or all which they spake by the Spirit written but onely so much as the Lord in wisdom and mercie thought requisite to guide the Church in Faith and obedience to the worlds end so as the Scriptures should neither be defective through brevitie nor burthensom by too great largenesse and prolixitie And thus to judg is more answerable both to Gods providence in preserving the Scriptures from miscarrying and to the Churches care and faithfulnesse in keeping safe this heavenly treasure committed to her custodie then to say with some that any of the Books or parts of the Canonicall Scriptures are lost It no more detracts from the authentique authoritie or generall use of some parts of the Holy Scriptures that they were penned upon some speciall occasions then of the Sermons of Christ the Prophets and Apostles that some of them were preached upon speciall occasions And surely it seems a strange conceipt that the authoritie of the writing should be the lesse because the thing written was suggested by the Holy Ghost and so penned upon speciall occasion offered as such Scriptures were The Scriptures are not onely authentique in themselvs as having the Spirit of God for the Authour both of matter and manner and writing but do also as they say carrie their authoritie in their mouthes binding both to credence and obedience all whomsoever unto whom they come by what means soever And if God left not himself without witnesse in his works of creation and providence how much lesse in his written Word Wherein without comparison he reveals himself much more clearly then the other way which is therefore discernable by its self as is the Sun by its own beams and light and which as one saith he that studies to understand shall be compelled to beleev Their assertion therefore who hold and teach that we are to receav the Scriptures for the Churches testimonie because usually as others more truly and religiously speak we receav them by its testimonie is in effect none other then that we are to beleev God for mens cause whereas on the contrarie if a man should finde the Book of Holy Scriptures in the high-way or hidden under a stone yet he were bound to learn receav beleev and obey them and everie part of them in his place though without yea against the likeing and approbation of all the men in the World except God must not be God without mens likeing And if the Word preached by Christ the Prophets and Apostles in their time whether to Iews or Gentiles were absolutely to be beleeved and obeyed by everie one that heard it without other or further testimonie why not as well and much now by all that read it written He that receavs the testimonie of Christ for it self whether exhibited in speach or writing sets to his seal that God is true He that receavs it for the testimonie of the Church sets to his seal that men are true But the Childe of God knows his Fathers voyce The profit and power of the Scriptures both for stay of Faith and rule of life and comfort in all manner of afflictions no tongue or pen is able so fully to expresse as everie true Christian findes and feels in his own experience There is but one true happinesse life eternall one giver of it God one Mediatour Iesus Christ and so but one means of imparting it the Word of God by which he that is both Authour and finisher of all both begins and perfits all Blessed is the man that hath his delight therein and meditates in the same day and night that so he may learn the things upon Earth the knowledg whereof will fit him for Heaven When we avow the Scriptures perfection we exclude not from men common sense and the light of nature by which we are both subjects capable of understanding them and directed in sundry manners of doing the things commanded in them yea besides other humain helps we both acknowledg and beg of God as most needfull for their fruitfull understanding the light of his holy Spirit onely we account and avow them as a most perfect rule neither crooked any way nor short in any thing requisite This their sufficiencie and perfection is not to be restrained to matters simply necessarie to Salvation For who can say how many or few and no more nor lesse they are But to matters necessarie to obedience that we may please God in all things great or small expressed or intended and to be gathered by proportion and just consequence Without Faith we cannot please God and Faith comes onely by the Word of God which we must therefore make our guide in all our wayes And if we be to give an account for everie idle word and so for every vain thought or work there is then a Law of God for these smallest matters for where no Law is there is no transgression and where there is no transgression or fault there is no account to be given But as Phylosophers say that the least naturall things are not sensible by reason of their smalnesse so may and doth it too easily fall out that we fail through want of skill or care in applying our rule of direction both in smaller matters and others of greater moment also But this is not because the Scriptures are defective in directing but we either blinde in discerning or negligent in searching or both And if the Holy Scriptures direction reach unto the whole course of our life how much more of our Religion or worship of God In which nothing is to be practised but that which is to be beleeved nothing to be beleeved but that which is to be taught nothing to be taught but according to the Scriptures This being the first thing that we are to beleev that we must beleev nothing but according to them All things els are humain and humain it is to er and be deceaved The custom of the Church is but the custom of men the sentence of the Fathers but the opinion of men the determination of Councels but the judgments of men To conclude One onely place of Holy Scriptures rightly understood and fitly applyed will have more power and fasten deeper upon a truly good and godly heart then all the consenting authorities of men and Angels though uttered with the tongue of men and Angels As the title set over the head of Christ crucified was the same in Hebrew Greek and Latin so are the Scriptures the same whether in the Originall or other Language into which they are faithfully translated Yet as the waters are most pure and sweet in the Fountain so are all writings Divine and humain in their Originall Tongues it being impossible but some either change or defect or redoundancie will be found in the translation either by default of the Translatour or of the Tongue into which it is made In a Translatour is required specially skill in words and
Tongues in an Expositour judgment in things That Translation is most exact which agreeth best with the Originall word for word so far as the idiom or proprietie of the Language will bear so as for words or phrases in the Originall proper or common simple or figurative perspicuous or doubtfull words and phrases of the same sort proper or common and so of the rest be put and retained in the version lest the Interpreter bring his own Commentarie for the Scriptures Text. On the contrarie the Commentarie is best which shews most clearly the sense scope and meaning of the Text in what words soever As the Law-maker best knows the meaning of the Law and how it is to be expounded so for the exposition of the Holy Scriptures the Spirit of God as the Authour thereof is first and most to be consulted with by faithfull and earnest prayer from a good conscience that God may fulfill his promise made of giving his holy Spirit to them that ask it and of revealing his secrets to them that fear him And so some speciall Instruments of renuing the Gospels light in the former Age have professed that they learned more this way by prayer then by much studie otherwise There is in a Scripture but one proper and immediate sense others are rather collections from it relations unto it or illustrations of it then immediate senses The literall sense is to be followed as being most naturall what may be and not to be refused if it may stand without danger without blasphemie and according to other Scriptures And here it must be noted that Christ and his Apostles in expounding Moses and the Prophets did not onely infallibly expresse their conceptions and meanings but the meaning