the Opinions of Men about him were various and different that some took him for John the Baptist lately risen from the dead between whose Doctrine Discipline and way of life in the main there was so great a Correspondence That others thought he was Elias probably judging so from the gravity of his Person freedom of his Preaching the fame and reputation of his Miracles especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead but taken up into Heaven and had so expresly foretold that he should return back again That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again of whose return the Jewes had great expectations in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into 〈◊〉 Or if not thus at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras being at this time current amongst the Jews and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles 2. THIS Account not 〈◊〉 our Lord comes closer and nearer to them tells them It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him but since they had been always with him had been hearers of his Sermons and Spectators of his Miracles he enquired what they themselves thought of him Peter ever forward to return an Answer and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles told him in the name of the rest That he was the Messiah The Son of the living God promised of old in the Law and the Prophets heartily desired and looked for by all good men anointed and set apart by God to be the King Priest and Prophet of his People To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven That is this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane contrived by Man's wit or built upon his testimony but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World and those mighty and solemn attestations which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine And because thou hast so freely made this Confession therefore I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That is that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock such shalt thou thy self be firm solid and immoveable in building of the Church which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it shall not be able to overturn it Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven That is thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners and upon their repentance to unlock the door and take them in again And what thou shalt thus regularly do shall be own'd in the Court above and ratified by God in Heaven 3. UPON these several passages the Champions of the Church of Rome mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See with how much truth and how little reason it is not my present purpose to discuss It may suffice here to remark that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of Saint Peter yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone as distinct from and preserred above the rest of the Apostles Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God Yet besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest this was no more than what others had said as well as he yea besore he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him Rabbi thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Does our Lord here stile him a Rock All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations yea said to be the Twelve Foundations upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem that is the Evangelical Church is 〈◊〉 and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars as they have relation to the Church already built Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter that is Power of Governing and of exercising Church-censures and of absolving penitent sinners The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles and almost in the very same termes and words If thine offending Brother prove obstinate tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And elsewhere when ready to leave the World he tells them As my Father hath sent me even so send I you whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained By all which it is evident that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles so what was here promised unto him was equally intended unto all Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ever understand it in any other sence Sure I am that Origen tells us that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem what affronts and indignities he must undergo and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim Peter whom our Lord had infinitely incouraged and indeared to him by the great things which he had lately said concerning him so that his spirits were now afloat and his
Hypocrisie and vanities of the one and the Heresie of the other For Herod's leven was the pretence that he was the Messias which the Sect of the 〈◊〉 did earnestly and spitefully promote And after this 〈◊〉 of themselves by the way they came together to Bethsaida where Jesus cured a blind man with a collyrium of spittle salutary as Balsam or the purest Eyebright when his divine benediction once had hallowed it But Jesus staid not there but departing thence into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi out of Herod's power for it was in Philip's jurisdiction after he had prayed with his Disciples he enquired what opinion the world had of him and whom they reported him to be They answered Some say thou art John the Baptist some that thou art Elias or Jeremias or one of the Prophets for in 〈◊〉 especially the Sect of the Pharisees was mightily disseminated whose opinion it was that the Souls of dead men according to their several merits did transmigrate into other bodies of very perfect and excellent persons And therefore in all this variety none hit upon the right or fansied him to be a distinct person from the ancients but although they differed in the assignation of his name yet generally they agreed it was the Soul of a departed Prophet which had passed into another Body But Jesus asked the Apostles their opinion and Peter in the name of all the rest made an open and confident Confession Thou art CHRIST the Son of the living God 9. This Confession Jesus not only confirmed as true but as revealed by God and of fundamental necessity for after the blessing of Peter's person upon allusion of Peter's name Jesus said that upon this Rock the article of Peter's Confession he would build