contract my speech to the scanting of time or you if I should lengthen it to the weight of the matter And therefore I resolved here to make an end and to give place as fit it is to the businesse whereabout we meet The Total of what I have said and should say is in effect but this No pretension of a good end of a good meaning of a good event of any good whatsoever either can sufficiently warrant any sinfull action to be done or justifie it being done or sufficiently excuse the Omission of any necessary duty when it is necessary Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Now to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit c. AD CLERUM The Third Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 13. March 1620. 1 COR. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall IN the first Verse of this Chapter S. Paul proposeth to himself an Argument which he prosecuteth the whole Chapter through and after a profitable digression into the praise of Charity in the next Chap. resumeth again at the 14. Chapter spending also that whole Chapter therein and it is concerning spirituall gifts Now concerning spirituall gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant c. These gracious gifts of the holy Spirit of God bestowed on them for the edification of the Church the Corinthians by making them the fuell either of their pride in despising those that were inferiour to themselves or of their envy in malicing those that excelled therein abused to the maintenance of schisme and faction and emulation in the Church For the remedying of which evils the Apostle entreth upon the Argument discoursing fully of the variety of these spirituall gifts and who is the Author of them and for what end they were given and in what manner they should be imployed omitting nothing that was needfull to be spoken anent this subject In this part of the Chapter entreating both before and after this verse of the wondrous great yet sweet and usefull variety of these spirituall gifts he sheweth that howsoever manifold they are either for kind or degree so as they may differ in the materiall and formall yet they do all agree both in the same efficient and the same finall cause In the same efficient cause which is God the Lord by his Spirit ver 4 6. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And in the same finall cause which is the advancement of Gods glory in the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church in this ver But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall By occasion of which words we may enquire into the nature convenience and use of these gifts First their nature in themselves and in their originall what they are and whence they are the works of Gods Spirit in us the manifestation of the Spirit Secondly their conveyance unto us how we come to have them and to have property in them it is by gift It is given to every man Thirdly their use and end why they were given us and what we are to do with them they must be employed to the good of our Brethren and of the Church is given to every man to profit withall Of these briefly and in their order and with speciall reference ever to us that are of the Clergy By manifestation of the Spirit here our Apostle understandeth none other thing then he doth by the adjective word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first and by the substantive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last verse of the Chapter Both which put together do signifie those spiritual gifts and graces whereby God enableth men and specially Church-men to the duties of their particular Callings for the generall good Such as are those particulars which are named in the next following verses the word of Wisdome the word of Knowledge Faith the gifts of healing workings of miracles prophecy discerning of spirits divers kinds of tongues interpretation of tongues All which and all other of like nature and use because they are wrought by that one and self-same Spirit which divideth to every one severally as he will are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts and here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit The word Spirit though in Scripture it have many other significations yet in this place I conceive to be understood directly of the holy Ghost the third Person in the ever blessed Trinity For first in ver 3. that which is called the Spirit of God in the former part is in the latter part called the Holy Ghost I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus accursed and that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Again that variety of gifts which in ver 4. is said to proceed from the same Spirit is said likewise in ver 5. to proceed from the same Lord and in ver 6. to proceed from the same God and therefore such a Spirit is meant as is also Lord and God and that is onely the Holy Ghost And again in those words in ver 11. All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will the Apostle ascribeth to this Spirit the collation and distribution of such gifts according to the free power of his own will and pleasure which free power belongeth to none but God alone Who hath set the members every one in the body as it hath pleased him Which yet ought not to be so understood of the Person of the Spirit as if the Father and the Son had no part or fellowship in this business For all the Actions and operations of the Divine Persons those onely excepted which are of intrinsecall and mutuall relation are the joynt and undivided works of the whole three Persons according to the common known maxime constantly and uniformly received in the Catholike Church Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa And as to this particular concerning gifts the Scriptures are clear Wherein as they are ascribed to GOD the Holy Ghost in this Chapter so they are elsewhere ascribed to God the Father Every good gift and every perfect giving is from above from the Father of Lights Jam. 1. and elsewhere to God the Son Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Eph. 4. Yea and it may be that for this very reason in the three verses next before my text these three words are used Spirit in ver 4. Lord in ver 5. and God in ver 6. to give us intimation that these spirituall gifts
proceed equally and undividedly from the whole three Persons from God the Father and from his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and from the eternall Spirit of them both the Holy Ghost as from one entire indivisible and coessentiall Agent But for that we are grosse of understanding and unable to conceive the distinct Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead otherwise then by apprehending some distinction of their operations and offices to-us-ward it hath pleased the wisdome of God in the holy Scriptures which being written for our sakes were to be fitted to our capacities so far to condescend to our weakness and dulness as to attribute some of those great and common works to one person and some to another after a more speciall manner than unto the rest although indeed and in truth none of the three persons had more or lesse to do than other in any of those great and common works This manner of speaking Divines use to call Appropriation By which appropriation as Power is ascribed to the Father and Wisdome to the Son so is Goodness to the Holy Ghost And therefore as the Work of Creation wherein is specially seen the mighty power of God is appropriated to the Father and the work of Redemption wherein is specially seen the wisdome of God to the Son and so the works of sanctification and the infusion of habituall graces whereby the good things of God are communicated unto us is appropriated unto the Holy Ghost And for this cause the gifts thus communicated unto us from God are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit We see now why spirit but then why manifestation The word as most other verballs of that form may be understood either in the active or passive signification And it is not materiall whether of the two wayes we take it in this place both being true and neither improper For these spirituall gifts are the manifestation of the spirit Actively because by these the spirit manifesteth the will of God unto the Church these being the instruments and means of conveying the knowledge of salvation unto the people of God And they are the manifestation of the spirit Passively too because where any of these gifts especially in any eminent sort appeared in any person it was a manifest evidence that the Spirit of God wrought in him As we read in Acts 10. that they of the Circumcision were astonished When they saw that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost If it be demanded But how did that appear it followeth in the next verse For they heard them speak with tongues c. The spirituall Gift then is a manifestation of the Spirit as every other sensible effect is a manifestation of its proper cause We are now yet farther to know that the Gifts and graces wrought in us by the holy spirit of God are of two sorts The Scriptures sometimes distinguish them by the different terms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although those words are sometimes again used indifferently and promiscuously either for other They are commonly known in the Schooles and differenced by the names of Gratiae gratum facientes Gratiae gratis datae Which termes though they be not very proper for the one of them may be affirmed of the other whereas the members of every good distinction ought to be opposite yet because they have been long received and change of termes though haply for the better hath by experience been found for the most part unhappy in the event in multiplying unnecessary book-quarrells we may retain them profitably and without prejudice Those former which they call Gratum facientes are the graces of Sanctification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do acceptable service to God in the duties of his generall Calling these latter which they call Gratis datas are the Graces of Edification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do profitable service to the Church of God in the duties of his particular Calling Those are given Nobis Nobis both to us and from us that is chiefly for our own good these Nobis sed Nostris to us indeed but for others that is chiefly for the good of our brethren Those are given us ad salutem for the saving of our own souls these ad lucrum for the winning of other mens souls Those proceed from the speciall love of God to the Person and may therefore be called personall or speciall these proceeed from the Generall love of God to his Church or yet more generall to humane societies and may therefore be rather called Ecclesiasticall or Generall Gifts or Graces Of that first sort are Faith Hope Charity Repentance Patience Humility and all those other holy graces and fruits of the Spirit which accompany salvation Wrought by the blessed and powerful operation of the holy Spirit of God after a most effectuall but unconceivable manner regenerating and renewing and seasoning and sanctifying the hearts of his Chosen But yet these are not the Gifts so much spoken of in this Chapter and namely in my Text Every branch whereof excludeth them Of those graces of sanctification first we may have indeed probable inducements to perswade us that they are or are not in this or that man But hypocrisie may make such a semblance that we may think we see spirit in a man in whom yet there is nothing but flesh and infirmities may cast such a fogge that we can discern nothing but flesh in a man in whom yet there is spirit But the gifts here spoken of do incurre into the senses and give us evident and infallible assurance of the spirit that wrought them here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifestation of the spirit Again Secondly those Graces of sanctification are not communicated by distribution Alius sic alius verò sic Faith to one Charity to another Repentance to another but where they are given they are given all at once and together as it were strung upon one threed and linked into one chain But the Gifts here spoken of are distributed as it were by doal and divided severally as it pleased God shared out into severall portions and given to every man some to none all for to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdome to another the word of Knowledge c. Thirdly those Graces of sanctification though they may and ought to be exercised to the benefit of others who by the shining of our light and the sight of our good works may be provoked to glorifie God by walking in the same paths yet that is but utilitas emergens and not finis proprius a good use made of them upon the bye but not the main proper and direct end of them for which they were chiefly given But the Gifts here spoken of were given directly
