their brethren whilst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks under pretence of interpretation they violently broach their own conceits Great then is the danger in which they wade which take upon them this business of interpretation Temevitas asserendae incertae dubiaeque opinionis saith St. Austine difficile sacrilegii crimen evitat the rashness of those that aver uncertain and doubtful interpretations for Catholick and Absolute can hardly escape the sin of sacrilege But whereas our Apostle saith their own destruction is the destruction onely their own this were well if it stretched no farther The antients much complain of this offence as an hinderer of the salvation of others There were in the days of Isidorus Pelusiota some that gave out that all in the Old Testament was spoken of Christ belike out of extreme opposition to the Manichees who on the other side taught that no Text in the Old Testament did foretel of Christ. That Father therefore dealing with some of that opinion tells them how great the danger of their tenet is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if saith he we strive with violence to draw and apply those Texts to Christ which apparently pertain not to him we shall gain nothing but this to make all the places that are spoken of him suspected and so discredit the strength of other testimonies which the Church usually urges for the refutation of the Iews For in these cases a wrested proof is like unto a suborn'd witness it never doth help so much whilest it is presumed to be strong as it doth hurt when it is discover'd to be weak St. Austin in his Books de Genesi ad literam sharply reproves some Christians who out of some places of Scripture misunderstood fram'd unto themselves a kind of knowledge in Astronomy and Physiology quite contrary unto some part of heathen Learning in this kind which were true and evident unto sense A man would think that this were but a small errour and yet he doubts not to call it turpe nimis perniciosum maxime cavendum His reason warrants the roundness of his reproof for he charges such to have been a scandal unto the Word and hinderers of the conversion of some heathen men that were Scholars For how saith he shall they believe our books of Scripture perswading the resurrection of the dead the kingdome of heaven and the rest of the mysteries of our profession if they find them faulty in these things of which themselves have undeniable demonstration Yea though the cause we maintain be never so good yet the issue of diseas'd and crazie proofs brought to maintain it must needs be the same For unto all causes be they never so good weakness of proof when it is discovered brings great prejudice but unto the cause of Religion most of all St. Austine observ'd that there were some qui cum de aliquibus qui sanctum nomen profitentur aliquid criminis vel falsi sonuerit vel veri patuerit instant satagunt ambiunt ut de omnibus hoc credatur It fares no otherwise with Religion it self then it doth with the professors of it Divers malignants there are who lie in wait to espie where our reasons on which we build are weak and having deprehended it in some will earnestly solicit the world to believe that all are so if means were made to bring it to light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks using for advantage against us no strength of their own but the vice and imbecility of our defence The book of the revelation is a book full of wonder and mystery the Ancients seem to have made a Religion to meddle with it and thought it much better to admire with silence then to adventure to expound it and therefore amongst their labours in exposition of Scripture scarcely is there any one found that hath touch'd it But our Age hath taken better heart And scarcely any one is there who hath entertained a good conceit of his own abilities but he hath taken that Book as a fit argument to spend his pains on That the Church of Rome hath great cause to suspect her self to fear lest she have a great part in the Prophesies in that book I think the most partial will not deny Yet unto the Expositours of it I will give this advice that they look that that befall not them which Thuoidides observes to befall the common sort of men who though they have good means to acquit themselves like men yet when they think their best hopes fail them and begin to despair of their strength comfort themselves with interpretations of certain dark and obscure prophesies Many plain texts of Scripture are very pregnant and of sufficient strength to overthrow the points maintained by that Church againts us If we leave these and ground our selves upon our private expositions of this Book we shall justly seem in the poverty of better proofs to rest our selves upon those prophesies which though in themselves they are most certain yet our expositions of them must except God give yet further light unto his Church necessarily be mixt with much incertainty as being at the best but unprobable conjectures of our own Scarcely can there be found a thing more harmful to Religion then to vent thus our own conceits and obtrude them upon the world for necessary and absolute The Physicians skill as I conceive of it stands as much in opinion as any that I know whatsoever yet their greatest Master Hippocrates tells them directly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then the Physicians presumption upon opinion there is not one thing that brings either more blame to himself or danger to his patient If it be thus in an art which opinion taken away must needs fall how little room then must opinion have in that knowledge where nothing can have place but what is of eternal truth where if once admit of opinion all is overthrown But I conclude this point adding onely this general admonition That we be not too peremptory in our positions where express text of Scripture fails us that we lay not our own collections and conclusions with too much precipitancy For experience hath shewed us that the errour and weakness of them being afterwards discovered brings great disadvantage to Christianity and trouble to the Church The Eastern Church before St. Basils time had entertained generally a conceit that those Greek particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest were so divided among the Trinity that each of the Persons had his Particle which was no way appliable to the rest St. Basil having discovered this to be but a niceness and needless curiosity beginning to teach so raised in the Church such a tumult that he brought upon himself a great labour of writing many tracts in apology for himself with much ado ere matters could again be setled The fault of this was not in Basil who religiously fearing what by way of consequence might ensue upon an errour taught
c. In these words we will consider these three things 1. The Person David And David's heart smote him 2. David's Sollicitousness his care and jealousie very significantly expressed in the next words his heart smote him 3. The cause of this his care and anxiety of mind in the last words because he had cut off Saul's skirt In the first point that is in the Person we may consider his greatness he was a King in expectation and already Anointed A circumstance by so much the more considerable because that greatness is commonly taken to be a privilege to sin to be over careful and conscientious of our courses and actions are accounted virtues for private persons Kings have greater businesses then to examine every thought that comes into their hearts Pater meus obliviscitur se esse Caesarem ego vero memini me Caesaris filiam It is the answer of Iulia Augustus the Emperour's daughter when she was taxed for her too wanton and licentious living and counsel'd to conform her self to the sobriety and gravity of her father My father saith she forgets himself to be Caesar the Emperour but I remember my self to be Caesar's daughter It was the speech of Ennius the Poet Plebs in hoc Regi ante-stat loco licet lachrimari plebi Regi honeste non licet Private men in this have a privilege above Princes but thus to do becomes not Princes and if at any time these sad and heavy-hearted thoughts do surprize them they shall never want comforters to dispel them When Ahab was for sullenness fallen down upon his bed because Naboth would not yeild him his Vineyard Iezabel is presently at hand and asks him Art thou this day King of Israel When Ammon pined away in the incestuous love of his sister Thamar Ionadab his companion comes unto him and asks Why is the King's son sad every day so that as it seems great Persons can never be much or long sad Yet David forgets his greatness forgets his many occasions gives no ear to his companions about him but gives himself over to a scrupulous and serious consideration of an Action in shew and countenance but light Secondly As the Person is great so is the care and remorse conceived upon the consideration of his action exceeding great which is our Second part And therefore the holy Ghost expresses it in very significant terms His heart smote him a phrase in Scripture used by the holy Ghost when men begin to be sensible and repent them of some sin When David had committed that great sin of numbring the people and began to be apprehensive of it the Scripture tells us that David's heart smote him when he had commanded Ioab to number the people Wherefore by this smiting we may not here understand some light touch of conscience like a grain of powder presently kindled and presently gone for the most hard and flinty hearts many times yeilds such sparks as these He that is most flesh'd in sin commits it not without some remorse for sin evermore leaves some scruple some sting some loathsomeness in the hearts of those that are most inamour'd of it But as Simeon tells the Blessed Virgin in St. Luke's Gospel Gladius pertransibit animam tuam A sword shall peirce through thine heart so it seems to have been with David It was not some light touch to rase onely the surface and skin of the heart but like a sword it peirced deep into him To teach us one lesson That actions spotted though but with the least suspicion of sin ought not carelesly to be pass'd by or sleightly glanced at but we ought to be deeply apprehensive of them and bestow greatest care and consideration upon them The third part of our Text containeth the cause of David's remorse in the last words because he cut off Saul's skirt In the two former parts we had to do with greatness there was 1. a great Person and 2. great Remorse can we in this third part find out any great cause or reason of this so to make all parts proportionable Certainly he that shall attentively read and weigh these first words of my Text and know the story might think that David had committed some notable errour as some great oppression or some cruel slaughter or some such Royal sin which none but Kings and great men can commit But Beloved this my Text seems to be like the Windows in Solomon's Temple broad within but narrow without or like a Pyramide large and spatious at the Basis and ground of it but small and sharp at the top The Person and Remorse which are the ground and subject of my Text both are great and large but the Cause which is the very crown and top of all that is very small yea peradventure none at all For whether it be that my self accustomed to greater sins and now grown old in them have lost all sense of small and petty errours or whether indeed there be no errour at all in this action of David but onely some fancy some jealousie arising out of that godly and careful watch he kept over all his ways or whatsoever else it was that caused this scruple or remorse in David it is a very hard matter to discover and yet notwithstanding that we may make more open pass unto such Doctrines as I shall raise out of these words let us a little scan and consider what it was in this action that made David thus strangely scrupulous And first of all was it for that he had touch'd and taken that which was none of his own and therefore might seem to fall within compass of the Law against injury and purloining This seems not probable for when afterward in the like case he came upon Saul as he was sleeping in the Camp and took from him the Spear and the pot of water which stood at his head we do not read that his head that his heart smote him and yet he took what was none of his Or 2 ly was it that he did wrong and dishonour Saul in mangling his garment Indeed the Iews have a Tradition that this was the sin of which David was here so sensible And therefore say they whereas we read in the first of Kings that when David grew old they covered him with clothes but he gat no heat this was the punishment of his sin committed against Saul God so providing that garments should not be serviceable to him who had offended in wronging Saul's garments But this I must let go as a fable Or 3 ly was it that he had unadvisedly given way to some disloyal thought and at first resolved to revenge himself on Saul having him at the advantage though afterward he repented Indeed St. Chrysostom thinks so and therefore on those words at the latter end of the verse next before my Text And David arose he notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See you not saith he what a tempest of rage and anger begins to rise in him for he supposeth him
to the Land of Promise Yea it is generally thought a matter of congruity that the world go well with every good Christian man Against those I will lay down this one conclusion That if we look into the tenour of the New Testament we shall find that neither the Church nor any Christian man by title of his profession hath any certain claim to any secular blessing Indeed if we look into the Iews Common-wealth and consider the letter of Moses Law they may seem not onely to have a direct promise of Temporal felicity but of no other save that For in the Law God gives to Moses the dispensation of no other but temporal Blessings and Cursings in the xxvj of Leviticus and the xxviij of Deuteronomy where God seems to strive with all possible efficacy to express himself in both kinds there is not a line conteining that which should betide them at their ends all their weal all their woe seem'd to expire with their lives What sense they had of future rewards or with what conceit they passed away to immortality I list not to dispute This suffices to shew that there is a main difference in the hopes of the Church before and since Christ concerning outward prosperity as for Christians to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom they have greater and harder races to run greater prizes to take in hand then our Fathers before Christ. The Church was then in her youth she was to be led by sense as a child we are come to the age of perfect men in Christ. That the Church therefore might not deceive her self with this outward peace which is but a peace of ornament he strips her as it were of her borrowed beauty and washes off her Fucus gives her no interest in the world sends her forth into a strange Land as he did Abraham not having possession of a foot and which is yet more not having so much as a promise of any which yet Abraham had If Christ and his Apostles teach as sometimes they do Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and these things shall be cast in upon you That Godliness hath the promise both of this life and of the life to come It is not presently to be conceived that every true Christian man shall doubtless come on and thrive in the world That which they teach is no more but this That we ought not to despair of the Providence of God for look what is the reward and portion of vertue and industry in other men the same and much more shall it have in Christians their goodness shall have the like approbation their moral virtues shall have the like esteem their honest labours shall thrive alike If sometimes it hath fallen out otherwise it is but the same lot which hath befallen virtue and honesty even in the Pagan as well as the Christian. In the fifth of St. Matthew where Christ teacheth us That the meek spirited shall possess the earth think we that it was the intent of the holy Ghost to make men Lords of the earth to endow them with Territories and large Dominions That which he teaches us is but a moral lesson such as common reason and experience confirms That meek and mild