Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 21
SERMON XXI.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
PSALME 38. 4.
For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for mee.
DAvid having in the former verses of this Psalm assign'd a reason, why he was bound to pray, because he was in misery, (O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, for thine arrows stick fast in mee) And a reason why hee should be in misery, because God was angry, (Thy hand presseth … v. 2. And, there is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine anger, … And a reason, why God should be angry, because he had finn'd, (There is no … my bones, because of my sin, in the same verse) He proceeds to a reason, why this prayer of his must be vehement, why these miseries of his are so violent, and why Gods anger is permanent, and he findes all this to be, because in his sins, all these venimous qualities, vehemence, violence, and continuance, were complicated, and enwrapp'd; for, hee had sinn'd vehemently, in the rage of lust, and violently, in the effusion of bloud, and permanently in a long, and senslesse security. They are all contracted in this Text, into two kinds, which will be our two parts, in handling these words; first, the supergressa super, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, there's the multiplicity, the number, the succession, and so the continuation of his sin: and then, the Gravatae super, My sins are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me, there's the greatnesse, the weight, the insupportablenesse of his sin. S. Augustine cals these two distinctions, or considerations of sin, Ignorantiam, & Difficultatem; first, that David was ignorant, that he saw not the Tide, as it swell'd up upon him, Abyssus Abyssum, Depth call'd upon Depth; and, all thy wat…rs, and all thy billows are gone ever me, (says he in another place) hee perceiv'd them not coming till they were over him, he discern'd not his particular sins,Ps. 42. 7. then when he committed them, till they came to the supergressae super, to that height, that he was overflowed, surrounded, his iniquities were gone over his head, and in that S. Aug. notes Ignoranti…m, his in-observance, his inconsideration of his own case; and then he notes Difficultatem, the hardnesse of recovering, because he that is under water, hath no aire to see by, no aire to hear by, he hath nothing to reach to, he touches not ground, to push him up, he feels no bough to pull him up, and therein that Father notes Difficultatem, the hardnesse of recovering. Now Moses expresses these two miseries together, in the destruction of the Egyptians, in his song, after Israels deliverance, and the Egyptians submersion, The Depths have covered them, (there's the supergressa super, their iniquities, in that punishment of their iniquities,Exod. 15. 5. were gone over their heads) And then, They sank into the bottome as a stone (says Moses) there's the gravata super, they depressed them, suppressed them, oppressed them, they were under them, and there they must lie.
The Egyptians had, David had, we have too many sins, to swim above water, and too great sins to get above water again, when we are sunk; The number of sins then, and the greatnesse of sin, will be our two parts; the dangers are equall, to multiply many lesser sins, or to commit a few, more hainous: except the danger be greater, (as indeed it may justly seem to be) in the multiplication, and custome, and habit of lesser sins; but how great is the danger then, how desperate is our state, when our sins are great in themselves, and multiplied too?
In his many sins, we shall touch thus many circumstances: First,Divisio. they were pecca…a, sins, iniquities; and then peccata sua, his sins, his iniquities, which intimates actuall sins; for though God inflict miseries for originall sin, (death, and that, that induces it, sickn…sse, and the like) yet those are miseries common to all, because the sin is so too; But these, are his punishments, personall calamities, and the sins are his own sins; And then, (which is a third circumstance) they are sins in the plurall, God is not thus angry for one sin; And again, they are such sins, as have been long in going, and are now got over, supergressae sunt, they are gone, gone over; And then lastly, for that first part, supergressae Caput, they are gone my head. In which exaltation, is intimated all this; first, sicut tectum, sicut fornix, they are over his head, as a roofe, as a cieling, as an Arch, they have made a wall of separation, betwixt God and us, so they are above our head; And then sicut clamor, they are ascended as a noise, they are got up to heaven, and cry to God for vengeance, so they are above our head; And again sicut aquae, they are risen and swollen as waters, they compass us, they smother us, they blinde us, they stupefie us, so they are above our head; But lastly and principally, sicut Dominus, they are got above us, as a Tyran, and an usurper, for so they are above our head too: And in these we shall determine our first part. When from thence we come to our second part, in which, (as in this we shall have done their number) we shall consider their greatnesse, we finde them first heavy sinne is no light matter; And then, they are too heavy, a little weight would but ballast us, this sinkes us; Too heavy for me, even for a man equall to David; and where is he? when is that man? for, says our text, they are as heavy, Burden; And the nature, and incovenience of a Burden is, first to Crooken, and bend us downward from our naturall posture, which is erect, for this incurvation implies a declination in the inordinate love of the Creature, Incurvat. And then the nature of a burden is, to Tyre us; our very sinne becomes fulsome, and wearisome to us, fatigat; and it hath this inconvenience too, ut retardet, it slackens our pace, in our right course though we be not tried, yet we cannot goe so fast, as we should in any way towards godliness; and lastly, this is the inconvenience of a burden too, ut praecipitet, it makes us still apt and ready to stumble, and to fall under it: It crookens us, it deprives us of our rectitude; it tires us, extinguishes our alacrity; It slackens us, enfeebles and intepidates our zeale; It occasions our stumbling, opens and submits us, to every emergent tentation. And these be the dangers, and the mischievous inconveniences, notified to us, in those two Elegancies of the holy Ghost, the supergressae, the multiplicity of sinnes, They are gone over my head, and the gravatae, They are a heavy burden, too heavy for me.
