any thing to tye and knit them together But Christ there teacheth us to call God our Father and by Gods Providence and fatherly Goodness we are incorporated as it were and kneaded together that by softness of disposition by friendly communication by mutual praying we may transfuse our selves one into another and receive from others into our selves And in this we place the Communion of Saints Secondly in the participation of those Priviledges and Charters which Christ hath granted and the Spirit sealed calling us to the same faith baptizing us in the same laver leading us by the same rule filling us with the same grace sealing to us the same pardon upholding us with the same hope Lastly in those Offices and Duties which Christ hath made common which God requires of his Church Ubi communis metus gaudium labor Where my Fear watcheth not only for my self but stands centinel for others my Sorrow drops not down for my own sins alone but for the sins of my brethren my Joy is full with others joy and my Devotion is importunate and restless for the whole Church I cry aloud for my brother and his prayers are the echo of my cry We are all joyned together in this word NOSTER when we call God Our Father Nazianzene recording the Martyrdome of Cyprian not the Bishop but Deacon of Antioch crys out as in an ecstasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am with him in the martyrdome I triumph in his bloud which was shed for Christ I am carried to heaven in the same fiery chariot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let others fight and overcome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am one of the same body of the same family of the same Church and the victory and crown is mine This is it which Tertullian may perhaps mean when he saith Non praeteritur ecclesia In our prayers we do not pass-by the Church of Christ Nay every man when he prays when he says his Pater noster is as it is said of general Counsels a kind of representative Church for he prays in personâ ecclesiae in the person of the whole Church Nor can one pray for himself but he must pray for others also Though the Church be scattered in its members throughout all the parts of the world yet as our eyes meet every day in looking upon the same Sun and every night upon the same Moon and Stars so our hearts meet in the same God even in our Father and our prayers are sent up for the Church and the Church for every man If I shut my brother out of my prayers I do as bad as excommunicate him nay worse For this private excommunication is more terrible then the Church hath any For though she shut-out the notorious sinner from the Church yet she leaves him a room in her devotions and poureth forth prayers for the most despicable member she hath even for that member which she hath cut off When the sinner contemns admonition she strikes him virga pastorali with her Pastoral rod rather to direct than destroy him But to deny our prayers to our brother is to strike him virgâ ferreâ with a rod of iron and as much as in us lyes to break him to pieces How were it to be wisht that we rightly understood this one article of our Faith The Communion of Saints or but the very first words of our Pater noster But it fares with us in our devotion as it did with Euphrainor the Painter in his art who when he had spent his best skill on Neptune came short and failed in the drawing of Jupiter Our Love is so chain'd to our selves that she cannot reach forth a hand to others She is active and vocal at home but hath the cramp and cannot breathe for the welfare of our brethren impetu cogitationis in nobis ipsis consumpto having consumed and spent her self at home To speak truth our Creed hath devoured our Pater noster and Faith hath shut Charity out of doors As we believe for our selves so we pray for our selves It is my Christ and My virtue and My kingdom My riches and My eloquent man and My preacher and My Father too Our Father is a word of compass and latitude and cannot find room in our narrow breasts But we little remember that if it be not Ours it cannot be Mine For by appropriating the graces of God we lose all right and title to them Wo be to him who is alone saith the Wise-man for when he falls he Eccl. 4. 10. cannot help himself and hath neither God nor Man to help him We may say perhaps that we know well enough that God is our Father and we would not meet in publick but to pray for the whole world Indeed there is nothing sooner said we may do it in a Pater-noster-while But tell me Canst thou pray for him whom thy Malice hath set up as a mark Canst thou include his name in thy prayers which thou makest thy daily bread at thy table and whose disgrace thou feedest on more than thy meat Can prayers and curses and reviling proceed out of the same mouth St. James asks the James 3. 10. question and doth not answer it only concludes My brethren these things ought not to be Ought not so to be Nay cannot so be For he that prays without Charity doth but intreat God to deny him yea doth force him to punish him Our union to the Father is shewn by our communion with one another And when I see this backwardness in communion I must needs doubt of the union which requires not only a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we be of the same mind with Christ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also that we have the same will They who are in charity imitate Christ and bare one anothers burdens as feelingly as their own A great priviledge it is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a child of the Church as Justine Martyr speaks to have the Church for our Mother and God for our Father a great prerogative if we were willing to conceive it to be of the Communion of Saints But I know not how on one side it is scarce thought upon and on the other made advantage of for politick ends Some shrink it up into too narrow a room and others wire-draw it to make it plyable to fit well to their Ambition and Pride So that as the Oratour spake of the word Tyrannus and the like Malis moribus henesta nomina perdidimus so may we of the Church and Catholick and communion of Saints We have spoiled good words with our bad manners and rob them of their proper signification to make them lackey it to our private humors What the Church is and what the Communion of Saints is open to every eye even of the dullest understanding But instead of practising what we know we love aetatem in tyllubis ferere to spend our time in nothing but words to cast a mist where there
