continuance for herein Gamaliel spake as the oracle of God if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought Acts 5. 38. If the counsel be to serve our own ends the work is so to and then both counsel and work are of men of perverse and refractory men and being of men it will come to nought and God forbid but so it should All this while here is a certainty of nothing but onely of the good seed It is most sure the seed which God sowes is good and yet neither hypocrites nor profane nor perverse men are fully assured of its goodness because they have but an assurance of speculation not of affection such an assurance as swims onely in the brain to convince them by way of information not such an assurance as sinks down into the heart to convert them by way of reformation making them out of love with their own errours much less by way of confirmation making them really in love with Gods truth for this latter assurance belongs onely to those who follow St Peters advice laying aside all malice or wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is against the profane persons and all guile and hypocrisies that is against the hypocrites and envies and evil speakings that is against the perverse as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby 1 S. Pet. 2. 1 2. not grow rich or powerfull or honorable in this world but grow pious and religious and devout prepared for a better world for such men only receive that heavenly seed in good ground which is like to bring forth encrease such men only receive the word in an honest and a good heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a heart that is honest and free from hypocrisie in a heart that is good and free from wickedness that will not let the man be profane in a heart that is good and free from refractoriness that will not let the man be perverse for even Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 requires a man to be good in all these three respects without hypocrisie in his intention without profaneness in his action without perverseness in his affection and therefore surely Christs school will not admit of any other scholar and if any other scholar be admitted he will be but little benefitted by his learning for he that doth not thus receive the word of grace hath not yet tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 S. Pet. 2. 3. Nor is it requisite here to insist upon the impediment of ignorance amongst us who say we live in the sun-shine of the Gospel and that our eyes are open to see more then all our fathers before us or all our neighbours about us or all our brethren with us for in truth we cannot justly complain of ignorance whom God hath so effectually called to the knowledge of his truth and faith in him by placing us in a Church which is able to protest with St. Paul and indeed every true Christian Church being the grand Apostle of its nation ought to make good this Apostolical protestation Ye know how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and have taught you publickly testifying repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 20. 21 22. I say we cannot justly complain of ignorance who have our eyes open to see the truth but we may and must complain of our detestable unthankfulness which hath filled us with hypocrisie and profaneness and perversness but especially with perversness for whiles our eyes are open our hearts are shut shut faster then the iron gate that lead unto the city was shut against St Peter because we generally defie those whom God hath called his Angels Apoc. 1. 20. for whiles they did go along with us and we with them the iron gate which leadeth unto the City of God the true Jerusalem did open to us of its own accord like Acts 12. 10. we had no difficulty in Religion which we were not able to conquer But now we have gotten very many difficulties which we shall never be able to subdue till we have conquered that which caused them all our own perversness Indeed we have gotten almost as many Religions as men and yet as many difficulties as Religions for having turned our Jerusalem into Babel God hath justly divided our languages and which yet is far worse hath also divided our minds that since we would not all speak the same thing we should not be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement 1 Cor. 1. 10. so far are we now from enjoying Gods blessing because we have been far from obeying his command for the command hath not the weaker obligation because it is uttered by way of benediction but ought rather to have the stronger influence Rom. 15. 5 6. Now the God of all patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We would not glorifie God with one mouth when we were thereunto called and now we cannot glorifie him with one minde that it is more then evident whiles we have pretended to thrust out the Papist we have let in the Atheist and that in the most dangerous kind of Atheism if we be not overcome by it but the most damnable if we be the perverse Atheisme For it is a misery which may be lamented but cannot be denied that though all the world cannot make one and the same person more then one man yet he may make himself no less then three Atheists an Atheist in his Understanding by not knowing God an Atheist in his Will and Affections by not loving and regarding him and an Atheist in his Life and Conversation by not honouring and obeying him The first you may call the ignorant or blind Atheist the second the perverse the third the profane Atheist the heathen had most of the ignorant but the Christian hath most of the perverse and of the profane Atheist and if you will ask which of these two is the worser there is no Divine but must be unwilling to answer you because he cannot be willing to countenance either but yet you may take this observation in part of payment till you have a fuller answer to discharge the reckoning That our blessed Saviour whiles he lived on the earth converted many Publicans and sinners which were in the number of profane but very few Pharisees and hypocrites which were in the number of perverse Atheists CHAP. 3. Of the Substance and the Exercise of Religion and the difference betwixt them in regard of the Authority Certainty and Immutability THere are two substantial parts of the Christian Religion The first is conversant in the knowledge The second in the worship of God in Christ so that the substance of the Christian Religion
which he doth continually defile with with his intemperances and uncleanness And this truth being granted which is not to be denied and scarce to be disputed it must needs follow that 't is impossible there should be an absolute infallibility of Faith in any man till there be in him an absolute impeccabilitie of life for from the corruption in manners will proceed the corruption in doctrine and from corruption in doctrine corruption in manners so that the doctrine cannot be the form and the duty the matter of Religion since the false doctrine corrupts the duty and the defective duty corrupts or depraves the doctrine and we must allow the substance of Religion to be altogether incorruptible and because there can be in it no corruption 't is evident there is in it no Physical composition Secondly There is in Religion no Logical composition ex subjecto accidente for no part of it but is substantial and essential Faith can no more save without good works then good works can be without faith It seems the man had faith who came running to kneel to our blessed Saviour and to ask him What he should do to inherit eternal life sure a better faith then any of our Solifidians have who neither run nor kneel nor ask yet our Saviours answer is Thou knowest the commandments S. Mark 10. He saith not Thou knowest the faith in Christ and yet without doubt he included it but so it is Christ himself teaching us to go to heaven by obedience doth plainly shew there can be no true faith without it and Bona opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem is a most pernicious blasphemous doctrine though Amsdortius broach'd it out of zeal to the doctrine of Justification by faith in Christ and out of opposition to the merit of condignity in good works for 't is not the right way to build up faith by pulling down obedience since the Apostle himself telleth us that the truth of the Gospel was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16. 26. and 't is evident that faith it self is an act of obedience and a duty enjoyned in the first commandment so that we cannot take away faith from obedience but we must take away obedience from the first and great commandment that most requires it which will not be so much as good Judaisme and therefore sure cannot be good Christianity for the Jews did of purpose in their doctrine as it were entangle the commandments one with another to shew that one could not be violated alone and that our obedience was alike due to all therefore did they teach that the preface I am the Lord thy God was directly on the other side answered by the sixth commandment Thou shalt do no murder for he that kills a man destroys the image of God The first commandment it self Thou shalt have no other gods but me was directly answered by the seventh Thou shalt not commit adultery for idolatrie is a spiritual fornication The third for it seems they looked on the second as included in the first Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain was answered by the eighth Thou shalt not steal for he that will be a thief will not stick to forswear himself The fourth Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day was answered by the ninth Thou shalt not bear false witness for he that will not keep the sabbath doth bear false witness of God that he did not rest on the seventh day The fifth Honour thy father and thy mother was answered and as it were seconded by the tenth Thou shalt not covet for he that gives the reins to his concupiscence shall beget a son that shall dishonour and disobey him Salomom Iarchi in Cantic cap. 4. v. 5. Thus did they make one commandment not onely as a second to vindicate and avenge but also as a principle champion to fortifie and strengthen another that we should pay the readier obedience to them all for they did not this to confound our dutie towards God and our duty towards our neighbour but to shew that though these several duties might be distinguished yet they might not be divided nor separated for that no one commandment of the Moral Law was accidental but all alike substantial in that obedience which God doth now require and will hereafter reward so that there is no composition of Subject and Accident in Religion Thirdly and lastly There is in Religion no Metaphysical composition ex actu potentia of act and power for though this Metaphysical composition is in the Angels yet 't is not in Religion 'T is in the Angels for they have not all their essence and perfection together but as it were successively some after other so that in this respect Religion hath a prerogative above the Angels and therefore may not stoop down so low as to worship them for that hath its whole perfection altogether the Old the New Testament differing onely in modo not in re for the same Faith Hope and Charity saved Abraham that still saveth us and hence it is evident that all is either superstition of faction which cannot consist and be maintained without addition to the text the onely rule of Religion though it pretend not to be addition but onely exposition or declaration As for example When Christ hath said Drink ye all of this that the Laity or Clergy not administring are not bound to drink of it may pretend to be a declaration of the Church Ecclesia declarat nullo divino praecepto Laicos aut Clericos non conficientes ad bibendum obligari Concil Trid. Sess. 21. cap. 1. but it is indeed a depravation of the truth by way of addition Again when God hath said Thou sh'alt not worship any graven image for any man to say Thou shalt not worship the graven image of Venus or Bacchus or Jupiter but thou mayst worship the image of Christ and of the saints seems to be a declaration but is indeed a down right depravation by way of addition and yet this is the fleight whereby Baronius endeavours to elude the second commandment and why may not we as well say Thou shalt not kill that is Thou shalt not kill a Romane Catholick but thou mayst kill an heretick Thou shalt not steal that is Thou shalt not assault or invade the property of a brother one of the godly party but thou mayst of one that is a malignant or a reprobate and yet not be guilty of stealing In a word to instance in the fifth commandment which hath been alike trampled upon by the two grand factions of Christendome Honour thy father and thy mother saith God that is If he be not an heretick saith the one side for then he may be excommunicated deposed and killed If he be not a reprobate saith the other side for then he may be dishonoured and disobeyed and destroyed for having no share in grace he hath no right to
trembling but as we have out-passed those ten Lepers in our uncleanness so we may not come short of them in their holy fear and faith for as their fear made them stand afar off so their faith made them lift up their voices and say Jesus Master have mercy on us S. Luc. 17. 12 13. then will he give us such a purity as will not onely make us shew our selves to the Priest but also to our God such a purity as will wash our eyes to see him and much more our hearts to love him for so saith S. Peter Act. 15. 9. purisying their hearts by faith not a faith which costs the purse no alms the body no fasting the soul no praying for no true Israelite will ever offer that unto the Lord which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. but a faith which so purifies the soul by knowing the truth as much more by obeying it for so saith the same Apostle Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 S. Pet. 1. 22. this is the purity of the true Religion it purifies the soul not onely by faith but also by obedience and by love which yet are now generally farthest from many men who would fain be thought to come nearest Purity Thus we have seen Gods truth in his understanding his goodness in his will and his purity in his action it still remains that we consider his Liberty as belonging to them all for Liberty being nothing else but the dominion and power of action must needs be originally in the understanding which alone is able to judge and deliberate of what is to be done what not formally in the will which resolves to do or not to do but effectually 't is onely in the action which is the product of the said deliberate resolution this liberty is now briefly to be handled First as it is in God and then as it is in Religion for being the service of God Gods Liberty is seen in five respects in that he is free from sin free from misery free from obligation free from servitude and free from coaction which is the reason that he can both will and do what and when and where himself pleaseth I need not insist on the proof of these for to name them is to prove them nor can any man deny Gods Liberty in any of these respects but he must deny him to be God and in all these same respects we may see and must acknowlege the Liberty of Religion and to deny it to be free in any of these is to deny it to be Religion that is to say the service of God and to make it to be state policy that is to say the service of men First Religion is free from sin for the superstition and faction and profaneness and other sins that are so rife among Christians to the dishonour of Christ and the reproach of Christendome is a rust that cleaves to the men who are little better then iron not to the Religion which is as pure as the Refiners fire and therefore it is not safe nor fit to say of any order or kinde of Christians that their Religion is rebellion and their faith is faction though we cannot deny of too too many orders and kindes of men who profess Religion that they are both rebellious and factious Secondly Religion is free from misery ask the three children in the fiery furnace they will say their Religion had made them persecuted they will not say that it had made them miserable they profess that they were delivered into the hands of lawless enemies most hatefull apostates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning sure those of their own brethren which had renounced the Law of Moses and their Religion and helped the Babylonians to persecute and infest Jerusalem and to an unjust King and the most wicked in all the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus those blessed Martyrs will tell you they were in persecution the greatest that ever was but they will not tell you they were in misery nay it seems they told the quite contrary for none else could have told it but from their mouths that the angel of the Lord came down into the oven and smote the flame of fire and made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind but you will say these men were partial witnesses in their own cause therefore ask their persecutors they will tell you the same for the Princes Governours and Captains and the Kings Counsellours being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power nor was an hair of their head singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed on them nay ask Nebuchadnezzar himself who was the authour of the persecution and he will tell you that though he had caused these holy men to be so much afflicted yet he could not cause them to be miserable for at that instant when he had thought they had been burnt to ashes he heard them sing in the flames as saith the Greek Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that probably made him look about to see whence that melody proceeded and finding so sweet a breath to come from the blast of his fire he was astonied and rose up in haste and went to the mouth of the furnace which before bade him keep his distance in that it consumed his officers and called forth the holy and blessed Martyrs who having been delivered from a present death could not be looked on but as men newly risen from the dead Thirdly Religion is free from obligation there is no greater humane obligation then that of nature and there is no greater natural obligation then that which we owe to our Parents yet that may not be alledged to keep us from serving God so Aquinas determines the case Si ergo cultus parentum abstrahat nos a cultu Dei non jam esset pietatis parentum insistere cultui contra Deum ideo in tali casu dimittinda sunt officia pietatis in parentes propter divinum Religionis cultum 22 ae qu. 101. art 4. If our duty to our Parents take us away from our duty to our God as if the Father should command his son to turn rebel or Idolater or the like we must forsake our parents and cleave to God and shew the prevalency of that duty we owe to God by being undutifull to our parents in such a case again there is no civil obligation greater then that we owe to our Governours yet if they command us to sin against God by not speaking nor teaching by not praying nor preaching in the Name of Iesus we have our answer put into our mouths and God put it into our hearts lest atheism get possession there in stead of Christ whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
