Clavis mystica a key opening divers difficult and mysterious texts of Holy Scripture; handled in seventy sermons, preached at solemn and most celebrious assemblies, upon speciall occasions, in England and France. By Daniel Featley, D.D.

THE GRAPES OF GOMORRAH. THE XLII. SERMON.

ROM. 6.21.

What fruit bad yee in those things, &c.

Right Honourable, &c.

SOlinusa 1.1 writeth of the Egyptian figge-tree, that it beareth fruit not only on the branches, but also on the main stock & trunck; so fruitfull is this parcell of Scrip∣ture, on which my meditations have pitched and rested themselves these three Lords dayes: it beareth fruit, and that in great variety, not only upon the branches, but upon the maine stocke▪ which yeeldeth us this fruit∣full observation, That the sense and taste of the bitter∣nesse of sinnes past, and remorse of conscience for them, are most forcible motives and meanes to restraine the desires, and weane the affections of Gods children from them. This fruit we gathered heretofore, and since plucked to us the first branch of the Text, which affordeth this most whol∣some observation. That sinne is altogether unfruitfull. As no meditation is more serious, than upon the vanity of the world; no contemplation more pleasant to a regenerate Christian, than of the unpleasantnesse of impure delights: so no observation is more fruitfull, than of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne. Who cannot copiously declaime against sinne, against which it is a sinne not to declaime? Who cannot easily recount all the evils which sinne hath brought into the world, which are summarily all that are in the world? insomuch that all sciences, arts, and professions have a blow at sinne. The Metaphysicke Philosopher demonstrateth, that sinne is non ens, naught: and therefore to be set at naught. The Naturalist sheweth that it destroyeth nature: and therefore ought to be exterminated out of nature.

The Moralists muster all the forces of vertue against it, as being the chie∣fest enemy of mans chiefe good, which they define to be actio virtutis in vitâ perfectâ, the continuall practice of vertue in a happy life. The Physi∣cians observe, that the greater part of the diseases of the body arise from sins, which are the diseases of the soule: Plures gulâ, quàm gladio, more come to their end by gluttony, drunkennesse, and incontinency, than by the halter or the sword. The Grammarians condemne sinne as incongru∣ous; the Logicians as illogicall, that is, unreasonable; and all other arts and sciences as irregular: but Divinity alone knocketh it downe and battereth it to pieces with the hammer of the Word. There is more weight of argument in this one Verse of the Apostle, than in all the Oratours declamations, and Poets satyres, and the Philosophers invectives against vice that ever were published to the world.

What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. As the same metall running upon divers moulds is cast into divers formes; so the words of this Text admit of divers divisi∣ons, according to severall moulds and frames of art. It shall suffice to give you your choice of three.

• 1. The Rhetoricall, which breaketh them into
  • 1. A poignant interrogation, What fruit had yee?
  • 2. A forcible reason, For the end of those things is death.
• 2. The Logicall, which observeth in them
  • 1. The persons, Yee.
  • 2. The object, Those things.
  • 3. The attributes: which are three,
    • 1. Losse, What fruit had yee?
    • 2. Confusion, Whereof yee are now ashamed.
    • 3. Perill, For the end of those things is death.
• 3. The Theologicall, which considereth sinne in a three-fold relation,
  • 1. To the time past; and so it is unfruitfull: What fruit.
  • 2. To the time present; and so it is shamefull: Whereof, &c.
  • 3. To the time to come; and so it is dreadfull or deadly: For the end of those things is death.

First of sinne, considered in a relation to the time past.

What fruit had yee? Xerxes (as Herodotus reporteth) bare a strange af∣fection to the Plane tree, which hee hung about with chaines, and deckt with jewells of greatest price. A fond and foolish affection, as being to a tree, and such a tree as is good for nothing but to shade us out of the Sunne. This folly of so great a Monarch very well resembleth the humour of all those, who are not guided by the Spirit of God into the wayes of truth and life, but are led by the spirit of errour, or the errour of their owne spi∣rit, to ungodly and sinfull courses, the very beaten paths to hell and death.

