have there is none no not Polagius himself that in plain terms ever durst deny He will … if pressed for shame acknowledge and subscribe unto the necessity of Grace in shew of words but as the manner of all Hereticks is he doth but equivocate making terms in themselves plain by secret reservation false and fraudulent that so he might have a back-door at a time of need whereat to deceive and abuse both himself and his reader For secretly within his own mind he desires Grace by quicquid gratis datur that by this means under the name of Grace he might hedge in free-will and abilities of Nature Nay if this fraud be detected he will come yet closer for he will not refuse to confess a necessity of true internal Grace such as the Gospel mentions the Grace of Christ and of his Holy Spirit and that it is the gift of God yea a special gift which all have not yet still he keeps this secret in the deep of his Heart that all might have it and that it is their own faults if they have it not since as he holds this Grace is given and withheld according to the merits or demerits of Men by a former good or evil use of their free will ut gratia sonaret meritum delitescret that so grace might sound in their words and yet they retain merit in their minds Such shift doth proud slime and dust make to magnifie the arm of flesh and so unwilling is it to give the true and whole glory unto God whose it is Yet this is not all Men have more subtilties to rob God or rather to deceive themselves Arminius and his followers the late Semi-pelagians step one Step farther and with the Catholick truth acknowledge not only a true and internal Grace but a liberal free and preventing Grace a Grace given not deserved But for all this he understands only such a Grace as is common to both to Elect and Reprobate upon the good or evil use whereof it is that Men become either For according to these Election doth not provide or prepare according to St. Austin any special Grace for particular Men but some particular men are specially elected upon foresight of their well-husbanding of that Grace which is common so that Man must still have the preheminence For however it be from Gods Grace that they have ability to obtain Salvation yet that they are saved when others who received the same Grace are not this must needs be not from his help but their own will An old rancid opinion long since broached by Faustus and Cassianus whose Books for this were condemned by Gelasius and a Council of seventy Bishops more for erroneous and Apocryphal and now lately again revived by Arminius and others who are not the Authors and Inventors but only strenuous Advocates requiring a relief after Judgment of a dead and rotten a damned and long since condemned Heresie So that it is a good judgment of a Reverend Bishop Faustum Cassianum quasi per Metempsyohosin in Arminio Bertio revixisse That the Souls of Faustus and Cassianus do as it were live again in Arminius and Bertius they do so justly jump and conspire with their Doctrine of universal Grace and Election upon foresight than which no opinion can be more injurious unto God or more grossly and demonstratively false in it self For however it retains the name it perverts the end and destroys the very Nature of Election causing that Predestination which the Apostle unto the Ephesians tells us was ordained in laudem gloriae gratiae suae to the praise of the glory of his Grace to serve and tend only unto the honour of our own propension and will since he that reigns in Heaven hath no more whereof to thank God than he that lies burning in Hell because from equal Grace they have wrought out these their unequal fortunes And therefore say St. Paul what he will Salvation is rather of him that willeth and runneth that believeth and worketh than of God that sheweth mercy whereas it is not neither doth it less pervert the End than the Nature thereof converting the cause into the effect and the effect into the cause making Election a consequent of Faith and Repentance when these are the true fruits of Election which is the well-head of Grace and all the rest of Gods favours and our good deeds but streams issuing from that Fountain who have all obtained mercy with St. Paul not because we were but that we should be faithful Non vos me elegistis for you have not chosen me but I have chosen you saith our Saviour and have ordained you for what that you should go and bring forth and that your fruit should remain for I have ordained I that do both begin and perfect the good deed that do work in you both to will and to do do work in you also to do and to persevere and that by my free Election and absolute decree Ego posui for I have ordained that you go and bring forth fruit and that that fruit remain It were an endless work and a bootless expence of Travel to heap up places of Scripture for the enforcing of this point they are every where obvious the Glory of Gods grace through a free and undeserved Election being a main branch of the Gospel and therefore often inserted but by St. Paul purposely disputed and proved in a set discourse wherein these new oppugners are so directly confuted as if the Holy Ghost had especially looked on them when he spake by his mouth for there is no other intent or purpose in that place but to demonstrate that the Adoption of the Sons of God doth not depend upon the carnal Generation of Abraham as the Jews conceived nor yet upon our own or our Forefathers works but simply upon the Eudochie the meer good will and pleasure of God This he makes manifest in all in a Type under the names of two Jacob and Esau Brethren equal in all things only unequal in the favour of God both begotten by the same parents and both born at the same birth on either side no advantage by blood and as little in quality they had done neither good nor evil nor could do at that time wherein notwithstanding that the purpose of God might be known to stand according to Election it was said I have loved Jacob and hated Esau No difference in the Persons and yet a different respect of God who is no respecter of persons which moves the Apostle to a strange interrogation but natural unto the place Nunquid iniquitas apud Deum what then is there iniquity with God God forbid but how doth he answer it doth he with these reply that though they had then done neither good nor evil yet God elected the one and rejected the other upon foresight of the good and evil which they afterwards would do This had been an acute and brief answer Quis iftum acutissimum
