good point of Religion in lowliness of mind to esteem others better then our selves Phil. 2.3 it is Religion and Reason both to think our Governors wiser too for there is a presumption always in favour of them S. Paul gives it for a rule to Timothy Not to receive an accusation against an Elder 1 Tim. 5.19 but before two or three witnesses because it is to be presum'd on the part of Age and Authority to know more and offend less But when it comes to be the whole Eldership all our Governors joyntly the presumption is so much the stronger If we add this study to the former how little reason we have to trust our selves and how much we have to trust our Governors we will not rashly pass sentence against them if we have either Reason or Religion in us 3. And yet we have more work for our Student Let him in the third place consider the nature and quality of the things whereupon judgement is given how apt they are to deceive us Truth is many times so like an Errour and Errour comes so near to Truth that he had need be carefull and circumspect that shall distinguish them in some cases And in others again Truth lies hid under many folds especially ambiguity of words the common cheat of all Students who are more often deceiv'd into opinions then convinc'd It is not strange to see so many go astray from the Church to whom the things of it are represented under the covert of false names when they hear the Government of it called Tyranny obedience slavery contempt courage licence liberty frenzy zeal order superstition How easily thus may simple people mistake their way and fall into the pit that 's cover'd over with shadows and false names of things When he hath studied this point well 4. Let him in the fourth place be well advised in what manner he proceeds in judgment and upon what evidence For allowing the Conscience to be a Judge it must not trespass upon the Rules of good Judicature as both sides must be heard impartially which is seldom done the Conscience must not be mis-led no more then other Judges by prejudice passion or favour for what can that judgment be worth which is perverted by any of these Now if we examine how most men come to pass sentence against the Church we shall finde it to be upon very slight evidence It may be their Education they have been always brought up that way for Sects commonly run in a blood in a family Or they have been so taught they say by good men that indeed is the sum and upshot of the Faith of most that dissent the credit given to some weak private ignorant Instructer whose person they have in admitation without any great cause God knows whereas their private judgments because they are parties ought always to be supected if we be wise and because against their Governours to be contemn'd if we be obedient All these well studied may make for peace when possibly Arguments and Disputes and Punishments too will not do it And yet if still none of these will make our Student quiet Let him in the last place make trial of a common remedy that prevails in all cases of difficulty Let him but study his own security the safest course and he shall finde that better provided for in the Churches judgment then in his own for if he should erre in following the Church or his Governors for that is possible the greatest part of that guilt some say all I say onely the greatest part must lie at their door that command that which is unlawfull But if they should erre in following their own judgment or a Judge of their own choosing for that makes it their own too and that is more then possible all the blame and guilt then must of necessity and inexcusably fall upon themselves Upon these principles setting aside all those that may convince our judgments in particulars from these alone I say we see how safe how prudent how religious a thing it is to submit our private judgments to the publick for the peace of the Church It remains onely now that we imploy our best endeavour and study for it which is the second part of the Text and the last thing to be considered That ye study STudy is an earnest intention of the mind by diligent search and enquiry Wishing well to Quiet or speaking well of it will not serve the greatest disturbers of Peace will do that many times give it a good word when they will not part with a phansie for it And yet Quiet is a thing that requires care and pains somewhat more then ordinary For when S. Peter likewise speaks of peace it is in words of the same import Seek peace and ensue it If it be hidden 1 Pet. 3.11 seek it out if it flies from you pursue after it It is a busie thing to be quiet The word here translated Study is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ambitious of it that is pursue and study it as you would do Honour and Preferment And that I think is as much as can be desired and yet no more then Quiet both deserves and needs First It deserves it For though quiet be rather Status vitae then Virtus it is no Vertue it self yet the best soil to plant Vertue in The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace Jam. 3.18 So are all the fruits of Industry Learning Arts Sciences Traffick Commerce flourish most in the calm temperate clime but in troubles and dissentions every good thing goes backward onely mischief thrives It fares with troubled times as in troubled waters all the filth