Idolaters Therefore the Psalmist here so earnestly urgeth it upon God who he believed ever did and would own his own Cause so as to plead it himself in his own way and time Both as to the Majesty truth justice holiness and honor of it also as to the indignities which are by evil men cast upon it Summus Deus summas patitur injurias none is more a sufferer as to the malice and insolence of wicked men then the most blessed God who yet is as impassible as the suns light is uninfectible with the filthy exhalations of dunghils Plato puts this true saying into the mouth of Socrates dying under the malice of his persecutors Anytus and Melitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is impossible for evil to make any impression of affliction upon that which is good and which can as a jewel so preserve its native goodness and firmness that sufferings shall make it not onely no way diminished but as in the wheel and file more illustrious and meritorious such were the sufferings of Christ properly and of all good men in an Evangelical sense being for a good Cause and on Gods account till God ceaseth to be just and good and true and faithful vigilant and zealous for his own glory his cause cannot utterly miscarry 3. Observ The Cause of God may be as to the eye of the world and to the sense of the best men in a most sad dejected deplored despised and desperate estate so sunck and oppressed that there is no outward sign of its being ever boyed up and recovered thus it was represented to Elias as if he onely were left to plead a lost Cause So the Disciples expressed their sorrow and despondency We verily trusted this had been he who should have redeemed Israel So Mary weeping to the Angels answers their questioning of her tears They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him many times the foundation of Church and State of Justice and Religion are so out of course that the righteous know not what to do or say all things so unhinged by violent wicked and unreasonable men that nothing moves by any order or written Law of God or Man but by the power and impulse of mens own lusts who from Gods silence permission and patience are prone foolishly to conclude his approbation and liking of their cause and ways yea and to say God is such an one as themselves the distress of Gods Cause may be such that the whole Church may be ready to cry out as the Psalmist Help Lord for vain is the help of man It is time for thee O Lord to put to thy hand for they have made thy Law of none effect § So did the Heathenish persecution and the latter Romish superstition tyrannically triumph a long time over the slain Witnesses the Law and Gospel the Scriptures and Catholick Traditions the Preachers and Professors of that true Religion which hath been testified both as to moralities and mysteries faith and manners not onely by the two Testaments but also by the confessions and conversations of all antient and modern Christians conform to Gods Word and the best Churches customs The vapor of numbers pomp prosperity and prevalency are no demonstrations either to approve the cause of Arius or Antichrist or to prejudice the cause of Christ and of Gods true Church But as Lucan speaks of the cause of Pompey and Cesae in which the justice of the first was overborn by the successes of the second Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni the gods abetted Cesar by victories but Cato's constancy adhered to Pompey's and the Senates conquered cause because it was most just 4. Obser The Cause of the true Church is Gods cause most signally and peculiarly in this world his interests and concernments are so linked with its that they are insepâ—trable as Jacobs soul was bound up in Benjamins as the Husbands honor in the Wives as a friends happiness in a friends so is the relation between God and his Church if that be black God is eclipsed as to the most visible eradiations of his glory to this world if that be bright and conspicuous as a City on a hill in truth and holiness in charity and prosperity Gods great name praise and renown are most glorious and illustrious Then his Wisdom and Truth and Justice and Power and Mercy and Patience and Goodness and Faithfulness are in their meridian strength as the Sun at noon day If the Church be hidden it is as the moon turned into blood or the Sun of Righteousness into sackcloth as Joel speaks as Joshua astonished when Israel turned its back upon its enemies said to God And what wilt thou do O Lord to thy great Name So do holy men they are prone to despond and deplore Gods own condition and Cause when they see the Church of God or any part of it as to its veracity sanctity order peace prosperity and unity decline and decay under error prophaness persecution disorder distraction division or any uncomfortable condition Tunc periclitatur coelum Dei res agitur then Gods Cause is at stake then as in the Giants assault his heaven is in hazard as if he were in danger to be numen infelix a miserable God Then is Christ tossed in the storms then do true Beleevers cry out as the Disciples Lord save us we perish Help Lord and do it for thy own name sake which is called upon by us God hath no considerable design in the world but that of his Church when this is consummated the world as the scaffold or stage or shell or chaff is to be destroyed The Church cannot be undone until God is undone and bankrupt 5. Obser No Church hath ever been so famous and flourishing in outward piety plenty peace and prosperity but it may fall under persecution and great oppression sometimes indeed as God said to Satan in the case of Jobs trials without a cause that is as to any predominant and unrepented sin at present provoking God against him but only as Christ said of the man born blind That the work of Gods grace and Spirit might be manifest in the trials and tribulations of his Church So in the first ages of the Church when Religion was purest and love warmest yet was the fire and furnace of persecution hottest Sometimes indeed as a fruitful land is made barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein so the lukewarmness and corruptions of a Church the Apostasies and falling of Christians from their first Faith loyalty patience love and good works may cause God to hide his face to withdraw his protection to remove his candlestick as he threatens and to give over his Turtle to the will of its adversaries who shall set up their banners and roar in the Sanctuaries and break down all her carved works and
