Chapter 13

Of the deceit of the heart in translating the sin from ourselves upon some other cause.

The fourth deceitful trick in clearing ourselves, when guilty, is that of Translation, when by laying the fault upon some other cause, we would altogether disburden ourselves thereof. Wherein the heart of man is so subtle, that if it can find out any other thing or person, that in the least sort may seem to be but the least piece of an occasion, that shall be sufficient to free itself of all manner of blame. Harpasle a blind woman in Seneca, would not yet be persuaded that she was blind, but found fault with the house wherein she was, as being over-dark: so fares it with us in our spiritual blindness, and other such like defects, hard is it if we find not out something, that must ease us of all the burden of the blame.

As first of all, how usual is that translation upon the flesh. O say the profane, as of old in Austen's time, so still when charged with their wickedness; not we, but the flesh, We of ourselves have good wills to do otherwise, we like, and approve of the best things, but the flesh overmasters us, that as a violent stream carries us away. And therefore we trust we may say with Paul, It is no more we that do it, but sin that dwells in us: but this is a gross deceit.

For first they should consider who Paul was that used these words, and of what sins, not open and gross, from which even his Pharisaism was free, but of inward infirmities, whereby he felt the perfection of his good works to be hindered. How shameful then is it to bring that in defense of open scandals, which is spoken concerning private and secret infirmities?

Again none can say concerning their sins, that they are not theirs, but the flesh's, save they, who besides the flesh have the spirit encountering the flesh. But in these kind of men, in whose mouths this excuse is so ordinary, there is no strife at all between the spirit and the flesh. For they are nothing but flesh, neither is there anything in them but corruption. Therefore it is an idle speech for them to say, not we but the flesh, that is, not we, but we. For what else are they but flesh, in understanding, memory, will, affections, soul, and body, etc.? But yet when they are to commit some sin, they feel some resistance. True: but this resistance is not from the mind renewed, and so consenting to, and delighting in the Law, as holy and good, as in Paul; but from the mind only enlightened, to see the fearful punishments, that shall follow upon the sin. And hence it is that the combat in the regenerate is in the same faculties of the soul, between the will and the will, the affections and affections; because as every part of their soul is partly carnal, partly spiritual, so also the will and affections. From which it comes to pass, that when the renewed part of the will carries us to good, the unregenerate part, that is the flesh, sways us to evil. But the combat in the unregenerate, is between diverse faculties of the soul; as between the understanding and the will, between the conscience and the affections: The will and affections of an ungodly man do not hold back, or make any resistance, when he is tempted to sin: for they are wholly carnal, and have not either the least hatred of the sin forbidden, or love of the Law forbidding it, and therefore they are set agoing, and drink in iniquity, as the fish does water: but only his conscience, enlightened by God to see the terror of the punishment, causes a pause to be made. Herod in his incest may feel inwardly some objections alleged against it, but yet he loves his incest with all his heart and in like manner hates the seventh commandment forbidding it, and wishes with all his heart there were no such commandment. Those objections therefore are made not by his will delighting in the Law, and so saying; How can I do this and sin against God? but by the mind terrified with the threatenings of the Law. The voice of David's conflict with himself in his adultery was this, I consent to the Law, that it is most holy and just in forbidding adultery, and therefore I cannot wholly give my assent to this adultery. The voice of Herod's strife in his incest is this, I consent to the Law that it is true in threatening incest with the curse of God, and feel terror in the apprehension of it. So that the opposition which the regenerate make against sin, is from the apprehension of the goodness of the commandment: the opposition of the unregenerate, from the apprehension of the truth of the threatening: the former from love, the latter from fear.

Now though this be sufficient to discover this deceit to those that will deal faithfully with themselves, in the examination of their own hearts: yet, for the further stopping of the mouth of iniquity, that excellent speech of the Apostle is to be remembered, The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the same things that you would. Where the flesh is resisted by the spirit, it never wholly prevails, but in spite of its teeth is broken of her will, it cannot do what it would, but in these men the flesh does whatever it would; the action of sin is as ready as the temptation; they live, they lie, they wallow, and tumble themselves in their sins; they make a daily trade of their uncleanness, profaneness, worldliness: shall any man now persuade me that the spirit is in them, struggling with the flesh? Certainly if there were but the least dram of the spirit to resist, the flesh should not sin thus freely, without interruption: it should not always hold the reins, and sit at the helm. I beat my body, that is, I molest and vex the flesh, the old Adam, that is in me, and mark what follows, I bring it in subjection. Where then the flesh always flourishes and triumphs, and is never brought under, there never is any true resistance, there is no spirit, the adversary that should trouble it.

