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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49408	Five sermons, preached before His Majesty at Whitehall, published severally by command, and now printed together, tending all to give satisfaction in certain points to such who have thereupon endeavoured to unsettle the state and government of the church by B. Lord Bishop of Ely.; Sermons. Selections	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.; Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675. Study of quiet.	1669 (1669)	Wing L342; Wing L351; Wing L352; ESTC R16949	80,355	196

for Supremacy the Conscience without scruple puts in for it against both and takes it for her right to be supreme in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil There is great complaint in the world of domineering over the Conscience but have we not rather cause to complain of the domineering of the Conscience And if any list to see the Conscience acting all this we need go no further then our late times when the Conscience was loose for a while one would think Hell had broke loose so fill'd was on a sudden the Church with sects and the Common-wealth with confusion There is reason enough therefore to restrain the Conscience that acts all this if we knew how The next thing I undertook to shew is That there is no reason why it should have liberty and particularly not that which gives the fairest colour to it Neither the duty we owe to Truth which seems to have some right to liberty nor that we owe to the Will of God that nothing be done against the Conscience For the first Truth is that I confess which no consideration of peace may warrant us to desert for I could never be of that opinion That Truth in smaller matters may for Peace sake be either denied or prejudiced Magna est veritas etiam in minimis in Gods name let it prevail over all But then it must be Veritas in rebus not Veritas in intellectu For though Truth be defined to be a conformity of the understanding to the thing as it is indeed yet takes the name from both from the thing where Truth is originally and from the understanding where it is only represented Truth in that first reference to the thing admits no qualification things must be taken as they are be they never so small but as the things come to be represented to and entertained by the Understanding by reason of the mistakes and errours that may happen in that though Truth it self or Truth in the thing cannot yet my apprehension of it may both yield to better and may sometimes be waved for peace sake To argue from Truth in the thing to Truth in the apprehension only is a fallacy against the Rules of Reasoning we call it Petitio principii or a begging of the question If a Sectary should beg an alms I wish he may have it but he shall beg long ere it be granted him that he hath the Truth How then can he presume upon that truth to which he hath no other title but his own perswasion which can be no better then any mans else who is as strongly perswaded to the contrary And this is all the service that Truth can do the Conscience for liberty 2. The second thing whereupon the Conscience especially bears it self so high is the Will of God that nothing be done against the Conscience That no doubt is a great offence and made so by the greatest Authority Yet the same God that requires our obedience to the Conscience commands us likewise to obey our Parents our Princes and Governours and all these stand upon as good authority as the Conscience If we cannot reconcile our obedience to that with our obedience to these we may sin against God when we do not sin against the Conscience For though God hath erected a Tribunal in every mans breast and there set the Conscience to be a Judg of all our actions there be other Tribunals of Justice besides of Gods erection too and to which he hath subjected the very Conscience Ye must needs be subject Rom. 13. not only for wrath but also for conscience And after both these there is another Tribunal in Heaven to which all Judges Conscience and all must give an account one day For the Conscience is no Court of Record the Decrees and Acts passed there will be no good evidence at that Bar there all must be re-examined and tried over again Though I know nothing by my self saith S. Paul yet am I not thereby justified Though he could not charge his Conscience with any offence he knew a further trial must pass upon him before he could be absolved My Conscience indeed may be pleaded there in evidence against me as a Witness to condemn me but not as a Judg to absolve me It is a great mistake in the power and operation of the Conscience That it will condemn us if we do any thing against it the Text is clear for that but that it will absolve us for that we do according to it there is no Text I am sure for that We must then be tried by the Law and not by the Conscience For how the proceedings will be at that Bar we have a record Matth. 5. 31. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations When the Court was set the Charge was given to those on the left hand I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was athirst and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye cloathed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not To this Charge the Conscience no doubt confidently enough pleaded Not guilty Lord when saw wee thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee Their Conscience could accuse them of none of these things for all that the Sentence went against them upon a point of Law and Equity In that ye did it not to these saith the Judg ye did it not to me And for this they were condemned to eternal punishment If they that stand so much upon their consciences did seriously consider this they would find as little cause to desire that liberty as there is to grant it seeing it stands them in so little stead when they have most need of it for when they think their conscience shall answer for them they must then answer for their conscience and upon trial the conscience may prove the great offender Thus have I hitherto given you an account of some of the vulgar mistaken principles of Quiet which our Student is first to unlearn which are all but the patching up of a false deceitful peace condemned in the Politicks under the name of a Syncretismus when all the Factions in Crete joyn'd together in a common danger which lasted no longer then the cause of it like the bonds of a hard Frost that binds Earth and Water Sticks and Stones all together till the Sun comes to shine upon them and then they all presently return to their proper place and nature again But I fear I have run out all my time almost in these mistaken ways of peace I presume it will be a greater offence to leave you here now then to beg a little more time to set you in the right way though I shall not go beyond the office of

Five Sermons Preached before His MAJESTY at WHITEHALL Published Severally by Command And Now Printed together tending all to give satisfaction in Certain Points to such who have thereupon endeavoured to unsettle the STATE and Government of the CHURCH By the Right Reverend Father in God B. Lord Bishop of ELY Nadab Abih u Offering strange fire Lev. 〈…〉 London Printed for Timothy Garthwait 1669. The Shepherd Or The PASTORAL CHARGE And OBEDIENCE due to it Instituted By God as a necessary means to preserve the Sheep from Straying LONDON Printed for Timothy Garthwait 1668. A SERMON Preached before His Majesty at Whitehall March 9. 1661. 1 PET. 2. 25. For ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls THE condition of those in the Text both for what they had been once and for what they now were that is for their straying and returning again looks so like our case of late who if ever any had err'd and stray'd from all the ways of duty both to God and man but are now happily returned to the Shepherds and Bishops of our Souls you may perhaps imagine this Text to be chosen of purpose to pursue those two Blown Arguments And therefore before I proceed farther it will be necessary to deliver you from those thoughts and perhaps that fear For though the mischiefs in the one and Blessings in the other be such as deserve never to be forgotten yet possibly may not endure a perpetual importunate Remembrancer And the truth is the very words and phrase of the text which only at the first blush carries us upon those thoughts will leave us if we look a little nearer to them For the Straying here will prove to be of another kind and the Return will be found to be to another Bishop The straying here was of such as had err'd like Sheep whereas ours had little or nothing of the Sheep in it save the Sheeps clothing for dress'd up they were with pretenses as soft as wool Gods glory Purity of worship Christian liberty nothing worse then these and so indeed they err'd like Sheep as if they had been such but the truth is it was liker the ranging of Wolves tearing and devouring then the straying of weak and silly Sheep And for the returning likewise here though it was to a Bishop yet I dare not be so bold with him that bears that name in the text directly to apply it to our Bishops nor advance our return to this The Bishop here was no doubt our blessed Lord and Saviour whom God himself had consecrated and ordained to that office but our Bishops are not otherwise concerned here then as they can make their title from and under him but if that may be done hereafter I trust you will not be against it In the mean time if there were no more in it me thinks this should be enough to reconcile the Presbyterians to the name of a Bishop which our Saviour himself hath vouchsafed to take upon him But having laid aside that argument which the words at first sight seem'd to offer I bespeak your attention to one of a more common interest which concerns all that would be Christians whose character it is Who from the ways of sin and error are return'd to the faith and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ who to reduce us from those ways hath taken upon him to be our Shepherd and Bishop The main point is That God of his mercy complying with the necessities and infirmities of nature hath erected an Office of trust and confidence in his Church under the quality of a Shepherd and Bishop to direct and guide us who otherwise would erre and stray like sheep and so be lost for ever THe particulars incident to this are first The necessity of it impli'd in our natural condition who like Sheep are of themselves apt to erre and go astray 