remain unchanged in his minde and opinion and to hold to his former and as he thinketh well-grounded Principles so long as he can neither apprehend any Reason of sufficient strength to convince his understandings that he is in the wrong or to manifest unto him the necessity of making such a change nor is able with the best wit he hath to discern any thing so lovely in the effects and consequents of such change since it was made as might win over his affections to any tolerable liking thereof upon the Post-fact § III. To return where I was going and from whence I have not much digressed if any shall now aske me what those heavy Censures are which I said we should be like to meet withall I confess I am not able to give him any certain account thereof not knowing before hand what reasons or expressions the spirits of particular men will suggest to their tongues or pens Only by what hath been usually said by one sort of men upon such like occasions heretofore more sparingly and in the eare in former times but of late more frequently freely and on the house tops it may be probably guessed what kind of Censures are to be expected from those of the same party now Yet for that I am not conscious to my selfe to have said any thing in the Papers now or at any time heretofore with my allowance published that may give just offence to or merit the hard censure of any sober dispassionate man and that if yet I must fall under some mis-censures it is not my case alone but of many others also wrapt with me in the same common guilt I shall therefore reduce my discourse herein ab hypothesi ad thesin and propose the Objections with my Answers thereunto though with some reflexion upon my selfe in most of the particulars yet as laid against the generality of those mens Sermons writings and other discourses who according to the new style of late years taken up among us go under the name of the Prelatical party or Episcopal Divines § IIII. The Objections are 1. That in their ordinary Sermons they take any small occasion but when they preach at the Visitations where most of the Clergy of the voisinage are convened set themselves purposely in their whole discourse to let fly at their Godly Brethren who out of tenderness of Conscience dare not submit to some things endeavoured to be imposed upon them by the Prelates The poor Puritan is sure to be payed home he must be brought under the lash and exposed to contempt and scorn at every publick meeting the Papists professed Enemies of our Church and Religion escaping in the mean while Scot-free seldome or never medled withall in any of their Sermons II. Or if sometimes some little matter be done that way by some of them it is so little that it is to as little purpose rather for fashions sake ad faciendum Populum and to avoid suspicion then for any ill will they bear them Perhaps give them a light touch by the way a gentle rub as they pass along that shall do them no harm but their Brethren that profess the same Protestant Religion with them they handle with a rougher hand With Elder-guns and Paper-pellets they shoot at those but against these they play with Canon-bullet III. And all this anger but for Ceremonies Trifles even in their own esteem who plead hardest for them If they be indeed such indifferent things as they confess them to be and would have the world believe they make no other account of them Why do they dote on them so extremely themselves Why do they press them upon others with so much importunity Why do they quarrel with their brethren eternally about them IIII. The truth is both We and They judge otherwise of them then as Indifferent things They think them necessary what ever they pretend or else they would not lay so much weight upon them And we hold them Popish Antichristian and Superstitious or else we would not so stifly refuse them V. It is not therefore without cause that we suspect the Authors of such Sermons and Treatises as have come abroad in the defence of such trash to be Popishly-affected or at least to have been set on by some Popish Bishops or Chancellors though perhaps without any such intention in themselves on purpose to promote the Papal interest here and to bring back the people of this nation by degrees if not into the heart and within the walls of Babylon yet at leastwise into the confines and within the view of it VI. Which as it appeareth otherwise to wit by their great willingness to allow such qualifications to sundry Doctrines taught in the Church of Rome and such interpretations to sundry taught in our Church as may bring them to the nearest agreement and their great endeavours to finde out such Expedients as might best bring on a perfect reconciliation between the two Churches VII So particularly in pressing with so much vehemency the observance of these Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies for which we cannot finde nor do they offer to produce any either Command or Example in holy Scripture to warrant to our Consciences the use thereof VIII Which what is it else in effect then to deny the sufficiency of the Scripture to be a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners Which being one of the main bulwarks of the Protestant Religion as it is differenced from the Romane is by these men and by this meanes undermined and betrayed § V. This is the summe and substance of the usuall Censures and Objections of our Anti-Ceremonian Brethren so far as I have observed from their own speeches and writings which I have therefore set down as neere as in so few words I could to their sense and for the most part in their own expressions Much of which having as I conceive received its answer beforehand in some passage or other of the ensuing Sermons might supersede me the labour of adding any more now Yet for so much as these answers lye dispersedly and not in one view I held it convenient as I have produced the Objections all together so to offer to the Readers an Answer to them all together and that in the same order as I have given them in Begging at his hands but this one very reasonable favour that he would do both himself and me so much right as not to pass his censure too hastily and too severely upon any part of what is now presented to his view whether he like it or dislike it till he hath had the patience to read over the whole and allowed himself the freedom rightly and without prejudice to consider of it § VI. That which is said in the first place of their Godliness and Tenderness of Conscience is not much to the purpose as to the main business For First besides that all parties pretend to Godliness Papists Anabaptists and who not even the late-sprung-up generation of
Levellers whose Principles are so destructive of all that Order and Iustice by which publick societies are supported do yet style themselves as by a kinde of peculiarity The Godly And that secondly it is the easyest thing in the world and nothing more common then for men to pretend Conscience when they are not minded to obey I do not believe thirdly though I am well perswaded of the godliness of many of them otherwise that the refusal of indifferent Ceremonies enjoyned by Lawful Authority is any part of their Godliness or any good fruit evidence or signe thereof But certain it is fourthly that the godliest men are men and know but in part and by the power of godliness in their hearts are no more secured from the possibility of falling into Errour through Ignorance then from the possibility of falling into Sin through Infirmity And as for Tenderness of Conscience fifthly a most gracious blessed fruit of the holy Spirit of God where it is really and not in pretence only nor mistaken for sure it is â—o very tender Conscience though sometimes called so that straineth at a Gnat and swalloweth a Camel it is with it as with other tender things very subject to receive harme and soon put out of order Through the cunning of Satan it dangerously exposeth men to temptations on the right hand and through its own aptitude to entertain and to cherish unnecessary scruples it strongly disposeth them to listen thereunto so long till at the last they are overcome thereof Needful it is therefore that in the publick teaching the Errours should be sometimes refuted and the Temptations discovered And this ever to be done seasonably soberly discreetly and convincingly and when we are to deal with men whose Consciences are so far as we can discern truly tender with the spirit of Meekness and Compassion For tender things must be tenderly dealt withall or they are lost I know it is not allwayes so done nor can we expect it should All Preachers are neither so charitable nor so prudent nor so conscientious as they should be And they that are such in a good measure are men still and may be transported now and then through passion and infirmity beyond the just bounds of moderation But then the fault is not so much in the choise of the argument they treat of as in the ill-managing thereof which ought not to cast any prejudice upon others who deal in the same argument but after another manner § VII But that which pincheth most in this first particular is as I suppose this That upon all publick occasions especially in Visitation-Sermons they who agree with us in the substance of the same reformed Religion are for the most part the only mark shot at whilest the common enemy the Papist hath little or nothing said against him For answer hereunto First so far as concerneth the Sermons here published the Objection is void for therein the Papist hath had his share as well as his fellows so oft as the Text gave occasion or the file of my discourse led me thereunto as by the papers themselves whereunto reference to be had will evidently appear Secondly admitting all true that is alleaged either we are excusable in what they blame us for or they that blame us inexcusable who do the very same things Do not they usually in their Sermons fall bitterly upon the Papists and Arminians but seldome meddle with the Socinians scarce ever name the Turks I have been often told of their declamations against the observing of Christmas that great superstitious thing but I remember not to have heard of much spoken against Perjury and Sacriledge and some other sins wherewith our times abound Nay doth not their zeal even against Popery