the function or office remember your subordination that you are placed in a lower orbe and therefore what the Higher powers may look for of inferiour subjects what the master though crabbed and crooked may expect of his servants that is subjection you must perform Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Titus 2. 9. 1 Pet. 2. 18 c. The other of these calls for obedience to their Laws and Commands and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though in the notion of the word it signifie to obey Magistrates or Rulers and is so turned in our last English Translation in this place yet is applyed to obedience to God Acts 5. 29 32. or unto our listenings to the perswasions of men though no Magistrates Acts 27. 21. I confess that subjection and obedience in common intention of speech do not much differ When the word subject is set alone without a second it includes obedience Rom. 13. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Titus 2. verse 5. 9 Luke 2. 51. Jam. 4. 7. When the word obedient is set alone without a second it comprehends subjection Acts 5. 29 c. I mean this of a voluntary and not enforced subjection Luke 10. 17 But when both these words are used together in the same place as they are in this text they may be more accurately distinguisht Subjection relates to the person that is supream in place function office and the contrary or opposite hereunto is resistance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are opposed Rom. 13. 2. that is subjection and resistance Obedience properly relates to the Magistrate his Edicts Laws lawful and honest commands And it hath ordinarily been pleaded by honest disobeyers of unjust commands We refuse not to be subject we resist not we oppose not the authority therefore we submit our selves to the penalty of the Magistrates infliction without resistance but we dare not we will not perform the command enjoyned Dan. 3. 18. and thus its plain there may be subjection to just authority for that is good and lawful when there is not obedience unto unjust commands the one being ordained of God when the command may be contrary to and against Gods The third point is the sum of that debt which the subject owes to the civil Magistrate is to be subject to him in his place or office and to be obedient to him in his commands I might say honest obedience but that I look not to be carped no more then the Apostles did that gave this command to servants to obey their masters in all things Col. 3. 22. nor yet though I acknowledge the subject or the servant to be as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational instrument would I open a gap for every unquiet unsober dispute that on purpose to shift off the Magistrates or the Masters commands may think it enough to pretend they are not honest and so the Master shall indeed be the Master but the servant is the Judge the Magistrate is the Magistrate but the subject is the Judge which indeed he is of his own action by the judgement of Discretion but not of the command by the judgement of Authority for that would be an easie way to overturn both authority and obedience and to leave all to the best disputant 4 Those to whom this debt is to be paid are the principalities powers they are all that are in rank of Magistracy respectively both the Highest and the Subordinate in this Scale Principalities and Powers saith the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principalities that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supereminent or superexcellent powers Rom. 13. 1. that are in highest orbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 powers those that are Presidents of Provinces who though not in highest orbe of Supremacy are yet in a neerer orbe to you as being in the Sphere where you live So the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2. 14. Commands subjection whether to them he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings so the Greek Authors call the Roman Emperours meaning by Kings such as was at that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Soverignty and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Governours the inferiour Officers and Governours under the Supream and the Apostle Paul thus expresses the several ranks of Magistrates 1 Tim. 2. 2. Kings and all that are in authority The Point of Doctrine is That this debt of subjection and obedience is due to all that have share in the Civil Government respectively whether they be in the Supremacy or in Subordination The superscription that is upon a two pence owns the same authority as that which is upon a twelve-pence that word Rom. 13. 