The tree they are in love with, adorne, and spend so much cost upon, is the forbidden tree of sinne, altogether as unfruitfull as that of Xerxes; it hath neither faire blossomes, nor sweet fruit on it, onely it is well growne, and hath large armes and broad boughes, and casteth a good shade, or to speake more properly, a shadow of good. For the shade it selfe of this tree is like the shade of the Cyprus tree, gravis umbra, a noysome or pestilent shade, making the ground barren, and killing the best plants of vertues, by depriving them of the Sun-shine of Gods grace. Yet, as divers Nations in the dayes ofb 1.2 Pliny paid tribute to the Romanes for the shade of these trees; so doe these men pay for the seeming pleasure and delight of sinne, being indeed but a shadow of vanity to the Divell, the greatest tribute that can be payd, the tribute of their soules. To reprove this folly to bee bewailed with bloudy teares, I have heretofore produced divers passages of holy Scripture: the point of doctrine I beat upon, and laboured especi∣ally to fasten in your hearts, was the unprofitablenesse and the unfruitfulnesse of sinne: which was proved

1. By the three names of sinne imposed by the Holy Ghost, folly, vani∣tie, and a lye. The reason whereof was, because all sinne maketh a shew of, and (as it were) promiseth to the sinner either pleasure, or profit, or ho∣nour, or some good; whereas indeed it bringeth not any thing to him but shame, nor him to any thing but death.

2. By divers lively comparisons and resemblances in holy Scripture of sinfull labours and travells, as the running in a ring or circle, whereby hee that moveth and tireth himselfe, getteth no ground; impii ambulant in cir∣cuitu: the weaving of the Spiders web, which maketh no garment: the sow∣ing of wind, whereof nothing can be reaped but the whirlewind, stormes, and tempests of conscience.

3. By the judgements of God falling upon them, who seem to drive the most gainfull trade with Sathan. For either they themselves are taken a∣way in the midst of their prosperity, and as soone as they have gotten the wealth of the world, are constrained to leave a world of wealth;c 1.3 Stulte, hac nocte eripient tibi animam tuam: or God bloweth upon their ill gotten goods, and they are suddenly consumed, or passe the same way that they came; as the fogges that are raised by the Sunne, when they come to their height, are dispelled by his beames: Or they prove like the horse of Seja∣nus, or the gold of Tolous, or the vessels and treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem, which became the bane and ruine of all that laid hands on them: Or if they long enjoy their wealth, yet they joy not in it at all. For how∣soever none lay claime to their unrighteous Mammon, yet they can never perswade themselves that it is their owne; and between care of keeping, and feare of losing, and expectation of punishment for ill getting them, by ty∣ranny, exaction, oppression, forged cavillation, fraud, simony, or sacri∣ledge, no place is left for any joy or comfort in possessing, or well using them.

4. By putting the seeming profits and advantages of sinne in one scale, and the losses and disadvantages by it in the other: which being done, the scale of dammages and losses will beare downe to the ground, nay to hell. In all bargaines we are to consider not so much what the commodity is we

trade or trafficke for, as what the price is: for though the merchandize we bargaine for be of great value, yet if we must over-buy it, giving for it an unreasonable rate, the bargaine cannot be good. By which rule, if we ex∣amine our trafficke, we shall find, that if wee hold on our trade with Sa∣than, our merchandize will no way countervaile our charge, our gaines in the beginning will be no way answerable to our losses in the end: for we shall lose the inheritance of a Kingdome in heaven, and our owne soules. Unfruitfulnesse, shamefulnesse, and deadlinesse are three proper adjuncts, and (as the Logicians usually speake) passions of sinne. For all sinne is mor∣tall, that is, deserving death; and nothing is mortall in that sense but sinne: all sinne is shamefull, and nothing shamefull but sinne: all sinne is unfruit∣full, and nothing absolutely is unfruitfull but sinne. The Serpents feed upon, and consume that poysonous matter, which otherwise would infect the earth, water, and ayre. Physicians make treakle and antidotes of poy∣son: the ashes of a Viper, the oyle of a Scorpion, the wings of the Cantha∣rides, are soveraigne remedies against the poyson of those Serpents: yea, the very doung of the earth serveth for very good use, and fatteneth the ground; onely sinne, as it is deprived of the good of being a nature, so it depriveth nature of all good. If any things come neere to sinne in this, they are the grapes of Gomorrah, and apples of Sodome, which have no taste at all in them, but as soone as they are touched fall to dust; and the dust is of that nature, that it serves not as doung to fatten the earth, but rather as un∣savoury salt, which maketh it barren. All the endeavours & operations of nature, when they are not set out of their course by sinne, forcibly tend to some good, and obtaine it also. For if they produce not, and leave behind them some worke, the worth whereof may recompence the labour about it; yet the very contention and exercise of the faculty breedeth a dexterity and facility of doing the like: it perfecteth the skill, strengtheneth the fa∣culty, accommodateth the organ, and thereby maketh the whole body more serviceable to the soule, and the soule better disposed to vertuous acts and habits. The Archer, who often misseth the marke set before his eyes, yet in some sort hitteth the marke he aimed at in his mind, which was the exercise of his arme, and learning to shoot. As the sons of the husbandman in the fable, who being told by their father lying on his death-bed, that he left much gold buried under the ground in his Vineyard, fell on delving and digging all about the Vines; and though they found no gold, yet by stirring the mold about the rootes of the trees, gained a great vintage that yeere: even so it falleth out in the labours and travells of our calling; though by them wee reape not alwayes that profit we expect, yet thereby wee may manure (if I may so speake) the ground of our hearts, and gaine great store of those fruits, which the branches that are graffed into the true Vine Christ Jesus, beare. But in sinfull labours and travells it fareth otherwise; they are not as moderate exercises which strengthen, but as violent fits which weaken nature. Sinne in the understanding darkeneth the thoughts, in the will depraveth the desires, in the sensitive appetite disordereth the affections, in the outward sense corrupteth the organs, and in the whole bo∣dy breedeth loathsome and painfull diseases. Sinne is not only unfruitfull, (to speake in the language of the Schooles) formaliter, but also effectivè;

