the servants of God have put on the armour of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left that is in the sufferings of persecution or the labours of mortification in patience under the rod of God or by election of our own by toleration or self denial by actual martyrdom or by aptnesse or disposition towards it by dying for Christ or suffering for him by being willing to part with all when he calls for it and by parting with what we can for the relief of his poor members For know this there is no state in the Church so serene no days so prosperous in which God does not give to his servants the powers and opportunities of suffering for him not onely they that die for Christ but they that live according to his laws shall finde some lives to part with and many wayes to suffer for Christ. To kill and crucifie the old man and all his lusts to mortifie a beloved sin to fight against temptations to do violence to our bodies to live chastly to suffer affronts patiently to forgive injuries and debts to renounce all prejudice and interest in religion and to choose our side for truthes sake not because it is prosperous but because it pleases God to be charitable beyond our power to reprove our betters with modesty and opennesse to displease men rather then God to be at enmity with the world that you may preserve friendship with God to denie the importunity and troublesome kindnesse of a drinking friend to own truth in despite of danger or scorn to despise shame to refuse worldly pleasure when they tempt your soul beyond duty or safety to take pains in the cause of religion the labour of love and the crossing of your anger peevishnesse and morosity these are the daily sufferings of a Christian and if we performe them well wil have the same reward and an equal smart and greater labour then the plain suffering the hangmans sword This I have discoursed to represent unto you that you cannot be exempted from the similitude of Christs sufferings that God will shut no age nor no man from his portion of the crosse that we cannot fail of the result of this predestination nor without our own fault be excluded from the covenant of sufferings judgement must begin at Gods house and enters first upon the sons and heirs of the kingdom and if it be not by the direct persecution of Tyrants it will be by the persecution of the devil or infirmities of our own flesh But because this was but the secondary meaning of the text I return to make use of all the former discourse 1. Let no Christian man make any judgement concerning his condition or his cause by the external event of things for although in the law of Moses God made with his people a covenant of temporal prosperity and his Saints did binde the kings of the Amorites and the Philistines in chains and their nobles with links of iron and then that was the honour which all his Saints had yet in Christ Jesus he made a covenant of sufferings most of the graces of Christianity are suffering graces and God hath predestinated us to sufferings and we are baptised into suffering and our very communions are symbols of our duty by being the sacrament of Christs death and passion and Christ foretold to us tribulation and promised onely that he would be with us in tribulation that he would give us his spirit to assist us at tribunals and his grace to despise the world and to contemn riches and boldnesse to confesse every article of the Christian faith in the face of armies and armed tyrants and he also promised that all things should work together for the best to his servants that is he would out of the eater bring meat and out of the strong issue sweetnesse and crowns and scepters should spring from crosses and that the crosse it self should stand upon the globes and scepters of Princes but he never promised to his servants that they should pursue Kings and destroy armies that they should reign over the nations and promote the cause of Jesus Christ by breaking his commandments The shield of faith and the sword of the spirit the armour of righteousnesse and the weapons of spiritual warfare these are they by which christianity swelled from a small company and a lesse reputation to possesse the chaires of Doctors and the thrones of princes and the hearts of all men But men in all ages will be tampering with shadows and toyes The Apostles at no hand could endure to hear that Christs kingdom was not of this world and that their Master should die a sad and shameful death though that way he was to receive his crown and enter into glory and after Christs time when his Disciples had taken up the crosse and were marching the Kings high way of sorrows there were a very great many even the generality of Christians for two or three ages together who fell on dreaming that Christ should come and reign upon earth again for a thousand years and then the Saints should reigne in all abundance of temporal power and fortunes but these men were content to stay for it till after the resurrection in the mean time took up their crosse and followed after their Lord the King of sufferings But now adayes we finde a generation of men who have changed the covenant of sufferings into victories and triumphs riches and prosperous chances and reckon their Christianity by their good fortunes as if Christ had promised to his servants no heaven hereafter no spirit in the mean time to refresh their sorrows as if he had enjoyned them no passive graces but as if to be a Christian and to be a Turk were the same thing Mahomet entered and possessed by the sword Christ came by the crosse entered by humility and his saints possesse their souls by patience God was fain to multiply miracles to make Christ capable of being a man of sorrows and shall we think he will work miracles to make us delicate He promised us a glorious portion hereafter to which if all the sufferings of the world were put together they are not worthy to be compared and shall we with Dives choose our portion of good things in this life If Christ suffered so many things onely that he might give us glory shall it be strange that we shall suffer who are to receive this glory It is in vain to think we shall obtain glories at an easier rate then to drink of the brook in the way in which Christ was drenched When the Devil appeared to Saint Martin in a bright splendid shape and said he was Christ he answered Christus non nisi in cruce apparet suis in hac vita And when Saint Ignatius was newly tied in a chain to be led to his martyrdom he cryed out nunc incipio esse Christianus And it was observed by Minutius Felix and was indeed a great and excellent truth omnes
