like as differences betwixt them and those they call Formalists would they not have it thought that they have a Brotherhood and profession of their own freer and purer from Superstition and Idolatry than others have that are not of the same stamp and doing so why may they not be called Puritanes The name I know is sometimes fastened upon those that deserve it not Rascall people will call any man that beareth but the face of honesty a Puritane but why should that hinder others from placing it where it is rightly due To their second Grievance I answer Publique means by Conferences Disputations and otherwise have been often used and private men not seldome afforded the favour of respite and liberty to bring in their allegations And I think it can be hardly or but rarely instanced that ever Deprivation hath been used but where fatherly Admonitions have first been used and time given to the Delinquents to consider of it and inform themselves better This course usually hath been taken though every private particular man hath no reason to expect it The Reverend Fathers of our Church we may well think amid so much other imployment cannot be so unthrifty of their good houres as to lavish them out in hearing contentious persons eandem cuntilenam sing the same note a hundred times over and require farther satisfaction after so many publick and unanswerable satisfactions already given Yet have the Bishops and other Church-Governernours out of their religious zeal for the peace of Gods Church been so far from despising our Brethren herein that they have dispensed sometimes with their other weighty occasions and taken paines to answer their reasons and confute their exceptions satisfie all their doubts and discover the weaknesse of all their grounds in the points questioned And as to their third Grievance First for my own part I make no doubt neither dare I be so uncharitable as not to think but that many of them have honest and upright and sincere hearts to God-ward and are unfainedly zealous of Gods Truth and for Religion They that are such no doubt feel the comfort of it in their own soules and we see the fruits of it in their conversation and rejoyce at it But yet I cannot be so ignorant on the other side as not to know that the most sanctified and zealous men are men and subject to carnall and corrupt affections and may be so far swayed by them in their judgements as not to be able to discern without prejudice and partiality truth from errour Good men and Gods deare children may continue in some errour in Iudgement and consequently in a sinfull practise arising thence and live and dye in it as some of these men have done in disobedience to lawfull Authority and that unrepented of otherwise then as in the lump of their unknown sinnes It is not Honesty nor Sincerity that can priviledge men from either erring or sinning Neither ought the unreproved conversation of men countenance out their opinions or their practices against light of Divine Scripture and right Reason As we read Cyprians errour in old time and we see in our dayes not onely the suspected Tenets of Arminius but even the bold heresies of Faustus Socinus have spred much the more for the reverend opinion men had of their personall endowments and sanctity Secondly though Comparisons be ever harsh and most times odious yet since honesty and piety is alledged without disparagements be it spoken to the best of them there are as good and honest and religious and zealous men every way of them that willingly and cheerfully conform as of them that do not In the times of Popish persecution how many godly Bishops and conformable Ministers laid down their lives for the testimony of Gods Truth and for the maintenance of his Gospel And if it should please God in his just judgement as our sinnes and amongst others our Schismes and distractions most worthily deserved to put us once again to a fiery tryall which the same God for his goodnesse and mercy defend I make no question but many thousands of Conformers would by the grace of GOD resist unto blood embrace the Faggot and burn at a Stake in detestation of all Popish Antichristian Idolatry as readily and chearefully and constantly as the hottest and precisest and most scrupulous Non-Conformer But Thirdly let mens honesty and piety and gifts be what they can must not men of honesty and piety and gifts live under Lawes And what reason these or any other respects should exempt any man from the just censure of the Church in case he will not obey her Lawes and conform to her Ceremonies especially since such mens impunity would but encourage others to presume upon the like favour and experience teacheth us that no mens errours are so exemplary and pernicious as theirs who for their eminency of gifts or sanctity of life are most followed with popular applause and personall admiration We see their Grievances against us how unjust they are in the matter of Despising I would they did no more despise the Churches Authority than we do their infirmities But in the matter of judging see if we have not a just grievance against them As might be declared at large in many instances out of their printed Books and private Letters and common discourses I will but give you a taste because I know I grow tedious and I long to be at an end First they judge our Church as half Popish and Antichristian for retaining some Ceremonies used in Popery though we have purged them from their Superstitions and restored them to their Primitive use Their great admired opener of the Revelation maketh our Church the Linsey-Wolsey Laodicean Church neither hot nor cold And some of them have slovenly compared our late gracious Soveraigne Queen Elizabeth of most blessed memory to a sluttish houseWife that having swept the house yet left the dust and dirt behind the doores meaning thereby the Ceremonies If our Church were but half so ill as these men would make it I think every honest religious man should hold himself bound to separate from it at his most excellent Majesty hath observed the Brownists have done upon their very grounds accounting them as luke-warm for not quite separating as they do us for no further reforming Secondly they judge our Bishops and other Church-Governours as Limbes of Antichrist Locusts of the bottomlesse pit domineering Lords over Gods heritage usurpers of temporall jurisdiction Spirituall Tyrants over mens Consciences c. Seeking by all meanes to make the name of Lord-Bishop odious to the Gentry and Commons Witnesse their Mar-prelate and other infamous and scandalous Libels in that kind Having power in their hands if the Bishops should use more rigorous courses towards them then they have done could ye blame them Thirdly they judge those that subscribe and conform Machiavilian time-servers formall Gospellers State Divines men that know no conscience but Law
