nature so the desires of the Soul are unsatisfied here the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing nor the understanding with knowledg nor the heart with the best and choicest delights of it We are soon wearied and tir'd with what we have and are as thirsty of that we have not In our plenty as craving as others in their greatest wants The goods of this world are Hydropick all quo plus bibuntar plus sitiuntur They that have the greatest share and portion in them of Wealth of Honour of Power do not sleep the better nor are their bodies less comber'd with diseases nor their minds freer from vexations and troubles And therefore as the Saints I nam'd before did by what they willingly suffer'd here shew plainly that they sought another Countrey so by this is shewn as plainly that they had cause to do so Now here lies the fatal necessity of erring they seek a Countrey and City that is invisible and unknown to nature either what the state of that Countrey is or by what laws the Citizens thereof are to be govern'd And when we walk in the dark it is not strange we should lose our way A chief part of that way lies first in the knowledg and worship of that God who had prepar'd for them a City by what Sacrifices Rites and Ceremonies he will be serv'd How much of that may be had by nature we learn by those who were most likely to know but did not who were the masters of knowledge to most other Nations for of such S. Paaul speaks Rom. 1. Who when they profess'd themselves to be wise as well they might in many other things yet in this of Gods worship they became fools For they turned the glory of the uncorruptible God into the similitude and image of corruptible Man and of birds and fourfooted beasts and of creeping things The right way of worshipping God since reveal'd to us to be by Jesus Christ was not only unknown to them but to those to whom God had more peculiarly imparted himself The mysterie of Christ Ephes 3. 5. in other ages was not made known to the Sons of men untill he was reveal'd unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by his Spirit Yea it was unknown to the very Angels who when it was first reveal'd in a kind of admiration and curiosity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desir'd to look the word signifies earnestly to pry into And that which the Angels of Heaven did not know certainly the sons of men could not The other part of the way to that heavenly Countrey in which we may naturally seem to have some skill the way of vertue that is in the stile of Scripture to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world appeared to the very Heathen to be the only way to happiness Yet these natural impressions were so dim and imperfect both through Original corruption and the over-ruling power of passion and lust that of those things they knew they held the truth in unrighteousness even to the very perverting of the course of nature as the Apostle observes of them in the same place Rom. 1. Besides many vertues they knew not which are the glory of Christianity as Humility Denying our selves Taking up the Cross Forgiving and Loving our enemies in their eyes looked more like follies then vertues and so they would have done in ours too if we had had no better guide then our selves to lead us By this we may see the necessity we have of Leading let us now see the accommodation we have for it in the Leader Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ a person every way fitted for the purpose both for his skill and good will He knew best the Heavenly Countrey whither we are going and the way to it for he came from thence from the bosom of his Father And for his good will to his own we cannot doubt they are the Sheep which he had purchased with his blood and by that had a just title to govern in what Lordly way of Secular domination he pleased yet chose that easie gentle way as Shepherds use to lead their Sheep And such he professed himself to be I am the good Shepherd the good Shepherd giveth his life for the Sheep and He made it good in every point while he was upon earth He went about doing good preaching the Gospel healing the diseases of the Sheep forgiving their sins till he came to the last and hardest work of a good Shepherd He laid down his life for his Sheep Yet his Pastoral care died not with him As he was a Priest for ever so he was a Shepherd for ever for after he had in person ascended into Heaven he took care for his flock that he left behind Him that they might not be as Sheep without a Shepherd And from thence gave gifts unto men some Apostles some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers c. to continue still his Pastoral charge upon earth and they were the same persons which before he went he had designed for it and for the same reason that the Father sent Him to seek and save the Sheep that were lost as appears in the preamble to the commission given to the Apostles Mat. 9. 36. When he saw the multitude he had compassion on them because they were dispersed and scattered abroad like Sheep having no Shepherd This commission indeed was only to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel while he was alive but when he rose again from the dead He renewed and enlarged it to the lost Sheep of all the world Go and teach all Nations And as he assigned the persons sicut misit me Pater As the Father sent me so send I you He Instituted likewise the office it self in all the points and parts of it 1. Go and teach all Nations baptizing c. there he gave the power of preaching and baptizing 2. He commands a perpetual memorial of his death in the Sacrament of his blessed body and blood Hoc facite c. 3. He gave them at the same time the power of the Keyes Whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. 