The Best Name on Earth, Text 2 – Title page 3
THE WORST of EVILS.
Ephes. 2.3.
And were by nature the Children of wrath even as others.
IN this chapter S. Paul is the remembrancer to the Ephesians, and reades them a lecture of their badnesse, before their calling and conversion; & surely such thoughts are right profitable to Christians, to call to minde how bad they were whilst they were wilde Olives, before they were ingrafted into Christ: for first it will raise their thankfulnesse to God; What am I, or what is my fathers house, that thou shouldst bring me hither? it will make us pay one tribute of praise more fully, more freely, when we consider if we be vessels of honour, it is no difference in the clay, but in the pleasure of the Potter. Secondly, it is excellent physick against the pleasure of pride, to let our souls bloud with the consideration how bad we have been; he that will not confesse his former badnesse, I suspect his present goodnesse, whether he hath any or not. Lastly, it will make us both pitty the present wofull estate of wicked men, and hope well, and pray heartily for their future conversion; why should we fear that arm of God should be too short for others, that could reach us? thinke not that we are the last lost sheep that shall ever be found; The most crooked tree will make timber for the temple, if God pleaseth to hew it.
For these and other reasons, S. Paul in this chapter paints out to the life the dead estate of the Ephesians, whilst they were in trespasses & sinnes, following their own lusts, and the power of the Prince of the aire; and in conclusion showes the cause thereof, namely their corruption by nature; so that the last item in this black bill is in effect the very imprimis of all the rest. And were by nature the children of wrath even as others: we will observe this plain method.
1. That by Nature all are the Children of wrath.
2. How it comes to passe that we are so.
3. Seeing so it is, what good use we may make thereof to our selves.
1. That by nature we are the children of wrath, is the very language of my text; yet lest any should object my text should be but a single Instrument, heare how it is tuned according to the dolefull consort both of scripture and reason in this point: of scripture, Psal. 51.5. behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sinne did my mother conceive me: Romans 5.12. wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world, and death by sinne, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
2. By reason, fetcht from the mystery of Circumcision under the old Testament, & Baptisme in the new; the whole, saith our Saviour, have no need of the Physitian, but those which are sick.
Secondly, because we want that original righteousnesse wherein we were created, and which is required to the purity and perfection of our nature; which righteousnesse was in Adam who was created after Gods own image, consisting chiefly in knowledge and holinesse ▪ as for Adams knowledge, he gave sufficient proof thereof in giving names to rhe Creatures; if a Godfather at the font give a foolish and fond name to a child, the Bishop at confirmation hath power to alter it; had Adam either imposed improper or insignificant names on the creatures, God no doubt could have reversed and revoked them, but the text saith Gen. 2.19. whatsoever Adam called living creatures, that was the name thereof, God did concurre with Adam, and approve their names as brief definitions of their natures: nor was his sanctity any whit inferiour to his knowledge, each faculty of his soul did look straight forwards on his proper object without squinting aside on any other; so that what was said of this great world, was as great a truth of this little world man, and behold all things therein were exceeding good; now because we want thi… originall righteousnesse, we are therefore the children of wrath.
Thirdly, because all the part… and powers of our soul and bod… are depraved with originall corruption: now as Nehemiah did by night survey the ruines of the walls of Jerusalem, so let us with shame, sorrow and silence, behold the breaches and dilapidations of our souls. Our understandings are so bad that they understand not their own badnesse; our wils which are the Queens of our souls become the vassals of sin; our memory like Jett good onelyonly to draw strawes, and treasure up trifles of no moment; our consciences through errours in our understanding, sometimes accusing us when we are innocent, sometimes accquitting us when we are guilty; our affections all disaffected and out of order; must not that needs be a monstrous face wherein the blewnesse which should be in the veins, is in the lipps; the rednesse which should be in the cheeks, in the nose; the hair that should grow on the head, on the face? & must not our souls needs seem ugly in the sight of God, who have grief growing there where joy should, & joy where grief should? wee love what wee should hate, & hate where we should love; wee fear where no fearis, and fear not where we ought to fear; and all our affections either mistake their true object, or exceed their due measure: this made the purest Pagans see somewhat of their naturall impurity, and the most refined Philosophers complain of their drowsinesse by nature; they saw al… was not right, all was not well which made them complain tha… nature was Noverca, a stepmother nature was a mother in law, but when or how their own mother dyed, that they could not tell or remember; they could not know how their souls forfeited originall righteousnesse, being a mystery too high for them to mount unto, who wanted the wings of holy writ, & the direction of S. Paul in my text, that we are by nature the children of wrath even as others.