ΕÎΙΑΥΤΟΣ A COVRSE OF SERMONS FOR All the Sundaies Of the Year Fitted to the great Necessities and for the supplying the Wants of Preaching in many parts of this NATION Together with A Discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministeriall By JER TAYLOR D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commune periclum Omnibus Una salus LONDON Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1653. XXV SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN-GROVE Being for the VVinter half-year BEGINNING ON ADVENT-SUNDAY UNTILL WHIT-SUNDAY By JEREMY TAYLOR D. D. Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane M. D C. LIII To the right Honourable and truely Noble RICHARD Lord VAUHAN Earle of Carbery c. MY LORD I Have now by the assistance of God and the advantages of your many favours finished a Year of Sermons which if like the first year of our Saviours preaching it may be annus acceptabilis an acceptable year to God and his afflicted hand-maid the Church of England a reliefe to some of her new necessities and an institution or assistance to any soule I shall esteem it among those honors and blessings with which God uses to reward those good intentions which himselfe first puts into our hearts and then recompenses upon our heads My Lord They were first presented to God in the ministeries of your family For this is a blessing for which your Lordship is to blesse God that your Family is like Gideons Fleece irriguous with a dew from heaven when much of the voicinage is dry for we have cause to remember that Isaac complain'd of the Philistims who fill'd up his wells with stones and rubbish and left no beauvrage for the Flocks and therefore they could give no milke to them that waited upon the Flocks and the flocks could not be gathered nor fed nor defended It was a designe of ruine and had in it the greatest hostility and so it hath been lately undique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris En ipse capellas Protenus aeger ago hanc etiam vix Tityre duco But My Lord this is not all I would faine also complaine that men feele not their greatest evill and are not sensible of their danger nor covetous of what they want nor strive for that which is forbidden them but that this complaint would suppose an unnaturall evill to rule in the hearts of men For who would have in him so little of a Man as not to be greedy of the Word of God and of holy Ordinances even therefore because they are so hard to have and this evill although it can have no excuse yet it hath a great and a certain cause for the Word of God still creates new appetites as it satisfies the old and enlarges the capacity as it fils the first propensities of the Spirit For all Spirituall blessings are seeds of Immortality and of infinite felicities they swell up to the comprehensions of Eternity and the desires of the soule can never be wearied but when they are decayed as the stomach will be craving every day unlesse it be sick and abused But every mans experience tels him now that because men have not Preaching they lesse desire it their long fasting makes them not to love their meat and so wee have cause to feare the people will fall to an Atrophy then to a loathing of holy food and then Gods anger will follow the method of our sinne and send a famine of the Word and Sacraments This we have the greatest reason to feare and this feare can be relieved by nothing but by notices and experience of the greatnesse of the Divine mercies and goodnesse Against this danger in future and evill in present as you and all good men interpose their prayers so have I added this little instance of my care and services being willing to minister in all offices and varieties of imployment that so I may by all meanes save some and confirme others or at least that my selfe may be accepted of God in my desiring it And I thinke I have some reasons to expect a speciall mercy in this because I finde by the constitution of the Divine providence and Ecclesiasticall affaires that all the great necessities of the Church have been served by the zeale of preaching in publick and other holy ministeries in publick or private as they could be had By this the Apostles planted the Church and the primitive Bishops supported the faith of Martyrs and the hardinesse of Confessors and the austerity of the Retired By this they confounded Hereticks and evill livers and taught them the wayes of the Spirit and left them without pertinacy or without excuse It was Preaching that restored the splendour of the Church when Barbarisme and Warres and Ignorance either sate in or broke the Doctors Chaire in pieces For then it was that divers Orders of religious and especially of Preachers were erected God inspiring into whole companies of men a zeal of Preaching And by the same instrument God restored the beauty of the Church when it was necessary shee should be reformed it was the assiduous and learned preaching of those whom