they did receive from their immediate Forefathers as of Faith and saw their practice of For if this Principle were their Rule always and if it be now it must they say have bin so then the Faith of each succeeding Age must needs have bin the Faith of the preceding and by consequence there having bin no change the Faith of this Age must needs be the same with that of Christ and his Apostles Now since in the resolution of our Faith we proceed not by this Rule upon this Principle we have no Rule of faith nor certain resolution of it and by consequence no Faith Now it appears at first sight fully evident that this Rule of theirs does supersede and quite evacuate those Doctrines that maintain either the sayings of the Fathers or Decrees of Councils or the Definitions of the Popes or the infallible Autority of the Church whatever that Church signify hath any part or interest in the Rule of faith and very justly so for Fathers are but eminent Members of the Church Popes can pretend to be but Heads of that Church Councils but the Representatives and what infallible Autority soever can be in the Church that Church being the Congregation of the Faithful and those onely being Faithful that hold the true Faith therefore till it be known which is the true Faith it cannot be known who are the ture Faithful nor by consequence which is the Church nor therefore which is Head Member or Representative of it or hath that Autority and therefore before all those men must have a Rule for their Faith whereby they may try which is the true But when we say we have God's own Revelation of his will what he would have to be believ'd his Word the Scriptures they add that since we cannot know which is the Scripture but by the continued testimony of those that recommended it from the beginning neither can that be the Rule which needs another Rule to establish it nor can that which is believ'd upon that other Principle of universal testimony be any part of the Rule since what is believ'd is the Object of Faith and so presupposes the Rule of Faith and therefore we who make that to be the onely Rule have no Rule no not a part tho the Trent Council do allow the Scriptures to go shares with Tradition 'T is easy to reply that that which is the Object of that Faith whereby we assent to it as a book written by such inspir'd men or as a true historical Narration of which Testimony does assure us may yet be the Rule of that Faith whereby we assent to Doctrines as reveal'd from God which we believe those are that we find there recorded And it were as easy to retort that if this arguing were good men could not know that the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles orally deliver'd to them was from God but by the testimony of the Miracles they taught therefore neither could Christ's or the Apostles oral tradition living voice be a Rule of Faith to those Ages since they were the Objects of belief and presuppos'd those Miracles as the Rule by which men did believe what Doctrines came from God nor can the Succession of Doctrine be the Rule for we know not the whole Succession but by the living voice of the present Church that does deliver Doctrine by the foresaid Rule or Principle But not to reply to this Scholastically but suppose for their sakes that Scripture could be known to be the word of God no otherwise than by testimony yet that it might be the Rule one short familiar instance shall evince irrefragably to the meanest understanding We know the Books of Scripture are entituled Books of the Old and New Testament both Scripture it self and Fathers giving cause for that expression Now in making a man's testament the Testator's last bequests or that which he last of all wills as to the disposal of his goods and possessions is the primary rule we know by which they are to be disposed off and when that disposition and will of his is put into writing sign'd and seal'd that writing or that Instrument is secundarily the rule by which Legacies must be demanded and upon performance of conditions the Inheritance entred upon Now possibly they that either demand Legacies or the Executors yea the Heir indeed himself it may be know not either hand or seal however that the writing was in good deed honestly subscrib'd and sealed by the deceased party none can know but who were present and saw or heard him declare and publish it and if any are concern'd to be assur'd whether it be a true will neither forg'd nor alter'd or deprav'd they can no otherwise be satisfied than by their testimony It is on that account that men give credit to that will from thence it is of force and afterwards continues to be so as to all ends and uses of a Will by being witnessed and sworn to that is prov'd and then enrolled and layd up in an Office for that purpose and by that becomes a firm Record and as such is there conserved Now certainly no man is so far destitute of common sence to say either the Witnesses or their Testimony or the Office that conserves the Instrument or the Clerks and Registers or Judg of that Office is the Rule by which the man's goods must be distributed or the Rule of those things that the Heir or the Excecutors must perform for the man's last Will I shew'd you was the prime Rule that Will put into writing sign'd and seal'd that is that Instrument the secondary Rule of all that and the Testimony Office Clerks and Judg are but onely means of bringing that Will to the knowledg of all such as are concern'd the way of assuring the truth and uncorruptness of the Instrument and of conserving it entire for after uses The Application of this to Christ our Savior's Testament is easy If by Penmen which himself inspir'd he caus'd his last Will in disposing the Inheritance of Heaven to be written and what things he would have believ'd what don all which he seal'd with his own God's Seal with Miracles and if those Penmen and the other Witnesses before whom he declar'd and publish'd it did attest it and gave it to the Church to be conserv'd there and her Pastors are perpetual successive Conservators of the integrity of these Records 't is plain our Lord's Will here is primarily the Rule of Faith and Action and secondarily the Testament that authentic Instrument is so and the Testimony is no more that Rule here than in the man's Will nor yet than the prerogative Office nor the Pastors or the Head if such an one there were than the Clerks the Judg of that Office nor all nor any of these are the Rule it self The Testimony is but the means of conveying down to us the knowlege of that Testament and of the uncorruptness of it and as far as that Conveyance and that
Testimony is assur'd and certain so far they must grant the Faith we give that that writing is the Rule must be assur'd and certain And since all the means and kinds of their Tradition make that very Testimony and Conveyance of that Book therefore all that certainty and that infallibility their faith can have from those grounds the same certainty and infallibility the faith we give to that Book must needs have too on their own grounds But it hath more for since the ground of all faith must be testimony and by consequence none but Divine Testimony can be ground sufficient for Divine Faith and that Testimony was I shew'd you Miracles wrought by the Publisher to confirm the Doctrine both which are in this Rule of ours Therefore altho that universal Testimony all their Tradition for it which is merely humane may be a sufficient method of conveyance to derive all notice as the first men's eyes and ears that saw the Miracles and heard Christ tho they be but humane senses were sufficient to them also they suffice not yet to a Divine Belief they cannot ground that Faith which must be given to Divine supernatural Doctrines upon a Divine Testimony which Tradition is not but our Rule hath So that the resolution of our Faith is made by a Divine Rule such as theirs pretends not to be made by and the mere conveyance of that Rule to us hath all that certainty and that infallibility that they pretend their Rule it self to have and so we may have Faith and may be Christians But we are never the nearer however for if the Rule of Faith if true must be a means to make our assent more infallible than Science upon Demonstration and there can be no other such Rule besides the living voice and present practice of that Church which does and always did resolve her Faith into it by this Principle not to believe or teach or practise any thing as of Faith but what they did receive from their immediate Forefathers as of Faith and saw their practice of which most undeniably renders their Faith impossible to be erroneous therefore we that owne neither such a resolution rule or principle can neither have true rule nor Faith But yet how fine soever and self-evident this Principle and Resolution appear to them as speculators if it were practically enquir'd into it would appear the weakest of all other For first I might evince that ever since the first beginnings of Religion and mankind while either they had no other rule at all but this of oral practical tradition as in the first times before the Law was given and Scripture wrote their faith and practice grew all false and diabolical or when they had another rule so far as they made use of this rule thereby that they did make void their own Faith and God's Laws as the Pharisees among the Jews or lastly when they had not an entire rule written as in the first Age of Christianity while the Scriptures were not spread amongst Believers but they had the living and inspir'd voice of the Apostles to resolve their Faith into and by that Rule and Principle of oral practical Tradition most perfectly yet then the most execrable Heresies that ever infested the Church had their rise and growth Secondly I might demonstrate their Church did not always so resolve their Faith and by that Principle Look thro their Councils all from the beginning where their Church sometimes the whole Church met together either to confirm the true Faith or confound the false and you shall find no footsteps of this oral practical Tradition but of doctrinal enough The Sayings of the Fathers and Decrees of Former Councils and the Texts of Scripture these they call their Demonstrations Thirdly where there is most need still of a certain rule and resolution there this is unpracticable wholly namely in all great divisions of the Church in points of Faith To instance in the Arrian contentions where the World was against St Athanasius and St Athanasius against the World and the Pope himself Liberius was then Arrian who could then hear and distinguish the living voice of the Church When the whole East was so universally and bloudily divided in the matter of Images one Greek Council defining against them and another for it and the West as much the French Italian German Bishops presently in a great Synod declaring against them and the British Church particularly Now I will not ask how it was possible the greater parts of the whole Church should so at once have laid aside their infallible self-evident Rule and chanc'd together to forget it should not once bethink themselves whether they had seen their Forefathers practise that Worship or no and heard them teaching that they had received it too from their Forefathers nor ask how it was possible their Enimies should not mind them of it if it were the Churches rule and had bin generally taught and practised and assure them by their Principle how impossible that it should be erroneous But there is not a word of this in the whole two Nicene Councils but some Texts of Scripture and some Sayings of the Fathers which no more evince the practice than Tentordin steeple does cause Goodwin Sands But I will ask how in the noise and the confusion of both States and Churches while wars and Anathemas thunder'd in the quarrel how it was possible poor souls could hear and distinguish what the living voice and present practice of that Age was which was so extremely various and contradictory Those that were then to be instructed in the Faith what could they hearken to How could they guide themselves by that Rule when as in their Doctrines they condemn'd each other in their practice murder'd one another And when each party pleaded that theirs was the Faith deliver'd to them which should they believe The major party How should they know infallibly which was How be assured the major party is requir'd Why truth must be on that side where the most are What self-evident Rule had they to judge of these by Surely none Accordingly it was not by this Rule but by being overpower'd they receiv'd that Faith and practice Fourthly that it may appear in no case useful in the calmest Sun-shine of the Church and when if ever they were all of one mind namely before Luther when if ever there were any Article that the Latin Church was possessed of an explicit belief of it was that of Purgatory as it is now held amongst them there was all expresses of an oral practical Tradition for it and if there were not 't is impossible to know when any Doctrine is receiv'd upon that Principle so that the Rule is frivolous as to practice yet as if that Principle had ow'd the very Founder of it a great spight he must go write a Book against that Purgatory which stood by his own Principle for which he is under censure by his own Church But least
