defamed as acting by Beelzebub Nor was this wicked and blasphemous slander only some rash sudden unadvised words of some inconsiderable persons but the Pharisees saith S. Matthew Mat. 9.34 and the Scribes saith S. Mark Mar. 3.22 passed this censure upon him and what was thus spoken at one time was repeated and declared again at another Mat. 12.24 And we may discern by this instance how easily the greatest calumnies may be propagated by a zealous and eager party from one age to another and from one place to another For the Jews in after ages still embraced for truth this impudent falshood which is taken into their (u) v. Hor. Hebr. in Mat. 12.24 Talmud which contains a collection of the main body of their Traditions and Opinions And this wicked and contumelious aspersion of our Lord though contrary to the highest evidence was also endeavoured to be spread abroad among the Pagan Gentiles insomuch that (w) Orig. cont Cels l. 1. Eus Dem. Ev. l. 3. c. 6. divers Christian Writers thought fit to refell the same and to shew the manifest contradiction which this carried to the piety of our Saviours Religion to the nature of his precepts to the works which he did and to the Spirit and practice of his followers all which include a manifest opposition to the evil one 18. At other times they charged him with being a Samaritan and having a Devil and being a Samaritan Joh. 8.48 The name of Samaritan was fixed on him to promote a popular hatred The Samaritans rejected the true worship of God at Jerusalem and depraved and corrupted Religion and oft manifested a great hatred towards the Jews They frequented Mount (x) Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 6. Gerazim as the place of their Worship in opposition to Jerusalem and their despising the true Worship of God at Jerusalem is observed in the (y) Hor. Heb. in Joh. 4.20 Talmud and sufficiently in the holy Scripture it self And for the countenancing their depraved worship the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch as it is now extant hath corrupted the law and hath put in the word Gerazim in the place of Ebal where God commanded an Altar to be made and Sacrifice to be offered Deut. 27.4 5 6 7 8. Now the name of a Samaritan being odious to the Jews they call our Saviour a Samaritan not as if they thought he was so by his birth for they admitted him to the Jewish worship as a Jew and knew his nearest relations to be Jews but they would hereby declare that he had equally corrupted Religion and deserved to be as much hated as the Samaritans were And to this purpose was he thus aspersed though his custome was to attend the Jewish Synagogues Luk. 4.16 and he carefully served God according to the precepts of his Law But as if this foul calumny was not sufficient they further added that he had a Devil or that he in whom alone the Godhead dwelt bodily was possessed by the evil one And this wicked slander was intended to raise the highest prejudice of the people against him and to keep them far enough from being directed by him And therefore they said Joh. 10.20 he hath a Devil and is mad why hear ye him 19. And it may be observed And in like manner our Reformation Bishops and Ministry have been aspersed with Popery how the carriage of many men among us towards his Ministers the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England doth too nearly resemble this behaviour which I have mentioned of the Jews towards our Lord himself Certainly one of the great works the Devil contrives to uphold in this last Age of the World is the gross corruption of Popery Our Clergy and Bishops were very instrumental in the Reformation and casting out of Popery those of our Church Preach and Write against Popery so as to make the clearest discovery of the falseness of their doctrine and the sin of their practices These have confuted and baffled them the most effectually and with most convictive evidence These have plainly laid open in the face of the world the folly evil and mischief of many considerable things asserted and maintained by the Church of Rome and have thereby raised the indignation of the Romanists themselves who look upon these men to be their most formidable adversaries and they are indeed the great bulwark against Popery And yet because these men are not so weak and rash as to run beyond the bounds of truth and sobriety into other unreasonable errors they must needs be clamoured on as friends to Popery And other men who talk indeed against Popery with great noise and are real and earnest in what they say and some few of them have done useful service herein by many who are indeed eager against it but most of them speak with much weakness and many mistakes whereby they give great advantage to their adversaries these must be accounted the chief and main enemies to Popery when for the generality of them the Romanists themselves have no great fear of the Writings and Arguments of such opposers And from these our excellent Reformation meets with virulent censures 20. I doubt not as many Jews were against the Devil but among the Jews in our Saviours time there were many besides him and his Disciples who talked much against the Devil and did indeed hate him though in many things through their misguided zeal they greatly served his interest And that the Jews had some among them who sometimes cast out Devils is not to be doubted from what we read in the Scripture of the Jewish Exorcists and of our Saviours appeal to the Pharisees Mat. 12.27 By whom do your children cast them out (z) Antiq. l. 8. c. 2. de bel l. 7. c. 25. Josephus takes some notice of their Exorcisms but what he writes is of such a nature concerning the driving away Devils by some Herbs and charms that they who pretended to act against the evil one by these methods did seem rather to comply with him But that some of the Jews both before and after the coming of our Lord did cast out evil Spirits by the power and in the name of the God of Abraham and the God of Israel is asserted and acknowledged by (a) Justin adv Tryph. Iren. adv Haeres l. 2. c. 5. Justin Martyr Irenaeus and other ancient Christian Writers But their undertaking was far from being sufficient to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Satan nor were they always successful and effectual in lesser cases When the Sons of Sceva a Jew and chief of the Priests undertook to cast out a Devil the evil Spirit prevailed against them and they were not able to stand before him But it was he whom the Jews aspersed as complying with the Devil who did abundantly more against him than they all were able to do and he spoiled principalities and powers 21. And besides all this though the singular and sinless
TWO TREATISES The First Concerning Reproaching Censure The Second An ANSWER to Mr SERjEANT's Sure-footing To which are annexed THREE SERMONS Preached upon several Occasions and very useful for these Times By the late Learned and Reverend WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard and sold by William Oliver in Norwich MDCLXXXIV TO THE Most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM By DIVINE PROVIDENCE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY HIS GRACE Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan and one of the Lords of His Majestie 's Most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your GRACE I Humbly present to your Grace's Patronage some Remains of an excellent Person for whom Your Grace was pleased to express a great value while he lived and whom You are still pleased upon all occasions to mention with great kindness Had he lived to have published any of these Discourses himself he would have chosen no other Patron and had he lived a little longer he would have found that he had needed no other For since some may wonder that so great a Man should go off the Stage with no greater Character than one of the Town-Preachers at Lyn Regis it is fit the World should know that Your Grace who is the peculiar Patron of modest and neglected Worth designed better things for him That great honour I have for Dr. Falkner's Memory to whose wise instructions I owe that little Knowledge I have attained to would easily have perswaded me to have given the World a more particular account of his Life which was adorned with as many eminent Vertues as I believe this last Age can shew in any one man But though distance of place could not interrupt our Correspondence nor our Friendship yet it has for many years deprived me of the familiarities and intimacies of his conversation which give the truest Character of any man and I dare not undertake a work wherein I can neither serve my Friend nor satisfie the World As for these posthumous Treatises he designed only the first of them for the Press which concerns Reproaching and Censures which he observed was grown so common a fault that it is generally thought to be none and therefore in the first Part he shews the great Evil and Sinfulness of it and how irreconcileable it is with a true Christian Spirit But then he considered that as men who are most guilty of this vice have no sense of it themselves so they are very apt to charge those with it who are not guilty Whoever has had the courage and honesty to reprove the Schisms and Factions that are among us and to censure the errors and miscarriages of the several Sects and Parties of Christians have been branded with the ignominious name of Railers and Revilers and Accusers of the Brethren and therefore in his Second Part he shews that such just and sober Censures as these which are designed to convince men of their errors and mistakes are so far from being a fault that they are a necessary duty And because some men are transported with such an intemperate zeal that they do not impartially consider what is truly blame-worthy in those who differ from them but censure and condemn at all adventures whatever is said or done by men of such a Party or Character He proposed to himself particularly to consider the several Sects and Professions of Christians and what it is which deserves reproof and Censure in them which he has done with great Candour and Judgement but did not live to perfect it For we have no reason to doubt but the Presbyterians should have had their share too as well as the other Sects amongst us but either that Part was not done or it was lost for no Remains could be found of it As for his Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure-Footing that was written many years since and designed by him for the Press but by that time he had finished it he found that work done to his hand by a very excellent Pen which put an end to that Controversie and therefore he laid it by without any intention to make it publick But since his Death some of his Friends have had other thoughts of it and indeed it is so useful a Discourse that though there is no need of a new Answer to Serjeant since the Publication of Dr. Tillotson's Rule of Faith yet I believe it will not be unacceptable to Learned men He penn'd very few Sermons in long hand which I suppose is the reason why there are no more published These that are besides the usefulness of the several Subjects may serve as a specimen of his plain and pious way of instructing the people My Lord I should be very ungrateful should I neglect this opportunity to make my publick acknowledgements to Your Grace for those extraordinary favours I have so lately received from You on which the ease and comfort of my life does so much depend that I am for ever bound to implore the Divine Majesty to bless Your Grace with all happiness and prosperity in this life and with the rewards of an exemplary Piety and Vertue in the next which is the hearty Prayer of My LORD Your Grace's most dutiful Servant William Sherlock A TABLE OF THE AUTHOR's CONTENTS OF REPROACHING CENSURE The First Part Concerning the irregular Excesses and great Sinfulness of uncharitable Evil-speaking especially of Superiours CHAP. I. SOME preparatory considerations concerning the evil of Reproaching Page 1 CHAP. II. The excessive disorders and unreasonable extravagancy of speaking evil when men give way to their passions and uncharitable temper manifested especially from the Censures our Saviour underwent Sect. 1. The best deserving persons are oft under obloquy and undeserved Censure p. 12 Sect. 2. Who are apt to be prevailed with to be guilty of the sinful reproaching others and how far this sin becomes spreading and contagious p 24 Sect. 3. The monstrous and unreasonable strangeness of those censures which have been unjustly charged on the most innocent and excellent men and particularly on our blessed Lord and Saviour himself p. 32 CHAP. III. The manifold sinfulness and severe punishment of reproaching and speaking evil especially against Superiors p. 56 CHAP. IV. Contumelious evil-speaking in general and all irreverent and disrespectful behaviour towards Rulers and Governours is contrary to the life of Christ in those things wherein we are particularly commanded to imitate his Example and S. Pauls carriage Acts 23.3 4 5. considered p. 76 The Second Part Concerning the usefulness of a sober Censure of such Parties or persons who practise evil or propagate falshood with an enquiry into some different parties who make profession of Christianity CHAP. I. TO speak against evil persons and practices duly and discreetly and to the just discrediting and disparaging bad Principles and Doctrines is reasonable and good with an account of what Rules are here to be observed p. 121 CHAP. II. The Principles and Practices maintained
somewhat which may manifest the great evil of this uncharitable behaviour especially towards our Superiours and may be sufficient to warn men against it Such an undertaking as this is very agreeable to that particular Apostolical direction and precept of S. Paul who charged Titus in the work of his Ministry Tit. 3.1 2. to put men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men Whatsoever esteem some persons will have of such instructions and truths as these are the Apostle with respect hereto commands Titus v. 8. these things I will that thou affirm constantly and further declares in the end of that verse these things are good and profitable unto men And it must needs be a fit season and very requisite to declare against any sin when it is grown to that height that men will openly avow it and become bold and confident in the practice of it without shame or regret And that what I shall speak of this Subject may be the more carefully regarded Some preparatory considerations proposed I shall in my entrance upon it take some notice which I shall afterward further pursue of the great hurt and danger of this sin and its being inconsistent with piety and true holiness and Religion The tongue S. James saith is an unruly evil full of deadly poyson Jam. 3.8 and therefore it is no little mischief which proceeds from the ill government thereof 4. Uncharitable reproaches are First 1. Reproaching is contrary to the highest and best examples set before us in the Scripture Unsuitable to the best and highest examples which the Scripture proposeth for our imitation and contrary and hateful to the wisest and most excellent persons But it is most reasonable for us to follow such examples since such persons who are of clearest knowledge and free from all passionate and sinful inclinations can most perfectly discern good and are fitly qualified to make the best choice But this disorder is so far opposite to true goodness that though rash men may not duly observe the evil thereof yet as an evident conviction of the great sinfulness contained therein especially in reproaching Governours S. Jude tells us that Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil durst not bring against him a railing accusation Jude 9. And yet inconsiderate and passionate men dare venture on this sin without fear though a person of so great wisdom and knowledge as the Archangel durst not do it and though the Apostle and the Holy Ghost himself propose his example as a manifest condemnation of such transgressors And those pious Christians who have been best acquainted with the Spirit of Christianity have accounted as every man ought to do this instance to be of great force Hence (b) Hieron in Tit. c. 3. S. Hierome from this instance of the Archangel urgeth the necessity of a careful practice of that Christian duty to speak evil of no man And when S. Peter had observed what a daring presumption some evil men were arrived unto that they were not afraid to speak evil of Dignities he in like manner adds 2 Pet. 2.10 11. whereas Angels which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord and we should do the will of God on Earth as it is done by them in Heaven Agreeably to these we have the great example of our Lord and Saviour which is proposed for our imitation 1 Pet. 2.23 Who when he was reviled he reviled not again And besides these things we may discern how much the holy God disliketh and is displeased with this evil practice by his laws and precepts condemning it and by the threatnings he hath denounced and the punishments he will inflict upon those who are guilty of this sin but of these I shall discourse more hereafter 5. But this evil practice is very agreeable to the temper and disposition of the evil spirit and thereupon (c) Basil Ep. 75. Chrys Hom. de Diabol Tentat Andr. Caesar in Apoc c. 34. and is a great complyance with the Evil one ancient Writers have accounted the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a calumniator to have been very properly given to him For pride uncharitableness promoting mischief and departing from truth all which things are manifestly joyned together in this sin do make up very much of the nature of the evil one These things therefore are both pleasing to him and a considerable resemblance of him And indeed the Devil hath done a great part of his work in the world by this very practice and it becomes every Christian to detest the following his example and the carrying on his work The first transgression of mankind was occasioned by his misreporting and misrepresenting the intentions of Gods Government and his laws And one of the most effectual means whereby Satan hath hindred the greater progress of the Christian Religion especially in the Primitive times when Religion it self continued uncorrupt was by defaming both our holy Religion and them who heartily embraced it and by prevailing upon a great part of the world to believe much evil concerning it and entertain great prejudices against it To this end such calumnies were invented and spread abroad as that the assembling of Christians together to partake of the holy Eucharist were meetings to perpetrate villanies in murdering and eating of an Infant and practising uncleanness as many of the Writers of the first Ages have declared who have refuted such notorious slanders And the Christians themselves were aspersed as men of inflexible obstinacy and a perverse will and this even (d) Plin. Ep. l. 10. Ep. 97. Pliny chargeth them with who vindicates them from the forementioned crimes They were also reputed Atheists as (e) Just Apol. 2. Justin Martyr declares because they owned not the Gentile Idolatry And many other things of like nature might be added Whereas if Christianity had been generally represented and apprehended in its genuine excellencies its amiable purity and truth and its Divine Authority it would have commanded a more general submission among men But by the wiles of Satan and the malice of his instruments such calumnies were spread abroad that it was in its first manifestation every where spoken against Act. 28.22 6. Secondly 2. It is inconsistent with true Holiness The practice of this sin is inconsistent with true piety and integrity of heart For as the fruit shews the nature of the tree so an ill-governed tongue is a plain evidence of a corrupt heart and speaks passion and uncharitableness to prevail there where meekness and love should take place This our Lord testifies Mat. 12.34 35. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of
