were so diametrally contrary to the Word of God to the laws of this Land and to the example of Iesus Christ and all â—rue Saints and so no more capable to set up or promote Gods righteous cause except that of his punitive Iustice for our sins to which the Devils themselves may serve as Executioners then the sparks of hell can add to the light of heaven or the falling Stars and Meteors contribute to the lustre of the Sun or the crooked winding of the Dragons â—ail could give protection to the Woman and her childe against whom his mouth vomited those black floods and Stygian eructations which by Heretical or â—châ—â—matical or Heathenish or Atheistical persecutions seek to overwhelm them The great and blessed God hath taken the matter into his own hand what you then faithfully heard and devoutly prayed for with me as to Gods pleading of his own Cause you have lived to see fulfilled as it was then by me discoursed and foretold while the poor people of England were halting between manâ— opinions all eagerly pretending to be for Gods Cause one for Aristocracy the other for Democracy one for Presbyterâ—â— the other for Independency one for their Antiepiscopal Covenant another for their Anti-regal Engagement one for abâ—uration of Kings the other for extirpation of Bishops a third for setting up the Kingdom of Iesus Christ in which they might rule instead of both King and Bishops and all this forsooth in order to advance the Cause of God though in ways quite contrary to the eternal rules of charity justice and religion the Laws of God and this Nation amidst this confusion the Lord from heaven hath on the sudden convicted confuted and confounded all those specious but spurious pretenders to Gods Cause which is not to be begun or carried on as I after declare by any means but such as are pure peaceable just and â—oly either by an orderly doing good in our places or by a patient and humble suffering of evil inflicted on us though it be for well doing It is most evident that as in natural so in civil and Ecclesiastical motions all things magnetically move as they are moved by their chief cause or grand concern which by a circular kind of influence studies to unite the finall to the efficient cause that the power of the one may enjoy the good of the other This Cause is the first and last mover of every knowing agent it is the weight and spring of all rational activity it is a pulse ever importuning the spirit and beating upon the heart the one thing necessary to which men seek to make all other things subservient or at least subordinate the centre from which and to which all lines are drawn The better to compass their respective designs every Agitator for Faction did cunningly entitle God to their Cause as some that are cautious of the crackt titles of their estates resign the Fee to the Crown and take from them a Lease of a thousand years â—o did the counterfeit and contrariant Causes larely so scuâ—â—sing in England for place and power set themselves up under the name of Gods Cause while they were indeed the causeless corrupters of our Laws the Nations heavie curse the Churches moth and corrosive and confounders of all yet each of their pretended causes were impudently pleaded by â—ome men in Churches and Courts of Iustice as Gods Cause yâ—â— by â—ome suppositiâ—ious Parâ—â—aments they were voted for till they had run themselves and all of us like S. Pauls ship in the storm upon such rocks of Anarchy and confusion as were past humane hopes of recovery if God himself had not arose by a providence scarce ever paralleld in any age or instance of the world to plead by a still voyce after all our foregoing earthquakes fires tempests the Cause of his own great Name and the honor of our blessed Saviour with the sanctity of our Reformed Religion and the Loyalty of our English Nation the rights also of the Crown with the double honor of our Church and in sum the just restablishment of all our long shaken and overthrown foundations the cause of all which was pleaded more effectually in a few calm Months when the voyce of Law and Reason of Loyalty and true Religion came to be heard in our streets then they had been or ever could have been in many years by plunderings and sequestrings by killing and slaying by illegal covenanting and perjurious engaging by devouring and destroying both Church and Kingdom I am piously ambitious though my station be now removed from you made without my seeking much uneasier though somewhat higher then it was before to deposite thiâ— work with you O worthy and honourable Gentlemen among whom it had its first productions of whose love and favor as you know I never made any mercenary gain or pecuniary advantagâ— as that wretched Libeller 〈◊〉 Creticus Borborites enviously suggests my charge of attending your service being beyond any benefit I ever received so I musâ— own this as the greatest rewarâ— and only satisfaction which I ever had or expected for my pains among you that I had thereby an happy opportunity in so noble an Assembly and in so desperate paroxysms of our distempered times to set forth with my wonted freedom the great concern of all good men which is the true Cause of God which must be pleaded against our own and others lusts and to discover those potent epidemical cheats which under that name had so long abused these British Nations and Churches I well remember that some of my more touchy and guilty hearers men of name at that time were at once scared and scandalized to hear me preach so freely and smartly of that subject they feared their practice and craft would soon fail if once the true Cause of God were rightly stated and pleaded yea some men of the long robe and of large consciences protested after the hearing of the first Sermon they durst not hear me preach again on that subject least their silence should make them guilty of High-treason by their noâ— complaining of me to the Traytorâ— then tyrannizing over us Indeed they were justly jealouâ— that the true Cause of God like Moses Serpent would eat up alâ— those of the Magicians That the Cause of Christ of the truâ— heavenly Jerusalem would either batter down or undermine those bloody Babels of their Commonâ— wealths which were indeed the common woe though it made for some mens private wealth by the prices of blood and wages of iniquity which they greedily received I thank God I never feared the frowns nor affected the smiles of such servile Sycophants who durst plead any Cause but what was truly Gods the Kings and the Churches I had then sufficient encouragement from the love and approbation of the most and best of their Society without which yet I ought and should have done my duty upon the account of conscience and inward comfort Hence is this
my confidence of inviting you again to review the Cause of God which hath been now mightily pleaded beyond what we could ask or think God himself conquering the monsters of our sins and miseries by the miracles of his mercies My aim is to retain and engage as Counsellors Advocates and Servients to this righteous cause yet without any other Fee then that of a good conscience in this world not only men of my own profession as Divines and Ministers but you â—s o that are either the Sages and Iudges or the Students and Practisers in the Laws because I look upon you as Masters of great Reason and no less careful I hope of true Religion best acquainted with the constitutions of this Church and Kingdom persons generally adorned with ingenuous education and good literature yea and which is more in vulgar eies and esteem with good estates Gentlemen related by birth or alliance or clients or acquaintance to the best Families and greatest affairs of the Nation you either fill the one or attend the other house of Parliament while no Bishop or other Clergie-man never so worthy is admitted to come there unless as a Supplicant or Delinquent your counsels and examples are not onely influentiall in your country retirements but also efficacious in all the Cities and Courts of England It is your custom and no less your wisdom and honor to keep to and plead for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Magna Charta fundamental Laws and ancient and excellent constitutions of this Church and Kingdom not therefore good because ancient but therefore ancient because they were judged and experimentally found by our wise and pious Progenitors to be very good yea best for this Church and State It becomes the freedom of your spirits and estates as Lawyers and Gentlemen however the poor Clergie are oft compelled to popular dependancie yea and some of them like leeches thrive best when they hang most upon the skins of people I say it becomes you to be the furthest of any men living from flattering or abetting any factius novelties or Fanatick Novellers in Church or State which you cannot do without greater sin and shame then other men because you have more knowledge of good and evil of Law and Iustice of Reason and Religion the guilt and burthen of other mens sins which are lead and deluded by your counsel or example must needs lie heavie upon your souls as well as ours of the Clergie when being their guides lights and oracles you or we prove their deceivers and seaucers Certainly if the poyson of some Lawyers teeth had not venomed the wounds which some Preachers tongues first gave to the life and welfare of this Church and Kingdom we had not run to such horrid ulcers such in veterate and incurable gangreens of disloyalty and irreligion of faction and confusion nor endured so various ridiculous and superfluous