to give a Caveat to all future Ages Beware look not back And thus stands Demas registred in Gods Book a warning for the wretched Worldlings Take heed look not back Value not those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Dirt and Dung of this World at so high a Rate There 's pain in the getting care in the keeping grief in the loosing And besides all this there 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 4.19 Riches are a slippery and deceitful thing They have wings as Solomon said Eagles wings and oft-times quickly gone and gone for ever I could remind you of Bajazets Cage Sesostris Chariot Chraesus Pile Cyrus Tub Marcus Crassus among the Parthians and Baldivia among the Americans drinking down Ladles full of melted Gold I could fetch Sejanus from his Closet Seneca from his Orchards Bassianus from his Fish-ponds Tigillinus Plautian Atabaliba Metezuma These and millions more as well as these have from Darlings of Fortune been quickly turned into Foot-balls and nothing left of all their Greatness but their Name A warning piece for future times I was nothing I am nothing I shall return to nothing or in the words of Solomon Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity saith the Preacher Honores mundi Tumores Mundi Adams Apple or Sodoms Esau's Pottage Jonathan's Hony-comb All dulcia in aspectu laethalia in gustu as said Arnobius These all do but fill our mouths with Gravel and we shall never be satisfied till Gods glory do appear Satiabor cum apparuerit Gloria Tua The King of Spains Motto was Non sufficit orbis And I believe the greatest part of the World approve it The World cannot content a worldly minded man He hath the Dropsie the more he drinks the more he thirsts You have heard of Lysamachus and Saleucus two of Great Alexanders greatest Commanders Cum orbem Terrarum Duo soli tenerent augustiis sibimet inclusi videbantur Vt Justin lib. 17. And only Death could put an end to their Ambition All I shall say to shut up all is Optimum est insania frui aliena Seeing so many men are mad with Demas let us be wiser and reap some benefit by their madness Let us learn to make Treacle of Vipers and by the fall of other men to beware And come Life come Death let it never be said that for the embracing of a bad World we should make shipwrack of a good Conscience Let us never forsake God and Gods Word our Courage Calling and Profession Let us beware how we do Idolize the Covenant which binds Kings in Chains and giveth stop to the Subject to demurr upon Oaths And for the Hierarchy and Government of the Church Let those who seek Nodum in scirpo take heed of Crysippus's Pride and Palaemon's Arrogancy Let us lay before our eyes the harmony of the two Testaments the general practise of Antiquity The Consent of Fathers Councils all the World till those worst of Times And for those who are otherwise minded God reveal it to them and make us all of one mind that we may unanimously with one mouth glorifie God THIS SERMON Was Preached at St. HILIAR Before the KING In his Exile Sept. 23. 1649. PSAL. CV 12 13 14. When they were a few men in number yea a very few and Strangers in the Land When they went from one Nation to another from one Kingdom to another People He suffered no man to do them wrong SET Service in the Church is out of date Church-musick is an Irreligious Ragg of Popery And for our Solemn Feasts the very Name must be expunged and the People must forsake detest and forget all Thus he who said I am wiser then my Teachers must if now alive be set to School again turn a new Leaf or be shut out of the Synagogue of these Saints David kept his Festivals had Set-service blessed God with Musick Church-musick Vocal and Instrumental both And on that day a great Festival-day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph the Precentor and his Brethren 1 Chron. 16 7. So that if you fear God this Psalm was made to thank him If you honour Kings a King made it If you approve Festivals at a great Feast 't was first given and sung When the Ark after so many tossings and tumblings was with much solemnity brought home and setled in Jerusalem So that without straining the Text may prove tuneable and though Asaphs mouth be stopt and his Cymbal broken yet this may be the dawning of that day when we shall all sing Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus c. make it our Festival Solemn and Annual and for such warrantable by the practise of the Jewish Church and Primitive Christians But we must travel awhile with Abraham before we can sit down in David's Quire and with the poor Israelites hang up our Harps upon the