the Sacred Authority of Scriptures ever sithence the first publication thereof even till this present day and hour And that they all have always so testified I see not how we should possibly wish a proof more palpable than this manifest received and every where continued Custom of Reading them publickly as the Scriptures The Reading therefore of the Word of God as the use hath ever been in open Audience is the plainest evidence we have of the Churches assent and acknowledgement that it is his Word 3. A further commodity this Custom hath which is to furnish the very simplest and rudest sort with such infallible Axioms and Precepts of Sacred Truth delivered even in the very letter of the Law of God as may serve them for Rules whereby to judge the better all other Doctrins and Instructions which they hear For which end and purpose I see not how the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all unless far more should be read in the Peoples hearing than by a Sermon can be opened For whereas in a manner the whole Book of God is by reading every year published a small part thereof in comparison of the whole may hold very well the readiest Interpreter of Scripture occupied many years 4. Besides wherefore should any man think but that Reading it self is one of the ordinary means whereby it pleaseth God of his gracious goodness to instill that Celestial Verity which being but so received is nevertheless effectual to save Souls Thus much therefore we ascribe to the Reading of the Word of God as the manner is in our Churches And because it were odious if they on their part should altogether despise the same they yield that Reading may set forward but not begin the work of Salvation That Faith may be nourished therewith but not bred That herein mens attention to the Scriptures and their speculation of the Creatures of God have like efficacy both being of power to augment but neither to effect Belief without Sermons That if any believe by Reading alone we are to account it a miracle an extraordinary work of God Wherein that which they grant we gladly accept at their hands and with that patiently they would examine how little cause they have to deny that which as yet they grant not The Scripture witnesseth that when the Book of the Law of God had been sometime missing and was after found the King which heard it but only read tare his Cloaths and with tears confessed Great is the wrath of the Lord upon us because our Fathers have notâ— kept his Word to do after all things which are written in this Book This doth argue that by bare reading for of Sermons at that time there is no mention true Repentance may be wrought in the hearts of such as fear God and yet incurr his displeasure the deserved effect whereof is Eternal death So that their Repentance although it be not their first entrance is notwithstanding the first step of their re-entrance into Life and may be in them wrought by the Word only read unto them Besides it seemeth that God would have no man stand in doubt but that the reading of Scripture is effectual as well to lay even the first foundation as to adde degrees of farther perfection in the fear of God And therefore the Law saith Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel that Men Women and Children may hear yea even that their Children which as yet have not known it may hear it and by hearing it so read may learn to fear the Lord. Our Lord and Saviour was himself of opinion That they which would not be drawn to amendment of Life by the Testimony which Moses and the Prophets have given concerning the miseries that follow Sinners after death were not likely to be perswaded by other means although God from the very Dead should have raised them up Preachers Many hear the Books of God and believe them not Howbeit their unbelief in that case we may not impute unto any weakness or insufficiency in the mean which is used towards them but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against it With mindes obdurate nothing prevaileth As well they that preach as they that read unto such shall still have cause to complain with the Prophets which were of old Who will give credit unto our Teaching But with whom ordinary means will prevail surely the power of the World of God even without the help of Interpreters in God's Church worketh mightily not unto their confirmation alone which are converted but also to their conversion which are not It shall not boot them who derogate from reading to excuse it when they see no other remedy as if their intent were only to deny that Aliens and Strangers from the Family of God are won or that Belief doth use to be wrought at the first in them without Sermons For they know it is our Custom of simple Reading not for conversion of Infidels estranged from the House of God but for instruction of Men baptised bred and brought up in the bosom of the Church which they despise as a thing uneffectual to save such Souls In such they imagine that God hath no ordinary mean to work Faith without Sermons The reason why no man can attain Belief by the bare contemplation of Heaven and Earth is for that they neither are sufficient to give us as much as the least spark of Light concerning the very principal Mysteries of our Faith and whatsoever we may learn by them the same we can only attain to know according to the manner of natural Sciences which meer discourse of Wit and Reason findeth out whereas the things which we properly believe be only such as are received upon the credit of Divine Testimony Seeing therefore that he which considereth the Creatures of God findeth therein both these defects and neither the one nor the other in Scriptures because he that readeth unto us the Scriptures delivereth all the Mysteries of Faith and not any thing amongst them all more than the mouth of the Lord doth warrant It followeth in those own respects that our consideration of Creatures and attention unto Scriptures are not in themselves and without-Sermons things of like disability to breed or beget Faith Small cause also there is why any man should greatly wonder as at an extraordinary work if without Sermons Reading be sound to effect thus much For I would know by some special instance what one Article of Christian Faith or what duty required unto all mens Salvation there is which the very reading of the Word of God is not apt to notifie Effects are miraculous and strange when they grow by unlikely means But did we ever hear it accounted for a Wonder that he which doth read should believe and live according to the will of Almighty God Reading doth convey to the Minde that Truth without addition or diminution which Scripture hath derived from
which Admonitions all that I mean to say is but this There will come a time when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed Reward then three thousand Volumns written with disdainful sharpness of Wit But the manner of Mens Writings must not alienate our hearts from the Truth if it appear they have the Truth as the Followers of the same Defender do think he hath and in that perswasion they follow him no otherwise then himself doth Calvin Beza and others with the like perswasion that they in this cause had the Truth We being as fully perswaded otherwise it resteth that some kinde of tryal be used to finde out which part is in error 3. The first mean whereby Nature teacheth men to judge good from evil as well in Laws as in other things is the force of their own discretion Hereunto therefore St. Paul referreth oftentimes his own speech to be considered of by them that heard him I speak as to them which have understanding Judge ye what I say Again afterward Judge in your selves is it comly that a woman pray uncovered The exercise of this kinde of judgment our Saviour requireth in the Iews In them of Berea the Scripture commendeth it Finally Whatsoever we do if our own secret judgment consent not unto it as fit and good to be done the doing of it to us is sin although the thing it self be allowable St. Pauls rule therefore generally is Let every man in his own minde be fully perswaded of that thing which he either alloweth or doth Some things are so familiar and plain that Truth from Falshood and Good from Evil is most easily discerned in them even by men of no deep capacity And of that nature for the most part are things absolutely unto all Mens salvation necessary either to he held or denied either to be done or avoided For which cause St. Augustine acknowledgeth that they are not onely set down but also plainly set down in Scripture So that he which heareth or readeth may without any great difficulty understand Other things also there are belonging though in a lower degree of importance unto the offices of Christian men Which because they are more obscure more intricate and hard to be judged of therefore God hath appointed some to spend their whole time principally in the study of things Divine to the end that in these more doubtful cases their understanding might be a light to direct others If the understanding power or faculty of the Soul be saith the Grand Physitian like unto bodily sight not of equal sharpness in all What can be more convenient then that even as the dark-sighted man is directed by the clear about things visible so likewise in matters of deeper discourse the wise in heart do shew the simple where his way lieth In our doubtful Cases of Law what man is there who seeth not how requisite it is that Professors of skill in that Faculty be our Directors so it is in all other kindes of knowledge And even in this kinde likewise the Lord hath himself appointed That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that other men should seek the truth at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Gregory Nazianzen offended at the peoples too great presumption in controlling the judgment of them to whom in such cases they should have rather submitted their own seeketh by earnest entreaty to stay them within their bounds Presume not ye that are Sheep to make your selves Guides of them that should guide you neither seek ye to overslip the fold which they about you have pitched It sufficeth for your part if ye can well frame your selves to be ordered Take not upon you to judge your selves nor to make them subject to your Laws who should be a Law to you for God is not a God of Sedition and Confusion but of Order and of Peace But ye will say that if the Guides of the people be blinde the common sort of men must not close up their own eyes and be led by the conduct of such If the Priest be partial in the Law the flock must not therefore depart from the ways of sincere Truth and in simplicity yield to be followers of him for his place sake and office over them Which thing though in it self most true is in your defence notwithstanding weak because the matter wherein ye think that ye see and imagine that your ways are sincere is of far deeper consideration then any one amongst Five hundred of you conceiveth Let the vulgar sort among you know that there is not the least branch of the Cause wherein they are so resolute but to the tryal of it a great deal more appertaineth then their conceit doth reach unto I write not this in disgrace of the simplest that way given but I would gladly they knew the nature of that cause wherein they think themselves throughly instructed and are not by means whereof they daily run themselves without feeling their own hazzard upon the dint of the Apostles sentence against evil speakers as touching things wherein they are ignorant If it be granted a thing unlawful for private men not called unto Publick Consultation to dispute which is the best State of Civil Policy with a desire of bringing in some other kinde them that under which they already live for of such Disputes I take it his meaning was If it be a thing confest that of such Questions they cannot determine without rashness in as much as a great part of them consisteth in special Circumstances and for one kinde as many Reasons may be brought as for another Is there any reason in the World why they should better judge what kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical is the fittest For in the Civil State more insight and in those affairs more experience a great deal must needs be granted them then in this they can possibly have When they which write in defence of your Discipline and commend it unto the Highest not in the least cunning manner are forced notwithstanding to acknowledge That with whom the Truth is they know not they are not certain what certainly or knowledge can the multitude have thereof Weigh what doth move the common sort so much to favor this Innovation and it shall soon appear unto you that the force of particular Reasons which for your several Opinions are alleaged is a thing whereof the multitude never did nor could so consider as to be therewith wholly carried but certain general Inducements are used to make saleable your Cause in gross And when once men have cast a fancy towards it any slight Declaration of Specialties will serve to lead forward mens inclineable and prepared mindes The method of winning the peoples affection unto a general liking of the Cause for so ye term it hath been this First in the hearing of the multitude the faults especially of