spirited men are usually the quietest possessours of what they hold But that these speeches and such as these in the New Testament be not wrong'd by us by being drawn to our avaritious conceits and thought to halt if sometime the meek-spirited become a spoil to the extortioner and be stript of all he hath give me leave to commend unto you one rule for the interpretation of them which will give much ease to unstable minds The holy Ghost delivering general propositions in things subject to variety and humane casualties is to be understood for the truth of them as far as the things themselves are capable of truth and according to the certainty of them There are many propositions fram'd even in Natural things of Eternal truth no instance neither of time nor person can be brought to disprove them our daily experience evermore finds them so There is a second order of things created by God himself subject to mutability which sometimes are not at all and being produced owe their being sometimes to one cause sometimes to another the efficacy of the cause no way being determined to this effect but of it self indifferent to produce it or not The managing of affairs whether in publick of Common-weals or in private of any man's particular state or calling Moral rules of behaviour and carriage yea all the things that are spoken concerning the temporal weal or woe of actions good or bad they are all ranged in this second order Now in all these things it is impossible there should be propositions made of unavoidable certainty If the rules and observations drawn for our direction ut plurimum usually and in the ordinary course of events hold currant it is enough to make them Maxims of Truth it matters not though at some time upon some occasions in some person they fail Now from the condition of these things the propositions made by the holy Ghost himself are by their Authour not exempted In the Book of the Proverbs the holy Ghost hath registred such store of Moral wisdom and Precepts of carriage in temporal matters that all the wisdom of the Heathen most renowned for Morality come far short of it These Precepts though with us they have as indeed they ought to have much more credibility as delivered unto us by an Authour of surer observation and exempted from all possibility of errour yet notwithstanding in regard of the things themselves they are of the like certainty of the same degree of truth when we find them in the Writings of these famous Ethnicks whom it pleased the holy Spirit to endue with Natural wisdom and Moral discretion which they have when we read them registred in the Oracles of God and thesame uncertainty have they in regard of some particulars when they be spoken by Solomon which they have when they are uttered by Plato or Euripides Solomon much inveigheth against the folly of Suretiship was it therefore never heard of that a wise man was surety for his neighbour with good success I. Caesar when he thought to have upheld his estate through mercy and clemency lost his life is it therefore false which Solomon teacheth that Mercy upholdeth the throne of the King He knew well and his son had dear experience of it that the peoples hearts are won and kept by mild and merciful dealing rather then by rough and tyrannous proceedings yet he could not be ignorant that even Kings sometimes reap mischeif and death there where they have plentifully sowed love and mercy Thus then and no otherwise are we to understand the holy Ghost preaching unto us the reward of the meek-spirited and the promises of this life to the godly For we are not to suppose that God in
commission that Saul did against the Amalekites one of these whom Saul spared lived to cut his throat and executed that judgment upon Saul which Saul neglected to do on him So if we let but one sin alone there may come a time when that one sin may ruine us Therefore let Dixi custodiam be of the extent it is here 1. In the first person 2. To bind us for the present 3. Over all our ways These three Circumstances shew the meaning of the words And now since you know what they mean what think you of taking them up for your own Can you find in your hearts thus to resolve Will you try whether it be possible to make it good or no I shew'd you last day that the onely way to know whether it be possible is to make trial your selves and that you have this for your comfort that in other cases by making of trial many things have been found possible which till then many wise men thought impossible If other kind of trials have sped so well why may not God give the like success to this which certainly is more pleasing to God Do ye rightly apprehend what I mean I do not say it is possible for any man to keep the whole law and never offend It is too late for you and me to make trial of that for we have all offended deeply and without the Merits and Mediation of Christ we are utterly lost But this I say When a man is in David's case here when he is brought to the knowledge of God and his own miserable estate to the free pardon of great offences that he hath committed may he not then resolve for the time to come as David doth May he not then keep that resolution not so as never to slip but not to fall and leave his right way Is he bound to think it impossible shall he so discourage himself from the happiest experiment in the world I know many men hold it impossible and live accordingly but I would have all under my charge to hold it possible and to live as they meant to prove it Or if you will needs think it impossible be perswaded to undertake it howsoever for if you do your best and cannot effect it that endeavour will be highly prized Shall I speak plain I imagine it is impossible for I fear we have brought our selves to that pass that it comes not far short of impossibility for us to do it Yet why should we not venture upon impossibilities in this so good a cause as well as we do of our own accord in other cases Is not the greatest part of our lives spent in attempting things meerly impossible Petrarch It a se res habet ad impossibilia studium omne conversum est We would want nothing never be troubled not be sick not die this all desire this is impossible Why do we not as much desire not to sin which is the onely cause of all our want trouble sickness and death too If you would be exempted from them little offended with them take up this Dixi custodiam If you will be affrighted with this impossibility you shall have enough of all the other Therefore among so many impossibilities we undertake for our own fancy Let us attempt this one of perfect Christian cautelousness especially since God commands us and David here undertakes the practise of it Certainly either David saw some possibility in it which we do not see or else he thought some impossible attempts were not misbecoming us And would you but look a little to the Institution and Discipline of the ancient Monks or to the practise of our adversaries the Iesuites of our times you would wonder what strange examples you might find of the obedience of inferiours toward their superiours even in cases of apparent impossibilities If one of you which are fathers should bid your little children bring you that which you knew were beyond his strength onely to try him would you not commend reward his endeavour And do you think your heavenly Father hath not as much love and respect unto his own children By this time I hope you are in charity with these words with the main word Custodiam I will observe I will take heed Now I will tell you what it is It is a word of that singular weight and moment that it contains in it all the Christian art and wisdom by which whatsoever the force and fraud of sin and hell can secretly suggest or openly oppose is frustrated and defeated altogether If we surveigh and sum up all the forces which the Divil Flesh World are able to raise those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satan's deep unfathom'd policies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual juglings and cousenages all devises and means whatsoever by which he abuseth us or we our selves This one word Custodiam I will take heed contains that in it which disannuls them all Galen observ'd it of the diseases of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To suppose there were some one cure of all maladies were extreme folly Among the world the diseases that our frail bodies are subject unto every one if we will cure it must have a proper remedy if we will prevent it must have a proper Antidote Besides the difference from the temper age complexion custom trade and diet of the patient But in the cure of souls though our spiritual diseases be more and more dangerous yet all these if you would cure and remove them prevent and shun them have but one remedy antidote and preservative Would you know what these are The one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance the other is Custodiam cautelousness These two Simples cheap and easie growing in every man's Garden are universal medicines in all our spiritual diseases the one curing the other preventing the one lifting up when we are fall'n the other supporting us that we fall not All Gilead will yeild no other balm but this We have not as some Physicians have a Box and a Box one receit for great persons and another for meaner the spiritual cure of our souls admits of no such partiality but from the Scepter to the Spade there is but one way to prevent sin Custodiam cure sin committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent ye Now of these two David here like Mary in the Gospel teacheth you to make choice of the better part For let it not offend you if I compare these two great Christian virtues Cautelousness Repentance and not onely compare but much prefer the one before the other I know the doctrine of Repentance is a worthy lesson the joy and comfort of our souls we drink it in with thirsty ears yet let me tell you to be all for it is some wrong and impeachment to this Christian cautelousness and wariness here commended For as the ancient Romans were wont to use vomiting to procure them an appetite for farther eating so it seems many Christians use Repentance When we
from all imputation of unnecessary rigour and his Justice from seeming Injustice and Incongruity and on the other side it is a noble resolution so to humble our selves under the hand of Almighty God as that we can with patience hear yea think it an honour that so base creatures as our selves should become the instruments of the glory of so great a Majesty whether it be by eternal life or by eternal death though for no other reason but for Gods good will and pleasures sake The Authours of these conceits might both freely if peaceably speak their minds and both singularly profit the Church for since it is impossible where Scripture is ambiguous that all conceits should run alike it remains that we seek out a way not so much to establish an unity of opinion in the minds of all which I take to be a thing likewise impossible as to provide that multiplicity of conceit trouble not the Churches peace A better way my conceit cannot reach unto then that we would be willing to think that these things which with some shew of probability we deduce from Scripture are at the best but our Opinions for this peremptory manner of setting down our own conclusions under this high commanding form of necessary truths is generally one of the greatest causes which keeps the Churches this day so far asunder when as a gracious receiving of each other by mutual forbearance in this kind might peradventure in time bring them nearer together This peradventure may some man say may content us in case of opinion indifferent out of which no great inconvenience by necessary and evident proof is concluded but what Recipe have we for him that is fallen into some known and desperate Heresie Even the same with the former And therefore anciently Heretical and Orthodox Christians many times even in publick holy exercise converst together without offence It 's noted in the Ecclesiastick stories that the Arrians and Right Beleivers so communicated together in holy Prayers that you could not distinguish them till they came to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gloria Patri which the Arrians used with some difference from other Christians But those were times quorum lectionem habemus virtutem non habemus we read of them in our books but we have lost the practise of their patience Some prejudice was done unto the Church by those who first began to intermingle with publick Ecclesiastical duties things respective unto private conceits For those Christian offices in the Church ought as much as possibly they may be common unto all and not to descend to the differences of particular opinions Severity against and separation from Heretical companies took its beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the stories we shall find that the Church did not at their first arising thrust them from her themselves went out and as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Ecclesiam quae persecutionem patitur non quae facit She was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when Heresies and Schisms first arose in the Church all kinds of violence were used by the erring Factions but the Church seem'd not for a long time to have known any use of a Sword but onely of a Buckler and when she began to use the Sword some of her best and cheifest Captains much misliked it The first Law in this kind that ever was made was Enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but onely such as were tumultuous and till that time they were not so much as touch'd with any mulct though but pecuniary till that shameful outrage committed against Bishop Maximian whom they beat down with bats and clubs even as he stood at the Altar So that not so much the errour of the Donatists as their Riots and Mutinies were by Imperial Laws restrained That the Church had afterward good reason to think that she ought to be salubrior quam dulcior that sometimes there was more mercy in punishing then forbearing there can no doubt be made St. Austin a man of as mild and gentle spirit as ever bare rule in the Church having according to his natural sweetness of disposition earnestly written against violent and sharp dealing with Hereticks being taught by experience did afterward retract and confess an excellent use of wholesome severity in the Church Yet could I wish that it might be said of the Church which was sometimes observed of Augustus In nullius unquam suorum nccem duravit He had been angry with and severely punish'd many of his kin but he could never endure to cut any of them off by death But this I must request you to take onely as my private wish and not as a censure if any thing have been done to the contrary When Absolom was up in arms against his Father it was necessary for David to take order to curb him and pull him on his knees yet we see how careful he was he should not die and how lamentably he bewail'd him in his death what cause was it that drove David into this extreme passion Was it doubt of Heir to the Kingdom that could not be for Solomon was now born to whom the promise of the Kingdom was made Was it the strength of natural affection I somewhat doubt of it three years together was Absolom in banishment and David did not very eagerly desire to see him The Scripture indeed notes that the King long'd for him yet in this longing was there not any such fierceness of passion for Absolom saw not the Kings face for two years more after his return from banishment to Hierusalem What then might be the cause of his strength of passion and commiseration in the King I perswade my self it was the fear of his sons final miscarriage and reprobation which made the King secure of the mercies of God unto himself to wish he had died in his stead that so he might have gain'd for his ungracious child some time of repentance The Church who is the common Mother of us all when her Absoloms her unnatural sons do lift up their hands and pens against her must so use means to repress them that she forget not that they are the sons of her womb and be compassionate over them as David was over Absolom loth to unsheath either sword but most of all the Temporal for this were to send them quick dispatch to Hell And here I may not pass by that singular moderation of this Church of ours which she hath most Christianly exprest towards her adversaries of Rome here at home in her bosom above all the reformed Churches I have read of For out of desire to make the breach seem no greater then indeed it is and to hold eommunion and Christian fellowship with her so far as we possibly can we have
