edge on the temporal Sword though even in these it be a remedy to be last applied and more to be commended where it may not then where it may possibly be spared In other cases where the error lieth in the understanding although most commonly backed with obstinacy and perverseness in the will and affections the adverse parties in the Church have been too farre transported beyond their bounds and drawn too much blood from one another though both pretend the Lawes for their justification For who seeth not how little it doth savour of the spirit of Christ to hale young boyes and silly women and poor ignorant Tradesmen to the Funeral-Pile because they could not fathom the deep Mystery of transubstantiation or thought it not an acceptable sacrifice to devoure their God or found not Purgatory in the Scriptures or did not think it fit to invocate the Saints their Brethren when as the way lay open unto God their Father or durst not give that honour to a painted Crucifix which properly belonged to their crucified Saviour And on the other side it wants not reprehension amongst moderate men that Christians should be dragged unto the Scaffold for no other reason then taking sacred Orders from a forreign hand or treading on prohibited ground not being otherwise convicted by sufficient evidence either of practising against the State or labouring to seduce the Subjects from their natural duties The Christians of the Primitive Ages had lost the most effectual part of their Apologies if difference in Religion only had been a crime sufficient without further guilt to draw those fiery storms upon them under which they suffered And though I say not of these Lawes to which each parties do pretend for their justification that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto Draco's Lawes of old which were written in blood yet one might say and say it without just offence that they were neither made nor executed within these Dominions but either when the Dragon was a chief Supporter of the Arms Imperiall or else on those unfortunate wretches who have since fallen in regionem Draconum into the place of Dragons as the Psalmist calls it Certain it is that by those bloody executions both sides have rather been confirmed then weakned and both have given advantage to the growth of Heresies Just as Sulpitius hath observed that by the execution of Priscillian which before I spoke of non tantùm non repressa est ejus haeresis sed propagata his Heresie was so farre from being suppressed that it grew the faster for the cutting Christs Sinite stands not here for nothing but shewes that till the time of the general Harvest there will be tares amongst the Wheat do we what we can Which leads me to my last particular to the condition of the Church here militant delivered in the Simul crescere in that the tares and Wheat are ordered to grow up together Of which and of the reasons of that intermixture I shall crave leave to insist a little and so commend you unto God Perplexae sunt istae duae Civitates in hoc seculo invicemque permistae It was the saying of St. Austin that the two Cities which he was to write of the City of the Lord and the City of Satan were so intermingled that there was little hope to see them separated till the day of Judgement The same may we affirm of the Church of Christ it is of such a mixt condition compounded so proportionably of the good and evil the Heretick and true Professor that neither of the two is likely to suppress the other till God take up the controversie in the day of doom And therefore not without good reason is the Church compared to a threshing-floore on which there is both wheat and chaffe and to a Fold wherein there are both Sheep and Goats and to a casting-net which being thrown into the Sea drew up all kind of Fishes whether good or bad and to an House in which there are not only vessels of honour as of gold and silver but also of dishonour and for unclean uses and in my Parable to a field wherein besides the good seed which the Lord had sowen Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae the enemy had sowed his tares And this is thought by some of good note and learning to be the chief intention of our Saviours Parable who tells us that he meant not by the Sinite so farre to patronize the Heretick or protect the wicked as to respit either of them from the censure of the Church or State under pretence of calling them to an account at the general Audit but to set forth the true condition of the Church here militant in which the wicked person and the righteous man are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for in this present World and therefore very well said a modern Authour Docetur hic non quale sit officium nostrum aut magistratus aut Pastorum sed tantùm quae futura sit Ecclesiae conditio Christ doth not here inform the Minister or the Civil Magistrate or any private person what they are to do but onely represents unto his Disciples the true condition of his Church till the end of the World which can be never so reformed and purified but that some errors and corruptions will continue in it But whether it be so or not certain it is that such is the condition of the Church in this present World