of the Spirit speaking in them and that by reason of their more plentifull measure of the same Spirit and experience withall in some particulars as I conceav further then the Prophets themselvs understood albeit they alwaies knew the immediate drift of the Spirit and meaning of the things which they spake and were not as the Pythonists or other the like Instruments of the Divell uttering Oracles which they themselvs understood not The Lawyers have a rule and the same competent to the matter whereof they treat that Laws of fauour are to be extended as largely as may be but odious Laws as they speak as much straitned and confined within the narrowest bounds of interpretation But all Gods Laws and Instructions must in honour of the Lawgiver be expounded in the largest sense that they can beare that so they may reach as far and binde as fast as may be This the infinitenesse of his wisdom challengeth in directing us of his authority in commanding us of his mercy in promiseing and justice in threatning Which by so interpreting and applying his word we acknowledg and honour as is meet And as they are blame-worthy who out of a scrupulous fear lest they should ad to the Scriptures allow them no further meaning then the words expresse so is their sin greater and full of presumption who shorten and straiten the Scriptures instruction to that which is expressed in so many words that they may make room thereby for their own devises A Scripture commandeth promiseth or threatneth whatsoever is contained in it though not expressed And that is contained in it which can truly and iustly be gathered from it though by never so many consequences or inferences though the fewer the lesse dangerous by reason of our weaknesse of discourse Particular words and phrases more obscure are to be interpreted according to the scope mind of the speaker the Holy Ghost in the place which is both in time and excellencie before the thing spoken and that for which the Spirit speaketh as it doth in the place neither is the Scripture profitable except the scope be first found And to hang upon a word phrase or sentence in a Text without looking to the main drift is if any other the character of an hereticall disposition With this that other most necessarie rule hath affinitie namely that the words are to be understood according to the subject matter the words of Law and Gospel according to the different nature of Law and Gospel the words of an Historie Historically of a Sacrament Sacramentally and mystically and accordingly notes of universalitie according to the extent of the matter or person spoken of As we oft finde out learn mens meaning by some of their companie of such as are about them which we could not learn of themselvs so may we gather the meaning of a Scripture otherwise hard to be understood by marking the things which accompanie it and which are above and below as the Iews use to speak and Christians with them Like as the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick did one help anothers light so doth one place of Holy Scripture anothers And though a thing found in one place if in one indeed be as true binde as strongly as if it were a thousand times written yet so to insist upon any one place in a difference as to neglect others is the high-way to error and to loose the right sense by breaking the Scriptures golden chain whose links are all fastened together And as one place must be expounded by another so must the more brief and obscure by the more plain and larg and not the contrarie crosse way for that were not to lighten the darknesse of a Text but to darken its light according to that of the Father The fewer must be understood according to the more and one saying must rather be taken according to all then against all Touching precepts affirmative and negative First They are usually either kept or broken together He who doth not what he should do commonly doth what he should not do If a man be drawn away from God he is easily ensnared by his own lust On the contrarie he that doth his dutie faithfully hath as it were a Supersedeas from the Lord against the temptations of sin and Satan The way not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit Secondly The receaved rule that affirmative precepts binde alwayes but not to alwayes as negatives do is true being rightly understood We are to take no time for doing evill and but some time for the doing of the best good to wit as we have opportunitie and abilitie Thirdly In the prohibition of an evill we must ever understand the command of the opposite vertue and so on the contrarie He that saith expresly Thou shalt not kill means also as well Thou shalt preserv thy neighbours life Lastly There is both more vertue more vice practised in affirmatives then in negatives It is more good to do good then not to do evill and more evill to do evill then not to do good though both the tree that brings forth evill fruit and that brings forth no
obedience even the honour of Authoritie and preservation of peace The thing commanded may be unjust and evill in him that commands and yet good in me obeying his Authoritie in it For example A matter of outward wrong to me commanded by the Magistrate in the doing whereof I sustain dammage but sin not God who made two great lights for the bodily ey hath also made two lights for the ey of the mind The one the Scriptures for her supernaturall light and the other Reason for her naturall light And indeed onely those two are a mans own and so is not the Authoritie of other men The Scriptures are as well mine as any other mans and so is Reason as far as I can attain to it But the Authoritie of others is not mine but theirs which when I use I borrow and lay to pawn unto them whom I cannot satisfie or secure by the other means which are mine own Who would borrow of others that hath enough of his own to satisfie as well God who though he be absolute Lord so oft annexeth Reasons to his Precepts teacheth even the most powerfull and mightie upon the Earth in their governments to prefer Reason afore Authoritie And the man that would not rather rule men by Reason yea beasts if they were capable thereof then by violent Authoritie is himself inhumain and beast-like The Authoritie of Gods Word and testimonie is alwaies the same as being grounded upon his unchangeable veritie But the credit of mens judgments is lesse or more according to varietie of circumstances Men deserv most credit in the facultie wherein they haue been most exercised for none can judg so well of the craft as the crafts-man So more likely it is that a man wise learned and studious in the Scriptures specially if withall he be such a one as unto whom God hath promised in ordinarie course as unto one that fears him to reveal his secrets should finde the truth then one sleightie illiterate and of more shallow meditations In former ages the Divell hath so far prevailed as that men in superstitious reverence haue as it were pinned their Faith and Religion upon the sleeves of the Churches Authoritie and Clergies learning putting out or winking with their own eyes that their guides might lead them and this blinde-fold devotion is yet affected by too many But withall there want not specially in places of libertie whose minds Satan hath so far possessed with the contrarie delusion as they think it halfe Poperie so much as to seek counsell and direction at men of Learning and knowledg lest for sooth they should be deceaved by them This suspition hath been and is too much occasioned by the abuse of Learning to covetousnesse and ambition in the Learned but is taken and held up by the other partly by unbelief whilst they more fear the Divels subtletie in deceaving them by Learned men specially being in any measure conscionable then they trust to the blessing of God upon his own gifts in them for their information partly from conceiptednesse in themselvs as if they were indeed verie Popes and exempted from danger of erring and partly through partiall affection to their preconceaved opinions of which they are as loath to hear any ill as fond Parents are to hear ill of their Children though there be never so much cause lest thereby they should be brought out of love with them But as we are more to desire and