of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal THE Apostle establishing our Christian liberty doth much more establish our Christian Piety Rom. 14. He establisheth our liberty ver 6. placing daies and meats in the same rank of indifferency neither of them in it self ought to be reputed a matter of Religion But withal he doth much more establish our Christian Piety ver 7. 8. That both daies and meats daies wherein and meats whereby we live are to be observed or not observed as shall most conduce to his Glory by whom we do and to whom we should all live He overthrows a legal or Iewish observation of daies for themselves because that was a typical worship But he establisheth an evangelical or Christian observation of daies for duties because that is a real and moral part of Gods service For he that so regardeth a day regardeth not it but the Lord And he that so regardeth it not being thereunto called by that authority which God hath set over him were best take heed lest it be thought that he regardeth not the Lord He was best take heed lest he give occasion of scandal or spiritual ruine to his brother whilst he gives him occasion to think that God is not worth the regarding or that those are given to superstition who do most zealously regard him For he that doth this may chance have the milstone in his heart to harden him but sure he must have the milstone about his neck to drown him SECT VIII To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to the Jews keeping them from Christianity PER scandalum laeditur proximus in mente ut per homicidium in corpore per furtum in possessione saith the School-man Alensis par 2. qu. ibi m. 1. Scandal wrongs my neighbour in his mind as murder wrongs him in his body and theft wrongs him in his possession and therefore I have great reason to take heed of being scandalous as to take heed of being a murderer or a thief And truly I cannot see but that our Saviours determination concerning scandal reacheth this very case Mat. 18. 6. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better a mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea For tell me do they not believe in Christ who set apart a time of purpose to make Profession of their Belief in him And if they do believe in him how will you answer your scandalizing and offending them whiles they are professing or rather indeed practising that their belief or your scandalizing others whiles you keep them from the same Christian Practice and Profession Wherefore it can hardly be denyed but this is really a scandal or an offence to Christians because it is a way to cause some of them to forget or to forsake our Saviour Christ But surely it is a down-right stumbling-block to the Jews to keep them from embracing the Christian Religion For the main thing needful to their conversion is to prove the Messiah is already come in the flesh which the Jews will take for granted is denyed if not disproved by them who will not allow themselves nor others to celebrate the memorial of his coming for the whole course of their Religion taught them to acknowledge the receipt of far lesser blessings with much more solemn memorials as the receipt of the Law with the celebration of Pentecost So that whatsoever may be urged for serving God in Spirit in Truth to make Christians become sincere worshippers yet we had need keep up an outward solemn service and worship of Christ to make Jews become Christians For it is not imaginable they should leave the outward decency and order that they are bound to use in their own Synagogues according to the whole purport of their own Law to come to the slovenliness and Indecency that may be found in some Christian Churches under the pretence of the purity of our Gospel SECT IX The Jews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaness especially that Profaness or Irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ IT is much to be lamented that Christians who are bound to do what is in them to convert the Jews should so far scandalize them either by Idolatry or by Profaness as to hinder their conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Jew in his Disputation with the Christian in the second Nicen Council in the sift Action I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you worship Images And is it not as great a scandal if they shall be able to say I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you do not worship God or at least do not worship him with fear and reverence as God Or That you refuse to worship Christ whom you would have me believe to be the Son of God For is it not an act of Religious worship in Moses his Law to dedicate daies to the worship of God If then we deny the Dedication of daies to the worship of Christ How shall we perswade the Jews that we do indeed worship him as our God It is to be feared if we shall do so they will rather think us turning Jews then that themselves will think of turning Christians SECT X. That those Christians who oppose Christmas-Day do give occasion to other Good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion SInce it is the ground of our Christian Religion That all Gods gifts and mercies to mankind do concenter together in Christ it is scarce possible those Christians should be thought truly religious who make it their work to oppose the publick worship of Christ on that very day wherein as Christ he was first capable of being publickly worshipped They that are Jews may think well of this for they denying him to be the Son of God will easily deny that he is to be worshipped But sure good Christians cannot think well of it who are taught to glorifie God in Christ and much more for Christ To glorifie God in Christ is our Religion To glorifie God for Christ is our salvation Religio est motus creaturae rationalis ad Deum ut ad primum principium ultimum finem Christus autem ut Homo est via per quam fit hic motus saith Aquinas 22â— qu. 81. Religion is a motion of the reasonable creature to God as to its first beginning and to its last end But Christ as man is the way wheâ—ein the reasonable creature thus moveth so that once forget Christ as man and you shall soon forget all religion Saint Bernard tells us of a threefold coming of Christ the first was in the infirmity of his flesh to redeem us the second in the power of his spirit to sanctifie us the third in the glory of his majesty to judge us I will thankfully receive him as my Redeemer that I may securely
prayers for it was the curse of Judas Let his prayer be turned into sin and I dare not venter to bring that curse upon my self For I that now ask pardon for the sins of my prayers if I make my prayers more sinful then my infirmities do make them for me what shall I have left whereby to ask pardon for the sinfulness of my sins I will therefore ever give God humble and hearty thanks that he hath caused me to be educated in a Church which hath taught me to make my addresses to him only in and by his Son and I wil never cease so to make my addresses to him in behalf of that distressed and oppressed Church For he that hath given us the parable of the importunate widow to this end that we should alwaies pray and not faint will certainly hear our prayers and the prayers of his Church that is now a widow and therefore brought to the state of widow-hood and desolation because we her sons have hitherto been so slothful and sluggish in our prayers suffering them infinitely to out-strip us in the practise who came far short of us in the purity of Devotion and not shewing that zeal towards the eternal Son of God which others have shewed and do still shew towards their petty Deities This our abominable neglect or rather contempt of God hath made him jealous and his jealousie hath made him for a while cast us off but we hope he will not cast us off for ever even for his Truths sake for his mercies sake for his names sake yea though we have slighted his Truth abused his mercy and blasphemed his most Holy name by throwing away our Prayers with as much fury as if Truth had been a lye Invocation had Superstition and Piety had been Idolatry yet we will still hope that he will not cast us away for ever for his Sons sake because in him he is well pleased though with us he be most justly displeased For in him alone in his merits in his righteousness in his intercession have we called and do call for grace and mercy and therefore cannot doubt but in him and for his sake we shall be heard at last and relieved and shall see the salvation of our God For the unrighteous Judge himself could say Though I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her least by her continual coming she weary me Much more shall the righteous Judge say so Yea O Lord we know that thou fearest not thine enemies but yet regardest thy servants and therefore we thy most unworthy servants will never leave troubling thee with our continual addresses nor wearying thee with our daily prayers till thou arise and maintain thine own cause and either avenge our injuries or vindicate our innocency If our Church was once thy Spouse she is now thy widow O let not her nor us for her cry any longer in vain to thee But we beseech thee to avenge her of all her enemies not by confounding but by converting them For this will be a vengeance worthy of thy Justice and of thy Mercy both together when thou shalt indeed destroy the sin but yet save the sinners However we cannot but profess our selves so well assured of the truth of our Religion whiles we adore and worship thee only in thy beloved Son that though all the world discountenance yet we dare not discontinue much less forsake it And though for our many and grievous sins thou still suffer us to be eaten up like sheep and sellest thy people for nought and makest us to be rebuked of our neighbours and to be laughed to scorn and had in derision of them that are round about us yet we will not forget thee nor behave our selves frowardly much less falsly in thy Covenant nor suffer our hearts to be turned nor our steps to decline from thy way Yea though thou still more and more smite us into the place of Dragons creatures that are both mischievous and venemous and cover us not only with the shadow but even with the body of death yet we will ever resolve and we beseech thee to confirm and consummate our resolution not to forget the name of our God nor to stretch out or hold up our hands to any strang God For thou hast told us This is life eternal that we might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17. 3. Lord we desire so to know thee as to love thee so to love thee as to worship thee so to worship thee as to glorifie thee so to glorifie thee in this world as to be glorified by thee in the world to come Thou hast commanded us to forsake all to follow thee Lord make us readily to obey this command that we may so follow thee as at last to come to thee to be with thee and to abide in thee for ever For those who saw thy Son but in tpyes and figures have taught us this lesson of sincerity and of constancy not to be careful to answer any of our adversaries in this matter but readily and chearfully to say Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us and he will in his good time deliver us But if not be it known unto all the world that we will not worship the images which our Fathers have set up nor the imaginations which our children are now setting up for our God is too spiritual to be worshipped with images and too substantial to be worshipped with imaginations He is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4. 24. His worship hath too much of Spirit to consist in images and too much of Truth to consist in imaginations Wherefore we knowing that our worship of God is both in Spirit and in Truth are sorry to see that any should oppose it for it is prodigious as well as odious for any Christian to oppose the glory of Christ but will not give them that occasion of joy to see that their opposition should make us forsake it For he that hath said Seek ye after God and your soul shall live Psal 69. 33. hath taught us to say in our Doctrine What shall we do with a Religion that seeks after any but God since our soul cannot live in any but in him and much more hath he taught us to say in our devotion Lord we make our prayer unto thee in an acceptable time Hear us O God in the multitude of thy mercies even in the truth of thy salvation Psalm 69. which is a prayer in times of persecution for the cause of Religion For as long as we make our prayers only to thee O Lord we are sure that we do pray in the truth of our Religion and therefore may not doubt but thou wilt at length hear our prayers in the truth of thy salvation and that for our blessed Saviours sake to whom with the Father and
as Master Brerewood hath demonstrated in his enquiries cap. 14. SECT II. That the coming of the Holy Ghost for the communicating of Christ after an extraordinary manner is not now to be expected That preaching and praying with the Spirit come not by infusiâ—ns Enthusiasts are the worst separatists and the greatest blasphemers guilty of the worst kind of sacriledge and Idolatry in robbing God of his publike worship after such a manner as he hath commanded and idolizing their own pretended gifts SInce it is an undoubted truth that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ we may not doubt but his coming unto men alwayes was and still is of purpose to communicate Christ unto them either after an extraordinary manner by immediate infusions and revelations as to the Prophets and Apostles or after an ordinary manner by habitual improvements and assistances as at this day For the extraordinary manner of his coming and the extraordinary manner of his communicating Christ to men by immediate infusions or revelations did both cease together And we may truly say concerning those miraculous and extraordinary dispensations of the spirit what Saint Paul hath said concerning tongues one of the principal effects thereof They were for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. and therefore were to continue and remain no longer then signes and wonders that is till the preaching or publishing of the Gospel or till the planting and setling the Christian Religion For Saint Peter plainly sheweth in the second of the Acts That this Prophecy of Joel In the last dayes saith God I will your out of my spirit upon all flesh was fulfilled in the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles that these were the last dayes meant by that Prophet and therefore after those dayes men were not to expect any more such extraordinary dispensations Wherefore those that will now preach or pray by the Spirit may not rely upon infusions for which they have no warrant but must betake themselves diligently to read and consider the word of God that so they may have the assistance of the Spirit of God For they that go about to separate the Spirit from the Word are the most abominable Separists that ever were or can be in the world because they endeavour to separate God from himself for Gods word is Gods truth and Gods truth is himself Be it then taken for granted which may not be doubted it cannot be denyed that they are very wicked Separatists who separate man from man for they fill the world with sedition and privy conspiracy They yet worse Separatists who separate man from God for they fill the world with false doctrine and heresie But yet still they are the worst Separatists of all who separate God from God that is Gods Spirit from Gods Word for they fill the world with hardness of heart contempt of Gods Word and Commandment which is the ready way to make men first impenitent and then unpardonable and what more can be said of the sin against the Holy Ghost Yet these three separations do so naturally and necessarily spring from one another that they may be accounted themselves inseparable For the sedition begets the heresie and the heresie begets the hardness of heart separating man from man by sedition will separate man from God by heresie and that will also in a short time endeavour to separate God from himself by contempt of his Word and Commandments What an unhappy age do we live in wherein men think they do God good service to run away from his Word by pretending to his Spirit But this is the wit of wickedness the order of disorder the method of atheism that the persons of the holy and undivided Trinity should be sinned against by succession and blasphemed in the same order that they are to be confessed first the Father secondly the Son and thirdly the Holy Ghost For under the Law men were generally given to Idolatry took an Idol for God and so more immediately sinned against God the Father he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself Under the first times of the Gospel men were generally addicted to Arrianism denying the Divinity of Christ and so more immediately sinned against God the Son for he is God of God But in these latter times of the Gospel for so it is to be feared our sins have made them men are generally addicted to cry up their own phansies for the dictates of the Spirit and so more immediately sin against God the Holy Ghost not considering how unconscionable a thing it is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed to the day of redemption and how impossible a thing it is for those not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God who constantly blaspheme him and what an unsufferable blasphemy it is to entitle those rude and crude impertinencies to the Holy Spirit which few sober men can hear with patience and no zealous man can hear with profit and no conscientious man can hear with piety Well may such a worship profit some men by exercising their patience but yet it scarce deserves the name of worship because it doth not rather exercise their piety so that we must confess that such pretenders to the Spirit are the greatest enemies of the Spirit and whilst they would be thought the best reformers are in truth the worst blasphemers for as much as they impute those imprudencies and indescretions or rather impieties and irreligions for imprudencies in the service of God are impieties and indiscretions are irreligions to Gods Holy Spirit which are meerly their own vaiâ— imaginations and carnal inventions and in the mean time reject and disesteem those prayers and praises which are the undoubted dâ—ctates of that same Holy Spirit as if they rather hindred then helped us to cry Abba Father what is this but in effect to blaspheme God instead of blessing him for giving us so many admirable forms of prayer and praise in the holy Scriptures and for giving us a Church to teach us to pray exactly according to that pattern in the Mount according to those patterns of prayers and praises whâ—ch came immediately either from God the Son or from God the Holy Ghost What is this but in effect to distract and to hinder men instead of setling and helping them in their Religion whilst they are made beleive that nothing is truly from the spirit of prayer but what is new and unknown to them whereby they are taught first to contemn the known prayers of the Church and then the known prayers of the Scriptures for that the spirit is as much confined by the one as by the other and to hunt after novelty instead of certainty which is a way to exercise the phansie before the conscience because the conscience first tries the spirits then follows them 1 John 4. 1. but the phansie first follows the spirits and never at all tries them A way
