seventh day after the Creation and the strict Observation of the day as that therein a man might not gather sticks and had made himselfe a brand of Hellfire if he had but made a fire these all agree to be alterable to be altered and at this day to bind none Now that which they say is unalterable in the Sabbath they affirme to be some certain time of Worship a Solemnity carefully religious and yet in this agreement they differ for some will have that time which is unalterable to be though not a certaine yet one day of the Seaven though not Monday or Tuesday yet at least they or one between them which God or his Church should determine whilst others thinke that time to be no more bound to the weeke than it is to the Saturday to any other time than it was to the Jewes Sabbath and so likewise as touching the observation they vary the former prescribing a rising before day quick arraying private prayer til the Minister be in the Church repearing and prayer after till he come thither againe then hearing a second Sermon and then a third if they may and so having other formes till midnight the other thinking that they have conscionably discharged their duty if without so many observances fit rather to tire the body than refresh the soule after their private Devotions they religiously frequent the publick Service of God which being ended they beleeve they may as well bestow moderate Recreation as temperate Diet on their body But I would aske of the former sort of these when they say that somewhat is unalterable in the Sabbath by whom they meane it is unalterable if they say by man it is no great matter which they say all men know that what by God is established must needs be unalterable by him to change anothers ordinance is the onely privilege of an higher power But if they say that it is by God unalterable I shall againe aske whether it be simply unalterable or upon the presupposed approbation of his will and pleasure Not the latter nothing in the Sabbath is so unalterable if there be they must shew it in the Scripture If they shall reply that he hath expressed his will in the fourth Commandement which being placed amongst the morall precepts must needs have something morall in it and seeing that is not the seventh Day therefore at least it must be a seventh which is morall I shall onely desire them to review the Commandement where we shall find that the Jewes are commanded to keep that day holy in which the Lord rested nay therefore to keep it holy because in it the Lord rested they are to hallow that Day which the Lord had hallowed now in what day did he rest What day did he hallow was it not the seventh day For in six dayes they are the words in the commandement the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day so that from hence they may prove the Jewes Sabbath but they will destroy the Lords Day The seventh day is established by this commandement but it is a weake Foundation for One in Seven Well then at length they are driven to this to affirme that there is some what in the Sabbath to wit the necessity of sanctifying one in seaven which is simply and absolutely unalterable But to omit that they but affirme and cannot prove this see what the consequence of this wouldbe if there were as much truth as there is the confidence in that Assertion If it be simply unalterable then it was simply necessary that at first it should be ordained then observe it it was then simply necessary that either upon Saturday or Sunday or some other one day in seven God should ordaine a Sabbath but he could not ordaine one in seven to be a Sabbath unlesse he had first ordained that there should be seven dayes so then it was simply necessary that there should be seven dayes and because the Sabbath was made for man therefore if there must of necessity be a Sabbath of necessity there must be a man for whom the Sabbath should be and since Time is only the measure of the creatures actions therefore if time be by necessity as it must be if the Sabbath is by the same necessity the Creature must be whose actions are to be measured by time And thus we have learned a new and goodly Divinity that whereas the ancient Fathers affirme that Deus nihil agit ad extrà necessariò that God doth nothing necessarily but beget the Son and breathe the holy Ghost and that whatever he doth outwardly he doth freely that is he might either doe it or not doe it these mens opinions would cause him to make the world out of a necessity and that he could not possibly doe otherwise the summe of all is this That God maketh lawes for man not for himselfe he might have chose whether hee would have made man and when he hath made him whether he would make a Sabbath for him That when ever you shall heare men laying stumbling blocks in the way and making scruples when the Sabbath beginneth and when it ends and whether you may lawfully dresse or eate your meate that Day you desire them to shew you Scripture for that which they require which if they cannot know you are not bound unto Judaisme S. Peter acknowledgeth that you are free But are Christians free from the Ceremonies of the Law How can it be Since a man is not said to be freed from that under whose bondage he never was and the Christians especially such as spring from the Gentiles were never under those ordinances He shewed his word unto Iaacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel Ps. 147. 