thing else the Devil may for some have been so shameless to repair even thither for the ending of controversies adjuring and conjuring by Spells and Exorcisms Satan himself to give answer out of possessed bodies as out of his Prophetick Charms unto the truth of his disputed Articles A strange remedy and desperate as their cause that would establish truth in Religion by the Spirit of Errour and Father of Lies Neither these nor any thing else can prevail Authority may restrain wise Men may mollifie and perswade but neither the power of the Magistrate nor skill of the Learned are both able to effect it whatsoever remedies the Wit and Confidence of either dare or any Catholick Moderator else yea of the great Cassander himself may invent or propound until every Man seek to remedy one will be found too weak for the purpose they are all either dangerous or not fully profitable Plaisters if not malignant and hurtful yet at best too narrow for the Sore and unable to pierce unto the root of the Malady It is only the removing of those inordinate Lusts the causes of War that is able to give us a true and durable Peace For the bitterness of the streams must be cured at the Fountain and the fire quenched by subduction of the fuel otherwise effects will ever issue from their causes And therefore the wisdom which is from above saith my St. James is first pure then peaceable And our Saviour observes the same method in his benedictions first blessed are the pure in heart and then immediately blessed are the peace-makers for until the heart which is the Fountain be purged there is no expectation of Peace We may therefore cast up our Eyes towards Heaven and profess outwardly as much purity as we please but so long as we are contentious and at opposition still with the Church and her peace it is a manifest sign our Wisdom is not from above nor yet our selves so pure in Heart as we should be For were the Heart once well purged and purified from these earthly and sensual desires that disturb the Soul and darken the mind what peaceable and peace-making affections would succeed what calmness and serenity able to clear the eye of the Soul in discerning evident truth and to temper the passions of the Soul in such truths as are not easily discernable And so end most controversies and at least moderate all teaching us as St. Paul speaks sapere ad sobrietatem to be wise but unto sobriety or as St. James to shew forth our works in the meckness of wisdom For soberness meekness patience gentleness brotherly-kindness love and the like these are the high and proper effects of the Wisdom which is desuper from above but may not descend into a Soul filled already with those Lusts that are desubter from flesh and earthly things beneath Virtues and endowments these that seem to restore the Soul to her native beauty render it sweet and amiable and of all other makes her most like unto her Saviour Vertues therefore so peculiar unto his Gospel as it breaths almost no other language And were that Gospel a while obeyed rather than disputed obeyed in necessary duties rather than disputed in speculative difficulties it would soon be unto us what it is in it self Evangelium pacis a Gospel of Peace which the God of Peace vouchsafe unto us all to study even through Jesus Christ our Peace-maker to whom with the Holy Ghost three persons c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum Amen A DISCOURSE OF ELECTION AND REPROBATION SERMON V. Upon HOSE A xiii 9. Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in Me is thine help AS there is nothing more necessary so is there not any thing of greater difficulty than to draw man unto a true thankfulness for Gods Mercies or a just acknowledgment of his own Errours It will not be easie for his Ministers to prevail in that here which could not be done in Paradise no not by God himself where although it were not the first Sin for it doth of necessity suppose a former yet it was the second in time and I think in greatness before the first The Woman she transfers the fault on the Serpent and Adam on the Woman which thou gavest me she delivered me of the fruit and I did eat And such as was then such or worse is still the corrupt and stubborn disposition of a Sinner who though his own guilty Conscience make him hide his head in a bush for shame yet thinks any Fig-leaves of excuse will serve turn to cover his nakedness from those Eyes unto which all things are transparent A crime we have received from our fore-Fathers that first used it the Teats of Eve gave no other milk than this perversness unto all her Children In good and laudable actions every man can readily teach his mouth to kiss his hand as Job speaks to commend and applaud the work and be content to receive the honour unto himself But if the question be of our Errours and misdeeds how do we labour and sweat to convey the burthen from our own shoulders How ingenious presently is the froward nature of most men to knit the Stoical Chain of destiny and be the action never so detestable and vile to fasten the first Link not to the foot of Jupiters Chair the Stars and Constellations of Heaven but which is a degree beyond the Stoicks to the very arm of the Almighty In this case we are all grown acute Philosophers and can climb the physical Scale of Causes as if it were Jacobs Ladder until by it we ascend into Heaven yea into the very closet of God where they will search the Book of hidden Counsels and eternal Decrees and from thence draw dark and blind consequences of inevitable and fatal necessity rather than flesh and blood should want wherewith to plead with its Maker That as the men of the Man of sin have devised a compendious way by one position to answer all objections against their Doctrin namely That their Church cannot err So these men have found out as brief a Tenent to stop the mouth of all reproof in the Errours and Heresies of their life to wit that they cannot chuse but err As if they had no means to decline the punishment unless they drew in God to be a Party in the offence But it were good that Man would plead with Man that the Potsheard would contend with the Potsheards of the Earth as Isaiah speaks and not with his Creator whose Scepter is a rod of Iron wherewith he can at his pleasure bruise the vessel of the Potter for he hath power over his clay A power notwithstanding which how unwilling he is to use and how justly at length he doth use and how mercifully he forbears to use we are in these few words by God himself given to understand that so we might cease to wrangle with the Divine Justice that is so loth to strike O
entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it For even those Jews had a promise of Canaan and in it of the eternal rest whose Carcasses notwithstanding for their disobedience fell short of it in the desert and God sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest And therefore though the passion and death of Christ be absolute and in it self belonging to all yet there may be but a few to whom the good and benefit of it shall redound For remission of sins doth not immediately flow from his blood without intercedent obedience in us the next effect of it is not presently Salvation but a way and means whereby non obstante justitiâ without any impeachment to his justice we may now attain unto Salvation It doth not instantly convey us again into Paradise but only gives us the word whereby we may if we will safely and without impeachment pass the Angel and his flaming Sword that guards the entrance thither so that by it non solvitur omnibus captivitas sed solvitur omnibus captivitati necessitas though all be not actually loosed from Captivity yet all are loosed from the necessity of Captivity as the late and learned Writer of the Pelagian Story The gates of Brass and bars of Iron are smitten in sunder and so a way opened unto the Captives who notwithstanding if they be so far enamoured with their misery and captivity may for all that lie still in their Prison It is a potion for the good of all that are sick sed si non bibitur non medetur if it be not faithfully drank it shall never effectually cure saith◠Prosper And therefore we need not be anxious or doubtful on Gods behalf but only careful and solicitous for our selves what he hath promised in Baptism that he for his part will not be wanting sure he will never break in his Supper He will not fail to perform his promise if we but seriously bewail the breach of ours It is a Spiritual Banquet whereunto there never came any sorrowful and hungry Soul that ever departed empty And therefore let us draw near in full assurance of Faith no way wavering for he is faithful that hath promised saith St. Paul And as he is faithful that hath promised yet because he promiseth nothing here but to the faithful we must bring this with us though it be not of us a living Faith that only can work Repentance from dead works not to be repented of And this Faith only once thoroughly rooted begets that other confidence and fullness of Faith the Apostle speaks of which if it hath any other Parent is illegitimate ill born and falsly termed Faith when the true Father's name is Presumption And for this cause those that the Apostle exhorts to draw near with full assurance of Faith he thus qualifies having a true heart an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Then we go on rightly and orderly when we come not to the confident faith but by the penitent and as we go from faith to faith here so we shall appear before the God of Gods in Sion hereafter if therefore our heart within be true an upright within us if by a deep and entire Repentance it be sprinkled from an evil Conscience let us draw near in full assurance of faith as being most confident that our lips do not more truly drink the fruit of the Vine than our Souls do the blood of our Saviour the effect and merit of his blood whereby that which before was but sprinkled shall now be drenched and thoroughly cleansed from all the stains and impurities of Sin Our heart is ready O God our heart is ready only come thou and dwell in our hearts purge them and cleanse them wholly with thy blood and being cleansed keep and preserve them by thy Spirit spotless and blameless until the day of thy second coming in the Clouds with Glory That we who receive thee with fulness of faith now may stand before thee with the same confidence then and be received by thee and with thee into those eternal habitations at the right hand of God where is fulness of joy an pleasure for evermore To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost three Persons c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum THE WAY TO HAPPINESS SERMON VII Upon MAT. vi 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you IT is a part of our Saviours Sermon in the Mount and the conclusion of a larger discourse in the precedent Verses whereto it refers And indeed it is or should be the Conclusion of all our discourses For all are little material and to no purpose unless they tend unto this issue The Kingdom of God and his righteousness Let us hear the Conclusion of all saith Solomon of all not only discourses but humane endeavours upon Earth Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man The second Solomon infinitely wiser than that first strikes here but on the same string though by his double touch it receives an air and relisheth more evangelical Unto the Righteousness of God adding the reward of it the Kingdom of God That so the works which the Law requires might be rightly wrought in the hope and faith of that immortality and glory which the Gospel proposeth However then we busy our selves about many things this is that unum necessarium the one thing that is necessary able to resolve Parmenides his Riddle Unum omnia one thing necessary wherein all necessaries are included whatsoever is necessary for the body or the soul whatsoever concerns either imployment here or felicity Eternal hereafter the whole perfection of man and the whole goodness of God If these things be all all these are enclosed in this one this one little exhortation Seek ye first c. The communication of divine goodness besides that of hypostatical union particular and supereminent hath generally but three degrees of participation Nature Grace and Glory And here they are all three either in their utmost extent or in their highest exaltations First all the necessaries of Nature pertaining to the body but slightly indeed inferred as deserving our least and slightest care These things shall be added unto you but though slightly yet fully All these things all that are requisite shall be added Secondly the utmost improvement of Grace that cannot farther adorn and beautify the Soul than with the righteousness of God His Righteousness And lastly the highest degree of glory nothing can be higher than participation with God in his own Kingdom The Kingdom of God The less marvel therefore that our search and travel for these these latter yea our utmost industry and endeavour be so carefully called led upon and inculcated with a Quaerite and a Primum quaerite seek and first seek Seek ye first the Kingdom of God c. Wherein the division is as plain as the