rage and tumult of disorderly affections than by the Christian temper the precepts of our Lord and the Spirit of God who is a Spirit of meekness and peace But though meekness which is calm and inoffensive be far from deserving any censure or ill will yet where men give the reins to their tongues even the eminent practices thereof though never so undeservedly will be ill treated and defamed Our Saviour was of that mild behaviour that he was not for calling for fire from Heaven to consume such as would not receive him nor was he pleased with those his chief Apostles who were enclined to such fierceness And when the Jews who would not be perswaded by him brought misery upon themselves he was so far from being pleased with the thoughts of their calamity that notwithstanding all their opposition against him when he foretold and denounced their destruction he did this with tender bowels of pity and compassion and with inward grief and sorrow for them He then wept over the city and said Oh that thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace Indeed he as a faithful teacher reproved their sins but he herein acted the part of a friend as a good governour also doth in putting a stop to evil by his Authority Even Rulers prudent executing wrath on them that do evil and a smart rebuke of offenders is very agreeable to true meekness and a well-governed measure of anger is here as (n) Naz. Carm. Iamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianzen calls it a commendable passion and none ought to please others in evil and to their hurt Our Lord so observed the regular measures of meekness and gentleness that he would not allow his fathers name to be dishonoured his house and worship to be prophaned and his laws to be violated but this was that the Jews would not bear And Moses also the meekest man upon Earth was divers times complained of and the Israelites murmured against him And it is easie to give other instances without looking far into History of them whose innocent behaviour and kind temper hath not kept them off from being exposed to censure and they who could say with Samuel whose oxe or ass have I taken have been so dealt with and aspersed as if they had been the greatest contrivers of ruine in the world 20. Now if all this be duly considered it will shew the strange exorbitancy of the passionate expressions and censorious tongues of men and what great advantage Satan gains thereby and into what unreasonable practices many men are blindfoldly carried away by this method For they oft reproach the best and most upright among men and those who do the most faithful service to God and are most useful to the good of mankind and them who are indued with the highest authority and adorned and furnished with the greatest innocency Sect. II. All which is manifest in the great example of the blessed Jesus and of many others the most deserving persons 21. The Moralists Counsel is here of great and necessary use to every good man that he who will resolve to be honest and upright (o) Senec. Ep. 77. Ad honesta vadenti contemnendus est ipse contemptus must despise contempt and reproach And there is the greater reason for this under Christianity because we therein have a clear prospect of eternal happiness which we must pursue and are to be followers of our Lord who in a greater case than that of reproach for the joy that was set before him despised the shame A good man must be a resolved man No other man ever was so pure and excellent as he was who both by his life and practice and by his Doctrine and instruction was as (p) Naz Orat. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianzene stiles him he who gave the compleat perfection to the spiritual law and rule of life But every Christian must so far follow him and take up his Cross as to be willing and resolved to bear such difficulties as these or whatsoever else he may meet with in the practice of his Christian duty And if any other men be never so unreasonable in their clamorous censures against him he must go on steadily in his pious exercises SECT II. Who are apt to be prevailed with to be guilty of the sinful reproaching others and how far this sin becomes spreading and contagious 1. The sin of rash evil-speaking takes great place among the generality of men THe proneness of persons to defame and speak evil of others is such that it greatly prevails among multitudes of men and though it be a very unworthy and unchristian thing it takes up very much of the discourse and converse of a great part of mankind Many there are who being conscious to themselves that they deserve censure are the more ready to blame and find fault with others that themselves may not be thought worse than other men Some who have little of real worth to commend themselves are the more apt to speak evil of others that they may gain to themselves so much respect as to be preferred before those whom they defame but they usually fail in this design since hereby those whose reputation they reflect upon are oft provoked to discredit them and also they are the more condemned and the worse thought of by wise and good men for this temper of uncharitableness it being observed by (a) de Offic. lib. 1. Tully that this manner of discourse gives the most manifest indication of viciousness and corruption of manners in him who utters it whether it be done in a way of seeming gravity and severity or by open scurrilousness or by jocular and pleasant facetiousness And some are so proud and self-conceited though they have little reason for it that they are not pleased to hear any man well spoken of but themselves and think every commendation misplaced that is not bestowed upon themselves and this puts them into a great forwardness of disparaging others and this mixt with uncharitableness is the parent of envy from whence as also from all hatred and malice from whatsoever occasion they arise proceedeth evil-speaking And some serve secular interests by discrediting others to advance themselves 2. And others observing how frequent this behaviour is among men comply with it as a thing in fashion and for society sake joyn in passing the same censures that others do merely to gratifie the humours and avoid the censures of some hot and eager men And some again have such undeserved hard thoughts of others through suspicious misapprehensions and false constructions of their words or actions that they think it just to disparage them And others meerly from observing the prevalency of censorious reproaches and outcries against some sorts of men are hereupon apt to conclude that there is some considerable reason for all this and that they ought to do the like though they know no evil concerning
as a false Prophet For their Talmud declares that a false Prophet was not to be put to death in any other City but in Jerusalem and there he must die (i) Tr. Sanhedr c. 10. at the time of their solemn Feasts that all Israel may hear and fear 8. And after all these things suffered by our Lord among the Jews it might be easie to shew that the Gentiles besides their persecutions and verbal slanders against Christianity used various real expressions of great disrespect and dishonour towards the Author of our holy Religion and our Religion which was established by him Thus in the time of the Emperour Adrian the Temple of Adonis the Image of Jupiter and the Statue of Venus were erected in the places of our Lords birth his passion and resurrection as (k) An. Eccl. An. 137. n. 5 6 7. An. 326. n. 28. Baronius hath observed from S. Hierome and Paulinus But these and such other things are much less to be wondred at among the Ethnicks and Pagans and therefore I shall wave any further prosecution of them and return to the consideration of the Jews behaviour toward the holy Jesus 9. and with various insulting words of fury Besides such actions of the Jews as I above mentioned there were some verbal expressions whereby they reviled him which spake their mere fury Such was their opprobrious insulting over him in his bitter sufferings In yielding themselves to the rage of their passions they came to that high degree of expressing their enmity against him and contempt of him that they were not satisfied with his suffering a cruel death but beyond all that bloody hands could act against him they endeavour that their keen tongues might pierce him to the heart Hence they reviled this great Prophet requiring him when they smote him to prophesie who it was that smote him They derided the King of Kings when they arrayed him in a scarlet robe putting a crown of thorns on his head and a reed in his right hand bowing the knee in mockery and saying Hail King of the Jews And they despised the Saviour of the World and the great high Priest when in derision towards him upon the Cross they cryed out Save thy self and us Here we may stand amazed to observe how when great uncharitableness hath possessed the heart and is let loose in the reproaches of the tongue it becomes cruel and fierce and contrary to God and goodness and is apt to be carried on to acts even of savageness and inhumanity But because these things may seem to be done in a time when they were in a paroxysm of fury when they vented an unusual inordinate heat of rage I shall consider what accusations their reproachful tongues laid to the charge of our Saviour for the most part when they were in somewhat a cooler temper and concerning which they offered some things as a popular proof or at least a specious pretence plausibly to insinuate into the vulgar that there was somewhat of truth in what they said 10. First He was accused Our Lord and the best men have been accused 1. Of want of piety and Religion of not having any true piety towards God He came into the world to do the will of his Father and was a perfect example of all holy obedience He sought not his own glory but the glory of him that sent him and God himself owned him to be his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And yet so maliciously unreasonable was their censoriousness that the Jews charged him with being so much an enemy to God as to debase his honour undermine his authority and speak unworthily of his Majesty To this purpose that they might render him particularly hateful to the Jewish Nation they decipher him as an enemy to the divine law The Jews had deservedly an high honour for Moses and the law which was delivered by him and had a mighty zeal to preserve the reputation of them They honoured Moses as the most excellent person who was in an eminent manner (l) Phil. de Vit. Mosis l. 3. a King a Law-giver a Priest and a Prophet and most excellently discharged all those Offices And they had so great a reverence and veneration for their law that Philo the Jew as his words are produced by (m) Eus praep Ev. l. 8. c. 6. Eusebius out of a Book of his which he Entituled his Hypotheticks declares that the Jews would rather chuse to die a thousand times than to admit of any thing contrary to the law and the same (n) Phil. de legat ad Caium p. 1022. Author speaks to the same purpose elsewhere But the holy Jesus who gave the highest honour to the law by fulfilling it and to Moses by accomplishing his Prophecies was accused as an opposer of Moses and the law and to this purpose was at several times charged with breaking the Sabbath and the Pharisees declared that he was not of God because he kept not the Sabbath day Joh. 9.16 And he who had that great regard to the Worship of God and honour for his Temple that the zeal of Gods house did eat him up was reported to be so averse from the worship of God and Religion that he was for destroying the place of Gods Worship and Service even before he had put an end to the legal Sacrifices by his perfect oblation 11. And he was oft times accused of that impious crime of Blasphemy even by those very men who were themselves guilty of Blasphemy against God and the Holy Ghost This is esteemed an execrable offence among all men who have any veneration for the Divine Majesty of God And among the Jews it was accounted so abominable that the blasphemer must die and be stoned by all the people and the (o) Tr. Sanh c. 7. §. 5. judge who gave Sentence against him was to rend his cloaths and the same was to be done also by the witness who heard the words of blasphemy as a testimony of indignation And this the High Priest did at the words of the blessed Jesus Mat. 26.65 he rent his cloaths saying he hath spoken blasphemy Yea even among the Gentiles a blasphemer of the Deity was thought worthy of death and at Ephesus according to the observation of (p) An. Eccles an 254. n. 24 25. Baronius out of Philostratus was to be stoned But the imputing such a thing as this to the holy Jesus whose Life and Doctrine was wholly ordered to promote his Fathers honour is as if a Prince's best and most faithful Subjects should be so misrepresented as to be accounted the most disloyal villanous and treacherous rebels and the people thereupon should be stirred up to set themselves against them who are their strength and upholders 12. Non-compliance with rigid mistaken notions doth sometimes occasion the charge of impiety And though the purity of his life did infinitely outdo any of theirs and was without any stain
the being influenced by such passionate censures guide lead and direct them since our Saviour who was the most excellent guide that ever the World had and the most innocent person was so highly defamed and so injuriously aspersed with unreasonable calumny 35. Secondly I intend hereby to manifest how much courage stedfastness and constancy is necessary for the sincerely pious man It may be the portion of any such person whomsoever Unreasonable censures are to be couragiously undergone in his speaking and doing well to be misrepresented and exposed to calumny and slander Our great Master hath foretold that his servants must in this particular expect the same measure which himself received But let no good man be dismayed if he be thus treated in the World but let him be stedfastly resolved to pursue his duty and to be unmoveably upright and conscientious whatsoever respect or disrespect he may meet with among men Whoever is made more remiss in well-doing or whose spirit is royled and discomposed by undeserved censures doth hereby fall into temptation and the snare of the evil one but he that resolvedly holds fast his integrity and runs with patience his Christian race amidst all these oppositions this is the man who rightly dischargeth the duty of a Christian and taketh up his Cross and followeth his Lord. 36. And it is infinitely better for any man being the pious mans advantage to fear the censure of the greatest part of the World in well-doing than to neglect what may please God and do good to men since hereby he gains the blessing of Christ Our Saviour declared Luk. 6.22 Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of mans sake Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in Heaven Wherefore though a clear and good reputation and general esteem is useful and desirable to a good man because it gives him many advantages of doing good in his generation yet if in the faithful and prudent management of his duty he meeteth with hard measures from the uncharitable expressions of other men it may justly so far as concerns himself rather affect him with joy than disturbance Yea with respect to these words of Christ which I have now mentioned the Author under (q) Epist ad Oceanum S. Hierom's name thinks it a thing desirable to be reproached and evil spoken of Quis non maledici desideret saith he ut mereatur Christi nomine laudari coelesti copiosaque mercede munerari This also was a mighty satisfaction to S. Austin who declared that whilst he opposed the Donatists (r) Aug. cont lit Petil. l. 3. c. 7. he underwent sharp and opprobrious reproaches from the enemies of the glory of Christ but then reflecting upon the blessing in this case pronounced by our Lord he adds Quisquis volens detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercedi meae he that willingly lessens my reputation doth unwillingly add to my reward But he who is turned aside from the paths of goodness by the slander of men is guilty of greater rashness and imprudence than that traveller who takes a journey of great concernment to his life and estate and yet will stop his course or go out of his way if he discerns the wind to blow upon him CHAP. III. The manifold sinfulness and severe punishment of reproaching and speaking evil especially against Superiors 1. HAving shewed the unreasonable proceedings of a reviling tongue and how unruly an evil it is I shall now add some further general considerations concerning the greatness of the sin of reproaching others especially our Superiours And in this Chapter I shall shew two things First How many great sins are contained in it and Secondly What a dreadful punishment is denounced against the practisers of it Wherefore 2. First This is a complicated and multiplied sin and so comprehensive an evil that very many great transgressions are contained and linked together in it S. Basil seems to think that a reproaching Spirit (a) Bas in Esai c. 2. might be the beginning of all sin in the world which may well be accounted true if we consider it with respect to God and include under it that disposition of mind from whence it flows Uncharitable evil-speaking includes very many great sins For the closing with that temptation whereby the Serpent reproached the infinitely good God was that which brought sin and ruine on mankind And it may well be thought that the original transgression of the fallen Angels was their having ill thoughts of the highest good and thereupon being forward to depart from God and to draw others from him into the same defection And this is the very root of reproaching or that disposition of spirit from whence it ariseth 3. And this ought to be the more detested because the exercise of this sin includes in it many heinous offences Now though one single sin which any person willingly and wilfully pursues is sufficient to manifest him void of the fear of God and estranged from the Christian life yet where the evil heart can readily choose and the conscience suffer many notorious sins to prevail without being either so watchful as to observe them or so faithful as to raise all the powers and faculties of the soul to oppose them here is a mind and conscience so much the more grosly defiled and vitiated His condition is like that of the man into whom the unclean Spirit entring taketh with him seven other Spirits who enter in and dwell there And as that body is in a bad condition in which divers dangerous diseases are reigning so that soul cannot be in any safe condition where many great sins do rule and govern it And it is considerable in this case that a defaming temper and the neglect of forsaking it by repentance alwaies include a voluntary choice and therefore hath in it as all other sins of choice have a want of reverence to God and his laws And besides this 4. First It contains under it an opposition to 1. It is inconsistent with Christian love and neglect of the great command of love It was our Saviours Doctrine that among all the precepts given by God in the Old Testament that of loving God with all the heart was the first and the other of loving our Neighbour the second which is like unto it And the wisest men among the Jews have owned and acknowledged the same truth (b) Phil. de Charitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo speaking of the love of men esteemeth it so nearly allyed unto Religion towards God that he calls it its Sister and Twin And it can be no small sin to live in the breach of so great a Commandment This duty is so particularly pressed and inculcated by Christ on all his Disciples and so great Motives are superadded to the force this Commandment had before that it appears under the Gospel as
