from all imputation of unnecessary rigour and his Justice from seeming Injustice and Incongruity and on the other side it is a noble resolution so to humble our selves under the hand of Almighty God as that we can with patience hear yea think it an honour that so base creatures as our selves should become the instruments of the glory of so great a Majesty whether it be by eternal life or by eternal death though for no other reason but for Gods good will and pleasures sake The Authours of these conceits might both freely if peaceably speak their minds and both singularly profit the Church for since it is impossible where Scripture is ambiguous that all conceits should run alike it remains that we seek out a way not so much to establish an unity of opinion in the minds of all which I take to be a thing likewise impossible as to provide that multiplicity of conceit trouble not the Churches peace A better way my conceit cannot reach unto then that we would be willing to think that these things which with some shew of probability we deduce from Scripture are at the best but our Opinions for this peremptory manner of setting down our own conclusions under this high commanding form of necessary truths is generally one of the greatest causes which keeps the Churches this day so far asunder when as a gracious receiving of each other by mutual forbearance in this kind might peradventure in time bring them nearer together This peradventure may some man say may content us in case of opinion indifferent out of which no great inconvenience by necessary and evident proof is concluded but what Recipe have we for him that is fallen into some known and desperate Heresie Even the same with the former And therefore anciently Heretical and Orthodox Christians many times even in publick holy exercise converst together without offence It 's noted in the Ecclesiastick stories that the Arrians and Right Beleivers so communicated together in holy Prayers that you could not distinguish them till they came to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gloria Patri which the Arrians used with some difference from other Christians But those were times quorum lectionem habemus virtutem non habemus we read of them in our books but we have lost the practise of their patience Some prejudice was done unto the Church by those who first began to intermingle with publick Ecclesiastical duties things respective unto private conceits For those Christian offices in the Church ought as much as possibly they may be common unto all and not to descend to the differences of particular opinions Severity against and separation from Heretical companies took its beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the stories we shall find that the Church did not at their first arising thrust them from her themselves went out and as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Ecclesiam quae persecutionem patitur non quae facit She was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when Heresies and Schisms first arose in the Church all kinds of violence were used by the erring Factions but the Church seem'd not for a long time to have known any use of a Sword but onely of a Buckler and when she began to use the Sword some of her best and cheifest Captains much misliked it The first Law in this kind that ever was made was Enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but onely such as were tumultuous and till that time they were not so much as touch'd with any mulct though but pecuniary till that shameful outrage committed against Bishop Maximian whom they beat down with bats and clubs even as he stood at the Altar So that not so much the errour of the Donatists as their Riots and Mutinies were by Imperial Laws restrained That the Church had afterward good reason to think that she ought to be salubrior quam dulcior that sometimes there was more mercy in punishing then forbearing there can no doubt be made St. Austin a man of as mild and gentle spirit as ever bare rule in the Church having according to his natural sweetness of disposition earnestly written against violent and sharp dealing with Hereticks being taught by experience did afterward retract and confess an excellent use of wholesome severity in the Church Yet could I wish that it might be said of the Church which was sometimes observed of Augustus In nullius unquam suorum nccem duravit He had been angry with and severely punish'd many of his kin but he could never endure to cut any of them off by death But this I must request you to take onely as my private wish and not as a censure if any thing have been done to the contrary When Absolom was up in arms against his Father it was necessary for David to take order to curb him and pull him on his knees yet we see how careful he was he should not die and how lamentably he bewail'd him in his death what cause was it that drove David into this extreme passion Was it doubt of Heir to the Kingdom that could not be for Solomon was now born to whom the promise of the Kingdom was made Was it the strength of natural affection I somewhat doubt of it three years together was Absolom in banishment and David did not very eagerly desire to see him The Scripture indeed notes that the King long'd for him yet in this longing was there not any such fierceness of passion for Absolom saw not the Kings face for two years more after his return from banishment to Hierusalem What then might be the cause of his strength of passion and commiseration in the King I perswade my self it was the fear of his sons final miscarriage and reprobation which made the King secure of the mercies of God unto himself to wish he had died in his stead that so he might have gain'd for his ungracious child some time of repentance The Church who is the common Mother of us all when her Absoloms her unnatural sons do lift up their hands and pens against her must so use means to repress them that she forget not that they are the sons of her womb and be compassionate over them as David was over Absolom loth to unsheath either sword but most of all the Temporal for this were to send them quick dispatch to Hell And here I may not pass by that singular moderation of this Church of ours which she hath most Christianly exprest towards her adversaries of Rome here at home in her bosom above all the reformed Churches I have read of For out of desire to make the breach seem no greater then indeed it is and to hold eommunion and Christian fellowship with her so far as we possibly can we have
