than that of the Sadduces § X. This is the most I think they have to say for themselves and upon supposal that all the particulars in the aforementioned Instances were indeed such Sins and Errours as they either take or mistake them for it must be admitted a very reasonable and sufficient PIea Only we require which is but equal that they mete unto us back again with the same measure and allow us the benefit of the same Plea mutatis mutandis so far as our Case is the same with theirs Let them but this do and the Objection will vanish First we nothing doubt but that the Papists by being baptized into the Faith of Christ are in a far better condition otherwise as we are sure they stand in a nearer relation to us thereby than Turks and Pagans do Yet as to external Communion in the publick Worship by refusing to assemble with us which is not our fault they are as very strangers to us as the very Turks are and in that respect to be looked upon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are without And therefore we deemed it more expedient and a more brotherly act to endeavour the reducing of our Brethren that held Communion with us to their just obedience by discovering to their faces being personally present those their Errours that obstructed it than to beat the Air to little purpose in declaiming against those that did not hear us and we were sure would little regard us For Secondly were it not for the confirming of our Protestant Hearers in their present belief of the Truth against such as will attempt to draw them from us it would be a very impertinent thing to insist much upon the discovery of Popish Errors in our Churches whither they that should reap most benefit by such discovery never come They live among us indeed which the Turks do not but since they come not where they may hear us it is all one to us in respect of our Sermons as if they lived as far from us as the Turks do But at such times as the Clergy are met together which is chiefly done at the Visitations when most of them who are most concerned both for their own sakes and the peoples that depend upon them to have a right judgment concerning the Nature and Use of Indifferent things are present it seemeth to be very proper and by the blessing of God may conduce very much to the edification of his people in Truth Peace and Godliness that the just power of those that have authority in the Church for making Ecclesiastical Constitutions should be asserted and the necessity of yielding obedience thereunto when they are made by all under such authority should be pressed This is the very truth of the whole business And what is there in all this to deserve such out-cries What is there if men would but soberly consider it that is not every way agreeable to the dictates both of Christian Prudence and Charity Thirdly which is a very important consideration and cometh up to the full of the Objection we think it more needful seasonable and expedient upon such opportunities to clear these points in difference betwixt us and our Brethren at home than to handle any of the Controversies in debate betwixt us and those of Rome Both because the People are in more danger of being mis-led by these than of being seduced by Papists and because the Papists make a great advantage indeed the greatest and in a manner the whole advantage they have against us of these home-differences For although the Emissaries of Rome have long used all the art and diligence possible to advance the Roman Interest among us yet the People of England are so generally prepossessed with a detestation of that Religion as the people of Spain France and Italy are of ours that were it not for the advantage they make of the excesses of some troublesome spirits among our selves they could not have expected to have reaped so plentiful a harvest here as of late years they have done But our Brethren having by their much Preaching and inveighing against the Papists wrought our common people to such a prejudice against her Doctrines that many of them know no other Rule whereby to judge of the soundness of mens Religion than by the greater or lesser distance it hath from Popery have thereby withal gained that high esteem of their soundness in Religion above others in the hearts of many of our people led as most are by opinion more than true judgment that it is a very easie matter for them to draw multitudes after them into a dislike of any thing whereon they shall think good to fasten the imputation of being Popish For preventing whereof if we do our best endeavour upon all good occasions to undeceive them first and by them the people by letting them see if they will but open their eyes how unsound the Principles are they go upon and how unsafe the Practices those Principles lead unto Who can justly blame us for so doing § XI To the substance of the Second Objection if I may with their leave and without their offence pass by that quaint minute piece of wit of Paper-pellits and Cannon-bullets I shall need make no further Answer than what hath already been given to the First Only I shall ex abundanti add two things the one concerning my self the other to the Objectors For my self if I be not much mistaken I have been so far from offending in the kind objected that I may seem rather to have offended too much on the other hand The substance of the matter both against Papists and others is I hope all along justifiable And then if some sharper expressions both against them and others have here and there slipt from my tongue or pen such as heat and indignation in our greener years are apt to suggest they that are ingenuous considering how long it is since those Sermons were Preached may be pleased to pardon it upon the old plea Dandum aliquod aetati As for them that they Preach against Popery I not at all mislike Only I could wish that these two Cautions were better observed than as far as I can make conjecture of the rest by the proportion of what hath come to my knowledge I fear they usually are by the more zealous of that party Viz. 1. That they do not through ignorance prejudice or precipitancy call that Popery which is not and then under that name and notion Preach against it 2. That they would do it with the less noise and more weight It is not a business meerly of the Lungs but requireth Sinews too Or to use their own Metaphor let them not think that casting of squibs will do the deed or charging with powder alone that will give a crack indeed and raise a smoke but unless they have bullet as well as powder it will do little execution § XII To the Third Objection
