more confident or if they could draw him down and he not draw them up they might raise up their crests but he knoweth their day is coming And when the mighty Lord will he draws them up to him in faith and obedience and heavenliness that they may look for signs of Gods favour from his right hand in spiritual things not from his left hand in temporals But I have hitherto kept no order in grief We have so many objects which call for sorrow and so importunately that we are confounded in perplexities and know not whereupon to begin our first fruits of tears And yet O blessed Saviour the first fruits do belong of due to thee who hast redeemed the world by more then tears even bloud Thou who camest into the world to expiate our sins with the price of thy bloud mayst justly require that they should cost us tears also least they should not seem to go out as they came in too much by our eyes Thou that badest the daughters of Jerulem to weep not for thee but for themselves and their children Luk. 23.28 didst therein shew rather thy ingenuity then their duty As if thou shouldst bid us sit at thy Table in receiving the Communion which yet thou hast not done it would be rusticity in us not to interpret thy courtesie by our reverence of thy Divinity We have read of one that came laughing into the world but was not happy in it Yet if there were any born without tears surely there was none born again without tears And we have reason to weep because Christ was born for us who deserved to dye We should dye before we sin although we sinned in our first Parents before we were born and he lived that he might dye that we might live and not dye eternally He had a better life before he was born and should he live such a life for us And if you say that we have reason to rejoyce that he was born for us that is true too And yet we have cause of sorrow that upon our occasion he thus humbled himself to be man for man We may weep for joy and his sorrow And can we tell how to avoid a lamentation for his bitter passion and death with such pain and shame Shall the Sun be darkned and we not in mourning Shall the rocks be rent and not our garments Shall the graves be opened and our hearts shut Shall the Earth shake and we not moved the vail of the Templerent and we remain undisturbed O Christian he shed bloud thou sheddest tears Compare now bloud and tears Christ and thee And what disproportion And yet how much greater disproportion if thou dost not shed tears What have we to do here now in this valley of tears but to weep Open the floud-gates and let them pour out That sowre Apple which was eaten by us in Paradise may make our eyes water that we are foolishly fallen into such a necessity that the Son of God must mediate a peace with his life and death But why should we mourn for our sins since they are pardoned Yes Oh more Weep for thy sins because they are committed but weep for them more because they are pardoned This love this mercy is an argument which enters into the soul and makes it go as it were through fire and water inflames it and melts it into ingenuous sorrow which is more abundant for such a pardon after such provocations Nothing is in effect so coactive as love nor formally less because it makes us so willing The love of Christ constraineth us as the Apostle speaks I am ashamed to be so often pardoned as he he said to a gratious Prince whom he had been disloyal often to as if in abhorrence of his iniquities he would have a punishment as being more able to bear it then the weight of the courtesie clemency O my Saviour since thou hast been pleased to wish my soul in thy bloud let me also wash it in my tears not to make it whiter but because it hath been so foul not to adde to thy righteousness for what can be added to that which is infinite by me who am nothing but to do justice upon my self for all my sins which have put thee to all this trouble for me But how soon shall we want water for the bewailing of one sin How little shall we then have for all and so great as a Christian makes them had they no other aggravation O my God it is easier for thee to pardon my sins then for me to number them and therefore how shall I be able to sprinkle the remembrance of all my sins with a little water of repentance And since my sins are in number as the hairs of my head how will there be drops enough of my eyes that I may have but a drop for every sin And since they are in number as the sands by the Sea should not I have a Sea of this salt-water for my sins O make my sorrow more that I may have more joy for now in this condition of sinners there is left us no joy but after sorrow or out of it Let me never be dry lest I burn specially let this humour more abound when we have for it the good seasons of the Church to move them or when we have too much opportunity of our own bad practices to deserve them But let me on one day of the year not be without good store of this affliction And what day can that be but on the Passion day Let me think upon Christ then and if I think upon him then as can I but think upon him let me think upon him passionately lest I be not a Christian any day of the year because not then Blessed Saviour who didst bid thy servant St. Peter to come to thee upon the water help me to come to thee upon this water of repentance and stretch out thy hand lest I sink yea also since my tears are not clean but have earth