the thought of ever returning that obedience which was but matter of courtship or of courtesie not of duty or of necessity and moreover he made Priests of the lowest of the people that by their false doctrine the people might still be encouraged in their state-heresie to defie their allegiance whilst he to make sure work was adding thereto a church-heresie to defie their conscience what a fair pretence was here what a foul intention first he findes fault with their grievances v. 4. thy father made our yoke grievous then becomes their head in the Rebellion v. 20. is made king over all Israel and at last changes their Religion and makes two calves v. 28. was this a delivering of their bodies to damn their souls a saving their estates to lose their consciences but yet no good is to be done till the Priests be in too and because the old ones will not consent new ones must be made that will never yet was there a sedition in the State without a schism in the Church the people first forsaking their obedience then not enduring them whose duty it is to reprove their disobedience thus there was a general Impudence Unthankfulness Impenitency both in the people and in the Priests of Israel before their final destruction which makes the Prophet say and what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5. 31. that is what will you do in the end that you will make or in the end of the sin and what will you do in the end that I shall make or in the end of the sinner the end that you will make will be to pass from contention to sedition from sedition to rebellion from rebellion to impenitency and hardness of heart to think you do God service in advising with the devils instruments for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15. 23. and witchcraft cannot but advise with the devil either in himself or in his adherents the end that I shall make of it will be your temporal destruction here your eternal demnation hereafter and both according to the rule of that justice which though you may dally I may not dispence with for you have been faulty in your temporal obedience towards your superiouâ—s in throwing away your allegiance and so are guilty of temporal destruction having cast off those whom I appointed to govern and to protect you and you have been faulty in your eternal obedience toward me in throwing away my commandments so are guilty of eternal damnation having cast out that conscience which I placed in your beasts to check and to admonish you that you might repent and be saved And now we see a full and satisfactory reason why God so destroyed his own chosen people the Jews as he never destroyed any other nation for he destroyed Aegypt but for one generation but Israel he hath destroyed for many generations Gath and Askelon were so laid waste as not to have one house left standing by another but onely Jerusalem was so laid waste as not to have one stone left lying upon another the reason is given by the Spirit of God Psal. 73. 26. Lo they that for sake thee shall perish thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee Ecce qui elongant se à te peribunt behold they that put themselves far from thee shall perish he saith not behold they that sin against thee shall perish for then all the world should be destroyed but behold they that go far from thee he that goeth far from God is a sinner but it follows not he that is a sinner goes far from God that belongs onely to such a sinner as delights in his distance from God regards not the offers of reconciliation and is resolved not to come near him which is the perverse resolution of shameless apostates men that were once so near God as to be of his communion but were soon weary of his company and therefore now so depart and separate from him as to rejoyce in their separation and this appears from the ensuing words Perdes omnes qui scortantur à te thou wilt destroy all them that go a whoring from thee which is a sin that none can commit but onely a wife which first separates from her husband in her affection then in her conversation and at last cleaves to another man so was it with the Church of the Jews the Spouse of God she did first forsake internal communion with God by Faith and Love then external communion by holiness and obedience till at last she revolted to other gods and accordingly she is thus reproved by the Prophets for playing the harlot with many lovers for polluting the land with her whoredomes and committing adultery with stones and with stocks Jer. 3. 1 2 9. this brought desolation upon that Church a desolation as remarkable as had been the apostasie there 's an Ecce belongs to both Behold they forsake and behold they perish Lo they that forsake thee shall perish none can properly forsake God but he that once had some interest in him and possession of him this the heathen never had but onely Israel wherefore justice requires that they should perish with a greater confusion then the heathen because for a greater sin that is to say for a greater contempt for a more abominable unthankfulness and for a more unpardonable impenitency and as for those that repented and yet were destroyed they cannot but say their sins were greater then their sufferings and being destroyed onely temporally when they might justly have been destroyed eternally they cannot but say Gods mercy was greater then their sins Thus we have weakly vindicated Gods Justice both in general and in particular and if we have insisted too long upon that vindication yet sure it is onely too long as to the theme but not too long as to our times wherein we have seen those severe proceedings of Gods Justice as would almost make us cast off the hopes of Mercy but that there is sometimes the greatest mercy in that justice which destroys temporally that it may spare eternally and therefore we do must and will beleeve that God doth punish us here that he may spare us hereafter beseeching him also to spare those whom yet he doth not punish And this same justice as it is in God himself so is it also in his service the true Religion and that so essentially that 't is impossible for an unjust man to be truly religious for he that will not give man his due will not give God his due nay indeed he cannot give God his due whose commandment he breaks and whose authority he despises in not giving it to man It is the Apostles argument 1 S. Iohn 4. 20. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen for indeed true charity is so kinde as not to seek
courage in regard of Gods goodness who hath promised salvation to those that sanctifie him in their hearts by good resolutions and in their mouthes by good professions and in their lives by a good conversation and it fills them with constancy in regard of Gods truth and faithfulness who cannot but perform his promise This is the Tenure of a true Catholick he holds both his Religion and Salvation upon certainty not upon conjecture his Religion he holds upon the certainty of Gods most holy word for nothing else can furnish his mouth with a satisfactory answer to silence much less with a sufficient reason to convince his adversary and his Salvation he holds upon the certainty of Gods most faithfull promise for nothing else can furnish his heart with comfort or establish it with courage to satisfie and content himself and agreeable to this as far as concerns the certainty of Religion upon which alone is founded the certainty of salvation is Vincentius Lirinensis his description of a true Catholick Ille verus germanus Catholicus est qui divinae Religioni Catholicae sidei nihil praeponit non hominis cujusquam Autoritatem non Amorem non Ingenium non Philosophiam non Eloquentiam sed haec cuncta despiciens in fide stans permanens amplectitur quicquid universaliter Antiquitas Ecclesiam Catholicam tenuisse cognoverit He is a true and genuine Catholick who prefers nothing above divine Religion and the Catholick faith not the Authority of any man not Love not Wit not Philosophy not Eloquence but despising all these and standing fast in the faith doth embrace whatever he knows was universally and anciently held by the Catholick Church From this description it is easie to gather who are the true Catholicks viz. those Christians First Who in their Religion prefer causes above persons who pretend not to infallible Doctours but make sure of an infallible doctrine who look after Gods not mans Authority as the foundation of their faith for else they cannot stand so fast in it as to despise the Authority Love Wit Philosophy Eloquence of man in comparison of the Oracles of God Secondly Who in their communion prefer persons above themselves that is Gods Trustees above their own humours regard not any novelty or singularity but make much of antiquity and universality or in a word those who are immoveable in the Catholick Truth that they may persist in the true Christian Religion and who are obedient to the Catholick Church that they may persist in the true Christian communion Accordingly my business in this Treatise shall be to shew First The certainty of Religion in its substance that notwithstanding all our present impieties on all hands men may know when they have the true Christian Religion Secondly The certainty of Religion in its exercise that notwithstanding all our present inconstancies men may know when they have the true Christian Communion and when this Certainty of Religion both in its substance and exercise is compassed and atchieved which is the work then the certainty of salvation will be an undeniable consequent which is the reward of good Christians But till I come to my preaching I think it needfull to give my self to praying for though we may get the knowledge of Religion by preaching yet we cannot get the certainty much less the comfort of that knowledge but by praying so ill a course have those Divines taken of late to make this people gain the