all the paths that tend to it and not to have such light thoughts thereof as rashly to gratifie any disorder of mind or unruliness of temper which will bring us to this destruction 30. Wherefore the care which all men ought to have of preventing their own misery Carelesness in these concerns is a daring presumption ought to have this influence upon them that they resolvedly reject and abhor this sin Even human penalties have had a considerable force upon the minds of men to restrain them from evil practices When good Josiah heard the law of Moses read and the judgments denounced against such offences as that Kingdom was then guilty of his tender heart became affected therewith and he humbled himself was greatly solicitous for Judah and therefore he enquired of the Lord and forthwith undertook the establishing a great reformation And shall not men in our days be afraid of the most terrible threats which the Divine Majesty denounceth and the Almighty power of God inflicteth upon them who are perverse and disobedient We live in an Age wherein sin and doing evil is in too many instances become bold and daring and many who make a fair pretence to Religion stand not in awe of those heavy menaces of Divine vengeance whereby Almighty God hath declared his wrath against those sins in which they indulge themselves and which they still resolve to espouse and prosecute with a presumptuous confidence as far as they are pleasing to themselves or serve the interest of a party Amongst other Arguments and Motives to avoid all manner of evil the dreadful state of being under Gods displeasure is a mighty awakening one and the thoughts of this hath had a powerful operation on the minds of men (e) Cont. Cels l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen tells us that in his days that he and others by the urging this great truth concerning the punishment of evil-doers had converted and turned many from their sins And God grant it may have the same effect in our Age. 31. It is far from speaking either the wisdom or the goodness of any sort of men that in so weighty a case as this is it is difficult to bring them to any serious consideration and reflexion upon themselves But they are never the more safe in any evil for their rash confidence and carelesness which is no other than an aggravation of their sin and an higher provocation of God I have had so frequent experience how hard it is by any sorts of Arguments to prevail with many persons who seem to have some sence of piety to make conscience of performing several particular plain duties of Religion as the attendance on the holy Communion and the Governing their passions that I could not observe it without admiration and some kind of amazement And I fear that all that man can say and all that God hath said which is terrible enough will not be effectual to bring many persons guilty of this sin of speaking evil of others into a serious sense of it and an hearty repentance However such persons esteem of themselves this behaviour shews a great prevalency of obstinacy and hardness and the time will come when they who refuse instruction will wish they had attended to it And as I heartily beg of God that all who offend herein may take warning and amend while they have opportunity so for them who will not I shall be heartily grieved and account it both with respect to themselves and the hurtful influence they may have upon others a matter of sad lamentation 32. They who will practice this sin may for a time please their own passions and may gratifie the unruly tempers of disordered minds with whom they converse And by uncharitable reflections or insinuations against Superiors they will occasion delight rejoycing and satisfaction to them who are enemies to goodness truth and peace and a well-established Order in Church or State and they may hereby give these men encouragement and hopes of success in their ill designs But in all this they act against the interest of Religion and their duty to God and therefore they do so much the more expose themselves to his wrath and indignation except they repent And when they shall either repent or bear the effects of Gods anger none will then be more displeased with the folly of these their practices than themselves CHAP. IV. Contumelious evil-speaking in general and all irreverent and disrespectful behaviour towards Rulers and Governours is contrary to the life of Christ in those things wherein we are particularly commanded to imitate his Example and S. Pauls carriage Acts 23.3 4 5. considered 1. HAving discoursed of the mischievous unreasonableness and extravagancy and of the great sinfulness and heavy punishment which attendeth an unruly tongue and uncharitable speaking I shall now consider the gentleness meekness and innocency yea the charity and due reverent respect The precepts and example of Christ ought to guide our practice which Christianity teacheth us to shew in our words to others as this is especially proposed unto us in the example of Christ and what is therein tendred to our imitation The precepts of the Gospel to be kind and gentle courteous and charitable and to speak evil of no man are so obvious that I presume every Christian to be acquainted with them And these things together with a respectful demeanour to all Superiors as they were conspicuous in the life and practice of our Lord himself will now fall under my consideration But concerning his example some may possibly think with themselves that he was an extraordinary instance of suffering evil and came into the World to bear the punishment of our sins and yielded up himself as the Lamb of God to be a Sacrifice but all Christians are not to bear like sufferings with him But such ought to consider that all his followers are to take up his Cross and to perform such duties and exercise such graces as are enjoined by his Laws and in which we have himself also for our pattern and are required to follow him Now to manifest how far the practice of our Saviour was intended to guide and direct us to reject all reviling and to shew reverent respect to Superiours I shall lay down these following Considerations 2. Cons 1. 1. His meekness and not reviling particularly proposed to be our pattern What our Saviour did in practising meekness and in not reproaching any or speaking evil is proposed to us as a pattern for us to imitate This is clearly asserted by S. Peter telling us 1 Pet. 2.21 22 23. that Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled he reviled not again So that in these things it is not only an historical truth when we are told what Christ himself did but this is also a rule to acquaint us what
we ought to do (a) Contr. Apion l. 2. Josephus accounted it a great advantage which the Jews had for guiding them to goodness and vertue that when the Lacedemonians and Cretians instructed others in their duty by examples only and the Athenians and many others did this only by precepts the Jews made use of both these methods jointly But in the Christian Dispensation we have both more excellent precepts and an higher inforcement of them and also a more exact pattern and example than ever the Jews had The life of Christ recommends those practices in which we are to follow him to be the most honourable and the wisest undertakings in that herein our lives are made conformable to the most glorious person that ever appeared in our nature and we herein do what he who is infinitely wise chose to do And his life also shews that as he in our nature was a perfect pattern of meekness so he can and will by his grace enable us if we resolve piously and diligently to follow him and serve him to perform these duties also though we attain not to the same perfection It is in all cases very useful (b) Ign. Epist ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he who instructeth another in what is good should himself do the same for this hath a considerable influence upon the practice of others but no example of any other teacher can be so highly profitable as that of Christ is the perfection of which maketh it a compleat rule and guide And his example especially in the acts of his humility and lowliness we in duty ought always to follow and safely may 3. Some things are observed by (c) Nazian Orat. 40. Nazianzen in the practice of our Saviour which are not to be proposed for our imitation to wit such as he did according as occasions and circumstances offered themselves as his celebrating the holy Communion in an upper chamber His temper of mind is in all things to be our examp e. and after supper and in the night and even that very night in which he was betrayed and such also as spake the Dignity and Divinity of his person And what he did in the discharge of his Mediatory Office though all Christians are highly concerned therein being interested in the benefits thereof yet the performance of these actions were so peculiar to himself that none other are to do the like Of this nature was his giving up himself to death for the working our redemption and to be a Propitiation for the sins of the World But yet it is observable that in this singular act of his Mediatory Office and the like may be said of others that excellent temper of mind in which he performed this work is that wherein we stand obliged to follow him and this will recommend to us patience and meekness 4. Thus with respect to God whilst he gave up himself to be a Sacrifice for sin this was a rare instance of obedience to the will of his Father even in the most difficult performance and of submission to the pleasure of his Father in drinking that Cup which he gave him to drink without any murmuring or repining And in these things it is our duty to follow him and that the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2 5.-8 And with respect to man this his Priestly action of making atonement was performed out of the greatest love to us and it contained the highest expressions and evidences of this love in that he was willing to do so much and to bear so much for men who were sinners and enemies and also in that he did thereby effectually procure for them the greatest good And here we are commanded to imitate him and to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 And towards them who were his cruel and inhumane enemies who both crucified and reviled him in his great sufferings when in his own body he did bear our sins he expressed a temper of eminent meekness patience and kindness and herein we are commanded to follow his steps who when he was reviled he reviled not again 1 Pet. 2.21 23. And besides this instance in what other things we are not to imitate the particular actions of our Lord there are yet some general considerations with respect to the Spirit and temper of mind in which they were done that are of great use for our imitation And on this account it may be affirmed (d) Aug. de vera Relig. c. 16. Tota itaque vita ejus in terris disciplina morum fuit that the whole life of Christ was a most excellent instruction for our duty which was S. Austins inference after he had considered many things which our Saviour did and especially his patience meekness and self denial 5. And the precepts of meekness and patience and of governing our tongues are as plainly and fully enjoined in the Gospel as any other commands whatsoever If some men will causelesly be our enemies and will hate Meekness and patience are great duties of Christianity curse and persecute us however men had been taught or allowed before to love their Neighbour and hate their enemy the will of our Lord is that we love our enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us Mat. 5.44 And if we meet with them who work us evil and rail against us the rule of Christian practice is 1 Pet. 3.9 not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing And these and other such like precepts are so excellent and amiable that if the meekness and innocency and charity which Christianity requires did universally prevail and obtain in the World it would make the Society of mankind wonderfully more sweet delightful and comfortable than it is and their converse would be free from the poyson and venome of the old Serpent And surely the laws which are established for our guidance especially where God is the law-giver who is able to save and to destroy ought to be accounted of sufficient authority and influence to command subjection and obedience But the example of our Lord doth here add a mighty perswasive vertue to his precepts besides what I above mentioned in that he was far better than any of us who deserved most from men and yet was worst treated by them hath left such an exact pattern of meekness and patience And then much more ought we to practise these duties since we deceive our selves if we think the evil we undergo whether of this kind or of any other is not deservedly ordered to us with respect to the general disposing of all things by Divine Providence Upon which consideration David exercised himself in patience towards Shimei And it may justly seem incongruous that if a
mean Peasant who is an offender shall have the same treatment from men with an excellent and gracious Prince or shall be in the same storm abroad in his voyage or journey that he should be in a fury as thinking himself too good to be thus dealt with while his good Prince goes through all this with a quiet and calm demeanour 6. To imitate Christ in these duties is the way to happiness But there is yet a farther very weighty consideration upon which all Christians stand bound to follow this example of our Saviour and that is that the imitating him in this very thing is directed and enjoined as the course we are to take for the obtaining happiness Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls So that the following him in humility and meekness is the walking in the path of rest for this as all acts of goodness and duty bringeth here serenity and peace to the mind of him who practiseth it and is one of the great duties to be performed in order to perfect peace and rest hereafter And those his Servants who thus serve and follow him shall be with him where he is Thus S. Austin (e) De Temp. Serm. 61. Enarrat in Ps 90. having considered those words of S. Matthew Chap. 11.29 and of S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.22 23. observes that that example of our Lord which it is necessary for us to imitate is not that which is too high and great for us in our capacities to perform as to restore the dead to life or to walk upon the Sea but it is to be meek and humble in spirit and that we should love not only our friends but even our enemies with all our hearts 7. And as this duty is particularly recommended to us There is no true piety in them who do not walk as he walked as one especial and main thing in which we are to imitate our Lord and shall be highly rewarded by so doing so it will be useful to take notice in general that it is a very vain thing for any to talk of Christ and Christianity and of their hope and interest in him if they do not follow his example and live according to his life And of this we are assured by S. John 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked And these words are the more necessary to be minded and seriously regarded because S. John in the former part of that Chapter doth particularly undertake to declare and reckon up in large and comprehensive expressions divers of those things which are of absolute necessity for every man to observe who would be owned as truly Religious and in a comfortable relation to God To this purpose he saith v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And v. 5. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him And after he had inserted some emphatical expressions to manifest the weight and excellency of these things which he was now discoursing he proceeds to assert v. 9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now and v. 15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And amongst these he expresseth what I now mentioned v. 6. concerning walking as he walked Which Verse also is intended to express what is so necessary to true Christianity and communion with Christ that they cannot consist without it How far then do they go astray who are so negligent of Christian meekness and gentleness as if fierceness and passion were rather to be accounted the practices of our Religion 8. 2. Our Lord's example peculiarly requireth reverence to Superiours Cons 2. Our Saviour's example is particularly set before us to silence and suppress all evil speaking against Superiours and reproaching them who are in Authority and to engage us to behave our selves towards them with reverence and due respect And for the manifesting this I shall shew three things 9. First That this is the scope and intention of S. Peter in proposing to us the example of Christ 1 Pet. 2.21 23. for the proof of which I need only make a brief reflexion on the foregoing Verses To this purpose it is urged by S. Peter That Apostle had spoken of the duty of Subjects to their King and Governours v. 13. commanding them to submit themselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him And he continueth his discourse with particular respect to them unto the end of v. 17. concluding it with these precepts Fear God and Honour the King And v. 18. he comes to speak of that duty and respect which is due to those Superiours who are in a more inferiour domestick relation and are not furnished with that Dignity and Honour which belongs to them who govern in an higher rank and capacity And here he commands Servants to be subject to their Masters with all fear c. and then he proceeds to declare what patience meekness and reverence is to be expressed towards such Superiours by those who are subject to them though they should meet with hard measure from them and suffer undeservedly by them And for the guiding Christians in this case he bringeth in the example of Christ and this part of it particularly that he who did no sin when he was reviled he reviled not again and when he suffered he threatned not v. 22 23. 10. Secondly That our Saviour did behave himself Our Saviours practice expressed great respect to Superiour Relations particularly to his Parents with that respect to superiour Relations both in words and actions which is fit to teach us to do the like In his Divine nature he was Lord of all even in the depth of his humiliation and in his humane nature he was advanced to an high dignity in Union to the Divine and as our Mediator But yet considering him as made under the law and in the form of a servant and he therein carefully performed the duties of the fifth Commandment as well as any other precepts of the law of God both to his Parents and to all that were in Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical When he took on him the nature of man he became subject to those duties which belong to that nature and tend to the publick good and order of the World In his younger years he began his life with subjection to his Parents Luk. 2.51 And this thing deserves to be the more especially taken notice of because as some (f) Ludolph de Vit. Chr. P. 1. cap 16. Barrad in Concord Evang. Tom. 1. l.
