which was so zealously tender for the Cause of Christ that they loved not their lives unto death but rather chose mille mortes a thousand deaths then once to crucifie again or deny the Lord that bought them Fourthly The Cause of God may need his special pleading by reason of the great corruption of manners which like weeds grow in the garden of God or as tares in the field of the Church which was first sown with good seed Thus as Eusebius Salvian Suspitius-Severus and othes observe Christian Religion suffered more by the evil lives of Christians then by the malice of persecutors or Hereticks men that had sound heads as to doctrine and Faith yet had foul hearts their brains good but their breath lungs and liver were naught This contagion sometimes seised Pastors and Flocks by idleness pride luxury vain pomps and superfluous ceremonies by secular policies uncharitable actions and scandalous practices so far as made the Cause of God and the name Christ to be blasphemed and abhorred by many while they could not reconcile the holiness of Christians faith and doctrine with the solecisms of their sordid actions and shameful lives Hence came over the Western Churches that thick Egyptian darkness for many hundred of years in which religion was made up for the most part with Images and Pictures with beads and latin prayers with repeated Pater nosters and Ave Maries which people understood not nor the Priests many times with Purgatory Masses and Indulgencies with infinite superstitious ceremonies and empty formalities besides idle fables and vain janglings which like heaps of chaff had buried the good wheat of Gods floor and the glory of divine institutions to make way for Monastick superstitions Idolatrous adorations and Papal usurpations which were built on the flatteries of some and the fedities of others who easily dispenced with the honor of marriage when they had so cheap pardons for those extravagancies and impurities in which many lived under the vail of celibacy but far enough from pure unspotted and unviolated virginity § To this Augean stable was the Church of Christ and Cause of God brought by the depravedness of Christian manners by the rust and moss of superstition before the Reformation began to dawn in this western World An hundred grievances were at once complained of many confessed some for very shame reformed by even those of the Roman party who with infinite blood-shed in former ages fought under the Notion of holy Wars not only against Turks Jews and Sarazens but against good at least tolerable Christians who might have their errors and fayling in some things but it is sure they kept nearer to the primitive piety purity and patience both in faith administrations and manners than did their proud and merciless destroyers who eat up those poor Christians as bread and turned their cruel Croisadoes to crucifie their brethren breaking their fast sometimes with 20000. of the poor Albigenses Lugdunenses Waldenses Berengarians VVicklesites Hussites Bohemians and others proportionably were their dinners and suppers when the Popes flatterers and vassals had a mind to fall upon them 5. Yea and at this day even among the reformed Churches the purity simplicity honesty charity modesty and equanimity of Reformers is so abated and wasted by the pride animosity bitterness sacriledge rapines cruelties ambitions and covetousness among Protestants besides their endless factions under pretentions of reformation immoderations novellizings and confusions That thiâ— Cause of God as to the true reforming of religion and just protesting against Romish errors and enormities is brought very low as in other places and Churches so in England which was the greatest beauty honour stability refuge and safety of the reformed Religion and that cause of Christ which hath been so learned and valiantly pleaded by the Clergy and Layty the Princes and Parliaments the Martyrs and professors reverend Bishops and learned Presbyters against the Roman Usurpation Superstition Sacriledg and Idolatry which are without doubt so far Antichristian as they are clearly against the Doctrine example and institution of Christ besides the judgment and practice of his primitive Churches § Even this cause I say is now â—ick and ashamed of it self so decayed disparaged and divided that it is next degree to being destroyed and despised by all unless God arise by some extraordinary way of his providence to plead and assert this his own cause of a just and due reformation against the factious policies and Fanatick fallacies of unreasonable men whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immoderations and transports have marred all by their King killing rapine and sacriledg unless God arise to judge the earth § Nor is this the first time that God hath helped this Church and the Reformed Religion at a dead lift for so it was in Queen Maries days when the reformed party made conscience not to rebel against their persecuting Soveraigne Princess when her persecution was according to her perswasion and conscience yea they pleaded and asserted her civil rights committing the cause of their Religion and Reformation to God with their loyal souls and consciences in well doing and patience There did God arise in his due time and do his own works in his own way to the great honour of the reformed Religion which had first the crowns of so many Martyrdoms on its head without the least spot of civil Tumults Wars Seditions or Rebellions on the hearts or hands of the reforming Clergy and reformed people § By which preposterous methods of latter years mightily cryed up and carryed on by some men in order to reformation of Religion not onely Religion is become retrograde many degrees if we look to the Dial of Gods word and the primitive Christians practice as it pretends to be reformed but even as it is Christian too that is the Doctrine and imitation of a crucified not a crucifying Saviour The lines which some men have drawn as the measures of their Doctrine and deeds are very excentrick and wide as to the wonted centre of Gods glory the circumference of Scripture truth and that strait rule of charity by which those two were wont to meet in the conscience and conversation of good Christians § Nor will either Christian Religion or just Reformation appear in their true beauty and honor while these are so far at distance and separated from each other that either verity and charity patience and subjection truth and peace are wanting in the ways of Christians In the close of this second general Question it is fit to answer that other branch of it also Why God so wise so potent so good s gracious so compassionate and so vigilant for his own Cause that is his Glory and great Name which is so much bound up in his Churches welfare yet suffers it many times so far to run to lapse seeming ruine and despair in the eyes of the world in the triumphs of his enemies and in the despondencies of his servants that
Scripture written by the Prophets and Apostles be preserved free from Apocryphal additions Fabulous traditions Humane inventions and Phanatick inspirations That the Ministers of it by Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as to its Authority Order and supports be maintained agreeable to the primitive pattern instituted by Christ in the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy Disciples with their attendants in holy offices this is the cause of God as that of Embassadors and their followers in the cause of those Princes that send them so Commissionated and instructed they that receive them receive Christ and they that reject them reject him and they that defraud or rob divide and destroy the Church and Ministry of Christ are Robbers of God Sacrilegious Felons from the blessed Son of God who is Heir of all and to whom we owe all we have as redeemer of is and all blessings we enjoy The great Seals of the Church also the two Sacraments are the Cause of God not to be prophaned or neglected For which cause God sharply punished the Corinthians with sickness and death Much less may they be changed or diminished or added to in point of duty and necessity beyond the stamp and inscription of Divine institution and that Catholick practice or use of them which was ever owned by the Church whose veracity or fidelity is not to be questioned in things of universal observance such as were those of the Lords day for the Christian Sabbath of the books of Canonical Scriptures of the Baptizing of Christians Infants whose cause is the cause of God and of his Covenant with the faithful and their seed so of the giving of the cup as well as the consecrated bread to all Communicants as well Lay as Clergy and lastly as to the constant Order and Government of the Church in its several distributions by many Presbyters subordinate and assistant to some one paternal yet authoratative Bishop as sons to a presidential Father This Government by Episcopacy is Gods Cause as the God of order and the Apostles cause as settled and sealed by their wisdome and the Churches consent's as a primitive Catholick custom the veracity and antiquity of which is asserted by the Churches testimony both as to all Histories and in its practice not to be doubted desparaged denied or abolished without great in solency and peevishness either to gratifie Presbytery or Independency both which are novel ties of yesterday and so cannot be Gods Cause which is verissiâ—â—a antiquissima as old as it is true and good § The Cause of Gods Church as to its Honour Order Fidelity supportâ— rule and government is so far Gods Cause as he hath made his Church the Pillar and ground of truth and as himself is the God of Order and Polity yeaâ— and the Churches cause is Gods as to that prudential liberty and variety which his wisdome hath granted and indulged to it in the several parts or distributions of it under the Gospel as to the circumstantial or ceremonial rites of Religion incident or annexed to the outward decency of worship and profession in several ages and places so as may most conduce to the planting propagating preserving and reforming of true Religion among all Nations Lastly the unity of the Church belongs to Gods cause who is but one and his Son one and his Spouse one Such as cause Schism and divisions in the true Church by giving or taking unnecessary and so unjust scandals and thereby raising uncharitable separations these are injurious to the God of peace and the Prince of peace Nostrum laceratur in arbore corpus Christians tear God rend the body of Christ in their Schisms which divide them from the love of Christ and for his sake of one another which is the great Character of Christs Disciples Joh. 13. 