Willows ere we can frame our selves to sing those Songs of Sion Meditate a while upon our miseries and afterwards come in with a Psalm of Thanksgiving for Gods Mercies And this is the Order of my Text a Text Historical it relates to a Story and the Story of no small Antiquity it goes as high as to the Father of the Faithful His and his Sons troubles present themselves in the two first Verses Gods mercy and deliverance in the third These are the two General Parts of which I am to speak Vtinam pro dignitate Roscius would feign himself that Party whom he was to personate and the Oratour would have his Pleader make the Case his own the better to express his Clyents passions We shall need none of those helps We sure in some sort we are the men we are to speak of In eadem Navi embarqued in the same Ship and therefore sharers in the same Fortunes Non tam Ovum Ovo simile I am sure 't is so for the first part that of Troubles And I hope it will prove so in the second also that of Protection and Deliverance But we are the Children and 't is fit the Father should have the precedency we shall therefore first begin with Abraham Abraham and his Family When they were but a few men in number yea very few and Strangers in the Land When they went from one Nation to another c. I may well call it the Pilgrimage of the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob for so ' t is The old Proverb or Epistichium was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And here are three PPP's Peregrini Pauci Pauperes all miserable but the misery ends not here In 2 Cor. 4.17 there 's excellenti excellentius a super-superlative Glory So here a super-superlative Misery One much worse then the rest 1. Pilgrims Strangers that went from one Nation to another 2. Their Paucity They were few in number yea very few 3. Their Poverty A Rolling stone they say gathers no Moss They went from one Kingdom to another People 4. That super-superlative that worse then worst The People to whom
Necessity But doubtless they shall feel no pain Nescio an habeant Regni honorem But he cannot say They shall enter into Heaven Thus far Ambrose and 't is well he will conclude with Nescio He cannot tell But the common Opinion of the Papists is peremptory That all Infants dying without Baptism are shut out of Heaven into a Limbus an imagined place of theirs where they shall feel no pain at all no poenam sensus but poenam damni No Torments but the Torment of Loss which they all say is the greatest to be deprived of that visio beatifica the sight of God The farther opening of the Text will open a way to answer all their Arguments unless it be those from Authority Now that the Fathers should be so violent in this matter we shall not wonder if we consider The frailty of men and how far the heat of Opposition doth oft times transport us How have we seen Authority idolized by some and submitted to with blind Obedience whiles others cry down all Magistracy and Superiority as unlawful unsufferable in Christian Societies Some in some Cases do patronize perjury Jura perjura c. Others condemn all Oaths as simply unlawful though before a Magistrate and for the testifying of the truth In the Observation of the Lords Day because Some require a Jewish Rigor and such a strictness as cannot sute with Christianity Others let loose the Reins to all Intemperance and Profaneness And thus have we gone from a Superstitious Lenten-fasting to feasting on the Passion Friday From praying over the Graves of the Dead to cry down all Decency in Christian Burials Sic trahit in vitium Culpae fuga God help I can be too copious in this Theme And therefore to return to the Fathers They were men also Vigilantius undervalued Virginity and Hierom to cross him speaks disgracefully of holy Wedlock The Manichâ—es take away all Free-will from Man in Morals in Naturals Many of the Fathers in heat of opposition cry it up too fast Pelagius held the Baptism of Infants a thing needless useless The Fathers again and against him so far urge the Necessity thereof That they exclude all Infants dying unbaptized from the hope of Heaven But will the Scripture say as much They say it will and the Master-Argument is this of my Text. Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit that is Except a Man be baptized he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God You heard before what Answer most of our Side made unto this place That nothing less is here intended than the Sacrament of Baptism But we have granted it And yet the Universal Negative shall not hold Universally You have such another place 2 Thess 3.10 Except a Man will work he must not eat And shall an Infant then be kept from Meat because Impotency disables them to work Again 't is said in sixth of John Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you And must all perish who do not partake of that other Sacrament of the Supper q v. Aug. contra 2. Epist Pelagii l. 4. c. 4. in Ps 64. l. 1. de peccat Merit c. 20. Cypr. de lap c. Indeed the Fathers some of them were sometime of this Opinion And therefore did they moysten some little portion of the Bread and so imparted it unto the Little ones Stillantur quaedam de Sacramentis This Opinion is long since exploded And Except ye Eat must suffer an Exception And why not here as well Except a man be born of water r lib. 4. dist 4. â— The Master of the Sentences understands it of those who may and do contemn to be baptized And the whole Schools except many They tell us The Baptism of Blood will suffice a Martyr They tell us Votum sufficit in Adultis If they come to years of Discretion the Desire of Baptism will suffice Now then if the words of my Text be not so General as to exclude All absolutely that dye unbaptized why shall poor Innocent Babes be here excluded If some may be received into bliss without Baptism Why should any Man tye the Mercies of God to second Causes in the case of Innocents Absit ut Vniversi parvuli pereant c. Innocent 3. Decret l. 3. tit 42. c. 3. They are the words of Innocent the Third in favour of Innocents God forbid that all those poor Souls those harmless Babes which daily dye should perish everlastingly but God hath allotted out some means to bring them also to Salvation Where though he understand the Means or Remedy to be Baptism yet I may sâ—y the same of other Ways if Baptism cannot be had God forbid That all those should perish those New-born Babes to whom that Sacrament is wanting they are not wanting to the Sacrament Epist 77. Bernard tells us there were other Remedies in elder times To Abraham and his Seed was given the Sacrament of Circumcision The Gentiles many of them were saved by faith and sacrifices And for their little Ones Solam profuisse imo suffecisse parentum fidem 'T was enough and enough to be born of faithful Parents The faith of the Parents did suffice for the Children And this saith he endured till the time of Baptism An verò ultra penes Deum est non meum definire But yet he concludes with the rest That Infants dying without Baptism go not to Heaven But I would ask him The Faith of others shall suffice the Infants which are baptized and why not those which born within the League or Covenant did die without it when not the Contempt of the Sacrament but the Article of Necessity excludes the Mystery Augustine himself will tell us That in others the Visible Sacrament is then supplyed invisibly De Baptis cont Donat. l. 4. c. 22. Epist. 77. nd Hugâ—n vict And why not here Me thinks in Bernards words it stands well with the gratious Mercies of the Almighty That where age alone hath denyed faith of their own there Grace should accept the supply of faith from another I farther add what all Men grant That Baptisme came in place of Circumcision Now Davids Child dyed without Circumcision yet could the Prophet comfort himself with that Heavenly Resolution I shall go to him 2 Sam. 12.23 Besides the Little Children slain by Herod some of them as 't is granted by Bellarmin and others in all probability not eight daies old and therefore by the Law not Circumcised yet are these Little Ones enrolled by their Church into the Alb of Saints Again That Circumcision was not simply and absolutely necessary which had yet as absolute a Command as this of Baptisme those forty years will testifie in which it was omitted in the Wilderness Jos 5 5. Gen. 17.14 Besides Jeremy and John Baptist were both sanctified in their Mothers womb And who then durst cut them off from the hope of Heaven
if they had missed the cutting of their Fore-skin And so likewise in the New Testament many are said to receive the Holy Ghost before they received Baptisme Wherefore as St. Peter said of some of them Act. 10. Can any man forbid Water I may say Could any man forbid Heaven if they had died without Water If any say Vid. Dom. Soto in 4. Sent. dist 5. q. unic art 2. The Votum or desire might suffice them because they were Adulti and come to years of discretion Let them know here could be no Votum because no knowledge And ignoti nulla Cupido In Comment in 2 Pet. 3. habet Sixt. Senens bib lib 6. Annot 340. Ambrosius Catharinus is more favourable to Infants He thinks they shall live in that New Earth which shall be at the end of the World in all pomp