never like to looke after the remedies The torment of the disease is the sollicitour of health and the best advocate for the entertainment of the Physitian and the Physicke There are two great baggs of poyson in the serpentine hearts of corrupted men that doe above all others keepe us off from the cure of our spirituall diseases presumption or security and despaire of mercy The one keeps us from taking notice of our wretchednesse The other renders us hopelesse of reliefe And therefore the great Physitian of the Church though he be not wanting in his provision against all our sicknesses yet he seemes in the generall scope of his compositions to have aimed at the removall of these two Having ordained us two great Antidotes against them The Law against Securitie and Presumption whose office is the discovery of the malignity of sinne both in its owne nature and in the curse and condemnation that it brings with it For By the Law saith the Apostle is the knowledge of sinne Rom. 3.20 And the same Apostle Rom. 7.7 telleth us that he had not known sinne but by the Law And at the 8. vers Without the Law sin was dead That is as I conceive it may well be understood that the sense of sin is dead that it is not felt to be alive but is in us like a Gangrene in a mortified member that eateth on insensibly to the destruction of the body and in the like signification wee may perhaps not amisse understand that which followes in the 9. verse When the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed That is Sin appeared to be sin the sense of it was quickened and thereby I was mortified humbled c. and thus the Law rouzeth us from our Presumption and security But because this Physick of it selfe is very destructive and if it should be let alone would never cease till it had brought us to despaire and so killed us with a contrary Disease Therefore God hath ordained the Gospell for a Cordiall to abate and qualifie the violence of this Corrosive to keep us from being desperate and hopelesse of health to meete with the rigour and sincerity of the Law and to hold us up in the hope of salvation by the offers of mercy in Christ Jesus The Law is like a Lance to open our Tumours and to search our Wounds but as the Lance of it selfe cures no sores so the Law of it selfe heales none but makes way only and propares for the Gospell which applyes the saving Plaister thereunto The Law is our School-master and whips us unto Christ by giving us a sense of our sinnes and of the terrors of Hell and the curse that is due unto them And then Christ heales us with the comforts of the Gospell And both these works must bee done in us if wee meane to obtain our spirituall health otherwise for want of the worke of the Law upon us we may perish through security and never know what Disease we dye of or else for want of the comforts of the Gospell wee may perish through Despaire It may bee some question which of these two are most pernicious but they are both deadly and if the question be which is most universally operative in its malignity Security and Presumption wil be found I take it by much the more Epidemical plague of the two and that there are many yea very many more perish by this then by that overwhelming sense of the greatnes of their sinnes which renders them hopelesse and so helplesse The greatest part of the world dye of a Lethergy the Devill deales much in Opium and Narcoticks that stupifie the soule and deales with men as Physitians use to doe with those whom they use to cut of the Stone hee first casts them into a dead sleep and then cuts them and mangles them how he pleaseth whilst they lye still and quiet and never so much as cry oh nor flinch at it nor struggle against it untill at length hee cuts out their very hearts and soules Hee knowes his hellish enterprize never goes on so prosperously as when it moves secretly and undiscovered His great care is that his Engines may not be heard and therefore hee sends most men to hell in a slumber charmed with the pleasant Dreames of earthly prosperity and sometimes of Heaven it selfe from which they are never awaked throughly till they finde themselves scorching in the very flames of the Infernall Pit Indeed Despaire it seemes to be but the Devills refuge which hee seldome makes use of but where his Opium will not worke When he meets with some and they are too few that will not bee dandled in his lap nor nuzled in the security of their sins but that they will needs be searching into the wounds and corruption of their hearts then he strives to make them kill themselves with the Lance presents their sins unto them in such a dreadfull colour and doth so possesse their thoughts with the apprehensions of the greatnesse of their iniquities and the fearefull flashes of hell fire that they cannot believe God hath mercy enough to pardon them But the former is his more usuall and more effectuall Stratagem And therefore by the way give me leave to tell you that I think there is a great fault in the managing of the work of the Ministery in these times for want of the due application of the terrors of the Law unto the soules of men for the discovery of their sinnes which should be the Trumpet to rouze them from their security and to fit them for mercy Wee are all for Cordialls in these times but it is easie to perceive if we consider the loosenesse and slumbering condition that we are in that wee have much more need of Corrosives to eate away our dead flesh without which the Cordialls of the Gospel do usually rather strengthen our Diseases then our Soules and rather hide palliate then cure our wounds one maine reason why the worke of grace goes on no better amongst us in these dayes and I pray God