Objection: But it will be said, did not David in his adultery do that which his fleshly will would? Answer: No; not wholly, not fully. For first of all, by reason of the resistance of the spirit, he could not take that fullness of pleasure, which a venereous Epicure would. Further, the flesh would have had him sleep securely, and gone on stoutly still in that sin, and to have done as much to others, as to Bathsheba, but because of the contradiction of the spirit gainsaying the flesh, he could not so bless his soul in his sin, he could not lie tumbling in his mire, but was forced to rise up, and wash himself in the waters of repentance. And will you, that after your sitting down to sin, never rise again, unless it be as those Israelites, that sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play, that is to the doing of some worse matter, will you plead the combat of the flesh, and the spirit? Excellently St. Austin: The flesh lusts against the spirit. If the spirit does not also lust against the flesh, then commit adultery: for what should hinder? But if the spirit lusts against the flesh, then I may see you indeed shrewdly assaulted, wholly vanquished I cannot.

Well then the unregenerate cannot excuse their sins by the flesh, because the flesh, and they being all one, in accusing the flesh, they accuse themselves. What then? May the regenerate? Neither: for whereas the flesh in them is only a slave and captive, deadly wounded by God, at first conversion, and daily awed by the contrariety of the spirit, that they yet should be foiled by the flesh, that the flesh should so far prevail with them, as to bring forth the fruits of disobedience, this seems rather to add, than any whit to diminish of their sin: for as for the wicked, they are nothing but flesh, they have no adversary to the flesh in themselves, that might buckle with it: but the godly they have the spirit, which of itself as Christ says, is prompt and ready, but that we by our sloth and negligence disable it. Therefore the Scripture upon these grounds exhorts the godly to good duties, because of the regeneration of their nature, whereby they are in some measure enabled to subdue their corruption, and so to perform obedience; as St. James, having made mention of our new birth: Of his own will begot he us, by the word of truth, thereupon infers, Therefore let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, etc. And St. Peter, having exhorted to love one another, with a pure heart fervently, annexes this reason, Being born anew, not of mortal seed, but immortal, etc. Now it is shameful for a man, that has strength, and is furnished with weapons, to suffer the thief to take his purse from him: so is it for the regenerate man, whom God in his regeneration has endowed with spiritual life, and strength, whereby he might be able to strive against and make his part good with the flesh, to suffer it to rob him of any spiritual grace. Especially when the flesh in them is as an underling, crushed and trod under their feet. What a shame is this for a man to be overcome by his base vassal, who was once already before overcome by himself. This therefore is matter of humiliation, and deeper aggravation of our sins, that God having disarmed the flesh, and subjected it to us, yet we by our favoring of it, as the Israelites the Canaanites, have nourished a snake in our own bosoms, and have suffered it to grow to that head, that it should be ready to overtop us. Therefore the Apostle does not extenuate but aggravate, the factions of the Corinthians, by this, that these things came from the flesh in them, and were fruits of their carnality. Therefore he says by way of upbraiding, you are yet carnal. Man's deceitful heart would have helped the matter with this, Alas! though we be regenerate, yet we are still also carnal in part: and the flesh will be working. But the Holy Ghost retorts it thus: as you are naturally carnal, so by your new birth, you now are become spiritual: what a shame then is this for you, that the spirit performs his office no better in quelling the flesh, that the flesh is still so lusty and lively in you, that one would think you were wholly carnal and not spiritual at all, that after so long a time of your regeneration, you are yet so carnal, the flesh still carries so strong a hand over you. This shifting then of the fault to the flesh, is idle, whether in the wicked, or in the godly.

