452 SERMON CXXXVII. PREACHED AT WHITEHALL, APRIL 21, 1616. ECCLESIASTICUS viii. 11. Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men, is fully set in them, to do evil. WE cannot take into our meditation, a better rule, than that of the Stoic', Nihil infœlicius fœlicitate peccantium; There is no such unhappiness to a sinner, as to be happy; no such cross, as to have no crosses: nor can we take a better example of that rule, than Constantius the Arian emperor, in whose time first of all, the cross of Christ suffered that profanation, as to be an ensign of war, between Christian and Christian: when Magnentius by being an usurping tyrant, and Constantius by being an Arian heretic, had forfeited their interest in the cross of Christ, which is the ensign of the universal peace of this world, and the means of the eternal peace of the next; both brought the cross to cross the cross, to be an ensign of war, and of hostility; both made that cross, when the Father accepted for all mankind, the blood of Christ Jesus, to be an instrument for the sinful effusion of the blood of Christians. But when this heretical emperor had a victory over this usurping tyrant, this unhappy happiness transported him to a greater sin, a greater insolence, to approach so near to God himself, as to call himself Eternum principum, The eternal emperor; and to take into his style, and rescripts, this addition, Eternitatem nostram, Thus and thus, it hath pleased our eternity to proceed: yea, and to bring his Arian followers, who would never acknowledge an eternity in Christ, nor confess him to be the eternal Son of God, to salute himself by that name, eternum Cæsarem, the eternal emperor: so venomous, so deadly is the prosperity of the wicked to their own souls, that even from the mercy of God, they take occasion of sinning; not only thereby, but even therefore; they do not only make that their excuse, when they do sin, but their reason why they may sin; as we see 1 Seneca. in these words, Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, &c. In which words, we shall consider, first, the general perverseness of a natural man, who by custom in sin, comes to assign a reason why he may sin; intimated in the first word, Because. And secondly, the particular perverseness of the men in this text, who assign the patience of God, to be the reason of their continuance in sin, Because sentence is not executed speedily. And then lastly, the illusion upon this, what a fearful state this shuts them up in, That therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And these three, the perverseness of colouring sins with reasons, and the impotency of making God's mercy the reason, and the danger of obduration thereby, will be the three parts, in which we shall determine this exercise. First then, in handling the perverseness of assigning reasons for sins, we forbid no man the use of reason in matters of religion. As St. Augustine says, Contra Scripturam, nemo Christianus, No man can pretend to be a Christian, if he refuse to be tried by the Scriptures: and, as he adds, Contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus, No man can pretend to love order and peace, if he refuse to be tried by the church: so he adds also, Contra rationem nemo sobrius, No man can pretend to be in his wits, if he refuse to be tried by reason. He that believes any thing because the church presents it, he hath reason to assure him, that this authority of the church is founded in the Scriptures: he that believeth the Scriptures, hath reasons that govern and assure him that those Scriptures are the Word of God. Mysteries of religion are not the less believed and embraced by faith, because they are presented, and induced, and apprehended by reason. But this must not enthrone, this must not exalt any man's reason so far, as that there should lie an appeal, from God's judgments to any man's reason: that if he see no reason, why God should proceed so, and so, he will not believe that to be God's judgment, or not believe that judgment of God, to be just: fcr, of the secret purposes of God, we have an example what to say, given us by Christ himself, Ita est, quia complacuit; It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure was such: all was in his own 2 Matt. xi. 26. breast and bosom, in his own good will and pleasure, before he decreed it; and as his decree itself, so the ways and executions of his decrees, are often unsearchable, for the purpose, and for the reason thereof, though for the matter of fact, they may be manifest. They that think themselves sharp-sighted and wise enough, to search into those unrevealed decrees; they who being but worms, will look into heaven; and being the last of creatures, who were made, will needs inquire, what was done by God, before God did any thing, for creating the world, In ultimam dementiam ruerunt, says St. Chrysostom, They are fallen into a mischievous madness, Et ferrum ignitum, quod forcipe deberent, digitis accipiunt: They will needs take up red-hot irons, withtheir bare fingers, without tongs. That which is in the centre, which should rest, and lie still, in this peace, that it is so, because it is the will of God, that it should be so; they think to toss and tumble that up, to the circumference, to the light and evidence of their reason, by their wrangling disputations. If then it be a presumptuous thing, and a contempt against God, to submit his decrees to the examination of human reason, it must be a high treason against the majesty of God, to find out a reason in him, which should justify our sins; to conclude out of any thing which he does, or leaves undone, that