part in them as much as may be so if we look into a Christian man as he is proposed to us in the Gospel we may justly marvel to what purpose God hath planted in him this faculty and passion of anger since he hath so little use of it and the Gospel in a manner doth spiritually diet and physick him for it and endeavours much to abate if not quite to purge out that quality Beloved we have hitherto seen who Iacob is and what manner of man the Christian is that is described unto us in holy Scripture Let us a little consider his brother Esau the Christian in passage and who commonly in the account of the world goes for one Is he so gentle and tractable a creature Is his countenance so smooth his body so free from gall and spleen To try this as the Devil sometimes spake unto Iob Touch him in his goods touch him in his body and see if he will not curse thee to thy face so touch this man a little in his goods touch him in his reputation and honour touch him in any thing that he loves for this is the onely way to try how far these commands of peace and forbearance and long suffering prevail with us and see if he will not forget and loose all his patience Which of us is there that understands the words and precepts of our Saviour in their litteral sense and as they lie The precepts of suffering wrong rather then to go to Law of yeilding the coat to him that would take the cloak of readiness to receive more wrongs then to revenge one these and all the Evangelical commands of the like nature Interpretamento detorquemus we have found out favourable interpretations and glosses restrictions and evasions to wind our selves out of them to shift them all off and put them by and yet pass for sound and currant Christians We think we may be justly angry continue long Suits in Law call to the Magistrate for revenge yea sometimes take it into our own hands all this and much more we think we may lawfully and with good reason do any precept of Christ to the contrary notwithstanding And as it usually comes to pass the permitting and tolerating lesser sins opens way to greater so by giving passage and inlet to those lesser impatiences an discontents we lay open a gap to those fouler crimes even of murther and bloudshed For as men commonly suppose that all the former breaches of our patience which but now I mentioned may well enough stand with the duties of Christians so there are who stay not here but think that in some cases it may be lawful yea peradventure necessary at least very pardonable for Christians privately to seek each others bloud and put their lives upon their swords without any wrong to their vocation out of this have sprung many great inconveniences both private and publick First Laws made too favourable in case of bloudshed Secondly a too much facility and easiness in Princes and Magistrates sometimes to give pardon and release for that crime Thirdly and cheifly for it is the special cause indeed that moved me to speak in this Argument an over promptness in many young men who desire to be counted men of valour and resolution upon every sleight occasion to raise a quarrel and admit of no other means of composing and ending it but by sword and single Combat Partly therefore to shew the grievousness and greatness of this sin of Bloudshed and partly to give the best counsel I can for the restraint of those conceits and errours which give way unto it I have made choice of these few words out of the Old Testament which but now I read In the New Testament there is no precept given concerning Bloudshed The Apostles seem not to have thought that Christians ever should have had need of such a prohibition For what needed to forbid those to seek each others Bloud who are not permitted to speak over hastily one to another When therefore I had resolved with my self to speak something concerning the sin of Bloud-shed I was in a manner constrain'd to reflect upon the Old Testament and make choise of these words And the Land cannot be purged of Bloud that is shed in it but by the Bloud of him that shed it In which words for my more orderly proceeding I will observe these two general parts First the greatness of the sin Secondly the means to cleanse and satisfie for the guilt of it The first that is the greatness of the sin is expressed by two circumstances First by the generality extent and largeness of the guilt of it and secondly by the difficulty of cleansing it The largeness and compass of the guilt of this sin is noted unto us in the word Land and the Land cannot be purged It is true in some sense of all sins Nemo sibi uni errat no man sins in private and to himself alone For as the Scripture notes of that action of Iepthe when he vowed his daughter unto God That it became a Custom in Israel so is it in all sins The errour is onely in one person but the example spreads far and wide and thus every man that sins sins against the whole Land yea against the whole world For who can tell how far the example and infection of an evil action doth spread In other sins the infection is no larger then the disease but this sin like a plague one brings the infection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thousands die for it yet this sin of Bloud diffuses and spreads it self above all other sins for in other sins noxa sequitur caput the guilt of them is confined to the person that committed them God himself hath pronounced of them The son shall not bear the sins of the father the soul that sinneth shall die the death But the sin of Bloud seems to claim an exception from this Law if by time it be not purged like the frogs of Egypt the whole land stank of them it leaves a guilt upon the whole land in which it is committed Other sins come in like Rivers and break their banks to the prejudice and wrong of private persons but this comes in like a Sea raging and threatning to overwhelm whole Countreys If Bloud in any land do lie unrevenged every particular soul hath cause to fear lest part of the penalty fall on him We read in the Books of Kings that long after Saul's death God plagued the Land of Iewry with three years famine because Saul in his life-life-time without any just cause shed the Bloud of some of the Gibeonites neither the famine ceased till seven of Saul's nephews had died for it In this story there are many things rare and worth our observation First the generality and extent of the guilt of Bloud-shed which is the cause for which I urged it it drew a general famine on the whole Land Secondly the continuance and length of the punishment
