Bishops and the vocation of the Ministry according to the ancient Canons the dignity of the Clergy in some sort preserved the honour and solemnity of Gods publick worship restored unto its original lustre the Doctrines of Religion vindicated to their primitive purity shew manifestly that they kept themselves to that sacred rule Ad legem testimonium to the Law and Testimony Two things there are especially considerable in the Church of Christ matters of Doctrine and of worship The first of these we find comprized in the Book of Articles the other in the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England In both of which the Fathers of this Church proceeded with a temperate hand having one eye upon the Scriptures the other on the practice of the Church of God in her purest Ages but none at all either on Saxonie or Geneva It s true indeed that Calvin offered his assistance to Archbishop Cranmer for the composing of our Articles si quis mei usus fore videbitur if his assistance were thought necessary and would have crossed the Seas about it But the Archbishop knew the man and how he had been practising with the Duke of Somerset ut Hoppero manum porrigeret to countenance Bishop Hooper in his opposition to the Churches Ordinances and thereupon refused the offer Latimer also tells us in a Sermon preached before King Edward Anno 1549. That there was a Speech touching Melanchthons comming over but it went no further then the Speech And he himself Melancthon writes to Camerarius Regiis literis in Angliam vocor that he was sent for into England but this was not till 53. as his Letters testifie the Articles of this Church being passed the year before in Convocation and the Doctrine setled God certainly had so disposed it in his heavenly wisdom that so this Church depending upon neither party might in succeeding times be a judge between them as more inclinable to compose then espouse their quarrells And for this Doctrine what it is how correspondent to the word of God and to the ancient tendries of the Catholick Church the Challenge and Apology of Bishop Jewel never yet throughly answered by the adverse party may be proof sufficient But we have further proof then that for the Archbishop of Spalato at his going hence professed openly that he would justifie and defend the Church of England for an Orthodox Church in all the essentiall points of Christianity and that he held the Articles thereof to be true and profitable and none of them at all heretical And he that calls himself Franciscus à Sâ— Clara in his Examen of those Articles denies not but that being rightly understood they do contain sound Catholick Doctrine Adeò veriâ—as ab invitis etiam pectoribus erumpet said Lactantius truly Now as the Church of England did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as once the Orator affirmed of the Grecian Oracles in the points of Doctrine so neither did it Calvinize in matter of exterior order and Gods publick Worship The Liturgy of this Church was so framed and fitted out of those common principles of Religion wherein all parties did agree that it was generally applauded and approved by those who since have laboured to oppose it Alexander Alesius a learned Scot did first translate it into Latine and that as he himself affirms both for the comfort and example of all other Churches which did endeavour Reformation and increase of piety The Scots in their first Reformation divers years together used the English Liturgy the fancy of extemporary prayers not being then took up not cherished as Knox himself confesseth in his own dear History And howsoever now of late they have divulged a factious and prohibited Pamphlet against the English Popish Ceremonies as they please to call them yet in the structure of their Reformation they bound themselves by Oath and by Covenant too to adhere only to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England Religionis cultui ritibus cum Anglis communibus subscripserunt as it is in Buchannan So for the other opposite party those of Rome they made at first no doubt nor scruple of coming to our publick Service or joyning with us in the worship of one common Saviour Sir Edward Coke a man who both for age and observation was very well able to avow it both in his pleadings against Garnet and his Charge given at the Assizes held in Norwich and the sixth part of his Reports in Cawdries case doth affirm expresly that for the ten first years of Queen Elizabeths Reign there was no Recusant known in England whose testimony lest it should stand single and so become obnoxious to those scorns and cavils which Parsons in his Answer unto that Report hath bestowed upon it Sanders himself in his seditious Book de Schismate shall come in for second Frequentabant haereticorum Synagogas intererant eorum concionibus ad easque audiendas filios familiam suam compellebant So he but not to stand upon his testimony or build so great an edifice on so weak a ground as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the suffrage and consent of the vulgar Meinie the Pope himself as Cambden doth relate the Story made offer to confirm our Liturgie the better to make up the breaches of the House of God which since the Priests and Jesuites have disswaded from out of a wretched policy to make them wider A point which verily that Pope had not yielded to being a very stiffe and rigorous Prelate but that he found the Liturgie to be so composed as it could no wayes be offensive unto Catholick eares Either the Pope must lose his infallibility and become subject unto error like to other men or else there is no error to be found in the English Liturgie Thus have we seen a Church reformed according to the prescript of the Word of God by the Law