1 Cor. xi 28. But let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. SERMON IX X XI On Christmass day fol. 268 295 324. I. on Luke ii 10 11. And the Angel said unto them Fear not for behold I bring you tydings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. II. on Gal. iv 4 5. When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law That he might redeem them that are under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons III. on Esay liii 8. And who shall declare his Generation SERMON XII XIII Two Funeral Sermons fol. 356 384. I. For the Mother on Psal. cxlii verse ult Bring my Soul out of Prison that I may give thanks unto thy Name which thing if thou wilt grant me then shall the Righteous resort unto my Company II. For the Daughter on Rom viii 10. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness A DISCOURSE OF OATHS SERMON I. Upon JER iv 2. And thou shalt swear The Lord liveth in Truth in Judgment and in Righteousness THough all Sins be dangerous unto the Soul of man and none so small as may be neglected since a man may be choaked under a heap of Sand as well as crushed to death by the fall of a Tower yet the greater a sin is and the more general it is grown the greater danger and more inevitable destruction doth attend it And therefore it doth require our chief labour and diligence both to avoid such in our selves and to give the best notice we can unto others of the peril By negligence the least Leak may drown the Ship but the Pilot's special care is of the Rock on which if his Vessel fall it certainly splits Now of all the Sins whereunto the Corruption of man is subject I think there is scarce any so great and so common so great in it self and so common in the world so injurious unto the Majesty of God and so frequent amongst the Sons of men as the sin of Swearing The vain and irreverent using rather abusing of that Sacred Name in our ordinary speech which if well considered we should tremble but to think on A sin which the Wise man tells us will bring a Curse upon the house where it is used and it is no less likely to bring a Curse upon a whole Land and Nation where it is universal So that this impiety of all other as it brings with it a greater and more general danger so it calls for from all especially from all us whom it most concerns a great and universal care All endeavours should run forth to the quenching of a common fire It is indeed often galled and sharply taxed from such places as these obviously and by the way But the point contains much and will require a set discourse of that and nothing else for we cannot be too industrious against a publick mischief For which reason I have now made it the subject of my discourse as it is of this Verse Wherein you have the whole Nature and full doctrine of an Oath and how prepared it may be wholesome which otherwise used is deadly poison For an Oath is not simply and utterly unlawful my Text says Thou shalt swear but then it must be qualifyed with the due form and matter and manner The form must be As the Lord liveth that is in the Name of the living Lord The matter Truth and Righteousness the manner or modification Judgment Thou shalt c. But before you may fully apprehend the division of the Text it will be requisite that I shew you some divisions of an Oath for there are divers sorts There is a bare and simple Oath and there is an Oath mixt with a Curse and execration The bare and simple Oath is only a plain and naked contestation wherein we call God to witness of what we say The execratory is when we bind over and oblige either our selves or something dear unto us unto some notorious punishment if so be that be not true which we say as when one swears by his Life Soul Salvation and the like Again there is an Oath wherein there is a manifest and express assumption of the Name of God which needs no instance we know it too well by daily and fearful example And there is an Oath wherein God is called to record tacitly and implicitly under the Name of those Creatures wherein his Glory doth especially shine and appear So he that sweareth by heaven sweareth both by heaven and by him that dwelleth therein And lastly which is specially material There is an Oath Assertory and an Oath Obligatory Assertory when we affirm or deny any thing past or present Obligatory when we promise or threaten something to come Which being observed you may easily make a fit Application of the three terms in my Text Truth Judgment and Righteousness Truth unto an assertory Oath Righteousness unto a promissory Judgment and discretion unto both For which cause it is placed in the midst between both For an Assertory oath must be True lest we swear falsly A Promissory Righteous lest we swear to do unjustly and both with discretion and judgment lest we swear lightly and rashly Thou shalt swear c. So then we may in some case swear but the Oath must have the right form it must be made in the name of the Lord And the due matter in Truth if Assertory in Righteousness if Promissory And then in a discreet manner with premeditation and judgment in both Wherein you see how we may swear and how we may not swear In Truth Judgment and Righteousness we may swear but falsly unjustly and rashly and vainly we may not swear Of these points in their order beginning with the first The Lawfulness of an Oath and that in case a man may swear Thou shalt c. 1. There are not wanting some and those even amongst the Fathers themselves who have censured all Oaths though permitted by the Law yet as condemned by the Gospel which contains they say a Doctrine of more than legal perfection of this opinion were St. Basil and Theophylact and it is the error of the Anabaptist unto this day Others have thought that an Oath may be lawful under the Gospel but then only before a Magistrate and when it is required by such as have authority thereunto But the common and more general opinion both of the Antient Fathers and Modern Divines is that it is not simply unlawful for a private man to swear and in a private action when some urgent cause either the honour and Glory of God or some great good and benefit of our Neighbour doth call for it at our hands since it is not the use of an Oath but