and filth in them and therefore they need tears and those tears other tears and so to infinity therefore do thou wash even my tears also in the pure fountain of thy most pretious bloud lest I go into such sorrow as should be because my sorrow is not such as it should be And for as much as I have no tears to spare for the world let me and my enemies have no more sorrow then in a virtue And if they have none let me have the more until I may be like them without a fault We have not yet therefore done our wet work We are not yet over the water for Jerusalem our Jerusalem is in the suds After we have lamented our spiritual condition that we are no better we have great occasion to lament the publick that it is so bad undone with wars rent in pieces with schisms overgrown with heresies groaning under its burthen of error and sin and trembling under the decay of its foundations The
after imposition of them by lawful authority they are yet in the state and condition of things indifferent for even in these things charity bindes against the use of liberty in point of scandal And so we shall make nothing of authority and so we shall disanul the Ordinance and Laws of God 3. Whensoever they do not obey they give scandal to some or other therefore as towards practice they should always obey 4. Had they the authority and power in their hands would they be contented with such obedience No they would not be contented but would have the world know that their laws are the laws of Christ and whosoever is not obedient is a rebel to Christ And therefore though I have no minde to differ from any one yet if I have liberty of conscience I cannot in conscience joyn with them in this their supposition Neither can we imagin how those cases of scandal and contempt can give satisfaction when they are applyed unto the former texts which require obedience Are we to give obedience to the law of God which commands obedience to the laws of men rightly qualified only in case of scandal or can we conceive that under obedience to lawful Magistrates in lawful things there is no more to be understood then if there be no scandal by inobedience no contempt by disobedience Shall we think he hath no power in things indifferent for if his power be only in the punishing of those who are breakers of the Laws of God and rewarding of those that are observers thereof then is our obedience injoyned to him only passive Therefore if the question be thus stated whether humane laws do binde the Conscience in these terms absolutely taken it is denied because we are assured that no man hath of himself any authority over the conscience and because we cannot be assured that that which is commanded by virtue of his command is right but if the question be stated thus Whether we are bound in conscience to obey a lawful Magistrate in lawful commands not only in the former respects I have no scruple sufficient against the affirmative One Argument may be this All Gods Commandements doe binde in conscience That we should be obedient to humane laws is one of Gods Commandements and therefore are we bound in conscience to be obedient to humane laws because we are bound to Gods law concerning them By the Law Divine we are obliged in conscience to them by manner of the object of the thing If we compare the humane law with the Divine law touching it the humane law in the whole is considered but as a particular matter of the Divine law And if we be bound in conscience to the law of God in all matters of it how should we not be bound to the Law of God in this So that if we do not obey we do not offend a weak brother only but the great God by whom Kings reign 2. We are more bound to our Civil Parents then children are bound to their natural Parents But children are bound in conscience to their natural Parents so then we are bound in conscience to our Civil Parents That we are more subject to our Civil Parents appeareth in several regards because first the dayes we are preserved in are more happy then those we were born in since the condition of our birth is uncertain as the Orator saith well 2. The natural Parent hath not authority of life and death over the childe as the Civil Parent hath which is given him immediately by God as is noted since the people even upon supposal of election cannot give him this as having not power over their own lives And 3. Because even the natural Parents are subjects to the Civil Parent so that if the natural parent should bid his childe do one thing and the Civil parent should bid him do another the command of the natural parent must be sinked in obedience to the Civil as the rule is The precept of the inferior doth not binde when it is contrary to the precept of the superior Now for the Assumption that children are bound in conscience to be obedient to their parents who in conscience can deny since they have this impression in them by law of nature which bindes the natural conscience as Rom. 2.15 and because also their obedience hath a Divine promise annexed to the command of God that they should be obedient to them Ephes 6.2 Honour there is to be expounded by obedience in the first verse Now what promise can we say is made by God but in order to such obedience as we are not in conscience free to Indeed they should be obedient to their parents in the Lord as in the text But this doth not derogate from their due obedience but doth qualifie