4. And before that in case of contumacy he gave power to excommunicate offenders If he will not hear the Church let him be as a heathen and publican 5. He ordered them how and what to pray VVhen ye pray say c. 6. He gave them power and jurisdiction over false Shepherds to expel them from the flock Beware of false Prophets which come to you in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly are ravening VVolves These and the like are the parts of the Shepherds office And to all these in the third place he gave besides a divine vertue and efficacy to work supernatural effects upon the Soul Not only the institution but the power also is from him And therefore by S. Paul he is called the great Shepherd
like or dislike It is not simple hearing the Sense it self is not capable of advice but mix'd St. Paul gives the reason why the Gospel being preach'd to the Jews did not profit them because not mix'd with Faith in them that heard it It is not simple hearing but mix'd with a more noble part of the Soul that guides it And so to take heed what you hear is in effect to take heed what Faith and Credit you give to that you hear for so it follows in the Verse VVith what measure you mete it shall be measur'd to you the benefit will answer to the care measure for measure But what different measure can there be of that which differs not Gods Word is from everlasting unchangeable The grass may wither and the flower thereof may fade away saith St. Peter but the word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you 1 Pet. 1. ult Though Gods word be one in it self yet that one hath been made known to the world in different ways and Degrees and so requires a hearing proportionable to them God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken by his Son And likewise that which the Son spake in those last days the days of the Gospel was in divers manners For first he spake by himself in person The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor That which he preached was certainly Gods word And when he left the world to go to his Father he sent the Holy Ghost from Heaven who in the mouth of the Apostles preached the same Gospel for those holy men spake not by the will of man but as they were mov'd by the Holy Ghost And therefore this also was truly the word of God And when the Church was thus founded by the preaching of the Holy Ghost for the propagation of it to all times after it pleased God to give it in VVriting in a Scripture and that by inspiration of the same Spirit which before preached it So as now we need not ascend to Heaven to fetch Christ down nor the Holy Ghost as some pretend to do to know Gods will but to receive it only from that Scripture Thus far we have the Word of God in Proper i. e. immediately out of the mouth of God and our hearing must be absolute for the matter we must say with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth But when it pleased God to commit the dispensing of that word to the Pastors of the Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes 4. 12. Now the word of God was come into the hands of men subject to infirmities and error who may both deceive themselves and others And here our Saviours advice comes in season Take heed what you hear Before Gods word was in the Original but here only in the Transcript or Copy and some Copyings are more happy than others and come nearer the Original and therefore not all of the same value and esteem All Preachers are not to be heard alike nor all Sermons The word of God in them is so the water of Life that it often tastes of the mineral through which it runs and hath a tincture from the earthen Vessel that brings it and therefore not to be receiv'd with that measure of trust which belongs to the pure and proper word of God For take a Sermon at the best the most you can make of it is that it is Gods word only in a qualified sense because the Church intends it should be so and it is the Preachers judgment and opinion that it is so and possibly it may be so indeed But then because possibly it may not be so we had need take heed what we hear We learn from St. Paul that it was more than possible it was truly so then for he warns Timothy of Preachers that will strive about words to no purpose but to the subversion of the hearers 2 Tim. 2. 14. And verse 16. By prophane and vain bablings do increase to more ungodliness And verse 17. Their word will eat as doth a Canker or a Gangrain for so the Greek word is and that 's a dangerous Disease and by all means possible to be avoided and especially to be taken heed of Thus it was in the early times of the Church we have reason then to look for worse after and so we of late times found it by sad experience Not only profane and vain bablings but Sedition Treason Rebellion were drest up and appear'd in the likeness of Sermons It is too plain we have but too much need of caution to take heed But alas what should private men do must they or can they call all Preachers and Doctrines to account The Scriptures indeed which are the undoubted Word of God would do it if well manag'd but how can that be hoped from every hand wherein wise that is learned men are mistaken and from whence every Sect seeks Patronage and perswades it self to have it What means is there then left by the help whereof we may take heed what we hear Truly none that I know but this still the Scriptures are the only insallible