Oaths in weighty matters though the Scribes and Pharisees and subtile Glosses had corrupted it for they had a Tradition as appears by Philo in the beginning of his Book that in lesser and smaller matters they were not to swear by the name of the immortal God but by some of his Creatures supposing that though they sware never so idly by them yet they were free from any breach of the Law since they took not the name of their God in vain which that did forbid And therefore so long as they sware truly they cared not for swearing lightly and frequently so it was not by the Lord himself but by some of his works Our Saviour therefore seeking in this place not to inlarge the Law but to free it from those depravations and corrupt comments of the Pharisees shews them that they were to refrain as well from swearing rashly and undoubtedly idly as falsly As also that they are no less guilty of the vain abuse of his name who swear by it obliquely and covertly under the Creatures than those that assume it directly and plainly in a proper appellation since there is not any work or workmanship of his whereon he hath not in some sort as it were ingraven himself and his Name All of them from his Throne unto his Footstool being either pledges of his favour or illustrations of his power and glory if not both so that Oaths made by them do reach home even unto himself whose they are and whose greatest Attributes of Glory and Goodness they do plainly set forth And therefore the sense is Swear not usually and vainly at all that is with no kind of Oath neither by heaven nor Earth nor any thing else whether Creature or Creator for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all doth not so much relate unto swear not that goes before as unto those several forms of swearing that follow after and therefore doth not exclude all Cases wherein an Oath may be required but all forms which for difference and distinction the Pharisees had invented as shewing that no forms or titles may justify an Oath that in it self is vain and unnecessary And this is the exposition of Mr. Calvin lib. 2. Inst. c. 8. Peter Martyr and divers learned men besides and it agrees well with that interpetation of St. Austin in his Book de Mendacio where he says We are not so much forbidden by this place to swear as to love affect and delight in the use of swearing And indeed that which our Saviour adds Let your Communication be yea yea and nay nay plainly shews that he relates unto the frequent and affected Oaths of daily and familiar discourse And thus much of the Inhibition which rightly understood you see concludes nothing for the objectors Now one word of the reason of it for whatsoever is more than these to wit yea and nay cometh of Evil And I think this will conclude as little St. Austin de Serm. Domini doth interpret this Evil from whence an Oath doth proceed to be the infirmity and incredulity of Others which though it be not a sin yet it is evil and as the effect of sin so the cause of swearing for no man should need an Oath if another would believe his word And after the same manner doth Innocentius the 3d. expound it de Jurejurando A malo est sed non tam culpae quà m poenae nec exhibentium sed exigentium Juramentum It is from Evil saith he but the evil not of offence but of punishment neither the evil of him that exhibits the Oath but of him that exacts it Others again otherwise A malo hoc est à mendacio from evil say they that is from evil deceit and lying for if the lips of men were not subject to falshood no man would require an Oath for the assurance of the Truth Chrysost. Euthymius Theophylact do render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not from evil but from the evil one the evil one by an Antonomasie that is the Devil because as some render the reason the Devil first brought in sin and sin first occasioned an Oath since in the state of Innocency where there could be no suspicion there needed also no confirmation of any mans speech But all these Interpretations though they are true in themselves yet they are not pertinent to the place First because they concern all Oaths for there is none so good and lawful but in these senses proceed from evil 2. Because they place the evil from whence the Oath doth proceed not in him that swears but in him to whom the Oath is made whereas our Saviour doth not restrain all Oaths promiseuously as is proved already but only some because they proceed from evil which could be no sufficient reason of the restraint neither if confest that evil be an offence and an offence not of another but of the swearer himself for if such a general and occasionary original from evil were sufficient ground for a prohibition we might as well be forbidden to believe in Christ or repent from dead works since if sin had not entred into the world there had never been any use either of such faith or repentance And therefore I rather like Abulensis Commentary A malo est Juramentum id est malum est the Oath here forbidden is so from Evil and the evil one as it is evil it self and so evil as it deserves condemnation saith St. James for Christ here speaks only of irreverent and unnecessary Oaths Quae mala sunt à malo Peccatore ore proficiscuntur which are both evil and proceed from the evil mouth of an evil sinner saith Barradius Neither doth this any way prejudice our cause for whatsoever the Term of Universality here in the Reason will help them as little as the not at all hath done in the precept which is not at all for they must be both conversant about the same matter and therefore as that doth restrain so this doth condemn only vain and superfluous swearing so that the whole sence is only this Swear not idly and vainly in any form whatsoever for whatsoever is more than yea and nay in your daily and ordinary communication proceedeth from evil So that both do leave room for the moderate and charitable use of an Oath when any urgent and necessary cause as the benefit of our Neighbour the Church or Commonwealth do require it so that the Gospel you see doth not thwart with the Law and swear not at all in the one if rightly understood doth not hinder but that there may be necessary Causes wherein we may say Thou shalt swear with the other that inhibition of idle Oaths no way destroying this precept of such as are serious and requisite but as they are great sins so these may be holy services and a man may as well offend against Charity in omitting these as sin against God in committing the other And therefore it still remains firm and unshaken
