indeed they saw a glimpse of it but straight a Cloud did overshadow it verse 34. But at his Passion he bids them Watch with him Matth xxviii 38. and when he findeth them asleep he says What could ye not watch with me one hour ver 40. and bids them watch again ver 41. and comes again a third time and upbraids their drowsiness ver 45. So much more necessary was it to behold his Agonies than to see his Felicities Glory does not discover or invite to Heaven so much as Sufferings drive to it and we are more concerned to take a view of that Garden in Gethsemane than that of Paradise and the going down from the Mount of Olives does more advantage us in climbing the Eternal hill than all Mount Tabors height Nor do Afflictions only drive us toward Heaven but they beget an hope of it Knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience Patience Experience and Experience Hope Rom. v. 3. 4. And I will give them the Valley of Achor for a door of Hope Hos. ii 14. As if Despair opprest them into Hope and that low troublous Valley opened into the highest Firmament Now he that rides at Anchor of this Hope though his Anchor lie buried under Waves yet those rouling Hills of Sea swell'd by storms of Affliction and raised too by his Tears do without Hyperbole mount him to Heaven He that hath entertained these Expectations in earnest how will he slight Temptations here below What will he not sacrifice to Christs Command See Abraham that did but hope for Canaan and that far off too to be possest by the Posterity of his Son Isaac yet when God commands him to slay Isaac before he had any posterity and so to dash all his own Promises and quite cut off the very motive to Abrahams Obedience yet he hopes and obeys even to contradiction Does both against hope And had we but the shadow of his hope as he had but the shadow of our Promises how would we sacrifice a sin at his Command and think a Fleshly lust a good exchange for the hope of Heaven which Tribulation worketh and he that had suffered in the Flesh would certainly cease from sin And now my last work is to view our own Concern in this and surely that must be all Exultation and Triumph and this not so much that our sufferings are ceast as that our sins are so not that our Enemies are sunk but that our flesh is vanquisht that sub hoc signo vinces is thus also come to pass with the Standard of the Cross that Cross on which our selves were Crucified we have overcome and with this Christian Banner we have put to flight the Armies of our Heathen Vices For thus it must be if my Text be true and sure it is not possible it should be otherwise For look upon the Muster-roll of these our Foes which S. Paul does produce Gal. v. v. 19 20 21. and see which of them could escape it runs thus Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murder Drunkenness Revellings To begin with the great Commanders those that lead the Van and bring up the Rear Vncleanness and Revellings They that consider how they not only suffered for but by these Vices which did misplace mens watches and attendances sins that were not only like Achans in our Army and ruin'd it by bringing the accursed thing into it but were like Hannibal's Numidians in the Roman Army that did at once betray to and inflict Ruin sins that did merit and effect Destruction and made as well as provok'd overthrows and sins that by Gods goodness did cut off themselves while they did bring men into a condition that would not bear such Vices These are the guilts of Wealth and Splendor that do attend Felicity and Pomp it is not only hopeful that men did resolve to be reveng'd on these great workers of their mischief and will no more reset such Traitors in their bosoms But sure these sins are ceast that did put out themselves Then for Seditions They who consider when they broke the Scepter they left us nothing but the Rod of God instead of it a Rod that turned straight into a Serpent that changed our Seas into Blood or rather made new Seas of our own blood that brought Locusts over the Earth and Frogs into the Temple also to croak there that struck Lights here worse than Egyptian Darkness and destroyed all the first born of the Nation all the Nobles of the Land these will easily believe that we have selt this Rod too much to seize upon it hastily again the Scepter is restored and this Rod like to that in Israel laid up I hope within the Ark together with the Tables of the Law never to be dis joyn'd from Gods Commands nor taken thence against them Next for Heresies Truly we have left us none to revive or to make new the mischief both of them and their Cause the want of Government in the Church is now discerned and remedied And for Divisions and Schisms they who reflect on the said issues of them how well meaning soever all their Causes were will certainly avoid them To see how while we quarelled for the Fringes of Religion we tore the seamless Coat of Christ to pieces yea and the body too How when we first dislik'd a Liturgy the daily Sacrifice of Prayer was made to cease and then the House of Prayer was demolisht next Christs our Lords Prayer was rejected that Liturgy of his own framing thrown away in the Rubbish of his Temple and then it was a sin to pray at all His Table we must have remov'd and then his Supper was so too and that great Mystery of our Religion the Sacrament of our Redemption was buried in the Ruins of his Altar To see how thus out of heats of Religion we destroyed all Religion because that some adjacent Circumstances did not please us and fetcht a Coal from the Altar to set fire to and burn down the Temple because the building of some out-Court was we thought irregular is Document enough not to attempt this any more for Religions sake For now it would be in despite of Christ who hath almost verified the Jewish accusation of him Destroy this Temple also and in three days he will build it up again and hath built it up we hope as he did that of his own Body never to fall again by us Surely we will not kill this Body of his out of Love to him and make his Temple his burnt Offering When God hath set our sins in order thus before our eyes shewed them us in their sad effects there is no fear that we should fall in love with them But where it is not thus where Gods last and most working Method hath been able to produce no good I must to keep my word Apply the Danger In that case what remains but the Curse of the ground Heb. vi
