ESTABLISHED WOrthy Sir when leud and debauched persons drop away from us we lament their loss not our own but when Men of worth leave us it is not their loss more then ours with so much more indignation must we needs think of those Cheaters for so I construe St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that would fain win you from us with meer tricks of mis-suggestion the attempt whereof hath given occasion to these warm lines which my true zeal of your safety hath drawn from me So much hath been already spoken to this cavill that would you please but to cast your eye upon Bishop Mortons treatise of the grand imposture and Bishop Bedells Epistles to Wadsworth you could not desire other satisfaction thither give me leave to referr you at your best leasure in the mean time least I should seem willing to spare my own indeavors let me shortly discover the vanity of that stale collusion which some Seducers would put upon you Certainly Sir the more you look into these quarrels the more you find that Templum Domini was not a more mocking plea amongst the Jews of old then Ecclesia Catholica is this day among Christians those challenge it whole that have it not and those that have right to it are excluded with equal importunity Blessed be God you were born and bred in a noble and renowned Daughter of that great and universal Mother the Church of England what reason can an Enemy show you why you should repent you of such a parentage and spit in the face of so gracious a Mother and nurse nothing it seems is urged to you but her age It is a killing word with those Romish Imposters where was your Church before Luther then which there was never any plea more idle more frivolous when it falls under a wise and judicious discussion for consider I beseech you Did we go about to lay the foundations of a new Church the challenge were most just Primum verum was the old and sure rule of Tertullian we abhorr new Churches and new Truths find ours either to be or to be pretended such and forsake us But when all our claim all our endeavour is onely the reforming and repairing of an old Church faulty in some mouldred stones and mis-daubed with some untempered and lately laid morter what a frenzy is this to ask where that Church was which we show them sensibly thus repaired had it not been before how could it have been capable of this amendment and if it be but reformed by us It was formed before and having been since deformed by their errors is only restored by us to the former beauty As sure as there is any Church any truth in the World this is the true and only State of this controversie the mis-prision whereof hath been guilty of the loss of many thousand souls To speak plainly it is onely the gross abuses and palpable innovations of the Church of Rome which we have parted from set these aside they and we are and will be one Church let this be done and if their cruelty and uncharitableness would sever us our unity of faith and Christian love shall make us one in spight of malice If their mis-zealous importunity will needs so incorporate those which we can convince for new errours as to make them essential to the very being of their Church they are more injurious to themselves then their Enemies can be we can but lament to see them guilty of their own mischief For us we have erred in nothing but this that we would not err to demonstrate this in particulars were a long-some task and that which I have already performed in that my treatise of the Old Religion may it please you to let fall your eye upon that plain and moderate discourse you shall confess this truth made good every parcel whereof I am ready to justifie against all gainsayers when these Men therefore shall ask where our Church was answer them boldly where it is It is with Churches as with those severall persons whereof they consist give me a Man that having been Romish for opinion is now grown wiser and reformed he hath still the same form or essence though not the same errors he is the same Man then yea I add he is the same Christian that he was whiles he holds firmly all those Articles of Catholick faith which are essentiall to Christianity if he now find reason to reject those hideous novelties of the inerrability of a Man of sin of the new and monstrous but invisible incarnation of his Saviour by charm of a sinfull Priest of marting of sins of purgatory flames and the rest of that upstart rabble of the Tridentine Creed whiles he undoubtedly believes all those truths which carried our Fathers who lived before the hatching of these devices safely and directly to Heaven who can deny him the honor of true Catholicisme and Christianity No otherwise is it in whole Churches whereof every believeing soul is an abridgment if any of them find just cause to refuse some newly obtruded opinions which the rest are set to maintain whiles in the mean time the foundation remains entire this can be no ground to dis-Church that differing company of Christians neither are they other from themselves upon this diversity of opinion But I hear what some whisperers say It is the determination of the Church which makes what points she thinks fit de fide and fundamental Let me confidently say this is the most dangerous innovation that can fall into the ears hearts hands of Christians If the Church can make another God another Christ another Heaven other Prophets and Apostles she may also lay another foundation But the old rule of the chosen Vessel wheron I securely cast my soul is Fundamentum aliud ponere nemo potest But that You may perfectly discover the fraud what Church is it I beseech you to whom this power ir arrogated and by whom is it usurped None but the Roman and what is that but a particular Church I speak boldly there was never so grosse a gullery in the World as this what interest hath Rome in Heaven more then Constantinople then Paris then Prague then Basil then London or any other City under Heaven or what priviledg hath the Italian Church above the Greek French Germane English It is the charge of the Apostle My Brethren have not the faith of God in respect of persons I may upon the same Grounds say in respect of places the locality of truth is the most idle and childish plea that ever imposed upon wise men Away with this foppery the true divinity of St. Peter was and is in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him the climate makes no difference and if more respect have been antiently given to that See then to others it was the soveraignty of the City which then drew on those honours to the Church which upon the very same reason were no
children as such Not as men not as witty wise noble rich bountiful useful but as Christians showing it self in all real expressions These these are excellent and irrefragable proofs and evictions of your calling and election Seek for these in your hearts and hands and seek for them till ye finde them and when ye have found them make much of them as the invaluable favours of God and labour for a continual increase of them and a growth in this heavenly assurance by them What need I urge any motives to stir up your Christian care and diligence Do but look first behinde you see but how much pretious time we have already lost how have we loitered hitherto in our great work Bernards question is fit still to be asked by us of our souls Bernarde ad quid venisti Wherefore are we here upon earth To pamper our Gut To tend our hide To wallow in all voluptuous courses To scrape up the pelf of the World As if the only end of our being were carnal pleasure wordly profit Oh base and unworthy thoughts What do we with reason if we be thus prostituted It is for beasts which have no soul to be all for sense For us that have ratiocination and pretend grace we know we are here but in a thorowfare to another world and all the main task we have to do here in this life is to provide for a better Oh then let us recollect our selves at the last and redeem the time and over-looking this vain and worthless World bend all our best indeavours to make sure work for eternity Look secondly before you and see the shortness and uncertainty of this which we call a life what day is there that may not be our last what hour is there that we can make account of as certain And think how many World 's the dying Man would give in the late conscience of a careless life for but one day more to do his neglected work and shall we wilfully be prodigall of this happy leasure and liberty and knowingly hazard so wofull and irremediable a surprisall Look thirdly below you and see the horror of that dreadfull place of torment which is the unavoydable portion of careless and unreclaimable sinners consider the extremity the eternity of those tortures which in vain the secure heart sleightly hoped to avoid Look lastly above you and see whether that Heaven whose out-side we behold be not worthy of our utmost ambition of our most zealous and effectuall endeavours Do we not think there is pleasure and happiness enough in that region of glory and blessedness to make abundant amends for all our self-combats for all our tasks of dutyfull service for all our painfull exercises of mortification Oh then let us earnestly and unweariably aspire thither and think all the time lost that we imploy not in the endeavour of making sure of that blessed and eternall inheritance To the full possession whereof he that hath purchased it for us by his most precious blood in his good time happily bring us Amen A Plain and Familiar Explication OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE IN THE SACRAMENT OF HIS Body and Blood Out of the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND For the satisfying of a Scrupulous Friend Anno 1631. THat Christ Jesus our Lord is truly present and received in the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood is so clear and universally agreed upon that he can be no Christian that doubts it But in what manner he is both present and received is a point that hath exercised many wits and cost many thousand lives and such as some Orthodox Divines are wont to express with a kind of scruple as not daring to speak out For me as I have learn'd to lay my hand on my mouth where God and his Church have been silent and to adore those mysteries which I cannot comprehend so I think it is possible we may wrong our selves in an over-cautious fear of delivering sufficiently-revealed truths such I take this to be which we have in hand wherein as God hath not been sparing to declare himself in his word So the Church of England our dear Mother hath freely opened her self in such sort as if she meant to meet with the future scruples of an over-tender posterity Certainly there can be but two wayes wherein he can be imagined to be present and received either corporally or spiritually That he should be corporally present at once in every part of every Eucharistical Element through the World is such a Monster of opinion as utterly overthrowes the truth of his humane body destroyes the nature of a Sacrament implies a world of contradictions baffles right reason transcends all faith and in short confounds Heaven and Earth as we might easily show in all particulars if it were the drift of my discourse to meddle with those which profess themselves not ours who yet do no less then we cry down the gross and Capernaitical expression which their Pope Nicholas prescribed to Berengarius and cannot but confess that their own Card. Bellarmine advises this phrase of Christs corporall presence should be very sparingly and warily taken up in the hearing of their people but my intention only is to satisfie those Sons of the Church who disclaiming from all opinion of Transubstantiation do yet willingly imbrace a kind of irresolution in this point as holding it safest not to inquire into the manner of Christs presence What should be guilty of this nice doubtfulness I cannot conceive unless it be a misconstruction of those broad speeches which antiquity not suspecting so unlikely commentaries hath upon all occasions been wont to let fall concerning these awful mysteries For what those Oracles of the Church have divinely spoken in reverence to the Sacramental union of the signe and the thing signified in this sacred business hath been mistaken as literally and properly meant to be predicated of the outward Element hence have grown those dangerous errors and that inexplicable confusion which hath since infested the Church When all is said nothing can be more clear then that in respect of bodily presence the Heavens must contain the glorified humanity of Christ untill his return to judgment As therefore the Angel could say to the devout Maries after Christs resurrection seeking for him in his grave He is risen he is not here so they still say to us seeking for his glorious body here below He is ascended he is not here It should absolutely lose the nature of an humane body if it should not be circumscriptible Mar. 16.6 Glorification doth not bereave it of the truth of being what it is It is a true humane body and therefore can no more according to the natural being even of a body glorified be many wheres at once then according to his personal being it can be separated from that Godhead which is at once every where Let it be therefore firmly setled in our souls as an undoubted truth That the humane body of Christ