him sit down and consider with himself his enemies one by one and he shall quickly discover their weakness Primi in praeliis vincantur oculi It s a saying that the first thing that is overcome in a Souldier is his eye while he judges of his enemy by his multitude and provision rather then by his strength Beloved if we judge not of our adversary in gross and as it were by the eye we shall easily see that we shall not need to do as the King in the Gospel doth send to his enemy with conditions of peace for there is no treaty of peace to be had with these Had Zimri peace that slew his master saith the Scripture and There is no peace unto the wicked saith my God Not onely Zimri and the wicked but no Christian hath or can have peace he must be always as fighting and always conquering Let us single out some one of this Army and let us examine his strength Is it Sin doth so much affright us I make choice of it because it is the dreadfullest enemy that a Christian hath Let us a little consider its strength and we shall quickly see there is no such need to fear it Sins are of two sorts either great and capital or small and ordinary sins I know it were a paradox in nature to tell you that the greatest and mightiest things are of least force yet this is true in the case we speak of the greatest things are the weakest Your own experience tells you that rapes and murthers parricide poisoning treason and the rest of that rabble of arch sins are the sins of the fewest and that they have no strength at all but upon the weakest men for doubtless if they were the strongest they would reign with greatest latitude they would be the commonest they would be the sins of the most But wandring thoughts idle words petty lusts inconsiderate wrath immoderate love to the things of the world and the rest of that swarm of ordinary sins these are they that have largest extent and dominion and some of these or all of these more or less prevail with every man As the Magicians in Exodus when they saw not the power of God in the Serpents in the Bloud in the Frogs at the coming of the plague of the Lice presently cried Digitus Dei hic est this is the finger of God so I know not how it comes to pass though we see and confess that in those great and heinous crimes the Devil hath least power yet at the coming of Lice of the rout of smaller and ordinary sins we presently yeild our selves captives and cry out Digitus Diaboli the strength of the Devil is in these as if we were like unto that fabulous Rack in Plinie which if a man thrust at with his whole body he could not move it yet a man might shake it with one of his fingers Now what an errour is it in us Christians when we see the principal and captain sins so easily vanquish'd to think the common souldier or lesser sort invincible For certainly if the greatest sins be the weakest the lesser cannot be very strong Secondly is it Original corruption that doth so much affright us Let us consider this a little and see what great cause we have to fear it And first Beloved let us take heed that we seem not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight with our own fansie and not so much to find as to feign an enemy Mistake me not I beseech you I speak not this as doubting that we drew any natural infection from the loins of our parents but granting this I take it to be impossible to judge of what strength it is and deny that it is any such cause why we should take it to be so strong as that we should stand in fear to encounter it and overcome it for we can never come to discover how far our nature is necessarily weak for whil'st we are in our infancy and as yet not altered à puris naturaelibus from that which God and nature made us none of us understand our selves and e'r we can come to be of years to be able to discover it or define any thing concerning the nature of it custom or education either good hath much abated or evil hath much improved the force of it so that for any thing we know the strength of it may be much less then we suppose and that it is but a fear that makes it seem so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostom It is the nature of timerous and fearful men evermore to be framing to themselves causeless fears I confess it is a strange thing and it hath many times much amazed me to see how ripe to sin many children are in their young and tender years and e'r they understand what the name of Sin and evil means they are unexpectedly and no man knows by what means wonderfully prompt and witty to villany and wickedness as if they had gone to schole to it in their mothers womb I know not to what cause to impute this thing but I verily suppose I might quit Original sin from the guilt of it For it is a ruled case and concluded by the general consent of the Schools that Original sin is alike in all and St. Paul seems to me to speak to that purpose when he saith that God hath alike concluded all under sin and that all are alike deprived of the glory of God Were therefore Original sin the cause of this strange exorbitancy in some young children they should all be so a thing which our own experience teaches us to be false for we see many times even in young children many good and gracious things which being followed with good education must needs come to excellent effect In pueris elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times an hope of excellent things appears which in riper age for want of cherishing fades and withers away a certain sign that Nature is not so weak as Parents and Tutors are negligent whence then comes this difference certainly not from our Nature which is one in all but from some other cause As for Original sin of what strength it is I will not discuss onely thus much I will say there is none of us all but is much more wicked then the strength of any primitive corruption can constrain Again let us take heed that we abuse not our selves that we use not the names of Original weakness as a stale or stalking-horse as a pretence to choke and cover somewhat else For oftentimes when evil education wicked examples long custom and continuance in sin hath bred in us an habit and necessity of sinning presently Original sin and the weakness of mans nature bear the blame Vbi per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere naturae infirmitas accusatur When through sloth and
