Churches do willingly acknowledge and to open a door to the Traditions of the Church of Rome and to take away all the force from the arguments drawn negatively from the Scriptures which the antient Fathers of the Church and the most learned of the Divines of these times do very frequently make use of I make answer that the Church of Rome doth derogate from the perfection of the Scripture in this consideration that in the matters of Faith and things necessary to salvation they do thrust in their unwritten Traditions to be received with the same reverence as the written word of God as if it were not enough for the sons of God to be wise unto salvation by having the new Testament conferred on them which is the Inheritance left them by their Father but they must also have the vain books inserted of humane Traditions But as for those who do dispute negatively from the Scriptures concerning things which are necessary to salvation either to be believed or practised let them make use of this argument as indeed they ought to do But there is no question here of the rule of Faith but of the rule of Conscience and not of the chief rule of it but of the Adaequate and not what is necessary for a Christian to believe or practice to attain unto the salvation of the Soul but what is lawfull for a pious and prudent man to do lawfully or to leave undone at such a time or in such a place The sum of all is that the holy Scripture is the Adaequate Rule of Faith and of things supernaturally to be believed as also of all moral actions so far as they are spiritual and ordained to a supernatural end and it is also the the Law of Conscience the Chief and supreme Rule for the putting of moral things in practice so that where the Scripture determineth of any thing universally either by the way of precept or prohibition it is not lawfull for any other Law whatsoever to stand in opposition to it but it is not so to be understood to be the only Law of Conscience that what is not commanded there to be therefore presently unlawfull And thus much of the third Conclusion XX. The fourth followeth The proper and adaequate Rule of Conscience is the will of God in what way soever it is revealed unto Men. Some call this the Law of God others the eternal Law the words differing in the sound but agreeing in the sence Every part of this Conclusion is to be weighed by it self In the first place I do say it is the will of God which by the Schoolemen though by some of them not rightly expounded and by others of them not rightly applyed is distinguished into Voluntatem beneplaciti and Voluntatem signi the will of the good pleasure and the will of the sign The first called the will of the good pleasure of God is that which God from all eternity did with himself resolve what he himself will do the other which is called the will of the sign is that by which God hath given us a Law by signifying what he would have us to do The first is called the will of God properly and univocally the other improperly and analogically The will of the good pleasure if it be lawfull to speak of the majesty of God after the manner of men is in some respect a Law unto God himself whereby he acteth for he always acteth that which is complacent unto him but it is not given to us by God to be a Law or to be a rule unto our Consciences or at the least for the putting of any thing into action In some respect indeed it may be said to pertain unto the Consciences in regard of sufferings but this is a posteriori from an after observation in this sence that in Conscience we are obliged with patience to endure all things whatsoever shall befall us after that by the event it is manifest to us that God would have it so For rectified reason doth dictate this unto us that we ought not to be displeased at the method of the Divine Providence who can will nothing but that which is most righteous It remaineth therefore Optimum est Deum quo Authore omnia proveniunt sine murmuratione concomitari Senec. Epistol 108 Placeat homini quicquid Deo placuit Idem Epist 71. that the will be the rule of our Consciences which is called The will of the sign For when God by prohibiting and by commanding hath signified what we ought to do and what we ought not to do it is our duties absolutely to conform our wills unto his will Many things amongst the School-men are with unprofitable acutenesse disputed on this Subject viz. Whether and how far the will of the reasonable creature in a thing willed is bound to conform it self to the will of the Creator When the whole matter as much as belongs to our business and the use of humane life may briefly in one word be dispatched which is That we are always bound to will that which God willeth that we should will Thus when God commanded Abraham to offer up his Son Isaac Although God in the will of his good pleasure would not have had that done which at the same time he commanded to be done as by and by shall appear by the event yet Abraham was bound to will the very same thing because God by commanding it did signifie that it was his will that Abraham should have a will unto it XXI I say secondly the will of God revealed unto Men because this revealed will is the formal Cause and Reason of the obligation For the will of God doth not oblige those unto whom it is not revealed And hence it is that the Gentiles to whom the Gospel is not preached are not bound to believe it or to have any faith in Christ for there is no man that is bound to that which is impossible And it is impossible for that man to whom the Gospel hath been never preached and who never hath heard any thing of Christ to believe either in Christ or in the Gospel seeing that the light of Reason cannot ascend so high according to that of the Apostle Rom. 10. 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher And the same Apostle thinks it not meet that others should be judged by the Law but those only who have sinned in the Law Rom. 11. 12. Neither doth this suffize to bring an obligation upon the Conscience that the will of God is revealed to him unlesse it be revealed to him as the will of God in a peculiar reference to himself Insomuch that if any of the Gentiles who were Aliens should casually have met with the Books of Moses and by reading of them should observe the Commandements which are there given to the people of Israel he had not presently been obliged to the