First then, all these things are literally spoken of David; By application, of us;David. and by figure, of Christ. Historically, David; morally, we; Typically, Christ is the subject of this text. In Davids person, we shal insist no longer upon them, but onelyonly to look upon the two generall parts, the multiplicity of his sinne, and the weight and greatnesse thereof: And that onelyonly in the matter of Vriah, as the Holy Ghost, 1 Reg. 15. 5.(without reproching the adultery or the murder, after Davids repentance) vouchsafes to mollifie his manifold, and his hainous sinne. First, he did wrong to a loyall and a faithfull servant; and who can hope to be well served, that does so? He corrupted that woman, who for ought appearing to the contrary, had otherwise preserved her honour,Psal. 50. 18. and her Conscience entire; It is a sinne, To runne with a theife when thou seest him, or to have thy p…rtion with them that are adulterers already; to accompany them in their sinne, who have an inclination to that sinne before, is a sinne; but to solicite them, who have no such inclination, nor, but for thy solicitation, would have had, is much more inexcusable. In Davids sinne, there was thus much more, he defrauded some, to whom his love was due, in dividing himselfe with a strange woman. To steale from another man, though it be to give to the poor, and to such poor, as would otherwise sterve, if that had not been stollen, is injustice, is a sinne. To divide that heart, which is intirely given to a wife, in mariage, with another woman, is a sinne, though she, to whom it is so given, pretend, or might truly suffer much torment and anguish if it were not done. Davids sinne flew up to a higher spheare; He drew the enemy to blaspheme the name of God, in the victory over Israel, where Vriah was slaine: God hates nothing more in great persons, then that prevarication, to pretend to assist his cause, and promove his Religion, and yet underhand give the enemies of that Religion, way to grow greater. His sinnes, indeed, were too many to be numbred; too great too, to be weighed in comparison with others. Vriah was innocent towards him, and faithfull in his imployment, and, at that time, in an actuall, and in a dangerous service, for his person, for the State, for the Church. Him David betrays in his letter to Ioab; Him David makes the instrument of his own death, by carrying those letters, the warrants of his own execution; And he makes Ioab, a man of honour, his instrument for a murder to cover an adultery. Thus many sinnes, and these heavy degrees of sin, were in this one; and how many, and how weighty, were in that, of numbring of his people, 1 Ch…on. 21. 1.wee know not. We know, that Satan provoked him to doe it; and we know, that Ioab, who seconded and accomplished his desire in the murder of Vriah, did yet disswade, and dis-counsell this numbring of the people, and not out of reason of State, but as an expresse sin. Put all together, and lesse then all, we are sure David belied not himself,ver. 3. His iniquities were gone over his head, and as a heavy burden, they were too heavy for him; Though this will be a good rule, for the most part, in all Davids confessions and lamentations, that though that be always literally true of himself, for the sinne, or for the punishment, which he says, personally David did suffer, that which he complains of in the Psalms, in a great measure, yet David speaks prophetically, as well as personally, and to us, who exceed him in his sins, the exaltation of those miseries, which we finde so often in this book, are especially intended; That which David relates to have been his own case, he foresees will be ours too, in a higher degree. And that's our second, and our principall object of all those circumstances, in the multiplicity, and in the hainousnesse of sin; And therefore, to that second part, these considerations in our selves, we make thus much hast.
First then, they were peccata, sins, iniquities. And we must not think to ease our selves in that subtilty of the School, Peccatum nihil; That sin is nothing, because sinne page missing
We are not all Davids, amabiles, lovely and beloved in that measure that David was,Sua. men according to Gods heart: But we are all Adams, terrestres, and lutosi, earth, and durty earth, red, and bloudy earth, and therefore in our selves, as deriv'd from him, let us finde, and lament all these numbers, and all these weights of sin. Here we are all born to a patrimony, to an inheritance; an inheritance, a patrimony of sin; and we are all good husbands, and thrive too fast upon that stock, upon the encrease of sin, even to the treasuring up of sin, and the wrath of God for sin. How naked soever we came out of our mothers wombe, otherwise, thus we came all apparell'd, apparell'd and invested in sin; And we multiply this wardrobe, with new habits, habits of customary sins, every day. Every man hath an answer to that question of the Apostle, What hast thou, that thou hast not received from God? Every man must say, I have pride in my heart, wantonnesse in mine eyes, oppression in my hands; and that I never receiv'd from God. Our sins are our own; and we have a covetousnesse of more; a way, to make other mens sins ours too, by drawing them to a fellowship in our sins. I must be beholden to the loyalty and honesty of my wife, whether my children be mine own, or no; for, he whose eye waiteth for the evening, the adulterer, may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to the protection of the Law, whether my goods shall be mine, or no; A potent adversary, a corrupt Judge may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to my Physician, whether my health, and strength shal be mine, or no; A garment negligently left off, a disorderly meal may rob me of that propri…ty. But without asking any man leave, my sins will be mine own. When the presumptuous men say, Our lips are our own, and our tongues are our own, Ps. 12.the Lord threatens to cut off those lips, and those tongues. But except we doe come to say, Our sins are our own, God will never cut up that root in us, God will never blot out the memory in himself, of those sins. Nothing can make them none of ours, but the avowing of them, the confessing of them to be ours. OnelyOnly in this way, I am a holy lier, and in this the God of truth will reward my lie; for, if I say my sins are mine own, they are none of mine, but, by that confessing and appropriating of those sins to my selfe, they are made the sins of him, who hath suffered enough for all, my blessed Lord, and Saviour Christ Ies…s. Therefore that servant of God, S. August. confesses those sins, which he never did, to be his sins, and to have been forgiven him: Peccata mihi dimissa a fate…r & quae med sponte feci, & quae te duce non feci; Those sins which I have done, and those, which, but for thy grace, I should have done, are all, my sins. Alas, I may die here, and die under an everlasting condemnation of fornication with that woman, that lives, and dies a Virgin, and be damn'd for a murderer of that man, that out-lives me, and for a robbery, and oppression, where no man is damnified, nor any penny lost. The sin that I have done, the sin that I would have done, is my sin. We must not therefore transfer our sins upon any other. Wee must not think to discharge our selves upon a Peccata Patris; To come to say,Non patris. My father thriv'd well in this course, why should not I proceed in it? My father was of this Religion, why should not I continue in it? How often is it said in the Scriptures, of evill Kings, he did evill in the sight of the Lord, and walk'd in via Patris, in the way of his father? father in the singular; It is never said plurally, In via Patrum; in the way of his fathers. Gods blessings in this world, are express'd so, in the plurall, thou gavest this land patribus, to their fathers, says Solomon, in the dedication of the Temple;1 Reg. 8. 