35. § Therefore all the Methods of Ecclesiastical Polity which were used in primitive times by which to keep the Catholick Church in an holy unity and brotherly correspondency by Bishops Arch-Bishops Primates Metropolitans and Patriarchs yea and in latter ages when Christians were multiplied by Arch-Deacons Suffragans or Chorepiscopacy i. e. rural Deans and the like were so far from being Antichristian projects and evil policies that they were the Counsels and results of Christs spirit as helps in Government for the Order and Unity Polity and Authority meet to be observed in his Church § Nor is it of any weight which some urge odiously and enviously against these subordinations and degrees fitted for the unity of the Church which capacitated them to meet and correspond as by general and lesser Councils in several places so by Letters communicatory in all the world that hence the Papal arragancy and Pride did get footing and his prescripts became decrees For if all things of piety or prudence must be abolished with the policy or superstition if man lists to abuse them we shall leave very little to true Religion So far Popes and Bishops and Presbyters and People too have shewed themselves in many things to be but men subject to prejudices and passions yet are they no way capable to destroy or deprave the true principles or practices of Christian wisdom much less of Divine and Apostolick institution either binding and perpetual or prudential and occasional which lawfully may be used and are not rashly to be abolished 4. Next the Churches cause which is eminently contained in Gods comes that of all mankind as God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lover and preserver of men in the way of civil societies the Hings or Axis and popular points of which are Justice commutative and distributive private and publique the just God is concerned that justice be done to all and by all according to their place and station The rule and measure of all civil and Politique Justice for matter and manner for what is to be done and by whom for the equity of retribution and authority of dispensation is that custome and law which is prevalent by publique consent in every Nation not contrary to the Law of God what ever is done contrary to this is in Deiinjuriam and makes the actors reolaesae Majestatis divinae as well as humanae guilty of doing injury to the justice and Majesty not onely of men but of God whose are the laws and Polities the Princes Kings and lawful Magistrates of every state Kingdom and Common-wealth which are Gods Ordinances not to be resisted by tumult or armed force by sedition or Treason without an high sin which subjects men to damnation as Rebels to God as enemies to the good of their Country to the duty they owâ— to parents and indeed to the good of all mankind who would soon be as miserable as beasts and Devils if they were not restrained from private extravagancie preserved in their honest enjoyments by the publique laws and that Soveraigne power which is
an high hand and out-stretched arm confuting Pharaohs Pride and obstinacy with the Egyptian Gods in the red Sea when no other miracles in lesser drops would soften their hard hearts he soaked them in such great waters as quite drowned them After this how oft was the little flock of Gods Church as a speckled Bird in the Wilderness surrounded with Enemies as a Lilly among Thorns there was Gebal and Ammon and Ameleck the Philistines and they of Tyre the Assyrian Arabian Egyptian all were against them from not onely reason of State but of Religion where different principles make the most deadly antipathies and desperate fâ—wds Thus the wild Bore sometimes with power other while the subtil Foxes of Mungril Jews and half Idolaters with fly insinuations sought to pull down and waste the peace honour plenty safety and Religion of the Jews Thus the Heathens raged and their Princes set themselves against the Lord and his cause fulfilled that first prophecy of an irreconcileable enmity between the Serpent and the seed of the Woman All the gods and Demons all the Oracles and Priests all the Poets and Prophets all the Orators Historians all the great Princes and valiant Soldiers and subtil Polititians all the Wise men and Philosophers set themselves to despise to reproach to oppress and extirpate the name and Nation and Religion of the Jews which was that of the true God from under Heaven as a most pestilent people and of a most detestable superstition Afterwards when the blossoms of Judaick ceremonies fell off and in the fulness of time the ripe fruit of Messias came into the world in spirit and in truth that all Nations might worship the true God aright in every place without confinement I need not tell you who are not ignorant of Scriptural and Ecclesiastical Histories how from Herods malice and subtilty seeking to destroy Christ in his cradle and satiating his defeated malice like a worrying Wolf or raging Bear with the massacring of so many innocent children who were ever esteemed by the antient Church as Infant-Martyrs suffering in Christs stead and upon the first occasion of his cause pleaded in the world by the baptism of their own blood until Constantine the Great 's days of refreshing and rest for a season the true Church and cause of God was never out of the furnace of tribulation martyrdoms fears afflictions and dayly deaths true the bellows did not always blow up the fire and fury of men to the same flames but there wanted not those as Decius and others who envied Christians their numerous cheerful and speedy Martyrdoms of which they were so ambitious § Nothing was more wonted in the mouths of the people than what they clamored against Polycarp a primitive Bishop of Smyrna in S. Johns days Tolle Atheos away with these Atheists and Christiani ad Leones Christians were thought such beasts that they were onely fit to fight with and to feed Beast or to be baited in Beasts skins Yea nomen crimen as Tertullian observes men were so mad against them and gnashed on them as the Jews against S. Stephen that they would not examine their cause or crime thinking it accusation enough that they owned themselves Christians § Dioclesian makes such havock as Decumanus fluctus after others that he not onely cut up the harvest but raked the gleaning of Christians in all the Roman Empire even so far as here in England where S. Albanus and others were Martyred that he gloried and triumphed and set up Trophies for the extirpation of the Christian superstition At this dead lift was the Church of Christ and cause of God when the Bishops of the Churches were banished or Butchered the Presbyters starved destroyed and scattered The Oratories and Temples or Churches all demolished or put to prophane uses the Christian people condemned to the Mettals Islands Prisons Limekills Racks Gibbets and Fires Thus did the cause of God as to the Christian Church stand or rather fal for the first three hundred years under Heatheninsh Persecutors and the oppositions of Philosophy or science falsely so called which yet afterward came to naught as all power and polity will at last do which set themselves to oppose the cause the truth the Church and servants of the living God Thirdly After the Church had some rest in Constantines time by the suppression of Heathenish fury and Idolatrous folly yet was the cause of God not without its following conflicts by reason of Hypocrites Hereticks Schismaticks false Apostles Hucksters of religion deceitful workers Wolves in sheeps cloathing who delighted to divide and destroy to shake foundations and shipwrack consciences to lead Disciples after them by factions partialities and respect of persons either darkening the verity or dividing the unity or defacing the uniformity or destroying the authority or confounding that order and subordination which Christ and his Apostles left in the Church of Christ men full of lusts and pride daily spawned innovations in the doctrine or in the faith or in the customs and in the forms of Religion § Such were all those pristine Hereticks and Schismaticks whose names and deeds deserve to be buried with their damnable doctrines and uncharitable factions in eternal forgetfulness they are too many and too odious to repeat I would to God they were not digged up out of their graves in our days by some carrionly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who searching the graves and raking the kennels of old errors seek to fill the English world with such odious noysom and unsavory spectacles both of opinions and practices § Who that is learned can be ignorant of the prevalent numbers and powers of the Novatians Arrians and Donatists what petulancy and cruelty they used against the Orthodox Cause challenging the Cause and Church of God wholly and only to themselves what despite they had against St. Cyprian Athanasius St. Cyril St. Hilary St. Augustine Optatus and others that opposed routed and confounded their contumacious impudence Thus was the Cause of Christ one whole age or century like Noahs Ark floating in a deluge of Arrian perfidy and persecution to its own grief and astonishment till God took the matter into his own hand and pleading the Cause of Jesus Christ and his eternal Godhead against both people and Bishops and Emperors that were infected with that pestilence for the inundation of the Goths and Vandals the Huns and Heruls the Gauls and Daci seemed no other but the fountains of the great deep broke up to wash away with humane blood the blasphemies with which the Christian world was then polluted against the glory and honor of the Son and Spirit of the blessed God when times were such that men would not endure sound doctrine but heaped up teachers and clucked together Councils and conventicles according to their own lusts and interests without any regard to the primitive Faith and practice of the Church of Christ
