injoyned to both parts in those other collaterall and needlesse disquisitions which if they might befit the Schools of Academicall disputants could not certainly sound well from the Pulpits of popular Auditories Those reconciliatory papers fell under the eyes of some Grave Divines on both parts Mr. Montague professed that he had seen them and would subscribe to them very willingly others that were contrarily minded both English Scotish and French Divines profered their hands to a no less ready subscription So as much peace promised to result out of that weak and poor enterprise had not the confused noise of the misconstructions of those who never saw the work crying it down for the very Names sake meeting with the royall edict of a general Inhibition buryed it in a secure Silence I was scorched a little with this flame which I desired to Quench yet this could not stay my hand from thrusting it self into an hotter fire Some insolent Romanists Jesuites especially in their bold disputations which in the time of the treaty of the Spanish Match and the calme of that Relaxation were very frequent pressed nothing so much as a Catalogue of the Professors of our Religion to be deduced from the primitive times and with the peremptory challenge of the impossibility of this Pedigree dazeled the eyes of the simple whiles some of our learned men undertaking to satisfy so needless and unjust a demand gave as I conceived great advantage to the Adversary In a just Indignation to see us thus wrong'd by misâ—stateing the Question betwixt us as if we yielding our selves of an other Church Originally and fundamentally different should make good our own erection upon the Ruines yea the Nullity of theirs and well considering the Infinite and great inconveniences that must needs follow upon this defence I adventured to set my pen on work desiring to rectifie the Opinions of those men whom an ignorant zeal had transported to the prejudice of our holy Cause laying forth the Damnable corruptions of the Roman Church yet making our game of the outward visibility thereof and by this means putting them to the probation of those newly obtruded corruptions which are truly guilty of the breach betwixt us The drift whereof being not well conceived by some spirits that were not so wise as fervent I was suddenly exposed to the rash censures of many well affected and zealous Protestants as if I had in a Remission to my wonted zeal to the Truth attributed too much to the Roman Church and strengthned the adversaries hands and weakned our own This envy I was fain to take off by my speedy Apologeticall advertisment and after that by my Reconciler B. Morton B. Davenant Dr. Prideaux D. Primrose seconded with the unaminous Letters of such Reverend Learned sound Divines both Bishops and Doctors as whose undoubtable authority was able to bear down calumny it self which done I did by a seasonable moderation provide for the Peace of the Church in silencing both my defendants and challengers in this unkind and ill-raised quarrell Immediately before the Publishing of this Tractate which did not a little aggravate the envy and suspicion I was by his Majesty raised to the Bishoprick of Exceter having formerly with much humble Deprecation refused the See of Glocester earnestly proffered unto me How beyond all expectation it pleased God to place me in that Western charge which if the Duke of Buckinghams Letters he being then in France had arived but some hours sooner I had been defeated of and by what strange means it pleased God to make up the Competency of that provision by the unthought of addition of the Rectory of St. Breok within that Diocess if I should fully relate the Circumstances would force the Confession of an extraordinary hand of God in the disposing of those events I entred upon that place not without much prejudice and suspicion on some hands for some that sate at the sterne of the Church had me in great Jelousie for too much favour of Puritanisme I soon had intelligence who were set over me for espialls my ways were Curiously observed and scanned However I took the resolution to follow those courses which might most conduce to the Peace and happiness of my New and weighty charge finding therefore some factious spirits very busie in that Diocess I used all fair and gentle means to win them to good order and therein so happily prevailed that saving two of that numerous Clergy who continuing in their refractoriness fled away from censure they were all perfitly reclaimed so as I had not one Minister professedly opposite to the anciently received orders for I was never guilty of urging any new Impositions of the Church in that large Diocess Thus we went on comfortably together till some persons of note in the Clergy being guilty of their own negligence and disorderly courses began to envy our success and finding me ever ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably forward and painfull in their places and willingly giving way to Orthodox and peaceable Lectures in severall parts of my Diocess opened their mouths against me both obliquely in the Pulpit and directly at the Court complaining of my too much Indulgence to persons disaffected and my too much liberty of frequent Lecturings within my charge The billowes went so high that I was three severall times upon my knee to his Majesty to answer these great Criminations and what Contestation I had with some great Lords concerning these particulars it would be too long to report only this under how dark a Cloud I was hereupon I was so sensible that I plainly told the Lord Archbishop of Canter that rather then I would be obnoxious to those slanderous tongues of his misinformers I would cast up my Rochet I knew I went right wayes and would not endure to live under undeserâ—â—piâ—â—ons what messages of caution I had from 〈◊〉 of my â—â—ry Brethren and what expostulatory Letters I had from above I need not relate Sure I am I had Peace and comfort at home in the happy sense of that generall unanimity and loving correspondence of my Clergy till in the last year of my presiding there after the Synodicall oath was set on foot which yet I did never tender to any one Minister of my Diocess by the incitation of some busie interlopeâ—s of the neighbour County some of them began to enter into an unkind contestation with me about the election of Clerks of the convocaâ—ion whom they secretly without ever acquainting me with their desire or purpose as driving to that end which we see now accomplished would needs nominate and set up in Competition to those whom I had after the usuall form recommended to them That they had a right to free voices in that choice I denyed not only I had reason to take it unkindly that they would work underhand without me and against me professing that if they had before hand made their desires known to me I should willingly have
