more liberty and authority then will do them good and the People good for what ever transcendant power is given will certainly over-run those that give it and those that receive it There is a straine in a mans heart that will sometime or other runne out to excesse unlesse the Lord restraine it but it is not good to venture it It is necessary therefore that all power that is on earth be limited Church-power or other If there be power given to speak great things then look for great blasphemies look for a licentious abuse of it It is counted a matter of danger to the State to limit Prerogatives but it is a further danger not to have them limited They will be like a Tempest if they be not limited A Prince himselfe cannot tell where hee will confine himselfe nor can the people tell But if he have liberty to speak great things then he will make and unmake say and unsay and undertake such things as are neither for his owne honour nor for the safety of the State It is therefore fit for every man to be studious of the bounds which the Lord hath set and for the People in whom fundamentally all power lyes to give as much power as God in his word gives to men And it is meet that Magistrates in the Common-wealth and so Officers in Churches should desire to know the utmost bounds of their own power and it is safe for both All intrenchment upon the bounds which God hath not given they are not enlargements but burden and snares They will certainly lead the spirit of a man out of his way sooner or later It is wholsome and safe to be dealt withall as God deales with the vast Sea Hitherto shalt thou come but there shalt thou stay thy proud waves and therefore if they be but banks of simple sand they will be good enough to check the vast roaring Sea And so for Imperiall Monarchies it is safe to know how far their power extends and then if it be but banks of sand which is most slippery it will serve as well as any brazen wall If you pinch the Sea of its liberty though it be walls of stone or brasse it will beate them downe So it is with Magistrates stint them where God hath not stinted them and if they were walls of brasse they would beate them downe and it is meet they should but give them the liberty God allows and if it be but a wall of sand it will keep them As this liquid Ayre in which we breath God hath set it for the waters of the Clouds to the Earth It is a Firmament it is the Clouds yet it stands firme enough because it keeps the Climate where they are it shall stand like walls of brasse So let there be due bounds set and I may apply it to Families it is good for the Wife to acknowledg all power and authority to the Husband and for the Husband to acknowledg honour to the Wife but still give them that which God hath given them and no more nor lesse Give them the full latitude that God hath given else you will finde you dig pits and lay snares and cumber their spirits if you give them lesse there is never peace where full liberty is not given nor never stable peace where more then full liberty is granted Let them be duely observed and give men no more liberty then God doth nor women for they will abuse it The Devill will draw them and Gods providence leade them thereunto therefore give them no more then God gives And so for children and servants or any others you are to deale with give them the liberty and authority you would have them use and beyond that stretch not the tether it will not tend to their good nor yours And also from hence gather and goe home with this meditation That certainly here is this distemper in our natures that we cannot tell how to use liberty but wee shall very readily corrupt our selves Oh the bottomlesse depth of sandy earth of a corrupt spirit that breaks over all bounds and loves inordinate vastnesse that is it we ought to be carefull of Thirdly it may teach us to observe the hand of God in all the vast out-runings of the Sonnes of men when you see men outragious beyond all power wonder not at the matter for he that is above is higher then the highest and he regardeth it Eccles 5. 8. A man would wonder that a Bishop should take upon him to controul all the Churches and in very deed all the Common-wealths and Nations of the world and that in such high things both in nature and measure that a man would think it were not possible for a mortall man to undertake such a vast enterprize yet they have done it the Pope hath done it and the Bishop of Rome hath done it but wonder not at it for he that is higher then the highest hath given him this power John 3. 27. not given it him in an Ordinance but in his common Providence This transcendant power that he is able to carry all before him without controll it is a strange power he may say what he will and doe what he will for so many moneths the time indeed is limited So that it will be of this use to us if we see men outrageous and break bonds beyond measure is any common-wealth or Church our way is to see Gods hand in it and to look up to him to muzzle that power He is able to bridle the high King of Assyria that whereas he spake great things what is the God of Israel that he shall deliver you out of my hand the Lord can put a bridle in his nostrills and bring him back the way that he came And therefore when men speak great things against us from any part of the world know that he that is higher then the highest regardeth and our eyes must be to him that he will muzzle such and take order to cut them off The Lord will cut out the tongue that speaketh proud things Psal 12. 4. He hath promised to doe it and he will doe it effectually You have two places where the Lord useth the word to muzzle the one is about the Sea Marke 4. 39. the other is spoken to the Devill Mark 1. 25. Hold thy peace it is translated but the word in the Originall is be thou muzzled Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corne it is the same word It shews that the Lord hath a muzzle for the great Sea and a muzzle for the Devils of hell when we have to deal with them If it be the great King of Assyria he will put his bridle in his nostrils and make him return back the same way he came the Lord is above all when they are above the reach of men they are not above him he sits in heaven and laughs them to scorn Those that have been most insolent
