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A23716
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Eighteen sermons whereof fifteen preached the King, the rest upon publick occasions / by Richard Allestry ...
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Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing A1113; ESTC R226483
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306,845
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356
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inferr Christ's Application that at least we begin to cease and sin no more least a worse thing come unto us I. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceast from Sin None but He and He certainly When it appear'd that Eden had too much of Garden for innocence to dwell in and although man were made upright yet amidst such delights he could not be so a whole day but of the many inventions he found out the first was to destroy himself immediately and under the shadow of the Tree of life he wrought out death and made the Walks of Paradise lead him towards Hell God saw himself concern'd to take another course He sets a guard of fire about Eden about the place of pleasure as well as in the place of torments and there was as much need of flame to keep man out of Paradise as flame to fright him from Hell He makes the Earth not spring with Garden any more but bring forth thorns and bryars that might scratch and tear man in the pursuit of things below which if the Soul should cleave and cling unto the Earth might gore and stab it in the embrace Nothing but sufferings will do us good The Earth was most accurst to man when it was all Paradise nothing but the malediction could make it safe and bless it to us our happiness must be inflicted executed on us and we must be goaded into blessedness and therefore God hath put afflictions into every dispensation since the first Among the Jews sin did receive immediate punishment by the tenour of the Covenant and though the retributions of our Covenant be set at distance as far remote as Hell yet Christ has drest his very promises in sackcloth and in ashes tears and trouble when he would recompense heroick vertue he says it shall receive an hundred fold with persecution Mar. 10. 30. and he does grant us sufferings to you it is given in the behalf of Christ to suffer Phil. 1. 29. so that the sting of the Serpent is now the tempter his biteings and his venom moving us to obedience as much as his lying tongue did our first Parents to rebellion and when he does fulfill Gods threat and wound the heel he onely drives us faster away from him and makes us haste to him that flies to meet us with healing under his wings This method God hath alwaies us'd and the experience confirm'd by the blood of all ages even from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of this season of all the Prophets that went before us and the Apostles that came after them as if those were men inspir'd for ruine and what ever Judgment they denounc't it was their own burden and as if these were men chosen out for and delegated to persecution men appointed unto death as St. Paul expounds their office none escap't and the next succeeding times of Primitive Christianity were but Centuries of Martyrdom so many years of Fire and Faggot and worse tortures This method hath not past by any Grandeur but of those great ones that have been eminently good their afflictions have vy'd with their Majesty the Calendar hath had as much share of them as the Chronicle the Martyrology as the Annals and their bloud not their Purple put them in the Rubrick Gods Furnace made Crowns splendid gave them a Majesty of shine and an Imperial glory and so all our Crowns indeed must be prepar'd in the Furnace he that told us we must be Baptiz'd with fire saw there was something in us that the Christians water will not cleanse Baptism may wash sullays but not dross away That must be washt in flame and nothing else but fire will take away our base alloy And it cannot be otherwise never was there any other way to Glory for when God was to bring many Sons to glory he sanctified the very Captain of our salvation through sufferings Heb. 2. 10. Who though he were a Son and that the Son of God yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered Heb. 5. 8. This therefore is the only and most effectual way of teaching it when God speaks in Judgment and indeed he counts all other of his voices but as silence in comparison of this and though he gave his Law in Thunder and sent his Prophets daily to denounce wrath to transgression yet he reckons of all this as if he had said nothing till he speak Plagues and commands afflictions Psal. 50. 21. after a Catalogue of sins he tells the man these things hast thou done and I kept silence though my Law did warn thee and my Messengers call'd to thee yet I hardly expect that thou shouldst hear those whispers with all those voyces I did scarce break silence but now I will reprove thee and thou shalt hear the rod or hear thy own groans under it For that we may be sure to hear this voyce God does by it open the ear Job 33. 14 15 16. God speaks once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not in a dream and in a vision then he opens the ears of men by Chastisements as it follows in four verses full of them 19 20 21 22. and sealeth his instruction that he may withdraw Man from his purpose i. e. that he may make him cease from sin It seems the place of Dragons is Gods chiefest School of Repentance and we may have a clearer sight of him in the dimness of anguish than Vision it self does give When men did not perceive that saith Job yet this open'd the Ear and so God sealeth the Instruction And truly when the Soul dissolves in Tears and when as David words it The heart in the midst of the body is even like melting wax then onely 't is susceptible of Impression then is the time for sealing the Instruction Nor does Chastisement open the Ear only but the understanding also I will give her trouble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will take her into the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he and speak unto her Heart There is convincing Experience of all this Pharaoh that was an Atheist in Prosperity does beg for prayers in Adversity before he suffers Pharaoh saies Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5. 2. but yet Thunder preaches obedience into him and Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said I have sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my People are wicked intreat the Lord that there be no more mighty Thundrings no more Voices of God the Hebrew words it and I will let you go Exod 9. 27. And in the Book of Judges you will find that whole Age was nothing but a vicissitude of sinning and suffering divided betwixt Idolatry and Calamity When Gods hand was not on them they ran after other Gods as if to be freed from Oppression had been to be set free from Gods Worship and Service but when