God chose for his Ministers in that work that wrought the Advantages and persuaded those Truths which are the enamel and beautie of our Churches And because by the same meanes all things are preserved by which they are produc'd it cannot but be certaine that the present state of the Church requires a greater care and prudence in this Ministerie then ever especially since by Preaching some endevour to supplant Preaching and by intercepting the fruits of the flocks to dishearten the Shepheards from their attendances My Lord your great noblenesse and religious charitie hath taken from mee some portions of that glory which I designed to my selfe in imitation of St. Paul towards the Corinthian Church who esteemed it his honour to preach to them without a revenue and though also like him I have a trade by which as I can be more usefull to others and lesse burthensome to you yet to you also under God I owe the quiet and the opportunities and circumstances of that as if God had so interweaved the support of my affaires with your charitie that he would have no advantages passe upon mee but by your interest and that I should expect no reward of the issues of my Calling unlesse your Lordship have a share in the blessing My Lord I give God thanks that my lot is fallen so fairely and that I can serve your Lordship in that ministerie by which I am bound to serve God and that my gratitude and my duty are bound up in the same bundle but now that which was yours by a right of propriety I have made publick that it may still be more yours and you derive to your selfe a comfort if you shall see the necessitie of others serv'd
if our festivall dayes like the Gentile sacrifices end in drunkennesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our joyes in Religion passe into sensuality and beastly crimes we change the Holy-day into a day of Death and our selves become a Sacrifice as in the day of Slaughter To summe up this particular there are as you perceive many cautions to make our pleasure safe but any thing can make it inordinate and then scarce any thing can keep it from becoming dangerous Habet omnis hoc voluptas Stimulis agit furentes Apiúmque par volantum Ubi grata mella fudit Fugit nimis tenaci Ferit icta corda mersu And the pleasure of the honey will not pay for the smart of the sting Amores enim delicia ' maturè celeritèr destorescunt in omnibus rebus voluptatibus maximis fastidium finitimum est Nothing is so soon ripe and rotten as pleasure and upon all possessions and states of things loathing looks as being not far off but it sits upon the skirts of pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that greedily puts his hand to a delicious table shall weep bitterly when he suffers the convulsions and violence by the divided interests of such contrary juices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this is the law of our nature and fatall necessity life is alwayes poured forth from two goblets And now after all this I pray consider what a strange madness and prodigious folly possesses many men that they love to swallow death and diseases and dishonor with an appetite which no reason can restrain We expect our servants should not dare to touch what we have forbidden to them we are watchfull that our children should not swallow poysons and filthinesse and unwholesome nourishment we take care that they should be well manner'd and civil and of fair demeanour and we our selves desire to be or at least to be accounted wise and would infinitely scorne to be call'd fooles and we are so great lovers of health that we will buy it at any rate of money or observance and then for honour it is that which the children of men pursue with passion it is one of the noblest rewards of vertue and the proper ornament of the wise and valiant and yet all these things are not valued or considered when a merry meeting or a looser feast calls upon the man to act a scene of folly and madnesse and healthlesnesse and dishonour We doe to God what we severely punish in our servants we correct our children for their medling with dangers which themselves preferre before immortality and though no man think himselfe fit to be despised yet he is willing to make himselfe a beast a sot and a ridiculous monkey with the follies and vapors of wine and when he is high in drinke or fancy proud as a Grecian Orator in the midst of his popular noyses at the same time he shall talk such dirty language such mean low things as may well become a changeling and a foole for whom the stocks are prepared by the laws and the just scorne of men Every drunkard clothes his head with a mighty scorne and makes himselfe lower at that time then the meanest of his servants the boyes can laugh at him when he is led like a cripple directed like a blinde man and speakes like an infant imperfect noyses lisping with a full and spungy tongue and an empty head and a vaine and foolish heart so cheaply does he part with his honour for drink or loads of meat for which honour he is ready to die rather then hear it to be disparaged by another when himselfe destroyes it as bubbles perish with the breath of children Doe not the laws of all wise Nations marke the drunkard for a foole with the meanest and most scornfull punishment and is there any thing in the world so foolish as a man that is drunk But good God! what an intolerable sorrow hath seifed upon great portions of Mankind that this folly and madnesse should possesse the greatest spirits and the wittyest men the best company the most sensible of the word honour and the most jealous of loosing the shadow and the most carelesse of the thing Is it not a horrid thing that a wise or a crafty a learned or a noble person should dishonour himselfe as a foole destroy his body as a murtherer lessen his