By working in them such graces as are peculiar to the children of God: It is his work, to renew the soul, Tit. 3.5. to sanctify, 2 Thess. 2.13. In respect of this work is he called, the Earnest of our Inheritance, and the seal of our Redemption, Ephes. 1.13, 14. As St. John knew Christ to be the son of God, when he saw the Spirit descending and remaining on him, Joh. 1.33. So the Regenerate know themselves to be the sons of God by the Spirits infusi●n of his graces into them: they are lively and evident stamps and marks of a man in favour with God.( 3) By kindling in their hearts when he pleaseth, some extraordinary good motions, and working in them some sweet and unspeakable glimpses, and apprehensions of Gods love, which St. Paul calleth the shedding of his love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Rom. 5.5. But of these, the two first ways are the surest: this later manner of testisication, may be counterfeited by some diabolical illusions, and therefore it is not safe resting in this; but in the two former. Thus the Spirit bears witness, and this is the first testimony.  
The second testimony, by which we come to know that we are the children of God, is the witness of our own spirits, i. our own consciences informed and assisted in their work by the Spirit of God. Now, how do our consciences bear witness of this? 1. By apprehending what d●scriptions are given in Gods Word, of Gods Children. 2. By discerning these characters and marks to be in us. 3. By inferring from the apprehension it hath of both these; that we are the sons of God. This testimony is properly the conclusion of a practical syllogism, which may be framed thus; All they that are lead by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God: But I am lead by the Spirit of God: Therefore I am the child of God. In this syllogism, or reasoning, the proposition, or ground on which conscience worketh, is Gods word, or the Spirit by his word: the assumption, or application of this, is the act of mans conscience bearing witness of his actions: the conclusion is, the act of conscience too, from the apprehension of that mark contained in the proposition to be in us, gathering and concluding us to be the sons of God.  
By this that I have said, we see two things, both serving to our purpose. 1. That the assurance which the Regenerate have of their justification, is nothing but the testimony of their conscience, springing from the knowledge which it hath of their care to please God,& to live by the government of Gods Spirit reigning and ruling in them. 2. That this testification of conscience cannot be where the ground of it( which is a care to please God, and live by his direction) is wanting, and consequently, that in the Regenerate falling into, and lying in any known sin, there can be no assurance of salvation for the present: Except it be a false assurance, built like the house in the Gospel( which fell when the winds blew, and the rain beat upon it) on a sandy foundation; except it be a presumptuous conclusion, arising from no good premises inferring it, and therefore equivalent to no assurance for the present, and proving no assurance in the end; for the candle of the wicked shall be put out, Prov. 24.20.& the hypocrites confidence is like the spiders web, which shall be swept down at the last. Ille sperat, &c. That man hopes to some purpose( saith S. 
Aug. in praefat. Psal 31. Ille sperat, qui co●●m conscien●iam gerit; quem ergo punget mala conscientia retrahit se à sp●,& non sibi sperat nisi damnationem: ut ergo speret, habeat bonam conscientiam,& ut habeat bonam conscientiam credat& operetur.  Austin) who carrieth a good conscience about with him: but he whom an evil conscience stingeth, withdraweth himself from hope, and hopeth for nothing but damnation: therefore that he may hope, let him have a good conscience, and that he may have a good conscience, let him believe and live well. Thus much of the second mischievous effect of presumptuous sins.  
The third mischief that cometh by them is, loss of Grace in some great measure: I mean of that habitual grace, with which God clotheth the soul of every sinner that is converted. That little which I mean to say for the declaration of this, take in three Propositions.  
First, when God regenerateth a man, he infuseth into his soul a company of holy supernatural habits, as may appear,( 1) By the metaphoricall terms by which God is pleased to call this great work. It is called, a quickening of the dead, Ephes. 2.5. when we were dead in sin, he hath quickened us in Christ; a new creation, 2 Cor. 5.17. If any be in Christ, he is {αβγδ}, a new creature. Now, both these works, are done by an infusion and communication of inward vital principles to the persons, quickened or created: and therefore regeneration, which is assimilated to them, is wrought in that manner too. It is also name in express terms, putting of the Spirit into us, Ezek. 36.26, 27. A new Spirit I will put within you: and I will put my Spirit within you, &c. a plain argument, that regeneration is wrought( not by an actual elevation of our actions, but) by an infusion of spiritual principles.( 2) It may be proved by analogy to Adam; when God sanctified our nature in him, he did it by a communication of inward justice and graces unto him, as all grant; but when God converteth a sinner, he doth the same work that he did to Adam, printeth his image upon the soul again, and restoreth that original justice( though in a less and lower degree) which he gave us at first; and therefore it is styled a putting on of the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and true holinesse, Ephes. 4.24. The meaning is, that the same grace is put on in the conversion of a sinner, which was communicated to us in our creation. And Col. 3.10. saith the Apostle, Ye have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. In these words he sheweth what the new man is, what that is which we receive in our regeneration; it is that very image of God restored, according to which we were formerly created. Conversion therefore is wrought by an infusion of graces. Besides, we are said expressly to be made partakers of the Divine Nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. which we cannot properly be said to be, but by somewhat of God inhering and dwelling in us, per modum habitus, habitually.  
Secondly, these supernatural habits are poured into the renewed soul, to be principles and foundations of holy actions; that they who are converted, might be enabled easily, and sweetly, and constantly, to live as becometh converted persons. Therefore are they called a well of water, Joh. 4.14. because as a well is a stock by which men are supplied continually with water for their necessities: so, habitual grace is a spiritual stock, by which holinesse is maintained in our actions. For this cause S. John calleth it a remaining seed, 1 Joh. 3.9. Seed put into the ground is the stock of the earth, by which it is enabled to bring forth good fruit, and by this grace are we made able to fructify and serve God in our places. 
Suffrag. Brit p. 77.  The Suffrage calleth these graces fundamental graces, without which a spiritual life cannot consist. This is also signified by the name S. Peter giveth them, of Divine nature. The natures( we know) of creatures are put into them to be principles of their actions, and to incline them with facility to such motions as are agreeable to their kinds,( for actions that are natural are easy to be done:) So, is the new nature of saving grace, vouchsafed to such reasonable creatures as are converted, and set in order to a supernatural end, that with ease and facility they may be enabled to do such actions as are suitable to their high and heavenly end and calling.  
Thirdly, these habitual graces are impaired by presumptuous sins, but how far it is not agreed upon. They are extinguished( some say) even by one mortal sin; whether effectivè, by the efficiency, and malignant force and influence of the sin upon them, as life is extinguished by poison, or merito●iè, meritoriously, per modum poenae tali peccato debitae ex ordinatione divina, after the manner of a punishment due by Gods appointment to such a sin, as life is taken away by felony; it is not fully agreed upon by the schools. Though Aquinas determine against the physical efficiency of sin in expelling those habits of grace, because they are infused by God, and not acquired by industry. But it is their common tenant, that by such a sin they are voided out of the soul.  
More particularly, they say 3. things.( 1.) That a mortal sin doth wholly expel the habit of charity.( 2.) That it taketh away from the habits of faith and hope which remain, the stamp of saving grace, and the efficacy of making us acceptable to God, because they are not mingled with charity, which is the life of the soul.( 3.) That even the habits of faith and hope, though by every mortal sin promiscuously they be not expelled, yet they are by sins contrary to their proper acts. And so upon the matter they say, That by mortal sin grace is totally turned out of the soul.  
And this they endeavour to prove, by the example of our first Parents, who( say they, and we aclowledge) for their eating of the forbidden fruit, were stripped of original justice, and as a sign and signification of it, were turned out of Paradise: and by the example of us their woeful posterity, who were also devested of that royal rob of innocency and grace, the Apostle telling us, that we have all sinned, and are deprived of the glory of God, Rom. 3.23. as also by the examples of the revolting Angels, who for their sin, together with their habitation were discharged of their integrity: and by the parable of the slothful servant for the hiding of his talent punished with the loss of his talent, our Saviour Christ making a general application of that patt of the parable to all: from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath, Mat. 25.29 But this School-doctrine is not so well relished or swallowed by a great many of our side, and therefore seeing it proveth a question, yea and a quarrel too, I will have nothing to say to it. That which all sides agree upon I may be bold to say, That by presumptuous sins, these fundamental graces suffer some decay and diminution in themselves, and in some of their operations an intercision.  
1. They suffer some decay in themselves. For they are qualities; and therefore capable of intention and remission, as heat and could are, and they are in the soul in an alterable condition, God having not determined them to their pitch, and settled them in an indivisible point in this life: and therefore they may rise and fall, ebb and flow, increase and diminish. And so they do many times in Gods children, as we may see, Matth. 24.12. where Christ saith, The love of many shall wax could: and Revel. 2.4. I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love, i.e. that heat and vigour of love, which thou hadst in thee when thou wast first espoused unto Christ: and Revel. 3.2. where the Spirit biddeth the Church of Sardis, to strengthen the things which remained, which were ready to die. All these places show, that hot love may be could, and graces which were strong and vigorous may fall into a languishing condition. The same thing is intimated in the speech of S. Paul to Timothy, 2 Tim. 1.6. I put thee in remembrance, {αβγδ}, to stir up the gift which is in thee, &c. The word is metaphoricall, and signifieth to kindle, or quicken fire that is dying and going out: so that it is as much as if he had said, Blow up those dying sparks of grace which are in thee. If the fire of grace were dying and decaying in such a man as Timothy, doubtless they may waste in us. In the 1 Thes. 5.19. Q ench not the Spirit, saith the Apostle. It should seem by this place, that Gods graces may deficere, die, though not in themselves, yet in subjecto, in their subject. For fire is then properly quenched, when it is quiter put out: but surely, less we cannot understand by this word, then this, that grace may be in some measure quenched, i. weakened. Now because grace is compared to fire, therefore Divines use to say, That as fire may decay two ways: so doth grace.( 1) Per remotionem prohibentis, by removing, or withholding that which would hinder. Fire must needs wear away, if wood or coal, which should maintain it, be withheld: So if we forbear spiritual exercises, which are as fuel to our graces, they will languish.( 2.) Per admissionem contrarii, by applying that which is contrary to it. If one would put out fire, either wholly or in part, there is no speedier way to do it, then by throwing on good store of water, for that being contrary to the nature of fire, will put it out: so, a ready way to abate the heat of grace is, to commit sinful acts, because 'vice and holinesse are of contrary natures, and if they do not expel each other, because they are perhaps together in remiss degrees, as heat and could in luke-warm water, yet they are always quarreling, and wasting one the other. From these two things, viz.( 1) that our graces may be impaired in themselves; and( 2) that one way to impair them is, by sin, that which we are proving will follow: That when a Regenerate man committeth deliberate sins, he diminisheth his graces.  
2. They suffer some intercision and eclipse of some of their operations; as the Divines of Gelderland in their judgement upon the fifth Article about perseverance gave up, who said, That the chief acts and operations of habitual graces, might fall to the ground for a time, and often did, not onely more or less, but even totally, though not finally. Pareus giveth an instance in faith. Faith( saith he) is then said to justify, when it exerciseth its proper act of apprehending the remission of sins: But this act, a sick faith, a wounded faith, a faith oppressed with the filth of the flesh, and bound as it were with the fetters of sins, neither doth nor can exercise.  
But you will say, What if the Regenerate man do by his presumptions sustain some loss in his graces, what great hurt doth he receive by that?  
I answer, he sustaineth more damage hereby, then he could sustain were he stripped of all outward blessings: for all the gold in the world is not worth the least degree and dram of grace. What the Apostle saith of faith, it is a precious faith, 2. Pet. 1.1. is true of love, hope, and all other saving graces, they are precious things. For God bestoweth them out of his special mercy in Christ, and for this end, that the reasonable nature might by them be enabled to obtain the glorious end to which God hath created it, and to be partaker of that blessed immortality, which is brought to light in the Gospel: which cannot be said of the greatest beauties and braveries of the world. Is it nothing for a man to lose his crown? for Reuben to be deprived of his excellency, Gen. 49.4? for that soul that was rich and clothed in scarlet, to become wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, with the Church of Laodicea, Revel. 3.17? for a man that hath made his nest by the stars, and lived like an Angel among men, to be pulled down, brought as it were to his grave, and become unus cum caeteris, like one of us, as they said of nabuchadnezzar, Esay 14.10. like ordinary vulgar persons? If the proverb be true, Miserum est fuisse foelicem, It is a great misery to have been happy; then is the Christian who was rich, but now is poor in grace, a most miserable man.  
Such a man is( 1) a burden to himself: for he loseth that sweet familiarity which he was wont to have with God, and he heareth, prayeth, and performeth other duties of piety, yea of justice, temperance, and charity,( if in this lapsed condition he do perform them at all) but coldly, and in a heartless and therefore a comfortless fashion: as a man that walketh with a broken leg, or a bide that flieth with wings half clipped. These duties to which he was wont to repair with as much appetite and delight as to his appointed food, are now become unsavoury and burdensome to him, through the weakness of his spiritual principles: and therefore he is a burden to himself.  
( 2.) He is also a burden to others, as an unprofitable three is to the ground on which it standeth. For he doth or can do but little good in his place, during this his low estate, as a dim light doth but little service, and salt which hath lost his savour is good for nothing( as our Saviour telleth his Disciples, Mat. 5.13.) but to be cast out of doors, and trodden under foot. Such men, because of their former profession and abilities, are reputed and repaired to( perhaps) as cisterns of living waters for comfort and refreshing, for advice and counsel: but when men are come to them, they find them but broken cisterns, that hold no water. Or, they are like to those fathers and mothers in the Lamentations, who, when their children came unto them and said, Where is corn and wine? were not able to satisfy them; and therefore, like the barren fig-tree, Luk. 13.7. they do but cumber the ground.  
( 3.) They are a by-word also, and objects of every mans scorn,( as the Monks were, who, when they began to degenerate, and lose their ancient zeal and purity, gave good occasion to the Poets of exercising their wits, and making themselves merry with their fat bellies; O monachi, vestri stomachi sunt amphora Bacchi, &c.) It is reputed a disgrace to a man to become a bankrupt: once proclaimed such an one, and for ever debased in mens esteem: how much more is it an infamous thing to be a bankrupt in grace; especially considering that such decays come not upon men by Gods immediate and inevitable hand and providence, as it may in the bankrupt; but by their own folly, and Gods revenging justice.  
The Hebrews call the Winter {αβγδ} because it is a reproach, either actively to the earth, as if it had no fructifying power in it, and to the other seasons of the year, as if they were all like to the Winter; or passively, to itself, because it is a time( by reason of the sad face of it, and the intermission or cessation of chirping of birds, warmth of the sun, fruitfulness of the earth, leaves, blossoms, and comeliness of trees) which is evil spoken of. It is a name that befitteth a decayed Christian as well. For he is a reproach to the Ordinances of God, and the means allowed us by God for our growth in grace, as if they had no virtue in them to make the man of God wise unto salvation, and able to every good work. Again, he is a reproach to his profession and company, as if all Christians were like himself: and thirdly, he is a blemish to himself, both in life and death; his life is like a lamp despised, as Job speaketh, and his ashes are without honour.  
( 4.) That man who loseth his graces is deeply in Gods debt, because he hath wasted, or weakened, or lost those heavenly talents which God gave him to keep and increase, and not to embezzle and waste: though God perhaps, as a Judge punishing the abuse of his graces, withdraw them; yet it shall be imputed to him that giveth the cause why they are withdrawn. If privation of original justice be a sin, because debuit inesse, we should have kept this justice still; I may truly say, he that deprives himself in any measure of these holy habits of saving grace, by his licentious transgression, is a sinner, and a great one too, liable to further judgement for so doing.  
And so I come to the fourth calamity that followeth deliberate sins in the soul, and that is loss of actual graces, especially of Divine protection in time of temptation.  
When God converteth a sinner, 
4. loss  he giveth him( as I have shewed) habitual grace: but that is not enough to carry him steadfastly to all duties, and to uphold him in all the varieties of this mortal condition. Aquinas giveth us the reason, quia non totaliter sanat, because it worketh not a perfect, but a partial cure upon the soul: he standeth in need of Gods actual concurrence with him upon all occasions, and he wanteth perpetual supplies of actual grace:( 1) to direct and inform his understanding, which is but imperfectly enlightened. For we know but in part, saith St. Paul, 1 Corinth. 13.9. and see but through a glass darkly, ver. 12.( 2) to excite and remember him of his duty, and persuade him to it by way of a Monitor and remembrancer;( 3) to facilitate the work of obedience( which otherwise would lye heavy enough upon him) and to make the Bias and inclination of his renewed heart stronger toward goodness, to be like a prosperous wind to a ship, which maketh it go merrily toward the Haven;( 4) and to protect him against the assaults of temptation, as a lantern doth a candle, that those whisking blasts may not extinguish his faith and grace, and blow him out. And therefore God of his goodness,( as he goeth along with his creatures, when he hath made them, and affordeth the all needful helps for the maintaining of their beings, and the producing of their actions, and therefore is called by S. Peter, 1 Epist. 4. chap. ver. 19. a faithful Creator: so he) vouchsafeth his converted ones the perpetual assistance of his grace, that they may live according to their new nature in every thing, and may so pass through things temporal, that they finally lose not things eternal.  
( 1.) He enlighteneth and directeth them( as occasion requireth) as we red Esay 30.21. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying; this is the way, walk in it, when thou turnest to the right hand, or to the left. And Rom. 8.26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, .i. he supplieth our ignorance, prompteth, and teacheth us what to pray for. And Mat. 10.19. Dabitur in illa hora, It shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak, .i. you may be( through your ignorance) to seek for words, and answers, when for my Names sake you shall be questioned and put to it; but here is your comfort, my spirit shall inform your understandings, when God shall call you to such conflicts.  
( 2.) Because they are apt to be drowsy, he rowseth and awakeneth them by effectual motions; Awake thou that sleepest, Eph. 5.14. And, Arise my Love and faire one, and come away; for lo, the Winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear in the earth, the birds sing, &c. Cant. 2.10, 11. It is his constant practise, except he be discouraged, as we may see Revel. 3.20. Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him,& will sup with him, and he with me.  
( 3.) And that they may find( as he saith) his yoke easy, his burden light, Mat. 11.30. and his commandements not grievous, 1 Joh. 5.3. He draweth the yoke with them, and by secret animations hearteneth them, by sweet inspirations enableth them to do their work with ease. And in this respect they are said to be ( lead by the Spirit) Rom. 8.14. as a mother leadeth her weak child, and enableth it to go the better, so doth the Spirit led Gods children as it were by the hand, and strengtheneth them to all well doing.  
( 4.) Gods children are subject to the daily invasions of their spiritual enemy, who goeth about continually seeking to devour them. For he seeth that the regenerate are, 1. escaped out of his hands, 2. appointed to be his Judges, 1 Cor. 6. which he, being an envious and a proud spirit, cannot endure. See tart. l. de poen. c. 7. It grieves him( saith the Father) to see Tot mortis opera diruta, so many works of death demolished in him; Tot titulos damnationis retro erasos, so many former titles of his damnation blotted out. Itaque observat, oppugnat, obsidet, therefore he noteth the converted, assaults them, besiegeth them: and because he doth so, God spreadeth his wings over them, and either restraineth the devil from tempting them, or supporteth them in the time of temptation. As a King, when any of his Cities are besieged, doth not leave them to their ordinary strength, to their walls, and weapons,& such standing provisions as they had before, but sendeth in fresh supplies of souldiers, victuals, munition, and such other things as their present exigence calleth for; so doth God deal with his servants. When our Saviour saw the Wolf preparing to come among his sheep, he left them not to such strength as they had, with that alone to tug and grapple with their spiritual adversary, but ran to his Father, begged further help and assistance from him, that so they might stand in their evil day, as we may see Luke 22.31, 32. Satan hath desired you( saith he) to winnow you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy Faith fail not. When S. Paul was buffeted by a messenger of Satan, he besought the Lord thrice, and received protection, My grace is sufficient for thee: i. thou shalt have aid enough, fear not, I will sand thee in so much help as shall make thee able to stand, 2 Cor. 12.7, 8, 9. And thus he dealeth with all his children: for that promise Psal. 91.11, 12. He shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways: they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a ston, is general, and belongs to all Gods family. And therefore the protection promised in this psalm in the singular number, is in that psalm which is parallel to this, promised in the plural. The Angel of the Lord pitcheth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them Psal. 34.7. them,( 1) all them: for an indefinite proposition, when the matter of it is necessary, and of such consequence, is equivalent to an universal. The Angel in a collective sense, exercitus Angelerum, the Army of Angels pitcheth round about, that is, by his protection compasseth and guardeth them in on every side, as with a wall. Hoc enim significat in circuitu: For this is meant by round about( saith S. 
Basil. con. in Psal. 34.  Basil) For as walls use to stand round about a City, to repel the assaults of enemies on every side; so the Angel of the Lord keepeth such as fear him, à front& à tergo, before and behind, and on all sides: So as when thousands fall at their left hand, and ten thousand at their right, evil shall not come near them. 
Basil. in Psal. 34.)  And in this sense are all such other Scriptures promised a singular protection to the Saints, to be understood:& namely that of Esay 43. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,& through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flamme kindle upon thee: for I am the Lord thy God, the holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, &c. God shall tread Satan under their feet shortly, Rom. 16.20. but not yet. The protection he giveth for the present, is, Ability to stand against him, and all his shots and batteries without falling. And this is a far more glorious protection then the other, finely expressed by the School-phrase of Manutentia Dei, Gods holding them in his hand. All these kinds of aids God superaddes and sendeth in to such as are regenerate; they are usually termed actual graces; graces, because they are not deserved; actual, because they are conferred per modum auxilii transeuntis, after the manner of transient supplies when there is need, and not per modum habitus permanentis, after the manner of permanent and fixed habits, as those are which constitute the new creature.  
All these God withdraweth from the lapsed Christian, and withholdeth till faire weather be made again. Mistake me not; when I say, that God in such a case withdraweth and holdeth in his actual graces, I would be understood of those more plentiful and liberal aids by which a man might be enabled with ease to avoid sin, and to live holily; not of those auxilia necessaria, motions and operations of ●●●●e, which are simply and absolutely necessary for the avoiding of sin; these God continues still. For otherwise the sins which persons so deserted do fall into, for want of grace enabling them to forbear them, may seem to afford an excuse to them that commit them. But his larger measure of grace he taketh away. And hence it is, that he is said to hid his face, Psal. 30.7. and to hid it from men because of their sins, Esay. 59.2. Your sins have hide his face from you: and to go to his own place till the people aclowledge their offence, Hos. 5.15. Because hen men sin, he withdraweth the powerful presence and protection of his Grace, for that is the thing meant by those figurative speeches.  
All such places likewise, where God is said to forsake men, to harden their hearts, to give them up to their own hearts lust, to poure upon them the Spirit of giddiness, to led them into temptation, &c. do prove this. For we must understand these speeches negativè, in a negative, or privative sense, of the restraint of such gracious ●●●rations in sinful souls, as being present, would hinder their obstinate hardening of themselves, and their foolish and desperate exposing of themselves to temptations; and not positivè, in a positive construction, as if God did by positive acts either impress wicked qualities in the hearts of men, or deliver them up into the hands of the Devil, to be hurried quò illi placet, into what impieties soever he thinks good to bring them. God forbid we should harbour any such conceits of God: for this were to make the lover of men to be a hater of men; the restrainer of sin to be a tempter to sin: this were instead of saying with the Apostle, He would have all men to be saved, to say, He would have most men to be damned, and he doth what he can to thrust them into the mouth of hell.  
For particular proofs, I may bring that place of Exod. ch. 32.25. where it is said, That Aaron had made the people naked to their shane among their enemies: by helping them to bring forth that grievous sin of Idolatry, with which they travailed at that time. He made them naked say some, he did occasionally( by being a minister to them in this sin) lay open and discover to the world their shameful ingratitude against the mighty God who had brought them out of Egypt, preserved and sustained them in the wilderness, and done such great things for them. He made them naked, say others, because he stripped them of their ear-rings and ornaments to make the Idol with: these two expositions Vatablus giveth. But others, 
Vatab. annotat. in Exod. 32.25.  and among them Calvin, expound the place, of the removal of Gods gracious protection from them for their sin. They were said to be naked( saith he) eo quòd privati, 
Calv. comm. in hunc locum.  &c. Because they were deprived of the protection of God, which is called the dwelling place; I may add, the shadow, the shield, the strong hold, the hiding place of his people. sin therefore maketh men naked, and robbeth them of the protecting grace of God.  
That same prayer also of Davids proveth it, Psal. 51.12. Uphold me with thy free Spirit. By Spirit we are to understand spiritual graces; by free Spirit, either a voluntary and a ready mind to do Gods service without reluctancy and hanging back, or a generous and noble forwardness of heart to such excellent and Kingly actions as became his place,( for the 
{αβγδ}.  original words may signify either, or indeed both of these:) and by Davids prayer for such a noble Spirit, for such actual dilatations of heart as before he had, we may see that he wanted them. He perceived( saith Musculus) that he was much deprived of these gifts of the Spirit, 
Muscu●● in Ps, 51.12.  after his so grievous sins, and therefore he prayed for the restitution of them. And so it falleth out continually with those who give themselves to the pleasures of the flesh; they grow even brutish, they lose the fervour and largeness of spirit to holy duties, which were imparted to them before. We may gather thus much also out of Psal. 91.12. They shall keep thee in all thy ways: for in those words, in all thy ways, God plainly implieth, that this promise of Divine protection is conditional, and consequently is not fulfilled, if the condition of our endeavour to keep ourselves in a good way be not performed. And so our Saviour understood it, and no otherwise; for he durst not cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple( which had been a deviating, and stepping out of the way) in hope he should notwithstanding that presumption have had his Fathers protection. And so S. Basil understands the other psalm. The Angel of the Lord pitcheth about such as fear him, si non ipsum per prava opera fugaverimus, if we chase him not away by our bad lives. For as smoke driveth away bees, and bad smells Pigeons, so doth the bad savour and smell of your sins our Guardian Angel from us. If graces worthy this angelical protection, and a mind rich in divine contemplation possess thy soul, thou art a treasure, and God must needs protect his treasures. We may see by many examples in the Scripture, that it hath been Gods usual practise to depart from his people, when they provoked him by their sins. When Achan had stolen, and hidden some Canaanitish goods, contrary to Gods command, God presently withdrew his gracious and victorious concurrence with the people in their battels. See Josh. 7.5, 11. where( 1) Gods forsaking them in their need is mentioned, and that which followed upon it, their flight; and( 2) the reason is shewed, Israel hath sinned, and transgressed the covenant that I commanded them, &c. therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies.  
When Samson by the means of Delilah had lost his hair, and so had broken his vow,( for he was a Nazarite) and grievously sinned against God: it is said, judge. 16.19. that his strength went from him; and ver. 20. he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. These two verses put together show, that his strength lay not in his hair, but in his innocency, and in Gods protection of him while he was upright; and that his weakness lay not in the loss of that hair, but in Gods departure; and that when men sin foolishly against God, he answereth them according to their folly, and leaveth them.  
At the Feast of Pentecost( a little before the destruction of Jerusalem) when the Priests after their manner went into the Temple in the night season to offer sacrifice, 
Joseph. bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 12.  they reported that they heard a rattling noise, and these words following, Let us go hence. If this story be true, it was the voice( no doubt) of those blessed spirits to whom God had committed the protection of that City; when the measure of their iniquity was grown full, they left them, and with an audible voice( for the instruction of men) called one another to be gone from that sinful place. And so will those ministering Spirits, as S. Paul styleth them, 
{αβγδ}  Heb. 1.14. serve all those persons, or people, that depart from God. And if they take up their Tents, and pack away, it is a sign that God is first gone. For the King of Heaven and his heavenly Courtiers, come and go together: thus we see the point proved.  
Now, from this withdrawing of that measure or assistance which was vouchsafed before, followeth accidentally many a slip: the man thus bereaved of a great part of his spiritual strength, is likely to fall with Samson into the hands of the philistines, I mean infernal spirits, who will put out his eyes, bind him in fetters, and put him to grind and drudge like a slave: as a ship fracto gubernaculo, 
author imp●r●oper is in Mat. hom. 37.  the rudder being broken, is carried whither the tempest will; so a man, these aids of grace being withheld for his sin, doth for the most part what the devil will have him. Thus much is intimated in those two petitions which our Saviour hath taught us, led us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The first of these concerneth the means by which we may be kept from sin; the second, the end for which that means is available: and that which we may learn from both of them is, That the Divine protection of us in the hour of temptation,( for that we mean when we pray, led us not, &c.) is an effectual means to keep us from sin, and by consequent, that the suspension of it is an occasion of a mans falling thereinto. It is no new Divinity, That God oft-times doth punish one sin with another; and it is true, if the meaning be, that God after men have sinned, is pleased to call in those actual inspirations and motions, which would, were they present, be very avaylable for the hindering of future impieties. A miserable thing it must therefore needs be, to be out-lawed as it were, and deprived of Gods Fatherly care and custody. This is the fourth mischief, caused by deliberate sins.  
The fifth is, 
5 Effect.  loss of the acceptation of our former, and present acts of obedience.  
The works which are done by men, as touching their morality, are of four sorts.  
1. Viva, living works; and they are such actions, as for their kind are good, and come from a good fountain, a principle of grace, and are done by a man in Gods favour. They are called living works, because the fountain of saving grace from whence they issue, is the very life of the soul. These, though sprinkled and soiled with some defects and infirmities, are yet acceptable to God. What else doth the cuge bone serve, well done good servant, with which in the Parable the Master did entertain his good servants, imply? For, euge, well done, is a note of a friendly acceptance. The reason why God accepteth them is, 1. Because they come from the Spirit, and are the expressions of his own Image, 
Calv. I●st. l. 3. c. 17. Sect. 4, 5. Ubicunqu● faci●m s●a Deus contemplatu●, illam nuritò amat& honore habet.  which God cannot choose but love( as Calvin saith) wheresoever he beholdeth it. Deus coronat dona sua, God useth to crown his own gifts in his servants, saith Saint Augustine. 2. Because the person is in Christ; looked upon in the face of Christ, and therefore pleasing to God. It is said, that God had respect to Abel, and to his offering Gen. 4.4.& the Apostle giveth the reason, Heb. 11.4. because he was a believer, and a member of Christ: By faith Ab●l offered up a better sacrifice then Cain. From these places is drawn that noted speech in use among Divines; that the person must please God before the work can: which if it be meant of bare persons, is false; for Gods love is not terminated at mere entities, nor expressed toward the just man but for his righteousness sake, which is the first and principal object of the Divine love. But if it be meant of persons qualified and clothed with Christ and his merits, and graces, it is true; because God loveth the pe●son finding him in Christ, therefore he accepteth the good work of this beloved person. And the reason of this St. John intimateth, Revel. 8.4. where he saith, that the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints, ascended up before God out of the Angels hand. This Angel is Christ, this incense his merits, the mingling of the prayers of the Saints with this incense, is the supplying, or covering of the defects of their prayers,& consequently of all their other holy actions, with the merits of Christ; and the ascending of this incense& their prayers before God, is his acceptance of thē thus converted with Christs merits: and the reason why the prayers ascended, was, because the incense ascended that was their vehiculum, the pillar of smoke in wc they mounted up to heaven: that is, in plainer terms, the pious& good actions of men in Christ are accepted of God, because they are perfumed, and their defects covered from the face of GOD, by the merits of Jesus Christ. Hence is it that S. Peter saith, Our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God by Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5. acceptable, but by him.  
The second sort are mortua, dead works, and they are such as are for their substance good, but done by a man without grace. For if grace be the life of the soul, then works done without grace, must needs be dead works. As S. James saith, Faith without works is dead, so may we say, Works without grace are dead: quia carent vitali principio, because they want the principle of a spiritual life. These kinds of works are not accepted of God. Understand me rightly; I mean, they are not vere salutaria, immediately accepted to everlasting life. If heathen men, or among us mere carnal men should die in their infidelity, and natural condition; the works of temperance, chastity, liberality, mercy, or of any other moral virtues, which they did( perhaps) while they lived, and when they died, would not be rewarded with eternal happiness. For the Apostle saith, 1 Cor. 13.3. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. In which words he determineth, that the best actions done out of grace are unprofitable to the doer; unprofitable secundum quid, in some respect, because they have not an immediate connexion with, or title to glory.  
And thus( I suppose) is St. Austin to be understood in that noted speech of his; 
Aug. de spi.& ●●t. cap. 28. Sicu non impediunt à vita aeterna jusium quaedā p●ccata venialia, sine quibus ●aec vit● non ducit●r: sic ad salutem aeternum a●hil prosunt impio aliqua b●na opera, sine quibus d●ffic●l●me vita cujuslibet possimi hoins invenitur.  As certain venial sins, without which this life is not lead, do not hinder the just man from eternal life: so, some good works without which the life of a bad man is very hard to be found, do nothing profit to salvation. And the reason is, because they are not, verè bona, truly good in a theological sense; for as much as they are destitute of a good fountain, a good manner of doing them, and perhaps a good end too, all which are required to the constitution of a work truly good, according to that maxim of the schools Bonum oritur ex integris, malum ex quolibet defectu, to make a thing good all requisites must concur, but the absence of one rendereth it evil. In this sense therefore they are not acceptable: but in many other respects they are. For  
1. They are temporally rewarded, as the examples of Ahab, 1 King. 21.29. whom and whose house, for a little feigned humiliation, God spared for four generations; and of Nebuchadnzezar, Ezek. 29.18, 19. to whom for his service to God against Tyrus, God gave Egypt for a reward; and of many others, do evidently show: especially that of the Roman Empire, of which St. Austin saith, 
Aug. t. 2. ep. 5. ad Mar. prope finem. Ostendit Deus in opul●ntissimo& praeclaro imperio Romanorum, quantum valerent civiles etiam sine vera religione virtutes; ut intelligeretur hac additâ, fieri homines cives alterius civitatis, cujus rex veritas cujus lex charitas, cujus modus aeternitas.  In that most flourishing and prosperous Empire of the Romans, God declared to the world, how much even civil virtues without true religion do profit men in this life, and that these civil virtues, with the addition of true godliness, would bring men to be citizens of another city, whose King is verity, whose Law is charity, whose condition is eternity.  
2. They lessen their damnation that do them: Fabricius( 
Aug. l 4. contr. Julian. c. 3. M●nus enim Fabricius. q. ā Catilina punietur, non quia iste bonus, said quia ille magis malus;& minus impius qu m Catilina Fabricius; non veras virtutes hab ado, ed à veris virtutibus non multum deviando.  saith S. Austin) shall be punished less then Catiline, because he was less wicked,& did not want much of having true virtues, though he had thē not.  
3. They shall be rewarded with further gifts and graces; for God hath made a liberal promise, 
Mat. 13.12.  that to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. This promise some restrain to gifts of the same kind, as if this were our Saviours meaning: He that useth gifts of nature well, shall have more and greater endowments of nature; he that useth preventing grace well, shall have a greater degree of preventing grace; and he that useth the grace of conversion well, shall have more sanctifying graces conferred upon him. But me thinketh the Text should not be so restrained; partly, because it suiteth not well with the Context; and partly, because it is not so agreeable to the scope of our Saviours words.  
First, it suiteth not with the Context; for the words are insinuated as a reason why the Disciples were converted and enlightened, and the rest were not. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given: and would you know the reason why it is given to you, and not to them? It is, because to him that hath shall be given, &c. you were humble, teachable, careful according to your former abilities to serve God, therefore those mysteries are revealed to you; and they were high-minded, self-conceited, untractable, bad husbands of their former talents, therefore it is not given to them to know them. Surely, if Christ make the honest minds of the Disciples, and their good moralities which they had before their conversion, one reason why they were converted, there is no reason to understand this promise, of further gifts of nature onely.  
Secondly, this interpretation doth not svit with our Saviours drift, which was, to stir up men to be humble, teachable, tractable, good stewards of such gifts as they had already received, as we may see in the whole Parable of the Talents, which is shut up with this application, Mat. 25.28, 29. If all that he had meant in this general promise, had been this, I advice you all that hear me this day, to be faithful servants to me in the employment of your natural parts and abilities, and you shall have more endowments of nature,( which you may have, and yet go to hell, but not any gifts of saving grace, which will bring such to heaven as have them;) this promise would have been but a feeble motive to have wrought upon natural men, and to have stirred them up to the practise of moral virtues, or preparative actions and exercises. I take this promise therefore to be general: and according to the general construction of it, I say, that although good works done by him that is in the state of nature, are not immediatè ordinata ad salutem, immediately ordained, or accepted to salvation, yet they are mediatè, mediately, because they are usually retributed with the grace of conversion, which is the means to glorification; not for any congruity that is between them and true saving grace, but through Gods liberality; not because they deserve it, but because it hath pleased God frankly to promise it.  
A third sort of works are mortificata, mortified works: so called, because they had life in them, and there was life in the person that did or doth them, but this life is now intercluded, and the power which it had of making them living and acceptable works, is for the present suspended. We use to say of a limb which had life in it, but now hath little or none, that it is a mortified member. It is not a dead member, because it hath had life and spirits in it, and may perhaps have again, when the passages which are stopped be opened, that so the blood may have recourse thither; but a mortified member, because it is deprived of that life it had, and made dead: and therefore it is a fit term to express the present state of such good works as formerly were, but through some present impediment are not spiritually alive, or acceptable to God.  
Such are all the good works of Regenerate men fallen into gross sins.  
A fourth sort of works are mortifera, deadly works. So called, because they bring death and damnation in their merit at least, upon every man that doth them. Of this rank are all wicked and ungodly actions, all presumptuous sins. For of them the Apostle saith, the wages of sin is death, Rom. 6.23.  
Of all these, the works which we are speaking of, are the mortified, the good actions of justified men, lying sub mortali, under the guilt of enormous sins. Of which, I say, that they are not accepted to salvation; neither those which they did before their fall, nor such as they do while they lye in their fall.  
1. Such good actions as were done by them before they fell, when they fall lose their acceptation and reward, as we are taught, Ezek. 18.24. where the Lord speaking of just men turning away from their righteousness, and living like the wicked, saith, All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned, .i not accepted( for God is said to remember and speak of a thing, when he accepteth and rewardeth it, as we may see, Mal. 3.16.) St. Paul. inveighing against the Galatians for their backsliding, among other mischiefs which befell them through their apostasy, insinuateth this; Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain, Gal. 3.4. It seemeth the converted Galatians had been entertained by their countrymen with disgraces, wrongs, and persecutions for Christs sake, and stoutly endured them all: These passions were greater matters then bare actions, and remunerable with a greater reward; yet the Apostle telleth them, that all these were in vain, fruitless and unprofitable to them for the present, because they continued not in their integrity; though not in vain for afterward, if they would repent and get up again. The like is intimated in that exhortation of S. John to the elect Lady and her children, 2. Epist. ver. 8. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things that we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. It seemeth by this, that Gods children, if they fall, do lose the profit of all those good things they have formerly done; and what a heavy thing is that? Perhaps they have forsaken many beloved sins, performed many harsh and unpleasing duties, sustained some wrongs and reproaches for godliness sake: and if they have, for the present they are forgotten, they be as if they had never been, all these are lost while they lye in their sin, and lost eternally, if they lye still. If the King owe a subject a thousand pound, as long as this subject continueth loyal, so long the King is truly his debtor for that money; but if he play the traitor, the money is no longer his, nor is the King his debtor for it; for he hath forfeited that, and all that he hath besides, by his treason to the King. So, if God have received much kindness and service from a man, he maketh himself for those services this mans debtor, so long as he continueth faithful to his God: but if he prove disloyal, and by his sin play the traitor against God, he hath forfeited all, yea and his own soul too; God oweth him nothing now but shane and confusion of face, and that he will be sure to pay him, except he make his peace again.  
2. Such good works as they do for the present, are not accepted neither. And I prove it by two remarkable places;  
The first is Esay 1. ver. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, &c. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hands to tread in my courts? Bring no more oblations in vain, incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of Assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons, and your appointed feasts my soul hateth, they are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hid mine eyes from you, yea when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. This people( we see) did many duties of piety and worship: that is clearly intimated, they offered sacrifices, kept their festivals punctually, came into Gods Courts to worship, spread forth their hands and prayed; and all these duties they performed frequently, they offered many sacrifices, ver. 11. made many prayers, ver. 15. These were commendable actions, all commanded very strictly; and yet how did God entertain them? He was full of them, he delighted not in them, he could not away with them, they were a burden to him, he was weary of the; they were iniquity to him: all these expressions show that he did not respect them. But is this all? No matter whether he cared for them or no, if he did reward them; no this is not all: he saith, they were vain oblations, hateful to him, unprofitable to them; such as he would hid his eyes from, and stop his ears at. When you spread forth your hands, I will hid mine eyes, &c. It is strange( one would think) that God should so slight his own Ordinances, so abhor such Pious and religious services, so precisely and plentifully performed in honour of his Majesty, and obedience to his command. What is the reason of this could affection in God toward these sacred Ceremonies? Himself giveth the reason, v. 15. Your hands are full of blood: they did lye without repentance in their sins, and in such sins as were of a high nature; injustice, and unmercifulness, oppression of widows and fatherless, ver. 17. bloody sins, crimson and scarlet sins, ver. 18. and therefore did God abhor and loathe their duties of religion, so far was he from accepting them.  
The second place is like unto this, it in Esay 58. I will not put down the words at length, because each one may easily see and red them: but in them we may consider two things. 1. What the good duties were, which were done by persons polluted with the guilt, and continuing in the practise of great sins. v. 2. They sought him daily, and delighted to know Gods ways, they did ask of him the ordinances of justice, and took delight in approaching to God, .i. they came to Church duly flocked after Sermons,& resorted to Gods Priests to be instructed: was this all? No, They fasted, they afflicted their souls, ver. 3. They hung down their heads like bul-rushes, and spread sackcloth and ashes under them, v. 5. These were more then ordinary duties, of such severity, and so unpleasing to nature; that many good men are content to shift them off, and Christ durst not put his Disciples to them, as we may see Mat. 9.16, 17. Yet were these harsher exercises of piety and repentance taken up by them; with a conceit( doubtless) of high acceptation, and an expectation of some great rewards, as appeareth by their expostulation with God, v. 3. Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest it not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? 2. We may consider the welcome they had, it was very could and course, ver. 3. Thou seest us not, thou takest no knowledge: and v. 4. God granteth, he did not respect them: for, he assigneth the reason why he did not; Ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness, and v. 5. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? &c. It is as if he should have said, You fast and pray and think much that I should not show myself kind and loving to you, and reward you for your pains: but you need not wonder, nor murmur at it, I have too much cause to neglect you, you are oppressors, cruel exactours of your debts, penurious churls, which hid yourselves from your own flesh, &c.& as long as you are such, I will never accept your devotions. We have too many such( it is to be feared) among us, who lye in oppression, unmercifulness, undutifulness to superiors,& perhaps in secret wantonness and uncleanness, sensuality& drunkenness; and yet while they lye in these sins, they frequent such Churches as they please, repair to Ministers to be resolved in points of conscience, and to be instructed in the duties of their places, they pray in their families, and perhaps by themselves in secret, catechize their servants, keep the Lords day with more then ordinary, or( perhaps) necessary strictness. These are good duties, and yet not accepted, not regarded while performed by persons lying in such sins. As Achans stolen commodities hindered the prosperity of Israel in their warres, and as the Coloquintida in the pot poisoned all the pottage, and a dead Fly putrefieth a whole box of ointment: so, one proud presumptuous sin committed and continued in by a man regenerate, putrefieth all his devotions and religious actions, and depriveth them of their present glory and acceptation. It is true, merita reviviscant, these good actions may( haply) live again, but it is quando resurgimus è peccato, 
Cap. 4.  when they that lie in sin, rise out of it by true repentance, and not before.  
And so I have done with the woeful effects of presumptuous sins, or the mischiefs that befall such persons as grieve the Spirit.   