48. y. 53. y. 57. 37. 25. And, thou brought'st Patres, our Fathers out of Egypt; And again, Be with us, Lord, as thou wast with our Fathers; So; in Ezekiel, where your Fathers dwelt, you, their children, shall dwell too, and your children, and their childrens children for ever. His blessings upon his Saints, his holy ones in this world, are expressed so, plurally, and so is the transmigration of his Saints out of this world also; Thou shalt sleep cum patribus, Deut. 31. 13.with thy fathers, says God to Moses; And David slept cum patribus, with his fathers; And Iacob had that care of himselfe, as of that in which consisted,1 Reg. 2. 10. or in which, was testified the blessing of God, I will lie cum patribus, with my fathers, and be buried in their burying place, says Iacob to his son Ioseph Good ways,Gen. 47. 30. and good ends are in the plurall, and have many examples; else they are not good, but sins are in the singular, He walk'd in the way of his father, is in an ill way: But carry our manners, or carry our Religion high enough, and we shall finde a good rule in our fathers: Stand in the way, says God in Ieremy, and ask for the old way, which is the good way. 6. 16.We must put off veterem hominem, but not antiq…m; Wee may put off that Religion, which we think old, because it is a little elder then our selves, and not rely upon that, it was the Religion of my Father. But Antiquissimum die…um, Him, whose name is, He that is, and was, and is for ever, and so involves, and enwraps in himself all the Fathers, him we must put on. Be that our issue with our adversaries at Rome, By the Fathers, the Fathers in the plurall, when those fathers unanimely deliver any thing dogmatically, for matter of faith, we are content to be tried by the Fathers, the Fathers in that plurall. But by that … Father, who begers his children, not upon the true mother, the Church, but upon the Court, and so produces articles of faith, according as State businesses, and civill occasions invite him, by that father we must refuse to be tried: for, to limit it in particular, to my father, we must say with Nehemiah, Ege & domus patris mei,Nchem.1. If I make my fathers house my Church, my father my Bishop, I, and my fathers house have sinned, says he; and with Mordecai to Esther, Thou, and thy fathers house shall be destroyed.4. 51.
They are not … a patris, I cannot excuse my sins, upon the example of my father: nor are they … Temp…ris, Non temp… ris.I cannot discharge my sins upon the Times, and upon the present ill disposition that reigns in men now, and doe ill, because every body else does so. To say, there is a rot, and therefore the sheep must perish, Corruptions in Religion are crept in, and work in every cornet, and therefore Gods sheep, simple souls, must be content to admit the infection of this rot. That there is a murrain, and therefore cattell must die, superstition practis'd in many places and therefore the strong servants of God, must come to sacrifice their obedience to it, or their bloud for it. Then no such rot, no such murrain, no such corruption of times, as can lay a necessity, or can afford in excuse so them who are corrupted with the times. As it is not pax temporis, such a State-peace, us takes away honour, that secures a Nation, nor such a Church-peace, as takes away ze…l, that secures a conscience, so neither is it peccatum temporis, an observation what other men incline to, but what truth, what integrity thou declin'st from, that appertains to thy consideration.
It is not peccatum …atis; not the sin of thy father, not the sin of the times, Non aetatis.not the sin of thine own years. That thou shouldest say in thy old age, in excuse of thy Covet…snesse, All these things have I observed from my youth, I have lived temperately, continently all my life, and therefore may be allowed one sin for mine case in mine age. Or, that thou shouldest say in thy youth, I will re…re my self in mine age, and live contentedly with a little then, but now, how vain were it to goe about to keep out a tide, or to quench the heats, and imperuous violence of youth? But …uge …venilis defideria … also youthfull lusts; 2 Tim. 2. 22.And left God hear not thee at last, when thou comost with that petition, Remember not the sins of my youth, Remember thou thy Creator, Ps. 25. 7. Eccles. 12. 1.now in the days of thy youth: for, if thou think it enough to say, I have but liv'd as other men have liv'd, wantonly, thou wilt finde some examples to die by too, and die, as other old men, old in years, and old in sins, have died too, negligently, or fearfully; without any sense at all, or all their sense turned into fearfull apprehensions, and desperation.
They are not peccata et atis, such sins, as men of that age must needs commit,Non artis. nor pec… ar…tis, such sins as men of thy calling, or thy profession, cannot avoid; that thou should'st say, I shall not be beleeved to understand my profession, as well as other men, if I live not by it, as well as other men doe. Is there no being a Carp…nter, Esa. 44. 13.but that after he hath warmed him by the chips, and baked, and roasted by it, hee must needs make an idoll of his wood, & worship it? Is there no being a Silver-smith, Acts 19. 24.but he must needs make shrines for Dia…a of the Ephesians, as Demetrius did? No being a Lawyer, without serving the passion of the Client? no being a Divine, without sowing pillows under great mens elbows? It is not the sin of thy Calling that oppresses thee; As a man may commit a massacre, in a single murder and kill many in one man, if he kill one, upon whom many depended, so is that man a generall libeller, that defames a lawfull Calling, by his abusing thereof; that lives so scandalously in the Ministery, as to defame the Ministery it self, or so imperiously in the Magistracy, as to defame the Magistracy it self, as though it were but an engine, and instrument of oppression, or so unjustly in any Calling, as his abuse dishno…rs the Calling it self. God hath institured Calling, for the conservation of order in generall, not for the justification of disorders in any particular. For he that justifies his faults by his calling, hath not yet received that calling from above, whereby he must be justified, and sanctified in the way, and glorified in the end. There is no lawfull calling, in which, a man may not be an honest man.