God and his Church are as I said inseparable no man is affected with one who is neglective of the other this example we have here added to others of Noah Lot Moses Phineas Samuel Eliah Micaiah Jeremiah Nehemiah Daniel Mordecai and others whose vigilancy and pertinacy was such in the cause of God and his Church that they were resolved to give God no rest till he did arise and plead his own cause Nothing is more imitable nothing more commendable nothing more practicable nothing more comfortable provided we rightly understand what the Cause of God is and apply to it as becomes God his cause and our duties then t is heroick to say with Esther If I perish I perish This is Angelick with Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put God to the blush and silence If not blo◠me out of thy book and t is super Angelical to say with St. Paul I would wish to be accursed from Christ for the Churches sake and Gods cause our duty in which we shall the◠best understand and perform when we have duly considered these four things 1. What the Cause of God is 2. What need we may have of his pleading it 3. How God doth plead it 1. Immediately by himself 2. Mediately by such instruments and means as he is pleased to use among men In the fourth place is to be shewed What is the true method or manner to be observed by all good men in pleading Gods cause with him and for him When these are finished and such Patheticks applied by way of use as may cast your wills in the mold of your judgements and make your affections to keep pace at least to follow your understandings I shall I hope not onely discharge in some tolerable measure my own duty and undertaking which is great but answer your favourable and Christian expectation which I see is not little for I abhor nothing more then the ostentation of so ample a text to so ample an Auditory in such exigents of times even agonies of Gods cause in Church and State in Justice and Religion and to do nothing worthy or proportionable to them which defect in me and neglect in you God forbid whose assistance as I humbly implore so I may not despair since it is in his own Cause which must needs be the best and may modestly hope for his gracious help in my pleading and preaching for it against all frivolous fallacious and impertinent pretenders to it the rather because it is not onely my particular cause as a Christian and a Minister but all yours together with your posterities as men as English-men as Christians and as Protestants We know that of the Orator In propriacausa unusquisque sibi videtur potens eloquens if in our own much more in Gods Cause which is our own too we ought to do our best on all hands First What this Cause of God is I take it for granted what I first observed That God hath his cause in this world who made all things by his wisdom and power for his glory and is as a wise Agent highly concerned as to do nothing in vain so not to fail of his main design It is no other then Atheistical blasphemy to deny that God hath any concern or causeon earth or that he regards them that doth and will ever plead for them God hath not left himself without witness in the world that he is and that he looks to the managery of all things specially of mankind and peculiarly of his own Cause It is not natura volvente vices lucis anni that all things are fatal and necessary confining God as well as man to inevitable events which is the fancy of those Qui nullo credunt mundum rectore moveri who have either no Faith in God or no thought worthy of a God Gods silence and patience are the prejudices which men have taken against his Providence and that special care of things which runs as spiritus intus agens in all permissions and events which are not as to God either contingent or by constraint but under the free and soveraign disposition which is every way worthy of a most wise disposer and almighty worker hence mockers as S. Peter observes are prone to ask Where is Gods cause where the promise of his coming Where are his prophesies what he would do for the good in mercy and against the wicked in justice even thus of old the Gnostick pride and presumption jested when vengeance was at the door and judgement overtook them to an utter desolation of the Jewish Polity They are such as live without God in the world that say he will do nor good nor evil Many are willingly ignorant that God hath any cause in this world and many are mistaken in the true Cause and in their pleadings for it without right understanding the heart cannot be good since the pregnant inventions of men in all times especially in ours have found out many Causes and every one is cryed up for Gods The first foundation-stone to be laid in this building is to know what the true Cause of God is of which every one boasts as his peculiar till another comes and finds out the fallacy This I shall shew first by giving general characters of Gods Cause such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper essential and intrinsick marks of it Secondly I shall by way of Induction shew you the particuliar parts or branches by which it spreads it self in the world First The Cause of God is known by these marks or essential properties 1 It is Causa optima not only a good cause but the very best yea the onely good one in the world the measure or standard of all others as the first and best of all Causes which are only so far good as they are conform to and concurrent with the cause of God whose internal rule is the moral will of God its end the glory of God It is good in its principles and in its practices every way vera pura justa divina 2. It is true according to Scriptural verity which is revealed in the holy Word of God fixed and infallible not depending on uncertainties which are sceptical conjectural and opinionative much less upon fantastical and enthusiastical notions according to the fancies dreams and inventions of men that are rather heady and giddy then hearty and godly § Gods Cause is never to be carried on by fictions or lyes by fables or legends which are but mans devises and the Devils stratagems as impertinent to advance Gods Cause as blackness is to augment light as with God so with his Cause no iniquity dwelleth 3. It is an holy pure and just Cause in all points as it regards 1. God in religious adoration inward reverence and outward veneration 2. Our selves in chastity and sobriety 3. Others in justice
or Beadsmen Tenants at will and only by the courtesie of the grand Lord being less then the least of his mercys as Jacob humbly and ingenuously confessed It will be eternally inculcated upon wicked men with repeated torments not onely as to their injustice to God and man disciteâ—justitiam moniti netemnite divos but as to that which was said to the rich fool whose are all those good things now whose will they be when thy soul is taken from thee enjoying neither thy self nor any thing since thou enjoyest not God the chiefest good of all And that Son remember thou enjoyedst thy good things in thy life time not as Gods but as thine own and as thy chiefest goods which made them evil to thee both as to sinning then and to suffering now But I have done with the first particulars shewing you first that God hath his cause in this world and what this cause is in the particular instances of it The second General Quere I proposed was 1. How the cause of God comes to stand in need of his pleading 2. And why the Lord in his providence permits it to come to come to such lapses low ebbs and distresses 1. If we consider that cause of God which is on foot in all the world among all Nations according to what of God and his glory is made known to them by the works of his power wisdom bounty and providence also by those innate and self-demonstrating principles of right reason which remain in mens hearts as the measures of Justice rules of chastity sobriety veracity humanity and the impulses to some religion that is agnition and reverence of the Divine Majesty even this common cause of God in nature may stand in need of his special pleading by the great degeneration of people when they have generally corrupted their ways so that they are turned beasts monsters devils in pride lust oppression and cruelty in contempt of all true Religion in professed and practised Atheism and it s giantly consequences prostituting all things to debauchery and villany § Here the righteousness of God from heaven is usually so revealed by the