endeavour that we our selvs may walk in the wayes of God then others so should we rather desire and more endeavour as we have occasion to converse with men of knowledg and such as may inform us then with them that know lesse then our selvs and do depend upon us for information And to conclude as Learning makes the good better and the bad worse so is it more likely that a man should be bettered by it then not and that knowing what concerns him he will be the more ashamed of the contrarie It is also more probable that many specially wise and godly should finde the truth then one as many eyes see more then one whereupon it was that the verie Apostles in some cases of practise sought or took the advise of others which help our dulnesse makes much more necessarie for us Into this account we must also bring the advantage of Ages and times in which men live and so more credit in matters controverted between Rome and Vs is to be given to the Churches and Fathers of that first Age after Christ then of the latter when the Mysterie of Iniquitie rising by degrees had gotten too great both height and breadth Besides the occasions offered have their weight in these Ballances Austin is observed by occasion of the errour of Pelagius to have examined more diligently and more exactly discerned and in preffer terms to have propounded the truth in the points of Predestination and Free-will then others his Ancients Many are ignorant yea mistake specially in smaller matters not properly because they want either skill or will to finde out the truth in them but occasion onely pressing them to examine things receaved by tradition or done of custom without ground of reason With these also we must ioin the consideration of such advantages as the latter times have of the former whose helpfull labours they enjoy by which those which follow them though in themselvs meaner then they are enabled to discern of many things better then the other that went before them as a dwarf set upon the shoulders of a giant can see further then he Lastly It is more likely that of two in any measure alike otherwise he who suffers affliction for conscience of God should have the truth then he that gets worldly benefit by his course in Religion specially if he have not in a great measure learned to denie himself and this world it being their guize to dissemble herein who love â—ucre and riches as too many do The credit commending a testimonie to others cannot be greater then is the Authoritie in it self of him that gives it nor his Authoritie greater then his person The person then being but a man the Authoritie can be but humain and so the faith but humain which it can challeng The custom of the Church is but the custom of men the sentence of the Fathers but the opinion of men the determination of Councels but the judgments of men what men soever And so if all the men in the World not immediately directed as were extraordinarie Prophets and Apostles in whom the Spirit spake and testified by them should consent in one as they notwithstanding their multitude were but men though many so were their testimonie but humain though of many men neither could it challeng other then humain assent unto it and not that neither absolutely either in matters of discourse of reason wherein it is possible that men should deceav themselvs or of relation from others by
whom they may be deceaved We are therefore to beware that we neither wrong our selvs by credulitie nor others by unjust suspition To receav without examination mens sayings is to make of men God to reject them lightly is to make of men Divels or fools at the best The latter hath pride and uncharitablenesse for the ground the former either argues men to be simple which cannot or idle which will not or presumptuous which think they need not or superstitious which dare not judg or which is worst of all the rest desirous in a kinde of humble hypocrisie to shelter an evill conscience before God under the shadow of great mens Authoritie To presse immoderately mens Authoritie in Divine things is to wrong Gods which alone is authentick and whose will and it alone and all it so far as is fit for us to know it we know more certainly to be contained and preserved without corruption in the Scriptures then any Fathers opinion in the Books which go under his name This also wrongs mens Faith and reason captivating them by prejudice and rather offering a hand to lead the blinde then a light for the help of him that hath eyes to see with I have known some who if they light upon a peremptorie Authour and bold asserter of things were readie to be still of the same opinion with the Book which they last read their weaker judgment being overborn rather by the strength of other mens asseverations then reasons Lastly this ingenders endlesse contentions as is to be seen in some Learned mens writings in which there is more adoe about the meaning of such or such a place in a Father then were enough to determine the whole controversie by the Scriptures and good Reason These things notwithstanding there is both a lawfull and convenient use of humain testimonie even in Divine things as first for the convincing of such thereby as regard it too much and Gods Word too little Thus Paul amongst Heathens even in his verie Sermons alledged Heathenish Poets and Phylosophers and we in our writings rightly alledg Fathers and Councels against Papists and others who more regard the saying of an ancient Father or Canon of a Councell then the written Word of the Ancient of Dayes They are twice overcome who are beaten with their own weapons in which they trust Secondly It induceth a morall probabilitie though no absolute necessitie of truth and though we see not the truth by other mens eyes but by our own yet may we be something held up in the arms of their testimonie to see it the better and so be helped as Zacheus was by the Tree into which he clymbed to see Christ. So the Apostles in penning some parts of Holy Scripture upon occasion of differences in the Churches and opposition to their Apostolicall Authoritie took in for the better passage with men of Gods undoubted truth the concurring testimonie even of ordinarie Christians though both the Decrees Epistles were penned by infallible and immediate direction of the Holy Ghost as well and as much as any other parts of Canonicall Scriptures Thirdly Citation of humain Authoritie helps to wipe away the aspersion of Schism singularitie when we can shew that our assertions and practises have agreement with such as are in account in the Churches Lastly It commends both a mans modesty diligence when he enquires after and withall his cause in the eyes of men when he appears to know the judgments of others in the things he handles as it is on the other side an imputation to him that knows them not and that even where it is otherwise no benefit to know them The Authoritie of him that prescribeth or commandeth within his limits is the same whether the matter be great or small God is God in the smallest things which he requires and man but man in his deepest charges The Prophets and Apostles in their writings are extraordinarie and Pastors and Teachers ordinarie Ministers and neither are either more or lesse in any part of their Ministerie for the instruction of the Churches So likewise all true Reasons are of the same force in themselvs to confirm that for which they are brought neither is any one stronger then other but onely more evident The best but proves of itself the things to be so and the meanest if sound doth as much CAP. X. Of Faith Hope and Love Of Faith Reason and Sense FAith in generall is a firm assent upon knowledg to an affirmation for the credit or authoritie of him that affirmeth a thing whether God or Angel or man To some things we assent by Sense and naturall light to some for certain proof of Reason but the assent of Faith rests upon the fidelitie of the speaker and not upon the Sense or Reason of the thing how agreeable to either soever it be Yet so as the more reasonable the thing related is the more readily we beleev it to be true The thing beleeved Faith apprehends primarily as a matter of truth and therein hath its seat in the understanding Divine Faith assents to the revealed will of God for the