a truth but in the Church who formerly had with too much facility admitted a conclusion so justly subject to exception And let this suffice for our third part Now because it is apparent that the end of this our Apostles admonition is to give the Church a Caveat how she behave her self in handling of Scripture give me leave a little in stead of the use of such doctrines as I have formerly laid down to shew you as far as my conceit can stretch what course any man may take to save himself from offering violence unto Scripture and reasonably settle himself any pretended obscurity of the text whatsoever notwithstanding For which purpose the diligent observing of two rules shall be throughly available First The litteral plain and uncontroversable meaning of Scripture without any addition or supply by way of interpretation is that alone which for ground of faith we are necessarily bound to accept except it be there where the holy Ghost himself treads us out another way I take not this to be any peculiar conceit of mine but that unto which our Church stands necessarily bound When we receded from the Church of Rome one motive was because she added unto Scripture her glosses as Canonical to supply what the plain text of Scripture could not yield If in place of hers we set up our own glosses thus to do were nothing else but to pull down Baal and set up an ephod to run round and meet the Church of Rome again in the same point in which at first we left her But the plain evident and demonstrative ground of this rule is this That authority which doth warrant our faith unto us must every way be free from all possibility of errour For let us but once admit of this that there is any possibility that any one point of faith should not be true if it be once granted that I may be deceived in what I have believed how can I be assured that in the end I shall not be deceived If the Author of faith may alter or if the evidence and assurance that he hath left us be not pregnant and impossible to be defeated there is necessarily opened an inlet to doubtfulness and wavering which the nature of faith excludes That faith therefore may stand unshaken two things are of necessity to concur First That the Author of it be such a one as can by no means be deceived and this can be none but God Secondly That the words and text of this Author upon whom we ground must admit of no ambiguity no uncertainty of interpretation If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall provide himself to battel If the words admit a double sense and I follow one who can assure me that that which I follow is the truth For infallibility either in judgment or interpretation or whatsoever is annext neither to the See of any Bishop nor to the Fathers nor to the Councels nor to the Church nor to any created power whatsoever This doctrine of the literal sense was never grievous or prejudicial to any but onely to those who were inwardly conscious that their positions were not sufficiently grounded When Cardinal Cajetan in the days of our grandfathers had forsaken that vein of postilling and allegorising on Scripture which for a long time had prevailed in the Church and betaken himself unto the literal sense it was a thing so distasteful unto the Church of Rome that he was forc'd to find out many shifts and make many apologies for himself The truth is as it will appear to him that reads his writings this sticking close to the literal sense was that alone which made him to shake many of those tenets upon which the Church of Rome and the Reformed Churches differ But when the importunity of the Reformers and the great credit of Calvin's writings in that kind had forced the Divines of Rome to level their interpretations by the same line when they saw that no pains no subtlety of wit was strong enough to defeat the literal evidence of Scripture it drave them on those desperate shelves on which at this day they stick to call in question as far as they durst the credit of the Hebrew text and countenance against it a corrupt translation to adde Traditions unto Scripture and to make the Churches interpretation so pretended to be above exception As for that restriction which is usually added to this Rule that the literal sense is to be taken if no absurdity follow though I acknowledge it to be sound and good yet my advise is that we entertain it warily St. Basil thought the precept of Christ to the rich man in the Gospel Go sell all that thou hast and give unto the poor to be spoken as a command universally and eternally binding all Christians without exception And making this objection how possibly such a life could be amongst Christians since where all are sellers none could be buyers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ask not me the sense of my Lords commands He that gave the Law can provide to give it possibility of being kept without any absurdity at all Which speech howsoever we may suppose the occasion of it to be mistaken yet it is of excellent use to repress our boldness whereby many times under pretence of some inconvenience we hinder Scripture from that latitude of sense of which it is naturally capable You know the story of the Roman Captain in Gellius and what he told the Ship-wright that chose rather to interpret then to execute his Lords command Corrumpi atque dissolvi omne imperantis officium si quis ad id quod facere jussus est non obsequio debito sed consilio non desiderato respondeat It will certainly in the end prove safer for us to entertain Gods commandments obsequio debito then to interpret them acumine non desiderato Those other ways of interpretation whether it be by allegorising or allusion or whatsoever the best that can be said of them is that which S. Basil hath pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We acount of them as of trim elegant and witty speeches but we refuse to accept of them as of undoubted truths And though of some part of these that may be said which one said of his own work Quod ad usum lusi quod ad molestiam laboravi in respect of any profit comes by them they are but sport but in respect of the pains taken in making of them they are labour and travel yet much of them is of excellent use in private either to raise our affections or to spend our meditations or so it be with modesty to practise our gifts of wit to the honour of him that gave them For if we absolutely condemn these interpretations then must we condemn a great part of antiquity who are very much conversant in this kind of interpreting For the most partial for antiquity cannot chuse but see and