and Testimony A Church that seemes to have been cultivated by the Lords own hand planted by Paul and watred by Apollos God himself giving the increase A Church that grew up in the middle of two contrary factions as did the Primitive Church between Jew and Gentile and was the better strengthened and consolidated by the opposition Gods Field was no where better husbanded the good seed no where sowen with a clearer hand then it was in this O faciles dare summa Deos But as it fared at first with the Primitive Church so it hapned here We must not so far flatter and abuse our selves as to conceive there are no tares at all in our Reformation because it was first sowen with the Lords good Seed The Devil as he stayed his time donec dormirent homines till the servants slept so he made use of such a grain and used such subtile instruments to effect his purpose that many will not think them to be tares of the enemies sowing now
never wanted some since the time of Constantine that have opposed the errors of the Church of Rome the names of whom who list to see may finde them in Catalogus testium veritatis with their times and qualities so that the Cardinall might well have spared this bold expression non solum pastores sed et Deum valde dormivisse that God not men alone had been fast asleep had he not in so many ages stirred up one or other to make resistance to those errors which were sowen by Satan A speech which in another man might be called a Blasphemy but comming from the mouth of so grave a Father may passe among the Oracles of the Roman Conclave But since those circumstances of time place and person are pressed so frequently by the adversary and that the Cardinall insists so much upon it quod nullum horum in nobis possunt ostendere that we can finde none of them in the Church of Rome we must answer further that as the satisfaction of these Queres is not possible so it is not necessary Shall not my Doctor think me sick although he finde a general decay over all my body not one sound part from head to foot unless I can inform him punctually both when and where and in whose company I sickoned or should we conceive him a sory Architect that being called to view an old ruinous Building would not believe it wanted any thing or was out of order unless I could acquaint him where it first took wet and in what part it first decayed and who then dwelt in it Do not corruptions creep into the strictest Governments labente paulatim disciplina the rigour and severity of Discipline day by day declining And should we not repute him a most excellent Statesman that would think nothing fit for a Reformation unless some wiser then himself could tell him when and by whom and in whose Government the abuse crept in But to restrain our selves to matters that concern Religion Josephus tells us of the Pharisees what innovations they had made in the Jewish Church and that they published many things as the traditions of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were not to be found in the Books of Moses Our Saviour also tells us of them that they had made the Word of God of none effect by their traditions But for the time when they began and from what Authour they descended Josephus could not tell us and our Saviour did not which shewes our Saviour did not think it necessary nor Josephus possible Our Saviour looked not on the root but upon the fruit and by the fruit gave judgement of the Tree it self there being no Doctrine of what sort soever but it beares some fruit by which it may be known whether true or false my next particular and next in order to be handled Nemo non in vitia pronus est There are few men but are addicted to some vice either by the corruption of their nature or the iniquity of their education We are all sinners from the womb but are then most sinful when we are seasoned with ill Principles and that the poyson of our education is superadded to the venom of our dispositions And this is that which Tully charged upon Mr. Anthony that he had took great pains and studied most extreamly hard to be lewd and vitious ac si putaret se natura tam improbum non potuisse evadere nisi accessisset etiam disciplina But on the other side the benefit of a vertuous institution is so great and excellent that it correcteth in us our most prevalent frailties and rectifieth the obliquities of our affections which made the wise man give this testimony of and to Philosophy that by his knowledge in the same he could live uprightly and exercise those vertuous actions of his own accord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which others did upon compulsion and for fear of law How much more operation think we have those Doctrines on us which come apparalled in the habit of Religion and the Cloak of piety on a conformity to the which we are perswaded that all our comforts do depend for the present life and all our hopes for that to come Assuredly these precepts and instructions which we take from them whose words and dictates we imbrace as celestial Oracles are of power incredible either to make us fit for mischief or to inable and prepare us for the works of goodness so that in case there were no other way to know what leaders we have followed and what instructions have been given us the fruits of our affections would at full declare it The reason is because of that dependence which the affections have on the understanding that which the understanding apprehends as true being recommended to the will as good and forthwith by the will desired and followed so that as often as the understanding is deceived in its proper object and entertaineth falshood instead of truth so often is the will misguided in courting those things which indeed are wicked but yet are clothed