that it is subject to corruptions and never absolutely free from sin and error There is much drosse amongst her gold and although that her foundations be of precious stones yet there is wood and hay and stubble in the superstructure which are so intermingled made up together that nothing but a general fire can exactly part them I mean the fire of conflagration not of Popish Purgatory Were it not thus we need not pray for the Church militant but glory as in the triumphant And yet the Church is counted holy and called Catholick still this intermixture notwithstanding Catholick in regard of time place and persons in and by which the Gospel of our Saviour is professed and propagated Holy secundum nobiliores ejus partes in reference to the Saints departed and those who are most eminent in grace and piety And it is also called Ecclesia una one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church though part thereof be militant here upon the earth and part triumphant in the Heavens the same one Church both now and in the world to come The difference is that here it is imperfect mixt of good and bad there perfect and consisting of the righteous onely according to this determination of St. Austin eandam ipsam unam sanctam Ecclesiam nunc habere malos mixtos tunc non habituram For then and not till then as Hierome Augustine and others do expound the place shall Christ
be true and faithful members of the Church of God whether it be under the Law or under the Gospel shall all be drawn into one Synagogue or Congregation in the day of the Lord and all together with the holy Patriarchs before Moses time shall make up that one glorious Church which is entituled in the Scriptures Universalem Congregationem the general Assembly the Church of the first-born whose names are written in the Heavens We have the word thus used as in other places so in the 24. of St. Matthews Gospel where it is told us of these Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congregabunt electos that they shall gather the Elect out of every corner of the world i. e. that they shall gather them in sacram Synaxin in sanctam congregationem into an holy Congregation a religious Assembly So that the gathering of the Saints together in the day of Judgement is but a Translation of them from one Church to another or rather from that part of the same one Church which is here militant on the Earth to that which is triumphant in the Heaven of glories The Saints both here and there make but one Communion we praising God for manifesting his great power and Grace on them they praying unto God to send his choycest blessings of grace and mercy upon us The difference is no more then this that here it is exposed to disgrace and ignominy sorrows age have ploughed deep wrinkles on her face too many spots there are in her feasts of charity and sometimes she takes cold in her affections like the Church of Ephesus starting aside from her Redeemer like a broken bow but there shall Christ present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Here we have Tares amongst the Wheat more Tares perhaps then Wheat in too many places but there shall be no place in Heaven but for Wheat alone no unclean thing shall enter into the new Hierusalem no Tares into the Barn of the heavenly Husbandman that was provided for the Wheat only and for none but that For so it followeth in the Text Congregate triticum in horreum meum Gather the Wheat into my Barn the place designed by all good Husbands for the disposing of the Wheat their best sort of grain Not in a Barn according to the literal sense we shall have too many Congregations held in Barns if this world go on but according to the mystical meaning In horreum meum into my Barn i. e. as he expounds himself in the 25. in gaudium Domini into the joy of the Lord regnum à constitutione mundi paratum the Kingdom prepared for the righteous from the foundations of the World i. e. as the Apostle tells us in requiem Domini into the rest of the Lord in civitatem Dei viventis the City of the living God So then it is a rest a joy a glorious City an eternall Kingdom and all of these may serve in part to set forth the condition of this heavenly dwelling A rest for them which die in the Lord in which they rest from all their labours And this sit of which St. Paul speaks in the 4th to the Hebrews There remains therefore a rest for the people of God a joy of so divine and sublime a nature that no tongue is able to express it nor heart so large as to conceive it for in his presence is the fulnesse of joy and at his right hand there is pleasure for evermore Et nunquam turbata quies gaudia fiâ—ma A City of pure Gold and as clear as Chrystal the Walls of Jasper-stone and the Gates of Pearl watered with the most pleasant Rivers of the waters of life according as it is described in the Revelation the man of God describing the full glories of the new Hierusalem in such a manner and by such materials as he conceived to be most estimable in the sight of men And finally a Kingdom an eternall Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdom as it is called by way of excellency in which each true believer shall receive his Crown according to the eminency of his