Christians are figs and grapes and olives that are not to be gathered from the bryars and thorns of the present world in which whoever will live godly must expect and patiently suffer but not deserve persecution A good Cause must not think it strange to finde bad entertainment on earth where it is a pilgrim and stranger Times are seldom so good as really to favour Gods Cause however the policies and lusts of men their pride licentiousness covetousness and ambition may seem to flatter it so far as suits with their present interests which are most what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-seeking partial and inordinate ut in vitis sic in causis homines spes improbas alunt as in other things so in religion men have their impipious ambitions and perverse hopes § Whereas the Cause of God is a self denying cause as to all ungodliness and worldly lusts teaching us to live contentedly righteously soberly and godly in all things § So that these large flags and streamers which some men of the Roman or other factions of later editions hang out to the vulgar as to the potency and prosperity of their Cause argue no more Gods cause to be with them or they with it then the fine feathers in fools caps argue them to have wit or wisdom in their heads coppar may be thus stamped and guilded which will not endure the fiery trial as true gold will and such is the Cause of God ever pure and precious just and holy though it be oppressed and persecuted as a jewel it loseth not its native lustre and worth though it be ill set or cast into the dirt To conclude this general description of Gods Cause this may be its Emblem It is as the tree of life in the Pardise of God the root of it is the Truth of God in his word the sap is holiness or true sanctity the leaf is charity without dissimulation the rinde or bark is order and good discipline in the Church also Equity and civil Justice in the State the lesser and lower fruit is every grace and good work growing in us or from us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prime and topmost cluster is Gods glory and the salvation of sinful souls through his free grace in Jesus Christ Having shewed the general tokens or marks of Gods Cause I now proceed by way of Induction and instance to set forth the particulars in which it consists 1. The grand Cause of God is his own glory this is the first mover great conservator and last consummator of all things which the divine Wisdom contrives or his Patience permits or his Power performs or his Justice Goodness and Mercy moderates or his Word commands For this cause he hath made and manageth all things in heaven and earth that the glory of his being may appear to men and Angels who are with all humility gratitude adoration service and admiration to return the just recognition and praises due to the divine Majesty for all his essential excellencies and his gracious emanations every Attribute and Perfection of God is by them to be owned with due respect of Faith Fear Love Duty Adoration and Admiration thus his Power Wisdom Justice Mercy Immensity Eternity Veracity Immutability c. are to be considered by men and Angels with suitable affections reflecting from them to God And among Christians the unity of the Divine Nature together with the Trinity of the sacred Persons or relations distinguished by the names of Father Son and Holy Spirit must be ever owned celebrated and adored according to the wonted Doxology or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Orthodox Churches This Cause God hath in all ages pleaded as his own royal concern against Atheists Polytheists Idolaters Antitrinitarians Anthropomorphites against prophane and proud livers who live as if there were no God above them also against vain and false swearers who blaspheme the name of God and bring a curse on their souls families and countries against presumptuous wicked doers who are their own gods and worshippers both self-Idols and self-Idolaters This is the first most immediate cause or concern of the Divine Nature and Glory that God be owned and none beside him or comparable to him This will be made good against wicked men and Devils by the pleas and principles of right Reason by the sensible beauty order harmony proportion usefulness and constancy of Gods Works in the world by his signal providences in judgement or mercy by his preservation of the Scriptures and the Church with true Religion by the predictions fulfilled and lastly by the terrors convictions and presages of mens consciences which are that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little God in our own brests as Mar. Aurelius calls it 2. The next great concern or Cause of God is that of the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Word and coessential Son of God the blessed Messiah the brightness of the divine glory and express image of the Father It is not enough now to beleive in God as Creator and Preserver of men but we must also beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer of beleiving penitent and obedient sinners by the mercy love and free grace of God This is the beloved Son of God whom we must hear the onely name under heaven by which we may be saved he that doth not obediently beleive the testimony of Prophets and Apostles of Miracles and Angels of Martyrs and Confessors of the Church Catholick and an enlightned conscience in this great Cause of the Messias even the crucified Jesus is under peremptory condemnation while such § Of this great and mysterious Cause God gave the world an account of old under types figures sacrifices and many ceremonies as shadows and resemblances under the Law but now the Substance and Son of Righteousness is come and hath fully taught his Church the will of God and the work such sinners have to do which is to repent and beleive in him whom the Father hath sent who so beleiveth not makes God a lyar and is already condemned to which must be added to compleat the cause of the sacred Trinity the belief and adoration of the Holy Ghost as God one with the Father and the Son in the Divine essence and glory though a distinct person as to the emanation from and relation to both ◠The Cause of God extends to the true Church of God as an holy corporation or society of such as do truely believe inwardly or outwardly and profess with Order and Charity the word worship and service of the true God with our Lord Jesus and the blessed Spirit according to the rule of the Scripture ◠God owns himself in Jesus Christ as the Father friend head and Husband of the Church such as fight against that fight against God and afflict the apple of his eye God is concerned that the foundation of his Church which is
fighting but by sober preaching and patient suffering This Spirit of glory was a riddle indeed and a new way to advance the Evangelical cause against the powerful oppositions found on all hands yet it was Gods way and prevailed by the power of his Word and the testimony of his Spirit of patience and glory which rested on them § As the first foundation stone of the Gospel or Church of Christ was laid in John Baptists and Christs blood so it was after builded up by St. Stephens St. James and their followers Then Christians like Parthians fought flying and prevailed by not resisting and were more then conquerors when they were most conquered the blood of Martyrs being the seed of the Church and their ashes as the compost ormendment of the world Fourthly It remains that I shew how God pleads his and his Churches Cause not always by miraculous and immediate instances but by the mediate instruments of his ordinary providence whom he stirs up to protect to favour to speak comfortably to his Sion that his warfare is finished that the days of refreshing are come such were some good or tollerable Kings among the Jews Asa Uzziah Hezekiah and Iosiah such was Constantine the Great and some other following Emperors that were Christian and orthodox too So since the Reformation God hath given specally in these British Churches Kings and Queens to be Nursing Fathers and mothers to true Religion Defenders of the true Faith and the Professors of it who had long ere this been martyred and burned butchered or massacred blown up and extirpated as Hereticks if the Romish Sea had not had bounds of national Laws and soveraign power set to it which said Hitherto and no further thou shalt go here thy proud and threatning waves shall be stopped I pray God we have not sinned away our defence and glory making breaches upon the banks of our Laws Government and Religion so wide as will let in at last that over-flowing scourge again upon us under the names of Liberty Toleration and Super-reformation Again God pleads his own cause as to true Religion by furnishing his Church First of the Jews with extraordinary Prophets such as was Moses Samuel Eliah Micah Isaiah Ieremiah Ezekiel Daniel and others till the Messiah came After the Apostles who were Master-builders God gave to his Christian Church such Heroes of learning zeal and courage as in all ages undertook all those Goliahs and sons of Anak who deâ—ied the host of God such of old were Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Cyprian Clemens the Cyrils the Basils Chrysostom Epiphanius the Gregories the great Athanasius St. Augustine St. Jerom St. Hilary Optatus Prosper and others during the heat of heathenish and heretical or schismatical persecution And this not singly onely but socially junctis viribus in Councils or Synods which were Ecclesiastical Parliaments either greater or lesser in several Diocesses or Provinces or National or Oecumenical of all the Christian world by their Pastors and Representatives these did mightily plead the cause of Christ against heretical novelties and schismatical partialities these kept the faith and peace of the true Church intire these guided gathered and healed the erring scattered and worried of the flock these by many hands made walls against the seas and mighty floods which the devil cast out of his mouth against the Woman cloathed with the sun the Church professing Christ Thus the famous Council of Nice so pleaded the cause of Christs Divinity that they crushed the Arrian Serpent in the egg and gave that cockatrice its deadly wound which it never recovered though it made a foul strugling a long time So the Council of Constantinople pleaded the cause of the Holy Ghost against the cavils of Macedonius So the Council of Ephesus pleaded the unity of Christs Person God and Man against Nestorius And the Council of Chalcedon the distinction of his Natures against Eutyches his confoundiug of them so in other cases as the cause of God and his Church required Councils were soveraign Physitians and applied excellent cordials till they came to be servile to the private causes lusts power and interests of men and less intent to the Word and Spirit of Christ as the first Council of Jerusalem was which ought to be the pattern of all after Synods And afterwards in the eclipse decline superstition and darkness of times in the Western Churches yet there were not wanting some that did still plead the cause of God as his witnesses against the Apostacies extravagancies and luxuries of the Romish tyranny and pride So was St. Bernard Nicolaus Clemangis Alvarus-Pelaegius Wickliff John Hus and Jerom of Prague our Lincolniensis Baleus and others Yea when God arose mightily to shake this Western world and to rack us off from our Monastick and Roman lees who can sufficiently muster up the armies of Worthies both abroad and at home of reverend Bishops and other learned Divines who have either stood in the gap with their arms or at the bar with their strong