and jollity and shall there praise God for ever Thus do our Adversaries pass their Judgment on holy Innocents and that Rule of their Aquinas is forgotten Deus non alligavit gratiam suam Sacramentis Gods hands are not bound nor hath he tyed his Mercies or confined them to the Sacraments The Conclusion of this point is That Baptisme is the ordinary appointed Means for our Salvation And therefore neglect it not Yet hath God his special favour and his extraordinary Grace saving oft times saving without Means where the Means cannot be had Vid. Mortons Apol. not 6. c. 41. p. 121. jos Angl. par 1. q. 1. de Bapt. art ult con 3. And many learned Papists as Cajetan Gerson Gabriel are of our Opinion vid. Dom. Soto in 4. Sent. dist 5. q. 1. art 2. ubi de Aliis Part 5. The Benefits obtained by Baptism and how they are conveyed unto us Vide Chemnit exam Concil Trident part 2. p. 20. Many Schoolmen attributing too much to the outward Signs tell us That Grace is given in them and by them not only Instrumentally but either Effectivè or Dispositivè by an inherent vertue in the Elements You heard of some in elder times Vid Danaeum in Aug. de haeres in fin who did wholy slight this Sacrament The Socinians have done as much in our daies And some have done but little better whilst they make the Sacraments distinctive only nought but bare Signs or Notes of our Profession whereby from Jews Turks Pagans we may be discerned But we acknowledge Power in these holy Mysteries and that they are not meerly significative but exhibitive also Offering and conferring Grace Sed ex Institutione promissione c. Not of themselves but by the mercies of God in Christ they carry and conveigh the blessings of our Redemption and seal unto us those Promises which God hath made and Christ hath purchased with his precious blood Thus Augustine Tract 80. in Joh. How and whence comes this power to the Water that touching the Body it doth cleanse the Soul The Word the Word sa th he is cause of all not because spoken but because believed And thus Cyril of the Pool Bethesda Joh. 5. Tom. 1. in Evang Joh. l. 6. c. 14. That it did cure Diseases not by its own Nature for then it should have alwaies done it but only at the coming of the Angel 'T is so saith he in Baptisme where not the Water but the Water sanctified by the Holy Spirit doth wash away sins In Nazianz tom 1. Orat 6. de Sp. Sanct. ipse Nazianz in funere Caesarii fratris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To these I add Elias Cretens in Nazianz. He tells us How the Water doth renew us unto Regeneration but the Grace and Blessing cometh from above And thus have you the fruit the benefit of Baptisme 'T is Opus Spiritus Sancti 'T is a work of the Holy Spirit Enough were said and say no more but it doth offer and confer Grace wash away sins and cleanse and sanctifie Ephes 5.26 'T is Janua Ecclesia Janua Coeli The Door through which we pass into the Church Militant and from thence into the Church Triumphant 'T is our New Birth our Second Birth There is a double Birth From the first Adam as Sinners from the second Adam as Saints By the first we are liable to Death by the second we have a right to Glory In the first we come crying with that of the Apostle Quis me liberabit Wretched Men that we are who shall deliver us In the second we come with Gratias in our mouths Thanks be to the Lord who hath so graciously bestowed upon us that worthy Name that good Name by which we are called James 2.7 Christians Christians All saving Graces all our Comfort all our Hopes are comprised within that Name Our next care must be to walk worthy that Name We must be New Creatures 2 Cor. 5. for as the Apostle said of Circumcision Gal. 6. we may say of Baptisme Baptisme or no Baptisme all is one unless we become New Creatures 'T was one of Jovinians Errours August de Haeres cap. 82. That the vertue of Baptisme could not be lost Homines non posse peccare Men could not sin Ergo Men could not perish And we in our Catechisme say That we are made Members of Christ and Children of God But rotten Members must be cut off and disobedient Children must be disinherited If you will hold of the head you must hold with the Head Do what he commands you Do as you have seen him do John 13. Are ye Christians Live like Christians Remember what John Baptist told the People when they came to his Baptisme Luke 3. The People all of them must be Charitable The Tax-gatherers and Excize-Men must be no Exactors The Souldiers must be content with their Wages and do violence to no man And all this under the Law And doth our Christianity require less No sure New Men New