Levellers whose Principles are so destructive of all that Order and Iustice by which publick societies are supported do yet style themselves as by a kinde of peculiarity The Godly And that secondly it is the easyest thing in the world and nothing more common then for men to pretend Conscience when they are not minded to obey I do not believe thirdly though I am well perswaded of the godliness of many of them otherwise that the refusal of indifferent Ceremonies enjoyned by Lawful Authority is any part of their Godliness or any good fruit evidence or signe thereof But certain it is fourthly that the godliest men are men and know but in part and by the power of godliness in their hearts are no more secured from the possibility of falling into Errour through Ignorance then from the possibility of falling into Sin through Infirmity And as for Tenderness of Conscience fifthly a most gracious blessed fruit of the holy Spirit of God where it is really and not in pretence only nor mistaken for sure it is â—o very tender Conscience though sometimes called so that straineth at a Gnat and swalloweth a Camel it is with it as with other tender things very subject to receive harme and soon put out of order Through the cunning of Satan it dangerously exposeth men to temptations on the right hand and through its own aptitude to entertain and to cherish unnecessary scruples it strongly disposeth them to listen thereunto so long till at the last they are overcome thereof Needful it is therefore that in the publick teaching the Errours should be sometimes refuted and the Temptations discovered And this ever to be done seasonably soberly discreetly and convincingly and when we are to deal with men whose Consciences are so far as we can discern truly tender with the spirit of Meekness and Compassion For tender things must be tenderly dealt withall or they are lost I know it is not allwayes so done nor can we expect it should All Preachers are neither so charitable nor so prudent nor so conscientious as they should be And they that are such in a good measure are men still and may be transported now and then through passion and infirmity beyond the just bounds of moderation But then the fault is not so much in the choise of the argument they treat of as in the ill-managing thereof which ought not to cast any prejudice upon others who deal in the same argument but after another manner § VII But that which pincheth most in this first particular is as I suppose this That upon all publick occasions especially in Visitation-Sermons they who agree with us in the substance of the same reformed Religion are for the most part the only mark shot at whilest the common enemy the Papist hath little or nothing said against him For answer hereunto First so far as concerneth the Sermons here published the Objection is void for therein the Papist hath had his share as well as his fellows so oft as the Text gave occasion or the file of my discourse led me thereunto as by the papers themselves whereunto reference to be had will evidently appear Secondly admitting all true that is alleaged either we are excusable in what they blame us for or they that blame us inexcusable who do the very same things Do not they usually in their Sermons fall bitterly upon the Papists and Arminians but seldome meddle with the Socinians scarce ever name the Turks I have been often told of their declamations against the observing of Christmas that great superstitious thing but I remember not to have heard of much spoken against Perjury and Sacriledge and some other sins wherewith our times abound Nay doth not their zeal even against Popery it self Popery I mean truly so called of late years and since most of the Pulpits are in their possession seem to abate at leastwise in comparison of the zeal they shew against Episcopacy and against the Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies lately in use among us These they cry down with all the noise they can and with all the strength they have having first branded them with the name of Popery and this must now pass for preaching against Popery I demand then Is there not the like reason of reproving Sins and refuting Errours If so are not Perjury and Sacriledge as great sins at least as keeping Christmas holy day Howsoever are not the Errors of the Turks that deny the whole structure of the Christian Religion foundation and all far worse then the Errors of the Papists who by their additional superstructures have only altered the fabrick but keep the foundation still And are not the Errours of the Socinians who deny the Trinity Gods Omniscience the Eternity of the Son the Divinity of the Holy Ghost Original sin the calling of Ministers and far worse then those the Arminians are charged withall of Free Will Vniversal Redemption Falling from Grace c. And are not the old rotten points of Popery the Popes Oecumenical Pastorship and Infallibility the Scriptures unsufficiency Image-worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Half-Communion c. Errours of as great a magnitude as those other points of Popery lately and falsly dubb'd such of Episcopacy Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies If they be why do our Brethren preach oftner and inveigh more against these later and lesser in comparison then against those former and greater sins and Errours I doubt not but they have some Reasons wherewith to satisfie themselves for their so doing else they were much to blame Be those Reasons what they will if they will serve to excuse them they will serve as well to justifie us § VIII It will be said perhaps First That the Turks have no Communion with us They are out of the Church and our chiefest care should be for those within leaving those without for God to judge Or indeed Secondly To what purpose would it be to address our speeches to them some thousands of miles out of hearing If our voyces were as loud as Stentors or that of Mars in Homer the sound would not reach them Besides that Thirdly There is little danger in our people of receiving hurt or infection from them who have no such agents here to tamper with the people in that behalfe no such artifices and plausible pretensions whereby to work them over to their side no such advantages as the agreement in some Common Principles might afford for bringing on the rest as the Papists have Who being within the pale of the visible Catholick Church and living in the midst of us have their instruments ready at hand in every corner to gain Proselytes for Rome the specious pretences of Antiquity Vniversality Consent of Councels and Fathers c. Wherewith to dazle the eyes of weak and credulous persons and some ground also to work upon in the agreement that is between them and us in the principall Articles of the Christian Faith § IX These Reasons I confess are satisfactory
then laid aside she might not have lawfully so done or why the things so retained should have been accounted Popish The plain truth is this The Church of England meant to make use of her liberty and the lawful power she had as all the Churches of Christ have or ought to have of ordering Ecclesiastical affairs here yet to do it with so much prudence and moderation that the world might see by what was laid aside that she acknowledg'd no subjection to the See of Rome and by that was retained that she did not recede from the Church of Rome out of any spirit of contradiction but as necessitated thereunto for the maintenance of her just liberty The number of Ceremonies was also then very great they thereby burdensome and so the number thought fit to be lessened But for the Choice which should be kept and which not that was wholly in her power and at her discretion Whereof though she were not bound so to do yet hath she given a clear and satisfactory account in one of the Prefaces usually prefixed before the Book of Common Prayer § XVI Besides this of Popish they have bestowed also upon the Ceremonies the Epithet of Superstitious Which is a word likewise as the former of late very much extended and standeth in need of a boundary too and a definition as well as it But howsoever they do with the words I must set bounds to my discourse lest I weary the Reader The point of Superstition I have had occasion to touch upon more then once as I