CHAP. IV.  
Antidotes, by which a Regenerate man may be preserved from presumptuous sins.  
HAving thus declared the nature, danger, and possibility of committing presumptuous sins, it is requisite that I show the means of preventing and curing these sins. For, as it is necessary for a physician to prescribe his Patient {αβγδ}, Preservatives against such dangerous diseases as he findeth him inclinable to, and {αβγδ}, Remedies to recover him, if he chance to fall into them, and therefore a good physician will do the one, as well as the other: so, it is very fitting for us, to whom God hath committed the over-sight of peoples souls, not only to signify what deep and dangerous diseases of spirit men are subject to( even such men as have the best and ablest constitution of soul:) but also to furnish them with rules by which they may be enabled to prevent them, and by which, if they be by occasion seized on by them, they may be directed how to rise out of them again. And therefore I come now to acquaint you, both with the Antidotes against, and the Remedies for presumptuous sins, and the mischiefs attending them. And first of the Antidotes by which they may be prevented: which is the fourth general point which I propounded to myself to insist on.  
These Antidotes 
Antidotes.  are of two sorts. 1. Such as are to be used at all times for the breeding of a good habitual ability in us of abstaining from these wilful sins, at what time soever we shall be tempted to them. 2. Such as may be used in the time of temptation, to furnish us with an actual ability of resisting the temptation, and forbearing the sin we are tempted to.  
The Antidotes of the first sort may be these. 
H●bituall. Daily preservatives.  1. Prayer. 2. fear. 3. Sobriety. 4. Abstinence from smaller sins. 5. Diligence in some good callings. 6. settled resolutions, and if need be, vows. 7. Sanctified use of afflictions. 8. A rectified understanding.  