Tragedies which then began when Pulpits rang Aarons bels backward as to the Cause of God and Courts of judicature meanly conformed to the vilest lusts of men such as have given horror and astonishment to the modest part of mankind and which threatned except the Lord had been merciful to us to have tormented Kings and Parliaments and people of all degrees in the hell fire or Tophet of everlasting fewds factions and confusions under the specious name but most putid fallacy of Gods Cause the good cause and at last the good old cause though nothing was more vile and novel less ancient or more arrantly wicked for perjury perfidy Sacriledge and Regicide void of all fear of God or reverence of man contrary to the Word of God and Laws of that Nation A Cause the zealous Martyrs for which are only fit to be put in the Devilâ— Diptych or Calendar or in God Black book not in the Book of lifâ— Against all which presumptuo 〈…〉 imposures in Church and State You O worthy professors of the La 〈…〉 and of our reformed Religion aâ— well as we Preachers of the Gospelâ— have now all honorable and safâ— encouragement to oppose ouâ— selves under the protection of God and the King that both you a 〈…〉 Iudges and Iustices by the civil sword and we as Bishops and Presbyters by the spiritual sword may be as valiant for the honour and order of the established Religion and Laws of England for the ancient and excellent Government Regal and Episcopall of this Church and Kingdom as others have been impudently pragmatick to broach those novel errors most illegal injuries and high indignities which they brought upon us more by our own cowardize perhaps then their courage Let us dare as much to be Loyal and religious honest and orderly as others have dared to be false and base insolent and irregular injurious and sacrilegious They wanted not many black mouths vile tongues and libellous pens to plead for the Baalims which they set up meer Idols and Teraphims in Church and State which are now blessed be God cast out to the moles and bats O let not us for I would have no difference between your learned Tribe and ours let none of us who are most versed in God or mans Laws be wanting to the true Cause of our God and Saviour of our rightful King of our reformed Religion and of our famous Church in its Doctrine devotion discipline and Government In the cause of which all your and your posterities happiness are included Since then by the goodness of God the monstrous and many-shapen Dagons of our late Philistins and oppressors are now faln to the ground and broken off head hands and feet a meer fanatick stump let us turn Israelites unanimously set our selves as we have done to the welcome reception of his Majesty so to bring home with truth and peace honor and order joy and jubilation the Ark of God the Church of England restoring it to its place and adorning it with all the beauties of holiness worthy of the wisdom and piety munificence courage and honor of our Ancestors who were famous both for their loyaltie and Religion the fruits of whose care and constancie we enjoyed heretofore as men and Christians in a wel-reformed united and setled National Church till some men lost their wits and hearts their credits and consciences their sense of duty to their God and their King yea and their first love of our reformed Church and Religion for which our famous Forefathers had so notably pleaded not only in the Pulpits at the Bars but in prison also and at stakes when they were able to say with truth and comfort as the royall Martyr of admired memory did now dying That they thanked God they had a good Cause and a gracious God Certainly t is better thus to suffer for God cause inpietie justice patience and charitie then to prosper in the Devils with sacrilegious usurpation and injury this as a fire of thorns may blaze for a time but it will soon be extinguished the other carries the lawrells and
crowns of eternal victory for though we die for it yet we shall live by it the greatest trophies of Gods cause are in another world there our Lord Iesus Christ with the Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all the true Professors set up their victorious banners and rest in eternal Triumphs O let us all cast anchor in Gods Cause and we shall have no cause to fear the tossings of this world which was and ever wil be a restless Sea Let us keep Faith and a good conscience from shipwrack by preservation of our Laws and reformed Religion so shall we and our posteritie Kings and Subjects be most safe on earth however we shall be sure to gain our main cause and process at last in heaven tho in other things we be less advantaged as to this world for all our care pains in pleading Gods the Kings and the Churches Cause In which I hope I have not been wholly wanting to my duty in the worst of times nor shall I be now discouraged in these more Halcyon days however my sun may seem to be in its Western decline wher I find my self preferred as to much more love civility and honor from the Gentry sober Clergie ingenuous people of that Diocess then I can well deserve so I am exposed to much more business and fatigue of life sweetâ—ed with far less worldly comfort tâ—anquillity then formerly I enjoyed when I had the happiness of a more convâ—nient as well as a more private and retired condition but Iow my self more to the publick cause of God and his Church of my King and Country then to my own ease or private interest for those we must be willing to do suffer and deny our selves in any thing short of heaven sin and hell faithful seruice of them is our greatest freedom highest honor and will be at last our greatest reward if we can but have patience to wait a few years till we pass to another world where the crown of eternall glory shall be set on the head of that vertue which envie here may depress That you with my self may persevere in sincerely pleading and promoting Gods blessed Cause which is our own is the earnest prayer of Your very humble Servant John Gauden Bp. of Exeter Eâ—ueter Feb. 20. 1660. ERRATA Pag. 66. line 26. r. which l. 27. r. of l. 28 dele them p. 61 l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 18. r. Hinges or â—xes l. 19. r. polar p. 89. l. 15. r. pleaded p. 150. l. 19. r. l p. 153 â— 8. r. pursue Causa Dei Gods pleading his own Cause Set forth in two SERMONS Preached at the Temple in Novemb. 1659. Upon PSAL. 74. 22 Arise O God Plead thine own Cause Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily THis Psalm is a most Pathetick Lamentation for the deplorable state of the Church of God among the Jews in the Babylonish captivity after the Justice and Wrath of God had let in the power aud malice of enemies as a mighty flood which swept away not onely the civil peace liberty plenty safety and honour with the Majesty and Government of the State but also the very face and form of the Church The publick profession order decency and solemnity of Religion the Worship and Service of God moral and ceremonial as to sacrifices and oblations Prayers and praises in the Temple § A matter of the greatest consideration to every pious and devout soul who cannot but be grieved to see Religion as the light of the sun put under a bushel confined to closets and corners driven to private and precarious Conventicles to be forced to thin and scattered Congregations or which is worse to affect separate Conventicles where the ta 〈…〉 d raâ—â— of verity will never be able to â—â—ep charity warm or cover the 〈…〉 of Schism and Faction 〈…〉 iâ— theâ— time to cry out with old Eli Ichabod The glory is departed from Israel the beauty of holiness is turned into sackeloth ashes and publick joys sink into mourning and solemn Halelujahs into sad lamentations full of sighs and tears There is no cause to triumph or joy upon any civil and secular accounts in any Nation never so prospeâ—â—â—s when true Religion is eclipsed or the true Church and its Ministry discountenanced debased persecuted plundered destroyed reproached Then if ever as the Mariners cryed to Jonah in the storm Every man should cry mightily to his God apply his hands to the ore that is to such means as being pious and prudent are only proper to be used in Gods Cause This Psalm beare the name of Asaph that famous Master in Davids time of Church-musick both Vocal and Organical in which there is so much of humane yea divine sweetness composure and rapture that nothing but savage Barbarity and rude hypocrisie can envy or deny the Church of Christ both Christian and Judaick the blessing of holy harmony in singing to God and setting forth his high praises in the greatest perfections of melody that man can attain unto and the Churches gravity enjoy Not that it is like to have bin then penn'd by Asaph as if by the spirit of prophesie he had foreseen foretold and forewarned the captivity four hundred years before it came to pass but either some other of that name wrote it in the time of the captivity or some man of another name might then write this doleful Psalm or Threnody to the composure method or tune of Asaphs excellent melody who was one of the chief Singers leaving to after ages further monuments not only of devout compassion of the Churches affliction but also of those heavenly comforts which may in all cases be used and enjoyned in such holy forms as do set forth the exemplary passions of devout men either as to joy or sorrow complacenc 〈…〉 compassion prayer or praise in publick or private concernments so that not onely as St. James speaks If any man rejoyce he may sing Psalms of praise and thanksgiving But if he be afflicted he may read pray and weep over such divine Ditties as are most suitable to the sence and sorrow of his soul or the state of the Church yea and of any private friend This holy Pen-man whoever he were having an heart full of zeal for Gods glory no less then eyes full of tears and lips full of complaints for the Churches calamities suffers himself to boil over to all the Topicks of pathetick Oratory and devout importunity sometime deploring in general the sad state of things other while complaining to God in particular instances yea in one place he seems to complain of God himself as if he were regardless and negligent of his own interests Tanquam coecum surdum numen as if he needed a Monitor and Remembrancer to mind his own cause one while he deplores Gods fierce anger against his Church Then he tells him of the near relation he had to that suffering Cause