Here perchance some may expect, that as the master of the feast said to him that wanted the wedding garment, friend how camest thou in hither? so I should demand of originall sin, foe and worst of foes how camest thou in hither, and by what invisible leakes didst thou soak into our soules? but I desire if it be possible to present you this day with a rose without prickles, to deliver plain and positive doctrine, without thorny disputes or curious speculations, lest as Abrahams ramme was caught in the thicket, so I imbroyle you and my self in difficult controversies; and here in generall to prevent such objections as might be made against this doctrine of the wrath deserving condition of men by nature, pray hearken to these three excellent rules.
1. Let us not with our wanton wit kick against the pricks of our own consciences, and goe about to prove by arguments that is not, which we by woefull experience find is, or that that is not just which is done by justice it self.
2. Let us not make foreign the doctrine of the chair to determine controversies between God & us; for the wisdome of the flesh is a malefactor, no wonder if the malefactor being made a Judge doth accquit himself: 2ly. it is enmity to God; no reason that hee should be censured by him that is his enemy, his wayes I say which are often above reason but never against right: let us not make the pallat of corrupt flesh which savoureth not the things of the spirit, our taster in spirituall matters.
3. Let us not busy our brains so much to know how Originall sinne came into us, as labour with our heart to know how it should be got out of us; but the worst is, most men are sick of the Rickets in the soul, their heads swell to a vast proportion, puft up with the emptinesse of airy speculations, whilst their leggs and lower parts do wast and consume, their practicall parts do decay, none more lazy to serve God in their lives and conversations: and here the better to ballace both mine and your judgements aganinst all blasts and billowes of private opinions, hearken to the resolution of the Church of England, as she hath delivered her self in the article which is the ninth in number, and beareth the title of originall or birth-sin: originall sin standeth not in the following of Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk, but it is the fault and corruption of every man, which naturally is ingendred of the of-spring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from originall righteousnesse, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth alwayes against the spirit; therefore in every person born into the world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation: and that this infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerate, whereby the lust of the flesh called in Greek foreign which some do expound the wisdome, and some sensuality, some the affection, some the desires of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God; and although there be no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth confesse that concupiscence and lust hath of it self the nature of sinne.
So far the golden Article, which as all the rest was written by their hands who had good heads and hearts, in whom wisdome did contend with their learning, but their piety was a Conquerour above both; who what they learnedly distilled out of the scripture, faithfully infused into these Articles: and as the reall serpent of Moses did devoure the seeming serpents which Jannes and Jambres the Egyptian enchanters did make, so shall the truth of these Articles outlast and outlive confute and confound all false and erroneous doctrines whatsoever; even when wilfull Heretiques shall have their eyes put out with the beams of truth, and factious Schismaticks want a conventicle to hide their shame in, and furious Innovatours either run themselves out of breath (if the law do not first overtake them) or else fall down through the giddinesse of their own brains; and then shall the eternall truth of these Articles want nothing but a foe to oppose them, because herein they concurre with the doctrine of S. Paul in my text, that wee are by nature children &c,
Is it so that that we are by nature the children of wrath? this serves to confute three sorts of people, namely those who either faintly affirm it, or flatly deny it, or falsely maintain it: faintly affirm it, and such are those as have written, Peccatum originis non nisi ex duobus scripturae locis effoditur, originall sin is digg'd out but of two or three places of scripture; is diggd out, do they mean is extracted by faithfull consequence? as if what were so deduced were not Scripture as well as that which is their foreign in so many words; Is diggd out, and so are gold and pretious stones; and are mysteries of religion of lesse price, because they are to be gathered by some pains? is diggd out, and that is false, for it lyes above ground in plain and pregnant places of scripture, though these men had rather stumble at it then behold it. But out of two or three places of scripture, why, out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall not every truth be established? but out of two or three places of scripture, as if one were not all one with one thousand, when it comes from an infallible mouth; places of scripture are not to be taken out by the tale, but the weight. Thus these men labour to lessen originall sin; O let us all labour to lessen originall sin, but not by extenuating it in our tenets and opinions, but by labouring to crucify & mortifie it in our lives and conversations; and surely many mens immoderate diminishing originall sin, making it next to nothing, gave the unhappy occasion to learned Illyricus to fall foul on that opinion (if his meaning there be not mistaken) that originall sin was a very substance indeed; an opinion so absurd, that at the same time I could both laugh at the ridiculous tenet, and weep at the unhappinesse of the man that maintained it; well, let us go backward, and if we want wherewithall to cover his nakednesse, let us do it with the sheets of his own books, and let his admirable mastery in other things crave a concealment of his errour in this.