1 Preservative. Prayer.  The first of these is, Prayer: which is indeed a medicine for all maladies, a Catholicon, a panacea that preventeth all sins, recovereth all sinners. I might here with some of the Fathers enlarge myself in the praise of Prayer, but that would be {αβγδ}, a thing unfit for my purpose. A good preservative it is against temptations and sins; and therefore our Saviour Christ maketh use of it himself, for the upholding of his Disciples under an approaching temptation, as we may see Luke 22.31, 32. Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy Faith fail not. And as he used it himself, so he commended it to his Disciples, as a preservative of singular efficacy, Matth. 26.41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Pray; but why? that ye enter not, &c. i.e. that ye be not overcome and drawn into sin by the force of temptation: 'tis a means therefore to keep from temptation and sin. He did not onely prescribe it them for their preservation, but commendeth it to us for a standing remedy, in the Lords Prayer, when he bids us say, led us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The efficacy of it S. Paul knew full well, and therefore when he was buffeted with a temptation to some great sin, he betaketh him to his prayers, and beseecheth the Lord thrice, that this messenger of Satan might depart from him, 2 Cor. 12.8. And what was the issue? his preservation from the sin suggested, My grace is sufficient for thee. Indeed Saint Paul was now in an actual combat with Satan, in apparent danger of some heinous sin; and therefore he prayeth, and his prayer relieveth him: but did he use it for a daily preservative? No doubt he did: for he knew very well how restless the devil is, and how ready to make use of all occasions to draw men to sin, and how suddenly a temptation( as often times the wind doth) might arise; and he knew too, that if prayer could help him at a pinch, and sustain him when he was pushed at, it would be much more able to strengthen him extra pugnam, out of temptation; and therefore in discretion would always be using it. In Eph. 6.18. having described the number, the nature, and the power of our spiritual enemies, and directed us what armor to put on for the defence of our souls, and the quenching of all fiery darts; he closeth up his direction with a serious advice, to pray always with all manner of supplication and prayer in the Spirit: .i. to pray with strong affections fervently. For, as sacrifices were not accepted, but when they were offered up with fire; so, prayer hath no force except the fire of fervent affections be in it. Now the reason why prayer is so good a preservative, is, 1. Because, all our ability to avoid sin cometh from God, and from those special aids which he sendeth us in the time of trial. Except the Lord keep the city( saith David 127.1.) the watchman waketh but in vain: so, except the Lord guard our souls, our vigilancy and custody of ourselves is to little purpose. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing, i.e. any good thing of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God, saith S. Paul. 2 Cor. 3.5. Much less can we do any good, or avoid any sin without the help of God. We are like to frantic persons( saith Musculus) of ourselves very ready to fly out in a head-strong manner into many disorders, 
Musc. in Ps. 19. v. 13  as the Prophet intimateth in his earnest petition, Psal. 19.13. Cohibe servum tuum, Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. If we do stand, it must be in the strength of God, as Saint Paul ingeruously confesseth for his own part, I can do all things( saith he;) a proud word, had he said no more; but he addeth, through Christ that strengtheners me, Phil. 4.13. In another place he saith, The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom, &c. 2 Tim. 4.18. He knew he should finally avoid all sins against conscience, and so be saved: but from whence, this ability came he acknowledgeth The Lord shall deliver me, &c. They came about me like Bees( saith David, Psal. 118.12.) but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them: i. by the power of God,( for his Name signifieth his power.) So may we say of temptations to sin, they come about us like Bees,( buzzing into our minds evil thoughts, and preparing to sting us by drawing us into consent:) but it is in the name and by the power of the Lord that we do destroy them. And therefore the Apostle saith expressly, Rom. 16.20. The God of peace shall tread down Satan under your feet. If he be trodden down, it is God that doth it for us. 
Socrat. Eccl. hist. book 1. c. 2 About noon, the day somewhat declining, be saw in the sky a lightsome pillar, in form of a across, wherein these words were engraven, In this overcome.  In hoc signo vinces. In this sign,( or by him that was crucified on this cross, and represented by this sign) thou shalt overcome; was the miraculous instruction given to great Constantine in his journey to fight with his enemies. And in hoc signo vincimus, by the power of his cross do we overcome sins and Satan in our earthly warfare. And therefore to pray earnestly to God from whom our help cometh, must needs be a sovereign preservative; had we strength in ourselves we needed not prayer: but having none but what God imparteth, we must pray, if we will have it. Secondly, God hath made& ordained prayer to be the means of obtaining his help: and therefore it must needs be a singular defence to the soul. I prove this by that speech of our Saviour, Mat. 7.7. ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. In which words, 1. God promiseth to give us all good things,( among which, help to avoid sin is none of the least) 2. He requireth a condition to be performed, and that is prayer, set out under three forms of speech, Ask, seek, knock; all of these, are no more then this, Pray and ye shall speed. I might add many places more wherein prayer is urged by a promise of hearing and answering, and consequently required as a condition: namely, Psalm. 50.15. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will hear thee, &c. And Jam. 1.5. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, &c. But I forbear.  
The evidence of this made the Ancients to call prayer Clavem coeli, the key of heaven, because it openeth heaven and all Gods heavenly treasures; Innuā Paradisi, the gate of Paradise, because it letteth men in to God, and bringeth them with their requests into his presence. I may add, Canalem gratiae, a channel, or conduit pipe by which the full stream of all necessary graces is derived and brought home to us. Nor hath God unfitly appointed this to be a means of obtaining all blessings, and among them, his gracious assistance in time of need: because it is an act and exercise of the foul, by which we do actually declare and aclowledge our absolute dependence upon him for all things necessary, and by which( for this followeth the other) we do abase ourselves, and give glory to him, testify our own emptiness, and his fullness, yea and faithfulness and kindness toward us his poor creatures. If therefore we would have Grace to help in wine of need, Heb. 4.16. strength and ability to forbear presumptuous sins; let us go for it to the throne of Grace, and be frequent and fervent in prayer. That is the first preservative.  
A second is fear. 
2. Preservative, fear.  Happy is the man that feareth alway,( saith Solomon) Prov. 28.14. Why happy? Because he escapeth mischief, as the anithesis in the next words sheweth, But he that hardeneth his heart, shall fall into mischief.  
There is a three-fold fear. 1. Of God. 2. Of sin. 3. Of a mans own proneness to fall into sin. Each of these holy fears is a good preservative.  
1. Fear of God; God is to be feared, as he is the Judge of the world,& consequently, armed with two terrible things.( 1) Ability to punish all evil doers.( 2) Authority to punish them: Every Magistrate( who is Gods Deputy on earth) hath both these, as we may see, Rom. 13.4. He beareth not the sword in vain. He beareth the sword, that is implied, and there is his power and ability to kerb offenders: he beareth it not it vain, i. God hath put it into his hands, not to brandish, but to smite with, when he hath occasion, as the next words show, For he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doth evil: there is his authority. Now, because every Magistrate is thus armed; therefore he is to be feared by every evil doer actually or potentially. For so saith the Apostle; But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid: for he beareth not the sword in vain. And this fear of the Magistrate is a means to restrain transgressors; for surely that is the reason why the Apostle biddeth such to fear. Much more is the supreme Magistrate of Heaven and earth furnished with these two, and therefore is to be feared: and this fear is very available to hold in offenders, as appeareth by many examples in Scripture, and these among the rest. It is said of Job, He was a good man, and eschewed evil, but what was it that made him eschew it? The words adjoined do tell us; He feared God, Job 1.1. When good Obadiah was sent by his Master King Ahab, to fetch the Prophet to him, having found him he moveth him to go along with him, and not expose him to certain death and danger, with these words; I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. Was it not  told my Lord what I did, when jezabel slay the Prophets of the Lord? how I hide an hundred men of the Lords Prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water, &c. 1 Kings 18.11, 13. In this motive he mentioneth two things,( 1.) His inward qualification; I fear God.( 2.) His outward pious actions proceeding from that inward good temper; I hide and fed the Prophets. When the Queen did breath out slaughters against them, and other Courtiers were assistants to her in her cruelty, my hands were not imbrued in their bood, but employed in their protection and sustentation; for I feared God. By these two examples we see how strong a bridle the fear of God is, to hold men in from sin. The efficacy of it may be further shewed by two other examples of men wallowing in foul sins for want of it. The first is, Gen. 20.11. Where Abraham, being asked why he did not plainly profess Sarah to be his wife in Abimelechs Court, telleth his very thoughts, which were two; first, that those wicked people would kill him, and so take away his wife from him. 2. That they would do so, because there was no fear of God among them. Because I thought( saith he) surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wives sake. Because they wanted Gods true fear to damme in the floods of their wicked lusts; therefore he thought their lusts would overflow and break out into murder. The fear of God therefore is a floodgate to stop the course of ungodliness in men. Another instance is in Rom. 3.10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Where( 1) the Apostle reckoneth up many great impieties reigning in the hearts and lives of men, There is none righteous, all are unprofitable, their throat is an open Sepulchre, the poison of Asps is under their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to  shed blood, &c. Foul matters all.( 2.) He assigneth the reason of all these prodigious iniquities, ver. 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. If the want of Gods fear be the cause of such hearts and lives, the presence of it must needs be a means to prevent or expel them. And therefore Nehemiah doth impliedly commend it to the Jews as a preservative against oppression, Nehem. 5.9. in these words; Ought ye not to walk in the fear of God, for the reproach of the Heathen? The words are virtually a compound proposition, and may be resolved into these two simples. 1. For the honour of God, who is reproached among the Heathen through your misdemeanours, forbear to oppress your brethren. 2. To that end walk in the fear of God, have his justice and severity against sinners always before your eyes; for if you do so, it will keep you from such foul faults as become not Gods people. It is ordinary in Scripture to couch a reason, or a rule, or a remedy against a sin, under the form of an exhortation,( as I noted in the opening of my Text) for brevity and elegancies sake: and so doth Nehemiah here.  
You see by these places, the force of Gods Fear in restraining gross sins, that are under the power of will. And therefore it is not unfitly compared to the rudder of a ship, which is able to turn the ship about( though it be a big and massy body) when it cometh near any rock, quick-sands, or dangerous places, that it dash not upon them, fall not into them, except a tempest violent and boisterous do rise unexpectedly, and rush it suddenly upon them. 
Tertul. praescr. adve●. hae. Ubi Deu●, ibi metus in D um, q●i est init●um s●pientiae; ubi m tus in Deum, bi gravitas honesta, diligentia attenta, cura sollicita,& adlectio explurata,& communicatio deal berata,& promotio ●m rita,& subjectio r●l giosa,& appa●tio d●vota& processio mod●sta& ecclesiu●ita,& Dei omnia.  Where God is,( saith Tertullian) there is the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom: where the fear of God is, there is honest gravity, careful industry, diligent reading, deliberate conferring, religious subjection, modest procession, devout coming to Church, and peace in the Church, with every thing that becometh God: and therefore no deliberate sins, for they become him not.  
Thus of the first Fear.  
The second Fear necessary for the prevention of sin, is, Fear of sin, as of an edge-tool, or a deadly poison, which can and will destroy the soul which entertaineth it. Of this fear and the effect of it we have an example, josh. 12.15, 17.18. When the Reubenites and Gadites, departing from the other Tribes to their inheritances, had built a great Altar upon the banks of Jordan,( that it might be a monument to teach posterity, that though the river divided them from the rest of the Tribes, yet they were but one people:) the children of Israel suspecting that they had an intent of revolting from their God, were smitten with a great fear, and expostulated with them to this effect; What a trespass is this that you have committed, to turn away from following the Lord? &c. Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, for which we are not cleansed unto this day, &c. but that ye must turn away this day from following the Lord? It will be, seeing ye rebel to day against the Lord, that to morrow he will be wrath with the whole Congregation. We see in this story( 1) that the Israelites were extremely afraid of this supposed sin, because they had sorely smarted for the like,& the prints of Gods rod were not all worn out until that day:( 2) that this fear made them presently put in, and use means to prevent the consummation of that idolatry which they imagined was begun. The same force will this fear of sin have in every man in whom it reigneth: which Saint Paul knowing, suggesteth it to the Hebrewes as a means to keep them from falling away, Heb. 4.1. Let us fear( saith he) lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short. Any of you should come short, that is his meaning:( for this word seem, redundat, is put in,( perhaps because the propriety of the tongue requires it) 
See more pag 336.  but carrieth no force with it, and so it doth in other places, viz. Luk. 8.18. 1 Cor. 1●. 16.) his intent is, as we may see in the verses following, to dissuade them from unbelief; and his means to effect this, is the possessing of them with a fear of the mischief of it, exclusion from the promised rest. fear of mischief by sin breedeth a backwardness to it, even when temptations, occasions, and all things provoking to the commission of it are ripe& ready. Nor could the devil ever draw us so easily into sin as he doth, if he did not besot us and take away the fear of sins dangerousness from us; which he laboureth to do by presenting to our considerations all the conveniences that may be gotten by the sin tempted to. For sin in the Devils hand is like a picture with two faces, the one of some beautiful piece, the other of some ugly monster: of both these faces the devil makes use. Or like the siren, which hath a comely face, and goodly breasts, with which she draws her beholders within her reach; and a Serpents tail armed with a deadly sting, by which she gives a mortal wound to such as unwarily and foolishly come too near her. When he would draw a man to sin, he setteth the best face of sin before him, and suggesteth the pleasure, profit, credit, ease, advancement that may come thereby. Thus he dealt with Eve, Gen. 3.5. In the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened,& ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil. But when he would bring a man( the sin being done) into despair of mercy, he representeth unto him the true, natural, and monstrous face of it, and whispereth into his mind the misery and mischief which it hath exposed him to. We should therefore take heed of the devil, when he thus transformeth himself into an Angel of light, and labour to behold sin always in its natural hue: for it would be as effectual in driving us from it, as our beholding of it in its borrowed beauty is, to draw us into it. A man that through ignorance or-fool hardiness is not afraid of a Lion, will not avoid him, though he meet him in the street; nor will one that feareth not poison as a thing destructive to nature, forbear to drink it, if it be sweet: but you can hardly persuade a man that feareth a Lion, to come within the sight of a Lion; or one that apprehendeth poison to be a deadly thing, and therefore feareth it, to let down the least drop. Libenter carebo poculo, 
Epist 3 de vi a clear. ad Nepotian.  in quo suspitio veneni, saith S. Hierom; I will willingly want that cup, wherein there is but a suspicion of poison, and so will any man that is afraid of it. S Paul knowing a Viper to be a deadly creature, and therefore justly fearing it, when he spied it on his hand, he presently shook it off, Act. 28. So a man that seriously apprehendeth every sin against conscience to be a Lion, a viper, a cup of deadly poison to the soul, and so feareth it, will quickly shake it off, and the first motions by which this Viper leapeth upon him, before it fasten. The earnest entreaties of a father, the tears and naked breasts of a mother, are strong cords to bind a mans conscience with, and deliver him up as a prisoner to the devil: said facilè rumpunt haec vincula amor Dei,& timor gehennae, but the love of God, 
Hier. ep. 1. ad Heliod  and the fear of hell( saith S. Hierom, will easily snap these cords asunder. I remember, how Hypatia a learned woman( but a Pagan) who lived in S. Cyrils time at Alexandria, 
Langi not in Niceph eccl. hist. l. 13. c 16. ex Suida.  cooled the lust of an amorous young man, who for a great while together would not be said nay. She appointed him to repair to her at such a time as it was to be with her after the custom of women( though he knew it not:) and when he came, she shewed him somewhat that disheartened him. In like manner, when men are very hot and earnest in their sinful projects, a thorough and home consideration of the filthiness and fearfulness of those sins which they have in chase, will discourage them in their pursuit: provided that they apprehended it to be, and fear it as it is, the far greatest evil in the world. Two things we may truly say of sin, and of the mischief which it exposeth the sinner to: 1. That it is greater then any calamities which can befall a man in this world because he will not sin. 2. That it is greater then can be countervailed by any good that may be gotten by the commission of a sin.  
1. The mischief that may come by sin, is greater then any misery that may befall a man because he will not sin: It is so in two respects;  
( 1.) Of the duration; All the calamities which can befall a man by the hand of Gods providence, or the common accidents of life, or for righteousness sake, are limited to this life, as our Saviour intimateth, Mat. 10.28. fear not them that kill the body. It is as much as if he had said, That is all they can do, that is as far as they can go. And this Job intimateth also, Job 3.17, 18, 19, &c. where speaking of the grave, he saith, There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary be at rest: There the prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his Master. In which words we see, that Job took the grave to be a bed of rest, and death to be( as it is) terminus malorum, the end of all calamities incident to this mortality: And therefore he wisheth himself in the grave, that he might be free from the smart which he felt. I returned( saith Solomon) and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of them that were oppressed, and they had no comforter: and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead more then the living, &c. Eccles. 4.1, 2. In these words the Preacher implieth, that death putteth an end to all those tears, and temptations, and oppressions which can be occasioned by any man, or any thing but sin: for this is the reason why he applaudeth the condition of the dead above the living. But the miseries annexed to sin are longer lived, and are gnawing upon the soul when the worms are feeding upon the body; death doth not terminate them, nor the resurrection neither, but increase them rather, and present the body to be seized on by those calamities which before did onely torment the soul. This the Apostle signifieth, 1 Cor. 15.56. where he saith, The sting of death is sin: other evils add nothing terrible to death, but sweeten it rather, and make it welcome, because it devoureth them all: but sin armeth death with a deadly sting, because it maketh it to be a beginning of future mischiefs: for the mischief which comes of a sting, followeth it, and goeth not before it. Now, if sin be able to bring upon the sinner a longer living, nay, a never dying plague; it must needs be a greater evil then any else that can befall a man by any other means then sin.  
( 2.) It is so in respect of the certainty. A man may live a great while in the world, and yet scape many a mischief; yea such mischiefs as seem to hang over his head, ready to overwhelm him, yea such also as are perhaps intended him for keeping a good conscience, and abstaining from sin. For God( saith the Apostle) knoweth how to deliver the Godly from tentation; how to preserve them out of troubles and trials in this world: but no man can live in presumptuous sins, and die in them likewise, but he shall be sure to fall into inevitable misery. Christ did once privilege his servants from the hurt of serpents, and poison, Mark. 16.18. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink deadly poison, it shall not hurt them, &c. but he never made any man sinproof: but hath peremptorily denounced tribulation, and anguish, indignation and wrath to the soul of every man that doth evil, Rom. 2.8, 9. and hath irreversibly said, The soul that sinneth,( i. deliberately and finally) shall die, Ezek. 18.20. It is the irrepealable sentence of the Law; and therefore the Apostle calleth the Law, the strength of sin, 1 Cor. 15.56. because the sentence of it enableth sin to destroy the soul; as the Law which maketh Felony to be a capital offence, giveth it ability to cut off, and take away the life of the fellow. And therefore for this cause also, the mischief of sin is greater then the hurts that can come by any other means whatsoever, and among them by his care to avoid sin. Now, the sound apprehension of this excessive hurtfulnesse of sin above all other evils, and the fear of it more then of any other, is a very forcible preservative against sin. For, as the ass who is afraid of a whip, or a cudgel,( and therefore would feel the smart of neither of them, if he could choose) but is more afraid by a natural instinct of the fire; will never be drawn to go into the fire by the smartest lashes of the whip, or the shrewdest bangs of the cudgel, but will endure the pains of them even to death, rather then set his foot into the fire, because though he feareth them, yet he feareth this most. So, a man who is more afraid of hellfire( which is the proper punishment of sin) then of any temporal crosses; though he be afraid of these, and would shun them if he could, will yet be content rather to endure these, then to commit sin, and so cast himself into hell, because though he be afraid of these as petty evils, yet he is more afraid of sin and hell, as greater evils.  
Secondly, as sin is annexed with greater miseries, then any that can seize upon us by other means; so it is attended with greater then can be recompensed or balanced by any good attainable by sin, as we are taught by our Saviour, Mat. 16.26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? In which words( 1.) He sheweth us, what is to be gotten by sin at the most, the whole world: ( and yet who ever got the tenth part of it by any sinful course?) and what may be lost by it, a mans own soul,( which can be lost by nothing else.)( 2.) He compareth the gain and the loss togerher in an interrogatory manner, What will it profit? &c. and strongly denieth the gain to be such as can countervail the loss( for this interrogation is equivalent to a vehement negation; What will it profit? is as much to say, as, without question it will not profit.) Now if the gain of a world by sin will not be able to lye in balance with the damage that the soul may sustain by it, what proportion is there between the getting of a few pounds or pence, of a little vain breath, or a slight preferment, or a few meales-meat( for which sometimes men crack their consciences,) the utmost ordinary possibilities of sin, and the lamentable and eternal ruin of the soul? which made S. Hierom to call upon Rusticus in the words of our Saviour, 
Hier. ep 4. ad Rust.  If thine eye offend thee pull it out; if thy right hand offend thee cut it off; for it is more profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, then that thy whole body should be cast into hell: Nulli parcas, ut soli parcas ainae, Spare nothing, that thou mayst spare thy soul. Were this transcendency of sins danger above all advantages by sin, well received into the mind, and consequently a strong fear of sin substantially rooted in the heart, men would not be forward for the getting of some slavish contentments in a sinful way, to run the hazard of losing their souls. For, that which maketh them so ready to nibble at any sinful bait, is a false opinion, that though some inconvenience may redound unto them by sinning, yet not so great, but that it may be countervailed by what they shall get by their sin. apprehended it, fear it therefore as an unmatchable evil, and thou wilt not easily defile thy fingers with it.  
The third requisite for the prevention of sin, is, a fear, or jealousy of a mans own proneness to fall into it. This is commended for this purpose in many places, Rom. 11.20. Be not high minded but fear, saith S. Paul. His scope is there to preserve the Gentiles from unbelief, lest( as the Jews were,) they might be broken off from Jesus Christ, that olive into which they were engraffed, as we may see ver. 19, 20. For the effecting of this their preservation, he prescribeth them a means, and that is, a suspicion and humble fear of their possibility and propensnesse to fall into unbelief. It is commended for the same use to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 10.12. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. The duty he exhorteth them to in that Chapter, is, to avoid all manner of enormous sins: Lust not after evil things, ver. 6. neither be idolaters, verse 7. nor commit fornication, ver. 8. nor tempt Christ, ver. 9. neither murmur ye against God, ver. 10. This duty of avoiding these foul sins, he stirreth them up to by an argument drawn from the danger of them, manifested in the destruction of many thousand Israelites in the wilderness, whom God severely punished for examples to us upon whom the ends of the world are come, ver. 11. This done, he shutteth up his exhortation with a rule or direction to them, how to keep themselves upright, Let him that thinks be standeth, take heed lest he fall. His meaning is, Let him that standeth, take heed; not, let him that seemeth to himself to stand, but indeed doth not. For, how can a man fall, who standeth onely in his own apprehension, and not indeed? The word in the original is {αβγδ}, in latin videtur; which in our English is sometimes translated he thinketh, and sometimes he seemeth, and many times is a mere expletive particle, which rather filleth up the sentence, then addeth any thing to the sense, Mr. 
Is. Casaub. in Capitol in. pag. 180. F.A.  Isaac Casaubon citeth divers places in the Roman Historians, in which this word is so used. Among the rest, there is one out of Capitolinus, where speaking of a certain Poem, he saith, Epigramma videtur exstare, the Epigram seemeth to be extant; and then presently setteth down the Epigram itself: whereby it appeareth, that to seem to be extant, and to be extant, is all one. 
Salmas. in J●l. Capitolin. p. 106. E.&, in Acl. Lamp●●d. pa. 236. D.  Salmasius hath gathered divers sayings to the same purpose, both in Historians, and other Writers. And after both them 
Mer. Casu●. in Optatum. l. 1. p. 2. c. 7.  Mr. Merick Casaubon hath observed the like manner of speech, not onely in Optatus, but in the sacred Text also; such as these are; If any man seem to be contentious, 1 Cor. 11.16. that is, if any man be contentious. And Heb. 4.1. Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it: that is, lest any of you should come short: for a bare seeming to come short, without a real coming short is not a matter of that moment, as might deserve so grave an admonition and caveat. And so again, Luke 8.18. Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken that which he seemeth to have: that is, that which he hath. For so this proverbial speech is elsewhere set down, as Matth. 13.12. Matth. 25.29. & Mark. 4.25. In some of which places, the thing taken away from him that hath not, is said to be the Talent that was committed to his trust. Besides, that which a man onely seemeth to have, but hath not, cannot be taken away; In like sort, Mar. 10, 42. {αβγδ}, They that seem to bear rule over the Gentiles, as the old Church-Translation rendered it, is no more but {αβγδ}, They that do bear rule over the Gentiles; as it is Mat. 20.25. In these and such like speeches as these, {αβγδ} he thinketh, or he seemeth, is a mere expletive particle, without any signification. And agreeably hereunto, I construe this place of the Apostle: and I have reason for it, because besides the frequent use of the word, a man cannot in congruity be said to fall from that station in which he never stood.  
The thing therefore which is implied in that apostolical direction, is, that heed taking and fear lest a man should fall, is a very good help to keep him from falling. It is also suggested to the Philippians for this end, Phil. 2.12. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out, &c. i.e. by constancy in a godly life make sure of heaven; that is his exhortation: and that ye may continue in a holy course without foul sins, fear and tremble; that's the qualification necessary for the enabling of the person to continue undefiled to the end of his life. In many other places besides, is this self-fear pressed on men as a preservative against sin, though not always under the name of fear, but by other terms of like signification, viz. look to yourselves, take heed, watch, walk circumspectly, &c.  
And it standeth with reason that it should be a good preservative. For,  
1. It maketh a man to avoid the presence, yea, and the neighbourhood of sin so far as is possible. For, being privy to his own weakness, and aptness to wound his conscience with sin, he considereth that if tempting objects be before him, they will greatly win upon him, and therefore he shuneth them. Because we know how easy it is to set tinder or flax on fire, we are very careful to keep them asunder: so, the man that knoweth by experience, that the tinder or flax of his disposition, if it receive but a spark into it from any tempting object or occasion, will easily break out into a flamme of evil action; useth the best discretion that he can to keep out of temptation. He that findeth and feareth his proneness to drunkenness and gluttony, will be careful as far as his occasions, and the laws of friendship and humanity will permit him, to avoid feasting and company-keeping. This jealous fear made Cyrus refuse to look on the beautiful Panthea, and when Araspes, to entice him, commended her beauty, to tell him, ergo impensius ab eâ abstinendum, the fairer she was, the greater danger there was in her looks. It made Alexander forbid his Captains to bring the paragon of beauty, Darius his wife into his sight. And Scipio Africanus with speed to sand home to her parents a fair maid which one of his souldiers had brought him for a prise. He that suspecteth the mischiefs which his inclination to uncleanness may bring forth, will keep out of vicious company and occasions leading to that sin, &c. As he that feareth himself, is desirous with David to keep himself from his own iniquity, Psa. 18. i. that iniquity which he findeth himself more inclinable to then to many others: so he is resolved with David to fly whatsoever may draw him to it,& to say, Away from me ye wicked, for I will keep the commandements of my God, Ps. 119. Occasions of sin do always put a man upon a necessity either of perishing, or vanquishing. So intimateth 
Hier. ep. 47. de suspecto contubernio. Quid tibi necesse est in câ versari dom●, in quâ necesse habeas quotidie, tut perire, aut vincere?  S. Hierom; Why must you needs live in that house, in which you must needs either perish, or vanquish every day? A timorous man is loth to be put to either, and therefore avoideth them, and by so doing, many a sin also.  
2. It maketh him arm and fortify himself against the invasions of sin, that if he should chance( as who is not?) to be suddenly assaulted, he might have wherewith to defend himself. The coney is a feeble creature, and endowed with a natural apprehension of its own weakness,& therefore it useth to burrow itself in the ground, that it may retire thither, and preserve itself in the time of need. Men in times of Pestilence are usually afraid of themselves, and because they are so, if they cannot avoid all persons and places infected, yet they will be sure to eat and drink preservatives; to fortify nature, and keep the infected air from entering or fastening on them. So will a man do in this case. Keep out of all occasions of sin we cannot in this life, we must be daily presented with bewitching objects, and be in the company sometimes of ungodly persons: If we would wholly avoid the company of such, We must go out of the world, saith St. Paul, 1 Cor. 5.10. The necessities of life, and the condition of our persons and places will enforce our being, and sometimes our abiding also where we shall have temptations enough: the jealous Christian therefore doth what is next to be done, strengtheneth himself before-hand against the encounters of sin, prayeth to God for aid, promiseth often to God and himself, that he will by the help of Gods grace keep himself untainted. With Job he maketh a covenant with his eyes, with David he setteth a watch before the door of his lips, and doth whatsoever his understanding may tell him will be a help, and his jealousy may stir him up to make use of for the manning and fortifying of the Castle of his soul, that sin may not enter.  
3. This fearfulness will make him watch, that is, observe and mark every thing he doth, or is about to do, that carrieth with it any semblance of sin, that looketh like an enemy to his soul. For Watchmen do so, as we see by experience, especially in Wars: those that stand sentinel in a Camp, do heedfully mark and question every suspicious person that passeth by, and will know who they are, where they have been, what they mean to do, and whether they be friends or foes, before they let them pass. 
Bern. p. 1061. b. Hei mihi quia undique mihi tela video, undique tela volant, undique tentamenta, undique pericula quocunque me vertam nulla est securitas,& quae mulcent,& quae tristant, omnia timeo.  Hei mihi, Alas for me( saith S. Bernard) I see wars providing for me an every side, weapons, temptations, dangers fly about me, and assail me wheresoever I go: which way shall I turn me? There is no safe being any where; I am afraid of every thing, of such things as delight me, and such things also as molest and make me sad. The right temper or a timorous Christian. Well, for this cause he goeth as a spy wheresoever he goeth, that he may be the readier to make his defence, it he be put to it upon the sudden. A man that feareth he shall be poisoned, observeth his meat and drink curiously: he that goeth over a narrow bridge in fear, walketh {αβγδ}, exactly, punctually, hath his eye on his feet: and he that traveleth on the high way in fear, looketh before him, behind him, on this hedge, and on that, that so he may not be knocked on the head suddenly, but may have liberty to cock his pistol, or to draw his Sword, if he be set upon. So watchful also is the good soul that is jealous, and therefore misseth many sins which otherwise would overtake him. For watchfulness is much commended and magnified for this use in many places of Scripture. By our Saviour, Watch, lest ye enter into temptation, Matth. 26.41. By S. Paul, Eph. 6.13, 14, Stand, having your loins girded: 1. Be provided for temptation,& then stand looking and watching for it: and by S. Peter, 1 Pet. 5.8. Watch, for your adversay the devil goeth about seeking whom he may devour.  
4. Lastly, this fearfulness maketh him resist manfully in the temptation. Fear doth not onely put wings to a mans feet, and make him fly, but metal into his heart, and strength into his arm, and maketh him fight,( except it be a fear, accompanied with despair of victory) which needeth not be, nor is not in the Regenerate.) A man who knoweth his body to be very penetrable, if he should be strongly smitten with a sharp sword, if at any time a sword be lifted up to strike him, will fence and ward off the blow as well as he can; so, the man that feareth a temptation to sin, if it be applied, will easily enter into his soul, and draw him to sin; doth not dally with it, and receive quietly the impressions of it, but opposeth the first on-set, and repelleth the first motion. We see that in all creatures capable of passions, one affection presently backeth another in its motion. For example, if any evil be presented which exerciseth and exciteth the passion of fear, if that evil be not preventable, this fear is accompanied with grief; if it be, then it is attended with desire to sand it going, and with wrath and ire against it, which stirreth up resistance. A worm, if it be trodden upon, feeleth pain, and is affencted with fear and grief: hereupon it turneth again, which is an argument of ire and endeavour to preserve itself; and hence we use to say, Habet& musca splenem, the very Fly is not without her spleen. Nay, in creatures without life, there is a kind of sense of such things as are destructive to them; from this sense comes fuga, a flying from those pernicious things, and pugna, a resistance of them. Fire when it is assaulted by water, as it hath an apprehension of it, and a fear lest it be quenched by it; so it wrestleth with it, and laboureth to expel it, which is an act of ire. It cannot be otherwise with the jealous man; as he is afraid of the temptation that assaileth him, so he is ireful and angry against it, and his anger sheweth itself in pugna, in making a quick resistance against it, and so preventeth or expelleth the sin suggested. By all this that I have said concerning this holy fear, you may see what a good preservative it is against sin: and therefore let him that would avoid sin, and the bane which it bringeth, by grieving the Spirit, to the soul, be never without this three-fold fear, of God, of sin, of himself.  

