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cause_n	call_v	father_n	son_n	3,252	5	5.6495	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60942	Interest deposed, and truth restored, or, A word in season, delivered in two sermons the first at St. Maryes in Oxford, on the 24th of July, 1659, being the time of the assizes : as also of the fears and groans of the nation in the threatned, and expected ruin of the lawes, ministry, and universityes : the other preached lately before the honourable Societie of Lincolns-Inn / by Robert South ...	South, Robert, 1634-1716.; South, Robert, 1634-1716. Ecclesiasticall policy the best policy.	1660 (1660)	Wing S4733; ESTC R4025	42,795	62

difference The onely Exposition that J shall give of them will be to compare them to other Parallel Scriptures and peculiarly that in the 8 Mark 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels These words are a Comment upon my Text. 1. What is here in the Text called a denying of Christ is there termed a being ashamed of him that is in those words the Cause is expressed and here the Effect for therefore we deny a thing because we are shamed of it First Peter is ashamed of Christ then he denyes him 2. What is here termed a denying of Christ is there called a being ashamed of Christ and his Words Christs truths are his second Self And he that offers contempt to a Kings letters or edicts virtually affronts the King it strikes his words but it rebounds upon his Person 3. What is here said before men is there phrased in this adulterous and sinfull generation These words import the hindrances of the duty enioyned which therefore is here purposely enforced with a non obstante to all opposition The Terme Adulterous I conceive may cheifly relate to the Jewes who being nationally espoused to God by Covenant every sinne of theirs was in a peculiar manner spirituall Adultery 4. What is here said I will deny him before my Father is there expressed I will be ashamed of him before my Father and his holy Angels that is when he shall come to Judgment when Revenging Justice shall come in pomp attended with the glorious Retinue of all the Host of Heaven In short the sentence pronounced declares the Judgment the solemnity of it the Terror From the words we may deduce these Observations 1. We shall find strong motives and temptations from men to draw us to a deniall of Christ. 2. No Terrors or Solicitations from men though never so great can Warrant or Excuse such a deniall 3. To deny Christs Words is to deny Christ. But since these Observ●tions are rather implyed then expressed in the words I shall wave them and instead of deducing a Doctrine distinct from the words prosecute the words them selves under this Doctrinall Paraphrase Whosoever shall deny dis-owne or be ashamed of either the Person or truths of Iesus Christ for any fear or favour of man shall with shame be disowned and Eternally rejected by him at the dreadfull judgment of the great day The discussion of this shall lye in these things 1. To shew how many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed and what is the deniall here cheifly intended 2. To shew what are the causes that induce men to a deniall of Christ and his truths 3. To shew how farre a man may consult his safety in time of persecution without denying Christ. 4. To shew what is imported in Christs denying us before his Father in Heaven 5. To apply all to the present Occasion But before I enter upon these I must breifly premise this that though the Text and the Doctrine run peremptory and absolute Whosoever denyes Christ shall assuredly be denyed by him yet still there is a tacit condition in the words supposed unless repentance intervene For this and many other Scriptures though as to their formall termes they are Absolute yet as to their sence they are Conditionall God in mercy has so framed and temper'd his word that we have for the most part a Reserve of mercy wrap'd up in a Curse And the very first judgment that was pronounced upon fallen man it was with the allay of a promise Wheresoever we find a Curse to the Guilty Expressed in the same words mercy to the Penitent is still Understood This premised I come now to discusse the first thing viz. How many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed c. Here first in generall I assert that we may deny him in all those acts that are capable of being morally good or evill those are the proper Scene in which we act our Confessions or denialls of him Accordingly therefore all wayes of denying Christ I shall comprise under these three 1. We may deny him and his truths by an Erroneous Hereticall judgment I know it is doubted whether a bare Error in judgment can condemne but since truths absolutely necessary to Salvation are so clearly revealed that we cannot erre in them unless we be notoriously wanting to our selves herein the fault of the judgment is resolved into a precedent default in the will and so the case is put out of doubt But here it may be replyed are not truths of absolute and fundamentall necessity very disputable as the Deity of Christ the Trinity of Persons if they are not in themselves disputable why are they so much disputed Indeed I believe if we trace these disputes to their originall cause we shall find that they never sprung from a reluctancy in Reason to embrace them For this reason it self dictates as most rationall to assent to any thing though seemingly