to redeem to himself a people zealous of good works and hath to this purpose reveal'd to us all his Fathers Will and destroyed the works of the Devil and gives us his holy Spirit and by him we shall be justified in this Obedience therefore when Works signifie a sincere hearty endeavour to keep all Gods Commands out of a belief in Christ that if we endeavour to do so we shall be helped by his grace and if we really do so we shall be pardoned for what is past and if we continue to do so we shall receive a Crown of Glory therefore it is no wonder that it is said we are to be justified by Works always meaning not the Works of the Law that is Works that are meritorious works that can challenge the reward works that need no mercy no repentance no humiliation and no appeal to grace and favour but always meaning works that are an obedience to God by the measures of good will and a sincere endeavour and the Faith of the Lord Jesus 3. But thus also it is in the word Justification For God is justified and Wisdom is justified and Man is justified and a sinner is not justified as long as he continues in sin and a sinner is justified when he repents and when he is pardoned and an innocent person is justified when he is declared to be no criminal and a righteous man is justified when he is saved and a weak Christian is justified when his imperfect Services are accepted for the present and himself thrust forward to more grace and he that is justified may be justified more and every man that is justified to one purpose is not so to all and Faith in divers sences gives Justification in as many and therefore though to every sence of Faith there is not always a degree of Justification in any yet when the Faith is such that Justification is the product and correspondent as that Faith may be imperfect so the Justification is but begun and either must proceed further or else as the Faith will dy so the Justification will come to nothing The like observation might be made concerning Imputation and all the words used in this Question but these may suffice till I pass to other particulars 4. Not only the word Faith but also Charity and Godliness and Religion signifie sometimes particular Graces and sometimes they suppose Universally and mean Conjugations and Unions of Graces as is evident to them that read the Scriptures with observation Now when Justification is attributed to Faith or Salvation to Godliness they are to be understood in the aggregate sence for that I may give but one instance of this when S. Paul speaks of Faith as it is a particular Grace and separate from the rest he also does separate it from all possibility of bringing us to Heaven Though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing When Faith includes Charity it will bring us to Heaven when it is alone when it is without Charity it will do nothing at all 5. Neither can this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be salved by saying That though Faith alone does justifie yet when she does justifie she is not alone but Good Works must follow for this is said to no purpose 1. Because if we be justified by Faith alone the work is done whether Charity does follow or no and therefore that want of Charity cannot hurt us 2. There can be no imaginable cause why Charity and Obedience should be at all necessary if the whole work can be done without it 3. If Obedience and Charity be not a condition of our Salvation then it is not necessary to follow Faith but if it be it does as much as Faith for that is but a part of the condition 4. If we can besaved without Charity and keeping the Commandments what need we trouble our selves for them if we cannot be saved without them then either Faith without them does not justifie or if it does we are never the better for we may be damned for all that Justification The Consequent of these Observations is briefly this 1. That no man should fool himself by disputing about the Philosophy of Justification and what causality Faith hath in it and whether it be the act of Faith that justifies or the habit Whether Faith as a Good Work or Faith as an Instrument Whether Faith as it is Obedience or Faith as it is an Access to Christ Whether as a Hand or as a Heart Whether by its own innate Vertue or by the efficacy of the Object Whether as a sign or as a thing signified Whether by introduction or by perfection Whether in the first beginnings or in its last and best productions Whether by inherent worthiness or adventitious imputation Vberiùs ista quaeso c. that I may use the words of Cicero haec enim spinosiora priùs ut confiteor me cogunt quam ut assentiar These things are knotty and too intricate to do any good they may amuse us but never instruct us and they have already made men careless and confident disputative and troublesome proud and uncharitable but neither wiser nor better Let us therefore leave these weak wayes of troubling our selves or others and directly look to the Theology of it the direct duty the end of Faith and the work of Faith the conditions and the instruments of our Salvation the just foundation of our hopes how our faith can destroy our sin and how it can unite us unto God how by it we can be made Partakers of Christs death and Imitators of his life For since it is evident by the premises that this article is not to be determined or relyed upon by arguing from words of many significations we must walk by a clearer light by such plain sayings and Dogmatical Propositions of Scripture which evidently teach us our duty and place our hopes upon that which cannot deceive us that is which require Obedience which call upon us to glorifie God and to do good to men and to keep all Gods Commandments with diligence and sincerity For since the end of our faith is that we may be Disciples and Servants of the Lord Jesus advancing his Kingdom here and partaking of it hereafter since we are commanded to believe what Christ taught that it may appear as reasonable as it is necessary to do what he hath commanded since Faith and works are in order one to the other it is impossible that Evangelical Faith and Evangelical works should be opposed one to the other in the effecting of our Salvation So that as it is to no purpose for Christians to dispute whether we are justified by Faith or the works of the Law that is the Covenant of works without the help of Faith and the auxiliaries and allowances of mercy on Gods part and repentance on ours because no Christian can pretend to this so it is perfectly foolish to dispute whether
it at all Remember that the Snail out-went the Eagle and won the goal because she set out betimes To sum up all every good man is a new Creature and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit which if we heartily pray for and endeavour to obtain we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the Heavens which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a Law of Righteousness and it is a Law of the Spirit of Life and changes Nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love SERM. III. JAMES II. 24. You see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us That we are also justified by Works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this Justification is wrought by Faith without Works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul That this is not wrought without Works S. James is as express for his Negative as S. Paul was for his Affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom Faith was imputed for Righteousness and therefore not by Works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this That S. James uses the very same Argument to prove that our Justification is by Works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his Son Isaac Now which of these says true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on Faith to the disparagement of Good Life and the other makes Works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of Faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive Institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recalls us to live the life of Jews while one says I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a Law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtle Arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes But because the great end of Faith the design the definition the state the oeconomy of it is that all Believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary Considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing sences of the Apostles to understand the Question and the Duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main Inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with alegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righteousness and Works be pleased to consider That the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous insomuch that in the Latine Concordances of S. Hierom's Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less then twenty two several senses and accceptations of of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them to which if out of my own own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration That whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sence as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other sences be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in Works for by Works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of Works it sometimes means the Works of the Law sometimes the Works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning Obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the Reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to receive the favour and the grace of God Now since our good Works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without Works in this sence for by such Works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the Works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of Works But because we came into the World to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the World to save us from sin and
Christians are to be justified by Faith or the works of the Gospel for I shall make it appear that they are both the same thing No man disparages Faith but he that sayes Faith does not work righteousness for he that sayes so sayes indeed it cannot justifie for he sayes that Faith is alone it is Faith only and the words of my Text are plain You see saith S. James that is it is evident to your sense it is as clear as an ocular demonstration that a man is justified by works and not by Faith only My Text hath in it these two Propositions a negative and an affirmative The negative is this 1. By Faith only a man is not justified The affirmative 2. By works also a man is justified When I have briefly discoursed of these I shall only adde such practical considerations as shall make the Doctrines useful and tangible and material 1. By Faith only a man is not justified By Faith only here is meant Faith without Obedience For what do we think of those that detain the Faith in Unrighteousness they have Faith they could not else keep it in so ill a Cabinet but yet the Apostle reckons them amongst the Reprobates for the abominable the Reprobates and the disobedient are all one and therefore such persons for all their Faith shall have no part with faithful Abraham for none are his Children but they that do the works of Abraham Abraham's faith without Abraham's works is nothing for of him that hath faith and hath not works S. James askes can Faith save him Meaning that it is impossible For what think we of those that did miracles in Christs name and in his name cast out Devils Have not they Faith Yes omnem fidem all faith that is alone for they could remove Mountains but yet to many of them Christ will say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Nay at last what think we of the Devils themselves have not they faith yes and this faith is not fides miraculorum neither but it is an Operative faith it works a little for it makes them tremble and it may be that is more than they faith does to thee and yet dost thou hope to be saved by a faith that does less to thee than the Devils faith does to him That 's impossible For Faith without works is dead saith S. James It is manus arida saith S. Austin it is a withered hand and that which is dead cannot work the life of grace in us much less obtain eternal life for us In short a man may have faith and yet do the works of unrighteousness he may have faith and be a Devil and then what can such a faith do to him or for him It can do him no good in the present constitution of affairs S. Paul from whose mistaken works much noise hath been made in this question is clear in this particular Nothing in Christ Jesus can avail but Faith working by Charity that is as he expounds himself once and again nothing but a new creature nothing but keeping the Commandments of God If faith be defin'd to be any thing that does not change our natures and make us to be a new Creation unto God if keeping the Commandments be not in the definition of faith it avails nothing at all Therefore deceive not your selves they are the words of our Blessed Lord himself Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord that is not every one that confesses Christ and believes in him calling Christ Master and Lord shall be sav'd but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven These things are so plain that they need no Commentary so evident that they cannot be denyed and to these I add but this one truth that faith alone without a good life is so far from justifying a sinner that it is one of the greatest aggravations of his condemnation in the whole World For no man can be so greatly damned as he that hath faith for unless he knows his Masters will that is by faith be convinced and assents to the revelations of the will of God he can be beaten but with few stripes but he that believes hath no excuse he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemn'd by the sentence of his own heart and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many stripes the greater condemnation shall be his portion Natural reason is a light to the Conscience but faith is a greater and therefore if it be not followed it damns deeper than the Hell of the Infidels and uninstructed And so I have done with the Negative Proposition of my Text a man is not justified by faith alone that is by faith which hath not in it Charity and Obedience 2. If faith alone will not do it what will The affirmative part of the Text answers not faith alone but works must be an ingredient a man is justified by works and that is now to be explicated and prov'd It will be absolutely to no purpose to say that faith alone does justifie if when a man is justified he is never the nearer to be saved Now that without Obedience no man can go to Heaven is so evident in holy Scripture that he that denyes it hath no faith There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked and I will not justifie a sinner saith God unless faith purges away our sins it can never justifie Let a man believe all the revelations of God if that belief ends in its self and goes no further it is like physick taken to purge the stomach if it do not work it is so far from bringing health that it self is a new sickness Faith is a great purger and purifier of the soul purifying your hearts by Faith saith the Apostle It is the best physick in the World for a sinful soul but if it does not work it corrupts in the stomack it makes us to rely upon weak Propositions and trifling confidences it is but a dreaming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Phantastick dream and introduces Pride or superstition swelling thoughts and presumptions of the Divine favour But what saith the Apostle Follow Peace with all men Holiness without which no man can see God Mark that If Faith does not make you charitable and holy talk no more of justification by it for you shall never see the glorious face of God Faith indeed is a title and relation to Christ it is a naming of his names but what then Why then saith the Apostle Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity For let any man consider can the Faith of Christ and the hatred of God stand together Can any man be justified that does not love God Or can any man love God and sin at the same time And does not he love sin that falls under its temptation and obeyes it in the lusts thereof and delights in the vanity and makes excuses for it