The second translation of sin is upon the times, and places, where we live, and the wickedness of men with whom we converse. Because the times generally are so corrupt and evil, therefore we think if we be corrupt in them, the fault is not ours, but the times. St. Paul's argument is clean contrary, Redeeming the time, because the days be evil. The badness of the times did not serve with St. Paul for a cloak to excuse our conformity to the times, in wasting our time wickedly, as others do; but as a spur to excite us to be so much the more careful of ourselves, not to be swayed with the common stream, in the idle and prodigal expense of our time, but to rescue it out of the hands of sinful vanities, and to spend it wholly for the good of our own souls. And good reason have we to make this use of the corruption of the times; for, if the air be generally infectious, had we not need to be so much the more strict in our diet, and careful in the use of wholesome preservatives? Surely the worse the times are, the nearer grow they to their end, and therefore so much the more apprehensive ought we to be of the occasions of good, because the day, in which only we can work, is declining apace, and that fearful night approaches wherein none can work.

But yet, for all this, it is no less usual for men to use this excuse in defense of their own enormities now, than it has been heretofore. Seneca shows how in his time many would be ready to plead thus for themselves, I am not ambitious: but no man can live otherwise in Rome. I am not prodigally sumptuous; but the city will put a man to great charges. It is not my fault that as yet I am not entered into a settled course of life. It is my youth and hot blood that does this. But as he excellently adds, Why do we deceive ourselves? This evil is not from without, from any extrinsic cause, it is within us; it sticks in our very bowels. If we lived elsewhere, in other places, and companies, unless our hearts within were changed, we should still be the same men. For, that it is not in the place, that we are thus and thus perverted, will appear evidently, if we cast our eyes upon others, that have lived in as evil times and places, and yet like fishes, retaining their sweetness in the salt sea, like Salamanders, unscorched in the fire. It matters not so much how great the fire be which lights upon a place, as of what quality the thing is, on which it lights: for even a great deal of fire falling upon hard and solid substances would not once kindle, and a little spark in dry chippy combustible matter has quickly burnt up all. So it matters not so much what the place be, as what the mind. Minds well disposed, and carefully watching over themselves have continued in the most corrupt places without spot, as Joseph, Nehemiah, Daniel, Obadiah in the courts of Pharaoh, Artaxerxes, Nebuchadnezzar, Ahab; and Saint Paul makes mention of saints in Nero's court, that monster of nature. Contrarily, the mind being secure, or otherwise ill disposed, the best places have been no privileges against sin. Witness Adam, that sinned in Paradise, the Devil, that fell in Heaven, in God's own court. Lo falling in God's court, and standing in Nero's. Lot continued chaste in filthy Sodom, and yet fell grievously in the solitary and retired mountain: unjustly then are places charged.

As unjustly, in the third place, are our callings, and the employment of them; which, say many, are such, that they must needs neglect the kingdom of God in prayer, reading, meditation, sanctification of the Sabbaths; which if to do be sin, not they but their callings must be called into question. But we must know that no calling is a calling away from God, no vocation is an avocation from godliness: but as our Savior speaks of the Sabbath, so also may it be said of our callings, Man was not made for callings, but callings for man, that is, for his good, not for his hurt or hindrance of his soul. Certain therefore it is that this is but a deceitful excuse: for David, and Daniel taken up with the many, and weighty affairs of civil government (alas, what are your occasions to theirs) they yet could find leisure to pray three times a day. And tell me, you, who thus plead the troublesome distractions of your calling, do they so possess you, that you can neither sleep, nor eat and drink? For all your businesses, I dare say, you do not wholly deprive yourself of these necessary comforts. And are you yet to learn, that these are not so necessary for the body, but the exercises of God's service are as necessary every way for the soul? Remember the examples of the woman of Samaria, leaving her pitcher at the well, and of the shepherds, leaving their flocks for the business of Christ; and learn by them that our particular callings must give place to the general calling of Christianity. And good reason. One kindness deserves another. Our general calling of Christianity is not so unjust, as to seize ordinarily upon all the time of our particular callings: therefore Christ will rather rob his eyes of sleep, and pray all night, than, by praying all the day time, rob his personal calling of its due time: Why then should our particular callings be so unkind as to encroach upon our general calling, and to take from it that little time of the morning and evening, not content with her own so large allowance: like the rich man in Nathan's parable, that stole from the poor man his one only sheep, having many of his own. It had been more tolerable for the poor man, to have taken one of the rich man's. And of the two it is more allowable for the general calling, to make bold with the time of our personal, than contrarily: both because our general calling has not the tithe of that time which the personal has, as also, because the works of this calling are far more worthy and excellent, as those which directly and immediately respect God himself. And yet you would not allow this for a just excuse in him, that all the six days has neglected his particular calling, that he did attend, all that while, prayer, reading, meditation. How then should your own neglect of God's service upon the Sabbath, and the mornings and evenings of other days be excused, do you think, by the following of your worldly occasions? For as under pretense of prayer and meditation we may not become Monks, and wholly give over our occasions in the world: so neither, under pretense of our worldly occasions, may we become profane worldlings, and wholly forsake the worship of God.

