seventh day after the Creation and the strict Observation of the day as that therein a man might not gather sticks and had made himselfe a brand of Hellfire if he had but made a fire these all agree to be alterable to be altered and at this day to bind none Now that which they say is unalterable in the Sabbath they affirme to be some certain time of Worship a Solemnity carefully religious and yet in this agreement they differ for some will have that time which is unalterable to be though not a certaine yet one day of the Seaven though not Monday or Tuesday yet at least they or one between them which God or his Church should determine whilst others thinke that time to be no more bound to the weeke than it is to the Saturday to any other time than it was to the Jewes Sabbath and so likewise as touching the observation they vary the former prescribing a rising before day quick arraying private prayer til the Minister be in the Church repearing and prayer after till he come thither againe then hearing a second Sermon and then a third if they may and so having other formes till midnight the other thinking that they have conscionably discharged their duty if without so many observances fit rather to tire the body than refresh the soule after their private Devotions they religiously frequent the publick Service of God which being ended they beleeve they may as well bestow moderate Recreation as temperate Diet on their body But I would aske of the former sort of these when they say that somewhat is unalterable in the Sabbath by whom they meane it is unalterable if they say by man it is no great matter which they say all men know that what by God is established must needs be unalterable by him to change anothers ordinance is the onely privilege of an higher power But if they say that it is by God unalterable I shall againe aske whether it be simply unalterable or upon the presupposed approbation of his will and pleasure Not the latter nothing in the Sabbath is so unalterable if there be they must shew it in the Scripture If they shall reply that he hath expressed his will in the fourth Commandement which being placed amongst the morall precepts must needs have something morall in it and seeing that is not the seventh Day therefore at least it must be a seventh which is morall I shall onely desire them to review the Commandement where we shall find that the Jewes are commanded to keep that day holy in which the Lord rested nay therefore to keep it holy because in it the Lord rested they are to hallow that Day which the Lord had hallowed now in what day did he rest What day did he hallow was it not the seventh day For in six dayes they are the words in the commandement the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day so that from hence they may prove the Jewes Sabbath but they will destroy the Lords Day The seventh day is established by this commandement but it is a weake Foundation for One in Seven Well then at length they are driven to this to affirme that there is some what in the Sabbath to wit the necessity of sanctifying one in seaven which is simply and absolutely unalterable But to omit that they but affirme and cannot prove this see what the consequence of this wouldbe if there were as much truth as there is the confidence in that Assertion If it be simply unalterable then it was simply necessary that at first it should be ordained then observe it it was then simply necessary that either upon Saturday or Sunday or some other one day in seven God should ordaine a Sabbath but he could not ordaine one in seven to be a Sabbath unlesse he had first ordained that there should be seven dayes so then it was simply necessary that there should be seven dayes and because the Sabbath was made for man therefore if there must of necessity be a Sabbath of necessity there must be a man for whom the Sabbath should be and since Time is only the measure of the creatures actions therefore if time be by necessity as it must be if the Sabbath is by the same necessity the Creature must be whose actions are to be measured by time And thus we have learned a new and goodly Divinity that whereas the ancient Fathers affirme that Deus nihil agit ad extrà necessariò that God doth nothing necessarily but beget the Son and breathe the holy Ghost and that whatever he doth outwardly he doth freely that is he might either doe it or not doe it these mens opinions would cause him to make the world out of a necessity and that he could not possibly doe otherwise the summe of all is this That God maketh lawes for man not for himselfe he might have chose whether hee would have made man and when he hath made him whether he would make a Sabbath for him That when ever you shall heare men laying stumbling blocks in the way and making scruples when the Sabbath beginneth and when it ends and whether you may lawfully dresse or eate your meate that Day you desire them to shew you Scripture for that which they require which if they cannot know you are not bound unto Judaisme S. Peter acknowledgeth that you are free But are Christians free from the Ceremonies of the Law How can it be Since a man is not said to be freed from that under whose bondage he never was and the Christians especially such as spring from the Gentiles were never under those ordinances He shewed his word unto Iaacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel Ps. 147. 