silent and gave no answer as if by their silence they had proclaimed that the Word was only in Judea which is not only historical but also rational not only credible for the relation but also for the reason because it was convenient that he who came to break the head of the Serpent should at the time of his coming stop his mouth Wherefore those Oracles that spake from the false and evil Spirit were all silenced at Christs coming as being unfit witnesses to Gods Truth because they were from a false Spirit and to his goodness because they were from an evil Spirit But their mouthes were then most open who spake by the Spirit of God The Angels that had been silent long before then began to sing Babes and sucklings were advanced above men to chant out their Hosanna's to the Son of David when he was made lower then the Angels In a word all tongues and languages of the world accustomed before to speak vanity were then taught to speak the wonderful works of God and Saint Peter gives us the reason of it because God did then pour out his Spirit upon all flesh Acts 2. 17. This is the Spirit that still filleth the hearts of good Christians with Thankfulness and their Mouths with Thanksgivings that they may continually more and more rejoyce in this Son of God till they come to enjoy him For as Christ is called panis descendens Joh. 6. 50. not qui descendit the bread decending to shew that he is alwaies descending in his salvation though he descended but once only in his person so our praise and thanksgiving to God for his descent may be called Cantus ascendenâ— the praise that is alwaies ascending according to that of the Psalmist Psal 71. 12. As for me I will patiently abide alway and will praise thee more and more for this praise never comes to its zenith or vertical point till our souls be there where our Saviour now is and from whence we expect him again to our salvation For good Christians can never meditate enough on their Redeemer never joy too much in that meditation They can never be weary of singing Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord because in their souls they have tasted the sweetness of that song The Spirit of God making melodie with their hearts whiles they are making melody with their mouths SECT II. God the holy Ghosts love to man in giving him the assurance of his particular redemption without which there can be no joy of his creation It had been good for that man if he had never been born spoken of Judas according to our Saviours own judgement not our apprehension that gloss an abusing of the Text The joy of our Redemption is not to be lost WE cannot but have great joy if we have true joy in our Redeemer and we cannot but have true joy in our redeemer if we rightly weigh and faithfully embrace the mercy of our redemption therefore when the Holy Ghost hath said Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him Psal 149. 2. he hath much more said in effect Let Israel rejoyce in him that redeemed him for the Joy is not so truly that he is made as that he is made Israel according to that of Saint Augustine frustra profuit hominem nasci nisi redimi etiam profuisset in vain had man been made partaker of the Creation if he had not also been made partaker of the redemption And agreable to this is our Saviours doctrine concerning Judas who in that he betrayed his redeemer forfeited his share in this redemption It had been good for that man if he had not been born Mat. 26. 24. To seek to make the contrary true by Metaphysical quiddities as a Divine of late hath done is so to be in Metaphysicks as to be out of Divinity for though singly and simply in it self being is better then not being yet a Metaphysical being which only exempts from nothing accompanied with a moral not being that makes worse then nothing is certainly not better but far worse then a bare Metaphysical not being for it is clearly better to be nothing then to be worse then nothing and consequently to be no soul at all then to be a damned soul under an eternal enmity with and eternal separation from that goodness which is the fountain of being and which only doth make our being to be good wherefore it must needs be a dangerous Position that requires such a proof but more dangerous that admits it For to admit this is in effect to say that our Saviour Christ is not a man of his word as he that first broached this desperate doctrine being urged with the authority of our Saviours forementioned words It had been good for that man if he had not been born made his answer that our blessed Saviour did there speak secundum captum vulgi according to the opinion of the common people which is little less then to put a fallacy in the mouth of Truth it self and to fasten such a blasphemy upon the word of Christ as will easily enable us to elude the whole Text and verifie his most wicked words by our more wicked practice who once said in zeal to his Church but not to his Saviour Scripturam esse nasum cereum that the Scripture was a meer nose of wax But we have not so learned Christ and dare not so revile his word least we should so learn him we will therefore rejoyce in him that made us out of nothing to be his creatures because he hath also redeemed us from being worse then nothing when we were his enemies and we will commit the keeping of our souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator because we know him to be also our merciful redeemer For the same son of God who made the world and upheld all things by the word of his Power and consequently was our Creator hath by himself purged our sins and is now sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high there making intercession for us Heb. 1. 2 3. Heb. 7. 25. and consequently is also our Redeemer The joy of our Creation we have lost by losing our Innocency but the Joy of our Redemption is never to be lost unless we lose our Repentance which is so true so great a comfort to a man who is born in sin lives in sin dies in sin that if you deny him this you can afford him no true comfort against his sinfulness SECT III. That this redemption whereof the Holy Ghost assureth us is twofold 1. Privative because we are not under the Law that is not under it as condemning us though we be under the Law as regulating and restraining us 2. Positive because we are under grace and know that we are so the right way to attain that knowledge THat would not be so great a comfort to a good Christian which Saint Paul gives him Rom. 6. 14. for
shearers so opened he not his mouth Act. 8. 34. Yet the Israelites did all so generally know the meaning of this phrase that Saint John the Baptist used no other title to proclaim the Messias but this Behold the lamb of God John 1. 29. which was so well understood that two of his own Disciples presently left him and followed Jesus ver 36 37. And Saint Philip acknowledgeth the person typified and foretold to agree exactly with the Type and prediction when he saith ver 45. we have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write as if he had said All that the Law and Prophets had promised was now fulfilled Grace in the conjunction mercy in the propitiation and truth in the prediction All met together in Christ our Passeover therefore Jubilemus let us keep our Jubile or in Saints Pauls language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep our holyday or yet farther if you please let us keep this Holyday that is the feast of the Passover called by the Council of Antioch c 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy feast of the soul-saving Passeover For Aerius his objection against keeping of Easter from this very text saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we ought not to keep the the Passover for Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us though it overthrow the Jewish Passeover which was a type of Christ yet it rather establisheth a Christian Passeover which is a memorial of him unless we will say that Christ was therefore our Passeover and sacrificed for us of purpose that we should for get him and his sacrifice For as we may not now retain any types of Christ because that were in effect to deny that he is come in the flesh so we may not let go the memorials of Christ because that in effect is to be unthankfull for his coming And our Saviour himself by saying do this in remembrance of me hath shewed that he will look upon those Festivals which should be appointed for memorials of him as upon so many religious and Christian like Institutions since he that hath prescribed to do this hath also prescribed or rather presupposed a set and solemn time of doing it For though the Christians joy in Christ is not to be limited or confined to a day yet that is no reason why a day should not be limited and confined to that joy Let spiritual joyes be eternal in themselves but for that very cause let our time be subservient to their eternity that they may likewise be so to us For God appointing a set time for a spiritual duty hath not thereby debased the duty but exalted the time even as our blessed Saviour appointing a set form of prayer hath not thereby confined the spirit of prayer but rather enlarged it And the Holy-Ghost having given us so many set formes of prayer and praise in the Psalmes and the rest of the ible Bhath not therefore taught the duty of prayer to be the less spiritual but hath taught us to be the less carnal that we should not in pouring out our souls to God rely upon our own phansies or inventions but upon his holy dictates and directions For there is the same reason both of hic and of nunc in matters of Divinity the same reason of these words and of this time God having consecrated words to his service as belonging to the substance of it and having consecrated times places and persons only as accidents and circumstances belonging to the solemnity thereof And therefore it is strange to see those men who are most zealous for the set times and Dayes of serving God every week to be so impetuous against the set forms of serving him as thinking the set time to help devotion but the set form to hinder it whereas it is evident that setting a time to the spirit must needs be a confinement of him as well as setting of words And to say to the Spirit of prayer Pray now is as great an intrusion and encrochement upon him as to say to him Pray this But in truth nither are confinements to Gods spirit and both alike are intended for the enlargements of our spirits Set times and Set words that we pray in the greater assurance of faith knowing we cannot be willworshippers whiles we conform our selves to his will whom we worship SECT III. The memorials instituted by God are chiefly of his justice and of his mercy There is but one terrible memorial of Gods justice against those who invaded the Priesthood but many memorials of his mercy and that it is a vain fear which possesseth some men as if the anniversary memorial of Christs Resurrection was not instituted and cannot be observed without willworship or superstition that the general equity of the Levitical Law as far as it was not Typical is still in force concerning the Solemnities of Religion and that approves Anniversary as well as weekly Festivals AMong all Gods Attributes none are so remarkeable in our lives and deaths as his mercy and his Justice His mercy in our preservation his justice in our destruction And accordingly God himself requires us most especially to take notice of the great effects of his justice and of his mercy Hence is it that we find him instituting few or no memorials of his wisdom or of his Power but very many of his Justice and of his Mercy though not so many of his justice as of his mercy we find but one memorial of his Iustice more particularly recommended to the care of his Church and that is against those men who had said to Moses and to Aaron to their Civil and Ecclesiastical Governours Ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Numb 16. 3. These men because they had invaded the Priests office in burning incense had their censers nailed upon the altar of incense and the Text saith to be a memorial unto the children of Israel that no stranger which is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Corah and his Company ver 40. Te miror Antoni quorum facta imitare eorum exitus non perhorrescere said the Orator most pathetically I much wonder that since you do follow their sins you do not fear their punishment And how can any Christian Minister say less since it is evident that the Gospel in this case still retains the sentence and consequently revives the severity of the Law For so saith the Apostle No man taketh this honour unto himself that is not called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5. 4. as if he had said no man rightly taketh the office of a Priest upon him but he that is externally and publickly called of God as was Aaron so as all the Congregation may take notice of his calling And if he do take Aarons office that is not called as Aaron was he hath great reason to
unto me saith Christ not go from me there 's the temper of charity to invite and embrace not to repell and reject others for I am meek and lowly in heart there 's the temper of humility lowly in heart and cannot be of that pride as to forget my self meek in heart and cannot be of that presumption as to disdain and reproach my brother where you find not this temper there you may not seek for Christ where you do find the contrary distemper in the forenamed works of the flesh there you are sure not to find the Spirit of Christ and therefore must come with your libera nos Domine though you care not to have the Letanie and say Good Lord deliver me from such professors and from such a profession of the Christian Religion where I can neither find the temper nor the Spirit of Christ SECT IV. Vnsetledness in Religion shews we have not learned it from our heavenly Master or from Gods Exapostole The Holy Ghost being given us from the Father by the Son sheweth there is no salvation to them who believe not the Trinity The mixture of Praises with Prayers in the Psalms was the Abba Father of the Old Testament and proceeded from joy in the Holy Ghost which is a Joy both unsequestrable and unspeakable The Sacrifices and Hymns answerable to that joy IT is very easie for a man to depart and fall away from God but not so easie to return and to cleave unto him No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him saith our blessed Saviour John 6. 44. The Father draws us before we go unto his Son and he draws us with loving-kindness Jer. 31. 3. with bands of love Hos 11. 4. that is by the power of the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of love The Father draws by his Spirit to his Son He that believes not the Trinity cannot hope to be thus drawn and he that is not thus drawn cannot hope to come unto God which is plainly shewed by the Apostle when he saith God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. The Greek word is very observable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for here 's another Exapostle even God the Holy Ghost as in the fourth verse we had before one Exapostle God the Son There it was God sent forth his Son here it is God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son that is He sent such a Messenger as was not only an Apostle one sent from God but also an Exapostle One sent out of God There was one Exapostle to plant the Christian Religion in the world God sent forth his Son and there is another Exapostle to plant it in our hearts God hath sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts the same word is used in both places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God made use of Exapostles as well as of Apostles for the planting of the true Religion Messengers sent from God would not have served the turn to make men believe the truth much less to love and practise it unless there had been also Messengers sent out of God Therefore God sent forth his Son and the Spirit of his Son that he might settle and stablish our hearts in the Christian faith So that if we be unsettled in our Religion and carried away with every blast of vain Doctrine as being not firmly established in the truth of the holy Gospel it is a plain case we have not inclined our ears and much less our hearts to those two Messengers who came immediately out of God even his own Son and his own Spirit and therefore it is no wonder if we slightly esteem of all Gods other Messengers God the Father hath sent out God the Son And God the Father and Son hath sent out God the Holy Ghost The salvation of one is the work of three the salvation of one sinful soul is the work of all three persons of the blessed Trinity The Father sending the Son the Father and Son sending the Holy Ghost which of these three persons can we lose or let go and not withall lose or let go our own Salvation which of these three needs not work as God a work of All-mighty power of All seeing wisdom of All-sufficient and All-saving goodness to turn us from our evil waies that we may be sanctified and to keep us in the waies of righteousness that we may be saved God the Son sent out of the Father into your flesh and God the Holy Ghost sent out of the Father and the Son into your hearts His Son and your flesh his Spirit and your hearts both certainly most miraculous conjunctions the one the cause of the other For his Spirit and your hearts could never have met in man had not his Son your flesh met together in God And this produceth yet another miraculous conjunction a conjunction of Prayer and of praise both together in the same mouth and from the same heart and at the same time that a righteous man cannot be so over-burdened with sorrow in himself as not to be relieved and refreshed with joy in his Saviour Thus Hannah was was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore but she found that joy and comfort in her prayer that the Text saith She went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad So that in effect she was so of a sorrowful Spirit as also of a joyful Spirit and as her sorrow afforded matter of Prayer so her joy afforded matter of Praise Her own spirit made her sorrowful but Gods Spirit made her joyful And this was indeed the Abba Father of those in the Old Testament who had but dark promises of a Saviour yet did with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation Isa 12. 3. who had scarce any knowledge or revelation of the person yet were very well acquainted with the joyes of the Holy Ghost Hence it is that most of the Psalms as they are exceeding devout prayers wherein Gods own Spirit teacheth us to pray and helpeth our infirmities in praying so they are also most thankful praises wherein the same spirit teacheth us to rejoyce in God for hearing our prayers They are not only prayers but they are also praises concerning the same deliverance whether it be corporal or spiritual whether it be from bodily or from Ghostly enemies as for example The 30. Psalm is a prayer to be delivered from sickness and death and damnation as that noble Champion of Christ both for his Church and for his Truth and for his Authority hath piously and judiciously stated it in his Book of Collects upon the Psalms which should never be out of the hands of good Christians till it be fully imprinted in their hearts I say the 30. Psalm is a Prayer to be delivered from sickness and death and damnation three such sad considerations as were enough to make