arguments pleading Gods cause by Scripture and antiquity by learned writings and holy lives against all oppositions I will name none because I will not seem partially silent to the merit of any This only I may without envy say none have exceeded the worthy Bishops and others of the Reformed Church of England who were and ever will be in impartial judgements esteemed among the first therein and the headmost ranks of Martyrs Confessors Reformers Preachers Disputers Writers and Livers while we were happy to enjoy such Fathers and such Sons of this Church as were worthy to enjoy those favours and Honors which this Nation heretofore grudged not to confer upon them and abhorred to take from them and their Episcopal Order which was excellently martialled and imployed by worthy Bishops as Jewel Usher Andrews Davenant Morton Prideaux Hall White Bilson Babington and others Also by Hooker Willet Sutliff Rogers and others of the Presbyterian subordination § T is true they were all men and so might have their infirmities more or less but they were such men of might and weight and of valour and renown that with all the grains of allowance they far out-weighed all that popular stuff or pomp of either learning or vertue gifts or graces Scholarship or Saintship which hath swelled their adversaries rather then filled them with any real truth or ingenuom worth comparable to them And however now indeed the Reformed Church and Religion of England doth look like an Army that hath been so harrased and routed as it hath lost most of its gallant commanders which gave life and courage and skill to the whole Protestant party and the cause of the Reformed Religion yet we must not despair but that God will return in mercy to us if once our lives and manners be but as reformed as our doctrine was this needeth not though the other do reforming § And because there will be failers and infirmities on the best
Causa Dei Gods pleading his own Cause Set forth in Two SERMONS PREACHED At the TEMPLE in November 1659. BY Dr. Gauden Bishop of Excester LONDON Printed by John Best for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in S. Pauls Church-yard 1661. TO THE Honourable Societies OF THE TEMPLES IN order to adorn my departure from you worthy and honored Gentlemen with a Beno decessit such grateful respects and civility as becomes me to your eminent and worthy Societies I have formerly prepared and now dedicated this following Treatise as my fare-well Present to you or a second monument of mine yea and of your Honor after that which was by me the last year of Englands captivity consecrated to the memorie of my reverend and renowned Predecessor Bishop Brownrig under the patrocinie of your Name that was as the Urn or Conservatory of his and your reciprocal kindness and mutual merits with whose mortall remains your piety hath adorned your Temple This second piece is the substance of those two Sermons which I first preached among you after I was invited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those dark and dangerous times to bestow my pains with you in the Term time The main subject of this is the The true Cause of God and the right pleading of it Which Theam I then chose to preach on because I observed in the whole course of our English tragedâ—â— that eveâ—y party still pretended to act their factious confusions upon their several stages in these three Kingdoms under the specious dress colour title and pretence of Gods Cause and the high zeal they had to plead it This this was always inscribed on the most bloody banners with this their tongues and pens were whetted who sought to build their Counter-Babels on the foundations and ruines of Zion With this Mark of the Lamb were those ravening wolves marked who drank the blood and eat the flesh of their Fathers and Mothers of Kings and Clergie of Church and Country with this Motto The Cause of God and Christ their false tongues their crazie heads their cruel hands and impudent faces were to be set off to popular reputation when nothing indeed was further from their hearts or works O the Cause of God the Cause of God the Cause of Iesus Christ cries every tatling and teeming faction when prostitute to and impregnated by the Incubus of some novel lust and new fancy as if it were now in travel and readie to be delivered of some holy birth or sacred prodigie This language or fallacy non causa pro-causa of urging the Cause where no Cause of God was the rigid Presbyterian learned in Scotland this the puny Independant brought from Arnheim or New England This of old the Anabaptists cried up at Munster when to encrease their Faction they multiplied wives This the silly Quaker now peeps and mutters in every corner This the more bloody Papists boasted of in Ireland and other Bigots of that perswasion do every where magnifie the Romish cause as the only Christian Catholick Cause Mean while all these parties joyntly and severally labour to overthrow the true Cause and excellent constitution of this Church and Monarchie of England That is the truth peace honor and order both of these Brittish Kingdoms and of our Reformed Religion as it is conform to the Word of God to our ancient good Laws and to the customs of the true Catholick Church In which the learned loyall and Religious Nobility Gentry Clergie and Commons of this nation with their Kings have ever judged that the true Cause of God as to justice and Religion holiness and peace the divine glory and welfare of mankind was and is most eminently contained I confess I was then wearie and ashamed of the counterpleas counterscufles of those bold and divided harlots who did each pretend with great zeal the Cause of God against the other in order to oppose Gods righteous cause which certainly ever was and will be but one and the same for ever as to the main of truth and peace of faith and good works of justice and holiness I evidently saw by many years sad experience that these rude rivals already had and ever would first divide then destroy the true cause of God and the publick interest of this Church and Kingdom only to advance their private and partial causes which were evidently leavened with most illegal extravagancies with sacrilegious covetousness with immoderate ambitions with inhumane revenges with implacable cruelties and with impudent exorbitancies and with most â—eigned necessities Hence it was that I adventured in so great and illustrious an Auditory even before the day of our redemption dawned or that day-star of the North appeared which afterward ushered in our Sun of Righteousness I say I then adventured truly and fully to set forth my sense of Gods Cause with such a resolution as our learned Bradwardin Arch bp of Canterbury sometime took up when he set forth his large and elaborate Volume De Causa Dei of which he thus says in his Preface De Causa Dei Scripturus sciens manum in ignem terribilem mitto c. That he well knew into what flaming fires with Scoevola he put his hand how many enemies he should contract and exasperate by his honest stating and asserting the Cause of Gods grace and glory against the Pelagian pride and presumption who sought to advance the impotent power of nature the cloudie twilight beams of Reason and the maimed liberty of mans will which is clogged corrupted and hampered with many sensual lusts above the necessity and against the only sufficiency of Gods grace in order to his glory and a sinners salvation yet that good Prelate did both proceed and speed he did his work and had his reward both in a good conscience and in great successes as to his repressing that petulancy of poor worms exalting themselves against the great God without whom they can do nothing but sin against him and damn their own souls In like manner have I lived to see in a few months after that bold essay of mine among you the wonderful revolutions of Gods providence pleading at once his own the Kings this Churches and this Kingdoms cause the Cause of our Laws Liberties Lives and Religion the cause of all honest men for their souls and bodies for themselves and their posterities in their temporal and eternal great concernments All these great and good Causes are at once pleaded by our wise just and mercifull God against those strong delusions those false pretensions those rebellious usurpations and those novel intrusions which under the lie and hypocrisie of setting up Gods Cause and the Cause of Jesus Christ made prophane men abhor the very name godly men to pitty the reality of Gods holy cause which they saw so miserably mistaken by some and by others so shamefully deformed so sordidly defiled so impudently blasphemed through the wicked policies and horrid practises of some monsters of men most unsanctified Saints who
Idolaters Therefore the Psalmist here so earnestly urgeth it upon God who he believed ever did and would own his own Cause so as to plead it himself in his own way and time Both as to the Majesty truth justice holiness and honor of it also as to the indignities which are by evil men cast upon it Summus Deus summas patitur injurias none is more a sufferer as to the malice and insolence of wicked men then the most blessed God who yet is as impassible as the suns light is uninfectible with the filthy exhalations of dunghils Plato puts this true saying into the mouth of Socrates dying under the malice of his persecutors Anytus and Melitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is impossible for evil to make any impression of affliction upon that which is good and which can as a jewel so preserve its native goodness and firmness that sufferings shall make it not onely no way diminished but as in the wheel and file more illustrious and meritorious such were the sufferings of Christ properly and of all good men in an Evangelical sense being for a good Cause and on Gods account till God ceaseth to be just and good and true and faithful vigilant and zealous for his own glory his cause cannot utterly miscarry 3. Observ The Cause of God may be as to the eye of the world and to the sense of the best men in a most sad dejected deplored despised and desperate estate so sunck and oppressed that there is no outward sign of its being ever boyed up and recovered thus it was represented to Elias as if he onely were left to plead a lost Cause So the Disciples expressed their sorrow and despondency We verily trusted this had been he who should have redeemed Israel So Mary weeping to the Angels answers their questioning of her tears They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him many times the foundation of Church and State of Justice and Religion are so out of course that the righteous know not what to do or say all things so unhinged by violent wicked and unreasonable men that nothing moves by any order or written Law of God or Man but by the power and impulse of mens own lusts who from Gods silence permission and patience are prone foolishly to conclude his approbation and liking of their cause and ways yea and to say God is such an one as themselves the distress of Gods Cause may be such that the whole Church may be ready to cry out as the Psalmist Help Lord for vain is the help of man It is time for thee O Lord to put to thy hand for they have made thy Law of none effect § So did the Heathenish persecution and the latter Romish superstition tyrannically triumph a long time over the slain Witnesses the Law and Gospel the Scriptures and Catholick Traditions the Preachers and Professors of that true Religion which hath been testified both as to moralities and mysteries faith and manners not onely by the two Testaments but also by the confessions and conversations of all antient and modern