misery 5. But that which is of special concernment is this that the Liturgy of the Church of England hath advantages so many and so considerable as not only to raise it self above the devotions of other Churches but to endear the affections of good people to be in love with Liturgy in general 6. For to the Churches of the Roman Communion we can say that ours is reformed to the reformed Churches we can say that ours is orderly and decent for we were freed from the impositions and lasting errors of a tyrannical spirit and yet from the extravagancies of a popular spirit too our reformation was done without tumult and yet we saw it necessary to reform we were zealous to cast away the old errors but our zeal was balanced with consideration and the results of authority Not like women or children when they are affrighted with fire in their clothes we shak'd off the coal indeed but not our garments lest we should have exposed our Churches to that nakedness which the excellent men of our sister Churches complained to be among themselves 7. And indeed it is no small advantage to our Liturgy that it was the off-spring of all that authority which was to prescribe in matters of Religion The King and the Priest which are the Antistites Religionis and the preservers of both the Tables joyn'd in this work and the people as it was represented in Parliament were advised withal in authorizing the form after much deliberation for the Rule Quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet was here observed with strictness and then as it had the advantages of discourse so also of authorities its reason from one and its sanction from the other that it might be both reasonable and sacred and free not only from the indiscretions but which is very considerable from the scandal of popularity 8. And in this I cannot but observe the great wisdom and mercy of God in directing the contrivers of the Liturgy with the spirit of zeal and prudence to allay the furies and heats of the first affrightment For when men are in danger of burning so they leap from the flames they consider not whither but whence and the first reflexions of a crooked tree are not to straightness but to a contrary incurvation yet it pleased the Spirit of God so to temper and direct their spirits that in the first Liturgy of King Edward they did rather retain something that needed further consideration than reject any thing that was certainly pious and holy and in the second Liturgy that they might also throughly reform they did rather cast out something that might with good profit have remained than not satisfie the world of their zeal to reform of their charity in declining every thing that was offensive and the clearness of their light in discerning every semblance of error or suspicion in the Roman Church 9. The truth is although they fram'd the Liturgy with the greatest consideration that could be by all the united wisdom of this Church and State yet as if Prophetically to avoid their being charg'd in after ages with a crepusculum of Religion a dark twilight imperfect Reformation they joyn'd to their own Star all the shining tapers of the other reformed Churches calling for the advice of the most eminently learned and zealous Reformers in other Kingdoms that the light of all together might shew them a clear path to walk in And this their care produced some change for upon the consultation the first form of King Edwards Service-book was approved with the exception of a very few clauses which upon that occasion were review'd and expung'd till it came to that second form and modest beauty it was in the Edition of MDLII and which Gilbertus a German approved of as a transcript of the ancient and primitive forms 10. It was necessary for them to stay some-where Christendom was not only reformed but divided too and every division would to all ages have called for some alteration or else have disliked it publickly and since all that cast off the Roman yoke thought they had title enough to be called Reformed it was hard to have pleased all the private interests and peevishness of men that called themselves friends and therefore that only in which the Church of Rome had prevaricated against the word of God or innovated against Apostolical tradition all that was par'd away But at last she fix'd and strove no further to please the people who never could be satisfied 11. The Painter that exposed his work to the censure of the common passengers resolving to mend it as long as any man could find fault at last had brought the eyes to the ears and the ears to the neck and for his excuse subscrib'd Hanc populus fecit But his Hanc ego that which he made by the rules of art and the advice of men skill'd in the same mystery was the better piece The Church of England should have par'd away all the Canon of the Communion if she had mended her piece at the prescription of the Zuinglians and all her office of Baptism if she had mended by the rules of the Anabaptists and kept up Altars still by the example of the Lutherans and not have retain'd decency by the good will of the Calvinists and now another new light is sprung up she should have no Liturgy at all but the worship of God be left to the managing of chance and indeliberation and a petulant fancy 12. It began early to discover its inconvenience for when certain zealous persons fled to Frankford to avoid the funeral piles kindled by the Roman Bishops in Queen Maries time as if they had not enemies enough abroad they fell soul with one another and the quarrel was about the Common-Prayer-Book and some of them made their appeal to the judgment of Mr. Calvin whom they prepossessed with strange representments and troubled phantasms concerning it and yet the worst he said upon the provocation of those prejudices was that even its vanities were tolerable Tolerabiles ineptias was the unhandsome Epithete he gave to some things which he was forc'd to dislike by his over-earnest complying with the Brethren of Frankford 13. Well! upon this the wisdom of this Church and State saw it necessary to fix where with advice she had begun and with counsel she had once mended And to have altered in things inconsiderable upon a new design or sullen mislike had been extreme levity and apt to have made the men contemptible their authority slighted and the thing ridiculous especially before adversaries that watch'd all opportunity and appearances to have disgraced the Reformation Here therefore it became a Law was established by an Act of Parliament was made solemn by an appendant penalty against all that on either hand did prevaricate a sanction of so long and so prudent consideration 14. But the Common-Prayer-Book had the fate of S. Paul for when it had scap'd the storms of
elaborentur gratiora tamen quae suâ sponte nascuntur And a garment may as well be made to fit the Moon as that one form of Prayer should be made apt and proportionable to all men or to any man at all times Sect. 52. THIS Discourse relies wholly upon these two grounds A liberty to use variety of forms for prayer is more for the edification of the Church Secondly it is part of that liberty which the Church hath and part of the duty of the Church to preserve the liberty of the Spirit in various forms Sect. 53. BEFORE I descend to consideration of the particulars I must premise this that the gift or ability of prayer given to the Church is used either in publick or in private and that which is fit enough for one is inconvenient in the other and although a liberty in private may be for edification of good people when it is piously and discreetly used yet in the publick if it were indifferently permitted it would bring infinite inconvenience and become intolerable as a sad experience doth too much verifie Sect. 54. BUT now then this distinction evacuates all the former discourse and since it is permitted that every man in private use what forms he please the Spirit hath all that liberty that is necessary and so much as can be convenient the Church may be edified by every mans gift the affections of all men may be complied withall words may be fitted to their fancies their devotions quickned their weariness helped and supported and whatsoever benefit may be fancied by variety and liberty all that may be enjoyed and every reasonable desire or weaker fancy be fully satisfied Sect. 55. BUT since these advantages to devotion are accidental and do consult with weakness and infirmity and depend upon irregular variety for which no antecedent rule can make particular provision it is not to be expected the publick constitution and prescribed forms which are regular orderly and determin'd can make provision for particulars for chances and for infinite varieties And if this were any objection against publick forms it would also conclude against all humane Laws that they did not make provision for all particular accidents and circumstances that might possibly occurr All publick sanctions must be of a publick spirit and design and secure all those excellent things which have influence upon societies and communities of men and publick obligations Sect. 56. THUS if publick forms of Prayer be describ'd whose matter is pious and holy whose design is of universal extent and provisionary for all publick probable fear'd or foreseen events whose frame and composure is prudent and by authority competent and high and whose use and exercise is instrumental to peace