offend many of those that manifestly oppose the truth and immortally injure their brethren by turning them out of the road of salvation to look after some new by-paths no less doubtfull then perilous for if St. Paul did wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9. 3. then none that takes upon him St. Pauls calling but is bound to have so much of St. Pauls zeal as to think the salvation of souls his greatest blessing and to make it his chiefest aim and he that doth the one will certainly do the other and consequently not regard the causless displeasure of many if he may take the right course to save but one and without doubt this doctrine doth immediately tend to the salvation of all which adviseth men to take heed of hypocrisie in professing Religion and of apostacy in renouncing it or of schisme in receding from it for schisme is a particular apostacy even as a apostacy is a general schisme For the onely way to be assured of our future communion with God in happiness is to be assured of our present communion with God in holiness and we cannot be assured of communion with the Father of lights unless we walk as children of the light It is in effect St. Iohns argumentation 1 Epist. c. 1. v. 5 6 7. He that saith he hath communion with God must walk in the light But all we that profess our selves Christians do say we have communion with God in and by our Saviour Christ Therefore we must all walk in the light We that do profess our selves Christians as we do say that we have communion or fellowship one with another so we do much more say that we have communion with God not inviting men to our civil but to our Christian communion and unless we make good that saying we cannot make good our own Christian profession for he that hath communion with Christ hath communion with the Son of God and he that hath the Son hath the Father also 1 Joh. 2. 23. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father therefore Turks and Infidels and Antitrinitarians do not worship the same God with us Orthodox Christians but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also therefore Orthodox Christians in having Christ are sure they have communion with God For although these latter words He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also be not in the Greek originals either of Greek or Latine Church for which cause they are by our Interpreters inserted in different characters from the text who did not desire to follow Beza where Beza did not follow the Church yet they are in the Vulgar Latine and are owned by Clemens of Alexandria in his comment upon this Epistle as it is recorded in Bibliothecâ Patrum and also by the Syrus Interpres and indeed are in effect owned by the Spirit of God himself for that they are virtually included in the former words by the rule of Contrariety or Opposition for by the same reason that whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father it is most undoubtedly true that whosoever confesseth the Son hath the Father therefore all our labour must be that we may have the Son for in having him we are sure to have the Father And this is the grand doctrine of all the New Testament this is the main Gospel-truth that the Apostles maintained against all sorts of gainsayers in their time and they have left us their writings that we should also maintain it unto the worlds end That the Christian Religion is the only way to eternal salvation This their doctrine was strongly opposed in their days by four sorts of men 1. By the Gentiles not yet converted for they still maintained their heathenisme 2. By the Jews not yet converted for they still maintained their Judaisme 3. By the Jews not fully converted for they still maintained a mixture of Judaisme with Christianity they mingled together the Jewish and the Christian Religion 4. By the Christians converted but withal partly perverted for they brought in untrue professions and ungodly practises into their Christianity they corrupted and depraved the Christian Religion and the Apostles were accordingly very carefull as to confute these heresies so also to confirm and establish the contrary truth whence it is that all their writings are wholly taken up either in those confutations or in this confirmation For though the truth it felf is but one yet the controversies concerning it were no less then four and the Apostles thought it necessary not only to establish the truth in it self that it might appear truth but also to establish it in our hearts that it might appear truth to us that is truth without controversie not only a mystery of Godliness but also a manifest and confessed mystery 1. Tim. 3. 16. Wherefore it will not be amiss for us to see the state of the several Controversies that so we may the more clearly see the more firmly embrace the more constantly profess the truth The state of the first Controversie which the Apostles had with the Gentiles consisted of these two questions First whether there were a life everlasting to be looked for after this life Secondly whether that life everlasting were to be obtained by continuing in the idolatry of the heathen or by turning to the Religion of the Christians And in both these questions the truth of the Christian Religion is declared or rather demonstrated against the heathenish superstition out of the principles of natural reason and that truth summ'd up by St. Paul 1 Thes. 1. 9 10. How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come There is a resurrection from the dead therefore the soul dies not with the body but lives eternally and this eternal life is not to be gotten by serving Idols but by serving the living and true God and there is no serving him but by waiting for his Son from heaven Thus was the Christian Religion justified against Heathenisme which afforded the first Controversie The state of the second Controversie which the Apostles had with the Jews not converted consisted but of this one Question Whether eternal life and salvation was to be obtained by the Jewish or by the Christian Religion And we finde the Apostles still proving out of the Old Testament the Ground of the Jews Religion and so acknowledged by themselves without the least doubt or contradiction that salvation was not to be had by Moses but by Christ so S. Peter in his several Sermons Acts 2. and 3. and 4. Christus Messias that Christ was the Messias the Saviour of the world is the subject of them all This he proves Acts 2. for that he had given the holy Ghost and was risen from the dead and both his proofs are out of the Old
was alwaies thus from the beginning and must be to the end so that the Apostles did many things by way of Condescention to the Iews which they would not have drawn to the countenancing of Iudaisine for that they intended no Galemofry of Religion no mixture of Iudaisme and Christianity but an utter abolition of Iudaisme and an absolute establishment of Christianity though the abolition of Iudaisme was to be brought to pass not in an instant but by degrees Ut cum honore mater Synagoga sepeliretur as S. Augustine speaks that their mother Synagogue might be laid in her grave with honour and without offence And thus was the Christian Religion justified against the mixture of Judaisme which afforded the third Controversie The state of the fourth Controversie which che Apostles had with the Christians converted but withal partly perverted consisted of as many questions as there were present errours against the truth or abuses against the purity of Christian Religion the errous were confuted by the Apostles and the abuses were rectified And thus was the Christian Religion justified against Heresie and against Profaneness First it was justified against all other false professsions and afterwards against its own false professours For it had been absurd to perswade men to a Religion that was not able to justifie it self against all Religions and men whatsoever because a Religion that cannot justifie it self is much less able to justifie those that profess it a Religion that cannot justifie cannot save a Religion that cannot save is a Religion but in word onely not in power for what man would ever torment his body were it not to save his soul Who would ever forsake the pleasures of the flesh were it not to enjoy the comforts of the Spirit therefore must the Christian Religion be looked on as the way to salvation that men may be carefull to walk in it and as the onely way that men may be fearfull to walk out of it For what they have of Religion that they have of salvation whether really or phantastically and what they do want of the one that they do also want of the other Accordingly S. Peter adviseth us all to make our calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. For though our Election be firm in it self we may bless God it is so especially since we are fallen under such strong delusions as might deceive if it were possible even the very Elect I say though our Election be firm in it self as being grounded on Gods immutable purpose yet is it daily more and more to be confirmed in us by making more and more sure of our calling that is to say of our calling to righteousness or of our Religion in daily bringing forth more and more the fruits of righteousness for we cannot make sure of Glory but by making sure of Grace nor can we be sure of Grace but from the fruits and effects of Grace which are the remission of sins and the purgation from sin according to that excellent gloss of Oecumenius upon the Apostles benediction to the Hebrews in his last words of that Epistle Grace be with you all Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace be with you that is The Remission of sins and the purgation from sin be with you or to speak more to our present custome and capacity the blessings of Justification and of Sanctification be with you for Justification is the Remission of sins and Sanctification is the purgation from sin and the work of Grace is to expel sin by justification and by sanctification to expel sin in its guiltiness or obligation to punishment by justification and to expel sin in its pollution or obligation to more sinfulness by sanctification for sin hath a two fold obligation upon the sinner it obligeth him to punishment by its guiltiness it obligeth him to more sins by its pollution and the work of Grace is to oppose sin in both these respects and the means whereby Grace effecteth this great work is the Christian Religion which is truly and properly our calling as we are Christians and callethus to the forgiveness of our sins by faith in Christ there is the justification and calleth us to the amendment of our sinfull lives by repentance from dead works there is thesanctification Wherefore to make sure of our Calling is to make sure of Grace and to make sure of Grace is to to make sure of our Christian Religion which alone produceth the works of Grace and how we may do this the same Authour teacheth us in the same place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we do not wrong Gods goodness by sinning or by neglecting that is by Commission or by Omission by sinning against the light of Grace or by neglecting the power and means of Grace which two have without doubt occasioned all the grand mistakes and miscarriages of several Christian Churches in point of Religion They either sin by Commission against the light of Grace or by Omission against the power and means of Grace and at last come to make a new Religion by turning their old sins into new Tenents This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To sin against God and to neglect him to sin against him by Commissions and to neglect him by Omissions to do either is to wrong his grace and goodness much more to do both which as it may serve for a good caveat to all Christian Churches in general so also to every Christian man in particular for our Commissions are the great impediments of our justification because though the sons of men will yet the Son of God will not justifie a sinner that continueth in his sins our Omissions are the great impediments of our sanctification because though the spirit of errour may call him a Saint yet the Spirit of Grace will not sanctifie him or make a Saint of that sinner who neglects and contemns the means of Grace and these Commissions and those Omissions commonly go both together in the loss of Religion but the Omissions go generally before the Commissions As S. Paul saith of the Apostate Christians in his time Rom. 1. 21. and the same doctrine will hold true of all Apostates to the worlds end That when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankfull there 's their Omissions But became vain in their imaginations and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image c. There 's their Commissions And upon these follows the loss of their Religion ver 28. As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate minde 't is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did not approve then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were given over to such a minde as could not approve that which came from God this is a reprobate minde a minde void of judgement an undiscerning understanding which is sure to have sin with it and damnation after it for so saith the prophet Wo unto them