certainty of their Religion who have turned all praying into preaching for he that prays what the congregation knows not doth rather preach then pray as â—o his congregation for they can onely hear â—s judges they cannot joyn as Communicants in his prayer well he may teach them to pray after him but he cannot cause them to pray with him for though they may wish yet they cannot pray but in the assurance of faith and they cannot have the assurance of faith upon uncertainty and there is nothing but uncertainty in ignorance the ignorance of intention disposition and an erring direction of him that prays and the ignorance not onely of the substance and nature but also of the scope and drifts of his prayer If any faith can be exercised here it must needs be wholly implicite such a faith as we justly blame in the Papists and therefore most unjustly force upon Protestants a faith that hath no particular evidence of what it is to do and therefore can have no particular assurance of what it doth But whilest I have fallen upon others prayers I have almost forgot mine own God of his infinite mercy look upon us once more shew us the light of his countenance that we seeing our new building is upon the sand which is never the surer for being cemented with bloud may return again unto the Rock our Saviour Christ the onely foundation of our souls that is the onely way to make atonement for our impieties and finding the want of the Master builders or most artificial workmen may return also to his Church which also is built on that foundation for that is the best if not the onely way to get a remedy for our uncertainties that so coming to the infallible certainty of our Religion both in its substance and in its exercise we may also come to the most comfortable certainty of our salvation and from the certainty pass to the enjoyment from the assurance pass to the inheritance thereof through the Authour and Finisher both of our Religion and of our salvation our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This being the main scope of this small treatise ought to be the fervent prayer of its Authour who knoweth this lesson is not to be learned by recommending his book to you but by recommending your souls to God for 't is not all the preaching in the world though the whole world should turn preachers not onely with swords in their hands but also with Authority in their mouthes and with grace in their hearts I say it is not all the preaching in the world can bring you to this saving knowledge of Christ and of your self but onely praying and since you will not abide your Church to pray you may be the better contented to let his reviled Ministers continue and increase their prayers for you because you have the greater need though the lesser ability and power to pray truly and heartily for your self as either praying without Christs intercession or praying against his word but sure praying without Christs Communion because praying without if not against his Church 'T is hard to be a wilfull Separarist from your Church and not to be thus peccant in your prayers but you are all for preaching Christ whilest I am rather for praying him that is for such sound and set prayers as by their matter assure me of his intercession and by their form assure me of his communion and I am sure that with Mary I have chosen the better part though
offend many of those that manifestly oppose the truth and immortally injure their brethren by turning them out of the road of salvation to look after some new by-paths no less doubtfull then perilous for if St. Paul did wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9. 3. then none that takes upon him St. Pauls calling but is bound to have so much of St. Pauls zeal as to think the salvation of souls his greatest blessing and to make it his chiefest aim and he that doth the one will certainly do the other and consequently not regard the causless displeasure of many if he may take the right course to save but one and without doubt this doctrine doth immediately tend to the salvation of all which adviseth men to take heed of hypocrisie in professing Religion and of apostacy in renouncing it or of schisme in receding from it for schisme is a particular apostacy even as a apostacy is a general schisme For the onely way to be assured of our future communion with God in happiness is to be assured of our present communion with God in holiness and we cannot be assured of communion with the Father of lights unless we walk as children of the light It is in effect St. Iohns argumentation 1 Epist. c. 1. v. 5 6 7. He that saith he hath communion with God must walk in the light But all we that profess our selves Christians do say we have communion with God in and by our Saviour Christ Therefore we must all walk in the light We that do profess our selves Christians as we do say that we have communion or fellowship one with another so we do much more say that we have communion with God not inviting men to our civil but to our Christian communion and unless we make good that saying we cannot make good our own Christian profession for he that hath communion with Christ hath communion with the Son of God and he that hath the Son hath the Father also 1 Joh. 2. 23. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father therefore Turks and Infidels and Antitrinitarians do not worship the same God with us Orthodox Christians but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also therefore Orthodox Christians in having Christ are sure they have communion with God For although these latter words He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also be not in the Greek originals either of Greek or Latine Church for which cause they are by our Interpreters inserted in different characters from the text who did not desire to follow Beza where Beza did not follow the Church yet they are in the Vulgar Latine and are owned by Clemens of Alexandria in his comment upon this Epistle as it is recorded in Bibliothecâ Patrum and also by the Syrus Interpres and indeed are in effect owned by the Spirit of God himself for that they are virtually included in the former words by the rule of Contrariety or Opposition for by the same reason that whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father it is most undoubtedly true that whosoever confesseth the Son hath the Father therefore all our labour must be that we may have the Son for in having him we are sure to have the Father And this is the grand doctrine of all the New Testament this is the main Gospel-truth that the Apostles maintained against all sorts of gainsayers in their time and they have left us their writings that we should also maintain it unto the worlds end That the Christian Religion is the only way to eternal salvation This their doctrine was strongly opposed in their days by four sorts of men 1. By the Gentiles not yet converted for they still maintained their heathenisme 2. By the Jews not yet converted for they still maintained their Judaisme 3. By the Jews not fully converted for they still maintained a mixture of Judaisme with Christianity they mingled together the Jewish and the Christian Religion 4. By the Christians converted but withal partly perverted for they brought in untrue professions and ungodly practises into their Christianity they corrupted and depraved the Christian Religion and the Apostles were accordingly very carefull as to confute these heresies so also to confirm and establish the contrary truth whence it is that all their writings are wholly taken up either in those confutations or in this confirmation For though the truth it felf is but one yet the controversies concerning it were no less then four and the Apostles thought it necessary not only to establish the truth in it self that it might appear truth but also to establish it in our hearts that it might appear truth to us that is truth without controversie not only a mystery of Godliness but also a manifest and confessed mystery 1. Tim. 3. 16. Wherefore it will not be amiss for us to see the state of the several Controversies that so we may the more clearly see the more firmly embrace the more constantly profess the truth The state of the first Controversie which the Apostles had with the Gentiles consisted of these two questions First whether there were a life everlasting to be looked for after this life Secondly whether that life everlasting were to be obtained by continuing in the idolatry of the heathen or by turning to the Religion of the Christians And in both these questions the truth of the Christian Religion is declared or rather demonstrated against the heathenish superstition out of the principles of natural reason and that truth summ'd up by St. Paul 1 Thes. 1. 9 10. How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come There is a resurrection from the dead therefore the soul dies not with the body but lives eternally and this eternal life is not to be gotten by serving Idols but by serving the living and true God and there is no serving him but by waiting for his Son from heaven Thus was the Christian Religion justified against Heathenisme which afforded the first Controversie The state of the second Controversie which the Apostles had with the Jews not converted consisted but of this one Question Whether eternal life and salvation was to be obtained by the Jewish or by the Christian Religion And we finde the Apostles still proving out of the Old Testament the Ground of the Jews Religion and so acknowledged by themselves without the least doubt or contradiction that salvation was not to be had by Moses but by Christ so S. Peter in his several Sermons Acts 2. and 3. and 4. Christus Messias that Christ was the Messias the Saviour of the world is the subject of them all This he proves Acts 2. for that he had given the holy Ghost and was risen from the dead and both his proofs are out of the Old