done nothing to cut off the Favourers of that Church The reasons of their love and respect to the Church of Rome we wish but we do not command them to lay down their Lay-brethren have all means of instruction offered them Our Edicts and Statutes made for their restraint are such as serve onely to awaken them and cause them to consider the innocency of that cause for refusal of communion in which they endure as they suppose so great losses Those who are sent over by them either for the retaining of the already perverted or perverting others are either return'd by us back again to them who dispatch'd them to us without any wrong unto their persons or danger to their lives suffer an easie restraint which onely hinders them from dispersing the poison they brought And had they not been stickling in our state business and medling with our Princes Crown there had not a drop of their bloud fallen to the ground unto our Sermons in which the swarvings of that Church are necessarily to be taxt by us we do not bind their presence onely our desire is they would joyn with us in those Prayers and holy Ceremonies which are common to them and us And so accordingly by singular discretion was our Service-book compiled by our fore-fathers as containing nothing that might offend them as being almost meerly a Compendium of their own Breviary and Missal so that they shall see nothing in our Meetings but that they shall see done in their own though many things which are in theirs here I grant they shall not find And here indeed is the great and main difference betwixt us As it is in the controversie concerning the Canonical Books of Scripture whatsoever we hold for Scripture that even by that Church is maintained onely she takes upon her to add much which we cannot think safe to admit so fares it in other points of Faith and Ceremony whatsoever it is we hold for Faith she holds it as far forth as we our Ceremonies are taken from her onely she over and above urges some things for Faith which we take to be Errour or at the best opinion and for Ceremony which we think to be Superstition So that to participate with us is though not throughout yet in some good measure to participate with that Church and certainly were that spirit of charity stirring in them which ought to be they would love and honour us even for the resemblance of that Church the beauty of which themselves so much admire The glory of these our proceedings even our adversaries themselves do much envy So that from hence it is that in their writings they traduce our Judiciary proceedings against them for sanguinary and violent striving to perswade other Nations that such as have suffered by course of publick Justice for Religion onely and not for Treason have died and pretend we what we list our actions are as bloudy and cruel as their own wherefore if a perfect pattern of dealing with Erring Christians were to be sought there were not any like unto this of ours In qua nec saeviendi nec errandi pereundique licentia permittitur which as it takes not to it self liberty of cruelty so it leaves not unto any the liberty of destroying their own souls in the errour of their lives And now that we may at once conclude this point concerning Hereticks for prohibiting these men access to Religious Disputations it is now too late to dispute of that for from this that they have already unadvisedly entred into these battels are they become that which they are Let us leave them therefore as a sufficient example and instance of the danger of intempestive and immodest medling in Sacred Disputes I see it may be well expected that I should according to my promise adde instruction for the publick Magistrate and show how far this precept in receiving the weak concerns him I must confess I intended and promised so to do but I cannot conceive of it as a thing befitting me to step out of my Study and give Rules for Government to Common-wealths a thing befitting men of greater experience to do Wherefore I hope you will pardon me if I keep not that promise which I shall with less offence break then observe And this I rather do because I suppose this precept to concern us especially if not onely as private men and that in case of publick proceeding there is scarce room for it Private men may pass over offences at their pleasure and may be in not doing it they do worse but thus to do lies not in the power of the Magistrate who goes by Laws prescribing him what he is to do Princes and men in Authority do many times much abuse themselves by affecting a reputation of Clemency in pardoning wrongs done to other men and giving protection to sundry offenders against those who have just cause to proceed against them It is mercy to pardon wrong done against our selves but to deny the course of Justice to him that calls for it and to protect offenders may peradventure be some inconsiderare pity but mercy it cannot be All therefore that I will presume to advise the Magistrate is A general inclineableness to merciful proceedings And so I conclude wishing unto them who plentifully sowe mercy plentifully to reap it at the hand of God with an hundred fold encrease and that blessing from God the Father of mercies may be upon them all as on the sons of mercy as many as are the sands on the Sea-shore in multitude The same God grant that the words which we have this day c. A Sermon Preached on Easter day at Eaton Colledge Luke XVI 25. Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things I Have heard a Proverb to this sound He that hath a debt to pay at Easter thinks the Lent but short How short this Lent hath seemed to me who stand indebted to you for the remainder of my Meditations upon these words is no matter of consequence to you peradventure it may have seemed so long that what you lately heard at Shrovetide now at Easter you may with pardon have forgotten I will therefore recall into your memories so much of my former Meditations as may serve to open unto me a convenient way to pursue the rest of those Lessons which then when I last spake unto you the time and your patience would not permit me to finish But ere I do this I will take leave a little to fit my Text unto this time of Solemnity This time you know calls for a Discourse concerning the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ of this you hear no sound in the words which I have read and therefore you conclude it a Text unbefitting the day Indeed if you take the Resurrection for that glorious Act of his Omnipotency by which through the power of his eternal Spirit he redeems himself from the hand of the grave and triumphs over
these two there are no other publick causes of Bloudshed As for the causes in private I know but one and that is when a man is set upon and forced to it in his own defence If a theif be robbing in the night and be slain the Law of God acquits him that did it and by the Roman Laws Nocturnum furem quomodo libet diurnum si se telo defenderet It was lawful to kill a theif by night at any hand and by day if he used his weapon Of private Bloudshed there is no cause but this and this we must needs allow of For in all other private necessities into which we may be driven the Law and Magistrate have place to whom we must repair for remedy but in case of defence of life against sudden on-set no Law can be made except we would make a Law to yeild our throats to him that would cut them or our Laws were like the Prophet that came to Ieroboam at Bethel and could dry up mens arms that offered violence Wherefore all cause of death one onely excepted is publick and that for great reason For to die is not a private action to be undertaken at our own or at any other private mans pleasure and discretion For as we are not born unto our selves alone but for the service of God and the Common-wealth in which we live so no man dies to himself alone but with the damage and loss of that Church or Common-wealth of which he is a member Wherefore it is not left to any private man's power to dispose of any man's life no not to our own onely God and the Magistrate may dispose of this As Souldiers in the Camp must keep their standing neither may they move or alter but by direction from the Captain so is it with us all Our life is a warfare and every man in the world hath his station and place from whence he may not move at his own or at another man's pleasure but onely at the direction and appointment of God his General or of the Magistrates which are as Captains and Leiutenants under him Then our lawful times of death are either when our day is come or to fall in battel or for misdemeanour to be cut off by the publick hand of Justice Vt qui vivi prodesse noluerunt corum more respub utatur He which otherwise wise dies comes by surreption and stealth and not warrantably unto his end And though we have spoken something in Apology and defence of War yet you may not think that in time of War your hands are loose and that you may at your pleasure shed the bloud of your Enemy Misericorditer etiam bella gerantur saith St. Austin even in War and Battel there is room for thoughts of peace and mercy and therefore many of the ancient Heroes renowned Souldiers and Captains were very conscientious of shedding the bloud of their Enemies except it were in Battel and when there was no remedy to avoid it In that mortal Battel Sam. 2. between the servants of David and the servants of Isbosheth the Scripture reports that Abner fled and Azahel Ioab's brother following him hard at heels to kill him Abner advises him twice Turn aside saith he why should I smite thee to the ground but when Azahel would not hearken but followed him still for his bloud then he stroke him with his spear that he died In the time of War when he might lawfully have done it in the fury of the Battel Abner would not shed bloud but by constraint Xenophon would make us beleive that the Souldiers in Cyrus his Army were so well disciplin'd that one of them in time of the Battel having lift up his arm to strike his enemy hearing the Trumpet to begin to sound the Retreat let fall his arm and willingly lost his blow because he thought the time of striking was now past So far were these men from thinking it lawful to shed the bloud of a Subject in time of peace that they would not shed the bloud of an Enemy in time of War except it were in the Feild Iulius Cesar was one of the greatest and stoutest Captains that ever was in the world he stood the shock of fifty set Battels besides all Seiges and Out-rodes he took a thousand Cities and walled Towns he over-run three hundred several Countreys and in his Wars were slain well near twelve hundred thousand men besides all those that died in the Civil Wars which were great numbers yet this man protested of himself and that most truly that he never drew bloud but in the Feild nunquam nisâ— in acie stantem never slew any man but in a set battel I have been a little the bolder in bringing these instances of Heathen men First because the doctrine of Christ through errour is counted an enemy to policy of War and Martial Discipline Secondly because we have found out many distinctions and evasions to elude the precepts of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles For as it hath been observed of the God-makers I mean the Painters and Statuaries among the Heathen they were wont many times to paint their Goddesses like their Mistresses and then think them most fair when they were most like what they best loved so is it with many Professours of Christian Religion they can temper the precepts of it to their liking and lay upon them glosses and interpretations as it were colours and make it look like what they love Thirdly because it is likely that the examples of these men will most prevail with those to whom I speak as being such to whom above all they affect to be most like Except therefore it be their purpose to hear no other Judgment but onely their own unruly and misorderly affections it cannot but move them to see the examples of men guided onely by the light of reason of men I say the most famous in all the world for valour and resolution to run so mainly against them To come then unto the question of Duels both by the light of reason and by the practise of men it doth appear that there is no case wherein subjects may privately seek each others lives There are extant the Laws of the Iews framed by God himself The Laws of the Roman Empire made partly by the Ethnick partly by Christian Princes A great part of the Laws of Sparta and Athens two warlike Common-wealths especially the former lie dispersed in our Books yet amongst them all is there not a Law or Custom that permits this liberty to Subjects The reason of it I conceive is very plain The principal thing next under God by which a Common-wealth doth stand is the Authority of the Magistrate whose proper end is to compose and end quarrels between man and man upon what occasion soever they grow For were men peaceable were men not injurious one to another there were no use of Government Wherefore to permit men in private to try their own rights
or to avenge their own wrongs and so to decline the sentence of the Magistrate is quite to cut off all use of Authority Indeed it hath been sometimes seen that the event of a Battel by consent of both Armies hath been put upon single Combat to avoid further effusion of bloud but Combats betwixt Subjects for private causes till these latter Ages of the world was never allowed yet I must confess the practise of it is very ancient For Cain the second man in the world was the first Duelist the first that ever challenged the Feild in the fourth of Genesis the Text saith That Cain spake unto his Brother and when they were in the Feild he arose and slew him The Septuagint to make the sense more plain do add another clause and tell us what it was he said unto his brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go out into the feild and when they were in the feild he arose and slew him Let us go out into the feild it is the very form and proper language of a Challenge Many times indeed our Gallants can formalize other words but evermore the substance and usually the very words are no other but these of Cain Let us go out into the Feild Abel I perswade my self understood them not as a challenge for had he so done he would have made so much use of his discretion as to have refused it yet can we not chuse but acknowledge a secret judgment of God in this that the words of Cain should still be so Religiously kept till this day as a Proem and Introduction to that action which doubtless is no other then what Cain's was When therefore our Gallants are so ready to challange the Feild and to go into the Feild let them but remember whose words they use and so accordingly think of their action Again notwithstanding Duels are of so antient and worshipful a Parentage yet could they never gain so good acceptance as to be permitted much less to be counted lawful in the civil part of the world till Barbarism had over-ran it About five or six hundred years after Christ at the fall of the Roman Empire aboundance of rude and barbarous people brake in and possest the civiller part of the world who abolishing the ancient Laws of the Empire set up many strange Customs in their rooms Amongst the rest for the determining of quarrels that might arise in case of doubtful title or of false accusation or the like they put themselves upon many unusual forms of Trial as to handle red hot Iron to walk bare-foot on burning coals to put their hands and feet in scalding water and many other of the like nature which are reckoned up by Hottoman a French Lawyer For they presumed so far on Gods providence that if the party accused were innocent he might do any of these without any smart or harm In the same cases when by reason of unsufficient and doubtful evidence the Judges could not proceed to Sentence as sometimes it falls out and the parties contending would admit of no reasonable composition their manner was to permit them to try it out by their swords that so the Conquerour might be thought to be in the right They permitted I say thus to do for at the best 't was but a permission to prevent farther mischeif for to this end sometimes some known abuses are tolerated So God permitted the Jews upon sleight occasions to put their wives away because he saw that otherwise their exorbitant lusts would not be bounded within these limits which he is Paradise in the beginning had set And it is observed of the wise men which had the managing and bringing up of Nero the Emperour that they suffered him to practise his lusts upon Acte one of his Mothers Chamber-maids Ne in stupra foeminarum illustrium perrumperet si illa libidine prohiberetur Lest if he were forbidden that he should turn his lust upon some of the Noble-women Permission and toleration warrants not the goodness of any action But as Caiaphas said Better one man die then all the people perish so they that first permitted Duels seem to have thought better one or two mutinous persons and disorderly die in their folly then the whole Common-wealth to be put into tumult and combustion yet even by these men it was never so promiscuously tolerated that every hasty couple upon the venting of a little choler should presently draw their swords but it was a publick or solemn action done by order with inspection either of the Prince himself or of some other Magistrate appointed to order it Now certainly there can be no very great reason for that action which was thus begun by Cain and continued onely by Goths and Vandals and meer Barbarism Yet that we may a little better acquaint our selves with the quality of it let us a little examine the causes and pretences which are brought by them who call for trial by single Combat The causes are usually two First disdain to seem to do or suffer any thing for fear of death Secondly point of honour and not to suffer any contumely and indignity especially if it bring with it dis-reputation and note of cowardise For the first Disdain to fear death I must confess I have often wondred with my self how men durst die so ventrously except they were sure they died well In aliis rebus siquid erratum est potest post modum corrigi in other things which are learnt by practising if we mistake we may amend it for the errour of a former action may be corrected in the next we learn then by erring and men come at length not to err by having often erred but no man learns to die by practising it we die but once and a fault committed then can never afterward be amended quia poena statim sequitur errorem because the punishment immediately follows upon the errour To die is an action of that moment that we ought to be very well advised when we come to it Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas you may not look back upon the opinion of honour and reputation which remains behind you but rather look forward upon that infinite space of Eternity either of bliss or bale which befalls us immediately after our last breath To be loath to die upon every sleight occasion is not a necessary sign of fear and cowardise He that knew what life is and the true use of it had he many lives to spare yet would he be loth to part with one of them upon better terms then those our Books tell us that Aristippus a Philosopher being at Sea in a dangerous Tempest and bewraying some fear when the weather was cleared up a desperate Ruffian came and upbraided him with it and tells him That it was a shame that he professing wisdom should be afraid of his life whereas himself having had no such education exprest no agony or dread at all To whom the Philosopher replied there
doubtless much have qualified and mitigated the sentence of the curse If Adam had used more ingenuity in confessing God would have used less rigour in punishing Out of all this I draw this one lesson for your instruction Whosoever he be that thinks himself quit of some sins into which either through weakness or carelesness he hath fallen let him not presently flatter himself as if for this his book of debt unto God were cancell'd as if he were in a state of grace and new birth but let him examine his own conscience and impartially sift all the manner of his reclaim He may peradventure sind that upon some moral respect he hath broken off the practise of his sin he may find that he hath satisfied his neighbour contented the Law done many acts by which he hath purchas'd reconciliation with the world But if he find not this passage of Repentance and hearty sorrow `twixt God and his own soul let him know that God is yet unsatisfied that he is yet in his sin his sin yet unrepented of and therefore still remains THus from the necessity of Registring St. Peter's Repentance I come to the words wherein it is Registred And he went out c In these words we will consider four things First the person He He went forth or and going forth he wept Secondly the preparative to the Repentance He went forth Thirdly the Repentance it self comprised in the word Wept Fourthly the extent and measure and compass of this Repentance in the last word bitterly 1. He. The way of man's life is a slippery way no man whilst he is in it hath the priviledge of not sliding just and unjust thus far are of like condition both fall But here they differ the just man riseth again Not the eminency of St. Peter's person nor his great understanding in the mystery of Christ nor his resolution in our Saviour's quarrel not the love and respect his Master bare him kept him from falling But St. Peter being fallen provides himself to rise and therefore in the second place he went forth saith my Text St. Peter was now in the High-priest's Court a place very unfit for one in St. Peter's case Princes Courts are no place for Repentance To wear soft raiment to fare deliciously every day this is courtiers guise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shirt of hair the tears of Repentance this is the habit of the penitent But wherefore went St. Peter out Did he as our Saviour observes of the Scribes and Pharisees go out into the wilderness to see to gaze and look about him No his eyes now must do him other service He went out as Ioseph did from the face of his brethren to seek a place to weep Maldonat the Jesuit thinks it would have been a more goodly thing and far more beseeming St. Peter's resolution if in the place he had offended in the same he had repented if before those he had made a constant confession of Christ before whom he had denied him But be the reasons what they will which moved St. Peter to go forth we will not prescribe unto the Saints a form of Repentance we will cease therefore to dispute what St. Peter should have done and rather gather lessons for our selves out of what he did Fourthly and last of all as St. Peter's fault was great so he contends that his Repentance may be as serious The tears therefore he sheds are not sleight and perfunctory shed onely for fashions sake such as Quintilian spake of Nihil facilius lachrymis marescit Nothing sooner grows dry then tears but as the Text saith He wept bitterly to summon up that Sicc-oculum genus Christianorum a sort of Christians who never had tear dropt from their eye to witness their Repentance to teach us to enlarge the measure of our sorrow for our sins and in case of greivous relapse not mince out our Repentance but to let loose the reins unto greif And thus I come to handle the parts in order more particularly and first of the person He. Amongst all the Saints of God whose errours are set down in holy Scriptures there is none whose person was more eminent or Fall more dangerous then St. Peter's That which wise men have observed in great and eminent Wits that they evermore exceed either they are exceeding good or else they are exceeding bad in St. Peter was true both ways His gifts of Faith of understanding in the mystery of Godliness of resolution to die in our Saviour's cause were wonderful but yet his errours were as many and as strange yea so much the more strange because in that thing he most offended in which he was most eminent It was a great argument of his Faith when in the Tempest meeting our Saviour on the waters he calls out unto him If it be thou command me to come unto thee on the waters but no sooner was he come-out of the ship but through Infidelity he began to sink Again of his great understanding in the mystery of Christ he gave a notable instance when being questioned by our Saviour whom men took him to be he gave the first evident plain and open testimony that ever was given him by man Thou art Christ the Son of the living God St. Iohn indeed gave testimony and so did St. Simeon and so did many more but it was more involv'd done in more covert terms more dark Whence we may and that not without some probability argue that the understanding of these men was not so evidently so fully so perspicuously enlightned as was St. Peter's Signum est intelligentis posse docere It is a great argument that a man doth passing well understand himself when he is able perspicuously and plainly to speak to the understanding of another This confession therefore of St. Peter that carries with it greater light and perspicuity then any yet that ever was given doth not obscurely intimate that he had a greater measure of illumination then any of his Predecessours Yet to see the wonderful dispensation of the holy Ghost scarce was this confession out of his mouth but in the very next bout where our Saviour begins further to enform him in the particulars of his Passion and Death and despiteful handling by the Iews the edge of his conceit was quite turned quite blunted and dull Poor man as if he had been quite ignorant of the end of Christ's coming out of a humane conceit and pity he takes upon him to counsel and advise our Saviour Sir favour your self these things shall not come unto you and for this pains he is rewarded with no less reproachful a name then that of Satan of a seducer of a Devil He that shall peruse the story of the Gospel and here stay himself might think that that which we read St. Iohn vj. ver 70. spoken of Iudas Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil were here fulfilled in St. Peter Last of all his love to
let our ability be perfect and let our knowledge be also absolute yet if we have no mind if we want a love unto our duty if we suffer our selves to be over-swayed by affection to other things yet shall we not do our duty For which of us being at liberty will do that which he hath no love unto Beloved as for our knowledge God hath left unto us Scripture the perfect Register of all our duty the absolute Itinerary and Map of all the course which in this life we are to run and as for love he plentifully sheds it in the hearts of all those that by faithful prayer beg it of him If we shall search the Scripture to improve our knowledge if we shall earnestly beg at his hands to inflame our love Let our natural possibilities be what they will he that now doth little amongst us shall do much and he that doth much shall do much more and the promises made unto the Iews concerning their carnal enemies shall be made good on us concerning our spiritual and ghostly enemies one of us shall chace a thousand and if they come out against us one way they shall flee before us seven ways And thus much for the first use There is a second benefit of great weight and moment which we reap out of the consideration of the errours of these excellent Ministers of God namely a lesson teaching us to beware of spiritual pride Of all the vices which our nature is subject unto this is the most dangerous and of which we had need be most cautelous For whereas all other vices proceed from some ill in us from some sinful imbecillity of our nature this alone arises out of our good parts Other sins draw their being from that original corruption which we drew from our Parents but this may seem to be the mother of that as by which even natures unstained and in their primitive purity may most easily fall And therefore not without some probability is it concluded in the Schools That no other crime could throw the Angels down from heaven but this That which one leaves for a memorial to great men that in dangerous times Non minus periculum ex magna fama quam ex mala it was a matter of like danger to have a great name as an ill that may I pronounce of a Christian man the danger of his innocency is not much less then of his faults For this Divil when he cannot drive us to despair by reason of our sin takes another course to see if he can make us presume upon conceit of our righteousness For when by the preventing grace of God we keep our selves from greater offences if we find our selves to have a love unto the Word of God and the true Professours of it to be rich in alms-deeds to have a part in other acts of righteousness he makes us first take notice of these good things in us notice taken draws us to love and admire them in usâ— self-love draws us on to compare our selves with others then to prefer our selves before others and thirdly to disdain others in respect of our selves Here now is a gap laid open to a thousand inconveniences And hence it is that we see divers times men otherwise of life and reputation pure and unblameable upon conceit and inconsiderateness by a secret judgment of God to fall upon extremes no less fearful then are the issues of open profaneness and impiety To cut off therefore all way that may be opened to let in spiritual pride it hath pleased God to make use of this as of a sovereign remedy namely to permit even in his most chosen vessels evermore secret and hidden infirmities and sometimes gross and open scapes which may serve when they look into themselves to abate all over-weening conceit of their own righteousness and when they shall look into the errours of others may be secret admonitioners unto them not rashly to condemn them considering their own weakness I will therefore shut up this place with the saying of St. Ambrose Etiam Iapsus sanctorum utilis est Nihil mihi obfuit quod negavit Petrus etiam profuit quod emendavit The fall of the Saints is a very profitable thing It hurts not me that St. Peter denied Christ and the example of his amendment is very beneficial unto me And so I come unto the preparative unto St. Peter's Repentance in these words and he went forth THE wisdom of God hath taught the Church sometime by express message delivered by words of mouth sometime by dumb signes and actions When Ieremy walk'd up and down the City with a yoke of wood about his neck when Ezekiel lay upon his side beseiged a Slate with the draught of Ierusalem upon it and like a banish'd man carried his stuff upon his shoulders from place to place they did no less prophesie the captivity desolation famine and wo which was to fall upon Ierusalem then when they denounced it by direct word and speech yea many of the ordinary actions of the Patriarks which seem to participate of chance and to be in the same rank with those of other men themselves as a learned Divine of our Age Mercerus observes not intending or understanding any such thing contained by the dispensation of the holy Ghost especial lessons and instructions for us That speech of Sarah Cast out the bond-woman and her son c. seemed to Abraham onely a speech of a curst heart and she her self perceives not her self to speak by direction from God but moved with impatience of Ismael's petulant behaviour toward her son Yet the holy Ghost himself hath taught us that this act of her prefigured a great mystery Many disputations there are concerning the cause of this action of St. Peter's going forth whether it were out of the common infirmity that is in most men namely a greater shame to repent then to offend or whether it were out of modesty and good nature that he could not endure the sight of Christ whom he had so greivously offended Howsoever it were we shall do this Scripture no wrong if we think it to contain an act in outward shew casual and like unto the actions of other men but inwardly indeed an especial action of a person great in the sight of God and therefore comprehending some especial instruction And to speak plainly this abandoning the place wherein he fell the company for fear of whom he fell and those things that were occasioners of his sin doth not obscurely point out unto us an especial duty of speedy relinquishing and leaving of all either Freinds or Place or Means or whatsoever else though dearer unto us then our right hand then our right eye if once they become unto us inducements to sin In former days before the Fulness of time came the Calling of the Elect of God was not by any one-act more often prefigured then by this action of going forth When the purpose of God was to select