slay him and crush his spirituall arrogancy that under pretence of Vicarship to Christ will yet be the Lord of the Church The Reason of the point is From the dishonour put upon Christ to take the headship from him to whom it belongeth This honour to be the head of the Church is the proper right of the Lord Jesus It is his First by guiâ—t from the Father Ephes 1. 22. To be head ever all things to the Church and Col. 1. â—8 He is the head of the body the Church Secondly it is his by Purchase He gave himselfe to death even the death of the Crosse and God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name Phil. 2. 8 9. He dyed and rose again that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. So that now when the Lord hath this headship of the Church granted him and also hath purchased it by his own death now for another to claym headship it must needs imply either that the head is a non-resident or else thrust out of his headship he doth administer And though the Lord be not present in body yet in his spirituall presence he is as truely present and more effectually then any that can be devised And therefore in regard of injury done to Christ which the Lord will not bear he will therefore crush and wound such heads 2dly From the sacrilegious injury put upon the Church It is an usurpation of all power from the Church that if a Catholick Church be met they will give power and Lawes to other Churches and look what the second Beast doth he administers all the power of the first Beast Look what power is given to the Catholick Church that doth the Bishop of Rome incorporate to himself and he causeth an Image of that Church to be made in Provinciall Nations which when they have taken hold like a Bears claws they will not easily be rooted out Now this is such injurous usurpation that from that day to this they have never been free That where the Pope hath had to doe the Churches are spoiled of the authority that is given to them by Christ And therefore you must not wonder if the Lord wound the head of such as goe on in their wickednesse Psal 68. 20 21. The jealousie of the Lord riseth against such usurpations For a visible Catholick Church to be set over the world who may make Lawes to rule conscience and make Officers for the ordering of all Churches It is such a Monster and the Government of it is so odious in the sight of God that he wounds it to death For the use of the point It may serve to provoke us all to pray heartily and faithfully for the repressing of all such heads as either the Bishop of Rome is or any Images of him whatsoever they be You read of a little horn in Daniel whose root was stubbed up wherever you read of any horns that will usurpe power over the Church look at it as it is abominable to Christ it provokes the spirit of Christ Soveraign Authority is his If the Lord be set upon the hill of Sion he will wound the Bishop of Rome or any that shall take his Image He will give them a deadly blow especially when they are more arrogant then his Indignation ariseth against them to execute judgement on such The headship of the Church is a singular priviledge to the Lord Jesus and incompitable to any They must either take Christs office out of his hands or think him negligent or non-resident and that he doth not sufficiently discharge his headship and therefore they will usurpe an office in his name but that is abominable to Christ Obj. But you will say So wee shall pluck the Crowne off from the heads of Christian Princes for they challenge that stile to be head of the Church Answ I doe not know any Christian Prince that chalengeth that stile That which was sometimes given to Saul may be given to Princes 1 Sam. 15. 17. When thou wast little in thine eyes wast thou not made the head of the Tribes of Israel That is true and so the King is head of all the Peeres and head of all the Shires and the Churches are in some or other of them that is 1. They have power over the Church in all civill matters 2. And I will say thus much that they have power to redresse and reforme inordinate abuses in the Church provoking Church officers to doe it If they doe not other Churches are to treat with them and if their corruptions be prejudicial either to the doctrine of the Gospell or if they degenerate to any Tyranny they are to look to redresse such things but this gives them not headship over the Church over their persons it doth but not over the Church that is 1. They have no power either to call Church-officers or to depose them 2. They have no power to dispence Church-censures 3. They have no power to suspend Church liberties 4. They have no power to appoint Church-ordinances nor power to administer any matter further then any other member of the Church and this did the Church of England acknowledge and no more then this was due Therefore we allow some power and authority to Princes and Magistrates in the sence spoken of If they claime any further it will so kindle the jealousie of the Lord that the Lord wil certainly wound it to the cracking of the Crowns of all that take it upon them which may be a notable warning to all Church-men I mean Church officers to beware of cleeking into their hands the power which God hath not given them the Lord will wound their heads he will not endure it 't is a priviledge that he hath purchased with his owne bloud I think there is no need here to presse it but this let me say it is a just motive to pray the more ardently and faithfully for the crushing of such heads wherever the Lord findes any arrogant head that any Church-officer will undertake to give Lawes to the Churches in their diocesse that they will put Officers upon them that they will suspend them at their pleasure and put in and put out whether the Church will or no This kinde of insolency in such a state let it look for a wound for a wound it shall have And therefore we are the more encouraged to pray for and to look for deliverance from these Heads for John tells us 1 John 5. 14. that if we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us And this is according to the will of God that all ambitious heads be wounded What he hath done he will doe There is no new thing under the Sun he spares and changes and wounds in every change Persons are changed but Gods administrations are one and the same If Gods indignation have been ardently kindled against the Bishop of Rome he will certainly visite such powers
an admirable honour they put upon the Church of Rome and upon the Head of it what ever the first Beast did the second Beast also did and so in worshipping the one they worshipped the other and in admiring one they admired both 4. They expresse their admiration in this that they will undertake establishing of Laws from the Sea of Rome and persecution of such godly persons as did not submit such as were different in their minds from the Catholick Church if they never so little swerve from that they undertook to execute the Laws of the Church And if the Church declared him him to be an Heretick there was no more to do the Common-wealth presently put him to death And as they took upon them persecution of their Subjects at home so the Subjects took upon them to depose their Princes and might depose them if they would not submit their power to the Pope so that there was no subsisting without submitting to them And which is a branch of this they undertook a vast and costly War abroad against the common Enemy the Turke whereas in very deed whilst the Pope stands it is not possible any War should prosper against him for it was for the sinne of Rome that the Turk was advanced a barbarous and beastly Enemy to punish a beastly Religion This was their admiration And all the world wondered after the Beast He meanes as he expounds himselfe ver 8. Those whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb. They that were redeemed from the world they were not of the world though they lived in it but those in the world that were of the world they did honour this beast and were subject to him and gave all their devotion to the Catholick Church And when I say all the world I meane