Manners And he that said Discite à me Math. 11.29 sends us elsewhere to School amongst those Little Children Learn of them Math. 18 3. Except ye be converted and become as Little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God And so Peter in the first Epistle second Chapter and second Verse As New born Babes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire the sincere Milk of the Word I so do you Sermons Sermons All for Sermons And that 's well done but that 's not all Look what follows and what went before First lay aside all malice guile hypocrisie envy and the like the very sins the reigning sins of those times Be Children in Malice 1 Cor. 14. And as the same Apostle elsewhere 1 Thess 4.6 Let no man oppress and circumvent his Brother No Oppressing that 's for the Gentlemen No Circumventing that 's for the Chapmen Here be Children here be Innocent This is the way Ambulate in ea the ready way to Heaven I spake but now of a double-birth Lo here 's a Third The last day will be our best day
The day of Death the day of Life Natalitiae Sanctorum So did the Fathers call those daies in which the Saints and Martyrs gave their fare-well to this World Natalitiae Martyrum A birth indeed a happy birth to be carried into Abraham's bosom by the hands of Angels Our first Birth is into this World Our second into the Church Our third into Heaven Behold a Sinner a Son a Saint In the first we come to live in the second to live hopefully in the third happily Our first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A life and that 's all scarce that and were there not another Hope a better Hope we might with Job and Jeremy Curse the day of this Nativity But if we once obtain the favour of the Font if we be born again of VVater and the Spirit Ecclesia uterus Our Womb 's the Church And as we believe the Church is holy so must every Member endeavour to be holy and unblameable Away with that praecipice of presumption I am a Member of Christ Quis me separabit I am a Son and who shall disinherit me O beware Thou art now upon the pinnacle of the Temple as Bernard said of some The Way is anceps and praeceps too Many rubs many turnings and therefore Attende pedi as Solomon said Look to thy foot and last of all beware of weariness walk and walk on to the end of the race that is set before you Many too many are like the Galatians of whom 't was said They did run well That begin in the Spirit but end in the Flesh that make a goodly shew but fall away and wither with the untimely Corn on the house-top Alexander and Lucullus were admired for Temperance in the beginning Nero and Domitian famous for their first fruits of Clemency Nicholas and Demas in great account with the Apostles but Cui bono You know what John was bid to write to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna Be thou faithful to the end and I will give thee the Crown of life 'T is the End that makes or marrs all And therefore run with patience the race that is set before you Conscience be your Guide Heaven be your Hope Job 18.14 and the terrour of Kings The king of Terrours shall never hurt you Death will be your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Midwife to bring you to your Third birth This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The true life the only life when all our sorrows shall be turned into joy and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes FIAT FIAT A Return from ARGIER A SERMON Preached at MINHEAD In the County of Somerset the 16. of March 1627. at the re-admission of a Relapsed Christian into our CHURCH By H. B. B. D. REVEL II. part 5. verse Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works I Shall be forced to do what Israel promised Sihon King of the Amorites Numb 21. pass through his Country without turning aside into the Fields or Vineyards Or as your Saylors whom time forbiddeth most while to draw Landskips but with a Sea-mark or twain they make directly for the Harbour He whose Name is Wonderful Isai 9. Heb. 1.6 and whom all the Angels of God must worship Alpha and Omega Bids John write in a Book what he saw and send it to the seven Churches of Asia cap. 1. verse 1. and here unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write I pass by that strange assertion of some men in favour of unwritten Traditions that tell us the Apostles received commandement Vide Chemnit exam Concil Trident. parte 1 a. de Epistolis Apostolorum not to Write but only to Preach and yet Saint Peter Paul James Jude write and Saint John is bid Write I must leave on one side the dignity of the Pastors and their duty on the