England and her regular and obedient Children in this behalf and it will be expected I should do it If any of the Children of this Church in their too much hast have over-run their Mother that is have busied themselves and troubled others with putting forward new Rites and Ceremonies with scandal and without Law or by using her name without her leave for the serving of their own purposes have causlessly brought an evil suspicion upon her as some are blamed let them answer it as well as they can it is not my business now to plead for them but to vindicate the Church of England against another sort of men who have accused her of Superstition unjustly 17. Set both these aside and her defence is made in a word if we do but remember what hath been already delivered in the Explication of the Text to wit that it is not the commandments of men either Materially or Formally taken but the Opinion that we have of them and the teaching of them for Doctrines wherein Superstition properly consisteth Materially first There is no Superstition either in wearing or in not wearing a Surplice in kneeling or in not kneeling at the Communion in crossing or in not crossing an Infant newly Baptized even as there is no Superstition in washing or in not washing the hands before Meat So long as neither the one is done with an Opinion of necessity nor the other forborn out of the Opinion of unlawfulness For so long the Conscience standeth free The Apostle hath so resolved in the very like case that neither he that eateth is the worse for it nor he that eateth not the better for it A Man may eat and do it with a good Conscience too As in the present case at this time it is certain Christs Disciples did eat and washed not it cannot be doubted but at some time or other they washed before they eat Not for Conscience sake towards God either but even as they saw it fit and as the present occasion required and they might do both without supersition But if any man shall wear or kneel or cross with an Opinion of necessity and for Conscience sake towards God as if those parts of Gods Service wherein those Ceremonies are used in our Church could not be rightly performed without them yea althought the Church had not appointed them doubtless the use of those Ceremonies by reason of such his Opinion should be Superstition to him Because a man cannot be of that Opinion but he must believe it to be true Doctrine that such and such Ceremonies are of themselves necessary parts of Gods worship As on the contrary if any body should refuse to wear or kneel or cross out of an Opinion of their unlawfulness as if those Ceremonies did vitiate the whole act of that Worship whereunto they are applied I cannot see but upon the same ground and by reason of such his Opinion the refusal of those Ceremonies should be to him also Superstition Because a man cannot be of that Opinion but he must believe this to be true Doctrine that such and such Ceremonies are of themselves unlawful to be used in the Worship of God But the obedient Children of the Church of England having no such Opinion either of the necessity or unlawfulness of the said Ceremonies but holding them to be as indeed they are things in their own nature indifferent are even therefore free from Superstition in both the kinds aforesaid So then in the things commanded taken materially that is to say considered in themselves without respect to the Churches command there is no Superstition because there is nothing concerning them Doctrinally taught either the one way or the other 18. Now if we can as well clear these things taken also formally that is to say considered not in themselves but as they stand commanded by publick authority of the Church the whole business is done as to this point Nor is there in truth any great difficulty in it if we will but apprehend things aright For although the very commanding them do seem to bring with it a kind of necessity and to lay a tie upon the Conscience as that of St. Paul implieth both you must needs be subject and that for Conscience sake yet is not that any tie brought upon the Conscience de novo by such command of the Church only that tie that lay upon the Conscience before by virtue of that general Commandment of God of obeying the higher Powers in all their lawful commands is by that Commandment of the Church applied to that particular matter Even as it is in all Civil Constitutions and humane positive Laws whatsoever And the necessity also is but an obediential not a doctrinal necessity But the Text requireth a doctrinal necessity to make the thing done a vain and superstitious Worship Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Which the Church of England in prescribing the aforesaid Ceremonies hath not done nor by her own grounds could do For look as the case standeth with private men for doing or refusing even so standeth the case with publick Governours for commanding or forbidding As therefore with private men it is not the bare doing or refusing of a thing as in discretion they shall see cause but the doing of it with an Opinion of necessity or the refusing of it with the Opinion of unlawfulness that maketh the action superstitious as hath been already shewed so with publick Governours it is not the commanding or forbidding of a mutable Ceremony as for the present they shall deem it fit for order decency or uniformities sake or such other like respects but the commanding of it with an opinion as if it were of perpetual necessity or the forbidding it with the like opinion as if it were simply unlawful that maketh the Constitution superstitious 19. Now I appeal to any man that hath not run on madly with the cry for company but endeavoured with the Spirit of Charity and Sobriety to satisfie his understanding herein if the Church of England both in the Preface before the Book of Common-Prayer and in the Articles of her Confession and in sundry passages in the Homilies occasionally and these Books are acknowledged her most Authentick Writings the two former especially and the just standard whereby to measure her whole Doctrine if I say she have not in them all and that in as plain and express terms as can be desired disclaimed all humane Traditions that are imposed upon the Consciences of Gods People either in point of Faith or Manners and declared to the world that she challenged no power to her self to order any thing by her own Authority but only in things indifferent and such as are not repugnant to the word of God and that her Constitutions are but for order comeliness and uniformity sake and not for Conscience sake towards God and that therefore any of those her Orders and Constitutions may be retained