questioned as a faithfull keeper of the Text which she must be if the Text hath not been faithfully kept no sober man will question her as a faithfull interpreter thereof and so the Church will have authority sufficient to confute all Heresies and to compose all schisms but to deny the Text to have been preserved inviolable and incorrupt especially in the sense and Doctrine if not in the very words and titles of it is to deny the Churches faithfulness in preserving it and the Churches veracity in deriving it and consequently to deny the Churches authority in expounding it for if she hath given us a false Text how can we think she will give us a true gloss wherefore we must abhor this tenent not onely because it fills the mouth with blasphemies but also because it fills the heart with uncertainties a thing as dreadfull in Religion as detestable in common sense for every true Christian is bound to beleeve an absolute certainty of the Christian Religion and consequently that neither the authority of the Scripture may be doubted which hath given the rule of Religion nor the authority of the Catholick Church which hath derived that rule to us and is intrusted by our blessed Saviour to continue and derive the same rule to all mankinde to the worlds end Saint Luke justifies both in the preface to his Gospel where he professeth that he therefore put the Gospel in writing that Theophilus might know the certainly of those things wherein he had been instructed S. Luke 1. 4. Whence naturally follow these two inferences First that writing is a more sure way of instruction then preaching there is the authority of the Scripture Secondly That the word being written is supposed to be preserved as it was written unless we will say that Saint Luke writ his Gospel onely to instruct Theophilus but not Christians of after ages there is the authority of the Church Saint Luke makes the Gospel thus written and thus preserved the rule of certainty and how shall our ungodly or uncharitable scruples make it the rule of uncertainty CHAP. IV. That though the substance and exercise of Religion be different in themselves yet they ought not to be accounted so now in our profession and much less made so in our practice for that whosoever is not sure of the exercise of his Religion will not much regard the certainty that is in the substance of it IT is not enough for a man to set his heart to seek the Lord that he may confirm himself in the true Religion but he must also set his face to seek the Lord that others may be confirmed by him tu conversus confirma fratres it concerns not onely every true minister but also every true member of Christ and thou being converted strengthen thy brethren S. Luke 22. 32. And how could he strengthen them but by having a profession agreeable to his faith and a practise agreeable to his profession for they could not b◠strengthened by Saint Peters faith as it was internally in his heart but as it was externally in his communication and in his conversation and indeed this was the ready way for Saint Peter and is for every Christian not onely to strengthen his brethren but also to strengthen himself For though the substance of Religion is written in Gods book yet is it not written in that mans heart who hath not a tongue to profess it and a hand to practise it wherefore it nearly concerns every good Christian to be ready to say with Saint Paul be his accusers never so importunate and his judges never so unjust Acts 24. 14. But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers beleeving all things which are written in the law in the prophets A Text that joyns the substance and the exercise of Religion both together and consequently must teach us so to joyn them for as we cannot have better words for our profession so we cannot have a better example for our practise I will therefore accordingly enlarge my self upon them that our Religion may be the same with Saint Pauls not onely in substance but also in profession and in practise And I hope the Divinity will not be the worse because it is like to be propounded by way of Sermon upon a Text for ministers may now adays speak Gods truth more plainly in the apostles names then in their own and this is a truth that would be plainly spoken because it so nearly concerns the glory of Christ and the salvation of Christian souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Cyril ep ad Celestinum papam in actis concilii Ephes. pars prima If Christ be evil spoken of how shall we that are his ministers hold our peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if we hold our peace now what shall we be able to say in the day of Judgment and clearly our Saviour Christ is now evil spoken of not onely in the holy circumstances of Religion as times places and persons consecrated to his name but also in the very substance of it in his holy word and Sacraments nay in his own most holy prayer by some men that would be thought to promote Religion in its substance whiles they discountenance and baffle it in its exercise that is to say both in its profession and in its practise both in the profession of the apostolical Christian faith and in the practise of the immediate worship of Christ. Wherefore let us consider what Saint Paul if he were present would say to these men for I will say no more then his words do warrant me and by consequent shall under my unpolished writing but onely produce his sayings as that prophet did to Iehoram king of Judah who gave him a letter from Eliah after he was assumed into heaven for Eliah was taken up into heaven in the time of Iehoshaphat as appears 2 Kin. 2. 11. and Elisha had in that kings reign succeeded Eliah as appears 2 Kin. 3. 14. where for Iehoshaphats sake Elisha regardeth the request of the king of Israel to procure water for his perishing army but this writing came from Eliah to Iehoram the son of Iehoshaphat reigning in his fathers stead after he had committed that horrid massacre upon his brethren 2 Chr. 21. 4 12. and Iunius in his notes gives this reason for it sic oportuit impium regem ab absentibus reprehendi qui praesentes non fuisset passurus Thus was it fit that the wicked king should be reproved by one that was absent who would not endure the reproofs of those that were present And R. David is of the same opinion as indeed Iunius in his Notes doth frequently borrow many expositions from the Jewish D◠not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the allegorical but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the literal interpreters whereof Kimchi is judged the very best he gives us this gloss this writing from
Eliah saith he was delivered after Eliah was ascended but the meaning is that the thing had been revealed by Eliah to one of the prophets who commanded him to write it in a book and give it to Iehoram tell him that it was a writing sent to him from Eliah that so Iehoram thinking the writing sent to him from heaven might humble his heart So will I here present our back-sliding age with a reproof from S. Paul that hath been so many years dead because I see that back-sliders do not regard the reproofs of their ministers who are now living and I cannot but hope if I have not willingly mistaken the Apostle that no cōsciencious godly man such as we all pretend to be will willingly mistake me We must then look on S. Pauls profession in this place as a true Christians profession because it is a profession of his Christian Religion consisting of two parts of his worship of his faith which are the two essential or substantial parts of Religion sides cultus faith in God and the worship of God though the faith be put last in the order of the words yet is it first in the order of nature for because S. Paul beleeved all things which were written in the law and in the prophets therefore did he worship the God of his fathers But before our Apostle shews the substance of his profession what it is he doth shew the necessity of it why it is for the necessity of his Christian profession is imported in these words But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresie as well as the substance of it in these words so worship I the God of my fathers beleeving all things which are written in the law and in the prophets And indeed as it is the great duty so it should be the great labour of every Christian to keep his heart true unto his Saviour to keep his tongue true unto his heart to keep his heart true to Christ that he may be unmoveable in the love of his Religion and to keep his tongue true unto his heart that he may be unmoveable in the profession of that love and for both these we have here an excellent president So worship I the God of my fathers beleeving all things which are written in the law and in the prophets There his heart is true to his Saviour in the substance of Religion and before that but this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I There his tongue is true to his heart in the profession of it for he looks upon the profession of his Religion as a necessary duty not to be omitted for fear not to be dissembled for shame I unto thee hints both these I a prisoner at the bar to thee a iudge upon the bench for Saint Paul was here arraigned as a felon for his Religion which hath been allways the portion of the godly for the wicked presidents and princes could not but say we shall not finde any occasion against this Daniel except we finde it against him concerning the law of his God Dan. 6. 5. I say Saint Paul had been indicted and was here arraigned as a felon or a delinquent that in the midst of a general refusal or denial of Christ he durst own to be a Christian and would be constant in the profession of his Christianity and he shews that notwithstanding all the affronts offered him and the aspersions cast upon him yet his profession being truly Christian was such as he might not be afraid would not be ashamed of I unto thee is enough against the fear which they call heresie is enough against the shame Let us put on the armour of proof against the fear and we shall need of no mask or vizard against the shame And surely this Ego in the Text Saint Pauls example is warrant enough not to be afraid for so saith the holy Ghost by his mouth Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. Every man is bound to follow his Church where that follows his Saviour but because this refractory age thinks it the nearest cut to go to Christ to run away from his Church it will not be amiss to shew how our blessed Saviours example did move Saint Paul that so both examples together may the more forcibly move us not to be afraid to make profession of our Religion For so it is recorded of our blessed Saviour that before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession or a good profession 1 Tim. 6. 13. can we be called before worse tyrants then Felix and Pilate Can we look for better examples then Saint Paul and our blessed Saviour the one the teacher the other the King of Saints lo Saint Paul professed his Religion before Felix our blessed Saviour before Pilate and both them professed it when there was the greatest danger of that profession when they were in danger of their lives not onely of their livelyhoods for professing it if the tyranny cannot be greater why should the profession be less for so Saint Chrysostome sets down the profession of Christ before Pontius Pilate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I came to be a witness to the truth or a martyr for it a witness to the truth in times of peace and prosperity a martyr for the truth in times of opposition and apostasie so should every Christian think and say that he was not born as a man much less new-born as a Christian for himself but for his Saviour to be a witness to he truth For if this principle of Religion were doctrinal in our hearts to beleeve it it would also be practical in our lives to perform it but we beleeve not the doctrine and therefore regard not the practise the faith is first dead then the work so saith the prophet He that beleeveth in him shall not make haste Isa. 28. 16. id est ex impatientiâ infidelitate ad res praesentes non confugiet saith Junius He that beleeveth in him shall not make such haste as out of impatience and infidelity to comply with the present occasions or opportunities more to keep his estate then to keep his conscience as those miscreants did v. 15. who said we have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us for we have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves Iunius thus rightly explaineth their wicked meaning we are as secure as if we had made a covenant with death we have done as much as wise men can do and more then honest men will do to preserve our selves to make an agreement with those that are too strong for us we have cast up our banks against the overflowing scourge and though you call it lies and falshood which we have done yet we know it
was builded these many years agoe we desire not to lay one stone more nor one stone less then was anciently laid onely we are not willing to mistake a false for a true Antiquity Id verum quod primum that is the truest which was the first And it was our Blessed Saviours own way of reasoning Non sic fuit ab initio It was not so from the beginning and yet it had been so for a very long time before Secondly S. Paul had the comfort of his Religion in that he worshipped the God of his Fathers for his Religion entitled him to the same God his Fathers had before him who had shewed great mercy to them and had promised to shew mercy to their children for their sakes the Jews had comfort in their Fathers when they had not in themselves Moses useth three Arguments why God should not destroy the children of Israel for their Idolatry Exod. 32. 11 12 13. The first was his former benefits lest they should seem to be lost and thrown away The second was his own glory lest that should be obscured and his Name blasphemed and neither of these two Arguments prevailed his former goodness had been too much abused his after glory might be otherwise repaired But then follows his third Argument his Promises to the Fathers and that prevails then immediately saith the Text And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people ver 14. Gods veracity is indispensable and must be indisputable And thus Jarchi glosses upon this third Argument If they have sinned against all thy Ten Commandments yet remember Abraham was upright in his Ten Temptations let Ten go for Ten nay more If thou hast purposed to burn them or kill them or banish them yet remember Abraham and Isaac and Israel thy servants thou wilt not do it Remember that Abraham at thy command exposed himself to burning when he went to Ur that is Fire in the Chaldeaens Isaac exposed himself to killing Jacob exposed himself to a long Banishment to a wearisome Pilgrimage And thus God himself comforted Hezekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy Father I have heard thy prayer I have seen thy tears Is. 38. 5. So willing so ready is God to shew mercy that he will find a cause to shew it to the Children for their Fathers sake when he cannot for their own doubtless it is to teach them not to trust in their own righteousness if they be righteous nor to distrust his mercy when they have been captivated under the dominion of sin unrighteousness And thus much concerning the worship of God the first substantial part of S. Pauls Religion The second substantial part thereof still remains undiscussed and that is his Faith Concerning which we may observe two things First That it was the Catholick Faith Secondly the Proof that it was so First That his Faith was the Catholick Faith Beleeving all things A Christians Faith may be called Catholick in a two-fold respect either essentially or accidentally essentially in the substance of it when he beleeves all those Christian Truths that God hath revealed as necessary to salvation and beleeves them because of Gods Revelation for as the second Epistle of Saint Iohn is called a Catholick Epistle though writ to a private person because it is Catholick or universal in its Instructions though it be onely particular in its occasion so is the true Faith the Catholick Faith though it may be continued onely among some few true Beleevers for what hath been already may be again and this case hath been in the days of Athanasius because it is universal in its Obligation though perchance almost singular in its Profession And in this sense the Catholick Faith and the Christian Faith are both one whence Athanasius calls that the Catholick which others have called the Christian Faith although he insist most upon the true doctrine concerning the Blessed Trinity even as the Imperial Edict cited in the Code in the Title de summâ Trinitate Fide Catholicâ gives the name of Catholicks to those Christians who had a right belief concerning the holy and undivided Trinity not onely as we may suppose because the chiefest hereticks of those daies had erred in that doctrine but also because they who erred not in it could not easily erre in denying any Fundamental of the true Christian Faith And thus Aquinas very briefly and plainly tels us what is this Christian or Catholick Faith even that Faith which brings us here to the saving knowledge and will bring us hereafter to the blessed enjoyment of our Saviour Christ. Credibilia de quibus est Fides secundum se quae directè ordinant ad Vitam Aeternam Nam Fides est principaliter de his quae videnda speramus in patriâ Heb. 11. 1. Ut Incarnatio Christi Trinitas At alia sunt de quibus non est Fides secundum se sed solum in ordine ad priora sc. ad manifestationem eorum ut quòd Abraham habuerit duos silios 22 ae qu. 1. Those truths do properly and of themselves belong to the Christian Faith which do immediately and directly order and dispose the beleever to eternal life for Faith is principally of those things which we hope to see and enjoy in heaven Heb. 11. 1. such as are the Incarnation of Christ and the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity But there are other truths which do not properly and of themselves belong to the christian-Christian-Faith but onely in order to these to wit as far as they conduce to the manifestation of them as that Abraham had two sons As for the first of these they are to be explicitly beleeved of all Christians alike As for the second it sufficeth if they be implicitly beleeved by those who have not the means of an explicit Faith concerning them so that we may thus gloss S. Pauls words Beleeving all things that are written viz. either explicitly or implicitly all things explicitly that are revealed to me and all things implicitly that are revealed in the Text For every good Christian hath a preparation of his soul to beleeve whatsoever is contained in the whole word of God and a resolution of his soul to beleeve it as soon as it shall appear to him to be so Thus again the same Angelical Doctour Nam Fidei objectum per se est per quod homo heatus es sicitur per accidens autem secundariò omnia quae in sacrâ Scripturâ Divinitus traditâ continentur 22 ae qu. 2. art 5. The object of Faith essentially in and of it self is that which brings a man to the beatifical Vision for Faith is to end in Vision as Hope in Comprehension and Charity in Fruition But the object of Faith accidentally and secondarily is whatsoever is contained in the holy Scriptures that have been delivered to us from God As for the first every Christian is bound to beleeve them by an actual and