10. c. 14. have truly observed this is a main and chief thing which the Holy Ghost thought fit to record concerning the actions of that former part of our Saviours life from the twelfth to the thirtieth year of his age And in one of the last actions of his life when he was upon the Cross he expressed that honour to his Mother as to recommend her to the care of his beloved Disciple Joh. 19.26 27. 11. He gave that respect to the Temple-service To the Office of the Priests and the Temple-service and to the Office of the Priests who ministred therein that though he came to put an end to this typical worship by the Sacrifice of himself yet so long as it continued in force he himself attended thereon In his infancy he was there presented to the Lord he observed the Passeover and other publick solemnities there and the night before his Passion he not only kept the Passeover with his Disciples but declared the great desire he had to eat that Passeover with them Luk. 22.15 And when he had cleansed a leper he enjoined him to shew himself to the Priest and offer for his cleansing as Moses had commanded Luk. 5.14 And I doubt not but that it was truly observed by Ludolphus de Vita Christi that when the Scripture speaks of his going into the Temple it is not to be understood of the Temple strictly so called nor yet of the Court of the Priests (g) Lud. P. 2. cap. 29. n. 2. Ista duo loca non intravit Christus quia non erat sacerdos sc Aaronicus He being no Aaronical Priest and observing the law of God did not take upon him what peculiarly did belong to them by vertue of their Office 12. and even to the Constitutions of their Synagogues and to the Baptist and the Scribes and Pharisees And he had that honour for the order and authority of their publick Synagogue-worship and solemnities that it was his custome to attend thereon Luk. 4.16 He shewed also that respect to the Ministry of John the Baptist though he was both in Office and Person far inferiour to himself that he would be Baptized of him and hereby he gave testimony that he would have all persons whom God had called to any publick ministration to be reverenced and received with honourable respect in that service And though the Scribes and Bharisees reviled and opposed him such was his signal meekness and integrity that so far as they sat in Moses seat or were invested with authority and kept themselves to the Rules of the Law of Moses and to the due limits of their Power our Lord commanded the people to observe and do what they said Mat. 23.3 But where they departed from this rule it was necessary to declare the falshood of their Doctrine and the corruption of their practices and this also was faithfully done by our Lord. 13. And when the High-Priests and Elders (h) Jos Ant. Jud. l. 14. c. 17. who had some continuance of Secular Authority under the Roman Power sent Officers and Soldiers to take him he was so far from giving the least countenance to any tumult or Sedition that he gave a sharp reproof to S. Peters drawing the Sword and undertook to heal Malchus whose ear he had cut off to the Synedrial Authority of the Jews And when before the judgment seat he was smitten by an angry Officer that stood by he returned not a passionate word but in these mild expressions replied if I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil but if well why smitest thou me Joh. 18.23 And that answer which he gave the High Priest which occasioned this Officer to be so furious contained not the least intimation (i) Cyp. Ep. 65. Dominus noster usque ad passionis diem servavit honorem Pontificibus Sacerdotibus c. of disrespect unto him But being asked concerning his Disciples and his Doctrine he appealed to the Jews themselves to testifie what they knew who were able to give an account of this since he ever taught openly in the Synagogues and in the Temple whither the Jews always resorted And yet this innocent and reasonable answer was it seems the greatest occasion this fierce Officer could take to strike him He commanded also to pay tribute and to render what was due to Caesar and to Caesar but he neither spake nor did any thing that testified want of due respect to any person invested with Authority Nor did his Doctrine give any liberty to his Disciples to neglect this reverence and respect as appears from what was delivered as the Christian rule of practice by himself and by S. Peter and S. Paul For herein resistance and evil-speaking of a Ruler is condemned and forbidden and honour submission and obedience to all Governours and that even for conscience sake and for the Lords sake is enjoined upon every soul under the most heavy penalties even of damnation it self Wherefore let us herein be followers of him who himself long practised (k) Stella in Luc. 2. Ludolph de V. C. Part. 1. c. 15 16. subjection before he preached it to others and from him Subjects may learn to obey those that are over them when they see the Redeemer and Lord of the whole World subject to Joseph and Mary 14. Thirdly We are the more obliged to follow the example of our Lord in behaving our selves meekly and reverently to our Superiours because this is that which the Holy Scriptures particularly recommend Christians practising reverence to Superiours doth greatly recommend Religion in order to the growth of the Christian Religion and the advancement of its interest in the World And if this be so they who are the true friends to Christianity and therein to the honour of Christ and the happiness of men must manifest this by their awful and respectful carriage to their Governours as well as by any other duty of Christianity And they who transgress herein are guilty of such a crime as hath a tendency to hinder the prevalency of our holy Religion and to put a stop to its progress among men And indeed where duties of submission are practised out of principles of Conscience and a sense of God and Religion they are there regular uniform and constant and they speak this excellency in Religion that it is that which calms and subdues mens passions and brings them into a subjection to the rules of their duty And it also manifests that Christianity where it is rightly and sincerely entertained by suppressing the fierce boisterousness and tumultuousness of unruly minds doth very much help forward the establishment and continuance of an excellent and beautiful order in human Societies and promoteth quiet and peaceableness among men And where the true Spirit of Religion doth prevail it effectually will do all this good and when vicious and evil men are apt to be proud and self-willed and fierce and unruly it makes
various methods and sometimes in a more strange and extraordinary manner Thus the wrath of (c) Jos Ant. Jud. l. 11. c. 8. Alexander who went against Jerusalem with the Spirit of an enraged enemy was fully appeased to the admiration of those who accompanied him when he met Jaddus the High Priest in his Priestly Garments and remembred that before he came out of Macedonia such a person in that habit appeared to him and encouraged him in his enterprize And when a Diploma was signed to create trouble to the Bohemian Church when Maximilian the second was Emperour 1565 (d) Comen Historiolae 109. Comenius acquaints us that he who carried it going over the Bridge of Danubius without the Gates of Vienna the Bridge at that instant broke and though this person was taken up dead by some Fishers the Diploma was never seen after and thereby that Church enjoyed rest and peace And for the preservation and security of his Church in the time of its greatest oppositions he raised up a Constantine and in the same age soon removed a Julian And we have had instances of Gods care towards the Reformation of our Church in defeating many oppositions contrived against it and our Religious Princes and in restoring it again to its former establishment after our late troubles and also in ordering the Reign of Queen Mary to be short and that she should have no issue and that after her there should be a succession of many excellent Princes 35. Ans 3. 3. Religion was never more opposed than when Christ was Crucified Religion can never be opposed with greater enmity and malicious designs than it was when our Saviour suffered Yet then he reviled not nor allowed S. Peters rashness but left us his example for our imitation The Church of God upon earth was never without the enmity of the evil one and those whom he could engage against it but at sometimes their opposition is more vehement than at others When our Lord was crucified the Devil entered into Judas to effect it the Jews aimed utterly to root out the Christian name The power of the Jewish Church and Sanhedrin was then engaged against it and gained both Herod and Pilate into a compliance with them And there were great oppositions against Religion even fiery trials 1 Pet. 4.12 When yet S. Peter requires Christians to follow the example of our Lords patience and meekness and to reverence Superiours But with us blessed be God our Laws establish the true Religion our Clergy defend it and press the practice of it and our Prince whom God preserve upholds the profession of it But the Primitive Christians who lived under Pagan Rulers who persecuted the Church behaved themselves with more honourable respect towards them than many now do towards those Christian Governours and Spiritual Guides who encourage and promote Christianity 36. 4. True zeal hath respect to all duty Ans 4. True zeal for Religion is of excellent use and very desirable but it consists in pious and holy living not in passionate and sinful speaking And it must be uniform in minding all the parts of duty which are incumbent on us But they who are careless and negligent in great and plain duties can have no true love and conscientious regard to Religion and therefore no zeal for it but it is something else which they miscall by that name True zeal will put men on diligent constant and devout attendance on Gods publick worship and the holy Sacraments upon solicitous thoughts and care for the Churches peace and Union upon all the exercises of piety to God and of righteousness charity meekness and due obedience to man And particularly both with respect to the happiness of another world and a comfortable estate in this it will oblige men to curb the rashness and sin of their words and expressions according to that advice of the Psalmist and the Apostle S. Peter 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it 37. Wherefore let every person uncharitable reproaches against all men to be avoided as he values his own happiness and as he would approve himself a true Disciple of Christ beware of this sinful behaviour of slandering or reproaching others And not the speaker only but he that heareth such things with delight is guilty of the same uncharitableness and in like manner serves his own sinful passions and gives encouragement to the practice and spreading of this vice S. (e) Bern. de modo bene vivendi Bernard therefore well adviseth all men to avoid a detractor as a Serpent who casteth forth his poyson because besides his own sin he who willingly gives ear to him becomes guilty also To the same purpose S. Austin S. Hierome and others who sometimes speak of the contumelious ear or that mens ears as well as their tongues may render them justly chargeable with the sin of reproaching He that in this case speaks rashly or uncharitably or that entertains such expressions with pleasure must ordinarily intend a prejudice to another and a blemish to his reputation and this very intention speaks some degree of malice or ill-will contained in this sin and sometimes a very high degree thereof But the main hurt and mischief fal's upon the offender himself being contained in his sin and consequent upon it He like the man whose Spirit is so far envenomed as to take poyson in his mouth to spit it at another is in a direct way to ruine himself whatsoever prejudice the other may sustain by him So S. (f) Hier. in Ps 119. Hierome declared detrahimus illi illi non nocemus sed nostras interficimus animas we speak unworthily of another but the main dammage doth not fall upon him but we destroy our own souls 38. and repented of Let all those therefore who have been guilty of this transgression heartily repent thereof that they may find mercy with God But it must be considered that repentance in matters of injury to men by word or deed doth not only require a desisting from the further practice of the sin with due sorrow for the former miscarriage but also a careful undertaking to make satisfaction for the injury done It is therefore here requisite that the offender do readily freely and ingenuously retract what hath been spoken amiss and vindicate him who hath been injuriously aspersed and also endeavour that his future kindness towards him may be equivalent to his past unkindness And the man who refuseth this is as far from integrity as he who wrongs his Neighbour in his Possession or Estate is from honesty if he only forbear the repeating new acts of theft fraud or violence but still detains without restitution what he injuriously possessed himself of which of right belongeth to another man 39. A candid
c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agrippa declared in his Oration to the Jews And from the time of Julius Caesar the Alexandrian (l) Jos Ant. l. 14. c. 17. Jews enjoyed the freedoms of that City Now from hence it appears that the Jewish Consistories under the Romans retained a sufficient right of Judicial authority and therefore Ananias in this chief Council was to be considered as an Officer in a Court of Judicature acting by a just and competent power and authority 50. The sense of these words I wist not that he was the High Priest enquired into Having spoken thus much concerning the words of the Apostle to Ananias and also concerning Ananias himself and the state of the Jewish Consistories at that time I shall now more particularly consider the sense of that expression v. 4. I wist not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or I knew not brethren that he was the High Priest Some think that the Apostle did not know the person of the High Priest and professed so much as an excuse for himself in his having uttered such words which he would not have done if he had known him to be the High Priest since the Law commands Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people But they seem not to consider that whether the word High Priest be taken in a more strict or more large sense that Law hath no singular and peculiar respect to the High Priest alone and S. Paul did know Ananias to be a Ruler and to sit as Judge and expressed so much v. 3. declaring that he sate to judge him according to the Law And therefore some other sense of these words must be enquired after And that which seemeth to me most agreeable to the whole Context and free from all just exceptions is this that as the word to know oft signifieth to approve regard affect or own so it oft-times signifies to consider duly and to attend to and think on and may be so best taken in this place So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew from whence probably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had their original is sometimes rendred in our English Translation to consider as Deut. 8.5 Jud. 18.14 2 King 5.7 and this sense is most agreeable to many other places as Gen. 12.11 Ex. 2.25 Deut. 4.39 chap. 9.6 Judg. 15.11 Ruth 3.4 2 Sam. 24.13 2 Chr. 12.8 chap. 13.5 with many others And among the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observa istud is an usual expression when they require a special attention or observation or a particular notice and consideration to be taken of any thing as is noted by (m) Buxt Lex Rab. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 935. Buxtorf And in that sense is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most properly to be understood in many places of the New Testament to denote to consider It appears so used by S. Luke Luk. 2.49 chap. 9.55 chap. 19.22 and also Joh. 6.61 chap. 11.49 chap. 19.10 Ephes 6.8 9. Col. 3.24 chap. 4.1 And if we thus expound these words of the Apostle the sense of these words will be this that he owneth somewhat in his former expression to have been words of sudden surprize and some degree of inadvertency and that being moved with the injury offered to him they fell from him over hastily and he did not on the sudden duly think of attend to and consider the Office and Dignity of the person to whom he spake otherwise he would not have used the least expression which might intimate any degree of unbecoming reflection or disrespect towards a person in Authority since he acknowledgeth this to be his duty not to speak evil of the Ruler of the people while the (n) Joseph de Bel. Jud. l 4. c. 19. gr Jewish Zealots spake and acted insolently against them without any remorse 51. And that there was somewhat in some measure blameable in the foregoing expressions of S. Paul is plainly acknowledged and declared by (o) Adv. Pelag l. 3. c. 1. S. Hierome and by (p) In Willet on Exod. 22. qu. 52. Procopius as I find him cited agreeably to my sense and by (q) Paraph. on Act. 23.5 Dr. Hammond and other worthy men And they who would by no means admit any thing to have been said or done amâ—ss by any of the Apostles might consider that even they were to pray for the forgiveness of their trespasses and that such things as S. Peters rebuking and denying his Master and drawing his sword the Apostles arguing who should be the greatest and their forsaking their Lord when he was laid hold on the desire of the Sons of Zebedee for the chief advancement in Christs Kingdom and their forwardness to call for fire from Heaven S. Peter and Barnabas their withdrawing at Antioch the sharp contention betwixt Paul and Barnabas and some other things ought not to be justified and defended And (r) Orig. cont Cels l. 2. p. 69 70. some of the ancient Christian Writers urged it as an evidence of the integrity of the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures and that they wholly designed to keep to truth and not to pursue any interest in that they did not endeavour to conceal and silence the failings of the Apostles and of their chiefest friends which had never been known to the world in after ages but from their writings Even S. Mark who was S. Peters follower did not omit to express his denying our Lord and S. Luke who was S. Pauls companion recorded this expression of his and his acknowledgement thereupon And a sudden hasty expression which was upon a great provocation and was soon recalled was no fault of any high degree especially considering the right the Apostle had being a Roman to claim satisfaction even from a Governour who should offer him an injury in proceeding against Law as was done Acts 16.37 38 39. and in part Acts 22.25 26 29. 52. Nor is this interpretation which admits some degree of blame in the expression of the Apostle inconsistent as I conceive with the promises of our Saviour to his Apostles The great assistances of the Apostles considered when they should be brought into the Synagogues and before Governours and Kings for his names sake that the Holy Ghost should teach them in the same hour what they ought to say Luke 12.12 and that he will give them a mouth and wisdom which all their adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist Luk. 21.15 For 1. It may be considered that due dispositions are requisite for obtaining the benefit of any of Gods promises and his special guidance and therefore a sudden complyance with some hastiness of temper might for the present hinder the fullest obtaining the benefit of that promise As S. Peter after he had asked our Lord whether he should smite with the Sword overhastily undertaking the action before he had received his answer deprived himself at that present of the