19. Besides as I shewed you before those Ceremonies were the partition wall between the Jewes and Gentiles now it could not have parted had they both agreed in it had it been given to the Heathen also if then they were never under it how can it be properly said that they are free from it S. Austine hath well satisfied this point discoursing of an other argument where he saith that this word Freeing in Scripture is not onely taken for a deliverance from some danger or burthen which is past but sometimes for a prevēting of that to come he instanceth as I remember in that speech of David thou hast delivered my Soule out of the nethermost Hell the nethermost Hell is the Hell of the Damned and into that the Soule of David of a penitent Sinner never did never shall come to deliver out of Hell therefore must be expounded to hinder him lest he should come thither here the Preventing is the Freeing and so likewise when we say that Christians are freed from the yoake of the Ceremonies we doe not suppose that they ever were under them but that they never shall be under them that that hand-writing against them is for ever blotted out But thus you will say even the Heathen
the Infidell are Free they likewise never were never shall be under the Ceremonies of the Law What a privilege then is that for the Christian which is communicated to the very Infidells when all the world which Claudius onely thought to make partakers of the Privileges of Rome are made partakers of this immunity T is true none of the Heathen are bound unto the Law and yet they cannot boast of their freedome from it as the Christian can because though he be free yet God hath not revealed so much unto him God leaveth him in his times of ignorance wherein he is subject unto most miserable thraldome by worshipping of stocks and stones which he doth because he thinketh he is bound to it and because he thinketh he is bound hee is not free as the Christian is In the second place from the bondage of all indifferent things to wit thus farre forth that in respect of Conscience he may either doe or omit them by these performed he hopes not to please God neither doth he feare to offend him by neglecting of them This is the Doctrine of the Apostle in the 14. to the Romans 1. Cor. 8. and where notâ—â— All things are lawfull unto mee but all things are not expedient 1 Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawfull why then Murder Prophanenes Atheisme are lawfull no he speakes not of things generally but onely of indifferent in the use of which as we must avoid some as not convenient so we must account none as not lawfull and that I perswade my selfe to be the meaning of the latter part of the verse All things are lawfull unto me but I wil not be brought under the power of any to wit of any indifferent thing that which is in it selfe Adiaphorall shall never have the power over me to make mee doe it of necessity or to make me thinke the not doing of it absolutely unlawfull there may be a circumstaÌ„ce that may bring a non-expedit It is not profitable there is none can bring a non-licet that it is against the Law This we shall make manifest in the point of observing of daies excepting the Lords day a man may according to his occasions either doe or abstaine from the works of his calling either the Act or the Omission is then indifferent unto him But if Authority shall appoint such a day to be kept holy and will have this to be part of the hallowing of it to abstain from all works of our vocation it wil not be lawful to do theÌ„ then not because it is not indiffereÌ„t to work or not to work but because it is not indifferent to obey or not to obey to obey is coÌ„manded is a duty So likewise according to my meanes I may weare silke or garments of meaner Stuffe it is all one in point of conscience what rayment I ordaine for my body but if the Magistrate shall confine mee to a meaner weâ—d I sinne if I weare silke not because the silke but the Disobedience was unlawfull In a word S. Paul hath taught us that meates commend us not unto God 1. Cor. 8. 8. therefore neither if I eate am I approved of him neither rejected if I eate not In point of Religion it matters not much whether for my ordinary provision I have fish or flesh whether I goe to the Sea or the shambles for my Diet. Meates then being thus lawfull in themselves there comes an Injunction from Superiors that I shall abstaine from some kind of Meates Are those meates that are thus forbidden unlawfull What God hath cleansed shall we or any commandement of man make common no certainely to eate is not unlawfull but to eate against the command the meate retaineth his indifferent nature still but the Magistrate for a time hath restrained its indifferent use and that without any prejudice to thy Freedome whose liberty must not cancell thy obedience because as Saint Austine hath well said in Ps. 71. Nihil 〈◊〉 expedit anima quà m obedire meate is not so wholsome to thy body as to thy Soule obedience And cannot the Magistrate then make things of themselves indifferent in themselves unlawfull what then shall we say to those who on the contrary side will put such a rate upon indifferences as if they were enacted by the Law Such we have too many of Ministers and others who propose to us a kind of preaching by doctrine Reasons use meanes motive and that in this order and they must be named too as if it were absolutely necessary in so much that they who use it are esteemed sanctified and powerfull they who either use an other or doe not say that they use this must be either ungodly or unfruitfull But to the Law to the Testimony where there shall we ever find that we are tyed to this or any other Forme of Method There I find that the manifestation of the spirit is given for every man to profit withall 1. Cor. 12. 