4 6 the Ruler is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Minister to thee for good Gods publick officer commends all Magistracy to us If the Supreme Officer was like the Sun which by his motion carries his light through his whole circuit we should need no more but himself but he is like the Sea that having all fulness in it self sends from it self founâ—ains and rivers to water all the Continent whither the Sea it self cannot come And God while he kept the chief Government over Israel as I way say in his own hand whereupon Josephus calls it a Theocracy did as we know erect under himself Judges or Dictators in their necessities who as one observes did alwayes prosper in their atchievements Cunaeus de Repub. being as I may say Gods Lievtenants In want of which we read that there was no King in Israel not because the Sanhedrin did not sit at those times but because there was no Chief or Sovereign Magistrate that might exercise coercion and work deliverance in Gods stead As for the dispensation of common Justice they had the Seventy the Viginti Triumvirate in the greater and a Triumvirate in the lesser Towns and thus the publick Justice was brought home to them till there arose some hard matter to be determined by Appeal whose judgement was final in the case Deut. 17. 9 10 11 12. And therefore if there be any as there are that think it necessary that the Judicials of the Jewes and that the form and mode of Government that obtain'd amongst them be re-introduced into other States Kingdoms they may please to consider that even the Iewish form was variable that the Apostle Peter commands Christian subjection to every humane ordinance and that Paul saith that the powers that be that is in the world at that time are ordained of God Rom. 13. 2. These are the four points which being thus cut out shall be made up into further use in their order From the first of them the Ministers duty to put the people in minde of their obedience to Magistracie you may learn 1 This duty is charged upon the Minister as the publick remembrancer of the people to whom is committed the dispensation of sound doctrine Titus 2. 1. serving to keep them right in the duties of their relations towards one another
faith and therefore which I would have observed the Corinthians whom the Apostle exhorts to examine themselves Whether they were in the faith whether Christ Jesus was in them were not Heathen Corinthians but the Church professed Christians already and such as had a faith of profession and then that Text will prove that those that have some faith may be in the Apostles sense reprobates because they are not in the faith It concerns us all that are professed members of the Church as they were Can faith save you saith James Chap. 2. meaning a superficial opinionative inoperative faith Alas he tels you of believing devils that by confession of all are damned Let not this faith keep you from Christ which doth not close you with him you may be a graff to the stock with a string but it will not knit and live because it is not engraffed in So you may be reputed Christians and believers by an outward profession and agglutination by that faith you have but never live spiritually or eternally by it because Christ Jesus is not in you All the terrour of the Lord draws no bloud All invitations of the Gospel move not And why Because you lie under the shell and shelter of this faith and believing which defeats the operation both of Law and Gospel till God open your eyes to see thorow it and bring you to see the need of a Christ accepting faith Fourthly There are but two spiritual estates and all men while in this world must be in the one or other not in both at once and they are usually known by the names of nature and grace or as Scripture usually darknesse and light death or life This is a compendious Rule and brings this work of self-examination into a narrow room upon this interrogatory Art thou in the state of unbelief and unregeneration or translated into the Kingdom of Christ Jesus Art thou in the narrow or in the broad way There is a great latitude and many varieties and degrees of men in each of these but from Rahab to Abraham from O ye of little faith to O woman great is thy faith all are under the line of life and so from the best flower in natures garden to the sharpest thorn all under the black line of death The discovery is the sooner made because the partition is but into two goats and sheep walking in two several wayes to two several ends You will say Unto which of these will ye reckon them that are in transitu as it were in the birth in the passage I should say that as we reckon â—he day-break to the day and the embryon of a man is reckon'd to humane kinde and the contracted woman is called wife so though I love not to distinguish of these moments yet if any day-break of light any seed of faith or good desires any little of Christ appear in any I should reckon them to the happier part the regenerate for they are smoaking flax and bruised reeds under the sweet promise of Christ to be blown up and to be strengthened and so would I have them comfortably in their self-examinations to reckon themselves As likewise all men in the world may compendiously reckon themselves under sinne and wrath and in state of damnation upon and by the argument which is the convictive argument of the holy Ghost Joh. 16. 