it It doth not abate their subjection in those things wherein they should be subject but doth restrain the extension of it Or it doth terminate their obedience in God doth not withdraw any lawful respect to their parents therefore the next words in the 2. verse are Honour thy Father and thy Mother Thus in brief as towards our obligations to laws Civil and the goodness of obedience thereunto But some there are who will make a difference betwixt our obligedness to laws Civil and laws Ecclesiastical To this in few and in way of propositions First with us the supreme authority for the constitution of Ecclesiastical things is the same and therefore there can be no difference on that part And as for them who hold that no Civil authority is necessary to the sanction of orders for the Church if they could make their supposition good they would further the conclusion for so the authority is more immediately from Christ himself 2. Ecclesiastical constitutions which have the same authority with us in regard of their original issue of Supreme power are like to binde as much as Civil by reason of as great assistance to be presumed for the framing of them as for the framing of those which are political since we have a promise from Christ of his blessing successively to the greatest actions to be sure of the Church in the end of St. Matthew I will be with you to the end of the world which doth not only respect Credends but Agends also And there is a reason of such assistance in order to the third proposition The peace of the Church unto which the Ecclesiastical constitutions doe binde in uniformity is as considerable as the peace of the Nation And if then the political laws do binde as to the preservation of the publique good in order and peace and strength and plenty then why should not laws of the Church be as valid in obliging unto unity and peace and order and defence against the adversaries thereof And this is strengthned by the fourth proposition which respects the end of all the orders of the Church which is better to dispose them by the means of grace which are dispensed in
by these three things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which others express by a like adnomination in the Latin Oculo loculo poculo By their immoderacy in cups they discover their secrets and their shame by their sparkling eyes they discover their fell passionateness and by the sparing of their purse they do discover their miserable covetousness and baseness I would they were more sparing in their cups more free in their purses and more sober in their passions If they were not so dissolute in their pots they might have more money to give unto those who are fain to drink water while they drink wine and might be more able to bear an injury if they had not drunk more then they can bear The Lacedaemonians when they had taken the Hilots besides other sordid services they put them to were wont in their Feasts to make some of these fearfully drunk that they might shew unto their youth the loathsomeness and abominableness of this vice Their end was better then their means to demonstrate to their eye the filthiness of this sin But hereby they signified their abhorrency of this intemperance which they would scare and fright their young men from by such an abuse of their most forlorn Captives Blessed God! what do we then if we make others or our selves the servants of Christ to wallow in the ordure and uncleanness of this most unreasonable iniquity and not as they to make others more to loath this transgression but by our example to make them like us In the fear of God think upon that formidable text Hab. 2.15 16. Woe be to him that maketh his neighbor drunk that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunken also that thou mayst look on their nakedness or privities Thou art filled with shame for glory drink thou also and let thy foreskin be uncovered The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to thee shameful spewing shall be on thy glory That text is by some thought as Isidore Clarius notes to be expounded in the letter of Nebuchadonosor who made other Kings who were captives to him drunk that he might mock and deride them Thou that delightest in the overthrow of others by the power of wine consider what bitterness thou shalt have in such a cup of vengeance when fearful spewing shall be on thy glory The word is very Emphatical as being a compound whereof there are but few in the holy language yet there is one for thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shameful spewing or a double shame as some would have it to be rendred on thy glory Their reckoning is like to be much inflamed and they may expect a double retribution of shame and vengeance for not being temperate and for their unreasonable devouring of those creatures which were not made nor given to that purpose There was wont to be a Sea betwixt us and those sots and we were on this side they who were beyond measure were beyond Sea but now we have learned to pledge them in kinde and we follow it as if we would overtake them or be overtaken Christian think upon thy Master Hath thy Maker Christ taught thee no better lessons Assoon as he came into the world he taught thee sobriety for he would not go into the Inne but was born in the out-house of the Inne There was no room for Christ in the Inne it is like where there is wont to be