Others blame the condition of their life, "O," say they, "we are poor men, that have nothing to live by, save these hands." Can we needy handicraftsmen, or poor laborers be divines? "Indeed so much the rather," says Chrysostom, "may you practice true divinity." When wrath, envy, and other such like corruptions should be curbed, does poverty then hinder you? Or are riches able to master and mortify such affections? Does poverty hinder you from being humble, sober, temperate, watchful in prayer? Or is it not rather a great furtherance to you in all these? Does not poverty serve to tame and meeken you, to take down your pride, to prick you to prayer? Or what virtue is there that needs money for the practice thereof? You will say liberality: indeed but even this virtue also, says that Father, has shined more brightly by reason of poverty. The poor widow's two mites were a better alms than all the rest of the richer sort. See then how you slander your poverty, the mistress of so many virtues. Remember Saint Paul a poor tent-maker, and yet no less holy in his shop among his tents than in his study among his books and parchments; and by his example learn how your shop may be used even as an oratory, or place of greatest devotion. Never tell me your handy labors distract your mind from heavenly meditations. Paul a tent-maker, working with his hands, could yet say, "Our conversation is in heaven." Never complain of the pinches of poverty, that they lay you open to the Devil's temptations. Who was ever richer than Adam in Paradise? Who was ever poorer than Job on the dunghill? Yet in Paradise, Satan foiled Adam: on the dunghill, Job foiled Satan.

Well, if the fault be only in poverty, and not in your own corruption, then give yourself a more liberal portion of these outward things, and we shall see you mend presently. And so happily you persuade yourself. But how deceitfully, the miserable experience of others may teach you, who, of poor becoming rich, have, withal, of nothing become worse.

In the fifth place you shall hear some transferring the fault upon the outward occasions, whereby they were enticed to sin; not considering that the outward objects themselves are dumb, and say nothing, and that it is only their own corruption that entices them. For they that have made a covenant with their eyes, as did Job, they can look upon the wine when it sparkles in the glass, and not inordinately long to drink; they can behold fair and beautiful women, and yet not intemperately lust after them. They that have put the knife of mortification to their throats can sit at a ruler's table swimming with all manner of dainties, and yet not exceed the bounds of sobriety. What? must the table be accused? No, your own appetite — thrust (says Solomon) your knife, not into the table, but into your own throat. So, must women be taken away? No, but your own eye — that is, the corruption in your eye, says our Savior. This causes you to offend. Chrysostom having said the beauty of a woman is a great snare, presently corrects himself: "Nay rather," says he, "not a woman's beauty, but a man's lusting look." Let us not accuse the things, but ourselves; let us not say, let there be no women, but let there not be adultery and fornication; neither let us say, let there not be a belly, but let there not be gluttony; etc.