is light and to make that obscure which is plain and easie of it self That hath befallen Divinity which the Stoick complained of in Philosophy Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes Divinity was not so perplext and sullen a thing till Ambition and Faction made her so The very Hereticks and Schismaticks saith St. Augustine Catholicam nihil aliud quà m Catholicam vocant When they speak with Pagans they call the Catholick Church that Society of men which are divided from all the world besides by the profession of Christ This very word Our Father is enough to express it But by contentious spirits it hath been made a matter of business and the business of the Will And in these times if we will follow private humors in those Meanders and Labyrinths which they make we may sooner go to heaven then find the Church Which like the Cameleon is drawn and shaped out by every phansie like unto it self Sometimes it is a Body but nec caput nec pedes it must have neither head nor feet Sometimes it is a Spirit rather than a Body so invisible we cannot see it Sometimes it is visible alone and sometimes invisible And so we may ecclesiam in ecclesia quaerere seek for the Church even in the Church it self Who knows not what the Church is The subject is plain and easie But where men walk several wayes the discourse must need be rugged and uneven They who would bring in an Anarchy and make all the members equal are droven to this shift also to keep the Church out of sight And they who would raise a Monarchy are forced to set it upon a hill So that in talking so much of that company of children which make the Church we have almost lost the Father nay the Pater Noster and can but hardly consent that God should be a Father to us both For to say so is an error and mistake of charity No how can God be our Father when the Church is not our Mother How can Schismaticks and Rebels against the Church have their fellowship and communion with the Saints How can he be a Christian who is not a Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Poet Mothers were wont to call up Hobgoblings and Cyclops to still and silence their children And what is all this but powder without shot What are these terms of Church and Catholick and Communion as the Church of Rome urgeth them but words and noyse We can say Our Father for all this and joyn with them in prayer too if they will pray as Christ taught We communicate with them whether they will or no as far as they communicate in the truth But if the Church of Rome tender us errors for truth if she obtrude upon us a multitude of things for fundamentals which are only the inventions of men and no way concern our Faith here non fugamur sed fugimus we did not stay till she thrust us out but we were bound to separate our selves from partaking of those gross impieties which proceeded from the Father of lyes and not from our Father which is in heaven That she sent thunder after us and drove us out by excommunication when we were gone may argue want of charity in her but makes no impression of hurt upon us For what prejudice can come unto us by her excommunicating us whose duty it was to make haste and leave her unless you will say that that souldier did a doughty deed who cut off the legg of a man who was dead before I am sure we are the children of God by the surer side for we lay claim by the Father when they so much talk of their Mother the Church that they have forgotten their Father who alone begets us with the word of truth Quot palestrae opinionum quot propagines quaestionum Hence what a wrestling in opinions hath there been what propagations and succession of quaestions Where our Church was when we separated We need answer but this That it was there where it was For they who have God to their Father may be sure they have the Church to their Mother Nor can any who find the truth and embrace it miss of the Church This is one devise ready at hand to fright and amaze those who have not maturity of understanding to take heed of their deceit The other is like unto it and a most the same the Communion of Saints which is here implyed in these first words of our Pater Noster In both which vacua causarum implent ineptiis When their cause is so hollow and empty that it sounds and betrayes it self at the very first touch they fill it up with chaff They make it fuel for Purgatory They draw it to the Invocation of Saints They make it as a Patent for their sale of Pardons They give it strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints and to conveigh their Merits to us on earth They temper it to that heat to draw up the bloud of Martyrs and the Works of Supererogating Christians into the treasury of the Church and then shower them down in Pardons and Indulgences So that he that reads them and weighs their proofs would wonder that men of great name for learning should publish such trash and make it saleable and more that any man should be so simple as to buy at their market It is say they the general property of the Church that one member must be helped by another Therefore one member may suffer punishment for another Again One man may bear anothers burden Therefore he may bear his brothers sin It were even as good an argument to say He is my Brother Therefore he is my Mediatour Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We Schismaticks dare not pretend to such subtilty and wit We are taught to distinguish between the duties of Charity and the office of Mediation The unction we have from the Head alone but the Members may anoint one another with that oyl of Charity Though I cannot suffer for my brother yet I may bear for him even bear his burden Though I cannot merit for him I may work for him Though I cannot satisfie for him I may pray for him Though there be no profit in my dust yet there may be in my memory in the memory of my conversation my counsel my example In this duty high and low rich and poor learned and ignorant all are equal All have one Father who hears the low as well as the high the poor as well as the rich and the ideot as well as the great clerk Nihil iniquius fide si tantùm in eruditos caderet Faith and Religion were the unjustest things in the world if no place were a fit habitation for them but the breast of a Rabbi or a Potentate No God is our Father and every man claims an equal title to him Licet parva rati portum subire In the smallest bark and weakest vessel we may sail
