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
to be the next employment of my Readers patience And in London all the Bishops Houses were turn'd to be Prisons and they fill'd with Divines that would not take the Covenant or forbear reading Common-Prayer or that were accus'd for some faults like these For it may be noted That about this time the Parliament sent out a Proclamation to incourage all Lay-men that had occasion to complain of their Ministers for being troublesome or scandalous or that conformed not to Orders of Parliament to make their complaint to a select Committee for that purpose and the Minister though one hundred miles from London was to appear there and give satisfaction or be sequestred and you may be sure no Parish could want a covetous or malicious or cross-grain'd complainant by which means all Prisons in London and in many other places became the sad habitations of Conforming Divines And about this time the Bishop of Canterbury having been by an unknown Law condemned to die and the execution suspended for some days many Citizens fearing time and cool thoughts might procure his Pardon became so maliciously impudent as to shut up their shops professing not to open them till Iustice was executed This malice and madness is scarce credible but I saw it The Bishops had been about this time voted out of the House of Parliament and some upon that occasion sent to the Tower which made many Covenanters rejoyce and most of them to believe Mr. Brightman who probably was a well meaning man to be inspir'd when he writ his Comment on the Apocalyps a short Abridgment of which was now printed cryed up and down the Streets and call'd Mr. Brightman's Revelation of the Revelation and both bought up and believ'd by all the Covenanters And though he was grosly mistaken in other things yet because he had there made the Churches of Geneva and Scotland which had no Bishops to be Philadelphia in the Apocalyps that Angel that God loved and the power of Prelacy to be Antichrist the evil Angel which the House of Commons had now so spued up as never to recover their dignity Therefore did those Covenanters rejoyce approve and applaud Mr. Brightman for discovering and foretelling the Bishops downfal so that they both rail'd at them and at the same time rejoyc'd to buy good penny-worths of all their Land which their Friends of the House of Commons did afford both to themselves and them as a reward for their zeal and diligent assistance to pull them down And the Bishops power being now vacated the common people were made so happy as that every Parish might choose their own Minister and tell him when he did and when he did not preach true Doctrine and by this and the like means several Churches had several Teachers that pray'd and preach'd for and against one another and ingag'd their hearers to contend furiously for truths which they understood not some of which I shall mention in what will follow I have heard of two men that in their discourse undertook to give a character of a third person and one concluded he was a very honest man for he was beholden to him and the other that he was not for he was not beholden to him And something like this was in the designs both of the Covenanters and Independants the last of which were now grown both as numerous and as powerful as the former for though they differ'd much in many Principles and preach'd against each other one making it a sign of being in the state of grace if we were but zealous for the Covenant and the other not for we ought to buy and sell by a Measure and to allow the same liberty of Conscience to others which we by Scripture claim to our selves and therefore not to force any to swear the Covenant contrary to their Consciences and probably lose both their Livings and Liberties too But though these differed thus in their conclusions yet they both agreed in their practice to preach down Common Prayer and get into the best sequestred Livings and whatever became of the true Owners their Wives and Children yet to continue in them without the least scruple of Conscience They also made other strange Observations of Election Reprobation and Free-will and the other Points Dependant upon these such as the wisest of the common People were not fit to judge of I am sure I am not though I must mention some of them historically in a more proper place when I have brought my Reader with me to Dr. Sanderson at Boothly Pannel And in the way thither I must tell him That a very Covenanter and a Scot too that came into England with this unhappy Covenant was got into a good sequestred Living by the help of a Presbyterian Parish which had got the true Owner out And this Scotch Presbyterian being well setled in this good Living began to reform the Church-yard by cutting down a large Ewe Tree and some other Trees that were an ornanament to the place and very often a shelter to the Parishioners and they excepting against him for so doing were by him answered That the Trees were his and 't was lawful for every man to use his one as he and not as others thought fit I have heard but do not affirm it That no action lies against him that is so wicked as to steal the winding-sheet from off a dead body after 't is buried and have heard the reason to be because none were supposed to be so void of humanity and that such a Law would vilifie that Nation that would but suppose so vile a man to be born in it I speak this because I would not suppose any man to do what this Covenanter did And whether there were any Law against him I know not but pity the Parish the less for turning out their legal Minister We have now overtaken Dr. Sanderson at Boothy Pannel where he hop'd to have enjoy'd himself though in a poor yet in a quiet and desir'd privacy but it prov'd otherwise For all Corners of the Nation were fill'd with Covenanters Confusion Committee-men and Soldiers defacing Monuments breaking painted Glass Windows and serving each other to their several ends of Revenge or Power or Profit and these Committee-men and Soldiers were most of them so possest with this Covenant that they became like those that were infected with that dreadful Plague of Athens the Plague of which Plague was that they by it became maliciously restless to get into company and to joy so the Historian saith when they had infected others even those of their most beloved or nearest Friends or Relations and so though there might be some of these Covenanters that were beguil'd and meant well yet such were the generality of them and temper of the times that you may be sure Dr. Sanderson who though quiet and harmless yet was an eminent Dissenter from them could therefore not live peaceably nor did he For the Soldiers would appear and visibly oppose
to leave them a competence and in the hands of a God that would provide for all that kept innocence and trusted in his providence and protection which he had always found enough to make and keep him happy There was in his Diocess a Minister of almost his Age that had been of Lincoln Colledge when he left it who visited him often and always welcom because he was a Man of Innocence and open-heartedness This Minister asked the Bishop what Books he studied most when he laid the foundation of his great and clear Learning To which his Answer was That he declin'd reading many Books but what he did read were well chosen and read so often that he became very familiar with them and told him they were chiefly three Aristotle's Rhetorick Acquinas's Secunda Secundae and Tully but chiefly his Offices which he had not read over less than 20 times and could at this Age repeat without Book And told him also the learned Civilian Doctor Zouch who died lately had writ Elementa jurisprudentiâ—e which was a Book that he thought he could also say without Book and that no wise man could read it too often or love or commend it too much and he told him the study of these had been his toyl But for himself he always had a natural love to Genealogies and Heraldry and that when his thoughts were harassed with any perplext Studies he left off and turned to them as a recreation and that his very recreation had made him so perfect in them that he could in a very short time give an account of the Descent Arms and Antiquity of any Family of the Nobility or Gentry of this Nation Before I give an account of his last sickness I desire to tell the Reader that he was of a healthful constitution chearful and mild of an even temper very moderate in his diet and had had little sickness till some few years before his death but was then every Winter punish'd with a Diarrhed which left him not till warm weather return'd and remov'd it And this Distemper did as he grew elder seize him oftner and continue longer with him But though it weakned him yet it made him rather indispos'd than sick and did no way disable him from studying indeed too much In this decay of his strength but not of his memory or reason for this Distemper works not upon the understanding he made his last Will of which I shall give some account for confirmation of what hath been said and what I think convenient to be known before I declare his death and burial He did in his last Will give an account of his Faith and Perswasion in Point of Religion and Church-Government in these very words I Robert Sanderson Dr. of Divinity an unworthy Minister of Iesus Christ and by the providence of God Bishop of Lincoln being by the long continuance of an habitual distemper brought to a great bodily weakness and faintness of spirits but by the great mercy of God without any bodily pain otherwise or decay of understanding do make this my Will and Testament written all with my own hand revoking all former Wills by me heretofore made if any such shall be found First I commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God as of a faithful Creator which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept looking upon it not as it is in it self infinitely polluted with sin but as it is redeemed and purged with the precious blood of his only beloved Son and my most sweet Saviour Iesus Christ in confidence of whose merits and mediation alone it is that I cast my self upon the mercy of God for the pardon of my sins and the hopes of eternal life And here I do profess that as I have lived so I desire and by the grace of God resolve to dye in the Communion of the Catholick Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreable to the Word of God and in the most and most material Points of both conformable to the Faith and practice of the godly Churches of Christ in the primitïve and purer times I do firmly believe led so to not so much from the force of custom and education to which the greatest part of mankind owe their particular different perswasions in point of Religion as upon the clear evidence of truth and reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schiâ—m which the Papists on the one hand and the Superstition which the Puritan on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God the Father of Mercies to preserve the Church by his power and providence in peace truth and Godliness evermore to the worlds end which doubtless he will do if the wickedness and security of a sinful people and particularly those sins that are so rife and seem daily to increase among us of Unthankfulness Riot and Sacriledge do not tempt his patience to the contrary And I also farther humbly beseech him that it would please him to give unto our gracious Sovereign the Reverend Bishops and the Parliament timely to consider the great danger that visibly threatens this Church in point of Religion by the late great increase of Popery and in point of Revenue by sacrilegious enclosures and to provide such wholsom and effectual remedies as may prevent the same before it be too late And for a further manifestation of his humble thoughts and desires they may appear to the Reader by another part of his Will which follows As for my corruptible Body I bequeath it to the Earth whence it was taken to be decently buried in the Parish Church of Bugden towards the upper end of the Chancel upon the second or at the farthest the third day after my decease and that with as little Noise Pomp and Charge as may be without the invitation of any person how near soever related unto me other than the Inhabitants of Bugden without the unnecessary expence of Escutcheons Gloves Ribonds c. and without any Blacks to be hung any where in or about the House or Church other than a Pulpit-Cloth a Hearse-Cloth and a Mourning Gown for the Preacher whereof the former after my Body shall be interred to be given to the Preacher of the Funeral Sermon and the latter to the Curat of the Parish for the time being And my Will further is That the Funeral Sermon be preached by my own Houshold Chaplain containing some wholesome Discourse concerning Mortality the Resurrection of the Dead and the last Iudgment and that he shall have for his pains 5 l. upon condition that he speak nothing at all concerning my person either good or ill other
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
necessity of yielding obedience thereunto wholly ceaseth and determineth and the things thereby commanded or prohibited return to their primitive and natural indifferency even in their Use also and in respect of us This is clearly our Opinion and men may easily so understand us if they will § XIV But their Opinion is that the things enjoyned are Popish and Superstitious and consequently unlawful to be used And this they render as the reason of their Non-conformity And the Reason were certainly good if the Opinion were true For the Popishness first unless we should sue out a Writ de finibus regendis it will be hard to find out a way how to bring this Controversie to an issue much less to an end the term hath been so strangely extended and the limits thereof if yet it have any so uncertain If they would be entreated to set bounds to what they mean by Popish and Popery by giving us a certain definition of it we should the sooner either come to some agreement or at least understand our selves and one another the better wherein and how far we disagreed In the mean time it is to me a wonder that if reason would not heretofore yet the sad experience of the ill consequents so visible of late time should not have taught them all this while to consider what infinite advantage they give to the Romish party to work upon weak and wavering souls by damning so many things under the name of Popery which may to their understandings be sufficiently evidenced Some to have been used by the ancient Christians long before Popery was hatched or but in the Egg and All to have nothing of Superstition or Popery in them unless every thing that is used in the Church of Rome become thereby Popish and Superstitious Nor what great advantage they give to our newer Sectaries to extend the name yet farther Who by the help of their New-Lights can discern Popery not only in the Ceremonies formerly under debate but even in the Churches and Pulpits wherein they used to Preach against Popery and the Bells wherewith they used to call the people together to hear them These are by some of them cry'd down as Popish with other things very many which their Presbyterian Brethren do yet both allow and practise though how long they will so do is uncertain if they go on with the Work of Reformation they have begun with as quick dispatch and at the rate they have done these last two seven years The having of God-fathers at Baptism Churching of Women Prayers at the burial of the dead Children asking their Parents blessing c. which whilome were held innocent are now by very many thrown aside as rags of Popery Nay are not some gone so far already as to cast into the same heap not only the ancient hymn Gloria Patri for the repeating whereof alone some have been deprived of all their livelihoods and the Apostles Creed but even the use of the Lords Prayer it self And what will ye do in the end thereof And what would you have us do in the mean time when you call hard upon us to leave our Popery and yet would never do us the favour to let us know what it is It were good therefore both for your own sakes that you may not rove in infinitum and in compassion to us that you would give us a perfect boundary of what is Popery now with some Prognostication or Ephemerides annexed if you please whereby to calculate what will be Popery seven years hence § XV. But to be serious and not to indulge my self too much merriment in so sad a business I believe all those men will be found much mistaken who either measure the Protestant Religion by an opposition to Popery or account all Popery that is taught or practised in the Church of Rome Our godly Fore-fathers to whom under God we owe the purity of our Religion and some of which laid down their lives for the defence of the same were sure of another mind if we may from what they did judge what they thought They had no purpose nor had they any warrant to sâ—t up a new Religion but to reform the Old by purging it from those Innovations which in tract of time some sooner some later had mingled with it and corrupted it both in the Doctrine and Worship According to this purpose they produced without constraint or precipitancy freely and advisedly as in peaceable times and brought their intentions to a happy end as by the result thereof contained in the Articles and Liturgy of our Church and the Prefaces thereunto doth fully appear From hence chiefly as I conceive we are to take our best scantling whereby to judge what is and what is not to be esteemed Popery All those Doctrines then held by the modern Church of Rome which are either contrary to the written Word of God or but super-added thereunto as necessary Points of Faith to be of all Christians believed under pain of damnation and all those Superstitions used in the worship of God which either are unlawful as being contrary to the Word or being not contrary and therefore arbitrary and indifferent are made Essentials and imposed as necessary parts of Worship these are as I take it the things whereunto the name of Popery doth properly and peculiarly belong But as for the Ceremonies used in the Church of Rome which the Church of England at the Reformation thought fit to retain not as Essential or necessary parts of Gods Service but only as accidental and mutable circumstances attending the same for order comliness and edification sake how these should deserve the name of Popish I so little understand that I profess I do not yet see any reason why if the Church had then thought fit to have retained some other of those which were then laid aside she might not have lawfully so done or why the things so retained should have been accounted Popish The plain truth is this The Church of England meant to make use of her liberty and the lawful power she had as all the Churches of Christ have or ought to have of ordering Ecclesiastical Affairs here yet to do it with so much prudence and moderation that the World might see by what was laid aside that she acknowledged no subjection to the See of Rome and by what was retained that she did not recede from the Church of Rome out of any spirit of contradiction but as necessitated thereunto for the maintenance of her just liberty The number of Ceremonies was also then very great and they thereby burdensome and so the number thought fit to be lessened But for the Choice which should be kept and which not that was wholly in her power and at her discretion Whereof though she were not bound so to do yet hath she given a clear and satisfactory account in one of the Prefaces usually prefixed before the Book of Common-Prayer § XVI Besides this of Popish they