authoritie and truth of God which cannot deceav That Faith or act of Faith by which we are justified is a due assent to and application of the promises of the Gospel as made and appertaining to us in particular the generall promise upon condition of application duly and rightly made being as much for certaintie as either extraordinarie revelation or particular nomination of person This application of Gods promises in Christ hath evermore affiance necessarily and immediately ioyned with it For being by the Spirit of God and Word of the Gospel perswaded of Gods love in Christ we cannot but trust unto him rest and repose our selvs upon him and expect accordingly from him all good But as we must lay hold of the stay or prop before we can rest upon it So must Faith go before affiance in order of causes and we lay hold of Gods love before we can repose our selvs upon it Hope is the expectation of the good things promised having Faith for its foundation These two Faith and Hope have many the same objects yet neither all nor any in the same respect We beleev things past present and to come but hope for things to come onely We beleev both promises and threatnings both rewards and punishments in the order set by God but hope onely for things desireable And for the verie same things in themselvs beleeved and hoped for as for example the resurrection of the body and life everlasting we beleev them as present in Gods promises which Faith applyes unto us but hope for them as absent and to come in performance unto which Hope carieth us Faith begets Hope for by beleeving the forgivenesse of our sins and Gods promises for the present we are encouraged to expect and hope for all future good And Hope again as a good Childe helps to
will and making small or none account that either the rules of the Word appertain unto them for direction or the precepts for obedience or the threatnings for restraint yet do lay their sacrilegious hands boldly upon the promises as their true and undoubted right And the reason is because the promises contain in them things good and pleasing to mans nature which because we would gladly have true we readily beleeve and apply But such seperate what God hath joined together and in effect take away from the Words of the Book of God and God will take away their part out of the Book of Life Others again trans-form commandments into promises with great and dangerous errour For example where it is said The Priests lips should preserv knowledg the Romish Priests chaleng an immunity from erring whence they should take warning that they er not So from Christs teaching that a city set upon an hill cannot be hid they will wring a promise of perpetuall visibility of Church and Ministery from him where he intends onely an exhortation to his Disciples after to become Apostls unto answerablenesse both in life and doctrine to the eminencie of their places Some again make conditionall promises absolute as that Whose sins ye binde upon earth they are bound in Heaven forgetting that it must be the Church gathered together in Christs name that is both furnished with lawfull authoritie useing it lawfully Likewise that Christ will preserv the Ministery and Ministers and be with them to the end of the World leaving out the condition going before which is that they do their duty in their places in makeing Discipls and baptizeing them and teaching them to observ whatsoever he had commanded them Lastly How many because God promiseth forgivenesse to sinners whensoever they repent promise unto themselvs repentance upon an howers warning before their death though they go on in sin all their life long But the saying of the Ancient is memorable in this case He that promiseth forgivenesse to him that repents doth not promise repentance to him that sins But on the contrarie as he that makes a bridg of his own shadow cannot but fall in the Water so neither can he escape the Pit of Hell who layes his own presumption this way in the place of Gods promise CAP. IIII. Of the works of God and his power wisdom will goodnesse c. shining in them IT is a receaved truth in Divinity that whatsoever is in God is God So the will of God considered as the foundation of that which he wills and as inherent in him is nothing els but God willing his justice nothing els but God just his mercy but God mercifull and so for the rest of the Divine Attributes And as everie work of God is founded in some of those Attributes and that by name in his understanding as judging the thing to be good in his holy will agreeing thereunto and in his power effecting all things So this foundation and first cause of them all being immanent and inherent in God is God essentially of what nature soever alwaies good the work be without him which his will and power effecteth Neither is this will of God to work by his power wrought in him by any thing without himself for then he should receav addition of perfection from the creature moveing him thereunto though yet it be most certain that there are many things which God neither in his wisdom judgeth fit to be done by him nor wills the doing of them nor would work or do them by his power but upon the creatures work going before For example God wills and works the condemnation of some sinners because he judgeth fit willeth and will work therein the manifestation of the glorie of his justice but this condemnation which otherwise he would not lay upon any he both wills and works by and for the Creatures sin according to his eternall and unchangeable purpose of will in himself When the Scriptures speak and we according unto them of any thing done by God in respect of the Creature before the World was made it must be understood as meant onely of his foreknowledg and decree of will and purpose of doing For things could be done no otherwise then they could be nor could be otherwise then in God who alone was nor could be in God otherwise then in his foreknowledg and will according to which he works them actually in time by his power These three Attributes as before I intimated his power will and wisdom do concur to the produceing of all and everie one of his works His power worketh and effecteth all things his will sets his power a working his wisdom directs both the one other his will in willing and his power in working Touching his power The right hand of the Lord which in men is the instrument of strength is exalted and by it he can do what he will and much more then he will And whereas God cannot ly or denie himself or the like it is immediately because he will not and that not of impotencie in him but of potencie and perfection of excellencie as on the contrarie it is the power of mans weaknesse that he can do amisse So for things importing contradiction as that the same thing should be and not be at once or not be that which it is or the like it is Religiously said by some rather that such things cannot be done by God then that God cannot do them seeing the reason of this impossibilitie of their so being is not in Gods Nature but in theirs The will of God is one as God is one But as there is one Spirit but diversitie of manifestations so this one internall will of God doth exercise and extend it self diversly to and upon divers objects This extention and exercise of this one will of God is of us to be considered in divers degrees The weakest and most remisse degree is to will the suffering of evill For though God to speake properly wills not sin yet he willingly suffers it not as ignorant of it nor as neglecting it nor as unable to prevent it but as willingly wittingly and of purpose suffering that evill to be done which he could easily hinder if he would oppose his omnipotent power The next degree of Gods willing stands in commanding good and approveing of it where it is found And thus God wills and commands that all men should repent thus he wills that all should come to the knowledg of the truth and be saved and thus lastly he would haue the wicked turn from his wickednesse and live and not dy And these things and the like he seriously wills to wit by way of commanding requireing them and of approveing them wheresoever they are found The highest and most intent degree of willing in God is when he so wills a thing as withall he imploys his omnipotent power for the effecting of it and