way of great judgements upon such persons people and Nations by war and famine or plagues or inundations or fires or earthquakes that the remnant may learn to fear God and do no more so presumptuously So when the Old world had polluted it self in all sensual fedities and Cyclopick villanies God rinsed the earth with a flood and washed the whole race of mankind like dung from the face of the earth except eight persons one righteous Noah and his seven relations God makes even Heathens and Idolaters as he did the Athenians to acknowledge there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unknown God who is too hard for all their Idols too wise for their policies and too just to be either deceived or despised § Thus Gods cause was driven to a necessity of some judicial and extraordinary pleading against those proud and presumptuous builders of Babel who fancied to ascend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above the reach of a future flood forgetting that God had not only Seas and waters to bring upon them from the great deep but thunderbolts also and fire from above to cast upon them as he did upon Sodom and those other Cities who burning with unnatural lusts the effect of high feeding and idleness were made the fuel of everlasting flames So when the sins of the Canaanitish Nations were ripe and their measure full God brings in the sickle of the Israelites swords a Nation which of all in the world they would not have feared or suspected having lately been under hard bondage in Egypt and their spirits so infinitely cowed that being Six hundred thousand fighting men they durst not make head against their accustomed Masters the Egyptians yet by these did God plead against the abominations of these mighty Nations which cried to heaven for vengeance even to an utrer extirpation of men women and children beyond all pitty and sparing § So in humane histories we shall still finde such remarkable instances of Gods Justice making Nations punish one the other by dashing them against each other by bringing some desolating judgements upon them that mankind might still preserve some fear of the Divine Majesty § Thus he brings the Median and Persian power under Cyrus and Darius to hew down the great tree of the Babylonian pride and Monarchy when Balshazzars saoriledge grew so impudent as to use the holy vessels of Gods Temple as measures for his drunkenness and excess After this when the Persian Monarchy was dissolved to excessive luxury and tyranny under the last Darius God brings the Grecian sword by the conduct and valour of Alexander the Great to mow down those Eastern Nations by thousands and ten thousands yea by hundred thousands in a few years § When the Greoian Princes which set up for themselves in their seve ral shares of that Macedonian Empire in Persia in Egypt in the lesser Asia and in Greece when these were debased to all vile affections and actions against the principles of their own Philosophy and Divinity to which they pretended Then did the Lord stir up the fourth Beast the Roman Empire with Iron Feet and Teeth to tear devour and trample all the others power and glory their riches and dominions As all private judgements are Gods pleading against single persons so Epidemick miseries do proclaim some publique indignities and extraordinary injuries offered to the Divine Majesty contrary to those principles of reason justice and Religion which were known among them their very light being turned into darkness and the bounty of God to all manner of wickedness when his blessings to them had in vain been witness of his goodness to them he comes as a swift witness in storms and tempests of desolation against them which none could withstand or escape as is to this day oft seen even among Mahometans Tarters Chineses and Indians Secondly Since the Church of God is more peculiarly and eminently his Cause under his special care and cognisance the chief Quaere is how this comes to need Gods own immediate pleading 1. By open enemies persecuting opposing and many times utterly oppressing the Church of God as Vultures or Eagles seising on Pigeons or as Lions Bears and Wolves on Lambs and Sheep So when the Church of God grew from a family to the Nation of the Jews and were owned by God as his peculiar people and concern above all the world all the world was generally against them and sought not onely to despise but destroy them as gentem exitiabilem a vile and execrable Nation as Tacitus terms them So Pharoah first and the Egyptians held them under hard bondage till they were weary of life as well as of their burthens there was none to plead their cause but God who did it at last to purpose with
such is the disorder that attends men in their own cause and the order which they observe who intend Gods There was wont to be proclaimed before the olympian games and Athletick agonies That none who were misbegotten or slaves or vile or infamous persons should offer to enter the lists or contest in those famous and solemn yea sacred conflicts which were not for private gain but for the honour of their gods and the Victors such a proclamation may I make as to Gods cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no proud prophane covetous ambitious sacrilegious perjurious popular partial parasitick insolent disorderly and licentious persons pretend to plead it since they do more prejudice and disparage it then any way advance or forward it good and wise men are ashamed and weak men are jealous and affraid to be sâ—en in that good cause wherein wicked men appear not good but great sticklers as Magots do in what was a good dish of meats not to garnish or adorne it but to defile and devour it 4. Use fear to oppose Gods cause or by anyforcible or fallacious ways to plead against it for it will be as a burthensome stone a rock of offence who ever dasheth against it or on whom it falls at last with the weight of Gods vindication It will dash them to pieces who ever contended against God and his cause and prospered For it will at last be pleaded with fire and brimstone with an omni potent and unexorable justice which will consume as fire doth stubble all the opposing powers and fallacious pretensions 5. Vse of exhortation when we have done our duty in Gods cause and in his way according to our place and see that we profit nothing as to the publique but onely to our own peace and discharge of good consciences yet cease not to follow God with our prayers and holy importunities that he would take the matter into his own hand Bonae causae sufficit unus patronus bonus Gods cause is never to be despaired of though it have no patron or advocate among men yet it hath one above who is optimus maximus the greatest and best of all It may as a bladder be forced under water for a while but it will buoy up again The Church may be as the ship in which Christ was tossed and covered with waves yet Christum vebit causam Christi as Caesar said to the fearful Mariners of himself and his fortune God oft lets things run to low ebbs that he may shew his mighty power and make the extremities of his cause the opportunities of his help however let not thy faith or Prayers fast which have a kind of omnipotency in them to remove Mountains and to do miracles at a dead lift Gods arme is not shortned though mans be withered let God alone with his own cause the gates of bell shall not prevail against it 6. Vse Measure not the cause of God by outward prevailings and prosperities