Scripture and I know that learned men have arts by obscure places to confound the plainest just as the Philosopher did motion Neither am I so perverse and singular not to think that universal practise and profession of the Church does much assure and confirm explications of Scriptures whether obscure or plain But this I say that the diversities of explication come as I now said from the diversity of principles or rather prejudices and that this only is the cause of it I thus demonstrate First in the Socinian who interprets all those Scriptures which the Catholic world hath still apply'd to the Divinity and satisfaction of Christ that I name no more points otherwise then the Church did alway and I affirm he does it not because he thinks the words do favor his interpretation but because his principle requires it namely this To admit nothing into his faith but what agrees with that which he counts reason which in a Socinians faith is judg of all points in the last resort And I mean reason upon natural principles and thus I prove it Socinus speaking of Christ's satisfaction says the word is not in Scripture yet if it were there very often I would not believe it because it does not consist with right reason that is with the arguments that he had brought against it drawn from human principles And therefore he there adds those things which 't is apparent cannot be i. e. that appear such to him who judges by the principles of natural reason which yet cannot judg of supernatural and infinite beings tho the Holy Scripture does expresly say they are yet must not be admitted idcirco sacra verba in alium sensum quam ipsa sonant per inusitatos etiam tropos quandoque explicantur and for this reason we make use of even unusual tropes strain'd figures to explain the words of Holy writ to other senses then the words themselves import And so he therefore serves that great variety of words by which the Scripture does express Christs suffering for our sins in our stead as our sacrifice against the universal notions of those words not only which the Church of Christ but which the Jews and which the heathen world had of them And when his reason told him that Christ could not be God one with his Father that he was so far from having any being from eternity as that he was not at all till he had a being from the Blessed Virgin Therefore when the Scripture saies directly I and the Father are one he must strain it to this meaning are of one mind we agree in one altho St John avert that by distinguishing those two expressly Yea worse when to prove that Christ had a being e're the world was made we urge from the first Chap. to the Hebr. what St Paul produces from the Psalms and does apply to him most particularly Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the Heavens are the works of thine hands they shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as does a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail They explain it thus that God by Christ will at last destroy these Heavens and this Earth and change them according to that saying in the Psalms which altho the Apostle produce at length as it stood there both concerning the Creation and destruction of the world yet he intended only to apply this last to Christ. And tho he say as well of the same Lord Thou Lord in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands as thou shalt change them yet he meant no more but that this change God would effect by Christ. It is not possible that the text can give any the least countenance to this interpretation The different explication of this Scripture does not come from the obscurity of any words in it for in the Psalm they and we understand the same words in the same sense exactly therefore that we differ here is not from any thing in the words quoted but is wholly from the Principle And we may not wonder for the plain sense will not sute with their Hypothesis There are no other that are instanc'd in as differing from us in points of faith but the Romanist I know not whether they account those differences to be in things necessary to salvation If that be true that they allow for what cause they know best some that are reconcil'd to their Church to communicate with ours that is join in our worship and by doing so own the profession of our faith in distinction to that of others or at least espouse the scandal of the owning it Then one would think they must account that there is nothing in our worship don that is unlawful nor omitted that is necessary nor any thing Heretical profest at least that there 's no scandal in the owning that profession For if there were they did allow them only to profess and act gross sin which certainly they would not do So that poor Protestants when they are pleas'd to give leave may be no Heretics and therefore there is nothing of it self in that profession faulty But yet on the other side since we see they call us Heretics and when they have no power over us damn us to Hell fires and when they have had power damn'd us to the fire and fagot also sure they think the differences to be in things necessary But yet the account is easy how not the obscurity of Scripture but a Principle or prejudice does cause this For we are bound in conscience to grant they believe their own Principles Now 't is a Principle with them that their Church cannot erre and therefore that their present faith and consequent depending practice was their faith and practice alwaies That it may appear so they must seek for countenance from Scripture and if any thing there seem to thwart their faith or practice they must smooth and disguise it that it may look friendly And 't is most certain if the Scripture should be never so express against them whilst they think it is not possible that they can err they cannot think it possible Scripture can mean what it pretends to speak 'T were easy to make instances As first for invocation of the Saints departed which with them is a point of faith Bellar. and Cochleus produce that of the Psalms I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help Psalm 121. 1. and altho the text directs that looking up expressly to the Lord that made heaven and earth v. 2. and tho it be a Principle with them that on those everlasting hills there were no Saints in Davids time that could be invocated they were all in limbo then they say yet as I said they would have
the relicks onely of Christ's Church but also all the memory of the other cruelties when in one small Province in a month he put to death one hundred and fourty four thousand Christians banish'd seven hundred thousand more and proportionably so in other places thro the Roman world with such success that he took confidence to write on his triumphal Arches Deleto nomine Christiano as he had blotted out the very name of Christians then at the last gasp of his Church it pleas'd the Lord to raise up Constantine and strait the whole face of the world was Christian and Dioclesian himself liv'd to see it I might have instanced in our own so fresh deliverance but that it would not look like an incouragement it may be to rely and cast our selves again upon him if so soon we call upon our selves the same needs by the same wretchless methods and there are some they say that apprehend so And God knows the ruin of the Reformation and our Church hath from its first beginning bin still working by her restless indefatigable Enimies and hath often bin preserv'd onely on the account I am now speaking that when things are past all humane help then is God's set time for relief I know the Churches Adversaries brag of multitudes and they come up on every side close to her yea and which is worse we seem to labor to make God himself our Enimy or at least provoke him to desert that Chutch and Reformation we pollute so put out the Worship we unhallow and profane so by ill lives make those that will have nothing of Religion but some forms it may