of God planted in his heart and one that desires to be approved to God in all his wayes though perhaps he differ in judgment and be of another profession from thee in some collateral matters as the God of Heaven stands not upon such points let him I say be one of Gods dear and secret ones whom thou revilest and persecutest the Spirit of God feels the Indignities that are offered to such a one and will let thee feel that he feels them make as slight as you will of scandalizing and wronging a good man there is a good God that will pay you for it What an heavy complaint is that which the Apostle makes to his Corinthians concerning himself and his fellowes I think saith he that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle to the World and to Angels and to Men 1 Cor. 4.9 and verse the 13. We are made as the filth of the world the off-scouring of all things unto this day Alas if this were the condicion of the blessed Apostles to be thus vilified why should it seem strange to us their unworthy successours and Disciples if we be thought fit for nothing but to be cast upon the dunghill but these reproaches however we may take coolly and calmly as that Stoick Philosopher did who whilst he was discoursing of being free from passions it being the doctrine of that sect that a wise man should be impassionate a rude fellow spat purposely in his face and when he was asked whether he were not angry answered no truly I am not angry but I doubt whether I should not be angry at such an abuse but there is a God that will not put up our contumelies so we strike his servants on Earth and he feels it in Heaven It is very emphaticall which the Apostle hath to this purpose Coloss 1.24 I fill up that which is behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Asterings of the Afflictions of Christ in my flesh Intimating that there is one intire body as it were of Christs sufferings part whereof he indured in his own person and part he still sustaines in his members so as he cannot be free whiles they suffer inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of my brethren ye did it unto me Mat. 15.40 As the soul feels what is done to the body the Iron entred into his Soul saith the Psalmist so what is done to the faithfull soul God is sensible of and will revenge it accordingly what shall be done to thee thou false Tongue saith the Psalmist even mighty and sharp Arrowes with hot burning Coales Psal 102.3 Thou hast shot thine Arrowes even bitter words against Gods chosen ones and God shall send thee sharper arrowes of his vengeance singing into thy bosome thy tongue hath been set on fire with contention and hath helpt to kindle it in others and now God shall fill thy mouth with hotter coales of that fire which shall never be quenched Oh then as we tender our own safety let us binde our Tongues and hands to the good behaviour and resolve with the holy Apostle To give none offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God 1. Cor. 10.32 Now as the holy Spirit of God both in himself and in his Children is grieved with our leud speeches and offensive carriage so contrarily God and his holy Spirit are joyed in our gracious speeches and holy conversation Luc. 15.10 I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Lo this is Gods joy and the Angels witnesse it it is the owner that hath found the lost Groate and that saith Rejoyce with me how doth conscionable and godly behaviour and holy Communication make Musick in Heaven We have known many that have thought their time well bestowed if they could make a great Man smile Principibus placuisse c. And perhaps their facetious urbanity hath not passed unrewarded Oh what shall we think of moving true delight to the King of glory It was no small incouragement to the Colossians that the Apostle professes he was with them rejoycing and beholding their Order Coloss 2.5 What a comfort then must it needs be that the great God of Heaven is with us and takes notice of our carriage and contentment in it Revel 2.2 I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience saith the Spirit of God to the Angel or Bishop of the Church of Ephesus and Videndo vidi saith God to Moses concerning the Israelites I have seen the afflictions of my people it is said of Anthony the Hermite Let no man bogle at this that I mention an Hermite to this Congregation those first Eremites that went aside into the Wildernesse to avoid those primitive persecutions were holy men great Saints and of a quite different alloy from those of the present Romish Church Mera Nominum Crepitacula that when he was set upon by Divells and buffeted by them as St. Paul was 2 Cor. 12. according to learned Cameran his interpretation after the conflict he cryed out O bone Jesu ubi eras O Lord Jesu where wast thou and received answer juxta te eram c. I was by thee and lookt how thou wouldst demean thy self in thy combat who would not fight valiantly when he fights in the eye of his Prince It is the highest consideration in the World this how doth God rellish my actions and me The common rule of the World is what will men say what will my neighbours what will my superiours what will posterity and according to their conceits we are willing to regulate our carriage but a true Christian looks higher and for every thing he sayes or does inquires after the censure or allowance of God himself still caring that the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart may be accepted of his God and if his heart tell him that God frownes at his actions all the World cannot chear him up but he will go mourning all the day long till he have made his peace and set even termes between God and his Soul but if that tell him all is well nothing in the world can deject and dishearten him but he takes up that resolution which Solomon gives for advice Let thy Garments be white and let no Oyle be wanting to thine head go thy way Eat thy bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart for now God accepteth thy works Eccles 9.7 8. And this consideration as it never can be unseasonable so is a most fit cordiall for every honest and good heart in these dismall times we are in a sad condicion and perhaps in expectation of worse the sword is either devouring or threatning we are ready to be swallowed up with grief or fear what should we now do Dear Christians let every one of us look in what termes he stands with his God do