in the habit of dissembled vertue upon this ground St. Paul hath told us of the Gentiles that having their understanding darkned through the ignorance which was in them they gave themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness If so if that so sad effects did follow upon the darkness of the understanding no question but the misperswasion wherewith sometimes it is effected produce more wretched consequents in our outward actions for if the understanding be depraved with false opinions the will most commonly is led aside by vain affections the errors of the same being farre more dangerous because more active Now there is nothing entertained in the understanding which is not recommended to it by the outward senses Nil est in intellectu quod non priùs fuit in sensibus say the old Philosophers And of all outward senses there is none more serviceable to the understanding then the sense of hearing for Fides ex auditu Faith is by hearing saith the Apostle By meanes whereof it comes to passe that as we preach even so the people do believe and as they do believe even so they practise Take we heed therefore what we preach and that we sowe not tares among simple men who cannot know them from the Wheat Now of the tares I told you in my last Discourse from Galen Plinie Theophrastus and many of the best of our modern Herbalists that they affect the sight with dimness and the head with giddiness and the whole body with Diseases And so it is also with the false opinions those dangerous and erroneous Tenets intended in the present Parable for in our eyes conceive we of our understanding they do occasion such a dimness that either we cannot see the way that leads to happiness or seeing see the same but will not perceive it And in our heads it doth produce so great a giddiness that we
present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Till that day come it is not to be hoped or looked for but that many Hypocrites false Teachers and licentious livers will couch themselves under the shelter of the Church and passe for members of it in the eye of men though not accounted such in the sight of God The eye of man can possibly discern no further then the outward shew and mark who joyn themselves to the Congregation to hear the Word of God and receive his Sacraments Dominus novit qui sunt sui the Lord knowes only who are his and who are those occulti intus whose hearts stand fast in his Commandements and carefully possess their souls in truth and holiness And yet some men there are as here hath been formerly who fancy to themselves a Church without spot or blemish and dream of such a field as contains no tares of such a house as hath no vessels but of honour sanctified and prepared for the Masters use And where they finde not such a Church they desert it instantly and cry Go out of her my people be not partakers of her sins The Cathari in the East the Donatists in the South the Novatians in the West which made one faction only though of several names were anciently of this opinion and set up Churches of their own of the new Edition for flattering themselves with a conceit of their own dear sanctity they thought themselves too pure and pious to joyn in any act of worship with more sober Christians and presently confined the Church which before was Catholick to their own private Conventicles and to them alone or intra partem Donati as they phrased it then Who have succeeded them of late both in their factions and their follies we all know too well The present ruptures in this State do declare most evidently that here is pars Donati now as before in Africa A frenzy which gave great offence to the ancient Fathers who laboured both by speech and pen to correct their insolencies and of such scandall to the Churches of the Reformation that Calvin though a rigid man did confute their dotages and publickly expose them to contempt and scorn The Ancients and the Moderns both have agreed on this that though the Church of Christ be imperfect alwayes and may sometimes be faulty also yet are not men rashly to separate themselves from her Communion and make a rupture for poor trifles in the Body mystical It argues little faith lesse charity saith renowned Cyprian if when we see some tares in the Church of God de Ecclesia ipsa recedamus we presently withdraw our selves and forsake her fellowship And here we might bring in St. Austin and almost all the ancient Writers to confirm this point but that they are of no authority with the captious Schismatick and now of late disclaimed by our neater Wits Therefore for further satisfaction to the stubborn Donatist let us behold the constitution of the Church in the Book of God and take a view of the chief types and fortunes of it to see if we can sinde such a spotless Church as they vainly dream of In Adams Family which was the first both type and Seminary of the Church of God there was one Cain a murderer that slew his Brother and in the Ark the next and perhaps the greatest a Cham which wretchedly betrayed the nakedness of his aged Father In Abrahams house there was an Ishmael which mocked at Isaac though the Heire and the Heire of promise In Isaac's a prophane Esau who made his belly his God and sold Heaven for a break-fast In Jacob's there was Simeon and Levi Brethren in evill besides a Reuben who defiled â—is old Fathers bed And in the Church of Israel when more large and populous how many were mad upon the worship of the golden Calf more mad in offering up their Children to the Idol Moloch thousands that bowed the knee to Baal ten thousands which did sacrifice in the Groves and prohibited places yet all this while a Church a true visible Church with which the Saints and Prophets joyned in Gods publick worship Let us