once turn'd a little water into wine then every year in so many Vine-trees to turn that into wine in the branches which being received at the root was mere water Or why was it more wonderful for him once to feed five thousand with five loaves then every year to feed the whole world by the strange multiplication of a few seeds cast into the ground After the same manner do we by the daily actions of Christian men For why is it a greater miracle to raise the dead then for every man to raise himself from the death of sin to the life of righteousness Why seems it more miraculous to open the eyes of him that was born blind then for every one of us to open the eyes of his understanding which by reason of Original corruption was born blind For by the same finger by the same power of God by which the Apostles wrought these miracles doth every Christian man do this and without this finger it is as impossible for us to do this as for the Apostles to do the miracles they did without the assistance of the extraordinary power of Christ. So that hitherto in nothing are we found inferiour unto the cheif Apostles what if there be some things we cannot do shall this prejudice our power It is a saying in Quintilian Oportet Grammaticum quaedam ignorare It must not impeach the learning of a good Grammarian to be ignorant of some things for there are many unnecessary quillets and quirks in Grammar of which to purchase the knowledge were but loss of labour and time Beloved in the like manner may we speak of our selves Oportet Christianum quaedam non posse it must not disparage the power of a Christian that he cannot do some things For in regard of the height and excellency of his profession these inferiour things which he cannot do they are nought else but Grammar quirks and to be ambitious to do them were but a nice minute and over-superstitious diligence And yet a Christian if he list may challenge this power that he can do all things yea even such things as he cannot do St. Austin answering a question made unto him why the gift of Tongues was ceased in the Church and no man spake with that variety of Languages which divers had in the Primitive times wittily tells us That every one may justly claim unto himself that miraculous gift of Tongues For since the Church which is the body of Christ of which we are but members is far and wide disperst over the earth and is in sundry Nations which use sundry Languages every one of us may well be said to speak with divers Tongues because in that which is done by the whole or by any part of it every part may claim his share Beloved how much more by this reason may every one of us lay a far directer claim to an absolute power of doing all things even in its largest extent since I say not some inferiour member but Christ who is our Head hath this power truly rcsident in him Howsoever therefore in each member it seems to be but partial yet in our Head it is at full and every one of us may assume to our selves this power of doing all things because we are subordinate members unto that Head which can do all things But I must leave this and go on to the remainder of my Text. Hitherto I have spoken first of the person I. Secondly of his power can do I should by order of the words proceed in the third place unto the subject or object of this power pointed out unto us in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things But the subject of this Christian power hath been so necessarily wrapped up and tied together with the power that for the opening of it I have been constrain'd to exemplifie at large both what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this all things is and how far it doth extend so that to enter upon it anew were but to trouble you with repetition of what is already sufficiently opened I will go on therefore unto the second General of my Text. For here me thinks that question might be asked which Dalilah asked of Sampson Tell me I pray thee wherein this great strength lieth Behold Beloved it is expressed in the last words through Christ that strengtheneth This is as I told you that hair wherein that admirable strength of a Christian doth reside I confess I have hitherto spoken of wonderful things and hardly to be credited wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest the strangeness of the argument call my credit into question Loe here I present unto you the ground of all this A small matter sometimes seems wonderful till the cause of it be discovered but as soon as we know the cause we cease to marvel how strange soever my discourse of Christian omnipotency doth seem yet look but upon this cause and now nothing shall seem incredible For to doubt of the Omnipotency of a Christian is to question the power of Christ himself As the Queen of Sheba told King Solomon that she had heard great things of him in her own countrey but now she saw truth did go beyond report so Beloved he that travels in the first part of my Text and wonders at the strange report of a Christian mans power let him come to the second part to our Solomon to him that is greater then Solomon to Christ and he shall find that the truth is greater then the fame of it for if he that was posses'd of the evil spirit in the Gospel was so strong that being bound with chains and fetters he brake them all of what strength must he be then whom it pleaseth Christ to enable or what chains or fetters shall be put upon him which he will not break From this doctrine therefore that Christ is he that doth thus enable us we learn two lessons which are as it were two props to keep us upright that we lean not either to the right hand or to the left First Not to be dejected or dismay'd by reason of this outward weakness and baseness in which we seem to be Secondly not to be puft up upon opinion and conceit of that strength and glory which is within us and unseen For the first for our own outward weakness be it what it will we cannot be more weak more frail then Gideon's pitchers now as in them their frailty was their strength and by being broken they put to flight the Army of the Midianites so where it pleases Christ to work that which seems weakness shall become strength and turn to flight the strongest adversary Satis sibi copiarum cum Publio Decio nunquam nimium Hostium sore said one in Livie we may apply this unto our selves be we never so weak yet Christ alone is army and forces enough and with him we can never have too many enemies The flesh indeed is weak for so our Saviour tells us yet
at last have the reward of the Sons of peace and reign with thee in thy Kingdom of peace for ever Grant this O God for thy Son's sake Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be ascribed all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion now and for ever The profit of GODLINESS The First SERMON On 1 TIM iv 8. But Godliness is profitable unto all things THat which Zeba and Zalmannah tell Gideon in the Book of Iudges As is the man so is his strength is true not onely as we are men but as we are Christians too As is the Christian so is his strength for the performance of the Acts of Christianity Some Christians are as Iether was young and unfit to draw the sword others as Gideon strong and fit for manlike employments Some Christians there are to whom there can no better Argument be used then the love of Christ and the commemoration of their duties such as St. Paul was who to gain Christ esteemed all other things as dung Others there are that cannot think so meanly of the world at first but as Naaman vowed to serve God and yet would bow himself in the house of Rimmon so they can be content to give their names unto Christ but with some respect and bowing to the world and such are the greatest part of Professors The Spouse in the fortieth Psalm could be content to forget her own people and her Fathers house but scarcely is there a soul so wedded to Christ as that it can forget the world that hath nurs'd and breed it up that hath had so long so inward so sweet acquaintance and familiarity with it This is a second and weaker sort of Christians The holy Ghost being to deal with such is content to condescend unto their weakness and in this little piece of Scripture which I have read seems as it were to shew a willingness to endure the world to enjoy some part of our love by an argument drawn from our love to gain and profit he labours to win our love to him and as Rebecca did with old Isaac provide us such meat as our soul loves In the words therefore we will first by way of Introduction and Preface consider what cause the holy Ghost might have to use this Argument drawn from Profit and Commodity Secondly we will consider the words themselves And first of the reason of this Motive Profit and Commodity is a Lure that calls the greatest part of the world after it Most of the bargains which the world makes are copied out according to that pattern which Iudas gave at the betraying of Christ What will ye give me and I will betray deliver him into your hands This question What will ye give me what commodity what profit will accrue unto me is the preface and way into all our actions Good or evil men will do neither except it be by way of bargain and sale This common disease of the world hath likewise seised upon the Professors of godliness except this also bring us in some Revenue â—t hath no savour It was the divils question unto God concerning Iob. Doth Iob serve God for nought hast thou not hedged him on every side and laid thine hand upon him Indeed he mistook Iob's mind for Iob served not God for this but for another cause yet beleive me he had great cause to ask the question for who is it that can content himself to serve God for nothing As David said to old Barzillai in the Book of Kings Let Chimham go with me and I will do him good so must God deal with us if he will have us to serve him God like the Husbandman in the Gospel may go forth at the first hour and at the ninth hour and at the eleventh hour early and late at every hour of the day and find idle persons for whosoever labours not with God is idle how busie soever he seems to be in the world but except he bring his penny with him he shall find none to work in his Vineyard Aristotle discoursing concerning the qualities and conditions of man's age tells us that Young men for the most part consider not so much profit and conveniency as equity and duty as being led by their natural temper and simplicity which teaches them to do rather what is good then what is profitable But Old men that have ends of their actions their minds run more on commodity and gain as being led by advise and consultation whose property it is to have an eye to profit and conveniency and not onely to bare and naked goodness I will not deny but there may be found some such men that are but young in the world men that are children in evil who know not how pleasant a savour gain hath yet certainly the most men even in their youngest days are old and expert enough in the world For we bring with us into the world the old man whose wisdom and policy is to have an ear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to enterprize any thing but for some further end then the thing it selfe either the more free enjoying of our pleasures or the filling of our purses or the increase of our preferments These are the gods of the world These like God sit at the top of Iacob's Ladder and all our actions are but steps and rounds to go up to them God and goodness is not reward enough to draw men on When God gave Laws to his own people the Iews to bring them on the better how is he fain to make many promises of possession of the Land of freedom from bondage of abundance of all things which might work upon their affections And hence it is that themselves when by their manifold back-slidings they had shut up the passages of God's good and gracious promises complain in the Scriptures What profit hath come to us by serving of the Lord or Which way hath it availed us to have kept his Law Again as it is on the one side with goodness in regard of gain so is it on the other side with evil Evil though many love it very well yet very few there are that are grown to that heighth of wickedness as meerly to do mischief without any other respect of reward When the Patriarchs moved with envy had resolved to murder their brother Ioseph as soon as ever the Ismaelitish Merchants did appear as soon as any air of gain did shew it self streight their thrist of bloud began to allay What profit say they is there in our brother's bloud Let us sell him rather to the Ishmaelites Hope of gain as if they had look'd upon the Brasen Serpent presently asswaged their hot and fiery disease All this that I have said doth plainly shew unto you how potent profit and gain are to sway with out weak natures that God himself though he come with all spiritual graces possible yet if he come empty-handed if he bring not something which may work upon our
that by reason of their calling they debar themselves of many the thriving Arts of the world it must needs be that if riches do come upon them that God himself doth extraordinarily pour them on Wherefore good men must not consider how much or how little it is they have but the means by which it comes unto them All the Prophets and Apostles which were hungry had not that offer which St. Peter had all kind of flesh let down from heaven and free choice to eat of what they listed When Daniel was in Babylon in the Lions Den God sends his Angel into Iewry takes a Prophet by the hair of the head carries him into Babylon and all to carry but a mess of pottage for Daniel's dinner Daniel's fare is meaner then St. Peter's but the miracle is as great and the care of God is the same The righteous man that hath much is as St. Peter he that hath least is as Daniel the word and promise of God is alike made good unto them both And thus much of these two Errours of which the due avoiding shall keep us from mistaking of those promises and charging God foolishly Now because much of that which we have formerly spoken was spent in proving that God doth force the world many times even in a very eminent sort to serve the necessities and purposes of those that are his yet since ordinarily the case of good men in the things of this world is meaner then that of the world's children their riches are many times small if they be any at all and promotion looks little after them That we may a little the better content our selves and know in what case we stand give me leave to shew you how it comes about that the wicked though they have no promise yet have a larger portion in the world's blessings then the godly Where it shall appear that it cannot otherwise be except it should please God to alter the ordinary course of the world The first cause therefore that the sons of this world thus usually climb aloft above the sons of God and nest themselves in the tallest Cedars is their infinite and importunate Ambition From this root hath sprung forth both that infinite mass of wealth which private men and that boundless compass of Government which great princes have attain'd unto Nothing was ever more unjust then the raising of these great Kingdoms and if the Laws of equity and moderation might have taken place they had never been St. Austin saw no difference between the Roman Empire and Spartacus his conspiracy onely the one lasted a little longer and this makes no difference in the thing it self And hence it is that God gave limits and bounds unto the Kingdom which his people had and having poured out the vials of his wrath upon the usurping people that held the Land of promise from them to whom it was due he permitted not the Iews to grate too much upon the bordering Nations And this is the reason why the Iews that in all other respects went side by side or rather before the rest of the world onely in latitude of Kingdom yeilded to the Monarchs of the earth For the one made the will of God the other their own ambition the measure of their desires The most moderate and wisest kind of men are many times slowest in giving entertainment