his Church promising to it assistances even to perpetuity insomuch that the gates of hell that is persecution and death and the grave should never prevail against it adding withall a promise to Peter in behalf of all the rest as he had made a Confession for them all that he would give unto him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so that whatsoever he should bind on earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed in Heaven a power which he never communicated before or since but to their successors greater than the large Charter of Nature and the donative of Creation in which all the creatures under Heaven were made subject to Man's Empire but till now Heaven it self was never subordinate to humane ministration 10. And now the days from hence forward to the Death of Jesus we must reckon to be like the Vigils or Eves of his Passion for now he began and often did ingeminate those sad predictions of his unhandsome usage he should shortly find that he 〈◊〉 be rejected of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and suffer many things at Jerusalem and be killed and be raised up the third day But Peter hearing that sad discourse so contrary to his hopes which he had blended with temporal expectances for he had learned the Doctrine of Christ's Advent but not the mystery of the Cross in great and mistaken civility took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee But Jesus full of zeal against so soft and humane admonition that savoured nothing of God or of abstracted immaterial considerations chid Peter bitterly Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me And calling his Disciples to him told them a second part of a sad doctrine that not only himself but all they also must suffer For when the Head was to be crowned with thorns if the Members were wrapped in softnesses it was an unhansome undecency and a disunion too near an antipathy and therefore who ever will be the Disciple of Jesus must take up his Cross deny himself and his own fonder appetites and trace his Master's foot-steps marked out with bloud that he shed for our Redemption and restitution And that there be no escape from the participation of Christ's suffering Jesus added this Dilemma He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose it shall save it to eternity Which part soever we chuse there is a life to be lost but as the first are foolish to the extremest misery that will lose their Souls to gain the World so they are most wise and fortunate that will give their lives for him because when the Son of Man shall come in his own glory and his Father's and of his Angels he shall reward every man according to his works This discourse Jesus concluded with a Prophecy that some standing in that presence should not die till they saw the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom 11. Of the greater glories of which in due time to be revealed Jesus after eight days gave a bright and excellent probation For taking with him Peter and James and John he went up into the mountain Tabor to pray and while he prayed he was transfigured before them and his face did shine like the Sun and his garments were white and 〈◊〉 And there appeared talking with him Moses and Elias gloriously speaking of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem which glory these Apostles after they had awaked from sleep did behold And the Interlocutors with Jesus having finished their embassy of death which they delivered in forms of glory representing the excellencies of the reward together with the sharpness of the passage and interval departed leaving the Apostles full of fear and wonder and 〈◊〉 insomuch that Peter talked he knew not what but nothing amiss something Prophetical saying Master it is good to be here 〈◊〉 us build three tabernacles And some devout persons in memory of the mystery did 〈◊〉 three Churches in the same place in after-Ages But after the departure of those attendent Saints a cloud incircled Jesus and the Disciples and a voice came from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son hear him The cloud quickly disappeared and freed the Disciples from the fear it had put them in So they attended Jesus and descended from the mountain being commanded silence which they observed till the Resurrection 12. The next day came to Jesus a man praying in behalf of his son Lunatick and sore troubled with a Devil who sought oft to destroy him in fire and water that Jesus would be pleased to deliver him For his Apostles tried and could not by reason of the want of Faith for this Grace if it be true though in a less degree is of power to remove mountains to pluck up trees by the roots and to give them solid foundation in the waters And Jesus rebuked the Devil and 〈◊〉 departed out of him from that very hour Thence Jesus departed privately into Galilee and in his journey repeated those sadnesses of his approaching Passion Which so afflicted the spirits of the Disciples that they durst
no more provoke him to discourse lest he should take occasion to interweave something of that unpleasant argument with it For sad and disconsolate persons use to create comsorts to themselves by fiction of fancy and use arts of avocation to remove displeasure from them and stratagems to remove it from their presence by removing it from their apprehensions thinking the incommodity of it is then taken away when they have lost the sense 13. When Jesus was now come to Capernaum the exactors of rates came to Simon Peter asking him if his Master paid the accustomed imposition viz. a sicle or didrachm the fourth part of an ounce of silver which was the tribute which the Lord imposed upon all the sons of Israel from twenty years old and above to pay for redemption and propitiation and for the use of the Tabernacle When Peter came into the house Jesus knowing the message that he was big with prevented him by asking him Of whom do the Kings of the Nations take tribute of their own children or of strangers Peter answered Of strangers Then said Jesus then are the children free meaning that since the Gentile Kings do not exact tribute of their sons neither will God of his And therefore this Pension to be paid for the use of the Tabernacle for the service of God for the redemption of their Souls was not to be paid by him who was the Son of God but by strangers Yet to avoid offence he sent Peter a-fishing and provided a fish