And many are the objections w ch from hence do take their Rise They allege it is written by St. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 23. Yee are bought with a price be yee not made the Servants of men And agâ—in Gal. 5. 6. Stand firm in that liberty in which Christ hath set you free and be not intangled again with the yoak of bondage And again Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or drink c. and other places to the same effect They dispuâ—e also that it is not likely that Christ at last should have freed us so from the positive Laws of God himself which were certainly most just to leave us captivated under the slavish Bondage of the Laws of Men. XXXII I will answer to all these places but I would have you first preadvertised seeing that there are many Texts and heads of Christian liberty that we diligently do take heed not too rashly to confound them neither rudely and unskilfully to wrest and cite those places of Scripture which pertain to one kind of Liberty to another kind to which they do not belong which transition to another kind is not only the perpetual and Solemn vice of the Antinomians and the Anabâ—ptists but of many others who would be esteemed the Reformers of this age and this as they often put in practice in other disputations so most especially in those where the debate is concerning the Rites of the Church having thus preadmonished you of their Errors I now proceed to the solution of their Arguments In that Text to the Corinthians the Apostle would exhort the faithful that in whatsoever place God had constituted them and with whatsoever gifts he had indued them that contented in that Station they would modestly contain themselves within their own limits measuring themselves by the gifts and calling of God and acordingly accommodate their lives and actions whether they be servants or free and not so inslave and emancipate their Consciences to the Judgment and command of any Man as wholly to depend upon his Will and Opinion but being mindfull that he is the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus so to study to please men and to be subservient to their affections and commands as to do nothing unworthy of a man who professeth himself to be the Servant of God and Christ And this being the certain sense of the Apostle in that whole discourse we may most truly conclude from hence that we ought not to be obedient to the pleasures of Masters Parents or Princes or any Mortals whatsoever if they command any thing to be done which is wicked or unlawful for instead of being the Servants of God this were to make themselves the Servants of Men But he who out of Conscience doth obey the just honest and profitable Constitutions of Men is so far from being thought that he is therefore the Servant of Men that by the two chiefest of the Apostles he is expressely said to serve the Lord God and not Men. Eph. 6. 7. Col. 3. 23. and 1. Pet. 2. 16. In this Text To serve the Lord and not Men the particle of Negation as usually in other places is taken comparatively that is to say rather God than Men he serveth God for himself and Men for God He serveth Men as he performeth what is commanded by them and he serveth God as he doth it out of the Conscience of his Duty XXXIII That other place to the Galathians is best of all to be understood by the whole scope of the Epistle Some false Apostles in the Churches of Galatia being either Jews or Judaizing Christians did violently contend contrary to the institution of the Apostles in the Council at Jerusalem that the Gentiles newly converted to the Faith should not only be baptized but circumcized also And those Impostors as their custom is under the pretence of piety and a wicked diligence amongst the credulous vulgar did so wonderfully prevayl that they had drawn many into so great an errour that they thought they could never attain unto everlasting happinesse unlesse they suffered themselves to be circumcized The Spirit of the blessed Apostle not induring this wretched and growing Imposture doth inveigh against the grossenesse of the error of it with more than ordinary Indignation throughout the whole course almost of the Epistle And amongst other Arguments he admonisheth the Galatians of that liberty by which Christ after his comming did free his Church from the unprofitable burden and yoak of the Mosaick Ceremonies and doth exhort them constanly to maintain the liberty obtained by the death of Christ and not to stoop their necks again unto the yoak of slavery which they should altogether do if they should believe the ritual observation of the dead letter of the Law to be necessary Now how incongruously this is by the Anabaptists applyed to the Laws of Men