what nicer subtilty then that when this enemy found himself discoverd and defeated by Christ's coming into the world after this light appeared to the Gentiles after he broke forth with healing rays for the curing and saving mankind making the deaf hear the words of spiritual grace the blind lift up their eies to2 God the weak recover to everlasting life the lame run into the bosome of the Church the dumb loudly and distinctly pray to God when he beheld the abandoning of his Idols and that his Temples and Houses of superstition were left desolate and emty by the very great numbers that went off from his worship and embrac'd the Faith then to set on foot a new artifice even under the very title and name of Christianity to entrap the unwary He invented Heresies and Schisms to undermine the Faith adulterate the Truth and divide Unity it self Those whom he cannot detain in the darkness of the old way he circumvents by leading them in new and erroneous paths Thus he siezes and takes men out of the Church and while they imagin with themselves that they have made nearer approches to light and left behind them the Night of the world he insensibly involves them anew in thick darkness that not conforming themselves to the Gospel of Christ and the observation of his righteous laws and yet calling themselves Christians and walking in darkness they should notwithstanding perswade themselves that they were illuminated The adversary flattering them in this opinion and so beguiling them who according to the Apostle transforms himself into an Angel of light and dresses up his ministers as if they were the servants of righteousness so that they miscalling night day ruine and destruction safety and salvation obtruding despair under the name of hope pretending infidelity to be faith setting up Antichrist for Christ suggesting false but seeming probabilities frustrate the truth by subtilty This comes to pass my well-beloved Brethren while we have not recourse to the source and original of truth while we seek not for the head and Fountain and are inobservant of our heavenly masters doctrin which if well weighed and examined would supersede long discourses and arguments Truth renders the proof of our faith easie and compendious Our Lord speaking to Peter useth these words And I also say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And he said unto the same person after his resurrection Feed my sheep And altho after his resurrection he invested all the Apostles with equal power and told them all As the Father hath sent me so send I you Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye do retain they are retained yet that he might make manifest the Churches Unity his Authority so order'd it that the origination thereof should be expres'd by the mention first of one single Person What Peter was that also were the rest of the Apostles they having a like participation of honor and power yet the narration begins with Unity to signifie that the Church can be but one This Unity of the Church the holy Spirit designes in the Canticles when in the person of our Lord he thus speaks My dove my undefiled is but one she is the only one of her mother she is the choice one of her that bare her Now can he who keeps not this Unity of the Church perswade himself that he holds fast the Faith can he who contends with the Church and opposeth her have the confidence to imagin himself a member of the Church when the blessed Apostle Paul declares and points clearly at the mystery of Unity saying There is one body and one spirit one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism Which unity we Bishops especially who preside in the Church ought firmly to maintain and defend that we may evidence thereby the unity and individualness of Episcopacy it self Let none decieve the brethren with a ly or corrupt the truth of our faith with perfidious prevarication There is but one Episcopacy which tho shared among as many several persons as there are Bishops in the Christian world yet each possesseth the authority entire There is also but one Church however her fruitfulness and growth is such that she spreads and increaseth to a multitude of particular churches As the beams which issue from the Sun are many and yet the light it creates by them is one and the same or as the boughs growing out of a tree are many and yet is it but one stock fastned and fixt to it's place by one tenacious root So too when many rivulets flow from a fountain whereby it seems so encreased as to become many by the plenty of water which is such as to require several channels for it's conveyance yet 't is but one water still because it all rises at and runs from one spring head Intercept a sun-beam from the body of the sun the oness of light will not admit of division If you break a bough from a tree 't will never shoot forth or grow again Cut off a river from it's fountain 't will immediatly dry up In like manner the Church being enlightned by our Lord extends it's beams thro the whole world yet is it the same light that every where appears and is entirely one however scatter'd As a tree she spreads her branches luxuriant in growth and plenteous in fruit And as a river enlarges by her course her swelling streams yet is there but one head one source one stock of all this happy plenty We are all the fruit of the Churches womb nourisht with the milk of her breasts quickned