That of enemies they are made servants and of servants they are made sons Secondly That being made sons they have the Spirit of his Son Thirdly That having the Spirit of his Son they have also the mind and language of his Son crying Abba Father Having their hearts true to God by inward affection and their mouths true to their hearts by outward profession IT is fit that a foolish son should know his folly as well as his filiation his folly that he may return to himself to do his duty as well as his filiation that he may return unto his Father and beg for mercy Accordingly every good Christian being made the son of God and yet still abiding too much in the sins of other men should look with one eye upon himself to increase his humility and to quicken his obedience and repentance with the other eye upon his Saviour to strengthen his faith and to inflame his piety and devotion He must see his folly as well as his filiation that he may ascribe unto God the honour due unto his name and much more the honour due unto his nature in that he disinherits not a foolish Son besotted and bewitched with the vanities of the world and with his own sinful lusts and affections but first looks on him as wise in Christ his own eternal wisdom and then makes him so that he may not only accept him for a son but may also bring him to his inheritance For there is no doubt to be made but that the filiation will carry the inheritance if so be we take care that the folly do not destroy the filiation And accordingly we must still remember that we were by nature the children of wrath born enemies but made sons by the grace of adoption and take heed of returning to our own natural corruptions or of sinning against that grace whereby we have been adopted For in that we have been adopted into Gods family we have been put out of our own so the Greeks do expresly set forth the nature of adoption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an adopted son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas is to be put out of our own kindred out of our own stock And the Psalmist requires no less of us when he saith Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Psal 45. 11 12. Thou canst not be an adopted son of God unless thou forget thine own people and thy fathers house that is unless thou go out of the man that thou maist go in to God leave off to be an enemy that thou maist begin to be a son forsake thy self that thou maist cleave to thy Saviour For in thy self thou art a stranger nay an enemy in him only thou art a servant or rather a Son This consideration made Saint Paul say I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. As if he had said I am crucified with Christ in that I am dead unto sin for the thought that he hath nailed my sins to his Cross makes me willing to be crucified with him And yet I still truly live but not that old carnal man I was before but made a new creature so that indeed Christ liveth in me by his Spirit making me lead a new life And though I am still in this mortal body yet my life which I live is immortal for though my person be on earth yet my conversation is in heaven And the same truth which the Apostle here preached by his Example he did in another place preach also by his Doctrine saying And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. that is the outward man is mortified to the weakning and abolishing of sin but the inner man is renewed to the encreasing and establishing of righteousness And this is the proper work of the Spirit of adoption to change a man from being an enemy to be a servant and from being a servant to be a son which we may well look upon as the first priviledge of the Saints who are truly so that is Saints in Gods account though sinners in their own Saints not of their own calling but of Gods or Saints not of their own but of Gods making Their duty is to be his servants but their honour is to be his friends nay more his sons Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. They were before his enemies they are now his servants and friends They are to do whatsoever he commands them there 's their duty they are obliged as servants yet he saith unto them ye are my friends there 's their honour they are accepted as friends Great is their honour as his friends admitted to his counsels yet much greater is their honour as his sons admitted to his inheritance But this honour is meerly a priviledge not a prerogative t is such as they must thankfully receive not such as they may peremptorily demand for when ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do saith our blessed Saviour Luk. 17. 10. Christ looked upon his own obedience as duty and therefore will not have us look upon ours as supererogation We are unprofitable servants in our service and should be so in our account and are we then in Gods account accepted as friends nay beloved as sons Great was their priviledge who could say We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and build his house Ezra 5. 11. Sure they could not have said so much if they had pulled his house down But far greater is our priviledge who can say We are the sons of the God of heaven and earth and though we be despoiled of our inheritance in earth yet we cannot be deprived of our inheritance in heaven The prodigal son saith to his father I am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants Luk. 15. 19. but each of us may now invert those words and say unto our Father I am no more worthy to be a hired servant and yet thou hast made me be called thy Son A consideration which is able to kindle a holy fire in the breast of every good Christian and enflame his soul with the love of Christ by whom alone of an enemy he is made a servant of a servant a friend of a friend a Son of a son an heir even an heir of God and joint heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For though men have son that are not heirs yet God hath no son which is not also an heir and
therefore this is not so truly a priviledge as t is a property for Gods Sons to be his heirs Accordingly all our care must be to keep our selves in the obedience that we may be in the acceptance of sons for then we shall have no cause to doubt of our inheritance And the best way to keep our selves in the obedience of Sons is to keep our selves in the communion of his Spirit for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8. 9. And this is indeed another priviledge of the Saints that being made the Sons of God they have the Spirit of his Son And that Spirit is sent forth into their hearts to testifie unto them his fatherly care and kindness For the tongue could not truly say Abba Father if the heart did not truly believe it We must therefore observe the Apostles Doctrine concerning the Spirit of adoption that it so moveth in the tongue as much rather in the heart Ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father there 's Abba Father in the mouth and The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God there 's Abba Father in the heart Rom. 8. 15 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome When the spirit of God is our witness who can misdoubt the testimony All the fault in truth is that we do not so devote our selves to the love of God and the practice of piety and godliness as that the Spirit either will or can be our witness For we often gâ—eve the Holy Spirit of God by our multiplied transgressions and hence it is we do not see that he hath sealed us to the day of redemption Ephes 5. 30. His seal is alwayes sure and good though not alwayes clear and visible He doth still imprint it though we do not still perceive it the reason is because our sins do cast a mist before our eyes nay more a dismal darkness upon our hearts and this mist this darkness interposeth it self betwixt us and the everlasting light Therefore saith the Apostle And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 John 3 3. Every man that hath this hope in him viz. truly and really not presumptuously and phantastically purifieth himself even as he is pure and t is no more then needs because he cannot have this hope in him unless he purifie himself For the same Holy Spirit that maketh the Son of God dwell in us by consolation doth also make us dwell in him by affection and no longer then we dwell in him can we be assured that he dwelleth in us hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us they go both together because he hath given us of his spirit 1 John 4. 13. And that holy Spirit as it maketh him dwel in us by consolation so it maketh us dwell in him by affection God hath joyned these two together and we may not separate them even walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Act. 9. 31. Thus doth our own Church teach us to pray That we may evermore dwell in him and he in us which when it shall be fully brought to pass we shall fully understand and more fully enjoy that benediction of the Psalmist Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee he shall dwell in thy Courts and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house even of thy holy Temple Psal 65. 4. Nay his dwelling shall be much bettered for he shall dwell not in thy Court but in thy self and be satisfied with the pleasures not of thy house but of thy Son nor of thy holy Temple but of thy holy Spirit Thus doth Hierusalem get up thither indeed whieher Babel got up only in design even to heaven Nay yet much higher Is there any thing higher then heaven Yes there is The God of heaven A true Citizen of Hierusalem never leaves ascending in heart and mind till he get up to God And this makes him so given to his deâ—otions that he cares to say nothing else but Abba Father which is yet another priviledge of the Saints of Gods not of their own making for they though called Saints here will be found sinners hereafter that having the Spirit of his Son they have also the language of his Son and cry Abba Father For the priviledge of Gods Sons who have the Spirit of his Son in their hearts is also to have the same Spirit in their mouths crying Abba Father as their heart is true to God by inward affection so their mouth is true unto their heart by outward profession and consequently that mans religion is not true which wants either part of this truth for if his heart be false to his God he is an hypocrite If his tongue be false to his heart he is little less then an Apostate So hath the irrefragable Doctor determined concerning one that lives among the Turks or Saracens who still retaineth the Faith in his heart but not the confession of it in his mouth Potest tamen dici Apostata communi nomine quia à confessione fidei retrocedit Alensis par 2. qu. 153. memb 2. He may in a general sense be called an Apostate because he is fallen away from the confession of his Faith So then a true believer hath not only his heart true to God by affection but also his tongue true to his heart by profession being bound to the one by the first to the other by the third Commandment of the decalogue If his heart be false to his God he will one day be ashamed of himself If his tongue be false to his heart his Saviour will one day be ashamed of him so himself hath told us Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels Mar. 8 38. of him shall the Son of man be ashamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall blush for the shame of him O our blessed Redeemer let us never put thee to the blush let us never force that precious blood into thy lovely face which thou camest to bestow upon our sinful souls But as with our hearts we beleive unto righteousness so with our mouths let us make confession to salvation This is Saint Pauls definition of a true Christian A man that with the heart believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confesseth to salvation Rom. 10. 10. The heart believing brings the righteousness the mouth confessing brings the salvation As t is vain to have a Faith without righteousness for that is the hypocrites faith so t is vain to have a righteousness without salvation for that may be an Apostates righteousness But the true and constant Christian hath both the heart to believe and the mouth
not put it in the power and will of his Church to give unto his people the words of eternal life that they should run away either from her doctrine or from her communion The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. Sweet Jesus make the dead to hear thy voice for the living do little less then scorn it And this document or instruction as it much concerns the word preached so it much more concerns the word written which hath alwayes in all ages and in all Churches been taught more incorruptly and more impartially by Translations then by Expositions For in Translations men generally follow Gods truth but in expositions they too too often follow their own inventions if not their own interests Thus have men little reason to depart from the Church because therein Christ teacheth by his word and yet much less because he therein teacheth by his spirit for it is clear that the spirit goeth along with the word in that Saint Stephen saith unto the Jews Ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. When as they had only resisted the words of the Prophets Therefore we may confidently and comfortably affirm that they who carefully observe and conscionably obey Gods holy Ordinances in his Churchâ— will be able at the last day to say unto him not as Sectaries and wanderers will be able to say Thou hast taught in our streets Lake 13. 26. to whom he will answer I tell you I know you not whence you are depart me from all ye workers of iniquity ver 27. but Thou hast taught in our hearts for I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And indeed this doctrine concerning the state of true Christianity and the knowledge of that state and the comfort of that knowledge is a most heavenly doctrine and therefore can have its teacher only from heaven The teaching Priest is not enough to instruct us in it but we need also The teaching God Miserable was the condition of Israel to have been without a teaching Priest but irrecoverable would have been their misery had they been also without a teaching God had not the Spirit of God come upon Azariah to teach them 2 Chron 15. 1. 3. Man may teach us the way of Gods statutes and we may never keep that way at all but if God once teach it us we shall noâ— only keep it but we shall also keep it unto the end Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Psal 119. 33. Thus hath Saint John said And ye need not that any man teach you but as the same annointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 1 John 2. 27. His intent is not that they to whom he writ should despise his teaching he is only willing to commend them to a far better teacher for the Apostle might teach them and yet they might not abide either in the Church or in the truth but if the Annointing if the Spirit did teach them they were sure to abide both in him and in his doctrine for ever And therefore saith holy Job who teacheth like him Job 36. 22. Though he be not the only teacher for man teacheth with him yet he is the only irresistible and infallible teacher for man teacheth not like him He is the only infallible teacher because he convinceth the understanding he is the only irresistible teacher because he converteth the will teaching us by the representation of himself unto our Souls as the chiefest good from which we cannot turn away and against which we will not resist For God teacheth the soul by his own presence revealing unto it himself and his everlasting blessedness saith Alensis against which the will of man cannot resist in the judgement of some Philosophy and therefore the scoff of irresistible Grace must needs be far from the Judgement of sound Divinity The Church in the Collect for Whitsunday sheweth both the infallibility and the irresistibility of Gods teaching he teacheth irresistibly in that he teacheth the Heart which useth to make resistance against all teaching of the ear unless it self be taught in the first place wherefore none can be an irresistible Teacher but he that can teach the heart he teacheth also infallibly in that he teacheth by the light of his holy Spirit wherefore none can be an infallible teacher but he that teacheth by the Holy Ghost God which hast taught the hearts of thy faithfull people by sending to them the light of thy holy Spirit Here 's a teacher that subdues my perversness and makes me willing to learn in that he teacheth my heart here 's a teacher that enlightens my darkness and makes me able to learn in that he teacheth by the light of his holy spirit And the doctrines which he teacheth are agreeable with the manner of his teaching Recta sapere in ejus consolatione gaudere To have a right judgement in all things that is in all things of Salvation as if you would say to have a right judgement in the state of true Christianity and of your being in that state and evermore to rejoyce in his holy comforts as if you would say to comfort your self against all temptations and taibulations that you have such a right judgement Let me never uâ—dervalue much less forsake that School wherein this heavenly master is pleased to teach for fear I should lose both the right judgement and the Holy comfort which he is pleased to bestow upon his Scholars And let me not doubt but this Church wherein I have been trained up is a part of that school since it hath taught me nothing that is either Antichristian or unchristian for where I cannot deny the doctrine of Christ I may not doubt of the spirit of Christ Wherefore it is a false and an envious principle of divinity which some have so much improved of late to the advantage of their Church but to the disadvantage of Religion if at least any Christian Church can be advanced by that doctrine by which the Christian Religion is depressed and disparaged That our Saviour Christ hath set up one chair from which he would have all the world to take the documents and determinations of Christianity For the state of true Christianity is not to be confined to any one Church since the author and teacher of it is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. The Apostle proves that God vouchsafed his Grace to the Gentiles no less then to the Jews by this argument is he the God of the Jews only is he not also the God of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Rom. 3. 29. and again There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him
