any thing I know at all to trouble this place any more hereafter Let us all now humbly beseech Almighty God to grant a blessing to what hath been presently taught and heard that it may work in the hearts of us all charitable affections one towards another due obedience to lawfull authority and a conscionable care to walk in our severall callings faithfully painfully and peaceably to the comfort of our own souls the edification of Gods Church and the glory of the ever-blessed Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons and one God To whom be ascribed by us and the whole Church as is most due the Kingdome the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AD CLERUM The Second Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 24. Apr. 1621. ROM 3.8 And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just A Little before at the fourth verse S. Paul had delivered a Conclusion sound and comfortable and strengthened it from Davids both experience and testimony in Ps. 51. A place pregnant and full of sinews to enforce it The Conclusion in effect was that Nothing in man can anull the Covenant of God Neither the originall unworthinesse of Gods Children through the universall corruption of nature nor their actuall unfaithfulnesse bewrayed through frailty in particular trials can alienate the free love of God from them or cut them off from the Covenant of Grace but that still God will be glorified in the truth and faithfulnesse of his promises notwithstanding any unrighteousnesse or unfaithfulnesse in man But never yet was any Truth so happily innocent as to maintain it self free from Calumny and Abuse Malice on the one hand and Fleshlinesse on the other though with different aimes yet doe the same work They both pervert the Truth by drawing pestilent Corollaries from sound Conclusions as the Spider sucketh poyson from medicinable herbs But with this difference Malice slandereth the Truth to discountenance it but Fleshlinesse abuseth the Truth to countenance it selfe by it The cavilling Sophister he would faine bring the Apostles gracious Doctrine into discredit The carnall Libertine he would as faine bring his own ungracious behaviour into credit Both by making false yet colourable Inferences from the former Conclusion There are three of those Inferences but never a good The first If so then cannot God in reason and justice take vengeance of our unrighteousnesse The Colour for why should he punish us for that which so much magnifieth and commendeth his righteousnesse But if our righteousnesse commend the righteousnesse of God what shall we say Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance The second Inference If so then it is injust either in God or Man to condemne us as sinners for breaking the Law The Colour for why should that action be censured of sin which so abundantly redoundeth to the glory of God For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner The third and last and worst Inference If so then it is a good and wise resolution Let us sin freely and boldly commit evil The Colour for why should we fear to do that from which so much good may come in this verse of my Text And not rather let us do evil that good may come This last cavilling Inference the Apostle in this Verse both bringeth in and casteth out again bringeth in as an objection and casteth out by his answer An answer which at once cutteth off both it and the former Inferences And the Answer is double Ad rem Ad hominem That concerneth the force and matter of the objection this the state and danger of the objectors Ad rem in the former part of the Verse And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come Ad hominem in the latter end Whose damnation is just In the former part there is an Objection and the Rejection of it The Objection And not rather Let us do evil that good may come The Rejection thereof with a Non sequitur implying not onely the bare inconsequence of it upon the Apostles conclusion but withall and especially the falsenesse and unsoundnesse of it taken by it self As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil c. My aime at this present is to insist especially upon a Principle of practick Divinity which by joynt consent of Writers old and new Orthodox and Popish resulteth from the very body of this verse and is of right good use to direct us in sundry difficulties which daily arise in vita communi in point of Conscience The Principle is this We must not do any evil that any good may come of it Yet there are besides this in the Text divers other inferiour observations not to be neglected With which I think it will not be amisse to begin and to dispatch them first briefly that so I may fall the sooner and stay the longer upon that which I mainly intend Observe first the Apostles Method and substantiall manner of proceeding how he cleareth all as he goeth how diligent he is and carefull betimes to remove such cavils though he step a little out of his way for it as might bring scandall to the Truth he had delivered When we preach and instruct others we should not think it enough to deliver positive truths but we should take good care also as near as we can to leave them clear and by prevention to stop the mouths of such as love to pick quarrells at the Truth and to bark against the light It were good we would so far as our leisure and gifts will permit wisely forecast and prevent all offence that might be taken at any part of Gods truth and be carefull as not to broach any thing that is false through rashnesse errour or intemperance so not to betray any truth by ignorant handling or by superficiall slight and unsatisfying answers But then especially concerneth it us to be most carefull herein when we have to speak before such as we have some cause before-hand to suspect to be through ignorance or weaknesse or custome or education or prejudice or partiall affections or otherwise contrary-minded unto or at leastwise not well perswaded of those Truths we are to teach If the wayes be rough and knotty and the passengers feeble-joynted and dark-sighted it is but needfull the guides should remove as many blocks and stones out of the way as may be When we have gone as warily as we can to work Cavillers if they list will take exceptions it is our part to see we give them no advantage lest we help to justifie the principals by making our selves Accessories Those men are ill-advised how ever zealous for the Truth that stir in controversed points and
him His damnation is just We have the very case almost in terminis laid down and thus resolved in 2 Pet. 3. In which are some things hard to be understood observe the condition of the things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable observe also the condition of the persons unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction Where we have the matter of great difficulty hard to be understood the persons of small sufficiency unlearned and unstable and yet if men even of that weakness wrest and pervert truths though of that hardnesse they do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their own destruction saith Saint Peter there to their own just damnation saith S. Paul in my Text. This from the Censure in the first sense Take it in the other sense with reference to this ungodly resolution Let us do evil that good may come it teacheth us that no pretension of doing it in ordine ad Deum for Gods glory to a good end or any other colour whatsoever can excuse those that presume to do evil but that still the evil they do is damnable and it is but just with GOD to render damnation to them for it Whose damnation is just And thus understood it openeth us a way to the consideration of that main Principle whereof I spake and whereon by your patience I desire to spend the remainder of my time namely this We must not for any good do any evil For the farther opening and better understanding whereof since the rule is of infinite use in the whole practice of our lives that we may the better know when and where and how far to apply it aright for the direction of our Consciences and Actions we must of necessity unfold the extent of this word evil and consider the several kinds and degrees of it distinctly and apart We must not do evil that good may come First evil is of two sorts The evil of fault and the evil of punishment Malum delicti and Malum supplicii as Tertullian calleth them or as the more received terms are Malum Culpae and Malum Poenae The evil we commit against God and the evil God inflicteth upon us The evil we do unjustly but yet willingly and the evil we suffer unwillingly but yet justly In a word the evil of sin and the evil of pain Touching evils of pain if the Case be put when two such evils are propounded and both cannot be avoided whether we may not make choice of the one to avoid the other The resolution is common and good from the old Maxime E malis minimum we may incur the lesse to prevent the greater evil As we may deliver our purse to a Thief rather than fight upon unequal terms to save it and in a