THE Primitive Christian JUSTIFIED AND Jack Presbyter REPROVED OR A Scripture Demonstration That to be Innocent and Persecuted is more Eligible than to be Prosperously Wicked Delivered in a SERMON IN THE Abby-Church of BATH By WILLIAM GOVLDE No Flames of Civil Dissentions are more Dangerous than those which make Religious Pretentions Grounds of Factions K. CHARLES the First LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's Most Sacred MAJESTY 1682. TO THE READER THIS Discourse following had never seen the light if Jack Presbyter would have permitted the Author to be quiet the Principle here defended is a plain Truth justified by our Saviour's life That an Afflicted is more Eligible than a Sinful state which I presume was sound Primitive Doctrine and will be always so esteemed by the Regular Protestant Notwithstanding it gave great Distast to the Presbyterian Brotherhood One Gentleman would have had me Whipt for saying it was Irrational and Irreligious to commit a Sin that Good might come thereof Another told me I forgot to Preach Jesus Christ and him Crucified and yet if I mistake not he was a man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief yet knew no sin niether was guile found in his mouth A third Zeal-drunk Monseur Complimented me in the Queens Bath that Mr. Topham a Serjeant at Arms I think was my very good Friend and desired a Copy of what I delivered and that if I had any Service to him he would effectually present it my Answer was very sharp and being publickly known abroad needs not now be repeated Hang the Rascal said a fourth He Preached for a Cardinals Cap at the coming in of the Pope by which you may guess what will become of William Goulde if these Gentlemen once give Law to the Church and State But I have however printed it to shew I dare be honest and will not be huft out of my Integrity by Noise and Tumult for I have learned to fear him who can cast body and soul into Eternal torment more than a Speaker or a Pope or the Reprimand of either or both In this Discourse I affirm and will prove it that by the Laws of God by the Principles of the true Protestant Religion publiquely Professed in the Church of England the Bill against the Duke of York is not to be Justified and my Reason is grounded in the Text It is not lawful to chuse Sin to avoid being Persecuted and that Bill which renders a man dead in Law for want of Grace will bring more Confusion unto a State than it pretends to avoid and approaches too near the Doctrine of the Conclave of the Popes power in disposing the Kingdoms of an Heretique I declare my self as free from Popery as any Zealot of the Kirk and in two great Points the Regall and Episcopal Government I have a greater Value for these than any Presbyterian or Independent either Rigid or Moderate He that shall consider how the Jesuitical Party in the Conventicle of Trent undermined the Power of King and Bishop to give the Jurisdiction of both to their Lord God the Pope and compare it with the practices of the Covenanting Presbyter against Prince and Bishop to make them both Truckle under the Lay-Elder-Government will think it unreasonable to excuse these later whilst the others are subject to the Penalties of the Act of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth If Jack-Presbyter think any Injury done him I hope the two following Arguments will clear me from his Charge in all moderate Mens Judgment First The Votes of Non-Addresses to or receiving any Messages from the late Martyr'd Monarch was certainly Cozen-German if not more nearly related to the Bull of Pope Pius against Queen Elizabeth be it remembred that those Votes were never recalled till the King was under the Armed Power of the Independent Secondly The Bill against Bishops root and branch solemnly attending upon the League and Covenant was as much prejudicial to the Episcopal Government of the Church of England as any thing said or Acted against that Ancient order by any Jesuit Papists in the Council aforesaid Of these two Arguments if the Reader dares be Honest and Candid he is left to be the Judge between the Presbyterian Brotherhood and William Goulde JOB xxxvi 21. Verse Regard not Iniquity for this thou hast Chosen rather than Affliction TO have the favour to receive Commands and the Meekness to obey them is the satisfaction of Angels and it is hence concluded by Gerson the late learned Chancellor of Paris that if an Angel were to set out himself in lustre and triumph in a Magnificat it would be rather in the blessed Virgins stile as a servant of God than a Prince of so many Myriads of Subjects would the Scripture allow me that kind of Idolatry the binding my Faith or obedience to any one infallible earthly Judge or Prince were it reconcileable to my Creed it would be certainly with my interest to get into that posture of Obedience yet we find Subjection so hard a lesson to the Sons of men that neither Wrath nor Conscience can prevail with us to obey God or for his sake to submit to our lawful Superiours This is so well understood by wise Princes and States that they have invented new ways to entertain busie and active Spirits to keep them from tampering with their publique Laws and Constitutions The body of a Flea or an Ant will afford a Vertuoso many choice Observations demonstrating Problems solving