XXVI sermons. The third volume preached by that learned and reverend divine John Donne ...

A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL, April 21. 1616. SERMON VI. (Book 6)

ECCLES. 8.11.

Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, Therefore the heart of the children of men, is fully set in them, to do evil.

WE cannot take into our Meditation, a better Rule, then that of the Stoick, Nihil infaelicius faelicitate peccantium;* 1.1 There is no such unhappiness to a sinner, as to be hap∣py; no such cross, as to have no crosses: nor can we take a better Example of that Rule, then Constantius the Arrian Emperour, in whose time first of all, the Crosse of Christ suffer'd that profa∣nation, as to be an Ensign of War, between Christian and Christian: When Magnentius by being an usurping Tyrant, and Constantius by being an Arrian Heretick, had forfeited their in∣terest in the Cross of Christ, which is the Ensign of the uni∣versal Peace of this world, and the means of the eternal Peace of the next; both brought the Cross to cross the Cross, to be an Ensign of War, and of Hostility; both made that Cross, when the Father accepted for all mankinde, the blood of Christ Je∣sus, to be an instrument for the sinful effusion of the blood of Christians. But when this Heretical Emperour had a Victory over this usurping Tyrant, this unhappy happiness transported him to a greater sin, a greater insolence, to approach so near to God himself, as to call himself Eternum principem, The eternal Emperour; and to take into his stile, and Rescripts, this additi∣on, Eternitatem nostram, Thus and thus, it hath pleased our E∣ternity

to proceed: Yea, and to bring his Arrian followers, who would never acknowledge an eternity in Christ, nor confess him to be the eternal Son of God, to salute himself by that name, Eternum Caesarem, The eternal Emperour: so venimous, so deadly is the prosperity of the wicked to their own souls, that even from the mercy of God, they take occasion of sinning; not onely Thereby, but even Therefore; They do not only make that their excuse, when they do sin, but their Reason why they may sin; as we see in these words, Because sentence against an evil work, is not excuted speedily, &c.

* 1.2In which words, we shall consider, first, The general pervers∣ness of a natural man, who by custom in sin, comes to assign a Reason why he may sin; intimated in the first word, Because. And secondly, The particular perversness of the men in this Text, who assign the patience of God, to be the Reason of their continuance in sin, Because sentence is not executed speedily. And then lastly, The illusion upon this, what a fearful state this shuts them up in, That therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And these three, The perversness of colouring sins with Reasons, and the impotency of making Gods mercy the Reason, and the danger of obduration thereby, will be the three parts, in which we shall determine this Exercise.

* 1.3First then, in handling the perversness of assigning Reasons for sins, we forbid no man the use of Reason in matters of Reli∣gion. As S. August. says, Contra Scriptura, nemo Christianus, No man can pretend to be a Christian, if he refuse to be tryed by the Scriptures: And, as he adds, Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus, No man can pretend to love order and Peace, if he refuse to be tryed by the Church: so he adds also, Contra Rationem nemo sobrius, No man can pretend to be in his wits, if he refuse to be tryed by Reason. He that believes any thing because the Church presents it, he hath Reason to assure him, that this Authority of the Church is founded in the Scriptures: He that believeth the Scrip∣tures, hath Reasons that govern and assure him that those Scrip∣tures are the Word of God. Mysteries of Religion are not the less believ'd and embrac'd by Faith, because they are presented, and induc'd, and apprehended by Reason.

But this must not enthrone, this must not exalt any mans Rea∣son so far, as that there should lie an Appeal, from Gods Judge∣ments to any mans reason: that if he see no reason, why God should proceed so, and so, he will not believe that to be Gods Judge∣ment, or not believe that Judgement of God, to be just: For, of the secret purposes of God,* 1.4 we have an Example what to say, given us by Christ himself, Ita est, quia complacuit; It is so, O Fa∣ther, because thy good pleasure was such: All was in his own breast and bosome, in his own good will and pleasure, before he De∣creed

it; And as his Decree it self, so the wayes and Executions of his Decrees, are often unsearchable, for the purpose, and for the reason thereof, though for the matter of fact, they may be manifest. They that think themselves sharp-sighted and wise enough, to search into those unreveal'd Decrees; they who be∣ing but worms, will look into Heaven; and being the last of Creatures, who were made, will needs enquire, what was done by God, before God did any thing, for creating the World, In ultimam dementiam reverant, says S. Chrysost. They are fallen into a mischievous madness, Et ferrum ignitum, quod forcipe deberent, digitus accipiunt: They will needs take up red hot Irons, with their bare fingers, without tongs. That which is in the Center, which should rest, and lie still, in this peace, That it is so, because it is the will of God, that it should be so; they think to toss and tumble that up, to the Circumference, to the Light and Evidence of their Reason, by their wrangling Disputa∣tions.