explicit consent or perswasion and say with S. Peter S. Joh. 6. 69. We beleeve and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God We beleeve and are sure of this all alike Superiours and Inferiours but as for the second a virtual consent is sufficient which is not in the perswasion but onely in the preparation of a good Christians soul whereby he is ready to beleeve whatsoever shall appear to him to be contained in the holy Scriptures so that we may not unfitly say that S. Pauls Profession here sets one rule for a Christian man and another rule for a Christian Divine to beleeve all things in the Law and in the Prophets For though both beleeve all things yet the Christian man beleeves many things by an Implicit which the Christian Divine who hath a greater measure of knowledge is bound to beleeve by an Explicit Faith for it is without all dispute that God requires not the same degree of Faith in all alike neither extensively nor intensively but to whom much is given of him much is required Wherefore this is the Catholick Faith essentially a Faith that delivers and contains either explicitly or implicitly all that God hath revealed to man for his salvation Again The Faith may be called the Catholick Faith accidentally not in regard of the substance but in regard of the extent and diffusion of it as when we beleeve those Truths which have been beleeved at all times in all places and of all men that professed the Faith of Christ Quae ubique semper ab omnibus credita est as saith Lirinensis And in this sense Faith is but accidentally Catholick For it is but an accident of the Christian Faith that it be thus generally received or professed and therefore we finde that in several ages of the Church the Christian Faith hath not met with this reception or profession I told you of Athanasius before another will tell you that when our Saviour Christ was put to death True Faith remained onely in the Blessed Virgin Fides in solâ Virgine remansit so Picus Mirandula and long before him Bonaventure seems to have been of the same opinion who gives this reason why the Saturday was more peculiary devoted to the honour of the Blessed Virgin because that in Her alone was the Faith of the Resurrection during that Sabbath or Saturday which Christ passed in the Grave Indubitantèr credendum est quòd Virgo Maria semper in side stetit Unde discipulis non credentibus dubitantibus ipsa fuit in quâ sides Ecclesiae remanserat solida inconcussa ideo diem sabbati solennizat in honorem ejus omnis Ecclesia Bona in 3. sent Dist. 3. 13. He saith all the Disciples had lost the Faith as loath that S. Peter should go alone and that all the Church did solemnize Saturday in honour of the Virgin Mary who onely had not lost it but he means surely his own Church which he looked upon as all for it will be hard to prove that any other Christian Church ever had this belief or this practise but onely the Latine Church and that Church hath had both a long time hath accordingly instituted and appointed the Office of the Virgin Mary to be said every week on Saturday as the Office of the Trinity on Sunday of the Angels on Munday of salus Populi on Tuesday of the Holy Ghost on Wednesday of the Venerable Sacrament on Thursday and of the Holy Cross on Friday Missae votivae sive commune in missali secundum usum sacrum And the Rubrick gives this for the reason of that Institution Quia Domino crucifixo mortuo Discipulis fugientibus de Resurrectione desperantibus in illâ solâ tota fides remansit Because while the Lord Christ lay dead and buried the Disciples being all fled and despairing of the Resurrection his Virgin Mother alone retained entirely the Christian Faith It is not my purpose to examine the truth of this relation nor the use that hath been made of it I onely ask the Question was not the Catholick Faith the same then when it had so few Professours as it was afterwards when all the Disciples professed it and by their Preaching caused the whole world to profess it If it were not the same Faith then was the Blessed Virgin saved by one Faith and we by another plainly against the Text one Lord one Faith Eph. 4. 5. We must therefore say it was the same Faith then which is now the very same Catholick Faith but essentially in the substance or perswasion of it not accidentally in the extent or profession of it the same essentially for it beleeved all things in the Law and the Prophets though not the same accidentally for there was not the same profession of that belief For it is the same spirit of Faith whereby one beleeves and whereby many beleeve as plainly S. Paul declareth We having the same spirit of faith as it is written I beleeved and therefore have I spoken We also beleeve and therefore speak 2 Cor. 4. 13. Take I in the singular or We in the plural 't is the same spirit of faith in many and in few beleevers We also beleeve and therefore speak There is no speaking no praying without this Faith and there can be no wilfull neglecting either Time or Means or house of prayer with it If we beleeve we will speak If we will not speak it is because we do not beleeve God takes it for an honour to be trusted he that trusts him most honours him most For he most beleeves both his All-sufficiency and his All-efficiency In thee O Lord do I put my trust deliver me in thy Righteousness Psal. 71. 1 2. O happy man who can pray to be delivered in Gods Righteousness when he cannot in his own for surely God will always be righteous though men seldome be so if we make him our trust he will not fail nor deceive his trust therefore he that trusteth most honoureth most because he beleeveth most and he that beleeveth most prayeth most for as he that beleeveth speaketh in his heart the assent being nothing else but the internal word of the minde so he that speaketh in his heart speaketh also with his tongue the expression of the mouth being nothing else but the external word of the heart by the internal word a man speaketh so as to hear and understand himself by the external word he speaketh so as that others may hear and understand him For with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 10. 10. Are you for the belief and why should you not also be for the confession Are you afraid to lose the righteousness of God for want of Faith and why should you not be afraid to lose the salvation of God for want of the Confession If we did look upon the profession of Religion as an act of Faith as we ought
dominion Both these grand factions from several principles inferring one and the same conclusion because both by their additions deprave the truth of the Text so that if we will needs allow that our glosses may be additions to the rule we must of necessity overthrow the rule and by not allowing Religion to be all-together at once we shall come to make it none at all It is not to be denied but Religion hath had and may have additions in regard of men but not in regard of it self Si de prophetia loquamur in quantum ordinaturadfidem Deitatis sic quidem crevit secundùm tres temporum distinctiones scil ante Legem sub Lege sub Gratia non autem quatenus per eam humanum genus in suis operibus dirigitur saith Aquinas 22 ae qu. 174. art 6. Prophesie may be said to have received increase as to Articles of Faith towards God for he hath revealed himself more fully under the Gospel then under the Law and more fully under the Law then before it but not as to duties of life either towards God or towards man The Christian knows and beleevs more then the Jew because Christ is more fully revealed unto him then to the Jew but yet Christ is still the same to both The same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. The same before the Law yesterday Under the Law to day and under the Gospel for ever One Christian may know and beleeve more then another nay more then himself for as he increaseth in years so also in knowledge and faith yet the truth of the Christian Religion is but one and the same at all times onely more fully understood at one time then at another for which reason God requires a preparation of minde in every true beleever to be ready to beleeve more when it shall be revealed to him to be Gods truth and to do more when it shall appear to him to be for Gods glory The first part of this position concludes it impossible that there should be any certain catalogue of the fundamentals of Faith not onely for all men but also for one and the same man at all times because that may be revealed to one which is not to another nay to one man at this time which was not at that time The second part of this position concludes it necessary that the Evangelical Counsels should sometimes become a piece of the Law namely If the case be put that a man can in any of those particulars of Voluntary poverty Obedience or Chastity shew or exercise more fully and sincerely his love of God and therefore saith S. Hieroms gloss upon S. Matth. 19. 20. All these things have I kept from my youth up Mentitur adolescens The young man lies for if he had indeed kept this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self he would not have been grieved for being commanded to sell all and give it to the poor no more then he was grieved for keeping all unto himself And Origen tells us it was written in some other Gospel that he had met withall in Hebrew but sure not of sufficient authority to discountenance the Greek for Aquinas that tells us this storie saith Si placeat alicui suscipere illud If any man please to receive it That when the young man began to scratch his head at this saying the Lord replied unto him How doest thou say thou hast kept the Law which requireth to love thy neighbour as thy self and behold many of thy brethren the children of Abraham are ready to die for hunger upon the dung-hill whiles not onely thy bodie but also thy house is full even to superfluitie Aquin. 22 ae qu. 189. art 1. resp ad 1. We must therefore say with Gulielmus de sancto Amore in libro de periculis Ecclesiae Paupertatem praecipit non actualem sed habitualem scil si gloria Christi id postulârit ut cùm ait Luc. 14. 26. Si quis venit ad me non odit patrem non potest esse meus discipulus non praecipit parentes contemnere sed tantùm si Christo se opponant That this is not a counsel but a command whereby our blessed Saviour commandeth though not actual yet habitual povertie though not a real yet a ready forsaking of all if the glory of Christ should so require as when he saith S. Luk. 14. 26. If any man come to me and hateth not his father he cannot be my disciple the command is but conditional to wit If his father oppose his Saviour there he must go from the one to come and cleave to the other And so Aquinas himself states this question saying Nullus est actus perfectionis sub consilio cadens qui in aliquo eventu non cadat sub praecepto quasi de necessitate salutis existens 22â—e qu. 124. art 3. ad 1. There is no act of perfection under an Evangelical Counsel but may in some case fall under a precept as being necessary to that mans salvation And in this particular case of voluntary poverty he saith thus Abrenunciatio propriarum facultatum in actu est quoddam perfectionis instrumentum sed secundùm praeparationem animi pertinet directè ad perfectionem 22 ae qu. 185. ad 2. For a man to renounce his property actually that he may betake himself wholly to meditation and prayer doth conduce instrumentally to perfection but for him to renounce it potentially in the preparation of his minde doth appertain directly to perfection that is to the perfection of Christianitie and so in effect he saith thus much He that will not part with his estate when Christ calls for it is far from shewing himself a good Christian. How little this precept is now observed by those who see their poor brethren readie to starve for Christ both at home and in forein countreys and yet neither lay their miseries to heart nor lay their hands to their relief Christ doth now see and will hereafter judge when he will not onely say Depart ye cursed to those that made them hungry thirsty and naked but also to those that let them continue so St. Mat. 25. 41 42. and good reason for such men forget their brother Ioseph in the pit sitting down to eat and drink while he is ready to perish they forget themselves and renounce their own bowels they forget their God and renounce his commandments not onely as enforced by right of dominion for being Lord of all he might call for all without shewing any other cause for it but also as being enforced by the light of reason for it is observable that Saint Paul useth more arguments to stir up the Corinthians to a liberal contribution for the poor Saints at Jerusalem then he useth to the stirring them up to any other Christian duty whatsoever for he hath concerning this duty almost two whole chapters together 2 Cor. 8 and 9 chap. and almost as many arguments as verses in those
with us so that the best way to serve him cordially is to serve him with eye-service considering that he always looks upon us and therefore we ought always to act as in his presence Excellently the Casuist Reiginaldus Adjumenta operandi bonum in ordine ad nosipsos sunt consider are Christum ut mandantem spectantem adjuvantem The main helps that encourage any man in regard of himself to do that which is good is the consideration of Christs presence as if he were actually standing by him to command to observe and to assist him that he commands me to obey observes me in my obedience and assists me in obeying whosoever truly hath this consideration of Christ cannot but have his heart full of true Christianity and he that hath his heart full cannot have his mouth or his hand empty for out of the aboundance of the heart not onely the mouth speaketh but also the hand acteth and worketh But Gods Infinitie though it most appear to us in his Omnipresence yet is it the immediate property of his essence which being a pure act or form admits of no materiality to limit and to confine it and so also are the duties of Religion in some sort infinite in their very essence for nothing is proportionable to God but what is infinite and like himself and therefore it is said Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect St. Mat. 5. 48. God justly requires a perfection of degrees in all duties of Religion though he graciously accepts a perfection of parts it is well for us that the truth and sincerity not the measure and degree of our faith or repentance puts us in the state of salvation for else we should not onely be always doubtfull of that state but also very often come short of it and yet in truth our faith and repentance and obedience is infinite as it is in Gods acceptance though not as it is in our performance for though it be performed in much unrighteousness yet it is accepted in an infinite righteousness even the righteousness of the eternal Son of God 3. Communicatione essentiae Thirdly and lastly God may be said to be infinite in the communication of his essence which he hath communicated in an infinite variety to infinite sorts of creatures which all have their being onely from him So also Religion is infinite in this respect that it can never be enough communicated he that is truly converted himself will make it his whole work to strengthen his brethren according to that advice of our blessed Saviour St. Luke 22. 32. which having been given to St. Peter in his own person cannot but more peculiarly belong to all his successours then many things else that are more zealously claimed by most of them and how then may the Scriptures be denied to the people in a tongue they know or prayers be obtruded to them in a tongue they know not since the Scripture communicates Religion from God to man and prayer expresseth the desire of that heavenly communion Wherefore that of the Trent Council Sess. 22. cap. 8. Nè tamen oves Christi esuriant pastores frequenter aliquid in missâ exponant c. Least the flock of Christ should be hunger-starved the priâ—st ought often to expound the missal is in effect a tacit Confession that though Religion ought to be effectually communicated to the people to feed their souls unto the full yet they are resolved it must not be so but that they shall still wholly depend upon the priests for a little broken bread whereas all that know good to be naturally diffusive of it self most willingly acknowledge that Religion the greatest good of this world and the onely practise of the next the more it hath of goodness the more it ought to have likewise of the diffusion The third incommunicable property of God is his Immutability for as God changeth not in his essence I AM hath sent me unto you Exo. 3. 