a full and foul mouth as Solifidians and Nullifidians and to brand our Religion with that odious nickname Calva Calvini sides The bald faith of Calvin This they affirm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a bare and â—ald head and therein shew that they have not so much as one hair of honest men An impudent and shameless calumny purposely devised by him who is a lyar and the Father of it and most opprobriously and injuriously obtruded upon the Protestant party and reformed Churches The sounder part whereof (*) Sicut substantia sundamentum est omnium accidentium sic fides omnium virtutum donorum Bâ—navent Serm. de Sanclis Ex fide crumpurt â—â—ra opâ— a. Luther reverences Faith as a spiritual Dorcas that is full of good works with which it is evermore attended and accompanied as individual and inseparable companions And in case works be wanting they make no other account and reckoning of such a kind of Faith then a bare name without a thing a sign without a thing signified a shadow without a substance a body without a soul A dead faith as St. James makes out the comparison Jam. 2.26 For as the Body without the Spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also A meer Sceleton and carkass of it Faith indeed is a more inward and radical grace of a spiritual nature without flesh and bones as our Saviour concludes of every spirit But good works are Fides incarnata as Luther stiles them Faith manifested in the flesh which may be seen and felt of others And in this sense though somewhat beside it divers of the Ancients expound those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.46 That is not first which is spiritual but that which is carnal referring it to faith and works and preferring works before it Not to enter the list of a comparison which of them should be the greater a question that sometimes happened amongst Christ's Disciples and yet a little to illustrate the matter by a similitude Faith is as the inward wheels of a Clock that move it and make it go Works are as the Hand or Fingen of the Dial which though it be no cause of motion yet is it an evident sign how the Clock goes within and outwardly points forth the hour of the day to the Traveller in the streets Thus is Faith discerned and descried by our Works Secondly To improve and encrease grace working is necessary for the improvement of grace received which though free y given yet must it be encreased by our pains and industry in renewing and repeating the several acts of it Even as the sire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar yet being once kindled it was maintained by the addition of new wood and fuel (k) Concil Nicen 1 part 2. cap. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though we receive grace without labour at the first yet can we not preserve it without labour say the blessed Fathers of the first Nicene Councel Thirdly To attain and gain salvation working is necessary for the attaining of salvation as a condition of an obligation as motion unto rest as the way to the end of the journey and the means unto the end For as in nature there can be no passage from one entream to another but by a middle that intervenes and comes between and so unites and joins them together No more can we be translated from a state of corruption to a state of happiness but by working as the means We must not look to commence in Heaven per saltâ—â—m to skip and leap into it neither nature nor grace allow it The greater part of the world would have glory without grace and happiness without holiness like to the Roman Dictator Sylla that had rather be sirnamed Foelix then Pius Fain would men receive the wages and yet not do the work but in vain and to no end For life eternal is resembled by a Crown which they alone wear that run yea so run that they may obtain And as the old Romans gave the obsidional Crown to him that had delivered a City from the siege of the enemy and that made of the grass and flowers of the besieged City Even so doth God reward men according to their works and sets them as a Crown upon their head Let this be granted as an undoubted truth that salvation is a reward yet such a reward as issues out of meer bounty and liberality no wages or due debt Nor is it given Propter factum sed pacium not for the worthiness of the deed done but by a (k) Bona opera non sunt causa rogni sed via regnandi Bernard de Liber Arbit promissory obligation and engagement by way of covenant working is the means whereby not the cause why we come to salvation and though it be stiled our salvation yet is it as Faith and Repentance are termed ours being in us but not of us and actions and passions denominate the subject and not the cause God only is the efficient cause and author and man the proper subject or object of it For though works be never so necessary in themselves both in regard of their presence and instrumental efficiency as a condition means and way ordained by God that we should walk in yet must we not set so high a rate upon them as if they were a suficient price for Heaven any way adaquate and equivalent in proportion to the recompence of reward This alone is fitly compared to the penny in the Gospel and money as the wise man speaks answers all things and is the measure and rule of all but is not to be bought and sold at all It was the sacrilegious errour of Simon Magus to conceive that the gift of God might be purchased with money and it hath a spice of his sin and may so pass for a kind of spiritual Simony to think that salvation which is the gift of God may be procured with our labour The Papists indeed have coined a counterfeit and base money of merit to buy Heaven withall and though it hath none of Gods image and superscription yet would they give that unto God which is none of Gods as if they were to truck and chaffer and barter with him by way of merchandise and to deal with him upon the strictest terms of commutative justice Hear them speak in their own language Opera bona mercatura regni coelestis saith Bellarmine Heaven is as due to good works as Hell to bad So Andradius Coster the Rhemists on the New Testament Let Andrew Vega that proud Jesuite as the foreman of the Jury give in the Verdict for all the rest Gratis non accipiam He will rather lose it then take it as a free gift Nor do the Papists offend more on the right hand then the * Canisius lib. 1. de corrupt verbi Dei cap. 10. Flaccians and the rigid Lutherans on the left who decree them as unnecessary as hurtful as