or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for truth and Acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be perform'd in these cases consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or Schisme but due Christian animosity For the opening therefore of the nature of Schisme something may be added by way of difference to distinguish it from necessary Separation and that is that the cause upon which Division is attempted proceed not from Passion or from Distemper or from Ambition or Avarice or such other ends as humane folly is apt to pursue but from well weighed and necessary reasons and that when all other means having been tryed nothing will serve to save us from guilt of Conscience but open separation so that Schisme if we would define it is nothing else but an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once members Now As in Mutinies and civil Dissentions there are two Attendants in ordinary belonging unto them one the choice of one Elector or Guide in place of the general or ordinary Governor to rule and Guide the other the appointing of some publick place or Randezvous where publick Meetings must be celebrated So in Church-dissentions and quarrels two appurtenances there are which serve to make Schisme compleat First in the choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former a thing very frequent amongst the Ancients and which many times was the cause and effect of Schisme Secondly the erecting of a new Church and Oratory for the dividing parts to meet-in publickly For till this be done the Schisme is but yet in the womb In that late famous Controversie in Holland De Praedestinatione auxiliis as long as the disagreeing parties went no further than Disputes and Pen-combates the Schisme was all that while unhatch'd but as soon as one party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating party there to meet now what before was a Controversie became a formal Schisme To know no more than this if you take it to be true had been enough to direct how you are to judge and what to think of Schisme and Schismaticks yet because of the Ancients by whom many are more affrighted than hurt much is said and many fearful dooms pronounced in this case We will descend a little to consider of Schism as it were by way of Story and that partly further to open that which we have said in general by instancing in particulars and partly to disabuse those who reverencing Antiquity more then needs have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of Schisme above due measure for what the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schisme in general is most true for they saw and it is no great matter to see so much that unadvised and open fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially amongst Christians upon whom above all other kind of men the tye of love and Communion doth most especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves men from the guilt of it but true and unpretended conscience yet when they came to pronounce of Schisme in particular whether it was because of their own interest or that they saw not the Truth or for what other cause God only doth know their judgements many times to speak most gently were justly to be suspected Which that you may see we will range all Schisme into two ranks First is a Schisme in which only one party is the Schismatick for where cause of Schisme is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of seperation is the Schismaticks Secondly there is a Schisme in which both parties are the Schismaticks for where the occasion of separation is unncessary neither side can be excused from the guilt of Schisme But you will ask Who shall be the judge what is necessary Indeed it is a question which hath been often made but I think scarcely ever truly answered not because it is a point of great depth or difficulty truly to assoil it but because the true solution of it carries fire in the tail of it for it bringeth with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiors to you for the present this shall suffice If so be you be animo defaecato if you have cleared your self from â—roath and growns if neither sloth nor fear nor ambition nor any tempting spirit of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the true impediments why both that and other questions of the like danger are not truly answer'd if all this be and yet you know not how to frame your resolution and settle your self for that doubt I will say no more of you than was said of Papias St. Iohn's own Scholar Your abilities are not so good as I presumed But to go on with what I intended and from that that diverted me that you may the better judg of the nature of Schisms by their occasions you shall find that all Schisms have crept into the Church by one of these three wayes either upon matter of Fact or upon matter of Opinion or point of Ambition for the first I call that matter of fact when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful so the first notable Schisme of which we read in the Church contained in it matter of fact for it being upon error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse than error if I may so speak for it was no less than a point of Judaism forced upon the Church upon worse than error I say thought further necessary that the ground of the time for keeping of that Feast must be the rule left by Moses to the Iews there arose a stout question Whether we were to celebrate with the Iews on the fourteenth Moon or the Sunday following This matter though most unnecessary most vain yet caused as great a combustion as ever was in the Church the West separating and refusing Communion with the East for many years together In this fantastical hurry I cannot see but all the world were Schismaticks neither can any thing excuse them from that imputation excepting only this that we charitably suppose that all parties did what they did out of conscience a thing which befel them through the ignorance of their Guides for I will not say through their malice and that through the just judgment of God because through sloth and blind obedience men examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couch'd down indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them By the way by this we may plainly see the danger of our appeal to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence for if the