by her spirit The spouse of Christ cannot be deflour'd but continues chast and incorrupt She is acquainted but with one house and by a modest shamefacedness secures the reputation of the marriage bed T is she who preserves us unto God and leads her children to a kingdom Whosoever departs from the Church joins himself to an harlot and forfeits the promises made unto her nor can he attain the rewards of Christ who abandons his Church such a one is an Alien is profane is an Enemy He cannot have God for his Father who disowns the Church for his Mother If any one escaped in the Flood who was out of Noah's ark he may likewise be saved who is out of the pale of the Church Our Lord informs us of this saying He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth He who breaks the peace and agreement of the Church sets himself against Christ He who gathers and makes proselytes
out of the Church scatters and makes havock of it It 's our Lord's saying I and my Father are one And again it 's writen concerning the Father Son and holy Spirit These three are one And now can any one believe that this unity which proceeds from the Divine immutability and is consolidated by heavenly mysteries can be rent asunder in the Church and divided into parts by the discrepancy of the jarring wills of men He who keeps not this unity holds not the law of God nor the belief of the Father and the Son nor the faith by which he should be saved This Sacrament of unity this indissoluble band of concord is represented to us in the Gospel by the coat of Christ which was not divided at all or parted but the soldiers casting lots upon his vesture who among them should wear it it remain'd whole and entire The scripture saith The soldiers said among themselves concerning this coat without seam woven from the top throout Let us not divide it but cast lots for it whose it shall be That garment represented the unity which descended from above that is from heaven and the Father which was not to be torn and cut by any who became possessor of it but he was to have a firm and entire possession thereof He cannot have the garment of Christ who rends and tears his Church So upon the other side when after the death of Solomon the Prophet Ahijah met with King Jeroboam on the way he rent the garment he had upon him into twelve pieces saying to him Take thee ten pieces for thus saith the Lord God of Israel Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and I will give ten tribes to thee But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake and Jerusalem's sake the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put my name there Thus when the twelve tribes of Israel were to be rent asunder the Prophet Ahijah presignified it by rending Jeroboam's garment But because Christ's people cannot be torn in sunder therefore his coat which was wove throout and of an entire piece was not parted and shared by the souldiers whose fee it was It 's being undivided and the parts of it being closely and imperceptibly conjoyned is a mysterious emblem of that concord and union which ought to be between all who have put on Christ What person therefore can be so impious so perfidious so raging mad with discord as to imagin he can compass or dare to attemt the rending the unity of the Godhead the garment of the Lord or Church of Christ He himself hath instructed us in his Gospel saying that there shall be one fold and one shepherd And can any one imagin that in one fold there should be many shepherds or many flocks The Apostle Saint Paul recommending to us this unity intreats and exhorts saying Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speake the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joind together in the same mind and in the same judgment And again he saith Forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Can it be thought that any one departing from the Church can subsist and live the man who raises new fabrics for himself when it was told Rahab by whose house the Church was prefigur'd Thou shalt bring thy Father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy Fathers house home unto thee and it shall be whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street his blood shall be upon his head and the Sacrament of the passover instituted in Exodus contains no other lesson then this that the Lamb the slaying of which prefigured Christ's death should be eaten in one house The Lord enjoyn'd that it should be eaten in one House and that nothing of it should be carried abroad The flesh of Christ the Holy of the Lord is not to be cast out of doors nor have Believers any other house besides the Church which is but one The holy Ghost in the Psalms designs and expresses this house this lodging of unanimity when he saith It is God who maketh men to be of one mind in an house In the house of God in the Church of Christ the loving inhabit the kind and simple continue therein Therefore the holy Spirit appear'd in the shape of a dove that innocent gentle creature which is not imbitter'd with gall bites not fiercely with teeth nor violently tears with talons These creatures love the places where men dwell keep to the same nest both the mates hatch their young when they fly abroad they go in flocks they pass their age in mutual converse in their billing together they express in a manner the kiss of Charity and in all points fulfil