remember in some of these Sermons and proved that the Superstition lieth indeed at their dore not ours They forbid the things commanded by the Church under the Obligation of sin and that Obâ—igation arising not from their forbidding them but from the things themselves which they judge to be unlawful and thence impose upon all men a necessity of not using them which is Superstition Whereas the Church required obedience indeed to her commands and that also under the obligation of sin but that obligation arising not at all from the nature of the things themselves alwayes held and declared Indifferent but immediately from the authority of the Superiour commanding the thing and originally from the ordinance of God commanding Obedience to Superiours as already hath been said and this is not Superstition For further satisfaction therefore in this matter referring the Reader to the Sermons themselves I shall only by way of addition represent to the Objectors S. Pauls demeanor at Athens Where finding the City full of Idols or wholy given to Idolatry he doth not yet fall foul upon them nor exclaim against them in any reproachful manner no nor so much as call them Idolaters though they were such and that in a very high degree but tempering his speeches with all lenity and condescension he telleth them only of their Superstition and that in the calmest manner too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the comparative degree in such kind of speaking being usually taken for a diminnent terme How distant are they from his Example with whom every thing they mislike is presently an Idol Christmas day an Idol the Surplice an Idol the Cross after Baptism a great Idol the Common-Prayer-Book an abominable Idol When yet if the worst that can be said against them were granted the most it could amount to is but Superstition and till that be granted which must not be till it be well proved it is more childish then manly to cry out Superstition Superstition § XVII Their next is a Suspicion rather then Objection and that upon no very good ground But charity is easily suspicious nor without cause Wherein I have somewhat to say in behalf of my self and other my Brethren and somewhat by way of return to them For my self I had a desire I may truly say almost from my very childhood to understand as much as was possible for me the bottome of our Religion and particularly as it stood in relation both to the Papists and as they were then stiled Puritanes to inform my self rightly wherein consisted the true differences between them and the Church of England together with the grounds of those differences For I could even then observe which was no hard matter to do that the most of mankind took up their Religion upon trust as Custome or Education had framed them rather then choise It pleased God in his goodness to afford me some opportunities sutable to that my desire by means whereof and by his good blessing I attained to understand so much of the Romish Religion as not only to dislike it but to be able to give some rational account why I so do And I doubt not but these very Sermons were there nothing else to do it will sufficiently free me from the least suspicion of driving on any design for Rome As for those other regular sons of the Church of England that have appeared in this controversie on her behalf how improbable and so far forth uncharitable the suspicion is that they should be any way instrumental towards the promoting of the Papal interest may appear amongst other by these few considerations following 1. That those very persons who were under God the instruments of freeing us from the Roman yoke by casting Popery out of the Church and sundry of them martyred in the cause those very persons I say were great favourers of these now accounted Popish Ceremonies and the chief authors or procurers of the Constitutions made in that behalf Hae manus Trojam erigent II. That in all former times since the beginning of the Reformation our Arch-Bishops and Bishops with their Chaplains and others of the Prelatical party many of them such as have written also in defense of the Church against the Puritanes were the principal I had almost said the only Champions to maintain the Cause of Religion against the Papists III. That even in these times of so great distraction and consequently thereunto of so great advantage to the factors for Rome none have stept into the gap more readily nor appeared in the face of the Enemy more openly nor maintained the Fight with more stoutness and gallantry then the Episcopal Divines have done as their late learned writings testifie Yea and some of them such as beside their other sufferings have layen as deep under the suspicion of being Popishly-affected as any other of their Brethren whosoever IIII. That by the endeavours of these Episcopal Divines some that were bred Papists have been gained to our Church others that began to waver confirmed and setled in their old Religion and some that were fallen from us recovered and reduced notwithstanding all the disadvantages of these confused times and of each of these I am able to produce some instance But I profess sincerely as in the presence of God and before the world that I have not known at least I cannot call to remembrance to much as one single example of
because we know we may lawfully do it but for that we know we must of necessity do it as bound thereunto in obedience to lawfull authority and in the conscience we ought to make of such obedience And the refusers do not onely de facto not conform to the contempt of authority and the scandall of others but they stand in it too and trouble the peace of the Church by their restlesse Petitions and Supplications and Admonitions and other publications of the reasons and grounds of their such refusall And verily this Countrey and County hath been not the least busie in these factions and tumultuous courses both in troubling our most gracious judicious and religious Soveraign with their petitions and also in publishing their reasons in a Book called The Abridgement printed 1605. to their own shame and the shame of their Countrey He who as I have been informed was thought to have had a chief hand in the collecting of those reasons and printing of that Book was for his obstinate refusall of Conformity justly deprived from his Benefice in this Diocess and thereupon relinquished his Ministery for a time betaking himself to another Calling so depriving the Church and people of God of the fruit and benefit of those excellent gifts which were in him But since that time he hath upon better and more advised judgement subscribed and conformed and the Church like an indulgent Mother hath not onely received him into her bosome again but hath restored him too though not to the same yet to a Benefice elsewhere of far better value Lastly there is difference in the faulty carriage of the persons and that on both parts especially on ours For though our Non-conforming Brethren condemn us with much liberty of speech and spirit having yet lesse reason for it than the weak Romans had for the strong among them might have forborn some things for the Weaks sake and it would have well become them for the avoiding of scandall so to have done which we cannot do without greater scandall in the open contempt of lawfull authority yet we do not despise them I mean with allowance from the Church if particular men do more than they should it is their private fault and ought not to be imputed to us or to our Church but use all good means we can to draw them to moderate courses