Phaenomena's and drawing Schemes and Diagrams may divert your busie Mercurial Witts from making new Ideas and Platforms for Churches and Kingdoms the ground of which Aversness is the want of a right understanding of that great principle of our Christian Religion the going the high-way of the Cross to the Kingdom of heaven and hence it comes that Christianity is scandalized by Recusants Popish and Puritan who prefer Rebellion before Martyrdom and so are lyable to Elihu's reprehension for chusing iniquity rather than affliction I shall summ up the substance of the whole Text into one plain and Genuine Observation That Sin is neither eligible in its self nor to be chosen to avoid the suffering of Persecution Sin I say cannot properly taken be the object of a rational mans or true Christians choice First if considered in its self or Consequences Secondly if we look on Sin as opposite to Gods Essence and Attributes Thirdly if we consider it as the transgression of Gods Laws Fourthly as destructive to our own Souls Fifthly as the Original of all the distempers of our Bodies and Sixthly as the occasion of Death in all kinds Temporal Spiritual and Eternal as Divines distinguish according to the Scriptures Lastly which includes the second branch of the Thesis it cannot be the object of a rational choice as put in the ballance with the greatest Pressures Afflictions and Difficulties None can deny considering the present juncture of Affairs but that I have pitched on a seasonable Subject of Discourse
and that Shame is its never failing consequence and so ineligible in both respects Absalon's Rebellion was covered over with a fit of Devotion one Herod murthers with worshipping the blessed Babe and another Herod strikes off the Baptists Head to avoid being perjur'd Saul excused his sin by bringing it to the Altar and the worst of men incarnate Devils of whom St. Paul speaks 2 Timoth. 3. chap. from the 2. to the 7. ver had a form of godliness Now were Sin an eligible thing the proper object of a rational Choyce what need were there of excuses or denials after the commission of any wickedness or giving it glorious or borrowed titles to cover its deformities And so Sin is not to be chosen either for its self or with respect to its immediate fruits or consequences Thirdly Sin is not the object of a rational Mans or true Christians choice because every way opposite to all Gods glorious Attributes and his very Being and Essence If we consider Gods sovereignty Sin is Rebellion if his Justice it is Iniquity if his Goodness sin is Unkindness If God's holiness and pureness Sin is defilement Consider God's holiness as a Rule Sin is a Transgression if as an Excellency Sin is Deformity Thus it is contrary to the whole nature of God and strikes at his Attributes and Essence As God is every way in himself good so Sin is evil in its self and good in no respect and as God is to be loved for himself because the chiefest good so Sin is to hated for it self The holy Ghost could not call it by a worse name than its self as Rom. 7. 13. Sin that it might appear sin and Sin by the commandment appeared exceeding sinful Again God is the great reward of himself and Sin the punishment of its self Dyametrically opposite We are hereby enemies to God Coloss 1. haters of God Rom. 1. 30. Sin is contrary to the glory of God essential and manifestative it denies the glory due to God Rom. 1. 21. Titus 1. 16. despiseth and reproacheth his glory and misimployes it by giving it to men to our selves or to the Devil as they who told our Saviour that he cast out Devils by Belzeebub Sin wrongs God in his very Nature and Being as Psal 14. 1. every sinner wisheth there were no God and saith it in his heart as David observeth Upon each of these Heads I might insist very largely but to avoid trespassing on your patience I pass to the following particulars Fourthly Sin is the transgression of God's Laws and so not the object of a Christians Choice In the Law there is a Rectitude every thing in God's Commands is just and right Sin is crookendness the Law teacheth wisdom Sin is folly and the Wicked man a fool and both in Scripture and very frequent in the Proverbs made convertible terms God's Commands are pure Sin is filthiness Rom. 7. 12. there is liberty in the Law James 2. 8. Sin is a bondage 2 Timothy 2. 26. the keeping of the Law brings a reward but Sin shame and death Rom. 6. 22 23. but that which aggravates the sinfulness of Sin upon this account is that it is the transgression of such Laws as are not grievous 1. Laws reasonable and suitable to our nature and advantageous to our interest 2. Such Laws as the Author of which hath given us sufficient power and strength if not wanting to our selves for the performance 3. Such Laws by obedience to which we arrive at an Eternity of happiness 1. The Laws of God of which Sin is a transgression are reasonable suitable to our Nature and advantageous to our Interest He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to doe Justice and love Mercy and walk humbly with thy God This is the summ of the natural Law that we behave our selves reverently and obediently to the divine Majesty and justly and Charitably towards men and for the better discharge of both to govern our selves in sensual delights with Temperance and Moderation and what is there