If then it be a presumpteous thing, and a contempt against God, to submit his Decrees to the Examination of humane rea∣son, it must be a high treason against the Majesty of God, to find out a reason in him, which should justifie our sins; To conclude out of any thing which he does, or leaves undone, that either he doth not hate, or cannot punish sinners: For this destroys even the Nature of God, and that which the Apostle lays, for the foundation of all, To believe that God is,* 1.5 and that he is a just Re∣warder. Adam's quia Mulier, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me the Apple: And Eve's quia Serpens, Because the Serpent deceiv'd me; and all such, are poor and unallowable pleas, which God would not admit: For there is no Quia, no Reason, why any man, at any time, should do any sin. God never permits any per∣plexity to fall upon us, so, as that we cannot avoyd one sin, but by doing another: or that we should think our self excusable by saying, Quia inde minus malum, There is less harm in a Concu∣bine, then in another wife; Or, Quia inde aliquod bonum, That my incontinence hath produc'd a profitable man to the State or to the Church, though a bastard; much less to say, Quia ob∣dormivit Deus, Tush, God sees it not, or cares not for it, though he see it.

If thou ask then, why thou should'st be bound to believe the Creation, we say, Quia unus Deus, Because there can be but one God; and if the World be eternal, and so no Creature, the World is God. If thou ask why thou should'st be bound to be∣lieve Providence, we say, Quia Deus remunerator, Because God is to give every man according to his merits. If thou ask why thou should'st be bound to believe that, when thou seest he doth not give every man according to his merits, we say, Quia inscrutabilia

judicia ejus; O how unsearchable are his Jugdements, and his ways past finding out! For, thou art yet got no farther, in measuring God, but by thine own measure; and thou hast found no other reason to lead thee, to think, that God doth not govern well, but be∣cause he doth not govern so, to thine understanding, as thou shouldst, if thou wert God. So that thou dost not onely make thy weakness, but thy wickedness, that is, thy hasty disposition, to come to a present Revenge, when any thing offends thee, the Measure, and the Model, by which the frame of Gods Govern∣ment should be erected; and so thou comest to the worst di∣stemper of all, insanire cum ratione, to go out of thy wits, by ha∣ving too much, and to be mad with too much knowledge; not to sin out of infirmity, or tentation, or heat of blood, but to sin in cold blood, and upon just reason, and mature considerations, and so deliberately and advisedly to continue to sin.

* 1.6Now the particular reason, which the perversness of these men produceth here, in this Text, is, Because God is patient and long-suffering. So he is; so he will be still: Their perversness shall not pervert his Nature, his goodness. As God bade the Prophet Osea do,* 1.7 he hath done himself: Go, says he, and take to thee, a wife of fornication, and children of fornication; so hath he taken us, guilty of spiritual fornication. But as in the fleshly fornications of an adulterous wife, the husband is, for the most part, the last that hears of them: so, for our spiritual fornications, such is the loathness, the patience, the longanimity of our good and gracious God, that though he do know our sins, as soon as they speak, as soon as they are acted, (for that's peccatum cum voco, says S. Gregory, A speaking sin, when any sinful thought is produc'd into act) yea, before they speak, as soon as they are conceiv'd; yet he will not hear of our sins, he takes no knowledge of them, by punishing them, till our brethren have been scanda∣liz'd, and led into tentation by them; till his law have been eva∣cuated, that that use of the law, which is, to shew sin to our con∣sciences, be annihilated in us; till such a Cry come up to him by our often and professed sinning, that it concerns him in his Honour, (which he will give to none) and in his Care of his Churches, which he hath promis'd to be, till the end of all, to take knowledge of them. Yea, though this Cry be come up to his Ears, though it be a lowd Cry, either by the nature of the sin, (as heavie things make a great noise in the moving) or by rea∣son of the number of the sins, and the often doing thereof, (for, as many children, will make as great a noise as a loud Cryer; so will the custome of small sins Cry as loud, as those which are called peccata clamantia, Crying sins) Though this cry be encrea∣sed by this liberty, and professed sinning, that, as the Prophet sayes,* 1.8 They declare their sins, and hide them not, as Sodom did; Though