things plainly obvious and manifest And in this case it is nothing of uncharitable and passionate reproaching which is contrary to the example of Christ but an exercise of sobriety and charity and a following his example to war against those hurtful evils which spread themselves in the world and to speak of those principles which are mischievous with dislike and detestation For though our Lord had a great kindness for the Jewish Nation yet their ill temper and their forsaking the true guidance of the Law made him rebuke them with sharpness and declare against them as an evil and crooked generation To discover the evil of ill designing men and false Doctrines is useful and good And if the manifest and prevailing errors of men which are dangerous to others might not be prudently exposed and solidly declared against many excellent and famous writings of the most eminent Fathers against the Gentiles the Jews and divers Heresies and Schisms which have hitherto been honoured and accounted useful in the Church of God must now be thought fit for nothing more than to be censured by an Index expurgatorius or to be ranked among prohibited Books Indeed persons who are concerned in the guilt are sometimes apt to be so far provoked at the just reproof and censure of their opinions or practices as to cry out upon it as if it were reviling or railing or to speak as the Lawyer did to our Saviour Luk. 11.45 thus saying Thou reproachest us also But our Lord did not think fit to desist from a free and needful declaration against evil how unacceptable soever it was to the offending persons as appears sufficiently from the Answer he returned to those words v. 46. And for others to do the like is both a faithful discharge of conscience towards God and the performing a work which is very useful and charitable unto men Thus he that gives a plain and true discourse in a time of mortality of the nature and danger and of the right and sure methods of prevention and cure for the diseases that then reign performs a work which if it be made good use of may preserve some and recover others from those distempers which may otherwise be fatal to them But as no diseases are so bad as those which defile and infect the minds and souls of men so here as (e) Basil Regul fus disp Resp 46. S. Basil truly affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that makes a covering for sin and that which is evil makes preparation for the death of the diseased person 4. It is evident that in the Holy Scriptures the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Apostles and other Officers in the Ministery of the New were to reprove and declare against prevailing evils In this case Isaiah was commanded to cry aloud and lift up his voice like a trumpet and shew the people their transgressions Isai 58.1 and Titus was required to rebuke the Cretians sharply Sinful practices and corrupt Principles are such real blemishes to those that cherish them that they cannot be laid open without reflecting some degree of disparagement upon them even as light it self brings a discredit to things uncomely and represents the loathsomness of what is noysome and deformed But there are some rules necessary to be observed Rules to be observed in speaking against those who deserve censure which ought to guide and govern our discourse concerning what is amiss among men in the world And it may be noted that in most cases there is greater caution to be used in speaking of the principles or actions of particular men as charging them therewith than of the openly avowed evil practices or opinions of any party or sort of men in a general consideration of them Because the former doth more especially refer to the persons towards whom we are bound to exercise charity but the latter doth most directly respect things and there is no charity due to falshood transgression and sin and personal actions may be more easily misapprehended and misrepresented than what is publickly owned by any party But in both these cases the difference between sinful reproaching and rash and uncharitable evil speaking on the one hand and an useful and sober reproof and censure and declaring against evil on the other hand lyeth in three things viz. in the respect they bear 1. To certain truth 2. To sobriety 3. To charity 5. First The first Rule is certain truth A just Censure is ever founded on certain and evident truth but the reproacher oft declares that evil for truth which is either in it self false or to him doubtful and only suspected But whoso layes that to the charge of others of which he hath no certain evidence becomes a false witness And false reporting or asserting that against another as true which is not certainly known to be so is in matters of ordinary conversation among men a crime much of the same nature with the same miscarriage of a witness in a Court of Judicature concerning matters of justice and right For in both of these is contained what (f) Phil. de Decal p. 763 764. Philo more particularly expresseth of the latter that truth which ought to be sacred and is as the light of the Sun which gives a right and clear prospect of things is hereby violated and things are disguised in the dark whereby others are misguided into a wrong judgment and are thence involved in a miscarriage and wrong and injury is done to the person concerned And whereas it is requisite for him who attempts any thing both to have sufficient knowledge thereof and to be a person of integrity whose testimony deserves credit he who will venture to declare things as true upon jealous suspicions doth miscarry in both these and is therefore wanting in the latter because he faileth in the former And such a person doth offend both against charity and truth 6. It was part of the description of those evil men 2 Pet. 2.12 that they spake evil of the things they understood not The venting uncertain jealousies and suspicions are oft-times of mischievous consequence For they frequently spread like wildfire Suspicions on plausible pretences not sufficient and are entertained as things certain upon slender appearances of proof and in publick affairs they sometimes become dangerous if not fatal to Church and State Nor is it sufficient to excuse such persons from sin if they proceed upon some seeming plausible probabilities which are mistaken and misapprehended by them Those Jews might seem to have some colour for what they laid to our Saviours charge who declared him to have said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it in three dayes Mat. 26.61 Yet these persons misunderstanding or misapplying what he said concerning the Temple of his Body are called false witnesses v. 60. And therefore it becometh rash men who let loose their tongues many times upon no greater evidence or probability than
from God to reform what was amiss and to bring the world to embrace what was true and good And therefore it was necessary for him in the discharge of his Office freely to declare against the evil practices of all men whomsoever and to discover the dangerous and hurtful errors of them who really were blind guides and to shew the insufficiency of such rules o practice as made Religion a mere outward formal thing and gratified the hypocrisie of evil men and in a like case it is well becoming any good man to do the like And be cause the unbelieving Jews with their Scribes and Pharisees opposed the truth which he convincingly declared and maliciously set themselves against him and against the evidence of the mighty Miracles wrought by him it was necessary that he should use such expressions as should declare the great evil of their wicked obstinate and perverse temper and the mischief they would bring upon them who followed them And this he did sometimes in metaphorical and representative expressions as of Wolves Serpents Vipers which was a way of speaking oft used by the Prophets and amongst the Jews very frequently in their Writings And that such words were not accounted by them as phrases of reviling so much as of expressive significancy may appear from the language of the Scripture in many places and particularly from the blessings of Jacob Gen. 49. Where the phrases of Woolf Serpent Ass and Lion's whelp are manifestly so used 11. To this purpose our Lord might well send a message to Herod under the name of that Fox as an expression of just reproof according to the customary way of speaking among the Jews to him a subtil and cunning man who had the guilt of blood to answer for Besides other actions of cruelty he had beheaded John the Baptist which act as it was greatly condemned by the Jews towards so good a man as (n) Ant. Jud. l. 18. c. 7. Josephus relateth so himself was sometimes stricken with terrible and astonishing thoughts thereof Luk. 9.7 And that same Herod who (o) ibid. had Herodias his Brothers Wife and (p) ibid. slew the Baptist continued Tetrarch of Galilee several years after our Saviours death even till the first year of Caligula as is declared by (q) ibid. l. 18. c. 8 9. Josephus and then was banished To him our Lord directed this message who also by reason of his complyance in the death of our Saviour might in a Prophetick manner be stiled a bloody man 12. Thirdly A just declaring against the faults of others The third Rule is Charity of which there is neglect must be tempered with charity If this arise from malice or be managed for the doing an unkindness or the venting hatred or ill will or in way of Revenge or retaliation it then serveth the lusts of men and is mischievous and therefore can be no good and lawful action but the speaking truth from such a disposition or to such ends is an evil action In such a case what (r) Chrysost Hom. 2. de Prophet obscuritate S. Chrysostome resolved must be admitted for truth that he who speaks evil of his Neighbour is in the way of ruine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether what he speaks be false or whether it be true There was truth as it might be understood in what Shimei said when cursing David he called him a bloody man 2 Sam. 16.7 8. but the expression was evil because of the malice which accompanied it Now uncharitableness appears in the speaking evil of others in any of these four Cases 13. First 1. when what is amiss is spoken of with delight Where the speaker mentions the miscarriage of others with a inward delight or pleasure in the relating it But of this act of uncharitableness in being pleased with that which is hurtful to men pleasing to Satan and offensive to God I spake something in the (ſ) Chap. 3. former Part and therefore shall only mention it here 14. Secondly 2. when praying for offenders is neglected When he who is ready to speak against another who doth amiss is neglectful of praying unto God for him When Samuel declared to Israel that their wickedness was great yet he said God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you 1 Sam. 12.17.23 And Moses prayed for Israel to turn away Gods wrath And it is to be a rule of Christian practice 1 Jo. 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death 15. Thirdly 3. when there is an uncharitable interpretation When the worst constructions are put upon the words or actions of others This I mentioned in the former Part and therefore shall say little to it here Where this temper prevails the most innocent persons may thereby be charged with guilt Even our Lord himself from a sinister interpretation of his free converse was proclaimed a glutton and a drunkard And though there was truth in the information of Doeg which he gave to Saul concerning Ahimelech or at least in a great part thereof That he enquired of the Lord for David and gave him victuals and gave him the sword of Goliah 1 Sam. 22.10 Yet this being expressed in compliance with the suspicions of Saul and though David pretended to be employed by Saul as an intimation that the Priests had conspired with David against him on which account Doeg was ready to slay them in this sense it was both mischievous and false Psal 52. 16. Fourthly 4. when any ill intention When any thing is spoken against others with a pure intention to prejudice or procure hurt to the persons of whom they speak A bad design meerly to do hurt as to blast anothers credit and expose him to scorn or hatred and to render him contemptible do very ill become him who pretends to goodness The end hath here a considerable influence upon the action He that censureth the miscarriages of others in a prudent reproof to the person himself for his amendment acts the part of a faithful friend while flattery in this case is a kind of hatred Lev. 19.17 Or if this be done to another person as a warning to him who is in danger to be ensnared by or suffer mischief from him this is also an act of kindness to prevent the doing or suffering evil and of this nature is the exposing the mistakes of men to put a stop to the progress of their errors And these are the two cases mentioned by (d) Basil Regul Brev. Resp 25. S. Basil in which he alloweth of the speaking evil of others when it is done for reclaiming the offender or preserving others And it is also lawful and good to declare against the evil and wicked actions of men out of just indignation and in order to the due punishment of them as the Levite did