an unquestionable Author tells us one whose eyes beheld that Saint did not only converse with those that had seen Christ but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church of Smyrna Let him if he can deny Cyprian the holy Martyr and Bishop of Carthage writing familiarly to the Presbyters and Deacons there sometimes gravely reproving them sometimes fatherly admonishing them of their duties in divers of his Epistles Let him deny that his contemporany Cornelius Bishop of Rome acknowledgeth 46. Presbyters committed by the Catholique Church to his charge Shortly let him if he stick at this truth deny that there was any Christian Church of old any History All which duly considered I would fain know what reason can be shewed why that ancient yea first government by the Bishop and his Presbytery received and with all good approbation and successe used in the Primitive Church and derived though not without some faulty omissions and intertextures which may easily be remedied untill this present day should not rather take place then a government lately and occasionally raised up in the Church for the necessity or convenience of some special places and persons without any intention of an universal rule and prescription If you shall say that this Government by Bishops hath been found by sad experience hitherto a block in the way of perfect Reformation destructive to the power of Godliness and pure Administration of the Ordinances of Christ give me leave to answer That first I fear the Independent part will be apt to say no less of the Presbyterian boldly pressing their defects both in constitution and practise and publiquely averring the exquisitely-reformed way to lye betwixt the Episcopal and Calvinian which they have had the happiness to light upon neither want there those who upon challenge of further illumination tax those Semi-separatists as comming far too short of that perfection of Reformation which themselves have attained Secondly I must in the fear of God beseech you here to make use of that necessary distinction betwixt Callings and Persons for it oftentimes falls out that the Calling unjustly suffers for that whereof only the Person is guilty Let the Calling be never so holy and the rules of Administration never so wise and perfect yet if the person in whose trust they are be either negligent or corrupt or impotent in ordering his passions and carriage it cannot be but all things must go amiss and much disorder and confusion must needs follow to the Church of God and if such hath been the case in some late times why should the blame be laid upon the calling which both is innocent and might have been better improved Give me a Bishop such there have been and such there are let D. Potter the late Bishop of Carlile for instance be one that is truely conscionable pious painful zealous in promoting the glory of God ready to encourage all faithful Preachers and to censure and correct the lazie and scandalous carefull of the due imposition of his hands meek and unblameable in all his carriage and now tell me how the government of such an one regulated by the holy and wholsome Lawes of our Church can be said to be obstructive to the successe of the Gospel or to destroy the power of Godliness certainly if all be not such the fault is in the men their Calling doth not only admit of but incites them to all vertue and goodness whereof if they be defective let the Person take off the blame from the Function Neither doubt I to affirme that it may well be made good that the perfectest Reformation which the Church of God can be capable of here upon earth may consist with Episcopacy so regulated as it may be if it please the High Court of Parliament to pitch upon that course And indeed how can it be conceived that the careful inspection of one constant prudent and vigilant overseer superadded to a grave and judicious Presbytery should be any hindrance to the progress of godliness Especially when he is so limited by the bounds of good lawes and constitutions that he cannot run out without the danger of a just censure There are already many excellent rules of Government if they were awaked and actuated by full authority and where there is any deficiency more might be easily added to make the body of Church-Lawes complete To give a tast of what may be effected with very little or no alteration of one Forme of Government to another I remembred one of our Brethren of Scotland in a Discourse tending to the advancing of the Presbyterian way tells us that Dr. Montague the late worthy Bishop of Winchester asked King James of blessed memory whose sweet affability the world well knew How it came about that there were so few heresies and errors of doctrine broached and prosecuted to the publique disturbance of the Church of Scotland Unto which the wise and learned King is said to have returned this Answer That every Parish hath their Pastor ever present with them and waâ—ching ever them That the Pastor hath his Elders and Deacons sorted with him That he with them once a week meets at a set time and place for the censure of manners or what ever disorder falls out in the Parish so as he by this means perfectly knowes his flock and every abberration of them either in matter of opinion or practise And lest any Error or Heresie may seize upon the Pastor they have their Presbyteries consisting of severall Shrivalties which meet together in the chiefe Town or City next to them every week also once and have there their exercise of Prophesying after which the Moderator of the said meeting asks and gathers the judgments of all the said Pastors concerning the doctrine then delivered or of any other doubtfull point that is then and there propounded And if the said Presbyters be divided in their opinions then the question is under an injoyned silence put over to the next Synod which is held twice a year unto that all the Pastors of that Quarter or Province duely resort accompanied with their Elders the Moderator of the former Synod begins the Action then a new Moderator is chosen for the present or as it seldome falls out the last Moderator by Voices continued Any Question of doubt being proposed is either decided by that meeting or if it cannot be so done is with charge of silence reserved till the National Synod or Generall Assembly which they hold every year once Whither come not the Pastors onely but the King himself or his Commissioners and some of all Orders and Degrees sufficiently authorized for the determining of any controversie that shall arise amongst them Thus he And certainly this bears the face of a very fair and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the wel-willers to that discipline But let me adde that we either have or may have in this very same state of things with some small
to me Let him look how in the rest he can be reconciled to himself Very shame shall at the last drive such a one if he be ingenuous from incompatible propositions In the mean time the good that he offers I will not refuse and leave the evil to his avoiding As a man that meets with a slack debtor will not be unwilling to take what small summes he can get till either more may come in or he may conveniently sue for the rest It is good to hold the ground we have got till by the power of truth we can recover more Not that I could readily take up with the palpable Equivocations of an Arrius or Pelagius No wise Chapman will suffer himself to be paid with slips Truth and Falshood will necessarily descry themselves Neither is it hard for a judicious Reader to discerne a difference betwixt yielding and dissembling Where I see a man constant to himself in a favourable assertion I have reason to construe it as a fair comming off towards reconcilement If nothing but the rigour of opinions shall be stood upon what Hope can there be of Peace To shut up therefore if what I have here meant well be as well taken and well improved I shall have comfort in the quieting of many Hearts and many Tongues If not at least I shall have comfort in the quietnesse of mine own heart which tels me I have wished well to the Church of God To whose awful sentence I do mâ—st humbly submit my self and these my poor endeavours professing my self ready to eat whatsoever word shee shall dislike and desirous to buy her peace even with blood Now the God of peace encline the hearts of men as to zeal of truth so to love of peace And since we are fallen upon those points which are disputable to the worlds end as we see in the practise both of the Romish and Germane and Netherlandish Churches the same God compose the minds of men to a wise moderation and binde up their lips in a safe and discreet silence that if our brains must needs differ yet our hearts and tongues may be ever one Amen A LETTER CONCERNING Falling Away FROM GRACE MY good Mr. B. You send me flowers from your Garden and Look for some in returne out of mine I do not more willingly send you these then I do thankfully receive the other I could not keep my hand from the paper upon the receit of your Letters though now in the midst of my attendance As my desire of your satisfaction cals me to write somthing so my other imployments force me to brevity in a question wherein it were easy to be endlesse I am sorry that any of our new Excuti-fidians should pester your Suffolk although glad in this that they could not Light upon a soyle more fruitful of able oppugners it is a wonder to me to think that men should Labour to be witty to rob themselves of comfort Good Sir Let me know these new Disciples of Leyden that I may note them with that black cole they are worthy of Troublers of a better peace then that of the Church the peace of the Christian soul they pretend antiquity What heresy doth not so What marvell is it if they would wrest Fathers to them while they use Scripture it self so violently For that their first instance of Hymeneus and Alexander how vain it is like themselves Nothing can be more plain then that those men were grosse hyppocrites who doubts therefore but they might fall from all that good they pretended to have What is this to prove that a true child of God may do so but say they these men had faith and a good conscience True such a faith and goodnesse of conscience as may be incident into a Worldly counterfeit Yea but they reply a true justifying faith I think such a one as their own rather I may say these men desevre not the praise of Himeneus his faith which is nothing in this place but Orthodoxe doctrine How oft doth St. Paul use the word so to his Timothy 1 Tim. 4.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the faith interpreted in the next words and shall give heed to spirits of error and doctrines of Devills and 2 Tim. 3.8 He describes his false teachers by this title Reprobate concerning the faith Which I think no man will expound of the grace but he Doctrine Yet say they there is no necessity binds us to that sense here But the scope of this place compared with others may evince it That which followes plainly points us to this meaning that they might learn not to blaspheme Their sin was therefore an Apostasy from the Dostrine of the Gospel and casting foul aspersions upon that profession so that an opposition to wholesome Doctrine was their shipwrack They except yet A good conscience is added to this faith therefore it must needs be meant of justifying faith Do but turne your eyes to 1 Tim. 3.9 where as in a commentary upon this place you shall finde faith and good conscience so conjoyned that yet the Doctrine not the vertue of faith is signified St. Paul describes his Deacon there by his spiritual wealth Having the mystery of faith in pure conscience No man can be so grosse to take the mystery of faith for the grace of faith or for any other then the same Author in the same chapter cals the mystery of Godlyness It is indeed fit that a good conscience should be the cofer where truth of Christian Doctrine is the treasure Therefore both are justly commanded together and likely each accompanies other in their loss and that of Irenaeus is found true of all hereticks sententiam impiam vitam luxuriosam c. Yea but Hymeneus and Alexander had both these then and lost both They had both in outward profession not in inward sincerity that rule is certain and eternal If they had been of us they had continued with us nothing is more ordinary with the Spirit of God then to suppose us such as we pretend that he might give us an example of Charity in the censure of each other of which kind is that noted place Heb. 10.29 And counteth the blood of the Testament wherewith he was sanctifyed an unholy thing and those unusual elogies which are given to the Churches to whom the Apostolical letters were directed This place therefore intends no other but that Himenaeus and Alexander which were once professors of the Christian doctrine and such as lived orderly in an unblameable and outwardly holy fashion to the World had now turn'd their copy cast off the profession which they made and were fallen both to loosenesse of manners calumniation of the truth they had abandoned For that other Scripture Rom. 8.12 13. No place can be more effectual to cut the throat of this uncomfortable heresy St. Paul writes to a mixt company it were strange if all the Romans should have been truly sanctifyed those which were yet