the cry of the sin be increased by the cry of them, that suffer op∣pression by that sin, as well as by the sin it self, as the voice of A∣bel's bloud cryed from earth to heaven; yea,* 1.9 though this cry ring about Gods ears, in his own bed-chamber, under the Altar it self, in that Usquequo Domine? when the Martyrs cry out with a loud voice, How long, Lord, holy and true,* 1.10 dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud! yet God would fain forbear his Revenge, he would fain have those Martyrs rest for a little space, till their fellow servants and their brethren were fulfilled. God would try, what Cain would say to that Interrogatory, Where is thy brother Abel? And though the cry of Sodom were great, and their sin exceeding grievous, yet, says God, I will go down, and see, whether they have done altogether according unto that cry; and if not, I may know: God would have been glad to have found Errour in their Inditement; and when he could not, yet if Fifty, Fourty five, Thirty, Twenty, Ten, had been found righteous, he had pardoned all: Adeo malum,* 1.11 quasi cum difficultate credidit, cum audivit; so loth is God to believe ill of man, when he doth hear it.

This then is his patience:* 1.12 But why is his patience made a rea∣son of their continuance in sins? Is it because there is no sentence denounced against sin? These busie and subtile Extractors of Reasons, that can distil, and draw Poyson out of Manna, Occasi∣ons of sin, out of Gods Patience, will not say so, That there is no sentence denounced. The word that is here used, Pithgam, is not truly an Hebrew word: And though in the Book of Job, and in some other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, we finde sometimes some forreign and out-landish word, deriv'd from other Nations; yet, in Solomons writing very rarely; neither doth Solomon him∣self, nor any other Author, of any part of the Hebrew Bible, use this word, in any other place, then this one. The word is a Chaldee word; and hath amongst them, the same signification and largeness, as Dabar in Hebrew; and that includes all A verbo ad legem; from a word suddenly and slightly spoken, to words digest∣ed and consolidated into a Law. So that, though the Septuagint translate this place, Quia non est facta contradictio; as though the reason of this sinners obduration might have been, That God had not forbidden sin; and though the Chaldee Paraphrast express this place thus, Quia non est factum verbum ultionis; As though this sinner made himself believe, that God had never spoken word of revenge against sinners: yet, this sinner makes not that his reason, That there is no Law, no Judgement, no Sentence given: for, eve∣ry Book of the Bible, every Chapter, every Verse almost, is a par∣ticular Deuteronomy, a particular renewing of the Law from Gods mouth, Morte Morieris, Thou shalt die the death; and of that Sen∣tence from Moses mouth, Pereundo peribitis, You shall surely perish; and of that Judgement from the Prophets mouth, Non est Pax im∣piis,

There is no peace to the wicked. And if this obdurate sinner could be such a Goth and Vandal, as to destroy all Records, all writ∣ten Laws; if he could evacuate and exterminate the whole Bible, yet he would finde this Law in his own heart, this Sentence pro∣nounced by his own Conscience, Stipendium peccati Mors est, Trea∣son is Death, and sin is Treason.

His reason is not, That there is no Law; he sees it: nor that he knows no Law; his heart tells it him: nor that he hath kept that Law; his Conscience gives judgement against him: nor that he hath a Pardon for breaking that Law; for he never ask'd it: and, besides, those Pardons have in them that clause, Ita quod se bene gerat; Every Pardon bindes a man to the good behaviour; and by Relapses into sin, we forfeit our Pardons for former sins. All their Reason, all their Comfort, is onely a Reprieve, and a Respite of Execution:* 1.13 Distulit Securim, attulit Securitatem: God hath taken the Ax from their necks, and they have taken Security into their hearts; Sentence is not executed.