given also (b) B. 2. ch 1. Sec. 1. n. 4 c. sufficient evidence and the same hath been done at large by others The Romish claim is like that of the Tempter who concerning the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them said Luk. 4.5 6. All this is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it and it hath also a parallel title which bears it self up upon confident usurpation vain boasting and false pretences Yet they who are thorough Papists must acknowledge this 4. Some Writers indeed of that Communion deny the Pope any power over Princes in things temporal but besides the Censure they generally undergo from their own party they are put to hard shifts when they undertake to reconcile their Assertions with the publickly received Constitutions of that Church For instance sake I shall take notice of the Council of (c) Concil Lateran c. de haeset Laterane concerning which they have as fair and plausible a plea as for any other thing which declares that the Pope may give the Country of a temporal Lord to Catholicks if he neglect to purge his Country of Hereticks Here it is first pretended Of the Câ—uncil at the Lateran that this was not declared by that General Council but only by Pope Innocent III. after it was broken up and that there were no Constitutions or Canons made in that Council And yet in the Decretalia of Gregory the Ninth who was Pope about twelve years after that Council this very Constitution is inserted into the (d) Decret l. 5. Tit. 7. c. 13. Excommunicamus Canon Law as being established by Innocentius in a General Council And from the Authority of that Council Transubstantiation hath been ever since acknowledged to be a declared Doctrine of the Roman Church And what goes under the name of this Council is acknowledged to have the Authority of a General Council both by the Council of Constance and by that of Trent as hath been observed by the (e) Of Popery p. 48-51 Bishop of Lincoln 5. But it is further said by them that the Canon of Lateran concerneth (f) Shel l dons Reasons for Allegiance p. 41. not Sovereign Princes but only some feudatory Lords in Italy and some parts of the Empire And whereas this sense seems plainly contradicted by the last clause of that Constitution eadem servata lege circa eos qui non habent dominos principales that the same Law should be observed concerning them who have no Chief Lords over them they note that there is an (g) Constit Fredericâ— n. 7 Imperial Law established by Frederick the Second much to the same purpose with this Canon to make void the rights of such Lords as purge not their Lands from Hereticks and that therein this clause is annexed that this same Law shall be observed against them who have-no Chief Lords But say they it cannot be supposed that the Emperour would enact a Law which might make void his own Imperial Dignity and forfeit his Empire Now in this Constitution of Frederick there is no express mention of any right of disposing Dominions devolving it self upon the Bishop of Rome but it may be considered how much this Emperours interest and that of the Church and See of Rome were at this time linked together For his possession of the Empire much depended on the Popes authority for (h) Mar. Polon in Oth. p. 394 395. Ursperg p. 326 327. Ave. tâ—â— Ann. Boio 〈◊〉 p. 519. Innocent the Third having excommunicated and deposed Otho the Emperour some of the Princes fix their thoughts upon Frederick to advance him to the Empire and the Pope closeth with this design and encourageth both him and them And therefore this clause concerning the advancing the interest of the Church and the forfeiture of Sovereign Dominion of what force or validity soever it be both tended to assert Fredericks own right and jointly to gratifie the Romish See And this Law was confirmed by him in compliance with the Pope (i) Constit Fred. in Praef. on that very day in which he received his Imperial Diadem from Honorius the Third who succeeded Innocentius And this Law was highly applauded by Honorius and ratified (k) ibid. in fin by him with a severe Curse against them who should act any thing against it and was again confirmed by Boniface the Eighth and seems to be framed by the Popes order from this clause in the Preface Cum nihil velit Ecclesia quod nobis eâdem non placeat voluntate 6. And yet if this were true that the Doctrine of their Church gives the Pope power of disposing only Emperours and Kings must be submissive to the Pope of such Principalities which belong to inferiour and dependent Lords this would afford but little security to the greatest Princes if the Romish Bishop be still allowed to judge in this case For the most imperious Popes have oft very plainly declared the Secular authority of the highest Princes to be derived from them and to depend upon them And the collection of Sacred Ceremonies contains such things concerning Emperours and Kings as when occasion serves may be made use of to infer subjection and dependance Thus we are told (l) Sacr. Cerem l. 1. Sect. 5. c. 1. that the elected Emperour must implore the favour of the Apostolical See and offer himself ad quaecunque fidelitatis juramenta Romanae Ecclesiae praestanda to take any Oaths of Fealty to the Church of Rome and must humbly desire Unction Consecration and the Imperial Diadem And the Pope after examination of the Election and considering the fitness of the Person doth grant him his grace and favour and doth eum nominare denunciare assumere declarare Regem Romanorum Nominate authoritatively pronounce receive and declare him to be King of the Romans and to be fit and sufficient to receive the Imperial Dignity And in this manner it is there said that divers Emperours have addressed themselves to the Pope some of which are there particularly named And if any King shall come to Rome (m) l. 1. Sect. â—3 c. 2. f. 132. after the first day of his being there he is to carry the Popes train and to pour out water for his hands and to carry up the first Dish to his Table and serve the first Cup in other Collations which things with others mentioned in the same Book carry in them fair appearances of doing homage And some of the Romish Bishops which have somewhat more than others complemented Secular Authority in some of their notions have yet in their practice acted as much against them as any others So did Innocent the Third who acknowledged (n) Decretal l. 4. Tit. 17. c. 13 Pervenegabilâ—m Rex superiorem in temporalibus minime recognoscit that a King is to own no Superiour in temporals and therefore speaking of his own Authority besides what he had within the Patrimony of the Church
the place which God chuseth under the New Testament What is urged by Innocentius the Third hath no infallible evidence as he chose Jerusalem under a great part of the Old Testament and that all that is in the Book of Deuteronomy continues established under the Gospel And it may be wondered that such a thing should be affirmed if it were not to impose on others when the Book of Deuteronomy contains many things concerning the Aaronical Sacrifices and other Jewish Feasts and in that is that particular permission of divorce which our Saviour will not allow of under the Gospel Deut. 24.1 Mat. 19.8 9. and a repetition of many Mosaical Laws whence it was called by the Greek Translators Deuteronomy 11. In the same Epistle as a proof of this plenary and supreme power seated in the Pope he produceth what S. Paul writeth to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.3 and tells us that Paul that he might expound the plenitude of power writing to the Corinthians saith Nescitis quoniam Angelos judicabitis quanto magis secularia Know ye not that ye shall judge Angels how much more the things of this life or things secular But what the Apostle wrote in that Epistle to the Corinthians bid directly concern the Church of Corinth And therefore if he had discoursed of a plenitude of power or the highest universal Authority over all the parts of the World or the Church as he did not it would appear from this place to be as much if not more fixed in S. Paul and the Church of Corinth as any where else and it must needs be hard to prove that S. Paul in these words declared a plenitude of power in the Bishop of Rome both over Corinth and all the World when he said Know ye not that we shall judge c. 12. What light the two great Luminaries give to the Popes power But that proof which passeth all the rest which is urged in the same decretal Epistle is from Gods making two great Luminaries the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night from whence it is there inferred that the power of the Bishop of Rome is as much above all Secular power as the Sun is above the Moon And it may be also hence collected that the Imperial power is derived from the Papal as was declared hence by (b) v. Addit ad Pâ—de Marc. de Couc S. sâ—â—p l. 2. c. 3. Boniface the Eighth Now from hence it may appear that a pretended testimony from the first Chapter of Genesis may be as effectual though it be nothing to the purpose as if it had been taken out of the Book of Deuteronomy And this is such a wonderful Argument that so far as the strength of it will reach it will not only prove the highest power of the Bishop of Rome to be ordained of God before the coming uf Christ and even before any promise made concerning the Messias and before the fall of man but that this was established before Adam was created and was one of the principal things done in the framing and making of the World And therefore if this authority be rightly applied it is indeed an early testimony of the greatest antiquity of this power in the Church of Rome and deriveth its original much higher than most men have been aware of and it confutes the great mistake of those Novelists who pretend it to be founded in any eminency of authority conveyed unto S. Peter when it was so clearly ingraved upon the brightness of the Sun beams but not to be seen by mens eyes in the first springing forth of their light 13. Such things as these are so trifling and frivolous that they deserve not any serious consideration or answer And it can scarce be imagined that they who laid down these testimonies as a foundation to support the Papal power could have any other design than to delude and impose upon the great ignorance of the World And if it be a wicked and abominable thing for any private man to forge an evidence for an Estate or to counterfeit the Kings broad Seal to serve his interest it is far worse to design to deal falsly in that which hath respect to the authority of the sacred Majesty of God and to the greatest rights of men and the publick interest and peace of the World And I think no men ever spake more wildly about these things than the Popes themselves have done the extravagancy of their pleas bearing an equal proportion to that of their claims 14. Thirdly I observe Observ 3. The high Papal power was unknown to the ancient Roman Bishops that the pretence of this high Papal power which for some hundred years hath been of ill consequence to Christian Kingdoms hath this manifest mark of an encroachment usurpation and innovation in that the more ancient Bishops of Rome never knew any thing thereof but did profess and own their subjection to Emperours and their Authority The testimonies of divers of them have been to this purpose produced by Protestant Writers And it may be sufficient here to note that I have (c) Christ loyalty B. 1. ch 5. Sect. 3. To Leo the Great in another place shewed that Leo the Great submissively owned his subjection to the Imperial Authority and that with respect to the external administration of matters Ecclesiastical And it is manifest from the Writings of Gregory the Great that he both submissively behaved himself towards Mauritius the Emperour as a subject towards his Sovereign Lord and that he thought he ought so to do When Mauritius declared his desire that there might be a good accord between S. Gregory and John Patriarch of Constantinople (d) Gr. Ep. l. 4. Ep. 76. Gregory writes to Mauritius giving him the title of Dominus noster à Deo constitutus his Lord whom God had constituted and owns himself to be his Servant and such language is very frequent in his Epistles and lets the Emperour know that in that matter in which the cause of God was also concerned he would do what on his part could be done To Gregory the Great Dominorum jussionibus obedientiam praebens yielding obedience to the commands of his Lord and in this case he saith Serenissimis jussionibus obedientiam praebeo Which words shew sufficiently that he claimed not any Sovereignty over the Emperour but acknowledged his owing subjection to him And when Mauritius had made a Law that no person in any publick Secular Office should be received into Ecclesiastical Orders and that no Souldiers might be admitted into Monasteries Gregory writes a Letter to the Emperour concerning this Law expressing his good liking and approbation of the former part but with much (e) Gr. Ep. l. a. Ep. 100. earnestness declaring his dislike of the latter part as being contrary to God and Religion And in the close of that Epistle he acquaints the Emperour that in subjection to his commands he had
caused that Law to be transmitted to several parts of the Empire but yet had plainly written to him how much it was against God And then adds utrobique ergo quod debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quod sensi minime tacui On both hands therefore I have performed what I ought I have yielded obedience to the Emperour and I have not forborn to speak what was my judgement on the behalf of God And in this Epistle also and in others frequently he owns Mauritius to be his Lord and himself to be his Servant And the usual subterfuge of Romish Writers that what the Popes have spoken in such a respect to Emperours was from humility and gracious condescension only can have no place here For he went as far as any Subject in his capacity might do in what he was perswaded was unlawful and further than he might do who was no Subject In humility he might dispense with his own right but not with what concerns God and Religion 15. These things do so plainly shew that those ancient Bishops acknowledged the Emperour to be their Superiour even in constituting Laws and doing other acts which had respect to the state of Religion that I think it unnecessary to add other instances which might be given for many Centuries The known expression of Otho Frisingensis declares Gregory the Seventh to be the first of the Roman Bishops who usurped the deposing power But Conradus (f) Ursp p. 336. Vrspergensis differing herein from Otho whom he mentions seems to fix the first Original of these Papal proceedings upon Gregory the Third who above seven hundred years after Christ in the contest concerning Images where it might have been expected that he who was so earnest for the adoration of Images should have highly honoured the Emperour who bare the impress of Divine authority did (g) ibid. p. 286. forbid Italy to pay any tribute to Leo Isaurus the Emperour and deprived him of his rights there But it is manifest that all the Roman Bishops who succeeded him were not of the like spirit and temper Above an hundred years after him Leo the Fourth (h) Gratian. Dist 10. de capitulis and to Leo the Fourth assures Lotharius the Emperour that he would as much as he was able irrefragably keep and observe his imperial precepts and that they were lyars who should suggest the contrary concerning him and (i) c. 2. qu. 7. Nos si incompetenter he likewise submits his actions to be examined by the Emperour or such as he should commissionate and to be corrected or amended if he had done amiss and not kept to the right rule of the Law 16. But the main hurt of this pretended Papal power so much contended for at Rome is not only the disturbing peace Such Principles of Rebellion lead men to damnation fomenting Wars and unjust invading the right of Princes but besides the ambition therein contained by stirring up Subjects in rebellion against their Soveraigns it puts them according to S. Paul's Doctrine into a state of damnation Rom. 13.2 And such rebellious practices are the more promoted by those frantick principles of many of the Church of Rome which have spread themselves also amongst other Sects which give liberty to Subjects without respect to the Popes Sentence to take away the lives of Princes It is too clear to be denied that such Positions are maintained by divers of the Jesuits and it must be granted also that there is truth in what some of the Jesuits have observed that the like was asserted by other Writers in the Church of Rome before the first institution of that Order 17. The Pope's usurped claim over other Churches and Bishops There is also great disorder and evil unduly occasioned in the Church by the claim the Roman See pretends to over all other Bishops and Churches To this authority she hath no just title but the exercise of this power did obtain and prevail in many Churches by various methods and degrees of encroachment And by this means both rights and also purity and due order are jointly violated Hence this Church obtrudes on others her pernicious Doctrines and practices under a pretence of authority And by the same means it hinders the necessary reformation of great and spreading corruptions and thunders out Censures against such Churches as reform themselves according to Primitive and Apostolical rules 18. Now such an Authority over all other Bishops and Churches could never be founded in any actual possession or in any human or Ecclesiastical constitution of what nature soever For an incroaching authority is void by the ancient Canons especially that of Ephesus and being an unjust possession ought to return to him who hath the true right And where there hath been any consent given to an unjust claim by misunderstanding or upon any other account or where any other act whatsoever hath been done by Princes falsty pretended to be of Divine Authority or by Bishops in any part of the Church to yield or convey any Superiour Authority to the Roman Bishop they cannot by any act of their own exclude themselves and their Successors from the obligation to perform their duty in duly guiding governing and reforming their people And therefore so far as the authority which Princes and Bishops have received from God and Christ doth oblige them to the performance of this work no pretended power of the Bishop of Rome nor any act done by any others or even by themselves can set them free from it But this universal Superiority is claimed by the Pope as not derived from any human Constitution but from the authority of Christ To which purpose the Catechism according to the Decree of the Council of Trent declares That the Catholick Church (k) Catech. ad Paroch c. de Ordinis Sacramento Summum in eo dignitatis gradum jurisdictionis amplitudinem non quidem ullis Synodicis aut aliis humanis constitutionibus sed divinitus datam agnoscit quamobrem omnium fidelium episcoporum caeterorumque antistitum quocunque illi munere potestate praediti sint pater ac moderator universali Ecclesiae ut Petri Successor Christique Domini verus legitimus vicarius praesidet doth acknowledge in him the Pope the highest degree of dignity and amplitude of Jurisdiction not given him by any Synodical or other human Constitutions but by Divine Authority wherefore he the Father and Governour of all the Faithful and of the Bishops and the rest who are in chief Authority whatsoever Office or Power they are indued with doth preside over the the Vniversal Church as the Successor of Peter and the true and lawful Vicar of Christ the Lord. 19. But notwithstanding this great noise it was unknown to the ancient Church no such Divine institution hath been or can be produced and pasce oves and tu es Petrus have been oft scanned and no such thing can be