is that increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Oh what a shole of Christians did this Love send forth when the Heathen could make the observation and proclaim it See how these Christians love one another Then did they fill their villages their temples their armies And if we look upon their number they might as Tertullian observes have easily swallowed up their enemies in victory When St. Peter that Fisher of men caught so many together even three thousand souls it was Love that gathered them in and Acts 2. 41. it was Love that kept them in For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they continued daily with v. 46. one accord in the temple They were of one heart and of one soul And what Acts 4. 32. is it that hath made such a dearth and scarcity of sincere and truly pious Christians but our Debate and bitter Malice the greatest enemy Christianity hath For by biting and devouring one another we have well-near consumed one another nay well-near consumed Religion it self And if a Heathen should stand by he could not but wonder and make no other observation then this See how the Christians hale one another The Heathen of old could find out nothing in the Christians but their name to accuse them but we of this aged and corrupted world have scarce any thing but the name of Christians to commend us Hoc Ithacus velit This is that which our enemies have long expected and to effect which they have spent their nights their dayes have laid out their leasure their business their watchings their very sleep and now have seen that fire which they did help to kindle by the light of which they may stretch forth their curtains and enlarge their territories and dominions every day in Christendome For as the Devil is tormented as Optatus speaks with the peace of the Brethren when they are joyned together vinculo fidei glutine charitatis by the bond and cement of Faith and Love so is he enlivened and put into hopes of success in his attempts by the mutual ruptures and jealousies which the Brethren the members of the Church foment and cherish amongst themselves When by the defection of Jeroboam Judah and Israel were rent asunder then came Shishak and troubled Jerusalem And 2 Chron. 12. 2. therefore let us love the Brotherhood as the Apostle exhorts For an enemy is never more dangerous to an army then when it is disordered by mutiny and division If it be at peace with it self it hath half conquered the enemy When the Church begins to be torn by Schisms and Contentions then every blast is ready to shake and shatter it but when it is in unity within it self then it is built up strong and fair as the tower of David No Heresie no Enemy no Jesuite no Devil no not the Gates of Hell can prevail against us whilst we are fast joyned together rooted and built-up and establisht in love No principalities nor powers no height nor depth no creature can come near to touch us whilst we keep within the circle and compass which Love maketh whilst we continue Brethren Thus then we find both Pleasure and Profit in being Brethren But now in the third and last place there is a kind of Necessity to force us And the Love that keeps us so is necessary not only as a virtue or quality without which we ought not to be but as a virtue without which we cannot be what we profess For loose but this bond once unjoynt this goodly frame shake but the Brotherhood and we are fallen from heaven spoiled of all the riches of the Gospel deprived of all the priviledges and prerogatives of Christians defeated of all those glorious promises shook from the hope of immortality and eternal life without love and then without God in this world left naked and destitute stript of our inheritance having title to no place but that where the revolting Angels and malicious Spirits are shut up For as that is true which we find in the Gloss on the Canon Law Habe Charitatem fac quod vis Do it in love and do what thou wilt Thy Zeal shall be as the fire in the bush burning but not consuming thy Reproofs shall be balm thy Justice physick thy Wounds kisses thy Tears as the dew of heaven thy Joy the joy of Angels all thy Works fit to be put in the register of God But if once thou forsake the Brotherhood if once thou shake hands with Love then whatsoever thou doest must needs be ill done because thou doest it If thou speak with the tongue of Men and Angels it is but noise if thou give all thy goods to the poor it is but loss and that which with Love is martyrdom without it may be murder Thy Zeal will be rage thy Reproofs swords thy Justice gall and wormwood thy Wounds fatal thy Tears the dropping of a crocodile thy Joy madness and thy Works sit for nothing but the fire The Gospel to thee will be as killing as the Law and the Bloud of Christ cry as loud for vengeance as that of Abel or of any Brother whom thou hast persecuted and wounded with injuries and reproach Let us not deceive our selves with vain pretences and ridiculous excuses with empty and airy phansies which can conceive and shape out Love when it is dead in the heart which can revile and love strike and love kill and love For a truth it is and a sad truth a truth which may bore the ears of many of us Christians and strike us to the ground as Peters voice did Ananias And St. John hath set his seal to it He that loveth not his Brother and not to 1 John 3. 14. love him with St. John is to hate him abideth in death And again He He that hateth his brother is a murderer alluding to our Saviours reformation of the Law which even made Anger murder What degree of Murder soever he means such a Murderer he is that hath not eternal life abiding in him The want of this Love being a sure mark of a child of wrath and of one carrying his hell about with him whithersoever he goes being himself a Tophet burning with fire and brimstone with Hatred and Malice and Fury having nothing between him and that everlasting Hell but a ruinous wall his body of flesh which will moulder away and fall down within a span of time Oh how should this still sound in our ears as that Rise and come unto judgment did in St. Hieroms who could not sleep for it Oh that the sound of this would make us not to leave our sleep but to leave our gall our venome our Malice which may peradventure bite our Brothers heel wound him in his person in his estate or good name but will most certainly sting us unto death Let then this sad nay this behoofful this glorious this Necessity prevail with us and let us not so trifle with