dirt and mire in the bottom gets then up to the top We saw as much when our waters were lately troubled what a deal of filth dirt and mire what sordid stuff was then got up to the top and highest place of rule and command So much are we the more oblig'd to study that peace and quiet which hath sunk them to their proper place again the bottom And there let them lie if you would be quiet 2. As it deserves therefore our study so it needs it too for it is a difficult thing to be quiet the way to it lies through so many parts and duties of Religion and not the easiest of them neither To deny our selves 〈◊〉 humility and lowliness of mind to acknowledge our own weakness and frailty to submit our judgments to others as better and wiser then our selves to subdue our passions and lusts from whence the Apostle observes Wars and Contentions to come from our Lusts and to all these the Flesh hath naturally a reluctance Our Student therefore hath need to contend with himself to be at peace with others S. Paul was at Athens when he wrote this Epistle a famous University for the study of all liberal Arts and Sciences I cannot say he had these in his thought when he commended this study to the Thessalonians as an Art of more use then any he found at Athens Yet when I see him so passionately earnest for it to beseech them to study we have reason to value it as an Art well worthy of Schools and Professors and Students And they would make a Royal Society whereof the King himself is Master who is our Peace-maker by office and by a care equal to that hath by Law provided 1 Tim. 2.2 that under Him we may live a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty He hath little sense of Honour that will not enter himself a Student under that conduct The very word for Study 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carries Honour in it And yet I can tell them of a higher School for it then this and wherein Kings themselves are content to be Students Our Lord Christ the great Mediator of our eternal peace with Heaven would not be brought into the world without a Song of Peace on Earth by Angels And when he left the World bequeathed it as a Legacy after him My peace I leave with you S. Joh. 14.27 And when he comes again to judge the world we have reason to look that he will call us to a reckoning how we use his Legacy And so he will too for he is that Lord Matth. 24. that when he came and found some smiting their fellow-servants commanded them to be cut asunder and have their portion with hypocrites A punishment well fitted to the offence there was a schisme in the fault and there shall be another schisme in the punishment they who sundred and divided from their Brethren should themselves be cut asunder and have their portion with hypocrites But for the Peace-makers when he comes he will provide better company for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5.9 Blessed are they then whom the Lord when he comes shall finde at their studies of that Quiet which gives them so fair a Title to Eternal Rest and Peace in Heaven with Christ and all the Children of God FINIS
quiet of many that the omission of Forms and Ceremonies is more severely punished then some foul and scandalous crimes To this I answer First That they who object this are not to be trusted with the ballance of sins for we know how the Market went for them when they held the Scale Obedience to the King and the Laws and serving God according to them were the great scandalous crimes 2. Allowing it to be true as they say That omission of Forms and Ceremonies is by the Church more frequently and severely punished then greater faults But how greater It may be in their proper and natural guilt and obliquity according to which sentence shall be given at the day of Judgment and to death eternal But our earthly Tribunals are not erected to anticipate the day of Judgment to bring all sinners to trial for whatsoever they have committed in the flesh and according to the proper measure of their guilt but for a particular end and use that people while they live here in the world and in society may be kept in good order and quiet from doing or receiving injuries And to this end is the degree of their punishments commensurate Treason and Rebellion are more severely punished in the State then many other hainous crimes because they destroy the very foundation of government and Society And for the same reason a schismatical disobedience though but in matters of Form and Ceremony is pursued with more care and strictness because it destroys the very end for which the power is given the Church to punish which is the preservation of peace and unity For though the Pastors of the Church may and must by way of Instruction the better to prepare us for our account at the great and general Judgment give every sin the proper weight and measure of guilt that is by way of Instruction But by way of Correction the Church is bound up to certain causes and if they keep not their bounds they shall be sure to hear of a prohibition and those Causes are especially such for which the power is onely given That the peaceable orderly Worship and service of God be not disturbed For though they are ever telling us it is for trifles ceremonies or indifferent things it is but the same quarrel the Atheists have against God himself for