be loose them too and let them die for want of substance and the shew go out not leave so much as the hypocrisy of piety Indeed a flood of Atheism and contemt of all Religion and virtue looks like a just dereliction of them who would not let God be in their thoughts nor Religion or Morality in their actions Nay may it not look like a kindness to remove the Gospel which proves onely the savor of death unto death put out that light which men are but resolv'd to sin against Or can there be a greater mercy than to refuse all the means of mercy to such men as onely make them work out condemnation to them O Lord to us indeed belongs confusion of face but notwithstanding to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses tho we have rebelled against him and as he knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of Judgment to be punish'd he knows too how many thousand knees do bow to him in secret reckons all those tears that are pour'd out in Religion's and the Churches cause and how wicked soever the Professors of Religion the Church Members may be if the constitution of Religion and the Church themselves yet be not vitiated or defective there is hope still And truly whereas many blame the Reformation that it did not keep more hold upon the Consciences of the Community did not retain some power which altho not of Divine Institution but things warily and by degrees brought in as seeming to work towards piety and most certainly in humane ways of judging serving to procure more veneration and outward security of the Church and Religion to work out which the other consequential worldly interests we see the very scheme of some Professions not their discipline onely but their faith too is contriv'd I think on the other side if our Reformation instead of doing thus as it consulted not at first with carnal Politicks but Christ's institutions as the Scripture and other primitive Records conveied them and design'd no more to themselves than those bare naked Spiritual doctrines rights and powers which Christ gave them left to Cesar whatsoever was Cesar's knowing God had promis'd Kings should be their Nursing-fathers and to be so is part of their Office trusting therefore God and Governments with their protection and defence of Church and Religion So also if thro all succeeding times whether of flourish or depression and calamity Religion it self whatever its Professors are have retain'd always the same simplicity of principles be it self untainted not new model'd to serve ends or interests then whenever men shall begin to clip it I do not say in maintenance seizing what their Father's sacriledge had left them but I mean because ours did not so as other Churches grasp some usurpt power to secure their own shall therefore cut her Spiritual powers short so that they cannot serve the ends of piety because they know her Children will not cannot by their principles resist i. e. if they endeavor to destroy them for this reason that they make men the best Subjects and of the most Christian Principles that is persecute their Christianity it self and martyr that I must profess that it will look like God's set appointed time to arise and to have mercy upon Sion when it is expos'd a naked Orphan left to his protection onely then he cannot pass it by but when he sees it in its bloud thus he will say unto it live and tho he plague her wicked and ungracious Sons and possibly take away many of the good ones from the evil to come yet the Religion will not die Let them believe it hopeless who desire a pretence to leave it who do what they can to stab their Mother and make it a reason to forsake her then because she is so desperately wounded and let them declare it who design to betray men out of it But whether is wiser to believe these or the God from whom we have these promises and these experiences and the other grounds of trust Sure we know better whom we have believed especially since the very trust to him is an engagement to him not to fail us that 's my last ground 'T is it self a means prescrib'd us by himself Isaiah 50. 10. Who is he among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord stay upon his God There is nothing in the world that more engages any man that is not profligately false than trusting to him and for God there is no other piece of piety or virtue gives such honor to him his Attributes as sincere dependance on him do's It does acknowledge his Omniscience that he knows our needs be they never so perplext intricate knows how to help them his Omnipresence that he is at hand on all occasions his Omnipotence how he is able above all our possibility of want his Mercy Goodness Benignity in that he condescended to be willing to relieve us his Faithfulness Truth and Justice in observing his good promises and never failing them and his Immutability in all these and his other Attributes of loving kindness Now truly as our miseries requir'd all these so our trust to him gives him the glory of all these and therefore 't is no wonder if
another Argument as that there cannot be an Earth because there is an Heaven Indeed if we fulfill my Text then we shall reconcile these Kingdoms and bring down Heaven into us for that 's a state where there is neither sin nor suffering where there shall be no tears because no guilt to merit them and no calamity to â—â—ke them Now Reformation does work this here in some degree and afterwards our comforts that are checker'd with some sufferings and our Piety which is soiled with spots shall change into Immortal and unsullied Glories he prepare us all Who washt us from our sins in his own Blood and by his sufferings hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father to whom be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen The Second SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL October 20. 1661. PSALM LXXIII 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a Clean Heart ' T WAS a false Confidence the Jews did nourish That they should dwell securely in their Land notwithstanding their provocations because the Worship and the House of God was in it They did but trust on lying words the Prophet says when they did trust upon The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord As if the Temple were a Sanctuary for those that did profane it and the horns of the Altar would secure them when 't was the blood upon the Altar call'd for Vengeance Nor was that after-plea of theirs valid We are the chosen Israel of God We have Abraham to our Father As if when by their works they had adopted to themselves another Parent were of their Father the Devil they could claim any but their present Fathers interest or have the blessings of forsaken Abraham Now if it be no otherwise with us but because in our Judah God is known his Name great in our Israel with us in Salem that is in peace he hath his Tabernacle now and his dweling in Sion And so much knowledg such pretences to the Name of God and to his Worship are not with other Nations nor have they such advantages to know his Law If as each party of us does assume these Priviledges to it self so each do also rest in them although their Lives answer