eminency and singularity Church-men that 's your appellative all are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual men all have received the Spirit and all walk in the Spirit and ye are all sealed by the Spirit unto the day of Redemption and yet there is a spirituality peculiar to the Clergy If any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness you who are spiritual by office and designation of a spiritual calling and spiritual employment you who have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and minister the Spirit of God you are more eminently spiritual you have the Spirit in graces and in powers in sanctification and abilities in Office and in Person the Vnction from above hath descended upon your heads and upon your hearts you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency and praelation spiritual men All the people of God were holy Corah and his company were in the right so far but yet Moses and Aaron were more holy and stood neerer to God All the people are Prophets It is now more than Moses wish for the Spirit of Christ hath made them so If any man prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered or if any woman prophesieth with her head uncovered they are dishonoured but either man or woman may do that work in time and place for in the latter days I will pour out of my Spirit and your daughters shall prophesie and yet God hath appointed in his Church Prophets above these to whose Spirit all the other Prophets are subject and as God said to Aaron and Miriam concerning Moses to you I am known in a dream or a vision but to Moses I speak face to face so it is in the Church God gives of his Spirit to all men but you he hath made the Ministers of his Spirit Nay the people have their portion of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so said S. Paul To whom ye forgive any thing to him I forgive also and to the whole Church of Corinth he gave a Commission in the Name of Christ and by his Spirit to deliver the incestuous person unto Satan and when the primitive Penitents stood in their penitential stations they did Chairs Dei adgeniculari toti populo legationem orationis suae commendare and yet the Keys were not only promised but given to the Apostles to be used then and transmitted to all Generations of the Church and we are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and to us is committed the word of reconciliation And thus in the Consecration of the mysterious Sacrament the people have their portion for the Bishop or the Priest blesses and the People by saying Amen to the mystick Prayer is partaker of the Power and the whole Church hath a share in the power of Spiritual Sacrifice Ye are a royal Priesthood Kings and Priests unto God that is so ye are Priests as ye are Kings but yet Kings and Priests have a glory conveyed to them of which the people partake but in minority and allegory and improper communication But you are and are to be respectively that considerable part of mankind by whom God intends to plant holiness in the World by you God means to reign in the hearts of men and g. you are to be the first in this kind and consequently the measure of all the rest To you g. I intend this and some following Discourses in order to this purpose I shall but now lay the first stone but it is the corner stone in this foundation But to you I say of the Clergy these things are spoken properly to you these Powers are conveyed really upon you God hath poured his Spirit plentifully you are the Choicest of his Choice the Elect of his Election a Church pick'd out of the Church Vessels of honour so your Masters use appointed to teach others authorised to bless in his Name you are the Ministers of Christ's Priesthood Under-labourers in the great Work of Mediation and Intercession Medii inter Deum Populum you are for the People towards God and convey Answers and Messages from God to the People These things I speak not only to magnifie your Office but to inforce and heighten your Duty you are holy by Office and Designation for your very Appointment is a Sanctification and a Consecration and g. whatever holiness God requires of the People who have some little portions in the Priesthood Evangelical he expects it of you and much greater to whom he hath conveyed so great Honours and admitted so neer unto himself and hath made to be the great Ministers of his Kingdom and his Spirit and now as Moses said to the Levitical Schismaticks Corah and his Company so I may say to you Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you to himself to do the Service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister to them And he hath brought thee neer to him Certainly if of every one of the Christian Congregation God expects a holiness that mingles with no unclean thing if God will not suffer of them a luke-warm and an indifferent service but requires zeal of his Glory and that which St. Paul calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love if he will have them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing if he will not endure any pollution in their Flesh or Spirit if he requires that their Bodies and Souls and Spirits be kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus if he accepts of none of the people unless they have within them the conjugation of all Christian Graces if he calls on them to abound in every Grace and that in all the periods of their progression unto the ends of their lives and to the consummation and perfection of Grace if he hath made them Lights in the World and the Salt of the Earth to enlighten others by their good Example and to teach them and invite them by holy Discourses and wise Counsels and Speech seasoned with Salt what is it think ye or with what words is it possible to express what God requires of you They are to be Examples of Good life to one another but you are to be Examples even of the Examples themselves that 's your duty that 's the purpose of God and that 's the design of my Text That in all things ye shew your selves a pattern of good works in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you Here then is 1. Your Duty 2. The degrees and excellency of your Duty The Duty is double 1. Holiness of Life 2. Integrity of Doctrine Both these have their heightnings in several degrees 1. For your Life and Conversation
of our Lord have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative Communion with these fountains of our Saviour If ever Lirinensis's rule could be used in any question it is in this Quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus That Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship and that they did always rule the Family was taught and acknowledged always and every where and by all men that were of the Church of God and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this question we shall find our faith to fail in many other Articles of which we yet are very confident For the observation of the Lords day the consecration of the holy Eucharist by Priests the baptizing Infants the communicating of Women and the very Canon of the Scripture it self relye but upon the same probation and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved is a way I do not say to bring in all Sects and Heresies that 's but little but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion for by this means it will not only be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture but the Scripture it self and all the Records of Religion will become useless and of no efficacy or perswasion I am entred into a Sea of matter but I will break it off abruptly and sum up this inquiry with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon which is one of the four Generals by our Laws made the measures of judging Heresies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter It is indeed a rifling the order and intangling the gifts and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the Spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops And I shall say one thing more which indeed is a great truth that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots and other meer Priests special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacy have made this sacred Order to be cheap and apt to be invaded But then adde this If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the gifts and powers of the Apostolical Order what shall we think of them that snatch them away and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles and their Successors will or no This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to belye the Holy Ghost that is the least of it it is rapine and sacrilege besides the heresie and schism and the spiritual lye For the Government Episcopal as it was exemplified in the Synagogue and practised by the same measures in the Temple so it was transcribed by the eternal Son of God who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance it was sanctified by the Holy Spirit who named some of the persons and gave to them all power and graces from above it was subjected in the Apostles first and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks it was received into all Churches consigned in the Records of the Holy Scriptures preached by the universal voice of all the Christian World delivered by notorious and uninterrupted practice and derived to further and unquestionable issue by perpetual succession I have done with the hardest part of the Text by finding out the persons intrusted the Stewards of Christs Family which though Christ only intimated in this place yet he plainly enough manifested in others The Apostles and their Successors the Bishops are the men intrusted with this great charge God grant they may all discharge it well And so I pass from the Officers to a consideration of the Office it self in the next words Whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold to give them their meat in due season 2. The Office it self is the Stewardship that is Episcopacy the Office of the Bishop The name signifies an Office of the Ruler indefinitely but the word was chosen and by the Church appropriated to those whom it now signifies both because the word it self is a monition of duty and also because the faithful were used to it in the dayes of Moses and the Prophets The word is in the Prophecy of the Church I will give to thee Princes in Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Bishops in Righteousness upon which place S. Hierom sayes Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos The Spirit of God calls them who were to be Christian Bishops Principes or chief Rulers and this was no new thing for the chief of the Priests who were set over the rest are called Bishops by all the Hellenist Jews Thus Joel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop over the Priests and the son of Bani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop and Visitor over the Levites and we find at the purging of the Land from Idolatry the High Priest placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops over the House of God Nay it was the appellative of the High Priest himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop Eleazar the Son of Aaron the Priest to whom is committed the care of Lamps and the daily Sacrifice and the holy unction Now this word the Church retained choosing the same Name to her superior Ministers because of the likeness of the Ecclesiastical Government between the Old and New Testament For Christ made no change but what was necessary Baptism was a rite among the Jews and the Lords Supper was but the post-coenium of the Hebrews changed into a mystery from a type to a more real exhibition and the Lords Prayer was a collection of the most eminent devotions of the Prophets and Holy men before Christ who prayed by the same Spirit and the censures Ecclesiastical were but an imitation of the proceedings of the Judaical Tribunals and the whole Religion was but the Law of Moses drawn out of its vail into clarity and manifestation and to conclude in order to the present affair the Government which Christ left was the same as he found it for what Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple that Bishops Priests and Deacons are in the Church it is affirmed by S. Hierom more than once and the use he makes of it is this Esto subjectus Pontifici tuo quasi animae parentem suscipe Obey your Bishop and receive him as the nursing Father of your Soul But above all this appellation is made honourable by being taken by our blessed Lord himself for he is called in Scripture the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls But our enquiry is not after the Name but the Office and the Dignity and Duty of it Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimis ac divina potestos so S. Cyprian calls it a High and a Divine power from God of governing the Church rem magnam preciosam in conspectu Domini so S.