such had company there 's no room for Christ To be sure they are not like to be gathered together there in his Name and it may be we may phansie that this might give hint to the ancient Fathers of their prohibitive Canon that Clergy men should not enter into drinking houses because they specially should be like their Master and he was without Christ once upon an extraordinary occasion turned water into wine to shew his Divinity but how often dost thou turn thy wine into swill to shew thy bestiality Did he redeem thee with the bloud of his soul as we may speak that thou shouldst captivate thy self to sin by the bloud of the grape Dost thou consider how thou dost commit a sin which as soon as thou hast committed it thou canst not repent of Other sins as soon as we have done them we may bewail and repent of but this drunkenness will not let us soon be delivered or discharged of the Commission Repentance is the vomit of the soul which clears it but the other vomit will come up sooner then this because by the fumes of the wine the apprehension is bound and not able freely to exercise it self in actions reasonable much less spiritual Neither head nor eye nor foot perform their office in him but here he lies and wallows in his mire or staggers and reels as if the ground were not resolved to bear him with his load of vice and drink Enough enough drunken Christian if it be not a contradiction as indeed it is Alas too much it is Dost thou thus answer thy Saviours thirst upon the Cross with the lustful thirst of forbidden excess Did he pour out of his wounded side bloud and water that thou shouldst fill thy sides with wine or drink Get thee home as soon as thou canst go and weep out thy superfluities in tears and let thy amendment be as dry and solid as thy forrow fluent and soaked And if thou hast any superfluities of estate thou canst not be long and far from better occasions for the improvement of then them to run out But if thou art resolved to drink deep into hell let those diseases thou dost brew in thy body by the swash and heat of drink make thee sensible of a vengeance behinde And think what speed thou makest by thy vice to have thy punishment Thou canst not excuse thy self the second time as Theodoret in his questions did Noah for his drunkenness that he did not know then the power of that wine for thou hast been often vanquished and lien under the strength of it but me thinks thou mayst consider that every time thou goest upon score with death and thou knowest not how speedily thou wilt be lay'd up Take heed betimes of those sins which make thee miserable ipso facto and presently for ever But we leave them to God who can only reduce and order these beastsmen the flying creatures light headed men the Serpents those that are deceivers the Lyons those that are fierce and angry the Swine those that wallow and tumble in their pudly pleasure the Wolves those that are ravenous as Clem. Alexandrinus moralizeth them So much difference he says there is betwixt those who are men and those who are like beasts How comely is a man said the Poet while he is indeed a man CHAP. IV. HEre we must a little hunt the Wolves which have not yet taken away all because they have not taken away our liberty of endeavouring not to right our selves but to make them right And certainly they will betray themselves
chief Butler of Pharaoh forgat his ingagement and Iosoph but we should not forget the afflictions of Joseph we should as we may speak broach a new vessel of tears for him Nehemiah the Kings Cup-bearer had more affection to Ierusalem and gave the King a good account of his sad countenance in the 2. chap. 2 3. verses He good man was as ready to fill Gods bottles with tears as the Kings cup with wine that God might powre out a blessing upon Jerusalem Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81.10 Indeed we are like narrow mouthed vessels we can take in but as by drops and we can let out also but by drops if we could open our eyes and fill up the measure of tears or rather had we no measure we should have more of Gods mercies See if there were ever sorrow like unto this in the land of our nativity we are an Island without but within we should be as it were all Sea in sorrow for the most desperate breaches which ever Satan imagined and man made We had a Kingdom as great as those who had more compass In those things which are not great by bulk the goodness is the greatness as his rule is And this Nation was great by some kindes of goodness not by quantity Had it been but of indifferent credit and name it had not been envyed had it not been envyed it had missed these calamities When Excellency goes before Envy is like to go behinde to trip up the heels Sin hath deserved it but envy and covetousness of our own hath done it undone it If ever laughter was madness as the wise man saith then certainly now when we seem all to have lost our reason After the body of the Nation had lost so much bloud then to take off the Head what is it when ever so done by whom Can it be said to be done by two whereof one would be next to Christ the other to Jesus One would have it to be done according to their principle the other in form of justice according to their hypocrisie Where lived he who wished all had but one neck that he might be but once cruel And when but then did all lie under one head Head of the Church and of the