of God's Will and Power with subordinate Agents in every and therefore even in sinful actions God's free Election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves the immutability of God's Love and Grace towards the Saints Elect and their certain perseverance therein unto Salvation the Iustification of sinners by the imputed righteousness of Christ apprehended and applyed unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable Doctrines And yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme God and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarmine Gretser Maldonat and the Jesuits but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the Rabble of that Crew freely spend their mouths in barking against us as if we made God the author of sin as if we would have men sin and be damned by a Stoical fatal necessity sin whether they will or no and be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousness and profaneness let them believe it is no matter how they live Heaven is their own cock-sure as if we cryed down good works and condemned charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These imputations upon us and our Doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that thus mis-report us know that without repentance their damnation will be just It would be time not ill spent to discover the grounds of this observation and to press the uses of it something fully But because my aim lyeth another way I can but point at them and pass If seldom Truth scape unslandered marvel not the reasons are evident On God's part on Man's part on the Devil's part God suffereth Man raiseth and the Devil furthereth these slanders against the Truth To begin ordine retrogrado and to take them backwards First on the Devil's part a kind of Contrariety and Antipathy betwixt him and it He being the Father of Lyes and Prince of darkness cannot away with the Truth and with the Light and therefore casteth up slanders as Fogs and Mists against the Truth to bely it and against the Light to darken it Secondly on Mans part And that partly in the understanding when the judgment either of it self weak or else weakned through precipitancy prejudice or otherwise is deceived with fallacies instead of substance and mistaketh seeming inferences for necessary and natural deductions Partly in the Will when men of corrupt minds set themselves purposely against the known truth and out of malicious wilfulness against the strong testimony of their own hearts slander it that so they may disgrace it and them that profess it Partly in the Affections when men overcome by carnal affections are content to cheat their own souls by giving such constructions to God's Truth as will for requital give largest allowance to their practices and so rather choose to crooken the Rule to their own bent than to level themselves and their affections and lives according to the Rule Thirdly on God's part who suffereth his own truth to be slandered and mistaken Partly in his Iustice as a fearful judgment upon wicked ones whereby their hard hearts become yet more hardened and their most just condemnation yet more just Partly in his goodness as a powerful fiery trial of true Doctors whose constancy and sincerity is the more approved with him and the more eminent with men if they flee not when the Wolf cometh but keep their standing and stoutly maintain God's Truth when it is deepliest slandered and hotly opposed And partly in his Wisdom as a rich occasion for those whom he hath gifted for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awaken their zeal to quicken up their industry to muster up their abilities to scour up their spiritual armour which else through dis-use might gather rust for the defence and for the rescue of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that precious truth whereof they are depositaries and wherewith he hath entrusted them These are the Grounds The Uses for instruction briefly are to teach and admonish every one of us that we be not either first so wickedly malicious as without apparent cause to raise any slander or secondly so foolishly credulous as without severe examination to believe any slander or thirdly so basely timorous as to flinch from any part of God's truth for any slander But I must not insist This from the slander Observe fourthly how peremptory the Apostle is in his censure against the slanderers or abusers of holy truths Whose damnation is just Some understand it with reference to the slanderers As we be slander ously reported and as some affirm that we say whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just who thus unjustly slander us Others understand it with reference to that ungodly resolution Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just for the evil they do who adventure to do any evil under whatsoever pretence of good to come of it Both expositions are good and I rather embrace both than prefer either I ever held it a kind of honest spiritual thirst where there are two sences given of one place both agreeable to the Analogy of Faith and Manners both so indifferently appliable to the words and scope of the place as that it is hard to say which was rather intended though there was but one intended yet to make use of both And so will we Take it the first way and the slanderer may read his doom in it Here is his wages and his portion and the meed and reward of his slander Damnation And it is a just reward He condemneth God's truth unjustly God condemneth him justly for it whose damnation is just If we be countable and we are countable at the day of Judgment for every idle word we speak though neither in it self false nor yet hurtful and prejudicial unto others what less than damnation can they expect that with much falsehood for the thing it self and infinite prejudice in respect of others blaspheme God and his holy Truth But if it be done on purpose and in malice to despight the Truth and the professors thereof I scarce know whether there be a greater sin or no. Maliciously to oppose the known Truth is by most Divines accounted a principal branch of that great unpardonable sin the sin against the holy Ghost by some the very sin it self I dare not say it is so nor yet that it is unpardonable or hath final impenitency necessarily attending it I would be loth to interclude the hope of
Multiplication not Division and by diffusion without waste As the seal maketh impression in the wáx and as fire conveyeth heat into Iron and as one candle tindeth a thousand all without loss of figure heat or light Had ever any man less knowledge or wit or learning by teaching of others had he not rather more The more wise the Preacher was the more he taught the people knowledge saith Solomon Eccles. 12. and certainly the more he taught them knowledge the more his own wisdom increased As the Widow's oil increased not in the Vessel but by pouring out and as the barley bread in the Gospel multiplied not in the whole loaf but by breaking and distributing and as the Grain bringeth increase not when it lyeth on a heap in the garner but by scattering upon the land so are these spiritual Graces best improved not by keeping them together but by distributing them abroad Tutius in credito quà m in sudario the talent gathereth nothing in the napkin unless it be rust and canker but travelling in the bank besides the good it doth as it passeth to and fro it ever returneth home with increase Thirdly our own unsufficiency to all offices and the need we have of other mens Gifts must enforce us to lend them the help and comfort of ours God hath so distributed the variety of his gifts with singular wisdom that there is no man so mean but his service may be useful to the greatest nor any man so eminent but he may sometimes stand in need of the meanest of his brethren of purpose that whilst each hath need of other each should help none should despise other As in a building the stones help one another every lower stone supporting the higher from falling to the ground and every higher stone saving the lower from taking wet and as in the body every member lendeth some supply to the rest and again receiveth supply from them so in the spiritual building and mystical body of the Church God hath so tempered the parts each having his use and each his defects that there should be no Schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another Such a consent there should be in the parts as was between the blind and lame man in the Epigram mutually covenanting the Blind to carry the Lame and the Lame to direct the Blind that so the Blind might find his way by the others Eyes and the Lame walk therein upon the other's Legs When a man is once come to that all-sufficiency in himself as he may truly say to the rest of his brethren I stand in no need of you let him then keep his gifts to himself but let him in the mean time remember he must employ them to the advantage of his master and to the benefit of his brother The manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal Surely then those men first of all run a course strangely exorbitant who instead of employing them to the profit bend those gifts they have received whether spiritual or temporal to the ruine and destruction of their brethren Instead of winning souls to Heaven with busie and cursed diligence compassing Sea and Land to draw Proselytes to the Devil and instead of raising up seed to their elder brother Christ seeking to make their brethren if it were possible ten times more the children of Hell than themselves Abusing their power to oppression their wealth to luxury their strength to drunkenness their wit to scoffing Atheism Prophaneness their learning to the maintenance of Heresie Idolatry Schism Novelty If there be a fearful woe due to those that use not their gifts profitably what woes may we think shall overtake them that so ungraciously abuse them But to leave these wretches be perswaded in the second place all you whom God hath made Stewards over his houshold and blessed your basket and your store to bring forth of your treasures things both new and old manifest the Spirit God hath given you so as may be most for the profit of your brethren The Spirit of God when he gave you wisdom and knowledge intended not so much the wisdom and the knowledge themselves as the manifestation of them or as it is in the next verse the Word of Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge as Christ also promised his Apostles to give them Os sapientiam a mouth and wisdom Alas what is wisdom without a mouth but as a pot of treasure hid in the ground which no man is the better for Wisdom that is hid and a treasure that is not seen what profit is in them both O then do not knit up your Masters talent in a Napkin smother not his light under a bushel pinch not his servants of their due provision put not up the Manna you have gathered till it stink and the worms consume it but above all squander not away your rich portions by riotous living Let not either sloth or envy or pride or pretended modesty or any other thing hinder you from labouring to discharge faithfully that trust and duty which God expecteth which the necessity of the Church challengeth which the measure of your gifts promiseth which the condition of your calling exacteth from you Remember the manifestation of the Spirit was given you to profit withal Thirdly since the end of all gifts is to profit aim most at those gifts that will profit most and endeavour so to frame those you have in the exercise of them as they may be likeliest to bring profit to those that shall partake of them Covet earnestly the best gifts saith my Apostle at the last verse of this Chapter and you have his Comment upon that Text in the first verse of the fourteenth Chapter Covet spiritual Gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather that ye may prophesie And by prophesying he meaneth the instruction of the Church and people of God in the needful doctrines of Faith towards God Repentance from dead works and new and holy Obedience It is one stratagem of the Arch enemy of mankind and when we know his wiles we may the better be able to defeat him by busying men of great and useful parts in by matters and things of lesser consequence to divert them from following that unum necessarium that which should be the main in all our endeavours the beating down of sin the planting of Faith and the reformation of manners Controversies I confess are necessary the tongues necessary Histories necessary Philosophy and the Arts necessary other Knowledge of all sorts necessary in the Church for Truth must be maintained Scripture-phrases opened Heresie confuted the mouths of Adversaries stopped Schisms and Novelties suppressed But when all is done Positive and Practick Divinity is it must bring us to Heaven that is it must poise our judgments settle our
〈◊〉 to believe and the Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith or belief are both of them found sundry times in this Chapter yet seem not to signifie in any place thereof either the Verb the Act or the Noun the habit of this saving or justifying Faith of which we now speak But being opposed every where and namely in this last verse unto doubtfulness of judgment concerning the lawfulness of some indifferent things must therefore needs be understood of such a perswasion of judgment concerning such lawfulness as is opposite to such doubting Which kind of Faith may be found in a meer heathen man who never having heard the least syllable of the mystery of Salvation by Christ may yet be assured out of clear evidence of reason that many of the things he doth are such as he may and ought to do And as it may be found in a meer heathen man so it may be wanting in a true believer who stedfastly resting upon the blood of Christ for his eternal redemption may yet through the strength of temptation sway of passion or other distemper or subreption incident to humane frailty do some particular act or acts of the lawfulness whereof he is not sufficiently perswaded The Apostle then here speaking of such a Faith as may be both found in an unbeliever and also wanting in a true believer it appeareth that by Faith he meaneth not that justifying Faith which maketh a true believer to differ from an unbeleiver but the word must be understood in some other notion Yet thus much I may add withal in the behalf of those worthy men that have alledged this Scripture for the purpose aforesaid to excuse them from the imputation of having at least wilfully handled the Word of God deceitfully First that thing it self being true and the words also sounding so much that way might easily enduce them to conceive that to be the very meaning And common equity will not that men should be presently condemned if they should sometimes confirm a point from a place of Scripture not altogether pertinent if yet they think it to be so especially so long as the substance of what they write is according to the analogy of Faith and Godliness Secondly that albeit these words in their most proper and immediate sense will not necessarily enforce that Conclusion yet it may seem deducible there-from with the help of some topical arguments and by more remote inferences as some learned men have endeavoured to shew not altogether improbable And Thirdly that they who interpret this Text as aforesaid are neither singular nor novel therein but walk in the same path which some of the ancient Fathers have trod before them The Rhemists themselves confess it of S. Augustine to whom they might have added also S. Prosper and whose authority alone is enough to stop their mouths for ever Leo Bishop of Rome who have all cited these words for the self same purpose But we are content for the reasons already shewn to let it pass as a collection impertinent and that I suppose is the worst that can be made of it There is a second acception of the word Faith put either for the whole system of that truth which God hath been pleased to reveal to his Church in the Scriptures of the old and new Testament or some part thereof or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the assent of the mind thereunto In which signification some conceiving the words of this Text to be meant do hence infer a false and dangerous conclusion which yet they would obtrude upon the Christian Church as an undoubted principle of truth That men are bound for every particular action they do to have direction and warrant from the written word of God or else they sin in the doing of it For say they faith must be grounded upon the word of God Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. Where there is no Word then there can be no Faith and then by the Apostles doctrine that which is done without the Word to warrant it must needs be sin for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin This is their opinion and thus they would infer it I know not any piece of counterfeit Doctrine that hath passed so currently in the world with so little suspicion of falshood and so little open contradiction as this hath done One chief cause whereof I conjecture to be for that it seemeth to make very much for the honour and perfection of Gods sacred Law the fulness and sufficiency whereof none in the Christian Church but Papists or Atheists will deny In which respect the very questioning of it now will perhaps seem a strange novelty to many and occasion their mis-censures But as God himself so the Holy Word of God is so full of all requisite perfection that it needeth not to beg honour from an untruth Will you speak wickedly for God Or talk deceitfully for him I hold it very needful therefoe both for the vindicating of my Text from a common abuse and for the arming of all my brethren as well of the Clergy as Laity against a common and plausible errour that neither they teach it nor these receive it briefly and clearly to shew that the aforesaid opinion in such sort as some have proposed it and many have understood it for it is capable of a good interpretation wherein it may be allowed First is utterly devoid of Truth and Secondly draweth after it many dangerous consequents and evil effects and thirdly hath no good warrant from my present Text. The Opinion is that to do any thing at all without direction from the Scripture is unlawful and sinful Which if they would understand only of the substantials of Gods worship and of the exercises of spiritual and supernatural graces the assertion were true and sound but as they extend it to all the actions of common life whatsoever whether natural or civil even so far as to the taking up of a straw so it is altogether false and indefensible I marvel what warrant they that so teach have from the Scripture for that very doctrine or where they are commanded so to believe or teach One of their chiefest refuges is the Text we now have in hand but I shall anon drive them from this shelter The other places usually alledged speak only either of Divine and Supernatural truths to be believed or else of works of grace or worship to be performed as of necessity unto Salvation which is not to the point in issue For it is freely confessed that in things of such nature the holy Scripture is and so we are to account it a most absolute and sufficient direction Upon which ground we heartily reject all humane Traditions devised and intended as supplements to the Doctrine of Faith contained in the Bible and annexed as Codicils to the Holy Testament of Christ for to supply the