the law of unanimity This simplicity is to be sought after in the Church this charity to be acquir'd that our brotherly love may imitate that of doves our mildness and gentleness equal that of sheep and lambs What hath the fierceness of wolves the madness of dogs the deadly venom of serpents and the cruelty of savage beasts to do with a Christian's breast We are to rejoyce when such are cut off from the communion of the Church least they devour the doves and sheep of Christ or poyson them with their infectious contagion Sweet and bitter cannot incorporate or dwell together neither can darkness and light rain and sunshine war and peace dearth and plenty drought and moisture tranquillity and tempest It is not possible for the truly good to depart from the Church The wind carries not away the good corn nor doth a tempest throw down the well rooted tree It 's the light chaff which the wind drives about and the decaied stock which the storm blows down These are they whom the Apostle John execrates and smites saying They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us Hence heresies have frequently been and still arise while the perverse mind retains not peace and perfidious discord abandons unity Which things the Lord permits and suffers leaving to men their liberty of will that when our hearts and minds are tried by this test of truth the integrity of the faithful may be as manifest as the light The Holy Spirit warns us of this by the Apostle telling us that heresies must be that the approved might be made manifest By this the faithful are tried and the perfidious detected so that even here before the day of Judgment there passeth a discrimination between the just and unjust and the chaff is separated from the good grain These are they who of their own heads without any warrant from
mind that it was in the Church where thro the mercy of God they obtain'd grace And in this respect their faith is more to be commended that they withdrew from a fellowship with them in schism with whom they had bin join'd in an unconquerable confession who withdrew from the contagion of guilt being irradiated with the true Gospel light shin'd upon by the pure and bright beams of the Lord as much to be renown'd for keeping Christs peace as they were for their conquest in their conflict with the Devil I wish my beloved Brethren and withal give my counsel and advice that if it be possible not one of the Brethren may perish and our joyful mother the Church may recieve into her bosom the whole body of agreeing people But if notwithstanding her wholesome counsel she cannot recall back some of the chief ringleaders of schism and authors of dissention obstinately resolv'd to persist in their blind madness into the way of salvation yet let the rest of you who have been caught by simplicity or led by mistake or beguil'd by the cunning craft and cozenage of others disentangle your selves from the deceitful snares retrieve your wandring feet out of the by-paths of error and take the straight way which leads to heaven It is the Apostles adjuration Now we command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he reciev'd of us And again he speaks to this sense Let no man decieve you with vain words For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Therefore be not partakers with them We must therefore depart from such offenders as these nay rather we ought to fly from them for fear least if one join himself to such disorderly walkers and goes with them in their ways of sin wandring from the track where the true road lay he may at last be involv'd in an equal share of guilt with them There is one God and one Christ his Church one his faith one and his people by concord are firmly cemented together into one body Unity is not to be divided nor can the same body by the dissolution of its contexture be dissever'd from its self or subsist having its bowels torn out piece-meal Whatever infant is cut off from the womb cannot live and breath apart but looseth its safety and life It is the holy Spirits admonition What man is he that desireth life loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips that they speak no guile Depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it He who is a son of peace ought to seek and follow after it and he who is acquainted with and hath any affection for the bond of charity ought to refrain his tongue from evil dissention To the rest of the divine precepts of wholesome instruction which our Lord being about to suffer dispensed he added this Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you This legacy of peace he left us and hath promised us all the gifts all the rewards he hath to bestow on condition we preserve it If we are coheirs with Christ let us abide with Christ in peace If sons of God we should be peacemakers Blessed are the peacemakers saith he for they shall be call'd the children of God Gods children ought to be peaceful of a mild spirit innocent in their discourse in affection united inviolably fastned to each other by the links of unanimity This accord was in the Apostles time So the new nation of believers kept the commandments of the Lord and held fast their mutual charity for a testimony of which this Scripture may be alleg'd And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul And again These all i. e. the Apostles continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren And therefore they could pray effectually and be confidently assured of obtaining what they askt of Gods mercy But unanimity is decreas'd to that low degree among us that the bounty of charitable giving is contracted They sold houses and lands then and being mindful only of laying up tresures in heaven for themselves they layd down the several prices for which their goods were sold at the Apostles feet to be distributed by them among the poor according as their necessities required But alas now adays we give not the tithe of our estate and when the Lord calls to sell we are upon the buying and encreasing hand So much hath the vigour of Faith witherd and decay'd so much hath the healthy constitution of Believers languish'd And therefore the Lord with relation to our times saith in the Gospel When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith upon the earth We see that accomplish'd which he foretold In the fear of God in the Law of righteousness in all our actions we are most unfaithful No man bears in mind the terrors of the Lord his wrath and future judgement the vengeance he will take on unbelievers and the eternal torments to which they are consign'd Which are such as would terrify our consciences if we did believe them but therefore we disregard because of incredulity If we did believe them we should avoid and avoiding should escape them Let us rouse up our selves my dearest Brethren as much as it is possible and throwing off our old sloth and sleepiness let us be watchful to observe and perform the Lord's precepts Let us be such as he hath commanded us to be saying Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and you your selves like men who wait for the Lord when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open to him immediatly Blessed are those servants whom when the Lord comes he shall find watching We ought to be ready least the day of our departure find us unprepar'd and engag'd Let our light so shine in our good works that it may lead us out of the dark night of this world to the light and brightness of eternal day Let us carefully and vigilantly expect the sudden coming of our Lord that when he shall knock our faith may be found waking to recieve the reward of her watchfulness If these duties are observ'd if these admonitions and precepts are obey'd we shall not be taken sleeping by the deceits of the Devil but as vigilant servants of Christ in his Kingdom shall reign with him AN ADVERTISMENT WHereas in the sixth page of this Treatise there is omitted the mention of Primacy being given to S. Peter and that there was to be one Chair the which is his as also that the Church was founded thereupon words seeming to justify the pretentions of the See of Rome all which
OF THE Unity of the Church A DISCOURSE WRITTEN A Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty Years Since In the time of Decius the Persecuting Emperor By CYPRIAN Bishop of Carthage and Martyr Most usefull for allaying the present heats and reconciling the differences among us Printed at the THEATER in Oxford 1681. To the READER WHen the Idolatrous violence of heathen Rome under the Emperor Decius attemted the extirpation of the Christian Faith and brought on the seventh bloody persecution Novatian a Presbyter of the Roman Church separated himself from the communion thereof and became leader of a dangerous schism upon suggestion that others were polluted by the conversation of ungodly men and favourd those who were Idolatrous reproching them with the titles of Apostats Idolators and Jews as Pacian informs us Which most unseasonable rupture exceedingly weakned the hands of the Orthodox Christians and as S. Cyprian expresses it became another persecution unto them In this unhappy state of affairs when Idolatry destroied from abroad with all possible violence and Schism divided with like heat and earnestness within the good bishop of Carthage S. Cyprian thought it lay upon him for the privilege of the pope of Rome had not then placed his Church above admonition nor his infallibility set it beyond instruction to endeavor the reducing the dissenters in that Church whose godly labors had very great effect bringing back into communion several of the most eminent partizans in Schism and thereby many others also who by large pretences to godliness and the name of some pious men drawn aside into the party gave reputation to it I need not say how parallel a case we have in the Church of England When we are now assaulted by the plots and machinations of Idolatrous Rome we are molested by domestic dissentions from within upon the same pretences that we are polluted with the conversation of the Vngodly and favor those who are Idolators are lukewarm Professors Popishly affected and protestants in Masquerade It would be most happy if the parallel could be advanc'd yet farther and that as the advices of the holy Bishop and Martyr S. Cyprian were efficacious heretofore they may again be so on the like occasion He being dead above fourteen hundred years since yet speaketh and his discourses cannot be imagin'd to be levened by interest or passion and therefore they are faithfully translated into our English tongue and presented to the view and consideration of Dissenters among us The Christian Church stands under the same terms of duty to God and man as heretofore it did we have as strict obligation