contrary to Reason if it is revealed by God and we are certaine of the Revelation These two supposed these disputes must needs arise only from curiosity and singularity and these are the faults of a diseased will But some will further demand in behalf of these men whether such as assent to every word in Scripture for so will those that deny the naturall deity of Christ and the Spirit can be yet said in Doctrinalls to deny Christ To this I answere since words abstracted from their proper sense signification loose the nature of words are only equivocally so called inasmuch as the persons we speak of take them thus derive the Letter from Christ but the signification from themselves they cannot be said properly to assent so much as to the words of the Scripture And so their case also is clear But yet more fully to state the matter how farre a deniall of Christ in beleife and judgment is damnable We will propose the question Whether those that hold the fundamentalls of faith may deny Christ damnably in respect of those superstructures and consequences that arise from them I answer in breif by fundamentall truths are understood 1. Either such without the beleif of which we cannot be saved or 2. such the beleif of which is sufficient to save If the question be proposed of fundamentalls in this latter sence it containes its own answer for he that beleives those truths the beleif of which is sufficient to save the disbeleif or deniall of their consequences cannot damne But what and how many these fundamentalls are it will then be agreed upon when all Sects Opinions and Perswasions doe unite and consent 2ly If we speake of fundamentalls in the former sence as they are only truths without which we cannot be saved it is manifest that we may believe them and yet be damned for denying their consequences

procure respect by their Learning and laborious Vpright life other advantages belong not to them But to answer this besides that late Experience proves that the most Pious and the most Learned have been the most persecuted and contemned it is irrationall to think that men ever yet made their Duty the measure of their Practice And howsoever all ought yet there are but very few who reverence Ministers for those Qualifications but still those that do not must be governed or the Church ruined therefore the Assistance of Secular supports must be taken in Most therefore will confess Church Government Necessary though they deny that Necessity to any determinate kind But since Church Government in Generall sequestred from its severall kinds is a meer Idea I am apt to think that the Determination of it was commanded together with the thing it self And since only Particular not Vniversal Natures fall under Practice in as much as the Apostles did actually Govern the Church it must needs be that it was by a certain determinate kind of Government And then considering the Infallible Apostolick Spirit by which they were acted I conceive their Practice and Example was a Virtual Command especially when the reason and grounds of it continue still the same What that Practice was though there are many not obscure Traces of it in Scripture yet I desire to gather it from the general Practise of the Church successively continued from their times the most rationall Guide where the Scripture is silent and the best Comment where it is Obscure And upon this Rule and Ground I hold it more reasonable to Erre than upon Fanatick Principles to Stumble upon the Truth Having thus shown my intent in these Sermons and also the Rule to the guidance of which I intend to resign my self in whatsoever God shall hereafter call me either to Speak or Act as a Minister I shall venture these Meditations into the World What reception they may find I am ignorant but not sollicitous But sure of all persons Ministers Scholars and especially those of the Vniversities have little cause to censure or reprehend me who have freely ventured the Whole of my Small Advantages from them in asserting them in a day of the blackest danger and rebuke that I trust will ever befall the Church However I value not the taunts the murmurs of any I have learned by bearing to contemn them Frequent Endurance has bred an Apathy But whatsoever men shall Mutter Rail or Declaim against these Writings either out of a dislike of the Subject here Treated of or a personal hatred of my self yet in this I rest satisfied and assured that the Truth here spoken of will stand whatsoever becomes of Him that spoke it Math. 10.33 But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven AS the great comprehensive Gospel duty is the denyal of Self so the grand Gospel sin that confronts it is the denyal of Christ. These two are both the Commanding and the Dividing Principles of all our Actions For whosoever acts in opposition to one it is alwaies in behalf of the other None ever opposed Christ but it was to gratifie Self None ever renounced the Interest of Self but from a prevailing love to the Interest of Christ. The subject I have here pitched upon may seem improper in these times and in this place where the number of Professors and of men is the same where the Cause and Interest of Christ has been so cryed up and Christs Personall Reign and Kingdome so called for and expected But since it has been still Preached up but Acted down and dealt with as the Eagle in the Fable did with the Oyster carrying it up on high that by letting it fall