rule But how Not left loose to the prejudices and fancies of every man for then it will fall out as with those that look in a Glass in which every one sees his own face though not anothers the reason is because he brings his face to the Glass not because it was there before So every Sect sees the face of his own Religion in the Scripture not because it was there before but because his strong fancy and prejudice brought it thither he thinks he sees that in the Scripture which in truth is only in his own imagination But how then can we have any help from the Scriptures to take heed what we hear Not as Gods word lies diffus'd through the whole body of them but as prepar'd and â—itted up in a summary and short form of wholsom words by such to whom the care of the Church is committed If any shall think this a humane invention derogatory to the sufficiency of the Scriptures Let him implead St. Paul first who made the same use of it finding what mischief false Teachers had done charges Timothy with the care of it 2 Tim. 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me This form he calls in the last verse of the former Epistle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a depositum committed to his trust and for that very purpose that he might avoid profane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsly so called and that is plainly that they might take heed what they hear The same course was
taken by the whole Church after considering how hard or rather impossible it was for every one out of the Scriptures to work out to himself an assurance of the knowledge of as much as was necessary to salvation and with that a consent with the rest of the faithful who are commanded to speak and think the same things which cannot be done but in a certain form of words Such a form if not the same with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the Apostles Creed the use whereof hath ever since continued in the Church to be a help to take heed what we believe The same course was of later times held by divers particular National Churches who weary with the insolence and domineering of their Sister at Rome did suo jure uti and provide for themselves which fell out in a time when the world was filled with Controversies and Disputes of Religion That the people might not be carried about with every wind of doctrine that blew from all corners it was their care and wisdom to compose a form of wholsome words in their several Confessions to be a rule what to hear Now following our Saviours advice you have reason to ask With what measure of Faith are these confessions to be received for Quis custodiet ipsum custodem What credit must be given to that which must be a rule how far we credit others That we mistake not They are not to be received with that faith which is due to Gods word or any thing out of it as necessary to salvation but with such as wise men would give to the means of setling unity and consent in matters controverted as the title of our Confession imports that is That they are Articles of Peace not Articles of Faith They make no new Religion or new Faith This by the way gives an easie Answer to the Papists hard Question as they think Where was your Religion before Luther Where was your Church before the 39. Articles We do not date our Religion from those Articles The Church of England I grant is call'd so from their Confession but by an accidental denomination i. e. It is that Church which for preservation of unity and peace in it injoyns nothing to be taught or heard for God's Word which is repugnant to them in the particulars there mentioned But for the essential denomination of our Faith whereon Salvation depends it is the Faith of God's Word summ'd up in the ancient Catholick and Apostolick Forms as is evident from our Constitutions and Practice For when any is received as a Member into the Church by Baptism the Laver of Regeneration no other Faith is required but that which is comprised in the Apostles Creed And when by a confession of our Faith and Sins we prepare to receive the other Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord our Faith is that according to the ancient Nicene Creed And in the Office of Visiting the Sick the Absolution a comfort at all times and most of all when we give up our Souls into the Hands of God is not to be administred but to those that make confession as well of their Faith as of their Sins and that Faith is only according to the Apostles Creed Thus are we born nourish'd and dissolv'd by the same Faith according to the ancient Catholick and Apostolick Forms A Faith of this age neither ought they to reproach nor we to be asham'd of To return to our particular Church Confession it hath another end and use they are Articles of peace and consent in certain Controversies to instruct and help us to take heed what we hear But it will not be so taken by all for the Churches Remedy is the Sectaries Disease who complain That by this means the liberty of the Spirit and of the Conscience are penn'd up in those Forms and which is a worse mischief if it were true a binding of God's Word which ought to be free But for that God's Word neither is nor can be bound The Forms are no more but the gathering together some of those Waters which flow all over the Scriptures into a stream to fit them for the ease and use of all But they say they take a better course to fetch all from the Fountain The Fountain indeed is purer but I see no reason why the Water should be purer in their Pitchers than in the Churches Stream seeing both claim immediately to the same Fountain