way either opening when they should shut or shutting when they should open absolving the wicked and excommunicating and condemning the righteous both which saith Solomon are an abomination unto the Lord and should be likewise unto his faithful Deputies And it is an useful caveat and profitable direction for spiritual Governors which is given by Gerson and Erasmus Ne teutere vibrent fulmen excommunication is That they throw not about the thunder-bolt of their censures rashly and at random Wherein if they would weed out Tares aright A threefold error to be avoided in Church censures they must take heed of a threefold errour and extremity 1. Frequency and too much commonness 2. Immoderate and undue rigor 3. Temporal and by respects First Frequency too much commonness There must not be frequency and too much commonness in Church censures lest they thereby forfeit their estimation and abate their force and efficacy For even as purging Physick if ordinarily and familiarly received hath little or no operation upon the body whereunto it is accustomed and loosing both name and nature it becomes nonrishment in stead of physick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher for the constant and continual use In like manner this Spiritnal Physick I mean the censures Ecclesiastical which is Saint Cyprians resemblance Non deest censura quae increper nec medecina quae sanet I say these censures if threatned and urged upon all occasions they lose their power and strength they are neglected and slighted at all hands and work not at all unless it be contempt and at length are as it were east out into the draught Secondly Immoderate and undue rigour There must not be immoderate and undue rigour in Church censures A course much like the practice of unskilful Physicians who for the most part purge Vsque ad habitum corporis the utmost strength and ability of the body and thereby endanger the life of the patient The Tent must not be made too big for the Wound nor the Plaister too broad for the Sore For every petty and small offence in comparison an eight penny matter default of payment a Proctors fee want of appearance or the like to be threatned excommunicatione majori It is all one saith Parisiensis as if a man that perceives a fly in his neighbours forehead should forthwith club him to death killing the man that he may kill the fly and dash out his brains And though it be not so much the quality of the offence as the contumacy of the offender that necessitates them thereunto which they usually alledge yet whether this contumacy is of so high a nature as to promerit the most dreadful censure under Heaven yea the losse of Heaven it selfe I submit unto better judgements Thirdly There must be no temporal Temporal and by respects nor by respects in the exercise of Church cexsures That power which is purely spiritual in the nature must not be made temporal in the end These keys are not tempered of gold or silver nor must they be used or abused rather to the unlocking of mens chests or cossers The enriching of a corrupt Judge or a sharking and a prouling Officer what is this but to imitate the lothsoni wickednes of Elie's sonss and to make the sentence of exdommunication like unto their three toothed flesh hook which they thrust into the kettle cauldron or pot and whatsoever it brought up they took it to themselves 1 Sam. 2.13 But that I may not seem to inveigh and complain without cause or without countenance of just authority give me leave to express what I intend to deliver in the point in the strain of a late Reverend Bishop of our own and that Andrewes by name They are the words of the wise which are as goads and nailes fastened by one of the Masters of our Assemblies (h) Omnium abusuum medecira abusus ipsa est censura scilicet Ecclesiastica Opuscul Posth pag. 41. Quae ad scelera profliganda data sâ—â—t flagellum Christi clavis Petri solum jam crumenam pulsant Our Saviours scourge strung with small cords and Saint Peters keyes which were first ordained for the exterminating of sin they now only vex the purse It is commonly said that it is but lost labour to present offenders to your Commissaries or Officials who when they have had their Fee is forthwith dismist unpunished and then revels as insolently as securely as before but if they have no mony at hand to satisfie the Court the sword of authority is then brandished against them and no more adoe but with one stroak are cut off from the Church given over unto Satan and denounced publick Ethnicks and Anathemaes Add because they see these censures fly abroad in light matters and that against the best of men no less frequently than unadvisedly Quasi bruta fulmina soli metuenda crumenae contemnere didicerunt They have learned to contemn them as empty Thunder-bolts torrible only to the purse And there is a groat deal of Analogy and agreement in the terms of the comparison For as the thunder and lightning that comes down from above melts the money in the purse but consumes not or any way burts the purse it selfe Even so this spiritual lightning seizes onely upon the substance and wastes the hard Metal that makes resistance but passes through passes over the person who is more yeilding and leaves him untoucht This is not the orderly use of