Causa Dei Gods pleading his own Cause Set forth in Two SERMONS PREACHED At the TEMPLE in November 1659. BY Dr. Gauden Bishop of Excester LONDON Printed by John Best for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in S. Pauls Church-yard 1661. TO THE Honourable Societies OF THE TEMPLES IN order to adorn my departure from you worthy and honored Gentlemen with a Beno decessit such grateful respects and civility as becomes me to your eminent and worthy Societies I have formerly prepared and now dedicated this following Treatise as my fare-well Present to you or a second monument of mine yea and of your Honor after that which was by me the last year of Englands captivity consecrated to the memorie of my reverend and renowned Predecessor Bishop Brownrig under the patrocinie of your Name that was as the Urn or Conservatory of his and your reciprocal kindness and mutual merits with whose mortall remains your piety hath adorned your Temple This second piece is the substance of those two Sermons which I first preached among you after I was invited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those dark and dangerous times to bestow my pains with you in the Term time The main subject of this is the The true Cause of God and the right pleading of it Which Theam I then chose to preach on because I observed in the whole course of our English tragedâ—â— that eveâ—y party still pretended to act their factious confusions upon their several stages in these three Kingdoms under the specious dress colour title and pretence of Gods Cause and the high zeal they had to plead it This this was always inscribed on the most bloody banners with this their tongues and pens were whetted who sought to build their Counter-Babels on the foundations and ruines of Zion With this Mark of the Lamb were those ravening wolves marked who drank the blood and eat the flesh of their Fathers and Mothers of Kings and Clergie of Church and Country with this Motto The Cause of God and Christ their false tongues their crazie heads their cruel hands and impudent faces were to be set off to popular reputation when nothing indeed was further from their hearts or works O the Cause of God the Cause of God the Cause of Iesus Christ cries every tatling and teeming faction when prostitute to and impregnated by the Incubus of some novel lust and new fancy as if it were now in travel and readie to be delivered of some holy birth or sacred prodigie This language or fallacy non causa pro-causa of urging the Cause where no Cause of God was the rigid Presbyterian learned in Scotland this the puny Independant brought from Arnheim or New England This of old the Anabaptists cried up at Munster when to encrease their Faction they multiplied wives This the silly Quaker now peeps and mutters in every corner This the more bloody Papists boasted of in Ireland and other Bigots of that perswasion do every where magnifie the Romish cause as the only Christian Catholick Cause Mean while all these parties joyntly and severally labour to overthrow the true Cause and excellent constitution of this Church and Monarchie of England That is the truth peace honor and order both of these Brittish Kingdoms and of our Reformed Religion as it is conform to the Word of God to our ancient good Laws and to the customs of the true Catholick Church In which the learned loyall and Religious Nobility Gentry Clergie and Commons of this nation with their Kings have ever judged that the true Cause of God as to justice and Religion holiness and peace the divine glory and welfare of mankind was and is most eminently contained I confess I was then wearie and ashamed of the counterpleas counterscufles of those bold and divided harlots who did each pretend with great zeal the Cause of God against the other in order to oppose Gods righteous cause which certainly ever was and will be but one and the same for ever as to the main of truth and peace of faith and good works of justice and holiness I evidently saw by many years sad experience that these rude rivals already had and ever would first divide then destroy the true cause of God and the publick interest of this Church and Kingdom only to advance their private and partial causes which were evidently leavened with most illegal extravagancies with sacrilegious covetousness with immoderate ambitions with inhumane revenges with implacable cruelties and with impudent exorbitancies and with most â—eigned necessities Hence it was that I adventured in so great and illustrious an Auditory even before the day of our redemption dawned or that day-star of the North appeared which afterward ushered in our Sun of Righteousness I say I then adventured truly and fully to set forth my sense of Gods Cause with such a resolution as our learned Bradwardin Arch bp of Canterbury sometime took up when he set forth his large and elaborate Volume De Causa Dei of which he thus says in his Preface De Causa Dei Scripturus sciens manum in ignem terribilem mitto c. That he well knew into what flaming fires with Scoevola he put his hand how many enemies he should contract and exasperate by his honest stating and asserting the Cause of Gods grace and glory against the Pelagian pride and presumption who sought to advance the impotent power of nature the cloudie twilight beams of Reason and the maimed liberty of mans will which is clogged corrupted and hampered with many sensual lusts above the necessity and against the only sufficiency of Gods grace in order to his glory and a sinners salvation yet that good Prelate did both proceed and speed he did his work and had his reward both in a good conscience and in great successes as to his repressing that petulancy of poor worms exalting themselves against the great God without whom they can do nothing but sin against him and damn their own souls In like manner have I lived to see in a few months after that bold essay of mine among you the wonderful revolutions of Gods providence pleading at once his own the Kings this Churches and this Kingdoms cause the Cause of our Laws Liberties Lives and Religion the cause of all honest men for their souls and bodies for themselves and their posterities in their temporal and eternal great concernments All these great and good Causes are at once pleaded by our wise just and mercifull God against those strong delusions those false pretensions those rebellious usurpations and those novel intrusions which under the lie and hypocrisie of setting up Gods Cause and the Cause of Jesus Christ made prophane men abhor the very name godly men to pitty the reality of Gods holy cause which they saw so miserably mistaken by some and by others so shamefully deformed so sordidly defiled so impudently blasphemed through the wicked policies and horrid practises of some monsters of men most unsanctified Saints who
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
strip her of all her pleasant things as it is and hath been for some years in England the wild Bore and the Fox shall then do their pleasure by force and fraud against her this is the variable state of the Church Militant mutable as the Moon though it be cloathed with the light of the Sun yet it may be so eclipsed and turned into bloâ—d that there is no help for her but in her God Perfect and perpetual felicity is a state onely expectable in heaven till there is no sin or spot in the Church and soul there can be no security against sorrow shame and sufferings which are our physick in our valetudinary constitution to which this life is subject yea Christ himself the Son of God and Saviour of the Church though without â—in yet was not without suffering while he was found in the form of sinful flesh and bare by way of susception imputation and satisfaction all our sins 6. Obser Times may be so bad and on such a desperate pin that none can either safely or effectually plead Gods cause or his Churches but himself who onely can create deliverances and mercies who alone commands the winds and seas to obey him who can restrain the fury of man and turn the remainder of wrath to his praise who can change the heart of Esaâ— and stir up the spirit of Princes as he did Cyrus and Darius to build his Temple and restore his captives who can either conquer Pharaoh by main force and dint of judgements or change the decree of Ahasuerosh by gentler operations who can level great mountains before Joshua and Josedeck and exalt the lower valleys the day of small things and of a despised Cause to bring forth his salvation who gives nursing Fathers and Mothers to his flock and family and such shepherds as shall seek the strayed carry in their bosom the weary feed the hungry and cure the diseased