unto himself a Church and to begin it in Abraham Come forth saith he unto him out of thy countrey and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house When Israel being in Egypt it pleased God to appoint them a set Form and manner of serving him before this could be done they and all theirs must Come forth of Egypt they must not leave a hoof behind them When the time of the Gospel was come our Saviour holds the same course none must be of his company but such as come forth leave all and follow him And therefore the Apostle putting the Hebrews in mind of their duty expresses it in this very term Let us go forth therefore unto him saith he without the camp bearing his reproach And in the original Language of the New Testament the Church hath her name from this thing from being called forth so that without a going forth there is no Church no Christianity no Service to God the reason of all which is this We are all by nature in the High Preists Court as St. Peter was where we all deny and forswear our Master as St. Peter did neither is there any place for repentance till with St. Peter we go forth and weep For our further light we are to distinguish the practise of this our going forth according to the diversity of the times of the Church In the first Ages when Christianity was like unto Christ and had no place to hide its head no entertainment but what persecution and oppression and fire and sword could yeild it there was then required at the hands of Christians an actual going forth a real leaving of riches and freinds and lands and life for the profession of the Gospel Afterward when the Tempests of persecutions were somewhat allay'd and the skie began to clear up the necessity of actual relinquishing of all things ceas'd Christians might then securely hold life and lands and whatsoever was their own yet that it might appear unto the world that the resolution of Christian men was the same as in times of distress and want so likewise in time of peace and security it pleased God to raise up many excellent men as well of the Laity as of the Clergy who without constraint voluntarily and of themselves made liberal distribution of all they had left their means and their freinds and betook themselves to deserts and solitary places wholly giving themselves over to Meditation to Prayer to Fasting to all severity and rigidness of life what opinion our times hath of these I cannot easily pronounce thus much I know safely may be said that when this custom was in its primitive purity there was no one thing more behoovful to the Church It was the Seminary and Nursery of the Fathers and of all the famous Ornaments of the Church Those two things which afterwards in the decay and ruine of this discipline the Church sought to establish by Decrees and Constitutions namely to estrange her Preists from the world and bind them to a single life were the necessary effects of this manner of living for when from their childhood they had utterly sequestred themselves from the world and long practised the contempt of it when by chastising their body and keeping it under with long fasting they had killed the heat of youth it was not ambition nor desire of wealth nor beauty of women that could withdraw them or sway their affections That which afterwards was crept into the Church and bare the name of Monkery had indeed nothing of it but the name under pretence of poverty they seized into their possession the wealth and riches of the world they removed themselves from barren soils into the fattest places of the land from solitary desarts into the most frequented cities they turned their poor Cottages into stately Palaces their true Fasting into Formalizing and partial abstinence So that instead of going forth they took the next course to come into the world they left not the world for Christ but under pretence of Christ they gain'd the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks One of their own St. Ierom by name long ago complain'd of it Nonnulli sunt ditiores Monachi quam fuerant seculares clerici qui possideant opes sub paupere Christo quas sub fallaci locuplete diabolo non habuerant ut suspiret eos ecclesia divites quos tenuit mundos ante mendicos But I forbear and come to commend unto you another kind of going forth necessary for all persons and for all times There is a going forth in act and execution requisite onely at some times and upon some occasions there is a going forth in will and affections this let the persons be of what calling soever and let the times be never so favourable God requires at the hands of every one of us We usually indeed distinguish the times of the Church into times of Peace and times of Persecution the truth is to a true Christian man the times are always the same Habet etiam pax suos martyres saith one there is a martyrdom even in time of peace for the practise of a Christian man in the calmest times in readiness and resolution must nothing differ from times of rage and fire Iosephus writing of the military Exercises practised amongst the Romans reports that for seriousness they differed from a true Battel onely in this The Battel was a bloudy Exercise their Exercise a bloudless Battel Like unto this must be the Christian exercise in times of peace neither must there be any difference betwixt those days of persecution and these of ours but onely this Those yeilded Martyrs with bloud ours without Let therefore every man throughly examine his own heart whether upon supposal of times of trial and persecution he can say with David My heart is ready whether he can say of his dearest pledges All these have I counted dung for Christ's sake whether he find in himself that he can if need be even lay down his life for his profession He that cannot do thus what differs his Faith from a temporary faith or from hypocrisie Mark I beseech you what I say I will not affirm I will onely leave it to your Christian discretion A temporary faith that is a faith resembled to the seed in the Gospel which being sown on the stony ground withered as soon as the sun arose a faith that fails as soon as it feels the heat of persecution can save no man May we not with some reason think that the Faith of many a one who in time of peace seems to us yea and to himself too peradventure to die possess'd of it is yet notwithstanding no better then a temporary faith and therefore comes not so far as to save him that hath it Rufus a certain Philosopher whensoever any Scholars were brought unto him to receive education under him was wont to use all possible force of argument to disswade them from it if nothing could prevail
considerable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of great grossness and folly think so poor-spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot betwixt the Churches pardon me I know what temptation drew that note from me The next Schisme which had in it matter of fact is that of the Donatists who were perswaded at least pretended so that it was unlawful to converse or communicate in holy duties with men stained with any notorious sin for howsoever that Austin to specifie only the Thurificati Traditores and Libellatici c. as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must referre to all notorious sinners upon this he taught that in all places where good and bad were mixt together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution co-operating a way from sinners which blasted righteous persons which conversed with them and made all unclean on this ground separating himself from all that he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only men among whom wicked persons found no shelter and by consequence the only clean and unpolluted company and therefore the only Church Against this Saint Augustine laid down this Conclusion Vnitatem Ecclesiae per totum mundum dispersae praeceptam non esse disserendam which is indeed the whole summe of that Father's disputation against the Donatists Now in one part of this Controversie one thing is very remarkable The truth was there where it was by meer chance and might have been on either side the reason brought by either party notwithstanding for though it were De facto false that pars Donati shut up in Africk