to be cried down and condemned under the name of Will-worship nor doth it come within the compass of our Saviours reproof in this place If Ionadab had laid an obligation upon the Consciences of the Rechabites not to drink wine by telling them that for Conscience sake towards God they ought to abstain therefrom or if the Iewish Elders and Governors leaving the Consciences of the People free had only made a Law under some penalty for decency and cleanliness sake that no Man should sit down to Meat in publick with unwashen hands to my seeming had he then been guilty of this Pharisaical superstition and they free In brief then to conclude this Enquiry To lay an obligation either upon the judgements or consciences of Men in point of opinion or practice which God hath not laid that and nothing but that is to teach for doctrines the commandments of men 9. We have yet a third thing to be enquired of for the Explication of the words namely how and in what respect they that teach such Doctrines may be said to worship God in vain The Ambiguity of our English word Worship hath occasioned many Errors among Divines and mis-understandings of one anothers words and writings whereby the disputes and controversies about Worship are become of all other the most intricate and perplexed The Hebrews and the Greeks too have sundry words and those of distinct notions and significations which we in English for want of fitter expressions are fain to translate promiscuously by this one word Worship The Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word here used are all indifferently rendred worshipping Here according to the notion of the Greek word it properly signifieth the performance of some Religious or devout act with an intention to honour God thereby Whereby it appeareth that these Pharisees placed a great part of their Religion in the observation of these Traditions of mens divising and flattered themselves with this conceit That they did God a great deal of honour in so doing and that therefore he could not choose but be marvellous well pleased with them for so doing By long accustoming themselves to which like outward observances they had almost lost the vigor and soul of true Religion which consisteth in the inward Reverence and Devotion of the heart and had little other left than the bare carcase or empty outside thereof and that also patcht and pieced up for the most part with the devices and inventions of men 10. And this our Saviour now telleth them is Worship in vain He saith so indeed but hath he any Text for it The place he citeth is in Isa. 29. 13. where the words according to the Original run but thus Their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men but that it is vain the Prophet doth not there say He doth not say it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those very words according to the Hebrew but the scope of the place importeth all that and more For God there threatneth to punish the People for such worship which he would not have done if he had been either pleased with it or honoured by it But the very word and all is so found even as our Saviour citeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint there which being the most common and received Translation in those days was therefore for the most part followed by Christ and his Apostles in their quotations especially where it swerved not very much in sence from the Original Now a thing is said to be done in vain when it hath not that wished effect which the doer intended and expected Those Pharisees then intending by those superstitious Will-worships to honour God and hopeing to please him therewithal when their expectations should be so far frustrated that God should all on the contrary profess himself dishonoured and displeased thereby it must needs be acknowledged that this their Will-worship was all in vain Certainly God will reject what himself hath forbidden and he hath forbidden and that both frequently and with the severest interminations all manner of Will-worship of this kind and properly so called and all additions of Men unto his holy Word 11. In the several parts of the Text thus opened we may see the full meaning of the whole God will not approve of nor accept any Wit-worship or Will-worship forged or devised by Man with an Opinion as if it were a necessary part of Gods service nor allow of any Doctrine that tendeth to bind the Iudgments or Consciences of his people further than he hath thought fit himself to bind them by the expresses of his Word He will when time serveth root out every plant which is not of his own planting And when the day is come which shall declare by a fiery Trial every mans work of what sort it is the Gold and Silver and precious Stones shall abide the fire and the Workman that built with such good stuff shall receive a blessed reward But he that buildeth Wood or Hay or Stubble though by the great mercy of God he himself may pass through the fire and be saved with some difficulty so long as he holdeth fast the foundation which is Christ and his merits yet he shall suffer loss in his work however That shall be sure to burn and perish whatsoever becometh of him All that fear of God is but superstitious and vain that is taught by the Precepts and Commandments of men 12. From the Explication of the Text hitherto I come now to the Application of it Wherein I doubt not by Gods help but to make clear to the judgment of any Man that is not either uncapable through ignorance or fore-possessed with prejudice these three things First that the Papists are guilty of the Pharisaical Superstition and Will-worship here condemned Secondly that the Church of England and her regular and Obedient Children are not guilty of the same Thirdly that those Divines and others in the Church of England that so undutifully charge her therewithal are in truth themselves inexcusably guilty of that very Crime whereof they unjustly accuse her 13. First for the Papists That they are the right children and successors of the Pharisees no Man that rightly understandeth the Tenets of the Romish Church but will easily grant if he shall duly consider what a mass of humane Traditions both in point of belief and worship are imposed upon the judgments and consciences of all that may be suffered to live in the visible Communion of that Church and that with opinion of necessity and under pain of Damnation The Popes Supremacy Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints and Angels the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the seven Sacraments Transubstantiation Adoration of the Host Communion under one kind Private Masses forbidding Priests Marriage Monastical Vows Prayer in an unknown Tongue Auricular Confession All these and I know not how many more are such as even by the
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
abolished or altered from time to time and at all times as the Governours for the time being shall judge to serve best unto Edification What should I say more If men list to be contentious and will not be satisfied who can help it yet thus much I dare say more Let any Papist or Precisian in the world give instance but in any one single thing doctrinally maintained by the Church of England which he can with any colour of truth except against as a Commandment of men if we do not either shew good warrant for it from the written word of God which we doubt not but to be able to do and is most ad rem or else which is enough ad hominem for every single instance they shall bring return them ten of their own teaching every whit as liable to the same exception as that we will yield the Bucklers and confess her guilty 20. But now what will you say if after all this clamouring against English Popish Ceremonies as of late they have blazoned them they that keep all this ado prove in the end the guilty persons themselves I am much deceived if it do not clearly prove so if we either compare her Doctrine and theirs together or take a view of some of theirs by themselves First compare them a little which will also add some confirmation to the former point for the farther justifying of the Church of England in this behalf And for example and perspicuity sake let the instance be kneeling at the Communion there being the like reason of all the rest I pray you consider well the evidence weigh the grounds and observe the course held on both sides and then give sentence accordingly If as God hath given those our Church Governours power to determine of indifferent mutable circumstances and they using the liberty of the power given them have appointed kneeling rather than sitting or standing as judging it a gesture of greater reverence and well becoming our unworthiness but without any Opinion either of the necessity of that gesture or of the unlawfulness of the other two so God had given the like Power to these our Brethren and they using the liberty of that power had appointed sitting or standing rather than kneeling as judging either of them a more proper Table gesture than it yet without any Opinion of their necessity or of the unlawfulness of kneeling the case had then been alike of both These had been as free as they neither of them had been guilty of Superstition in teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men because there was no doctrinal necessity whereby to bind the Consciences of Gods People on either side Again if as these say to their Proselytes peremptorily in effect thus you are bound in Conscience not to kneel it is an unlawful gesture a superstitious relique of Popery and carrieth with it a shrewd appearance of their idolatrous Bread-worship and therefore we charge you upon your Consciences not to kneel so our Church-Governours should say to the People peremptorily in effect thus you are bound in Conscience to kneel or else you prophane the holy Sacrament not discerning the Lords Body and therefore we charge you upon your Consciences to kneel the case of both had here also been alike Both alike guilty of Superstition in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men because by that doctrinal necessity as well the one sort as the other had laid a perpetual obligation upon the Consciences of men in a matter which God having not any where either commanded or forbidden hath therefore left free and indifferent But now taking the case as de facto it is without Ifs and And 's set the one against the other and make the comparison right and here it is Our Brethren having no publick authority given them to order what shall be done or not done in matters of external government do yet bind the Consciences of Gods people by teaching that which they thus forbid to be simply and in it self unlawful Our Governors on the contrary though having publick authority to prescribe in such matters do yet leave the Consciences of men at liberty without teaching that which they appoint to be of absolute necessity in it self This being species facti as the Civilians speak the even true state of the case say now I beseech you in good sooth and be not partial Quid Iuris at whose door lieth the Superstition The one side teaching no such doctrine but having authority do by virtue of that authority appoint the People to kneel The other side having no such authority but teaching a doctrine do by virtue of that doctrine charge the people not to kneel Whether of both sides may rightlier be said to teach for doctrines the Commandments of men Tu quum sis quod ego fortassis nequior 21. Their guilt herein will yet farther appear if leaving comparisons we take a view of some of their doctrines by themselves I say but some of them for how many hours would serve to reckon them all or who indeed even of themselves knoweth them all There are so many Covies of new doctrines sprung up ever and anon especially in these late times of connivance and licentiousness which by that they are well hatcht presently fly abroad the Country and are entertained by some or other for as good Divinity as if they were the undoubted Oracles of the Holy Ghost I dare not affirm it because I will not put my self to the trouble to prove it and because I heartily desire and wish I be deceived in it yet I cannot dissemble my fear that it is but too true by the proportion of what we almost dayly hear or see that within little more than this one twelvemonth last past there have been more false and superstitious doctrines vented in the Pulpits and Presses in England than have been in so open and daring a manner in the whole space of almost fourscore years before I mean since the first of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory And to make good the former charge omitting sundry other their unwarrantable positions partly concerning Church-Government Orders and Ceremonies established by Law partly concerning sundry received customs in matters wholly or in part Ecclesiastical partly concerning the use of sundry pastimes and recreations partly concerning sundry usages and customs in vita communi in things meerly Civil and not sacred or Ecclefiastical the particulars whereof would amount to many scores if not hundreds I shall present unto your view a dozen only which I have selected from the rest of those that I have observed to have been most urged of late in Sermons and Pamphlets by which you may in part judge of the rest And they are these 22. 1. That the appointing of a set form of Prayer or Liturgy to be used in the Service of God is unlawful or Antichristian or that it is a straitning or limiting of the Holy Spirit of God 2. That it is not in
the power of the Church to ordain any Rites or Ceremonies in the Service of God which the People are bound to observe other than such as God hath commanded in his Word 3. That Rites and Usages devised or abused either by Heathens or Idolaters may not be lawfully used by Christians in the Service of God 4. That it is unlawful or superstitious to kneel at the Holy Communion in the act of receiving the Sacrament 5. That Instrumental Musick may not be used in the Service of God as well as Vocal 6. That Episcopacy is Antichristian or repugnant to the word of God 7. That the Presbyterian Discipline is the very Scepter of Christs Kingdom or the order appointed by Christ himself for the perpetual Government of his Church which ought of all particular Congregations to be inviolably observed unto the worlds end 8. That it is simply unlawful for a Minister to be possessed of two Benefices 9. That Ecclesiastical persons may not meddle in secular affairs nor can with a good Conscience exercise any Civil office or Iurisdiction although by humane Authority Law or custom allowed them 10. That it is not lawful in preaching Gods word to recite sentences out of the Fathers much less from the writings of Heathen Writers 11. That the Election or consent of the people is of necessity required either to the ordaining of the Ministers or to the appointing of them to their particular charges 12. Lastly which though I find not positively delivered in terminis nor is the danger thereof so generally observed as of sundry of the former yet for that I find it often touched upon in these late Treatises and conceive it to be an error of no less dangerous consequence than many of the former I thought meet not to omit it That the examples of Christ and of his Apostles ought to be observed of all Christians as a perpetual Rule binding them to Conformity even as their Precepts do unto obedience 23. Concerning which Positions I do here in the face of this Congregation take God to witness who shall judge us all at the last day that I do verily believe and in my conscience am perswaded That all and every of them are the vain and superstitious inventions of men wholly destitute of all sound warrant from the written word of God rightly understood and applied and till they shall be better proved ought to be so esteemed of every man that desireth to make Gods Holy Word the rule of his opinions and actions Many and great are the mischiefs otherwise that come to the Church and People of God by the teaching of these and other like groundless Positions As amongst others these three following First great scandal is hereby given to Atheists Papists Separatists and other the enemies of our Religion especially to the Papists who will not only take occasion thence to speak evil of us and of the way of truth and holiness which we profess but will be themselves also the more confirmed in their own wicked errors by objecting to us that since we left them we cannot tell where to stay Secondly many sober and godly men both Ministers and other who chearfully submit to the established Laws and Government as they take themselves by the Law of God bound to do in things which they believe not to be repugnant to his word are by this means unworthily exposed to contempt and mis-censure as if they were time-servers or inclined to Popery or Superstition at the least But if they shall farther endeavour in their Sermons or otherwise to shew their just dislike and to hinder the growth of these unlawful impositions and to hold the people in their good belief by instructing them better they shall be sure to be forthwith branded as opposers of the Gospel As if there were such a spirit of infallibility annexed to some mens Pulpits as some have said there is to the Pope's Chair that whatsoever they shall deliver thence must needs be Gospel Thirdly hereby many an honest-hearted and well meaning Christian is wonderfully abused by being mis-led into Error Superstition and disobedience by having his Conscience brought into bondage in those things whereunto it was the good pleasure of God to leave him free and by being disposed to much uncharitableness in judging evil of his Brother that hath given him no just cause so to do 24. Besides these and sundry other mischiefs of dangerous consequence too long now to repeat the thing that I am presently to affirm concerning all and every of the positions aforesaid and other like them pertinently to the Text and business in hand is this That whosoever shall doctrinally and positively teach any of the same doth ipso facto become guilty of the Superstition here condemned by our Saviour and so far forth symbolizeth with the Pharisees in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men And I doubt not but there are in the Church of England sundry learned judicious and Orthodox Divines no way suspected of favouring Popery or Popish Innovations that by Gods help and the advantage of Truth will be ready to maintain what I now affirm in a fair Christian and Scholar-like trial against whosoever are otherwise minded whensoever by Authority they shall be thereunto required 25. I have now finished what I had to say from this Scripture by way of Application From the whole premisses would arise sundry Inferences as Corollaries and by way of Use. In the prosecution whereof had we time for it I should have occasion to fall upon some things that might be of right good use for the setling of mens Iudgments and Consciences in a way of Truth and Peace And truly my aim lay chiefly here when my thoughts fixt upon this Text. But having enlarged my self so far beyond my first purpose already I shall only give you a short touch of each of them and it may be hereafter as I shall see cause and as God shall dispose I may take some other occasion here or elsewhere to enlarge them further 26. The first should be an earnest request to such of my Brethren as through inconsideratian zeal against Popery or profaneness or any other cause have been a little too forward and faulty this way That they would in the fear of God review their own dictates and all partiality and self-seeking laid aside bestow a little pains to examine throughly the soundness of those principles from which they draw their Conclusions whether they be the very true word of God indeed or but the fancies and devices of the wit of man I know how lothly men are induced to suspect themselves to be in an Error and that it is with our Brethren herein as with other men may sufficiently appear in this that few of them will so much as bestow the reading of those Books that might give them satisfaction But beloved better try your own work your selves and if it prove but Hay or Stubble burn it your selves by acknowledging your