next look upon the Gospel and we shall find that when the bounds thereof were so strait and narrow that there were few more visible members of it then the twelve Apostles yet amongst them there was a Judas which betrayed his Master When it began to spread and inlarge it self to the number of one hundred and twenty there were among them some half-Christians such as Nicodemus who durst not openly profess the Gospel but came unto the Lord by night and some false Christians such as Demas who out of an affection to the present world forsook both the Apostle and the Gospel too See them increased to such a multitude that they were fain to choose seven Deacons to assist the work and one of them will be that Nicolas the founder of the Nicolaitans whom the Lord abhorred Follow it out of Jewrie to Samaria and there we find a Simon Magus as formall a Professor as the best amongst them yet full of the gall of bitterness within Trace it in all its progress through Greece and Asia and we shall see the factiousness of the Corinthians the foolishness of the Galatians and six of the seven Asian Churches taxed with deadly sinne Good God! into what corner of the Earth can the Donatist run to finde a Church without corruption free from sin and error It must be sure into the old Utopia or the new Atlantis or some fools Paradise in Terra incognita which no Mapp takes notice of unless as Constantine once said unto Acesius a Novatian Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they can erect a Ladder of their own devising and so climb up unto the Heavens whilest they are here upon the Earth they have no such hopes God better knowes then we what he hath to do and he already hath determined of a Simul crescere that both the Tares and Wheat shall grow up together Nor wanted his eternal wisdom some especial reasons which might incline him thereunto First in relation to the wicked who owe their preservation chiefly to this intermixture For certainly the note is true Deum propter bonos sustinere malos That God gives many temporal blessings to ungodly men because they live so intermingled with his faithful servants and respites them sometimes from the hand of punishment not for their own but for the righteous persons sake amongst whom they dwell The Lord we know blessed Laban for the sake of Jacob and prospered the whole house of Potiphar out of the love he bare to Joseph If Sodom stood so long unpunished it was in part because of righteous Lot who sojourned with them and possibly it might have stood to this very day but certainly have
that they aimed at more then obedient greatness The power and sway they had with the common people had so farre inabled them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hurt their enemies and promote their friends that happy was the man could be favoured by them Nay more then this they would have Kings and Princes stand at their devotion and be directed by them in all matters both of Church and State or else controll and terrifie them with their numerous followers the multitude of their Disciples Which lest I may be thought to report without book we need but look into Josephus where we shall finde that Alexandra durst not enter on the Government in her Childrens non-age until she had permitted all things unto their disposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and promised to do nothing without their directions What was the reason think ye why that excellent Lady humbled her self so lowly to so proud a Sect marry she did it by advice of her dying Husband whose Government proved not so successful as the Prince deserved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that he had offended that prevailing faction We need not doubt but that all such as have pursued the courses of these Pharisees do propose their aims laying the foundation of their greatness upon the backs of their Disciples whom if they have infected with their dangerous principles there is no man so safe whom they may not mischief nor any estate so sure which they may not ruine Examples of the which in the Priests of Meroe and that command they held on the Aethiopians I could tell you some but desire rather to refer you to Diodorus Siculus for your satisfaction So true is that of Quintus Curtius Multitudinem vana religione captam meliùs vatibus suis quà m ducibus parere The common people once possessed with a false Religion are more obedient to their Priests then unto their Princes Thus have I brought the Churches sickness to the pitch or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the utmost extremity of this strange Disease Pity it were to leave her in this desperate state and therefore I make hast all the hast I can to call in the Physician and attend the cure Vigilate igitur Watch therefore There is a great similitude between the body natural and the body mystical the bodies of us men and the Church of Christ each of them hath their infancy their youth their age each of them their peculiar maladies and their proper cures And as in bodily Diseases no sooner we begin to be ill-disposed but presently we look out for the Physician so in these griefs and sicknesses which befall the Church it is not safe to trifle or delay the time but have recourse to the Physician with all speed that may be Now the Physicians in this case the Churches Doctors are those to whom this charge was given by the Apostle and they are said to be the Elders of the Church of Ephesus What the Lay-Elders of the City men of shops and Trades this day a bencher in the Consistory the next a botcher on the stall Not so though some have so delivered but such as were at least in sacris ordinibus constituti men in holy orders such as had parts to feed the flock and power to rule