not with rigor and austerity but with love and tenderness Thus after the sharpest persecution of Dioclesian when Christian Religion as Monarchy and Episcopacy hath been by some in our days was triumphed over as extirpated God raised up Constantine the Great and other Christian Emperors after him who restored life liberty honor and support to the Church after the Church was seemingly dead as St. Paul when he was stoned yet it rose up again when Israels burthens were heaviest in Egypt then was their redemption nearest because their devotion was warmest and Gods compassions tenderest to them After the Marian bonefires and but cheries of so many carbonaded Christians in England filling all things with earthquake fire tempest and horror in what a still voyce for many years did God plead by a wonderful and unexpected providence the Cause of his Church and the Reformation of Religion here in England for an hundred years as I pray he will do again for us in mercy because he hath not forgotten to be gracious nor do his compassions fail but his mercy endureth for ever 7. Obser Gods cause must never be given for lost or desperate while God remains who is both able and willing to plead it or while any good man as Moses or Samuel or Eliah or Daniel remain who by fervent prayers can and will put God in mind of it and excite him to it As David and Jehosaphaâ— encouraged themselves in the Lord then God so must good men in bad times when the best cause goes by the worst A man would even willingly die such a death as our late Martyr King did on condition that he could with faith and truth dye with that divine sentence in his mouth as he did I thank God I have a good Cause and a gracious God This supported the Martyrs and Confessors so of old that when they were sâ—ain for Gods cause all the day long yet as Sulpitius Severus says of them they then hastned more ambitiously to Martyrdoms then afterward in times of peace others did to the greatest preferments in Church or State Though figtree and olive and flock and field and all fail yet the Prophet tells us he will rejoyce in the Lord even in the God of his salvation The Lord will arise as a Giant refreshed with wine to plead the cause of Sion and to vindicate the honor of his great name which is graven on his true Church as on the signet of his right hand in the highest storms we may cast this anchor God can and will appear for his cause in the midst of the fiery furnace never so hot no less then in the cool of the day 8. Obser When all means fail yet the prayer of the faithful must not be wanting to Gods cause This is in naufragio Tabula the rafter left the Church in the greatest shipwrack when neither Sun nor Moon nor Stars appear yet if this Angel the spirit of prayer appear in our agony we may be of good chear as St. Paul was A good Christian as Moses and the Syrophenician woman must not give over its pious importunity though God seems angry and Christ averse God cannot deny the fervent prayers of the righteous they will be effectual in time even to open prison doors as they did in St. Peters case when the Church prayed incessantly for him Acts 12. 5. As the vapors that ascend from earth to heaven are after returned in sweet showers that have in them vital and celestial influences being impregnated with etherial or heavenly spirits so are prayers of the faithful Devout souls that lay to heart the cause of God cannot be more bold then welcome to him in such cases God is as well pleased with their excitation or solicitation of him even to a kind of imperious commanding of him which the Prophet expresseth as a man is with that ruder importunity by which he is awaked out of sleep to quench his house on fire or to save his son from drowning There is more efficacy in praying for the Peace of Jerusalem then in fighting The fiery chariots and horses that are in the brest of zealous and devout Orators will do more good then armed legions of Soldiers 9. Obser There is not a greater sign of a good and gracious heart then to lay to heart the Cause of God even then most passionately and earnestly when it is most deserted most deploring most despairing a good Christian must make good what St. Peter said well to Christ but performed ill Though all men forsake thee yet will not I Is God touched with our concerns and afflicted in our afflictions and zealous to plead our righteous cause to contend with those that contend with his servants Isa 49. 25. when we are molested or oppressed in any kind by sin temptation weakness darkness dejection diffidence persecution or desertion and shall we be as Gallio in Gods cause or as Nabal to Davids not caring or concerned The Cause of
Christians are figs and grapes and olives that are not to be gathered from the bryars and thorns of the present world in which whoever will live godly must expect and patiently suffer but not deserve persecution A good Cause must not think it strange to finde bad entertainment on earth where it is a pilgrim and stranger Times are seldom so good as really to favour Gods Cause however the policies and lusts of men their pride licentiousness covetousness and ambition may seem to flatter it so far as suits with their present interests which are most what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-seeking partial and inordinate ut in vitis sic in causis homines spes improbas alunt as in other things so in religion men have their impipious ambitions and perverse hopes § Whereas the Cause of God is a self denying cause as to all ungodliness and worldly lusts teaching us to live contentedly righteously soberly and godly in all things § So that these large flags and streamers which some men of the Roman or other factions of later editions hang out to the vulgar as to the potency and prosperity of their Cause argue no more Gods cause to be with them or they with it then the fine feathers in fools caps argue them to have wit or wisdom in their heads coppar may be thus stamped and guilded which will not endure the fiery trial as true gold will and such is the Cause of God ever pure and precious just and holy though it be oppressed and persecuted as a jewel it loseth not its native lustre and worth though it be ill set or cast into the dirt To conclude this general description of Gods Cause this may be its Emblem It is as the tree of life in the Pardise of God the root of it is the Truth of God in his word the sap is holiness or true sanctity the leaf is charity without dissimulation the rinde or bark is order and good discipline in the Church also Equity and civil Justice in the State the lesser and lower fruit is every grace and good work growing in us or from us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prime and topmost cluster is Gods glory and the salvation of sinful souls through his free grace in Jesus Christ Having shewed the general tokens or marks of Gods Cause I now proceed by way of Induction and instance to set forth the particulars in which it consists 1. The grand Cause of God is his own glory this is the first mover great conservator and last consummator of all things which the divine Wisdom contrives or his Patience permits or his Power performs or his Justice Goodness and Mercy moderates or his Word commands For this cause he hath made and manageth all things in heaven and earth that the glory of his being may appear to men and Angels who are with all humility gratitude adoration service and admiration to return the just recognition and praises due to the divine Majesty for all his essential excellencies and his gracious emanations every Attribute and Perfection of God is by them to be owned with due respect of Faith Fear Love Duty Adoration and Admiration thus his Power Wisdom Justice Mercy Immensity Eternity Veracity Immutability c. are to be considered by men and Angels with suitable affections reflecting from them to God And among Christians the unity of the Divine Nature together with the Trinity of the sacred Persons or relations distinguished by the names of Father Son and Holy Spirit must be ever owned celebrated and adored according to the wonted Doxology or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Orthodox Churches This Cause God hath in all ages pleaded as his own royal concern against Atheists Polytheists Idolaters Antitrinitarians Anthropomorphites against prophane and proud livers who live as if there were no God above them also against vain and false swearers who blaspheme the name of God and bring a curse on their souls families and countries against presumptuous wicked doers who are their own gods and worshippers both self-Idols and self-Idolaters This is the first most immediate cause or concern of the Divine Nature and Glory that God be owned and none beside him or comparable to him This will be made good against wicked men and Devils by the pleas and principles of right Reason by the sensible beauty order harmony proportion usefulness and constancy of Gods Works in the world by his signal providences in judgement or mercy by his preservation of the Scriptures and the Church with true Religion by the predictions fulfilled and lastly by the terrors convictions and presages of mens consciences which are that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little God in our own brests as Mar. Aurelius calls it 2. The next great concern or Cause of God is that of the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Word and coessential Son of God the blessed Messiah the brightness of the divine glory and express image of the Father It is not enough now to beleive