grievous in all this That we inwardly reverence and love God and express it by external worship and our readiness to obey his will revealed testifie our dependance on him in all Dangers and Wants by offering up to him our constant Prayers and Supplications and acknowledge our obligations by continual Praises and Thanksgivings for all his mercies to entertain of God no unworthy thoughts nor give to others that honour and reverence which is only sutable to his Excellence and Perfections carefully to avoid the prophanation of his Name and take heed of the neglect and contempt of his Worship or any thing belonging to it this is the first part of Natural Religion the generals of those Duties which every mans reason tells him he owes to God and here thus far there is nothing commanded but what agrees very well with the reason of Mankind As for the six last precepts of the Decalogue relating to the good order and government of our Selves with respect to our selves Equals Inferiours or Superiours these are such Laws as tend to our own peace and the happiness of humane Socieites and as expounded in Christ's Sermon on the Mount nothing more can be devised for the welfare of Mankind by sweetning their Spirits and allaying their Passions and Animosities 2. The Author of those Laws of which Sin is the Transgression hath not left us destitute of Strength or Power for performance 't is true We have Contracted a great deal of Weakness by our wilful Degeneracy from goodness but that grace which the Gospel offers to us for our Assistance is sufficient for us greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. and if so then it clearly followeth that such as apply themselves seriously to Religion and yield themselves tractable to good Motions will find the Spirit of God more ready and active for their Incouragement than the Devil to pull them back unless we think God hath given a greater power and a larger commission to the Devil to doe us mischief than to his holy Spirit and his holy Angels to doe us good which were Blasphemy to assert and the calling in question the goodness of God Some say we cannot keep the Commandments and its true of our selves as of our selves we are not able to think a good thought much less to doe a good work As of our selves Note that for the same Apostle saith I can doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth me and these two must be reconciled we cannot and we can keep the Commandments that is we cannot of our selves but we can through Christ that strengthens us and whose grace is never wanting to us unless we are wanting to our selves To say we cannot keep the Commandments without adding Saint Paul's Comment as of our selves I look upon as a Crude position incourageing Idleness for God inquestionably offers us
an assistance equall to the difficulty of his Commands or else St. John was in an Error which may not be supposed when he tells us that his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. and grievous they must be if Gods grace we being weak of our selves be not sufficient for the performance in such Evangelical measures and degrees as God expects from us I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Philip. 4. 13. Observe here three things 1. The strength of Christ is the original and fountain of all ours 2. The strength of a Christian derived from Christ hath a kind of Omnipotence sufficient for the whole duty of Christians it can doe all things 3. The strength and power thus bestowed is the work of a Christian the man strengthened by Christ I can doe all things I Paul can through Christs strength and assisted by grace keep the Commandments in the Gospel sense If this be not the Apostles meaning I must even go to School again to understand English Through God who strengthens us we are able to perform what he is able to injoyn we can suffer by his Patience what in his Wisdom he can inslict chuse by his direction what in his goodness he can propose In short we can believe his promises and doe his will we can resist his enemy and drink his Cup but by his Wisdom and by his Grace by his Power and by his Patience and if Arminius say more than this or Calvin less with submission to better Judgments the middle way between both extreams is certainly the safest and proves God's Commands the only measure of our Obedience not to be Grievous and consequentially to chuse Sin which is the transgression of such just and reasonable Laws must be Irrational and Irreligious 3 That Law of which Sin is the Trangression is such a Law by obedience to which we attain through Christ Eternal happiness and well did David speak upon this account Thy Commands O God are Righteous and in keeping of them there is great reward Psal 19. 11. An exceeding Eternal weight of Glory such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entred into the heart of man to conceive as St. Paul speaks a happiness that doth silence invention non-plus Hyperbolies exceeds all our Conceptions and Imaginations and the Oratory of Men or Angels Now to chuse Sin which is the transgression of such Laws as are suitable to our Natures advantageous both to our Temporal and Eternal Interest Laws Holy Good and Just in themselves and not Grievous to us to chuse Sin which is opposite to such Laws as these is the greatest folly and madness we hereby degrade our selves from our very Essences and bid defiance to our understanding the candle of the Lord in our own breasts Fifthly As Sin is not eligible for its self or Consequences not with respect to Gods Attributes and Essence nor with reference to his Laws so not the object of a rational Choice because it is destructive to our own Souls As 1. to the purity of the Soul Sin takes away its beauty 2. to its Dignity so sin casts down the Soul from its Excellency 3. to the Souls Liberty Sin makes it a Captive 4. to the strength of the Soul Ezek. 16. 