it may finde a timely Reformation Nothing kills more surely then doth a false perswasion of our health And therefore we find it was the Method that the Spirit used unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans Rev. 3.15 16 c. to convince him of his great corruption and of his miserable Condition that so hee might lead him on unto the cure The Angel of that Church it seems was conceited of his owne Workes and was not sensible of the luke warmnesse of his heart in the performance of them that his Devotion was but halfe codled as they say therefore the Spirit puts the Searcher into his Wound I know thy workes saith hee that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert colder hot He shewes him that such a temper is of no acceptance with the Almighty who receiveth no Sacrifices that are not offered up by the fire of Divine love nay that it was
with the vertues and Clemency of his Person adorned the greatnesse and dignity of his office When the Throne and the Scepter of lawful and just power armed as it were with coelestiall lightning and strengthned with the sinew of the Divine authority from whence it was orderly derived and received as a Ray of that majesty and Authority which is in God himselfe summoning the Consciences of men unto obedience in the vertue and force of the divine Ordinance yeelded protection unto the lives and liberties of the People security unto Religion and divine worship solidity unto the Peace and Vnity of this Church and nation and was like a Cherubim and a flaming sword against the invasions of Violence Injustice and Oppression Iustice was dispensed in the right Channells being derived from the proper Fountaine the Lawes which are it were the life-bloud of a nation ranne freely without such obstructions they now meet with through all the veines and vessels of this lody and yeelded unto each Member its equall and just supply at least in so good a measure and manner as was sufficient to preserve the Body in good liking and prosperity and though the secret Briberies and partiabities of some inferiour instruments of Government caused some smaller distempers in this kinde yet they were such as might have had easie cures and did not at all destroy the constitution of the body Wee were governed by authenticall and certaine Rules and were not subject unto Mushrome Ordinances those abortive issues of the wombe of Sedition those unformed lumps and dead motions of a diseased and dropsie state begotten by no legitimate Father but by the Incubus of a rebellious people and Army There was then no professed and ordinary infliction of punishments without any offences going before them no offences then without their precedent Lawes to give the lye to the Blessed Apostles who tell us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That sinne is the transgression of the Law 1 Iohn 3.4 And againe By the Law is the knowledge of sinne Rom. 3.20 And againe where no law is there is notransgression Rom. 4.15 Then Iustice was administred in the right method there went a faire hearing before cndemnation and the sentence of the law was the Vsher to Execution It was managed by the right and genuine instruments enabled by authentical Commissions from the supreame Magistrate the force and vertue whereof was like a lively sap dispensed from the Royall Root into those severall Branches of Government which made them beare the fruits of Peace and lustice and safety to the people The motion of Rule was like a naturall motion derived from the head unto the members by those legall Officers which were as the Nerves and Sinewes of this body propagated from thence into the severall Regions and parts thereof And the Scales and weights and the mensures of justice were the same unto all sorts without any open or professed inequality when the eyes of the Iudges were fixed not on the Persons but their Causes without such diversification of the sacred inviolable rules of right as now according to the severall inclinations of parties and interests There was not then as now one measure for a Cavalier to yeeld him nothing though his case bee never so cleare and just and another for a Parliamenteer to yeeld any thing he will stand for though his pretences and colours bee never so weake Men were not then wracked and goard between the two horns of that unreasonable Dilemma nor crushed to peeces in the presse of that Pharaohtick and unconscionable oppression under which the poore loyall party many of them suffer at this day and many more would suffer were it not for the mercy of some good men that they have to deale with and such whose hearts God hath made tender towards them in these hard times to bee laid open to have all their debts exacted with all severity by their Creditors and in the mean time to be utterly disabled for the recovery of their owne or the enjoyment of their estates Whereby they should be furnished to pay that which is required of them which is much worse than to require men to make Bricke without straw It was not so with us heretofore But now the Ornament and Defence of the Royall Crowne is cast downe and that gracious and pious Prince that adorned it is now sent away from the Throne of his Majesty to bee the ornament of a Iaile or Prison of whom wee may say more truely than he of Socrates Carolus carcerem intravit ignominiam loco detracturus King Charles by being so long a Prisoner hath taken away the ignorminy and reproach of imprisonment and I might perhaps be pardoned if I should say that it may be lookt upon hereafter rather as a reward than as a punishment and truly it may bee considered by those that are the Authors thereof that it is no good way of Reformation to bring the Prisons