it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 28. will admit both duties and so exclude Lay-Elders from being any way concerned in the present business Those of the Laity must either lose the name of Elders in the present sense or else take the office and if they undertake the charge they must be Pastors and not Lay-men The Office proper to these Presbyters was that which Christ commended to St. Peter and that was pascere gregâ—m Dei If they did this then were they Pastors if they did not they were no Presbyters the name and Office here must needs go together And though in our Translation both here and elsewhere we render the word Presbyter by that of Elder yet when we finde it so translated we must take it thus that howsoever for their age they were called Elders yet by their Office they were Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments such as had senectutem cordis though not corporis in St. Gregories language Priests they were then that here assembled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Church-construction and yet not simply Priests and no more then so but such as were above the rest both in place and power the Bishops and chief Rulers both of that and the neighbor-Churches The Text is plain in quo vos Sp. S. posuit Episcopos that the holy Ghost had made them Bishops or Overseers as we read in the last Translation And I said well that so we read it in the last for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so in the beginning An ancient M. S. Translation which by the Character and Language I guesse to be as old as Wiclif reads it plainly Bishops So doth that also of Miles Coverdale a fervent Protestant in King Henries dayes and no great friend unto the calling although one himself Beza though he dislike the Hierarchy and makes it a device of man if not of Satan yet renders it Episcopos as the vulgar doth And so do the Divines of the Lutheran Churches though generally in common speech they rather do affect the Title of a Superintendent and so ex Graecis bonis Latinas fecere non bonas as the Poet hath it Only our last Translators of all people else when as they might have kept themselves with safety to the Greek Originals have brought us in an Overseer for a Bishop Which if it were not done ut placerent populo to please the people yet possibly it might be done quia timebant sibi à populo because they were afraid to offend the people A vein of which timidity one may easily finde in many places of the Acts and Writings of the holy Apostles But Overseers let them be the Overseers if you please of Christs Will Testament the overseers of the Clergy which are the Executors of that Will Testament appointed to administer the Word and Sacraments which are the Legacies Christ left behind him unto all the people And Overseers let them be in name and dignity as well as Office For being that the Priest may be called a Seer according to that meaning of that notion in the first of Samuel He that is now called a Prophet was before called a Seer then certainly the Bishop being over and above the Priest may well be called an Overseer And so all circumstances pondered and compared together we have gained thus much that those to whom this charge was given were Bishops or Overseers if you will such unto whom the oversight of the flock was trusted such unto whom St. Peter speaks in his first Epistle Pascite gregem Dei qui in vobis est Feed you the flock of Christ which is amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
let us look upon the sheep as they are a flock as they are Oves first in the plural number and secondly as Oves meae my sheep the sheep of Christ a multitude or number under the command of one supreme Sheepherd First Oves in the plural number otherwise Christ could have no Church and the great Sheepherd would have never a Flock One sheep can no more properly be called a Flock then one Swallow may be said to make a Summer and on the other side a multitude of sheep without rule or Government is no more a flock then several shreds of Cloth may be called a Garment So is it also with the Church one man though never so replenished with celestial Graces cannot so properly be called a Church as a Chappel of Ease and multitudes of men that live not under one Lord one Faith one Baptisme cannot with such propriety be termed a Church as a confusion of opinions To the making therefore of a Church a Flock there is a number first required and next an union or consolidation of those numbers It s true this number hath not been at all times eminent nor equally conspicuous in all places and yet there have been still a number Seven thousand knees there were in Israel which Elijah knew not that had not bowed themselves to Baal and infinite numbers in the Realm of Judah who never offered sacrifice to that wretched Idol visible Professors of Gods saving truths and devout worshippers of his holy name Nor ever was the Church so destituâ—e of the grace of God as not to hold those necessary fundamental Doctrines which are required unto salvation and those professed and taught in some place or other according to the will and pleasure of Almighty God Since God first had a Church there have still been numbers of Professors though more or lesse according unto times and seasons more in some places then in others although not alwayes in such whole and sound condition so free from erroâ— and corruptions as it ought to be But number simply is not so great a strength to the Church of God as is the unity thereof For as the holy Ghost in the Book of Psalms compares the Church not unto men but to a City a City at unity in it self and in the Canticles not unto Souldiers but an Army an Army terrible with banners so doth he liken it