3. Preservativ●. Sobriety.  A third preservative is Sobriety, which if we take it strictly, according to the common use of speech, is a virtue opposite to excess in drinking; if largely, a virtue contrary to excess in the use of all lawful liberties, eating drinking, sleep recreations, and our callings too. I take it here in the larger signification, for moderation in all these things. That this is a sovereign help against sin, I may prove by many testimonies of Scripture. In 1 Cor. 9.25, 26, 27. the Apostle sheweth it by a comparison, in which are considerable two things, both serving to our purpose. 1. The proposition, ver. 25. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things: now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. In this proposition S. Paul sheweth us:( 1.) What men do that contend for a victory either in running or wrestling: they are temperate in all things; in their apparel, they are as lightly clothed as may be; in their diet, they eat and drink very little, they diet their bodies.( 2.) Why they do so, and that is implied in the first words, They strive for a mastery, they contend for a crown, a prise; and therefore they neither load their bodies with superfluous garments, nor their stomachs with superfluous meat& drink, because these things would hinder thē in their contention, and make them lose the garland they strive for. 2. He applieth this behaviour of theirs to himself: As they do( saith he) so do I, So I run, so I fight: I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, v. 26, 27. And I do it for the like end too, v. 27. Least that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway, i. I deny my carcase many a pleasure, and abstain from many a lawful liberty which I might peradventure use, by watchings, and fastings, and other severe exercises of holy discipline I keep my body low, that so I might hold out in my Christian course to the end, and prevent such sins as might make God account me a reprobate, a man unworthy of the crown of glory. From both parts of this similitude we may collect, that, abstemiousnesse in the use of earthly contentments, is an excellent means to keep men from stumbling, and falling by gross sins in their Christian race, and consequently to enable them so to run, that they may obtain. This he setteth out likewise by the same similitude, 2 Tim. 2.4, 5. No man that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier, &c. where also we have, 1. The Act, no man warring entangleth, &c. And 2. the intent, that he might please him whose soldier he is,( which he cannot do if he play such pranks, and receive such foils as beseem not a soldier) and hereupon he exhorteth Timothy to temperance, ver. 3. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; and thereby thou shalt avoid many a sore foil, and abstain from many a foul sin, which would displease thy captain Christ, and displeasure thyself,( for this must be added to make up a full sense:) and then concludeth his exhortation with these words, Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things, ver. 7. as if he should have said, This counsel which I give thee for the enabling of thee to carry thyself at all times in a pleasing manner to God, is very good, and very available for that end, if thou dost understand and wilt consider it well, and therefore think upon it. Saint Peter also prescribeth it for the same purpose, 1 Pet. 1.13. Wherefore gird up the loins of your minds, be sober, &c. Where, first he giveth his counsel in a metaphor, gird up the loins of your mind; in which words Interpreters say,( 1.) that he alludeth to the practise of traveling men in those eastern countries, who, because they wore long garments which reached down to their feet, tucked them up, and gird them close to them when they were to take a journey, that they might not by hanging under their feet either make them trip and stumble in their going, or at least occasion them to go slowly.( 2.) They say that he intimateth two things; 1. That earthly things too much affencted,( for then they become long garments) are lets to a godly life, and means to make men stumble and fall into sin, while they are in the way of this life, traveling toward heaven; 2. That therefore they must be tucked up, and gird straight about us, .i. used sparing by every one that would not fall, and so be hindered in, or put by his journey to heaven: the sparing use of them therefore is a means to withhold men from sin, that is the resultance of the metaphor. Secondly, the Apostle giveth his advice plainly in the next words, Be sober; that so we might understand what he meant in the metaphor of girding up their minds. And that we might see to what end he adviseth to sobriety, he subjoineth in the verse following, not fashioning yourselves according to former lusts, &c. Sobriety then will help well to keep the man regenerate from returning to former lusts and sins which he committed in his ignorance, before his conversion.  
He presseth it again as a good preservative, 1 Pet. c. 5. v. 8. and somewhat more plainly then in the former place. Be sober, be vigilant( saith he) for your adversary the devil, as a roaring Lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour. As if he should have said, You are all in a warfaring condition in the field with an adversary, and he no simplo one, but a lion, a roaring lion: a diligent adversary, who is always going about seeking whom he may devour, i. draw into sin, for he hath no way to devour men by, but that: therefore do you as souldiers in the field with an enemy would do; they ply not their bellies, but use their meat and drink and sleep very sparing, because, though this be not enough to prevent the mischief that is intended them by their enemies, yet it is one very good means of their safety, for it preventeth a sudden surprisal, and enableth them to make resistance: and so would a moderate use of meat, drink, pleasures, &c. keep you waking, and give you liberty to prepare for all encounters with the devil, and consequently to defend your souls from the wounds of sin.  
To proceed a little more particularly. The sobriety which I commend unto you as a preservative against sin, consisteth in three things. 1. sparingness in the use of such comforts as we do allow ourselves. 2. A total forbearance of some. 3. Abstinence from other some for a time.  
1. sparingness in the use of such comforts as we do allow ourselves. This our Saviour exhorteth us to, Luk. 21.34. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life &c. You may eat and drink, but take heed you eat not to surfeiting, drink not to drunkenness, exceed not the limits of temperance in these things. This St. Paul commendeth to our practise, 1 Cor. 7.29, 30, &c. Let them that have wives, be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it. In which words, 1. he permitteth us to buy and sell, to mary, to weep, to rejoice, to use the world, to have not onely our hands exercised in the use of these earthly blessings, but also our affections moved by them: but 2. he limiteth us, and prescribeth the rule of moderation for us to go by in the use of these things; for, to weep as if we wept not, &c. is, to use and affect them remissly and coldly, and by consequent sparing. Timothies necessities moved St. Paul to persuade him, not to limit himself to water, but to drink wine, 1. Tim. 5.23. Drink no longer water, but wine, for thy stomachs sake, and thine often infirmities: but yet he setteth him his bound, but a little, Drink a little wine; so may we, for our healths sake, drink wine, and take the comfort of many other good things that are before us, but yet we must take but a little, never exceed in their use. Two things we owe to our bodies, vitam,& valetudinem, life and health: both these we are bound to procure: and therefore, as every Israelite was permitted to gather so much Manna as served for the maintenance of his family: 
Exo. 16.16  So is every man allowed to take so much of these good creatures, as sufficeth for the preservation of his being and well-being. But as the Manna did corrupt, 
Vers. 20.  putrifie, and breed worms, which was superfluous; so will these blessings do, if our hands be too deep in the use of them, and will breed some worms of pride, idleness, forgetfulness of God, which dispose to many other sins.  
2. This sobriety standeth in a total forbearance of some of these earthly contentments. Our Saviour telleth us, that there were some which made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heavens sake, Matth. 19.12. His meaning is, that some who might have taken wives to themselves, as others do, do yet forbear, and led a single life: and why? for the kingdom of heavens sake, i. that they might be freed from worldly cares, how to maintain their wives and children,( for he that is married careth for the things of this world, how he may please his wife: but he that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord, 1 Cor. 7.32, 33.) and consequently from those sins which are either annexed to, or springing from cares, and so, may be sure not to miss that heavenly kingdom, of which too many through these occasions come short. Virginity( saith 
Hier. ep. 8. ad Demetr.- Non est ipsa virtus, said fundamen●um virtutum-gradus p●abet ad summa scandentibu●; nec tam n si sola fuerit virgin●m coronab●t.  S. Hierom) is no virtue of itself, but it is a good foundation to build a virtuous life upon; it is a good step or help to such as are climbing to perfection, and yet if it be alone it will not crown the Virgin. The like may be said of abstinence from certain meats and drinks: In itself it is a thing indifferent, and pleaseth God no more, then the use of them doth; but yet it may be a good help to many virtues, and is a good preventer of many vices. And therefore, as some men do make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heavens sake, so it is not amiss for others to abstain wholly from some kinds of meats and drinks for Heavens sake. Surely that which S. Paul meant, when he said, he beat down his body, was, that he did wholly deny it some pleasing& desirable things, that he might thereby prevent such sins, as being admitted might have made him a cast-away. We find by experience, that our affections are more strongly set, and our minds do more constantly run on some kind of delights then on others; trahit sua quemque voluptas, every man hath his proper pleasure: we find also, that in the use, or for the sake of some foolish contentments we have often overshot ourselves, and broken the back of a good conscience. From the use therefore of such things it is our wisdom, and our safety wholly to abstain. For example, if a man do strongly delight in wine, and be very apt to forget himself when he is drinking of it, what matter were it if such a man did wholly forbear it? It would keep him unspotted from many a sin, not to meddle with it. And if a man find himself very much inclined to game, and know that he hath often been occasioned by it to swear and curse, and neglect his calling, waste his time, and spend his money, &c. it would be a point of discretion for such a man to forbear such game as doth thus over-master him and draw him into sin. Many a foul sin would be prevented, if men would circumcise their pleasures, and wholly deprive themselves of the use of some unnecessary contentments.  
3. This sobriety lieth in a temporary abstinence, in a cessation at some convenient times from the enjoyment of such comforts as we ordinarily allow ourselves. Defraud not one another, except it be with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, &c. saith S. Paul, 1 Cor. 7.5. In which words he giveth a double counsel to the Corinthians; the one intentionally and directly, defraud not one the other, i. let not husbands and wives deny one the other the use of their bodies, for fear lest Satan take occasion hereby to tempt them to adultery: the other occasionally and by intimation, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. And here he counseleth to a two-fold abstinence at some convenient time.( 1.) Abstinence from the use of the marriage bed with mutual consent.( 2.) Abstinence from our wonted food; that ye may give yourselves to fasting, &c.  
It is good therefore for men sometimes to forbear the use of these and the like liberties, for those good ends which may be effected thereby. Sir Edwin Sands speaking of Lent, saith to this purpose; It is to the Italians, 1. a bridle to check sin, which otherwise in them would wax unconquerable( they being a Nation given to sensuality, blasphemy, murder, and many other impieties:) 2. a spur to move them to virtuous actions: and that therefore it was Gods great mercy to that people, that the severity of Lent should be still preserved among them, lest otherwise the floods of sin growing so strong and outrageous, and having no bounds or banks to restrain them, might plunge that whole Nation into such a gulf of wickedness, and bring them to that last extremity, which should leave them neither hope of better, nor place for worse. 
Sand. relat. p. 20, 21.   
Of like use might the religious observation, and wise improvement of Lent be to us, did not our love of carnal liberty, and our fear of being superstitious, make us turn profane, and stand against all good orders,( especially if imposed by ecclesiastical authority) that tend to the beating down of the body, and the weening of us from sin. And for the same end would such voluntary abstinence as we now and then, as discretion shall guide us, might impose upon ourselves, conduce: It would make sin more strange, and works of piety and virtue more familiar to us.  
All these kinds of Sobriety are very good preservatives against sin: The reason is, because they remove some dispositions of mind and body, caused by excess, which do strongly incline to, and fit men for sin. First, they remove some dispositions of mind.  
The first disposition is, inordinate love of earthly things. This is bread and brooded by excess in their use: Experience sheweth that the more a whores company is used, the more a wantons affections are entangled by her; and the more a man useth wine and tobacco, the more he loveth them, so much, that he is not contented but when he hath a pot or a pipe at his mouth. The prosperity of the Israelites and their abundant use of those things did strongly draw their affections toward them, and therefore the Prophet complaineth, Hos. 4.11. whoredom and wine, and new wine steal away their heart. On this experience was grounded the Poets speeches; Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit; 
Ovid. Rem Am. l. 2. Non facile esuriens posit â retinebere mensâ,& multum saliens incitat unda sitim.  The love of money increaseth as the money itself increaseth: the more a man aboundeth in wealth, the stronger is his thirst after it; the more a man in an ague or dropsy drinketh, the more he may. It is no easy thing to bridle appetite at a full table. And where a vehement affection to earthly things is rooted, there the soul is strongly disposed to many foul sins, nay to any that may help him to the enjoyment of them. We use to say, Hunger and thirst break down ston walls, i. they stir up a man to use all means for the getting of meat and drink, and to break through all obstacles, by which he is barred from them. And Solomon saith, Cant. 8.6, 7, Love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which have a most vehement flamme. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all his substance for love, it would utterly be contemned. Strong as death, cruel as the grave, .i. as death and the grave devour and conquer all things, 
{αβγδ} Sic. dictum à postulando, quod ore biante repleri expetat, unde insatiabile dictum, Pro. 27.20& 30.16. Buxt.  from whence the Grave hath its name: so, love devoureth and overcometh all difficulties and distresses that might hinder the enjoyment of the thing beloved: the coals thereof are coals of fire: i. as coals of fire, especially when they have in them a flamme of the Lord, .i. a most vehement flamme, will burn& consume all things that come in their way: so, a violent love to any thing( be it good or bad) will lick up all impediments. Many waters cannot quench it, &c. i. all the difficulties cannot discourage it, all the troubles that lye between it and the object toward which it moveth, will not be able to hinder it in its motion. If a man would give all his substance for love, it would be contemned, i.e. Love, if it be strong, will not be bought off from the thing beloved by the offer of any thing in the world, but will slight, and in contemning would contemn, trample upon all things whatsoever, by which the making of a divorce between it and the thing beloved should be attempted. This is indeed a description of the nature and efficacy of that spiritual love which every true spouse of Christ beareth to him: but it belongeth proportionably to any serious and fervent love which a man beareth toward any thing that pleaseth him. Love( though much misplaced) if violent, will stir up a man to do or suffer any thing by which he may be made compos voti, the enjoyer of that which he loveth. Davids love to Michal made him venture his life deeply for the purchase of 200. fore-skins of the Philistines, which her father made to be the price of her: and Iacobs love to Rachel made him contentedly and patiently to endure two seven yeares hard services, and to make no reckoning of them, that at last he might obtain her, Gen. 29.20, 27. The Hellespont could not daunt and discourage Leander, but rather then he would not enjoy his beloved Hero, he would swim to her over the Sea, and so adventure, nay lose his life in attempting to obtain his love. Of this efficacy is the excessive love of worldly delights, that man that is possessed with it, will be content to use any means, or adventure upon any sins( though to the ruin of his soul) which may make way for his enjoyment and use of such Delilahs as he delighteth in. And therefore carnal affections are compared by some Writers to a halter about a horses neck; 
Fatius. l. de mortif. c 9. p. 127.  because, as a horse which is broken loose, may be easily taken again by the halter about his neck; so, a man who by the grace of conversion is escaped out of the Devills hands, may be taken again at the Devills pleasure, and brought into his power and slavery again, by unmortified affections to worldly things, if they remain in him. These affections are likewise resembled to a strong Cable, by which a ship is tied fast to the shore: let such a ship be rigged, her sails spread, let men by rugging at the oars, o● shoving with their shoulders, seek to launch her out, and set her going, yet she stirreth not, but sticketh still in the mud, because the rope holdeth her: So, let a worldly-minded man begin to hoist up and spread the sails of good desires, and use some endeavours to put forth into the way of a virtuous life, it is but to little purpose: those ropes of carnal affections by which he is tied fast to the world, will hold him still in the muddy shore of a bad life. And therefore( according to the counsel 
Hierom. prologue. ad Paulin. Festina quaeso,& haerentis in salo naviculae funem praescinde potius quam solve.  Saint Hierom giveth to a friend) we must make hast and cut these unhappy cords, if we cannot untie them, 
Eradenda Cupidinis pravi sunt ●lementa. Hor. Car. l. 3. ad. 24  or else we shall be held fast in many foul sins. Now, this is done no way better then by moderate use of earthly things. We see, that the keeping if a child from the dug, is the way to withdraw its affections from it: and there is no betrer means to cool a young mans hot love to a woman, then to absent himself from her company. And therefore many young Gentlemen who place their affections strongly where they should not, are sent, for the cooling of their love and desires, by their parents, to travel for a time, that absence might breed oblivion, and in time a remiss affection toward those beloved persons. And so, if a man be wedded to any of these sensible things, the forbearance of them, or the sparing use of them will greatly avail to the divorcing of his affections from them, and so, will hinder the commission of many sins with which men usually pollute themselves for the fruition of them.  
2. Another evil temper of heart, which strongly bendeth men to sin, is security, or incogitancy of such things as being thoroughly thought of would hinder it: Which things are, the end of our creation, and redemption, the certainty of death, the uncertainty of life, the severe account we must give, the just retribution we shall have, the miseries of the damned in hell, the blessedness of the Saints in Heaven, &c. These things being sadly and frequently thought upon, would quench our burnings and lustings after sin. But these good thoughts, and an inordinate life are scarce consistible: Men deeply busied, and butted in earthly employments and enjoyments, have neither any profitable spare time, nor yet a mind to fall upon these sober and serious considerations; they are rejected commonly by such, as too incongruous to their avaricious, voluptuous, lazy, easy kind of life. This wisdom is too high for these fools: And therefore needs must excess in these allowed liberties dispose men strongly to many sins; and the abridging of ourselves in their use prevent many. But we must not let these things go without a proof or two.  
For the proof of the first; namely that incogitancy disposeth to sin, consider what the Psalmist saith, Ps. 36.1, 2, 3. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes: for he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful: the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good, &c. Some say, that the meaning of the second verse, is, that let wicked men think what they will themselves, yet Davids heart  told him from their works which he saw, that there was no fear of God before their eyes. If this be the meaning, then this followeth, that security and a bad life go together. From the third verse Calvins note is, Eos blanditiis alere sua vitia, that wicked men are wont to cherish their vices by flattering themselves: which self-flattery must needs be joined with security and incogitancy of God and his judgements. Consider also what our Saviour saith, Mat. 24.48, 50. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Master doth delay his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, &c. Here are two things mentioned, 1. security. My Master delayeth his coming. 2. The effect of it, and begin to smite: Security then inclineth men freely to impiety. Jeremy imputeth the impudent sins of the people( For it is impudency in sinning that he meaneth by this phrase, Her filthiness is in her skirts;) to the forgetfulness of their later end, Lament. 1.9. And King David implieth, that the forgetfulness of it is the cause of the usual follies of mens lives, Psal. 90.12. by his prayer, Teach us so to number our dayes, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom: So much also our Lord implieth, Mat. 25.5, 8. where he saith, That while the virgins slept, their lamps went out. The meaning is, that while men are secure, their graces are quenched, and their care to avoid sin, and so to please God, is decayed. This is the first thing.  
For proof of the second,( which is, that customary excess in the use of earthly things breedeth incogitancy,) take first two speeches of otr Saviour. The one is, Mat. 24.39. where he sheweth the state of the old world, and saith, They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, &c. and knew nothing till the flood came and swept them away. In these words,( 1) He intimateth their deep security; they knew nothing, that is actively, reflectingly, they minded nothing that might have prevented their sins and ruin.( 2.) He signifieth the cause, They did eat and drink, mary, &c. till Noah entred into the Ark, i.e. they gave themselves to these jollities, it was their trade to be jovial; hence came their spiritual lethargy, they knew nothing. His other speech is in Luk. 21.34. Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcome with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life,& so that day come upon you unawares.  
Here our Saviour dissuadeth from excess, by an argument drawn from an evil fruit of it, the stealing of the evil day upon us. And in this there are two things, one included, and the other implied. The thing included, is, that thoughtlesnesse and forgetfulness of that day, is the reason why it cometh so suddenly: to men who stand with their loins girded, and lamps burning, always waiting for their Masters coming, it never cometh suddenly. The thing implyed is, that, excess occasioneth this stupidity and forgetfulness. And if excess occasion it, sobriety must needs remove it, and therefore it is a special preservative against sin.  
A third distemper disposing men to a vicious conversation, is, pusillanimity. Sometimes a man cannot avoid foul sins without some expense of credit, ease, profit, preferment, liberty, friends, Country, yea and life too, as our Saviour intimateth, Mat. 16.24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. And Luke 14.26. If any man come to me, and hate not father and mother, &c. As if he should have said, My service is a costly service, many times it so falleth out, that he that will serve me faithfully, and keep a good conscience in all things, must be put sorely to it, and be content to take up the cross and part with his dearest friends, nay his dearest self too. And experience quickly proved his words true, for the Disciples were fain to be whipped and stocked, imprisoned, famished, banished, derided,( and what not?) for the keeping of a good conscience, and the avoiding that heavy sin of positive unbelief; as the History of the Acts sheweth, and that place in S. Paul, 1 Cor. 4.9, 10, 11, 12, 13. where he draweth a Catalogue of those armies of sorrows and disgraces which they endured. So hard it was, in those times especially, to abstain from foul sins without great losses and crosses, that S. Paul went up and down preaching this doctrine, That through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of heaven, Act. 14.22. and he peremptorily avoucheth it in his second Epistle to Timothy, c. 3. v. 12. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. What doth he mean by that speech of his, Heb. 12 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin; but this, that sometime sin cannot easily be avoided, but with striving, with resisting, yea, and with resisting unto blood? he meaneth the heart-blood, he may be put to redeem a good conscience with the price of that, much more with the loss of reputation, the common cross of all such as desire to live honestly, as S. Austin affirmeth, where he saith, Quotidiana fornax nostra humana lingua, Mens evil tongues are our daily trials and portions: and before him the Prophet Esay, c. 59.15. He that abstaineth from vill maketh himself a prey. Now in such a case, the cowardly Christian maketh shipwreck of a good conscience. It is welcome so long as it may bring him friends, credit, profit, and worldly glory, or( perhaps) as long as it will but stand with these; but if he must buy the keeping of it with the loss of these, his heart faileth him, and he letteth it go. But who is so great a coward as the worlds minion? Pleasures and worldly delights immoderately followed, emasculate a Christians courage,& strip him of all manly resolutions. 
l. 1. de Inverit. er. c. 14.  Polydore Virgil telleth us, the Egyptians forbade their young men to learn music; quia virorum effaeminatrix, because it made men effeminate. It is true not onely of music, but of all other delights also over-freely followed, for we see by experience, that Gallants, &c. who are bread up in all sensual contentments, cannot, nor will not endure much hardness in the service of their King: men of meaner conditions prove stouter and better souldiers, and dare, when they are put to it, adventure where the other dare not follow. In the seventh of Judges v. 5, 6. God enjoined Gideon to take into the field with him against the Midianites, such onely as lapped the water like a dog, and to dismiss those that kneeled and lay down upon their bodies to drink. No doubt it was Gods intent, that he should take the hardiest, and let the cowards go, and that it should appear by this action, who of them had or wanted metal. This is a fit representation of the persons we are speaking of, Carpet Knights, covetous or voluptuous livers, who must have their fill of these earthly comforts, and sit by it,( as we use to say) are like those souldiers who lubber-like lay along to take their drink, and thereby discovering themselves to be faint-hearted Punies, were dismissed the army. Sober Christians who drink but a little wine, take but a little sleep, a little pleasure, even no more then will suffice for the sustaining of nature, and whetting on their spirits to honest labour, are like those souldiers who did lap like a dog, with a little bending of their bodies to take up the water, and thereby showing their stoutness, were retained to enjoy the honour of that great victory. And therefore if we would be men of courage, such as can be content to endure some disadvantages for the keeping out of sin, we must but lap like a dog, we must not make a trade of stuffing our bellies, pampering our bodies,& delighting our senses. While Archbishop Cranmer was in prison, where he was at a short allowance, he was resolute to resist unto blood, striving against sin; but afterward, when he was entertained by the Popish Doctors with store of good cheer, and taken to bowls and other recreations, his courage began to abate, and he yielded to that unworthy sin, which cast a shadow upon his former constancy, and cost him abundance of after-sorrow. His slender fare, and straight handling, and want of these corrupting comfors, did fill him with those noble and undaunted spirits, which his excess( though but for a while) did rob him of: By which example of his we may see, how much an abstemious course of life conduceth to the prevention of sin, and how greatly intemperance disposeth to evil. It is a noted fable, that there was a contention between the east-wind and the Sun, who should tyre the traveller first: hereupon the North wind began to blow with all its might upon the poor traveller, to discourage him; but he when he saw the wind high, gird his clothes close to him, thrust his shoulder into the wind, and went forward in his journey. After the wind had played its prise, the sun breaketh out, and darteth his scorching beams upon the traveller, who feeling himself even melted with heat, throweth off his clothes, sitteth down, and giveth over his journey. The moral may be this, of which we are speaking, that Sobriety( which is a voluntary poverty) and the could blasts of habitual hunger& thirst, watching and walking, will make a man who is traveling toward heaven to gather all his spirits together, and with a manly resolution go on still in the way of a good conscience, maugre all the mischief he meeteth with for the keeping of it: but the sweet beams of carnal delights insinuating their force secretly into the soul, do so melt and enfeeble it, so dishearten it from enduring any great matters, that off go our clothes, and down sit we: our journey towards heaven is at an end, and our consciences are cast off, if any great matters are to be undergone for the retainining of them. Be sober therefore in those lawful liberties you do enjoy, and it will keep you from cowardice, and all other dispositions of heart which make men lean towards sin, and consequently from sin itself.  
Secondly, it will also remove all ordinary dispositions of body, by which men are both inclined and enabled to sin. The body is the souls servant, by which her commands are put in execution; it is her instrument, by which she doth either good or evil: nor is it a mere passive instrument, which the soul may command at her pleasure, and make use of to what purposes she listeth; but active, such an instrument as hath some power over, and influence upon the soul( as some servants have over their masters.) Hence the Philosopher saith, that, Mores sequuntur humores, A mans manners follow the leading of his humors. If the body be full of melancholy, or of those indispositions which accompany it, the soul is lazy, unapt for, and unwilling to good duties: if it be full of choler or blood, the soul is inclined by the presence and abundance of those humors to over-much jollity, to pride, passion, uncleanness, and idleness: and this way it doth the soul most hurt, and provoketh it to the foulest sins. These bodies of ours therefore must be kept in a middle condition, neither too high, nor too low. For if we keep them too low, they will be like beasts over-loaded, which sink down in their journeys, and lay their burdens on the ground: if too high, they will kick against the soul, as horses too lightly laden spurn at them that drive them;& there is no better way to keep our bodies from extremes, then a thrifty mediocrity in eating, drinking, sleeping, and the like. I beat down my body, saith S. Paul, 1 Cor. 9.27. and bring it into subjection: where he doth imply, that his abstinence and moderation, by which he kept his body under, did make it subject and serviceable to his soul, and take from it that malapert and saucy disposition of waxing wanton against the soul, and drawing it to those vices of idleness, uncleanness, and many more, which otherwise it would have; had: Sine Cerere& Baccho friget Venus unchaste desires, wanton behaviours and practices grow could, if they be not fomented by too large a diet. Dry dirt( saith Clymacus) is not fit for swine to tumble in: 
Climac. de discreet. grad. 36.  nor is a body macerated and dried up by abstinence fit for devils to find contentment in, or make use of. Abstinence therefore and sobriety in all outward things, is an excellent preservative against many sins of an high nature, dangerous consequence: and therefore let every good man that would keep himself undefiled, be no stranger to it.  
A fourth preservative, is, forbearance of smaller sins. 
4. Preservative. Abstinence from smaller sins.  When men give liberty to themselves in lesser sins, they quickly fall into greater: from smaller oaths they quickly proceed to deeper, from customary vaine-swearing to forswearing, from contemplative venery to actual, from lesser purloynings of wood, poultry, sheep, and other small things, to robbing of houses, and assaulting of mens persons and lives upon the high way. We use to say, that he who will take his liberty to the full, and do all that he may do, 
Greg. l. 5. moral. solace in ●ll●citis non cadit, qui se aliquando& à licitis cau●è restringit.  will easily be brought to do more then he may. He onely( saith S. Grego●y) falleth not into things unlawful, who wisely denieth himself sometimes such things as are lawful: and so, that man that inureth himself to lighter sins for quality, or degree, will not stick at greater, if there be occasion. Blessed is the man( saith David) that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, Psal. 1.1. In these words( as Expositors say) are mentioned, 
{αβγδ} Vide Bucer. in Ps. 1 ( 1) three degrees of sinners, ungodly, sinners, scornful. Ungodly, are such as sin now and then. Sinners, are customary, and professed sinners,( for in Scripture notorious offenders were for the most part called sinners {αβγδ}, as namely the Sodomites, Gen. 13.13. and so the Amalekites, 1 Sam. 15, 18. and the Gentiles, Gal. 2.15. and Mary Magdalen was so called, Luk. 7.37. A woman which was a sinner, i. a notorious sinner.) Scorners, are such as are so hardened in sin, that they make but a jest of it.( 2) Here are laid down three degrees of participating with sinners, in these three words, walking, standing, sitting. To walk in their counsel, is, to like and have a mind to their evil courses: to stand in their way, is to resolve to be of their society: to sit in their seat, is, Toti in eorum societatem commigrare, to addict ourselves wholly to their company& courses.( 3) The facility of passing from one degree of sin to another is here intimated; as Bucer noteth Primum, aliquantulum arrident, &c. First, the courses of evil men please us, and 'allure us to imitation, 
Bucer. in Psal. 1.  but as yet we stand not with a fixed resolution in them. But if we do not presently withdraw our feet, by custom their deeds will grow more pleasing to us, and then we stand among them: and if we allow ourselves to stand among them, at last, all shane being rejected, and Gods fear repelled, we will wholly addict ourselves unto them. It is also Calvins observation on those words, Because( saith he) the devil doth subtly insinuate his deceits; 
Calv. in Psal. 1  that no man may be deceived unawares, the Prophet sheweth, how by little and little men are wont to decline from the right way. Neque enim primo statim gradu, &c. For men do not at the first step ascend so high as to a proud contempt of God: but after they have begun to give an ear to evil counsel, the devil leadeth them on further, till they rush into manifest defection. And a little after he saith, That when a man hath been willingly carried after evil lusts, the custom of sin doth so inebriate and besot him, that forgetting himself, he waxeth obdurate in wickedness, which the Prophet calleth( standing in the way:) and at length followeth desperate obstinacy, which he pointeth at under the metaphor of sitting. Thus far Calvin. This text then is a confirmation of the point in hand, that he who would abstain from greater, must forbear the smaller sins. 
Totum humanum genus hoc ordine in poenam aeterrā ruit. Prinum accendit, postea vires ignibus praeb●t post●emà flammam ingred●tur, quam paravit. Quando igitur primum si bi homo aeternum accendit ignem? s● cum primum peccare incipit. Quando autem vires ignibus praebet? Cum utique peccata peccatis cumularit. Quando vero ignem aeternum intro●bit? Quando irremediabilem primum malorum omnium sum●a●, cr●scentium del●ctorum iniquitate compleverit. Salvian. de proved. l. 4.  All mankind rusheth in this order into eternal punishment. First, he kindleth the fire, next he giveth strength to it; and lastly, he entereth into the flamme which himself hath prepared. But when doth man begin first to kindle this eternal fire? namely, when he first begins to sin. When doth he give strength to it? when he heapeth sins to sins. And when doth he enter into eternal fire? Why, when he hath filled up the irremediable sum of his sins by the iniquity of his increasing faults. They are the words of Salvian, by which he sheweth, that men come not to the height of sin, and so to punishment at once, but by degrees, from lesser to greater. Now lesser make way for greater sins four ways.  
1. Because they dispose the soul to greater: in a mans body fruquent labours, though but little, beget a fitness to endure great: as Milo's customary carrying of his Calf, while it was young, enabled him to carry it on his shoulder, when it was a Bull. In a garment we see, that a little rent maketh it sit to receive a wider, every little nail, or throne will tear it easily, when once a hole is made in it. In a house, if there be but a little breach made for a little thief to enter, he will quickly make a greater for worse thieves to get in. So it is with the soul, if a man keep his heart so carelessly, that he suffereth some breaches to be made, he doth but fit it hereby for the receiving of greater, when the devil shall assault it. Homo frequenter venialiter peccars in materiâ determinatâ aliquâ, acquirit fortem inclinationem ad majora; A man that often committeth lesser sins in any kind whatsoever, getteth thereby a strong inclination to greater sins of that sort. This made S. Gregory say out of the Wise man; Qui minima contemnit, paulatim decidit, he which taketh no heed of the least, falleth by degrees into the foulest absurdities. 
Aug. l. 9. confess. c. 8 It●que ad illud modicum quotidiana modica addendo( quoniam qui modica spernit, paul●tim decidit) in e●m co●su●tudi●e lapsa erat, ut propè j●m pl●nus mero caliculos inhanter h●uriret.  St. Austin, as he is liberal in laying open his own defects, so he toucheth upon his mothers. He saith, Surrepserat ei vinolentia, a too much love of wine did steal upon her: But how came this to pass? he telleth, that it came by sipping a little wine now and then, when being a young girl, and waiting at the table, she was to fill wine to her father and mother. She did it not( saith he) out of any drunken humour, but mere youthful wantonness: but yet she did it, and by doing it often she had contracted such a love to it, that she could afterward with greediness drink up, and draw dry whole cups of wine. And this ill custom would have brought upon her a kind of necessity to have committed some greater indecencies that way, had not God by stirring up a servant of her fathers to reproach her, and call her meribibulam, a wine-bibber, cured her in time of that weakness, which S. Austin therefore calleth medicinale ferrum, a curing weapon. Thus small sins dispose the soul for greater.  
2. They withdraw that which should and might hinder greater, I mean the fear of God, and the sense of sin. Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati, custom in sinning taketh away the feeling of sin: It is a known saying, and experience proveth it true. As continual labour hardeneth the hand, that it is not of a tender sense, but without feeling of such pricks with a pin or a needle, as could be felt by, and fetch blood from a hand unaccustomed to pains taking; So, a conscience used to work hard at some kind of sin or other, becometh brawny and senseless. And from senselessness cometh a ready yielding to any wicked actions that are probably and temptingly propounded, as we may see Ephes. 4.19. where the Apostle describing the vices of the Gentiles, pointeth at the cause, which was, senselessness of their sins; Who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. In his Epistle to Timothy, 1 Epist. Chap. 4. ver. 2. giving notice of those wicked men that should be in the world in the last times, among other characters setteth this brand upon them, Having their conscience feared with a hot iron. Surely his meaning is, that this their restlessness should bear the weight of, and be reputed and noted for one cause of those other sins, which are there reckoned up. This is the second way, by which lesser sins make way for greater.  
3. They encourage the devil to come on with strong temptations to fouler sins: as a maids facility in yielding to some lighter toyings, giveth encouragement to a wanton to move her to greater incivilities; and a mans unseasonable patience, in putting up some smaller wrongs, doth but hearten some insolent nature to offer him greater indignities. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, saith S. James, Chap. 4. v. 7. If he flee when we resist, he will come on when we yield. Verecunda sunt initia peccati; the beginnings of sin are bashful; the devil will begin in a modest manner, with temptations to small matters; if he find us so courteous as to give way to them, then like a bold beggar he will be upon us for greater courtesies. King Ahaz, when he had seen at Damascus an Altar which he liked, and had sent the pattern of it home to have one made like to it; he set it first in the Court, by the brazen Altar: but when the Priests( who should to their power have resisted him) gave way to him in that, he placed it higher between the Temple and the brazen Altar; their yielding made him bold, who at first was more bashful. And so will our yielding embolden the devil to draw us by degrees from less to more, till we have made up the measure of our iniquities.  
4. They cannot be excused, or concealed, or maintained, but by the adding of weightier sins to them. We use to say, uno absurdo dato mill sequuntur; if in disputation, the answerer grant his adversary but one absurdity, if this adversary have skill to manage his advantage, he will be put to admit a great many for the defending of that one: So, if in temptation we admit one sin, though never so small, if the Devil think of making use of this advantage, he will force us for the defence of that, to yield to more, as examples tell us. Sarah, when the Angel  told her, she should have a child, laughed; and when he took notice of it, she denied it, Gen. 18.12, 15. To conceal one sin, she committed another, and her laughter brought forth a lye. St. Peter also, when he denied his Master, began with a plain and single denial, I know not the man: but proceeded for the better satisfaction of those busy-bodies( if it might be) to a denial with oaths and execrations; he cursed and swore that he knew not the man. If he had stoutly confessed his Master at the first discovery, he had not thus entangled himself; but having permitted the Devil to draw him to one sin; for the maintaining of that he committeth a second, and a third, and both of them worse circumstanced then the first. 
S●xt. S●ver. Biblioth l. 4. e● Joh. Zonara.  Eudocia the Empresse, a worthy woman, and wife to Theodosius Junior, having received of the Emperor her husband an Apple of incredible bigness,( which was given him) gave it to Paulinus a learned man, and for that cause familiar with her: Paulinus, not knowing from whom the Empresse had received it, giveth it as a rare gift to the Emperor. Hereupon the Emperor sendeth for his wife, asketh her for the Apple: she, because he did so earnestly inquire after it, fearing that if she had said, she had given it away, her husband the Emperor would have been displeased, made answer that she had eaten it: He urging her to tell true, she swore that she had eaten it: upon this the jealous Emperor killeth innocent Paulinus, and hateth his wife.  
If this excellent woman had given no way to sin at first, if she had not through fear  told an untruth; she would not have waded into the sin of perjury: but giving way to a first little sin, for the backing of that, she was drawn into a second great sin, which cost her innocent and learned friend his life, and herself the loss of her husbands favour. We find this verified in our servants many times; who, when they have fingered, and meddled with such things as they should not,& so are chidden for it;( to make their Masters believe that they are innocent) stoutly outface and deny what they have done, to quit themselves of the blame which they have deserved. For one thing ill done, they lye, and perhaps curse, yea and forswear, plunging themselves into many far greater errors then the first was. And perhaps the Devil to help forward works of darkness, may tickle a man in the head with these thoughts: I have sinned in this and that kind already, and have offended God; and therefore I had as good wade a little deeper in, and commit a third and a fourth; I can but anger God, and that I have done already, over shoes, over boots, being in, I will go forward, what ere come of it. And that the Devil doth sometimes encourage men by such fancies to add sin to sin, we have an instance in the 
Busbeq. ep. 1. p. 26. cum vero non minores poenas post hinc vitam sibi paratas arbitrentur, si vini minimum biberint, quam si plurimum, qui semel vinum ●ustaverint, potare p●rgam quod v●luti poenâ ●●m commissâ, peccent impu tè, brietatem in luc●o ponunt.  Turks, of whom it is reported, That( because they think they shall be punished no more in another world for carousing whole cups, then for tasting a small drop of wine) having once ventured to sip a little wine, they drink without measure, accounting their after-cups their gain.  
In all these respects, a mans walking in any by-way of sin, may well be compared to running down a Hill( as a mans proceeding in virtue to running up) a man that runs up a hill, may stop when he will, not so, if he run down; there is no stop till he come to the bottom. 
Facilis descensus averai; said revocare gradum, su●erasque ●scender● id au●as, h●c labour, hoc o●us est. Vi●g. Aen.  So, if a man be climbing the hill of virtue, he may sit down, and give over when he thinketh good, and he shall have helps enough to move him to it; but if he be running down the steep hill of a bad life he can hardly give over running, till he be at the bottom of the hill, till he have finished his sin.  