that requires strict evidence in things of faith which cannot bear it he that calls for Mathematical demonstration nor will believe on easier terms yet is so credulous and so unwary that he can believe so many things which by the nature and the disposition of mankind I have demonstrated not possible which yet must be true unless these Scriptures be from God 't is plain he does not seek for certainty but for a pretence of not believing would fain have his Infidelity and Atheism look more excusable and is not fit to be disputed with but to be exploded But if these Scriptures be from God then whatsoever they affirm with modesty I may conclude is true And therefore when St Luke Acts 1. 1. declares his former treatise contain'd all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up since Christ before he did ascend taught every thing that was requir'd to be believ'd and don in order to salvation and more too therefore if his Gospel did contain all that he taught and did since it did not contain all absolutly it must needs mean it contained all that was necessary or it must mean nothing And since the same St Luke in the beginning of that Gospel does affirm he wrot it that Theophilus might know the certainty of those things wherein he had bin instructed 'T is plain he avers that the certain knowledg of all those things wherein the having bin instructed made Theophilus a Christian might be had out of the Gospel and when St Paul says here that the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and St John in his 20 chap. v. 31. that tho he had not wrot all the things that Jesus did yet those that he had wrot were written that we might believe that Jesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing we might have life through his name 'T is evident the Scriptures say that what was written was sufficient to work that belief which was sufficient to life and salvation as far as the credenda do concur to it And when St Paul in that verse that succeeds my text in most express particular words sets down the usefulness of Scripture in each several duty of a man of God or Preacher of the Gospel both for Doctrine of faith for reproof or correction of manners and instruction unto righteousness and tells you Gods express end in inspiring it and consequently its ability when so inspir'd was that the man of God might be made perfect throughly furnisht unto every good work that belongs to his whole office 't is most certain that what is sufficient for that office to instruct reprove correct and teach in must needs be sufficient to believe and practise in for all men i. e. what my text affirms they are able to make us wise unto salvation I might call in Tradition universal to bear witness to this truth for holy Scriptures if having once demonstrated that they are Gods word when that does affirm it and bears witness to it there were need of any other And this I dare boldly say that if the Scripture did say as expresly that the Pope had a supremacy or soveraignty over the whole Church or that he or the Roman Church were infallible their definition or the living voice of their present Church a most sure rule of faith as it doth say Scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation those Articles would suffer no dispute it would be blasphemy or sacriledg to limit or explain them by distinctions when those sayings of the perfectness of Scriptures are forc'd to bear many Then we should have no complaints of the obscurity of those books if those articles were either in the Greek or Hebrew they would never say the Bible were not fit to be a Rule of Faith because the Language were unknown to the unlearned and they could not be infallibly secure of the Translation were they there they would account them sure enough who think them plain enough already there and that we must believe them because Thou art Peter Feed my sheep and Tell the Church are there And for him that shall affirm all necessaries that must make us wise unto salvation are not in the Scripture 't is impossible to give a rational account how it should come to pass that some are there the rest are not It must be either on design or else by chance Now 1. That God should design when very many things that were not necessary were to be written that the main and fundamental ones should be omitted and when of the necessaries most he did design for Scripture then He should not suffer the Apostles to write the remainder of them and yet what he would not suffer them to write design'd that the Trent Fathers who I hope have perfected the Catalogue should write all of these since 't is not possible to give a reason 't is not therefore rational to affirm it was upon design But 2. If he shall say it only happen'd so by chance he does affront both Scriptures and Gods Holy Spirit who as they affirm inspir'd them for this very end to bring men to the faith and to salvation But there is no place for chance in those things that are don in order to an end by the design impulse and motion of the infinit wisdom of Gods Holy Spirit He certainly does most unworthily reproch his Maker who can think it possible that what he did design expressly and on that account alone to attain such an end by namely that men should believe and be sav'd and inspire it for that purpose should yet fail not be sufficient for that purpose And sure if it be sufficient it contains all necessaries otherwise it were deficient in the main yea so clearly also as that they for whose salvation they are intended may with use of such methods as are obvious and agreed upon by all men understand them for otherwise they could not be sufficient if men could not be instructed by them in things necessary both to faith and life they could not make them wise unto salvation I must confess the Scripture labors under a great prejudice against this doctrine from the different sense and interpretations that are made of it even in the most fundamental points by them that grant it is the word of God when yet all use the same means to find out the meaning and no doubt they seek sincerely after it But yet I think it evident this happens not from the obscurity of Scripture since it is not only in the most express texts but also if you should suppose the doctrins were as plain set down there as words can express them yet there are such principles assum'd into the faith of different sects as must oblige them to interpret diversly the same plain words I am not so vain as to imagin that no places are obscure in
Scripture and I know that learned men have arts by obscure places to confound the plainest just as the Philosopher did motion Neither am I so perverse and singular not to think that universal practise and profession of the Church does much assure and confirm explications of Scriptures whether obscure or plain But this I say that the diversities of explication come as I now said from the diversity of principles or rather prejudices and that this only is the cause of it I thus demonstrate First in the Socinian who interprets all those Scriptures which the Catholic world hath still apply'd to the Divinity and satisfaction of Christ that I name no more points otherwise then the Church did alway and I affirm he does it not because he thinks the words do favor his interpretation but because his principle requires it namely this To admit nothing into his faith but what agrees with that which he counts reason which in a Socinians faith is judg of all points in the last resort And I mean reason upon natural principles and thus I prove it Socinus speaking of Christ's satisfaction says the word is not in Scripture yet if it were there very often I would not believe it because it does not consist with right reason that is with the arguments that he had brought against it drawn from human principles And therefore he there adds those things which 't is apparent cannot be i. e. that appear such to him who judges by the principles of natural reason which yet cannot judg of supernatural and infinite beings tho the Holy Scripture does expresly say they are yet must not be admitted idcirco sacra verba in alium sensum quam ipsa sonant per inusitatos etiam tropos quandoque explicantur and for this reason we make use of even unusual tropes strain'd figures to explain the words of Holy writ to other senses then the words themselves import And so he therefore serves that great variety of words by which the Scripture does express Christs suffering for our sins in our stead as our sacrifice against the universal notions of those words not only which the Church of Christ but which the Jews and which the heathen world had of them And when his reason told him that Christ could not be God one with his Father that he was so far from having any being from eternity as that he was not at all till he had a being from the Blessed Virgin Therefore when the Scripture saies directly I and the Father are one he must strain it to this meaning are of one mind we agree in one altho St John avert that by distinguishing those two expressly Yea worse when to prove that Christ had a being e're the world was made we urge from the first Chap. to the Hebr. what St Paul produces from the Psalms and does apply to him most particularly Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the Heavens are the works of thine hands they shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as does a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail They explain it thus that God by Christ will at last destroy these Heavens and this Earth and change them according to that saying in the Psalms which altho the Apostle produce at length as it stood there both concerning the Creation and destruction of the world yet he intended only to apply this last to Christ. And tho he say as well of the same Lord Thou Lord in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands as thou shalt change them yet he meant no more but that this change God would effect by Christ. It is not possible that the text can give any the least countenance to this interpretation The different explication of this Scripture does not come from the obscurity of any words in it for in the Psalm they and we understand the same words in the same sense exactly therefore that we differ here is not from any thing in the words quoted but is wholly from the Principle And we may not wonder for the plain sense will not sute with their Hypothesis There are no other that are instanc'd in as differing from us in points of faith but the Romanist I know not whether they account those differences to be in things necessary to salvation If that be true that they allow for what cause they know best some that are reconcil'd to their Church to communicate with ours that is join in our worship and by doing so own the profession of our faith in distinction to that of others or at least espouse the scandal of the owning it Then one would think they must account that there is nothing in our worship don that is unlawful nor omitted that is necessary nor any thing Heretical profest at least that there 's no scandal in the owning that profession For if there were they did allow them only to profess and act gross sin which certainly they would not do So that poor Protestants when they are pleas'd to give leave may be no Heretics and therefore there is nothing of it self in that profession faulty But yet on the other side since we see they call us Heretics and when they have no power over us damn us to Hell fires and when they have had power damn'd us to the fire and fagot also sure they think the differences to be in things necessary But yet the account is easy how not the obscurity of Scripture but a Principle or prejudice does cause this For we are bound in conscience to grant they believe their own Principles Now 't is a Principle with them that their Church cannot erre and therefore that their present faith and consequent depending practice was their faith and practice alwaies That it may appear so they must seek for countenance from Scripture and if any thing there seem to thwart their faith or practice they must smooth and disguise it that it may look friendly And 't is most certain if the Scripture should be never so express against them whilst they think it is not possible that they can err they cannot think it possible Scripture can mean what it pretends to speak 'T were easy to make instances As first for invocation of the Saints departed which with them is a point of faith Bellar. and Cochleus produce that of the Psalms I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help Psalm 121. 1. and altho the text directs that looking up expressly to the Lord that made heaven and earth v. 2. and tho it be a Principle with them that on those everlasting hills there were no Saints in Davids time that could be invocated they were all in limbo then they say yet as I said they would have
countenance from Scripture and for want of better they are therefore forc'd to interpret those words I will lift up mine eyes unto the Hills thus I will invocate the Saints Now will any say 't is the obscurity of this Scripture that does hinder Protestants from seeing the bright evidence of this argument and not rather that it is the weak foundation of this practice that does make the Romanists seek to build it on those mountains So among those several texts which in the 2d Nicen general Council are produc't for adoration of the images of Christ and of the Saints and are expounded to evince it none is plainer then that which I produced now from Bellarmin I shall give one or two examples from the Psalms Thy face Lord will I seek and Lord list thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and again the rich among the people shall entreat thy face therefore David thought the picture of Christ was to be ador'd It is their own conclusion from these texts and they have no better for it Yet they saw the doctrine in these so apparently as that with great opposition to great Councils and more bood-shed I think then yet ever any doctrine hath bin setled with it was impos'd Yea more the first experiment of the Popes power over Soveraign Princes was on the account of this same doctrine when for opposing Image-worship Gregory the 26d excommunicated the Greek Emperour Pope Constantine for the same cause indeed had 14 years before don so to Philippicus but he did not go much further whereas Gregory absolv'd the Emperor's subjects in the Roman Dutchy from their Allegiance commanded them not to pay him any tribute nor in any wise obey him whereupon they kill'd their Governors and swore obedience to the Pope And this was the beginning of St Peters patrimony and it was thus gotten by this doctrine which they saw so cleerly in these Scriptures when they cannot see the contrary in those plain words Thou shalt not make to thy self any whether Graven image or idol it matters not since it follows nor the likeness of any thing which is heaven above c. nor in those where God takes care expresly that himself be not worship't by an image Deut. 4. 