Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A59581
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The reward of diligence By Lewes Sharpe, rector of Moreton-Hampstead in the county of Devon.
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Sharpe, Lewes.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S3007D; ESTC R220244
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49,063
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109
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poyson her by Heretical Doctrines or Schismaticks to destroy her by Divisions Sect. 70. Give me leave to mind you That Religious Dissentions amongst all sorts of Persons in all Ages have been transacted with vehement Passion and Violence and have proved most Fatal and Bloody For this Cause saith our Saviour the Brother shall betray the Brother to Death Father the Son and Children shall rise up against their Parents and shall cause them to be put to Death Mar. 13.12 For Religion being the greatest Interest in the World Religious Affections are strongest and more prevalent than Natural and consequently Men will resist with greatest Earnestness whatsoever tends to subvert and destroy it and they will spare the Destruction of no man to preserve it This was the ground of Campanella's Speech to the Spanish King Religio semper vicit praesertim armata Religion especially being armed hath alwayes conquered And therefore Innovations in Matters of Religion must needs be of dangerous consequence to the publick Peace for he that pretends one thing false may easily question the truth of another and so by degrees bring the whole under suspicion And if once the People apprehend that their Rulers have abused them in a matter of dearest Concern and that they do not Rule them from Principles of Conscience and Reasons of Religion but from Design and Reason of State they will soon become as weary of them as of their Religion and answerably will seek out other Rulers as well as another Religigion as your own experience hath taught you Sect. 71. It is therefore a Prudential way for the securing the Ends of Government that the Penalties inflicted on the Violaters of Ecclesiastical Orders respectively to Gods publique Worship have respect not so much to the simple Nature and Merit of the Offence in it self considered as to the malignant destructive Influences and dismal Consequences of it respectively to the publick safety of Church and Common-wealth Behold how great a matter a little Fire kindleth saith Saint James James 3.5 small matters in Nature Art Providence and Religion too in their progress and ultimate Issue become very great You know the immediate Issue of a departure from uniformity is diversity and because every man is well affected to that which is his own thinks his own Opinions and Practices best he that worshippeth God one way dislikes censures and condemns him which worshippeth God another way and most commonly the lesser the difference the greater and more severe the mutual Animosity and Censure because then each concludes that 't is Humour Pride Faction Faction and Interest and not constraints of Conscience and Religion which is the ground of the Distance and Separation And from this spring Debates Rancors Enmities and Oppositions in the Church and thence by a most natural progress Factions Seditions Tumults and Rebellions in the State For they that will not patiently admit and submit unto other mens Opinions Impositions and Practices they cannot endure that their own should be neglected contradicted and rejected Sect. 72. Factious minded men are always proud and erroneous Opinions being fermented with Pride efferate the hearts of men make them touchy fierce and contentious Prov. 13.10 And finally urge them to go in the way of Cain as the expression is Jude 11. The instances of the Circumcellions Arrians Donatists of old and of the Sectaries of latter time both at home and abroad attest that false Doctrines and new ways of Worship and Discipline which are weak in themselves cannot be supported without Blood and Cruelty And when once men pretend to be so certain of the Truth of their conceits as if immediately inspired by God and arrive to an infallibility they that can judge and do nothing amiss being most fit to sway all they presently by a very easie step of advance arrogate to themselves a Supremacy too and then 't is their unquestionable prerogative to throw down and destroy all that oppose them Presumptuous are they saith the Apostle self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 And when men are so bold and insolent as to speak contumeliously how easily are they induced to proceed from words to blows and to act rebelliously Sect. 73. It is therefore certainly the Magistrates Interest as well as Duty to restrain open and professed Dissentions and Divisions in the Church and by Coercion and Penalties to compell those which profess the same Religion to Glorifie God with one mouth Matt. 14.23 Rom. 15.6 Thus Josiah 1 Chron. 38.2 Asa 2 Chron. 14.13 Solomon did 1 King 8.1 2 Chron. 8.14 and 18. and herein they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. And the reasons from whence they did it to wit in Zeal to Gods Honour and for the prevention of Infection by Evil Examples for the curing of Offenders and the preventing or removing of Judgments Deut. 13.5 and 11.16 17. 1 Tim. 1.20 Zech. 13.6 are reasons of Immutable Equity and Moral Obligation and extend to Magitrates indifferently in all Times and Ages And you shall find when Artaxerxes decreed that whosoever will not do the Law of God and of the King that Judgment shall be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto Death or unto Banishment or to confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment Ezra blessed God that he had put such a thing into the Kings heart Ezra 7.26 27. This being done by an Ethnick Prince 't is easie to collect from it that there is a Naturalness in the thing and belongs to Magistrate as such to compell men professing a Religion publickly to own and observe the Institutions and Ordinances of it and consequently 't is not a Persecution of the Professors of Religion as such but a just Prosecution of them as Evil Doers Enemies and Rebells against the Government of Jesus Christ to punish them for refusing to attend and observe the Ordinances of that Religion they profess Sect. 74. And let me beg the liberty to tell you that 't is not the contriving and Enacting but the Execution of good Laws which gives them a Real and an Effective Being to the purposes of Government Our large Volumes of good Statutes without a due Execution and their Penal Enforcements are like a Picture curiously drawn only to shew the skill of the Limner or a bundle of antiquated Almanacks or the Laws of an Vtopian State matters of meer Form farther than to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reproachful Sarcasm to us that though we had the Authority and wit to make good Laws we had not the Honesty and Prudence to use them Sect. 75. I have conceited that our late Indulgence or Toleration was designed by some politick Statesmen and if it were not so I hope it will prove so to be to us as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stobaeus speaks of the five Days lawless Liberty was to the Persians upon the death of their King in which every man might do as he pleased without fear
