hath given to his Church for this ver relates to the 11. He gave some Apostles and some c. that henceforth c. and to them doth the Apostle commit the charge of the flock to watch over them against wolves Acts 20. 28 29. 2. The holding fast and pursuance of the substance and great things of Religion ver 15. but being sincere in love grow up in all things into him which is the head It s an excellent growth to grow up into the head that is into communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ which triviall opinions nothing at all advance observe the antithesis or opposition he makes between being carried about c. and following the truth in love for contraria contrariis diseases are cured by contraries so the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. gives the same receipt against unstedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to take off teachers from fables and genealogies and questions of no value Paul commends to them the aiming at godly edifying which is by faith and to hold to that which is the end of the commandement charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. If both Ministers and people would but drive this trade it would take off that wandring and hunting after novell opinions and doctrines and would keep us constant in the wholesome pastures even now that the hedge of setled government is wanting If you have good feeding why should not that keep you from wandering untill the pale be set up wait upon God in the use of his saving ordinances and pray for us If Moses stay long in the mount must the people be setting up golden calves and say we know not what is become of this Moses Aarons rod Exod. 7. 12. shal swallow up all the rods of Iannes and Iambres in due time The Apostle puts us in hope of a vil ultra to such 2 Tim. 3. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all FINIS Magnalia DEI ab Aquilone Set forth in a SERMON PREACHED BEFORE The Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS at Saint MARGARETS Westminster upon Thursday July 18 1644. Being the day of publike Thanksgiving for the great VICTORY obtained against Prince RUPERT and the Earl of Newcastles Forces neer YORK By RICHARD VINES Minister of Gods Word at Weddington in the County of Warwick and a Member of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of both Houses LONDON Printed by R. L. for Abel Roper at the signe of the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1646. Die Veneris 19. Julii 1644. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That Mr. Vines hath hereby thanks given him by this House for the great pains hee hath took in his Sermon Preached before the Lords and Commons on Thursday the eighteenth of this instant Iuly in Margarets Church Westminster it being the day of Thanksgiving for the great mercy of God in the happy successe of the Forces of both Kingdoms against the Enemies of King and Parliament neer York And that the said Mr. Vines be intreated to Print and publish his said Sermon which no man is to presume to Print or reprint without his authority under his hand as he will answer the contrary to this House John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Die Veneris 19. Julii 1644. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Robert Harley do give the thanks of this House to Mr. Vines for the great pains hee took in the Sermon hee Preached at the intreaty of both Houses at St. Margarets Westminster upon the day of publike Thanksgiving for the great Victory obtained against Prince Rupert and the Earle of Newcastles Forces and he is desired to publisht it in Print H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. I appoint Abel Roper to Print my Sermon Richard Vines To the Right HONOURABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in Parliament Right Honourable and Noble Senatours BY this time it is cleere day even their eyes whose unwillingnesse to beleeve it made them blinde are now waken to see that God did indeed put matter of thanksgiving both into our hands and mouthes To disguise so solemne a duty onely to support reputation in the eyes of the world is no lesse then to put an Irony upon GOD. Thanksgiving is the reply we make to GODS answer of our prayer of whom if we walke worthy he will surely make rejoynder of new mercies Though we cannot expect but that we may shift our garments and somtimes weare sackcloth The Lord set our hearts in tune whether to Lachrymae or Hallelujah Beware of that rock which the Israelites fel foul upon in their wildernesse condition where being at Gods more immediate finding and having all their entertainment from Heaven they most of all did then imbitter GOD by their murmurings against and temptations of him The good Lord command the West to blow as sweet a gale as the North hath done and so finish his own worke that unto Henricus Rosas Regna Jacobus may be added Ecclesias Carolus So prayeth Your unworthy servant for Christ Richard Vines A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS assembled in Parliament upon the 18th day of July 1644. It being the day of Thanksgiving for the great mercy of God in the happy successe of the Forces of both Kingdoms against the Enemies of King and Parliament neer York ISAIAH 63. 8. For he said Surely they are my people children that will not lie So he was their Saviour WHat the Historian sayth of that day wherein Non suit maior sub imperio Romano dies c. Florus lib. 2. cap. 6. de bello Punico secundo Scipio and Hannibal disputed that long depending cause between Rome and Carthage in open field The Romane Empire untill that time had not seen a greater day The same may I justly say of the occasion of this our meeting Nor we nor our fathers in this Kingdom considering the numbers on both sides the Interests that lay at stake the fulnesse of the victory the hopefull consequence of it have had more cause to sing They compassed me about like Bees they are quenched as the fire of thorns for in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me The Lord is my strength and song and is become my salvation The voice of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly Psal 118. 12 13 14 15 16 c. for though God have cleerly attested his presence with us by many visible tokens thereof ever since we came into this wildernesse so that we may truly say Take counsell together and it shall
second comming of Christ or at least untill he shall gloriously declare himself in the destruction of the beast and false Prophet and in the calling of the Jewes These things being laid together doe cry aloud unto you to consider your danger and to hearken to the frequent inculcations of the Apostles in their Epistles in almost all their a 2 Cor. 11. 3. Epistles describing false teachers to bee like the Serpent that beguiled Eve branding them with the name of Jannes and Jambres Balaam false Apostles deceitfull workers ministers of Sathan c. stigmatizing their doctrins with the names of damnable haeresies doctrines of Devills c. Fortifying Christians with effectuall arguments and exhortations against the impressions and infections of such poysonous errours And if you looke upon those Epistles which were sent from heaven to the seven Churches you shall finde that the greatest part of those comminations in them contained are thundred forth against haeresies or doctrinall errours maintaining or cherishing as I may call them haereticall lusts there wee finde them b Revel 2. 2. that said they were Apostles but were lyers the c cap. 2. 9. 14. 15. 20. 24. blasphemy of such as said they were Jews but were the Synagogue of Satan the doctrine of Balaam the doctrine of the Nicolaitans the teaching and seducing of Jezebel the depths of Sathan c. The Churches are commended or the Angels of those Churches who found out these disguised seducers and kept the truth uninfected by them and those Angels or Churches blamed which d Revel 2. 15. had them and suffered them in their bosome These things I offer to your serious and sad consideration you have not made use of the point as soone as you have said The Minister railes It s not my meaning to poure out all this that hath beene said upon every errour either preacht or followed in our times but to shew you that false teachers and haeresies must be and shall be in the Gospel Churches and to put you in minde what the Scripture saith concerning them and how much you are concerned to looke about you for I observe that men are not so jealous over themselves or so affraid of e Vers 20. corruption of their minds as they ought to be nor so sensible of sin in intellectuall errours as in morall corruptions and yet we know diseases in the head are mortall too and that a fish begins to corrupt and stink in the head and so throughout corrupt manners usually and naturally follow upon corrupt minds they that are not sound in the faith no wonder if they be not sound in the feare and in the wayes of God whither will this new scepticisme come and into what will it be resolved but into Athiesme when men begin to fall we see by experience that many fall from story to story till they come to the very bottom And therefore I exhort and beseech you all to that which the scripture exhorts and injoynes upon Christians who are in danger of being seduced by false teachers or their doctrines and that is to try the spirits whether they are of God 1. John 4. 1. To contend for the faith once delivered Jude 3. To beware lest you be carried away with the errour of lawlesse men 2. Pet. 3. 17. To turne away from such as creep into houses and lead captive silly women 2. Tim. 3. 5. 6. To avoid foolish questions which are unprofitable and vaine Titus 3. 9. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. To continue in the things that you have learned and been assured of out of the word of God 2. Tim. 3. 14. And lastly If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither say to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Epistle of John 10. 11. For he that bids him god speed is partaker of his evill deeds where the Apostle supposes that false teachers are men of evill deeds besides their false doctrines or that indeed their false doctrine is evill deeds in the plurall number and therefore not to be slighted off as a thing of the minde or mentall mistake onely you see that to countenance or encourage such teachers is to be partaker of their evill deeds and whatsoever credit you will give to the report of f lib. 3. cap. 3. Irenaeus concerning John his leaping out of the bath from Cerinthus or Polycarp his refuseal of Marcion his acquaintance yet the observation which he makes upon those reports or histories is to be taken notice of that the Apostles and their followers would Tantum Apostoli eorum discipuli c. Iren lib. 3. cap. 3. not so much as verbo tenus communicate with any of them that had adulterated the truth how much lesse should private Christians close with such seducers who are more likely to pull them into the water then they to pull them out Naturally wee are tinder too apt to take fire by their sparkes he that fishes with an haereticall bait may haply catch more in a moneth than some godly Minister shall bring to Christ with all his travell and paines as long as he lives for he hath the advantage of the bait and therein lies the odds of successe between preaching of errour and preaching of the truth I maruell saith the Apostle that you are so soone removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospell Gal. 1. 6. there was the wonder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were removed so quickly and the Apostles wonder may be ours also wee have been a people of as powerfull godlinesse as any in the world practicall divinity was improved to a great height of clearenesse and sweetnesse but I feare that I may truely say we were best in worst times wee held our cloake in the winde and now are laying it off in the sun A miserable declination from the life and power of godlinesse is come to passe within these few yeares our practicals our inward and close wayes of walking with God in faith and love are sublimed into fancies and vapour out into fumes of new opinions and which is worst of all we take this dropsy to be growth and conceive our selves to be more spirituall and refined because more ayry and notionall The Lord humble us for our declensions and swervings from the g 1 Tim. 6. 3. end of the commandement which is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained and for our turnings aside to vaine ianglings The best way of fortification of our selves against the allurements and assaults of false teachers is 1. To be grounded in the principles of the doctrines of Christ or else we shall easily be tumbled up and downe like loose stones that lie not fast in the building upon the foundation 2. To study and adhere unto the doctrine which is h 1 Tim. 1. 5. 6. according to
godlinesse practicall and edifying truths which draw up the heart into acquaintance and communion with God and draw it out in love and obedience to him For its good that the heart be stablisht with grace Heb. 13. 9. 3. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. for if we thrust away a good conscience by entertaining base lusts and ends the shipwrack of faith will follow 4. To pray for confirmation and establishment by the hand of God for as it is not a strong constitution that is a protection against the plague so neither is it parts and learning which secure us from beleeving lies and delusions It s a mercy for which we are not enough thankfull that God keeps any of us standing upright when others shrink awry or that wee are enabled to discerne between truth and errour and to stand for the one and withstand the other when so many that have driven a great trade of profession are broken and turned bankerupts 5. To keep as a treasure those truths wherein you have formerly found comfort and which have been attested and confirmed to you by your owne experience sit upon those flowers still and sucke their fresh honey every day A Christian very hardly parts with those truths that have been sealed up to his experience but it s no wonder that a man should lose that out of his head which he never had in his heart Vse 2 To those that bring in or follow these pernicious wayes of damnable haeresy you shall see the crop which you shall reap swift destruction you are under judgement which slumbers not It will be destructive to you to wrest the Scriptures 2. Pet. 5. 16. and to make merchandise of mens soules for sinfull ends 2. Pet. 2. 3. To corrupt the mindes of men from the simplicity that is in Christ 2. Cor. 11. 3. and to cause divisions and scandalls Rom. 16. 17. are things which will cost you deare lay to heart the terrible expressions of wrath which are fulminated against such men in Scripture There may be differences in opinion betweene them that are godly which are not inconsistent with the peace of the Churches and for which its unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the historian saith to make butter and cheese of one another It s a discreet rule which is laid downe by one a Conradus Bergius dedictamine c. Si non idem sentimus de veritate at saltem de pondere If we cannot agree upon the truth of every question or point of divinity yet at least lets be agreed concerning the weight and moment thereof so as not to make as great a stirr about a tile of the house as if it were a foundation stone nor erect new parties or Churches upon every lesser variation but to contend for or pretend a liberty of professing or publishing such docttrins as overthrow the faith and subvert the soule under the name of liberty of conscience can be no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Tim. 3. 9. a manifest folly or madnesse Is this liberty any part of Christs purchase Hath he made men free to sin and deny him that bought them what yoake of bondage doth this liberty free us from Gal. 5. 1. should we claime a liberty of being in bondage to errour or promise to men a liberty of being servants to corruption which the falseteachers in effect did 2. Pet. 2. 19. God hath as one saith reserved to himself as his prerogative three things Ex nihilo creare futura praedicere conscientijs dominari To create out of nothing to foretell things to come to have dominion over conscience and it is true that while a thing is within in the conscience it s out of mans reach but when ' its acted and comes abroad then it comes into mans jurisdiction and is cognizable in foro humano God onely is judge of thoughts men also are judges of actions It s a great mistake and of very ill consequence to imagine that a man is alwayes bound to act or practice according to the light or judgement of conscience though rightly informed in thesi for then I see not that there can be any place for that rule given by the Apostle Rom 14. 22. Hast thou faith have it to thy selfe before God Truth it selfe though never to be denyed yet is not alwayes to be declared for the hurt or scandall may be greater then an inseasonable profession or practice of that which is in it selfe lawfull may be worth but the mistake is yet more grosse to imagine that an erring conscience is a sufficient protection or warranty for an evill act It s sin to goe againstan erring conscience Stante dictamine as its sin to ravish and force awhore It s sin also to act according to the dictate of an erring conscience as to committ adul tery with consent To make conscience the finall judge of actions is to wipe out the hand writing of the word of God which doth condemne many times those things which conscience justifies yea and men also may passe just judgement on delusions or lyes though those that vent them doe beleeve them for truths If conscience be warrant enough for practices and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient licence to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their Shop and bee resolved into the judicatory of every mans private conscience And put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himselfe bound in conscience to draw forth his authority against false teachers or their damnable haeresies and upon that supposed errour should challenge a liberty of judging as wee doe of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walke by a knowne rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawfull it is as easy for him to say that our liberty of preaching or professing errours is so too To you that are Ministers of the word that you would draw forth the sword of the Spirit against these spirits of errour as not onely the duty you owe to Gods truth and mens soules requireth but also the pressing examples of the Apostles doe constraine you let not the Lord Jesus Christ and his offices be denyed by false teachers and by your silence too and the Lord grant that it may not be said of you as of the Ministers of Ephesus Acts. 20. 30. also of your owne selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Catharinus said of some middle-region men in those times that they were Luther anunculi halfe or dough-baked Lutherans Let us not half between two opinions but be valiant for the truth He is but halfe a good Sheepheard that feeds the sheep in good pasture but defends them not from the wolves It belongs to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus 1. 11.