19. Besides as I shewed you before those Ceremonies were the partition wall between the Jewes and Gentiles now it could not have parted had they both agreed in it had it been given to the Heathen also if then they were never under it how can it be properly said that they are free from it S. Austine hath well satisfied this point discoursing of an other argument where he saith that this word Freeing in Scripture is not onely taken for a deliverance from some danger or burthen which is past but sometimes for a prevēting of that to come he instanceth as I remember in that speech of David thou hast delivered my Soule out of the nethermost Hell the nethermost Hell is the Hell of the Damned and into that the Soule of David of a penitent Sinner never did never shall come to deliver out of Hell therefore must be expounded to hinder him lest he should come thither here the Preventing is the Freeing and so likewise when we say that Christians are freed from the yoake of the Ceremonies we doe not suppose that they ever were under them but that they never shall be under them that that hand-writing against them is for ever blotted out But thus you will say even the Heathen
generall which all proceed from the depravation from the maliciousnesse of our nature or particularly for that offence to whose contrary duty he had before exhorted even disobedience to the lawfull Magistrate But wee are not so much to enquire what the word may signifie in it self as what it must signifie here and it cannot signifie Malice in the former sense not that it is lawfull to use our liberty as a Cloak even of that malice as to abstain from reproving our brother because wee hate him as if it were an indiffereÌ„t thing to reprove or no as if we performed it to our friend we did well but not ill if we did not performe it to our enemy even when wee had just reason to suppose that such a reproofe would amend him I say it is not lawful to use our liberty for a cloak of that malice but that is not the malice of which our Apostle here speaketh for he speaketh of such a malice which is opposite to subjection now hatred and rancor is opposed â—o charity not to subjection and he that upon pretence of his liberty denyeth obedieÌ„ce to Magistracie doth it not out of malice because hee hateth him but out of injustice because hee will not give him what is his due not feare to whom feare nor honour to whom honour appertaineth Not to speake in the meane time that the word in the Text is not malice but maliciousnesse betweene which there is a great difference It being then not so aptly to bee interpreted of uncharitablenesse let us see in the next place whether it will sound better for Sins in generall they al proceed from maliciousnesse or corruption and wee must not use our liberty to cloake this malice This indeed is thought to be the meaning by the most that not without good probability for a generall reason may not unfitly bee used in a particular exhortation and the argument holds good We must not refuse subjection by reason of our liberty because universally wee must not doe any bad act by reason of our liberty But we must know that the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth evill-doing and is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or well-doing in the former verse If therefore well doing as I there proved must signifie our obedience evill-doing or maliciousnesse must needs import our disobedience to government This you see is Gods account of rebellion of disobedience he cals it maliciousnesse sinne without any addition as if it were the onely or at least the greatest sinne and therfore no wonder if wee must not use our liberty to cloake it the meaning of w ch phrase we are next to finde out To use our liberty for a cloake of maliciousnesse in generall is to pretend that those Actions are indifferent which indeed are unlawfull and upon that pretence to practise them and it principally holds where the Action that these would doe is of it selfe indifferent or at least seemeth to bee so and is onely made unlawfull by some circumstance For instance it is in it selfe indifferent whether I eate one or two meales in a day that meale w ch I eate whether it be of this or that kinde of meat but if Superiors shall command Eate not at such a time or at other times eate not of such a meat if thou pretending thy liberty doest the contrary and feasts when thou shouldst eate nothing and emptiest the Bucher-Row when Authority sends thee to the fish-market I say if thou pretendest thy liberty that with thy liberty thou doest cover thy disobedience thou thus makest thy freedome a cloake of maliciousnesse Doe I sin then wilt thou say if hunger wil not suffer me to fast if teÌ„dernes or antipathy make fish a kind of poison to my body No certainly thou offendest not the law if thou contemnest not the lawmaker but thou dost contemne him if thou dost onely urge thy liberty as a sufficient plea against the obligation of his law In a word if thou dost it not publikely if thou make it appeare that thy excuse is true and after all this doest willingly submit