was the only Orthodox party yet it might be true notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the whole earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confirm it For where or amongst whom or how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any number more or less it may be in any Place Countrey or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without the prejudice to the definition of a Church or the truth of the Gospel North or South many or few dispersed in many Places or confined to one None of these do either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schisme and likewise that former to a wise man that well understands the matter in Controversie may afford perchance matter of pity to see men so strangely distracted upon fancy but of doubt or trouble what to do it can yield none for though in this Schisme the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both parties be equally engaged in the Schisme yet you may safely upon your occasions communicate with either if so be you flatter neither in their Schisme For why might not it be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing of moment to the contrary For in all publick Meetings pretending holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook why may not I be present in them and use communion with them Nay what if those to whom the execution of the publick service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the garments they wear be censured nay indeed be suspicious what if the gesture or adoration to be used to the Altars as now we have learned to speak What if the Homilist have Preached or delivered any Doctrine of the Truth of which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear part in them our selves The Priests under Ely had so ill demeaned themselves about the dayly sacrifices that the Scripture tells us they made them to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest for in those Schismes which concern fact nothing can be a just cause of refusing of Communion but only to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act for not only in reason but in Religion too that Maxime admits of no release Cautissimi cujusque Praeceptum quod dubitas ne feceris Long it was ere the Church fell upon Schisme upon this occasion though of late it hath had very many for until the second Council of Nice in which irreconcileable Superstition and Ignorance did conspire I say until the Rout did set up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schisme upon just occasion of fact all the rest of Schismes of that kind were but wantons this was truly serious in this the Schismatical party was the Synod it self and such as conspired with it for or concerning the use of Images in Sacrifices First it is acknowledged by all that it is a thing unnecessary Secondly it is by most suspected Thirdly it is by many held utterly unlawful can then the enjoyning of such a thing be ought else but abuse or can the refusal of Communion here be thought any other thing than duty Here or upon the like occasion to separate may peradventure bring personal trouble or danger against which it concerns any honest man to have pectus Praeparatum further harm it cannot do so that in these cases you cannot be to seek what to think or what you have to do Come we then to consider a little of the second sort of Schisme arising upon occasion of variety of opinion It hath been the common disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of faith which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded us but out of a vain desire to know more than is revealed they have attempted to devise things of which we have no light neither from Reason nor Revelation neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church-authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but feigned they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon others a necessity of entertaining conclusions of that nature and to strengthen themselves have broken out into Divisions and Factions opposing man to man Synod to Synod till the peace of the Church vanished without all possibility of recall hence arose those ancient and many separations amongst Christians occasioned by Arianisme Eutychianisme Nestorianisme Photinianisme Sabellianisme and many more both ancient and in our own time all which indeed are but names of Schisme howsoever in the common language of the
and tied to the Individuating properties of Hic and Nunc our Writings are unlimited Necessity therefore requires a multitude of Speakers a multitude of Writers not so G. Agricola writing de Animantibus subterraneis reports of a certain kind of Spirits that converse in Minerals and much infest those that work in them and the manner of them when they come is To seem to busie themselves according to all the custom of workmen they will dig and cleanse and melt and sever Metalls yet when they are gone the workmen do not find that there is any thing done So fares it with a great part of the multitude who thrust themselves into the Controversies of the Times they write Books move Questions frame Distinctions give Solutions and seem sedulously to do whatsoever the nature of the business requires yet if any skilful workman in the Lords Mines shall come and examine their work he shall find them to be but Spirits in Minerals and that with all this labour and stir there is nothing done I acknowledge it to be very true which S. Austin spake in his first Book de Trinitate Vtile est plures libros a pluribus fieri diverso stilo sed non diversa fide etiam de quaestionibus iisdem ut ad plurimos res ipsa perveniat ad alios sic ad alios vero sic It is a thing very profitable that divers Tracts be written by divers men after divers fashions but according to the same Analogy of Faith even of the same questions that some might come into the hands of all to some on this manner to another after that For this may we think to have been the counsel of the holy Ghost himself who may seem even for this purpose to have registred the self-same things of Christ by three of the Evangelists with little difference Yet notwithstanding if this speech of S. Austin admit of being qualified then was there no time which more then this Age required should be moderated which I note because of a noxious conceit spread in our Universities to the great hindering of true proficiency in Study springing out from this Root For many of the Learned themselves are fallen upon this preposterous conceit That Learning consisteth rather in variety of turning and quoting of sundry Authours then in soundly discovering and laying down the truth of things Out of which arises a greater charge unto the poor Student who now goes by number rather then weight and the Books of the Learned themselves by ambitiously heaping up the conceits and authorities of other men increase much in the bulk but do as much imbase in true value Wherefore as Gedeon's Army of two and thirty thousand by prescript from God was brought unto three hundred so this huge Army of Disputes might without any hazard of the Lords Battles be well contracted into a smaller number Iustinian the Emperour when he found that the study of the Civil Law was surcharged and much confused by reason of the great heaps of unnecessary writings he calls an Assembly of Learned men caus'd them to search the Books to cut off what was