profitable and necessary for the Commonwealth from which the Scriptures do no where tell us that Christ hath freed us he is wilfully blind that doth not discern it XXXIV The third place taken out of the Epistle to the Colossians doth not at all appertain to Humane Laws rightly constituted concerning things of a middle nature but to the Doctrines of Impostors who dogmatically propounded to the people of God some things to be necessary which God never commanded which was the Custom of the Traditionary Pharisees whom Christ Mat. 15. reprehends upon that account for making the Commandements of God of no effect by their Tradition or clean contrary they as dogmatically did forbid other things as unlawful which God never did prohibit injoyning the people as to such and such things Touch not taste not handle not The Apostle admonisheth the Colossians to have a care of such dogmatizing Teachers and not suffer any snare to be thrown upon their Consciences by these Impostors Magistrates therefore in a political Government do not offend who in things of a middle nature do either command or prohibit any thing to the people for Profit Honesty Decency or for Orders sake but without any opinion of necessity on either side which belongeth to the thing it self that is commanded or forbidden Those pittiful Ministers I may more truly call them Magistrates so Magisterially they do pronounce all things do rather offend who so importunately vex and inveigh against the harmlesse Laws of Magistrates and exercise a Tyranny oâ—â—er the Consciences of the people and whatsoever is distastful to them is presently condemned for Impiety or at least for Superstition XXXV That which in the fourth place they do allege thaâ— because Christ hath freed us from the positive Laws of God therefore much more from the Laws of Men is in many respects erroneous and absurd For in the first place it is not truly said that Christ hath freed us from the positive Laws of God by which we never were bound For the positive Laws of God or Men do only oblige those on whom they are imposed Now those Laws of
to be severed and distinguished from it for their Lye was a Vice and not to be followed but their humanity and their piety is praysed by God and they both deserve our Imitation X. In the third place I say that the extraordinary atchievements of the Worthyes are praysed in the Scriptures which being stirred up by a peculiar motion and inspiration of the holy Spirit they performed as it were by a peculiar mandate and beyond the ordinary Law and yet notwithstanding those atchievements are not to be followed Of this Nature is that remarkable Act of Phineas for which he received both commendations and recompence from God himself for being but a private Man and invested with no Lawful Authority he did notwithstanding with his Spear run through the bodies of those two shamelesse persons whom he had taken in the Act of Incontinency Numb 25. 8. And of the same nature was that of Elias the Prophet who having called Fire down from Heaven destroyed the Souldiers that were sent to secure him 2 Kings 4. 10. c. Which Act of his when two of the Disciples of Christ James and John desiring to imitate having asked counsel of their Master concerning it he was so far from approving their rash desires Luke 9 54 that he did reject them and gave a great check to their Choleâ—ick Importunity You know not saith he of what Spirit you are As if he should have said forbear the extravagant heats of your unquiet minds and contain your selves within the bounds of your Vocation If Elias heretofore did any thing severely do not you suppose that the same thing is fitting to be performed by you That which he did was effected by the extraordinary Spirit of God which inwardly did suggest and dictate to him and was like unto that particular Mandate which was given to Abraham to kill his Son Isaac But this belongs not to you whom the Spirit of God hath not yet called to the Execution of so extraordinary and so high a charge you ought not to entertain any thought of attempting it XI Seeing therefore it is not alwayes certain that what hath been performed by a Godly Man ought to be commended and though it hath been commended it ought not unpremeditately to be imitated it is far more conducible to the security of our Consciences to bring home and conform our Deeds to the Rule of the Law which is certain than to follow the uncertain Examples of Men. Most true is that of St. Augustine Haec quae in Scripturis Sanctis legimus non ideò quià facta credimus etiam facienda credamus ne violemus praecepta dum passim sectamur exempla We ought not to believe that these things which we read in the Holy Scriptures are therefore to be done again because that already they have been performed least we violate the precepts whiles every where we do follow the Examples And after other words to the same purpose he doth thus conclude Unde constat quod non omnia quae à Sanctis et justis viris legimus facta transfere debemus ad mores From hence it is manifest that we ought not to translate all things into practice and manners which we do read to have been performed by holy and just men And thus far of our second Argument concerning the difficulty of judging the examples of Godly men by reason of the great uncertainty which is in them XII The third Argument followeth taken from the difficulty of rightly applying the Examples of other men to our own Affairs and Actions by reason of the uncertainty of the Circumstances which being of an infinite variety do also infinitely