to his judgement thou sinnest not though thou doest not what man commands but this not by making thy liberty a cloake of thy maliciousnesse but by making thy infirmity to cover thy omission which if it had not beene thou hadst done otherwise Thus Hee that regards a day regards it to the Lord and hee that regards not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. which sheweth that the regarding or the not regarding is in it selfe indifferent if hee had commanded or forbidden either both of them could not bee done to the Lord. But Authority interposeth and faith that such a day I wil have you to observe the Nativitie the PassioÌ„ the Ascension the Resurrection of our Saviour on them thou shalt abstaine from thy ordinary labours frequent the Church and make it an holy rest Thou neverthelesse wilt put off thy busines unto this day thou caÌ„st find no such time for sowing or plowing or the like as this and that by reason of thy Christian liberty which hath taken away the distinction of dayes But hearken Christianity hath taken away the distinction of dayes but it hath not taken away distinction of orders there must bee some to command some to obey it hath not taken away obedieÌ„ce if upon this colour thou shalt flinch from it this is with thy liberty to cloake thy malice In a word as you have some that Jewishly observe so there are too many that Atheistically neglect the Lords day these have no journeyes but onely then as if they would ride away not so much from their place as their duty to Church they will not come their house is a Church in a word they give themselves to feasting sporting all kinde of excesse then and that forsooth because they are free But this is onely a cloake and a thred-bare one which will appeare when wee take it off Thou art free indeed but yet not from Lawes which God hath immediately made or which hee hath published by the Church Now that there should bee a time indefinitely for publike worship God hath intimated in his fourth Commandement and when and how that day shall be observed hath beene determined by his Church to wit principally in praying hearing meditating in acts of mercy and such like So that thy freedome is not a truth but a pretension not a garment w ch sits close to thee but a cloake w ch the least winde can blow off nay it is not so much a cloake as one of Adams fig-leaves which as the fathers observe out of naturall Historians will rather serve to annoy thee with its roughnesse than to hide thee with its quantity This then is to cover malice with liberty and this is utterly unlawfull whether we consider it in generall of any wickednesse so covered or particularly of disloyalty to Princes Of w ch in the third
unlesse perhaps this be much that he can build a Tower which shall look up high into it to the top of which if he do ascend he may perceive the smal birds flying about him and securely smiling at his commands and for the Sea there is a pretty story of our Canutus a Dane that sometimes conquered England who being magnified by his Flatterers to be one that could doe what he pleased to whom as unto God nothing that he willed was impossible and so that he was more than an Humane Creature he to expresse his modesty and cause their shame commanded his Royall throne to be set neer to the sea-side against the comming in of the Tide in briefe he forbad the sea to touch his throne but that remitted nothing of its pace for all his forbidding and had not his servants been more officious than the Sea he might have been well washed for his labour but this he did to the end that they might see how that he did not esteeme so highly of himselfe but that with the Kingly Prophet he kept his soule downe like a weaned child But you will say that though he have no power over the Elements yet he can command men I reply that he can neither command those that are dead nor those who are not yet borne he commands but men and he cannot command all them neither And for diseases which of them can he injoine to punish any of his rebells nay which of them can he forbid when God sends it to punish his owne selfe But in a word he can by no meanes free himselfe from death after all his glory all his pompe all his magnificences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Night or one Feaver sends him to the grave and teacheth him then that he is but an humane Creature Man even this man even a King dieth he wasteth away yea hee giveth up the Ghost and where is he Job 14. 10. Which maketh the holy Ghost to insult over the overweening King of Tyre Wilt thou yet say before him that slaieth thee I am God Ezech. 28. 9. as who should say at that time thou hast learned perfectly that thou art but man Mors sola fatetur quantula sunt hominum corpuscula we never know our true quantity till our death till in the Prophets phrase the worme be spread under us and the worme cover us till that alone covers us which will leave nothing at length to bee covered Which meditation did so inflame Origen that he cryeth out in his first Hom. in Ps. 36. You that doe so admire these great Men these Kings and Governours goe saith he ad Cadaverum eorum reliquias c. to the remainder of their carkasses if so be it be possible to find them if this humane Creature be not altogether lost by being the food of some other Creature But last of all they are as subject unto judgment as the meanest of their brethrē We shall all stand before the judgment seate of Christ. Rom. 14. 