a full and foul mouth as Solifidians and Nullifidians and to brand our Religion with that odious nickname Calva Calvini sides The bald faith of Calvin This they affirm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a bare and â—ald head and therein shew that they have not so much as one hair of honest men An impudent and shameless calumny purposely devised by him who is a lyar and the Father of it and most opprobriously and injuriously obtruded upon the Protestant party and reformed Churches The sounder part whereof (*) Sicut substantia sundamentum est omnium accidentium sic fides omnium virtutum donorum Bâ—navent Serm. de Sanclis Ex fide crumpurt â—â—ra opâ— a. Luther reverences Faith as a spiritual Dorcas that is full of good works with which it is evermore attended and accompanied as individual and inseparable companions And in case works be wanting they make no other account and reckoning of such a kind of Faith then a bare name without a thing a sign without a thing signified a shadow without a substance a body without a soul A dead faith as St. James makes out the comparison Jam. 2.26 For as the Body without the Spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also A meer Sceleton and carkass of it Faith indeed is a more inward and radical grace of a spiritual nature without flesh and bones as our Saviour concludes of every spirit But good works are Fides incarnata as Luther stiles them Faith manifested in the flesh which may be seen and felt of others And in this sense though somewhat beside it divers of the Ancients expound those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.46 That is not first which is spiritual but that which is carnal referring it to faith and works and preferring works before it Not to enter the list of a comparison which of them should be the greater a question that sometimes happened amongst Christ's Disciples and yet a little to illustrate the matter by a similitude Faith is as the inward wheels of a Clock that move it and make it go Works are as the Hand or Fingen of the Dial which though it be no cause of motion yet is it an evident sign how the Clock goes within and outwardly points forth the hour of the day to the Traveller in the streets Thus is Faith discerned and descried by our Works Secondly To improve and encrease grace working is necessary for the improvement of grace received which though free y given yet must it be encreased by our pains and industry in renewing and repeating the several acts of it Even as the sire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar yet being once kindled it was maintained by the addition of new wood and fuel (k) Concil Nicen 1 part 2. cap. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though we receive grace without labour at the first yet can we not preserve it without labour say the blessed Fathers of the first Nicene Councel Thirdly To attain and gain salvation working is necessary for the attaining of salvation as a condition of an obligation as motion unto rest as the way to the end of the journey and the means unto the end For as in nature there can be no passage from one entream to another but by a middle that intervenes and comes between and so unites and joins them together No more can we be translated from a state of corruption to a state of happiness but by working as the means We must not look to commence in Heaven per saltâ—â—m to skip and leap into it neither nature nor grace allow it The greater part of the world would have glory without grace and happiness without holiness like to the Roman Dictator Sylla that had rather be sirnamed Foelix then Pius Fain would men receive the wages and yet not do the work but in vain and to no end For life eternal is resembled by a Crown which they alone wear that run yea so run that they may obtain And as the old Romans gave the obsidional Crown to him that had delivered a City from the siege of the enemy and that made of the grass and flowers of the besieged City Even so doth God reward men according to their works and sets them as a Crown upon their head Let this be granted as an undoubted truth that salvation is a reward yet such a reward as issues out of meer bounty and liberality no wages or due debt Nor is it given Propter factum sed pacium not for the worthiness of the deed done but by a (k) Bona opera non sunt causa rogni sed via regnandi Bernard de Liber Arbit promissory obligation and engagement by way of covenant working is the means whereby not the cause why we come to salvation and though it be stiled our salvation yet is it as Faith and Repentance are termed ours being in us but not of us and actions and passions denominate the subject and not the cause God only is the efficient cause and author and man the proper subject or object of it For though works be never so necessary in themselves both in regard of their presence and instrumental efficiency as a condition means and way ordained by God that we should walk in yet must we not set so high a rate upon them as if they were a suficient price for Heaven any way adaquate and equivalent in proportion to the recompence of reward This alone is fitly compared to the penny in the Gospel and money as the wise man speaks answers all things and is the measure and rule of all but is not to be bought and sold at all It was the sacrilegious errour of Simon Magus to conceive that the gift of God might be purchased with money and it hath a spice of his sin and may so pass for a kind of spiritual Simony to think that salvation which is the gift of God may be procured with our labour The Papists indeed have coined a counterfeit and base money of merit to buy Heaven withall and though it hath none of Gods image and superscription yet would they give that unto God which is none of Gods as if they were to truck and chaffer and barter with him by way of merchandise and to deal with him upon the strictest terms of commutative justice Hear them speak in their own language Opera bona mercatura regni coelestis saith Bellarmine Heaven is as due to good works as Hell to bad So Andradius Coster the Rhemists on the New Testament Let Andrew Vega that proud Jesuite as the foreman of the Jury give in the Verdict for all the rest Gratis non accipiam He will rather lose it then take it as a free gift Nor do the Papists offend more on the right hand then the * Canisius lib. 1. de corrupt verbi Dei cap. 10. Flaccians and the rigid Lutherans on the left who decree them as unnecessary as hurtful as