with two didrachms of silver in it which he commanded Peter to pay for them two 14. But when the Disciples were together with Jesus in the house he asked them what they discoursed of upon the way for they had fallen upon an ambitious and mistaken quarrel which of them should be greatest in their Master's Kingdom which they still did dream should be an external and secular Royalty full of fancy and honour But the Master was diligent to check their forwardness establishing a rule for Clerical deportment He that will be greatest among you let him be your Minister so supposing a greater and a lesser a Minister and a person to be ministred unto but dividing the grandeur of the Person from the greatness of Office that the higher the imployment is the more humble should be the man because in Spiritual prelation it is not as in Secular pomps where the Dominion is despotick the Coercion bloudy the Dictates 〈◊〉 the Laws externally compulsory and the Titles arrogant and vain and all the advantages are so passed upon the Person that making that first to be splendid it passes from the Person to the subjects who in abstracted essences do not easily apprehend Regalities in veneration but as they are subjected in persons made excellent by such superstructures of Majesty But in Dignities Ecelesiastical the Dominion is paternal the 〈◊〉 perswasive and argumentative the Coercion by censures immaterial by cession and consent by denial of benefits by the interest of vertues and the efficacy of hopes and impresses upon the spirit the Laws are full of admonition and Sermon the Titles of honour monitors of duty and memorials of labour and offices and all the advantages which from the Office usually pass upon the Person are to be devested by the humility of the man and when they are of greatest veneration they are abstracted excellencies and immaterial not passing through the Person to the people and reslected to his lustre but transmitted by his labour and ministery and give him honour for his labour's sake which is his personal excellency not for his honour and title which is either a derivative from Christ or from the constitution of pious persons estimating and valuing the relatives of Religion 15. Then Jesus taketh a little child and setteth him in the midst propounding him by way of Emblem a pattern of Humility and Simplicity without the mixtures of Ambition or caitive distempers such infant candour and low liness of spirit being the necessary port through which we must pass if we will enter into the Courts of Heaven But as a current of wholsome waters breaking from its restraint runs out in a succession of waters and every preceding draught draws out the next so were the Discourses of Jesus excellent and opportune creating occasions for others that the whole doctrine of the Gospel and the entire will of the Father might be communicated upon design even the chances of words and actions being made regular and orderly by Divine Providence For from the instance of Humility in the symbol and Hieroglyphick of the child Jesus discourses of the care God takes of little children whether naturally or spiritually such the danger of doing them scandal and offences the care and power of their Angels guardian of the necessity in the event that Scandals should arise and of the great woe and infelicity of those persons who were the active ministers of such offences 16. But if in the traverses of our life discontents and injuries be done Jesus teaches how the injured person should demean himself First reprove the offending party privately if he repent forgive him for ever with a mercy as unwearied and as multiplied as his repentance For the servant to whom his Lord had forgiven 10000 talents because he refused to forgive his fellow-servant 100 pence was delivered to the tormentors till he should pay that debt which his Lord once forgave till the servant's impiety forced him to repent his donative and remission But if he refuses the charity of private correction let him be reproved before a few witnesses and in case he be still incorrigible let him be brought to the tribunal of the Church against whose advices if he shall kick let him feel her power and be cut off from the communion of Saints becoming a Pagan or a Publican And to make that the Church shall not have a dead and ineffectual hand in her animadversions Jesus promises to all the Apostles what before he promised to Peter a power of binding and loosing on earth and that it should be ratified in Heaven what they shall so dispose on earth with an unerring key 17. But John interrupted him telling him of a stranger that cast out Devils in the name of Jesus but because he was not of the family he had forbidden him To this Jesus replied that he should in no wise have forbidden him for in all reason he would do veneration to that person whose Name he saw to be energetical and triumphant over Devils and in whose name it is almost necessary that man should believe who used it as an instrument of ejection of impure spirits Then Jesus proceeded in his excellent Sermon and union of discourses adding holy Precepts concerning offences which a man might do to himself in which case he is to be severe though most gentle to others For in his own case he must shew no mercy but abscission for it it better to cut off the offending
exceedingly troubled publickly rebuked him for it and that as the case required with great sharpness and severity It was not long after that S. Paul and 〈◊〉 resolved upon visiting the Churches which they had lately planted among the Gentiles To which end Barnabas determined to take his cousin Mark along with them This Paul would by no means agree to he having deserted them in their former journey A little spark which yet kindled a great feud and dissention between these two good men and arose to that height that in some discontent they parted from each other So natural is it for the best of men sometimes to indulge an unwarrantable passion and so far to espouse the interest of a private and particular humour as rather to hazard the great Law of Charity and violate the bands of friendship than to recede from it The effect was Barnabas taking his Nephew went for Cyprus his native Country S. Paul made choice of Silas and the success of his undertaking being first recommended to the Divine care and goodness they set forwards on their journey 2. THEIR first passage was into Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches as they went along And to that end 〈◊〉 with them Copies of the Synodical Decrees lately ordained in the Council at Jerusalem Hence we may suppose it was that he set 〈◊〉 for Crete where he preached and propagated Christianity and constituted Titus to be the first Bishop and Pastor of that Island whom he left there to settle and dispose those affairs which the shortness of his own stay in those parts would not suffer him to do Hence he returned back unto Cilicia and came to Lystra where he found Timothy whose Father was a Greek his Mother a Jewish convert by whom he had been brought up under all the advantages of a pious and religious education and especially an incomparable skill and dexterity in the holy Scriptures S. Paul designing him for the companion of his travels and a special instrument in the Ministery of the Gospel and knowing that his being uncircumcised would be a mighty prejudice in the opinion and estimation of the Jews caused him to be circumcised being willing in lawful and indifferent matters such was Circumcision now become to accommodate himself to mens humors and apprehensions for the saving of their Souls 3. FROM hence with his company he passed through Phrygia and the Country of Galatia where he was entertained by them with as mighty a kindness and veneration as if he had been an Angel immediately sent from Heaven And being by Revelation forbidden to go into Asia by a second Vision he was commanded to direct his journey for Macedonia And here it was that S. Luke joyned himself to his company and became ever after his inseparable companion Sailing from Troas they arrived at the Island Samothracia and thence to 〈◊〉 from whence they went to Philippi the chief City of that part of Macedonia and a Roman Colony where he staid some considerable time to plant the Christian Faith and where his Ministery had more particular success on Lydia a Purple-seller born at 〈◊〉 baptized together with her whole Family and with her the Apostle sojourned during his residence in that place A little without this City there was a Proseucha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Syriac renders it an Oratory or house of Prayer whereto the Apostle and his company used frequently to retire for the exercise of their Religion and for preaching the Gospel to 〈◊〉 that resorted thither The Jews had 〈◊〉 sorts of places for their publick worship The Temple at Jerusalem which was like the Cathedral or Mother-Church where all Sacrifices and Oblations were 〈◊〉 and where all Males were bound three times a-year personally to pay their devotions Their Synagogues many whereof they had almost in every place not unlike our Parochial Churches where the Scriptures were read and expounded and the people taught their duty Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day And then they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo sometimes calls them or 〈◊〉 which were like Chappels of Ease to the Temple and the 〈◊〉 whither the people were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven They were built as 〈◊〉 informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the City in the open Air and uncovered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being large spacious places after the manner of Fora or Market-places and these they called 〈◊〉 And that the Jews and Samaritans had such places of Devotion he proves from this very place at Philippi where S. Paul preached For they had them not in Judaea only but even at Rome it self where Tiberius as Philo tells 〈◊〉 the Emperor suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberin Region and undisturbedly to 〈◊〉 according to the Rites of their Institutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to have their Proseucha's and to meet in them especially upon their holy Sabbaths that they might be familiarly instructed in the Laws and Religion of their Country Such they had also in other places especially where they had not or were not suffered to have Synagogues for their publick worship But to return 4. AS they were going to this Oratory they were often followed by a Pythonesse a Maid-servant acted by a spirit of Divination who openly cried out That these men were the servants of the most high God who came to shew the way of Salvation to the World So easily can Heaven extort a Testimony from the mouth of Hell But S. Paul to shew how little he needed Satan to be his witness commanded the Daemon to come out which immediately left her The evil Spirit thus thrown out of possession presently raised a storm against the Apostles for the Masters of the Damsel who used by her Diabolical arts to raise great advantages to themselves being sensible that now their gainful Trade was spoil'd resolved to be revenged on them that had spoiled it Accordingly they laid hold upon them and drag'd them before the Seat of Judicature insinuating to the Governours that these men were Jews and sought to introduce different customs and ways of worship contrary to the Laws of the Roman Empire The Magistrates and People were soon agreed the one to give Sentence the other to set upon the Execution In fine they were stript beaten and then commanded to be thrown into Prison and the Jaylor charged to keep them with all possible care and strictness Who to make sure of his charge thrust them into the Inner-Dungeon and made their feet fast in the Stocks But a good man can turn a Prison into a Chappel and make a den of Thieves to be an house of Prayer Our feet cannot be bound so fast to the Earth but that still our hearts may mount up to Heaven At midnight the Apostles were over-heard by their fellow-prisoners praying and singing