perfection from Peace And then but not before shall Ierusalem be built as a City that is at unity in it self when they that build Ierusalem are at unity first among themselves 31. Consider fourthly what heartning is given and what advantage to the Enemy abroad whilst there are fractions and distractions at home Per discordias civiles externi tollunt animos said the Historian once of old Rome And it was the complaint of our Countrey-man Gildas uttered long since with much grief concerning the state of this Island then embroiled in Civil Wars Fortis ad civilia bella infirma ad retundenda hostium tela That by how much more her valour and strength was spent upon her self in the managing of intestine and domestick broils the more she laid her self open to the incursions and out-rages of forreign Enemies The common Enemies to the truth of Religion are chiefly Atheism and Superstition Atheism opposing it in the fore-front and Superstition on both hands If either of which at any time get ground of us as whilst we wrangle God knoweth what they may do we may thank our own contentions for it most We may cherish causless jealousies and frame chimera's of other matters and causes out of our fancies or fears But the very truth is there is no such scandal to enemies of all sorts as are our home differences and chiefly those which make it the sadder business that are about indifferent things Alas whereto serveth all this ado about gestures and vestures and other outward rites and formalities that for such things as these are things in their own nature indifferent and never intended to be otherwise imposed than as matters of circumstance and order men should clamour against the times desert their ministerial functions and charges fly out of their own Country as out of Babylon stand at open defiance against lawful authority and sharpen their wits and tongues and pens with so much petulancy that I say not virulency as some have done to maintain their stiffness and obstinacy therein I say whereto sérveth all this but to give scandal to the Enemies of our Church and Religion 32. Scandal first to the Atheist Who till all men be of one Religion and agreed in every point thereof too which I doubt will never be whilst the world lasteth thinketh it the best wisdom to be of none and maketh it his best pastime to jeer at all Great scandal also secondly to the Romanist Who is not a little confirmed in his opinion of the Catholickness of the Roman Faith when he heareth so many of the things which have been and still are retained in the Church of England in common with the Church of Rome as they were transmitted both to them and us in a continued line of Succession from our godly and Orthodox forefathers who lived in the Ages next after Christ and his Apostles to be now inveighed against and decryed as Popish and Superstitious And when he seeth men pretending to piety purity and reformation more than others not contenting themselves with those just exceptions that had been formerly taken by the Church of England and her regular children against some erroneous Doctrines and forms of worship taught and practised in the Church of Rome and endeavoured to be unduly and by her sole Authority imposed upon other Churches to be so far transported with a spirit of Contradiction as that they care not so as they may but run far enough from Rome whither or how far they run although they should run themselves as too oft they do quite beyond the bounds of Truth Allegiance common reason and even common humanity too 33. But especially and thirdly great scandal to those of the separation Who must needs think very jollily of themselves and their own singular way when they shall find those very grounds whereon they have raised their Schism to be so stoutly pleaded for by some who are yet content to hold a kind of communion with us Truly I could wish it were sufficiently considered by those whom it so nearly concerneth for my own part I must confess I could never be able to comprehend it with what satisfaction to the conscience any man can hold those principles without the maintenance whereof there can be nothing colourably pretended for inconformity in point of Ceremony and Church-government and yet not admit of such conclusions naturally issuing thence as will necessarily enforce an utter separation Vae mundo saith our Saviour Woe unto the world because of offences It is one of the great trials wherewith it is the good pleasure of God to exercise the faith and patience of his servants whilst they live on the earth that there will be divisions and offences and they must abide it But vae homini though without repentance wo to the man by whom the occasion cometh Much have they to answer for the while that cannot keep themselves quiet when they ought and might but by restless provocations trouble both themselves and others to the great prejudice and grief of their brethren but advantage and rejoycing of the common Enemy 34. Thus much for the Thing it self Like-mindedness The conditions or Qualifications follow The former whereof concerneth the Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one toward another It noteth such an agreement as is both Universal and Mutual Universal first I doubt not but in the then Roman Church at the time when this Epistle was written the strong agreed well enough among themselves and were all alike-minded and so the weak among themselves all alike-minded too They all minded to despise these these all minded to judg them But that agreement was with those only of their own party and so a partial agreement which tended rather to the holding up of a Faction than to the making up of an Union It was an Universal agreement the Apostle desired and prayed for that the strong would be more compassionate to the Weak and the weak more charitable toward the Strong both Weak and Strong more patient and moderate and more respective either of other in all brotherly mutual condescensions 35. It is our fault too most an end We are partial to those on that side we take to beyond all reason ready to justifie those enterprises of theirs that look very suspiciously and to excuse or at least to extenuate their most palpable excesses and as ready on the other side to misconstrue the most justifiable actions of the adverse part but to aggravate to the utmost their smallest and most pardonable aberrations Thus do we sometimes both at once either of which alone is an abomination to the Lord justifie the guilty and condemn the innocent Whilst partial affections corrupt our judgments and will not suffer us to look upon the actions of our brethren with an equal and indifferent eye But let us beware of it by all means for so long as we give our selves to be carried away with partialities and prejudices we shall