9. All men are under sinne that believe not in Christ Of sin because they believe not in me and it reaches all the world Not believing in Christ proves every man under sin if not propter infidelitatem for their unbelief therefore Thomas and other Schoolmen deny it as to them that never heard of Christ yet ratione infidelitatis by reason of their not believing The wrath of God abides upon them as all confesse and as the Scripture speaks These four things may serve as motives to this duty of self examination and there are two more that rather look like directions therein Fifthly The Rule of this self-examination must be according to the properties of a Rule a known and certain inflexible Rule that is not partial to or against us for how shall we proceed from examination of our selves to judge our selves vers 31. if the processe be not regulated so as the judgement may be true and certain therefore the word of God must be that Canon or measure by which if we will not be deceived we must be tried for that must judge us another day by a false standard or a false touchstone or false rule we discern nothing and therefore when thou goest about this work banish all thy own flattering reasons all other mens foolish and fraudulent comforts and counsels Let the Word of God sit upon thee and stand or fall before that Tribunal Seest thou not how the Pharisee flatter'd himself judging himself by his own traditional exercises The young man flatter'd himself All this have I done Paul shows upon what confidences he flatter'd himself and indeed every man will be in good estate if he may judge by his own fancy flattery or conceit but false mediums beget but fallacies in conclusion and our souls are betray'd and undone by Lesbian rules a sincere heart will not stand to that test knowing that flesh and bloud may speak good to me as the false Prophets to Ahab and the word of God speak evil as Michaiah did unto him God is not pleased that any man should bear false witnesse against or for himself We may neither proudly and partially acquit our selves upon false and flattering perswasions nor on the other hand deny the least evidence of grace and of the Spirit in our selves wherein the godly do often deserve blame by slighting and undervaluing the work of grace in their hearts There are proud self complaints as well as self flatteries The Word is the most impartial Judge of our state or of our actions Sixthly It 's necessary to stick upon the work of self-examination untill we bring it to an issue and be able to make a judgement upon our own selves for we are apt to pull off the plaister when it begins to smart before it hath done its work and are unwilling to set up all our reasonings and bring them to a non plus and so we never know our selves never judge our selves sometimes a man is Sermon-shaken and his heart begins to tremble and to question with it self and if he would but follow the stroke he might come to finde out his condition but he lets the iron cool again and like Felix when he trembled he dismisses Paul till another time This the Apostle shews us in these words Jam. 1. 24. he goes away from the glasse and straightway forgets what manner of man he was and therefore he saith we must look into the glasse and continue therein resolving to be deaf to flesh and bloud friends carnal counsels and by the Rule of the Word to bring the Question to an issue whether pro or con for us or
last wee know what Saul lost by not holding out one moment longer his men melted from him the enemy was strong and neer and himselfe had stayed almost to the end yet for want of a minute he lost by it 1 Sam. 13. 13. Thou hast done foolishly for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom for ever we know not what wee lose by making haste and not holding up our hands as Moses did to the going down of the Sun For the Use or Application of this Point Use 1 First it meets with the murmuring and disaffected Israelites who whether out of neutrality or malignity fulfill not after the Lord being either purely privative in respect of this duty or positively disaffected of these we have infinite and of divers principles It 's strange that men should be no more sensible of the sin of lukewarmnesse but that our Saviour gives a double reason of it 1 That they are not stone cold that is not so vitious or profane as others for there are not so many degrees of cold in the lukewarm as in the cold water but they should consider that the lukewarm are more offensive to Christs stomack and can lesse be borne by it 2 That lukewarmness is attended with self-conceit and security thou sayst I am rich and have need of nothing but Revel 3 17. this security arises out of self-ignorance by which key whosoever is lockt up they lye fast I shall not so much discusse the sin as the principles whence such indifferency towards or malignity against God and his ways doth flow As 1 Some are indisposed meerly out of a stupid carelesnesse lying asleep in the side of our tossed Ship in this great storm folded fast up in blindness and security as blanks in a Lottery and they are but white paper having nothing written on them such as these like Samaritans are a kin to the Iews when the Iews prosper and disclaim kinred when they go down being ready to contribute their Eare-rings neither to golden Calf nor Tabernacle or haply indifferently to both I meane Popery and purity are to them alike And such is the case for most part of such poore fouls among whom there hath been no vision their Idol-shepheards having made their people Idols like themselves not seeing not hearing not having any spirituall sence nor are they much the better who have had some rare Sermons most what about Orders and Ceremonies and such extrinsecalls which have proved as a thrum left in the loomes to which our crafts-masters might more easily tye in their new piece and if in no other yet in this respect deserve castigation because they have so taken up Pulpits Pens and Tongues as to commit waste of pretious time of affections between brother and brother and even of the substance of practick godlinesse which hath suffered by such diversion nor yet are they more awakend whose Preachers have been but Ethick Lecturers reading morality whose Ministry hath not been first a fiery Serpent to sting the conscience for Gods witnesses are called tormentors of the inhabitants of the earth and then a pole Revel 11. 