not unto sheep but to a flock a flock new come from washing in the same Song of Solomon a little flock as himself calls it in St. Luke And if a flock it must be then united and collected into one Fold under the leading and command of the same one Sheepherd unum â—vile and unus Pastor being joyned together in this Chapter v. 16. To finde this one Sheepherd who it is we need seek no further then my Text it is Christ our Saviour who therefore calleth them oves meas his own sheep his as the chief sheepherd and proprietary the Lord and owner of the flock And this supreme and universal sheepherd we acknowledge gladly and should account our selves in an ill condition were we not under his command fed by his blessed Word and Sacraments and safely sheltered under the wings of his protection There is indeed another who pretends to this this universal Empire over all the Flock one who cries out with Polyphemus in the Poet Hoc pâ—cus omne meum est that all the sheep upon the Downs are his or like the sheepherd in the Eclogue Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus Agnae and so are all the Lambs on a thousand Hills And whereas antiently it was conceived to be a perfect definition of the Church of Christ viz. that it was a body of men professing one Lord one Faith one Baptisme our Masters in the Church of Rome have now added this sub unius Christi in terris Vicarii Romani Pont. that this collected body must be under the command of the Bishop of Rome A patch subjoyned to the old definition of a Church much like the piece of new Cloth put to an old Garment which our Saviour speaketh of That which is added to it to make up the rent takes from the beauty of the Garment Et scissura fit pejor saith the Text the Schisme or rupture is made worse then before it was For by this patch this new addition the Churches of the East which are large and numerous those of the Moscovites and Aâ—thiopians which are farre more entire though not so populous and all the Churches also of the Reformation are cut off for ever from having any part in David or hope of an inheritance in the sonne of Jesse But with this new Divinity we have nought to do We know but one chief Sheepherd onely even the Lord Christ Jesus whose voyce we are to hear whom we ought to follow If it be asked whether the number or the unity of the flock be the more considerable no question but we must determine it in behalf of unity A small flock if it hold together are lesse obnoxious to the Wolf then multitudes of sheep dispersed and scattered without rule and order Luporum insidiis oves minus patent quod ita catervatim incedant à reliquis non aberrent as mine Authour hath it When the sheep keep together in a flock a Body the Wolf dare hardly meddle with them for it were madness in him to attempt a flock But if he meet them single or in scattered Companies divided from the main Body of their fellows or otherwise stragling from the Fold then takes he his advantage of them and destroyes them utterly As long as Dinah kept her self within the Sanctuary of her Fathers House fenced by the valour of her Brethren and guided by the counsels of a careful Parent it went well with her she preserved her honour But when the gadding humour took her and she must needs abroad to see the Daughters of the Land she forthwith met with Sichem the Sonne of Hamor who seized upon her and defiled her And so it also is with the stragling Christian such as do peevishly divide themselves from the Communion of the Church and wander from the rest of that sacred Body They either fall into the jawes of the roaring Lion who walkes about in expectation of his prey seeking out whom he may devoure or else by hearkening to the voice of strangers whom they should not follow they make themselves a spoyl unto Theeves and Robbers Keep we then all together in one Fold one Flock and so we need not fear the violence of Satan nor the power of Hell nor any mischievous design of malicious men And if we would preserve the spirit of unity in the bond of peace we cannot do it with lesse hazard nor with more assurance then if we hearken diligently to the voyce of Christ and tread with patience in his steps which are the duties to be done
of God that they may seem to have consulted with the Scriptures and yet God did not leave them so as if he had done bountifully for them in giving them this knowledge that there is a God and that this God is to be worshipped but he revealed so much of his will unto them as might enable them to live in a vertuous manner or leave them utterly inexcusable before God and man The Gentiles saith St. Paul which know not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shewe the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witnesse Hence it is that the ancient Heroes attained to such a height in all moral vertues that for bounty valour magnanimity chastity justice and the rest they stand ennobled on record unto all posterity so that God did his part among them and sowed good seed his seeds of knowledge and Religion over all his field It was no want in him that they went no further that they proceeded not from morall to spirituall graces the fault was only in themselves who when they had received as much as might make way for their ambition or vain-glory or esteem with men cast off all further progresse in the works of piety as an unnecessary burden of no use at all by meanes whereof as St. Paul chargeth it upon them they held the truth of God in unrighteousness and so became without excuse Others there were who made no benefit at all of the seed sown in them whose hearts were waxed grosse their eares dull of hearing such as had closed their eyes as it were of purpose that so they might not see the great works of