out and adored for the true crosse of Christ yet the bulk is nothing to the vertue ascribed to it The very wood which is a shame to speak is by them Sainted and deifyed who knowes not that stale hymne and unreasonable rime of Ara crucis lampas lucis sola salus hominum Nobis pronum fac patronum quem tulisti dominum Wherein the very tree is made a mediator to him whom it bore as very a Saviour as he that dy'd upon it And who knowes not that by these Bigots an active vertue is attributed not only to the very wood of the cross but to the Airie and transient form and representation of it A vertue of sanctifying the creature of expelling Divells of healing diseases conceits crossely superstitious which the Church of England ever abhorred never either practised or countenanced whose cross was only commemorative and commonitive never pretended to be any way efficacious and therefore as far different from the Romish cross as the fatall tree of Christ from that of Judas Away then with this gross and sinfull foppery of our Romanists which proves them not the friends but the flatterers of the Cross flatterers up to the very pitch of Idolatry and can there be a worse enemy then a flatterer Fie on this fawning and crouching hostility to the crosse of Christ such friendship to the altar is a defiance to the sacrifice For these Philippian Pseudapostles Two wayes were they enemies to the Cross of Christ in their doctrines in their practise In Doctrine whiles they joyned circumcision and other legalities with the cross of Christ so by a pretended partnership detracting from the vertue and power of Christs death Thus they were enemies to Christs death as this In practise following a loose and voluptuous course pampering themselves and shifting off persecution for the Gospell Thus they were enemies to the cross of Christ as theirs Truth hath ever one face There are still two sorts of enemies to the cross The erroneous the licentious The erroneous in judgment that will be inter-commoning with Christ in the vertue and efficacy of his passion The licentious in life that despise and annihilate it In the first how palpable enemies are they to the cross of Christ that hold Christs satisfaction upon the cross imperfect without ours Thus the Romish Doctors profess to do Their Cardinall passes a flat non expiat upon it boldly Temporalem poenam totam nisi propria satisfactione cooperante non expiat lib. 4. de paenit c. 14. § Neque vero Our penall works saith Suarez are properly a payment for the punishment of our sin And which of the Tridentine faction sayes otherwise What foul Hypocrisie is this to creep and crouch to the very image of the cross and in the mean time to frustrate the vertue of it Away with these hollow and hostile complements how happy were it for them if the crosse of Christ might have lesse of theâ—r knees and more of their hearts without which all their adorations are but mockery certainly the partnership of legall observations was never more enemy to Christs cross then that of humane satisfactions For us God forbid that we should rejoyce in any thing but in the cross of Christ with St. Paul Our profession roundly is The cross is our full redemption let them that show more say so much else for all their ducking and cringeing they shall never quit themselves of this just charge that they are the enemies of the crosse of Christ The licentious secondly are enemies to the cross of Christ and those of two sorts whether carnall revolters or loose-livers The first in shifting off persecution by conforming themselves to the present world they will do any thing rather then suffer caring more for a whole skin then a sound soul Meere slaves of the season whose poesie is that of Optatus Omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate All for the time nothing for the Truth Either ditty will serve Hosanna or Crucifige Such was that infamous Ecebotius such was Spira such those in the primitive times that with Marcellinus would cast grains of incense into the Idols fire to shun the fire of a Tyrants futy such as will bow their knees to a breaden God for fear of an inquisitors flie and kiss the toe of a living Idol rather then hazard a suspicion the world is full of such shufflers Do ye ask how we know I do not send you to the Spanish trade or Italian travails or Spa-waters The tentative Edict of Constantius descryed many false hearts And the late relaxation of penall laws for religion discovered many a turn-coat God keep our great men upright if they should swerve it is to be feared the truth would find but a few friends Blessed be God the times professe to patronize true religion If the winde should turn how many with that noted time-server would be ready to say Cantemus domino c. let us sing unto the Lord a new song There is no Church lightly without his wethercock For us my beloved we know not what we are reserved for let us sit down and count what it may cost us and as those who would carry some great weight upon a wager will be every day heaving at it to inure themselves to the burden before they come to their utmost tryall so let us do to the cross of Christ let us be every day lifting at it in our thoughts that when the time comes we may comfortably go away with it It was a good purpose of Peter though I should dye with thee I will not deny thee but it was a better grounded resolution of St. Paul I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 Let us in an humble confidence of Gods mercy in upholding us fix upon the same holy determination not counting our life dear unto us so as we may finish our course with joy Thus we shall not be more friends to the crosse of Christ then the crosse will be to us for if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Besides carnall revolters loose livers powre shame upon the crosse Christs crosse is our redemption Redemption is from sin and death whiles therefore we do wilfully sin we do what in us lies frustrate the cross and make a mock of our redemption every true Christian is with St. Paul crucified together with Christ 2. Galat. 20. his sins are fastned upon that tree of shame and curse with his Saviour the mis-living Christian therefore crucifies Christ again each of his willing sins is a plain despight to his Redeemer The false tongue of a professour gives in evidence against the Son of God the hypocrite condemns Christ and washes his hands the proud man strips him and robes him with purple the distrustfull plats thornes for the head of his Saviour the drunkard gives him vineger and gall to drink the oppressor drives nailes into his hands
clear and piercing and therefore it is purposely added for the further Emphasis In him is no darkenesse Oh the infinite clearnesse of the Divine knowledg to which all things lye open both past present and to come which doth not only reach in one intuition to all the actions motions events of all Creatures that have been are shall be but which is infinitely more then all these extends to the full comprehension of himself his whole Divine nature and essence to which the World though full of innumerable varieties is lesse then nothing The Sun is a goodly globe of Light The visible World hath nothing so glorious so searching and yet there are many things lye hid within the bosome of the Earth and Sea which his eye never saw never shall see Neither can it ever see more then half the World at once darkness the while enwraps the other nor indeed of any much lesser if round body And though it give light unto other Creatures yet it gives not light to it self like as our eye sees all other objects but it self it cannot see And though it enlighten this materiall Heaven both above and below it self as also this lower Air and Earth yet the Empyreal Heaven transcends the beames of it and is filled with a more glorious illumination But God the Light of whom we speak who is the Maker of that Sun sees the most hidden secrets of Earth and Hell sees all that is done in Earth and Heaven at one view sees his most glorious self and by his presence makes Heaven Most justly therefore is God Light by an eminence Now the reflection of the first quality of Light upon us must be our clear apprehension of God the World and our selves and by how much more exact knowledg we shall attain unto of all these by so much more do we conform our selves to that God who is Light and by how much less we know them so much more darkness there is in us and so much less fellowship have we with God If the eye have not an inward Light in it self let the Sun shine never so bright upon it it is nevertheless blind What are we the better for that which is in God if there be not an inward Light in our Souls to answer and receive it How should we love and adore God if we know him not How shall we hate and combat the World if we know it not How shall we value and demean our selves if we know not our selves Surely the want of this Light of knowledg is the ground of all that miserable disorder which we see daily break forth in the affections in the carriages of men I know the common word is that we are fallen into a knowing age such as wherein our speculative skill is wont to be upbraided to us in a disgracefull comparison of our unanswerable practise our forward young men out-run their years bragg that there is more weight in the down of their chins then in the gray beards of their aged Grandsires Our artificers take upon them to hold argument with and perhaps control their Teachers neither is it any newes for the shop-board to contest with the schooles every not Knight or Rook only but Pawn too can give check to a Bishop The Romish Church had lately her Shee-Preachers till Pope Urban gagg'd them and our Gossips now at home in stead of dresses can tattle of mysteries and censure the Pulpit in stead of neighbours Light call you this No these are fiery flashes of conceit that glance through vain minds to no purpose but idle ostentation and satisfaction of wild humours without stability or any available efficacy to the soul Alas we are wise in impertinencies ignorant in main truths neither doth the knowledg of too many go any deeper then the verge of their brains or the tip of their tongue I fear true solid knowledg is not much less rare then when our unlett'red Grand-fathers were wont to court God Almighty with false Latin in their devotions For did the true Light shine into the hearts of men in the knowledg of God the World themselves how could they how durst they live thus Durst the leud tongues of men rend the holy name of God in peices with oaths and blasphemies if they knew him to be so dreadfull so just as he hath revealed himself Durst the cruell oppressors of the World grind faces and cut throats and shed blood like water if they were perswaded that God is a sure revenger of their outrages Durst the goatish adulterer the swinish drunkard wallow in their beastly uncleannesse if they knew their is a God to judge them an Hell to fry in Durst the rebellious seditionary lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and that under a colour of religion if the fool had not said in his heart There is no God Could the covetous fool so admire and adore his red and white Earth could the ambitious so dote upon a little vanishing honour as to sacrifice his soul to it if he knew the World could the proud man be so besotted with self-love as that he sees his God in his glass if he knew himself Surely then the true Light is as rare as it is precious and it is as precious as life it self yea as life eternall This is eternall life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ What were the World without Light and what the soul without the Light of knowledg We condemne Malefactors to darkness that is one great part of the horrour of their durance Jo. 17. â— and by how much more haynous their crime is so much darker is their dungeon Darkness of understanding then is punishment enough alone as it is also the entry into hell which is described by blackness of darkness None but savage Creatures delight in darkness Man naturally abhorres it in all things If our eyes be dim we call for glasses if our houses be dark we make windows if the evening grow dark we call for lights and if those lights burn dim we call for snuffers and shall we avoid darkness in every thing except our soules which is our better and more Divine part Honourable and beloved as we love and tender those dear soules of ours let us labour to furnish them with the Light of true and saving knowledg What is this Gospell which shines thus daily and clearly in your faces but the Vehiculum lucis the carriage of that heavenly Light to the World Send forth thy Light and thy Truth saith the Psalmist Thy Word is Truth saith our Saviour that word of truth then is the body of that Light which God showes to men Oh let it not shine upon us in vain let us not trample upon the beams of it in our floore as that foolish woman that St. Austin speaks of did to those of the Sun with a Calco Manichorum Deum But now while God gives these happy opportunities let us enlarge our hearts to receive
