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A04840
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Two sermons. vpon the Act Sunday, being the 10th of Iuly. 1625 Deliuered at St Maries in Oxford.
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King, Henry, 1592-1669.; King, John, 1559?-1621. aut
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1625
(1625)
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STC 14972; ESTC S108030
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43,354
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86
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Gouernours of Norimberg touching the reviving and re-establishing of Auricular Confession amongst them vpon a pretence that since that custome was left off their Common-wealth swarm'd with sinne much more then formerly Which proposition of theirs the Emperour in effect did but scoffe at and deride euen by the Confession of Lorinus the Iesuite who reports it Intimating vnto them that they would neuer haue sought so much at his hands but that it seem'd they wanted a sufficient engine to examine Malefactors supposing that the Ecclesiasticall Rack when the Preist should vndertake them in an Auricular Confession would make them discouer more theÌ„ the politicke Rack or all the tortures the publicke Executioner could giue them Let them object to vs as Eugenius the Fourth in the Councell at Florence did to the Greekes ur vestri sacerdotes Pontifices non confitentur Why doe not your Preists exact this Confession As we refuse not priuate Confession made to God nay sometimes a priuate Confession to our ghostly Father the Minister who hath authoritie to divest vs of any scruples which may arise in our Consciences and to pronounce an Absolution vpon our hearty Repentance Yet we will not loose or betray our Freedome so much as to do that Act by Constraint which ought to be as free and voluntary as Davids resolution in this place I said I will confesse We haue no reason to stand to the courtesie of Rome for that Pardon which Christ hath freely giuen vs nor yet to suffer her MerchaÌ„ts to erect a new Staple or put an Impost vpon our saluation which is exempt from all Custome from any acknowledgment saue onely to Christ whose worke it was We haue no cause but to be very well assured that we may be saued without Auricular Coufession since in that sacred Booke which we beleeue containes all that may conduce to our saluation we finde no tracke or mention of it Bonaventure grants that howeuer the Formall part of Confession i. the power of Absolution were instituted by Christ yet the Materiall part which is the Detection of the sinne and the necessity of disclosing it was not so For at the most it was onely insinuated by Christ but promulgated by St Iames. Confesse your sinnes one to another In which place as Bullinger well inferres they that vnderstand aright will finde a reciprocall obligation layed vpon the Preist to confesse to the People as well as the People to the Preist And for any better Evidence then this to confirme their opinion out of the Gospell I am confident they haue none We finde when our Sauiour cleansed the Leper hee bad him goe and shew himselfe to the Priest and offer the gift which Moses commanded but he bad him not confesse to the Priest And to the adulterous woman he giues a Vade Goe but not to any Confessor Nay we finde no Confession taken from her by himselfe the whole Condition of her Absolution in that place is Vade noli ampliùs peccare Goe and sinne no more But Eckius and others answere that the power of Absolution was not as yet assign'd ouer by Christ vnto his Church and therefore our Sauiour neither practised it himselfe nor sent them vnto any Priest which had it been 't is likely he would haue done Well then graunt him as much as he alleadgeth that the Commission to Absolue was not as yet giuen to the Apostles and it shall appeare that in those very words wherein Christ conveyes this Authority to them Auricular Confession receiues it's deathes wound In the Gospell of St. Iohn when he tels them As my Father sent me so send I you Hee there giues them authority to remit or to retaine sinnes but not to exact any Auricular Confession Hee doth not there erect any Tribunall for the Priests where they should sit as Iudges ouer mens Consciences to acquite or condemne at their pleasure This is not the meaning of to Remit and to Retaine They do not import a Iudiciary power as the Church of Rome vnwarrantably assumes but a Ministeriall power to publish the mercies of God to repentant Sinners and to denounce his vengeance against the obstinate and impenitent This is St. Ieromes Interpretation vpon those words Quicquid ligaveris in terris c. whatsoeuer thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt loose c. Where he sayes that as the Leviticall Priest is said to make the Leper cleane or vncleane because he pronounced him so euen thus the Evangelicall Priests in the Gospell Remit or Retaine sinnes because in their preachings they declare which sinnes are remitted and which retained by God Pro offcio suo cúm peccatorum audierit varietates scit qui ligandus quique solvendus Euen thus Peter Lombard distinguishing Gods way of Binding and Loosing from the Churches sayes that God by himselfe remits sinnes who cleanseth the Soule from all spots and looseth it from the Debt of eternall Damnation but he hath not granted this to his Priests to whom notwithstanding hee hath giuen power of Binding and loosing that is of shewing men to be bound or loosed Thus you may see by how vniust a Title the Church of Rome would vsurpe a Dominion over mens Consciences as she pretends a Soueraignty ouer the world ayming at Supremacy in all Either wilfully or ignorantly mistaking our Sauiours Commission for Binding and Loosing as Hierome complaines Istum locum Episcopi Presbyteri non intelligentes aliquid siâ—i de Pharisaeoorum assumunt supercilio c. Let me but mention to you likewise vpon what slight pretences they ground their necessity of Auricular Confession cosening the ignorant people with that smooth and plausible imposture wherein they say the Priest cannot remit sinnes vnlesse he know them and he cannot know them vnlesse men wâ—ll confesse them vnto him Then which Proposition nothing can be more false For the Priest may Preach and Publish Remission or Retention of sinnes to those whose faults he knowes not And those men by a faithfull application of what they heare may receiue the Remission of their sinnes who neuer reuealed them to the Minister but confessed them vnto God alone Sola enim cordis confessio poenitenti ad salutem animae sufficit veraciter which way of Confession is truely and onely necessary vnto Saluation I said I will confesse my sinnes vnto the Lord. But I vrge this point no farther Cassanders temperate conclusion shall bring me off I am of opinion saith he There had beene no Controversie about this point of Confession had not some ignorant and importunate Physitians corrupted this wholesome Medicine with their drugges of Tradition Est enim multis invtilibus traditiunculis infecta c. quibus conscientijs quas extricare levare debebant laqueos iniecerunt tanquam tormentis quibusdam excarnificârunt By which meanes they haue made it onely a snare to entangle and involue the simple