* 1.14Execution is the life of the Law; but then, it is the death of the Man: And therefore whosoever makes quarrels against God, or arguments of Obduration, out of this respite of Execution, would he be better pleased with God, if God came to a speedy Execution? But let that be true, Where there is no Execution, there is no reverence to the Law; there is truly, and in effect, no Law: The Law is no more a Law without Execution, then a Carcase is a Man. And so much, certainly, the word, which is here rendred sententia facta, doth properly signifie; A Judgement perfected, executed.* 1.15 When Esau was born hairy, and so in the likeness of a grown and perfect man, he was call'd by the word of this text, Gnesau, Esau, factus, perfectus. And so, when God had perfected all his works,* 1.16 that is, said then, that he saw, that all was good that he had made; where there is the same word, That he had perfected. So that, if the judgements of God had been still without execution; if all those Curses,* 1.17 Cursed shalt thou be in the town, and cursed in the field; cursed in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy land, and in the fruit of thy cattel; cursed when thou comest in, and when thou goest out. The Lord shall send thee cursings, and trouble, and shame, in all thou setst thy hand to. The Lord shall make a pestilence cleave to thee, and a consumption, and a fever. The Lord shall make the heavens above, as brass, and the earth under thee, as iron; with all those Curses and Maledictions, which he flings, and slings, and stings the soul of the sinner, so vehemently, so pathetically, in that catalogue of Com∣minations, and Interminations, in that place; if all these were never brought into execution, we should say, at best, of those Laws, and judgements of God, as the Romane Lawyer did of that severe Law of the Twelve Tables, by which Law, he that was indebted to many men, and not able to pay, was to be cut in pie∣ces,

and divided proportionably amongst his Creditors, Eo consi¦lio tanta immanitas poenae denuatiata est, ne ad eam unquam pervenire∣tur: Therefore so grievous a punishment was inflicted, that that Law might never come to execution: for, from the enacting of that Law, to the last times, in that government, there was never any example, of one execution of that Law: so we should say, That God laid those severe penalties upon sins, onely to deter men from doing them, and not with any purpose to inflict those penal∣ties. In Laws, to the making whereof, there concurs, besides the authority of the Prince, the counsel and the consent of the Sub∣ject, there are sometimes Laws made, without any purpose of ordinary execution; of which, the Civil Wisdom, and the Reli∣gious Conscience, and the godly Moderation of the Prince, is made a Depository, and a Feoffee in trust; and those Laws are onely put into his hands, as a Bridle, the better to rule and govern that great Charge committed to him, in emergent necessities, though not in an ordinary execution of those penal Laws. But who was a counsellor to God, or who inserted any Provisoes or Nonobstante's into his Laws? or who conditioned them, with any such reservations, that they should have no ordinary executi∣on? And therefore an ordinary execution they have always had.

The reason why they are sometimes, and why they are not al∣ways executed, St. Chrysostome hath assign'd; Si nullus puniretur, nemo existimaret Deum pre-esse rebus humanis; si omnes, nemo expecta∣ret futuram resurrectionem: If God should punish no sins here, no man would believe a God; and if God should presently punish all here, no man would be afraid of a future judgement. There the obdurate man may finde a reason of the manner of Gods pro∣ceeding, in the execution of his judgements: And if he dare stand the arguing of this case, out of Precedent, out of Record, out of the history of God, in his Word, he must hear heavie judgments denounced, and executed, in cases, where he would hardly dis∣cern any sin to have been committed, at least, no sin proportiona∣ble to that punishment.* 1.18 If he were in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, of having reserv'd a little of their own, whatsoever should befal, he would never see Counsel, nor petition the judge, never apprehend danger in this case; and yet, God declared by the mouth of Peter, that Satan had filled their hearts, and that they had lyed to the holy Ghost; and a heavie judgement of present death, was executed upon them both. If he had been of the Jury, for that man of God, who,* 1.19 though God had forbidden him to eat and drink in that place, yet, when an old Prophet came to him, and told him, that God had spoken to him by an Angel, that he should go with him, and eat, did go, and eat with him, he would have acquitted him of any offence herein; and yet Gods judgment o∣vertook