Rom. 10. 12. as if it were as absurd to think God not rich unto all that call upon him as to think him not Lord over all wherefore as no Christian Church can doubt of his being Lord over them so neither of his being rich towards them unless we will say that Saint Paul did by this argument take away the difference betwixt the Jew and the Gentile that he might set it up betwixt Christians That he took it away betwixt men of two different Religions to set it up betwixt men of one and the same Religion whereas the contrary is evident from his doctrine for though he said explicitely yet he said not exclusively To all that be in Rome Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1. 7. for he extended the same benediction to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 2. not thinking it so little as to be confined to one place Let us observe his words Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 2 3. He tells us of a Church of God in Corinth as well as in Rome and in other places as well as in Corinth which are sanctified and called to be Saints the one as well as the other and he proves it because the Lord Jesus whose name they call on is both theirs and ours therefore have they Grace and peace from him as well as we And the like is Saint Peters doctrine when he saith Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 34 35. He saith of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons not that he had first perceived it for Moses had perceived the same before and had told the Jews so For the Lord your God is God of Gods which regardeth not persons Deut. 10. 17. But S. Peter perceived it better then Moses For Moses did only see that God would not overvalue the Jew because of his being circumcised in the flesh if in his heart he remained uncircumcised But Saint Peter did moreover see and t is a wonder his Successors will not see it after him That God would not undervalue the Gentiles confining them all to the dictates and documents of one particular Church But that in every nation they who would fear him and work righteousness should be accepted with him Nor is this indefinite manner of speech he that feareth him a warrant for every Schismatick and Sectary to set up a new Church of his own making for such men do neither truly fear God because not in his Authority nor work righteousness because not according to his commands For if they work for righteousness in the first Table by renouncing superstition they work against righteousness in the Second Table by setting up sedition And working against righteousness in the second Table they cannot either truly or rightly work for righteousness in the first Table So saith Saint James who soever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2. 10. The reason is because he that can despise the authority of the Law-giver by a voluntary breach or violation of any one of his commandments cannot observe the rest out of duty or obedience for the same Authority commanding all requires the same duty and obedience to all And therefore he that willfully rejects but one embraceth the rest more out of conveniency then out of conscience more for his own then for Gods sake more for his self-interest then or his Saviours glory SECT V. That the certainty in true Christianity or the state thereof is from the Word and Spirit of Christ The uncertainty from our selves and of doubtings in good Christians concerning their state that some are by way of admiration others by way of infirmity but none by way of infidelity THE certainty that is in true Christianity or the state thereof is wholly from the word and Spirit of Christ the uncertainty is wholly from our selves For what shall we be sure of if not of our Religion What certainty can we have but of truth What truth can we have so certain as the truth of Christian Religion grounded upon the word of truth and testified by the spirit of truth Therefore doubtless the state of true Christianity cannot be capable of any doubt in it self but only in regard of us that profess to be Christians For Saint Paul tells the Colossians of a full assurance of understanding in the knowledge of Christ Colossians 2. 2 And Christian faith is in its own nature more sure and certain then any humane science whatsoever though in us it often hath a less proportion of certainty For Faith in it self looks wholly on Gods infallibility though in us it partake of and sympathize with mans infirmity Therefore the doubt the uncertainty is not in the Religion but in the professor of it T is not in the thing but in the person as for example t is without all doubt that true Christianity is to love Christ the doubt is only whether we that are Christians do truly love him But is it lawful for us to make this doubt of our selves who by our inordinate self-love have caused all the world besides to make it of us Doth not the Apostle bid us receive him that is weak in the faith not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14. 1. And shall we think he would have us oppress a weak faith in our own selves by doubting I answer out of Bonaventures words in 3. sent dist 25. Quod triplex est modus duâ—itandi Est enim quaedam dubitatio proveniens ex infidelitate sicut dubitaverunt Iudaei est dubitatio proveniens ex tarditate sicut dubitaverunt Discipuli quibus dicitur Lucae ultimo O stulti tardi corde ad credendum est dubitatio proveniens ex pietate sicut quam aliquis ex magna admiratione ad modum dubitantes se habet There is a threefold manner of doubting one that proceedeth from infidelity so the Jews doubted of Christ and of his Doctrine Another that proceedeth from infirmity so the two Disciples that went to Emmaus doubted of Christs Resurrection to whom it was therefore said O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke 24. 25. A third doubting there is that proceedeth from piety because of astonishment and admiration which makes a man to seem to doubt what he doth most stedfastly believe And such a doubting we read of in the blessed Virgin Then said Mary unto the Angel How shall this thing be seeing I
Partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. In his first list of titles he makes them much more then other men but in his Second he supposes them little less then God Christ as man communicating to his members the excellencies of his humanity making them a chosen a holy a peculiar people and as God communicating to them the excellencies of his Divinity making them partakers of the divine nature In capite tria possumus considerare saith Aqu. tertia par qu. 8. ar 1. Ordinem perfectionem virtutem we must consider in the Head these three things That it is the highest part in order The noblest part in perfection and the chiefest part in operation And so is Christ to be considered as Head of the Church 1. That he is the highest part in order for he is neerest the most high in whom alone men and angels are brought near unto God For the distance betwixt finite and infinite must needs be infinite The Angels then being finite no less then men are in the same parallel or equi-distance from infinity and cannot be Mediators to bring us unto God Only he that hath joined finite and infinite in one person can join them together by his mediation 2. That he is the noblest part in perfection because he alone had the fulness of Grace and truth all others have received from him and of his fulness have all we received John 1 16. Quo propinquius est receptivum causae influenti eò abundantius recipit The neerer that which receives the influence is to that which gives it the more plentifully it is supplied thus Astronomy teacheth us that the Moon in its conjunction with the Sun hath in truth more light in it self though in the opposition when it is farthest from the Sun it seem more enlightned in regard of us So the Soul of Christ received most Grace because it was neerest God the fountain and giver of grace as being joined to him in person whereas the spirits of the best men and Angels are joined to him only in affection and those are the best of either sort who are the neerest God in this conjunction 3. That he is the chiefest part in operation For as the virtue and motion â—f all other members dependeth on the Head So the vertue and motion of religious Souls dependeth on Christ Hence the Apostle is more willing to glory in his infirmities then we can be to glory in our supposed strength for t is but a supposed strength and that by an unlogicall much more by an untheological supposition which we do challenge to our selves without our Saviour t is a supposed strength by a supponis quod non est supponendum A man that supposeth himself to have strength from himself supposeth what is not to be be supposed logically because it is against reason much more theologically because it is against religion for he hath said without me you can do nothing Sine me nihil potestis facere John 15. 5. Nec mirum quia nec Deus sine ipso aliquid fecit saith Aquinas and t is no wonder if we can do nothing without him For God himself did nothing without him as appears John 1. 3. Sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est without him was not any thing made that was made Accordingly Saint Augustine tells us that by this saying our blessed Saviour hath instructed the hearts of the humble and stopped the mouths of the proud In quo corda instruit humilium ora obstruit superborum I had rather be one of the humble to have my heart instructed then one of the proud to have my mouth stopped and will therefore say unto my Saviour O Lord my strength and my redeemer Psal 19. 14. Or I will say of him I take pleasure in infirmities for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12. 10. that is though I am weak in my self yet I have a sufficient strength to glory in and to trust to being strong in my Saviour therefore let me follow Saint Pauls humility and say Most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me 2 Cor. 12. 9. Power is accounted matter of glory in the man who desireth to rely upon himself But Weakness is matter of glory in the Christian who desireth to rely wholly upon his Saviour Hence Saint Bernard Quis dabit mihi non solum infirmari sed destitui ac dificere penitus à memet ipso ut Domini virtutum virtute stabiliar Serm. 25. super Cant. O that I could be more and more in firme and defective even to a swowning fit in my self that I might be strengthned and revived by his power who is the Lord of power and strength He comes very neer Saint Pauls expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut tanquam in tabernaculo inhabitet in me virtus Christi That the power of Christ may rest in me as in a tabernacle not for the shortness of continuance or the uncertainty of abode that is in tabernacles for he could never have too much of Christs company but for the slenderness of entertainment that was used to be in them for he could never enough bewail his own unworthiness to entertain such a heavenly guest But this Communion with Christ as with our Head will be better understood from our Saviours own mouth who maketh a whole Sermon concerning it in the fore-quoted 15. Chapter of Saint John in the eleven first verses and we shall best learn this doctrine by considering the chief heads of that Sermon For therein our blessed Saviour sheweth us the nature the reasons the cause and the proofs or evidences of our Communion with him First The nature of this communion Abide in me and I in you v. 4. It is that whereby we abide in him and he in us as our own Church hath taught us to pray That we may evermore dwell in him and he in us we dwell in him by faith believing his promises by love obeying his commands and by desire hungring and thirsting after his presence He dwells in us by his spirit enlightning our understandings that we may believe inflaming our affections that we may love and satisfying our desires that we may delight and rejoyce in the presence of his Grace till we may be admitted to the presence of his Glory Secondly The reasons of this communion for although his command be enough to compell us yet he is pleased to use reasons to perswade us to have communion with himself And those reasons are five whereof four are positive arguments the fift is privative The first positive argument why we should communicate with our Saviour is our own Sanctification set forth by two words of Purging ver 2. and of cleansing v. 3. by abiding in him we are purged from the guilt and cleansed from the pollution of our
words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concord part agreement which are in effect so many pledges to us and testimonials to others of our internal communion with our blessed Saviour for that causeth us to have concord part and agreement with him Concord as being united with Christ in the same affections Part as being united with him in the same promises Agreement as being united with him in the same professions Wherefore this rule as it may increase our knowledge so it must increase our comfort as it may be for our instruction so it must be for our consolation that as far as we partake of Christ so far we communicate with him and as far as we communicate with Christ so far we partake of him If our participation of Christ be only external as is that of hypocrites who draw neer him with their lips but their heart is far from him who hear his Word and receive his Sacraments meerly for custom or for curiosity or for some other external consideration then is our communion with Christ only external and we only do help to make up that visible body whereof man is the Head But if our participation of Christ be internal as is that of good Christians who hear his Word and receive his Sacraments out of conscience that they may hear him speaking to them in his Word and find him nourishing them in his Sacraments then is our communion with Christ not only external but also and much rather internal and we do help make up that mystical body whereof Christ alone is the Head For t is our heart makes our Head as we are Christians if our heart be with man more then with God in our religion then man is our head in it but if our heart be with Christ more then with man in our religion then Christ is our Head in it And hence it comes to pass that some men are better Christians under a more corrupt then others are under a more incorrupt form of doctrine and discipline because it is not communion with the Church but with Christ in the Church that makes the good Christian He that looks more after Christ then after his Church in the profession of Christianity may haply be a good Christian in a bad Church for Christ is able to make him a good Christian without his Church nay indeed against it He that looks more after his Church then after Christ must needs be a bad Christian in a good Church for his Church cannot make him a good Christian without Christ Accordingly a man may be a better Christian in an unreformed Church if his religion be above his faction then in a reformed Church if his faction be above his religion and I had much rather have a Christian mind in an unchristian or antichristian Church then an unchristian mind in the purest Christian Church that is For though Christ be never so much in my Church yet that will do me no good unless he be also in my heart And if Christ be in my heart t is not my Churches being Antichristian or unchristian in some particulars which I do lament but cannot help that can drive him out of it or deprive me of the state and comfort of true Christianity T is sin if Christ be not in mine heart whiles I profess my self to be a Christian T is my misery if Christ be not in all the professions and practices of my Church by which I have been brought to Christianity Let me keep my self from being sinful by making sure of Christ in my heart and my God will keep me from being miserable because of some mistakes or defects of Christianity in my Church Saint Paul saith to the Corinthians but of him are ye in Christ Jesus notwithstanding at that time there was both heresie and schism in the Church of Corinth Heresie for some denied the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 12. Schism for some said they were of Paul others of Apollos others of Cephas 1 Cor. 1. 12. Their communion with a bad Church when they could not help it did not hinder their communion with Christ and their communion with Christ did make them partakers of Christ for he was made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. wisdom to direct them righteousness to acquit them sanctification to purge them and redemption to save them Thus was Christ made unto them either externally in his Word and Sacraments or internally in his Spirit and graces accordingly as they did communicate with him and participate of him If they brought only an outside to him they received only an outside from him such a wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption as did only shew them to be Christians not make them good Christians But if they brought their inner man to Christ he perfected their inner man by an internal communion with and participation of his wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Wherefore if our communion with Christ or participation of Christ be only external and not also internal we ought to quarrel with our selves not with our Church and much less with our God for without doubt God is faithful who offers us Christ by his Church in his word and Sacraments For is the Spirit of the Lord straitned do not his words do good to him that walketh uprightly Mich. 2. 7. is a question as unanswerable now as it was then and it is meerly from our own unfaithfulness if we receive not Christ when he is offered or retein him not when he is received SECT III. That our internal communion with Christ is through his Spirit and our faith which may not be a phansie or fiction much less a faction but a faith knowing by evidence approving by adherence applying by affection and working by practice That such a faith will make our communion with Christ real and substantial in the thing it self though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical THE union of two extreams is necessarily by some other third thing betwixt them both which brings the said extreams together and that in regard of Christ is his spirit which brings him down to us in regard of us is our faith which carries us up to Christ Both are alike required in our internal communion with Christ For though his Spirit be never so powerfully with his own ordinances that to resist the one is to resist the other as saith Saint Stephen ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. Yet if our faith be not with his Spirit we cannot have communion with him in his word For so is the same truth spoken by anothers mouth But the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Heb. 4. 2. Their not being profited was not for want of Gods Spirit with his word but for want of their faith with Gods Spirit The spirit was not is not wanting to