hinder it from taking place and in such cases if any strange or new thing seem requisite to be done a strange and new opinion concerning the lawfulness thereof is withal received and broached under countenance of Divine Authority One example herein may serve for many to shew That false opinions touching the Will of God to have things done are wont to bring forth mighty and violent practices against the hinderances of them And those practices new opinions more pernicious then the first yea most extreamly sometimes opposite to that which the first did seem to intend Where the people took upon them the Reformation of the Church by casting out Popish Superstition they having received from their Pastors a General Instruction that whatsoever the Heavenly Father hath not planted must be rootod out proceeded in some foreign places so far that down went Oratories and the very Temples of God themselves For as they chanced to take the compass of their Commission stricter or larger so their dealings were accordingly more or less moderate Amongst others there sprang up presently one kinde of men with whose zeal and forwardness the rest being compared were thought to be marvellous cold and dull These grounding themselves on Rules more general that whatsoever the Law of Christ commandeth not thereof Antichrist is the Author and that whatsoever Antichrist or his adherents did in the World the true Professors of Christ are to undo found out many things more then others had done the Extirpation whereof was in their conceit as necessary as of any thing before removed Hereupon they secretly made their doleful complaints every where as they went that albeit the World did begin to profess some dislike of that which was evil in the Kingdom of Darkness yet Fruits worthy of a true-Repentance were not seen and that if men did repent as they ought they must endeavor to purge the truth of all manner evil to the end there might follow a new World afterward wherein righteousness onely should dwell Private Repentance they said â—â—st appear by every mans fashioning his own life contrary unto the custom and orders of this present World both in greater things and in less To this purpose they had always in their mouths those greater things Charity Faith the true fear of God the Cross the Mortification of the flesh All their Exhortations were to set light of the things in this World to account riches and honors vanity and in taken thereof not onely to seek neither but if men were possessors of both even to cast away the one and resign the other that all men might see their unfeigned conversion unto Christ. They were Sollicitors of Men to Fasts to often Meditations of Heavenly things and as it were Conferences in secret with God by Prayers not framed according to the frozen manner of the World but expressing such fervent desires as might even force God to heaâ—ken unto them Where they found men in Diet Attire Furniture of House or any other way observers of civility and decent order such they reproved as being carnally and earthly minded Every word otherwise then severely and sadly uttered seemed to pierce like a Sword theron them If any man were pleasant their manner was presently with sighs to repeat those words of our Saviour Christ Wo be to you which now laugh for ye shall lament So great was their delight to be always in trouble that such as did quietly lead their lives they judged of all other men to be in most dangerous case They so much affected to cross the ordinary custom in every thing that when other mens use was to put on better attire they would be sure to shew themselves openly abroad in worses The ordinary names of the days in the week they thought it a kinde of prophaneness to use and therefore accustomed themselves to make no other distinction then by Numbers The first second third day From this they proceeded unto Publick Reformation first Ecclesiastical and then Civil Touching the former they boldly avouched that themselves onely had the Truth which thing upon peril of their lives they would at all times defend and that since the Apostles lived the same was never before in all points sincerely taught Wherefore that things might again be brought to that ancient integrity which Iesus Christ by his Word requireth they began to controll the Ministers of the Gospel for attributing so much force and vertue unto the Scriptures of God read whereas the Truth was that when the Word is said to engender Faith in the Heart and to convert the Soul of Man or to work any such Spiritual Divine effect these speeches are not thereunto appliable as it is read or preached but as it is ingrafted in us by the power of the Holy Ghost opening the eyes of our understanding and so revealing the Mysteries of God according to that which Jeremy promised before should be saying I will put my Law in their inward parts and I will write it in their hearts The Book of God they notwithstanding for the most part so admired that other disputation against their opinions then onely by allegation of Scripture they would not hear besides it they thought no other Writings in the World should be studied in so much as one of their great Prophets exhorting them to cast away all respects unto Humane Writings so far to his motion they condescended that as many as had any Books save the Holy Bible in their custody they brought and set them publickly on fire When they and their Bibles were alone together what strange phantastical opinion soever at any time entred into their heads their use was to think the Spirit taught it them Their phrensies concerning our Saviours Incarnation the state of Souls departed and such like are things needless to be rehearsed And for as much as they were of the same Suit with those of whom the Apostle speaketh saying They are still learning but never attain to the knowledge of truth it was no marvel to see them every day broach some new thing not heard of before Which restless levity they did interpret to be their growing to Spiritual Perfection and a proceeding from Faith to Faith The differences amongst them grew by this mean in a manner infinite so that scarcely was there found any one of them the forge of whose Brain was not possest with some special mystery Whereupon although their mutual contentions were most fiercely prosecuted amongst themselves yet when they came to defend the cause common to them all against the Adversaries of their Faction they had ways to lick one another whole the sounder in his own perswasion excusing THE DEAR BRETHREN which were not so far enlightned and professing a charitable hope of the Mercy of God towards them notwithstanding their swerving from him in some things Their own Ministers they highly magnified as men whose vocation was from God The
Here they drew in a Sea of Matter by amplifying all things unto their own Company which are any where spoken concerning Divine Favors and Benefits bestowed upon the Old Commonwealth of Israel concluding that as Israel was delivered out of Egypt so they spiritually out of the Egypt of this Worlds servile thraldom unto Sin and Superstition As Israel was to root out the Idolatrous Nations and to plant instead of them a people which feared God so the same Lords good will and pleasure was now that these new Israelites should under the conduct of other Joshua's Sampsons and Gideons perform a work no less miraculous in casting out violently the wicked from the Earth and establishing the Kingdom of Christ with perfect liberty And therefore as the cause why the Children of Israel took unto one Man many Wives might be lest the casualties of War should any way hinder the promise of God concerning their multitude from taking effect in them so it was not unlike that for the necessary propagation of Christs Kingdom under the Gospel the Lord was content to allow as much Now whatsoever they did in such sort collect out of Scripture when they came to justifie or perswade it unto others all was the Heavenly Fathers appointment his commandment his will and charge Which thing is the very point in regard whereof I have gathered his Declaration For my purpose herein is to shew that when the mindes of men are once erroneously perswaded that it is the Will of God to have those things done which they fancy then Opinions are as Thorns in their sides never suffering them to take rest till they have brought their speculations into practise The lets and impediments of which practice their restless desire and study to remove leadeth them every day forth by the hand into other more dangerous opinions sometimes quite and clean contrary to their first pretended meanings So as what will grow out of such Errors as go masked under the clâ—ak of Divine Authority impossible it is that ever the wit of man should imagine till time have brought forth the fruits of them For which cause it behoveth Wisdom to fear the sequels thereof even beyond all apparent cause of fear These men in whose mouths at the first sounded nothing but onely Mortification of the Flesh were come at the lenght to think they might lawfully have their six or seven Wives apiece They which at the first thought Iudgment and Iustice it self to be merciless cruelty accounted at the length their own hands sanctified with being imbrued in Christian blood They who at the first were wont to beat down all Dominion and to urge against poor Constables Kings of Nations had at the length both Consuls and Kings of their own erection amongst themselves Finally they which could not brook at the first that any man should seek no not by Law the recovery of Goods injuriously taken or withheld from him were grown at the last to think they could not offer unto God more acceptable Sacrifice then by turning their Adversaries clean out of house and home and by enriching themselves with all kinde of spoil and pillage Which thing being laid to their charge they had in a readiness their answer That now the time was come when according to our Saviours promise The meek ones must inherit the Earth and that their title hereunto was the same which the righteous Israelites had unto the goods of the wicked Egyptians Wherefore sith the World hath had in these men so fresh experience how dangerous such active Errors are it must not offend you though touching the sequel of your present misperswasions much more be doubted then your own intents and purposes do haply aim at And yet your words already are somewhat when ye affirm that your Pastors Doctors Elders and Deacons ought to be in this Church of England Whether Her Majesty and our State will or no When for the animating of your Confederates ye publish the Musters which ye have made of your own Bands and proclaim them to amount to I know not how many thousands when ye threaten that sith neither your Suits to the Parliament nor Supplications to our Convocation-House neither your Defences by Writing nor Challenges of Disputation in behalf of that Cause are able to prevail we must blame our selves if to bring in Discipline some such means hereafter be used as shall cause all our hearts to ake That things doubtful are to be construed in the better part is a Principle not safe to be followed in Matters concerning the Publick State of a Commonweal But howsoever these and the like Speeches be accounted as Arrows idlely shot at random without either eye had to any Mark or regard to their lighting place hath not your longing desire for the practice of your Discipline brought the Matter