dyed yea rather that is risen again And Christ was both delivered for our sins and is risen again for our justification implying to us that as it is in the principal so it is in the correspondent our sins indeed are potentially pardoned when they are marked out for death and crucifixion when by resolving and fighting against sin we dye to sin daily and are so made conformable to his Death but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual when we are dead to sin and are risen again unto righteousness then as we are partakers of his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified till then we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his Faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he hath none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the Body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun from whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is derived Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrumque placitum says one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by Faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience and he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if Faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not Faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if Faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our Faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely dyed for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dye for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the Cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of Faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude Faith it self for Faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promise without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but
deceive us and turn Religion into words and Holiness into hypocrisie and the Promises of God into a snare and the Truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of Faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the Law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and an incurious walking in a state of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should pay him a better obedience when he forgives us what is past he intends we should sin no more when he offers us his graces he would have us to make use of them when he causes us to distrust our selves his meaning is we should rely upon him when he enables us to do what he commands us he commands us to do all that we can And therefore this Covenant of Faith and Mercy is also a Covenant of Holiness and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us for so saith the Apostle He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure And when we are so then we are justified indeed this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of faith and by works in this sense that is by the works of faith by faith working by love and producing fruits worthy of amendment of ife we are justified before God And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text you see that a man is justified by works But there is more in it than this matter yet amounts to for S. James does not say we are justified by works and are not justified by faith that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul but we are so justified by works that it is not by Faith alone it is faith and works together that is it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of faith by the works of Faith by the Law of faith by Righteousness Evangelical by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular but because I have but a little time left to say them in I will sum it all up in this Proposition That in the question of justification and salvation faith and good works are no part of a distinction but members of one entire body Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God That is that I may speak plainly justifying faith contains in it obedience and if this be made good then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other and both of them to the necessity the indispensible necessity of a good life Now that justifying and saving faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding appears not only in this that S. Peter reckons faith as distinctly from knowledge as he does from patience or strength or brotherly kindness saying Add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge but in this also because an error in life and whatsoever is against holiness is against faith And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient murderers of Parents man-stealing and such things to be against sound Doctrines for the Doctrine of faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Doctrine that is according to godliness And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men he adds this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men have not faith meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own that he hath denyed the Faith Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness because all wickedness is infidelity it is an Apostacy from the faith Ille erit ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem he that sins against God he is the enemy to the faith of Jesus Christ and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only it is not that and it does not well there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle the Mystery of faith is kept no where it dwells no where but in a pure conscience For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operation we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does To this purpose hear S. Paul By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt In short the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry whether a man is justified by faith or by works for he is so by both if you take it alone faith does not justifie but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul and then faith does not only justifie but it sanctifies too and then you need to enquire no further obedience is a part of the definition of faith as much as it is of Charity This is love saith S. John that we keep his Commandments And the very same is affirmed of faith too by Bensirach He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments I have now done with all the Propositions expressed and implyed in the Text give me leave to make some practical Considerations and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church she knew no difference of men but good and bad there was no separation made but what was made by piety or impiety or sayes he which is all one by fidelity and infidelity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven and infidelity hath the Character of wickedness and prevarication A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination to kick against the laudable Customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party and to despise Government was but an ill mark and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words but in power the power of godliness though now we are fallen into another method we have turned all Religion into Faith and our faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside and when it is asked of what Religion he is of we understand