into too much credit unlesse they meane to set up their owne trade by it and to encourage men to rob and steale and to murder on purpose that they may have the reward of a Iayle or Prison But to goe on now in stead of a just and legall Authority that awfull Bond that layes hold upon the very soule an illegall and usurped power is set up which a rectified Conscience so farre disclaimes that it accounts it a sin to submit unto it and there is like to be little peace or setled order in that rule where obedience it selfe is a transgression Strength and outward force may prevaile for a while and make slaves mor than subjects of a people it may binde their carkasses but it is Authority that rules the heart and that is none where it is not just The great comfort and encouragement of every duty unto man is when it strikes through them unto God This is it that doth at once secure and sanctifie and sweeten our performances Where Intrusion and usurpation is there all these are wanting unto the soule What hope then is there that an usurped Dominion should either recover or maintaine a setled concord in this Nation where it is opposed by so many branches of just Interests against it and cannot in any likelihood be held up but by great oppressions of the people which must needs make the yoake thereof too irkesome to bee borne either with long Peace or Patience The Laws of the Kingdome are obstructed and intercepted those true conceptions are stifled and destroyed by the adulterate superfaetations of Ordinances The Great and once awfull and venerable Court of Parliament that was the wombe of our wholsome Laws is degenerated into Factions and become the Seminary of Sedition and instead of being the great Counsell of the King is become his enemy and whilst that which was ordained for the Physick of the Kingdome is enforced upon us for a perpetuall Diet as it usually falls out it is become mortall unto the body and in stead
to consider even of that and if it be not altogether against the rules of Logick to ghesse at the premises by the conclusions we shall find too much evidence from the Products to beleeve that so wretched a building if a matter of so cleare ruine may be called so had none of the best models in your first and earliest thoughts and addresses to this affaire But we have good reason to be yet so charitable toward you as to allow you some share in the truth of that old saying that Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus and to beleeve that you have been so far deceived by your selves and one more whom I lust not to name as that you have both deserted and forgotten your first Intentions as you have your first Declarations and Expressions and that the Platformes that you laid in 〈…〉 beginning however perhaps they were faulty enough yet were not halfe so confused as the edifice you have raised but however innocent that may be thought to have been you must looke to answer for the structure of every part of that Babell that you have set up If you can thinke to carry on your businesse so safely as to fordoe all possibility of a reckoning to any upon earth yet I can assure you there is One in heaven that maugre all the shufflings and riglings the Muses and refuges that you can use or contrive will be sure to have an account from you It will therefore be very seasonable for you to take some pause a little from your pursuit and before you do proceed any further to looke back a while upon the progresse that you have made and to take the survey of the worke that you have done and I am fully assured that unlesse you looke with some other light upon your Fabriques than that wherewith God lookt upon his you cannot see what you have done to be very good but will rather find it to be desperately evill for such is the contrariety between Gods worke and yours that it can hardly otherwise be determined but that if his were very good yours must needs be evill His worke was a worke of Creation your hath been a worke of Destruction and if Creation be good Destrustion is evill There is indeed a destruction which is good but that is the destruction of evill but yours hath been the destruction of good of Government of Law of Peace of Religion of the lives of Peaceable and Innocent men and if the destruction of evill be good the destruction of good must be evill His was a worke of light yours hath been a worke of darknesse and if light be good then darkenesse is evill His was a worke of Order yours hath been a worke of Confusion and if Order bee good Confusion is evill And yet it may be some good to you in time to know and acknowledge it to be evill that the timely sense of the evill of your workes may bring you to the timely good of Repentance for this purpose I here take the boldnesse and I doubt you will thinke it so to offer you a view of this scheme that I have drawne of the sad result of your Seven yeares Counsels and Actions in the dismall and wretched Condition whereinto you have brought this poore Church and Kingdome A spectacle wheron I dare to tell you that none among you can looke without remorse unlesse they be men of a neronian spirit we read indeed of that monster that he procured Rome to be set on fire and when he had satisfied the lust of his Diabolicall cruelty in beholding the flame of that his owne stately City to take off the odium of so inhumane an Act from himselfe he charged it upon the poore innocent Christians who were marked out as the Malignants of those times as if they had been the only men that were the publique enemies of humane kind and the chiefe causes and Authors of those calamities and disasters which either by the just judgement of God upon the wickednesse of those heathens or by