They say again That these Forms are no better than snares to hinder many a painful Preacher of the Gospel They would seem careful to unbind God's Word but I see it is to set themselves at liberty As for painfulness in Preaching if it be not to some good purpose I shall not much reckon upon The Pharisees compassed Sea and Land but it was to make Pharisees Proselytes of their Faction not of Religion Nay but they preach the Gospel The Gospel is a glorious Word but what Gospel A Gospel you may perhaps have enough of and too much S. Paul informs Timothy of perilous times to come when men will be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded How think you comes it to pass that there should be such a general Apostacy was it not for want of preaching They had no Sermons or perhaps no great affection for them they were some cold hearers that were content with one Sermon a day No that was not the matter if we read on to the next Chapter we shall find they had hearing enough for they were such as heap'd to themselves Teachers and so had heaps of Sermons and affection for them too for they had itching ears What was it then They could not away with sound Doctrine but would have Teachers after their own lusts they had the Gospel in plenty but it was Evangelium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after their own lusts not of sound Doctrine But what is sound Doctrine S. Paul doth not say here because a little before he had given Timothy a form of it Keep the Form of sound words which thou hast heard from me and because their Gospel did not agree to that he chargeth him to avoid it So should we do too with such a Gospel as will not stand within our form of wholesom words Or if it be such as was preached here for twenty years together we have little reason to be fond of it or any pains that is taken about it If they will not hear the Churches Gospel what reason hath the Church to hear theirs To end my first point If it was wisdom in St. Paul to commend a form of words and in the whole Catholick Church to use one if the same was practis'd by every reformed Church and all that people might with peace and security know what to hear I do not
Church-door so wide when the Gate of Heaven is strait why should they be taken in here if they shall be turned back there The Church is a City as Jerusalem a City that is at unity in it self so it is a City too that hath gates and walls to shut out others He that came to a little City where there was a great Gate merrily warned the Citizens to take heed lest their City went not out at the Gate may soberly be said to those that would have the Church-door so wide to let in all Sects to take heed lest the Church gets not out at the door For where so many Religions are it may be feared that soon there will be none at all If we be not as the Apostle commands built up in the same Faith it will avail us little to be found within the same walls It is therefore a perverse remedy for peace to abate or diminish the Articles and definitions of the Church which were made of purpose to take away controversies it would be a strange course to end controversies to take away the definitions Our Student must read his Books backward if he seek for peace from hence We might as well say all the world would be quiet if there were no Judges nor Laws to determine differences There is another Expedient for Peace which I hear much spoken of and highly set by as a great point of prudence If men of moderate opinions were only taken into imployment in the Church Moderation I confess is an excellent vertue and much to be desired Let your moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4. 5. But then it must be in a subject capable of it wherein there are extremes and excesses to be moderated as there is certainly in our passions there it is proper S. Paul gives it for a Lesson to all Students in Religion Ephes 4. 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another and tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you This no doubt is a very fit temper for quiet and none more unfit then angry waspish and domineering spirits Only this caution is to be observed in lenity That it be such as may win men into the Church not such as may secure and encourage them to stay without Yet lenity and gentleness is so good a Vertue that I am loth to cast water upon it or seem to temper it But for men of moderate opinions I am at a loss to know what they should be for moderation there cannot be but between extreams Now what extreams are there of opinions in a setled Church unless the Church be one extream and the Schismatick another and then the man of moderate opinions is he that is part Church-man and part Schismatick I hope none are so unkind to their Mother the Church to charge extremities upon her Doctrine or Laws If there be any such they are but Hybrides in Religion and make a new sect in the Church as pernicious to the peace of it as any of the rest The truth is moderate opinions are a Chimaera a phansie either nothing or somewhat worse then nothing for possibly they may bestow that good word Moderation upon such as care little either to observe the Law themselves or to require it of others If these be the men of moderate opinions I wonder how they will be able to give account of their justice and fidelity to the trust committed to them Yes they say very well It is rather prudence then injustice to mitigate and sweeten the sharpness and rigour of the Law But if the Law it self be too rigorous in God's name let it be amended and not left to the arbitrary power of others to do it