Sixthly, many there are that father their sins upon the Devil. It may be indeed the Devil was the father begetting: but, for all that, their own wicked hearts might well enough be the mothers conceiving and bringing them forth. And what could that father have done without this mother? The Devil cannot prevail against us, but by the help of our own corruption. He might strike fire long enough, before there would be any burning, did not we find him tinder. Therefore Saint James says, every man, when he is tempted, is enticed and drawn away by his own concupiscence, though yet the Devil have a hand, and that no small one, in tempting of us. Yet because he does only allure us, and lay baits for us, but not constrain us — he has only a persuading sleight, not an enforcing might — he cannot make us sin against our wills, because our own concupiscence carries the chiefest stroke; therefore he so speaks: "Every man is tempted, not by the Devil, but by his own concupiscence." And therefore, however the same Satan, that tempted David to number the people, had his finger also, in all likelihood, in that matter of Uriah, yet David accuses, not Satan, but his own corruption: "In sin was I conceived." But let us hear what Saint Augustine says to such as thus excuse themselves. "If Satan," says he, "only spoke, and God held his peace, then you might have some matter of excuse." "But now your ears are set in the midst between God's admonitions on the one side, and Satan's suggestions on the other side — why do they incline themselves to these, and turn away from those?" "Satan ceases not to persuade that which is evil: but neither does God cease to advise us that which is good." "If by the persuasion of Satan you have done any evil, let Satan go, accuse yourself, that you may by this accusing of yourself obtain God's pardon." "Do you desire to accuse him that can have no pardon?" "Accuse yourself, and you shall forthwith be pardoned."

Seventhly, others there are that flee up into the heaven, and there fly upon the stars and constellations. Such, Augustine complained of, that, giving ear to the deceits of the astrologers, bought death of them with their money dearly, in the meantime contemning life, offered them by Christ, freely. The usual plea of these men was, in their adulteries, to accuse Venus, in their murders, Mars. "Indeed then," says Augustine, very sweetly scoffing at them, "Venus is the adulteress, not you; Mars the murderer, not you." "But take you heed lest you yourself be damned instead of Mars and Venus." If the astrologer himself should take his own wife in wanton behavior with other men, will he not discipline her and correct her for it? Let her then see, if she can tell him, that Venus is to be beaten, and not she.

Eighthly, others yet, being more audacious, ascend higher, and go beyond the stars even to God himself, to charge him with their sins. Thus did Adam, when he said in defense of his own eating, the woman you gave me, she gave me it, closely taxing God himself, as if he should have said, unless you had given me this companion, I had not eaten. Saint James seems to aim at these, when he says, let no man when he is tempted say he is tempted of God. God, that hates, forbids, threatens, punishes sin, can he possibly tempt to sin? Indeed, but you say he decreed my sin, for nothing comes to pass, without his will. The second causes move not, unless they are moved by the first. I answer, the first cause is not the cause of the error that is in the motion of the second, though it be the cause of the motion. As in the wheels of a clock, the principal wheel, with its motion, turns about the lower, yet if there be any error in the motion of the lower, it is no cause at all thereof. Now sin is not properly any motion, but an error in the motion of your heart. God's will being the first cause, is the cause of your heart's motion, for in him we live, move, and have our being, but if there be any sin, any error in the motion, your own will is the cause thereof. For all that God has to do about it, is his voluntary permission, whereby he, withdrawing his grace from you, leaves you to yourself, as not being bound to you. He does not urge you, or press you to sin. He does not infuse, or instill into your mind any wicked motions, as does Satan. He only sets the bait, or the net, and does not restrain your concupiscence from carrying you to it: for he owes you no such service: but he does not take poles, as Satan does, and drive you violently into the net. And yet if Satan's temptation could not excuse Adam, how much less then God's desertion.

The last translation, which now I will speak of, is upon our brethren, whom if, in any sort, we can draw into the society of the same sin, with ourselves, we think presently ourselves sufficiently discharged. Now we lay the fault upon our brethren diverse ways.

1 Upon their counsel, persuasion, or entreaty, specially if importunate. Thus we shall hear many say, such a one he persuaded me, he gave me ill counsel, he importuned me, and would never give over till I had yielded. This is rife in thieves' mouths, going to execution, O if it had not been for such a one, I had never come to this. I may thank him. In fact you may thank your own wicked heart, so fit a prey for evil counsel. Thus Adam, in the beginning, laid the fault upon his wife, and she upon the serpent. Whereas indeed it was not so much, the serpent's words, as her own ears, so greedily drinking in the poison of his words, which she should have blamed. Aaron also was cunning in this kind of translation, when being challenged by Moses for his sin, in making the golden calf, he put it off to the people, You know this people is set upon mischief, and they said to me, Make us gods. Thus Aaron thought he had rid his hands of this sin, but the scripture sets it faster on him, than that ever such shifts should take it off, Aaron made them naked. Here also was Pilate's deceit in washing his hands, thinking all the blame stuck in the high priests, and the rest of the Jews, that so urged him with their clamorous importunity. Saul likewise had this excuse ready at his fingers' ends, the people have spared, etc. And when yet Samuel again urged him, why have you not obeyed the voice of the Lord? he still held him close to this defense, indeed, says he, I have obeyed, but the people took, etc. till the second reply of Samuel wrung from him this hold, and made him say, I have sinned, I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