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
God our Heavenly Father toward us is no less then infinite Psal 103.13 what return do we make of love to him again we can perhaps talk largely of our love to God but where is the proof of it Did we love our Father in Heaven as children could we strange our selves from his interest Could we indure to see him wronged in all his concernments to hear his sacred and dread name blasphemed to see his Ordinances trampled upon his messengers contemptuously used his house and his day prophaned would we not spit at that son that would put up such indignities offered to his carnal Father And why will we lay claim to a son-ship of God if we can swallow such spiritual affronts put upon our God Thirdly every not ill-natur'd and ungracious son as God hath none such bears a kind of awfull respect to his Father both in what he doth and in what he suffers For his actions he dares not to do any thing wilfully that may work his Fathers displeasure and even those things which he would not stick to do before a stranger yet before his Father he reverentially forbeares to do If I be a Father where is my honour Malac. 1.6 If then we be not awfully affected to the presence of God If we dare boldly sin God in the face it argues strongly that we have no filial relation to him For his sufferings A child will receive that correction from the hand of a Father which he would never abide from a stranger He that would be ready to repay blowes to another man takes stripes from a Father and answers them onely with tears Thus if we be the Sons of God we do submissely undergo from his hand what fatherly chastisment he shall be pleased to lay upon us but if we be ready to struggle and groyningly repine at his correction it showes we do not acknowledge him for our Father Lastly a son as he is wholly at his parents disposing so he depends upon his Fathers provision expecting such patrimony as his Father shall bestow upon him and waiting with patience for such childes-part as he can have no hope of from a stranger If we do so to our Heavenly Father leading the life of faith with him casting our selves upon his gracious providence for all good things of either World and fixing our eyes upon that glorious inheritance which he hath purchased for us above we do evidently show our selves to be the sons of God but what need we any other evidence of this blessed condition then what is here expresly laid down to our hands in my Text So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God What is it then to be led by the Spirit of God The originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which every Grammarian knowes to signifie both agi and duci to be led or driven so where it is said by one Evangelist that Christ was led into the Wilderness to be temped Mat. 4.1 Of another it is read that he was driven Mark 1.12 And though the vulgar reads it here qui aguntur yet our Rhemists turn it Those that are led noteing in the margin out of St. Augustines true explication that Gods children are not violently compelled against their wills but sweetly drawn moved and induced to do good So as this word then implies both an act of Gods Spirit working in us and our complying with that act in an obedient and ready conformity thereunto For wherever the Spirit of God is it is not idle and ineffectuall but it is still directing and inclining unto good and whosoever is led by that Spirit yields himself to the motions and guidance Acti agimus as the old word is In all leading therefore and so in this there must be an hand to guide and a foot to follow good motions on Gods part and motions in good on ours both these must go together else there is no leading by the Spirit of God It is not enough that good thoughts are injected into us by the holy Spirit yea it is so farr from availing us as that a man is so much the worse for those good motions he entertaines not as the motions are more excellent and divine But those good injections must be received imbraced delighted in and followed home in a constant and habituall practise with a resolute rejection and detestation of the contrary Besides that spirit of our mind Ephes 4.23 which lodgeth in every brest every man is led by some spirit or other One is led by a spirit of Errour 1 Tim. 4.1 and seduction in matter of understanding Another by the spirit of giddiness Esa 19.14 into wild fancies and brainsick imaginations another is led by the Spirit of bondage to slavish fears and afflictive horrours as in the next verse to my Text another by the spirit of the World 1 Cor. 2.12 Another and indeed all these by the unclean Spirit as he is usually styled in the Gospell others which are all the regenerate are led by the Spirit of God when our Saviour said to his too fiery Disciples Ye know not of what Spirit ye are he implies that of some spirit they must needs be now there are those that pretend to be led by the spirit of God and are not St. Paul could upon good warrant say I trust I have the Spirit of God that trust was however he modestly expresses it no lesse then a certain knowledg but a Zidkijah on the other side in a false presumption can say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak to thee I remember in the history of the Anabaptists of Munster one of those illuminated companions of John Becold and Onipperdoling is said to have kill'd his own naturall Brother in the face of his parents and professed to do it upon a revelation from the Spirit the night before And what heresies and prodigious opinions have been set on foot and maintained to the death under pretence of the dictation and warrant of Gods Spirit who can be ignorant Let us therefore enquire how a man may know whether he be truly led by the Spirit of God First then the Spirit of God leads no man but in a right way and what is that but the way of Gods Commandements All other wayes are wayes of our own oblique and crooked as deviating from the straight line of righteousnesse In them either we lead our selves or Satan leads us If any man be tempted let him not say that he is tempted of God God moves to holy duties to just and charitable actions and none but them for he cannot be contrary to himself Is there any of us therefore that is carried on in a course of uncleannesse excess disobedience oppression or any other sin whatsoever Alas we are led by a contrary spirit in the dark wayes that lead to death and Hell It were blasphemy to father these sinfull mis-leadings upon the holy Spirit of God Secondly Gods
