and the cure of Souls so as Presbyterians may have a share here when they can prove their Ordination and Mission This part of our duty to obey Christ in his Ministers is with many of very hard digestion who not regarding the necessity there is of it nor the benefit we have by it nor the authority and commission we have for it nor the gentle conduct we have in it lay it aside as a thing of no use and that God hath provided other means to lead us many and more certain then any Shepherds can be We have first our own Reason to lead us 2. We have Scripture a surer guide then that 3. We have the Spirit besides Joh. 16.13 and that will lead us into all truth Lastly we have our own Consciences which in the commission of Leading is of the Quorum nothing can be done without it We cannot deny but that all these have a part and share in the guiding of our souls But as no one of them doth exclude or bar the other so nor do all of them the Shepherds For allowing to every of these that which is peculiar to them there will be still found something to remain which is proper for the Shepherds to do I am now I confess in a discourse not so smooth and easie as best befits popular Sermons yet because many whom it concerns to weaken the hands and power of Church-governors do with their importunate clamours fill the Pulpit you will be pleased to allow of a short Answer from thence too AND first for REASON It is not to be denied that it ought to be admitted even in matters of Religion where it hath least to do for Religion is the object and imployment of Faith and not of Reasoning and yet naturally no man will believe any thing unless he sees Reason for it But how not a Reason of the thing that he believes for that works Knowledge not Faith but yet a reason of believing it for the credit of the Author that relates it for nothing can be more unreasonable then not to believe God that cannot ly But to admit reason in matters of Faith for any other use then that is to set up a Religion without Faith which would be as strange a thing as to have a Religion with nothing else There are in Religion some things to be known as well as believed and to these Reason and Discourse is proper for though the Articles of Faith and whatsoever shall appear to be contained in Scripture are without all doubt and reasoning to be received because God hath revealed them yet that this or that Article or Proposition is contained in Scripture is a thing to be know and lyes within the compass of sense we may see whether it be there or no that is for the words And for the meaning of those words we must understand the language in which they are written the proper import and idiom of the phrase the force and consequence of the discourse the coherence and consent it hath with other points better known We must besides discover the fallacies and inconsequences of those that would obtrude a different sense from that we receive All these difficulties though in matter of Religion are within the conduct of Reason but it is Reason so exalted with skill of Arts and Languages with Prudence and Diligence that we shall be forced to find work for the Shepherds too The greatest part of Christs flock I am sure must perish if they may not trust others in those things to which their natural inabilities or course of life hath made them incapable And for the best of the flock whom both Nature and Art hath fitted to master the greatest difficulties of themselves if they shall seriously consider how much and how oft Prejudice Education Custom Passion and Interest doth corrupt our Reason we would in prudence sometimes suspect our own and seek better security from the Church where though we shall not infallibly find the truth we may alwayes safely presume it This will serve to reconcile our obedience with Reason THE next pretender against the Shepherds leading is the SCRIPTURE I confess the Scripture to be a surer guide then Reason for the Authors sake and yet by what ye heard even now it works little without it but yet surer for all that The ignorance of Scripture is a cause of erring Ye erre saith our Saviour Mat. 22.29 not knowing the Scriptures And to keep us right in our way Gods Word is a lantern to our feet and a light unto our paths Psal 119.105 We cannot say too much of the excellency and benefit of it It is a perfect record of all that concerns Heaven or the way to it It hath all the perfections that a law or rule can have to guide us yet those perfections are confin'd within the limits and nature of a law to do no more then is proper for a law to do which is very little without a Judge to apply it Though the rule be sufficiently straight perfect yet it measures nothing out of the hand of him that hath skill to use it Bring what controversy you will to the laws they pronounce nothing either for the Plaintiff or Defendant This is the true reason why though all sects pretend to Scripture there is yet no end of controversies because there is no common Judge to end them And the reason why every sect for all that seems to rest satisfied they are guided by the Scripture is because they carry their Judge a-long with them themselves So as if together with the Scriptures there be not a Shepherd too or some as little to be trusted our