15. and then judg if 't is obscurity or plainness that makes them see or not see doctrines in the Scripture rather if it be not meerly the necessity of prejudice So again we differ in the meaning of the 14th chap. of the 1. of Cor. where we think St Paul asserts and argues yea and chides against all service in an unknown tongue in the public assemblies saying all must be don there so as it may be understood and to edification But that which is perform'd there in an unknown tongue does not edify says he there yet to justify this practice they must make it have a different meaning which no Fathers countenance but which several expound as we do yea and diverse of their own do so too particularly their Pope John 8th in his 247th Epistle writing expresly on that Subject Once more so their half communion that it may be reconcil'd with that express command Drink yee all of it and this do obliges them to find another meaning drink yee all must be directed to them only as Apostles and do this must signify consecrate the Elements altho St Paul apply it most directly to the drinking and the drinking to his lay Corinthians Nor dare they say in truth it means the other for St Paul when he does say do this did not intend to make his Lay Corinthians male and female all priests and give them power to consecrate The words are plain there 's nothing in the text obscure that makes us differ but the practice had by little and little grown upon them till it became Universal and so grew into their faith and then since they believe they cannot erre they must expound Christ's words so as they may not contradict their practise because that would overthrow their Principle But the Church that builds upon no Principle but Gods word can have no temtation to pervert or strain it since what ever does appear to be the meaning of it that their Principle must needs engage them to believe And therefore if it say This is my body we believe it if it saies too after consecration it is bread we believe that also and because it therefore says 't is both we so believe it one that it may be the other which since both say it is impossible that it can be substantially neither hath God in express words told us which it is substantially therefore seeing when he calls it body he is instituting his Sacrament there 's all reason in the world he should mean Sacramentally since 't is the most proper meaning and by consequence 't is bread substantially as all waies of judging in the world assure us Here 's no stress on Scripture as there is no Principle to serve when as the other makes us differ not in Scripture only even where 't is plainest but tradition too For the most express and evident sayings of the primitive Fathers are on every head of difference as much the matter of contention as the texts of Scripture are as it were easy to demonstrate if that were my business So that it is meer deceit to lay our quarrels to defects in Gods word and particularly to its obscurity which a man would think were evident enough from this that Children knew it The last thing I am to speak to And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus I cannot pass this that it is St Chrysostomes observation that Timothy was nurst up in the Scriptures from his childhood Yea and since his Father was an Heathen he must have bin taught them by his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice whose faith St Paul speaks of 2 Tim. 1. 5. Children therefore then and Women and they sure are Laics read the Bible Yea and since they knew it they must read it in a language which they understood and we know where that is unlawful now If we consider the first prohibition that appear'd in that Church with Synodical autority against such mens having any Bibles in their own tongue we shall find it was immediatly upon the preaching of the Waldenses one of whose doctrines it was that the Scripture was the rule to judg of faith by so that whatsoever was not consonant to that must be refus'd This they preach't in France and over Europe in the latter end of the twelf Century and that Council which forbad their having of the Bible we find lately put forth by the frier D. Achery as held at Tholouse in the beginning of the 13th Century It seems they apprehended then their doctrines hardly
came along to them by the way of oral practical Tradition If it did 't is not a sure infallible Rule of conveying Faith if it did not then that Church did not still receive their Faith upon that Rule and Principle or by that method tho that they did so is their first great Principle and the great Master of that Scheme assur'd his Holiness it was not possible to maintain their doctrine otherwise against the subtlety of the English Hereticks And truly they that make the greatest noise amongst us now are fled to the last hold of it but that indeed it does alone protest Infallibility whether of the Church or the Succession of their doctrine by that way of practical Tradition and that is the infallible most necessary certainty of Faith But I shall say no more to this than what the grand Abettor of the Principle hath said in answer to himself objecting what was to be said to them that could not penetrate into his demonstrations see the force and evidence of that Rule and Principle and yet have that Faith that 's necessary to Salvation I shall give it you in his own words as near as I can put them into English He says there is a certainty deriv'd into the understanding of these men out of their will for since they think themselves assur'd these truths were brought down by the Church from Christ to them stand convinc't of that act this is sufficient to cause their wills firmly to adhere to them and by that adherence to repell all difficulties and objections to which curious wits are subjects And whether the man see that the Autority of the Church which he follows is of more force at least to him than particular objections in those truths or whether he thinks nothing at all of it but rests stedfast in that assent which his very ignorance caus'd 't is plain he hath a certainty of will which in its way extends it self to the Government of his whole life answerably to that his perswasion and by consequence he hath a certainty exclusive of all doubt and such as moves him to direct his actions all to God that is there is in him that Faith which worketh by love So he Now hence 't is evident by his Concessions first that there may be a saving Faith which hath not that infallible certainty arising from the motives Guide or Principle or way of Resolution And that secondly a Certainty deriv'd into the Understanding from a Will that is piously dispos'd sufficeth Thirdly that there is this certainty where the Will firmly cleaves and adheres to God relying on him with a vigorous hope and trust directing all the actions up to God and to his service and persevering in it to the life's end Now this is all that I am all this while contending for It is not by self-evident or demonstrative methods or by an infallible Guide that he provides against mens unbelief but when with preparation like our man here in the Text in weeping earnestly we betake our selves to him crying out for help and direction and applying our understanding meekly to attend his methods he disposes piously the Will to entertain the gracious blessed Proposals of the Gospel with complacency and heartiness and from conversing with the experience of them to prefer them before all worldly carnal things that used to bait our lusts ravish our hearts and carry us away from God and from our duty and it is against this unbelief in thus departing from the living God that his assistances are mainly level'd and our Praiers chiefly are to be directed For 't is most infinite madness to perswade and satisfy our selves we are of the true Church have the onely true certain Faith if yet our practices be such as set us at as great a distance from Almighty God as Hell is from Heaven and while we do commit such things 't is as impossible we can adhere to God as 't is impossible for Christ to have communion with Belial It is a Contradiction by ungodly actions to defy God and turn our backs upon and depart from him yet to cling and adhere to him 't is as I say a Contradiction to believe that we have Faith while we do not cling to and adhere but depart from him Lord help thou this our unbelief And if his grace but once dispose us to prefer the blessed expectations of a Christian he does easily prevail with us to cling to them with such certain assurances as will carry us thro all the stages of our life and duty with all chearfulness and constancy This is that certainty of Faith by which the Martyrs cleav'd to and embrac'd at once the Cross and their Religion firm in dying as believing and when with arts of torment they broke all their joynts and their limbs piece-meal scatter'd all their parts asunder tore their souls out of their bodies still they kept their Faith whole and their Tormentors could not tear one Article of their belief or Christian practice from them and when their Wills were once inflam'd with the desires and expectations of God's preparations then no other martyring flames could make them shrink Those seem'd to them but brighter Emblems of and speedier Conveyances to that Eternal Light and Glory which their Faith had given them the evidence and the first vision of they knew by them they onely did expire into Everlasting Life and Glory SERMON XIV THE CHRISTIANS LIGHT is to shine before men Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THE words have two parts a command and a reason of it the command Let your light shine before men the reason That they may see your good works c. The command affords to us this instruction the life of a Christian is to be fruitful and exemplary Both these are commanded not onely in the command it self but proved in the reason That they may see your good works there must therefore be works which are the fruits of virtue Yea and fruitfulness is every where requir'd by Christ and if we look upon the current of Scripture and our duty we shall find that it will not serve a Christian's turn not to bring forth ill fruit to be onely barren ground not to have vices bud and sprout within us and grow with an increase of sin but we must do good In the Parable of the Sower Matt. 13. 23. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold We are gods Husbandry 1 Cor. 3. 9. Now is any of you satisfied with his field because it plows well and receives the seed most kindly if it bring you no increase or crop yield you no harvest No saith the Author to the Hebrews c. 6. 8. such ground is nigh to cursing Why your works they are your
that account thy rod comforts us our correction is joyous we take pleasure in the stones of Sion and we favor love her dust the other Symtom They prize her reliques wht is standing of her and since 't is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low and weak they are more tender love and pity her more in that condition which they brought her into will do what they can to raise her pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt in the Tigurine Translation 'T is true indeed the stones of Sion in the dust are apt to become stones of stumbling and rocks of offence as St Peter saith of the chief corner stone of Sion Christ hmself 1 Pet. 2. 8. whereat many stumble and fall We had fatal experience how when once the building was disorder'd the subordination broken the Church offices and powers thrown down on the one side Sion strait became like Babel every one almost spoke a strange language and so built by himself built up divided Faiths and Churches and Religions on the other side that broken tottering State made many run away as from a falling Church take shelter in another and what the Cross of Christ was to the Jews that the Cross of his Spouse too was to many pretended Christians a ground to renounce her They no sooner saw their Mother wounded naked in the dust but they concluded her fit to be buried and ran from her as from the house of death as if in the noblest way of sufferings to follow Christ could look like the mark of being Anti-Christian and the yet unsettled state of it is made great use of for the same intents her stones are laid on purpose to be stones of stumbling and to give occasion of falling And truly 't is to be confest that since the bonds of Government which kept men under discipline were unloos'd and since the Churches Ministeries and her Powers are cut so short that they are not so effectual to the ends of their institution to work out a strict Christian life as were to be wisht and since men are divided so by claims of several Churches and by fearful expectations also both the Coversations and the Faiths of men too are grown loose and dissolute and 't was not the least Stratagem of our Adversaries to contrive men should be such as could while they continue such find Sanctuary no where but in their Church at their Altars whether they have but to come to be absolv'd of all But truly 't is extreme barbarity in us when 't is on our account by our demerits for our punishment that she is distressed that fears and dangers press upon her then to sleight her if when we see our Mother gasping then to throw dirt at her make her mouth her mouth be stopt with the reports of her ungodly offspring the reproches of a pointing Scorner that shall cry see how her Sons behave themselves how little love or pity they have for her He favors her stones that beautifies and guilds them with inscriptions of Religious actions this if any thing will raise them and repair her And truly'tis to be expected from the men that do pretend to have the pity and the sorrow that is due to their Mother whom the powers of Hell seem arm'd against to ruin her so far as she 's disabled should themselves supply to themselves what is wanting if her discipline be loosen'd and she have no strong ties on mens actions we should do her work upon us put obligations fetters on our selves 'T is probable this very state of Sion in the text was that which Nehemiah labour'd to repair and see how he effected it c. 9. after a most solemn fasting and confession and bemoaning rather of their guilts then sufferings in the 10th himself the Princes and the Priests and Levites and he rest of all the People with their Wives their Sons and Daughters that were come to understanding entred into a curse and into an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and do all the Commandments of the Lord our God his Judgments and his Statutes v. 29. Here was a cement would compact the Stones of Sion the whole building against all assaults whatever seat her in her perfect height and beauty It is not he loves her who curses them that laid her in the dust but he who enters such a curse of serving God 't is not he favors her dust who wishes talks or swears on the Churches side but he that humbles himself daily in the dust in her confessions and Prayers he who binds himself with such an obligation to worship and serve God faithfully as she prescribes this will help to raise her make her visible in the lives of her Children and when the dust of Sion shall have a more perfect Resurrection in this world and this of Christ shall as his other body rise out of the earth it will be comfortable to each one that put his hands to the repairs that did but fit one stone to it that would not let God rest till he had establisht our Jerusalem again a praise in the Earth Then God almighty would be importun'd prevail'd upon to put it in the hearts of those men whose part 't is to secure our Sion and repair her breaches to build by a true line and level make such an establishment as may be fitted not to the satisfying parties factions interests or any human appetites but the just obligations or Religion not build weakly fearing as it were the Churches strength should aw men in their practices that the weapons of her warfare should gall their vices besides that their own strong holds may be still able to hold out and not be beat down by her forces for this were to model the structure of Sion to mens own and to their sins convenience But to build her up so as that the profession and the practice of true Religion may be preserv'd safe and Gods Worship kept intire that upon our one onely foundation the rock Christ Jesus we may be built up with a lively faith into an holy life all cemented by Charity and all divisions be made up and we may with one heart and one voice meet and join in giving Glory Honor c SERMON V. OF THE EXERCISE OF CONSCIENCE In the avoiding of Offence towards God and Men. Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man MY text is the sum of a Christians practical duty for as St Paul had in the verse before set down his faith and hope here he sets down his workings In the words we have 1. The state of that duty exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a onscience void of offence 2. That is brancht out into its several respects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and towards man and those either 1. As the objects of that which a good conscience endeavors