differently tallented men with grace parts means opportunities and he doth not require him that hath but one tallent to put forth five 2. For the more particular explication of the point and first who fulfils after the Lord in duties of obedience and that is when a man walks 1 Universally in compliance of heart and endevour to the whole rule clipping off industriously no part of that service which beares Gods superscription upon it though it may be to him harsh and unpleasant yet the command of God shall both awe and draw the heart unto it for that word I am the Lord thy God makes every Thou shalt of his and every Thou shalt not acceptable to a godly man and this is to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fully 2 Freely though no rod be holden over us the Laws curse is the Imprest shilling to force a servile spirit but the love of God is the byas of a voluntiere Grace is that whereby God is free in giving to us and grace is that which makes our hearts free in obedience to him and this freenesse of spirit will be most seen when there are most rubs in the way for then he that moves by outward poyses will stick and be dull as when a bowle runs up hill every rub slugs it but when it goes downe hill a rub quickens it a free spirit is enkindled by that which quencheth another man 3 Satisfied in part with duty and with the conscience of sincerity and exercise of his graces therein though successe answer not what a joyfull man was David when he and his people had offered so willingly the materials of a Temple though he might not build it 1 Chron. 29. What pleasure took Paul in infirmities and reproches for Christ when the strength of Christ was perfected in his weaknesse 2 Cor. 12. 10. And this is that satisfaction wherein a good conscience findes some rest when a man can pray can believe wait and speak for God though the success and event answer not his duties or desires a good heart is loaden with the very burden of duty and finds ease when it is sincerely discharged let the issue be as it will 4 Independent upon and unrespective unto the eye and account of men and that 1 Though equals interessed as well as he do desert him as the ten did Caleb and Joshua 2 Though the people misconstrue him as these did them he that walks by mens countenance or eye steers by a Planet and not the Pole-Star 2 To fulfill after the Lord when impediments lye in our way and crosse winds carry us from the Port is 1 To reckon upon God with us against all mountains of opposition so Caleb The Lord is with us feare them not Thus the Prophet animated his man being in feare and Hezekiah his Subjects There be more with us 2 Kings 6. 16. then with him yet had he none but God to recken on and the Assyrian had a hundred fourescore five thousand 2 Chron. 32. 7. at least such is this God of ours who sayth Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth Isa 66. 9. who promiseth Jacob the worm that hee shall be his instrument to thrash mountains to dust Isa 41. 14 15. and what comparison between a worm and a mountain what other reason is given of the breaking in pieces of all confederacies and associations against the Church but only this For Immanuel Isa 8. 10. and it might teach all the world to say when they set against God fiâ—collidimus frangimur as the earthen pot against the iron rod breaks not the iron but is it self broken 2 To stand firm by setting one foot upon the experiences wee have had of God and the other upon his promises yet in expectation for our experience of him we may argue from his opening of the red Sea to his opening of Jordan Hee that opened the Sea to bring us into this wildernesse will surely open a River to let us out And for his promises to his people they will eat their way over all Alpes of opposition God will be the Midwife of them to deliver them of their wombe as it 's said He hath fulfilled with his hands that which hee spake 2 Chron. 6. 4. with his mouth 3 To fulfill after the Lord being in incumbrances inward outward is 1 When a man prefers not a quiet Egypt before a troublesome and hazardous adventure upon the Land promised He will never repent of his choyce of God nor of his ingagements to his cause though hee suffer for it and lose by it he will never say would God I had dyed in Egypt nor sound for a parley with the world and sin nor sound a retreat to his heart to march away from the cause or work of the Lord. 2 When we misconster not Gods intention meaning towards us nor put a false glosse upon his hand that goeth forth against us like these rotten-hearted Israelites that cryed God would betray them it is hard when his covenant truth and love cannot vindicate him from all possibility of falshood towards us or forgetfulnesse of us Keep up good thoughts of God that if he bring us not into Canaan at the fore-doore yet after he hath led us about to humble our pride he will bring us in at the postern as he did this people and if he save not Jonah by the Mariners hee may save him by the Whale that swallows him 3 The third thing is why his people should fulfill after the Lord in which I will be briefe for Eliah his reason is enough If the Lord be God follow him for all 1 Kings 18 21. attractives are in him all remuneratives all restoratives and he expects it of his people commends it in them and rewards it to them He expects it I know Abraham saith God that he will do so and so Hee commends it as here he doth Caleb he followed me fully He rewards it as here he promiseth and afterward performed to Caleb and generally they that follow the Lord home 1 Shall see more of him 2 Receive more from him 1 They shall see and taste more of him for then shall we know the Lord if we follow on to know him Hosea 6. 3. we shall see him in oftner experiments and observe the curiosity of his contrivements and workmanship in his ways and that is one reason why hee crumbles his mercies to his people and why they have his blessings by retail that communion and trading betweene his people and himself may be mayntained and hee more sweetly enjoyed so the Cloud empties not it self at a sudden burst but distils and dissolves upon the earth drop after drop 2 They shall receive more from him he measures liberally back to them that mete liberally unto him They that will have their fill of God must hold on to the losse of a duty or suffering for usually hee reserves the best and fullest cup to the
Common-wealth yet it perishes to you if you be not carried with hearts full to God Many a man is a Carpenter to build Noah an Ark wherein himself is not saved There are many rest in their meer opposition to and hate of Popery as if that should seal up their salvation and many again will reason thus The cause wherein I am is good it will swim out its gods and that is their plea. Alas this is not all for be the Protestant truth never so cleer to thee and be the cause thou art in never so good yet thou mayest be lost in it as the Egyptians were lost while they went in the same path wherein the Israelites were saved therefore pray and seek for such a spirit of chusing and following the Lord thy God as may ensoule thy actions or outward works and then beside the acceptance and testimony thy ways shall find with God thou shalt be able to go through fulfill after the Lord which a man upon naturall parts and strength of morall principles or vertues shall never do for youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall utterly fall Isa 40. 30. that is men their own ends they rest and proceed no farther such a spirit therefore as Caleb had doe you restlesly seeke of God the giver of it to them that ask him that being sincerely carried which in great and glorious actions is the more hard you may reap the Euge of a good conscience which is better then the Hic est of all the World and not only so but there will be more hope of the worke when it is carried on by such hearts as God said of David he was a man after his own heart and what follows He shall fulfill all my will Acts 13. 22. And of Hezekiah it is said that in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the Law and in the Commandements to seek his God he did it withall his 2 Chron. 31. 21 heart and prospered such hearts such successe wee pray to them that are now engaged in this great work that so promises with the entayle of them upon Posterity may follow such Calebs for ever FINIS Die Mercurii 30. Novemb. 