not these advantages If while they judg themselves Christs chosen Flock boast Covenants and Alliances with God although they violate all those Relations they yet trust those will secure them For why the being of such a Party and Persuasion is the signature and Amulet that will preserve them in Gods favour the charm through which he will not see Iniquity in Jacob nor perversness in Israel Lastly If we that were the distinctive Character of Israel that of a Ransom'd Purchas'd People for sure our Rescues rise unto the number and the rate of those which brought the Sons of Jacob from the House of Bondage if we as they presume and furfeit upon goodness and think these gifts of God too are without Repentance beliâ—â—â— our being his Redeemed his Church conceit our Orthodox Profession as once we thought our righteous Cause should do will shield us from the danger of our Enemies and of our Vices too and neither let our Foes nor our selves ruin us with such my Text and my intentions prepare to meet lest we should fill the Parallel and as we equal Israel in our Deliverances and imitate their practices we do transcribe the fatal Pattern too in the most full resemblance and repletion of an entire excision for although God be truly loving to his Church yet the ungodly does his soul abhor however in a signal manner he be good to Israel yet this his kindness does confine it self to such as are of a clean heart The words need not much explication By Israel is meant the Church of God and by his goodness to it all his external mercies also and protections as the Psalm evinces and by such as are of a clean heart those that to the profession of Religion and Holiness of outward conversation do add internal purity and sincerity for some trnaslate it such as are of a clean heart some such as are trueâ—hearted and sincere And it signifies both The words thus explicated give me these Subjects of Discourse First a general Proposition Truly God is good to Israel to his Church Secondly an assignation of Conditions under which that general Proposition holds All are not Israel that are of Israel it holds only in such as are of a clean heart And in this we have first a quality appropriate to the Church Cleanness Secondly with its subject the Heart and there I shall enquire why that alone is mention'd whether the cleanness of the Heart suffice and having answered that shall proceed Thirdly to consider them together in both the given senses as they mean a sincere heart and a pure undefiled heart In each of which Considerations because the latter part of my Text is a limitation of the former shewing where that general Proposition is of force where it is not I shall as I proceed view all the several guilts opposed to either notion of Cleanness and see how far each of them does remoye from any interest in the Lords goodness to his Church which is the natural Application of each part and shall be mine 1. Truly God is good to Israel his Church And sure this Proposition is evident to us by its own light to whom God proved his goodness to astonishment by exercising it to Miracle while he at once wrought Prodigies of kindness and Conviction to which we have only this proof to add That God hath been so plentiful in Bounties that we are weary of every mention of them and have so furfeited on Goodness that we do nauseate the acknowledgment So that his kindness in sustaining his Compassions does vie with that which did effect them who as he will not be provok'd not to be good by such prodigious unthankfulness so neither will he by the most exasperating use of his Favours God did complain of Israel Thou hast taken thy fair Jewels of my Gold and my Silver which I had given thee and madest to thy self Images My meat also which I gave thee my fine Flour mine Oyl and Honey wherewith I fed thee and hast even set it before them for a sweet savour And if men now do offer things in which God hath the same propriety to baser Idols to their Vices if they do sauce his meat which he hath given them to sacrifice to Luxury take his silver and gold to serve in the Idolatry of Covetousness and use his Jewels to dress Images also for foulest adorations If Atheism grow against Miracle and Goodness too and men do most deny God now when he hath given greatest evidences of his kind Providence I know not by what argument encouraged unless his in the Poet Factum quod se dum negat hoc videt beatum because they see they fare best now though
utmost that they understood if so be that there were no Treason to discolour it and they that did inflict all this appear but Christian Dioclesians and stand at that sad Day in the train of the Persecutions on the same hand O then those Fires which these Boutefeus called for and kindled shall blaze out into everlasting burnings And now it may seem strange that they who most of all pretend the Spirit of Christ are yet of the most distant temper in the World from that of Gospel always endeavouring to do that which our Saviour here checks his Disciples for proposing and did threaten Peter for attempting There are among our selves that seem to live by Inspiration that look and speak as in the frame of the Gospel as if every motion were impulse from Heaven and yet as if Christ had fulfilled his promise to them without Metaphor baptized them with the Holy Ghost and fire onely that they might kindle fire and the unction of the Spirit did but add Oyl to those flames as if the cloven Tongues of fire in which the Spirit did descend were made to be the Emblems of Division and to call for fire these mens life their garb their very piety is faction they pray rebel and murder and all by the Spirit 'T is true indeed they plead now what we seem to say that they should not be persecuted for not being satisfied in their Conscience so they mince their breaking of the Laws for which they suffer But do these know themselves what manner of Spirit they are of or are we bound not to remember when they had the Power how they persecuted all that would not do at once against their King their Conscience and the Law And we do thus far know what Spirit they are of and if they have not yet repented of all that then it is plain if they can get an opportunity they will do it again nay they must by their Spirit think themselves obliged to do it But these are not all those that above all the World pretend to the Infallible assistance of the Spirit our Church is bold in her Offices of this day to say do turn Religion into Rebellion she said it more severely heretofore and the attempts of this day warrant the saying when not like our Disciples that would call for fire from Heaven on the Village that rejected Christ these will raise up fire from Hell to consume their own Prince and his Progeny the whole line of Royalty the Church and Nation also in their Representative and all this onely for refusing him that calls himself Christ's Vicar There are I must confess among them that renounce the practice and say 't was the device onely of some few desperate male-contents wicked Catholiques and design'd by the Devil And they will allow their Father Garnett to have had no other guilt but that he did not discover it having