to Vnity among our selves Obedience to those who are over us in the Lord as had our first forerunners in the faith We are as forcibly bound to join in the same public Worship as they were and Excommunication especially that which the Schismatic voluntarily executes upon himself will be as penal and as certain a prejudice of the judgment of the great day as it was esteem'd in the primitive Church and 't is declar'd to be by Tertullian And not only the guilt but also the danger of Division is now as great as it was ever heretofore according to the saying of S. Paul If we bite and devour one another we shall be destroied one of another God Almighty grant that we may see at least in this our day the things belonging to our peace before they be hid from our Eies THE Holy Martyr S. CYPRIAN Of the Vnity of the Church WHEREAS our Lord instructing us hath said You are the salt of the earth and commanded us to be simple as to the doing any wrong and yet withall to join wisdom with our simplicity what can be more sit and becoming us then that with watchfull diligence we should endeavour to understand both what are the ambushes of our crafty enemy and how to avoid them that we who have put on Christ the Wisdom of God the Father may not seem destitute of wisdom in securing our salvation for we are not only to fear that persecution which by open force attemts the overthrow of the servants of God T is easie to be cautious where the hazard is manifest The mind is prepared before for the combat where the enemie professes himself Then is he most formidable and most to be took care of when he secretly approches and under a fraudulent pretence of peace by an undiscernible motion steals upon us insensibly from the practice of which methods the Devil has the name of Serpent for such hath bin always his craft and so dark and conceled from all view is the fraud by which he circumvents the sons of men Thus in the infancy of the world he enterprizd upon and by mixing flattery with lies he decieved our unexperienced Forefathers thro their unwary credulity Thus when he attemted our Lord he secretly approched as if by stealth he meant to deceive him but he was immediatly understood and as soon repulsed and vanquishd because he was discoverd and known Whence we may learn to decline the path of the first Adam and pursue the steps of Christ the victorious that we may not again unawars be entangled in the snare of Death but being provident against danger we may at last enjoy the purchased immortality But how can we attain the fruition of this immortality unless we keep those commands of Christ by which death is to be vanquish'd and subdued according to that counsel and saying of his If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments And again Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Such who are thus minded and resolved he stiles the couragious and stable founded upon a rock of vast bulk and strength firmly compacted and consolidated by an unshaken immovable constancy against all the storms and tempests of the world Whosoever heareth saith he these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock And the rain descended and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not because it was founded upon a rock It is our duty therefore to regulate our goings by his precepts and to learn and do the things he taught and did for with what face can any one profess he believes in Christ while he neglects to do what he enjoyns to be don or expect to reap the reward of faith who is unfaithful in the observation of his commands It cannot be but such a one must stagger and wander to and fro being hurryed about by the spirit of error like dust driven by the wind Nor shall he by his walking forward ever reach salvation who keeps not the saving way of truth But we must not only take care to decline the Devils more obvious and manifest attemts but those which his subtile craft and fraud hath laid in the dark the more easily to entrap us For what artifice more fine
bond of peace He cannot be a martyr who is destitute of brotherly love Saint Paul both teacheth and contests this saying Altho I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth nothing Charity suffers long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunts not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things charity never faileth This shall continue in that kingdom we look for this shall remain to all eternity in the brotherhood and never to be divided union of glorified saints Discord cannot enter heaven nor recieve rewards from Christ who has declar'd to his disciples This is my commandment that ye love one another even as I have loved you He can have no relation to him who violates his love by perfidious dissention Whoever hath not charity hath not God It 's the blessed Apostle John's assertion for he saith God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him They cannot dwell with God who thro dissention will not abide in his Church Tho they fry in flames tho cast into the fire or to wild beasts they lay down their lives therein they recieve not the crown of faith but the reward of disobedience not the glorious exit of religious fortitude but the final destruction of despair Such a one may be killed but cannot be crown'd The schismatic assumes the Christian name no otherwise then the Devil do's when he counterfiets Christ according as he forewarn'd us saying Many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall decieve many Now as Satan is not Christ tho he falsly takes his name so neither is he to be lookt upon as a Christian who perseveres not in the truth of his Gospel and faith thereof It is indeed a sublime and wonderful privilege to prophesy cast out Devils and to perform on earth works of power And yet whosoever he be who hath these gifts doth not thereby attain to the Kingdom of heaven unless he tread in the strait and even path of duty The Lord hath pronounced such a one's doom in these words Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name don many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity 'T is righteousness alone that can recommend us to God when he comes to judgment We must obey his commands and counsels that the good works which we have don may be rewarded Our Lord in the Gospel when he would guide the progress of our faith and hope in the shortest track tells us The Lord thy God is one And Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy strength This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets In his instruction he joyns together love and unity and in two precepts comprised the Law and the Prophets But how doth he retain unity or preserve love or so much as think on 't who furiously mad with the poyson of discord mangles the Church destroyeth the faith disturbs the peace dissipates charity and profanes all holy mysteries This mischief my beloved Brethren began long since but now the destruction occasion'd thereby is apparently encreased and the poysonous bane of heretical perversness and separation hath shot up and shews it self For the holy Spirit foretelling admonishing us by the Apostle declares that in the declination of the world it was necessary so it should be In the last days saith he perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady highminded lovers of plesures more then lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof Of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men as theirs also was What hath been foretold hath been exactly fulfill'd and the world now drawing to an end the times and men are a proof thereof The adversary now raging more and more in like proportions error decieves stupidity thrusts forward envy enflames avarice blinds impiety depraves pride puffs up discord provokes anger transports Yet notwithstanding all this the abounding of iniquity ought not to shake and disturb us but rather the truth of the prediction ought to confirm and strengthen our faith Therefore should the brethren rather take heed of such for that all things were foretold of them our Lord himself teaching us and saying But take ye heed behold I have foretold you all things Avoid I beseech you such men and walk not with them and keep your ears shut and your selves far from their infectious communication which carrieth death along with it as it is writen Set an hedge of thorns about thine ears and hearken not to an evil tongue And again Evil communication corrupts good manners The Lord instructs and counsels us to withdraw from this sort of persons They are blind leaders of the blind And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch Whoever he is that lives in separation from the Church he is to be detested and shunn'd He who is such is perverted and sinneth being condemn'd of himself Can he concieve himself to be on Christ's side who acts against his Priests who departs from the communion of his Clergy and people Such a one bears arms against the Church against God's ordinance is an enemy to the altar a rebel against the sacrifice of Christ instead of being faithful is a traitor instead of religious sacrilegious an undutiful son an ungodly servant an hostile brother contemning the Bishops and renouncing God's priests he presumtuously sets up altar against altar makes new and unlawful praiers profanes by false sacrifices the true offering of our Lord not deigning to consider that they who resist the ordinance of God recieve to themselves damnation Thus Corah Dathan and Abiram who challeng'd to themselves the power of sacrificing in opposition to Moses and Aaron the priest were immediately punisht for
their attemt The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up Nor did the Anger of God thus stirr'd up punish only the authors of this rebellion but two hundred and fifty others complices in their seditious enterprise who joyning themselves to them in their insolence were with a speedy revenge consumed by fire from the Lord. From whence we learn and are taught that whatever wicked men do in opposition to Gods ordinance is don against him So King Uzziah taking a censer in his hand to burn incense contrary to the law of God violently invading the priesthood and refusing to obey and retire when Azariah the priest oppos'd his design was by divine vengeance put to shame being markt in the forehead with the stein of Leprosy The offended Lord set the mark of his anger on that conspicuous part of his body where they are sign'd who are reciev'd into his favor So likewise the sons of Aaron for offering up strange fire to the Lord which he commanded not were forthwith consumed before the Lord in his displesure and yet these are imitated and followed by all such who slighting what was delivered by God seek after and are in love with