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
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
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
part in them as much as may be so if we look into a Christian man as he is proposed to us in the Gospel we may justly marvel to what purpose God hath planted in him this faculty and passion of anger since he hath so little use of it and the Gospel in a manner doth spiritually diet and physick him for it and endeavours much to abate if not quite to purge out that quality Beloved we have hitherto seen who Iacob is and what manner of man the Christian is that is described unto us in holy Scripture Let us a little consider his brother Esau the Christian in passage and who commonly in the account of the world goes for one Is he so gentle and tractable a creature Is his countenance so smooth his body so free from gall and spleen To try this as the Devil sometimes spake unto Iob Touch him in his goods touch him in his body and see if he will not curse thee to thy face so touch this man a little in his goods touch him in his reputation and honour touch him in any thing that he loves for this is the onely way to try how far these commands of peace and forbearance and long suffering prevail with us and see if he will not forget and loose all his patience Which of us is there that understands the words and precepts of our Saviour in their litteral sense and as they lie The precepts of suffering wrong rather then to go to Law of yeilding the coat to him that would take the cloak of readiness to receive more wrongs then to revenge one these and all the Evangelical commands of the like nature Interpretamento detorquemus we have found out favourable interpretations and glosses restrictions and evasions to wind our selves out of them to shift them all off and put them by and yet pass for sound and currant Christians We think we may be justly angry continue long Suits in Law call to the Magistrate for revenge yea sometimes take it into our own hands all this and much more we think we may lawfully and with good reason do any precept of Christ to the contrary notwithstanding And as it usually comes to pass the permitting and tolerating lesser sins opens way to greater so by giving passage and inlet to those lesser impatiences an discontents we lay open a gap to those fouler crimes even of murther and bloudshed For as men commonly suppose that all the former breaches of our patience which but now I mentioned may well enough stand with the duties of Christians so there are who stay not here but think that in some cases it may be lawful yea peradventure necessary at least very pardonable for Christians privately to seek each others bloud and put their lives upon their swords without any wrong to their vocation out of this have sprung many great inconveniences both private and publick First Laws made too favourable in case of bloudshed Secondly a too much facility and easiness in Princes and Magistrates sometimes to give pardon and release for that crime Thirdly and cheifly for it is the special cause indeed that moved me to speak in this Argument an over promptness in many young men who desire to be counted men of valour and resolution upon every sleight occasion to raise a quarrel and admit of no other means of composing and ending it but by sword and single Combat Partly therefore to shew the grievousness and greatness of this sin of Bloudshed and partly to give the best counsel I can for the restraint of those conceits and errours which give way unto it I have made choice of these few words out of the Old Testament which but now I read In the New Testament there is no precept given concerning Bloudshed The Apostles seem not to have thought that Christians ever should have had need of such a prohibition For what needed to forbid those to seek each others Bloud who are not permitted to speak over hastily one to another When therefore I had resolved with my self to speak something concerning the sin of Bloud-shed I was in a manner constrain'd to reflect upon the Old Testament and make choise of these words And the Land cannot be purged of Bloud that is shed in it but by the Bloud of him that shed it In which words for my more orderly proceeding I will observe these two general parts First the greatness of the sin Secondly the means to cleanse and satisfie for the guilt of it The first that is the greatness of the sin is expressed by two circumstances First by the generality extent and largeness of the guilt of it and secondly by the difficulty of cleansing it The largeness and compass of the guilt of this sin is noted unto us in the word Land and the Land cannot be purged It is true in some sense of all sins Nemo sibi uni errat no man sins in private and to himself alone For as the Scripture notes of that action of Iepthe when he vowed his daughter unto God That it became a Custom in Israel so is it in all sins The errour is onely in one person but the example spreads far and wide and thus every man that sins sins against the whole Land yea against the whole world For who can tell how far the example and infection of an evil action doth spread In other sins the infection is no larger then the disease but this sin like a plague one brings the infection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thousands die for it yet this sin of Bloud diffuses and spreads it self above all other sins for in other sins noxa sequitur caput the guilt of them is confined to the person that committed them God himself hath pronounced of them The son shall not bear the sins of the father the soul that sinneth shall die the death But the sin of Bloud seems to claim an exception from this Law if by time it be not purged like the frogs of Egypt the whole land stank of them it leaves a guilt upon the whole land in which it is committed Other sins come in like Rivers and break their banks to the prejudice and wrong of private persons but this comes in like a Sea raging and threatning to overwhelm whole Countreys If Bloud in any land do lie unrevenged every particular soul hath cause to fear lest part of the penalty fall on him We read in the Books of Kings that long after Saul's death God plagued the Land of Iewry with three years famine because Saul in his life-time without any just cause shed the Bloud of some of the Gibeonites neither the famine ceased till seven of Saul's nephews had died for it In this story there are many things rare and worth our observation First the generality and extent of the guilt of Bloud-shed which is the cause for which I urged it it drew a general famine on the whole Land Secondly the continuance and length of the punishment
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
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