tempest cast our wares into the Sea to lighten the ship that it wreck not and indure the lancing and searching of an old sore to keep it from festering and spreading And this Principle in my Text is not a rule for that Case that being propounded concerning evils of pain whereas my Text is intended onely of the evils of sin We are herehence resolved that we are not to do any evil that good may come of it for all which yet we may suffer some evil that good may come of it Although to note that by the way the common answer è malis minimum even in the evils of pain is to be understood as most other practical conclusions are not as simply and universally but as commonly and ordinarily true For as one saith well perhaps there are Cases wherein two evils of Pain being at once propounded it may not be safe for us to be our own carvers But I must let passe the Questions concerning the evils of Pain as impertinencies The evils of sin are of two sorts Some are evil formally simply and per se such as are directly against the scope and purpose of some of Gods Commandements as Atheism against the first Idolatry against the second and so against the rest Blasphemy Profanenesse Disloyalty Cruelty Adultery Injustice Calumny Avarice and the like all which are evil in their own nature and can never positis quibuscunque circumstantiis be done well Othersome are evil onely respectively and by accident but otherwise in their own nature indifferent and such as may be and are done sometimes well sometimes ill To know the nature of which things the better since they are of singular use for the resolution of many Cases of Conscience we must yet more distinctly inquire into the different kinds or rather degrees of indifferent things and into the different means whereby things otherwise in nature indifferent become accidentally evil for their use Indifferent things are either equally or unequally such We may call them for distinctions sake and I think it not altogether unfitly indifferentia ad utrumlibet and indifferentia ad unum Indifferentia ad utrumlibet or equally indifferent things are such as barely considered are arbitrary either way and hang in aequilibrio between good and evil without turning the Scale either one way or other as not having any notable inclination or propension unto either rather than other as to drink fasting to walk into the fields or to lift up ones hand unto his head c. Now concerning such things as these if any man should be so scrupulous as to make a matter of conscience of them and should desire to be resolved in point of Conscience whether they were good or evil as namely whether he should do well or ill to walk abroad into the fields a mile or two with his friend the thing it self is so equally indifferent that it were resolution enough to leave it in medio and to answer him there were neither good nor hurt in it the Action of walking barely considered being not considerably either morally good or morally evil I say morally for in matter of health or civility or otherwise it may be good or evil but not morally and spiritually and in matter of conscience And I say withall barely considered for there may be circumstances which may make it accidentally evil As to walk abroad in the fields when a man should be at Divine service in the Church is by accident morally evil through the circumstance of Time as on the contrary not to walk if we have promised to meet a friend at such a time and in such a place who standeth in need of our present help is by accident morally evil through the obligation of that former promise But yet still these and other circumstances set aside barely to walk or barely not to walk and the like are Indifferentia ad utrumlibet things in their own nature and that equally indifferent Things unequally indifferent are such as though they be neither universally good nor absolutely evil yet even barely considered sway more or less rather the one way than
the other And that either unto good or unto evil Of the former sort are such outward actions as being in Morall precepts indefinitely commanded are yet sometimes sinfully and ill done as giving an Alms hearing a Sermon reproving an Offender and the like Which are in themselves good and so be accounted rather than evil though some unhappy circumstance or other may make them ill Of the latter sort are such outward actions as being in Moral precepts indefinitely prohibited are yet in some cases lawfull and may be well done as swearing an oath travelling on the Sabbath day playing for money and the like Which are in themselves rather evil than good because they are ever evil unless all circumstances concur to make them good Now of these actions though the former sort carry the face of good the latter of evil yet in very truth both sorts are indifferent Understand me aright I do not mean indifferent indifferentiâ contradictionis such as may be indifferently either done or not done but indifferent onely indifferentiâ contrarietatis such as suppose the doing may be indifferently either good or evil because so they may be done as to be good and so they may be done also as to be evil But yet with this difference that those former though indifferent and in some cases evil are yet of themselves notably and eminently inclined unto good rather than evil and these later proportionably unto evil rather than good From which difference it cometh to passe that to the Question barely proposed concerning the former actions whether they be good or evil the answer is just and warrantable to say indefinitely they are good and contrarily concerning the later actions to say indefinitely they are evil Which difference well weighed to note that by the way would serve to justifie a common practice of most of us in the exercise of our Ministry against such as distaste our doctrine for it or unjustly otherwise take offence at it Ordinarily in our Sermons we indefinitely condemn as evil swearing and gaming for money and dancing and recreations upon the Sabbath day and going to Law and retaliation of injuries and Monopolies and raising of rents and taking forfeitures of Bonds c. and in our own coat Non-residency and Pluralities c. Most of which yet and many other of like nature most of us do or should know to be in some cases lawfull and therefore in the number of those indifferent things which we call Indifferentia ad unum You that are our hearers should bring so much charitable discretion with you when you heare us in the Pulpits condemn things of this nature as to understand us no otherwise than we either do or should mean and that is thus that such and such things are evill as now adaies through the corruptions of the times most men use them and such as therefore should not be adventured upon without mature and unpartiall disquisition of the uprightnesse of our affections therein and a severe triall of all circumstances whether they carry weight enough with them to give our consciences sufficient security not onely of their lawfulnesse in themselves and at large but of their particular lawfulnesse too unto us and then But this by the way Now to proceed There are divers meanes whereby things not simply evil but in themselves either equally or unequally indifferent may yet become accidentally evil Any defect or obliquity any unhappy intervening circumstance is enough to poyson a right good action and to make it stark naught I may as well hope to graspe the Sea as to comprehend all those meanes I make choice therefore to remember but a few of the chiefest such as happen oft and are very considerable Things not simply evil may accidentally become such as by sundry other meanes so especially by one of these three Conscience Scandall and Comparison First Conscience in regard of the Agent Though the thing be good yet if the Agent doe it with a condemning or but a doubting Conscience the Action becometh evill To him that esteemeth any thing to be uncleane to him it is uncleane and he that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith chap. 14. of this Epistle Secondly Scandall in regard of other men Though the thing be good yet if a brother stumble or be offended or be made weake by it the action becometh evill All things are pure but it is evill for that man who eateth with offence verse 20. there Thirdly Comparison in regard of other actions Though the thing be good yet if we preferre it before better things and neglect or omit them for it the action becometh evill Goe and learne what that is I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9. The stuffe thus prepared by differencing out those things which undistinguished might breed confusion our next businesse must be to lay the rule and to apply it to the severall kinds of evill as they have been differenced I foresaw we should not have time to goe thorow all that was intended and therefore we will content our selves for this time with the consideration of this Rule applyed to things simply evill In them the Rule holdeth perpetually and without exception That which is simply evill may not for any