already unto this demurrer amongst you whether the people and their Godly Pastors that way affected ought not to make Separation from the rest and to begin the Exercise of Discipline without the License of Civil Powers which License they have sought for and are not heard Upon which question as ye have now divided your selves the warier sort of you taking the one part and the forwarder in zeal the other so in case these earnest Ones should prevail what other sequel can any wise man imagine but this that having first resolved that Attempts for Discipline without Superiors are lawful it will follow in the next place to be disputed What may be attempted against Superiors which will not have the Scepter of that Discipline to rule over them Yea even by you which have staid your selves from running head-long with the other sort somewhat notwithstanding there hath been done without the leave or liking of your lawful Superiors for the exercise of a part of your Discipline amongst the Clergy thereunto addicted And lest Examination of Principal Parties therein should bring those things to light which might hinder and let your proceedings behold for a Bar against that impediment one Opinion ye have newly added unto the rest even upon this occasion an Opinion to exempt you from taking Oaths which may turn to the molestation of your Brethren in that cause The next Neighbor Opinions whereunto when occasion requireth may follow for Dispensation with Oaths already taken if they afterwards be found to import a necessity of detecting ought which may bring such good men into trouble or damage whatsoever the cause be O merciful God what mans wit is there able to sound the depth of those dangerous and fearful evils whereinto our weak and impotent nature is inclineable to sink it self rather theâ— to shew an acknowledgment of Error in that which once we have unadvisedly taken upon us to defend against the stream as it were of a contrary publick resolution Wherefore if we any thing respect their Error who being perswaded even as ye are have gone further upon that perswasion then ye allow if we
Christ to violate And what other Law doth the Apostle for this alledge but such as is both common unto Christ with us and unto us with other things Natural No man hateth his own flesh but doth love and cherish it The Axioms of that Law therefore whereby Natural agents are guided have their use in the Moral yea even in the Spiritual actions of men and consequently in all Laws belonging unto men howsoever Neither are the Angels themselves so far severed from us in their kinde and manner of working but that between the Law of their Heavenly operations and the Actions of men in this our state of mortality such correspondence there is as maketh it expedient to know in some sort the one for the others more perfect direction Would Angels acknowledge themselves Fellow-servants with the Sons of Men but that both having One Lord there must be some kinde of Law which is one and the same to both whereunto their obedience being perfecter is to our weaker both a Pattern and a Spur Or would the Apostles speaking of that which belongeth unto Saints as they are linked together in the Bond of Spiritual Society so often make mention how Angels are therewith delighted if in things publickly done by the Church we are not somewhat to respect what the Angels of Heaven do Yea so far hath the Apostle St. Paul proceeded as to signifie that even about the outward Orders of the Church which serve but for comeliness some regard is to be had of Angels who best like us when we are most like unto them in all parts of decent demeanor So that the Law of Angels we cannot judge altogether impertinent unto the affairs of the Church of God Our largeness of speech how men do finde out what things Reason bindeth them of necessity to observe and what it guideth them to chuse in things which are left as Arbitary the care we have had to declare the different Nature of Laws which severally concern all men from such as belong unto men either civilly or spiritually associated such as pertain to the Fellowship which Nations or which Christian Nations have amongst themselves and in the last place such as concerning every or any of these God himself hath revealed by his holy Word all serveth but to make manifest that as the Actions of men are of sundry distinct kindes so the Laws thereof must accordingly be distinguished There are in men operations some Natural some Rational some Supernatural some Politick some finally Ecclesiastical Which if we measure not each by his own proper Law whereas the things themselves are so different there will be in our understanding and judgment of them confusion As that first Error sheweth whereon our opposites in this cause have grounded themselves For as they rightly maintain that God must be glorified in all things and that the actions of men cannot tend unto his glory unless they be framed after his Law So it is their Error to think that the onely Law which God hath appointed unto men in that behalf is the Sacred Scripture By that which we work naturally as when we breath sleep move we set forth the glory of God as Natural agents do albeit we have no express purpose to make that our end nor any advised determination therein to follow a Law but do that we do for the most part not as much as thinking thereon In reasonable and Moral actions another Law taketh place a Law by the observation whereof we glorifie God in such sort as no Creature else under Man is able to do because other Creatures have not judgment to examine the quality of that which is done by them and therefore in that they do they neither can accuse not approve themselves Men do both as the Apostle teacheth yea those men which have no written Law of God to shew what is good or evil carry written in their hearts the Universal Law of Mankinde the Law of Reason whereby they judge as by a Rule which God hath given unto all Men for that purpose The Law of Reason doth somewhat direct Men how to honor God as their Creator but how to glorifie God in such sort as is required to the end he may be an Everlasting Saviour this we are taught by Divine Law which Law both ascertaineth the truth and supplieth unto us the want of that other Law So that in Moral actions Divine Law helpeth exceedingly the Law of Reason to guide Mans life but in Supernatural it alone guideth Proceed we further Let us place Man in some Publick Society with others whether Civil or Spiritual and in this case there is no remedy but we must add yet a further Law For although even here likewise the Laws of Nature and Reason be of necessary use yet somewhat over and besides them is necessary namely Humane and Positive Law together with that Law which is of commerce between Grand Societies the Law of Nations and of Nations Christian. For which cause the Law of God hath likewise said Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers The Publick Power of all Societies is above every Soul contained in the same Societies And the principal use of that Power is to give Laws unto all that are under it which Laws in such case we must obey unless there be reason shewed which may necessarily inforce That the Law of Reason or of God doth enjoyn the contrary Because except our own private and but probable resolutions be by the Law of Publick Determinations over-ruled we take away all possibility of sociable life in the World A plainer example whereof then our selves we cannot have How cometh it to pass that we are at this present day so rent with mutual contentions and that the Church is so much troubled about the Polity of the Church No doubt if men had been willing to learn how many Laws their actions in this life are subject unto and what the true force of each Law is all these controversies might have died the very day they were first brought forth It is both commonly said and truly That the best men otherwise are not always the best in regard of Society The reason whereof is for that the Law of Mens actions is one if they be respected onely as Men and another when they are considered as parts of a Politick Body Many men there are then whom nothing is more commendable when they are singled And yet in Society with others none less fit to answer the duties which are looked for at their hands Yea I am perswaded that of them with whom in this cause we strive there are whose betters among men would be hardly found if they did not live amongst men but in some Wilderness by themselves The cause of which their disposition so unframable unto Societies wherein their live is for that they discern not aright what place and force these several kindes of Laws ought to have in all their
or offensive unto any especially unto the Church of God All things in order and with seemliness All unto edification finally All to the glory of God Of which kinde how many might be gathered out of the Scripture if it were necessary to take so much pains Which Rules they that urge minding thereby to prove that nothing may be done in the Church but what Scripture commandeth must needs hold that they tie the Church of Christ no otherwise then onely because we finde them there set down by the Finger of the Holy Ghost So that unless the Apostle by writing had delivered those Rules to the Church we should by observing them have sinned as now by not observing them In the Church of the Jews is it not granted That the appointment of the hour for daily Sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the Land to hear the Word of God and to pray in when they came not up to Ierusalem the erecting of Pulpits and Chairs to teach in the order of Burial the Rites of Marriage with such like being matters appertaining to the Church yet are not any where prescribed in the Law but were by the Churches discretion instituted What then shall we think Did they hereby add to the Law and so displease God by that which they did None so hardly perswaded of them Doth their Law deliver unto them the self-same general Rules of the Apostle that framing thereby their Orders they might in that respect clear themselves from doing amiss St. Paul would then of likelihood have cited them out of the Law which we see he doth not The truth is they are Rules and Canons of that Law which is written in all mens hearts the Church had for ever no less then now stood bound to observe them whether the Apostle had mentioned them or no. Seeing therefore those Canons do binde as they are Edicts of Nature which the Jews observing as yet unwritten and thereby framing such Church Orders as in their Law were not prescribed are notwithstanding in that respect unculpable It followeth that sundry things may be lawfully done in the Church so as they be not done against the Scripture although no Scripture do command them but the Church onely following the Light of Reason judge them to be in discretion meet Secondly unto our purpose and for the question in hand Whether the Commandments of God in Scripture be general or special it skilleth not For if being particularly applied they have in regard of such particulars a force constraining us to take some one certain thing of many and to leave the rest whereby it would come to pass that any other particular but that one being established the general Rules themselves in that case would be broken then is it utterly impossible that God should leave any thing great or small free for the Church to establish or not Thirdly if so be they shall grant as they cannot otherwise do that these Rules are no such Laws as require any one particular thing to be done but serve rather to direct the Church in all things which she doth so that free and lawful it is to devise any Ceremony to receive any Order and to authorise any kinde of Regiment no special Commandment being thereby violated and the same being thought such by them to whom the judgment thereof appertaineth as that it is not scandalous but decent tending unto edification and setting forth the glory of God that is to say agreeable unto the general Rules of holy Scripture this doth them no good in the World for the furtherance of their purpose That which should make for them must prove that men ought not to make Laws for Church Regiment but onely keep those Laws which in Scripture they finde made The plain intent of the Books of Ecclesiastical Discipline is to shew that men may not devise