ariseth terribly to judge the world and to ease him of his adversaries and to plead the cause of his oppressed Church are most worthy of the divine majesty For 1. They are most just in themselves 2. They are most pregnant and convictive in mens consciences as the pleas of God 3. They are unavoidable and irrisistible and potent 4. They carry the cause at last against all opposition the highest cedars are feld by it the greatest mountains levelled Gods Cause like Moses his serpent devours all those Enchanters and Magicians 5. They are impartial without respect of persons great or strong rich or noble wise or foolish few or many God sometimes so pleads it as to pour contempt even upon Princes to pull down the mighty from their seats to confound their counsels to break the arm of their strength to lop off all their branches yea to stub up their roots as to their posterity and renown which was done against Nebuchadnezzar Haman Balshazzar and Judas Sometimes God pleads his cause even by miraculous appearings in signs and wonders full of terror and destruction so against Pharoah and the Egyptians so against Senacherib and his hoast sending a destroying Angel to confute in one night his blâ—sphemous insolency by slaying the greatest part and flower of his Army sending him away with shame which was followed with the parricide of his two sons who slew him So in privater cases God pleads against Miriams murmuring by leprosie so against Nadab and Abihu by fire So against Korah and his mutinous complices God wrought a new way of burying them alive Numb 16. 33. So against the pride of Herod whose popular diety was confuted by worms Act. 12. 23. Sometimes God fills his enemies with Pannick terrors and makes them sheath their swords in their own bowels to become executioners of his vengeance yea and we read Achitophels or acular wisdom ended in a halter even so let all perfidious and impenitent Polititians perish O Lord that are enemies to thy Cause in true Religion and just Government Sometimes God stirs up unexpected and despicable enemies against them who kindle such fires of intestine or foraign wars as consume his proudest adversaries as in the Kings of Israel and Judah when they forsook and rebelled against God When God ariseth to plead his own Cause he fears the face of none he spares none not Families or Cities or Nations or a whole world as in Noahs days or the whole race and nature of mankind as in Adam and Eve who fell under the curse with their posterity when they beleived and obeyed the serpent more then God Against some he pleads vvith fire famine pestilence evil beasts War Deluges Nay he spared not the rebellious Angels but cast them out of heaven into hell fire from the light of his blessed presence to chains of eternal darkness Nay God spares not his ovvn servants People and Church he pleaded sorely against Davids sin vvhich argued his despising of God vvhen he preferred his lust and caused the enemies of God to blaspheme all religion and grace by the scandal of his extravagancy God shevvs us that as Saints may sin so he sees sin in them and vvill not let it go unpunished § So he pleads against Eli and his sons even to their untimely death and the extirpation of that family from the honor of Priesthood So against King Uzziah for his sacrilegious intruding on the Preists office So against King Saul for his rebellion which was us witchcraft So against King Solomon vvhen his wisdom left him or he left it and fell to so gross a folly and effeminacy as to countenance and tolerate Idolatry in an uxorious vanity and inconstancy So against King Hezekiah vvhen his pride made him forgetful of so great a mercy as his miraculous recovery and delivery Nay God pleaded oft against the vvhole Church of the Jews in their Apostasies the Cause of his Lavv Worship Service and Servants the Prophets whom they slew by cutting them short by pulling dovvn and abasing the crown of their glory by giving their adversaries dominion over them to destroy them to burn their Cities and Temple to desolate their Land to lead them into captivity and so to give the Land its rest and Sabboth which they had prophaned Thus did he oft plead the controversies he had with that Church and people that City and Sanctuary which was called by his own name with whom at last he reckoned for all the blood of the Prophets and that of the Messias too which filled up the cup of Gods wrath against them to an utter desolation which hath held now for near sixteen hundred years In like sort did the Spirit of God plead his Cause against the famous seven Churches in Asia and their Angels or Bishops of which we read in the second and third chapters of the Revelations reproving and threatning them sorely both Fathers and children Bishops and Presbyters Pastors and people except they did repent So against all the Greek and Eastern Christian Churches whose heresies luxuries schisms ambitions and hypocrisies have at this day put them under the Mahometan bondage and tyranny that they have scarce now a name to live as Christians or Churches § Nor was God wanting to plead his Cause by many terrible judgements against the depraved state of these Western Churches when overgrown with Image-Saints and Angels-worship with Tyranny and superstition with covetousness and ambition with sottery and debauchery even from the Popes or cheif Bishops chair to the Princes and Peers and Clergie and Gentry and people of all sorts how were they tossed too and fro in the sactions of Gnelphs and Gibelins wasted in the holy Wars as they called them terrified with excommunication and bans that there was no peace to him that came in or to him that went out Lastly God sometimes pleads his Cause and gives evident token it is his by an unexpected way even by suffering it to fall into fiery trials and many temptations not as offended with his Church but as giving the world experience of the mighty power of his grace and the eminent faith courage patience and constancy of his servants who love not their lives to the death but can set all the loss and dung of this world at stake for Christs sake So the primitive Martyrs and Confessors Apostles and others glorified God So many Bishops Presbyters Virgins young and old filled the world with admiration of that cause for which they were so resolved and undaunted that their pious perseverance as Justin Martyr and others tell us with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pertinacy as Mar. Aurelius calls it was a most powerful way to commend the glorious Gospel of Christ to the world Thus the blessed company and holy Hoste after Christs example did assert the cause of God and his Christ not by armed forces
such is the disorder that attends men in their own cause and the order which they observe who intend Gods There was wont to be proclaimed before the olympian games and Athletick agonies That none who were misbegotten or slaves or vile or infamous persons should offer to enter the lists or contest in those famous and solemn yea sacred conflicts which were not for private gain but for the honour of their gods and the Victors such a proclamation may I make as to Gods cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no proud prophane covetous ambitious sacrilegious perjurious popular partial parasitick insolent disorderly and licentious persons pretend to plead it since they do more prejudice and disparage it then any way advance or forward it good and wise men are ashamed and weak men are jealous and affraid to be sâ—en in that good cause wherein wicked men appear not good but great sticklers as Magots do in what was a good dish of meats not to garnish or adorne it but to defile and devour it 4. Use fear to oppose Gods cause or by anyforcible or fallacious ways to plead against it for it will be as a burthensome stone a rock of offence who ever dasheth against it or on whom it falls at last with the weight of Gods vindication It will dash them to pieces who ever contended against God and his cause and prospered For it will at last be pleaded with fire and brimstone with an omni potent and unexorable justice which will consume as fire doth stubble all the opposing powers and fallacious pretensions 5. Vse of exhortation when we have done our duty in Gods cause and in his way according to our place and see that we profit nothing as to the publique but onely to our own peace and discharge of good consciences yet cease not to follow God with our prayers and holy importunities that he would take the matter into his own hand Bonae causae sufficit unus patronus bonus Gods cause is never to be despaired of though it have no patron or advocate among men yet it hath one above who is optimus maximus the greatest and best of all It may as a bladder be forced under water for a while but it will buoy up again The Church may be as the ship in which Christ was tossed and covered with waves yet Christum vebit causam Christi as Caesar said to the fearful Mariners of himself and his fortune God oft lets things run to low ebbs that he may shew his mighty power and make the extremities of his cause the opportunities of his help however let not thy faith or Prayers fast which have a kind of omnipotency in them to remove Mountains and to do miracles at a dead lift Gods arme is not shortned though mans be withered let God alone with his own cause the gates of bell shall not prevail against it 6. Vse Measure not the cause of God by outward prevailings and prosperities the gayest feathered foul are not the best meat we must condemne the generation of Gods people and the cause of the righteous if we think that the worst cause which hath the worst usage or success in this world look to the Prophets from righteous Abel to John Baptist look to the Apostles and the best of their successors look to