2. The accommodation we have for it For what should they do which are out of the way but return and to whom should Sheep return but to a Shepherd and lost Sheep but to him that came to seek and save that which was lost and where should they find so safe and sure a retreat as in him who purchas'd them with his own blood All these are accomplished in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ whom we shall consider first in his office of Shepherd or Bishop then in his Flock or Diocess the Souls of men We are returned c. THe first thing we meet with in the text is our natural condition That we were as Sheep that had gone astray And the confession of this is the first thing we meet with in our Liturgy We have erred and stray'd like lost Sheep And though it were fit and necessary it should be there for sure I am we never err'd worse then since we laid that by yet here we look upon it in another relation and use it is the first stone to be laid in this building in the erection of the office of a Shepherd and Bishop The infirmities of the Sheep are the ground of the necessity of a Shepherd But now that while we are speaking of our errors we do not commit one we must know first what kind of erring this is and then how we fell into the fatal necessity of it What it is the Bishop that must lead us out of it will tell us for he is the Bishop of our souls and therefore our Straying here must be that of the Soul For though our natural infirmities do expose us to error in many things else yea almost in all other things even those that are within the reach of sense and reason there is not any thing in Nature in Art in Philosophy though commonly received for truth which of late time is not charged with error and it may be sometimes not without cause yet without any great regard here if the Sould be not concern'd Now if we be so liable to error in the things of this life where both the end and the way to them are within the compass of the eye in which we erre as it were in our own Countrey where we are bred and born we must certainly lose our way where we are strangers being Citizens of another Countrey as those blessed Saints who best knew the ways of the soul confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here Heb. 11. 14. And they which say so shew plainly that they seek a Countrey and that a better that is a heavenly where God hath prepared for them a City They must needs be disappointed that seek for Heaven upon earth where there is nothing sitted and proportion'd to the Soul either for the nature or the desires of it The Soul is immortal and cannot be provided for where all things are liable to change and mortality for when it shall survive them it will be at a loss till it find a Countrey like it self that is everlasting and immortal And as the

the benefit we have by it nor the authority and commission we have for it nor the gentle conduct we have in it lay it aside as a thing of no use and that God hath provided other means to lead us many and more certain then any Shepherds can be We have first our own Reason to lead us 2. We have Scripture a surer guide then that 3. We have the Spirit besides and that will lead us into all truth Lastly we have our own Consciences which in the commission of Leading is of the Quorum nothing can be done without it We cannot deny but that all these have a part and share in the guiding of our souls But as no one of them doth exclude or bar the other so nor do all of them the Shepherds For allowing to every of these that which is peculiar to them there will be still found something to remain which is proper for the Shepherds to do I am now I confess in a discourse not so smooth and easie as best befits popular Sermons yet because many whom it concerns to weaken the hands and power of Church-governors do with their importunate clamours fill the Pulpit you will be pleased to allow of a short Answer from thence too AND first for REASON It is not to be denied that it ought to be admitted even in matters of Religion where it hath least to do for Religion is the object and imployment of Faith and not of Reasoning and yet naturally no man will believe any thing unless he sees Reason for it But how not a Reason of the thing that he believes for that works Knowledge not Faith but yet a reason of believing it for the credit of the Author that relates it for nothing can be more unreasonable then not to believe God that cannot ly But to admit reason in matters of Faith for any other use then that is to set up a Religion without Faith which would be as strange a thing as to have a Religion with nothing else There are in Religion some things to be known as well as believed and to these Reason and Discourse is proper for though the Articles of Faith and whatsoever shall appear to be contained in Scripture are without all doubt and reasoning to be received because God hath revealed them yet that this or that Article or Proposition is contained in Scripture is a thing to be known and lyes within the compass of sense we may see whether it be there or no that is for the words And for the meaning of those words we must understand the language in which they are written the proper import and idiom of the phrase the force and consequence of the discourse the