selves I mean it cannot lead at all Heb. 4.12 It is indeed a two-edged sword but cuts nothing but in the hand of him that useth it A Third pretender to avoid the Shepherds is the SPIRIT That without question will lead us into all truth Joh. 16.13 But for the manner of the Spirits leading the Scripture points out two wayes The one Divines call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other may be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as it led the Prophets of old by revealing to them the truth and matter of the Prophesy the object And by this way it led all the Apostles to whom the whole doctrine of the Gospel and mystery of salvation by Christ was reveal'd 2 P.t. 1.21 And thus holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost To this way of leading none can pretend that doth not prove his commission from God by a miracle who sends none of such an errand that cannot make it appear some way that he came from him If the Enthusiastick would have his dreams believed to be the dictates and revelations of the Spirit let him shew his letters of Credence from Heaven seal'd with a miracle and I shall not doubt to set him above all the Doctors and Shepherds of the Church Otherwise
could not preserve knowledge unless it were received from his mouth by hearing It was commonly practised in the Synagogues after the reading of the Law in the time of the Apostles to exhort the people When St. Paul and his company went into the Synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia they were desired to give the people a word of exhortation Acts 13.15 How then comes it to pass that by hearing and preaching the Christian Religion is distinguished from the Jews which are common to both And why is the Law call'd the ministration of the Letter by way of distinction seeing the Gospel is written as well as the Law 'T is plain that these things are spoken not simply and universally of either but in relation to their beginning and first publishing to the world Because the Law was then given by writing though afterwards preached it is called the ministration of the Letter So the Gospel though afterwards written yet because it was then only preached by revelation of the Holy Ghost it is call'd the ministration of the Spirit That likewise which St. Paul speaks of the hearing of Faith and of saving men by the foolishness of preaching hath a peculiar relation to Christianity in the manner of founding it at first For certainly Preaching in it self was not in the eye of humane wisdom a foolish way to perswade but such as the wisest of them all used when they would perswade the people any thing they did it by orations and speeches which are of the same kind with preaching But if we look at that preaching by which the Christian Religion was at first introduced it had in the eye of humane wisdom something of folly in it For to introduce a Law or Religion to any people these two things among others are necessary That they give it in Writing that they might more certainly know what they had to do and that it be by such as have authority and power And this way God himself took in giving the Jews a Law for first he wrote it with his own fingers and then published it by the Ministry of Moses who was their leader and governour But for the introduction of the Gospel it pleased God to take a far different course that is to commit all to the preaching of a few poor despicable Fisher-men who were only private men of no authority and of whose Gospel they had no knowledge but from what was to be taken from their mouths And that when first preached was by some esteemed no better than a distemper yea plain drunkenness yet thus it pleased God to put the words of eternal life into these earthen vessels and by that means to make his own power known and by that folly to confound the wisdom of the world But for our preaching though it may have many times too good a title to foolishness in preaching yet not to the foolishness of preaching for those obstacles remov'd it is the ordinary way by which all knowledge humane as well as divine is communicated My meaning is that hearing now is to be looked upon as the common natural instrument to receive instruction and therefore no benefit to be reckon'd on from it but what is common to all other learning and knowledge that is by serious studying and diligently pondering the things we hear for if we trust to any secret sacramental mystical vertue in hearing that profit we should get by the Word we may lose by the Hearing Therefore take heed how you hear for this is a second way of putting Gods word under a Bushel There is another way which in part at least puts under the Bushel too when we confine it to the Sermon whereas that is of little use if Gods word be not in it they say The word is of as little if it be not in a Sermon which is a derogation to the goodness and bounty of Almighty God who hath dispensed his Divine Truth so many ways besides as First by Reading for though when Gods Word was preached only it could be only heard yet when it was a Scripture it might be known as all other Writings by reading also for this reason St. Paul sets Timothy to his Book 1 Tim. 4.13 Till I come give attendance to reading Search the Scriptures for