and just obedience although they better deserve to be despised than the weak Romans did they being truly Weak ours Obstinate they Timorous ours also Contemptuous Now these differences are opened betwixt the Case in my Text and the Case of our Church we may the better judge how far forth Saint Pauls advice here given to the Romans in their case of eating and not-eating ought to rule us in our case of conforming and not-conforming in point of Ceremony And first of not despising then of not judging The ground of the Apostles precept for not despising him that ate not was his weaknesse So far then as this ground holdeth in our case this precept is to be extended and no further And we are hereby bound not to despise our Non-conforming Brethren so far forth as it may probably appear to us they are weak and not wilfull But so farre forth as by their courses and proceedings it may be reasonably thought their refusall proceedeth from corrupt or partiall affections or is apparently maintained with obstinacy and contempt I take it we may notwithstanding the Apostles admonition in my Text in some sort even despise them But because they think they are not so well and sairly dealt withall as they should be Let us consider their particular grievances wherein they take themselves despised and examine how just they are They say first they are despised in being scoffed and flouted and derided by loose companions and by profane or popishly affected persons in being styled Puritanes and Brethren and Precisians and in having many jests and fooleries fastened upon them whereof they are not guilty They are secondly despised they say in that when they are convented before the Bishops and others in Authority they cannot have the favour of an indifferent hearing but are proceeded against as far as Suspension and sometimes Deprivation without taking their answers to what is objected or giving answers to what they object Thirdly in that many honest and religious men of excellent and usefull gifts cannot be permitted the liberty of their Consciences and the free exercise of their Ministery onely for standing out in these things which our selves cannot but confess to be indifferent To their first Grievance we answer thâ—t we have nothing to do with those that are Popishly affected If they wrong them as it is like enough they will for they will not stick to wrong their betters we are not to be chaâ—ged with that let them answer for themselves But by the way let our Brethren consider whether their stiff and unreasonable opposing against those lawfull Ceremonies we retaine may not be one principall means to confirm but so much the more in their darknesse and superstition those that are wavering and might possibly by more ingenuous and seasonable insinuations be won over to embrace the truth which we professe And as for loose persons and profane ones that make it their sport upon their Ale-benches to raile and scoff at Puritanes As if it were warrant enough for them to drink drunk talk bawdy swear and stare or do any thing without controll because forsooth they are no Puritanes As we could wish our Brethren and their Lay-followers by their uncouth and sometimes ridiculous behaviour had not given profane persons too much advantage to play upon them and through their sides to wound even Religion it self so we could wish also that some men by unreasonable and unjust other some by unseasonable and indiscreet scoffing at them had not given them advantage to triumph in their own innocency and persist in their affected obstinacy It cannot but be some confirmation to men in errour to see men of dissolute and loose behaviour with much eagernesse and petulancy and virulence to speak against them We all know how much scandall and prejudice it is to a right good cause to be either followed by persons open to just exception or maintained with slender and unsufficient reasons or prosecuted with unseasonable and undiscreet violence And I am verily perswaded that as the increase of Papists in some parts of the Land hath occasionally sprung by a kind of Antiperistasis from the intemperate courses of their neighbour Puritanes so the increase of Puritanes in many parts of the Land oweth not so much to any sufficiency themselves conceive in their own grounds as to the disadvantage of some profane or scandalous or idle or ignorant or indiscreet opposers But setting these aside I see not but that otherwise the name of Puritane and the rest are justly given them For appropriating to themselves the names of Brethren Professors Goodmen and other
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the whole counsel of God In my Application of this Instance and Case blame me not if I do it with some reference to my self Being heretofore by appointment as now again I was to provide my self for this place against such a meeting as this is as in my conscience I then thought it needful for me I delivered my mind and I dare say the Truth too for substance something freely touching the Ceremonies and Constitutions of our Church And I have now also with like freedome shewed the unlawfulnesse of the late disorderly attempts in this Town and that from the ground of my present Text. I was then blamed for that I think unjustly for I do not yet see what I should rerract of that I then delivered and it is not unlikely I shall be blamed again for this unless I prevent it You have heard now already both heretofore that to judge any mans heart and at this time that to slander any truth are without repentance sins justly damnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that offend either in the one or the other their damnation is just To preserve therefore both you from the sin and my self from the blame consider I pray you with reason and charity what I shall say You that are our hearers know not with what hearts we speak unto you that is onely known to our own hearts and to God who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things That which you are to look at and to regard is with what truth we speak unto you So long as what we preach is true agreeable to Gods Word right reason you are not upon I know not what light surmizes or suspicions to judge with what spirits or with what dispositions of heart we preach Whether we preach Christ of envy and strife or of good will whether sincerely or of contention whether in pretence or in truth it is our own good or hurt we must answer for that and at our perill be it if we do not look to that But what is that to you Notwithstanding every way so long as it is Christ and his truth which are preached it is your part therein to rejoice If an Angel from Heaven should preach any untruth unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him be accursed but if the very Devil of hell should preach the truth he must be heard and believed and obeyed So long as Scribes and Pharisees hold them to Moses's Text and Doctrine let them be as damned Hypocrites as Scribes and Pharisees can be yet all whatsoever they bid you observe that you are to observe and do Let me then demand Did I deliver any untruth It had been well done then to have shewn it that I might have acknowledged and retracted it Did I speak nothing but the truth with what conscience then could any that heard me say as yet I heard some did that I preached factiously That I came to cast bones among them That I might have chosen a fitter Text That I might have had as much thanks to have kept away For Faction I hate it my desire and aim next after the good of your souls was above all