because ye go to law one with another why do ye not suffer wrong why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded this was the 〈◊〉 the spiritual impotency and infirmity of their dispositions that they did not voluntarily relinquish and in some measure recede from their own right thereby to piece and flitch up differences out of a zealous desire and endeavour after brotherly love and concord This was very remarkable and signal in Gregory Nazianzen who when the Council of Constantinople was split in two about the choice of a Bishop he took his leave both of the Council and of his Bishoprick with this farewel speech (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregor Naz. vita If I be the cause of this dissension I am not better then the Prophet Jonas cast me forth into the sea so shall the sea be calm unto you onely remember that of Zacharie love the truth and peace 3. The third work of charity is a liberal communicating and distributing with a free heart and an open hand to the necessities of our brethren who soe hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him â—how dwelleth the love of God in him The third Work of Charity A free distributing to the necessity of our Brethren 1 Ioh. 3.17 and then do men shut their bowels of compassion when they shut their hands and are close fisted and in so doing how dwelleth the love of God in them and the Apostles interrogation hath in it the force of a vehement negation that there is no love at all It is a grosse yet common error of the Papists to confound good works in the general with works of charity and liberality as if the part and the whole were all one and there were no other works besides and yet almes-deeds are good works good in their kind and nature Good and profitable unto men Titus 3.8 And much more profitable unto our selves for howsoever works of charity are not either efficient or meritorius causes entitling or interessing us in the Kingdome of Heaven which descends upon us as an inheritance provided by our Father from all Eternity and purchased in the fulness of time by the blood of Christ Yet are they a necessary condition and an effectual means of our entrance and actual possession of that Kingdome the rule and measure of Christs award in pronouncing and passing that definitive sentence at the great and general judgment of the latter day Mat. 25.34 35 36. Come ye blessed children of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Thus will Christ entertain and welcome men into his Kingdom at the day of his appearance And that is the reason of Saint Paul's charge to Timothy Why those that are rich in this world should be rich in good works Ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. 4. The Fourth work of charity is the exercise of benevolence and beneficence The fourth Work of Charity The doing good to our Enemies to such as are most alienated and estranged from us the person of professed Enemies And that whether enemies in Opinion Affection Action we must according to our Saviours counsel Love Bless Pray Do good to them and by all means possible intend and further their temporal and much more their eternal welfare This is the Genius of the Gospel the discriminating character of Christianity from all other professions and all Religions (a) Amicos diligere est omnium inimicos autem solorum Christianorum Tertul. ad Scapulam cap. 1. For men to love their Friends is common to all but to love their Enemies is proper and peculiar to Christians And herein must we express evidence our charity to enemies by an unfained earnest desire of their conversion to the unity of faith and love If that a member be dissected and out off from the society of (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we forthwith carefully closs and bind it up and use the best means of art and skill to incorporate it with the c fellows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is St. Chrysostom's comparison Even so should all our attempts endeavours aim and level at this main project and design The Application in a threefold Consectary Inference to reunite and combine our most enraged and implacable Enemies in the bond of Christian communion and Brotherly fellowship from which they are severed and divided for want of Charity 1. And is St. Paul's Aphorism sound Divinity Let all your things be done with charity The First affording matter of Grief and Sorrow That which we may from hence observe in the first place is matter of grief and sorrow Private grief and publick sorrow A copious Theme and subject large enough to make up a full volume of the same Argument with the Roll of Ezechiel ' s prophecy that was written within and without with lamentation and mourning and woe And just cause there is now if ever for every man in his own person to renew and take up that melting desire of the pathetical Prophet Jer. 2.1 O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I may weep day and night for the want of this grace and charity Oh Charity the map and mirrour of Excellency the glory of graces the bond of peace the bond of perfectness the desire and delight of Angels the lively image and portraicture of God himself which is everywhere stiled The peace of God and the God of peace (c) Nazianz. Orat. 14. pag. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen Which is of God and is God For God is love 1 John 4.8 Not only causally in us but formally in himself though not as an Affection but as his Nature Oh thou highly beloved and lovely Love the fairest among vertues Beautiful as Tirzah comely as Hierusalem What is become of thee where dost thou abide and dwell Hast thou quite left this habitable world and art ascended and gone up to Heaven there to enjoy the sight of Gods blessed Face and to repose and rest thy self in his Bosom from whence thou first came (d) Nazianz Orat. 14. pag. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the passionate complaint of Gregory Nazianzen O dear and precious peace a Grace that is generally commended and cried up by all but observed and practised by a very few Where hast thou forsaken us for so long time And when oh when wilt thou