Laws of Church Government but are bound for ever to use and to execute onely those which God himself hath already devised and delivered in the Scripture The self-same drift the Admonitioners also had in urging that nothing ought to be done in the Church according unto any Law of Mans devising but all according to that which God in his Word hath commanded Which not remembring they gather out of Scripture General Rules to be followed in making Laws and so in effect they plainly grant that we our selves may lawfully make Laws for the Church and are not bound out of Scripture onely to take Laws already made as they meant who first alledged that principle whereof we speak One particular Plat-form it is which they respected and which they labored thereby to force upon all Churches whereas these general Rules do not let but that there may well enough be sundry It is the particular Order established in the Church of England which thereby they did intend to alter as being not commanded of God whereas unto those general Rules they know we do not defend that we may hold any thing unconformable Obscure it is not what meaning they had who first gave out that grand Axiom and according unto that meaning it doth prevail far and wide with the Favorers of that part Demand of them wherefore they conform not themselves unto the Order of our Church and in every particular their answer for the most part is We finde no such thing commanded in the Word Whereby they plainly require some special Commandment for that which is exacted at their hands neither are they content to have matters of the Church examined by general Rules and Canons As therefore in controversies between us and the Church of Rome that which they practise is many times even according to the very grossness of that which the vulgar sort conceiveth when that which they teach to maintain it is so nice and subtil that hold can very hardly be taken thereupon In which cases we should do the Church of God small benefit by disputing with them according unto the finest points of their dark conveyances and suffering that sense of their Doctrine to go uncontrouled wherein by the common sort it is ordinarily received and practised So considering what disturbance hath grown in the Church amongst our selves and how the Authors thereof do commonly build altogether on this as a sure Foundation Nothing ought to be established in the Church which in the Word of God is not commanded Were it reason that we should suffer the same to pass without controulment in that current meaning whereby every where it prevaileth and stay till some strange construction were made thereof which no man would lightly have thought on but being driven thereunto for a shift 8. The last refuge in maintaining this Position is thus to construe it Nothing ought to be established in the Church but that which is commanded in the Word of God that is to say All Church Orders must be grounded upon the Word of God in such sort grounded upon the Word not that being sound out by some Star
must be by Reason found out And therefore To refuse the conduct of the Light of Nature saith St. Augustine is not Folly alone but accompanied with Impiety The greatest amongst the School Divines studying how to set down by exact definition the Nature of an Humane Law of which nature all the Churches Constitutions are found not which way better to do it then in these words Out of the Precepts of the Law of Nature as out of certain common and undemonstrable Principles Mans Reason doth necessarily proceed unto certain more particular determinations Which particular determinations being found out according unto the Reason of Man they have the names of Humane Laws so that such other conditions be therein kept as the making of Laws doth require that is If they whose Authority is thereunto required do establish and publish them as Laws And the truth is that all our controversie in this cause concerning the Orders of the Church is What particulars the Church may appoint That which doth finde them out is the force of Mans Reason That which doth guide and direct his Reason is first the general Law of Nature which Law of Nature and the Moral Law of Scripture are in the substance of Law all one But because there are also in Scripture a number of Laws particular and positive which being in force may not by any Law of Man be violated we are in making Laws to have thereunto an especial eye As for example it might perhaps seem reasonable unto the Church of God following the general Laws concerning the nature of Marriage to ordain in particular that Cosin-Germans shall not marry Which Law notwithstanding ought not to be received in the Church if there should be in the Scripture a Law particular to the contrary forbidding utterly the Bonds of Marriage to be so far forth abridged The same Thomas therefore whose definition of Humane Laws we mentioned before doth add thereunto this Caution concerning the Rule and Canon whereby to make them Humane Laws are Measures in respect of Men whose actions they must direct howbeit such Measures they are as have also their higher Rules to be measured by Which Rules are two the Law of God and the Law of Nature So that Laws Humane must be made according to the General Laws of Nature and without contradiction unto any Positive Law in Scripture otherwise they are ill made Unto Laws thus made and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosom of that Church must not think it a matter indifferent either to yield or not to yield obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My Son keep thy Fathers Commandment saith Solomon and forget not thy Mothers instruction binde them both always about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which we ow to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinances of our Mother the Church we should shew our selves disobedient Let us not say we keep the Commandments of the one when we break the Law of the other For unless we observe both we obey neither And what doth let but that we may observe both when they are not the one to the other in any sort repugnant For of such Laws onely we speak as being made in form and manner already declared can have in them no contradiction unto the Laws of Almighty God Yea that which is more the Laws thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose and licentious opinion which the Anabaptists have embraced holding That a Christian Mans liberty is lost and the Soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servitude under the yoke of Humane Power if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Jesus Christ In obedience whereunto the Spirit of God and not the constraint of man is to lead us according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and not such as live in thraldom unto men Their judgment is therefore that the Church of Christ should admit no Law-Makers but the Evangelists The Author of that which causeth another thing to be is Author of that thing also which thereby is caused The light of Natural Understanding Wit and Reason is from God he it is which thereby doth illuminate every man entring into the World If there proceed from us any thing afterwards corrupt and naught the Mother thereof is our own darkness neither doth it proceed from any such cause whereof God is the Author He is the Author of all that we think or do by vertue of that Light which himself hath given And therefore the Laws which the very Heathens did gather to direct their actions by so far forth as they proceed from the Light of Nature God himself doth acknowledge to have proceeded even from himself and that he was the Writer of them in the Tables of their Hearts How much more then is he the Author of those Laws which have been made by his Saints endued further with the Heavenly Grace of his Spirit and directed as much as might be with such instructions as his Sacred Word doth yield Surely if we have unto those Laws that dutiful regard which their Dignity doth require it will not greatly need that we should be exhorted to live in obedience unto them Iâ— they have God himself for their Author contempt which is offered unto them cannot chuse but redound unto him The safest and unto God the most acceptable way of framing our lives therefore is with all Humility Lowliness and Singleness of Heart to study which way our willing Obedience both unto God and Man may be yielded even to the utmost of that which is due 10. Touching the Mutability of Laws that concern the Regiment and Polity of the Church changed they are when either altogether abrogated or in part repealed or augmented with farther additions Wherein we are to note that this question about the changing of Laws concerneth onely such Laws as are Positive and do make that now good or evil by being commanded or forbidden which otherwise of it self were not simply the one or the other Unto such Laws it is expresly sometimes added how long they are to continue in force If this be no where exprest then have we no light to direct our judgments concerning the changeableness or immutability of them but by considering the nature and quality of such Laws The nature of every Law must be judged of by the end for which it was made and by the aptness of things therein prescribed unto the same end It may so fall out that the reason why some Laws of God were given is neither opened nor possible to be gathered by the Wit of Man As why God should forbid Adam that one Tree there was no way for Adam ever to have certainly understood And at Adams ignorance of
or Rites as publickly are established is when there ariseth from the due consideration of those Customs and Rites in themselves apparent reason although not alwayes to prove them better than any other that might possibly be devised for who did ever require this in man's Ordinances yet competent to shew their conveniency and fitness in regard of the use for which they should serve Now touching the nature of religious Services and the manner of their due performance thus much generally we know to be most clear that whereas the greatness and dignity of all manner of Actions is measured by the worthiness of the Subject from which they proceed and of the Object whereabout they are conversant we must of necessity in both respects acknowledge that this present World affordeth not any thing comparable unto the publick Duties of Religion For if the best things have the perfectest and best operations it will follow that seeing Man is the worthiest Creature upon earth and every Society of Men more worthy than any Man and of Societies that most excellent which we call the Church there can be in this World no work performed equal to the exercise of true Religion the proper operation of the Church of God Again forasmuch as Religion worketh upon him who in Majesty and Power is infinite as we ought we account not of it unless we esteem it even according to that very height of Excellency which our hearts conceive when Divine sublimity it self is rightly considered In the powers and faculties of our Souls God requireth the uttermost which our unfeigned affection towards him is able to yield So that if we affect him not farr above and before all things our Religion hath not that inward perfection which it should have neither do we indeed worship him as our God That which inwardly each man should be the Church outwardly ought to testifie And therefore the Duties of our Religion which are seen must be such as that affection which is unseen ought to be Signs must resemble the Things they signifie If Religion bear the greatest sway in our Hearts our outward religious Duties must shew it as farr as the Church hath outward Ability Duties of Religion performed by whole Societies of men ought to have in them according to our power a sensible Excellency correspondent to the Majesty of Him whom we worship Yea then are the publick Duties of Religion best ordered when the Militant Church doth resemble by sensible means as it may in such cases that hidden Dignity and Glory wherewith the Church Triumphant in Heaven is beautified Howbeit even as the very heat of the Sun it self which is the life of the whole World was to the people of God in the Desert a grievous annoyance for ease whereof his extraordinary Providence ordained a Cloudy Pillar to over-shadow them So things of general use and benefit for in this