Jews had said to terrifie the Galatians the Apostle asks them this question this only Gal. iii. 2. would I learn of you received you the spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith q. d. did I who am a Jew when I preached to you the Gospel of Christ upon which the Lord working with me you received the Holy Ghost and saw that Doctrine confirmed by miracles did I oblige you to any such custom AND This only would I learn of the Papists did we first receive the Gospel from them I know very well that some of them want not confidence to affirm any thing but we are better assured that Christianity was planted in this Island long before any of the Popes agents set their feet here And when they did come what did they do for us but corrupt our Religion by degrees and draw us into their yoke by making us believe that if we did not keep close communion with and observe them in all things we should certainly be damned BUT the Galatians were weary of their past and afraid of their future persecutions if they did not comply with the Jews THE more Fools they ARE ye so foolish says our Apostle have Ch. iii. 3 4. ye suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain q. d. Have ye embraced the Gospel with resolutions to suffer in the profession of it have ye done it hitherto and will ye now by foolishly thinking to avoid persecutions lose the Crown laid up in store for you on that account THE more fools they and the more cowards we WE have suffered in the defence of our Religion of the cause of God and his Vicegerents against a schismatical and rebellious generation of men but yet such as were set on and managed undoubtedly by our old implacable adversaries of Rome How many men of all ranks and degrees with an invincible courage lost their Estates their Liberties their Lives in the quarrel and are we faint-hearted now Have a care He that seeks thus to save his life is in a fair way to lose it BUT stay is the Liberty wherewith we are made free worth the contending for i. e. so as to oblige us to die if called to it rather than yield to the Roman Yoke IS it I do not in the least doubt it I am sure the first blessed instruments of our happy Reformation and their followers thought so else they would never have lost their Lives in the cause BUT Good God! in what an age do we live when a sort of men among our selves of loose and corrupt principles have not stuck to affront the memory of those blessed men and women with the name of Foxian Martyrs Such fellows will look to themselves I 'll warrant them NOW to satisfie you in the point I will in as few words as I can give you an account of this liberty wherewith we are made free and then tell me what you think on 't WE have the Oracles of God those Fountains of living water which contain all things necessary for our Salvation put into our hands 2 Tim. 3. 17. and read to us according to the Apostles times in a known tongue We have the Word of God purely dispensed by Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth We have the Sacraments rightly and duely administred according to our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ his own holy Institution And all this which characterizeth a true Church in order to our future happiness Then which both tends to that and also to our present well-being we are taught to obey our King and all that are put in authority under him without resisting to suffer death rather than lift up a finger against him never to expect to see the face of God with comfort unless we be of a peaceable disposition and live an holy life so taking the holy Jesus for our pattern as yet despairing most justly of all benefit from our own or others pretended righteousness to rely upon his most meritorious Death and Passion for our Salvation In a word to honour all men to love the Brother-hood nay our very enemies to fear God and honour the King These for brevity's sake I offer only as a specimen of that great and glorious liberty wherewith we are made free And what think ye now is not this liberty worth the contending for worth every mans contending for I will not so much as suspect that any person here thinks otherwise But if any such there be I shall only desire your patience a little while till I come to paint out to them the yoke of bondage which is to be given us in exchange for this liberty and then I hope they will be satisfied In the mean time let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith we are made free Stand fast therefore For Christ his sake stand fast Which is the Apostles second argument to enforce his exhortation Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free CHRIST made the Galatians us and the whole world free by his meritorious Death and Passion on his part and by faith and repentance on ours Christ made us free by enjoining us no more than his own perfect law of liberty leaving power indeed to the Guides of the Church to take care that all things should be done with decency and order but not to alter or diminish no nor to add a tittle that was not built upon that foundation And all the Epistles of the holy Apostles are but so many Comments upon that Law As for the straw therefore and stubble which our adversaries of Rome have built upon this foundation in order to our making brick for the repair of their tottering Tower away with it LET us follow Christ the author and finisher of our faith and not the corrupter of it Christ the Captain of our Salvation the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls and not his pretended Lieutenant and Vicar who acts both beyond and contrary to his Commission Remember I beseech you your first Vow when you were baptized into Christ who purchased your liberty by shedding his own most precious Blood for you and not into that man or Church who are most notoriously known ready to take it from you at the expence of your bloud if they cannot compass it by other means Remember that at that time you promised faithfully to be the Souldiers of Christ and to fight manfully under his Banner and do not run from your Colours by ungratefully and cowardly quitting your Post STAND fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free AND now one would think the Apostle had said enough to make his Galatians stand fast by urging to them their liberty and the author of it that there needed no more to be said in the case and that therefore if those would not prevail upon them all other arguments would prove insignificant and useless NO such matter He