vary the qualities of humane Actions That which is free and lawful in the Thesis that is the Positions is so also in the Hypothesis or Supposition the same Circumstances remaining I call that lawful which may be done without Sin and that free which without Sin may be omitted now the same thing any one circumstance being added or taken away or any wayes changed may be made unlawful of that which was Lawful and necessary of that which before was free and this we see every day by Experience in our Courts of Law when pleadings are made at the Bar where by the advocate of one side the preceding Examples of Cases before judged are cited for the advantage of their Cause and it is answered by the Advocate of the other side that there is not in both Cases the same Reason of Law that the Circumstances are varyed from whence it comes to passe that the Case is altered and those things which were cited to be reported and to be judged of before do not appertain to the Suit now in Controversie But if that rightly the Case be demonstrated the whole frame of the Defence which did support it self on this Foundation doth presently fall to the ground And the precedent taken heretofore of the things that have been so judged will be of no moment at all with the Judges From hence it comes to passe that amongst the several kinds of Argumentation with Logicians the Exemplum or Example is ranked amongst the last as more fit to illustrate than to demonstrate a thing And certainly if that of Fabius be true Tot seculis nullam repertam esse causam quae sit tota alteri similis In so many ages there hath never yet any cause been found which hath been altogether like to one another It s likely enough that very easily he may Erre who by the condition of one cause doth hastily passe his Judgement on another like unto it having not first with all diligence weighed with himself the circumstances of them both XIII In which consideration we are so much the more ready to fall into an error because we are most of us of such a temper that in the application of the examples of others unto our selves we only look upon the bare fact and greedily make use of it by enforcing it to our purpose especially if it seems to comply with our affections and the desires of our hearts in the mean time taking not into our least consideration either the causes of the fact or of the end or the manner of the circumstances of it especially if they are not suitable or complacent unto us The Prophet Amos in the sixth Chapter and fifth verse doth reprove some of his time who in the midst of publick calamities being too slothfull and secure did delight themselves in Riot and all manner of pleasures and amongst other things did whisper unto themselves that like unto David they did invent unto themselves instruments of Musick as if they should have said why should that be condemned in us to be a Vice which was a praise and honour unto David That Holy Man did exercise himself in Psalms and Instruments of Musick And we do the like but in the mean time we do dissemble with our selves and fail in that which principally was to be imitated in David for
knowledge whereof hath hitherto shined into our minds whether internally imprinted by the light of Nature or externally revealed by the Word or whether by our own meditation or by the institution of others is now more excellently and more illustriously made manifest unto us The chief Helps or Mediums thereunto are the Discourse of Reason and Authority the last of which is the Judgement and the Practice of the Church of which neither doth the time permit to speak much neither doth it self require that many things should be spoken of it From the Law of Nature many particâ—lar Propositions of things to be done like so many Conclusions from their Principles are deduced by the discourse of Reason to the use of the Conscience In which unless we orderly proceed from the first unto the last we shall be apt to erre as already I have expressed we must therefore be very carefull that in every part of the Discourse the proceeding be legitimate that those things that follow may aptly depend upon those which go before and that the consequence be necessary lest the Conscience being mis-led do not dictate this or that or otherwise to the will than what it ought to do It is again to be feared lest we erre also in applying the holy Scripture unto the use of the Conscience unless a due regard of Reason be had unto Reason and of Authority unto Authority The Papists while they bestow all their studies that nothing be taken away from the Authority of the Church they give but little unto Reason The Socinians on the other side whiles rejecting all Authority they do measure Faith by Reason onely they do onely attain unto this that they grow mad with reason Both have the same errour but it variously deceiveth And both rocks shall not more easily be avoided than if Authority with Reason and Reason with Authority shall handsomely and prudently be conjoyned XXXVI What place either of them ought to have in the right and orderly unfolding and applying the holy Scripture it is not for this time or my present purpose to represent unto you I shall touch upon it in few words There is especially a twofold Use of Reason in relation to the Scriptures Collative and Illative Collative diligently to compare those divers places of Scripture especially those which seem to bear a remarkable correspondence or repugnancy amongst themselves Illative the propriety of the words the context and the scope being found out effectually