Christians conform to Gods Word and the best Churches customs The vapor of numbers pomp prosperity and prevalency are no demonstrations either to approve the cause of Arius or Antichrist or to prejudice the cause of Christ and of Gods true Church But as Lucan speaks of the cause of Pompey and Cesae in which the justice of the first was overborn by the successes of the second Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni the gods abetted Cesar by victories but Cato's constancy adhered to Pompey's and the Senates conquered cause because it was most just 4. Obser The Cause of the true Church is Gods cause most signally and peculiarly in this world his interests and concernments are so linked with its that they are insepâ—trable as Jacobs soul was bound up in Benjamins as the Husbands honor in the Wives as a friends happiness in a friends so is the relation between God and his Church if that be black God is eclipsed as to the most visible eradiations of his glory to this world if that be bright and conspicuous as a City on a hill in truth and holiness in charity and prosperity Gods great name praise and renown are most glorious and illustrious Then his Wisdom and Truth and Justice and Power and Mercy and Patience and Goodness and Faithfulness are in their meridian strength as the Sun at noon day If the Church be hidden it is as the moon turned into blood or the Sun of Righteousness into sackcloth as Joel speaks as Joshua astonished when Israel turned its back upon its enemies said to God And what wilt thou do O Lord to thy great Name So do holy men they are prone to despond and deplore Gods own condition and Cause when they see the Church of God or any part of it as to its veracity sanctity order peace prosperity and unity decline and decay under error prophaness persecution disorder distraction division or any uncomfortable condition Tunc periclitatur coelum Dei res agitur then Gods Cause is at stake then as in the Giants assault his heaven is in hazard as if he were in danger to be numen infelix a miserable God Then is Christ tossed in the storms then do true Beleevers cry out as the Disciples Lord save us we perish Help Lord and do it for thy own name sake which is called upon by us God hath no considerable design in the world but that of his Church when this is consummated the world as the scaffold or stage or shell or chaff is to be destroyed The Church cannot be undone until God is undone and bankrupt 5. Obser No Church hath ever been so famous and flourishing in outward piety plenty peace and prosperity but it may fall under persecution and great oppression sometimes indeed as God said to Satan in the case of Jobs trials without a cause that is as to any predominant and unrepented sin at present provoking God against him but only as Christ said of the man born blind That the work of Gods grace and Spirit might be manifest in the trials and tribulations of his Church So in the first ages of the Church when Religion was purest and love warmest yet was the fire and furnace of persecution hottest Sometimes indeed as a fruitful land is made barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein so the lukewarmness and corruptions of a Church the Apostasies and falling of Christians from their first Faith loyalty patience love and good works may cause God to hide his face to withdraw his protection to remove his candlestick as he threatens and to give over his Turtle to the will of its adversaries who shall set up their banners and roar in the Sanctuaries and break down all her carved works and
God and his Church are as I said inseparable no man is affected with one who is neglective of the other this example we have here added to others of Noah Lot Moses Phineas Samuel Eliah Micaiah Jeremiah Nehemiah Daniel Mordecai and others whose vigilancy and pertinacy was such in the cause of God and his Church that they were resolved to give God no rest till he did arise and plead his own cause Nothing is more imitable nothing more commendable nothing more practicable nothing more comfortable provided we rightly understand what the Cause of God is and apply to it as becomes God his cause and our duties then t is heroick to say with Esther If I perish I perish This is Angelick with Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put God to the blush and silence If not blo◠me out of thy book and t is super Angelical to say with St. Paul I would wish to be accursed from Christ for the Churches sake and Gods cause our duty in which we shall the◠best understand and perform when we have duly considered these four things 1. What the Cause of God is 2. What need we may have of his pleading it 3. How God doth plead it 1. Immediately by himself 2. Mediately by such instruments and means as he is pleased to use among men In the fourth place is to be shewed What is the true method or manner to be observed by all good men in pleading Gods cause with him and for him When these are finished and such Patheticks applied by way of use as may cast your wills in the mold of your judgements and make your affections to keep pace at least to follow your understandings I shall I hope not onely discharge in some tolerable measure my own duty and undertaking which is great but answer your favourable and Christian expectation which I see is not little for I abhor nothing more then the ostentation of so ample a text to so ample an Auditory in such exigents of times even agonies of Gods cause in Church and State in Justice and Religion and to do nothing worthy or proportionable to them which defect in me and neglect in you God forbid whose assistance as I humbly implore so I may not despair since it is in his own Cause which must needs be the best and may modestly hope for his gracious help in my pleading and preaching for it against all frivolous fallacious and impertinent pretenders to it the rather because it is not onely my particular cause as a Christian and a Minister but all yours together with your posterities as men as English-men as Christians and as Protestants We know that of the Orator In propriacausa unusquisque sibi videtur potens eloquens if in our own much more in Gods Cause which is our own too we ought to do our best on all hands First What this Cause of God is I take it for granted what I first observed That God hath his cause in this world who made all things by his wisdom and power for his glory and is as a wise Agent highly concerned as to do nothing in vain so not to fail of his main design It is no other then Atheistical blasphemy to deny that God hath any concern or causeon earth or that he regards them that doth and will ever plead for them God hath not left himself without witness in the world that he is and that he looks to the managery of all things specially of mankind and peculiarly of his own Cause It is not natura volvente vices lucis anni that all things are fatal and necessary confining God as well as man to inevitable events which is the fancy of those Qui nullo credunt mundum rectore moveri who have either no Faith in God or no thought worthy of a God Gods silence and patience are the prejudices which men have taken against his Providence and that special care of things which runs as spiritus intus agens in all permissions and events which are not as to God either contingent or by constraint but under the free and soveraign disposition which is every way worthy of a most wise disposer and almighty worker hence mockers as S. Peter observes are prone to ask Where is Gods cause where the promise of his coming Where are his prophesies what he would do for the good in mercy and against the wicked in justice even thus of old the Gnostick pride and presumption jested when vengeance was at the door and judgement overtook them to an utter desolation of the Jewish Polity They are such as live without God in the world that say he will do nor good nor evil Many are willingly ignorant that God hath any cause in this world and many are mistaken in the true Cause and in their pleadings for it without right understanding the heart cannot be good since the pregnant inventions of men in all times especially in ours have found out many Causes and every one is cryed up for Gods The first foundation-stone to be laid in this building is to know what the true Cause of God is of which every one boasts as his peculiar till another comes and finds out the fallacy This I shall shew first by giving general characters of Gods Cause such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper essential and intrinsick marks of it Secondly I shall by way of Induction shew you the particuliar parts or branches by which it spreads it self in the world First The Cause of God is known by these marks or essential properties 1 It is Causa optima not only a good cause but the very best yea the onely good one in the world the measure or standard of all others as the first and best of all Causes which are only so far good as they are conform to and concurrent with the cause of God whose internal rule is the moral will of God its end the glory of God It is good in its principles and in its practices every way vera pura justa divina 2. It is true according to Scriptural verity which is revealed in the holy Word of God fixed and infallible not depending on uncertainties which are sceptical conjectural and opinionative much less upon fantastical and enthusiastical notions according to the fancies dreams and inventions of men that are rather heady and giddy then hearty and godly § Gods Cause is never to be carried on by fictions or lyes by fables or legends which are but mans devises and the Devils stratagems as impertinent to advance Gods Cause as blackness is to augment light as with God so with his Cause no iniquity dwelleth 3. It is an holy pure and just Cause in all points as it regards 1. God in religious adoration inward reverence and outward veneration 2. Our selves in chastity and sobriety 3. Others in justice