good be done We know not any greater good for there is not any greater good than the Glory of God we scarce know a lesser sinne if any sinne may be accounted little than a harmlesse officious lye Yet may not this be done no not for that Will you speake wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Iob 13.7 If not for the glory of God then certainly not for any other inferiour end not for the saving of a life not for the conversion of a soul not for the peace of a Church and if even that were possible too not for the redemption of a world No intention of any end can warrant the choice of sinfull meanes to compasse it The Reasons are strong One is because sinne in its own nature is de numero ineligibilium and therefore as not eligible propter se for it own sake there is neither forme nor beauty in it that we should desire it so neither propter aliud with reference to any farther end Actus peccati non est ordinabilis in bonum finem is the common resolution of the Schooles In civil and popular elections if men make choice of such a person to beare any office or place among them as by the locall Charters Ordinances Statutes or other Customes which should rule them in their choice is altogether ineligible the election is de jure nulla naught and void the incapacity of the person elected making a nullity in the act of election No lesse is it in morall actions and elections if for any intended end we make choice of such meanes as by the Law of God which is our rule and must guide us are ineligible and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the whole counsel of God In my Application of this Instance and Case blame me not if I do it with some reference to my self Being heretofore by appointment as now again I was to provide my self for this place against such a meeting as this is as in my conscience I then thought it needful for me I delivered my mind and I dare say the Truth too for substance something freely touching the Ceremonies and Constitutions of our Church And I have now also with like freedome shewed the unlawfulnesse of the late disorderly attempts in this Town and that from the ground of my present Text. I was then blamed for that I think unjustly for I do not yet see what I should rerract of that I then delivered and it is not unlikely I shall be blamed again for this unless I prevent it You have heard now already both heretofore that to judge any mans heart and at this time that to slander any truth are without repentance sins justly damnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that offend either in the one or the other their damnation is just To preserve therefore both you from the sin and my self from the blame consider I pray you with reason and charity what I shall say You that are our hearers know not with what hearts we speak unto you that is onely known to our own hearts and to God who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things That which you are to look at and to regard is with what truth we speak unto you So long as what we preach is true agreeable to Gods Word right reason you are not upon I know not what light surmizes or suspicions to judge with what spirits or with what dispositions of heart we preach Whether we preach Christ of envy and strife or of good will whether sincerely or of contention whether in pretence or in truth it is our own good or hurt we must answer for that and at our perill be it if we do not look to that But what is that to you Notwithstanding every way so long as it is Christ and his truth which are preached it is your part therein to rejoice If an Angel from Heaven should preach any untruth unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him be accursed but if the very Devil of hell should preach the truth he must be heard and believed and obeyed So long as Scribes and Pharisees hold them to Moses's Text and Doctrine let them be as damned Hypocrites as Scribes and Pharisees can be yet all whatsoever they bid you observe that you are to observe and do Let me then demand Did I deliver any untruth It had been well done then to have shewn it that I might have acknowledged and retracted it Did I speak nothing but the truth with what conscience then could any that heard me say as yet I heard some did that I preached factiously That I came to cast bones among them That I might have chosen a fitter Text That I might have had as much thanks to have kept away For Faction I hate it my desire and aim next after the good of your souls was above all the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Brethren For casting bones if that must needs be the phrase they were cast in these parts long before my coming by that great enemy to peace and unity and busie sower of discord the Devil otherwise I should not have found at my first coming such snarling about them and such biting and devouring one another as I did My endeavour was rather to have gathered up the bones and to have taken away the matter of difference I mean the errour in judgement about and inconformity in practice unto the lawfull Ceremonies of the Church that so if it had been possible all might hâ—ve been quiet without despising or judging one another for these things For thanks I hold not that worth the answering alas it is a poor aim for Gods Minister to preach for thanks For the choyce of my Text and Argument both then and now how is it not unequall that men who plead so as none more for liberty and plainness in reproving sin should not allow those that come amongst them that liberty and plainness against themselves and their own sins I dare appeale to your selves Have you never been taught that it is the Ministers duty as to oppose against all errors and sins in the general so to bend himself as neer as he can especially against the apparent errors and sins of his present auditory And do you not believe it is so Why then might I not nay how ought I not bend my speech both then against a common errour of sundry in these parts in point of Ceremony and now against the late petulancy or at least oversight of some mis-guided ones The noise of these things abroad and the scandall taken thereat by such as hear of them and the ill fruits of them at home in breeding jealousies and cherishing contentions among neighbours cannot but stir us up if we be sensible as every good member should be of the damage and loss the Church acquireth by them to put you in minde and to admonish you as opportunities invite us both privately and publickly Is it not time trow ye to thrust in the sickle when the fields look white unto the harvest Is it not time our Pulpits should a little eccho of these things when all the Countrey far and neer ringeth of them For my own part however others censure me I am sure my own heart telleth me I could not have discharged my Conscience if being called to this place I should have balked what either then or now I have delivered My Conscience prompting me all circumstances considered that these things were pro hîc nunc necessary to be delivered rather than any other if for any outward inferiour respect I should have passed them over with silence I think I should have much swerved from the Rule of my Text and have done a great evil that some small good might come of it But many thousand times better were it for me that all the world should censure me for speaking what they think I should not than that my own heart should condemn me for not speaking what it telleth me I should And thus much of things simply evil I should proceed to apply this Rule We must not do evil that good may come unto evils not simply but accidentally such and that both in the generall and also in some few specials of greatest use namely unto evils which become such through Conscience Scandall or Comparison In my choice of the Scripture I aimed at all this and had gathered much of my provision for it But the Cases being many and weighty I foresaw I could not go onward with my first project without much wronging one or both either the things themselves if I should