testâque lutoque 〈…〉 quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivit being â—â—â—ording to the Jewish proverbial reproof as so many Mephibosheths discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum their Master teaches them to go uprightly but they still show their lame leg and shame their Master as if a man might be a Christian and yet be the vilest person in the world doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an insufferable and never ending damnation Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the Righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be Religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and sayes Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisâ— qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and 〈◊〉 the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain 〈◊〉 meat and drink even when they are commanded which is 〈◊〉 if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart shouâ—◠〈◊〉 to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect 〈◊〉 Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore 〈◊〉 fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our inquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical Righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is always the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him
and returns to it with passion and abides with pleasure This will not do it such a man cannot be justified for all his believing But therefore the Apostle shews us a more excellent way This is a true saying and I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God be careful to maintain good works The Apostle puts great force on this Doctrine he arms it with a double Preface the saying is true and it is to be constantly affirmed that is it is not only true but necessary it is like Pharaoh's dream doubled because it is bound upon us by the decree of God and it is unalterably certain that every Believer must do good works or his believing will signifie little nay more than so every man must be careful to do good works and more yet he must carefully maintain them that is not do them by fits and interrupted returns but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be incumbent upon them to dwell upon them to maintain good works that is to persevere in them But I am yet but in the general be pleased to go along with me in these particular considerations 1. No mans sins are pardoned but in the same measure in which they are mortified destroyed and taken away so that if Faith does not cure our sinful Natures it never can justifie it never can procure our pardon And therefore it is that as soon as ever Faith in the Lord Jesus was Preached at the same time also they preached Repentance from dead works in so much that S. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first principles of Christianity nay the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the Faith of Christ. And I pray consider can there be any forgiveness of sins without repentance But if an Apostle should preach forgiveness to all that believe and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin the Sermons of the Apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the Sanctuary of Romulus a device to get together all the wicked people of the world and to make them happy without any change of manners Christ came to other purposes he came to sanctifie us and to cleanse us by his Word the word of Faith was not for it self but was a design of holiness and the very grace of God did appear for this end that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live holily justly and soberly in this present world he came to gather a People together not like Davids Army when Saul pursued him but the Armies of the Lord a faithful people a chosen generation and what is that The Spirit of God adds a People zealous of good works Now as Christ proved his power to forgive sins by curing the poor mans Palsie because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed so the great act of justification of a sinner the pardoning of his sins is then only effected when the spiritual evil is taken away that 's the best indication of a real and an eternal pardon when God takes away the hardness of the heart the love of sin the accursed habit the evil inclination the sin that doth so easily beset us and when that is gone what remains within us that God can hate Nothing stayes behind but Gods creation the work of his own hands the issues of his holy Spirit The Faith of a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it destroyes the whole body of sin and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner whom he doth not also purge and rescue from the dominion of sin is to affirm that he justifies the wicked that he calls good evil and evil good that he delights in a wicked person that he makes a wicked man all one with himself that he makes the members of an harlot at the same time also the members of Christ but all this is impossible and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our Blessed Saviour Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Faith ingrafts us into Christ by Faith we are inserted into the vine but the plant that is ingrafted must also be parturient and fruitful or else it shall be quite cut off from the root and thrown into the everlasting burning And this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of Faith The just shall live by Faith No man shall live by Faith but the just man he indeed is justified by Faith but no man else the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter That 's the first great consideration in this affair no man is justified in the least sense of justification that is when it means nothing but the pardon of sins but when his sin is mortified and destroyed 2. No man is actually justified but he that is in some measure sanctified For the understanding and clearing of which Proposition we must know that justification when it is attributed to any cause does not alwayes signifie justification actual Thus when it is said in Scripture We are justified by the death of Christ it is but the same thing as to say Christ dyed for us and he rose again for us too that we might indeed be justified in due time and by just measures and dispositions he dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification that is by his Death and Resurrection he hath obtained this power and effected this mercy that if we believe him and obey we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the Kingdom But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon of grace and of salvation appears not only by Gods requiring Obedience as a condition on our parts but by his expresly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances in which it is certain and evident that we could not actually be justified for so saith the Scripture We when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son and while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us that is then was our Justification wrought on Gods part that is then he intended this mercy to us then he resolved to shew us favour to give us Promises and Laws and Conditions and Hopes and an infallible Oeconomy of Salvation and when Faith layes hold on this Grace and this Justification then we are to do the other part of it that is as God made it potential by the Death and Resurrection of Christ so we laying hold on these things by Faith and working the Righteousness of Faith that is performing what is required on our parts we I say make it actual and for this very reason it is that the Apostle puts more Emphasis upon the Resurrection of Christ than upon his Death Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that