for that 's known to be a remedy ten times worse then the disease It is said in Physick I know not how truly that an error in the first concoction is not mended in the second It is certainly true here an error or excess in the Law which is the first concoction of justice will be ill cured afterward by an arbitrary partiality in the execution I hope therefore no wise Student of quiet will take such Moderators for the best Ministers of peace But I leave them and come to the most popular and therefore most dangerous principle in the study of quiet that is Liberty of Conscience I have spoken to this point heretofore in this place yet because of late our New Philosophical Divines as well as others press hard for it knowing without a free Market they cannot vend their new bold speculations I shall resume the point again a little more largely yet within the compass of these two particulars First That there is a great deal of reason to restrain the Conscience and Secondly That there is no reason to give it liberty 1. There is reason enough to restrain the Conscience for the mischief it doth to Quiet when it is at liberty for all the discord and divisions of the Church grow from hence and that is a mischief we have reason to avoid Mark them saith S. Paul which cause divisions among you and avoid them There is reason then to mark that which causeth them to make divisions and that 's the Conscience It is no quietter in the Common-wealth where it destroys the very Foundation of Government and frustrates the Ordinance of God for it in Princes and Magistrates for what is left for them to do if every one must follow the dictate of his own Conscience that is in plain terms be bound only to obey himself This is no slander to the pretenders of Conscience they will say as much themselves if ye ask them Ask the Schismatick why he joyns not with the congregation of Gods people and he will tell you His Conscience will not suffer him Ask the Rebel in the State why he takes up Arms to the ruine of his King and Countrey and his Conscience will answer for him That it is Gods cause and it is to do him service Ask him again why he doth not repent of the mischief done by it for that they seldom do and the Conscience will serve that turn too It is Gods cause and the Conscience will not suffer them to repent of that Thus we see the Conscience as it is used doth not only open a door to sin but shuts the very door to mercy that is Repentance If S. John said true as no doubt he did That there were many Antichrists then possibly the Conscience thus improved may be one of them For it sets it self in the Church above all that is called God yea and God himself too in a sense for his Laws are not to be obeyed unless the Conscience first allows them to be his and thus all is resolved into the Conscience as the dernier resort and last appeal While the King and the Pope are contending
a Mercury to point the hand where it lies There is the Kings high-way to peace and the Students private way and both good in their kind With the Kings way I shall not meddle as being fitter matter for our thankfulness then instruction who hath already paved the way for us by wholsom Laws for that purpose But because oft-times Vitia sunt remediis fortiora the compulsory way by Law though always necessary is not always effectual to the Kings way we must add the Students also That every one in his particular makes it his care and business to contribute to it that it be an artificial studied peace to which not Fear only but Conscience of Duty and Religion obligeth us Now every good Student of any Science searches into the true and proper cause of things for Scire est per causas cognoscere If the cause of all division in the Church be differing in judgment nothing can cure that but a consent S. Paul therefore prescribes that for the remedy 1 Cor. 5. 10. That there be no divisions among you how may that be helped It follows But that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment This is the true Apostolical Principle whereon we are to ground our Study of Quiet For all the fine things and sentences that are spoken for peace and quiet will little move those that are and may very well be confident they ought not howsoever have peace with Sin or Error Unless therefore we can be first perswaded that we ought not to charge the Church with either we do nothing for Peace This I confess is the great difficulty yet if this be not done there can be no hope of Peace And to do this I shall not send our Student to the Polemick School to convince him out of speculative Principles of Reason and Divinity for to that study some have not capacity others not leisure I shall only commend to him some practical Principles of Religion obvious to all and denied by none that out of them he may learn not to dissent from or condemn the Church of Error To prevent the passing that sentence let the Student 1. Study himself his own condition 2. Let him Study the Church against which he passeth sentence 3. Let him study the nature and quality of the things whereupon judgment is given 4. Let him consider well the manner of proceeding in judgment In all which we shall find some known Principle of Religion to direct us 1. First In the study of our selves and our own condition Religion teacheth us to have an humble lowly mean opinion of our selves and not without cause whether we respect our Understandings or our Affections Our Understandings are naturally weak imperfect short-sighted we know but in part the best of us and our Affections too are disloyal to our Understandings The heart of man saith the Prophet is deceitful above all things We have little reason then to trust our selves much in either He that is truly conscious of his own weakness or lameness will be content to be supported by others If we study this point well our own infirmities we should learn more willingly to assent to and take support from the Church Especially if in the second place we study that too whose Governors Religion likewise teaches us to obey For they watch over our souls Heb. 13. 