30. Impotens libido Sin makes us weak and Impotent 5. to the peace of the Soul ubi peccatum ibi procella there is no peace saith my God to the wicked and Lastly to the safety and life of the Soul 2 Thessal 1. 9. there are known Topical heads which may be inlarged upon in your private Meditations Sin is Expoliatio gratuitorum say the Schools a stripping of the Soul of all those supernatural Excellencies that God gave men when created after his own image and 't is Vulneratio Naturalium Sin wounds the Soul as to its Naturals and Morals as well as Spirituals In short Sin is the disease of our Souls and no rational man that knows what Health is will chuse a sickness and be in love with a Disease Sin is as destructive of the Souls health beauty and safety as distemper'd Humours defect in any Member Solution of Parts or Dislocation of a Joint can be to the Body An ignorant Mind is equivalent to a blind Eye a Will disabled worse than a lame hand and vile Affections more ugly than deformed Members an evil Conscience is more afflictive than a Cancer in the Breast Pining Envy more vexatious than the knawing of our Stomachs the furies of Lust Rage and Intemperance are as unnatural Distempers as Feverish heats and the insatiable desire after Worldly Wealth and Greatness is an Hydropique thirst and hence in Scripture the sicknesses and diseases of our Bodies are used to represent those of our Souls which he that attentively reads and meditates on will furnish himself with many Instances of great usefulness and advantage our First Parents got this disease by eating of an Apple which the Devil had poysoned and infected all their Posterity with the Venom of it Adam fell in Paradise and all his Off-spring are Mephiboseth's line from their Mothers Womb. Sin now runs in a Blood and flies higher and higher instead of abating its first Vigour 't is Morbus epacmasticus epidemicus contagiousus as Symptoms still heighten it is a catching and contagious Disease seizing upon those that come near such as are infected with it Flee from Sin Ecclesiasticus 21. 2. as from the face of a Serpent for if thou comest near it will bite thee the teeth thereof are as the teeth of a Lyon slaying the Sons of men This was the poyson that lay under the teeth of the old Serpent the Devil when he bit our first Parents Nay Sin is Morbus compositus so complicated a Disease that all other diseases are indeed but the Symptomes of this Which brings me to the Sixth Particular That Sin is not only the Souls Sickness but the sourse and fountain of all the Maladies and Distempers that happen to our Bodies and so an enemy to Body and Soul at once and as so not the proper object of our Election or Choice Hast thou a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Does thy head ake 't is Sin it may be Pride or Self-conceit have distended the membranes of thy Brain Hast thou an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are thine Eyes inflamed Sin is the cause thereof perhaps thou hast been too vain in gadding after sinful Objects Hast thou an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thy Speech taken from thee 't is Sin hath struck thee dumb perhaps thy hearkning after Lies prophane idle and libidinous Discourses Hast thou an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do thy Loines chasten thee in the night season Sin is the occasion perhaps thou hast given thy youth and thy strength unto strange women Hast thou a Volvulus intestinorum a miserere mei and forc'd to cry out Oh my bowels my bowels as 't is exprest Jer. 14. 19. 't is Sin perhaps thy Gluttony Ryot
and if you will pardon my hasty Conceptions I resolve to speak what is very Plain Innocent and Honest consonant with the primitive rule of Reforming and preservng Churches recommended by Christ and his Apostles and their immediate and best Successors First Sin is not the object of a Rational man's choice considered either in its self or Consequences 1. Not with respect to its self for it is de numero ineligibilium as the Schools speak There is no Form nor Beauty in it that we should desire it Election is the act of the Will whose adequate object is good and so Sin which is malum in se evil in its self cannot be properly said to be elected hence it comes to pass that such who have not their Senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil chuse Sin by a mistake thinking it to be good putting light for darkness and darkness for light Isaiah 5. 