guards that are set about them to preserve them and break thro the strengths of grace and conquer all the strivings of Almighty God's compassion and goodness to them and beat off the very victory that Christ hath gain'd for them refuse all the kind offers of the Law of grace and chuse sin with damnation they are safe There is now as St Paul saith by the Law no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus to them who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. in which words we have both an assurance that the strengths of Sin are broken and the persons too are partakers of the Victory that are in Christ Jesus for as it is by him the Victory is gotten so it is in him that we must get an interest in it Now to be in Christ if as most certainly it doth it mean here as in other places where 't is said of Churches housholds and of single persons then it means the Christians so in Gal. 1. 22 the Churches of Judea that are in Christ i. e. that have received the Gospel and the Faith of Christ Rom. 16. 11. greet them that be of the houshold of Narcissus that are in the Lord i. e. that are Christians and the seventh verse who were in Christ before me i. e. were converted e're I was But it means Christians not in judgment and opinion onely but in life and practice such as are in Christ by St Pauls character and description of it in the 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature he lives the life of Christ as a member does the life of that of which it is a member and so he walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For as members live by the vertue of the influence of spirits from the head into them and walk after its directions so those that are in Christ his members they must walk live act and practise by the Spirit of Christ guided not by carnal appetite the lusts and the desires of the Flesh but by Christ's directions Such they are who have this Victory to whom there is no condemnation For as he adds Rom. 8. 2. The law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death and so there is thro him a Victory over the third last enimy Death in which freedom from Sin and Death two things are intimated 1. That Sin the sting of Death is taken away which being once removed Death is the softest thing that can be 't is but falling asleep so it is call'd v. 18. of this chapter faln asleep in Christ it is so far from being hurtful that it is the first great happiness that does befall us 2. That Death it self also shall be swallowed up in Victory that we shall be recovered from its powers and triumph over it in Immortality of blessed life For if we be in Christ his members and so live the life of Christ and consequently when we die die in the Lord then tho the body be dead and corruptible yet if the Spirit of life that is in Jesus be in us he that rais'd up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit Rom. 8. 11. It is this life in him that verifies the saying of St Paul Eph. 2. 6. He hath raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ as sure as if we were already there for there we are already as his members in our head And to the full and personal enjoyment of the blessings of those heavenly places it is death that lets us in that vale of Achor is the door of hope and Canaan the grave the avenue to God's right hand that death 't is but the Pascha in St Bernard 't is our Passover a repast of bitter herbs indeed but at the going out of Egypt from the house of bondage And tho the body seem in death a piteous despicable thing sown in corruption dishonor as St Paul expresses yet death gives that a relation too to Christ the Prophet Isaiah brings in the Lord calling His dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cadaver they my dead body shall aris◠saith he c. 26. 19. So that the corps of a good person is so far a member that 't is call'd the very body of his Savior into such a title Death translates it to such not to live onely but to die is Christ. And sure if they that die in him did live in him as none can die there where they did not live at all that is live as his members they that die in Christ must die his members But in the expression of the Prophet they do also die himself and are Christ's own dead body Death to such is as it were transfiguration and do's not so much strip and make them naked as cloath them and that with glory the shrowd may seem but their white wedding linnen and their dress for the marriage of the Lamb. Whoever is a faithfull sincere Christian if Death seem to make approaches to him arm'd with all his instruments of cruelty and terror charge him as assuredly as a Prophet could to set his house in order for he must die if he can say with Hezekiah in Isaiah 38. 3. Remember now O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have don that which is good in thy sight then if he have not fifty years yet he shall have a numberless Eternity added to his life and notwithstanding the dark solitude of the Grave to which he is retiring he shall have that which will accompany him to his infinite joy when he is torn from friends and all his dearest things do leave him yet he shall not be alone his faith and piety his vertues all go along with him and appear for him at that tribunal on the Judgment day All his relations even his bosom-guest the other half of his own soul forsake him bring him it may be to the grave and tho they carry blacks upon them to refresh and keep alive the memory of him yet in a while take comfort and forget yet the true conjugal affections of an untainted undefiled bed shall go along present the Soul white as a Virgin that 's unspotted And after this 't is in vain to say his riches will forsake him they go not so far as the grave afford nothing of themselves but the price of a sheet and coffin But then Charities will mount Alms will ascend as fast as the Spirit the wealth one piously bestow'd will meet him he shall eternally possess that which he gave away and tho his place know him no more they shall receive him into everlasting habitations Wherefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord which is the real way of giving thanks to God who giveth us the Victory SERMON XI
motives to believe them and the faith of them do's come to lose all vigor not to be recover'd if there be not some assistance to the will that may be able to take off that ravenous inclination which it hath to present satisfactions and that gross torpid stupidity it labors under towards future things and withal excite and inflame it with desires after that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and besides remove all those other impediments of our belief which I have mention'd Which assistance from what hand it is to be expected and how it effects all that I must declare in the third place from those words Lord help thou my unbelief Now that the birth and growth and strength of Faith that Faith I say that is effectual to salvation is all from God from the preventing and assisting graces of his Spirit is a Doctrine which the Scripture is abundant in It is the gift of God St Paul saith Eph. 2. 8. and Christ says No man can come to me that is believe in me except the Father which has sent me draw him John 6. 44. i. e. those preparations of the heart by which men are dispos'd to come at God's call and receive his Gospel when as others whom 't is equally propos'd to and who alike understand it will not come are the effects of his good grace and in that respect such are said to be drawn by the Father and to be taught of God verse 45. and v. 64. speaking to his Followers and telling them that there are some of you that believe not tho they had all the methods of conviction having heard his preaching seen his miracles as well as others yet some of them notwithstanding not believing he adds v. 65. therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it be given him of my Father All the other means and motives if alone prevail not I have planted Apollos watered but 't is God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. I need not say this is the Doctrine of the Church of England 't is so of the Latin and the Greek Church and on this account of the necessity of Grace and the assistance of God's Spirit in believing the whole Church of Christ hath universally maintain'd a war against Pelagius and his Followers 'T is more expedient to shew what he doth and how he does proceed in doing it how he removes those hindrances of Faith I mention'd in each faculty both of the will and understanding First as to the understanding that he doth enlighten and clear it into the discerning of those Heavenly truths appears since David therefore prays Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law Psalm 119. 18. and the like v. 27. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts It should seem he apprehended wonderful miraculous dispensations in God's discoveries of himself and of his will to man besides those of his nature his transcendent goodness also in the pardoning our sins in giving us such excellent Precepts in assisting us to the performance in accepting our imperfect Obedience and in preparing everlasting blessed Glory to reward and crown it Now that he might discern all these so sensibly as to be ravish'd and transported with them so as that he might be wrought on to adore the blessed Donor of all these and cling to him and them with the close and inseparable unions of Faith and love he therefore prays that God would open his eyes enlighten and remove all those degrees of darkness that remain'd within him quicken and enliven all his faculties give him a vital sense and relish of all those things make him understand them that believing them he might adhere to them And since the Scripture says I told you that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness so it also therefore says that God does give an heart to understand Deut. 29. 4. and the Lord opened Lydia's heart that she attended to the things that were spoken Acts 16. 14. thus preventing unbelief which comes for want of such advertency as I shew'd you And as to the Will which hath its influence I prov'd to you that God works in us to will is express Scripture Phil. 2. 13. And if we should but onely put the understanding in that case wherein as we before demonstrated 't is needful that the Will engage it to make applications to these Spiritual objects when the man is not as yet byassed or corrupted but is onely languid and indifferent and unconcern'd yet then there is an absolute necessity the Spirit cause it for if the Will be it self a faculty indifferent and free there must be some prevenient proposal thought or motion that may determin or fix it and to will what it ought it therefore must have some good motion or proposal such as will prevail with it Now such proposals and motions come not from it self the Will does not propose to it self it cannot think or make the motion and the Understanding which as the case is put does need a resolution of the will thus to engage it is not therefore qualified to make the motion sufficient and of force for then it could and would apply it self without the Will 's engaging of it much less is it qualified when the Will drawn in by the affections of the lower Appetite hath applied the Understanding as I shew'd you to converse with sensual objects and by doing so 't is altogether stein'd with their impressions and images and hath few others to excite or entertain it self withal In neither case since neither Understanding nor the Will is able there is nothing therefore but God's grace that do's it by presenting objects and occasions and disposing circumstances so in soft and congruous seasons as with the assistance of his overshadowing and incubating on them may be sure to hatch some inclinations and desires that way in the Understanding and Will both He does all by these means upon all occasions of Divine truth heard or read or meditated on by his applying intimately to the mind the motives of believing and to help the evidence by breaking in upon it with his own illuminations which discover to the Soul the beauty of God's promises make it see how infinitely advantageous they are to it Thus he fills it with those beauteous images then backs the thoughts with their allurements so as that they love to hover and to dwell upon them this animates them into chearful practice of all performances that tend to them then he scatters as it were some gleams of future glory shedding flashes of it in the joys of Conscience arising from the sense both of God's encouragements and assistances to duty and of the delights resulting from the faithful sincere practice of it and by this joy quieting the Conscience if it either raise fears from the apprehension of God's dealings in these outward things or else if it be scrupulous in little things to