14. so he changeth not in his government or dominion of souls I am the Lord I change not Mal. 3. 6. he changeth not as our Lord and we cannot pretend to change as his servants for Religion hath also its share in this Immutability in which sense I perswade my self Iustin Martyr called Abraham a Christian and Socrates too though a heathen yet observing some of that righteousness all which we Christians do or should observe and he proves that the Christian Religion is that whereby God was then and is now truly worshipped and glorified what the heathen had of idols they had of Paganisme what of moral duties or of reasonable service they had of Christianity for there is no reason why the martyrs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may not agree with the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 1. So likewise the Iews and the Christians have the same Religion in substance though not in ceremonies or circumstance or the old Testament could not be brought so appositely to prove the doctrines of the New or Moses have been said to bear the reproach of Christ Heb. 11. 26. and so likewise all Christians have one and the same Religion though they have many different professions the Christian Religion being altogether unchangeable one and the same in all places and at all times and what is otherwise will be found either to be superstition or faction or matter of order but in no case matter of Religion it being impossible that what is truly Christian in one place or time should be made either Antichristian or Unchristian in another And this property of Immutability Religion partakes in a higher degree then the sublimest spirit in the highest order of Angels for they are all changeable by a power without them though not by a power within them but Religion is not so God himself cannot make another Religion or service of himself then that which he hath already made I mean as to the substantial and internal nature of holiness consisting in the immediate duties of Religion Aliquid dicitur mutabile dupliciter uno modo per potentiam quae in ipso est altero modo per potentiam quae est in altero Aquin. par 1. qu. 9. what is absolutely unchangeable cannot be changed by any power either within or without it self so is God so is the service of God Religion which God cannot change no more then he can change himself that is no more then he can change his truth that taught it his justice that prescribed it his excellent majesty that still requireth it his infinite mercy that still accepteth it for it was Gods own Spirit that spake those words by the mouth of Gamaliel Acts 5. 38 39. If this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it and upon serious examination we shall finde it most true in our Christian Religion what hath been either in the doctrine or practise thereof meerly the counsel
and in the hand as Truth is opposed to Dissimulation or Hypocrisie Thirdly in its certainty or perseverance And of thy great mercy keep us in the same as Truth is opposed to uncertainty or to levity and inconstancy Religion then hath and must have a two-fold truth the first consists in a right apprehension whereby we believe the thing as it is the second in a right affection profession and action whereby we love and profess and do the thing as we beleeve and there cannot be a more religious prayer invented by the wit of Piety nor a more affectionate prayer practised by the zeal of Charity then that which is so remarkable both for its Piety and for its Charity in our own Church Collect 3. Sunday after Easter Almlghty God which shewest to all men that be in errour the light of thy Truth to the intent that they may return into the way of Righteousness there 's its piety towards God rightly descanting upon Gods intent in shewing the light of his truth to make men righteous not to make them inexcusable These things I say that ye might be saved S. Joh. 5. 34. not onely convinced saith our blessed Saviour and yet he spake to those who had not the love of God v. 42. Grant unto all them that be admitted into the fellowship of Christ Religion that they may eschew those things that be contrary to their profession and follow all such things as be agreeable to the same there 's its charity towards men affectionately desiring that as they have a Christian Communion so they may also have a Christian conversation lest their unchristian conversation destroy and disanull their Christian Communion which without doubt it hath done already in many ages of the Church and will do still to the worlds end unless God in his mercy fill our hearts more and more with this true piety towards himself and with this true charity one towards another And for this cause the Commandments are in the judgement of some Divines accounted practical Articles of the Christian Faith because if these be left out in our conversation what is true in it self of our Creed is as it were false to us since either our profession gives the lye to our apprehension and affection or our action to our profession for this is the difference betwixt speculative and practical truths speculativè practicè credibilia those things that we must believe speculatively and those that we must believe practically the first which are summed up in the Creed are truly believed if there be a conformity of the thing with the Understanding but the second which are summed up in the Decalogue are then onely truly believed when there is a conformity of the affection and of the profession and of the action with the belief thus they that worship Images do expunge the second and they that resist Magistrates do expunge the fifth Commandment if not out of their books yet at least out of their Faith in their Books they may be true believers but in their Lives they are in these particulars little less then Infidels Now see in what a miserable condition is the irreligious miscreant who so beleeves as to make void his own faith and so receives the truth as to make the truth it self a lie to him either for want of a sanctified affection in not loving it or for want of a sanctified action in not practising it and hence we may likewise see and must confess that not he who knows most of the doctrine of Faith is the best Beleever but he that most loves what he knows in speculatives and he that most practises what he knows in practicks so that a great Scholar may fully know the truth and yet to him it may be as a lye because he loves it not for to him it is what he desires it should be contrariwise an ignorant peasant may not fully know the truth and yet to him it may be the saving truth because he loves it for what is wanting in his head is made up by his heart O my soul glory not in the knowledge of Christ but in the love of that knowledge glory not in thy learning if thou art Mistress of any but in thy Religion to which thou oughtest to be a servant learning may make a man wise to ostentation but 't is onely Religion can make him wise to salvation Do not then with Pilate ask thy Saviour what is truth and then go away without his answer much less mayest thou turn to those Jews that help to crucifie him for if thou know these things happy art thou not because thou knowest them but if thou do them thy happiness consists not in knowing Christ but in practising him nor is it possible for a man to be long defective in his practise and not to be defective also in his knowledge since what is sinfull in the deliberate action is sinfull in the will and what is sinfull in the will is erroneous in the judgement or understanding and this is the reason that a man may be a heretick not onely in credendis but also in agendis not onely in Articles of Faith but also in Duties of Life nay indeed he cannot easily be a heretick in the Duties of Life and still remain truly Orthodox in the Articles of Faith as for example he that prays to a Saint or Angel in stead of God directly overthrows the first Commandment but indirectly also the first Article of his Creed I believe in one God for Prayer is a Sacrifice that may be offered onely unto God again he that wilfully dishonours his Governours whom God hath set over him directly overthrows the fifth Commandment but indirectly also the ninth Article of his Creed I beleeve the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints for being a Lover of division he is not a true beleever of that Communion and this we may take for a general doctrine fitter to be received then opposed First that any practical errour which is against our duty towards God doth tend to a speculative errour against some part of the Creed which concerneth God as he that doth not honour God as God doth in effect deny him to be maker of heaven and earth therefore saith the Psalmist O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker as if we could not truly beleeve him to be our maker if we will not worship him with all possible reverence and fear Secondly that any practical errour which is against our duty towards our neighbour doth tend against some Article of the Creed that hath relation to men as he that will not be subject to the authority of his lawfull governours Civil or Ecclesiastical doth in effect deny The Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints Thirdly and lastly that any practical errour against the duty which a man oweth unto himself doth tend against some Article of Faith that concerns himself as he that is a common
drunkard or unclean or profane person doth in effect deny the Forgiveness of sins and the Resurrection of the body Wherefore when Almighty God requireth every Christian to be true or faithfull unto the death that he may receive a crown of life Revel 2. 10. he requires of him a double truth or faithfulness not onely that he be true and faithfull in his Belief but also and much rather that he be true and faithfull in his life First God requires a faithfulness in our Belief by a right apprehension of Gods word not adding thereto nor diminishing therefrom for that is forbidden from the beginning of the Law as Deut. 4. 2. to the end of the Gospel as Revel 22. 18 19. not adding thereto by Superstition nor diminishing therefrom by Faction for as the superstitious seeks to flatter his God Religiosi sunt Deorum amici Superstitiosi Deorum adulatores so the factious seeks to flatter himself do thou thy duty and let alone thy flattery for it is not safe for thee to flatter thy God and much less to flatter thy self Secondly God requires faithfulness in our affection life and conversation that we may be saithfull professours of his truth and as faithfull witnesses to it for a man may be Gods witness by speaking by living by dying and he that is commanded to be faithfull unto the death that is to be faithfull in dying if God call him to it is already supposed to be faithfull in speaking and in living for he that bids thee be fathfull unto thy death doth surely suppose thee already faithfull in thy life and commands thee to continue so and this faithfulness is shewed by thy words in confessing and that 's veracity by thy deed in professing or practising and that 's fidelity and by thy perseverance unto the death both in words and deeds and that 's constancie This is the truth of Religion both formally and efficiently formally in regard of it self and efficiently in regard of us that as it is true in it self so it also makes us true and faithfull at all times and in all respects and if you further desire to know how far any Christian Church hath followed or doth follow this truth you may try it by this touch-stone which being infallible in reason cannot be erroneous in Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle lib. 4. Eth. cap. 13. Greece is not so happy as to afford us a name for this moral truth and may justly own to be Graecia mendax upon that account but he that hath that vertue is called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A true man both in life and word and is to be known by these three properties that he is full of equity will do no man wrong is full of authoriey will ask no mans leave whereas the hypocrite is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself for all others but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all others for himself and lastly is full of modesty will ask no mans praise and therefore will set forth himself though in true colours yet with the least varnish so also is the true Religion first it is full of justice and equity for it looks onely after Gods glory not after this worlds advantages and therefore declares things as they are not as they conduce to mens interests secondly it is full of authority in all words and deeds still like it self neither dissembling what is nor pretending what is not that it may please men rather then God but saith with S. Paul For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. thirdly 't is full of modesty rather delighting in extenuations of its own worth then in amplifications of it for though hypocrisie be a great talker a greater boaster yet Religion doth very much abhor all vain babbling and much more all vain boasting Not walking in crastiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending it self in every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4. 2. and therefore any Christian Church whatsoever that either turns Religion into State policy making Christs interest subservient to its own or that changes its Doctrine to please its new lords and masters or that boasts too much of its own Purity and Perfection as if none could be Christians but in outward communion with it none good Christians in comparison of it must in these respects be said not to be 〈◊〉 true Church for though it be Metaphysically a true Church yet is not so morally not according to moral truth for that it wants either equity or authority or modestie or all three that is to say it wants some necessary attendant of moral truth And here I had rather bewail then examine rather deplore then detect the present condition of many Christian Churches It is enough that the now so much despised and persecuted Church of England cannot have it justly laid to her charge that either she laboured to inter-weave her own with Christs interest much less to advance her own interest above his for want of equity or did not deal plainly with those Churches that did so for want of authorite or did revile other Reformed Churches which surely had not been infallible could not be impeccable for want of modesty and my hope is that a Church so full of Moral truth no less then of Metaphysical as it hath the God of Truth to own it so it will in due time finde the God of Power to vindicate to restore and to defend it however I doubt not but many good Christians had rather suffer in her afflicted communion then reign in the prosperity and glory of those who either do cause or do not regard her affliction In the mean time I cannot but pass this for a general animadversion That since onely the true Catholick is the true Christian and he hath two oposites the pseudo-catholick who is peccant in excess and the anti-catholick who is peccant in defect it fares with these two opposites as it fares with those two extreams that oppose the moral truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The proud boaster loves to make shew of more then is so doth the pseudo-catholick who obtrudes more for Religion then can be proved Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the dissembler is quite contrary for he denies things that are and dimininishes what he doth not deny so doth the anti-catholick who denies that to be Religion which God hath made so and diminisheth what he cannot deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the same Authour the boaster and the dissembler both are to be blamed because neither is so true a man as he ought to be yet more the boaster then the dissembler So also in Religion the pseudo-catholick seems farther from the truth for his superadditions then the anti-catholick for his diminutions for he that avoweth uncertainties for certainties brings a suspicion upon his faith even in most undoubted truths whereas he
