Ifa. SI. I.

men; so it ferveth to humble us under the mighty hand of God. It is Augustines faying, Magna pars humilitatis tuæ, eft no

titia tui.

2. I find it allo urged by the Prophet Isay,

Hearken to me ye that follow righteousnesse,ye that seek the Lord, Look to the rock whence you were hewen, and to the pit whence ye are digged.

This, to confider the fmall beginnings of the Church; for God called Abraham being one, and from him is the house of Ifrael.

3. I find it urged, to remember our unworthineffe, and to eftablish the Faith of Gods free grace.

Ezch. 16.3 Thus faith the Lord unto Jerufalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother was an Hittite &c.

To chide the rebellion of Ifrael, to whom God had fhewed mercy, being fo unworthy;

Three good ufes of this point, if these vertues do follow, 1. Humility: 2. Thankfulneffe: 3. Repentance.

This Doctrine of Originall fin bath found fome hæretical oppofition, though the voice of Scripture and Reafon doth speak out loud and clear for it.

The Pelagians long agoe denied propagation of fin, and afciibed all to imitation.

-The Romanifts deny it to be peccatum mortale, a mortal finne.

But the Anabaptifs of our times have revived both the Pelagian, and the Popish hærefie.

For in their last book printed4629. they do deny that Infants traduce fin from their parents, and therefore are not borne in finne.

I only admonish you, if any fuch corrupt suggestions shall obtrude themselves to your judgments, that you wave them as contrary to the expreffe word of holy Scripture, that you never forget the pit out of which you were digged...

2. Sinnes of omiffion.

This is another corruption of nature; for our originall imperfection doth so incline us to evil, that we are ready to leave the

dutics undone, which the law of God requireth to be done.

The Spirit of God working faith in us, doth fhew us that whatfoever holy duty we omit, we tranfgreffe the Law which in every precept doth bind the confcience to obedience, and leaveth them guilty before God, who do not those things which the Law commandeth,

Note it, that in the proceffe of the last judgment it is said, now. paviftis me, non amiciviftis me, non vifitaftis, ye fed me not, &c. And in the parabolical example of the rich man and Lazarus, it is declared that the rich man went to hell for not feeding Lazarus. Confider this ye that forget God.

How often have you neglected publike prayers when you have had no just occasion to detaine you? how often have you neglected to heare, to come to the Sacrament? when the Table of the Lord hath been prepared for you, you have turned your back and gone away.

To fuch the Master of the feaft faith, Non funt digni, & non guftabunt coenam meam, they are not worthy, they fhall not tafte of my fupper.

God doth offer occafions every moment to praise him, or to pray to him; it is part of mans mifery that he is negligent, and taketh not the benefit of thefe occafions to ferveGod.

He was adjudged to utter darkneffe who hid the talent of his mafter in the ground. Take that unprofitable fervant and cast him into utter darkneffe; yet was this but a fin of omiffion.

The Law faith, Hoc fac & vives, do this and live; and not only they that do Contrarium huic, contrary to this; but they that do not Hoc facere, are prevaricatours of the Law.

To do good, and to distribute forget not; he doth not say, forbear to do evill, or omit not to do good, but forget not; it is a fin to forget our duty, more to omit it willingly, but most horrible to do the contrary.

3 Sins of evil motion.

These are against the tenth Commandement, non concupifces thou shalt not covet; for there is a conception of finne, a végetation,and a putting forth. The Conception of fin is the first motion thereof, the first titillation of the sense, as Galafius,

Quamvis non planè affentiamur defiderio, fi tamen nos titillat, fufficit ad nos reos peragendos.

So

So Chryfost. Aliud eft concupifcere, aliud velle.

Saint Bern, doth diftinguish our Cogitations thus.

1. Sunt Cogitationes otiofa, idle thoughts, & ad rem non per. tinentes: thefe he calleth Lutum fimplex, that is, a thinne clay which cleaveth not, yet it coloureth.

2. Sunt Cogitationes violenta & fortius adbærentes, violent and fafter cleaving thoughts. These he calleth Lutum viscosum, a viscous clay, ftick-fast;

3. Sunt Cogitationes fatida, Filthy thoughts, que ad luxuriam, invidiam avaritiam &c.pertinet, which belong to luxury, &c. Cœlum immund m,foul mud.

The first of thefe cogitationes & motus primi, may be either in phantafie only, so they defile not or in voluntate, in the will; a little infecting that, io they break the law.

St. Chryfoft. Si concupifcentia non confentit voluntas, fola concu pifcentia non condemnat, if the Will confenteth not,the Concupif cence condemns not.