the gayest feathered foul are not the best meat we must condemne the generation of Gods people and the cause of the righteous if we think that the worst cause which hath the worst usage or success in this world look to the Prophets from righteous Abel to John Baptist look to the Apostles and the best of their successors look to the holy Preachers and people we shall find they had always enough to do to plead the cause of God and his truth against the many open persecutions and secret underminings of evil men and devils who many times so prevayled by Gods just judgment that the cause of God seemed wholly routed such were their powers their victories their numbers their policies their cruelties all bent against the cause of God yet even their banishment and prison and tortures and plundrings and sequestrations and loss of all even to life it self these with a good cause and a good conscience were infinitely to be preferred before all the Treasures and Triumphs and Thrones and successes and applauses of impious prosperity or prosperous impiety The just must live by faith not by sense the touch stone of Gods cause is Godsword both as to the end and the means the usual badg or mark of Christs cause is Christs cross to which we were all devoted in our baptism nor must we fly from those colours least the Lord answer us as those that plead with him at the last day have we not prophecyed in thy name and cast out Devils c. So have we not pleaded thy cause O Lord by tumults mutinies falsities sedition rebellion by plunder and rapine by sacriledge and perjury by blood and violence To whom the Lord will reply depart from me ye hypocrites and accursed I know you not you pleaded the cause of your own lusts and belly of your pride envy covetousness ambition and revenge and not of my holy name and true Religion and reformation which owns no such manner of pleading or practising 7. Vse Is by way of examination wherein I will propound two Questions to you with such answers as I conceive may suit them 1. Question is What may be that cause of God for which he thus pleads in wrath against us in England So far that his hand hath been a long time stretched forth against us and his wrath is not yet turned away from us but burnes as a consuming fire to the very foundations in a long war and the worst of all a civil war which destroys even humanity it self setting nearest relations at distances and friends at distances and neighbours at enmity and countrimen at mortal contentions Yea and this upon the worst account even religious dissentions and jealousies no less then secular if we ask why the Lord hath brought all this evil upon a people that were once called by his name and but too happy the very wonder joy or envy of all Churches and Nations and Kingdomes Why is it that the Lord hath pleaded thus severely against our Kings and Princes our Parliaments and Peers our Bishops and Clergy our Gentry and Commonalty even all sorts of people against Church and State against our peace our laws our government our liberties our estates and our plenty against the prosperity and the honour of the Nation yea against our very Religion and reformation it self as if he did abhor us So that we seem condemned to everlasting torments to contend with and devoure each other with endless diesolations and confusions turning like Ixion in the wheel or Sisyphus his stone or St. Laurence from one side to the other upon the gridâ—ron of dayly exactions vexations terrors and vastations while Manasseh is against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and Iudah against both That we cannot find or will not follow the way of peace With what Earthquakes and Shakings and Overturnings and bloody Battels and mutual Exhaustings and unplacable Annimosities have we been wasted many years and are still
such a people as we are whose iniquities have forfeited former blessings the sins of peace made way for war and war for domestick confusion and these for foraign invasions and this for Romish superstitions and Papal usurpations for there want not factors at home and abroad who are earnest sticklers for a Cause which they call the Catholick Cause what it means as to our civil and religious concern as to the honor of this Nation and the prosperity or peace or liberty of the Reformed Religion you cannot be such strangers in the Christian world as not to consider How long as Eliah said to the Israelites will you halt between two opinions between two Causes nay now they are multiplied to twenty if the Reformed Church and Religion which God so blessed with temporal and spiritual blessings with excellent gifts and graces to your forefathers in the last century of Englands honor and happiness if it be Gods Cause grounded on his word sealed by his Spirit and conform to the best of primitive Churches let us plead and assert this against all other for it will be our wisdom and our strength our honor our peace and our safety as it was to our forefathers for the greatest part of an hundred years while they joyned Loyalty to Religion and thought nothing further from Reformation then Rebellion against lawful Magistrates and their lawful power The Second Question you may make to me is What is this Cause of God which we are now to plead in England or what is there left for us to do I Answer as Joseph to his brethren this do and live First retain righteous principles as to civil Justice and true Religion in your own judgements and in the Court of your consciences that you be not warped in them so as by any events or successes to call evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness Though you have not opportunity or power or courage at present to plead according to your principles yet turn not from them comply not with such as are false unjust irreligious though it be so evil a time that prudence adviseth and piety indulgeth you silence yet time may come when you may plead for Gods Cause according to your principles Mean time as by your speaking you do not strengthen the hands of an evill cause and evill doers so by your silence and reserve you do cast a just reproach and discountenance upon them there is yet hope of a good Cause if the Court and Judge be not corrupted Notwithstanding that some evil pleaders cry it down Secondly As you have power and opportunity given you dare to own and plead for Gods Cause 1. In your own brests and consciences every grace and vertue every good thought and motion is Gods plead them against thy own lusts and the Devils temptations 2. In thy Family and relations plead Gods Cause against lying swearing idleness prophaness c. Thirdly In civil affairs plead the cause of Justice against any injury and oppression the poorest mans cause if just is Gods yea and the cause of a wicked mans so far as it is just is Gods Specially in causes of publick Justice there thou must not be wanting to speak out by pleading when called to it by petitioning and praying for Justice yea and acting for it according to what is just and lawful but a just Cause must not be set as the Ark on the cart of injustice we must not so plead Gods cause as to injure Cesars nor Cesars as to injure Gods Fourthly Plead the cause of true Religion of our reformed Religion of the Church of England and its excellent constitutions against the Pseudo Catholick Church of Rome the cause of Christs merits and intercession against all mixtures humane or Angelick the cause of the Scriptures against all Apocryphal