doctrines of human invention for which crime our Lord in his Gospel sharply rebukes and reprooves them Ye transgress and make the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition This is a more flagitious wickedness then that which the Lapsed commit who being reciev'd to Penance by acts of mortification recommend themselves to the mercy of God In this case the Church is sought to in the other she is oppos'd in this there might be some pretence of necessity in that the crime is purely voluntary here the lapsed person prejudiceth himself alone there who so proselytes others to schism or heresy decieves as many as he draws in here is the loss of one soul there the danger of many This is plain the lapsed understands he hath offended and mourns and bewails his condition but the sectary is puft up in his sin and pleaseth himself in his transgression he parts the mother and her children whom he draws off from her he enticeth the sheep to follow his voice and not the shepheards and in short disorders Gods sacraments And whereas the Lapsed person sin'd but once the persevering schismatic goes on in daily sinning To conclude the lapsed recovering his station may be honour'd now with the crown of Martyrdom and may hereafter were a Heavenly one while the schismatic slain out of the Church can never recieve those rewards which are peculiarly hers And here my beloved Brethren let it be no wonder to any of you that Confessors fall into schism and that some of that rank may be guilty of crimes so heinous as not to be mention'd For it is not the confessing of Christs name which privileges a man from the Devils snares or which defends and perpetually safeguards one while in this world for if it were so we should never meet with deceit uncleaness and adultery in Confessors and yet these are crimes which to our grief and sadness we see in some Whosoever that Confessor be he is not greater nor better nor dearer to God then Solomon who yet held that grace he once obtain'd of the Lord so long only as he walkt in his ways But after he forsook his way he lost his favor also as it is writen The Lord rais'd up an adversary against him And therefore it is said Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown Which threat had not bin menaced were it not that upon departing from righteousness the crown likewise was to be translated Confession is the first setting out towards glory but carries not the prize perfects not praise tho it initiate to honor as it is writen He who endureth to the end he shall be saved Whatsoever is before the end may be a step to ascend by to the height of salvation but it is not that last round which seats us in the utmost summity thereof By being a Confessor one becomes afterwards in greater danger because it gives greater provocation to the enemy Is any one a Confessor for this very reason he ought to keep close to the Gospel of our Lord having by the Gospel obtain'd glory from him For he has said To whom much is given of him much shall be required and the higher a person stands rais'd in dignity the more service shall be demanded of him Let no man perish by the example of a Confessor nor any one learn injustice pride faithlesness from a Confessors ill morals Is any one a Confessor let him be humble and quiet let him in his conversation be orderly and modest and as he is call'd the Confessor of Christ let him imitate that Christ whom he has confest For when he saith Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted and was himself exalted by his father because being the word the power the wisdom of God the Father he humbled himself here upon earth how can it be that he should love a proud advancing of our selves who both himself requir'd humility in his law and reciev'd from his father a name above all names as a recompence of his humility A Confessor he is of Christs but upon this condition that he doth not afterward blaspheme Christs Majesty and Glory The tongue which hath once confess'd Christ ought not to rail or be turbulent should not be heard making a noise in reproches and wrangling nor having set forth the divine praises spit out serpentine venom against the Brethren and Priests of God But if the Confessor shall grow criminal and detestable afterwards if he shall overthrow his good confession by an ill conversation if with some filthy action he shall bring a foul blot upon his life if lastly forsaking that Church in which he became a Confessor and cutting asunder the band of Unity he shall exchange his first faith for infidelity at the last he is not to flatter himself as if his confession made him one of the Elect and to be rewarded with Glory when hereby he deserves the severer punishment Our Lord chose Judas to be an Apostle and yet this Judas betray'd afterwards his Lord. But albeit the traitor Judas fell off from the fellowship of the Apostles yet was not this an empeachment of their fidelity and duty and so here in the present affair it doth not lessen the dignity of Confessors because the faith of some hath faild The blessed Apostle speaks to this purpose For what if some have not believ'd or fallen away shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect let God be true and every man a lyar The better and greater part of Confessors stands firm in the faith and in the truth of the Lords law and discipline Nor do they depart from the Churches peace who keep in