little matters which administer much strife and little edification in truth or love Christians may and must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep the truth in love Ephes 4. though they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in things indifferent the substance of Gods Cause should have more influence to unite hearts than the ceremonies to divide them 7. Yet the cause of God is Causa ordinata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very regular and orderly in all its motions full of harmony and beauty abhorring any ways that are preposterous desultory violent uncomely disorderly tumultuary confused It needs none of these devillish engines to carry on the Cause of him who is the God of order decency and peace not of division confusion and contention Extravagant and excentricâ— spirits easily lose the Cause of God while they follow it in a preposterous wrong way as men may easily miss the centre of the circle who lay their rule in the least degree awry from the diameter the passions of men and their popular po 〈…〉 es never work out the righteousness of Gods Cause but trouble foil blemish and blaspheme it Not fire and earthquakes and whirlwinds but the still voyce and calm spiriâ— do best bring forth and set up by meekness of wisdom the true Cause of God and Christ and the Church especially as to the concerns of Religion Nor may that cause of civil Justice which some pretend to be promoted by any unjust and illegal ways of tumult sedition and rebellion these mar all and instead of repairing or purging the Temple with Josiah Ezra Josedeck and the blessed Jesus they set both Church and State Temple and City on fire as did Nebuzaradan and his Master Nebuchadnezzar â— These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or genuine characters are the surest and safest tokens by which to discern Gods Cause both in its own merits or temper and in the minds of those that undertake to manage it Other novel popular and politick pretensions as to outward providences prosperities successes multitudes prevalencies of brutal and irregular power vulgar flatteries and factious adherencies or as to the respect of mens parts learning eloquence seeming zeal and cryed up devotion they are all spurious partial and fallacious 1. The Sun-shine of ordinary providence and success of prosperity and power may fall upon Causes that are evil and unjust no less then on the just and good Mahomet hath had great and long successions of successive power to assert his cause and multitudes do follow even that Beast as well as the Lamb or the Messiah Outward prosperity is the idol of fools who care not how little the Cause of God prosper and prevail in their souls if it thrive as to their purses and estates Successes are pursued by silly and easie people as gay Butterflies are by children Gods Cause is seldom seen in crouds or rabbles and throngs of people which Christ abhorred and avoided As its course is strict so its path is narrow 2. As for the decoys of personal gifts and endowments of zeal and seeming or real severities in some things King Saul had as his height so his heats above other Jews against the Gibeonites and Witches so Jehu had his zeal against the house of Ahab and Baal Paul once breathed threatnings against the way of Christ with equal ignorance imperiousness and confidence Novatus wanted not his zelotry and preciser passions nor Manes and Montanus their spiritual and seraphick pretensions with rigid fastings Origen and Tertullian had their excellent abilities which Vincentius Liri â—ensis calls Magnae tentationes magnorum ingeniorum their temptations to extravagancies they were like fair flowers and fruit which are too big for themselves and so crack or break nor did Donatus want his devotion nor Pelagius wit and learning nor Faustus Socinus of late his severity and strictness with his sophistry nor any Heretick or Schismatick ever failed to have some lure either of sensual liberty or special sanctity to take people withal So the Anabaptists in Germany as Sleiden and others tells us cryed most vehemently for Justice Mercy and Repentance other Enthusiasts had their rare visions and the very Ideot Quakers boast of their inward illuminations so the most puâ—id Friars and politick Monks had their forged miracles and forced celibacies set off with great austerities to cover over their fedities Satan hath many masks and vizards of an Angel of light yet he is never further off from Gods Cause then when he most sets men awork to cry it up and carry it on in ways that are no less unjust violent and extravagant then perhaps for a time successful as was the Arrian perfidy which seemed so zealous for the unity of the Deity that they sought to overthrow the sacred Trinity and the grand foundation of the Christian Faith honor and comfort the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word made flesh the Theanthropy and Philanthropy of God to mankind in the Incarnation of the Son of God Their disputes as St. Cyrill tells us were not more sophistical and perverse then specious and plausible insomuch that the pest infested in a few years the most part of the Christian world both in Court Cities and Countries which was as St. Jerom says amazed to see it self in a short time so be witched with the Arrian enchantments which set up a new Saviour and another Gospel then was primitively beleived in all Churches So the Novatians and Donatists or â—ntient Catharists which were the Christian Pharisees or Puritans pretended as Optatus and others tells us so to promote the Cause of the Churches purity that they destroyed its unity and charity And the Pelagians so stickled for the power and liberty of mans will that they derogated from Gods grace and glory as St. Augustine speaks 8. Causa crucisixi saepius crucisixa as Christ so his cause which is Gods is oft not onely circumcised but crucisied with him yea it may seem dead and buried too for a time to the judgement of sense we must not look for the true Church always cloathed with the sun but rather flying into the wilderness and covered with sackcloth The prosperities and crowns of Gods Cause are reserved for another world here the cross and thorns and buffettings and spittings and blood and spears and nails do not mis-become it but conform it to its head § T is certain the Cause of God was then purest as to faith and manners when it was like gold in the furnace and fiery trial under the first ten persecutions which lasted with some lucid intervals three hundred years In vain do those that seem high zealots for the Cause of God dream and speak big of houses and lands and liberties and victories and kingdoms and crowns and Judicatures and reigning with Christ after secular methods and policies of blood and fraud these are figs in this world The honor riches crowns and comforts of true
Scripture written by the Prophets and Apostles be preserved free from Apocryphal additions Fabulous traditions Humane inventions and Phanatick inspirations That the Ministers of it by Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as to its Authority Order and supports be maintained agreeable to the primitive pattern instituted by Christ in the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy Disciples with their attendants in holy offices this is the cause of God as that of Embassadors and their followers in the cause of those Princes that send them so Commissionated and instructed they that receive them receive Christ and they that reject them reject him and they that defraud or rob divide and destroy the Church and Ministry of Christ are Robbers of God Sacrilegious Felons from the blessed Son of God who is Heir of all and to whom we owe all we have as redeemer of is and all blessings we enjoy The great Seals of the Church also the two Sacraments are the Cause of God not to be prophaned or neglected For which cause God sharply punished the Corinthians with sickness and death Much less may they be changed or diminished or added to in point of duty and necessity beyond the stamp and inscription of Divine institution and that Catholick practice or use of them which was ever owned by the Church whose veracity or fidelity is not to be questioned in things of universal observance such as were those of the Lords day for the Christian Sabbath of the books of Canonical Scriptures of the Baptizing of Christians Infants whose cause is the cause of God and of his Covenant with the faithful and their seed so of the giving of the cup as well as the consecrated bread to all Communicants as well Lay as Clergy and lastly as to the constant Order and Government of the Church in its several distributions by many Presbyters subordinate and assistant to some one paternal yet authoratative Bishop as sons to a presidential Father This Government by Episcopacy is Gods Cause as the God of order and the Apostles cause as settled and sealed by their wisdome and the Churches consent's as a primitive Catholick custom the veracity and antiquity of which is asserted by the Churches testimony both as to all Histories and in its practice not to be doubted desparaged denied or abolished without great in solency and peevishness either to gratifie Presbytery or Independency both which are novel ties of yesterday and so cannot be Gods Cause which is verissiâ—â—a antiquissima as old as it is true and good § The Cause of Gods Church as to its Honour Order Fidelity supportâ— rule and government is so far Gods Cause as he hath made his Church the Pillar and ground of truth and as himself is the God of Order and Polity yeaâ— and the Churches cause is Gods as to that prudential liberty and variety which his wisdome hath granted and indulged to it in the several parts or distributions of it under the Gospel as to the circumstantial or ceremonial rites of Religion incident or annexed to the outward decency of worship and profession in several ages and places so as may most conduce to the planting propagating preserving and reforming of true Religion among all Nations Lastly the unity of the Church belongs to Gods cause who is but one and his Son one and his Spouse one Such as cause Schism and divisions in the true Church by giving or taking unnecessary and so unjust scandals and thereby raising uncharitable separations these are injurious to the God of peace and the Prince of peace Nostrum laceratur in arbore corpus Christians tear God rend the body of Christ in their Schisms which divide them from the love of Christ and for his sake of one another which is the great Character of Christs Disciples Joh. 13. 35. § Therefore all the Methods of Ecclesiastical Polity which were used in primitive times by which to keep the Catholick Church in an holy unity and brotherly correspondency by Bishops Arch-Bishops Primates Metropolitans and Patriarchs yea and in latter ages when Christians were multiplied by Arch-Deacons Suffragans or Chorepiscopacy i. e. rural Deans and the like were so far from being Antichristian projects and evil policies that they were the Counsels and results of Christs spirit as helps in Government for the Order and Unity Polity and Authority meet to be observed in his Church § Nor is it of any weight which some urge odiously and enviously against these subordinations and degrees fitted for the unity of the Church which capacitated them to meet and correspond as by general and lesser Councils in several places so by Letters communicatory in all the world that hence the Papal arragancy and Pride did get footing and his prescripts became decrees For if all things of piety or prudence must be abolished with the policy or superstition if man lists to abuse them we shall leave very little to true Religion So far Popes and Bishops and Presbyters and People too have shewed themselves in many things to be but men subject to prejudices and passions yet are they no way capable to destroy or deprave the true principles or practices of Christian wisdom much less of Divine and Apostolick institution either binding and perpetual or prudential and occasional which lawfully may be used and are not rashly to be abolished 4. Next the Churches cause which is eminently contained in Gods comes that of all mankind as God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lover and preserver of men in the way of civil societies the Hings or Axis and popular points of which are Justice commutative and distributive private and publique the just God is concerned that justice be done to all and by all according to their place and station The rule and measure of all civil and Politique Justice for matter and manner for what is to be done and by whom for the equity of retribution and authority of dispensation is that custome and law which is prevalent by publique consent in every Nation not contrary to the Law of God what ever is done contrary to this is in Deiinjuriam and makes the actors reolaesae Majestatis divinae as well as humanae guilty of doing injury to the justice and Majesty not onely of men but of God whose are the laws and Polities the Princes Kings and lawful Magistrates of every state Kingdom and Common-wealth which are Gods Ordinances not to be resisted by tumult or armed force by sedition or Treason without an high sin which subjects men to damnation as Rebels to God as enemies to the good of their Country to the duty they owâ— to parents and indeed to the good of all mankind who would soon be as miserable as beasts and Devils if they were not restrained from private extravagancie preserved in their honest enjoyments by the publique laws and that Soveraigne power which is