It is not peccatum Magistratus, thou canst not excuse thy selfe upon the unjust command of thy superiour;Non Magistratus. that's the blinde and implicite obedience practised in the Church of Rome; Nor peccatum Pastoris, the ill example of thy Pastor, whose life counter-preaches his doctrine, for, that shall aggravate his, but not excuse thy sinne; Nor Peccata Coeli, the influence of Stars, concluding a fatality, amongst the Gentiles, or such a working of a necessary, and inevitable, and unconditioned Decree of God, as may shut up the ways of a Religious walking in this life, or a happy resting in the life to come; It is none of these, not the sinne of thy Father, not the sinne of the present times, not the sin of thy years, and age, nor of thy calling, nor of the Magistrate, nor of thy Pastor, nor of Destiny, nor of decrees, but it is peccatum tuum, thy sin, thy own sin. And not onelyonly thy sin so, as Adams sin is communicated to thee, by propagation of Originall sin; for, so thou mightest have some colour to discharge thy selfe upon him, as he did upon Eve, and Eve upon the Serpent; Though in truth it make no difference, in this spirituall debt, of that sin, who is first in the bond: Adam may stand first, but yet thou art no surety but a Principall, and for thy selfe; and he, and thou are equally subject to the penalty. For though Saint Augustine confesse, that there are many things concerning Originall sin, of which he is utterly ignorant, yet of this he would have no man ignorant, that to the guiltinesse of originall sin, our own wills concurre as well as to any actuall sin: An involuntary act, cannot be a sinfull act; and though our will work not now, in the admitting of originall sin, which enters with our soule in our conception, or in our inanimation and quickening, yet, at first,August. Sicut ominium natura, ita omnium voluntates erant in Adam, as every man was in Adam, so every faculty of every man, and consequently the will of every man concurred to that sin, which therefore lies upon every man now: So that that debt, Originall sin, is as much thine as his; And for the other debts, which grow out of this debt, (as nothing is so generative, so multiplying, as debts are, especially spirituall debts, sins) for actuall sins, they are thine, out of thine own choice; Thou mightest have left them undone, and wouldest needs doe them; for God never induces any man into a perplexity, that is, into a necessity of doing any particular sin. Thou couldest have disswaded a Son, or a friend, or a servant, from that sin, which thou hast embraced thy selfe: Thou hast been so farre from having been forced to those sins, which thou hast done, as that thou hast been sorry, thou couldest not doe them, in a greater measure. They are thine, thine own, so, as that thou canst not discharge thy selfe upon the Devill; Chrysost.but art, by the habit of sin, become Spontaneus Damon, a Devill to thy selfe, and wouldest minister tentations to thy selfe, though there were no other Devill. And this is our propriety in sin; They are our own.
This is the propriety of thy sin; The next is the Plurality, the multiplicity, iniquitates; Not onelyonly the committing of one sin often; and yet,Plural. he deceives himselfe in his account dangerously, that reckons but upon one sin, because he is guilty but of one kinde of sin. Would a man say he had but one wound, if he were shot seven times in the same place? Could the Iews deny, that they flead Christ, with their second or third or twentieth blow, because they had torne skin, and flesh, with their former scourges, and had left nothing but bones to wound? But it is not onelyonly that, the repeating of the same sin often, but it is the multiplicity of divers kinds of sins, that is here lamented in all our behalfes. It is not when the conscience is tender, and afraid of every sin,2 Reg. 5. and every appearance of sin. When Naaman desired pardon of God by the Prophet, for sustaining the King upon his knees, in the house of Rimmon, the Idol, and the Prophet bad him goe in peace, it is not that he allows him any peace under the conscience, and guiltinesse of a sin; That was indispensable. Neither is their any dispensation in Naamans case, but onelyonly a rectifying of a tender and timoruos conscience, that thought that to be a sin, which was not, if it went no further, but to the exhibiting of a Civill duty to his Master, in what place soever, Religious, or prophane, that service of kneeling were to be done. Naamans service was truely no sin; but it had been a sin in him to have done it, when he thought it to be a sin. And therefore the Prophets phrase, Goe in peace, may well be interpreted so, set thy minde at rest… for all that, that thou requirest, may be done without sin. Now that tendernesse of conscience is not in our case in the Text. He that proceeds so, to examine all his actions, may meet scruples all the way, that may give him some anxiety and vexation, but he shall never come to that overflowing of sin, intended in this plurality, and multiplicity here. For, this plurality, this multiplicity of sin, hath found first a spunginesse in the soul, an aptnesse to receive any liquor, to embrace any sin, that is offered to it, and after a while, a hunger and thirst in the soul, to hunt, and pant and draw after a tentation, and not to be able to endure any vacuum, any discontinuance, or intermission of sinne: and hee will come to think it a melancholique thing, still to stand in fear of Hell; a sordid, a yeomanly thing, still to be plowing, and weeding, and worming a conscience; mechanicall thing, still to be removing logs, or filing iron, still to be busied in removing occasions of tentation, or filing and clearing particular actions: and, at last he will come to that case, which S. Augustine out of an abundant ingenuity, and tendernesse, and compunction, confesses of himself, Ne vituperarer; vitiosior fiebam, I was fain to sin, left I should lose my credit, and be under-valued; Et ubi non suberat, quo admisso, aquarer perditis, when I had no means to doe some sins, whereby I might be equall to my fellow, Fingebam me fecisse quod non feceram, ne viderer abjectior, quo innocentior, I would bely my self, and say I had done that, which I never did, lest I should be under-valued for not having done it. Audiebam eos exaltantes flagitia, sayes that tender blessed Father, I saw it was thought wit, to make Sonnets of their own sinnes, Et libebat facere, non libidine facti, sed libidine laudis, I sinn'd, not for the pleasure I had in the sin, but for the pride that I had to write feelingly of it. O what a Leviathan is sin, how vast, how immense a body! And then, what a spawner, how numerous! Between these two, the denying of sins, which we have done, and the bragging of sins, which we have not done, what a space, what a compasse is there, for millions of millions of sins! And so have you the nature of sin, which was our first; The propriety of sin, which was our second; and the plurality, the multiplicity of sin, which was our third branch; And follows next, the exaltation thereof; supergressae sunt, My sins are gone over my head.