their owne malicious and pernicious practises befell the people amongst whom they lived as Tertullian excellently expresseth it in that admirable Apology that he made for the Christians afterwards Si Tiberis ascendit in maenia si Nilus non ascendit in arva si Coelum stetit si terra movit si fames si lues statim Christianos ad leonem If the floud of Tyber ascended up into the wals if Nilus did not overflow the fields if the heaven stood or the earth moved if there were Famine or Pestilence presently the cry was That the Christians must to the Lyon Let it not be forgotten in the examination of your consciences whether you have not used this Neronian Art against some poore suffering Christians in these dayes whether you have not as he did set this poore Kingdome on fire and when you have done laid the charge upon them whom you have branded with the names of Malignants and Delinquents as if they were the only enemies unto peace and the causes of all the publique disturbances If you shall be pleased to cast a serious eye upon this sad Spectacle which is laid before you you will find much cause to embrace your part in that advice unto Humiliation and Repentance which is offered with it And it is now high time for you to returne Doe not thinke it too soone because you have yet some delusions left of outward prosperity to deceive your selves withall but remember that saying in Boetius Si miserum est voluisse prava potuisse miserius If it be an unhappinesse to desire an evill it is a double misery to have the power to execute it and if this be true it will easily appeare that yours is but prosperity mistaken and that your successes may be reckoned amongst your greatest disasters affoord work rather for Humiliations than Thanksgivings since the matter sublect of them is in actions of that nature that have the Laws both of God and man against them For my part saith Philosophy in the same Boet. Si vehementer â—â—â—â—dum punire desiderarem hominem improbuÌ„ nec flammas nec rotas nec tormenta ei instituerem verùm honoribus auro argento divitiis rumperem cumque plenus usque ad os ipsum foret aulaeâ retractâ virtutem paradisum ei ostenderem cujus alteram prodidisset alteram perdidisset If I had a desire saith he to punish a wicked man to the purpose I would not allot unto him either the scorching of flames or the anguish of the Wheeles or any other torments but I would rather burst him with honours and with riches untill he were full up unto the very mouth and then would I draw the Curtaine and give him a sight of the beauty of vertue and the joyes of paradice the one whereof he had betrayed and lost the other Beware in time I heartily beseech you of this Art that Sathan hath so long time made use of to
Master is dishonoured in these times You that are the Embassadours of peace be not afraid to proclaime war against those that are enemies unto Peace You that are the Factors of the God of heaven buy the Truth and sell it not buy it though you pay your owne bloud for it God will account it againe unto you He that will save his life shall lose it but he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it Sell it not no not for the greatest preferments not for freedome nor for life it selfe Oh let us nor be so vile as to keepe the doore whilst the devill and wicked men commit fornication together in the most horrid iniquities Let us not see the name of God dishonoured the Church of Christ demolished and ruinated the Lords Annointed abused imprisoned and trampled upon and sit still and say nothing as if we were not at all concerned in it or as if all were well because you enjoy your liberties your revenues whilst your Soveraigne is in bondage poverty and persecution me thinkes we should be even ashamed of our freedom almost whilst he suffers such strait imprisonment for us what shall I say to this I will say no more but wish that we may remember the curse of Eli and take heed of it I have told him saith God that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth not for the iniquity which he had done because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not And yet Ely was not altogether wanting in the businesse he did reprove his sonnes after a manner but it was too gently for such sins he was too ceremonious and complementall with their iniquities 1 Sam. 2.24 Nay my Sons for it is no good report that I heare c. And yet this would not serve to free him from the judgement And shall we thinke to escape if we sit and say nothing whilest the most horrid iniquities ate acted and justified amongst us Adde unto these that great neglect under which this Church of ours doth so miserably groane and which is the great fountaine both of our corruptions and distractions and those other bloudy streams of sedition confusion and oppression in this Nation The laying aside of that most necessary kinde of instruction by Catechisme whereby the foundations of Christian Piety and Righteousnesse should be laid in the hearts of children and young disciples A method practised by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus who held it a duty in themselves and by their authenticall example have commended it unto the Church to administer first this milke unto children that they might thereby be prepared and fitted for the stronger meat of more perfect knowledge The want whereof hath proved most unhealthfull unto the Congregations Having proved that saying of Master Calvin too true that he hath in an Epistle of his unto the Protectour of England That without the use of a set-forme of Catechisme it is not possible for a Church to consist If any aske the question how it comes to passe that the building of Christian doctrine and