all the Christian world which was the visible face of the world the reputed world These barbarous Nations were not then so owned but as for the Eastern world they were all willing to give way to this transcendant Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome in a generall Councell at Asia They looked at the reigning and Imperiall City of Rome as the chiefest Seate of the Catholick Church the highest throne of that Church and were content that no Councell should be ratified but by him If hee ratified a Councell in so many Canons it was established if he did not then they were not and the Emperors were willing it should be so because they found insufficiency in themselves to maintaine the Royal City of Rome against barbarous Nations And therefore they thought it State-policy to maintain the Bishop of Rome and let him grow up to as great power as he could It was as they thought the preservation of their State but it was indeed their ruine so they willingly gave their power to the beast Now the barbarous Nations that had not forsaken the Country and had builded them houses they that were not driven out as many rested in some parts of the Empire they willingly closed with such a Religion as was pretty savoury to their apprehensions they began to comply with it and put their necks under it Charles the Great having received the Kingdome of France from the Pope he did his best endeavour to bring the people to yeeld themselves but the people were somewhat sowr and rugged that way to be wrought upon Therefore the Pope had another sophistry to help himselfe He sends three Apostles Gregory the Great he was one Apostle that he sent for England and he brings great Reformation that is he sways the whole State to the Bishop of Rome and those that would not yeeld were miserably slaughtered And Bonifacius he did the like in Genevah and in France and Denmarke and Germany And where ever the world was Christian it was now Catholick all submitted to the Church of Rome and so by this means all the world admired him they received doctrine and worship from Rome they will goe for pardon of Sin thither They make Pilgrimages to Rome Appeals to Rome From thence they receive their fundamental Constitutions Dispâ—nsations Persecutions deposition of Princes They receive and undertake generall war from thence for the recovery of the holy Land And in one word in such admiration the Beast of Rome was that it was a Proverb among them He ruled all the world and therefore he ruled all the Churches and was esteemed to be God on Earth Thus did all the world wonder after the Beast and admire him and so did they also hiâ— power They did excâ—â—dingly admire his power Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make warre with him It is not cleare adoration but it is an attributing to the Beast that which is peculiar to God Who is like unto the Lord our God Exod. 15. 11. It is a style of the high and mighty God This admiration of this wonderfull power and holinesse it is now added to the Pope Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make warr with him Who is the Lord of hosts but our God as if he were invincible For they had found that when some of the Grecian Emperours that had given their power to the Beast did vary in point of judgment as they did not love to take up the worship of Images then the Beast is offended and excommunicates him and deprives him of his Empire and gives it to Charles the Great takes away the Kingdome of France puts him into a Monastery removes Fredericke first and second And what he did with King John of England you know He deprived him of his Kingdome and hee makes some of them do very hard penance whiles he was solacing himselfe with his Harlot She being more compassionate then he besought his Holinesse to have compassion on him and so he sent him back yet afterwards they made him away And his Son when they came to Crown him it must be with the Popes foot and when he hath done he dasheth it off to shew that he hath power to take it as easily from him as to fell it from his head Though great men and greatly beloved of the people all is nothing if they be alienated from the Pope All mens affections are his when he turns the whole body turns when the head moves the whole body doth accordingly So that it was marvellous admirable power that he had whom he would he set up and whom he would he pulled downe Peter he said gave it to him and he did what he would to those that were on the earth this is great power They professe if their holy Father carry many millions of soules to Hell yet no man must say Sir why do you so All appeals were from him so that there is transcendant soveraign power and indeed divine such as no man can attaine Power to pardon sin power to bind Conscience to dispence with the Law of God to interpret and judg of Scripture as he sees cause and this
day by day were fashioned c. In the providence of God there was a deliniation of all creatures and actions that should come to passe There is truly also the booke of conscience for also in that God registers all our actions according to which we shall be judged the conscience bearing witnesse about our persons and actions so farre as they are enlightned by God And you read also of another booke The word that I have spoken that shall judge them at the last day John 12. 48. he shall judge all the world by it Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel These books will be opened the booke of Gods Providence the booke of the Scripture and the book of conscience by which we shall be judged But there is also the booke of Life by which wee shall be judged in Rev. 10. 12. Now for the book of life that hath a double exception in Scripture for sometimes it is put for the Church register in which all are registred as those that were the living in Jerusalem Isa 4. â— It is said Every one that remaineth in Hierusalem shall be called holy even every one that is written among the living in Hierusalem Or as the word is in the margent or bigger Bibles written To life in Hierusalem In the Originall it is capable of both constructions Every man capable of life is written in Hierusalem There is a book written of them that live there of which it is said Psal 87. 6. the Lord will recount when he writteth up the people that this or that man was born there Of this book also you read in Ezek. 13. 9. where the Lord doth threaten the false Prophets that his hand shall be upon them that see vanity and devine lyes they shall not be as members of my people nor shall they be written in the writing of the house oâ— Israel they shall neither have fellowship with Church nor Common-wealth There is a writing therefore a Register a Record of them which in the Old Testament were counted Geneologies and very carefully did they keep them that if they could not shew their pedigree from this Geneology they were as polluted Ezra 2. 