superfluous to gather into order and method the sum and substance of the whole Law Were it possible that some Religious Iustinian might after the same manner employ the wits of some of the best Learned in Examining the Controversies and selecting out of the best Writers what is necessary defaulting unnecessary and partial Discourses and so digest into order and method and leave for the direction of Posterity as it were Theological Pandects infinite store of our Books might well lie by and peaceably be buried and after Ages reap greater profit with smaller cost and pains But that which was possible in the World united under Iustinian in this great division of Kingdoms is peradventure impossible Wherefore having contented my self to shew what a great and irremediable inconvenience this free and uncontroulable venturing upon Theological Disputes hath brought upon us I will leave this Project as a Speculation and pass from this general Doctrine unto some particulars For this generality and heap of sick persons I must divide into their kinds and give every one his proper Recipe The first in this order of weak persons so to be received and cherish'd by us is one of whom question may be made whether he may be called weak or no he may seem to be rather dead for no pulse of infused grace beats in him I mean such a one who hath but small or peradventure no knowledge at all in the mystery of Christ yet is otherwise a man of upright life and conversation such a one as we usually name A moral man Account you of such a one as dead or how you please yet me-thinks I find a Recipe for him in my Text. For this man is even to be woed by us as sometimes one Heathen man wish'd of another Talis cum sis utinam noster esses This man may speak unto a Christian as Ruth does unto Boaz Spread the skirt of thy garment over me for thou art a near kinsman Two parts there are that do compleatly make up a Christian man A true Faith and an honest Conversation The first though it seem the worthier and therefore gives unto us the name of Christians yet the second in the end will prove the surer For true profession without honest conversation not onely saves not but increases our weight of punishment but a good life without true profession though it brings us not to Heaven yet it lessens the measure of our judgment so that A moral man so called is a Christian by the surer side As our Saviour saith of one in the Gospel that had wisely and discreetly answered him Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven so may we say of these men Suppose that as yet they be not of yet certainly far from the Kingdom of heaven they cannot be Yea this sincerity of life though sever'd from true profession did seem such a jewel in the eyes of some of the Ancient Fathers that their opinion was and so have they in their Writings erroneously doubtless testified it That God hath in store for such men not onely this mitigating mercy of which but now I spake but even saving grace so far forth as to make them possessors of his Kingdom Let it not trouble you that I intitle them to some part of our Christian Faith and therefore without scruple to be received as weak and not to be cast forth as dead Salvianus disputing what Faith is Quid est igitur credulitas vel sides saith he opinor fideliter hominum Christo credere id est fidelem Deo esse hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare What might this faith be saith he I suppose it is nothing else but faithfully to believe Christ and this is to be faithful unto God which is nothing else but faithfully to keep the commandments of God Not therefore onely a bare belief but the
person whom Abraham charges with this errour and see if you find not a paraphrase there the man to whom this phrase is applied is described by the properties of which I understand not that any one is a virtue first it is said he was Rich secondly he ware scarlet and soft linen thirdly he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was jovial and feasted liberally every day doth not this accurate description of the person shew his errour For to what other purpose else could this description serve Either here is his errour or this character is in vain it seems therefore we must conclude that to be rich to cloath our selves costly to fare deliciously thus to do is to receive the good things in our life except some favourable interpretation do help us out but we must take heed how we do de scripturis interpretationibus ludere dally with and elude Scripture by interpretations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When St. Iohn describes the world which he forbids us to follow he makes three parts of it the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life Do not all these three appear here in the character of our man Where is the lust of the eye if it be not in gaudy apparel Where is the lust of the flesh at least one great branch of it if it be not in the use of dainty diet Where is the pride of life if not in riches And what reason have you now to doubt what should be the meaning of Recepisti thou hast Received thy good things He then that fears to hear a Recepisti if he be rich let him not forget to distribute and empty those bags which lie up by him if he be costly clad let him turn his scarlet into sackcloth if he feed deliciously let him turn his costly dishes into temperance and fasting otherwise what can we plead for our selves that we should not as well as this man in my Text when our time comes hear our Recepisti But I see what it is peradventure that troubles you you will ask me Whether I will avouch it to be a sin to be Rich I must walk warily lest I lay my self open to exception Pelagius grounding himself upon that of our Saviour It is impossible for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven taught that lesson indeed as the words do lie and would by no means grant that a rich man could be saved but for this the Church noted him for an Heretick for among his Heresies this is scored up for one together with that that it is not lawful to swear but if Pelagius had never otherwise erred the Church might very well have pardoned him that Heresie Many times it falls out by the reason of the hardness of our hearts that there is more danger in pressing some truths then in maintaining some errours that it is lawful sometime to sport our selves that it is lawful to feast at Christmas that it is lawful to swear and many other things of the like nature are all truths yet there is no necessity we should press them in our Sermons to the people for there is no fear the people will ever forget these Cavendum est ne nimium meminerint better to labour that they do not too much remember them he that will labour in repressing the abuses which people ground upon these truths must remember the old rule Iniquum petendum est ut aeqnum feras he must go very near to teach for truth the contrary falshood To return then from this digression to our rich man Pelagius I grant was deceived when he shut all rich men out of the Kingdom of Heaven but suppose we that he had prevailed in this doctrine that he had wrought all the world to this bent that the Church had received it for Catholick doctrine shew me he that can what inconvenience would have attended this errour If every rich man should suddenly become liberal and disburse his moneys where his charity directed him if every painted