testâque lutoque 〈…〉 quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivit being â—â—â—ording to the Jewish proverbial reproof as so many Mephibosheths discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum their Master teaches them to go uprightly but they still show their lame leg and shame their Master as if a man might be a Christian and yet be the vilest person in the world doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an insufferable and never ending damnation Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the Righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be Religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and sayes Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisâ— qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and 〈◊〉 the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain 〈◊〉 meat and drink even when they are commanded which is 〈◊〉 if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart shouâ—◠〈◊〉 to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect 〈◊〉 Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore 〈◊〉 fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our inquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical Righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is always the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him
Bishops laid the foundation their Successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental but build up the Church in a most holy Faith taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it and above all things that a most holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith So the Apostles laid the foundation and built the walls of the Church and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven For let us talk and dispute eternally we shall never compose the controversies in Religion and establish truth upon unalterable foundations as long as men handle the word of God deceitfully that is with designs and little artifices and secular partialities and they will for ever do so as long as they are proud or covetous It is not the difficulty of our questions or the subtlety of our Adversaries that makes disputes interminable but we shall never cure the itch of disputing or establish Unity unless we apply our selves to humility and contempt of riches If we will be contending let us contend like the Olive and the Vine who shall produce best and most fruit not like the Aspine and the Elm which shall make most noise in a wind And all other methods are a beginning at a wrong end And as for the people the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of Faith and Government is by reducing them to live good lives When the children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness and filthy lusts they quickly fell into abominable idolatries and S. Paul says that men make shipwrack of their Faith by putting away a good conscience for the mystery of Faith is best preserved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a pure conscience saith the same Apostle secure but that and we shall quickly end our disputes and have an obedient and conformable people but else never 2. As Bishops were the first Fathers of Churches and gave them being so they preserve them in being For without Sacraments there is no Church or it will be starved and dye and without Bishops there can be no Priests and consequently no Sacraments and that must needs be a supreme Order from whence Ordination it self proceeds For it is evident and notorious that in Scripture there is no Record of Ordination but an Apostolical hand was in it one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the chief one of the superior and ruling Clergy and it is as certain in the descending ages of the Church the Bishop always had that power it was never denyed to him and it was never imputed to Presbyters and S. Hierom himself when out of his anger against John Bishop of Jerusalem he endeavoured to equal the Presbyter with the Bishop though in very many places he spake otherwise yet even then also and in that heat he excepted Ordination acknowledging that to be the Bishops peculiar And therefore they who go about to extinguish Episcopacy do as Julian did they destroy the Presbytery and starve the Flock and take away their Shepheards and dispark their pastures and tempt Gods providence to extraordinaries and put the people to hard shifts and turn the channels of salvation quite another way and leave the Church to a perpetual uncertainty whether she be alive or dead and the people destitute of the life of their Souls and their daily bread and their spiritual comforts and holy blessings The consequent of this is If Sacraments depend upon Bishops then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials sanctified with a holy Ministry and ministred by holy persons For although it be true that the efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers yet it is as true that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the Receiver but both together relying upon the goodness of God produce all those blessings which are designed The Minister hath an influence into the effect and does very much towards it and if there be a failure there it is a defect in one of the concurring causes and therefore an unholy Bishop is a great diminution to the peoples blessing S. Hierom presses this severely Impiè faciunt c. They do wickedly who affirm that the holy Eucharist is consecrated by the words alone and solemn prayer of the Consecrator and not also by his life and holiness And therefore S. Cyprian affirms that none but holy and upright men are to be chosen who offering their Sacrifices worthily to God may be heard in their prayers for the Lords people but for others Sacrificia eorum panis luctus saith the Prophet Hosea their Sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow whoever eats thereof shall be defiled This discourse is not mine but S. Cyprian's and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically but in the case of duty and caution yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts and consider how we shall give an account of our Stewardship if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands it is of it self a pure nourishment but if it passes through an unclean vessel it loses much of its excellency 3. The like also is to be said concerning Prayer For the Episcopal Order is appointed by God to be the great Ministers of Christs Priesthood that is to stand between Christ and the people in the entercourse of prayer and blessing We will give our selves continually to prayer said the Apostles that was the one half of their employment and indeed a Bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer and in diverting Gods judgments and procuring blessings to the people for in all times the chief of the Religion was ever the chief Minister of blessing Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech and Melchisedeck blessed Abraham and Aaron blessed the people and without all controversie saith the Apostle the less is blessed of the greater But then we know that God heareth not sinners and it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that shall prevail And therefore we may easily consider that a vitious Prelate is a great calamity to that Flock which he is appointed to bless and pray for How shall he reconcile the penitents who is himself at enmity with God How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the Symbols at his Prayer who does perpetually grieve him and quench his holy fires and drive him quite away How shall he that hath not tasted of the Spirit by contemplation stir up others to earnest desires of Coelestial things Or what good shall the people receive when the Bishop layes upon their head a covetous or a cruel an unjust or an impure hand But therefore that I may use the words of S. Hierom Cum ab Episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur mundi totius Ecclesiae totius condimentum sit Episcopus
Angel but as God himself For it is the power of God in the hand of a man and he that resists resists God's Ordinance And I pray remember that there is not only no power greater than God's but there is no other for all Power is his The consequent of this is plain enough I need say no more of it It is all one to us who commands God or God's Vicegerent This was the first thing to be observed Secondly there can be but two things in the world required to make Obedience necessary the greatness of the Authority and the worthiness of the Thing In the first you see the case can have no difference because the thing it self is but one There is but one Authority in the world and that is God's as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdoms But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded Yes certainly there is some but nothing to warrant disobedience for whatever the thing be it may be commanded by man if it be not countermanded by God For 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency than that of Obedience What made Abraham the friend of God and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child but only that it was Obedience What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria from the Land of Canaan into Aegypt and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week and how can a man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast or building of a Booth or going to Jerusalem or cutting off the foreskin of a Boy or washing their hands and garments in fair water There was nothing in these things but the Obedience And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptism of Repentance alas he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony for as Tertullian observes he was nullius poenitentiae debitor he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head and crowned that Obedience though it were but a Ceremony Obedience you see may be necessary when the Law is not so For in these cases God's Son and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the Commandment and if we do so in the Instances of humane Laws there is nothing to be said against it but that what was not of it self necessary is made so by the Authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandment But there is more in it than so For 2. We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary if a divine command does interpose but if it be only a commandment of man and the thing be not necessary of it self then we desire to be excused But will we do nothing else We our selves will do many things that God hath not commanded and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to do what we may lawfully do without a commandment Can we become a Law unto our selves and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a Law unto us hath God given more to a private than to a publick hand But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the word of God are the triffling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels are all the rules of decency and all things that are of good report and all the measures of Prudence and the laws of peace and War and the Customs of the Churches of God and the lines of publick honesty are all these described to us by the Laws of God If they be let us see and read them that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience but if they be not and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in general and no otherwise then it follows that the particulars of all these which may be infinite and are innumerable yet may be the matter of humane Laws and then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man The consequent is this that whatsoever is commanded by our Superiors according to the will of God or whatsoever is not against it is of necessity to be obeyed 3. But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God what then Why nothing then but that we must obey God and not man there 's no dispute of that But what then again Why therefore sayes the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresie is preached and I will not acknowledge the Bishops saith the Presbyterian because they are against the Discipline and Scepter of Jesus Christ and the Independent hates Parochial meetings and is wholly for a gathered Church and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical and I will not bring my Child to Baptism saith the Anabaptist because God calls none but Believers to that Sacrament and I will acknowledge no Clergy no Lord no Master saith the Quaker because Christ commands us to call no man Master on the earth and be not called of men Rabbi And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God had set over them they tell you with one voice with all their hearts as far as the Word of God will give them leave but God is to be obeyed and not man and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them they will obey you passively because you are stronger and so long as they know it they will not stir against you but they in the mean time are little less than Martyrs and you no better than Persecutors What shall we do now for here is evidently a great heap of disorder they all confess that Authority must be obeyed but when you come to the tryal none of them all will do it and they think they are not bound but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right and it may be none of them are it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them when all phantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it I hope the Presbyterian will join with the Protestant and say that the Papist and the Socinian and the Independent and the Anabaptist and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side and I am more sure that all these will join