the spiritual keyes nor this the direct way for the Ecclesiastical Judge to weed Tares out of the Church 3. Thirdly the publick Ministry The publick Minister must put to his helping hand to gather out Tares by the religious ministration of the Word and Sacraments Behold this day have I set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to pluck up and to root out and to destroy and throw down and to build to plant saith God to the Prophet Jer. 1.10 This speech the Bishop of Rome ingrosses and appropriates as personal to himself grounding thereupon his unlimited Jurisdiction and Oecumenical power in Temporalities to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms whereas the Text equally and indifferently concerns all even the meanest Ministers of the Gospel The Spirit of God therein assimilating the pains of their profession to the toil and sweat of the natural Husbandman (i) Disce sarculo non seepâ—â—o epus est ut sacias opus prophetae Bernard ad Engenium De consideraâ—â—one Lib. â— Rusticani sudoris schemate quodam spiritualis iste labor expressus est as devout Bernard expounds and applies the place to Pope Eugenius whose office and duty it is to pluck up and root out these Tares in the publick Ministry And if there be any Tare of wickedness that pesters the field of the Lord spreads the roots far and near advances the head higher and grows more rank and rife than the rest be it grosse idolatry customary swearing
persevers John 8.32 If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed and in truth For howsoever that which is false and (t) Nemo personam diu sustinere potest cito in raturam suam recidu â—â— quibus veritas non subest Seneca counterfeit alters and changes at every turn yet Truth is uniform and like it self or rather like unto him whose name is I am Exod. 3.14 I am the Lord and change not Mal. 3.6 And may fitly apply and take up the Motto of that Renowned Queen Semper eadem as being one and the same for ever Secondly The name of Christian as a diminutive in respect of Christ The name of Christian as a diminutive in respect of Christ shewes a disparity shewes a disparitiy betwixt Christ and Christians For though therebe a conformitie and resemblance yet is it not a similitude of equality but of proportion and that joyned with an infinite disparity and disproportion in three respects 1. A threesold disparity betwixt Christ and Christians A Disparity of Nature 2. A Disparity of Power 3. A Disparity of Grace First There is a disparity of nature Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man in one Person A disparity of nature But as for the highest and best of Christians he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer bare man The Popes Parasites indeed hold him forth unto the world as a Petty God a mortal or rather an immortal God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whereas Christ is God manifested in the flesh God and Man making up the same Hypostasy the Pope is (u) Nec Deus nec homo Papa Gratian. neither God nor Man in the Canon Law and so a professed Antichrist in his nature Secondly There is a disparity of power betwixt Christ and Christians A disparity of power All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28.18 there is no mortal man may assume the like without blasphemous arrogance and presumption And yet he who hath the name of Blasphemy written in his forehead and exalts himself not onely above all that is called God but above God himself He it is who wears a three-fold crown and challenges a three-fold power unto himself in Heaven Earth and Purgatory where Christ hath no Authority Thirdly there is a disparity of Grace betwixt Christ and Christians Disparity of grace Christ was full of Grace 1 John 1.14 Christians are full too but with a vast and wide difference the fulnesse of Christ is Plenitudo Fontis the fulness of a Fountain that is both Repletive and filling of his own person and is known by the name of Plentifulness And diffusive and communicative of it self to us and passes under the name of bountifulness Of whose fulness we all receive grace for grace Joh. 1.16 The fulness of a Christian is Plenitudo vasis The fulness of a scant and narrow vessel Christ had the spirit dealt out unto him Not by measure Joh. 3.34 A Christian likewise hath it dealt out unto him but it is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A measure of Faith Rom. 12.3 In all which there is an infinite disparity and disproportion betwixt Christ and Christians insomuch as John the Baptist who had not a greater born of women was very shie and jealous of usurping his name who will not give his glory unto another And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ Joh. 1.20 And doubtless the Jesuites have a great deal to answer for their grand Sacriledge and robbery in this respect who not content with the common name of Christians stile themselves Jesuites from Jesus by way of eminency and perfection as if they meant to make him but dimidiatum Mediatorem a half Mediator and themselves coparceners and parcel Saviours in the work of our redemption but they who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity must take heed and beware of the Jesuites Qui cum Jesu itis non itis cum Jesuitis The