already towards us in its causes and will befall us in effect if by speedy repentance we prevent it not Wherefore though all promises of mercy that have not a condition specified are to be understood absolutely because they give an undeniable and universal right and all precepts of justice are to be understood absolutely because they have the nature of a rule or law to which the subject may not give an exception but must yield his obedience yet prophecies of vengeance are to be understood onely conditionally because they are not declarations of Gods will but onely of mans present state and condition that in the condition he now is he deservs destruction but if he repent and change his condition Gods will is still fulfilled though his threat be not for he therefore threatened destruction because he was willing to save not to destroy so that God is still unchangeable in his will and the change is onely in man who changeth his condition And so also the true Religion would have us change but will not change it self and consequently remains unchangeable in the wills of those that truly love and practise it for they do not desire that any thing of Religion should be otherwise then it is by Gods appointment they would not have it lawfull to transgress a commandment or disbeleeve an article and much less can they think it lawfull to corrupt or expunge either they cannot away with nice distinctions or quarrelsome disputations in Gods service to mispend that zeal in words which was given for actions conceiving them more willing to disclaim then to obey the rule who are desirous to distinguish or to dispute upon the command they cannot rely upon unwritten traditions as the ground of Religion they can as the ground of decency and order because they have altered and may alter after the will of men besides that some of them do directly oppose the revealed will of God for what tradition ever found such general reception as that which the Jews called the prophecie of Elias That the world should last 2000 years before the Law 2000 years under the Law and 2000 years under the Gospel yet very many and good Divines do not think this tradition of sufficient authority for any one to beleeve not onely because the computation of the time past confutes it but also because it directly opposeth that saying of Christ S. Mark 13. 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in heaven neither the Son of man but the Father onely to which it is a vain reply That though the day hour be uncertain yet the time and the year may be known for the reason wherefore God will not have his coming to judgement revealed unto men is that being sure of the thing but not sure of the time they should be always prepared for his coming which reason is as forcible against the knowing of the year as it is against the knowing of the day or hour nor would our Saviour Christ so readily have owned the ignorance of that day if the year had been revealed before by one of his Prophets for S. Augustines answer is here most true Nescivit adrevelandum Christ said he knew it not because he would not have it revealed or known to us agreeable to which is Epiphanius his distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haer. Arian Christ had a twofold knowledge one of Speculation another of Use his knowledge of Speculation concerned himself and by that he knew the day of judgement his knowledge of Use concerned us and by that he said he knew not the day of judgement because he would not have us to know it which distinction Melancthon hath turned into this rule of Theologie Dicta alialoquuntur de Officio Christi alia de essentia sic hoc dictum loquitur de Officio Officium Filii Dei est in hoc ministerio cohortatari ad vigilantiam non definire tempus horam nè homines reddantur securi Some sayings are verified of the office of Christ some of his essence this saying That he knew not that day and hour is verified of his office for it was the office of Christ in his ministery to exhort men to watchfulnes not to define times or hours which was in effect to invite them to security Thus we see this famous tradition so generally cried up by the Jews as the prophecie of Elias is upon examination found to be very uncertain which makes very sober men infer that there is or may be the same uncertainty in other traditions and therefore they that will be sure to serve God in faith must and will appeal to the written word which alone abideth one and the same for ever for Religion being Gods cause loves to be tried by Gods undoubted word and where she cannot say How readest thou she cannot but say Why beleevest thou that our Faith should not stand in the wisdome much less in the devices of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. for that faith which stands in the wisdome of men stands like a house built upon the sand tottering and shaking at every violent blast or storm but that faith which stands in the power of God stands firm and immoveable by vertue of that power Thirdly God is immutable in place whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence Psal. 139. 7. for by reason of his Immensity being in all places at once so as to fill them he cannot possibly change his place And so also is Religion immutable in place that is to say in its proper place the faithfull soul though not in its common place that is the Church or Congregation of believers or Religion is immutable in the Catholick Church though not in particular Churches that are members of it for the proper place of Religion where it may be found and where it is preserved is the holy Catholick Church which we believe in our Creed and that consists onely of the Elect for none are joyned in Communion with Christ but those that have the Spirit of Christ and they though never so far asunder have one Lord one Faith one Baptisme Eph. 4. 5. It is admirable to consider the great mutations that have befallen both Eastern and Western Churches how that in several ages they have more or less changed their Liturgies though in no age abolished them yet it is more properly said that these Churches have changed their Profession or Exercise of Religion then that they have changed their Religion for that still remains the same Christian Religion in all Churches that still remain Christian though under diverse and different professions The fourth incommunicable property of God is his Eternity which is a branch of Immutability as time is of motion for Eternity is a duration or continuance which hath neither beginning nor ending so Psal. 91. 2. Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God
Thou art God from everlasting that is without beginning and thou art God to everlasting that is without end And so also is Religion Eternal both from everlasting and to everlasting from everlasting in the reason of it because it is a service or reverence due to God by vertue of his excellent Majesty and consequently that due is Eternal with his very Being but onely to everlasting in the practise of it because there was no creature from everlasting to practise it how then should we exceedingly desire to know Religion how to love it how to practise it whereby alone our souls are prepared to believe Eternity and to enjoy it and to employ it an irreligious soul could it possibly get to heaven would not know what to do there for there is nothing but the practise of Religion or praising God Rev. 19. 1 5 7. Again as God in that he is Eternal oweth his Beginning and Continuance to none but onely to himself and as Eternity because it is from it self is therefore without a Beginning and because it is of it self is therefore without an end so true Religiō hath in some sort its Being from it self for it is bonum in se it is good in and by it self and therefore hath its subsistence in and by it self let the whole world turn Atheist as it is turning apace yet the true Religion will still be the true Religion there may be in the practise of Religion many things good because they are commanded but in the substance of Religion the internal goodness is the reason of the external command so that Religion is indeed a beam of that light which proceedeth from the Father of Lights shewing unto Angels men what they are to know love and do and so leading them both to the Light everlasting for as God himself is so is his service and therefore I could not better explain the properties of Religion then from the properties of God Onely God hath his properties immediately flowing from his own essence but Religion partakes of these mediately from God as it is his service God hath these properties not onely Formally in himself but also Originally from himself Religion hath them Formally in it self but Originally from God Thus hath Religion all those properties of God which are incommunicable to the Creature and thereby appears to have in it self more of Divinity then any Creature whatsoever either in Heaven or in Earth for these being the properties of the true Religion in it self shew it to be spiritual far above the nature of all created spirits whereby themselves draw nearer to the God of Spirits in their affections then in their natures If therefore thou O man desire to be truly Religious thou must desire to be spiritually minded and the way to be so is to have a kinde of Simplicity or Incomposition that is a sincerity of the soul in the love of God To have a kinde of Immutability that is a Constancy to have an Immensity that is a servent Zeal and Alacritie which will not endure to be straitned or confined and to have an Eternity that is an unwearied perseverance in the Faith and Fear and Love of God Nay indeed these same properties are already in thy soul if thou be truly Religious for then thou art spiritually minded and thou canst not but have an uncompounded soul by sincerity of its service not dividing