God whence I beseech you came this backwardness this most stupid dulnesse not from the Lord who is natura naturans nor from the faulty error and defect of nature which is natura naturata but it came meerly from themselves from their own evil wills and corrupt affections their wilfulness or negligence or both together The Lord hath so made man that he hath naturally in himself a power of seeing How comes it then to passe that some do not see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith Theophylact there 's none so blinde as they that will not see so saith the Proverb God gives men eares that they may hear and hearing may conceive his most holy will How comes it then to passe that they do not heare or hearing do not understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith mine Author it was their own fault only that they are so wilful And being so wilful as they were and so regardless of the mercies and grace of God no marvel if the Lord withdrew from them his most heavenly seed or sowed it with a sparing and lesse liberal hand The carelesse servant in the Gospel that hid his talent in a napkin and neither did employ it to his own or his Masters benefit not only was rebuked for so great a negligence but had his talent taken from him and it was given to one that knew how to use it Gods field is large and like a large field it consists of severall parts some places full of stones and some full of thorns and many times a foot-path or high-way that crosseth over it God soweth his good seed every where over all his Field but more in some parts then in others more in the good soyle then in the stony or the thorny-ground or the high-way side more in the Church then in the Synagogue more in the Synagogue of the Jewes then amongst the Gentiles according as it gives increase Of this we have a pregnant instance in the Jewes themselves the Word of God had been long preached unto them and hearing they did hear but would not perceive the Sonne of God had been long conversant among them and they had seen those wonders that he had performed which seeing they did see but would not believe They had ascribed the one to Belzebub he casts out Devils by the help of Belzebub the Prince of Devils the other t as Diabolical and impure a spirit Said we not that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil both of them slighted and contemned in that scornful question whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty things Such men as these that had so vilified and abused the grace of God could not but make themselves unworthy of a clearer light then that which might shine forth unto them from a Cloud of darkness therefore he spake unto them in a Parable and without Parables spake he not unto them not that the Lord envied them a more perfect ray of his Divinity he being that light which lighteth every man that comes into the World or that he was not willing to impart unto them sufficient meanes for their salvation who would that all men should be saved not so but that he found by their former actions how his Gospel would be entertained if it came among them how strong a resolution they had made not to be converted he that had lessoned his Disciples not to cast Pearles before the Swine had very ill observed his own direction had he layed open all the treasures of salvation to such obstinate Chapmen as were resolved to buy neither milk nor honey though they might buy them without money yet that he might not leave them destitute of all outward meanes by which they might attain to the eternal life he speaks unto them though farre off openeth his mouth to them though obscurely in dark speech and Parables This served to intimate that he was not yet departed from them that he had still a care of their preservation that he would yet be found if they pleased to seek that even they also should finde favour to understand the Word of God if they as his Disciples were would be sollicitious to enquire the meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it and he himself hath said They that seek shall finde and unto them that aske to them it shall be given to know the Mysterie of the Kingdom of Heaven Thus also is it with the Gentiles with Gods Field in general God sowes it only with good seed but so disposeth that good seed as may be most unto his Glory God sowes his good seed in his Field over all the World although not over all in an equall measure but the Church only brings forth fruit agreeable unto the seed sowne in her and God rewards this fruitfulness with a further favour in speaking to her after a more evident and significant manner then unto those that are without In which regard the holy Prophet having said that God had shewn his word to Jacob his Statutes and his Ordinances unto Israel exults with a non taliter that so he had not done unto other Nations nor had the Heathen so exact a knowledge of his holy Laws God sowes his good seed in his Church his best seed in that as being not his Field only but his Garden too
