save men but they will not be saved So the year of Jubilee was a true Type of our deliverance by Christ whosoever was in bondage might then go out free wherefore I conclude as sure as we are lost by the first Adam so sure we are redeemed by the second Adam So sure as we are created by God the Father so sure we are redeemed by God the Son and Whoever will believe in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life Vulgar Errors CONCERNING Praying by the SPIRIT Removed THere hath nothing of late years been more mistaken than those Scriptures which speak of praying by the Spirit or the Spirit helping our Infirmities and God's pouring out the Spirit of Prayer and Supplications upon his People Which places have been wrested against a set Form of Prayer as if it were nothing but cold breathings and Lip labour to use their own words and a man in praying such a Prayer could not be assisted by the Spirit of God Their first mistake lieth in this that they do not distinguish between the gift of Prayer and the Spirit of Prayer Many men have a very good gift of Prayer and a very fluent Tongue who yet may be very formal as to their hearts not every one that hath the best gift of Eloquence prays most by the Spirit nor he that hath the meanest gift of Elocution prays least with the Spirit We may instance in Moses and Aaron the one of a stammering tongue the other God gives him this testimony that he could speak well Yet in the famous fight between Israel and Ameleck God makes not choice of Eloquent Aaron but of slowspoken Moses to get the victory by Prayer Though Aaron speak better than Moses yet certainly he could not pray better than he Prayer is a great part of Gods Service and Worship and our blessed Saviour tells us God is a Spirit and must be worshipp'd in Spirit Yet when the Apostles desired him to teach them to pray he did not teach them to pray by the Spirit in their sense who think speaking extempore without premeditation whatever comes into their mind on a sudden is the only praying by the Spirit but he prescribes them a set Form saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. So that a set Form certainly may be prayed by the Spirit else it had never been commanded to be used by our Saviour Christ If it be said the Lords Prayer is a pattern to frame our Prayers by rather than a Prayer it self My answer is As some Weights and Measures which are so exact in their kind being kept as Standards to make other Weights and Measures by do not lose the nature of Weights and Measures upon that account but rather are warranted in their kind So the Lords Prayer by being made a pattern for our Prayers doth not lose the nature of a Prayer but rather is thereby commended to us to be the most absolute Form of Prayer in the world In Numb 6.23 God bids Moses speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the people the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine favourably upon thee c. If any able of themselves to conceive a Prayer we may well suppose it should be the Priest whose Lips should preserve knowledge yet they are prescribed a set Form of blessing the People If it had been prescribed for the simple and ignorant sort it might have been objected They that have not gifts of their own are permitted to make use of other mens gifts but seeing it is prescribed the Priest himself nay even for Aaron the Eloquent High-Priest it strongly concludes for a set Form of Prayer and Benediction to be used in publick by the most able and eloquent Divine Moses a great Prophet who prayed so earnestly that God said Let me alone as if he tied Gods hands yet did he use one set Form of Prayer when the Ark set forward and when it rested Numb 10.35 When it set forward he said Arise O God let thine enemies be scattered let them also that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said constantly Return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel Let us not seek to seem better than he in new Forms every day whose gifts without question were unspeakably greater than ours The 92. Psalm was usually sung in the Church of the Jews every Sabbath day it was penned for that purpose as appeareth by the Title of it Seeing therefore a set Form of Prayer and Praise have been the practice of the ancient Church of God among the Jews and of Christian Churches to this very day let us give them the right hand of fellowship to have a Unity and Uniformity in Publick Worship Our blessed Saviour of whom it was said truly never man spake as he spake yet he useth three times together the same words in his Agony Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me He wanted no variety of words yet he confines himself to the same words the Prophet Joel prescribes the Prayer for the Priest and bids them say Spare thy people good Lord c. St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles used the same Salutation in the beginning of most of his Epistles Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and the same Prayer at the end of them The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen These examples plainly refute the error of those that are against the Liturgy or set Form of Prayer in the Church it is a ridiculous thing to think that as a nice and squeamish stomach is delighted with change of Dishes so God is delighted with variety of words and novelty of matter and method and that unless we have a new stile or a new trope or a new figure or a new flourish every time more than other we have not the Spirit of Prayer nor shall be excepted Every good Christian is not able to conceive a Prayer many have weak Capacities to conceive them want Order and Method to compose them yet even these if they meet with a Prayer framed to their hand can pray fervently and heartily A set Form must needs be a great help to those that are weak and yet willing to pray nay even they that are strong ought not to despise them for Prayers in publick are bounded by authority To pass over those bounds then must needs be offensive to that Authority that prescribed those bounds If any do they foment as it were a Worship distinct and apart from what is authorized by the Church but more reason that the spirit of a Minister should be regulated by the spirit of the Church representative than the spirits of the whole Congregation by the spirit of the Minister If he that was sick of the Palsie that was born of four