estate as a prodigall disgrace every good cause that he can pretend to by his relation and become an appellative of scorne a scene of laughter or derision and all for the reward of forgetfulnesse and madnesse for there are in immoderate drinking no other pleasures Why doe valiant men and brave personages fight and die rather then break the laws of men or start from their duty to their Prince and will suffer themselves to be cut in pieces rather then deserve the name of a Traitor or perjur'd and yet these very men to avoyd the hated name of Glutton or Drunkard and to preserve their Temperance shall not deny themselves one luscious morsell or poure a cup of wine on the ground when they are invited to drink by the laws of the circle or wilder company Me thinks it were but reason that if to give life to uphold a cause be not too much they should not think too much to be hungry and suffer thirst for the reputation of that cause and therefore much rather that they would thinke it but duty to be temperate for its honour and eat and drink in civill and faire measures that themselves might not lose the reward of so much suffering and of so good a relation nor that which they value most be destroyed by drink There are in the world a generation of men that are ingag'd in a cause which they glory in and pride themselves in its relation and appellative but yet for that cause they will doe nothing but talk and drink they are valiant in wine and witty in healths and full of stratagem to promote debauchery but such persons are not considerable in wise accounts that which I deplore is that some men preferre a cause before their life and yet preferre wine before that cause and by one drunken meeting set it more backward in its hopes and blessings then it can be set forward by the counsels and armes of a whole yeer God hath ways enough to reward a truth without crowning it with successe in the hands of such men In the mean time they dishonour Religion and make truth be evill spoken of and innocent persons to suffer by their very relation and the cause of God to be reproached in the sentences of erring and abused people and themselves lose their health and their reason their honour and their peace the rewards of sober counsels and the wholesome effects of wisdome Arcanum neque tu scrutaber is ullius unquam Commissúmque teges vino tortus irâ Wine discovers more then the rack and he that will be drunk is not a
be temperate and avoid the crime and dishonour of being a drunkard must not love to partake of the songs or to bear a part in the foolish scenes of laughter which destract wisdome and fright her from the company And Lavina that was chaster then the elder Sabines and severer then her Philosophical guardian was wel instructed in the great lines of honour and cold justice to her husband but when she gave way to the wanton ointments looser circumstances of the Baie and bathed often in Avernus and from thence hurried to the companies and dressings of Lucrinus she quenched her honour and gave her vertue and her body as a spoil to the follies and intemperance of a young gentle-man For so have I seen the little purles of a spring sweat thorow the bottom of a bank and intenerate the stubborn pavement till it hath made it fit for the impression of a childes foot and it was despised like the descending pearls of a misty morning till it had opened its way and made a stream large enough to carry away the ruines of the undermined strand and to invade the neighbouring gardens but then the despised drops were grown into an artificial river and an intolerable mischief so are the first entrances of sin stop'd with the antidotes of a hearty prayer and checked into sobriety by the eye of a Reverend man or the counsells of a single sermon But when such beginnings are neglected and our religion hath not in it so much Philosophy as to think any thing evil as long as we can endure it they grow up to ulcers and pestilential evils they destroy the soul by their aboad who at their first entry might have been killed with the pressure of a little finger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those men are in a condition in which they may if they please pity themselves keep their green wounds from festering and uncleanlinesse and it will heal alone non procul absunt they are not far from the kingdom of Heaven but they are not within its portion and let me say this that although little sins have not yet made our condition desperate but left it easily recoverable yet it is a condition that is quite out of Gods favour although they are not far advanced in their progresse to ruine yet they are not at all in the state of grace and therefore though they are to be pitied and relieved accordingly yet that supposes the incumbency of a present misery 3. There are some very much to be pitied and assisted because they are going to hell and as matters stand with them they cannot or they think they cannot avoid it Quidam ad alienum dormiunt somnum ad alienum edunt appetitum amare odisse res omnium maximè liberas jubentur There are some persons whose life is so wholly in dependance from others that they sleep when others please they eat and drink according to their Masters appetite or intemperance they are commanded to love or hate and are not left free in the very Charter and priviledges of nature Miserum est servire sub Dominis parùm felicibus for suppose the Prince or the Patron be vitious suppose he calls his servants to bathe their souls in the goblets of intemperance if he be also imperious for such persons love not to be contradicted in their vices it is the losse of that mans fortune not to lose his soul and it is the servants excuse and he esteems it also his glory that he can tell a merry tale how his Master and himself did