world What is so perfect that no Inconvenience doth ever follow itâ— may by some accident be incommodious to a few In which case for such private Evils remedies thereare of like condition though publick Ordinances wherein the Common good is respected be not stirred Let our first Demand be therefore That in the External Form of Religion such things as are apparently or can be sufficiently proved effectual and generally fit to setforward Godliness either as betokening the greatness of God or as beseeming the Dignity of Religion or as concurring with Celestial Impressions in the mindes of men may be reverently thought of some few rare casual and tollerable or otherwise curable Inconveniences notwithstanding 7. Neither may we in this Case lightly esteem what hath been allowed as fit in the judgment of Antiquity and by the long continued practise of the whole Church from which unnecessarily to swerve Experience never as yet hath found it safe For Wisdom's sake we reverence them no less that are young or not much less then if they were stricken in years And therefore of such it is rightly said That the ripeness of Understanding is gray Hair and their Vertues old Age. But because Wisdom and Youth are seldom joyned in one and the ordinary course of the World is more according to Iob's Observation who giveth men advice to seek Wisdom amongst the Antient and in the length of Dayes Understanding therefore if the Comparison do stand between Man and Man which shall hearken unto other sith the Aged for the most part are best experienced least subject to rash and unadvised Passions it hath been ever judged reasonable That their Sentence in matter of Counsel should be better trusted and more relyed upon than other mens The goodness of God having furnished men with two chief Instruments both necessary for this life Hands to execute and a Mind to devise great things the one is not profitable longer than the vigour of Youth doth strengthen it nor the other greatly till Age and Experience have brought it to Perfection In whom therefore Time hath not perfected Knowledge such must be contented to follow them in whom it hath For this Cause none is more attentively heard than they whose Speeches are as Davids were I have been Young and now am Old much I have seen and observed in the World Sharp and subtile discourses of Wit procure many times very great applause but being laid in the Ballance with that which the habit of sound Experience plainly delivereth they are over-weighed God may endue Men extraordinarily with Understanding as it pleaseth him But let no Man presuming thereupon neglect the Instructions or despite the Ordinances of his Elders sith he whose gift Wisdom is hath said Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thine Antients and they shall tell thee It is therefore the Voyce both of God and Nature not of Learning only that especially in matters of Action and Policy The sentences and judgements of Men experienced aged and wise yea though they speak without any proof or demonstration are no less to be hearkned unto than as being Demonstrations in themselves because such Mens long Observation is as an Eye wherewith they presently and plainly behold those Principles which sway over all Actions Whereby we are taught both the Cause wherefore Wise-mens Judgments should be credited and the Mean how to use their Judgments to the increase of our own Wisdom That which sheweth them to be Wise is the gathering of Principles out of their own particular Experiments And the framing of our particular Experiments according to the Rule of their Principles shall make us such as they are If therefore even at the first so great account should be made of Wise mens Counsels touching things that are Publickly done as time shall add thereunto continuance and approbation of succeeding Ages their Credit and Authority must needs be greater They which do nothing but that which men of Account did before them are although they do amiss yet the less faulty because they are not the Authors of
telleth them that if they did suffer notorious Maleâ—actors to come to the Table of our Lord and not put them by it would be as heavily revenged upon them as if themselves had shed his Blood that for this purpose God had called them to the rooms which they held in the Church of Christ that this they should reckon was their Dignity this their Safety this their whole Crown and Glory and therefore this they should carefully intend and not when the Sacrament is administred imagine themselves called only to walk up and down in a White and shining Garment Now whereas these speeches of Ierome and Chrysostom do seem plainly to allude unto such Ministerial Garments as were then in use To this they answer that by Ierom nothing can be gathered but only that the Ministers came to Church in handsome Holy-day apparel and that himself did not think them bound by the Law of God no go like Slovens but the Weed which we mean he defendeth not That Chrysostome meaneth the same which we defend but seemeth rather to reprehend than allow it as we do Which Answer wringeth out of Ierome and Chrysostome that which their words will not gladly yield They both speak of the same Persons namely the Clergy and of their Weed at the same time when they administer the blessed Sacrament and of the self-same kinde of Weed a white Garment so far as we have wit to conceive and for any thing we are able to see their manner of speech is not such as doth argue either the thing it self to be different whereof they speak or their Judgment concerning it different although the one do only maintain it against Pelagius as a thing not therefore unlawful because it was fair or handsom and the other make it a matter of small commendation in it self if they which wear it do nothing else but weare the Robes which their Place requireth The honesty dignity and estimation of White Apparel in the Eastern part of the World is a token of greater fitness for this sacred use wherein it were not convenient that any thing basely thought of should be suffered Notwithstanding I am not bent to stand stiffely upon these Probabilities that in Ierom's and Chrysostom's time any such Attire was made several to this purpose Yet surely the words of Solomon are very impertinent to prove it an Ornament therefore not several for the Ministers to execute their Ministry in because men of credit and estimation wore their ordinary Apparel white For we know that when Solomon wrote those words the several Apparel for the Ministers of the Law to execute their Ministry in was such The Wise man which seared God from his heart and honoured the Service that was done unto him could not mention so much as the Garment of Holiness but with effectual signification of most singular reverence and love Were it not better that the love which men bear to God should make the least things which are imployed in his Service amiable than that their over-scrupulous dislike of so mean a thing as a Vestment should from the very Service of God with-draw their hearts and affections I term it rather a mean thing a thing not much to be respected because even they so account now of it whose first Disputations against it were such as if Religion had scarcely any thing of greater waight Their Allegations were then That if a man were assured to gain a thousand by doing that which may offend any one Brother or be unto him a cause of falling he ought not to do it That this Popish Apparel the Surplice especially hath been by Papists abominably abused That it hath been a mark and a very Sacrament of Abomination That remaining it serveth as a Monument of Idolatry and not only edifieth not but as a dangerous and scandalous Ceremony doth exceeding much harm to them of whose good we are commanded to have regard that it causeth men to perish and make shipwrack of Conscience for so themselves profess they mean when they say the weak are offended herewith that it hardneth Papists hindreth the weak from profiting in the knowledge of the Gospel grieveth godly mindes and giveth them occasion to think hardly of their Ministers that if the Magistrates may command or the Church appoint Rites and Ceremonies yet seeing our abstinence from things in their own nature indifferent if the weak Brother should be offended is a flat Commandement of the Holy Ghost which no Authority either of Church or Common-wealth can make void therefore neither may the one nor the other lawfully ordain this Ceremony which hath great incommodity and no profit great offence and no edifying That by the Law it should have been burnt and consumed with fire as a thing infected with Leprosie That the Example of Ezekiah beating to powder the Brazen Serpent and of Paul abrogating those abused Feasts of Charity inforceth upon us the duty of abolishing altogether a thing which hath been and is so offensive Finally That God by his Prophet hath given an express Commandement which in this case toucheth us no less than of old it did the Jews ' Ye shall pollute the covering of the Images of Silver and the rich ornament of your Images of Gold and cast them away as a stained ragg thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence These and such like were their first Discourses touching that Church-Attire which with us for the most part is usual in Publick Prayer our Ecclesiastical Laws so appointing as well because it hath been of reasonable continuance and by special choice was taken out of the number of those holy Garments which over and besides their mystical reference served for comeliness under the Law and is in the number of those Ceremonies which may with choice and discretion be used to that purpose in the Church of Christ as also for that it suiteth so fitly with that lightsom affection of joy wherein God delighteth when his Saints praise him and so lively resembleth the glory of the Saints in Heaven together with the beauty wherein Angels have appeared unto men that they which are to appear for men in the presence of God as Angels if they were left to their own choice and would chuse any could not easily devise a Garment of more decency for such a Service As for those fore-rehearsed vehement allegations against it shall we give them credit when the very Authors from whom they came confess they believe not their own sayings For when once they began to perceive how many both of them in the two Universities and of others who abroad having Ecclesiastical charge do favour mightily their Cause and by all means set it forward might by persisting in the extremity of that Opinion hazard greatly their own Estates and so weaken that part which their Places do now give them much opportunity to strengthen they asked counsel as it seemed from some abroad who