the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Brethren For casting bones if that must needs be the phrase they were cast in these parts long before my coming by that great enemy to peace and unity and busie sower of discord the Devil otherwise I should not have found at my first coming such snarling about them and such biting and devouring one another as I did My endeavour was rather to have gathered up the bones and to have taken away the matter of difference I mean the errour in judgement about and inconformity in practice unto the lawfull Ceremonies of the Church that so if it had been possible all might hâ—ve been quiet without despising or judging one another for these things For thanks I hold not that worth the answering alas it is a poor aim for Gods Minister to preach for thanks For the choyce of my Text and Argument both then and now how is it not unequall that men who plead so as none more for liberty and plainness in reproving sin should not allow those that come amongst them that liberty and plainness against themselves and their own sins I dare appeale to your selves Have you never been taught that it is the Ministers duty as to oppose against all errors and sins in the general so to bend himself as neer as he can especially against the apparent errors and sins of his present auditory And do you not believe it is so Why then might I not nay how ought I not bend my speech both then against a common errour of sundry in these parts in point of Ceremony and now against the late petulancy or at least oversight of some mis-guided ones The noise of these things abroad and the scandall taken thereat by such as hear of them and the ill fruits of them at home in breeding jealousies and cherishing contentions among neighbours cannot but stir us up if we be sensible as every good member should be of the damage and loss the Church acquireth by them to put you in minde and to admonish you as opportunities invite us both privately and publickly Is it not time trow ye to thrust in the sickle when the fields look white unto the harvest Is it not time our Pulpits should a little eccho of these things when all the Countrey far and neer ringeth of them For my own part however others censure me I am sure my own heart telleth me I could not have discharged my Conscience if being called to this place I should have balked what either then or now I have delivered My Conscience prompting me all circumstances considered that these things were pro hîc nunc necessary to be delivered rather than any other if for any outward inferiour respect I should have passed them over with silence I think I should have much swerved from the Rule of my Text and have done a great evil that some small good might come of it But many thousand times better were it for me that all the world should censure me for speaking what they think I should not than that my own heart should condemn me for not speaking what it telleth me I should And thus much of things simply evil I should proceed to apply this Rule We must not do evil that good may come unto evils not simply but accidentally such and that both in the generall and also in some few specials of greatest use namely unto evils which become such through Conscience Scandall or Comparison In my choice of the Scripture I aimed at all this and had gathered much of my provision for it But the Cases being many and weighty I foresaw I could not go onward with my first project without much wronging one or both either the things themselves if I should
one or the other we cannot be said to want the warrant of Gods Word Nec differet Scripturâ an ratione consistat saith Tertullian it mattereth not much from whether of both we have our direction so long as we have it from either You see then those men are in a great errour who make the holy Scriptures the sole rule of all humane actions whatsoever For the maintenance whereof there was never yet produced any piece of an argument either from reason or from authority of holy writ or from the testimony either of the ancient Fathers or of other classicall Divines of later times which may not be clearely and abundantly answered to the satisfaction of any rationall man not extremely fore-possessed with prejudice They who think to salve the matter by this mitigation that at least wise our actions ought to be framed according to those generall rules of the Law of Nature which are here and there in the Scriptures dispersedly contained as viz. That we should do as we would be done to That all things be done decently and orderly and unto edification That nothing be done against conscience and the like speak somewhat indeed to the truth but little to the purpose For they consider not First that these generall Rules are but occasionally and incidentally mentioned in Scripture rather to manifest unto us a former than to lay upon us a new obligation Secondly that those rules had been of force for the ordering of mens actions though the Scripture had never expressed them and were of such force before those Scriptures were written wherein they are now expressed For they bind not originally quà scripta but quà justa because they are righteous not because they are written Thirdly that an action conformable to these generall rules might not be condemned as sinfull although the doer thereof should look at those rules meerly as they are the dictates of the law of nature and should not be able to vouch his warrant for it from any place of Scripture neither should have at the time of the doing thereof any present thought or consideration of any such place The contrary whereunto I permit to any mans reasonable judgement if it be not desperately rash and uncharitable to affirm Lastly that if mens actions done agreeably to those rules are said to be of faith precisely for this reason because those rules are contained in the word then it will follow that before those particular Scriptures were written wherein any of those rules are first delivered every action done according to those rules had been done without faith there being as yet no Scripture for it and consequently had been a sin So that by this doctrine it had been a sin before the writing of S. Matthews Gospel for any man to have done to others as he would they should do to him and it had been a sin before the writing of the former Epistle to the Corinthians for any man to have done any thing decently and orderly supposing these two rules to be in those two places first mentioned because this supposed there could then have been no warrant brought from the Scriptures for so doing Well then we see the former Opinion will by no means hold neither in the rigour of it nor yet in the mitigation We are therefore to beware of it and that so much the more heedfully because of the evil consequents and effects that issue from it to wit a world of superstitions uncharitable censures bitter contentions contempt of superiours perplexities of conscience First it filleth mens heads with many superstitious conceits making them to cast impurity upon sundry things which yet are lawfull to as many as use them lawfully For the taking away of the indifferency of any thing that is indifferent is in truth Superstition whether either of the two wayes it be done either by requiring it as necessary or by forbidding it as unlawfull He that condemneth a thing as utterly unlawfull which yet indeed is indifferent and so lawfull is guilty of superstition as well as he that enjoyneth a thing as absolutely necessary which yet indeed is but indifferent and so arbitrary They of the Church of Rome and