the holy Preachers and people we shall find they had always enough to do to plead the cause of God and his truth against the many open persecutions and secret underminings of evil men and devils who many times so prevayled by Gods just judgment that the cause of God seemed wholly routed such were their powers their victories their numbers their policies their cruelties all bent against the cause of God yet even their banishment and prison and tortures and plundrings and sequestrations and loss of all even to life it self these with a good cause and a good conscience were infinitely to be preferred before all the Treasures and Triumphs and Thrones and successes and applauses of impious prosperity or prosperous impiety The just must live by faith not by sense the touch stone of Gods cause is Godsword both as to the end and the means the usual badg or mark of Christs cause is Christs cross to which we were all devoted in our baptism nor must we fly from those colours least the Lord answer us as those that plead with him at the last day have we not prophecyed in thy name and cast out Devils c. So have we not pleaded thy cause O Lord by tumults mutinies falsities sedition rebellion by plunder and rapine by sacriledge and perjury by blood and violence To whom the Lord will reply depart from me ye hypocrites and accursed I know you not you pleaded the cause of your own lusts and belly of your pride envy covetousness ambition and revenge and not of my holy name and true Religion and reformation which owns no such manner of pleading or practising 7. Vse Is by way of examination wherein I will propound two Questions to you with such answers as I conceive may suit them 1. Question is What may be that cause of God for which he thus pleads in wrath against us in England So far that his hand hath been a long time stretched forth against us and his wrath is not yet turned away from us but burnes as a consuming fire to the very foundations in a long war and the worst of all a civil war which destroys even humanity it self setting nearest relations at distances and friends at distances and neighbours at enmity and countrimen at mortal contentions Yea and this upon the worst account even religious dissentions and jealousies no less then secular if we ask why the Lord hath brought all this evil upon a people that were once called by his name and but too happy the very wonder joy or envy of all Churches and Nations and Kingdomes Why is it that the Lord hath pleaded thus severely against our Kings and Princes our Parliaments and Peers our Bishops and Clergy our Gentry and Commonalty even all sorts of people against Church and State against our peace our laws our government our liberties our estates and our plenty against the prosperity and the honour of the Nation yea against our very Religion and reformation it self as if he did abhor us So that we seem condemned to everlasting torments to contend with and devoure each other with endless diesolations and confusions turning like Ixion in the wheel or Sisyphus his stone or St. Laurence from one side to the other upon the gridâ—ron of dayly exactions vexations terrors and vastations while Manasseh is against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and Iudah against both That we cannot find or will not follow the way of peace With what Earthquakes and Shakings and Overturnings and bloody Battels and mutual Exhaustings and unplacable Annimosities have we been wasted many years and are still
my confidence of inviting you again to review the Cause of God which hath been now mightily pleaded beyond what we could ask or think God himself conquering the monsters of our sins and miseries by the miracles of his mercies My aim is to retain and engage as Counsellors Advocates and Servients to this righteous cause yet without any other Fee then that of a good conscience in this world not only men of my own profession as Divines and Ministers but you â—s o that are either the Sages and Iudges or the Students and Practisers in the Laws because I look upon you as Masters of great Reason and no less careful I hope of true Religion best acquainted with the constitutions of this Church and Kingdom persons generally adorned with ingenuous education and good literature yea and which is more in vulgar eies and esteem with good estates Gentlemen related by birth or alliance or clients or acquaintance to the best Families and greatest affairs of the Nation you either fill the one or attend the other house of Parliament while no Bishop or other Clergie-man never so worthy is admitted to come there unless as a Supplicant or Delinquent your counsels and examples are not onely influentiall in your country retirements but also efficacious in all the Cities and Courts of England It is your custom and no less your wisdom and honor to keep to and plead for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Magna Charta fundamental Laws and ancient and excellent constitutions of this Church and Kingdom not therefore good because ancient but therefore ancient because they were judged and experimentally found by our wise and pious Progenitors to be very good yea best for this Church and State It becomes the freedom of your spirits and estates as Lawyers and Gentlemen however the poor Clergie are oft compelled to popular dependancie yea and some of them like leeches thrive best when they hang most upon the skins of people I say it becomes you to be the furthest of any men living from flattering or abetting any factius novelties or Fanatick Novellers in Church or State which you cannot do without greater sin and shame then other men because you have more knowledge of good and evil of Law and Iustice of Reason and Religion the guilt and burthen of other mens sins which are lead and deluded by your counsel or example must needs lie heavie upon your souls as well as ours of the Clergie when being their guides lights and oracles you or we prove their deceivers and seaucers Certainly if the poyson of some Lawyers teeth had not venomed the wounds which some Preachers tongues first gave to the life and welfare of this Church and Kingdom we had not run to such horrid ulcers such in veterate and incurable gangreens of disloyalty and irreligion of faction and confusion nor endured so various ridiculous and superfluous Tragedies which then began when Pulpits rang Aarons bels backward as to the Cause of God and Courts of judicature meanly conformed to the vilest lusts of men such as have given horror and astonishment to the modest part of mankind and which threatned except the Lord had been merciful to us to have tormented Kings and Parliaments and people of all degrees in the hell fire or Tophet of everlasting fewds factions and confusions under the specious name but most putid fallacy of Gods Cause the good cause and at last the good old cause though nothing was more vile and novel less ancient or more arrantly wicked for perjury perfidy Sacriledge and Regicide void of all fear of God or reverence of man contrary to the Word of God and Laws of that Nation A Cause the zealous Martyrs for which are only fit to be put in the Devilâ— Diptych or Calendar or in God Black book not in the Book of lifâ— Against all which presumptuo 〈…〉 imposures in Church and State You O worthy professors of the La 〈…〉 and of our reformed Religion aâ— well as we Preachers of the Gospelâ— have now all honorable and safâ— encouragement to oppose ouâ— selves under the protection of God and the King that both you a 〈…〉 Iudges and Iustices by the civil sword and we as Bishops and Presbyters by the spiritual sword may be as valiant for the honour and order of the established Religion and Laws of England for the ancient and excellent Government Regal and Episcopall of this Church and Kingdom as others have been impudently pragmatick to broach those novel errors most illegal injuries and high indignities which they brought upon us more by our own cowardize perhaps then their courage Let us dare as much to be Loyal and religious honest and orderly as others have dared to be false and base insolent and irregular injurious and sacrilegious They wanted not many black mouths vile tongues and libellous pens to plead for the Baalims which they set up meer Idols and Teraphims in Church and State which are now blessed be God cast out to the moles and bats O let not us for I would have no difference between your learned Tribe and ours let none of us who are most versed in God or mans Laws be wanting to the true Cause of our God and Saviour of our rightful King of our reformed Religion and of our famous Church in its Doctrine devotion discipline and Government In the cause of which all your and your posterities happiness are included Since then by the goodness of God the monstrous and many-shapen Dagons of our late Philistins and oppressors are now faln to the ground and broken off head hands and feet a meer fanatick stump let us turn Israelites unanimously set our selves as we have done to the welcome reception of his Majesty so to bring home with truth and peace honor and order joy and jubilation the Ark of God the Church of England restoring it to its place and adorning it with all the beauties of holiness worthy of the wisdom and piety munificence courage and honor of our Ancestors who were famous both for their loyaltie and Religion the fruits of whose care and constancie we enjoyed heretofore as men and Christians in a wel-reformed united and setled National Church till some men lost their wits and hearts their credits and consciences their sense of duty to their God and their King yea and their first love of our reformed Church and Religion for which our famous Forefathers had so notably pleaded not only in the Pulpits at the Bars but in prison also and at stakes when they were able to say with truth and comfort as the royall Martyr of admired memory did now dying That they thanked God they had a good Cause and a gracious God Certainly t is better thus to suffer for God cause inpietie justice patience and charitie then to prosper in the Devils with sacrilegious usurpation and injury this as a fire of thorns may blaze for a time but it will soon be extinguished the other carries the lawrells and