I dare not embrace his judgement Saint Paul found by the law, and he could find it by no law but this of the tenth Commandement that Concupifcentia eft peccatum, Concupifcence is fin, This is part of the mifery of our fall from God, we cannot think a good thought of our felves.

4. Sins of evil-affection.

The spirit doth dete& this further mifery, when the confent of the will, and the bent of defire doth affect evi; in which kind our Saviour the best interpreter of the Law, doth call anger murther, and unchaft defires adultery, and defires of our neighbours goods theft;

These are not only fins in proventu ex corde, but in corde, as Chrift faith,out of the heart cometh murther,adultery,theft. 5. Sins of evil action.

Thele are evil prævarications, and actual tranfgreffions of the law, fuch as the erecting of another God against the true God, worshipping of idols, Swearing and blafphemy, Breach of the Sabbath in the firft table of the law. Difobedience to authority, murther,

witneffe in the fecond Table.

adultery, theft, falle

They that do these things have not God in their funt que polluunt hominem, saith Jesus Christ.

:

It is a principal work of the Spirit of God in man, to make him fenfible of the pollution of fin it is a thing natural to fear punishment,and to decline it; but the perfect hatred of fin is in refpect of the pollution; fo that if there were no further danger, yet because it fouls my foule, and defiles my body, I ab

horre it.

This is an high degree of holineffe.

Saint Paul who had an inward affurance, and certain perswafion of the falvation of his foule, as he declareth, repofita eft mihi corona, And he knew whom he had trufted; yet how doth he complain!

.t

To will is prefent with me, but I can do, &c. Of finners Lam chiefe.

But I am carnall, fold under finne, wretched man that I am! Those forrowful bewailings of himfelf, thofe confeffions and deplorings of his finne,do not proceed from fear of punishment: he knew that he was paft the rod : they proceed from the horrour of the infection of finne: it grieved him that he was fo foul and unclean in the fight of bim that hath lo pure eyes.

2. This mifery appeareth further in the punishment of finne, which in the juftice of God is Ite maledicte. The curfe of God, as it is written.

Curfed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do Deut. 27. them.

To live under the curfe of God, containeth all the croffes and tribulations of this life, outward, in our bodies, our eftates, our liberty, our friends Finward, in the furges of our own vexations, in the windes of temptation without us, and death it felfe.

It containeth also the fecond death, Pœnam damni, depriving us of all comfort, and pœnam fenfus, poffeffing us of all fulneffe of woe.

Two things make weight in this woe.

1. That the Judge hath book'c the full evidence against us; nothing can be either fupprefled or excufed by us, nothing can be defended.

2. That there is no power in us as of our felves to fatisfie the Juftice of God; fo that we are at Saint Pauls pafle, Ff

Quis me

Libe

26.

Gal. 3.24.

Gal.4.4.

liberabit? Who fhall deliver me?

And herein the law doth us a favour; for it is our Schoolmafter to bring us to Christ, which is the next point which the spi rit revealeth.

3. The Remedy; wherein confider,

S1. How the law doth fhew us the remedy.

2. How the Gospel doth declare it.

1. The Law is our Schoolmafter.

So faith the Apostle, Wherefore the law was our Schoolmafter to Chrift. In the schoole of God there are three formes. 1. Incipientes, beginners, in the loweft forme, for the most part taught by their fellows;fuch were they before the law, taught by their fellow creatures, reading and learning both the glory of God in the speculation of the works of God, and finding the ufe of their life in the conftant obedience of the creatures to the Ordinance of God.

2. Proficientes, Proficients, taught by the Usher of the school, that is Mofes and the Prophets.

3. Perfecti, Perfect, taught by the chief Schoolmaster, that is, Christ.

The Law is our Usher, and makes us come fit to come into the uppermoft forme; and that two ways.

1. By reprefenting Chrift in figures and types, in facrifices and ceremonies. This is the Ceremonial.

2. By fhewing us our mifery, that in our felves there is nothing but matter and merit of condemnation: io the law is a fharp fchoolmaster, and doth feverely correct us. And no man cometh to Chrift that hath not lived under the rod of the law, and been truly humbled in his foule with the confideration of his fins, in fuch measure that he despaireth of his falvation in himself, and findeth himself in his own ways hateful to God; as fob,Therefore I abborre my felf. This done;

2. The Gofpel revealeth to us the full remedy of our mifery in Chrift, faying,

Unto you is borne a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord. God fent his Sonne made of a woman, and made fubject to the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons,

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