that we may farther distinguish the diverse kinds of either And two sorts sure there are apparently Verbal Wars and Violent so the Orator doth divide duo sunt genera decertandi â—num per vim alterum per disceptationem There are two sorts of war and contention the one by force the other by dispute and contestation that proper unto Beast this unto Men yet Men may fly unto that faith he when this latter may not be used or hath been used to no purpose For in case of injuries between States or Princes that have no Superiour Judges if reason may not prevail for right or restitution the Sword of necessity must dispute the cause and be bold to carve out its own satisfaction But then what large satisfaction men do usually cut out to themselves that are their own Carvers and Judges in their own causes backed with Caesars Maxime of War in the Poet Omnia dat qui justa negat what bitter revenges they take of their brethren what sorrows and calamities what slaughter and effusion of blood and confusion they bring upon the world until the whole earth doth groan and mourn if not totter and reel like a drunkard under the burthen is an argument fitter for tears than discourses for prayers unto God than declamations unto Men that little regard them But such are the conditions of the former sort violent and bloody The second are of a milder nature disceptive onlay and verbal In which kind I shall not now meddle with the pleas and pleadings between right and wrong bellum forense These are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 private brabbles between person and person founded in meum tuum frigida illa verba saith St. Chrysostome quae innumera genuere bella c. but only with 〈◊〉 those disceptations and disputes which concern verum falsum Truth and Error even in Faith and things pertaining unto God bellum Ecclesiasticum a war publick too as that other between States and Kingdoms so this between Churchmen and Churches as the war most especially intended in the Text and that we be not much offended at it ever and in all ages permitted by the Divine Dispensation for great reasons more or less to exercise the Church of God And these wars it were yet something well had they contained themselves within their proper sphere of disceptation and dispute though even thus such contention it self and the bitter fruits which it produceth is cause sufficient to bring sorrow enough on the heat of every true Son of the Church for whose heart smarteth not to consider the divisions I say not now of Reuben but of Levi and their great thoughts of heart to behold the parts and parcels divisions and subdivisions factions and fractions whereinto they have broken and even crumbled themselves To see the Coat of Christ that should be without seam not only rent in pieces but torn even unto rags until Religion Christian Religion seem to suffer the same fate with that Lady in Plutarch quam cum procorum singuli possidere nequirent integram in partes direpserunt obtinuit nemo omnium But have these contentions stayed here Have they not thrown aside the Pen and drawn forth the Sword lest chiding and fallen to blows words have bred exasperation and exasperation hatred more than Vatinians mortal or rather immortal hatred not content to spend it self on the goods the bodies the lives of the living but to rage on the Memory the Bones and the very Ashes and Sepulchres of the dead yea on the very Souls as far as they might of both how many such Souls of our late Predecessors whole blood in most Savage manner poured forth and spilt is yet even almost warm are there now lying under that Altar in the Revel and crying unto God with an usquequo how long Lord merciful and true And how well may we cry out and admire too with that Poet Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum For certainly there is neither of these contentions whether by disceptation or violence whether they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publick Wars or private Fightings of either sort but will well deserve an unde of admiration and inquisition too but first of admiration in regard of the inter vos the parties contending which is the second point whence c. And sure were the vos here only but men it were not without marvel since such violent and bloody contention as the Orator said well is proper to Beasts to Beasts that are of divers kinds and several natures as full of passion as void of understanding not unto Men that are rational of the same blood and descended from the loins of the same Parent in whom the lines of their several Pedegrees do all meet and center themselves in unity original that so in their running on from thence there might be continued a fraternity perpetual Beasts indeed come forth armed and in their several kinds well appointed for war into the world but Man is sent out without Tooth or Talon horn or hoof from the womb tanquam animal sociale ad pacem colendam natum as a civil and sociable creature designed and born unto peace Is it not strange that such notwithstanding should become belluis ipsis magis belluini more full of beastly ferity than beasts themselves That this sociable Animal should justifie the madness of the most Savage and intractable creatures steel their affections with more cruelty and barbarity than Bears and Lions can learn in the Wilderness As if they had sucked Tygers in the desert rather than the Daughters of Men or were a Cadmean generation born not of Women but terrae filii sprung up out of the earth sown with the teeth of Serpents for just so we destroy one another pereunt per mutua vulnera fratres like the young men that played before Joab and Abner every man thrusting his Sword in his Brothers side This cannot be without marvel But yet this is not it there is something more in the vos than this St. James directs his speech not meerly unto Men to animal Men and Infidels but unto Christian Men to Men whose Badge and Cognizance yea whose very form and essence is mutual Love and Charity unde inter vos It is but a just admiration this whence are wars amongst such That divers and several Religions should strive even unto death that the Jew and the Christian contending the Gentile should fall upon both as in the primitive times is no great matter but that one and the same should nourish intestine war that the Children of the same Mother should struggle and fight like Jacob and Esau in the very womb that bears them that is it that is marvellous indeed For we may not conceive that Christianity infolds within it several Religions As far as the World is Christian it is but one in which indeed there may be and are Factions and Parts some Schisms and
