A Divine Herbal Together with a Forest of Thorns, Text 2
THE END Of THORNES.
THE FIFT SERMON.
HEB. Chap. 6. Vers. 8.
But that which beareth thornes and bryers, is reiected, and is nigh vntounto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
OVr sinnes are thornes to others; some wounding with their direct blowes, others with their wipes, all with their examples. Man only hath not felt their blowes; our Sauior also so found them: when hee was faine for our sakes to set his naked breast, his naked heart, his naked soule against them. They say, the Nightingale sleepes with her breast against a thorne, to auoide the Serpent. Christ was content to bee wounded, euen to sleepe to death with thornes, that hee might deliuer vsus from that deuouring serpent, the great infernall Dragon. His head was not onelyonly raked and harrowed with materiall thornes: Bern.Caput Angelicis spiritibus tremebundum coronatur spinis That head which the Angelical spirits adore and tremble at, was crowned with thornes. But these mys…call thornes, our iniquities, with fiercer blowes drew bloud of his soule. They doe in a sort still. Heb. 6. 6.Heb. 6. 6. They crucifie to themselues the Sonne of God a fresh, and put him to an open shame. Not in himselfe, for they cannot: but can them no thankes; they would, if they could: and to themselues they doe it. Wretched men, will you not yet let Iesus Christ alone, and be at rest? will you still offer violence to your blessed Sauiour; and labour to pull him downe from his throne to his Crosse; from his peaceful glorie at the right hand of his Father, to more sufferings? You condemne the mercilesse Souldiers, that platted a crowne of thornes, Mat. 27. 29.and put it on his innocent head. Sinfull wretch, condemne thy selfe. Thy sinnes were those thornes, and farre sharper. Thy oppressions, wrongings, and wringings, of his poore brethren, offer him the violence of new wounds: thy oathes, thy fraudes, thy pride scratch him like bryers. Heare him complaining from heauen, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou mee? These Thornes grow on earth, yet they pricke Iesus Christ in heauen. Oh wee little know the price of a sin, that thus play the executioners with the Lord of life. Thinke, thinke; Christ felt your sinnes as sharpe thornes.
Lastly, you finde them thornes your selues, if Christ did not for you. When God shall enliuen and make quicke the sense of your nummed consciences, you shall confesse your owne sinnes …ruell thornes to your soules, 2. Cor. 12.2. Cor. 12. 7. A thorne in your flesh, that shall buffet you with terror. For a while men are insensible of their iniquities. Christ, Math. 13. 22.Mat. 13. 22. calls the riches of this world thornes, which choke the good seede of the Gospell.
The common opinion of the world is, that they are goodly, fine and smooth things; furres to keepe them warme, oyle to cheare their faces, and wine to their hearts; of a silken softnesse to their affections. But Christ saith, they are thorns; stinging and choking thornes. And the couetous conscience shall one day perceiue in them, Triplicem puncturam, Ludolph.a threefold pricking. Laboris in acquisitione; they are gotten with trouble. Timoris in possessione; they are kept vvith feare. Doloris in amissione; they are lost with griefe.