1642. IT is this Day Ordered by the Commons now assembled in Parliament that Mr. Vines shal be desired from this House to print the Sermon he preached before this House at Saint Margarets Westminster this Day at the publike Fast And it is further Ordered that he shall have the usuall priviledges as others formerly have had that none shall Print or reprint his Sermon but those whom he shall appoint Henry Elsyng Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. I appoint Abel Roper to Print this Sermon Richard Vines THE IMPOSTVRES OF Seducing Teachers Discovered In a SERMON before the Right Honourable the LORD MAJOR and Court of ALDERMEN of the City of London at their Anniversary meeting on Tuesday in Easter week April 23 1644. at Christ-Church By RICHARD VINES Minister of Gods Word at Weddington in the Country of Warwick and a Member of the Assembly of DIVINES The second Edition 2 TIM 2. 17. And their word will eat as doth a Gangrene LONDON Printed by J. M. for Abel Roper at the signe of the Sun over against Dunstans Church 1656. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAJOR AND COURT OF ALDERMEN of the Famous City of LONDON Right Honourable and Right Worshipfull AN Epistle Dedicatory usually bespeakes a Patron and then the Reader is epistled afterward I intreat Readers only and Patrons no further then the Truth may challenge them suo jure Though I should have done my self but right in sending this Sermon forth into publike yet your Commands were the stronger tye upon me It was received with ill resentment by some whose Character not I but the Apostles gives in this Text the aspect whereof is I beleeve no more pleasing then the Sermon Either they should not wear such faces as are afraid of this glasse or wash first and then they will not be angry I should rejoyce to offend any man for his good and be afraid to please him for his hurt I intended it for a stay to the mutant and unstable a stop to that Gangrene which I hope is not crept so neer the Head as to have taken any of you who in other things have been so far from being Children tossed to and fro with windes stormy winds that from you posterity shall learn to be men The very holding up of the Text in open view may be a quo vadis to one or other If not Yet Thou hast delivered thy soul Ezek. 3. 19 21. is some comfort to him who humbly presents this Sermon to your hands and eyes with some enlargements here and there which the time denyed to your eares and whose honour it is to be Your Servant for Christ RICHARD VINES THE IMPOSTVRES OF Seducing Teachers Discovered EPHES. IV. XIV XV. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ THE Gospel had no sooner ascended the Horizon of the Gentiles and dispel'd that universall shade wherein they had been benighted but the Devill erected his factories in those new discoveries to intercept the trade of truth therefore is our Apostle in many of his Epistles so much in fortifying beleevers against the impressions of seducing teachers and the hystorie of a Fatemur quidem novas quasdam antea non auditas sectas Anabaptistas Libertinos Mennonios Zwenkfeldianos statim ad exortum Evangelii extitisse Juel Apol. Eccle. Anglicanae Vide Sleidanum in commentariis Luthers time doth witnesse also that it is the lot of reformations while they are green and recent to be infested with such sects and doctrines as haply were never before heard of and therefore it concernes all to be careful what money they take when the markets are so full of adulterate coyn and to be armed against the scandal thence arising as if the truth was the mother of such monsters which are none of hers but are laid at her door to bring her into discredit we must expect no lesse nay haply we have hereby an argument that the truth is at the threshold for it is not ordinary that tares grow any where but in the wheate field The Text too fitly serves our own Meridian being purposely chosen to give antidote against the infection of seducing teachers Whether the word Henceforth do look back to the time past and imply that the Ephesians had been like children tossed to and fro as is generally conceived by the b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christost Theophilact Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek expositors and others I shall neither enquire nor insist upon it but shall take it
against them and shall overcome and kill them In a word the axe that cuts down the tree is hafted with the wood of the same tree the enemies power over us lies in our own sins And so much for this Point Doct. 4 David is resolved to be every way at Gods dispose Here am I. A happy fraâ—e of spirit it is to be able to perish and resign our selves up to God for such a man shall be always in possession of himself out of the gun-shot of all storms and tempests steeled with courage and resolution and however he be tossed too and fro up and down yet shall always light upon his feet If Cannae bring Hannibal to the very walls of Rome If wave rise after wave if Pillars be shaken if rotten Boughs fall off the Tree with winds if Alsolom stir Israel be up Shimei curse yet he is at this Point Here I am I have not much to say upon this Point This is the sum Do your duty and perish in it Si fractus illabatur orbis Conscience of sincerity and uprightness of heart in duty will make a man sing Ecce ego Here am I. Middle region men and lower Region must be tossed and weather-beaten they live and have their treasure where winds and clouds and waves come but he is in the Serene and above all these whose hope the Lord is you may be sooner killed then hurt and if God should deliver you up to the enemy and bring in difficult times be sure that there is few of them that hate you now but would be ready to write upon the statue of each one of you that lives and dies faithful utinam viveres or if such days should come that men shall be afraid to name your names or own your worth yet as it was said of the Pictures of those Patriots that durst not come forth and appear in after times Eo magis fulgebant quià non viseban ur they shined the more because they were not to be seen Be true to God to his truth it will save you but if there be any of you that come in and adhere to God and his Cause only for shelter and safety that is not thank-worthy with God no man thanks another for being driven into his house to stand dry in a showr That you may be able to say Here I am when God shal please to declare that he hath no delight in you these things are requisite 1. To have a good conscience on your side that will feast you within doors even when the hailstones rattle upon the tiles of the house you know what Luther said when he was convented before the Emperor at Wormes No winds shake the earth but those within it If you be in a good cause that is not all for hypocrisie and base ends will more pull you down than the goodness of the cause will lift you up It 's a tirrible thing to be hem'd in by the wrath of God on one side and the galling of a guilty conscience on the other side He that dare not face his own conscience must needs fly from the presence and sight of God he cannot say Hâ—re I am 2. A submissive faith to trust God and leave your selves in his hand accepting the punishment of your iniquity with silence and justification of God lying down as patiently under his knife as Isaac under Abrahams 3. Acquaintance with God so as to lay up your lives with Christ in God having tasted his goodness to you in former experiences such a man may be killed all but the head but that 's above the reach of any enemy and though he be forsaken yet he carries my God my God with him from the cross to his grave David states his happiness to consist in the fruition of God and his ordinances He will bring me again and shew me his Ark and the habitation of it He saith not he will bring me to my house again to my Concubines which are left behind but he will shew me his Habitation The Ark and the Temple were the things that he accounted worth the enjoying and here you may observe what a godly heart looks at not revenues and trading but Gods Ark and habitation The Romane Hâ—storians observe how the first seven Kings did contribute to the State of Rome Romulus the first gave it esse then Pompilius the next brought in the sacra Religion is indeed the very keel of the ship The main work we have to do is to settle it and it 's our greatest wages to see it establisht it will pay us for all our layings out Vse Let the same mind be in you as was at this time in David account it your happines and the most lively mark of Gods favour to you if he shall bring you again and shew unto you his Ark and his Habitation for therein lies the glory of Israel I would the Reformation did not lie under an ill report with many amongst us God would not bring the Isralites into Canaan whilst it was under an ill report with them by reason of the spies who undervalued it It may cost us a longer march in this wilderness if we look upon it with a scornful eye and yet the prejudices against