they cannot chuse but be sufficient to conclude that they are such as ought to be believed that is assented to as true I shall allow it yea so far and in that manner as God intended that they should conclude that is by the assistant grace and influence of his Holy Spirit so far in that manner I will grant they could not fail to be conclusive But that God intended they should be conclusive to us themselves with the evidence of such Metaphysical necessity so that by consequence they cannot but infuse a greater certainty and evidence into that assent that must be given to the points of Faith than there is in the Science of those Propositions that are first in Science and where there is not such necessity certainty and evidence raised by clear resolution into Principles more evident certain and necessary than those are there is not that Faith wich is alone is true and consequently that all true Faith must assent with the highest evidence necessity and certainty This I say may be granted when it shall be made appear how it is possible that God can variously deal to men the measure of Faith if every true Believer must needs have the greatest fullest measure or how any man that hath Faith and by consequence is certain most infallibly can be weak in Faith or have his Faith increase so as that it may grow exceedingly and wax very strong even till it come to full assurance and plerophory how all this I say is not impossible if all true Faith have essentially this plerophory that highest most infallible certainty and evidence But it is certain that God variously deales the measure of faith Rom. 12. 3. that there are those who have Faith and yet are weak in faith Rom. 4. 19. 14. 1. that have their faith increased Luke 17. 5. so as that it does grow exceedingly 2 Thess. 1. 3. wax very strong Rom. 4. 20. even to a full assurance Heb. 10. 22. Is it not therefore certain but that he that hath true Faith may say here with our Confessor Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Moreover if those Principles and motives blaz'd with such an evidence so bright a lustre of so cogent a necessity can any man believe that God would think it needful to arm that necessity with strict precepts fortify it with the aids of his own Holy Spirit and eternally reward Obedience to a most invincible necessity Dare any man imagin God could be so sportive in commanding as on pain of everlasting torment to engage us to believe that that which is existent is existent or that the Sun does shine at bright noon-day when we behold it so as that we cannot see it 't is our Author's own instance or to assent to these must there be the graces and assistance of the Holy Ghost or to believe the Sun shines when it does is that a Faith that is fit to be rewarded with eternal light and glory In fine since that the onely certainty of Faith wich is effectual to the ends of Faith is the certainty and firmness of adherency to God and Christ and to our duty without which all other certainty however infallible can but help towards our condemnation and since where the Holy Spirit and his Graces intervene not howsoever evident men fancy that their principles and motives are their way of resolution demonstrative there will be no true Faith and where he works with his Graces tho they were not so infallible and bright yet the adherency is firm the Faith true and saving Therefore there appears no evident necessity of such pompous principles and ways of resolution of our Faith For I would onely ask for whose sake and on whose account it is so needful that these motives principles and ways of resolution should be so infallibly certain evident and necessary Those that do embrace the Faith sincerely and are saved or those that do not give their hearts up to it and so perish in their unbelief As to these since besides all arguments internal to the doctrine outward testimony the onely argument in matter of fact and that in behalf of Christians it is far greater and more pregnant than there is for any other fact that ever was such as humanely speaking is impossible not to be true nor could there ever yet be found a rational exception or just ground of doubt against it so that 't is impossible but they must be convinc't in reason that 't is most irrational not to assent Those therefore that do wilfully resist their understandings and their reason and withal God's ordinary methods of conviction and so put a bar against his Graces and his Spirit since much more than was enough was don for them they are without excuse and since they did defy what was more than sufficient in it self and so resist God's methods also there is no pretence or reason for more helps of evidence on their account As for the other those that give themselves up to the guidance of their light and reason and Almighty God's convictions and are made Partakers of the Holy Ghost 't is most certain that his Holy Spirit will do all that is needful to complete their Faith and make it certain to salvation so that there is no need on their behalf of such self evidence of principles and motives to infuse such metaphysical certainty into their Faith And yet this certainty of Faith not onely is the ground on which alone is built Infallibility wherever that is to be placed for they are not agreed about it and indeed there were no great need to assure their Faith into such certainty but besides poor we because we do not take upon us to assert dogmatically the necessity of such most infallible certainty not onely are unchurch'd but unchristen'd concluded beyond all possibility of evasion not to have true Faith nor be truly Faithful An heavy imputation therefore I crave leave a little to consider it in one word not desiring to reflect on others but to justify our selves for in truth God knows we would as willingly go to Heaven as our Neighbors where we know we cannot be receiv'd without true Faith Now tho it looks unlucky that we should be doom'd thus upon grounds of which the Founder is himself under censure for them and his books that laid them damn'd even by his own Church tho we are by vertue of their Principles condemn'd as Hereticks because we come not into their Church which condemns the Founder of these very Principles on their account yet since however any thing does serve their turns provided it condemns us 't is not therefore to be passed by Now the ground not onely of their Faith but this their Confidence whereby they so exalt themselves and censure us is the absolute certainty of the living voice and practice of that Church which resolves her Faith by this Rule or Principle not to believe or teach or practise any thing as of Faith but what
this should seem onely an Argument ad hominem I will urge onely one instance There was a time when the immaculate Conception of our Lady stood by oral practical Tradition for in the publick Liturgies of their Church it was expresly own'd and celebrated For in their Liturgy printed 1551. after a devout Praier to the B. Virgin there is added Ave Hail Mary full of grace c. Blessed also be Saint Anne thy Mother out of whom thy virgin flesh came without any stain immaculate And again Hail c. woman blessed be thy Mother Anne out of whom thou didst proceed a Virgin without any stain or sin Once more in another Praier All hail thou most chast Mother of God c. and blessed be thy Parents Joachim and Anne out of whom thy virgin flesh proceeded without stain immaculate The same too was defin'd expresly in their Oecumenical Council at Basil in a session on purpose for it c. 36. after long debate decreeing that she never had Original or Actual sin but was immaculate and tho the Pope for other reasons and not this definition would not confirm this Council yet besides that by the way of oral practical Tradition his Holiness is declar'd to have but one vote and no negative yet if his vote signify Alexander VI. a little after gave ten thousand years of pardon for all mortal sins twenty for venial toties quoties to all that said devoutly in that Worship of our Lady and St Anne the former Praier Rubr. Now if the Church did not believe what was thus in her publick Praiers in her definitions which was the judgment of her Pastors of the whole Church Representative but if somwhat else must intervene to prove what is of Faith the Rule is insignificant it is impossible to know their Churches Faith at any time But we are bound to think they would not in their Solemn Divine Worship owne what they did not believe and they could not believe any thing by this Rule but what they did receive and so their Faith and Practice consequent must have bin always and must be infallible Yet we know that was defin'd the Doctrine taken up merely to countenance the Worship that had formerly bin given to the Blessed Virgin in the celebrating her Conception For since it always was the Churches Rule never to solemnize with a Festival but what they did account was Holy according to that saying of St Bernard quo pacto festus habetur qui minime sanctus est And accordingly the present Church that does still celebrate it also in her new Reformed Breviaries calls it Sanctam Conceptionem having therefore entertain'd the Festival they must needs entertain the Doctrine And the forenamed Council does expresly owne this in defining it ut consonum cultui Ecclesiastico in that it was agreeable to that Worship which the Church perform'd in the celebration of it But if you would know how the Solemnity began you may receive it from themselves thus A Canon of a Church in France greatly devoted to the Blessed Virgin returning home over the large mouth of the Seine in a vessel alone from the other side where he had bin committing Adultery with another man's wife and as he sail'd singing the Hours of the Blessed Virgin a great troop of Devils drown his vessel himself in the deep and his soul they drag'd away to torments On the third day while they were tormenting him the Mother of our Lord came thither with a train of Angels asking why they did unjustly so torment the soul of her servant Whom they answer'd that they had a just right to it for it was taken in its being about their employment she replies if it ought to be theirs whose service it was in then of right it is mine for you seiz'd it as he sung my Mattins so that you are guilty Upon which they fled and left it and the Blessed Virgin brought his soul back to his body and himself alive to shore where falling at her feet he said Dear Lady what shall I render unto thee for so great benefits that thou hast don unto me she replies I desire that henceforward thou commit no more Adultery least the later end be worse than the beginning I desire moreover that thou wouldest devoutly celebrate the Feast of my Conception yearly on the eighth day of December Good Lord that singing Mattins to our Lady should attone for him whose Vespers had bin offer'd up to a foul shrine to his Paramour celebrated in the vile Embraces of his Neighbor's Wife That the Blessed Virgin should be so concern'd for her own immaculate Conception so indifferent so easy or indeed indulgent to the gross Adultery of others However as it well became him he obey'd her and observ'd it and upon two other such like visions so did several others But the Worship by all this was onely private mens particular devotions therefore there was one more made to Anselme who immediatly began it in his Priory and being made Archbishop afterwards of Canterbury made it publick and then Innocent the III. did so in France and so the Worship became universal in their publick Services and to justify that Worship too the Doctrine of immaculate Conception was receiv'd into those Services and then defin'd in that great Council above mention'd Had this but bin in one of the dark Ages it had certainly prevail'd but somthing checking with the doctrin of the whole world that was more awake then the Popes afterward altho they kept the Worship up durst not vouch the Doctrin for a point of strict Faith tho sought to by two solemn Embassies from two Kings of Spain Philip III. and IV. Now truly by the equipage pursuit and carriage of the business one would think they came to crave an Audience for some new Faith as they were wont for any extraordinary grant or dispensation that at Rome they could decree Divinity as they did Acts of the Conclave and give out Articles as they did Cardinals Caps and make a new Creation for belief for sure they did not send that Embassy to enquire whether their own immediat Forefathers had so taught them and so forwards that there had bin always a perpetual succession But tho that would not do 't is evident there was a doctrinal Point defin'd by the great Representative of their whole Church and for some Ages receiv'd with the Devotions and the Worship of their whole Church and by consequence into their Faith for otherwise they gave Worship upon that account which they did not believe and it is also evident to sight how doctrines did come in into their Faith upon all least pretence of Visions the known way some that were devout men began a practice after other some in power adopted and gave credit to it and then gave autority by this means the practice in a while grew universal then became their Doctrine and their Faith Now I would know whether it was so it
the relicks onely of Christ's Church but also all the memory of the other cruelties when in one small Province in a month he put to death one hundred and fourty four thousand Christians banish'd seven hundred thousand more and proportionably so in other places thro the Roman world with such success that he took confidence to write on his triumphal Arches Deleto nomine Christiano as he had blotted out the very name of Christians then at the last gasp of his Church it pleas'd the Lord to raise up Constantine and strait the whole face of the world was Christian and Dioclesian himself liv'd to see it I might have instanced in our own so fresh deliverance but that it would not look like an incouragement it may be to rely and cast our selves again upon him if so soon we call upon our selves the same needs by the same wretchless methods and there are some they say that apprehend so And God knows the ruin of the Reformation and our Church hath from its first beginning bin still working by her restless indefatigable Enimies and hath often bin preserv'd onely on the account I am now speaking that when things are past all humane help then is God's set time for relief I know the Churches Adversaries brag of multitudes and they come up on every side close to her yea and which is worse we seem to labor to make God himself our Enimy or at least provoke him to desert that Chutch and Reformation we pollute so put out the Worship we unhallow and profane so by ill lives make those that will have nothing of Religion but some forms it may be loose them too and let them die for want of substance and the shew go out not leave so much as the hypocrisy of piety Indeed a flood of Atheism and contemt of all Religion and virtue looks like a just dereliction of them who would not let God be in their thoughts nor Religion or Morality in their actions Nay may it not look like a kindness to remove the Gospel which proves onely the savor of death unto death put out that light which men are but resolv'd to sin against Or can there be a greater mercy than to refuse all the means of mercy to such men as onely make them work out condemnation to them O Lord to us indeed belongs confusion of face but notwithstanding to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses tho we have rebelled against him and as he knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of Judgment to be punish'd he knows too how many thousand knees do bow to him in secret reckons all those tears that are pour'd out in Religion's and the Churches cause and how wicked soever the Professors of Religion the Church Members may be if the constitution of Religion