second general part of the Text concerns the manner of our conversion and that by way of perswasion so Agrippa bespeaks Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou perswadest The second part of the Text. There are two strong Forts and Holds in mans nature The manner of our conversion Perswades Two strong holds in mans nature and those reared and raised up in the prime powers and faculties 1. In the mind and understanding 2. In the will and affections First in the mind there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imaginations and thoughts In the mind and understanding and these are cast down by the conviction of the judgement Secondly in the will there are corrupt lusts and sinful habits In the Will and Affections and God casts down and casts out these by the perswasion of the heart God perswades men to become Christians he doth not necessitate and compel them whether they will or no. No man can come unto me unless the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 And yet this atraction to Christ is not by force and violence as a Bear is drawn to the stake but as a sheep is drawn to a green bough allured by delight and pleasure This is a kind of drawing Trahit sna quemque voluptas Those whom Christ draws he draws (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom Si Poetae dicere licuit trahit sua quemque voluptas non necessitas sed voluptas non obligatio sed delectatio quanto fortius nos dicere debemus trahi hominem ad Christum Ramum viridem ostendis ovi trahis illam Nuces puero demonstrantur trahitur quod currit trahitur Amando trahitur sine laesione corporis trahitur cordis vinculo trahitur August Tract 26. in Evang. secund Johan willingly with cords of a man and bonds of love Hos 11.4 Christ breaks not into the heart by a spiritual Burglary but he opens the doors of the heart as he did the doors of the house where his Disciples were assembled after his Resurrection He comes into the heart as he did to the house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 20.19 Which being shut before he caused them to flie open He speaks to these doors of the heart in a powerful and effectual manner Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Psal 24.7 The conversion of a sinner is not only facilitated but effected by perswasion of the heart God perswades Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 God allures his Church and speaks comfortably to her Hos 2.14 He beseeches men in the mouth of his Ministers 2 Cor. 5.20 This is most connatural unto the will which is far more easily led then drawn Apud Reges etiam quae pro sunt ita tamen ut delectent suadend a sunt Seneca And it is verified of it what the Heathen man hath
of the Saints the hands and arms are the Court and Porch of this Temple The legs are so many Marble Pillars that support and bear it up the eyes in the forehead the supreme and highest place like windows that transmit and convey light And as for the inward cells of the Brain and Heart they are as the Sanctuary and Body of the Temple But the soul with the several powers and faculties the understanding Will Affections this is the Sanctum Sanctorum the most Holy of all other For as there is and ought to be a correspondence betwixt the nature of God and the manner of his service so must there be likewise an agreement betwixt it and the place God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth John 4.24 And as he is worshipped in Spirit for the manner so will he also be worshipped in spirit the for the place in the spirits souls of Believers Though God dwels in the Body yet chiefly in the Soul this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by way of excellency Gods Temple And thus are we at last come into Gods Temple by many degrees and steps as they ascended into that of Solomon Or as they climb up some long ladder by several staves which rise each higher then the other and like unto Jacobs ladder the foot whereof stood upon the ground so doth the material Temple but the top thereof which is the mystical reacheth unto Heaven Ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit That is the spirit and soul of man (e) Arist de Anima Lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher teacheth Hierusalem which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above the mother of us all The Congregation of the first born whose names are written in Heaven And in two respects is the Church assimilated and compared to a Temple The Church a Temple in two respects 1. Ratione structurae et aedificationis 2. Ratione usus et inhabitationis First The Church is Gods Temple in regard of the structure or the building Ratione structurae et aedificationis For every house is built of some man but he that buildeth all things is God Heb. 3.4 God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Architect of heaven earth he likewise frames and fashions his Church which is as it were a Heaven here on Earth And as the soul in the Body doth Fabricare sibi domiclium so God who is the soul of the Church prepares and formes his own dwelling Nor shall we need over-curiously to enquire touching the manner of the workmanship Qui vectes quae ferramenta What tools and instruments God had to effect it which were the