to these great thoughts of heart In Iotham's parable in the Book of Iudges where the Trees go forth to chuse a King the Olive would not leave his fatness nor the Vine his fruit nor the Fig-tree his sweetness no not for a Kingdom Onely the Brier the basest of all shrubs no sooner had the Trees made the motion to him but he is very apprehensive of it and thinks himself a goodly creature fit to make a King of Sober men who best understand the nature of business know well how great a charge extraordinary wealth◠and places of Authority bring with them There is none so poor but hath his time to make an account of were there nothing but this what a sum would this amount unto Add unto these our Words unto Words Actions unto all these Wealth and Ability and last of all Honour and Authority how do each of these successively like places in Arithmetick infinitely increase the sum of our accounts No marvel then if wise and considerate men are slow in tasking themselves so heavily and rather content themselves quietly at home Let the world go well or ill so it be not long of them The second thing that makes them come on in the world is their spacious wide and unlimited conscience which can enlarge it self to the swallowing of any means that bring gain and preferment with them he that once hath cauterized and seared his conscience and put on a resolution to gain by all occasions must needs quickly grow rich But good men are evermore shie and scrupulous what they do though there be no apparent occasion Evil is of a slie insinuating nature it will creep in at every little passage all the care and wariness we can possibly use to prevent it is too little When David had cut off the lap of Saul's garment the Scripture tells us that his heart smote him because he had done this thing I have often wondred with my self what it was that in an action so innocent and harmless done with so hohourable intent onely to bring a testimony of his innocency and righteousness might thus importunately trouble his conscience He intended no wrong unto Saul not so much as in his thought yet had he but a little advised himself through scruple and tenderness of conscience he would not have used so harmless a witness of his innocency Common reason told St. Paul that the labourer is worthy of his hire and by instinct of the holy Ghost himself learn'd and taught that it was but justice and equity that men that labour in the Gospel should live by the Gospel Who feeds a flock eats not the milk and clothes not himself with the wooll of it yet notwithstanding that he might take away all occasion of evil that lazie and idle drones who suck the sweet of other men's labours might not take example by him to live at other mens cost that he might make the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free without any charge that men that have no silver might come and buy and eat might come I say and buy the wine and milk of the Word without money that the Gospel might not be slandered as a means of gain he would not use that liberty that God and men gave him neither would he eat the milk or wear the wooll of his own flock but with his own hands and labours purchas'd himself his necessary maintenance What hope of these mens extraordinary thriving who are so nice and scrupulous of what they finger What then must we think of those that abuse godliness unto gain that refuse to do deeds of charity except
is with him Let us reflect a little upon our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom See here the express image and character of an Apostle that which we can hardly digest in St. Paul to be content with food and raiment that we see to be the practise of the antient Patriarchs who were in so great a place of esteem with God But as for us which of us all doth so live as if he could content himself with Iacob's portion and serve God for food and raiment Malamus Dei beneficium quam judicium We serve God more for commodity then to gain his good acceptance And yet we see not that this doth give a deadly wound to our love to God or rather indeed quite pluck off our mask and shews that we have no love to God at all Doth not our own experience shew us this Such as are richly rewarded by us if they bear us respect and love either we suspect it or think it not a thing thank-worthy because they are well hired unto it but such who unprovok'd and of themselves affect and respect us of such mens love we have no cause to be suspicious Let us therefore look upon God not on his benefits Neither let us be too busie too importunate to call for them Whil'st they lie in the hand of God they are like moneys put to the Bankers the longer they lie there they shall return with greater profit It is an excellent thing to have God our debter Happy is that man who having lived uprightly hath had the least part of God's temporal blessings For when God is so free of his secular benefits Suspectam habe hanc Domini indulgentiam It shall not be much amiss to be somewhat jealous of this his kindness May be it is to give us that answer which is in the Gospel Accepistis mercedem You have your reward Let us not therefore over-hastily pull them out of the hands of God lest peradventure we much diminish or quite lose the reward which we expect at that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom Let us not ask of God these temporal blessings further then he himself hath given us leave When he taught us to pray Give us this day our daily bread that Father calls these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He calls them bounds and limits shewing how far we are permitted to go in requiring these temporal blessings at the hand of God All this have I spoken by way of concession and grant as I told you by way of supposal that the thing here covenanted for by Iacob is a small and contemptible matter But if we speak uprightly it is a great a very great thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom speaks full of Philosophical resolution The Ethnick Philosophers who in contempt of the world and worldly things went well near as far as Christians have out of their own reason found out and acknowledged thus much The Stoicks who were accounted a wise Sect of men and great contemners of the world have gone so far as that they have plainly told us that and the Books of Seneca the Philosopher are full of it That a wise and honest man if he have his necessary food and raiment for true happiness is comparable even to God himself This was somewhat a large Hyperbole and over-reaching speech yet out of it thus much is apparent that Iacob when he made this covenant did not descend a whit beneath himself neither did he ought which did not well beseem so great a person The Doctrines which are here considerable for your instructions I will raise from these two heads First from the Person that makes the covenant Secondly from the thing and covenant it self And first from the Person this excellent lesson may be drawn That it is no enemy to true state and greatness to have but a small portion of the world's benefit Iacob's portion food and raiment is an heritage well befitting great persons men in greatest place and authority Iacob who was a great person indeed and knew doubtless what would best maintain his greatness would not have stuck to make demand of more had he thought it had concerned his place and person The world had a long time stood ere poverty was counted an enemy or disgrace to Greatness and certainly he was an utter adversary to true and real worth who first begat that conceit and put any difference betwixt rich and poor Iupiter in Lucian calling the gods together to a consultation gives order that they should sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the matter out of which they were made not according to the Art by which they were framed First the gods of Gold and Silver though but roughly and grosly made without art and next to them the Grecian gods of Ivory Marble and Brass though wrought with much more art and skill It was Iupiter that is the Divil whom the Scripture calls the god of this world that first set this order that men should be ranged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their wealth not according to their worth For God who best knows how the world ought to be managed in the seventeenth of Deuteronomy setting down the quality and manner of a King expresly forbids him to multiply horses or greatly to multiply gold and silver but instead of these he commends unto him pity humility and the frequent study of the Law for the true means and ways by which his Kingdom should be upheld If it be thus with Supreme Authority much more ought it to be so with inferiour Power It was the speech of Iulian the Apostata to his souldiers Nec pudebit Imperatorem cuncta bona in animi cultum ponentemprofiteri panpertatem honestam Honest poverty can never be a disgrace to that King or Emperour who places his greatest happiness in the culture of his own heart He was an Apostate that spake this but in this he was a Christian and that Christian that thinks otherwise in that he is an Apostata Never went it better with Kingdoms and Common-weals then when Authority and Magistracy were thus minded Itaque tunc illi pauperes magistratus opulentam Rempublicam habebant nunc autem dives potestas pauperem facit esse Rempublicam saith Salvianus Poor Magistrates make a rich Common-wealth but a rich Magistracy makes the Common-wealth but poor It may seem a Paradox as the world goes but if you look near ye shall find it most true that none are so fit to be raised to places of Eminency and Power as those who can best content themselves with Iacob's portion The practise of the world in another kind can shew it you Men who seek out fit instruments for Villany make choice of such as have no dependances no families no means that are sine re sine spe that neither have any thing nor hope of any thing to bias them For men that stand alone that are free from incombrances that are onely
us lays upon us a necessity of food and raiment from which necessity Angels are exempted because they have no bodies This onely excepted what difference is there betwixt us and Angels Having therefore food and raiment the rest we need no more then the Angels do And why then should we desire them any more then the Angels do Look then for what reason they are not necessary for the Angels for the same reason they are superfluous for us But here I see I may be question'd What then shall become of all these goodly things of the world which men so much admire riches pleasures and delights so many good creatures in the world were they not made to be enjoyed If Iacob's portion be nothing else but food and raiment why did God provide more then that Was it his pleasure that all the rest should run waste I answer I would be loth to oppose that common principle of Nature Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra God and Nature are not wont to lose their labour There is use for those things but not that peradventure which we would make There goes a fable that when Prometheus had sâ—ol'n fire out of Heaven a Satyre as soon as he saw it would needs go kiss it There may be many good uses of Fire yet kissing none of them They who thus plead for the things of the world they would do as the Satyre did by the Fire they would kiss them and hug them and love them as their own soul. This is that use or rather abuse which if I could I would willingly remove will you know then the cheif use for which they were made It is somewhat a strange one and one of which you will have no great joy to hear They were made for Temptation They are in the world as the Canaanites were in Canaan to try and prove us whether we walk in the ways of God or no. For it was the purpose of God that the way to life should be narrow that man should be the subject of obedience and vertue and industry For this purpose by the very ordinance of God are so many enticements so many allurements so many difficulties ut fides habendo tentationem haberet etiam probationem as Tertullian speaks that our obedience and love unto God encountring and overcoming so many temptations so many difficulties might at length approve it self unto him Seems it so strange a thing unto you that God should make a thing onely for Tentation What think ye of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil it was a fair fruit it was beautiful to the eye yet was it made for no other use that is known to us but onely to be a trial of our obedience and that yet it should be more difficult God hath mingled these very temptations even with our necessities For this very Vow of Iacob how strict soever it may seem to be yet it is full of danger Food and raiment become temptations dangerous above all others For how easily do they degenerate into wantonness the one into pride the other into luxury So that as it seems we must circumcise and pare even this our Vow and covenant with God not in large terms of food and raiment but for no more of that also then is necessary As for those other glorious superfluities of the world he makes best use of them that least uses them and he sets the truest price of them that least esteems them DIXI CUSTODIAM A SERMON On PSAL. xxxvj 1. I said or resolv'd I will take heed to my ways BEfore of a Good desire Beati qui esuriunt sitint justitiam now it will follow well to make way for an Absolute Resolution here in two words These two words must ever be link'd together in this order 1. Dixi. Purpose and Resolution 2. Custodiam Practise and Execution First a setled purpose must usher the way Then the Action must follow hard at heels Mature facto opus est In these two our whole life is compris'd For man is by nature an active creature he cannot be long idle either for good or bad he must take up his Dixi and proceed to his Custodiam For he was born for labour as the sparks flie upward And well it is that he was so otherwise he would find as they do Qui transgrediuntur naturam in this point That Idleness is but a preparative and introduction to do evil and as fat grounds if you sow them not with good seed will quickly abound with weeds so the soul of man left empty and void of good purposes will soon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be over-spread and over-grown with evil intentions Neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris Therefore if Nature do not yet Christian wisdom at the least should move us quickly with David to take up our Dixi resolve for action David in that case sets the words thus Dixi custodiam he makes Resolution take the upper place and go before practise and Nature it self requires it should be so Yet it may be good Heraldry first to range them in this order Custodiam dixi to take heed to be well advised what we resolve for resolution is the immediate cause of Action the onely thing that sets us all on work Reason be it never so good is yet of no force without a strong resolution A strong resolution is of great force though the reasons be weak or none at all There is great reason we should be very careful upon what we set our resolutions For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dixi I am resolved is with most men a word of great weight Quod dixi dixi There were anciently a sect of Philosophers who thought themselves bound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make good whatsoever they had resolved We read of one of them in Epictetus of his time of his acquaintance that for no reason resolved to die by pining and abstaining from all necessary sustenance when he had begun to put it in practise being required a reason cur sic he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have said I am resolved it shall be so and scarcely could his freinds perswade him to break his resolution This Sect of Philosophers is not yet extinguished more or less we are all of it Many men in most things all men in some things have no other reason but their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dixi they are resolv'd upon 't In such a posture have they voluntarily put themselves and in that they purpose to pass on Now a resolution if it be taken up in A Lightness and vanity is a singular Folly A Sin and wickedness is a singular Madness As being nothing else but pertinacy a reprobate sense and induration So è contra if it be taken up for the guiding of our actions to goodness for sanctity integrity and uprightness of life it is an admirable virtue and the very Crown of Christianity For that excellent virtue of perfect righteousness which is so