being so much offended for an Apple a trifle which scarce any man that hath an Orchard would have been troubled with and one Answer will serve both in effect In that forbidden fruit Gods authority in commanding and Adams duty in obeying were symbolically engaged for him and his and there was venome enough in that to infect both The Rites and Ceremonies of the Church in like manner though not in like degree though in their opinion as inconsiderable as the paring of Adams apple yet when discord and disobedience is found with them there is poyson enough in that for the strongest antidote the Church doth at any time make use of Let not that therefore mis-lead or disturb our Student of Quiet Nor that which in the Fourth place they look at as another Expedient for Peace If fewer Points and Articles of Religion were defined that so the Church-door may be wider open to let in those whose dissent now troubles the peace of the Church It is fit I grant the Church-door should stand always open but for such as shall be fit to enter for it would be a dangerous thing to set any door so wide open to let in an enemy upon us But to what purpose would we have the Church-door so wide when the Gate of Heaven is strait why should they be taken in here if they shall be turned back there The Church is a City as Jerusalem a City that is at unity in it self so it is a City too that hath gates and walls to shut our others He that came to a little City where there was a great Gate merrily warned the Citizens to take heed lest their City went not out at the Gate may soberly be said to those that would have the Church door so wide to let in all Sects to take heed lest the Church gets not out at the door For where so many Religions are it may be feared that soon there will be none at all If we be not as the Apostle commands built up in the same Faith it will avail us little to be found within the same walls It is therefore a perverse remedy for peace to abate or diminish the Articles and definitions of the Church which were made of purpose to take away controversies it would be a strange course to end controversies to take away the definitions Our Student must read his Books back ward if he seek for peace from hence We might as well say all the world would be quiet if there were no Judges nor Laws to determine differences There is another Expedient for Peace which I hear much spoken of and highly set by as a great point of prudence If men of moderate opinions were onely taken into imployment in the Church Moderation I confess is an excellent vertue and much to be desired Let your moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4 5. But then it must be in a subject capable of it wherein there are extremes and excesses to be moderated as there is certainly in our passions there it is proper S. Paul gives it for a Lesson to all Students in Religion Ephes 4 3â— Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another and tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you This no doubt is a very fit temper for quiet and none more unfit then angry waspish and domineering spirits Onely this caution is to be observed in lenity That it be such as may win men into the Church not such as may secure and encourage them to stay without Yet lenity and gentleness is so good a Vertue that I am loth to dast water upon it or seem to temper it But for men of moderate opinions I am at a loss to know what they should be for moderation there cannot be but between extreams Now what extreams are there of opinions in a setled Church unless the Church be one extream and the Schismatick another and then the man of moderate opinions is he that is part Church-man and part Schismatick I hope none are so unkind to their Mother the Church to charge extremities upon her Doctrine or Laws If there be any such they are but Hybrides in Religion and make a new sect in the Church as pernicious to the peace of it as any of the rest The truth is moderate opinions are a Chimaeta a phansie either nothing or somewhat worse then nothing for possibly they may bestow that good word Moderation upon such as care little either to observe the Law themselves or to require it of others If these be
the men of moderate opinions I wonder how they will be able to give account of their justice and fidelity to the trust committed to them Yes they say very well It is rather prudence then injustice to mitigate and sweeten the sharpness and rigour of the Law But if the Law it self be too rigorous in God's name let it be amended and not left to the arbitrary power of others to do it for that 's known to be a remedy ten times worse then the disease It is said in Physick I know not how truly that an error in the first concoction is not mended in the second It is certainly true here an error or excess in the Law which is the first concoction of justice will be ill cured afterward by an arbitrary partiality in the execution I hope therefore no wise Student of quiet will take such Moderators for the best Ministers of peace But I leave them and come to the most popular and therefore most dangerous principle in the study of quiet that is Liberty of Conscience I have spoken to this point heretofore in this place yet because of late our new Philosophical Divines as well as others press hard for it knowing without a free Market