practise is of so sinking and tottering a condition in these dayes And that the solid and true knowledge of God and Christ Jesus which is eternall life is turned into so many ayry and foolish fancies and imaginations with the people Or if any shall enquire from whence it proceeds that there are so many contentions and divisions such a multitude of foolish and mad conceits and apprehensions such devillish heresies and horrid blasphemies such ignorance of Christian duties and such generall counter-practise thereunto in this Kingdome If any shall expostulate why the light of Christianity is growne so dimme among us that there is such a blacke cloud that I say not an Eclipse of the Sun of divine and heavenly illumination That faith is so weake devotion and charity so cold zeale so intemperate and unguided our wisedome so earthly sensuall and devillish why obedience to God and the Magistrate so trampled on If any shall wonder as they justly and sadly may why under the bare name of a Christian profession which is a profession of mercy and meeknesse of righteousnesse and humility of purity and patience under the Crosse There walketh such horrid and more than Turkish and Heathenish cruelty and barbarousnesse why such injustice and fraudulency in our trades and dealings such intolerable haughtinesse of spirit such ambition spirituall pride and contempt of one another such Pharisaicall boasting such Epicurean luxury intemperance and uncleannesse such envy hatred murmuring and revengefulnesse Or if it shall be examined why all Religion is so much monopolized by the tongue and the eare and so little a share left unto the heart Why men are so sicke of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or canine appetite So greedy after Sermons and yet so fruitlesse in the use of them why they devoure so much spirituall food and yet after all are like Pharaohs leane Kine leane and ill-favoured as before why such hypocriticall fasting such dull and uneffectuall praying c. One of the most generall answers that I know how to give unto these and all other pensive and mournfull quaeries that our evill and ruinous condition may prompt us unto is this That the people of the Land have not been catechised as they ought That they have not been instructed in the first grounds and principles of sacred Doctrine That they are thereby become destitute of the knowledge of God of his greatnesse of his goodnesse of their great and indissoluble obligations unto him as they are his creatures and his purchase of the holy Vow and Covenant that they have entred into in their Baptisme of the priviledges of a Christian and the duties that hang upon them Of the great necessity and comfort of obedience and holinesse Of the nature and meaning of the divine Lawes and the holy rules of Christianity Of the propriety and purity of divine worship Of the true characters of holy and Christian love Of the necessary matter and object of faith and of the inseparable connexion thereof with good workes and holinesse of life Of righteousnesse temperance and judgement to come Of the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation Of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Of his Natures and his Offices Of the Spirit of God and his gifts and operations Of the Essence unity order and power of Gods Church Of the communion of Saints with Christ by faith as members of that body of which he is the Head and with one another by Christian charity in Christ and the operations thereof towards one another as fellow members of one another in him Of the glorious fruits of this holy fellowship and communion with Christ The pardon of sinne The Resurrection of the Body and everlasting life and salvation c. In stead whereof the foolish and unsteady curious impertinents and affectatours of science falsty so called have like the
chaire they are the very plagues and murraines of the faith or Christian Profession deceiving with their serpentine language Artificers of corrupting the truth vomiting out deadly poysons with their pâ—stiferous tongues whose word doth creepe like a canker whose touch doth infuse mortiferous venome into the breasts and hearts of all men And now we see how the devill acts over and over his old tricks among us in these daies But sure the song of the 4 Beasts and the 24 Elders Rev. 5. is not so to be understood as if thereby all men indifferently were to be admitted to the publique Office of Ministry in the Church because it is said there without distinction that Christ hath made us Kings and Priests unto God but it is rather in regard of that accesse which all true Christians have obtained by Christ Jesus unto the mercy-seate according to that of St Paul Rom. 5. ver 1 2. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by whom also we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand Or that of Ephes 2.13 In Christ Iesus ye â—ho sometimes were farre off are made nigh by the bloud of Christ. And ver 18. Through him we have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father As it was the priviledge of Priests heretofore in the Jewish service to draw nigh to God in the Temple and also in regard of those spirituall Sacrifices which every true Christian may and doth offer up unto God in and by Christ 1 Pet. 2.9 Heb. 13.15 Unto this Priesthood we are consecrated not by the bloud of our brethren but by the bloud of Christ Rev. 1.5 Heb. 13.12 Not that the Spirit of God intended at all hereby to confound the callings in the Church or to give a generall Commission to all men that have insolency enough to presume upon their owne gifts to take upon them the publike office of instructing the people for why than did the Apostle