Gallant did turn his Peacocks feathers into sackcloth if every glutton left his full dishes and betook himself to temperance and fasting yea and thought himself in conscience bound so to do out of fear lest he might hear of Recepisti I perswade my self the state of Greece would never suffer the more for this but the state of Christianity would have thrived the more Well had it been for our rich man here if he had been a Pelagian for this point of Pelagianism is the surest remedy that I know against a Recepisti whereas on the contrary side by reason of the truth many rich and covetous persons flatter themselves in their sin whereof they die well conceited from which they had been freed had it been their good fortune to have been thus far deceived and been Pelagians Let men therefore either quite refuse riches if they offer themselves which is the advice I give or if they will give them acceptance let them beleive that if they be rich they may be saved but let them so live as if they could not for the one shall keep them from errour in their Faith the other from sin in their Actions A second reason perswading us to the neglect of these so much admired things of the world is the consideration of certain abuses which they put upon us certain fallacies and false glosses by which they delude us for I know not how the world hath cried them up and hath given them goodly titles Vt vel lactis gallinacei sperare possis hanstum as Pliny speaks men call them blessings and favours and rewards and think those men most blest of God who enjoy most of them these goodly titles serve for nothing but to set men on longing after them and so fill those that have them with false perswasions and those that have them not with despair and discontents Were they indeed blessings were they rewards then were our case very ill and we our selves in greater danger of a Recepisti then before for as Abraham here tells the man of recepisti bona thou hast received thy good things so our Saviour tells more then once of some qui habent mercedem have their reward if then we shall beg and receive these things at the hands of God as a reward of our service we shall be no more able when we come to appear before our God to shelter our selves from an habetis mercedem you have your reward then the rich man here could defend himself from a Recepisti They may indeed pass for rewards and blessings and that truly too but to a sad and disconsolate end for there is no man though never so wicked but that some way or other doth some good some cup of cold water hath been given some small service enterprized even by the worst of men now God who leaves no service unrewarded no good office unrespected therefore preserves these sublunary blessings of purpose ut
of the wisdom of God in permitting his cheifest servants to fall dangerously I have largely exemplified it in the person of St. Peter give me leave to make this further beneficial unto you by drawing some uses from it for great profit hath redounded to the Church through the Fall of these men Felicius ille cecidit quam caeteri steterunt saith St. Ambrose of this fall of St. Peter His sin hath more avail'd us then the righteousness of many others for wheresoever it pleases the holy Spirit of God to work effectually I speak cautelously because I would give no place to presumption in him he makes excellent use oft-times even of sin and evil First of all it is a tried case that many times through negligence and carelesness we suffer our selves to lie open to many advantages In such a case as this a blow given us serves us for a remembrance to call our wits about us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up the grace of God that is in us which many times is in interlunio lies covered like fire under ashes for as a skilful Wrestler having suffered his adversary to take advantage upon some oversight recollects himself and comes forward with greater strength and wariness pudor incendit vires conscia virtus shame of the fall and impatience of disgrace adds strength unto him and kindles him so oft-times is it with the Saints of God the shame of having fallen makes them summon up their forces to look better about them to fulfil their duty in larger sort then if they had not slipt at all Hence it is that we see that of the bitterest enemies of the Church have been made the best converts of this we have a notable example in St. Paul how eager was he in the quarrel of the Iews against Christ None a more mischeivous enemy of the Christians then he yet when it pleased God to shew him his errour he proved one of the most excellent instruments of Christ's glory that ever was on earth and so accordingly he gives himself a most true testimony I have laboured more abundantly not then one or two of them but then they all his writings being as much in quantity as of them all and St. Luke's story being nothing else almost but a Register of the acts of St. Paul The sense and conscience I doubt not of that infinite wrong done to the Church provoked him to measure back to the utmost of his power his pains and labour in making up the breach he had formerly made Here then is a notable lesson for us teaching us to make our former sins and impieties admonitioners unto us to know our own strength and by Christian care and watchfulness to prevent all advantages which the Divil may take by our rechlesness and negligence for Beloved it is not so much our impotency and weakness as our sloth and carelesness against which the common enemy doth prevail for through the grace of him that doth enable us we are stronger then he and the policy of Christian war-fare hath as many means to beat back and defend as the deepest reach of Satan hath to give the onset The envious man in the Gospel rush'd not into the Feild in despite of the husbandman and the servants but came and sowed his tares whil'st men slept saith the Text our neglect and carelesness is the sleep that he takes advantage of When David was so strangely overtaken the Scripture tells us he rose from his bed to walk on the top of his Palace from his bed indeed he arose but not from his sleep for mark I beseech you David had spent much of his time about the Court he had been abroad and seen and ransak'd many Cities and doubtless he had seen many women as fair as the wife of Vriah and that in his younger days when he was more apt to kindle why then now commits he so great an over-sight Look on him a while as now he is He is now at rest in his Palace at ease on his bed and to solace himself he must rise and walk at the top of his house and idlely gaze upon a naked Dame of this his idleness the Divil takes advantage this is the sleep in which he comes and sows Tares in David's heart even all manner of lust So that David fell as Adam did in Paradise not as a man that falls before an enemy stronger then himself The greatest part of the sins which we commit are in this rank with David's sin He is faithful saith the Apostle and suffers no man to be tempted above his strength Many creatures if they knew their strength would never suffer themselves to be aw'd by man as they are Beloved we are become like Horse and Mule without understanding we know not our strength we are more blind then the servant of Elizaeus and see not that they that are with us are more and more mighty then they that are against us The Angels are ministring spirits sent out of purpose to guard