great power are met in any Prince he can be content to fit still and not break forth into some notable breaches of publick peace And where once the fire of war is kindled it is not easily quenched yea it runs as in a trayn and feeds it self with all the combustable matter it meets withall on every side and therefore t is a marveilous work of the power and mercy of God that he makes war to cease And this he doth either by an over-powering victory as in the case of Hezekiah Sennacherib which should seem to be the drift of this Psalme whereof every passage imports such a victory and triumph as the conquered adversary should never be able to recover Or by tempering and composing the hearts of men restraining them in their most furious carriere and taming their wild heats of revenge and inclining them to termes of peace This is a thing which none but he can do the heart of man is an unruly and head strong thing it is not more close then violent as none can know it so none can over-rule it but he that made it It is a rough sea he only can say here shalt thou stay thy proud waves Shortly then publick peace is the proper work of an Almighty and mercifull God His very title is Deus pacis the God of peace Rom. 15.33 and 16.20 Heb. 13.20 so as this is his peculium yea it is not only his for he owes it but his for he makes it I make peace and create evill I the Lord do all these things Esa 45.7 That malignant Spirit is in this his profest opposite that he is the great make-bate of the World Labouring to set all together by the ears sowing discord betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt one peece of Earth against another Man against Man Nation against Nation hence he hath the name of Satan of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Diabolus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whose whole indeavour is enmity and destruction Contrarily the good God of Heaven whose work it is to destroy the works of the Devill is all for peace he loves peace he commands it he effects it He maketh wars to cease This is his work in the kinde and so much more his work in the extent To the ends of the Earth by how much more good any work is by so much more it is his and by how much more common any good is by so much better it is Even the pax pectoris the private and bosome peace of every man with himself is his great and good work for the heart of every man is naturally as an unquiet sea ever tossing and restlesse troubled with variety of boistrous passions he only can calme it the peace of the family is his he maketh men to be of one minde in an house without whose work there is nothing but jarres and discord betwixt husband and wife parents and children masters and servants servants and children with each other so as the house is made if not an hell for the time yet a purgatory at the least the peace of the neighbourhood is his without whom there is nothing but scolding brawling bloodsheds lawing that a City is at unity in it self not divided into sides and factions it is the Lords doing for many men many mindes and every man is naturally addicted to his own opinion hence grow daily destractions in populous bodies That a Country that a Nation is so is so much more his work as there are more heads and hearts to governe But that one Nation should be at unity with another yea that all Nations should agree upon an universall cessation of armes and embrace peace A domino factum est hoc est mirabile it must needs be the Lords doing so much more eminently and it is marveilous in our eyes Faciam eos in gentem unam was a word fit only for the mouth of God who only can restrain hands and conjoyne hearts as here He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth Now wherefore serves all this but for the direction of our recourse for the excitation of our duty and immitation for the challenge of our thankfulnesse In the first place are we troubled with the fears or rumours of wars are we grieved with the quarrells and dissensions that we finde within the bosome of our own Nation or Church would we earnestly desire to finde all differences composed and a constant peace setled amongst us we see whether to make our addresse even to that omnipotent God who maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the earth who breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear in sunder And surely if ever any Nation had cause to complain in the midst of a publick peace of the danger of private destractions and factious divisions ours is it wherein I know not how many uncouch Sects are lately risen out of Hell to the disturbance of our wonted peace all of them eagerly pursuing their own various fancies and opposing our formerly received truth what should we do then but be take our selves in our earnest supplications to the God of peace with an Help Lord never ceasing to solicit him with our prayers that he would be pleased so to order the hearts of men that they might encline to an happy agreement at least to a meek cessation of those unkinde quarrels wherewith the Church is thus miserably afflicted But secondly in vain shall we pray if we do nothing Our prayers serve only to testifie the truth of our desires and to what purpose shall we pretend a desire of that which we indeavour not to effect That God who makes wars and quarrels to cease useth means to accomplish that peace which he decrees And what are those means but the inclinations projects labors of all the well-willers to peace It must be our care therefore to immitate yea to second God in this great work of peace-making The phrase is a strange but an emphaticall one that Deborah uses in her song Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 Lo what a word here is To help the Lord what help needs the Almighty or what help can our weaknesse afford to his omnipotence Yet when we put our hands to his and do that as instruments which he as the authour requires of us and works by us we help that Lord which gives us all the motions both of our wills and actions so must we do in the promoting of peace and the allaying of quarrells when an house is on fire we must every one cast in his pail-full to the quenching of the flames It is not enough that we look on harmlesly with our hands in our bosomes No we add to that burning which we indeavour not to quench We must contribute our utmost to the cessation of these spirituall and intellectuall wars which shall be
of evil inclinations and actions which yet will never reach to evince our son-ship to God How easily were it for me to name you divers Heathens which have been eminent in all these and yet for ought we know never the nearer to Heaven yet lower there are some speciall gifts of the Spirit which we call Charismata rare endowments bestowed upon some men excellent faculties of preaching and praying power of miraculous workings as no doubt Judas did cast out Devils as well as the best of his fellow-Apostles gifts of tongues and of Prophesie and the like which do no more argue a right to the son-ship of God then the Manuaries infused skill of Bezaleel and Aâ—oliab could prove them Saints yet lastly there may be sensible operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul in the influences of holy motions into the heart in working a temporary faith and some fair progresse in an holy profession and yet no sonship the world is full of such glow-wormes that make some show of Spiritual Light from God when they have nothing in them but cold crudities that can serve for nothing but deceit Will ye then see what leading of the Spirit can evince us to be the Sons and Daughters of God know then that if we will hope for a comfortable assurance hereof we must be efficaciously led by his sanctifying Spirit first in matter of judgment secondly in our dispositions and thirdly in our practise For matter of judgment ye remember what our Saviour said to his Disciples When the Spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all Truth John 16.13 That is into all saving and necessary truthes so as to free us from grosse ignorance or main errour Whosoever therefore is enlightned with the true and solid knowledg of all those points of Christian doctrine which are requisite for salvation is in that first regard led by the Spirit and in this behalf hath a just title to the son-ship of God as contrarily those that are grosly and obstinately erroneous in their judgment of fundamental truthes let them pretend to never so much holinesse in heart or life shall in vain lay claim to this happy condition of the Sons of God For our disposition secondly If the holy Spirit have wrought our hearts to be right with God in all our affections if we do sincerely love and fear him if we do truely believe in him receiving him as not our Saviour only but as our Lord If our desires be unfained towards him If after a meek and penitent self-dejection we can find our selves raised to a lively hope and firm confidence in that our blessed Redeemer and shall continue in a constant and habitual fruition of him being thus led by the Spirit of God we may be assured that we are the Sons of God for flesh and blood cannot be accessary to these gracious dispositions Lastly for our practise it is a clear word which we hear God say by Ezekiel I will put my Spirit into the midst of you and will by it cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my laws Ezech. 36.27 Lo herein is the main crisis of a soul led by the Spirit of God and adopted to this heavenly son-ship It is not for us to content our selves to talk of the lawes of our God and to make empty and formal professions of his name Here must be a continued walk in Gods statutes it will not serve the turne for us to stumble upon some acceptable work to step aside a little into the pathes of godlinesse and then draw back to the World no my beloved this leading of Gods Spirit must neither be a forced angariation as if God would feoffe grace and salvation upon us against our wills nor some suddain protrusion to good nor a meer actual momentany transient conduction for a brunt of holinesse and away leaving us to the sinful wayes of our former disobedience and to our wonted compliances with the World the Devil and the Flesh but must be in a steady uninterrupted habitual course of holy obedience so as we may sincerely professe with the man after Gods own heart My soul hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly Psal 119.67 Now then dear Christians lay this to heart seriously and call your selves sadly to this triall What is the carriage of our lives What obedience do we yeild to the whole law of our God If that be entire hearty universal constant perseverant and truly conscientious we have whereof to rejoyce an unfailing ground to passe a confident judgment upon our spiritual estate to be no lesse then happy But if we be willingly failing in the unfained desires and indevours of these holy performances and shall let loose the reins to any known wickednesse we have no part nor portion in this blessed condition Mark I beseech you how fully this is asserted to our hands in this saith the beloved Apostle the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither he that loves not his brother 1 Joh. 3.10 Observe I pray you what test we are put to ye hear him not say who so talks not holily or who so professes not godlinesse in these an hypocrite may exceed the best Saint but whosoever doth not righteousnesse withall see what a clause the Disciple of love superadds to the mention of all Righteousnesse neither he that loves not his brother surely the Spirit of God is a Loving Spirit Wisdom 1.6 and St. Paul hath the like phrase Rom. 15.30 To let passe then all the other proofes of our guidance by the spirit Instance but in this one Alas my Brethren what is become of that charitable and christian carriage of men towards one another which God requires of us and which was wont to be conspicuous amongst Christian compatriots Wo is me instead of that true and hearty love which our Saviour would have the Livery of our Disciple-ship the badg of our holy profession what do we see but emulation envy malice rigid censures and rancorous heart-burnings amongst men In stead of those neighbourly and friendly offices which Christians were wont lovingly to performe to each other what have we now in the common practise of men but underminings oppressions violence cruelty Can we think that the Spirit of him who would be styled Love it self would lead us in these rugged and bloody pathes No no this alone is too clear a proof how great a stranger the Spirit of God is to the hearts and waies of men and how few there are that upon good and firme grounds can plead their right to the son-ship of God Alas alas if these dispositions and practises may bewray the sons of an holy God what can men do to prove themselves the children of that hellish Apollion who was a man-slayer from the beginning For us my beloved Oh let us hate and bewaile this common degeneration of Christians and as we would
removed after we are fast planted and grounded in the house of God he takes us aright This is a certainty that we may that we must labour to aspire unto Commo vetur sides non excutitur as Chamier well We must therefore give all diligence to make this effectuall calling this eternall election thus sure unto us Mark in what order first our calling then our election nor beginning with our election first it were as bold as absurd a presumption in vain Men first to begin at Heaven and from thence to descend to Earth The Angels of God upon Jacobs ladder both ascended and descended but surely we must ascend onely from Earth to Heaven by our calling arguing our election If we consider of Gods working and proceeding with us it is one thing there he first foreknowes us and praedestinates us then he calls us and justifies us then he glorifies us Rom. 8.29.30 If we consider the order of our apprehending the State wherein we stand with God there we are first called then justified and thereby come to be assured of our predestination and glory Think not therefore to climb up into Heaven and there to read your names in the book of Gods eternall decree and thereupon to build the certainty of your calling believing persevering this course is presumptuously preposterous but by the truth of your effectuall calling and true believing grow up at last towards a comfortable assurance of your election which is the just Methode of our Apostle here Make your calling and election sure Mark then the just connexion of these two If the calling then the election one of these doth necessarily imply the other many Thousands are outwardly called who yet have no right in Gods eternall election here is as much difference as between many and few But where the heart is effectually called home to God by a true and lively faith applying the promises of God and laying effectuall hold of Christ there is certainly an election Doubtless there is much deceit and mis-prision in the World this way every Faith makes not an effectuall calling there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Temporary there is an inform there is a counterfeit Faith Many a one thinks he hath the true David when it is but an Image stuff't with goates hair we know how deceitfull Mans heart is and how cunning Satan is to gull us with vain showes that he may hold us off from true and solid comforts But if there be false saith we know there are true ones yea there could not be false if there were not a true one so much more must be our diligence to make sure work for our Faith and by that for our calling which ascertained will evince our election As Men when they hear there are many conterfeit slips and much washed and clipped coyne abroad are the more carefull to turn over and examine every peece that passeth through their hands So then those whom God hath thus joyned neither Man nor Devil can put asunder Our calling and Election Three heads then offer themselves here to our present discourse 1. That our Calling and