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 our sins with Israels Yet one more do we think of the bold intrusion of presumptuous persons into the sacred calling without any commission from God Of whom do we think the Prophet Jeremy speaks The Prophets prophesy lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them nor spake unto them They prophesy unto you a false vision and the deceit of their own heart Jer. 14.14 and again I have not sent these Prophets yet they run I have not spoken to them yet they prophesyed Jer. 23.21 To what purpose should I instance in more as I easily might as practical atheisme falsehood cruelty hypocrisy ingratitude and in a word universal corruption O England England too like to thy sister Israel in all her spiritual deformities if not rather to thy sister Sodome Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister sodome pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse was in her neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy Ezechiel 16.49 Lo thou art as haughty as she and hast committed all her abominations But that which yet aggravates thy sin is thy stubborne incorrigiblenesse and impudence in offending is it not of thee that the Prophet Jeremy speaks This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction Jer. 7.28 For O our God hast thou not whipt us soundly and drawn blood of us in abundance yet wo is me what amendment hast thou found in us what one excesse have we abated what one sin have we reformed what one vice have we quitted Look forth brethren into the World see if the lives of men be not more loose and lawlesse their tongues more profane their hands more heavily oppressive their conversation more faithlesse their contracts more fraudulent their contempt of Gods messengers more high their neglect of Gods ordinances more palpable then ever it was Yea have not too many amongst us added to their unreformation an impudence in sinning Is it not of these that the Prophet speaketh Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed at all neither could they blush therefore shall they fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down saith the Lord Jer. 8.12 By this time I suppose you see how too much cause we have to mourn for those sins of practise which have fetcht down judgments upon us turn your eyes now a little to those intellectual wickednesses which we call sins of Opinion Opinion think some of you now alas what so great offence can there be in matter of conceit and in those results of ours ratiocination which we picht upon in the cases of Religion let me tell you dear Christians what valuation soever you may please to set upon these capital errours of the understanding set abroach for the seduction of simple souls there is more deadly mischief and higher offence to God in them then in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhorr These as they are the immediate sins of our spirituall part so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits in his Truth and holinesse and as Religion is the highest concernment of the soul so the depravation of Religion must needs be most dangerous and damnable It is no marvell therefore if a truly-truly-zealous Christian could even weep his eyes out to see hear those hellish heresies Atheous paradoxes which have poysoned the very air of our Church wherein they were vented One beats the keys into the sword or hangs them at the Magistrates girdle so as he suspends religion upon the meer will and pleasure of severaignty One allowes plurality or community of Wives another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath upon sleight occasions and to take another One is a Ranter another is a Seeker a third is a Shaker One dares question yea disparage the sacred Scriptures of God another denies the Souls immortality a third the Bodies resurrection One spits his poyson upon the blessed Trinity another blasphemes the Lord Jesus and opposes the eternity of his Godhead One is altogether for inspirations professing himself above the sphere of all Ordinances yea above the blood of Christ himself Another teaches that the more villanie he can commit the more holy he is that only confidence in sinning is perfection of sanctity that there is no hell but remorse To put an end to this list of blasphemies the very mention whereof is enough to distemper my tongue and your ears One miscreant dares give himself out for God Almighty Another for the Holy Ghost Another for the Lord Christ Another a vile adulterous strumpet for the Virgin Mary O God were there ever such frenzies possessed the braines of men as these sad times have yieled Was ever the Devil so prevalent with the sons of men Neither have these prodigious wretches smothered their damnable conceits in their impure breasts but have boldly vented them to the World so as the very presses are openly defiled with the most loathsome disgorgments of their wicked blasphemies Here here my dear brethren is matter more then enough for our mourning If we have any good hearts to God if any love to his truth if any zeal for his glory if any care for his Church if any compassion of either perishing or endangered souls we cannot but apprehend just cause of pouring out our selves into tears for so horrible affronts offered to the dread Majesty of our God for so inexpiable a scandal to the Gospel which we professe for so odious a conspurcation of our holy profession and lastly for the dreadful damnation of those silly souls that are seduced by these cursed impostors Ye have seen now what cause we have of mourning for sins both of Practise and Opinion It remaines now that we consider what cause of mourning we may have from our dangers for surely fear as it is alwayes joyned with grief so together with it is a just provoker of our tears And here if I should abridge all the holy Prophets and gather up out of them all the menaces of judgments which they denounce against their sinfull Israel I might well bring them home to our own doors and justly affright us with the expectation of such further revenge from Divine Justice for how can we otherwise think but that the same sins must carry away the same punishments The holy God is ever constant to his own most righteous proceedings if then our sins be like theirs why should we presume upon a dissimilitude of judgments Here then it is easy to descry a double danger worth our mourning for the one of further smart from the hand of God for our continuing and menacing wickednesse the other of further degrees of corruption from our selves For the first let that sad Prophet Jeremiah tell you what we may justly fear They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my law
Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evill and to cut off all Judah Jer. 44.10.11 and if ye will have particularities have we not cause to fear that he will make good upon us that fearful word I have taken away my peace from this people saith the Lord even loving kindnesse and mercies Jer. 16.5 This is an ablative judgment and that a heavy one too will ye see a positive one more heavy then that Behold I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the City that I gave to you and your forefathers and cast you out of my presence And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten Jer. 23.39 40. Will ye have the specialities of his threatned judgments Behold I will send upon them the sword the famine and the pestilence I will persecute them with all these and will deliver them to be removed to all the Kingdomes of the Earth to be a curse and an astonishment and an hissing and a reproach among all Nations Jer. 29.17 18. But enough enough of these dolefull accents of interminated judgments wherewith if I would follow the steps of the Prophets I might strike your hearts with just horrour See now the no lesse danger that arises from our selves no lesse Yea much greater for the highest revenge of all other that God takes of men is when he punishes sin with sin Let me therefore sadly and seriously tell you that there is just fear we are running apace into two woful mischiefs Atheisme and Barbarisme Oh that I were a false Prophet and did not see too much ground of this fear The multiplicity of these wild opinions in matter of Religion if there be not a speedy restraint can have no other issue but no Religion And if we should live to see discouragements put upon Learning and a substract on or diminution of the maintenance of studied Divines and an allowance of or connivence at unlettered preachers and no care taken of any but some select soules ignorance confusion and barbarity will be the next newes that we shall hear of from the Church of England Brethren if we see not these causes of fear we are blind and if seeing them we be not affected with them we are stupid Let this be enough to be spoken of those grounds that make a just time of our mourning now that our seasonable mourning may not be to no purpose let us inquire a little how this our mourning should be regulated for the due carriage and conditions of it And first for the quantity of it it must be proportioned to the occasion and cause upon which it is taken up for to mourne deeply upon sleight and trivial causes were weak and childish like to those faint hearts that are ready to swoun away for the scratch of a finger on the contrary not to mourne heavily upon a main cause of grief argues an insensate and benummed heart If it be for some vehement affliction of body good Ezekiah is a lawfull precedent for us Like as a Crane or a swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a dove mine eyes fail with looking upward Isaiah 38.14 If it be for some great publick calamity Jeremie tells you what to do For this gird you with sackcloth lament and howl for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us Jerem. 4.8 and Gods chosen People are a fit pattern The Elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence they have cast up dust upon their heads they have girded themselves with sackcloth the Virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground Lament 2.10 and the Prophet beats them company in their sorrow Mine eyes do fail with tears my bowels are troubled my liver is poured upen the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my People Lament 2.11 If it be for some personall and grievous sin that we have been miscarried into Holy David is a meet example for us My bones saith he waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavie upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Psal 32.3 4. and elsewhere My sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I complained and my Spirit was over-whelmed Psal 77.2 3. Where are those pandars of sin the Romish casuists that teach the least measure of sorrow even meer attrition is enough for a penitent Surely had the man after Gods own heart thought so he had spared many a sigh and many a sobbe and many a tear that his sins cost him and so must they do us if ever we hope to recover true comfort to our souls and certainly could we be rightly apprehensive of the dread Majesty of the most high God whom we move to anger with our sin and could consider the hainousness of sin whereby we provoke the eyes of his glory and lastly the dreadfulness of that eternal torment which our sin drawes after it we could not think it easy to spend too much sorrow upon our sins Lastly if from our own private bosome we shall cast our eyes upon the common sins of the times and places wherein we live a tast whereof I have given you in this our present discourse where oh where shall we finde tears enough to bewail them now sack-cloth and ashes sighs and tears weeping and wailing rending of garments yea rending of hearts too are all too little to expresse our just mourning When good Ezra heard but of that one sin wherewith both Priests and Levites and the Rulers and People of Israel were tainted which was their intermarriage with the Heathen so as the holy seed was vitiated with this mixture how passionately was he affected Let himself tell you When I heard this thing saith he I rent my garment and my mantle and pluckt off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished untill the evening sacrifice Ezra 9.3 4. What would he have done think we if he had seen so many abominations and heard so many and soul blasphemies of his Israel as we have been witnesses of in these last times This for the quantity Now secondly for the quality of our mourning we may not think to rest in a meer sorrow in a pensive kind of sullennesse Worldly sorrow causeth death 2 Cor. 8.10 For by the sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 and a broken spirit dryeth the bones Prov. 17.22 And this is one main difference betwixt the Christian mourner and the Pagan both equally complain both are sensible of the causes of their complaint but the sorrow of the one is simply and absolutely afflictive as looking no further but to the very object of his grief the other is mixed with divers holy temperaments as with a meekness of Spirit with a faithul