Plut. Vita. Alex.  Plutarch tells us, that when Alexander the Great did first put on the Persian habit,( which was contrary to the Macedonian attire, and therefore distasteful to his souldiers) he did not wear the bravest, but the civillest fashions; such as came short of the Persian bravery,& exceeded the Macedonian simplicity. And in ●his kind of apparel he did not show himself to his people all at once, but by degrees: First, he wore it onely when he conversed familiarly among those Barbarians: Next, when he kept at home, and was in the company of his familiar friends: After that he put it on in public, before all his Souldiers: And lastly, when he sate in state, to do justice, and receive Petitions. So fareth it with men when they begin to fall to any sin, they do it by degrees, proceeding from lesser to greater acts, from lighter to heavier circumstances, from a modest and private, to a public and shameless committing it.  
By the least Commandements Gods meaning is to hedge in the greater: and if we bread this hedge, and violate the lesser, we shall quickly come to invade upon the greater. patent porta impossibile est malum non ulterius procedere; if once the hedge be down, hogs will into the garden; and if the gate be opened, troops of enemies will enter; if one small sin be admitted, many greater will after them apace. Gal. 2.4, 5. False brethren came in privily( saith St. Paul) to spy out our liberty, that they might bring us into bondage: To whom we gave place by subjection no not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel may continue with you. Where he saith, they came in privily to bring them into bondage; his meaning is, that they would have brought in a Jewish rite or two, and so by degrees have corrupted the Gospel and them: and when he saith, he gave not place by subjection one hour, that, &c. he meaneth, that he manfully set his foot against theirs, and yielded not an inch of ground to them, but kept his own; for fear lest by yielding a little, he should in the end have lost all. A good example for us to follow: if we would not be overcome of greater sins, give not the least ground to less: for having eaten of the Devils porridge,( as we say) we will quickly taste of his flesh. And therefore if thou wouldst not wound thy soul, and grieve the Spirit with sins of a high nature, have as little to do as may be with sins of a lower rank. That's the fourth Preservative. 
5. Preservative Diligent in some honest employments.   
A fift Preservative is, Diligence in some honest employments. Labour was imposed on men for a curse; In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread, Gen. 3. but God turneth it into a blessing, and from a punishment of sin, hath made it a means to hedge out sin from fastening upon us. For, 1. It filleth the mind with lawful thoughts, and those thoughts keep our evil thoughts, which are the beginnings of all sins: we use to say, intus existens prohibetalienum, that which is within, keepeth out that which is without: and we see it is so. For if we fill a cup or a vessel with wine, while the wine is in, we can put in no water: so, while by occasion of our callings, our heads are taken up and busied with honest cogitations, we are not fit to receive any evil motions, if the Devil should suggest them. 2. It exerciseth, and employeth the senses, which are the gates of the soul, at which most sins which men commit, are let in. Now, if these gates be shut( as they are when they are seriously occupied about honest and necessary business) bewitching objects cannot enter, to treat with the affections about those sins, which they would persuade to. 3. It taketh up a mans time, that he hath no leisure to follow those sins, which if he knew not how to spend his time, he might perhaps be moved co commit. 4. It discourageth the devil from tempting us: as we use not to speak to a man, when we see him busily talking with others, or seriously employed about some work, because we think he would not mind us, but we should lose our words should we speak them: So, the devil doth not ordinarily set upon them whom he findeth busied in the actions of their callings, because he presumeth he shall but lose h●s labour.  
Man 
Aug de Civ. Dei. l. 3. c. 9. Minus eum sortè decepissent si ●tiosum minimè reperissent: quantò enim minus eum ●ccupatum ●nvenerunt tantò magis ipsi occupav●ruat. ( saith S. Austin, speaking of the long peace which he enjoyed) had been less deluded by devils, if he had been less idle; for by how much the less they found him busied, by so much the more they entred and possessed him.  
Constant diligence therefore in some good employments, is a good preservative against sin. And therefore 
Hier. ep. ad Rust.  S. Hierom exhorteh Rusticus a Monk, to be always doing somewhat; either planting and graffing of trees, or digging and making garden-beds, or weaving of baskets, Bee-hives, and fishing-nets, or writing of books; and he giveth him two reasons. 1. Because 
I● decide riis est omnis otiosus. Ut te semper inveniat occupatum.  the idle man is always lusting after some forbidden thing or other. 2. That the Devil when he cometh, may find him well exercised. To whet him to this, he setteth before him an example of the Monks of Egypt, who were all employed in some bodily labour: Non tam propter victus necessitatem. quam propter ainae salutem; Not so much for the procuring of necessary food, as for the preservation of their souls from temptations and sins. Were this instruction well observed by such Abbey-lubbers as lurk in Monasteries now adays, those Vestals would not keep a perpetual Fire of lust in their souls, nor would their houses be dens of thieves, cages of unclean birds, and mere nurseries of 'vice, and vicious persons.  
But now on the other side, idleness is the mother of much sinfulness. Ezekiel reckoneth up three sins of sodom; pride, idleness, fullness of bread, Ezek. 16. He referreth all the rest to these three, as the causes of them all. fullness of bread breedeth pride and idleness; idleness begets a great many other sins. St. Paul, 1 Tim. 5.13. first, taxeth the vices of young wanton widows; they were busy-bodies, gadders to other folks houses, prattlers of things that were not fit to be spoken of. Secondly, he insinuateth the cause of these evil practices, which was idleness, 
Quae●itur Aegysthus quare sit factus adulter, In premotu causa ●st, d●sidiosus erat.  if it were not a procuring cause, it was at least a preserving cause of those their sins: and if it occasioned such sins, what sins are there, which it will not dispose men and women unto? Whom do we see so vicious in their lives, as young Gentlemen who want employment; or poor men, who though they have Callings, are yet too idle to follow them? The fruit of idleness in those, is drunkenness, whoredom, game, flocking to play-houses, and other corrupting places; in these, sharking and pilfering from their neighbours, to supply their own necessities. When a man is idle, his time seemeth tedious, and he hunteth after pleasures and recreations to pass away his time with: and those delights, are either sins themselves, or are connexed with, or previous to sins of the deepest die. And when a man is idle, his mind being out of good thoughts, is ready to receive any bad impressions; as a Table-book which is empty, is fit to receive any letters or characters that a man will put in; and a Mill, if there be no good corn in it, it will grinned any thing which you put in. Hence come many evil thoughts, and from evil thoughts vicious actions; which Cato observing, said, Nihil agendo homines malè agere discunt, Men by doing nothing learn to do that which is evil. This made S. Bernard call idleness Sentinam vitiorum, a sink of vices: and S. Austin, pulvinar Satanae, the Devils cushion, or pillow to lean upon: His meaning is, that the idle soul is a fit place for him to lodge in. We must therefore take heed of idleness, and live in some constant good employment, if we will keep out of abominable sins.  
A sixth preservative against them is, firm resolutions, 
6. preservative. A settled resolution against sin.  and if there be occasion, vows.  
1. firm resolutions. A man that is indifferent whether he sink or swim, sin, or no, is in a wavering condition, easily overturned when a temptation cometh, as S. James telleth us, Iam. 1.8. A doubl●-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Double-minded, {αβγδ}, of two minds, equally carrying himself ad opposita, toward contrary objects when they are propounded; this two-minded man is unstable, and consequently, if he be in a good way, soon cogg'd out of it by an easy temptation. As children, because they are unsettled, are easily cozened of their money, or clothes; and as straws, papers or any other light things, which lye unsettled on the ground, are hoist up and carried any whither by the least blasts: so is a double-minded and an unstable man, who is off and on, in and out, without any great difficulty drawn away into wickedness. But it is otherwise with the resolved Christian; he hath fixed his foot, and will not be removed; it must be a strong temptation, that bloweth him down. Resolution is like the ballast of a ship, which poyseth it against wind and weather, and maketh it cut the waves, and put on handsomely toward the heaven. Both these may be exemplified in Orpah& Ruth, and S. Austin.  
Touching Orpah and Ruth we red, first, that they both intended to leave their own country, and go with Naomi their mother in law into the land of Israel, and this intention they began to put in execution, Ruth. 1.7, 10. Secondly, after some persuasions given by Naomi to her two daughters, Orpah relenteth, and with a complemental salutation returneth to her country, ver. 14. but Ruth tarrieth with her still, she clavae unto her, saith the text, all her mothers persuasions could not drive her away, nor her sisters example discourage her. What was the reason why Ruth could not be removed, and why Orpah was so soon entreated to be gone? Surely this, Ruth had set up her resolution to abide with her mother, and Orpah had not. That Ruth had considered all discouragements, of strange country, strange god, &c. and digesting them all, had pitched her purpose, we may see, ver. 16. Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God: where thou diest, I will die and there I will be butted. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.  
This noble resolution of Ruth made her overlook all discouragements, and adhere to her mother, and the want of this made Orpah to flinch, and leave her. So, there be many that set out toward heaven, and go in the way that leadeth to it: of these, some return to sin again, others hold on their religious course. Of this difference the chief reason is, 
Aug. l 8. confess.  resolution in the one, and unresolvednesse in the other. The other example that may set forth this to us, is of Saint Austin, whose story in brief is this. 1. He was convinced of his evil courses& the necessity of leaving them, as men when they wake in the morning, and see broad-day light to come in at their windows, know that it is time to rise. 2. He wanted resolution to leave his old ways: the sense of the seeming sweetness of his sins made him loathe to rise out of them, as the ease and warmth of a mans bed maketh him unwilling to get up. 
C. 5.  God( as he saith of himself) called upon him, Excitare qui dormis, Awake thou that sleepest: but he had nothing to answer, Nisi tantum verba lenta& somnolenta, But onely lazy and sleepy words, Modo, ecce modò, sine paululum, tresently, by and by, let me alone a little. When through the strength of conviction, he prayed for continency with his lips, he prayed against it in his heart, Lord give me chastity, said noli modò, but do not. 
C. 7.  He did not turn a deaf ear to his old lusts, but gave them leave to parley with him, 
C. 11.  and pull him by the sleeve, and say, Dimittis ne nos?& à momento isto non erimus tecum ab aeterno? What? wilt thou leave us? from this minute shall we have no more to do with thee for ever? 3. All this while he stuck in the birth, his conversion went not forward, 
C. 5.  as he acknowledgeth. Modò& modò non habebant modum,& sine paululum in longum ibat. His[ presently] and by and by had no reason in it, his[ let me alone a little] proved a great while. 4. At last he begins to grow resolute, being roused by three things. 
C. 7. ( 1) First by a lecture of Potitianus, wherein he discoursed of the rare life of Antony, and the conversion of certain dissolute fellowes who were Souldiers, by the reading of that life of his: For thus he speaketh to Alipius his intimate friend, after he had heard that narration; Quid patimur? quid hoc est? 
C. 8.  quid audisti? surgunt indocti& rapiunt regnum coelorum,& nos cum doctrinis nostris ecce ubi volutamur? What do we? what is this that thou hast heard? Rude and illiterate persons rise up and take the kingdom of heaven by violence, and we with all our learning, lo where we wallow! and after he blameth himself for his double-mindednesse, and calls it a monster.( 2) The second thing that awakened him was a vision presented to his fancy: He thought he saw Continency coming toward him with a great company of old and young, maids, boyes, widows, all sorts attending her: he thought he heard her flouting him in this manner; Tu non poteris quod isti& istae? 
C. 11.  What, Austin, canst not thou do as these men and women, young men and maidens do? what aileth thee? 
C. 12.  This wrought much upon him, and made him cry out; Quam diu cras& cras? How long shall I say, to morrow, to morrow? Cur non hody, cur non hâc horâ finis turpitudinis meae? Why is there not to day, why not this hour an end put to my filthiness?( 3) The third thing that wrought with him, and driven all home, was the admonition he received from a strange unusual voice: he heard some-body singing sweetly, and looking out of the window and listening, he perceived the burden of the song to be, Tolle lege, tolle lege, 
C. 12.  Take up and red, take up and red: hereupon he took up the book, opened it he cared not where, and lighted upon those words of S. Paul, Rom. 13.13 Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, &c. A fit place it was for him, whose sin was luxury; and it wrought a sudden settled resolution in him to cast away his works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. For he telleth us, that having red these words, he had his fill: Nec ultra potui legere, nec opus erat; he neither could, nor needed to red any more. 5. Having thus resolved to break all bars and bands that held him off from a godly life, he left his dearest sins with a great deal of ease: and as it were wondering at himself, he crieth out; Quam suave mihi subitò factum est career suavitatibus nugarum? 
L. 9. c. 1.  How sweet was it upon the upon the sudden to me to want the sweets of former vanities? Quas amittere metus fuit, jam dimittere gaudium erat; Those follies which I was afraid to lose, I was content joyfully to part with.  
By this story we may see what an enemy to a good life unresolvednesse is▪ and how much a settled and obstinate resolution furthereth it. As it made St. Austin take the kingdom of heaven by violence, and break off his dearest sins in a moment: so it is able to make a man who hath forsaken the corruptions that are in the world, to have no more to do with them again for ever. And the reasons are these:  
First, a resolute man shall not be troubled with many temptations from the devil, or provocations by his friends and companions; especially when his resolutions are once known: before they are known he may. Before Naomi knew that Ruth was firmly purposed to abide with her, she moveth her with strong arguments to go home to her friends and Country; but when she saw her resolute, she gave over dissuading her. When she saw( saith the text) that she was steadfastly minded, 
— {αβγδ}  or( as the original runs) that she made her self strong( against her persuasions( then she left speaking to her, Ruth. 1.18. Before Saint Pauls company knew how fully bent he was to go to Jerusalem, they set upon him with tears and entreaties, and by many reasons dissuaded him from going thither: but after he had flung them all off, and made it known how resolute he was to go thither, though it should cost him his liberty, nay his life; it is said, they ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done, Act. 21.13, 14. 
Hier. de vi●â Hilarior.  When Hilarion first entred into the wilderness, the devil sought by inward excitations of lust, by outward terrifying apparitions, and by lashes and other abuses offered to his body, to draw him back to the world; but after he saw that Hilarions heart was fixed, he gave him over. And so he did set upon Christ, before he understood him well; but when he perceived what a resolute and tough soldier he had met with, 
Math 4.  he quickly departed from him; and we red not that he tempted him any more. So likewise when the devil or our friends see, that we will not be stirred, nor removed from our godly resolutions to abstain from sin, by all the temptations and solicitations which they can use, they will give over their labour in vain, and persuade us no more.  
Secondly, if a resolved Christian be enticed, he will not be induced to that which is evil; his resolution settleth him: the devil may fling his fiery darts of evil suggestions at him, companions and friends may shoot the arrows of strong persuasions against him; but he like a wall of brass, beateth them all back, and remaineth as he did. Like the Halcyon which hovereth against the wind, contraria spernit, he despiseth whatsoever opposeth him in his course. He is like a rock in the Sea, which cannot be over-turned by the strength of the mightiest waves or, like a mountain in the earth, which shrinketh not, stirreth not for all the winds that may daily and violently encounter it. 
Justum& tenacem propositi vi●um, non civium ardour prava jubentium, non vultus instantis tyranni mente qualit solidâ. Neque Aust● dux inqu●et: turbidus Adriae, nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus. Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae, &c. Hor. Car. l. 3. Ode 3.  When the Syrens by their sweet songs drew a great company of Ulysses his followers out of their ship to their destruction; Ulysses who had the wit to bind himself fast to the mast of the ship, to stop the ears of his servants with wax, escaped the danger, those Syrens could not devour them. So, when friends and acquaintance come with their bewitching entreaties to draw us from God, if our ears be stopped, if our hearts be bound to the mast of a fixed resolution, we shall sand them away as they came, and escape those sins and dangers which they seek to draw us unto. Davids heart was set to serve the Lord, and to d●shonour himself, so God might be magnified: and therefore when Michal despised him for dancing in an Ephod before the Ark, and befooled him for his pains; he was so far from being discouraged in his service of God, that like the Palm-tree, he did niti in pondus, grow the more resolute for those disheartnings. It was before the Lord( that I danced) who choose me before thy Father, and all his house, to be King of Israel: therefore I will play before the Lord, and I will be more vile then thus, and base in mine own sight. 2. Sam. 6.20, 21, 22. Be stout and resolute therefore in a good cause. First, consider seriously the necessity of thy forbearance of sin, except thou meanest to smart soundly for it. Fore-cast all dangers& inconveniences that can befall thee for righteousness sake: Digest them all, and then conclude with thine own heart to forsake them for ever, 
Hier. ep. 1. ad Heliod. Ecce adversarius in pectore tuo Christum conatur occidere.  whatsoever it may cost thee. A man knoweth not how hard he may be put to: An adversary in his own breast may suddenly arise and endeavour to kill Christ( as Hierom speaks;) his mother that bare him in her womb, that nursed him at her breasts, may chance with weeping eyes and moving words to persuade him to that which is evil, his wife that lieth in his bosom as Dalilah did( judge. 16.15. How canst thou say, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me?) may haply entreat him by all the bands and passages of love that have been between them, to make shipwreck of a good conscience; and his dearest friends and familiars may perhaps lye at him for such a business too; nay more, the devil may raise up crosses and afflictions against him of all sorts, no ways to be avoided but by putting forth his hand to wickedness. In such cases, if a man be not resolute, he will fall; all these are strong cords, and will hold a man under Satans slavery, except by the strength of an all-conquering resolution he snap them asunder. Be fixed then in thy godly purpose, as Joshua was, who set up his staff, and resolved steadfastly, that, let others do what they would, he and his household would serve the Lord. Josh. 24. 
In vit. Galeac. Set forth by Crash●w.  and as Galeacius the marquis was, who, when his friends sent messengers to Geneva, with many great offers to draw him back to Popery again, sent them away with this peremptory answer, I esteem one dayes communion with Christ in the Gospel above all the gold in the world. So Luther resolved, 
Sleid. Comm. l. 3. anno 1521. Et Osiand. cent. 16. l. 1. c. 29.  who being dissuaded by his friends from going to Worms by their burning of his books, which was a shrewd sign how roughly they meant to handle him, and by the example of John Hus, who was by a trick procured to come to Constance( under the promise and hope of safe conduct) and there burned, answered them to this purpose: There is a great assembly of Princes there, and I may do God service by professing my faith in their presence; and therefore, were there as many devills in Worms, as there be tiles on the houses, 
Hier. ep. 1. ad Heliod.  I will go. Solum pietatis genus est, in hâc re esse crudelem, It is a chief point of piety, and I may add of Christian policy too, to be inexorable and cruel in matters of this nature.  
And if thou findest not thy resolutions strong enough to hold thee in, back them with vows. Examples of men vowing against sin we have many. Ezra 10. The Israelites were commanded to put away their strange wives: and, because it was an irksome thing for them to leave their wives, with whom they had lived perhaps many yeares, and upon whom they had begotten many children; therefore they were content to lay upon themselves a vow that they would do it, v. 5. In the fifth of Nehemiah, v. 12. Nehemiah made the people promise to restore the goods which they had gotten by oppression,& to forbear their crue●ty against their poor brethren for the time to come; and because he would be sure to hold them to it, he made them swear and vow to that which they had promised: and to make their vow to make the deeper impression in them, he used a solemn ceremony at the imposing of it, and denounced a solemn curse, ver. 13. I shooke my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out and emptied: to which the people assented, and all the people said Amen. Also Neh. 10.29. It is said, that the people entred into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in Gods law,& to observe all the commandements of the law. By these places we see, that it is no new thing for men to bind themselves from sins,( especially such as they can hardly forbear) by strong covenants and vows to God. But is a vow so strong a bridle to hold in wild colts, to restrain from sin men who otherwise would be trading with it? Without doubt it is, as may appear both by examples and reason.  
By examples, Josh. 9. the Israelites having taken an oath to do the Gibeonites no harm, though afterward they understood that those Gibeonites were Canaanites, people devoted by Gods appointment to the sword; yet they slay them not. What was the reason? Nothing but their vow, as we may see ver. 19, 20. But all the Princes said to all the Congregation, we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel; now therefore we may not touch them. This will we do unto them: we will let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we swore unto them, &c. In judge. 21.1. All the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin to wife: Because of this vow, though afterward they repented them,( because this restraining of the Benjamites from marriage, would be a means in short time of extinguishing the whole Tribe, ver. 2.) yet they durst not bestow their daughters upon them, ver. 6, 7. but were fain to use their wits, and to make some shifts( though none of the honestest) for the furnishing of their brethren the Benjamites with wives, as we may see, ver. 14, 19, 20, &c. And to join to these a third out of Florus; The terror and tamer of the old Roman pride, great Hannibal,( who made a way where he found none, through the impassable Alps into Italy, and in three battels so pierced Romes breast, that she had then breathed her last, had he as well known how to use as to get the victory) was carried on to these high exploits and hostile acts, by the strength of a vow which his Father Hamilcar had caused him to make before the Altar of Jupiter, 
L. Flor. l. 2. c. 6.  never to hold friendship with the Romans.  
By these examples we see, how strongly men have held themselves to be restrained from such things, as they have vowed against, and provoked to the contrary.  
A vow therefore made against any sin, is a powerful means to withhold hold a religious mind from it.  
And the reason is; Because a vow is not a single promise made to God, but an Oath, as appeareth in all those instances which have been produced: and every Oath hath two things in it, either formally, or virtually. 1. An attestation, he that voweth calleth upon God to bear witness of that which he promiseth, and of his sincere intention to do as he saith. 2. An imprecation, or a c●lling upon God to punish him, either determinately, in this or that particular which he sets by; or, indeterminately, in what thing soever God in his wisdom shall think fit. And therefore who is he, that having made a vow against a sin, will not tremble to think of breaking it, if he know what a Vow is?( and if he do not, he is not fit to make it) For, in that he hath called God to bear witness of his promise, he knoweth( 1) that he cannot break this promise without taking Gods Name in vain, and making the God of truth witness to a lye. And( 2) in that he hath wished, that some heavy plague might fall upon his head, if he break his promise, he knoweth, that the breaking of it will be a dangerous tempting and daring of God to do his worst: For God hath usually punished vow-breakers exemplarily, as appeareth by the stories of Sauls bloody house, who for breaking the vow made to the poor Gibeonites, and killing them, were by Gods just judgement hung up, 2 Sam. 21.9. and of Ananias and Saphira, Act. 5. who, for withholding that money in part which they had vowed to the Lord, were suddenly struck dead by S. Peter. And therefore if th●s he tempt God it may prove the ruin of his soul and body, because he is a just God, and hath an {αβγδ}, a revenging eye, many times answering sacrilegious vow-breakers according to their imprecations. Smart●ng have Gods plagues been, which he hath inflicted on perjured persons, the experience of which made the Poet say 
— Si quis multum perjuria celet,  
Sera tamen tacit is poena venit pedibus.  Though the God of heaven seem to wink at mens oath-breakings, and vow-breakings a long time together, yet punishment is coming toward such offenders with a slow place. Sacred for this cause hath been the bond of an Oath or Vow among all people, and careful have they been to do or forbear what they have vowed. If a man therefore find his corruptions strong, and his resolutions weak against any sin, it will be a point of good discretion for him, to add unto his honest purposes a sober and serious vow against it: for if any thing can hold him in, that will.  
Object. But will not a man by vowing bring himself into a snare, and make himself more obnoxious to Gods judgement then he needs?  
Ans. If he vow sincerely, with a hearty desire to forsake his sin, and out of a religious intention to leave it, it will prove no snare to entrap him, but a bridle to hold him out of the snare both of sin, and punishment, which naturally followeth sin, as the shadow the body, and the wages the work; For 1. It will keep him from sinning wilfully: It is possible through sudden surprisal he may fall into the sin vowed against, the strength of the vow notwithstanding; but it is hardly possible for him to sin that sin in could blood deliberately, the consideration of his vow continuing. 2. If he do sin that sin through mere frailty, besides his general and deliberate purpose, and so break his vow, God who is merciful to mere weaknesses, will in goodness forgive him that taking of his Name in vain. It is no snare at all. In a word, it may prove a snare accidentally, through a mans negligence to keep it; but it is no snare properly and in its own nature, but a preventer of sin and punishment. And so I have done with the sixth preservative against sin, Resolutions and vows.  
The seventh is, 
7. preservative. A sanctified use of afflictions.  a sanctified use of afflictions. To sand afflictions, it belongeth to God, as himself intimateth, Amos 3.6. Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it? But to improve afflictions to a spiritual advantage, belongeth in part to men that bear them. Because therefore there be few good men without their crosses, it should be their care and endeavour to make a good use of them for this very end, to which they are very conducefull, if improved. If improved( I say) for otherwise they are not. Sometimes afflictions occasion many shrewd transgressions; distrust of Gods providence, murmuring, impatience, and such sins as seem to set open a door of deliverance, and to show the afflicted a way how to wind out of trouble. witness the Israelites, and Jonah, who murmured against God for trying them; and Saul, who being deprived of Gods presence, sought to obtain it by a Witch: which made Agur put this petition into his prayer, Prov. 30.8, 9. Lord give me not poverty, lest I be poor and steal, and take the Name of God in vain. But if they be sanctified and rightly used, they do the soul much good, they bring forth, as the Apostle saith, Heb. 12.11. the peaceable fruits of righteousness; which they could not do, but by hindering the turbulent fruits of wickedness. Before I was afflicted( saith David) I went astray, but now have I learned thy testimonies, Ps. 119. As crosses bring home the stray sheep, so they keep others from straying.  
The reason, because, 1. they are real convictions of the understanding of the merit and wages of sin: A man needeth not tell the afflicted of the danger and desert of sin, or preach a Sermon of it to him; he feeleth by experience what it is. As a man who by reason of some former surfet hath contracted a fever, or dropsy, or some other distemper of body, is sufficiently convicted of the danger of surfeiting; or he on whom poverty is come through ill-husbandry, findeth by woeful experience what a consumer ill-husbandry is: So, he that for some sins past lieth under some smarting rod, seeth what a mischievous thing sin is, and thereby is stirred up to hate and avoid it for time to come. Many times a Sermon preached to the ear, of the woeful fruits of sins against conscience, daunteth the sinner, and stops him in his course; much more must a Sermon preached to the sense dismay him therein.  
2. They tame and take down the luxuriancy of the mind, which is caused by prosperity, according to that of the Poet; Luxuriant animi rebus plerunque secundis: as fire softeneth iron, and maketh it fit for any good impression intended, or any form that a man would bring it to; so, the furnace of affliction moldeth, and worketh the mind into a soft and humble temper, and so fitteth it for obedience: A man is nothing so high and jolly in affliction, as he is out of it. St. Paul by the voice he heard, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? and the secret blow which struck him from his horse, together with his inward amazement, was so much humbled, that he who before persecuted Christ, now calleth him Lord; and whereas before he kicked against the pricks, now he crieth, Lord, what wilt thou that I do? Act. 9. The Prophet Isa. ch. 6. after he had been inwardly afflicted by a strange vision, with a voice which affrighted him, he was made, like wax to the seal, flexible to Gods hand; insomuch that when God asked whom he should sand( to prophesy unpleasing things, and make the heart of the people fat, &c.) he readily offereth himself even to that unwelcome work, and saith, Here am I, sand me, ver. 8.  
3. They take away libidinem peccandi, a mans itching humour of sinning, and divert his thoughts and desires some other way; as we may see by an example which S. Hierom giveth us of a lusty young Monk, 
Hier ep. 4. ad Rust.  who was much troubled with wanton thoughts and desires, which the Abbot having knowledge of, cooled by this means. He set one or two of his fellows to charge him with some heinous offence, and some others of them to twit and reproach him for it: This false accusation, and these unjust reproaches, did so trouble him, that he was much disquieted in his mind. After he had been thus handled for the space of a whole year, the Abbot sendeth for him, and demandeth how it fared with him in his lustings, whether they continued in that heat they were before, or no: the young man made answer to it as to a strange demand; Papae! vix licet vivere, num libeat fornicari? O wonderful! I have scarce ability to live, and can I have leisure to commit, or think of fornication? By this it appeareth, that crosses hold a mans thoughts upon objects of another kind, and hereby quench those lustings and inordinate lingrings after sin, that otherwise might provoke us to evil.  
4. They we an us from the world, and take off the edge of our affections from earthly things; because they are experiments to us of those two lame legs on which all worldly things stand, uncertainty, and insufficiency. 1. Of uncertainty: For crosses for the most part are privations of some outward comforts which we formerly had; sicknesses are privations of health, pains of ease, losses of wealth, credit, friends, and such like; imprisonment of liberty, banishment of our country, &c: and therefore they make it appear to us, that health, ease, riches, credit, friends, liberty, country, and all outward blessings, are( as our Saviour styleth them) treasures which may be corrupted with moth and canker, or carried away by thieves, subject to vanity, or violence, Mat. 6.19. and perishing meat, Joh. 6.27. or,( as Solomon resembleth them) mere wild fowles, which take their wings and are gone, if the least occasion be given. 2. Of insufficiency. As it is in the body, if one little member be in pain, a man can take no content for the present in any of the other: so it is with outward blessings; if a man suffer but the privation, or diminution of one, all the rest are not able to give him satisfaction. Haman had wealth, and friends, and honour in abundance, and yet a poor petty cross which he received in his reputation( as he thought) by Mordecai's unmannerly refusing to make him obeisance, took away the sweetness and comfort of all his braveries: For thus we red, easter 5.9, 10, 11, 12. Haman  told them of the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, and all the honour the King and Queen had done him, &c. yet( saith he) all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate. Suppose a man have wife and children, goods and possessions, reputation and friends, and all the contentments that can be imagined; yet if he have a ston in his bladder, the gout in his feet, or any other sharp disease in his body, none of these are able to afford him substantial comfort: the sweetness of them is swallowed up in the sense and smart of one cross. Of this a man afflicted hath experience, as well as of the other; and therefore his affections toward these shadows, rather then substances, do begin to languish, and if he would follow it hard, would wholly die. Now, if afflictions make the world bitter, they must needs make God, Christ, and Heaven sweet, and consequently indispose him to sin. For most of the sins( as I have formerly shewed) which men commit, are committed through our inordinate love to, and unreasonable esteem of the creature, through our overvaluing of that, and undervaluing of God: and therefore the schoolmen define sin to be an aversion from God, and a conversion to the creature. If therefore we would die in our affections to sin, and forbear those presumptuous acts which may cost us dear, let us wisely improve our afflictions when God sendeth them, and we shall find them very profitable for this end.  
The last habitual Preservative is, 
8. preservative. A rectified understanding.  a rectified understanding: I mean, a judgement rightly informed, and thoroughly purged from false and licentious principles. For though he who hath a found judgement in most things, may chance through the temptations of alluring objects and raging lusts to do many things that are evil; yet he whose evil hap it is to have a seduced and seducing understanding, cannot but do evil, and that with obstinacy and wilfulness.  
Bus●e ●uius telleth us, that the Turks, 
Busbeq. ep. 4. p. 306.  when any are visited among them with the pestilence, go freely into their houses, stand by their beds, and wipe their own faces with the clothes which are taken from their sweeting bodies: by which means it cometh to pass, that there is usually a very great mortality among thē, when any plague happeneth. And the reason why they are thus bold and adventurous, is, A 
Turcas à peste securos, said non tutos, praestat opinio, quâ mortis tempus& genus unius cujusqne fronti à Deo inscriptum persuasum habent. Si mori fatum si●, frustra declinari; sin contra, stul●è metui.  persuasion which they have, that the time and kind of death is inevitably appointed them, and written with Gods finger upon every mans forehead; and that therefore if it be his destiny to die, it is in vain to decline it; if otherwise, it is but folly to fear it. And so, it is to be feared, that many a man goeth boldly into wicked company, and communicateth with them in many works of darkness, because he is emboldened through some pernicious error that lieth in his understanding.  
It is taught for good Divinity among the Papists, that 
council. tried. sess 14. c 4 Bel l. 2. de poenit c. 18. in fine.  Attrition by the power of the Keys is made Contrition, and by consequence, that such Penitents as come to confession, though voided of any sound humiliation for their sins, when they have received absolution, are discharged of all their past sins: and as covetousness maketh their Doctors to preach such doctrine, so love of liberty in sinning maketh the people as ready to believe it. Hence flow many sins in their lives: For it is( think they) no more then eat and vomit, confess, and be shriven, pay the old score, and begin a new. It is also said and believed among some of them at least, that it is a meritorious thing to die in the Coat of a Franciscin, and a very near cut to heaven: and from hence many that are of themselves inclinable to licentiousness, take their pleasure freely, intending before they die, to purchase a Friars Coat, or to thrust themselves into a Monastery, as 
Eras. col. exeq. seraphicae, in fine.- Propitius sit mihi Franciscus, Theatim●, qui hactenus in t●nto error versatus sim. Existima●ā illoū vestem, nihil aliud esse quam vestem; n●c per se meliorem vest nau●ae, aut calcearii, nisi utentis sanctimonia con mendaretur-- Posthâc ergo vi●am sua viùs, nec me macerabo metu inserorum, aut confessionis taedio aut cruciatu poenitentiae.  Erasmus, with pretty wipes to the Friers for this their Doctrine, intimateth in the last words of his Dialogue. S. Francis pardon me, Theotimus, who have been so long in so great an error. I did think, that their Coat had been but a coat, and that of itself it had been no better then the coat of a master, or a cobbler, except it had been commended by the sanctity of the men that wear it. But seeing there is such virtue in a Franciscans coat, hereafter I will live more jovially, and will never macerate myself with the fear of hell, the weary work of confession, or the vexation of penance.  
It is believed by too many giddy spirits among ourselves, that our Bishops have not their calling from God, and which followeth, that our Ministers are not true Ministers, that our ceremonies are rags of Antichrist, that we are no true Church, &c. From this false principle in their mind, come many great sins in their practise: For they call their Mother Whore, defame the host of the living God, separate from their better brethren, as from the tents of konrah, and bitterly revile those dignities whom they ought to have in honour. It is believed by the Familists, that the sins of Gods children are to be imputed to the flesh; and therefore they freely commit any sin that they have a mind to, except other things hinder them. They lye, dissemble, will counterfeit their religion without scruple, and conform themselves in their behaviours, to the religion of Papists, Turks, Jews, or Pagans, if they have occasion. The like influence have the perverted understandings of men had at all times upon their lives.  
The Jews for trifling discontentments did put away their wives, because they thought, if they went to the Office, and took out a bill of divorce against them, they might when they pleased dismiss them. Because they were persuaded that our Saviour was but a deceiver, therefore they crucified him, and persecuted his followers. And because such Jews as believed, were yet falsely opiniated, that the ceremonial Law was to continue still, and to be observed by the Christians; therefore they clamor'd against S. Paul, and beat him sorely, for that he taught that all mosaical rites were to be abolished. How quickly a misperswaded understanding soureth the life, the devil knoweth full well: and therefore when he would draw one to him, he laboureth to corrupt his judgement. As the philistines, when they had got Samson into their power, the first thing they did was the putting out of his eyes, judge. 19.16.( they knew that then they could handle him as they listed) so when the devil would have a man to be his drudge, to grinned at his Mill, and be a servant to sin, he endeavoureth to blind him. The God of this world( saith the Apostle) hath blinded their minds, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should not shine to them, 2 Cor. 4.4. Thus he dealt with Eve, Gen. 3. when Eve made use of her knowledge, and to Satan tempting her, objected the Command of God, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die, ver. 3. the devil laboured to put out this principle, and to put in a false one, Surely, ye shall not die,( saith he to the woman) ver. 4. God knoweth that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil, ver. 5. And this false and pernicious principle being once received, she yielded, as we may see, ver. 6. When the woman saw that the three was good for food, and pleasant to the eye, and to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit of it, and did eat, and gave her husband, and he did eat: she took it( saith the Text) but when? when she saw that it was to be desired to make one wise: i.e. when upon the Devills words her understanding was mis-perswaded, and she believed that it was so.  
When he would have drawn into sin, him that came to destroy sin, and dissolve the works of the Devil, he went this way to work: he  told him, that he might throw himself down safely from the pinnacle; for God had given his Angels charge to bear him in their arms, that he should not dash his foot against a ston, mat. 4. His intent was, by alleging this Text, to make Christ of opinion, that whatsoever he did, Gods protection should be ever with him, to preserve him from all harm. And so, one toy or other, he doth put into mens heads, if he can, that doth of its own genius countenance and encourage sin, eith erin general or particular: and then he knoweth he shall have his net over them easily; yea and keep them in it too, when he hath caught them. For the Pharisees which did insanire cum ratione, do that which was evil upon grounds of false reasons, were more invincibly shut up under the power of their sins, were the then publicans, whose judgements did condemn their own ill courses, and their affections onely approve them: and therefore our Saviour Christ bestowed his pains for the most part upon the Publicans, as the most hopeful; but left the Pharisees, as men in a manner desperate, to die in their sins.  
But what is the reason of this power which the understanding hath in fashioning the life? It hath it by virtue of its Office.  
As God hath put the sun and Moon into the firmament, to rule the day and the night: So, hath he put the understanding into the soul, to govern men in their practices, and dictate to them what is to be done or avided. Hence it cometh to pass, that if the mind be perverted, and prevaricate in its judgement; the life, which always is ruled by it, more or less, must needs be out of frame. Astrologers tell us, that when any malignant Planets reign, then the air is cor upted, and mens bodies and minds infected, the one with diseases, the other with ill-manners and vices: Their reason is, because these Planets have power over, and influence upon these sublunary bodies. And Physicians tell us, that when the brain is enfeebled, and swerved from a good constitution, the head and the body are subject to Catarrhs, palsies, epilepsies, apoplexies, frenzies, gouts, atrophies, and many diseases more. And why? Because( say they) the brain is membrum mandans, a principal and commanding part of the body, and many of the lower entrails are sub regimine cerebri, under the government of the brain. How true these are, I leave it to them who are exercised in those Sciences, to consider; but sure I am that a poisoned and distempered understanding occasioneth many spiritual sicknesses in the life because it hath the over-sight and direction of the life committed to it. If the blind led the blind( saith Christ) both shall fall into the ditch, Math. 15.14. If a blind man go alone, he is like enough to fall into a ditch; but what if he have a guide? if this guide have eyes in his head, the blind man may go safely, but if the guide be blind also, both will fall into danger, and therefore we use to put such as can see to led the blind, according to that of the Poet {αβγδ}. Arist. in Plut. Besides other guides, every man hath a guide within him, his own understanding, without which he is a mere blind man: if this his understanding be clear and good, he is safe, for he hath that which can guide him well; but if this noble faculty be blind also, then alas for that man; he and his understanding both must fall into the ditch of many a foul sin and mi●ery. Another thing he saith to this purpose, Mat. 6.22. The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee, be darkness, how great is that darkness? The words are intended for a similitude, though the application, which is the latter part of a comparison, be not expressed,( because the application was obvious and easy, and every one that heard it, could tell what Christ meant by it,) and that which our Saviour would teach by it, is, 1. That as the eye is the light and guide of the body, so is the understanding the light of the soul. 2. That( as the body followeth the fortune of the eye; if the eye be single, i. clear and good, the whole body is full of light, and every member as well able to do its proper function, as if it had an eye in it; but if the eye be evil; corrupted and dimmed by ill humors, or outward accidents, then the whole body is full of darkness, i.e. fumbleth and mistaketh in its operation, and the feet in their going trip and stumble notoriously, because that part which should have light and sight in it, to direct the body, is become dark: so) the life of a man is suitable to his understanding, which is the eye of the soul. If that be single, i. well informed, and purged from licentious principles, clear and good, then the life will be good, the things commanded will be done, things forbidden will be avoided: but if the judgement be evil, a reprobate mind, that calleth evil good, and good evil; then will the life be full of darkness, i. of sins which are the works of darkness▪ If therefore the regenerate man would hold his own, and keep himself from presumptuous impieties; he must snuff the candle, clear his understanding, and cleanse it from all those thieves which make it burn dimly, and preserve it as free as may be from all false and loose opinions, of which there be too many in the world, and with which he is too apt to be bewitched; being inclined thereto through the request these opinions are in among men, toward whom he carrieth a good affection, or of whom he hath a great opinion, or because he hath been catechized in them from a child, or for that they are in possession, generally believed, and with great applause entertained and maintained, as the perpetuity of the ceremonial law was by the Jewish zealots, or because those fit his humors, and serve his turn for such base ends as he perhaps propounds to himself.  
If at any time thou hearest men teach, that all the sins of Gods children are mere infirmities, venial sins, or, that God beholdeth no sin in the justified, but looketh upon them always as he looketh upon his son, in whose face he beholdeth them, as persons all fair and pure; or, that God is the mover and provoker of men to their sins, and so the true Author of them; or, that all mens actions good& bad are predetermined, so as they can do more good then they do, nor commit fewer sins then they do; or, that God will rouse him when he falleth into a sleep of sin, and if he belong to his election, drive him home again into a good way, will he, nill he, and make him repent: If( I say) thou hearest any deliver these doctrines,( and with great confidence too) as main evangelicall truths, and such as must be preached for the comfort of Gods children; Haec tu roman caveto: thou, who ever thou art, that wouldst live godly in Christ Jesus, avoid them. For they are {αβγδ} dogmata, opinions that carry their condemnation in their forehead. A man will easily,( if he be not fore-stalled with prejudice) at the first sight of them, perceive whence they come, and whither they go, and what they tend to, even to the setting open a wide sluice to all manner of sin and profaneness. If ye be risen with Christ( saith the Apostle) {αβγδ}, why are ye dogmatized? Col. 2.20. as if he should have said, Christ hath made you free men, be not therefore sworn servants to mens humors, be not moulded into mens opinions: but( 1 Thes. 5.) Try all things, and then hold fast that which is good, and away with all refuse and baggage stuff, that is good for nothing but to breed bad blood and spirits in the soul, and to fill the world with presumptuous insolences against God. 
Melanct. domin c. oculi. p. 187. 8.  Musculus( saith Melancthon) is bold to writ that good works are not necessary, and others cry out, that man is a mere patient in good and evil actions. They are devilish speeches, and where the words of divels are, there is also the life of devils. The speech is tart, but true. If therefore any man would not a be devil in life, let him be none in opinion. These are such habitual preservatives as I thought good to pick out of a great many which perhaps a mans discretion may suggest unto him for the restraining and preventing deliberate and wilful sins.  
I come now briefly to give a touch at some few actual helps, 
actual preservatives.  which will be of use for a man to relieve himself by, when he is under temptation, and in some great danger of falling into some great sin. And the first of these, is,  
Resistance of the first evil motions. For, 
1. Resistance of the first evil motions.  as the strongest men are first weak children, so are the greatest actual sins at first, but sinful motions, either evaporating of themselves out of the dunghill of corrupt nature, or injected into the mind by that super-seminator, the sour of most evil thoughts, the devil, or bread by the action of the devil upon lust, as the sparkles that fly out of a fire-brand when a man knocketh it. These evil motions, if stisted at their first appearing, they die in the birth, and do no further mischief. The reason is, because then the conception of lust is prevented, or destroyed: there can be no birth where conception goeth not forward, or where there never was a conception going before, nor no actual sin produced, except it be first conceived, as S. Austin hath noted on those words of S. james, Chap. 1. v. 13. 
Aug. l. 5. cont. ●ul. c. 5. Pariens est concupiscentia, ●artus, ●eccatum; said concupiscentia non parit nisi conceperit' ●oa councepit, nisi illexerit●. ad malum perpetrantum voluatatis assensum obtiauerit.  Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, &c. Here( saith he) is a birth and a breeder spoken of: the breeder or bringer forth is lust, the birth is sin; but lust cannot bring forth except it conceive; it conceiveth not except it entice, i. obtain the consent of the will to the perpetration of the sin. I may add, it getteth not the consent of the will, except it gain some time to tarry in the mind, and insinuate itself into the affections. Injections do no harm till they come to be moros●e delectationes, pleasing guests whom we entreat to tarry with us, and entertain with delight. The Prince of this world cometh, and hath nought in me, saith our Saviour, Joh. 14.30. i. the devil is coming to me, but he speedeth not, because there is nothing in me for a temptation to work upon; he cannot drawn me to sin, because he cannot fasten an evil thought upon me: and so he can do nothing to us neither, except his temptations are entertained by us. Diseases, if they be taken at the first grudging, do perhaps come as they go, and expose us neither to farther trouble or danger; but if they be neglected till they fasten, there is all the mischief. Though flax or towe be never so catching, a spark of fire may fall in and yet not inflame it, if it be espied and taken out suddenly, ere it have time to insinuate its force into the combustible matter. And so, evil motions, if quenched at first kindling, seldom break out into a flamme of rebellions. But if we bid evil motions welcome, and parley with them, or please ourselves in them( though with no intent to commit the sin;) lust will incalescere, wax hot and conceive, and then the next thing we are like to hear of will be, the birth of some foul sin or other. 
Diabolus serpens est lubricus, cujus si capiti, i. prima suggestioni non resistitur, totus intima cordis, dum non sentitur, illabitur. Isidor. l. 3. de summo bon.  Diabolus, &c. The devil is a slippery serpent, against whose head, i. the first suggestion, if thou make not resistance, he will quickly and secretly wind himself into the midst of thy heart. These undiscreet stayings of bad motions when they come, a●e like a boyes playing about a Pits brink, or a flies buzzing about a candle, always dangerous. Had Saul queched the first sparks of unjust emulations against David, they would never have been strong enough to have broken out into those raging flames of madness against him, by which, having first devoured the Lords Priests, he would have destroyed David also; but at last by Gods direction they consumed the bramble out of whom they broke, I mean Saul himself and his bloody house.  
Had Achan, when first he saw the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment, and was first enticed by the sight of them, against the express commandement of the Lord, to steal them into his Tent, suppressed these motions, he had never stolen them, nor brought the hand of God upon Israel, nor ruin upon himself and his family: but he gave way to their first assault, and suffered them to have their perfect work upon him, and hence came the sin to its perfection, as we may see Josh. 7.21. where he telleth Joshua by what degrees he came to finish the sin; I saw a Babylonish garment, &c. then I coveted them, and took them, and they are hide in my tent. He fed his eyes with ill objects, and his thoughts with evil motions,( for these must needs be included in his seeing them.) And what brought this forth? a lusting, a coveting with consent and resolution to take them, and then followed the action, I took. If a woman when she is set upon by a wanton, resist his first embraces, and cry out, she is like enough to hinder his purpose, and save her honesty; 
{αβγδ}. Th●ocrit. Oscula vir●s al●●t blandum; nam labra venenum instillant anim●s: ●ffugie, ●u●us ●ris.  but if she let him tarry and toy and play with her,( though perhaps with no purpose to yield to his main desire) she greatly endangereth her chastity, and will hardly escape unpolluted. So, if when the devil make offers to corrupt us, we resist, we are safe: otherwise, lust will work upon the temptation, and the temptation upon lust, and it is odds, if we be not subverred.  
Let us therefore crush this Cockatrice in the egg, and stop these first evil motions, by some means or other: by calling upon God to rebuk Satan, by putting into our mindes better thoughts, by employing ourselves in reading, talking with others, domestical or civill affairs, and so diverting them( as a man doth his blood by opening a vein in the arm, when his blood spins out too freely at the nose) by some good means or other, which discretion shall suggest. Let us be sure to stop them in the course, and do as Joseph did, who scorned the motion of his wanton mistress to lie with her, as soon as she made it, and with all might repelled it. Happy is he that taketh& dasheth thy little ones against the stones, O daughter of Babylon, Psal. 137.9. Upon which words S. Austin asketh the question, 
Aug. in Psal 137. Qui suat isti filii Babylonis? nascentes malae cupiditates. Qua●do n●scitur cupiditas, cum pericul● est; antique ā robur accipiat, elid● eam. said times ne elisa non moriatur? allide ad p●tram; p●t 〈◇〉 au●ē est Christus.  Who are these children of Babylon? and answereth, Nascentes cupiditates malae, &c. Evil motions when they begin to arise. When lust begin to arise, there is some danger, but before it get strength, dash out the brains of it: but fearest thou lest being dashed it will not die? Dash it against the rock, this rock is Christ. 
Kempis de Imit. Christi. c. 13. p. 30, 31 V●giland ū est praecipuè contra initium tentationis, quia tunc facilius hostis vincitur. Si ostium mentis nullatenus intrare sinitur said extra l●men, statim ut pulsaverit, illi obviatur. Unde quidam d●xit, Principiis obsta, &c. Nam primò occurrit menti simplex cogitatio, deinde sortis imaginatio postea d lectatio,& motus pravus,& assensi●: sicque paulatim ingreditur hostis imal●●nus ex toto, dum illi non resistitur in principio. c. 2. Serious meditation upon dissuading ●●guments.  Vigilandum, &c. We must watch( saith that devout man) especially about the beginning of a temptation: because the enemy is easily overcome, if he be not suffered to enter into the d●o●e of our soul but be resisted as soon as he knocketh at the threshold: where one said well, Resist the beginnings. For, first is presented to the mind a single thought, then a wrong imagination poss●sseth it, then delectation, and consent. And so by little and little the malicious enemy entereth into the whole soul, because he is not thrust back at the beginning.  
2. Mediate seriously on such things as may serve actually to convince thee of the unfitness and unreasonableness of thy yielding to the sin to which thou art tempted, and of the mischief that may come by yielding; when we muster up such thoughts, we levy store of good souldiers, which will fight with us, and for us, and do us good service while we are under temptation. And by this means alone( with Gods grace accompanying) have many servants of God held their own, when the devil would have rifled them, as examples do witness. When Joseph was tempted by the dishonest entreaties of his mistress, by the opportunity of the time and place( the house being clear,) by the condition of the party, his mistress, who might have done him a pleasure, and by the pleasingnesse of the sin itself,( especially to the apprehension of a young man, as Joseph was) all strong provocations; how did he preserve himself, but by serious considerations of the greatness of the sin, and the foul ingratitude which he should have been guilty of toward God and his Master, had he consented? as we may see Gen. 39.8, 9. She said lye with me; there is the temptation: but he refused, and said to his Masters wife, Behold, my Master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house then I; neither hath he kept any thing back from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Here was his preservative. David was tempted to kill Saul, when he had him in a place of advantage: yet he yielded not to the temptation, though it might have been for his ease and safety to have consented, and have killed his implacable enemy. But how did he restrain himself? by an effectual meditation of Sauls place, he was the King; and of the unlawfulness for a subject to kill his King, though he be a bad one and a bitter and causeless enemy to him, as may appear by 1 Sam. 23.4. Behold the day( said Davids men) of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, &c. This was the temptation, ver. 6. The Lord forbid that I should do this to my master the Lords anointed, to stretch my hand against him, seeing he is the Lords anointed: Here was his refusal to do the sin,& the means by which he enabled himself to forbear it. And 1 Sam. 26.8, 9, 10, 11. he preserved himself from the same sin by the same consideration, and another which he backed it with, The Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle, and perish. When Job was moved by his wife to curse God and die, he kept himself from that great sin by considering the equity of Gods dealing, and our submitting to his providence, Job 2.10. Thou speakest like a foolish woman. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? By the same means did the Prince of our salvation, and our Captain Christ keep himself innocent when the devil tempted him to make the stones bread, to cast himself down from the pinnacle, and to worship him; 1. He wisely considered the power of God, that he was able to sustain his servants by his blessing without bread,& so repelled the first temptation, ver. 4. Next he thought upon the Devils insolency, who, though he ought not to tempt his God, yet he did, and so he staved off that second suggestion, ver 7. Lastly he considered the strict command which God had given to worship him, and him onely, and so conquered the third temptation, ver. 10.  
By these examples, we see what a good weapon meditation of pertinent arguments against sin hath been to many of Gods children, and why should it not be as good a weapon of defence for us in the time of our temptation? When therefore we are assaulted, let us think of some of these things:( 1) The end of our creation and redemption, which was, that we should honour our Creator, and that being delivered from the hands of our enemies, we should no longer serve sin, but should serve him in holinesse and true righteousness all the dayes of our lives.( 2) The turpitude and baseness of sin, which is a mere degeneration from the state in which we were created, a privation of all goodness, and therefore worse then the devil, who hath in him some thing that is good.( 3) The mischief which it may bring upon ourselves, and ours, our body, goods, good name, and soul, in this world, and in the world to come.( 4) The scandal and hurt which it may do to our brethren, for whom Christ died, whose salvation we ought to desire and promote to the utmost of our power, but whose destruction, by drawing him to sin through our example, we are likely to procure.( 5) The loving kindnesses which we have received from God upon our souls and bodies beyond our desert and expectation, by which God hath obliged us to love and obedience, and by which we should stir up ourselves to flee sin, which his soul hateth.( 6) The solemn abrenunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that voluntary obligation which we did impose upon ourselves in our baptism before the faces of men and Angels. These and the like thoughts well entertained, would certainly much conduce to the prevention of sin, when it is approaching: and therefore in our need let us be careful to enter into them.  
Lastly, if these helps will not hold us in, 
3. Asking Counsel.  let us go to counsel,( as we use to speak) repair to the learned Pastors of the Church, to whom God hath committed the oversight of mens souls; to our own, rather then to any, if there be in them but a mediocrity of sufficiency; otherwise to any able and faithful Ministers whom we shall think to make choice of; and to them lay open our spiritual state, our strong inclinations to such particular sins, and the violence of occasions and temptations urging us unto them, craving their direction and help for our preservation.  
If a man have a disposition to some dangerous disease, he will not think it enough to use such preservatives as his own discretion may help him with, but will have recourse to some able and skilful Physician, who seeth more into the state of their Patients body, then himself can, and better knoweth what things are fit to be used for prevention of the disease which is feared. If we would take but the like care for our souls, we would prevent many a sin, that through neglect of this in part, over-mastereth us.  
If we take this course in the time of our danger, we procure a double benefit by it:  
First, the benefit of a Ministers prayers: He will when he heareth thy condition, and thy proneness to be overthrown by some foul temptation, pray to God for thee to rebuk Satan and to strengthen thee in the combat: and this will greatly conduce to thy victory over the suggestion. For, if the prayer of a private good man be available with God, much more of an Elder, as S. james calleth the Minister. If any be sick among you( saith he) let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him, Jam. 5.14, 15. The duty in this place enjoined, is, that when a man is sick, he should call for the Elders of the Church to pray for him: The benefits mentioned; for the commendation of the duty, are two. The one corporal, recovery of health, by the help of their prayers the sick man should recover,( if for other reasons God should not think fit to take away his life) The other is a spiritual benefit, remission of sins; if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. If now the faithful prayers of a Minister be of efficacy to obtain recovery of health, and remission of sins for a sick man, why should not we judge them to be of the like force for the relieving of the tempted, and the prevention of sin? And if sick men should for these reasons sand for the Elders of the Church to pray for them, why should not tempted persons desire and be glad of their prayers, for their confirmation and settling, when they are shaken and buffeted by the devil? When one Christian prayeth for another, he doth it ex charitate, out of charity; when the Minister prayeth for his people, he doth it ex officio, of duty. Now to this ministerial act enjoined him to use when occasion serveth( as to all other acts proper to his calling) is annexed a more special blessing, then to the same act performed by others out of mere Christian charity.  
Secondly, by repairing to them, we may have the help and aid of their Counsels, which are far more available for us in such cases ordinarily, then our own can be: For they are more able to give us counsel, then we are to be our own advisers and doubtless they will be more faithful and impartial in their directions, then we would be to ourselves.  
1. They are more Able to counsel us, God hath given them the tongue of the learned, that they should know him to speak a word( of comfort or counsel) in season, to him that is weary, Esay 50.4. It is their office to strengthen the diseased sheep of Christ, to heal that which is sick, to bind up that which is broken, &c. Ezek. 34.4. therefore it is to be presumed, that God, who hath called them to this work, hath fitted them for it. For as he is author oneris, the author of that burden which lieth on the shoulders of his Ministers; so he will be ever adjutor operis, an assister to them in their work, and a furnisher of them with abilities in some degree to manage it. He hath that Reading which private men for the most part want: for whereas other mens times are taken up with civill employments, his calling is to be searching the Scriptures, and acquainting himself with the methods of Satan, the means how to resist him, and other spiritual matters which may enable him to be a Physician for mens souls. Besides, he hath been exercised in cases of conscience,( if people, as usually they are, be not in the fault) and hath that experience in matters that concern the soul, which other men have not: and therefore in all likelihood they will be more able counsellors to us, then we can be to ourselves.  
2. They are like to prove more faithful too, then we will be to ourselves: for as men are usually too kind Surgeons and Physicians, so they are too tender Divines to themselves. If a man be to physic himself, if he be not a wise man indeed, he will deal too gently with his own body; and a wounded man would lay too mild a plaster on his own sore; and, if we be to direct ourselves in such cases, self-love will make us to apply more gentle preservatives, then perhaps our danger and necessity will permit. In every respect, true is that speech of Seneca, pessimus sui quisque magister, every man is a bad master and tutor to himself. 
Bas. ●n Const. c. 21. Nihil est facilius ●uam seip●ū falle●e, qu●● quisque sibi ipsi b●nevolus est jud●x,& quae jucum ●a sua●, utilia ess● judicat.  There is nothing more easy then for a man to deceive himself, because every man is a favourable judge to himself, and what he findeth to he pleasant, he judgeth profitable, saith S. Basil. But ministers will proceed in their counsels to us according to the exigence of our conditions: If mildness be best for our preservation, they will have their Manna, and their oil for us; if harsher and severer be requisite, with the good Samaritan they will poure in Vinegar and Wine. Other men will not favour us, as we will favour ourselves; and therefore they will do us the more good: for nothing undoth men in such cases more then foolish and cruel pity. But admit, that thou art able to give thy self as good counsel in thy danger, as any Minister can,( which yet is not to be admitted:) yet, as Solomon saith, Eccles. 4.9. Two are better then one: for, if they fall the one will lift up his fellow, &c. When a man slippeth and is ready to fall by one foots sliding or tripping, with the other he many times recovereth himself and escapeth a fall: and so, when a man is ready of himself to fall into sin, by the help of a friends advice he may avoid it. A cock-boat if it be alone on the Sea, it is readier to be overwhelmed, then if it be tied to a ship: and so, a man if he be alone in time of temptation, is nearer to an overthrow, then if he be joined to some other faithful friend and companion.  
Thou therefore that wouldest recover thyself when thou art falling, open thy breast to thy faithful Pastor, that he may direct and preserve thee. Three things usually hinder men from this course.  
1. Self-conceitedness: They think themselves as able to help themselves at a pinch, as any Minister is: And why do they not think themselves as able to physic their bodies, when diseases are approaching? or defend their estates, when the title is questioned? Surely, either men think that they are born with Divinity in their mouths, or that the soul may be kept with more ease, then goods, or life: but this pride usually goeth before a fall. 2. Misconceitednesse: They are of Naamans temper( perhaps) who thought the rivers of Damascus, Abana, and Parphar, of as great a virtue to cure his leprosy as Jordan or any waters of Judah were; and therefeore he scorned to go thither when he was first advised to it, to wash his body: too many contemn all ministerial Acts and Abilities, as if there were nothing in them. 3. Modesty: This hindered many( as Tertullian hath noted) from a public acknowledgement of their sins, and consequently, exceedingly endangered their souls. And therefore the Father compareth such persons to men, 
tart. l. de poen. c. 9. Aut ●i qui ●um in partibus verecund oribus corporis habent m●r●ū conscient ā medicorum vitant, erubescentia sua pereu●t.  who having diseases in their secret parts which they are both to discover, perish through their modesty; and exhorteth men to cast away that noxious and unseasonable bashfulness. 
Sedul. l. 3. pasch. Utere p●ce tua, magna est medicin● fateri, quod nocet abscondi; quoniam sua vulnera nutrit, qui tegit,& plagam trepidat nudare medenti.  Sedulius in his verses useth the like comparison and exhortation; do that( saith he) which will be for thy peace; it is good physic for thee to confess that, which to conceal would be hurtful: because he that hideth his wounds, and is afraid to discover them to the Physician, doth maintain and augment them. He speaketh indeed of the confession of sins, but it may well be applied to the acknowledgement of temptations. For if it be useful for the comfort of him that is fallen, to confess his faults: it cannot but be for the safety of him that is fallen, to acquaint some spiritual Father with his temptations. And therefore, laying aside all pride, sinister conceits of this good help, and peevish modest●, let every one that hath any secret corruption hanging upon him, which is likely to break out into some open rebellion, reveal his case to his faithful Pastor, and entreat the help of his prayers and advice: and so, he may be established, and may reap more benefit by him in one hour, then perhaps in hearing him preach a whole year together. There is a double leprosy in the heart saith St. 
Bern. ser. 3. de resurr In cord est duplex lepra, propria voluntas,& proprium consilium; cesset voluntas propria,& non erit infernus.  Bernard) self-will, and self-counsell: lay down self-will, and there will be no hell. His meaning is, that the cause why so many go to hell, is, because they will be ruled by none but themselves, they will haue their own wills, whatsoever it cost them. Deny thyself therefore, and beg the advice and aid of others that can counsel thee, whosoever thou art, that by temptations and violent affections art in danger to fall: and it will preserve thee from the first fall, a downfall into sin, and from the next and worst fall, a fall into Hell, which without repentance followeth the other.  
And so I have done with the fourth gene●all part, the Antidotes, by which presumptuous sins may be prevented.   