received it in Confession And this gives me occasion to propose a story to your patience and conjectures Not long before the time of this Attempt a Priest of the Society of Jesus in a Book he publish'd does propose this case of Conscience Whether a Priest may make use of what he hath learn'd in Confession to avert great impendent mischiefs to the Government as for Example One confesses that himself or some other had laid Gunpowder and other things under such an House and if they be not taken thence the House will be burnt the Prince must perish all that pass throughout the City will be either certainly destroy'd or in great peril and resolves it thus 'T is the most probable and safe Opinion and the more suitable to Religion and to that reverence which is due to the Sacrament of Confession that it is not lawful to make use of this his knowledg to that end That his Holiness Clement the 8. had just before by a Bull sent to the Superiours of the Regulars commanded most studiously to beware they make not use of any thing which they come to know by Confession to the benefit of the secular Government He adds that in cases of Confession the Priest must not reveal though death be threatned to him but may say he knows it not nor ever heard it quia reverà non scit nec audivit ut homo seu pars reipub Yea he may swear all this if he but mentally reserve so as to tell you 'T is Del Rio in 6th Book of his Mag. dis 1. Cap. Sec. 2. It seems 't is safer to break all the Obligations to Allegiance and to truth his duty and his Oaths the Princes and Gods bonds than the Seal of Confession But I did not mention this to let you see the kindness these men have to Princes and their Government I shall avoid producing any the Opinions of particular persons howsoever horrid in my arguments this day but I onely ask whether it be not very probable this instance was the thing to be attempted on this day Whether the resolution was not publish'd the Pope's Bull if not made yet produc'd at least to caution any Priest that should receive it in Confession and should be so honest as to abhor the Fact yet from betraying it and hindring the Execution of it If it were the case this was not then any rash attempt of some few desperate malecontents but a long contrivance and of many heads and its taking its effect was the great care of their Church Well they are even with us yet and lay as horrid Projects to the charge of Protestants Among our other Controversies this is one whether are the worse Subjects bloody sayings are produc'd from Authors on both sides yea there is the Image of both Churches Babel and Jerusalem drawn by a Catholique Pen and then you may be sure all Babel's divisions and confusions make the draught of ours and are said to be the issue of the Protestant Doctrines Whereas such things are countenanc'd by some particular Authors of their Church were never own'd by any publique Act or Doctrine of a general Council to which they provoke us I must confess our Calendar can shew a thirtieth of January as well as a fifth of November There are indeed that say the Romanists hatch'd that days guilt and challenge any man to call them to account for saying so But whether so or not which Churches Doctrines such things are more suited to I will now put to trial that we may know what Spirit each is of And I will try it by the publique Acts and most establish'd Doctrines of the Churches and here undertake to shew the Church of England most expresly does declare against all practices against the Prince for the cause of Religion But the Romish in those acts wherein she hath most reason to expect infallibility of Spirit also in the publique Acts of the Church representative in General Councils does abett the doing them not onely for Religion but for the cause of Holy
Church First If the Church of Rome have reason to expect infallible assistance of the Spirit in any case it is as much in Canonizing of a Saint as in any other it being as unhappy to determine a false Object for Religious Worship to their Church as a false Article of Faith there is as much need that there should be an infallible proposal of the one as other for when she does Decree by the Authority of the Omnipotent God such a one is a Saint receiv'd in Glory and so renders him the Object of their Worship if he should chance to be a Reprobate to cause the People to fall prostrate to the Shrine of one that 's damn'd and call his flames to warm Gods Altar and the Votaries breast to make the whole Church worship one that is in Hell is liable to greater aggravations of impiety than an erroneous Opinion in very many of their points of Faith can be But it is known their Church hath Canoniz'd one of this Nation Becket who though he was indeed illegally and barbarously Murthered yet 't is not the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr now he did not fall a Sacrifice for his Religion but was slain because he did disturb the State by suspending all the Bishops that upheld the Kings just cause against him so that neither King nor State could live in peace for him for opposing also those Laws which himself had sworn to Laws that were not onely truly Sovereign Rights but are maintain'd even unto this day as Priviledges by the Gallican Church and they not branded for so doing In a word he was slain for those actions which his own Bishops condemned him for as a perjur'd man and a Traytor And for persisting in them to the death he was Sainted Now whatever the estate of this man be in the next World I meddle not with that Yet for Disobedience and Rebellion to place one in Heaven whence for those things Lucifer did fall does seem to shew what Spirit they are of that Canonize such Saints For the Church to pray to Christ that by the wounds of this Saint he would remit their sins does express what rate their Church does set upon the merits of resisting Princes and disturbing States in the behalf of Holy Church When such actions make men fit to be joynt purchasers with Christ in the Redemption of the World But when the French Histories say 't was disputed long after in Paris whether he were Damn'd or Sav'd that the Church in her publique Offices should pray to go thither where he is gone to have his Society though it express their most infallible assurance of the condition of those men who for their sakes resist the Secular Powers yet O my Soul enter not thou into their counsels in this world neither say a Confederacy to whom they say a Confederacy much less pray to be in their Society who by resisting S. Paul says do receive unto themselves Damnation Secondly It is notorious that in their first General Council at Lyons Anno 1245. the Emperour Frederick the second by the Sentence of the Pope and the whole Council after long deliberation and producing several Arguments which they say are not sleight but effectual to prove the suspicion of Heresie is depriv'd of his Empire all his Subjects are absolv'd from their Oath of Allegiance and by Apostolical Authority forbidden to obey him Therefore that such things may be done in the cases of Religion hath the Authority of a General Council 't was that Council that Decreed Red Hats to Cardinals