c. Since it is intended that from the Bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people there is not in the world a greater indecency than a holy office ministred by an unholy person and no greater injury to the people than that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward And therefore it was an excellent Prayer which to this very purpose was by the Son of Sirach made in behalf of the High-Priests the Sons of Aaron God give you wisdom in you heart to judge his people in Righteousness that their good things be not abolished and that their glory may endure for ever 4. All the Offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal Order as is evident in the universal Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 40th Canon of the Apostles Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop but that cafe is known The consequent of this consideration is no other than the admonition in my Text We are Stewards of the manifold grace of God and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful that we preach the word of God in season and out of season that we rebuke and exhort admonish and correct for these God calls Pastores Secundùm cor meum Pastors according to his own heart which feed the people with knowledge and understanding but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart minister the Sacraments with great diligence and righteous measures and abundant charity alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ of S. Peter If thou lovest me feed my sheep if thou hast any love to me feed my lambs And let us remember this also that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head as plants to their roots as rivers to their springs as Children to their Fathers as Disciples to their Masters These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency but they tell us the reason of the Duty The Head gives light and reason to conduct the Body the Roots give nourishment to the Plants and the Springs perpetual emanation of Waters to the Channels Fathers teach and feed their Children and Disciples receive wise Instructions from their Masters and if we be all this to the People they will be all that to us and Wisdom will compel them to submit and our Humility will teach them Obedience and our Charity will invite their compliance our good example will provoke them to good works and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility For all the Lords People are Populus voluntarius a free and willing people and we who cannot compel their bodies must thus constrain their Souls by inviting their Wills by convincing their Understandings by the beauty of fair example the efficacy and holiness and the demonstrations of the Spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake Remember them who have the rule over you whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation There lies the demonstration and those Prelates who teach good life whose Sermons are the measures of Christ and whose Life is a copy of their Sermons these must be followed and surely these will for these are burning and shining Lights but if we hold forth false fires and by the amusement of evil example call the Vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a Rock or an iron Shore instead of a safe Harbour we cause them to make shipwreck of their precious Faith and to perish in the deceitful and unstable water Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m verborum A good Life is the strongest argument that your Faith is good and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained than a voice of thunder but the greatest eloquence in the world is meek spirit and a liberal hand these are the two Pastoral Staves the Prophet speaks of nognam hovelim beauty and bands he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness the ornament of fair example he hath also the staff of bands atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos in vinculis charitatis as the Prophet Hosea's expression is he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man by the bands of a holy charity But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractory we have instead of a Staff an Apostolical Rod which is the last and latest remedy and either brings to repentance or consigns to ruine and reprobation If there were any time remaining I could reckon that the Episcopal Order is the Principle of Unity in the Church and we see it is so by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted I could add how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the Sufferings the Prisons and Flames the Life and Death of Bishop as the principal Combatants that the Fathers of the Church whose Writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World were almost all of them Bishops I could add That the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the Disputings the Writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian and under their Conduct have for so many Ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel I could add also That Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought Experience I could therefore instead of it say That Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt so it is the greatest preservative of the Peoples Liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand the Gentry being little better than Servants while they live under the Presbytery and Anarchy and Licentiousness on the other That it endears Obedience and is subject to the Laws of Princes and is wholly ordained for the good of Mankind and the benefit of Souls But I cannot stay to number all the Blessings which have entered into the World at this door I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops Imployment which is to be busie in the service of Souls to do good in all capacities to serve every mans need to promote all publick benefits to
said Chrysologus all the Creatures both of Heaven and earth would perish if Mercy did not relieve us all Other good things more or less every man expects according to the portion of his fortune Ex clementia omnes idem sperant * but from Mercy and Clemency all the world alike do expect advantages And which of us all stands here this day that does not need God's pardon and the Kings Surely no man is so much pleased with his own innocence as that he will be willing to quit his claim to Mercy and if we all need it let us all shew it Naturae imperio gemimus cum funus adultae Virginis occurrit vel terrâ clauditur infans Et minor igne rogi If you do but see a Maiden carried to her Grave a little before her intended marriage or an Infant die before the birth of Reason Nature hath taught us to pay a tributary tear Alas your eyes will behold the ruine of many Families which though they sadly have deserved yet Mercy is not delighted with the spectacle and therefore God places a watry cloud in the eye that when the light of Heaven shines upon it it may produce a Rain-bow to be a Sacrament and a Memorial that God and the Sons of God do not love to see a man perish God never rejoices in the death of him that dies and we also esteem it undecent to have Musick at a Funeral And as Religion teaches us to pity a condemned Criminal so Mercy intercedes for the most benigne interpretation of the Laws You must indeed be as just as the Laws and you must be as merciful as your Religion and you have no way to tye these together but to follow the Pattern in the Mount do as God does who in judgment remembers mercy To conclude If every one in this Honourable Assembly would join together to promote Christian Religion in its true notion that is Peace and Holiness the love of God and the love of our Brother Christianity in all its proper usefulness and would not endure in the Nation any thing against the Laws of the Holy Jesus if they were all zealous for the Doctrines of Righteousness and impatient of Sin in your selves and in the people it is not to be imagined what a happy Nation we should be But if ye divide into parties and keep up useless differences of names or interests if ye do not join in the bands of Peace that is the King and the