10. Kings Governours are not exempted from standing there and they who have commanded all upon earth if they have dyed out of Gods favour shall intreat as vainely as the poorest that the mountaines would cover them from the fierce anger of the Lord. Thus you see that they are but men and that it is fit they should know it What comfort then is here to them who are unjustly dealt with and opprest by proud greatnesse Let them threaten as fearefully as they will yet it is possible those threatnings may want effect A man cannot doe all that he would nay and if they have done any great harme either in their body goods or name yet there is comfort for the unjust sufferer they are but men and it is possible to outlive a man nay if finally they have taken away al hopes of expecting their death by taking away their life yet their comfort ends not with their life Still they are certaine that their Enemies are but Humane Creatures and with Solomons rejoycing young man God shall bring them into judgement And then what will it profit them to have been great men and to have done what pleased them when they shall be found but men miserable men that cannot avoid the damnation of hell S. Paul saith to the distressed Christians for the losse of their friends Comfort yee one another and let us say to tyrannizing Superiours to Kings and Governours who will trample on them that doe submit fright yee one another with these words But againe are Kings and Governours Supreme and those who are sent by them but men Why then inferiors cannot bee excepted from the common frailty without doubt they cannot be more than Humane Creatures What then shall we say to the Covetous whose eye lusteth after whatsoever it seeth from whom Naboth cannot keep his vineyard if it lie commodious for him surely this man hath goods laid up for many yeares but he hath forgot that this night they shall take away his soule from him and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Luc. 12. 20. As who should say Whosoevers they be thine they cannot be wherfore then doest thou so strive to get what thou art sure thou canst not keepe Why wouldst thou prove an eternity by thy unlimited love of riches and by the perpetuall labouring for them flatter thy selfe that thou art a divine when indeed thou art but an Humane Creature In a word thou art either God or man if God thou hast no need of riches if man thou canst not have an eternity of being rich that must have an end which is no more than an Humane Creature In time then forsake this vanity enter at length into thy selfe and say with him in the Preacher For whom doe I labour and bereave my soule of good Eccl. 4. 8. For whom doest thou labour for thy self but thou shalt not live to enjoy it thou art but a man For another but perhaps he doth not deserve to injoy it at lest he doth not deserve it thus far that for him thou shouldst bereave thy soule of good if it were possible that he could deserve that likewise yet because he is but an humane creature it is possible that he may die before thee and than the questiō wil stil return a question that thou canst never be able discretely to satisfie For whom doe I labour and bereave my soule of good if thou doest labour thus labour c. thou bereavest thy soule of good as of others principally so of this also of the longer stay in the body thou art so covetous because that thou hast forgot thy mortality and by that covetousnesse thou doest but hasten thy mortality and so onely the sooner prove thy selfe to be but an Humane Creature 2. The Magistrate may be called an Humane Creature because he is elected by men as we know divers nations doe choose their Kings according to that of the Panegyricke Eligatur ex omnibus qui
in one day I find not onely this I find that they must not be their owne choosers nor heare whom and where they list I am sure they heare but ill by the Apostle who heape to themselves Teachers having itching eares 2. Ti. 4. 3. If they must not heape up to themselves then they must accept of those whom Authority hath set over them those and onely those But what if they doe not speake how can we heare then What if the mute devill be in them shall the deafe devill be in us and shall we be bound to starve if our owne Pastor will not feed us I answer Either hee preacheth not so much as his Duety requireth or not so much as an others Fancy if he speake not as much as they in their fancy would have him it matters not much hee is their Minister not their Martyr he must use meanes to bring them to the spirituall he must not throw away his corporall life But if he speake not so often to them as his duety requireth he offends indeed but they are not to punish him neither must the defect of his tongue be mended with the nimblenesse of their legs Plainly they have no Commission that I know of to leave him they have to accuse him to Superiors who will either urge him to his duety or take order that an other should performe what hee neglects But wee goe away to increase our knowledge Would it were no worse and yet if