2. c. 4. Bellarmine was so apprehensive of the force and reasonableness of this consideration with respect to the Mass and the frequent repetition thereof that he thought it necessary to assert that the Sacrifice of the Mass is not of infinite value for saith he si missae valor infinitus esset frustra multae missae if the value of the Sacrifice of the Mass was infinite it would be in vain that there should be many Masses But he might also have discerned that upon the same reason he would be obliged to acknowledge in derogation from the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and in opposition to the testimony of the Scriptures that that offering of the Sacrifice of Christ which he himself made in our nature was but of a finite value and not compleat so as thereby to perfect for ever them who are sanctified because if this had been effected by that one offering it would be in vain to have repeated offerings of that Sacrifice 23. But others of their Writers entertain different notions and opinions from this and conclude (u) Barrad Concord Evangel Tom. 4. l. 3. c. 16. that the merits of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist must be infinite because they are the same merits with those of the Sacrifice upon the Cross And this must needs be so according to the Council of Trent which declares (w) Sess 22. c. 2. it to be the very same Sacrifice which is now offered by the Priest and which was then offered upon the Cross and differeth only in the manner of offering and then its merit and vertue must be the same Now this conception of the value of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist in asserting it to be so compleatly propitiatory doth not only derogate from the Sacrifice of Christ which himself offered upon the Cross but in truth it makes it so void as to take away any necessity thereof For since our Lord instituted and makes them void and consecrated the Eucharist before his death if he had therein offered himself a compleat expiatory Sacrifice then the work of redemption and expiation must have been fully performed before that great work of his passion upon the Cross and consequently his death upon the Cross as a Sacrifice must be in vain This was (x) Hist Conc. Trident. p. 443 451. again and again urged in the Council of Trent by some whose apprehensions were not agreeable to what that Council determined Nor can it be otherwise solidly answered than by acknowledging that our Lord when he instituted and celebrated the Eucharist did not in that action properly offer himself a propitiatory Sacrifice And whereas in the Institution of the Eucharist our Saviour spake of his blood which is shed not only divers particular Writers of the Romanists own the expression of the present tense to denote what was future but soon to be accomplished but even the Vulgar Latin both in S. Matthew and S. Luke expresseth it effundetur shall be shed to which agreeth the expressing the same in the Canon of the Mass The like may be observed concerning the phrase of his Body being given or broken which the Vulgar Latin also in the words of the institution 1 Cor. 11.24 renders tradetur shall be given Nor is it either pious or reasonable to think that the Eucharist celebrated by an ordinary Priest must be more properly and fully an expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice than that which was celebrated by Christ himself in the first institution of it when his act then was made the Rule to guide theirs by his giving this commandment Do this in remembrance of me 24. Cons 2. Cons 2. The body of Christ is not now capable of being Sacrificed A proper Sacrifice of Christ's Body and Blood is not now capable of being offered in the Eucharist Indeed that Sacrament beareth a particular respect to the death of Christ to his Body as broken and his Blood as shed and therein his death is shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 But after his resurrection he dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 And therefore his Body as having been once really dead and his Blood as once shed may be commemorated and represented in the Eucharist But there is now no exhibiting his Body and Blood in that Sacrament really dead which cannot be and so properly offered a Sacrifice to God And the defenders of the Romish Sacrifice seem here to be put to a great loss 25. In (y) de Missa l. 1. c. 2. Bellarmin's definition of a Sacrifice the last clause thereof declares that the thing sacrificed ritu mystico consecratur transmutatur is by a mystical right consecrated and changed And explaining the former of these he saith it must ex prophana fieri sacra of a prophane thing be made sacred and that Sacrificare is Sacrum facere But though the elements of the Eucharist before the consecration may be called profane things or not sacred and so may be consecrated by the Priest the glorious body of Christ is capable of no such thing And explaining the latter clause he saith it must be changed so ut destruatur that it may be destroyed or that desinat esse quod ante erat that it may cease to be what it was before and this is as far from agreeing with the uncorruptible body of Christ as the other and therefore the Cardinal in making and explicating this definition seems to have laid aside or else to have forgotten the interest he was to maintain 26. And (z) Conc. Evang. To ◠l. 3. c. 6. Barradius acutely tells us that immolatio oblatio and consumptio staying offering and consuming are the things essential to a Sacrifice and he undertakes so great an adventure as to shew how all of them even the first and the last may be affirmed concerning the body of Christ in the Sacrifice of the Mass He saith that as a lamb is slain when the blood is separated from the body by a knife Christ is here slain when vi consecration is sanguis Christi à Corpore Christi separatur by force of the Consecration the blood of Christ is separated from the body of Christ Now it is a thing very hard to be conceived how such a real division and actual shedding of blood should be suffered by the incorruptible and glorious body of Christ and it is yet more difficult to conceive how this can be reconciled with the Council of Trent which declares that after the Consecration (a) Sess 21. c. 3. in the Sacrament of the Eucharist sub singulis speciebus totum atque integrum Christum sumi all and whole Christ is by the Communicants received under each of the species which could not be done unless whole Christ was there and they anathematize him who shall say the contrary which I suppose this Author was not aware of 27. With like nicety and trifling he further says (b) Barrad ibid. the Body
difficult all Protestants do prepossess themselves with such truths as they have learned by plain Scriptures or other certain evidence and therefore know no difficult Text can be so interpreted as to contradict any such truth Here the vulgar Christians do suppose many times that to be the true sense of such places which they have received from those they judge able and faithful but such a sense of such Scripture they do not own as a necessary Point of Faith but admit it as most probable untill themselves be able fully to search and then if they discern this a true exposition they will receive it upon their own knowledge but if they find it a mistake they will lay down that former apprehension and will entirely be guided by what they see is the true sense of Scripture And persons of great abilities to make the best search into the sense of more difficult Texts do not prepossess themselves with any particular sense of such Scripture but are every where entirely guided by that which appears the best evidence to recommend any sense as knowing that it is not our interest or benefit that this or that opinion or interpretation should be true in things doubtful but our great concernment is to own that which is and God hath declared to be the Truth § 6. He enquires how we can demonstrate concerning any place of Scripture that it is not altered and that not is not inserted or left out I answer this as to any matters of Faith is discovered sufficiently by what we shewed to prove the Scriptures preserved entire in the foregoing Discourse Yea the common principles of Reason and Conscience in man will evidence to him in many necessary truths that if not was left out or put in they could never have been from God That God is Eternal Powerful Good and to be worshipped of his creatures that he treats man with great mercy that men must be holy and righteous that God will judge the World such things as these appear so evident that man where-ever he hears them cannot but acknowledge them to be true and from God and that the contrary cannot be so But further the consent of all Copies in several Countreys is in this case an abundant rational evidence especially considering that these Writings were dispersed into all Countreys presently after they were first written and so no miscarriage in the Faith could be in those first Copies taken from the Original of what this Author moves his doubts which would not have been easily discovered and reformed either by the surviving Apostles or by the Original Writing or Autographa of the Apostles and Evangelists which doubtless being of such high esteem in the Church were some time preserved Now since at the first dispersing of these Copies they did contain the Apostles Doctrine entire the constant agreement of all Copies sufficiently prove the same continued still especially considering that the Copies which all appear to have this agreement were written in several Ages long since past and in several Countreys And that to imagine not left out or foisted in in the matters of Faith in all Books generally and publikly and daily read by Christians must suppose 1. That they all every where in so many Countreys should conspire to falsifie the Faith of Jesus which they appeared to value above their lives and by this Tradition would be corrupted but yet Scripture in all these Books could not unless 2. They should falsifie all the ancient Copies which yet by the very writing appear to have nothing rased out or foisted in And this is a much higher certainty than Josiah could have of his own Copy yea than can be had of any passage in any Historian ancient Law or Record and if this we have said did not generally satisfie the Cavils propounded all History old Laws and Records must be rejected because there can be no such appearance of so great evidence that in any sentence not was not left out or foisted in And so all matters of Fame or Tradition must be disbelieved till he can demonstrate that they had not their original from the reading some Writings which have the same liableness to mistake with other Writings and that not hath not been put in or left out in the Oral delivery And how much his Reader will be beholden to him for such conceits as these we may gather from his own words Disc 9. § 4. where speaking of humane testimonies he tells us amongst the most extravagant Opinionasters none was ever found so frantick as to doubt them and should any do so all sober mankind would esteem them stark mad But as hath been proved this Author would here lead his Reader such a way as himself saith all sober mankind will esteem him mad if he follow him If this be not enough I shall add that the Primitive Christians owned such a tryal of Scriptures incorruptness as fully sufficient for them to rely on and to confound all who opposed it And even this Argument of this Author though urged with greater confidence was that with which several of the Hereticks from the time of Irenaeus and Tertullian to S. Austin opposed the Christians amongst which I shall now only mention the Manichees out of S. Austin who declares that whilst he was a Manichee Confess l. 5. c. 2. he was somewhat shaken by hearing a dispute between Helpidins and the Manichees but the Manichees afterwad privately told him The N. Testament was corrupted and there was no uncorrupt exemplar produced but this did as little satisfie him And after he became an opposer of the Manichees Contra Faustum lib. 11. c. 1. he urgeth against them Scripture testimony to which Faustus answers That this Scripture testimony was not right To which Saint Austin replies If this answer be esteemed of any weight what written Authority can ever be opened what holy Book can ever be searched cap. 2. he demands proof of Faustus what Books ever read otherwise and c. 3. urges All Books new and old have this testimony all Churches read it all tongues consent in it therefore put off the cloak of deceitfulness And in Epist 19. he saith he read the Scripture which is placed in the most sublime and celestial height of Authority being certain and secure of its truth but saith he the Manichees contend that many things in the Scripture are false yet so that they do not ascribe falshood to the Apostles who wrote them but to some which have corrupted the Books but because they cannot prove this by any ancient Copies he saith they are overcome and confounded by the most manifest truth But our Discourser saith It is certain there are many various readings yea so many in the New Testament alone observed by my Lord Usher that he durst not print them for fear of bringing the whole Book into doubt We acknowledge there are several various readings but this speaks the greater security of this Rule because though all these
and sutably our Saviour after his Resurrection gave his Apostles the authority of remitting and retaining Sins which phrase also immediately respecteth not Persons but Things but yet binding in this sense must include an authoritative declaring the Practices of Men to be so far Evil as to deprive the offending Persons of their Christian Priviledges 2. These words will also imply that the Officers of the Church are intrusted to bind and continue or to loose and discharge the observation of Penitential Rules and accordingly the Apostle saith to whom you forgive any thing I forgive it also in the Person of Christ 2 Cor. 2.10 And even this severe part of Ecclesiastical Power is for Edification not Destruction both to the whole Church and to the Offender that through Repentance his Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord and so is properly included under the Ministry of Reconciliation The general result of all I have said is That the Office of the Ministry is of very high and great importance and such persons who have a low esteem thereof if they have any reverence for their Saviour let them seriously consider whether he who is Truth and Goodness can be thought to use such high expressions in this case as to declare his giving them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and that what they bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and such like to impose upon the World which he came to guide and save and upon his Church which he so dearly loves with empty sounds of great things which signify little or nothing What a mighty sense had the Primitive Christians of this power of the Keys when the Penitent Offenders under censure undertook according to some Canons the strict observation of Penance Conc. Ancyr c. 16. Elib c. 2 7 47 63. Valent. cap. 3. sometimes for 20 or 30 years and even to the end of their Life that they might obtain Absolution and the Peace of the Church and its Communion And under this severe Discipline as Tertullian describes it by the name of their Exomologesis de Poenit. c. 9. they did ly in Sackcloth and Ashes they never used such Cloaths or Diet as might appear pleasant they frequently exercised themselves in Fasting Prayers and Tears crying to God day and night and among other things they made humble Supplication even upon their Knees unto the Members of the Church and fell down prostrate before its Officers it being their custom Presbyteris advolvi charis Dei adgeniculari And all this was done in the greatest degree while the Church was under persecution from the Civil Power But that which they apprehended and which I doubt not to be true Exam. Conc. Trid. de Poeni is that as Chemnitius expresseth it Christus est qui per ministerium absolvit peccata remittit it is Christ who gives Absolution by his Ministry viz. where they proceed according to his Will And as under the Law he who trespassed beside the amendment of his fault and restitution either in things Sacred or