a fitter similitude whereby to express the miseries of the hell within us that of an evil conscience or of the hell without us that of eternal torments than by inner and outer darkness But light is a most glorious creature than which none fitter to express to our capacities either the infinite incomprehensible Glory and Majesty of God He clotheth himself with light as with a garment and dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto or that endless glory and happiness which the holy Angels do now and all the Saints in their due time shall enjoy in heaven Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 14. In these respects he that hath the honour to be stiled a Christian in any degree hath also a title so far forth to be stiled a child of light Whether it be by the outward profession of the Christian faith only or by the inward sanctification of the Spirit also Those are nomine tenus Christiani Christians but in name and shew equivocal Christians these only are Christians indeed and in truth Of these is made up the Church of Gods Elect otherwise called the invisible Church of Christ and not unfitly because the persons appertaining to that Church as members thereof are not distinguishable from others by any outward infallible Character visible to us but by such secret and inward impresses as come not within the cognizance of any creature nor can be known by any creature otherwise than conjecturally only without special revelation from God The foundation of God standeth firm having this seal Dominus novit The Lord knoweth who are his Should we take these here meant the opposition between the children of this world and the children of light would be most perfect Those who remain in the state of depraved nature and so under the dominion of Sin and Satan being the children of this world in the strictest notion and those whom God hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light that is brought out of the state of Nature into the state of Grace and translated into the Kingdom of his Son Iesus Christ being the children of light in the stricter notion also 15. But forasmuch as we who cannot look beyond the outside are no competent judges of such matters It will best become us to make use of that judgment which alone God hath allowed us I mean that of Charity And then it will be no hard business for us to pronounce determinately applying the sentence even to particular persons who are to be esteemed the children of light Even all those that by outwardly professing the name and faith of Christ are within the pale of the visible Church of Christ. The holy Apostle so pronounceth of them all 1 Thes. 5. Ye are all the Children of the light and of the day And Eph. 5. Yea were sometimes darkness but now are light in the Lord. Our very Baptism entitleth is hereunto which is the Sacrament of our initiation whereby we put on Christ and are made members of Christ and Children of God Whence it is that in the Greek Fathers Baptism is usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an enlightening and persons newly baptised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Officer in the Greek Church to whom it belonged to hear the confessions of the Catechumeni and after they were approved to present them to Baptism with many other phrases and expressions borrowed from the same metaphor of light and applied in like manner to Baptism 16. Now to bring all this long and as I fear tedious discourse home to the Text the question here resolved seemeth in the right stating thereof to come to this issue whether natural and worldly men in the managery of their worldly affairs to the best temporal advantage or they that profess themselves Christians in the business of their souls and pursuit of everlasting salvation do proceed the more rationally and prudentially in their several ways towards the attainment of their several ends How the question is resolved we shall consider by and by In the mean time from this very consideration alone that the children of light and the children of this world stand in mutual opposition one to the other we may learn something that may be of use to us We would all be thought what I hope most of us are not nomine tenus only by outward profession and at large but in very deed and truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Christians and children of light in the stricter and nobler notion Yet were it but the other only our very Baptism and profession of Christianity would oblige us to a holy walking sutable to our holy calling and Profession and to the solemn vow we took upon us at our Baptism It were a base yea a very absurd thing for us to jumble and confound what we find here not only distinguished from but even opposed against the one the other Children of God and of the Church by profession and yet children of Satan and of the world in our conversation Children of light and yet hold fellowship with and take delight in the unfruitful works of darkness Quae communio saith St. Paul It astonisht him that any man could think to bring things so contrary as Light and Darkness to any good accord or but tolerable compliance When we were the children of this world and such we were as soon as we were born into the world by taking Christendom upon us at our Baptism we did ipso facto renounce the world with all the sinful pomps and vanities thereof and profess our selves children of the God of light If now being made the children of God and of the light we shall again cast back a longing eye after the world as Lots wife did after Sodom or Demas-like embrace this present world clasping our hearts and our affections about it how do we not ipso facto renounce our very Christendom with all the blessed comforts and benefits thereof return with the dog to lick up our old vomit and reduce our selves to that our former wretched condition of darkness from which we had so happily escaped Can any of us be so silly as to think the Father of lights will own him for his child and reserve for him an inheritance in light who flieth out from under his wing and quite forsaketh him to run after the Prince of darkness The Apostles motion seemeth very reasonable Eph. 5. that whereas whilst we were darkness we walked as children of darkness now we are become light in the Lord we should walk as children of the light The children of the world perfectly hate the light why should not the children of light as perfectly scorn the world We have not so much spirit in us as we should have if we do not nor so much wisdom neither as we should have if we do not no nor
repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them The other in Ezek. 33. 13 14. When I say to the wicked Thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawful and right If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die And every where in the Prophets after Denunciations of Judgment follow Exhortations to repentance which were bootless if Repentance should not either prevent them or adjourn them or lessen them You see God both practiseth and professeth this course neither of which can seem strange to us if we duly consider either his readiness to shew mercy or the true End of his Threatnings We have partly already touched at the greatness of his mercy To shew compassion and to forgive that is the thing wherein he most of all delighteth and therefore he doth arripere ansam take all advantage as it were and lay hold on every occasion to do that but to punish and take vengeance is opu◠alienum as some expound that in Esay 28. his strange work his strange act a thing he taketh no pleasure in Vivo nolo in Ezek. 33. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked c. As the Bee laboureth busily all the day long and seeketh to every flower and to every weed for Honey but stingeth not once unless she be ill provoked so God bestirreth himself and his bowels yern within him to shew compassion Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Iudah how shall I intreat thee Why will ye die O ye house of Israel Run to and fro through the streets of Ierusalem and seek if you can find a man but a man that I may pardon it But vengeance cometh on heavily and unwillingly and draweth a sigh from him He◠consolabor Ah I must I see there is no remedy I must ease me of mine adversaries and be avenged of mine enemies Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets how oft would I c. How shall I give thee up Ephraim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together So is our God slow to anger and loth to strike Quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox but plenteous in mercy as David describeth him in Psal. 103. Never was a man truly and inwardly humbled but God in the riches of his special mercy truly pardoned him never was man so much as but outwardly humbled as Ahab here but God in his common and general mercy more or less forbare him Secondly the end of Gods Threatnings also confirmeth this point For doth he threaten evil think ye because he is resolved to inflict it Nothing less rather to the contrary he therefore threatneth it that we by our repentance may prevent it and so he may not inflict it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostom he foretelleth what he will bring upon us for this very purpose that he may not bring it upon us and warneth before he striketh to make us careful to avoid the stroke In the ancient Roman State and Discipline the manner was before they made war upon any people first to send Heralds to proclaim it Bellum indicere ne inferrent to the end that if they would make their peace by submission they might prevent the war nor so only but be written also in albo amicorum enrolled as their friends and Confederates So God sendeth his Heralds the Prophets to threaten vengeance against sinners not thereby to drive them from hope of Mercy but to draw them to repentance and humiliation whereby they may not only turn away the vengeance threatned but also if they perform them unfeignedly and with upright hearts interest themselves farther in his favour and love Nor is it to be accounted among the least of Gods Mercies when he might in his just displeasure overwhelm us in the very Act of our sins as Zimri and Cosbi were run thorow in the very Act of filthiness and as Uzzah and Ananias and Sapphira and some few others whom God picked out to shew exemplary judgment upon were strucken dead upon the sudden for their transgressions When God might in justice deal with the same rigour against us all I say it is not the least of his Mercies that he forbeareth and forewarneth and foretelleth and threatneth us before he punish that if we will take any warning he may do better to us than he hath said and not bring upon us what he hath threatned A Point very useful and comfortable if it be not derogatory to God's Truth Let us therefore first clear that and then proceed to the Uses If God thus revoke his Threatnings it seemeth he either before meant not what he spake when he threatned or else after when he revoketh repenteth of what he meant either of which to imagine far be it from every Christian heart since the one maketh God a dissembler the other a changling the one chargeth him with falshood the other with lightness And yet the Scriptures sometimes speak of God as if he grieved for what he did or repented of what he spake or altered what he had purposed and for the most part such like affections are given him in such places as endeavour to set forth to the most life his great mercy and kindness to sinful mankind We all know we cannot indeed give God any greater glory than the glory of his Mercy yet must know withal that God is not so needy of means to work out his own glory as that he should be forced to redeem the glory of his Mercy with the forfeiture either of his Truth or Steadfastness We are therefore to lay this as a firm ground and infallible that our God is both truly Unchangeable and unchangeably True The strength of Israel is not as man that he should lye nor as the son of man that he should repent his words are not Yea and Nay neither doth he use lightness But his words are Yea and Amen and himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heaven and Earth may pass away yea shall pass away but not the least tittle of God's Words shall pass away unfulfilled They may wax old as a Garment and as a Vesture he shall change them and they shall be changed but he is the same and his years fail not neither do his Purposes fail nor his Promises fail nor his Threatnings fail nor any of his Words fail Let Heaven and Earth and Hell and Angel and Man and Devil and all change still Ego Deus non mutor God he is the Lord of all and he changeth not As for those Phrases then of Repenting Grieving c. which are spoken of God in the Scriptures that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