thy affection betwixt God and Baal betwixt Christ and Belial Thou canst not but have a constancy in his service which will let thee be no Changeling a thing as monstrous and abominable in the second as in the first birth thou canst not but have an alacrity and fervency of spirit which will not be circumscribed or confined either to or by time or place neither to a Conclave at Rome nor to a Consistory at Geneva nor to a Conventicle in England for as Christianity it self is not confined so neither the soul as 't is Christian but joyns in Communion with all Christians that ever were or that are or that shall be in the honour and love of Christ thy house is too little thou wilt to the Church nay the Church is too little thou wilt to the Catholick Church the whole Church Militant thy spirit shall be with theirs when theirs is with Christ nay the Catholick Church is too little here on Earth thou wilt up to that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven for Christian duties as they are practised here will cease with our lives therefore the Christian soul will look after such duties as she may practise in Heaven and at least in habit if not in act will even here be eternally Religious as we are divinely taught by our own Church saying with a most Catholick spirit It is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee O Lord holy Father Almighty everlasting God thereby shewing us the Immensity of Religion That it is not to be circumscribed to or by any place for it is meet that we give thanks in all places and also the eternity of Religion that it is not to be confined to or by any time for it is meet that we give thanks at all times Eternity being the blessedness we look for the means whereby we compass it must needs be eternal not onely in the efficient cause God himself but also in the instrumental cause that is Religion And since Omnipotency All sufficiency and Omnisciency are but three branches of Eternity It is necessary before I come to the Communicable Properties that I speak of them for God in that he is Eternal is Omnipotent since there could be no other fountain of power unless we would make two Eternals and the same God as he is Eternal is All-sufficient for having his being of himself he must needs also have it perfectly in himself and lastly the same God as he is Eternal is also Omniscient for it is the Property of Eternity to have all things present to it as to be always present to it self wherefore it will be worth our while briefly to consider these Properties as they are in God and as they are also in Religion the service of God and first of the Omnipotency Gods Omnipotency or Almighty Power appears especially in two things First that he hath power to do all that he will Secondly that he hath power over all when he will had he not the First he could not be Almighty in himself had he not the second he could not be Almighty in our esteem the first tends to the Execution the second to the Declaration of his Almighty power The text doth ordinarily prove them both together as 1 Tim 6. 15. the Son of God is called the blessed and onely Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords The onely Potentate that hath power to do all that he will and hath also power to do all when he will as King of kings
and in the hand as Truth is opposed to Dissimulation or Hypocrisie Thirdly in its certainty or perseverance And of thy great mercy keep us in the same as Truth is opposed to uncertainty or to levity and inconstancy Religion then hath and must have a two-fold truth the first consists in a right apprehension whereby we believe the thing as it is the second in a right affection profession and action whereby we love and profess and do the thing as we beleeve and there cannot be a more religious prayer invented by the wit of Piety nor a more affectionate prayer practised by the zeal of Charity then that which is so remarkable both for its Piety and for its Charity in our own Church Collect 3. Sunday after Easter Almlghty God which shewest to all men that be in errour the light of thy Truth to the intent that they may return into the way of Righteousness there 's its piety towards God rightly descanting upon Gods intent in shewing the light of his truth to make men righteous not to make them inexcusable These things I say that ye might be saved S. Joh. 5. 34. not onely convinced saith our blessed Saviour and yet he spake to those who had not the love of God v. 42. Grant unto all them that be admitted into the fellowship of Christ Religion that they may eschew those things that be contrary to their profession and follow all such things as be agreeable to the same there 's its charity towards men affectionately desiring that as they have a Christian Communion so they may also have a Christian conversation lest their unchristian conversation destroy and disanull their Christian Communion which without doubt it hath done already in many ages of the Church and will do still to the worlds end unless God in his mercy fill our hearts more and more with this true piety towards himself and with this true charity one towards another And for this cause the Commandments are in the judgement of some Divines accounted practical Articles of the Christian Faith because if these be left out in our conversation what is true in it self of our Creed is as it were false to us since either our profession gives the lye to our apprehension and affection or our action to our profession for this is the difference betwixt speculative and practical truths speculativè practicè credibilia those things that we must believe speculatively and those that we must believe practically the first which are summed up in the Creed are truly believed if there be a conformity of the thing with the Understanding but the second which are summed up in the Decalogue are then onely truly believed when there is a conformity of the affection and of the profession and of the action with the belief thus they that worship Images do expunge the second and they that resist Magistrates do expunge the fifth Commandment if not out of their books yet at least out of their Faith in their Books they may be true believers but in their Lives they are in these particulars little less then Infidels Now see in what a miserable condition is the irreligious miscreant who so beleeves as to make void his own faith and so receives the truth as to make the truth it self a lie to him either for want of a sanctified affection in not loving it or for want of a sanctified action in not practising it and hence we may likewise see and must confess that not he who knows most of the doctrine of Faith is the best Beleever but he that most loves what he knows in speculatives and he that most practises what he knows in practicks so that a great Scholar may fully know the truth and yet to him it may be as a lye because he loves it not for to him it is what he desires it should be contrariwise an ignorant peasant may not fully know the truth and yet to him it may be the saving truth because he loves it for what is wanting in his head is made up by his heart O my soul glory not in the knowledge of Christ but in the love of that knowledge glory not in thy learning if thou art Mistress of any but in thy Religion to which thou oughtest to be a servant learning may make a man wise to ostentation but 't is onely Religion can make him wise to salvation Do not then with Pilate ask thy Saviour what is truth and then go away without his answer much less mayest thou turn to those Jews that help to crucifie him for if thou know these things happy art thou not because thou knowest them but if thou do them thy happiness consists not in knowing Christ but in practising him nor is it possible for a man to be long defective in his practise and not to be defective also in his knowledge since what is sinfull in the deliberate action is sinfull in the will and what is sinfull in the will is erroneous in the judgement or understanding and this is the reason that a man may be a heretick not onely in credendis but also in agendis not onely in Articles of Faith but also in Duties of Life nay indeed he cannot easily be a heretick in the Duties of Life and still remain truly Orthodox in the Articles of Faith as for example he that prays to a Saint or Angel in stead of God directly overthrows the first Commandment but indirectly also the first Article of his Creed I believe in one God for Prayer is a Sacrifice that may be offered onely unto God again he that wilfully dishonours his Governours whom God hath set over him directly overthrows the fifth Commandment but indirectly also the ninth Article of his Creed I beleeve the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints for being a Lover of division he is not a true beleever of that Communion and this we may take for a general doctrine fitter to be received then opposed First that any practical errour which is against our duty towards God doth tend to a speculative errour against some part of the Creed which concerneth God as he that doth not honour God as God doth in effect deny him to be maker of heaven and earth therefore saith the Psalmist O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker as if we could not truly beleeve him to be our maker if we will not worship him with all possible reverence and fear Secondly that any practical errour which is against our duty towards our neighbour doth tend against some Article of the Creed that hath relation to men as he that will not be subject to the authority of his lawfull governours Civil or Ecclesiastical doth in effect deny The Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints Thirdly and lastly that any practical errour against the duty which a man oweth unto himself doth tend against some Article of Faith that concerns himself as he that is a common