him, and he was slain by a lion. But if he will hear the case of Saul,* 1.20 who did but reserve some of the spoil, and that pur∣chased with the bloud of the people, and that pretended to be re∣served for Gods service, for sacrifice; and yet Saul heard that judgement, Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and transgression is idolatry: because thou hast cast away the word of the Lord, therefore he hath cast thee away from being king.* 1.21 If he will hear Achan's case, who had taken an excommunicate thing to his own use, and the hea∣vie judgement thereupon, Inasmuch as thou hast troubled us, the Lord shall trouble thee this day: and so, all Israel stoned him. If he will hear Helie's case,* 1.22 against whom, onely for indulgence to his sons, God prepar'd, and studied, and meditated judgements, and threat∣ned beforehand, when he said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, whereof whosoever shall hear, his two ears shall tingle: and so, soon after, upon the heavie news, that Israel was discomfited, that the Ark was taken,* 1.23 that his two sons were slain, Heli fell from his seat, and broke his neck, and died. If he remember Oziah's case, who for putting his hand to the Ark, when it was ready to fall, felt the wrath of God, and died in the place. If he study all this Title, of Gods heavie judgements upon sins, not great in the out∣ward appearance; and then come to them by the consideration of the nature of the first sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and findes there, such a lightness in that sin of eating forbidden fruit, that he durst do it, if it were to do again; as though it were no more to disobey God, when he forbade the eating of fruit, then to disobey his Physician in that point; and yet shall see the heavie judgement of God upon all posterity for that sin, (which he esteems so small a one) to extend so far, as that all his particu∣lar sins, even this very sin of undervaluing Adam's sin, and his ve∣ry sin of obduration, is but a punishment of Adam's sin. If he shall climb by this ladder, to the highest step of all, from Adam in paradise, to the Angels in heaven, and see, that in those Angels, a sin onely of Omission, of a not turning toward God, (for there was no creature then to turn upon) in so pure Natures, and done but once, was so heavily punished, as that the bloud of Christ Jesus hath not washed it away; certainly the hardness, the flinti∣ness of this obdurate sinner, must necessarily be so much mollifi∣ed, so much entendred, as to confess, that he can make no good ar∣gument out of that, That the judgements of God are not executed.

* 1.24But yet, howsoever that be, they are not executed speedily. How desperate a state art thou in, if nothing will convert thee, but a speedie execution, after which, there is no possibility, no room left for a Conversion? God is the Lord of hosts, and he can proceed by Martial Law: he can hang thee upon the next tree; he can choak thee with a crum, with a drop, at a voluptuous feast; he can sink down the Stage and the Player; The bed of wanton∣ness,

and the wanton actor, into the jaws of the earth, into the mouth of hell: he can surprise thee, even in the act of sin; and dost thou long for such a speedy execution, for such an expedition? Thou canst not lack Examples, that he hath done so upon others, and will no proof serve thee, but a speedy judgement upon thy self? Scatter thy thoughts no farther then; contract them in thy self, and consider Gods speedy execution upon thy soul, and upon thy body, and upon thy soul and body together. Was not Gods judgement executed speedily enough upon thy soul, when in the same instant that it was created, and conceiv'd, and infus'd, it was put to a necessity of contracting Original sin, and so sub∣mitted to the penalty of Adam's disobedience, the first minute? Was not Gods judgement speedily enough executed upon thy bo∣dy, if before it had any temporal life, it had a spiritual death; a sinful conception, before any inanimation? If hereditary dis∣eases from thy parents, Gouts and Epilepsies, were in thee, before the diseases of thine own purchase, the effects of thy licentious∣ness and thy riot; and that from the first minute that thou beganst to live, thou beganst to die too? Are not the judgements of God speedily enough executed upon thy soul and body together, every day, when as soon as thou commitst a sin, thou art presently left to thine Impenitence, to thine Insensibleness, and Obduration? Nay, the judgement is more speedy then so: for, that very sin it self, was a punishment of thy former sins.

But though God may begin speedily, yet he intermits again, he slacks his pace; and therefore the execution is not speedy. As it is said of Pharaoh often, Because the plagues ceased, (though they had been laid upon him) Ingratum est cor Pharaonis, Pharaoh's heart was hardned. But first we see, by that punishment which is laid upon Heli, That with God it is all one, to begin, and to consum∣mate his judgement: (When I begin, I will make an end.* 1.25) And when Herod took a delight in that flattery and acclamation of the people, It is the voice of God, and not of man;* 1.26 the angel of the Lord smote him immediately, & the worms took possession of him, though (if we take Josephus relation for truth) he died not in five days af∣ter. Howsoever, if we consider the judgements of God in his pur∣pose, and decree, there they are eternal: And for the execution thereof, though the wicked sinner dissemble his sense of his tor∣ments, and, as Tertullian says of a persecutor, Herminianus, who being tormented at his death, in his violent sickness, cryed out, Nemo sciat, ne gaudeant Christiani; Let no man know of my mise∣ry, lest the Christians rejoyce thereat: so these sinners suppress these judgements of God, from our knowledge, because they would not have that God, that inflicts them, glorified therein, by us: Yet they know, their damnation hath never slept, nor let them sleep quietly: and, in Gods purpose, the judgement hath