like our Disciples that would call for fire from Heaven on the Village that rejected Christ these will raise up fire from Hell to consume their own Prince and his Progeny the whole line of Royalty the Church and Nation also in their representative and all this onely for refusing him that calls himself Christ's Vicar There are I must confesse among them that renounce the practice and say 't was the devise only of some few desperate male contents wicked Catholiques and design'd by the Devil And they will allow their Father Garnett to have had no other guilt but that he did not discover it having received it in Confession And this gives me occasion to propose a story to your patience and conjectures Not long before the time of this attempt a Priest of the Society of Jesus in a Book he publisht does propose this case of Conscience Whether a Priest may make use of what he hath learnt in Confession to aveâ—t great impendent mischiefs to the Government as for Example One confesses that himself or some other had laid Gun powder and other things under such an House and if they be not taken thence the House will be burnt the Prince must perish all that passe throughout the City will be either certainly destroy'd or in great peril and resolves it thus 'T is the most probable and safe opinion and the more suitable to Religion and to that reverence which is due to the Sacrament of Confession that it is not lawful to make use of this his knowledge to that end That his Holiness Clement the 8. had just before by a Bull sent to the Superiours of the Regulars commanded most studiously to beware they make not use of any thing which they come to know by Confession to the benefit of the secular Government He adds that in cases of Confession the Priest must not reveal though death be threatned to him but may say he knows it not nor ever heard it quia rever à non scit nec andivit ut homo seu pars reipub Tea he may swear all this if he but mentally reserve so as to tell you 'T is Del Rio in 6th Book of his Mag. dis 1. Cap. Sec. 2. It seems 't is safer to break all the obligations to Allegiance and to truth his duty and his oaths the Princes and Gods bonds than the Seal of Confession But I did not mention this to let you see the kindness these men have to Princes and their Government I shall avoid producing any the opinions of particular persons howsoever horrid in my arguments this day but I onely ask whether it be not very probable this instance was the thing to be attempted on this day Whether the resolution was not publisht the Pope's Bull if not made yet produc't at least to caution any Priest that should receive it in Confession and should be so honest as to abhor the Fact yet from betraying it and hindring the Execution of it If it were the case this was not then any rash attempt of some few desperate malecontents but a long contrivance and of many heads and its taking its effect was the great care of their Church Well they are even with us yet and lay as horrid Projects to the charge of Protestants Among our other Controversies this is one whether are the worse Subjects bloody sayings are produc't from Authours on both sides yea there is the Image of both Churches Babel and Jerusalem drawn by a Catholique Pen and then you may be sure all Babell's divisions and confusions make the draught of ours and are said to be the issue of the Protestant Doctrines Whereas such things though countenanc't by some particular Authours of their Church were never own'd by any publique Act or Doctrine of a general Councel to which they provoke us I must needs confesse our Calendar can shew a thirtieth of January as well as a fifth of November There are indeed that say the Romanists hatcht that dayes guilt and challenge any man to call them to account for saying so But whether so or not which Churches Doctrines such things are more suited to I will now put to tryal that we may know what Spirit each is of And I will try it by the publique Acts and most establisht Doctrines of the Churches and here undertake to shew the Church of England most expresly does declare against all practises against the Prince for the cause of Religion But the Romish in those acts wherein she hath most reason to expect infallibility of Spirit also in the publique Acts of the Church representative in General Counsels does abett the doing them not onely for Religion but for the cause of Holy Church First If the Church of Rome have reason to expect infallible assistance of the Spirit in any case it is as much in Canonizing of a Saint as in any other it being as unhappy to determine a false Object for Religious Worship to their Church as a false Article of Faith there is as much need that there should be an infallible proposal of the one as other for when she does Decree by the Authority of the Omnipotent God such a one is a Saint receiv'd in Glory and so renders him the object of their Worship if he should chance to be a Reprobate to cause the People to fall prostrate to the Shrine of one that 's damn'd and call his flames to warm Gods Altar and the Votaries breast to make the whole Church worship one that is in Hell is lyable to greater aggravations of impiety than an erroneous opinion in very many of their points of Faith can be But it is known their Church hath Canoniz'd one of this Nation Becket who though he was indeed illegally and barbarously Murthered yet 't is not the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr now he did not fall a Sacrifice for his Religion but was slain because he did disturb the State by suspending all the Bishops that upheld the Kings just cause against him so that neither King nor State could live in peace for him for opposing also those Lawes which himself had sworn to Lawes that were not onely truly Soveraign Rights but are maintain'd even unto this day as Priviledges by the Gallican Church and they not branded for so doing In a word he was slain for those actions which his own Bishops condemned him for as a perjur'd man and a Traitour And for persisting in them to the death he was Sainted Now whatever the estate of this man be in the next World I meddle not with that Yet for disobedience and Rebellion to place one in Heaven whence for those things Lucifer did fall does seem to shew what Spirit they are of that Canonize such Saints For the Church to pray to Christ that by the wounds of this Saint he would remit their sins does expresse what rate their Church does set upon the merits of