we finde the face of God clouded from us let our souls refuse comfort till we have recovered his favour which is better then life do we find our selves upon our sound repentance received to grace and favour of the Almighty and that he is well pleased with our persons and with our poor obediences and that he smiles upon us in Heaven courage dear Brethren in spight of all the frowns and menaces of the World we are safe and shall be happy here is comfort for us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 with that chosen vessel we are troubled on every side yet not distressed â—e are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken 2. Cor. 4.8 cast down but not destroyed for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish 16. yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us 18. a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory to the full possession whereof the God that hath ordained us graciously bring us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost three persons and one glorious God be given all praise honour glory and dominion now and for evermore A Second SERMON In prosecution of the same Text PREACHT AT St. GREGORIES CHURCH IN NORWICH July 21. 1644. By JOS. B. of N. EPHES. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption WE have done with the Dehortation it self and therein with the Act forbidden Grieve not and with the title of the Subject the Holy Spirit of God We descend to the inforcement of the Dehortation by the great merit of the Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption Those that are great and good we would not willingly offend though meer strangers to us but if they be besides our great friends and liberal Benefactors men that have deserved highly of us we justly hold it a foul shame and abominable ingratitude wilfully to do ought that might affront them It is therefore added for a strong disswasive from Grieving the Spirit of God that by him we are sealed to the day of redemption All the world shall in vain strive to do for us what our great Friend in Heaven hath done our loathness therefore to grieve him must be according to the depth of our obligation to him Cast your eyes then a little upon the wonderful Benefit here specified and see First what this day of Redemption is Secondly what is the sealing of us to this day and Thirdly why the sealing of us to this day should be a sufficient motive to withhold us from grieving the Holy Spirit of God These three must be the limits of my Speech and your Atrention Redemption signifies as much as a Ransome A Ransome implies a Captivity or Servitude There is a threefold Captivity from which we are freed Of Sin of Misery of Death For the first We are sold under sin saith our Apostle No Slave in Argier is more truly sold in the Market under a Turkish Pyrate then we are naturally sold under the Tyranny of sin by whom we are bound hand and foot and can stir neither of them towards God and dungeon'd up in the darkness of our ignorance without any Glimpse of the vision of God For the second the very name of Captivity implyes Misery enough what outward evil is incident into a man which bondage doth not bring with it Wo is me there was never so much captivity in this land since it was a Nation nor so woful a Captivity as this of brethren to brethren Complaints there are good store on both sides of restraint want ill-lodging hard and scant diet Irons insultations scornes and extremities of ill usage of all kindes and what other is to be found in the whole course of this wretched life of ours the best whereof is vanity and the worst infinite vexations But Thirdly if some men have been so externally happy as to avoid some of these miseries for all men smart not alike yet never man did or can avoid the third which is obnoxiousness to death By the offence of one saith the Apostle judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 Sin hath raigned unto death Ps 21. It is more then an Ordinance a statute law in Heaven Statutum est c. It is enacted to all men once to dye Heb. 9.27 This then is our bondage or captivity now comes our redemption from all these at once when upon our happy dissolution we are freed from sin from misery from death and enter into the possession of glory thus our Saviour Lift up your heads for the day of your redemption draweth nigh thus saith St. Paul The creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 It is the same condition of the members of Christ which was of the head that they overcome death by dying when therefore the bands of death are loosed and we are fully freed from the dominion of the first death and danger of the second and therein from all the capacity not only of the rule and power of sin but of the life and in-dwelling of it and from all the miseries both bodily and spirituall that attend it and when in the same instant our soul takes possession of that glory which shall once in the consociation of it's glorious partner the body be perfectly consummated Then and not till then is the day of our redemption Is there any of us therefore that complaines of his sad and hard condition here in the world paines of body grief of mind agonies of soul crosses in estate discontentments in his families suffering in his good name let him bethink himself where he is this is the time of his captivity and what other can be expected in this case Can we think there is no difference betwixt liberty bondage Can the slave think to be as free as his Patron Ease rest liberty must be lookt for elsewhere but whiles we are here we must make no account of other then these varieties of misery our redemption shall free us from them all But now perhaps some of you are ready to say of the Redemption as they did of the Resurrection that it is past already and so indeed it is one way in respect of the price laid out by the Son of God the invaluable price of his blood for the redemption of man but so that it must be taken out by and applied to every soul inparticular if we will have the benefit redound to us It is his Redemption before it is now only our Redemption when it is brought home to us Oh then the dear and happy day of this our finall redemption wherein we shall be absolutely freed from all the miserable sorrowes paines cares fears
stated and arbitrated by Reverend and Learned Bishop Overall on one side and our Divines on the other As for this Authour himself to prevent thy hard censure of his leaning to Arminius we referre thee to the passages which thou wilt meet with wherein he claims the liberty of reserving his own Judgement and more especially to pag. 387. where in the close of the Tract his unbyassedness is clearly professed Now Reader after thy quarrel with us taken off for our thus long withholding the good in these Remains from thee when it was in the power of our hands to give them forth for which we plead our long mocked Expectation of a promised and delayed Reimpression of all the Authours scattered Tracts to be reduced into a Volume in which these were meant to be included we dismiss thee with this blessing and we think it blessing enough May the Spirit of this Reverend Father rest upon thee and maist thou be but as Sound in thy Judgment and Religious in thy Affections as he was and as Blessed in the End as he now is The Heads of what is here Collected A Sermon Preach't before K. James at Hampton-Court in September 1624. on Philip. 3.18 19. Fol. 1 Christian Liberty laid forth in a Sermon at White-Hall 1628. on Call 5.1 Fol. 19 Divine Light and Reflections in a Sermon at White-Hall on Whitsunday 1640. on 1 John 1.5 Fol. 33 A Sermon Preach't at the Cathedral of Exceter upon the Pacification betwixt the two Kingdomes Septemb. 7. 1641. on Psalm 46.8 Fol. 48 The Mischief of Faction and the Remedy of it a Sermon at White-Hall on the second Sunday in Lent 1641. on Psal 60.1 Fol. 65 A Sermon Preacht at the Tower March 20. 1641. on James 4.1 Fol. 84 A Sermon Preach't on Whitsunday June 9. 1644. in Norwich on Ephes 4.30 Fol. 101 A Second Sermon in prosecution of the same Text in Norwich July 21. 1644. Fol. 127 A Sermon on Easter-day at Higham 1648. Fol. 185 A Sermon Preacht on Whitsunday at Higham 1652. on Rom. 8.14 Fol. 140 The Mourner in Sion on Ecclesiastes 3.4 Fol. 154 A Sermon Preacht at Higham July 1 1655. on 1 Pet. 1.17 Fol. 192 The Womens Vail or a Discourse concerning the necessity or expedience of the Close-covering of the Heads of Women Fol. 265 Holy Decency in the Worship of God Fol. 253 Good Security a discourse of the Christians Assurance Fol. 261 A plain and familiar explication of Christs presence in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood Fol. 287 A Letter for the Observation of the Feast of Christs Nativity Fol. 296 A Letter to Mr. William Struthers one of the Preachers of Edenbourgh Fol. 306 Epistola D. Baltasari Willio S. T. D. Fol. 317 Epistola D. Lud. Crocio S. T. D. Fol. 321 Epistola D. Herman Hildebrando S. T. D. Fol. 331 Reverendissimo Marco Antonio de Dom. Archiep. Spalatensi Epistola discessus sui ad Romam dissuasiva Fol. 394 A Modest Offer Fol. 336 Certain irrefragable Propositions worthy of serious Consideration Fol. 348 The way of peace in the five busie Articles commonly known by the name of Arminia Fol. 353 A Letter concerning the falling away from Grace Fol. 389 A Letter concerning Religion Fol. 401 Resolutions for Religion Fol. 405 A Letter concerning the frequent injection of Temptations Fol. 411 A consolatory Letter to one under Censure Fol. 414 A short answer to the Nine Arguments which are brought against the Bishops sitting in Parliament Fol. 417 For Episcopacy and Liturgie Fol. 421 A speech in Parliament Fol. 425 A speech in Parliament in defence of the Canons made in Convocation Fol. 428 A speech in Parliament concerning the power of Bishops in Secular things Fol. 432 Anthemes for the Cathedral of Exceter Fol. 435 OBSERVATIONS Of some Specialties of DIVINE PROVIDENCE In the Life of JOS. HALL BISHOP of NORWICH Written with his own Hand NOt out of a vain affectation of my own Glory which I know how little it can avail me when I am gone hence but out of a sincere desire to give glory to my God whose wonderful Providence I have noted in all my wayes have I recorded some remarkable passages of my fore-past life what I have done is worthy of nothing but silence and forgetfulness but what God hath done for me is worthy of everlasting and thankfull Memory I was born Julii 1. 1574. at five of the clock in the Morning in Bristow-Park within the Parish of Ashby de la Zouch a Town in Leicester-shire of honest and well allowed Parentage my Father was an Officer under that truly Honourable and Religious Henry Earl of Huntingdon President of the North and under him had the Government of that Market-Town wherein the chief Seat of that Earldome is placed My Mother Winifride of the House of the Bambridges was a woman of that rare Sanctity that were it not for my Interest in Nature I durst say that neither Aleth the mother of that just Honour of Clareval nor Monica nor any other of those pious Matrons antiently famous for Devotion need to disdain her admittance to comparison She was continually exercised with the affliction of a weak Body and oft of a wounded Spirit the Agonies whereof as she would oft recount with much passion professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were but Flea-bites to those Scorpions so from them all at last she found an happy and comfortable deliverance and that not without a more then ordinary hand of God For on a time being in great distress of Conscience she thought in her Dream there stood by her a grave Personage in the Gown and other Habits of a Physitian who enquiring of her estate and receiving a sad and querulous answer from her took her by the hand and bad her be of good Comfort for this should be the last Fit that ever she should feel of this kinde whereto she seemed to answer that upon that condition she could well be content for the time with that or any other torment reply was made to her as she thought with a redoubled assurance of that happy issue of this her last tryal whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy which yet upon her awaking left her more disconsolate as then conceiting her happiness imaginary her misery real when the very same day she was visited by the reverend and in his time famous Divine Mr. Anthony Gilby under whose Ministry she lived who upon the Relation of this her pleasing Vision and the contrary effects it had in her began to perswade her that Dream was no other then Divine and that she had good reason to think that gracious premonition was sent her from God himself who though ordinarily he keeps the common rode of his proceedings yet sometimes in the Distresses of his Servants he goes unusual wayes to their relief hereupon she began to take heart and by good Counsel and her fervent prayers found that happy prediction verified to her and upon all occasions in the
great power are met in any Prince he can be content to fit still and not break forth into some notable breaches of publick peace And where once the fire of war is kindled it is not easily quenched yea it runs as in a trayn and feeds it self with all the combustable matter it meets withall on every side and therefore t is a marveilous work of the power and mercy of God that he makes war to cease And this he doth either by an over-powering victory as in the case of Hezekiah Sennacherib which should seem to be the drift of this Psalme whereof every passage imports such a victory and triumph as the conquered adversary should never be able to recover Or by tempering and composing the hearts of men restraining them in their most furious carriere and taming their wild heats of revenge and inclining them to termes of peace This is a thing which none but he can do the heart of man is an unruly and head strong thing it is not more close then violent as none can know it so none can over-rule it but he that made it It is a rough sea he only can say here shalt thou stay thy proud waves Shortly then publick peace is the proper work of an Almighty and mercifull God His very title is Deus pacis the God of peace Rom. 15.33 and 16.20 Heb. 13.20 so as this is his peculium yea it is not only his for he owes it but his for he makes it I make peace and create evill I the Lord do all these things Esa 45.7 That malignant Spirit is in this his profest opposite that he is the great make-bate of the World Labouring to set all together by the ears sowing discord betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt one peece of Earth against another Man against Man Nation against Nation hence he hath the name of Satan of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Diabolus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whose whole indeavour is enmity and destruction Contrarily the good God of Heaven whose work it is to destroy the works of the Devill is all for peace he loves peace he commands it he effects it He maketh wars to cease This is his work in the kinde and so much more his work in the extent To the ends of the Earth by how much more good any work is by so much more it is his and by how much more common any good is by so much better it is Even the pax pectoris the private and bosome peace of every man with himself is his great and good work for the heart of every man is naturally as an unquiet sea ever tossing and restlesse troubled with variety of boistrous passions he only can calme it the peace of the family is his he maketh men to be of one minde in an house without whose work there is nothing but jarres and discord betwixt husband and wife parents and children masters and servants servants and children with each other so as the house is made if not an hell for the time yet a purgatory at the least the peace of the neighbourhood is his without whom there is nothing but scolding brawling bloodsheds lawing that a City is at unity in it self not divided into sides and factions it is the Lords doing for many men many mindes and every man is naturally addicted to his own opinion hence grow daily destractions in populous bodies That a Country that a Nation is so is so much more his work as there are more heads and hearts to governe