necessity the doom was in paradise upon mans disobedience morte morieris thou shalt dye the death Man sinned man must die The first Adam sinned and we in him the second Adam must by death expiate the sin Had not Christ dyed mankind must had not he dyed the first death we had all dyed both the first and second without shedding of blood there is no remission Heb. 9.22 Hereby therefore are we freed from the sence of the second death and the sting of the first to the unfailing comfort of our soules hereupon it is that our Saviour is so carefull to have his death and passion so fully represented to us in both his sacraments the water is his blood in the first Sacrament the Wine is his blood in the second In this he is sensiby crucify'd before our eyes the bread that is his body broken the wine his blood poured out And if these acts and objects do not carry our hearts to a lively apprehension of Christ our true passover we shall offer to him no other then the sacrifice of fools Lo here then a soveraign antidote against the first death and a preservative against the second the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World why should we be discomforted with the expectation of that death which Christ hath suffered why should we be dismayed with the fear of that death which our all-sufficient Redeemer hath fully expiated 2ly In the first institution of this passover The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled upon the posts and lintells of the doores of every Israelite so if ever we look for any benefit from Christ our Passover there must be a particular application of his blood to the believing soul even very Papists can say that unless our merits or holy actions be dyed or tinctured in the blood of Christ they can avail us nothing but this consideration will meet with us more seasonably upon the fourth head 3ly This passover must be roasted home not stewed not parboild So did the true paschall lamb undergo the flames of his Fathers wrath for our sins here was not a scorching and blistering but a vehement and full torrefaction It was an ardent heat that could fetch drops of blood from him in the garden but it was the hottest of flames that he felt upon the cross when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh who can without horrour and amazement hear so wosull a word fall from the mouth of the Son of God Had he not said My Father this strain had sunk us into utter despair but now in this very torment is comfort He knew he could not be forsaken of him of whom he saith I and my Father are one he could not be forsaken by a sublation of union though he seemed so by a substraction of vision as Leo well the sense of comfort was clouded for a while from his humanity his deity was ever glorious his faith firme and supplyed that strong consolation which his present sense failed of and therefore you soon hear him in a full concurrence of all Heavenly and victorious powers of a confident Saviour say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit In the mean while even in the height of this suffering there is our ease for certainly the more the Son of God indured for us the more sure we are of an happy acquittance from the Tribunall of Heaven the justice of God never punished the same sin twise over By his stripes we are healed by his payment we are discharged by his torments we are assured of peace and glory Thus much of the preparation The eating of it followes in the appendances the manner the persons The appendances It must be eaten with unleavned bread and with sour or bitter herbs Of the unleavened bread we have spoken enough before For the herbs that nothing might be wanting the same God that appointed meat appointed the sauce too and that was a sallad of not pleasing but bitter herbs herein providing not so much for the palate of the body as of the soul to teach us that we may not hope to partake of Christ without sensible disrelishes of nature without outward afflictions without a true contrition of Spirit It is the condition that our Saviour makes with us in admitting us to the profession of Christianity he shall receive an 100. fold with persecutions those to boot that for his sake and the Gospells forsake all Mark 10.30 Sit down therefore O man and count what it will cost thee to be a true Christian through many tribulations c. Neither can we receive this evangelicall passover without a true contrition of soul for our sins past think not my beloved that there is nothing but jollity to be look't for at Gods table Ye may frolick it ye that feast with the World but if ye will sit with Christ and feed on him ye must eat him with bitter herbs here must be a sound compunction of heart after a due self examination for all our sins wherewith we have offended our good God Thou wouldst be eating the paschal lamb but with sugar-sops or some pleasing sauce it may not be so here must be a bitternesse of soul or no passover It is true that there is a kind of holy mixture of affections in all our holy services a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce in him with trembling saith the Psalmist It is and should be our joy that we have this lamb of God to be ours but it is our just sorrow to finde our own wretched unworthiness of so great a mercy Godly sorrow must make way for solid joy and comfort if there be any of you therefore that harbours in your breast a secret love of and complacency in your known and resolved sins procul O procul let him keep off from this holy Table let him bewail his sinfull mis-disposition and not dare to put forth his hand to this passover till he have gathered the bitter herbs of a sorrowful remorse for his hated offences And where should he gather these but in the low grounds of the Law there they grow plenteously lay the law then home to thy soul that shall show thee thy sins and thy judgment School thee Yea dear Christians how can any of us see the body of our blessed Saviour broken and his blood poured out and withall think and know that his own sins are guilty of this tort offered to the son of God the Lord of life and not feel his heart touched with a sad and passionate apprehension of his own vilenesse and an indignation at his own wickednesse that hath deserved and done this these are the bitter herbs wherewith if we shall eat this passover we shall finde it most wholesome and nourishable unto us to eternall life The manner of the eating of it followes in three particulars 1. The whole lamb must be eaten not a part of it 2. Not a bone of it must be broken 3. In