17. If it be a good point of Religion in lowliness of mind to esteem others better then our selves Phil. 2. 3. it is Religion and Reason both to think our Governors wiser too for there is a presumption always in favour of them S. Paul gives it for a rule to Timothy Not to receive an accusation against an Elder but before two or three witnesses because it is to be presum'd on the part of Age and Authority to know more and offend less But when it comes to be the whole Eldership all our Governors joyntly the presumption is so much the stronger If we add this study to the former how little reason we have to trust our selves and how much we have to trust our Governors we will not rashly pass sentence against them if we have either Reason or Religion in us 3. And yet we have more work for our Student Let him in the third place consider the nature and quality of the things whereupon judgment is given how apt they are to deceive us Truth is many times so like an Error and Error comes so near to Truth that he had need be careful and circumspect that shall distinguish them in some cases And in others again Truth lies hid under many folds especially ambiguity of words the common cheat of all Students who are more often deceiv'd into opinions then convinc'd It is not strange to see so many go astray from the Church to whom the things of it are represented under the covert of false names when they hear the Government of it called Tyranny obedience slavery contempt courage licence liberty frenzy zeal order superstition How easily thus may simple people mistake their way and fall into the pit that 's cover'd over with shadows and false names of things When he hath studied this point well 4. Let him in the fourth place be well advised in what manner he proceeds in judgment and upon what evidence For allowing the Conscience to be a Judg it must not trespass upon the Rules of good Judicature as both sides must be heard impartially which is seldom done the Conscience must not be mis-led no more then other Judges by prejudice passion or favour for what can that judgment be worth which is perverted by any of these Now if we examine how most men come to pass sentence against the Church we shall find it to be upon very slight evidence It may be their Education they have been always brought up that way for Sects commonly run in a blood in a family Or they have been so taught they say by good men that indeed is the sum and upshot of the Faith of most that dissent the credit given to some weak private ignorant Instructer whose person they have in admiration without any great cause God knows whereas their private judgments because they are parties ought always to be suspected if we be wise and because against their Governors to be contemn'd if we be obedient All these well studied may make for peace when possibly Arguments and Disputes and Punishments too will not do it And yet if still none of these will make our Student quiet Let him in the last place make trial of a common remedy that prevails in all cases of difficulty Let him but study his own security the safest course and he shall find that better provided for in the Churches judgment then in his own for if he should erre in following the Church or his Governors for that is possible the greatest part of that guilt some say all I say only the greatest part must lie at their door
a good qualification in any for business yet give no right or Title to it Great knowledg and skill in the Laws will not set a man upon the Bench nor of Divinity in the Bishops Chair nor will the dexterous glib-gifted tongue put a man into the Pulpit There must be besides a Title and Commission to make them ours But must all the obligations we have to the Publick good and to Gods honour stoop to Commissions Titles and proprieties which are but the creatures and constitutions of men To this question I answer in the words of Job 13. 7. Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him It is deceitful talking to plead for God against himself for though it should be granted that the sorting of several employments and functions have something of man in them yet the confirmation and approbation of God makes it his and so divine for as God hath founded a divine Moral law upon the propriety of goods and possessions Thou shalt not steal yea Thou shalt not covet that which is anothers and yet it comes not to be anothers but by humane Laws So though different states of life and employments have somewhat in them by disposition of Law or our own choice yet upon them is also founded this moral duty to keep within those bounds For though men laid the Land-marks yet God commanded They should not be removed Deut. 19. 15. It is a kind of Burglary to break into another mans business as well as into another mans house or if you will not allow it to be theft to have anothers business found with you as it is to have anothers goods it is as ill as theft in S. Peter's opinion The Murtherer the Thief the Evil-doer the Busie-body there 's a Messe of them he puts them all alike together 1 Pet. 4. 