But that one Nation should be at unity with another yea that all Nations should agree upon an universall cessation of armes and embrace peace A domino factum est hoc est mirabile it must needs be the Lords doing so much more eminently and it is marveilous in our eyes Faciam eos in gentem unam was a word fit only for the mouth of God who only can restrain hands and conjoyne hearts as here He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth Now wherefore serves all this but for the direction of our recourse for the excitation of our duty and immitation for the challenge of our thankfulnesse In the first place are we troubled with the fears or rumours of wars are we grieved with the quarrells and dissensions that we finde within the bosome of our own Nation or Church would we earnestly desire to finde all differences composed and a constant peace setled amongst us we see whether to make our addresse even to that omnipotent God who maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the earth who breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear in sunder And surely if ever any Nation had cause to complain in the midst of a publick peace of the danger of private destractions and factious divisions ours is it wherein I know not how many uncouch Sects are lately risen out of Hell to the disturbance of our wonted peace all of them eagerly pursuing their own various fancies and opposing our formerly received truth what should we do then but be take our selves in our earnest supplications to the God of peace with an Help Lord never ceasing to solicit him with our prayers that he would be pleased so to order the hearts of men that they might encline to an happy agreement at least to a meek cessation of those unkinde quarrels wherewith the Church is thus miserably afflicted But secondly in vain shall we pray if we do nothing Our prayers serve only to testifie the truth of our desires and to what purpose shall we pretend a desire of that which we indeavour not to effect That God who makes wars and quarrels to cease useth means to accomplish that peace which he decrees And what are those means but the inclinations projects labors of all the well-willers to peace It must be our care therefore to immitate yea to second God in this great work of peace-making The phrase is a strange but an emphaticall one that Deborah uses in her song Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 Lo what a word here is To help the Lord what help needs the Almighty or what help can our weaknesse afford to his omnipotence Yet when we put our hands to his and do that as instruments which he as the authour requires of us and works by us we help that Lord which gives us all the motions both of our wills and actions so must we do in the promoting of peace and the allaying of quarrells when an house is on fire we must every one cast in his pail-full to the quenching of the flames It is not enough that we look on harmlesly with our hands in our bosomes No we add to that burning which we indeavour not to quench We must contribute our utmost to the cessation of these spirituall and intellectuall wars which shall be
Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of Redemption IT was a rule of some wise Heathen of old That he was a great Master of Morality that had learn'd to govern his Tongue his Gut his Concupiscence these three And well might it be so when Christianity hath so farr seconded it as that the Spirit of God hath singled out one of these for a Triall of the rest He that offends not with his Tongue is a perfect Man James 2.2 So as that triplicity is reduced to an Unitie and indeed if a man have attained to an exact government of this loose and busie filme which we carry in our mouths it is a great argument of his absolute Mastership over himself in the other particulars whereupon it is that the Apostle hath hedged in my Text with this Charge Before my Text inhibiting all corrupt Communication after it all bitternesse and Clamour and evill speaking and betwixt both enforcing this vehement and Heavenly dehortation And grieve not the holy Spirit Intimating in the very contexture of the words that that man can never hold good terms with the Spirit of God what profession soever he makes that lets his tongue loose to obscene and filthy Communication or to bitter or spightfull words against his Brethren and in these words disswading us both from this and all other before mentioned particularities of wickednesse by an argument drawn from unkindnesse look to it for if you shall give way to any of these vicious courses ye shall grieve the holy Spirit of God and that will be a shamefull and sinfull ingratitude in you forasmuch as that holy Spirit hath been so gracious unto you as to Seale you to the day of Redemption a motive which how sleight soever it may seem to a carnall heart and by such a one may be past over and pisht at in imitation of the carelesse note of Pharaoh Who is the Spirit of God that I should let my Corruptions go yet to a regenerate man to such our Apostle writes it is that irresistible force whereof Nahum speaks that rends the very Rocks before it Nahum 1.6 And indeed an ingenuous Spirit is more moved with this then with all outward violence The Law of Christ both constraines and restraines him constraines him to all good Actions and restraines him from all evill The good Patriark Joseph when his wanton Mistresse solicited him to her wicked lust Behold saith he My Master hath committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in his house then I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou art his wife how then can I do this great wickednesse and sin against God Gen. â—â— 8.9 wherein ye see he hath a double Antidote for her poysonous suggestion the one his Masters favour and trust which he may not violate the other the offence of his God Joseph knew he could not do this wickednesse but he must bring plagues enough upon his head but that is not the thing he stands upon so much as the sin against God A Pilate will do any thing rather then offend a Cesar that word thou art not Cesars friend if thou let him go John 19.12 strikes the matter dead Thou art not Gods friend if thou entertain these sins cannot but be prevalent with a good heart and bear him out against all Temptations and this is the force of our Apostles inference here who after the enumeration of that black Catalogue of sins both of the whole man and especially those of the Tongue infers And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are Sealed to the Day of Redemption The Text you see is a dehortatory charge to avoid the offence of God wherein we have the Act and the subject the Act Grieve not the subject set forth by his Title by his Merit his Title The holy Spirit of God his Merit and our obligation thence arising By whom ye are sealed to the day of Redemption the subject is first considerable both in Nature and Act as that the knowledg and respect whereof doth both most disswade us from the offence and aggravate it when it is committed The holy Spirit of God which when we have shortly meditated on apart we shall joyne together by the Act inhibited in this holy dehortation That this is particularly to be taken of the third person of the blessed Trinity to whom this day is peculiarly devoted there can be no doubt for both the Title is his The holy Spirit of God not absolutely God who is an holy Spirit but the holy Spirit of God and the effect attributed to him is no lesse proper to him for as the contriving of our Redemption is ascribed to the Father the atchieving of it to the Son So the Sealing confirming and applying of it to the Holy Ghost There are many Spirits and those holy and those of God as their Creator and Owner as the enumerable Company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Hebr. 12. but this is set forth as Zanchius notes well with a double Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Spirit by a transcendent eminence by a singularity as that which is alone The holy Spirit of God Now why the third Person should specially be denominated a Spirit a title no lesse belonging to the Father and the Son to the whole absolute Deity as being rather Essential then Personal or why an holy Spirit since Holinesse is as truly Essentiall to the other Persons also as their very being Or why being coequal and coessential with God the Father and the Son he should be called the Spirit of God though they might seem points incident into the Day yet because they are Catechetical heads I hold it not so fit to dwell in them at this time Only by the way give me leave to say that it had been happy both for the Church of England in general and this Diocesse in particular that these Catechetical Sermons had been more frequent then they have been as those which are most usefull and necessary for the grounding of Gods People in the principles of saving Doctrine and I should earnestly exhort those of my Brethren of the Ministry that hear me this day that they would in these perilous and distractive times bend their labours this way as that which may be most effectuall for the setling of the Soules of their hearers in the grounds of true Religion that they may not be carried about with every winde of Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cockboat of mens fancies as the Apostle speak but this by the way I shall now only urge so much of the Person as may add weight to the dehortation from the Act Grieve not the holy Spirit of God and every notion of it adds a several weight as a Spirit as the Spirit of God as the holy Spirit of God It is a rule not capable of contradiction that by how much more
excellent the Person so much more hainous is the offence done to him As to offend an Officer is in the eye of the Law more then to offend a private Subject a Magistrate more then an inferiour Officer a Peere more then a Magistrate for that is Scandalum Magnatum a Prince more then a Peere a Monarch more then a Prince Now in very nature a Spirit is more excellent then a Body I could send you higher but if we do but look into our own breasts we shall finde the difference There is a Spirit in Man saith Elihu Job 32.8 The Spirit of Man is as the Candle of the Lord saith Wise Solomon Prov. 20.27 without which the whole House is all dark and confused Now what comparison is there betwixt the Soul which is a Spirit and the Body which is Flesh even this which Wise Solomon instanceth in may serve for all The Spirit of a Man sustains his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can hear Lo the Body helps to breed infirmities and the Spirit bears them out to which add the Body without the Spirit is dead the Spirit without the Body lives more It is a sad word of David when he complaines My bones are vexed Ps 6.2 and cleaves to my skin Psal 102.5 yet all this is tolerable in respect of that My Spirit faileth me My Spirit is overwhelmed within me my heart within me is desolate Psal 143.4 they were sore strokes that fetcht blood of our blessed Saviour but they were nothing to these inward torments that wrung from him the bloody sweat in his Agony when he said my soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy unto the Death could we conceive that the Body could be capable of pain without the Spirit as indeed it is not since the Body feeles only by the Spirit that pain were painlesse but this we are sure of that the Spirit feels more exquisite pain without the Body in the state of separation from it then it could feel in the former conjunction with it and the wrong that is done to the Soul is more haynous then that which can be inflicted on the Body By how much then more pure simple perfect excellent the Spirit is whom we offend by so much more grievous is the offence to offend the Spirit of any good Man one of Christs little ones is so hainous that it were better for a man to have a milstone hanged about his neck and to be cast into the bottom of the Sea Mat. 18.6 To offend an Angel which is an higher degree of spirituality is more then to vex the Spirit of the best man Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy Flesh to sin neither say before the Angel that it was an errour Eccles 5.6 Hence St. Paul heightens his adjuration to Timothy I charge thee before the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 And giving order for the decent demeanure of the Corinthian Women in the Congregation requires That they should have power on their head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 To offend therefore the God of Spirits the Father of these spirituall Lights must needs be an infinite aggravation of the sin even so much more as He is above those his best Creatures and there cannot be so much distance betwixt the poorest worme that crawles on the Earth and the most glorious Archangel of Heaven as there is betwixt him and his Creator One would think now there could be no step higher then this yet there is our Saviour hath so taught us to distinguish of sins that he tells us All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven Matth. 12.31 and Marc. 3.29 Not that we can sin against one Person and not offend another for their essence is but one but this sin is singled out for a special obstruction of forgivenesse for that it is done against the illumination and Influence of that Grace whereof the Holy Ghost is the immediate giver and worker in the Soul who is therfore called the Spirit of Grace hereupon is Stevens challenge to the stiff-necked Jews Act. 7.51 Ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost And his charge to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Act. 5.3 Ye see then how this charge riseth and what force is put into it by the condition of the Person A Spirit the holy Spirit the holy Spirit of God enough to make way for the consideration of the Act inhibited Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Grieve not c. How incompatible are the termes of this charge That which makes the sin as it is set forth more sinfull may seem to make it impossible If a Spirit how is it capable of passion and if it be impassible how can it be grieved Alas we weak mortalls are subject to be hurried about with every blast of passion The Almighty is above all the reach of these unquiet perturbations Lo that God which mercifully condescended because his infinite glory transcends our weaknesse to speak unto us men by man and by Angels in the forme of Men speaks to us men in the style and language of Men Two wayes then may the Spirit of God be said to be grieved in Himself in his Saints in himself by an Anthropopathie as we call it In his Saints by a Sympathie the former is by way of Allusion to humane passion and carriage so doth the Spirit of God upon occasion of mens sins as we do when we are grieved with some great wrong or unkindnesse And what do we then First we conceive an high dislike of and displeasure at the Act Secondly we withdraw our countenance and favour from the offender Thirdly we inflict some punishment upon the offence and these are all of them dreadfull expressions of the grieving of Gods Spirit even these three displeasure aversion punishment For the first Esay expresseth it by vexation Esay 63.10 A place so much more worthy of observation for that some judicious interpreters as Reverend Calvin Zanchius Pagnine and Cornelius a Lapide think very probably that this text is borrowed from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they rebelled and vexed the Spirit of his holinesse Where such an Act is intimated as compriseth both grief and Anger surely we do not think it safe to irritate the great and if it be but a man a little bigger then our selves we are ready to deprecate his displeasure but if it be a man that is both great and dear to us with whom we are faln out how unquiet are we if we have any good nature in us till we have recovered his lost favour do ye not see with what importunity good David seeks to appease the wrath of his incensed Father in Law none of the best men and causelesly provoked Let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if they