20. thus Saint Paul rather Saul before he was Converted verily thought with himself that he ought to doe many things against Jesus of Nazareth and Christ tells his Disciples that some that Kill'd them by a mistaken zeal should think they did an acceptable service unto God thus Iniquity in practice passeth for Duty and Error in opinion for Truth and Evil is chosen sub ratione boni not for its own sake but under the notion of being at least seemingly good Others chuse Sin that good may come thereof that God may have glory or themselves advantage by it This was objected against St. Paul and his Doctrine which in great Disdain he rejected not as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us doe evil that good may come whose damnation is just Rom. 3. 8. Others chuse evil to escape Danger by it elect the evil of Sin to avoid thereby the evil of punishment So Demas resolving to sleep in a whole skin and not to be persecuted for Christs sake forsook St. Paul and imbraced the present world now in all these three respects whether Sin be chosen under the notion of good by a mistake or that good may come thereof or that Danger be escaped by it each of these single and much more united are a clear demonstration that Sin is not eligible for its self Sin indeed is the worst of any thing that is enemy to God or man it is very much worse than Hell not only as its cause or parent but considered in its self for Hell is good for something even to glorifie God's Justice but Sin serves only to abuse his grace and goodness Hell was of God's making Sin of the Devil 's Nay God made Hell as well to terrifie men from coming there as to punish the willful intruders into that place of torments And hence the chief end of Christs taking our flesh was to save us from our sins our worst kind of enemies Hence in Scripture when God is said to be angry to the highest pitch the stile runs thus I will give him up that is filthy to be filthy still I will choose your delusions give them over to their iniquities so that were there no Hell 't were in this sense a kind of Damnation to be sinners Of all sorts of punishments sin it self is the greatest and so not the proper object in its self of a Rational mans or true Christians choice Secondly As Sin is not to be chosen in and for its self so neither with respect tothe Consequences thereof The first and most immediate fruit of Sin is ignorance man was first tempted by the promise of Knowledge and fell into darkness by believing the Devil holding forth his new lights Adam and Eve knew what was good before the Devil promised them the knowledge of evil and had they not imbraced this temptation they had continued in their happiness This knowledge of evil was the introduction of ignorance the Understanding being baffled the Will became foolish and both conspired to ruine each other for the Will beginning to love Sin the Understanding was set on work to commend and advance it and so became both Factious in approving their new miserable Purchase for ever since Adam and Eve yielded to the Tempter who told them they should be as Gods in knowledge Man hath a double disadvantage for the Devil is hence grown more quick-sighted to abuse us and we the more blind by his opening of our eyes as is sufficiently manifest by the prevalence of Atheism and Idolatry in the world than which nothing can be more ridiculous occasioned originally by the Fall of our first Parents from their native paradise A second effect of Sin is Shame which is an immediate consequence of all sort of wickedness what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 21. We see the truth of this by a too sad Experience what Arguments what Preaching what Necessity can perswade men to confess their sins how do men chuse to involve Sin in excuses and denials in the clouds of Lying and the white Linnen of Hypocrisie to shew that a mans spirit is amazed and his face confounded when he is dressed of so shameful Disease It was the unhappy Patrimony which our first Ancestors bequeathed us first to Sin and then to be ashamed of our selves and Actions The woman which thou gavest me said Adam charging his sin upon God The Serpent beguiling me said Eve imputing it to the Devil both betraying the nakedness of their Souls as well as bodies and proportionably making Aprons of Excuses as well as Leaves And you may read the Character of the Parents in the Childrens foreheads for Shame makes us as backward to reveal our sins as we are forward to confess our Sicknesses and less desirous to trust God with the diseases of our Souls than the Physician with those of our Bodies None will own sin amongst all its acquaintance If a man pursue Vengeance he will Christen it Justice he that hates another mans person pretends enmity to his sins and the theft of Rachell shelters its self under the modesty of her sex Genesis 30. 34 35. he that designs to play the Devil first personates the Saint and Rebells call themselves the people of the Lord thus Sacriledge and Schism are a godly thorough Reformation popular Fury is Zeal Obstinacy against Laws tenderness of Conscience Treason and Nonsence praying by the Spirit to dye in Rebellion a glorious Martyrdom and the madness of the Commons against the King and the Priests is courage in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ oppression of our brethren Subjects calls its self a High Court of Justice and such as seize our Estates were the Keepers of our Liberties and Doctors Elders and Deacons the only Sceptre of Christ and to avoid Arbitrary Government we kneel at the bar of our fellow-Subjects and are imprison'd for new unheard of Crimes to preserve our Properties and Privileges A clear Argument that Sin dares not appear in its own colours