it self Popery I mean truly so called of late years and since most of the Pulpits are in their possession seem to abate at leastwise in comparison of the zeal they shew against Episcopacy and against the Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies lately in use among us These they cry down with all the noise they can and with all the strength they have having first branded them with the name of Popery and this must now pass for preaching against Popery I demand then Is there not the like reason of reproving Sins and refuting Errours If so are not Perjury and Sacriledge as great sins at least as keeping Christmas holy day Howsoever are not the Errors of the Turks that deny the whole structure of the Christian Religion foundation and all far worse then the Errors of the Papists who by their additional superstructures have only altered the fabrick but keep the foundation still And are not the Errours of the Socinians who deny the Trinity Gods Omniscience the Eternity of the Son the Divinity of the Holy Ghost Original sin the calling of Ministers and far worse then those the Arminians are charged withall of Free Will Vniversal Redemption Falling from Grace c. And are not the old rotten points of Popery the Popes Oecumenical Pastorship and Infallibility the Scriptures unsufficiency Image-worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Half-Communion c. Errours of as great a magnitude as those other points of Popery lately and falsly dubb'd such of Episcopacy Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies If they be why do our Brethren preach oftner and inveigh more against these later and lesser in comparison then against those former and greater sins and Errours I doubt not but they have some Reasons wherewith to satisfie themselves for their so doing else they were much to blame Be those Reasons what they will if they will serve to excuse them they will serve as well to justifie us § VIII It will be said perhaps First That the Turks have no Communion with us They are out of the Church and our chiefest care should be for those within leaving those without for God to judge Or indeed Secondly To what purpose would it be to address our speeches to them some thousands of miles out of hearing If our voyces were as loud as Stentors or that of Mars in Homer the sound would not reach them Besides that Thirdly There is little danger in our people of receiving hurt or infection from them who have no such agents here to tamper with the people in that behalfe no such artifices and plausible pretensions whereby to work them over to their side no such advantages as the agreement in some Common Principles might afford for bringing on the rest as the Papists have Who being within the pale of the visible Catholick Church and living in the midst of us have their instruments ready at hand in every corner to gain Proselytes for Rome the specious pretences of Antiquity Vniversality Consent of Councels and Fathers c. Wherewith to dazle the eyes of weak and credulous persons and some ground also to work upon in the agreement that is between them and us in the principall Articles of the Christian Faith § IX These Reasons I confess are satisfactory
differences to as small a number and as narrow a point as may be That if we cannot grow to be of the same belief in every thing we might at least be brought to shew more Charity either to other their to damn one another for every difference and more Ingenuity then to seek to render the one the other more odious to the world then we ought by representing each others opinions worse then they are § XX. The Seventh Objection containeth the other ground of their said former suspicion to wit the vehement pressing of the Ceremonies Wherein First they do not well in calling them Popish and Superstitious but that having already fully cleared I shall not now insist upon Secondly by requiring to have some Command or Example of Scripture produced to warrant to their consciences the use of the Ceremonies They offer occasion to consider of that point wherein the very Mystery of Puritanisme consisteth viz. That no man may with a safe conscience do any thing for which there may not be produced either Command or Example from the Scripture Which erroneous Principle being the main foundation upon which so many false conclusions are built and the fountain from which so many acts of sinful disobedience issue would well deserve a full and through-Examination But this Preface being already swollen far beyond the the proportion I first intended and for that I have heretofore both in one of these Sermons and elsewhere discovered in part the unsoundness thereof I am the willinger both for mine own ease and the Readers to refer him over thither and to spare mine own farther labour here Considering Thirdly that in the present case we need not flinch for fear of any harme that Principle could do us should it be admitted as sound as they would have it For we have both Commands and Examples in the Scriptures to warrant both the prescribing and the using of the Ceremonies Though not as specified in their particulars yet as either comprehended in the General or inferred by way of Proportion Which kinde of Warranty from Scripture themselves are by force of argument driven to allow as sufficient or else they would be at a loss for a hundred things by them daily done upon no better or other warrant then that For Commands then we have besides that grand Canon 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and according to order all those Texts that either contain the right and liberty we have to all the Creatures of God to use them for our service without scruple All things are lawfull nothing unclean of it self To the pure all things are pure c. or require Subjection and Obedience to Superiours Let every soul be subject to the higher powers Submit to every ordinance of man c. And as for Example I think I could readily produce a full Score and not bate an Ace of some Ceremonies and circumstantial actions ordered used or done by holy men even in the old Testament who yet were more strictly tyed to prescript forms then Christians are under the Gospel for the doing whereof it doth not appear that they either had any command from God or were guided by any former precedents or expected any other warrant then the use of their reason and of prudential discourse What warrant else had David for his purpose of building a Temple to God which yet Nathan the Prophet of God approved yea which God himselfe approved of Or what Salomon for keeping a feast of seven dayes for the dedication of the Altar Or what Ezekiah for continuing the feast of unleavened bread seven dayes longer then the time appointed by the Law Or what Mordecai and Ester for making an Ordinance for the yearly observation of the feast of Purim Or what lastly Iudas and the Maccabes for ordeining the feast of the Dedication of the Altar to be kept from year to year at a set season for eight dayes together which solemnity continued even in the dayes of Christ and seemeth to have been by him approved in the Gospel The building of Synagogues in their Town the wearing of sackcloth and ashes in token of humiliation the four fasts mentioned Zach. 8. whereof one only was commanded with sundry other I omit for brevities sake Instances enow and pregnant enough to manifest how very much our brethren deceive themselves by resting upon so unsound a Principle and that upon a meer mistake as will appear presently by § XXI Their Eighth and last Objection Wherein they seem to lay an imputation upon all those that stand for the Ceremonies as if they consequently denyed the sufficiency of the Scripture For answer hereunto first it is freely confessed that the acknowledging of the holy Scriptures to be a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners is the main Article of the Protestant Religion as opposed to the Romish But that all that stand for the Ceremonies should deny the same is so manifestly untrue or indeed that some of the Church of England should deny that which is so clearly contained in the Articles of the Church whereunto he hath subscribed so improbable that it might well pass for a perfect Calumny were not the original occasion of their mistake herein so apparent if but even from the manner of their discourse in the present business The true state whereof Secondly is this The things wherein the power of Christianity consisteth are of two sorts Credenda and Agenda which we usually express by Faith and Manners And the Scripture we acknowledge to be a perfect Rule of Both yet not as excluding the use of Reason but supposing it When God gave us the light of his holy Word he left us as he found us reasonable creatures still without any purpose by the gift of that greater and sublimer light to put out the light he had formerly given us that of Reason or to render it useless and unserviceable Of which light the proper use and that which God intended it for when he gave it us is that by the helpe thereof we might be the better enabled to discern Truth from Falshood that we might embrace the one and reject the other and Good from Evil that we might do the one and shun the other Our Reason therefore is doubtlesse a good Rule both for things to be believed and for things to be done so far as it reacheth but no perfect Rule at all rather a very imperfect one because it reacheth not home To supply the defects whereof dimme as it is even in Naturall and Morall things but dark as darkness it self in things Supernaturall and Divine it was that it pleased the wisdome and goodness of our God to afford us another Light viz. that of supernatural revelation in his holy word without which we could never by the light of Reason alone have found out the right way that leadeth to eternal happiness So that God having first made us reasonable Creatures and then