be the Children of men cursed be they before the Lord And even Josephs Brethren though so ill-natur'd that they could eat and drink whilst their Brother was crying in their pit yet at last as doubtlesse they had done ere then they come with humble prostrations and passionate Supplications to their Brother Gen. ult we pray thee forgive the trespasse of the Servants of thy Fathers God what speak I of these Even Absolom himself though he soon after carried a Traitor in his bosome how earnestly he sued for his restoring to his fathers long denyed presence and out of his impatience caused Joab to pay dear for the delay Oh then how should we be affected with the sence of the displeasure of the holy Spirit of our good God who as he is our best friend so he is a most powerful avenger of wickednesse Surely we do so vex and sadden him with our grievous provocations that he cryes out and makes moan of his insufferable wrong this way Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins and wearied me with thine iniquities Esa 43.24 and Amos 1.13 Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves even so full that the Axeltree creaks and bends and cracks again It must needs be a great weight that the Almighty complaines of and surely so it is could our offences be terminated in men and not strike God thorough them we might well say that all the outrages and affronts that we could put upon a world of men were nothing to the least violation of the infinite Majestie of God and so doth the God against whom they are committed take them by how much more tender the part is so much more painfull is the blow the least wipe of the eye troubles us more then a hard stroak upon the back it is easy to observe that the more holy the person is the more he is afflicted with his own and with others sin Lot vexed his righteous Soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites Davids eyes gusht out rivers of waters because men kept not the Law how much more then shall the holy God from whom these good men receive these touches of Godly indignation be vexed to see and hear our profanations of his name and dayes our contempt of his Servants and ordinances our debauched lives our malicious and oppressive practises our wilfull disobediences our shamefull excesses and uncleanesses our uncharitable censures of each other and all that World of wickednesse that we are overborne withall grief is never but an unpleasive passion the rest have some life and contentment in them Not only love and joy which useth to dilate and chear the heart but even hatred it self to a rancorous stomack hath a kinde of wicked pleasure in it but grief is ever harsh and tedious one of St. Augustins two tormentors of Mankinde Dolor et Timor And shall our hearts tell us That we have grieved the good Spirit of God by our sins and shall not we be grieved at our selves that we have grieved him How can there be any true sense of heavenly love and gratitude in us if we be not thoroughly humbled and vexed within our selves to think that we have angred so good a God How can we choose but roar out in the unquietnesse of our soules with the holy Psalmist There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are to heavy for me to bear Ps 38.3 4. Certainly it is a signe of a gracelesse Soul to be secure and cheerfull under a known sin that Man that can sleep soundly after a murder that can give merry checks to his Conscience after an act of adultery or theft or any such grievous crimes hath an heart insensible of goodnesse and may prove a fit brand for hell This is that whereof Esay speaks In that Day did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth and behold joy and gladnesse slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine Esa 22.12 13. But it followes next Surely this iniquity shall not be purged till ye die vers 14. these are they that say we have made a covenant with death and with hell we are at an agreement but it followes soon after Their covenant with death shall soon be disanulled and their agreement with hell shall not stand Esa 28.15.18 Far far be this disposition from us that professe to love the Lord let it be with us as with some good natur'd Children whom I have seen even after their whippings unquiet till with their continued tears and importunities they have made their peace with their offended parent And thus much for the displeasure which is in this grieving of the Spirit of God which never goes alone but is attended by those two other consequent effects Aversion and Punishment As those therefore which scent an unsavory breath turne their heads aside and those great and good guests who finde themselves ill used change their Inn so doth the holy Spirit of God upon occasion of our wilfull sins turne away his face and withdraw his presence In a little wrath I hid my face from thee saith God Esa 54.8 This good David found and complained of Thou turnedst away thy face and I was troubled Psal 30.7 And again as if he feard lest God would be quite gone upon those his horrible sins of Adultery and Murder he cryes out passionatly O cast me not away from from thy Presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me Psal 51.11 This is that which Divines call spirituall desertion A course which God takes not seldome when he finds a kind of restiveness and neglect in his Servants or passage given to some haynous sin against the checks of conscience where he intends correction quickning and reclamation the Spouse in the Canticles because she opened not instantly to her Beloved findes her self disappointed I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawen himself and was gone and my Soul failed me Cant. 5.6 This is no other then we must make account of and which if we have any acquaintance with God and our selves in our daily experience we have found and shall find if we have given way to any willing sin in that very Act the Spirit is grieved and in that Act of griefe subduced neither can we ever expect comfort in the sense of his return or hope to have his face shine upon us again till we have won him to us and recovered his favour by an unfained Repentance Is there any of us therefore that hath grieved and estranged the holy Spirit from us by any known offence it must cost us warme water ere we can recover him and the light of his countenance upon us neither let us be sparing of our Tears to this
into what right we have to this holy spirit and to that son-ship of God which in our Baptism we profess to partake of we are all apt upon the least cause to be proud of our parentage There are Nations they say in the world whereof every man challenges gentility and kindred to their King so are we wont to do spiritually to the King of Heaven Every one hath the Spirit of God every one is the son of God It is the main errand we have to do on the Earth to settle our hearts upon just grounds in the truth of this resolution and this text undertakes to do it for us infallibly deciding it that those and none but those that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God So as we need not now think of climbing up into Heaven to turn the books of Gods eternall Counsell nor linger after Enthusiasmes and Revelations as some fanaticall spirits use to do nor wish for that holy Dove to wisper in our ear with that great Arabian impostour but only look seriously into our own hearts and lives and trie our selves thoroughly by this sure and unfailing rule of our blessed Apostle So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God let my speech and your attention then be bounded in these three limits Here is First a priviledg To be the Sons of God Secondly a qualification of the priviledged To be led by the Spirit Thirdly an Universall predication of that priviledge upon the persons qualified So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God I need not crave your attention the importance of the matter challenges it To the first then it is a wonderfull and inexplicable priviledge this To be the Sons of God no marvell if every one be apt to claim The glory of Children are their Fathers Prov. 17.6 How were the Jewes puffed up with that vain gloriation that they were the Sons of Abraham and yet they might have been so and have come from hated Esau or ejected Ismael what is it then to be the Sons of the God of Abraham Ye know what David could say upon the tender of matching into the blood royall seemeth it a small matter to you to be the Son in Law to a King Oh what then is it to be the true born sons to the great King of Heaven The Abassins pride themselves to be derived from that Son whom they say the Queen of Sheba had begotten of her by Solomon when she went to visit him it is enough that it was Princely though base how may we glory to be the true and legitimate issue of the King of glory the great Lord in the Gospell is brought in by our Saviour in his parable to say They will reverence my Son and Amnons wicked kinsman could say to him Why art thou the Kings Son so sad as if the son-ship to a King were a supersedeas to all whatsoever griefe or discontentment Neither is there matter of honour onely in this priveledg but of profit too especially in the case of the Sons of this Heavenly King whose Sons are all heirs as ye have it v. 17. with men indeed it is not so Amongst Gods chosen people the first born carryed away a double portion but in some other Nations and in some parts of ours the Eldest goes away with all as on the contrary others are ruled by the law or custome of Gavell kind and the like institutions where either the youngest inherit or all equally but generally it is here with us contrary to that old word concerning Isaacs twins the lesser serves the greater Johosaphat gave great gifts to his other sons but the Kingdome to the Eldest Jehoram 1 Chron. 21.3 so as the rest were but as subjects to their Eldest Brother in the family of the highest it is not so there are all heires all inherit the blessings the honours as all are partakers of the Divine nature and of every one may be said by way of Regeneration that which was eminently and singularly said by the way of eternall generation of the naturall and coessentiall Son of God Thou art my Son I have begotten thee so all are partakers of those blessings and happy immunities which appertain to their filiation and what are they Surely great beyond the power of expression for first in this name they have a spiritual right to all the creatures of God all things are yours saith the Apostle A spirituall I say not a naturall not a civill right which men have to what they legally possess we must take heed of this errour which makes an Universall confusion where ever it prevailes all these earthly affaires are managed by a civill right which men have whether by descent or lawfull acquisition so as it is not for any man to challenge an interest either ad rem or in re in the goods of another but Gods children have a double claim to all they possess both civill from men and spirituall from God The Earth hath he given to the Sons of men saith the Psalmist and men by just conquest by purchase by gift conveigh it legally to each other Besides which they have a spirituall right for God hath given all things to his Son as Mediatour and in and by him to those that are incorporated into him so as now in this regard every child of God is mundi dominus the Lord of the World as that Father truly said Secondly they have in this name an interest in God himself for what nearer relation can there be then betwixt a father and a son An interest in all his promises in all his mercies in all that he is in all that flowes from him in his remission protection provision Which of us earthly parents if we extinguish not nature in our selves can be wanting in these things to the children of our Loines How much more impossible is it that he who is All love 1 Job 4.16 should be wanting to those that are his by a true regeneration Hence is that enforcement which God useth by his Prophet Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands Esay 59.15 16. Thirdly hence followes an unquestionable right in attendance and Guardianship of the blessed Angels Psal 91.11 They are the little ones whereof our Saviour Matth. 18. the especial charge whom those glorious Spirits are deputed to attend Hebr. 1.14 And oh what an honor is this that we are guarded by creatures more glorious in nature more excellent in place and office then our selves What a comfortable assureance is this that we have these troopes of Heavenly Souldiers pitching their tents about us and ready to save-guard us from the malice of the principalities and powers of darknesse Lastly in this name they have a certain and unfailable
Spirit leads no man but by a just rule That rule is the word of truth in all matter of judgment that must direct us uncertain and variable Traditions private and ungrounded Revelations which are any way crosse to this recorded will of God are the deceitful guides of the spirit of errour If then any frantick or superstitious person shall pretend any other direction then God hath given us in his revealed will well may I say of him as St. Paul dares say of an Angel from Heaven if any such could be guilty of that offence Let him be Anathema Thirdly Gods Spirit leads his sweetly and gently disponit omnia suaviter not in a blustring and hurrying violence but by a leasurely and gracious inclination so in Elijahs vision There was fire wind Earthquake but God was in none of them these were fit preparatives for his appearance but it was the still soft voice wherein God would be revealed 1 Kings 19.12 Those that are carried with an heady and furious impetuousnesse and vehemence of passion in all their proceedings which are all rigour and extremity are not led by that good spirit which would be styled the spirit of meekness who was pleased to descend not in the form of an Eagle or any other soul of prey but in the form of a meek and innocent dove Fourthly Gods Spirit leads on in a constant way of progression from grace to grace from vertue to vertue like as the sun arises by degrees to his full meridian whereas passion goes by suddain flashes like lightning whereof the interruptions are as speedy and momentany as the eruptions The very word of leading implies a continuance neither can they be said to be led on that make no proceedings in their way if either therefore we go backward or stand still in goodnesse if we promove not from strength to strength we have no ground to think we are led by the Spirit of God Lastly Flesh and Spirit are ever opposite one to the other and go still contrary wayes and lead to contrary ends If ye walk after the flesh ye shall dye saith our Apostle Nature and Grace which have their hands in this manuduction both wayes stand in perpetual opposition to each other If therefore we be led by our sensual appetite to do and affect that which is pleasing to corrupt nature we are led by that blind guid the flesh and if the blind lead the blind it is no marvell if both of them fall into the pit of perdition but if we mortify our evil and corrupt affections crossing and curbing our exorbitant and sinful desires and bringing them forceably under the subjection of Gods Spirit Now we may be assured to be led by the Spirit of God Other particularities of discovery might be urged whereby we might easily judg of our own conditions but these are enow whereby we may try our selves our guides and wayes It is cleare then to summe up these proofes of our estate that only they who walk in the wayes of Gods commandements who are directed by the revealed Will and word of God who are sweetly inclined by the gracious motions of his Spirit who go on in a constant fashion through all the degrees of grace and obedience who restrain their own natural desires and affections submitting themselves wholy to the government of the Holy Ghost onely they I say are led by the Spirit of God Five sorts of men there are therefore who what challenge so ever they may pretend to make are not led by the Spirit of God First those that go on in a known evil way Lead me O Lord in the wayes of thy righteousnesse saith the Psalmist Lo they are only the pathes of righteousnesse in which God leads us the rest are false wayes as the Psalmist justly calls them which every good heart and much more the holy God utterly abhors