Christians are figs and grapes and olives that are not to be gathered from the bryars and thorns of the present world in which whoever will live godly must expect and patiently suffer but not deserve persecution A good Cause must not think it strange to finde bad entertainment on earth where it is a pilgrim and stranger Times are seldom so good as really to favour Gods Cause however the policies and lusts of men their pride licentiousness covetousness and ambition may seem to flatter it so far as suits with their present interests which are most what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-seeking partial and inordinate ut in vitis sic in causis homines spes improbas alunt as in other things so in religion men have their impipious ambitions and perverse hopes § Whereas the Cause of God is a self denying cause as to all ungodliness and worldly lusts teaching us to live contentedly righteously soberly and godly in all things § So that these large flags and streamers which some men of the Roman or other factions of later editions hang out to the vulgar as to the potency and prosperity of their Cause argue no more Gods cause to be with them or they with it then the fine feathers in fools caps argue them to have wit or wisdom in their heads coppar may be thus stamped and guilded which will not endure the fiery trial as true gold will and such is the Cause of God ever pure and precious just and holy though it be oppressed and persecuted as a jewel it loseth not its native lustre and worth though it be ill set or cast into the dirt To conclude this general description of Gods Cause this may be its Emblem It is as the tree of life in the Pardise of God the root of it is the Truth of God in his word the sap is holiness or true sanctity the leaf is charity without dissimulation the rinde or bark is order and good discipline in the Church also Equity and civil Justice in the State the lesser and lower fruit is every grace and good work growing in us or from us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prime and topmost cluster is Gods glory and the salvation of sinful souls through his free grace in Jesus Christ Having shewed the general tokens or marks of Gods Cause I now proceed by way of Induction and instance to set forth the particulars in which it consists 1. The grand Cause of God is his own glory this is the first mover great conservator and last consummator of all things which the divine Wisdom contrives or his Patience permits or his Power performs or his Justice Goodness and Mercy moderates or his Word commands For this cause he hath made and manageth all things in heaven and earth that the glory of his being may appear to men and Angels who are with all humility gratitude adoration service and admiration to return the just recognition and praises due to the divine Majesty for all his essential excellencies and his gracious emanations every Attribute and Perfection of God is by them to be owned with due respect of Faith Fear Love Duty Adoration and Admiration thus his Power Wisdom Justice Mercy Immensity Eternity Veracity Immutability c. are to be considered by men and Angels with suitable affections reflecting from them to God And among Christians the unity of the Divine Nature together with the Trinity of the sacred Persons or relations distinguished by the names of Father Son and Holy Spirit must be ever owned celebrated and adored according to the wonted Doxology or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Orthodox Churches This Cause God hath in all ages pleaded as his own royal concern against Atheists Polytheists Idolaters Antitrinitarians Anthropomorphites against prophane and proud livers who live as if there were no God above them also against vain and false swearers who blaspheme the name of God and bring a curse on their souls families and countries against presumptuous wicked doers who are their own gods and worshippers both self-Idols and self-Idolaters This is the first most immediate cause or concern of the Divine Nature and Glory that God be owned and none beside him or comparable to him This will be made good against wicked men and Devils by the pleas and principles of right Reason by the sensible beauty order harmony proportion usefulness and constancy of Gods Works in the world by his signal providences in judgement or mercy by his preservation of the Scriptures and the Church with true Religion by the predictions fulfilled and lastly by the terrors convictions and presages of mens consciences which are that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little God in our own brests as Mar. Aurelius calls it 2. The next great concern or Cause of God is that of the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Word and coessential Son of God the blessed Messiah the brightness of the divine glory and express image of the Father It is not enough now to beleive in God as Creator and Preserver of men but we must also beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer of beleiving penitent and obedient sinners by the mercy love and free grace of God This is the beloved Son of God whom we must hear the onely name under heaven by which we may be saved he that doth not obediently beleive the testimony of Prophets and Apostles of Miracles and Angels of Martyrs and Confessors of the Church Catholick and an enlightned conscience in this great Cause of the Messias even the crucified Jesus is under peremptory condemnation while such § Of this great and mysterious Cause God gave the world an account of old under types figures sacrifices and many ceremonies as shadows and resemblances under the Law but now the Substance and Son of Righteousness is come and hath fully taught his Church the will of God and the work such sinners have to do which is to repent and beleive in him whom the Father hath sent who so beleiveth not makes God a lyar and is already condemned to which must be added to compleat the cause of the sacred Trinity the belief and adoration of the Holy Ghost as God one with the Father and the Son in the Divine essence and glory though a distinct person as to the emanation from and relation to both ◠The Cause of God extends to the true Church of God as an holy corporation or society of such as do truely believe inwardly or outwardly and profess with Order and Charity the word worship and service of the true God with our Lord Jesus and the blessed Spirit according to the rule of the Scripture ◠God owns himself in Jesus Christ as the Father friend head and Husband of the Church such as fight against that fight against God and afflict the apple of his eye God is concerned that the foundation of his Church which is