15. To shut up this point If the glory of God and the publick Good and such like fair pretences might let us loose upon one anothers business it would quickly bring us round where we were to that confusion and disorder for remedy whereof the Apostle added this Lesson to the former We shall never learn to be quiet well unless we learn also to keep within our own business Yet I deny not but that Discord and Dissention have other causes besides for of Pride cometh contention saith Solomon Prov. 13. 10. And from covetousness saith S. James they desire and have not James 4. 2. It is true of other Lusts Wrath Revenge Envy Slander and Curiosity too break the peace too often and had need be bound to their good behaviour all Yet we may observe it That none of all these do actually any great mischief that way till they first bring it to this till it draws us from our own station and fling us upon some thing that is none of our own business THE truth of this will more fully be seen in the Third Part which comes next to be considered The Operation it hath had in the world by disturbing the Peace and Quiet of it Meum and Tuum hath not fill'd it with more Suits and Contentions in our Goods and Possessions than it hath in the actions and business of our lives What is our own and what is not our own To arraign all that are guilty of breaking this Rule in several kinds would ask a long process We will therefore take notice only here of the attempts upon Government and Religion by those whose business it was not because the most and greatest tempests and storms in the Christian World have blown from that Coast The Wars and Combustions over all Italy and Germany in the time of the Emperor HENRY the 4th had their beginning from hence Pope Hildebrand GREG. vij not content with that which his Charge and Office of Bishop allow'd him began to measure out to himself a Greatness equal to the City he serv'd in which had been Domicilium Imperii first brake in upon the Temporal Power not heard of before in the Church though then a Thousand years old Where for the better support of his Greatness he endeavoured to get into his Disposing all Church-Promotions and for that end call'd a Council at Rome of a few Bishops for his purpose and there Decreed all Patronages and Donations by Lay-men Princes not excepted to be void and of no effect in Law What could be expected from so Unjust a Decree but vehement Opposition and a bloody Dispute What troubles the same Patronage and Investiture of Bishops brought presently after into this Kingdom our Stories are full of But the angry Pope when he saw he could not quietly enjoy the Rights of the Crown falls fiercely upon the Crown it self and would be Master of that too and then he thought he should Rule to purpose for the Catholick Cause And for an Essay of this bold Usurp'd Power fairly Deposed the Emperor and absolv'd his Subjects of their Obedience This was certainly no Bishops business He may bless the Coronation not dispose of the Crown He may pray for a Godly and Peaceable Government under it not make a prey of it To absolve Penitents of their Sins is a Bishops work not of their Duties that is not to remit their Sins but to make them Sinners Now what was likely to be the effect of all this but that which hapned Wars and Combustions over the whole Empire Though that Pope did not long out-live that Feite of his yet his Successors and their Parasites have so ply'd the Cause ever since that time some directly some indirectly that the fire is not yet extinguished Now if the Pope met with some Princes that would not endure his Ranging thus in their Dominions but thought it high time to quit his Miter to secure their Crowns he may thank himself for it They may call it a Schism if they please but it is a Schism without a Sin That word will hurt none so much as the Causeâ—s and Authors of it For it is but reasonable and just That if the Pope would not know his business that Princes should know theirs This is my First Instance of the Troubles that by this means brake into the whole Church We need not go far from home for another We were in a sad case not long since in this Kingdom by a Civil War I meddle not with the fault let that sleep under the Act of Oblivion We may I trust without offence enquire into the cause of it What were they doing that gave us that disquiet Look upon the Standard set up for the War I mean the most Execrable COVENANT Quomodo legis how read you there was it not medling with business was none of their own They Covenanted first to extirpate the Government of the Church established by Law That Law with hands lifted up to Heaven they swore they would abolish The Legislative Power we know in whom it is to make or mend Laws it was none of their business In this they were certainly too
understand what wisdom it can be to lay all common again for any mans pleasure for this is to legitimate Schism and entail division to the Church for ever As you love your selves your quiet and look to receive benefit by the immortal seed of Gods Word if you would be good Christians that is be advised by Christ and in that way which all Christians have used to Take heed what you hear WE come now to the second point of our care Take heed how you hear and this no less necessary than the former for when we have provided for the Matter what we hear we may yet offend in the Manner how and so lose the benefit of both That which is here set down in proper words is by our Saviour illustrated in a Similitude verse 21. Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to be set on a Candlestick that is and so St. Luke expresses it A candle is not brought to be put under a Bushel but to be set on a Candlestick This makes two points in the manner of our hearing one negative that we do not so hear Gods Word that we put it under a Bushel another affirmative that we set it on a Candlestick For the first Gods Word is a light we can do nothing more contrary to light than to hide it to put it under a Bushel i. e. to do any thing that will intercept the light and benefit of it Now this may be done several ways First By perverting the proper end and use of hearing Hearing Gods word is certainly a good point of Religion for it is a duty commanded verse 23. If any man have ears to hear let him hear yet if he hear as he should he must not mistake one kind of duty for another Duties are of divers kinds some essential parts of Religion some instrumental and some both The two chief duties of this time fasting and hearing are instrumental onely That Fasting is so we learn from St. Paul The Kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink i. e. consists not in it yet if well used is a help to it Instrumenti vis in usu consistit If fasting attains not the end and use of it it is good for nothing not to be reckon'd in the order of Religious duties So hearing Gods Word if it work no amendment in us is but a Cypher alone that stands for nothing no better than a Candle under a Bushel When hearing is not it self doth not the own duty we are extreamly mistaken if we make it serve for any other Hearing doth edifie help to the building but as an Instrument not as Stone and Timber the essential parts of it The Ax and the Hammer the Square and the Level are instruments without which there can be no building but we would think him mad that should therefore lay them in the Walls or the Foundation They are as much guilty of folly who make their ordinary worship of God to be nothing but to go hear the Sermon yea and the extraordinary a solemn Fast and Humiliation to hear a Sermon A publick Thanksgiving to hear a Sermon and that is all If any business extraordinary fall out whereunto we think fit by our Devotion to ingage Gods blessing and protection all we do for his sake we sit and hear a Sermon If the Sermon doth the work of an instrument it is well to fit and enable us to perform those duties it self is neither stick nor stone in the Building We must not think all is done when the Sermon is done Instruments are of an indifferent nature may be well or ill used so are not essentials as Faith Repentance and Charity are constantly the same Fasting I said was an instrumental duty and so was as well us'd for strife and debate as for Humiliation and Repentance We may remember many of those fighting Fasts He that hew'd Timber before out of the thick Trees was known to bring it to an excellent work but now they break down all the carved works thereof with Axes and Hammers that is with the same tools that built it As Sermons are instruments to build up at another time they pull down as fast It is therefore very necessary we take heed how we hear them As we must not mistake in the kind of the duty an instrumental for an essential so nor in the kind of the Instrument for some are natural as the eye is of seeing the ear of hearing these naturally do their work Others positive of Divine Institution which have no vertue or power but from that and such are the Sacraments I confess I never heard any say that hearing of Gods Word was a Sacrament of Faith yet I know there is more vertue ascrib'd to it than natural and by some more than Sacramental for no Sacrament they think effectual without a Sermon If there be a mistake in the manner and kind of operation in the Instrument it will prove another putting the Candle under a Bushel I hope you will not think it a fruitless curiosity to enquire a little farther into it Hearing and Preaching both for they always go together are so proper to the Gospel that by them it is distinguished from the Law for St. Paul arguing for the Christian Faith against the Jewish calls it the Hearing of Faith Gal. 3. 2. He that ministreth to the spirit and worketh miracles among you doth he it by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith The like propriety in the Gospel hath preaching for whatsoever way the wisdom of the world may take It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. And thus by way of distinction the Gospel is call'd the ministration of the Spirit because preached by inspiration of the Spirit and the Law the ministration of the Letter because given in writing 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who hath made us Ministers of the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of the Letter but of the Spirit But was there then no hearing nor preaching under the Law That cannot be said neither They have Moses and the Prophets saith Abraham to Dives let them hear them And the Priest's lips could not preserve knowledge unless it were received from his mouth by hearing It was commonly practised in the Synagogues after the reading of the Law in the time of the Apostles to exhort the people When St. Paul and his company went into the Synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia they were desired to give the people a word of exhortation How then comes it to pass that by hearing and preaching the Christian Religion is distinguished from the Jews which are common to both And why is the Law call'd the ministration of the Letter by way of distinction seeing the Gospel is written as well as the Law 'T is plain that these things are spoken not simply and universally of either but in relation to their beginning and