you temporal and earthly Gifts 't is in order to Spiritual and Eternal Purposes and answerably our Saviour commands you so to use them make to your selves friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Mat. 16.9 Use temporal things in such a manner as agreeth with the design of Gods Trust and then you shall secure to your selves eternal things by the use of them Wisdom saith Solomon is good with an Inheritance Eccl. 7.11 That is an Estate governed by the rules of Wisdom is good because then 't is referred unto and concludes in our Spiritual and Eternal Good And indeed nothing that we have or can have is good further than 't is related and used as a means to this End Brutes are as capable of sensual good things as we they can eat and drink and play and satisfie such Lusts as are proper to the Flesh as well as we but herein we excell them in having and using these things we can possess and use them as the Gifts of God and enjoy God in them and so refer them to higher ends than the pleasing of the Flesh even ascend by them unto God and extract out of them an heavenly treasure for our Souls And this is the use you must make of them if you ever reap any true Good from them And thus a little a matter very small and inconsiderable in it self faithfully managed and employed will turn to a great advantage Two Mites are not much and a cup of cold Water is less and yet such a stock as this well used shall abound to our account Mar. 12.43 Mat. 10.42 Phil. 4.17 Where little is given little is expected for God accepts according to what a man hath but he that hath least and can do least may do that which shall be with the Lord and for which the Exchequer of Heaven shall be accountable and is as good an Estate as if it were in his hands Sect. 66. The learned and judicious Camero saith that where there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Virtutem an inchoate disposition to Goodness and Vertue for that is the design of his assertion that man is not Planè improbus altogether or quite and clean wicked as we say For when a mans Nature is cultivated or improved by moral Vertues and common Graces as he doth things vel sapienter vel sanciè either discreetly or religiously as Saint Hierome speaketh in this Case he may be termed in a Sense not to be despised by considering men a Good man secundum quid in tantum so far as he hath performed part of his duty and is in some measure made ready and prepared for those Gifts and Graces which denominate a man Evangelically Good If he that acknowledged there is one God doth well as Saint James teacheth James 2.19 Then he that frameth and ordereth himself and actions so far as Nature and common Grace can carry him according to that acknowledgment doth better as the young man in the Gospel did and the man we are speaking of doth and therefore he may analogically and comparatively be termed a Good Man Yet I must tell you if this temper and deportment be the utmost any man aimeth at and pursueth and any of you shall chance to come so far and rest here and go no further you will be of the number of those which are not far from the Kingdom of God and strive to enter into it but shall not be able to enter This was the Reason why God was so angry with the Angel of the Church of the Laodeceans and threatned to spue him out of his mouth Rev. 3.16 because he rested in this intermedial State whereas it is not a State desirable for it self but to be endeavoured after and obtained in order to a better For Vallesius upon the place tells us that most think that men of a certain remiss and imperfect kind of Vertue are called Lukewarm and are more blamed than others not because they are simply in themselves worse but because they do not endeavour to be better than they are by using their present imperfect State as a passage to a more perfect And 't is certain that if men think too well of themselves for the sake of such an imperfect State of Mediocrity and are less careful to repent and aspire after a perfect Vertue than others of lower attainments though it do not arise properly from the Nature of the thing but accidentally from the mistake and corruptions of the Persons they will for the sake thereof be loathsome and abominable unto God and make themselves obnoxious to an utter Rejection from God like those Saint Jude speaks of who were twice dead and plucked up by the Roots Sect. 67. Application Every man saith the Apostle hath his proper Gift of God 1 Cor. 7.7 and answerably every Man hath his proper Work to do for God Mar. 13.34 One must be serviceable unto God after this manner another after that according to the diversity of Gifts received from God Every man hath a stewardly Work to do and therefore must be faithfull as one that must give an account of his stewardship Sect. 68. First Have you the Gift of Government then make it appear by exercising your selves as the Ministers of God for the good of those you govern Rom. 13.4 acquit your selves as ordained and sent of God for the Punishment of evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2.14 I must suit my discourse to the present Occasion which wholly refers to matter Ecclesiastical and therefore shall exhort you to the use of your Talent that way Decem praeceptorum Custos Carolus Charles the Keeper of Ten Commandements was the Motto written on the Sword of Charles the Great and Defender of the Faith is the Honorary Title and Engagement of King Charles the Second of England And so far as Authority is derived from him to you are you concerned in the same Title and engagement For we must not only pray for Kings but also for all in Authority under them that we may lead a quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 Which supposeth that your Government must influence and subserve our Religious and Spiritual as well as our Civil and Moral Affairs You are called Gods Psalm 82.1 John 10.34 and you were Catachrestically and Abusively so called on Purpose you were despicable terrestrial Animals if your Authority were not to be concerned in the matters of God and for the preservation of mens Souls as well as Bodies and Estates Sect. 69 I know that Donatus and his Sectarian Followers are still crying in your Ears Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesiis what hath the Magistrate to do with the Churches but I hope you will answer them from the Prophet crying aloud to you as a trumpet that you are to be as nursing Fathers to the Church Isa 49.23 Which you cannot be if you permit Seducers to