either he doth not hate, or cannot punish sinners: for this destroys even the nature of God, and that which the apostle lays, for the foundation of all, To believe that God is, and that he is a just rewarder". Adam's Quia mulier, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me the apple and Eve's Quia serpens, Because the serpent deceived me; and all such, are poor and unallowable pleas, which God would not admit for there is no quia, no reason, why any man, at any time, should do any sin. God never permits any perplexity to fall upon us, so, as that we cannot avoid one sin, but by doing another or that we should think ourself excusable by saying, Quia inde minus malum, There is less harm in a concubine, than in another wife; or, Quia inde aliquod bonum, That my incontinence hath produced a profitable man to the state or to the church though a bastard; much less to say, Quia obdormivit Deus, Tush, God sees it not, or cares not for it, though he see it. : 3 Heb. xi. 6. If thou ask then, why thou shouldst be bound to believe the creation, we say, Quia unus Deus, Because there can be but one God; and if the world be eternal, and so no creature, the world is God. If thou ask why thou shouldst be bound to believe Providence, we say, Quia Deus remunerator, Because God is to give every man according to his merits. If thou ask why thou shouldst be bound to believe that, when thou seest he doth not give every man according to his merits, we say, Quia inscrutabilia judicia ejus; O how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For, thou art yet got no farther, in measuring God, but by thine own measure; and thou hast found no other reason to lead thee, to think, that God doth not govern well, but because he doth not govern so, to thine understanding, as thou shouldst, if thou wert God. So that thou dost not only make thy weakness, but thy wickedness, that is, thy hasty disposition, to come to a present revenge, when any thing offends thee, the measure, and the model, by which the frame of God's government should be erected; and so thou comest to the worst distemper of all, insanire cum ratione, to go out of thy wits, by having too much, and to be mad with too much knowledge; not to sin out of infirmity, or temptation, or heat of blood, but to sin in cold blood, and upon just reason, and mature considerations, and so deliberately and advisedly to continue to sin. Now the particular reason, which the perverseness of these men produceth here, in this text, is, Because God is patient and long-suffering. So he is; so he will be still: their perverseness shall not pervert his nature, his goodness. As God bade the prophet Hosea do, he hath done himself: Go, says he, and take to thee, a wife of fornication, and children of fornication; so hath he taken us, guilty of spiritual fornication. But as in the fleshly fornications of an adulterous wife, the husband is, for the most part, the last that hears of them: so, for our spiritual fornications, such is the lothness, the patience, the longanimity of our good and gracious God, that though he do know our sins, as soon as they speak, as soon as they are acted, (for that is peccatum cum voce, says St. Gregory, a speaking sin, when any sinful thought is produced into act) yea, before they speak, as soon as they are con ceived; yet he will not hear of our sins, he takes no knowledge of them, by punishing them, till our brethren have been scandalized, and led into temptation by them; till his law have been evacuated, that that use of the law, which is, to show sin to our consciences, be annihilated in us; till such a cry come up to him by our often and professed sinning, that it concerns him in his honour, (which he will give to none) and in his care of his churches, which he hath promised to be, till the end of all, to take knowledge of them. Yea, though this cry be come up to his ears, though it be a loud cry, either by the nature of the sin, (as heavy things make a great noise in the moving) or by reason of the number of the sins, and the often doing thereof, (for, as many children, will make as great a noise as a loud crier; so will the custom of small sins cry as loud, as those which are called peccata clamantia, crying sins) though this cry be increased by this liberty, and professed sinning, that, as the prophet says, They declare their sins, and hide them not, as Sodom did3; though the cry of the sin be increased by the cry of them, that suffer oppression by that sin, as well as by the sin itself, as the voice of Abel's blood cried from earth to heaven"; yea, though this cry ring about God's ears, in his own bed-chamber, under the altar itself, in that Usquequo Domine? when the martyrs cry out with a loud voice, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood"! Yet God would fain forbear his revenge, he would fain have those martyrs rest for a little space, till their fellow-servants and their brethren were fulfilled. God would try, what Cain would say to that interrogatory, Where is thy brother Abel? And though the cry of Sodom were great, and their sin exceeding grievous, yet, says God, I will go down, and see, whether they have done altogether according unto that cry; and if not, I may know God would have been glad to have found error in their indictment; and when he could not, yet if fifty, forty-five, thirty, twenty, ten, had been found righteous, he had pardoned all: Adeo malum, quasi cum difficultate credidit, cum audivit; So loth is God to believe ill of man, when he doth hear it. : This then is his patience: but why is his patience made a 5 Isaiah iii. 9. 7 Revel. vi. 10. 6 Gen. iv. 10. 8 Gregory. |