10. to hold up the brazen Serpent to the wounded 2 Some are indisposed to this duty of fulfilling after the Lord out of policy and that is either policy of safety or of temperament 1 Of safety as a reed in the stream which stands because it yields to the tyde and ebbe and bends the same way as the stream runs the wisdome of these men as they call it makes them stand as spectators upon the shore while the Ship is tossed at Sea applauding themselves alone to have hit the right blot and censuring all others that endanger themselves for the Truth If there be deliverance they shall have part in the benefit without their care cost or trouble and have share in the winnings though they have nothing at stake but put case a man is not agreed in hac hypothesi that such or such a cause is Gods and therefore cannot lay out himselfe in it or suffer for it I answer when men are indisposed towards a duty they can easily plead in Bar every lesser scruple or haesitancy of mind which if they might forbid the action notwithstanding more preponderating arguments Melancholy and Satan would have us at such a passe as we should do little or nothing as it is a sinfull thing to ravish the judgment to go without or against the dictate of it so it is dangerous to enslave it to base fears interests lusts the heart is not more fraudulent than in seeking conviction being like a Clyent instructing his Councell and laying open all that favours him concealing the strength of what may be said against him and when a rotten heart is pitched upon a verdict like a partiall and ingaged Jury it will hold to it let the evidence be what it will resolving to elude the evidence and not see it And if inconviction of judgment was but enough to free a man from the sin of not doing a duty a man might the better rest in it but since it is not let every man labour to avoid that perplexity of sinning if he perform and of sinning if he perform not and to that purpose not only search the Word of God but purge his heart from the false by as nor onely praying but praying for practick ends He that will doe shall Iohn 7. 17. know and let not the common sence and concurrent judgement of those that truliest feare God be utterly flighted as inconsiderable for though that be no rule determining my act yet it is a strong motive of my more diligent inquiry I conclude with that of our Saviour He that will save his life shall lose it It is a mans perdition to be safe when he ought to perish for God 2 Of temperament I mean sinfull such as are they that cry Divide the living childe or can be content to make a mixture like the transplanted Nations 2 Kings 19. ult Who feared the Lord and served their graven Images If there be any that can go so low as to give toleration to Popery though now the Papists put themselves in such a posture as they seem to threaten to give rather then take let him consider that we have bin too liberall in connivence that way already and is it not therefore that war is in our gates The setting up of Reubens Altar had presently stirred up war against them if the misprision had not been cleered that no Religion was therein intruded and what say the messengers of the Tribes sent upon the Embassie Rebell not against Iudges 5. 8. the Lord nor against us Josh 22. 19. We shall smart for it if you do it Let their Popery and our Popishness go forth at once for ever and so I would close this point but that having named the word Temperament I would not be mistaken as if I meant to blow the fire which needs no bellows flaming already out at
godlinesse practicall and edifying truths which draw up the heart into acquaintance and communion with God and draw it out in love and obedience to him For its good that the heart be stablisht with grace Heb. 13. 9. 3. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. for if we thrust away a good conscience by entertaining base lusts and ends the shipwrack of faith will follow 4. To pray for confirmation and establishment by the hand of God for as it is not a strong constitution that is a protection against the plague so neither is it parts and learning which secure us from beleeving lies and delusions It s a mercy for which we are not enough thankfull that God keeps any of us standing upright when others shrink awry or that wee are enabled to discerne between truth and errour and to stand for the one and withstand the other when so many that have driven a great trade of profession are broken and turned bankerupts 5. To keep as a treasure those truths wherein you have formerly found comfort and which have been attested and confirmed to you by your owne experience sit upon those flowers still and sucke their fresh honey every day A Christian very hardly parts with those truths that have been sealed up to his experience but it s no wonder that a man should lose that out of his head which he never had in his heart Vse 2 To those that bring in or follow these pernicious wayes of damnable haeresy you shall see the crop which you shall reap swift destruction you are under judgement which slumbers not It will be destructive to you to wrest the Scriptures 2. Pet. 5. 