They are, that is, they are already got above us;Supergressae sunt. for in that case we consider this plurall, this manifold sinner, that he hath slipt his time of preventing, or resisting his sins; His habits of sins are got, already got above him.1 Reg. 18. 41. Elisha bids his man look towards the Sea, and he saw nothing; He bids him look again, and again to a seventh time, and he saw nothing. After all, he sees but a little cloud, like a mans hand; and yet, upon that little appearance, the Prophet warns the King, to get him into his Chariot, and make good hast away, lest the rain stopp'd his passage, for, instantly the heaven was black, with clouds, and rain. The sinner will see nothing, till he can see nothing; and, when he sees any thing, (as to the blindest conscience something will appear) he thinks it but a little cloud, but a melancholique fit, and, in an instant, (for 7 years make but an instant to that man, that thinks of himself, but once in 7 years) Supergresae sunt, his sins are got above him, and his way out is stopp'd. The Sun is got over us now, though we saw none of his motions, and so are our sins, though we saw not their steps. You know how confident our adversaries are in that argument, Why doe ye oppugne our doctrine of prayer for the dead, or of Invocation of Saints, or of the fire of Purgatory, since you cannot assigne us a time, when these doctrines came into the Church, or that they were opposed or contradicted, when they entred? When a conscience comes to that inquisition, to an iniquitates supergressae, to consider that our sins are gone over our head, in any of those ways, wch we have spoken of if we offer to awaken that conscience farther, it startles, & it answers us drowsily, or frowardly, like a new wak'd man, Can you remember when you sin'd this sin first, or did you resist it then, or since? whence comes this troublesome singularity now? pray let me sleep still, says this startled conscience. Beloved, if we fear not the wetting of our foot in sin, it will be too late, when we are over head and ears. Gods deliverance of his children, was sicco pede, hee made the sea dry land, and they wet not their foot. At first, in the creation,Exod. 14. subjecit omnia sub pedibus, God put all things under their feet; In mans wayes, in this world, his Angels beare us up in their hands; why? Ne impingamus pedem, Ps. 8. 7.that we should not hurt our foot against a stone, but have a care of every step we make. If thou have defiled thy feet, (strayed into any unclean ways) wash them again, and stop there, and that will bring thee to the consideration of the Spouse, I have washed my feet, Cant. 5. 3.how shall I then defile thē again? I have found mercy for my former sins, how shal I dare to provoke God wth more? stil God appoints us a permanēt means to tread sin under our feet here, in this life; The woman, that is, the Church, hath the Moon, that is, all transitory things,Apoc. 12. (& so, all tentatiōs) under her feet; As Christ himself expressed his care of Peter, to consist in that, That if his feet were washed, all was clean; And as in his own person he admitted nails in his feet, as wel as in his hands, so crucifie thy hands, abstain frō unjust actions but crucifie thy feet too, make not one step towards the way of Idolaters, or other sinners. If we watch not the ingressus sum, we shall be insensible of the supergressae sunt; If we look not to a sin, when it comes towards us, we shal not be able to look towards it, when it is got over us: for, if a man come to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, he wil come to fit in the seat of the scornful; for, that's the sinners progress, in the first warning that David gives in the beginning of his 1t Psal. If he give himself leave to enter into sinful ways, he wil sit & sin at ease, & make a jest of sin; & he that loveth danger, shal perish therein. So have you then the nature of sin; it was sin; it was sin that oppressed him; and the propriety of sin, it was his sin, actuall sin; and the plurality of sin, habituall, customary sin and the victory of sin, they had been long climing, and were now got up to a height; and this height & exaltation of theirs, is expressed thus, super caput, Mine iniquities are got above my head.
S. Augustine, (who truly had either never true copy of the Bible,Super caput. or else cited sometimes, as the words were in his memory, and not as they were in the Text) he reads not these words so, supergressae super caput, but thus, sustulerunt caput; And so he interprets the words, not that his sins had got over his head, and depressed his head, subdued and subjugated his head, but that they had extoll'd his head, made him life his head high, and say, Who is the Lord? Sursum tellitur, says he upon this place cui erigitur caput contra Deum, his head is exalted, who is set against God. And certainly, that's a desperate state in sin, when a man thinks himself the wiser, or the better, or the more powerfull for his sin; That he can the better stand upon his own legs, or the lesse needs the assistance of God, because he hath prosper'd in the world, by the ways of sin. S. August is an useful mistaking, but it is a mistaking. But to pursue the right word, and the true meaning of this metaphoricall expressing, supergressae caput, My sins are got above my head, sin may be got to our foot, & yet not to the eye. A man may stray into company of tentations, & yet not be tempted; A man may make a covenant with his eye, that he will not see a maid.Iob. Sin may come to the eye, & yet the hand be above water; we may look, & lust, & yet, by Gods watchfull goodnes, & studious mercy, escape action. But if it be above our head, then the brain is drown'd that is, our reason, and understanding, which should dispute against it, and make us asham'd of it, or afraid of it; And our memory is drown'd, we have forgot that there belongs a repentance to our sins, perchance forgot that there is such a sin in us; forgot that those actions are sins, forgot that we have done those actions; and forgot that there is a law, even in our own hearts, by which we might try, whether our actions were sins, or no. If they be above our heads, they are so, in many dangerous acceptations. Of which, the first is, that they cover our heads sicut tectum, sicut fornix, as a roof, as an arch, as a separation between God and us.
Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, says the Prophet.Tectum. Esa. 59. 2. A wall of separation between man and man, even in the service of God, there was always; a wall of Gods making; that is, the Ceremoniall Law, by which God enclos'd the Iews from the Gentiles. But this was but a side wall, and Christ threw it down; He is our peace, Eph. 2. 14.says the Apostle, and hath made of both one, and hath broken the stop of the partition wall; This he did when he opened the Gentiles a way into his religion. This wall was the distinction between the Iew, & Gentile, when the Iew call'd the ignominiously Incircumcisos, uncircumcised, and they call'd the Iews, with as much scorn, Recutitos, & Apellas; when the Iew wondred at the Gentises eating of unclean things, and the Gentiles wondred to hear them call things, of as good nourishment, as their clean meats, uncleane; when the Iew placed his holinesse in singularity, and ceremonies of distinction, and the Gentiles call'd that but a pride in them, and a scornefull detestation of their neighbours. And truly it is a lamentable thing, when ceremoniall things in matter of discipline, or problematicall things in matter of doctrine, come so farre, as to separate us from one another, in giving ill names to one another. Zeal is directed upon God, and charity upon our brethren, but God will not be seen, but by that spectacle; not accept any thing for an act of zeal to himself, that violates charity towards our brethren, by the way. Neither should we call any man Lutheran, or Calvinist, or by any other name, ignominiously, but for such things, as had been condemned in Luther, or Calvin, and condemned by such, as are competent Judges between them, and us; that is, by the universall, or by our own Church. This wall then, between the Iew and Gentile, (as it was the ceremony it self, and not the abuse of it) God built, and Christ threw downe. There are outward things, Ceremoniall things, in the worship of God, that are temporary, and they did serve God that brought them in, and they doe serve God also, that have driven them out of the Church, because their undeniable abuse had clog'd them with an impossibility of being restor'd to that good use, which they were at first ordained for; of which, the brazen serpent is evidence enough. God set up a wall, which God himself meant should be demolish'd again. Such another wal, (as well as the Devil can imitate Gods workmanship) the Devil hath built now in the Christian Church; and hath morter'd it in the brains & bloud of men, in the sharp and virulent contentions arisen, and fomented in matters of Religion. But yet, says the Spouse,Cant. 2. 9. My well bel…ved stands behind the wall, shewing himself through the grates: he may be seen on both sides. For all this separation, Christ Jesus is amongst us all, and in his time, will break downe this wall too, these differences amongst Christians, & make us all glad of that name, the name of Christians, without affecting in our selves, or inflicting upon others, other names of envy, and subdivision. But besides this wall of Gods making, the Ceremoniall law, & this wall of the Devils making, dissention in Christian Churches, there is a wall of our own making, a roof, an arch above our heads, by which our continuall sins have separated God and us. God had covered himself with a cloud, so that prayer could not passe thorough; That was the misery of Ierusalem. But in the acts and habits of sin,Lam. 3. 44. we cover our selves, with a roof, with an arch, which nothing can shake, nor remove, but Thunder, and Earthquakes, that is, the execution of Gods fiercest judgments; And whether in that fall of the roof, that is, in the weight of Gods judgments upon us, the stones shall not brain us, overwhelm and smother, and bury us, God only knows. How his Thunders, and his Earthquakes, when we put him to that, will work upon us, he onelyonly knows, whether to our amendment, or to our destruction. But whil'st we are in the consideration of this arch, this roof of separation, between God and us, by sin, there may be use in imparting to you, an observation, a passage of mine own. Lying at Ai… at Aquisgrane, a well known Town in Germany, and fixing there some time, for the benefit of those Baths, I found my self in a house, which was divided into many families, & indeed so large as it might have been a little Parish, or, at least, a great lim of a great one; But it was of no Parish: for when I ask'd who lay over my head, they told me a family of Anabaptists; And who over theirs? Another family of Anabaptists; and another family of Anabaptists over theirs; and the whole house, was a nest of these boxes; severall artificers; all Anabaptists; I ask'd in what room they met, for the exercise of their Religion; I was told they never met: for, though they were all Anabaptists, yet for some collaterall differences, they detested one another, and, though many of them, were near in bloud & alliance to one another yet the son would excommunicate the father, in the room above him, and the Nephew the Uncle. As S. Iohn is said to have quitted that Bath, into which Cerinthus the Heretique came, so did I this house; I remembred that Hezekiah in his sicknesse, turn'd himself in his bed, to pray towards that wall; that look'd to Ierusalem; And that Daniel in Babylon, when he pray'd in his chamber, opened those windows that look'd towards Ierusalem; for, in the first dedication of the Temple, at Ierusalem, there is a promise annext to the prayers made towards the Temple: And I began to think, how many roofs, how many floores of separation, were made between God and my prayers in that house. And such is this multiplicity of sins, which we consider to be got over us, as a roof, as an arch, many arches, many roofs: for, though these habituall sins, be so of kin, as that they grow from one another, and yet for all this kindred excommunicate one another, (for covetousnesse will not be in the same roome with prodigality) yet it is but going up another stair, and there's the tother Anabaptist; it is but living a few years, and then the prodigall becomes covetous. All the way, they separate us from God, as a roof, as an arch, & then, an arch will bear any weight; An habituall sin got over our head as an arch will stand under any sicknesse, any dishonour, any judgement of God, and never sink towards any humiliation.