2 Upon the commandment, or example of our superiors. Thus children, if they were commanded to do evil by their parents, servants, if by their masters, subjects, if by their magistrates, think themselves sufficiently excused. If there be sin in what they have done, they think the commander shall answer to God for it. You, withal, would this be a good answer before an earthly magistrate in case of treason, felony, yea or a far lesser matter, to say, Sir, my master commanded me? Or have you here so much wit to save yourself from the danger of man's law, as not to venture upon your superior's commandment? And have you so little wit, as to think God's laws are less severe than man's, that this answer — my father, my husband, my master, my magistrate commanded me — may serve your turn before God's tribunal? Do you dare not steal, for all your master's commandment, for fear of the gallows? And yet, because of your master's commandment, will you dare to profane the Sabbath, without all fear of hell? You think that the command of that authority, which is over you, will lessen your sin. Indeed rather it will aggravate it. For if you did sin of yourself, without the command of man, then you did simply reject God's commandment. Now you reject it with a far greater disgrace, and disparagement to God. For besides rejecting the only wise God, you prefer before him base and foolish man. And so by this means your sin is doubled. For first you sin in neglecting God's word, and secondly in regarding man's before it. The authority then of our superiors' commandment, or example will little avail us, when God shall come to scan our sin. The Apostle, dissuading the Corinthians from fornication, reminds them of that fearful judgment that befell the Israelites for this sin — 23,000 of them fell in one day. Now Moses mentions 24,000, of which 1,000 were the chief princes of the people, the other 23,000 were those of the inferior sort, who fell into this sin provoked by the instigation, and example of their princes. What do we think should be the reason that the Apostle should rather insist in the special punishment of the people, than in the common, and general punishment both of princes and people together? Some of the learned say that the Apostle would hereby teach the Corinthians, the silliness, and weakness of this excuse, by which men use to defend those sins, to which they were swayed by the force of their governors' authority, and example. For, though these 23,000 of the people had their princes' example, even a whole 1,000 of them, going before, and drawing them after, yet they were drawn by them, as well into the same punishment, the same destruction, as the same sin.