59. as also vers 62. where he tells you of sundry that came in among the people of Israel but because they could not find their names in the Register they were left aside till they could finde further proof of their pedigree they might be received as other Proselytes but not as native Israelites who were counted of the Church from the line of their Parents and some of the sonnes of Barzilli some of the Priests they thought it more honour to fetch their pedigree from their father Barzilli whom David had advanced to sit at his Table and they thought it more honour to be counted of the house of Barzilli then of the order of Aaron And they when they would have presented themselves to the Priests office they were not received why because they were not found in the Churches Register and they had no direction from the Word to take Noble mens sons to be Priests but only of the sons of Aaron So this is the book of Life it is called The writing of the living in Hierusalem This is the book of life the Church-book it is nothing but a counterpane of the book of life but not exactly agreeing to it sometimes we put in more then God doth and sometimes lesse There be that belong to life whom we do not receive Others they do not present themselves or we do not receive through some failings in them or us but if they belong to life they are written in the Lambs book of life they may not be written in the Church book but this is not the book here spoken of the book of the life oâ— the Lamb The Church is the body of the Lamb but they cannot discern who are his The Lord knows who are his so do not we nor the members of the Church therefore you heare here of a distinct booke of the Lambs book of life of which book it is expresly written Rev. 20. 15. That whosoever was not found written in the Lambs book of life was cast into the lake of fire All men therefore that are written in the book of Life or in the book of the Lamb they are written to life Now this we cannot say of the Church-book for as hath been observed of ancient time there are many wolves within and many sheep without Sometimes the Church hath cast out her most precious members both Officers and Members sad experience hath made it true in our times therefore that is not a certaine rule that if a man be left out of the Church he is left everlastingly unlesse there be such contempt of means of grace as in those whom the Lord hath branded for such whom he takes no pleasure in to eternity For it is said whoever was not found written in the Lambs book of life was cast into the lake of fire Therefore this is some other then that booke of the Church What book is that no other but the eternall record and register of Gods election that is the Lambs book whoever is not found he is indeed cast out into the lake of fire being shut out from salvation by Christ and then what hope of salvation is there in himselfe Now of this book it is of which Moses speaks Exo. 32. 33. If thou wilt not forgive the sin of thy people then blot me out of the book which thou hast written not which the Church hath written but which thou hast written which the Lord hath written of life in Christ in which the Lord hath written all the names of his Elect This is the book out of which hee desires to be blotted out of such was the extasie I cannot say of his zeale but he was filled with such ardent zeale that rather then such a reproach should be cast upon God that he was not able to bring them to the Land of Canaan let him be blotted out of the book which he had written let damnation it selfe fall upon him rather then the name of the Lord should be reproached by the uncircumcised Heathens and in that sence Paul wisheth himselfe separate from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9. 3. He doth not say he would be cast out of the Church but he found that zeale for the whole Church and for the Lord Jesus that rather then the Gospel of Christ should be hindered if it may stand with Gods liking he could rather wish such a wretch as he should be cut off then that the whole body of his people should be cast off This is the Lambs book of Life called the book of Life not because the Lord stands in need of a book but because those whom in his eternall purpose he hath decreed to save his unchangeable purpose doth fixe them as
man would choose to live no better life nor keep a better house then his Father or Grandfather but wish their souls might be but as safe as theirs when men are once redeemed by the bloud of Christ and that is sprinkled upon their consciences then the bloud of Christ is warmer then the bloud of Ancestors though the Religion of our Fathers should be strong in the hearts of devout Catholicks as in Bilney or Latimer then alasse for our poor Fathers what is become of them they pity them and see plainly that unlesse the Lord led them a further way then the Religion of those that taught them they are gone everlastingly and then they wonder that God should ever choose such a dunghill thee and me that they see a broad difference between the Religion of their Ancestors and that which they see now but that is the efficacy of the bloud of Christ there is that efficacy in it that it washeth away all relations to Fathers to antiquity and universality he is crucified to them all God forbid saith the Apostle that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6. 14. So that though all the world runne after the Beast they will not the world looks at them as base unworthy creatures and so they look at the world And there is a third fundamentall Reason and that is taken from the power and presence of the Spirit of Gods grace in the hearts of his people We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. That is by the spirit of God and by the power of that spirit he keeps our faith and by faith keeps us in the way of his ordinances and in the way of sanctification to salvation Little children yee are of God and you have overcome these Antichrists why for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The power of God is in you they are of the world and the world is carryed away with them you are of God and you hear them not for greater is he thaâ— is in you then he that is in the world These are three fundamentall Reasons which are indeed the demonstrative cause of the impossibility of them to be finally carried to the worship of the Beast the election of God will not suffer it the unchangeblenesse thereof the faithfulnesse of Christ the efficacy of the blood of Christ and the power of the spirit and that which flowes from it is the experience of Gods love and the vertue of their faith in Christ Their faith is unchangeble not possible to be rooted out in Luke 22. 