God calls his sons how shall we not call our brethren unless we will deny him to be our Father Whence it must follow that Christian communion is of as great a latitude or extent as is the Christian Church according to that of Saint Paul ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. Having said before ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus to shew they were of the same Christian Church he now saith ye are all one in Christ Jesus to shew they were also of the same Christian communion And this principle we may not gain-say if we will acknowledge the excellency of true Christian communion for it cannot be so excellent if it depend on man as if it depend on God if it depend on Christs Vicar as if it depend on Christ himself if it be confined to one party of Christians as if it be extended to all for undenyable is that rule in reason Bonum quo communius eo melius Every good the more common it is the better it is and much more undenyable is it in charity when it is applyed to our Christian Communion For it is against the nature of God to be under a restraint or a Monoply God the fountain of goodness is an universal good He is good unto all and every other good the more it partakes of his goodness the more it partakes of his universality and is the more diffusive of it self being good only to it self whiles it is not diffused and therefore diffusing it self that it may also be good to others Much more is this to be seen and confessed in the good of Christian Communion which is therefore good because it is a common good and may not be abridged of its Community without being also abridged of its goodness Saint Paul will have us if it be possible to live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. therefore much more with the best of men with Christians who have the name the word the image the Spirit of Christ with all men we must keep an external and civil but with Christians we must moreover maintain an internal and spiritual peace Our hand is bound to the good behaviour in regard of Christs enemies but our heart is so bound in regard of his servants We may not break the outward peace with those that persecute him much less may we break the inward peace with those that love him There is a great difference betwixt our Civil and our Christian conversation or communion The Civil depends upon the body and is accordingly confined to time and place but the Christian depends chiefly upon the soul and therefore may be extended as far as the souls apprehension and affection to know and to love the Truth Whence Saint John saith to that elect Lady Whom I love in the truth and not I only but also all they that have known the truth though they had not known her for the truths sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us for ever 2 John 1. 2. As far as truth and love do extend so far extends our Christian Communion the foundation whereof is truth the building whereof is love Communio spiritualis est in consensu vero vel interpretativo Spiritual communion consists either in an explicit or an implicit consent with other Christians Alensis par 2. qu. 161. m. 10. which as I may not afford to any Christians as they abide in errour so I may not deny to any Christians as they embrace the Truth For wherever the Truth is it calls for my interpretative or virtual consent not to deny or gain-say it and where I know it to be there it calls for my actual and explicit consent to love and follow it I may not turn Donatist to confine the spirit of truth nor may I turn Familist to confine the spirit of love For as it cannot be denyed but that the spirit breatheth where it listeth so it may not be disputed but I must love wheresoever the spirit is pleased to breath Either I must deny the spirit of Truth to breath upon all those Christians that are not of my profession or the spirit of love to breath upon me if I will not allow them to be of my Christian Communion So that I must first limit and confine the Catholick Church before I can limit and confine the Communion of Saints for as is the Church so is the communion if the one be Catholick the other is so too If I will make a particular Christian communion I must make a particular Christian Church and consequently make that two Articles of my Faith which Christ and his Apostles have made but one even The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints Saint John the beloved Disciple loved for the Truths sake and so must I where God hath not denyed his truth there may not I deny my love If there be such a Christian Church in the world which I cannot well love for its own sake yet even that Church must I love for the truth sake as far as it hath my Saviours Truth so far it must have my souls love And though that Church may most justly claim my love which hath most entirely Christs truth yet no Christian Church but may in some sort claim it since no Christian Church but hath Christs Truth by which it is made Christian Some have this truth mingled with many and gross errours but God forbid that the tares which the enemy hath sowed should make me out of love with that good seed which I know came from Christ himself For why should I be alwaies looking on the mote in my brothers eye and not rather see the beam in mine own To his own master he standeth or falleth and God is willing to make him stand why should I be willing to make him fall or to keep him down If I would look on the Christian not on the man I should account him a brother whom now I think an enemy for what he is in Christ is most amiable though not what is he in himself God looks on me in Christ to love me and why should not I so look on my Brother to love him Gods love in Christ towards me covers a multitude of my sins and why should not my love in the same Christ towards my Brother cover a few of his mistakes Sure I am my Saviour hath made Charity a necessary condition to the forgiveness of my sins and therefore I must willingly cover my brothers faults or I cannot hope that God will cover mine If I will needs lay open his miscarriages to my sight I shall but lay open mine own miscarriages to the sight of God for he that cursed Cham meerly for not covering will certainly never bless me only for discovering either my fathers or my brothers nakedness I cannot judge him but I shall bring my self into Judgement and therefore I must pass by his faults as I would have God to pass by mine This is
Roman Souldiers would not do but also his body raising factions and schisms in the Church not only against the decency and order which are as it were the coat or cloathing but also against the very substance of worship which is in some sort the body of Christ So then the Church may still in this regard claim and continue the power of Exorcism saying with Saint Paul I exhort or command you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ or we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth And if the evil spirit of Schism being thus adjured shall answer Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are yâ— making no more account of the Ministers of Christ then if they were indeed so many vagabond Jews it will shew it self not only a factious but also a lying spirit saying It knows Christ when it doth not know him They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. Such a lying spirit deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth which saith Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 5. shewing that the societies or corporations of Christians may no more take their spiritual food together without their ministers then other Corporations do usually take their corporal food without their Stewards I say such a lying spirit as this which pretends to know both Jesus and Paul but indeed knows neither deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth but by the spirit errour and indeed hath found such a confutation For Satan in this foul affront of Christ is devided against himself and one of his own most false and wicked spirits could not but say of Gods Stewards or Ministers These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. This truth when some men did gainsay after the father of lyes himself durst not deny could not dissemble it they gave occasion to Luther of falling into these bitter expressions As hitherto men have seemed possessed with Devils even so now the Devils themselves do seem to be possessed of far worse Devils and so rage above the fury of Devils and again For who ever heard to pass over the abominations of the Pope so many monsters to burst out at once in the world as we see at this day in the Anabaptists alone in whom Satan breatheth out as it were the last blast of his kingdom through horrible uproars as if he would by them suddenly not only destroy the whole world with Seditions but also by innumerable Sects swallow up and devour Christ wholly with his Church Prefat in Gal. So Luther in his zeal to Christ and his Church for he saw the one could not be devoured without the other he saw the Church could be thrown down but Christ would also be involved in the downfall Without doubt it is a most horrid sin for men to cry up the shadow that they may beat down the substance of the Law and yet this is the sin of many men who cry up the Sabbath in the Day that they may throw it down in the Duty making it their business to discountenance the solemn exercise of Religion in common Prayer to disadvantage Gods publike worship and service to disgrace his Ministers to defile his ordinances to revile and contemn and pollute his Sanctuaries whereas in truth these are all alike sanctified to the hallowing of Gods name by vertue of the fourth Commandment and if we will needs make a separation betwixt the letter and the end or reason of that commandment where God hath made a most strict conjunction we must give the pre-eminence and superiority not to the circumstances or adjuncts but to the substance of Religion The Jew in his typical worship was first to look after the Time the Place the Person as the Sabbath the Temple the Priest which were the adjuncts of his worship and then to offer his sacrifice which was the substance of it But the Christian in his moral worship is first to look after substance then after circumstances though he hath commission to neglect neither but rather hath express command to look after both Nay indeed the Jew himself was to do this in his moral worship even to prefer the Substance before the circumstance for we find that Ezra did read in the book of the Law and blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Ezra 8. 5 6. All these were acts of moral worship and accordingly we find them not confined to the Temple for its evident They were all performed before the Street that was before the water-gate verse 3. And it is as evident that the duties of Preaching and Praying were exercised by the Jews in their Synagogues whereas their sacrifices were offered only in the Temple The reason we may conceive was this Because their Typical worship was to continue but for a time and to shew it deserved not to continue for ever there was in it this kind of absurdity that the accessory did draw the Principal the Temple the Sacrifice the Circumstance the Substance But their moral worship was to continue for ever and therefore in that the Principall was to draw the accessories the substance the circumstances blessing the Lord the great God bowing the head and worshipping the Lord reading the Law and giving the sense of it that the People might understand the reading these being all duties of moral worship were unconfinable either to place or time either to the Temple or Sabbath to shew they were above them both and were to remain after them as they had been before them This was the main subject of Saint Stephens Sermon Acts 7. That Abraham and the Fathers worshipped God rightly long before Moses was born to give them any Laws either about the Tabernacle or the Temple and consequently about the Sabbath and that all those outward ceremonies which were afterwards ordained by Moses were to last but for a time but till the coming of Christ And the Jews themselves who call the Sabbath the foundation of the Decalogue because the precept of the sabbath was given before the rest for that was certainly given in the wilderness of Zin Exod. 16. where as the rest were not given till they came to Mount Sinai Exod. 20. yet do ingenuously confess that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath so saith Hospinian who yet was very zealous for the Sabbath Judaei ipsi in minori expositione in Genesin arbitrantur Abrahamum non observasse Sabbatum The Jews themselves in the lesser exposition upon Genesis do think that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath Nay the Fathers do plainly say they know he did not For Tertullian proves against the Jews that
men can establish a better Religion then Gods word hath established they cannot find they should not seek a better Church then such as most entirely professeth that Religion For a Church which hath the Religion God commands must needs have the Communion God approves This smal piece seeks to justifie such a Church and hopes to be the confirmation of your faith and not only the Account of mine Wherein I profess my self an Accountant not as a Politician but as a Divine For without doubt so many pious Ministers scandalous chiefly for this that they durst be true to their Oaths and to their Trust in such a perfidious and false age have not lost themselves for nothing in this present world But they have a good conscience to comfort them against their losses and a good cause to countenance them against the world However this can be no immodest assertion to say that he which values the Communion of his Church above his living is most likely to value the Religion of his Church above his life and God make me such a scandalous Minister For I may not forsake the true Christian Religion without being a againstâ—…y â—…y God nor the true Christian Communion without being a Separation from Him And if such a Religion and such a Communion be in the Church I seek to justifie I shall fall under the curse of Meroz if I do not my best to justifie it For this is not to come to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty Judges 5. 