drunkard or unclean or profane person doth in effect deny the Forgiveness of sins and the Resurrection of the body Wherefore when Almighty God requireth every Christian to be true or faithfull unto the death that he may receive a crown of life Revel 2. 10. he requires of him a double truth or faithfulness not onely that he be true and faithfull in his Belief but also and much rather that he be true and faithfull in his life First God requires a faithfulness in our Belief by a right apprehension of Gods word not adding thereto nor diminishing therefrom for that is forbidden from the beginning of the Law as Deut. 4. 2. to the end of the Gospel as Revel 22. 18 19. not adding thereto by Superstition nor diminishing therefrom by Faction for as the superstitious seeks to flatter his God Religiosi sunt Deorum amici Superstitiosi Deorum adulatores so the factious seeks to flatter himself do thou thy duty and let alone thy flattery for it is not safe for thee to flatter thy God and much less to flatter thy self Secondly God requires faithfulness in our affection life and conversation that we may be saithfull professours of his truth and as faithfull witnesses to it for a man may be Gods witness by speaking by living by dying and he that is commanded to be faithfull unto the death that is to be faithfull in dying if God call him to it is already supposed to be faithfull in speaking and in living for he that bids thee be fathfull unto thy death doth surely suppose thee already faithfull in thy life and commands thee to continue so and this faithfulness is shewed by thy words in confessing and that 's veracity by thy deed in professing or practising and that 's fidelity and by thy perseverance unto the death both in words and deeds and that 's constancie This is the truth of Religion both formally and efficiently formally in regard of it self and efficiently in regard of us that as it is true in it self so it also makes us true and faithfull at all times and in all respects and if you further desire to know how far any Christian Church hath followed or doth follow this truth you may try it by this touch-stone which being infallible in reason cannot be erroneous in Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle lib. 4. Eth. cap. 13. Greece is not so happy as to afford us a name for this moral truth and may justly own to be Graecia mendax upon that account but he that hath that vertue is called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A true man both in life and word and is to be known by these three properties that he is full of equity will do no man wrong is full of authoriey will ask no mans leave whereas the hypocrite is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself for all others but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all others for himself and lastly is full of modesty will ask no mans praise and therefore will set forth himself though in true colours yet with the least varnish so also is the true Religion first it is full of justice and equity for it looks onely after Gods glory not after this worlds advantages and therefore declares things as they are not as they conduce to mens interests secondly it is full of authority in all words and deeds still like it self neither dissembling what is nor pretending what is not that it may please men rather then God but saith with S. Paul For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. thirdly 't is full of modesty rather delighting in extenuations of its own worth then in amplifications of it for though hypocrisie be a great talker a greater boaster yet Religion doth very much abhor all vain babbling and much more all vain boasting Not walking in crastiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending it self in every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4. 2. and therefore any Christian Church whatsoever that either turns Religion into State policy making Christs interest subservient to its own or that changes its Doctrine to please its new lords and masters or that boasts too much of its own Purity and Perfection as if none could be Christians but in outward communion with it none good Christians in comparison of it must in these respects be said not to be 〈◊〉 true Church for though it be Metaphysically a true Church yet is not so morally not according to moral truth for that it wants either equity or authority or modestie or all three that is to say it wants some necessary attendant of moral truth And here I had rather bewail then examine rather deplore then detect the present condition of many Christian Churches It is enough that the now so much despised and persecuted Church of England cannot have it justly laid to her charge that either she laboured to inter-weave her own with Christs interest much less to advance her own interest above his for want of equity or did not deal plainly with those Churches that did so for want of authorite or did revile other Reformed Churches which surely had not been infallible could not be impeccable for want of modesty and my hope is that a Church so full of Moral truth no less then of Metaphysical as it hath the God of Truth to own it so it will in due time finde the God of Power to vindicate to restore and to defend it however I doubt not but many good Christians had rather suffer in her afflicted communion then reign in the prosperity and glory of those who either do cause or do not regard her affliction In the mean time I cannot but pass this for a general animadversion That since onely the true Catholick is the true Christian and he hath two oposites the pseudo-catholick who is peccant in excess and the anti-catholick who is peccant in defect it fares with these two opposites as it fares with those two extreams that oppose the moral truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The proud boaster loves to make shew of more then is so doth the pseudo-catholick who obtrudes more for Religion then can be proved Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the dissembler is quite contrary for he denies things that are and dimininishes what he doth not deny so doth the anti-catholick who denies that to be Religion which God hath made so and diminisheth what he cannot deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the same Authour the boaster and the dissembler both are to be blamed because neither is so true a man as he ought to be yet more the boaster then the dissembler So also in Religion the pseudo-catholick seems farther from the truth for his superadditions then the anti-catholick for his diminutions for he that avoweth uncertainties for certainties brings a suspicion upon his faith even in most undoubted truths whereas he
unto you more then unto God judge ye Act. 4. 19. there is no obligation of man that can reach to the altar of God to make us either neglect it or defile it usque ad aras did stint the heathen and much more the Christian in his obedience he that obeys the Magistrare to the altar gives him his right he that obeys him beyond or above the altar doth him wrong loading his authority with that sin which cannot help to hold it up but may help to pull it down it is much to be observed that among all the high Priests of the Jewish Temple none hath that signal character of recommendation in the Text that is given to Azariah because he withstood Uzziah the king when he invaded the Priests office 2 Chr. 26. 17. therefore saith the holy Ghost concerning him he it is that executed the Priests office in the Temple that Solomon built at Jerusalem 1 Chron. 6. 10. as if none had been high Priest but he who had so zealously so magnanimously vindicated the honour and the authority of the Priesthood for this is Rabbi Davids gloss upon the place he was not the first Priest of Solomons temple for that was Zadok nor was he the onely high Priest for there were many others but our Rabbies say this was Azariah in the days of Uzziah who gave his minde to the holiness of the Temple and would not let Uzziah offer Incense therefore it is said of him this is he that was the high Priest because he was zealous for the glory of the Priesthood and accepted not the person of Uzziah so Kimchi And it appears again that this Azariah was not to be named without some special note or title of honour for in the ninth Chapter and the eleventh verse after the reciting of his Ancestors though some of them had executed the same office as well as himself yet he alone is called the Ruler of the house of God 1 Chro. 9. 11. none had kept so good rule and order in the house of God as he therefore none so fit to be called a ruler of it And if Thomas Becket did indeed stand meerly upon Gods interest in the controversie betwixt him and his Liege Soveraign the doctors of Paris did very ill in disputing eight and fourty years after his death whether he were damned or saved for no duty that he owed to his King could oblige him to be undutifull to his God and if he suffered death for not being undutifull to his Father in heaven there is no doubt but as a dutifull childe he received his inheritance yet in that the Doctours disputed it so long after it is evident that his Festival was not presently instituted in the Latine Church much less celebrated with this Preface Gaudeamus omnes in Domino diem festum celebrantes sub honore Thomae Martyris de cujus Passione gaudent Angeli collaudant Filium Dei Let us all rejoyce in the Lord celebrating a Festival for the honour of Thomas the Martyr for whose passion the Angels rejoyce and praise the Son of God by which Preface the Festival of this supposed Martyr is preferred before the Proto-martyrs in dignity though it follow the same three days after in time or else the Doctours of Paris did think it lawfull if not laudable to dispute against the solemnities of their own Church when they found so much done upon so little ground and did also themselves in effect declare that as no civil authority could so likewise no ecclesiastical authority can oblige equally with God much less either above him or against him Fourthly Religion is free from servitude the Church may be in bondage not so the Religion that makes a Church the Israelites asked liberty of Pharaoh for themselves to go and serve God they asked not liberty for Gods Service that had never been in durance nor in captivity and S. Paul very plainly determines this controversie for so profane men are willing to make it when Gods Church is under persecution though in it self it be an undoubted truth 2 Tim. 2. 