They are above our heads, sicus tectum, as a roofe, as an arch,Clamor. and they are so toe sicut clamor, as a voice ascending, & not stopping, till they come to God. O my God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up mine eyes to ther, O my God; why not thine eyes?Ezra 9. 6. there is a cloud, a clamour in the way; for as it follows, Our iniquities are encreased over our heads, and our trespasse is grown up to the heaven. I think to retain a learned man of my counsell, and one that is sute to be heard in the Court, and when I come to instruct him, I finde mine adversaries name in his book before, and he is all ready for the other party. I think to finde an Advocate in heaven, when I will, and my sin is in heaven before mee. The voice of Abels bloud, and so, of Cains sin, was there: The voice of Sodomes transgression was there. Bring down that sin again from heaven to earth: Bring that voice that cries in heaven, to speake to Christ here in his Church, upon earth, by way of confession; bring that clamorous sin to his bloud, to be washed in the Sacrament; for, as long as thy sin cries in heaven, thy prayers cannot be heard there. Bring thy sinne under Christs feet there, when hee walks amongst the Candlesticks, in the light, and power of his Ordinances in the Church, and then, thine absolution will be upon thy head, in those seals which he hath instituted, and ordained there, and thy cry will be silenced. Till then, supergr…sse, caput, thine iniquities will be over thy head, as a roof, as a cry, and, in the next place, sicut aqua, as the overflowing of waters.
We consider this plurality, this multiplicity of habituall sinnes, to bee got over our heads, as waters, especially in this, that they have stupefied us,Aqua. and taken from us all sense of reparation of our sinfull condition. The Organ that God hath given the naturall man, is the eye; he sees God in the creature. The Organ that God hath given the Christian, is the ear; he hears God in his Word. But when we are under water, both senses, both Organs are vitiated, and depraved, if not defea…ed. The habituall, and manifold sinner, sees nothing aright; Hee sees a judgement, and cals it an accident. He hears nothing aright; He hears the Ordinance of Preaching for salvation in the next world, and he cals it an invention of the State, for subjection in this world. And as under water, every thing seems distorted and crooked, to man, so does man himself to God, who sees not his own Image in that man, in that form as he made it. When man hath drunk iniquity like water, Iob 15. 16.then, The flouds of wickadnesse shall make him afraid; The water that he hath swum in, the sin that he hath delighted in,Ps. 18. 4. shall appear with horrour unto him. As God threatens the pride of Tyrus, Ezck. 26. 19.I shall bring the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee, That, God will execute upon this sinner; And then, upon every drop of that water, upon every affliction, every tribulation, he shall come to that fearfulnesse, Waters flowed over my head; then said I,Lam. 3. 54. I am c… off; Either he shall see nothing, or see no remedy, no deliverance from desperation. Keep low these waters, as waters signifie sin, and God shall keep them low, as they signifie punishments; And his Dove shall return to the Ark with an Olive leaf,Gen. 8. 8. to shew thee that the waters are abated; he shall give thee a testimony of the return of his love, in his Oyle, and Wine, and Milk, and Honey, in the temporall abundances of this life. And, si impleat Hydrias aqua, if he doe fill all your vessels with water,Iob. 2. 7. with water of bitternesse, that is, fill and exercise all your patience, and all your faculties with his corrections, yet he shall doe that, but to change your water into wine, as he did there, he shall make his very Judgements, Sacraments, conveyances and seals of his mercy to you, though those manifold sins be got over your heads, as a roof, as a noise, as an overflowing of waters: And, that, which is the heaviest of all, and our last consideration, sicut Dominus, as a Lord, as a Tyran, as an Usurper.
Preti… redempti es…is, nolite fieri servi, says the Apostle, you are bought with a price,Dominus. therefore glorifie God. There he shews you, your own value, and then,1 Cor. 6. 20. Ne dominetur peccas…um, Let not sin have dominion over you; there he shews you the insolency of that Tyran. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, Iob. 8. 32.says Christ to the Iews. Well; They stood not much upon the truth, but for the freedome, We were Abrahams seed, and were never bound to any; but Christ replies, Whosoever committesh sin, is the servant of sin; And, of whomsoever a man is overcome, 2 Pet. 9. 29.to the same he is in bondage. Now we are slaves to sin, not onelyonly as we have been overcome by sin for he that is said to be overcome by sin, is presumed to have made some resistance) but as we have sold our selves to sin, which is a worse, and a more voluntary act. There was none like him, like Ahab; 1 Reg. 21. 20.(says the holy Ghost) wherein was his singularity above all? He had sold himself, to work wickednesse, in the fight of the Lord. Now, how are we sold to sin? By Adam? That's true; Ejus praevaricatione, & ut it a dicam, Cassian.Negotiatione, demnoso, & frandulento commercio venditi sumus: Wee were all sold under hand, fraudulently sold, and sold under foot, cheaply sold by Adam. But thus, wee might seem to be sold by others; so Ioseph was, and no fault in himself; But we have sold our selves since. Did not Adam sell himself too? Did God sell him by any secret Decree, or contract, between the Devil and him? Was God of counsel in that bargain? God forbid. Thus faith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mothers divorce,Esa. 50. 1. whom I have put away? or, which of my creditours is it, to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have sold your selves; and for your transgressions, is your mother put away. In Adam we were sold in grosse; in our selves we are sold by retail, In the first, and generall sale, we all pass'd, even the best of us. We know the Law is spirituall, Rom. 7. 14.but I am carnall, sold under sin, says the Apostle, even of himselfe. But when does the Apostle say this? in what state was hee, when he accuses himselfe of this mancipation, and sale under sin? Says he this onelyonly with relation to his former times, when he was a Iew, and under the Law? Or, but then when he was newly come to the light of the Gospel, and not to a clear sight of it? It is true, that most of the Eastern Fathers, and it is true, that S. Augustine himselfe was of that opinion, that S. Paul said of himselfe, that he was sold under sin, respecting himself before his regeneration. Non qui vult esse sapiens, statim fit sapiens, says Origen; A man is not presently learned, because he hath a good desire to be learned; nor hath he that hath begun a conversion, presently accomplished his regeneration; nor is he discharged of his bargain of being sold under sin, as soon as hee sees that he hath made an ill bargain. But when he growes up in grace, (say they) as S. Paul had done, when hee said this, then he is discharged. But, as S. Augustine ingenuously retracts that opinion, which, (as he says) he had held,Retract. 