they give all for gone save only a little hold and hope they have in their prayers and in the precious promises of God to whom nothing is impossible or hard that is worthy of him and who is a present help both inward and outward in time of trouble when his time of help is come The Reasons of Gods permitting his Cause thus to lapse for a time as silent and unconcerned or as not seeing nor regarding the low estate of his Church may in brief be these 1. To let wicked men see what is in fundo cordium in the bottom and lees of their hearts if they be let alone unpunished and unrestrained to the very dregs of their malice what a perfect enmity and hatred they have to God and his Cause which is his Truth Word and VVorship yea every grace and vertue or good work yea all rules of justice good laws and decent order in Church and State that as the thoughts of their hearts are onely evil and that continually so will the actings of their lives if left to themselves 2. For the trial of his grace in those that are upright in heart and on Gods side that their prayers faith zeal patience perseverance and Christian courage together with their love to God and charity even to enemies with their compassion for the Church may be manifested Hence as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. God permits Heresies and Apostasies and Schisms to rise and prevail in the Church yea and many sinful at least superstitious corruptions in doctrine and manners that by such trials the sounder sort may be approved who in the hour of temptation persevere without shipwrack of faith or good conscience either in their judgement or conversation which is still such as becomes the Gospel of Christ 3. God permits these lapses and oppressions of Religion to punish by penal induration and blindness the obstinate and presumptuous sinners who gratifie their immoralities and lusts by their errors and Apostacies letting them alone to add sin to sin and to fill up the measure of their iniquity Hence they are given up to strong delusions to believe fables and speak lyes in hypocrisie because they with-held the truth in unrighteousness and loved the darkness of sottish superstition and confusion more then the truth and power purity and order of Religion 4. The Cause of God is many times under great depressions that by such fiery trials God may purge away the dross of such as are for the main sincerely good but yet gradually lukewarm too secure too sensual too carnal and worldly too self-conceited and self-seeking they are cast into the furnace of affliction to wean their affections from the fleshly and sensual world to prepare them for death and a better life by a nearer conformity to Christ in his cross that they may not think the greatest reward of Christian piety to be had in this world that they may embrace nudum Christum crucifixum Christ with the cross as well as with the crown 5. Lastly It is magnum praejudicium futuri judicii an evident token of after judgement and future recompences which shall reward the patience and perseverance of the godly with a crown of glory and the wicked after all their prosperous oppressions with the fruit of their own ways by the impressions of divine Justice in the ballancing of eternity 3. The third General Head is How God pleads his own Cause 1. Immediately by his own special appearing for it against his and his Churches enemies 2. Mediately by such instruments as he stirs up to be on his side 1. God hath his pleadings in several Courts 1. In foro conscienciae in that Court of conscience which is within men sometimes God pleads against them there filling them with terrors and stupors with horror and inquietude as in Cain those surda fulmina secreta fulgura those silent thunders and unseen lightnings which make them self-arraigned accused convinced judged and condemned in interiori tribunali at the bar or tribunal of their own brests as were Josephs brethren when they came into trouble and were more afraid then hurt yet guilty consciences are afraid of a leafs shaking and their own shadow There is no peace saith my God that is no true well-grounded and constant to the wicked as such they are as a restless sea not only foaming out their rage and fury against God but filling and fowling themselves with mire and dirt Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur thus the heathens found and owned that the accuser witness judge condemner and tormentor which every wicked man had in his own soul was of all most inexorable and intolerable Poena autem vehemens c. Nocte dieque a suum gestere in pectore testem yea pestem that they seem sometime quiet jolly merry and secure it is but as a puddle of fowl water which stinks the more it stands still or as a warm gleam before a smart showre these are the sharp Indictments in mens own souls not verbal pleas onely but forked arrows and poysoned darts which drink up their very spirits as so many furies or animarum hirudines leeches of their souls 2. Other times God pleads his own Cause in the Court of conscience for us and in our behalf in troubles doubts darkness and desertions when by the evil of times as Eliah Jeremiah Baruch we are dejected or by the evil of temptations buffetted and tossed as St. Paul in a long and dismal storm that we see no light there the promises and Spirit of God pleads for us crying and making intercession with us commanding us to lay hold on his strength God furnisheth us with strong reason bidding us plead with him and urge his own name and glory and goodness as Moses did to disarm an angry God He then puts us in mind of Christs merits who is our righteousness of Gods free gift of pardoning sin for his own sake of the Law fulfilled of the no condemnation to them that are in Christ of his not quenching the smoaking flax or breaking the bruised reed These and the like are Gods gracious pleadings in us and for us when we can say nothing for our selves as a Judge that turns Advocate for a modest and penitent prisoner God stops the mouth of the great accuser the Devil Christ answers for us all doubts and objections all debts and indictments they are paid and cancelled by his rich and gratuitous grace 3. God pleads his Cause many times in foro seculi by the visible instances of his special power and providence which makes all men to see there is a God that judgeth the world who is neither deaf nor dumb neither negligent nor impotent only patient and long-suffering toward his adversaries that they might see they had space of repentance Here the pleadings of God when he
mens part in pleading Gods cause in this world therefore to make amends there is a third Court wherin God will unavoidably plead his cause against every evil doer and all nakedness in the world this will be in foro poli or coeli at the last day when the books of Omniscience conscience and Scripture shall be opened and mens sins with their wilful immoral and impenitent errors shall be set in order before them Then the great Accuser within and without shall be heard and sentence given secundum allegata probata according to the merit and evidence of mens works This is the last appeal of the oppressed righteous cause where it shall be heard and have right done it For then as St. Bernard tells Judges and Juries and Lawyers Omnia judicata rejudicabuntur All judgements and causes shall be reviewed and rejudged § But the consideration of such Instruments as God is pleased to 〈◊〉 up to plead his cause in this world Leads me to the last particular which is to shew the manner and method legitimi litigandi of mans pleading as becomes him this holy cause of God when he is called to it in an ordinary which all are or extraordinary way as some may be § It is not only the work of God to plead his own cause as Joash said of Baal If he be a God he can and will plead for himself But it is the duty of every good Christian that loves God to be a worker and pleader together with him in Gods cause and way we must be all willing to be retained on Gods side to be his Advocates and Attorneys when he calls us to this work to contest for God against an evil perverse and adulterous generation either by living or dying by doing or suffering by preaching or disputing by discoursing or writing It will be demanded why I add not by fighting which is now much cryed up and used by some as a most speedy and effectual way to plead Gods Cause and set up Christ◠Kingdom I answer The cause of God is sometimes to be pleaded by the way of fighting 1. In defence of any Church and State against unjust and foreign invasion or intestine rebellion and sedition 2. By way of a Princes relieving his oppressed Subjects and Confederates in other States and Dominions 3. By way of asserting the proceedings of Justice as to Law according to that power which is established in any Kingdom or Polity 4. As to the Cause of Religion it is no further to be asserted by the Sword then as it is established by the Law and under the protection of the Soveraign Power there to plead its cause by such a Sword as is the sword of God and of Gideon is lawful when it is done by lawful command and Supreme which is in England Regal Authority Otherwise no Cause of God as to Religion is to be either planted and propagated or reformed or vindicated by the sword of Subjects against any Princes or chief Magistrates will and power in whose hand the sword is True God by a special Prophet and a commission from Heaven confirmed by many miracles did once put a sword into the Jews hand to make their way against those Nations which were declared by Divine Justice worthy to be destroyed But the Evangelical spirit is not of that temper the Commission of the Gospel and Christs Spiritual Militia by which he conquers the World is not to fight and kill and slay but to preach to pray and to suffer They grosly mistake Christs Kingdom and Gods Cause now that fancy it is to be pleaded by the Arm of Flesh by popular furies and forces by tumults and violences by subverting and opposing Magistratick power and breaking over the boundaries of good Laws and Customs Civil and Ecclesiastical § Christ commanded Peters gladiatorum forwardness in his defence to put up his sword into his sheath Christ had two other swords of the Word and Spirit which were enough to do his work not by Souldiers but Ministers not by Colonels and Captains but hy Bishops and Presbyters There are other ways to exercise a Christians love zeal and courage for Gods cause which as it is most worthy of our pleading so we must take care to plead it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becomes our Lord and Saviour It is a caution which Quintilian a great Orator gave to all Pleaders Cavendum ne bonam causam male litigando perdamus Many men are untowardly forward to plead Christs cause like hot mettal'd and heady horses neither well mouthed nor well wayed and managed They endanger more by their rashness then they advance by their capring activity The Cause then of God must in times places and points be pleaded so as becomes the Majestie Truth and Honor of the great God 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisely with understanding by the clear and potent demonstrations of it grounded on the Word of God not by humane fancies wilde notions and extravagant presumptions and fanatick fetches The Word of God is able to make us perfect pleaders of his Cause We must not adde to nor detract from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compleat armour offensive and defensive If any plead not according to that rule of Law and Gospel of Faith and Loyalty of patience and obedience it is because there is no light of truth or grace of humility in them Gods Cause needs no cavilings nor sophisms no wisdom or eloquence of mans invention which is to joyn humane fraud and force meer froth and folly to divine sufficiency As if one would muster up Frogs and Mice with their bulrushes to joyn with Angels in Gods battels to help the Lord against the mighty 2. Gods cause is to be pleaded by man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerely for Gods sake not for self-ends and interests for our glory gain or advantage as to our persons or parties our secular and civil interests of power and preferment which are many times the dead Flie cast into this precious Oyntment as Jehu did whose ambition was the belows and blazoner of his zeal So they that preached the Gospel out of Envy and ill will or for filthy lucres sake to serve their bellies and not the Lord Jesus to please men and not God seeking not the salvation of souls or the good of the Church and State but their own emoluments and preferments These are in all ages the greatest deformers of Christian Religion exposing it first to popular fury and after to the shame and contempt of all 3. Gods cause must be pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Integre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solidly and entirely not picking and chusing what parts or points or duties of it most suit with our fancies opinions parties designs desires and private interests We must not so plead for the first table in piety as to