7. I doe not find that Doctrines and uses proclaimed to be such are the onely manifestation of the Spirit it is our duty to imploy our gifts that way by which they may profit but it is man onely and not the holy Ghost who saith they can onely profit this way Christ saith to his Apostles Goe teach all Nations Matth. 28. 19. He doth not say Teach them thus he would have one Doctrine taught he doth not say he would have one manner of teaching All Scripture is given c. for Correction for instruction 2. Tim. 3. 16. We may safely say that the Method of the Sermon may be the same with that of the Scripture and there if Correction and Instruction be the same with Doctrine and use yet Correction is put before Instruction sometimes the Use is set before the Doctrine In a word Saint Paul preacheth to his Timothy that he should preach the word be instant in season and out of season here you see he binds him unto diligence but he leaves him free to his owne Method And indeed I cannot but wonder that they who would have no set Forme of Prayer should tie all to a sett Forme to one set Forme of preaching that they should thinke the Forme a confining of the Spirit though there bee many formes of them and this no confining where there is but one If any after so often instruction shall urge the necessity of this kind of instruction for my part I would onely confute him by my practice I would use another forme and so confirme that I were free Againe there are others that thinke themselves bound in conscience to heare two Sermons upon the Lords day though some of them will scarce practise one of them in any day of their life and therefore if their Minister preach not twice on that day they suppose that they are bound to heare an other But I desire these to direct mee to the Scripture where this is required of them It is required of them indeed to heare but how often
thinke Christ hath freed them to doe what they please as if he had no other thing to do thā to suffer the most bitter pains of death that men might bee securely wicked I must tell that to them the Law is in as full force as it was in the very first minute to the Israelites as if the Inke remained yet fresh upon the hand-writing that is against them Divines observe that God punisheth more severely the faults committed against his than against himselfe and therefore hee was silent at Pauls blasphemies but Christ himselfe must appeare and strike him to the ground when hee maketh havock of the Church So likewise where Elies sonnes seized upon their part of the offering before they had burnt the fat unto the Lord which by the law they were bound to doe the Lord scarce takes notice of it besides the bare relating of it but when by taking away the portion of the people they kept them from frequenting the Tabernacle and so hindered their spirituall good it is presently said That the sinne of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 17. as if had they not made men to abhorre the offering God would not have esteemed their sin so great as for it to abhorre them This sheweth us that God doth principally take order for his Childrens injuries but i◠doth not shew that hee neglects his owne that hee will free them from the punishment who have freed themselves from the observation of his law Nay such men should know that they are the principall of the wicked they are the principall of the wicked who in Scripture are termed The sonnes of Belial these despisers of the law are the sonnes of Belial For to omit the other derivations which Divines doe fancy of that word as it commeth of two Hebrew words which signifie either without light or without profit or lastly without ascent whith all agree very fitly unto them they are the children of darknesse their actions are nowise spirituall profitable either to themselves or others and lastly they shall never dwell in Gods holy hill into which none can come but hee that ascends Heaven is not scituate in a descent or a levell To omit these as Prettinesses without much solidity the true etymology of the word is Without a yoak Those are the true sons of Belial who would be without a yoake and who would bee without a yoake but they who would bee without a Law Whomsoever then wee shall see to goe forward in whoredome drunkennesse swearing covetousnesse malice schisme or any such notorious offence wee may conclude that hee would bee free from the yoake that hee is a sonne of Belial And thus all unrepentant sinners are whence the Prophet saith They were haughty and committed abomination against mee Ezech. 