and publick charity and all these hallowed by intention and care of doing glory to God and advantages to Religion express'd in observation of all such rules and precedents as are most likely to teach us best and guide us surest such as are Scriptures Apostolical Tradition Primitive practice and precedents of Saints and holy Persons the publick can do no more all the duty is performed and all the care is taken Sect. 57. NOW after all this there are personal necessities and private conveniencies or inconveniencies which if men are not so wise as themselves to provide for by casting off all prejudice and endeavouring to grow strong in Christianity men in Christ and not for ever to be Babes in Religion but frame themselves to a capacity of receiving the benefit of the publick without needing other provisions than what will fit the Church in her publick capacity the Spirit of God and the Church taught by him hath permitted us to comply with our own infirmities while they are innocent and to pray in private in any form of words which shall be most instrumental to our devotion in the present capacity Neque hoc ego ago ut ex tempore dicere malit sed ut possit Sect. 58. AND indeed sometimes an exuberant and an active affection and overflowing of Devotion may descend like anointing from above and our cup run over and is not to be contained within the margent of prescribed forms And though this be not of so great consideration as if it should happen to a man in publick that it is then fit for him or to be permitted to express it in forms unlimited and undetermin'd For there was a case in the dayes of the inundation of the Spirit when a man full of the Spirit was commanded to keep silence in the Church and to speak to himself and to God yet when this grace is given him in private he may compose his own Liturgy pectus enim est quod disertos facit vis mentis Ideoque imperitis quoque si modò sint aliquo affectu concitati verba non desunt Only when in private devotion we use forms of our own making or chusing we are concern'd to see that the matter be pious apt for edification and the present necessity and without contempt of publick prescriptions or irreverence to God and in all the rest we are at liberty only in the Lord that is according to the rule of faith and the analogy of Christian Religion For supposing that our devotion be fervent our intention pious and the petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the will of God Whatsoever our expressions are God reads the petition in the Character of the spirit though the words be brevia concisa singultantium modo ejecta But then these accidental advantages and circumstances of profit which may be provided for in private as they cannot be taken care of in publick so neither is it necessary they should for those pleasures of sensible devotion are so far from being necessary to the acceptation of prayer that they are but compliances with our infirmities and suppose a great weakness in him that needs them say the Masters of spiritual life and in the strongest prayers and most effectual devotions are seldomest found such as was Moses prayer when he spake nothing and Hannah's and our blessed Saviour's when he called upon his Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with strong cries in that great desertion of spirit when he prayed in the Garden In these prayers the spirit was bound up with the strictness and violence of intention but could not ease it self with a flood of language and various expression A great devotion is like a great grief not so expressive as a moderate passion tears spend the grief and variety of language breaths out the devotion and therefore Christ went thrice and said the same words he could just speak his sence in a plain expression but the greatness of his agony was too big for the pleasure of a sweet and sensible expression of devotion Sect. 59. SO that let the devotion be never so great set forms of prayer will be expressive enough of any desire though importunate as extremity it self but when the spirit is
if all Christian Churches had one common Liturgy there were not a greater symbol to testifie nor a greater instrument to preserve the Catholick Communion and when ever a Schism was commenc'd and that they called one another Heretick they not only forsook to pray with one another but they also altered their Forms by interposition of new Clauses Hymns and Collects and new Rites and Ceremonies only those parts that combined kept the same Liturgy and indeed the same Forms of Prayer were so much the instrument of Union that it was the only ligament of their Society for their Creeds I reckon as part of their Liturgy for so they ever were so that this may teach us a little to guess I will not say into how many Churches but into how many innumerable atoms and minutes of Churches those Christians must needs be scattered who alter their Forms according to the number of persons and the number of their meetings every company having a new Form of Prayer at every convention And this consideration will not be vain if we remember how great a blessing Unity in Churches is and how hard to be kept with all the arts in the world and how every thing is powerful enough for its dissolution But that a publick Form of Liturgy was the great instrument of Communion in the Primitive Church appears in this that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or excommunication was an exclusion à communicatione orationis conventûs omnis sancti commercii from the participation of the publick meeting and Prayers and therefore the more united the Prayer is still it is the greater instrument of Union the Authority and Consent the publick Spirit and common Acceptation are so many degrees of a more firm and indissoluble Communion Sect. 103. THIRDLY To this I add that without prescribed Forms issues of the publick Spirit and Authority publick Communion cannot be regular and certain as may appear in one or two plain instances It is a practise prevailing among those of our Brethren that are zealous for ex tempore or not enjoyned Prayers to pray their Sermons over to reduce their Doctrine into Devotion and Liturgie I mislike it not for the thing it self if it were regularly for the manner and the matter always pious and true But who shall assure me when the preacher hath disputed or rather dogmatically decreed a point of Predestination or of prescience of contingency or of liberty or any of the most mysterious parts of Divinity and then prayes his Sermon over that he then prays with the Spirit Unless I be sure that he also Preached with the Spirit I cannot be sure that he Prays with the Spirit for all he prays ex tempore Nay if I hear a Protestant preach in the Morning and an Anabaptist in the Afternoon to day a Presbyterian to morrow an Independant am I not most sure that when they have preached contradictories and all of them pray their Sermons over that they do not all pray with the Spirit More than one in this case cannot pray with the Spirit possibly all may pray against him Sect. 104. FOURTHLY From whence I thus argue in behalf of set Forms of prayer That in the case above put how shall I or any man else say Amen to their prayers that preach and pray contradictories At least I am much hindred in my devotion For besides that it derives our opinions into our devotions makes every School-point become our Religion and makes God a party so far as we can intitling him to our impertinent wranglings Besides this I say while we should attend to our addresses towards God we are to consider whether the point be true or no and by that time we have tacitely discoursed it we are upon another point which also perhaps is as questionable as the former and by this time our spirit of devotion is a little discomposed and something out of countenance there is so much other imployment for the spirit the spirit of discerning and judging All which inconveniences are avoided in set forms of Liturgy For we know before hand the conditions of our communion and to what we are to say Amen to which if we like it we may repair if not there is no harm done your devotion shall not be surprized nor your communion invaded as it may be often in your ex tempore prayers and unlimited devotions Sect. 105. FIFTHLY and this thing hath another collateral inconvenience which is of great consideration for upon what confidence can we solicite any Recusants to come to our Church where we cannot promise them that the devotions there to be used shall be innocent nor can we put him into a condition to judge for himself if he will venture he may but we can use no argument to make him choose our Churches though he would quit his own Sect. 106. SIXTHLY So that either the people must have an implicite faith in the Priest and then may most easily be abused or if they have not they cannot joyn in the prayer it cannot become to them an instrument of communion but by chance and irregularly and ex post facto when the prayer is approv'd of and after the devotion is spent for till then they cannot judge and before they do they cannot say Amen and till Amen be said there is no benefit of the prayer nor no union of hearts and desires and therefore as yet no communion Sect. 107. SEVENTHLY Publick forms of prayer are great advantages to convey an Article of faith into the most secret retirement of the Spirit and to establish it with a most firm perswasion and endear it to us with the greatest affection For since our prayers are the greatest instruments and conveyances of blessing and mercy to us that which mingles with our hopes which we owe to God which is sent of an errand to fetch a mercy for us in all reason will become the dearer to us for all these advantages And just so is an Article of belief inserted into our devotions and made a part of prayer it is extreamly confirmed by that confidence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulness of perswasion that must exclude all doubting from our prayers and it insinuates it self into our affection by being mingled with our desires and we grow bold in it by having offered it to God and made so often acknowledgment of it to him who is not to be mocked Sect. 108. AND certainly it were a very strange Liturgy in which there were no publick Confession of Faith for as it were deficient in one act of Gods worship which is offering the understanding up to God bringing it in subjection to Christ and making publick profession of it it also loses a very great advantage which might accrue to Faith by making it a part of our Liturgick devotions and this was so apprehended by the Ancients in the Church our Fathers in Christ that commonly they used to oppose a Hymn or a Collect or a Doxology in