Election may be made sure 2. That we must endeavour to make them sure 3ly How and by what means we may and must endevor to assure them As for the first of these the very charge and command it self implyes it The justice of God doth not use to require impossible things from us when therefore he bids us gâ—â—e diligence to do it what doth it imply but that by diligence it may be done what will our diligence do in a business that cannot be done should a man be bidden to take care that he flye well or waâ—k steddily on his head this would justly sound as a mockery because he knowes they are not fecible but when he is bidden to walk circumspectly and to take heed to his feet it presupposeth our ability and requireth our will to performe it and so doth this precept here Men are apt to imploy their wits to their own disadvantage The Romish Doctors have been of late times very busy to cry down the possibility of this certainty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pontificiam nos seriò damnamus aversamur toto coelo errant qui hanc cum isto dogmate confundunt Alia est istaec perpetua dubitatio sive fluctuatio qua statuunt Pontificii nâ—minem in hac vita certitudine fidei certum esse posse se gratiam apud Deum adeptum esse Quid hoc ad praesentem quaeâ—tionem Quis nostrûm hanc Pontificiorum sententiam unquam approbavit Imo ut huic calumniae maturè obviam iremus in propositione sententiae nostrae circa quintâ—m articulum exsertè professi sumus thesi 7. Vere fidelem ut pro tempore praesente de fidei conscientiae suae integritate certum esse posse ita de suâ salute salutifera Dei erga ipsum benevolentia pro illo tempore certum esse posse ac debere addentes insuper Pontificiam sententiam nos hîc improbare Remonstr defens 51. articuli p. 338. they and none but they for all Protestants of what profession soever disclaim this Doctrine even those our brethren that follow the school of Arminius are herein for the possibility of our present certainty with and for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pontificiam they are their own words nos serio damnamus aversamur this popish doubtfulness and irresolution we hate and condemn c. So as only the Pontifician Divines are in this point opposite to us all and not all of them neither Catherinus is for us and some others come close to us But the stream of them runs the wrong way teaching that we may hope well and give good conjectures and attain perhaps to a moral certitude of our present acceptation and future blessedness but that no assurance can be had hereof nor none ought to be affected without a special revelation as their St. Anthony St. Francis St. Galla and some few others have had the contrary whereof their Estius dare censure for perdita perâ—itrix haeresis Why will wise men affect to be thus much their own enemies Is not salvation the best of good things Should not a man rather incline to wish himself well What pleasure then can it be for a man to stand in his own light and to be niggardly to himself where God hath been bountifull to stave himself off from that comfortable certainty which God hath left in his possibility to make good to his owne Soul Let us then a little inquire into the faisibleness of this great improvement of our holy and Christian diligence And cettainly if there be any let in the possibility of this assurance it must be either in our present faith or in the perpetuation of it for in the connexion of a lively faith with salvation it cannot be That he who effectually believes and perseveres to the end shall be saved no man no Devil
can deny all the doubt is whether the man can know that he doth thus believe that he shall continue so to believe And why should there be any doubt in either of these I am sure for the first the chosen vessel could say I know whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1. and speaks this not as an extraordinary person an Apostle but as a Christian therein affirming both the act of his faith and the object of it and his knowledg of both for whiles he saith I know whom I have believed he doth in effect say I know that I have believed and I know what I have believed God my Almighty Saviour is the object of my faith my faith layeth sure hold on this object and I know that my faith laies undoubted hold on this happy object I know whom I have believed and why should not we labour to say so too Some things the Apostle did as a singular favorite of Heaven of this kinde were his raptures and visions these we may not aspire to imitate other things he did as an holy man as a faithful Christian these must we propose for our examples and indeed why should not a man know he believes What is there in faith even as we define it but knowledg assent application affiance receiving of Christ and which of these is there that we cannot know Surely there is power in the soul to exercise these reflexe actions upon it self As it can know things contrary to the fanatick scepticke so it can know that it knowes These inward acts of knowledg and understanding are to the mind no other then the acts of our sensitive powers are unto our senses and a like certain judgment passeth upon both as therefore I can know that I hear or that I see or touch so can I no lesse surely know that I do know or understand And the object doth no whit alter the certainty of the act whiles a divine truth goes upon no lesse evidence and assurance why may not a man as well know that he knowes a divine truth as an humane The like is to be said of those other specialties which are required to our faith Our faith assents to the truth of Gods promises what should hinder the heart from knowing that it doth assent Do not I know whether I believe a man on his word Why should I not know the same of God when an honest man hath by his promises ingaged himself to me to do me a good turne do not I know whether I trust to him whether I make use of that favour in a confident reliance upon the performance of it the case is the same betwixt God and us Only we may be so much the more infallibly assured of the promised mercies of our God by how much we do more know his unfailingness his unchangeableness Yea so fecible is this knowledg as that our Apostle chargeth his Corinthians home in this point 2 Cor. 13.5 Prove your selves whether ye be in the faith Trye your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ Jesus is in you except ye be Reprobates what can be more full To be in the faith is more then to believe it intimates an habit of faith that is more then an act Now what proof what tryal can there be of our faith if we cannot know that we have faith Surely a tryal doth ever presuppose a knowledg If a man did not know which were good gold to what purpose doth he go to the Test Now how dwells Christ in us but by Faith So may they so must they know Christ to be in them that if they have him not they are reprobates And if they know not they have him they can have no comfortable assurance against their reprobation See then how emphaticall and full this charge is He saith not Guess at your selves but prove and try your selves He saith not do ye not morally conjesture but do ye not know He saith not whether ye hope well but whether ye be in the Faith And that not of the Faith of Miracles as Chrysostome and Theophilact nor of a Faith of Christian profession as Anselme but such a Faith as whereby Christ dwells in our hearts He saith not Lastly unless ye be faulty and worthy of blame but unless ye be reprobates The place is so choakingly convictive that there can be no probable elusion of it The shift of Cardinal Bellarmine wherein yet he would seem confident is worthy of pity that the place hath no other drift but to imply the powerfull presence of Christ amongst the Corinthians strongly confirming the truth of his Apostleship whereby if there were any faith at all in them except they were given up to a reprobate sense they must needs be convinced of the authority of his Ministery for what was this to their being in the faith whereof they must examine themselves or who can think that to be in the faith is no more then to have any faith at all Neither doth the Apostle say that Christ is among you but in you neither could the not knowing of Christs presence amongst them by powerfull Miracles be a matter of reprobation so as this sense is unreasonably strained to no purpose and such as no judicious spirit can rest in and this act of our knowledg is taken for granted by him that works it in us And indeed what question can there be of this act when God undertakes it in us The Spirit of God witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Rom. 8.16 Can any Man doubt of the truth of Gods Testimony Certainly he that is the God of truth cannot but speak truth now he witnesseth together with us Yea but you say though he be true yet we are deceitfull and his Spirit doth but witness according to the measure of our receit and capacity which is very poor and scant yea and perhaps also uncertain Take heed whosoever thou art least thou disparage God whiles thou wouldst abase thy self he witnesseth together with us The Spirit of truth will not witness with a lying Spirit were not therefore that witness of ours sure he would check us and not witness with us Now what witness can he give with us and to us if we do not hear him if we do not know what he saies if we cannot be assured of what he testifies Let no Bellarmine speak now of an experiment of inward sweetness and peace which onely causeth a conjecturall and not an unfailing certainty The Man hath forgot that this Testimony is of the Spirit of adoption whereby we do not seem Sons but are made so and are so assured and that it is not a guess but a witness and Lastly that there can be no true inward peace out of mere conjectures Yea here is not onely the word of God for it but his seale too and not his seale only but his earnest what can make a future match more sure then hand and seale and here we have them
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
in respect of corporal presence is in Heaven whither he visibly ascended and where he sits on the right hand of the Father and whence he shall come again with glory a parcel of our Creed which the Church learn't of the Angels in Mount Olivet who taught the gazing disciples that this same Jesus which was taken up from them into Heaven shall so come in like manner as they saw him go into Heaven which was with wonderfull glory and magnificence Far be it from us then to think that the blessed humanity of the Son of God should so disparage it self as where there is neither necessity nor use of a bodily descent to steale down and conveigh himself insensibly from Heaven to Earth daily and to hide up his whole sacred body in an hundred thousand several pixes at once It is a wonder that superstition it self is not ashamed of so absurd and impossible a fancy which it is in vain for Men to think they can salve up with a pretence of omnipotence we question not the power of God but his will and do well know he cannot will absolute contradictions Deus hoc potenter non potest as one said truly That which we say of Christs presence holds no less of his reception for so do we receive him into us as he is present with us neither can we corporally receive that which is bodily absent although besides the common incongruity of opinion the corporal receiving of Christ hath in it a further prodigiousness and horrour all the Novices of the Roman Schools are now asham'd of their Popes Dentibus teritur but when their Doctors have made the best of their own Tenent they cannot avoid St. Austins flagitium videtur praecipere By how much the humane flesh is and ought to be more dear by so much more odious is the thought of eating it neither let them imagine they can escape the imputation of an hateful savageness in this act for that it is not presented to them in the form of flesh whiles they professe to know it is so howsoever it appeareth Let some skilful cook so dress mans flesh in the mixtures of his artificial hashes and tast full sauces that it cannot be discerned by the sence yet if I shall afterwards understand that I have eaten it though thus covertly conveyed I cannot but abhorr to think of so unnatural a diet Corporally then to eat if it were possible the flesh of Christ Joh. 6.63 as it could in our Saviours own word profit nothing so it could be no other then a kinde of religious Cannibalisme which both nature and grace cannot but justly rise against Since therefore the body of Christ cannot be said to be corporally present or received by us it must needs follow that there is no way of his presence or receit in the Sacrament but spiritual which the Church of England hath laboured so fully to express both in her holy Liturgie and publickly-authorized homilies that there is no one point of divine truth which she hath more punctually and plainly laid down before us What can be more evident then that which she hath said in the second exhortation before the Communion thus Dearly beloved forasmuch as our duty is to render to Almighty God our heavenly Father most hearty thanks for that he hath given his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ not only to dye for us but also to be our spiritual food and sustenance as it is declared unto us as well by Gods word as by the holy Sacraments of his blessed body and blood c. Lo Christ is in this Sacrament given to us to be our spiritual food in which regard also this sacrament is in the same exhortation called a Godly and heavenly feast whereto that we may come holy and clean we must search and examine our own consciences not our chops and mawes that we may come and be received as worthy Partakers of such an Heavenly Table But that in the following exhortation is yet more pregnant that we should diligently try and examine our faith before we presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood then we dwel in Christ and he in us