Repentance Men know they must repent but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own Affairs what they will not part with that is not necessary to be parted with and they will repent but not restore they will say nollem factum they wish they had never done it but since it is done you must give them leave to rejoice in their purchase they will ask forgiveness of God but they sooner forgive themselves and suppose that God is of their mind If you tye them to hard terms your Doctrine is not to be understood or it is but one Doctors Opinion and therefore they will fairly take their leave and get them another Teacher What makes these evil these dangerous and desperate Doctrines not the obscurity of the thing but the cloud upon the heart for say you what you will He that hears must be the Expounder and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passionately loves And so it comes to pass that as Rabbi Moses observed that God for the greatest Sin imposed the least Oblation as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry for a woman accused of Adultery a Barly-Cake so do most men they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling with a pretended little insignificant repentance God indeed did so that the cheapness of the Oblation might teach them to hope for pardon not from the Ceremony but from a severe internal repentance But men take any argument to lessen their repentances that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates and that Repentance may be nothing but a word and Mortification signifie nothing against their pleasures but be a term of Art only fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit but nothing relative to Practice or the Extermination of their sin So that it is no wonder we understand so little of Religion it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him so neither does he believe it he cannot he will not understand it And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride the Church hath extremely suffered by it in many ages Ariâ—s missed a Bishoprick and therefore turned Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the story he disturbed and shaked the Church for he did not understand this Truth That the peace of the Church was better than the satisfaction of his person or the promoting his foolish Opinion And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors and they do not see what they can read every day that it is a sin to speak evil of Dignities A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth ehe Ordinance of God and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure that they thought it lawful to fight against their King A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gainsaying of Corah who rose up against the high Priest were in a very sad condition and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gainsaying of Corah and think they do very well that they are the Godly party and the good people of God Why what 's the matter In the world there can be nothing plainer than these words Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers it is as plainly said there is no power but of God all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation these are over you in the Lord and yet men will not understand these plain things they deny to do their notorious duty and yet believe they are in the right and if they sometimes obey for wrath they oftner disobey for Conscience sake Where is the fault The words are plain the duty is certain the Book lies open but alas it is Sealed within that is men have eyes and will not see ears and will not hear But the wonder is the less for we know when God said to Jonas doest thou well to be angry he answered God to his face I do well to be angry even unto the death Let God declare his mind never so plainly if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is within their open love to their secret sin they may kill an Apostle and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service they may disturb Kingdoms and break the peace of a well-ordered Church and rise up against their Fathers and be cruel to their Brethren and stir up the people to Sedition and all this with a cold stomach and a hot liver with a hard heart and a tender Conscience with humble carriage and a proud spirit For thus men hate Repentance because they scorn to confess an Error they will not return to Peace and Truth because they fear to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened they are afraid to be good lest they should confess they have formerly done amiss and he that observes how much evil is done and how many Heresies are risen and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride may easily conclude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God unless he first learn to be humble But Obedite intelligetis saith the Prophet obey and be humble leave the foolish affections of sin and then ye shall understand That 's the first particular All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God 2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world 2 Cor. 3. 14. S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veil upon the hearts of the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament they looked for a Temporal Prince to be their Messias and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages and so long as that veil was there they could not see and they would not accept the poor despised Jesus For the things of the world besides that they entangle one another and make much business and spend much time they also take up the attentions of a mans mind and spend his faculties and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a separation from the things of the body if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom Had not he lost his labour that would have discoursed wisely to Apicius and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World the abstractions of the Soul and its
appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul when he does evil he must suffer evil but if he does not repent besides a worse thing will happen to him for we are not tyed to obey only for wrath but also for Conscience Passive Obedience is only the correspondent of wrath but it is the active Obedience that is required by Conscience and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault it matters nothing as to his Duty but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority I have now told you the sum of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government and it will be to little purpose to make Laws in matter of Religion or in any thing else if the end of it be that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no and if it be questioned whether you be deceived or no though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your Authority yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right than that the disobedient Subject is because you are conducted with a publick spirit you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of Gods assistance you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation you have the Scriptures and the Laws you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your Consultations you are the most concerned for Peace and to please God also is your biggest interest and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis the presumption of truth ought to be on your side and since this is the most likely way for Truth and the most certain way for Peace you are to insist in this and it is not possible to find a better I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle but because I have no more time of mine own and I will not take any of yours I shall only do it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory and so conclude God hath put a Royal Mantle and fastned it with a Golden Clasp upon the shoulder of the KING and he hath given you the Judges Robe the King holds the Scepter and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball and to take it a while into your handling and make Obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the rest you cannot reasonably expect that the Subjects should obey you unless you obey God I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty though in that also it would be considered that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons and what we are to do in the matters of Doctrine you are also to do in the matters of Laws what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion is also the best Method for the advantages of Government we must preach by our good example and you must govern by it and your good example in observing the Laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of Union and of Government for as now you have a new Power so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty 1. Take care that all your Power and your Consels be employed in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness Then you obey God in your publick capacity when by holy Laws and wise Administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious people For then you are Princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alienae said Ammianus Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life see that God be obeyed take care that the breach of the Laws of God may not be unpunished The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good Servants of God Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity let Lust find a publick shame let the Sons of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God than the meanest of the people shall let baseness be basely esteemed that is put such Characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes that it be esteemed more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk than to be kicked more shame to fornicate than to be caned and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin unless he be a person of quality Optimus est reipublicae status ubi nihil deest nisi licentia pereundi In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things where every thing can be had but a leave to sin a licence to be undone 2. As God is thus to be obeyed and you are to take care that he be so God also must be honoured by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings and the ministeries of your Religion For certain it is this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted be not discouraged For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak and so long as you make Religion your care and Holiness your measure you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities unless they be Ecclesiastical but that they may be reviled and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief yet Sacrilege is no dishonour and indeed to be an Oppressor is a
uttered but that the best of us are overtaken sometime through blindness sometime through hastiness sometime through impatience sometime through other passions of the mind whereunto God knows we are too subject That I find by true experience the best way of Learning and Peace is that which cures all these evils as far as in the World they are curable and that is the waies of Holiness which are therefore the best and only way of Truth In Disputations there is no end and but very little advantage but the way of godliness hath in it no Error and no Doubtfulness By this therefore I hoped best to applie the Counsel of the Wise man Stand thou fast in thy sure Understanding in the way and knowledg of the Lord and have but one manner of word and follow the word of peace and righteousness I have reason to be confident that they who desired me to publish this Discourse will make use of it and find benefit by it and if any others do so too both they and I shall still more and more give God all thanks and praise and glory Via Intelligentiae SERM. VI. John VII 