been eternal, and they have been damned as long as the devil; and that's an execution speedy enough. But because this appears not so evidently, but that they may disguise it to the world, and (with much ado) to their own Consciences; Therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And so we pass to our third Part.

* 1.27This is that perversness, which the Heathen Philosopher E∣pictetus, apprehends, and reprehends; That whereas every thing is presented to us, Cum duabus sausis, with two handles, we take it still, by the wrong handle. This is tortuositas serpentis, The wry∣ness, the knottiness, the entangling of the Serpent. This is that which the Apostle takes such direct knowledge of,* 1.28 Despisest thou the riches of Gods bountifulness, and long-suffering, not knowing that it leads thee to repentance? St. Chrysostome's comparison of such a sinner to a Vulture, that delights onely in dead carcases, that is, in company dead in their sins, holds best, as himself notes, in this particular, that the Vulture perhorrescit fragrantiam unguenti, He loaths, and is ill affected with any sweet savour: for so doth this sinner finde death, in that soveraign Balm of the patience of God, and he dies of Gods mercy: Et quid infelicius illis, qui bono odore moriuntur? says S. Augustine: In what worse state can any man be, then to take harm of a good air? But, as the same Father addes, Numquid quia mori voluisti, malum fecisti odorem? This in∣disposition in that particular man, does not make this air, an ill air; and yet this abuse of the patience of God, comes to be an infectious poyson, and such a poyson, as strikes the heart; and so general, as to strike the heart of the children of men; and so strong∣ly, as that their hearts should be fully set in them, to do evil.

First then, what is this setting of the heart upon evil; and then, what is this fulness, that leaves no room for a Cure? When a man receives figures and images of sin, into his Fancie and Ima∣gination, and leads them on to his Understanding and Discourse, to his Will, to his Consent, to his Heart, by a delightful dwelling upon the meditation of that sin; yet this is not a setting of the heart upon doing evil. To be surpris'd by a Tentation, to be over∣thrown by it, to be held down by it for a time, is not it. It is not when the devil looks in at the window to the heart, by presenting occasions of tentations, to the eye; nor when he comes in at the door, to our heart, at the ear, either in lascivious discourses, or Sa∣tyrical and Libellous defamations of other men: It is not, when the devil is put to his Circuit, to seek whom he may devour, and how he may corrupt the King by his Council, that is, The Soul by the Senses: But it is, when by a habitual custom in sin, the sin ari∣ses meerly and immediately from my self: It is, when the heart hath usurp'd upon the devil, and upon the world too, and is able and apt to sin of it self, if there were no devil, and if there were

no outward objects of tentation: when our own heart is become spontanea insania, & voluntarius daemon, Such a wilful Madness,* 1.29 and such a voluntary and natural Devil to it self, as that we should be ambitious, though we were in an Hospital; and licen∣tious, though we were in a wilderness; and voluptuous, though in a famine: so that such a mans heart, is as a land of such Gy∣ants, where the Children are born as great, as the Men of other nations grow to be; for those sins, which in other men have their birth, and their growth, after their birth, they begin at a Concu∣piscence, and proceed to a Consent, and grow up to Actions, and swell up to Habits; In this man, sin begins at a stature and pro∣portion above all this; he begins at a delight in the sin, and comes instantly to a defence of it, and to an obduration and im∣penitibleness in it: This is the evil of the heart, by the mis-use of Gods grace, to devest and lose all tenderness and remorse in sin.