Causa Dei Gods pleading his own Cause Set forth in Two SERMONS PREACHED At the TEMPLE in November 1659. BY Dr. Gauden Bishop of Excester LONDON Printed by John Best for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in S. Pauls Church-yard 1661. TO THE Honourable Societies OF THE TEMPLES IN order to adorn my departure from you worthy and honored Gentlemen with a Beno decessit such grateful respects and civility as becomes me to your eminent and worthy Societies I have formerly prepared and now dedicated this following Treatise as my fare-well Present to you or a second monument of mine yea and of your Honor after that which was by me the last year of Englands captivity consecrated to the memorie of my reverend and renowned Predecessor Bishop Brownrig under the patrocinie of your Name that was as the Urn or Conservatory of his and your reciprocal kindness and mutual merits with whose mortall remains your piety hath adorned your Temple This second piece is the substance of those two Sermons which I first preached among you after I was invited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those dark and dangerous times to bestow my pains with you in the Term time The main subject of this is the The true Cause of God and the right pleading of it Which Theam I then chose to preach on because I observed in the whole course of our English tragedâ—â— that eveâ—y party still pretended to act their factious confusions upon their several stages in these three Kingdoms under the specious dress colour title and pretence of Gods Cause and the high zeal they had to plead it This this was always inscribed on the most bloody banners with this their tongues and pens were whetted who sought to build their Counter-Babels on the foundations and ruines of Zion With this Mark of the Lamb were those ravening wolves marked who drank the blood and eat the flesh of their Fathers and Mothers of Kings and Clergie of Church and Country with this Motto The Cause of God and Christ their false tongues their crazie heads their cruel hands and impudent faces were to be set off to popular reputation when nothing indeed was further from their hearts or works O the Cause of God the Cause of God the Cause of Iesus Christ cries every tatling and teeming faction when prostitute to and impregnated by the Incubus of some novel lust and new fancy as if it were now in travel and readie to be delivered of some holy birth or sacred prodigie This language or fallacy non causa pro-causa of urging the Cause where no Cause of God was the rigid Presbyterian learned in Scotland this the puny Independant brought from Arnheim or New England This of old the Anabaptists cried up at Munster when to encrease their Faction they multiplied wives This the silly Quaker now peeps and mutters in every corner This the more bloody Papists boasted of in Ireland and other Bigots of that perswasion do every where magnifie the Romish cause as the only Christian Catholick Cause Mean while all these parties joyntly and severally labour to overthrow the true Cause and excellent constitution of this Church and Monarchie of England That is the truth peace honor and order both of these Brittish Kingdoms and of our Reformed Religion as it is conform to the Word of God to our ancient good Laws and to the customs of the true Catholick Church In which the learned loyall and Religious Nobility Gentry Clergie and Commons of this nation with their Kings have ever judged that the true Cause of God as to justice and Religion holiness and peace the divine glory and welfare of mankind was and is most eminently contained I confess I was then wearie and ashamed of the counterpleas counterscufles of those bold and divided harlots who did each pretend with great zeal the Cause of God against the other in order to oppose Gods righteous cause which certainly ever was and will be but one and the same for ever as to the main of truth and peace of faith and good works of justice and holiness I evidently saw by many years sad experience that these rude rivals already had and ever would first divide then destroy the true cause of God and the publick interest of this Church and Kingdom only to advance their private and partial causes which were evidently leavened with most illegal extravagancies with sacrilegious covetousness with immoderate ambitions with inhumane revenges with implacable cruelties and with impudent exorbitancies and with most â—eigned necessities Hence it was that I adventured in so great and illustrious an Auditory even before the day of our redemption dawned or that day-star of the North appeared which afterward ushered in our Sun of Righteousness I say I then adventured truly and fully to set forth my sense of Gods Cause with such a resolution as our learned Bradwardin Arch bp of Canterbury sometime took up when he set forth his large and elaborate Volume De Causa Dei of which he thus says in his Preface De Causa Dei Scripturus sciens manum in ignem terribilem mitto c. That he well knew into what flaming fires with Scoevola he put his hand how many enemies he should contract and exasperate by his honest stating and asserting the Cause of Gods grace and glory against the Pelagian pride and presumption who sought to advance the impotent power of nature the cloudie twilight beams of Reason and the maimed liberty of mans will which is clogged corrupted and hampered with many sensual lusts above the necessity and against the only sufficiency of Gods grace in order to his glory and a sinners salvation yet that good Prelate did both proceed and speed he did his work and had his reward both in a good conscience and in great successes as to his repressing that petulancy of poor worms exalting themselves against the great God without whom they can do nothing but sin against him and damn their own souls In like manner have I lived to see in a few months after that bold essay of mine among you the wonderful revolutions of Gods providence pleading at once his own the Kings this Churches and this Kingdoms cause the Cause of our Laws Liberties Lives and Religion the cause of all honest men for their souls and bodies for themselves and their posterities in their temporal and eternal great concernments All these great and good Causes are at once pleaded by our wise just and mercifull God against those strong delusions those false pretensions those rebellious usurpations and those novel intrusions which under the lie and hypocrisie of setting up Gods Cause and the Cause of Jesus Christ made prophane men abhor the very name godly men to pitty the reality of Gods holy cause which they saw so miserably mistaken by some and by others so shamefully deformed so sordidly defiled so impudently blasphemed through the wicked policies and horrid practises of some monsters of men most unsanctified Saints who
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terrae filii gigantum fratreculi a company of Mushroom men and Christians sprung out of the earth but yesterday a nation in its infancy or minority which is now to learn its A. B. C. of Religion and civil government being set back by a most sad and horrible fate from Homers Iliads to our Primmer or Pueriles by I know nor what new Teachers and many Masters § So that it is high time seriously to meditate conscientiously to preach freely to write and fervently to pray upon this subject The Cause and the Cause of God since every party pretends a Cause and Gods Cause too which they are most eager and ambitious not only to plead fairly but to obtrude for oâ—bly on all others Thus from the great Pretenders â—â— the Cath 〈…〉 Cause of which the Romanisâ—â— would seem the chief Patrons to all other Sects and Subsectionâ— either in civil or religious factions All parties are divided by their Causes and the whole is destroyed by their divisions Ask any side why they thus shuffle and out why they thus divide and destroy why they do things so different from solid Reason and true Religion contrary to all Laws of God and man contrary to the duty they owe â—â— God their Country their King their Posterity the Church and the State as to Justice Veracity Peace and Charity Ask why like Ixicons wheel or Sysiphus his stone they overturn ouerturn overturn all things eivil and sacred by their end less verâ—igoes and rotations then answer is short as that of David to his brother Eliab Is there