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self THE Ancients in their Mythological Learning tell us that when Jupiter espyed the Men of the World striving for Truth and pulling her in pieces to secure her to themselves he sent Mercury down amongst them and he with his usual Arts dressed Error up in the Imagery of Truth and thrust her into the Croud and so left them to contend still and though then by Contention men were sure to get but little Truth yet they were as earnest as ever and lost Peace too in their Importune contentions for the very Image of Truth And this indeed is no wonder but when Truth and Peace are brought into the world together and bound up in the same bundle of life when we are taught a Religion by the Prince of Peace who is the Truth it self to see men Contending for this Truth to the breach of that Peace and when men fall out to see that they should make Christianity their Theme that is one of the greatest wonders in the World For Christianity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soft and gentle Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was brought into the World to soften the asperities of humane nature and to cure the Barbarities of evil men and the Contentions of the passionate The Eagle seeing her breast wounded and espying the Arrow that hurt her to be feathered cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feathered Nation is destroyed by their own Feathers That is a Christian fighting and wrangling with a Christian and indeed that 's very sad but wrangling about Peace too that Peace it self should be the argument of a War that 's unnatural and if it were not that there are many who are homines multae religionis nullius penè pietatis Men of much Religion and little Godliness it would not be that there should be so many quarrels in and concerning that Religion which is wholly made up of Truth and Peace and was sent amongst us to reconcile the hearts of men when they were tempted to uncharitableness by any other unhappy argument Disputation cures no Vice but kindles a great many and makes Passion evaporate into sin and though men esteem it Learning yet it is the most useless Learning in the World When Eudamidas the Son of Archidamas heard old Xenocrates disputing about Wisdom he asked very soberly If the old man be yet disputing and enquiring concerning Wisdom what time will he have to make use of it Christianity is all for practice and so much time as is spent in quarrels about it is a diminution to its Interest men enquire so much what it is that they have but little time left to be Christians I remember a saying of Erasmus that when he first read the New Testament with fear and a good mind with a purpose to understand it and obey it he found it very useful very pleasant but when afterwards he fell on reading the vast differences of Commentaries then he understood it less than he did before then he began not to understand it For indeed the Truths of God are best dressed in the plain Culture and simplicity of the Spirit but the Truths that men commonly teach are like the reflexions of a Multiplying-glass for one piece of good money you shall have forty that are phantastical and it is forty to one if your finger hit upon the right Men have wearied themselves in the dark having been amused with false fires and instead of going home have wandred all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in untroden unsafe uneasie wayes but have not found out what their Soul desires But therefore since we are so miserable and are in error and have wandred very far we must do as wandring Travellers use to do go back just to that place from whence they wandred and begin upon a new account Let us go to the Truth it self to Christ and he will tell us an easie way of ending all our Quarrels For we shall find Christianity to be the easiest and the hardest thing in the World it is like a secret in Arithmetick infinitely hard till it be found out by a right operation and then it is so plain we wonder we did not understand it earlier Christ's way of finding out of Truth is by doing the will of God We will try that by and by if possible we may find that easie and certain in the mean time let us consider what wayes men have propounded to find out Truth and upon the foundation of that to establish Peace in Christendom 1. That there is but one true way is agreed upon and therefore almost every Church of one denomination that lives under Government propounds to you a Systeme or collective Body of Articles and tells you that 's the true Religion and they are the Church and the peculiar people of God like Brutus and Cassius of whom one sayes Vbicunque ipsi essent praetexebant esse rempublicam they supposed themselves were the Common-wealth and these are the Church and out of this Church they will hardly allow salvation But of this there can be no end for divide the Church into Twenty parts and in what part soever your lot falls you and your party are damned by the other Nineteen and men on all hands almost keep their own Proselytes by affrighting them with the fearful Sermons of Damnation but in the mean time here is no security to them that are not able to judge for themselves and no Peace for them that are 2. Others cast about to cure this evil and conclude that it must be done by submission to an infallible Guide this must do it or nothing and this is the way of the Church of Rome Follow but the Pope and his
