because we know we may lawfully do it but for that we know we must of necessity do it as bound thereunto in obedience to lawfull authority and in the conscience we ought to make of such obedience And the refusers do not onely de facto not conform to the contempt of authority and the scandall of others but they stand in it too and trouble the peace of the Church by their restlesse Petitions and Supplications and Admonitions and other publications of the reasons and grounds of their such refusall And verily this Countrey and County hath been not the least busie in these factions and tumultuous courses both in troubling our most gracious judicious and religious Soveraign with their petitions and also in publishing their reasons in a Book called The Abridgement printed 1605. to their own shame and the shame of their Countrey He who as I have been informed was thought to have had a chief hand in the collecting of those reasons and printing of that Book was for his obstinate refusall of Conformity justly deprived from his Benefice in this Diocess and thereupon relinquished his Ministery for a time betaking himself to another Calling so depriving the Church and people of God of the fruit and benefit of those excellent gifts which were in him But since that time he hath upon better and more advised judgement subscribed and conformed and the Church like an indulgent Mother hath not onely received him into her bosome again but hath restored him too though not to the same yet to a Benefice elsewhere of far better value Lastly there is difference in the faulty carriage of the persons and that on both parts especially on ours For though our Non-conforming Brethren condemn us with much liberty of speech and spirit having yet lesse reason for it than the weak Romans had for the strong among them might have forborn some things for the Weaks sake and it would have well become them for the avoiding of scandall so to have done which we cannot do without greater scandall in the open contempt of lawfull authority yet we do not despise them I mean with allowance from the Church if particular men do more than they should it is their private fault and ought not to be imputed to us or to our Church but use all good means we can to draw them to moderate courses and just obedience although they better deserve to be despised than the weak Romans did they being truly Weak ours Obstinate they Timorous ours also Contemptuous Now these differences are opened betwixt the Case in my Text and the Case of our Church we may the better judge how far forth Saint Pauls advice here given to the Romans in their case of eating and not-eating ought to rule us in our case of conforming and not-conforming in point of Ceremony And first of not despising then of not judging The ground of the Apostles precept for not despising him that ate not was his weaknesse So far then as this ground holdeth in our case this precept is to be extended and no further And we are hereby bound not to despise our Non-conforming Brethren so far forth as it may probably appear to us they are weak and not wilfull But so farre forth as by their courses and proceedings it may be reasonably thought their refusall proceedeth from corrupt or partiall affections or is apparently maintained with obstinacy and contempt I take it we may notwithstanding the Apostles admonition in my Text in some sort even despise them But because they think they are not so well and sairly dealt withall as they should be Let us consider their particular grievances wherein they take themselves despised and examine how just they are They say first they are despised in being scoffed and flouted and derided by loose companions and by profane or popishly affected persons in being styled Puritanes and Brethren and Precisians and in having many jests and fooleries fastened upon them whereof they are not guilty They are secondly despised they say in that when they are convented before the Bishops and others in Authority they cannot have the favour of an indifferent hearing but are proceeded against as far as Suspension and sometimes Deprivation without taking their answers to what is objected or giving answers to what they object Thirdly in that many honest and religious men of excellent and usefull gifts cannot be permitted the liberty of their Consciences and the free exercise of their Ministery onely for standing out in these things which our selves cannot but confess to be indifferent To their first Grievance we answer thâ—t we have nothing to do with those that are Popishly affected If they wrong them as it is like enough they will for they will not stick to wrong their betters we are not to be chaâ—ged with that let them answer for themselves But by the way let our Brethren consider whether their stiff and unreasonable opposing against those lawfull Ceremonies we retaine may not be one principall means to confirm but so much the more in their darknesse and superstition those that are wavering and might possibly by more ingenuous and seasonable insinuations be won over to embrace the truth which we professe And as for loose persons and profane ones that make it their sport upon their Ale-benches to raile and scoff at Puritanes As if it were warrant enough for them to drink drunk talk bawdy swear and stare or do any thing without controll because forsooth they are no Puritanes As we could wish our Brethren and their Lay-followers by their uncouth and sometimes ridiculous behaviour had not given profane persons too much advantage to play upon them and through their sides to wound even Religion it self so we could wish also that some men by unreasonable and unjust other some by unseasonable and indiscreet scoffing at them had not given them advantage to triumph in their own innocency and persist in their affected obstinacy It cannot but be some confirmation to men in errour to see men of dissolute and loose behaviour with much eagernesse and petulancy and virulence to speak against them We all know how much scandall and prejudice it is to a right good cause to be either followed by persons open to just exception or maintained with slender and unsufficient reasons or prosecuted with unseasonable and undiscreet violence And I am verily perswaded that as the increase of Papists in some parts of the Land hath occasionally sprung by a kind of Antiperistasis from the intemperate courses of their neighbour Puritanes so the increase of Puritanes in many parts of the Land oweth not so much to any sufficiency themselves conceive in their own grounds as to the disadvantage of some profane or scandalous or idle or ignorant or indiscreet opposers But setting these aside I see not but that otherwise the name of Puritane and the rest are justly given them For appropriating to themselves the names of Brethren Professors Goodmen and other