Galatians For indeed a great folly it is when God hath plainly revealed his will when he hath concluded all under sin and St. Paul proves both against Jew and Gentile that all have sinned when God is pleased to justifie us freely by his Grace then to bring in our inherent Righteousness to joyn with Grace as Rom. 3. 24. if we were unwilling to be too far ingaged to God's Mercy It is true indeed every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good and God so far esteems them holy and good He taketh notice of his own graces in his children He registers the Patience of Job the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David A Cup of cold water a Mite flung into his treasury shall have its reward But yet all the good works of all the Saints in the world cannot satisfie for the breach of the Law no more then a Traytor can redeem his Treason against the King by giving an alms or which is more by dying for his Country The point is plain and easie delivered in terminis in Scripture urged proved and strongly confirmed by St. Paul almost in every Epistle that all is from Grace Et cum de voluntate Dei constat omnis de merito quaestio vana est When we know Gods will what dispute we any longer of Merit But such is our ingratitude and curiosity that we will not take Gods Grace as we find it we will not take Gods gifts in the building but we beat and work them out into what form we please we come and stamp them and be the piece what mettal it will we set our image and superscription upon it God in Scripture sets these two terms Grace and Works at extream opposition but by a trick of wit we have learnt to work them into one piece making a good work meritorious because it is of Grace as Pelagius of old confounded Nature and Grace because even Nature it self is a Grace A flat contradiction For if it be of grace how doth it merit unless we will say that the Gift deserves something of the Giver or that a charitable man is indebted to a beggar for the penny and almes which he gave him I have said enough to clear the point which hath been too much obscured with needless disputes I will not say with Calvine Diabolica illa ars quae Scholasticae nomen obtinet that devilish art of wrangling which we call School-Divinity hath put out the light of this truth nor with Martin Luther Theologia Scholastica est mater ignorantiae that Scholastical disputations are the mother of ignorance but as Pliny spake of the Graecians Cùm gens ista literas suis dedisset omnia corrupit they have corrupted the Truth and put her in such a dress that we cannot know her they have shut up this doctrine in perplexed obscurity which before was plain and easie to the understanding For what hath been observed of the study of Philosophy is true also in the pursuit of Divine knowledge When men made Wisdome the only aim and end of their studies then was Philosophy referred to its proper end but when they used it only to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or delight their will then Philosophy lost her complexion and strength and degenerated into folly then Diogenes got him a tub and Epicurus a swarm of Atomes then the Stoicks brought in their Decrees and Paradoxes then were there mille familiarum nomina discrimina so many sects that it is not easie to name them and some there were who did shew the diversity of their opinions by outward signs alone by Weeping and Laughing So in Divinity we find it that Truth never suffered tell she was made a matter of wit and ambition tell out of private respects Policy was made a moderator and stater of questions then for one Justification we had two nay three then meritum de condigno and de congruo Merits of Condignity and Congruity of Worthiness and Fitness were brought in to help at a dead lift And that they may appear more glorious tinguntur sanguine Christi pains have been taken to dye them over with the bloud of Christ and in these red colours they are presented which they borrowed from art and not from Scripture Sure I am in St. Pauls phrase this is to cast away the grace of God and to evacuate the death of Christ this is against the nature of Grace which blended with humane Satisfaction and Merit is no more Grace this is against the evidence of the Prophet Habakkuk often repeated by St. Paul The Just shall live by faith or as some render it The Just by faith shall live And if their Divinity on their death-bed be not better then that in their Schools I fear me there will be a Frustrà For thus to receive the grace of God is to deny it or rather to despise it and to despise it I think I may boldly say is to receive it in vain Beloved if it were but for this alone for this derogation from the Grace of God yet even for this alone might we justifie our separation from the Church of Rome and send home the loud imputations of Heresie and Schism to her own gates where first they were conceived For where false conclusions are obtruded for truths or truths corrupted with false additions there to consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism but Christian animosity They rather are guilty of the schism who made it necessary It was a weak and foolish speech of Bosius in Tully who professed that if his friend Gracchus would bid he would set fire on the Capitol Christianity admits no such friendship If that Church will commend to us works of piety we will hear with reverence if enjoyn us to faste on Friday or observe Lent-fast we condemn it not we will faste with her we will pray with her we will be reverent in Gods house with her but if she bid us set fire on the Capitol on this main and capital point of Religion for so I may call it arcem Capitolium religionis here to obey were to be a Schismatick to separate our selves from the truth and comforts of the Gospel and from Christ himself Non tanti est tibi ut placeam perire Better it is that our opposers should be angry then we perish But we leave this vain receiving and proceed to the other no less dangerous then this when we receive the grace of God only as a Pardon and not as a Law For who is not willing to be justified by Christ To be freed from the Law to be delivered from the Law to be dead to the Law it is musick to every ear and a continual feast Evangelical righteousness we are glad to hear of and we could wish perhaps that there were no other mentioned Lex ligat Enact a law and we are in fetters Nay lex occidit The Law is a killing