therein you think you have eternal life and search we cannot unless we read them that by reading we may find the way to eternal life yea though all were to be done by preaching Reading is that too For Moses had in old time them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day Acts 15.21 Secondly By writing Gods Word works Faith in us if S. John was not mistaken when he said 1 Joh. 5.13 These things have I written unto you that ye may know ye have eternal life and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God Good writers are in their kind good Preachers Why then should any be scandalized at the Preacher that looks upon his Book where his Sermon is written Indeed if men now were to speak as the Apostles did as the Spirit gave them utterance it were a great mistake to look for him in a Book But if we as all must take Gods Word out of the Scripture and every Preacher if he be not too bold with God and his Auditors that he may speak from thence what is both true and seasonable prepares by writing that which he is to preach the Sermon is the same in the Pulpit that it was in the study and though the Preacher that looks in his Book be the worse the Sermon I am sure is not Thirdly We may receive the fruit of God's Word in the virtuous life and example of others for this St. Paul calls the holding forth the VVord of Life Phil. 2.16 That ye may be blameless the Sons of God without rebuke holding forth the VVord of Life i. e. it is visible and legible in all our actions and demeanour Thus a Man may be a Preacher of God's Word though he be not in Orders Yea Women that are forbidden to speak in the Church may thus convert their Husbands at home Likewise ye VVives be in subjection to your Husbands that if any obey not the Word that is 1 Pet. 3 1. when it is preached they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the Wife So powerful and effectual is God's Word that it works by example though in the weakest Vessels There be divers ways of preaching in the more proper sense besides the Sermon for preaching is either publick or private as we learn from St. Paul Acts 20.20 where he gives account to the Elders of Ephesus of himself That he had taught them publickly and from house to house Sure he did not make a formal Sermon in every house he came into but as occasion and opportunity was given by Conference he made known to them the Will of God Again Publick preaching is not all of a kind
he may deceive himself by his spirit he shall not deceive me The other way of the Spirits leading is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. not by revealing any thing to us but by co-operating with us by fortifying the soul and the faculties of it to all supernatural actions by assistance of grace to inlighten the understanding to comprehend divine truth to inflame the affections with the love of it to support our endeavours in all difficulties and temptations To this assistance of the Spirit all the faithful have a right And though in this way the Spirit cannot deceive us yet we may be deceived in it because it never works but with us if we fail in what we are to do then that fails us And by this way not only private persons but publick Councels are governed To whom the Spirit doth not reveal the matter of their Decrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by way of co-operation assists their indeavours to find out the truth from the proper Topicks of it the Scripture and Antiquity for so all the force of their decrees depends upon the reason and grounds upon which they are made For if any Councel might pretend to that other way of revelation sure that first famous Apostolical Councel might Act. 15. But that did not otherwise determine the matter in controversy then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 15.7 v. 7. when there had been much debate and disquisition out of the Scriptures were the decrees made and sign'd accordingly It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Verse 28. The Apostles and Elders were in joynt commission with the Spirit the same Lord that sent the Spirit sent the Apostles also and therefore no contradiction to be led by the Spirit and by the Shepherds too THE fourth and last leader which is brought in to avoid the Shepherds is the CONSCIENCE This is the Presbyterians strongest fort against Obedience If he can get his Conscience about him he thinks himself so safe that he may bid defiance to all Authority In the Commission of leaders I confess as I said the Conscience to be of the Quorum We are to do nothing without it and much less against it But then we must be sure we mistake not somewhat else for the Conscience Every disease and distemper of the mind causless scruple slight perswasion groundless fear is not the Conscience against which we are bound not to act The tender Conscience for which so much favour is pleaded may prove in some no better then a disease of the Soul a spiritual Splene For though it be good to be tender of offending God in any thing where it proceeds from the good temper and constitution of the soul which is the same constantly in all cases and is not affected or taken up for a purpose as the sturdy begger carries his arm in a string that it may be a Patent to beg