Clergy and you are safe at least as safe as their warrant can make you Indeed this were a very good way if it were a way at all but it is none for this can never end our Controversies not only because the greatest Controversies are about this Infallible Guide but also because 1. We cannot find that there is upon Earth any such Guide at all 2. We do not find it necessary that there should 3. We find that they who pretend to be this infallible Guide are themselves infinitely deceived 4. That they do not believe themselves to be Infallible whatever they say to us because they do not put an end to all their own Questions that trouble them 5. Because they have no peace but what is constrained by force and Government 6. And lastly because if there were such a Guide we should fail of Truth by many other causes for it may be that Guide would not do his duty or we are fallible Followers of this infallible Leader or we should not understand his meaning at all times or we should be perverse at some times or something as bad because we all confess that God is an Infallible Guide and that some way or other he does teach us sufficiently and yet it does come to pass by our faults that we are as far to seek for Peace and Truth as ever 3. Some very wise men finding this to fail have undertaken to reconcile the differences of Christendom by a way of moderation Thus they have projected to reconcile the Papists and the Lutherans the Lutherans and the Calvinists the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants and project that each side should abate of their asperities and pare away something of their propositions and joyn in Common terms and phrases of Accommodation each of them sparing somthing and promising they shall have a great deal of peace for the exchange of a little of their opinion This was the way of Cassander Modrevius Andreas Frisius Erasmus Spalato Grotius and indeed of Charles the Fifth in part but something more heartily of Ferdinand the Second This device produced the conferences at Poissy at Montpellier at Ratisbon at the Hague at many places more and what was the event of these Their parties when their Delegates returned either disclamed their Moderation or their respective Princes had some other ends to serve or they permitted the Meetings upon uncertain hopes and a tryal if any good might come or it may be they were both in the wrong and their mutual abatement was nothing but a mutual quitting of what they could not get and the shaking hands of false friends or it may be it was all of it nothing but Hypocrisie and Arts of Craftiness and like Lucian's man every one could be a man and a Pestle when he pleased And the Councel of Trent though under another cover made use of the artifice but made the secret manifest and common for at this day the Jesuits in the Questions de auxiliis Divinae gratiae have prevailed with the Dominicans to use their expressions and yet they think they still keep the sentence of their own Order From hence can succeed nothing but folly and a phantastick peace This is but the skinning of an old sore it will break out upon all occasions 4. Others who understand things beyond the common rate observing that many of our Controversies and peevish wranglings are kept up by the ill stating of the Question endeavour to declare things wisely and make the matter intelligible and the words clear hoping by this means to cut off all disputes Indeed this is a very good way so far as it can go and would prevail very much if all men were wise and would consent to those statings and would not fall out upon the main enquiry when it were well stated but we find by a sad experience that few Questions are well stated and when they are they are not consented to and when they are agreed on by both sides that they are well stated it is nothing else but a drawing up the Armies in Battalia with great skill and discipline the next thing they do is they thrust their Swords into one anothers sides 5. What remedy after all this Some other good men have propounded one way yet but that is a way of Peace rather than Truth and that is that all Opinions should be tolerated and none persecuted and then all the world will be at peace Indeed this relies upon a great reasonableness not only because Opinions cannot be forced but because if men receive no hurt it is to be hoped they will do none But we find that this alone will not do it For besides that all men are not so just as not to do any Injury for some men begin the evil besides this I say there are very many men amongst us who are not content that you permit them for they will not permit you but rule over your Faith and say that their way is not only true but necessary and therefore the Truth of God is at stake and all indifference and moderation is carnal Wisdom and want of Zeal for God nay more than so they preach for Toleration when themselves are under the rod who when they got the rod into their own hands thought Toleration it self to be Intolerable Thus do the Papists and thus the Calvinists and for their Cruelty they pretend Charity They will indeed force you to come in but it is in true Zeal for your Soul and if they do you violence it is no more than if they pull your Arm out of joint when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River and if you complain it is no more to be regarded than the out-cries of Children against their Rulers or sick men against Physitians But as to the thing it self the truth is it is better in Contemplation than Practice for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it and it can never satisfie for the infinite disorders happening in the Government the scandal to Religion the secret dangers to publick Societies the growth of Heresie the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Laws and the Government So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted it is certainly true they ought not But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affairs of Kingdoms it is also as certain they ought not to be made publick and permitted And what is now to be done must Truth be for ever in the dark and the World for ever be divided and Societies disturbed and Governments weakned and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncertain Opinions and the Pedantry of talking men Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth But the way hath not yet