CHAP. V.  

Cap. 5.  The recovery of the Regenerate man fallen into presumptuous sins, is possible.  
BUt, what if the prodigal hath spent his portion, and is become a beggar? What if he that was alive, is now in a manner become dead? and he that did flourish in grace, and abundance of spiritual consolations, is now withered, and for his sin punished with inward desertions? Is there no balm in Gilead to recover this man? no hope in Israel for such an one? must he lye down in everlasting sorrow, and bear the wrath of the Lord for ever, because he hath sinned against him? Is the wound of this mans soul incurable, or may it be bound up? Without doubt this person may be healed; the man thus fallen may rise again: he is in the valley of anchor( as the Prophet speaketh) i. e. a hopeless, and a helpless case, one would think,( as Achan was, when he was brought by Gods appointment and enemy's, into that valley to be put to death) yet in this valley of anchor, God openeth a door of hope, Hos. 2.15. that poor sinners aspiring after his grace may live, and recover all their former losses. As God appointed a Whale to receive Jonas into his belly, when he was cast overboard, and to bring him safe to land again: so hath he provided repentance for the restitution of sinful men, who to follow their pleasures, or to look after profits, have forsaken the ship of a good conscience: which Saint Hierom therefore calleth, secundam post naufragium tabulam, 
H●er. in Esay 3.9.  the second plank after shipwreck. A plank he calleth it, because it is a means to save the lives of lapsed men, who otherwise would have perished in their sins: and the second plank; for, the first is Baptism, or regeneration, Ubi deponitur vetus homo,& induitur novus, by which the old man is put off, and the new man is put on; and the second is repentance, because, by that we rise again after a fall, dum vetustas reversa repellitur,& novitas perdita resumitur, while the oldness returned upon us, is repelled, and the newness lost, is resumed.  
Of this possibility of a regenerate mans recovery, and the means of it, I am now to say somewhat for the conclusion of this discourse; for it is the last general part which I propounded to myself to speak of. And that which I mean to say concerning this point, shall fall into these two conclusions.  
1. That it is possible for regenerate men to repent after they are fallen into presumptuous sins.  
2. That if they do repent, they recover Gods favour again, and the blessed fruits of it.  
First, it is possible for men Regenerate fallen into sin, to come to repentance.  
The truth of this appeareth by two things: 1. by examples: 2. by exhortations given to such to repent.  
1. By examples. David was a regenerate man, after his great presumptions of adultery and murder he repented, 2 Sam. 12.13. And David said, I have sinned against the Lord. Solomon( though some question his repentance and salvation) is generally believed to have repented him of his idolatry, and other vanities, and by his Book of Ecclesiastes to have testified his repentance to all the world. Saint Peter, after he had denied his Lord, repented, for the Text saith, He went out and wept bitterly, Mat. 26.75.  