neglect the second in equity and charity So to contend against superstition in Gods worship as to overthrow the order and decency which ought to be solemnly observed in it or that duty and obedience we owe to those which are in Church or State called Fathers and to whom we stand obliged by the first Commandment with promise We must not so plead or urge our duty to God as to skip over our duty to our neighbour nor so plead against Idolatry as to indulge Sacri ledge or against Adultery as to acquit Murther or so cry up Religion or Reformation as to encourage Rebellion and Sedition Noâ— may we so inculcate and insist on one duty as to omit and slight others to be meer Euchites for prayer or Acoits for hearing or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pragmaticks impertinently and irregularly busie in Church and State as to neglect the Sacraments or to be so eager in dispute for Truth even the minores veritates as to forget the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great things of God in which the Kingdoms of the Gospel consists so magnifying faith that we omit good works and crying down ceremonies to the overthrow of all orderly and uniform Devotion to cast out Commandments Lords Prayer Creed and all settled Liturgy out of the Church 4. The Cause of God must be pleaded by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holily justly and lawfully according to our place and duty after a righteous manner also peaceably and orderly Nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 violently rudely and injuriously This is the first thing God requires of us to do justice and then to shew mercy and walk humbly with him Extravagant motions mar the cause of God and rather prejudice it then any way plead it We must not commit Robbery to do Sacrifice nor lye or oppress upon Gods account We must not be so far partial to Gods Cause as to do evil that good may come thereby this is to turn the staff of Moses into a Serpent The great care of the Apostles was to have Mysteries of Religion made good by Moralities Cardinal Poole well expressed that those would best understand the eleven first Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans which are full of high mysteries and disputes who did most practice the five last which exhort to holy life teaching such as believed well to do all things well that the Cause and Name of God might not be evil spoken of We must not violate the good laws of civil Societies under pretence to exalt the Law of God nor run Church and State into confusion to set up Reformation of either in seditious ways Gods Cause needs not the Devils engines either plead it as becomes it or let it alone It will support it self without the rash hand of Uzzah to stay it If thou canst not plead it actively thou mayest do it passively and much more to purpose as primitive Christians did then by any inordinate activity No man saith the Apostle that striveth is crowned unless he strive lawfully Secundum leges Athleticas such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Institutor and Umpire had appointed 5. Gods Cause must be pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with moderation discretion and calmness so as not to suffer any transports of passion and precipitancy to over sway us to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excess or indecency We must not so plead against superstition as to reproach or weaken true Religion or against humane corruptions as to vacate and voyd Divine institutions or against the abuse of things as to abolish the good use of them to have no Our Father because we would have no Ave Marys in our Prayers § Reformation must not run to the ruine of Church or the riot of State as if a Physitian should destroy the body with the disease purging away the spirits with ill humors such as their former methods seem to be who will have no Bishops according to the primitive and Catholique order of the Church because some Bishops in after times had their fauls and frailties or no Ministers because some of them have been too blame or no Sacraments because some may be unworthy receivers These as immoderations and madnesses become not those that undertake to plead Gods Cause It is like theirs who would starve themselves because some have been gluttons or destroy all Vines because of some mens drunkenness or have no singing because some may sing out of tune it is an ordinary error in men to suffer their pleas to pass from the cause to the persons and so from the persons to the cause which transports of envy and anger arise from the overboyling of mens passions which wasts their judgments and make them instead of snuffing dim candles to put them quite out an error that I fear hath been too prevalent in some mens spirits and practises among us whose meaning and intentions possibly might be good or at least not so bad as the event Sixthly Valiantly and couragiously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the generosity and magnanimity of a true Christian spirit which is rather good then great or therefore great because good not by a military robusâ—ness and boysterous forwardness or childish pertinacy that resolves to maintain any cause they once ingage for but such a cool and sober valour as first hath made a just conquest of our selves as to all irregular passions inordinate lusts oblique designes that being listed in Christs spiritual Militia and having given our names to him we may put on that spiritual armour which becomes a Christian in truth faith love zeal patience justice sobriety sanctity and constancy for these are the solid grounds and sure guides of a Christians courage in Gods cause whose sacrifice might not be offered with strange fire or strange incense nor may his cause be pleaded by brutish valour or by turbulent passions For that were like baking the shewbread of the sanctuary with mans dung which the Prophet Ezekiel so much abhorred and deprecated Seventhly Gods cause must be pleaded by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming Christ and Christians who are persons under the severest restraints of any men with modesty gravity humility and due respects to our betters and superiors beâ—itting their place authority and dignity So the ancient Martyrs and other confessors in their Apologies petitions and Remonstrances as Iustin Martyr Tertullian and others presented to the Emperors or Senates owned them with due honour and payed that reverence to them which their dignity required and Gods word either commanded or permitted They never used rayling accusations against them nor spake evil of dignities to set a gloss and soyl on their good cause no not in their greatest agonies in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they were dying and suffering as well as disputing preaching or writing they blessed those that cursed them
and prayed for those that spitefully used them This gave repute to the Cause of God and shewed the spirit of God was in them of a truth they did not speak but act great things and if they could less dispute they would yet readily dye for that cause which was delivered to them by the Pillar and ground of Truth the Church of Christ Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charitative with charity to all sorts of people pittying their blindness and barbarity in meekness of wisdom instructing them as holy Polycarp did fervently and humbly praying for them yea osculando prodit orem even kissing our betrayers and destroyers as Crysologus observes of Christ not behaving themselves as vermin in a trap or wild Buls in a Net but as Lambs and Sheep of Christs Flock and Mark who opened not his mouth save onely to pray for his crucifiers as also did the first Martyr S. Stephen whose name imports the comfort and crown of his thus suffering for Christs Cause not as an evil doer or an evil speaker some mens stomacks are so full of Choler gall and virulency that they do not plead for Gods cause so much as spit and spue upon it when pretending high zeal and godliness they so foully disgorge themselves in ill language against their superiors and betters every way no Magistrate no Minister escape their dirt and mire All are Beasts and Antichrists and Satans and Enemys and fit to be destroyed that do not comply with the cause they look to set up together with themselves by pulling down all that stands in their way § What scurrilous and scandalous Libels have some men made like the wast and filthy papers of Martin Marprelate and others of that bran to wrap up their several causes in what undecencies what barbarities whatâ—edities whatfuries what menaces have their Sermons and Prayers abounded with and so their action s by a superfluity of self conceit passion pride arrogancy envy desire of revenge and the like enormous distempers so far beyond a Christian that they would make a modest and ingenuous heathen blush and abhor any cause that is pleaded or managed by such poy sonous pens such polluted lips and unwashed hands § I may truly say with St. Iames my brethren these things ought not to be so these are not the methods of Christians pleading their Gods and Saviourâ— cause either bitterly to rail like Rabsakeh or pompously to vapour and flatter like Tertullus crying up every cause as Gods that is uppermost either in power or in popular applause or vulgar pitty which are no true Touch-stones of Gods cause either as to civil Iustice or true Religion And thus O worthy and Christian Auditors have I finished the demonstrative or doctrinal part which shewed first the nature of Gods cause Secondly the manner of pleading it and Thirdly what method we must use in our pleading it so as to observe the holy laws and orders which become our respects to the cause of God and to our Superiors yea to all men whose rules are his written word rightly understood not wrested and depraved by sinister passions and presumptuous dispensations of what is our duty indeed to God and man I will not abuse your patience while I crave the use