through precipitancy prejudice or otherwise is deceived with fallacies instead of substance and mistaketh seeming inferences for necessary and naturall deductions Partly in the Will when men of corrupt minds set themselves purposely against the known truth and out of malicious wilfulnesse against the strong testimony of their own hearts slander it that so they may disgrace it and them that professe it Partly in the Affections when men overcome by carnall affections are content to cheat their own souls by giving such constructions to Gods Truth as will for requitall give largest allowance to their practices and so rather choose to crooken the Rule to their own bent than to levell themselves and their affections and lives according to the Rule Thirdly on Gods part who suffereth his own Truth to be slandered and mistaken Partly in his Iustice as a fearfull judgement upon wicked ones whereby their hard hearts become yet more hardened their most just condemnation yet more just Partly in his goodnesse as a powerfull fiery triall of true Doctors whose constancy and sincerity is the more approved with him and the more eminent with men if they flye not when the Wolf cometh but keep their standing and stoutly maintain Gods truth when it is deepliest slandered and hotliest opposed And partly in his Wisdome as a rich occasion for those whom he hath gifted for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awaken their zeal to quicken up their industry to muster up their abilities to scour up their spirituall armour which else through dis-use might gather rust for the defence and for the rescue of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that precious truth whereof they are depositaries and wherewith he hath entrusted them These are the Grounds The Uses for instruction briefly are to teach and admonish every one of us that we be not either first so wickedly malicious as without apparent cause to raise any slander or secondly so foolishly credulous as without severe examination to believe any slander or thirdly so basely timorous as to flinch from any part of Gods truth for any slander But I must not insist This from the slander Observe fourthly how peremptorily the Apostle is in his censure against the slanderers or abusers of holy truths Whose damnation is just Some understand it with reference to the Slanderers As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just who thus unjustly slander us Others understand it with reference to that ungodly resolution Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just for the evil they do who adventure to do any evil under whatsoever pretence of good to come of it Both expositions are good and I rather embrace both then prefer either I ever held it a kind of honest spiritual thrift where there are two senses given of one place both agreeable to the Analogie of Faith and Manners both so indifferently appliable to the words and scope of the place as that it is hard to say which was rather intended though there was but one intended yet to make use of both And so will we Take it the first way and the slanderer may read his doom in it Here is his wages and his portion and the meed and reward of his slander Damnation And it is a just reward He condemneth Gods truth unjustly God condemneth him justly for it whose damnation is just ◠If we be countable and we are countable at the day of Judgement for every idle word we speak though neither in it self false nor yet hurtful and prejudicial unto others what less than damnation can they expect that with much falshood for the thing it self and infinite prejudice in respect of others blaspheme God and his holy Truth But if it be done of purpose and in malice to despight the Truth and the professors thereof I scarce know whether there be a greater sin or no. Maliciously to oppose the known Truth is by most Divines accounted a principal branch of that great unpardonable sin the sin against the Holy Ghost by some the very sin it self I dare not say it is so nor yet that it is unpardonable or hath finall impenitency necessarily attending it I would be loth to interclude the hope of Repentance from any sinner or to confine Gods Mercy within any bounds Yet thus much I think I may safely say it cometh shrewdly neer the sin against the Holy Ghost and is a fair or rather a foul step toward it and leaveth very little hope of pardon That great sin against the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost it self in the Scriptures chuseth rather than by any other to expresse by this name of Blasphemy Mat. 12. And whereas our Apostle 1 Tim. 1. saith That though he were a Blasphemer yet he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief he leaveth it questionable but withall suspicious whether there may be any hope of Mercy for such as blaspheme maliciously and against knowledge If any mans be certainly such a mans damnation is most just But not all Slanderers of GODS truth are of that deep die not all Slanderers sinners in that high degree GOD forbid they should There are respects which much qualifie and lessen the sin But yet allow it any in the least degree and with the most favourable circumstances still the Apostles sentence standeth good Without Repentance their damnation is just Admit the Truth be dark difficult and so easily to be mistaken admit withall the man be weak and ignorant and so apt to mistake his understanding being neither distinct through incapacity to apprehend and sort things aright nor yet constant to it self through unsetlednesse and levity of judgement Certainly his misprision of the Truth is so much lesser than the others wilfull Calumny as it proceedeth lesse from the irregularity of the Will to the Iudgement And of such a man there is good hope that both in time he may see his errour and repent expresly and particularly for it and that in the mean time he doth repent for it implicitè and inclusively in his generall contrition for and confession of the massie lump of his hidden and secret and unknown sins This Charity bindeth us both to hope for the future and to think for the present and S. Pauls example and words in the place but now alledged are very comfortable to this purpose But yet still thus much is certain He that through ignorance or for want of apprehension or judgement or by reason of whatsoever other defect or motive bringeth a slander upon any divine Truth though never so perplexed with difficulties or open to cavil unless he repent for it either in the particular and that he must do if ever God open his eyes and let him see his fault or at leastwise in the generall it is still a damnable sin in
for the reasons already shewn to let it passe as a collection impertinent and that I suppose is the worst that can be made of it There is a second acception of the word Faith put either for the whole systeme of that truth which God hath been pleased to reveale to his Church in the Scriptures of the old and new Testament or some part thereof or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the assent of the mind thereunto In which signification some conceiving the words of this Text to be meant do hence inferre a false and dangerous conclusion which yet they would obtrude upon the Christian Church as an undoubted principle of truth that men are bound for every particular action they do to have direction and warrant from the written word of God or else they sinne in the doing of it For say they faith must be grounded upon the word of God Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. Where there is no Word then there can be no Faith and then by the Apostles doctrine that which is done without the Word to warrant it must needs be sin for whatsoever is not of faith is sin This is their opinion and thus they would inferre it I know not any piece of counterfeit doctrine that hath passed so currently in the world with so little suspicion of falshood and so little open contradiction as this hath done One chief cause whereof I conjecture to be for that it seemeth to make very much for the honour and perfection of Gods sacred Law the fulnesse and sufficiency whereof none in the Christian Church but Papists or Atheists will deny In which respect the very questioning of it now will perhaps seem a strange novelty to many and occasion their miscensures But as God himself so the Holy Word of God is so full of all requisite perfection that it needeth not to begge honour from an untruth Will you speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him I hold it very needfull therefore both for the vindicating of my Text from a common abuse and for the arming of all my brethren as well of the Clergy as Laity against a common and plausible errour that neither they teach it nor these receive it briefly and clearly to shew that the aforesaid opinion in such sort as some have proposed it and many have understood it for it is capable of a good interpretation wherein it may be allowed first is utterly devoid of truth and secondly draweth after it many dangerous consequents and evil effects and Thirdly hath no good warrant from my present Text. The Opinion is that to do any thing at all without direction from the Scripture is unlawfull and sinfull Which if they would understand onely of the substantials of Gods worship and of the exercises of spirituall and supernaturall graces the assertion were true and sound but as they extend it to all the actions of common life whatsoever whether naturall or civil even so farre as to the taking up of a straw so it is altogether false and indefensible I marvell what warrant they that so teach have from the Scripture for that very doctrine or where they are commanded so to believe or teach One of their chiefest refuges is the Text we now have in hand but I shall anon drive them from this shelter The other places usually alleaged speak onely either of divine and supernaturall truths to be believed or else of workes of grace or worship to be performed as of necessity unto salvation which is not to the point in issue For it is freely confessed that in things of such nature the Holy Scripture is and so we are to account it a most absolute and sufficient direction Upon which ground we heartily reject all humane traditions devised and intended as supplements to the doctrine of faith contained in the Bible and annexed as Codicils to the holy Testament of Christ for to supply the defects thereof The question is wholly about things in their nature indifferent such as are the use of our food raiment and the like about which the common actions of life are chiefly conversant Whether in the choice and use of such things we may not be sometimes sufficiently guided by the light of reason and the common rules of discretion but that we must be able and are so bound to do or else we sinne for every thing we do in such matters to deduce our warrant from some place or other oâ— Scripture Before the Scriptures were written it pleased GOD by visions and dreames and other like revelations immediately to make known his good pleasure to the Patriarches and Prophets and by them unto the people which kind of Revelations served them to all the same intents and purposes whereto the sacred Scriptures now do us viz. to instruct them what they should believe and do for his better service and the furtherance of their own salvations Now as it were unreasonable for any may to think that they either had or did expect an immediate revelation from God every time they ate or drank or bought or sold or did any other of the common actions of life for the warranting of each of those particular actions to their consciences no lesse unreasonable it is to think that we should now expect the like warrant from the Scriptures for the doing of the like actions Without all doubt the Law of nature and the light of reason was the rule whereby they were guided for the most part in such matters which the wisdome of God would never have left in them or us as a principall relike of his decayed image in us if he had not meant that we should make use of it for the direction of our lives and actions thereby Certainly God never infused any power into any creature whereof he intended not some use Else what shall we say of the Indies and other barbarous nations to whom God never vouchsafed the lively oracles of his written word Must we think that they were left a lawlesse people without any Rule at all whereby to order their actions How then come they to be guilty of transgression for where there is no Law there can be no transgression Or how cometh it about that their consciâ—nces should at any time or in any case either accuse them or excuse them if they had no guide nor rule to walk by But if we must grant they had a Rule and there is no way you see but grant it we must then we must also of necessity grant that there is some other Rule for humane actions besides the written word for that we presupposed these nations to have wanted Which Rule what other could it be then the Law of Nature and of right reason imprinted in their hearts Which is as truly the Law and Word of God as is that which is printed in our Bibles So long as our actions are warranted either by the