to be sorrowful are natural effects of their proper apprehensions and therefore are not properly capable of a law Though it be possible for a man who is of a sanguine complexion in perfect health and constitution not to act his lust yet it will be found next to impossible not to love it not to desire it and who will find it possible that every man and in all cases of his temptation should overcome his fear But if this fear be instanced in a matter of religion it will be apt to multiply eternal scruples and they are equivocal effects of a good meaning but are proper and univocal enemies to piety and a wise religion 22. I need not take notice of the infinite variety of thoughts and sentences that divide all mankind concerning their manner of pleasing and obeying God and the appendant zeal by which they are furiously driven on to promote their errors or opinions as they think for God and he that shall tell these men they do amiss would be wondred at for they think themselves secure of a good reward even when they do horrible things But the danger here is very great when the instrument of serving God is nothing but opinion and passion abus'd by interest especially since this passion of it self is very much to be suspected it being temerity or rashness for some zeal is no better and its very formality is inadvertency and inconsideration 23. But the case is very often so that even the greatest consideration is apt to be mistaken and how shall men be innocent when besides the signal precepts of the Gospel there are propounded to us some general measures and as I may call them extraregular lines by which our actions are to be directed such as are the analogy of faith fame reputation publick honesty not giving offence being exemplary all which and divers others being indefinite measures of good and evil are pursued as men please and as they will understand them And because concerning these God alone can judge righteously he alone can tell when we have observed them we cannot and therefore it is certain we very often do mistake 24. Hence it is that they who mean holiness and purity are forc'd to make to themselves rules and measures by way of Idea or instrument endeavouring to chuse that side that is the surest which indeed is but a guessing at the way we should walk in and yet by this way also men do often run into a snare and lay trouble and intricacy upon their consciences unnecessary burthens which presently they grow weary of and in striving to shake them off they gall the neck and introduce tediousness of spirit or despair 25. For we see when Religion grows high the dangers do increase not only by the proper dangers of that state and the more violent assaults made against Saints than against meaner persons of no religious interest but because it will be impossible for any man to know certainly what intension of spirit is the minimum religionis the necessary condition under or less than which God will not accept the action and yet sometimes two duties justle one another and while we are zealous in one we less attend the other and therefore cannot easily be certain of our measures and because sometimes two duties of a very different matter are to be reconcil'd and waited upon who can tell what will be the event of it since mans nature is so limited and little that it cannot at once attend upon two objects 26. Is it possible that a man should so attend his prayers that his mind should be always present and never wander does not every man complain of this and yet no man can help it And if of this alone we had cause to complain yet even for this we were not innocent in others and he that is an offender in one is guilty of all and yet it is true that in many things we all offend And all this is true when a man is well and when he is wise but he may be foolish and he will be sick and there is a new scene of dangers new duties and new infirmities and new questions and the old uncertainty of things and the same certainty of doing our duty weakly and imperfectly and pitiably Quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te Conatus non poeniteat votique peracti 27. Since therefore every sin is forbidden and yet it can enter from so many angles I may conclude in the words of Sedulius Lex spiritualis est quia spiritualiae mandat ardua praecipit opera spiritus prohibens peccata ideò non potest impleri Gods law is spiritual and we are carnal and disproportionate to it while we are in the state of conjunction and therefore it cannot be kept Deus jugum legis homini imponit homo ferre non valet said the Fathers of the Synod of Frankeford God hath imposed a yoke but man cannot bear it For that I may summ up all 28. In affirmative Precepts the measure is To love God with all our faculties and degrees In negative Precepts the measure is Not to lust or desire Now if any man can say that he can so love God in the proper and full measures as never to step aside towards the creatures with whom he daily converses and is of the same kindred with them and that he can so abstain from the creature as never to covet what he is forbidden then indeed he justifies God in imposing a possible law and condemns himself that he does not what he ought But in all he infers the absolute necessity of Repentance 29. But because we are sure God is just and cannot be otherwise all the Doctors of the Church have endeavoured to tie these things together and reconcile our state of infirmity with the justification of God Many lay the whole fault upon Man not on the impossible imposition But that being the Question cannot be concluded on either hand with a bare Affirmative or Negative and besides it was condemn'd by the African Councils to say that a man might if he pleas'd live without sin Posse hominem sine peccato decurrere vitam Si velit ut potuit nullo delinquere primus Libertate suâ Nempe haec damnata fuêre Conciliis mundique manu said Prosper For if it were only the fault of men then a man might if he pleased keep the whole law and then might be justified by the law and should not need a Saviour S. Augustine indeed thought it no great error and some African Bishops did expresly affirm that some from their conversion did to the day of their death live without sin This was worse than that of Pelagius save only that these took in the Grace of God which in that sence which the Church teaches the Pelagians did not But this also was affirmed by S. Austin upon which account it must follow that the Commandments are therefore possible because it is
foregoing cases CAN the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye learn to do good that are accustomed to do evil This is thy lot the portion of thy measures from me saith the Lord because thou hast forgotten me Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains lest while you look for light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness What wilt thou say when he shall punish shall not sorrow take thee as a woman in travel And if thou say in thine heart Wherefore came these things upon me for the goodness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare I have seen thine adulteries and thy neighings the lewdness of thy whoredoms and thine abominations Wo unto thee wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be saith the Lord God Thus saith the Lord unto this people Thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Then saith the Lord Pray not for this people for their good When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the sword and by famine and by the pestilence Therefore thus saith the Lord if thou return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me and if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible Learn before thou speak and use Physick or ever thou be sick Before judgment examine thy self and in the day of visitation thou shalt find mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick and in the time of sins shew repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy vows in due time and defer not until death to be justified I made hast and prolonged not the time to keep thy