us and doubtless do many and great services for us though we perceive not We have the Army of God ubi mille clypei omnis armatura fortium where are a thousand bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty The Helmet of Salvation the Sword of the Spirit the Sheild of Faith to quench all the fiery darts of sin onely let us not neglect to buckle it on and make use of it We have to strive with an enemy such a one as Anibal reported Marcellus to be Qui nec bonam nec malam ferre fortunam potest seu vicit ferociter instat victis seu victus est instaurat cum victoribus certamen a restless enemy that is never quiet howsoever the world goes if he conquer us he insolently insults upon us if we foil him he still bethinks himself how to set upon us afresh Let us not therefore suppose sedendo votis debellari posse that the conquest will be gotten by sitting still and wishing all were well We oft maintain against the Church of Rome that our natural abilities whilest we live serve us not to fulfil the Law of God What boots it thus to dispute shall the confession of our unableness to do what we ought excuse us at all if we do not that which we are able St. Austin was of opinion how justly I will not dispute but of that opinion he was and it was the occasion of his Book De spiritu litera ad Marcellinum that it was possible for us even in this natural life seconded by the grace of God perfectly to accomplish what the Law requires at our hands Let the truth of this be as it may be certainly that is most true which the same Father adds That let our strength be what it will yet if we know not our duty we shall do it no more then the traveller sound of body or limb can go that way aright of which he is utterly ignorant Yea
or to Breathe and this Notion belongs to the FATHER and the SON alike for Pater Filius spirant Spiritum Sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God If any man think this Confession to be Defecti for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives be deficient and I shall thank him for his favour How we come to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God HOw come I to know that the Works which we call Livie's are indeed his whose name they bear Hath God left means to know the prophane Writings of men hath he left no certain means to know his own Records The first and outward means that brings us to the knowledge of these Books is the voice of the Church notified to us by our Teachers and Instructors who first unclasp'd and open'd them unto us and that common duty which is exacted at the hand of every learner Oportet discentem credere And this remaining in us peradventure is all the outward means that the ordinary and plainer sort of Christians know To those who are conversant among the Records of Antiquity farther light appears To find the ancient Copies of Books bearing these Titles to find in all Ages since their being written the universal consent of all the Church still resolving it self upon these writings as sacred and uncontrolable these cannot chuse but be strong Motioners unto us to pass our consent unto them and to conclude that either these Writings are that which they are taken for or nothing left us from Antiquity is true For whatsoever is that gives any strength or credit to any thing of Antiquity left to posterity whether it be Writings and Records or Tradition from hand to hand or what things else soever they all concur to the authorising of holy Scriptures as amply as they do to any other thing left unto the world Yea but will some man reply this proves indeed strongly that Moses and the Prophets that St. Matthew and St. Paul c. writ those Books and about those times which they bear shew of but this comes not home for how proves this that they are of God If I heard St. Paul himself preaching what makes me beleive him that his Doctrine is from God and his words the words of the holy Ghost For answer There was no outward means to perswade the world at the first rising of Christianity that it is infallibly from God but onely Miracles such as impossibly were naturally to be done Had I not done those things saith our Saviour which no man else could do you had had no sin Had not the world seen those Miracles which did unavoidably prove the assistance and presence of a Divine power with those who first taught the will of Christ it had not had sin if it had rejected them For though the world by the light of natural discretion might easily have discover'd that that was not the right way wherein it usually walk'd yet that that was the true path which the Apostles themselves began to tread there was no means undoubtedly to prove but Miracles and if the building were at this day to be raised it could not be founded without Miracles To our fore-fathers therefore whose ears first entertain'd the word of life Miracles were necessary and so they are to us but after another order For as the sight of these Miracles did confirm the doctrine unto them so unto us the infallible records of them For whatsoever evidence there is that the Word once began to be preach'd the very same confirms unto us that it was accompanied with Miracles and Wonders so that as those Miracles by being seen did prove unanswerably unto our fore-fathers the truth of the doctrine for the confirmation of which they were intended so do they unto us never a whit less effectually approve it by being left unto us upon these Records which if they fail us then by Antiquity there can be nothing left unto posterity which can have certain and undoubted oredit The certain and uncontrolable Records of Miracles are the same to us the Miracles are The Church of Rome when she commends unto us the Authority of the Church in dijudicating of Scriptures seems onely to speak of her self and that of that part of her self which is at some time existent whereas we when we appeal to the Church's testimony content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time viz. since its first beginning and out of both these draw an argument in this question of that force as that from it not the subtilest disputer can find an escape for who is it that can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable men by opposing not onely the present Church conversing in earth but to the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages So that in effect to us of after-ages the greatest if not the sole outward mean of our consent to holy Scripture is the voice of the Church excepting always the Copies of the Books themselves bearing from their birth such or such names of the Church I say and that not onely of that part of it which is actually existent at any time but successively of the Church ever since the time of our blessed Saviour for all these testimonies which from time to time are left in the Writings of our fore-fathers as almost every Age ever since the first birth of the Gospel hath by God's providence left us store are the continued voice of the Church witnessing unto us the truth of these Books and their Authority well but this is onely fides humano judicio testimonio acâ—quaesita what shall we think of fides infusa of the inward working of the holy Ghost in the consciences of every beleiver How far it is a perswader unto us of the Authority of these Books I have not much to say Onely thus much in general that doubtless the holy Ghost doth so work in the heart of every true Beleiver that it leaves a farther assurance strong and sufficient to ground and stay it self upon But this because it is private to every one and no way subject to sense is unfit to yeild argument by way of dispute to stop the captious curiosities of wits disposed to wrangle and by so much the more unfit it is by how much by experience we have learn'd that men are very apt to call their own private conceit the Spirit To oppose unto these men to reform them our own private conceits under the name likewise of the Spirit were madness so that to judge upon presumption of the Spirit in private can be no way to bring either this or any other controversie to an end If it should please God at this day to adde any