traditions and fanatick illuminations which are false illusions and not divine inspirations The cause of the Lords Supper in its compleatness against the subductions and seductions of the Mass which loseth the bread to all and steals away the wine from the Laity the cause of the worship of God in a known tongue to edification against Latin service which few understand so as to say Amen to what is prayed So the cause of chast and honorable mariage against scorched and affected coelebacy Further Plead as for the verity so for the unity of the Reformed Religion and this Church against those lice and locusts those noxious and noysom vermine of factions which have so gnawed and defaceâ— this Church the reformed religion and which seek to deprive your children of one and your selves of both the holy Sacraments Plead for the Churches patrimony for the support and honor of an able learned authoritative and worthy Ministry in due order and government of it against those sacrilegious spirits who with Judas grudge all as wast that is by a grateful charity and devout superfluity poured on Christ for the honor of his name and the encouragement of his Ministers according to the general tenor of Gods word not only permiting but commanding us by personal or national donations to honor God with our substance Plead for our due ordination subordination as Ministers that we may not by novel projects of levelling confusion plebeian Anarchy in the Church be driven from conformity with the ancient Fathers and the order and universal government of all Christian Churches as wel as our own from our first being Christian If you think us able or worthy to take care of your souls eternal welfare and to administer to you spiritual things Do not think us worthy to be condemned to live to dye and to be buried even yet alive with the meanest of the people since by what I have now discoursed to you it may appear that we are neither ignorant of nor enemies to the true cause of God Jesus Christ as our blind and bitter enemies do maliciously pretend Of which cause I have in all my discourse not spoken my own private sense only but the sense of my Fathers Brethren of all true Bishops and Presbyters and of the whole Church of England Lastly Since I hope you are as willing as able to plead Gods cause and since I know you pray that God would plead your and your posterities cause in Church and State that he would make yours his own cause Keep I beseech you always in your souls this holy resolution not to be wanting in your place to your power to assert Gods cause corde et ore consilio exemplo prece praxi atramento sanguine In which behalf you cannot form your thoughts to a better tune and words then Luther did when he undertook that great Cause of religious reformation Aut propugnemus causam Dei aut succumbamus cum causa Dei Either let us stand by the cause of God or let us fall with
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terrae filii gigantum fratreculi a company of Mushroom men and Christians sprung out of the earth but yesterday a nation in its infancy or minority which is now to learn its A. B. C. of Religion and civil government being set back by a most sad and horrible fate from Homers Iliads to our Primmer or Pueriles by I know nor what new Teachers and many Masters § So that it is high time seriously to meditate conscientiously to preach freely to write and fervently to pray upon this subject The Cause and the Cause of God since every party pretends a Cause and Gods Cause too which they are most eager and ambitious not only to plead fairly but to obtrude for oâ—bly on all others Thus from the great Pretenders â—â— the Cath 〈…〉 Cause of which the Romanisâ—â— would seem the chief Patrons to all other Sects and Subsectionâ— either in civil or religious factions All parties are divided by their Causes and the whole is destroyed by their divisions Ask any side why they thus shuffle and out why they thus divide and destroy why they do things so different from solid Reason and true Religion contrary to all Laws of God and man contrary to the duty they owe â—â— God their Country their King their Posterity the Church and the State as to Justice Veracity Peace and Charity Ask why like Ixicons wheel or Sysiphus his stone they overturn ouerturn overturn all things eivil and sacred by their end less verâ—igoes and rotations then answer is short as that of David to his brother Eliab Is there not â— Cause It will not be amiss therefore as St. John adviseth Christians to try the spirits whether they be of God or â—o of Christ or of Antichrist to examine the several pretended and pleaded Causes whether they be Gods Cause which is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Causarum causa the Cause of Causes The Cause and interest of all the blessed Angels and all true Saints worthy of Princes and Peers of Gown-men and Sword-men of all honest and good men or whether they be not the Cause of the Devil and of mens own evil â—usts disguised with this larva or vizard on them which may not uncharitably be suspected of some of them Since it is most certain they cannot all be Gods Causes they are so many so multiform so mutable so divided so destructive to each other they must needs fail either of the main end and ground or matter and method of Godr pleading his own Cause § Of which I shall by Gods help endeavour to give this honorable and Christian Auditory such an account as may either inform or at least confirm your judgements in the true Cause of God that you may not be tossed too and frâ—â— with every wind of causeless Causes which blow as mens passions and secular interests do arise And further I hope to excite your judieâ—ous abilities and eloquent attentions who are persons of so great learning experience and publiâ—â— influence to be ever zealous in that good Cause which is Gods as bonâ— Causidici honest and able Lawyers to shew your skill and will in the great concerns of God his Church and your Country which are noâ— so eagerly pleaded and counter pleaded among us Appeals beinâ— as it were made to every one oâ— us to judge in our selves which â—â— the righteous Cause of God tp which we ought chearfully to give our suffrages and assistance as most undoubtedly conducing to our publick happiness both in Church and State in civil and religious concernments let not this be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a desolate and forsaken Cause in which no men of parts and estate will appear § And cartainly if I had less experience then I have of the favour of the Court I mean of this Christian Assembly which is met in Gods Courts and presence yet I may justly have great confidence as to the merit of that Cause which I shall seek to present to you and plead before you this day in Gods behalf As Jotham therefore said to his Countrymen Hearken to me that God may hearken to you Attend diligently to the pleading of his cause who alone can plead yours yea and hath given us an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous whose blood speaks better things for us whose wounds are so many eloquent mouths whose cross was loaden with strong crys for us whose merits are undeniable mediators whose Spirit continually makes intercession in us and for us even then when we know not what to say or how to pray either unable to plead or ashamed to speak for our selves Gods Cause may sometimes seem to want our pleading for it before men but our cause doth really and ever