23. unless we ought rather to say they have lost their might by opposing the Lord who have lost their Innocency by opposing his Church If you be Unchristian you may perchance think I seek to justifie a Church that is not to be regarded If Antichristian A Church that is to be oppressed But if truly Christian you know I seek to justifie a Church which conscience doth bid you to regard and God doth forbid others to oppress A Church which doth most entirely set forth Gods glory without the falsities of a superstitious or the novelties of a factious worship and in that it doth most entirely set forth Gods glory it cannot but most entirely promote Mans salvation And this being the proper End of Religion is also the proper work of a Church which though it may be a company from the multitude of worshippers yet is it not a Communion but from the verity and unity of worship O thou who art the way the truth and the life the way for us to walk in the truth to direct our goings the life to reward us at our journeys end forgive us our many strayings out of thy way our fierce oppositions against thy truth that thou mayst give us the happy enjoyments of thy life O thou eternal Sun of righteousness who hast enlightned the Christian Church by thy Holy word and holy example and multiplied illuminations of thy holy Spirit be pleased also to enlighten our wandring souls that thy holy word may instruct us thy holy example may guide us thy holy Spirit may rule and govern us that we may not love darkness more then light because our deeds are evil But may love thee who hast given us thy heavenly light may love thy Church to whom thou hast given it may love thy Ministers by whom thou hast given it may love our own souls for which thou hast given it and dost still continue it So shall we be preserved from that inner darkness which will not see thee here and from that outer darkness which shall not see thee hereafter and also be preserved in the unity of thy Church to be ever with thee by a Holy Communion in Earth and by a blessed fruition in Heaven Amen Amen The Justification of the Church of England according to the true principles of Christian Religion and Communion consisting of three Chapters CAP. I. That the Church of England is Gods Trustee for the Christian Religion as to the people of this Nation SECT I. Christ delivered the trust of his Word and Sacraments to his Apostles they delivered the same to Bishops and Presbyters their Successors but the Apostles had an illimited their Successors have a limited trust The necessity of the succession of these Trustees to the worlds end yet is the succession of Doctrine more necessary then the succession of Persons DID Christian Churches more consider the obligation and the charge then the priviledges and the honour of being God's Trustees none of them would arrogantly claim much less tyrannically invade anothers trust But each would timorously undertake carefully manage and conscionably discharge her own T is evident that our blessed Saviour trusted all his Apostles equally with the teaching of his Word Administring his Sacraments and governing of his People because he gave to each Apostle an infallible Judgement and an illimited commission the one enabling the other authorizing each of them to guide and govern the whole world though for the better expediting of their work every one of them betook himself as it were to his own peculiar Diocess according to that of Paul For we stretch not our selves beyond our measure 1 Cor. 10. 14. But t is easie to distinguish betwixt their Power and their use of it For surely if we consider the Power only of each Apostle none of them by taking care of all Christian People could usurp anothers authority or intrude himself into anothers Trust Thus that commission and command given to Saint Peter immediately by and from our blessed Saviours own mouth Feed my sheep Feed my lambs John 21. though we suppose those sheep and lambs did comprize all Christs Flock that then was or ever should be which is as much as the words can bear and more then they do claim or will justifie yet even that large Commission taken in a larger sense then it was given was no supersedeas to Saint Paul for taking care of all the Churches 2 Cor. 11. 28. Instantia mea quotidiana solicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum He calleth the care of all Churches his daily instance that is his daily work and labour even in the Judgement of the Latine Church at the time of the Vulgar Translation For Saint Paul as well as Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles as well as Saint Paul had an universal commission to teach and baptize all Nations Mat. 28. and by consequent an universal Trust concerning all those Nations who should be taught and baptized for else they might both teach and baptize in vain And this universal trust he that commanded them to undertake enabled them to discharge for the holy Spirit of God leading every one of them into all truth fitted every one of them to lead all the world besides But we dare not say it was so with the successors of the Apostles For they neither had an infallible Judgement that they might have an illimited authority nor had they an illimited authority that they might
man in general neither as lame nor as blind nor as perverse nor as ignorant nor as false but an excellent creature made to know and enjoy his maker So though I see many defects and imperfections in particular Churches for in many things we offend all men and Churches too yet I consider the Catholick Church or the Church in general neither as defective nor as imperfect but as the body and Spouse of Christ holy and undefiled without spot called to the knowledge of God here in this world and to the enjoyment of him hereafter in the world to come And if all men would look more upon the perfections then upon the defects of the Churches wherein they live if they would rather look upon what Christ hath made them then what they have made themselves the world would be more given to devotion then now it is to disputes and would be more filled with Religion then it is now with faction For Christ is so well preached in every true Christian Church notwithstanding the great corruptions and divisions of Christendom that if he were but half so well practised we should most of us soon become very good Christians And truly we can scarce give a better reason why State policy and self-interest hath not generally corrupted the principles as it hath the Practise of Christians but only that those who sit in Moses his chair think themselves concerned in Moses his Trust which was this Thou shalt speak all that I command thee Exod. 7. 2. Hence it is they commonly speak as they ought though they seldom do as they speak their tongues are sanctified though not their lives they remain holy and innocent in their Functions though not in their Actions circumcised in their lips though uncircumcised in their hearts Their Persons unregenerated but their calling such as worketh regeneration Therefore said Truth himself concerning them Mat. 23. 3. All whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do for they speak with Moses but do not ye after their works for they say and do not they act with Jannes and Jambres They speak they teach according to their Trust but they act they do according to their lusts it being much easier to talk by Rule then to walk by it God often giving to his Ministers the grace of â—â—iâ—ication for his names sake that they may preserve his Truth when yet he denyeth them the grace of Regeneration for their own sakes because they will not obey his truth Gratia gratis data may be given to the calling when Gratia gratum faciens is denyed to the Person we find that God threatneth the wicked Priests saying I will curse your Blessings Mal. 2. 2. What is their Blessing but their calling and how is that cursed but when it is blessed to all men save only to themselves When the Ministers shall be like so many statues in a doubtful Road directing the travellers in the right way but themselves not moving therein at all The comparison is not much amiss For as it is not from the substance of the statue but from its office or employment that men are directed by it so is it also in the Ministers t is not from their persons but from their calling that they are so highly qualified as to be our guides to heaven And as men can make a stock so much more God can make a man discharge the office of a faithful guide And as the rottenness of the statue hinders not the soundness of its directions so a Minister that hath a false and a rotten heart may have a true and a sound mouth And as the traveller thanks not the statue for his good directions but those that set it there so we are not to thank such a Minister for his good directions but God that set him over us For if the efficacity and operation of a good Instrument be ascribed to the efficient cause then much more of a bad instrument And if such holy Apostles as Saint Peter and Saint John rebuked the amazed Jews after this manner Why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk Act. 3. 12. then we may be sure that when words of power or of truth proceed from the mouth of a wicked Caiaphas That he spake not this of himself but being High Priest that year he prophesied John 11. 51. And as Caiaphas though he was not a true man yet he was a true Prophet because in that respect he was Gods Trustee for the propagation of that truth which he then prophesied So is it still with many Christian Ministers and Churches as they are Gods Trustees for preserving and propagating the saving truths of the Gospel so they are enabled by his Spirit to discharge that Trust in so much that we may take it for granted that God hath entrusted them because we cannot deny but God hath enabled them For if he had not given them a Trust why should he either give them Authority to undertake it or ability to perform it Therefore since we cannot deny the Authority nor the Ability we may not deny the Trust And indeed the Trust is too palpable to be denyed by any that will not shut his eyes against the truth lest he should see it or that will not open his mouth against the truth that he may oppose it for so saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 9. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dispensatio mihi credita est I am entrusted with a dispensation sc of the Holy Gospel And t is evident he spake not this in regard of his person that the Trust should die with himself but in regard of his Calling to shew the same trust was to remain with his Successors for ever And if we will look upon all his Epistles we may there see accordingly that he hath derived this Trust to particular Churches after him that is to those Bishops and Presbyters that were set over the people For as the Epistles that were sent to the seven Churches of Asia were directed and sent to the Angels that is to the Bishops and Ministers of those Churches and not to the common people Apoc. 2. 3. So was it in all Saint Pauls Epistles they were sent not to the people but to the Ministers that were set over them God entrusting them with his saving Truth whom he had entrusted to bring others to salvation nor are we beholding to the Citizens of Rome or to the Burgers of Corinth but to the Ministry of both those Churches and of other Churches since them that we now enjoy the true Copies of Saint Pauls Epistles the like is to be said concerning all the other parts of the New Testament For as the Books of the Old Testament were known to have come from God because they were deposited in the Ark and committed to the custody of the Priests whence Damascene saith concerning the Wisdom of Solomon and of the son of Sirach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
it or potentially in our spiritual vote and desire though we live never so far from them And it is to be noted in Gods Method that he first makes provision for the Truth of his worship in the three first then afterwards for the publike exercise of it in the fourth Commandment he first takes care that we be not faulty in the object of our worship saying Thou shalt have no other Gods but me then not in the outward manner of it either in deed or in word not in deed saying Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image thou shalt not how down to them nor worship them not in word saying Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain After this order taken for the truth of his worship both in the object and in the manner then he proceeds to command the publick exercise thereof saying Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day Certainly this Method was not in vain but to shew that as the Truth was to go before the exercise so the exercise was to follow the Truths of Religion And therefore wheresoever the Church did worship God according to the dictates of the three first commandments there every man was bound to be a communicant with the Church by vertue of the fourth and not only by vertue of the fifth Commandment For Christian communion as an act of Religion belongs to the first though as an act of obedience it belong to the second Table Therefore if another man saith Our Father which art in heaven how shall I not say with him Hallowed be thy name Doth it beseem me to be angry with the Lords most holy prayer for his sake that saith it as if what Christs lips had sanctified his lips could prophane for my devotion Or can I be angry with any of Christs words wheresoever I find them and not be guilty of anger against Christ and against Christianity Is the love of my God to be over-ruled by the hatred of my neighbour or may I indeed hate my God for my neighbours sake who am bound to love mine enemy for Gods sake The argument then will proceed à minori ad majus that if I may not in a true worship deny my communion to a stranger much less to a brother if not to a brother then much less to a mother If not to one single Minister much less to a whole Church which God hath entrusted with his own worship and with my soul For if I must look on that particular Minister whom God hath set over me as one that directeth me in his worship by his authority then much more must I so look upon my Church which God first set over that Minister before he set that Minister over me And if every particular Minister amongst us would as conscionably acknowledge and as couragiously vindicate his Churches Trust as he confidently assumes and diligently performs his own we should soon have much less faction in the Church and much more Religion in the people SECT V. The Prince as the supream governour of the particular Church in his own Dominions is Gods Trustee concerning the outward exercise of Religion not to manage or perform but to propagate and to protect it The antient Divines acknowledged this Trust and the antient Princes discharged it and Princes were bound so to do because it is their right by the Law of nature and because without the discharge of this Trust there can neither be the face nor the order of Religion among any People IT was the singular providence of God to commit the care and trust of man in matters of Religion only to men for since the devil can transform himself into an Angel of light if in this case we had been entrusted with the Angels we might have been deluded by the Devils But now having a more sure word of prophesie then can be any voice from heaven whosoever be the speaker or the messenger 2 Pet. 1. 19. there is no true Christian Church but may with confidence and must with courage say unto the people committed to her Trust as Saint Paul said to the Galatians Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. God hath not trusted Angels but men with preaching his Gospel nor hath he trusted men to preach a new Gospel but that only which the Apostles at first preached and what he hath given some men spiritual power to preach that he hath given other men temporal power to maintain The Priest is to preach it the Prince is to maintain it and the same God who in the affairs of the body hath given his Angels charge over men hath in the affairs of the soul given men charge over Angels for though an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel yet neither might the Priest publish it nor the Prince protect it It being a priviledge of men above Angels since the eternal truth took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham that as Angels are the guardians of men so men should be the guardians of Gods truth And happily in this regard we find two sorts of men especially in the holy Scriptures called Angels to wit Kings and Priests because God hath most especially trusted them with his truth T is sure this reason is given why the King is so called 2 Sam. 14. 17. For as an Angel of God so is my Lord the King to discern good and bad And t is very probable the same reason is meant though it be not given why the Priests are so called Revel 2. For we find the Angels of those several Churches strictly examined if not severely blamed for the neglect of this Trust God hath made Kings and Priests guardians of his truth as he hath made the Angels guardians of our persons that we should admire his infinite power whereby he is able and adore his infinite goodness whereby he is willing not only to send down from heaven his Ministring Spirits but also to raise up from earth his Ministring flesh to be our guardian Angels Nor can we now without unthankfulness to God injury to the Truth and injustice if not uncharitableness to our selves deny either King or Priest his part in this guardianship And God he knows we have great need of both It hath been the Devils cheifest policy to sow seeds of jealousie and dissension between these two Trustees that so he might make himself the greater harvest either by depraving the purity or by disturbing the peace of Religion In some Churches the Priest hath almost expelled the King in other Churches the King hath almost expelled the Priest The one extending his spirituals even to temporals the other extending his temporals even to spirituals neither but cometh short of his duty whiles both go beyond their Trust God make both truly to see the danger and the burden of their own
