Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

whereas indeed the fault¹ was in their own unsincerity and evil ends. For the² Word of the Lord doth good to those that walk uprightly, as the Prophet speaks. Fourthly, its Laws and Edicts, whereby it setteth the members awork, and publisheth its own will; and that either under the show of reason (for sin hath certain Maxims, and principles of corrupted reason, which it takes for indubitable and secure, wherewith to countenance its tyrannical commands) or else under the shape of Emoluments and Exigences, and Inevitableness, which may serve to warrant those commands that are otherwise destitute even of the colour of reason. Like that device of Caiaphas, when they knew not how to accuse Christ, or³ charge him with any face of capital crimes, yet he had found out a way that though there were no personal reasons, nor just grounds to proceed upon, yet admitting and confessing the innocency of the person of Christ, the Expedience notwithstanding and Exigency of state so requiring it, fitter it was for one innocent person to perish, and thereby the safety of the common wealth, which⁴ depended upon their homage to the Romans, to be secured, then by the preservation of one man to have the welfare of the whole people lie at hazard, and exposed to the fea•es, and jealousies, and displeasures of the Romans, who by public fame were very suspicious of an universal prince which was to arise out of Judea, and none so likely to be the man, as he who could raise dead men out of their graves, and so be never destitute of armies ⟨p. 222⟩to help him: so though there was no •quum est, yet there was an exp•dit, though no reason or justice, yet⁵ there was Exigence and Expediency why he ought to die, though not as a malefactor to satisfy for his own offence▪ yet as a sacrifice to expiate, and to prevent those evils of state which the fame of his mighty works might have occasioned. And thus doth sin deal with men, sometimes by the help of corrupt reason, and counterfeit maxi ne it makes the sins which are commanded seem warrantable and equal; sometimes, where the things are apparently evil, and cannot be justified, yet by pretence of some present exigencies it makes them seem necessary and avoydable.