not â— Cause It will not be amiss therefore as St. John adviseth Christians to try the spirits whether they be of God or â—o of Christ or of Antichrist to examine the several pretended and pleaded Causes whether they be Gods Cause which is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Causarum causa the Cause of Causes The Cause and interest of all the blessed Angels and all true Saints worthy of Princes and Peers of Gown-men and Sword-men of all honest and good men or whether they be not the Cause of the Devil and of mens own evil â—usts disguised with this larva or vizard on them which may not uncharitably be suspected of some of them Since it is most certain they cannot all be Gods Causes they are so many so multiform so mutable so divided so destructive to each other they must needs fail either of the main end and ground or matter and method of Godr pleading his own Cause § Of which I shall by Gods help endeavour to give this honorable and Christian Auditory such an account as may either inform or at least confirm your judgements in the true Cause of God that you may not be tossed too and frâ—â— with every wind of causeless Causes which blow as mens passions and secular interests do arise And further I hope to excite your judieâ—ous abilities and eloquent attentions who are persons of so great learning experience and publiâ—â— influence to be ever zealous in that good Cause which is Gods as bonâ— Causidici honest and able Lawyers to shew your skill and will in the great concerns of God his Church and your Country which are noâ— so eagerly pleaded and counter pleaded among us Appeals beinâ— as it were made to every one oâ— us to judge in our selves which â—â— the righteous Cause of God tp which we ought chearfully to give our suffrages and assistance as most undoubtedly conducing to our publick happiness both in Church and State in civil and religious concernments let not this be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a desolate and forsaken Cause in which no men of parts and estate will appear § And cartainly if I had less experience then I have of the favour of the Court I mean of this Christian Assembly which is met in Gods Courts and presence yet I may justly have great confidence as to the merit of that Cause which I shall seek to present to you and plead before you this day in Gods behalf As Jotham therefore said to his Countrymen Hearken to me that God may hearken to you Attend diligently to the pleading of his cause who alone can plead yours yea and hath given us an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous whose blood speaks better things for us whose wounds are so many eloquent mouths whose cross was loaden with strong crys for us whose merits are undeniable mediators whose Spirit continually makes intercession in us and for us even then when we know not what to say or how to pray either unable to plead or ashamed to speak for our selves Gods Cause may sometimes seem to want our pleading for it before men but our cause doth really and ever need the pleadings of Gods mercy and Christs merits before the Tribunal of his Justice that there may be a prohibition granted at the humble motion of believing and penitent sinners to remove the suit or action from the Bar of Divine Justice to the Throne of the heavenly Grace where we may finde mercy to relieve us in all our distresses despairs and deaths § Before I set before you the main fruits with which I intend to entertain you out of the Text iâ— will not be amiss to gather an handful of those fair flowers which offer themselves at the first view of the words as so many short but sweet and excellent observations 1. We may observe That God hath his Cause too in this world his great design concern and interest as well as the wise Statists and great Polititians as well as the strong and the rich and the learned and the ambitious and the malicious and the voluptuous and the covetous men of the world who so eagerly plead and pursue their own projects and Causes that they not only many times forget Gods but generally cross contradict and oppose it as with their sin and folly so to their shame and ruine for as the counsel so the Cause of God shall stand Nor is it to be baffled by any either force or fraud strengtlâ— or sophistry It is as truth Magna praevalebat a great Cause and will prevail by the help of a wise and strong God though for a time it may be unjustly condemned and crucified by unjust men as Christ was yet it will at last be raised again in power and glory yea and justified before men and Angels It will as Aarons rod or serpent devour all those of the worlds Magicians and Polititians It is a Cause which will be as fire consumptive of all other and consummative of it self 2. Observ As God hath his Cause in this world so it becomes him to own it It is opus Dei the work of a God to plead his own Cause as Gideon speaks of Baal Idols were convicted to be no Gods because they could not plead for themselves by speaking or doing good or evil as the Prophet tells
which was so zealously tender for the Cause of Christ that they loved not their lives unto death but rather chose mille mortes a thousand deaths then once to crucifie again or deny the Lord that bought them Fourthly The Cause of God may need his special pleading by reason of the great corruption of manners which like weeds grow in the garden of God or as tares in the field of the Church which was first sown with good seed Thus as Eusebius Salvian Suspitius-Severus and othes observe Christian Religion suffered more by the evil lives of Christians then by the malice of persecutors or Hereticks men that had sound heads as to doctrine and Faith yet had foul hearts their brains good but their breath lungs and liver were naught This contagion sometimes seised Pastors and Flocks by idleness pride luxury vain pomps and superfluous ceremonies by secular policies uncharitable actions and scandalous practices so far as made the Cause of God and the name Christ to be blasphemed and abhorred by many while they could not reconcile the holiness of Christians faith and doctrine with the solecisms of their sordid actions and shameful lives Hence came over the Western Churches that thick Egyptian darkness for many hundred of years in which religion was made up for the most part with Images and Pictures with beads and latin prayers with repeated Pater nosters and Ave Maries which people understood not nor the Priests many times with Purgatory Masses and Indulgencies with infinite superstitious ceremonies and empty formalities besides idle fables and vain janglings which like heaps of chaff had buried the good wheat of Gods floor and the glory of divine institutions to make way for Monastick superstitions Idolatrous adorations and Papal usurpations which were built on the flatteries of some and the fedities of others who easily dispenced with the honor of marriage when they had so cheap pardons for those extravagancies and impurities in which many lived under the vail of celibacy but far enough from pure unspotted and unviolated virginity § To this Augean stable was the Church of Christ and Cause of God brought by the depravedness of Christian manners by the rust and moss of superstition before the Reformation began to dawn in this western World An hundred grievances were at once complained of many confessed some for very shame reformed by even those of the Roman party who with infinite blood-shed in former ages fought under the Notion of holy Wars not only against Turks Jews