them better then Marble and Cedars Hence it is that their dresses make no difference of festivals all stuffes all colours are alike to them in all sacred solemnities Hence that they stumble into Gods house without all care or show of reverence and sit them down at his Table like his fellows with their hats on their heads Hence that they make no differnnce of coming with full panches to that heavenly banquet and that the very dogs are allowed free accesse and leave to lift up their legs at those holy tables In quibus populi vota membra Christi portata sunt Optat. Milevit l. 6. where we partake of the Son of God For the rectifying of which misconceits and practises let it be laid down as an undoubted rule that it is a thing well-pleasing to God that there should be all outward cleanliness gravity reverent and comely postures meet furniture utensils places used and observed in the service of the Almighty a truth sufficiently grounded upon that irrefragable Canon of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order whereof Order refers to persons 1 Cor. 14 40. and actions decency to the things done and the fashion of doing them disorder therefore and indecency as they are a direct violation of this Apostolick charge so doubtlesse they are justly offensive to the Majesty of that God whose service is disgraced by them as for disorder it falls not into our present discourse in matter of indecency the main disquisition will be how it may be judged and determined to know what is comly hath been of old noted to be not more commendable then difficult for the mindes of men may be of a different diet one may approve that for decent which another abhors as most unbeseeming Suarum rerum nemo non mitis arbiter pius judex Petrarch A Cynick curre or some Turkish Saint may think it not uncomly to plant his own kind in the open market place and Xenophon tells us of a certain people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Xenoph de â—aeped Cyrâ— l 5. called Mosynecians whose practise was to do all those acts in publick which other men men placing shame in them are wont to reserve for the greatest secrecy and contrarily to do those things in private which other Nations thought fit for the openest view and we finde that the Stigmatical Saint of the Church of Rome who could say of himself that God would have him fatuellum quendam Dixit mihi Dominus quod volebat me esse unum fatuellum in hoc mundo Conform Separator thought it no shame to go stark naked through the streets of Assisium So did Theodore the Taylor and seven Men and five Women Anabaptists strip themselves and ran naked through Amsterdam Guy de Bres Idem fecit coram Episcopo Assisii lib. Conform p. 211. But certainly there are unquestionable rules whereby decency may be both regulated and judged 1 Cor. 11.13.14.16 The great Doctor of the Gentiles when he would correct an indecent practise in his Corinthians uses these three expressions Judge in your selves is it comly Doth not nature it self teach you We have no such custome nor the Churches of God Wherein he sends us for the determination of decency to the judgment of our right reason undebauched nature and approved custome and surely if we follow the guidance of these three we cannot easily erre in our decision of comlinesse both in our carriage in humane affaires and in the services of God all these will tell us that it is most meet that all outward cleanliness gravity modesty reverence should be used in all the actions of divine worship and will in form us that whatsoever fashion of deportment is held rude uncivil in humane conversation is so much more indecent in divine actions by how much the person whom we deal with is more awful and worthier of the highest observance It is no other then an error therefore in those men who think that if they look to the inward disposition of the soul it matters not in what posture or what loathsome turpitude the body appears before the Almighty Even that slovenly Cinick when he saw a woman bowing her self forward too low in her devotion could chide her for her unregard to those deities which beheld her on all sides Our blessed Saviour though he had good cheere at the Pharisees house yet he somewhat taxeth his host for want of a due complement Luc. 7.44.46 I entred into thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet mine head with oyle didst thou not anoint c. He looks still for meet formalities of good entertainment as well as the substance of the dishes It was Gods charge that no steps should be made to go up to his altar Exod. 20 26. lest the nakednesse of the sacrificer should be discovered for this cause it was that he who made the first sute of skins for our first parents ordained linnen breeches for his Priests in their ministrations God hath no where commanded us to cut our nailes or our hair but it were a foul indecency not to do both and if we would justly loath a man that should come to our table like wild Nebuchadnezzar in the desert with hair to his wast and clawes on his fingers how much more odious would this seem in a man that should thus thrust himself in to the Table of the Lord and if our displeasure would justly arise at that barbarous guest which should come to our board with his hands be smeared with ordure or blood how can we think it can be otherwise then ill-taken of the holy God that we should in a beastly garbe offer our selves into his presence It is not onely in regard of spiritual filthyness that the evill Spirits are called unclean but even of external also wherein how much they delight we may well appeal to the confessions of those Witches and Sorcerers which upon their conviction and penitence have laid open the shameful rites of their nightly meetings Bod in Demonomania c. Augustin l. de Haeres Philastr de Haeres Neither was it without cause that some of their prime agents in the antient Church were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from those filthy fashions which were in use amongst them Gnostici borboritae quasi coenosi ob turpitudinem in suis mysteriis c. Contrarily what pleasure the pure and holy God takes in the cleannesse both of flesh and spirit is abundatly testifyed by to those many and strict injunctions of lotions and purifications which we finde upon every occasion in his antient law and though those lawes be not now obligatory as being for the substance of them ceremonial and typical yet they have in them so much tincture of an eternall morality as to imply a meetnesse of decent cleanlinesse in the services of God In the observation whereof it is meet for us to hold a midle way betwixt