sensum Apostolo defuisse non miretur Who can chuse but wonder the Apostle should not see this subtilty saith St. Austin For had he known it to have been so eodem modo solveret istam quaestionem he would soon have answered the question immo nullam quam solvi opus esset faceret quaestionem Nay he had then never made any such question that should need an answer For there had not remained so much as any shew of injustice where Love or Hatred doth proceed according to good or evil deserts But now that there should be a different judgment where there is no difference in merit there cannot but seem a just occasion of making the demand Nunquid iniquitas Whereunto leaving this vain gloss as directly contrary unto his purpose he reduceth all unto the meer will of God I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion An answer sounding to this effect That since both were equally conceived in original sin deserved his Justice his Love unto one was an act of Mercy and in Mercy there is no cause of his will but his will nor of his Mercy but his Mercy I will have mercy c. And then quis nisi insipiens Deum iniquum putet sive judicium poenale ingerat digno sive misericordiam praestet indigno Because as before was noted though the one obtain free favour yet the other receives no injury By which answer he doth at once free God from all injustice towards the Reprobate and withal withdraws all merit from the Elect who have that Name and Grace for no other cause but only because he had a will to shew Mercy special Mercy unto them which he did not unto others to whom notwithstanding they were of themselves in all things equal and with whom they were in like sort obnoxious unto the revenge and power of Justice False therefore and vain and very derogatory unto the goodness of that God in whom is our help are their conceipts that build Election upon a foreseen good or evil use of a general and sufficient Grace to the prejudice of that which is special and particular For however we deny not but rather piously believe that his Providence doth sufficiently help all those whom his mercy doth vouchsase to call yet withal we acknowledge it to be such an help as whereâ— withal God when he looked down from Heaven saw there was none did good no not one A help therefore which in effect doth not give Salvation but takes away excuse and seems not so much to justify them as to make their Condemnation more just who notwithstanding that they might not all perish and that he might yet shew his Mercy of his infinite goodness freely elected some to such special Grace whereby they should not perish a Grace effectual receiving the rest unto endless punishment for abusing that which was sufficient So that God doth not only give such Grace whereby we may be able to do and then elect us for doing what we were able but contrarily foreseeing that we would not do what we were able with that sufficient Grace to do of his absolute Mercy did decree to give us such powerful and efficacious Grace whereby we certainly should do what otherwise without this special help he knew we should not For had not he by this means as the Scripture testifies reserved unto himself a Remnant notwithstanding the former Grace we had been all as Sodom and perished as Gomorrha And therefore Reliqui mihi saith God unto Elias It is not there are or there remains unto me but I have reserved unto my self seven thousand which never bowed the knee unto Baal And from this Reliqui they are termed Reliquiae secundùm electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt A Remnant only are saved according to the Election of Grace And if of Grace surely not of foreseen works yea so far is God from respecting the will or work of Man in the dispensation of his Grace as he sometimes denies that help unto those that would use it well which notwithstanding he offers and exhibits unto others that he knew before would reject it Had those great works saith our Saviour upbraiding the Jews been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented in Sackcloth and Ashes Lo how God ploughs the Sand and scatters his good seed upon the dry and barren hearts of the Jews fitter for salt and in the mean time withholds it from another soil that would have fructified and brought forth the fruit of Repentance unto eternal life What shall we say unto this Two things occur which I only am willing to answer saith St. Austin in the like case and are very fit for this nunquid iniquitas apud Deum And O alâ—itudo divitiaerum An Interrogation and an exclamation the one out of the ninth and the other out of the eleventh to the Râ—m And both joined tend unto this That being assured there is no injustice with God we should not search the cause but admire the depth of his Wisdom whose judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out For he often treads on water that leaves no path or impression behind He walks upon the great deep saith Daâ—id and his footsteps are not known And whom this will not satisfy I must advise with the same Father Quaerat doctiorer seâ—b caveat nè inoeniat praesumptiores Let him seek those that are more learned but take heed he doth not meet with those that are too presumptuous Such surely as these conditional Electioners are who as if they were fore runners of the second coming of Christ endued with the Spirit of Elias have cast down every Hill and filled up every Valley made whatsoever seemed crooked streight and whatsoever was rough smooth and plain and by this means they though but lambs can easily wade where those Elephants the Fathers of the Primitive Church found such Pits and Pools as they were glad to swim For what is there in their Doctrine not easie and even obvious and open if God hath diversly determined of none but such as are of divers and different merits what room then is there left for O altitudo For they that give a cause of Election take away all cause of the Apostles exclamation because none do admire an effect but they that are ignorant of the cause as here all must needs be when of those that have one and same cause there is not one and the same regard but the one is justly exposed unto hatred the other vouchsafed love without all cause at least that we can search out and inquire The head of Nilus may be sooner found than the Spring and Fountain of Election the eye of the Eagle that looks on the Sun cannot discover it because it remains in his bosom that dwells in inaccessible light And yet notwithstanding we do not make the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrational For