swim in drink till they both talked like fools and then did lie down like beasts Facinus quos inquinat aequat There is then no difference but that the one is the fairest bull and the master of the heard And how many Tenents and Relatives are known to have a servile conscience and to know no affirmation or negation but such as shall serve their Land-lords interest Alas the poor men live by it and they must beg their bread if ever they turn recreant or shall offer to be honest There are some trades whose very foundations is laid in the vice of others and in many others if a threed of deceit do not quite run thorow all their negotiations they decay into the sorrows of beggery and therefore they will support their neighbours vice that he may support their trade And what would you advise those men to do to whom a false oath is offered to their lips and a dagger at their heart their reason is surprized and their choice is seized upon and all their consultation is arrested and if they did not prepare before hand and stand armed with religion and perfect resolutions would not any man fall and think that every good man will say his case is pitiable Although no temptation is bigger then the grace of God yet many temptations are greater then our strengths and we do not live at the rate of a mighty and a victorious grace Those persons which cause these vitious necessities upon their brethren will lie low in hell but the others will have but small comfort in feeling a lesser damnation Of the same consideration it is when ignorant people are Catechized into false doctrine and know nothing but such principles which weaken the nerves and enfeeble the joynts of holy living they never heard of any other those that follow great and evil examples the people that are ingaged in the publike sins of a kingdom wihch they understand not and either must venture to be undone upon the strength of their own little reasonings and weak discoursings or else must go quâ itur non quâ enndum est there where the popular misery hath made the way plain before their eyes though it be uneven and dangerous to their consciences In these cases I am forced to reckon a Catalogue of mischiefs but it will be hard to cure any of them Aristippus in his discourses was a great flatterer of Dionysius of Sicily and did own doctrines which might give an easinesse to some vices and knew not how to contradict the pleasures of his Prince but seemed like a person disposed to partake of them that the example of a Philosopher and the practise of a King might do countenance to a shamefull life But when Dionysius sent him two women slaves fair and young he sent them back and shamed the easinesse of his doctrine by the severity of his manners he daring to be vertuous when he was alone though in the presence of him whom he thought it necessary to flatter he had no boldnesse to own the vertue So it is with too many if they be left alone and that they stand unshaken with the eye of their tempter or the authority of their Lord they go whither their education or their custome carries them but it is not in some natures to deny the face of a man and the boldnesse of a sinner and which is yet worse it is not in
world Christians should not be such fighting people and Clergy men should not command Armies and Kings should not be drunk and subjects should not strike Princes for justice and an old man should not be youthfull in talk or in his habit and women should not swear and great men should not lie and a poor man should not oppresse for besides the sin of some of them there is an undecency in all of them and by being contrary to the end of an office or the reputation of a state or the sobrieties of a graver or sublimed person they asperse the religion as insufficient to keepe the persons within the bounds of fame and common reputation But above all things those sects of Christians whose professed doctrine brings destruction and diminution to government give the most intolerable scandal and dishonour to the institution and it had been impossible that Christianity should have prevailed over the wisdom and power of the Greeks and Romans if it had not been humble to superiours patient of injuries charitable to the needy a great exactour of obedience to Kings even to heathens that they might be won and convinced and to persecutours that they might be sweetned in their anger or upbraided for their cruel injustice for so doth the humble vine creep at the foot of an oak and leans upon its lowest base and begs shade and protection and leave to grow under its branches and to give and take mutuall refreshment and pay a friendly influence for a mighty patronage and they grow and dwell together and are the most remarkable of friends and married pairs of all the leavie nation Religion of it self is soft easie and defenselesse and God hath made it grow up with empire and to leane upon the arms of Kings and it cannot well grow alone and if it shall like the Ivy suck the heart of the oak upon whose body it grew and was supported it will be pulled down from its usurped eminency and fire and shame shall be its portion We cannot complain if Princes arm against those Christians who if they are suffered to preach will disarm the Princes and it will be hard to perswade that Kings are bound to protect and nourish those that will prove ministers of their own exauctoration And no Prince can have justci reason to forbid nor any man have greater reason to deny communion to a family then if they go about to destroy the power of the one or corrupt the duty of the other The particulars of this rule are very many I shall onely instance in one more because it is of great concernment to the publike interest of Christendome There are some persons whose religion is hugely disgraced because