Men commonly deale with their sinnes, as hedgers do, when they go to plash thorny bushes: they put on tyning gloues, that the Thornes may not pricke them. So these harden their hearts, that their owne thornes may giuegive them no compunction. But all vanities are but like the fooles laughter, Eccl. 7. 6.which Salomon compares to the crackling of thornes vnderunder a p…t: they make a noise, and suddenly go out. But sinne neuer parts with the wicked, without leauing a sting behind it.In. Galat. cap. 1. ver. 3. Luther saith, there are two fiends, that torment men in this world: and they are sinne, and a bad conscience. The latter followes the former: or if you will, the former wounds the latter: for sinne is the thorne, and the conscience the subiect it strikes. This thorne often pricks deepe; to the very heart. Acts 2. to the very bones, Psal. 38.Psal. 38. 3. There is no rest in my bones because of my sinne. I sid. lib. 2. Soliloquiorum. mens enim malae conscientiae proprijs agitatur stimulis.Vis nunquam esse tristis? bene viue. Nunquam securus est reus animus. Wouldest thou neuer be sorrowfull? liue well. A guilty mind cannot be securely quiet. An euill mind is haunted and vexed with the thornes of his owne conscience. Sinne to the affections, whiles it is doing, is oleum vngens, supple oyle. Sinne to the conscience when it is done, is tribulus pungens, a pricking thorne. What extreame contraries doe often wicked conceits runne into? In their time of securitie they cannot be brought, to think sinne to be sinne. At last desperately, they thinke it such a sinne, that it cannot be forgiuen. At first they are delighted with the sense and smel of their iniquitie, as of a sweet rose: but the rose of their delight withers, and there is a thorne vnderunder it, that pricks the hart. Hereupon Salomon couples pleasāt vanitie, and troublesome vexation together. If that tickles the flesh, this shall wound the spirit. You shall heare an Vsurer in the madnes of presumption expostulating, what? may I not make benefit of my money? Obserue him, and in the end you shall heare him in the madnes of despaire, cry out of his owne damnation for it. At first they make question whether it be a sinne: at last they know it such a sinne, that they make question whether God will forgiue it. So men will looke to sin either too superficially, or too superstitiously. There was no danger saith the Drunkard, when he is asked how he seap'd such a passage: bring him backe in the sober moming to see, and hee falls downe dead in astonishment.
I need not further amplifie this point. Christ giues a vae ridentibus; Woe to them that laugh, for they shall weepe: and eueryevery smile of sinne shall be turned to a grone of sorrow. They that exhibite their liues as sacrifices risuiet lubentiae; shall one day feele pricks, and goads, and thornes; scratching and peircing their hearts: when (like the strucken deare, with the arrowhead rankling in his side) they shall not bee able to shift or change paines with places. Let this reach to our soules two instructions.
1 That we labour our hearts betimes to a sensiblenesse of these thornes. A Thorne swallowed into the flesh, if it be not look'd to, rankles. Sinne without repentance, will fester in the soule; and is so much more perilous, as it is lesse felt. Oh the number of thornes that lie in many conscience, who complaine no more, then if they ayld nothing. The pricke of a thorne is not so painefull at first, while the bloud is hote, as after a cold pause. Euerie man hath his complaints; & who liueth out of the reach of discontent? You shall heare tradesmen complaining of few or false customers. Labourers, of little worke, and lesse wages. Beggars complaine the want of Charity: and rich men the want of money. Merchants of rockes and Pyrats: Lawyers of short fees; and Clyents of long suits. But no man complaines of the thornes in his owne bosome. He nourisheth bryers there that wound him: and the heart is as dedolent,Ephe. 4. 19. as if it were past feeling. But where there is no discouerie of the disease, the recouery of the health is in vaine hoped for.
2 After sense of the smart will follow a desire of remedy. The throbbing conscience would be at ease, and freed from the Thorne that vexeth it. Dauid rores out for the very disquietnesse of his heart. The aking heart will make a crying tong, and wet eyes. Loe the merciemercy of GOD! A remedy is not sooner desired, then offred. The sacred Gospell directs vsus to a medicine, that shall supple the heart, and draw out these thornes; though they stucke as thicke in it, as euer the arrowes did in Sebastian. They speake of the herbe Dictamnum, call'd of some Ditanie, that it hath a secret vertue to draw out any thing fastened in the body.Lib. 26. cap. 14. Plinie sayth, that this herbe drunke, Sagittas pellit. Experience telleth, that it is soueraigne to exhale a thorne out of the flesh. Our onelyonly Dictamnum is the precious bloud of our merciful Sauiour IESVS CHRIST. A plaister of that is truely vertuall, to draw out all thornes from our consciences, Saucia …nimis, which is nulla medicabilis herbis, is thus cured. Our sinnes drew bloud of him; that his bloud might saue vsus. He was crowned with Thornes, that we might not be killed with thornes. He was wounded for vsus, that we might not perish for our selues.