means promise him to come because the liberty I had before to go or not to go is now determined by making such a promise neither may a young man bind himself an Apprentice with any certain Master or to any certain Trade because the liberty he had before of placing himself indifferently with that Master or with another and in that trade or in another is now determin'd by such a contract And so it might be instanc'd in a thousand other things For indeed to what purpose hath God left indifferent things determinable both ways by Christian liberty if they may never be actually determined either way without impeachment of that liberty It is a very vain power that may not be brought into act but God made no power in vain Our Brethren I hope will wave this first argument when they shall have well examined it unless they will frame to themselves under the name of Christian liberty a very Chimaera a non ens a meer notional liberty whereof there can be no use That which was alledged secondly that they that make such Laws take upon them to alter the nature of things by making indifferent things to become necessary being said gratis without either truth or proof is sufficiently answered by the bare denial For they that make Laws concerning indifferent things have no intention at all to meddle with the nature of them they leave that in medio as they found it but only for some reasons of conveniency to order the use of them the indifferency of their nature still being where it was Nay so far is our Church from having any intention of taking away the indifferency of those things which for order and comeliness she enjoyneth that she hath by her publick declaration protested the contrary wherewith they ought to be satisfied Especially since her sincerity in that declaration that none may cavil as if it were protestatio contraria facto appeareth by these two most clear Evidences among many other in that she both alloweth different Rites used in other Churches and also teacheth her own rites to be mutable neither of which she could do if she conceived the nature of the things themselves to be changed or their indifferency to be removed by her Constitutions Neither is that true which was thirdly alledged that where men are bound in conscience to obey there the conscience is not left free or else there would be a contradiction For there is no contradiction where the Affirmative and Negative are not ad idem as it is in this case for Obedience is one thing and the Thing Commanded another The Thing is commanded by the Law of Man and in regard thereof the conscience is free but Obedience to men is commanded by the Law of God and in regard thereof the conscience is bound So that we are bound in conscience to obedience in indifferent things lawfully commanded the conscience still remaining no less free in respect of the things themselves so commanded than it was before And you may know it by this In Laws properly humane such as are those that are made concerning indifferent things the Magistrate doth not nor can say this you are bound in conscience to do and therefore I command you to do it as he might say if the bond of obedience did spring from the nature of the things commanded But now when the Magistrate beginneth at the other end as he must do and saith I command you to do this or that and therefore you are bound in conscience to do it this plainly sheweth that the bond of obedience ariseth from that power in the Magistrate and duty in the subject which is of Divine Ordinance You may observe therefore that in humane Laws not meerly such that is such as are established concerning things simply necessary or meerly unlawful the Magistrate may there derive the bond of obedience from the nature of the things themselves As for example if he should make a Law to inhibit Sacriledge or Adultery he might then well say You are bound in conscience to abstain from these things and therefore I command you so to abstain which he could not so well say in the Laws made to inhibit the eating of flesh or the transportation of Grain And the reason of the difference is evident because those former Laws are rather Divine than Humane the substance of them being divine and but the sanction only humane and so bind by their immediate vertue and in respect of the things themselves therein commanded which the latter being meerly humane both for substance and sanction do not The consideration of which difference and the reason of it will abundantly discover the vanity of the fourth allegation also wherein it was objected that the things enjoyned by the Ecclesiastical Laws are imposed upon men as of necessity to salvation which is most untrue Remember once again that obedience is one thing and the things commanded another Obedience to lawful Authority is a duty commanded by God himself and in his Law and so is a part of that holiness without which no man shall see God but the things themselves commanded by lawful Authority are neither in truth necessary to salvation nor do they that are in Authority impose them as such only they are the object and that but by accident neither and contingently not necessarily about which that obedience is conversant and wherein it is to be exercised An example or two will make it plain We know every man is bound in conscience to employ himself in the works of his particular calling with faithfulness and diligence and that faithfulness and diligence is a branch of that holiness and righteousness which is necessary unto salvation Were it not now a very fond thing and ridiculous for a man from hence to conclude that therefore drawing of wine or making of shoes were necessary to salvation because these are the proper imployment of the Vintners and Shoemakers Calling which they in conscience are bound to follow nor may without sin neglect them Again if a Master command his servant to go to the Market to sell his corn and to buy in provision for his house or to wear a livery of such or such a colour and fashion in this case who can reasonably deny but that the servant is bound in conscience to do the very things his Master biddeth him to do to go to sell to buy to wear And yet is there any man so forsaken of common sence as thence to conclude that going to market selling of corn buying of meat wearing a blue coat are necessary to salvation Or that the Master imposeth those things upon the servant as of necessity unto salvation The obligation of the servants conscience to do the things commanded ariseth from the force of that divine Law which bindeth servants to obey their masters in lawful things The master in the things he so commandeth hath no particular actual respect to the conscience of his servant