not only unfruitfull in it selfe, as thed 1.4 figge-tree in the Gospel cursed by our Saviour, but also in its effects, as that other tree which was to be plucked up, ne terram redderet infructuo sam, that it might not make the grounde 1.5 bar∣ren. For sinne maketh the spirit barren of the fruit of good motions, the understanding barren of the fruit of good meditations, the will barren of the fruit of good resolutions, the sensitive appetite barren of the fruit of good affections, the whole man barren of the fruit of good works: nay, the earth and trees also barren of their fruit and increase. For the sinne of man God cursed the earth, and itf 1.6 brought forth thornes and thistles; and the hea∣ven and skie also, and it became asg 1.7 iron over mens heads: the experience whereof brought the Heathen to acknowledge this truth,

h 1.8Sperare poteras sceleribus tantis Dare regnum salubre, Fecimus coelum nocens.

Our sinnes have tainted the influence of the starres, dryed up the clouds, in∣fected the ayre, blasted the fruits of the earth. And Claudian in his investive against Eutropius,

—Quae connubia prolem Aut frugem laturus ager? quid fertile terris, Aut plenum stirili possit sub consule nasci?

Is it possible any thing should thrive or flourish under the shade of such a Consul? Sainti 1.9 Cyprian also attributeth the great dearth in his time to the want of charity; and the sterility of fruits in the earth, to the sterility of fruits of righteousnesse: Thou complainest that the springs are not so full, the ayre so healthy, the showers so frequent, the earth so fruitfull, as in former time: thou thinkest much that the elements are not so obsequious to thee as they have been, that they serve not thy profit and pleasure: Why? art thou so obsequi∣ous to God? Doest thou serve him, by whose appointment all these things serve thee? As it was the manner of the Persians, when a noble person commit∣ted a fault, to beat his clothes in stead of him; so it pleaseth our most in∣dulgent Father, when the noblest of his creatures, men his children offend, often for them to punish the beasts of the field, and fruits of the earth, which feed and clothe them. As he threatneth,k 1.10 Thou shalt carry out much seed into the field, and shalt gather but little: for the Locusts shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dresse them, but shalt neither drinke of the wine, nor gather the grapes: for the worme shall eate them. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle: for thine olive shall cast his fruit. Hereunto if we adde the in∣finite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies, we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion, Non est pax impio, there is nol 1.11 peace to the wicked, saith my God: there is no fruit of sinne; for it is the vine ofm 1.12 Sodome, and of the fields of Gomorrah: the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poyson of Dragons, and the cruell venome of Aspes.

Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the

world? reckon then all that are, or ever were in the world. For they are all concomitants, effects, or punishments of sinne. Sinne cast the An∣gels from Heaven into Hell, thrust man out of Paradise, drowned the old world, burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, rui∣nated the greatest Monarchies, destroyed the ancientest Cities, and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches; and shall wee looke for bet∣ter fruit of it?