Commandments Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. For if you throughly amend your ways and your doings if you throughly execute judgment If ye oppress not the stranger and the widow then shall ye dwell in the land Thus saith the Lord God I will give you the land and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God But as for them whose heart walketh after their detestable things and their abominations I will recompence their way upon their own heads saith the Lord God They have seduced my people saying Peace and there was no peace and one built up a wall and others dawb'd it with untemper'd morter Will ye pollute me among my people for handfulls of barley and pieces of bread to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live by your lying unto my people that hear your lies Therefore I will judge you ô house of Israel every one according to your ways saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die ô house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ye shall remember your ways and all your doings wherein ye have been defil'd and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Wo unto them that justifie the wicked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes cease to do evil Learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wooll If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the fruit of the land But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it She hath wearied her self with lies therefore have I caused my fury to light upon her Sow to your selves in righteousness and reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you Turn thou unto thy God keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Return to the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the Spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made For the iniquity of his
succession were all circumcised and no arguments no authority could hinder them And for their fear it only produc'd caution and sneaking from the face of men and both together set them on work to corrupt the spirit of the law by expositions too much according to the letter so that by this means their natural desires their lustings and concupiscence were not cured 7. For as Lactantius brought in the Heathen complaining so does S. Paul bring in the Jew That which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that I do I say this is the state of a man under the law a man who is not regenerate and made free by the Spirit of Christ that is a man who abides in the infirmities of nature of which the law of nature warn'd him first and the superinduc'd law of God warn'd him more but there was not in these Covenants or Laws sufficient either to endear or to secure obedience they did not minister strength enough to conquer sin to overthrow its power to destroy the kingdom and reign of sin this was reserv'd for the great day of triumph it was the glory of the Gospel the power of Christ the strength of the Spirit which alone was able to do it and by this with its appendages that is the pardon of sin and a victory over it a conquest by the prevailing and rule of the Spirit by this alone the Gospel is the most excellent above all the covenants and states and institutions of the world 8. But then the Christian must not complain thus if he be advanced into the secrets of the Kingdom if he be a Christian in any thing beyond the name he cannot say that sin gives him laws that it reigns in his mortal body that he is led captive by Satan at his will that he sins against his will frequently and habitually and cannot help it But so it is men do thus complain and which is worse they make this to be their excuse and their incouragement If they have sinn'd foully they say It is true but it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not and what I hate that do I. And if they be tempted to a sin they cannot be disswaded from it or incouraged to a noble and pertinacious resistance because they have this in excuse ready To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not For the good which I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do That is it is my infirmity give me leave to do it I am the child of God for all my sin for I do it with an unwilling willingness I shall do this always and shall never be quit of this tyranny of sin It was thus with S. Paul himself and I ought not to hope to be otherwise than he and a person more free from sin We find in the life of Andronicus written by Nicetas Choniates the same pretence made in excuse for sin they could not help it and we find it so in our daily experience and the thing it self warranted by many Interpreters of Scripture who suppose that S. Paul in the seventh Chapter to the Romans from the fourteenth verse to the end describes his own state of infirmity and disability or which is all one the state of a regenerate man that it is no other but an ineffective striving and strugling against sin a contention in which he is most commonly worsted and that this striving is all that he can shew of holiness to be a testimony of his regeneration SECT II. 9. HOW necessary it is to free the words of S. Paul from so dangerous a sence we may easily believe if we consider that to suppose a man who is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ to be still a slave under sin and within its power and that he fain would but cannot help it is very injurious to the power of Christ and the mightiness of the spirit of grace when all its effect is only said to be that it strives but can do nothing that is sin abounds more than grace and the man that is redeemed by Christ is still unredeem'd and a captive under sin and Satan this is not only an incouragement of evil life but a reproach and scorn cast upon the holy Spirit It is verbum dictum contrae Spiritum sanctum a word spoken against the holy Ghost And as S. Austin calls it it is tuba hostis non nostra unde ille incitetur non unde vincatur the Devils trumpet to encourage him in his war against poor mankind but by this means he shall never be overcome And therefore he gives us caution of it for speaking of these words The good which I would that do I not but the evil that I would not that I do advises thus Lectio Divina quae de Apostoli Pauli epistolâ recitata est quotiescunque legitur timendum est ne malè intellecta det hominibus quaerentibus occasionem When ever these words of S. Paul are read we must fear lest the misunderstanding of them should minister an occasion of sin to them that seek it For men are prone to sin and scarce restrain themselves When therefore they hear the Apostle saying I do not the good which I would but I do the evil which I hate they do evil and as it were displeasing themselves because they do it think themselves like the Apostle In pursuance of this caution I shall examine the expositions which are pretended 10. I. These words I do not the good which I would but I do the evil which I hate are not the words or character of a regenerate person in respect of actual good or bad A regenerate man cannot say that he does frequently or habitually commit the sin that he hates and is against his conscience 1. Because no man can serve two Masters if he be a servant of sin he is not a servant of the Spirit No man can serve Christ and Belial If therefore he be brought into captivity to the law of sin he is the servant of sin and such was he whom S. Paul describes in this Chapter Therefore this person is not a servant of Christ He that is a servant of righteousness is freed from sin and he who is a servant of sin is not a servant of but freed from righteousness A regenerate person therefore is a servant of the Spirit and so cannot at the same time be a servant or a slave and a captive under sin 11. II. When the complaint is made I do the evil which I hate the meaning is I do it seldom or I do it commonly and frequently If it means I do it seldom then a man cannot use these words so well as the contrary he can say The good which I would I do regularly
an inseparable propriety of the regenerate The Spirit of God is an internal agent that is the effects and graces of the Spirit by which we are assisted are within us before they operate For although all assistances from without are graces of God the effects of Christs passion purchased for us by his blood and by his intercession and all good company wise counsels apt notices prevailing arguments moving objects and opportunities and endearments of vertue are from above from the Father of lights yet the Spirit of God does also work more inwardly and creates in us aptnesses and inclinations consentings and the acts of conviction and adherence working in us to will and to do according to our desire or according to Gods good pleasure yet this holy Spirit is oftentimes grieved sometimes provoked and at last extinguish'd which because it is done only by them who are enemies of the Spirit and not the servants of God it follows that the Spirit of God by his aids and assistances is in them that are not so with a design to make them so and if the holy Spirit were not in any degree or sence in the unregenerate how could a man be born again by the Spirit for since no man can be regenerate by his own strengths his new birth must be wrought by the Spirit of God and especially in the beginnings of our conversion is his assistance necessary which assistance because it works within as well and rather than without