need the pleadings of Gods mercy and Christs merits before the Tribunal of his Justice that there may be a prohibition granted at the humble motion of believing and penitent sinners to remove the suit or action from the Bar of Divine Justice to the Throne of the heavenly Grace where we may finde mercy to relieve us in all our distresses despairs and deaths § Before I set before you the main fruits with which I intend to entertain you out of the Text iâ— will not be amiss to gather an handful of those fair flowers which offer themselves at the first view of the words as so many short but sweet and excellent observations 1. We may observe That God hath his Cause too in this world his great design concern and interest as well as the wise Statists and great Polititians as well as the strong and the rich and the learned and the ambitious and the malicious and the voluptuous and the covetous men of the world who so eagerly plead and pursue their own projects and Causes that they not only many times forget Gods but generally cross contradict and oppose it as with their sin and folly so to their shame and ruine for as the counsel so the Cause of God shall stand Nor is it to be baffled by any either force or fraud strengtlâ— or sophistry It is as truth Magna praevalebat a great Cause and will prevail by the help of a wise and strong God though for a time it may be unjustly condemned and crucified by unjust men as Christ was yet it will at last be raised again in power and glory yea and justified before men and Angels It will as Aarons rod or serpent devour all those of the worlds Magicians and Polititians It is a Cause which will be as fire consumptive of all other and consummative of it self 2. Observ As God hath his Cause in this world so it becomes him to own it It is opus Dei the work of a God to plead his own Cause as Gideon speaks of Baal Idols were convicted to be no Gods because they could not plead for themselves by speaking or doing good or evil as the Prophet tells
little matters which administer much strife and little edification in truth or love Christians may and must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep the truth in love Ephes 4. though they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in things indifferent the substance of Gods Cause should have more influence to unite hearts than the ceremonies to divide them 7. Yet the cause of God is Causa ordinata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very regular and orderly in all its motions full of harmony and beauty abhorring any ways that are preposterous desultory violent uncomely disorderly tumultuary confused It needs none of these devillish engines to carry on the Cause of him who is the God of order decency and peace not of division confusion and contention Extravagant and excentricâ— spirits easily lose the Cause of God while they follow it in a preposterous wrong way as men may easily miss the centre of the circle who lay their rule in the least degree awry from the diameter the passions of men and their popular po 〈…〉 es never work out the righteousness of Gods Cause but trouble foil blemish and blaspheme it Not fire and earthquakes and whirlwinds but the still voyce and calm spiriâ— do best bring forth and set up by meekness of wisdom the true Cause of God and Christ and the Church especially as to the concerns of Religion Nor may that cause of civil Justice which some pretend to be promoted by any unjust and illegal ways of tumult sedition and rebellion these mar all and instead of repairing or purging the Temple with Josiah Ezra Josedeck and the blessed Jesus they set both Church and State Temple and City on fire as did Nebuzaradan and his Master Nebuchadnezzar â— These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or genuine characters are the surest and safest tokens by which to discern Gods Cause both in its own merits or temper and in the minds of those that undertake to manage it Other novel popular and politick pretensions as to outward providences prosperities successes multitudes prevalencies of brutal and irregular power vulgar flatteries and factious adherencies or as to the respect of mens parts learning eloquence seeming zeal and cryed up devotion they are all spurious partial and fallacious 1. The Sun-shine of ordinary providence and success of prosperity and power may fall upon Causes that are evil and unjust no less then on the just and good Mahomet hath had great and long successions of successive power to assert his cause and multitudes do follow even that Beast as well as the Lamb or the Messiah Outward prosperity is the idol of fools who care not how little the Cause of God prosper and prevail in their souls if it thrive as to their purses and estates Successes are pursued by silly and easie people as gay Butterflies are by children Gods Cause is seldom seen in crouds or rabbles and throngs of people which Christ abhorred and avoided As its course is strict so its path is narrow 2. As for the decoys of personal gifts and endowments of zeal and seeming or real severities in some things King Saul had as his height so his heats above other Jews against the Gibeonites and Witches so Jehu had his zeal against the house of Ahab and Baal Paul once breathed threatnings against the way of Christ with equal ignorance imperiousness and confidence Novatus wanted not his zelotry and preciser passions nor Manes and Montanus their spiritual and seraphick pretensions with rigid fastings Origen and Tertullian had their excellent abilities which Vincentius Liri â—ensis calls Magnae tentationes magnorum ingeniorum their temptations to extravagancies they were like fair flowers and fruit which are too big for themselves and so crack or break nor did Donatus want his devotion nor Pelagius wit and learning nor Faustus Socinus of late his severity and strictness with his sophistry nor any Heretick or Schismatick ever failed to have some lure either of sensual liberty or special sanctity to take people withal So the Anabaptists in Germany as Sleiden and others tells us cryed most vehemently for Justice Mercy and Repentance other Enthusiasts had their rare visions and the very Ideot Quakers boast of their inward illuminations so the most puâ—id Friars and politick Monks had their forged miracles and forced celibacies set off with great austerities to cover over their fedities Satan hath many masks and vizards of an Angel of light yet he is never further off from Gods Cause then when he most sets men awork to cry it up and carry it on in ways that are no less unjust violent and extravagant then perhaps for a time successful as was the Arrian perfidy which seemed so zealous for the unity of the Deity that they sought to overthrow the sacred Trinity and the grand foundation of the Christian Faith honor and comfort the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word made flesh the Theanthropy and Philanthropy of God to mankind in the Incarnation of the Son of God Their disputes as St. Cyrill tells us were not more sophistical and perverse then specious and plausible insomuch that the pest infested in a few years the most part of the Christian world both in Court Cities and Countries which was as St. Jerom says amazed to see it self in a short time so be witched with the Arrian enchantments which set up a new Saviour and another Gospel then was primitively beleived in all Churches So the Novatians and Donatists or â—ntient Catharists