we be one with Christ and Christ with us so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily What termes can be more expresse it is bread and wine which we come to receive that bread and that wine is sacramental It is our heart wherewith we receive that sacrament it is our faith whereby we worthily receive this receit and manducation of the flesh of Christ is spiritually done and by this spiritual receit of him we are made one with him and he with us by vertue then of the worthy receit of this sacramental bread and wine we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ spiritually and there growes hereby a reciprocal union betwixt Christ and us neither is he otherwise one with us then we are one with him which can be no otherwise then by the power of his institution and of our faith And that no man may doubt what the drift and purpose of our blessed Saviour was in the institution and recommendation of this blessed sacrament to his Church it followes in that passage And to the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our master and onely Saviour Jesus Christ thus dying for us and the innumerable benefits which by his pretious blood-shedding he hath obtained to us he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries as pledges of his love and continual remembrances of his death to our great and endlesse comfort If therefore we shall look upon and take these sacred elements as the pledges of our Saviours love to us and remembrances of his death for us we shall not need neither indeed can we require by the judgment of our Church to set any other value on them But withall that we may not sleightly conceive of those mysteries as if they had no further worth then they do outwardly show we are taught in that prayer which the Minister kneeling down at Gods board is appointed to make in the name of all the communiâ—ants before the consecration that whiles we do duly receive those blessed elements we do in the same act by the power of our faith eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ so effectual and inseparable is the sacramental union of the signes thus instituted by our blessed Lord and Saviour with the thing thereby signified for thus is he prescribed to pray Grant us therefore gratious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our soules washed through his most pretious blood and that we may ever dwell in him and he
more peculiar manner now his very senses help to nourish his soul and by his eyes his hands his tast Christ is spiritually conveighed into his heart to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation But to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point Let that serve for the upshot of all which is expressely set down in the 5th Rubrick in the end of the Communion set forth as the judgment of the Church of England both in King Edwards and Queen Elizabeths time though lately upon negligence omitted in the impression In these words Least yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise we do declare That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done or ought to be done either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christs natural flesh and blood For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine they remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithfull Christians and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in Heaven and not here for it is against the truth of Christs natural body to be in more places then one at one time c. Thus the Church of England having plainly explicated her self hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth neither is she any changeling in her judgment however some unsteddy minds may vary in their conceits away then with those nice scruplers who for some further ends have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense with a non licet inquirere de modo and conclude we resolutely that there is no truth in divinity more clear then this of Christs gracious exhibition and our faithful reception of him in this blessed Sacrament Babes keep your selves from Idols Amen A LETTER FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY Sir with my Loving Remembrance IT cannot but be a great grief to any wise and moderate Christian to see zealous well meaning souls carried away after the giddy humour of their new teachers to a contempt of all holy and reverend antiquity and to an eager affectation of novel fancies even whiles they cry out most bitterly against innovations When the practise and judgment of the whole Christian world ever from the dayes of the blessed Apostles to this present age is pleaded for any form of government or laudable observation they are straight taught That old things are passed and that all things are become new making their word good by so new and unheard-of an interpretation of Scripture Whereby they may as justly argue the introducing of a new Church a new Gospel a new Religion with the annulling of the old And that they may not want an all-sufficient patronage of their fond conceit our blessed Saviour himself is brought in who in his sermon on the mount controlled the antiquity of the pharisaical glosses of the law Ye have heard that it was said by them of old thus and thus but I say unto you c as if the Son of God in checking the upstart antiquity of a mis-grounded and unreasonable tradition meant to condemn the truely-antient and commendable customes of the whole Christian Church which all sober and judicious christians are wont to look upon with meet respect and reverence And certainly whosoever shall have set down this resolution with himself to sleight those either institutions or practises which are derived to us from the Primitive times and have ever since been intertained by the whole church of Christ upon earth that man hath laid a sufficient foundation of Schisme and dangerous singularity and doth that which the most eminent of the Fathers St. Augustine chargeth with no less then most insolent madnesse For me and my friend God give us grace to take the advice which our Saviour gives to his spouse to Go forth by the footsteps of the Flock and to feed our Kids beside the Shepheards tents Cant. 1.8 and to walk in the sure paths of uncorrupt antiquity For the celebration of the solemn Feasts of our Saviours Nativity Resurrection Ascention and the comming down of the Holy Ghost which you say is cryed down by your zealous lecturer one would think there should be reason enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits which those dayes serve to commemorate unto us For to instance in the late feast of the Nativity when the Angel brought the newes of that blessed birth to the Jewish shepheards Behold saith he I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is borne this day a Saviour If then the report of this blessing were the best tidings of the greatest joy that ever was or ever could be possibly incident into mankind why should not the commemoration thereof be answerable Where we conceive the greatest joy what should hinder us to expresse it in a joyfull festivity But you are taught to say the day conferred nothing to the blessing that every day we should with equal thankfulnesse remember this inestimable benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God so as a set anniversary day is altogether needless know then and consider that the all wise God who knew it fit that his People should everyday think of the great work of the creation and of the miraculous deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude and should daily give honour to the Almighty creator and deliverer yet ordained one day of seven for the more special recognition of these marvellous works as well knowing how apt we are to forget those duties wherewith we are only encharged in common without the designment of a particular rememoration Besides the same reason will hold proportionably against any monethly or annuall celebration whatsoever the Jewes should have been much to blame if they had not every day thankfully remembred the great deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody design of cruel Haman yet it was thought requisite if not necessary that there should be two special dayes of Purim set apart for the anniversary memorial of that wonderful preservation The like may be said for the English Purim of our November it is well if besides the general tye of our thankfulness a precise day ordaind by authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulness to give God his own for so great a mercy shall we say now it is the work of the year what needs a day As therefore no day should passe over our head without a grateful acknowledgment of the great mystery of God incarnate So withall the wisdome of the primitive Church no doubt by the direction of the holy Ghost hath pitched upon one special day wherein we should intirely devote our thoughts to the meditation of this work which the Angels of heaven can not enough admire But you are told that perhaps we miss of the day since the season
singuli mediante fide possint virtute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hujus remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam consequi Sic pro electis mortuus est ut ex merito mortis ejus secundum eternum Dei beneplacitum specialiter illis destinato fidem infallibiliter obtinâ—ant vitam eternam Breviter ita primum hunc de morte merito Christi articulum tractasti ut plane habeas scripturas patres scriptores quosque Orthodoxos tibi pleno ore suffragantes sed Ecclesia nostra Anglicana ita hic tota tua est ac si ipsissima illius verba suisses ubique mutuatus Secundum porro articulum meo quidem judicio dici vix potest solidiusne an modestius exegeris si quis alius in tota Theologia ille profecto de reprobatione locus lubricus est in quo labi facile sit periculosum tu vero ita caute istic movisti pedem ut neque blandiores decreti aestimatores quicquam quod culpent invenire possint nec severiores quod desiderent eo magis mihi mirandum videtur quid illud sit quod censurae suae praetendere possint scitissimi cavillorum artifices Dicam certe quod res est totus iste uti a te explicatur locus nihil aliud est quam sententiarum Dordracenarum accurata quaedam contractiuncula in qua non sensum modo illibatum sed et plerunque verba ipsissima satis curiose retinuisti Qui sit ergo ut quibus illa Synodus in pretio est tam justa ac fidelis ejusdem displiceat epitome Certe ni tu digitum intendas ego quid haereat nullus inveniam Enim vero esse quandam reprobationem camque ab aeterno quis dubitat Sed hanc reprobationem qua omnipotentis Dei actum spectat ejusdem esse quorundam hominum quos decrevit Deus in communi miseria in quam se sua culpa praecipitarunt relinquere tandemque non tantum propter infidelitatem sed etiam caetera omnia peccata ad declarationem justitiae suae damnare aeternum punire sic illi culpa ergo peccata ita hic interveniunt ut positiva reprobatio absque his non sine summa injuria Deo attribuatur Hoc est quod tu ex Augustino Fulgentio Prospero ex omnibus Ecclesiarum confessionibus ex Orthodoxis quibusque authoribus facili negotio eviceris Meritissimo ergo inveheris in illorum explicationem rigidam plane iniquam qui electioni liberae gratuitae reprobationem absolutam ex mero odio profectam opponendam censent Ecquod enim odit Deus praeter peccatum et propter peccatum non in se creaturam suam Hoc sane seposito vidit Deus omnia quae fecerat bona pronuntiavit quomodo vero se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praestaret Deus si hominem qua hominem odio haberet Praeibis ergo tu mihi verba illa quibus ego lubentissime assentior ut summe pia suavissima illa vox est nos gratiuto ex mera misericordia beneplacito Dei fuisse electos in Christo ad salutem ita nec satis pia nec tolerabilis altera Merito perire alios etiamsi in Adamo non essent perditi quoniam Deus ita praefecit Christum Ecclesiae suae caput ut in eo servemur non omnes sed qui sumus electi Quod zelus hic tuus ut boni cujusque exardescat non hercle miror Quid enim hoc aliud est nisi tyrannidem quandam affingere misericordissimo Numini Absoluta ipsius in creaturam potentia quousque se extendat nemo est qui dubitet illam vero ut in nos exerat exerce atque Deus qui cum ordinato jure cum hominibus agere decreverit toties dilectionem suam desideriumque humanae salutis protestatus est durius est quam ut a quoquam Christiano cogitari debeat utinam vero odiosae hujusmodi loquendi formulae aut nunquam pio alicui doctoque reformatae Religionis professori excidissent aut si aliquando temere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excesserint aeternae oblivioni damnatae illico fuissent Hujusce surfuris sunt incommodae illae ac incongruae locutiones quas Theologi Dordraceni non pauci rejici corrigique voluerunt quod tunc temporis factum fuisset nisi quorundam existimationi forte plus nimio fuisset indultum Qua de re largius aliquanto scripsi ad Collegam tuum clarissimum D. Crocium Literas ille meas tecum sine dubio communicabit in eadem vos navi estis uterque ejusdem consilii sortes ut sitis par est Interim Analysis haec tua ut in hac resolvendi facultate praecellere te video scopo loci illius optime quadrare videtur nec a quoquam merito impugnari potest Ut Scriptura tota ita illa cum primis ad Romanos quod patrum doctissimus olim plena est sensibus vix dari potest ita certa loci alicujus resolutio quin alia satis commoda possit fortassis superadjici suis alii litent sententiis ego tuam hanc loci contexturam explicationem valde probo si quis contra mussitet dic illi meo si vis nomine carpere multo facilius esse quam emendare Tu vero vir celeberrime perge quod facis sanctis hisce piisque laboribus de Ecclesia Dei bene promereri quod tibi ac tuis ex animo gratulor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precibusque tuis adjuva Devotissimum tibi in Domino Fratrem ac Symmystam Jos Exon. Dat. in Pallat. nostro Exon. A MODEST OFFER OF Some Meet CONSIDERATIONS TENDERED To the Learned PROLOCUTOR And to the rest of the ASSEMBLY of DIVINES Met at WESTMINSTER LEarned and Reverend Brethren If you be now as is supposed upon the advise of a Forme of Church-Government I beseech you in the fear of God setting aside all prejudice to take into your sad thoughts these considerations following It is I perceive an usual Prayer of many Preachers well affected to your Assembly that God would now after 1600 years universal practise of the whole Church of Christ upon earth shew you the patterne in the mount as if after so long and perfect inquisitions there could be any new discoveries of the forme that was or should be wherein I suppose their well-meaning is not a little injurious both to the known truth and to you for what revelations can we expect thus late or what monuments of either Scripture or history can now be hoped to be brought to light which your eyes have not seen and former ages have not inquired into Surely ye well know there can be but these three forms of Church-government possibly devised Either by Bishops or by Presbyteries or by the multitude of several and select congregations Every of which have both their abettors and their adversaries The first hath all times and places since