and Sarazens but against good at least tolerable Christians who might have their errors and fayling in some things but it is sure they kept nearer to the primitive piety purity and patience both in faith administrations and manners than did their proud and merciless destroyers who eat up those poor Christians as bread and turned their cruel Croisadoes to crucifie their brethren breaking their fast sometimes with 20000. of the poor Albigenses Lugdunenses Waldenses Berengarians VVicklesites Hussites Bohemians and others proportionably were their dinners and suppers when the Popes flatterers and vassals had a mind to fall upon them 5. Yea and at this day even among the reformed Churches the purity simplicity honesty charity modesty and equanimity of Reformers is so abated and wasted by the pride animosity bitterness sacriledge rapines cruelties ambitions and covetousness among Protestants besides their endless factions under pretentions of reformation immoderations novellizings and confusions That thiâ— Cause of God as to the true reforming of religion and just protesting against Romish errors and enormities is brought very low as in other places and Churches so in England which was the greatest beauty honour stability refuge and safety of the reformed Religion and that cause of Christ which hath been so learned and valiantly pleaded by the Clergy and Layty the Princes and Parliaments the Martyrs and professors reverend Bishops and learned Presbyters against the Roman Usurpation Superstition Sacriledg and Idolatry which are without doubt so far Antichristian as they are clearly against the Doctrine example and institution of Christ besides the judgment and practice of his primitive Churches § Even this cause I say is now â—ick and ashamed of it self so decayed disparaged and divided that it is next degree to being destroyed and despised by all unless God arise by some extraordinary way of his providence to plead and assert this his own cause of a just and due reformation against the factious policies and Fanatick fallacies of unreasonable men whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immoderations and transports have marred all by their King killing rapine and sacriledg unless God arise to judge the earth § Nor is this the first time that God hath helped this Church and the Reformed Religion at a dead lift for so it was in Queen Maries days when the reformed party made conscience not to rebel against their persecuting Soveraigne Princess when her persecution was according to her perswasion and conscience yea they pleaded and asserted her civil rights committing the cause of their Religion and Reformation to God with their loyal souls and consciences in well doing and patience There did God arise in his due time and do his own works in his own way to the great honour of the reformed Religion which had first the crowns of so many Martyrdoms on its head without the least spot of civil Tumults Wars Seditions or Rebellions on the hearts or hands of the reforming Clergy and reformed people § By which preposterous methods of latter years mightily cryed up and carryed on by some men in order to reformation of Religion not onely Religion is become retrograde many degrees if we look to the Dial of Gods word and the primitive Christians practice as it pretends to be reformed but even as it is Christian too that is the Doctrine and imitation of a crucified not a crucifying Saviour The lines which some men have drawn as the measures of their Doctrine and deeds are very excentrick and wide as to the wonted centre of Gods glory the circumference of Scripture truth and that strait rule of charity by which those two were wont to meet in the conscience and conversation of good Christians § Nor will either Christian Religion or just Reformation appear in their true beauty and honor while these are so far at distance and separated from each other that either verity and charity patience and subjection truth and peace are wanting in the ways of Christians In the close of this second general Question it is fit to answer that other branch of it also Why God so wise so potent so good s gracious so compassionate and so vigilant for his own Cause that is his Glory and great Name which is so much bound up in his Churches welfare yet suffers it many times so far to run to lapse seeming ruine and despair in the eyes of the world in the triumphs of his enemies and in the despondencies of his servants that
they give all for gone save only a little hold and hope they have in their prayers and in the precious promises of God to whom nothing is impossible or hard that is worthy of him and who is a present help both inward and outward in time of trouble when his time of help is come The Reasons of Gods permitting his Cause thus to lapse for a time as silent and unconcerned or as not seeing nor regarding the low estate of his Church may in brief be these 1. To let wicked men see what is in fundo cordium in the bottom and lees of their hearts if they be let alone unpunished and unrestrained to the very dregs of their malice what a perfect enmity and hatred they have to God and his Cause which is his Truth Word and VVorship yea every grace and vertue or good work yea all rules of justice good laws and decent order in Church and State that as the thoughts of their hearts are onely evil and that continually so will the actings of their lives if left to themselves 2. For the trial of his grace in those that are upright in heart and on Gods side that their prayers faith zeal patience perseverance and Christian courage together with their love to God and charity even to enemies with their compassion for the Church may be manifested Hence as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. God permits Heresies and Apostasies and Schisms to rise and prevail in the Church yea and many sinful at least superstitious corruptions in doctrine and manners that by such trials the sounder sort may be approved who in the hour of temptation persevere without shipwrack of faith or good conscience either in their judgement or conversation which is still such as becomes the Gospel of Christ 3. God permits these lapses and oppressions of Religion to punish by penal induration and blindness the obstinate and presumptuous sinners who gratifie their immoralities and lusts by their errors and Apostacies letting them alone to add sin to sin and to fill up the measure of their iniquity Hence they are given up to strong delusions to believe fables and speak lyes in hypocrisie because they with-held the truth in unrighteousness and loved the darkness of sottish superstition and confusion more then the truth and power purity and order of Religion 4. The Cause of God is many times under great depressions that by such fiery trials God may purge away the dross of such as are for the main sincerely good but yet gradually lukewarm too secure too sensual too carnal and worldly too self-conceited and self-seeking they are cast into the furnace of affliction to wean their affections from the fleshly and sensual world to prepare them for death and a better life by a nearer conformity to Christ in his cross that they may not think the greatest reward of Christian piety to be had in this world that they may embrace nudum Christum crucifixum Christ with the cross as well as with the crown 5. Lastly It is magnum praejudicium futuri judicii an evident token of after judgement and future recompences which shall reward the patience and perseverance of the godly with a crown