they change their propositions according as their temporall necessities or advantages do return They that in their weaknesse and beginning cry out against all violence as against persecution and from being suffered swell up till they be prosperous and from thence to power and at last to Tyranny and then suffer none but themselves and trip up those feet which they humbly kissed that themselves should not be trampled upon these men tell all the world that at first they were pusillanimous or at last outragious that their doctrine at first served their fear and at last served their rage and that they did not at all intend to serve God and then who shall believe them in any thing else Thus some men declaim against the faults of Governours that themselves may governe and when the power was in their hands what was a fault in others is in them necessity as if a sin could be hallowed for comming into their hands Some Greeks at Florence subscribed the Article of Purgatory and condemned it in their own Diocesses And the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical was earnestly defended against the pretences of the Bishop of Rome and yet when he was thrust out some men were and are violent to submit the King to their Consistories as if he were Supreme in defiance of the Pope and yet not Supreme over his own Clergy These Articles are mannaged too suspitiously Omnia si perdas famam servare memento You lose all the advantages to your cause if you lose your reputation 5 It is a duty also of Christian prudence that the teachers of others by authority or reprovers of their vices by charity should also make their persons apt to do it without objection Lori pedem rectus derideat Aethiopemalbus No man can endure the Gracchi preaching against sedition nor Uerres prating against theevery or Milo against homicide and if Herod had made an oration of humility or Antiochus of mercy men would have thought it had been a designe to evil purposes He that means to gain a soul must not make his Sermon an ostentation of his Eloquence but the law of his own life If a Gramarian should speak solaecismes or a Musician sing like a bittern he becomes ridiculous for offending in the faculty he professes So it is in them who minister to the conversion of souls If they fail in their own life when they professe to instruct another they are defective in their proper part and are unskilfull to all their purposes and the Cardinal of Crema did with ill successe tempt the English priests to quit their chaste marriages when himself was deprehended in unchaste embraces For good counsel seems to be unhallowed when it is reached forth by an impure hand and he can ill be beleeved by another whose life so confutes his rules that it is plain he does not beleeve himself Those Churches that are zealous for souls must send into their ministeries men so innocent that evil persons may have no excuse to be any longer vitious When Gorgias went about to perswade the Greeks to be at peace he had eloquence enough to do advantage to his cause and reason enough to presse it But Melanthius was glad to put him off by telling him that he was not fit to perswade peace who could not agree at home with his wife nor make his wife agree with her maid and he that could not make peace between three single persons was unapt to prevail for the reuniting fourteen or fifteen Common-wealths And this thing Saint Paul remarks by enjoyning that a Bishop should be chosen such a one as knew well to rule his own house or else he is not fit to rule the Church of God And when thou perswadest thy brother to be chaste let not him deride thee for thy intemperance and it will ill become thee to be severe against an idle servant if thou thy self beest uselesse to the publike and every notorious vice is infinitely against the spirit of government and depresses the man to an evennesse with common persons Facinus quos inquinat aequat to reprove belongs to a Superiour and as innocence gives a man advantage over his brother giving him an artificiall and adventitious authority so the follies and scandals of a publike and Governing
person is the most principall and apt for the honour of religion and to make our religion honourable is part of the religion it self it is also apt for the uses of it such as are preserving the rights ordering decent ministration dispensing the laws of religion judging causes ceremonies and accidents and he that appoints not offices to minister his religion cares not how it is performed and he that cares so little will finde a great contempt passe upon it and a cheapnesse meaner then of the meanest civill offices and he that is content with that cares not how little honour God receives when he presents to him a cheape a common and a dishonorable religion But the very naturall design of religion forces us to a distinction of persons in order to the ministration for besides that every man is not fit to approach to God with all his sordes and adherent indispositions an assignment in reason must be made of certain persons whose calling must be holy and their persons taught to be holy by such a solemn and religious assignment that those persons being made higher then the people by their calling and religion and yet our brethren in nature may be intermediall between God and the people and present to God the peoples needs and be instrumentall to the reconveying Gods blessing upon those whose fiduciaries they are This last depends upon Gods own act and designation and therefore must afterwards be proved by testimonies of his own that he hath accepted such persons to such purposes but the former part we our selves are taught by naturall reason by the rules of proportion by the honour we owe unto religion by the hopes of our own advantages and by the distance