and Debaucheries Hast thou a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thy Body turned black and sallow and thy beauty faded 't is probably occasioned by a too great delight and content in admiring the excellency of thy frail Complexion Hast thou a Paralysis is the use of thy Limbs taken from thee 't is Sin is the cause perhaps thy Hands have been shut to the Poor or thy Feet swift to shed Blood or to walk in the paths of ungodliness Sin therefore is not the object of a rational man's Choice because it is the Souls Sickness and the sourse of all bodily Distempers and Diseases Seventhly Sin is not a sit Object to be elected because it is the unhappy parent of Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Death By Sin Death entred into the World Rom. 5. 12. Death is the Child of sin not of Nature Nay it destroys our Souls as well as our Bodies The Soul that sinneth shall dye the death of Nature and the death of Grace Sin occasion'd both and not only so but the death that never dies is sins Wages 't is Sin keeps in the fire of Hell to all Eternity that lays on those everlasting torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels 't is sin that not only feeds the Worm with our Bodies but the never-dying worm with our Souls likewise it kindles the slames of Lust here in our hearts and blows the coals in Hell to torment both our bodies and souls to eternal Ages and who can dwell with everlasting burnings Lastly Sin is not the object of a rational Man or good Christians Choice if put in the ballance with Afflictions and that is the last Branch of the Thesis which I laid down at the beginning of my Discourse occasioned by Elihu's Reprehension of Job under the notion of chusing wickedness rather than sufferings and this I shall demonstrate briefly and plainly and make Application to our selves My Position is this without any Equivocation it is the property of a good Man to chuse the greatest Affliction before the least Sin or there is more evil in one sin than in all whatsoever Suffering This appears in ten Particulars 1. Sin separates from God but Affliction not 2. Affliction is not Sin is evil in its self 3. A sinful state cannot but an afflicted may consist with the love of God 4. The evil of Suffering is but momentany of Sin everlasting 5. We are called to Suffering commanded by Christ to take up our Cross and to follow him but not called to sin 6. The end of Suffering is glory of Sin shame 7. By suffering we lose some outward good by Sin the soul 8. Suffering speaks our conformity to Christ Sin to the Devils 9. God is the Author of Affliction not of Sin Lastly Afflictions may be good if sanctified to us but not Sins I shall not observe a strict order as to every one of these Heads but single out the chiefest and most useful for a mixt Audience 1. To chuse Affliction is a hard choice for Affliction is not good in its self but however it may be useful to us happy is the man that endureth temptations and chastnings the Scripture speaks in many places but happy is the man that commits Iniquity hath not the patronage of one single Text David could say upon tryal Psal 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes but he never said It is good for me that I have sinned unlearned thy Precepts or broke thy Commandments David pleased himself in being afflicted but not in thinking he had sinned as is visible enough in his seven Penitential Psalms and particularly if we compare the 2 Sam. 10. chap. 11. ver with Psalm 51. we shall find David reckoning his sins as the 1 2 3. greatest punishment in all the World David did not first pray that his House might be delivered from the fury of the Sword or that his Wives might not be violated before his face his Children might not be Rebells the good man passed by these things as temporal and trivial punishments but he cries upon his Sins his Sins his Sins three times in a breath Psal 51. 1. as so many haunting Devils that disturbed his rest When Paul of a Persecutor became a persecuted Apostle and was delivered from his sins he was immediately so ravished with the love of his deliverer and the joy of his deliverance that he cared not to be delivered from any misery besides he even gloried in tribulation as very useful both to exercise and feed his patience as Rom. 5. 3. Acts 21. 13. he was ready not to be bound only but dye for the Lord Jesus Sickness and Plunder Banishment and Bonds and every kind of Persecution are heavy burthens to the Flesh but light being wighed in the ballance with the pressures and miseries of Sin and Wickedness when God the Father of Spirits afflicts his Sons and Daughters he doth it that they may be partakers of his Holiness as Heb. 12. 