humanity and charity in all things that are morally and evangelically commanded us as men and as Christians in civil and religious societies 4. It is Causa unica catholica as to its integrality or completion but one and the same as to its main ends and proportions confined to the love of God and our neighbor uniform in all moral spiritual and essential forms of righteousness and true holiness however it hath had some different dispensations as to outward forms and variable ministrations which are still concentred in one true God in one Lord Jesus Christ in one Spirit and in one true faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 2. 5. It is a constant Cause not any admitting variations as to the main end means and measures of it It is indeed causa antiquissima the eldest as it is the concern of the Ancient of days affecting no novelty and abhorring all inconstancy as to the main and essentials of it change of circumstances customs and ceremonies in Religion which like leaves grow up and fall with time is nothing to the body and life of the tree which is still the same as the man is the same man though he may change his cloaths circumstances of Religion fall under providence and prudence of men but the substance of it ariseth from an eternal fountain of divine Wisdom Power and goodness carrying on all things to the infinite ocean of Gods glory by the various streams or derivations of his providence to mankind and specially to the Church of God in Truth in Justice and in Mercy as men either sincerely adhere to or maliciously oppose the Cause of God 6. It is every way causa amplissima nobilissima augustissima the most noble and ample cause containing in it the greatest concernments of Men Angels and God himself yea it is accurate in the least things essentially belonging to it as having nothing indeed small in itâ— nature yea and aggrandising all things even circumstantial which it contains in its large circumference of piety charity and decency even to the least ceremonious actions and words yea secret desires and thoughts as every little point in a great circle hath its great relations aspects and dimensions in reference to the center sphear and circumference whereto it stands related § Although this magnificence be true of the Cause of God in its mystical and moral grandeur yet its name and honor is not to be fixed or confined to much less inscribed on every partial and covenanting pretention every small Ceremony outward circumstances and petty opinion which are mutable dubious dark and disputable of which men may be ignorant or doubt or deny or differ without danger of salvation as to any unbelief or immorality with which weak Christians must not be perplexed nor entertained In these many times prejudices and presumptions of men do much mistake and run on the fallacy of Non causa pro causa crying things up or down either for or against the cause of God just as they interpret Prophesies in Scripture according to their own presumptions and passions which like Optick glasses do multiply or magnifie them in their fancies agreeable to their factions and interests wherein once engaged they may have such a pride obstinacy and ambition as affects to do and suffer much for their cause as they truly call it which is not Gods but their own There that old Maxim of Martyrdom is true Non poena sed causa facit martyrem No sufferings can transmute an ill Cause to the honor of martyrdom Mens private and petty causes like the small by as of a bowl do too often seek to over sway the great Cause of the great God which consists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in meats and drinks or any minute business and observation but in Righteousness Truth Peace and Holiness Outward ceremonies of Religion are but at sring or lace or pins or cloathes to the body or being of a man ornamental not essential accidental and occasional not substantial and necessary they may be changed without detriment according to that wisdom liberty charity and order which becomes the Church of Christ and the Cause of God they must not be cumbersom and uncomly as pins that scratch or run into the skin or as garments too strait-laced heavy and uneasie there must neither be such a nakedness and deformity nor such an affected pomp and variety as exposeth the Cause of God and true Religion to laughter and contempt as a matter of pageantry or penury § It argues men have less sight of the suns greater light when they much magnifie Nebulous stars or their own farthing candles or every glo-worm under a hedge yea the circumstances and ceremonies of Religion most fall off as the mantle from mens eager disputes and concerns for or against them by how much mens spirits with Eliah ascend highest to heaven § The Cause of God as to the majesty of its verity morality and charity hath in some ages suffered much eclipse as to its true lustre and grandeure by these films or clouds these motes or mists which have risen in men eyes otherways not bad or blind They are commonly but as flies of weak and buzzing Christians who are so easily catched and so long held in the cobwebs of ceremonious controversies which reach no further than the skiâ—â—â— and suburbs that is the circumstantials of Religion yet from these sparks good God how great fires have been kindled and continued in this Church As of old in that one dispute which was so eagerly in the Church about the time of celebrating Easter whether the fourteenth day of the moneth as the Easter Churches used or on the next Lords Day after Holy Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna when he came to Rome conformed to the custom of that Church in the first Century yet afterward Pope Victors passion excommunicated all the Eastern Churches upon that point which precipitancy Irâ—neâ—â— so justly reproved There are some innocent varieties in things indifferent which are admittable among Christians as among the Evangelists in the History of Christ who all adhere to the true cause of God serving not onely to exercise their charity and to shew the world that unity of the Spirit in the bond of Truth which they yet constantly hold but further to manifest to the world That Christian Religion is not a matter of policy and humane conspiracy but of divine verity in unity as to the main to which some variety in lesser matters is no prejudice but rather a confirmation as that resemblance which proclaims kindred in the different features of brethren who had one Father and Mother Certainly it had been happy as for all Christian Churches so for England if we had on all sides more minded the great things of Gods Cause and less troubled our selves about the nails and hairs of Religion they are commonly but small minds who make much ado about
fighting but by sober preaching and patient suffering This Spirit of glory was a riddle indeed and a new way to advance the Evangelical cause against the powerful oppositions found on all hands yet it was Gods way and prevailed by the power of his Word and the testimony of his Spirit of patience and glory which rested on them § As the first foundation stone of the Gospel or Church of Christ was laid in John Baptists and Christs blood so it was after builded up by St. Stephens St. James and their followers Then Christians like Parthians fought flying and prevailed by not resisting and were more then conquerors when they were most conquered the blood of Martyrs being the seed of the Church and their ashes as the compost ormendment of the world Fourthly It remains that I shew how God pleads his and his Churches Cause not always by miraculous and immediate instances but by the mediate instruments of his ordinary providence whom he stirs up to protect to favour to speak comfortably to his Sion that his warfare is finished that the days of refreshing are come such were some good or tollerable Kings among the Jews Asa Uzziah Hezekiah and Iosiah such was Constantine the Great and some other following Emperors that were Christian and orthodox too So since the Reformation God hath given specally in these British Churches Kings and Queens to be Nursing Fathers and mothers to true Religion Defenders of the true Faith and the Professors of it who had long ere this been martyred and burned butchered or massacred blown up and extirpated as Hereticks if the Romish Sea had not had bounds of national Laws and soveraign power set to it which said Hitherto and no further thou shalt go here thy proud and threatning waves shall be stopped I pray God we have not sinned away our defence and glory making breaches upon the banks of our Laws Government and Religion so wide as will let in at last that over-flowing scourge again upon us under the names of Liberty Toleration and Super-reformation Again God pleads his own cause as to true Religion by furnishing his Church First of the Jews with extraordinary Prophets such as was Moses Samuel Eliah Micah Isaiah Ieremiah Ezekiel Daniel and others till the Messiah came After the Apostles who were Master-builders God gave to his Christian Church such Heroes of learning zeal and courage as in all ages undertook all those Goliahs and sons of Anak who deâ—ied the host of God such of old were Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Cyprian Clemens the Cyrils the Basils Chrysostom Epiphanius the Gregories the great Athanasius St. Augustine St. Jerom St. Hilary Optatus Prosper and others during the heat of heathenish and heretical or schismatical persecution And this not singly onely but socially junctis viribus in Councils or Synods which were Ecclesiastical Parliaments either greater or lesser in several Diocesses or Provinces or National or Oecumenical of all the Christian world by their Pastors and Representatives these did mightily plead the cause of Christ against heretical novelties and schismatical partialities these kept the faith and peace of the true Church intire these guided gathered and healed the erring scattered and worried of the flock these by many hands made walls against the seas