imploretur remedium run to the King for remedy for therefore God hath set the Imperial fortune over humane affairs ut possit omnia quae noviter contingunt emendare componere modis ac regulis competentibus tradere that the King may amend and rule and compose every new arising question And it is not to be despised but is a great indication of this Truth that the Answers of the Roman Princes and Judges recorded in the Civil Law are such that all Nations of the world do approve them and are a great testimony how the sentences of Kings ought to be valued even in matters of Religion and questions of greatest doubt Bona conscientia Scyphus est Josephi said the old Abbot of Kells a good Conscience is like Joseph's Cup in which our Lord the King divines And since God hath blessed us with so good so just so religious and so wise a Prince let the sentence of his Laws be our last resort and no questions be permitted after his judgment and legal determination For Wisdom saith By me Princes rule by me they decree justice and therefore the spirit of the King is a divine eminency and is as the spirit of the most High God 4. Let no man be too busie in disputing the laws of his Superiors for a man by that seldom gets good to himself but seldom misses to do mischief unto others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said one in Laertius Will a Son contend with his Father that 's not decent though the son speak that which is right he may possibly say well enough but he does do very ill not only because he does not pay his duty and reverential fear but because it is in it self very often unreasonable to dispute concerning the command of our Superior whether it be good or no for the very commandment can make it not only good but a necessary good It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these necessary things said the Council of Jerusalem and yet these things were not necessary but as they were commanded to abstain from a strangled hen or a bloody pudding could not of themselves be necessary but the commandment came authority did interpose and then they were made so 5. But then besides the advantages both of the Spirit and the authority of Kings in matter of question the Laws and Decrees of a National Church ought upon the account of their own advantages be esteemed as a final sentence in all things disputed The thing is a plain command Hebrews 13. 7. Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God this tells what Rulers he means Rulers Ecclesiastical and what of them whose faith follow they must praeire in articulis they are not Masters of your Faith but Guides of it and they that sit in Moses chair must be heard and obeyed said our blessed Saviour These words were not said for nothing and they were nothing if their authority were nothing For between the laws of a Church and the opinion of a Subject the comparison is the same as between a publick spirit and a private The publick is far the better the daughter of God and the mother of a blessing and alwayes dwels in light The publick spirit hath already passed the tryal it hath been subjected to the Prophets tryed and searched and approved the private is yet to be examined The publick spirit is uniform and apt to be followed the private is various and multiform as chance and no man can follow him that hath it for if he follows one he is reproved by a thousand and if he changes he may get a shame but no truth and he can never rest but in the arms and conduct of his Superior When Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses God told them they were Prophets of an inferior rank than Moses was God communicated himself to them in dreams and visions but the Ruach hakkodesh the publick spirit of Moses their Prince that was higher and what then wherefore then God said were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses plainly teaching us that where there is a more excellent spirit they that have a spirit less excellent ought to be afraid to speak against it And this is the full case of the private and publick spirit that is of a Subject speaking against the Spirit and the Laws of the Church In Heaven and in the air and in all the regions of Spirits the Spirit of a lower Order dares not speak against the Spirit of an higher and therefore for a private Spirit to oppose the publick is a disorder greater than is in Hell it self To conclude this point Let us consider whether it were not an intolerable mischief if the Judges should give sentence in causes of instance by the measures of their own fancy and not by the Laws who would endure them and yet why may they not do that as well as any Ecclesiastick person preach Religion not which the Laws allow but what is taught him by his own private Opinion but he that hath the Laws on his side hath ever something of true Religion to warrant him and can never want a great measure of justification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Laws and the Customs of the Country are the results of wise Counsels or long experience they ever comply with Peace and publick benefit and nothing of this can be said of private Religions for they break the Peace and trouble the Conscience and undoe Government and despise the Laws and offend Princes and dishonour the wisdom of Parliaments and destroy Obedience Well but in the last place but if we cannot do what the Laws command we will suffer what they impose and then all is well again But first who ever did so that could help it And secondly this talking of passive Obedience is but a mockery for what man did ever say the Laws were not good but he also said the Punishment was unjust And thirdly which of all the Recusants did not endeavour to get ground upon the Laws and secretly or openly asperse the Authority that put him to pain for doing that which he calls his duty and can any man boast of his passive Obedience that calls it Persecution he may think to please himself but he neither does or sayes any thing that is for the reputation of the Laws Such men are like them that sail in a storm they may possibly be thrown into a Harbour but they are very sick all the way But after all this I have one thing to observe to such persons That such a passive Obedience as this does not acquit a man before God and he that suffers what the Law inflicts is not discharged in the Court of Conscience but there is still a sinner and a debter For the Law is not made for the righteous but for sinners that is the punishment
good Divines But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godliness When we have thrown off all affections to sin when we have stripp'd our selves from all fond adherences to the things of the world and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions then we may say with David Ecce paratum est Cor meum Deus My heart is ready O God my heart is ready then we may say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth But we are not yet instructed It remains therefore that we inquire what is that immediate Principle or Means by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all Truth and be taught the Mind of God and understand all his Secrets and this is worth our knowledge I cannot say that this will end your Labours and put a period to your Studies and make your Learning easie it may possibly increase your Labour but it will make it profitable it will not end your Studies but it will direct them it will not make Humane Learning easie but it will make it wise unto Salvation and conduct it into true notices and ways of Wisdom I am now to describe to you the right way of Knowledg Qui facit Voluntatem Patris mei saith Christ that 's the way do God's Will and you shall understand God's Word And it was an excellent saying of S. Peter Add to your Faith Virtue c. If these things be in you and abound ye shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this case 't is not enough that all our hindrances of Knowledge are removed for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God but when it is opened it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read Though the windows of the East be open yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plotinus the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun the eye must be fitted to the splendor and it is not the wit of the man but the spirit of the man not so much his head as his heart that learns the Divine Philosophy 1. Now in this Inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum that every good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is taught of God and indeed unless he teach us we shall make but ill Scholars our selves and worse Guides to others Nemo potest Deum scire nisi à Deo doceatur said St. Irenaeus lib. 6. cap. 13. If God teaches us then all is well but if we do not learn Wisdom at his feet from whence should we have it it can come from no other Spring And therefore it naturally follows that by how much nearer we are to God by so much better we are like to be instructed But this being supposed as being most evident we can easily proceed by wonderful degrees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy For 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital Principle the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Wisdom and teaches us by secret Inspirations by proper Arguments by actual Perswasions by personal Applications by Effects and Energies and as the Soul of a man is the cause of all his vital Operations so is the Spirit of God the Life of that Life and the cause of all Actions and Productions Spiritual And the consequence of this is what St. John tells us of Ye have received the Vnction from above and that annointing teacheth you all things All things of some one kind that is certainly all things that pertain to life and godliness all that by which a man is wise and happy We see this by common experience Unless the Soul have a new Life put into it unless there be a vital Principle within unless the Spirit of Life be the Informer of the Spirit of the Man the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the Body in its powers and possibilities Sol Homo generant hominem saith our Philosophy A Man alone does not beget a Man but a Man and the Sun for without the influence of the Celestial Bodies all natural Actions are ineffective and so it is in the operations of the Soul Which Principle divers Phanaticks both among us and in the Church of Rome misunderstanding look for new Revelations and expect to be conducted by Ecstasie and will not pray but in a transfiguration and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations by new measures and singularities and destroy Order and despise Government and live upon illiterate Phantasms and ignorant Discourses These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they belie the Holy Ghost For the Spirit of God makes men wise it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation it does not spend its holy Influences in disguises and convulsions of the Understanding Gods Spirit does not destroy Reason but heightens it he never disorders the Beauties of Government but is a God of Order it is the Spirit of Humility and teaches no Pride he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits upon Altars and in the Doctors Chairs not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a House he goes in company with his own Ordinances and makes progressions by the measures of life his infusions are just as our acquisitions and his Graces pursue the methods of Nature that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection and that which was weak he makes strong he opens the heart not to receive murmurs or to attend to secret whispers but to hear the word of God and then he opens the heart and creates a new one and without this new creation this new principle of life we may hear the word of God but we can never understand it we hear the sound but are never the better unless there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the Spirit of God the Gospel it self is a dead Letter and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God Do not we see this by daily experience Even those things which a good man and an evil man know they do not know them both alike A wicked man does know that Good is lovely and Sin is of an evil and destructive nature and when he is reproved he is convinced and when he is observed he is ashamed and when he has done he is unsatisfied and when he pursues his sin he does it in the dark Tell him he shall die and he sighs deeply but he knows it as well as you Proceed and say that after death comes Judgment and the poor man believes and trembles he knows that God is angry with him and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow he knows that it is an intolerable truth but it is also undeniable And yet after all this