and be idle You may know it certainly to be a disease if it comes upon us by fits and starts as to be tender of offending God when we obey men and not to be tender of offending God when we disobey them If they be not as tender of one side as of another as I never find them to be it is but a Paralitick Conscience that is dead of one side For tell him the Church commands it he presently shrinks and startles at it and well so for possibly he may sin against God But tell him on the other side that God commands obedience to those that rule over us it moves him not at all you may thrust a needle into his side and he feels it not It shews plainly the Conscience hath a dead Palsy on that side But a right and sound Conscience against which certainly we ought not to act is a constant and well governed judgment for not to amuse you as the manner is with frivolous distinctions and definitions of Conscience in this case the Conscience is nothing but every mans private judgment for he ought not to attempt the doing of any thing till he hath framed this judgment to himself that it is lawful for him to do it Now seeing our private judgment hath so great power and influence as to interrupt the course of publick it had need be a true and regular judgment As first It must not be arbitrary for that we think we have reason to decline in the publick Magistrate to govern by Will and not by Law Many a Conscience if it were well examined will prove to be nothing but will not judgement Every good judgment is upon a full hearing of the cause of both sides all evidences duly weighed and examined then resolves this is a Conscience against which we ought not to act though possibly it might prove to be erroneous yet for all that we must know that it doth not set us free from the guilt of disobeying our Governors And then this is all the benefit our Conscience will do us in case of error that it casts us into a necessity of sinning by obeying against our selves by disobeying against our Governors We shall do well therefore to take care that we make not every slight perswasion doubt or scruple a Conscience trusting to be discharged of our obedience by that which indeed binds it faster upon us for that is the very end and benefit for which is instituted the Pastoral charge that when we are so weak we can not safely trust our selves we may rely upon that unless we think it a good plea I am blind and therefore I will not be led I am weak and sickly and therefore I will not be rul'd by the Physitian Now to sum up all if not Reason nor Scripture nor the Spirit nor Conscience will discharge us of the duty we owe to the Church in the name of God let us not rashly fling away so great a blessing that in all our doubts and fears for our quiet and security we may have recourse to the Shepherds and Bishops of our Souls THis is the last point the Shepherds Flock or the Bishops Diocess the Souls of men And here we meet with another quarrel from the Presbytery That they may be sure to spoil the Bishops of all authority they take away their Diocess the cure of Souls that they may be Bishops sine titulo for Bishops they are not either of our bodies or estates And why not of our Souls Christ indeed the great Shepherd that purchased them may rule them but they are too precious for any other Shepherds to Lord over which they say is done by binding the Souls with Church-laws and censures which Christ hath set at liberty And thus they set up Christ against himself and Christian liberty against Christian duty S. Paul I confess doth earnestly press this point of liberty Gal. 5.1 Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoak of bondage But what liberty It is not simply
be when the vertue of it is gone Psal 107.34 Afruitful land is made barren by the sins of them that dwell therein The same cause will make our Prayers as fruitless as our fields To honour God with our lips and dishonour him with our lives to be strict at Prayers and loose to all disorders The Presbyterian pretensions cannot make our Sacrifice so abominable as our sins can They make God complain of that which he himself commanded Isai 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full with the burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts And again Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me So it was with the Jews Sacrifice and the Christians will fare no better ver 15. When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea and when ye make many Prayers I will not hear Whence grows the displeasure that God takes against his own Service but from this Your hands are full of blood He will accept no Sacrifice from polluted hands And therefore to reconcile him to his own Service he puts us into this course verse 16. VVash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek Judgement relieve the oppressed plead for the widow If we come thus minded and prepared to Gods Altar and offer the Sacrifice of Praise to the honour of his Name we may with confidence expect what God in the same case promised 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour To conclude All that I have said hitherto is only to vindicate Gods Service from contempt and to restore it to some of the respect due to it And this though