and power over the Creatures First if any shall oppose the legal Prohibitions of the Old Testament whereby some Creatures were forbidden the Iews pronounced by God himself unclean and decreed unlawful it should not trouble us For whatever the principal reasons were for which those prohibitions were then made unto them as there be divers reasons given thereof by Divines both ancient and modern certain it is they now concern not us The Church during her non-age and pupillage though she were Heir of all and had right to all yet was to be held under Tutors and Governours and to be trained up under the Law of Ceremonies as under a School master during the appointed time But When the fulness of the time appointed was come her wardship expired and livery sued out as it were by the coming and suffering of Christ in the flesh the Church was then to enter upon her full Royalties and no more to be burdened with those beggarly rudiments of legal observances The hand-writing of Ordinances was then blotted out and the muddy partition wall broken down and the legal impurity of the Creatures scowred off by the blood of Christ. They have little to do then but withal much to answer who by seeking to bring in Iudaism again into the Christian Church either in whole or in part do thereby as much as lieth in them though perhaps unawares to themselves yet indeed and in truth evacuate the Cross of Christ. In that large sheet of the Creatures which reacheth from Heaven to the Earth whatsoever we find we may freely kill and eat and use every other way to our comforts without scruple God having cleansed all we are not to call or esteem any thing common or unclean God having created all good we are to refuse nothing If any shall oppose secondly the seeming morality of some of these prohibitions as being given before the law of Ceremonies pressed from Moral Reasons and confirmed by Apostolical Constitution since upon which ground some would impose upon the Christian Church this as a perpetual yoke to abstain from blood Or thirdly the Prophanation which some Creatures have contracted by being used in the exercise of idolatrous Worship whereby they become Anathema and are to be held as execrable things as Achan's wedge was and the Brazen Serpent which Hezekiah stamped to powder upon which ground also some others have inferred an utter unlawfulness to use any thing in the Church which was abused in Popery by calling them Rags and Reliques of Idolatry neither this nor that ought to trouble us For although neither my aim which lieth another way nor the time will permit me now to give a just and full satisfying answer to the several Instances and their grounds yet the very words and weight of my Text do give us a clear resolution in the general and sufficient to rest our Consciences and our Iudgments and Practice upon that notwithstanding all pretensions of reason to the contrary yet these things for so much as they are still good ought not to be refused For the Apostle hath here laid a sure foundation and impregnable in that he groundeth the use upon the power and from the Goodness of the Creature inferreth the lawfulness of it Every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused He concludeth it is therefore not to be refused because it is good So that look whatsoever Goodness there is in any Creature that is whatsoever natural power it hath which either immediately and of it self is or may by the improvement of human Art and Industry be taught to be of any use unto man for necessity nourishment service lawful delight or otherwise the Creature wherein such goodness or power is to be found may not be refused as upon tie of Conscience but that power and goodness it hath may lawfully be employed to those uses for which it is meet in regard thereof Ever provided we be careful to observe all those requisite conditions which must guide our Consciences and regulate our Practice in the use of all lawful and indifferent things They that teach otherwise lay burdens upon their own Consciences which they need not and upon the Consciences of their Brethren which they should not and are injurious to that liberty which the blessed Son of God hath purchased for his Church and which the blessed Spirit of God hath asserted in my Text. Injurious in the second place to this branch of our Christian liberty is the Church of Rome whom St. Paul in this passage hath branded with an indelible note of infamy inasmuch as those very Doctrines wherein he giveth instance as in Doctrines of Devils are the received Tenets and Conclusions of that Church Not to insist on other prejudices done to Christian liberty by the intolerable usurpation of the man of sin who exerciseth a spiritual Tyranny over mens Consciences as opposite to Evangelical liberty as Antichrist is to Christ let us but a little see how she hath fulfilled St. Paul's Prediction in teaching lying and devilish Doctrines and that with seared Consciences and in Hypocrisie in the two specialties mentioned in the next former Verse viz. forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats Marriage the holy Ordinance of God instituted in the place and estate of Innocency honoured by Christ's presence at Cana in Galilee the Seed-plot of the Church and the sole allowed remedy against Incontinency and burning lusts by the Apostle commended as honourable in all men and commanded in case of ustion to all men is yet by this purple strumpet forbidden and that sub mortali to Bishops Priests Deacons Sub deacons Monks Friars Nuns in a word to the whole Clergy as they extend that title both Secular and Regular Wherein besides the Devilishness of the Doctrine in contrarying the Ordinance of God and in denying men subject to sinful lusts the lawful remedy and so casting them upon a necessity of sinning see if they do not teach this lye with seared Consciences For with what Conscience can they make the same thing a Sacrament in the Lay and Sacrilege in the Clergy With what Conscience permit Stews and forbid Marriage With what Conscience alledge Scriptures for the single life of Priests and yet confess it to be an Ordinance only of Ecclesiastical and not of Divine right With what Conscience confess Fornication to be against the Law of God and Priests Marriage only against the Law of holy Church and yet make Marriage in a Priest a far fouler sin than Fornication or Incest With what Conscience exact a vow of Continency from Clerks by those Canons which defend their open Incontinency With what Conscience forbid lawful Marriages to some and yet by dispensation allow unlawful Marriages to others And is not the like also done in the other particular concerning Meats The Laws of that
carcerem ille gehennam And the Apostles to the whole Council of the Jews whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judge ye Acts 4. He that will displease God to please men he is the servant of men and cannot be the servant of God But honest and conscionable men who do not easily and often fail this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is Rom. 16. men that are not evil are yet apt sometimes to be so far carried away with an high estimation of some men as to subject themselves wholly to their judgments or wills without ever questioning the truth of any thing they teach or the lawfulness of any thing they enjoyn It is a dangerous thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Iude speaketh to have mens persons in admiration though they be of never so great learning wisdom or piety because the best and wisest men that are are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the like infirmities as we are both of sin and error and such as may both deceive others and be themselves deceived That honour which Pythagoras his Scholars gave to their Master in resting upon his bare Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a sufficient proof yea as a divine Oracle many judicious even among the heathen altogether misliked as too servile and prejudicial to that libertas Philosophica that freedom of judgment which was behoveful for the study of Philosophy How much more then must it needs be prejudicial in the judgment of Christians to that libertas Evangelica that freedom we have in Christ to give such honour to any other man but the man Christ Iesus only or to any other Writings than to those which are in truth the Oracles of God the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament There is I confess much reverence to be given to the Writings of the godly ancient Fathers more to the Canons and Decrees of general and provincial Councils and not a little to the judgment of learned sober and godly Divines of later and present times both in our own and other reformed Churches But we may not jurare in verba build our faith upon them as upon a sure foundation nor pin our belief upon their sleeves so as to receive for an undoubted truth whatsoever they hold and to reject as a gross error whatsoever they disallow without farther examination St. Iohn biddeth us try the Spirits before we believe them 1 Iohn 4 And the Beraeans are remembred with praise fol so doing Act. 17. We blame it in the Schoolmen that some adhere pertinaciously to the opinions of Thomas and others as pertinaciously to the opinions of Scotus in every point wherein they differ insomuch as it were grande piaculum a heinous thing and not to be suffered if a Dominican should dissent from Thomas or a Franciscan from Scotus though but in one single controversed conclusion And we blame it justly for St. Paul blamed the like sidings and partakings in the Church of Corinth whilst one professed himself to be of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas as a fruit of carnality unbeseeming Christians And is it not also blame-worthy in us and a fruit of the same carnality if any of us shall affect to be accounted rigid Lutherans or perfect Calvinists or give up our judgment to be wholly guided by the Writings of Luther or Calvin or of any other mortal man whatsoever Worthy instruments they were both of them of Gods glory and such as did excellent service to the Church in their times whereof we yet find the benefit and we are unthankful if we do not bless God for it and therefore it is an unsavory thing for any man to gird at their names whose memories ought to be precious But yet were they not men Had they received the spirit in the fulness of it and not by measure Knew they oâ—herwise than in part or prophesied otherwise than in part Might they not in many things did they not in some things mistake and err Howsoever the Apostles Interrogatories are unanswerable what saith he was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized in the name of Paul Even so was either Luther or Calvin crucified for you Or were ye baptized into the name either of Luther or Calvin or any other man That any one of you should say I am of Luther or any other I am of Calvin and I of him and I of him What is Calvin or Luther nay what is Paul or Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed That is to say Instruments but not Lords of your belief To sum up and to conclude this first point then To do God and our selves right it is necessary we should with our utmost strength maintain the doctrine and power of that liberty wherewith Christ hath endowed his Church without either usurping the mastery over others or subjecting our selves to their servitude so as to surrender either our judgments or consciences to be wholly disposed according to the opinions or wills of men though of never so excellent piety or parts But yet lest while we shun one extreme we fall into another as the Lord be merciful unto us we are very apt to do lest while we seek to preserve our liberty that we do not lose it we stretch it too far and so abuse it the Apostle therefore in the next clause of the Text putteth in a caveat for that also not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness whence ariseth our second observation We must so maintain our liberty that we abuse it not as we shall if under the pretence of Christian liberty we either adventure the doing of some unlawful thing or omit the performance of any requisite duty As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness The Apostles intention in the whole clause will the better appear when we know what is meant by Cloak and what by Maliciousness The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is no where else found in the whole New Testament but in this verse only signifieth properly any Covering as the covering of Badgerâ— skins that was spread over the Tabernacle is in the Septuagints Translation called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An it is very fitly translated a cloak though it do not properly so signifie in respect of that notion wherein the word in our English Tongue is commonly and proverbially used to note some fair and colourable pretence wherewith we disguise and conceal from the conusance of others the dishonestly and faultiness of our intentions in some things practised by us Our Saviour Christ saith of the obstinate Iews that had heard his Doctrine and seen his Miracles that they had no cloak for their sin Ioh. 15. he meaneth they had no colour of plea nothing to pretend by way of excuse And St. Paul professeth in
what we lawfully may but we ought also to bear one anothers burdens and to forbear for one anothers sakes what otherwise we might do and so to fulfil the Law of Christ. St. Paul who hath forbidden us in one place to make our selves the servants of any man 1 Cor. 7. hath yet bidden us in another place by love to serve one another Gal. 5. 13. And his practice therein consenteth with his doctrine as it should do in every teacher of truth for though he were free from all and knew it and would not be brought under the power of any yet in love he became servant to all that by all means he might win some It was an excellent saying of Luther Omnia libera per fidem omnia serva per charitatem We should know and be fully perswaded with the perswasion of faith that all things are lawful and yet withal we should purpose and be fully resolved for charity's sake to forbear the use of many things if we find them inexpedient He that will have his own way in every thing he hath a liberty unto whosoever shall take offence at it maketh his liberty but a cloak of maliciousness by using it uncharitably The fourth and last way whereby we may use our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness is by using it undutifully pretending it unto our disobedience to lawful authority The Anabaptists that deny all subjection to Magistrates in indifferent things do it upon this ground that they imagine Christian liberty to be violated when by humane Laws it is determined either the one way or the other And I cannot but wonder that many of our brethren in our own Church who in the question of Ceremonies must argue from their ground or else they talk of Christian liberty to no purpose should yet hold off before they grow to their conclusion which to my apprehension seemeth by the rules of good discourse to issue most naturally and necessarily from it It were a happy thing for the peace both of this Church and of their own consciences if they would in calm blood review their own dictates in this kind and see whether their own principle which the cause they are engaged in maketh them doat upon can be reasonably defended and yet the Anabaptists inference thence which the evidence of truth maketh them to abhor he fairly avoided Yet somewhat they have to say for the proof of that their ground which if it be sound it is good reason we should subscribe to it if it be not it is as good reason they should retract it Let us hear therefore what it is and put it to trial First say they Ecclesiastical Constitutions for there is the quarrel determine us precisely ad unum in the use of indifferent things which God and Christ have left free ad utrumlibet Secondly by inducing a necessity upon the thing they enjoyn they take upon them as if they could alter the nature of things and make that to become necessary which is indifferent which is not in the power of any man but of God only to do Thirdly these Constitutions are so far pressed as if men were bound in conscience to obey them which taketh away the freedom of the conscience for if the conscience be bound how is she free Nor so only but fourthly the things so enjoyned are by consequence imposed upon us as of absolute necessity unto salvation forasmuch as it is necessary unto salvation for every man to do that which he is bound in conscience to do by which device kneeling at the Communion standing at the Gospel bowing at the name of Jesus and the like become to be of necessity unto salvation Fifthly say they these Constitutions cannot be defended but by such Arguments as the Papists use for the establishing of that their rotten Tenet that humane Laws bind the conscience as well as Divine Than all which premisses what can be imagined more contrarious to true Christian liberty In which Objections before I come to their particular answer I cannot but observe the unjust I would we might not say unconscionable partiality of the Objectors First in laying the accusation against the Ecclesiastical Laws only whereas their Arguments if they had any strength in them would as well conclude against the Political Laws in the Civil State and against domestical orders in private Families as against the Laws Ecclesiastical yet must these only be guilty and they innocent which is not equal Let them either damn them all or quit them all or else let them shew wherein they are unlike which they have not yet done neither can do Secondly when they condemn the things enjoyned as simply and utterly unlawful upon quite other grounds and yet keep a stir about Christian liberty for which argument there can be no place without supposal of indifferency for Christ hath left us no liberty to unlawful things how can they answer this their manifest partiality Thirdly if they were put to speak upon their consciences whether or no if power were in their own hands and Church-affairs left to their ordering they would not forbid those things they now dislike every way as strictly and with as much imposition of necessity as the Church presently enjoyneth them I doubt not but they would say Yea and what equity is there in this dealing to condemn that in others which they would allow in themselves Fourthly in some things they are content to submit to the Ecclesiastical Constitutions notwithstanding their Christian liberty which liberty they stifly pretend for their refusal of other some whereas the case seemeth to be every way equal in both all being enjoyned by the same Authority and for the same end and in the same manner If their liberty be impeached by these why not as much by those Or if obedience to those may consist with Christian liberty why not as well obedience to these in allowing some rejecting others where there is the same reason of all are not they very partial And now I come to answer their arguments or rather flourishes for they are in truth no better That first allegation that the determining of any thing in unam partem taketh away a mans liberty to it is not true For the liberty of a Christian to any thing indifferent consisteth in this that his judgment is throughly perswaded of the indifferency of it and therefore it is the determination of the judgment in the opinion of the thing not the use of it that taketh away Christian liberty Otherwise not only Laws Political and Ecclesiastical but also all Vows Promises Covenants Contracts and what not that pitcheth upon any certain resolution de futuro should be prejudicial to Christian liberty because they do all determine something in unam partem which before was free and indifferent in utramque partem For example if my friend invite me to sup with him I may by no
which perhaps all that while never came within his thoughts but merely respecteth his own occasions and conveniences In this example as in a glass let the objectors behold the lineaments and features of their own Argument Because kneeling standing bowing are commanded by the Church and the people are bound in conscience to obey the Laws of the Church therefore the Church imposeth upon the people kneeling standing and bowing as necessary to salvation If that which they object were indeed true and that the Church did impose these Rites and Ceremonies upon the people as of necessity to salvation and require to have them so accepted doubtless the imposition were so prejudicial to Christian liberty as that every faithful man were bound in conscience for the maintenance of that liberty to disobey her authority therein and to confess against the imposition But our Church hath been so far from any intention of doing that her self that by her foresaid publick declaration she hath manifested her utter dislike of it in others What should I say more Denique teipsum concute It would better become the Patriarchs of that party that thus deeply but untruly charge her to look unto their own cloaks dive into their own bosoms and survey their own positions and practice if happily they may be able to clear themselves of trenching upon Christian liberty and ensnaring the consciences of their brethren and imposing upon their Proselites their own traditions of kneel not stand not bow not like those mentioned Col. 2. of touch not taste not handle not requiring to have them accepted of the People as of necessity unto salvation If upon due examination they can acquit themselves in this matter their accounts will be the easier but if they cannot they shall find when the burden lighteth upon them that it will be no light matter to have been themselves guilty of that very crime whereof they have unjustly accused others As for consent with the Papists in their doctrine concerning the power that mens Laws have over the conscience which is the last objection it ought not to move us We are not ashamed to consent with them or any others in any truth but in this point we differ from them so far as they differ from the truth which difference I conceive to be neither so great as some men nor yet so little as other some men would make it They teach that Humane Laws especially the Ecclesiastical bind the consciences of men not only in respect of the obedience but also in respect of the things themselves commanded and that by their own direct immediate and proper virtue In which doctrine of theirs three things are to be misliked First that they give a preheminence to the Ecclesiastical Laws above the Secular in this power of binding Wee may see it in them and in these objectors how men will run into extremities beyond all reason when they give themselves to be led by corrupt respects As he said of himself and his fellow-Philosophers Scurror ego ipse mihi populo tu so it is here They of Rome carried with a wretched desire to exalt the Papacy and indeed the whole Clergy as much as they may and to avile the secular powers as much as they