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Three things hence to be noted.

I.

2.

the reft, he beheld in them an excellent harmony. Hitherto there was a ftate of imperfection, but here God faw that every thing was very good: God here maketh a general muster of all, and of Man the Captain Creature, cui eunt catera ut infignia, for man is the abridgment and accomplishment of all the other Creatures: Good things joyned together muft needs be very good, when that even ill things joyred together may be good: A theef is ill,an halter is ill, joyn both together they are good, that is, bonum juftitia. Good things joyned together, having their Captain, are very good: Love is applyed to the heart, meat is for the belly: the head is the perfection of the body, and Man is the perfection of the Creation. God faw each day bonum; but when he faw man with the reft, he faw that they were valde bona: at fummè bonus eft folus Deus: Man is the chief Creature: catera omnia Sunt propter vos, 2 Cor. 4. 15. all other things are for mans fake. The Lord all things hath made (taith Salomon) for his own fake; yea even the wicked for the day of evill, Prov. 16. 4. fo that God hath made catera propter vos, the other Creatures for you; and you and them propter fe. Then give praifes unto his name, give him thanks for his loving kindneffe; g ve glorie due to God unto him, that fo by him we may have full aflurance of future immortalitie.

Hence we are to learn three things. That men would furvey their works as God doth here, how great and how excellent they are ; this is perfect wifcome and virtue, though commonly men fet forth their rude works for perfect, without any furvey: For Salomon, though he were the wifeft man of his age, yet could he fay, that when he looked upon all the works that his hand had wrought,and in the travail he had laboured to doe,and behold all was but vanity and vexation of spirit, Preach. 2. 11. When God feeth mans wicked wayes, he will reprove him, and fet them in order; to them that dispose their way aright God will fhew his Salvation,Pfal.50.21. This is a rumination and a confideration of our works, which are unperfect, to reform them, and of Gods works, which being good, were, being accomplished, very good. Oh men glorifie God and follow him, he is the patern or goodnesse it self. Therefore let men fee and know, let them confider and understand to gether, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the holy one of Ifrael hath created it, Efay 41.20.

Secondly, Hence we learn to rectifie our judgments, and to fee as God did fee. Divers men have an itch in the tongue, who will finde fault in this or that which God hath made; this commeth to pafle when men will feem to fee more than God himself did fee. When that God did trie every work of his here feven times in this chapter; as for the words of the Lord, they are pure as filver, tryed in a furnace of earth, fined sevenfold, Pfal. 12.6. So are his works allo; and this is a bridle to our licentioufnefs, to fufpend our judgment,and not to finde fault with God's works. God hath faid they were very good, habent ergobonitatem etfi nobis ignotam. Divers things are good in their place, divers in their time: Fire in the cold of Winter is good, in the heat of Summer it is not fo good:Water in the Summer is good .It is Gods curfe

curle and a great griet to cat in darkneffe, Preach. 5. 17. In time things be good, all things have their time, Preach. 3. In a word let every one fay thus with himself, God hath feen this or that good, I filly man cannot fee it otherwise. Omnia funt munda mundis, & fic omnia bona bonis, all things are clean to the clean, and all things good to the good. God Createth good things, he ordereth evil things: the thing is not ill, but the ill applying is evil, not the power. There is poteftas ad infeftandum. if it be applyed to the Malefactor, it is even bonum juftitia. Sic non eft dedecus culpa fine dedecore vindicta.God faith,It shall be well with the just, for they fhall eat the fruit of their works ; but woe be to the wicked, for it fhall be evill with them, Efay 3. The punishing the wicked and rewarding the juft is good; for we know that all things work to the best unto them that love God, Rom. 8. 28. If any thing be amiffe,the evill is in man, not in God: God hath made us good, but by Adams tranfgreffion, and our daily finne, we are evill: It is our iniquities that hath feparated between us and our God; it is our finnes that have hid his face from us, Efay 59. 2. and Fer. 5.25. Say not then this is ill or that is ill, but fay I am ill,and I am wicked. God, who made all things, could best fee that every thing was very good but either by ignorance or by ill defert we are dymme fighted.

Laftly, For imitation we must fee as God did,that we may see our works good; Bonitas bonitatum, & omnia bonitas was the fate of the first creation By finne it was that Salomon faith, the beginning of the Preacher, that vanitas vanitatum, & omnia vanitas; and therefore let us be warie. Gods deeds were vifible, they were not good words only,but good gifts: let not us fay only ecce dixi,but let our acts be good to the needy with ecce dedi: let us imitate God in that his goodneffe. There are two good things come from man, the one in 2 Pet.1.9. Knowledge, temperance, love, &c. The other in the 4. to the Philippi ans 14. to communicate to the afflicted: benefacite & communicate is the fumme of all:

So the evening and the morning were the fixth day. In the former dayes there was creation of nothing, a difpofition and ordering of things created, and an adorning of things ordered: Here is an accomplishment of all his works. God, before man was, obferved the dayes and the number, but here he delivereth unto man the Kalender of times,which we have received and fhall be received to the worlds end. The evening goeth before the morning reft is in the evening, labor in the morning, to the which man is ordained: After this his laft work cometh the feventh day,the day of reft.God he resteth not inthe waters, nor in theEarth; he refteth not in the Heavens:but to conclude with the excellent faying of St. Austin: Requiefcit Deus in homine, ut homo in Deo requiefcat, God took his reft in man, that man might take his reft for ever with God: Which God of his mercy grant us all; to whom be all honor, glorie, and praise, world without end. Amen.