it and the aspersions cast upon them whom you have set on work to be hewers in the Mountains to prepare the materials of the Temple are many and I fear the reason is because nothing that is one can please except it be a quodlibit a grand sallet it will not fit such variety of pallates as are amongst us I pray God such a birth may be brought forth as that there may remain no divisions or separation from us in conscience but only in pride and affected singularity there is the lesse regard to be had of such as are resolved aforehand not to be fixed in the same or be with us but like the erratick stars must each one have an oabe to himself If any mans conscience lie as I may so say in his fancy then to give liberty to that would be nothing else but to give him leave to be mad David expresses his sufferings yea his utmost sufferings by the phrase Good in Gods eyes If he say thus I delight not in thee Here I am let him do that is good in his eyes He might feel it evil but if it be good in Gods eyes he yields to it and so let our hearts be humbled and framed in expectation of Gods hand to us at this time that we may kiss the rod and say with old Eli when he heard the fall of his house It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. We know not what Promises or Prophesies God hath given forth to his Church in his Word to be served and fulfilled by or upon our ruins If God please not to honour himself by our labours let him honour himself by our ashes FINIS Die Veneris 14. Martii 1644. IT is this
is rendred in the same Epistle that they do fully know the life conversation of every man And therefore it is e Diatrib cap. 11. injudiciously spoken that ordination necessarily follows election for an irrational or meer arbitrary dissent when no just exception could be put in bar against a man could no more hinder a mans ordination then such a peevishnesse now a-days can hinder the marriage of one whose name is publisht in the congregation Ab ordinatoribus plebs docenda non sequenda saith Caelestinus The cloze of this point might well have beene an Apology for speaking so much of it in this place had not the Text led me to say something and the necessity of the times together with the present occasion constrained me to this prolixity For the office of the Ministery and the power thereunto belonging are very much undervalued and laid very low by many who differing among themselves in principles doe as in a common interest joyn together to cry downe and degrade them In order to a two-fold liberty The one is the liberty of prophesying or preaching as any man is able to set up the trade in opposition to which they conceive the Ministers do stand for their own livings and power sake The other is the liberty of their lusts and ways of loosenesse and these are such upon whom the feare of the Ministery is fallen whose Spirit cannot bear too free reproofe nor their courses a too close observation And hence it is that some of them having learning doe set their wits on worke to rout this office and the power thereof by bafling the evidences of the word and endeavouring to dispute the Scripture out of doores which though God hath not pleased to deliver Systematically in a way of absolute precept or demonstrative clearnesse in every particular yet ought to be regarded in the hints and consequences and implications which afford foot-hold to a good conscience and not to be out-wrangled for our ends and lusts sake as being the becke of that great God who is able to becken us all into nothing others that calculate by the Ephemerides of policy doe discover or imagine future inconveniences which may arise from the indiscretion passion weakenesse of the Ministers and if they will but goe on to play that Cannon a little further they shall find it will batter and overthrow all Magistracy or any goverment that is managed by men others whose tongues are sharper then their arguments fall foule upon the ministry and poure treble contempt upon it in lieu of double honour never was ministry more blessed and witnessed unto from heaven by the successe and fruitfullnesse of it in bringing in and bringing up a people unto God though some of their chickens are caught and carried away by kites or have forsaken them as duckes forsake the hen that hatched them never more contemned That which the f Collat. Carthag 3. Donatist objected sometime to Austin is now rife againe tu quis es Filius es Ceciliani an non who ordained you you are the brat of Cecilian are you not whom they pretended to be a traditor or to have given up the holy Scripture to the fire so they say to the Ministers whose sons are you is not your pedigree by lineall descent from Antichrist is not he the top of your kin he that hath but halfe an eye may see the reason why the Wolves would have the Sheep to quitt their dogs The ministry if encouraged and supported to doe their duty will be next under the Parliament who we hope will doe theirs the greatest bulwarke or banke against the inundation of errour haeresy and blasphemy whose increase is the occasion of this humiliation It is the lot of the Ministers of the reformed Churches to be grund betweene two Mil-stones in the first reformation the popish Champions fell pell-mell upon the calling of the a Non missi non vocati non consecrati Bristow mâ—tiu Ministers of the reformed Churches pretending it to be null ac proinde nulla ecclesia and consequently saith b Non ab episcopis ordinati ac proinde nulla ecclesia Greg de Valentia Tom. 4. disput 9. quâ—st 3. punct 2. in sine Gregory de Valentia the Churches no Churches because they were not ordained by Bishops The same conclusion is now undertaken That the present Ministers in this Church are not lawfull Ministers upon a medium quite contrary that is because they were ordained by Bishops nor are those who are ordained by Presbyters in much better account with the objectours for they are in the same line of pedigree being but once more removed from the stocke great-grandchildren to the Pope The cauills of the Papists have been long agoe laid to sleepe by the answers of c Mornay of the Church chap. 11. Sadrel de legitim â—ocat Minister reform 〈…〉 Minist Anglicaâ—â— learned men who have distinguisht betweene the corruptions in the persons ordaining or in the fieri of ordination and the substance and validity of ordination in facto esse and the very same answers which were made for the first reformers and the Ministers ordained by them are of as full force for the Ministers now in being with us and the Ministers ordained by them nor can our Ministery fall by this argument now used against us without the fall of all ministery in the Churches of Christ in all times and places where Bishops had a hand in ordination and if the Scripture doe settle the power of ordination in a Presbytery or in the Elders of the Church it can never be made good that a Bishops hand who is also a presbyter being joyned with others can anull the ordination as neither is Baptisme a nullity because administred by a Bishop and haply with some corrupt ceremony used in the administration thereof I proceed to the second point which I will touch but breifly and reserve the use of both and of that which followes untill the close of all Doctrine 2 These false teachers are they that bring in damnable Heresies Tertull de praescript Stuprant veritatem adulterio haeretico They defloure the truth by haereticall adultery not onely those that teach without commission but such as have a calling to teach doe by doctrines of errour bring in damnable haeresies as it s said Acts. 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them-They called Paul because he was a zealous teacher of the Gospell a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarens Acts. 24. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies one that is the first man of the ranke it is a military word and I wish that our military men had not transfused errour into the severall parts of our body If it be said that many of those who are charged with teaching of errours or haeresy are holy men I answer that a holy man cannot easily be a haeretick nor are all the errous of