Common-wealth could not stand together The head is taken from our Master so then our Master is taken from our head and as he said We are rather without a Master then in liberty unless to weep if even this Was not the punishment ours for we were beheaded And what is left in the body but a few equivocal spirits The breath of our nosthrils is taken away and how then do we live It is necessary said he to put unity before all multitude but we have preferred a multitude and when many are put before one what do they stand for Surely we are in a vertiginous disposition and our feet are where our head was and we think we are in England when we are out of the Kingdom Beelzebub hath now found out being the Prince of flies such flies as the Roman Eagle will catch And he hath found out a way to gratifie the Italian with such servants as will make their own liveries with home-made cloth I would the servant of servants had that foot in the grave which was wont to be kissed but I am afraid he hath set that foot on our ground Indeed we seem to drive him out as some do drive out beasts out of the corn when they drive them more in and they cry him down as those who mingle with the Hue that they may not be discovered But this object seems to exceed our faculty and we cannot almost think of it without sinking by the weight of it into sorrow without a bottom and without hope For those that are dead we sorrow not without hope in obedience to the precept 1 Thes 4.13 for they shall have a glorious Resurrection but for them who are living we sorrow without hope for there is little hope of a resurrection from this condition unless we hope in him that quickeneth the dead and maketh those things which are not as though they were We have in our selves the sentence of death as the Apostle there in another sense In our selves what have we to make us think that we are not condemned to uttter ruine when we think of all our enemies and all our sins which are yet whole in us What is there to be broken so soon as our hearts And what is there which is not broken but our hearts What vengeance may that Nation look for which by unamendment yea greater iniquities requireth more punishment or if it be spared without contrition even that may be the greatest punishment Nolo hanc misericordiam Domine said the devout man Lord let me have none of that mercy And therefore all the comfort is that we are yet punished that all the dose of the purge is not yet taken There is no doubt but we are weary of our punishments but we should be more weary of our sins and until we be more weary of our sins it is a favour not to be eased of our strokes and burthen of adversities We should have been weary of our sins before the rod came but I would we were weary of them now If any of our sins be not now committed are they yet mortified It may be some of them do not come abroad in the exercise but they keep close at home in the mind And that which locks them in is security We are like men in sleep upon the top of a mast when the windes blow and the waves roar and the Ship reels on this side and on that side and the Pilot thrown over and yet every one scuffling for the goods and every one will handle the rudder And yet we are fools and enemies if we do not like this condition How much do we suffer because we will not be deceived Have we not cause to mourn for these things have we not cause to mourn that we cannot mourn as we should have we not cause to mourn that we cannot mourn that we cannot mourn and so make our mournings infiinte What can we think of in the land which will keep us from bleeding to death in tears had we so serious apprehensions of things as their nature and circumstances do require Or if we had not matter enough within our own Territories for grief we might enlarge our selves and expatiate into the whole world For every Christian is Oecumenical and hath a care of the whole world and if he be right he doth grieve that the world hath so much work of repentance to do and yet hath so little time and that there are so many contrefait Christians who if they mend not must go soon from the white Devil to the black And what is there yet more deserving to be washed with this briny water then this that when sins and errors do so much every where abound
Remember the dose he is prescribed is but small Remember he had many infirmities and this was his Physick The best way of using delights is as Physick not for themselves but for their use and end Take heed there is death in this pot as was said to the Prophet death in this pot to thee to the Sons of the Prophets and to the people by thy example Think upon the Priest who when he found once the misery of this vice would give to the party which confessed to him this sin no other penance Think upon the Chaplain who was often overcome of this fault and often ashamed of it and to shame himself the more and publickly rid his horse into the water loosed the bridle to have him drink put down his head to have him drink more it may be whistled him to it but the horse would no more then would serve him then he took off his ornaments his hood and put it upon his horse and so rode into the Court to shew unto them by his own confession that the horse had more wit then he and therefore better deserved that habiliment How easily would a Satyr come alone against this intemperance in those who scarse have leisure to eat or drink