leave them worse than they found them Stomach will not bear out a matter without strength and to encounter an adversary are required Shoulders as well as Gall. A good cause is never betrayed more than when it is prosecuted with much eagernesse but little sufficiency This from the Method Observe secondly the Apostles manner of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Translators render it As we are wrongfully blamed As we are slandered As we are slanderously reported And the word indeed from the Originall importeth no more and so Writers both profane and sacred use it But yet in Scriptures by a specialty it most times signifieth the highest degree of Slander when we open our mouths against God and speak ill or amisse or unworthily of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly the sin we call blaspemy And yet that very word of Blaspemy which for the most part referreth immediately to God the Apostle here useth when he speaketh of himself and other Christian Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we are slandered nay as we are blasphemed A slander or other wrong or contempt done to a Minister quà talis is a sin of a higher strain than the same done to a Common Christian. Not at all for his persons sake for so he is no more Gods good creature than the other no more free from sins and infirmities and passions than the other But for his Callings sake for so he is Gods Embassadour which the other is not and for his works sake for that is Gods Message which the others is not Personall Slanders and Contempts are to a Minister but as to another man because his person is but as another mans person But slanders and contempts done to him as a Minister that is with reference either to his Calling or Doctrine are much greater than to another man as reaching unto God himself whose Person the Minister representeth in his Calling and whose errand the Minister delivereth in his Doctrine For Contempts S. Paul is expresse elsewhere He that despiseth despiseth not man but God And as for Slanders the very choice of the word in my Text inferreth as much The dignity of our Calling enhaunceth the sin and every slander against our regular Doctrines is more than a bare Calumny if no more at least petty blasphemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we are slandered as we are blasphemed That from the word Observe thirdly the wrong done to the Apostle and to his Doctrine He was slanderously reported to have taught that which he never so much as thought and his Doctrine had many scandalous imputations fastened upon it whereof neither he nor it were guilty As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say The best truths are subject to mis-interpretation and there is not that Doctrine how firmly soever grounded how warily soever delivered whereon Calumny will not fasten and stick slanderous imputations Neither Iohns mourning nor Christs piping can passe the pikes but the one hath a Devil the other is a Glutton and a Wine-bibber Though Christ come to fulfill the Law yet there be will accuse him as a destroyer of the Law Matthew 5. And though he decide the question plainly for Caesar and that in the case of Tribute Mat. 22. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars yet there be that charge him as if he spake against Caesar Iohn 19. and that in the very case of Tribute as if he forbade to give Tribute unto Caesar Luke 23. Now if they called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold If Christs did not think we the doctrine of his Ministers and his Servants could escape the stroke of mens tongues and be free from calumny and cavill How the Apostles were slandered as Seducers and Sectaries and vain bablers and Hereticks broachers of new false pestilent doctrines their Epistles and the book of their Acts witnesse abundantly to us And for succeeding times read but the Apologies of Athenagoras and Tertullian and others and it will amaze you to see what blasphemous and seditious and odious and horrible impieties were fathered upon the Ancient Christian Doctors and upon their profession But our own experience goeth beyond all Sundry of the Doctors of our Church teach truly and agreeably to Scripture the effectuall concurrence of GODS Will and Power with subordinate Agents in every and therefore even in sinful actions Gods free election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves The immutability of Gods Love and Grace towards the Saints elect and their certain perseverance therein unto Salvation The Iustification of sinners by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ apprehended and applied unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable doctrines And yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme GOD and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarmine Gretser Maldonate and the Jesuits but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the rable of that crew freely spend their mouths in barking against us as if we made God the author of sin as if we would have men sin and be damned by a Stoicall fatall necessity sin whether they will or no and be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousnesse and profanenesse let them believe it is no matter how they live heaven is their own cock-sure as if we cryed down good works and condemned charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These imputations upon us and our doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that thus mis-report us know that without repentance their damnation will be just It would be time not ill spent to discover the grounds of this observation and to presse the uses of it something fully But because my aim lyeth another way I can but point at them and passe If seldome Truth scape unslandered marvel not the reasons are evident On Gods part on Mans part on the Devils part God suffereth Man raiseth and the Devil furthereth these slanders against the Truth To begin ordine retrogrado and to take them backwards First on the Devils part a kind of Contrariety and Antipathy betwixt him and it He being the Father of lies and Prince of darknesse cannot away with the Truth and with the Light and therefore casteth up slanders as Fogs and Mists against the Truth to bely it and against the Light to darken it Secondly on Mans part And that partly in the understanding when the judgement either of it self weak or else weakened