of a little time to feel how the pulse of your affections and resolutions do beat and whether your understandings have transmitted the cause of God to your heart that knowing your duty in so great a concern you may resolve to do it 1. Vse of instruction to shew us what is that cause which is most worthy our pleading with all the wisdom power and capacities we have it is Gods For this cause as Christ speaketh he came into the World and into the bosome of the true Church for this cause we are endowed with understanding memory eloquence conscience civil influences in Counsel and in authority publique and private for this cause we were baptised by the Blood of Christ and dedicated to him sutably educated and instructed also nourished and refreshed by his body and blood that we should plead for Gods glory for our Saviours truth Worship Ministry servants and institutions against our own iusts and Passions against the ignorance Atheâ—sme prophaneness licentiousness hypocrisie novelty extravagancy error superstition idolatry Flattery sacriledge and security of the world It is a shame for us to be so zealous industrious solicitous and importune in our own petty concerns for a little profit honour or pleasure and to neglect that cause which is worth all we are and have even our estates liberties and lives Nec propter vitam vivendi per dere causam if we expect God to plead ours we must plead his and with a vehemency as much above all other causes as heaven is above earth eternity above a moment and the excellency of Christ above the loss and dung the seraps and excrements of this world 2. Vse of Caution but as we must be careful to adhere to and assert Gods cause so it must be in Gods way with Iustice holiness order humility patience charity sincerity according to the bonds of Gods and mans laws not with tumult violence saction sedition sraud sury partiality injustice and hypocrisie Gods Ark though it â—otters must not be stayed or held up by such rash hands better it do honeste cadere then inhoneste stare These Midwives are not fit for the birth of Gods children Such as call in the assistance of these either mistake Gods cause or they make his cause but a stale and visard to their own private interests and designes or lastly they are ignorant of Gods methods and the way of his Saints in all ages or they greatly distrust his power and goodness as if he were not sufficient to vindicate himself and his cause by such means as are onely worthy of him of Christ and of us as his servants 3. Vse of trial and reproofe you may see clearly what cause they plead who observe not Gods course and method but think to justifie evil pleading by the goodness of the cause To such violent injurious perfidious and unreasonable men we may put that question which God doth Psalm 50. 16. What hast thou to do to take my cause into thy hand or my word into thy mouth since thou hatest to be reformed c. On which words they report that Origen after his lapse commented with his tears Those that plead Gods cause any way by fighting or writing speaking or doing must have written in their hearts and affections on their forehead and hands as the Horses in Zacharies vision had on their bels or bridles holiness to the Lord St. Chrisostome observes in the disorders and corruptions which distracted with exstatick convulsions and madness the heathen Sybils and Prophets in their Oracles and in the calmness or harmony which was in Gods Prophets how great a difference there is between Diabolical possession and divine inspiration
such is the disorder that attends men in their own cause and the order which they observe who intend Gods There was wont to be proclaimed before the olympian games and Athletick agonies That none who were misbegotten or slaves or vile or infamous persons should offer to enter the lists or contest in those famous and solemn yea sacred conflicts which were not for private gain but for the honour of their gods and the Victors such a proclamation may I make as to Gods cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no proud prophane covetous ambitious sacrilegious perjurious popular partial parasitick insolent disorderly and licentious persons pretend to plead it since they do more prejudice and disparage it then any way advance or forward it good and wise men are ashamed and weak men are jealous and affraid to be sâ—en in that good cause wherein wicked men appear not good but great sticklers as Magots do in what was a good dish of meats not to garnish or adorne it but to defile and devour it 4. Use fear to oppose Gods cause or by anyforcible or fallacious ways to plead against it for it will be as a burthensome stone a rock of offence who ever dasheth against it or on whom it falls at last with the weight of Gods vindication It will dash them to pieces who ever contended against God and his cause and prospered For it will at last be pleaded with fire and brimstone with an omni potent and unexorable justice which will consume as fire doth stubble all the opposing powers and fallacious pretensions 5. Vse of exhortation when we have done our duty in Gods cause and in his way according to our place and see that we profit nothing as to the publique but onely to our own peace and discharge of good consciences yet cease not to follow God with our prayers and holy importunities that he would take the matter into his own hand Bonae causae sufficit unus patronus bonus Gods cause is never to be despaired of though it have no patron or advocate among men yet it hath one above who is optimus maximus the greatest and best of all It may as a bladder be forced under water for a while but it will buoy up again The Church may be as the ship in which Christ was tossed and covered with waves yet Christum vebit causam Christi as Caesar said to the fearful Mariners of himself and his fortune God oft lets things run to low ebbs that he may shew his mighty power and make the extremities of his cause the opportunities of his help however let not thy faith or Prayers fast which have a kind of omnipotency in them to remove Mountains and to do miracles at a dead lift Gods arme is not shortned though mans be withered let God alone with his own cause the gates of bell shall not prevail against it 6. Vse Measure not the cause of God by outward prevailings and prosperities the gayest feathered foul are not the best meat we must condemne the generation of Gods people and the cause of the righteous if we think that the worst cause which hath the worst usage or success in this world look to the Prophets from righteous Abel to John Baptist look to the Apostles and the best of their successors look to the holy Preachers and people we shall find they had always enough to do to plead the cause of God and his truth against the many open persecutions and secret underminings of evil men and devils who many times so prevayled by Gods just judgment that the cause of God seemed wholly routed such were their powers their victories their numbers their policies their cruelties all bent against the cause of God yet even their banishment and prison and tortures and plundrings and sequestrations and loss of all even to life it self these with a good cause and a good conscience were infinitely to be preferred before all the Treasures and Triumphs and Thrones and successes and applauses of impious prosperity or prosperous impiety The just must live by faith not by sense the touch stone of Gods cause is Godsword both as to the end and the means the usual badg or mark of Christs cause is Christs cross to which we were all devoted in our baptism nor must we fly from those colours least the Lord answer us as those that plead with him at the last day have we not prophecyed in thy name and cast out Devils c. So have we not pleaded thy cause O Lord by tumults mutinies falsities sedition rebellion by plunder and rapine by sacriledge and perjury by blood and violence To whom the Lord will reply depart from me ye hypocrites and accursed I know you not you pleaded the cause of your own lusts and belly of your pride envy covetousness ambition and revenge and not of my holy name and true Religion and reformation which owns no such manner of pleading or practising 7. Vse Is by way of examination wherein I will propound two Questions to you with such answers as I conceive may suit them 1. Question is What may be that cause of God for which he thus pleads in wrath against us in England So far that his hand hath been a long time stretched forth against us and his wrath is not yet turned away from us but burnes as a consuming fire to the very foundations in a long war and the worst of all a civil war which destroys even humanity it self setting nearest relations at distances and friends at distances and neighbours at enmity and countrimen at mortal contentions Yea and this upon the worst account even religious dissentions and jealousies no less then secular if we ask why the Lord hath brought all this evil upon a people that were once called by his name and but too happy the very wonder joy or envy of all Churches and Nations and Kingdomes Why is it that the Lord hath pleaded thus severely against our Kings and Princes our Parliaments and Peers our Bishops and Clergy our Gentry and Commonalty even all sorts of people against Church and State against our peace our laws our government our liberties our estates and our plenty against the prosperity and the honour of the Nation yea against our very Religion and reformation it self as if he did abhor us So that we seem condemned to everlasting torments to contend with and devoure each other with endless diesolations and confusions turning like Ixion in the wheel or Sisyphus his stone or St. Laurence from one side to the other upon the gridâ—ron of dayly exactions vexations terrors and vastations while Manasseh is against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and Iudah against both That we cannot find or will not follow the way of peace With what Earthquakes and Shakings and Overturnings and bloody Battels and mutual Exhaustings and unplacable Annimosities have we been wasted many years and are still