as Civil It is no less dangerous to teach that People may rebel upon grievances on the outward State and that Nature then teaches them by the meer force of rationality to constitute another Governour or institute another Government My answer to this is manifold first Who shall be judge of those grievances If you say the Common People alas what incompetent Judges are they in weighty matters especially where they are concerned themselves If you say the Nobles and chief of the People why these are not infallible see Num. 16.1 2 3. Corah Dathan and Abiram and two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them ye take too much upon you Wherefore lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Will ye put out the eyes of this people c. It is as possible now adays people may be ignorant or ambitious as in former times But be it granted for argument sake there be a real grievance is not the Law open to redress it Will not the great Council of the Kingdom think you move the King to give him up to justice who durst advise the King to go against Law thereby weakening his Throne which is upheld by Justice thereby dishonouring the King and making him less valuable to his People Will nothing serve but stretching forth the hand against Gods Anointed or rising up in Rebellion Certainly both these courses are as plainly forbid in Scripture as the Word of God can speak it If objected But those that killed Tyrants were always admired for sacrificing their own lives for the good of their Country I answer It was greatly done for Lucretia Cato or Cleopatra in their circumstances to kill themselves but yet done wickedly and so here only the greatness of the action causeth men to take false measures of it and so admire and commend it especially if good follow upon it it more blinds their judgments But you must not judge by the good event the goodness of the action for sometimes a bad one hath a good event and a good one bad success nor by the good meaning for Peter meant well when he drew his Sword to defend his Master but by a lawful call they had to undertake it Now who made those private persons judges or avengers in such cases Or how can they be sure that Anarchy and Confusion will not follow upon such attempts Which if it do they have sacrificed their lives to the ruine of their Country There ought to be none but lawful courses taken to redress unlawful grievances but Rebellion is judged an unlawful course both by the Law of God and the Law of the Land Again grant it but lawful in any one case to rebel and you give Rebels an Inch which they will soon make an Ell And every small grievance shall be made that very case or cousin-german to it As men we ought to consider humane frailty even in Governouts and bear with small faults considering what great benefits we still enjoy by their Government I have read of a Nation that upon the death of their King would permit by a Law made to that effect that every body might do what was right in his own eyes for three days but the murtherings and plunderings and outrages in so short a time were usually so many that the next King needed not so much his own virtues as the remembrance of the interregnum Vices to endear his Government to his People even Tyranny it self is not so bad as Anarchy There is a mean between Rebellion and losing our Liberty even when it is intrencht upon namely a patient waiting until a redress may legally be had and Reason and Law be heard in cold bloud to speak untill we give away our Liberties or give up our Laws we have still a birthright to them even under oppression And if we repent of our sins which caused God to set such a Governour over us he can change the Governour 's heart for it is in his hands to turn whether he pleases or he can change the Governour for another provided we change first One way or other we may hope deliverance will come for God doth not willingly grieve the Children of men but until it do come we must patiently bear Gods scourge in this kind as we do sickness ill weather at Sea or Land Pestilence Famine or the like This is Christian Doctrine of the Church of England witness the first part of the Homily against Rebellion where having said God gives a People such Kings usually as they deserveat subjoyns for Subjects to deserve for their sins to have an evil Prince set over them and then rebel against him were double and treble evil Nay let us either deserve to have a good Prince or let us patiently suffer and obey such as we deserve If People rebel one of these three things must happen Either the King must conquer and then the Subjects have fairly mended the matter have they not If it were a Rod in his hands before they may justly now expect a Scorpion Or else they must conquer if so who shall keep them from tyrannizing over the King and their fellow Subjects Or who shall keep from Factions and Change of Government every month I hope we have had too late experience in both these kinds to trust to any fair pretence again in hast Or thirdly there will be an Accommodation if so yet many dear lives are like first to be lost and then we are at best but where we are now for at last some body must be trusted with the Supremacy upon their honesty So that to Rebel seems to me a remedy worse than the disease at all times for Rebels always go without a Commission and therefore whatever they do cannot be said to go beyond it many times they complain without a just cause or upon a very slender one not worthy of such a decision as the Sword It is usually said of the English man that he never knows when a thing is well insomuch that being over-curious intending still to amend his work he often mars all or at leastwise makes it worse Certainly our English Constitution of Government is well enough in all reason We are at this day blessed be God and our gracious King at least as free as any Nation in the known world let us not screw the strings so high till they break and all the Harmony be spoiled there remains nothing to make us happy under this Government but to think our selves happy in it to bless God for it and to pay our duties unto it Some of which are these that follow First To live quietly under it God and the Law hath given the King the Sword and whoever else takes it is an Usurper of another mans right and deserves to perish by it Hazael was confident he should never do so wickedly with his power as the