is it with Greece where sometimes was the flow and luxury of wit now is there nothing but extream barbarism and stupidity It is in this respect so degenerated that it scarcely for some hundred of years hath brought forth a child that carries any shew of his fathers countenance God as it were purposely plaguing their miserable posterity with extreme want of that the abundance of which their fathers did so wantonly abuse The reason of all that hitherto I have in this point delivered is this Sharpness of wit hath commonly with it two ill companions Pride and Levity By the first it comes to pass that men know not how to yeild to another mans reasonable positions by the second they know not how to keep themselves constant to their own It was an excellent observation of the wise Grecian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sad and dull spirited men usually manage matters of State better then quick and nimble wits For such for the most part have not learnt that Lesson the meaning of that voice that came to the Pythagorean that was desirous to remove the ashes of his dead friend out of his grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things lawfully setled and composed must not be moved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Iulian Men over busie are by nature unfit to govern for they move all things and leave nothing without question and innovation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks Out of desire to amend what is already well And therefore we see that for the most part such if they be in place of Authority by unseasonable and unnecessary tampering put all things into tumult and combustion Not the Common-wealth alone but the Church likewise hath received the like blow from these kind of men Nazianzen in his six and twentieth Oration discoursing concerning the disorders committed in the handling of Controversies speaks it plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Great wits hot and fiery dispositions have raised these tumults From these it is saith he that Christians are so divided We are no longer a Tribe and a Tribe Israel and Iudah two parts of a small Nation but we are divided kindred against kindred family against family yea a man against himself But I must hasten to my second general part The persons here accounted guilty of abuse of Scripture The persons are noted unto us in two Ephitets Vnlearned Vnstable First Vnlearned It was St. Ierom's complaint that practitioners of other Arts could contain themselves within the bounds of their own Profession Sola Scripturarum ars est quam sibi omnes passim vendicant Hanc garrula anus hanc delirus senex hanc sophista verbosus hanc universi praesumunt lacerant docent antequam discant every one presumes much upon his skill and therefore to be a teacher of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Nazianzen speaks as if this great mystery of Christianity were but some one of the common base inferiour and contemptible trades I speak not this as if I envied that all even the meanest of the Lords people should prophesie but onely that all kind of men may know their bounds that no unlearned beast touch the hill lest he be thrust through with a dart It is true which we have heard Surgunt indocti rapiunt Regnum coelorum they arise indeed but it is as St. Paul speaks of the resurrection every man in his own order Scripture is given to all to learn but to teach and to interpret onely to a few This bold intrusion therefore of the unlearned into the chair of the Teacher is that which here with our blessed Apostle I am to reprehend Learning in general is nothing else but the competent skill of any man in whatsoever he professes Usually we call by this name onely our polite and Academical Studies but indeed it is common to every one that is well skill'd well practised in his own mystery The unlearned therefore whom here our Apostle rebukes is not he that hath not read a multiplicity of Authors or that is not as Moses was skilful in all the learning of the Egyptians but he that taking upon him to divide the word of God is yet but raw and unexperienced or if he have had experience wants judgment to make use of it Scripture is never so unhappy as when it falls into these mens fingers That which old Cato said of the Grecian Physicians Quandocunque ista gens literas suos dabit omnia corrumpet is most true of these men whensoever they shall begin to tamper with Scripture and vent in writing their raw conceits they will corrupt and defile all they touch Quid enim molestiae tristitiaeque temerarii isti praesumptores c. as S. Austin complaineth for what trouble and anguish these rash presumers saith he bring unto the discreeter sort of the brethren cannot sufficiently be exprest when being convinced of their rotten and ungrounded opinions for the maintaining of that which with great levity and open falshood they have averred they pretend the authority of these sacred Books and repeat much of them even by heart as bearing witness to what they hold whereas indeed they do but pronounce the words but understand not either what they speak or of what things they do affirm Belike as he that bought Orpheus Harp thought it would of it self make admirable melody how unskilfully soever he touch'd it so these men suppose that Scripture will sound wonderful musically if they do but strike it with how great infelicity or incongruity soever it be The reason of these mens offence against Scripture is the same with the cause of their miscarriage in civil actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Thucydides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rude men men of little experience are commonly most peremptory but men experienced and such as have waded in Business are slow of determination Quintilian making a question why unlearned men seem many times to be more copious then the learned for commonly such men never want matter of discourse answers That it is because whatsoever conceit comes into their heads without care or choice they broach it cum doctis sit electio modus whereas learned men are choice in their invention and lay by much of that which offers it self Wise hearted men in whom the Lord hath put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary like Bezaleel and Aholiab refuse much of the stuff which is presented them But this kind of men whom here our Apostle notes are naturally men of bold and daring spirits Quicquid dixerint hoc legem Dei putant as St. Ierome speaks whatsoever conceit is begotten in their heads the Spirit of God is presently the father of it Nec scire dignantur quid Prophet◠quid Apostoli senserint sed ad suum sensum incongrua aptant testimonia But to leave these men and to speak a little more home unto mine own