16. and to make merchandise of mens soules for sinfull ends 2. Pet. 2. 3. To corrupt the mindes of men from the simplicity that is in Christ 2. Cor. 11. 3. and to cause divisions and scandalls Rom. 16. 17. are things which will cost you deare lay to heart the terrible expressions of wrath which are fulminated against such men in Scripture There may be differences in opinion betweene them that are godly which are not inconsistent with the peace of the Churches and for which its unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the historian saith to make butter and cheese of one another It s a discreet rule which is laid downe by one a Conradus Bergius dedictamine c. Si non idem sentimus de veritate at saltem de pondere If we cannot agree upon the truth of every question or point of divinity yet at least lets be agreed concerning the weight and moment thereof so as not to make as great a stirr about a tile of the house as if it were a foundation stone nor erect new parties or Churches upon every lesser variation but to contend for or pretend a liberty of professing or publishing such docttrins as overthrow the faith and subvert the soule under the name of liberty of conscience can be no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Tim. 3. 9. a manifest folly or madnesse Is this liberty any part of Christs purchase Hath he made men free to sin and deny him that bought them what yoake of bondage doth this liberty free us from Gal. 5. 1. should we claime a liberty of being in bondage to errour or promise to men a liberty of being servants to corruption which the falseteachers in effect did 2. Pet. 2. 19. God hath as one saith reserved to himself as his prerogative three things Ex nihilo creare futura praedicere conscientijs dominari To create out of nothing to foretell things to come to have dominion over conscience and it is true that while a thing is within in the conscience it s out of mans reach but when ' its acted and comes abroad then it comes into mans jurisdiction and is cognizable in foro humano God onely is judge of thoughts men also are judges of actions It s a great mistake and of very ill consequence to imagine that a man is alwayes bound to act or practice according to the light or judgement of conscience though rightly informed in thesi for then I see not that there can be any place for that rule given by the Apostle Rom 14. 22. Hast thou faith have it to thy selfe before God Truth it selfe though never to be denyed yet is not alwayes to be declared for the hurt or scandall may be greater then an inseasonable profession or practice of that which is in it selfe lawfull may be worth but the mistake is yet more grosse to imagine that an erring conscience is a sufficient protection or warranty for an evill act It s sin to goe againstan erring conscience Stante dictamine as its sin to ravish and force awhore It s sin also to act according to the dictate of an erring conscience as to committ adul tery with consent To make conscience the finall judge of actions is to wipe out the hand writing of the word of God which doth condemne many times those things which conscience justifies yea and men also may passe just judgement on delusions or lyes though those that vent them doe beleeve them for truths If conscience be warrant enough for practices and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient licence to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their Shop and bee resolved into the judicatory of every mans private conscience And put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himselfe bound in conscience to draw forth his authority against false teachers or their damnable haeresies and upon that supposed errour should challenge a liberty of judging as wee doe of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walke by a knowne rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawfull it is as easy for him to say that our liberty of preaching or professing errours is so too To you that are Ministers of the word that you would draw forth the sword of the Spirit against these spirits of errour as not onely the duty you owe to Gods truth and mens soules requireth but also the pressing examples of the Apostles doe constraine you let not the Lord Jesus Christ and his offices be denyed by false teachers and by your silence too and the Lord grant that it may not be said of you as of the Ministers of Ephesus Acts. 20. 30. also of your owne selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Catharinus said of some middle-region men in those times that they were Luther anunculi halfe or dough-baked Lutherans Let us not half between two opinions but be valiant for the truth He is but halfe a good Sheepheard that feeds the sheep in good pasture but defends them not from the wolves It belongs to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus 1. 11.