some in our Church as they go upon quite contrary grounds yet both false so they run into quite contrary errours and both superstitious They decline too much on the left hand denying to the holy Scripture that perfection which of right it ought to have of containing all things appertaining to that supernatural doctrine of faith and holinesse which God hath revealed to his Church for the attainment of everlasting salvation whereupon they would impose upon Christian people that with an opinion of necessity many things which the Scriptures require not and that is a Superstition These wry too much on the right hand ascribing to the holy Scripture such a kind of perfection as it cannot have of being the sole directour of all humane actions whatsoever whereupon they forbid unto Christian people and that under the name of sinne sundry things which the holy Scripture condemneth not and that is a superstition too From which Superstition proceedeth in the second place uncharitable censuring as evermore they that are the most superstitious are the most supercilious No such severe censurers of our blessed Saviours person and actions as the superstitious Scribes and Pharisees were In this Chapter the speciall fault which the Apostle blameth in the weak ones who were somewhat superstitiously affected was their rash and uncharitable judging of their brethren And common and daily experience among our selves sheweth how freely some men spend their censures upon so many of their brethren as without scruple do any of those things which they upon false grounds have superstitiously condemned as utterly unlawfull And then thirdly as unjust censures are commonly entertained with scorn and contumely they that so liberally condemn their brethren of prophaneness are by them again as freely flouted for their preciseness and so whiles both parties please themselves in their own wayes they cease not mutually to provoke and scandalize and exasperate the one the other pursuing their private spleens so far till they break out into open contentions oppositions Thus it stood in the Roman Church when this Epistle was written They judged one another and despised one another to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which gave occasion to our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter And how far the like censurings and despisings have embittered the spirits and whetted both the tongues and pens of learned men one against another in our own Church the stirs that have been long since raised are still upheld by the factious opposers against our Ecclesiasticall constitutions government and ceremonies will not suffer us to be ignorant Most of which stirs I verily perswade my self had been long ere this either wholly buried in silence or at leastwise prettily well quieted if the weaknesse and danger of the errour
speaketh Saint Chrysostome especially so farre as concerneth the execution of it many of the Creatures being now rebellious and noysome unto Man and unanswering his commands and expectations yet the Right still remaineth even in corrupt nature and there are still to be found some tracings and Characters as in man of superiority so in them of subjection But those dimme and confused and scarce legible as in old Marbles and Coynes and out-worn Inscriptions we have much adoe to find out what some of the letters were But if by sin we had lost all that first title we had to the Creature wholly and utterly yet as God hath been pleased graciously to deal with us we are fully as well as before God the Father hath granted us and God the Sonne hath acquired us and God the Holy Ghost hath sealed us a new Patent By it whatsoever Defect is or can be supposed to be in our old Evidence is supplyed and by vertue of it we may make fresh challenge and renew our claim unto the Creatures The blessed Son of God Having made peace through the bloud of his Crosse hath reconciled us to his Father and therein also reconciled the Creatures both to us and him reconciling by him saith our Apostle Col. 1.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things not men only unto himself For God having given us his Son the heir of all things hath he not with him given us all things else hath he not permitted us the free use of his Creatures in as ample Right as ever If the Son have made us free we are free indeed And as verily as Christ is Gods so verily if we be Christs all things are ours This Apostle setteth down the whole series and form of this spiritual Hierarchy if I may so speak this subjection and subordination of the Creatures to Man of Man to Christ of Christ to God 1 Cor. 3. All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Strengthened with this double title what should hinder us from possession Why may we not freely use that liberty which was once given us by God and again restored us by Iesus Christ Why should we not stand fast in and contend earnestly for the maintenance of that liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free by rejecting all fancies opinions and Doctrines that any way trench upon this our Christian prerogative or seek either to shorten or to corrupt our freedome unto and power over the Creatures First if any shall oppose the legal Prohibitions of the Old Testament whereby some Creatures were forbidden the Iewes pronounced by God himself unclean and decreed unlawfull it should not trouble us For whatever the principal reasons were for which those prohibitions were then made unto them as there be divers reasons given thereof by Divines both ancient and modern certain it is they now concern not us The Church during her nonage and pupillage though she were heir of all and had right to all yet was to be held under Tutors and Governours and to be trained up under the law of Ceremonies as under a Schoolmaster during the appointed time But When the fulnesse of the time appointed was come her wardship expired and livery sued out as it were by the coming and suffering of Christ in the flesh the Church was then to enter upon her full royalties and no more to be burdened with those beggarly rudiments of legal observances The handwriting of Ordinances was then blotted out and the muddy partition wall broken down and the legal impurity of the Creatures scowred off by the bloud of Christ. They have little to do then but withall much to answer who by seeking to bring in Iudaism again into the Christian Church either in whole or in part do thereby as much as lieth in them though perhaps unawares to themselves yet indeed and in truth evacuate the Crosse of Christ. In that large sheet of the Creatures which reacheth from Heaven to the Earth whatsoever we find we may freely kill and eat and use every other way to our comforts without scruple God having cleansed all we are not to call or esteem any thing common or unclean God having created all good we are to refuse nothing If any shall oppose secondly the seeming morality of some of these prohibitions as being given before the Law of Ceremonies pressed from Moral reasons and confirmed by Apostolical Constitution since upon which ground some would impose upon the Christian Church this as a perpetual yoke to abstain from bloud or thirdly the prophanation which some Creatures have contracted by being used in the exercise of Idolatrous worship whereby they become Anathema and are to be held as execrable things as Achans wedge was and the Brazen Serpent which Hezekiah stamped to powder upon which ground also some others have inferred an utter unlawfulnesse to use any thing in the Church which was