a man to professe a Religion by working it first in his heart If the order in Israel be objected it may be answered First that the Land was holy as no Land now is that one Nation seperated from all other Nations to be the Lords peculiar people as no Nation now is the Kings types and figures of Christ as no Kings now are and Secondly That none were in truth compelled to the Israelitish Church and Religion but being of it whether Israelites or Proselites were to be cut off from the Lords people and destroyed out of Land for presumptuous sins or working iniquitie or for not serving God with all their heart and might Kings by this course would come short of the number of Subjects in whose multitude their honour stands and unto Churches few or none could possibly be added If it be further objected that men may be by the Magistrate constrained to the outward acts of justice honestie and the like though destitute altogether of the inward vertues It may be answered that these serv properly and immediately to preserv civill societies of which Magistrates are properly Kings and Lords and so do obtain their proper ends if the verie outward things be done though never so unwillingly But of Religious actions the proper end is not civill societie nor is attainable but by Faith and devotion in the heart of the doers Lastly To that of the Father that many who at first serv God by compulsion come after to serv him freely and willingly I answer that neither good intents nor events which are casuall can justifie unreasonable violence and withall that by this course of compulsion many become Atheists Hypocrites and Familists and being at first constrained to practise against conscience loose all conscience afterwards Bags and vessels overstrained break and will never after hold any thing Yet do I not denie all compulsion to the hearing of Gods Word as the means to work Religion and common to all of all sorts good and bad much lesse excuse civill disobedience palliated with Religious shews and pretences or condemne convenient restraint of publike Idolatry so as this rule of reason holds its place viz. that the bond between Magistrate and Subject is essentially civill but Religious accidentally onely though eminently For conclusion of this matter Let the godly Magistrate consider that as there is no Church-state and profession so truly Christian and good in which too many may not be found carried in their persons with a Spirit plainly Antichristian so there is hardly any Sect so Antichristian or evill otherwise in Church profession in which there are not divers truly though weakly led with the Spirit of Christ in their persons and so true members of his mysticall body With whom to deal rigorously for some few aberrations of ignorance or infirmitie were more to please Christs enemie in the oppressing of the person then Christ in so repressing his failing in some particulars specially if they be not fundamentall As then the Christian Magistrate hath his power of Magistracie from God which his Christianitie servs to sanctifie and direct so undoubtedly he is to use it for God and his honour that in his true worship in which he is specially honoured and against the contrarie yet with these two cautions First That as the greater sins of other kinds do not so violate and dissolv the marriage-bond as adulterie doth by reason of its direct opposition thereagainst so neither do Idolatry or Heresie how great sins soever in themselvs so outlaw a Subject civily as do Seditions Murthers Adulteries and the like directly violating and disturbing civill societies The second is That no authoritie of man may bring into or uphold in the Church either Doctrine or Ordinance of Religion or person which last is not lightly to be regarded seeing the other two serv for it unto which the Lord in his Word hath not first given testimonie of approbation for that use seeing Magistrates are not Governers against nor besides but under God in their Dominions CAP. VIII Of the holy Scriptures THe Holy Scriptures are that Divine Instrument and means by which we are taught to beleev what we ought touching God and our selvs and all creatures and how to please God in all things unto eternall Life I speak of beleeving things seeing Faith comes by hearing for els we know things touching God by that which we see feel and discern in and by his works We are led to the knowledg of God in his Power Wisdom Goodnesse Iustice and Mercie by his Works both without and within us And whensoever God either doth or suffers a thing to be done though not so much as insinuated formerly in his Word we then know it to be his will that such a thing should be as certainly as if he had expresly revealed it before in the Scriptures I speak of pleasing God in all things First because entire obedience so far as humain frailtie will permit is the immediate end and use of the Word of God and the way and means to Salvation Secondly to meet with that dangerous presumption of doing that which is necessarie to Salvation as many use to speak though with affected ignorance of and apparent disobedience to many of Gods Commandments Who knoweth with how little God can and doth save many being faithfull in learning what they can and in observing what they know Though much more be necessarie to such as have means to know more And thirdly because it is no childe-like but a bastardly disposition to take care for serving God no further though alas all be little enough for that then to be sure of the Fathers inheritance The heart of a man is then assured before God and hath a warrant from Heaven against eternall confusion when he can say with good conscience that he hath respect to all Gods Commandments God would have his will written that is his Word to become Scripture partly for more certaintie of truth to men and to preserv it the better from being corrupted as all make account that things set down in black and white as they speak are most firm partly for accord and unitie of Churches and Christians in the same truth who if they differ so much notwithstanding they use the same rule what would they do if their rules were different or uncertain and partly for more communitie seeing Books and Writings may easily both be dispersed whither the voyce of Teachers cannot come and also be read in private by Christians when they are apart from their Teachers Neither all things which the Prophets of God wrote were written by Divine inspiration but some of them humainly as their humain affaires common to them with other men required Neither was all wherein they were divinely inspired brought into the publike treasurie of the Church or made part of the Canonicall Scriptures which we call the Bible no more then all which they spake was spoken by the Spirit
fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire The oppositions intended in Scriptures are diligently to be observed upon mistaking whereof errour followeth upon neglect maimed obedience For example The Apostle in teaching that there is but one God the Father and one Lord Iesus Christ doth not oppose the Father to the Son nor the Son to the Father for either is God either Lord but both to all whether Creatures or Idols So where Christ bids his Apostles baptize them that beleev he doth not exclude their infants but such as beleev not the Gospel being preached unto them Likewise where Paul saith of the incestuous man that he was rebuked of many he opposeth not many to all as some conceav but to one viz. himself Lastly He that will expound the Scriptures ought in honour of the graces of God bestowed upon other men and in conscience of his own infirmitie with the holy use of other means to joyn the reading and searching of the commentaries expositions of such speciall Instruments as God in mercie hath raised up for the opening of them and edifying of the Church thereby remembring alwaies that the Word of God neither came from him nor to him alone He that depends too much upon other mens judgment makes as if the Word of God came not to himself at all He that neglects it as if it came to him onely Of which two evils the latter is so much the worse as arrogancie in a mans self is more odious both to God and men then either