9. I suffer trouble as an evil doer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound the bonds that are upon the hands are far from the tongue and farther from the heart they cannot hinder an honest man from speaking Gods truth amidst the enemies thereof much less from loving it excellently Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no bonds can fetter the tongue but onely fearfulness and unfaithfulness and those are ingredients of the worlds not of Gods Religion Fifthly and lastly Religion is free from Coaction there is no oblation so acceptable as that which is voluntary and there is no oblation so voluntary as that whereby a man offers himself to God therefore it is the doctrine of the Church that the children of Jews and other Infidels who never embraced the Christian faith ought not to be baptized without their Parents consent till they can give their own not onely because it is against the justice of nature to take the childe from his own Parents whilest he is yet as it were a limb or part of them which he must needs be till he can dispose of himself but also because it is against the nature of Religion to offer unto God an unvoluntary Sacrifice and for the same reason though the Church never thought she could be sufficiently zealous in propagating the Catholick Faith yet she never thought that Jews and Pagans were to be compelled to embrace it onely they were to be compelled not to hinder or to blaspheme it so Aquinas 22ae qu. 10. art 8. Utrum infideles compellendi sint ad sidem Whether Infidels are to be compelled to the Christian Faith he answers with a distinction those Infidels that never received the Faith are not to be compelled to it quia credere est voluntarium because to beleeve is to give a voluntary assent but those Infidels who once received the Faith and are since fallen from it as hereticks and apostates are to be compelled by corporal punishments to become regular and orderly Christians that they may be made to fullfil their promise and to retain what they did receive Nam sicut vovere est voluntatis sed reddere est necessitatis ita fidem accipere est voluntatis sed tenere eam acceptam est necessitatis For as it is voluntary to make a vow but necessary to keep it when it is made so it is voluntary to receive the faith but necessary to retain it when it is received And St. Augustine in the second Book of his Retractations ca. 5. doth most ingenuously recall his former opinion that schismaticks were not to be constrained and compelled to the communion of the Church I retract saith he that in my first Book against the party of Donatus I did say I was not pleased that the secular power should violently force schismaticks to the communion of the Church verè mihi tunc non placebat
her own 1 Cor. 13. 5. and therefore cannot be so cruel as to take away anothers due neither from the inferiour by oppression nor from the equal by pride and contempt nor from the superiour by disobedience Therefore let Religion towards God be taken for the ground and foundation of all justice towards men for it is evident that he who most loves God for his own sake most loves man for Gods sake and it is the property of love not to do but to suffer wrong and where is no doing of wrong there can be no injustice so that though that famous axiome be most true justitia primùm deinde charitas justice first and then charity yet is the truth thereof to be understood concerning the priority of nature and of obligation that a man is bound to be just before he can be charitable for he may not rob Peter to pay Paul he may not pillage a Church to build an Hospital not concerning the priority of time or of generation for so it is clear there can be no execution of justice but with and from charity and all charity comes from God and tends to him love being the affection that relates to good and all good relating to God the chiefest good But I must keep my self to the same method concerning the Iustice of Religion which I followed in discoursing of Gods Iustice and therefore say that Religion is just by universal and by particular Justice First Religion is just by universal justice in willing and doing generally what is just according to that excellent rule Fiat justitia pereat mundus let justice be done though the whole world be undone nor can that man be truly religious who is afraid that justice should take place lest the law should have its due the Church should have her due and the several orders of men should have their due for to fear this is in effect to fear lest God should have his due for none of these can have any due but what God hath given them and he that fears lest God should have his due in what he hath given unto others cannot but fear lest God should have his due in what he hath reserved to himself and such a fear as this must needs expell all true Religion which is nothing else but an obligation of giving God his due either mediately in his authority or immediately in himself Therefore no prayer can more truly proceed from the affection of Religion then that of our Church Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy Name he that heartily prayeth thus is sure not to be irreligious for he cordially desires to glorifie Gods Name and he that carefully doth this is sure not to be unjust for his works exactly follow the rule of universal justice as being just in the means no less then in the end in the means beginning and continuing with God no less then in the end determining and ending with him he that useth unjust means to compass a just end though he may be thought to end in God because of the justness of his end yet cannot be thought to begin or continue in God because of the unjustness of his means but Religion desires to be so compleatly just that she cannot allow any unjustness either in the means or in the end and this appears from those two special axiomes which are to be found in no other science but onely in Divinity not in state-policy but onely in Religion not in Machiavils but onely in Christs School 1º nolle malum propter bonum not to do evil that good may come 2º velle bonum benè not to do good so as that evil may come but as the thing must be good we do so it may not be made evil by our manner of doing these two being the general or rather the peculiar rules of Religion shew how much she disdains to be enthralled under the captivity of injustice how much she detests that base thraldome and those men that would so enthral her and by these two we may easily distinguish Religion both from faction and from superstition for faction is usually peccant against the first rule vult malum propter bonum it will not scruple to do evil that good may come it will not boggle at a Schism or a sedition for a Reformation Superstition is usually peccant against the second rule vult bonum non bene it will have that which is good suppose invocation adoration not after a good manner that is to say not according to Gods institution but according to mans invention Secondly Religion is just by particular justice retributing to every man according to his works which practise of Justice was eminent in the primitive Church wherein every notorious offender was put to an open shame some kept from the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others from the Church it self thrust out of doors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and none at all fully received till condign satisfaction given to the whole Congregation by a long and a strict course of publick humiliation insomuch that from onely two Canons of the first Council of Nice can 11. 12. we may collect no less then four several Orders and ranks of Christians not distinguished from the doctrine but onely from the discipline of the Christian Religion for they all professed the same faith but they all enjoyed not the same priviledges but one was an order of hearers another of penitents a third of such as were admitted to the prayers a fourth of such as were not admitted to the oblation and accordingly these four orders had their four several times defined by the Council which are there called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a time of hearing their sins before they were admitted to penance a time of penance before they were admitted to the prayers of the Church a time of praying with the Church before they were admitted to the oblation or to the communion and a time of partaking in the oblation and rejoycing in the communion of Christ and of his members and all this after they had gotten to be admitted into the Church for some who had been forward in their apostasie but were still backward in their repentance were not so much as suffered to enter into the Church but were kept without doors as those who had no right to be accounted in the lowest and meanest order of Christians This practise hath of late been neglected if not opposed by some because it hath been abused by others and satisfaction is now a days rejected as a piece of penance in regard of the Church because it hath been cried up as a piece of penance in regard of God yet is this so necessary a practise of Religion that our Church cannot but wish it might be restored again and that wish though it be for the