abused in Popery by calling them ragges and reliques of Idolatry neither this nor that ought to trouble us For although neither my aim which lyeth another way nor the time will permit me now to give a just and full satisfying answer to the several instances and their grounds yet the very words and weight of my Text doe give us a clear resolution in the general and sufficient to rest our Consciences and our judgements and practice upon that notwithstanding all pretensions of reason to the contrary yet these things for so much as they are still good ought not to be refused For the Apostle hath here laid a sure foundation and impregnable in that he groundeth the Use upon the Power and from the Goodness of the Creature inferreth the lawfulnesse of it Every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused He concludeth it is therefore not to be refused because it is good So that look whatsoever Goodnesse there is in any Creature that is whatsoever natural Power it hath which either immediately and of it self is or may by the improvement of humane Art and industry be taught to be of any use unto man for necessity nourishment service lawfull delight or otherwise the Creature wherein such goodness or power is to be found may not be refused as upon tye of Conscience but that power and goodness it hath may lawfully be employed to those uses for which it is meet in regard thereof Ever provided we be carefull to observe all those requisite conditions which must guide our Consciences and regulate our practice in the use of all lawfull and indifferent things They that teach otherwise lay burdens upon their own consciences which they need not and upon the consciences of their brethren which they should not and are injurious to that liberty which the blessed Son of God hath purchased for his Church and which the blessed Spirit of God hath asserted in my Text. Injurious in the second place to
restraint And if he justly censured them as men of abject mindes that would for any consideration in the world willingly forgo their civil and Roman liberty what flatness of spirit possesseth us if we wilfully betray our Christian and spiritual liberty Whereby besides the dishonour we do also which is the fifth reason and whereunto I will adde no more with our own hands pull upon our own heads a great deal of unnecessary cumber For whereas we might draw an easie yoak carry a light burden observe commandements that are not grievous and so live at much hearts ease in the service of God and of Christ by putting our selves into the service of men we thrust our necks into a hard yoak of bondage such as neither we nor any of our fathers were ever able to bear we lay upon our own shoulders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy and importable burdens and subject our selves to ordinances which are both grievous and unprofitable and such are so far from preserving those that use them from perishing that themselves perish in the using Now against this liberty which if we will answer the trust reposed in us and neither wrong Christ nor dâ—shonour God nor yet dâ—base and encomber our selves where we should not we must with our utmost power maintain The offenders are of two sorts to wit such as either injuriously encroach upon the liberty of others or else unworthily betray away their own The most notorious of the former sort are the Bishops of Rome whose usurpations upon the consciences of men shew them to be the true successors of the Scribes and Pharisees in laying heavy burdens upon mens shoulders which they ought not and in rejecting the Word of God to establish their own traditions rather than the successors of S. Peter who forbiddeth dâ—minatum in Cleris in the last chapter of this Epistle at verse 3. To teach their own judgements to be infallible To make their definitions an universal and unerring rule of faith To stile their decrees and constitutions Oracles To assume to themselves all power in heaven and earth To require subjection both to their laws and persons as of necessity unto salvation To suffer themselves to be called by their parasites Dominus Deus noster Papa and Optimum maximum supremum in terris numen all which and much more is done and taught and professed by the Popes and in their behalf if all this will not reach to S. Pauls exaltari supra omne quod vocaâ—ur Deus yet certainly and no modest man can deny it it will amount to as much as S. Peters dominari in Cleris even to the exercising of such a Lordship over the Lords heritage the Christian Church as will become none but the Lord himself whose heritage the Church is Besides these that do it thus by open Assault I would there were not others also that did by secret underminings go about to deprive us of that liberty which we have in Christ Jesus even then when they most pretend the maintenance of it They inveigh against the Church Governours as if they Lorded it over Gods heritage and against the Church orders and constitutions as if they were contrary to Christian liberty Wherein besides that they do manifest wrong to the Church in both particulars they consider not that those very accusations which they thus irreverently dart at the face of their Mother to whom they owe better respect but miss it do recoil part upon themselves and cannot be avoided For whereas these constitutions of the Church are made for order decency and uniformity sake and to serve unto edification and not with any intention at all to lay a tye upon the consciences of men or to work their judgements to an opinion as if there were some necessity or inherent holiness in the things required thereby neither do our Governors neither ought they to press them any farther which is sufficient to acquit both the Governors from that Lording and the Constitutions from that trenching upon Christian liberty wherewith they are charged Alas that our brethren who thus accuse them should suffer themselves to be so far blinded with prejudices and partial affections as not see that themselves in the mean time do really exercise a spiritual Lordship over their disciples who depend in a manner wholly upon their judgements by imposing upon their consciences sundry Magisterial conclusions for which they have no sound warrant from the written Word of God Whereby besides the great injury done to their brethren in the impeachment of their Christian liberty and leading them into error they do withall exasperate against them the mindes of those that being in authority look to be obeyed and engage them in such sufferings as they can have no just cause of rejoycing in For beloved this we must know that as it is injustice to condemn the innocent as well as it is injustice to clear the guilty and both these are equal abominable to the Lord so it is superstition to forbid that as sinful which is in truth indifferent and therefore lawful as well as it is superstition to enjoyn that as necessary which is in truth indifferent and therefore arbitrary Doth that heavy woe in Esay 5. appertain think ye to them only that out of prophaneness call evil good and nothing at all concern them that out of preciseness call good evil Doth not he decline out of the way that turneth aside on the right hand as well as he that turneth on the left They that positively make that to be sin which the Law of God never made so to be how can they be excused from symbolizing with the Pharisees and the Papists in making the narrow waies of God yet narrower than they are in teaching for doctrines mens precepts and so casting a snare upon the consciences of their brethren If our Church should presse things as far and upon such grounds the one way as some forward spirits do the other way if as they say it is a sin to kneel at the Communion and therefore we charge you upon your consciences not to do it so the Church should say it is a sin not to kneel and therefore we require you upon your consciences to do it and so in all other lawful yet arbitrary ceremonies possibly then the Church could no more be able to acquit her self from encroaching upon Christian liberty than they are that accuse her for it Which since they have done and she hath not she is therefore free and themselves only guilty It is our duty for the better securing of our selves as well against those open impugners as against these secret underminers to look heedfully to our trenches and fortifications and to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free lest by some device or other we be lifted out of it To those that seek to enthrall us we should