and the Church themselves yet be not vitiated or defective there is hope still And truly whereas many blame the Reformation that it did not keep more hold upon the Consciences of the Community did not retain some power which altho not of Divine Institution but things warily and by degrees brought in as seeming to work towards piety and most certainly in humane ways of judging serving to procure more veneration and outward security of the Church and Religion to work out which the other consequential worldly interests we see the very scheme of some Professions not their discipline onely but their faith too is contriv'd I think on the other side if our Reformation instead of doing thus as it consulted not at first with carnal Politicks but Christ's institutions as the Scripture and other primitive Records conveied them and design'd no more to themselves than those bare naked Spiritual doctrines rights and powers which Christ gave them left to Cesar whatsoever was Cesar's knowing God had promis'd Kings should be their Nursing-fathers and to be so is part of their Office trusting therefore God and Governments with their protection and defence of Church and Religion So also if thro all succeeding times whether of flourish or depression and calamity Religion it self whatever its Professors are have retain'd always the same simplicity of principles be it self untainted not new model'd to serve ends or interests then whenever men shall begin to clip it I do not say in maintenance seizing what their Father's sacriledge had left them but I mean because ours did not so as other Churches grasp some usurpt power to secure their own shall therefore cut her Spiritual powers short so that they cannot serve the ends of piety because they know her Children will not cannot by their principles resist i. e. if they endeavor to destroy them for this reason that they make men the best Subjects and of the most Christian Principles that is persecute their Christianity it self and martyr that I must profess that it will look like God's set appointed time to arise and to have mercy upon Sion when it is expos'd a naked Orphan left to his protection onely then he cannot pass it by but when he sees it in its bloud thus he will say unto it live and tho he plague her wicked and ungracious Sons and possibly take away many of the good ones from the evil to come yet the Religion will not die Let them believe it hopeless who desire a pretence to leave it who do what they can to stab their Mother and make it a reason to forsake her then because she is so desperately wounded and let them declare it who design to betray men out of it But whether is wiser to believe these or the God from whom we have these promises and these experiences and the other grounds of trust Sure we know better whom we have believed especially since the very trust to him is an engagement to him not to fail us that 's my last ground 'T is it self a means prescrib'd us by himself Isaiah 50. 10. Who is he among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord stay upon his God There is nothing in the world that more engages any man that is not profligately false than trusting to him and for God there is no other piece of piety or virtue gives such honor to him his Attributes as sincere dependance on him do's It does acknowledge his Omniscience that he knows our needs be they never so perplext intricate knows how to help them his Omnipresence that he is at hand on all occasions his Omnipotence how he is able above all our possibility of want his Mercy Goodness Benignity in that he condescended to be willing to relieve us his Faithfulness Truth and Justice in observing his good promises and never failing them and his Immutability in all these and his other Attributes of loving kindness Now truly as our miseries requir'd all these so our trust to him gives him the glory of all these and therefore 't is no wonder if
Church First If the Church of Rome have reason to expect infallible assistance of the Spirit in any case it is as much in Canonizing of a Saint as in any other it being as unhappy to determine a false Object for Religious Worship to their Church as a false Article of Faith there is as much need that there should be an infallible proposal of the one as other for when she does Decree by the Authority of the Omnipotent God such a one is a Saint receiv'd in Glory and so renders him the Object of their Worship if he should chance to be a Reprobate to cause the People to fall prostrate to the Shrine of one that 's damn'd and call his flames to warm Gods Altar and the Votaries breast to make the whole Church worship one that is in Hell is liable to greater aggravations of impiety than an erroneous Opinion in very many of their points of Faith can be But it is known their Church hath Canoniz'd one of this Nation Becket who though he was indeed illegally and barbarously Murthered yet 't is not the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr now he did not fall a Sacrifice for his Religion but was slain because he did disturb the State by suspending all the Bishops that upheld the Kings just cause against him so that neither King nor State could live in peace for him for opposing also those Laws which himself had sworn to Laws that were not onely truly Sovereign Rights but are maintain'd even unto this day as Priviledges by the Gallican Church and they not branded for so doing In a word he was slain for those actions which his own Bishops condemned him for as a perjur'd man and a Traytor And for persisting in them to the death he was Sainted Now whatever the estate of this man be in the next World I meddle not with that Yet for Disobedience and Rebellion to place one in Heaven whence for those things Lucifer did fall does seem to shew what Spirit they are of that Canonize such Saints For the Church to pray to Christ that by the wounds of this Saint he would remit their sins does express what rate their Church does set upon the merits of resisting Princes and disturbing States in the behalf of Holy Church When such actions make men fit to be joynt purchasers with Christ in the Redemption of the World But when the French Histories say 't was disputed long after in Paris whether he were Damn'd or Sav'd that the Church in her publique Offices should pray to go thither where he is gone to have his Society though it express their most infallible assurance of the condition of those men who for their sakes resist the Secular Powers yet O my Soul enter not thou into their counsels in this world neither say a Confederacy to whom they say a Confederacy much less pray to be in their Society who by resisting S. Paul says do receive unto themselves Damnation Secondly It is notorious that in their first General Council at Lyons Anno 1245. the Emperour Frederick the second by the Sentence of the Pope and the whole Council after long deliberation and producing several Arguments which they say are not sleight but effectual to prove the suspicion of Heresie is depriv'd of his Empire all his Subjects are absolv'd from their Oath of Allegiance and by Apostolical Authority forbidden to obey him Therefore that such things may be done in the cases of Religion hath the Authority of a General Council 't was that Council that Decreed Red Hats to Cardinals Hats red it seems not onely with the Royal Purple but with the Blood of Kings and of Royalty it self Thirdly I should have urged the well known Canon of the General Council of Lateran the greatest their Church ever boasted of which says That if the temporal Lord shall neglect to purge his Territories from such as the Church there declares Hereticks he shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and if he do not mend within a year complained of to the Pope that so he may declare his Subjects absolv'd from their Allegiance and expose his Lands to be seiz'd by Catholicks who shall exterminate the Hereticks saving the right of the chief Lord Provided he give no impediment to this But the same law shall be observed to those that have no chief Lords that is who are themselves Supream This I should urge but that some say that penal Statutes which are leges odiosae tantum disponunt quantum loquuntur Therefore this Canon since it does not name Kings it does not they say concern them although 't is plain it do sufficiently enough But that there may be therefore no evasion Fourthly In the General Council of Constance that part of it I mean that is approv'd by their whole Church The Pope and Council joyn together in commanding all Arch-Bishops Bishops and Inquisitors to pronounce all such Excommunicate as are declared Hereticks in such and such Articles and that of Transubstantiation half-Communion and the Pope's Supremacy are among them or that favour ot defend them or that Communicate with them in publique or in private whether in sacred Offices or otherwise etiamsi Patriarchali Archiepiscopali Episcopali Regali Reginali Ducali aut aliâ quâvis Ecclesiasticâ aut mundanâ proefulgeant dignitate And Commands them also to proceed to Interdicts and deprivation of Dignities and Goods and whatsoever other Penalties vias modos Thus that Council though it took away the Peoples right to the Blood of Christ denying them the Cup in the Sacrament gave them in exchange the Blood of their own Kings making them a right to that And that they extend the force of these Canons to the most absolute Princes even to him that pleads exemption most to the King of France is plain because when Sixtus the fifth thundred out his Bulls against the then King of Navarre afterwards King Henry the fourth of France and the Prince of Conde depriving them not onely of their Lands and Dignities but their Succession also to the Crown of France absolving their Subjects from their Oaths forbidding them to obey them he declared he did it to them as to relapsed Hereticks favourers and defenders of them and as such fal'n under the Censures of the Canons of the Church Now there are no other Canons that do take in Kings but these which can touch him for that of Boniface the eighth which says the Pope hath power to judg all temporal Powers is declared not to extend to France Cap. meruit de priviledg in extravag communibus Thus by the publique Acts of their Church and by the Canons of their General Councils we have found in causes of Religion Deprivation of Princes Wars and Bloodshed and the other consequent Miseries are establish'd Rebellion encouraged by a Law And if Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft then we know what manner of Spirit they are of that do
encourage it sure Witches have no spirit but the Devil for familiar But the Church of England on the other side in her publique Doctrine set down in the Book of Homilies establish'd in the 39. Articles of her Religion says in express words that it is not lawful for Inferiours and Subjects in any case to resist and stand against the Superiour Powers that we must indeed believe undoubtedly that we may not obey Kings Magistrates or any other if they would command us to do any thing contrary to Gods Commands In such a case we ought to say with the Apostle we must rather obey God than Man But nevertheless in that case we may not in any wise withstand violently or Rebel against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his Officers 1 Book of Hom. 2 part of the Serm. of Obed. Not for Reformation of Religion for what a Religion 't is that such men by such means would restore may easily be judged even as good a Religion surely as Rebels be good men and obedient Subjects 2 Book of Hom. 4 part of the Serm. against wilful Rebellion The very same thing is defined in the first of the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical of the year 1640. for Subjects to bear Arms against their King offensive or defensive upon any pretence whatever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordain'd of God and though they do not invade but onely resist S. Paul tells them plainly he that resists receives unto himself damnation This was the Doctrine of the Church in those her Constitutions and although there was no Parliament then sitting to enact these Canons into Laws yet since that time the Law of England is declar'd to say the same and we obliged by it to acknowledg that it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King by this Parliament whose memory shall be for ever blessed And now it is not hard to know what manner of Spirit our Church is of even that Spirit that anoints the Lords Anointed that is which Commissions them Gods Spirit as we find it phras'd in Scripture And 't is obvious to each eye that there is much more resemblance betwixt present Rome and the Image of Babylon as S. John hath drawn it in the Revelations than there is of Babel and the Church of England as to those Confusions which seditious Doctrines make as the Romanists pourtrai'd her But far be it from me to conclude hence that all of their Communion do allow their Doctrines Though they stand on the same bottom that their Faith of half-Communion and Transubstantiation do even Acts of the same Councils yet I doubt not multitudes of loyal Souls of this our Nation do abhor the Tenents by what Rule of theirs I know not I confess Nor shall I enquire what Security a Prince can have of the Allegiance of those who by the most infallible Rules of their Religion can be loyal onely on Condition by the leave of those who are his Enemies on whose will and power all their Oaths and duty are depending If the most essential interest of Princes will not move them to consider this sure I am I shall not undertake it But I shall take the confidence out of the premises to infer that no Religion in the World does more provide for the security of Kings than the Christian as it is profess'd in our Church does And when we see the Interest of the Crown and Church were twisted by God in the preservations of this day nor could be separated in the late dismal Confusions but died and reviv'd together in the Resurrection they that hate the execrable mischiefs of those times or love the Crown or do not come to mock God when they come to give him thanks for his great glories of this day cannot choose but have good will for our Sion cannot have an unconcernedness for this Religion a cold indifference to it or any other which where-ere it is alas I fear betrays too openly indifference and unconcernedness for Religion it self For if I should appeal to our most Sceptick Statists and not beg one Principle of a Religion but take their own Religion was contriv'd they say by pretending to engage a God to uphold his Vicegerent and by putting after everlasting punishments before mens fears for they saw present ones restrained not Treason was contriv'd I say to uphold States Then that must be the best with them that best upholds and then I have evinc'd the Christian is secure as 't is prosess'd by our Church But then shame to those who to gratifie their lusts meerly labour to perswade themselves and others there is no such thing in earnest as a Resurrection to punishments who by publique raillery in sacred things and turning all to merriment endeavour to take off the sense of all Religion and have done it in great measure and so thrown down the best-Basis on which Government subsists which they themselves confess was necessary to be fram'd on purpose for it For if there be no after fears he that is stronger than to need to fear the present may rebel kill Kings These Atheists are Fanaticks I am sure in Politicks more traiterous than our mad Enthusiasts or than the Canons of the Popish Councils To these Sadduces in Christianity we may say ye know not what spirit ye are of who know not whether there be any Spirit But it is indeed because they are all flesh themselves But then if the works of the flesh be manifest Adultery Fornication Seditions Heresies Murders Drunkenness c. we know what manner of Spirit they are of even the spirit that did enter into the Swine the Legion indeed of Spirits one Spirit is not Devil enough to animate the flesh into so many of those works But the fruits of the Spirit that Gospel Spirit which we Christians are of are love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance joy in the Holy Ghost and they that do bring forth such fruits are baptised indeed with the Holy Ghost and if with fire fire that came down from Heaven too 't was onely to consume their dross that they may be pure mettal fit as for the King's Inscription meek Christians good Subjects so for Gods Image to be stamp'd upon that is renewed in Righteousness and true Holiness Fire this that will sublime our very flesh into spiritual body that we may begin here that incorruptible which our corruptible must put on when our vile Bodies shall be made like to the glorious Body of our Saviour To which state that Spirit which rais'd up Jesus from the dead bring us by quickning our mortal Bodies To whom c. The Eleventh SERMON Preached at CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Novemb. 