Reward of pregnant Wits and hard Study he was remov'd into York-shire where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he hapned to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order whom he so much worsted in the Conference and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth represented wisely and learnedly that the famous Primate of York Archbishop Matthews a learned and an excellent Prelate and a most worthy Preacher hearing of that Triumph sent for him and made him his Chaplain in whose Service he continued till the death of the Primate but in that time had given so much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs that he grew dear to his Master In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York and then of Rippon the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean he managed the Affairs of that Church so well that he soon acquired a greater fame and entred into the possession of many hearts and admiration to those many more that knew him There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher and by his Wisdom Eloquence and Deportment so gain'd the affections of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of that Country that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough and was so kind as to give them a Visit so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him their joyful Reception of him their great Caressing of him when he was there their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop their trouble at his Departure their unwillingness to let him go away gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust or Lucius Quinctius at the Plough his low Fortune cover'd a most valuable person till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York whom we all knew for his great Excellencies and his great but glorious Misfortunes This rare Person espied the great Abilities of Doctor Bramhall and made him his Chaplain and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit Instrument to serve in that design which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church The Complaints were many the Abuses great the Causes of the Church vastly numerous but as fast as they were brought in so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall who by his indefatigable Pains great Sagacity perpetual Watchfulness daily and hourly Consultations reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition than they had been left in by the schismatical Principles of some and the unjust Prepossessions of others for many years before For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform and did so that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church which by pretended Offices false Informations Fee-farms at contemptible Rents and ungodly Alienations were made low as Poverty it self and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar or the noblest purposes of Religion For Hospitality decayed and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would and they complained but for a long time had no helper till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests and as admirable Abilities as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vice-gerents and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his Skill was great for the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious Memory it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of Derry which he not only adorned with an excellent Spirit and a wise Government but did more than double the Revenue not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands But his care was beyond his Diocese and his zeal broke out to warm all his Brethren and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King James the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate then Bishop of Derry by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct brought in divers Impropriations cancelled many unjust Alienations and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable I say much more tolerable for though he raised them above contempt yet they were not near to envy but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity so Judas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment and so Dionysius told the Priest when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer And for ever since the Church by Gods blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes and Pious Nobility hath been endowed with fair Revenues inim icus homo the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away Gods portion from the Church as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God was their King and Moses his Lieutenant and things were of his management he was pleased by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever That Men as they love God at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests For when himself did it he not only gave the 48 Cities with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way and yet the whole Country was but 140 miles long or thereabouts from Dan to Beersheba but beside this they had the Tithe of all encrease the first Fruits Offerings Vows Redemptions and in short they had 24 sorts of Dues as Buxtorf relates and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble or else as the nature of the thing required brought to the Temple the first to make it more profitable and the second to declare that they received it not from the people but from God not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi which was not the 40th part of the People as the Scripture computes them