10 11. but Sin is the sting of all afflictions 't is the suffering as Evil doers that keeps men from being Martyrs but they are happy who suffer in a good cause for even hereunto are ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should tread in his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his lips Moses well understood himself when he chose rather to be afflicted with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25. So the old Martyrs Will you have a Prison or deny your Saviour and your Lord Will you burn in this fire or commit that Idolatrous Act Will you dye by a Halter or forsake the Faith Oh say they give us Prisons Fires Axes Gibbets Wheels Lyons all the Torments invented by Men or Devils rather than we will comply with Sin and Wickedness This is a Point necessary in all but especially these Times wherein men boast of a Zeal for God but not according to Knowledge and seek to avoid future possible Afflictions by present unlawful Actions As in the Duke of York's Case no man that understands the Scriptures and will not suffer his Reason by passion to be ecclipsed can believe it lawful by Gods Laws to bar any man of his Right of Succession to a Crown of all temporal Rights the greatest to avoid future probable Inconveniences in Sacred and Civil Administrations nor do I believe that any the framers of this Bill would think it a piece of Justice to have their Children or in default of Issue their Brethren in the flesh thus debar'd of their Rights for different modes of Worship from what is now Legally Established That which is simply evil may not for any good be done the Case we are now upon if Saint Paul or the Holy Ghost speaking by him understood the Christian Religion 't is not lawful to tell an officious Lye for the glory of God as Job 13. 7.
I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither c. and the same effect Affliction wrought in the late Martyr'd King of England who as he imitated the Piety so he had the troubles of David I shall not want saith he the heavy and envyed Crowns of this World when my God hath mercifully crowned and consummated his Graces with glory and exchang'd the shadows of my earthly Kingdoms among men for the substance of that heavenly Kingdom with himself Thus Afflictions wean us from the World and bring us nearer to God but Sin and the World are a Kin and of a blood and Sin is a departure from God the Lord saith to sinners you are departed and gone your iniquities have separated between you and your God as the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it 4. We are full of Worldly mindedness adhaesit pavimento as David spake but in another sense our soul cleaveth to the dust we all complain the World is naught and so it is the whole World lyeth in wickedness and yet as bad as it is it finds an entertainment in our hearts proportionably to our outward Prosperities the faster Riches and Honours and other Vanities increase the more eagerly we pursue and dote on these Transitory things 'T is Affliction that takes off their seeming pleasantness and imbitters the lusciousness of them to our taste that we have any apprehension at all of the Vanity of the World is due to those vexations of Spirit that are interwoven with it 5. To be innocent and to be Afflicted is the body and soul of Christianity its self I John your Brother and partaker of tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus said good St. John These were the Titles and Ornaments of his profession that is to say I John your fellow Christian for the former descant this is the plain Song Love is the Soul of Christianity and the soul of Love is Suffering God hath given a single Blessing to other graces but a double to this it is a double kindness we receive at Gods hands first to be Innocent and then to be persecuted with Jesus Christ The Church is like Moses his Bush when it is all on fire it is not at all consumed but made full of Miracle full of Splendor and full of God and unless we can find something that God cannot turn into Joy if he so please we have reason not only with the well instructed Heathens to be patient under but with St. Paul to rejoice exceedingly in Tribulation not to think a Fiery Tryal strange but rejoice that we are partakers of Christs Sufferings as St. Peter Paul's beloved Brother and our fellow Souldier under the banner of the Cross exhorts us and proportionably his brother James My Brethren Count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations Take the Prophets saith St. James as an example of Suffering Afflictions but Jesus Christ is beyond all these for he suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps These things considered is it not a barbarous thing for a grave Society of men to press their Sovereign wholly to lay aside the Rightful Successor of his Crown by the Laws of Heaven which is the doing evil to commit a known Sin to secure thereby the Protestant Religion that is that good may thence come or rather that the Zeal-drunk Presbyterian who prefers Rebellion before Martyrdom may not run the hazard of shewing himself no Christian by remonstrating against suffering Persecution A Papist cannot be a worse King than a Nero or Dioclesian and when St. Paul said we should stand to our Faith to imagine he intended we should stand to our Arms is a new and strange Interpretation But the Mischief is deeper yet for we cannot Disinherit this Gentleman but by a known Principle of the Court of Rome That Grace gives a a title to Dominion and accordingly the Pope disposeth of an Heretick Kingdom and barrs the Successor and gives it to another Man of his own nomination and to the next of the Line if he be of the Romish Perswasion and with what Conscience can these men mutatis mutandis press the King to an imitation of the Pope of Rome whilst