wo is me that I have lived to see those dayes wherein any that looks with the face of a Christian should maintain that sins are no sins to the faithful and that he is the holiest man that can sin the boldlyest and with the greatest freedom from reluctancy Did ever any man look for Heaven in Hell before Did ever any seek for the greatest good in the worst of evils This is not heresie but meer Devilisme wherewith yet it seems some ungrounded soules are wofully tainted God be merciful to them and reclaim them ere it be too late from so damnable an impiety Secondly those that are led by their own vain imaginations and illusive dreams in the wayes of error raising unto themselves new and wild opinions and practises without any warrant from the written word of God Thirdly those that are carried by passion and distemper though even in good waies turning a religious heat into fury and uncharitable rage Fourthly those that make no progresse at all in good but either decay in grace or thrive not And lastly those that humour and sooth up corrupt nature careing only to fulfil the lusts of their own flesh All these whereof God knowes there are too many in the World yea in the Church of God making a fair flourish of Christianity are nothing lesse then led by the Spirit of God and therefore can lay no claim to the state or title of the Sons of God which is inferred in the connexion of this qualification with the priviledg being the third head of our discourse So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God The Spirit of God is God neither is mention made here of the Spirit only as by way of exclusion of the other persons No what one doth all do according to the old maxime All the external works of the Trinity are indivisible it is good reason then that God should lead his own and so he doth But here it will be fit for us to consider How far this leading of Gods Spirit will argue and evince this son-ship and whether every conduct thereof will do it There is a work of the Spirit of God at large The Spirit of God fills all the World saith the Wiseman Wisdom 1.7 Not so yet as was the errour of P. Abailardus in Bernard That Gods Spirit is anima mundi as the God of the World not as the soul of the World As in the state of the first Tohu and Bohu the Spirit of God sluttered upon the Waters as it were to hatch the creature which should be produced Gen. 1.2 so doth he still fill the world for the preservation of this universse But in this all he works in man especially There is a spirit in man saith Elihu in Job 32.8 and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding yet this is not the leading of this holy Spirit that we are in hand with lower then this there are certain common graces wrought in men by the Spirit of God as some general iluminations in the knowledg of divine things some good moral dispositions some restraints
of evil inclinations and actions which yet will never reach to evince our son-ship to God How easily were it for me to name you divers Heathens which have been eminent in all these and yet for ought we know never the nearer to Heaven yet lower there are some speciall gifts of the Spirit which we call Charismata rare endowments bestowed upon some men excellent faculties of preaching and praying power of miraculous workings as no doubt Judas did cast out Devils as well as the best of his fellow-Apostles gifts of tongues and of Prophesie and the like which do no more argue a right to the son-ship of God then the Manuaries infused skill of Bezaleel and Aâ—oliab could prove them Saints yet lastly there may be sensible operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul in the influences of holy motions into the heart in working a temporary faith and some fair progresse in an holy profession and yet no sonship the world is full of such glow-wormes that make some show of Spiritual Light from God when they have nothing in them but cold crudities that can serve for nothing but deceit Will ye then see what leading of the Spirit can evince us to be the Sons and Daughters of God know then that if we will hope for a comfortable assurance hereof we must be efficaciously led by his sanctifying Spirit first in matter of judgment secondly in our dispositions and thirdly in our practise For matter of judgment ye remember what our Saviour said to his Disciples When the Spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all Truth John 16.13 That is into all saving and necessary truthes so as to free us from grosse ignorance or main errour Whosoever therefore is enlightned with the true and solid knowledg of all those points of Christian doctrine which are requisite for salvation is in that first regard led by the Spirit and in this behalf hath a just title to the son-ship of God as contrarily those that are grosly and obstinately erroneous in their judgment of fundamental truthes let them pretend to never so much holinesse in heart or life shall in vain lay claim to this happy condition of the Sons of God For our disposition secondly If the holy Spirit have wrought our hearts to be right with God in all our affections if we do sincerely love and fear him if we do truely believe in him receiving him as not our Saviour only but as our Lord If our desires be unfained towards him If after a meek and penitent self-dejection we can find our selves raised to a lively hope and firm confidence in that our blessed Redeemer and shall continue in a constant and habitual fruition of him being thus led by the Spirit of God we may be assured that we are the Sons of God for flesh and blood cannot be accessary to these gracious dispositions Lastly for our practise it is a clear word which we hear God say by Ezekiel I will put my Spirit into the midst of you and will by it cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my laws Ezech. 36.27 Lo herein is the main crisis of a soul led by the Spirit of God and adopted to this heavenly son-ship It is not for us to content our selves to talk of the lawes of our God and to make empty and formal professions of his name Here must be a continued walk in Gods statutes it will not serve the turne for us to stumble upon some acceptable work to step aside a little into the pathes of godlinesse and then draw back to the World no my beloved this leading of Gods Spirit must neither be a forced angariation as if God would feoffe grace and salvation upon us against our wills nor some suddain protrusion to good nor a meer actual momentany transient conduction for a brunt of holinesse and away leaving us to the sinful wayes of our former disobedience and to our wonted compliances with the World the Devil and the Flesh but must be in a steady uninterrupted habitual course of holy obedience so as we may sincerely professe with the man after Gods own heart My soul hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly Psal 119.67 Now then dear Christians lay this to heart seriously and call your selves sadly to this triall What is the carriage of our lives What obedience do we yeild to the whole law of our God If that be entire hearty universal constant perseverant and truly conscientious we have whereof to rejoyce an unfailing ground to passe a confident judgment upon our spiritual estate to be no lesse then happy But if we be willingly failing in the unfained desires and indevours of these holy performances and shall let loose the reins to any known wickednesse we have no part nor portion in this blessed condition Mark I beseech you how fully this is asserted to our hands in this saith the beloved Apostle the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither he that loves not his brother 1 Joh. 3.10 Observe I pray you what test we are put to ye hear him not say who so talks not holily or who so professes not godlinesse in these an hypocrite may exceed the best Saint but whosoever doth not righteousnesse withall see what a clause the Disciple of love superadds to the mention of all Righteousnesse neither he that loves not his brother surely the Spirit of God is a Loving Spirit Wisdom 1.6 and St. Paul hath the like phrase Rom. 15.30 To let passe then all the other proofes of our guidance by the spirit Instance but in this one Alas my Brethren what is become of that charitable and christian carriage of men towards one another which God requires of us and which was wont to be conspicuous amongst Christian compatriots Wo is me instead of that true and hearty love which our Saviour would have the Livery of our Disciple-ship the badg of our holy profession what do we see but emulation envy malice rigid censures and rancorous heart-burnings amongst men In stead of those neighbourly and friendly offices which Christians were wont lovingly to performe to each other what have we now in the common practise of men but underminings oppressions violence cruelty Can we think that the Spirit of him who would be styled Love it self would lead us in these rugged and bloody pathes No no this alone is too clear a proof how great a stranger the Spirit of God is to the hearts and waies of men and how few there are that upon good and firme grounds can plead their right to the son-ship of God Alas alas if these dispositions and practises may bewray the sons of an holy God what can men do to prove themselves the children of that hellish Apollion who was a man-slayer from the beginning For us my beloved Oh let us hate and bewaile this common degeneration of Christians and as we would
be and be acknowledged the sons of God Let us put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another forgiving one another if we have a quarrell against any even as Christ forgave us and above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse Colos 3.12 13 14. And lastly forsaking the mis-guidance of Satan the World and our corrupt nature which will lead us down to the chambers of death and eternal destruction let us yield up our selves to be led by the holy Spirit of God in all the wayes of righteousnesse and holynesse of piety justice charity and all manner of gracious conversation that we may thereby approve our selves the sons and daughters of God and may be feoffed in that blessed inheritance which he hath laid up for all his to the possession whereof may he happily bring us who hath dearly bought us Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the blessed spirit one infinite God be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen THE MOURNER IN SION ECCLESIASTES 3.4 There is a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance I Need not tell you that Solomon was a wise man his wisdom as it was in an extraordinary measure put into him by him that is wisdom it self so was it in a more then ordinary way improved by his diligent observation his observation was Universal of times things persons actions events neither did he look his experiments up in the closet of his own brest but by the direction of Gods Spirit laid them forth to the World in this divine sermon which not as a King but as a Prophet he preach't to all posterity Every sentence here therefore is a dictate of the holy Ghost it is not Solomon then but a greater then Solomon even the holy Spirit of the great God that tells you there is not a time onely but a season too for every thing and for every purpose under Heaven that is as I hope you can take it no otherwise for every good thing or indifferent as for evill things or actions if men find a time yet sure God allowes no season those are alwayes damnably-unseasonable abuses of times and of our selves not to meddle with other particulars our thoughts are now by the divine providence pitch't upon a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance or rather onely upon the time to weep and mourn for our time of laughing and dancing is past already and perhaps we have had too much of that in our former times which makes the causes and degrees of our now weeping and mourning as more uncouth so more intensive we must be so much deeper in our mourning by how much we have been more wild and wanton in our laughter and dancing To fall right down therefore upon our intended discourse without any previous circumlocutions There is a threefold time of just mourning 1. When a man is sensible of his punishments 2. Of his sins 3. Of his dangers Of his punishments first or rather which is more general of his afflictions for all afflictions are not intended for punishments some are fatherly chastisments onely for our good whereas all punishments are afflictive when we are whip't then when we smart with the rod we have cause to weep and if in this case we shed no tears it is a sign of a gracelesse heart It is time therefore to mourn when we are pressed by sufferings whether from the immediate hand of God or mediately by the hands of men whether by private or publique calamities are we smitten in our bodies by some painfull and incurable diseases Doth the pestilence rage in our streets Hath God forbidden us the influence of Heaven and curst the Earth with barrennesse Hath he broken the staffe of bread and sent leannesse into our souls Hath he humbled us with the fearfull casualties of fire or water by wracks at Sea by lightnings and tempests by land hath he sent murrain amongst our cattle and destroying vermine into our barnes and fields now God tells us it is a time to mourn are we disquieted in our minds by some over-mastering passions of griefe for the miscarriages of children for the secret discontents of domesticall jars for unjust calumnies cast upon our good name are we molested in our mindes and spirits with impetuous and no lesse importune then hatefull Temptations now it is a time to mourn do we find in our souls a decay and languishment of grace a prevalence of those corruptions which we thought abated in us Do we find our selves deeply soul-sick with our sinfull indispositions Shortly do we find the face of our God for the time withdrawn from us Now now it is a time to mourn If we turn our eyes to those evils which are cast upon us by the hands of men Do men find themselves despoyled of their estates restrained of their Liberties tortured in their bodies Do they find the wofull miseries of an intestine war killings burnings depopulations do they find fire and sword raging in the bosom of out Land now it is a time to mourn Were these evils confined to some few persons to some special families they were worthy of the tears of our compassion for it is our duty to weep with them that weep but where they are universal and spread over the whole face of any Nation there cannot be found tears enough to lament them Punishments then are a just cause of our sorrow and mourning but to a good heart sin is so much greater cause of mourning by how much a moral evil is more then a natural and by how much the displeasure of an Almighty God is worthy of more regard then our own smart Doth thine heart then tell thee that thou hast offended the Majesty of God by some grievous sin now is thy time to weep and mourne as thou wouldest for thy only son Zechar. 12.10 now it is time for thee to be in bitternesse as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne Thy soul is foul wash and rince it with the tears of thy repentance go forth with Peter and weep bitterly Dost thou finde in the place where thou livest that sin like some furious torrent bears down all before it now it is time for thee to mourne for the sins of thy people and to say as the holy Psalmist did Psal 119 136. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law Lastly as our sufferings and our sins make up a due time for our mourning so do our dangers also for fear is no lesse afflictive then pain yea I know not whether there can be a greater pain then the expectation of imminent mischiefs Do we therefore see extremities of judgments hovering over our heads ready to fall down like Sodoms fire and