in God as Creator and Preserver of men but we must also beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer of beleiving penitent and obedient sinners by the mercy love and free grace of God This is the beloved Son of God whom we must hear the onely name under heaven by which we may be saved he that doth not obediently beleive the testimony of Prophets and Apostles of Miracles and Angels of Martyrs and Confessors of the Church Catholick and an enlightned conscience in this great Cause of the Messias even the crucified Jesus is under peremptory condemnation while such § Of this great and mysterious Cause God gave the world an account of old under types figures sacrifices and many ceremonies as shadows and resemblances under the Law but now the Substance and Son of Righteousness is come and hath fully taught his Church the will of God and the work such sinners have to do which is to repent and beleive in him whom the Father hath sent who so beleiveth not makes God a lyar and is already condemned to which must be added to compleat the cause of the sacred Trinity the belief and adoration of the Holy Ghost as God one with the Father and the Son in the Divine essence and glory though a distinct person as to the emanation from and relation to both ◠The Cause of God extends to the true Church of God as an holy corporation or society of such as do truely believe inwardly or outwardly and profess with Order and Charity the word worship and service of the true God with our Lord Jesus and the blessed Spirit according to the rule of the Scripture ◠God owns himself in Jesus Christ as the Father friend head and Husband of the Church such as fight against that fight against God and afflict the apple of his eye God is concerned that the foundation of his Church which is
in Gods name and stead to enact and execute them Hence as the just cause of every man is Gods who may say with David and others Psal 35. 1. Plead my cause O Lord c. Though never so poor mean and helpless yet their cause must not be despised or wronged and oppressed God will avenge the meanest Subjects injuries against the greatest Princes or Potentates so the cause of even subordinate Magistrates is Gods cause But above all their cause is Gods whom God hath placed as Supreme above all in Empires and Kingdomes for the good of all Certainly that of I have said ye are Gods and Thou shall not curse the Gods or Rulers of thy people and that of Touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm That of Davids tenderness to King Saul of all good mens subjection in all ages Jewish and Christian to their princes though evil persecutive and oppressive those orders of Christ to give to Cesar the things that are Cesars and so the Canons of the two great Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul to obey to be subject by all means in all things actively or passively to Kings and all in authority by whose safety the whole state is safe if they be resisted or injured and destroyed Iliades of miseries like torrents of blood usually break in on all sorts of people Those divine Oracles besides the Catholick constant and eminent practice of the primitive Christians the best commentary on Scripture when they wanted not numbers and armes as Tertullian and others tell us yet they never used other weapons then patience prayers and tears petitions and Apologies to the persecuting Princes all those put together do shrewdly evince that those men are no friends to or assertors of the true cause of God who are not so of settled laws and Government of Magistratick power and civil justice of which not the will and power of man but the Law of God in general and the particular Laws customs and constitution of every Nation and Polity are Arbitrators and Judges What ever ◠done or taught by Prince or People contrary to these under any splendid form and novel names of Arbitrary prerogative or popular liberty or high Justice is the highest Injustice and done with an high hand in Dei contumeliam in affront to Gods Ordinances and of Law Order Peace and Government for the good of mankind § Nor may any Subjects here fly by way of appeale to the common Dictates of reason and loose principles of natural liberty or I know not what necessity after once by publique consent they are limited and confined to the inclosures of laws and rules of obedience either active or passive To which God and mans Laws oblige all men otherwise there will be no quiet or setling in any State for there will never want some whose discontentments or ambition think the Laws themselves too strict and injurious as to the liberties which are necessary to attain their designs and fullfil their lusts § All true Christians will rest either content or patient being never so concerned in any worldly momentary business as to sin upon the account of either getting or preserving it They have enough while they can in Righteousness and peaceful ways possess their own soul in good consciences which enjoy God and Christ and the holy Spirit Christians must be very insatiable not to be content with such society and liberty which will not suffer them to want what is necessary for life and godliness After the cause of publique Justice and peace which are a branch of Gods cause every private mans cause as to sin and grace vice and virtue good or evil trouble or comfort is Gods so far as they are on Gods side and take his part against the evil of World Flesh and Devil his word and spirit will plead for them against Satan accusing and conscience condemning against their fear and jealousies of God or themselves against doubts dejections and despaires The cause also of the poor the fatherless and the Widows is peculiarly Gods cause which he is patrone to and promiseth to protect them if they trust in him as he threatens their oppressors and despisers that he will plead their cause against them Pro. 22. 23. Yea the cause not only of good men but of wicked men is so far Gods as they have reason and justice or right on their side they may not be wronged or robbed because they are wicked or Idolaters God pleads the cause of Nebuchadnezzer though an heathen a persecutor and oppressor against King Zedekiah because of the Oath and Covenant which was in Gods name passed between them So he did that of Amurath that great Turk against Ladislaus a Christian King of Hungary when he violated the accord sworn between them having from the Pope a dispensation for his perjury which God never gives in lawful Oaths as he never obligeth to or by unlawful ones § True Religion binds us to such as are irreligious to Hereticks to Mahometans hometans and to all it is a damnable divillish and Antichristian Doctrine that to them much more to Christians no faith is to be kept that they have no civil right to any thing That they are Egyptians and may be robbed or killed by such as fancy or call themselves Israelites Moses's or Saints God hath given the earth to the children of men as such in natural and civil successions not as to his Children and Saints by grace and Regeneration God hath better things in store for them in Heaven which who so believes will never by fraud or force and so by way of sin and in justice seek to shark and scramble for these earthly things which God gives as a portion and reward sometimes to wicked men and is indeed their all that they desire or expect from God Lastly every creature is so far included to the cause of God as it hath his Stamp and Character upon it The abusing of them to sin riot luxury cruelty is the Gods dishonour as if he made them for no better use and ends Veneranda est non erubescenda natura as Tertullian speaks God is to be reverenced in all his works and not reproached The not owning God in them not blessing him for them and not serving him by them makes the users of them impleadable at Gods Bar and Tribunal Redde ratioonem Redde deprosium Give an account of the Corn and Wine and Oyle the Silk and Flax and the Wool the beauty strength estate and honour time wit learning and all other enjoyments Non hos quaesitum munus in usus as they are not ours by merit or by making the least of them so Gods action lies against us for every one of them if abused or not used as lent us by him who is Lord Paramount in chief above all of whom we have and hold all things in Frank Almoinage as so many Almes
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