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
accordingly was the practise of God's own people for so we read that the daughters of Zelophehad were married to their Vncle's Sons and Caleb gives his Daughter Achsah in marriage to his Brother's Son and sundry instances more in this kind might be given Now that those things should be done by dispensation and permission onely which I see is pleaded by some men I know no warrant nor reason for it so that what may be done in this case by the Law of God I think is out of question Let us see a little what the light of Nature taught the Gentiles Amongst them the wisest and most potent were the Romans whose Laws have long been esteemed for the soundest and best by the general approbation of the most and greatest Kingdoms and Common-wealths in Europe Now amongst these the Romans both by their Law and practise did warrant Marriages between First Cousins their Law is plain and thus we read it in their Pandects about the beginning of the 23. 6. Si nepotem ex filio nepta ex altero filio in potestate habeam nuptias inter cas me solo authore contrahi posse Pomponius scribit verum est This one Text is sufficient though I could quote many other Testimonies out of their Law concerning this kind of Marriage What their practise was these instances which ensue will be sufficient to shew Anciently under the first Kings Dionysius Halycarnasseus tells us that two daughters of Servius Tullius were married to Lucius and Arnus their Cousin-germans Nephews to Tarquinius Priscus Livie in his 42. 6. brings in one Spurius Ligustinus reporting that his father had given him for wife his Vncle's daughter and thus he speaks to his own praise and commendation as it will appear if you please to peruse the place Tully in his Orat. pro Cluentio tells us that Cluentia was married to Melius her Cousin-german erant hae Nuptiae saith he plaenae dignitatis plaenae concordiae which I think he would never have said had their lien upon such marriages any note of infamy Augustus the Emperour gave his daughter Iulia in marriage to Marcellus nephew to Augustus by his sister Octavia And Quintilian tells us that his son whose immature death he doth bewail was designed when he came to age to marry his Uncle's daughter and Marcus Brutus was married to his Cousin-german as Plutarch relates Out of this heap of instances it appeareth that in the Roman Common-wealth throughout all Ages and amongst all sorts of people Marriages between First-Cousins ran uncontrolled The first that gave restraint unto them was Theodosius the Great which Law of his is yet to be seen in that Book of his Laws called Codex Theodosianus But this Law continued not long for his own sons Arcadius and Honorius quickly revers'd it and in leiu of it made this Law which is extant in the Book called Iustinian's Code and stands for good Law amongst the Civilians at this day Celebrandis inter consobrinos matrimoniis licentia legis hujus salubritate indulta est ut rovocata prisci juris authoritate restrictisque calumniarum fomentis matrimonium inter consobrinos habeatur legitimum sive ex duobus fratribus sive ex dual us sororibus sive ex fratre sorore nati sunt ex eo matrimonio editi legitimi suis patribus successores habeantur Thus stood the case concerning those Marriages until the Bishops of Rome began to grow great and took upon them to make Laws For then whether to make way for Dispensations whereby to get money or for what other By-respects I know not not only First and Second cousins but all Cousins until the seventh Generation were expresly prohibited to marry mutually till at length the Bishop of Rome freed the three latter Degrees and prohibited marriage onely to Cousins in four Descents and so till this day among those that acknowledge the superiority of that See all marrying within four Degrees except it be by Dispensation is utterly forbidden And if it be lawful for me to speak what I think I verily suppose that not from any reason but onely by reason of the long prevailing of the Common Law Marriages betwixt near Cousins were generally forborn And from hence arose a scruple in the minds of many men concerning the lawfulness of such Marriages But all cause of such scruple amongst us is long since taken away For at what time we cast off the yoke of the Bishop of Rome in the 33 year of King Hen. 8. a Statute was Enacted in Parliament which was again confirmed in the first of Queen Elizabeth that no degrees of kindred should be forbidden Marriage but onely such as were set down in the Levitical Law and amongst the degrees specified in that Act as lawful if my memory fail me not Cousin-germans are expresly mentioned To sum up all then what hitherto hath been said What reason have we to doubt of the lawfulness of that which the Law of God permits the people of God practised the best and learnedest Divines have acknowledged the wisest amongst the Gentiles in their Laws and Practises have approved and our own Municipal Laws under which we live expresly allow This had been enough to satisfie any gain-sayer whatsoever And indeed I had ended here but that when your letters came to my hands there was delivered with them a Schedule containing reasons perswading all such kind of Marriages to be utterly unlawful Concerning the authority of which Discourse to profess what I think I take him for a very pious and zealous man and I earnestly desire of him if ever he chance to be acquainted with what I write to conceive of me as one who delights not in opposition except it be for the Truth at least in opinion My advise to him is to adde Knowledge to his Zeal and to call again to account his reasons and more diligently to examine them The strength of his discourse is not so much his Reason as his Passion a thing very prevalent with the common sort who as they are seldom capable of strength of reason so are they easily carried away with passionate discourse This thing ought to be a warning to us of the Clergy to take heed how we deal with the people by way of passion except it be there where our proofs are sound Passion is a good Dog but an ill Shepherd Tortum digna sequi potius quam ducere funem it may perchance follow well but it can never lead well I was much amazed to read his resolution of preaching in this case so earnestly as to break her's or his heart who desire to marry or his own or all He that suffered himself thus far to be transported with affection ought to have furnish'd himself with stronger reasons then any I here can find But I will let his passion go for to contend with it were infinite for Passion hath Tongue and clamour enough but no Ears The Reasons so many as I think
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
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