16. 50. Iunius reades it Exaltarunt se They exalted themselves as if none could commit abomination who was not first proud and haughty who had not first exalted themselves which no man can doe under a yoake under that he will be humbled not exalted But let them looke to it in time God punisheth all sinners but heeresists the proud onely as who should say Though many did offēd him besides yet it was but timorously none durst fight hand to hand with him but the proud only they put God to his defence to resist but though he resist them they shall never be able to resist him When the day of the Lord of hosts shall bee upon every one that is proud lofty Esay hath a pretty strange speech The earth saith he shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it Esa. 24. 20. The transgression is heavy upon the earth what then Therefore it shall be removed but one would think Therefore rather it shall stand still that which lyeth heavy upon a thing hinders it from being removed Oh the strange power of sinne that by making a thing waighty maketh it the more moveable for whose sake the earth which stands stil must be removed and removed by a waight As those then should suddenly repent who are yet under so should they alwayes triumph rejoyce in the Lord who are free from the curse of the law and yet oftentimes none so dejected as they especially when the Devill doth thus assault them Whosoever doth not exactly performe every the least circumstance of the Law is subject to eternal dānation thou hast not exactly performed every circumstance thou hast beene sometimes unadvisedly angry rash words have escaped the prison of thy mouth thy heart hath beene a denne of corruption and thou hast againe and againe done that evil against w ch thou hast vowed as if thou hadst repēted of thy repentance what thē remaines for thee but the blacknesse of darknesse to be cast into that fire which was as well prepared for thee as for the devill and his angels This is Sathans sophistrie but yet his major is untrue and his minor although it bee true doth not inferre his conclusion It is true Whosoever doth not exactly perform the Law c. is subject to the eternall punishment but it is legally true and thou art not under the Law but under Grace thou canst not deny but that in many things thou hast offended but thou must answer that CHRIST in whom thou art offended never The summe is this the Devill hath nothing to doe with thee if thou art free from the Law and if thou art in Christ thou art free Neither let any man thinke that I would sooth him in his bad courses that I would say The soule shall live which God hath said shall not live and so that I would onely pitch him a smoother Cawsey unto hell no you may remember I affirmed that they who shall bee free from punishment must be free from the dominion of sinne if then that have dominion over thee and it hath if thou obeyest it in the lusts thereof this comfort doth not at all concerne thee a corrosive is fitter for thee than a cordiall but to those dejected soules who after all their indeavor finde not the cōfort of godlinesse who have the gift but not the joy of beleeving and therefore doe doubt of the gift because they doe not feele the joy to those who runne after Gods commandements and will not lie still though they fall to these I proclaime that they are free frō the laws curse therefore heires of heavens blessing one confirmation of which they enjoy from hence if they doe not use their liberty as a Cloake c. which is the first restraint of S. Peters grant Where wee shall consider 1. What maliciousnesse is 2. What it is to use our liberty as a cloake of maliciousnes 3. That wee must not so use it Maliciousnesse in the latitude of the word may either be taken for that vice which is opposite to charity and termed malice or for sinnes in
generall which all proceed from the depravation from the maliciousnesse of our nature or particularly for that offence to whose contrary duty he had before exhorted even disobedience to the lawfull Magistrate But wee are not so much to enquire what the word may signifie in it self as what it must signifie here and it cannot signifie Malice in the former sense not that it is lawfull to use our liberty as a Cloak even of that malice as to abstain from reproving our brother because wee hate him as if it were an indiffereÌ„t thing to reprove or no as if we performed it to our friend we did well but not ill if we did not performe it to our enemy even when wee had just reason to suppose that such a reproofe would amend him I say it is not lawful to use our liberty for a cloak of that malice but that is not the malice of which our Apostle here speaketh for he speaketh of such a malice which is opposite to subjection now hatred and rancor is opposed â—o charity not to subjection and he that upon pretence of his liberty denyeth obedieÌ„ce to Magistracie doth it not out of malice because hee hateth him but out of injustice because hee will not give him what is his due not feare to whom feare nor honour to whom honour appertaineth Not to speake in the meane time that the word in the Text is not malice but maliciousnesse betweene which there is a great difference It being then