31 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not It may be shaken but it shall not finally fail I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. and that is the proper act of faith Be not high minded but fear his mercy is sufficient for us trust steadfastly on the grace of Christ and though Peter seemed not to trust on the grace of Christ yet in his worst state he knew that all the courses of Satan were vanity and he durst not but in his heart believe that Christ was the Messiah so all the elect of God know the Beast is a Beast and the Catholick Roman Church is a Beast and the head of that Beast is a beastly head and they know that their Doctrine is sensuall and carnall and that they all shall go into perdition and withall their experience doth evidently convince them that were it not in a pang of temptation in which they are not able to abide by it yet by a renewall of the blood of the Lord Jesus sprinkled on their souls they are brought a fresh to see the work of Gods grace stirred up in them but otherwise their constant course is as in Rev. 14. you hear them coming as on a stage representing the Lambe in their carriage and conversation and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes but for the Beast a stranger they will not follow but both their faith and experience yeild them a third cause and that is the spirit of God carying them an end My sheep hear my voyce and they follow me but they know not the voyce of strangers they see a difference between good and evill and therefore if they hear a man speak and doth not speak of salvation by him but of the world or of himselfe they will not follow him John 10. 45. Thus you see the Reason why none of them worship the Beast But on the other side all the rest of the world doe meaning where Antichrists power comes speaking of those times when there was great power given to him to speak great things and no man might say Sir why do you so in that time when he had power to be active forty two months when he had power to make Warre with the Saints and to overcome them and when all Nations worshipped him and did not shake off that Religion but in former times before reformation of Religion this was an universal practice they all Nations Kindreds and Tongues gave their power to the Beast and the reason of that was from Gods just judgement for their not receiving the truth in love therefore he gave them over to strong delusions to believe lyes Secondly from the efficacy of Satan in the power of deceitfull sophistry and doing wonders And thirdly by the plausiblenesse trumpery and bravery of that Religion so suitable to carnal reason that they were carried away thereto and it could not be but they should be carried away by the man of Sinne. The use first may then be thus much If all that dwell on Earth whose names are not written in the book of life do worship the Beast and none are excluded but those whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life then this will unavoidably follow that a Papist by his Religion cannot go beyond a Reprobate what he may and renounce his Religion is another matter as Bilney and Latimer sometimes did they were written in the Lambes booke of life but by his Religion take them that do believe as the Catholick Roman Church believes and believe no more but practice that which that Religion directs them to and goe no further and they continue and live and die in that then I must pronounce it from the Text they cannot go beyond a Reprobate the reason is evident from the Text for if none of them whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life doe worship the Beast and onely they do worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Lambs booke of life then if they be not written in the Lambs booke of life the Text is very strong clear in Rev. 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the Lambs Book of life was cast into the lake
the world to bear witness unto that When Pilate did accuse him he answered nothing and the Governour wondred at it knowing that hee could tell what to answer He marvailed that so just a man in so just a case did not answer a word which did so narrowly concern him But he did not know what the cause was that he was as a Lamb dumb before the shearer and before the slaughter also What might be the reason then of this Lamb lik innocency and meeknesse of Christ They are principles and ought to be incultated often The first ground is To fulfill the types that went before of him Exod 12. 5. The paschall Lamb was without blemish And Exod. 29 39. The daily Sacrifice was to be a Lamb without spot and blemish therefore Christ must be such The second Reason is taken from his personal union with the second person in Trinity For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily Col. 2 9. that is personally So that Christ must be a sinner if in any thing Christ had failed either in doing or suffering which were blasphemy to say And hence springs an utter impossibility of his manhood acting any thing without the Gâ—d head acting by him for the Son can do nothing of himselfe but as he seeth the Father do Thirdly there is a further necessity of his Lamb-like innocency From our necessity of such a Sacrifice and such an high Priest as was holy and blamelesse and undefiled Heb. 7. 26 27 28. Such an high Priest it behooved us to have Yea it was requisite the Sacrifice should be blamelesse Levit. 1. 3. And the Priest that offered it to be so also Levit. 21. 18. For otherwise he could not make attonement for us nor could his attonement be accepted But why was he thus patient silent and meek a double reason of that First That his Sacrifice might be voluntary and so accepted of the Father Sacrifice and offering for sinne thou wouldst not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law Then said he Loe I come to doe thy will O God Heb. 10. 8 9. Whoever was to offer a Sacrifice was to bring it himselfe and deliver it up and himselfe with it and it must be offered willingly Wheeher it was the Congregation that had committed a sinne or whether it were any particular person they were to bring their oblation Any Sacrifice that a man would have accepted he must bring it to the door of the Tabernacle Lev. 4. 4. 14. 23. The Priest must not fetch it If any would bring their Sacrifice they might but if they were extorted from them they were not accepted So the Lord Jesus must come and freely offer up himselfe as one that was to be presented in the stead of all the Elect Hee offered himselfe a Surety of the Covenant we should have brought it but we had it not in our hearts But hee brings himselfe and layes downe his life of himselfe and takes it up againe John 10. 18. And 2ly why did he expresse his patience in that silence of his The reason was from this very cause even From the want of sufficient matter to give a just Answer in our behalfe by all things that he could alledg for us If hee had stood in his own person and had had nothing to do but to cleare himselfe he had had a world to have answered for himselfe and this Pilate saw for he said that he was a King but a King of another world and Pilate knew that there was no Cesarian Law that did forbid a Kingdome in another world but standing in our persons hee knew not what to answer What could there be charged upon Christ but we have been guilty of it Can it be sayd that none of the Elect of God did blaspheme and that none of them did destroy the Temple of God and can it be justified that all the Elect of God have been freed from commotions Can any undertake that defence for the elect of God What sinne can you charge upon him but some of the servants of God have been guilty of it Therefore it is that the Lord Jesus answers not He doth not deny he doth not out-face them in the businesse It is not so with him He is not such an Advocate He pleads with a good conscience when he pleads and he is clear but he cannot clear his Elect ones from Church-censure and Civill censure Nor doth he plead with God about any kind of hard-ship in putting upon him that extremity he knew the elect of God had deserved such And though he knew that they dealt wickedly yet standing in our room hee had not a sufficient plea let them charge him with what they will A man cannot charge him with any sinne but some of his Elect have been guilty of it and therefore what can be answered Therefore he was not willing to excuse himselfe He doth neither deny nor extenuate any Crime that can be layd agâ—inst him but take it in its full rigour and the accusation doth stand good They stand not good against the Principall but against the Surety as hee is a Surety they stand good against him for as it is in Job 9. 