must needs be in a man before he operates within And therefore to have received the holy Spirit is not the propriety of the regenerate but to be led by him to be conducted by the Spirit in all our ways and counsels to obey his motions to entertain his doctrine to do his pleasure This is that which gives the distinction and the denomination And this is called by S. Paul The inhabitation of the Spirit of God in us in opposition to the inhabitants peccatum the sin that dwelleth in the unregenerate The Spirit may be in us calling and urging us to holiness but unless the Spirit of God dwell in us and abide in us and love to do so and rule and give us laws and be not griev'd and cast out but entertain'd and cherish'd and obey'd unless I say the Spirit of God be thus in us Christ is not in us and if Christ be not in us we are none of his SECT VI. The Character of the Regenerate Estate or Person 42. FROM hence it is not hard to describe what are the proper indications of the Regenerate 1. A regenerate person is convinc'd of the goodness of the law and meditates in it day and night His delight is in Gods law not only with his mind approving but with his will chusing the duties and significations of the law II. The Regenerate not only wishes that the good were done which God commands but heartily sets about the doing of it III. He sometimes feels the rebellions of the flesh but he fights against them always and if he receive a fall he rises instantly and fights the more fiercely and watches the more cautelously and prays the more passionately and arms himself more strongly and prevails more prosperously In a regenerate person there is flesh and Spirit but the Spirit only rules There is an outward and an inward man but both of them are subject to the Spirit There was a law of the members but it is abrogated and cancell'd the law is repeal'd and does not any more inslave him to the law of sin Nunc quamdiu concupiscit caro adversus spiritum spiritus adversus carnem sat est nobis non consentire malis quae sentimus in nobis Every good man shall always feel the flesh lusting against the Spirit that contention he shall never be quit of but it is enough for us if we never consent to the suggested evils IV. A regenerate person does not only approve that which is best and desire to do it but he does it actually and delights to do it he continues and abides in it which the Scripture calls a walking in the Spirit and a living after it for he does his duty by the strengths of the Spirit that is upon considerations Evangelical in the love of God in obedience to Christ and by the aids he hath receiv'd from above beyond the powers of nature and education and therefore he does his duty upon such considerations as are apt to make it integral and persevering For V. A regenerate man does not only leave some sins but all and willingly entertains none He does not only quit a lust that is against his disposition but that which he is most inclin'd to he is most severe against and most watchful to destroy it he plucks out his right eye and cuts off his right hand and parts with his biggest interest rather than keep a lust and therefore consequently chuses vertue by the same method by which he abstains from vice Nam ipsa continentia cum fraenat cohibétque libidines simul appetit bonum ad cujus immortalitem tendimus respuit malum cum quo in hâc mortalitate contendimus that is He pursues all vertue as he refuses all vice for he tends to the immortality of good as he strives against evil in all the days of his mortality And therefore he does not chuse to exercise that vertue only that will do him reputation or consist with his interest or please his humour but entertains all vertue whether it be with him or against him pleasing or displeasing he chuses all that God hath commanded him because he does it for that reason VI. A regenerate person doth not only contradict his appetite in single instances but endeavours to destroy the whole body of sin he does not only displease his fond appetite but he mortifies it and never entertains conditions of peace with it for it is a dangerous mistake if we shall presume all is well because we do some acts of spite to our dearest lust and sometimes cross the most pleasing temptation and oppose our selves in single instances against every sin This is not it the regenerate man endeavours to destroy the whole body of sin and having had an opportunity to contest his sin and to contradict it this day is glad he hath done something of his duty and does so again to morrow and ever till he hath quite killed it and never entertains conditions of peace with it nor ever is at rest till the flesh be quiet and obedient * For sometimes it comes to pass that the old man being used to obey at last obeys willingly and takes the conditions of the Gibeonites it is content to do drudgery and the inferior ministeries if it may be suffered to abide in the land 43. So that here is a new account upon which the former proposition is verifiable viz. It is not the propriety of the regenerate to feel a contention within him
not Gods enemy for if a vice be incorporated into our nature that is if our natural imperfections be chang'd into evil customs it is a threefold cord that is not easily broken it is a legion of Devils and not to be cast out without a mighty labour and all the arts and contentions of the Spirit of God 67. II. In prosecution of this propound to thy self as the great business of thy life to fight against thy passions We see that sin is almost unavoidable to young men because passion seises upon their first years The days of our youth is the reign of passion and sin rides in triumph upon the wheels of desire which run infinitely when the boy drives the chariot But the religion of a Christian is an open war against passion and by the grace of meekness if we list to study and to acquire that hath plac'd us in the regions of safety 68. III. Be not uncertain in thy resolutions or in chusing thy state of life because all uncertainties of mind and vagabond resolutions leave a man in the tyranny of all his follies and infirmities every thing can transport him and he can be forc'd by every temptation and every fancy or new accident can ruine him He that is not resolv'd and constant is yet in a state of deliberation and that supposes contrary appetites to be yet in the ballance and sin to be as strong as grace But besides this there are in every state of life many little things to be overcome and objections to be master'd and proper infirmities adherent which are to be cured in the progression and growth of a man and after experiment had of that state of life in which we are ingaged but therefore it is necessary that we begin speedily lest we have no time to begin that work which ought in some measure to be finish'd before we die Dum quid sis dubitas jam potes esse nihil He that is uncertain what to do shall never do any thing well and there is no infirmity greater than that a man shall not be able to determine himself what he ought to do 69. IV. In contentions against sin and infirmities let your force and your care be applied to that part of the wall that is weakest and where it is most likely the enemy will assault thee and if he does that he will prevail If a lustful person should bend all his prayers and his observations against envy he hath cur'd nothing of his nature and infirmity Some lusts our temper or our interest will part withal but our infirmities are in those desires which are hardest to be master'd that is when after a long dispute and perpetual contention still there will abide some pertinacious string of an evil root when the lust will be apt upon all occasions to revert when every thing can give fire to it and every heat can make it stir that is the scene of our danger and ought to be of greatest warfare and observation 70. V. He that fights against that lust which is the evil spring of his proper infirmities must not do it by single instances but by a constant and universal mortal fight He that does single spights to a lust as he that opposes now and then a fasting day against carnality or some few alms against oppression or covetousness will find that these single acts if nothing else be done can do nothing but cosen him they are apt to perswade easie people that they have done what is in them to cure their infirmity and that their condition is good but it will not do any thing of that work whither they are design'd We must remember that infirmities are but the reliques and remains of an old lust and are not cured but at the end of a lasting war They abide even after the conquest after their main body is broken and therefore cannot at all be cured by those light velitations and pickqueerings of single actions of hostility 71. VI. When a violent temptation assaults thee remember that this violence is not without but within Thou art weak and that makes the burden great Therefore whatever advices thou art pleased to follow in opposition to the temptation without be sure that thou place the strongest guards within and take care of thy self And if thou dost die or fall foully seek not an excuse from the greatness of the temptation for that accuses thee most of all the bigger the temptation is it is true that oftentimes thou art the more to blame but at the best it is a reproof of thy imperfect piety He whose religion is greater than the temptation of a 100. l. and yet