custom for these contrary fashions neither are either of them to be censured as faulty and exorbitant and with us we hold the head uncovered if the hat be off though the cap be on others make no difference if there be ought at all on the head Consider Secondly that the hair was given by God both to Men and Women for an ornament for which cause though it pass in our account for no better then an excretion yet it was created together with Man and Woman in their first Perfection Were it not thus surely Baldnesse would be held a Beauty and noâ— a Blemish Neither would the Prophet Elisha have taken it for so haynous an affront that the children cryed ascende calve Neither would God have exprest it as an intimation of his severest judgment upon Israel on every head shall be baldness Jer. 48.37 Neither would God have ordained it for a law to Israel that he who was enamoured of a captive woman should first shave her hair to take off the edge of his affection Deut. 21.12 Neither would Nehemiah have taken this revenge of the hair of hiâ— mis-married Countrymen Nehem. 13.25 It was but a just question that Augustus Cesar askt his Daughter Julia when she had her white hairs pulled out daily whether within a few years she had rather be gray or bald And our story tells us that when it was askt why the Spartans suffred their hair to grow Ageselaus answerd that was the cheapest ornament that belong'd to the body In a word therefore if our hair were given for a deformity to us it could but be all hidden Let it be Thirdly considered that our Apostles main drift here is to give order for the habiting of women in the publique assemblies and exercises of their devotions not for their ordinary and domestique attire Which appears plainly in the 5th verse Every Woman that prayeth or prophesyeth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head he saith not every woman that walkes abroad upon civill occasions or that staies at home upon her houshold affaires without a vail on her head dishonors her head and verse 13. Judge in your selves is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered It is a publique prayer that is there meant parallel to the prophesie before mentioned both which in these first times of the Church were in extraordinary use without the danger of a precedent to us upon whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church and the ends of the World are at once come And if there were no more proofs my Text were enough which injoynes the vayling of the head is to be used because of the Angels relating as all interpreters give it to the publique Congregations of the Saints of God as we shall see in the sequele Lastly it must be known that this covering of the head hath principall relation to the face which is the best and most conspicuous part of the head so as it is supposed that the humility and modesty of the woman doth most show it self in the vayling of the face from the view of beholders the back parts of the head not giving so much cause of note and distinction not so much occasion of temptation to any eye those therefore who by vertue of this place would have all their hair hid must much more and upon better reason contend that their face should be alwayes covered wherein one absurdity and servile inconvenience would easily draw on another Shortly then it followes irrefragably from all this that however the garish and wanton fashion of the womans dissheveling her hair and the lascivious turning it into nets for the catching of fond and amorous eyes be justly forbidden both to grave matrons and to chast and well governd Virgins yet that no law of God or good reason disallowes such a moderate laying out of some part of the hair as may give a safe comeliness to the face without the just scandall of any wise beholder Neither doth that other Text make ought for this fancy where the Apostle tels us that the womans hair was given her for a covering but rather evinces the contrary The meaning is it was given her for a covering actively to cover her not passively to be covered by her For St. Paul intending to show how unseemly it was for women to show themselves in publique exercises with a bare face an open brow an uncovered hair before the multitude fetches an argument from nature it self which plainly points her what she ought to do in that it hath furnished her with a native vail which is her hair since therefore provident nature hath given her a long hair purposely to be a cover unto her it therein showes how fit it is that her modesty and discretion should provide her such a covering for her head when she will be opening her mouth in the publique assembly as may testifie her womanly bashfulnesse and humble subjection To shut up this point therefore there can be no just pretence from this or any other Scripture for this mis-raysed scrupulousnesse Rather for the contrary the holy Ghost seemes to make in that his Divine Epithalamion wherein he brings in Christ the Heavenly Bridegroom magnifying his bride the Church with this sweet allusion Behold thou art fair my love Behold thou art fair thou hast doves eyes within thy locks thy hair is as a flock of goates that appear from Mount Gilead Cantic 4.1 Lo the dove-like eyes of the Church are within her locks and her hair is not as an hidden flock but appears and that in a glorious beauty Let no well affected Christian bring her self under the bondage of an observation which God never injoyned or passe a groundless and rash verdict upon others for that which God hath never forbidden but with a due care of an holy outward decency Let every one in the fear of God look to the hidden Man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 And so I have done with the Rule or Canon of the Apostle Come we now to the grounds of it The former whereof hath reference to what he had concerning the eminent condition of the Man in respect of the Woman fetched from both the materiall and finall cause Materiall the woman is of the Man Finall the woman is created for the man not the contrary but because this point is coincident with that which we have formerly touched concerning the husbands superiority I shall not need to renew my discourse upon this subject but choose rather to descend to that second ground which by the vulgar and some Fathers quoting the place is brought in by way of a copulative And because of the Angels a ground so deep that great wits and judgments have professed not to fadom it Quid hoc sit saith learned Beza nondum intelligo and our no lesse learned Camâ—ron confesses that
herein Interpreters differ ut qui maxime For those late writers which have read the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because of the young Men I must needs say they would make a clear sense if we might take their words for the use of any such word in the Greek Tongue which for my part I must confess never to have met with To pass over the improbable guesses of many The words are taken by some in a borrowed sense by some others in a naturall In a borrowed sense by those either who by Angells here understand Gods Ministers or as those that take it for holy men of what ever profession These latter seem not to have any fair warrant for their interpretation since however we find somewhere that the Saints shall be in a condition like to the Angels yet no where do we find them called Angels the former want not good probability for their construction neither is it an unusuall thing with the Spirit of God to call his Ministers by the name of Angels So Malachy 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord and of John the Baptist the same Prophet can say Malâ—c 3.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will send my messenger or Angel yea the very name of the Prophet that writes is no other then Malachy My Angel And ye know in the Apocalypse how oft the prime Governors of the Church are called Angels whereupon St. Chrysostome as I remember makes the reason of that full expression of St. Paul If an Angel from Heaven Galat. 1. to allude unto this distinction that even Gods Ministers are his Angels too though upon Earth a title given them both in regard of their mission and of their near relation to God and of those qualities which these Men of God should imitate in those blessed Spirits The very name is doctrinall and teacheth us both what God expects from us both to himself and you and what he expects from you to us From us faithfullnesse and diligence in his holy errands whereabouts we are sent to the World from you love and reverence to those Messengers which he imployes about your Salvation but it was my meaning only to call to this sense at the window in my passage as that which I hold not within the compasse of the Holy-Ghosts intention Doubtless the sense is naturall and proper not of men by way of allusion but of those which are Spirâ—ts by essence and yet even in this sense there is some variety of judgment whiles some take this to be spoken of evill Angels others of good Those which apply this to evill Angels are likewise in a double opinion For some take it passively least even those Angels should be tempted others actively least they should take occasion to tempt The former conceit is as gross as it hath been ancient of Tertullian and some others that even spirits to whom they ascribe a kind of materiality may be taken with the immodest venditation of a fleshly beauty to which purpose they do ignorantly mistake that of Genes 6.2 That the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair not considering the sequel that they took them wives of all that they chose Surely if ever spirits have affected these fleshly sins yet of marryed Spirits there was never dream in any sober head This fancy is too absurd to merit a confutation No doubt wicked spirits take delight in drawing the Sons of men to inordinate affections and beastly practises but that themselves place any pleasure in bodily obscenities is a matter not easie to be believed Or if they should be obnoxious to those carnall desires that the interposing of a vail should any way avail to the restraint of their wicked inclinations and purposes it is too poor a thought to enter into any wise understanding The other viz. least those Spirits should take this occasion of tempting might pass for currant if ever we could find in the whole body of the Scripture where the evill spirits are absolutely called Angels without some addition of distinction which is learned Camerons observation except only that one 1 Cor. 6.3 where they are so stiled for the greater honour of the Saints that shall judge them However the truth of the proposition is undeniable that so we ought to habit and order our selves that we may not give advantage to the evill Spirits either to our temptation or their prevalence we may be sure those tempters will omit no occasion of winning us to filthiness Do you not think that when they see wanton dames come disguised into Gods house as it were into the box of the play-house with their brest bare almost to the Navel their armes to the elbow their necks to the shoulder-points darting their lascivious eyes every way and in their whole fashion and gesture bewraying such lightness as might be able to debauch a whole assembly think ye not I say that they applaud themselves in so rich a booty as knowing that every eye that is transported and every heart that is fired with that immodest gazing-stock are so many spoiles and trophees of their Temptations It is a true and seasonable word that holy Cyprian said to the dames of his time that it was not enough for them to keep themselves from being corrupted by others solicitations unless they took care so to dress and deport themselves that they might not be occasions of raysing wanton thoughts in the beholders For surely we can not free our selves from those sins wherein others by our means though besides our particular intentions are insnared there is much liberty I confess in matter of attire but let me withall give you St. Pauls Item to his Galathians Brethren ye have been called to liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another Galat. 5.13 When and how is our liberty an occasion to the flesh but when we do so pranck up and pamper our flesh as that we regard not therein any others dangers which when soever we are drawn to do we may be sure we have so wary and vigilant spirits to watch us as that no advantage can be let fall against our souls as therefore wise and carefull commanders do not only cast how to impugne oppresse and annoy an enemy but also how to remove those helps which might be advantageous to him in his siege even to the demolishing of Suburbs and stopping up of Fountaines and the like so must we do in this spirituall warfare of ours we must not only stir up our courage and indevors to resist and vanquish tentations but we must bend our utmost care upon the prevention and removall of whatsoever in our apparell carriage diet recreations may be likely to give furtherance to their assault or prevalency and in the whole practise of our lives so demean our selves as that we may according to the charge of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not
so much as give an occasion to an adversary 1 Tim. 5.14 wether of calumny or of Triumph oh that we could be fearful of doing any unfit thing because of the evil Angels we shall be sure to hear of it again to our cost even the most carelesse boyes will be affraid to offend in the face of the monitor such are the evill Angels to us Be sure every unbeseeming and unlawfull act that passeth from us is upon their file and shall once be urged against us to our shame and conviction My Brethren we would be loath to come under the power of their torment as we would avoid this fearfull issue let us be jealous of their suggestions and our carriage and not dare to do ought that may be scandalous Because of the Angels Good use may be made you see even of this sense but I take it our Apostle intended here to intimate the presence of and respect to the good Angels It is no a lesse comfortable then well-grounded point of Divinity That none of Gods Children upon Earth want the assidence and Ministration of those blessed spirits we have it from him that cannot fail us Matth. 