he might dash it in peices I say since Christ must Reign but his Truths be made to serve I suppose it is but Reason to distinguish between Profession and Pretence and to conclude that mens present crying Haile King and bending the knee to Christ are onely in order to his future Crucifixion For the discovery of the sence of the Words I shall enquire into their occasion From the very beginning of the Chapter wee have Christ consulting the Propagation of the Gospel and in order to it being the onely way that he knew to effect it sending forth a Ministery and giving them a Commission together with Instructions for the Execution of it He would have them fully acquainted with the Nature and Extent of their Office and so he joynes Commission with Instruction by one he conveighs Power by the other Knowledge Supposing I conceive that upon such an Undertaking the more Learned his Ministers were they would prove never the less faithfull And thus having fitted them and stript them of all manner of defence v. 9. He sends them forth amongst Wolves A hard Expedition you will say to go amongst Wolves but yet much harder to convert them into Sheep and no less hard even to discerne some of them possibly being under Sheeps cloathing and so by the advantage of that dress sooner felt than discovered and probably also such as had both the properties of Wolves that is they could whine and howle as well as bite and devoure But that they might not goe altogether naked amongst their Enemies the onely Armour that Christ allows them it is Prudence and Innocence Be ye wise as Serpents but harmlesse as Doves v. 16. Weapons not at all offensive yet most suitable to their Warfare whose greatest Encounters were to be Exhortations and whose only Conquest Escape Innocence it is the best caution and we may unite the expression to be wise as a Serpent is to be harmless as a Dove Innocence it is like polish'd Armour it adorns and it defends In summe he tells them that the opposition they should meet with was the greatest imaginable from the 16. to the 26. v. but in the ensuing verses he promises them an equall proportion of assistance which if it was not Argument of force enough to out-weigh the fore-mentioned discouragements he casts into the Balance the promise of a Reward to such as should Execute and of Punishment to such as should Neglect their Commission The Reward in the former verse Whosoever shall confesse me before men c. the punishment in this But whosoever shall deny c. As if by way of preoccupation he should have said Well here you see your Commission this is your Duty these are your Discouragements never seek for shifts and evasions from worldly afflictions this is your Reward if you perform it this is your Doome if you decline it As for the Explication of the words they are clear and easie and their Originals in the Greek are of single signification without any ambiguity and therefore I shall not trouble you by proposing how they run in this or in that Edition or straining for an interpretation where there is no difficultie or a distinction where there is no

perill A Coward does not allwayes scape with disgrace but sometimes also he loses his life wherefore let all such know as can enlarge their consciences like Hell and call any sinfull compliance submission and style a Cowardly silence in Christs cause discretion and prudence I say let them know that Christ will one day scorn them and spit them with their policy and prudence into Hell and then let them consult how politick they were for a temporall Emolument to throw away Eternity All that causes men to deny Christ it is either the Enjoyments or the miseries of this life but alass at the day of Judgment all these will be expired and as One well Observes what are we the better for pleasure or the worse for sorrow when it is past but then sinne and guilt will be still fresh and Heaven and Hell will be then yet to Begin If ever it was seasonable to preach Courage in the despised abused cause of Christ it is now when his truths are Reformed into nothing when the hands and hearts of his faithfull Ministers are weakned even broke and his Worship extirpated in a mockery that his honour may be advanced Well to establish our hearts in duty let us before hand propose to our selves the worst that can happen Should God in his judgment suffer England to be transformed into a Munster Should the faithfull be every where Massacred Should the places of Learning be demolished and our Colledges reduced not only as One in his Zeal would have it to Three but to none Yet assuredly Hell is worse then all this and this is the Portion of such as deny Christ wherefore let our discouragements be what they will losse of Places losse of Estates loss of Life and Relations yet still this sentence stands ratified in Decretals of Heaven Cursed be that man that for any of these shall desert the truth and deny his Lord. ECCLESIASTICALL POLICY THE BEST POLICY OR RELIGION The best Reason of STATE In a SERMON delivered before the Honourable Society of LINCOLNES INN BY RO. SOVTH OXFORD Printed by A. L. for Tho. Robinson 1660. 1 King 13. ch 33 34. v. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evill way but made again of the lowest of the people Priests of the High places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests of the High places And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the Earth IEroboam from the name of a person become the character of impiety is reported to Posterity as eminent or rather notorious for two things Usurpation of Government and Innovation of Religion 'T is confessed the former is expresly said to have been from God but since God may Order and Dispose what he does not Approve and Use the wickedness of men while he forbids it the design of the First cause does not excuse the malignity of the second And therefore the Advancement and Scepter of Ieroboam was in that Sense onely the work of God in which it is said 3 Amos 6. that there is no evill in the City which the Lord has not done But from his attempts upon the Civill Power he proceeds to Innovate Gods Worship and from the subjection of mens Bodies and Estates to enslave their Consciences as knowing that true Religion is no freind to an unjust Title Such was afterwards the way of Mahomet to the Tyrant to joyne the Impostor and what he had got by the Sword to confirm by the Alcoran raising his Empire upon two Pillars Conquest and Inspiration Ieroboam being thus advanced and thinking Policy the best Piety though indeed in nothing ever more befooled the nature of sin being not onely to defile but to infatuate In the II. chap. and the 27. v. he thus argues If this people goe up to doe Sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people turne again unto their Lord even unto Rehoboam King of Iudah and they shall kill me and goe again unto Rehoboam King of Iudah As if hee should have said The true Worship of God and the converse of those that use it dispose men to a considerate lawfull subjection And therefore I must take another course my Practise must not be better than my Title what was won by Force must be continued by Delusion Thus sin is usually seconded with sin and a man seldome commits one sinne to please but he commits another to defend himself As 't is frequent for the Adulterer to commit Murder to conceal the shame of his Adultery But let us see Ieroboams politick procedure in the next ver Whereupon the King took counsel and made two Calves of Gold and said unto them it is too much for you to goe up to Ierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel As if he had made such an Edict I Ieroboam by the advice of my Council considering the great distance of the Temple and the great charges that poor people are put to in going thither as also the intollerable burden of paying the first fruit and tythes to the Priest have considered of a way that may be more easie and lesse burthensome to the people as also more comfortable to the Priests themselves and therefore strictly enjoyne that none henceforth presume to repaire to the Temple at Ierusalem especially since God is not tyed to any place or form of Worship as also because the Devotion of men is apt to be clogged by such Ceremonies therefore both for the ease of the people as also for the advancement of Religion we require and command that all henceforth forth forbear going up to Ierusalem Questionless these and such other Reasons the Impostor used to insinuate his devout Idolatry And thus the Calves were set up to which Oxen must be sacrificed the God and the Sacrifice out of the same Herd And because Israel was not to returne to Egypt Egypt was brought back to them that is the Egyptian way of Worship the Apis or Serapis which was nothing but the Image of a Calfe or Oxe as is clear from most Historians Thus Ieroboam having procured his people gods the next thing was to provide Priests Hereupon to the Calves he addes a Commission for the approving trying and admitting the Rascality and lowest of the people to minister in that service such as kept Cattel with a little change of their Office were admitted to make Oblations to them And doubtless besides the approbation of these there was a Commission also to eject such of the Priests and Levites of God as being too Ceremoniously addicted to the Temple would not serve Ieroboam before God nor worship his Calves for their Gold nor approve those two glittering sins for any reason of State whatsoever Having now perfected Divine Worship and prepared both Gods and Priests In the next place that he might the better teach his false Priests the way of

But was he not also succesfull as well as wise True but still he was poor And once grant this and you cannot keep off that un●voydable sequel in the next verse The poor mans wisdome is despised and his wo●d● are not heard Wee may believe it upon Solomons word who was Rich as well as Wise and therefore knew the force of both and probably had it not been for his Riches the Queen of Sheba would never have came so farre onely to have heard his Wisdome Observe her behaviour when she came Though upon the hearing of Solomons Wisdome and the resolution of her hard Questions she expressed a just admiration yet when Solomon afterward shew her his Palace his Treasures and the Temple which hee had built 1 King 10. c. 5. v. it is said there was no more spirit in her What was the cause of this certainly the magnificence the pomp and splendour of such a Structure it struck her into an Extasy beyond his wise Answers She esteemed this as much above his Wisdome as Astonishment is beyond bare Admiration She admired his Wisdom but she adored his Magnificence So apt is the mind even of Wise persons to be surprised with the superficies or circumstance of things and value or undervalue Spirituals according to the manner of their Externall