Take we heed, that we despise not this medicine. The law was so farre from drawing out these thornes, that it would driue them in further, and cause them to rankle in the heart, without any hope of ease. It did but exasperate their stings, and giuegive them a deeper continuance of pricking. The mollifying and healing Gospell extracts their venome, and sucks out their poyson. Let vsus not dare then to vilipend this cordiall and soueraigne medicine.
You perceiue that our sinnes are Thornes; and what is their onelyonly remedy. Know now, that if they be not drawne out in this world, they shall be found thornes hereafter; when the owners shall heare Christs sentence, Goe yee cursed, &c. for the end of them is to be burned. So I come to the punishment: but I will soone hauehave done with that, which shall neuer hauehave done with those that must vndergoe it.
There is a threefold gradation in the Penalty, Reiection, malediction, combustion. Is reiected, is nigh vntounto cursing, and the end thereof is to be burned. And it seems to hauehave relation to a threefold distinction of time. 1. For the present, it is reiected. 2. For instance or appropinquation, it is nigh vntounto cursing. 3. For future certainty, the end of it is to be burned. As men commonly deale with thornes: first they cut them vp with bils and mattocks: then they lay them by to wither: and lastly burne them in the furnace.
1 Reiection. This which we here translate (is reiected) is in the originall (foreign) which may signifie Reprobios, or reprobatus: so Beza hath it; is reproued, or disallowed of God. This ground shall hauehave no ground in heauen, no part in God inheritance. It is reprobate siluer, not current with the Lord. No man desires to purchase Land, that will bring forth nothing but weedes: he will not cast away his siluer vponupon it. And shall GOD buy so base ground, that will be no better, at so inestimable a price, as the incorruptible bloud of his owne Sonne? It despiseth the Lords goodnesse, and the LORDS goodnesse shall despise it. It is reiected. If any man sayth, this is Durus Sermo, let him consider of whom the Apostle speaketh, verse. 4. against whom hee concludes ab impossibili. It is impossible, &c. A hard saying to vnderstand, but more, most heard to vndergoe. If God be driuen to loose all his paines and cost vponupon an ingratefull heart, he will at last renounce it, and giuegive it ouer a desperate nature. As he in the Comedy, Abeat, pereat, profundat, perdat. If it will be filthy, let it be filthy still. If nothing will bring it to goodnesse, it shall be reiected.
2. The second degree of the Punishment is cursing: and this may seeme to exceed the former. Gods curse is a fearefull thing. If you would view (though but in part) the latitude and extension of it, I refer you to the 28. of Deuteronomy. But I purpose not to bee curiously punctuall, in the demonstration of these particular degrees of the Punishment. That which I wil obserue, is this.
That God is more propense and inclined to blessing, then to cursing: more prone to shewe mercy, then to inflict iudgement. It is sayd in the former Verse, the good ground receiues blessing of God: receiues it presently, receiues it at once. But here of the euill ground; it is nigh vntounto cursing: it is not presently cursed, but nigh vntounto it. There is some pawse and delay: some lucida interualla misericordiae. The whole viall of wrath is not poured on at once. But first there is a despising or reiection; to let the wicked see, how hatefull their vices are in Gods sight. If this serue not, they are not sodainely cursed; but there is a breathing time, and a mercifull space betweene that and cursing; and betweene cursing and burning. So slowly doth GOD proceed to iudgement, so little haste he makes to the execution of his vengeance. Hee is speedy to deliuer, to saue, to giuegive his blessing; but hee hath leaden feet when he comes to strike.
The vse of this to our selues is, that the patient forbearance of God may leade vsus to repentance, Romans the second and the fourth.Rom. 2. 4. The Prophet Ioel bids vsus Rent our hearts, Ioel. 2. 13.and fall to weeping and mourning; Because the Lord is mercifull and slow to anger. Gods long-suffering is as a hand reached out, that points vsus to repentance. Such is his goodnesse, that when all his terrors and menace; are set in their places, yet hee makes roome for Repentance, whensoeuer it comes. And though they bee as ready to strike, as Abrahams hand was to Isaacs sacrifice; yet Repentance, tanquam vox Angeli, shall stay them. O blessed Repentance, how sweet and amiable art thou! yet how few louelove thee!