and mighty floods which the devil cast out of his mouth against the Woman cloathed with the sun the Church professing Christ Thus the famous Council of Nice so pleaded the cause of Christs Divinity that they crushed the Arrian Serpent in the egg and gave that cockatrice its deadly wound which it never recovered though it made a foul strugling a long time So the Council of Constantinople pleaded the cause of the Holy Ghost against the cavils of Macedonius So the Council of Ephesus pleaded the unity of Christs Person God and Man against Nestorius And the Council of Chalcedon the distinction of his Natures against Eutyches his confoundiug of them so in other cases as the cause of God and his Church required Councils were soveraign Physitians and applied excellent cordials till they came to be servile to the private causes lusts power and interests of men and less intent to the Word and Spirit of Christ as the first Council of Jerusalem was which ought to be the pattern of all after Synods And afterwards in the eclipse decline superstition and darkness of times in the Western Churches yet there were not wanting some that did still plead the cause of God as his witnesses against the Apostacies extravagancies and luxuries of the Romish tyranny and pride So was St. Bernard Nicolaus Clemangis Alvarus-Pelaegius Wickliff John Hus and Jerom of Prague our Lincolniensis Baleus and others Yea when God arose mightily to shake this Western world and to rack us off from our Monastick and Roman lees who can sufficiently muster up the armies of Worthies both abroad and at home of reverend Bishops and other learned Divines who have either stood in the gap with their arms or at the bar with their strong arguments pleading Gods cause by Scripture and antiquity by learned writings and holy lives against all oppositions I will name none because I will not seem partially silent to the merit of any This only I may without envy say none have exceeded the worthy Bishops and others of the Reformed Church of England who were and ever will be in impartial judgements esteemed among the first therein and the headmost ranks of Martyrs Confessors Reformers Preachers Disputers Writers and Livers while we were happy to enjoy such Fathers and such Sons of this Church as were worthy to enjoy those favours and Honors which this Nation heretofore grudged not to confer upon them and abhorred to take from them and their Episcopal Order which was excellently martialled and imployed by worthy Bishops as Jewel Usher Andrews Davenant Morton Prideaux Hall White Bilson Babington and others Also by Hooker Willet Sutliff Rogers and others of the Presbyterian subordination § T is true they were all men and so might have their infirmities more or less but they were such men of might and weight and of valour and renown that with all the grains of allowance they far out-weighed all that popular stuff or pomp of either learning or vertue gifts or graces Scholarship or Saintship which hath swelled their adversaries rather then filled them with any real truth or ingenuom worth comparable to them And however now indeed the Reformed Church and Religion of England doth look like an Army that hath been so harrased and routed as it hath lost most of its gallant commanders which gave life and courage and skill to the whole Protestant party and the cause of the Reformed Religion yet we must not despair but that God will return in mercy to us if once our lives and manners be but as reformed as our doctrine was this needeth not though the other do reforming § And because there will be failers and infirmities on the best
neglect the second in equity and charity So to contend against superstition in Gods worship as to overthrow the order and decency which ought to be solemnly observed in it or that duty and obedience we owe to those which are in Church or State called Fathers and to whom we stand obliged by the first Commandment with promise We must not so plead or urge our duty to God as to skip over our duty to our neighbour nor so plead against Idolatry as to indulge Sacri ledge or against Adultery as to acquit Murther or so cry up Religion or Reformation as to encourage Rebellion and Sedition Noâ— may we so inculcate and insist on one duty as to omit and slight others to be meer Euchites for prayer or Acoits for hearing or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pragmaticks impertinently and irregularly busie in Church and State as to neglect the Sacraments or to be so eager in dispute for Truth even the minores veritates as to forget the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great things of God in which the Kingdoms of the Gospel consists so magnifying faith that we omit good works and crying down ceremonies to the overthrow of all orderly and uniform Devotion to cast out Commandments Lords Prayer Creed and all settled Liturgy out of the Church 4. The Cause of God must be pleaded by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holily justly and lawfully according to our place and duty after a righteous manner also peaceably and orderly Nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 violently rudely and injuriously This is the first thing God requires of us to do justice and then to shew mercy and walk humbly with him Extravagant motions mar the cause of God and rather prejudice it then any way plead it We must not commit Robbery to do Sacrifice nor lye or oppress upon Gods account We must not be so far partial to Gods Cause as to do evil that good may come thereby this is to turn the staff of Moses into a Serpent The great care of the Apostles was to have Mysteries of Religion made good by Moralities Cardinal Poole well expressed that those would best understand the eleven first Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans which are full of high mysteries and disputes who did most practice the five last which exhort to holy life teaching such as believed well to do all things well that the Cause and Name of God might not be evil spoken of We must not violate the good laws of civil Societies under pretence to exalt the Law of God nor run Church and State into confusion to set up Reformation of either in seditious ways Gods Cause needs not the Devils engines either plead it as becomes it or let it alone It will support it self without the rash hand of Uzzah to stay it If thou canst not plead it actively thou mayest do it passively and much more to purpose as primitive Christians did then by any inordinate activity No man saith the Apostle that striveth is crowned unless he strive lawfully Secundum leges Athleticas such as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Institutor and Umpire had appointed 5. Gods Cause must be pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with moderation discretion and calmness so as not to suffer any transports of passion and precipitancy to over sway us to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excess or indecency We must not so plead against superstition as to reproach or weaken true Religion or against humane corruptions as to vacate and voyd Divine institutions or against the abuse of things as to abolish the good use of them to have no Our Father because we would have no Ave Marys in our Prayers § Reformation must not run to the ruine of Church or the riot of State as if a Physitian should destroy the body with the disease purging away the spirits with ill humors such as their former methods seem to be who will have no Bishops according to the primitive and Catholique order of the Church because some Bishops in after times had their fauls and frailties or no Ministers because some of them have been too blame or no Sacraments because some may be unworthy receivers These as immoderations and madnesses become not those that undertake to plead Gods Cause It is like theirs who would starve themselves because some have been gluttons or destroy all Vines because of some mens drunkenness or have no singing because some may sing out of tune it is an ordinary error in men to suffer their pleas to pass from the cause to the persons and so from the persons to the cause which transports of envy and anger arise from the overboyling of mens passions which wasts their judgments and make them instead of snuffing dim candles to put them quite out an error that I fear hath been too prevalent in some mens spirits and practises among us whose meaning and intentions possibly might be good or at least not so bad as the event Sixthly Valiantly and couragiously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the generosity and magnanimity of a true Christian spirit which is rather good then great or therefore great because good not by a military robusâ—ness and boysterous forwardness or childish pertinacy that resolves to maintain any cause they once ingage for but such a cool and sober valour as first hath made a just conquest of our selves as to all irregular passions inordinate lusts oblique designes that being listed in Christs spiritual Militia and having given our names to him we may put on that spiritual armour which becomes a Christian in truth faith love zeal patience justice sobriety sanctity and constancy for these are the solid grounds and sure guides of a Christians courage in Gods cause whose sacrifice might not be offered with strange fire or strange incense nor may his cause be pleaded by brutish valour or by turbulent passions For that were like baking the shewbread of the sanctuary with mans dung which the Prophet Ezekiel so much abhorred and deprecated Seventhly Gods cause must be pleaded by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming Christ and Christians who are persons under the severest restraints of any men with modesty gravity humility and due respects to our betters and superiors beâ—itting their place authority and dignity So the ancient Martyrs and other confessors in their Apologies petitions and Remonstrances as Iustin Martyr Tertullian and others presented to the Emperors or Senates owned them with due honour and payed that reverence to them which their dignity required and Gods word either commanded or permitted They never used rayling accusations against them nor spake evil of dignities to set a gloss and soyl on their good cause no not in their greatest agonies in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they were dying and suffering as well as disputing preaching or writing they blessed those that cursed them