the froward times did not need cannot I hope be thought an ill office for a Sermon once to be an Advocate for Prayer seeing Prayers will always do as much for the Sermon be an Advocate to God to bring down a blessing upon it As the Church teacheth us to do so let us pray That the words which we have heard with our outward ears may c. A SERMON Preached before His Majesty at Whitehall March 27.1664 St MARK 4.24 Take heed what you hear TO take heed is always good but most necessary when danger is least suspected we have therefore more need to look to our hearing because of all other things we may think that hath least need of it If it had been a Caveat upon the Tongue Take heed what you say there is reason enough for that for the tongue is a world of iniquity Jam. 3.6 it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of Nature But for hearing that seems a harmless innocent thing meerly passive no man the worse for it And this makes us sit down securely to hear any thing But take heed Hearing is no such harmless thing Though hearing ill be not doing ill yet at length it may bring us to it it is a door to let it in upon us We are all set in the midst of Temptations and Enemies and cannot be safe unless we have a watch and guard upon the passages As David considering the mischiefs that came by intemperate and unadvis'd speaking wisely resolv'd to set a watch at the door of his lips Dixi Custodiam I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue So another guard will be as necessary at the ear that nothing go in or out in at the ear or out at the mouth that may betray us to our Enemies If we look not to our ears they will soon become guilty of the corruptions of the heart as when we hear the slatterer it corrupts our judgment of our selves the tale-bearer or slanderer it corrupts our judgment of others If we hearken to prosane silthy atheistical communication it poisons the whole man for evil words corrupt good manners Thus the ear by letting in may prove as ill as the tongue by letting out a world of iniquity too A little care here will prevent a great deal of mischief take it at large for it is good for aâ—… Persons for all Places for all Times But the Caveat of the Text comes nearer to us it follows us to Church where we think our selves out of all danger and yet nearer to the very business we come about the hearing of Gods Word an imployment so safe from danger that we think no care is to be taken unless it be to get a place to hear in For concerning this hearing is the advice given upon occasion of the Parable of the Sower that went before wherein our Saviour himself interprets the Seed to be God's Word and the Soil in which it was sown to be the Hearers Of four several sorts but one came to good It is a great odds and yet I wish it were not often greater three to one of the Hearers miscarried and the fault was only in the hearing It is therefore very seasonable for us that are come to hear and especially at this time of Lent when there is more of this Seed sown than at any other time of the year Where the loss will be more the care should be greater Take heed what you hear This is the Argument whereof with Gods blessing we are now to treat COncerning our care about hearing it will not be amiss to bestow the first part of it about the meaning of the Words St. Luke relates the same passage with some difference Tade heed how your hear That which is quid here is quomodo there The difficulty will be Whether St. Mark should expound St. Luke or St. Luke St. Mark for in relating matter of fact the truth must be one though the words differ And yet the words do not so differ but that in Scripture the one is sometimes taken for the other quid for quomodo and quomodo for quid Gen. 2.19 God brought all the beasts of the field and fouls of the air to Adam to see what he would call them What that is How there is quid for quomodo On the other side Luke 10.26 we have quomodo for quid VVhat is written in the Law how readest thou How that is VVhat readest thou Though this promiscuous use of the phrases will serve to reconcile the Evangelists that they might mean the same thing in different words yet will it not serve to find out which that meaning should be It will be a safe course therefore to take both in for though vi verborum we can not yet which is lawful in a Preacher vi consequentiae we may for they are so close woven together that one cannot well go without the other It will be to no purpose how we hear unless we hear what we should and it will be to as little to hear what we should if we care not how we hear it If we take them both in they will compleat our