Mat. 5.24 Plus deus diligit concordiam nostram quam sua munera-Author Oper. imperf in Math. as Austin well advises We must lay our Eggs in the nest of the Church thereby to preserve the natural heat and warm'th of the Eggs and to hatch and bring forth the Birds And for this very cause the Chickens of the Heathen that is their vertues were troden under foot in that they were not hatched in the nest of the Church saith the same Author and so will our works be abhorred and abandoned yea utterly refused and rejected at the hands of God if if not seasoned with peace and unity and done in love and charity 3. Let me bespeak you all in St. Pauls words Heb. 13.22 I beseech you brethren suffer the words of exhortation think not ye suffer when ye hear it the same Apostle hath provided it and brought it to my hand 1 Cor. 4.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow after charity Not as St. Peter followed Christ into the high Priests hall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afar off but pursue and persecute it as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies let us seek it in case we want it and if it runs from us let us run after it with a vehement and earnest violence and let us herein assure and settle our belief that we are as fully and firmly obliged in point of conscience to preserve unum ac verum Pacem ac Fidem Vnity as Verity and Peace as well as Truth as being twin vertues a lovely pair and couple and both joyntly and equally commended to our Christian care study Zach. 8.19 love the truth and peace And there will be little difference at the day of reckoning whether we have wounded Christ our Head with Heretical opinions or rent and torn in pieces the Church which is his Body with schismatical distractions that body which Christ esteemed most dear and precious who exposed and offered his natural body unto death to ransome and redeem his mystical I say and protest saith an Antient that no man may plead ignorance (r) Chrisost ad Ephes Homil. 11 Ecclesiam scindere non minus peccatum est quam in haerestu incidere Schism in the Church is as great a sin as Heresie all impiety is the heresie of life and want of charity is impiety in a high degree and so must needs be a great heresie and if we would follow after charity we must follow St. Pauls advice and counsel elsewhere Phil. 2.3 4. Let nothing be done thorough strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better then themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others And therein the Apostle disswades them from several sins close couched and laid together in sundry rules or precepts which are so many Make-bates and Peace-breakers among men and they are three in number 1. Three make-bates and Peace-breakers among men The First Peace-breaker Perverse and peevish strife Perverse and peevish strife 2. Supercilious and scornful pride 3. Sordid and self ended covetousness 1. The first Make-bate and Peace-breaker is perverse and peevish strife as will easily appear by comparing the rule of the Text with that of the Glass and Comment For if all our things must be done with charity then let nothing be done thorough rise and vain glory there must be no fishing in troubled waters no living in the scorching flames of broylos and contention after the manner of the Salamander a duty that concerns all men in the general but in a more especial 〈◊〉 the Ministers of the Gospel who should be peaceable in their private temper and disposition and Peace-makers in their place and office There is no greater misery or mischief that can befal a Nation then a Factious or seditious Clergy who are the Bellowes to blow the coalos of discord and division The silver Trumpets to sound the Alarum of War and the common Bountefou's and Incondiaries of States and Kingdomes So that in this respect we have great cause to make use of Luthers Letany (s) A Doctore glorioso pastore contentioso inutilibus questionibus liberet Eclesiam suaâ—â— Dominus vita Parei pag. antepenul from a vain-glorious Doctor a contentious Pastor and unprofitable questions good Lord deliver us 2. The second Make-bate and Peace-breaker in the world is supercilious and scornful pride The second peace-breaker supercilious and scornful pride which so far disables men from esteeming others better then themselves that Diotrephes like they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love to have the preheminence and to surpasse and excel others what will not pride of spirit attempt and aspire into what earboyles and combustions will it not soment and kindle if we inquire after the Original cause of Reubens heats Deborah the Prophetess will resolve us in her Divine Cantick Judg. 5.15.16 The Divisions of Reuben were great thoughts of heart And would we discover find out the common parent of emulation and discord the wise man indigitates and points it out unto us Prov. 13.10 Only by pride commeth contention this is it that breeds it and brings it up 3. The third and last Make-bate and Peace-breaker is Sordid and self ended covetousnesse The third Peace-breaker sordid and self-ended covetousness whereby men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intend and minde their own things as the mark or white whereat they aim and level and fasten all their arrows For all differences and debates arise from an unequal distribution of (t) Frivola illa verba Meum Tuum quae tot bella mundo invexerunt erant ex sancta illa Ecclesia exterminata inhabitaturque non aliter terra quam ab Angelis caelum Christ de Eccl. Arist Homilia oportet Haereses esse mine and thine it is division of estates that makes division of affections self is the main stickler in every controversie which renders men resolute and pertinacious in defence of property and possession and that oft-times with a general disrespect and grosse neglect of common safety Not caring what becoms of the Ship of Church or State whether it float or sink so they may save themselves in the Cockboat of their private fortunes and oft-time with that silly Swain or poor Pesant they set the whole house on fire to roast their own Egg. These are the several Make-bates and Peace-breakers that we must take heed and beware of as professed enemies unto charity And give me leave to reinforce the duty and to conjure you as St. Paul doth his Philippians by whatsoever is divine or sacred Phil. 2.1 2. If therefore there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and mercies fulfil yee my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind The Conclusion I began with a Text out of the first Epistle and shall make an end with another out of the second to the Cor. 13.11 and take the same leave of you that St. Paul doth of them Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good Comfort be of one mind Live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you Amen FINIS