he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no Argument against it These notices of things terrible and true pass through his Understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves half a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorials of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and hear the same Sermons they have capable Understandings they both believe what they hear and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by Humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a Son of Man the other as a Son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the world and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine Principle within him and a new Understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more than Knowledge as was rarely well observed by S. Paul Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edifie you no Scriptures can build you up a holy Building to God unless the Love of God be in your hearts and purifie your Souls from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit But so it is in the regions of Stars where a vast body of Fire is so divided by excentrick motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbs and round shells of plain and purest materials But where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniform and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed Officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll and now the wonder ceases for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South they being both indifferent to either it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre and makes the same matter turn not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God And so it is in the Understandings of Men when they all receive the same Notions and are taught by the same Master and give full consent to all the Propositions and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events it is because God has sent his Divine Spirit and kindles a new fire and creates a braver capacity and applies the Actives to the Passives and blesses their operation For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea and an indisposition to holy flames like as in the cold Rivers in the North so as the fires will not burn them and the Sun it self will never warm them till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the New Jerusalem bring a holy flame and make it shine and burn The Natural man saith the holy Apostle cannot preceive the things of the Spirit they are foolishness unto him for they are spiritually discerned For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palate or pleases the brutish part of Man and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures they must needs seem as insipid as Cork or the uncondited Mushrom for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily so fill'd with the deliciousness of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge that they can never keep the scent of their Game 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Chrysostom The fire and water can never mingle so neither can sensuality and the watchfulness and wise discerning of the Spirit Pilato interroganti de veritate Christus non respondit When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning Truth Christ gave him no answer He was not fit to hear it He therefore who so understands the Words of God that he not only believes but loves the Proposition he who consents with all his heart and being convinc'd of the truth does also apprehend the necessity and obeys the precept and delights in the discovery and lays his hand upon his heart and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty he who dares trust his proposition and drives it on to the utmost issue resolving to go after it whithersoever it can invite him this Man walks in the Spirit at least thus far he is gone towards it his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind and whatever goes less than this is but Memory and not Understanding or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest his most elect and precious Servants a knowledge even of secret things which he communicates not to others We finde it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do Why not from Abraham God tells us ver 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment And though this be irregular and infrequent yet it is a reward of their piety and the proper increase also of the spiritual man We find this spoken by God to Daniel and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the days of the Messias Dan. 12. 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tryed but the wicked shall do wickedly and what then None of
ages past and troubled themselves with tying untying knots like Hypocondriacks in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocal and unnatural Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and careful and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy Spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeal in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist than to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the Body of Religion not so much for the Garment of the Body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things in which the Soul and Spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Natural medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may relye The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recital of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to do and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jews revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more Learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the Knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new Lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29. 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightness of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this Spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the Spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye
cannot know him And this is the particular I am now to speak to The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the ways and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse Secreta Dei Deo nostro filiis domus ejus Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House saith the Jewish Proverb Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height of all that is to be taught or learned Love is Obedience and we learn his words best when we practise them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle those things which they that learn ought to practise even while they practise will best learn Quisquis non venit profectò nec didicit Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam ut quod quisque didicerit non tantum cognoscendo videat sed etiam volendo appetat agendo perficiat St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ we shall never learn for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his Spirit that what any one learns he not only sees it by knowledge but desires it by choice and perfects it by practice 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience we find not only in things of practice but even in deepest mysteries not only the choicest and most eminent Saints but even every good man can best tell what is true and best reprove an error He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity and does it by words and names of mans invention or by such which signifie contingently if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers by the Cabala of Letters by the distinctions of the School and by the weak inventions of disputing people if he only talks of Essences and existencies Hypostases and personalities distinctions without difference and priority in Coequalities and unity in Pluralities and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects he may amuse himself and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration he may build three Tabernacles in his head and talk something but he knows not what But the good man that feels the power of the Father and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spred to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost the Comforter this man though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy Blessed and Vndivided Trinity but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life the wisdom of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith and the love of the Spirit of God making him to become like unto God He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spiritual generation of the Father and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings and from thence is become an old Disciple and strong and grown old in Religion and the conversation of the Spirit this man best understands the secret and undiscernable oeconomy he feels this unintelligible Mystery and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express and his Metaphysicks can never prove In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledg and Jesus Christ is best known by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and if the Kingdom of God be in us then we know God and are known of him and when we communicate of the Spirit of God when we pray for him and have received him and entertained him and dwelt with him and warmed our selves by his holy fires then we know him too But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically there is no knowing of God Theologically and as he ought to be known but by the measures of Holiness and the proper light of the Spirit of God But in this case Experience is the best Learning and Christianity is the best Institution and the Spirit of God is the best Teacher and Holiness is the greatest Wisdom and he that sins most is the most Ignorant and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit and will not enter into a polluted Soul But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is Wisdom said the wise Ben-Sirach And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you and so I shall dismiss you from this attention Many ways have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion and all the Counsels of man have yet prov'd ineffective Let us now try Gods method let us betake our selves to live holily and then the Spirit of God will lead us into all Truth And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of if he be a Villain the Opinion of his Sect as it will not save his Soul so neither will it do good to the Publick But this is a sure Rule If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion then by the proportions of holiness we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our Peace and the dishonour of the Gospel And therefore 1. That is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any duty of Religion He that shall maintain it to be lawful to make a War for the defence of his Opinion be it what it will his Doctrine is against Godliness Any thing that is proud any thing that is peevish and scornful any thing that is uncharitable is against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister that he was an Informer against his Brethren he says he did it oblitus professionis suae quae nil nisi justum suadet lene he forgot his Profession which teaches nothing but justice and meekness kindnesses and charity And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it yet Goodness is the best note of the true Church 2. It is but an ill sign of Holiness when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Superiour in little Scruples and phantastick Opinions about things not concerning the life of Religion or the pleasure of God or the excellencies of the Spirit A good man knows how to please God how to converse with him how to advance the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus to set forward Holiness and the Love of God and of his Brother and he knows also that there is no Godliness in