no part of the Ceremonial Law Indeed in the Levitical Law the Jew was commanded to blow with Trumpets on the Sabbath and New Moons But you never read Moses commanded to sing Praises with Strings and Pipe Again the Ceremonies were shadows of things to come and most of them referred unto Christ but this kind of service is no ways typical of the Messiah and therefore not Ceremonial Neither is it sinful for it was first taught us by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost see 2 Chron. 29.25 Hezekiah set the Levites in the House of the Lord with Cymbals Psalteries and Harps according to the commandment of David and Gad the Kings Seer and Nathan the Prophet for so was the Commandment of the Lord by his Prophets So that to praise God with Instruments of Musick in his House is so far from being sinful that it was instituted first of all at the command of God himself by his Prophets If it be farther objected although it was appointed of God yet it was appointed under the Old Law before Christ came therefore ought now to vanish My answer is so were the Ten Commandments yet they ought always to stand in force we must not look so much to the time when a Command is given as to the intrinsick nature of a Command if we would know whether it be always to stand in force or no For if the Law have in it a Moral equity though given under the Law it may oblige us under the Gospel Now that the great and glorious God should be praised with Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs sung after the best and skilfullest manner to make his Service more solemn must needs be most equal and having in it a moral equity cannot be displeasing to Almighty God still to be kept up by us Instruments of Musick have great influence into the Affections of men we use the Trumpet to stir up the courage of men in War Why should we not use these to stir up our Affections to Gods Service to make us sing lustily and with a good courage If it be said it will hinder our devotion by carrying away the mind to the Musick I answer this is not essential to it but only accidental So may a pleasant Voice but we must not take away the use of a thing because it may be abused Watch therefore more narrowly thine own Heart and think these Wings were added to thy soul to make her fly the swifter up to Heaven and not to flutter here below God loves no lukewarm drouzie service that therefore that will heighten our zeal and take away our drouziness will be a help and not an hindrance to our devotion To this end David prepared two hundred fourscore and eight skilful Singers to praise God being instructed in the Songs of the Lord as we read in 1 Chron. 25.7 And he made four thousand Instruments to praise God withal 1 Chron. 23.5 Thus he took order that with Trumpets and Shawmes they should shew themselves joyful before the Lord their King The infirmities of our nature and the weaknesses of flesh and bloud are much relieved by Musick We read of a strange effect that Musick had upon Saul 1 Sam. 16.14 Saul had forsaken God and now Gods Spirit forsakes him and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him and it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took a Harp and played with his hand so Saul was refreshed and well and the evil spirit departed from him If it had been the Spirit of God that had been expell'd by Musick no question but this place would have been brought by some against us But seeing it was the evil spirit that was constantly chased away by it why should it not make for us For whether it were a deep melancholy only or a Devil possessing him and stirring and carrying that melancholy passion further than naturally it would have gone Expositors do doubt But be it which it will you see Saul was miserably out of tune with it till Davids Harp composed his affections and made him sedate and quiet and fit for the Society of men again If Musick be known to heighten our joy at a feast Why may it not heighten our joy in the Lord whilst we make a chearful noise unto the God of Jacob If we are commanded when merry to sing Psalms Surely to make the tune more melodious with Harp or Organ can be no offence If to hear a Psalm sung out of tune hinders our devotion and is apt to move scorn and laughter then by the rule of contraries to be brought to good time and tune by an Organ must needs make the Service of God more solemn more devout and more acceptable both to God and man Vulgar Errors CONCERNING The WILL Removed ALthough Faith and Hope be Gods gifts and called Gods Armour yet we must put this Armour on We must cooperate with the grace of God or else his grace will be offered us in vain The Greek Proverb says A man must defend his Weapons if he would have his Weapons defend him And St. Augustine says truly He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee But how far and after what manner the Will of man concurs with the grace of God in things pertaining to Salvation is much controverted by the Learned which that you may the better understand I shall first explain the terms unto you 1. Telling you what the Will is 2. What the grace of God is and then shall consider of their manner of concurrence in all gracious acts 1. The Will is the rational appetite or a free power of choosing or refusing of a thing or of preferring one thing before another when divers things conduce to the same end 2. Grace is strength and assistance from God to do something above nature Without me says Christ ye can do nothing we are not able of our selves so much as to think a good thought 'T is said Pelagius taught that the Will of man needed nothing of grace but only to be enlightened by the Word of God to know his Will and the danger of not doing it and the reward of performing it and then it was able by its own natural powers to perform it grounding his opinion on such Texts as these If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin Now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth Some on the other side think the Will is subject to the special motion of God in the act of Conversion or any other gracious act so that the grace of God is irresistably powerful and what mixture men bring from the vertue of the Will to grace is only the corruption of it they ground their opinion on such Texts as these You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins And again We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works from whence