that is wary and timorous in the choice of his tenents though he may be thought an enemy to his own knowledge yet he cannot be thought an enemy to Gods truth for though he may stick a while at the embracing of some divine truths till they appear to him to be so yet he cannot easily obtrude any untruths for truths and God will sooner pardon the infirmity of a man in sticking at a truth then the presumption of a man in obtruding an untruth for the first shews himself as a man subject to doubtings not able to command his own faith but the other would fain be accounted little less then a God in making himself not the Interpreter but the Authour of truths and so challenging a dominion over the faith of others which however ought not to dishearten us from knowing the doctrine of any Christian Church for as of old it derogated nothing from the truth of God that some Prophets did tell lies in his Name so neither doth it now derogate from the truth of Religion that there is so much mixture of mens inventions or surmises with that truth But we must say of all these tares that an enemy hath sowed them whilest men slept and yet we may not think Gods Providence over his Church either careless in not looking after it or defective in looking after it to little purpose as if he that is the keeper of Israel did sleep when Israel most needed keeping for the Apostle hath said Oportet haereses esse inter vos 1 Cor. 11. 19. there must be sects or heresies amongst you that they which are approved may be made manifest as if he had said That must be for which there is a good reason why it should be and there is a good reason why there should be heresies amongst you nay indeed two good reasons the one on your parts that you may be tried or proved the other on Gods part that they which are approved may be made manifest to set forth the power and glory of Gods truth which like the Sun shines the more gloriously when it hath broken through some great cloud that opposed it for so much is true even of that wicked objection Rom. 3. 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner 't is most certain the Truth of God doth often more abound through our lies to his glory and yet the Objection is so ungodly and unreasonable why am I judged as a sinner that the Apostle doth not think it worth the answering but onely silenceth such a desperate and prophane Disputant with a damnabitur that he is like to be damned for his pains v. 8. whose damnation is just for no argument so fit to confute him as damnation who will needs plead or dispute for the devil Will ye plead for Baal will ye save him he that will plead for him let him be put to death Jud. 6. 31. what a shame is it for us Christians that Baal should have so many to plead for him and God so few that Superstition and Faction should so much outstrip true Religion the professours of the one for they both meet in the same Baal though they are so far asunder in themselves going as much beyond the professours of the other in zeal as they come short of them in truth and yet still since superstition and faction must needs be judged as sins why should they not be judged as sinners that maintain them for neither should we finde a Disputant to defend it if both be sins neither should we find an advocate to plead for it if both alike uphold the worship of Baal and yet there are and will be swarms of such Advocates multitudes of such Disputants notwithstanding Joash hath said Let them be put to death that so plead and S. Paul hath moreover said their damnation is just that so dispute for neither death nor damnation can silence the perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness wherefore St. Pauls advice to Timothy is from such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. 6. 5. and we are little beholding to the Latine Translation for taking no notice of this so necessary a text yet God forbid we should therefore think it ought to be expunged out of the Greek Copies wherein both Latine and Greek Church so joyntly agree or else out of our own practise and observation S. Pauls advice in controversies or rather corruptions of this nature is From such withdraw thy self not against such oppose thy self he adviseth us rather to have no communion with them then to maintain disputations against them for as in carnal uncleanness the onely way for a man to have a clean body and a chaste soul is to flee fornication 1 Cor. 6. 18. not to resist it so is it also in this spiritual uncleanness which makes men go a whoring after their own inventions we must rather avoid the temptation then think to overcome it rather shun the Disputants then think to answer their disputations for men whose faction is above their Religion will never be silenced by arguments of Religion and men whose Interest is above their conscience will never give any ear to the plea of Conscience and this reason is in effect given by S. Paul himself why in such a case it is better to withdraw then to withstand v. 3. For saith he if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholsome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words as if he had said There is little hopes of doing good upon such a man for if he would have hearkned to any wholsome words and not onely to flattering speeches he would have hearkned to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ we may say to those words which Christ spake in his person S. Matth. 22. 21. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods for those words alone if rightly followed would suffer no man to be a Pharisee that is a Separatist either in Church or State for if men did give Caesar his due there could be no sedition in the state if they did give God his due there could be no schism nor heresie in the Church but we must say to those words which Christ spake in his doctrine whether immediately by himself or mediately by his Apostles if such a Pharisee would have hearkned to wholsome more then to pleasing words he would have hearkned to the words of Christ which he delivered both in his person and in his doctrine and if he would have received any doctrine but that which complied with his worldly interest he would have received the doctrine which is according to godliness but since he will neither hear the one nor receive the other 't is
the reconciliation would be easily effected as to what concerns Gods interest were it not impeded and hindred by our own Hence it is also that many under a pretence of settling and regulating Religion do indeed disturb and disorder it and in stead of rightly guiding the Christian do indeed misguide him whiles they stand so much upon ceremonals which are of their own making as that they much more neglect morals which are Gods undoubted commands and so desire to have their converts be some of Paul some of Appollos some of Cephas as they little regard and less care to see they be truly all of Christ. And yet amidst all these grand miscarriages of men which no Rhetorick can sufficiently express no repentance can sufficiently bewail though we finde much that may trouble us in the practise of Religion yet we finde nothing that can excuse us if we practise it not for there is matter enough uncontroverted on all sides to engage the whole soul of man if we would take notice of that engagement Satis ampla pietatis exercendae materia est in iis rebus de quibus utrinque convenit nam de side in Christum mortuum resuscitatum pro nobis collocandâ de charitate Deo proximo exhibendâ controversia nulla est at in his duobus capitibus pietatis summa consistit saith the most judicious and pious Cassander in his book De officio pii viri What pitie is it that there should be the greatest defect where is the least controversie amongst Christians This made the forenamed Authour profess that he was nothing at all satisfied with those men who pretended that the contentions of Christians hindred their progress in Christianity for saith he There is matter enough for the exercise of piety which is quite exempted from all controversie for all sides agree that we must be saved by faith in Christ crucified for our sins and raised again for our justification and by the love of God for his own sake and of our neighbour for Gods sake and in these two heads saith he of faith and charity is comprised the sum of all true Christianitie Saint Paul had said no less before him 1 Tim. 1. 5 6. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of faith unfained which Aquinas thus proves most substantially Omnes enim virtutes de quarum actibus dantur praecepta ordinantur vel ad purificandum cor à turbationibus passionum sicut virtutes quae sunt circa passiones vel saltem ad habendam bonam conscientiam sicut virtutes quae sunt circa operationes vel ad habendam rectam sidem sicut illae quae pertinent ad divinum cultum haec tria requiruntur ad diligendum Deum nam cor impurum à Dei dilectione abstr ahitur propter passionem inclinantem ad terram conscientia vero mala facit horrere divinam justitiam propter timorem poenae fides autem ficta trahit affectum ad id quod de Deo fingitur separans à Dei Veritate 22 ae qu. 44. art 1. All the vertues whose acts are commanded in the Law directly tend either to the purging of the heart from the disturbances of the passions as those vertues which teach us to order our affections or they tend to the getting and keeping of a good conscience as those vertues that concern our works and operations or they tend to the getting and keeping of a true Faith as those vertues which immediately concern the worship of God and all these three are required to the true love of God 1. A pure heart for that else will cleave to the earth by its impurity 2. A good conscience for that else will run from God because of its guiltiness 3. an unfained faith for that else will follow a fiction in stead of God and falsities in stead of his truth This being taken for granted which cannot rationally be denied the meanest man that is will finde little cause to be discouraged or disheartened in the Christian Religion by reason of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all which S. Paul so exceedingly dehorts S. Timothy that there are amongst Christians so many strifes about words and so many vanities and novelties and emptinesses in those strifes for if he will have a diligent care of his own heart that it may be pure of his own conscience that it may be good and of his own faith that it may be unfained he will not dangerously neglect his duty either towards himself or towards his neighbour or towards his God but will always finde matter enough to busie his soul here and take a sure course to save his soul hereafter it is evident from the ensuing words that none but they who swerve from these three scil a pure heart a good conscience and a faith unfained do turn aside unto vain janglings And for this cause our blessed Saviour chides not onely the Scribes and Pharisees but also the meanest of the common people for not following and embracing the undoubted truth though there were at that time as great contentions in the Jewish as are now in the Christian Church S. Luke 12. 54 56 57. And he said also unto the people Ye hypocrites can ye discern the face of the sky and of the earth But how is it that ye do not discern this time yea and why even of your selves judge ye not what is right He chides them for being quick-sighted in matters of earth but as it were pur-blinde in the things of heaven that they could of themselves judge rightly of the seasons for their profit not so for their amendment and notwithstanding he professeth that he came not to give peace on earth but rather divisions such as should divide the nearest and dearest relations from and against themselves yet he gives no writ of ease to any man that he should leave off being a judge in matters of his salvation for if divisions hinder them not from judging what is right in husbanding their lands why should they hinder them from judging what is right in husbanding their souls To apply this to our present purpose since 't is not in our power to doubt either of Christian faith or Christian Charity as necessarily required and immediately conducing to salvation why should it be in our will to neglect them both for this is in effect to proclaim that we had rather with Martha be troubled about many things then with Mary choose that good part which shall not be taken from us it is in effect to declare that we will have a Religion rather to serve our selves then to serve our God rather agreeable with mens present humours then with Gods eternal truth otherwise our whole labour would be to conform our selves to that eternal truth in our understandings by faith in our wills by charity which two would make us
continency then they did observe but concerning this the world would more willingly leave men to the judgement of their own consciences how to serve God with the most purity and with the least distraction if they did but answer to themselves this Question whether it is better that they which have wives be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7. 29. or that they which have no wives be as though they had them for what is best is doubtless in this as in other cases the determination of Religion for that labours to make men like God both in their bodies and in their souls in their bodies by sobriety temperance and chastity either virginal or vidual or conjugal in their souls by holy meditations and more holy affections and where men do most truly express this holiness in their lives and conversations 't is not to be doubted but there is the best and the purest Religion although it is often seen that where is the best and the purest Religion there men do not alwaies express the same in their lives and conversations which made the same S. Augustine declare this as a dogmatical sanction ex malorum Christianorum moribus non vituperandam esse Ecclesiam Aug. lib. de mor. Eccl. Cath. cap. 34. that the Church is not to be blamed for the misdemeanours of some men that live in her communion since she her self condemns those misdemeanours and labours to correct them The upshot of all may be this that not the practical but the doctrinal miscarriages of men are to be imputed to the Church and where are fewest of such miscarriages there is most of truth and goodness where is most of these there is most of the pure Religion for as manners make the man so Religion makes the manners and it is little other then the doctrine of devils that saith hell is full of moral honest men though it pretend to set up faith for S. Paul plainly shews that faith alone was the cause of all moral honesty in the Jews Heb. 11. so that 't is too much for any man to doubt much more to deny but that faith alone is the cause of all true moral honesty in the Christians whence our blessed Saviour preacheth onely moral duties S. Luk 21. 31. take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life c. he bids them be temperate sober and content watch and pray and what is all this but moral honesty yet if this rightly done and 't is rightly done onely in true beleevers proceed not from faith we must infer that we may stand in judgement without faith for so it follows v. 36. that ye may stand before the Son of man nor would Christ have thus taught daily in the temple v. 37. had this not been the right way of preaching true faith in Christ and what he prescribes in his doctrine he performs in his practise for his nights were spent in praying as his days in preaching and therefore to say that hell is full of moral honest men is to say that hell is full of true beleevers and consequently to blaspheme that precious faith in Christ which could not sanctifie the hand in working did it not first sanctifie the heart in beleeving and we cannot but say that Noahs preparing the Ark and Abrahams offering his son was materially an act of obedience that moral honest vertue which this world cares not to profess much less to practise though it was formally an act of faith and so we may say concerning those other examples there cited by S Paul wherein some vertue that belongs to the catalogue of moral honesty will come in for the material part though faith alone may happily challenge the formal part of the performance and Aquina's distinction of actus virtutis imperatus câ—â—â—tus will reconcile the difference for all vertuous acts truly so called are the acts of faith imperativè as commanded by it whence S. Augustine stiled the best works of unbeleevers but gilded or glittering sins though onely the peculiar acts of beleeving and confessing be the acts of faith elicitive as immediately and directly flowing from it for faith is in the soul as the soul is in the body and as all motion in the body is by redundancy from the soul so all good motion in the soul is by redundancy from faith and hence it is there is so great an influence of our words upon our manners and of our manners upon our doctrine and consequently upon our faith for as evil words corrupt good manners so also evil manners corrupt good words it having been the fate of Religion first to decay in mens lives then in their doctrines first in their works then in their faith so that irreligion first gets into our conversations then into our catechismes and the miscarriages of Churches have first been practical and after that dogmatical men being generally more zealous for their credit in labouring to justifie their errours then for their innocency in confessing that they have erred The third and last Attribute we are now to consider in God is his Mercy whereby he freely forgives what is due unto himself For as the act of grace is most clearly evidenced in freely giving what was not due unto the creature so is the act of mercy most conspicuous in freely forgiving what is due from it Aquinas makes Gods Mercy the foundation of all his works of distributive justice even in rewarding the righteous then much more is it the foundation of his not working according to his vindicative justice in the punishment of our unrighteousness 'T is a heavenly contemplation of his and such heavenly contemplations are very frequent in the angelical doctour opus divinae justitiae semper praesupponit opus misericordiae in eo fundatur 1 Par. qu. 21. ar 4. the work of Gods Justice alwaies presupposeth the work of his Mercy and is founded in it for the creature can have nothing due to it but for some thing that is in it and the creature hath nothing in it which did not flow immediately from the goodness of the Creatour therefore that goodness alone must be looked upon as the ground and foundation of all that the creature is capable of which alone put the same into a capacity of any thing at all Et sic in quolibet opere Dei apparet misericordia quantum ad primam radicem ejus cujus virtus salvator in omnibus consequentibus etiam vehementius in eis operatur sicut causa primaria vehementius influit quam causa secunda words that deserve to be engraven with letters of gold and much more to be engraven in our hearts and this is the meaning of them there is no work of God but mercy is the ground and root of it and this ground is preserved in all the building this root is seen in all the fruits that grow from it nay it hath a great efficacy of working above them