fastidious they may in such a case be over-ruled by just authority As for matter of censures it may not be denyed that there hath been great abuse in the managing of them both upon Ecclesiastical persons and others suspension of Ministers upon slight and insufficient causes both ab officio and beneficio hath been too rife in some places of latter times and the dreadful sentence of excommunication hath too frequently and familiary passed upon light and triviall matters How happy were it if a speedy course may be taken for the prevention of this evil In the conference at Hampton-Court a motion was strongly made to this purpose but without effect if the wisdom of the present Parliament shall settle some other way for the curbing of contumacious offences against Church-authority it will be an act worthy of their care and justice In the mean time as for this and all other Ecclesiastical proceedings it may with much facility and willing consent of all parts be ordered that the Bishop shall not take upon him to inflict either this or any other important censure without the concurrence of his Presbytery which shall be a means in all likelyhood to prevent any inconvenience that may arise from the wonted way of Judicature As for the co-assession of a Lay-presbytery in swaying these affairs of Church-government Ye well know how new it is some of you might have been acquainted with the man that brought it first into any part of this Island and what ground there is for it either in Scripture or antiquity I appeall to your judgment Surely the late learned Author of the Counsail for the reforming the Church of England although otherwise a vehement assertor of the French Discipline ingenuously confesseth that however those Protestants which live under Popish Governours have done wisely in deputing some choise men selected out of their congregations whom they call Elders to share with their pastors in the care and management of Ecclesiasticall affairs Yet those Protestant Churches which live under the government of Protestant Princes may with the safty of those respects which mutually intercede betwixt Pastors and People forbear any such deputation for as much as the supreme Magistrate transferrs for the most part to himself that which is the wonted charge of those deputed Elders concluding that those men do meerly lose their labour who so busily indeavour on the one side to disprove the antiquity of the Lay-Eldership and on the other by weak proofes to maintain clean contrary to the mind of the Apostle that the text of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 5.17 is to be understood of Pastors and Lay-Elders Thus he with what fair probability I leave to your judgment Neither is it any intention of mine to meddle with any piece of that government which obtaineth in other the Churches of God but onely to contribute my poor opinion concerning the now-to-be-setled affairs of our own What shall I need to suggest unto you the dangerous underworkings of other Sects secretly indevouring to spring their hidden mines to the overthrow both of the one government and the other whereof without speedy remedy perhaps it will be too late to complain no doubt the wisdom and authority of that great Senate whom ye also serve to advise will forthwith interpose it self to the prevention of those mischiefs which the variety of these heresies and sects though some of them cloaked with the fairest pretences threaten to this poor Church It is no boot for me to tell you that the less disunion there is the more ground of safety and that where the holy purposes of Reformation may be effected with the least change there must needs be the most hope of accordance The rest to the wise application of the powerfull and judicious It is enough for me to have thus boldly shot my bolt amongst you and to have thus freely discovered my honest and wel meant thoughts to so able judgments What I want in my poor indevours shall be supplyed with my prayers that God would be pleased to compose all our miserable distractions and to put an happy issue to the long and perilous agitations of this wofully tottering and bleeding Church and Kingdome Which the good God of Heaven vouchsafe to grant for his great mercies sake and for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ the Just Amen Philalethirenaeus Septemb. 12. 1644. Certaine IRREFRAGABLE PROPOSITIONS WORTHY OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION By J. H. B. of EXON 1. NO man may swear or induce another man to swear unlawfully 2. IT is no lawfull Oath that is not attended with Truth Justice and Judgement Jer. 4.2 the first whereof requires that the thing sworn be true the second that it be just the third that it be not undue and unmeet to be sworn and undertaken 3. A Promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another mans right cannot be attended with Justice 4. NO prejudice of another mans right can be so dangerous and sinfull as that prejudice which is done to the right of publique and Soveraign Authority 5. THe right of Soveraign Authority is highly prejudiced when private subjects incroach upon it and shall upon suspicion of the disavowed intentions or actions of their Princes combine and bind themselves to enact establish or alter any matters concerning Religion without and therefore much more if against the authority of their Lawfull Soveraign 6. A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to ingage himself by Oath to perform 7. NO oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawfull oath formerly taken so as he that hath sworn Allegeance to his Soveraign and thereby bound himself to maintain the right power and authority of his said Soveraign cannot by any second oath be tyed to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof and if he have so tyed himself the Obligation is ipso facto void and frustrate COROLLARIE IF therefore any sworn Subject shall by pretenses and perswasions be drawn to bind himself by Oath or Covenant to determine establish or alter any act concerning matter of Religion without or against the allowance of Soveraign Authority the act is unlawful and unjust and the party so ingaged is bound in conscience to reverse and renounce his said act Otherwise besides the horrible scandal which he shall draw upon Religion he doth manifestly incurr the sin of the breach of the third and fift Commandements Two as undoubted Propositions concerning Church-government 1. NO man living no History can shew any well-allowed and setled Nationall Church in the whole Christian World that hath been governed otherwise then by Bishops in a meet and moderate imparity ever since the times of Christ and his Apostles untill this present Age. 2. NO man living no record of History can shew any Lay-Presbyter that ever was in the whole Christian Church untill this present Age. COROLLARIE IF men would as easily learne as Christian wisdome
can teach them to distinguish betwixt callings and persons betwixt the substance of callings and the not necessary appendances of them betwixt the rules of Government and the errors of Execution those ill-raised quarrels would dye alone Da pacem Domine Amen J. E. VIA MEDIA The way of Peace IN THE FIVE BUSY ARTICLES Commonly known by the Name of ARMINIUS TOUCHING 1. Predestination 2. The Extent of Christs Death 3. Mans Free-will and corruption 4. The manner of our conversion to God 5. Perseverance Wherein is laid forth so fair an Accommodation of the different Opinions as may content both parts and procure happy accord By J. H. D. of Worcester LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLX TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAIESTY May it please your Majestie THere needs no propheticall Spirit to discern by a small Cloud that there is a storm comming towards our Church such a one as shall not only drench our plumes but shake our peace Already do we see the Skie thicken and hear the winds whistle hollow afarr off and feel all the Presages of a Tempest which the late example of our Neighbours bids us fear It boots not to perswade your Majesty to betake your self to your Chariot to outride the showre since your gracious compassion would not be willing to put off the sense of a common evill Rather let me take boldness to implore your Majesties seasonable prevention Only the powerfull breath of your Soveraign authority can dispell these Clouds and clear our Heaven and reduce an happy Calme In the mean time give leave to your well meaning Servants to contribute their best wishes to the common Tranquillity I see every Man ready to ranke himself unto a side and to draw in the quarrel he affecteth I see no Man thrusting himself between them and either holding or joyning their hands for peace This good however thankless office I have here boldly undertaken shewing how unjustly we are divided and by what means we may be made and kept entire A project which if it may receive life and light from your gracious eyes and shall by your Royall command be drawn into speedy practise promiseth to free this noble and flourishing Church from a perilous inconvenience Let it be no disparagement to so important a motion that it falls from so mean a hand then which yet none can be more syncerely consecrated to the service of your Majesty and this Church the mutuall happiness of both which is dearer then life to Your Majesties most humble and faithful devoted Subject and Servant JOS. HALL THE First Article OF GODS PREDESTINATION 1 WHatsoever God who is the God of truth hath ingaged himself by promise to do the same he undoubtedly hath willed and will accordingly perform 2. There is no Son of Adam to whom God hath not promised that if he shall believe in Christ repent and persevere he shall be saved We must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressely declared unto us in the Word of God Artic. of the Chu 17. Est generalis conditionata voluntas seu generalis promissio Evangelica c. docens promissiones divinas fic amplectendas esse ut nobis in sacris literis generaliter propositae sunt D. Overal de 5. Artic. in Belgio controversis Art 1. 3. This generall and undoubted will of God must be equally proclaimed to all Men through the World without exception and ought to be so received and believed as it is by him published and revealed Est quidem decretum hoc annuntiativum salutis omnibus ex aequo indiscriminatim promulgandum Theol. Britan. Dordrac in Actis Synodi in Thesibus heterodox Thes 1. Gratiam communem sufficientem in mediis divinitus ordinatis si homines verbo Dei Spirituique sancto deesse noluerint c. D. Overal Artic. 1. 4. All Men within the Pale of the Church especially have from the mercy of God such common helps towards this belief and Salvation as that the neglect thereof makes any of them justly guilty of their own condemnation In Ecclesia ubi juxta promissum hoc Evangelii salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae quae sâ—fficit ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos quod sua culpa voluntaria vel neglectu vel contemptu Evangelii perierint oblatum beneficium amiserint Theol. Britan. Dordrac de Art 2. Thes 5. 5. Besides the generall will of God he hath eternally willed and decreed to give a speciall and effectuall grace to those that are predestinate according to the good pleasure of his will whereby they do actually believe obey and persevere that they may be saved so as the same God that would have all Men to be saved if they believe and be not wanting to his Spirit hath decreed to work powerfully in some whom he hath particularly chosen that they shall believe and not be wanting to his Spirit in whatsoever shall be necessary for their salvation Deinde in secundo loco ut succurreret humanae infirmitati c. voluisse addere specialem gratiam magis efficacem abundantem quibus placuerit communicandam per quam non solum possint sed etiam actu velint credant obediant perseverent D. Overal Art 1. He hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as Vessels made to honour wherefore they which be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in them in due season they through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made sons of God by adoption they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity Art of Relig. Art 17. 6. It is not the prevision of faith or any other grace or act of Man whereupon this decree of God is grounded but the meer and gracious good will and pleasure of God from all eternity appointing to save those whom he hath chosen in Christ as the head and foundation of the elect 7. This decree of Gods election is absolute and unchangeable and from everlasting 8. God doth not either actually damn or appoint any soul to damnation without the consideration and respect of sin Non ex praescientia humanae fidei aut voluntatis sed ex proposito divinae voluntatis gratiae de his quos Deus elegit in Christo liberandis salvandis D. Overal Art 1. Particulare decretum absolutum D. Overal ibid. Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed c. Article of Relig. 17. Deus nominem damnat aut damnationi destinat nisi