Father's Brother's Daughter I answer No for my Father's Brother's Widow is my Aunt but my Father's Brother's Daughter is my Cousin German but my Aunt is nearer to me then my Cousin Look but upon the Draught of Degrees which I have before drawn and if you count from Me to my Father's Brother which is the place of my Aunt you shall find but three Degrees but from Me to my Cousin-german or First-Cousin you shall find four Degrees And whereas we are told that to make amends for this we must take notice that my Vncle's Widow is tied to me onely by outward affinity but my Cousin-German is near to me by bloud and consanguinity I answer that the difference betwixt Affinity and Consanguinity in this place helps not at all It is confess'd that look what degree of Consanguinity is forbidden the same degree of Affinity likewise is forbidden if any be contracted For as I may not marry my Mother so I may not marry my Father's Widow my Daughter and my Son's Wife my Neice and my Nephew's Wife are all alike forbidden to me And by the same Analogy as I may not marry my Aunt so I may not marry my Vncle's Widow Yet to help the lameness of this reason we are told but not for news I trow for who knew it not that in Consanguinity some degrees further removed are excluded marriage for instance my Brother's Grandchildren to the Fourth and Fifth Generation yet all this wind blows no corn for it is already granted that I am excluded the whole Line of my Neices not onely to the Fourth and Fifth but to all Generations possible And here the Line of Neices suffers the same which the Line of Mothers of Aunts of Daughters doth which are wholly excluded in the furthest degree imaginable so that the total exclusion of Neices proves not the marriage of First and Second Cousins unlawful much less doth the exclusion of them to the Fourth and Fifth Generation So that any Law of God or sound Reason notwithstanding Marriage betwixt First Cousins may very well pass for lawful But whereas some of the Antients and likewise some of the Modern Churches out of scrupulosity have excluded marriage betwixt First Cousins yet neither any of the Antients nor any Churches at this day that I know the Church of Rome onely excepted have prejudiced the marriage of Second Cousins so that whosoever they be that marry in that degree if themselves be perswaded of the lawfulness of their Action they have no cause to doubt of the Blessing of God upon them and their posterity That which remains of the Discourse yet untouched is of no great weight though of some heat for indeed it is nothing else but Rhetorical and passionate amplification and to return Answer to it were but to lose my labour If this which I have done give you content I have my desire Onely thus much I request of you for my pains that you will cause your Amanuensis to transcribe a copy of my Letters and at your leisure send it me For whereas I was long since desired to deliver my self in this point in the behalf of a great Person of this Land who is now with God I kept no copy of my Meditations by which errour I was now as far to seek as ever which was the cause which made me slower in returning Answer to your Letters This courtesie if you shall be pleased to grant me you shall for ever oblige unto you Your true Freind and Servant JOHN HALES The Method of Reading Profane History IN perusal of History first provide you some Writers in Chronology and Cosmography For if you be ignorant of the Times and Places when and where the things you read were done it cannot chuse but breed confusion in your reading and make you many times grosly to slip and mistake in your discourse When therefore you set to your Book have by you Helvicus his Chronology and a Map of the Countrey in which you are conversant and repair unto them to acquaint you with time and place when and where you are If you be versing the Ancient Histories then provide you Ptolomy's Maps or Ortelius his Conatus Geographici if the latter then some of the Modern Cards As for Method of Reading History note that there are in Story two things especially considerable First the Order of the Story it self and secondly Moral or Statical observations for common life and practise For the latter of these there needs no method in reading all the method is in digesting your reading by bringing it into Heads or Common places or Indices or the like For in this kind read what Books and in what order ye list it matters not so your Notes may be in some such order as may be useful for you For the former that is the course and order of the Story The order of reading ought to be the same with the order of the things themselves what was first done that is to be read in the first place what was next in the next place and so forward the succession and order of time and reading being the same This if you mean to observe exactly which I think it is not so necessary for you to do you must range your Authours according to the times wherein the things they writt were acted and in the same order read them But before you come to read the acts of any people as those that intend to go to Bowls will first see and veiw the ground upon which they are to play so it shall not be amiss for you first to take a general veiw of that ground which you mean more particularly to traverse by reading some short Epitome So ere you read the Roman Story for that way you mean your studies shall bend first read carefully L. Florus who breifly continues the story from Romulus till Augustus shut the Temple of Ianus And if you would yet go lower adde then unto Florus Eutropius his Breviarium who from the same point brings the Story unto Iovianus the Emperour This will give you a general taste of your business and add light unto particular Authours This done then take Livie in hand Now because Livie is very much broken and imperfect and parts of him lost it may be question'd whether were better to read Livie throughout bawking his imperfections before you meddle with any other or when you come to any imperfection to leave him and supply his wants by intercalation of some other Authour and so resume him into your hands again toties quoties For answer Were it your purpose exactly to observe the course of the Story it were not amiss where Livie fails you before you go to his next Books to supply the defect out of some other Authours but since this is not that you principally intend but some other thing and again because variety of Authours may trouble you it will be better for you to read Livie throughout without interruption When you have
me not no Church either Ancient or Modern ever gave When it was objected what if they were in danger of death their answer was that the want of Baptism would not prejudice them with God except we would determine as the Papists do that Baptism is necessary to salvation Which is as much to undervalue the necessity of Baptism as the Church of Rome doth over-value it Here followed a recitation of all that had been done since the business of the Catechism had been set on foot amongst the rest was registred the exceptions of the Remonstrants of Vtrecht and it was added atque iis est à Praeside satisfactum Those of Vtrecht excepted against that word satisfactum they had said they an answer given them but no satisfaction For they persisted in their former opinion and forthwith that word was altered Here was a doubt moved whether it were not fit that some of the especial Reasons brought by the Synod in the Question of the Baptism of Infants should not be added to the Decree It was answered That Reasons were obnoxious to cavil and exceptions and it was not for the Authority of the Synod to Reason but to Decree After this the Praeses signified to the Synod that the time prefixt for the appearance of the Remonstrants was now expiring and yet nothing was signified concerning their appearance neither to the Secular President nor Ecclesiastical Wherefore naming them all he thought good to cite them to appear It was answer'd by those of Vtrecht that they did provide and would shortly be forth coming In the mean while to take up the time Mr. Praeses thought good to commend to the Synod the consideration redress of those abuses which were in Printing Every man was suffered to print what he listed whence came abundance of blasphemous heretical obscene and scandalous Pamphlets Many here delivered their opinions others required farther time to think of it The English first thought fit that the States General should be requested to take the care of this into their hands That there should be Censors to approve all such Books as should go to the Press That no man should print but such as were known to be of the Reformed Religion Unto this advice divers things were added by others as that there should be a set number of Printers that they should be sworn that there should be certain Laws prescribed unto them that they should print no Heretical Books especially the Books of David Georgius H. Nicolaus Socinus that no Libels no unlawful Pictures either obscene or made to any mans disgrace should be permitted that no Book should be Printed without the names of the Author Printer Place except the Synod or the Magistrates did in some cases otherwise think good that there should be care that the Correctors for the Press were good Scholars and many other things of the like nature Then were there read certain Canons made in some Synods before concerning this business Theodatus of Geneva told us that in his travails at Venice he had observed that there was a Colledge of sundry persons secular and spiritual to whose care was committed all the business of Printing He thought it fit there should be such Colledges here erected When all had spoken that would the Praeses told them that Adrian Smoutius had written a little Book in the Belgick Tongue unto the Synod and sent the Copies of it to him to be distributed And so requesting them to take in good part the good will of the man for want of more business the Synod brake up At length are we coming to the main battel The Armies have been in sight one of another and have had some parly The manner was this Upon Thursday the 6. of Decem. stylo novo The Synod being set in the morning the Praeses signified that there had come unto him in the name of the Remonstrants these four H. Leo Niellius Matthisius and Pinakerus to give notice that the Remonstrants were ready according to their Citation but because they had but lately come unto the Town that yet convenient lodgings were not provided their papers books and stuff were confused therefore they required respite either till Saturday or at least Friday morning The President of the Politicks replyed that they should come and personally make appearance before the Synod and there propose their mind and if the Synod approved their causes they might be deferred Upon this were two of the Deputies of Vtrecht sent forth to give them warning to provide for their present appearance In the mean while till they came the Praeses thought fit that such as in the former Session delivered not themselves concerning the Reformation of abuses in Printing should now doe it Here was little delivered besides what was said the day before only some few particulars as that order should be taken to repress this longing humour in many men of coming to the Press that there should be no impression of the Bible at any time without leave had Forreign Books brought out of other Countries should not be distracted here without peculiar leave after their being perused by the Censurers to ease the Censurers that they might not be troubled with reading too great a multitude of unprofitable Books it was thought fit that the Books should first be brought to the Classes and what they approved should be brought to the Censurers c. In the men while the Remonstrants came all that were cited by Letters and were admitted into the Synod There is in the midst of the Synod-House a long Table set as it seems for them for it hath hitherto been void no man sitting at it here Chairs and Forms being set they were willed to sit down The Praeses told them that he had commended to the Synod their suit of being a little respited but it was the will of the Deputies for the States that they should come before the Synod and propose their cause themselves Episcopius standing up spake to this effect First he prayed God to give a blessing to this meeting and to pour into their minds such conceits as best fitted men come together for such ends then he signified that according to their Citation they were now come ad collationem instituendam concerning that cause which hitherto with a good Conscience they had maintain'd As for the point of delay true it is they spake to the Praeses concerning a respite until Saturday or Friday by reason of that great distraction of their Books and Papers and want of convenient lodging but not as a petition to be moved in that behalf unto the Synod but only as a thing which out of common equity they might have presumed on without acquainting the Synod with it For they were ready even at that present to begin the business they came for without any farther delay But this they left to the Deputies Secular and Ecclesiastical to determine of Then were they requested to withdraw a little into a chamber
near the Synod House and immediatly was it proposed unto the Synod what time was to be set for to begin The time prefixt was the morrow after Io. Polyander took hold of those words ad Collationem and told the Synod that it was fit the Remonstrants were told the end of their coming and the manner of proceeding which should be taken with them that they might know what they were to look for and so provide They were to be informed that they came not to conference neither did the Synod profess themselves an adverse party against them Conferences had been heretofore held to no purpose They ought to have heeded the words of the Letters by which they were cited They were called not to conference but to propose their Opinions with their Reasons and leave it to the Synod to judge of them The Synod would be a judge and not a party Then were they call'd in again and all this was told them Episcopius answered that for the word Collatio he stood not on it and how they would carry themselves it should appear the day following Mean while one thing they would request of the Synod that is that Grevinchovius and Goulartius should be sent for to the Synod as Patrons of this cause That they had this last week exhibited a Supplication to the States General to this purpose and received this answer that they should put this matter to the Synod and if the Synod thought it fit to be granted they would not be against it Neither did they propose this to seek delayes For they were ready whilst these men should be sent for to proceed to the action Only they thought fit that to maintain their cause they should be sent for who could best do it Then were they again dismist and one was sent to them to call for their Supplication to the Lords and the Lords Answer To this they returned that the Lords gave this answer not in writing but by word of mouth and for the copy of their Supplication they called not for it any more Then was the thing proposed unto the Synod and the Secular Deputies replyed that they would return their answer on the morrow the same was the answer of the Synod Mr Praeses thought that Grevinchovius might be admitted salvis censuris Ecclesiasticis yet notwithstanding he thought good to acquaint the Synod with the quality of this man thereupon he produced the Act of the Provincial Synod of South-Holland wherein it was witnessed that the Synod because he did refuse to appear when they cited him and because of many Blasphemies in his Book and of many reproachful speeches against the Magistrates and against the Ministers had suspended him ab omni munere Ecclesiastico From this Grevinchovius had not appealed to the National Synod to do what they thought fit Then were the Remonstrants again called in and it was signified unto them that on the morrow they should understand the will of the Synod concerning their motion made and so were they again dismist and the Session ended the Praeses having first premised that all other things yet depending as the Decree concerning the Proponentes together with the Remedies concerning the abuses in Printing and what else soever must be deferred and the business in hand alone attended My Lord Bishop was desirous that Mr. Carleton should stay this day to see the coming of the Remonstrants I would have had him stay to morrow likewise that he might have seen the manner of proceeding with them but he would not Here is speech that Scultetus is to make the next Latin Sermon but when we know not There is a rumour that Vorstius is gone from Tergone but of this I suppose your Honour may have better information than I can give therefore ceasing to trouble your Honour any longer I humbly take my leave Dort this 6. of Novemb. 