ween is another-gates matter than to make the face to shine This for material Oil. Then for those other outward things which for some respects I told you might be also comprehended under the name of Ointments Riches Honours and worldly Pleasures alas how poor and sorry comforts are they to a man that hath forfeited his good Name that liveth in no credit not reputation that groaneth under the contempt and reproach and infamy of every honest or but sober man Whereas he that by godly and vertuous Actions by doing Iustice and exercising Mercy and ordering himself and his affairs discreetly holdeth up his good Name and reputation hath that yet to comfort himself withal and to fill his bones as with marrow and fatness though encompassed otherwise with many outward wants and calamities Without which even life it self would be unpleasant I say not to a perfect Christian only but even to every ingenuous moral man The worthier â—ort of men among the Heathens would have chosen rather to have died the most cruel deaths than to have lived infamous under shame and disgrace And do not those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 9. shew that he was not much otherwise minded It were better for me to dye than that any man should make my glorying void Thus a good Name is better than any precious Ointment take it as you will properly or tropically because it yieldeth more solid content and satisfaction to him that enjoyeth it than the other doth 17. Compare them thirdly in those performances whereunto they enable us Oils and Ointments by a certain penetrative faculty that they have being well chaâ—ed in do supple the joynts and strengthen the sinews very much and thereby greatly enable the body for action making it more nimble and vigorous than otherwise it would be Whence it was that among the Greeks and from their example among the Romans and in other Nations those that were to exercise Arms or other feats of Activity in their solemn Games especially Wrestlers did usually by frictions and anointings prepare and fit their bodies for those Athletick performances to do them with more agility and less weariness Insomuch as Chrysostom and other Greek Fathers almost every where use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only when they speak of those preparatory advantages such as are prayer fasting meditation of Christs Sufferings or of the Joys of Heaven and the like wherewith Christians may fortifie and secure themselves when they are to enter the combate with their spiritual enemies but more generally to signifie any preparing or fitting of a person for any manner of action whatsoever 18. But how much more excellent then is a good name Which is of such mighty consequence advantage for the expediting of any honest enterprise that we take in hand either in our Christian course or civil life in this World It is an old saying taken up indeed in relation to another matter somewhat distant from that we are now treating of but it holdeth no less true in this than in that other respect Duo cum faciunt idem non est idem Let two men speak the same words give the same advice pursue the same business drive the same design with equal right equal means equal diligence every other thing equal yet commonly the success is strangely different if the one be well thought of and the other labour of an ill name So singular an advantage is it for the crowning of our endeavours with good success to be in a good name If there be a good opinion held of us and our names once up whether we deserve it or no whatsoever we do is well taken whatsoever we propose is readily entertained our counsels yea and rebukes too carry weight and authority with them By which means we are enabled if we have but grace to make that good use thereof to do the more good to bring the more glory to God to give better countenance to his truth and to good causes and things Whereas on the other side if we be in an ill name whether we deserve it or no all our speeches and actions are ill-interpreted no man regardeth much what we say or do our proposals are suspected our counsels and rebukes though wholsom and just scorned and kickt at so as those men we speak for that side we adhere to those causes we defend those businesses we manage shall lie under some prejudice and be like to speed the worse for the evil opinion that is held of us We know well it should be otherwise Non quis sed quid As the Magistrate that exerciseth publick judgment should lay aside all respect of the person and look at the cause only so should we all in our private judgings of other mens speeches and actions look barely upon the truth of what they say and the goodness of what they do and accordingly esteem of both neither better nor worse more or less for whatsoever fore-conceits we may have of the person Otherwise how can we avoid the charge of having the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of Glory with respect of persons But yet since men are corrupt and will be partial this way do we what we can and that the World and the affairs thereof are so much steered by Opinion it will be a point of godly wisdom in us so far to make use of this common corruption as not to disadvantage our selves for want of a good name and good Opinion for the doing of that good whilst we live here among men subject to such frailties which we should set our desires and bend our endeavours to do And so a good Name is better than a good Ointment in that it enableth us to better and worthier performances 19. Compare them Fourthly in their Extensions and that both for Place and Time For place first That Quality of the three before-mentioned which especially setteth a value upon Ointments advancing their price and esteem more eminently than any other consideration is their smell those being ever held most precious and of greatest delicacy that excel that way And herein is the excellency of the choicest Aromatical Ointments that they do not only please the sence if they be held near to the Organ but they do also disperse the fragrance of their scent round about them to a great distance Of the sweetest herbs and flowers the smell is not much perceived unless they be held somewhat near to the Nostril But the smell of a precious Ointment will instantly diffuse it self into every corner though of a very spacious room as you heard but now of the Spikenard poured on our Saviours feet Ioh. 12. But see how in that very thing wherein the excellency of precious Ointments consisteth a good Name still goeth beyond it It is more diffusive and spreadeth farther Of King Uzziah so long as he did well and