Charity takes the bill and sets down quickly and writes Fifty And if thy vessels be quite empty she cancels the bill and teareth the Indenture But it is as true too that Charity begins at home and he that provides not for his own family is worse than an Infidel These precepts of our Saviour non consistunt in puncto are not to be read in that narrow compass they lye but have their certain latitude Let my Charity shine forth like the Day but not to darken the lustre of Justice Let her stretch out her hand to the furthest but not to reach at the Sword of the Magistrate And as they mistake our Saviour so would they take upon them to teach him A trick the world hath long since got To be angry with Gods Providence To teach his Wisdom To guide his Hand and as he in Photius To put their own shape upon the Deity and to confine and limit God to their own phansie If that be thwarted the most blessed Peace is but tumult the most gracious Government tyranny and Order it self disorderly Why should Christ become man say some He might have satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his bare naked Divinity If he will take flesh and redeem he may do that and not satisfie say others And saith the Cardinal God had not dealt discreetly if he had not establish'd a visible and infallible a universal Catholick and yet particular Church And if God be Judge of all men and Deus ultionum what need then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these counsel-tables and seats of judgment and the dread and horror of an earthly tribunal What use of a Sword in the hand of a Magistrate I have grappled you see with a mean adversary but I found him in my way and could not well balk him I leave him to that censure of the Philosophers on those who should deny either Worship to God or Love to Parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He should smart under the Authority he denies and be confuted with the edge of that Sword he questions But we shall meet with Gyants indeed Not a Sword you see but they snatch at If they meet with two at once Ecce duo gladij both theirs And they take them and put them into the hand of that Man of pride and he fights against Authority Sword and Bearer King and Caesar Christ and all They read these words as we do And this Sword is secular Power with them too But then this Power is a subordinate and dependent Power this Sword is a sword at will as we say a sword which like Josephs brethrens sheaves to his sheaf must bow and make obeysance to the high Priests Sword And the Magistrate is left palsy-strucken and the Sword tottering in his hand a breath a frown of the supreme Head disarms him But oh the artifice and slight of Satan The Conclusion is He must be disarmed but the first Proposition is He beareth his sword For by these degrees and approaches they reach at it The First step is He beareth the sword and therefore he must be able to wield it and therefore he must have some Master of defence the Pope forsooth to instruct him and therefore he must guide his arme by his direction and strike as he prescribes If he misplace his blow he must be corrected if he be incorrigible he must be disarmed There is the last Syllogismus verè destructivus a bloudy destructive Syllogisme Inauguration is the Medium Deposition inferred This is a Chain to bind Kings in and the first link is Power Here is a Building ruin'd by the Foundation which should sustain it and the Magistrate disabled by his Commission Thus hath the yielding Devotion and forward Piety of some Christian Emperours warmed and animated the Bishops of Rome and made them active to question that Power which once did shelter them and then the Sword became their port and argument which was before their terror For look back and behold them temporibus malis when persecution raged they were no Sword-men then You might see them in another posture a borer in their eyes a whip on their backs no Sword but what was drencht in their own bloud and their Crown was Martyrdom Or look and behold S. Paul here pleading the right of this Magistrate upholding that Sword which he was to feel adoring that Power he sunk under and bowing to Majesty when the throne was Nero's It is the gloss of a Jesuite upon the Apostle but he glosseth too upon that Gloss Ecclesia non subvertit Regna The Ephod and the Robe suit well The Church thwarts not secular Power nor is one sword drawn to break another but both together glitter in the face of Disobedience to strengthen the pillars of a Kingdom Let then both swords be drawn together the one to pierce through the heart the other to drink the Luke 35. 2. bloud of the wicked the one to cut out those causarias partes animae those Deut. 32. maims and bruises of the soul the other to cut off the ungodly from the earth the one to hang over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that laboratory and work-house of the soul that no Babel be erected there no curious piece of guile shap'd there no refuse silver come there no works of iniquity set up there but then Vengeance lying at the door and the other sword ready if they come forth and appear to abolish them to pull down that Babel to break those carved pieces to dash those plots to demolish these works The one to guide us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in things pertaining to God the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in matters of this present life We have now put the Sword into the Magistrates hand It is now time to proceed and place the NON FRUSTRA upon the sword Having setled Authority in its proper subject our next task must make good that it is not there in vain Our second part Those actions which are irregular and swarve from the rule the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odious frivolous actions to no purpose Nec quid nec quare No reason can be given why they should be done Adultery to night is pleasure to morrow my disease Murder is now my thirst anon my melancholy Here is a Frustrà indeed I am more vain than Vanity it self But the Quare the Wherefore to me and you have silenced me But those things which are laid and driven to a right end will admit a Quare Wherefore the sword Wherefore Authority The Apostle is ready and meets you with an answer That we may lead a quiet and 1 Tim. 2. 2. peaceable life in all godliness and honesty That every man may sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree that the poor man may keep his lamb and the jawbone of the oppressor be broken that Peace may shadow the Common-wealth and Plenty crown it There is scarce