an uncertain hill and the way to it had been upon the waters upon which no spirit but that of Contradiction and Discord did ever move for the man should have tended to an end of an uncertain dwelling and walked to it by ways not discernible and arrived thither by chance which because it is irregular would have discomposed the pleasures of a Christian Hope as the very disputing hath already destroyed Charity and disunited the continuity of Faith and in the consequent there would be no Vertue and no Felicity But God who never loved that Man should be too ambitiously busie in imitating his Wisedom and Man lost Paradise for it is most desirous we should imitate his Goodness and transcribe copies of those excellent Emanations from his Holiness whereby as he communicates himself to us in Mercies so he propounds himself imitable by us in Graces And in order to this God hath described our way plain certain and determined and although he was pleased to leave us indetermined in the Questions of exteriour Communion yet he put it past all question that we are bound to be Charitable He hath placed the Question of the state of Separation in the dark in hidden and undiscerned regions but he hath opened the windows of Heaven and given great light to us teaching how we are to demean our selves in the state of Conjunction Concerning the Salvation of Heathens he was not pleased to give us account but he hath clearly described the duty of Christians and tells upon what terms alone we shall be saved And although the not inquiring into the ways of God and the strict rules of practice have been instrumental to the preserving them free from the serpentine enfoldings and labyrinths of Dispute yet God also with a great design of mercy hath writ his Commandments in so large characters and engraven them in such Tables that no man can want the Records nor yet skill to read the hand-writing upon this wall if he understands what he understands that is what is placed in his own spirit For God was therefore desirous that humane nature should be perfected with moral not intellectual Excellencies because these only are of use and compliance with our present state and conjunction If God had given to Eagles an appetite to swim or to the Elephant strong desires to fly he would have ordered that an abode in the Sea and the Air respectively should have been proportionable to their manner of living for so God hath done to Man fitting him with such Excellencies which are useful to him in his ways and progress to Perfection A man hath great use and need of Justice and all the instances of Morality serve his natural and political ends he cannot live without them and be happy but the filling the rooms of the Understanding with aiery and ineffective Notions is just such an Excellency as it is in a Man to imitate the voice of Birds at his very best the Nightingale shall excel him and it is of no use to that End which God designed him in the first intentions of creation In pursuance of this consideration I have chosen to serve the purposes of Religion by doing assistence to that part of Theologie which is wholly practical that which makes us wiser therefore because it makes us 〈◊〉 And truly my Lord it is enough to weary the spirit of a Disputer that he shall argue till he hath lost his voice and his time and sometimes the Question too and yet no man shall be of his mind more than was before How few turn Lutherans or Calvinists or Roman Catholicks from the Religion either of their Country or Interest Possibly two or three weak or interested phantastick and easie prejudicate and effeminate understandings pass from Church to Church upon grounds as weak as those for which formerly they did dissent and the same Arguments are good or bad as exteriour accidents or interiour appetites shall determine I deny not but for great causes some Opinions are to be quitted but when I consider how few do forsake any and when any do oftentimes they chuse the wrong side and they that take the righter do it so by contingency and the advantage also is so little I believe that the triumphant persons have but small reason to please themselves in gaining Proselytes since their purchase is so small and as inconsiderable to their triumph as it is unprofitable to them who change for the worse or for the better upon unworthy motives In all this there is nothing certain nothing noble But he that follows the work of God that is labours to gain Souls not to a Sect and a Subdivision but to the Christian Religion that is to the Faith and Obedience of the Lord JESUS hath a promise to be assisted and rewarded and all those that go to Heaven are the purchase of such undertakings the fruit of such culture and labours for it is only a holy life that lands us there And now my Lord I have told you my reasons I shall not be ashamed to say that I am weary and toiled with rowing up and down in the seas of Questions which the Interests of Christendom have commenced and in many Propositions of which I am heartily perswaded I am not certain that I am not deceived and I find that men are most confident of those Articles which they can so little prove that they never made Questions of them But I am most certain that by living in the Religion and fear of God in Obedience to the King in the Charities and duties of Communion with my Spiritual Guides in Justice and Love with all the world in their several proportions I shall not fail of that End which is perfective of humane nature and which will never be obtained by Disputing Here therefore when I had fixed my thoughts upon sad apprehensions that God was removing our Candlestick for why should be not when men themselves put the Light out and pull the Stars from their Orbs so hastening the day of God's Judgment I was desirous to put a portion of the holy fire into a Repository which might help to re-enkindle the Incense when it shall please God Religion shall return and all his Servants sing In convertendo captivitatem Sion with a voice of Eucharist But now my Lord although the results and issues of my retirements and study do naturally run towards You and carry no excuse for their forwardness but the confidence that your Goodness rejects no emanation of a great affection yet in this Address I am apt to promise to my self a fair interpretation because I bring you an instrument and auxiliaries to that Devotion whereby we believe you are dear to God and know that you are to good men And if these little sparks of holy fire which I have heaped together do not give life to your prepared and already-enkindled Spirit yet they will sometimes help to entertain a Thought to actuate a Passion to imploy and hallow