dare they therefore ascribe this power over the conscience to the Ecclesiastical Laws especially but do not shew themselves all out so zealous for the Secular Ours at home on the contrary out of an appetite they have to bring in a new platform of Discipline into the Church and for that purpose to present the established Government unto the eyes and the hearts of the people in as deformed a shape as they can quarrel the Ecclesiastical Laws especially for tyrannizing over the conscience but do not shew themselves so much aggrieved at the secular Whereas the very truth is whatsoever advantages the secular powers may have above the Ecclesiastical or the Ecclesiastical above the secular in other respects yet as to the poweâ—â—â— binding the Conscience all humane Laws in general are of like reason and stand upon equal terms It is to be misliked secondly in the Romish Doctrine that they subject the conscience to the things themselves also and not only tie it to the obedience whereby they assume unto themselves interpretative the power of altering the nature of the things by removing of their indifferency and inducing a necessity for so long as they remain indifferent it is certain they cannot bind And thirdly and principally it is to be misliked in them that they would have this binding power to flow from the proper and inherent virtue of the Laws themselves immediately and per-se which is in effect to equal them with the divine Law for what can that do more Whereas humane Lawâ— in things not repugnant to the Law of God do bind the conscience indeed to obedience but it is by consequent and by vertue of a former Divine Law commanding us in all lawful things to obey the superior powers But whether mediately or immediately may some say whether directly or by consequent whether by its own or by a borrowed vertue what is it material to be argued so longas the same effect will follow and that as entirely to all intents and purposes the one way as well as the other As if a debt be alike recoverable it skilleth not much whether it be due upon the original bond or upon an assignment If they may be sure to be obeyed the higher powers are satisfied Let Scholars wrangle about words and distinctions so they have the thing it is all they look after This Objection is in part true and for that reason the differences in this controversie are not altogether of so great consequence as they have seemed to some Yet they that think the difference either to be none at all or not of considerable moment judge not aright for albeit it be all one in respect of the Governors whence the Obligation of Conscience springeth so long as they are conscioâ—ably obeyed as was truly alledged Yet unto inferiors who are bound in conscience to yield obedience it is not all one but it much concerneth them to understand whence that Obligation ariseth in respect of this very point whereof we now speak of Christian liberty and for two weighty and important considerations For first If the obligation spring as they would have it from the Constitution it self by the proper and immediate vertue thereof then the conscience of the subject is tyed to obey the Constitution in the rigour of it whatsoever occasions may occur and whatsoever other inconveniences may follow thereupon so as he sinneth mortally who at any time in any case though of never so great necessity doth otherwise than the very letter of the Constitution requireth yea though it be extra casum scandali contemptûs Which were an heavy case and might prove to be of very pernicious consequence and is indeed repugnant
XIX on Heb. xii 3. Newport 1648. Of these the I. II. III. IV. and X. were all missing and the XVIII was before faln into the hands of another who would not be perswaded to part with his Copy as he called it either to me upon entreaty perhaps to chastise me for my Ignorance who was so silly before as to think I had had some right to my own or to his fellow-Stationer upon any reasonable or rather as I am informed unreasonable terms which is done though not all out so agreeably to the old Rule Quod tibi fieri non vis yet very conformly to the old Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. Of these Six thus in hazard to be all left out in the Impression Three are recovered and here presented to publick view and Three are not The first viz. that on Eccles. vii 1. I made a shift by the help of my memory to make up as near as it would serve me to what I had so long since spoken out of an old Copy of a Sermon formerly preached upon the same Text elsewhere For I am not ashamed to profess that most of those Ad Aulam were framed upon such Texts and out of such Materials as I had formerly made use of in other places but always cast as it were into new moulds For both fit it was the difference of the Auditories in the one place and in the other should be some what considered and besides my first crude meditaons being always hastily put together could never please me so well at a second and more leisurable review as to pass without some additions defalcations and other alterations more or less The Second and Third also viz. that on Prov. xvi 7. and that on 1 Pet. ii 17. it was my good hap searching purposely among the Papers of my late worthy friend and neighbour whose memory must ever be precious with me Thomas Harrington Esquire deceased there to find together with the Copies of divers others which I wanted not transcribed with his own hand But the Fourth and Fifth are here still wanting because I could not find them out and so is the Eighteenth also because I could not get it in The want of which last though hapning not through my default yet I have made a kind of compensation for by adding one other Sermon of those Ad Populum in lieu of that which is so wanting to make up the number an even score notwithstanding 5. As for the Sermons themselves the matter therein contained the manner of handling c. I must permit all to the Readers doom Who if he be homo quadratus perfectly even and unbyassed both in his Iudgment and Affection that is to say neither prepossessed with some false principle to forestal the one nor carryed aside with partiality for or prejudice against any person or party to corrupt the other will be the better able to discern whether I have any where in these Papers exceeded the bounds of Truth and Soberness or laid my self open to the just imputation either of Flattery or Falshood There hath been a generation of men wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for their own purposes but Malignants sure enough that laboured very much when time was to possess the world with an opinion that all Court Chaplains were Parasites and their Preaching little other than daubing I hope these Papers will appear so innocent in that behalf as to contribute somewhat towards the shame and confutation of that slander 6. The greater fear is that as the times are all men will not be well pleased with some passages herein especially where I had occasion to speak something of our Church Ceremonies then under command but since grown into disuse But neither ought the displeasure of men nor the change of times to cast any prejudice upon the Truth which in all variations and turnings of affairs remaineth the same it was from the beginning and hath been accustomed and therefore can think it no new thing to find unkind entertainment abroad especially from them whose interest it is to be or at leastwise to seem to be of a different perswasion For that the truth is rather on my side in this point than on theirs that dissent from me there is besides other this strong presumption onwards That I continue of the same judgment I was of twenty thirty forty years ago and profess so to do with no great hopes of bettering my temporal condition by so professing whereas hundreds of those who now decry the Ceremonies as they do also some other things of greater importance as Popish and Antichristian did not many years since both use them themselves and by their subscriptions approve the enjoyning of them but having since in compliance with the Times professed their dislike of them their portion is visibly grown fatter thereby If the face of affairs be not now the same it was when the Sermons wherein this Point is most insisted on were preached What was then done is not sure in any justice now chargeable upon me as a crime who never pretended to be a Prophet nor could then either foresee that the times would so soon have changed or have believed that so many men would so soon have changed with the times 7. Of the presumption aforesaid I have here made use not that the business standeth in need of such a Reserve for want of competent proof otherwise which is the case wherein the Lawyers chiefly allow it but to save the labour of doing that over again in the Preface which I conceive to be already done in the work it self With what success I know not that lieth in the breast of the Reader But that I spake no otherwise than I thought and what my intentions were therein that lieth in my own breast and cannot be known to the Reader who is therefore in charity bound to believe the best where there appeareth no pregnant probability to the contrary The discourses themselves for much of the matter directly tend to the peace both of Church and State by endeavouring to perswade to Unity and Obedience and for the manner of handling have much in them of Plainness little I think nothing at all of Bitterness and so are of a temper fitter to instruct than to provoke And these I am sure are no Symptomes of very bad Intentions If there be no worse Construction made of them than I meant nor worse Use I trust they neither will deserve much blame nor can do much hurt Howsoever having now adventured them abroad though having little else to commend them but Truth and Perspicuity two things which I have always had in my care for whereto else serveth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith God hath endued man but to speak reason and to be understood if by the good blessing of Almighty God whom I desire to serve in the spirit of my mind they may become in any little degree instrumental to his Glory
the edification of his Church and the promoting of any one soul in Faith and Holiness towards the attainment of everlasting salvation I shall have great cause of rejoycing in it as a singular evidence of his underserved mercy towards me and an incomparably rich reward of so poor and unworthy labours Yet dare I not promise to my self any great hopes that any thing that can be spoken in an argument of this nature though with never so much strength of reason and evidence of truth should work any kindly effect upon the men of this generation when the times are nothing favourable and themselves altogether undisposed to receive it No more than the choisest Musick can affect the ear that is stopt up or the most proper Physick operate upon him that either cannot or will not take it But as the Sun when it shineth clearest in a bright day if the beams thereof be intercepted by a beam too but of another kind lying upon the eye is to the party so blinded as if the light were not at all so I fear it is in this case Not through any incapacity in the Organ so much especially in the learneder part among them as from the interposition of an unsound Principle which they have received with so much affection that for the great complacency they have in it they are loth to have it removed And as they of the Roman party having once throughly imbibed this grand Principle that the Catholick Church and that must needs be it of Rome is infallible are thereby rendred incapable to receive any impressions from the most regular and concluding discourses that can be tendred to them if they discern any thing therein disagreeing from the dictates of Rome and so are perpetually shut up into a necessity of erring if that Church can err unless they can be wrought off from the belief of that Principle which is not very easily to be done after they have once swallowed it and digested it without the great mercy of God and a huge measure of self-denial Even so have these our Anti-ceremonial Brethren framed to themselves a false Principle likewise which holdeth them in Errour and hardneth them against all impressions or but Offers of reason to the contrary 8. All Errors Sects and Heresies as they are mixed with some inferior Truths to make them the more passable to others so do they usually owe their original to some eminent Truths either misunderstood or misapplied whereby they become the less discernable to their own Teachers whence it is that such Teachers both deceive and are deceived To apply this then to the business in hand There is a most sound and eminent Truth justly maintained in our own and other Reformed Churches concerning the Perfection and Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures Which is to be understood of the revelation of supernatural Truths and the Substantials of Gods Worship and the advancing of Moral and Civil duties to a more sublime and spiritual height by directing them to a more noble end and exacting performance of them in a holy manner But without any purpose thereby to exclude the belief of what is otherwise reasonable or the practice of what is prudential This Orthodox Truth hath by an unhappy misunderstanding proved that great stone of offence whereat all our late Sectaries have stumbled Upon this foundation as they had laid it began our Anti-ceremonians first to raise their so often renewed Models of Reformation but they had first transformed it into quite another thing by them perhaps mistaken for the same but really as distant from it as Falshood from Truth to wit this That Nothing might lawfully be done or used in the Churches of Christ unless there were either Command or Example for it in the Scriptures Whence they inferred that whatsoever had been otherwise done or used was to be cast out as Popish Antichristian and Superstitious This is that unfound corrupt Principle whereof I spake that root of bitterness whose stem in process of time hath brought forth all these numerous branches of Sects and Heresies wherewith this sinful Nation is now so much pestered 9. It is not my purpose nor is this a place for it to make any large discovery of the cause of the mistake the unsoundness of the Tenent it self and how pernicious it is in the Consequents Yet I cannot but humbly and earnestly entreat them for the love of God and the comfort of their own souls as they tender the peace of the Church and the honour of our Religion and in compassion to thousands of their Christian Brethren who are otherwise in great danger to be either misled or scandalized that they would think it possible for themselves to be mistaken in their Principle as well as others and possible also for those Principles they rest upon to have some frailties and infirmities in them though not hitherto by them adverted because never suspected that therefore they would not hasten to their Conclusion before they are well assured of the Premisses nor so freely bestow the name of Popish and Superstitious upon the opinions or actions of their Brethren as they have used to do before they have first and throughly examined the solidity of their own Grounds finally and in order thereunto That they would not therefore despise the Offer of these few things ensuing to their consideration because tendered by one that standeth better affected to their Persons than Opinions 10. And first I beseech them to consider how unluckily they have at once both straitned too much and yet too much widened that which they would have to be the adequate Rule of warrantable actions by leaving out Prudence and taking in Example Nor doth it sound well that the examples of men though never so Godly should as to the effect of warranting our actions stand in so near equipage with the commands of God as they are here placed joyntly together without any character of difference so much as in degree But the superadding of Examples to Commands in such manner as in this Assertion is done either signifieth nothing or overthroweth all the rest which is so evident that I wonder how it could escape their own observation For that Example which is by them supposed sufficient for our warranty was it self either warranted by some Command or former Example or it was not If it were then the adding of it clearly signifieth nothing for then that warrant we have by it proceedeth not from it but from that precedent Command or Example which warranted it If it were not then was it done meerly upon the dictates of Prudence and Reason and then if we be sufficiently warranted by that Example as is still by them supposed to act after it we are also sufficiently thereby warranted to act upon the meer dictates of Prudence and Reason without the necessity of any other either Command or former Example for so doing What is the proper use that ought to be made of Examples is touched
nothing against Conscience 37 38 2. Get the mastery of thine own Will 39 43 3. Beware of Engagements to Sin 44 45 4. Resolve not to yield to any Temptation 46 The Conclusion Sermon X. Ad Aulam I. Ser. on PHIL. iv 11. Sect. 1 4. THe occasion Scope 5 Paraphrase and 6 Division of the Text. 7 12 Four Observations from the Apostles Protestation 13 14 The Nature of Contentment gathered from the Text in three Particulars viz. 15 16 I. That a man be content with his own Estate without coveting that which is anothers 17 19 Illustrated by Examples both ways 20 21 and proved from Grounds both of Justice 22 and Charity 23 Not all desire of that which is anothers forbidden 24 but the Inordinate only Whether in respect 25 26 1. Of the Object of the Desire 27 29 2. The Act or of the Desire 30 31 3. The Effects of the Desire 32 The Inference thence 33 II. That a man be content with his present Estate 34 Because 1. That only is properly his own 35 2. All looking beyond that disquieteth the mind 36 3. The present is ever best 37 38 The Duty pressed 39 40 and the misunderstanding of it prevented 41 III. That a man be content with any Estate 42 44 with the Reasons thereof 45 c. and Inferences thence Sermon VI. Ad Aulam II. Serm. on PHIL. iv 11. Sect. 1-3 THe Art of Contentment 4 1. Not from Nature 4 2. Institution 6 3. or Outward Things 7 But from God who teacheth it us 8 1. by his Spirit 9 2. by his Promises 10 c. 3. by the Rod of Discipline 12 Inferences I. Where this learning is to be had 13 II. Sundry motives thereunto 14 III. The Trial of our proficiency therein by Six Marks 15 1. The despising of unjust gain 16 2. The moderating of worldly Desires and Care 17 3. The careful using and of what we have 18 4. the charitable dispensing of what we have 19 5. The bearing both of wants with patience 20 c. 6. and losses with patience 22 Seven Helps to further us in this Learning 23 24 1. A right perswasion of the Goodness and Truth of God 25 2. A through sense of our own unworthiness 26 3. Thankfulness for what we have 27 4. A prudent comparing of our Estates with other mens 28 5. To consider the vanity of all outward things 29 30 6. Sobriety in a frugal and temperate use of the Creature 31 7. To remember that we are but Pilgrims here Sermon VII Ad Aulam on ISA. lii 3. Sect. 1. THe Sum and Division of the Text. 2 4 Part I. Mans Sale 5 Inferences thence To take knowledge 1. of our Misery therein 2 2. and Presumption therein 7 The Materials of the Contract viz. 8 10 I. The Commodity and therein our Baseness 11 15 II. The Price and therein our Folly 15 18 An Objection by way of Excuse removed 19 24 III. The Consent and therein our Inexcusableness 25 PART II. Mans Redemption wrought 26 I. EFFECTUALLY Wherein are considered 27 1. The Power of the Redeemer 28 2. The Love of the Redeemer 29 3. The Right of the Redeemer 30 And thence Inferred a threefold Duty viz. 1. of Affiance relatively to his Power 31 2. of Thankfulness relatively to his Love 32 3. of Service relatively to his Right 33 II. FREELY As to us who payed nothing towards it 34 37 But yet a valuable price payed by our Redeemer 38 Inferences thence To exclude Merit 39 But not Endeavours 40 The Conclusion Sermon VIII Ad Aulam on ROM xv 5. Sect. 1 2 THe Scope and Division of the Text. 3 5 THE FORMALITY of the Prayer Observations thence viz. I. Prayer to be joyned with Instruction 6 9 II. God the only Author of Peace 10 III. Concerning the Style FIVE ENQUIRIES viz. 11 13 1. Why the God of Patience 14 16 2. Why of Consolation 17 19 3. Of the Choice of these two Attributes 20 4. Their Conjunction 21 5. and Order 22 In the matter of the Prayer three Particulars 23 I. THE THING prayed for viz. Like mindedness 24 26 Opened 27 and Pressed upon these Considerations 28 1. That we are members of the same Body 29 2. and of the same Family 30 3. That it forwardeth the building up of Gods Church 31 33 4. but the want of it giveth Scandal to the Enemies thereof 34 35 II. The FORMER QUALIFICATION importing an agreement 1. Universal 36 38 2. Mutual 39 40 III. The Later QUALIFICATION importing an agreement 1. according unto Truth and Godliness 41 42 2. after The Example of Christ. 43 The Conclusion Sermon IX Ad Aulam on 1 TIM iii. 16. Sect. 1 4. THe Occasion Scope and Division of THE TEXT 5 6 Of the word Mystery 7 I. POINT The Gospel A GREAT MYSTERY Because 8 9 1. it could not have been known 10 13 2. had it not been revealed and 14 15 3. being revealed cannot be perfectly comprehended 16 17 INFERENCES thence I. Reason not to be the measure of Faith 18 19 II. Disquisition of Truth to be within the bounds of Sobriety 20 21 III. Offence not to be taken at the difference of Opinions among Christians 22 23 II. POINT Christianity a Mystery of Godliness In regard 24 26 1. both of the general Scope thereof 27 2. and of the special Parts thereof 28 3. and the means of conserving it 29 31 INFERENCES thence I. for the trial of Doctrines 32 33 with application to the present Church of England 34 II. For the ordering of our Lives 35 The Conclusion Sermon X. Ad Aulam on PSAL. cxix 75. Sect. 1. THe Division of THE TEXT 2 6 What is meant by the Judgments of God 7 POINT I. The righteousness of Gods Judgments 1. as proceeding from him 8 9 2. as deserved by us 10 INFERENCES thence 1. Not to murmur against the ways of Gods providence 11 2. but to submit our wills to his 12 14 Davids many troubles 15 17 and God the causer thereof 18 POINT II. That God causeth his servants to be troubled it is out of his faithfulness whether we respect 19 1. his Promises 20 22 2. or their Relations 23 The Inference thence To bear troubles chearfully 24 25 POINT III. The faithfulness of God in sending troubles evidenced from 26 30 1. The End he aimeth at therein 31 34 2. The Proportion he holdeth therein 35 36 3. The Issues he giveth thereout Sermon XI Ad Aulam I. Ser. on 1 COR. x. 23. Sect. 1 2. THe Scope and Division of the Text. 3 4 All things meant of Indifferent things only 5 What things are Indifferent 6 8 POINT I. The Liberty we have to indifferent things 9 10 The Error of those that over-much restrain this Liberty 11 14 blamed as 1. unrighteous in it self 15 22 2. Dangerous in the Consequents 23 With some APPLICATION to this Church 24 The chief Causes of that Error discovered 25 27 viz. 1. Ignorance 28 30 2. and Partiality 31