8. 1665. Being the Monthly Fast-day for the Plague LUKE XVI 30 31. Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto
Clouds of Heaven When this Cross shall usher in the great Assize When they shall look on him that they have pierced and Crucified upon it And when that Crucified offended Enemy shall come there to be their Judge That takes himself to be offended much more in his kindness than his Person and will judge this more severely that we would not let his Cross and Passion do us any good than that we Crucified him on it Let us then be caution'd in the fear of God to be no longer Enemies to that which is to reconcile our judge to us If we have his Friendship on the Cross we may be sure to have it on the â—udgment Seat He that on the Cross parted with Godhead and with Life for us will on the Bench adjudge us that Inheritance which his Cross did purchase for us He sits there to pronounce happiness upon all faithful 〈◊〉 Christians to proclaim Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you To which c. SERMON XV. WHITE-HALL Novemb. 15. 1668. MARK X. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child he shall not enter therein THE Kingdom of God especially as it is concerns the forepart of the Text signifies nothing else but that of the Messiah or in one word Christianity and that both as to the profession and the practise the Doctrine and the life of it For so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which Theophylact expounds the words the Preaching of the Doctrine is it self called the Kingdom of God by our Saviour Mat. 21. 43. 'T is not delivering of a message onely in weak empty words 't is Jurisdiction and exercise of Soveraignty And the Commission that authoriz'd to it was the delegation of the Powers of Omnipotence All Power saith our Lord is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth And which the Syriack adds in that place also as my Father sent me so send I you go ye therefore and teach all Nations teaching them to observe whatsoever I have Commanded you As if this were execution of the greatest and most Kingly Power and every Doctrine had the force of Proclamation every denunciation were Sentence as it will be certainly to them that do not give obedience to it Which obedience is Secondly and that most properly entitled the Kingdom of God Rom. 14. 17. for by that he Reigns without this our great universal Lord were a Prince of no Subjects had a Kingdom but of Rebells onely So that to receive the Kingdom of God is by the obedience of Faith to submit to the Gospel to receive the Doctrines of it by believing and the Precepts by obeying them The duty which our Saviour here directs and which with such severity he threatens non-performance of even with exclusion from that blessed Immortality of Joyes which the Kingdom of God imports which is that sense it bears in the last words of my Text. In which we must consider First the Object both of the Duty and the Threat a Kingdom and that the Kingdom of God Secondly our concern and duty in relation to that Kingdom we have onely to receive it Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God Whatever bustlâ— men are well content to make to gâ—t possession of any Earthly Dignity or Power sometimes to wage War with their Conscience and all obligations violate all Rights both Humane and Divine and assault greatest difficulties and yet greater guilts to invade mens Crowns and other rights there 's no such need in this we have no more to do but let this Kingdom come and not resist the having it For therefore also Thirdly the manner we are by our Saviour here prescribed to receive this Kingdom in is as a little Child Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child as one that cannot stand against the power of a Kingdom when it comes that hath not strength nor malice neither force nor will to oppose which they that do must needs keep themselves out of it Which is Fourthly the thing threatned they shall not enter therein there being neither reason nor indeed a possibility men should possess that which they will not receive Lastly Christ's asseveration is added to all this Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child hâ— shall not enter therein But because the main thing Christ intended in the Text which he so oft repeated upon several occasions was by the significative emblem of a little Child visibly to inform us of some dispositions that are absolutely necessary to the entertaining Christianity either in our minds by Faith or in our lives by practice I shall therefore wholly attend that design of his in the words and handle them particularly as they seem here to be spoken in relation to the Doctrine of it This being most of use now in an Age when men not only tear Religion with disputes but aim to baffle it with reproaches quite out of the World Now against such the Text is positive Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God the Doctrine of Christianity as a little Child be cannot enter therein neither into the possession of the Promises of Christianity nor indeed into the profession of it And here I need not labour much to find that in a Child which Christ requires of those that come to be Disciples in Religion for it is plain that Children being impotent unable to sustain or to direct themselves they give themselves up to the aids and the directions of others those especially whom they are committed to and with whose cares of them they are acquainted to whose guidance they resign themselves entirely laying hold on them in any dangerous appearance and not trusting to themselves at all And when their Age first makes them capable of having any thing infus'd into them being empty and unseason'd Vessels they will easily receive all and sincerely without taint And being neither fill'd before-hand with prejudicate opinions nor with windy vain conceits of their own skill or knowledge they must needs take in without any let 〈◊〉 hindrance whatever is infus'd and submit themselves to be directed wholly by their teachers without contradiction or dispute for they Judge not nor examin but receive Now such a resignation seems the proper disposition which our Saviour expects in a Disciple It is plain that his pretended Vicar and that Church expect it that men shall submit their Faith entirely to the Church believe whatever she proposeth as reveal'd by God meerly on that account as she proposeth it for otherwise it is not a right faith Yea she requires that men give their assent to the determinations of her head the Pope in matters of fact also where they are as competent to Judge as he and though with all their industry and using the same means they cannot find the fact to be as he determins yet they are oblig'd
in conscience to that superior to depart from their own Judgment and to yield and sign their assent to his determinations Witness the matter of Jansenius Yea their great Cardinal is positive that If the Pope could err so far as to call evil good good evil to prohibit vertues or command vices the Church were bound in conscience to believe those vices good and honest and those vertues evil So far he Indeed if that Church be the Mother and Nurse of all Christians 't is from her breasts only they must seek the sincere Milk of the word Now that she is so they must take her word as Children do their Parents words that they are so And indeed this is properly to receive the Doctrine as a little Child not judge nor reason not examin but believe it And such legendary doctrines as well as Histories which they deliver are most fit to be receiv'd by such as Children Yet as if this had been the proper method among Christians always in S. Austin's time we find the Manichees derided Christianity that discipline of Faith because by that men were commanded to believe and were not taught how to distinguish truth from falshood by clear reason and again that it requires us to assent before we have a reason for it And long before that Celsus did advise the Christians to receive no doctrines but on the account of reason credulity being the inlet to deceit saying they that without grounds believe are like those that admire and â—e satisfied with juglers and take appearances and sleight of hand for truth adding many of the Christians neither would receive nor give a reason of their faith but us'd to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not you examin but believe 't is your faith shall save you and as if from the beginning it were so we cannot but have heard the story of that man that reading Genesis where Moses says In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth And he said let there be light and there was light c. Swore at him saying this Barbarian only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if Argument and Reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the inâ—titutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the Oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not Children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a Man and a Child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an Act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unless he satisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so and were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor Rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the World so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such Childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rational grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgment also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infalliable as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examin ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesom mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish and so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tâ—bula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impress Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signs and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent and Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself profess that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his
demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had pointed out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confess Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples press the inconveniences that will happen If the case of Man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determin how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise it appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover thing above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unless there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant â—isi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give such deference for however the modern Doctrines dare assert that Christ hath given the very same infallibility which himself had to all S. Peters successors as often as they speak ex Cathedrâ and that in matters both of right and of particular fact yet not to countenance this monster by admitting combate with it nor to put my self into the circle which these men commit who talk of the Authority of the Church to which they require us to resign our Faith I shall not stay to rack them on that their own wheel This I dare affirm it is impossible for any person or assembly to produce a delegation of authority in more ample terms then the great Councel of the Jews could shew sign'd both by God and Christ. According to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the Judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalâ— not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left faith God Deut. 17. 11. compar'd with 2 Chron. 19. 8 9 10 11. And our Saviour says They sit in Moses Chair all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Mat. 23. 2. Let them of Româ— produce you a better and more large commission Yet did not this suppose that Councel was infallible either in the interpreting the Law or in attesting of tradition or in judging of a Prophet or that the Jews were blindly to give up their assent and their obedience to their sentence God did not mean the people should imagin that when he prescrib'd a Sacrifice for expiation of their errors in their Judgment when they found it out Lev. 4. 13. As their own Doctors do expound it Therefore God suppos'd that they might err and we know that their Traditions did evacuate the Law Mat. 23. 15. They judg'd and slew true Prophets v. 37. They declar'd the Messiah an impostor Mat. 27. 63. and blasphemer and for that condemn'd him Mat. 26. 65. and decreed what the Apostles told them they must not obey Act. 5. 