our Family to be turned out of doors and our whole Estate aliened and cancelled especially we being otherwise obliged to provide for them under the pain of the curse of Infidelity And indeed there is much reason our defences may be extended when the injuries are too great for our sufferance or that our defence bring no greater damage to the other than we divert from our selves But our Blessed Saviour's prohibition is instanced in such small particulars which are no limitations of the general Precept but particulars of common consideration But I say unto you resist not evil so our English Testament reads it but the word signifies avenge not evil and it binds us to this only that we be not avengers of the wrong but rather suffer twice than once to be avenged He that is struck on the face may run away or may divert the blow or bind the hand of his enemy and he whose Coat is snatched away may take it again if without injury to the other he may do it We are sometimes bound to resist evil every clearing of our innocence refuting of calumnies quitting our selves of reproach is a resisting evil but such which is hallowed to us by the example of our Lord himself and his Apostles But this Precept is clearly expounded by S. Paul Render not evil for evil that is be not revenged You may either secure or restore your selves to the condition of your own possessions or fame or preserve your life provided that no evil be returned to him that offers the injury For so sacred are the Laws of Christ so holy and great is his Example so much hath he endear'd us who were his enemies and so frequently and severely hath he preached and enjoyned Forgiveness that he who knows not to forgive knows not to be like a Christian and a Disciple of so gentle a Master 3. So that the smallness or greatness of the instance alters not the case in this duty In the greatest matters we are permitted only to an innocent defence in the smallest we may do so too I may as well hold my coat fast as my gold and I may as well hide my goods as run away and that 's a defence and if my life be in danger I must do no more but defend my 〈◊〉 Save only that defence in case of life is of a larger signification than in case of goods I may wound my enemy if I cannot else be safe I may disarm him or in any sence disable him and this is extended even to a liberty to kill him if my defence necessarily stands upon so hard conditions for although I must not give him a wound for a wound because that cannot cure me but is certainly Revenge yet when my life cannot be otherwise safe than by killing him I have used that liberty which Nature hath permitted me and Christ hath not forbidden who only interdicted Revenge and for bad no desence which is charitable and necessary and not blended with malice and anger And it is as much Charity to preserve my self as him when I fear to die 4. But although we find this no-where forbidden yet it is very consonant to the excellent mercy of the Gospel and greatly laudable if we chuse rather to lose our life in imitation of Christ than save it by the loss of another's in pursuance of the permissions of Nature When Nature only gives leave and no Law-giver gives command to defend our lives and the excellence of Christianity highly commends dying for our enemies and propounds to our imitation the greatest Example that ever could be in the world it is a very great imperfection if we chuse not rather to obey an insinuation of the Holy Jesus than with greediness and appetite pursue the bare permissions of Nature But in this we have no necessity Only this is to be read with two cautions 1. So long as the assaulted person is in actual danger he must use all arts and subterfuges which his wit or danger can supply him with as passive defence flight arts of diversion entreaties soft and gentle answers or whatsoever is in its kind innocent to prevent his sin and my danger that when he is forced to his last defence it may be certain he hath nothing of Revenge mingled in so sad a remedy 2. That this be not understood to be a permission to defend our lives against an angry and unjust Prince for if my lawful Prince should attempt my life with rage or with the abused solemnities of Law in the first case the Sacredness of his Person in the second the reverence and religion of Authority are his defensatives and immure him and bind my hands that I must not 〈◊〉 them up but to Heaven for my own defence and his pardon 5. But the vain pretences of vainer persons have here made a Question where there is no seruple And if I may defend my Life with the sword or with any thing which Nature and the Laws forbid not why not also mine Honour which is as dear as life which makes my 〈◊〉 without contempt useful to my friend and comfortable to my self For to be reputed a Coward a baffled person and one that will take affronts is to be miserable and scorned and to invite all insolent persons to do me injuries May I not be permitted to fight for mine Honour and to wipe off the stains of my reputation Honour is as dear as life and sometimes dearer To this I have many things to say For that which men in this question call Honour is nothing but a reputation amongst persons vain unchristian in their deportment empty and ignorant souls who count that the standard of Honour which is the instrument of reprobation as if to be a Gentleman were to be no Christian. They that have built their Reputation upon such societies must take new estimates of it according as the wine or fancy or custom or some great fighting person shall determine it and whatsoever invites a quarrel is a rule of Honour But then it is a sad consideration to remember that it is accounted honour not to recede from any thing we have said or done It is honour not to take the Lie in the mean time it is not dishonourable to lie indeed but to be told so and not to kill him that says it and venture my life and his too that is a forfeiture of reputation A Mistresses's favour an idle discourse a jest a jealousie a health a gayety any thing must ingage two lives in hazard and two Souls in ruine or else they are dishonoured As if a Life which is so dear to a man's self which ought to be dear to others which all Laws and wisePrinces and States have secured by the circumvallation of Laws and penalties which nothing but Heaven can recompense for the loss of which is the breath of God which to preserve Christ died the Son of God died as if this were so contemptible a