which were the Christian Pharisees or Puritans pretended as Optatus and others tells us so to promote the Cause of the Churches purity that they destroyed its unity and charity And the Pelagians so stickled for the power and liberty of mans will that they derogated from Gods grace and glory as St. Augustine speaks 8. Causa crucisixi saepius crucisixa as Christ so his cause which is Gods is oft not onely circumcised but crucisied with him yea it may seem dead and buried too for a time to the judgement of sense we must not look for the true Church always cloathed with the sun but rather flying into the wilderness and covered with sackcloth The prosperities and crowns of Gods Cause are reserved for another world here the cross and thorns and buffettings and spittings and blood and spears and nails do not mis-become it but conform it to its head § T is certain the Cause of God was then purest as to faith and manners when it was like gold in the furnace and fiery trial under the first ten persecutions which lasted with some lucid intervals three hundred years In vain do those that seem high zealots for the Cause of God dream and speak big of houses and lands and liberties and victories and kingdoms and crowns and Judicatures and reigning with Christ after secular methods and policies of blood and fraud these are figs in this world The honor riches crowns and comforts of true
neglect the second in equity and charity So to contend against superstition in Gods worship as to overthrow the order and decency which ought to be solemnly observed in it or that duty and obedience we owe to those which are in Church or State called Fathers and to whom we stand obliged by the first Commandment with promise We must not so plead or urge our duty to God as to skip over our duty to our neighbour nor so plead against Idolatry as to indulge Sacri ledge or against Adultery as to acquit Murther or so cry up Religion or Reformation as to encourage Rebellion and Sedition Noâ— may we so inculcate and insist on one duty as to omit and slight others to be meer Euchites for prayer or Acoits for hearing or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pragmaticks impertinently and irregularly busie in Church and State as to neglect the Sacraments or to be so eager in dispute for Truth even the minores veritates as to forget the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great things of God in which the Kingdoms of the Gospel consists so magnifying faith that we omit good works and crying down ceremonies to the overthrow of all orderly and uniform Devotion to cast out Commandments Lords Prayer Creed and all settled Liturgy out of the Church 4. The Cause of God must be pleaded by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holily justly and lawfully according to our place and duty after a righteous manner also peaceably and orderly Nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 violently rudely and injuriously This is the first thing God requires of us to do justice and then to shew mercy and walk humbly with him Extravagant motions mar the cause of God and rather prejudice it then any way plead it We must not commit Robbery to do Sacrifice nor lye or oppress upon Gods account We must not be so far partial to Gods Cause as to do evil that good may come thereby this is to turn the staff of Moses into a Serpent The great care of the Apostles was to have Mysteries of Religion made good by Moralities Cardinal Poole well expressed that those would best understand the eleven first Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans which are full of high mysteries and disputes who did most practice the five last which exhort to holy life teaching such as believed well to do all things well that the Cause and Name of God might not be evil spoken of We must not violate the good laws of civil Societies under pretence to exalt the Law of God nor run Church and State into confusion to set up Reformation of either in seditious ways Gods Cause needs not the Devils engines either plead it as becomes it or let it alone It will support it self without the rash hand of Uzzah to stay it If thou canst not plead it actively thou mayest do it passively and much more to purpose as primitive Christians did then by any inordinate activity No man saith the Apostle that striveth is crowned unless he strive lawfully Secundum leges Athleticas such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Institutor and Umpire had appointed 5. Gods Cause must be pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with moderation discretion and calmness so as not to suffer any transports of passion and precipitancy to over sway us to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excess or indecency We must not so plead against superstition as to reproach or weaken true Religion or against humane corruptions as to vacate and voyd Divine institutions or against the abuse of things as to abolish the good use of them to have no Our Father because we would have no Ave Marys in our Prayers § Reformation must not run to the ruine of Church or the riot of State as if a Physitian should destroy the body with the disease purging away the spirits with ill humors such as their former methods seem to be who will have no Bishops according to the primitive and Catholique order of the Church because some Bishops in after times had their fauls and frailties or no Ministers because some of them have been too blame or no Sacraments because some may be unworthy receivers These as immoderations and madnesses become not those that undertake to plead Gods Cause It is like theirs who would starve themselves because some have been gluttons or destroy all Vines because of some mens drunkenness or have no singing because some may sing out of tune it is an ordinary error in men to suffer their pleas to pass from the cause to the persons and so from the persons to the cause which transports of envy and anger arise from the overboyling of mens passions which wasts their judgments and make them instead of snuffing dim candles to put them quite out an error that I fear hath been too prevalent in some mens spirits and practises among us whose meaning and intentions possibly might be good or at least not so bad as the event Sixthly Valiantly and couragiously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the generosity and magnanimity of a true Christian spirit which is rather good then great or therefore great because good not by a military robusâ—ness and boysterous forwardness or childish pertinacy that resolves to maintain any cause they once ingage for but such a cool and sober valour as first hath made a just conquest of our selves as to all irregular passions inordinate lusts oblique designes that being listed in Christs spiritual Militia and having given our names to him we may put on that spiritual armour which becomes a Christian in truth faith love zeal patience justice sobriety sanctity and constancy for these are the solid grounds and sure guides of a Christians courage in Gods cause whose sacrifice might not be offered with strange fire or strange incense nor may his cause be pleaded by brutish valour or by turbulent passions For that were like baking the shewbread of the sanctuary with mans dung which the Prophet Ezekiel so much abhorred and deprecated Seventhly Gods cause must be pleaded by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming Christ and Christians who are persons under the severest restraints of any men with modesty gravity humility and due respects to our betters and superiors beâ—itting their place authority and dignity So the ancient Martyrs and other confessors in their Apologies petitions and Remonstrances as Iustin Martyr Tertullian and others presented to the Emperors or Senates owned them with due honour and payed that reverence to them which their dignity required and Gods word either commanded or permitted They never used rayling accusations against them nor spake evil of dignities to set a gloss and soyl on their good cause no not in their greatest agonies in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they were dying and suffering as well as disputing preaching or writing they blessed those that cursed them