1. c. 23. when he was a young Priest at Carthage, so is there nothing clearer, by the whole purpose of the Apostle in that place, then that he in his best state, was still sold under sin. As David speaks of himself being then regenerated, In thy sight shall no man living be justified. So S. Paul speaks of himself in his best state, still he was sold under sin, because still, that concupiscence, under which he was sold in Adam, remains in him. And that concupiscence is sin, Quia inest ei inobedientia contra domin…m mentis. August.Because it is a rebellion against that soveraignty which God hath instituted in the soul of man, and an ambition of setting up another Prince; so it is peccatum, sin in it self; And it is poena peccati, says that Father, Quia reddita est meritis inobedientis; Because it is laid upon us for that disobedience, it hath also the nature of a punishment of sin, as well as so sin it self; And then it is Causa peccati too, Defectione consentientis, because man is so enfeebled by this inherence, and invisceration of Originall sin, as that thereby he is exposed to every emergent tentation, to any actuall sin. So, Originall sinne, is called by many of the Ancients, the cause of sin, and the effect of sin, but not so, exclusively, as that it is not sin, really sin in it self too. Now, as Originall sin causes Actuall, in that consideration (as we sell our selves over again in our acts of recognition, in ratifying our first sale, by our manifold sins here) so is sin gone over our heads, by this dominion, as a Tyran, as an usurper. Hoc lex posuit, Non concupisces; August.This is the Law, Thou shalt not covet: Non quod sic valcamus, sed ad quod persiciendo tendamus; Not that we can perform that Law, but that that Law might be a rule to direct our endevours: Multum boni facit, qui facit quod scriptum est, Post concupiscentias tuas non eas; He does well, and well in a fair measure, that fulfils that Commandement, Thou shalt not walk in the concupiscences of thine own heart; sed non perficit, quia non implet quod scriptum est, Non concupisces, But yet, says he, hee does not all that is commanded, because he is commanded not to covet at all: Vt sciat, quò debeat in hac m…talitate conari, That that commandement might teach him, what he should labour for in this life, Et quò possit in illa immortalitate pervenire, to what perfection wee shall come in the life to come, but not till then. Though therefore we did our best, yet we were sold under sin, that is, sold by Adam; but because we doe not, but consent to that first sale, in our sinfull acts, and habits, wee have sold our selves too, and so sin is gone over our heads; in a dominion, and in a tyrannicall exercise of that dominion. If we would goe about to expresse, by what customes of sin this dominion is established, we should be put to a necessity of entring into every profession, and every conscience. And the morall man says usefully, Si tantum irasci vis sapientem, Seneca.quantum exigit indignitas scelerum, (we will translate it in the Church tongue, and make his morality divinity) If we would have a zealous Preacher, cry out as fast, or as loud, as sins are committed, non irascendum, sed in santiendum, says he, you would not call that man an angry man, but a mad man, you would not call that Preacher, a zealous preacher, but a Puritan. Touch we but upon one of his reprehensions, because that may have the best use now; he considers the iniquities, and injustices, admitted, and committed in Courts of justice; and he says, Turpes lites, turpiores Advocati; Ill sutes are set on foot, and worse advocates defend them. Delator est criminis qui manifestior reus, even in criminall matters, he informes against another, that should be but defendant in that crime; And (as he carries it higher) Iudex damnaturus quae fesit, eligitur, the Judge himself condemns a man for that, which himselfe is farre more guilty of, then the prisoner. Nullus nisi ex alieno damno quaestus, and one man growes rich, by the empoverishing of many. But then it is so in all other professions too. And this Tyranny, and dominion is justly permitted by God upon us, ut qui noluit superiorr obedire, nec et obediat inferior caro, we have been rebellious to our Soveraigne, to God, and therefore our subject, the flesh, is first rebellious against us, and then Tyrannicall over us. But he that leadeth into captivity shall goe into captivity; yea,Revel. 13. 10. Christ hath led captivity it selfe captive, Ephes. 4. 8.and given gifts to men; that is, he hath established his Church, where, by a good use of those meanes which God hath ordained for it, the most oppressed soule, may raise it selfe above those exaltations, and supergressions of sin; And so we have done with our first part, and with all that will enter into this time, where David in his humble spirit feels in himselfe, but much more in his propheticall spirit, foresees, and foretells in others, the infectious nature of sin; It is a mortall wound, and in a strange consideration; for, it is a wound upon God, and mortall upon man; And then the propriety of sin, that sin is not at all from God, nor it is not all from the Devill, but our sin is our own; Our sins in a Pl…rality; our sins of one kind, determine not in one sin, we sin the same sin often, and then we determine not in one kinde, but slide into many. And after this multiplication of sin, the continuation thereof, to an irrecoverablenesse, supergressae sunt, we thinke not of them, till it be too late to think of them, till they produce no thought but despaire; for supergressae Caput, they are got above our Heads, above our strongest faculties; Above us, in the nature of an arched roof, they keep Gods grace in a separation from us, and our prayers from him, so they have the nature of a roof, and then, they feel no weight, they bend not under any judgement, which he lays upon us, so they have the nature of an Arch. Above us, as a voice, as a cry; Their voice is in possession of God, and so prevents our prayers; above us as waters, they disable our eyes, and our eares, from right conceiving all apprehensions; And above us, as Lords, and Tyrans, that came in by conquest, and so put what Laws they list upon us. And these instructions have arisen from this first, the Multiplicity, Mine iniquities are gone over my Head, and more will from the other, the weight and burden, They are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.