Euseb. Eccl. hist. l. 3. c. 2. Graec: 23. ex iron. l. 2. c. 39.  Eusebius out of Clemens, tells us of a young man who having fallen from God into desperate wickedness, was again brought to repentance. The story in brief is this. St. John while he was in the Countries about Ephesus, consecrating Bishops, and setting Churches in order, spieth a young man, and for his amiable looks, and zealous affections loveth him, and commits him to the care and custody of the chief Bishop. This young man after a while fell away to riotous courses, to robbery and murder; in which he was so hardened, that he he came a Captain of thieves. The Bishop lamenting his fall, giveth St. John notice of it. He cometh with speed, seeketh the lost sheep, findeth him among his fellows, calleth upon him to repent, and by many moving and melting persuasions accompanied with compassionate tears, prevaileth with him, and bringeth him to repentance, and presenteth him( saith the Story) to the Church of God again, as a great example of true repentance, a great trial of the new birth, and a single token of the visible resurrection. To these examples I may refer the Parable of the prodigal son, who after he had lived riotously, and wasted his portion upon whores, being driven to great misery, confessed his sin, humbled himself to his Father, and repented. These examples show, that men regenerate after relapses into sin have repented: and therefore it is certain that they may repent.  
2. It appears by those exhortations and calls to repentance which God affordeth them. We red that God sent Nathan to David to exhort him to repentance, 2 Sam. 12. that Christ looked back on Peter, after he had denied him, Luke 22.61. which was a secret check to him for his ingratitude, and a dumb( yet powerful) excitation of him to repentance. After that God had pleaded with his people Israel, and convinced them of their ill carriage toward him. jer. 2. he, earnestly exhorted them to repentance Jer. 3. Thou hast played the harlot with many Lovers, yet return again to me: saith the Lord, ver. 1. Go and proclaim these words toward the North, and say, Return thou back-sliding Israel, saith the Lord,& I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, ver. 12. Turn O back-sliding children; for I am married unto you, ver. 14. Return ye back-sliding children, and I will heal your back-slidings. I might instance in a great many such places more, but these are enough to let us see how hearty God called to repentance such children of his as were relapsed; and therefore they may repent: for else it will follow, that Gods exhortatations of men to repentance, are but simulations, and delusions of miserable men, which must by no means be imagined.  
This possibility of their repenting standeth on two grounds, 1. On the presence of Gods enabling Grace. 2. On their ability to improve and make use of it.  
1. Gods grace is always present with the regenerate after their falls, to make them able to rise again. There be some that say,( and they not a few, nor of the meaner sort of learned men) that Grace sufficient to bring men to repentance and salvation, is denied to no man living, especially to none that live in the Church, because else it would follow,( 1.) That some men do perish for want of mercy, and ability to come to salvation, a conceit unworthy of the goodness and clemency of God, Who would have no man to perish, but all to come to repentance, 2 Pet. 3.9.( 2.) It would follow, that men while they live upon earth, are in the state of devils and damned spirits in hell, locked up under an impossibility of being saved: which to say, is to confounded viam& terminum, the way and the ways end: for this life hath been always counted the way to mens last ends, and heaven and hell the ends to which this way leadeth: and the difference between the way and the end is, that the way is alterable, but the end is not.( 3.) It would follow, that God is the Author of many sins, even of all such as are committed for want of Grace to avoid them; which to believe of God, is the greatest blasphemy that can be imagined. But howsoever this assertion is accounted of, it will be denied by none, that to the Regenerate, when they are fallen, God is ever present with his grace, to awaken them out of their heavy slumber, and to bring them home again.  
The scope of our Saviour in the Parable of the woman, Who having lost one piece of silver among ten, lighteth the candle, sweepeth the house, and diligently seeketh till she findeth; and of the sh●pherd, who having an hundred sheep, and losing one of them, goeth after that which is lost, until he find it, Luk. 15.4, 8. is, to show, that God is very forward to use all good means for the finding out, and bringing home again of his lost and lapsed children. This his readiness to restore them, he also signifieth Rev. 3.20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. This knocking is nothing but his invitation and excitation of poor sinners to repentance; and this entering and supping, is, his repossession of their souls when they do repent( if they be such as are fallen) and the communication of his loving kindnesses to them again. The ground of this may be, the unchangeableness of his love, and the constant good affection which God hath to the salvation of poor men, even such as have provoked him by their unkindnesses,& insolences, that become not that spiritual contract that was made between God and their souls. The Apostle declareth the possibility of the Jews restauration by this argument, Rom. 11.29. For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance: as if he had said, Though God have cast them off for their sins, yet he will receive them into favour again if they return: yea, and use means for the effecting of their return, because his calling is unchangeable: he is determined immutably to call back-sliders as well as others to repentance.  
The second ground on which this possibility of their repenting standeth, is, their ability to make use of Gods grace offered and exhibited to them. Though men, before conversion, be reputed by many, mere patients to the work, such as have no active power either of resisting or yet of assenting to Gods grace, and consequently of determining the conversion,( as they illustrate by wax, which hath only a passive power of receiving the print of the seal;& by day, which conferreth nothing to the fashioning of itself, but onely a possibility of receiving that form which the Potter shall think fit to put upon it) yet men once converted, though relapsed, have( in the judgement of those men) an active power to make use of Gods grace when it is given and are co-workers with him in all the works of repentance, and new obedience which they do perform. And therefore the Divines of great Britain in their suffrage, 
Suffr. Brit. art. 3& 4. thes. 1.  after they have said, that a man carrieth himself to the work of regeneration in a mere passive manner; they conclude, that when a man is once converted, and the will changed, then acta à Deo, agit& ipsa, Being acted by God it acteth too, Convertendo se ad Deum,& credendo, &c. By converting itself unto God, and believing. If there be such a power in men regenerate( though fallen into sin) to work with God, and make use of his grace, then it must needs be granted, that there is in them a possibility of repenting after their falls. And this is all that I mean to say to this point, though I might be very large in it.  
The second conclusion is, that the regenerate when they do truly repent of their wilful and presumptuous sins, do recover their losings, and are received into favour again. This point in former ages was not without all controversy, but( though asserted by the most) was denied by some, and seemeth to be limited by others.  
First, it was denied by Novatus, and his followers, who for their pride and imaginary purity, were called by Writers, Catharists, in English Puritans. These men affirmed, that those that fell after baptism, could not be restored by repentance, and saved, as we may see in Epiphanius, where he saith, That Novatus would not receive such into the Church again, 
Epiph. adv. haer. l. 2. haer. 39. or 59.  and that he taught up and down, Nullam esse spem salutis talibus, 
Eus. Eccl. hist. l. 6. c. 42. graec. 43.  &c. That there was no hope of salvation for such. And Eusebius telleth us that he taught, there was no hope of salvation for them that, fell in the time of persecution; though they performed all things that appertain to true conversion, and a right profession of the faith. This was their uncharitable opinion. And yet some to blanche it, have thought and said, that these Novatians did not simply deny salvation to such, but the peace of the Church only, and the participation of Holy mysteries. For so saith Socrates speaking of them in one place. Novatus( saith he) wrote an Epistle to the Churches, 
Socra. eccl hist. l. 1. c. 7. or 10.  that they should not receive such as had fallen to the Holy mysteries, but exhort them to repentance, referring their remission to God, who is of power and authority sufficient to remit sin. In another place of that book, relating a discourse between Constantine the Emperor, and Aecsius a Novatian Bishop, he bringeth in Acesius defending the Novatian opinion by an ancient Canon of the Church, which he saith was to this effect: That such as after Baptism through frailty of the flesh had fallen into that kind of sin, which the Scripture calleth a sin unto death, should not be partakers of holy Mysteries, but exhorted to repentance: and that they should wait for the remission of sins, to proceed, not of the Priests, but of God himself( immediately) who both can, and is of power sufficient to remit sin. This is the judgement also of Petavius in his notes on Epiphanius, concerning the opinion of these Catharists. So thought 
Neque enim hos( opino●) judicabant exclud●ndos à regno caelo●ū quod subm●verunt à foribus ecclesia, quas frequ●nter ingrediuaturits quos D●us secludit à suo consortio: said poenitenti remed●ū, quod alii leniores temporarium esse patiebantur illi volebant esse perpetuum; idque putabant conduc●re ad continendum in officio reliq●um greg m. Eras. l. 17. ep. ad Nic. Busci. ducens Petav. animadvers. ad haer. 59. Novat.  Erasmus also of the Novatian heresy. I do not think( saith he) that they judged these excluded from Heaven, whom they removed from the Church; but the remedy of repentance which milder spirits permit to be but temporary, they would have perpetual; deeming it a good way to keep the rest of the flock in obedience.  
But surely their opinion was not thus favourable, but they held fallen men to be simply excluded from the hope of salvation. Else, why should they have debarred them from the ordinances of God, and the society of the faithful, which are the ordinary means of repentance and salvation? And why,( for that was their main heresy 
Petavius Ibid. Niceph. hist. l eccl. 20.. 8. c. Petav. animadvers. ad haer. 59 Novat. ) should they have denied that the Church hath power to receive them into her communion again? What do these things argue, but that they thought them to be men altogether given up to Satan, and utterly shut out of the kingdom of Heaven? for had they judged them savable by repentance, they durst not have thrust them for ever out of the Church, and denied the Church all power to have received them in again upon their true submission. Besides ( peccata ad mortem) sins unto death, was the style which they usually gave to sins committed willingly after baptism: so Acesius a Novatian Bishop,( relating the opinion of Novatus to Constantine the Great, 
Socrat. eccl hist. l. 1. c. ●4. ) and so. Asclepiades( another Bishop of that sect in his conference with, Atticus Bishop of Constantinople about his opinion,) call them. And they did not call them so in that sense that we do call presumptuous sins, 
V●d. Nicephor. eccl. hist. l. 14. c. 24. ( sins unto death) in respect of their merit, or of their certain event, if repentance prevent it not. 2. But simply and absolutely, as bringing death and damnation inevitably on such as were guilty of them after baptism. For they took this name, and grounded this heresy on that text of S. John, where he mentions a sin to death, and forbids all praying for such as had committed it. Sins therefore after Baptism they held to be those sins which the Apostle affirms to be so deadly and destructive to the offenders, as that no prayers of the Church in their behalf could obtain their pardon, or prevent their eternal ruin. And as for Socrates, there is no heed to be given to him in this relation,( though otherwise a faithful Historian) because he was a Novatian, and would therefore speak as favourably of his own opinion as he could. For it was hateful to most of the Churches in those times, and therefore the Novatians to comply in some measure with the times, were content to mollify in words the rigour of their opinion, and to say, That they excluded them not simply from salvation, but denied them onely the peace of the Church.  
Secondly, this doctrine of the Saints recovery of the favour of God, and their salvation, by repentance, seemeth to be limited by others, to the first, or second fall at most. So 
tart. l. de poenit. Collocavit in vestigio poenitcatiā secundam, quae pulsantibus patefaciat: s●d jam s●mel quia jam secundo; said amplius nūquā quia proximè frustra.  Tertullian seemeth to say, God hath appointed for those that are fallen the second repentance to open the door of mercy to them when they knock; but the second repentance onely, and no more, for the third is fruitless. And 
Orig. hom. 5 in Lev. c 25. In gravioribus criminibus sem●l tantum, vel rarò poenitentiae con ceditur locus; ista vero comm●nia, quae frequent●r incur●mus, semper poeni entiam recipiunt,& s n● intermissioner d●muntur.  Origen saith thus, In the grosser faults place is granted to repentance, once onely, or very rarely; but these common offences which we daily run into, are daily expiable by repentance. But these places are to be understood of that public Repentance which was imposed by the Church on the grosser sort of offenders; and the meaning of those Authors was onely this, that they that had committed( not any mortal sin, but) such as were counted and called, Capitalia capital offences, that is, idolatry and apostasy, should not be received into the Church by a public Repentance and reconciliation above once. That this was the meaning, it appeareth by a passage or two in St. Austin, So far( saith he) 
In tan●●● au●em 〈◇〉 mirum 〈◇〉 quando iniqu●●as progr●li●uut e●●ā ●ost act●m 〈◇〉 n●●ent●am, post al●●ris reconc●liationem, vel simili●, v●l graviora commitant, &c.& quamvis iis in ecclesiâ locus hum ●●●mae poenitentiae non concedebatur, Deus tamen supper eos suae poenitentiae non obliviscitur, Aug. ep. 54.  doth the wickedness of men sometime proceed, that after they have repented, and taken the Communion as a sign of their reconciliation to the Church, they break out into as great or greater sins then they formerly committed: and though to these men there was granted in the Church no place for submission and repentance, yet God doth not forget his patience toward them. In the same Epistle he speaketh to the same purpose, thus. 
Ib. Quamvis ergo cautè salubriterque provisum sit, ut locus humillimae illius poenitentiae semel in ecclesiâ concedatur, nè m●dicina vilis esset aegroti●, quae tan●ò magis salubr ● est, quantò minus contemptibilis fuerit. Quis tamen audeat dicere, quare huic homini iterum parcis?  Although it be wholesomely and warily looked unto, that such a man shall have liberty granted him by the C●. but once to make his repentance, lest the medicine should be lightly esteemed by the sick, which is so much the more effectual, by how much the less it is contemptible: yet who dareth say, Why dost thou again favour and spare this man, &c. Now then, if this were the meaning of those Authors who seemed to give way but onely to a second Repentance, that they that committed Idolatry should never above once be publicly reconciled to the Church by penance publicly performed: it remaineth, that there was no opinion that crossed the possibility of the Saints Restitution to grace after their relapses by repentance, but the Novatian heresy only. Which heresy was resisted at the very first broaching of it, 
Cyp. Epist. 41.  and 
Eus. eccl. hist. l. 6. c. 42.  condemned in two african Councils, and in a Synod at Rome under Cornelius consisting of about 60. Bishops, and a great many Priests and Deacons; and the maintainers of it were excommunicated, because it was a proud unnatural opinion, and repugnant to brotherly love. And Nicephorus tells us, that in opposition to it, 
Niceph. eccl. hist. l. 12. c. 28.  the Bishops of that time following the ecclesiastical Canon, appointed in every Church a Penitentiary( a Priest to hear the confessions of Penitents) that from him, as many as sinning after baptism did confess their faults, might receive Absolution, and be restored to the Church again; albeit that course began to cease after a while in the Greek Churches, by occasion of a wrong which was offered to a Gentlewoman, by a Deacon of the Church of Constantinople, in her chastity, while she remained in the Church to finish her penitential exercises. Divers also of the 
Te●t. l. de poen. Cyp. ep. ad Antonian. gr. Novat.& l. de. laps.& ad Novat. Gre. Nyss. or. de poen it. Bas. ser. de poen. &c.  Fathers have written books against it, as may be seen in their works, and have by many arguments proved, That the regenerate by repentance for their sins are restored.  
And among later Churches, our dearest Mother, the Church of England, hath in her Articles of Religion concluded against it, in these words. 
Artic. 16.  Not every deadly sin willingly committed, after baptism, is sin against the holy Ghost,& unpardontable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God( we may) arise again, and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, They can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.  
Therefore I may pitch it for a firm conclusion, that the Regenerate after their falls into sins of presumption, may by the grace of repentance be restored into Gods favour again. And I prove it by these reasons that follow.  
1. By those Examples which Gods word affordeth us of men Regenerate, who by Repentance obtained remission. David after his great sins repented, and repenting was pardonned, as we may see 2 Sam. 12.13. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord hath put away thy sin: thou shalt not die. Peter also was received to mercy after he had repented, and was dignified by his Lord whom he had denied,( though with a secret check,) with the over-sight of his Sheep and Lambs, John 21.15, 16, 17. S. Paul commandeth the Corinthians to receive into their communion again the incestuous person whom they had delivered unto Satan, and to comfort him, after that he had afflicted himself with hearty sorrow for his sin, and repented, 2 Cor. 2.6, 7, 8. 
Luke 15.  by which he intimateth his restitution into Gods favour again; for else he would never have judged him fit to have entred and been entertained into the Church. The Parable of the prodigal, who returning, was embraced by his Father, and welcomed home with great joy, carrieth with it the strength of many examples. For who is this prodigal returning, but the children of God repenting of their sins? And who is this Father, but God,( who is a more tender Father to his children, then any earthly father can be? for tam pater nemo, tam pus nemo, so good a Father as God is no man. What meaneth this Fathers embracing of his lost son returning, but Gods receiving of his bad children, when they leave their sins and come home?  
2. It may be proved by those places of Scripture, wherein back-sliders are called to repentance with a promise to forgive them, if they repent. Jer. 3.12, 14, 22. Return O back-sliding Israel, and I will heal your rebellions, &c. But because he would have them know that they were exceedingly bound to him for vouchsafing to receive them after their apostasy, he telleth them, that none of them all would do so by their wives; they would never receive them into their favour again after adultery, though they should submit. ver. 1. If a man have put away his wife, and she become another mans, shall he return to her again? yet return to me. The like exhortation there is Hos. 14.1, 2, 3.4. O Israel, return to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, &c. cvi bono, to what purpose? that the Prophet sheweth, ver. 4. I will heal their back-sliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away. These exhortations and promises are given determinately to Gods children back-sliding, and therefore they prove the point. And so do all such exhortations and their annexed promises as are made indefinitely to such as will be converted:( among which that in Ezek. 18.30, 31. is a famous one) for who may dare to restrain them to some sorts of sinners, when God hath extended them to all?  
3. All those places of Scripture, wherein repentance and remission of sins( like a pair of twins that are born together, and die together) are connexed, do likewise show it. Luk. 24.47. Christ telleth his Disciples, that it is the will of his Father, that repentance and remission of sins,( as the condition and the benefit) should be preached in his Name among all Nations. Act. 2.28. when S. Peters hearers asked him, What they should do to be saved, he answered, Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins. And Act. 3.19. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the day of refreshing shall come, &c. In both these places S. Peter coupleth repentance and forgiveness; and so coupleth them, that he plainly maketh Repentance to be the cause, and Remission the constant effect that followeth it, Repent that, &c. Acts 5.31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.  
4. It appears by the joy in Heaven for one sinner that repenteth, Luk. 15.10. Likewise, I say unto you, that there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God for one sinner that repenteth. To what purpose should these blessed Spirits rejoice in the conversion of sinners, if their conversion be unprofitable? for it is the salvation of poor sinners, obtained by their repentance, that maketh the Angels rejoice.  
5. It may be proved by the state and condition of the Saints in this life; in respect of inherent corruptions, and outward temptations, there is in them( as I have shewed) not onely a possibility, but a 
Aug. de c. D. l. 17. c. 16. Paucissimi sunt tantae faelicitatis ut ab ipsa incunte adolescentiâ nulla damnabilia peccata committant.  proclivity of committing gross sins: and if repentance were not of force to restore them, and set them in joint again( as S. Paul phraseth it, Gal. 6.1.) few or none of them could be saved. This is S. Basils argument, Non Angeli sumus, said homines, we are not Angels( saith the Father) but men, subject to slips and falls in this world: 
Bas. ser. de poen.  and therefore God hath provided repentance for our restitution.  
6 The truth of it appeareth by the mischief of the contrary conclusion, 
Quid au en durius, quam ut indicent poenitentiam, quam non relaxent; cum utique veniam negando incentivum auferant poenitentiae? Nemo enim rectè potest agere poenitentiam, nisi qui sp●r●verit indulgentiam. Ambr. 1. de poen. c. 2.  which disheartneth men fallen from endeavouring to rise again, and discourageth them that stand, from seeking by exhortations, rebukes, punishments, or any other means to reduce such stray sheep into the right way; as S. Ambrose affirms, reasoning against the Novatians. No man can truly rerent, but he that hopeth he may obtain remission thereby. And we see it to be true. The Devils that look for no mercy, forbear no sin, never think of repenting; and such men as despair in this life of obtaining pardon, do give themselves to all licentiousness, as we have Cain for an instance. It seemeth by his speech, Gen. 4.13. Mine iniquity is greater then can be forgiven, that he despaired of mercy. What was the issue of it? ver. 16.17. he went out from the presence of the Lord, and he built a City. 
Par. in Gen. 4.17.  From the presence of the Lord? Why? where is not God? He is said to go out from the presence of the Lord, because he left the Church of God, wherein God dwelleth. And why did he build a City? for ambition say some; for the maintaining of his rapine, and robberies say others: If these conjectures be true, then it appeareth that Cain, when he despaired of the forgiveness of his sin, gave himself over to profaneness, ambition, rapine, and all manner of vices. And they said( saith the Prophet Jer. 18.12.) there is no hope: What of that? but we will walk every one after his own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Their desperation made them resolutely profane. Saint Austin speaking of relapsed Christians hath this passage: 
Aug. ep. 54. ad Macedon. Ex quorum numero si quis dicit, dicite mihi, utrum aliquid prosi● ad futuram vitam, si in vitâ istâ illecebrocissima voluptatis blandimenta contempsero, si me poenitendo vehementius quam prius excruciavero, si uberius flevero, si melius vixero, si pauperes largius sustentavero, si charitate ardentius flagavero? quis vestrum ita desipit, ut huic homini dicat, nihil tibi ista in posterum proderunt; vade, saltem hujus vitae suavitate fruere? Avertat Deus tam immanem, sacrilegamque dementiam.  If any such should say, Tell me, will it benefit me in respect of the life to come, if in this life I shall contemn the flatteries of ensnaring pleasures, if I shall afflict my body with the exercises of repentance more then ever I did, if I shall weep more plentifully, if I shall live more orderly, if I shall relieve the poor more bountifully, if I shall burn with charity more ardently? which of you would be so foolish, as to say to this man, These things will profit you nothing for hereafter; go, and enjoy the sweetness of this life? God turn away such cruel and sacrilegious madness. In this speech the Father implieth: 1. That men who repent and forsake their sins, and perform any good duties, do so in hope of salvation, and reward in the life to come. For what else doth this interrogation, will it benefit me in respect of the life to come, if in this life I forsake my pleasures, &c. signify? 2. That, to tell a man fallen, that he should go take his pleasure in this world, for his repentance will profit him nothing, is cruel and sacrilegious madness: cruel, because it discourageth obedience; sacrilegious, because it robbeth God of that honour he might have by the repentance of many. No man lying under sin will seek to rise up, but will add drunkenness to thirst, and draw sin to him with cart-ropes, except be believe, that Remission will follow his Repentance. No man will bestow good words and endeavours to reclaim such, if hope to save their souls do not encourage them. S. 
Cypr. ep. 52. ad Antonian. n. 83. O frustrandae fraternitatis irrita, O misero●ū lamentan● ū caduca d ceptio! O haereticae institutionis inefficax& vana traditio! hortari ad poenientiam,& subtrahere de poenitentia medicinam; dicere fratribus nostris, Plange,& lachrymas funde,& diebus& noctibus ingemisce,& pro abluendo& purgando delicto, largiter& frequenter operare: said extra Ecclesiam post omnia ista morieris. Quaecunque ad pacem pertinent facies, said nullam pacem quam quaeris, accipies. Quis non statim pereat? quis non ipsa desp●ratione d●ficiat? quis non animum suum à proposito lamentationis avertat? Operari tu putas rusticum posse, si dixeris, Agrum peritiâ omni rusticitatis exerce, culturis diligenter insist, said nullam messem meats, nullam vindemiam premes, nullos oliveti tui fructus capies, nulla de arboribus pomae decerpes?  Cyprian in this quarrel lets his pen fly freely upon the Novatians. O vain doctrine( saith he) that frustrates the hopes of our brethren! O false and weak tradition, that weakens the h●nds of poor penitents while they bewail their sins! To exhort to repentance,& yet deny it a healing power! To say to the brethren, Weep,  shed tears, spend dayes and nights in groans, and for the washing away of your sins, be frequent and plentiful in good works: but when thou hast done so, for all this thou must die out of the Church: whatsoever belongs to thy peace, do, but thou shalt not have the peace which thou expectest. Who will not perish without any more ado; and despairing, plunge himself wholly into apostasy, and quiter divert his thoughts from all purposes of repentance? Dost thou think that a Country-man can labour hard, if thou talkest to him in this manner: Till thy ground with all thy skill, and use thy best diligence; but be sure thou shalt never enjoy a harvest, never have a vintage, never gather any fruit from thine Olive or Apple-trees which thou hast planted? &c. S. James therefore to hearten men to bring their brethen to repentance, telleth them, that by so doing they shall save their souls, Jam. 5.19, 20. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hid a multitude of sins. Sinners therefore that are fallen after grace received, may be restored again by repentance.  
Lastly, the truth of this is grounded on the nature of the Gospel, or the Covenant of Grace. Two main differences there are between the Law and the Gospel, the Covenant of Works& the Covenant of Grace.  
The first lieth in the latitude or extent of their prohibitions& commands. The Covenant of works commandeth exact obedience in every thing, and forbiddeth all inward lustings after evil things, all mental sinful delectations as we may see, Rom. 7.7. I had not known lust to be evil, except the Law had said thou shalt not lust. And these evil motions it forbiddeth( as it doth all other sins) under the pain of a curse, Gal. 3.10. Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them. But the Covenant of Grace doth properly forbid all reigning and wilful sins onely, as we may see, Rom. 6.12. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, &c. It condemneth and disliketh all indeliberate sins too, but forbids them not under the pain of eternal condemnation.  
The second difference lieth in the manner of exacting obedience. The legal Covenant requireth obedience strictly, and punisheth the disobedient rigorously, without admitting, or accepting any excuse, as S. Paul intimateth, Rom. 8.3. where he saith, that the Law is weak through the flesh, i. because through the flesh we cannot keep it, therefore it cannot save us, but leaveth us naked to the damnatory sentence of it. It is like the servant in the Parable, that took his fellow-servant by the throat, cruelly exacting his debt, and throwing him into prison because he could not pay it: But the Evangelicall Covenant like the good Master in that Parable, exacteth obedience more mercifully, and if it be not yielded, accepteth of a mans repentance and submission, so it be unfeigned, as we may see in Jer. 31.33, 34. where God speaking of the new Covenant which he would make with the house of Israel, maketh two main promises: the first, to writ his Laws in their hearts, i.e. to enable them to yield obedience to his laws: the second is, to forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more, i.e. in case they should chance to bury their talent, and transgress his Laws, which he hath enabled them to obey, that then he will forgive their sin( he meaneth upon condition they will repent) and not deal in rigor and extremity with them. From the nature then of the Gospel, it followeth, that the Regenerate when they have committed any reigning sins, may upon their repentance find forgiveness.  
But what shall we say to Heb. 6.4. where the Apostle saith, That it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly, &c. If they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance? and to Heb. 10.26, 27. where it is said, For if we sin wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgement? These are the two main places on which the Novatians grounded their opinion, and in which the Apostle seemeth to aver the contradictory position, namely, that men regenerate sinning against knowledge and conscience can never be recovered by repentance. What shall we answer therefore to these places?  
In solving this objection. S. Austin and many of the Fathers were puzzled, some answering one thing, and some another, but few to the satisfaction of their adversaries, and the swallowing up of the objection.  
1. Some, because they could not untie this knot, they cut it, and denied this Epistle to be canonical, because they could not handsomely answer this place.  
2. 
So Epiph. l. ●. advers. haer. her. 39.& 59.  Others understood the Renovation here spoken of, of that renovation which we have by baptism, which is called, the layer of Regeneration, Tit. 3.5. which they say, is not possible, because there is but one Baptism, Ephes. 4. no man can be baptized twice. That which made them understand the Apostle of such a solemn restauration by Baptism, was a mere conjecture, that the converted Jews, because they had many washings in the Law, and for every sin a new cleansing, did therefore contend, that baptized persons after every new sin against conscience ought to have a new baptism. But first, it doth not appear in story, that the Jews contended for any such thing: and secondly, the words following, ver. 7, 8. do import, that it was the Apostles purpose to threaten some greater matter to Apostates then want of a second baptism.  
3. Others understand the falling away, and the sinning wilfully, mentioned in those places, of those capital and foulest sins of idolatry, and apostasy from the Gospel: 
Orig. in Levi● c. 25. hom. 5. ci●ermed. de v●n lidemorum  Thus Origen, Si nos, &c. If any fault surpize us, which consisteth in the miscarriage of the tongue, or in ill manners, and not in a blasphemous denial of the faith, this fault may be easily repaired, repentance for such sins is not denied: but the more heinous sins are of another nature, in these place is found but onely once for repentance. And this his opinion( perhaps) was the cause, why after he had committed Idolatry, he went up and down in a most disconsolate manner, entreating the Churches to pray for him, as we may see in Eusebius. Thus also Pacianus; who calls idolatry( and two sins more, 
Eus. eccl. hist. l. b. 6. inserted by the Transla●or out works of of the Origen. Pacian. Tom. Bibl. pp. Paraen. ad poenit.  murder and adultery) Capitalia, head sins, and such as were, as the breath of a basilisk; a deadly cup, an envenomed arrow to be feared and shunned: and pronounceth of every man who commits these after baptism, that he shall never see Gods face in glory; and that if he chance to repent, yet his tears are sera solatia, comforts that come to late.  
4. Others expound it of a renewing by public and solemn penance imposed by the Church, and performed by the penitent, which( they say) the Apostle delivereth here to be impossible.  
5. Others by impossible understand difficult, as if the Apostles meaning should be this; that it is a very hard thing, and in a manner impossible that such as sin against conscience, after Grace received, should be restored again.  
But most later Writers are of opinion, that the Apostle is not to be understood indefinitely of any known sin deliberately committed by a man in Grace, but determinately, of one certain kind of sin, which is {αβγδ}, in a singular and eminent manner called the sin against the Holy Ghost, and that his meaning is, that whosoever falleth into that sin, can never repent, nor by repentance recover Gods grace and favour again. Which exposition because it seemeth to me the most likely, for the better clearing and confirming of it, I will in a few words inquire into three particulars.  
1. What the sin is, which in a peculiar manner is called the sin against the Holy Ghost.  
2. How it may be said to be irremissible, or the sinner that commits it, irrecoverable.  
3. How it appeareth that the Apostle is to be understood of this sin onely.  
1. What the sin against the Holy Ghost is.  
Some say, it is any sin of malice: others, that it is final impenitency: but I take it to be, a dislike of the truth of God known and manifested to a man, and a calumniation and opposition of it as daemoniacal, and detestable. This is called a sin against the Holy Ghost, because it is against that light and knowledge, which the Holy Ghost, who is the true enlightner of mens minds, hath wrought in the understanding.  
That this is the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, we may gather out of Mark 3.22, 29. where Christ layeth unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to the charge of the Pharisees, v. 22. We may divide his discourse into three parts. 1. He setteth down the sin of the Pharisees. And the Scribes which came from jerusalem, said, He hath Beelzebub,& by the prince of Devills casteth he out Devills. Here was their calumny; which after our Saviour had refuted, v. 29, 30. 2. He sheweth the stamp and quality of that their sin;( 1) it was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,( 2) it was such blasphemy as should never find forgiveness. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. Thirdly, that it may appear, that Christ pointeth at their sin, and intendeth to signify, that it was unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, he addeth, verse thirty because they said, he had an unclean spirit. The meaning is, that Christ spake those words concerning the fearfulness of blaspheming the Holy Ghost, in reference to the Scribes, because they said, he had an unclean spirit.  
Out of these things laid together, two things may be concluded to prove what I say. 1. That the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees was an irremissible sin against the Holy Ghost. 2. That the sin against the Holy Ghost is a malicious reviling, and opposing of the known truth of God; for such was the Pharisees sin, here taxed by our Saviour: Out of envy against Christ, contrary to the knowledge which they had, that he did those miracles by the power of God, they ascribed his works, not to the Spirit of God, but to the unclean spirit. Thus we see briefly what the sin is.  
2. How may it be said to be irremissible, and why?  
1. Some think it to be irremissible absolutely and simply, and so the words sound, Matth. 12.32. Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come: which phrase seemeth to carry with it an absolute and utter denial of pardon to this sin: and Mark. 3.29. It never hath forgiveness, saith the Evangelist: and Heb. 6.4. It is impossible for such to be renewed. These peremptory terms in which the unpardonablenesse of this sin is delivered, make the greater number of Writers conclude it to be altogether irremissible, And so doth S. Johns prohibition to pray for such as we know have committed it, 1 Joh. 5.16. If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not to death, he shall ask, and God shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death, and I do not say, that he shall pray for it. For why( think they) should the Apostle forbid to pray for such, if they could be pardonned, considering that prayer is one great means to obtain pardon.  
But 2. others think it to be unpardonable onely secundum quid, in some sort, because it is not ordinarily forgiven, and they take the Apostles impossible for difficult, or hardly possible. And this exposition seemeth to be favoured by many like places, where somewhat is denied of some things in words peremptory enough, of which notwithstanding those things are capable, though not easily, nor usually, as for example. Jeremy saith, chap. 13. v. 12 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomend to do evil. In these words the Prophet seemeth to say, that it is utterly impossible for a man that hath accustomend himself to sin, to leave his evil courses, and to repent: for it is altogether impossible that an Ethiopian should get a white skin, and a Leopard lose his spots. But experience telleth us, that such a mans conversion is not wholly and always impossible, for such are now and then changed; and the Prophets exhortations given to such to forsake their sins, show as much. All therefore that Jeremy meaneth by this hyperbolical manner of speaking, is, that their case was dangerous, not desperate, and that they could very hardly, and with much ado be converted. In Matth. 19.24. our Saviour saith, It is easier for a Camel to go thorough the eye of a neeedle, then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The words seem to make the salvation of rich men to be not possible; for it is no ways possible to draw a Camel thorough the small eye of a needle: but it is not the intent of our Saviour to signify the impossibility, but the difficulty of a rich mans salvation, as appeareth v. 23. Verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of God. And so in these places which seem to set forth an absolute impossibility of such mens restauration as have sinned against the Holy Ghost, why may not Christ and his Apostles be thought to intend no more than the signification of the greatness of this sin, and the difficulty of their repenting?  
By expounding this text of the Hebrews in this manner, 
Latim. last ser. bef. King Edw. p. 113. &c.  Bishop Latimer telleth us, that he quieted the conscience of a man who was troubled with fear that he had committed this sin; When he  told him that he had not committed that sin, because he was afraid he had, and was perplexed with it: this would not satisfy, but when, after he had been at his book about this business, he returned to the man, and  told him, that by impossible the Apostle meant difficult: herewith the mans mind was settled, because then he conceived some hopes of wading out of it, though his erring conscience  told him, he was in it. I dare not take upon me to determine concerning this dreadful sin, whether it be almost, or altogether unpardonable, considering men of great judgements do not agree about it: but I would wish every man that loveth his salvation, to take heed of it,( and of all presumptuous sins too, for they are steps to it;) considering how hard, if not impossible, it is, for a man entangled in it, to wrestle out of it aagaine.  
But why is the sin irremissible?  
Because it is accompanied with final impenitency, some say. But this is no sufficient reason of the unpardonablenes of this sin, because it is a circumstance that belongeth to all the sins of reprobates, and by consequent, doth not distinguish this sin from any other. And therefore others speak more to purpose, who say, that the irremissibility of it ariseth from the nature of it, and Gods peremptory will so to carry himself toward it. This sin, touching the nature of it, is a sin of a very high hand, and an out-stretched arm, and comprehendeth in it a stout and wilful contempt of God, and his mercies in Jesus Christ; as we may gather from the definition of it, for it is a sin of Malice, and by the Brands which the Apostle setteth upon it. Such( saith he) do crucify to themselves the son of God a fresh, and put him to open shane, and that is the reason why they cannot be renewed, Heb. 6.6. And such do tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the Covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing, and have done despite unto the Spirit of grace.  
These be foul things, horrible affronts to Christ and his holy Spirit: yet these affronts when they are given virtually and by consequence onely( as they are by every presumptuous sinner, because he wilfully doth that which is a contempt of God) are put up more patiently; but when they are given intentionally and formally, as they are by such as sin against the holy Ghost,( for it is their intent to scorn the Trinity, and to despise, and deride the blood of Christ, and the means of their salvation:) they are revenged with all severity. Now because these sins are in their quality and kind so heinous, therefore do they hardly or never meet with pardon: Not, because God hath not power enough, or mercy enough to forgive them; for no sin is greater then can be pardonned,( and therefore Saint Austin  told Cain, He lied, in that he said, his sin was greater then Gods mercy) but because he holdeth it not fit, or comely for his greatness, so far to stoop to any mans devilish baseness, as to prostitute his rich mercies to such vile persons. Were it agreeable to decency, for a physician to cure that Patient who flingeth his medicines upon the ground, and trampleth them under his feet, and flieth in his face when he cometh to heal him? Much less fit is it for God to apply Christs precious blood to such an one as treadeth it under his feet. Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rent you, Mat. 7.6. If men will not give pearls to swine, partly because they contemn the gift, and partly because( perhaps) they fly in the face of the Giver; then surely God will not give Christs blood, and that which floweth from it, remission of sins, to such Swine as these, because they do despise the gift, and fight against the merciful giver. So much for the second thing.  
But how appeareth it now, that the Apostle in these places is to be understood onely of such as sin against the Holy Ghost? It appeareth by these two reasons.  
( 1.) By the Phrases which he useth in describing the condition, and the carriage of the sinners there spoken of. They crucify Christ again; they put him to open shane; they trample under foot the son of God, &c. These acts cannot properly be affirmed of any other then such as do maliciously oppose the Gospel.  
( 2.) By the analogy, and agreement that must be between all parts of Scripture, by examples, and exhortations, and promises of forgiveness made to wilful sinners upon their submission. Gods word teacheth us, that ordinary wilful transgressions are not unpardonable: A higher sin therefore then a sin of wilfulness and presumption, is here pointed at by the Apostle, or else one part of divine truth would contradict another.  
By all this that hath been said, we see what is to be answered to the objection made from the words of the Apostle against the possibility of the Saints restitution into Gods favour, after their wilful falls: namely, that those places are to be understood onely of the sin against the Holy Ghost, and therefore over throw nothing that hath been said of the other sins of back-sliding Christians. For what, though-that be such a sin as God thinketh it not fit to forgive? yet it doth not follow, that all the other sins of enlightened and sanctified men are inexpiable too; but on the other side it followeth, that, because this onely sin is exempted from pardon, therefore all others are within the compass of pardon.  
But some may here say, that, if repentance be able to procure the remission of presumptuous sins, why should any man be more afraid to commit them, then sins of infirmity? For men must repent of them, or else they cannot obtain pardon, and they need do no more for the expiation of the other, then repent.  
I answer, That there is a great deal of difference between the repentance requisite to the forgiveness of the one and of the other. For,  
1. A lesser degree of humiliation and sorrow will serve for an infirmity than for a presumption. An ordinary sorrow is proportionable to ordinary and common frailties, but insolences require a great deal of remorse; and therefore we may observe, that Saint Peter after the denial of his Master did not onely weep, but weep bitterly, Matth. 26.75. and Mary Magdalen who had committed so many and so great sins, that she deserved the surname of Sinner; when she repented, she  shed so many tears as were sufficient to wash the feet of Christ, Luk. 7.38. And the incestuous Corinthian was so deeply drowned in godly sorrow, that he was almost swallowed up with heaviness, 2 Cor. 2.7. And Davids grief of soul for his adultery and murder was so great, that he compareth the state of his afflicted heart to broken bones, Psal. 5. When 
The Engl. Translator of Euseb. eccl. hist. l. 7. c. 1. ex Suidâ.  Origen had offered sacrifice to idols, he made a very pitiful lamentation. And 
Socrat. Ecc. hist. l. 3. c. 11. graec. 13.  Ecebolius, who had been an ordinary turn-coat, was so dejected, that he fell down before the church-door, and bid the people trample upon him unsavoury salt. If the plaster be not as broad as the sore, it will not heal it; and therefore great wounds must have broad plasters: and so must great sins be washed away with many tears.  
2. A lighter kind of forsaking sins of infirmity will suffice for them, than for deliberate sins. Infirmities( as I have shewed) are for the most part inevitable, because a man is ignorant of many of them, and not ware of the most of them when he committeth them, by reason of their frequency, and daily incursion upon him. A man that is set to keep a gate, cannot observe every one that cometh in or goeth out in a throng, nor every one neither that goeth in or out singly, if his mind be diverted; if this man pull him by the sleeve, and that man round him in the ear, and a third or fourth be calling to him from several places: so, a man that setteth himself to keep the gates of his senses, cannot take notice of every temptation and object that stealeth into his mind through those gates, nor of every sin that stealeth out, if they come and go in a crowd, and come upon him in troops: nor can he mark them all, if they break in upon him, or drop from him severally, if his mind be distracted,( as whose is not?) with many businesses at once. God therefore requireth to the remission of such sins onely a virtual& habitual forsaking of them, an endeavour and desire to be rid of them, and a resolution to leave them so far as he is able: an actual forbearing of them( because it is impossible) he doth not strictly require under the pain of eternal death. So that a man may die, even while such sins are breaking from him, and yet go to Heaven. Abraham, Jacob, and many of the Fathers did die in their sin of Polygamy, and yet were saved, because they knew it not to be a sin, and therefore could not actually and particularly forsake it: and many an honest Papist, who liveth and death, under invincible or probable ignorance, may end his dayes while he is kissing a Crucifix, or calling upon a Saint, and yet be received to mercy, because he doth these sins ignorantly, through unbelief: and many a good man may die in a fit of passion, or with a rash word in his mouth, without prejudice to his salvation, because they are sins of inadvertency, which he can neither observe till they are past, nor particularly forsake. But as for deliberate sins, they cannot be pardonned, except they be actually and particularly relinquished, 
Non sunt membra Christi qui se faciunt membra meretricis, nisi malum illud poenitendo deseruerint &c. Aug. de C. D. l. 21. c. 25. Si peccato mortui furint, tunc iis remittetur p●cca●um quod quam diu in peccato vixerint, non remittitur. Hier. ep. ad Sabinian.  he that death in them, is damned for them: For so Christ intimateth in his woeful sentence denounced against the Pharisees, Joh. 8.21. Ye shall die in your sins, and whither I go, thither ye cannot come. And therefore people are called to cast off and fling away such sins, that they might find pardon. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, &c. And then followeth, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be read like crimson, they shall be as wool, Isa. 1.16, 18. And when any are spoken of that are brought in for examples of men truly repenting of their great offences, they are noted to have forsaken those sins, as we may see, Ezra 10.19. They gave their hands, that they would put away their strange wives: and Act. 19.18, 19. Many of them that believed, came and conf●ssed, and showed their deeds. Many also of them that used curious arts, came and brought their books together, and burned them before all men; which was a sign of their renouncing those their wicked studies for ever. And when God promiseth pardon to gross sinners, the promise is made onely to such as forsake their sins. 
Prov. 26.13.  He that hideth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy. What doth all this show, but, that such as are guilty of sins ●gainst conscience, great sins, must actually be divorced from them, if they mean to obtain remission? 
Baron. l. de ven.& mort. pec. cat. p. 26. Poenitentia pro gravioribus peccatis d●bet esse perf●ctè practica, 1. ●xire in realem& actualem cessationem.  And the reason is, 1. Because such sins stare a man in the face; no man that doth them can be ignorant of them: 2. Because consent may be withheld from them: a man when he committeth them, hath liberty to pause, and to forbear them. By this therefore we may easily see, that it is not all one whether a man commit infirmities, or presumptions: the making of his peace for these will cost him much more then it will do for those other.  
But howsoever( may some say) it is but sin, and forsake, and then all is well again; presumptuous sins therefore are not much to be feared, if a man have a mind to them, or be occasioned to commit them.  
I answer. 1. For a man to reason thus with his own herrt, would be a very great presumption, and a tempting of God; who may take such an one away in the very acts of his sins, and deny him space even to cry God mercy, because he thus abuseth his clemency.  
2. Though repentance set up a bankrupt again, and bring the prodigal into favour, yet it doth not always prevent or remove such outward calamities as God doth use to chasten the sins of men withall; some revenging hand of God may( perhaps) lye heavy on his person, children, goods, credit, or some other things that are dear unto him, as long as he liveth. David had repented, and his sin was pardonned, but yet for all that Gods hand was not removed. For, First, God telleth him, that, because by that sin he had caused the enemies of God to blaspheme, the child begotten in adultery should die, 2 Sam. 12.14 And then he telleth him too, that The sword should never depart from his house, and that he would take his wives before his eyes, and give them to his neighbour, and he should lye with them in the sight of the sun. These were smarting punishments. Gods chastisements lay sorely upon the people of Israel a long time for the sin of Peor, Num. 25. although they had repented,& the sin was pardonned. For Ioshua tells them, Josh. 22.17. That they were not yet cleansed from the iniquity of Peor to that day.  
And we red in 2 Chr. 34.24, 25. that, though josiah, with the people, had repented of their Idolatry; yet God tells them That he would bring evil upon that place, and that his wrath should be poured out, and not quenched. And so God handleth many a disobedient child, even after he hath pardonned their sins: the lashes of his rod( perhaps) are upon them as long as they live; if not the stroke, yet the prints: and therefore it is no safe sinning, though we could be sure we should repent.  
3. By repentance a man shall recover his peace and joy, and other graces, but many times, and for the most part, in a lower degree: it is thought that David did never recover that largeness of spirit, and that fullness of inward strength and comfort that he had before. When a prodigal young man is blown up by his ill husbandry; upon submission( it may be) his friends will set him up again, but they will never trust him with so great a stock as they did before: nor will God trust his prodigal children, though they do humble themselves, with so much grace as he did before. When a man hath had a Fever, or some malignant disease, though by help of physic he recover his life, and in time some measure of health and strength too, yet many times he never regaines that pitch of health, which he had before, but carrieth in his body the marks of that disease to his grave: and so doth the man, who by repentance hath crawled out of his bed of sin, very often retain some great and languishing defects and weaknesses of foul contracted by his former iniquities. 
Epiph. l. 2. haer. 59.  A maid( saith Epiphanius) that hath lost her virginity, can never possess that again, Natura non patitur, Nature permits it not; said secundum habet in continentiâ gradum, But she hath some chastity in a lower degree: Sic post Baptismum graviore scelere obstrictus, secundum habet sanitatis genus. So he that after grace hath fallen into the hands and bands of some great sin, hath recovered( perhaps) a second, and a lower kind of spiritual health. It is better and more honourable to be a lily then a Violet( saith S. Hierom:) to be always pure, then to bear the blushy of a sin. It is dangerous therefore to sin presumptuously, though our repentance do restore us.  
4. A man while he avoideth sin, liveth without the snubs and frowns of conscience, and without any painful gnawings and gripings of soul; but he that falleth, sustaineth a great many inward sorrows,( if he repent soundly) before he can enjoy the peace and tranquillity of mind again. 
Hier. ep. ad Salvian. Nec stat m nobis poenitentiae subsidia blandiantur, quae sunt infoelic ū rem●dia. Cavendum est vulnus q●od dollar curatur. Aliud est integra nave, &c. Ibid.  Let not the helps of repentance,( saith S. Hierom.) presently flatter us; for they are the remedies of such as are unhappy; that wound must always be feared, which is not cured withaut pain. It is more ease( saith he) for a man to keep himself and his wears in the ship, and so to enter safely into the Haven; then to leave the ship, and hang fast about a plank, or a board, and by wallowings of the waves to be dashed upon many a craggy rock. And in another Epistle saith he, 
Id. ep. ad Demetr. Verum nos ig●or●mus penitent ā ne fac●lè p●cc●mus. Aliud ●st quae●●●● quod perd●d●ris, aliud possid●●● quo● nunquam amiseris.  Let us not know that repentance may help us, that we may not be induced thereby to fall into sin. It is one thing to seek again that which once thou hadst, and another thing to possess what thou didst never lose. No man will say, it is no matter though he break his head, or wound his body, because he hath a medicine that can make all whole again; he knoweth that he cannot be healed without smart, and therefore he will sleep in a whole skin if he can. Nor will any wise man presume to wound his conscience, because the salue of true repentance will heal it again; for he knoweth, that it must cost him many a groan and tear, before he can make all sound again; and therefore he will keep it well while it is well. And therefore, my advice to such as would fain be sinning, shall be that of Nazianzen, 
Naz. orat. in bapt. Post fl● ū non comm●ttas, quod iter ū necesse sit fl re.  Commit not that after thy lamentation, which thou must be fain to lament again.  
5. In the last place, if there be any who presumeth the more to sin, because repentance will make up his losses, let him know, that there is nothing in him worthy a Christian spirit. Shall we sin, that grace may abound? God forbid, saith S. Paul, Rom. 6.1. So, shall we sin, because we may repent, and be remitted? God forbid, it savours of an ungrateful and ignoble spirit.  