discourse that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest if the profit to the Church of God were not greater Flumina tum lactis tum flumina nectaris ibant Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella For so Sampson's Riddle was again expounded Out of the strong came meat and out of the eater came sweetness his Arguments were strong and the Eloquence was sweet and delectable and though there start up another combatant against him yet he had only the honour to fall by the hands of Hector still haeret lateri lethalis arundo the headed arrow went in so far that it could not be drawn out but the barbed steel stuck behind And whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions the Bishop of Derry's Book shall be his Oracle I will not insist upon his other excellent writings but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichean Doctrine of Fatal necessity which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor but this excellent Person washed off the Ceruse and the meritricious paintings rarely well asserted the oeconomy of the Divine Providence and having once more triumphed over his Adversary plenus victoriarum trophaeorum betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon sacred Offices and having usefully and wisely discoursed of the sacred Rite of Confirmation imposed his hands upon the most Illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Gloucester and the Princess Royal and ministred to them the Promise of the Holy Spirit and ministerially established them in the Religion and Service of the holy Jesus And one thing more I shall remark that at his leaving those Parts upon the Kings Return some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them he had reason to grant it because they were learned men and in many things of a most excellent belief yet he reproved them and gave them caution against it that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians He thus having served God and the King abroad God was pleased to return to the King and to us all as in the days of old and we sung the song of David In convertendo captivitatem Sion When King David and all his Servants returned to Jerusalem this great person having trod in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine and as an honorary Reward of his great services and abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church In which time we are to look upon him as the King and the Kings great Vicegerent did as a person concerning whose abilities the World had too great testimony ever to make a doubt It is true he was in the declension of his age and health but his very Ruines were goodly and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's Theatre and the crushed Obelisks and the old face of beauteous Philaenium could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures which were venerable in their very dust He ever was used to overcome all difficulties only Mortality was too hard for him but still his Vertues and his Spirit was immortal he still took great care and still had new and noble designs and proposed to himself admirable things He governed his Province with great justice and sincerity Vnus amplo consulens pastor gregi Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil And had this remark in all his Government that as he was a great hater of Sacriledge so he professed himself a publick Enemy to Non-residence and often would declare wisely and religiously against it allowing it in no case but of necessity or the greater good of the Church There are great things spoken of his Predecessor S. Patrick that he founded 700 Churches and Religious Convents that he ordained 5000 Priests and with his own hands consecrated 350 Bishops How true the story is I know not but we were all witnesses that the late Primate whose memory we now celebrate did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Arch-Bishops and ten Bishops and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland and was greatly instrumental to the Re-endowments of the whole Clergy and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferior to none of his most glorious Antecessours Since the Canonization of Saints came into the Church we find no Irish Bishop canonized except S. Laurence of Dublin and S. Malachias of Down indeed Richard of Armagh's Canonization was propounded but not effected but the Character which was given of that learned Primate by Trithemius does exactly fit this our late Father Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditus secularis Philosophiae jurisque Canonici non ignarus clarus ingenio sermone scholasticus in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industriae He was learned in the Scriptures skill'd in secular Philosophy and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant he was of an excellent spirit a Scholar in his discourses an early and industrious Preacher to the people And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory that he purposed if he had lived to have restored his Monument in Dundalke which Time or Impiety or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth that he loved it in the very memory of the dead and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espie little besides the Ruines of Discipline a Harvest of thorns and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People the Churches possessed by Wolves and Intruders Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly sometimes he confuted them learnedly sometimes he rebuked them sharply He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations Quaerens non nostra sed nos quae sunt Jesu Christi he designed nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion the Honour of God and the King the Restoring of collapsed Discipline and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches And still he was indefatigable and even at the last scene of his life intended to undertake a Regal Visitation Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi said one he was not willing that God should take him unimployed But good man he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces and could go no further for God would have no more work done by that
and it is a long time before Nature makes them capable of help for there are many deaths and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed but they have but very few capacities of Physick to shew that infancy is as liable to death as old age and equally exposed to danger and equally uncapable of a remedy with this only difference that old age hath diseases incurable by nature and the diseases of childhood are incurable by art and both the states are the next heirs of death 3. But all the middle way the case is altered Nature is strong and Art is apt to give ease and remedy but still there is no security and there the case is not altered 1. For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood 2. So many new ones every year 3. The old ones are so changed in circumstances and intermingled with so many collateral complications 4. The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike 5. Sometimes so hidden and fallacious 6. Sometimes none at all as in the most sudden and most dangerous Imposthumations 7. And then the diseases in the inward parts of the body are oftentimes such to which no application can be made 8. They are so far off that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them than the effect and juices of all meats that is not till after two or three alterations and decoctions which change the very species of the medicament 9. And after all this very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain that after they have been believed seven or eight Ages and that upon them much of the practice hath been established they come to be considered by a witty man and others established in their stead by which men must practise and by which three or four generations of men more as happens must live or die 10. And all this while the men are sick and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present and very uncertainly restore health for the future that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity when Gods providence hath not only made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency but even from the remedies which are appointed our dangers and our troubles are certainly encreased so that we may well be likened to water our nature is no stronger our abode no more certain if the sluces be opened it falls away and runneth apace if its current be stopped it swells and grows troublesome and spills over with a greater diffusion if it be made to stand still it putrifies and all this we do For 4. In all the process of our health we are running to our grave we open our own sluces by viciousness and unworthy actions we pour in drink and let out life we increase diseases and know not how to bear them we strangle our selves with our own intemperance we suffer the fevers and the inflammations of lust and we quench our souls with drunkenness we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets and then we lie down upon our beds and roar with pain and disquietness of our souls Nay we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly with the effects of pride and uncharitableness we live and die like fools and bring a new mortality upon our selves wars and vexatious cares and private duells and publick disorders and every thing that is unreasonable and every thing that is violent so that now we may add this fourth gate to the Grave Besides Nature and Chance and the mistakes of Art men die with their own Sins and then enter into the Grave in haste and passion and pull the heavy stone of the Monument upon their own heads And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable and indeed most men make them so we let our years slip through our fingers like water and nothing is to be seen but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground there is a Grave digged and a solemn mourning and a great talk in the Neighbourhood and when the daies are finished they shall be and they shall be remembred no more And that 's like water too when it is spilt it cannot be gathered up again There is no redemption from the Grave inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitäi lampada tradunt Men live in their course and by turns their light burns a while and then it burns blew and faint and men go to converse with Spirits and then they reach the taper to another and as the hours of yesterday can never return again so neither can the man whose hours they were and who lived them over once he shall never come to live them again and live them better When Lazarus and the widows Son of Naim and Tebitha and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the Resurrection of our blessed Lord arose they came into this world some as strangers only to make a visit and all of them to manifest a glory but none came upon the stock of a new life or entred upon the stage as at first or to perform the course of a new nature and therefore it is observable that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house but neither he nor any from him could be sent but all the rest in the new Testament one only excepted were expressed to have been holy persons or else by their age were declared innocent Lazarus was beloved of Christ those souls that appeared at the Resurrection were the souls of Saints Tabitha raised by S. Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian and the maiden of twelve years old raised by our blessed Saviour had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulness and the only exception of the widows son is indeed none at all for in it the Scripture is wholly silent and therefore it is very probable that the same process was used God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit and in spiritual capacities So that although the Lord of Nature did not break the bands of Nature in some instances to manifest his glory to succeeding great and never failing purposes yet besides that this shall be no more it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent and within the verge and comprehensions of the Eternal mercy We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle or was raised from the Grave to try the second time for a Crown but where he fell there he lay down dead and saw the light no more This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor and an advice of carefulness that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first
Resurrection that is from sin to grace from the death of vitious habits to the vigour life and efficacy of an habitual righteousness For as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned to them I say in the literal sense Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection upon them the second death shall have no power meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again were holy and blessed souls and such who were written in the book of God and that this grace hapned to no wicked and vitious person so it is most true in the spiritual and intended sense You only that serve God in a holy life you who are not dead in trespasses and sins you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry and a holy Religion you and you only shall come to life eternal you only shall be called from death to life the rest of mankind shall never live again but pass from death to death from one â—eath to another to a worse from the death of the body to the eterâ—al death of body and soul and therefore in the Apostles Creed there â—s no mention made of the Resurrection of wicked persons but of the Resurrection of the body to everlasting life The wicked indeed shall be haâ—eâ— forth from their graves from their everlasting prisons where in chains â—f â—arkness they are kept unto the judgment of the great day but this â—â—â—â—efore cannot be called in sensu favoris a Resurrection but the soâ—â—â—â—ities of the eternal death It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again such a dying as cannot signifie rest but where death means nothing but an intollerable and never ceasing calamity and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked otherwise of the godly The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again no not in the gatherings of eternity They shall be put into Vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell but that is not a gathering but a scattering from the face and presence of God But the godly also come under the sense of these words They descend into their Graves and shall no more be reckoned among the living they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks Armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned than had the Hippocentaur who never had a being and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendom than we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines Conspiracy What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us These things that now happen concern the living and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively and when our Wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion It is true they envy not and they lie in a bosom where there can be no murmur and they that are consigned to Kingdoms and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb the glorious and eternal Bridegroom of holy Souls they cannot think our Marriages here our lighter laughings and vain rejoicings considerable as to them And yet there is a relation continued still Aristotle said that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind And the Church hath taught in general that they pray for us they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us and S. Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus that he should do for him in the other world he gave it him I say when he was dying not when he was dead And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions yet it is not less but much more than ever it was it is greater in degree and of another kind But then we should do well also to remember that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations but preserve the affections we bore to our dead when they were alive We must not so live as if they were perished but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints And we also have some ways to express this relation and to bear a part in this communion by actions of intercourse with them aud yet proper to our state such as are strictly performing the will of the dead providing for and tenderly and wisely educating their children paying their debts imitating their good example preserving their memories privately and publickly keeping their memorials and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyful Resurrection and a merciful Judgment for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus that God would shew them mercy in that day that fearful and yet much to be desired day in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity and shall find it Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations yet I do not find they have liberty to cast off the old as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls Remember that we shall converse together again let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered and that we shall meet again in the presence of God In the mean time God watcheth concerning all their interest and he will in his time both discover and recompense For though as to us they are like water spilt yet to God they are as water fallen in the Sea safe and united in his comprehension and inclosures But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence This descending to the grave is the lot of all men neither doth God respect the person of any man The rich is not protected for favour nor the poor for pity the old man is not reverenced for his age nor the Infant regarded for his tenderness youth and beauty learning and prudence wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the Grave All men and all natures and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death and strive to preserve a miserable and unpleasant life and yet they all sink down and die For so have
than all the Riches and all the Pleasures and all the Vanities and all the Kingdoms of this world I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the abode of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings and yet possibly that might be easier than to tell what or how the Soul is and works in this world where it is in the Body tanquam in alienâ domo as in a prison in fetters and restraints for here the Soul is discomposed and hindred it is not as it shall be as it ought to be as it was intended to be it is not permitted to its own freedom and proper operation so that all that we can understand of it here is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line in just and equal propositions or if it could yet because we are to understand the Soul by the Soul it becomes not only a troubled and abused object but a crooked instrument and we here can consider it just as a weak eye can behold a staff thrust into the waters of a troubled River the very water makes a refraction and the storm doubles the refraction and the water of the eye doubles the species and there is nothing right in the thing the object is out of its just place and the medium is troubled and the organ is impotent At cum exierit in liberum coelum quasi in dontum suam venerit when the Soul is entred into her own house into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly Joys then its operations are more spiritual proper and proportion'd to its being and though we cannot see at such a distance yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable Understanding it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition Certain it is that the Body does hinder many actions of the Soul It is an imperfect Body and a diseased Brain or a violent passion that makes Fools No man hath a foolish Soul and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the Bodies constitution Among Beasts which have no Reason there is a greater likeness than between Men who have And as by Faces it is easier to know a Man from a Man than a Sparrow from a Sparrow or a Squirrel from a Squirrel so the difference is very great in our Souls which difference because it is not originally in the Soul and indeed cannot be in simple or spiritual substances of the same species or kind it must needs derive wholly from the Body from its accidents and circumstances from whence it follows that because the Body casts fetters and restraints hinderances and impediments upon the Soul that the Soul is much freer in the state of separation and if it hath any act of life it is much more noble and expedite That the Soul is alive after our death St. Paul affirms Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Now it were strange that we should be alive and live with Christ and yet do no act of life The Body when it is asleep does many and if the Soul does none the Principle is less active than the Instrument but if it does any act at all in separation it must necessarily be an act or effect of Understanding there is nothing else it can do but this it can For it is but a weak and an unlearned Proposition to say That the Soul can do nothing of it self nothing without the phantasms and provisions of the Body For 1. In this life the Soul hath one principle clearly separate abstracted and immaterial I mean the Spirit of Grace which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter as in the infusion superinduction and creation of spiritual Graces 2. As nutrition generation eating and drinking are actions proper to the Body and its state so extasies visions raptures intuitive knowledg and consideration of its self acts of volition and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the Soul 3. And therefore it is observable that St. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body for by that we see his judgment of the thing that one was as likely as the other neither of them impossible or unreasonable and therefore that the Soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction 4. If in the state of Blessedness there are some actions of the Soul which do not pass through the Body such as contemplation of God and conversing with Spirits and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and Mysterious Trinity make up the Crown of Glory it follows that the necessity of the Bodies ministery is but during the state of this life and as long as it converses with fire and water and lives with corn and flesh and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetites which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases it can be no longer necessary for the Soul to be served by phantasms and material representations 5. And therefore when the Body shall be re-united it shall be so ordered that then the Body shall confess it gives not any thing but receives all its being and operation its manner and abode from the Soul and that then it comes not to serve a necessity but to partake a Glory For as the operations of the Soul in this life begin in the Body and by it the object is transmitted to the Soul so then they shall begin in the Soul and pass to the Body And as the operations of the Soul by reason of its dependence on the Body are animal natural and material so in the resurrection the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence influence and prime operation of the Soul Now between these two states stands the state of separation in which the operations of the Soul are of a middle nature that is not so spiritual as in the resurrection and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction To all which I add this consideration That our Souls have the same condition that Christs Soul had in the state of separation because he took on him all our Nature and all our Condition and it is certain Christs Soul in the three days of his separation did exercise acts of life of joy and triumph and did not sleep but visited the Souls of the Fathers trampled upon the pride of Devils and satisfied those longing Souls which were Prisoners of hope And from all this we may conclude That the Souls of all the Servants of Christ are alive and therefore do the actions of life and proper to their state and therefore it is highly probable that the Soul works clearer and understands brighter and discourses wiser and rejoyces louder and
loves noblier and desires purer and hopes stronger than it can do here But if these arguments should fail yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail For suppose the Body to be a necessary Instrument but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger by accident and chance by defect and imperfections yet that it is better than none at all and that if the Soul works imperfectly with an imperfect Body that then she works not at all when she hath none And suppose also that the Soul should be as much without sense or perception in death as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him For 2. God will restore the Soul to the Body and raise the Body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon it shall be made spiritual to minister to the Soul when the Soul is turned into a Spirit then the Soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed from her rest in Christs holy Bosom and be made perfect in her being and in all her operations And this shall first appear by that perfection which the Soul shall receive as instrumental to the last Judgment for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this World all the Register of her own Memory For all that we did in this life is laid up in our Memories and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them yet when God shall lift us from our dust then shall appear clearly all that we have done written in the Tables of our Conscience which is the Souls Memory We see many times and in many instances that a great Memory is hindred and put out and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a Curtain we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction or proper consequence And all those famous Memories of Simonides and Theodactes of Hortensius and Seneca of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus are only the Records better kept and less disturbed by accident and disease For even the Memory of Herods son of Athens of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great and by God made so sure a Record of all that ever he did that as soon as ever God shall but tune our Instrument and draw the Curtains and but light up the Candle of Immortality there we shall find it all there we shall see all and the whole world shall see all then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits we shall be like to Angels In the mean time although upon the perswasion of the former Discourse it be highly probable that the Souls of Gods Servants do live in a state of present blessedness and in the exceeding joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living and leave the event to God that as St. Paul said whether present or absent whether sleeping or waking whether perceiving or perceiving not we may be accepted of him that when we are banished this World and from the light of the Sun we may not be expelled from God and from the light of his countenance but that from our beds of sorrows our Souls may pass into the Bosom of Christ and from thence to his right hand in the day of Sentence For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and then if we have done well in the Body we shall never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God but be Domesticks of his Family and Heirs of his Kingdom and Partakers of his Glory Amen I Have now done with my Text but yet am to make you another Sermon I have told you the necessity and the state of death it may be too largely for such a sad story I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain Narative of a Life which if you imitate and write after the Copy it will make that death shall not be an evil but a thing to be desired and to be reckoned among the purchases and advantages of your Fortune When Martha and Mary went to weep over the Grave of their Brother Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon discoursing of the Resurrection and applying to the purposes of Faith and confession of Christ and glorification of God We have no other we can have no better precedent to follow and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister this rare Personage we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn many to imitate and some to exercise I chuse not to declare her Extraction and Genealogy it was indeed fair and honourable but having the blessing to be descended from Worthy and Honour'd Ancestors and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble Family yet she felt such outward Appendages to be none of hers because not of her choice but the purchase of the Virtues of others which although they did engage her to do noble things yet they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable Lives than were those which began and encreased the honour of the Families She did not love her Fortune for making her noble but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Nobleness and Excellency of Virtue fit to be owned by Persons relating to such Ancestors It is fit for us all to honour the Nobleness of a Family but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their Honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things and suffering in good causes and despising dishonourable actions and in communicating good things to others For this is the rule in Nature Those Creatures are most honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good And accordingly my self have been witness of it how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair Appendage and exteriour Honour which decked her Person and her Fortune and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the Honour of a Christian and a wise Person 2. She had a strict and severe education and it was one of Gods Graces and Favours to her For being the Heiress of a great Fortune and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations that is in that part of the Kingdom where Greatness is too often express'd in great follies and great vices God had provided a severe and angry Education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young Spirit and a fair Fortune that she might for ever be so far distant from