Gospel which is the Second Article the Church of England doth teach Artic. Relig. 7. de Praedestinatione That we must Receive God's Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture where our Church doth signifie that the Promises of God in the Gospel do appertain to all generally to whom they are published and according to this we hold that the reason why the Promises of the Gospel are not effectual to all to whom they are published is not through any Defect in Christ's death as though he had not truly founded and ratified by his death and passion the Evangelical Covenant or promise to all or that this promise pertained not to all or that God did not thereby seriously invite all to whom this Evangelical Promise is propounded in the Ministery of the word to repentance and faith and so consequently to the participation of the benefits promised therein but that the defect is inherent in man who will not receive that grace that is truly and seriously offered on God's part This Doctrine must needs be maintained otherwise we cannot see what ground God's Ministers have seriously to exhort and invite all to repentance and belief in Christ according to the mandate and promise of the Gospel 3. For the Communication of Grace in some measure and degree tending to Conversion to all to whom the Gospel is preached there is no doubt but it is conformable to the Doctrine of our Church 3. There is no Confession of any Reformed Church that doth restrain Christ's death only to the Elect Now we are by our Instructions from his Majesty to advise the Belgicks to conform themselves to the publick Confessions of the Church of England and the Neighbour Reformed Churches 4. We observe that in the Conference at the Haghe the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants being pressed by Arguments on each side in this Second Article they come to joyn issue in that which we hold to be the very truth for in Collat. Bertian pag. 154. the words of the Contra-Remonstrants are these lin antepenult Sed infideles etsi promeriti quidem illi sint condemnationem tamen est adhuc via aliqua ratio or as it is in Collat. Brandii p. 163. habent tamen medium per quam meritam condemnationem illam possint evadere nimirum si credant neque enim resecta est omnis salutis spes quantisper in hac vitâ est c. Now p. 186. Collat. Bertian post medium the words of the Remonstrants are these Experientiam hoc posse docere non omnes singulos reipsâ à servitute liberari sed non docet liberationem aut saltem jus modum or medium as Brandius hath it p. 197. eò pertingendi omnibus non esse impetratum In the former place the Contra-Remonstrants make a great difference between the state and condition of the wicked spirits and men not-elect for that men have a way and means to avoid condemnation i. e. by believing But if the Promise of the Gospel founded in Christ's merits Quisquis crediderit salvus erit do only belong to the Elect then the non-elect though they should believe should have no way or means of escaping condemnation Because belief is not available to salvation from the nature of the act but from the Will of God making the Promise which according to the Contra-Remonstrants in this promise is presumed to be confined only to the Elect. And so this Promise should no more pertain to the non-elect than to the evil Angels who if they should repent and believe admitting this impossible supposition yet could not be saved because this Promise was never made to them but to mankind as the Scripture speaketh In the latter Passage the Remonstrants do explain themselves that Christ by his death obtained a means and way of deliverance to all Both acknowledge that a way and means of deliverance is impetrated by Christ not for Believers only but for Infidels and unbelievers though they accept not of it 5. Notwithstanding this Tenent of Extending Christ's death to all and the Vniversality of the promise we do firmly hold the main Points controverted not only in the other Four Articles but in this Second Article also in our two first Propositions touching God's and Christ's special intention to Redeem effectually and to merit effectual Grace only to the Elect. And so shall in all the Five Articles define sufficiently against the Remonstrants And by this our distinction blunt their chief Arguments in all the Five Articles which otherwise we cannot see how they can be sufficiently solved 6. We consider that by this our delivery of the Points premised we shall avoid all these absurdities which by unavoidable consequence will fall upon them which hold the rigid Opinion of Piscator and some in these Provinces touching the Doctrine of Reprobation which are alledged by the Remonstrants in a large Tract which they have written upon the First Article which was read in the Synod which Assertions we think no Divine can justifie 7. We know that sundry of the most Learned Bishops and others in England do hold the same and we doubt not but if the Tenents of sundry of the Contra-Remonstrants here were made known unto them they would disclaim them 8. We verily think that the strictness of the Contra-Remonstrants in this Second Article is one chief reason which keepeth the Lutheran Churches from joyning with us And we think that if way were given in this Synod herein they would be the more easily brought to hold the Doctrine of Predestination according to the Opinion of St. Augustine and the Church of England 9. This is the Doctrine of sundry of the famous and learned Writers of the Reformed Churches as of Melancthon of Calvin in sundry places of Musculus Bullinger Gualter Aretius Vrsinus Sohnius Pezelius Mollerus Paraeus and others 10. We have had conference with some of the Divines here but cannot receive any due satisfaction 11. We had a special charge in our Instructions to endeavour that Positions be moderately laid down which may tend to the mitigation of heat on both parts which we judge to be most necessary in this Second Article FINIS The CONTENTS SERMONS Abuses of hard places of Scripture 2 Pet. 3. 16. WHich the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do the other Scriptures unto their own destruction page 1. Of dealing with Erring Christians Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful disputations p. 24. The Rich mans Recepisti or the danger of receiving our good things in this Life Preached on Easter-day at Eaton Colledge Luke 16.25 Son remember that thou in thy life time receivdst thy good things p. 56. Of Duels c. Preacht at the Hague Numb 35.33 And the Land cannot be cleansed of blood that is shed in it but by the blood of him that shed it p. 68. Saint Peters Fall Mat. 26.75 And he went forth and wept bitterly p.