one Quare resolved with so many Answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil This is not a matter of jest but earnest For would you have divers Families drawn into one body politick This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very bond and tye of Society Would have the Laws kept This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a watch a guard set upon the Laws Nay would you have any Laws at all This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law-giver For as Julian calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Child of Justice so may we call it the child of Authority For as Authority nurseth and defendeth and strengthneth it so it was the Midwife which brought it forth and the Mother too which conceived it When it was in semine in principiis when it lay hid in the lap of the Law natural Authority framed and shaped and limb'd it gave it voice and taught it to speak its own language but more audibly declared expounded amplified it and was its interpreter Will you have a Church Authority gathers it Would you have the Church continue so a Church still and not fall asunder into Schisms nor moulder into Sects nor crumble into Conventicles Authority is the juncture the cement the Contignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pale the fence the wall of the Church keeping it so that neither the Wolf break in nor the Sheep get out that neither Heresie undermine the bulwarks without nor Schisme raise a mutinie within Such an accord and sympathy there is between the Secular and Spiritual Sword between the Church and body Politick that if the one be sick the other complains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Socrates at the same time If the Common-wealth swell into tumors and seditions you may see the marks and impressions thereof in the Church and if the Church be ulcerous and impostumate you may see the symptomes and indications in the body Politick So that now we may well render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non sine causa There is good cause good reason that a Sword should be held up that Authority be established And to this Non frustrà we may add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority is not onely not in vain but profitable And we may now ask not onely Quare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely Wherefore but What profit is there And we can answer and resolve with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much every manner of way For let Cities talk of Charters and Tradesmen of gain let Scholars speak of learning and Noble-men of honour let the Church sing of peace to the Common-wealth and the Common-wealth echo it back again to the Church Attribute these to what you will this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is all This is Isaiahs nayle in a sure place on which hand both Laws and Church and Common-wealth If you but stir it you endanger if you pluck it out and remove it you batter all And this argument ab utili quite shuts up Frustrà 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is profitable is good and that which is good is not in vain But to step one degree further To this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Necessity to Profit Profit may lead me Necessity chaineth me I run and meet with Profit but I am forced and pluckt by Necessity And if it be not onely well it should be so but be so as that it cannot be otherwise then is it not in vain It not Profit yet Necessity excludes Frustrà And necessary Authority is not so much on Gods part as on ours For as Aquinas speaks of the natural Temple Propter Deum non oportuit Templum fieri God had no need of a Temple made with hands but Man had need that God should have one so God could have redeemed us by his own immediate absolute Soveraignty he could have govern'd us without a Sword but it was not good for Man to be so govern'd We were gone away from God and set our selves at such a distance that it was not good he should come too nigh us And therefore St. Basil calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his love to Man that as he had drawn Heaven as a curtain and made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the veile of his Divine Majesty so in all his operations and proceedings upon Man he is still Deus sub velo God under a veile hidden but yet seen in dark characters but read silent and yet heard not toucht but felt still creating the world by conserving it I say Necessity hath put the Sword into the hand For God appears through other veils by other Mediums but we hide the face and will not see that light which flasheth in our eyes He is first sub velo naturae under the veile of natural impressions speaking to us by that Law which Tertullian calls legem naturalem and naturam legalem and speaking in us but at a distance preventing us with anticipations dropping on us and leaving in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those common notions and practick principles To love God hate evil To worship God and the like domi nascuntur To do as I would be done to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is my contemporary my domestick born and bred with me I received it with my first breath and it will live in me though I attempt to strangle it it will live with me though I would chase it away Non iniquitas delebit saith Augustine These things are written with the finger of God and Sin it self cannot blot them out But though I cannot blot them out I may enterline them with false glosses though I cannot race them out I may deface them My Envy may drop on them my Malice blur them and my Self-love misplace them On this foundation of Innocence I may build in bloud on this ground-work of Justice I may set up Oppression I may draw false consequences from these true principles I must do good I do so to my self when I wrong my neighbour I must shun evil I think I have done that when I run from goodness Like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristotle those stiff and stubborn defendants to what is first proposed we easily yield assent but at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we hunt-out tricks and evasions We are all Sophisters but it is to cheat and delude our selves And now if we read these principles in the worlds corrupt edition if unjust man may be the Scholiast thus they lye see and read them INJURIAM FECISSE VIRTUTIS EST to do injury is vertue To oppress is power Craft is police Murder is valour Theft is frugality The greatest Wisdom is not to be wise to salvation And therefore in the second place God presents himself again under another Medium sub velo legis scriptae He would be read as it were in tables of stone And in these tables he writes and promulges his Law Moral Will this