Appearance When Circumstances faile the substance seldome long survives Cloathes are no part of the Body yet take away cloathes and the Body will dye Livy observes of Romulus that being to give Laws to his new Romans he found no better way to procure an esteem and reverence to them but by first procuring it to himselfe by splendour of Habit and Retinue and other signes of Royalty And the wise Numa his successor took the same course to enforce his Religious Laws namely by giving the same Pomp to the Priest who was to dispense them Sacerdo●em creavit insignique eum Veste Curuli Regiâ sollâ adornavit That is he adorned him with a rich Robe and a royall Chair of State And in our Judicatures take away the Trumpet the Scarlet the Attendance and the Lordship which would be to make Justice Naked as well as Blind the Law would lose much of its Terror and consequently of its Authority Let the Minister be abject and low his interest inconsiderable the Word will suffer for his sake The Message will still find reception according to the Dignity of the Messenger Imagine an Ambassadour presenting himselfe in a poor freeze Jerkin and tattered cloathes certainly he would have but small Audience his Embasy would speed rather according to the Meaness of him that brought than the Majesty of him that sent it It will fare alike with the Ambassadours of Christ the People will give them Audience according to their Presence A notable example of which we have in the Behaviour of some to Paul himselfe 1 Cor. 10. c. 10. v. Hence in the Jewish Church it was cautiously provided in the Law that none that was blind or lame or had any remarkable defect in his body was capable of the Priestly Office because these things naturally make a person contemned and this presently reflects upon the Function This therefore is the first way by which the low despised condition of the Ministers tends to the destruction of the Ministery and Religion namely because it subjects their persons to scorn and consequently their Calling and it is not imaginable that men will be brought to Obey what they cannot Esteem 2. The second way by which it tends to the ruine of the Ministery is because it discourages men of fit and raised Abilities from undertaking it And certaine it is that as the Calling dignifies the man so the man much more advances his Calling As a Garment though it warmes the Body it has a returne with an advantage being much more warmed by it And how often a good cause may miscarry without a wise mannager and the Faith for want of a Defender is or at least may be known 'T is not the Truth of an Assertion but the Skill of the Disputant that keeps off a baffle not the Justnesse of a Cause but the Valour of the Souldiers that must winne the Field When a Learned Paul was converted and undertook the Ministery it stopp'd the mouthes of those that said None but poor weak Fisher-men Preached Christianity and so his Learning silenced the scandall as well as strengthned the Church Religion placed in a soule of exquisite Knowledge and Abilities as in a Castle it finds not only Habitation but Defence And what a Learned Forrein Divine said of the English preaching may be said of all Plus est in Artifice quàm in Arte. So much of moment is there in the Professors of any thing to depresse or raise the Profession What is it that kept the Church of Rome strong athletick flourishing for so many Centuries but the happy succession of the choicest Wits engaged to her service by suitable preferments And what strength doe we think would that give to the True Religion that is able thus to establish a False Religion in a great measure stands or falls according to the abilities of those that assert it And if as some observe mens Desires are usually as large as their Abilities what course have we took to allure the sormer that we might engage the latter to our assistance But we have tooke all wayes to affright and discourage Schollars from looking towards this sacred calling For will men lay out their Wit and Judgment upon that employment for the undertaking of which both will be questioned Would men not long since have spent toylsome dayes and watchfull nights in the laborious quest of knowledge preparative to this work at length to come and dance attendance for approbation from a Iuncto of Petty Tyrants acted by Party and Prejudice who denyed Fitness from Learning and Grace from Morality Will a man exhaust his livelyhood upon Bookes and his Health the best part of his life upon Study to be at length thrust into a poor Village where he shall have his due precariously and entreat for his own and when he has it live poorly contemptibly upon it while the same or lesse labour bestowed upon any other calling would bring not only Comfort but Splendor not only Maintenance but Abundance 'T is I confess the duty of Ministers to endure this condition but neither Religion nor Reason does oblige either them to approve or others to Choose it Doubtlesse Parents will not throw away the towardness of a child and the expence of Education upon a Profession whose labour is encreased and whose rewards vanished To condemne promising lively parts to contempt and penury in a despised calling What is it elss but the casting of a Moses into the mud or to offer a Son upon the Altar and instead of a Preist to make him a Sacrifice Neither let any here reply that it becomes not a Ministeriall spirit to undertake such a calling for reward