in the Scribes and Pharisees to tye heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders which they would not touch with one of their fingers but if they should without superstition and upon reasonable inducements have laid such burdens upon themselves and not imposed them upon others for any thing I know they had been blameless There are many things which in my conscience are not absolutely and in Thesi necessary to be done which yet in Hypothesi for some personal respects I think so fit for me to do that I should resolve to undergo some inconveniency rather than omit them still reserving to others their liberty to do as as they should see cause There are again many things which in my conscience are not absolutely and in Thesi unlawful to be done which yet in Hypothesi and for the like personal respects I think so unfit for me to do that I should resolve to undergo some inconvenience rather than do them yet still reserving to others the like liberty as before to do as they should see cause It belongeth to every sober Christian advisedly to consider not only what in it self may lawfully be done or left undone but also what in godly wisdom and discretion is fittest for him to do or not to do upon all occasions as the exigence of present circumstances shall require He that without such due consideration will do all he may do at all times under colour of Christian liberty he shall undoubtedly sometimes use his liberty for a cloak of maliciousness And that is the second way by using it excessively It may be done a third way and that is by using it uncharitably which is the case whereon I told you Saint Paul beateth so often When we use our liberty so as to stumble the weak consciences of our brethren thereby and will not remit in any thing the extremity of that right and power we have in things of indifferent nature to please our neighbour for his good unto edâ—fication at least so far as we may do it without greater inconvenience we walk not charitably and if not charitably then not Christianly Indeed the case may stand so that we cannot condescend to his infirmity without great prejudice either to our selves or to the interest of some third person As for instance when the Magistrate hath positively already determined our liberty in the use of it the one way we may not in such case redeem the offence of a private brother with our disobedience to superiour authority in using our liberty the other way and many other like cases there may be But this I say that where without great inconvenience we may do it it is not enough for us to please our selves and to satisfie our own consciences that we do but what we lawfully may but we ought also to bear one another burdens and to forbear for one anothers sakes what otherwise we might do and so to fulfil the Law of Christ. S. Paul who hath forbidden us in one place to make our selves the servants of any man 1 Cor. 7. hath yet biâ—dden us in another place by love to serve one another Gal. 5.13 And his practise therein consenteth with his doctrine as it should do in every teacher of truth for though he were h free from all and knew it and would not be brought under the power of any yet in love he became servant to all that by all means he might win some It was an excellent saying of Luther Omnia libera per fidem omnia serva per charitatem We should know and be fully perswaded with the perswasion of faith that all things are lawful and yet withal we should purpose and be fully resolved for charity sake to forbear the use of many things if we finde them inexpedient He that will have his own way in every thing he hath a liberty unto whosoever shall take offence at it maketh his liberty but a cloak of maliciousness by using it uncharitably The fourth and last way whereby we may use our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness is by using it undutifully pretending it unto our disobedience to lawful authority The Anabaptists that deny all subjection to Magistrates in indifferent things do it upon this ground that they imagine Christian liberty to be violated when by humane laws it is determined either the one way or the other And I cannot but wonder that many of our brethren in our own Church who in the question of Ceremonies must argue from their ground or else they talk of Christian liberty to no purpose should yet hold off before they grow to their conclusion which to my apprehension seemeth by the rules of good discourse to issue most naturally and necessarily from it It were a happy thing for the peace both of this Church and of their own consciences if they would in calm bloud review their own dictates in this kind and see whether their own principle which the cause they are ingaged in maketh them dote upon can be reasonably defended and yet the Anabaptists inference thence which the evidence of truth maketh them to abhor be fairly avoided Yet somewhat they have to say for the proof of that their ground which if it be â—ound it is good reason we should subscribe to it if it be not it is as good reason they should retract it Let us hear therefore what it is and put it to trial First say they Ecclesiastical Constitutions for there is the quarrel determine us precisely ad unum in the use of indifferent things which God and Christ have left free ad utrumlibet Secondly by inducing a necessity upon the thing they enjoyn they take upon them as if they could alter the nature of things and make that to become necessary which is indifferent which is not in the power of any man but of God only to do Thirdly these Constitutions are so far pressed as if men were bound in conscience to obey them which taketh away the freedom of the conscience for â—f the conscience be bound how is she free Nor so only but fourthly the things so enjoyned are by consequence imposed upon us as of absolute necessity unto salvation forasmuch as it is necessary unto salvation for every man to do that which he is bound in conscience to do by which device kneeling at the Communion standing at the Gospel bowing at the name of Jesus and the like become to be of necessity unto salvation Fifthly say they these Constitutions cannot be defended but by such arguments as the Papists use for the establishing of that their rotten Tenet that humane laws binde the conscience as well as divine Then all which premises what can be imagined more contraâ—ious to true Christian liberty In which Objections before I come to their particular answer I cannot but observe the unjust I would we might not say unconscionable partiality of the Objecters First in laying the accusation against the