and prayed for those that spitefully used them This gave repute to the Cause of God and shewed the spirit of God was in them of a truth they did not speak but act great things and if they could less dispute they would yet readily dye for that cause which was delivered to them by the Pillar and ground of Truth the Church of Christ Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charitative with charity to all sorts of people pittying their blindness and barbarity in meekness of wisdom instructing them as holy Polycarp did fervently and humbly praying for them yea osculando prodit orem even kissing our betrayers and destroyers as Crysologus observes of Christ not behaving themselves as vermin in a trap or wild Buls in a Net but as Lambs and Sheep of Christs Flock and Mark who opened not his mouth save onely to pray for his crucifiers as also did the first Martyr S. Stephen whose name imports the comfort and crown of his thus suffering for Christs Cause not as an evil doer or an evil speaker some mens stomacks are so full of Choler gall and virulency that they do not plead for Gods cause so much as spit and spue upon it when pretending high zeal and godliness they so foully disgorge themselves in ill language against their superiors and betters every way no Magistrate no Minister escape their dirt and mire All are Beasts and Antichrists and Satans and Enemys and fit to be destroyed that do not comply with the cause they look to set up together with themselves by pulling down all that stands in their way § What scurrilous and scandalous Libels have some men made like the wast and filthy papers of Martin Marprelate and others of that bran to wrap up their several causes in what undecencies what barbarities whatâ—edities whatfuries what menaces have their Sermons and Prayers abounded with and so their action s by a superfluity of self conceit passion pride arrogancy envy desire of revenge and the like enormous distempers so far beyond a Christian that they would make a modest and ingenuous heathen blush and abhor any cause that is pleaded or managed by such poy sonous pens such polluted lips and unwashed hands § I may truly say with St. Iames my brethren these things ought not to be so these are not the methods of Christians pleading their Gods and Saviourâ— cause either bitterly to rail like Rabsakeh or pompously to vapour and flatter like Tertullus crying up every cause as Gods that is uppermost either in power or in popular applause or vulgar pitty which are no true Touch-stones of Gods cause either as to civil Iustice or true Religion And thus O worthy and Christian Auditors have I finished the demonstrative or doctrinal part which shewed first the nature of Gods cause Secondly the manner of pleading it and Thirdly what method we must use in our pleading it so as to observe the holy laws and orders which become our respects to the cause of God and to our Superiors yea to all men whose rules are his written word rightly understood not wrested and depraved by sinister passions and presumptuous dispensations of what is our duty indeed to God and man I will not abuse your patience while I crave the use of a little time to feel how the pulse of your affections and resolutions do beat and whether your understandings have transmitted the cause of God to your heart that knowing your duty in so great a concern you may resolve to do it 1. Vse of instruction to shew us what is that cause which is most worthy our pleading with all the wisdom power and capacities we have it is Gods For this cause as Christ speaketh he came into the World and into the bosome of the true Church for this cause we are endowed with understanding memory eloquence conscience civil influences in Counsel and in authority publique and private for this cause we were baptised by the Blood of Christ and dedicated to him sutably educated and instructed also nourished and refreshed by his body and blood that we should plead for Gods glory for our Saviours truth Worship Ministry servants and institutions against our own iusts and Passions against the ignorance Atheâ—sme prophaneness licentiousness hypocrisie novelty extravagancy error superstition idolatry Flattery sacriledge and security of the world It is a shame for us to be so zealous industrious solicitous and importune in our own petty concerns for a little profit honour or pleasure and to neglect that cause which is worth all we are and have even our estates liberties and lives Nec propter vitam vivendi per dere causam if we expect God to plead ours we must plead his and with a vehemency as much above all other causes as heaven is above earth eternity above a moment and the excellency of Christ above the loss and dung the seraps and excrements of this world 2. Vse of Caution but as we must be careful to adhere to and assert Gods cause so it must be in Gods way with Iustice holiness order humility patience charity sincerity according to the bonds of Gods and mans laws not with tumult violence saction sedition sraud sury partiality injustice and hypocrisie Gods Ark though it â—otters must not be stayed or held up by such rash hands better it do honeste cadere then inhoneste stare These Midwives are not fit for the birth of Gods children Such as call in the assistance of these either mistake Gods cause or they make his cause but a stale and visard to their own private interests and designes or lastly they are ignorant of Gods methods and the way of his Saints in all ages or they greatly distrust his power and goodness as if he were not sufficient to vindicate himself and his cause by such means as are onely worthy of him of Christ and of us as his servants 3. Vse of trial and reproofe you may see clearly what cause they plead who observe not Gods course and method but think to justifie evil pleading by the goodness of the cause To such violent injurious perfidious and unreasonable men we may put that question which God doth Psalm 50. 16. What hast thou to do to take my cause into thy hand or my word into thy mouth since thou hatest to be reformed c. On which words they report that Origen after his lapse commented with his tears Those that plead Gods cause any way by fighting or writing speaking or doing must have written in their hearts and affections on their forehead and hands as the Horses in Zacharies vision had on their bels or bridles holiness to the Lord St. Chrisostome observes in the disorders and corruptions which distracted with exstatick convulsions and madness the heathen Sybils and Prophets in their Oracles and in the calmness or harmony which was in Gods Prophets how great a difference there is between Diabolical possession and divine inspiration