speak of the Donatists and other Schismaticks of old who confined the Church to some little corner of the World for which they were soundly confuted by St. Augustine Optatus and other godly Fathers of their times First of all extremely partial in this kind are the Romish Party at this day Who contrary to all truth and reason make the Roman and the Catholick Church terms convertible exacting external Communion with them and subjection to their Bishop as a condition so essentially requisite for the qualifying of any person to be a member of that Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation as that they have inserted a clause to that purpose into the very definition of a Church So cutting off from this brotherhood in a manner wholly all the spacious Churches of Africk and Asia together with all those both Eastern and Western Churches of Europe also which dare not submit to so vast a power as the Bishops of Rome pretend to nor can think themselves obliged to receive all their dictates for undoubted Articles of faith 41. The like Partiality appeareth secondly in our brethren of the Separation Marvel not that I call them Brethren though they will by no means own us as such the more unjust and uncharitable they And in this uncharitableness such a coincidence there is sometimes of extremes the Saparatists and the Romanists consequently to their otherwise most distant Principles do fully agree like Samsons Foxes tied together by the tails to set all on fire although their faces look quite contrary ways But we envy not either these or those their uncharitableness nor may we imitate them therein But as the Orthodox Fathers did the wayward Donatists then so we hold it our duty now to account these our uncharitable brethren as well of the one sort as the other our Brethren still whether they will thank us for it or no Velint nolint fratres sunt These our Brethren I say of the Separation are so violent and peremptory in unchurching all the World but themselves that they thrust and pen up the whole Flock of Christ in a far narrower pingle than ever the Donatists did concluding the Communion of Saints within the compass of a private Parlour or two in Amsterdam 42. And it were much to be wished in the third place that some in our own Church who have not yet directly denied us to be their Brethren had not some of the leaven of this Partiality hidden in their breasts They would hardly else be so much swelled up with an high opinion of themselves nor so much sowred in their affections towards their brethren as they bewray themselves to be by using the terms of Brotherbood of Profession of Christianity the Communion of Saints the Godly Party and the like as titles of distinction to difference some few in the Church a disaffected party to the established Government and Ceremonies from the rest As if all but themselves were scarce to be owned either as Brethren or Professors or Christians or Saints or Godly men Who knoweth of what ill consequence the usage of such appropriating and distinctive titles that sound so like the Pharisees I am holier than thou and warp so much towards a separation may prove and what evil effects they may produce in future But however it is not well done of any of us in the mean time to take up new Forms and Phrases and to accustom ourselves to a garb of speaking in Scripture-language but in a different notion from that wherein the Scriptures understand it I may not I cannot judge any mans heart but truly to me it seemeth scarce a possible thing for any man that appropriateth the name of Brethren or any of those other titles of the same extent to some part only of the Christian Church to fulfil our Apostles precept here of loving the Brotherhood according to the true meaning thereof For whom he taketh not in he must needs leave out and then he can love them but as those that are without Perhaps wish them well pray for their conversion shew them civil respect c. which is no more than he might or would do to a very Iew Turk or Pagan 43 As for us beloved brethren let us in the name and fear of God beware of all rotten or corrupt partiality in the performance either of this or of any other Christian duty either to God or man And let us humbly beseech the God of all grace and peace to put into our hearts a spirit of Wisdom and Charity that we may duly both honour and love all men in such sort as becometh us to do but especially that we may love and honour him above all who hath already so loved and honoured us as to make us Christians and hath further engaged himself by his gracious Promise to love honour and reward all those that seek his honour and glory To whom be all honour and glory ascribed c. AD AULAM. The Fourth Sermon BEUVOYR JULY 1636. Psal. 19. 13. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Let them not have dominion over me So shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression 1. THis Psalm is one of Davids Meditations That it is Davids we have it from the Title in the beginning That it is a Meditation from the close in the end of it Now there are but two things especially whereon to employ our meditations with profit to the right knowledge whereof some have therefore reduced the whole body of Divinity God and our selves And the meditation is then most both compleat and fruitful when it taketh in both Which is to be done either viâ ascensus when we begin below and at our selves and so build upwards raising our thoughts higher to the contemplation of God or viâ descensus when we begin aloft and with him and so work downward drawing our thoughts home upon our selves 2. This latter is the method of this Psalm in the former part whereof David beginneth as high as at the most Highest and then descendeth as low as to himself in the latter For the succouring of his Meditations there he maketh use of the two great Books that of Nature or of the works of God and that of Scripture or of the Word of God In that he readeth the Power in this the Will of this Maker That declareth his Glory this revealeth his Pleasure That from the beginning of the Psalm The heavens declare the glory of God c. to the end of the sixth verse This from the beginning of the seventh verse The Law of the Lord is perfect c. to the end of the eleventh verse 3. Hence coming to reâ—â—ect upon himself he hath now use of a third Book that of his own conscience wherein are enrolled the principal acts and passages of his whole life That by a just survey of the particulars therein enregistred he might observe what proportion
to confirm it with his royal assent all our labour is but lost As he is the Alpha so is he to be the Omega too and therefore we must set him at both ends And as we were to begin with him so we are to conclude with him Pray first pray last Pray before all that we may have grace to do our Endeavours Pray after all that he would give a blessing to our endeavours That so when Satan the World and our own Flesh shall all conspire against us to drive us forward to the works of sin we may by his grace and blessing he kept back therefrom and enabled to persevere in true faith and holiness all the days of our lives Which God our heavenly Father grant us for his mercies sake and for the merits of Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord to whom both with the Holy Ghost c AD AULAM. The Fifth Sermon GREENWICH JULY 1637. Philip. 4. 11. Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. SAint Paul found much kindness from these Philippians and took much comfort in it And because it was more than ordinary and beyond the kindness of other Churches he doth therefore sometimes remember it with much thankfulness both to God and them Even in the beginning of the Gospel that is presently after his first preaching it among them the story whereof is laid down Acts 16. when having passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia he came and preached at Thessalonica which was another principal City of Macedonia these Philippians hearing belike that the Apostle had little other means for his maintenance there than what he got by his hand-labour wherein both for Examples sake and because he would not be chargeable to the Thessalonians he employed himself disigently both day and night they sent over and so did no other Church but they and that once and again to supply his necessities there 2. And as they began it seemeth they continued to shew forth the truth of their Faith and to adorn their Christian Profession by their chearfulness and liberality in contributing to the necessities of their brethren upon every good occasion For at Corinth also the year following where for the space of a year and half together he did for good considerations forbear as he had before done at Thessalonica to challenge that Maintenance from the people which by Gods Ordinance he had a right unto the supplies he had he acknowledgeth to have come from the brethren of Macedonia As if he had even robbed the Philippians it is his own word in taking wages of them for the service done to other Churches 3. Not to speak of their great bounty some three or four years after that towards the relief of the poor brethren that dwelt in Iudea wherein the were willing of themselves without any great solicitation and liberal not only to the utmost of but even somewhat beyond their power Now also again after some three or four years more St. Paul being at durance in Rome their former charitable care over him which had not of a good while shewn it self forth for lack of opportunity began to re-flourish and to put forth with a fresh Verdure as a Tree doth at the approach of Summer For they sent him a large benevolence to Rome by Epaphroditus of the receipt whereof he now certifieth them by the same Epaphroditus at his return expressing the great joy and comfort he took in those gracious Evidences of their pious Affections to the Gospel first and then to him He highly commendeth their Charity in it and he earnestly beseecheth God to reward them for it 4. Yet lest this just commendation of their beneficence should through any mans uncharitableness whereunto corrupt Nature is too prone raise an unjust opinion of him as if he sought theirs more than them or being crafty had caught them with guile to make a Prey or a Gain of them so sinisterly interpreting his extolling of their Charity for the time past as if it were but an artificial kind of begging for the time to come He thought it needful for him by way of Prolepsis to prevent whatsoever might be surmised in that kind which he beginneth to do in the words of the Text to this effect 5. True it is nor will I dissemble it when I received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you it was no small rejoycing to my heart to see your care of me after some years intermission to flourish again And I cannot but give an Euge to your Charity for truly you have done well to communicate with my Afflictions Yea I should derogate from the Grace of God which he hath bestowed upon you and worketh in you if I should not both acknowledg your free benevolence towards me and approve it as an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God Which I speak not out of a greedy mind to make a gain of you nor for a cloak of covetousness God is my witness nor any other way so much in reference to my own private interest as for the glory of God and to the comfort of your consciences In as much as this fruit of your Faith thus working by Love doth redound to the honour of the Gospel in the mean time and shall in the end abound to your account in the day of the Lord Iesus Otherwise as to my own particular although my wants were supplied and my bowels refreshed through your liberality which in the condition I was in was some comfort to me yet if that had been all I had looked after the want of the things you sent me could not have much afflicted me The Lord whom I serve is God All-sufficient and his Grace had been sufficient for me though your supplies had never come He that enableth me howsoever of my self unable to do anything yet to do all things through Christ that strengthneth me hath framed my heart by his Holy Spirit and trained me up hereunto in the School of Experience and Afflictions to rest my self contented with his allotment whatsoever it be and to have a sufficiency within my self though in never so great a deficiency of outward things Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 6. The words contain a Protestation and the Reason of it First because his commendation of their Charity to him might be obnoxious to mis-construction as if he had some low covetous end therein to prevent all evil suspicion that way he disavoweth it utterly by protesting the contrary in the former part of the Verse Not that I speak in respect of want And then to make that Protestation the more credible he assigneth as the Reason thereof the contentedness of his mind For I have learned saith he in whatsoever state I am therewith to
that if we do our part God will not fail on his Be we first sure that we have Patience we must look to that for that is our part though not solely for we cannot have it without him as was already said but I say be we first sure of that and then we may be confident we shall have comfort sooner or later in some kind or other trust God with that for that is solely his part and he will take order for it without our further care 21. Lastly for the Order It may be demanded why the Apostle joyning both together The God of Patience and Consolation giveth Patience the precedency of Patience first and then of Consolation Is not that also to teach us that as it is a vain and causless fear if a man have patience to doubt whether he shall have comfort yea or no so on the contrary it is a vain and groundless hope if a man want patience to presume that yet he shall have comfort howsoever Certainly no Patience no Consolation It is the Devils method to set the fairer side forwards and to serve in the bestwiâ—e first and then after that which is worse He will not much put us upon the trial of our Patience at the first but rather till us on along with semblances and Promises of I know not what comforts and contentments but when once he hath us fast then he turneth in woe and misery upon us to overwhelm us as a deluge But God in his dispensations commonly useth a quite contrary method and dealeth roughliest with us at the first We hear of little other from him than self-denial hatred from the World taking up the Cross and suffering persecution exercise enough for all the Patience we can get But then if we hold out stoutly to the end at last cometh joy and comfort flowing in upon us both seasonably and plentifully like a river You have need of patience saith the Apostle that after you have done the will of God you may receive the Promise Patience first in doing yea and suffering too according to the will of God and then after that but not before the enjoying of the Promise Would you know then whether the Consolations of God belong unto you yea or no In short if you can have patience never doubt of it if you will not have patience never hope for it 22. Thus much concerning the formality of the Prayer in those former words of the Verse Now the God of patience and of Consolation grant you Proceed we now to the Matter thereof in the remainder of the Verse To be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus Where the particulars are three First the thing it self or grace prayed for which is Unity or Like-mindedness To be like-minded Secondly and Thirdly Two Conditions or Qualifications thereof the one in respect of the Persons One towards another the other in respect of the Manner According to Christ Iesus Of which in their order 23. The thing first To be like-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek A phrase of speech although to my remembrace not found elsewhere in holy Scripture yet often used by St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans to the Corinthians and especially to the Philippians more than once or twice I spare the quotations for brevity sake St. Peters compound word cometh nearest it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Finally be ye all of one mind 1 Pet. 3. Now these words both the Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind and the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mind this or that or to be thus or so minded although often used with special reference sometimes to the understanding or judgment sometimes to the inward disposition of the heart will and affections and sometimes to the manifesting of that inward disposition by the outward carriage and behaviour yet are they also not seldom taken at large for the whole soul and all the powers thereof together with all the motions and operations of any or each of them whether in the apprehensive appetitive or executive part And I see nothing to the contrary but that it may very well be taken in that largest extent in this place And then the thing so earnestly begged at the hand of God is that he would so frame the hearts of these Romans one towards another as that there might be an universal accord amongst them so far as was possible both in their Opinions Affections and Conversations Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like-minded 24. Like-minded first in Opinion and Judgment It is a thing much to be desired and by all good means to be endeavoured that according to our Churches Prayer God would give to all Nations unity peace and concord but especially that all they that do confess his holy name may also agree in the truth of his holy word at leastwise in the main and most substantial truths I beseech you brethren saith St. Paul by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment That is the first Like-mindedness in Iudgment 25. Like-minded secondly in heart and affection Mens understandings are not all of one size and temper and even they that have the largest and the clearest understandings yet know but in part and are therefore subject to Errors and Mis-apprehensions And therefore it cannot be hoped there should be such a consonancy and uniformity of Iudgment amongst all men no not amongst wise and godly men but that in many things yea and those sometimes of great importance they may and will dissent one from another unto the worlds end But then good heed would be taken lest by the cunning of Satan who is very forward and expert to work upon such advantages difference in judgment should in process of time first estrange by little and little and at length quite alienate our Affections one from another It is one thing to dissent from another to be at discord with our brethren Ita dissensi ab illo saith Tully concerning himself and Cato ut in disjunctione sententiae conjuncti tamen amicitiâ maneremus It is probable the whole multitude of them that believed were but we are not sure they were and it is possible they might not be all of one opinion in every point even in those first and primitive times but St. Luke telleth us for certain that they were all of one heart 26. Like-minded thirdly in a fair and peaceable outward conversation For albeit through humane frailty and amid so many scandals as are and must be in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there be not evermore that hearty entire affection that ought to be between Christian men especially when they stand divided one from another in opinion yet should they all bear