that is from all affection to it is supposed in the Christians life denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and being cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and having escaped from all corruption that is in the world through lust this is not so much commanded as supposed without this nothing can be done nothing can be hoped this is but the foundation of the Christian who is intended to be a habitation of God a member of Christ a temple of the holy Spirit of God the building follows 2. All Christians must acquire all the graces of the holy Spirit of God S. Peter gives the Catalogue Faith and Vertue and Knowledge and Temperance and Patience and Godliness and Brotherly kindness and Charity and that you may see what is the spirit of a Christian what an activity and brisk principle is required to the acquisition of these things the Apostle gives this percept that for the acquiring these things we should give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all diligence no lazy worker is a good Christian he must be diligent and not every diligence nor every degree of good diligence but it must be all omnem omniuo diligentiam give all diligence 3. There is yet another degree to be added here too It is not enough for a Christian to be free from corruption and to have these graces and g. to be diligent very diligent to obtain them but they must be in us and abound N. B. they must be in us these graces and this righteousness must be inherent it is not enough for us that Christ had them for us for it is true if he had not had them we should never have received those or any thing else that is good but he had them that we might have them and follow his steps who knew no sin and fulfilled all righteousness They must be in us saith S. Peter and not only so they must also abound in us that 's the end of Christ's death that 's the fruit of his Spirit they must be plentiful like a full Vintage or like Euphrates in the time of ripe Fruits they must swell over the banks for when they are but in gradu virtutis in the lowest step of sincerity they may fall from the tree like unripe fruit and be fit for nothing but for Prodigals and Swine they must be in their season and period great and excellent and eminent they must take up all our faculties fill up all our time spend all our powers satisfie the will and be adequate to all the powers of our choice that is as S. Peter adds they must be so that we make our calling and election sure so as that we shall never any more depart from God well thus far you see how severe and sacred a thing it is to be a Christian. 4. But there are yet three steps more beyond this God requires of us perseverance a thrusting all this forward even unto the end without peace and holiness no man shall see God saith the Author to the Hebrews but that 's not all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow after peace and holiness with all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which following of peace and holiness that is unless we endure all contradiction of sinners and objections without following it close and home to the utmost issue to the end of all righteousness tending even to comprehension to consummation and perfection no man shall see God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is good and great to dwell in holiness but that 's not enough it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too we must still pursue it and that unto the end for he that endureth unto the end shall be saved 5. And what more yes there is something yet For besides this extension of duration there must be intensio graduum for nondum comprehendimus nondum perfecti sumus we have not yet comprehended we are not yet made perfect but that must be aimed at Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect be ye meek as Christ is be ye holy as God is holy pure as your Father in Heaven is pure and who can be so no man can be so in degree but so in kind every man must desire and every man must contend to be and g. it is possible else it had never been required 6. And now after all this one thing more is to be done you must be so for your selves and you must be so for others you must be so as to please God and you must be so to edifie your Brethren Let your light so shine before men that they may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven let it be so eminent and conspicuous that all that see your conversation and all that come into your Congregations may be convinced and falling down and worshipping may say of a truth the Spirit of the Lord is in you And g. our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount which is the summary of a Christians life at the end of the eight beatitudes tells all his Followers and Disciples ye are the salt of the world ye are the light of the world and g. the Kingdom of Heaven or the Gospel is compared to a woman that hid in three measures of meal the Jews the Turks the Heathen Idolaters her Leaven till all was leavened our Light must be so shining our Conversation so exemplar as to draw all the world after us that they that will not may be ashamed and they that wil lmay be allured by the beauty of the flame These are the proportions and measures of every Christian for from the days of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force that although John the Baptist was the greatest that ever was born of woman yet he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven the meanest of the Laity may be greater than he This is a great height and these things I have premised not only to describe the duty of all that are here present even of all Christians whatsoever that you may not depart without your portion of a blessing but also as a foundation of the ensuing periods which I shall address to you my Brethren of the Clergy the Fathers of the people for I speak in a School of the Prophets Prophets and Prophets Sons to you who are or intend to be so For God hath made a separation of you even beyond this separation he hath separated you yet again he hath put you anew into the Chrysoble he hath made you to pass through the fire seven times more For it is true that the whole community of the People is the Church Ecclesia sancta est communio sanctorum the holy Catholick Church is the communion of Saints but yet by the voice and consent of all Christendom you are the Church by way of propriety and
that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee The words are a sad upbraiding to all ungodly Ministers and they need no Commentary for whatever their Office and Employment be to teach Gods people yet unless they regard the Commandments of God in their heart and practice themselves they having nothing to do with the Word of God they sin in taking the Covenant a Testament of God into their mouth God said to the sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raschaah that is to him that had sinned and had not repented of his sins so the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it Impio a qui non agit poenitentiam orat in praevaricatione dixit Deus Indeed if none could be admitted to this Ministry but those who had never sinn'd the Harvest might be very great but the Labourers would be extremely few or rather none at all but after repentance they must be admitted and not before Iniquitas opilabit os eorum iniquity shall stop their mouths saith David that ought to silence them indeed And this was David's care when he had fallen into the foul crimes of Murder and Adultery he knew himself unfit and unable though he were a Prophet to teach others the Laws of God but when he prayed to God to restore him to a free Spirit he addes Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee till then it was to no purpose for him to Preach But thou when thou art converted said Christ to Peter strengthen the Brethren The Primitive Church had a degree of severity beyond this for they would not admit any man who had done publick Penance to receive holy Orders To which purpose they were excellent words which P. Hormisda spake in his Letters to the Bishops of Spain in which he exhorts them to the observation of the ancient Canons of the Church telling them that They who are promoted to the Clergy ought to be better than others nam longâ debet vitam suam probatione monstrare cui gubernacula committuntur Ecclesiae non negamus c. we deny not but amongst the Laity there are many whose manners are pleasing to God but the faithful Laws of God seek for him Souldiers that are approved and they ought rather to afford to others by themselves an example of a religious life than require it from them ideoque nullus ex poenitentibus debet ordinari quisnam quem paulo antè jacentem viderat veneretur Autistitem None of the publick Penitents must be ordained for who will esteem that Priest venerable whom a little before he saw dishonoured by scandalous and publick Crimes But this is to be understood of them only as the Prophet Amos expresses it qui corripiuntur in portâ who are rebuked in the gate condemned by publick sentence and are blotted with the Reproaches of the Law But in all cases Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum The guilt of the sin which a man reproves quite spoils his Sermon ipsam obmutescere facundiam si aegra sit conscientia said S. Ambrose a sick conscience spoils the tongue of the Eloquent and makes it stammer For how shall any man preach against sin or affright his people from their dangers if he denies Gods justice and if he thinks God is just why is not he confounded that with his own mouth pronounces damnation against himself Nothing confounds a man so much as to be judged out of his own mouth Esse munda studeat manus quae diluere sordes curat said S. Gregory the hand that means to make another clean should not it self be dirty But all this is but in general there are yet considerations more particular and material 1. A Minister of an evil life cannot do so much good to his charges he cannot profit them he is not useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pulls down as fast or faster than he builds up Thalmud absque opere non est magnum Thalmud said the Jews Proverb a good Sermon without a good example is no very good Sermon For besides that such a man is contemptible to his people contemptible not only naturally but by Divine Judgment according to that of the Prophet propter quod dedi vos contemptibiles omni populo for this very reason I have made you to be scorned in the eyes of all the people but besides this it is very considerable what S. Chrysostom says si praedicas non facis opus proponis tanquam impossibile he that preaches mortification and lives voluptuously propounds the duty as if it were impossible for certainly if it be good and if it be possible a man will ask why is it not done it is easie for him that is well to give a sick man counsel verùm tu si hic esses certè aliter sentires when it comes to be his own case when the sickness pinches and when the belly calls for meat where 's the fine oration then omnia quae vindicâris in alio tibi ipsi vehementer fugienda sunt etenim non modo accusator sed ne objurgator ferendus est qui quod in alio vitium reprehendit in eo ipso deprehenditur whatsoever you reprove in others must be infinitely avoided by your self for no man will endure an Accuser no nor so much as a man to chide for that fault in which himself was taken But if your charges see you bear your sickness patiently and your Cross nobly and despise money generously and forgive your Enemy bravely and relieve the poor charitably then he sees your Doctrine is tangible and material it is more then words and he loves you and considers what you say In the East the Shepherds used to go before their sheep to which our Blessed Saviour alludes my sheep hear my voice and follow me but our Shepherds are forced to drive them and affright them with dogs and noises it were better if themselves did go before 3. A Minister of an evil life cannot preach with that fervour and efficacy with that life spirit as a good man does for besides that he does not himself understand the secrets of Religion and the private inducements of the Spirit and the sweetness of internal joy and the unexpressible advantages of a holy peace besides this he cannot heartily speak all that he knows he hath a clog at his foot and a gag in his teeth there is a fear and there is a shame and there is a guilt and a secret willingness that the thing were not true and some little private arts to lessen his own consent and to take off the asperities and consequent troubles of a clear conviction To which if we add that there is a secret envy in all wicked men against the prosperities of goodness and if I should say no more this alone were enough to silence a Boanerges and to make his Thunder still and easie as an