unclean of it self That is I stedfastly believe it is a most certain and undoubted truth Again at the two and twentieth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God that is art thou in thy conscience perswaded that thou maist lawfully partake any of the good creatures of God Let that perswasion suffice thee for the approving of thine own heart in the sight of God but trouble not the Church nor offend thy weaker brother by a needlesse and unseasonable ostentation of that thy knowledge Lastly in this three and twentieth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith that is he that is not yet fully perswaded in his own mind that it is lawfull for him to eat some kinds of meats as namely swines flesh or bloodings and yet is drawn against his own judgement to eat thereof because he seeth others so to do or because he would be loth to undergo the taunts and jears of scorners or out of any other poor respect such a man is cast and condemned by the judgement of his own heart as a transgressor because he adventureth to do that which he doth not believe to be lawfull And then the Apostle proceeding ab hypothesi ad thesin immediately reduceth that particular case into a generall rule in these words For whatsoever is not of faith is sin By the processe of which his discourse it may appear that by Faith no other thing is here meant than such a perswasion of the mind and conscience as we have now declared and that the true purport and intent of these words is but thus much in effect Whosoever shall enterprise the doing of any thing which he verily believeth to be unlawfull or at leastwise is not reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulnesse of it let the thing be otherwise and in it self what it can be lawfull or unlawfull indifferent or necessary convenient or inconvenient it mattereth not to him it is a sin howsoever Which being the plain evident and undeniable purpose of these words I shall not need to spend any more breath either in the farther refutation of such conclusions as are mis-inferred hence which fall of themselves or in the farther Explication of the meaning of the Text which already appeareth but addresse my self rather to the application of it Wherein because upon this great principle may depend the resolution of very many Cases of Conscience which may trouble us in our Christian and holy walking it will not be unprofitable to proceed by resolving some of the most material doubts and questions among those which have occurred unto my thoughts by occasion of this Text in my meditations thereon First it may be demanded What power the Conscience hath to make a thing otherwise good and lawfull to become unlawfull and sinfull and whence it hath that power I answer First that it is not in the power of any mans judgement or conscience to alter the naturall condition of any thing whatsoever either in respect of quality or degree but that still every thing that was good remaineth good and every thing that was evil remaineth evil and that in the very same degree of good or evil as it was before neither better nor worse any mans particular judgement or opinion thereof notwithstanding For the differences between good and evil and the severall degrees of both spring from such conditions as are intrinsecall to the things themselves which no Outward respects and much lesse then mens opinions can vary He that esteemeth any creature unclean may defile himself but he cannot bring impurity upon that creature by such his estimation Secondly that mens judgements may make that which is good in its own nature the naturall goodnesse still remaining become evil to them in the use essentially good and quoad rem but quoad hominem and accidentally evil It is our Apostles own distinction in the fourteenth verse of this Chapter Nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean unclean to him But then we must know withall that it holdeth not the other way Mens judgements or opinions although they may make that which is good in it self to become evil to them yet they cannot make that which is evill in it self to become good either in it self or to them If a man were verily perswaded that it were evil to ask his father blessing that mis-perswasion would make it become evil to him But if the same man should be as verily perswaded that it were good to curse his father or to deny him relief being an unbeliever that mis-perswasion could not make either of them become good to him Some that persecuted the Apostles were perswaded they did God good service in it It was Saint Pauls case before his conversion who verily thought in himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Iesus But those their perswasions would not serve to justifie those their actions Saint Paul confesseth himself to have been a persecutor and blasphemer and injurious for so doing although he followed the guidance of his own conscience therein and to have stood in need of mercy for the remission of those wicked acts though he did them ignorantly and out of zeal to the Law The reason of which difference is that which I touched in the beginning even because any one defect is enough to render an action evill and consequently a defect in the agent may do it though the substance of the action remain still as it was good but all conditions must concur to make an action good and consequently a right intention in the agent will not suffice thereunto so long as the substance of the action remaineth still as it was evill Thirdly that the Conscience hath this power over mens wils and actions by virtue of that unchangeable Law of God which he establisheth by an ordinance of nature in our first creation that the will of every man which is the fountain whence all our actions immediately flow should conforme it self to the judgement of the practique understanding or conscience as to its proper and immediate rule and yield it self to be guided thereby So that if the understanding through Errour point out a wrong way and the will follow it the fault is chiefly in the understanding for mis-guiding the will But if the understanding shew the right way and the will take a wrong then the fault is meerly in the will for not following that guide which GOD hath set over it It may be demanded secondly Whether or no in every particular thing we do an actuall consideration of the lawfulnesse and expediency thereof be so requisite as that for want thereof we should sinne in doing it The reason of the doubt is because otherwise how should it appeare to be of faith and Whatsoever is not of faith is sin I answer First that in
no single man might marry nor any servant become free which are apparently contrary both unto common Reason and unto the very purpose of the Chapter But taking the word as we have hitherto specially intended it and spoken of it for some setled Station and Course of Life whereby a man is to maintain himself or wherein to doe profitable service to humane society or both is it yet lawfull for a man to change it or is he bound to abide in it perpetually without any possibility or liberty to alter his course upon any terms I answer it is Lawfull to change it so it be done with due caution It is lawfull first in subordinate Callings For where a man cannot warrantably climb unto an higher but by the steps of an inferiour Calling there must needs be supposed a lawfullness of relinquishing the inferiour How should we doe for Generals for the wars if Colonels and Lieutenants and Captains and common Souldiers might not relinquish their charges and how for Bishops in the Church if beneficed-men and College-Governours were clench't and riveted to their Cures like a nail in a sure place not to be removed Nay we should have no Priests in the Church of England since a Priest must be a Deacon first if a Deacon might not leave his station and become a Priest But St. Paul saith They that have used the office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and so in lower Callings it is that men should give proof of their worthiness for higher It is lawfull secondly yea necessary when the very Calling it self though in it self good and usefull doth yet by some accident become unlawfull or unusefull As when some Manufacture is prohibited by the State or when some more exact device of later invention hath made the old unprofitable It is lawfull thirdly when a man by some accident becommeth unable for the duties of his Calling as by age blindness maim decay of estate and sundry other impediments which daily occurr It is lawfull fourthly where there is a want of sufficient men or not a sufficient number of them in some Callings for the necessities of the State and Country in such cases Authority may interpose and cull out men from other Callings such as are fit and may be spared to serve in those Not to branch out too many particulars it is lawfull generally where either absolute Necessity enforceth it or lawfull Authority enjoyneth it or a concurrence of weighty circumstances faithfully and soberly and discreetly laid together seemeth to require it But then it must be done with due cautions As first not out of a desultory lightnesse Some men are ever restlesse as if they had Wind-mills in their heads every new crotchet putteth them into a new course But these rowling stones carry their curse with them they seldom gather mosse and who prove many Conclusions it is a wonder if their last Conclusion prove not Beggary If thou art well keep thy self well lest thinking to meet with better thou find worse Nor secondly out of the greediness of a covetous or ambitious lust Profit and Credit are things respectively amongst other things to be considered both in the choice and change but not principally and above all other things certainly not wholly and without or against all other things Thirdly nor out of fullennesse or a discontednesse at thy present condition Content groweth from the minde not from the condition and therefore change of the Calling the mind unchanged will either not afford content or not long Thy new broom that now sweepeth clean all discontents