But this interrogatory of the Apostle, What fruit had yee? seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne, which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe, whereof many have been already recounted, yet the greater part is be∣hind, among whom this is not the least, that it blindeth the eyes of the mind, and infatuateth the sinner. Whereupon Saint Austines observa∣tion is, If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes, every body would say, that it was the judgement of God upon him. Ocu∣lum cordis amisit, & ei pepercisse putatur Deus: behold God hath taken a∣way the sight of his soules eyes, and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him, or letteth him goen 1.13 unpunished? What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie, which is forfeited by sinne? Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body, and our body and soule to the Divell. If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity, what may wee judge of the captivi∣tie of the soule? If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men, how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts? To speake nothing of peace of conscience, which crying sinnes disturbe; and divine motions, which worldly cares choake; and heavenly comforts, which earthly pleasures deprive us of; and sanctifying graces, which impure thoughts and sin∣full desires diminish: to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses; by that which hath been already delivered, all that are not besotted by sin, and blind-folded by Sathan, may see great reason for this question of the Apostle, What fruit had yee? A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners, who have them in deri∣sion that make conscience of unlawfull gaine, shall propound unto them∣selves one day, and checke their owne folly therewith, as we reade in the booke ofo 1.14 Wisedome: What hath pride availed us? or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us? Then shall they change their mindes, when they cannot their estates, and sigh for griefe of heart, and say within themselves, looking up to Heaven, and seeing the felicity of the righte∣ous crowned with eternall glory:* 1.15 This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision, and in a parable of reproach. Wee fooles thought his life madnesse, and his end without honour. But now how is hee accounted among the chil∣dren of God? and what a portion hath hee among the Saints? Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth: and the light of righteousnesse hath not shi∣ned upon us. We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse, and have gone through many dangerous pathes: and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne.

Howbeit, two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne; the covetous and the ambitious: the former is in∣debted to his extortion, oppression, and usury for his wealth; the other

to his glozing, dissembling, undermining, perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour, and advancement in the Court of Princes. The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore, by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes, putteth it into a broken bagge, and that his mony shall perish with him, unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance, and make friends of unrighteous Mammon. I come to the Politicians, who cor∣rect, or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul, Godlinesse is great gaine, thus; a shew of godlinesse is great gaine: of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke apho∣risme? If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth, they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts, and make Religion a masque, and God himselfe an Image, the sacred Story a fa∣ble, Hell a bug-beare, and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies. If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them, shall not God much more hate the hypocrite, who doubleth with his Maker, maketh shew of honouring and serving him, when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all: Simulata sancti∣tas est duplex iniquitas, counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity, and accordingly it shall receive double punishment. When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours, that they shall have theirp 1.16 portion with hypocrites, hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite. Theq 1.17 foole hath said in his heart there is no God, and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole, in that hee said it in his heart, supposing that none should heare it there: whereas God heareth the word in the heart, before it bee uttered in the tongue; and what though other know it not, sith hee whom hee wrongeth, who is best able to revenge it, know∣eth it?

But to wound the Politician with his owne sword: If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable, but necessary in po∣liticke respects, shall not Religion it selfe be much more? Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image, as in the body it selfe? If the grapes painted by Zeuxis, allured the Birds to pecke at them, would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them, had they been true grapes? All the wit of these sublimated spirits, where∣with they entangle the honest simplicity of others, cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes: If it bee a bad thing to bee good, why doe they seem so? If it be a bad thing to seem bad, why are they bad? For if it bee a good thing to seeme good, it cannot but bee much better to bee so: If it bee a bad thing to seeme bad, it cannot but bee worse to bee so. Videre ergo quod es, vel esto quod videris, seem therefore what thou art, or bee what thou seemest: especially consi∣dering, that asr 1.18 Astyages in Xenophon wisely adviseth, the best meanes to seeme learned, is to bee learned; to seeme wise, is to bee wise; to seeme religious, is to bee religious. Hee that is not so, cannot long seeme so; and hee that is so, cannot but seem so. Fraud and guile

cannot goe long but it will bee espied. No Stage-player can so act anothers part, but that hee may bee discerned to bee a player: dis∣sembling will not alwayes bee dissembled; and when it is once de∣tected, it disableth the dissembler from ever after using his cousening trade.