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
carnal he threats with death If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye Those which are regenerate contrary to the wicked paradox of those men he assures of life If ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit ye shall live How doth he exclude the Spirit of bondage to fear which these good guides would lead in again how confidently doth he averr the inward testimony of Gods Spirit to ours and ascribes that voice to it which bars all doubt and disappointment and tels us by the powerful assurance of this Abba we are sons and if sons heirs coheirs with Christ Let them now go and say that God may disinherit his own son that he may cast off his adopted But say they to the same regenerate persons he applyes these two clauses and saith at once ye have received the Spirit of adoption and yet if ye walk after the flesh ye shall die what followes of this commination any assertion of the possibility of Apostasy in the regenerate Nothing lesse These threats are to make us take better hold and to walk more warily as a father that hath set his little son on horseback it is Zanchies comparison bids him hold fast or else he shall fall though he uphold him the while that both he may cause him hereby to sit fast and call the more earnestly for his supportation But the scope of the place plainly extorts a division of carnal men and regenerate the threats are propounded to the one the promises and assurance to the other and therefore no touch from hence of our uncertainty in a confessed estate of renovation For that Mat. 12.43 The Apodosis or inference of the parable might well have stop't the mouthes of these Cavillers for you shall finde in the end of it so shall it be with this wicked generation I suppose no man will be so absurd as to say these Jewes had formerly received true justifying faith How should they when they rejected the Messias And yet of them is this parable spoken by our Saviours own explication Maldonate himself a learned and spightful Jesuite can interpret it no otherwise Ideo Christus hoc dixit ut doceret pejores esse Judaeos quam si nunquam Dei legem cognitionem accepissent and to this purpose he cites Hilary Hierom Beda and this sence is so clear that unlesse the seven Devils had found harbour in the dry hearts of these men they could not so grosly pervert it Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5. will never prove a final or total extinction of saving grace the Spirit is quenched when the degrees of it are abated when the good motions thereof are by our security let fall we grant the Spirit may be quenched in tanto not in toto Or if we should so take it as they desire I remember Austin parallels this place with that other to Timothy Let no man despise thy youth Not saith he that the Spirit can be quenched or that contempt can be avoided but that in the one we may not indeavour to do that which may tend towards this wrong to the Spirit and in the other that we should be careful not to do that which may procure contempt The place I remember not directly but numeros teneo si verba tenerem But in all likelyhood that place sounds quite another way as may appear by the connexion of it with those two sentences following As if he should have said discourage not the graces that you finde in any of your Teachers despise not their preaching trye their doctrines And now what is this to the falling from Grace Which of us do not teach the necessity of perseverance He only that indures to the end shall be saved Be faithful to the death and c. But he that hath ordained we shall be saved hath ordained our perseverance as a mean to this salvation and hath appointed these sharp advises as the means and motives of our perseverance So as he that shall be saved shall also indure to the end Because no man plucks them out of my hand saith Christ How evidently doth the Spirit of God proclaime our certainty against these doubt-mongers Every where is he as full of assurance as these men of discomfort He that is borne of God sinneth not neither can sin because he is born of God and the seed of God remaines in them what an invincible 1 Jo. 3.3 and irrefragable consolation is this The seed of life is sown in the hearts of the elect though they could be dead to themselves yet to God they cannot And what a supposition is that of Christ that if it were possible the very elect should be deceived Desponsabo te mihi in perpetuum Mat. 24. Hos 2. and a thousand of this strain which your exercise in those holy leaves hath I doubt not abundantly furnisht you withal hold fast then my dear friend this sure anchor of our undeceivable hope and spit in the face of men or Devils that shall go about to slacken your hand Let these vain Spirits sing despair to themselves for us we know whom we have believed Thus hath my pen run it self out of breath in this so important a demand and much a do have I had to restrain it neither would I give you one houres intermission to my answer which I know your love cannot but accept as that which proceeds from aâ— heart zealous both of God and you Reverendissimo Viro D o. Marco Antonio DE DOMINIS Archiep. SPALATENSI Epistola DISCESSUS SUI Ad ROMAM dissuas NOli gravate ferre Reverendissime Praesul candidam hanc animi calami devotissimi tibi utriusque libertatem sane expressit mihi vel renitenti verba haec prius sincerus quidam religionis zelus tui Fama est te discessum a nobis meditari neque tam loco cedere velle quam fide strenua profecto suspicione non caret hoc ipsum proficisci neque enim cujusquam subire mentem potest hominem senem velle animi causa peregrinari deferbuit procul dubio jam diu juvenilis ille ardor relictas pridem oras curiose revisendi nec ita crassi sumus insulares ut credere possimus coelum te mutare velle nisi animum prius quadam-tenus mutare decrevisses multo vero minus septem illos invisos coelo totiesque tuo fulmine ictos colles repetere novimus nos sat bene ingenium Romae ecquem latere potest nedum hominem cordatum quam infida sit illa statio superbae Hierarchiae expugnatori Moneat te olim vester Fulgentius quam nihil ita tutum sit Pontificiae Majestatis tantillo violatori etiam post fidem si qua famae fides sancte datam post promissa munera post benignissimae invitationis blanditias Viderit tua prudentia ut te vel propudiosissima Palinodia tactaeque quas de jerasti prius arae liberaverint O tuam si quem modo profiteris sanus