of glory and the wicked after all their prosperous oppressions with the fruit of their own ways by the impressions of divine Justice in the ballancing of eternity 3. The third General Head is How God pleads his own Cause 1. Immediately by his own special appearing for it against his and his Churches enemies 2. Mediately by such instruments as he stirs up to be on his side 1. God hath his pleadings in several Courts 1. In foro conscienciae in that Court of conscience which is within men sometimes God pleads against them there filling them with terrors and stupors with horror and inquietude as in Cain those surda fulmina secreta fulgura those silent thunders and unseen lightnings which make them self-arraigned accused convinced judged and condemned in interiori tribunali at the bar or tribunal of their own brests as were Josephs brethren when they came into trouble and were more afraid then hurt yet guilty consciences are afraid of a leafs shaking and their own shadow There is no peace saith my God that is no true well-grounded and constant to the wicked as such they are as a restless sea not only foaming out their rage and fury against God but filling and fowling themselves with mire and dirt Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur thus the heathens found and owned that the accuser witness judge condemner and tormentor which every wicked man had in his own soul was of all most inexorable and intolerable Poena autem vehemens c. Nocte dieque a suum gestere in pectore testem yea pestem that they seem sometime quiet jolly merry and secure it is but as a puddle of fowl water which stinks the more it stands still or as a warm gleam before a smart showre these are the sharp Indictments in mens own souls not verbal pleas onely but forked arrows and poysoned darts which drink up their very spirits as so many furies or animarum hirudines leeches of their souls 2. Other times God pleads his own Cause in the Court of conscience for us and in our behalf in troubles doubts darkness and desertions when by the evil of times as Eliah Jeremiah Baruch we are dejected or by the evil of temptations buffetted and tossed as St. Paul in a long and dismal storm that we see no light there the promises and Spirit of God pleads for us crying and making intercession with us commanding us to lay hold on his strength God furnisheth us with strong reason bidding us plead with him and urge his own name and glory and goodness as Moses did to disarm an angry God He then puts us in mind of Christs merits who is our righteousness of Gods free gift of pardoning sin for his own sake of the Law fulfilled of the no condemnation to them that are in Christ of his not quenching the smoaking flax or breaking the bruised reed These and the like are Gods gracious pleadings in us and for us when we can say nothing for our selves as a Judge that turns Advocate for a modest and penitent prisoner God stops the mouth of the great accuser the Devil Christ answers for us all doubts and objections all debts and indictments they are paid and cancelled by his rich and gratuitous grace 3. God pleads his Cause many times in foro seculi by the visible instances of his special power and providence which makes all men to see there is a God that judgeth the world who is neither deaf nor dumb neither negligent nor impotent only patient and long-suffering toward his adversaries that they might see they had space of repentance Here the pleadings of God when he
Idolaters Therefore the Psalmist here so earnestly urgeth it upon God who he believed ever did and would own his own Cause so as to plead it himself in his own way and time Both as to the Majesty truth justice holiness and honor of it also as to the indignities which are by evil men cast upon it Summus Deus summas patitur injurias none is more a sufferer as to the malice and insolence of wicked men then the most blessed God who yet is as impassible as the suns light is uninfectible with the filthy exhalations of dunghils Plato puts this true saying into the mouth of Socrates dying under the malice of his persecutors Anytus and Melitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is impossible for evil to make any impression of affliction upon that which is good and which can as a jewel so preserve its native goodness and firmness that sufferings shall make it not onely no way diminished but as in the wheel and file more illustrious and meritorious such were the sufferings of Christ properly and of all good men in an Evangelical sense being for a good Cause and on Gods account till God ceaseth to be just and good and true and faithful vigilant and zealous for his own glory his cause cannot utterly miscarry 3. Observ The Cause of God may be as to the eye of the world and to the sense of the best men in a most sad dejected deplored despised and desperate estate so sunck and oppressed that there is no outward sign of its being ever boyed up and recovered thus it was represented to Elias as if he onely were left to plead a lost Cause So the Disciples expressed their sorrow and despondency We verily trusted this had been he who should have redeemed Israel So Mary weeping to the Angels answers their questioning of her tears They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him many times the foundation of Church and State of Justice and Religion are so out of course that the righteous know not what to do or say all things so unhinged by violent wicked and unreasonable men that nothing moves by any order or written Law of God or Man but by the power and impulse of mens own lusts who from Gods silence permission and patience are prone foolishly to conclude his approbation and liking of their cause and ways yea and to say God is such an one as themselves the distress of Gods Cause may be such that the whole Church may be ready to cry out as the Psalmist Help Lord for vain is the help of man It is time for thee O Lord to put to thy hand for they have made thy Law of none effect § So did the Heathenish persecution and the latter Romish superstition tyrannically triumph a long time over the slain Witnesses the Law and Gospel the Scriptures and Catholick Traditions the Preachers and Professors of that true Religion which hath been testified both as to moralities and mysteries faith and manners not onely by the two Testaments but also by the confessions and conversations of all antient and modern Christians conform to Gods Word and the best Churches customs The vapor of numbers pomp prosperity and prevalency are no demonstrations either to approve the cause of Arius or Antichrist or to prejudice the cause of Christ and of Gods true Church But as Lucan speaks of the cause of Pompey and Cesae in which the justice of the first was overborn by the successes of the second Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni the gods abetted Cesar by victories but Cato's constancy adhered to Pompey's and the Senates conquered cause because it was most just 4. Obser The Cause of the true Church is Gods cause most signally and peculiarly in this world his interests and concernments are so linked with its that they are insepâ—trable as Jacobs soul was bound up in Benjamins as the Husbands honor in the Wives as a friends happiness in a friends so is the relation between God and his Church if that be black God is eclipsed as to the most visible eradiations of his glory to this world if that be bright and conspicuous as a City on a hill in truth and holiness in charity and prosperity Gods great name praise