pro sua rererentâ—â— 1. THE Soul of a Christian is the house of God Ye are God's building saith S. Paul but the house of God is the house of Prayer and therefore Prayer is the work of the Soul whose organs are intended for instruments of the Divine praises and when every stop and pause of those instruments is but the conclusion of a Collect and every breathing is a Prayer then the Body becomes a Temple and the Soul is the Sanctuary and more private recess and place of entercourse Prayer is the great duty and the greatest priviledge of a Christian it is his entercourse with God his Sanctuary in troubles his remedy for sins his cure of griefs and as S. Gregory calls it it is the principal instrument whereby we minister to God in execution of the decrees of eternal Predestination and those things which God intends for us we bring to our selves by the mediation of holy Prayers Prayer is the ascent of the mind to God and a petitioning for such things as we need for our support and duty It is an abstract and summary of Christian Religion Prayer is an act of Religion and Dinine Worship confessing his power and his mercy it celebrates his Attributes and confesses his glories and reveres his person and implores his aid and gives thanks for his blessings it is an act of Humility condescension and dependence expressed in the prostration of our bodies and humiliation of our spirits it is an act of Charity when we pray for others it is an act of Repentance when it confesses and begs pardon for our sins and exercises every Grace according to the design of the man and the matter of the Prayer So that there will be less need to amass arguments to invite us to this Duty every part is an excellence and every end of it is a blessing and every design is a motive and every need is an impulsive to this holy office Let us but remember how many needs we have at how cheap a rate we may obtain their remedies and yet how honourable the imployment is to go to God with confidence and to fetch our supplies with easiness and joy and then without farther preface we may address our selves to the understanding of that Duty by which we imitate the imployment of Angels and beatified spirits by which we ascènd to God in spirit while we remain on earth and God descends on earth while he yet resides in Heaven sitting there on the Throne of his Kingdom 2. Our first enquiry must be concerning the Matter of our Prayers for our Desires are not to be the rule of our Prayers unless Reason and Religion be the rule of our Desires The old Heathens prayed to their Gods for such things which they were ashamed to name publickly before men and these were their private prayers which they durst not for their undecency or iniquity make publick And indeed sometimes the best men ask of God Things not unlawful in themselves yet very hurtful to them and therefore as by the Spirit of God and right Reason we are taught in general what is lawful to be asked so it is still to be submitted to God when we have asked lawful things to grant to us in kindness or to deny us in mercy after all the rules that can be given us we not being able in many instances to judge for our selves unless also we could certainly pronounce concerning future contingencies But the Holy Ghost being now sent upon the Church and the rule of Christ being left to his Church together with his form of Prayer taught and prescribed to his Disciples we have sufficient instruction for the matter of our Prayers so far as concerns the lawfulness or unlawfulness And the rule is easie and of no variety 1. For we are bound to pray for all things that concern our duty all that we are bound to labour for such as are Glory and Grace necessary assistances of the Spirit and rewards spiritual Heaven and Heavenly things 2. Concerning those things which we may with safety hope for but are not matter of duty to us we may lawfully testifie our hope and express our desires by petition but if in their particulars they are under no express promise but only conveniencies of our life and person it is only lawful to pray for them under condition that they may conform to God's will and our duty as they are good and placed in the best order of eternity Therefore 1 for spiritual blessings let our Prayers be particularly importunate perpetual and persevering 2 For temporal blessings let them be generally short conditional and modest 3 And whatsoever things are of mixt nature more spiritual than Riches and less necessary than Graces such as are gifts and exteriour aids we may for them as we may desire them and as we may expect them that is with more confidence and less restraint than in the matter of temporal requests but with more reservedness and less boldness of petition than when we pray for the graces of Sanctification In the first case we are bound to pray in the second it is only lawful under certain conditions in the third it becomes to us an act of zeal nobleness and Christian prudence But the matter of our Prayers is best taught us in the form our Lord taught his Disciples which because it is short mysterious and like the treasures of the Spirit full of wisdom and latent sences it is not improper to draw forth those excellencies which are intended and signified by every Petition that by so excellent an authority we may know what it is lawful to beg of God 3. Our Father which art in Heaven The address reminds us of many parts of our duty If God be our Father where is his fear and reverence and obedience If ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham and Ye are of your father the Devil for his works ye do Let us not dare to call him Father if we be rebels and enemies but if we be obedient then we know he is our Father and will give us a Child's portion and the inheritance of Sons But it is observable that Christ here speaking concerning private Prayer does describe it in a form of plural signification to tell us that we are to draw into the communication of our prayers all those who are confederated in the common relation of Sons to the same Father Which art in Heaven tells us where our hopes and our hearts must be fixed whither our desires and our prayers must tend Sursum corda Where our treasure is there must our hearts be also 4. Hallowed be thy Name That is Let thy Name thy Essence and glorious Attributes be honoured and adored in all the world believed by Faith loved by Charity celebrated with praises thanked with Eucharist and let thy Name be hallowed in us as it is in it self