Now for the Incurableness of this heart, it consists first in this, that there is a fulness; It is fully set to do evil: & such a full heart hath no room for a Cure; as a full stomack hath no room for Physick. The Mathematician could have removed the whole world with his Engine, if there had been any place to have set his Engine in. Any man might be cur'd of any sin, if his heart were not full of it, and fully set upon it: which setting, is indeed, in a great part, an un∣setledness, when the heart is in a perpetual motion, and in a mi∣serable indifferencie to all sins: it may be fully set upon sin, though it be not vehemently affected to any one sin. The reason which is assign'd, why the heart of man, if it receive a wound, is incu∣rable, is the palpitation, and the continual motion of the heart: for, if the heart could lie still, so that fit things might be applyed to it, and work upon it, all wounds in all parts of the heart, were not necessarily mortal: So, if our hearts were not distracted, in so many forms, and so divers ways of sin, it might the better be cur'd of any one. St. Augustine had this apprehension, when he said, Audeo dicere utile esse cadere in aliquod manifestum peccatum, ut sibi displiceant: It is well for him, that is indifferent to all sins, if he fall into some such misery by some one sin, as brings him to a sense of that, and of the rest. St. Augustine, when he says this, says he speaks boldly in saying so, Audeo dicere: but we may be so much more bold, as to say further, That that man had been damn'd, if he had not sinn'd that sin: For the heart of the indif∣ferent sinner bayts at all that ever rises, at all forms and images of sin: when he sees a thief, he runs with him;* 1.30 and with the adulterer he hath his portion: and as soon as it contracts any spiritual dis∣ease, any sin, it is presently, not onely in morbo acuto, but in morbo complicato; in a sharp disease, and in a manifold disease, a disease multiplied in it self. Therefore it is, as St. Gregory notes, that

the Prophet proposes it, as the hardest thing of all, for a sinner to return to his own heart, and to finde out that, after it is stray∣ed, and scattered upon so several sins. Redite prevaricatores ad cor, says the Prophet:* 1.31 and, says that Father, Longe eis mittit, cum ad cor redire compellit: God knows whither he sends them, when he sends them to their own heart: for, since it is true which the same Father said, Vix sancti inveniunt cor suum, The holyest man can∣not at all times finde his own heart, (his heart may be bent up∣on Religion, and yet he cannot tell in which Religion; and up∣on Preaching, and yet he cannot tell which Preacher; and upon Prayer, and yet he shall finde strayings and deviations in his Prayer) much more hardly is the various and vagabond heart of such an indifferent sinner, to be found by any search. If he en∣quire for his heart, at that Chamber where he remembers it was yesterday, in lascivious and lustful purposes, he shall hear that it went from thence to some riotous Feasting, from thence to some Blasphemous Gaming, after, to some Malicious Consultation of entangling one, and supplanting another; and he shall never trace it so close, as to drive it home, that is, to the consideration of it self, and that God that made it; nay, scarce to make it con∣sist in any one particular sin. That which St. Bernard fear'd in Eugenius, when he came to be Pope, and so to a distraction of ma∣ny worldly businesses, may much more be fear'd in a distraction of many sins, Cave ne te trahant, quo non vis; Take heed lest these sins carry thee farther, then thou intendest: thou intendest but Pleasure, or Profit; but the sin will carry thee farther: Quae∣ris quo? says that Father; Dost thou ask whither? Ad cor durum, To a senslesness, a remorslesness, a hardness of heart: nec pergas quaerere, (says he) quid illud sit; Never ask what that hardness of heart is: for, if thou know it not, thou hast it.

This then is the fulness, and so the Incurableness of the heart, by that reason of perpetual motion; because it is in perpetual progress from sin to sin, he never considers his state. But there is another fulness intended here, That he is come to a full point, to a consideration of his sin, and to a station and setledness in it, out of a foundation of Reason, as though it were, not onely an ex∣cusable, but a wise proceeding, Because Gods judgements are not exe∣cuted. But when man becomes to be thus fully set, God shall set him faster:* 1.32 Iniquitas tua in sacculo signata; His transgression shall be sealed up in a bag, and God shall sow up his iniquity: And, Quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei?* 1.33 What is this bag of God, but the heart of that sinner? There, as a bag of a wretched Misers money, which shall never be opened, never told till his death, lies this bag of sin, this frozen heart of an impenitent sinner; and his sins shall never be opened, never told to his own Con∣science, till it be done to his final condemnation. God shall suf∣fer