The great man, that thinkes he may securely be wicked, because he is honourably great; and dares affront the Pulpit, though the greatest Bishop in the land were preaching in it; cares not for repentance. The wealthy Gentleman, that can bung vp Hospitality into a Diogenes tubbe; nestle himselfe warme in a City-chamber, whiles Owles and Dawes parlour themselues in his countrey-manors: that (as it is storied of that Iew for the vse of his money) takes his rent in bloud; the heart-bloud of his racked Tenants; cares not for Repentance.
The countrey Nabal, that hoords his graine, and with it lockes vp his soule in a Garner, that the Sunne of Gods blessing may not come at it: that starues the poore, his family, himselfe; cares not for Repentance. The auarous Citizens, whom the glad Diuell can neuer find without a false measure in one hand, and a cozening waight in the other; that hauehave trickes in their sconces to ouer-reach the diuell himselfe; but that (like a cunning Fenser) he that taught them all their trickes, kept one to himselfe, to cheate them of their soules; care not for repentance. The muffled Lawyer, that hath no sense left aliue but his feeling, and waighs all causes by the poyse of gold; that talkes against others right and his owne conscience; that leades Iurie into pe…iury, with his fraudulent circumuentions; cares not for repentance.
The sharking Officer,Zosun. lib. 2. (that like Menelaus, an Armenian Archer in the wars betwixt Constantius and Magnentius) can shoot three arrowes at once, at one loose; wherewith hee wounds not one, but three at the least: the Prince whom hee serues, the person whom hee drawes bloud of, and the body of the Common-wealth; cares not for repentance. I neede not speake of the Church-robber, the Vsurer, the Drunkard, the Proud, the vncleane adulterer: no man can think, that they care for repentance. O but they all purpose to repent. Spare them a while; they are but new set into the Ouen; not yet fully baked in their hot vanities: let them foke a little in their pleasures, and at last they will returne.Hos. 7. 4. They are as an Ouen heated by the Baker. Repentance is an ascent of foure steps: many get vp three of them, but climbe not to the fourth and best.
1. Some there are that purpose to amend their liues. But purpose without performance is like a Cloud without raine; not vnlike Hercules Clubbe in the Tragedy, of a great bulke, but the stuffing is mosse and rubbish. If the tree bee fairely blossom'd, and naked of fruite, it may speed as the Figge-tree in the Gospell. be curseo: or at least (it is as the euill ground here) nigh vntounto cursing. Many that purposed to repent, are now in hell, as the fiue foolish Virgins, that intended to goe in with the Bridegroome; but before the time their lights dropp'd out.
One sayd, that hell is like to bee full of good purposes, but heauen of good workes. If a bare Intention would serue, Gods Church on earth would bee fuller of Saints, and his Court in heauen fuller of soules. Ignorance and Sloth adulterating, bring forth this lanke brood, this abortiue embrion, Purpose. Such a man is like an ill debtor, who will not pay God his due of deuotion till hee is old: and then hee cannot pay for want of (time & mony) space and grace to repent. We make (in these daies) our purposes like our Eeues, and our performances like the holy-daies: seruants work hard vpō the Eeues, that they may hauehave the more liberty to play vponupon the Holydayes: so we are earnest, and labour hard on our purposes; but are idle and play vponupon our performances. But Resolution without action, is a golden couch to a leaden Iewell.
2. The second round of this Ladder is Preparation. Some there are that will prepare, & almost set themselues in a readinesse for their iourney to heauen; yet neuer set one steppe forward. Preparation is indeed as necessary, as the dore is to the house: but as idle, if there be no house to the dore. It may (as Iohn the Baptist did for Christ) prepare the way of the Lord into our hearts: and it may be as vaite, as the Apothecaries Beast, Testia Pharmacopolae.which hee promised his Patient would helpe him of all diseases; but before morning it had eaten vp it selfe. Preparation is a necessary antecedent to all great workes, Amos 4.Am. 4. 12. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. But a man may prepare meate, and not feede: prepare meate, and not eate. Prepaeration does well, if reparation followes. A man may climbe both these rounds, and yet fall short of the true height of Repentance.