Church Religion and the good of the Nation you can never hope to see a blessing to be the end of your labours Remember the words of Solomon Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any people but when Righteousness is advanced in the hearts and lives of the Nation who shall dare to reprove your Faith who can find fault with your Religion God of his mercy grant that in all your Consultations the Word of God may be your measure the Spirit of God may be your guide and the glory of God may be your end He of his mercy grant that moderation may be your limit and Peace may be within your walls as long as you are there and in all the land for ever after But remember that since the honour and service of his Majesty and the peace and prosperity of the Church the perpetuity of our fundamental Laws publick Justice and the honour of all legal Authority the advancement of Trade and the wealth of the Nation is your design remember I pray what warranty you have to expect all this no less than the words of our Blessed Saviour but it is upon these terms Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you Amen FINIS Via Intelligentiae A SERMON Preached to the UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN Shewing by what means the Scholars shall become most Learned and most Useful Published at their desire By the R. R. Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down c. and Vice-Chancellour of that UNIVERSITY Ad majorem Dei gloriam LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1666. To the READER PEACE is so great a Blessing and Disputations and Questions in Religion are so little friends to Peace that I have thought no mans time can be better spent than in propositions and promotions of Peace and consequently in finding expedients and putting periods to all contentious Learning I have already in a discourse before the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in this Parliament prov'd that Obedience is the best medium of Peace and true Religion and Laws are the only common term and certain rule and measure of it Vocatâ ad concionem multitudine quae coalescere in populum Unius corporis nullâ re praeterquam legibus poterat said Livy Obedience to Man is the external instrument and the best in the World To which I now add that Obedience to God is the best internal instrument and I have prov'd it in this discourse Peace and Holiness are twin-Sisters after which because every man is bound to follow and he that does not shall never see God I concluded that the Office of a Bishop is in nothing so signally to be exhibited as in declaring by what means these great duties and blessings are to be acquired This way I have here described is an old way for it was Christs way and therefore it is truth and life but it hath been so little regarded and so seldom taught that when I first spake my thoughts of it in the following words before the Little but Excellent Vniversity of Dublin they consented to it so perfectly and so piously entertained it that they were pleased with some earnestness to desire me to publish it to the world and to consign it to them as a perpetual memorial of their duty and of my regards to them and care over them in my Station I was very desirous to serve and please them in all their worthy desires but had found so much reason to distrust my own abilities that I could not resolve to do what I fain would have done till by a second communication of those thoughts though in differing words I had published it also to my Clergy at the Metropolitical Visitation of the most Reverend and Learned Lord Primate of Armagh in my own Diocese But when I found that they also thought it very reasonable and pious and joined in the desire of making it publick I consented perfectly and now only pray to God it may do that Work which I intended I have often thought of those excellent words of Mr. Hooker in his very learned Discourse of Justification Such is the untoward constitution of our Nature that we do neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord nor so stedfastly embrace it when it is understood nor so graciously utter it when it is embraced nor so peaceably maintain it when it is
had a Revenue almost treble to any of the largest of the Tribes I will not insist on what Villalpandus observes it may easily be read in the 45. of Ezekiel concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and his service but whatsoever it be this I shall say that it is confessedly a Prophecy of the Gospel but this I add that they had as little to do and much less than a Christian Priest and yet in all the 24 courses the poorest Priest amongst them might be esteemed a rich man I speak not this to upbraid any man or any thing but Sacriledge and Murmur nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and Religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did with so much care and assiduous labour endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendor and fulness which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of Religion God himself being the Judge so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us and so this wise Prelate rarely well understood it and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have a gracious King and a Lieutenant Patron of Religion and the Church he improved the deposita pietatis as Origen calls them the Gages of Piety which the Religion of the ancient Princes and Nobles of this Kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable competency that though there be place left for present and future Piety to enlarge it self yet no man hath reason to be discouraged in his duty insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand that at his going into England he gave account to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of 30000 l. a year in the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instrumental But the goods of this World are called waters by Solomon Stollen waters are sweet and they are too unstable to be stopt some of these waters did run back from their proper Channel and return to another course than God and the Laws intended yet his labours and pious Counsels were not the less acceptable to God and good men and therefore by a thankful and honourable recognition the Convocation of the Church of Ireland hath transmitted in Record to posterity their deep resentment of his singular services and great abilities in this whole affair And this honour will for ever remain to that Bishop of Derry he had a Zerubbabel who repaired the Temple and restored its beauty but he was the Joshua the High-Priest who under him ministred this blessing to the Congregations of the Lord. But his care was not determined in the exterior part only and Accessaries of Religion he was careful and he was prosperous in it to reduce that Divine and excellent Service of our Church to publick and constant Exercise to Unity and Devotion and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as the Rule of publick confessions and perswasions here that they and we might be Populus unius labii of one heart and one lip building up our hopes of Heaven on a most holy Faith and taking away that Shibboleth which made this Church lisp too undecently or rather in some little degree to speak the speech of Ashdod and not the language of Canaan and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can dehonestate or reproach but he that is not willing to confess that the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world But when the brave Roman Infantry under the Conduct of Manlius ascended up to the Capitol to defend Religion and their Altars from the fury of the Gauls they all prayed to God Vt quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum ejus concurrissent ita ille virtutem eorum numine suo tueretur That as they came to defend his Temple by their Arms so he would defend their Persons and that Cause with his Power and Divinity