between God and us towards which we should thrust up persons as high as they are capable And that all the world hath done prudently in this we are confirmed by Gods own act who knowing it was most agreeable not onely to the constitution of religion and of our addresses to God but to our meer necessities also did in his glorious wisdome send his sonne and made him apt to become a mediator between himself and us by clothing him with our nature and decking him with great participation of his own excellencies that he might doe our worke the worke of his own humane nature and by his great sanctity and wisdome approach neer to Gods mercy seat whither our imperfections and sins could not have neer accesse And this consideration is not onely good reason but true divinity and was a consideration in the Greek Church and affixed to the head of a prayer as the reason of their addresse to God in designing ministers in religion O Lord God who because mans nature cannot of it selfe approach to thy glorious Deity hast appointed Masters and Teachers of the same passions with our selves whom thou hast placed in thy throne viz. in the ministery of the kingdome to bring sacrifices and oblations in behalfe of thy people c. And indeed if the greatnesse of an imployment separates persons from the vulgus either we must thinke the immediate offices of religion and the entercourse with God to be the meanest of imployments or the persons so officiating to receive their estimate according to the excellency of their offices And thus it was amongst the Jews and Gentiles before Christs time amongst whom they not onely separated persons for the service of their Gods respectively but chose the best of men and the Princes of the people to officiate in their mysteries and adorned them with the greatest honours and speciall immunities Among the Jews the Priesthood was so honourable that although the expectation which each Tribe had of the Messias was reason enough to make them observe the law of distinct marriages yet it was permitted to the Tribe of Levi to marry with the Kingly Tribe of Judah that they also might have the honour and portion of the Messias's most glorious generation and for the Priesthood of Aaron it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philo a celestiall honour not an earthly a heavenly profession and it grew so high and was so naturalized into that nation to honour their Priests and mystick persons that they made it the pretence of their warres and mutinies against their conquerours Honor sacerdotii firmamentum potentiae assumebatur saith Tacitus speaking of their warres against Antiochus the honour of their Priesthood was the strength of their cause and the pretence of their armes and all the greatest honour they could doe to their Priesthood they fairly derived from a divine precept that the Prince and the People and the Elders and the Synagogue should goe in and out that is should commence and finish their greatest and most solemn actions at the voice and command of the Priest And therefore King Agrippa did himself honour in his Epistle to Cajus Caesar. I had Kings that were my ancestors and some of them were high Priests which dignity they esteemed higher then their Royall purple beleeving that Priesthood to be greater then the kingdome as God is greater then men And this great estimate of the Ministers of their religion derived it selfe from the Jewes unto their enemies the Philistines that dwelt upon their skirts insomuch that in the hill of God where there was a garrison of the Philistines there was also a colledge of Prophets newly instituted by Samuel from whom because he was their founder S. Peter reckoned the ordinary descent from Samuel unharmed and undisturbed though they were enemies to the nation and when David fled from Saul he came to Naioth where the Prophets dwelt and thought to take sanctuary there knowing it was a priviledged place there it was where Sauls messengers and Saul himselfe turned Prophets that they might estimate the place and preserve its priviledge himselfe becoming one of their society For this was observed amongst all nations that besides the band of humanity forbidding souldiers to touch unarmed people as by all religions and all nations Priests ever were the very sacrednesse of their persons should exempt them from violence and the chances or insolencies of warre Thus the Cretians did to their Priests and to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the persons who were appointed for buriall of the dead the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fossarii in the Primitive Church no souldiers durst touch them they had the priviledge of religion the immunity of Priests Hos quae necabant non erant purae manus and therefore it grew up into a proverb when they intended to expresse a most destructive and unnaturall warre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as the Priests that carried fire before the army did escape the same with that in Homer in the case of messengers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not so much as a messenger returned into the City These were sacred and therefore exempt persons and so