faith and piety a Crown of martyrdom for those who patiently submit themselves to the hands of the persecutors in maintenance of Gods Church and the true Religion a Crown of Virginity for those who subdue concupiscence and give no entertainment to prohibited lusts a Crown of chastity and fidelity for those who have faithfully kept the vow of wedlock and the bed of Marriage undefiled a Crown of charity for those who have exhausted their estates in the works of mercy and the acts of piety in founding Temples for the Lord or Hospitals for relief of the poor and needy and finally a Crown of righteousness for all those who walk unblameably in their Conversation before God and man When all the Monarchs of the Earth have laid down their Scepters at the feet of Christ God shall be still a King of Kings a King to speak the truth of none but Kings Rex Regum Dominus dominantium alwayes but most amply then Never was corn so housed so laid up before Thus as before we brought the Tares the worst sort of weeds unto the fire of condemnation so have we brought the Wheat the best kind of grain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Galen calls it to the barn of glory A grain which as it doth require a ground well tilled and cultivated so lieth it longest buried in the earth of any before it spring into a blade and being sprung into a Blade doth endure much hardness congealed sometimes with snow sometimes nipped with Frost before it grow into a stalk and when the stalk is grown the ear is formed it is exposed to many hazards drencht with unseasonable showres and scorched with as intemperate heats laid flat upon the ground by tempestuous winds some of the grains thereof being scattered by those blasts over all the field before t is brought into the Barn Ecce jam seges cana imbre corrumpitur grandine caeditur as Cecilius noted in the Dialogue And so t is also with the just with the righteous person He doth require much Husbandry great care and Tillage in fitting him to receive the seeds of faith and piety and lyeth long strugling in the womb of regeneration before he doth come forth a spiritual man and is renatus born again advanced unto the state of a man regenerate Multa tulit fecitque puer Much must be suffered and much done before it come to that there 's no question of it Suppose him brought so farre in his way to Heaven as that he hath received the Seal of his regeneration and adoption the testimony of the Spirit that he endeavoureth nothing more then the advancement of Gods glory and increase of piety shall he not be reviled and howted at like the Owl among the wanton birds forsaken by his old acquaintance
even in the middle of our sins and shall we wrest the Sword out of his hands to execute judgement on our selves Doth he expect the reformation and conversion of the sinner till the eleventh houre of the day and will not we tarry for him till the sixth or ninth Is God so patient towards the tares as to expect whether they will prove wheat or not to lay ne fortè as a barre in the way of those who came prepared to go and gather them up without more delay and are we men so inconsiderate of their case and our own condition as to be all for imus colligimus for ne fort◠nothing May we not say in this case with the great Apostle inexcusabilis es O homo Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest another thou condemnest thy self or if thou wilt be judging take this rule along which the Apostle gives thee in another place Nolite judicare ante tempus Judge nothing before the time till the Lord cometh c. 1 Cor. 4. 4. Assuredly it argues little Christianity but farre lesse charity to condemn them to death whom God meanes to save to go about to cut them off and bring them unto execution whom God is purposed to reprieve to a further triall to cast them out of the house as Vessels of wrath who in due time though not so soon as thou expectest may be vessels of mercy Therefore take heed of imus colligimus be not too hasty and precipitate in acting thine own Counsels or in pursuit of those designes which thou hast in hand towards the reformation of the Church of God the extirpation of those tares which thou hast an eye on and by the which thou thinkest Gods Field to be so indangered but let ne forte hold the reines and make thee look with care and circumspection on the work before thee At least refer it all to Vis to the Masters pleasure and then proceed according unto his directions So doing thou shalt more promote thy Masters business then by following the devices and desires of thine own heart for so doing thou shalt be entertained in the Court of Heaven with Euge bone serve Well done thou good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy Which Christian care and moderation God of his goodness grant us all that we may all be made partakers of the like reception in Gods glorious Kingdom Amen SERMON III. At CHRIST-CHURCH Jan. 5th 1644. MATTH 13. v. 30. Sinite utraque simul crescere usque ad messem Let both grow together till the Harvest QUantum inter opera divina humana interest tantum necesse est distare inter Dei hominisque sapientiam It was the observation of Lactantius an ancient Writer That look how great the difference