slacknesse in examining or dulnesse in discerning or excessive fear of departing from the opinion specially receaved of others It is strange and lamentable that in the great profession of the Scriptures made in our dayes so many should be ignorant of the difference between the Law and the Gospel of which two heads the Scriptures consist making the Gospel nothing els but a more favourable and easie Law and thereby transforming grace into nature a promise to be receaved into a commandment to be fulfilled and the offering of new life even the life of Christ into the exacting of old and due debt onely God as an absolute Lord gives his holy Law saying Do this and live and therein properly exacts obedience as a naturall debt of the reasonable creature thereunto enabled by creation But as a gracious Father publisheth the Gospel in it offering help to the miserable and helplesse creature and working withall according to the election of grace power will to receav the help and hand offered This if many considered as they ought they would not as they do plead the power of mans free-will in Spirituall things against the free grace of God nor exclude as some of them do the infants of beleevers from the covenant and baptism of the Church as though God could not shew grace because they cannot shew free-will to receav it The utmost ordinarie means of revelation of Gods will for mans salvation and happines is the Gospell When the Law written in mans heart by creation was almost worn out God gave it written in tables of stone But life and freedom from sin and death being impossible to the Law in that it was weak through the flesh and all men by it whether considered as written in tables of stone or of the heart by creation comming short of the glory of God it hath pleased the same God by the Gospell of his son Christ to provide a gracious remedy that the sick to death by the justice of the Law might be cured yea the dead revived by the grace of the Gospell and mercy of God therein And other remedy besides and beyond this for the obteyning of salvation God hath not revealed He that fulfils not the righteousnesse of the Law violates Gods justice but remaining obstinate against the grace of the Gospel also he despises with Gods justice his mercy and his authority in both And what remains for such but a fearful expectation of the work of his terrible power of the revelation of his wrath from Heaven against all specially such ungodlinesse of men For if the word of the Law spoken by Angels was steadfast and everie transgression and disobedience receaved a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation of the Gospel which at first began to be preached by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him CAP. IX Of Authoritie and Reason AVthoritie leads us to the Authour of a thing and bids us rest in his word whether for credence to his relation or obedience to his commandment Reason wils us to look to the thing it self and to the arguments for or against it taken either from common sense or naturall principles and conclusions or other undoubted grounds of truth or goodnesse of matter The ground in Authoritie is in a sort personall in Reason reall It is a kind of impeachment of Authoritie to examine the Reasons of things so is it a prejudice to Reasons work to call Authoritie to counsell save onely when God speaks for then the Authoritie justifies the Reason and Reason bids receav the Authoritie and do all things commanded without reasonings The Authoritie and credit of him that relates a matter whether man or Angel yea or God himself makes it not the truer in it self but the more readily to be beleeved by them that hear it The testimonie of God in his Word that in the beginning he made the World of nothing and will judg men and Angels at that day by Iesus Christ is onely therefore true in it self because God indeed hath done the one and will do the other but is therefore by us to be beleeved as true because he so testifies in his Word Divine Authoritie is to sway with us aboue all Reason yea Reason teacheth that God is both to be beleeved and obeyed in the things for which man can see no Reason And hence it is that the Lord hath so severely punished mens transgressing his Laws of Ceremonies and Divine Institutions called by the Schoolmen voluntarie precepts for that in commanding of them Gods absolute Authoritie most clearly appears and mans pure obedience in observing them Humain Authoritie hath more or lesse weight according to the worth of the person or other circumstances But as the moneys of all men high and low good and bad are alike so are the Reasons The meanest mans Reason specially in matter of Faith and obedience to God is to be preferred before all Authoritie of all men I say specially of Faith yet not excluding other subjects For though I will and ought to do some things simply because I am commanded yet I will not therefore simply beleev that any thing is good in it self And albeit I am bound to obey humain Authoritie in sundry things for the commanding of which I know no Reason yea know there is no Reason yet know I Reason for mine
inwards of the man and with what heart and affection he undertakes any state or action so is the outward also because God is the God of order Also when a man knows himself to be orderly called to a condition of life he both sets himself more chearfully and roundly to the works thereof wherein he is assured he servs Gods providence by his order and appoyntment and with fayth expects a blessing from God upon his endeavours in that course of life in which his hand hath set him and with all bears with comfort the crosses befalling him therein as wee see in David whose sheild of comfort against all darts of danger was that God had selected him unto himself and annoynted him his king upon Sion the mountayn of his holynes Litle account is made by many of a lawfull outward calling whereas indeed it is that alone by which all states save those that are naturall and so are subject neyther to election nor change are both constituted and continued For what makes him who yesterday was none to day to be a magistrate in the common wealth minister in the Church steward in the family or any other officer or member in any orderly society but an orderly outward calling by them who have lawfull authority to confer that state upon him This being neglected opens a gap to all confusion in all states The gifts of a man enable him to his office his grace sanctifyes both the gifts and office to the person his inward calling perswades his heart to undertake the outward in desire to glorify God and in love to men his exequution of it in the works thereof presuppose it and testify his faythfulnes in it but onely the outward orderly calling confers the outward state and condition of life Abilitie for a mans calling is greatly to be desired for many reasons For first it is a thing well-pleasing in Gods sight specially in the most serviceable courses of life as we may see in Salomon who being called to the state of a King desired above all other things kingly endowments and therein pleased God greatly Secondly He whom God calls to a place or sets over a busines he enables accordingly as he did the same Salomon being set over a people many in number as the sand by the sea shore with wisdom and largenes of heart as the sand by the sea-shore Thirdly It is great case to a man when he is mayster of his place and course and able to play with it otherwise if he be compelled to strive continually with it it will both make his life burthensome and force him at some time or other to let fall the works thereof as unable to weild it Yet if such a one be willing and able to bear it out it is a good way for him to grow to great perfection by daily improveing his abilitie to the full as Milo by using to bear a calf every day proved able to bear him when he was grown an oxe Fourthly It is an honour to a man to be excellent in his faculty yea though it be mean in it self And so men excelling in mean trades or callings are more regarded then those who are mean in more excellent faculties One sayth truly that even plowmen and sheep-heards being excellent are applauded Lastly the unskilfulnes of the artisan dishonours the art it self how excellent soever in the eyes of many although in reason it should not so be seeing that the more excellent any profession is it finds the fewer whose worth can answer its excellencie Although callings most usefull and necessarie are most despised by prowd folks both because they are ordinary and common and followed by mean and ordinary persons yet it stands with a good conscience to provide that our course of life be such as in which we benefit humayne societyes And an uncomfortable thing it is to him that hath any either feare of God or love to men to spend his dayes and labour in such a course as by which more hurt then good comes to the world It is a good and godly course for a person diligently to read and seriously to meditate upon such places of holy Scripture as concern his or her speciall calling as for the magistrate diligently to read Deut. 1. 