the duties of justice may withhold our hands from giving almes 1. 183 Of the Angel Guardian 1. 263. C Athanasius being overtaken by his persecutors in his flight from them how he concealed himself 2. 260 Atheism the folly of it 1. 262. B B. Bishop whether the calling of a King or a Bishop is to be preferred 1. 174 C. Celibate a comparison between it and marriage 1. 223 Certainty of salvation how to confute such vain confidences 1. 87 Comfort we must in our discourse comfort our brethren where there is cause 1. 327 Complying of complying with superiors in their sins by imitation of them 2. 206. B Conscience the torments of an unquiet conscience described and considered 1. 20 Confession of revealing secrets delivered under the seal of Confession 1. 306. D Covetousnesse in Scripture hath other names besides its own 1. 302. A Cursing 1. 317 Custome its ill effects upon man 1. 267 D. Dreams the vanity of them 1. 121 Deceit various sorts of men that do the work of the Lord deceitfully 1. 155. seq Despise who despise the mercies of God 2. 167. D. their condition dangerous 168 Detraction 1. 312. E Doctrines how we are to try them 2. 285 275 E. Eccles. 12. 5. explicated 1. 115 Ephes. 1. 4 5. explicated 2. 301 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what St. Paul meant by it 1. 301. D Evill nature how one may cure it in himself 1. 147 F. Faith divers sorts of insufficient faith 1. 169 Fasting 1. 188 Fear its severall acceptions 1. 86. the properties of a religious fear 1. 88. seq of fear in times of persecution 1. 102 Flattery 1. 318 severall wayes of it 1. 320 Flesh the weaknesse of flesh and its naturall powers 1. 128 Fortune disadvantages of a great fortune 1. 179 G. God a scheme of what he hath done for us in order to our salvation 1. 24. the manner of jealousie in God 2. 29. B. that it is not injust in God to punish one for the sin of another 2. 35. D. his ends in doing it 2. 36. B. in what instances he punishes one person for the sin of another 2. 37. D. how God can be glorified by us 2. 53. the goodnesse of God towards us 2. 146 148 149. how great impiety to despise such goodnesse 2. 150. E. his long suffering towards us 2. 153 159. his not punishing sinners sometimes no mercy 2. 163. Gospel the mysterious articles thereof 2. 2. that they could be revealed by none but the Spirit Ib. nor can be received but by the help of the Spirit 2. 3. why the Gospel is called Spirit 2. 4. the Gospel a covenant of sufferings 2. 107. C. 108 seq Grace what is the state of grace 2. 155. he is not in the state of grace who retains affections to any one sin 2. 155. degrees of increasing grace 2. 178. how to discern our growth in grace 2. 180. seq the manner of its growth 2. 192. E. a caution to be taken with the rules of discerning our growth in grace 2. 194. signes of growth in grace given by some 2. 195 H. Heart reasons why God chooseth to be served by it principally 1. 155. weaknesse of the heart in relation to good actions 2. 83. its strength in lusts and sinfull passions 2. 84. its deceitfulnesse 2. 102. vol. 2. ser. 7. per tot it is deceitfull in its purposes and resolutions 2. 87. in its designes 2. 89. our hearts are blinde 2. 92. by what means the heart of man procures its owne ignorance 2. 94. the hardnesse of the heart 2. 98. the heart is proud lb. it is deeply in love with wickednesse 2. 99. how we are to treat our hearts 2. 102. D Hell the opinion of some of the primitive Fathers concerning the eternity of the pains of hell 1. 39. Husband the rules of his love to his Wife 1. 234. seq I. Idle words how farre forbidden or lawfull 1. 292 Iesting 1. 301. seq against profane jesting 1. 305 Iealousie the circumstances of it in God 2. 29. B Impunity not alwaies an argument of mercy 2. 163 Ignorance an effect of sin 1. 26 Instruction that we ought to teach and instruct others 1. 325 Intemperance in eating and drinking an enemy to health 1. 198 destructive of wisdome 1. 107. the measures of temperance in eating and drinking 1. 109 Intercession in prayer vol. 1. ser. 6. per tot Ioy what the joy of the ungodly is 1. 145 1 Ioh. 3. 9. explained 2. 9 Iudgment the necessity of a day of universall Judgement 1. 2. signes of the day of Judgement which the Jews give 1. 11 to be unmoved at the judgements of God on others how dangerous a folly 2. 168. E K. King whether the calling of a King or Bishop is to be preferred in our choyce 1. 174 L. Life the necessity of holy life 2. 72 Luke 11. 47. explicated 2. 43. A Lukewarmnesse in what sense God hates it 1. 165. the reasons why 1. 166 M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 159 Man God hath provided better for the naturall appetites of man then other earthly creatures 1. 193. the vanity of mans life and strength 2. 81. Mat. 12. 36. explicated 1. 291 Marriage a comparison between it and celibate 1. 223. rules for deportment of married persons 1. 225 seq Minister of the efficacy of prayer made by an evill Minister 1. 79 Miracles of the probation of Religion by them 1. 46 Mirth 1. 304 P. Pardon of sin the signes of it 1. 99. not obtained without difficulty 1. 97 Pleasures of the world no proper instruments of felicity 1. 193. pleasures of sin considered 1. 247. found to be troublesome in their acquisition 1. 250. the Spirit of God is given as a preservative against it Perseverance 1. 176 Persecution the benefit and usefulnesse of persecution and suffering 1. 120 121. rules for the practise of them that are under persecution 2. 133. seq Poverty its benefits 2. 129. E Popes of Rome a character of them given by one 2. 173. D Prayer of frequency in it 179. a caution concerning frequency of prayer 1. 181. E why the prayers of good men often prevail not 1. 59 Prosperity no argument of a just cause 2. 125. E. we must not expect it in this life 2. 116. prosperity of the wicked what it is how vain 2. 127 R. Recidivation 1. 109. seq Railing and reviling 1. 313 Religion how far it is to be preferred before secular businesse 1. 173. how far delight in works of Religion is required 1. 177. against compulsive courses in the propagating of Religion 1. 185 Repentance broken into fragments is to be suspected 1. 92. how it glorifies God 2. 54. A. what it is in its essence and necessary properties 2. 55. seq 66. sorrow alone is not repentance 2. 57. there must be a dereliction of sinne 2. 58. B. a death-bed repentance insufficient 2. 63 64. ser. 5. per tot