3. The third stairre is a Beginning to abstaine from some horrid iniquities; and as it were, an entring into a new path; but not going one step in it, without a voluntary reuolting. But Beginning is nothing to perfection. Some begin in the spirit, and end in the flesh: that s…lute Christ in the market place; take acquaintance of him in the street, but neuer bid him home to their houses. It is (vox praetereuntium derisoria) the speech of them that passe by. This man began to build. A house but begun is not fit to dwell in: and shall wee thinke that Gods Spirit will dwell in an inchoate habitacle, and not likely to be finished? The Apostle sayth,2. Pet. 2. 21. It had been better for them not to hauehave knowne the way of righteousness, then after they hauehave knowne it, to turne from the holy commandement deliuered vntounto them.
4 The fourth Round onelyonly pleaseth God, and is good for our Soules, Repentance; without which the euill ground is neere to cursing; as it were at next dore by; and it shall come on him with a speedy visitation nisi interueniente poenitentia. This is the Bulwarke to defend vsus from the shot of Gods thunder from heauen: this hedgeth vsus in from his iudgements on earth. Woe to sinfull man without this: for he is neere to cursing; and his end is to be burned. Blessed Soule that hath it. Wheresoeuer it dwels, merciemercy dwels by it. If England hath it, it shall ease her of her thornes, Ezek. 28.Ezek. 20. 14. There shall be no more a pricking bryar vntounto the house of Israel, nor any grieuing Thorne of all that are round about them.
3 The last and forest degree of the Punishment, is Burning. I will not discourse, whether the fire of that euerlastingly-hote furnace be materiall or spirituall. Surely, it is strangely terrible; and wee are blessed, if wee neither vnderstand it nor vndergoe it. The miserie of the damned is vsually distinguished into the Paine of losse, and the paine of sense. Both implied in this verse, and expressed, Thessalonians the second, Chap. 1. Verse 8, 9.2. The. 1. 8. 9. Christ shall take vengeance on such as know not God, and obey not the Gospell of Iesus Christ, there is paine of Sense. They shall be punished with euerlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, there is paine of losse.
1. This Poena damni, or priuation of blessednesse, may seeme to be implyed in the first degree here mentioned, Reiection. The reprobate are cast away of God. Much like that forme of the last sentence, Math. 25. 41.Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me, yee cursed: a fearefull sentence, a terrible separation. From Me, sayth Christ; that made my selfe man for your sakes, that offered my bloud for your redemption, & receiued these & these wounds for your remedie. From Me, that would hauehave healed, would hauehave helped, would hauehave saued you. From Me, that inuited you to mercy, and you would not accept it. From Me, that purchased a kindgome of glory, for such as beleeued on me; and will wrappe their heads with crownes of eternall ioy: Depart from Me. This is a fearefull Reiection, My friendship, my fellowship, my Paradise, my presence, my heauen, where is fulnesse of ioy, and pleasure for euermore, Psal. 16. vlt.are none of yours. They might hauehave been; they are lost. Neither shall they onelyonly loose Christ, but all the companie with Christ: the Quire of glorious Angels, the society of his blessed Mother, the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, all the happy and holy Saints, with the whole host of heauen. They shall fret, and vexe, and bee ready to eate their owne galls, to see those triumphing in glory, whom they on earth persecuted, martyred, tortured. They could here exercise their sauage tyranny ouer them; not onelyonly denying their owne bread, but taking away theirs: they could despise, beate, maligne, vndoe, burne them at stakes: now the estate of both is changed: as Abraham told Diues. They are comforted, Luke 16. 25.and thou art tormented.