falls in the temptation of a 1000. l. sets a price upon God and upon Heaven and though he will not sell Heaven for a 100. l. yet a 1000. l. he thinks is a worthy purchase 72. VII Never think that a temptation is too strong for thee if thou givest over fighting against it for as long as thou didst continue thy contention so long it prevail'd not but when thou yieldest basely or threwest away thy arms then it forraged and did mischief and slew thee or wounded thee dangerously No man knows but if he had stood one assault more the temptation would have left him Be not therefore pusillanimous in a great trial It is certain thou canst do all that which God requires of thee if thou wilt but do all that thou canst do 73. VIII Contend every day against that which troubles thee every day For there is no peace in this war and there are not many infirmities or principles of failing greater than weariness of well doing for besides that it proclaims the weakness of thy resolution and the infancy of thy piety and thy undervaluing religion and thy want of love it is also a direct yielding to the Enemy for since the greatest scene of infirmities lies in the manner of our piety he that is religious only by uncertain periods and is weary of his duty is not arriv'd so far as to plead the infirmities of willing people for he is in the state of death and enmity 74. IX He that would master his infirmities must do it at Gods rate and not at his own he must not start back when the burden pinches him nor refuse his repentances because they smart nor omit his alms because they are expensive for it is vain to propound to our selves any end and yet to decline the use of those means and instruments without which it is not to be obtained He that will buy must take it at the sellers price and if God will not give thee safety or immunity but upon the exchange of labour and contradictions fierce contentions and mortification of our appetites we must go to the cost or quit the purchase· 75. X. He that will be strong in grace and triumph in good measures over his infirmities must attempt his remedy by an active prayer For prayer without labour is like
what made Adam sin when he fell If a fatal decree made him sin then he was nothing to blame Fati ista culpa est Nemo fit fato nocens No guilt upon mankind can lie For what 's the fault of destiny And Adam might with just reason lay the blame from himself and say as Agamemâ—on did in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not I that sinned but it was fate or a fury it was God and not I it was not my act but the effect of the Divine decree and then the same decree may make us sin and not the sin of Adam be the cause of it But if a liberty of will made Adam sin then this liberty to sin being still left us this liberty and not Adams sin is the cause of all our actual Concerning the other clause in the Presbyterian Article that our natural corruption in the regenerate still remains and is still a sin and properly a sin I have I confess heartily opposed it and shall besides my arguments confute it with my blood if God shall call me for it is so great a reproach to the spirit and power of Christ and to the effects of Baptism to Scripture and to right reason that all good people are bound in Conscience to be zealous against it For when Christ came to reconcile us to his Father he came to take away our sins not only to pardon them but to destroy them and if the regenerate in whom the spirit of Christ rules and in whom all their habitual sins are dead are still under the servitude and in the stocks of Original sin then it follows not only that our guilt of Adams sin is greater than our own actual the sin that we never consented to is of a deeper grain than that which we have chosen and delighted in and God was more angry with Cain that he was born of Adam than that he kill'd his Brother and Judas by descent from the first Adam contracted that sin which he could never be quit of but he might have been quit of his betraying the second Adam if he would not have despaired I say not only these horrid consequences do follow but this also will follow that Adams sin hath done some mischief that the grace of Christ can never cure and generation stains so much that regeneration cannot wash it clean Besides all this if the natural corruption remains in the regenerate and be properly a sin then either God hates the regenerate or loves the sinner and when he dies he must enter into Heaven with that sin which he cannot lay down but in the grave as the vilest sinner lays down every sin and then an unclean thing can go to Heaven or else no man can and lastly to say that this natural corruption though it be pardoned and mortified yet still remains and is still a sin is perfect non-sence for if it be mortified it is not it hath no being if it is pardoned it was indeed but now is no sin for till a man can be guilty of sin without obligation to punishment a sin cannot be a sin that is pardoned that is if the obligation to punishment or the guilt be taken away a man is not guilty Thus far Madam I hope you will think I had reason One thing more I did and do reprove in their Westminster Articles and that is that Original sin meaning our sin derived from Adam is contrary to the law of God and doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner binding him over to Gods wrath c. that is that the sin of Adam imputed to us is properly formally and inherently a sin If it were properly a sin in us our sin it might indeed be damnable for every transgression of the Divine Commandment is so but because I have proved it cannot bring eternal damnation I can as well argue thus This sin cannot justly bring us to damnation therefore it is not properly a sin as to say this is properly a sin therefore it can bring us to damnation Either of them both follow well but because they cannot prove it to be a sin properly or any other ways but by a limited imputation to certain purposes they cannot say it infers damnation But because I have proved it cannot infer damnation I can safely conclude it is not formally properly and inherently a sin in us Nec placet ô superi vobis cum vertere cuncta Propositum nostris erroribus addere crimen Nor did it please our God when that our state Was chang'd to add a crime unto our fate I have now Madam though much to your trouble quitted my self of my Presbyterian opponents so far as I can judge fitting for the present but my friends also take some exceptions and there are some objections made and blows given me as it happened to our Blessed Saviour In domo illorum qui diligebant me in the house of my Mother and in the societies of some of my Dearest Brethren For the case is this They joyn with me in all this that I have said viz. That Original sin is ours only by imputation that it leaves us still in our natural liberty and though it hath devested us of our supernaturals yet that our nature is almost the same and by the grace of Jesus as capable of Heaven as it could ever be by derivation of Original righteousness from Adam In the conduct and in the description of this Question being usually esteemed to be only Scholastical I confess they as all men else do usually differ for it was long ago observed that there are sixteen several famous opinions in this one Question of Original sin But my Brethren are willing to confess that for Adams sin alone no man did or shall ever perish And that it is rather to be called a stain than a sin If they were all of one mind and one voice in this Article though but thus far I would not move a stone to disturb it but some draw one way and some another and they that are aptest to understand the whole secret do put fetters and bars upon their own understanding by an importune regard to the great names of some dead men who are called masters upon earth and whose authority is as apt to mislead us into some propositions as their learning is useful to guide us in others but so it happens that because all are not of a mind I cannot give account of every disagreeing man but of that which is most material I shall Some learned persons are content I should say no man is damned for the sin of Adam alone but yet that we stand guilty in Adam and redeemed from this damnation by Christ and if that the Article were so stated it would not intrench upon the justice or the goodness of God for his justice would be sufficiently declared because no man can complain of wrong done him when the evil that he fell into by Adam