for their necessities Had they a mind soberly to defend that Church which others go about as he said soberly to destroy they should abound with tears more then wine This little is enough against them and truly for them if any words would reclaim them And certainly if the condition of the Church the calamities of the Nation the contempt upon the Clergy the danger of all that had any English name and honour upon it will not yet make them serious and stayed and dry and wet with sorrow then there is no power in words which will be effectuall unlesse in the word of God which such have no desire to preach or hear against their beloved lust And thon that swearest idlely and wickedly shouldest thou not teach others not to swear Or doest thou preach against oaths for which the Land mourneth as the Prophet and yet art thou not unblameable herein Doest thou by blasphemous oaths call down God to bear testimonie of thy impiety and to be avenged of thee or doest thou by such expressions as are within danger of being accounted formall oaths grieve those that are not scandalized herein Who is there that should abstain from all appearance of evill if not he who hath an ingagement of particular profession against it He that shall break the least Commandement and teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 5.19 And what shalt thou be called then who beakest not a small Commandement And if thou sayest thou teachest men otherwise It may be so in thy Sermon yet seldome or coldly but yet thou teachest men also so Out of thy own mouth will God condemn thee And out of thy own mouth thou teachest them so in thy practice At thy Ordination thou didst take from the Bishop that Book into thine hand to urge unto faith and good life and doest thou take the name of God also in vain Will he hold thee guiltlesse There is nothing for thee to do but to do better If thou dost not speak against swearing thou doest offend in commission if thou doest speak against it and doest so thou doest offend by thy hypocrisie and thy example How are the people like to profit by thee unlesse in the vice Thy Doctrine is indeed good but thy Use is contrany And as Clerks are twice to be blamed for every sin they do and for every dutie they doe not so also are some to be reproved by others for doing nothing Wherein they seem to do nothing but ill because they do ill in doing of nothing If ye have not work enough as you are Christians have ye not work enough to do as you are Ministers You have no holy days but in your conversation That day wherein others do rest is your chief worky-day What term are you expressed by in Scripture wherein you can finde any intimation of ease And if there be any for intermission the end of it is labour Therefore they may be out of their study but never in idleness Could they do well without sleep they should do well not to sleep that others may rest even thy very idleness is sacriledge for therein thou takest away from God that time which thou didst give him and consecrate to him when thou didst take orders Thou art not thine own upon the account of a Christian how shouldst thou have any thing for thy self as thou art a Minister The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and the people should seek the Law at his mouth Mal. 2.7 Their lips drop the honie but it cost them time to gather and make it Oh! Brethren take we little care for the discharge of this voluminous work when as hereby we do in these times encourage the Lay-man to lay hold upon that action without capacity and imposition of hands Undoubtedly as the gross sins of those who would communicate in the Sacrament hath given advantage to them who had an affection to separation so the perfunctory expedition of Ministerial work hath furthered the boldness of private men to put their hand to this plough although it be more fit for another Do they think they do ingenuously when they are taking away our maintenance to take away also our work But let us shew unto them their folly by our wisdome Do thou shew unto them their inability by thy abilities their impudence by thy modesty and courage their inauthority by thy authority which God hath given thee for edification not for destruction unless of them which also thou canst not do but in thine own defence O glorious Reformation O unheard of propagation of the Gospel This we have to comfort us for all losses that we shall be taught by those who never learned to understand those Languages wherein Christ upon the Cross was set out as if those Languages had been upon the Cross that they also might be crucified What a misery it is that we have not the trick of recovering our joy by falling into their opinions of these times We want but one good conceit of the present world to be as happy as others in their sense and miserable in ours If we may have the leave to do them a Christian favour we pity them because they will be wrong until they have nothing left them but repentance I follow them thus into digressions To return If the Clergy bear yet a filial respect to their Mother the Church of England as many do and would have it flourish as then when it was feared by the Adversaries let them return to their obedience in great industry and good life with subjection lest it never be in any other condition then to be laughed at by the enemies of it and also by those who have other words but the same practices