from thee will soon grow stubbed and leave as much filth behind to annoy thee as the old one thou flungest away Either learn with Saint Paul in whatsoever state thou art to be therewithall content or never hope to finde content in whatsoever state thou shalt be Much lesse fourthly out of an evil eye against thy neighbour that liveth by thee There is not a baser sin than envy nor a fouler mark of envy than to forsake thine own trading to justle thy neighbour out of his Nor fifthly out of degenerous false-heartednesse That man would soon dare to be evil that dareth not long be good And he that flincheth from his Calling at the first frown who can say he will not flinch from his conscience at the next In an upright course fear not the face of man neither Leave thy place though the spirit of a Ruler rise up against thee Patience will conjure down again that spirit in time only if thou keep thy self within thy circle But sixthly be sure thou change not if thy Calling be of that nature that it may not be changed Some degrees of Magistracy seem to be of that nature and therefore some have noted it rather as an act of impotency in Charles the fifth than a fruit either of Humility or Wisedome or Devotion that he resigned his Crown to betake himself to a Cloister But our Calling of the Ministery is certainly such There may be a change of the station or degree in the Ministery upon good cause and with due circumstances but yet still so as that the main Calling it self remain unchanged This Calling hath in it something that is sacred and singular and different from other Callings As therefore things once dedicated and hallowed to religious services were no more to return to common uses for that were to prophane them ipso facto and to make them unclean so persons once set apart for the holy work of the Ministery separate me Paul and Barnabas and invested into their calling with solemn collation of the holy Ghost in a special manner if any more they return to be of that lump from which they are separated they do as it were puffe the blessed breath of Christ back into his own face and renounce their part in the Holy Ghost Bethink thy self well therefore before-hand and consider what thou art in doing when thou beginnest to reach forth thine hand towards this spiritual Plow know when it is once there it may not be pulled back again no not for a Dictatorship That man can be no lesse than disorderly at the least that forsaketh his orders You see I do but point at things as I go which would require further enlarging because I desire to have done This then that we should persevere in our callings untill death and not leave or change them upon any consideration whatsoever is not the thing our Apostle meaneth by abiding in our Callings The word importeth divers other Christian duties concerning the use of our Callings I will but touch at them and conclude The first is contentednesse that we neither repine at the meannesse of our own nor envy at the eminence of anothers Calling Art thou called being a servant care not for it saith this Apostle but a little before my Text. All men cannot have rich or easie or honourable Callings the
himself to continue and persist in any known ungodlinesse And thus much for our second Observation I adde but a Third and that taken from the very thing which Abimelech here pleadeth viz. the integrity of his heart considered together with his present personal estate and condition I dare not say he was a Cast-away for what knoweth any man how God might after this time and even from these beginnings deal with him in the riches of his mercy But at the time when the things storied in this chapter were done Abimelech doubtlesse was an unbeleever a stranger to the covenant of God made with Abraham and so in the state of a carnal and meer natural man And yet both he pleadeth and God approveth the innocency and integrity of his heart in this businesse Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thine heart Note hence That in an unbeleever and natural man and therefore also in a wicked person and a cast-away for as to the present state the unregenerate and the Reprobate are equally incapable of good things there may be truth and singlenesse and integrity of heart in some particular Actions We use to teach and that truly according to the plain evidence of Scripture and the judgement of the ancient Fathers against the contrary tenet of the later Church of Rome that all the works of unbeleevers and natural men are not only stained with sin for so are the best works of the faithful too but also are really and truly sins both in their own nature because they spring from a corrupt fountain for That which is born of the flesh is flesh and it is impossible that a corrupt tree should bring forth good fruit and also in Gods estimation because he beholdeth them as out of Christ in and through whom alone he is well pleased St. Augustines judgement concerning such mens works is well known who pronounceth of the best of them that they are but splendida peccata glorious sins and the best of them are indeed no better We may not say therefore that there was in Abimelechs heart as nor in the heart of any man a legal integrity as if his person or any of his actions were innocent and free from sin in that perfection which the Law requireth Neither yet can we say there was in his heart as nor in the heart of any unbeleever an Evangelical integrity as if his person were accepted and for the persons sake all or any of his actions approved with God accepting them as perfect through the supply of the abundant perfections of Christ then to come That first and legall integrity supposeth the righteousnesse of works which no man hath this latter and Evangelical integrity the righteousnesse of Faith which no unbeliever hath no mans heart being either legally perfect that is in Adam or Evangelically perfect that is out of Christ. But there is â— third kinde of integrity of heart inferiour to both these which God here acknowledgeth in Abimelech and of which only we affirm that it may be found in an unbeliever and a Reprobate and that is a Natural or Moral integrity when the heart of a meer natural man is careful to follow the direction and guidance of right reason according to that light of Nature or Revelation which is in him without hollownesse halting and hypocrisie Rectus usus Naturalium we might well call it the term were fit enough to expresse it had not the Papists and some other Sectaries by sowring it with the leaven of their Pelagianism rendred it suspicious The Philosophers and learned among the Heathen by that which they call a good conscience understand no other thing then this very Integrity whereof we now speak Not that an Unbeliever can have a good conscience taken in strict propriety of truth and in a spiritual sense For the whole man being corrupted through the fall of Adam the conscience also is wrapped in the common pollution so that to them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled as speaketh S. Paul Tit. 1. and being so defiled can never be made good till their hearts be sprinkled from that pollution by the bloud of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God and till the Conscience be purged by the same bloud from dead works to serve the living God as speaketh the same Apostle Heb. 9. and 10. But yet a good Conscience in that sense as they meant it a Conscience morally good many of them had who never had Faith in Christ nor so much as the least inckling of the Doctrine of Salvation By which Not having the Law they were a Law unto themselves doing by nature many of the things contained in the Law and chusing rather to undergo the greatest miseries as shame torment exile yea death it self or any thing that could befall them than wilfully to transgresse those rules and notions and dictates of piety and equity which the God of Nature had imprinted in their Consciences Could heathen men and unbeleevers have taken so much comfort in the testimony of an excusing Conscience as it appeareth many of them did if such a Conscience were not in the kinde that is Morally Good Or how else could St. Paul have made that protestatâ—on he did in the Councel Men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day At least if he meant to include as most of the learned conceive he did the whole time of his life as well before his conversion as after Balaam was but a cursed Hypocrite and therefore it was but a copy of his countenance and no better for his heart even then hankered after the wages of unrighteousnesse when he looked a squint upon Balaks liberal offer with this answer If Balak would give me his house full of gold and silver I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do lesse or more But I assure my self many thousands of unbeleevers in the world free from his hypocrisie would not for ten times as much as he there spake of have gone beyond the Rules of the Law of Nature written in their hearts to have done either lesse or more Abimelech seemeth to be so affected at least in this particular action and passage with Abraham wherein God thus approveth his integrity Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thy heart The Reason of which moral integrity in men unregenerate and meerly natural is that Imperium Rationis that power of natural Conscience and Reason which it hath and exerciseth over the whole man doing the office of a Law-giver and having the strength of a law They are a law unto themselves saith the Apostle Rom. 2. As a Law it prescribeth what is to be done as a Law it commandeth that what is prescribed be done as a Law it proposeth rewards and punishments accordingly