threatned every day besides the bitter feuds and factions the divisions and subdivisions which like fire have seised on the Temple and House of God this so famous Church and our reformed religion heretofore so blessed with piety and peace gifts and graces with the beauty and holiness and the crown of double honour against all which God hath written bitter things and powred contempt § These frowns and fightings do all testifie to our faces that God hath a controversie with the land against Church and State that he pleads as an adversary against Court and City and Country against all estates and degrees of men Among whom such an evil spirit is risen as between Abimeleck and the men of Sichem that there is no peace to him that goes out or comes in we are left as sheep without a sheepherd as a ship in a storme without a Pilot as Orphanes without a Father and as Widows without an Husband in a desolate deplorable self-destroying condition Of which abysse or ocean of troubles we see no bounds or bottom being condemned to an arbitrary subjection to a partial monopoly of power and to a meer military protection in which not Philosophers as Plato wished but Souldiers and men of blood must be our Governours and our exactors our Protectors Who keep us quiet that they may fleece us and fleece us that they may keep us in subjection of whom we shall find that true which is said of Physitians many of them are but a further disease to a Patient qui medice sic qui militariter vivit misere vivit It is but a sad life which must be maintained by dayly leeches and bloodlettings by laneings and searings and cuttings of some parts of the body which are not so unsound as those that are the executioners of them § Certainly God is too wise and too indulgent a Physitian to use so long and so great evacuations purgations and corrosives to this body politique if there were not many foul and marbose or malignant humours in it the Heathens were wont in publique and long Calamities after they had tried allways to appease their angry Gods by supplications and sacrifices and yet were never the better to send to some famous Oracle for its direction Do not presume to be your Oracle but let Gods word be it this will give you a clear and unambiguous answer why the Lord hath done all this evil against us why he thus implacably pleads against this Church and State which formerly were his cheif favorites and darlings â—â— the signets or bracelets on his hand and arme as the vine which himself had planted and watered and wonderful preserved which is now become a scorn and shame to it self no less then an hissing and astonishment to all the Nations round about As the Lord pleads against his Vine of the Jewish Church and State appealing to the men of Judah and Jerusalem to judge between him and his vine so may it be said in our case What could the Lord have done more for us then he did and what could we have done less for his cause than we have done or more against it How were we planted and watered and weeded and fenced and fortified and loaded with the choisest blessings of heaven and earth What was there wanting in England to make us happy but holy humble and thankful hearts with sutable lives the good grapes which God expected instead of which Oh what sower grapes did we bring forth to God and man O how weary were we of Gods blessings as if God had cloyed and overladen us How like the nansueating Iews we lothed this Manna the reformed religion with all holy institutions and Christian Sacraments and decent devotions and orderly Government How neglected how prophaned how despised were these by many wanton Christians how many scornfully washt off their infant Baptism by a Fanatick and Schismatick novelty of Anabaptisme contrary to the Analogy of faith and practise of all Churches in all ages How have many vomited up their former Lords Suppers and as if they had surfited heretofore have fasted from them these twice seven years How impatient have they been of such Pastors and Preachers such Bishops and Presbyters as told them the truth sought to restrain those inordinate libertys which they wickedly affected how hateful have these Michajahs been to those that loved to be flattered in sin how have many gnashed their teeth against such Stephens as have sowed no pillows under their elbows Yea how over zealous have we been in pleading our own secular and civil causes to much civil War and blood pretending to preserve our liberty till we overtook our slavery and really intending on all sides to get places of profit and preferments to our selves to feather our nests and set up our selves on high above all that was called Gods among us What vast sums have been expended to make us miserable on the other side O how cold careless formal and indifferent have we been as to God's great Cause for the good of souls the true Preaching of the Gospel the due administration of Religion the preservation of our happy reformation for the order honour government support and just incouragement of able and faithful Ministers in this Church which are and ever will be wanting in many places of this Nation where there is as yet no provender for the Ox that should tread out the Corn Hence St. Austin observed Quod Christus non capit capit fiscuâ— what Sacriledge cetaines from Christ is wasted for no purpose § We have with great clamour pretended Gods Cause Religion and reformation on all sides but this on all sides is worsted abased deformed discountenanced diminished and by many evil eyes sought to be wholy improverished and starved God pleads against us for our hypocrisie and pretensions for our Sacrilegious invasions and confusions which rob God of his honour Christ of his right and homage the Church of its portion and patrimony Ministers of their maintenance The nation of its liberality the dead of their bequeathings or legacies true Religion of its support and all sorts of people of that piety charity and hospitality which was intended them by those holy honest and legal donations against which no man pleads that hath not a mind to purloyn them or to have a good peniworth of them at the Devils Markeâ— God pleads against us for our trusting too much to the arme of flesh and prophaning Gods Cause with evil means with sinister policies and practises bringing to Gods â—ltar the lame and lean and defective and deformed Sacrifices of parsimonious and sordid spirits which are not propitiations but pollutions which the Majesty of God is so far from accepting that he abhors and casts as dung in the deceivers face God is not to be mocked § God pleads against our unthankefulness as to God so to man our discontented humors and impatience that knew
such a people as we are whose iniquities have forfeited former blessings the sins of peace made way for war and war for domestick confusion and these for foraign invasions and this for Romish superstitions and Papal usurpations for there want not factors at home and abroad who are earnest sticklers for a Cause which they call the Catholick Cause what it means as to our civil and religious concern as to the honor of this Nation and the prosperity or peace or liberty of the Reformed Religion you cannot be such strangers in the Christian world as not to consider How long as Eliah said to the Israelites will you halt between two opinions between two Causes nay now they are multiplied to twenty if the Reformed Church and Religion which God so blessed with temporal and spiritual blessings with excellent gifts and graces to your forefathers in the last century of Englands honor and happiness if it be Gods Cause grounded on his word sealed by his Spirit and conform to the best of primitive Churches let us plead and assert this against all other for it will be our wisdom and our strength our honor our peace and our safety as it was to our forefathers for the greatest part of an hundred years while they joyned Loyalty to Religion and thought nothing further from Reformation then Rebellion against lawful Magistrates and their lawful power The Second Question you may make to me is What is this Cause of God which we are now to plead in England or what is there left for us to do I Answer as Joseph to his brethren this do and live First retain righteous principles as to civil Justice and true Religion in your own judgements and in the Court of your consciences that you be not warped in them so as by any events or successes to call evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness Though you have not opportunity or power or courage at present to plead according to your principles yet turn not from them comply not with such as are false unjust irreligious though it be so evil a time that prudence adviseth and piety indulgeth you silence yet time may come when you may plead for Gods Cause according to your principles Mean time as by your speaking you do not strengthen the hands of an evill cause and evill doers so by your silence and reserve you do cast a just reproach and discountenance upon them there is yet hope of a good Cause if the Court and Judge be not corrupted Notwithstanding that some evil pleaders cry it down Secondly As you have power and opportunity given you dare to own and plead for Gods Cause 1. In your own brests and consciences every grace and vertue every good thought and motion is Gods plead them against thy own lusts and the Devils temptations 2. In thy Family and relations plead Gods Cause against lying swearing idleness prophaness c. Thirdly In civil affairs plead the cause of Justice against any injury and oppression the poorest mans cause if just is Gods yea and the cause of a wicked mans so far as it is just is Gods Specially in causes of publick Justice there thou must not be wanting to speak out by pleading when called to it by