2 3. How should man be just with God If hee will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand Let a man stand before the Tribunall of the justice of God and he cannot answer one of a thousand And if Christ be to stand for all the elect of God hee cannot answer one of a thousand And therefore when the King came to see the man in the room that had not on the wedding Garment the man was speechlesse which plainly shewes us that if Christ stand in the room of Gods people the case stands so that Christ cannot answer for us to excuse us Job could not answer one of a thousand though he was the perfectest man in his Generation and I know not whether any man after him that was more innocent then he And what shall others of Gods called ones be able to doe and what they are not able to doe the Lord Jesus Christ hee doth carry it in the same manner as one that cannot excuse them from being guilty of those sinnes no more then himselfe can Thus you see the reasons both of Christs innocency and patience The use of the point is First to convince us of the guilt of all the elect people of God and their guiltinesse even of violent death and unexcusablenesse under that death If so be we had been innocent what needed Christ to have been so patient as hee was so Lamb-like in his innocency His Lamb-like innocency is an argument of our guiltinesse The servants of God especially such as take any more narrow search of their own waves they see themselves full of blemishes spots and wrinckles and many such things Isa 64. 6. We are all as unclean things and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
ragges They are all as the clouts of a mensteruous woman even all our best righteousnesse This this the condition of us all full of uncleanesse and pollution and deformity And whâ—ch is worse then that unexcuable in all for if wee couâ—d have told what to say and to say justly Christ would have sayd it much more fully then we could for he is our Advocate and it were a shame for an Advocate if the party of the cause could defend his cause better then his Advocate Christ is more skilful in the Law then we but his silence doth professe that he knows not what to say to stand out in our defence He might have excused some of Gods elect from this or that actual grosse Sinne but he could have excused none from a guilty pronenesse to all manner of Sinne There is a vicious pronenesse in us to all sinne and therefore Christ could not tell what to say And as there is a pronenesse in us to all sinne so there is an actuall commission of many sinnes And in many things we sinne all James 3. 2. And there are few or none of Gods elect that if so be a man that is privy to all their dealings were to give an account of them he could not justifie them from the guilt and stain of all sinne Now this is the case of Christ he hath been acquainted with all our wayes and if he be examined of what hath been done wickedly before the Church and before the Common-wealth he is not able to deny but both Church and Common-wealth might proceed against us all And this may cast a holy blushing upon us in the presence of the Lord and of this Lamb Christ could have told what to have answered if ought had been to be answered but when he stands in our room he stands silent he could not with truth bear witnesse unto any of us touching our guiltinesse knowing what he knew by us it would make us unfit for both societies either of Church or Common-wealth And it is a just humiliation for a man to know that he stands in such a state of which no good account can be given A man that is skilful indeed and knows the Law as well as Christ did standing in our room he hath nothing to answer for himselfe and the Lord knows it and time was when this considered did muzzâ— his mouth he was like a lamb dumbe before his shearer you cannot rake up such a base accusation against him but he knows where the dint of it will fall and therefore he is very sensible of the truth of all that is laid unto his charge Let God come upon us with spiritual dissertions we must know that it is just with God to dissert us and though the Church should spue us out and the Common-wealth cut us off from the land of the living who can plead for us If Christ stand in our persons he hath nothing to plead Secondly it doth teach us where to look for all our justification and reconcilement with the Father Truly brethren not in our own righteousnesse for the Lord himselfe that knowes it better then we do he knows that it will not hold out before the judgement seat of God He might have pleaded that David was a man after Gods own heart he might have pleaded the wisedome of Solomâ—n and the truth of Josias heart and the zeal of Phineas and the patience of Job but he knowing the Law well enough and what thâ—y have been and we have all been he hath nothing to plead and therefore we must not plead our own righteousnesse let no man think that his own pleading will reach his own justification whereas Christ himselfe could not reach it for him All have sinned all have been out of the way and there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14. 1 2 3. he speaks of us by nature and we were natural before we came to be spiritual Therefore saith the Apostle What things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may 〈…〉 and all the world may become guilty bâ—fore God Rom. 3. 19. 〈…〉 use the Apostle himselfe makes of it Vers 23 24 25 We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redempâ—ion that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past through the forbearance of God So that I say this 〈…〉 of our justification the Lord Jâ—sus hath borne and suffeâ—ed for us when he was silent in our behalfe and could not tell what to say Papists can bring you many argumâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 justifie themselves they will bring you many instances of this Saint and that Saint and of the Virgin Mary above all others of their purity and righteousnesse and how able they are to plead for others They may be wise for themselves and do as Procters are wont to do regard their fees and not their Cause but the Lord Jesus is faithful and yet he cannot plead as guiltlesse Nor must you think as sometimes poor christians will do I cannot say much for my selfe but such a brother such a sister they may indeed give a better account of me then I can do of my selfe but truly nothing to satisfie Gods justice can any give account for Christ himself could not do it And indeed so marvellously did God accept this kinde of defence that our Saviour makes that he hath crowned this faithfulnesse of Christ with everlasting honour unto all ages he hath so fully so gratiously accepted him as that he hath for ever ratified it in Heaven that no man shall ever passe away righteous from the judgement seat of God that can plead any righteousnesse of his own Whoever he be that will not stand righteous before the judgement seat of God by any righteousnesse of his own he must stand mute as Christ himselfe stood and if he be just he must be just by his righteousnesse Christ could plead nothing for us of our own not our active obedience nor any passive obedience of ours but he having suffered for us the punishment that all the wickednesse of the Elect have deserved Now he doth ever live to make intercession for us Heb. 7. 