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How saltless and unsavoury will the most cunningly-devised and patched-together mode of salvation be, that men, studying the perversion of the gospel, and seeking the ruin of souls with all their skill, industry, and learning, are setting off with forced rhetoric, and the artifice of words of man's wisdom, and with the plausible advantages of a pretended sanctity, and of strong grounds and motives unto diligence and painfulness, to a very denying and renouncing Christian liberty, when once it is observed, how it entrencheth upon, and darkeneth lustre, or diminisheth the glory of free grace, and hath the least tendency to the setting of the crown on the creature's head, in whole or in part?
Standing in from Sea, the Depth of Water very soon diminisheth from 30 to 20 and 17 fathoms, afterwards gradually from 9, 8 and even to 6 fathoms; but between this Shoal Water and the Main, which is 6 or 7 leagues, you will have 10, 12 and even 16 fathoms, till you come within 2 or 3 leagues of the Shore.
None of these I love, when I love my God; and yet I love a kind of light, and melody, and fragrance, and meat, and embracement when I love my God, the light, melody, fragrance, meat, embracement of my inner man: where there shineth unto my soul what space cannot contain, and there soundeth what time beareth not away, and there smelleth what breathing disperseth not, and there tasteth what eating diminisheth not, and there clingeth what satiety divorceth not.
He who ought to be the source of healing is one of those who cause sicknesses. The transgressor diminisheth the truth. He who filleth well the right measure acteth rightly, provided that he giveth neither too little nor too much. The man who is dissatisfied induceth separation, and the man who hath been condemned bringeth on schisms, even before one can know what is in his mind.
It is a great error to think, that a covenant diminisheth obedience, it was ever thought accumulative. And indeed true religion layeth strict ties upon men in doing of their duty. "Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake." A necessity to obey is laid upon all. Many subjects obey for wrath, but the godly obey for conscience' sake.
Lord Bacon, in his admirable essay on Ceremonies, says: "Not to use ceremonies at all, is to teach others not to use them again, and so diminisheth respect to himself; especially they be not to be omitted to strangers and formal natures; but the dwelling upon them, and exalting them above the moon is not only tedious, but doth diminish the faith and credit of him that speaks."
And as this shows the cause of the life of the church, notwithstanding her ghostly and bodily enemies, so it showeth the cause of her deliverance from her repeated sins. As God said of leviathan 'I will not conceal his parts, &c. So it is very unbecoming of God's people to conceal their sins and miscarriages, for it diminisheth this mercy of God.
"And God divided the light from the darkness." We see the night still flies before the day, and dareth not come upon us again, but as the light diminisheth and conveyeth itself away. "And God divided the light from the darkness." God took part with the light, and preserved it from the darkness. The light and the darkness struggled together, and nothing could divide or part them but God.
At one time he gives him part of his estate, at another he assists him with the labour of his hands; sometimes he helps him to persuade, sometimes he aids him to compel; in prosperity he heightens his delight by rejoicing with him; in adversity he diminisheth his sorrows by bearing a share of them.
The sage begins his work with a lament about the evil effects that follow old age in a man "Depression seizeth upon him every day, his eyesight faileth, his ears become deaf, his strength declineth, his heart hath no rest, the mouth becometh silent and speaketh not, the intelligence diminisheth, and it is impossible to remember to-day what happened yesterday.
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