not so aptly to bee interpreted of uncharitablenesse let us see in the next place whether it will sound better for Sins in generall they al proceed from maliciousnesse or corruption and wee must not use our liberty to cloake this malice This indeed is thought to be the meaning by the most that not without good probability for a generall reason may not unfitly bee used in a particular exhortation and the argument holds good We must not refuse subjection by reason of our liberty because universally wee must not doe any bad act by reason of our liberty But we must know that the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth evill-doing and is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or well-doing in the former verse If therefore well doing as I there proved must signifie our obedience evill-doing or maliciousnesse must needs import our disobedience to government This you see is Gods account of rebellion of disobedience he cals it maliciousnesse sinne without any addition as if it were the onely or at least the greatest sinne and therfore no wonder if wee must not use our liberty to cloake it the meaning of w ch phrase we are next to finde out To use our liberty for a cloake of maliciousnesse in generall is to pretend that those Actions are indifferent which indeed are unlawfull and upon that pretence to practise them and it principally holds where the Action that these would doe is of it selfe indifferent or at least seemeth to bee so and is onely made unlawfull by some circumstance For instance it is in it selfe indifferent whether I eate one or two meales in a day that meale w ch I eate whether it be of this or that kinde of meat but if Superiors shall command Eate not at such a time or at other times eate not of such a meat if thou pretending thy liberty doest the contrary and feasts when thou shouldst eate nothing and emptiest the Bucher-Row when Authority sends thee to the fish-market I say if thou pretendest thy liberty that with thy liberty thou doest cover thy disobedience thou thus makest thy freedome a cloake of maliciousnesse Doe I sin then wilt thou say if hunger wil not suffer me to fast if teÌ„dernes or antipathy make fish a kind of poison to my body No certainly thou offendest not the law if thou contemnest not the lawmaker but thou dost contemne him if thou dost onely urge thy liberty as a sufficient plea against the obligation of his law In a word if thou dost it not publikely if thou make it appeare that thy excuse is true and after all this doest willingly submit to his judgement thou sinnest not though thou doest not what man commands but this not by making thy liberty a cloake of thy maliciousnesse but by making thy infirmity to cover thy omission which if it had not beene thou hadst done otherwise Thus Hee that regards a day regards it to the Lord and hee that regards not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. which sheweth that the regarding or the not regarding is in it selfe indifferent if hee had commanded or forbidden either both of them could not bee done to the Lord. But Authority interposeth and faith that such a day I wil have you to observe the Nativitie the PassioÌ„ the Ascension the Resurrection of our Saviour on them thou shalt abstaine from thy ordinary labours frequent the Church and make it an holy rest Thou neverthelesse wilt put off thy busines unto this day thou caÌ„st find no such time for sowing or plowing or the like as this and that by reason of thy Christian liberty which hath taken away the distinction of dayes But hearken Christianity hath taken away the distinction of dayes but it hath not taken away distinction of orders there must bee some to command some to obey it hath not taken away obedieÌ„ce if upon this colour thou shalt flinch from it this is with thy liberty to cloake thy malice In a word as you have some that Jewishly observe so there are too many that Atheistically neglect the Lords day these have no journeyes but onely then as if they would ride away not so much from their place as their duty to Church they will not come their house is a Church in a word they give themselves to feasting sporting all kinde of excesse then and that forsooth because they are free But this is onely a cloake and a thred-bare one which will appeare when wee take it off Thou art free indeed but yet not from Lawes which God hath immediately made or which hee hath published by the Church Now that there should bee a time indefinitely for publike worship God hath intimated in his fourth Commandement and when and how that day shall be observed hath beene determined by his Church to wit principally in praying hearing meditating in acts of mercy and such like So that thy freedome is not a truth but a pretension not a garment w ch sits close to thee but a cloake w ch the least winde can blow off nay it is not so much a cloake as one of Adams fig-leaves which as the fathers observe out of naturall Historians will rather serve to annoy thee with its roughnesse than to hide thee with its quantity This then is to cover malice with liberty and this is utterly unlawfull whether we consider it in generall of any wickednesse so covered or particularly of disloyalty to Princes Of w ch in the third