him to settle, where he hath chosen to settle himself, in an un∣sensibleness, an Inintelligibleness, (to use Tertullian's word) of his own condition: And,* 1.34 Quid miserior misero non miserante se∣ipsum? Who can be more miserable then that man, who does not commiserate his own misery? How far gone is he into a pi∣tiful estate, that neither desires to be pitied by others, nor pities himself, nor discerns that his state needs pity? Invaluerat ira tua super me, & nesciebam, says blessed St. Augustine: Thy hand lay heavie upon me, and I found it not to be thy hand: because the Maledictions of God are honeyed and candied over, with a little crust or sweetness of worldly ease, or reprieve, we do not apprehend them in their true taste, and right nature. Obsurdu∣eram stridore catenarum mearum, says the same Father: The jing∣ling and ratling of our Chains and Fetters, makes us deaf: The weight of the judgement takes away the sense of the judgement. This is the full setting of the heart to do evil, when a man fills him∣self with the liberty of passing into any sin, in an indifferencie; and then findes no reason why he should leave that way, either by the love, or by the fear of God. If he prosper by his sin, then he findes no reason; if he do not prosper by it, yet he findes a wrong reason. If unseasonable flouds drown his Harvest, and frustrate all his labours, and his hopes; he never findes, that his oppressing, and grinding of the Poor, was any cause of those wa∣ters, but he looks onely how the Winde sate, and how the ground lay; and he concludes, that if Noah, and Job,* 1.35 and Daniel had been there, their labour must have perished, and been drown'd, as well as his. If a vehement Fever take hold of him, he remembers where he sweat, and when he took cold; where he walked too fast, where his Casement stood open, and where he was too bold upon Fruit, or meat of hard digestion; but he never remembers the sinful and naked Wantonnesses, the profuse and wastful Dilapidations of his own body, that have made him thus obnoxious and open to all dangerous Distempers. Thunder from heaven burns his Barns, and he says, What luck was this? if it had fallen but ten foot short or over, my barns had been safe: whereas his former blasphemings of the Name of God, drew down that Thunder upon that house, as it was his; and that Lightning could no more fall short or over, then the Angel which was sent to Sodom, could have burnt another Citie, and have spar'd that; or then the Plagues of Moses and of Aaron could have fallen upon Goshen, and have spar'd Egypt. His Go∣mers abound with Manna, he overflows with all for necessities, and with all delicacies, in this life; and yet he findes worms in his Manna, a putrefaction, and a mouldring away, of this abun∣dant state; but he sees not that that is, because his Manna was gathered upon the Sabbath, that there were profanations of the

Name and Ordinances of God, mingled in his means of growing rich. To end all, This is the true Use that we are to make of the long-suffering and patience of God, That when his pa∣tience ends, ours may begin: That if he forbear others rather then us,* 1.36 we do not expostulate, as in Job, Wherefore do the wicked live, and become old, and grow mighty in power? but rather, if he cha∣stise us rather then others,* 1.37 say with David, Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy ways, though thou hast sore broken us, in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death: And that if sentence be executed upon us, we may make use of his judgement; and if not, we may continue, and enlarge his mercies towards us.

AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Seneca.
• * 1.2

  Divisio.
• * 1.3

  Part I.
• * 1.4

  Mat. 11.26.
• * 1.5

  Heb. 11.6.
• * 1.6

  Part II.
• * 1.7

  1.2.
• * 1.8

  Esa. 3.9.
• * 1.9

  Gen. 4.10.
• * 1.10

  Revel. 6.10.
• * 1.11

  Gregory.
• * 1.12

  Sententia.
• * 1.13

  August.
• * 1.14

  Executed.
• * 1.15

  Gen. 25.25.
• * 1.16

  Gen. 1. ult.
• * 1.17

  Deut. 28.15.
• * 1.18

  Act. 5.
• * 1.19

  1 Reg. 13.
• * 1.20

  1 Sam. 15.
• * 1.21

  Jos. 7.
• * 1.22

  1 Sam. 4.
• * 1.23

  2 Sam. 6.
• * 1.24

  Speedily.
• * 1.25

  1 Sam. 3.12.
• * 1.26

  Acts 12.22.
• * 1.27

  Part III.
• * 1.28

  Rom. 2.4.
• * 1.29

  Chrysost.
• * 1.30

  Psal. 50.
• * 1.31

  Esa. 46.
• * 1.32

  Job 14.17.
• * 1.33

  Gregor.
• * 1.34

  Aug.
• * 1.35

  Ezek. 14.14.
• * 1.36

  21.7.
• * 1.37

  Psal. 44.18.