25. Now he hath arguments enough to plead If any man sin now we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 2 John 2. 1. Why did he not plead before Truly he could not open his mouth before because he had not yet suffered but now he hath suffered the just for the unjust and now that he hath borne the censure of Church and Common-wealth now he hath enough to plead in the behalfe of the poorest christian And if so be that any plead against his Saints and servants and say that they are guilty of these these sins God wil say Deliver him from going
kind of Civill and Ecclesiasticall power mingled together that a Cathedrall Church forty or fifty miles off shall send terrible censures to cut off the poor Saints of God and they must obey it and if they stand in an Hereticall course as they call it there is no living for them they will kill their Propheticall life as they did the two Witnesses or if they do in any effectuall manner work they will not stick to call them to account and cast them out and deliver them to the Secular power and they shall deliver them to fire and sword So then see the danger of such Constitutions it was wrought by the Bishop of Rome and lives by life from him the life of the Law of God breaths not in the pulses of it any that know them know how far they be from the pattern of the Scripture how ridiculous they be to such as discern the state of them You see also what mighty power they have that all civill States have been contented to deliver such to fire and sword whom they have delivered up as Hereticks They soon loose the protection of the Civill State if they loose the favour of imaginary Churches well doth he call them images they are images of the Pope and images which God forbids and the inventions of the sonnes of men Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image in the second Commandement You shall make no Images of Officers nor Government nor worship but that which Christ himselfe hath set up Fifthly it lets us see how dangerous it is to annex civill penalties ipso facto upon such as are cast out of the Church an usuall thing in Popish Churches or in the Images of such First they suspend them from the Sacrament but then it comes with an Excommunication no man must buy nor sell he hath refused to honour the image of the Beast It is dangerous to bring in civill Authority immediately upon Church-censure A warning to us here that if men be excommunicated not to deny them civill Commerce or to say such as stand out excommunicated so long shall no longer enjoy the priviledges of the State The Church may cut them off from fellowship with it selfe there may be just reason so to do they may discover such hypocrifie as may make them unfit for the Church but yet they may not altogether be unfit for the Common-wealth Sixthly It may serve to humble us so farr as in times past we had any thing to do with this Beast eyther in the loynes of our Fathers with this first Beast the Roman Catholick visible Church or as in our own time we have had any communion I meane Ecclesiasticall communion with the image of this first Beast that is with Provinciall Diocesan Cathedrall National Churches You know it is not my manner to fall into speeches of Christs in other parts it is best for us to look to our owne but when the Text is just so fit now to be silent were to deny the children of God the bread of their portion If it be such a Church as is of the Popes devising as hath provoked the jealousie of God and hath not been derived from the primitive institution that Christ hath established then so far as we have had to deale with them either in office or out of office receiving their Sacraments and their Censures or have published their Censures though God it may be mercifully kept us from publishing such as we did conceive unjust yet forasmuch as there hath been any submittance in this kind any Church-communion whereby we have been admitted into Church-office by the Image of this beast or installed by the ordination of the first beast or so far as wee have submitted to the first or second Beast so far as we have partaked in the holy things of God which flow from Church-communion as Sacraments and Censures do verily so farre we have cause to be humbled though the Lord kept any of us from thinking it any necessity to be reconciled to the Church of Rome or kept us from sundry things in our practice which the Image of the Beast required and though he kept us also from receiving all their Dictates without controll yet for our practice in entring into our calling and our dispensations which have been but images of the first beast and so far as our fellowship in Ordinances with them have cleaved to that Church verily the guilt of that will lye upon such soules as have not unfeignedly bewailed it before the Lord. What think you might be the cause that Christians do complayn of so much deadnesse under such plenty and as some say power of Ordinances I might as justly blame the world for as great part that men think they are forced to lanch out in building and planting an evill haunt and custome hath been rivetred into mens spirits that they have much ado to be content any where but this is not all Nor can I lay it wholly upon over-much confidence in Ordinances we have heretofore thought men happy that had liberty of Ordinances though out in a duty of humiliation God will let you see the emptinesse of all Ordinances that there is no life in them further then he puts in them but I will not put in neither of both these though both these may challenge a part of the deadnesse of the Countrrey and may because of humiliation But giue me leave to say I feare this chiefly that men thought it enough that they were got out of the reach of Summoners and Pariters and such like whose offices have been by the power of the beast the remnants whereof hang in those places where they should not stand I feare men have rested in turning their backs upon such troubles as they were put unto when they have not been serious in judging themselves for these Images of jealousie when they are so loft to be rent from them I feare the Lord hath not humbled them for their old contagion and therefore they are not so dead for what is an Image but deadnesse truly because we are rather in bodily presence then in heart departed from them therefore there is such deadnesse what 's the reason that upon the least motion men are ready to remove to a new Plantation as if they removed from old England to New in a pang If men had a calling upon just grounds to come hither then when we come where the Ordinances of God are we should sit down under the Ordinances under the shadow of the Almighty and never look for more But when that doth not satisfie that we enjoy Ordinances all that liberty we did desire we do enjoy and yet it doth not satisfie certainly there is some sinne lyes in the breast still for which the Lord pursues men with a restlesse frame they are not yet purged from the image of Romish pollution and therefore the Lord sees it not meet to give us rest no not in Sion because in