THE other ab honesto They were and so are we bound in honor and honesty to keep our ground and maintain our station in this liberty for the sake of him who had and hath made both them and us free and that is Christ himself Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free OUR Second part also is fortified with two unanswerable arguments 1. THE former drawn ab incommodo from the mischief of quitting their station and being intangled there was a yoke a very heavy yoke of bondage in the case Be not therefore intangled with the yoke of bondage 2. THE latter ab absurdo be not intangled again q. d. Indeed if you had never been in bondage before somthing might be said for you your vacillation your wavering and staggering would call rather for compassion than indignation But for you you who have been emancipated from the yoke to run your necks wilfully into it again is such an egregious piece of folly and madness as deserves neither pitty nor forgiveness STAND Fast therefore c. and be not intangled c. I. To begin with the first The Persuasion or Exhortation Stand fast IT was a very ill character that Jacob gave of his eldest son Reuben unstable as water Gen. xlix 4. For that element falls under the definition of humidum according to the old Philosophy Quod difficilè suis facilè alienis terminis continetur which is morally true of an unstable irresolute man you may empty him from vessel to vessel indeed you may do what you will with him Every wind of doctrine tosseth him every tentation ensnares him every passion over-rules him every prosperous accident lifts him up and every ill one throws him down In a word as the Wiseman expresseth it he is like a City Prov. xxv 28. broken down and without Walls easily taken in and brought into bondage And all this proceeds from incogitancy He cannot allow himself time to debate and consider hardly to think much less to try all things and therefore it is utterly impossible he should ever hold fast that which is good The man lives by chance and not by choice is just what every thing without will make him neither more nor less and so becomes an easie prey upon every onset Now certainly to be thus is beneath the dignity not only of a Christian but of a Man FOR Gods sake therefore let us look about us Stand fast and quit our selves like men Let us not be like the Galatians here of whom the Apostle says that they could once run ye did run well and that now they were hardly Verse 7. able to stand but let us be strong and of a good courage THE Merchant before he goes to Sea is intent day and night upon his Adventure computes the charge considers the dangers threatned from piracy or shipwrack and yet at last in an uncertain hope of gain goes on at all adventures nothing can divert him from his purpose THE good Souldier from five pounds to ten pence a day considers that he must run through much hardship and carry his life in his hand yet in hope of Victory which is not always to the strong neither he resolutely wades through the one and hazards the other And why in the name of God should not we put on equal resolutions for our perseverance in and defence of our Religion having a sure and certain hope if we keep our station and continue in well doing of the Resurrection to Eternal Life To which purpose give me leave seasonably to advise you not to trust too much to your own strength but in the words of our Apostle to be strong in the Lord and in the power Eph. vi 10. of his might and to beg fervently and incessantly that he would strengthen our weak hands Job iv 4. that he would strengthen and confirm our feeble Isai xxxv 3. knees that so we may be able to withstand in the Eph. vi 13. evil day and having done all to stand IN the mean time taught and commanded by God himself I am not afraid to say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong Isai xxxv 4. fear not behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you AND more than this I think I need not say upon the first general of my Text Stand fast I shall now descend to the two prevailing arguments with which the Apostle enforceth this persuasion or exhortation THE first as we told you before is drawn ab utili jucundo from the profit and pleasure of thus standing it is in liberty the Galatians were and we are free BUT it fares now with us as it did then with them The Jews had a mind by putting upon them the yoke of Circumcision which was once a Commandment of God to glory in their flesh and the Church or Court Chap. vi 13. of Rome 't is all one to me which would by making us receive for Doctrins the commandments never of God but of men fain glory in our flesh but with a design undoubtedly to use it very coarsly as I question not in the following part of my Discourse to make it most evident Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith we are made free LIBERTY and Freedom Why is it possible that either the Galatians or we or indeed any man should come to that pass as to stand in need of persuasions to preserve that that upon which no man could yet ever set any price Certainly both they and we must be bewitched first I shall not desire to be excused either for the harshness or homeliness of the expression for it was the very case of the Galatians here against whom our Apostle exclaims thus O foolish Galatians who hath Chap. iii. 1. bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth THE Truth is they were bewitched with the fear of eternal Damnation which had been positively denounced against them by some of the Jews who were Zealous of the Law and might possibly Zealously affect them Chap. iv 17. but not well Of such you read Act. xv 1. Certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren saying except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved BUT besides this another charm by which they were bewitched was their weariness of past and fear of future persecutions if they did not comply with the Jews THESE were the Bugbears of the Galatians and they are ours EXCEPT ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved said some of the Jews to them And except ye become Roman Catholicks which yet every youth that hath but learnt half his Logic will tell you is non-sense ye cannot be saved No but with much more fierceness you shall be damned say the Papists with one mouth to us And I would fain know why so To obviate what the Zealous