petitioning and praying for Justice yea and acting for it according to what is just and lawful but a just Cause must not be set as the Ark on the cart of injustice we must not so plead Gods cause as to injure Cesars nor Cesars as to injure Gods Fourthly Plead the cause of true Religion of our reformed Religion of the Church of England and its excellent constitutions against the Pseudo Catholick Church of Rome the cause of Christs merits and intercession against all mixtures humane or Angelick the cause of the Scriptures against all Apocryphal traditions and fanatick illuminations which are false illusions and not divine inspirations The cause of the Lords Supper in its compleatness against the subductions and seductions of the Mass which loseth the bread to all and steals away the wine from the Laity the cause of the worship of God in a known tongue to edification against Latin service which few understand so as to say Amen to what is prayed So the cause of chast and honorable mariage against scorched and affected coelebacy Further Plead as for the verity so for the unity of the Reformed Religion and this Church against those lice and locusts those noxious and noysom vermine of factions which have so gnawed and defaceâ— this Church the reformed religion and which seek to deprive your children of one and your selves of both the holy Sacraments Plead for the Churches patrimony for the support and honor of an able learned authoritative and worthy Ministry in due order and government of it against those sacrilegious spirits who with Judas grudge all as wast that is by a grateful charity and devout superfluity poured on Christ for the honor of his name and the encouragement of his Ministers according to the general tenor of Gods word not only permiting but commanding us by personal or national donations to honor God with our substance Plead for our due ordination subordination as Ministers that we may not by novel projects of levelling confusion plebeian Anarchy in the Church be driven from conformity with the ancient Fathers and the order and universal government of all Christian Churches as wel as our own from our first being Christian If you think us able or worthy to take care of your souls eternal welfare and to administer to you spiritual things Do not think us worthy to be condemned to live to dye and to be buried even yet alive with the meanest of the people since by what I have now discoursed to you it may appear that we are neither ignorant of nor enemies to the true cause of God Jesus Christ as our blind and bitter enemies do maliciously pretend Of which cause I have in all my discourse not spoken my own private sense only but the sense of my Fathers Brethren of all true Bishops and Presbyters and of the whole Church of England Lastly Since I hope you are as willing as able to plead Gods cause and since I know you pray that God would plead your and your posterities cause in Church and State that he would make yours his own cause Keep I beseech you always in your souls this holy resolution not to be wanting in your place to your power to assert Gods cause corde et ore consilio exemplo prece praxi atramento sanguine In which behalf you cannot form your thoughts to a better tune and words then Luther did when he undertook that great Cause of religious reformation Aut propugnemus causam Dei aut succumbamus cum causa Dei Either let us stand by the cause of God or let us fall with
Christians are figs and grapes and olives that are not to be gathered from the bryars and thorns of the present world in which whoever will live godly must expect and patiently suffer but not deserve persecution A good Cause must not think it strange to finde bad entertainment on earth where it is a pilgrim and stranger Times are seldom so good as really to favour Gods Cause however the policies and lusts of men their pride licentiousness covetousness and ambition may seem to flatter it so far as suits with their present interests which are most what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-seeking partial and inordinate ut in vitis sic in causis homines spes improbas alunt as in other things so in religion men have their impipious ambitions and perverse hopes § Whereas the Cause of God is a self denying cause as to all ungodliness and worldly lusts teaching us to live contentedly righteously soberly and godly in all things § So that these large flags and streamers which some men of the Roman or other factions of later editions hang out to the vulgar as to the potency and prosperity of their Cause argue no more Gods cause to be with them or they with it then the fine feathers in fools caps argue them to have wit or wisdom in their heads coppar may be thus stamped and guilded which will not endure the fiery trial as true gold will and such is the Cause of God ever pure and precious just and holy though it be oppressed and persecuted as a jewel it loseth not its native lustre and worth though it be ill set or cast into the dirt To conclude this general description of Gods Cause this may be its Emblem It is as the tree of life in the Pardise of God the root of it is the Truth of God in his word the sap is holiness or true sanctity the leaf is charity without dissimulation the rinde or bark is order and good discipline in the Church also Equity and civil Justice in the State the lesser and lower fruit is every grace and good work growing in us or from us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prime and topmost cluster is Gods glory and the salvation of sinful souls through his free grace in Jesus Christ Having shewed the general tokens or marks of Gods Cause I now proceed by way of Induction and instance to set forth the particulars in which it consists 1. The grand Cause of God is his own glory this is the first mover great conservator and last consummator of all things which the divine Wisdom contrives or his Patience permits or his Power performs or his Justice Goodness and Mercy moderates or his Word commands For this cause he hath made and manageth all things in heaven and earth that the glory of his being may appear to men and Angels who are with all humility gratitude adoration service and admiration to return the just recognition and praises due to the divine Majesty for all his essential excellencies and his gracious emanations every Attribute and Perfection of God is by them to be owned with due respect of Faith Fear Love Duty Adoration and Admiration thus his Power Wisdom Justice Mercy Immensity Eternity Veracity Immutability c. are to be considered by men and Angels with suitable affections reflecting from them to God And among Christians the unity of the Divine Nature together with the Trinity of the sacred Persons or relations distinguished by the names of Father Son and Holy Spirit must be ever owned celebrated and adored according to the wonted Doxology or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Orthodox Churches This Cause God hath in all ages pleaded as his own royal concern against Atheists Polytheists Idolaters Antitrinitarians Anthropomorphites against prophane and proud livers who live as if there were no God above them also against vain and false swearers who blaspheme the name of God and bring a curse on their souls families and countries against presumptuous wicked doers who are their own gods and worshippers both self-Idols and self-Idolaters This is the first most immediate cause or concern of the Divine Nature and Glory that God be owned and none beside him or comparable to him This will be made good against wicked men and Devils by the pleas and principles of right Reason by the sensible beauty order harmony proportion usefulness and constancy of Gods Works in the world by his signal providences in judgement or mercy by his preservation of the Scriptures and the Church with true Religion by the predictions fulfilled and lastly by the terrors convictions and presages of mens consciences which are that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little God in our own brests as Mar. Aurelius calls it 2. The next great concern or Cause of God is that of the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Word and coessential Son of God the blessed Messiah the brightness of the divine glory and express image of the Father It is not enough now to beleive in God as Creator and Preserver of men but we must also beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer of beleiving penitent and obedient sinners by the mercy love and free grace of God This is the beloved Son of God whom we must hear the onely name under heaven by which we may be saved he that doth not obediently beleive the testimony of Prophets and Apostles of Miracles and Angels of Martyrs and Confessors of the Church Catholick and an enlightned conscience in this great Cause of the Messias even the crucified Jesus is under peremptory condemnation while such § Of this great and mysterious Cause God gave the world an account of old under types figures sacrifices and many ceremonies as shadows and resemblances under the Law but now the Substance and Son of Righteousness is come and hath fully taught his Church the will of God and the work such sinners have to do which is to repent and beleive in him whom the Father hath sent who so beleiveth not makes God a lyar and is already condemned to which must be added to compleat the cause of the sacred Trinity the belief and adoration of the Holy Ghost as God one with the Father and the Son in the Divine essence and glory though a distinct person as to the emanation from and relation to both ◠The Cause of God extends to the true Church of God as an holy corporation or society of such as do truely believe inwardly or outwardly and profess with Order and Charity the word worship and service of the true God with our Lord Jesus and the blessed Spirit according to the rule of the Scripture ◠God owns himself in Jesus Christ as the Father friend head and Husband of the Church such as fight against that fight against God and afflict the apple of his eye God is concerned that the foundation of his Church which is