unto Abraham and other Patriarchs of delivering his people the Children of Israel out of the heavy bondage which they sustained many hundred years under the oppressing hands of the Egyptians but he assured Moses that now he was about to compleat that promise in their deliverance and hereby God insinuated to Moses that the Name Jehovah signifies him qui constans sit in omnibus promissis suis omnia promissa sua quasi facit subsistere who is constant and faithfull in the performance of all his promises the duties and comforts which from this sacred Name may flow into our lives and consciences are divers First From that expression of God to Moses by my Name Jehovah c. we may infer that they onely know God to be Jehovah who doubt not of his good or fatherly will towards them and have found by a joyfull experience or felt in the quiet peace and calm of an undisturbed conscience that he is true and faithfull in the fullfilling of his word in that by a gracious pardon he hath abolished the guilt of their sins and by the powerfull work of his spirit upon their souls abated the strength of their imbred corruptions and all this in and through the Lord Christ in whom God hath manifested and declared himself to be Jehovah in promissis verax constans so saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 20. speaking of Christ our Saviour In him all the promises of God are yea and amen i. e. have their compleat perfection per Christum habent suum implementum Grot. Secondly as the principal scope or end of this revealed Name Jehovah is not onely that hereby we acknowledge God to be the Lord who created all things out of nothing and gave them a being but also to teach or minde us of this truth that all his promises both of the things of this life and that which is to come shall by him be certainly compleated because that he who hath promised is most faithfull besides powerfull and true in his performance from hence our Christian duty is to exercise our faith by an humble and patient reliance on his promises expecting a joyfull issue of them and an undoubted performance whilest we argue thus with our selves The Lord our God the great Jehovah is omnipotent or almighty he can do what he will do and he will do what he hath promised it is he who hath chosen us before all worlds to salvation by Christ Jesus it is he who hath in great mercy promised to all believers the remission of all their sins and with it regeneration of our corrupt natures protection in the midst of dangers help in adversities sustenance in this life by a constant and fresh supply of all good things for our support and comfort perseverance in faith and well-doing and lastly a full possession of eternal life even the beatifical vision in heaven which is our essential happiness he hath sealed up those blessings by a gracious promise to us he who once promised to Abraham above 400 years before to redeem his people out of Egypt and to bring them into the promised Land of Canaan a type of heaven and at last when all things were desperate when their bondage was great and grievous when they groaned under their heavy burthens and were mightily oppressed with their task-masters then he awaked out of the sleep of his connivance and made good his ancient promise by destroying their enemies and delivering them out of bondage whereby he declared himself to be indeed Jehovah a God keeping his promises how then can we doubt but that he will do the same or more for us by performing what he hath promised and that with a solemn Oath to us i. e. to save our souls by translating them by Christ to heaven when they are released by death out of the prison of our bodies he can do this for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he will do it for he is our faithfull Creatour our Lord Jehovah therefore though our flesh rebels within us with fears and doubtings though the world without us assault us with afflicting troubles though the devil that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Naz. calls him that unwearied implacable restless enemy begirt and infest us with divers temptations though our sins speak discomfort and beget horrour in us nay though an Angel should teach or preach the conttary to us yet ought we not to fear by distrusting Gods faithfulness and truth which like himself is immutable and infallible and changeth not upon this rock of his fidelity we ought to build our faith beleeving that what things soever he hath decreed and promised whether they be temporals or spirituals the good things of this life or the other we shall receive them at his merciful hands if we perform what is required on our parts the condition of the new Covenant viz. Faith and Obedience resigning up our souls wholly to God in an humble submission to his will and waiting with patience for that word he hath promised and is yet to come Thus David waited upon the Lord Psa. 40. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I waited patiently upon the Lord c. this waiting on God which implies a patient expectation of what he hath promised to us hereafter in his word together with an humble resignation of our wills to his it requires a great measure and strength of grace such as was in Abraham and that First In regard of the things waited for which are far beyond or transcend any thing which we can hope for in this world Secondly In regard of that long day or that long period of time which God hath taken and prefixt before he will compleat his promise Thirdly the tediousness of delay which results from the former Fourthly the many oppositions troubles crosses afflictions and disappointments which in our way in this life we meet with Fifthly the scandals or offences received from them which are in high esteem for Religion when we see them fall into enormous sins we are apt to question Gods promise of perseverance made unto us where he says I will never leave nor for sake you Adde to all these a sixth and that is the untoward peevishness of our fainting nature apt to sink under the least discouragement In these respects there must be more then an humane spirit to hold up the soul and carry it along to the end of that which we wait for and they that with the Prophet David Psa. 62. 1. truly wait upon God from whom they expect salvation they are thus spirited thus quickned with divine grace though they be cast into the place of Dragons Psal. 44. 2. or whales overwhelmed with the sea of calamities and covered with the shadow of death though with Jonah they lye in the midst of the whales belly in a place of darkness and in the deep yet their faith in the great God whose Name is Jehovah will then and there shew it self lightsome and full of life
by a gracious dependance on Gods truth and faithfulness and expecting in his good time a comfortable issue of his promises Such waiters whose God is the Lord Jehovah in whom they trust on whom they depend and whom they constantly obey not departing from his precepts when he seems to have forsaken them in their greatest distresses such men are the prime the onely Christians who have in their soul the seal of Gods grace to assure them of their future happiness O thou whose Name is the great Jehovah and rulest all things in heaven and earth send down from heaven the habitation of thy glory thine Holy Spirit into our hearts and so possess our souls with an awful fear of thy Majesty and a filial love of thee for thy goodness and mercy that we abhorring all things that may displease thee and obeying thy precepts may in the end of our days obtain the end of our hopes and the fruit of thy promises which is the salvation of our souls and eternal bliss through the merits of our blessed Redeemer our Lord Christ Jesus The tenth and last Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schaddai by which God often stiled himself when he spake unto the Patriarchs to uphold their spirits and sustain their faith in the midst of their troubles Gen. 17. 1. the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto him I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the same words he bespake Jacob Gen. 35.11 hence it was that they also when they were to speak or make mention of God often used that Name or word Thus Isaac when he blessed Jacob Gen. 28.3 said the God whose Name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bless thee and make thee to encrease and multiply so Jacob said to Joseph the God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me As for the notion or meaning of the Name Galatinus l. 2. c. 17. out of R. Moses the Egyptian and Algazel determines it that it is a compounded term and made up of these two parts or particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in composition the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies sufficient and sufficiency so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the whole latitude or acception of it denotes the alsufficiency of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui in se à se sufficientiam abundantiam omnimodam habet it a ut nullius ope indigeat i. e. who in himself and from himself hath a sufficiency and abundance of all good things and needs not the help of any creature There is in God a fallness of power whereby he can do what he will his will being the onely rule and bound of his power therefore the Septuagint do often render this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Job 8.3 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that doth or worketh all things so in our English Translation doth the Almighty pervert justice As there is in many a man an empty fullness when bladder-like his soul is blown up with windy fancies of having what he hath not or of more knowledge then he truly hath so in God there is a fullness without any the least defect or degree of emptiness in God and Christ who is God and man in one person there is as the Schools speak Plenitudo repletiva and diffusiva or plenitudo abundantiae and redundantiae and abounding fullness because no good thing no gift nor grace is wanting in him and a redounding fullness because what gifts or graces soever be in us they are all derived to our souls from him the ever-living and overflowing fountain and spring of them from whom they slow into our souls per Spiritum tanquam per canalem through the spirit as it were a conduit-pipe without any loss of them in him or without any the least diminution and of his fullness have we all received Joh. 1. 16. a fullness without any want argues a great perfection quod plenè habetur perfectè totalitèr habetur Aquin Now if men through the door of faith opened by Gods blessed Spirit did see the fullness the excellency and alsufficiency of God it would so fill them with admiration joy and content that having a communion with God by his sanctifying spirit they would care for nothing else they considering what the Lord is and beholding his glorious face in the glass of his Attributes viz. his Wisedom Power and Justice c. upon this consideration they would say with the Prophet David The Lord is on our side or with us we will not therefore fear what man can do unto us Psa 118. 6. the Lord is ours therefore we can lack nothing that is good for us and if the Lord be thine then his Power is thine to sustain thee under any cross to redeem thee from troubles to help thee in distress to succour thee in the greatest needs and to support thy weakness in the performance of any duties his Wisedom too is thine thou hast an interest in it it is thy portion so that if thou desirest to be instructed in the knowledge of his word to understand those hidden mysteries which are contained in it if thou openest thy mouth to him in prayer he will open thine eyes that thou shalt see mirabilia leg is the wondrous things of his Law Psa. 119. 18. and be also wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. his Justice likewise is thine to vindicate thee when thou art injured if thou committest thy cause unto him and to clear thine innocency when thou art falsly traduced by the malevolent and to deliver thee out of the hands of the oppressour so for his Truth and Holiness the former is thine to make good his promises of blessings in this life and of happiness in that to come if by faith and full affiance thou dependest on him so the latter i. e. his Holiness is thine to sanctifie thy corrupt nature and to free thee as from the guilt so from the power of sin This is the portion of all the Sons and servants of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God al-sufficient who can and will do for us more then either we desire or deserve if we wholly rest and rely upon his goodness Happy is the man who is in such a case in so blessed a condition as to have a close union and near communion with the great God of heaven or to speak in the Prophet Davids phrase who hath the Lord for his God Psa. 144. 15. whose alsufficiency they atterly deny who worship any other God as did the Gentiles who multiplied Deities and sacrificed to more then one such are Polutheists who divide the glory of Gods excellencies amongst those petty Numens even as they are no other then practical Athiests and truly worship none who through infidelity question Gods alsufficiency for if he be God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