one or the other we cannot be said to want the warrant of Gods Word Nec differet Scripturâ an ratione consistat saith Tertullian it mattereth not much from whether of both we have our direction so long as we have it from either You see then those men are in a great errour who make the holy Scriptures the sole rule of all humane actions whatsoever For the maintenance whereof there was never yet produced any piece of an argument either from reason or from authority of holy writ or from the testimony either of the ancient Fathers or of other classicall Divines of later times which may not be clearely and abundantly answered to the satisfaction of any rationall man not extremely fore-possessed with prejudice They who think to salve the matter by this mitigation that at least wise our actions ought to be framed according to those generall rules of the Law of Nature which are here and there in the Scriptures dispersedly contained as viz. That we should do as we would be done to That all things be done decently and orderly and unto edification That nothing be done against conscience and the like speak somewhat indeed to the truth but little to the purpose For they consider not First that these generall Rules are but occasionally and incidentally mentioned in Scripture rather to manifest unto us a former than to lay upon us a new obligation Secondly that those rules had been of force for the ordering of mens actions though the Scripture had never expressed them and were of such force before those Scriptures were written wherein they are now expressed For they bind not originally quà scripta but quà justa because they are righteous not because they are written Thirdly that an action conformable to these generall rules might not be condemned as sinfull although the doer thereof should look at those rules meerly as they are the dictates of the law of nature and should not be able to vouch his warrant for it from any place of Scripture neither should have at the time of the doing thereof any present thought or consideration of any such place The contrary whereunto I permit to any mans reasonable judgement if it be not desperately rash and uncharitable to affirm Lastly that if mens actions done agreeably to those rules are said to be of faith precisely for this reason because those rules are contained in the word then it will follow that before those particular Scriptures were written wherein any of those rules are first delivered every action done according to those rules had been done without faith there being as yet no Scripture for it and consequently had been a sin So that by this doctrine it had been a sin before the writing of S. Matthews Gospel for any man to have done to others as he would they should do to him and it had been a sin before the writing of the former Epistle to the Corinthians for any man to have done any thing decently and orderly supposing these two rules to be in those two places first mentioned because this supposed there could then have been no warrant brought from the Scriptures for so doing Well then we see the former Opinion will by no means hold neither in the rigour of it nor yet in the mitigation We are therefore to beware of it and that so much the more heedfully because of the evil consequents and effects that issue from it to wit a world of superstitions uncharitable censures bitter contentions contempt of superiours perplexities of conscience First it filleth mens heads with many superstitious conceits making them to cast impurity upon sundry things which yet are lawfull to as many as use them lawfully For the taking away of the indifferency of any thing that is indifferent is in truth Superstition whether either of the two wayes it be done either by requiring it as necessary or by forbidding it as unlawfull He that condemneth a thing as utterly unlawfull which yet indeed is indifferent and so lawfull is guilty of superstition as well as he that enjoyneth a thing as absolutely necessary which yet indeed is but indifferent and so arbitrary They of the Church of Rome and some in our Church as they go upon quite contrary grounds yet both false so they run into quite contrary errours and both superstitious They decline too much on the left hand denying to the holy Scripture that perfection which of right it ought to have of containing all things appertaining to that supernatural doctrine of faith and holinesse which God hath revealed to his Church for the attainment of everlasting salvation whereupon they would impose upon Christian people that with an opinion of necessity many things which the Scriptures require not and that is a Superstition These wry too much on the right hand ascribing to the holy Scripture such a kind of perfection as it cannot have of being the sole directour of all humane actions whatsoever whereupon they forbid unto Christian people and that under the name of sinne sundry things which the holy Scripture condemneth not and that is a superstition too From which Superstition proceedeth in the second place uncharitable censuring as evermore they that are the most superstitious are the most supercilious No such severe censurers of our blessed Saviours person and actions as the superstitious Scribes and Pharisees were In this Chapter the speciall fault which the Apostle blameth in the weak ones who were somewhat superstitiously affected was their rash and uncharitable judging of their brethren And common and daily experience among our selves sheweth how freely some men spend their censures upon so many of their brethren as without scruple do any of those things which they upon false grounds have superstitiously condemned as utterly unlawfull And then thirdly as unjust censures are commonly entertained with scorn and contumely they that so liberally condemn their brethren of prophaneness are by them again as freely flouted for their preciseness and so whiles both parties please themselves in their own wayes they cease not mutually to provoke and scandalize and exasperate the one the other pursuing their private spleens so far till they break out into open contentions oppositions Thus it stood in the Roman Church when this Epistle was written They judged one another and despised one another to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which gave occasion to our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter And how far the like censurings and despisings have embittered the spirits and whetted both the tongues and pens of learned men one against another in our own Church the stirs that have been long since raised are still upheld by the factious opposers against our Ecclesiasticall constitutions government and ceremonies will not suffer us to be ignorant Most of which stirs I verily perswade my self had been long ere this either wholly buried in silence or at leastwise prettily well quieted if the weaknesse and danger of the errour
multiply disputes without end but by direct and full evidence either of Scripture-text or Reason which for any thing I know was never yet done neither as I verily believe will ever be done But if it cannot be shown that these things are forbidden without any more adoe the use of them is by that sufficiently warranted He that will not allow of this doctrine besides that he cherisheth an errour which will hardly suffer him to have a quiet Conscience I yet see not how he can reconcile his opinion with those sundry passages of our Apostle Every creature of God is good To the pure all things are pure I know nothing is of it self unclean All things are lawfull c. From which passages we may with much safety conclude that it is lawfull for us to do all those things concerning which there can be nothing brought of moment to prove them unlawfull Upon which ground alone if we do them we do them upon such a perswasion of faith as is sufficient Provided that we have not neglected to inform our judgements the best we could for the time past and that we are ever ready withall to yield our selves to better information whensoever it shall be tendred unto us for the time to come It may be demanded fourthly Suppose a man would fain do something of the lawfulnesse whereof he is not in his conscience sufficiently resolved whether he may in any case do it notwithstanding the reluctancy of his Conscience yea or no As they write of Cyrus that to make passage for his Army he cut the great river Gyndes into many smaller chanels