was between the visible works of Almighty God and the poor undertakings of us mortall men so great or greater was the difference between his Heavenly Wisdom and our deepest Counsels Which rule if it be true as no doubt it is how infinitely short must we needes conceive that Solomons wisdom though the wisest of the Sonnes of Adam or Moses knowledge though well trained in all the learning of the Egyptians or the Prophetick spirits of Isaiah Daniel and the rest of the ancient Seers was of the wisdom knowledge foresight of Almighty God For alas what proportion hold the Worlds seven Wonders so celebrated in the Writings of the elder dayes or any of the most heroical achievements of the greatest Potentates with the Creation of the World nay with the composition of the meanest creature in which there is not any thing but what may breed both wonder and astonishment in the mightiest Monarch The wisdom of the wise is it not foolishness with God saith the great Apostle Doth not the same Apostle tell us that our knowledge is imperfect and our fore-sight blinde seeing no more then in Aenigmate through a dark Glasse or a broken Perspective We know saith he in part and in part we prophesie And if in part onely then is neither perfect A clearer instance of this truth we can hardly finde then in the process of this Parable comparing the advice of the Houshold-servants with the decree and finall resolution of their heavenly Master The servants thought there was no safer way to secure the Harvest then an eradication of those dangerous tares which had been sowen during their negligence and security by the crafty enemy To this end they made offer of their help and service vis imus colligimus ea Wilt thou that we go and gather them up v. 28. and they expected thanks at least for the proposition if not an approbation of their course and Counsel But contrary their Master seeing further then the servants could and being apprehensive of the dangers which might follow on it had their advice been entertained first countermands their offer with an absolute Negative Et ait Non but he said Nay he did not like of their intention the gathering of the tares in the way proposed would have procured more mischief to the Field of God then the tares themselves did seem to threaten And more then so he lets them see which all the wisdom of the world would have never thought of that the best way to save the Harvest and preserve the Wheat was to permit the tares and wheat to grow up together till they were ready for the Reapers and then to gather them and dispose them in their proper places according to the will and pleasure of the Lord their God This the coherence of the Text with the former passages this the Text it self Sinite utraque c. In these words we have these two general parts to be considered the sufferance of Almighty God and the season of it 2ly the condition of the Church and the causes of it the sufferance of Almighty God towards sinful man in the first word Sinite suffer them both to grow together the season of it in the last usque ad messem till the Harvest The condition of the Church represented to us in the intermixture of the Wheat and Tares both which are here permitted simul crescere to grow up together till the Harvest the causes of this intermixture not expressed in terminis but to be found if sought for without much adoe In the first generall we shall examine these three points 1. What is meant by messis the approching Harvest and the use thereof 2. What induces the Heavenly Husbandman to give so long a sinite to the Tares when meanes and opportunity was offered for their extirpation And 3. Whether the sinite of the Text delivered in the Imperative mood be so strong and binding that in no case the tares are to be rooted out till the Harvest come In the next generall we shall shew you 1. That the Church here militant is of such condition that good and bad the Orthodox Professor and the Heretick
present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Till that day come it is not to be hoped or looked for but that many Hypocrites false Teachers and licentious livers will couch themselves under the shelter of the Church and passe for members of it in the eye of men though not accounted such in the sight of God The eye of man can possibly discern no further then the outward shew and mark who joyn themselves to the Congregation to hear the Word of God and receive his Sacraments Dominus novit qui sunt sui the Lord knowes only who are his and who are those occulti intus whose hearts stand fast in his Commandements and carefully possess their souls in truth and holiness And yet some men there are as here hath been formerly who fancy to themselves a Church without spot or blemish and dream of such a field as contains no tares of such a house as hath no vessels but of honour sanctified and prepared for the Masters use And where they finde not such a Church they desert it instantly and cry Go out of her my people be not partakers of her sins The Cathari in the East the Donatists in the South the Novatians in the West which made one faction only though of several names were anciently of this opinion and set up Churches of their own of the new Edition