18.10 and the sweet singer of Israel had warbled out this Heavenly note before him The Angels of the Lord encamp about those that fear him Ps 34.7 And he that was rapt up into the third Heaven and saw those wonderfull Orders of Angels can tell us they are all ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1.14 Now these as they guard and attend every of Gods elect ones when they are singled and sequestred in the greatest solitariness so we can not think they leave their whether common or severall charges when they assemble together for the exercises of piety and devotion so as the publique meetings of Gods Saints can be no other then filled with whole troupes of Angels This as it is a truth so it was the received opinion of the Jewes as Capellus pregnantly cites it out of the Sedar Tephilloth of the Portugall Jewes in his learned Spicelegium Coronam dant tibi Domine Deus noster Angeli turba illa superna cum populo tuo Israel hic inferne Congregato O Lord our God the Angels give glory to thee even those Heavenly troupes that are assembled with thy Israel here below Out of the reverend and awfull respect therefore that is due to these glorious though invisible beholders there may no unseemly thing be done or admitted in the Church of God and therefore The Women ought to have power on their Heads because of the Angels and surely my beloved were we fully perswaded that now at this present there is within these walls a greater Congregation of Angels then of Men and Women I suppose it could not but strike such an awe into us as to make us at once holily mannerly and fervently devout It is a great fault in us Christians that we think of nothing but what we see whereas that spirituall and intelligible World which is past the apprehension of these Earthly senses is far greater farr more noble and excellent then all visible and materiall substances Certainly there is not one Angel in Heaven that hath not more glory then all this sensible World can be capable of what should I tell you of the excellency of their nature the height of their offices the Majesty of their persons their power able to confound a World their nearness both of place and of essence to that infinite deity their tender love and care of man-kind any of which were able and worthy to take up a whole lives meditation And if there be so much perfection in one how unconceiveable is the concurrent lustre and glory of many had we eyes to see these invisible supervisors of our behaviour we could not we durst no let fall any so much as indecent gesture before such a presence Quicken then I beseech you and sharpen your eyes dear and beloved Christians to see your selves seen even of them whom ye cannot see and let your whole carriage be thereafter he is not worthy to claim more priveledge then of a beast that can see nothing but sensible objects brute Creatures can see us if we see nothing but our selves and then wherefore serves our understanding wherefore our faith and if we see invisible beholders why are we not affected accordingly certainly it were better for us not to see then than seeing to neglect their presence What is then the honor what the respect that we must give to the Angels of God who are present in our holy assemblies I must have leave to complain of two extremities this way There are some that give them too much veneration there are others that give them no regard at all In the first are those within the Roman Clientele who are so over-curteous as that they give them no lesse then the honor of adoration of invocation reviving herein the erroneous opinion and practise of them which Theodoret held confuted by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians It is the praise that Franciscus de Sales Bishop of Genua gives to Petrus Faber one of the first associates of Ignatius Loiola that his manner was whensoever he came to any place he still made suit to the Tutelar Angels that presided there for their aid of converting the people from heresie and found great successe in it This imploration and worship is ordinary wherein they do that to the Angels which the Angels themselves have forbidden to be done and yet I must needs say if any creature could be capable of a religious worship it is they and if any creature were fit to be prayed unto it is they rather then the highest Saints of Heaven for whereas it is the just ground of our refusing to pray to the Saints that we cannot be sure of their presence and notice sure rather of the contrary and therefore cannot pray in faith that ground is here justly removed we are sure that the Angels of God are present with us we are sure that they hear us pray but this is an honor reserved as peculiar to the God of Angels and to that one mediator betwixt God and man Jesus Christ those Spirits hate to be made rivals to their maker neither have we learned that unreasonable modesty to sue to wayters when we are called up to supplicate the King The other extreme is of carelesse christians that do no more think of Angels then if there were none suffering their bodily eyes to be taken up with the sight of their assembled neighbours but never raising their spirituall eyes to behold those spiritual essences which are no lesse present and certainly I fear we are all much to blame this way and may justly tax our selves of an unthankful dull irreligious neglect of these glorious Spirits I finde that the Mahometan Preists in their Morning and Evening prayer still end their devotion with Macree Kichoon Be
Angels present and the people shout out their Amen and shall our piety this way be lesse than theirs Surely the Angels of God are inseparably with us yea whole cohorts yea whole Legions of those heavenly soldiery are now viewing guarding us in these holy meetings and we acknowledg them not we yeild not to them such reverent and awful respects as even flesh and blood like our own will expect from us Did we think the Angels of God were with us here durst those of us which dare not be covered at home as if the freedom of this holy place gave them priviledge of a loose and wild licentiousness affect all saucy postures and strive to be more unmannerly then their Masters Did we consider that the Angels of God are witnesses of our demeanour in Gods house durst we stumble in here with no other reverence then we would do into our Barne or Stable and sit down with no other care then we would in an ale-house or Theater Did we finde our selves in an assembly of Angels durst we give our eyes leave to rove abroad in wanton glances our tongues to walk in idle and unseasonable chat our ears to be taken up with frivolous discourse Durst we set our selves to take those naps here whereof we failed on our pillow at home certainly my beloved all these do manifestly convince us of a palpable unrespect to the blessed Angels of God our invisible consorts in these holy services However then it hath been with us hitherto let us now begin to take up other resolutions and settle in our hearts an holy aw of that presence wherein we are Even at thy home address thy self for the Church prepare to come before a dreadful Majesty of God and his powerful Angels thou seest them not no more did Elishaes servant till his eyes were opened It is thine ignorant and grosse infidelity that hath filmed up thine eyes that thou canst discerne no spiritual object were they but anointed with the eye-salve of faith thou shouldest see Gods house full of heavenly glory and shouldest check thy self with holy Jacob when he awaked from his divine vision Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not how dreadfull is this place this is no other but the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28.16 17. Oh then when thou settest thy foot over the threshold of Gods Temple tremble to think who is there lift up thine awfull eyes and bow thine humble knees and raise up thy devout and faithful soul to a religious reverence and fear of those mighty and Majestical Spirits that are there and of that great God of Spirits whose both they and thou art and study in all thy carriage to be approved of so glorious witnesses and overseeres That so at the last those blessed Spirits with whom we have had an invisible conversation here may carry up our departing soules into the heaven of heavens into the presence of that infinite and incomprehensibly-glorious God both theirs and ours there to live and raign with them in the participation of their unconceivable blisse and glory To the fruition whereof he that hath ordained us graciously bring us by the mediation and for the sake of his blessed Son Jesus To whom with thee O Father of Heaven and thy co-eternall Spirit three persons in one God be given all praise honor immortality now and for ever HOLY DECENCY IN THE WORSHIP of GOD. By J. H. B. N. I Know that a clean heart and a right spirit is that which God mainly regards For as he is a Spirit so he will be served in Spirit but withall John 4.24 as he hath made the body and hath made it a partner with the Soul so he justly expects that it should be also wholly devoted to him so as the Apostle upon good reason prayes for his Thessalonians that their whole Spirit and Soul 1 Thes 5.23 and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and beseeches his Romans by the mercies of God that they present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God Rom. 12.1 Now as the body is capable of a double uncleanness the one morall when it is made an instrument and agent in sin the other naturall when it is polluted with outward filthiness so both of these are fit to be avoided in our addresses to the pure and holy God the former out of Gods absolute command who hath charged us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the flesh and Spirit the latter out of the just grounds of Decency 2 Cor. 7.1 and expedience for though there be no sinfull turpitude in those bodily uncleanenesses wherein we offer our selves to appear before the Lord our God yet there is so deep an unbeseemingness in them as places them in the next door to sin Perhaps Gods ancient people the Jewes were too superstitiously scrupulous in these externall observations whos 's Talmud tells us of one of their great Rabbies that would rather suffer under extremity of hunger and thirst then tast of ought with unwashen hands as counting that neglect equall to lying with an harlot and who have raised a great question whether if any of their poultry have but dipped their beak in the bowle the water may be allowed to wash in forbidding to void the urine standing except it be upon a descent of ground lest any drop should recoyle upon the feet and in case of the other evacuation beside the paddle-staffe and other ceremonies in uncovering the feet injoyning to turn the face to the South not to the East or West because those coasts had their faces directed towards them in their devotions what should I speak of their extreme curiosity in their outward observances concerning the Law which no man might be allowed to read whiles he was but walking towards the unloading of nature or to the Bathe or near to any place of annoyance no Man might so much as spit in the Temple or before that sacred Volumn or stretch forth his feet towards it or turn his back upon it or receive it with the left hand no Man might presume to write it but upon the parchment made of the skin of a clean beast nor to write or give a bill of divorce but by the side of a running stream yea the very Turks as they have borrowed our circumcision so also religious niceties from these Jewes not allowing their Alcoran to be touched by a person that is unclean But surely I fear these men are not more faulty in the one extreme then many Christians are in the other who place a kinde of holinesse in a slovenly neglect and so order themselves as if they thought a nasty carelessenesse in Gods services were most acceptable to him Hence it is that they affect homely places for his worship abandoning all magnificence and cost in all the acts and apendances of their devotion clay and sticks please
but by the efficacy of the Spirit The soul hath an ear as well as the body when the ear of the soul hears the operative motions of Gods spirit as well as the ear of the body hears the external sound of the Gospel then are we called by God when true faith is wrought in the Soul as well as outward conformity in our life when we are made true Christians as well as outward professors then and not till then have we this calling from God Such then is our calling the election is answerable to it Not a temporal and external to some special office or dignity whereof our Saviour Have not I chosen you twelve John 6.70 and Moses his chosen Psal 106. Not a singling out from the most to an outward profession of Christ whereof perhaps the Apostle 1 Thes 1.4 Knowing beloved that ye are elect of God and the Psalmist Blessed is he whom thou choosest and causest to dwell in thy courts Psal 65.5 For notwithstanding this noble and happy priviledge little would it availe us to be sure of this and no more no profession no dignity can secure us from being perfectly miserable but an eternal election to glory whereof St. Paul Ephes 1.4 God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the World that we might be holy and blamlesse before him in love and to his Colossians As the elect of God holy and beloved such as to whom saving Faith is appropriated the style whereof is Fidus electorum the faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 Such then is our calling and elction Now this calling this election must be made sure or firme as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sure and firme not on Gods part who we know is unchangble in his nature in his counsels So as in that regard our election if it be at all is most sure and surer cannot be but on ours not only in respect of the object which is the truth and immutability of the thing it self but in respect of the subject too the soul that apprehends it so sure that it cannot be falsified cannot be disappointed It is not for us to expect such a certainty of knowledg in this point as there is of Principles of Arts or of those things whereof common sence assures us Our Schoolmen make distinction of a certainty evident and inevident Evident which ariseth out of the clearness of the object it self and the necessary connection of the termes as that the whole is greater then a part Inevident which arises not so much out of the intrinsecal truth of the proposition it self as out of the veracity and infallibleness of the party that affirmes it So both Divine and Humane faith receive their assurance from the Divine or Humane authority whereon it is grounded and this inevident assurance may be so certain as to expel all prevailing doubt though not all troubling doubt Neither need there any other for the Articles of our creed which we take upon the infallible trust of him who is the truth it self and can no more deceive us then not be This latter is the certainty which we must labour to attain unto In the grant whereof our Romish Divines are generally too straight-laced yielding yet a Theological certainty which goes farr but not home although some of them are more liberal as Catharinus Vega Ruardus Tapperus and Pererius following them which grant that some holy men out of the feeling and experience of the power of Gods Spirit in them may without any speciall revelation grow to a great height of assurance if not so as that they may swear they are assured of this happy estate of grace yet so as that they may be as confident of it as that there is a Rome or Constantinople which one would think were enough but the rest are commonly too sparing in the inching out of the possibilitie of our assurance by nice distinctions Cardinal Bellarmine makes six kindes or degrees of certainty whereof three are clear three obscure the three first are the certainty of understanding the certainty of knowledg the certainty of experience The first of them is of plain principles which upon meer hearing are yielded to be most true without any traverse of thoughts The second is of conclusions evidently deduced from those principles The third is of the matters of sense about which the eye or eare is not deceived The three latter certainties which are more obscure are those of Faith or Beleefe and the degrees thereof The first whereof is the certainty of the Catholick or Divine faith which depending upon Gods authority cannot deceive us The second is the certainty of humane faith so depending upon Mans authority and in such matters as shut out all fear of falshood or disappointment in believing them as that there was an Augustus Caesar a Rome a Jerusalem The third is the certainty of a well grounded conceit which he pleaseth to call conjecturall raised upon such undoubted signes and proofs as may make a Man secure of what he holdeth and excludes all anxiety yet cannot utterly free him from all fear This last he can be content to yield us and indeed in his stating the question stands onely upon the deniall of the certainty of a Divine faith in this great affair we are ready to take what he gives so as then here may be a certainty in the heart of a regenerate Man of his calling and election and such a one as shall render him holily secure and free from anxiety Let the distinguisher weary himself with the thoughts of reconciling certitude with conjectures security with fear let us have the security and let him take the fear to himself Shortly then whiles the Schools make much ado of what kind of certainty this must be taken whether of faith or of hope or of confidence surely if it be such an hope and confidence as makes not ashamed by disappointing us both are equally safe It is enough if it be such a fiduciall perswasion as cannot deceive us nor be liable to falshood But how far then reaches this assecuration So far as to exclude all fears all doubting and hesitation Neither of these Not all kind of fear for we are bidden to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2. and to spend the time of our pilgrimage in fear 1 Pet. 1. Not doubting which the counsell of Trent would seem to cast upon our opinion we cannot be so senseless as not in the conscience of our infirmities and manifold indispositions find our selves put to many plunges but yet so as that by the power of our faith which is the victory that overcomes the World at last we do happily recover and find our selves freed by a comfortable and joyfull â—â—uctation If any Man could be so fond as to think we stand so sure that we shall never shake or move he grosly misconceives our condition but if so sure that we shall never be turned up by the roots never