their brethren whilst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks under pretence of interpretation they violently broach their own conceits Great then is the danger in which they wade which take upon them this business of interpretation Temevitas asserendae incertae dubiaeque opinionis saith St. Austine difficile sacrilegii crimen evitat the rashness of those that aver uncertain and doubtful interpretations for Catholick and Absolute can hardly escape the sin of sacrilege But whereas our Apostle saith their own destruction is the destruction onely their own this were well if it stretched no farther The antients much complain of this offence as an hinderer of the salvation of others There were in the days of Isidorus Pelusiota some that gave out that all in the Old Testament was spoken of Christ belike out of extreme opposition to the Manichees who on the other side taught that no Text in the Old Testament did foretel of Christ. That Father therefore dealing with some of that opinion tells them how great the danger of their tenet is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if saith he we strive with violence to draw and apply those Texts to Christ which apparently pertain not to him we shall gain nothing but this to make all the places that are spoken of him suspected and so discredit the strength of other testimonies which the Church usually urges for the refutation of the Iews For in these cases a wrested proof is like unto a suborn'd witness it never doth help so much whilest it is presumed to be strong as it doth hurt when it is discover'd to be weak St. Austin in his Books de Genesi ad literam sharply reproves some Christians who out of some places of Scripture misunderstood fram'd unto themselves a kind of knowledge in Astronomy and Physiology quite contrary unto some part of heathen Learning in this kind which were true and evident unto sense A man would think that this were but a small errour and yet he doubts not to call it turpe nimis perniciosum maxime cavendum His reason warrants the roundness of his reproof for he charges such to have been a scandal unto the Word and hinderers of the conversion of some heathen men that were Scholars For how saith he shall they believe our books of Scripture perswading the resurrection of the dead the kingdome of heaven and the rest of the mysteries of our profession if they find them faulty in these things of which themselves have undeniable demonstration Yea though the cause we maintain be never so good yet the issue of diseas'd and crazie proofs brought to maintain it must needs be the same For unto all causes be they never so good weakness of proof when it is discovered brings great prejudice but unto the cause of Religion most of all St. Austine observ'd that there were some qui cum de aliquibus qui sanctum nomen profitentur aliquid criminis vel falsi sonuerit vel veri patuerit instant satagunt ambiunt ut de omnibus hoc credatur It fares no otherwise with Religion it self then it doth with the professors of it Divers malignants there are who lie in wait to espie where our reasons on which we build are weak and having deprehended it in some will earnestly solicit the world to believe that all are so if means were made to bring it to light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks using for advantage against us no strength of their own but the vice and imbecility of our defence The book of the revelation is a book full of wonder and mystery the Ancients seem to have made a Religion to meddle with it and thought it much better to admire with silence then to adventure to expound it and therefore amongst their labours in exposition of Scripture scarcely is there any one found that hath touch'd it But our Age hath taken better heart And scarcely any one is there who hath entertained a good conceit of his own abilities but he hath taken that Book as a fit argument to spend his pains on That the Church of Rome hath great cause to suspect her self to fear lest she have a great part in the Prophesies in that book I think the most partial will not deny Yet unto the Expositours of it I will give this advice that they look that that befall not them which Thuoidides observes to befall the common sort of men who though they have good means to acquit themselves like men yet when they think their best hopes fail them and begin to despair of their strength comfort themselves with interpretations of certain dark and obscure prophesies Many plain texts of Scripture are very pregnant and of sufficient strength to overthrow the points maintained by that Church againts us If we leave these and ground our selves upon our private expositions of this Book we shall justly seem in the poverty of better proofs to rest our selves upon those prophesies which though in themselves they are most certain yet our expositions of them must except God give yet further light unto his Church necessarily be mixt with much incertainty as being at the best but unprobable conjectures of our own Scarcely can there be found a thing more harmful to Religion then to vent thus our own conceits and obtrude them upon the world for necessary and absolute The Physicians skill as I conceive of it stands as much in opinion as any that I know whatsoever yet their greatest Master Hippocrates tells them directly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then the Physicians presumption upon opinion there is not one thing that brings either more blame to himself or danger to his patient If it be thus in an art which opinion taken away must needs fall how little room then must opinion have in that knowledge where nothing can have place but what is of eternal truth where if once admit of opinion all is overthrown But I conclude this point adding onely this general admonition That we be not too peremptory in our positions where express text of Scripture fails us that we lay not our own collections and conclusions with too much precipitancy For experience hath shewed us that the errour and weakness of them being afterwards discovered brings great disadvantage to Christianity and trouble to the Church The Eastern Church before St. Basils time had entertained generally a conceit that those Greek particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest were so divided among the Trinity that each of the Persons had his Particle which was no way appliable to the rest St. Basil having discovered this to be but a niceness and needless curiosity beginning to teach so raised in the Church such a tumult that he brought upon himself a great labour of writing many tracts in apology for himself with much ado ere matters could again be setled The fault of this was not in Basil who religiously fearing what by way of consequence might ensue upon an errour taught