And this excellent man in the Cause of Religion found the like blessing which they prayed for God by the prosperity of his labours and a blessed effect gave testimony not only of the Piety and Wisdom of his purposes but that he loves to bless a wise Instrument when it is vigorously employed in a wise and religious labour He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences as were made even from Religion it self to obstruct the better procedure of real and material Religion These were great things and matter of great envy and like the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius might with the very ashes of Consumption have buried another man At first indeed as his blessed Master the most holy Jesus had so he also had his Annum acceptibilem At first the product was nothing but great admiration at his stupendious parts and wonder at his mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zeal in so good and great things but this quickly passed into the natural daughters of Envy Suspicion and Detraction the Spirit of Obloquy and Slander His zeal for recovery of the Church Revenues was called Oppression and Rapine Covetousness and Injustice his care of reducing Religion to wise and justifiable principles was called Popery and Arminianism and I know not what names which signifie what the Authors are pleased to mean and the people to construe and to hate The intermedial prosperity of his Person and Fortune which he had as an earnest of a greater reward to so well-meant labours was supposed to be the production of Illiberal Arts and ways of getting and the necessary refreshment of his wearied spirits which did not always supply all his needs and were sometimes less than the permissions even of prudent charity they called Intemperance Dederunt enim malum Metelli Nevio poetae their own surmises were the Bills of Accusation and the splendour of his great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Doing of good works was the great probation of all their Calumnies But if Envy be the accuser what can be the defences of Innocence Saucior invidiae morsu quaerenda medela est Dic quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem Our Blessed Saviour knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men if their Money or Estates were medled with refused to divide an Inheritance amongst Brethren it was not to be imagined that this great person invested as all his Brethren were with the infirmities of Mortality and yet employed in dividing and recovering and apportioning of Lands should be able to bear all that reproach which Jealousie and Suspicion and malicious Envy could invent against him But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Sophocles And so did he the Affrightments brought to his great Fame and Reputation made him to walk more warily and do justly and act prudently and conduct his affairs by the measures of Laws as far as he understood and indeed that was a very great way but there was Aperta justitia clausa manus Justice was open but his Hand was shut and though every
a spiritual law-suit and it can never be ended every man is right and every man is wrong in these things and no man can tell who is right or who is wrong For as long as a word can be spoken against a word and a thing be opposite to a thing as long as places are hard and men are ignorant or knowing but in part as long as there is money and pride in the world and for ever till men willingly confess themselves to be fools and deceiv'd so long will the saw of contention be drawn from side to side That which is not cannot be numbred saith the Wise man no man can reckon upon any truth that is got by contentious learning and whoever troubles his people with questions and teaches them to be troublesome note that man he loves not peace or he would fain be called Rabbi Rabbi Christian Religion loves not tricks nor artifices of wonder but like the natural and amiable simplicity of Jesus by plain and easie propositions leads us in wise paths to a place where sin and strife shall never enter What good can come from that which fools begin and wise men can never end but by silence and that had been the best way at first and would have stifled them in the Cradle What have your people to do whether Christs body be in the Sacrament by Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation whether Purgatory be in the centre of the earth or in the air or any where or no where and who but a mad man would trouble their heads with the intangled links of the phantatick chain of Predestination Teach them to fear God and honour the King to keep the Commandments of God and the Kings Commands because of the oath of God learn them to be sober and temperate to be just and to pay their debts to speak well of their neighbours and to think meanly of themselves teach them charity and learn them to be zealous of good works Is it not a shame that the people should be fill'd with Sermons against Ceremonies and Declamations against a Surplice and tedious Harangues against the poor aëry sign of the Cross in Baptism These things teach them to be ignorant it fills them with wind and they such dry nurses it makes them lazy and useless troublesome and good for nothing Can the definition of a Christian be that a Christian is a man that rails against Bishops and the Common Prayer-book and yet this is the great labour of our neighbours that are crept in among us this they call the work of the Lord and this is the great matter of the desir'd reformation in these things they spend their long breath and about these things they spend earnest prayers and by these they judge their brother and for these they revile their Superiour and in this doughty cause they think it fit to fight and dye If S. Paul or S. Anthony S. Basil or S. Ambrose if any of the primitive Confessors or glorious Martyrs should awake from within their curtains of darkness and find men thus striving against Government for the interest of disobedience and labouring for nothings and preaching all day for shadows and Moon-shine and that not a word shall come from them to teach the people humility not a word of obedience or self-denial they are never taught to suspect their own judgment but always to prefer the private Minister before the publick the Presbyter before a Bishop Fancy before Law the Subject before his Prince a Prayer in which men consider not at all before that which is weighed wisely and considered and in short a private spirit before the publick and Mas John before the Patriarch of Jerusalem if I say S. Paul or S. Anthony should see such a light they would not know the meaning of it nor of what Religion the Country were nor from whence they had deriv'd their new nothing of an institution The Kingdom of God consists in wisdom and righteousness in peace and holiness in meekness and gentleness in chastity and purity in abstinence from evil and doing good to others in these things place your labours preach these things and nothing else but such as these things which promote the publick peace and publick good things that can give no offence to the wise and to the virtuous For these things are profitable to men and pleasing to God 2. Let not your Sermons and Discourses to your people be busie arguings about hard places of Scripture if you strike a hard against a hard you may chance to strike fire or break a mans head but it never makes a good building Philosophiam ad syllabus vocare that 's to no purpose your Sermons must be for edification something to make the people better and wiser wiser unto salvation not wiser to discourse for if a hard thing get into their heads I know not what work you will make of it but they will make nothing of it or something that is very strange Dress your people unto the imagery of Christ dress them for their funerals help them to make their accounts up against the day of Judgment I have known some Persons and some Families that would religiously educate