and artificially to infer Doctrines being in the mean time not forgetfull that we must attribute so much the more to humane Reason in things to be done than in things to be believed as the mysteries of Faith do more exceed the capacity of natural understanding than the Offices of Life XXXVII The chiefest use of Authority is to beat down the boldness of Hereticks and Impostor who indeavour to cast a mist over the clearest testimonies of the Scripture and to elude the force of them with their subtilties and distinctions whose mouths you can no better stop nor more effectually preserve your selves and others from the contagion of them than by opposing unto their Sophisms and Deceits the Judgement and Practice not of one or of a few men not of one Age or of one corner of the Church but of the whole Catholick Church of all places and all times spread over the whole face of the Earth so heretofore those great Advocates of the Christian Faith Irenaeus Tertullian Vicentius and others judged it to be their safest course to deal with their Adversaries by the right of prescription which how advantagious it hath been to Christendome the event hath taught But those things which deserve a larger consideration I am now forced to omit being mindfull of the time of you and of my self and to defer unto another day what remaineth to be spoken concerning the Obligation of Humane Laws THE FIFTH LECTURE In which the Question is thorowly handled concerning the Obligation of Humane Laws in general ROM 13. 5. Wherefore you must be subject not because of anger onely but for conscience sake HAving begun the last Term to treat of the passive obligation of Conscience I proceeded so far that having discovered and disclaimed those subterfuges in which a seduced generation of men do vainly flâ—â—ter themselves that there is some excuse or protection either for the fruit of their Consciences as to things already done or some security for things that remain to be done for the Intention of a good end or by the authority of another mans example or judgment I have proceeded I say so far as to examine and represent unto you that proper and Adaequate Rule of Conscience to which absolutely and simply it ought to conform it self where in the first place I shewed you that God only hath an absolute and direct command over the Consciences of men Secondly that the next and immediate Rule of Conscience is the light with which the mind at that present is endued or to speak after the Schoolmen Ultimum judicium Intellectus practici The last judgment of the practical understanding Thirdly that the written word of God is indeed the supreme and primary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not the Adaequate Rule of Conscience * 4. Fourthly that the proper and Adaequate Rule of Conscience is the will of God which way soever it be revealed or which is the same again the Law imposed by God upon the reasonable Creature Moreover that more fully and more distinctly we may understand what this will of God is I made manifest unto you that Almighty God did lay open his Will unto mankind by a threefold means First by the Law of Nature which consisteth of certain practical Principles known by themselves which is called the Law of God written in our hearts Rom. 2. 15. Which is with an inward light and of the same oâ—iginal as our minds Secondly by the written word of God which is contained in both the volumes of the holy Writ and is an external light supernaturally revealed and infused into our minds Thirdly by a knowledge obtained from both the former either by our own meditation or from the Instruction and Institution of others and this as it were by an acquired light the chief helps and introductions whereunto are the Discourse of Reason and the Authority that is to say the Judgment and the practice of the universal Church II. I also did advertise you to make some way to this following Treatise that besides the Law of God which absolutely by its self and by its own peculiar power doth oblige the Consciences of all men and that in the highest Degree there are also many others which do carry an obligation with them but inferiour to the former and do oblige the Conscience not primarily and by themselves but secondarily and by consequence not absolutely but relatively not by its own power but by the vertue of some divine precept or Institution on which they
Christ The Scripture therefore as supernaturally it is to be believed is the only and Adaequate Rule of our faith and according to our actions and performances so far as they are spiritual and pertain to a spiritual end it is to be the only and Adaequate Rule of our Manners and by consequent the principal and as I may so speak it the Architectonical Rule of all our actions But seeing it doth belong to Conscience to look back on things that are done not only upon this account as they are spiritual that is to say whether they are done out of Charity and directed to a supernatural end but as they are moral that is whether they be good or evil lawfull or unlawful free or necessary that a right judgment may be passed on these things we are not only to seek unto the holy Scriptures but to make our seasonable addresses unto other helps XVI In the third place this is proved again by the Form the Character and the Temperature of the Scripture which seeing it containeth in it very many precepts but not all of one kind some of them pertayning to Manners some to Rites and some indifferently common unto all and some peculiar only to some Nation and some again to some one order or person Some of them induring only for a time and others of a perpetual obligation some by way of Counsel of things expedient according as the exigence of the affairs requireth and some again in the way of mandate or command of things simply or absolutely necessary in themselves if there were not some other rule besides the Scriptures for the discerning of moral from ritual precepts and of things temporary from perpetual and of things peculiar from common the Conscience would oftentimes labour in a Labyrinth of doubts and know not which way to turn especially when precepts of diverse kinds being delivered as it were in one the same breath in the same Phrase and in continued connexion of words do immediately follow and tread on the heels of one another For examples sake Levit. 