Auditory Let us a little consider not the weakness of these men but the greatness of the business the manage of which they undertake So great a thing as the skill of Exposition of the Word and Gospel is so fraught with multiplicity of Authors so full of variety of opinion must needs be confest to be a matter of great learning and that it cannot especially in our days in short time with a mediocrity of industry be attained For if in the Apostles times when as yet much of Scripture was scarcely written when God wrought with men miraculously to inform their understanding and supplied by revelation what mans industry could not yield if I say in these times St. Paul required diligent reading and expresly forbad greenness of Scholarship much more then are these conditions required in our times wherein God doth not supply by miracle our natural defects and yet the burden of our profession is infinitely increast All that was necessary in the Apostles times is now necessary and much more For if we adde unto the growth of Christian learning as it was in the Apostles times but this one circumstance to say nothing of all the rest which naturally befalls our times and could not be required at the hands of those who guided the first ages of the Church that is the knowledge of the state and succession of doctrine in the Church from time to time a thing very necessary for the determining the controversies of these our days how great a portion of our labour and industry would this alone require Wherefore if Quintilian thought it necessary to admonish young men that they should not presume themselves satis instructos si quent ex iis qui breves circumferuntur artis libellum edidicerint velut decretis technicorum tutos putent if he thought fit thus to do in an Art of so inferiour and narrow a sphere much more is it behoveful that young Students in so high so spacious so large a profession be advised not to think themselves sufficiently provided upon their acquaintance with some Notitia or Systeme of some technical divine Looke upon those sons of Anak those Giant-like voluminous Writers of Rome in regard of whom our little Tractates and pocket Volumes in this kind what are they but as Grashoppers I speak not this like some seditious or factious spie to bring weakness of hands or melting of heart upon any of Gods people but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up and kindle in you the spirit of industry to inlarge your conceits and not to suffer your labours to be copst and mued up within the poverty of some pretended method I will speak as Ioshua did to his people Let us not fear the people of that land they are as meat unto us their shadow is departed from them the Lord is with us fear them not Onely let us not think sedendo votis debellari posse that the conquest will be gotten by sitting still and wishing all were well or that the walls of these strong Cities will fall down if we onely walk about them and blow rams horns But as the voice of Gods people sometime was by the sword of God and of Gideon so that which here gives the victory must be the grace of God and our industry For by this circumcised narrow and penurious form of study we shall be no more able to keep pace with them then a child can with Hercules But I forbear and pass away unto the second Epithet by which these rackers of Scriptures are by St. Peter stiled Vnstable IN the learning which the world teaches it were almost a miracle to find a man constant to his own tenets For not to doubt in things in which we are conversant is either by reason of exellency and serenity of understanding throughly apprehending the main principles on which all things are grounded together with the descrying of the several passages from them unto particular conclusions and the diverticles and blind by-paths which Sophistry and deceit are wont to tread and such a man can nature never yeild or else it is through a sensless stupidity like unto that in the common sort of men who conversing among the creatures and beholding the course of heaven and the heavenly host yet never attend them neither ever sinks it into their heads to marvel or question these things so full of doubt and difficulty Even such a one is he that learns Theology in the School of Nature if he seem to participate of any setledness or composedness of conscience Either it never comes into his head to doubt of any of those things with which the world hath inured him or if it doth it is to no great purpose he may smother and strangle he can never resolve his doubt The reason of which is this It lies not in the worlds power to give in this case a text of sufficient authority to compose and fix the thoughts of a soul that is dispos'd to doubt But this great inconvenience which held the world in uncertainty by the providence of God is prevented in the Church For unto it is left a certain undoubted and sufficient authority able to exalt every valley and lay low every hill to smooth all rubs and make our way so open and passable that little enquiry serves So that as it were a wonder in the School of Nature to find one setled and resolved so might it seem a marvel that in the Church any man is unstable unresolved Yet notwithstanding even here is the unstable man found too and to his charge the Apostle lays this sin of Wresting of Scripture For since that it is confest at all hands that the sense and meaning of Scripture is the rule and ground of our Christian tenets whensoever we alter them we must needs give a new sense unto the word of God So that the man that is unstable in his Religion can never be free from violating of Scripture The especial cause of this levity and flitting disposition in the common and ordinary sort of men is their disability to discern of the strength of such reasons as may be framed against them For which cause they usually start and many times fall away upon every objection that is made In which too sudden entertainment of objections they resemble the state of those who are lately recovered out of some long sickness qui si reliquias eâ—â—ugerint suspicionibus tamen inquiâ—tantur omnem calorem corporis sui calumniantur Who never more wrong themselves then by suspecting every alteration of their temper and being affrighted at every little passion of heat as if it were an ague-fit To bring these men therefore unto an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to purchase them a setledness of mind that temper that St. Austine doth require in him that reads his Book tales meorum Scriptorum velim judices qui responsionem non semper desâ—derent quum his quae le guntur