3 Upon the provocations of others, who injure, grieve, and exasperate us either by word, or deed. As in chasing, and swearing it is usual, why what should one do, when he is thus abused? Such dealing, as this, would anger a very saint. So says the quarrelsome, and contentious man, if it were not for my ill neighbors, I should live more quietly, and peaceably. True; if it were not for one ill neighbor of yours, that is an evil, and naughty heart, full of gall, and bitterness. From where, says James, notably meeting with this deceit, are strifes, and contentions? O says the deceitful heart of the wrangler, not from me, but from such, and such, as provoke me by their injuries. No says James, they are from the lusts that fight in your members. You have a troublesome heart, distempered with many inordinate passions, and that is the cause of your rage, and fury. For many men have received far greater injuries with far less ado. If the sea should ascribe her raging to the winds, it might easily be convinced, because the same winds blow upon the rivers, and yet they are quiet. The reason then is not the winds, but the vastness that is in the sea itself, which the little rivers wanting are not disquieted in like manner with the winds. If your heart were not so vast, and great, as it is, it would be nothing so turbulent, nor boisterous, though the winds raged far more fiercely, than now they do. Shake clear water in the glass, and jog it as much as you will; still it retains its clearness and purity: but let such water wherein there is mud at the bottom be stirred, and presently it will be foul, corrupt, and obscure. It is the mud, and mire of your corrupt affections, that makes your heart so troublesome, when it is stirred with injuries. A heart free from this mud, would be free from distemper, though never so much tossed and shaken. Then again; what sense is there in this, that, because men provoke you, therefore you must provoke God? What if men anger you? Have you no one to wreak your anger upon, but God? Would you excuse your servant, if being angered, and vexed by some of his fellow servants, he should ease his stomach upon yourself? And further, what reason is there in this, that, because men hurt you in your body, goods, or name, you must therefore wound yourself in your soul, and conscience; which you do, when, upon occasion of these injuries, you boil in choler, and swell in malice against him that wronged you. What a folly were this, if, being hurt in the hand, we should go about to help ourselves by dashing out our brains against the walls? Our brother hurts us in our estate. This brings no loss to our soul. But when our revengeful affections are up, they bring hurt to our soul, even the guilt of sin, in transgressing God's commandments. Never then harp so much upon this, he has wronged me, thus and thus. Fool, none wrongs you but yourself. He has taken away this and that. Fool, you take the best thing from yourself. You talk of that which man takes from you; but consider withal what God has given you, even in this his taking away. Man has taken away some temporal commodity: God gives you an occasion of increasing your spiritual commodities, in showing of true patience, humility, meekness, and such like graces. This which God now gives is far above that, which man takes from you. And yet, wise man that you are, because man takes from you the less, therefore you think you may take from yourself the greater. It is gross deceit then to excuse our sins, manifest wrongs to God and our own souls, by the wrongs that others do us. That blasphemer in the law, had this excuse, that it was in heat, being provoked by the contention of that other party. Yet for all that God would have him stoned to death. So Moses's transgression, at the waters of Meribah, was occasioned by the untowardness, and rebellion of the Israelites, yet this could not excuse him before God, but, for all that, he must be debarred from entering into Canaan.

4 Upon the discouragements and hindrances we receive from others, as it were obstacles to us in the way of godliness. Some say, concerning the performance of good duties: if we might be countenanced by authority, helped by our ministers, set forward and heartened by those with whom, and of whom, we live — oh then how zealous should we be? But because we have so many pinches and pullbacks this way, we think our coldness and backwardness in religion not so liable to censure. Thus many people impute their not profiting to the minister and the manner of his teaching. And if they had such a minister, oh how should they thrive then. But as he in Seneca, having a thorn in his foot, complained of the roughness of the way — that that was the cause of his limping — so these, having thorns in their own hearts which make the word unfruitful, complain of the thorns in their ministers' tongues, and make this to be the cause of their so slow proceedings. Contrarily, many ministers blame their people, and think that if their hearers would give them such encouragements, in regard of countenance, maintenance, desire to learn, etc., as some other people do their ministers, they should then perform the work of the Lord more carefully and comfortably than now they do. But the truth is, the cause principally is in our own corruption, which being not reformed, no encouragements to godliness will much further us, but being once redressed, no discouragements can much hinder us. Therefore, if a good and thoroughly mortified Christian should live under one of Jeroboam's priests, or with banished David in a dry desert where there were no water, yet he would thrive in the power of godliness. On the other side, an unsound Christian, though he lived under Christ's own ministry, as did Judas, yet he would come to nothing. So a good prophet, as Moses, Jeremiah, and others, though yoked with never so crooked a people, would yet from there take occasion of provoking their own zeal. An evil one, though he lived among the violent ones that take the kingdom of heaven by force, would yet be cold and careless. Let us not then deceive ourselves, to lay our own fault upon the want of means, and so indeed upon God himself. For that we have not those means we so much seem to desire, and in the having whereof we promise ourselves such great matters — from where does this come, but from God, that has denied those means to us? Oh, if we lived under such a man's ministry, if we enjoyed the daily company of such and such Christians, how should we prosper then? Why? But God has not so disposed that we should. If there were such necessity of, and efficacy in, those means as we think, he would not withhold them. Think we not that God is in place of all means to his people, abundantly supplying them with the presence of his Spirit — who, as he was a little sanctuary to his people when they were dispersed among the heathen, so likewise still to us now a little ministry, a little college of Christians, when his providence has deprived us of these means (Ezekiel 11:16)? But lo, an evident conviction of our deceitfulness of heart. For when we have those very same helps, by the want of which we excused ourselves, yet our former dullness and deadness still sticks by us — we are the same men that before. And of the deceitful excuse of Translation, so much.