continency then they did observe but concerning this the world would more willingly leave men to the judgement of their own consciences how to serve God with the most purity and with the least distraction if they did but answer to themselves this Question whether it is better that they which have wives be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7. 29. or that they which have no wives be as though they had them for what is best is doubtless in this as in other cases the determination of Religion for that labours to make men like God both in their bodies and in their souls in their bodies by sobriety temperance and chastity either virginal or vidual or conjugal in their souls by holy meditations and more holy affections and where men do most truly express this holiness in their lives and conversations 't is not to be doubted but there is the best and the purest Religion although it is often seen that where is the best and the purest Religion there men do not alwaies express the same in their lives and conversations which made the same S. Augustine declare this as a dogmatical sanction ex malorum Christianorum moribus non vituperandam esse Ecclesiam Aug. lib. de mor. Eccl. Cath. cap. 34. that the Church is not to be blamed for the misdemeanours of some men that live in her communion since she her self condemns those misdemeanours and labours to correct them The upshot of all may be this that not the practical but the doctrinal miscarriages of men are to be imputed to the Church and where are fewest of such miscarriages there is most of truth and goodness where is most of these there is most of the pure Religion for as manners make the man so Religion makes the manners and it is little other then the doctrine of devils that saith hell is full of moral honest men though it pretend to set up faith for S. Paul plainly shews that faith alone was the cause of all moral honesty in the Jews Heb. 11. so that 't is too much for any man to doubt much more to deny but that faith alone is the cause of all true moral honesty in the Christians whence our blessed Saviour preacheth onely moral duties S. Luk 21. 31. take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life c. he bids them be temperate sober and content watch and pray and what is all this but moral honesty yet if this rightly done and 't is rightly done onely in true beleevers proceed not from faith we must infer that we may stand in judgement without faith for so it follows v. 36. that ye may stand before the Son of man nor would Christ have thus taught daily in the temple v. 37. had this not been the right way of preaching true faith in Christ and what he prescribes in his doctrine he performs in his practise for his nights were spent in praying as his days in preaching and therefore to say that hell is full of moral honest men is to say that hell is full of true beleevers and consequently to blaspheme that precious faith in Christ which could not sanctifie the hand in working did it not first sanctifie the heart in beleeving and we cannot but say that Noahs preparing the Ark and Abrahams offering his son was materially an act of obedience that moral honest vertue which this world cares not to profess much less to practise though it was formally an act of faith and so we may say concerning those other examples there cited by S Paul wherein some vertue that belongs to the catalogue of moral honesty will come in for the material part though faith alone may happily challenge the formal part of the performance and Aquina's distinction of actus virtutis imperatus câ—â—â—tus will reconcile the difference for all vertuous acts truly so called are the acts of faith imperativè as commanded by it whence S. Augustine stiled the best works of unbeleevers but gilded or glittering sins though onely the peculiar acts of beleeving and confessing be the acts of faith elicitive as immediately and directly flowing from it for faith is in the soul as the soul is in the body and as all motion in the body is by redundancy from the soul so all good motion in the soul is by redundancy from faith and hence it is there is so great an influence of our words upon our manners and of our manners upon our doctrine and consequently upon our faith for as evil words corrupt good manners so also evil manners corrupt good words it having been the fate of Religion first to decay in mens lives then in their doctrines first in their works then in their faith so that irreligion first gets into our conversations then into our catechismes and the miscarriages of Churches have first been practical and after that dogmatical men being generally more zealous for their credit in labouring to justifie their errours then for their innocency in confessing that they have erred The third and last Attribute we are now to consider in God is his Mercy whereby he freely forgives what is due unto himself For as the act of grace is most clearly evidenced in freely giving what was not due unto the creature so is the act of mercy most conspicuous in freely forgiving what is due from it Aquinas makes Gods Mercy the foundation of all his works of distributive justice even in rewarding the righteous then much more is it the foundation of his not working according to his vindicative justice in the punishment of our unrighteousness 'T is a heavenly contemplation of his and such heavenly contemplations are very frequent in the angelical doctour opus divinae justitiae semper praesupponit opus misericordiae in eo fundatur 1 Par. qu. 21. ar 4. the work of Gods Justice alwaies presupposeth the work of his Mercy and is founded in it for the creature can have nothing due to it but for some thing that is in it and the creature hath nothing in it which did not flow immediately from the goodness of the Creatour therefore that goodness alone must be looked upon as the ground and foundation of all that the creature is capable of which alone put the same into a capacity of any thing at all Et sic in quolibet opere Dei apparet misericordia quantum ad primam radicem ejus cujus virtus salvator in omnibus consequentibus etiam vehementius in eis operatur sicut causa primaria vehementius influit quam causa secunda words that deserve to be engraven with letters of gold and much more to be engraven in our hearts and this is the meaning of them there is no work of God but mercy is the ground and root of it and this ground is preserved in all the building this root is seen in all the fruits that grow from it nay it hath a great efficacy of working above them
this sin to their charge And I doubt not but that prayer of our own Church That it may please thee to forgive our enemies persecutours and slanderers and to turn their hearts will yet in Gods good time work the conversion of some of those men who now think they do God good service by denying others to serve him and God forbid that we should ever cease thus to pray even for those that most resist and oppose our prayers though thereby they do also resist and oppose their own conversion The Church of Christ may in times of persecution lose its power but may not lose its mercy for it can be no longer Christian then it is mercifull Mercifull in giving freely ye have received freely give S. Matth. 10. 8. Mercifull in forgiving not untill seven times but untill seventie times seven Saint Matth. 18. 22. Deus semper miseretur puniendo citra condignum praemiando ultra condignum saith the Schole God is always mercifull in punishing less in rewarding more then we deserve so is God Church always mercifull both in its rewards and in its punishments The dispensations of Baptismal and of Penitential grace both such acts of mercy that they fall under an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no sufficient retribution no sufficient amends can be made for them yet both these acts of mercie are so proper to the Christian Church that among all the sects of the world we cannot find one which comes near the Christian Religion in the zeal of bringing those that are born in sin to Baptisme and of those that have lived in sin unto Repentance It was a question in S. Cyprians time whether infants might be admitted to baptism before the eighth day and Fidus the Presbyter thought not because the law of Circumcision required a stay till the eighth day and Baptism succeeded in the place of Circumcision but S. Cyprian and the orthodox Clergy of the Church of Carthage were of another opinion and the sixtie six good Bishops give this as the chiefest reason for it in their Epistle to Fidus the Presbyter Cypr. epist. 