other and how what is written to the Churches must be sent to the Pastor of each Church either because as Anselme will Lauduneus in loc their sins their Souls shall be required at his hands or because the Priests lips should preserve knowledge Mal. 27. and they should seek the Law at his mouth Yet many with another spirit than was his who spake it say They are wiser than their Teachers and for the Scriptures praesumunt Hieron ad Paulinum lacerant O what senceless sence do those presumptuous Ignorants oft-times impose upon it But the wisest will remember they are but Candlesticks and because they do remember it Cap 1 v. ult they are golden Candlesticks but the Candles the Stars themselves which give the light are the Aâ—gels of the Churches those whom God hath singled out and set apart to teach his people The Letter to the Church of Ephesus doth follow I know thy works and thy labour c. The first part whereof may be divided into a Proof and a Reproof First What God approves and commends Secondly What he dislikes and discommends Many were their good works especially their undergoing the Cross and Persecution patiently They made a difference between weaklings and such as offended presumptuously they could not forbear them which were evil Though they were ready to bear home the straying sheep upon their shoulders yet the incestuous Corinthian must be cut off 1 Cor. 5.5 Their Pulpit was not open to every title-less wandring Preacher but his Calling must be known ere his Doctrine must be heard and therefore they did examine such as came unto them in the name of Apostles And all this did they for the Name of Christ and what makes much for their commendation they did all couragiously they fainted not And yet after all this In Gen. Homil 30. comes in a nevertheless and they are reproved Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Chrysostome speaking of the Pharisee in the 18. of St. Luke that did pray so earnestly and fast so strictly and pay Tithes so conscionably and yet had a poor Publicane preferred before him tells us that he suffered a strange kind of shipwrack He had made a good voyage and lost all at home in his own harbour this can self-conceit do I may say as much of these Ephesians They had made an excellent voyage and were laden with many gracious commodities and lo one leak in the harbour did endanger all This can the want of love do Thou hast left thy first love Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works The parts are two 1. An Exhortation 2. A Direction The first discovers the wound the second declares the remedy Or here 's Remember for the time past Repent for the time present and Do the first works for the time to come Or here 's 1. Their misery or sin They are fallen 2. The height or greatness of their sin Whence and whither they fell 3. The salve Repentance 4. The Rowl which ties it on or the
application Do thy first works 1. St. Bernard hath a true saying He that knoweth not his own misery is uncapable of Gods mercy And the Laodiceans in the next Chapter were in a woful case that said they were rich and needed nothing and yet were wretched miserable poor blind naked The first step to repent is to know our offence and the way to arise is to know our selves down The whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Luke 5.31 and the sin-sick Publican callâ— for mercy Rom. 3.23 Indeed we have all sinned as St. Paul tells us All in many tâ—â—â—gs as St James cap. 3.2 Aâ—â—â—hough Noah wâ—◠〈…〉 upright man yet it â—â—s but in sua 〈◊〉 â—â—â—one in regard of the time whereiâ—â—e lived and comparatively And Zachary and Elizabeth were just before God that is sine fuco What they did they did unfeignedly and yet just by the favour of acceptation not in the rigour of examination We may not therefore wonder that these Ephesians fell and that their silver was mixed with some dross which could not endure the fire Nor may we think their fall little whom so severe a Commination doth attend as is the removing their Candlestick out of his place 2. The sin laid to their charge is the leaving of their first Love St. Paul tells us Ad Ephes cap. 1.15 16. that he ceased not to give thanks to God for them because they had faith towards Christ and love towards all his Saints St. John tells us 1 Reg. 7.21 they were fallen from this love their faith is not questioned These are the two pillars Jachin and Boas which bear up the entrance or porch into the Temple Faith and Charity must go together Tertul. advers prax of the Trinity and must be numerus sine divisione distinguished they may be divided sundred they cannot be and