they cannot vend their new bold speculations I shall resume the point again a little more largely yet within the compass of these two particulars First That there is a great deal of reason to restrain the Conscience and Secondly That there is no reason to give it liberty 1. There is reason enough to restrain the Conscience for the mischief it doth to Quiet when it is at liberty for all the discord and divisions of the Church grow from hence and that is a mischief we have reason to avoid Rom. 16.17 Mark them saith S. Paul which cause divisions among you and avoid them There is reason then to mark that which causeth them to make divisions and that 's the Conscience It is no quietter in the Common-wealth where it destroys the very Foundation of Government and frustrates the Ordinance of God for it in Princes and Magistrates for what is left for them to do if every one must follow the dictate of his own Conscience that is in plain terms be bound onely to obey himself This is no slander to the pretenders of conscience they will say as much themselves if ye ask them Ask the Schismatick why he joyns not with the congregation of Gods people and he will tell you His conscience will not suffer him Ask the Rebel in the State why he takes up Arms to the ruine of his King and Countrey and his Conscience will answer for him That it is Gods cause and it is to do him service Ask him again why he doth not repent of the mischief done by it for that they seldom do and the Conscience will serve that turn too It is Gods cause and the conscience will not suffer them to repent of that Thus we see the Conscience as it is used doth not onely open a door to sin but shuts the very door to mercy that is Repentance If S. John said true as no doubt he did That there were many Antichrists then possibly the Conscience thus improved may be one of them For it sets it self in the Church above all that is called God yea and God himself too in a sence for his Laws are not to be obeyed unless the Conscience first allows them to be his and thus all is resolved into the Conscience as the dernier resort and last appeal While the King and the Pope are contending for Supremacy the Conscience without scruple puts in for it against both and takes it for her right to be supreme in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil There is great complaint in the world of domineering over the Conscience but have we not rather cause to complain of the domineering of the Conscience And if any list to see the Conscience acting all this we need go no further then our late times when the Conscience was loose for a while one would think Hell had broke loose so fill'd was on a sudden the Church with sects and the Common-wealth with confusion There is reason enough therefore to restrain the Conscience that acts all this if we knew how The next thing I undertook to shew is That there is no reason why it should have liberty and particularly not that which gives the fairest colour to it Neither the duty we owe to Truth which seems to have some right to liberty nor that we owe to the Will of God that nothing be done against the Conscience For the first Truth is that I confess which no consideration of peace may warrant us to desert for I could never be of that opinion That Truth in smaller matters may for Peace sake be either denied or prejudiced Magna est veritas etiam in minimis in Gods name let it prevail over all But then it must be Veritas in rebus not Veritas in intellectu For though Truth be defined to be a conformity of the understanding to the thing as it is indeed yet takes the name from both from the thing where Truth is originally and from the understanding where it is onely represented Truth in that first reference to the thing admits no qualification things must be taken as they are be they never so small but as the things come to be represented to and entertained by the Understanding by reason of the mistakes and errours that may happen in that though Truth it self or Truth in the thing cannot yet my apprehension of it may both yield to better and may sometimes be waved for peace sake To argue from Truth in the thing to Truth in the appehension onely is a fallacy against the Rules of Reasoning we call it Petitio principii or a begging of the question If a Sectary should beg an alms I wish he may have it but he shall beg long ere it be granted him that he hath the truth How then can he presume upon that truth to which he hath no other title but his own perswasion which can be no better then any mans else who is as strongly perswaded to the contrary And this is all the service that Truth can do the Conscience for liberty 2. The second thing whereupon the Conscience especially bears it self so high is the Will of God that nothing be done against the Conscience That no doubt is a great offence and made so by the greatest Authority Yet the same God that requires our obedience to the Conscience commands us likewise to obey our Parents our Princes and Governours and all these stand upon as good authority as the Conscience If we cannot reconcile our obedience to that with our obedience to these we may sin against God when we do not sin against the Conscience For though God hath erected a Tribunal in every mans breast and there set the Conscience to be a Judge of all our actions there