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
how qualified he should assume in partem curae to assist him in his Pastoral charge for the service of Gods Church and the propagation of the Gospel Which having done at large from the beginning of the Chapter unto the end of ver 13. he rendreth a reason at vers 14. why he had insisted so long upon that argument even lest the Church of God in his absence should be destitute of sufficient help for the work of the Gospel At Ephesus the hand of God had opened a wide door 1 Cor 16. but withal Satan as his manner is had stirred up many adversaries and some of them very mild ones more like savage beasts than men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for it 1 Cor. 15. It was at Ephesus that he fought with beasts in the shape of men Witness Demetrius the Silver-smith and that Bellua multorum capitum the mad giddy multitude in a tumultuous assembly all in an uproar and no man well wist for what Acts 19. Here was work enough to be done The door must be held open to let converts in but must be well mann'd and maintain'd too to keep adversaries out All this not to be done but with many hands The harvest being great the labourers had not need be few 2. The only thing that might perhaps make Timothy put off Ordination somewhat the longer might be the expectation of the Apostles coming to whom he might think fit to reserve that honour as to one able by reason of his Apostolick spirit to make choice of meet persons for the Churches service with better certainty than himself could do The Apostle therefore telleth him for that That true it is he had an earnest desire of a long time and still had a full purpose if God would to be with him ere long Yet because of the uncertainty of future events that was not a thing for him to rely upon so as in expectance thereof to delay the doing of any service needful for the Church of Christ. For who could tell how it might please God tâ— dispose of him Or whether the necessities of other Churches might not require his personal presence and pains rather elsewhere He would not therefore he should stay for him but go in hand with it himself with all convenient care and speed All this appeareth in the two verses next before the Text These things I wrote unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that yet thou maist know how to behave thy self in the house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of Truth 3. This seemeth to be the Scope and Contexture of the whole foregoing part of the Chapter and then immediately fall in the words of the Text And without all controversie great is the mystery of Godliness c. Which seem to have but a very slender dependance upon the foregoing discourse and indeed no more they have For the Apostle having in the end of the fifteenth verse and that but incidentally neither mentioned the word Truth he thereupon taketh occasion in this sixteenth verse a little and briefly to touch upon the Nature and Substance of that holy Truth The whole verse containeth Evangelii Encomium Compendium A brief description of the Nature in the former part and a brief summary of the Doctrine of the Gospel in some remarkable heads thereof in the latter part of the verse 4. With that latter I shall not now meddle In that former part we may observe Quid Quantum and Quale First Quid what is Christianity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a mystery But there are greater and there are lesser Mysteries Quantum therefore Of the bigger sort sure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Mystery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by all confessions and without all contradiction or controversie Great But the greater the worse if it be not good as well as great Quale therefore What a kind of Mystery is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a mystery of Piety or Godliness CHRISTIANITY IS THE GREAT MYSTERY OF GODLINESS That is the Tota Now to the Parts and first of the Quid The Gospel a Mystery But then first What is a Mystery For the Quid Nominis and then why the Gospel a Mystery For the Quid Rei The Word first then the Thing 5. For the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find sundry conceits ready collected to my hand by learned men out of the writings of the Greek Fathers and out of the Commentaries of Grammarians and Criticks both ancient and modern whereof I spare the recital because it would neither much conduce to my present purpose nor profit the present Auditory The word is clearly of a Greek Original from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut the eye or mouth Of all the mysterious rites used among the Heathens the Eleusinia sacra were the most ceremonious and mysterious insomuch as that when in their Writings the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by it self without any farther specification it is ordinarily conceived to be meant of those Eleusinian mysteries These none might be present at but they that were solemnly initiated thereunto who upon their first admission which yet was but to the outer and lesser mysteries were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if after a sufficient time of probation a twelve-month was the least they were adjudged meet to be admitted to the greater and more secret mysteries they were then called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereto there seemeth to be some allusion as there is frequently to sundry other customs and usages of the Heathens even in the holy Scriptures themselves But whether they were admitted to their lesser or the greater mysteries strait order was evermore taken with them by Oaths Penalties and otherwise as strong as could be devised that they should by no means reveal any of the passages or rites thereunto belonging to those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not initiated whom in that respect they counted prophane To do otherwise was reputed so heinous a crime that nothing could be imagined in their superstition more irreligious and piacular than that Quis Cereris ritus audet vulgare profanis He knew not where to find a man that durst presume so to do Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum vulgâ—rit arcanae sub iisdem Sit trabibus He would be loth to lodge under the same roof or to put to Sea in the same vessel with him that were guilty of such an high provocation as the divulging abroad of the sacred mysteries lest some vengeance from the offended Deities should overtake them for their impiety and him for company to their destruction It was in very deed the Devils cunning one of the depths of Satan and one of the most advantageous mysteries of his arts by that secrecy to hold up a reverent and religious Esteem of those mysteries which
Mystery that driveth at all this must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest degree the great mystery of Godliness That for the scope 27. Look now secondly at the parts and parcels the several pieces as it were whereof this mystery is made up those mentioned in this verse and the rest and you shall find that from each of them severally but how much more then from them altogether joyntly may be deduced sundry strong motives and perswasives unto Godliness Take the material parts of this Mystery the Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Baptism Temptation Preaching Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascension Intercession and Second coming of Christ. Or take if I may so call them the formal parts thereof our eternal Election before the World was our Vocation by the Preaching of the Gospel our Iustification by Faith in the merits of Christ our Sanctification by the Spirit of grace the stedfast Promises we have and hopes of future Glory and the rest It would be too long to vouch Texts for each particular but this I say of them all in general There is not one link in either of those two golden chains which doth not straitly tye up our hands tongues and hearts from doing evil draw us up effectually unto God and Christ and strongly oblige us to shew forth the power of his Grace upon our souls by expressing the power of Godliness in our lives and conversations That for the parts 28. Thirdly Christian Religion may be called the Mystery of Godliness in regard of its Conversation because Godliness is the best preserver of Christianity Roots and Fruits and Herbs which let alone and left to themselves would soon corrupt and putriâ—ie may being well condited with Sugar by a skilful Confectioner be preserved to continue for many years and be serviceable all the while So the best and surest means to preserve Christianity in its proper integrity and power from corrupting into Atheism or Heresie is to season it well with Grace as we do fresh meats with salt to keep them sweet and to be sure to keep the Conscience upright Holding the mysteries of faith in a pure Conscience saith our Apostle a little after at verse 9. of this Chapter and in the first Chapter of this Epistle vers 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience which latter some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack Apostasie from the faith springeth most an end from Apostasie in manners And he that hath but a very little care how he liveth can have no very fast hold of what he believeth For when men grow once regardless of their Consciences good affections will soon languish and then will noysom lusts gather strength and cast up mud into the soul that the judgement cannot run clear Seldom is the head right where the heart is amiss A rotten heart will be ever and anon sending up evil thoughts into the mind as marish and fenny grounds do foggy mists into the air that both darken and corrupt it As a mans taste when some malignant humour affecteth the organ savoureth nothing aright but deemeth sweet things bitter and sowre things pleasant So where Avarice Ambition Malice Voluptuousness Vain-glory Sedition or any other domineering lust hath made it self master of the heart it will so blind and corrupt the judgment that it shall not be able to discern at any certainty good from evil or truth from falshood Wholsome therefore is St. Peters advice to add unto faith Vertue Vertue will not only keep it in life but at such a height of vigour also that it shall not easily either degenerate into Heresie or languish into Atheism 29. We see now three Reasons for which the Doctrine of Christianity may be called The mystery of Godliness because it first exacteth Godliness and secondly exciteth unto Godliness and is thirdly best preserved by Godliness From these Premisses I shall desire for our nearer instruction to infer but two things only the one for the trial of Doctrines the other for the bettering of our lives For the first St. Iohn would not have us over-forward to believe every spirit Every spirit doth he say Truly it is impossible we should unless we should believe flat contradictions Whilst one Spirit saith It is another Spirit saith It is not can a man believe the one and not disbelieve the other if he hear both Believe not every spirit then is as much in St. Iohn's meaning as if he had said Be not too hasty to Believe any Spirit especially where there appeareth some just cause of Suspicion but try it first whether it be a true spirit or a false Even as St. Paul biddeth us prove all things that having so done we may hold fast what upon trial proveth good and let the rest go 30. Now holy Scripture is certainly that Lapis Lydius that Test whereby this trial is to be made Ad legem ad testimonium when we have wrangled as long as we can hitherto we must come at last But sith all Sectaries pretend to Scripture Papists Anabaptists Disciplinarians All yea the Devil himself can vouch Texts to drive on a Temptation It were good therefore we knew how to make right applications of Scripture for the Trial of Doctrines that we do not mistake a false one for a true one Many profitable Rules for this purpose our Apostle affordeth us in sundry places One very good one we may gather from the words immediately before the Text wherein the Church of God is said to be the pillar and ground of truth The Collection thence is obvious that it would very much conduce to the guiding of our judgments aright in the examining of mens doctrines concerning either Faith or Manners wherein the Letter of Scripture is obscure or the meaning doubtful to inform our selves as well as we can in credendis what the received sence and in agendis what the constant usage and practice of the Church especially in the ancient times hath been concerning those matters and that to consider what conformity the Doctrines under trial hold with the principles upon which that their sence or practice in the Premisses was grounded The Iudgment and Practice of the Church ought to sway very much with every sober and wise man either of which whosoever neglecteth or but slighteth as too many do upon a very poor pretence that the mystery of iniquity began to work betimes runneth a great hazard of falling into many errors and Absurdities If he do not he may thank his good fortune more than his forecast and if he do he may thank none but himself for neglecting so good a guide 31. But this now mentioned Rule although it be of excellent use if it be rightly understood and prudently applied and therefore growing so near the Text I could not wholly baulk it without some notice taken of it it being not within the Text I press it no farther but come to another that springeth out of the very Text it self And
but is often used by our Apostle in his Epistles with application ever to the Church of God and the spiritual Building thereof The Church is the House of the living God All Christians Members of this Church are so many Stones of the Building whereof the House is made up The bringing in of Unbelievers into the Church by converting them to the Christian Faith is as the fetching of more Stones from the Quarries to be laid in the Building The Building it self and that is Edification is the well and orderly joyning together of Christian men as living Stones in truth and love that they may grow together as it were into one entire frame of Building to make up the House strong and comely for the Master's Use and Honour 25. I know not how it is come to pass in these later times that in the popular and common Notion of this Word in the Mouths and Apprehensions of most men generally Edification is in a manner confined wholly to the Understanding Which is an Error perhaps not of much consequence yet an Error though and such as hath done some hurt too For thereon is grounded that Objection which some have stood much upon though there be little cause why against instrumental Musick in the Service of God and some other things used in the Church that they tend not to edification but rather hinder it because there cometh no instruction nor other fruit to the understanding thereby And therefore ought such things say they to be cast out of the Church as things unlawful A Conclusion by the way which will by no means follow though all the Premises should be granted for it is clear both from the Words and Drift of the Text that Edification is put as a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed of Expediency but not so of Lawfulness And therefore from the Unserviceableness of any thing to Edification we cannot reasonably infer the Unlawfulness thereof but the Inexpediency only But to let go the inconsequence that which is supposed in the Premises and laid as the ground of the Objection viz. that where the Understanding is not benefited there is no Edification is not true The Objectors should consider that whatsover thing any way advanceth the Service of God or furthereth the growth of his Church or conduceth to the increasing of any Spiritual Grace or enlivening of any holy Affection in us or serveth to the outward Exercise or but Expression of any such Grace or Affection as Ioy Fear Thankfulness Chearfulness Reverence or any other doubtless every such thing so far forth serveth more or less unto Edification 26. The building up of the People in the right knowledge of God and of his most holy Truth is I confess a necessary part of the Work and no man that wisheth well to the Work will either despise it in his heart or speak contemptibly of it with his mouth yet it is not the whole Work though no nor yet the chiefest part thereof Our Apostle expresly giveth Charity the preheminence before it Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth And for once he speaketh of Edification in his Epistles with reference to Knowledge I dare say he speaketh of it thrice with reference to Peace and brotherly Charity or Condescension The Truth is that Edification he so much urgeth is the promoting and furthering of our selves and others in Truth Godliness and Peace or any Grace accompanying Salvation for the common good of the whole Body St. Iude speaketh of building up our selves and St. Paul of edifying one another And this should be our dayly and mutual study to build up our selves and others in the knowledge of the Truth and in the practice of Godliness but especially to the utmost of our powers within our several Spheres and in those Stations wherein God hath set us to advance the Common Good by preserving Peace and Love and Unity in the Church 27. The Instructions Corrections or Admonitions we bestow upon our private Brethren the good Examples we set before them our bearing with their Infirmities our yielding and condescending from our own power and liberty to the desires even of private and particular men is as the chipping and hewing and squaring of the several Stones to make them fitter for the Building But when we do withal promote the publick Good of the Church and do something towards the procuring and conserving the Peace and Unity thereof according to our measure that is as the laying of the Stones together by making them couch close one together and binding them with Fillings and Cement to make them hold Now whatsoever we shall find according to the present state of the Times Places and Persons with whom we have to do to conduce to the Good either of the whole Church or of any greater or lesser portion thereof or but of any single Member belonging thereunto so as no prejudice or wrong be thereby done to any other that we may be sure is expedient for that time 28. To enter into Particulars when and how far forth we are bound to forbear the exercise of our lawful Liberty in indifferent things for our Brother's sake would be endless When all is said and written in this Argument that can be thought of yet still as was said much must be left to mens Discretion and Charity Discretion first will tell us in the general that as the Circumstances alter so the Expediency and Inexpediency of things may alter accordingly Quaedam quae licent tempore loco mutato non licent saith Seneca There is a time for every thing saith Solomon and a season for every purpose under Heaven Hit that time right and whatever we do is beautiful but there is no Beauty in any thing we do if it be unseasonable As Hushai said of Ahitophel's Advice The Counsel of Ahitophel is not good at this time And as he said to his Friend that cited some Verses out of Homer not altogether to his liking and commended them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholesome counsel but not for all men nor at all times If any man should now in these times endeavour to bring back into the Church postliminio and after so many years cessation thereof either the severity of the ancient Canons for publick Penances or the enjoyning of private Confessions before Easter or some other things now long disused he should attempt a thing of great Inexpediency Not in regard of the things themselves which severed from those Abuses which in tract of time had through mens corruption grown thereunto are certainly lawful and might be as in some former times so now also profitable if the times would bear them But in regard of the condition of the times and the general aversness of mens minds therefrom who having been so long accustomed to so much indulgence and liberty in that kind could not now brook those severer impositions but would cry