and renown are most glorious and illustrious Then his Wisdom and Truth and Justice and Power and Mercy and Patience and Goodness and Faithfulness are in their meridian strength as the Sun at noon day If the Church be hidden it is as the moon turned into blood or the Sun of Righteousness into sackcloth as Joel speaks as Joshua astonished when Israel turned its back upon its enemies said to God And what wilt thou do O Lord to thy great Name So do holy men they are prone to despond and deplore Gods own condition and Cause when they see the Church of God or any part of it as to its veracity sanctity order peace prosperity and unity decline and decay under error prophaness persecution disorder distraction division or any uncomfortable condition Tunc periclitatur coelum Dei res agitur then Gods Cause is at stake then as in the Giants assault his heaven is in hazard as if he were in danger to be numen infelix a miserable God Then is Christ tossed in the storms then do true Beleevers cry out as the Disciples Lord save us we perish Help Lord and do it for thy own name sake which is called upon by us God hath no considerable design in the world but that of his Church when this is consummated the world as the scaffold or stage or shell or chaff is to be destroyed The Church cannot be undone until God is undone and bankrupt 5. Obser No Church hath ever been so famous and flourishing in outward piety plenty peace and prosperity but it may fall under persecution and great oppression sometimes indeed as God said to Satan in the case of Jobs trials without a cause that is as to any predominant and unrepented sin at present provoking God against him but only as Christ said of the man born blind That the work of Gods grace and Spirit might be manifest in the trials and tribulations of his Church So in the first ages of the Church when Religion was purest and love warmest yet was the fire and furnace of persecution hottest Sometimes indeed as a fruitful land is made barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein so the lukewarmness and corruptions of a Church the Apostasies and falling of Christians from their first Faith loyalty patience love and good works may cause God to hide his face to withdraw his protection to remove his candlestick as he threatens and to give over his Turtle to the will of its adversaries who shall set up their banners and roar in the Sanctuaries and break down all her carved works and
little matters which administer much strife and little edification in truth or love Christians may and must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep the truth in love Ephes 4. though they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in things indifferent the substance of Gods Cause should have more influence to unite hearts than the ceremonies to divide them 7. Yet the cause of God is Causa ordinata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very regular and orderly in all its motions full of harmony and beauty abhorring any ways that are preposterous desultory violent uncomely disorderly tumultuary confused It needs none of these devillish engines to carry on the Cause of him who is the God of order decency and peace not of division confusion and contention Extravagant and excentricâ— spirits easily lose the Cause of God while they follow it in a preposterous wrong way as men may easily miss the centre of the circle who lay their rule in the least degree awry from the diameter the passions of men and their popular po 〈…〉 es never work out the righteousness of Gods Cause but trouble foil blemish and blaspheme it Not fire and earthquakes and whirlwinds but the still voyce and calm spiriâ— do best bring forth and set up by meekness of wisdom the true Cause of God and Christ and the Church especially as to the concerns of Religion Nor may that cause of civil Justice which some pretend to be promoted by any unjust and illegal ways of tumult sedition and rebellion these mar all and instead of repairing or purging the Temple with Josiah Ezra Josedeck and the blessed Jesus they set both Church and State Temple and City on fire as did Nebuzaradan and his Master Nebuchadnezzar â— These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or genuine characters are the surest and safest tokens by which to discern Gods Cause both in its own merits or temper and in the minds of those that undertake to manage it Other novel popular and politick pretensions as to outward providences prosperities successes multitudes prevalencies of brutal and irregular power vulgar flatteries and factious adherencies or as to the respect of mens parts learning eloquence seeming zeal and cryed up devotion they are all spurious partial and fallacious 1. The Sun-shine of ordinary providence and success of prosperity and power may fall upon Causes that are evil and unjust no less then on the just and good Mahomet hath had great and long successions of successive power to assert his cause and multitudes do follow even that Beast as well as the Lamb or the Messiah Outward prosperity is the idol of fools who care not how little the Cause of God prosper and prevail in their souls if it thrive as to their purses and estates Successes are pursued by silly and easie people as gay Butterflies are by children Gods Cause is seldom seen in crouds or rabbles and throngs of people which Christ abhorred and avoided As its course is strict so its path is narrow 2. As for the decoys of personal gifts and endowments of zeal and seeming or real severities in some things King Saul had as his height so his heats above other Jews against the Gibeonites and Witches so Jehu had his zeal against the house of Ahab and Baal Paul once breathed threatnings against the way of Christ with equal ignorance imperiousness and confidence Novatus wanted not his zelotry and preciser passions nor Manes and Montanus their spiritual and seraphick pretensions with rigid fastings Origen and Tertullian had their excellent abilities which Vincentius Liri â—ensis calls Magnae tentationes magnorum ingeniorum their temptations to extravagancies they were like fair flowers and fruit which are too big for themselves and so crack or break nor did Donatus want his devotion nor Pelagius wit and learning nor Faustus Socinus of late his severity and strictness with his sophistry nor any Heretick or Schismatick ever failed to have some lure either of sensual liberty or special sanctity to take people withal So the Anabaptists in Germany as Sleiden and others tells us cryed most vehemently for Justice Mercy and Repentance other Enthusiasts had their rare visions and the very Ideot Quakers boast of their inward illuminations so the most puâ—id Friars and politick Monks had their forged miracles and forced celibacies set off with great austerities to cover over their fedities Satan hath many masks and vizards of an Angel of light yet he is never further off from Gods Cause then when he most sets men awork to cry it up and carry it on in ways that are no less unjust violent and extravagant then perhaps for a time successful as was the Arrian perfidy which seemed so zealous for the unity of the Deity that they sought to overthrow the sacred Trinity and the grand foundation of the Christian Faith honor and comfort the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word made flesh the Theanthropy and Philanthropy of God to mankind in the Incarnation of the Son of God Their disputes as St. Cyrill tells us were not more sophistical and perverse then specious and plausible