Flatly deny it, and such are the Pelagians, who say that all sinne comes onelyonly by imitation, surely Cain never learned to kill his brother by imitation; he was the first that set that black coppy, and wrote not after any other. Indeed children would not be so bad, or so soon bad, but for bad examples set before them; but bad examples are not the root from whence childrens badnesse doth grow, but rather the water or compost tha cause it to spring and sprout more speedily.
Fasly maintain it, and so the Papists, who though they allow the deprivation of originall righteousness, will not allow the depravation of our nature, but hold that we differ from Adam no more then a naked man from him whose clothes are taken away; and to make this more plausible, Bellarmine creates in his brains, that Adam was created with a reluctanty and rebellion of the inferiour powers of his soul against the superiour faculties thereof, nay blusheth not to affirm that God could not make a man so pure and perfect, but praeter Dei intentionem ex conditione materiae, there would be such a rebellion in him: Lord! this same Bellarmine at other times without necessity and against reason could conceive how omnipotency props up accidents without a substance, and makes the same body at the same time in severall places, and now he cannot see how an infinite power is antidote strong enough to expell out of the matter any venemous quality whatsoever: true it is that there was in Adam, motion, tendency, and propensity of each faculty to its proper object, but as for any obliquity and deordination in them, it neither was nor could be, as repugnant both to Gods goodnesse and mans perfection: But thus they go about to make (as I may say) some corption in Adam in his state of integrity, that they may make way for some integrity in the sonnes of Adam after their corruption: but the best is, that as the Pharisees Act. 23.9. though enemies to S. Pauls person, yet friends to his tenets about the resurrection from the dead, and valiantly vindicated both him and the truth from the Sadduces who traduced him for an Heretick; so the Dominicans who are sound in this point, that we are unsound by nature, defend both us and the truth against the Iesuiticall faction that maintain the contrary: on then with courage you learned Friers, and may the school of Dominick be too hard for the sheild of Loyola; whilst verity is on your side, let victory be at your backs, may you as far surpasse your enemies for piety and solid learning, as they go beyond you and all honesty, in policy and treacherous designes. And thus whilst they fight one against another, let us come to our selves, and apply what hath been delivered, first to those that are children to parents, then to those that are parents to children.
Ye children to parents have heard how wee are by nature the children of wrath even as others, which wrath-deserving condition is derived to you from Adam by your immediate parents, they alas could not convey life, but must pass death unto you also by the same grant, yet this ought not to lessen your love, abate your affection, diminish your duty unto them, Isay 45.10. woe unto him that sayes to his father, what hast thou begotten? or unto his mother, what hast thou brought forth? Rather imitate the example of David, though he complained that in sinne had his mother conceived him, yet he was a father to his father, and a mother to his mother in her old age, taking order with the king of Moab that they should be provided for, 1 Sam. 22.3. grant our parents should turn Ostriches unto us and forsake us when we are young, wee neverthelesse are to be Storks unto them, and feed them when they are old, having received from them under God the greatest benefit that can be, our being.
Ye parents to children have heard that this wrath-deserving condition is derived by you unto your posterity. How solemnly, seriously, and religiously then ought marriage to be undertaken and used? how too too blame are they who adde to this naturall corruption other stains before God and man? antedating their wives, whores, and heirs, bastards; a sinne in some places that is made so common, that tis made no sinne: have wee too little wickednesse of Peor, whereof wee are not cleansed unto this day, that before the old debt be satisfied ye runne on a new score, and adde bastardy and illegitimation to the naturall infection of your children?