cannot say a little without speaking much and therefore shall hold me to my subject in hand wee may partly perceive by this expression what damnable haeresies are for it s said that they who bring them in doe even deny the Lord that bought them If they deny Christ the Soveraigne Lord o See Jude v. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by everting his person or natures If they deny his redemption and so evert his office whether his Lordship or his redemption bee denyed the haeresie is damnable and the word denying seems to me to imply that the proper naure of haeresie is to bee g Spalato ostensio errorum Suaresâ—â— cap. 1. euersive and overthrowting It consists not properly in additions to the word saving so farre as those additions are overthrowing the pillars and foundations of truth that is Christ the Lord that bought us or the like to it for if hay and stubble be built on this foundation 1 Cor. 3. 12. because they doe not overthrow it or shake and shiver it therefore though they be errours yet they are not haeresie Non omnis error est haeresis saith h Ad quod vult deum in praefat August Austin every Errour is not haeresie and therefore i Weems Treatise of the 4 de generate sons pag. 180. some distinguish of doctrines or errours thus some are praeter some are circa some are contra fundamentum that is as Austine saith some touch not some shake and some raze the foundation The weight and valour of doctrines must be reck oned by their proximity or nearenesse to the fundamentals for it is in the Confanguinity of doctrine as Tertullian calls it as it is in kindred the neerenesse of kindred is to be measured by neernesse to the stocke This denyall of the Lord that bought them may be either expresly conceptis verbis and so with a little more height of expression may amount to blasphemy but haply these in the text who used composed wordes were not so blacke mouth'd or this denyall may be interpretativè and by consequence and the consequence is either from their doctrines or a consequence of fact also from their course or conversation The consequence from their doctrines if it overthrow the faith must not be drawn out into a long chaine and farr fetcht least by that meanes every errour be made haeresy but the consequence must be neere and close so that you may be able to say this or that doctrine or opinion at the next remove or at a very neer distance denyes the onely soveraigne God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 4. the battery may strike off a tile or make a hole in the wall but except it be neere will not overthrow the foundation for as from every branch of a great tree one may goe or move to the root yet the cutting off of any twigge or branch is not a cutting down or rooting up the tree so though all branches of truth have continuity with the fundamentalls or principles yet the deniall of every truth is not a razing or overthrow of them I instance in the great principle Christ Jesus is the Lord that hath bought us not because there are not other which being denyed faith is overthrown but because it is the instance in my text and in Jude 4. and also because principles lie so close together and are so concenterate that an errour which routs one routes another by immediate consequence I will give one instance or two Suppose the resurrection future bee denyed this overthrowes the faith 2 Tim. 2. 18. and see how the consequence immediately shatters all principles 1 Cor. 15. 13. If there be no resurrection of the dead Then is Christ not risen Then is our preaching vaine Then is faith vaine Then beleevers are yet in their sins Then the dead in Christ are perisht vers 14 15 16 17 18. Or suppose the Law bee brought into equipage with Christ for justification marke the consequence If so saith the Apostle then Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5. 2. Christ is become of none effect unto you verse 4. Yee are fallen from grace and I make no doubt to say that those of the Galatians who for their carnall ends Chap. 6. 12 13. did breake the continuity and communion of the Church by giving themselves up to this opinion were haereticks not while it was an opinion in debate or controversie but when it grew into a ripe Impostume in such as adhaered to it and do but observe in both the instances given by how immediate consequence the denyall of the resurrection or the contemperament of the Law with Christ doe overthrow the fundamentall of Fundamentalls Christ Jesus in respect of his redemption or office For that which I call consequence of fact from the course or conversation of Haeretickes I observe that both the Apostle in this Chapter and Jude in his Epistle who follows the same thred in his description of them do characterise them by the lusts and fleshy courses wherein they live Jude speaks of false teachers as is evident by that he exhorts Christians to contend for the faith because certain men were crept in privily or unawares vers 3. 4 He exemplifies the destruction of these by the same examples of the Angells that fell and of Sodome and Gomorrha He drawes out their picture in the like foul colours and in the fourth verse calls them ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousnesse and denying the onely Lord God and our Lord Iesus Christ And though lusts of the flesh as adultery and the like cannot be called haeresie a Tarreâ—rem 〈◊〉 de Eccl. lib. 4. part 2. cap. 1. Morton in 1 Cor. 11. 18. yet if a man professing Christ shall chuse such an opinion or doctrine as doth patronize and maintain those lusts and so walkes in a course of sinne under the protection of such an opinion or tenet as is contrary both to faith and holinesse that comes up to the Scripture-description of haeresie for so these false teachers that bring in damnable haeresies are said to allure through lusts of the flesh and much wantonesse ver 18. and to promise liberty as likewise those that are entangled in their errours doe turne from the holy Commandement and turn to their former vomit and wallowing in the mire vers 20. 21 22. and so the shipwrack of faith and the putting away of good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19. goe both together and therefore the Nicolaitans whose doctrine was hatefull to Christ Rev. 2. 15. and whose lusts and filthinesse maintained by their pernicious doctrine a Iren. lib. 1. cap. 20. were monstrous can bee accounted no other then damnable Haereticks and we may judg Clem. Alex. lib. 7. Strom. the like of others of the same stamp being the very persons as is b Epiphan haeres 26. conceived by good Authors whom both Peter and Iude describe as turning the grace of God into lasciviousnesse and denying
unprofitable and vaine and then it followes A man that is a haeretick c. whence the a Examen censurae pag. 272. and 280. Arminians interpret an haeretick to be one that makes contention and division upon trifling and slighty questions who is condemned of himselfe because he litigates and makes a stirre about such things as himselfe knowes to be of small importance but I conceive the matter not to be so slighty as they would make it for it is said of such a one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is subverted as a Ship that turns up her keele or a house when the foundation is turned topsy turvy and therefore Deut. 32. 20. where the extreamly desperate estate of a people at last cast is exprest the Greeke renders it by the word used in this text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a people turned upside downe or subverted which also the b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subvertit ut cum superior pars in imam vertitur Avenarius Hebrew word imports both in this place and else where and so haeresy is concluded to be a subversive thing and not a peevish litigation about slight questions as the Arminians would put it off but thus much may be collected from the cohaerence that a man may be denominated an haeretick for doctrinall and dogmaticall errours holden and contentiously defended and maintained and it is observed by some that wordes of this forme and termination as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do signifie an aptitude or readinesse and so the c Cameron myâ—â—thec cui volupe est tueri falsas erroneas â—piniones word in the text signifies one that with complacency and choyce adheres to such errours but the greatest doubt is what is meant by those wordes he sinneth being condemned of himselfe which d Chrisost in Titus 3. 10. 