a lie But a good man that believes what according to his light and upon the use of his moral industry he thinks true whether he hits upon the right or no because he hath a mind desirous of truth and prepared to believe every truth is therefore acceptable to God because nothing hindred him from it but what he could not help his misery and his weakness which being imperfections meerly natural which God never punishes he stands fair for a blessing of his morality which God always accepts So that now if Stephen had followed the example of God Almighty or retained but the same peaceable spirit which his Brother of Carthage did he might with more advantage to truth and reputation both of wisdom and piety have done his duty in attesting what he believed to be true for we are as much bound to be zealous pursuers of peace as earnest contenders for the Faith I am sure more earnest we ought to be for the peace of the Church than for an Article which is not of the Faith as this Question of rebaptization was not for S. Cyprian died in belief against it and yet was a Catholick and a Martyr for the Christian Faith 23. The summe is this S. Cyprian did right in a wrong cause as it hath been since judged and Stephen did ill in a good cause as far then as piety and charity is to be perferred before a true opinion so far is S. Cyprian's practice a better precedent for us and an example of primitive sanctity than the zeal and indiscretion of Stephen S. Cyprian had not learned to forbid to any one a liberty of prophesying or interpretation if he transgressed not the foundation of Faith and the Creed of the Apostles 24. Well thus it was and thus it ought to be in the first Ages the Faith of Christendom rested still upon the same foundation and the judgements of heresies were accordingly or were amiss but the first great violation of this truth was when General Councils came in and the Symbols were enlarged and new Articles were made as much of necessity to be believed as the Creed of the Apostles and damnation threatned to them that did dissent and at last the Creeds multiplied in number and in Articles and the liberty of prophesying began to be something restrained 25. And this was of so much the more force and efficacy because it began upon great reason and in the first instance with success good enough For I am much pleased with the enlarging of the Creed which the Council of Nice made because they enlarged it to my sence but I am non sure that others are satisfied with it While we look upon the Articles they did determine we see all things well enough but there are some wise personages consider it in all circumstances and think the Church had been more happy if she had not been in some sence constrained to alter the simplicity of her faith and make it more curious and articulate so much that he had need be a subtle man to understand the very words of the new determinations 26. For the first Alexander Bishop of Alexandria in the presence of his Clergy entreats somewhat more curiously of the secret of the mysterious Trinity and Unity so curiously that Arius who was a Sophister too subtle as it afterward appeared misunderstood him and thought he intended to bring in the heresy of Sabellius For while he taught the Unity of the Tritity either he did it so inartificially or so intricately that Arius thought he did not distinguish the persons when the Bishop intended only the unity of nature Against this Arius furiously drives and to confute Sabellius and in him as he thought the Bishop distinguishes the natures too and so to secure the Article of the Trinity destroyes the Unity It was the first time the Question was disputed in the world and in such mysterious niceties possibly every wise man may understand something but few can understand all and therefore suspect what they understand not and are furiously zealous for that part of it which they do perceive Well it happened in these as always in such cases in things men understand not they are most impetuous and because suspicion is a thing infinite in degrees for it hath nothing to determine it a suspicious person is ever most violent for his fears are worse than the thing feared because the thing is limited but his fears are not so that upon this grew contentious on both sides and tumultuous rayling and reviling each other and then the Laity were drawn into parts and the Meletians abetted the wrong part and the right part fearing to be overborn did any thing that was next at hand to secure it self Now then they that lived in that Age that understood the men that saw how quiet the Church was before this stirre how miserably rent now what little benefit from the Question what schism about it gave other censures of the business than we since have done who only look upon the Article determined with truth and approbation of the Church generally since that time But the Epistle of Constantine to Alexander and Arius tells the truth and chides them both for commencing the Question Alexander for broaching it Arius for taking it up and although this be true that it had been better for the Church it never had begun yet being begun what is to be done in it of this also in that admirable Epistle we have the Emperours judgment I suppose not without the advice and privity of Hosius Bishop of Corduba whom the Emperour loved and trusted much and imployed in the delivery of the Letters For first he calls it a certain vain piece of a Question ill begun and more unadvisedly published a Question which no Law or Ecclesiastical Canon defineth a fruitless contention the product of idle brains a matter so nice so obscure so intricate that it was neither to be explicated by the Clergy nor understood by the people a dispute of words a doctrine inexplicable but most dangerous when taught lest it introduce discord or blasphemy and therefore the Objector was rash and the Answerer unadvised for it concerned not the substance of Faith or the worship of God nor any chief commandment of Scripture and therefore why should it be the matter of discord For though the matter be grave yet because neither necessary nor explicable the contention is trifling and toyish And therefore as the Philosophers of the same Sect though differing in explication of an opinion yet more love for the unity of their Profession than disagree for the difference of opinion So should Christians believing in the same God retaining the same Faith having the same hopes opposed by the same enemies not fall at variance upon such disputes considering our understandings are not all alike and therefore neither can our opinions in such mysterious Articles So that the matter being of no great importance but vain and a
God but others that can judge at all must either chuse their Guides who shall judge for them and then they oftentimes doe the wisest and always save themselves a labour but then they chuse too or if they be persons of greater understanding then they are to chuse for themselves in particular what the others doe in general and by chusing their Guide and for this any man may be better trusted for himself then any man can be for another For in this case his own interest is most concerned and ability is not so necessary as honesty which certainly every man will best preserve in his own case and to himself and if he does not it is he that must smart for 't and it is not required of us not to be in errour but that we endeavour to avoid it 2. He that follows his Guide so far as his Reason goes along with him or which is all one he that follows his own Reason not guided onely by natural arguments but by Divine revelation and all other good means hath great advantages over him that gives himself wholly to follow any humane Guide whatsoever because he follows all their reasons and his own too he follows them till Reason leaves them or till it seems so to him which is all one to his particular for by the confession of all sides an erroneous Conscience binds him when a right Guide does not bind him But he that gives himself up wholly to a Guide is oftentimes I mean if he be a discerning person forced to doe violence to his own understanding and to lose all the benefit of his own discretion that he may reconcile his Reason to his Guide And of this we see infinite inconveniences in the Church of Rome for we find persons of great understanding oftentimes so amused with the Authority of their Church that it is pity to see them sweat in answering some objections which they know not how to doe but yet believe they must because the Church hath said it So that if they reade study pray search records and use all the means of art and industry in the pursuit of truth it is not with a resolution to follow that which shall seem truth to them but to confirm what before they did believe and if any Argument shall seem unanswerable against any Article of their Church they are to take it for a temptation not for an illumination and they are to use it accordingly which makes them make the Devil to be the Author of that which God's Spirit hath assisted them to find in the use of lawful means and the search of truth And when the Devil of falshood is like to be cast out by God's Spirit they say that it is through Beelzebub which was one of the worst things that ever the Pharisees said or did And was it not a plain stifling of the just and reasonable demands made by the Emperour by the Kings of France and Spain and by the ablest Divines among them which was used in the Council of Trent when they demanded the restitution of Priests to their liberty of Marriage the use of the Chalice the service in the Vulgar tongue and these things not onely in pursuance of Truth but for other great and good ends even to take away an infinite scandal and a great Schism And yet when they themselves did profess it and all the world knew these reasonable demands were denied merely upon a politick consideration yet that these things should be framed into Articles and Decrees of Faith and they for ever after bound not onely not to desire the same things but to think the contrary to be Divine truths never was Reason made more a slave or more useless Must not all the world say either they must be great hypocrites or doe great violence to their understanding when they not onely cease from their claim but must also believe it to be unjust If the use of their Reason had not