aske that question 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Prophets are all Apostles are all Teachers c. Or why doth the same Apostle give order unto Timothy and Titus solemnly to ordaine with imposition of hands 1 Tim. 5.21 and Tit. 1.5 Why doth he give them such severe rules and cautions for the managing of the power of Ordination That they should admit none but such as were rightly qualified 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partakers of other mens sins and 1 Tim. 3.1 2. c. He sets down the Catalogue of those conditions which they were to looke for both in Ministers and Deacons and will have them bee proved before they be suffered to exercise that calling which were all in vain and to no purpose if notwithstanding all those rules it shall be still in the power of any to intrude themselves into the execution of those Sacred Functions it is not to be denied indeed but it is the duty of every Christian to make use of those occasions that God offereth to communicate that knowledge which they have unto others in private occasionall exhortations consolations and reproofes of sin and it is not only lawfull but requisite for Parents and Masters to instruct their Children and Servants in the knowne and certaine Principles of Christianity and in the duties that belong unto them according to those rules which are clearly set downe by the Church of God and the Scripture But it is a businesse of an higher nature to undertake the publike administration of Doctrine in the Church and of the interpretation of the Scriptures unto which those inferiour workes of private instruction and admonition are subordinate and whereby they are to be guided The people of God in the time of the Law were to exercise the like duties to their Families and their Neighbours c. And yet the offices of the Priests and the Prophets were not thereby prohibited unto the common people but were still preserved proper and entire unto them otherwise the Spirit of God would not have said as he hath done in the 2. of Malachi v. 7. The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seeke the Law at his mouth There is no scruple at all to be made but a Father or a Mother a Master or a Friend may apply some knowne or ordinary medicines unto the wounds or diseases of their friends or children or dependants or others but yet if every man should take upon him the practice of Physick or Chirurgery there would be more killed by Medicines than by Diseases in all likelihood If every Marriner or Passenger in a Ship should undertake the office of a Pilot there would need no storms nor tempests to make Shipwrackes The order and distinction of parts members and faculties is not onely the beauty but the preservative of organicall bodies and substances As we have many members in one body saith the Apostle Rom. 12.4 and all members have not the same of fice so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another But yet the unity of the body doth neither confound the variety nor destroy the order of the severall parts and functions but the variety and order of the parts preserves both the unity and being of the whole Having then gifts differing according to the grace given unto us whether Prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or Ministry let us waite on our Ministring or he that teacheth on teaching c. So the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.14 The body is not one member but many and ver 17. If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling and if they were all but one member where were the body but now are they many members yet but one body It is the Apostles rule and sure it is a just one That they that preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.14 And that he that is taught in the word should communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things Gal. 6.6 That double honour should be given to the Elders that rule well especially to those that performe their duties industriously laboring in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 And what the Apostle meanes he himselfe will tell you in the next verse for the Scripture saith thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corne and the labourer is worthy of his reward If there be no distinction between Clergy and Laity between Teachers Learners no bounds set about the Sacred Mount but that every one that will may breake in to the exercise of the office of a publike Teacher in the Church how should these rules of the Apostle be observed how should it be knowne who is to communicate and who to receive the benefit of that Communication Or at least how shall the people be able to maintaine all that will be ready to intrude into that businesse Or why
temporall blessings by their paying of Tithes and first fruits unto the service of God And withall it might put them in minde of the holy use whereby they ought to sanctifie all the rest unto God which they did as it were consecrate to him in the tithes and first fruits for these may seem to have beene Gods earnest whereby wee acknowledge all the rest to bee his due and in the payment whereof we doe upon the matter devote and consecrate all the rest unto God to be used in his service and to his glory though not in his peculiar solemne worship A meditation worthy of our serious consideration And if I bee not much mistaken this is the true thought affection wherewith Christians are as well as Jewes were to pay their tithes and offerings It is no Judaisme but our duty still to consecrate and dedicate all we have unto God To vow this and perform it is a very acceptable service The paying of thithes I conceive is still an engagement to use our