16. c. the minister 1 Tim. 3. and so for husband and wife father and childe mayster and servant and the rest that by so doing we may both more fully learn and better remember and conscionably practise the particular duetyes in which God would have us exercise our generall christian graces CHAP. XXVIII Of the use and abuse of things WE are said to enjoy God alone and to use the creatures because we are not to rest in them but in God onely to whom we are to be holpen by them And of the things which we use some of them we must use as though we used them not others as though we used them The World and all things serving for this life we ought to use with a kinde of indifferency and without setting the affections of our hearts upon it or them how busy soever our hands be about them spirituall good things on the contrary and which concern our eternall happines we ought to use as using them indeed with all earnest bent of affection upon them and as not suffering our selvs at any hand to be disappoynted of the fruit of them God sayth the wise man hath made every thing beautifull in his time and indeed every thing is good for something I mean every thing that God hath made for there are many vayn and leaud devises of men which are truly good for nothing as on the other side nothing is good for every thing And hereupon Prometheus told the Satyre when he would haue kissed the fire upon his first seeing it that if he did so it would burn his lips as not being for that use but to minister heat and light Some things alwayes bear as it were their use on their backs and cause also the right use of other things where they are found as the sanctifying graces of Gods spirit which yet some use more fully and faythfully then others and this is also a grace of God whereas all other things haue theyr good in theyr useing and not in their owning And a great poynt of wisdom and advantage for good it is to apply things to their right use and end whether great or smal He that can doe this spiritually is happy though he have receaved but one pound for others five or ten As on the other side how many were though not happy yet lesse miserable if they altogether wanted the wit learning riches and authority which they want grace to use according to the will of the giver A man hath that most and best whereof he hath the lawfull use And hereupon a follower of a great Lord was wont to say that he had in effect as much
fond love of parents the family This love Salomon respecting the effect more then the affection cals hatred saying He that spareth his rod hateth his son Notwithstanding this and that God hath left power and charge also of punishments in all societies family church and common wealth which they that exercise bear the image of Gods justice and holynes the honour whereof they are to preserv and to breed and continue in them over whom they are set a reverend aw of their authoritie for their good yet considering both mans frailtie and pronenes to offend and miserie in suffering for offences all in authoritie should still encline to the more favourable part and rayther to come short then to exceed measure in punishing even where the offence is evident and where it is doubtfull to forbear at any hand He that punisheth another whether as judg or exequutioner eyther must know legally that he hath done evill and deserved it otherwise the authoritie of the whole world cannot bear him out from being a murtherer before God The law which sayth Thou shalt not murther forbids specially violence in judgment Besides punishments must be administred with sorrow and commiseration as rewards with joy and gladnes It is pittie men should deserv punishments and deserving them pittie but they should have them yet are we to pitty them in their miserie also which he that doth remembers himself to be a man Lastly it is worthy the observing which one hath that in all punishments respect is to be had to things to come rayther then past For howsoever the punishment be just onely in lieu of the offence committed yet is it profitable onely because it tends to prevent after offences eyther in the person punished or in others warned by it And hereupon another would not have a wise man punish because an offence is committed but least it should be committed afterwards of which the former renders this reason that things past cannot be recalled but things to come may be prevented Temporary torments specially those more great are greivous to conceav of how much more to undergoe yet will the sad and serious consideration of those that are eternall eat them up as it were and make them seem nothing in comparison Whereupon it was that Polycarpus tould the proconsul who threatned to burn him if he did not renounce Christ Thou threatnest me with the fire which would burn for a time but presently after should be extinguished because thou art ignorant of the fire of the judgment to come prepared for the eternall punishment of the wicked Fear not them then which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But rayther fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell CHAP. LIIII Of the Affections of the minde OVR affections as love sorrow fear and the rest are common to us with bruit beasts which therefore the understanding must order that they be not bruiteish and with them the will for its yeilding of consent to their motions or withholding it from them But as the litle sticks set the greater wood a burning so do they most what set the understanding and will aworking in sensuall objects For example One sees a naturally pleasing good thing but belonging to another or not to him as Achans wedg of gold His affection of love and appetite is inordinately caryed unto it and is ready to sollicit the will to consent to the getting and enjoying of it But now if the understanding do its dutie it steps in represseth the affection and restreyneth the will by discerning and discovering that the good thing desyred is anothers and therefore not to be desyred or had by him But as the fumes arysing from a corrupt stomack darken and dim the bodily eyes so in sensuall persons the understanding is commonly besides its own inherent blyndnes so corrupted with partiall and brutish affections as that it neglecteth all due search and disquisiâ—ion and unadvisedly judgeth that good which is pleasing to appetite and sense and so being sweyed and led by the affections as a foolish waggoner by his horses draws with it the wils consent which obteyned the evill is done in Gods account and wants onely opportunitie for outward effect Although the seat of the affections be the soul whose motions they are and not the bodyes yet do they more or lesse vehemently and efficatiously act and exercise themselvs as the blood and spirits the souls immediate instruments are more or lesse fitted to their hand Hence is it that anger in the heart moved by some occasion is so vehement in a cholerick body sorrow or fear in a melancholick and so for the rest These our affections are eyther merely naturall in us or sanctifyed by grace or morally corrupt and inordinate Nature and so naturall affections is content with a litle corruption not with a great deal as the thirst which is naturall is quenched with a draught or two but that which is unnaturall and agueish not with a whole vessell of drink This and the reason of it he layes down wittily that sayth Naturall