be compelled unto his great supper Quâ—propter si potestate quam per Religionem ac fidem Regum tempore quo debuit divino munere accepit Ecclesia Hi qui inveniuntur in viis in sepibus i. e. in haeresibus Schismatibus coguntur intrare non quod coguntur reprehendant sed quo coguntur attendant Wherefore if those who are found in the High-ways and in the Hedges that is either amongst Hereticks or Schismaticks be constrained to enter into the Lords Vineyard by that power which the Church hath received by the goodness of God ever since Kings have received the Christian Faith Let them not find fault that they are as it were driven by force but let them consider whither it is they are driven even into those pastures where they may find true food and rest for their souls These are the chiefest of Saint Augustines arguments why Kings and Princes should interpose their power and authority in behalf of Religion to which may be added the inhumane barbarism of the Donatists who invaded Maximian an Orthodox Bishop of Africa and set upon him at the Altar and brake down the Altar that with the pieces of its wood for Altars were not then made of stone they might knock down the Bishop and after that they stabbed him with a punyard then dragged him on the ground and left him for dead But the dust having stopped the bleeding of his wounds there was still life in him and therefore they again took him away from those good Christians who were carrying him to a religious house for help and threw him down from a Turret so not doubting but they had at lest beat his breath quite out of his body if not his brains out of his head This was their cruelty against a pious and an Orthodox Bishop because he would not be of their party yet even this man thus in effect by them thrice killed was by the singular providence of God preserved and by the singular power of God again revived being stollen away in the night and carried to a religious house and so well recovered afterwards that he was able in his own person to make his complaint unto the Emperour and from him obtained the suppression of the Donatists which in time begat their conformity Hinc ergo factum est ut Imperator Religiosus ac pius perlatis in notitiam suam talibus causis mallet piissimis legibus istius impietatis errorem omnino corrigere eos qui contra Christum Christi signa portarent ad unitatem Catholicam torrendo coercendo redigere quà m saeviendi tantummodo auferre licentiam errandi ac pereundi relinquere Hence it came to pass that the Religious Emperour being informed of the whole matter did not only make Laws to suppress their violence that they should not mischief the Churches peace but also to command their obedience that they should submit to her commands and embrace her Communion as thinking it unworthy of his authority to deny his subjects power of destroying others but to leave them power of destroying themselves Thus did Saint Augustine plead for the power of Princes in maintaining the outward order of Religion and whereas he had once thought that only the spiritual power of the Word and not also the temporal power of the sword was to be used against Schismaticks He plainly recanted that opinion and left under his own hand a testimony of his recantation For so he hath written 2 Retract c. 5. Dixi in libro primo contra partem Donati Non mihi placere ullius saecularis potestatis impetu Schismaticos ad communionem violenter arctare verè mihi tunc non placebat quia nondum expertus eram vel quantum mali eorum auderet impunitas vel quantum eis in melius mutandis conferre posset diligentia disciplinae I said in my first book against the Donatists that I approved not their practice who did violently force Schismaticks to the Communion of the Church and truly when I writ that book I did not approve it for I had not then learned by experience neither how much the hope of impunity would make them the worse nor how much the fear of punishment would make them the better He had done what he could as a Divine to reclaim them for he had made an Alphabetical Psalm wherein he laid open their follies and impieties to all the people the Hypo-Psalm or burden of which Psalm to be repeated at the end of every new Period was this Omnes qui gaudetis de pace modo verum judicate All ye that love the peace now judge the truth u. Tom. 7. In this Psalm he complains much of their turbulency and violence whereby they dishonored Christ grieved his Spirit wounded his Church but they continued still like the deaf adder stopping their ears against the voice of the charmer though he charmed never so wisely wherefore when he saw they would not be reclaimed he desired they might be suppressed and began to be of a perswasion that it was the duty of the Civil Magistrate to suppress them And truly t is not imaginable that God hath given the power of the sword to Princes that they should use it against their own and not much rather against his enemies that they should punish those who dishonour their persons or disobey their commands and not much more those who dishonour and disobey the great God their Maker and Preserver from whom alone it is that either honour is due unto their persons or obedience is due unto their commands For God himself hath said Them that honour me I will honour and they that dispise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2. 30. The words werr spoken to Eli for not restraining the wickedness of his sons He had made a grave Sermon to them as a Priest but he had not inflicted severe punishments upon them as a Judge And because he had not punished them God resolves to punish him Nay to punish Religion for his sake thinking it more agreeable with his honour that his Ark should be captivated by Philistines then prophaned and defiled by Israelites We who have seen the same sins may justly fear we shall see the same confusion However we must pray that we may no more see the same sins or that we may see them severely punished That neither we may depart from our glory nor our glory may depart from us For surely there is a very great blessing in the meer outward face and practice of Religion and much more in the inward zeal and love of it This made King David so zealous to fetch the Ark of God from Kiriathjearim as himself professeth 1 Chron. 13. 3. Let us bring again the Ark of our God to us for we enquired not at it in the dayes of Saul He had been so long without the publick exercise of Religion because of the troubles which had befallen him and the whole Nation in the days of Saul that
once Frederick Duke of Saxonie cast upon the Lutherans Quid nunc credant benè novi quid autem anno sequenti credituri sunt prorsus ignoro Magal Praef. in Titum sec 3. annot 4. What they now believe I well know but what they will believe the next year I know not He might have said concerning our Changelings Nor they themselves For they changed grosly thrice in less then four years But this third Book was thought so compleat that some earnestly pressed to have the same allowed by publick Authority not with intent that there should be prescribed a set form of publick prayer mistake them not for they can endure none no not of their own making They that cannot agree as Christians to pray as Christ taught them will never agree as Brethren to pray as they shall teach one another But only to throw aside that set Form which was prescribed in the Common-Prayer Book For although they durst not be so outragiously impious as to make it their profession that they would have no set form of Prayer yet they were so impiously subdolous as to make it their design to have none And therefore though for a shew they had made some set Prayers yet they meant never to use them For in their Rubrick they still give themselves this liberty That the Minister shall pray thus or else to this same purpose as the Spirit of God shall move his heart So that the Minister is in truth left to himself which ought not to be because the Church or Ministry in general and not each Minister in particular is Gods Trustee for publick worship and the people are wholly left to the piety and discretion of their Minister which ought less to be because it is a ready way to bring Gods publick worship under the danger if not under the guilt of Impiety and Indiscretion For if the Minister conceiving a Prayer upon the sudden shall say the Spirit moved his heart to pray so and withall shall avouch his prayer to have been to the same purpose with that which was prescribed him though God may be justly offended with him for entitling his enormities to the Holy Ghost yet the people may not justly be offended with him for making use of his liberty though they have the greatest cause of just offence which can be given to any Christians even the loss of their Piety and the danger of their patience or to speak yet plainer even the reproach of their Communion and the scandal of their Religion SECT IX Reformation not to be pretended against Religion The abolishing of Liturgy no part of a true Reformation And that God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgy and that no Church ought to assume that Power because Liturgy directly tends to the keeping of the third and of the fourth Commandments TO do that open wickedness which immediately tends to the dishonour of Christ is no other then to smite Christ on the face but to do it under a disguise or fair pretence is indeed first to blind-fold him and then to strike him saying Prophesie who is it that smote thee And thus do all Hypocrites deal with Christ they do not only smite him but also deride him and for this reason it is that counterfeit holiness is a double wickedness because it not only forsakes God but also mocks him which consideration made Saint Paul so sharply reprove those of Corinth who made more account of some false Teachers who fed their phancies with vain pretences then of himself who had fed their souls with the true bread of life not that he greatly cared for their respect for he had learned in what estate soever to be content but that he greatly abominated their impiety who were then learning to take Phancie for Faith and by that means were indeed unlearning Christ Accordingly in his reproof he first insinuates their unthankfulness that they had fallen from him who had been the means of their conversion For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin unto Christ 2 Cor. 11. 2. Secondly their unadvisedness who took no greater care of their footing nor of their safety then to walk among Serpents to converse securely with most notorious impostors who lived as Serpents whiles they spake as Saints But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Vers 3. Do you look upon Eve as strangely sottish in taking a Serpent for her Company and much more for her Directorie then be ashamed of your own sottishness who have lent your ears and your hearts to such men who are as earthly minded as if with Serpents they were condemned to creep upon the ground and are as venemous as Serpents having such poison as can reach your souls and corrupt your minds from the simplicity that is in Christ Thirdly of their ungodliness that they had so received the Gospel of Christ as not to know it or so known it as not to regard it or so regarded it as not to retain it They had itching ears to be ever learning but dead hearts never to come to the knowledge of the Truth They went a gadding after new Preachers as if they could Preach another Jesus whom Saint Paul had not Preached or were led by a better Spirit in Preaching then had led him And this reproof is in the 4. Vers For if he that cometh sc from abroad to shew this mischief was from those without not from those within the Church as saith Saint Chrysost preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached or if ye receive another Spirit by his Sermons which ye have not received by ours or another Gospel from him which ye have not accepted from us ye might very well bear What his heart is too great for his mouth his mind is more then he can utter his anger is greater then he can express or their sin had been so great as to stop his mouth and to hinder his expression or at least their confutation was so plain their condemnation so evident as to need no more words that makes him say ye might very well bear but say no more leaving it to them to fill up the sense who had filled up the sin speaking the more by saying the less and shewing the power of his eloquence in the practise of his silence For now having only said ye might very well bear He hath left it to their own consciences to say the rest concerning their new Teachers so that if they looked back upon the foregoing words they must gather this for the Apostles meaning Ye might very well bear with their insolency their impudence their impetuousness their impertinency For it was their insolency their impudence to pretend they had another Gospel their impetuousness to preach it as if it had been another and their impertinency to preach it when it
it ought to be so ordered that Minister and People may as one man with one voice and with one heart Pray together not only in one company but also in one Communion And consequently the Gift of Prayer which is to be exercised in publick is that which God hath given to his Church in general and not that which he hath given to any of his Ministers in particularâ—…â—â—use the people cannot communicate in faith unless they 〈…〉 before-hand the terms of their communion For faith is grounded upon infallibility which now cannot be in the Persons and therefore must be in the Prayers and hence ariseth the necessity of a set form of publick Prayer that the People as well as the Priests may pray in faith in the same Congregation and not only one but also many several Congregations may constitute no more then one and the same Christian Communion For that Precept Let all things be done decently and in order was given to the whole Church of Corinth and with it a power of making publick Prayer as a Duty over-rule publick Prayer as a Gift For by the same reason that the Church hath power to regulate the gift of tongues it hath also power to regulate the gift of Prayer which is chiefly seated in the tongue and since unknown matter and form in Prayers is no less against the edification of the People as to praying in faith then an unknown dialect the Church may as justly prohibit the one as the other and the pretence of a Gift may in neither enervate the Churches prohibition Again The Church is bound to use her Gift of Tongues for the peoples good and why not also her Gift of Prayer and how can she use that Gift without making of a set form The same Church is entrusted with the ordering of Religion and how shall any Minister either presumptuously invade her Trust or contumaciously opppse her order Nay on the contrary every Minister is bound to submit his gifts to the order of the Church for so is Saint Pauls absolute determination The Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14. 32. that is The Spirits of the Prophets ought not to be refractory insolent and imperious but modest obedient and submiss not given to contention but compliance not to contradiction but condescention not despising others but submitting themselves For he that placed a Prophet above a private man hath placed that Prophet under the other Prophets Saint Chrysostom here observes the Apostle hath used four arguments together whereby to perswade Ministers to a Christian modesty and moderation in the publick use of their spiritual gifts 1. That the work of the Ministry will be as fully but more orderly discharged For ye may all prophesie one by one Vers 31. 2. That the Spirit will not be discontented or disparaged For the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets Vers 32. 3. That this is exactly according to the will of God For God is not the author of confusion but of peace Vers 33. 4. That this is exactly according to the general practise of the Church of God As in all Churches of the Saints Vers 33. He that will not be induced by these arguments to submit his gift to the Churches gift in the publick exercise of Devotion plainly sheweth that though he may have the Gift yet he hath not the Grace of the Spirit And indeed it is no wonder that these two should be divided for common gifts of the Spirit such as tend only to the edification of others and not to a mans own sanctification are often given without saving grace And such a gift we must acknowledge the Gift of Prayer considered precisely in it self because we doubt not but Judas had it as well as the rest of the Apostles and yet we dare not say that he had sanctifying Grace We must therefore distinguish between the Spirit and the Gift of Prayer The Spirit of prayer consisteth in an holy and firm attention in sanctified and enlarged affections and proceedeth wholly from the infusion of Grace But the gift of Prayer as this age is pleased to call it though without Gods warrant in the Text consisteth in the readiness of apprehension and the fitness of expression and proceedeth partly from the endowments of nature partly from the confidence of custom and partly from the acquisitions of industry For these three Nature Custom and Industry are all necessarily required to the attaining of that faculty whereby a man is enabled upon all occasional emergencies or necessities fittingly to express the desires of his heart and by fitting expressions to enflame and to enlarge those desires as well in himself as in those that hear him which I think will afford us the full definition of the Gift of prayer considered precisely in it self without the Spirit of prayer not only essentially but also causally For so the efficient cause thereof is nature custom and industry though nature and custom more then industry in so much that men of natural endowments and of personal confidences do often in this gift out-strip those of most industrious improvements whereby nature and custom are frequently animated to laugh and scorn at learning and industry The material cause thereof is occasional emergencies or necessities The formal cause thereof is readiness of apprehension and fitness of expression The final cause thereof is to enflame and enlarge the desires of the heart Tell me what can any true Israelite see in this Dagon of the Philistians that the Ark of God should fall down before it and not rather it should fall down before the Ark For all this while if the desires be truly good such as indeed ought to be enflamed or enlarged that is not to be ascribed to the Gift but only to the Spirit of Prayer So that in truth the Spirit of Prayer is as much above the Gift of Prayer as an holy affection is above a quick imagination or a voluble expression and a sanctified heart is above a ready wit or an elaborated tongue For these two I mean the Spirit and the Gift of Prayer must necessarily be separated because they are very dangerously confounded the common sort of people admiring these men as almost Angels who have the Gift without the Spirit and contemning those Ministers as scarce men who have the Spirit without the Gift For many good Christians have the Spirit of Prayer who have not the Gift of Prayer so saith Saint Paul The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings there 's the Spirit of Prayer but with groanings which cannot be uttered there is not the Gift of Prayer Rom. 8. 26. And on the other side many pernicious hypocrites may have the Gift of Prayer who have not the Spirit of Prayer so saith our blessed Saviour Woe unto you hypocrites who for a pretence make long Prayers Mat. 23. 14. And again Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied
in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Mat. 7. See here how Gifted men may be Hypocrites not only gifted for Praying Many will say unto me Lord Lord which repetition shews a familiarity they thought they had contracted with him by their frequent addresses in Prayer but also gifted for Preaching Have we not prophesied in thy name Nay gifted for casting out Devils out of others though not out of themselves And in thy name have cast out Devils And yet to these gifted men will our blessed Saviour return this answer I never knew you whence we may justly infer they never truly knew him Depart from me ye that work iniquity whence we may as justly infer that they did never really come near him by piety but only seemingly by hypocrisie God forbid but we should firmly believe and willingly confess that the Spirit and the Gift of Prayer though separated in Hypocrites are often joyned together in good Christians for in truth the gift of Prayer is not perfect and compleat so as to be worth the looking after without the Spirit of it For then only is the gift of Prayer compleat when not only natural abilities are improved by study or industry and personal abilities are acquired by art or exercise which two alone do properly constitute the very essence of the Gift of Prayer But also the heart is sanctified by Grace which properly belongs only to the Spirit of Prayer so that in truth the Gift of prayer which makes all the noise is perfected only by the Spirit of Prayer which saith nothing or speaketh so softly that none can hear its voice but he that searcheth the hearts and knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit Rom. 8. 27. The word of the mind Verbum mentis may be without the word of the mouth Verbum oris So Hannah continued praying before the Lord and yet she spake in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was not heard 1 Sam. 1. 13 14. So Moses cryed unto the Lord when yet he did not speak nor so much as move his lips Exod. 14. 15 Again the word of the mouth may be without the word of the mind for they must needs make many words who make many prayers and yet they could not be said to utter one prayer from their hearts to whom God did say When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Isa 1. 15. For when the Text hath set this down as a proper compellation of God O thou that hearest prayer Psal 65. 2. it is most evident that from his saying he would not hear we may safely conclude they did not Pray though they did make never so many prayers But we will suppose such a gifted man as hath the compleat gift of prayer that is the Spirit and the Gift of Prayer both together yet even such a man is not thereby qualified to be the mouth of others in publick Assemblies because publick prayer is to have a publick Person to perform it And none can be a publick Person in Gods service but whom God himself hath made so by some notorious and undoubted Commission such as others are bound to acknowledge and therefore bound not to usurp For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain but they most take his name in vain who speak in his name without his allowance They are most properly said to take his name because he hath not given it and to take it in vain because they take it rather to serve themselves then to serve him 'T is all one for strange Persons to offer themselves before the Lord instead of the sons of Aaron and for the sons of Aaron to offer strange fire before the Lord instead of that from his own Altar for of both alike it may be said which he commanded them not Numb 10. 1. and for both alike it hath been said And they dyed before the Lord Ver. 2. and again This is it that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified Ver. 3. If he be not sanctified in them that come nigh him he is not like to be glorified before all the people If the Priests be unsanctified the Lord will be unglorified for his Majesty will be contemned as if it were lawful for any that are not sanctified to come nigh him Therefore his Priests were first sanctified to the Priesthood then sanctified by it They were first sanctified by being called then sanctified by their calling And so ought their successors to be till the worlds end for it is an universal negative which denies as well for all times as for all persons No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5. 4. Now Aaron was called not only internally to satisfie himself but also externally to satisfie all the Congregation that he was called of God For God is the God of order not of confusion and consequently forbids those men to officiate as his Ministers though of never so great abilities whom he hath not outwardly called to the Ministry For he will have order not confusion in his Church whereas if any one might officiate in the Ministry upon any pretence whatsoever without Gods outward call others might as well as he and so we must needs have an irremediable confusion both in the Ministers and in their ministrations Dares any man to be a Princes Ambassador though most able to do him service without his appointment But the Ministers are Gods Ambassadors 2 Cor. 5. 20. There needs no variety of arguments in this case for till earthly Potentates shall declare it to be no rebellion against themselves for men to turn uncommissioned souldiers under pretence of fighting their battles they must acknowledge it to be grand rebellion against the King of heaven for men to turn uncommissioned Ministers under pretence of doing him service For Saint Paul having said The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10. 4. hath in effect told us that the Minister is Gods souldier and therefore is sure of his Commission But let us further examine this gift of Prayer in relation to the publick worship of God and as we find no just reason to admit them to the work of the Ministry who are not Ministers because they have that gift so we shall find no just reason to reject those that are true Ministers as insufficient or unfit for the work of the Ministry because they have it not nor to allow such Ministers who have it to reject the set forms established and approved by the Church
yet thou oughtest to dread his infinite Majesty How much more now that he is in heaven above thee so high as to overlook thee to over-top thee to over power thee Thus the reason is enforced from Gods Majesty Again were he on earth with thee yet thou oughtest to consider and admire his transcendent purity for he is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity of purer ears then to hear it of purer heart then to regard it and consequently of purer hands then not to punish it How much more now that he is in heaven the proper place of purities of pure persons of pure actions and of pure affections and thou on earth where persons and actions and affections are all unclean and impure Thus the reason is enforced from Gods purity If thou art not afraid because of his Majesty yet thou mayst be ashamed because of his purity that the word either of thy mind or of thy mouth should be injudicious or indeliberate for that is not agreeable with the purity of reason and much less with the purity of Religion Therefore let thy words be few such as have been weighed in the ballance of the sanctury before they be presented in it as an offering to that holy One whose holiness doth not only inhabit the sanctuary but also doth sanctifie it And this reason doth our Saviour himself intimate unto us not only from the shortness of his own most holy prayer but also from the introduction of it Our Father which art in heaven as if he had said God is in heaven thou art on earth therefore let thy words be few Surely this Text which was given of purpose to prevent vanities in Divine service according to the judgement of our Church as appears by the contents had need be blâ—…ed out of Gods word and out of mans heart that the world may contentedly give up Liturgy to Enthusiasm that is proper and deliberate prayers fit to engage holy affections and to express holy desires for extravagant and extemporary effusions such as are commonly improper but alwayes indeliberate if not in regard of the Minister yet surely in regard of the people who yet notwithstanding ought no more to take the truth and goodness of their Religion upon the Ministers word then to rely for the practice of it upon his righteousness or to expect the reward of it from his salvation SECT XII Set forms and conceived prayers compared together That set forms do better remedy all inconvâ—niences and more establish the conscience are not guilty of wil-worship nor of quenching the spirit nor of superstitious fromalities and that it is less dangerous if not more Christian to discountenance the gift then the spirit of prayer HE that considers the great distance of God and man the excellencies of his makers glory the miseries of his own infirmity the impertinencies and alienations of his thoughts which may as well put him out in his own as put him by in his Churches prayers the multiplicity of his imperfections the treacherousness of his memory the slowness of his apprehension the dulness of his affections will heartily bless God for providing him premeditated forms as a remedy and will carefully watch himself lest he should turn his remedy into a disease by adding to all the rest the deadness of his own heart So that all those inconveniences art not only better prevented but also better remedied by set forms then by conceived prayers Mens phansies may be elevated by extemporary effusions but their consciences are best edified by known Prayers and t is not for us to invite men to serve God with their phansies but with their consciences By the manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 4. 2. not by the pretence of Revelations commending our selves to every mans curiosity in the sight of the World That 's the ready way to bring men first to weak imaginations then to strong delusions first to beleive any thing then to believe a lye first to receive matters of Religion without judgement then to receive matters of irreligion against conscience But let us hear both parties speak for themselves against one another They say our set forms float in generalities we say their no forms rove in uncertainties both must confess that generalities in matters of Christianity may concern all Christians but uncertainties may concern none at all They say we are guilty of wil-worship in making set forms of prayer without order of the Text we say that we have Gods own express order for set forms 1. by several dictates of the Text partieularly Luk. 11. 1. Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples and t is not be doubted but he taught his Disciples to pray by a set form as teaching either their eyes or their ears but not being able to teach their hearts by several forms in the Text particularly the Psalms of which the Divine Areopagite hath said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. S. Dionys lib. de Eccl. Hier. cap. 3. The most holy writings of the Divine hymns do wholly aim at this that they may celebrate all the holy words and all the holy works of God and shall we think they do not teach and require Gods Church after their example to celebrate the same words and works 3. By the general drift and scope of the Text For God having given us a written word for the rule of our Religion hath by the same reason enjoyned us a written word for the practice of it since there is as great a necessity that we should have a certainty of practice as a certainty of knowledge in things belonging to our salvation so that our Enthusiasts ought to appeal to unknown traditions for the rule of their Religion before they ought to obtrude unknown imaginations for the practice of it However let all the world judge whether wil-worship can possibly be in using a Religion of Gods and not rather of mans making They say we quench the spirit but we know we inflame him because approved and known prayers do most warm judicious affections and we doubt not but the spirit assisteth a man in his Judgement or reason which he hath only as a man rather then in his phansie or apprehension which he hath common with a beast For as the spirit assisteth Angels by revelation because they know by intuition so he assisteth men by deliberation because they know by Reason and by discourse They say we are given to superstitious formalities because we desire a set form of Prayer we advise them not to be given to irreligious blasphemies in casting reproaches upon formed prayers which were at first of Gods own making in his holy Word and are still of his making not of ours if they be agreeable to his Word For all truth whosoever speaketh it is from the Spirit of Truth and therefore to blaspheme the Truth is to blaspheme the Spirit And the question will
the eternal Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen Christ glorified in his Ascention The Prooeme That our blessed Saviours Ascention is not so truly observed by our commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the History of his Ascention THere is no blessing of Christ but imposeth upon a Christian the necessity of commemorating it and withall affords him exceeding great joy in its commemoration if he so observe it with other Christians as also to imitate it with good Christians For at Saint Luke gives a full definition of Christs Gospel when he calleth it a Treatise of those things which Jesus did do and teach Acts 1. 1. as if he had said A Book that containeth Christs sayings and doings so may we give this definition of a true Gospeller or of a good Christian He is a lively representer of the sayings and doings of Christ of the sayings of Christ by his profession of the doings of Christ by his practise and imitation For that man alone hath a true faith in the Passion Resurrection and Ascention of Christ who sheweth his faith by his works dying with Christ that he may live to him rising with Christ that he may live with him and ascending to Christ that he may live in him who sheweth his faith in Christs Cross by crucifying his own sinful lusts in Christs resurrection by rising to newness of life and in Christs ascention by ascending thither in heart and mind whiher his Saviour is gone before him Thus did the holy Apostles follow their Master with their eyes and with their hearts when they could not follow him with their bodies They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up Acts 1. 10. Surely the more to fix their hearts on him when he was above And so must we too we must go up with him thither that we may tarry with him there accordingly as Christs own Church hath taught us to pray Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do believe thine only begotten Son our Lord to have ascended into the heavens so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend and with him continually dwell who liveth and raigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end which is such an heavenly prayer That we are infinitely bound to bless God for putting it into our devotions but yet more bound to beseech him that he will also put it into our lives and conversations For which cause I will enlarge my considerations concerning the ascention of our blessed Saviour And as Binius in setting down that vast and voluminous Council of Ephesus digesteth his work into three Tomes in the first tome reciting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts before the Council in the second Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done in the Council in the third Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done after the Council So will I consider the history of our blessed Saviours Ascention first insisting upon those things which are recorded before it His apparitions his instructions his consolations and his benedictions Secondly insisting upon those things which are recorded concerning the manner of his ascending And lastly insisting upon that one thing which is recorded of him after he was ascended viz. his sitting at the right hand of God And I have warrant enough so to do from the two Pen-men of that very History For Saint Mark describeth the Ascention with reference to Christs Apparitions upon the very day of his resurrection though that was full fourty daies before he ascended for so we read Mar. 16. 14. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided their unbelief and hardness of heart which apparition was clearly on the very day of his Resurrection unless we will say that unbelief and hardness of heart remained in the Apostles when it scarce remained in any of the other Disciples for he had appeared unto them no less then five several times on that very day for the confirmation of their faith And yet without any mention of more apparitions it followeth v. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven But Saint Luke describeth the Ascention with the sending down of the Holy Ghost which was not till ten daies after our Saviour Christ was actually ascended as appears Acts 1. 8 9. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you And when he had spoken these things he was taken up The Ascention is so placed in the narrations of these Evangelists as both to look backward to the Feast of Easter and forward to the Feast of Pentecost To look backward upon the Resurrection of God the Son to look forward upon the Descention of God the Holy Ghost Happily to teach all Christians That they must first arise from sin before they can ascend up to God there 's the Resurrection before the Ascention And that they must ascend up to God before they can receive the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit there 's the Ascention before the coming of the Holy Ghost However this is ground enough for me to look a little backward and a little forward in my considerations of the Ascention because the Evangelists have thus related it with its antecedent apparitions and words and with its consequent exaltation or sitting on the right hand of God CAP. I. Christ Considered before his Ascention SECT I. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions IT is much to be observed That since in the Gospel are mentioned but ten apparitions of Christ between his Resurrection and his Ascention yet no less then five of them are recorded on the very day of his Resurrection For he appeared five several times to several persons on that same day which Durand would perswade us the Latine Church did intimate in her very Church musick of that day singing that Invitatory Hymn The Lord is risen indeed in the fift musical tone Et est quinti toni propter quinque apparitiones Domini in ill◠die saith he This Anthymne Surrexit Dominus verè The Lord is risen indeed is sung in the fift Tone because the Lord appeared five times on that very day This is an elegant way of teaching mysteries by musical tones somewhat above that gross invention of turning pictures into Lay-mens books but yet whatsoever is to be said of the musick we are sure the thing it self is consonant to the Truth For our blessed Saviour did appear five several times on the very day of his resurrection that as soon as he had raised his own body from the Grave he might raise his Apostles souls from incredulity and prepare them to receive those Heavenly doctrines pertaining to the kingdom of God concerning which he resolved to speak with them