several Queries of the Epicure in Tully concerning the Creation of the world For as in the Creation Dixit et fact a sunt He spake the word and it was done he commanded and it was created So God doth but speak the word in the mouth of his Ministers there is but a Dixit on Gods part and forthwith there followes a factum est without more adoe There is neither noise of axe nor sound of hammer to be heard in the building of this Temple no more nay far less then in that sumptuous and stately Temple of Hierusalem The foundation of which Temple is not the Church The foundation of this Temple Not the Church that being the Temple it self This were to confound the building with the foundation and how should the Church be accounted the Pillar and ground of faith which relies and rests upon it or if the text seems to favour it and imports as much in express terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 3.15 yet is it onely Columna forensis like unto the Pillars of of the Heathen whereunto their solemn Laws and constitutions were publickly affixed and so made manifest and legible to the people It is not Columna architectonica that supports and bears up the weight of the frame Not St. Peter Nor is St. Peter the Pillar of the Church which he no more sustaines then ever St. Christopher carried Christ whom nevertheless the Romish faction injuriously honour as the great Atlas of the universal Church firmely leaning upon the strength of his shoulders and though St. Peter bestiled a pillar yet is that title given in common to the rest Galations the second Chapter and the nine verse And when Iames Cophas and Iohn who seemed to be pillars And it as worth the observing that St. Paul purposely inverts the order Iames Cophas and Iohn placeing James and not Cophas in the forefront least he should have seemed thereby to have conferred the Primacy upon him and made Peter Metropolitan over his Brethren Nor doth he join the Sons of Zebedee hand in hand who were surnamed Bonaerges and accompanied Christ in his transfiguration but ranks Saint Peter in the midst that he might no way be suspected to ascribe unto them the like authority and jurisdiction Let Peter then continue his name yet is he Petrus non Petra the chief corner Stone and Rock of our Salvation Christ builds not upon Saint Peter but builds Saint Peter upon himself (f) August in Mat. 16.18 Super me aedifieabo te non me super te as Augustine upon the place And let him for ever enjoy his title of Cephas and be deservedly honoured as a choice stone yet is he not the chief coâ—ner stone or the foundation of the building But Christ is the foundation of the Church two ways For other foundations can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 A Doctrinal Foundation Respectu doctâ—inae reveâ—atae The supernatural and divine Truth of the Scriptures wherewith he inspired the Church in all Ages by the ministry of his messengers and in the fulness of Time instructed it by word of mouth Respectu doctrinae revelatae immediately in his own Person as being the Eternal Wisdom and Essential Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who was sent from the bosom of the Father 1. A personal foundation Respectu gratiae salutiferae which by the satisfaction and merits Respectu gratiae salutiserae whereby he trod the wine-press alone he hath effectually purchased procured And herein it far exceeds and altogether differs from earthy foundations which are in imo laid low and deep within the ground but Christ is Fundamentum in summo the uppermost part of that new Hierusalem which commeth down from Heaven 2. Descend we therefore from the foundation to the walls the society and company of the faithful The people of God are the walls of the Temple all of them disposed and couched together as so many lively stones in a mystical and spiritual Temple This is that elegant strain and metaphos wherewith Saint Peter seems to be much affected and delighted to whom ye come as unto a living stone disallowed of by men but chosen of God
he went about to repair the Temple What doe these weak Jews will they fortifie themselves will they finish it in a day will they make the stones whole again out of the heaps of dust seeing they are burnt And though they build yet if a Fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall Nehem. 4.2 3. Thus did they discourage them from the work And Albertus Crantzius seriously endeavoured to take off the edge of Luther's eagerness when he first adventured to cry down the Popes Indulgences (f) Chytraeus Chronico Sax. Lib. 2. Frater vade in cellam dic Domine miserere nostri This was his councel to him as if to effect it had been impossible And his friend Faber told him that though he was fortified with the whole armour of God yet he should be encountred with other weapons sword spear shield out of Goliah's armory while he came out against them in the Name of the Lord of Hosts But God is the Lord of Hosts This is his Name and his memorial throughout all Ages The Prophet describes him like a man of War Isa 59.17 He put on righteousness as an Habergeon and a Helmet of salvation vpon his Head And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak And when any strange work is foretold or promised this is usually prefixed