one or the other we cannot be said to want the warrant of Gods Word Nec differet Scripturâ an ratione consistat saith Tertullian it mattereth not much from whether of both we have our direction so long as we have it from either You see then those men are in a great errour who make the holy Scriptures the sole rule of all humane actions whatsoever For the maintenance whereof there was never yet produced any piece of an argument either from reason or from authority of holy writ or from the testimony either of the ancient Fathers or of other classicall Divines of later times which may not be clearely and abundantly answered to the satisfaction of any rationall man not extremely fore-possessed with prejudice They who think to salve the matter by this mitigation that at least wise our actions ought to be framed according to those generall rules of the Law of Nature which are here and there in the Scriptures dispersedly contained as viz. That we should do as we would be done to That all things be done decently and orderly and unto edification That nothing be done against conscience and the like speak somewhat indeed to the truth but little to the purpose For they consider not First that these generall Rules are but occasionally and incidentally mentioned in Scripture rather to manifest unto us a former than to lay upon us a new obligation Secondly that those rules had been of force for the ordering of mens actions though the Scripture had never expressed them and were of such force before those Scriptures were written wherein they are now expressed For they bind not originally quà scripta but quà justa because they are righteous not because they are written Thirdly that an action conformable to these generall rules might not be condemned as sinfull although the doer thereof should look at those rules meerly as they are the dictates of the law of nature and should not be able to vouch his warrant for it from any place of Scripture neither should have at the time of the doing thereof any present thought or consideration of any such place The contrary whereunto I permit to any mans reasonable judgement if it be not desperately rash and uncharitable to affirm Lastly that if mens actions done agreeably to those rules are said to be of faith precisely for this reason because those rules are contained in the word then it will follow that before those particular Scriptures were written wherein any of those rules are first delivered every action done according to those rules had been done without faith there being as yet no Scripture for it and consequently had been a sin So that by this doctrine it had been a sin before the writing of S. Matthews Gospel for any man to have done to others as he would they should do to him and it had been a sin before the writing of the former Epistle to the Corinthians for any man to have done any thing decently and orderly supposing these two rules to be in those two places first mentioned because this supposed there could then have been no warrant brought from the Scriptures for so doing Well then we see the former Opinion will by no means hold neither in the rigour of it nor yet in the mitigation We are therefore to beware of it and that so much the more heedfully because of the evil consequents and effects that issue from it to wit a world of superstitions uncharitable censures bitter contentions contempt of superiours perplexities of conscience First it filleth mens heads with many superstitious conceits making them to cast impurity upon sundry things which yet are lawfull to as many as use them lawfully For the taking away of the indifferency of any thing that is indifferent is in truth Superstition whether either of the two wayes it be done either by requiring it as necessary or by forbidding it as unlawfull He that condemneth a thing as utterly unlawfull which yet indeed is indifferent and so lawfull is guilty of superstition as well as he that enjoyneth a thing as absolutely necessary which yet indeed is but indifferent and so arbitrary They of the Church of Rome and some in our Church as they go upon quite contrary grounds yet both false so they run into quite contrary errours and both superstitious They decline too much on the left hand denying to the holy Scripture that perfection which of right it ought to have of containing all things appertaining to that supernatural doctrine of faith and holinesse which God hath revealed to his Church for the attainment of everlasting salvation whereupon they would impose upon Christian people that with an opinion of necessity many things which the Scriptures require not and that is a Superstition These wry too much on the right hand ascribing to the holy Scripture such a kind of perfection as it cannot have of being the sole directour of all humane actions whatsoever whereupon they forbid unto Christian people and that under the name of sinne sundry things which the holy Scripture condemneth not and that is a superstition too From which Superstition proceedeth in the second place uncharitable censuring as evermore they that are the most superstitious are the most supercilious No such severe censurers of our blessed Saviours person and actions as the superstitious Scribes and Pharisees were In this Chapter the speciall fault which the Apostle blameth in the weak ones who were somewhat superstitiously affected was their rash and uncharitable judging of their brethren And common and daily experience among our selves sheweth how freely some men spend their censures upon so many of their brethren as without scruple do any of those things which they upon false grounds have superstitiously condemned as utterly unlawfull And then thirdly as unjust censures are commonly entertained with scorn and contumely they that so liberally condemn their brethren of prophaneness are by them again as freely flouted for their preciseness and so whiles both parties please themselves in their own wayes they cease not mutually to provoke and scandalize and exasperate the one the other pursuing their private spleens so far till they break out into open contentions oppositions Thus it stood in the Roman Church when this Epistle was written They judged one another and despised one another to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which gave occasion to our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter And how far the like censurings and despisings have embittered the spirits and whetted both the tongues and pens of learned men one against another in our own Church the stirs that have been long since raised are still upheld by the factious opposers against our Ecclesiasticall constitutions government and ceremonies will not suffer us to be ignorant Most of which stirs I verily perswade my self had been long ere this either wholly buried in silence or at leastwise prettily well quieted if the weaknesse and danger of the errour
whereof we now speak had been more timely discovered and more fully and frequently made known to the world than it hath been Fourthly let that doctrine be once admitted and all humane authority will soon be despised The commands of Parents Masters and Princes which many times require both secrecy and expedition shall be taken into slow deliberation and the equity of them sifted by those that are bound to obey though they know no cause why so long as they know no cause to the contrary Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causae genus deliberativum It is a nice obedience in S. Bernards judgement yea rather troublesome and odious that is over-curious in discussing the commands of superiours boggling at every thing that is enjoyned requiring a why for every wherefore and unwilling to stir untill the lawfulness and expediency of the thing commanded shall be demonstrated by some manifest reason or undoubted authority from the Scriptures Lastly the admitting of this doctrine would cast such a snare upon men of weak judgements but tender consciences as they should never be able to unwind themselves thereout again Mens daily occasions for themselves or friends and the necessities of common life require the doing of a thousand things within the compasse of a few dayes for which it would puzzle the best Textman that liveth readily to bethink himself of a sentence in the Bible clear enough to satisfie a scrupulous conscience of the lawfulnesse and expediency of what he is about to do for which by hearkening to the rules of reason and discretion he might receive easie and speedy resolution In which cases if he should be bound to suspend his resolution and delay to do that which his own reason would tell him were presently needfull to be done untill he could haply call to mind some precept or example of Scripture for his warrant what stops would it make in the course of his whole life what languishings in the duties of his calling how would it fill him with doubts and irresolutions lead him into a maze of uncertainties entangle him in a world of wofull perplexities and without the great mercy of God and better instruction plunge him irrecoverably into the gulph of despair Since the chief end of the publication of the Gospel is to comfort the hearts and to revive and refresh the spirits of Gods people with the glad tidindgs of liberty from the spirit of bondage and fear and of gracious acceptance with their GOD to anoint them with the oyl of gladness giving them beauty for ashes and instead of sackcloth girding them with joy we may well suspect that doctrine not to be Evangelicall which thus setteth the consciences of men upon the rack tortureth them with continuall fears and perplexities and prepareth them thereby unto hellish despaire These are the grievous effects and pernicious consequents that will follow upon their opinion who hold that we must have warrant from the Scripture for every thing whatsoever we do not onely in spirituall things wherein alone it is absolutely true nor yet onely in other matters of weight though they be not spirituall for which perhaps there might be some colour but also in the common affairs of life even in the most slight and triviall things Yet for that the Patrons of this opinion build themselves as much upon the authority of this present Text as upon any other passage of Scripture whatsoever which is the reason why we have stood thus long upon the examination of it we are therefore 〈…〉 next place to clear the Text from that their mis-interpretation The force of their collection standeth thus as you heard already that faith is ever grounded upon the word of God that therefore whatsoever action is not grounded upon the word being it is not of faith by the Apostles rule here must needs be a sin Which collection could not be denied if the word Faith were here taken in that sense which they imagine and wherein it is very usuall taken in the Scriptures viz. for the doctrine of supernaturall and divine revelation or for the belief thereof which doctrine we willingly acknowledge to be compleatly contained in the holy Scriptures alone and therefore dare not admit into our belief as a branch of divine supernaturall truth any thing not therein contained But there is a third signification of the word Faith nothing so frequently found in the Scriptures as the two former which yet appeareth both by the course of this whole Chapter and by the consent of the best and most approved interpreters as well ancient as modern to have been properly intended by our Apostle in this place namely that wherein it is put for a certain perswasion of mind that what we do may lawfully be done So that whatsoever action is done by us with reasonable assurance and perswasion of the lawfulnesse thereof in our own consciences is in our Apostles purpose