threatned every day besides the bitter feuds and factions the divisions and subdivisions which like fire have seised on the Temple and House of God this so famous Church and our reformed religion heretofore so blessed with piety and peace gifts and graces with the beauty and holiness and the crown of double honour against all which God hath written bitter things and powred contempt § These frowns and fightings do all testifie to our faces that God hath a controversie with the land against Church and State that he pleads as an adversary against Court and City and Country against all estates and degrees of men Among whom such an evil spirit is risen as between Abimeleck and the men of Sichem that there is no peace to him that goes out or comes in we are left as sheep without a sheepherd as a ship in a storme without a Pilot as Orphanes without a Father and as Widows without an Husband in a desolate deplorable self-destroying condition Of which abysse or ocean of troubles we see no bounds or bottom being condemned to an arbitrary subjection to a partial monopoly of power and to a meer military protection in which not Philosophers as Plato wished but Souldiers and men of blood must be our Governours and our exactors our Protectors Who keep us quiet that they may fleece us and fleece us that they may keep us in subjection of whom we shall find that true which is said of Physitians many of them are but a further disease to a Patient qui medice sic qui militariter vivit misere vivit It is but a sad life which must be maintained by dayly leeches and bloodlettings by laneings and searings and cuttings of some parts of the body which are not so unsound as those that are the executioners of them § Certainly God is too wise and too indulgent a Physitian to use so long and so great evacuations purgations and corrosives to this body politique if there were not many foul and marbose or malignant humours in it the Heathens were wont in publique and long Calamities after they had tried allways to appease their angry Gods by supplications and sacrifices and yet were never the better to send to some famous Oracle for its direction Do not presume to be your Oracle but let Gods word be it this will give you a clear and unambiguous answer why the Lord hath done all this evil against us why he thus implacably pleads against this Church and State which formerly were his cheif favorites and darlings â—â— the signets or bracelets on his hand and arme as the vine which himself had planted and watered and wonderful preserved which is now become a scorn and shame to it self no less then an hissing and astonishment to all the Nations round about As the Lord pleads against his Vine of the Jewish Church and State appealing to the men of Judah and Jerusalem to judge between him and his vine so may it be said in our case What could the Lord have done more for us then he did and what could we have done less for his cause than we have done or more against it How were we planted and watered and weeded and fenced and fortified and loaded with the choisest blessings of heaven and earth What was there wanting in England to make us happy but holy humble and thankful hearts with sutable lives the good grapes which God expected instead of which Oh what sower grapes did we bring forth to God and man O how weary were we of Gods blessings as if God had cloyed and overladen us How like the nansueating Iews we lothed this Manna the reformed religion with all holy institutions and Christian Sacraments and decent devotions and orderly Government How neglected how prophaned how despised were these by many wanton Christians how many scornfully washt off their infant Baptism by a Fanatick and Schismatick novelty of Anabaptisme contrary to the Analogy of faith and practise of all Churches in all ages How have many vomited up their former Lords Suppers and as if they had surfited heretofore have fasted from them these twice seven years How impatient have they been of such Pastors and Preachers such Bishops and Presbyters as told them the truth sought to restrain those inordinate libertys which they wickedly affected how hateful have these Michajahs been to those that loved to be flattered in sin how have many gnashed their teeth against such Stephens as have sowed no pillows under their elbows Yea how over zealous have we been in pleading our own secular and civil causes to much civil War and blood pretending to preserve our liberty till we overtook our slavery and really intending on all sides to get places of profit and preferments to our selves to feather our nests and set up our selves on high above all that was called Gods among us What vast sums have been expended to make us miserable on the other side O how cold careless formal and indifferent have we been as to God's great Cause for the good of souls the true Preaching of the Gospel the due administration of Religion the preservation of our happy reformation for the order honour government support and just incouragement of able and faithful Ministers in this Church which are and ever will be wanting in many places of this Nation where there is as yet no provender for the Ox that should tread out the Corn Hence St. Austin observed Quod Christus non capit capit fiscuâ— what Sacriledge cetaines from Christ is wasted for no purpose § We have with great clamour pretended Gods Cause Religion and reformation on all sides but this on all sides is worsted abased deformed discountenanced diminished and by many evil eyes sought to be wholy improverished and starved God pleads against us for our hypocrisie and pretensions for our Sacrilegious invasions and confusions which rob God of his honour Christ of his right and homage the Church of its portion and patrimony Ministers of their maintenance The nation of its liberality the dead of their bequeathings or legacies true Religion of its support and all sorts of people of that piety charity and hospitality which was intended them by those holy honest and legal donations against which no man pleads that hath not a mind to purloyn them or to have a good peniworth of them at the Devils Markeâ— God pleads against us for our trusting too much to the arme of flesh and prophaning Gods Cause with evil means with sinister policies and practises bringing to Gods â—ltar the lame and lean and defective and deformed Sacrifices of parsimonious and sordid spirits which are not propitiations but pollutions which the Majesty of God is so far from accepting that he abhors and casts as dung in the deceivers face God is not to be mocked § God pleads against our unthankefulness as to God so to man our discontented humors and impatience that knew
such a people as we are whose iniquities have forfeited former blessings the sins of peace made way for war and war for domestick confusion and these for foraign invasions and this for Romish superstitions and Papal usurpations for there want not factors at home and abroad who are earnest sticklers for a Cause which they call the Catholick Cause what it means as to our civil and religious concern as to the honor of this Nation and the prosperity or peace or liberty of the Reformed Religion you cannot be such strangers in the Christian world as not to consider How long as Eliah said to the Israelites will you halt between two opinions between two Causes nay now they are multiplied to twenty if the Reformed Church and Religion which God so blessed with temporal and spiritual blessings with excellent gifts and graces to your forefathers in the last century of Englands honor and happiness if it be Gods Cause grounded on his word sealed by his Spirit and conform to the best of primitive Churches let us plead and assert this against all other for it will be our wisdom and our strength our honor our peace and our safety as it was to our forefathers for the greatest part of an hundred years while they joyned Loyalty to Religion and thought nothing further from Reformation then Rebellion against lawful Magistrates and their lawful power The Second Question you may make to me is What is this Cause of God which we are now to plead in England or what is there left for us to do I Answer as Joseph to his brethren this do and live First retain righteous principles as to civil Justice and true Religion in your own judgements and in the Court of your consciences that you be not warped in them so as by any events or successes to call evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness Though you have not opportunity or power or courage at present to plead according to your principles yet turn not from them comply not with such as are false unjust irreligious though it be so evil a time that prudence adviseth and piety indulgeth you silence yet time may come when you may plead for Gods Cause according to your principles Mean time as by your speaking you do not strengthen the hands of an evill cause and evill doers so by your silence and reserve you do cast a just reproach and discountenance upon them there is yet hope of a good Cause if the Court and Judge be not corrupted Notwithstanding that some evil pleaders cry it down Secondly As you have power and opportunity given you dare to own and plead for Gods Cause 1. In your own brests and consciences every grace and vertue every good thought and motion is Gods plead them against thy own lusts and the Devils temptations 2. In thy Family and relations plead Gods Cause against lying swearing idleness prophaness c. Thirdly In civil affairs plead the cause of Justice against any injury and oppression the poorest mans cause if just is Gods yea and the cause of a wicked mans so far as it is just is Gods Specially in causes of publick Justice there thou must not be wanting to speak out by pleading when called to it by petitioning and praying for Justice yea and acting for it according to what is just and lawful but a just Cause must not be set as the Ark on the cart of injustice we must not so plead Gods cause as to injure Cesars nor Cesars as to injure Gods Fourthly Plead the cause of true Religion of our reformed Religion of the Church of England and its excellent constitutions against the Pseudo Catholick Church of Rome the cause of Christs merits and intercession against all mixtures humane or Angelick the cause of the Scriptures against all Apocryphal traditions and fanatick illuminations which are false illusions and not divine inspirations The cause of the Lords Supper in its compleatness against the subductions and seductions of the Mass which loseth the bread to all and steals away the wine from the Laity the cause of the worship of God in a known tongue to edification against Latin service which few understand so as to say Amen to what is prayed So the cause of chast and honorable mariage against scorched and affected coelebacy Further Plead as for the verity so for the unity of the Reformed Religion and this Church against those lice and locusts those noxious and noysom vermine of factions which have so gnawed and defaceâ— this Church the reformed religion and which seek to deprive your children of one and your selves of both the holy Sacraments Plead for the Churches patrimony for the support and honor of an able learned authoritative and worthy Ministry in due order and government of it against those sacrilegious spirits who with Judas grudge all as wast that is by a grateful charity and devout superfluity poured on Christ for the honor of his name and the encouragement of his Ministers according to the general tenor of Gods word not only permiting but commanding us by personal or national donations to honor God with our substance Plead for our due ordination subordination as Ministers that we may not by novel projects of levelling confusion plebeian Anarchy in the Church be driven from conformity with the ancient Fathers and the order and universal government of all Christian Churches as wel as our own from our first being Christian If you think us able or worthy to take care of your souls eternal welfare and to administer to you spiritual things Do not think us worthy to be condemned to live to dye and to be buried even yet alive with the meanest of the people since by what I have now discoursed to you it may appear that we are neither ignorant of nor enemies to the true cause of God Jesus Christ as our blind and bitter enemies do maliciously pretend Of which cause I have in all my discourse not spoken my own private sense only but the sense of my Fathers Brethren of all true Bishops and Presbyters and of the whole Church of England Lastly Since I hope you are as willing as able to plead Gods cause and since I know you pray that God would plead your and your posterities cause in Church and State that he would make yours his own cause Keep I beseech you always in your souls this holy resolution not to be wanting in your place to your power to assert Gods cause corde et ore consilio exemplo prece praxi atramento sanguine In which behalf you cannot form your thoughts to a better tune and words then Luther did when he undertook that great Cause of religious reformation Aut propugnemus causam Dei aut succumbamus cum causa Dei Either let us stand by the cause of God or let us fall with