the Christian Clergy likewise Priests for their maintenance had those first-fruits of Cattel Coin Wine Oyl and other Commodities of the Earth which the Jews were accustomed yearly to present God with They had the price which was appointed for men to pay in lieu of the first-born of their Children and the price of the first born also amongst Cattel which were unclean They had the vowed Gifts of the People or the prices if they were redeemable by the Donors after vow as some things were They had the free and un-vowed Oblations of men They had the remainder of things sacrificed With Tythes the Levites were maintained and with the tythe of their Tythes the High-Priest In a word if the quality of that which God did assign to his Clergy be considered and their manner of receiving it without labour expence or charge it will appear that the Tribe of Levi being but the twelfth part of Israel had in effect as good as four twelfth parts of all such Goods as the holy Land did yield So that their Worldly Estate was four times as good as any other Tribes in Israel besides But the High-Priest's condition how ample to whom belonged the Tenth of all the Tythe of this Land especially the Law provicing also that as the people did bring the best of all things unto the Priests and Levites so the Levite should deliver the choice and flower of all their Commodities to the High-Priest and so his Tenth-part by that mean be made the very best part amongst ten by which proportion if the Levites were ordinarily in all not above thirty thousand men whereas when David numbred them he found almost thirty eight thousand above the age of thirty years the High-Priest after this very reckoning had as much as three or four thousand others of the Clergy to live upon Over and besides all this lest the Priests of Egypt holding Lands should seem in that respect better provided for than the Priests of the true God it pleased him further to appoint unto them forty and eight whole Cities with Territories of Land adjoyning to hold as their own free Inheritance for ever For to the end they might have all kinde of encouragement not onely to do what they ought but to take pleasure in that they did albeit they were expresly forbidden to have any part of the Land of Canaan laid out whole to themselves by themselves in such sort as the rest of the Tribes had forasmuch as the will of God was rather that they should throughout all Tribes be dispersed for the easier access of the People unto knowledge Yet were they not barred altogether to hold Land nor yet otherwise the worse provided for in respect of that former restraint for God by way of special preheminence undertook to feed them at his own Table and out of his own proper Treasury to maintain them that want and penury they might never feel except God himself did first receive injury A thing most worthy our consideration is the wisdom of God herein for the Common sort being prone unto envy and murmur little considereth of what necessity use and importance the sacred duties of the Clergy are and for that Cause hardly yieldeth them any such honor without repining and grudging thereat they cannot brook it that when they have laboured and come to reap there should so great a portion go out of the fruit of their Labours and he yielded up unto such as sweat nor for it But when the Lord doth challenge this as his own due and require it to be done by way of homage unto him whose mere liberality and goodness had raised them from a poor and servile estate to place them where they had all those ample and rich possessions they must be worse than Brute beasts if they would storm at any thing which He did receive at their hands And for him to bestow his own on his own Servants which liberty is not denied unto the meanest of men what man liveth that can think it other than most reasonable Wherefore no cause there was why that which the Clergy had should in any man's eye seem too much unless God himself were thought to be of an over-having disposition This is the mark whereat all those speeches drive Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his Brethren the Lord is his inheritance again To the Tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance the Sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel an inheritance of Levi again The tyths of the which they shall offer as an offering unto the Lord I have given the Levites for an inheritance and again All the heave-offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel shall offer unto the Lord I have given thee and thy sons and thy daughters with thee to be a duty for ever it is a perpetual Covenant of salt before the Lord. Now that if such provision be possible to be made the Christian Clergy ought not herein to be inferior unto the Jewish What sounder proof than the Apostles own kinde of Argument Do ye not know that they which minister about the holy things eat of the things of the Temple and they which partake of the Altar are partakers with the Altar So even So hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Upon which words I thus conclude that if the People of God do abound and abounding can so farr forth finde in their hearts to shew themselves towards Christ their Saviour thankful as to honor him with their riches which no Law of God or Nature forbiddeth no less than the antient Jewish people did honor God the plain Ordinance of Christ appointeth as large and as ample proportion out of his own treasure unto them that serve him in the Gospel as ever the Priests of the Law did enjoy What further proof can we desire It is the blessed Apostles testimony That even so the Lord hath ordained Yea I know not whether it be sound to interpret the Apostle otherwise than that whereas he judgeth the Presbyters which rule well in the Church of Christ to be worthy of double honor he means double unto that which the Priests of the Law received For if that Ministry which was of the Letter were so glorious how shall not the Ministry of the Spirit be more glorious If the Teachers of the Law of Moses which God delivered written with Letters in Tables of Stone were thought worthy of so great honor how shall not the Teachers of the Gospel of Christ be in his sight most worthy the Holy Ghost being sent from Heaven to ingrave the Gospel on their Hearts who first taught it and whose Successors they that teach it at this day are So that according to the Ordinance of God himself their Estate for worldly maintenance ought to be no worse than is granted unto other sorts of men each according to
were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records thereof remaining still the Book of God for a testimony that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we answer That the Councel of Ierusalem is no Argument for the power of the Clergy to make Laws For first there hath not been sithence any Councel of like authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The cause why that was of such authority came by a special accident Thirdly The reason why other Councels being not like unto that in nature the Clergy in them should have no power to make Laws by themselves alone is in truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the foresaid example to prevail The Decrees of the Councel of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies Human but very Divine Ordinances for which cause the Churches were farr and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and credit above all others which have been sithence is expressed in those words of principal observation Unto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good which form of speech though other Councels have likewise used yet neither could they themselves mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the power of the Holy Ghost but the latter had the favour of that general assistance and presence which Christ doth promise unto all his according to the quality of their several Estates and Callings the former the grace of special miraculous rare and extraordinary illumination in relation whereunto the Apostle comparing the Old Testament and the New together termeth the one a Testament of the Letter for that God delivered it written in stone the other a Testament of the Spirit because God imprinted it in the hearts and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apostles through the power of the Holy Ghost feigning both their conceits and speeches in most Divine and incomprehensible manner Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened it had authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kinde of Persons are as now the state of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the power to make Ecclesiastical laws we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason that no Ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power For of this thing no man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies and Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree unto Much more than a King should constrain all others no the strict observation of any such Human Ordinance as passeth without his own approbation In this Case therefore especially that vulgar Axiom is of force Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet Whereupon Pope Nicolas although otherwise not admitting Lay-persons no not Emperors themselves to be present as Synods doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are determined whereunto all men must stand bound Ubinam legistis Imperatores Antecessores vestros Synodalibus Conventibus interfuisse nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est quae non solum ad Clericos verum etiam ad Laicos omnes pertinet Christianos A Law be it Civil or Ecclesiastical is a Publick Obligation wherein seeing that the whole standeth charged no reason it should pass without his privity and will whom principally the whole doth depend upon Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum perturbare ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent minuere saith Innocentius Extra de judic novit As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy saith Pope Innocent But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest forasmuch as every Estate doth desire to inlarge the bounds of their own Liberties is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Rights and by keeping all Estates as it were in an even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their common Parent whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in the making Laws which All must be ordered by Wherefore of them which in this point attribute most to the Clergy I would demand What evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in antient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by mere force of their Agreement taken place as a Law making all men constrainable to be obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf But what speak we of antient Kingdoms when at this day even the Papacy it self the very Tridentine Council hath not every where as yet obtained to have in all points the strength of Ecclesiastical Laws did not Philip King of Spain publishing that Council in the Low Countries adde thereunto an express clause of special provision that the same should in no wise prejudice hurt or diminish any kinde of Priviledge which the King or his Vassals a fore-time had enjoyed touching either possessory Judgements of Ecclesiastical Livings or concerning nominations thereunto or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such Affairs If therefore the Kings exception taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council were a sufficient barr to make them of none effect within his Territories it followeth that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy and so consequently that no part therof had obtained the strength of a Law if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole as what reason was there but that the same Authority which limited might quite and clean have refused that Council who so alloweth the said Act of the Catholick Kings for good and
way by the faith of Abraham the other way except we do the works of Abraham we are not righteous Of the one St. Paul To him that worketh not but believeth Faith is counted for Righteousness Of the other St. Iohn Qui facit Iustitiam justus est He is righteous which worketh Righteousnesse Of the one St. Paul doth prove by Abrahams Example that we have it of Faith without Works Of the other St. Iames by Abrahams Example that by Works we have it and not onely by Faith St. Paul doth plainly sever these two parts of Christian righteousness one from the other For in the sixth to the Romans thus he writeth Being freed from sin and made Servants to God ye have your fruit in Holinesse and the end everlasting life Ye are made free from sin and made Servants unto God this is the righteousness of Iustification ye have your Fruit in Holiness this is the righteousness of Sanctification By the one we are interessed in the right of inheriting by the other we are brought to the actual possession of eternal bliss and so the end of both is everlasting life 7. The Prophet Habakh doth here term the Jews Righteous men not onely because being justified by Faith they were free from sin but also because they had their measure of fruits in Holiness According to whose example of charitable Judgement which leaveth it to God to discern what we are and speaketh of them according to that which they do profess themselves to be although they be not holy men whom men do think but whom God doth know indeed to be such yet let every Christian man know that in Christian equity he standeth bound for to think and speak of his Brethren as of men that have a measure in the fruit of Holinesse and a right unto the Titles wherewith God in token of special favour and mercy vouchsafeth to honour his chosen Servants So we see the Apostle of our Saviour Christ do use every where the name of Saints so