to assure the accomplishment The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform it And such is his invincible power and the strength of his right hand That when he begins to reform as himself speaks of Eli's house he will also make an end 2. The second part of the Text is the nature of the reformation The second part The nature of the reformation by way of restoring I will restore and that by way of restoring I will restore It is not a forming but a reforming an innovation but a renovation a framing but a lashâ—â—â—ing God deals not as a Creator as at the first when he made all things new of no praeexistent matter but as a wise Physitian he cures the antient maladies and diseases of the same body God doth not abolish but restore which Act of God hath a double reference 1. To their Places A double 2. To their Persons First God doth restore First to their places not abrogate their place and function and dissolve their profession all innovations are dangerous and warily to be attempted especially when they carry along with them any shew of violence and extremity then are they utterly to be declined and abandoned non est movendum quod sine sanguine moveri nequit And it is far safer for the Bodies health in the judgement of those whom we are bound to believe in their own Art to abide in a corrupt and foggy Air then remove to a pure to continue an inveterate custome though somewhat obnoxious in it self then admit of an alteration and it may in some times and cases prove as safe for the body Politick And of this mind were the Thebans who caused him to come with a halter to the Tribunal who proposed a new law yet when there is a sufficient cause that doth necessitate a change it must warily be attempted and by degrees it is the Naturalists rule (m) Omnis transitus ab extremo ad extremum fit per medium that there is no passage from one extreme to another but by a mean and it is natures course converting fire into air and air into water which agree in some symbolical and common quality not turning one contrary into another and it ought likewise to be observed as a Policy of state Let no man think I plead for a toleration of corruption as some have done under that pretence witness that frigid excuse of Pope Adrian in his instructions to his Legat that he could not suddenly reform all enormities of the Church and he would have no man wonder at it for that the disease was habituate and every mutation lyable to extream peril et qui nimis mungit elicit sanguinem Thus wresting Scriptures to his own destruction I drive not the same project nor speak in favour of the disease but only censure the preposterous application of the remedy Some spirits there are over jealous and phantastical who would cast a Commonwealth into a new platform all at once and utterly abandon on a sudden whatsoever hath been perverted to abuse Herein resembling those weak-spirited souldiers that will not venture upon a stratageme that hath formerly been practised by an adversary and are so terrible afraid of being found in the trenches of the enemy that they out run their own camp I may not unfitly parallel their ridiculous courses with the folly of that painter in the Reign of Queen Mary who having drawn the picture of King Henry the eight against her coming through the City in triumph with a Bible in his hand and being checkt by a great counsellour of State and wished to wipe it out because he would make sure to leave none of the Bible he wipes out book and hand withall There must be a distinction made betwixt these things themselves and the corruption inherent or adherent that fault which proceedeth out of the (n) Thom. Par. 1. quest 41. Art 6. nature of the fact it self being simply evil and that which ariseth from the abuse of what is good in its own kind and yet becomes evil onely by accident Lycurgus the wise lawgiver in this shewed himself none of the wisest in destroying all the vines of Sparta for that men were made drunk and mad with the wine who should rather have digged (o) Insanum Deum alio sobrio repressum castigare wells and fountains near unto them so have taken away the abuse by mixing some quantity of water with it the Roman Cotta bewraied little knowledge in the condemning of it for that it oft-times proves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 armed wickedness and so inabled to be the instrument of greater mischief and devout Bernard justly complains of many in his time who cried down reading and diversity of study and that because (p) Prolixa lectio memoriam legentis obliterat Bern. de inter domo cap. 50. overmuch reading debilitates and oppresses the memory of the reader For in (q) In multisnon usus rerum sed libido utentis in culpa est August de Doct. Christ lib. 3. cap. 13. many things not the use but the disorder of him that useth them must be blamed and good must not be removed or laid aside for adjoyning and bordering upon evil as he proves at large against the Donatists and our upstart Anabapistâ—s as whelps of the same litter those Dreamers foretold by Sr. Jude v. 8. that despise dominion and speak evil of dignities (Å¿) Non debere inter Christianâ—s esse praetoria leges juditia aut jus gladii Calv. Inst lib. 4. the Law Magistracy judgment the power of the sword