and consent and by reason of union though not immediately and directly work even upon the soul also As we see the fancy quick and roving when the blood iâ— inâ—lamed with choler the memory and apprehension dull in a Lethargy and other notable changes and effects in the faculties of the soul very easily disceâ—nâ—ble upon any sudden change or distemper in the body David often conâ—esseth that the troubles he met withal went sometimes to the very heart and soul of him The sorrows of my heart are enlarged In the multitude of the troubles or sorrows that I have in my heart My heart is disquieted within me Why art thou so vexed O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me c Take but that one in Psal 143 The enemy hath persecuted my soul c. Therefore is my spirit vexed within me and my heart within me is dâ—solate 15. For the Soul then or Mind to be affected with such things as happen to the body is natural and such affections if not vitiated with excess or other inordinaâ—y blameless and without sin But experience sheweth us farther too oftâ—n God knoweth that persecutions â—fflictions and such other sad casualties as befal the body nay the very shadowâ— thereof the bare fears of such things and apâ—rehensions of their approach yea even many times when it is causeless may produce worse effects in the souls and be the causes of such vicious weariness and faintness of miâ—d as the Apostle here forewarneth the Hebrews to beware of Noâ— to speak of the Lapsâ— and Traditores and others that we read of in former times and of whom there is such mention in the ancient Councils and in the writings of the Fathers of the first Ages and the Histories of the Church How many have we seen even in our times who having â—eemed to stand fast in the profession of Truth and in the performance of the offices of Vertue and duties of Piâ—ty Allegiaâ—ce and Iustice before trial have yet when they have been hard put to it yea and sometimes not very hard neither fallen away starting aside like a broken â—oâ— and by flinching at the last discovered themselves to have been but very weak Christiens at the best if not rather very deep Hypocrites 16. It will sufficiently answer the doubt to tell you That persecutions and all occurrences from without are not the chief causes nor indeed in true propriety of speech any causes at all but the occasions only of the souls fainting under them Temptations they are I grant yet are they but temptation and it is not the temptation but the consenting to the temptation that induceth guilt If at any time any temptation either on the one hand or the other prevail against us St. Iames teacheth us where to lay the fault Not upon God by any means for God tempteth no man No nor upon the Devil neither let me add that too it were a sin to belie the Devil in this for though he be a tempter and that a busie one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tempter yet that is the worse he can do he can but tempt us he cannot compel us When he hath plied us with all his utmost strength and tried us with all the engines and artifices he can devise the will hath its natural liberty still and it is at our choice whether we will yield or no. But every man when he is tempted saith he tempted cum affectu that is his meaning so tempted as to be overcome by the temptation is tempted of his own lâ—st 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draâ—n away and enticed Drawn away by injuries and affrightments from doing good or enticed by delights and allurements to do evil It is with temptations on the left hand for such are those of which we now speak even as it is with those on the right yield not and good enough My Son saith Solomon if sinners intice thee consent not Prov. 1. It may be said also proportionably and by the same reason My Son if sinners affright thee comply not The Common saying if in any other holdeth most true in the case of Temptations No man taketh harm but from himself 17. And verily in the particular we are now upon of fainting under the Cross it is nothing but our own fears and the falseness of a misgiving heart that betrayeth us to the Tempter and undoeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as he said It is not any reality in the things themselves so much that troubleth the mind as our over-deep apprehensions of them All passions of the mind if immoderate are perturbations and may bring a snare but none more or sooner than fear The fear of man bringeth a snare saith Solomon And our Saviour Let not your hearts be troubled neither fear as if fear were the greatest troubler of the heart And truly so it is No passion not Love no nor yet Anger if self though great obstructers of Reason both being so irrational as Fear is It maketh us many times do things quite otherwise than our own reason telleth us we should do It is an excellent description that a wise man hath given of it Wisdom 17. Fear saith he is nothing else but the betraying of the succours which reason offereth He that letteth go his courage forfeiteth his reason withal and what good can you reasonably expect from an unreasonable man 18. Seest thou then a man faint-hearted Suspect him I had almost said Conclude him false-hearted too It is certainly a very hard thing if at all possible for a Coward to be an honest man or a true friend either to God or man He is at the best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double-minded man but God requireth simplicity and singleness of heart He hath a good mind perhaps to be honest and to serve God and the King and to love his neighbour and his friend and if he would hold him there and be of that mind always all would be well But his double mind will not suffer him so to do He hath a mind withal to sleep in a whole skin and to save his estate if he can howsoever And so he becometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fickle and unstable in his ways turneth as the tide turneth There is no relying upon him no trusting of him Iethro well considered this when he advised Moses to make choice of such for Magistrates as he knew to be men of courage they that were otherwise he knew could not discharge their duty as they ought nor continue upright And when our Saviour said to his Disciples Luke 12. Isay unto you my friends Fear not them which kill the body He doth more than intimate that such base worldly fear cannot well consist with the Laws of true friendship 19. I insist somewhat the more upon this point because men are generally so apt to pretend to their own failings in this kind the outward force
never rightly perform our duties either to God or man That therefore the agreement may be as it ought to be we must resolve to be patient not towards some but towards all men 1 Thes. 5. to be gentle not unto some but unto all men 2 Tim. 2. to shew all meekness not to some but to all men Titus 3. 2. The Concord should be Universal 36. It should likewise be Mutual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth that also either part being ready for charity sake to contemperate and accomodate themselves to other so far as reason requireth But herein also as in the former mens corrupt partiality bewrayeth it self extremely The strong Romans like enough could discern a censorious spirit in the weaker ones and the weak ones perhaps as easily a disdainful spirit in them But neithér of both it is to be doubted were willing enough to look into the other end of the wallet and to examine throughly their own spirits We use to say If every man would mend one all would be well Yea would How cometh it to to pass then that all hath not been well even long ago For where is the man that is not ready to mend one One said I Yea ten yea a hundred why here it is every man would be mending one but not the right one He would be mending his brother but he will not mend himself Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere O saith the strong we should soon agree but that he is so censorious and yet himself â—louteth as freely as ever he did We should hit it very well saith the weak were not he so scornful and himself judgeth as deeply as ever he did Oh the falseness and hypocrisie of mens hearts blinded with self-love how it abuseth them with strong delusions and so filleth the world with divisions and offences 37. For this our blessed Saviour who hath best discovered the malady hath also prescribed the best remedy The Disease is Hypocrisie The Symptoms are One to be cat-eyed outward in readily espying somewhat the smallest mote cannot escape in a brothers eye another to be bat-eyed inward in not perceiving be it never so great a beam in a mans own eye a third a forwardness to be tampering with his brothers eye and offering his service to help him out with the mote there before he think a thought of doing any thing towards the clearing of his own eye The Remedy is to begin at home do but put the things into their right order and the business is done Tu conversus confirma fratres Strengthen thy Brethren what thou canst it is a good office and would not be neglected But there is something more needful to be done than that and to be done first and before that and which if it be first done thou wilt be able to do that much the better then shalt thou see clearly and that is to reform thy self be sure first thy self be converted and then in Gods name deal with thy weak Brother as thou seest cause and strengthen him 38. Let them that are so forward to censure the actions of others especially of their Superiors and are ever and anon complaining how ill things are carried above but never take notice of their own frauds and oppressions and sacriledges and insolencies and peevishnesses and other enormities let them turn their eye homeward another while observe how their own pulses beat and go learn what that is Thou hypocrite cast out first the beam out of thine own eye We deal not like Christians no nor like reasonable men if we expect all men should come to our bent in every thing and we our selves not relent from our own stiffness in the least matter for their sakes Believe it we shall never grow to Christian Unanimity in any tolerable measure so long as every man seeks but to please himself only in following his own liking and is not desirous withal according to our Apostles exhortation ver 2. to please his neighbour also by condescending to his desires where it may be for his good in any thing that is not either unlawful or unreasonable The inclinations to agreement should be mutual that so we might be like-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 39. And then all this must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the other qualification in the Text and now only remaineth to be spoken of According to Christ Iesus Which last clause is capable of a double interpretation pertinent to the scope of the Text and useful for our direction in point of practice both and therefore neither of both to be rejected Some understand it as a Limitation of that Unity which was prayed for in the former words and not unfitly For lest it should be conceived that all the Apostle desired in their behalf was that they should be like-minded one towards another howsoever he might intend by the addition of this clause to shew that it was not such an Unity as he desired unless it were according to Truth and Godliness in Christ Jesus There may be an agreement in falso when men hold together for the maintenance of one and the same Common Error Such as is the agreement of Hereticks of Schismaticks of Sect aries among themselves And there may be an agreement in malo when men combine together in a confederacy for the compassing of some mischievous design as did those forty and odd that bound themselves with a curse to destroy Paul Such is the agreement of Thieves of Cheaters of Rebels among themselves Such agreements as these no man ought to pray for indeed no man need to pray for The wisdom of the flesh and cunning of the Devil will bring men on fast enough to those cursed agreements without which he and his know well enough his Kingdom cannot stand The servants of God have rather bent themselves evermore by their prayers and endeavours to dissolve the glue and to break the confederacies of the ungodly Destroy their tongues O Lord and divide them is holy Davids prayer Psal. 55. And St. Paul when he stood before the Sanhedrim at Ierusalem to take off his malicious accusers the better perceiving both the Iudges and by-standers to be of two different factions some Pharisees who believed a Resurrection and other some Sadduces who denied it did very wisely to cast a bone among them When by proclaiming himself a Pharisee and professing his belief of the Resurrection he raised such a dissention between the two factions that the whole multitude was divided insomuch as the chief Captain was fain to use force to get Paul from amid the uproar and to carry him away by which means all their intended proceedings against him were stopt for that time 40. But the Unity that is to be prayed for and to be laboured for in the Christian Church is a Christian Unity that is to say a happy concord in walking lovingly together in the same
path of Truth and Godliness The word of Christ is the word of truth and the mystery of Christ the mystery of Godliness Whatsoever therefore is contrary to either of these Truth or Godliness cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Christ but rather altogether against him Here then we have our bounds set us our Ne plus ultrà beyond which if we pass we transgress and are exorbitant Alas for us the while when even our good desires may deceive us if they be inordinate and the love of so lovely a thing as Peace is mis-lead us The more need have we to look narrowly to our treadings lest the Tempter should have laid a snare for us in a way wherein we suspected it not and so surprise us ere we be aware Usque ad aras The Altar-stone that is the meer-stone All bonds of friendship all offices of neighbourhood must give way when the honour of God and his truth lie at the stake If peace will be had upon fair terms or indeed upon any terms salvis veritate pietate without impeachment of either of these it ought to be embraced But if it will not come but upon harder conditions better let it go A man may buy Gold too dear Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. The gender of the article there sheweth the meaning not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which holiness no man shall see the Lord. Without peace some man may having faithfully endeavoured it though he cannot obtain it that is not his fault but without holiness which if any man want it is through his own fault only no man shall see the Lord. Our like-mindedness then must be according to Christ Iesus in this first sence that is so far forth as may stand with Christian truth and godliness 41. But very many Expositors do rather understand the phrase in another sence According to Christ that is according to the example of Christ which seemeth to have been the judgment of our last Translators who have therefore so put it into the margent of our Bibles His Example the Apostle had reserved unto the last place as one of the weightiest and most effectual arguments in this business producing it a little before the Text and repeating it again a little after the Text. So as this prayer may seem according to this interpretation to be an illustration of that argument which was drawn from Christs Example as if he had said Christ sought not himself but us He laid aside his own glory devested himself of Majesty and Excellency that he might condescend to our baseness and bear our infirmities he did not despise us but received us with all meekness and compassion Let not us therefore seek every man to please himself in going his own way and setting up his own will neither let us despise any mans weakness but rather treading in the steps of our blessed Lord Iesus let every one of us strive to please his neighbour for his good unto edification bearing with the infirmities of our weaker brethren and receiving one another into our inwardest bosoms and bowels even as Christ also received us to the Glory of God 42. If the examples of the servants of Christ ought not to be lightly set by how much more ought the Example of the Master himself to sway with every Good Christian In 1 Cor. 10. St. Paul having delivered an exhortation in general the same in effect with that we are now in hand withal ver 24. Let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth he doth after propose to their imitation in that point his own particular practice and example in the last verse of the Chapter Even as I please all men in all things saith he not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they might be saved But then lest he might be thought to cry up himself and that he might know how unsafe a thing it were to rest barely upon his or any other mans example in the very next following words the first words of the next Chapter He leadeth them higher and to a more perject example even that of Christ Be ye followers of me saith he as I also am of Christ. As if he had said Although my example who am as nothing be little considerable in it self yet wherein my example is guided by the example of Christ you may not despise it The original record only is authentical and not the transcript yet may a transcript be creditable when it is signed and attested with a Concordat cum originali under the hand of a publick Notary or other sworn Officer I do not therefore lay mine own example upon you as a Rule I only set it before you as a help or Encouragement that you may the more chearfully follow the Example of Christ when you shall see men subject to the same sinful infirmities with your selves by the grace of God to have done the same before you My example only sheweth the thing to be feasible it is Christs Example only that can render it warrantable Be ye therefore followers of me even as I also am of Christ. 43. Here just occasion is offered me but I may not take it because of the time first and more generally of a very profitable Enquiry in what things and how far forth we are astricted to follow the Example of Christ. And then secondly and more particularly what especial directions to take from his Example for the ordering of our carriage towards our brethren in order to the more ready attaining to this Christian unanimity and like-mindedness one towards another of which we have hitherto spoken But I remit you over for both to what our Apostle hath written Phil. 2. in the whole fore-part of the Chapter The whole passage is very well worthy the pondering and his discourse therein may serve as a Commentary upon a good part of this Text. I therefore commend it to your private meditation and you and what you have heard to the good blessing of Almighty God and that with St. Pauls votive prayer or benediction here for I know not where to fetch a better Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus That you may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. To whom c. AD AULAM. The Ninth Sermon BERWICK JULY 16. 1639. 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without all Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness 1. THe Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons being one of the principal acts of the Episcopal power our Apostle therefore instructeth Timothy whom he had ordained Bishop of Ephesus the famous Metropolis of that part of Asia somewhat fully what he was to do in that so weighty an affair What manner of persons and