will be as ready to blaspheme God nay in slandring his brother he doth blaspheme his Father which is in Heaven He that taketh his brother by the throat rather then his humour should be crossed if God were within reach would pluck him out of heaven And thus we grind him in our Oppression we rob him by our Sacriledge we wound him by our Cruelty we pollute him with our Lust If he make Laws we make it our strength to break them If he raise one to the pinnacle of state and leave us in the dust we quarrel at his Justice If he establish Government we desire change And though he build his Church and found it upon himself yet we are ready with axes and hammers and all the power we have to demolish it When he hath a controversy with us we hold a controversy with him and nothing pleaseth us but the work of our own hands Men never fight against God till the thunderbolt is in his hand ready to fall on them And now we may descry those peculiar Enemies and Haters of God whom the Prophet here prays against even those who are enemies to the Truth and the peace of the Church I told you that this prayer was uttered by Moses at the removing of the Ark. When the Ark was lifted up on the Levites shoulders the voice and acclamamation was EXSURGAT DOMINUS Let the Lord arise And therefore we may observe that Moses Num. 10. and David did call the very Ark it self God not that they were so idolatrous as to make a wooden God but that they knew the Ark to be the surest testimony of Gods presence here on earth So that God's enemies are those who are enemies to the Ark to the Church of God and to the peace of the Church And let men flatter themselves as they please with this or that fair pretence they shall certainly learn this lesson in the end That they may as well fight against God himself as against the Church That neither they nor the gates of Hell can prevail against it To draw this yet closer to our purpose the Ark was a type of the Church nay by the Apostles quotation of this Psalm the words though they are verified in both yet are more applyable to the Church then the Ark. And though we do not call the Church God yet we shall find that God is married unto her that he is ready to hide her under his wing that he is jealous of the least touch the least breath that comes toward her to hurt her that he that toucheth her toucheth the apple of his eye When the Church complains to God of her enemies God also complains as if he himself suffered persecution When Saul breathed forth threatnings and slaughters against the Disciples of the Lord he presently hears a voice Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And that voice was the voice of God which struck him to the ground When Acts 9. and Acts 7. 51. St. Stephen tells the stiff-necked Jews that they alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost he presently in the next verse gives the reason Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted So that to persecute the Prophets that blessed Protomartyr may make the Commentary is to resist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fall cross with the Holy Ghost with God himself Touch not mine anointed Psal 105. 19. saith God and do my Prophets no harm Touch them not for they are mine And whatsoever you do unto one of them is done unto me is true in the bad sense as well as in the good For certainly God cannot be toucht any other way Our Blasphemys our Uncleanness or Rebellions though they fight against him yet touch him not but when wicked men conspire against the Truth and the professors of it when their Swords are drawn not onely to touch but to strike them through then up God riseth and bestirs himself as if he were in danger to be toucht and hurt We know all that the Devil worketh against mankind is done out of malice to God himself Prius votum Daemonis fuit Deum esse alterum nè Deus esset His first attempt was to be God his second that there should be no God at all to destroy that Majesty which he could not atchieve Which since it is impossible for him to compass all his devises and machinations are nullum sinere ex portione Dei esse as the Father speaks to rob God of his inheritance to strike at his heart whose knee bows unto him to persecute them that sincerely worship him and to make all men like unto himself enemies to God To this end he sets upon the Ark he levels his forces against the Church of Christ he sends forth his emissaries his instruments his Apostles as Synesius calls them to undermine it without and raises mutinies within Not a heresie but he hammers it not a schisme but he raiseth it not a sword but he draws it not a rebellion but he beats up the drum INIMICI EJUS Gods enemies are the Devil and his complices who say of Jerusalem the place of his rest and delight down with it down with it even to the very Psal 137 7. ground We know now where to rank his disciples our enemies this day who have already shaken the pillars of one Kingdom and if God rise not up will ruine all Whose religion is rebellion and whose faith is faction whom nothing can quiet but a Desunt vires a want of strength Poor souls they are willing to suffer for the holy cause they are obedient to Government loyal to their Prince true to their Country that is They are very willing to suffer any thing when they can do nothing They will not strike a stroke not they not indeed when Authority is too strong for them and hath bound them hand and foot But if some wished opportunity unshackle them if these cords fall from them and they are once loose then these dead men arise and stand up upon their feet and make up an exceeding great army They were before as Ezekiels dry Bones very dry but when some Ezek. 37. 2. fair opportunity as a gale of wind hath breathed upon them behold they live Live I and come to the field and fight against that Authority under which they lay before as quietly as if they had been dead And where can we rank these but amongst the enemies of God They saw the Ark in its resting place the Church reformed and flourishing setled and establisht by the religious care of three glorious Princes They beheld their holy Father the Pope every day more and more in disgrace amongst us and I am half perswaded had it not been for the turbulent and irregular zeal of some few amongst us who think they never love Religion till they toy and play the wantons with it his Honour had ere this lain in the dust For when were the skirts of that Church more discover'd when