their Children and bring them up in the Scriptures from their cradle and they would teach them to tell who was the first man and who was the oldest and who was the wisest and who was the strongest but I never observ'd them to ask who was the best and what things were requir'd to make a man good the Apostles Creed was not the entertainment of their pretty talkings nor the Life of Christ the story of his bitter Passion and his incomparable Sermon on the Mount went not into their Catechisms What good can your flocks receive if you discourse well and wisely whether Jephthab sacrificed his daughter or put her into the retirements of a solitary life nor how David's numbring the people did differ from Joshua's or whether God took away the life of Moses by a Apoplexy or by the kisses of his mouth If Scholars be idly busie in these things in the Schools custom and some other little accidents may help to excuse them but the time that is spent in your Churches and conversation with your people must not be so thrown away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's your rule let your speech be grave and wise and useful and holy and intelligible something to reform their manners to correct their evil natures to amend their foolish customs to build them up in a most holy faith That 's the second rule and measure of your preachings that the Apostle gives you in my Text. 3. Your speech must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salutary and wholesome and indeed this is of greatest concerne next to the first next to the truth and purity of that doctrine for unlesse the doctrine be made fit for the necessities of your people and not only be good in it self but good for them you lose the
against sin For Zeal is like a Cancer in the Breast feed it with good flesh or it will devour the Heart rule XXXIII Strive to get the love of the Congregation but let it not degenerate into popularity Cause them to love you and revere you to love with Religion not for your compliance for the good you do them not for that you please them Get their love by doing your Duty but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it Ever remembring the severe words of our Blessed Saviour Wo be to you when all men speak well of you rule XXXIV Suffer not the common people to prattle about Religion and Questions but to speak little to be swift to hear and slow to speak that they learn to good works for necessary uses that they work with their hands that they may have wherewithal to give to them that need that they study to be quiet and learn to do their own business rule XXXV Let every Minister take care that he call upon his Charge that they order themselves so that they leave no void spaces of their time but that every part of it be filled with useful or innocent employment For where there is a space without business that space is the proper time for danger and temptation and no man is more miserable than he that knows not how to spend his time rule XXXVI Fear no mans person in the doing of your Duty wisely and according to the Laws Remembring always that a servant of God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness than by the noise of a Flies wing or the chirping of a Sparrow Brethren do well for your selves do well for your selves as long as you have time you know not how soon death will come rule XXXVII Entertain no Persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes unless upon great occasion or in the destitution of a Minister or by contingency and seldom visits or with leave lest the labour of thy Brother be discouraged and thy self be thought to preach Christ out of envy and not of good will rule XXXVIII Never appeal to the judgment of the people in matters of controversie teach them obedience not arrogancy teach them to be humble not crafty For without the aid of false guides you will find some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome and a question put into their heads and a power of judging into their hands is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next for much longer you cannot escape rule XXXIX Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony Rites or Gestures though with some seeming Piety and Devotion but what are commanded by the Church and established by Law and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience but let there be no more introduc'd lest the people be burdened unnecessarily and tempted or divided IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching rule XL LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God according to the ability that God gives him Ever remembring that to minister Gods Word unto the People is the one half of his great Office and Employment rule XLI Let every Minister be careful that what he delivers be indeed the Word of God that his Sermon be answerable to the Text for this is Gods Word the other ought to be according to it that although in it self it be but the word of Man yet by the purpose truth and signification of it it may in a secondary sense be the Word of God rule XLII Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ to be united to Christ and things of the like unlimited signification but tell them in every duty what are the measures what circumstances what instruments and what is the particular minute meaning of every general Advice For Generals not explicated do but fill the peoples heads with empty notions and their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk but their hearts remain empty and themselves are not edified rule XLIII Let not the humours and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions Let them know from you what they ought to do but if you learn from them what you ought to teach you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgment of the souls committed to you He that receives from the people what he shall teach them is like a Nurse that asks of her Child what Physick she shall give him rule XLIV Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present but not of the absent nor in reproof of the times for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition publick Murmur and private Discontent besides this it does nothing but amuse the people in the faults of others teaching them to revile their Betters and neglect the dangers of their own souls rule XLV As it looks like flattery and design to preach nothing before Magistrates but the duty of their people and their own eminency so it is the beginning of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiours and Supreme it can neither come from a good Principle nor tend to a good End Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish and urge their duty S. John the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees rule XLVI In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please and spare no mans sin but meddle with no mans person neither name any man nor signifie him neither reproach him nor make him to be suspected he that doth otherwise makes his Sermon to be a Libel and the Ministry of Repentance an instrument of Revenge and so doing he shall exasperate the man but never amend the sinner rule XLVII Let the business of your Sermons be to preach holy Life Obedience Peace Love among neighbours hearty love to live as the old Christians did and the new should to do hurt to no man to do good to every man For in these things the honour of God consists and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus rule XLVIII Press those Graces most that do most good and make the least noise such as giving privately and forgiving publickly and prescribe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good words nor yet by good works but it is a great building and many materials go to the structure of it It is worth your study for it is the fulfilling of the Commandments rule XLIX Because it is impossible that Charity should live unless the lust of the tongue be mortified let