been restrained by the tyranny and imperiousness of their Guide what the Emperour and the Kings and their Theologues would have done they can best judge who consider the reasonableness of the demand and the unreasonableness of the deniall But we see many wise men who with their Optandum esset ut Ecclesia licentiam daret c. proclaim to all the world that in some things they consent and do not consent and do not heartily believe what they are bound publickly to profess and they themselves would clearly see a difference if a contrary Decree should be framed by the Church they would with an infinite greater confidence rest themselves in other propositions then what they must believe as the case now stands and they would find that the Authority of a Church is a prejudice as often as a free and modest use of Reason is a temptation 3. God will have no man pressed with another's inconveniences in matters spiritual and intellectual no man's Salvation to depend upon another and every tooth that eats sour grapes shall be set on edge for itself and for none else and this is remarkable in that saying of God by the Prophet If the Prophet ceases to tell my people of their sins and leads them into errour the people shall die in their sins and the bloud of them I will require at the hands of that Prophet meaning that God hath so set the Prophets to guide us that we also are to follow them by a voluntary assent by an act of choice and election For although accidentally and occasionally the sheep may perish by the shepherd's fault yet that which hath the chiefest influence upon their final condition is their own act and election and therefore God hath so appointed Guides to us that if we perish it may be accounted upon both our scores upon our own and the Guides too which says plainly that although we are intrusted to our Guides yet we are intrusted to ourselves too Our Guides must direct us and yet if they fail God hath not so left us to them but he hath given us enough to ourselves to discover their failings and our own duties in all things necessary And for other things we must doe as well as we can But it is best to follow our Guides if we know nothing better but if we do it is better to follow the pillar of fire then a pillar of cloud though both possibly may lead to Canaan But then also it is possible that it may be otherwise But I am sure if I doe my own best then if it be best to follow a Guide and if it be also necessary I shall be sure by God's grace and my own endeavour to get to it But if I without the particular ingagement of my own understanding follow a Guide possibly I may be guilty of extreme negligence or I may extinguish God's Spirit or doe violence to my own Reason And whether intrusting myself wholly with another be not a laying up my talent in
Prophesying or Preaching which yet all Christians know does abide with the Church for ever 5. To every ordinary and perpetual Ministery at first there were extraordinary effects and miraculous consignations We find great parts of Nations converted at one Sermon Three thousand Converts came in at once Preaching of S. Peter and five thousand at another Sermon and persons were miraculously cured by the Prayer of the Bishop in his visitation of a sick Christian and Devils cast out in the conversion of a sinner and Blindness cur'd at the Baptism of S. Paul and Aeneas was healed of a Palsie at the same time he was cur'd of his Infidelity and Eutychus was restor'd to life at the Preaching of S. Paul And yet that now we see no such Extraordinaries it follows not that the Visitation of the sick and Preaching Sermons and Absolving Penitents are not ordinary and perpetual ministrations and therefore to fansy that invocation of the Holy Spirit and Imposition of hands is to cease when the extraordinary and temporary contingencies of it are gone is too trifling a fancy to be put in balance against so Sacred an Institution relying upon so many Scriptures 6. With this Objection some vain persons would have troubled the Church in S. Austin's time but he considered it with much indignation writing against the Donatists His words are these At the first times the Holy Spirit fell upon the Believers and they spake with Tongues which they had not learned according as the Spirit gave them utterance They were Signs fitted for the season for so the Holy Ghost ought to have signified in all Tongues because the Gospel of God was to run through all the Nations and Languages of the World so it was signified and so it pass'd through But is it therefore expected that they upon whom there is Imposition of hands that they might receive the Holy Ghost that they should speak with Tongues Or when we lay hands on Infants does every one of you attend to hear them speak with Tongues And when he sees that they do not speak with Tongues is any of you of so perverse a heart as to say They have not received the Holy Ghost for if they had received him they would speak with Tongues as it was done at first But if by these Miracles there is not now given any testimony of the presence of the Holy Spirit how doth any one know that he hath received the Holy Ghost Interroget cor suum Si diligit fratrem manet Spiritus Dei in illo It is true the Gift of Tongues doth not remain but all the greater Gifts of the Holy Spirit remain with the Church for ever Sanctification and Power Fortitude and Hope Faith and Love Let every man search his Heart and see if he belongs to God whether the love of God be not spread in his heart by the Spirit of God Let him see if he be not patient in Troubles comforted in his Afflictions bold to confess the Faith of Christ crucified zealous of Good works These are the miracles of Grace and the mighty powers of the Spirit according to that saying of Christ These signs shall follow them that believe In my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall tread on Serpents they shall drink poison and it shall not hurt them and they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover That which we call the Miraculous part is the less power but to cast out the Devil of Lust to throw down the Pride of Lucifer to tread on the great Dragon and to triumph over our Spiritual enemies to cure a diseased Soul to be unharmed by the poison of Temptation of evil Examples and evil Company these are the true signs that shall follow them that truly and rightly believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus this is to live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit this is more than to receive the Spirit to a power of Miracles and supernatural products in a natural matter For this is from a supernatural principle to receive supernatural aids to a supernatural end in the Diviner spirit of a man and this being more miraculous than the other it ought not to be pretended that the discontinuance of extraordinary Miracles should cause the discontinuance of an ordinary Ministration and this is that which I was to prove 7. To which it is not amiss to add this Observation that Simon Magus offered to buy this power of the Apostles that he also by laying on of hands might thus minister the Spirit Now he began this sin in the Christian Church and it is too frequent at this day but if all this power be gone then nothing of that sin can remain if the subject matter be removed then the appendant crime cannot abide and there can be no Simony so much as by participation and whatever is or can be done in this kind is no more of this Crime than Drunkenness is of Adultery it relates to it or may be introductive of it or be something like it But certainly since the Church is not so happy as to be intirely free from the Crime of Simony it will be hard to say that the power the buying of which was the principle of this sin and therefore the Rule of all the rest should be removed and the house stand without a foundation the relative without the correspondent the accessary without the principal and the accident without the subject This is impossible and therefore it remains that still there abides in the Church this power that by Imposition of the Hands of fit persons the Holy Ghost is ministred But this will be further cleared in the next Section SECT III. The Holy Rite of Imposition of Hands for the giving the Holy Spirit or Confirmation was actually continued and practised by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Church NExt to the plain words of Scripture the traditive Interpretation and Practice of the Church of God is the best Argument in the World for Rituals and Mystical ministrations for the Tradition is universal and all the way acknowledged to be derived from Scripture And although in Rituals the Tradition it self if it be universal and primitive as this is were alone sufficient and is so esteemed in the Baptism of Infants in the Priests consecrating the Holy Eucharist in publick Liturgies in Absolution of Penitents the Lord's Day Communicating of Women and the like yet this Rite of Confirmation being all that and evidently derived from the practice Apostolical and so often recorded in the New Testament both in the Ritual and Mysterious part both in the Ceremony and Spiritual effect is a point of as great Certainty as it is of Usefulness and holy designation Theophilus Antiochenus lived not long after the death of S. John and he derives the name of Christian which was first given to the Disciples in his City from this Chrism or