who will not shame his Religion here nor himself hereafter must with the Psalmist have respect unto all the Commandments Psal. 119. v. 6. then shall I not be a shamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments or so shall I not be confounded neither internally in mine own conscience nor externally before the world nor eternally before the dreadfull tribunal of Christ and this threefold confusion cannot possibly be avoided by any Christian Church or man but by having respect unto all Gods Commandments To all 1. In toto universali in their full number 't is as Anti-Christian to leave out the fifth as to leave out the second Commandment as heretical to leave out the thirteenth as to leave out the ninth Chapter to the Romanes 2. In toto Essentiali in their full Obligation there is as great an obligation upon the fifth as upon the fourth though the one may chance be cryed up to pull down the other 3. In toto Integrali in the several particular duties that depend either upon their number or upon their vertue and obligation of which we must observe our Saviours Diuinity in the mouth of his Apostle S. James 2. 10. whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point i e. impenitently by not repenting of his sin or doctrinally and magisterially by justifying it is guilty of all the reason is because he keeps the rest for his convenience not for his Conscience his convenience the great cynosure of this new Reformation and it is no less an Evangelical then 't is an an Angelical Truth uttered by Aquinas 22 ae qu. 5. art 3. that 't is impossible for him who pertinaciously disbeleeves one Article of faith to beleeve any of the rest though with his mouth he may confess them all Nam caeteros omnes non tenet per sidem simpliciter veritati primae inhaerendo sed propriâ voluntate judicio 'T is so in the Decalogue as 't is in the Creed a willfull belief is no true faith a willfull Religion is no true Religion for true Religion depends wholly upon Gods not upon mans will but least some mens furious zeal should chance over-rule S. James his Epistle the same divinity hath also proceeded from our Saviours own mouth and his mouth must instruct us or his bloud will not save us S. Mat. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven he that shall thrust a Commandment out of his life not onely personally but also doctrinally shall teach men so shall be thrust out of heaven for his pains he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven call your selves what you will the godly the faithfull the well-affected the Saints Christ will call you the least in his kingdom if you thrust Allegiance out of your Church which is not one of the least but one of the greatest Commandments the first of promise with God though the last of performance with you Allegiance that respects so many Commandments that 't is impossible but it should most nearly respect the Conscience Wherefore I must needs be most heartily sorry that I cannot say with S. Paul Act. 28. 19. I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar not that I had ought to accuse my Nation of for I have too much to accuse my Nation of in the High Court of Justice that I cannot appeal unto Caesar the poor Church of England in whose behalf I speak this was not long since calumniated to be a Mary Magdalene for her devils but now sure there is great reason she should be so for her tears having little else left her to do though yet more to suffer but to mourn and weep and if any say unto her Woman why weepest thou she is ready to answer as that Mary once did because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him S. Joh. 20. 13. I have been wholly excluded from all their consultations and actions both concerning his death and burial they have taken away my Lord my Lord the King a King that understood Divinity more exactly then the most learned expressed it more appositely then the most eloquent witness that heavenly piece which shews him to have been more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more truly golden in his mouth then in his Crown and practised it more strictly then the most conscientious amongst his best Divines a King which infinitely propagated the true Christian Faith by his life but much more justified it by his death for shew me all ye Christian Churches in the world since you have learned to mix man with God your own Interest with his in your Religion which of you all have had the happiness to have such a King live in your Religion I am sure none of you all have had the honour to have such a King if you have had a King to dye for it be his death never so much the sin and reproach of the Nation 't is such a sin such a reproach as not all the Ocean that surroundeth us can wash away yet 't is the Justification and glory of the Church that he confirmed that same true Protestant Faith by his death which he had ever professed and defended in his life as Christ did Christianity in its first plantation so did he in its best Reformation seal it with his bloud the greatest conquest the Church of England can ever get over its enemies so far is she from being conquered by them in contriving it for as that wrangling Disputant whom no arguments could convince was quite silenced by him that said though I cannot dispute for my Saviour yet I can dye for him So hath King Charles silenced all the enemies of this poor Church many indeed by disputing but many more by dying Reason enough why in common gratitude beside special duty we should not easily forget our Allegiance much less disclaim it least of all renounce it but there are yet more particular reasons which immediately concern the Conscience and those you may gather from the ensuing discourse which is a collection of diverse Sermons that were once truly a word in season though now they are not or may seem not to be at least in their opinions who will needs be too much judicious and too little consciencious but the Apostle will justifie the Authour in the press as well as in the Pulpit having his out of season for the one as well as his in season for the other 2 Tim. 4. 2. though he desire rather to justifie his Church then himself and condemn himself for all save onely for the integrity of his affection to God and his Church to the King and his People that the infatuated sons of the earth may no longer so scuffle to possess this world as ever to hazard the quiet possession of it and that they may no longer so
but also to the ignorant and foolish to leave even the meanest of the people inexcusable for this sin this horrid sin of disloyalty which though it least lodgeth in their hearts and is never to be contrived by their heads yet is alwaies acted by their hands Let a man be never so impatient in hearing as Festus was to S. Paul Act. 26. 24. which made him lay the imputation of madness upon the Apostle for the words of truth and soberness v. 25. Let him be never so inconsiderate in censuring as the Barbarians were to the same S. Paul Act. 28. 4. thinking him at first a murderer whom presently after they were ready to worship as a God Lastly let him be never so imprudent in collecting and observing looking rather upon the sound then upon the sense of the Text like those Interpreters of weak judgements but strong perswasions complained of 2 Pet. 3. 16. which were so unlearned as to understand nothing yet so unstable as to wrest every thing yet this doctrine of Allegiance cannot possibly be mistaken much less depraved either by his impatient hearing or by his inconsiderate censuring or by his imprudent collecting Let him run a way with what piece of it he can and take it without respect or relation to the whole which hath hitherto much wronged Gods Word both written and preached yet'tis not possible for him to take so little of the Text but it will be able both to stop his mouth and condemn his heart So that here we may forgoe that incomparable Rule of the Civilians Incivile est particulam aliquam Legis sumere non perspect â totâ Lege 't is very uncivil to lay at the catch with the Law and take that onely which serves our own turn I say we may forgo this Rule which yet is much more true of Gods then of mans Law and notwithstanding fear no mischievous tenents or practises to be deduced from this portion of the Text In a word let any seditious miscreant deal here with Solomon as Saul did with Samuel as he turns about to go away from him being resolved not to serve his purpose lay hold upon the skirt of his mantle and rent it of yet that very little parcel will signifie unto him that if he persist in his willfull disobedience The Lord will rent him from his Kingdom and that the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent 1 Sam. 15. 27 28 29. but teacheth Israel there is no way for them to be saved that are guilty of such a dismal lie but by repentance which may satisfie us that our Preacher here in this Doctrine of Allegiance is a Preaching Wisedom beyond himself in other Doctrines that begin and end where you will catch what you can of the Text it will wholly speak for your King and will silence you I know not how I have been over pressive in this patticular almost to a Tautology But that can never be too much spoken which can never be enough understood a preaching sinner a preaching conscience a preaching wisedom I hope we shall accordingly open not our ears but our hearts to his doctrine a preaching sinner who hath sin in his person not in his Sermon is fittest to admonish us a preaching conscience is fittest to advise us a preaching wisedom is fittest to overrule us here is not onely conscience and wisedom preaching this doctrine that we may not sin against it but here is also a sinner preaching it that we may repent us after we have sinned Solomon preaching before his Apostacy at the dedication of the Temple 1 King 8. 22. where he was first a Preacher had his first Congregation and afterwards in his Proverbs and Canticles is a miracle and monument of grace but preaching in Ecclesiastes after his wives had seduced him to be a Chaplain to Chamosh the abomination of Moab 1 King 11. 7. he is a miracle and monument of mercy O the infinite comfort from such a preacher if we follow him O the infinité condemnation if we do not And so it is high time I should pass from the Preacher and the manner of his preaching to the matter of his Sermon To keep the Kings Commandment c. wherein are comprised two doctrines that inseparably belong to Soveraignty the one of Allegiance the other of Supremacy the doctrine of Allegiance is clearly set down v. 2 3. and that of Supremacy v. 4. the first teacheth the duty of Subjects the second sheweth the reason of their subjection Allegiance is the duty of Subjects and Supremacy is the reason of their subjection In both it must be my endeavour onely to make my self and you truly understand this Preachers Sermon and so lay it to our consciences as he propounds it for Solomon here speaks both of Allegiance and Supremacy as they concern the conscience and divine obligation not as they concern humane conveniences or consultations therein shewing himself a true Preacher speaking to mens souls by which they hope to live in the next not to their interests by which they do live in this world first of the Allegiance A Sermon of Allegiance can never be unwelcome to a good Subject or a good Christian not to a good Subject because it puts him in minde of that condition wherein God hath placed him not to a good Christian because it puts him in minde of that duty which God hath commanded him and here is a Sermon of Allegiance briefly but fully setting it forth in its positive and in its privative act 1. In its positive act to be true and faithfull to the King in loving honouring and obeying him loving his person honouring his authority and obeying his commands I advise theè to keep the Kings Commandment and the reason thereof and that because of the Oath of God 2. In its privative act not to be guilty of any disloyalty or dis-allegiance either in affection Be not hasty to go out of his sight or in action stand not in an evil thing and the reason thereof for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him First Of the positive Act of this Allegiance to be true add faithfull to the King in loving honouring and obeying him in these words To keep the Kings Commandment 't is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Os Regis observa observe the Kings mouth to observe argues an act of loving honouring and obeying In this sense doth God say unto the Jews Ye shall observe all my statutes and Christ saith unto his Apostles Teaching them to observe all things Matth. 28. 20. that is to love honour and obey them So here to observe the mouth or command of the King is to love honour and obey his commands with an unwearied diligence with an undisturbed patience First It is to love them for who cares to look after that which he doth not regard Ubi amor ibi oculus is as true when made convertible ubi oculus ibi amor the eye is the quickest messenger
of the souls affection yet not so quick as at any time to go without its errand Secondly It is to honour them and that not cursorily or meerly for fashion sake but with the engagement of the soul to know them distinctly and to perform them diligently there is an outward honour in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in eye-service or the service of the man but there is moreover an inward honour in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in soul-service or the service of the minde the first is in all manner of serving and the second is peculiarly in observing Thirdly and lastly It is to obey them for observation is vain where it is not active and idle where it is ineffectual which makes our Saviour joyn observing and doing both together S. Mat. 23. 3. that observe and do and consequently the Preacher here bids us so observe the Kings Commands as to be sure not to leave them undone for then our observation will but make us guilty of the greater contempt the wise Historian sets those down for little better then a mutinous rabble of whom he saith Interpretari magìs quà m exequi they were more ready to interpret then to execute all commands truly to observe a command is to love honour and obey it and not onely so but also with the greatest patience as 't is serving with the greatest diligence as 't is observing with the greatest patience as 't is serving for what more tedious then wholly to attend upon anothers will and pleasure yet this you must do if you are bound to serve for that is to wait and with the greatest diligence as 't is observing for wherein can you be negligent if you may not once close much less turn away your eye yet this you may not do if you must observe for that 's to watch as then this word intimates waiting it requires all possible patience and as it intimates watching it requires all possible diligence and yet neither patience nor diligence can be so great as is the reason of them both in the next words and that in regard of the Oath of God where Aben-Ezra's gloss is most admirable a Jew writing to the admiration yet much more as the case now stands with us to the shame of Christians the Preacher saith he useth two such arguments as are both unresistable the one is the word of the Kings mouth the other is the word of thine own mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what hath proceeded from the Kings mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what hath proceeded from thine own mouth that is to say because he hath commanded and because thou hast covenanted so to do sc. to be true and faithfull to thy King and the same Doctour goes on as admirably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a King among men will not acquit him that rejects his word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and much less will the King of truth the King of Kings hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain here is a probable conjecture that among the Jews there was some kinde of Oath made unto their Kings not unlike to our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy there is mention made of a League or Covenant that King David made with the Elders of Israel in Hebron before the Lord when they came to anoint him King 2 Sam. 5. 3. which Covenant was reciprocal without question that David should not molest them for making Ishbosheth King for two years and after Sauls death yet staying five years longer before they came to anoint David King over them saith Kimchi and consequently that they should play no more such pranks with him be no more false to nor averse from his Soveraignty though mention is made onely of David in the Covenant as of the chiefest party yet the Elders did swear too by Kimchi's own confession though he record not the words of their part of the Oath and indeed it were strange if a Nation instructed in the Law of God should against that Law be forward to binde it self under an Oath not to do good to such or such a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philo of his own Countreymen and not be much more forward to swear homage and allegiance to their Kings which that Law did oblige them to but 't is sufficient for us that the Jews did think themselves bound without any peculiar Oath by vertue of their general Covenant with God To be true and faithfull to their Kings for that the fifth commandment was one of those ten to which they had vowed their obedience nay it was indeed the first commandment of promise and they looked by their obedience to inherit the promisedland and if that nation did think so religiously of the obligation of an Oath or Vow as to pretend that for an actual breaking of a commandment as it was answer enough for them why they did not relieve their father or mother to say they had sworn by Corban by the gift on the Altar not to do it Mat. 15. 5. what will become of us who have sworn to the keeping of this commandment to the honouring of our Father and rather then keep the commandment will break our Oath Jews Pharisees and Sadducees that deny the resurrection shall rise up in judgement against this generation and shall condemn it for they made the keeping of an Oath their pretence for breaking the fifth commandment but we have nothing save the breaking of an Oath or rather of many Oaths to alledge for our selves in that we have so shamefully broken it and can onely say we have made our selves guilty of perjury that we might be guilty of rebellion what have we not as great hopes as had the Jews have we not as great Promises as they had why then should we have a less obedience To be undutiful is not the way to obtain our inheritance in earth much less in heaven especially since God looks upon this grand undutifulness to kings as if it were unto himself And we may challenge all Christendom to shew us any nation or people that is not fully as defective in Conscience as it is in Allegiance Jannes and Jambres that first withstood Moses Gods immediate Vicegerent though not to them and then resisted the truth having left this unhappy legacie to all their followers that as they are men of corrupt minds for want of obedience so they are reprobate concerning the faith for want of a good Conscience God will not so far countenance rebellion as to let the true Religion long continue and much less thrive under it and 't is the general observation of all sound Divines that the Scripture doth most commonly joyn the fear of God with Obedience to Kings as 1 Pet 2. 17. Fear God Honour the King not supposing the one possible without the other and to shew it is not they are both joyned together in one act of Fear Prov. 24. 21. My son Fear God and the King and meddle not with them