be at all And therefore it is not said They were fallen from love for so they must have come within the compass of St. Pauls Nothing Lyra in loc Zanch. tomo 7. de perseverant Sanctorum 1 Cor. 13. but they were fallen from their first love à tanto gradu from that fervency which formerly they had Either they loved not all the Saints or they loved them not in that measure they were partial or they were cold in their affections This is that sin which called for so heavy a punishment and without Repentance and Returning to their first estate would notwithstanding their many other religious actions bring on them an everlasting misery And yet do we scarce love any Saints much less all and we never did esteem that doctrine which teacheth us to loose our purse-strings and pour out We have fed our Auditory so long with Sola fides that Charity is frozen amidst the fire of our zeal and Lazarus is dismissed with that cold comfortless Alms in St. James 2 Cap. 16. Ambrose a Hip. a Pap. Depart in peace And most of us are become Custodes non Domini slaves to god Mammon we have not power of our own And if any be so tender hearted as to relieve restore compassionate his brothers misery some shall untruly judge him for no true Christian and other new Reformers shall neer challenge him of old Religion Thus dare presumptuous impiety fall not onely from her first love if she had ever any but from love it self and yet shall challenge heaven for her inheritance She shall add sin to sin Ecclus 7.8 Prov. 5.22 and bind many together and yet forget her self to be holden with the cords of her own sin Shee shall fall never any Ephesian worse few ever like and yet perswades her self she stands upright The Church of Ephesus is onely taxed for defect in love but many of us are like Mephibosheth lame in both feet 2 Sam. 9.13 We are fallen we are fallen not onely from love towards all the Saints Rom. 8.35 but from the faith we had in the Lord Jesus Persecution can separate us from the love of Christ and the blast of affliction can make us throw off the shield of Faith Yea Eph. 6.16 many times we fall away non persecutionis impetu sed voluntario lapsu the demand of a door-keeper or the voice of a Maid will terrifie us as it befell Peter and we are prone upon the least occasion to renounce disclaim defie that excellent Name by which we have hope the blessed name of JESVS Phil. 2.10 11. A Name which every tongue must confess to which every knee must bow then which there is no other Name under heaven whereby we must be saved and of which a Heathen could give this testimony Vt uno verbo exprimi non possit Cic in Verrem lib. 2. of Sotor It is a name of wonder But some have thought it tolerable if not lawful in time of persecution to deny Manente apud animum proposito Tertul. ad 〈◊〉 27. so the mind be free Indeed what have not some thought or what monstrous opinions were there ever heard of but could find some one or other to defend them One commends the quartan Ague another writes in praise of Folly Anaxagoras thinks the Snow is black Danaeus in cap. 4. Aug. de Heros Gab. Prateolus and Catilina si judicatum erit meridie non lucere certus erit competitor He will swear the Sun shines not at noon day The Basilidians the David-Georgians not onely defend that damnable opinion of denying but so commonly doth one absurdity one sin beget another they scoffed at they scorned they cried shame on all the holy Martyrs for their sufferings But we have not so learn'd Christ Those Chameleons live not in our Element nor come they within the verge of the Church Omnis Aristippum decuit color He is none of ours No no the resolved Christian will scorn to bow his knee to Baal He knows there is a woe to him that hath a double-heart and is faint-hearted Ecclus. 2. He knows we may not take the Name of God in vain much less deny him And that we must not fear those which kill the Body and are not able to kill the Soul Math. 10. but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell and that whosoever shall deny his Saviour before men shall one day be denied before God This makes the School-man resolve Thom. Aquin. 〈◊〉 q 3. art 2 that upon pain of damnation we are bound in some cases to abide the trial and confess our faith when it shall conduce either to the honour of God Math 10 2â— B King on Jonas Lect. 29. or the profit of our Neighbour And that indulgence of our blessed Saviour of flying from City to City is neither for all men nor all times This made the Saints the servants of God not only not deny but to proclaim themselves Christians and to run upon those unsufferable torments and jaws of