1618. Stylo novo Your Lordships Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord IN my last Letters to your Honour I related a doubt concering the Deputies for the Remonstrants of Vtrecht whether they were to be a part of the Synod or in the number of the Remonstrants who were cited to appear before the Synod The reasons of that doubt which then I understood not were these First because in their Credential Letters they were charged to defend the cause of the Remonstrants Now it could not be that they should be both Defendants and Judges in the same cause Secondly it was objected that their case was the same per omnia with Episcopius who was to have been of the Synod if he would have brought his Credential Letters as the rest of the professors were But he refused it because in the Remonstrants cause he was to be a party except he would have laid by the defence of that cause Thirdly when the question was of citing the Remonstrants out of each Province it was then concluded in the Synod that out of the Province of Vtrecht none should be cited to appear because of that Province there were some already and therefore it was superfluous to oite any more In the judgement of the Synod therefore they were in numero citatorum as far as concerned that cause and not in the number of the Members of the Synod Unto these Reasons were they charged to give their answer upon Saturday and then to resolve whether they would forsake the words of their Credential Letters and so remain Judges or else stand unto them and become in the number of the citati Wherefore upon Saturday the 8. of December stylo novo The Synod being met in the morning the Deputies for Remonstrants gave up their Answer in scripto to these Reasons And to the first concerning the Clause in their Credential Letters they answered that they were not so limited but that in their private instructions they had leave to do otherwise if they thought good To the second concerning the Parity of their case with Episcopius they answered that their case was quite another for they were sent from their Provinces as Members of the Synod which plea Episcopius could not make To the third concerning the intent of the Synod at the Citation they answer'd that they never so understood the words of the Synod neither did they know but that they might shew themselves for the cause of the Remonstrants and yet sit as Judges since they were there to defend their opinion no otherwise than the Contra-Remonstrants were to defend theirs and therefore they were purposed to take theoath and to keep their places The Praeses then required them to shew that clause in their private instructions wherein that reservation was which they pretended They stuck a little at first to bring forth their instructions-but at length seeing there was no other remedy they consentted to do it provided that no more should be read than what they would suffer which was granted them In the mean time whilst they were providing
17 27. of Decemb. 1618. Your Honours Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord UPon Friday 18 â—â— of December in the morning it was long ere the Synod met At length being come together there were read the two Decrees one of the States another of the Synod made the former Session the reason of the repeating was the absence of some the day before Then did the Praeses signify that that very morning immediately before the time of the Synod he had received from the Remonstrants Letters satis prolixas which concern'd himself and the whole Synod the perusal of which Letters was the cause of his long stay The Letters were sent to the Delegates to know whether or no they would have them read Whilst the Seculars were advising of this point there were brought in a great heap of the Remonstrants Books and laid upon the Table before the Praeses for what end it will appear by and by The Secular Delegates signifie that they think not fit that the Letters should be publickly read and that the Remonstrants should immediately be call'd in They being entered the Praeses askt them whether they were ready to obey the Orders set down by the States the Synod They require to have their Letters read but the Seculars willed them instead of reading their Letters to hearken to a Decree of the States and forthwith was read a Decree sounding to this purpose that the States strictly commanded that nothing should be read or spoken in the Synod in prejudice of the Decree made yesterday but that they should without any further delay come to the business in hand The Remonstrants reply that except they may most freely propose their minds in both the parts of Predestination both Election and Reprobation they refused to go further in Conference for that their Conscience would not permit them The Praeses replyed that for liberty of proposal of their opinions they could not complain for the Synod had given them Libertatem Christianam aequam justam but such an absolute Libertyâ— as they seemed to require of going as far as they list of oppugning before the Synod what opinions they pleased of learned men this they thought unfit And as for Conscience they knew that the Word of God was the rule of it Now what part of Scripture had they that favoured them in this behalf or that did take any order and prescribe a Method in Disputation By thus stiffely urging their Conscience they did exceedingly wrong the Decree of the States and Synod as if by them something against the word of God some impiety were commanded When the Praeses had thus said he began to propose unto them certain Interrogatories concerning the Five Articles Your honour may be pleased to call to mind that in one of my former Letters I shewed that because the Remonstrants had given up their opinions very perplexedly and imperfectly the Synod had thought good that the Praeses should propose them certain questious out of their own Writings so the better to wrest their meaning from them This was the Praeses now beginning to do and this was the cause of the bringing in of the Books The Interrogatory proposed was this Whether or no they did acknowledge that the Articles exhibited in the Hague Conference did contein their opinions Episcopius stept up and required that it might be lawful for them to set down their own Tenents and not be forced to answer thus to other mens Writings H. Leo in choler told the Praeses that he did evidently see that it was the drift of the Synod to discredit them with the Magistrate and that for his own part he would rather leave his Ministery than make any answer to these Interrogatories The Praeses here advised him to bethink himself seriously whether his Conscience could assure him that this was a good cause of leaving his Ministery because he might not proceed in Disputation according as he thought fit Wezekius answered that he would not submit to this examen and nisi posset liberrimè agi he would not answer at all The same was the sence of Hollingerus his answer Episcopius plainly told them nisi in omnibus liberum esset to do as they thought good they would go no farther For we are resolved saith he agere pro judicio nostro non pro judicio Synodi then one of the Seculars stept up and willed those words should be noted The Praeses then told them that the true cause of all this their indisposition was that they forgot themselves to be Citati and that they were not acquainted with being commanded They were to remember that they stood before God before their Magistrate and that their cause was the cause of the Church whose peace would not be procured by this behaviour They might remember what they told the Forreign Divines in their Letters to them that there was of late a great Metamorphosis in the State Non estis nunc judices Domini rerum sed Citati but at it seemed they were resolved to suffer omnino nullum judicium de iis fieri Episcopius here urged his Conscience Adde Verbum Dei then saith the Praeses shew us upon what Text of Scripture you ground your Conscience otherwise you wrong both the Magistrate and the Synod Corvinus answered that that scantling of Liberty which the Synod gave them did not suffice their Consciences Poppius likewise required larger Liberty and that he might not be dealt withall by Authority but by Reason The Praeses answered that in Conscience he could not give them greater Liberty than they had already given them and therefore askt him if he would answer to the Interrogatories He stoutly replyed Malo quidvis pati Sapma replyed to the same purpose and over and above added Vt nostrum judicium non satisfacit Synodo ita nec Synodi Iudicium nostro Rickwardius told the Synod that they dealt not charitably with them and openly protested as Episcopius had before done non agemus pro judicio Synodi sed pro judicio nostro The Praeses replyed vocem hanc esse intolerandam Niellius excepted against this proceeding with them capitatim and requir'd that they might consult in common what answer to give For my self saith he I am a man of no ready speech and unfit for suddain disputation Too great advantage is taken against men by this kind of proceeding Many members of the Synod were they thus singled out to give a suddain answer might easily peradventure be put to some distress Nullam esse causam tam justam de qua non facile possit triumphari si de ea agatur tantum pro arbitrio adversarii The Praeses told them that here was nothing required but that they would give a reason of their Faith which they had for this many years taught in their Pulpits and in their Writings and therefore they could not be unprovided to give an answer and for that they mentioned
considerable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of great grossness and folly think so poor-spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot betwixt the Churches pardon me I know what temptation drew that note from me The next Schisme which had in it matter of fact is that of the Donatists who were perswaded at least pretended so that it was unlawful to converse or communicate in holy duties with men stained with any notorious sin for howsoever that Austin to specifie only the Thurificati Traditores and Libellatici c. as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must referre to all notorious sinners upon this he taught that in all places where good and bad were mixt together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution co-operating a way from sinners which blasted righteous persons which conversed with them and made all unclean on this ground separating himself from all that he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only men among whom wicked persons found no shelter and by consequence the only clean and unpolluted company and therefore the only Church Against this Saint Augustine laid down this Conclusion Vnitatem Ecclesiae per totum mundum dispersae praeceptam non esse disserendam which is indeed the whole summe of that Father's disputation against the Donatists Now in one part of this Controversie one thing is very remarkable The truth was there where it was by meer chance and might have been on either side the reason brought by either party notwithstanding for though it were De facto false that pars Donati shut up in Africk was the only Orthodox party yet it might be true notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the whole earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confirm it For where or amongst whom or how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any number more or less it may be in any Place Countrey or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without the prejudice to the definition of a Church or the truth of the Gospel North or South many or few dispersed in many Places or confined to one None of these do either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schisme and likewise that former to a wise man that well understands the matter in Controversie may afford perchance matter of pity to see men so strangely distracted upon fancy but of doubt or trouble what to do it can yield none for though in this Schisme the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both parties be equally engaged in the Schisme yet you may safely upon your occasions communicate with either if so be you flatter neither in their Schisme For why might not it be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing of moment to the contrary For in all publick Meetings pretending holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook why may not I be present in them and use communion with them Nay what if those to whom the execution of the publick service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the garments they wear be censured nay indeed be suspicious what if the gesture or adoration to be used to the Altars as now we have learned to speak What if the Homilist have Preached or delivered any Doctrine of the Truth of which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear part in them our selves The Priests under Ely had so ill demeaned themselves about the dayly sacrifices that the Scripture tells us they made them to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest for in those Schismes which concern fact nothing can be a just cause of refusing of Communion but only to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act for not only in reason but in Religion too that Maxime admits of no release Cautissimi cujusque Praeceptum quod dubitas ne feceris Long it was ere the Church fell upon Schisme upon this occasion though of late it hath had very many for until the second Council of Nice in which irreconcileable Superstition and Ignorance did conspire I say until the Rout did set up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schisme upon just occasion of fact all the rest of Schismes of that kind were but wantons this was truly serious in this the Schismatical party was the Synod it self and such as conspired with it for or concerning the use of Images in Sacrifices First it is acknowledged by all that it is a thing unnecessary Secondly it is by most suspected Thirdly it is by many held utterly unlawful can then the enjoyning of such a thing be ought else but abuse or can the refusal of Communion here be thought any other thing than duty Here or upon the like occasion to separate may peradventure bring personal trouble or danger against which it concerns any honest man to have pectus Praeparatum further harm it cannot do so that in these cases you cannot be to seek what to think or what you have to do Come we then to consider a little of the second sort of Schisme arising upon occasion of variety of opinion It hath been the common disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of faith which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded us but out of a vain desire to know more than is revealed they have attempted to devise things of which we have no light neither from Reason nor Revelation neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church-authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but feigned they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon others a necessity of entertaining conclusions of that nature and to strengthen themselves have broken out into Divisions and Factions opposing man to man Synod to Synod till the peace of the Church vanished without all possibility of recall hence arose those ancient and many separations amongst Christians occasioned by Arianisme Eutychianisme Nestorianisme Photinianisme Sabellianisme and many more both ancient and in our own time all which indeed are but names of Schisme howsoever in the common language of the