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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49453	A sermon preached before His Majesty at Whitehall, March 12, 1664/5 by B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1665 (1665)	Wing L347; ESTC R17030	18,017	44

properly within us but without us it is not simply a quiet from motion but commotion a troubling of others 4. And that I may contract my argument and bring it into as narrow a compass as may be I shall not take in every of the disturbances of the quiet of others No not that which is the greatest of all and most contrary to peace and quiet Civil Wars and broils The mischiefs of that we have learned so lately to our cost and so perfectly that I hope we need not be set to study that now when every good man was put to his study how to live and when vile and contemptible wretches ranted in plenty and power The horrid fruits and consequences of that great disturber of quiet War have induc'd some learned men as well as others to think all wars unlawful I should have been much inclined to that opinion upon the strictest rules of Christianity if War were not sometimes necessary to Peace A forraign War for that reason may be lawful but a civil and domestick never And the reason of this difference is because for the composing of all quarrels that may arise between subjects God hath by his Ordinance provided a remedy in Princes and Magistrates from whom alone we are to seek for revenge or defence But for such differences as arise between free Princes and States because there is no Judg on earth to whom they may have recourse for their relief being destitute of the common remedy they may without question make use of that sword which God hath put into their hands to defend their subjects from the injuries as well of strangers as their own Nor are they in this Judges in their own cause which hath some appearance of injustice for a forraign War for defect of a competent Judg on Earth is but an appeal to the supreme Judg of Heaven and Earth And when they go into the Field it is but to plead their cause before God with whom are the issues of VVar. Onely they had need be careful that the cause they bring before him be good For shall not the Judg of all the world do right But the must leave this to Princes and their Ministers who are the onely proper students of that quiet which is disturbed by VVar and come to that which may and must be the study of us all That is a quiet from troubles that arise from different judgments and perswasions in matters of Religion which cause sects and divisions in it though they break not out into an open VVar. Not that VVar be quite left out of the sectaries reckoning For though Civil VVars and rebellions have their beginning for the most part from the ambition or discontent of a few yet because the people who are the necessary instruments of that mischief be not apt to serve the ambition of others if it comes bare-faced to them the mask of Religion is always put on wherein all people are concerned which makes it a common and popular interest And therefore you shall scarce hear of a Rebellion of late times in which Religion did not carry the Colours at least if not command in chief But I shall nevertheless at this time forbear to make that any part of the Schismaticks charge but treat them upon their own terms that they are as great enemies to War as any that object it to them Yet I must charge them all to be guilty of the breach of peace and quiet in the Church and that not accidentally which may sometimes bear excuse but necessarily it is connatural and incident to the very nature of schism which is a rent or division so the word signifies It is the worst disturbance that can be to any body to be torn in pieces It dissolves the bonds by which the parts are joyned together especially that which unites them to the Head for schisme in the Churches notion is properly a separation from the Head and authority and is the same in the Church that Rebellion or Treason is in the State Now as every disobedience to the King and the Laws is not Treason though against the King but the disclaiming the right and power the King hath to govern and the practice of such things by which his Regalia and rights are usurpt by others as to make War to make Laws to thrust Officers upon him to order the Coin these and of the like kind are onely Treason So every error or disobedience in Religion makes not a schisme but the disclaiming the right and power the Church hath to govern them and a usurpation of a right to themselves to order and frame points of Belief and Forms how to serve and worship God apart from the Church for so went the style of the ancient Church for Schisme altare contra altare which in our modern dialect is a Conventicle against the Church For though Schism be formally a separation from the Head yet consequently it works upon the members for that which was at first but difference of opinion soon begets a disaffection and from that grows to hatred and contempt and so falls into the practice of such things as destroy the very being and power of Religion which consists in the mutual offices of Charity and though this mischief breaks not out into an actual War yet is always accompanied with most unnatural and unchristian practises as S. James long since observed Jam. 3.16 Where envy and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Now to avoid all this it will highly concern us to study to be quiet Having cleared the first Point the Object of our study Quiet and wherein the sormalis ratio of it consists and how it comes to be disturbed by Schism The next Point is to enquire into the Principles whereon we are to ground our study for if there should be an errour or mistake in them all our labour and study is lost or worse for an inveterate grounded studied errour is so much the harder to be reclaimed It was no unreasonable demand therefore of the Philosopher who asked a double reward for those Scholars that had been already entred into the study of Philosophy because his pains would be double with them to undoe first and cast out those false prejudices which they had already learned Now if it should happen that they which are otherwise studious and desirous of peace should not do the things that make for peace as the Apostle requires Rom. 14.10 our study will grow upon us first to unlearn those false deceitfull principles of peace before we enquire into the true Of some of the chief of these therefore I shall give you an account in the first place It will conduce much to the peace of the Church they say First 1. If Religion were free and all compulsory means forborne 2. If meer Errours in Judgment howsoever were not punished as crimes which is not in the power of any to help 3. Or if that yet Thirdly That omission

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 onely 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 Judge 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. 25.31 When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him Then shall be 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 we 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 Judge 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 a Mercury to point the hand where it lies There is the Kings high-way to peace and the Students private way and both good in their kind With the Kings way I shall not meddle as being fitter matter for our thankfulness then instruction who hath already paved the way for us by wholsom Laws for that purpose But because oft times Vitia sunt remediis fortiora the compulsory way by Law though always necessary is not always effectual to the Kings way we must add the Students also That every one in his particular makes it his care and business to contribute to it that it be an artificial studied peace to which not Fear onely but Conscience of Duty and Religion obligeth us Now every good Student of any Science searches into the true and proper cause of things for Scire est per causas cognoscere If the cause of all division in the Church be differing in judgment nothing can cure that but a consent S. Paul therefore prescribes that for the remedy 1 Cor. 5.10 That there be no divisions among you how may that be helped it follows But that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment This is the true Apostolical Principle whereon we are to ground our Study of Quiet For all the fine things and sentences that are spoken for peace and quiet will little move those that are and may very well be confident they ought not howsoever have peace with Sin or Error Unless therefore we can be first perswaded that we ought not to charge the Church with either we do nothing for Peace This I confess is the great difficulty yet if this be not done there can be no hope of Peace And to do this I shall not send our Student to the Polemick School to convince him out of speculative Principles of Reason and Divinity for to that study some have not capacity others not leisure I shall onely commend to him some practical Principles of Religion obvious to all and denied by none that out of them he may learn not to dissent from or condemn the Church of Errour To prevent the passing that sentence let the Student 1. Study himself his own condition 2. Let him study the Church against which he passeth sentence 3. Let him study the nature and quality of the things whereupon judgement is given 4. Let him consider well the manner of proceeding in judgement In all which we shall find some known Principle of Religion to direct us 1. First In the study of our selves and our own condition Religion teacheth us to have an humble lowly mean opinion of our selves and not without cause whether we respect our Understandings or our Affections Our Understandings are naturally weak imperfect short-sighted we know but in part the best of us and our Affections too are disloyal to our Understandings The heart of man saith the Prophet is deceitfull above all things We have little reason then to trust our selves much in either He that is truly conscious of his own weakness or lameness will be content to be supported by others If we study this point well our own infirmities we should learn more willingly to assent to and take support from the Church Especially if in the second place we study that too whose Governors Religion likewise teaches us to obey For they watch over our souls Heb. 13.17 If it be a