so far forth an action of Faith without any inquiring into the means whereby that perswasion was wrought in us whether it were the light of our own reason or the authority of some credible person or the declaration of Gods revealed will in his written Word And on the other side whatsoever action is done either directly contrary to the judgement and verdict of our own consciences or at leastwise doubtingly and before we are in some competent measure assured that we may lawfully do it that is it which S. Paul here denieth to be of faith and of which he pronounceth so peremptorily that it is and that co nomine a sin About which use and signification of the word Faith we need not to trouble our selves to fetch it from a trope either of a Metonymie or Synecdoche as some do For though as I say it do not so often occur in Scripture yet it is indeed the primary and native signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith derived from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perswade Because all kinds of Faith whatsoever consist in a kind of perswasion You shall therefore find the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly to believe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth properly not to be perswaded to be opposed as contrary either to other in Iohn 3. and Acts 14. and other places To omit the frequent use of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Fides in Greek and Latine authors in this signification observe but the passages of this very Chapter and you will be satisfied in it At the second verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one believeth that he may eat all things that is he is verily perswaded in his conscience that he may as lawfully eat flesh as herbs any one kind of meat as any other he maketh no doubt of it Again at the fourteenth verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know and am perswaded that there is nothing
is no lesse good to the poor that whippeth him when he deserveth This is indeed to be good to the poor to give him that almes first which he wanteth most if he be hungry it is almes to feed him but if he be idle and untoward it is almes to whip him This is to be good to the poor But who then are the poor we should be good to as they interpret goodnesse Saint Paul would have Widowes honoured but yet those that are widowes indeed so it is meet the poor should be relieved but yet those that are poor indeed Not every one that begges is poor not every one that wanteth is poor not every one that is poor is poor indeed They are the poor whom we private men in Charity and you that are Magistrates in â—ustice stand bound to relieve who are old or impotent and unable to work or in these hard and depopulating times are willing but cannot be set on work or have a greater charge upon them than can be maintained by their work These and such as these are the poor indeed let us all be good to such as these Be we that are private men as brethren to these poor ones and shew them mercy be you that are Magistrates as Fathers to these poor ones and do them justice But as for those idle stubborn professed wanderers that can and may and will not work and under the name and habit of poverty rob the poor indeed of our almes and their maintenance let us harden our hearts against them and not give them do you execute the severity of the Law upon them and not spare them It is Saint Pauls Order nay it is the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost and we should all put to our helping hands to see it kept He that will not labour let him not eat These Ulcers and Drones of the Common-wealth are ill worthy of any honest mans almes of any good Magistrates protection Hitherto of the Magistrates second Duty with the Reasons and extent thereof I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a Father to the poor Followeth next the third Duty in these words The cause which I knew not I searched out Of which words some frame the Coherence with the former as if Iob had meant to clear his mercy to the poor from suspicion of partiality and injustice and as if he had said I was a Father indeed to the poor pitifull and mercifull to him and ready to shew him any lawfull favour but yet not so as in pity to him to forget or pervert justice I was ever carefull before I would either speak or do for him to be first assured his cause was right and good and for that purpose if it were doubtfull I searched it out and examined it before I would countenance either him or it Certainly thus to do is agreeable to the rule of Iustice yea and of Mercy too for it is one Rule in shewing Mercy that it be ever done salvis pietate justitiâ without prejudice done to piety and justice And as to this particular the commandment of God is expresse for it in Exod. 23. Thou shalt not countenance no not a poor man in his cause Now if we should thus understand the coherence of the words the speciall duty which Magistrates should hence learn would be indifferency in the administration of Justice not to make difference of rich or poor far or near friend or foe one or other but to consider onely and barely the equity and right of the cause without any respect of persons or partiall inclination this way or that way This is a very necessary duty indeed in a Magistrate of justice and I deny not but it may be gathered without any violence from these very words of my Text though to my apprehension not so much by way of immediate observation from the necessity of any such coherence as by way of consequence from the words themselves otherwise For what need all that care and paines and diligence in searching out the cause if the condition of the person might over-rule the cause after all that search and were not the judgement to be given meerly according to the goodnesse or badnesse of the cause without respect had to the person But the speciall duty which these words seem most naturally and immediately to impose upon the Magistrate and let that be the third observation is diligence and patience and care to hear and examine and enquire into the truth of things and into the equity of mens causes As the Physician before he prescribe receipt or diet to his patient will first feel the pulse and view the urine and observe the temper and changes in the body and be inquisitive how the disease began and when and what fits it hath and where and in what manner it holdeth him and inform himself every other way as fully as he can in the true state of the body that so he may proportion the remedies accordingly without errour so ought every Magistrate in causes of Justice before he pronounce sentence or give his determination whether in matters judiciall or criminall to hear both parties with equall patience to examine witnesses and other evidences advisedly and throughly to consider and wisely lay together all allegations and circumstances to put in quaeres and doubts upon the by and use all possible expedient meanes for the boulting out of the truth that so he may do that which is equall and right without errour A duty not without both Precept and Precedent in holy Scripture Moses prescribeth it in Deut. 17. in the case of Idolatry If there be found among you one that hath done thus or thus c. And it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently and behold it to be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel Then thou shalt bring forth that man c. The offender must be stoned to death and no eye pity him but it must be done orderly and in a legall course not upon a bare hear-say but upon diligent examination and inquisition and upon such full evidence given in as may render the fact certain so far as such cases ordinarily are capable of certainty And the like is again ordered in Deut. 19. in the case of false witnesse Both the men between whom the controversie is shall stand before the Iudges and the Iudges shall make diligent inquisition c. And in Iudg. 19. in the wronged Levites case whose Concubine was abused unto death at Gibeah the Tribes of Israel stirred up one another to do justice upon the inhabitants thereof and the method they proposed was this first to consider and consult of it and then to give their opinions But the most famous example in this kinde is that of King Solomon in 3 Kings 3. in the difficult case of the two Mothers
that other collection may be yet I hold it the safer resolution which is commonly given by Divines for the justification of this fact of Phinehes that he had an extraordinary motion and a peculiar secret instinct of the Spirit of God powerfully working in him and prompting him to this Heroicall Act. Certainly God will not approve that work which himself hath not wrought But to this Action of Phinehes God hath given large approbation both by staying the plague thereupon and by rewarding Phinehes with an everlasting Priesthood therefore and by giving expresse testimony of his zeal and righteousnesse therein as it is said in the next verse after my Text And it was accounted to him for righteousnesse Which words in the judgement of learned Expositors are not to be understood barely of the righteousnesse of Faith as it is said of Abraham that he believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse as if the zeal of Phinehes in this act had been a good evidence of that faith in Gods promises whereby he was justified and his Person accepted with God though that also but they do withall import the justification of the Action at least thus far that howsoever measured by the common rules of life it might seem an unjust action and a rash attempt at the least if not an haynous murder as being done by a private man without the warrant of authority yet was it indeed not onely in regard of the intent a zealous action as done for the honour of God but also for the ground and warrant of it as done by the speciall secret direction of Gods holy Spirit a just and a righteous action Possibly this very word of standing up importeth that extraordinary spirit For of those Worthies whom God at severall times endowed with Heroicall spirits to attempt some speciall work for the delivery of his Church the Scriptures use to speak in words and phrases much like this It is often said in the book of Judges that God raised up such and such to judge Israel and that Deborah and Iair and others rose up to defend Israel that is The spirit of God came upon them as is said of Othoniel Iudg. 3. and by a secret but powerfull instinct put them upon those brave and noble attempts they undertook and effected for the good of his Church Raised by the impulsion of that powerfull spirit which admitteth no slow debatements Phinehes standeth up and feeling himself called not to deliberate but act without casting of scruples or fore-casting of dangers or expecting commission from men when he had his warrant sealed within he taketh his weapon dispatching his errand and leaveth the event to the providence of God Let no man now unlesse he be able to demonstrate Phinehes spirit presume to imitate his fact Those Opera liberi spiritûs as Divines call them as they proceeded from an extraordinary spirit so they were done for speciall purposes but were never intended either by God that inspired them or by those Worthies that did them for ordinary or generall examples The errour is dangerous from the priviledged examples of some few exempted ones to take liberty to transgresse the common rules of Life and of Lawes It is most true indeed the Spirit of God is a free Spirit and not tied to strictnesse of rule nor limited by any bounds of Lawes But yet that free