Civil was to have recourse to the Trespass-Offering for obtaining the Mercy of God even so under the Gospel he who performs the other conditions of Christianity ought where it may be had to apply himself also to the Ministerial power of remitting Sin and the receiving this Testimony together with that of a good Conscience upon a Christian Penitent Deportment is next to the great Absolution by Christ the greatest encouragement for Peace and Comfort Only I must here add which I desire may be particularly observed that the principal way of ministerial dispensing Remission of Sins and other Blessings of the Gospel to them who fall not under gross enormities and the censures of the Church though performed also in its degree in Doctrine and other Benedictions and Absolutions is chiefly done by Administring the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to persons duly qualified And it is one of the miscarriages of the Roman Church that they take too little notice of this advantage in receiving the Holy Eucharist and do inordinately advance their Sacrament of Penance so far into its place as to be esteemed the only Sacrament after Baptism wherein may be obtained remission of Sins Wherefore I conceive that as that Man who being converted to Christianity doth profess the Doctrine and embrace the practice thereof in other things but wholly omitteth Christian Baptism doth thereby deprive himself of the ordinary visible Testimony of God's favour and runs himself upon the needless hazard of hoping to find acceptance by extraordinary Grace in the neglect of the ordinary means thereof even so is it with those adult persons who being otherwise piously disposed do ordinarily neglect the attendance upon the Lord's Supper which is particularly appointed of God to be a means of conveying and applying the benefits of Christ's Holy Sacrifice for remission of Sins and other blessings of the Covenant to them who are worthy and meet to receive the same And if this which to me seemeth a great Truth was duly heeded the frequent attendance upon the Holy Communion and other Services of God would be as it was in the Primitive Times generally looked on as a Duty of very great importance in Persons adult and resolving upon a true Christian course of life Having asserted the nature and excellency of the Ministerial Power it will be necessary also to disclaim and reject from it these two things 1. That the Ministry of Reconciliation is not appointed to offer in the Mass a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God for the Quick and the Dead and herewith must be rejected also the Power of effecting Transubstantiation St. Chrysostom truly asserteth Chrysost in 2 Cor. 2.5 That it is not the same thing which is done by Christ i. e. in reconciling us by his Sacrifice and by his Ministry But the Priestly Authority according to the Romish Ordination Pontif. Rom. is chiefly placed in this proper Power of Sacrificing their Form being Accipe potestatem offerre Sacrificium Deo c. And all the Orders of their Ministry have some proper thing appointed for them which relateth to this Sacrifice of the Mass That is properly Ordo Th. Mor. l. 5. Tr. 9. c. 1. saith F. Layman where there is gradus potestatis ad peragendum Missae Sacrificium or a degree of Power to perform something about the Sacrifice of the Mass Much to the same purpose is in many other Writers and even in the Roman Catechism ad Parcchos in which as also in the Council of Trent it self Cat. ad Par. de Ord. Sacr. Concil Trid. Sess 23. cap. 2. their Priesthood is reckoned as the highest of their seven Orders partly upon this account and partly because this Notion serveth further to advance the Dignity and Eminency of the Pope But there is no such Sacrifice of the Mass in the Religion of our Saviour Indeed here it must be granted and asserted that the
despising the Blessings which he tenders by those Institutions Wherefore since Episcopal Ordination hath been of so general Practice from the Apostles in the Church of God and is regularly established and continued in this Kingdom no Man in this Church with respect to Order Unity and Apostolical Institution can reasonably expect that God will ever own him as his Officer in the Ministry of Reconciliation unless he be admitted thereto by such Ordination And private Christians both out of Duty to God and out of respect to their own Safety may not so esteem of any who oppose themselves against this Order because of the Danger under the New Testament of perishing in the gainsaying of Core And let every Person whosoever he be be wary how upon any pretence whatsoever he undertakes to execute any proper part of the Power of the Keys unless he be set apart thereunto by regular Ordination And now I shall conclude my Discourse with three Inferences First This gives us an account whence all that Opposition and Difficulty doth arise which the Ministration of the Gospel and the faithful Servants of God therein do meet with The Devil will use his utmost Power by all his Methods to hinder so good a Work as this Ministration is intended for Hence the Holy Jesus and most of his Apostles met with opposition even unto Death And as all the Persecutions of the Christian Church had an especial eye upon the Clergy so that violent one under Dioclesian Eus Hist l. 3. c. 12. for the first Year fingled them only out to be the Subjects of his Fury These are the ordinary Mark against whom all the Churches Enemies shoot their poysoned Arrows envenomed from the Malignity of the Old Serpent And when the Evil One cannot proceed by open Violence he oft makes use of Instruments to fix slanderous Censures and Calumnies upon the Officers of Christ to render their Ministration the less prosperous and successful in the World Insomuch that their Devoutness in Religion is by some upbraided with Ceremoniousness and their consciencious Observance of due Order and Averseness to Faction is branded with the odious Term of Popery and their embracing the necessary Reformation of the Church is by others stigmatized with the infamous Names of Heresy and Schism Thus our Saviour was called Beelzebub himself accused of Blasphemy and his Doctrine of Heresy Besides these things the vicious and scandalous Practices of too many who profess the Truth the various Schisms and other manifold Corruptions in the Doctrine and Practice of Religion and I wish I might not add the undue Proceedings of some Patrons in conferring Ecclesiastical Preferments are all of them dangerous Methods made use of by the Evil One to hinder the attaining the great Ends of this Ministration Secondly I now address my self to you my Reverend Brethren It is a weighty Charge a Business of great Importance that we are called unto and as we are Stewards of the Living God it is required of us that we be found faithful And for the putting us in mind of that serious Care and Diligence which we are to use in our Ministry I know not how to speak otherwise so well as by recommending the serious and frequent considering that useful Exhortation in the Book of Ordination And let us particularly look well to our own Paths for tho the Excellency of God's Ordinances doth not depend upon the Instruments yet if a Blemish appears in any of our Lives it becomes a great Prejudice to the Designs we should carry on among Men and will open the Mouths of our Enemies and if there be a Judas among the Apostles the Devil is ready to make a special use of him to his purposes But let us observe that Rule which but a few Verses after my Text the Apostle tells us was the Practice of himself and other Officers of the Christian Church Giving no Offence in any thing that the Ministry be not blamed but in all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God 2 Cor. 6.3 4. Thirdly Let every one in their places lay to their helping-Hand to promote the Success of this Ministry upon themselves and others Wherefore let every Man who lives under the Dispensation of the Gospel reject all Wickedness of Life and exercise himself unto Godliness and so he will certainly advantage himself and probably others by his good Example And let all those who have the management of the Authority of the Church in their hands indifferently check the Neglect and Contempt of the Publick Service of God and all other Viciousness and Evil which comes within the Limits of their Authority and countenance and encourage all real Vertue Goodness Holiness and Religion And those Parish-Officers who stand charged upon their Oaths to give an account of Offences which is noted by our 26th Canon to be the chief Means whereby publick Offences may be reformed and punished and whose Miscarriage is there severely censured let not them sinfully neglect their Oath and their Duty the right Discharge of which may tend to the Glory of God the flourishing of the Church and Religion and the bringing Men into the Ways of Happiness And because the Apostle proposeth that humbling Question concerning the Ministerial Charge Who is sufficient for these Things Let us earnestly implore the Help and Grace of God to assist us and succeed our Ministrations to the great Good of Men. And let every devout Christian join his fervent and frequent Prayer to this end and purpose That he who hath committed to us this Ministration would bring all those who partake thereof unto true Holiness of Life here and eternal Happiness hereafter through the Merits of Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy-Ghost be all Glory for evermore Amen A SERMON Preached at NORWICH March 2. 1678. JOEL 2.12 Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart IN the foregoing part of this Prophecy there is a dismal appearance of things concerning Judah a heavy threatning of sad Calamities therein both by Famine and Sword in the first Chapter and former part of the second The dreadfulness hereof is represented according to an usual Prophetick Style as if God was making the whole Fabrick of his Creation to totter v. 10. The Earth shall quake before them and the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining And this great Calamity was like to be the more sad because of the terror of God's Vengeance going along with it v. 11. The Day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it In such a case as this these words which our Church directeth to be read at the beginning of Lent which is now near and which are of excellent use at all times are the beginning of the Prophetical Direction for their help and recovery from this sad Condition and such a Remedy as recovereth one gasping
five or seven years and that if they die without them they may be saved But Layman declares Laym l. 5. Tr. 6. c. 2. n. 6. That the Precept and Duty of Repentance is satisfied by coming once in a year with Attrition to Confession and the Sacrament of Penance and by doing the same at the time of Death But is not this a Religion set up to undermine the Holy Gospel of our Saviour and to intitle those workers of Iniquity to Heaven whom his Doctrine will condemn to Hell And our other Parties give too much allowance to some particular miscarriages which I have before mentioned And many of them lay not that stress they ought on a Holy Life in general which is included under Conversion and Repentance in that they do not account it a necessary condition or previous qualification for the obtaining the Favour of God and the Pardon of Sin or which is all one for Justification Having now gone through these Heads of Discourse I shall further here observe three things First That the Romanists are not only thus far guilty of equal but are chargeable with much greater miscarriages than those of the Scribes and Pharisees I might have run on the Parallel farther as when the one devoured Widows Houses under a pretence of long Prayers the other carry on the like designs of Covetousness and Extortion by their Indulgences and Masses for the Dead But the Pharisees were not so degenerate as to offer their Prayers or Sacrifices to Saints or even to Angels though the Law was given by their Ministration but to such the Romish Church directs a great part of her Religious Worship They gave not Divine Honour either to the Temple which was the place of God's Presence or to any Sacrifice as the Papists do to the Host They worshipped not the Invisible God under the debasing representation of an Image as the Samaritans did and the Romanists do And when God appointed a continual Burnt-Offering with a Meat-Offering and Drink-Offering they did not make so bold as to alter his Institutions and withdraw one part thereof as they at Rome have done concerning the distribution of the Eucharistical Cup. And when the Pharisees had only so much Pride as vainly to account themselves righteous and far better than others they did not as the Romanists do pretend to such Supererogation and so great a stock of Merits as to be able thereby to supply the defects of others But if they at Rome had what they pretend it had need be a vast Treasury of good Works to make amends for the notorious bad ones which are the result of the Positions allowed and maintained in that Church The Pharisees claimed a great Authority to be Masters of the Faith of others but it doth not appear that they founded this in so high and unreasonable a claim to Infallibility as they at Rome do the holding of which engageth them to continue in all their other Errors Nor were they so deeply uncharitable as utterly to exclude the Essens and all other Sects from the favour of God as the Romanists deal with all other Churches nor did they debar the people from reading the Scriptures Secondly I observe that other Dividing Parties though they are very different among themselves and are not all to be alike esteemed of yet either all or most of them have some miscarriages not received by the Scribes and Pharisees for instance the Pharisees did not slight or neglect the Sacraments of the Old Testament either Circumcision or the Passover as too many now do one or both the Sacraments of the New They never gave way that the Temple-Sacrifices and other such like Services of God should be performed by any other but only those Priests whom God had appointed for that purpose when many in our days can admit and allow the performance of Christian Ministrations by those who have no Regular Authoritative and Justifiable Ordination And such things however some esteem of them are of the greater moment because they violate the peculiar Institutions of our Lord and the ordinary way that he hath appointed for the conveying and applying the Grace of the Gospel and the benefits of his Death and Passion Thirdly I observe also that it must be acknowledged there were other great Crimes of the Scribes and Pharisees which are not chargeable on any of those Parties of whom I have discoursed Such were their professed disowning our Saviour and his Doctrine their actual contriving his Death and their obstinacy under those various mighty Miracles which were frequently wrought before their Eyes But as the former Transgressions which I mentioned have been particularly proved destructive so I think them to be especially intended in this severe censure of our Saviour of the insufficiency of their Righteousness For these words were uttered soon after he began to teach and before the Scribes and Pharisees had declared their greatest enmity to his Person their obstinacy under his Miracles or their contrivement of his Death and therefore they must have respect to their Righteousness according to that time when these words were spoken And the scope of his Discourse shews him to condemn as greatly defective such Rules of Doctrine and Practice as they then directed and proposed I now come in the third place as my Conclusion to note the result of these Enquiries in two particulars First This should warn those of the Romish and other opposite Perswasions to consider seriously of their own Danger and of what may conduce to their Safety If they think themselves sufficiently secure so did also the Scribes and Pharisees of whom our Saviour judged otherwise And I could heartily wish that all persons of their several Divisions were really free from all things sinful and dangerous I think my self obliged to express as much Charity to others as can be consistent with Truth and a sober Judgment And therefore I freely acknowledge that the several Parties who divide from our Church are not all equally chargeable with many things I have insisted on and I verily hope that in all these various divisions there may be several particular persons led aside by meer mistake and misapprehension and whose uprightness of intention may be a preservative to them from much of that evil they might otherwise be engaged in And though all Sin is every where prejudicial I hope also that those miscarriages which such persons are brought into by their undiscerned Errors will not exclude them from the Mercy of God and many of their Practices may be better than their Principles But whilst any of us may express our Charity towards them and hope the best it becomes them to have that care of themselves as to fear the worst For Charity doth not make the Condition of other Men safe unto whom it is extended but this must be determined by the Judgment of God Those Persons whose Minds or Practices are really worse than other Men hope them to be are in never the