insomuch that the pest infested in a few years the most part of the Christian world both in Court Cities and Countries which was as St. Jerom says amazed to see it self in a short time so be witched with the Arrian enchantments which set up a new Saviour and another Gospel then was primitively beleived in all Churches So the Novatians and Donatists or â—ntient Catharists which were the Christian Pharisees or Puritans pretended as Optatus and others tells us so to promote the Cause of the Churches purity that they destroyed its unity and charity And the Pelagians so stickled for the power and liberty of mans will that they derogated from Gods grace and glory as St. Augustine speaks 8. Causa crucisixi saepius crucisixa as Christ so his cause which is Gods is oft not onely circumcised but crucisied with him yea it may seem dead and buried too for a time to the judgement of sense we must not look for the true Church always cloathed with the sun but rather flying into the wilderness and covered with sackcloth The prosperities and crowns of Gods Cause are reserved for another world here the cross and thorns and buffettings and spittings and blood and spears and nails do not mis-become it but conform it to its head § T is certain the Cause of God was then purest as to faith and manners when it was like gold in the furnace and fiery trial under the first ten persecutions which lasted with some lucid intervals three hundred years In vain do those that seem high zealots for the Cause of God dream and speak big of houses and lands and liberties and victories and kingdoms and crowns and Judicatures and reigning with Christ after secular methods and policies of blood and fraud these are figs in this world The honor riches crowns and comforts of true
or Beadsmen Tenants at will and only by the courtesie of the grand Lord being less then the least of his mercys as Jacob humbly and ingenuously confessed It will be eternally inculcated upon wicked men with repeated torments not onely as to their injustice to God and man disciteâ—justitiam moniti netemnite divos but as to that which was said to the rich fool whose are all those good things now whose will they be when thy soul is taken from thee enjoying neither thy self nor any thing since thou enjoyest not God the chiefest good of all And that Son remember thou enjoyedst thy good things in thy life time not as Gods but as thine own and as thy chiefest goods which made them evil to thee both as to sinning then and to suffering now But I have done with the first particulars shewing you first that God hath his cause in this world and what this cause is in the particular instances of it The second General Quere I proposed was 1. How the cause of God comes to stand in need of his pleading 2. And why the Lord in his providence permits it to come to come to such lapses low ebbs and distresses 1. If we consider that cause of God which is on foot in all the world among all Nations according to what of God and his glory is made known to them by the works of his power wisdom bounty and providence also by those innate and self-demonstrating principles of right reason which remain in mens hearts as the measures of Justice rules of chastity sobriety veracity humanity and the impulses to some religion that is agnition and reverence of the Divine Majesty even this common cause of God in nature may stand in need of his special pleading by the great degeneration of people when they have generally corrupted their ways so that they are turned beasts monsters devils in pride lust oppression and cruelty in contempt of all true Religion in professed and practised Atheism and it s giantly consequences prostituting all things to debauchery and villany § Here the righteousness of God from heaven is usually so revealed by the way of great judgements upon such persons people and Nations by war and famine or plagues or inundations or fires or earthquakes that the remnant may learn to fear God and do no more so presumptuously So when the Old world had polluted it self in all sensual fedities and Cyclopick villanies God rinsed the earth with a flood and washed the whole race of mankind like dung from the face of the earth except eight persons one righteous Noah and his seven relations God makes even Heathens and Idolaters as he did the Athenians to acknowledge there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unknown God who is too hard for all their Idols too wise for their policies and too just to be either deceived or despised § Thus Gods cause was driven to a necessity of some judicial and extraordinary pleading against those proud and presumptuous builders of Babel who fancied to ascend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above the reach of a future flood forgetting that God had not only Seas and waters to bring upon them from the great deep but thunderbolts also and fire from above to cast upon them as he did upon Sodom and those other Cities who burning with unnatural lusts the effect of high feeding and idleness were made the fuel of everlasting flames So when the sins of the Canaanitish Nations were ripe and their measure full God brings in the sickle of the Israelites swords a Nation which of all in the world they would not have feared or suspected having lately been under hard bondage in Egypt and their spirits so infinitely cowed that being Six hundred thousand fighting men they durst not make head against their accustomed Masters the Egyptians yet by these did God plead against the abominations of these mighty Nations which cried to heaven for vengeance even to an utrer extirpation of men women and children beyond all pitty and sparing § So in humane histories we shall still finde such remarkable instances of Gods Justice making Nations punish one the other by dashing them against each other by bringing some desolating judgements upon them that mankind might still preserve some fear of the Divine Majesty § Thus he brings the Median and Persian power under Cyrus and Darius to hew down the great tree of the Babylonian pride and Monarchy when Balshazzars saoriledge grew so impudent as to use the holy vessels of Gods Temple as measures for his drunkenness and excess After this when the Persian Monarchy was dissolved to excessive luxury and tyranny under the last Darius God brings the Grecian sword by the conduct and valour of Alexander the Great to mow down those Eastern Nations by thousands and ten thousands yea by hundred thousands in a few years § When the Greoian Princes which set up for themselves in their seve ral shares of that Macedonian Empire in Persia in Egypt in the lesser Asia and in Greece when these were debased to all vile affections and actions against the principles of their own Philosophy and Divinity to which they pretended Then did the Lord stir up the fourth Beast the Roman Empire with Iron Feet and Teeth to tear devour and trample all the others power and glory their riches and dominions As all private judgements are Gods pleading against single persons so Epidemick miseries do proclaim some publique indignities and extraordinary injuries offered to the Divine Majesty contrary to those principles of reason justice and Religion which were known among them their very light being turned into darkness and the bounty of God to all manner of wickedness when his blessings to them had in vain been witness of his goodness to them he comes as a swift witness in storms and tempests of desolation against them which none could withstand or escape as is to this day oft seen even among Mahometans Tarters Chineses and Indians Secondly Since the Church of God is more peculiarly and eminently his Cause under his special care and cognisance the chief Quaere is how this comes to need Gods own immediate pleading 1. By open enemies persecuting opposing and many times utterly oppressing the Church of God as Vultures or Eagles seising on Pigeons or as Lions Bears and Wolves on Lambs and Sheep So when the Church of God grew from a family to the Nation of the Jews and were owned by God as his peculiar people and concern above all the world all the world was generally against them and sought not onely to despise but destroy them as gentem exitiabilem a vile and execrable Nation as Tacitus terms them So Pharoah first and the Egyptians held them under hard bondage till they were weary of life as well as of their burthens there was none to plead their cause but God who did it at last to purpose with