which was so zealously tender for the Cause of Christ that they loved not their lives unto death but rather chose mille mortes a thousand deaths then once to crucifie again or deny the Lord that bought them Fourthly The Cause of God may need his special pleading by reason of the great corruption of manners which like weeds grow in the garden of God or as tares in the field of the Church which was first sown with good seed Thus as Eusebius Salvian Suspitius-Severus and othes observe Christian Religion suffered more by the evil lives of Christians then by the malice of persecutors or Hereticks men that had sound heads as to doctrine and Faith yet had foul hearts their brains good but their breath lungs and liver were naught This contagion sometimes seised Pastors and Flocks by idleness pride luxury vain pomps and superfluous ceremonies by secular policies uncharitable actions and scandalous practices so far as made the Cause of God and the name Christ to be blasphemed and abhorred by many while they could not reconcile the holiness of Christians faith and doctrine with the solecisms of their sordid actions and shameful lives Hence came over the Western Churches that thick Egyptian darkness for many hundred of years in which religion was made up for the most part with Images and Pictures with beads and latin prayers with repeated Pater nosters and Ave Maries which people understood not nor the Priests many times with Purgatory Masses and Indulgencies with infinite superstitious ceremonies and empty formalities besides idle fables and vain janglings which like heaps of chaff had buried the good wheat of Gods floor and the glory of divine institutions to make way for Monastick superstitions Idolatrous adorations and Papal usurpations which were built on the flatteries of some and the fedities of others who easily dispenced with the honor of marriage when they had so cheap pardons for those extravagancies and impurities in which many lived under the vail of celibacy but far enough from pure unspotted and unviolated virginity § To this Augean stable was the Church of Christ and Cause of God brought by the depravedness of Christian manners by the rust and moss of superstition before the Reformation began to dawn in this western World An hundred grievances were at once complained of many confessed some for very shame reformed by even those of the Roman party who with infinite blood-shed in former ages fought under the Notion of holy Wars not only against Turks Jews and Sarazens but against good at least tolerable Christians who might have their errors and fayling in some things but it is sure they kept nearer to the primitive piety purity and patience both in faith administrations and manners than did their proud and merciless destroyers who eat up those poor Christians as bread and turned their cruel Croisadoes to crucifie their brethren breaking their fast sometimes with 20000. of the poor Albigenses Lugdunenses Waldenses Berengarians VVicklesites Hussites Bohemians and others proportionably were their dinners and suppers when the Popes flatterers and vassals had a mind to fall upon them 5. Yea and at this day even among the reformed Churches the purity simplicity honesty charity modesty and equanimity of Reformers is so abated and wasted by the pride animosity bitterness sacriledge rapines cruelties ambitions and covetousness among Protestants besides their endless factions under pretentions of reformation immoderations novellizings and confusions That thiâ— Cause of God as to the true reforming of religion and just protesting against Romish errors and enormities is brought very low as in other places and Churches so in England which was the greatest beauty honour stability refuge and safety of the reformed Religion and that cause of Christ which hath been so learned and valiantly pleaded by the Clergy and Layty the Princes and Parliaments the Martyrs and professors reverend Bishops and learned Presbyters against the Roman Usurpation Superstition Sacriledg and Idolatry which are without doubt so far Antichristian as they are clearly against the Doctrine example and institution of Christ besides the judgment and practice of his primitive Churches § Even this cause I say is now â—ick and ashamed of it self so decayed disparaged and divided that it is next degree to being destroyed and despised by all unless God arise by some extraordinary way of his providence to plead and assert this his own cause of a just and due reformation against the factious policies and Fanatick fallacies of unreasonable men whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immoderations and transports have marred all by their King killing rapine and sacriledg unless God arise to judge the earth § Nor is this the first time that God hath helped this Church and the Reformed Religion at a dead lift for so it was in Queen Maries days when the reformed party made conscience not to rebel against their persecuting Soveraigne Princess when her persecution was according to her perswasion and conscience yea they pleaded and asserted her civil rights committing the cause of their Religion and Reformation to God with their loyal souls and consciences in well doing and patience There did God arise in his due time and do his own works in his own way to the great honour of the reformed Religion which had first the crowns of so many Martyrdoms on its head without the least spot of civil Tumults Wars Seditions or Rebellions on the hearts or hands of the reforming Clergy and reformed people § By which preposterous methods of latter years mightily cryed up and carryed on by some men in order to reformation of Religion not onely Religion is become retrograde many degrees if we look to the Dial of Gods word and the primitive Christians practice as it pretends to be reformed but even as it is Christian too that is the Doctrine and imitation of a crucified not a crucifying Saviour The lines which some men have drawn as the measures of their Doctrine and deeds are very excentrick and wide as to the wonted centre of Gods glory the circumference of Scripture truth and that strait rule of charity by which those two were wont to meet in the conscience and conversation of good Christians § Nor will either Christian Religion or just Reformation appear in their true beauty and honor while these are so far at distance and separated from each other that either verity and charity patience and subjection truth and peace are wanting in the ways of Christians In the close of this second general Question it is fit to answer that other branch of it also Why God so wise so potent so good s gracious so compassionate and so vigilant for his own Cause that is his Glory and great Name which is so much bound up in his Churches welfare yet suffers it many times so far to run to lapse seeming ruine and despair in the eyes of the world in the triumphs of his enemies and in the despondencies of his servants that
ariseth terribly to judge the world and to ease him of his adversaries and to plead the cause of his oppressed Church are most worthy of the divine majesty For 1. They are most just in themselves 2. They are most pregnant and convictive in mens consciences as the pleas of God 3. They are unavoidable and irrisistible and potent 4. They carry the cause at last against all opposition the highest cedars are feld by it the greatest mountains levelled Gods Cause like Moses his serpent devours all those Enchanters and Magicians 5. They are impartial without respect of persons great or strong rich or noble wise or foolish few or many God sometimes so pleads it as to pour contempt even upon Princes to pull down the mighty from their seats to confound their counsels to break the arm of their strength to lop off all their branches yea to stub up their roots as to their posterity and renown which was done against Nebuchadnezzar Haman Balshazzar and Judas Sometimes God pleads his cause even by miraculous appearings in signs and wonders full of terror and destruction so against Pharoah and the Egyptians so against Senacherib and his hoast sending a destroying Angel to confute in one night his blâ—sphemous insolency by slaying the greatest part and flower of his Army sending him away with shame which was followed with the parricide of his two sons who slew him So in privater cases God pleads against Miriams murmuring by leprosie so against Nadab and Abihu by fire So against Korah and his mutinous complices God wrought a new way of burying them alive Numb 16. 33. So against the pride of Herod whose popular diety was confuted by worms Act. 12. 23. Sometimes God fills his enemies with Pannick terrors and makes them sheath their swords in their own bowels to become executioners of his vengeance yea and we read Achitophels or acular wisdom ended in a halter even so let all perfidious and impenitent Polititians perish O Lord that are enemies to thy Cause in true Religion and just Government Sometimes God stirs up unexpected and despicable enemies against them who kindle such fires of intestine or foraign wars as consume his proudest adversaries as in the Kings of Israel and Judah when they forsook and rebelled against God When God ariseth to plead his own Cause he fears the face of none he spares none not Families or Cities or Nations or a whole world as in Noahs days or the whole race and nature of mankind as in Adam and Eve who fell under the curse with their posterity when they beleived and obeyed the serpent more then God Against some he pleads vvith fire famine pestilence evil beasts War Deluges Nay he spared not the rebellious Angels but cast them out of heaven into hell fire from the light of his blessed presence to chains of eternal darkness Nay God spares not his ovvn servants People and Church he pleaded sorely against Davids sin vvhich argued his despising of God vvhen he preferred his lust and caused the enemies of God to blaspheme all religion and grace by the scandal of his extravagancy God shevvs us that as Saints may sin so he sees sin in them and vvill not let it go unpunished § So he pleads against Eli and his sons even to their untimely death and the extirpation of that family from the honor of Priesthood So against King Uzziah for his sacrilegious intruding on the Preists office So against King Saul for his rebellion which was us witchcraft So against King Solomon vvhen his wisdom left him or he left it and fell to so gross a folly and effeminacy as to countenance and tolerate Idolatry in an uxorious vanity and inconstancy So against King Hezekiah vvhen his pride made him forgetful of so great a mercy as his miraculous recovery and delivery Nay God pleaded oft against the vvhole Church of the Jews in their Apostasies the Cause of his Lavv