Hats red it seems not onely with the Royal Purple but with the Blood of Kings and of Royalty it self Thirdly I should have urged the well known Canon of the General Council of Lateran the greatest their Church ever boasted of which says That if the temporal Lord shall neglect to purge his Territories from such as the Church there declares Hereticks he shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and if he do not mend within a year complained of to the Pope that so he may declare his Subjects absolv'd from their Allegiance and expose his Lands to be seiz'd by Catholicks who shall exterminate the Hereticks saving the right of the chief Lord Provided he give no impediment to this But the same law shall be observed to those that have no chief Lords that is who are themselves Supream This I should urge but that some say that penal Statutes which are leges odiosae tantum disponunt quantum loquuntur Therefore this Canon since it does not name Kings it does not they say concern them although 't is plain it do sufficiently enough But that there may be therefore no evasion Fourthly In the General Council of Constance that part of it I mean that is approv'd by their whole Church The Pope and Council joyn together in commanding all Arch-Bishops Bishops and Inquisitors to pronounce all such Excommunicate as are declared Hereticks in such and such Articles and that of Transubstantiation half-Communion and the Pope's Supremacy are among them or that favour ot defend them or that Communicate with them in publique or in private whether in sacred Offices or otherwise etiamsi Patriarchali Archiepiscopali Episcopali Regali Reginali Ducali aut aliâ quâvis Ecclesiasticâ aut mundanâ proefulgeant dignitate And Commands them also to proceed to Interdicts and deprivation of Dignities and Goods and whatsoever other Penalties vias modos Thus that Council though it took away the Peoples right to the Blood of Christ denying them the Cup in the Sacrament gave them in exchange the Blood of their own Kings making them a right to that And that they extend the force of these Canons to the most absolute Princes even to him that pleads exemption most to the King of France is plain because when Sixtus the fifth thundred out his Bulls against the then King of Navarre afterwards King Henry the fourth of France and the Prince of Conde depriving them not onely of their Lands and Dignities but their Succession also to the Crown of France absolving their Subjects from their Oaths forbidding them to obey them he declared he did it to them as to relapsed Hereticks favourers and defenders of them and as such fal'n under the Censures of the Canons of the Church Now there are no other Canons that do take in Kings but these which can touch him for that of Boniface the eighth which says the Pope hath power to judg all temporal Powers is declared not to extend to France Cap. meruit de priviledg in extravag communibus Thus by the publique Acts of their Church and by the Canons of their General Councils we have found in causes of Religion Deprivation of Princes Wars and Bloodshed and the other consequent Miseries are establish'd Rebellion encouraged by a Law And if Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft then we know what manner of Spirit they are of that do
their Bibles to be burnt in one Month 17000 were put to death And the Persecution lasted at that rate for ten years time so that in Egypt only it is said there were slain 144000 and 70000 banisht The Laity it seems were allowed Bibles then Or put the case higher in Adrian's or Trajan's time who both lived within an Hundred years of Christ who Martyr'd them 'till weariness slackned the Execution and they gave off onely as it were that so they might cease to persecute themselves and we have the Officers engaged attesting this all which must needs be as notorious as the Light Now Secondly 't is most impossible those so vast multitudes of every Nation should have met together forg'd a Code of Doctrines and agreed so uniformly in professing a Religion and in dying for it for we may as easily believe that there were never any men before this Age we live in but that these began the kind as that those of that Age began the Christian Religion Thirdly 't is as impossible that their immediate Ancestors who lived in the Apostles Age who heard their Preaching received their Writings saw the Miracles they did if they did any and many of them must have seen Christ also after he was risen if it were so yea multitudes of them were themselves parties in the gifts of Tongues and Miracles if there were any and so could not be impos'd on but must necessarily know whether they were truths or forgeries It is as Impossible I say so many should agree together to betray all their Posterity into the profession of a Religion from which they could look for no advantage but the certain total Ruin of themselves and their posterity it was not possible they could have done this if they had not thought all this was true and since they did know whether it were true or not if they thought it was true they did know it was and if they knew it was then it is certain that it was so and these Scriptures and the Doctrines Christians deliver so far as they have not varied since that time from these Authentical Records they have the Seal of God Miracles to attest they come from God I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah which so eminently came to pass in Christ that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine Next Christ's predictions in the New particularly those about Jerusalem which saith Eusebius He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witness and no Christian writes of it or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words But enough hath been said to prove they come from God and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God with perfect resignation of our Souls and submission of our judgments denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties that is receive this word of the Kingdom as a little Child I do not here affirm by saying this that our Religion does disdain or keep distance from the service of any of Mans faculties for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only but as Judges 'T is plain the senses were the first I do not say conveyance onely but Foundation of Faith which was built on the first believers eyes and ears they heard the Doctrine saw the Miracles were sure they saw and heard them and so supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God were certain of their truth without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine And S. John therefore does not onely call in and admit and urge their testimony That which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life that declare we unto you But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most for speaking of the Eucharist he says that which you see is Bread and 't is a Cup it is that very thing which your eyes tell you ' t is Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause And in an instance where their sentencè passes 't is not strange if Reason also take the Chair and