AMEN.

249

LECTURES.

Preached in Saint PAULS Church,
LONDON.

Serpens autem erat aftutus, aftutior quâvis bestiâ agri quam fecerat Fehova Deus.

Gen. 3.

ITHERTO hath been fhewed at large the hap- Novemb, 177 piness and perfection of Adams eftate while he 1591 continued upright in Paradise. Now, left any of us comparing our eftate with Adams, and finding fo great an alteration and difference between him and us; because he was holy, we corrupt with finne; he was happy and bleffed having all things, wanting nothing which might increafe his happiness, we miferable, fubject to all calamities and diftreffes which may encrease our miferie; he without fhame or forrow, we confounded with them both Therefore left we should enquire how this Change and Alteration came to our natures, the Prophet in this Chapter will shew it us, that we may be out of doubt.

As therefore we have had hitherto, the building, beautifying, and perfecting the Frame of all the world and of all the works of God: So now we fhall fee the ruine and lamentable overthrow of all, which Saran by finne brought unto all. For whatsoever God hath done in the great world in generall, as it is fet down in the first Chapter, or whatfoever we have feen excellent and glorious in the little world, which is in the state of man, described in the second Chapter: All that shall we fee in this Chapter to be overthrown by the work and malice of the Devill.

At the fight and confideration of which Tragedy, as St. Auguftine faith, all the Creatures, especially mankinde, ought with fighs and groanes to diffolve themselves into teares, to think of our and their utter and irrecoverable confufion, were it not for this which is annexed unto it, namely, the hope of the feed of the woman, promised to come at the fulness of time, to reftore all things which were loft in Paradife,and to bring us a more excellent Paradife than that ever was.

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The caufe of all thefe evills which we fee in us, and in the world, Mofes here telleth us in the beginning of this Chapter, to be the verifying of that Prop icfie which God thawed Adam, Gen. 2. 17. that is, what time foever he should finne, and break the Commandement of God, be fhould die; that is, have all the Meffengers and Minifters of death feizing upon him, untill death it felf, the reward of finne, should take hold on him; which firft part of the Chapter we fhall divide as St. Paul doth teach us Rom. 6. 1. into two parts, the first he calleth catum, the other peccati obfonium, that is, into the cause and nature of finne, and into the effect and punishment which followeth it: Concerning the tranfgreffion, he fetteth down firft the temptation of fin, in the first 5. verfes; then the preparation which is the finne it felf, in the 6. verle; then followeth the ftipend and hier of finne from that verfe unto the 15. verfe: In which verfe then the prophet fheweth that God in justice remembred mercie; and as St. James faith, caufed his mercy to triumph over juftice in the promifed feed, without which remedy Adams finne had been incurable, and his cafe and our condition had been most defperate; whereas by this means, as St. Auguftine faith, the Devills envy is fælix invidia, and Adams finne is fælix culpa, that is, falleth out to the greater glorie of all the elect

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Now more particularly we are led to confider two things in the temptation; first of all the perfons, both agent and patient, and then the allurements and inticements thereof: The chief in this temptation was the Devill and the Woman, and then in regard of confent, Adam himfelt grew acceffory and guilty thereof, fo that there were three caufes of finne. The chicfeft Author of it was the Devill; the next is Eve the yeelder to him; the third was Adam, the consenter to them both...

Serpents we know fpeak not, for they were not made to reason and difpute, therefore we muft needs understand another high perfon befides the Serpent, which fpake in him, and used him as his Inftrument and means to effect this evil devife.

And in this refpect, the Devill is called Rev. 12. 9. the old Serpent as his name appellative, by which he was once called, and Satanas Revel. zo. 2. as his proper name, by which his fubtill and malicious -nature is made known.

As therefore the Devill craftily and clofely did put into Judas head and heart by his fuggeftion, how to feek Chrifts fall and death John 13.2. fo doth he as flylie put intothe Serpents mouth this temptation, by which he might betray the first Adam and bring him to death; and therefore as Chrift truly, though not properly, called Judas Satan because he faw the Devill used him as his Inftrument; So by the fame right and reafon may we call the Serpent the Devill, because it was he in this Serpent who did bring this thing to pass.

If any doc aske why Mofes did not make mention of the Devil in all this Chapter? we may fay, that it was Mofes pu pofe to perform the office and duty of a Hiftoriographer, which is only to make a

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