coherence and consent it hath with other points better known We must besides discover the fallacies and inconsequences of those that would obtrude a different sense from that we receive All these difficulties though in matter of Religion are within the conduct of Reason but it is Reason so exalted with skill of Arts and Languages with Prudence and Diligence that we shall be forced to find work for the Shepherds too The greatest part of Christs flock I am sure must perish if they may not trust others in those things to which their natural inabilities or course of life hath made them incapable And for the best of the flock whom both Nature and Art hath fitted to master the greatest difficulties of themselves if they shall seriously consider how much and how oft Prejudice Education Custom Passion and Interest doth corrupt our Reason we would in prudence sometimes suspect our own and seek better security from the Church where though we shall not infallibly find the truth we may alwayes safely presume it This will serve to reconcile our obedience with Reason THE next pretender against the Shepherds leading is the SCRIPTURE I confess the Scripture to be a surer guide then Reason for the Authors sake and yet by what ye heard even now it works little without it but yet surer for all that The ignorance of Scripture is a cause of erring Ye erre saith our Saviour not knowing the Scriptures And to keep us right in our way Gods Word is a lantern to our feet and a light unto our paths We cannot say too much of the excellency and benefit of it It is a perfect record of all that concerns Heaven or the way to it It hath all the perfections that a law or rule can have to guide us yet those perfections are confin'd within the limits and nature of a law to do no more then is proper for a law to do which is very little without a Judge to apply it Though the rule be sufficiently straight perfect yet it measures nothing out of the hand of him that hath skill to use it Bring what controversy you will to the laws they pronounce nothing either for the Plaintiff or Defendant This is the true reason why though all sects pretend to Scripture there is yet no end of controversies because there is no common Judge to end them And the reason why every sect for all that seems to rest satisfied they are guided by the Scripture is because they carry their Judge a-long with them themselves So as if together with the Scriptures there be not a Shepherd too or some as little to be trusted our selves I mean it cannot lead at all It is indeed a two-edged sword but cuts nothing but in the hand of him that useth it A Third pretender to avoid the Shepherds is the SPIRIT That without question will lead us into all truth But for the manner of the Spirits leading the Scripture points out two wayes The one Divines call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other may be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as it led the Prophets of old by revealing to them the truth and matter of the Prophesy the object And by this way it led all the Apostles to whom the whole doctrine of the Gospel and mystery of salvation by Christ was reveal'd And thus holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost To this way of leading none can pretend that doth not prove his commission from God by a miracle who sends none of such an errand that cannot make it appear some way that he came from him If the Enthusiastick would have his dreams believed to be the dictates and revelations of the Spirit let him shew his letters of Credence from Heaven seal'd with a miracle and I shall not doubt to set him above all the Doctors and Shepherds of the Church Otherwise he may deceive himself by his spirit he shall not deceive me The other way of the Spirits leading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. not by revealing any thing to us but by co-operating with us by fortifying the soul and the faculties of it to all supernatural actions by assistance of grace to inlighten the understanding to comprehend divine

Propriety so many Sects endeavour to fling down the Inclosures As first There is a Propriety in Goods and Possessions and against this there rises a Sect of Levellers who tell us from the Psalmist The Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the Children of men That to which every man hath a Right by the Gift of God the Pride and Covetousness of a few have engross'd and made their own There is a Right and Propriety of Respect and Honour due to some above others Against this arises another Sect of Levellers they call Quakers who refuse to give Honour to whom Honour belongs Though this looks like a Religion against good manners only or were but some Quarrel with the Grammarians against proper Names the Mischief of it lies deeper and is of the spirit of Anabaptism who oppose the very Powers and Dignities themselves which they despise in their Titles for they cannot be so foolish though simple enough as to make a Religion of Names only These are dangerous Sects of Levellers both but they lie not in our way The Text toucheth only Levellers of Business who think they are not to be barr'd the liberty of doing any thing that is good bonum quo communius eomelius and ought not to be impropriate to any But