of false Doctrines for above all things this is to be taken care of 1. Although every place of Scripture hath a literal sense either proper or figurative yet every one hath not a spiritual and mystical interpretation and g. Origen was blam'd by the Ancients for forming all into spirit and mystery one place was reserv'd to punish that folly Thus the followers of the Family of love and the Quakers expound all the Articles of our Faith all the hopes of a Christian all the stories of Christ into such a clancular and retir'd sense as if they had no meaning by the letter but were only an Hieroglyphick or a Phythagorean Scheme and not to be opened but by a private key which every man pretends to be borrowed from the Spirit of God though made in the forges here below To which purposes the Epistles of S. Hierom to Avitus to Pammachius and Oceanus are worth your reading In this case men do as he said of Origen Ingenii sui acumina putant esse Ecclesiae Sacramenta Every man believes God meant as he intended and so he will obtrude his own dreams instead of Sacraments g. 2. Whoever will draw spiritual senses from any History of the Old or New Testament must first allow the literal sense or else he will soon deny an Article of necessary belief A story is never the less true because it is intended to profit as well as to please and the narrative may well establish or insinuate a precept and instruct with pleasure but if because there is a Jewel in the golden Cabinet you will throw away the inclosure and deny the story that you may look out a mystical sense we shall leave it arbitrary for any man to believe or disbelieve what story he please and Eve shall not be made of the rib of Adam and the Garden of Eden shall be no more then the Hesperides and the story of Jonas a well dress'd fable and I have seen all the Revelation of S. John turn'd into a moral Commentary in which every person can signifie any proposition or any virtue according as his fancy chimes This is too much and therefore comes not from a good principle 3. In Moral Precepts in Rules of Polity and Oeconomy there is no other sense to be inquired after but what they bear upon the face for he that thinks it necessary to turn them into some further spiritual meaning supposes that it is a disparagement to the Spirit of God to take care of Governments or that the duties of Princes and Masters are no great Concerns or not operative to eternal felicity or that God does not provide for temporal advantages for if these things be worthy Concerns and if God hath taken care of all our Good and if godliness be profitable to all things and hath the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come there is no necessity to pass on to more abstruse senses when the literal and proper hath also in it instrumentality enough towards very great spiritual purposes God takes care for servants yea for Oxen and all the beasts of the field and the letter of the Command enjoyning us to use them with mercy hath in it an advantage even upon the spirit and whole frame of a mans soul and g. let no man tear those Scriptures to other meanings beyond their own intentions and provisions In these cases a spiritual sense is not to be inquired after 4. If the letter of the story inferres any undecency or contradiction then it is necessary that a spiritual or mystical sense be thought of but never else is it necessary It may in other cases be useful when it does advantage to holiness and may be safely us'd if us'd modestly but because this spiritual or mystical interpretation when it is not necessary cannot be certainly prov'd but relies upon fancy or at most some light inducement no such interpretation can be us'd as an argument to prove an Article of Faith nor relied upon in matters of necessary Concern The three measures of meal in the Gospel are but an ill argument to prove the Blessed and Eternal Trinity and it may be the three Angels that came to Abraham will signifie no more than the two that came to Lot or the single one to Manoah or S. John this Divine Mystery relies upon a more sure foundation and he makes it unsure that causes it to lean upon an unexpounded vision that was sent to other purposes Non esse contentiosis infidelibus sensibus ingerendum said S. Austin of the Book of Genesis Searching for Articles of Faith in the by-paths and corners of secret places leads not to faith but to infidelity and by making the foundations unsure causes the Articles to be questioned I remember that Agricola in his Book de animalibus subterraneis tells of a certain kind of spirits that use to converse in Mines and trouble the poor Labourers They dig mettals they cleanse they cast they melt they separate they joyn the Ore but when they are gone the men find just nothing done not one step of their work set forward So it is in the Books and Expositions of many men They study they argue they expound they confute they reprove they open secrets and make new discoveries and when you turn the bottom upwards up starts nothing no man is the wiser no man is instructed no truth discover'd no proposition clear'd nothing is alter'd but that much labour and much time is lost and this is manifest in nothing more than in Books of Contrversie and in mystical Expositions of Scripture Quaerunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen Like Isidore who in contemplation of a Pen observ'd that the nib of it was divided into two but yet the whole body remain'd one Credo propter mysterium he found a knack in it and thought it was a mystery Concerning which I shall need to say no more but that they are safe when they are necessary and they are useful when they teach better and they are good when they do good but this is so seldom and so by chance that oftentimes if a man be taught truth he is taught it by a lying Master it is like being cur'd by a good witch an evil spirit hath an hand in it and if there be not errour and illusion in such interpretations there is very seldom any certainty What shall I do to my vineyard said God Isai. 5. Auferam sepem ejus I will take away the hedge that is custodiam Angelorum saith the gloss the custody of their Angel guardians and Isai. 9. God says Manasseh humeros suos comedit Manasseh hath devour'd his own shoulders that is gubernatores dimovit say the Doctors hath remov'd his Governours his Princes and his Priests it is a sad complaint 't is true but what it means is the Question but although these senses are pious and may be us'd for illustration and the prettiness of discourse yet