care in the two parts of it and also make two Points of the Sermon VVhat we hear and How we hear 1. Take heed what But how can that be given in caution to the Hearer which is not in his power for it is wholly at the choice of the Speaker what we hear When the Ear is open it must hear what is spoken whether it be good or bad True if the Precept had been given to the Ear so it must be but it is given to the Hearer to him that hath an Imperium and ruling of that and all the other senses If the reason or will shall command the Ear will open or shut like or dislike It is not simple hearing the Sense it self is not capable of advice but mix'd Heb. 4.2 St. Paul gives the reason why the Gospel being preach'd to the Jews did not profit them because not mix'd with Faith in them that heard it It is not simple hearing but mix'd with a more noble part of the Soul that guides it And so to take heed what you hear is in effect to take heed what Faith and Credit you give to that you hear for so it follows in the Verse VVith what measure you mete it shall be measur'd to you the benefit will answer to the care measure for measure But what different measure can there be of that which differs not Gods Word is from everlasting unchangeable The grass may wither and the flower thereof may fade away saith St. Peter but the word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you 1 Pet. 1. ult 1 Pet. 1. ult Though Gods word be one in it self yet that one hath been made known to the world in different ways and Degrees and so requires a hearing proportionable to them God who at sundry times Heb. 1.2 and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken by his Son And likewise that which the Son spake in those last days the days of the Gospel was in divers manners For first he spake by himself self in person Luke 4.18 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor That which he preached was certainly Gods word And when he left the world to go to his Father he sent the Holy Ghost from Heaven who in the mouth of the Apostles preached the same Gospel for those holy men spake not by the will of man but as they were mov'd by the Holy Ghost And therefore this also was truly the word of God 2 Pet. â— 24. And when the Church was thus founded by the preaching of the Holy Ghost for the propagation of it to all times after it pleased God to give it in VVriting in a Scripture and that by inspiration of the same Spirit which before preached it So as now we need not ascend to Heaven to fetch Christ down nor the Holy Ghost as some pretend to do to know Gods will but to receive it only from that Scripture Thus far we have the Word of God in Proper i. e. immediately out of the mouth of God and our hearing must be absolute for the matter we must say with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth But when it pleased God to commit the dispensing of that word to the Pastors of the Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes 4.12 Now the word of God was come into the hands of men subject to infirmities and error who may both deceive themselves and others And here our Saviours advice comes in season Take heed what you hear Before Gods word was in the Original but here only in the Transcript or Copy and some Copyings are more happy than others and come nearer the Original and therefore not all of the same value and esteem All Preachers are not to be heard alike nor all Sermons The word of God in them is so the water of Life that it often tastes of the mineral through which it runs and hath a tincture from the earthen Vessel that brings it and therefore not to be receiv'd with that measure of trust which belongs to the pure and proper word of God For take a Sermon at the best the most you can make of it is that it is Gods word only in a qualified sense because the Church intends it should be so and it is the Preachers judgment and opinion that it is so and possibly it may be so indeed But then because possibly it may not be so we had need take heed what we hear We learn from St. Paul that it was more than possible it was truly so then for he warns Timothy of Preachers that will strive about words to no purpose but to the subversion of the hearers 2 Tim. 2.14 And verse 16. By prophane and vain bablings do increase to more ungodliness And verse 17. Their word will eat as doth a Canker or a Gangrain for so the Greek word is and that 's a dangerous Disease and by all means possible to be avoided and especially to be taken heed of Thus it was in the early times of the Church we have reason then to look for worse after and so we of late times found it by sad experience Not only profane and vain bablings but Sedition Treason Rebellion were drest up and appear'd in the likeness of Sermons It is too plain we have but too much need of caution to take heed But alas what should private men do must they or can they call all Preachers and Doctrines to account The Scriptures indeed which are the undoubted Word of God would do it if well manag'd but how can that be hoped from every hand wherein wise that is learned men are mistaken and from whence every Sect seeks Patronage and perswades it self to have it What means is there then left by the help whereof we may take heed what we hear Truly none that I know but this still the Scriptures are the only infallible rule But how Not left loose to the prejudices and fancies of every man for then it will fall out as with those that look in a Glass in which every one sees his own face though not anothers the reason is because he brings his face to the Glass not because it was there before So every Sect sees the face of his own Religion in the Scripture not because it was there before but because his strong fancy and prejudice brought it thither he thinks he sees that in the Scripture which in truth is only in his own imagination But how then can we have any help from the Scriptures to take heed what we hear Not as Gods word lies diffus'd through the whole body of them but as prepar'd and fitted up in a summary and short form of wholsom words by such to whom the