they condemn in this very point his unjust Usurpation When St. Paul preached Obedience to the Higher Powers and the Primitive Christians prayed that the Father might be succeeded by the Son or the next of the Blood and Line could they be supposed to mean unless he were of this or that Religion and then it should be lawful to Disinherit them He that maintains such a point in a Parliamentary Session and at the same time calls himself a Christian is not so well qualified for Westminster as Bedlam The Doctrine of taking away the Right of Succession came from Rome the Pope had it from the Devil without question for St. Peter his pretended Predecessor taught no such thing but quite contrary exhorts all Christians and so includes the Presbyterian to endure the Fiery Tryal and rejoyce in being partakers of Christs sufferings now Christ came to give us an Heavenly not to take away any mans earthly Crown and accordingly as he knew no Sin so he underwent all sorts of Affliction He that saith I will not have this man to Reign because a Papist or a Puritan or saith this is the Heir let us by all means bar him of Possession is a much worse Christian than he that saith It is the Lord let him doe as it pleaseth him I will bear his Indignation because I have sinned against him This is the present Question under debate with reference to the Succession and not the Fighter for Reformation but the Patient under God's Correction is the best Defender of Christ Religion I can and will prove against all the Papists and Sectaries in Christendom I ask the Presbyterian these Questions and request an Answer to them 1. Doth the wrath of man work the Righteousness of God 2. Doth the Saviour of the World who came to save us from Sin not from Affliction stand in need of the sinful man to promote his Religion or the Interest of his Kingdom 3. Did Christ teach us by his Example or Doctrine to prefer Rebellion before Martyrdom and is not the contrary Position equal to a Mathematical Demonstration 4. Can the Pope in Cathedra or Pope Populus in Parliament by voting Evil good and Good evil sanctifie an unlawful action done with a good intention If these things be so I require him to prove it if not St. Paul's Doctrine will be found Billa vera in the Court of Heaven That we may not commit a present known Sin to avoid a future probable Persecution all the Bills Votes and Resolves of Froward men to the contrary notwithstanding I understand not the over-looking the lawfulness to pass to the expedience of the thing for Strafford lost his Head to please the Faction and then it was Voted on again by making it no President for the Peers of the Kingdom Suppose it be his Majesties judgement and perswasion as he hath declared that he cannot give consent to the Bill of Exclusion Is it either Religion or good Manners my Brethren to perswade our lawful Sovereign against St. Paul's advice which the Presbyterians quote sometimes to serve their own Interest and Turn Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Have not Princes Consciences as well as other men and may they not as well plead their Judicium discretionis who are only responsable to the God of Heaven as any private person who is and ought to be accountable both to God and Man Is it not sufficient for his Majesty to say what his Father Exemplified better one Man unjustly perish than the People be displeased is a fallacious Maxim especially considering the late King's conclusion hereupon I see it a bad exchange to wound a mans own Conscience thereby to salve State sores to calm the storms of Popular Discontents by stirring up a Tempest in a mans own bosome I hope the Commons of England will never arrive to that Insolence as to answer with Bradshaw to their Sovereign your Reasons Sir are not to be heard against the Supream Jurisdiction of this Nation and yet they have lately huss'd their Brethren and made them do Penance for being Jury-men and pay excessive Fees for no crime under the notion of Abhorrers of Petitioning And now we are upon the Petitioning point I remember a passage in Mr. Calamies Sermon Preached in 1645. at Michael Basing-Shaw London to the Lord Mayor and his Brethren when the Solemn League and Covenant was Renued with Prayer and Fasting You have saith Holderforth shot one Arrow already shoot another and if that miscarry shoot another He that cuts down a Tree though he cut it not down at the first or second blow yet the first and second blow prepare to the speeding blow that cuts it down You have delivered one Petition deliver another if that miscarry deliver another the speeding Petition will come at last That is in plain English Worry out your Prince with perpetual Noise and Clamours give him no rest till he submit to your Requests What this Fellow Preached in 1645. hath been practised for two years past yet must not I say so during the sitting of the Commons for fear of a Reprimand in such language as was never given a Priest by Imperial Princes But I bless God I have the spirit of an English man and my Knees due to God and the King shall never be yielded up to Usurpers come what will come Hanging Burning or any other or all the Torments that exercised the Patience of the Primitive Christians and herein I shew my self a Protestant whose great Principle it is rather than Sin to chuse Affliction FINIS