contend for i. e. that they did first Preach the Gospel to our Fore-fathers in this Island what will they get by it Put the Case I should have the happiness to convert a rich Jew or an Indian to the Christian Faith am I thereby presently invested with a power over his Estate Liberty and Life A blessed Reformation this Christ sent his disciples forth as sheep among wolves but the Church or Court of Rome for I protest I can make no distinction between them sends forth her disciples as wolves among sheep to kill to tear and to destroy I do not find that Christs disciples received any Commission to cut the throats of all such as would not submit to the Gospel but I am sure that both they and their followers chose rather to suffer death than to cause any disturbance in the State otherwise than by Preaching that Gospel according to their Commission Our Saviour wrought a Miracle to testifie his obedience to the Civil power and had not that blessed Son of God himself given his followers an example by patiently submitting to the Sentence of Death under unjust Judges because they were in Authority we had at this day for ought I know wanted a Saviour our selves THE Jesuites tell us indeed that the Primitive Church and the First Bishops of Rome did not execute this power because they were then in Incunabulis in the Cradle and under Persecution But I hope the Son of God did not want that power If my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight for me saith he and to Peter himself Put up thy sword into his sheath for cannot I pray now to my Fatheâ— and he shall give me more than twelve legions of Angels But I forget my self THE time would fail me to speak of their Divine Service in an unknown tongue OF their invocations and adorations of Angels and Saints departed OF their worshipping of Images and in order thereunto utterly abolishing the second Commandment OF works of Supererogation all expresly contrary to the written word of God which therefore they destroy or make void through their Traditions OF their Purgatory OF Indulgences OF Pilgrimages I will name no more I am weary on 't they all being the unlawful Engins for the enlargement of their dominion and support of their grandeur by filthy lucre THESE and many very many more make up that yoke which is to be given us in exchange for that blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and which by Gods superabundant and no way deserved mercy we yet enjoy BE not therefore entangled with this yoke of bondage 2. ESPECIALLY considering the absurdity of being so intangled which is the Apostles second argument to fortifie this Dissuasion or Dehortation be not intangled again SED quid valet istud Rursus how comes the Apostle to dissuade the Galatians from being intangled again with the yoke of bondage who never had the law of Moses delivered to them and so had never before been circumcised whatever others answer I think there will be no great difficulty in the case if instead of the yoke you read a yoke which the original will bear as well as the other and then the sense is this you have by the preaching of Christ crucified among you been freed from one yoke that of Idol-worship no not run your necks into another of Circumcision BE not intangled again BUT then even here again the Galatians have the advantage of us for they were submitting their necks to a yoke sometime imposed by God himself as absolutely necessary but we by taking on us the Roman Yoke again submit our selves to a yoke of bondage made up of mere human inventions contrary to Gods word and destructive both of true Religion and civil Societies BE not therefore intangled again WOULD the Doctors go to School again a School where they shall be taught better manners than to rely only upon the all-sufficient merits of their Saviour than to be subject to any other power than that of our Lord God the Pope And in order thereunto they must learn a new lesson to live a single life whether they can do it honestly or no it makes no matter for fear lest having wives and children they should give the State security of their obedience to their undoubted and lawful Sovereign Nay which is more to be the Popes executioners and whenever heis angry and shall please to put their native Country under an interdict to proclaim his Bull for Excommunicating their Prince and absolving themselves and fellow Subjects from their allegeance to him and to surcease all religious Offices in the Church Would the Doctors I say go to School again WOULD a Servant manumitted and having a good stock wherewith to set up for himself be bound apprentice again Would a General of an Army turn private Souldier again WOULD a man become a child again A Patient lately recovered from an ill habit of body or some desperate disease relapse and fall sick again WOULD a Prince who holds his Imperial Crown only from God lay it down at the feet of an insolent pretender to a power of kicking it off from his head and giving it unto whomsoever he will AND if these things be absurd it must needs be so in us if we return to the Roman yoke again BE not therefore intangled again FOR Gods sake whatever the genius of the Galatians was let not us in so weighty a matter as this verifie our own Country-Proverb which says that an English-man never knows when a thing is well STAND fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage I have now finished my meditations upon the Text in the delivery whereof I have discharged my bounden duty without any sinister ends without either hope of good or fear of evil in this life but I confess not without having an eye to the recompence of reward in that which is to come I hope no man will be displeased with me for what I have said But if any such there be I am not careful to answer them in this matter I shall only make use of the Apostles honest Apology Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth Chap. iv 16. TO conclude give me leave once more to pursue the Apostles method who shuts up this Epistle with earnest persuasions that his Galatians would trouble him no more about these Chap. vi 17. matters but forsake the lusts of the flesh and live a vertuous and a pious life the only way if we could at last be persuaded to believe it to beget unity among our selves to avert Gods just and dreadful judgments and to make him favourable and gracious to our Sion I say therefore in the words of the Prophet Daniel as well to my self as to all that hear me Chap. iv 17. this day Let my Counsel now be acceptable to you let us break off our sins by Righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity And to that end WE humbly beseech thee O Father mercifully to look upon our infirmities and for the Glory of thy Name turn from us all those evils that we most Righteously have deserved and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living to thy Honor and Glory through our only Mediator and Advocate Jesus Christ our Lord. AS many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God to whom be ascribed and given all Power and Praise now and evermore FINIS