spirit hath astricted thee to a regular course of life and bounded thee with Lawes which if thou shalt transgresse no pretension of the Spirit can either excuse thee from sinne or exempt thee from punishment It is not now every way as it was before the coming of Christ and the sealing up of the Scripture Canon God having now setled a perpetuall form of government in his Church and given us a perfect and constant rule whereby to walk even his holy word And we are not therefore now vainly to expect nor boastingly to pretend a private spirit to lead us against or beyond or but beside the common rule nay we are commanded to try all pretensions of private spirits by that common rule Ad legem ad testimonium to the Law and to the Testimony at this Test examine and Try the spirits whether they are of God or no. If any thing within us if any thing without us exalt it self against the obedience of this rule it is no sweet impulsion of the holy spirit of God but a strong delusion of the lying spirit of Sathan But is not all that is written written for our Example or why else is Phinehes act recorded and commended if it may not be followed First indeed Saint Paul saith All that is written is written for our learning but Learning is one thing and Example is another and we may learn something from that which we may not follow Besides there are Examples for Admonition as well as for Imitation Malefactors at the place of execution when they wish the by-standers to take example by them bequeath them not the Imitation of their courses what to do but Admonition from their punishments what to shunne Yea thirdly even the commended actions of good men are not ever exemplary in the very substance of the action it self but in some vertuous and gracious affections that give life and lustre thereunto And so this act of Phinehes is imitable Not that either any private man should dare by his example to usurpe the Magistrates office and to do justice upon Malefactors without a Calling or that any Magistrate should dare by his Example to cut off gracelesse offenders without a due judiciall course but that every man who is by vertue of his Calling endued with lawfull authority to execute justice upon transgressors should set himself to it with that stoutnesse and courage and zeal which was in Phinehes If you will needs then imitate Phinehes imitate him in that for which he is commended and rewarded by God and for which he is renowned amongst men and that is not barely the action the thing done but the Affection the zeal wherewith it was done For that zeal God commendeth him Numb 25. verse 11. Phinehes the sonne of Eleazar the sonne of Aaron the Priest hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel whilest he was zealous for my sake among them And for that zeal God rewardeth him Ibid. verse 13. He shall have and his seed after him the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood because he was zealous for his God And for that zeal did Posterity praise him the wise sonne of Sirac Eccl. 45. and good old Mattathias upon his death-bed 1 Macc. 2. And may not this phrase of speech He stood up and executed judgement very well imply that forwardnesse and heat of zeal To my seeming it may For whereas Moses and all the Congregation sate weeping a gesture often accompanying sorrow or perhaps yet
judgement upon Zimri and Cosbi did withall lift up his heart to God to blesse that action and to turn it to good In which respects especially if the word withall will bear it as it seemeth it will some men should have done well not to have shewn so much willingnesse to quarrell at the Church-translations in our Service-book by being clamorous against this very place as a grosse corruption and sufficient to justifie their refusall of subscription to the Book But I will not now trouble either you or my selfe with farther curiosity in examining Translations because howsoever other Translations that render it praying or appeasing may be allowed either as tolerably good or at least excusably ill yet this that rendreth it by Executing Iudgment is certainly the best whether we consider the course of the Story it selfe or the propriety of the word in the Originall or the intent of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture And this Action of Phinehes in doing judgement upon such a paire of great and bold offenders was so well pleasing unto God that his wrath was turned away from Israel and the plague which had broken in upon them in a sudden and fearfull manner was immediately stayed thereupon Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God above the blood of Bulls and of Goates is the death of a Malefactor slaughtered by the hand of Iustice When the Magistrate who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister and Priest of God for this very thing putteth his knife to the throat of the beast and with the fire of an holy zeal for GOD and against sin offereth him up in Holocaustum for a whole burnt-offering and for a peace-offering unto the Lord. Samuel saith that to obey is better than sacrifice and Salomon that to do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice Obedience that is the prime and the best sacrifice and the second best is the punishment of Disobedience There is no readier way to appease GODS wrath against sinne then is the rooting out of sinners nor can his deputies by any other course turn away his just judgements so effectually as by faithfull executing of Iustice and judgement themselves When Phinehes did this act the publick body of Israel was in a weak state and stood in need of a present and sharp remedy In some former distempers of the State it may be they had found some ease by dyet in humbling their soules by fasting or by an issue at the tongue or eye in an humble confession of their sinnes and in weeping and mourning for them with teares of repentance And they did well now to make triall of those remedies again wherein they had found so much help in former times especially the remedies being proper for the malady and such as often may do good but never can do harm But alas fasting and weeping and mourning before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation had not strength enough against those more prevalent corruptions wherewith the State of Israel was then pestered This Phinehes saw who well perceived that as in a dangerous pleurisie the party cannot live unlesse he bleed so if there were any good to be done upon Israel in this their little lesse than desperate estate a vein must be opened and some of the rank blood let out for the preservation of the rest of the body This course therefore he tries and languishing Israel findeth present ease in it As soon as the blood ran instantly the grief ceased He executed judgement and the plague was stayed As God brought upon that people for their sinnes a fearfull destruction so he hath in his just wrath sent his destroying Angel against us for ours The sinnes that brought that Plague upon them were Whoredome and Idolatry I cannot say the very same sinnes have caused ours For although the execution of good Lawes against both incontinent and idolatrous persons hath been of late yeares and yet is we all know to say no more slack enough yet Gods holy name be blessed for it neither Idolatry nor Whoredome are at that height of shamelesse impudency and impunity among us that they dare brave our Moseses and out-face whole Congregations as it was in Israel But still this is sure no plague but for sinne nor nationall Plagues but for Nationall sinnes So that albeit none of us may dare to take upon us to be so far of Gods counsell as to say for what very sinnes most this plague is sent among us yet none of us can be ignorant but that besides those secret personall corruptions which are in every one of us and whereunto every mans own heart is privy there are many publick and nationall sinnes whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty abundantly sufficient to justifie GOD in his dealings towards us and to cleer him when he is judged Our wretched unthankfulnesse unto GOD for the long continuance of his Gospel and our peace our carnall confidence and security in the strength of our wooden and watry walls our riot and excesse the noted proper sinne of this Nation and much intemperate abuse of the good creatures of GOD in our meates and drinkes and disperts and other provisions and comforts of this life our incompassion to our brethren miserably wasted with War and Famine in other parts of the world our heavy Oppression of our brethren at home in racking the rents and cracking the backes and Grinding the faces of the poor our cheap and irreverent regard unto Gods holy ordinances of his Word and Sacraments and Sabbaths and Ministers our wantonnesse and Toyishnesse of understanding in corrupting the simplicity of our Christian Faith and troubling the peace of the Church with a thousand niceties and novelties and unnecessary wranglings in matters of Religion and to reckon no more that universall Corruption which is in those which because they should be such we call the Courts of Iustice by sale of offices enhauncing of fees devising new subtilties both for delay and evasion trucking for expedition making trappes of petty penall Statutes and but Cobwebs of the most weighty and materiall Lawes I doubt not but by the mercy of God many of his servants in this Land are free from some and some from all of these common crimes in some good measure but I fear me not the best of us all not a man of us all but are guilty of all or some of them at least thus farre that we have not mourned for the corruptions of the times so feelingly nor endeavoured the reformation of them to our power so faithfully as we might and ought to have done By these and other sinnes we have provoked Gods heavy judgement against us and the Plague is grievously broken in upon us and now it would be good for us to know by what meanes we might best appease his wrath and stay this Plague Publick Humiliations have ever been thought