present and certainty for the future and dividing this latter into absolute and conditionate disclaiming the one and establishing the other so as this certainty walkes still in even paces with perseverance and we can only be sure of Salvation if we continue in faith and piety but we cannot be sure we shall continue in either and hear them conclude it to be both laudable and profitable for a Christian to nourish these doubts in himself now he might as easily be induced to think that these ends can never meet And yet the opposites strain hard for an accordance whiles they distinguish of faiths and yield it fit to consider a faithfull Mans Estate in respect of himself his own weakness and Sathans frauds and in respect of the firme promises and supportations of a faithful God In regard of the former granting it more then possible that he should utterly fall away from God but in regard of the latter fastening their perswasion upon the unremoveable Rock of their assurance But what need I lanch forth into this forrain deep Those Opponents which perseverance meets with in our Church either are or should be of a softer temper maintaining only such falling away from grace as reverend B. Overall stateth for the doctrine of the Church of England whose last moderation in this point is worthy to be written in Letters of Gold Having first set down the two contrary Tenets of the opposite parts he now brings in the Church of England thus with St. Austin defining as from a Celestial Chair That believers as in a common acception may through infirmity of flesh and power of temptation depart and fall off from grace and faith once received but those believers which are called according to the purpose of God and which are soundly rooted in a lively faith can neither totally nor finally fall away and perish everlastingly but by the special and effectual grace of God do so persevere in a true and lively faith that at last they are brought unto eternal Life Now what wise Christian can make dainty of admitting so necessary and just a distinction since common experience tells us there are many Meteors that for the time shine like bright Stars over our heads which ere long we find under our feet resolved into a base and slimy slough what heart can desire a more full and satisfying determination wherein both sides have their own and we quietly enjoy what is true in both when thus much is mutually yielded let him be branded for an enemy of peace that will further contend Now when the Christian Reader hath seriously perused these differences especially as they are propounded and arbitrated by that grave professor and Prelate of our Church on the one side and those other our learned and worthy Divines on the other side Let me appeal to his better thoughts what he finds here worthy of a publick division Well may the Schools pick hence matter enough for their Theological Problemes but what should either the Pulpit or the press do with these busie and bootless brabbles My Brethren let our care be to study and preach Christ and him crucified To work the souls of Men to faith repentance piety justice Charity temperance and all other heavenly vertues that they may find cordial Testimonies in themselves of their happy predestination to Life and their infallible Interest in the precious blood of their Redeemer Let us beat down those sins in them which make them obnoxious to everlasting damnation and strip them of all comfortable assurances of the favour of God Let us not undiscreetly spend our time and pains in distracting their thoughts with those Scholastical disquisitions whereof the knowledg or ignorance makes nothing to Heaven The way to blessedness is not so short that we should finde leasure to make outroads into needlesse and unprofitable speculations Never Treatise could be more necessary in this curious and quarrellous age then de paucitate credendorum The infinite subdivisions of those points which we advance to the honour of being the objects of our belief confound our thoughts and marr our peace Peaceable discourse may have much latitude but matter of faith should have narrow bounds If in the other men will abound in their own sence alwaies let unity of Spirit be held in the bond of peace since God hath given us change of rayment and variety of all intellectual provisions as Joseph said to his brethren let me to mine Let us not fall out by the way Now by the dear bonds of brotherhood by our love to our common mother the Church by our holy care and zeal of the prosperous successe of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Let us all compose our hearts to peace and rest our selves in those common truths which sober mindes shall find abundantly sufficient whether for our knowledg or salvation I have done and now I make no other account but that it will fall out with me as it commonly doth with him that offers to part a fray both parts will perhaps drive at me for wishing them no worse then peace My ambition of the publick tranquillity shall willingly carry me through this hazard Let both beat me so their quarrel may cease I shall rejoyce in those blowes and scarres which I shall take for the Churches safety Mens fingers do so itch after the maintenance of their own opinions that they can hardly contain themselves from flying upon the fairest moderation of any Umpire Yet I may safely profess that herein I have carried my self so indifferently that as I have hid my own Judgment so I have rather seemed partiall against my own resolutions If any Man object that I have not fully stated the questions on both sides and drawn my accorded propositions out of the heart of those Tenets which both parts will yield to be their own in an adversaries sence without waving any consequences that shall be deduced there from Let him receive answear to the former of these that it were a fit task for him that intended a full tractation of the points controverted and is already too much done by others my drift is only to pick out of both what may sound towards concord He that would describe the way to some remote Citty of marque thinkes it not needful to map out before the Traveller every Town and Village of all the Shires through which he should pass but only sets down those that lye in his road To the latter that it is a more strict rule then needs to be put upon an Agent for peace For as it is but just on the one side that every man should be allowed to be his own interpreter and prejudice and ill will can never make good glosse So on the other side it is lawful and meet for moderate mindes to make their best use of those savory and wholesome sentences which fall from the better moode of an adversary such so farr as they come home to me shall gladly reconcile him
lesse transmitted to Constantinople Set those aside and what holinesse can Tiber challenge above Rhene or Thames Let fooles be mocked with these fancies but you whom God hath indued with singular judgment and understanding in all things will easily resent the fraud and see that there is no more reason why the English Church should conform in opinion to the Romish were the Doctrines equally indifferent then the Roman Church to the English They are but the several limms of one large and universal body and if in respect of outward order there have been or may be acknowledged a precedency yet in regard of the main substance of truth we cannot admit of any dependance on any Church under Heaven Here that which is the purer from Error and corruption must take the wall maugre all the loud throats of acclaming parasites yea so far must we needs be from pinning our faith upon the sleeve of Rome as that we cannot without violence offered to our own consciences but see and say that there is no particular Church on Earth so branded by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures as Rome In so much as the best abbettors and dearest fautors of that See are glad to plead that Rome is St. Peters and St. Johns Babylon we blesse God for standing on our own feet and those feet of ours stand upon the infallible grounds of the Prophets and Apostles of Primitive Creeds Councels Fathers and therefore we can no more deceive you then they can deceive us The censure that the enemies of our Church cast upon it is not untruth but defect they dare not but grant what we say is true but they blame us for not saying all is true which they say now that which we say was enough to serve those antient Christians which lived before those lately devised additions the refusal whereof is made haynous and deadly to us how safe how happy is this erring Let my soul be with those blessed Martyrs Confessors Fathers Christians which never lived to hear of those new Articles of the new Roman faith and I dare say you will not wish yours any other where there can be no danger in old truths there can be nothing but danger in new obtrusions But I finde how apt my pen is to over-run the bounds of a letter my zeal of your safety carries me into this length the errors into which these seducers would lead you are deadly especially upon a revolt your very ingenuity I hope besides grace will suggest better things to you Hold that which you have that no man take your crown My Soul for yours you go right so sure as there is a heaven this way will lead you thither go on confidently and cheerfully in it let me never be happy if you be not you will pardon my holy importunity which shall be ever seconded with my hearty prayers to the God of truth that he will stablish your heart in that eternal truth of his Gospel which you have received and both work and crown your happy perseverance such shall be the fervent apprecations of Your much devoted Friend Jos Exon. RESOLUTIONS FOR RELIGION WHereas there are many loud quarrels and brabbles about matter of Religion this is my firme and steadfast Resolution wherein I finde peace with God and my own Soul as being undoubtedly certain in it self and holily charitable to others and that in which I constantly purpose God willing as to Live so to Dye 1. I do believe and know that there is but one way to Heaven even the True and Living way Jesus Christ God and Man the Saviour of the World 2. I believe and know that this way however it is a narrow and straight way in respect of the World yet hath much Latitude in it self So as those that truely believe in this Son of God their Saviour though they may be mis-led into many by-pathes of small errors yet by the mercy of God are acknowledged not to be out of the main high way to eternal life 3. I believe and know that the Canonical Scriptures of God are the true and unfailing Rule of our Faith so as whatsoever is therein contain'd is the infallible Truth of God and whatsoever is necessary to be believed to eternal Salvation is therein expresly or by clear and undoubted consequence contein'd and so set forth as it neither needeth farther explication nor admits of any probable Contradiction 4. I believe and know that God hath ever since the creation of Mankinde had a Church upon Earth and so shall have to the end of the World which is a Society or Communion of Faithful men professing his Name against which the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail for the failing thereof 5. I believe and know that the consenting voice of the successions and present universality of faithful Men in all times and places is worthy of great authority both for our Confirmation in all truths and for our direction in all the circumstantial points of Gods service so as it cannot be opposed or sever'd from without just offence to God 6. I believe and know that besides those necessary truths contain'd in the Holy Scriptures and Seconded by the Consent and Profession of all Gods faithful ones there may be and ever have been certain collateral and not-mainly importing verities wherein it is not unlawful for several particular Churches to maintain their own Tenets and to dissent from other and the several members of those particular Churches are bound so far to tender the common Peace as not to oppose such publiquely received truths 7. I do confidently believe that if all the particular Churches through the whole Christian World should meet together and determine these secondary and unimporting truthes to be believed upon necessity of Salvation and shall enact Damnation to all those which shall deny their assent thereunto they should go beyond the Commission which God hath given them and do an act which God hath never undertaken to warrant Since there can be no new Principles of Christian Religion however there may be an application of some formerly received Divine truthes to some emergent occasions and a clearer explication of some obscure verities 8. I do confidently believe that God hath never confin'd the determination of his will in all questions and matters pertaining to Salvation or whatsoever controversies of Religion to the breast of any one Man or to a particular Church or to a correspondence of some particular Churches so as they shall not possibly err in their Definitions and Decrees 9. I do confidently believe that the Church of Rome comprehending both the head and those her adherents and dependance being but particular Churches have highly offended God in arrogating to themselves the priviledg of infallibility which was never given them and in ordaining new Articles of faith and excluding from the bosome of Gods Church and the Gates of Heaven all those which differ from her in the refusal of her late bred