accordingly was the practise of God's own people for so we read that the daughters of Zelophehad were married to their Vncle's Sons and Caleb gives his Daughter Achsah in marriage to his Brother's Son and sundry instances more in this kind might be given Now that those things should be done by dispensation and permission onely which I see is pleaded by some men I know no warrant nor reason for it so that what may be done in this case by the Law of God I think is out of question Let us see a little what the light of Nature taught the Gentiles Amongst them the wisest and most potent were the Romans whose Laws have long been esteemed for the soundest and best by the general approbation of the most and greatest Kingdoms and Common-wealths in Europe Now amongst these the Romans both by their Law and practise did warrant Marriages between First Cousins their Law is plain and thus we read it in their Pandects about the beginning of the 23. 6. Si nepotem ex filio nepta ex altero filio in potestate habeam nuptias inter cas me solo authore contrahi posse Pomponius scribit verum est This one Text is sufficient though I could quote many other Testimonies out of their Law concerning this kind of Marriage What their practise was these instances which ensue will be sufficient to shew Anciently under the first Kings Dionysius Halycarnasseus tells us that two daughters of Servius Tullius were married to Lucius and Arnus their Cousin-germans Nephews to Tarquinius Priscus Livie in his 42. 6. brings in one Spurius Ligustinus reporting that his father had given him for wife his Vncle's daughter and thus he speaks to his own praise and commendation as it will appear if you please to peruse the place Tully in his Orat. pro Cluentio tells us that Cluentia was married to Melius her Cousin-german erant hae Nuptiae saith he plaenae dignitatis plaenae concordiae which I think he would never have said had their lien upon such marriages any note of infamy Augustus the Emperour gave his daughter Iulia in marriage to Marcellus nephew to Augustus by his sister Octavia And Quintilian tells us that his son whose immature death he doth bewail was designed when he came to age to marry his Uncle's daughter and Marcus Brutus was married to his Cousin-german as Plutarch relates Out of this heap of instances it appeareth that in the Roman Common-wealth throughout all Ages and amongst all sorts of people Marriages between First-Cousins ran uncontrolled The first that gave restraint unto them was Theodosius the Great which Law of his is yet to be seen in that Book of his Laws called Codex Theodosianus But this Law continued not long for his own sons Arcadius and Honorius quickly revers'd it and in leiu of it made this Law which is extant in the Book called Iustinian's Code and stands for good Law amongst the Civilians at this day Celebrandis inter consobrinos matrimoniis licentia legis hujus salubritate indulta est ut rovocata prisci juris authoritate restrictisque calumniarum fomentis matrimonium inter consobrinos habeatur legitimum sive ex duobus fratribus sive ex dual us sororibus sive ex fratre sorore nati sunt ex eo matrimonio editi legitimi suis patribus successores habeantur Thus stood the case concerning those Marriages until the Bishops of Rome began to grow great and took upon them to make Laws For then whether to make way for Dispensations whereby to get money or for what other By-respects I know not not only First and Second cousins but all Cousins until the seventh Generation were expresly prohibited to marry mutually till at length the Bishop of Rome freed the three latter Degrees and prohibited marriage onely to Cousins in four Descents and so till this day among those that acknowledge the superiority of that See all marrying within four Degrees except it be by Dispensation is utterly forbidden And if it be lawful for me to speak what I think I verily suppose that not from any reason but onely by reason of the long prevailing of the Common Law Marriages betwixt near Cousins were generally forborn And from hence arose a scruple in the minds of many men concerning the lawfulness of such Marriages But all cause of such scruple amongst us is long since taken away For at what time we cast off the yoke of the Bishop of Rome in the 33 year of King Hen. 8. a Statute was Enacted in Parliament which was again confirmed in the first of Queen Elizabeth that no degrees of kindred should be forbidden Marriage but onely such as were set down in the Levitical Law and amongst the degrees specified in that Act as lawful if my memory fail me not Cousin-germans are expresly mentioned To sum up all then what hitherto hath been said What reason have we to doubt of the lawfulness of that which the Law of God permits the people of God practised the best and learnedest Divines have acknowledged the wisest amongst the Gentiles in their Laws and Practises have approved and our own Municipal Laws under which we live expresly allow This had been enough to satisfie any gain-sayer whatsoever And indeed I had ended here but that when your letters came to my hands there was delivered with them a Schedule containing reasons perswading all such kind of Marriages to be utterly unlawful Concerning the authority of which Discourse to profess what I think I take him for a very pious and zealous man and I earnestly desire of him if ever he chance to be acquainted with what I write to conceive of me as one who delights not in opposition except it be for the Truth at least in opinion My advise to him is to adde Knowledge to his Zeal and to call again to account his reasons and more diligently to examine them The strength of his discourse is not so much his Reason as his Passion a thing very prevalent with the common sort who as they are seldom capable of strength of reason so are they easily carried away with passionate discourse This thing ought to be a warning to us of the Clergy to take heed how we deal with the people by way of passion except it be there where our proofs are sound Passion is a good Dog but an ill Shepherd Tortum digna sequi potius quam ducere funem it may perchance follow well but it can never lead well I was much amazed to read his resolution of preaching in this case so earnestly as to break her's or his heart who desire to marry or his own or all He that suffered himself thus far to be transported with affection ought to have furnish'd himself with stronger reasons then any I here can find But I will let his passion go for to contend with it were infinite for Passion hath Tongue and clamour enough but no Ears The Reasons so many as I think