Epistle as one that is proud and knoweth nothing as he should doe but doateth about questions and strife of words c. ver 3 5. Now look what power the Master hath over his servants for the ordering of his family no doubt the same at the least if not much more hath the supreme Magistrate over his subjects for the peaceable ordering of the Commonwealth the Magistrate being Pater Patriae as the Master is Pater familias Whosoever then shal interpret the determinations of Magistrates in the use of the Creatures to be contrary to the liberty of a Christian or under that colour shall exempt inferiours from their obedience to such determinations he must blame Saint Paul nay he must blame the Holy Ghost and not us if he hear from us that he is proud and knoweth nothing and doateth about unprofitable Questions Surely but that experience sheweth us it hath been so and the Scriptures have foretold us that it should be so that there should be differences and sidings and part-takings in the Church a man would wonder how it should ever sink into the hearts and heads of sober understanding men to deny either the power in Superiours to ordain or the necessity in Inferiours to obey Laws and constitutions so restraining us in the use of the Creatures Neither let any man cherish his ignorance herein by conceiting as if there were some difference to be made between Civil and Ecclesiastical Things and Laws and Persons in this behalf The truth is our liberty is equal in both the power of Superiours for restraint equal in both and the necessity of obedience in Inferiours equal to both No man hath yet been able to shew nor I think ever shall be a real and substantial difference indeed between them to make an inequality But that still as civil Magistrates have sometimes for just politick respects prohibited some trades and manufactures and commodities and enjoyned other-some and done well in both so Church-Governours may upon good considerations say it be but for order and uniformities sake prescribe the times places vestments gestures and other Ceremonial Circumstances to be used in Ecclesiastical Offices and assemblies As the Apostles in the first Council holden at Ierusalem in Acts 15. laid upon the Churches of the Gentiles for a time a restraint from the eating of blood and things sacrificed to Idols and strangled Thus we see our Christian liberty unto the Creatures may without prejudice admit of some restraints in the outward exercise of it and namely from the three respects of Christian Sobriety of Christian Charity and of Christian Duty and Obedience But now in the comparing of these together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between one and another of them there may be some difficulty and the greatest difficulty and which hath bred most trouble is in comparing the cases of scandal and disobedience together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between Charity and Duty As for example Suppose in a thing which simply and in it self we may lawfully according to the Liberty we have in Christ either use or forbear Charity seemeth to lay restraint upon us one way our weak brother expecting we should forbear and Duty a quite contrary way Authority requiring the use in such a case what are we to doe It is against Charity to offend a brother and it is against Duty to disobey a superiour And yet something must be done either we must use or not use forbear or not forbear For the untying of this knot which if we will but lay things rightly together hath not in it so much hardnesse as it seemeth to have let this be our seventh Position In the use of the Creatures and all indifferent things we ought to bear a greater regard to our publike Governours than to our private Brethren and be more carefull to obey them than to satisfie these if the same course will not in some mediocrity satisfie both Alas that our brethren who are contrary minded would but with the spirit of sobriety admit common Reason to be umpire in this case Alas that they would but consider what a world of Contradictions would follow upon the contrary opinion and what a world of confusions upon the contrary practice Say what can be said in the behalf of a Brother all the same and more may be said for a Governour For a Governour is a Brother too and something more and Duty is Charity too and something more If then I may not offend my Brother then certainly not my Governour because he is my Brother too being a man and a Christian as well as the other is And the same Charity that bindeth me to satisfie another Brother equally bindeth me to satisfie this So that if we goe no farther but even to the common bond of Charity and relation of Brotherhood that maketh them equal at the least and therefore no reason why I should satisfie one that is but a Private Brother rather than the publike Magistrate who that publike respect set aside is my Brother also When the Scales hang thus even shall not the accession of Magistracy to common Brotherhood in him and of Duty to common Charity in me be enough to cast it clear for the Magistrate Shall a servant in a Family rather than offend his fellow-servant disobey his Master And is not a double scandal against Charity and Duty both for Duty implyeth Charity greater than a single scandal against Charity alone If private men will be offended at our Obedience to publike Governours we can but be sorry for it We may not redeem their offence by our disobedience He that taketh offence where none is given sustaineth a double person and must answer for it both as the giver and the taker If offence be taken at us there is no woe to us for it if it doe not come by us Woe to the man by whom the offence commeth and it doth not come by us if we doe but what is our duty to doe The Rule is certain and equitable The respect of private scandal ceaseth where lawfull authority determineth our liberty and that restraint which proceedeth from special Duty is of superiour reason to that which proceedeth but from Common Charity Three Moderatours then of our Christian liberty to the Creatures we are to allow of Sobriety Charity and Duty unto every of which a just regard ought to be had Neither need we fear if we suffer Sobriety on one side and Charity on another and Duty on a third thus to abridge us in the use of our Christian liberty that by little and little it may be at length so pared away among them that there may be little or nothing left of it To remove this suspition let this be our Eighth and last Position No respect whatsoever can or ought to diminish the inward freedom of the conscience to any of the Creatures And this inward freedom is it wherein especially
give place by subjection no not for an hour lest we be ensnared by our own default ere we be aware For indeed we cannot be ensnared in this kinde but meerly by our own default and therefore S. Paul often admonisheth us to take heed that none deceive spoil or beguile us as if it were in our power if we would but use requisite care thereunto to prevent it and as if it were our fault most if we did not prevent it And so in truth it is For we oftentimes betray away our own liberty when we might maintain it and so become servants unto men when we both might and ought to keep our selves free Which fault we shall be the better able to avoid when we shall know the true causes whence it springeth which are evermore one of these two an unsound head or an unsound heart Sometimes we esteem too highly of others so far as either to envassal our judgements to their opinions or to enthrall our consciences to their precepts and that is our weaknesse there the fault is in the head Sometimes we apply our selves to the wills of others with an eye to our own benefit or satisfaction in some other carnal or worldly respect and that is our fleshlinesse there the fault is in the heart This latter is the worst and therefore in the first place to be avoided The most and worser sort unconscionable men do often transgresse this way When for fear of a frown or worse displeasure or to curry favour with those they may have use of or in hope either of raising themselves to some advancement or of raising to themselves some advantage or for some other like respects they become officious instruments to others for the accomplishing of their lusts in such services as are evidently even to their own apprehensions sinful and wicked So Doeg did King Saul service in shedding the bloud of fourscore and five innocent Priests and Absalons servants murdered their masters brother upon his bare command and Pilate partly to gratifie the Iewes but especially for fear of Cesars displeasure gave sentence of death upon Iesus who in his own conscience he thought had not deserved it In such cases as these are when we are commanded by our superiours or required by our friends or any other way solicited to do that which we know we cannot do without sin we are to maintain our liberty if we cannot otherwise fairly decline the service by a flat and peremptory denial though it be to the greatest power upon earth As the three young men did to the great Nebuchadnezzar Be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up And the ancient Christians to the heathen Emperors Da veniam Imperator tu carcerem ille gehennam And the Apostles to the whole councel of the Jewes Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judge ye Acts 4. He that will displease God to please men he is the servant of men and cannot be the servant of God But honest and conscionable men who do not easily and often fail this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is Rom. 16. men that are not evill are yet apt sometimes to be so far carried away with an high estimation of some men as to subject themselves wholly to their judgements or wills without ever questioning the truth of any thing they teach or the lawfulnesse of any thing they enjoyn it is a dangerous thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Iude speaketh to have mens persons in admiration though they be of never so great learning wisdome or piety because the best and wisest men that are are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the like infirmities as we are both of sin and error and such as may both deceive others and be themselves deceived That honour which Pythagoras his Scholars gave to their Master in resting upon his bare authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a sufficient proof yea as a divine Oracle many judicious even among the heathen altogether misliked as too servile and prejudicial to that libertas Philosophica that freedom of judgement which was behooveful for the study of Philosophy How much more then must it needs be prejudicial in the judgement of Christians to that libertas Evangelica that freedome we have in Christ to give such honour to any other man but the man Christ Iesus only or to to any other writings than to those which are in truth the Oracles of God the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament There is I confesse much reverence to be given to the writings of the godly ancient Fathers more to the Canons and decrees of general and provincial Councels and not a little to the judgement of learned sober and godly Divines of later and present times both in our own and other reformed Churches But we may not jurare in vèrba build our faith upon them as upon a sure foundation nor pin our belief upon their sleeves so as to receive for an undoubted truth whatsoever they hold and to reject as a grosse error whatsover they disallow without farther examination Saint Iohn biddeth us try the spirits before we beleeve them 1 Ioh. 4. And the Beroeans are remembred with praise for so doing Act. 17. We blame it in the Schoolmen that some adhere pertinaciously to the opinions of Thomas and others as pertinaciously to the opinions of Scotus in every point wherein they differ insomuch as it were grande piaculum a heinous thing and not to be suffered if a Dominican should dissent from Thomas or a Franciscan from Scoâ—us though but in one single controverted conclusion And we blame it jâ—stly for S. Paul blamed the lâ—ke sidings and partakings in the Church of Corinth whilest one professed himself to be of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas as a fruit of carnality unbeseeming Christians And is it not also blame-worthy in us and a fruit of the same carnality if any of us shall affect to be accounted rigid Lutherans or perfect Calvinists or give up our judgements to be wholly guided by the writings of Luther or Calvin or of any other mortal man whatsoever Worthy instruments they were both of them of Gods glory and such as did excellent service to the Chuâ—ch in their times whereof we yet finde the benefit and we are unthankful if we do not blesse God for it and therefore it is an unsavoury thing for any man â—o gird at their names whose memories ought to be precious But yet were they not men had they received the spirit in the fulnesse of it and not by measure knew they otherwâ—se than in part or prophesied otherwise than in part might they not in many things did they not in some things mistake and erre Howsoever the Apostles