the Prophet the name of Righteous But let us all be such as we desire to be termed Reatus impii est pium nomen saith Salvianus Godly names do not justifie godless men We are but upbraided when we are honored with names and Titles whereunto our lives and manners are not suitable If indeed we have our fruit in Holiness notwithstanding we must note that the more we abound therein the more need we have to crave that we may be strengthened and supported Our very vertues may be snares unto us The enemy that waiteth for all occasions to work our ruine hath found it harder to overthrow an humble Sinner than a proud Saint There is no man's case so dangerous as his whom Sathan hath perswaded that his own righteousness shall present him pure and blamelesse in the sight of God If we could say we were not guilty of any thing at all in our Consciences we know our selves farr from this innocency we cannot say we know nothing by our selves but if we could should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge that sees further into our hearts than we our selves can do If our hands did never offer violence to our Brethren a bloody thought doth prove us Murtherers before him If we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous offensive or hurtful word the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the ears of God If we did not commit the sins which daily and hourly either in deed word or thoughts we do commit yet in the good things which we doe how many defects are these intermingled God in that which is done respecteth the minde and intention of the doer Cutt off then all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory those things which men do to please men and to satisfie our own liking those things which we do for any by-respect not sincerely and purely for the love of God and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds Let the holiest and best things which we do be considered we are never better affected unto God than when we pray yet when we pray how are our affections many times distracted how little reverence do we shew unto the grand Majesty of God unto whom we speak How little remorse of our own miseries How little taste of the sweet influence of his tender mercies do we feel Are we not as unwilling many times to begin and as glad to make an ends as if in saying Call upon me he had set us a very burthensome task it may seen somewhat extream which I will speak therefore let every one judge of it even as his own heart shall tell him and no otherwise I will but onely make a demand If God should yield unto us not as unto Abraham If fifty forty thirty twenty yea or if ten good Persons could be found in a City for their sakes that City should not be destroyed but and if he should make us an offer thus large Search all the Generations of men sithence the Fall of our Father Adam finde one man that hath done one Action which hath past from him pure without any strain or blemish at all and for that one man's onely action neither Man nor Angel shall feel the torments which are prepared for both Do you think that this ransome to deliver Men and Angels could be found to be among the Sons of men The best things which we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned How then can we do any thing meritorious or worthy to be rewarded Indeed God doth liberally promise whatsoever appertaineth to a blessed life to as many as sincerely keep his Law though they be not exactly able to keep it Wherefore we acknowledge a dutiful necessity of doing well but the meritorious dignity of doing well we utterly renounce We see how farr we are from the perfect righteousness of the Law the little fruit which we have in holiness it is God knoweth corrupt and unfound we put no confidence at all in it we challenge nothing in the world for it we dare not call God to reckoning as if we had him in our Debt-books our continual suit to him is and must be to bear with our infirmities and pardon our offences 8. But the People of whom the Prophet speaketh were they all or were the most part of them such as had care to walk uprightly Did they thirst after righteousness did they with did they long with the righteous Prophet Oh that our ways were so direct that we might keep thy Statutes Did they lament with the righteous Apostle Oh miserable men the good which we wish and purpose and strive to do we cannot No the words of the other Prophet concerning this People do shew the contrary How grievously hath Esay mourned over them O sinful Nation laden with Iniquity wicked Seâ—d corrupt Children All which notwithstanding so wide are the bowels of his Compassion enlarged
be led than drawn doth many times stubbornly resist Authority when to Perswasion it easily yieldeth Whereupon the Wisest Law-makers have endeavoured always that those Laws might seem most reasonable which they would have most inviolably kept A Law simply commanding or forbidding is but dead in comparison of that which expresseth the reason wherefore it doth the one or the other And surely even in the Laws of God although that he hath given Commandment be in it self a reason sufficient to exact all obedience at the hands of men yet a forcible inducement it is to obey with greater alacrity and chearfulnesse of minde when we see plainly that nothing is imposed more than we must needs yield unto except we will be unreasonable In a word whatsoever be taught be it Precept for direction of our Manners or Article for instruction of our Faith or document any way for information of our mindes it then taketh root and abideth when we conceive not onely what God doth speak but why Neither is it a small thing which we derogate as well from the honour of his Truth as from the comfort joy and delight which we our selves should take by it when we loosely slide over his speech as though it were as our own is commonly vulgar and trivial Whereas he uttereth nothing but it hath besides the substance of Doctrine delivered a depth of wisdom in the very choice and frame of words to deliver it in The reason whereof being not perceived but by greater intention of brain than our nice mindes for the most part can well away with fain we would bring the World if we might to think it but a needless curiosity to rip up any thing further than extemporal readness of wit doth serve to reach unto Which course if here we did list to follow we might tell you that in the first branch of this Sentence God doth condemn the Babylonian's pride and in the second teach what happiness of state shall grow to the righteous by the constancy of their Faith notwithstanding the troubles which now they suffer and after certain notes of wholsome instruction hereupon collected pass over without detaining your mindes in any further removed speculation But as I take it there is a difference between the talk that beseemeth Nurses among Children and that which men of Capacity and Judgment do or should receive instruction by The minde of the Prophet being erected with that which hath been hitherto spoken receiveth here for full satisfaction a short abridgement of that which is afterwards more particularly unfolded Wherefore as the question before disputed of doth concern two sorts of men the Wicked flourishing as the Bay and the righteous like the withered Grass the one full of pride the other cast down with utter discouragement so the answer which God doth make for resolution of doubts hereupon arisen hath reference unto both sorts and this present sentence containing a brief Abstract thereof comprehendeth summarily as well the fearful estate of iniquity over-exalted as the hope laid up for righteousness opprest In the former branch of which Sentence let us first examine what this rectitude or straitness importeth which God denieth to be in the minde of the Babylonian All things which God did create he made them at the first true good and right True in respect of correspondence unto that pattern of their Being which was eternally drawn in the Counsel of God's fore-knowledge Good in regard of the use and benefit which each thing yieldeth unto other Right by an'apt conformity of all parts with that end which is outwardly proposed for each thing to tend unto Other things have ends proposed but have not the faculty to know judge and esteem of them and therefore as they tend thereunto unwittingly so likewise in the means whereby they acquire their appointed ends they are by necessity so held that they cannot divert from them The ends why the Heavens do move the Heavens themselves know not and their motions they cannot but continue Only men in all their actions know what it is which they seek for neither are they by any such necessity tyed naturally unto any certain determinate mean to obtain their end by but that they may if they will forsake it And therefore in the whole World no Creature but onely man which hath the last end of his actions proposed as a recompence and reward whereunto his minde directly bending it self is termed right or strait otherwise perverse To make this somewhat more plain we must note that as they which travel from City to City enquire ever for the straightest way because the streightest is that which soonest bringeth them unto their journeys end So we having here as the Apostle speaketh no abiding City but being always in travel towards that place of joy immortality and rest cannot but in every of our deeds words and thoughts think that to be best which with most expedition leadeth us thereunto and is for that very cause termed right That Soveraign good which is the eternal fruition of all good being our last and chiefest felicity there is no desperate Despiser of God and godliness living which doth not wish for The difference between right and crooked mindes is in the means which the one of the other eschew or follow Certain it is that all particular things which are naturally desired in the world as Food Rayment Honor Wealth Pleasure Knowledge they are subordinated in such wise unto that future Good which we look for in the World to come that even in them there lyeth a direct way tending unto this Otherwise we must think that God making promises of good things in this life did seek to pervert men and to lead them from their right minds Where is then the obliquity of the minde of man his minde is perverse cam and crooked not when it bendeth it self unto any of these things but when it bendeth so that it swerveth either to the right hand or to the left by excess or defect from that exact rule whereby Human actions are measured The rule to measure and judge them by is the Law of God For this cause the Prophet doth make so often and so earnest suit O direct me in the way of thy Commandments As long as I have respect to thy Statules I am sure not to tread amiss Under the name of the Law we must comprehend not only that which God hath written in Tables and Leaves but that which Nature also hath engraven in the hearts of men Else how should those Heathens which never had Books but Heaven and Earth to look upon be convicted of Perverseness But the Gentiles which had not the Law in Books had saith the Apostle the effect of the Law written in their hearts Then seeing that the heart of man is not right exactly unless it be found in all parts such that God examining and calling it unto account with all severity of rigour be not able once to charge it with