2. This is not all. The priuation of blessed ioyes is not enough: there must follow the position of cursed torments. For their Punishment is proportioned to their sinne, Ier. 2.Ier. 2. 13. They hauehave committed two euils. They hauehave forsaken the Lord, the fountaine of liuing waters, and hewed them out cisternes, broken cisternes that can hold no water. As they turned from their Maker, so their Maker turnes from them: there is Poenadamni. As they fastned their delights on the creatures, so the creatures shall be their tortures: there is Poena sensus. They reiected God, and hee reiects them; they adhered to wickednesse, and it shall adhere to their bones for euer, and bring them to burning.
Their torments which are here expressed by Fire, hauehave two fearefull conditions, vniuersality, and eternitie.
1. They are vniuersall, vexing eueryevery part of the body, and power of the soule. It is terrible in this life, to be pained in eueryevery part of the body at one time. To hauehave ache in the teeth, gowt in the feete, collick in the reines, &c. and to lye (as it were) vponupon a racke, for innumerable diseases, like so many executioners, to torture him, is intollerable. But the largest shadowe of these torments to their substance, is not so much as a little bone-fire to the combustion of the whole world.
2. They are eternall. If it had but as many ages to burne, as there be trees standing on the earth, there would bee some, though a tedious hope of their end. But it is such a Fire, as shall neuer be quenched. This word Neuer is fearefull. Though they raine floudes of teares vponupon it, they shall bee but like oyle to encrease the flame: for the worme neuer dyes, the fire neuer goes out. You see the end of Thornes. Wickednes burneth as the fire: Esa. 9. 18.it shall deuoure the bryers and thornes, and shall kindle in the thickest of the Forrest, and they shall mount vp like the lifting vp of sm…k….
I resolued against prolixity. The generall and summary doctrine is this. That since the wicked ground, which beareth thornes and bryers, is neere vntounto cursing, and the end thereof is eternall fire: it followes necessarily, that all they which lay the foundation of vngodlinesse, must needs build vponupon condemnation. Let no man deceiue you: I. Ioh. 3. 8.He that committeth sinne is of the Diuell. If the course of a mans life be wicked, couetous, vncleane, malicious, idolatrous, adulterous, drunken; hee layes the ground-worke of his owne destruction; and precipitates himselfe to the malediction of God. Hee that layes the foundation in fire-work, must looke to be blowne vp. Perhaps this meditation, though it bee of vnquenchable Fire, may yet worke coldly in our hearts; and leaue no impression behinde it; yet you cannot deny this to be true. He that would denie it must deny my Text, must turne Atheist, and reiect the holy word of God. Nay, he must thinke there is no God, no reuenge of wickednesse, no diuell, no hell. And he vndertakes a very hard taske, that goes about to settle this perswasion in his mind. No, no. Let no man deceiue you with vaine words: Eph. 5. 6.for because of these things cometh the wrath of God vponupon the children of disobedience. And in this passage I must value all men alike: of what stuffe, or of what fashion soeuer his coate be: if his life be full of bryers and thornes, his end is to be burned. What shall we then doe vntounto thee, O thou preseruer of men, that wee may escape it? what,Mark. 1. 15. but Repent, and beleeue the Gospell!
Let the commination of hell instruct vsus to preuent it: as the message of Niniuehs ouerthrow effected their safetie. 1. Let vsus flie by a true faith into the armes of our Redeemer, that God reiect vsus not. 2. Let vsus poure forth flouds of repentant teares, that wee bee not nigh vntounto cursing. 3. And let vsus bring forth no more bryars and thornes, that our end may not be, to bee burned. Faith, Repentance, Obedience; this same golden rule of three, will teach vsus to worke vp our owne saluation. This done, wee shall not be reiected, but knowne to bee elected: we shall be so farre from cursing. that we shal presently receiue the blessing. And our End shall be, not fire, but glorie and peace.Psal. 37. 37. Marke the perfect man, and behold the vpright: for the end of that man is PEACE.
FINIS.
End of the text · Thomas Adams, A Divine Herbal Together with a Forest of Thorns (1616)