can deny all the doubt is whether the man can know that he doth thus believe that he shall continue so to believe And why should there be any doubt in either of these I am sure for the first the chosen vessel could say I know whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1. and speaks this not as an extraordinary person an Apostle but as a Christian therein affirming both the act of his faith and the object of it and his knowledg of both for whiles he saith I know whom I have believed he doth in effect say I know that I have believed and I know what I have believed God my Almighty Saviour is the object of my faith my faith layeth sure hold on this object and I know that my faith laies undoubted hold on this happy object I know whom I have believed and why should not we labour to say so too Some things the Apostle did as a singular favorite of Heaven of this kinde were his raptures and visions these we may not aspire to imitate other things he did as an holy man as a faithful Christian these must we propose for our examples and indeed why should not a man know he believes What is there in faith even as we define it but knowledg assent application affiance receiving of Christ and which of these is there that we cannot know Surely there is power in the soul to exercise these reflexe actions upon it self As it can know things contrary to the fanatick scepticke so it can know that it knowes These inward acts of knowledg and understanding are to the mind no other then the acts of our sensitive powers are unto our senses and a like certain judgment passeth upon both as therefore I can know that I hear or that I see or touch so can I no lesse surely know that I do know or understand And the object doth no whit alter the certainty of the act whiles a divine truth goes upon no lesse evidence and assurance why may not a man as well know that he knowes a divine truth as an humane The like is to be said of those other specialties which are required to our faith Our faith assents to the truth of Gods promises what should hinder the heart from knowing that it doth assent Do not I know whether I believe a man on his word Why should I not know the same of God when an honest man hath by his promises ingaged himself to me to do me a good turne do not I know whether I trust to him whether I make use of that favour in a confident reliance upon the performance of it the case is the same betwixt God and us Only we may be so much the more infallibly assured of the promised mercies of our God by how much we do more know his unfailingness his unchangeableness Yea so fecible is this knowledg as that our Apostle chargeth his Corinthians home in this point 2 Cor. 13.5 Prove your selves whether ye be in the faith Trye your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ Jesus is in you except ye be Reprobates what can be more full To be in the faith is more then to believe it intimates an habit of faith that is more then an act Now what proof what tryal can there be of our faith if we cannot know that we have faith Surely a tryal doth ever presuppose a knowledg If a man did not know which were good gold to what purpose doth he go to the Test Now how dwells Christ in us but by Faith So may they so must they know Christ to be in them that if they have him not they are reprobates And if they know not they have him they can have no comfortable assurance against their reprobation See then how emphaticall and full this charge is He saith not Guess at your selves but prove and try your selves He saith not do ye not morally conjesture but do ye not know He saith not whether ye hope well but whether ye be in the Faith And that not of the Faith of Miracles as Chrysostome and Theophilact nor of a Faith of Christian profession as Anselme but such a Faith as whereby Christ dwells in our hearts He saith not Lastly unless ye be faulty and worthy of blame but unless ye be reprobates The place is so choakingly convictive that there can be no probable elusion of it The shift of Cardinal Bellarmine wherein yet he would seem confident is worthy of pity that the place hath no other drift but to imply the powerfull presence of Christ amongst the Corinthians strongly confirming the truth of his Apostleship whereby if there were any faith at all in them except they were given up to a reprobate sense they must needs be convinced of the authority of his Ministery for what was this to their being in the faith whereof they must examine themselves or who can think that to be in the faith is no more then to have any faith at all Neither doth the Apostle say that Christ is among you but in you neither could the not knowing of Christs presence amongst them by powerfull Miracles be a matter of reprobation so as this sense is unreasonably strained to no purpose and such as no judicious spirit can rest in and this act of our knowledg is taken for granted by him that works it in us And indeed what question can there be of this act when God undertakes it in us The Spirit of God witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Rom. 8.16 Can any Man doubt of the truth of Gods Testimony Certainly he that is the God of truth cannot but speak truth now he witnesseth together with us Yea but you say though he be true yet we are deceitfull and his Spirit doth but witness according to the measure of our receit and capacity which is very poor and scant yea and perhaps also uncertain Take heed whosoever thou art least thou disparage God whiles thou wouldst abase thy self he witnesseth together with us The Spirit of truth will not witness with a lying Spirit were not therefore that witness of ours sure he would check us and not witness with us Now what witness can he give with us and to us if we do not hear him if we do not know what he saies if we cannot be assured of what he testifies Let no Bellarmine speak now of an experiment of inward sweetness and peace which onely causeth a conjecturall and not an unfailing certainty The Man hath forgot that this Testimony is of the Spirit of adoption whereby we do not seem Sons but are made so and are so assured and that it is not a guess but a witness and Lastly that there can be no true inward peace out of mere conjectures Yea here is not onely the word of God for it but his seale too and not his seale only but his earnest what can make a future match more sure then hand and seale and here we have them
what saith he is the Pasch that you keep you are again addicted to Jewish fables we must keep no pasch for Christ our pasch is offered for us and I can show you Epiphanius flying in his face with this just reply Who is likely to know more of these matters this seduced wretch which is yet living in the World or those witnesses which have been before us and had the tradition of the Church with them which received from their fathers that which their fathers received from their forefathers and still retaines what they taught both for faith and tradition The same reason is there for the other feasts Unto this of the Easter that I may speak in Leo's words to the Bishops of Sicily is added the sacred solemnity of Penticost in memory of the coming of the holy Ghost which depends upon the time of the paschal feast Neither did Eusebius doubt to call this festivitatum omnium principem You know how honourable mention is made of it by Gregory Nazianzen The Jew saith he keeps feast daies but according to the letter the Gentile keeps feast dayes but according to the flesh we keep feast dayes also but that we may say or do something according to the Spirit and soon after The Hebrews keep their Penticost and we keep it as we do some other Jewish rites but they Typically we Mystically we celebrate Penticost for the coming of the holy Ghost as the day set for the performance of this promise and the fulfilling of our hope and how great a mystery is this how sacred I cannot therefore passe over that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Centurists which can say there is scarce any expresse mention of any of the feasts in antiquity besides Easter I may not admit all the bedroll that Polydore Virgill inserts into the Apostolicall solemnities I had rather hold the mid-way between both That memorable place of Austin is to me in stead of a thousand witnesses neither need we care for other evidence whilest we have one so absolute you know where to find it in the 118. Epistle to Januarius Illa autem quae non Scripta sed tradita custodimus quae quidem toto terrarum orbe observantur dantur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis conciliis quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima authoritas commendata atque statuta retineri sicut quod domini passio resurrectio ascensio in coelum adventus de coelo spiritus sancti anniversaria solemnitate celebrantur si quod aliud occurrerit quod servatur ab universa quacunque se diffundit Ecclesia But if these feasts could not show so ancient and noble a pedigree what hinders that the Church may not appoint certain dayes to the blessed memory of these excellent benefits Doubtless this right she hath heretofore challenged to her self in lesser occasions and I do not finde any man that ever accused her of rashness or presumption how solemn the dayes of Purim were to the Jewes is known to all denyed of none and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feast of Dedication which Castalio affectedly calls Renovalia set a part to the memory not so much of the temple as the altar recovered from former profanation our Saviour himself you know honested with his presence look on the history of the Maccabees that book if for matter of faith it be Apocryphal yet hath Canon enough for matter of fact you shall finde that when Nicanor the deadly enemy of the Jewes was discomfited and slain a day was appointed by publick authority next before Mardokees feast to be kept anniversarily sacred unto the memory of that deliverance and victory and what other do we in this happy Island whiles we yearly celebrate those two blessed dayes to the miracle of the preservation of our King Church State with the joy both of love and duty then do the Streets of your Edenbourgh smoke with many thankfull fires and your Arthures-seat flames with the bon-fires of your triumph and exultation and shall the dayes of Christ wherein we were graciously delivered from the jawes of hell carry from us less joy and celebrity Surely your church shall abate nothing of her purity in joyning her self to all the rest of the world antient and moderne in the observation of the feast of her Saviour As for the private administration of both the Sacraments the difference of time or place cannot be of that value as that for it the participation of those divine mysteries should be neglected there is a direct precept for either sacrament given by the heavenly author of both and commended by the hands of the Apostles to the succeeding Church there is no precept of time or place and shall we omit that which Christ hath commanded for that which he commanded not The holy mysteries are as the body circumstances are as the clothes it were to be wished that a goodly beautifull body should be fitly suted with clothes of due colours and fashions but if it should fall out through extremity of want that there must be a meet elegancy lacking in the clothes shall we therefore despise the body and cast it out for an unprofitable carcasse If there did not a great necessity lie upon the sacraments if there did not much divine consolation flow from them why would Christ leave them to his own spouse the church as the precious pledges of his love A necessity of the means no man can deny the necessity of the end is not undeservedly litigious Indeed God hath not bound himself to any means good reason his omnipotency should be free but he hath thought good to bind us unto means so as whosoever shall wittingly and wilfully omit these saving institutions is justly guilty of the violation of so holy an ordinance and withall of his own judgment The dilation of the signe of that old covenant you know how heavy it lay upon holy Moses and the voluntary neglect of that other Sacrament beyond the double day appointed was wont you know to be punished with no less then excision from the Congregation of Israel and is there less necessity less use of the Evangelical Sacraments To follow this instance a little further tell me I pray you were not both those antient Sacraments accustomed unto private roofs Of the Paschal dish there can be no doubt that holy feast was by the author of it destin'd to the private families of his Israel perhaps you will stick a little at the other I do not tell you of Abraham of Zipporah look but upon the forerunner of Christ you will finde it likely that his circumcision was within dores his mother Elizabeth was either present or not farr off at the ceremony as it is most probable she changed his name upon the act Now it could not be that the eighth day of her childbirth could alow her to go forth whose uncleanness by the law pent her up for thirty dayes But what do I urge this
can teach them to distinguish betwixt callings and persons betwixt the substance of callings and the not necessary appendances of them betwixt the rules of Government and the errors of Execution those ill-raised quarrels would dye alone Da pacem Domine Amen J. E. VIA MEDIA The way of Peace IN THE FIVE BUSY ARTICLES Commonly known by the Name of ARMINIUS TOUCHING 1. Predestination 2. The Extent of Christs Death 3. Mans Free-will and corruption 4. The manner of our conversion to God 5. Perseverance Wherein is laid forth so fair an Accommodation of the different Opinions as may content both parts and procure happy accord By J. H. D. of Worcester LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLX TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAIESTY May it please your Majestie THere needs no propheticall Spirit to discern by a small Cloud that there is a storm comming towards our Church such a one as shall not only drench our plumes but shake our peace Already do we see the Skie thicken and hear the winds whistle hollow afarr off and feel all the Presages of a Tempest which the late example of our Neighbours bids us fear It boots not to perswade your Majesty to betake your self to your Chariot to outride the showre since your gracious compassion would not be willing to put off the sense of a common evill Rather let me take boldness to implore your Majesties seasonable prevention Only the powerfull breath of your Soveraign authority can dispell these Clouds and clear our Heaven and reduce an happy Calme In the mean time give leave to your well meaning Servants to contribute their best wishes to the common Tranquillity I see every Man ready to ranke himself unto a side and to draw in the quarrel he affecteth I see no Man thrusting himself between them and either holding or joyning their hands for peace This good however thankless office I have here boldly undertaken shewing how unjustly we are divided and by what means we may be made and kept entire A project which if it may receive life and light from your gracious eyes and shall by your Royall command be drawn into speedy practise promiseth to free this noble and flourishing Church from a perilous inconvenience Let it be no disparagement to so important a motion that it falls from so mean a hand then which yet none can be more syncerely consecrated to the service of your Majesty and this Church the mutuall happiness of both which is dearer then life to Your Majesties most humble and faithful devoted Subject and Servant JOS. HALL THE First Article OF GODS PREDESTINATION 1 WHatsoever God who is the God of truth hath ingaged himself by promise to do the same he undoubtedly hath willed and will accordingly perform 2. There is no Son of Adam to whom God hath not promised that if he shall believe in Christ repent and persevere he shall be saved We must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressely declared unto us in the Word of God Artic. of the Chu 17. Est generalis conditionata voluntas seu generalis promissio Evangelica c. docens promissiones divinas fic amplectendas esse ut nobis in sacris literis generaliter propositae sunt D. Overal de 5. Artic. in Belgio controversis Art 1. 