tart. l. de poen. c. 7.— Exiode mari& navi repud●ū dicunt& Dei beneficium, s●lutem suam scilicet, m moriâ periculi honorant. Nolu●t item ū divinae misericordiae oneri esse. Nemo idcirco deterior sit, quia Deus mel●or, totiens delinquendo quotiens ignoscitur. ●b.  Many( saith Tertullian) having escaped shipwreck, from that time do give a divorce to ship and sea; and do honour Gods mercy in preserving them by the daily remembrance of the danger. They will no longer be a burden to Gods mercy. And so, let no man be worse to God, because he is better to him; sinning as fast as he forgiveth.  
For conclusion therefore, as the Apostle saith to his people, My little children, these things writ I unto you, that you sin not: and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, &c. 1 Joh. 2.1. So say I, what I have delivered, I have spoken, first, that you sin not; next, that if any of you do sin, your care may be to repent, that so you may recover remission and salvation, which you are sure to lose, if you repent not.  
It better becometh a Christian to keep his souls health, then to lose it, and get it again: but if any of you have lost it, be not afraid, nor ashamed to use the means of regaining it. 
tart. de poen. c. 7. Pigeat p●ccare rursus said rursus poenitere non pig●at' terandae valetudinis iteranda m●dicina est.  Be weary of sinning again( saith the Father) but be not wea●y of repenting your sins: If sickness return, the medicine must be reiterated, or the Patients must perish. And let your repentance, stand, as true repentance doth, on the two legs of contrition, and reformation: you must be sorry for your sin, because it is an evil, an eye-sore to God, and a plague-sore to your souls; but especially you must forsake your sin: without this, all the tears in the world will purchase you no favour. For so S. Austin telleth us, 
Aug. ser 6. de temp Inanis est poenitentia quam sequens culpa coinquinat.  In vain are those tears, which are fouled and mudded with following sins.   
FINIS.   

THE TABLE.  

A  
ABstinence from use of earthly things, a great preservative against sins of presumption. Pag. 200  
Admonitions to take heed of presumptuous sins, imply a possibility of doing them. Pag. 158  
Affections inordinate to earthly things, disposeth men strongly to any sin. Pag. 364  
Afflictions. Courage in thē a fruit of assurance. Pag. 242 

Improved, are a good preservative against foul sins. Pag. 423, &c.    
Assurance of salvation lost by presump. sins. Pag. 239 

Hath two companions, and four fruits. Pag. 240  
It is the testimony of a good conscience. Pag. 254     

B  
Body, what kind of servant to the soul. Pag. 381  
Businesses, distracted and contract the thoughts. Pag. 53   

C  
Conscience. Horrors of conscience a fruit of presumptuous sins. Pag. 248  
Creation. Two things intended in mans creation. Pag. 1  
Creature preferred above the Creator, 2 ways. Pag. 134  
Creature preferred above the Creator, a grievous sin, Why. Pag. 140  
counsel of an able Minister helps much in time of temptation. Pag. 459  
Covenant of grace how distinguished fom the Conant of works. Pag. 496   

D  
Death. Undauntednes in it, a fruit of assurance. Pag. 245  
Deliberate sins, what they be. Pag. 97  
Decay in grace is a great misery, why. Pag. 270  
Devil hath scientiam mediam. Pag. 203 

Is subtle in his temptations 3. ways Pag. 203, &c.     

E  
excess in use of outward blessings, breedeth in men inordinate love of them. Pag. 364 

And security. Pag. 369  
And cowardice. Pag. 374     

F  
Fear, 3. fold: of God, sin, a mans self. Pag. 137 

God to be feared, why. Pag. 317, &c.  
fear of God a preservative against foul sins, proved. Pag. 318, &c.  
fear of sin, a preservative also. Pag. 324  
fear of a mans self, another preservative. Pag. 337, &c.    
Flesh, remaining in the Regenerate. Pag. 176 

What hurt it doth them. Pag. 177    
Flesh, abated in its power, restrained in its acts by grace, and how. Pag. 178 

How far crucified. Pag. 180    
Forsake. God forsakes and hardens men, how. Pag. 283   

G  
Grace in the Regenerate, how called. Pag. 174 

What it doth in them. Pag. 175    
Graces are infused in Regeneration. Pag. 260 

Are impaired by presumptuous sins. Pag. 264  
And how impaired. Pag. 266  
Quenched by two things. Pag. 268  
actual grace necessary for the Regenerate in 4. respects. Pag. 276  
Withdrawn by God from presumptuous sinners, in what sense. Pag. 283    
Grieve. Spirit grieved by wilful sins. Pag. 22  
Guilt. actual guilt of death eternal, contracted by presumptuous sins. Pag. 228  
Guilt of damnaeion, and a state of salvation inconsistible. Pag. 233   

H  
habitual Grace not enough to carry out the Christian through his whole course. Pag. 275   

I  
Ignorance is a favourable circumstance, and extenuateth the sin with which it is accompanied. Pag. 23 

Of the law and fact, what it is. Pag. 33, &c.    
Ignorance invincible, what. Pag. 27, 38. 

About what objects usually exercised. ●ib  
Vincible, what. Pag. 39  
Of how many sorts. ib. &c.  
Causing Ignorance, what. Pag. 42  
Accompanying Ignorance, what, Pag. 43, &c.  
What Ignorance excuse sinful actions. Pag. 45, &c.    
idleness is the mother of wickedness, why. Pag. 401  
Indeliberation in sinning, whence it comes. Pag. 27,& 53 

When to be judged voluntary. Pag. 59, to 65    
Infirmities. Sins of infirmity, by what names usually called, how divided. Pag. 46, &c. 

mere infirmities, what. ib.  
four sors of infirmities. Pag. 47, &c.  
mixed infirmities, what. Pag. 52  
Incident to our nature, why. Pag. 53, &c.    
Infirmities grieve not the Spirit, how proved. Pag. 65, &c. 

No sins in S. Austins opinion, as some think, and why. Pag. 70, &c.  
No proper breach of the Gospel, and why, Pag. 79, &c.  
Unavoidable in this life, Pag. 82, &c.  
More easy to obtain forgiveness of infirmities than presumptuous sins. Pag. 511     

K  
keys given to the Church 222. Used by the Church. Pag. 223 

What the use of them importeth. Pag. 225    
Knowledge. That there be sins of knowledge, proved. Pag. 90 

Two Objections against it answered. Pag. 92     

L  
Labour preventeth many great sins, four ways. Pag. 398, &c.  
Lent. The great use that might be made of it. Pag. 363  
Lesser sins draw on greater, four ways. Pag. 387, &c.  
Liberty of walking after the flesh continueth in the regenerate, proved. Pag. 181, &c. 

An objection answered. Pag. 187     

M  
Mediocrity in pleasures and labours, subjects the body to the soul in a due manner. Pag. 378  
Meditation upon dissuading arguments preserves from sin. Pag. 453   

O  
Obedience. cheerfulness in it a fruit of assurance. Pag. 340   

P  
Passions: two things in passions, a material and a formal part. Pag. 11 

They blind and pervert the mind. Pag. 54, &c.  
Hurry a man into sin. Pag. 55, &c.  
They constitute a sin of Infirmity, when. Pag. 117, &c.    
Prayer, a good help against presumptuous sins, and why. Pag. 310, &c.  
Presumptuous sins, how called commonly. Pag. 88 

What they are. 100. Objections also. Pag. 101, &c.  
They grieve the Spirit, why, many reasons shewed. Pag. 120, &c.  
May be easily avoided, why. Pag. 120  
Are a revolting from Christ. Pag. 123, &c  
Are a contempt of the Spirit. Pag. 127  
Are a perverting of Gods mercies and Christs merits. Pag. 130  
A preferring of the creature above God. Pag. 133, &c.  
Scandalous how, or why. Pag. 143. &c.    
Presumptuous sins bring much mischief to the soul. Pag. 213 

Put men regenerate into a state not consistible with salvation. Pag. 215  
Bring a new guilt upon the soul. Pag. 228  
And a blemish also that will keep out of Heaven. Pag. 235  
Bereave the soul of assurance, and all the fruits of it. Pag. 239  
Deprive it of habitual grace. Pag. 260  
Make good works unacceptable. Pag. 289    
Protection Divine. Necessary, why. Pag. 279 

Withdrawn for presumptuous sins. Pag. 284    
Pusillanimity occasioneth many foul sins. Pag. 374  
Preservatives against presumptuous sins, actual and habitual. Pag. 309. 

Eight habitual preservatives. Pag. 309, &c.  
actual preservatives. Pag. 447     

R.  
Regenerate cannot commit presumptuous sins, who taught so, and what kind of doctrine it is. Pag. 154, &c. 

May possibly fall into foul sins, proved. Pag. 158  
Have two principles. Pag. 174  
May follow the operations of either, proved. Pag. 181    
Reluctation of the sinner against the sin propouned, no cause why the sin may not be truly presumptuous. Pag. 103 

A companion of most sins. Pag. 102, &c  
Addeth to the weight of sin. Pag. 106, &c.    
Resolution balasteth the soul against sin and temptation. Pag. 403 

Reasons why it doth so, two. Pag. 410  
Strength by vows. Pag. 416    
Resistance of the first evil motion keeps from sin. Pag. 447  
Recovery of a regenerate man fallen into presumptuous sin, is possible. Pag. 467   

S.  
Salomons sin very great. Pag. 167  
Salvation not consistible with presumptuous sins, proved many ways. Pag. 215, &c.  
Scandals given shall be surely punished. Pag. 153  
Security inclineth to sin, proved. Pag. 369  
Seem. In some words it signifies nothing, but is onely an expletive particle, proved by Scripture, and other Writers. Pag. 339  
Sin against the Holy Ghost, what it is, and how unpardonable. Pag. 503, 505  
Sin: Sins not equal. Pag. 23 

Light or venial sins, which they be, according to Popish doctrine. Pag. 25, &c.  
Some sins lighter then others, why. Pag. 26  
Light sins are of easiest pardom, why. Pag. 27. &c.  
Light sins are most what committed ignorantly or indeliberately, why. Pag. 27, &c.  
Sins, venial in their own nature none. Pag. 29, &c.  
What sins are spoken of, Rom. 7. Pag. 67, &c.  
Great sins do much hurt to others, proved. Pag. 143  
In sin four things considerable. Pag. 150  
Sins presumptuous bring greater mischief, then any calamities accompanying a good conscience. Pag. 330  
Or, then can be balanced by any good attainable by them. Pag. 335  
Smaller sins led in greater. Pag. 383  
This they do four manner of ways. Pag. 387    
Sobriety in lawful liberties, a good preservative against presumptuous sins. Pag. 350 

It consisteth in three things. Pag. 356  
Four reasons why it is a good preservative against sin. Pag. 363    
Soul followeth the temper of the body. Pag. 381  
Spirit, how said to be grieved, three manner of ways. Pag. 9 

Why he alone is said to be grieved, and not the other persons joined with him. Pag. 18  
How he witnesseth to a man his adoption. Pag. 256     

T.  
Temptation to sin, most dangerous, when. Pag. 203 &c.  
Trinity, how the external works of it are undivided, and in what sense common works of the Trinity are sometimes appropriated to one person more then to another. Pag. 19, &c.   

V.  
Understanding practical is in the power of the Will. Pag. 95  
unbelievers. How far their good actions are acceptable. Pag. 294 

Their good works are rewarded temporally. ibid.  
They lessen their damnation. Pag. 295  
Are rewarded with further grace. Pag. 295, &c.    
Understanding rectified, a preservative against sin. Pag. 431   

W.  
Will followeth the judgement of the practical understanding, how to be understood. Pag. 95 

With the whole will a man may sin, and yet have some reluctancy against the sin, proved. Pag. 105, &c.  
Sins of will greater then sins of passion. Pag. 108  
Sins of will may be presumptuous, though mingled with passions. Pag. 109    
Worldly things prove snares to mens souls. Pag. 190 

And very great snares, why. Pag. 198, &c.  
In using them we are prove to sin. Pag. 195  
Two bounds to limit us in their use. Pag. 195  
For the getting of them many sins are ventured. Pag. 169 

Suitable to our nature. Pag. 198  
Comfortable to our senses. Pag. 199  
Necessary for our uses. Pag. 199  
When present, greater temptations then being absent. Pag. 200      
Works are of four sorts. Pag. 290 

Proceeding from grace, are accepted. Pag. 290  
Of unbelievers, are not accepted to salvation immediately. Pag. 293     
FINIS.