59. cum Pamel Universi poitùs judicavimus nulli bominum nato misericordiam Dei gratiam denegandam nam cùm Dominus in Evangelio suo dicat Filius hominis non venit animas hominum perdere sed salvare quantum in nobis est si fieri potest nulla anima perdenda est We all with one consent agreed that the mercy and grace of God was to be denied to none for since our Lord and Master himself hath professed in his Gospel that he came not to destroy mens souls we translate lives but the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souls but to save them 't is our duty as much as lyes in us to keep all souls from the danger of destruction This was that Councils main argument why children should be baptized in case of necessity before they were eight days old though we have now a generation that will not baptize them till almost twice that number of years But Solomons judgement stands upon record whereby still to discern which is the true mother and which the false for she who hath the tender bowels is certainly the true mother not she who cares not what becomes of the childe 1 King 3. so is it still Faction is merciless and cruel fears not to see the sword drawn to be not onely bathed but also sheathed in bloud whereas the true Religion is of tender bowells would have none of her children perish or be in danger of perishing therefore since baptism is the onely ordinary means of saving children by taking away the guilt of their original sin and repentanee is the onely ordinary means of saving men by taking away their actual sins the true Christian Church never yet thought fit to delay the one nor to deny the other but even in the strictest discipline that ever was exercised against notorious offenders they that returned to the bosome of the Church were admitted to penance and those penitents that were in danger of death were also admitted to the holy Communion we have Presidents or rather precepts for both in the first Council of Nice the 11. Canon admitting the offenders to penance the 13. Canon admitting the penitents to the holy Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the 11. Canon those that under Licinius had denied the Christian faith being not compelled thereunto by the violence of persecution though they were unworthy of mercy yet they were not excluded from it but the Council admitted them to penance Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the 13. Canon those that were under penance if they were in any imminent danger of death were presently permitted to receive the holy Communion as the provision necessary for their last journey though if they recovered of their sickness they were to be reduced back again to the order of penitents till they had fully accomplished their enjoyned penance and this relaxation or indulgence saith the same Canon was the ancient and Canonical Law of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like may be proved from the Epistle of the Clergy of Rome to S. Cyprian Cyp. cum Pamel Epist. 31. wherein they profess a relaxation of penance to those that by sickness were summoned to Gods Tribunal though they were resolved that the rest should stay till they had a new Bishop Thus we see it was the Law of the Church in the times of the severest discipline that mercy should be above justice and the holy communion administred in case of necessity even to those whom the ecclesiastical censures did still exclude from it against this Law of the Church Novatus was peccant in the defect for he would admit none to penance that had once fallen away but Novatianus was peccant in the excess for he would needs have all promiscuously admitted without any penance And S. Cyp. mightily opposed them both which may shew us the antiquity of this discipline for he lived within 230 years after the passion of our blessed Saviour as well Novatus his inhumanity in admitting none as Novatianus his facility in admitting all for Novatianus was so zealous of encreasing his party that what heretick or apostate soever would come to him and be rebaptized might be received into his Congregation without any recantation of his errour or of his apostasie but Novatus on the other side was so rigid and severe that he would not receive those that had recanted and made earnest suit to undergo their penance that they might be again fully reconciled to the Church S. Cyprian in many of his Tracts especially in his Epistles complaineth frequently of the petulancy of both these Sectaries and their Adherents advising all Christians that had a care of their souls to abstain from their company and much more from their communion and to keep themselves to the well grounded and well setled discipline of the Church which as it refused no penitents so it durst not
countenance any in sin and in impenitency and yet even this severe Bishop in his greatest strictness for Church discipline though he would not allow the Martyrs and Confessours to be too importunate for the over speedy reconciliation of notorious offenders in which he had also the approbation of the Clergy of Rome yet if an offender had been overhastily reconciled he would not by any means make void that act of mercy thus we read that when the Bishop Therapius had given the peace of the Church to Victor the Presbyter for the Bishops were in those dayes the governours in chief if not in whole of the Ecclesiastical Communion before he had made publick satisfaction for his offence though S. Cyprian and his collegues were much troubled that he had so hastily received him into the Communion of the Church nullâ infirmitate urgente when as no dangerous sickness of his had called for a dispensation of the Canon yet they would not revoke that act of grace that had been done by Therapius but let Victor still enjoy the benefit of it thereby shewing that the true Religion though it stand much upon the exactness of Justice yet is much more delighted in the exercise of Mercy the words of S. Cyprian and his fellow Collegues met together in a Synod meerly about Church-discipline are very remarkable Sed librato apud nos diu consilio satis fuit objurgare Therapium collegam nostrum quod temerè hoc fecerit instruxisse ne quid tale de caetero faciat pacem tamen quomodocunque a sacerdote Dei semel datam non putavimus au-ferendam Cyp. Ep. 59. cum Pam. after we had taken long and full advice about this business we thought it enough to reprove Therapius our Collegue that he had done this rashly and require him to do so no more but the peace which had been given by a Priest intrusted of God to give it though given after never so ill a manner we did not think fit to take away again and therefore declare that Victor shall still enjoy the communion of the Church But what do I speak of Mercy above Justice in the true Religion when she would not call for Justice at all were it not that she might shew Mercy for thus she proceeds to deliver a sinner to Satan that she may keep him from hell as faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 5. to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus true Religion would not exercise that Justice which is for the destruction of the flesh were it not to make way for that Mercy which is for the salvation of the spirit therein resembling God himself who thrusts men away from him meerly out of the necessity of Justice but embraceth and receiveth them from his incessant desire and delight of shewing mercy CHAP. VIII The assurance we have of Religion in that it maketh us reverence and fear God ascribing the honour due unto his Name and of the ten proper Names of God collected by S. Hierome HE that is willing to expostulate with God can never be unwilling to offend him for it is impossible that man should ever be dashed out of countenance by the consideration of any sin who is resolved to justifie and maintain all his sins such a man is more fit for the School of the Peripateticks then for the School of the Prophets because he is made rather for disputation then for devotion and truly this is the chiefest reason that we can alledge for the continuance of all those grand miscarriages that are in the practise of Religion whether by way of superstition or of profaneness that men wedded to their own corrupt practises are in a manner resolved to expostulate with God rather then to comply with him 't is such a Clergy humour as this which the Prophet Malachi complaineth of Mal. 1. 6. saying unto you O Priests that despise my Name and ye say wherein have we despised thy Name they would needs be disputing when they should have been repenting for all this while they did neither honour God as a Father not fear him as a Master for so saith the Text a son honoureth his father and a servant his master if then I be a father where is mine honour if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O Priests that despise my Name It is a foul shame for any to despise Gods Name but most especially for those who are most bound to glorifie it that is for his Priests who are peculiarly consecrated to serve God and therefore ought to be more particularly devoted to his service no man may securely contemn Religion but he least who is entrusted to teach it for what he is entrusted to teach he is much more commanded to practise and truly this is the proper work of Religion which the Prophet here cals for to glorifie the Name of God that is to honour God as a Father and to fear him as a Master for without this honour and this fear we cannot take God for God but it is the work of Religion to make man take God for God and how can that be but by acknowledging and professing his Verity Omnipotency Goodness and Excellency so that the work of Religion most especially consists in Faith Hope Charity and Reverence or holy Fear for by Faith we acknowledge Gods eternal truth or Verity by Hope his Omnipotency by Love his allsufficient Goodness and by Fear or reverence his Soveraign Majesty or supertranscendent excellency Thus he that beleeveth in God acknowledgeth God to be God because he acknowledgeth him to be the first Truth or chiefest Verity he that hopeth in God acknowledgeth God to be God because he relyeth on his Omnipotency he that loveth God with all his might acknowledgeth God to be God because he taketh him for the chiefest good being wholly satisfied with his allsufficiency and lastly he that feareth God with all his might acknowledgeth God to be God because he taketh him for the Soveraign Majesty or for the greatest excellency wherefore God is truly to be honoured as a Father by Faith Hope and Charity and to be honoured as a Master by Fear and Reverence and the true Religion reacheth us to honour God both as a Father and as a Master as a Father by beleeving in him for shall not a Son beleeve his Father though all others beleeve him no further then for his honesty yet his own Son is bound to beleeve him also for his authority again to honour him as a Father by hoping and expecting a blessing from him and more particularly our inheritance for as faith looks to the promise so hope looks to the thing promised and we can never look upon God too much and much less can we look for too much from him For if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children how much more