it be so well we are not to gaine knowledge with the hazard of our obedience a good end doth not justifie that action which is not good Saul might not reserve any of the forbidden spoile though it were for sacrifice But you have heard the contrary heretofore I question not what you have heard but whether it be true which you have heard neither doe I much care unto what it be contrary which I said so it be agreeing with the truth But lastly some will object that this Doctrine of frequenting our owne Church where there is but one Sermon doth not make so much for the flourishing of holinesse as that which would have us heare two or more wheresoever God forbid that I should hinder that I should not promote the flourishing of holinesse and yet God forbid that I should affirme that it made for the flourishing of holinesse to heare promiscuously whom we pleased It maketh for the flourishing of Schisme and if it be generally permitted it will make for uncleannesse too and not for holinesse But that let Superious looke to In the meane time if my opinion did not in some mens opinion make so much for holinesse as the contrary yet it is à saying of one whom you cannot except against and I honour Doctor Twisse that it is a very preposterous course that when ever we dispute of the truth of a thing we should bring the controversie to this issue An eò sc. ad officia hominis Christiani aptiores fiamus whether by holding such an opinion we should make our selves more fit for Christian Duties when certainly a man is more fitted unto such Duties by Truth than Error So then the last issue is this if we are commanded to heare two Sermons upon Sunday all Ministers must preach all the people must heare twice but if we are not commanded let no man lay a snare upon his conscience even a pretext of piety must not take away our Freedome And thus I have shewed what liberty agreeth to Christians in generall Liberty from Ceremonies liberty from indifferences What remaineth but that I restore those words to religion which Seneca usurps of Morality O ars verè liberalis quae liberum facit O how liberall how free this Art that thus many waies doth make us free As it doth the true Christian in an higher measure But of that hereafter Now to him that hath brought us all out of service at least unto this Liberty and which if we will be obedient children will bring us through an higher liberty unto Glory bee all praise c. DEO GLORIA 1 Pet. 2. 16. As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse but as the servants of GOD. THere are two vices extremely opposite to themselves and no better agreeing with the right Prophanenesse I meane and Superstition Prophanenesse by which a man will doe according to no law of God Superstition by w ch he will make himselfe more lawes thaÌ„ God hath the one of the seturneth our liberty into liceÌ„ciousnes the other into boÌ„dage by the first we are the more daring by the second the more solemne and grave offenders Of the former Prophanenesse I shall have occasion to discourse ere long of the latter Superstition I have discoursed already and yet must add a few words since this over-service this voluntary worship this invention rather than devotion carrieth it selfe to the greater deceit of the beholders under the shape of pietie and religion and for antiquity challengeth Christianity it selfe since these Tares were sowne almost as soone as that Come since this restraint was as early very neare as that publishing of liberty In Acts 15. 5. it is said that there rose up certaine of the Pharisees which beleeved saying that it was needfull to circumcise them to command them to keepe the law of Moses No sooner had they received the faith than these Pharisees would have filled them with superstition they had but scarce begun to be Christians and they are already tempted to become Jews And so in the Fathers time there rose a sect which were termed Minaei of whom S. Hierome elegantly Dum Iudaei cupiunt esse Christiani nec Iudaei sunt nec Christiani Whilest they strive to bee Jewes Christians together they are neither Jews nor Christians not Jews because they were baptiâ—ed not Christians because they joyned Circumcision to their Baptisme Nay would to God that this mischiefe had stopped here and not derived it selfe unto our times wherein divers men more cunningly and yet as truely restraine our liberty Not to speake of Judaizing Sabbatarians who scrupulously dispute of the beginning and the end of that day whether it bee naturall or artificiall whether if they sleepe in any part of it they prophane it wherein they rest and so rather keepe it Whether they may make a fire upon that day and venture upon that high offence of dressing meat which yet they will eate on that day as if the eating were not a labour to their teeth as wel as the dressing to their fingers With many such impertineÌ„t queres of w ch you shal not finde one either in the Scripture or the Ancient and were onely invented as so many thornes and prickes to wound the tender consciences of the godly I say not to speake of these you shall have others and those at best but private Ministers make orders themselves which they will not forsooth have to be called parts but onely helps unto worship which yet they do