to blesse God for it And though we may think of mending our selves here or there yet you will finde it a difficult thing to finde 12. multiplyed by 12. in any place under Heaven that is either your foundation shall not be Apostolical institution or your administration apostolick doctrine That christians should be the foundation of Churches as the Apostles require Saints by calling and to build on such and to administer such according to the word of God Yea though the Lord should be pleased to give our Countrey-men free passage of a Parliament as now we have speech of it and though they be a wise Nation yet such is the very frame of the State and of the Sonnes of men that if the Lord give free passage of a Parliament you will find it a very difficult thing to have the State ruled by Apostolical judgment to reject all devices of men to shut out the greatest part of a kingdom from the Lords Table you would finde rebellions multiplyed exceedingly if they were of the spirit that they were of in Edward the sixths time And when you are gone out of the Countrey not that I would flatter the Countrey the Lord knows we our selves here have need to grow more spiritual daily but yet in respect of the Churches of God and administration of things here though we faile and go aside we have the rule to shew us the way back againe I say when you are gone go whether you will you will have much ado to finde materials and more ado to finde forme and administration as that it may be in cold blood you will fit and mourn by the waters of Babilon and hang your Harpes upon the willowes and say how shall we sing the Lords song the song of Zion in a strange Laâ—d Therefore let it provoke us to hold fast what we have received and not to be taken off with faire pretences to turne aside to one hand or the other if we be in a state of wisdome let us keep in it and beleive it whatever takes you to a contrary course to things as they stand if the holy Ghost say this is wisedome then I am sure the contrary of it must needs be folly Fourthly it may teach us in the fear of God to have an eye to our brethren in our native Country to consider those defects that those which reformed religion before us did leave in the recovery of the Country out of the jaws of Antichrist you see what the Lord requires of us that we should have nothing to do with the number of the Beast Though they cut off the head of the Beast from being of any soveraign power to them yet they took too much liberty for forme of worship and for the number of the Popes name and of Government by Canon Laws yea the whole Church discipline by the Popish Canon Law onely with this destinction that whereas the Pope enjoyed it before now the King he claims headship over the Church aswel as the civil State and he deriveth the Church-power to the chief Bishops and they worke upon it more and more and though it be true both Henery the eighth and much more Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth all these did set so many Councellors so many Divines and so many common and civil Lawyers to cull out of the Popes Decretals such Canons as were most fit for Government and most of such as cut off Popish supremacy yet they could never agree of it and so they admit them as the Popes Canons only yet so that whereas reference of Ecclesiastical matters was to the Pope now it is to the King as supream head and Governour but the Popes Canons are the government of the Church Now what was the reason There was an unsafe principle in their hearts that they thought it lawfull to take the Laws of the Roman Church and that any King might have power to make Laws to govern the Church as well as the Pope had It is true he hath power to make Lawes as well as the Pope had and better but the truth is neither the Pope nor King hath power to make Laws to rule the Church but it must be by the Laws of Christ Whatsoever is not of the number of 12. is superadded and will never prosper but this principle making them willing to admit such things though they were the chiefest of the Kingdome that were appointed for that worke yet they could never agree But had they received a little more light and wisdome to cut off the number of the Beast aswel as his head it would have prevailed for the liberty of Gods Ordinances and purity of Doctrine I say this being wanting to them let it not be wanting to us but through the mercy of God the servants of God have taken no small paines to clear up such things what the Laws are in the Church of Christ by which Magistrates and others are to be guided how far civil Government may reach and how farre it may not go still reserving this fundamental principle to hold them close to the direction of the holy Ghost by the 12. Apostles and this being the pious care of our Magistrates and of the Churches this wisdome will by the blessing of God be established that that which other Nations have not attained to this day may by the blessing of God be reached by us and yet though the Elders are to enquire and to commend to them such rules as may establish it it pleaseth God not to give as yet passage to our purposes appoint one day a storme of raine hinders appoint the second day fortnight then a storme of snow prevents that it is tough work to establish things of this nature it is difficult as if the Lord would have them established in a spirituall way as Moses the Law by 40. dayes fasting he had the spirit of God and larger measure by much then we yet the Lord requires serious humiliation of him And therefore since I heard that there hath been a seasonable motion to commend such a thing to the State that the whole country do in special maner seek God at such a time against the consultation of the general Court and this weighty point falling in for ripening of mens thoughts for the Laws of the Country and limitation of jurisdictions both of Church and Common-wealth the Lord saith he will be sought unto by the house of Israel Therefore I think the motion is seasonable and was glad to hear of it and thought to commend it to our honoured Governours that sit at Stern and all other Churches but we that are present have no power but in our own Church nor that but with the consent of the Church that if it be thought convenient this day seven-night might be set apart to seek the face of God that we may take time both to ripen our consultations and to prevaile with the Lord to prosper our consultations and administrations that this matter