Worship Service and Servants the Prophets whom they slew by cutting them short by pulling dovvn and abasing the crown of their glory by giving their adversaries dominion over them to destroy them to burn their Cities and Temple to desolate their Land to lead them into captivity and so to give the Land its rest and Sabboth which they had prophaned Thus did he oft plead the controversies he had with that Church and people that City and Sanctuary which was called by his own name with whom at last he reckoned for all the blood of the Prophets and that of the Messias too which filled up the cup of Gods wrath against them to an utter desolation which hath held now for near sixteen hundred years In like sort did the Spirit of God plead his Cause against the famous seven Churches in Asia and their Angels or Bishops of which we read in the second and third chapters of the Revelations reproving and threatning them sorely both Fathers and children Bishops and Presbyters Pastors and people except they did repent So against all the Greek and Eastern Christian Churches whose heresies luxuries schisms ambitions and hypocrisies have at this day put them under the Mahometan bondage and tyranny that they have scarce now a name to live as Christians or Churches § Nor was God wanting to plead his Cause by many terrible judgements against the depraved state of these Western Churches when overgrown with Image-Saints and Angels-worship with Tyranny and superstition with covetousness and ambition with sottery and debauchery even from the Popes or cheif Bishops chair to the Princes and Peers and Clergie and Gentry and people of all sorts how were they tossed too and fro in the sactions of Gnelphs and Gibelins wasted in the holy Wars as they called them terrified with excommunication and bans that there was no peace to him that came in or to him that went out Lastly God sometimes pleads his Cause and gives evident token it is his by an unexpected way even by suffering it to fall into fiery trials and many temptations not as offended with his Church but as giving the world experience of the mighty power of his grace and the eminent faith courage patience and constancy of his servants who love not their lives to the death but can set all the loss and dung of this world at stake for Christs sake So the primitive Martyrs and Confessors Apostles and others glorified God So many Bishops Presbyters Virgins young and old filled the world with admiration of that cause for which they were so resolved and undaunted that their pious perseverance as Justin Martyr and others tell us with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pertinacy as Mar. Aurelius calls it was a most powerful way to commend the glorious Gospel of Christ to the world Thus the blessed company and holy Hoste after Christs example did assert the cause of God and his Christ not by armed forces
mens part in pleading Gods cause in this world therefore to make amends there is a third Court wherin God will unavoidably plead his cause against every evil doer and all nakedness in the world this will be in foro poli or coeli at the last day when the books of Omniscience conscience and Scripture shall be opened and mens sins with their wilful immoral and impenitent errors shall be set in order before them Then the great Accuser within and without shall be heard and sentence given secundum allegata probata according to the merit and evidence of mens works This is the last appeal of the oppressed righteous cause where it shall be heard and have right done it For then as St. Bernard tells Judges and Juries and Lawyers Omnia judicata rejudicabuntur All judgements and causes shall be reviewed and rejudged § But the consideration of such Instruments as God is pleased to 〈◊〉 up to plead his cause in this world Leads me to the last particular which is to shew the manner and method legitimi litigandi of mans pleading as becomes him this holy cause of God when he is called to it in an ordinary which all are or extraordinary way as some may be § It is not only the work of God to plead his own cause as Joash said of Baal If he be a God he can and will plead for himself But it is the duty of every good Christian that loves God to be a worker and pleader together with him in Gods cause and way we must be all willing to be retained on Gods side to be his Advocates and Attorneys when he calls us to this work to contest for God against an evil perverse and adulterous generation either by living or dying by doing or suffering by preaching or disputing by discoursing or writing It will be demanded why I add not by fighting which is now much cryed up and used by some as a most speedy and effectual way to plead Gods Cause and set up Christ◠Kingdom I answer The cause of God is sometimes to be pleaded by the way of fighting 1. In defence of any Church and State against unjust and foreign invasion or intestine rebellion and sedition 2. By way of a Princes relieving his oppressed Subjects and Confederates in other States and Dominions 3. By way of asserting the proceedings of Justice as to Law according to that power which is established in any Kingdom or Polity 4. As to the Cause of Religion it is no further to be asserted by the Sword then as it is established by the Law and under the protection of the Soveraign Power there to plead its cause by such a Sword as is the sword of God and of Gideon is lawful when it is done by lawful command and Supreme which is in England Regal Authority Otherwise no Cause of God as to Religion is to be either planted and propagated or reformed or vindicated by the sword of Subjects against any Princes or chief Magistrates will and power in whose hand the sword is True God by a special Prophet and a commission from Heaven confirmed by many miracles did once put a sword into the Jews hand to make their way against those Nations which were declared by Divine Justice worthy to be destroyed But the Evangelical spirit is not of that temper the Commission of the Gospel and Christs Spiritual Militia by which he conquers the World is not to fight and kill and slay but to preach to pray and to suffer They grosly mistake Christs Kingdom and Gods Cause now that fancy it is to be pleaded by the Arm of Flesh by popular furies and forces by tumults and violences by subverting and opposing Magistratick power and breaking over the boundaries of good Laws and Customs Civil and Ecclesiastical § Christ commanded Peters gladiatorum forwardness in his defence to put up his sword into his sheath Christ had two other swords of the Word and Spirit which were enough to do his work not by Souldiers but Ministers not by Colonels and Captains but hy Bishops and Presbyters There are other ways to exercise a Christians love zeal and courage for Gods cause which as it is most worthy of our pleading so we must take care to plead it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becomes our Lord and Saviour It is a caution which Quintilian a great Orator gave to all Pleaders Cavendum ne bonam causam male litigando perdamus Many men are untowardly forward to plead Christs cause like hot mettal'd and heady horses neither well mouthed nor well wayed and managed They endanger more by their rashness then they advance by their capring activity The Cause then of God must in times places and points be pleaded so as becomes the Majestie Truth and Honor of the great God 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisely with understanding by the clear and potent demonstrations of it grounded on the Word of God not by humane fancies wilde notions and extravagant presumptions and fanatick fetches The Word of God is able to make us perfect pleaders of his Cause We must not adde to nor detract from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compleat armour offensive and defensive If any plead not according to that rule of Law and Gospel of Faith and Loyalty of patience and obedience it is because there is no light of truth or grace of humility in them Gods Cause needs no cavilings nor sophisms no wisdom or eloquence of mans invention which is to joyn humane fraud and force meer froth and folly to divine sufficiency As if one would muster up Frogs and Mice with their bulrushes to joyn with Angels in Gods battels to help the Lord against the mighty 2. Gods cause is to be pleaded by man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerely for Gods sake not for self-ends and interests for our glory gain or advantage as to our persons or parties our secular and civil interests of power and preferment which are many times the dead Flie cast into this precious Oyntment as Jehu did whose ambition was the belows and blazoner of his zeal So they that preached the Gospel out of Envy and ill will or for filthy lucres sake to serve their bellies and not the Lord Jesus to please men and not God seeking not the salvation of souls or the good of the Church and State but their own emoluments and preferments These are in all ages the greatest deformers of Christian Religion exposing it first to popular fury and after to the shame and contempt of all 3. Gods cause must be pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Integre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solidly and entirely not picking and chusing what parts or points or duties of it most suit with our fancies opinions parties designs desires and private interests We must not so plead for the first table in piety as to
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
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