it lasted full three years and better Thirdly the time of the plague it fell long after the person offending was dead Fourthly whereas it is said in my Text That Bloud is cleansed by the Bloud of him that shed it here the Bloud of him that did this sin sufficed not to purge the Land from it that desperate and woful end that befell both Saul and his sons in that last and fatal Battel upon Mount Gilboa a man may think had freed the Land from danger of Bloud yet we see that the Bloud of the Gibeonites had left so deep a stain that it could not be sponged out without the Bloud of seven more of Saul's off-spring So that in some cases it seems we must alter the words of my Text The Land cannot be purged of Bloud but by the Bloud of him and his Posterity that shed it St. Peter tells us that some mens sins go before them unto judgment and some mens sins follow after Beloved here is a sin that exceeds the members of this division for howsoever it goes before or after us unto judgment yet it hath a kind of Vbiquity and so runs afore so follows us at the heels that it stays behind us too and calls for vengeance long after that we are gone Bloud unrevenged passes from Father to Son like an Heirlome or Legacy and he that dies with Bloud hanging on his fingers leaves his off-spring and his Family as pledges to answer it in his stead As an Engineer that works in a Mine lays a train or kindles a Match and leaves it behind him which shall take hold of the powder long after he is gone so he that sheds Bloud if it be not betimes purged as it were kindles a Match able to blow up not onely a Parliament but even a whole Land where Bloud lies unrevenged Secondly another circumstance serving to express unto us the greatness of this sin I told you was the difficulty of cleansing it intimated in those words cannot be cleansed but by the Bloud of him that shed it Most of other sins have sundry ways to wash the guilt away As in the Levitical Law the woman that was unclean by reason of Child-bearing might offer a pair of Turtle-doves or two young Pigeons so he that travels with other sins hath either a Turtle or a Pigeon he hath more ways then one to purifie him prayer unto God or true repentance or satisfaction to the party wronged or bodily affliction or temporary mulct But he that travels with the sin of Bloud for him there remains no sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of vengeance he hath but one way of cleansing onely his Bloud the Bloud of him that shed it The second general part which we considered in these words was that one mean which is left to cleanse Bloud exprest in the last words the bloud of him that shed it The Apostle to the Hebrews speaking of the sacrifices of the Old Testament notes that without Bloud there was no cleansing no forgiveness He spake it onely of the Bloud of beasts of Bulls and Goats who therefore have their Bloud that they might shed it in mans service and for mans use But among all the Levitical Sacrifices there was not one to cleanse the manslayer For the Bloud of the cattle upon a thousand hills was not sufficient for this yet was that sin to be purged with Bloud too and that by a more constant and perpetual Law then that of Sacrifices For the cleansing of other sins by Bloud is done away the date of it is out but to cleanse Bloud by bloud remains as a Law to our times and so shall unto the worlds end Sanguine quaerendi reditus out of Bloud no way to get but by Bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil hast thou shed Bloud wouldst thou be free from the guilt of it Thy best way is to be a Martyr and shed thy Bloud for Christ's sake Now that what I have to say may the better be conceived and lodged up in your memories I will comprehend and order all that I will speak under three heads First I will in general yet a little further breifly shew how great a sin the sin of Bloud is Secondly I will speak of the redress of some misorders very frequent in our age which give way to this sin especially private revenge and single combat Thirdly I will touch at the means of taking the guilt of Bloud away which here the holy Ghost commends to those which are set in Authority to that purpose And first of the greatness of the crime and sin of Bloud Of sins in holy Scripture there be two sorts recorded One sort is a silent dumb and quiet sin God doth as it were seek after it to find it as the people did after Saul when he was hidden amongst the stuff Of this nature are the ordinary sins of our life which do more easily find pardon at the hands of God but there is a second sort of sin which is a vocal and a crying sin a sin like that importunate widow in the Gospel that will not suffer the Judge to be quiet till he hath done justice and those are the more heavy and grievouser sins of our lives Of this second sort there are two sins to which the Scripture doth attribute this crying faculty First the sin of Sodom for so God tells Abraham The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is come up before me The second is the sin of which I am now to speak the sin of Bloudshed for so God tells Cain The voice of thy brothers bloud cries unto me from the earth The sin of Adam in Paradise doubtless was a great and heinous sin which hath thus made us all the children of death yet it seems to be but of the rank of mute sins and to have had no voice to betray it God comes unto Adam convents him examins him as if he had not known it and seems not to beleive any such thing was done till himself had confessed it But bloud is an unmannerly importunate and clamorous sin God shall not need to come and enquire after it it will come up unto him and cry as the souls do under the Altar in the Revelation How long Lord how long Nec patimur iracunda Deum ponere fulmina suffers not God to forget judgment or entertain a thought of mercy To satisfie therefore the cry of this importunate sin and to shew men the grievousness of it the Laws of God and men have wonderfully conspired in the avenging of bloud by what means or by what creature soever it were shed Beasts unreasonable creatures though whatsoever they do they cannot be said to sin for whatsoever they do they do by force of that natural instinct by which they are guided and led as by their proper Law yet man's bloud if they shed it is revenged upon them God himself is the Authour of this Law Gen. ix where he tells Noah