11. Chrysostom refers to the admonitions precedent for in that such a man hath been admonisht he cannot reply in his owne defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. no man hath shewed me my errour no man hath better instructed me and so hath his mouth stopt and is condemned of his owne conscience and it is not to be denyed that very many interpreters both ancient and moderne by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe understand a man that is convinced in his owne conscience that he erres and that he goes contrary to his owne light sciens volens but this interpretation is by e Minus Celsâ—s pag. 13. Estius in locum cum multis aliis many disallowd and argued against that moderate and sweet breath'd f De Arrianis lib. 5. Salvian speakeing of the Arrians saith Haeretici sunt non scientes apud nos non apud se quod illi nobis hoc nos illis c. They are Haereticks but not knowingly with us they are but not with themselves And indeed the word in the text doth not necessarily carry so farre as that an haeretick is condemned of his owne conscience but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a man taught of himselfe without a Master so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a man condemned of himselfe not merely misled by others to whom he hath given up himselfe blindfold but as one that hath electively taken up and with a fixed self-will is resolved to persist in his errour and way which he thinks to be truth and that he doth Godgood service in holding on in it there are two things that may be cleerly taken up 1. That it is made the character of an haeretick to sin because condemned of himselfe 2. That another man may know that he is subverted and sins being selfe condemned for ' its said after admonition reject him Knowing that he that is such is subverted c. But how shall this be known Is it because he sins against common notions or principles within the ken of natures light This restraines haeresy which is a subverting of the faith onely to that which is contrary to light of nature which light of nature may bee in some particular so defaced like a superscription on old coyne that though I may know he sins yet he is not convinced in himselfe Is it then because he takes up an opinion for his lusts sake and private ends against his light and knowledge Then indeed he sins because condemned of himselfe but how can another know it It rests therefore that an haeretick rejecting admonition may be said to be condemned of himselfe because hee chuseth his owne errours and rejects the truth and so interpretative that is vertually and by consequence is condemned of himselfe as they who thrust away the word from them did judge themselves unworthy of eternall life Acts. 13. 46. Here is as you see an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or selfe condemning without conviction of conscience or knowledge of their own sin in it The fourth place is the Text which we have in hand and this whole chapter compared with the Epistle of Iude in both which haeresy is graphically described as hath before been opend That which remaines to be done is the drawing up of that hath been said concerning the meaning of the word or the explication of the things out of the Scriptures alleaged into a result and that is this The Scripture seemes to make haeresy a complicate evill in which there is these three things whether all of them essentiall ingredients or some of them be usuall attendants or concomitants I dispute not 1. Dogmaticall or doctrinall errour even over throwing the faith or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. lim 2. 18. Funditas evertunt solo equaâ—t subverting the pillars and foundations of the doctrine of Christ which Jude calls the common salvation ver 3. 2. Seperation from or renting of the unity and communion of the Church some time b Schisma eructat in here sin ut non nemo ait schisme introduces haeresy when men are run out upon peevishnesse of spirit or some unwarrantable grounds they commonly run on into errour of opinion and doctrine being caught like a loose and wandring sheep severd from the flock by the wolves which lie in waite for such sometimes the schisme followes upon the errour of opinion drunke in and so departure from the truth is attended with departure from the society and communion of the Church Jude haveing described haereticks saith ver 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are they that separate themselves 3. A loose and carnall course taken up and followed either privately or openly and that under the patronage and protection of these dogmaticall errours Their lives are as full of Athisme as their opinions of blasphemy or false-hood all which being laid together it appeares that an haereticke's understanding mind is corrupted a good conscience is thrust away his will electively adheres to errour and false wayes his affections are drowned in sensuality and lusts he is subverted and sins being selfe condemned either c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oicumen
neither is a Parasite to flatter the Authority into exorbitancie nor a demolisher thereof If I had time to set before you the misery of Anarchy I would make you tremble at the thought of it for then you should see men as motes in a Sun-beame fly up and down one upward and another down a thousand wayes and neither life nor libertie nor propertie could be called your own and what should Paul doe for his appeal to Caesar let the men and their actions be what they may yet the Authoritie is for our good Caesar noster est a nostro Domino constitutus saith Tertullian Caesar is ours set over us by our Lord. More particularly First for you my Lord that are the setting Sun It is your happinesse that you can use that speech of Hezekiah There hath been peace in your dayes I commend to you that excellent close of Samuel 1 Samuel 12. 3. when he laid down his Government Whose Oxe have I taken whose Asse or whom have I defrauded of whose hand have I received any bribe Go off with thanksgivings to God and let this Citie and your own conscience give you thanks but withall set all accounts clear between God and your soul and remember that a year of Majoralty may bring more sinne upon you then all the dayes of your life I mean such sinnes as are called our nostra lerna our-other mens sinnes which are such as happily a Magistrate little thinks of Secondly For you the Electors I suppose you know your rule take heed of that which is the bane of all societies sedition and tumultuousnesse and unquietnesse I know you may be deceived in your choice the Historian saith of Galba that he was omnium judicâ—o dignus imperio nisi imperasset some mens sins go before some follow after and we know not what unseen leakes may be in a vessel untill there be something put into it but let your aim be right and hearts be unbiass'd It 's a great liberty you have to chuse whom you must be subject unto and a great happinesse that you have so many good men to choose out off we undervalue the greatest benefits when they are common and you lift up the hand in course many time rather then in conscience In the generall your eye should be pitcht upon a good man and upon a fit man for every good man is not fit for this service nor for this time The Hebrew Masters recount seven properties of a fit man markt out in two places of holy Scripture Exodus 18. Deut. 1. First An able man that is as the word imports a stout man well resolved against bribes and fears perswasions and menaces not like an empty ballance that stands tottering and a penny weight determines it It is a cursed Principle of Machiavels among his other Paradoxes in policy he would have a subordinate Magistrate instar molae trusatilis like a hand-mill which a superiour Magistrate may easily turn round as he will Secondly Fearing God for he that rules for God hath need to fear him with a pious fear and he that fears God as a private man will in all likely hood fear him as a Magistrate in serving God being a Magistrate in those things wherein he cannot serve him but as a Magistrate For In hoc saith Augustine serviunt Reges Deo in quo non possunt nisi ut Reges Thirdly Men of Truth or just men He that rules over men must needs be just 2 Samuel 23. and he that is by giving suum cuique the long coat to the Dwarf if it be his for default whereof Cyrus his Master whipt him when he was a Boy because he considered in the childish controversie that came before him were like a Taylor for whom the Garment was most fit then like a Judge whos 's the coat was Fourthly Hating Covetousnesse that bribes throw not dust in his eyes He is the best Magistrate that is good for nothing A rare Vertue Fifthly A Wise Man One that as they say hath his third eye that is Experience For an ignorant Magistrate doth justice by adventure and that oftentimes is by misadventure It is a saying of Luther That if a wise man and a good man both cannot be had rather chuse a man liberally good then intollerably ignorant As if you were to seek a Pilot a Lawyer a Physician you would chuse such a one as in his facultie is skilfull Sixthly A known man or One of good fame for Reputation makes Authoritie valued which other wise is rendred contemptible Seventhly One that is of the Chief of the Tribes Deuteronomie 1. 