Ceremonies of the Church in like manner though not in like degree though in their opinion as inconsiderable as the paring of Adams apple yet when discord and disobedience is found with them there is poyson enough in that for the strongest antidote the Church doth at any time make use of Let not that therefore mislead or disturb our Student of Quiet Nor that which in the Fourth place they look at as another Expedient for Peace If fewer Points and Articles of Religion were defined that so the Church-door may be wider open to let in those whose dissent now troubles the peace of the Church It is fit I grant the Church-door should stand always open but for such as shall be fit to enter for it would be a dangerous thing to set any door so wide open to let in an enemy upon us But to what purpose would we have the Church-door so wide when the Gate of Heaven is strait why should they be taken in here if they shall be turned back there The Church is a City as Jerusalem a City that is at unity in it self so it is a City too that hath gates and walls to shut out others He that came to a little City where there was a great Gate merrily warned the Citizens to take heed lest their City went not out at the Gate may soberly be said to those that would have the Church-door so wide to let in all Sects to take heed lest the Church gets not out at the door For where so many Religions are it may be feared that soon there will be none at all If we be not as the Apostle commands built up in the same Faith it will avail us little to be found within the same walls It is therefore a perverse remedy for peace to abate or diminish the Articles and definitions of the Church which were made of purpose to take away controversies it would be a strange course to end controversies to take away the definitions Our Student must read his Books backward if he seek for peace from hence We might as well say all the world would be quiet if there were no Judges nor Laws to determine differences There is another Expedient for Peace which I hear much spoken of and highly set by as a-great point of prudence If men of moderate opinions were only taken into imployment in the Church Moderation I confess is an excellent vertue and much to be desired Let your moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4.5 But then it must be in a subject capable of it wherein there are extremes and excesses to be moderated as there is certainly in our passions there it is proper S. Paul gives it for a Lesson to all Students in Religion Ephes 4.31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another and tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you This no doubt is a very fit temper for quiet and none more unfit then angry waspish and domineering spirits Only this caution is to be observed in lenity That it be such as may win men into the Church not such as may secure and encourage them to stay without Yet lenity and gentleness is so good a Vertue that I am loth to cast water upon it or seem to temper it But for men of moderate opinions I am at a loss to know what they should be for moderation there cannot be but between extreams Now what extreams are there of opinions in a setled Church unless the Church be one extream and the Schismatick another and then the man of moderate opinions is he that is part Church-man and part Schismatick I hope none are so unkind to their Mother the Church to charge extremities upon her Doctrine or Laws If there be any such they are but Hybrides in Religion and make a new sect in the Church as pernicious to the peace of it as any of the rest The truth is moderate opinions are a Chimaera a phansie either nothing or somewhat worse then nothing for possibly they may bestow that good word Moderation upon such as care little either to observe the Law themselves or to require it of others If these be the men of moderate opinions I wonder how they will be able to give account of their justice and fidelity to the trust committed to them Yes they say very well It is rather prudence then injustice to mitigate and sweeten the sharpness and rigour of the Law But if the Law it self be too rigorous in God's name let it be amended and not left to the arbitrary power of others to do it for that 's known to be a remedy ten times worse then the disease It is said in Physick I know not how truly that an error in the first concoction is not mended in the second It is certainly true here an error or excess in the Law which is the first concoction of justice will be ill cured afterward by an arbitrary partiality in the execution I hope therefore no wise Student of quiet will take such Moderators for the best Ministers of peace But I leave them and come to the most popular and therefore most dangerous principle in the study of quiet that is Liberty of Conscience I have spoken to this point heretofore in this place yet because of late our New Philosophical Divines as well as others press hard for it knowing without a free Market they cannot vend their new bold speculations