hitherto tossed with gentle storms but now a more violent tempest overtook it which began in the Proto-Martyr Stephen and was more vigorously carried on afterwards by occasion whereof the Disciples were dispersed And God who always brings good out of evil hereby provided that the Gospel should not be confin'd only to Jerusalem Hitherto the Church had been crowded up within the City-walls and the Religion had crept up and down in private corners but the professors of it being now dispersed abroad by the malice and cruelty of their enemies carried Christianity along with them and propagated it into the neighbour-Countries accomplishing hereby an ancient prophecy That out of Sion should go forth the Law and the 〈◊〉 of the Lord from Jerusalem Thus God over-rules the malice of men and makes intended poison to become food or physick That Divine Providence that governs the World more particularly superintends the affairs and interests of his Church so that no weapon 〈◊〉 against Israel shall prosper curses shall be turned into blessings and that become an eminent means to enlarge and propagate the Gospel which they designed as the only way to suppress and stifle it Amongst those that were scattered Philip the Deacon was driven down unto Samaria where he preached the Gospel and confirmed his preaching by many miraculous cures and dispossessing Devils In this City there was one Simon who by Magick Arts and Diabolical Sorceries sought to advance himself into a great fame and reputation with the people insomuch that they generally beheld him as the great power of God for so the Ancients tell us he used to style himself giving out himself to be the first and chiefest Deity the Father who is God over all that is that he was that which in every Nation was accounted the supreme Deity This man hearing the Sermons and beholding the Miracles that were done by Philip gave up himself amongst the number of believers and was baptized with them The Apostles who yet remained at Jerusalem having heard of the great success of Philip's ministery at Samaria thought good to send some of their number to his assistance And accordingly deputed Peter and John who came thither Where having prayed for and laid their hands upon these new converts they presently received the Holy Ghost Simon the Magician observing that by laying on of the Apostle's hands miraculous gifts were conferred upon men offered them a considerable summ of money to invest him with this power that on whom he laid his hands they might receive the Holy Ghost Peter perceiving his rotten and insincere intentions rejected his impious motion with scorn and detestation Thy money perish with thee He told him that his heart was naught and hypocritical that he could have no share nor portion in so great a priviledge that it more concerned him to repent of so great a wickedness and sincerely seek to God that so the thought of his heart might be forgiven him for that he perceived that he had a very vicious and corrupt temper and constitution of mind and was as yet bound up under a very wretched and miserable state displeasing to God and dangerous to himself The Conscience of the man was a little startled with this and he prayed the Apostles to intercede with Heaven that God would pardon his sin and that none of these things might fall upon him But how little cure this wrought upon him we shall find elsewhere when we shall again meet with him afterwards The Apostles having thus confirmed the Church at Samaria and preached up and down in the Villages thereabouts returned back to Jerusalem to joyn their counsel and assistance to the rest of the Apostles 2. THE storm though violent being at length blown over the Church injoyed a time of great calmness and serenity during which Peter went out to visit the Churches lately planted in those parts by those Disciples who had been dispersed by the persecution at Jerusalem Coming down to Lydda the first thing he did was to work a cure upon one AEneas who being crippl'd with the Palsie had layn bed-rid for eight years together Peter coming to him bad him in the name of Christ to arise and the man was immediately restored to perfect health A miracle that was not confined only to his person for being known abroad generally brought over the inhabitants of that place The fame of this miracle having flown to Joppa a Sea-port Town some six miles thence the Christians there presently sent for Peter upon this occasion Tabitha whose Greek name was Dorcas a woman venerable for her piety and diffusive charity was newly dead to the great lamentation of all good men and much more to the loss of the poor that had been relieved by her Peter coming to the house found her dressed up for her Funeral solemnity and compassed about with the sorrowful Widows who shewed the Coats and Garments wherewith she had clothed them the badges of her charitable liberality Peter shutting all out kneeled down and prayed and then turning him to the body commanded her to arise and lifting her up by the hand presented her in 〈◊〉 health to her friends and those that were about her by which he confirmed many and converted more to the Faith After which he staid some considerable time at Joppa lodging in the house of Simon a Tanner 3. WHILE he abode in this City retiring one morning to the house-top to pray as the Jews frequently did having thence a free and open prospect towards Jerusalem and the Temple it being now near Noon which was the conclusion of one of their stated times of Prayer he found himself hungry and called for meat but while it was preparing he himself fell into a Trance wherein were presented to him a large sheet let down from Heaven containing all sorts of Creatures clean and unclean a voice at the same time calling to him that he should rise kill freely and indifferently 〈◊〉 upon them Peter tenacious as yet of the Rites and Institutions of the Mosaick Law rejoyn'd That he could not do it having never eaten any thing that was common or unclean To which the voice replied That what God had cleansed he should not account or call common Which being done thrice the vessel was again taken up into Heaven and the Vision presently disappeared By this symbolick representment though Peter at present knew not what to make of it God was teaching him a new lesson and preparing him to go upon an Errand and Embassy which the Spirit at the same time expresly commanded him to undertake While he was in this doubtful posture of mind three messengers knock'd at the door enquiring for him from whom he received this account That Cornelius a Roman Captain of a Band of Italian Souldiers at Caesarea a person of great Piety and Religion being a Proselyte of the Gate who though not observing an exact conformity to the Rites of the Mosaick Law did yet maintain some