25. But though there be no such Authority that 's absolute over the Faith of Men now upon Earth yet if this Jesus did acquire such by his Works if by the Miracles he wrought his raising others from the Dead his own Death and his Resurrection he sufficiently justified the Divinity of his Doctrine And if those Miracles were true they were not doubt sufficient and if those that did pretend they were eye witnesses and ministers of all this his Apostles and the Seventy Disciples and those others that accompanied him who conversed with him continually and could not therefore be deceived if they profess they heard and saw all this and Preacht it in the face of those that would have contradicted if they could and rather than their lives have proved all false yea Preacht it every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following If they consign'd that Word in Writing also which they Preacht to be a measure and a Standard of that Doctrine to fnturity which Word so Preacht and Written by agreeing would in aftertimes give mutual illustrious evidence to one another and if any Heter â—â—â—â—ies should at any time creep by degrees into the Articles or the external practice of the Church they might he easily discovered by those Records And if the multitudes that heard and saw and did receive all this and which were grown extreamly numerous almost in every Nation of the then known World while those Apostles and Disciples liv'd if these deliver'd what they must needs know whether 't were true or not deliver'd both that Doctrine and those Books of it as most certain truth by Preaching and by Writing and by Living to it and by Dying for it and engaging their Posterity to do so and they also did that to all Ages if all this I say be true then it is easie to conclude that we are to receive the Doctrine of that Jesiâ— and this Book the Records of it with the resignation of a little Child and absolutely to submit our Faith to them But that it was thus first as sure as any of us here who have not seen the thing can be that Christianity is now profest the Bible now received in all the Regions round about us throughout Europe or indeed that there are â—â—ch Regions and places so sure we may be for we have the testimony of the World that for example in the days of Dioclesian 't was over the World profest both with their mouths and lives owned in despite of Spoyl of Torments and of Death and they did value the Records of this Doctrine so much dearer than their Lives or their Estates that in prosecution of those Edicts wherein the Christians were required to deliver up
their Bibles to be burnt in one Month 17000 were put to death And the Persecution lasted at that rate for ten years time so that in Egypt only it is said there were slain 144000 and 70000 banisht The Laity it seems were allowed Bibles then Or put the case higher in Adrian's or Trajan's time who both lived within an Hundred years of Christ who Martyr'd them 'till weariness slackned the Execution and they gave off onely as it were that so they might cease to persecute themselves and we have the Officers engaged attesting this all which must needs be as notorious as the Light Now Secondly 't is most impossible those so vast multitudes of every Nation should have met together forg'd a Code of Doctrines and agreed so uniformly in professing a Religion and in dying for it for we may as easily believe that there were never any men before this Age we live in but that these began the kind as that those of that Age began the Christian Religion Thirdly 't is as impossible that their immediate Ancestors who lived in the Apostles Age who heard their Preaching received their Writings saw the Miracles they did if they did any and many of them must have seen Christ also after he was risen if it were so yea multitudes of them were themselves parties in the gifts of Tongues and Miracles if there were any and so could not be impos'd on but must necessarily know whether they were truths or forgeries It is as Impossible I say so many should agree together to betray all their Posterity into the profession of a Religion from which they could look for no advantage but the certain total Ruin of themselves and their posterity it was not possible they could have done this if they had not thought all this was true and since they did know whether it were true or not if they thought it was true they did know it was and if they knew it was then it is certain that it was so and these Scriptures and the Doctrines Christians deliver so far as they have not varied since that time from these Authentical Records they have the Seal of God Miracles to attest they come from God I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah which so eminently came to pass in Christ that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine Next Christ's predictions in the New particularly those about Jerusalem which saith Eusebius He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witness and no Christian writes of it or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words But enough hath been said to prove they come from God and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God with perfect resignation of our Souls and submission of our judgments denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties that is receive this word of the Kingdom as a little Child I do not here affirm by saying this that our Religion does disdain or keep distance from the service of any of Mans faculties for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only but as Judges 'T is plain the senses were the first I do not say conveyance onely but Foundation of Faith which was built on the first believers eyes and ears they heard the Doctrine saw the Miracles were sure they saw and heard them and so supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God were certain of their truth without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine And S. John therefore does not onely call in and admit and urge their testimony That which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life that declare we unto you But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most for speaking of the Eucharist he says that which you see is Bread and 't is a Cup it is that very thing which your eyes tell you ' t is Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause And in an instance where their sentencè passes 't is not strange if Reason also take the Chair and do pretend to Judge And truly when the Scripture that does call those Elements Christs Body and his Blood does also call them after Consecration Bread and Wine and since they must be called one of them by a figure for they cannot be in Substance both and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lies hath not expresly said 't is this but in resemblance that in Substance Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties and to which a Trope is not a stranger it can judge of figurative speeches when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body 'T is but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb which they call'd the Body of the Passover though it were but the memorial a figure which was always usual in Sacraments and is indeed essential to Sacraments And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs But if it should resolve it to be Bread and Wine onely in a figure besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence that a man can be nourisht by them which the Romanists dare not deny nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope be nourish't with a figure besides this if reason shall resolve that it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by and judge in contradiction to known Principles and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding which especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly must be most unreasonable yea most impossible to judge that true that is to say believe that thing which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer or receive as a little Child that discerns the Lords Body no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it Or to make another instance when the Scripture says God is a Spirit yet does also give him hands and eyes
attribute in God a sinner can fly to with any hope His Holiness cannot behold iniquity his Justice speaks nothing but condemnation to guilt his Power without kindness is but omnipotent destruction but if we have his Goodness on our side we have an Advocate in his own bosom that will bear up against the rest for his mercy is over all his Attributes as well as Works But if this also be exasperated and kindness grow severe there is no refuge in the Lord no shadow of him to take Sanctuary under for there is nothing to allay the anger of his Compâ—ssion and Bounty This sure is the extreamest terrour we are to dread his kindness more than his severity and wrath we have an antidote a buckler against those but none against the other if it be provok'd and if the heats of love take fire and rise into indignation 't is unquenchable flame and everlasting burning Therefore when God hath done all things that he can do or they can wish then most of all they must fear the Lord and his goodness My Text and I have spoke all this while to the Jews Nor do I know whether I need to address any other way all this did so directly point at us The glories of this day need not the foil of those calamities from which this day redeem'd to set them off or you may read them in my Prophet here and our own guilts will make too sad a Comment on his Text who were more barbarous Assyrians to our selves We also were without a Prince and without Sacrifice had neither King nor Church nor Offices because we our selves had destroy'd them and that we might not have them had engag'd or covenanted against them ty'd to our miseries so that without perjury we could neither be without them nor yet have them As we had broke through all our sacred Oaths to invade and usurp calamity and guilt so neither could we repent without breach of Vows if this were not enough to make us be without a God too then to drive him away we had defil'd his dwelling places to the ground and by his ancient gifts of remove he was certainly gone There was indeed exceeding much Religion among us yet God knows almost none at all while Christianity was crumbled into so many so minute professions that 't was divided into little nothings and even loft in a crowd of it self while each man was a Church every single professor was a whole multitude of Sects And in this tumult this riot of faiths if the Son of man should have come could he have found any Faith in the Land Vertue was out of countenance and practice while prosperous and happy Villany usurped its name while Loyalty and conscience of Oaths and Duty were most unpardonable crimes to which nothing but ruine was an equal punishment and all those guilts that make the last times perillous Blasphemy Disobedience Truce-breakings and Treasons Schisms and Rebellions with all their dismal consequences and appendages for these are not single personal crimes these have a politick capacity all these did not onely walk in the dress of piety and under holy Masks but were themselves the very form of Godliness by which 't was constituted and distinguished the Signature of a party of Saints the Constellation of their graces And on the other side the detestation of such hypocrisie made others Libertines and Atheists while seeing men such holy counterfeits so violent in acting and equally engag'd for every false Religion made them conclude there was none true or in earnest And all this was because we were without our King for 't was the onely interest of all those usurpations that were to contrive and preserve it thus And when we had roll'd thus through every form of Government addrest to each mov'd every stone and rais'd each stone to the top of the Mount but every one still tumbled down again and ours like Sisyphus's labour was like to have no end onely restless and various Calamity necessity then counsell'd us and we applied to God's directions in the Text I know not whether in his method but it is plain we did seek David our King And my heart is towards the Governours of Isral that offer'd themselves willingly among the people Bless ye the Lord Yea Thou O Lord bless them May all the blessings which this was the birth-day of all that my Text encloses all the goodness of the Lord be the sure portion of them and their Families may they see the King in his beauty and peace upon Israel and may their Names be blest in their Posterities for evermore We sought him with the violent impatiencies of necessitous and furious desires and our eyes that had even fail'd with looking for him did even fail with looking on him as impotent and as unsatisfied in our fruitions as expectations and he was entertain'd with as many tears as pray'd for as one whom not our Interests alone but out guilts had endear'd to us and our tears He was as necessary to us as repentance as without whom it was impossible for us to repent and return from those impieties to him of usurping his rights of exiling of murthering him by wants because we could not do it by the Axe or Sword without him 't was impossible for us to give over the committing these and the tears that did welcome him were one of our best lavers to wash off that blood that we had pull'd upon our selves One endear'd also to us by God's most miraculous preservations of him for us We cannot look upon his life but as the issue of prodigious bounty snatch'd by immediate Providence out of the gaping jaws of tyrannous usurping murtherous malice merely to keep him for our needs and for this day One whom God had train'd up and manag'd for us just as he did prepare David their King at thirty years of age to take possession of that Crown which God had given him by Samuel about twelve years before and in those years to prepare him for Canaan by a Wilderness to harden him with discipline that so the luxuries and the effeminacies of a Court might not emasculate and melt him by constant Watches cares and business to make him equal for habituated to careful of and affected with the business of a Kingdom and by constraining him to dwell in Mesech with Aliens to his Religion to teach him to be constant to his own and to love Sion And hath he not prepared our David so for us And we hope hath prepared for him too the first days of David having no Sheba in the Field not Achitophel in the Councel nor an Abiathar in the Temple not in that Temple which himself hath rais'd God having made him instrument of that which he would not let David do building his house and furnishing it with all its Offices and making it fit for God to meet us in when we do seek him also which was the other perquisite of our