whole Estates to Gods honour and wee are to doe it as the paiment of our homage unto God therein acknowledging his supreme Lordship and Dominion and giving pledge of our duty in the due imployment of all as also of our thankfulnesse unto God for that which wee have If men would pay their tithes in this manner they should have no cause to repent it neither here nor hereafter The benefit thereof would bee much more theirs in their engagement of themselves thereby unto their spirituall and Christian duties than the Ministers in the supply of his temporall necessities But thirdly in the greatest doubt that can be made hereof it is to be considered how exceeding dangerous it is to trust the deceitfull pleas of our hearts in a matter of Meum and Tuum between God and us And fourthly it is very considerable that Tithes were not proper to the Aaronicall Priesthood which was the Ceremoniall Priesthood that was abrogated but also to the Melchise dechian Priesthood which is the order of Christs priesthood therfore seem in great probability if not demonstratively to stand still due unto Christ and so to be due still unto him And how can they bee paid more properly unto him than in the supportance of his service and in that it continued in both these Priesthoods it appeares me thinkes thereby that it was no part of the Ceremoniall Law but a thing common both to the ministration of the Law and the Gospell which were severally presented in those two Priesthoods as I may so speak For the Law was changed in the change of the Priesthood as the Epistle to the Hebrewes teacheth This Ordinance of Tithes therefore continuing as well as the Ordinance or office of blessing in both those so different Priesthoods it appeares thereby to bee none of that changeable Law that is done away I desire the Reader to excuse my engagement to brevity so far as to save me some labor here by casting a diligent eye upon the 7th to the Hebr. from the 1. Verse to the 18. as also Gen. 14.18 19 20. Verses Let these things bee seriously considered and if they bee of weight let them prevaile to end this quarrell and let not covetousnesse and envy bee heard any more against reason and Scripture nor the comparing of mens owne ends bee set up for Religion nor Mammon for the true God If there be any paralogisme or any unsoundnesse in these arguments I refuse not to have them searched by any mans pen that shal please When their failing is discovered unto me I shall be willing to relinquish them and not hang this conclusion any longer upon them But then fifthly I desire it may be considered that this way of tyranny holds excellent correspondence with that Command of the Apostle Gal. 6.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him that is Catechised I seldome heare that word but I thinke of the ruines of our Church through the neglect hereof And I can hardly passe by it without renewing my complaint or taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth or Catechiseth in all good things Which cannot bee exactly and orderly done and let the builders of Babel say what they wil all things are the better for order unlesse by that or some such like way And then sixtly the rule wil hold à minori as before that the proportion ought not to be lesse but rather greater than that of the legall Ministerie So that either tithes or more will bee due and why first fruits should bee forgotten I know not And lastly however the matter be at the worst that is imaginable The Abrogation of the Law had left tithing indifferent as it had been so before the Ceremoniall Law was given by the rule afore set downe and declared and if it be of an indifferent nature and ordinable unto the promotion of Gods glory it may be the subject matter of a Vow and of a Law both Ecclesiasticall and Civil and then in case where they are devoted and that by the will of the dead the most sacred and inviolable bond and the most authenticall and irrevocable act of humane power in its kinde and established by Law both Ecclesiasticall and Civill They are to bee paid with great fidelity and that out of Conscience And though the Law might be abrogated and that it had not as perhaps it hath in cases of this kinde the nature of a publicke Vow yet as long as the private Vow of the giver and the Will of the dead is irrevocable there had need to be much greater reason than is pretended for the violation But I must away As for those evasions for they are no better and covetousnesse will straine hard but it wil find one tricke or other to cheat the Conscience withall whereby the Reformers of these times as too many heretofore would faine justifie the alienation of tithes and other things consecrated to God and the Church viZ. That the grants thereof were procured by erroneous perswasions and upon false grounds as was the opinion of merit of satisfaction for sinne of obtaining deliverance out of Purgatory and the like and that they were given to evill ends as to the supportance of Idolatry and Superstition instead of true Religion and the sincere worship of God although they have beene answered and answered over and over by farre more learned and able pens and sufficiently to the satisfaction of any that have not enslaved their judgements and reason to the partiall opinions and admirations of mens persons or to their owne corrupt affections and wordly intents whereby they have made good that saying of the wise man Proverbs 27.22 Though thou shouldst bray a foole in a Morter among Wheat with a Pestle yet will not hts foolishnesse depart from him And that of Petraach algidum in cinerem nequicquam flabis Hee that blowes into the cold ashes shall doe no good thereby but make them flye about his eares Or