for the People to bless the People to divert Judgments from them to deprecate the wrath of God to make an attonement for them and to reconcile them to the eternal mercy certain it is that though the Sermons of a wicked Minister may do some good not so much as they ought but some they can but the Prayer of a wicked Minister does no good at all it provokes God to anger it is an abomination in his righteous eyes Thirdly The Ecclesiastical Order is by Christ appointed to minister his holy Spirit to the People The Priests in Baptism and the holy Eucharist and Prayer and Intercession The Bishop in all these and in Ordination besides and in Confirmation and in Solemn Blessing Now then consider what will be the event of this without effect Can he minister the Spirit from whom the Spirit of God is departed And g. since all wickedness does grieve the Spirit of God and great wickedness defiles his Temples and destroys them unto the ground and extinguishes the Spirit that drives iniquity away these persons are no longer spiritual men they are carnal and sold under sin and walk not in the Spirit they are spiritual just as Simon Magus was a Christian or as Judas was an Apostle he had the name of it but what says the Scripture he fell from it by transgression only this as he that is Baptized has for ever a title to the Promises and a possibility of Repentance and a right to Restitution until he renounces all and never will or can repent so there is in all our holy Orders an indelible character and they can by a new life be restored to all their powers but in the mean time while they abide in sin and carnality the cloud is over the face of the Sun and the Spirit of God appears not in a fiery tongue that is not in material and active demonstrations and how far he will be ministred by the Offices of an unworthy man we know not only by all that is said in Scripture we are made to fear that things will not be so well with the people till the Minister be better only this we are sure of that though one man may be much the worse for another mans sin yet without his own fault no man shall perish and God will do his work alone and the Spirit of God though he be ordinarily conveyed by Ecclesiastical Ministries yet he also comes irregularly and in ways of his own and prevents the external Rites and prepossesses the hearts of his Servants and the people also have so much portion in the Evangelical Ministration that if they be holy they shall receive the holy Ghost in their hearts and will express him in their lives and themselves also become Kings and Priests unto God while they are zealous of good works And to this purpose may the proverb of the Rabbins be rightly understood Major est qui respondit Amen quam qui benedicit He that sayes Amen is greater than he that blesses or prays meaning if he heartily desires what the other perfunctorily and with his lips only utters not praying with his heart and with the acceptabilities of a good life the Amen shall be more than all the Prayer and the People shall prevail for themselves when the Priest could not according to the saying of Midrasich Tehillim Quicunque dicit Amen omnibus viribus suis ei aperiuntur portae paradisi sicut dictum est ingredietur gens justa He that says Amen with his whole power to him the gates of Paradise shall be open according to that which is said And the righteous Nation shall enter in And this is excellently discoursed of by S. Austin Sacramentum gratiae dat etiam Deus per malos ipsam vero gratim non nisi per seipsum vel per sanctos suos and g. he gives remission of sins by himself or by the members of the Dove so that good Men shall be supplied by God But as this is an infinite comfort to the people so it is an intolerable shame to all wicked Ministers the benefit which God intended to minister by them the people shall have without their help and whether they will or no but because the people get nothing by their ministration or but very little the Ministers shall never have their portion where the good people shall inhabit to eternal Ages And I beseech you to consider what an infinite confusion that will be at the day of Judgment when they to whom you have preach'd Righteousness shall enter into everlasting glory and you who have preached it shall have the curse of Hanameel and the reward of Balaam the wages of unrighteousness But thus it was when the Wise men asked the Doctors where Christ should be born they told them right but the Wise men went to Christ and found him and the Doctors sate still and went not Fourthly Consider That every sin which is committed by a Minister of Religion is more than one and it is as soon espied too for more men look upon the Sun in an Eclipse than when he is in his beauty but every spot I say is greater every mote is a beam it is not only made so but it is so it hath not the excuses of the people is not pitiable by the measures of their infirmity and g. 1. It is reckoned in the accounts of malice never of ignorance for ignorance it self in them is always a double sin and g. it is very remarkable that when God gave command to the Levitical Priests to make attonement for the sins of ignorance in the people there is no mention made of the Priests sin of ignorance God supposed no such thing in them and Moses did not mention it and there was no provision made in that case as you may see at large in Levit. 4. and Numb 15. But 2. because every Priest is a man also observe how his sin is described Levit. 4. 3. If the Priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the People that is if he be so degenerate and descend from the glory where God hath placed him and do sin after the manner of the people then he is to proceed to remedy intimating that it is infinitely besides expectation it is a strange thing it is like a monstrous production it is unnatural that a Priest should sin according as the People do however if he does it is not connived at which a sentence gentle as that finds which is a sin of ignorance or the sin of the people no it is not for it is always malice it is always uncharitableness for it brings mischief to their Congregations and contracts their blessings into little circuits and turns their bread into a stone and their Wine to Vinegar And then besides this 3. It is also scandalous and then it is infinitely against Charity such Ministers make the people of God to sin and that 's against the nature of their Office
neither tempteth he any man God is true and every man a lyar rule LXIII Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another as Prayer with Preaching to the disparagement of either but use both in their proper seasons and according to appointed Order rule LXIV Let no man preach for the praise of men but if you meet it instantly watch and stand upon your guard and pray against your own vanity and by an express act of acknowledgment and adoration return the praise to God Remember that Herod was for the omission of this smitten by an Angel and do thou tremble fearing left the judgment of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechism rule LXV EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day before Evening Prayer to instruct all young people in the Creed the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism rule LXVI Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin that all who desire it may be present but let all the more ignorant and uninstructed part of the people whether they be old or young be requir'd to be present that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations or Religion Ever remembring that if in these things they be unskilful whatever is taught besides is like a house built upon the sand rule LXVII Let every Minister teach his people the use practice methods and benefits of meditation or mental prayer Let them draw out for them helps and rules for their assistance in it and furnish them with materials concerning the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus the greatness of God our own meanness the dreadful sound of the last Trumpet the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday let them be taught to consider what they have been what they are and what they shall be and above all things what are the issues of eternity glories never to cease pains never to be ended rule LXVIII Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins and a declaration of the state of their Souls to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty for by preaching and catechising and private entercourse all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd but by preaching alone they cannot rule LXIX Let the people be exhorted to keep Fasting days and the Feasts of the Church according to their respective capacities so it be done without burden to them and without becoming a snare that is that upon the account of Religion and holy desires to please God they spend some time in Religion besides the Lords-day but be very careful that the Lords-day be kept religiously according to the severest measures of the Church and the commands of Authority ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification who never fast so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and Religion who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church rule LXX Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation or other solemn times of his coming to them that they may be confirm'd And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the Principles of Religion their vow of Baptism the excellency of Christian Religion the necessity and advantages of it and of living according to it be fitted and disposed and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop that he may pray over them and invocate the holy Spirit and minister the holy Rite of Confirmation VI. Rules and Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick rule LXXI EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the Sick and Afflicted persons of his Parish ever remembring that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need rule LXXII A Minister must not stay till he be sent for but of his own accord and care to go to them to examine them to exhort them to perfect their repentance to strengthen their faith to encourage their patience to perswade them to resignation to the renewing of their holy vows to the love of God to be reconcil'd to their neighbours to make restitution and amends to confess their sins to settle their estate to provide for their charges to do acts of piety and charity and above all things that they take care they do not sin towards the end of their lives For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed rule LXXIII When you comfort the afflicted endeavour to bring them to the true love of God for he that serves God for Gods sake it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow rule LXXIV In answering the cases of conscience of the sick or afflicted people consider not who asks but what he asks and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul than the conveniency of his estate for no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine rule LXXV If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd only he is to be called upon to finish his duty to do all the good he can in that season to pray for pardon and acceptance but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences neither cast him down in despair nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd rule LXXVI In order to these and many other good purposes every Minister ought frequently to converse with his Parishioners to go to their houses but always publickly with witness and with prudence left what is charitably intended be scandalously reported and in all your conversation be sure to give good example and upon all occasions to give good counsel VII Of ministring the Sacraments publick Prayers and other duties of Ministers rule LXXVII EVery Minister is oblig'd publickly or privately to read the Common Prayers every day in the week at Morning and Evening and iâ— great Towns and populous places conveniently inhabited it must be read in Churches that the daily sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving may never cease rule LXXVIII The Minister is to instruct the people that the Baptism of their children ought not to be ordinarily deferr'd longer than till the next Sunday after the birth of the child left importune and unnecessary delay occasion that the child die before it is dedicated to the service of God and the Religion of the Lord Jesus before it be born again admitted to the Promises of the Gospel