to them that can lay hold of it for it is above the reach of Poets and Philosophers and beyond the ken even of professed Christians that want the eye of Faith to frame us to contentment with the present arising from the contemplation of the infinite love of our gracious Lord God joyntly with his infinite wisdom By these as many as are truly the Children of God by faith and not titulo tenùs only are assured of this most certain truth That whatsoever their heavenly Father in his wisdom seeth best for them that evermore in his love he provideth for them From which Principle every man that truly feareth God and hath fixed his hope there may draw this infallible conclusion demonstratively and by the Laws of good discourse per viam regressus This my good God hath presently ordered for me and therefore it must needs be he saw it presently best for me Thus may we sugere mel de petra gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles and satisfie our selves with the honey of comfort out of the stony rock of barrenness and adversity 37. Where are they then that will tell you On the one side what jolly men they have been But miserum est fuisse Having been born and bred to better fortunes their spirits are too great to stoop to so low a condition as now they are in If it were with them as in some former times no men should lead more contented lives than they should do Or that will tell you on the other side what jolly men they shall be when such fortunes as they have in chase or in expectation shall fall into their hands they doubt not but they shall live as contentedly as the best Little do the one sort or the other know the falseness of their own unthankful and rebellious hearts If with discontent they repine at what they are I shall doubt they were never truly content with what they were and I shall fear unless God change their hearts that they will never be well content with what they shall be He that is indeed content when the Lord giveth can be content also when the Lord taketh away and with Iob bless the holy Name of God for both He had a mind contented in as good though perhaps not in so high a measure when he sate upon the dunghil scraping himself with a potsheard in the midst of his incompassionate friends as he had when he sate in the gate judging the people in the midst of the Princes and Elders of the Land 38. It were certainly therefore best for us to frame our minds now the best we can to our present estate be it better or worse that whether it shall be better or worse with us hereafter we may the better frame our minds to it then also We should all do in this case following the Lord which way soever he leadeth us as the Israelites followed the guidance of the cloudy-fiery-pillar When it went they went when it stood they stood and look which way it went to the North or to the South the same way they took and whether it moved swiftly or slowly they also framed their pace accordingly We are in like sort to frame our selves and wills to a holy submission to whatsoever the present good pleasure of his will and providence shall share out for us 39. Which yet let no man so desperately mis-understand as to please himself hereupon in his own sloth and supinity with Solomons sluggard whom that wise man censureth as a fool for it who foldeth his hands together and letteth the world wag as it will without any care at all what shall become of him and his another day And yet as if he were the only wise man Sapientum octavus wiser than seven men that can render a reason he speaketh Sentences but it is like a Parable in a fools mouth a speech full of reason in it self but by him witlesly applied and telleth you that Better is a handful with quietness than both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Would you not think him the most contented soul that lives But there is no such matter He is as desiring and as craving as the most covetous wretch that never ceaseth toyling and moyling to get more if he might but have it and never sweat for it 40. Nor yet Secondly so as to pass censure upon his brethren as if it were nothing but Covetousness or Ambition when he shall observe any of them by their providence industry and good endeavours in a fair and honest course to lay a foundation for their future better fortunes as the currish Philosopher snarled at his fellow Si pranderet olus sapienter regibus uti Nollet Aristippus For so long as the ways we go are just and straight and the care we take moderate and neither the things we look after unmeet for us nor the event of our endeavours improbable if withal the minds we bear be tempered with such an evenness as to expect the issue with patience and neither be puft up beyond measure with the good success of our affairs nor cast down beyond measure if they hap to miscarry it hindereth not but we may at once both be well contented with the Present and yet industriously provident for the future The same Poet hath meetly well expressed it there speaking again of the same person Omnis Aristippum decuit color status res Tentantem majora ferè praesentibus aequum It is a point of wisdom not a fruit of discontent when God openeth to a man a fair opportunity of advancing his estate to an higher or fuller condition than now he is in to embrace the opportunity and to use all meet diligence in the pursuit for the obtaining of his lawful desires Rather it is a fruit either of Pride or Sloth or both to neglect it though upon the pretence of being content with the present 41. Pass we now on from this Second to the Third and last points observed concerning the object of true Contentment which was the Indifferency of it as it standeth in the Text for the kind quantity quality and every other respect except the before excepted altogether unlimited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferently Be it high or low rich or poor base or honourable easie or painful prosperous or troublous all is a point all that God sendeth is welcom He that hath learned St. Pauls Lesson can make a shift with any state and rest satisfied therewithall The Apostle a little enlargeth himself in the next verse shewing that in the change of outward things his mind yet continued unchanged and was still the same under the greatest contrarieties of events I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both â—o abound and to suffer need And elsewhere he saith of himself and his fellow-labourers in the