mens part in pleading Gods cause in this world therefore to make amends there is a third Court wherin God will unavoidably plead his cause against every evil doer and all nakedness in the world this will be in foro poli or coeli at the last day when the books of Omniscience conscience and Scripture shall be opened and mens sins with their wilful immoral and impenitent errors shall be set in order before them Then the great Accuser within and without shall be heard and sentence given secundum allegata probata according to the merit and evidence of mens works This is the last appeal of the oppressed righteous cause where it shall be heard and have right done it For then as St. Bernard tells Judges and Juries and Lawyers Omnia judicata rejudicabuntur All judgements and causes shall be reviewed and rejudged § But the consideration of such Instruments as God is pleased to 〈◊〉 up to plead his cause in this world Leads me to the last particular which is to shew the manner and method legitimi litigandi of mans pleading as becomes him this holy cause of God when he is called to it in an ordinary which all are or extraordinary way as some may be § It is not only the work of God to plead his own cause as Joash said of Baal If he be a God he can and will plead for himself But it is the duty of every good Christian that loves God to be a worker and pleader together with him in Gods cause and way we must be all willing to be retained on Gods side to be his Advocates and Attorneys when he calls us to this work to contest for God against an evil perverse and adulterous generation either by living or dying by doing or suffering by preaching or disputing by discoursing or writing It will be demanded why I add not by fighting which is now much cryed up and used by some as a most speedy and effectual way to plead Gods Cause and set up Christ◠Kingdom I answer The cause of God is sometimes to be pleaded by the way of fighting 1. In defence of any Church and State against unjust and foreign invasion or intestine rebellion and sedition 2. By way of a Princes relieving his oppressed Subjects and Confederates in other States and Dominions 3. By way of asserting the proceedings of Justice as to Law according to that power which is established in any Kingdom or Polity 4. As to the Cause of Religion it is no further to be asserted by the Sword then as it is established by the Law and under the protection of the Soveraign Power there to plead its cause by such a Sword as is the sword of God and of Gideon is lawful when it is done by lawful command and Supreme which is in England Regal Authority Otherwise no Cause of God as to Religion is to be either planted and propagated or reformed or vindicated by the sword of Subjects against any Princes or chief Magistrates will and power in whose hand the sword is True God by a special Prophet and a commission from Heaven confirmed by many miracles did once put a sword into the Jews hand to make their way against those Nations which were declared by Divine Justice worthy to be destroyed But the Evangelical spirit is not of that temper the Commission of the Gospel and Christs Spiritual Militia by which he conquers the World is not to fight and kill and slay but to preach to pray and to suffer They grosly mistake Christs Kingdom and Gods Cause now that fancy it is to be pleaded by the Arm of Flesh by popular furies and forces by tumults and violences by subverting and opposing Magistratick power and breaking over the boundaries of good Laws and Customs Civil and Ecclesiastical § Christ commanded Peters gladiatorum forwardness in his defence to put up his sword into his sheath Christ had two other swords of the Word and Spirit which were enough to do his work not by Souldiers but Ministers not by Colonels and Captains but hy Bishops and Presbyters There are other ways to exercise a Christians love zeal and courage for Gods cause which as it is most worthy of our pleading so we must take care to plead it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becomes our Lord and Saviour It is a caution which Quintilian a great Orator gave to all Pleaders Cavendum ne bonam causam male litigando perdamus Many men are untowardly forward to plead Christs cause like hot mettal'd and heady horses neither well mouthed nor well wayed and managed They endanger more by their rashness then they advance by their capring activity The Cause then of God must in times places and points be pleaded so as becomes the Majestie Truth and Honor of the great God 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisely with understanding by the clear and potent demonstrations of it grounded on the Word of God not by humane fancies wilde notions and extravagant presumptions and fanatick fetches The Word of God is able to make us perfect pleaders of his Cause We must not adde to nor detract from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compleat armour offensive and defensive If any plead not according to that rule of Law and Gospel of Faith and Loyalty of patience and obedience it is because there is no light of truth or grace of humility in them Gods Cause needs no cavilings nor sophisms no wisdom or eloquence of mans invention which is to joyn humane fraud and force meer froth and folly to divine sufficiency As if one would muster up Frogs and Mice with their bulrushes to joyn with Angels in Gods battels to help the Lord against the mighty 2. Gods cause is to be pleaded by man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerely for Gods sake not for self-ends and interests for our glory gain or advantage as to our persons or parties our secular and civil interests of power and preferment which are many times the dead Flie cast into this precious Oyntment as Jehu did whose ambition was the belows and blazoner of his zeal So they that preached the Gospel out of Envy and ill will or for filthy lucres sake to serve their bellies and not the Lord Jesus to please men and not God seeking not the salvation of souls or the good of the Church and State but their own emoluments and preferments These are in all ages the greatest deformers of Christian Religion exposing it first to popular fury and after to the shame and contempt of all 3. Gods cause must be pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Integre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solidly and entirely not picking and chusing what parts or points or duties of it most suit with our fancies opinions parties designs desires and private interests We must not so plead for the first table in piety as to