for so the Spirit calls it in the Book of Canticles and men we know are farre more curious in their Gardens then about their Fields But in this Church this Garden dress'd with Gods own hand there are some Plants that thrive and prosper more then others and those the Lord hath chosen to inoculate in the Tree of Life for every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth as himself hath told us that it may bring forth more fruit John 15. Let us all therefore have a care in our severall places that we amend our lives and yield fruits worthy of Repentance that being fruitful of good works in this present Nursery we may be all of us transplanted into the glorious Eden of eternal life I should now speak of Gods propriety in this Field and shew that it is ager suus Gods own Field alone but I have spoken of it sparsim through and in each part of this discourse and cannot but perswade my selfe that you all know the Earth is his because he made it and the World his because he governeth and directs it And therefore here I will conclude beseeching God c. SERMON II. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 21. 1637. MATTH 13. v. 25. But while men slept his enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way SPiritus isti insinceri non desinunt perditi jam perdere c. It is the observation of Minutius that the Devil being alienated from the love of God endeavours nothing more then mans destruction It is too great a misery as he conceives it to be miserable by ones selfe alone and Hell too hot to be â—â—dured if none else should endure it but the Devils upon this ground no sooner had the Lord made man but Satan laboured to undo him He had before procured himself a party in the Heaven of glories and amongst the Angels how much more easie was it for him to infect Paradise and seduce a woman In which attempt the issue proved so answerable to his hopes that man became devested of his chief indowments his Justice and Integrity Nor was there any way to repair those ruines but by the preaching of the word which he hath laboured ever since either to hinder that it be not preached at all or so to practise on the hearers that it be preached with little profit Three parts of that good seed which God had sown upon his Field are by those arts made barren and unprofitable and for the fourth that which did fall upon good ground and took root downward and began to bear fruit upwards even that if possible shall be corrupted in it self or mingled with a grain of different dangerous nature for sin as Chrysost hath noted he neither could destroy it in the seed nor scorch it in the blade nor choak it in the stalks as we are told he did in the former Parable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is resolved upon another neat device not like to fail this was to watch his opportunity and when the servants of the Husbandman were grown no lesse careful of their charge to scatter tares among the wheat and go his way Cum autem dormirent homines c. These words contain in them the two inseparable qualities of the old murderer his malice and his subtility his malice first express'd in this that he is inimicus ejus Gods enemie and secondly in his devilish plot to destroy Gods harvest sevit zizania in medio tritici his sowing tares among the Wheat His subtlety described in this first that he took his opportunity when as the servants of the Husbandman were fast asleep cum dormirent homines while men slept and lastly by his quick and crafty leaving of the place venit abiit he came secretly and departed suddenly Of this his speedy going thence and of the manner of his comming we shall say nothing at this time It is not for our benefit to be too zealous of his company in a business of this nature and therefore abeat let him go as for the residue of the Text we shall discourse thereof in these several Couplets First we shall speak unto you of the Devill and his diligence sevit inimicus ejus his enemy sowed next of the Seminary and the seed zizania in medio tritici tares in the middle of the Wheat and thirdly of the servants and their sluggishness cum dormirent homines while men slept of these in their order Victoria sine certamine constare non potest nec virtus ipsa sine hoste vertue is never made more amiable then by opposition nor should the valiant man be more remembred then the Coward if he had no Adversary how little had we known of David had he consumed his time in sloth and payed perhaps unto the Nations round about him for a secure and quiet bondage for this cause God hath pleased to let his enemy the Devil continue still and his creatures and to continue still a Devil had he but said the word he could have quickly made him nothing or had he pleased he could have made him meerly passive and only capable of torments but God did leave him as he was save that he cast him down to Hell ut eo superando vim suam vel exerceat vel ostendat that so there might be still some enemy on which to exercise his power and expresse his greatnesse I will put enmity saith God between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed not betwixt the Devil and us men though we do all descend from her who was the Mother of all living but between him and our Redeemer the promised seed the expectation of the Gentiles he only is of power to bruise the head of the old Serpent the Devil therefore is at enmity with him alone to him an enemy ex professo inimicus ejus his enemy to us an enemy no further then we have reference to him and are the children of his Kingdom the servants of his holy Houshold with this St. Chrysost accords Satan saith he doth bend his forces most against us men but the occasion of his malice is not so much in hate to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an inveterate hate to God whose badge and cognizance we bear just so the King of Ammon dealt with Davids servants not that he was displeased with them for how could they poor men deserve the anger of so great a Prince but that he bare no good affection to the King their Master In ancient times the Images of such as capitally had offended or otherwise were grown odious with the common people were broken down and publickly defaced in the chief assemblies on them the people used to expresse their fury when such as they distasted were above their reach too high for them to strike at Thus they of Rome effiggâ—es Pisonis in Gemonias traxerant had drawn the Images of Piso unto the place of execution had not