15. A Cedar an Olive a Vine not a Bramble For three things the Earth saith the Scripture is disquieted A servant when he reigns c. Nec Bellua tetrior ulla est And for Conclusion You Sir that shall be Lord Major in Fiftie three as hath been a year male-ominated to the government of this Citie do not you fear the Stars every old woman that can dream a tale is not one of the destinies He gave this reason why the old Oracles in his time grew silent because saith he men are grown minus creduli do you trust God with your self who hath trusted you with so great a City enter your Office with prayer fasting that another spirit may come upon you and that he that hath girt you may bless you Keep if it be possible the State which the City hath allowed you as Joseph in Egypt did that which the King had put upon him for he that despiseth himself is the more easily despised by others and let Religion have your Countenance which hath crowned this land with so many blessings such miraculous preservations as are peculiar to England remember whose Minister you are that so you may have courage and for what end that you may maintain your comfort FINIS SUBJECTION TO MAGISTRATES BOTH Supreme and Subordinate Laid open in a Second SERMON upon that subject Preached at the Election of the Lord MAYOR of LONDON on Michaelmas day 1654. By Richard Vines preacher of Gods Word at Laurence Jury London TITUS 3. 1. Put them in minde to be subject to principalities and powers c. LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun against St Dunstans Church 1655. The Second SERMON At the Election of the LORD MAYOR OF LONDON 1 PET. 2. 15 16. BEing appointed to this service upon your last Election day in 1653. the providence of God led me to that Text verses 13 1 4. of this Chapter and because the two verses following are homogeneal to the same subject and sutable to the season I will proceed Verses 15 16. 15. For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 16. As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God IN which words the Apostle re-inforces the charge laid upon all of Christian name converted Jews and Gentiles
and therefore it appears that God will honour the standing Ministery with this publick service that the flock may not stand at any mans courtesie that will feed them I say not poison them but expect it from some hand of standing duty and it appears that our Antimagistratical men do for the same reason cry down the Ministery as Demosthenes observed the sheep were required to deliver up their Dogs that wakened them by their batking at the comming of Wolves or Thieves 2 A faithful Ministery is very useful to Civil Magistracie in discharge of this office of putting the people in minde of their subjection to authority for commonly people are querulous and waspishly froward against authority and subjection to mans nature is grievous good service doth the Minister of Gods Word do for the Magistrate who is also called the Minister of God in bearing of his sword and let these two Ministers like twins supporting one the other flourish and live together good service doth the Minister also for the people in warning them of their duty and of their doing it for conscience sake for heathen Kingdoms and Policies that want this office of remembrancers do usually more obey for wrath then conscience Oh! let not the Minister of the Word who is their Remembrancer cut the girdle of this relation between Magistrate and subject by blowing the one up into Tyranny or laying him low into contempt or contumely or by pulling away the other viz. the subject as an Ivy from the tree that supports and sustains it for surely you ought not to turn your host out of dores that gives the Gospel house-room and hospitality in his Territories no though he were a Heathen vae soli wo be to either of them that is alone I know and am sorry that the Pulpit which is the Watch-tower whence this Remembrancer gives warning is sometimes so partial and so passionate as rather to seem to blow Sheba his Trumpet or to throw dirt in the face of Authority for I believe that God hath put this office on the Gospel Minister partly to sweeten and make the Gospel acceptable to States and Magistrates which otherwise as a Boutefeau would to speak humanely have been hunted out of all places I confess it is not our place as the Heralds to blazon titles or pragmatically to model forms and modes of Policy such have produced unhappy Empericks of the Body Politick as unhappy as Abiathar in being factor for Adonijah 1 Kings 2. 26. or as Phaeton undertaking the Chariot of the Sun but our office is to put servants in mind to be subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim 6. 1. to their own masters wives to be subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3. 1. to their own husbands so the people to be subject to their own Magistrates viz. the powers that be in place and possession of Magistracy And therefore according to their partiality and fancy do cry up a Magistrate that is of their own party or opinion and the same man they cry down that is otherwise minded seem to me to miss the true grounds of subjection to him which Sophocles hit better upon saying what then Must we obey Why not saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they are Rulers in place of Magistracy and the Apostle seems to hold to this rule for he checks his own mistake of calling Ananias the High Priest whited wall by alledging that text of speaking evil of the Ruler of his people and yet it is probable he knew not that he came into that place by lineal succession but irregularly and surreptitiously as most of them had done since the time of the Macchabees and our Saviour told the captious Jews that they receiving Caesars Coine a signe of his Soverignty must in reason give to Caesar what was his 3 God is the countenancer and approver of Civil Magistracy as appears in that he will have the Minister of his Word to put the people in mind to be subject to it for it is the ordinance of God Rom. 13. 2. and as the Romans made the Tribunes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inviolable so hath God secured Magistracie from resistance by denouncing damnation to resisters God will maintain his own Ministers and such are Magistrates though Heathen but you must distinguish between the function or office it self which maintains peace and safety a peaceable and quiet life in godliness and honesty and between the unlawful commands and lusts of the Magistrate we may not resist the office we must not obey the unjust commands If Jeroboam set up his Calves or Nebuchadnezzar his Image We will not serve thy gods Dan. 3. 38. is the best answer our disobedience is our best obedience God hath countenanced and honoured disobeyers of sinful commands as we see in the three Worthies but God hath not favoured seditious perturbers of the Magistrate as we see in Absalom and Sheba c. From the second point I shall commend to your further satisfaction two things 1 Let no professed Christian imagine himself to be by his Christianity the more free or exempt from the civil authority that is over him though it be Heathenish for this you shall neither learn from the head nor from the Doctrine of our Christian profession Our Lord Christ for his part acknowledged that Pilate his power over him was given of God our doctrine is that every man wherein he is called must therein abide with God 1 Cor. 7. 24. not forbidding a man thereby to better his cōdition if we may but to use it rather v. 21. but shewing that his priviledges though they be great yet are they spirituall and that his outward condition and state is not changed or bettered by becomming Christian the wife is not freed from her heathen husband the bond servant is not made free from his master the Subject not exempt from his tyrant nor the prisoner from his prison for then the Gospel hook would catch selfe-ended persons for the bait sake but we have a better rule religio christiana non tollit ordinationes politicus the Christian religion doth not abrogate the wholsome ordinances of the State 2 Neither doth Christianity prohibit a Christian to be a Magistrate nor a Christian subject to pay him subjection It is true unto the unlawfull commands either of the heathen or Christian Magistrate it may be pleaded in barre Acts 5. 29. We ought to obey God rather then men but it was a spice of that desperate Doctrine of those Pseudochristians the Gnosticks to please their deluded followers and themselves by promising liberty 2 Pet. 2. 19. An egge of the same bird was that fury call yee it or delusion of those Rustick Peasants Libertines of Germany in our ancestors days who arose in such swarms to take the sword out of the Magistrates hand to put it into their owne scabbard and to level their estates into more plainness and evenness pretending that the sword of civil Authority