2. Secondly, yee see how (though against your wills) yee have propagated this wrath-deserving condition unto your children; know then that you are bound both in honour and honesty, civility and Christianity to pluck them out (what lieth in your power) of this pit wherein they are plunged; and this ye may doe, first, by embracing the speediest opportunity to fasten the sacrament of baptisme upon them; by baptisme the condemning power of originall sinne is drowned, in the font the bane is removed, the blot doth remain, the guilt is remitted, the blemish is retained, the sting is gone, the stain doth stay, if not consented to it cannot damn us, though it may defile us. In baptisme, the finall-peaceable-commanding power is washed away, ever after it may be in us, not over us, it may rule as a tyrant, not a king, being ever resisted, often subdued, though never expelled. Some prisoners have eaten off their irons with Mercury water, but there is no way to fret of the fetters of originall corruption, (wherewith our feet are hurt in the stocks, the irons have entaed into our souls) but by the water in baptisme, and therefore take heed how yee needlessely deferr it: let marriage feasts be put of till the parties have got their wedding wardrobe, let churching be deferred to attend the perfect health of the woman, let funerall pomps be delayed, they may be put of without danger, which rather please the living, then profit the dead: these are moveable feasts whereof yee make your own Almanacks, and set them to fall higher or lower, sooner or later, at your own pleasure, but oh take heed how causelesly ye put of the baptizing of your children, stand not on the shadow till ye loose the substance, ne quod deferatur auferatur, lest what ye delay God deny, & whilst you deferre the christening of your child, God take away the child to be christened, and then, though I will not be the judge to condemn the child, were I one of the Jury I should scarce accquit the father.
Secondly, let them not want good prayers, which if steept in tears will grow the better, good precepts, good precedents, and shew thy child in thy self what he should follow, in others what he should shun and avoid, let them not want wholesome correction, if occasion require; blast not their souls with the honey-dew of cockering and indulgence; fetch those little malefactors from the hornes of the Altar, from the sanctuaries of their mouthes, sides, lipps and bosomes: what saith Solomon? folly is bound up in the heart of a child, and the rod of correction shall drive it out, not drive out the heart, but the folly; never was brave spirit spoiled with moderate correction. But the mischeif is, that as in the beginning of the year we make much of those weeds which bring the first newes of the approaching spring, nettles are used for pot-hearbs, and s…llets made of Eldern buds, so fond parents welcome and embrace in their children the first beginnings of sinne, yea please themselves to hear their infants dispraise God, swear, call names, talk wantonly, yea this is accounted wit in the little children; I am sure it is want of wit in the greater children, for so I may fitly call their foolish parents who take delight therein. I say no more, but as for those parents who will not use the rod upon their children, I pray God he useth not their children ▪ as a rod for them.
Now least those who at this present time are neither children to parents, nor parents to children, should complain with the Grecian widdows that they this day are neglected in the dispensation of my doctrine, hearken to a generall use which will take us all in, let us all take notice of a bad principle which lurks in our hearts, this naturall corruption which deserves the wrath of God; in the low Countries half their houses ly buried in the ground, the laying of the foundation is counted as much as the rest of the building▪ so half our badnesse lyes secret and unseen, consisting in originall corruption, whereof too few take notice, for though (as I have said before) baptisme taketh away the commanding and condemning power thereof, yet the blot still remaining (as by woefull experience we daily find) makes us backward to all goodnesse, and headlong forwards to all badnesse, this is that which S. Paul to the Romans (who though he might touch at an improper expression, sure would never land there and dwell so long therein) calls sinne fourteen times, and we shall find it fourteen thousand times to be so in our selves. Away then with the sick doctrine of the soundnesse of freewill, and merit of works; we have alwayes that in us which baneth the perfection of all our performances, namely the lawless law in our members which rebelleth against the law of our mind, and leadeth us captive to the law of sinne which is in our members: Thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt steal, thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour, & thou shalt bear false witnesse against thy neighbour; witches (they say) say the Lords prayer backward, but concupiscence (this witch) in our soul, sayes all the commandments backward, and makes us crosse in our practise what God commands in his precepts. Thus every day we sin, and sorrow after our sin, and sin after our sorrow, and do what we would not, and would what we do not, and the vvind of Gods spirit blovveth us one vvay, and the tide of our corruption hurryeth us another: these things he that seeth not in himself is sottish-blind; he that seeth and confesseth not, is damnably proud; he that confesseth and bewaileth not, is desperately profane; he that bewaileth and figheth not against it, is unprofitablely pensive; but he that in some weak manner doth all these, is a Saint in reversion here, and shall be one in possession hereafter.
FINIS.
THE SNARE BROKEN.
Genes. 49. vers. 6.
O my soul come not into their secrets.
By T. F. B. D.
LONDON Printed by R. Daniel, for J. S. 1656.