do pretend to Judge And truly when the Scripture that does call those Elements Christs Body and his Blood does also call them after Consecration Bread and Wine and since they must be called one of them by a figure for they cannot be in Substance both and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lies hath not expresly said 't is this but in resemblance that in Substance Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties and to which a Trope is not a stranger it can judge of figurative speeches when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body 'T is but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb which they call'd the Body of the Passover though it were but the memorial a figure which was always usual in Sacraments and is indeed essential to Sacraments And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs But if it should resolve it to be Bread and Wine onely in a figure besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence that a man can be nourisht by them which the Romanists dare not deny nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope be nourish't with a figure besides this if reason shall resolve that it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by and judge in contradiction to known Principles and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding which especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly must be most unreasonable yea most impossible to judge that true that is to say believe that thing which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer or receive as a little Child that discerns the Lords Body no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it Or to make another instance when the Scripture says God is a Spirit yet does also give him hands and eyes
the Heir of both the worlds And this he did to settle us in an inheritance of infinite eternal glory and the approching day began this state to him a day sure to be reckon'd not with the riots but with the charities of hospitality with feasts not for our sins but feasts for Christ and for his members feasts such as his own Table is fit to be the leading entertainment in O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing worth send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of Charity the very bond of peace and of all vertues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee grant this for thine onely Son Jesus Christ's sake Amen THE END ERRATA Vol. 1. PAge 4. line 15. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5. l. 26. for meres r. metes p. 19. l. 42. for no r. do p. 23. l. 22. for an r. can p. 50. l. 14. for despute r. dispute p. 51. l. 1. for of any of one kind r. of any one kind p. 60. l. 28. after found r. them p. 63. l. 7. for it is r. is it p. 65. l. 6. read after evil p. 65. l. 49. for Palms read Psalms p. 66. l. 48. for but that r. than the. p. 70. l. 41. dele and. p. 77. l. 4. for censor r. censer p. 82. l. 1. for coersively r. coereively p 83. l. 14 for Antimonians r. Antinomians p. 84. l. 13. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 85. l. 6. dele that p. 85. l. 41. for beleif r. disbeleif p. 90 l. 41. for what r. when p. 110. l. 43. for salisfaction r. satisfaction p. 118. l. 24. before proved r. is p. 119. l. 1. for breast r. beast p. 123. Marg. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 125. l. 31. for difference r. deference p. 129. l. 29. for persecutions r. persecutors p. 132. Marg. for Thoma r. Thomae for precamus r. precamur p. 133. Marg. read homagil for homigii ordinat for ordinatu p. 171. l. 17. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marg for Ps. 77. r. 78. p. 176. l. 31. for with r. which p. 185. l. 18 dele re p. 186. l. 24. dele to p. 187. l. 2. for no r. now p. 191. l. 17. for fins r. sins p. 195. l 1. dele is p. 198. l. 35. for insalliable r infallible p. 201. marg for feri r. fere p. 203. l. 41. after other r. that p. 205. l. 31. dele to p. 206. l. 37. for immitate r. imitate p. 210. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 212. l. 11. for powr'd read pour'd ip 218. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 220. l. 6. for entertain r. entertain p. 221. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. marg r. Galatians p. 222. l. 20. for St. Peter's r. St. Paul's p. 229. l. 4. before man r. no. p. 236. l. 12. for where r. were p. 238. l. 7. for Isral r. Israel Vol. 2. Page 11. line 2. for unto readâ—nto â—nto p. 26. l. 36. f. an r. and. p. 39. l. 27. f. renverse r. reinverse p. 58. l. 33. place the Comma that is after Tenents after government p. 64. l. 16. after tenth r. v. l. 32. f. put r. puts p. 73. l. 45. before arrive r. men p. 74. l. 43. f. permetted r. permitted p. 75. l. 21. before will r. that p. 79. l. 4. dele the Comma after is l. 22. dele the Comma after sacrifices p. 86. l. 26. dele are p. 88. l. 42. f. ad r. and p. 104. l. 43. before it r. of p. 110. l. 6. f. it r. I. p. 122. l. 34. after beleive dele the stop and for That r. that p. 133. l. 5. f. art r. are p. 142. l. 20. f. one r. once p. 150. l. 35. f. sins r. fires p. 153. l. 3. dele the. p. 162. l. 14. f. solomn r. solemn p. 171. l. 21. before heal dele to p. 172. l. 11. f. measuress r. measures p. 181. l. 20. f. faith wich r. faith which p. 199. l. 28. f. whom them r. them whom p. 203. l. 36. f. kearkning r. hearkning p. 224. l. 40. for pcesrib'd r. prescrib'd p. 225. l. 40. f. nâ— r. us p. 238. l. 28. f. Statute r. Statutes p. 244. l. 14. f. too r. to p. 248. 16. f. too r. to p. 256. l. 32. f. theiâ— r. their p. 262. l. 20. f. to all r. of all p. 264. l. 35. f. 1 Pet. 14. 14. r. 4. 14. p. 267. l. 38. before answers r. he l. 41. f. too r. to p. 269. l. 37. f. obortive r. abortive p. 270. l. 6. f. ense r. sense p. 271. l. l. ult f. the r. thee p. 279. l. 4. f. pronunct r. pronounct p. 292. l. 37 after my arm r. fall p. 295. l. ult before Kingdome r. his p. 297. l. 47. before became r. he p. 300. l. 24. f. Matt. 16. 33. r. John 16. 33. The First SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL January 27. 1660. 1 PET. IV. 1. He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin SO great a flatterer is Man of himself that from all kind of Events how various soever he will adventure to conclude himself in the right way to Blessedness and rather than want Argument contradictions shall conspire to make him happy If he prosper then God allows his doings and the success of actions is his mark and Seal that they are acceptable and dear to Him And if this Argument be good The Tribe of Benjamin while it conquer'd as they did Conquer those that fought Gods Battels and that by his immediate commission yet all that while those Sodomites and foul Adulterers the men of Gibeah were Saints But when calamity does take away this Argument then on the other side the Gibbet though the punishment of Villany is only execution of that Decree whereby God hath predestinated them To be conform'd to the Image of his Son As if they died most like Christ who died with the most Guilt about them and they will needs be Martyrs when they suffer for their vices and if this Argument be good Aegypt was blest with all her Plagues and the consuming fire that ran upon the ground was the light of God's countenance upon them Yet both these Arguments have been made use of lately by each several party of us in the variety of Gods dispensations to us Now this each could not do of right Some Parties of us made false and unjust pleas to them both Now to decide which did so not à priori from the cause though that alone does guild prosperity and that alone too makes the Martyr not the sufferings But men will never be agreed of that while whatsoever happens whether their cause prosper or be opprest