his absence should bereave them of and secondly of the sundry evils which themselves should be subject unto being once bereaved of so gracious a Master and Patron The one consideration over-whelmed their Souls with heaviness the other with fear Their Lord and Saviour whose words had cast down their hearts raiseth them presently again with chosen sentences of sweet encouragement My dear it is for your own sakes I leave the World I know the affections of your hearts are tender but if your love were directed with that advised and staid judgment which should be in you my speech of leaving the World and going unto my Father would not a little augment your joy Desolate and comfortless I will not leave you in Spirit I am with you to the Worlds end whether I be present or absent nothing shall ever take you out of these hands my going is to take possession of that in your names which is not only for me but also for you prepared where I am you shall be In the mean while my peace I give not as the World giveth give I unto you Let not your hearts be troubled nor fear The former part of which Sentence having otherwhere already been spoken of this unacceptable occasion to open the latter part thereof here I did not look for But so God disposeth the wayes of men Him I heartily beseech that the thing which he hath thus ordered by his Providence may through his gracious goodnesse turn unto your comfort Our Nature for coveteth preservation from things hurtful Hurtful things being present do breed heaviness being future do cause fear Our Saviour to abate the one speaketh thus unto his Disciples Let not your Hearts be troubled and to moderate the other addeth Fear not Grief and heaviness in the presence of sensible Evils cannot but trouble the mindes of men It may therefore seem that Christ required a thing impossible Be not troubled Why how could they choose But we must note this being natural and therefore simply not reproveable is in us good or bad according to the causes for which we are grieved or the measure of our grief It is not my meaning to speak so largely of this affection as to go over all particulars whereby men do one way or other offend in it but to teach it so farr onely as it may cause the very Apostles equals to swerve Our grief and heaviness therefore is reproveable sometime in respect of the cause from whence sometime in regard of the measure whereunto it groweth When Christ the life of the World was led unto cruel death there followed a number of People and Women which Women bewayled much his heavy case It was a natural compassion which caused them where they saw undeserved miseries there to pour forth unrestrained tears Nor was this reproved But in such readiness to lament where they less needed their blindness in not discerning that for which they ought much rather to have mourned this our Saviour a little toucheth putting them in minde that the tears which were wasted for him might better have been spent upon themselves Daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me weep for your selves and for your children It is not as the Stoicks have imagined a thing unseemly for a Wise man to be touched with grief of minde but to be sorrowful when we least should and where we should lament there to laugh this argueth our small wisdom Again when the Prophet David confesseth thus of himself I grieved to see the great prosperity of godless men how they flourish and go untoucht Psal. 73. Himself hereby openeth both our common and his peculiar imperfection whom this cause should not have made so pensive To grieve at this is to grieve where we should not because this grief doth rise from Errour We erre when we grieve at wicked mens impunity and prosperity because their Estate being rightly discerned they neither prosper nor go unpunished It may seem a Paradox it is truth That no wicked man's estate is prosperous fortunate or happy For what though they bless themselves and think their happinesse great Have not frantick Persons many times a great opinion of their own wisdome It may be that such as they think themselves others also do account them But what others Surely such as themselves are Truth and Reason discerneth farâ— otherwise of them Unto whom the Jews wish all prosperity unto them the phrase of their speech is to wish Peace Seeing then the name of Peace containeth in it all parts of true happiness when the Prophet saith plainly That the Wicked have no peace how can we think them to have any part of other than vainly imagined Felicity What wise man did ever account Fools happy If Wicked men were wise they would cease to be wicked Their Iniquity therefore proving their Folly how can we stand in doubt of their misery They abound in those things which all men desire A poor happinesse to have good things in possession A man to whom God hath given Riches and Treasures and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that it desireth but yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof such a felicity Solomon esteemeth but as a vanity a thing of nothing If such things adde nothing to mens happiness where they are not used surely Wicked men that use them ill the more they have the more wretched Of their Prosperity therefore we see what we are to think Touching their Impunity the same is likewise but supposed They are oftner plagued than we are aware of The pangs they feel are not always written in their forehead Though Wickedness be Sugar in their mouths and Wantonness as Oyl to make them look with chearful Countenance nevertheless if their Hearts were disclosed perhaps their glittering state would not greatly be envied The voyces that have broken out from some of them O that God had given me a heart sensless like the flints in the rocks of stone which as it can taste no pleasure so it feeleth no wo these and the like speeches are surely tokens of the curse which Zophar in the Book of Iob poureth upon the head of the impious man He shall suck the gall of Asps and the Viper's tongue shall slay him If this seem light because it is secret shall we think they go unpunished because no apparent Plague is presently seen upon them The Judgments of God do not always follow crimes as Thunder doth Lightning but sometimes the space of many Ages coming between When the Sun hath shined fair the space of six dayes upon their Tabernacle we know not what Clouds the seventh may bring And when their punishment doth come let them make their account in the greatness of their sufferings to pay the interest of that respite which hath been given them Or if they chance to escape clearly in this World which they seldome do in the Day when the Heavens shall shrivel as a scrowl and the Mountains
and to morrow condescend to have him beheaded or with the other Herod say they will worship Christ when they purpose a massacre in their hearts kiss Christ with Iudas and betray Christ with Iudas These are Mockers For Ishmael the Son of Hagar laughed at Isaac which was heir of the Promise so shall these men laugh at you as the maddest People under the Sun if ye be like Moses choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season And why God hath not given them eyes to see nor hearts to conceive that exceeding recompence of your reward The promises of Salvation made to you are matters wherein they can take no pleasure even as Ishmael took no pleasure in that promise wherein God had said unto Abraham In Isaac shall thy seed be called because the Promise concerned not him but Isaac They are termed for their impiety towards God Mockers and for the impurity of their life and conversation Walkers after-their own ungodly lusts Saint Peter in his second Epistle and third Chapter soundeth the very depth of their impiety shewing first how they shall not shame at the length to profess themselves prophane and iâ—â—eligious by flat denying the Gospel of Jesus Christ and deâ—ding the sweet and comfortable promises of his appearing Secondly that they shall not be onely deâ—iders of all Religion but also disputers against God using Truth to subvert the Truth yea Scriptures themselves to disprove Scriptures Being in this sort Mockers they must needs be also Followers of their own ungodly lusts Being Atheists in perswasion can they choose but be Beasts in conversation For why remove they quite from them the feat of God Why take they such pains to abandon and put out from their hearts all sense all taste all feeling of Religion but onely to this end and purpose that they may without inward remorse and grudging of Conscience give over themselves to all uncleanness Surely the state of these men is more lamentable than is the condition of Pagans and Turks For at the bare beholding of Heaven and Earth the Infidel's heart by and by doth give him that there is an eternal infinite immortal and ever-living God whose hands have fashioned and framed the World he knoweth that every House is builded of some man though he see not the man which built the House and he considereth that it must be God which hath built and created all things although because the number of his days be few he could not see when God disposed his Works of old when he caused the light of his Clouds first to shine when he laid the Corner-stone of the Earth and swadled it with bands of Water and Darkness when he caused the Morning-star to know his place and made bars and doors to shut up the Sea within his House saying Hitherto shalt thou come but no further he hath no eye-witnesse of these things Yet the light of Natural reason hath put this wisdom in his reâ—ns and hath given his Heart thus much understanding Bring a Pagan to the Schools of the Prophets of God prophesie to an Infidel rebuke him lay the judgements of God before him make the secret sinnes of his heart manifest and he shall fall down and worship God They that crucified the Lord of Glory were not so farr past recovery but that the preaching of the Apostles was able to move their hearts and to bring them to this Men and Brethren what shall we doe Agrippa that sate in judgement against Paul for Preaching yielded notwithstanding thus farr unto him Almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian. Although the Jews for want of knowledge have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God yet I bear them record saith the Apostle That they have a zeal The Athenians a people having neither zeal nor knowledge yet of them also the same Apostle beareth witnesse Ye men of Athens I perceive ye are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some way religious but Mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts they have smothered every spark of that heavenly light they have stifled even their very natural understanding O Lord thy Mercy is over all thy works thou savest Man and Beast yet a happy case it had been for these men if they had never been born and so I leave them 10. Saint Iude having his minde exercised in the Doctrine of the Apostles of Jesus Christ concerning things to come in the last time became a man of wise and staid judgement Grieved he was to see the departure of many and their falling away from the Faith which before they did professe grieved but not dismayed With the simpler and weaker sort it was otherwise Their countenance began by and by to change they were half in doubt they had deceived themselves in giving credit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Saint Iude to comfort and refresh these silly Babes taketh them up in his armes and sheweth them the men at whom they were offended Look upon them that forsake this blessed Profession wherein you stand they are now before your eyes view them mark them are they not carnal are they not like to noysom carrion cast out upon the Earth is there that Spirit in them which cryeth Abba Father in your bosoms Why should any man be discomforted Have you not heard that there should be Mockers in the last time These verily are they that now do separate themselves 11. For your better understanding what this severing and separating of themselves doth mean we must know that the multitude of them which truly believe howsoever they be dispersed farr and wide each from other is all one Body whereof the Head is Christ one building whereof he is the Corner-stone to whom they as the Members of the Body being knit and as the stones of the Building being coupled grow up to a man of perfect stature and rise to an holy Temple in the Lord. That which linketh Christ to us is his mere mercy and love towards us That which tyeth us to him is our faith in the promised Salvation revealed in the Word of Truth That which uniteth and joyneth us amongst our selves in such sort that we are now as if we had but one Heart and one Soul is our love Who be inwardly in Heart the lively Members of this Body and the polished stones of this Building coupled and joyned to Christ as flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones by the mutual bond of his unspeakable love towards them and their unseigâ—ed faith in him thus linked and fastned each to other by a spiritual sincere and hearty affection of love without any manner of simulation who be Jewes within and what their names be none can tell save he whose eyes do behold the secret disposition of all mens hearts We whose eyes are too dim to behold the inward man must leave the secret judgement of every Servant to his own Lord accounting