I shall resume the point again a little more largely yet within the compass of these two particulars First That there is a great deal of reason to restrain the Conscience and Secondly That there is no reason to give it liberty 1. There is reason enough to restrain the Conscience for the mischief it doth to Quiet when it is at liberty for all the discord and divisions of the Church grow from hence and that is a mischief we have reason to avoid Mark them saith S. Paul which cause divisions among you Rom. 16.17 and avoid them There is reason then to mark that which causeth them to make divisions and that 's the Conscience It is no quietter in the Common-wealth where it destroys the very Foundation of Government and frustrates the Ordinance of God for it in Princes and Magistrates for what is left for them to do if every one must follow the dictate of his own Conscience that is in plain terms be bound only to obey himself This is no slander to the pretenders of Conscience they will say as much themselves if ye ask them Ask the Schismatick why he joyns not with the congregation of Gods people and he will tell you His Conscience will not suffer him Ask the Rebel in the State why he takes up Arms to the ruine of his King and Countrey and his Conscience will answer for him That it is Gods cause and it is
we do not if we keep St. Pauls rule Schismaticks are without the Church we judge not them Those that are without the Church God judgeth 1 Cor. 5.13 They must stand or fall to God And when we do refuse them we do not condemn them to Hell All we say is if they will not go to Heaven our way they shall not go in our company and in truth they cannot 2. It is no work of Charity to take them in with all their faults For though Charity be a good natured Vertue and covers a multitude of sins but when they are not known abroad but cherisheth none that are I could never think it a breach of Charity to condemn Heresie or Schism which are known sins though it be against Charity to condemn any person of either of whose guilt there may be doubt Charity may sometimes absolve the Offender but never the Offence When the Offence is known to us and the Fact avowed by them they cannot be taken in for Charity sake if we love our own quiet and Charity begins at home Now if neither Peace nor Charity have any share in framing this New Church I may for a Conclusion ask the question our Saviour did the Jews concerning John's Baptism Is it from Heaven or of men or which is all one is it from the Flesh or from the Spirit If they shall say from the Flesh all men will adjudge it to Corruption If they shall say from Heaven or from the Spirit I will ask them another question Whether a Church without Walls can be of Gods making His Church is a garden enclosed Cant. 4.12 And when he planted a Vineyard Esay 5.2 and that was his Church he fenced it in But when he saw it brought forth wild Grapes then he threatens them with this Judgment I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the Wall thereof and it shall be trodden down Can it be wisdom to draw that upon our selves which God would not inflict but in vengeance To make the Field of the Spirit no better then the Field of the Sluggard Prov. 24.31 I went by it and lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down Nothing can be liker then Schisms to Thorns and Liberty from Laws to a broken Wall If I had kept my self to the proper work of the Preacher this day which is Palm Sunday I should have carried a Palm to the triumph of our Saviour entring into Jerusalem But finding some so busie in strewing our way with THORNS in stead of PALMS I thought it fitter first to clear the way of them to prepare it this day for a greater Triumph at Easter over Sin Death and Hell I have no more to say but to end as I began Be not deceived God is not mocked That which is dearest to us our own Credit that we be not men deceived and that which ought to be Gods honour that he be not mocked are both engaged in the Truth of this Doctrine that we do not rashly adventure to sowe what we would be loath to reap and unwisely prefer that which will certainly and suddenly fade away before that which will last for ever He that soweth to the flesh c. FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed for and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful Fire of London to 1675. A Guide to Eternity by John Bona octavo 2 s. Dean W. Lloyd's Sermon before the King about Miracles 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Bishop of Chester 6 d. His Sermon before the King in Lent 1673. 6 d. The Seasonable Discourse against Popery in quarto 6 d. The Defence of it quarto 6 d. The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome in quarto 6 d. The Papists Apology to the Parliament answered 6 d. Mr. Naylor's Commemoration Sermon for Col. Cavendish 6 d. Mr. Sayers Sermon at the Assizes at Reading 6 d. Mr. Tho. Tanner's Sermon to the scattered Members of the Church 6 d. Mr. Stanhopp's four Sermons on several occasions octavo bound 1 s. 6 d. Papal Tyranny as it was exercised over England for some Ages with two Sermons on the fifth of Nov. by Dr. Du Moulin in quarto 1 s. 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner Dean of Canterbury 6 d.