still proves them in the right But I shall do it from a plain notorious effect nor do I know what else can be more seasonable than while some men seem to stand candidates for sufferings and choose Sedition and Schism rather than lose the reputation of not being afflicted with their Party and while others plead the merits of affliction and Trumpet out their having suffered as a pretence for the ambition and the covetousness the luxuries and intemperance and all the other vices of prosperity which their late sufferings have before hand expiated while it is thus on each side to give both a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby to judg the Case which my Text here presents for He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The words make a single Proposition and therefore cannot well be taken asunder nor indeed need they the Terms being very well understood The Subject every one is willing to assume to himself no one I believe that hears me but will say he hath suffer'd in the Flesh. Therefore we have no more to do but to see whether the other Term agree as universally which certainly it must if our Proposition here hold good if He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin Therefore in order to this I shall offer at Three things First Discourse of the truth of the Proposition in General and see if we can discern how necessary and how effectual this Instrument of Reformation is whether it be such as may build a confidence of asserting That He who hath suffered hath ceased from Sin Secondly Because discoursing in General is not so practical and useful I shall endeavour to discover in particular By what Artifice of method the Flesh engageth men into courses of sin and how it works them up to the height of it and then see how sufferings blast that method and make the Arts of the flesh either unpracticable or too weak Thirdly I will attempt to view our own concerns in all this propose to consideration Whether this method hath had this effect on us or Whether indeed it be as easie to confute God's Word as to break his Commandments and contrive that his truth shall no more stand than his will does but notwithstanding Scriptures bold affirmation here yet they that have suffered have not ceas'd from Sin and if so then to propose the danger and infer Christ's Application that at least we begin to cease and sin no more least a worse thing come unto us I. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from Sin None but He and He certainly When it appear'd that Eden had too much of Garden for innocence to dwell in and although man were made upright yet amidst such delights he could not be so a whole day but of the many inventions he found out the first was to destroy himself immediately and under the shadow of the Tree of life he wrought out death and made the Walks of Paradise lead him towards Hell God saw himself concern'd to take another course He sets a guard of fire about Eden about the place of pleasure as well as in the place of torments and there was as much need of flame to keep man out of Paradise as flame to fright him from Hell He makes the Earth not spring with Garden any more but bring forth thorns and briars that might scratch and tear man in the pursuit of things below which if the Soul should cleave and cling unto the Earth might gore and stab it in the embrace Nothing but sufferings will do us good The Earth was most accurst to man when it was all Paradise nothing but the malediction could make it safe and bless it to us our happiness must be inflicted executed on us and we must be goaded into blessedness and therefore God hath put afflictions into every dispensation since the first Among the Jews sin did receive immediate punishment by the tenour of the Covenant and though the retributions of our Covenant be set at distance as far remote as Hell yet Christ has drest his very promises in sackcloth and in ashes tears and trouble when he would recompence heroick vertue he says it shall receive an hundred fold with persecution Mar. x. 30. and he does grant us sufferings To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to suffer Phil. 1. 29. so that the sting of the Serpent is now the tempter his bitings and his venom moving us to obedience as much as his lying tongue did our first Parents to rebellion and when he does fulfill Gods threat and wound the heel he only drives us faster away from him and makes us haste to him that flies to meet us with healing under his wings This method God hath always us'd and the experience confirm'd by the blood of all Ages even from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of this season of all the Prophets that went before us and the Apostles that came after them as if those were men inspir'd for ruine and what ever Judgment they denounc'd it was their own burden and as if these were men chosen out for and delegated to Persecution men appointed unto death as St. Paul expounds their Office none escap'd and the next succeeding times of Primitive Christianity were but Centuries of Martyrdom so many years of Fire and Faggot and worse tortures This method hath not past by any Grandeur but of those great ones that have been eminently good their afflictions have vy'd with their Majesty the Calendar hath had as much share of them as the Chronicle the Martyrology as the Annals and their blood not their Purple put them in the Rubrick Gods Furnace made Crowns splendid gave them a Majesty of shine and an Imperial glory and so all our Crowns indeed must be prepar'd in the Furnace he that told us we must be Baptiz'd with fire saw there was something in us that the Christians water will not cleanse Baptism may wash sullays but not dross away That must be washt in flame and nothing else but fire will take away our base alloy And it cannot be otherwise never was there any other way to Glory for when God was to bring many Sons to glory he sanctified the very Captain of our salvation through sufferings Heb. ii 10. Who though he were a Son and that the Son of God yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered Heb. v. v. 8. This therefore is the only and most effectual way of teaching it when God speaks in Judgment and indeed he counts all other of his Voices but as silence in comparison of this and though he gave his Law in Thunder and sent his Prophets dayly to denounce wrath to transgression yet he reckons of all this as if he had said nothing till he speak Plagues and command afflictions Psal. l. 21. after a Catalogue of sins he tells the man these things hast thou done and I kept silence though my Law