yee beare his owne burden Did not the hand of the Lord finde him out as well as the people If wee beleeue Greg and Iust. Martyr hee had his share of punishment though in another kind Ira saeviens quae corporaliter populum perculit rectorem quoque populi intimo cordis dolore prostravit The people were stricken outwardly with the Pestilence the King inwardly with sorrow that his transgression should draw after it the losse of so many subiects * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Kingdome must needes be much shaken where the number of the subiects is shortened and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Else King David would never haue wished somuch hurt to those to neere him Let thine hand be against me against my Fathers house But this diminution of the people might bee more tolerable to King David because it came not vpon him as a theife in the night suddainely without any praemonition The Lord sent one of his Prophets rising vp early to giue him notice of his purpose And David was early vp also either to goe to heare the word of the Lord or to haue it come home to him For when David was vp in the morning instructions came from the Lord to Gad to repaire to him A thing it seemes not so rare in those daies as now for great Personages to rise early especially vpon such an occasion to heare a Prophet or a Preacher This were fitt for meaner soules but Great ones will keepe their state towards God himselfe They lie vpon beds of Ivorie and stretch them selues vpon their couches and that even till No one day many times not with fewer sinnes then David but with smaller sense of them with greater securitie and therefore the greater danger The gentle voice of a prophet will not be sufficient to rowse or starâ—â—e such from their ease but it must bee the voice of thunder and then perhaps they would be glad with Caligula to leaue their beds and creepe vnder them for affrightment It is likely David slept but little that night For he had within him the alarme of a troubled conscience still beating Percussit cor David eum He punished himselfe with numbring the houres or rather the foure watches of the night for his numbring the people And we may beleeue that this night among the rest he watered his couch with teares and spent the better part of it in meditations and confessions of his folly Then and not til then when he had his eyes thus open vpoÌ„ his own transgressions was his Seer the Prophet Gad sent in the morning which is an argument of the Lords singular benignity who vseth not to send his Prophets but either to invite sinners to repentance or to confirme them that haue begunne it as Dauid here did in so good and acceptable a worke And for what are his denunciations and threatnings added to his messages but to sett an edge as it were vpon our turning to him to be as prickes and goades to make vs the more eager to desire that wee may decline them Thus was Isaiah sent to King Hezekiah to bid him set his house in order Thus also was Ionah sent to Nineveh Yet 40 daies and Niniveh shall be ouerthrown And in my Text that I may not multiplie examples Gad vnto David That Avenger beares no hostile mind who giues warning to his Aduersarie where and how he intendes to wound him And that partie must be very negligent of his owne safetie who laboures not either to guard or to prevent the blowe hee sees comming The Lord therefore herein dealt with David and David made that good vse of a praemonition as sometime he did with Abraham when he intended to destroy Sodom shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I doe to the end that Abraham might make intercession for Sodom and Dauid for himselfe and his people as we reade both of them did and we may goe and doe the like For this farther favour holy David found in the sight of the Lord that hee sent the same prophet the second time who at the first was a messenger of death to be a director and a counsailor to him and the paenitent Elders who were clad in sackcloth and fell vpon their faces what course they should take to stay the hand of the Angell from striking and to stopp the iawes of death It was Gad which came to him both times To shew that he who is the minister of the Law should be the minister of the Gospell also as he breakes so he should bind vp againe An observation which I make the rather against those indiscrete Teachers that speak still froÌ„ mount Sinai in thunder lightening not at all from mount Sion in the mild tones of mercy They are like those Boanerges sonnes of thunder calling downe fire from heauen and calling it vpp from hell too to affright distressed consciences but they haue no portion of the spirit of Barnabas to be the sonnes of consolation Thus are they farre more terrible Instructers then the Law itselfe For Lex paedagogus ad Christum But these bring not their Auditors so farre on their way They only shewe the Law holding out the rod vnto them as their adversarie but they shew not how they must agree with this adversarie in the way that is in Chrst who hath stil'd himselfe the way the mediating way betweene God and men who hath taken away the curse of the Law But there is another extreme as much to be avoyded by those that will take the prophet Gad for their patterne As they may not powre into wounded consciences altogether vineger so ought they not to vse nothing but oyle to smooth and supple That same oleum impinguans caput pretious oyle that breakes the head is farre more dangerous then the friendly smiting of the righteous by reproofe And that pretious oyle of palpable flatterie or silent conniuence is too often vsed to the hurt of those that are the heads of the people But Gad was armed from aboue with boldnes and feared oâ— the face of the best man to acquaint him with the worst of his message He durst come home to the King's bed-chamber and tell him that which might make his eares tingle And happy are those Princes and Nobles before whom such Prophets dare discharge that part of their thanklesse office Gad was said to be Davids Seer because he saw that which was hidden from David till he revealed it to him Kings in their affaires of state are forc'd to see many things through other mens eies but in their spirituall state they haue more need of their Seers eyes by which they may looke vpon both their sinnes and punishments Now Davids Seer was no other then Davids Chaplaine saith Pet. Martyr but of a farre different straine from those Trencher Chaplaines of Great men in our times whose office consists chiefly in reading prayers and