which in one entire stream was not passable so to make a clear and distinct answer to this great question I must divide it into some lesser ones For there are sundry things considerable in it whether we respect the conscience or the Person of the doer or the Action to be done As namely and especially in respect of the conscience whether the reluctancy thereof proceed from a setled and stedfast resolution or from some doubtfulnesse onely or but from some scruple And in respect of the person whether he be sui juris his own Master and have power to dispose of himself at his own choice in the things questioned or he be under the command and at the appointment of another And in respect of the Action or thing to be done whether it be a necessary thing or an unlawfull thing or a thing indifferent and arbitrary Any of which circumstances may quite alter the case and so beget new questions But I shall reduce all to three questions whereof the first shall concern a resolved Conscience the second a doubtfull conscience and the third a scrupulous conscience The First Question then is if the Conscience be firmly resolved that the thing proposed to be done is unlawfull whether it may then be done or no Whereunto I answer in these two conclusions The first conclusion If the Conscience be firmly so resolved and that upon a true ground that is to say if the thing be indeed unlawfull and judged so to be it may not in any case or for any respect in the world be done There cannot be imagined a higher contempt of God than for a man to despise the power of his own conscience which is the highest soveraignty under heaven as being Gods most immediate deputy for the ordering of his life and waies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heathen man could say Wofull is the estate of those men unlesse they repent who for filthy lucre or vain pleasure or spitefull malice or tottering honour or lazy ease or any other reigning lust dare lye or sweare or cheat or oppresse or commit filthinesse or steal or kill or slander or flatter or betray or do any thing that may advance their base ends nothing at all regarding the secret whisperings or murmurings no nor yet the lowd roarings and bellowings of their own consciences there against Stat contra ratio secretam gannit in aurem It doth so but yet they turn a deaf eare to it and despise it Wonder not if when they out of the terrours of their troubled consciences shall houle and roare in the eares of the Almighty for mercy or for some mitigation at least of their torment he then turn a deafe eare against them and despise them To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin James 4. sin not to be excused by any plea or colour But how much more inexcusably then is it sinne to him that knoweth the evill he should not do and yet will do it There is not a proner way to Hell than to sinne against Conscience Happy is he which condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth but most wretched is he that alloweth himself to the practise of that which in his judgement he cannot but condemne Neither maketh it any difference at all here whether a man be otherwise sui juris or not For although there be a great respect due to the higher powers in doubtfull cases as I shall touch anon yet where the thing required is simply unlawfull and understood so to be inferiours must absolutely resolve to disobey whatsoever come of it Gods faithfull servants have ever been most resolute in such exigents We are not carefull to answer thee in this matter belike in a matter of another nature they would have taken care to have given the King a more satisfactory at least a more respective answer but in this matter Be known to thee O King that we will not serve thy gods Da veniam Imperator c. You know whose answers they were If we be sure God hath forbidden it we sinne against our own consciences if we do it at the command of any mortall man whosoever or upon any worldly inducement whatsoever That is the first Conclusion The second is this If a man be in his conscience fully perswaded that a thing is evil and unlawfull which yet in truth is not so but lawfull the thing by him so judged unlawfull cannot by him be done without sin Even an erroneous conscience bindeth thus far that a man cannot go against it and be guiltlesse because his practise should then run crosse to his judgement and so the thing done could not be of Faith For if his reason judge it to be evil and yet he will do it it argueth manifestly that he hath a will to do evil and so becometh a transgressour of that generall Law which bindeth all men to eschew all evil Yet in this case we must admit of some difference according to the different nature of the things and the different condition of the persons For if the things so judged unlawfull be in their own nature not necessary but indifferent so as they may either be done or left undone without sin and the person withall be sui juris in respect of such
as to the chief agent that imployeth it We have this treasure in earthen vessels saith Saint Paul that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us 2 Cor. 4. We say Words are but wind and indeed the words of the best Minister are no better as they are breathed out and uttered by sinfull mortall man whose breath is in his nostrils but yet this wind as it is breaâ—hed in and inspired by the powerfull eternal Spirit of God is strong enough by his effectuall working with it not only to shake the top-branches but to rend up the very bottom-root of the tallest Cedar in Lebanon Vox Domini confringens Cedros Psal. 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voyce of the Lord is a glorious voyce The voyce of the Lord breaketh the Cedars yea the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon Another Cause is in the Object and that is the force of Natural Conscience which the most presumptuous sinner can never so stifle though he endeavour all he can to do it but that it will be sometimes snubbing and stinging and lashing and vexing him with ougly representations of his past sinnes and terrible suggestions of future vengeance And then of all other times is the force of it most lively when the voyce of God in his word awakeneth it after a long dead sleep Then it riseth and Sampson-like rouseth up it self and bestirreth it self lustily as a Giant refreshed with wine and it putteth the disquieted patient to such unsufferable pain that he runneth up and down like a distracted man and doth he knoweth not what and seeketh for ease he knoweth not where Then he would give all Dives his wealth for A drop of water to cool the heat he feeleth and with Esau part with his birth-right for any thing though it were never so little or mean that would give him but the least present refreshing and preserve him from fainting Then sack-cloth and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning and renting the garments and tearing the hair and knocking the brest and out-cries to heaven and all those other things which he could not abide to hear of in the time of his former security whilest his conscience lay fast asleep and at rest are now in all haste and greedily entertained and all too little if by any means they can possibly give any ease or asswagement to the present torment he feeleth in his soul. A third Cause is oftentimes in the Application of the Instrument to the Object For although Gods Word in the general be Powerfull and the Conscience of it self be of a stirring Nature yet then ordinarily doth the Word of God work most powerfully upon the Consciences of obstinate sinners when it is throughly and closely applyed to some special corruption whereunto the party cannot plead Not-guilty when the sinne and the judgement are both so driven home that the guilty offender can neither avoid the evidence of the one nor the fear of the other A plain instance whereof we have in this present history of King Ahab When Eliah first came to him in the Vineyard he was pert enough Hast thou found me O mine enemy But by that the Prophet had done with him told him of the sin which was notorious Hast thou killed and taken possession foretold him of the judgement which was heavy I will bring evill upon thee and will take away thy Posterity c. the man was not the man Eliah left him in a farr other tune than he found him in The Prophets words wrought sore upon him and his Conscience wrought sore within him both together wrought him to the humiliation we now speak of It came to passe when he heard these words that he rent his clothes c. If you desire another instance turn to Acts 24.25 where there is a right good one and full to this purpose There we read that Felix the Roman Deputy in Jury Trembled when Paul reasoned of Iustice and of Temperance and of the judgement to come What was that thing may we think in St. Pauls reasoning which especially made Felix to tremble It is commonly taken to be the Doctrine of the last judgement which is indeed a terrible doctrine and able if it be throughly apprehended to make the stoutest of the sons