if we should but observe the conditions of some families in a long line of succession might we not espie here and there even whole generations of Drunkards generations of Swearers and generations of Idolaters and generations of Worldlings and generations of seditious and of envious and of riotous and of haughty and of unclean persons and of sinners in other kinds This ungodly King Ahab see how all that come of him taste of him and have some spice and relish of his evil manners Of his son Ahaziah that next succeeded him in the kingdom of Israel the Text saith in the next Chapter that He walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother And another Ahaziah king of Iudah the grand-child of Iehosaphat by the fathers side and of Ahab by the mothers drew infection from the mother and so trod in the steps rather of this his wicked Grandfather Ahab than of his good Grandfather Iehosaphat and of him therefore the Scripture saith remarkably in 4 Kings 8. He walked in the way of the House of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord as did the House of Ahab for he was the Son-in-law of the House of Ahab Little doth any man think what hurt he may doe unto and what plague he may bring upon his posterity by joyning himself or them in too strict a bond of nearnesse with an ill or an Idolatrous House or Stock Here we see is Ahab's house taxed and not his person onely even the whole family and brood and kinn of them branch and root And that Iehoram also who is the son here spoken of and meant in my Text did Patrisare too as well as the rest of the kinred and take after the father though not in that height of impiety and idolatry as his father is plain from the sequel of the Story And so doing and partaking of the Evils of sinne with his father why might not he also in justice partake of the Evils of punishment with his father Secondly the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children sometimes as possessours of something which their fathers left them with Gods curse cleaving unto it As in the Law not onely he that had an issue of uncleannesse made them unclean that touched him but even the saddle or stool he sate upon the cloathes he wore the bed whereon he lay any vessel of earth or of wood that he did but touch was enough to bring legal pollution and uncleanness upon any other person that should but touch them So not only our fathers sins if we touch them by imitation but even their lands and goods and houses and other things that were theirs are sufficient to derive Gods curse upon us if we do but hold them in possession What is gotten by any evil and unjust and unwarrantable means is in Gods sight and estimation no better than stollen Now stollen goods we know though they have passed through never so many hands before that man is answerable for in whose hands they are found and in whose custody and possession they are God hateth not sinne only but the very monuments of sinne too and his curse fasteneth not only upon the agent but upon the brute and dead materials too And where theft or oppression or perjury or sacrilege have laid the foundation and reared the house there the Curse of God creepeth in between the walls and seelings and lurketh close within the stones and the timber and as a fretting moath or canker insensibly gnaweth asunder the pinns and the joynts of the building till it have unframed it and resolved it into a ruinous heap for which mischief there is no remedy no preservation from it but one and that is free and speedy Restitution For any thing we know what Ahab the father got without justice Iehoram the son held without scruple We doe not finde that ever he made restitution of Naboths vineyard to the right heir and it is like enough he did not and then between him and his father there was but this difference the father was the thief and he the receiver which two the Law severeth not either in guilt or punishment but wrappeth them equally in the same guilt and in the same punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And who knoweth whether the very holding of that vineyard might not bring upon him the curse of his fathers oppression it is plain that vineyard was the place where the heaviest part of that curse overtook him But that which is the upshot of all and untieth all the knots both of this and of all other doubts that can be made against Gods justice in punishing one for another ariseth from a third consideration which is this That the children are punished for the fathers sins or indefinitely any one man for the sins of any other man it ought to be imputed to those sins of the fathers or others not as to the causes properly deserving them but only as occasioning those punishments It pleaseth God to take occasion from the sinnes of the fathers or of some others to bring upon their children or those that otherwise belong unto them in some kind of relation those evils which by their own corruptions and sins they have justly deserved This distinction of the Cause and Occasion if well heeded both fully acquitteth Gods justice and abundantly reconcileth the seeming Contradictions of Scripture in this Argument and therefore it will be worth the while a little to open it There is a kind of Cause de numero efficientium which the learned for distinctions sake call the Impulsive Cause and it is such a cause as moveth and induceth the principal Agent to do that which it doth For example A Schoolmaster correcteth a boy with a rod for neglecting his book Of this correction here are three distinct causes all in the rank of efficients viz. the Master the Rod and the boys neglect but each hath its proper causality in a different kind and manner from other The Master is the Cause as the principal Agent that doth it the Rod is the Cause as the Instrument wherewith he doth it and the boys neglect the impulsive cause for which he doth it Semblably in this judgement which befell Iehoram the principal efficient cause and Agent was God as he is in all other punishments and judgements Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3. and here he taketh it to himself I will bring the evil upon his house The Instrumental Cause under God was Iehu whom God raised up and endued with zeal and power for the execution of that vengeance which he had detetmined against Ahab and against his house as appeareth in 4 Kings 9. and 10. But now what the true proper impulsive cause should be for which he was so punished and which moved God at that time and in that sort to punish