3. This generall and undoubted will of God must be equally proclaimed to all Men through the World without exception and ought to be so received and believed as it is by him published and revealed Est quidem decretum hoc annuntiativum salutis omnibus ex aequo indiscriminatim promulgandum Theol. Britan. Dordrac in Actis Synodi in Thesibus heterodox Thes 1. Gratiam communem sufficientem in mediis divinitus ordinatis si homines verbo Dei Spirituique sancto deesse noluerint c. D. Overal Artic. 1. 4. All Men within the Pale of the Church especially have from the mercy of God such common helps towards this belief and Salvation as that the neglect thereof makes any of them justly guilty of their own condemnation In Ecclesia ubi juxta promissum hoc Evangelii salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae quae sâ—fficit ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos quod sua culpa voluntaria vel neglectu vel contemptu Evangelii perierint oblatum beneficium amiserint Theol. Britan. Dordrac de Art 2. Thes 5. 5. Besides the generall will of God he hath eternally willed and decreed to give a speciall and effectuall grace to those that are predestinate according to the good pleasure of his will whereby they do actually believe obey and persevere that they may be saved so as the same God that would have all Men to be saved if they believe and be not wanting to his Spirit hath decreed to work powerfully in some whom he hath particularly chosen that they shall believe and not be wanting to his Spirit in whatsoever shall be necessary for their salvation Deinde in secundo loco ut succurreret humanae infirmitati c. voluisse addere specialem gratiam magis efficacem abundantem quibus placuerit communicandam per quam non solum possint sed etiam actu velint credant obediant perseverent D. Overal Art 1. He hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as Vessels made to honour wherefore they which be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in them in due season they through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made sons of God by adoption they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity Art of Relig. Art 17. 6. It is not the prevision of faith or any other grace or act of Man whereupon this decree of God is grounded but the meer and gracious good will and pleasure of God from all eternity appointing to save those whom he hath chosen in Christ as the head and foundation of the elect 7. This decree of Gods election is absolute and unchangeable and from everlasting 8. God doth not either actually damn or appoint any soul to damnation without the consideration and respect of sin Non ex praescientia humanae fidei aut voluntatis sed ex proposito divinae voluntatis gratiae de his quos Deus elegit in Christo liberandis salvandis D. Overal Art 1. Particulare decretum absolutum D. Overal ibid. Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed c. Article of Relig. 17. Deus nominem damnat aut damnationi destinat nisi
blood is sufficient to save all and if this may serve their turne who can grudg it Contrarily whiles they do willingly grant that in respect of the efficacy of power Christ dyed not for all and that Christ was given only with this intention of his Father that the World should no otherwise be saved by his Son then through faith what need we urge more Magnitudinem precii distinguit a proprietate redemptionis Colloq Hag. p. 161. Christum pro multis duntaxat non pro omnibus mortuum quo ad efficaciam virtutis c. p. 171. Nulli hominum singulariter annuntiatur Christum pro ipso mortuum non esse Col. Hag. p. 155. Both will grant that the Apothecaries shop hath drugs enough for the cure of all diseases which yet can profit none but those that are willing to make use of them Both will accord in this position which B. Overal commends as in effect the words of worthy Mr. Calvin So Christ dyed for all that there is no man if his incredulity did not hinder him but were redeemed by his pretious blood Neither is there as is willingly confessed by the Defendents any man living to whom it may be singularly said Christ dyed not for thee Seeing therefore whole mankind doth but result of singular and individual men why should we fear to say unto all that Christ dyed for them Now what should we stand upon a niggardly contestation of words where so much reall truth is mutually yielded Who can think there can be any peril to that soul who believes thus much The rest to the Schools But what ever have been the nice scruples and explications of Forreign Divines we have no such cause of strife if we admit that which our learned Bishop commends for the voice of the Church of England who having laid down the two extream opinions of the opposite parts brings in the Church of England as sweetly moderating betwixt both that she supposing the death of Christ for all men and Gods conditionate intention of the general grace of his Evangelical promise adds moreover the special intention of God to apply the benefit of Christs death by a more abundant and effectual grace absolutly certainly and infallibly to the Elect alone without any diminution of that his sufficient and common favour which as we see so yields to both parts what they desire as that in the mean time it puts upon both what they are not greatly forward to admit yet that which it puts upon them may be admitted without any complaint except perhaps of excesse of Charity and that which is yielded is abundantly enough for peace These Articles are like to linkes of a chain whereof one is rivited within another The Order of Gods decree would not be stiflly stood upon if our faith and perseverance foreseen by him be clearly ascribed to God as his meer and only gift But now the Defendents are jealous of some incroachments upon the glory of Gods only Act in our conversion in that they apprehend it according to the Tenet of the adverse part left in our power to entertain or reject the good motions of his Spirit tending thereunto wherto the Opponents answer that they are studiously careful to ascribe unto God the sincere glory of our conversion professing that they do not teach as hath been usually objected to them that God gives man only profers of power to believe which his own freedom may either except or refuse but teaching openly if their words may carry belief that God gives him the whole power of believing by the illumination of his minde and vivification of his will yet so as that in the mean time God whiles he gives this new power to believe doth not take away the natural liberty of the will whereupon the man whose will is renewed both may work according to the power of that renovation and may not work according to the radical freedom of his will both may use his new power as a spirituall man and not use it in part as a natural man wherein they urge the distinction betwixt the power and the liberty of our freewil confessing that in this state of sin the will hath no power at all to that which is good but that it hath mean while a natural Liberty whereby it can incline to evil the new power that is given to man doth not make him cease either to be a man or a man in part Man hath it not therefore from any power of nature that he can believe that is meerly from the grace of God But still he hath it from the remainders of himself that he can will not to believe neither do the Opponents professe to say other concerning the first act of Conversion then the Defendents themselves say concerning the progresse thereof wherein they teach that a renewed man hath freedom of Will both to good and evil and yet stand for the meer and all only power of grace not occasionally but causally working the will to good And if this must be yielded in the proceedings of our regeneration what so great importance is there either way in yielding it to the entrance I do not enquire into the truth of this point I enquire into the weight surely these Questions of the concurrence of the Spirit of God with ours so as neither the will is necessitated on the one side nor flattered with a wilde liberty on the other And how far necessity may stand with freedom and what kinde of necessity may be here admitted are points fit to be ranged amongst the deepest problemes of the Schools and not fit to torture the ears of popular auditories Ad nauseam usque inculcamus nihil ex se aut suis viribus hominem posse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidei conversionis gratiae deberi c. Nusquam hominem boni quicquam agere dicimus nisi gratia praeveniente concomitante subsequente ad jutum instructumque Rem Epist ad ext p. 62 63. For the main point it must needs be said no man can speak more fully against the natural power of mans free will and abilities in spiritual things then the Belgick Opponents professing That of himself and his own powers man can do nothing That the beginnings proceedings endings of faith and conversion are owing to meer grace That no good can come from us unlesse we be enabled by the preventing accompanying subsequent grace of God It is the word of Arminius cited by our late learned Bishop of Salisbury Give what you will to grace so you hold it not irresistible Nothing is here stood upon but the manner of the working of grace upon the hearts wherein if both parts would hear and understand each other with favour the controversie would be found little other then Verbal For the part that most constantly teaches the forceableness of conversion holds such a kind of actuating the will as doth no whit hurt or infring the liberty thereof yea rather which profits it and
and his Host in the sea for his mercy indureth for ever which smote great Kings and slew mighty Kings for his mercy indureth for ever Sihon King of the Amorites and Og the King of Basan for his mercy indureth for ever Ps 139. Neither is there a greater demonstration of his mercy in his strokes then in his warnings for surely God intends by these examples of his just vengeance to deterr all others from following the footsteps of those wicked men whom he thus plagues as good Princes and Magistrates do so order their executions that paena ad paucos terror ad multos some may smart all may fear It is excellent and pregnant which the Apostle hath 1 Cor. 10.11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come See I beseech you God hath further drifts in his executions of judgments then we can imagine he intends them not only for acts but patterns he means not so much to punish as to teach every judgment 't is a new lesson and to teach not the next successions but all generations of men to the end of the World and if we do not make this use of his terrible proceedings we shall be much wanting both to him and our selves and no marvell if we be whipt for dull non-proficients in Gods School if we be not taught fear and obedience by his so many judgments We need not cast our eyes much back to the view of former ages though there we may meet with worlds of examples let us but look at the present estate of our miserable neighbourhood of the wofull ruines of Germany once and in our time one of the most rich and flourishing countreys of the Christian world famous for goodly Cities for a plentifull soyl for frequence of trafique for the seat of the Empire now wasted with the miseries of a long and cruell warr wallowing in blood buried in rubbidge and dust Oh see the desolations that God hath wrought in this part of the earth and pick out of them as we well may pitty fear thankfulness Pitty and just commiseration of the grievous sufferings of that desolate Nation fear of that just hand of God which hath thus humbled them and might no less deservedly have fal'n as heavily upon us thankfulness for those gracious immunities which he hath given us hitherto from their evills and mercifull respites of repentance for those sins which have called down these judgments upon them And this is the former particular object which the Psalmist calls our eyes unto worthy of our view but yet not the main and intended subject of this dayes discourse rather the other that now followes the cessation of armes and the blessing of peace He makes Wars to cease in all the World c. however the sight and due meditation of the miseries of war and the vastations that follow upon it may be a good preparative to us for setting a true value upon the benefit of peace For us Alas we had rather a threatning then a sense of war our neighbours entred into our borders not with a publick denunciation of an offensive war but with a profession of defence And if some blood were mutually shed in the passage it was not out of a professedly hostile intention on either part which had it been might easily have proceeded to a far greater slaughter but out of the suddain apprehensions of the intervening crosses of each others purposes And if the long abode in those our quarters have been not a little chargeable to us yet it hath been without any violent and bloody prosecution on either part and now thanks be to God they are passed away in peace But even this little glimpse of a dry war is enough to show us the wofull misery of a war denounced prosecuted executed to the height of cruelty where there are nothing but intentions of killing spoiling desolation The anguish of this very touch is sufficient to make us sensible of the torment of the full shock of a destructive war Out of the sense whereof let us look at this great work of contrary mercy which is here set forth unto us He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth Wherein we have an intimation no lâ—sse of the wonder then the benefit of peace It is a work of power mixed with mercy that he so restraines the spirits of men that they are composed to peace Desolation is not a work of so much power as peacemaking is naturally every man hath the seeds of war and quâ—rrell sown in his heart and they are apt to come up on every occasion Through pride men make contention saith Wise Solomon From whence are wars among you come they not from hence even of your Lusts that war in your Members saith St. James 4.1 Lo the outward wars come from the inward The unquiet thoughts of the heart arising from ambition from malice and envy and desire of revenge are those which are guilty of these generall affrayes and bloodsheds of the World and what heart is free from these Every man naturally hath a tyrant in his bosome We are all by nature thornes or nettles and cannot be touched without some stinging or pricking when there were but two Brothers in the World one of them rises up against the other and dashes his brains out Surely as we do all partake of Adam our Grandfather so we have too much of our great Uncle his Eldest Son Cain naturally affected to violence slaughter Hence in the next age after the deluge Nimrod was a mighty hunter Gen. 10. pursuing men doubtlesse no lesse in his tyranny then beasts in his game And ever since Lord how hath the World been over-run with battails and murder Here one Prince findes his Territories too straight and hath a minde to enlarge himself with the Elbow-room of the neighbouring Region There another scornes to be incroached upon by an injurious usurpation and repells a lesse violence with a greater Here one pretends to the title of a Crown wherein he hath no more interest then he can hew out with the sword There another under colour of ayd thrusts himself into that throne which he pretended to succour here one picks quarrells with the defect of justice done to his subjects and makes sudden embargoes and unwarned inroads into the adjoyning Country There another takes advantage of the violation of leagues and coulours his ambition with the fair name of a just Vindication Here one if he can have no other ground will make religion a stalking horse to his covetous and ambitious intrusion it is bellum Domini a sacred war that he manages for the reducing of Hereticks to the unity of the Church or punishing their perfidiousnesse There another will plant the Gospell with the sword-point amongst Infidels and massacres millions of Indians to make room for Christianity It is a rare thing if where great Spirits and