2. It is not to be omitted, that fraud, guile, and deceit beare no fruits of themselves, but gather them from the honesty and simplicity of o∣thers, whom they circumvent. If all were such as themselves, lying upon the catch, they would make little advantage of their cheating trade; neither could there be any true friendship or society among men: and is that the best policy that overthroweth all policy and ci∣vill conversation?

3. Lastly, faithfulnesse and honesty are like naturall beauty and strength of body, which preserve themselves; but all fraudulent and deceitfull dealing, and cunning fetches, like complexion, where nature is much decayed, must bee daily laid on: or like physicke potions con∣tinually taken, and yet will not long helpe. All devices, plots, and fa∣brickes in the minde for advancing our estate, which are not built upon the foundation of faithfulnesse and integrity, continually need repairing, and upon a strong assault are easily cast downe, and fall upon the builders themselves. It will not bee amisse to consider the ends of some of these men. Of two that were most famous in this politicke craft, Achitophel and Hannibal, the one hanged, the other poysoned himselfe. Theramenes, who in the civill dissensions at Athens dealt under hand on all sides, in the end was discovered, and all parts joyn∣ing against him, made a spectacle of misery and scorne. A singular Ar∣tificer in this kinde, who put trickes upon all men, was sent for by Lewis the French King, saying, that hee had need of such an head, and when hee came to him, upon detection of divers of his cunning prankes, he was condemned by him to be beheaded. I should much wrong Alexander the sixth, and Borgias his sonne, not to put them in this Catalogue: for it was the common voice of all men (ass 1.19 Bodine wri∣teth) that the father never spake what hee meant, the sonne never did what hee spake: both held it for a Maxime, Fidem omnibus dandam, servandam nemini. According to which rule, when Borgias the sonne by fairest promises and deepest protestations of amity, and burying all former injuries, had drawne in the Captaines of the opposite facti∣on, as soone as hee had them in his power, contrary to all promi∣ses and oathes, put them all to death: whereof the Pope his father having notice, could not conceale his joy, but brake out into that execrable exclamation, O factum bene, Well done, thou art a sonne after mine owne heart. But hee escaped not the heavie judgement of God: for shortly after having caused a poysonous cup to bee tempe∣red for some of the Cardinalls, whose deaths he had vowed, through a mistake hee dranke off the same cup himselfe, and so ended his wret∣ched life.

I seale up this whole discourse with the words of the blessed Apo∣stle; sith all dishonest, false, and unjust courses of thriving are not

onely disgracefull and shamefull, but also (all things considered) dis∣advantageous: Finally,t 1.20 brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any vertue, if there be any praise, thinke on these things, and the God of peace shall be with you. To whom, &c.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Cap. 35. Praecipua ficus Aegyptia po∣ma non ramis tantum gesti∣tans, sed & caudice septies anno fert fru∣ctum, &c.
• b 1.2

  Nat. hist. l. 12. Tributum & pro umbrâ pendunt.
• c 1.3

  Luk. 12.20. O foole, this night they shall take away thy soule.
• d 1.4

  Mat. 21.19.
• e 1.5

  Luke 13.7.
• f 1.6

  Gen. 3.18.
• g 1.7

  Deut. 28.23.
• h 1.8

  Senec. in Oe∣dip.
• i 1.9

  Advers. De∣met. Quereris quod minus nunc tibi ube∣res, fontes, & aurae salubres, & frequens pluvia, & ferti∣lis terra obse∣quium, praebe∣ant, quod non ita utilitatibus & voluptatibus tuis elementa deserviant: Tu enim Deo ser∣vis, per quem tibi cuncta de∣serviunt? Tu famularis illi, cujus nutu tibi unviersa famu∣lantur?
• k 1.10

  Deut. 28.38, 39, 40.
• l 1.11

  Esay 48.22. & 57.21.
• m 1.12

  Deut. 32.32, 33.
• n 1.13

  Cic. de A∣rusp. respons. Oculorum cae∣citas ad men∣tem translata est.
• o 1.14

  Wisd. 5.8.
• * 1.15

  Ibid. Ver. 4, 5, 6, 7.
• p 1.16

  Mat. 24.51.
• q 1.17

  Psal. 14.1.
• r 1.18

  Cyr. poed. l. 2.
• s 1.19

  Bodin. de rep. sup. cit.
• t 1.20

  Phil. 4.8.