19. 18. An example is there given to love thy neigbour as thy self And in the verse immediately following there is a command that two Beasts of a several kind might not be suffered to mingle in generation with one another and that one Field be not sowen with diverse sorts of seeds nor any garment made of Linnen thread interwoven with Woollen The first command herein is moral and universal the other but Ceremonial and judicial and peculiar only to the Nation of the Jews But when these things are read in the Churches it cannot by the Text appear what so great a difference there is betwixt them And in the 30th verse of the same Chapter the Sanctification of the Sabbath the reverence of the Sanctuary are equally commanded and in a continued course of words and even in the very same solemn sanction of the Law given Ego Jehovah I the Jehovah yet I doubt not but that most men are of opinion that in one of the Precepts the Consciences of men are at this day obliged to the performance of it and that in the other they are not Now what the reason is that their opinion is such the precepts in the Text being all alike and no distinction nor the least apparence of so great a difference there can certainly no other reason be given but that it proceedeth from the judgment of reason and prudence which being excluded obligatory precepts cannot so be known from those which are not obligatory but that the Conscience will be oftentimes in a suspence and not able to know or judge what is commanded to be done or what to be left undone XVII It is proved in the fourth place by an argument drawn from the inconvenicies which do arise from the contrary opinion that is from the most grievous calamities which have a long time afflicted the church of Christ by reason of the misunderstanding of the perfection of the holy Scriptures from whence a most dangerous error hath possessed some men of great estimation that they have declared that nothing can be lawfuly done or commanded which is not authorized by God in the Scripture or at least there approved by some laudable example This foundation being once laid not a few men of a hot spirit being transported to judge charitably of them with a zeale to God but not according to knowledge did begin to raise unnecessary strifes and disputation concerning the Ceremonies of the Church they did declare that all Ceremonies not expressly mentioned in the word of God were to be thrust out and for ever to be banished from the Church of Christ that Laws ordained by men concerning things Indifferent were to be cancelled that all the Churches throughout Europe were to be reformed all things to be reduced to the Evangelical purity and Simplicity The unruly rage of these men did hete for a while make a stand but it did not stand here long but as commonly it commeth to passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one absurdity being granted a thousand will insue their boldnesse derived from his fountain did flow at last into an open rage and brake forth into an Anabaptistical fury And although the growing mischief hath gon so far that it can scarce rise higher yet every day it swels and more and more doth inlarge it self by bringing into the world new monsters of opinions that were we not assured by the word of God that the foundation of God doth continue firm and that the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail altogether against the Church it were much to be feared lest the universal Church of Christ overwhelmed with a Deluge of Atheism should utterly be swallowed up by it throughout the world XVIII And let no man think that in vain Rhetorick I do complain of this with more enuy than truth for I am most confident that he whosoever he is that is strongly prepossessed and infected with this errour shall never be able in his daily controversies any ways to satisfie the importunate arguments of the Anabaptists Socinians and other Sectaries whose names I am ashamed to mention For to passe by the established form of Ecclesiastical Government which now adays our Political Divines would either referr to the Civil Magistrate or quite take them away upon no other account but this only that they think it is no where expressed in the word of God they must take away with it the observation of the Lords day the Ordination of Ministers of the Gospel the Baptism of Infants the Sprinkling of water in Baptism for the dipping of the whole body the Sacramental reverence and many other things with all Ecclesiastical Rites and Laws or else having reformed their judgements they must confesse they may all of them be retained without or sin or scandal XIX But this you will say is to derogate from the perfection of the Scriptures which all the Divines of the reformed