of men to tremble But I take it that is not all The very thing that made Felix tremble seemeth rather to be that Paul's discourse fell upon those special vices wherein he was notably faulty and then clapt in close with judgement upon them For Felix was noted of much cruelty and injustice in the administration of the affairs of Jury howsoever Tertullus like a smooth Orator to curry favour with him and to do Paul a displeasure did flatteringly commend his government and he was noted also of incontinency both otherwise and especially in marrying Drusilla who was another mans wife Tacitus speaking of him in the fifth of his history painteth him out thus Per omnem saevitiam libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit And for such a man as governed with cruelty and rapine and lived in unchaste wedlock to hear one reason powerfully of Iustice and of Chastity for so much the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used properly importeth and of Iudgement it is no wonder if it make him tremble Do thou consider this and tremble whosoever thou art that in thy thoughts despisest the holy word of God accounting of it but as of some humane invention to keep fools in awe withall and thou also whosoever thou art that undervaluest this precious treasure for the meanness or other infirmities of the earthen vessel wherein it is conveyed Tell me doest thou not herein struggle against the testimony and evidence of thine own heart Doth not thine own Conscience and Experience tell thee that this Sword of the Spirit hath a keen edge and biteth and pierceth where it goeth Hath it not sometimes galled and rubbed and lanced and cut thee to the very bone and entred even to the dividing asunder of the joynts and of the marrow Hath it not sometimes as it were by subtile and serpentine insinuations strangely wound it self through those many crooked and Labyrinthean turnings that are in thine heart into the very in-most corner and center thereof and there ripped up thy bowels and thy reins and raked out the filth and corruption that lurked within thee and set thy secretest thoughts in order before thy face in such sort as that thou hast been strucken with astonishment and horrour at the discovery Though perhaps it have not yet softened and melted thy stony and obdurate heart yet didst thou never perceive it hammering about it with sore strokes and knocks as if it would break and shiver it into a thousand pieces Doubtlesse thou hast and if thou wouldest deny it thy conscience is able to give
will and affections to the obedience of Faith and Godlinesse So shalt thou not only be restrained from sinning against God as Abimelech here was but also be enabled as faithfull Abraham was to please God and consequently assured with all the faithfull children of Abraham to be preserved by the almighty power of God through faith unto salvation Which Grace and Faith and salvation the same Almighty God the God of Power and of Peace bestow upon us all here assembled With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours even for the same our Lord Jesus Christs sake his most dear Son and our blessed Saviour and Redeemer to which blessed Father and blessed Son with the blessed Spirit most holy blessed and glorious Trinity be ascribed by us and the whole Church all the Kingdome the power and the glory from this time forth and for ever Amen AD POPULUM The Seventh Sermon At S. Pauls Cross London 6. May 1632. 1 PET. 2.16 As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God THere is not any thing in the world more generally desired than Liberty nor scarse any thing more generally abused Insomuch as even that blessed liberty which the eternal Son of God hath purchased for His Spouse the Church and endowed her therewithal hath in no age been free from abuses whilest some have sinfully neglected their Christian liberty to their own prejudice and othersome have as sinfully stood upon it to the prejudice of their brethren So hardly through pride and ignorance and other corruptions that abound in us do we hit upon the golden mean either in this or almost in any thing else but easily swarve into the vitious extreams on both hands declining sometimes into the defect and sometimes into the excess The Apostles therefore especially Saint Peter and Saint Paul the two chiefest planters of the Churches endeavoured early to instruct believers in the true doctrine and to direct them in the right use of their Christian liberty so often in their several Epistles as fit occasion was offered thereunto Which we may observe them to have done most frequently and fully in those two cases which being very common are therefore of the greater consequence viz. the case of Scandal and the case of Obedience And we may further observe concerning these two Apostles that S. Paul usually toucheth upon this argument of liberty as it is to be exercised in the case of Scandal but S. Peter oftner as in the Case of Obedience Whereof on S. Peters part I conceive the reason to be this That being the Apostle of the Circumcision and so having to deal most with the Iews who could not brook subjection but were of all Nations under heaven the most impatient of a forain yoke he was therefore the more careful to deliver the doctrine of Christian liberty to them in such a manner as might frame them withal to yeeld such reverence and obedience to their Governours as became them to do And therefore S. Peter beateth much upon the point of Obedience But he no where presseth it more fully than in this Chapter Wherein after the general exhortations of subduing the lusts that are in their own bosoms vers 11. and of ordering their conversation so as might be for their credit and honesty in the sight of others ver 12. when he descendeth to more particular duties he beginneth first with and insisteth most upon this duty of subjection and obedience to authority in the greatest remaining part of the Chapter The first Precept he giveth in this kinde is set down with sundry amplifications and reasons thereunto belonging in the next verses before the Text Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake And then he doth by way of Prolepsis take away an objection which he foresaw would readily be made against that and the following Exhortations from the pretext of Christian liberty in the words of the Text As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God Conceive the words as spoken in answer to what those new converts might have objected We have been taught that the Son of God hath made us free and then we are free indeed and so not bound to subject our selves to any Masters or Governors upon earth no not to Kings but much rather bound not to do it that so we may preserve that freedom which Christ hath purchased for us and reserve our selves the more entirely for Gods service by refusing to be the servants of men This Objection the Apostle clearly taketh off in the Text with much holy wisdom truth He telleth them that being indeed set at liberty by Christ they are not therefore any more to enthral themselves to any living soul or other creature not to submit to any ordinance of man as slaves that is as if the ordinance it self did by any proper direct and immediate vertue binde the conscience But yet all this notwithstanding they might and ought to submit thereunto as the Lords freemen and in a free manner that is by a voluntary and uninforced both subjection to their power and obedience to their lawful commands They must therefore take heed they use not their liberty for an occasion to the flesh nor under so fair a title palliate an evil licentiousness making that a cloak for their irreverent and undutiful carriage towards their Superiours For albeit they be not the servants of men but of God and therefore owe no obedience to men as upon immediate tie of conscience and for their own sake but to God only yet for his sake and out of the conscience of that obedience which they owe to his command of honouring father and mother and of being subject to the higher powers they ought to give unto them such honour and obedience as of right belongeth unto them according to the eminency of their high places As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God From which words thus paraphrased I gather three observations all concerning our Christian liberty in that branch of it especially which respecteth humane ordinances and the use of the creatures and of all indifferent things Either 1. in the existence of it As free or 2. in the exercise of it And not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness or 3. in the end of it but as the servants of Gods The first observation this We must so submit our selves to superiour authority as that we do not thereby impeach our Christian liberty As free The second this We must so maintain our liberty as that we do not under that colour either commit any sin or omit any requisite office either of charity or duty and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness The third this In the whole exercise both of the