and dy the Soul of the Receiver which must be made partaker or shall be made guilty either partaker of the vertue or guilty of the shedding thereof to his endless destruction that receives it unworthily The guilt you have in the precedent Verse He shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. The destruction in the subsequent he eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body The exhortation in my Text lies between both that it might be the more vehemently enforced and every man might know how much it behoveth him diligently to examine himself before he eat of that bread and drink of that Cup But let a man examine c. Wherein you see there are two general parts first a preparation then an admission unto the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour The Admission in the latter part Let him eat and the preparation in the former but first let a man examine c. Of the holy Sacrament it self and an admission unto it hereafter at this time only of the preparation that should go before it Wherein you may consider 1. The Act wherein it consists Examination and then the object of that Act himself Let a man c. But we shall run both together and out of both draw these points which we will commend to your observation 1. Because the end of examination is to prepare our selves we will shew the necessity of this preparation 2. That we may know wherein to examine our selves we will consider the quality and extent of that preparation which is necessary for the making and constituting of a worthy Receiver 3. We will shew that the best means to attain unto this due preparationâ— or qualification is the study and knowledge of our selves and our own ways 4. Because the heart of man is deceitful above all things and we are all apt to deceive our selves in judging of our selves that it is not a superficial view but a strict examination that must give the just and true knowledge of our selves 5. And lastly we will make and practise this examination in those points we have found necessary that after it they who are approved in their own Consciences may chearfully approach unto the sacred Mysteries and eat of that bread and drink of that Cup to their endless comfort and others that are not so as I think few are may first reform themselves lest they eat and drink as the Apostle here threatens damnation to themselves So these five The necessity of preparation and what the prepation is that is so necessary That the best means to attain it is the knowledge of our selves and the best way to come to this knowledge examination which examination because it is the chief point we will strictly make in the last place that according to it we may either approve or reform our selves before we presume to come to the dreadful Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord These 5. I say we shall at this time as God shall inable prosecute in their order but plainly as desirous to leave you rather better than more learned And first of the first the necessity of preparation But let a man examine c. The end of examination is preparation for to examine and not to prepare our selves were but to see our own foulness and refuse to cleanse it to inquire into our Lords will and neglect it when we have done and that will only make us worthy of more stripes And therefore he that commands the one doth in the same words of necessity injoin the other And indeed holy and Divine Mysteries as in reason they require an holy and sanctified preparation so in Scripture hath it ever been prescribed and exacted at their hands that shall draw near unto them yea the very Heathen Priests would not enter upon their Superstitious Ceremonies to their false Gods without first proclaiming a procul este profani all profane and unhallowed persons be ye far away And it was the use in the Primitive Church for the Minister as it is in St. Basils Liturgy or the Deacon his Assistant as Chrysostom hath it To cry with a loud voice before the Communion Sancta Sanctis holy things pertain unto holy people And for this cause it was that the Lord gave such strict command in Law that no uncircumcised person should presume to eat of the Paschal Lamb nor yet any circumcised neither under four days preparation and sanctification of themselves With what reverence then and awful regard should we draw near unto the true Passover in the blessed Sacrament which succeeds in the room of that other and exceeds it too no less than the substance doth the shadow than the body and blood of the Son of God doth the flesh and blood of a Lamb taken from the flock To shew this our Saviour himself at his last supper ariseth from the Table takes the Bason and the Towel washes and wipes his Disciples feet before he would institute his blessed Sacrament or suffer them to be Communicants at it Now by the feet in holy Scripture are meant the affections of the heart for as by the feet the body walks so by the affections the Soul moves to whatsoever it desires They are the springs and Fountains of all her vital operations and as the Fountains are such are the streams if those be troubled these will be foul if they be cleansed the other will run clear And therefore these feet these affections of the heart being once washed the meditations of the head the words of the mouth and the actions of the hand which are but rivers flowing from the abundance of the heart and the hearts affections cannot but partake of the same purity For which reason when Peter who at the first was not willing to be washt at all afterwards was desirous to have all washt his head and his hands as well as his feet our Saviour replies he that is washed needeth not to wash save his feet only for then he is clean every whit Joh. xiii 10. The feet then the affections of the Soul on whose cleanness doth depend the purity of the whole man and all his actions these are they that our Saviour by this act of his own doth instruct us carefully to wash and cleanse before they tread a step towards his holy Table How can they there expect to be partakers of him who himself in that place told Peter that without this washing he could have no part in him They frustrate the end and benefit of the holy Sacrament they prostitute the blessed mysteries themselves they dishonour both them and the Majesty of that God who is present at and in them who presume with unwasht feet unhallowed affections to enter upon the sacred Symbols sanctified with the peculiar presence of the precious body and blood of the Son of the everliving God No marvel therefore if such profaners of this blood are held as guilty of the