desires are finite but those arysing from false opinion have no limits as he that goes his right way hath some end of his journey he that wanders none And as for sanctified affections they alasse are too feeble in us and as Iehu was known by his furtous marching so may they be by their soft and lazy pace neyther if they were excessive were they sanctified that is directed by grace and good reason nor are they easily so if they be any thing vehement but have commonly too much flesh mingled with them And no marvayl for setting our affections above where Christ is and whither the spirit of grace advanceth them we clime up the hill and withall draw after us the clog of our flesh lusting the contrarie way whereas sensuall men led by their lusts goe down the hill and are caryed headlong to evill Besides sensuall objects are present to the outward senses by which the affections are moved but things spirituall are seen a far of as needing the direction and discourse of fayth for provokeing of affection unto them which makes their work in this case more weak and slow Yet being created faculties they are the greater the better if rightly ordered And so it is not unbrobably sayd by some that Christ had the greatest fear sorrow anger c. upon him that ever man had or could have But as the stronger the horses in the waggon are though the better yet the more dangerous so are those horses of the soul in us lest by misguidance they overthrow all And as for violent and inordinate affections the person in whom they are found how wise or wel meaning soever otherwise or howsoever bent upon some good course is no more to be trusted to then the charyot drawn by unbroken horses going for the present quietly on and in a good way
and in the hands of young men if there be not counsayl at home and in the breasts of the aged And as some fruits are ripe before others and divers fit for divers seasons of the year so God and nature hath so ordayned that the bodyes of young men should be ripe in their youth fittest for bodily employments by reason of their naturall heat and spirits and the counsayls of old men in their age through their long experience and observation Things go well where both do their parts in societies It is worthily sayd of one that Childehood should be manly that is not without all wisedom and age childe-like that is without pride and arrogancy Yet may the aged above the younger sort chalenge and use a kinde of authority and confidence in their words caryage So is there to be permitted unto childhood that childeishnes which without violence to nature the God thereof cannot be driven from it Many in pride striving and streyning to have their children men and women too soon and ere they be full boyes and girls force them above their pace and eyther cause them to tyre as discouraged or occasion them to content themselvs in after time with certayn manly forms without substance unseasonably forced upon them in their childehood Fruits ripened by art before their time are neyther toothsom nor wholesom So children made men when they should be children prove children when they should be men Notwithstanding stubbornnes and corruption cannot too soon be forced out of them Neyther is half that libertie to be given to the younger sort which they would take not knowing nor being easily brought to beleiv how slipperie their state is till they come to feel it by their fals which if they did they would not complayn with the foolish young man in the poet that all parents keeping any hand over their children though for their good are injurious unto them As all men are to honour all men because they are men and made after Gods image so should the younger sort specially be trayned up to a bashfull and modest reverence towards all and cheifly towards their ancients Which so well becomes their mayden years as that the phylosopher accounts blushing a vertue in young folks though a fault in the aged Many parents desire to have their young ones trayned up in such exercises and courses as may inbolden them But they should for the most part provide much better for them specially in our audacious age if they got them held constantly in courses of modestie and â—hamefastnes that so Demetrius might have his wish in them which was that young folks would reverence their fathers at home all men abroad and themselvs being alone The Apostle writeing to Timothie warns him to fly the lusts of youth If Timothy who was brought up in the knowledg of the Scriptures from a childe and who had profited so well therein and whose place in the church was so eminent for the teaching and governing of others stood in need of such advertisement and warning what warning can be sufficient for ordinarie young people to eschew and fly from such lusts and vanities as to follow after them and unto which the heat and heedlesnes of youth carryeth them It is indeed a great mercy of God when young persons get over that their slipperie and inexperienced state without eyther such publique scandall or secret wound of conscience as the scar whereof they carry to their graves with them How much more and greater a mercy is it when they receav the grace to consecrate their youth and best dayes to God in holynes offering their souls and bodyes as the sacrifices of young lambs unblemished upon the Lords altar Wicked men who hate goodnes both in youth and age use to say young saints old divels But the truth is young divels old Beelzebubs for the most part To whom yet if God in singular grace vouchsafe repentance in after age what a corasive will it be to the heart of such a convert casting back his eyes to his youth consumed in lusts and vanitie to think how great dishonour he hath brought to Gods name and hindrance to others salvation which he may repent of but cannot redeem On the contrarie sweet is the remembrance in old age of a youth led in true vertue and godlynes Some would enjoy both the honour of age and liberty of youth But curled grey hayr is not comely Eyther state hath its benefit and burden alotted of God He that obteyns the benefit must be content to bear the burden Young men must be content to want the honour which is due to the aged of their order otherwise in regard of the image of Gods eternitie which they bear And so must the aged be content to forbear even the lawfull libertie delights of youth Multitude of years should teach wisdom sayth young Elihu in Iob to his three ancients And this the younger sort should with reverence and may with good reason look for at their elders hands considering their long experience and manifold advantages above them for the getting of wisdom This wisdom makes their age honourable indeed and their grey head a crown of glory being founded in the way of righteousnes whereas an elementarie old man having no other argument to prove that he hath lived long but his grey hayrs and wrinkled forehead is a contemptible and ridiculous creature How many such a b c old folks are there in the world whose grey hayrs promise wisdom knowledg and to whom opportunitie and means of atteyning it hath not been wanting who yet being proved and known will appear very babes in understanding and such as for that skill had need to begin to live againe This is not meerly a want of wit in them or of the love of knowledg eyther but withall a curse of God upon them usually punishing a lustfull and rechlesse youth with a doltish age in whom the proverb is true in another sense Ab equis ad asinos Such of young horses become old asses A wise man should live well in youth and before old age come that he may dye well in age if it come and may be ready for death as the white regions are for the harvest and so may both wayt for it and even meet it the more boldly in the way of such vertuous actions as expose unto it For though youth likelyhood of long life should make none withdraw from any good duety or doe amisse for fear of danger of losse of life yet age should though in course of nature the more fearfull upon ground of good reason wisdom and grace make men the more ventersom of that in a good cause which God destiny will deprive them of ere long though other men let them alone as Solon was bold upon his old age to oppose himself to Pisystratus the tyrant One adviseth to be old