that there is a Title and Propriety in some to business wherein it is not permitted to every one to interpose a necessity in Nature requires The World is replenished with infinite variety of things and a great deal of work is to be done to make them useful and serviceable to us Now it is not possible for every one to do all and hardly all in any one thing to gain the full use and benefit of it But when the works are distributed severally to some the benefit may redound to all All the business of the world refers either to a Spiritual End the good of the soul or to a Temporal and Civil our well-being while we live here upon earth And to both these Ends God hath appointed and assigned particular persons he did not leave them in common In the Temporal there is private business and publick For private use as in Families there is the business of the Husband and Wife the Parent and Children the Master and Servants And out of Families for private use likewise there is the business of Physicians and Advocates Husbandmen Merchants and Mariners Mechanicks and Labourers and all these are of private nature though of common benefit Then is there the publick business by whith all these are ordered and governed and they are by S. Peter distinguished to our hands as that of the King as Supreme and of Governors sent by him and they are Magistrates and Judges for Peace Captains and Commanders for War And besides these there is the business of Ministers and Assistants to the Supreme Power Counsellors Lawyers Officers and Servants and all these are for that temporal end And for the Spiritual whose business refers to the soul there is likewise a Propriety as in Bishops to Ordain Institute and Order the rest of the Clergy specially and of the whole Diocess occasionally as the necessity of it shall require Then is there the business of the Presbyters in the several parts of the Diocess in a more particular and immediate Cure and Charge to be directed by and accountable to the Bishop There be others Diaconal and Ministerial to both And all together Temporal and Spiritual as several Members make one Body and every Member saith the Apostle hath not the same office Rom. 12. 4. God divided his Gifts to every one severally as He will 1 Cor. 12. 11. he did not scatter them in common but divide them and all hold in severalty And as that Severance and Propriety stands upon good Authority so Authority was no doubt induc't upon reason of Profit and Interest It conduceth more to the common good than Community it self could First It brings Order into the common business of the world and that takes away confusion which never did any thing well To avoid fornication 1 Cor. 7. 2. let every man have his own wife Upon the same Equity to avoid the promiscuous lust and curiosity men have to mingle with any business Let every man likewise have his own 2. In reason all business will be best done too by those to whom they are peculiar and proper Artifici in sua arte credendum Men are most trusted in their own Trades We trust the Lawyer with our Estates the Physician with our Bodies I say nothing of our Souls we are so wise at that work as to trust none but our selves 3. Yet thirdly The nature and condition of the business it self may require it Some are so difficult that every one cannot do though he would and some are so mean that every one would not do though he could and all are such as through the mercy of God we need not do if we will unless it be our own business We are now faln upon the Second Part that as every one hath some business that is his own so Duty and Religion obligeth him to take upon him no business but his own THis Lesson will not be so easily learned as the former all confinement of it self seems uneasie He that hath no mind to go abroad would not be tied to stay at home And he that cares for no business will take it ill to be barr'd any But this confinement besides nips the growth and encrease of good whereof they think more would be done if every one have free liberty to do it and therefore it is just and reasonable to allow any one a concurrent jurisdiction with others in any thing that is otherwise good though that be to govern with the King to pray and preach or what they please with the Priest And they have as much of propriety as any can have to business yet even to these they think any man may make a sufficient title that hath understanding to know what is to be done as well as any other and affection to do it perhaps more then others And all have right and interest in the publick especially that wherein Religion and the soul is concerned how God may be best served and wherein His glory may be most promoted Will not all these make a Title good enough to any business The Glory of GOD indeed is a high and over-ruling Title if we do not set it on our own heads as the manner is to make Gods glory serve our own Otherwise that and the rest are such things as all men of wisdom or conscience should have regard to in any business they undertake provided yet it be their own In that every one hath liberty to improve his understanding and knowledg for the best as well for his own soul as the publick good In that let the glory of God be the Star to guide him But all these do not make the business ours they are