Civis non est suus sed civitatis A Citizen is not to consider himself a citizen only in that capacity as able to do well for himself and to fill his own coffers but in the latitude to be useful to the whole Body politick and to every part and member of it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou seest another thou seest thy self Shall not the light of the Gospel then shew us that Christianus non est suus sed Ecclesiae that a Christians Charity in respect of its diffusive operation must be as Catholick as the Church For it is in the Church as in Pythagoras his family which he shaped and framed out to his Lute There is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of the parts as it were a set number of strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composition and joyning them together For the members of the Church are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned and coupled together by every joynt saith the Apostle even by that bond of Charity which is copulatrix virtus as the Father calls it that virtue which couples all together And then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and every string being toucht in its right place and order begets a harmony And this word NOSTER our Bread comprehends all these For thus not only that bread which we buy with our labor but all the bread in the world is ours all the riches of the world are ours and withal all the miseries all the afflictions all the necessities of our brethren are ours Oh how heavenly an harmony is heard from that charity which joyneth high and low rich and poor in a sweet concord and concent This must needs delight the ears of the holy Angels and of God himself Caesarius in one of his Homilies giveth this reason why God made one rich and another poor That the poor might prove the rich mans faith and charity and the rich be enriched by the poor mans poverty and that when to prove the rich by the poor all the wealth in the world cannot purchase him that hath it one quiet thought his compassion and bounty to the poor might entitle him to the joyes of heaven Care and Industry without this Fellow-feeling bring in the things of the world upon us but the true profit of them is in enjoying using and bestowing them Those may be as servants to bring them in but Charity is as an instructer to teach us how to lay them out and makes them profitable It is a greater part of wisdom wisely to dispend them when we have them than to get them at first Many there are in the world like Lollius in Paterculus pecuniae quà m benefaciendi cupidiones many that know how to gather but few that know how to use many that make no end of heaping up wealth but never bethink themselves how to employ it As one told Annibal that he knew how to conquer but not how to use the victory Gold and silver by lying idly by us gather rust as St. James tells us chap. 5. 3. which rust eats out our soul But Charity abditae terris inimica lamnae washes off the rust of it and rubbeth it bright by using it The world I know makes it profit enough to have wealth but that other profit which comes by expense and laying out it can hardly be brought to learn Ours it is if we have it and like the Grave or the barren Womb we never say It is enough but when we have it we know no other language than this saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have it not I will not give it We can be content to hear that Christianity shall be profitable to us but that Christianity should make us profitable to others that it should cost us any thing to this we are as deaf as the Adder It was the same Fathers observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know many saith he that can with some ease be brought to fast to pray to lament and mourn for their sins to perform all parts of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that piety which will cost them nothing but hardly shall you draw them to that part of piety which doth require but the cost of a half-peny And this is a◠epidemical disease at this day We who have the oversight of you in Christ are witnesses of your labour of frequenting of prayers of hearing nay of thirsting after Sermons All this is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are very free of it because it costs you nothing But how would you be our glory and joy and crown of rejoycing if we might a little more understand that part of piety which holds all in capite and makes it yours by anointing the Head in his Members I know not how we keep our accounts but it is easie to observe that the Scripture seldom speaks of laying up For this is a thing which of our selves we are too ready to practise Dimittas licet paedagogum There needs no pains to teach where Scholars are so willing to learn But Scripture oft-times and earnestly deals with us concerning the laying our riches out as being a hard lesson and long we are a learning it Did I call it a hard lesson Nay it seems a Paradox to the most a meer speculation The Philosopher where he shews us the wayes of Alienation brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving as well as selling Not only when we make sale of our goods but traditione dominium rerum amittimus saith the Lawyer when we give them we lose all right and title to them As that which we sell so that which we give is not ours But Christs Law teacheth us that not Keeping so much as Giving maketh our goods ours And not only To take away but Not to give is furtum interpretativum saith Alexander of Hales When God comes to be the Interpreter it will be plain theft For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every covetous person is a thief because he lays up that which was given him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dispense and scatter abroad This is the end why Bread why Riches are given us that we may give to them that are in need And this is the way to make most of them For as Tertullian saith Christian Charity minuendo res auget recondit erogando dum amittit acquirit it lays up by laying out and gaineth by loosing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who ever became poor by giving saith the Apostate St. Ambrose Offic. Lib. 2. parallels that of Julian Scio plerosque sacerdotes quò plus obtulerunt plus abundasse I have known many Bishops who the more they did offer the more they did abound And if we read their Books who have written the Lives of the Fathers they will furnish us with many particulars and some perhaps which will not easily gain our belief No doubt God often rewardeth Charity with temporal blessings but what are these