it for as it will rise again in due time so it will raise those with it to eternal glory who stood sted fastly by it Which that we may ever do God of his mercy grant us wisdom courage through Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour to whom with the Father and holy Spirit be everlasting glory Amen FINIS The scope of the psalm The sad eclipse of true Religion in any Nation 1 Sam 4. 1. Observ The Author of this Psalm Iames 5. 13. His Sympathy with the Church Verse 1. Verse 2. Verse 3. Verse 9. Gods fear of mant reproaches Versa 1â— Psal 64. 2. 〈◊〉 13 14 15 Verse 16. Verse 19. The division or parts of the Text. Of the word Cause Exod. 17 2 Sam. 15. 4â— It s sense or import here The Etymology of Cause The many pretonded causes which men plead as Gods 1 Sam. 17. 29. Trial of Causes 1 Iohn 4. Address to the Auditors â—n behalf of Gods Cause Iudges 9. 7. God alone caâ— plead our cause 1 Iohn 2. Heb. 12. 24. Heb. 4. 16. 1. Obs God hath his cause in this world Psal 33 11. Exod. 7. 12. 1. Obs God ever did and will plead his own cause in his due time â—dges â— â—â— 1 King 8. 59. 3 Oâ—s Gods cause may be in a very deplored state 1 Kings 19. 10. Luk. 24. 31. Iohn 20. 13. Psal 11. 3. and 50. 21. and 60. 11. and 119. 126. â—v 21. 4. â— Obs The cause of the Church is signally Gods cause Gen. â—â— 30. Iosh 7. 9. Mark 8. 25. 5 Obs The most flourishing Church may be under great depressions Iob 2. 3. Ioh. 9. 3. Psal 107. 34. Psal 80. 3. ` Obs Times may be such that none but God can plead his Cause Psal 78. 60. 70 and 80. Ezra 1. 1. Zach. 4. 7. Isa 49. 23. Isa. 40. 11. 7 Obs Gods cause is â—â—t never desperate 2 Sam. 30. 6 Hab. 3. 1â— Psal 78. 65. Dan. 3. 8 Obs When all means fail prayer must be applied to Gods Cause Acts 27. 24. Iames 5. 16. Isa 5 11. Psal 123. 6. 6 Obs It is a sure sign of a gracious heart to lay to heart Gods cause Match 26. 33. Isa 63 9. Isa 6â— 7 Esther 4. 16. Exod. 32. 32. Rom. 9. 3. The four main subjects of the Discourse 1 General What this cause of God is Acts 14. 17. Gods silence and patience in his own cause 2 Pet 3. 3. Prov. 19. 2. Eccles 7. â—9 Prov. 18. 17. The marks and prâ—periâ—es oâ— Gods cause â— The best cause 2 most true according to Scriptural verity Psal 5. 4. 3 It is a most holâ— pure and just cause 4 It is an intire and catholick cause Ephes 1. 6. 5 Constant to it self 6 The most aâ—â—le and august cause Yâ—t the cause of Goâ— consists not in minute matters Rom. 14. 1. But in grand and clear caseâ— of faith and manners Rom. 1â— 1â—â— Of ornamentals and essentials in Religion 1 Cor. 14. 40. 1 Cor. 14. 40. The cobwebs of small controversies catch fliâ—â— Of varieties â— among good Christians Ephes 4. 3. 7 The cause of God is orderly and comely iâ— all things 1 Cor. 1â— 33. Iames 1â— 16. Iames â— 20. â— Kings 19. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 25. Iames 3. 13. Of populer and false marks put on the Cause of God â—t 5. 45. Of mens rare gifts great endowments and severe Professions â—atan a pretender to Gods Cause Gods Cause most what a crucisied Cause Reve. 12. Phil. 1. 29. 2 Tim 3. 12. Tit â— 12. An Embleme of Gods Cause 2. Particular wherein the cause of God cheifely consists 1. That his Glory as God be owned in the world Gods plea against Atheists 2. The cause of Iesus Christ is Gods Cause Iohn 14. 1. Luk. 6. 35. Acts. 4. 12. 1 Iohn 3. Iohn 17. 3 Iohn 14. 1. 1 Iohn 5. 10. 1 Iohn 5. 7. 3 The Cause of the Church is Gods Cause Zack 2. 8. The Scripture is the tate of Gods Cause The Ministry Gods Cause 2 Cor. 5. 2. Mat. 10. 40. The Sacraments Gods Cause The Churches government Gods cause The Churches liberties is Gods Cause 1 Cor. 14. 40. The Churches unity Gods cause â—om 16. 17. Primitive Churches care to keep unity and charity among Christians Of abolishing things once abused 4. The good of mankind is Gods Cause In civil justice Isa 59. 1. Micah 6. 8. 1 Cor. 6. 8. Col. 3. 25. In settled Laws In Polity and Magistracy Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 8. Every private just cause is Gods The cause of Magistrates is eminently Gods Exod. 22. 28. Psal 105. 15. 1 Sam. 24. 6. and 26. 11. Mat. 22. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Rom. 13. 1. 2. No friends to Gods cause who are enemies to lawful Magistracy Of common principles of reason and liberty urged as Gods cause against Magistracy and secled Laws Luke 21. 19. 6 Gods cause is in every mans conscience The cause of the poor and fatherless and widows is Gods Pro. 3â— 9. â—ob 29. 12. The just cause of a wicked and unholy man is Gods Ezek. 17. 19. Psal 115. 16. Heb. 11. 40. 7. The cause of every good creature is Gods Hos 2. 5. Gen. 32. 10. Luke 12. 20. Luke 16. 25. 2 General How and why the cause of God oft needs his pleading â—u the great degeneracy or corruption of mankind as to common principles of reason and Religion 2 Pet. 2. 12. Rom. 1. 24. Gen. â— 7. Acts 17. 23. Gen. 11. Gen. 19. Gen. 15. â—â— Dan. 4. 1â— Dan. 7. â—9 Matth â— 23 2 In the Churches great depressions 1 By heathenish persecution Against the Church of the Iews Exod 5 Ier 12. 9 Cant 2. 28 Psalm 83. 11 Psalm â—0 â—3 Psalm 2. 1 1. Gor 1 Persecut on of Heathen against the Church Christian Iohn 4. 24 Matth 2 Rom 8. 36. Acts 7. 54 â— The Churches depression by Hereticks and Schismaticks Gal. 2. 4 2 Cor 2. 17 Acts 20. 29 30 2 Tim 4. 5 4 The Churches decline by corruption of manndrs among true beleivers Aeatth 13. 25 The darkness and decay of the western Churches unper Popery 5 The deccay of the reformed Churches 1 Pet 4. 19 1 Peâ— 3 1â— 2 Partiâ—â—â—ar Why God suffers his cause to lapse 1 To shew the malice that is in mens hearts Psalm 50. 21 2 To try and exercise the graces of the godly 1 Pet 2. 21 Iames 1. 2 4 3 To punish the malitious by penal hardning Hosea 4. 17 2 Thess 2. 1 2 Tim 4 4 Rom â— 18 Iohn 3. 19 4 To purge away the dross of his gold 5 To give the world presages of an after judgment and pleading Psalm â—3 19 and 11. 16 Isai 3. 11 and 6â— 24 3 General How God pleads his own cause 1 More immediately in the Court of conscience against us Isai 57. 21 and 48. 22 2 God pleads his cause in our conscience for us Isa â—0 10 Isa 41. 21 Exod 33. 12 Rom 8. 1 3 God pleads his cause before all the world by
his providences Psalm 58. 1â— Isai 1. 24 The nature of Godspleadings in the world Against the greatest and highest Princes Psalm 107. 4 Miraculous pleadings of Gods cause Isai 37. 39 Isai 37. 37 Iudges 7. 22 Gods pleas impartial Gen. 3 Ier 15. 3 2 Pet 2. 4 Gods pleadings against the sins of the best men as David c. 2 Sam 12. 10 â— 1 Sam. 2. 1 Kings 15. 5 1 Sam 15. 23 1 Kings ii Isai 29 5 2 Kings 20 4 Gods pleading against the ews Matth. 23 35 Gods pleading against Christian Churches 2 Chron â—5 5 5 Gods pleading his cause by persecutions Phil 1 Rev 12. 12 1 Pet 4. 14 Rom â— 37 4 General Gods immediate pleading his Cause by men By pious Princes Isai 41. 2 Acts 3. 19 By Councils and Synods Rev 12 Gods pleading in the reformed Churches Gods pleading at the day of judgement Rev. 20. 12 and 20. 13 5 The right method of mans pleading Gods Cause Iudges 6. 31 Of pleading Gods cause by fighting Iudg. â— 1â— Of Religion to be asserted by the sword Luke 9. 55. Mark 16. 15. Mat. 26. 52. Gods cause to be pleaded by men 1 Vnderstandingly 2 Tim. 3. 17. Isa â— 20. 2. Sincerely 2 Kings 10. 16. Phil. 1. 15. Tit. 1. 11. Gal. 1. 10. 3. Entirely 4. Holily anâ— justly or lawfully Micah 6. 8. Isa 61. 8. 1 Pet. 4. 15. 2 Pet. 2. 2. Rom. 3. 8. 1 Peâ— 2. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 5. 5. With moderation and discretion Phil. 4. 5. â— With Christian courage and magnanimity Exod. 30. 9. Lev. 10. 1. With respect and modesty to superiours 2 Pet. 2. 11. Iude â— Mat. 5. 44. 2 With charity and compassion to all men 1 Pet 2. 23. Acts 8. 32. Acts 7. 60. 1 Pet. 3. 16. Of rude and riotous pleadng Gods cause Iames. 3. 10. 1 Vse to direcâ— us to the best cause that is to be pleaded Iohn 18. 37. 2 Vse Caution to plead Gods cause in Gods way Of mistakers and mispleaders of Gods cause Psal 50. 16. Zach. 14. 20. 4. Vse of Terror to such as oppose Gods cause 1 Pet. 2. 8â— 5. Vse of exhortation and comfort in the lowest ebb to plead Gods cause by our prayers Ps al. 119. 126. 6. Vse not to measure Gods cause by false rules Psal 73. 15. Heb. 2. 4. Rom. 1. 17. Mat. 7. 22. Vse of examination by putting two Questions 1 Quest what is the cause which God thus pleads against us in England Gods controversie with the Land Hos 4. 1. Ier. 25. 31. Iudges 9. 23. 2 Chron. 15. 5. Gods long and sore pleading against us Answer to the first Quaere Hag 2. 23. Isaiah 5. God pleads against our unthankfulness to God Isaiah 5. 3. Against our self seeking Against our Hypocrisie and Sacriledg Against our unthankfulness to man God pleads against Ministers Against Lawyers Against Nobility and Gentry Against the people in and out of their Parliaments 2 Tim. 4 3. Against the Souldiery God pleads against rich men Against our incorigibleness and obstinacy Iames 4. 3. God pleads against us by the voyce of his rod sore afflictions Our too greattrust in State Physicians Answer to the first Question Factors for the Romish Cause 1 King 18. â—â— 2 Query what is the cause of God we now are to plead in England Ans Maintain honest and just principles with in â—sa 5. 20. 2 Plead as you have power and opportunity 1. In thy own soul 2. In thy family 3. In the publick As to justice As to true religion The verity of it The unity of it For the Churches patrimony For right ordination and subordination among Ministers Peroration or conclusion of Gods cause and the pleadings of it