for flattering themselves with a conceit of their own dear sanctity they thought themselves too pure and pious to joyn in any act of worship with more sober Christians and presently confined the Church which before was Catholick to their own private Conventicles and to them alone or intra partem Donati as they phrased it then Who have succeeded them of late both in their factions and their follies we all know too well The present ruptures in this State do declare most evidently that here is pars Donati now as before in Africa A frenzy which gave great offence to the ancient Fathers who laboured both by speech and pen to correct their insolencies and of such scandall to the Churches of the Reformation that Calvin though a rigid man did confute their dotages and publickly expose them to contempt and scorn The Ancients and the Moderns both have agreed on this that though the Church of Christ be imperfect alwayes and may sometimes be faulty also yet are not men rashly to separate themselves from her Communion and make a rupture for poor trifles in the Body mystical It argues little faith lesse charity saith renowned Cyprian if when we see some tares in the Church of God de Ecclesia ipsa recedamus we presently withdraw our selves and forsake her fellowship And here we might bring in St. Austin and almost all the ancient Writers to confirm this point but that they are of no authority with the captious Schismatick and now of late disclaimed by our neater Wits Therefore for further satisfaction to the stubborn Donatist let us behold the constitution of the Church in the Book of God and take a view of the chief types and fortunes of it to see if we can sinde such a spotless Church as they vainly dream of In Adams Family which was the first both type and Seminary of the Church of God there was one Cain a murderer that slew his Brother and in the Ark the next and perhaps the greatest a Cham which wretchedly betrayed the nakedness of his aged Father In Abrahams house there was an Ishmael which mocked at Isaac though the Heire and the Heire of promise In Isaac's a prophane Esau who made his belly his God and sold Heaven for a break-fast In Jacob's there was Simeon and Levi Brethren in evill besides a Reuben who defiled â—is old Fathers bed And in the Church of Israel when more large and populous how many were mad upon the worship of the golden Calf more mad in offering up their Children to the Idol Moloch thousands that bowed the knee to Baal ten thousands which did sacrifice in the Groves and prohibited places yet all this while a Church a true visible Church with which the Saints and Prophets joyned in Gods publick worship Let us next look upon the Gospel and we shall find that when the bounds thereof were so strait and narrow that there were few more visible members of it then the twelve Apostles yet amongst them there was a Judas which betrayed his Master When it began to spread and inlarge it self to the number of one hundred and twenty there were among them some half-Christians such as Nicodemus who durst not openly profess the Gospel but came unto the Lord by night and some false Christians such as Demas who out of an affection to the present world forsook both the Apostle and the Gospel too See them increased to such a multitude that they were fain to choose seven Deacons to assist the work and one of them will be that Nicolas the founder of the Nicolaitans whom the Lord abhorred Follow it out of Jewrie to Samaria and there we find a Simon Magus as formall a Professor as the best amongst them yet full of the gall of bitterness within Trace it in all its progress through Greece and Asia and we shall see the factiousness of the Corinthians the foolishness of the Galatians and six of the seven Asian Churches taxed with deadly sinne Good God! into what corner of the Earth can the Donatist run to finde a Church without corruption free from sin and error It must be sure into the old Utopia or the new Atlantis or some fools Paradise in Terra incognita which no Mapp takes notice of unless as Constantine once said unto Acesius a Novatian Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they can erect a Ladder of their own devising and so climb up unto the Heavens whilest they are here upon the Earth they have no such hopes God better knowes then we what he hath to do and he already hath determined of a Simul crescere that both the Tares and Wheat shall grow up together Nor wanted his eternal wisdom some especial reasons which might incline him thereunto First in relation to the wicked who owe their preservation chiefly to this intermixture For certainly the note is true Deum propter bonos sustinere malos That God gives many temporal blessings to ungodly men because they live so intermingled with his faithful servants and respites them sometimes from the hand of punishment not for their own but for the righteous persons sake amongst whom they dwell The Lord we know blessed Laban for the sake of Jacob and prospered the whole house of Potiphar out of the love he bare to Joseph If Sodom stood so long unpunished it was in part because of righteous Lot who sojourned with them and possibly it might have stood to this very day but certainly have