bad They both grow alike 5 The Time and Term of the flourishing estate of the wicked It is but until the Harvest And this until is both a Note of Determination and Termination Till then It doth not end before Till then it doth not continue after 6. The true and proper reason of the being growth and continuance of the Wicked And that is Christ's sufferance and toleration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suffer both to grow together until the harvest I shall take them up as they lay in order And first of the first 1. The first Proposition The different nature of good and bad resembled by Wheat and Tares The purblind world judgeth all things amisse and observes no inequality or disparity among the sons of men Homo homini quid praestat stulto intelligens quid interest say they with him in the comedie What difference in point of excellency betwixt one man and another But if we consult with the Oracle of God that resolves us to the contrary The righteous is more Excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12.26 And iâ— there be any creature of greater transcendency then the rest it seems to illustrate their dignity by way of similitude and comparison As being the Lillie among Flower The Dove among Fowls Gold among Meâ—tals And wheat among grain both for the worth and weight of it A fit Emblem of the Faithful who are the chief and choice of men even as Wheat beareth the greatest price and value among grain And the worth of the faithful appears in their weight in in regard of their stedfastness and stability their constancy and continuance which are no way moved much less removed with the gusts and blasts of temptation Even as Wheat which is a ponderous and a heavy substance is not carried away with the force and violence of the wind (d) Cyprian de unit Eccles Sect. 8. Nemo putet bonos de Ecclesia posse discedere Triticum non rap t ventus saith St. Cyprian But as for the ungodly they are as Tares or blasted Ears Tares for their emptiness whose heart is utterly destitute of grace and goodness even as blasted Eares have no inward pith nor substance no food nor foison in them and Tares be for their lightness (e) Avoleâ—t quantum volent Paleae levis fidei quocunque afflatu tentationum eo purior massa frumenti in horrea domini reponetur Tertul. de Praeser adver Haeret. Inanes Paleae Cypr. ibid. Paleae levis fidei as Tertullian stileth them and so subject to fly away being hurried to and fro with every puff of wind The Southern wind of favour and preferment which blowes upon them with a gentle and pleasing blast and though in it self it be but an evil wind yet in their opinion it blows them to good The blustering and boisterous North winds of trial and persecution Each of these winds whether it blows from the North or South doth easily carry away these light and empty Tares out of the Church And those our Saviour he sets forth under the similitude of Tares or blasted Eares in the Parable of the Text. And that in opposition to the Wheat thereby importing their unprofitable and worthless nature Such is the difference betwixt good and bad as betwixt Wheat and Tares 2. The impurity and imperfection of the visible Church The second Proposition consisting of good and bad even as the same field contains both Wheat and Tares The name of the Church is no univocal word wherein there is an agreement both of Name and Nature but an aequivocal voice where things of a most different nature communicate in the same name I speak not this of the Jesuites who in respect of their execrable doctrine of their mental reservations and aequivocations are fitly stiled aequivocal Christians But of the external members of the visible Church the greater part whereof are only commended by the titular profession of Christianity as an empty sign and shadow and yet want the thing signified and are utterly destitute of the substance And as the name of the Church is no univocal but aequivocal voice so the Church it self is no Homogeneal but an Heterogeneal body not like unto the similar parts of men Blood Spirits or the like each portion whereof is suitable and agreeable to the whole But resembling the organical parts as a Leg or Arm which consists of Skin Flesh Bones and Marrow And these far different from each other There are three several places in the world Heaven Hell and Earth In Heaven above there are none but perfectly good the blessed society of Saints and Angels In Hell beneath none but irrecoverably wicked the cursed crue of damned spirits But the visible Church upon Earth is a middle place and state betwixt both a confused mixture and medley both of good and bad like unto Noahs Ark wherein were cooped up both clean and unclean beasts A wide drag-net that closes not only profitable fish but worthless weeds and beggery A common Inne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a receptacle for all commers A great House which affords vessels of gold and silver and some other of wood and earth 2 Tim. 2.20 A Barn or threshing Floor where corn and chaff lie covered in the same heap Mot. 3.12 And here in the Text A vast and open Field that brings forth Wheat and Tares And as it was said of Hantbals Army Colluvies omnium gentium So is the visible Church a promiscuous Company and Congregation a rabble and a rapsody of all sorts corrupt Hereticks who deprave the verity of the faith supercilious and factious Schismaticks that deprive and destrâ—y the unity of the Church disguised and masked Hypocrits meer Scepticks in their opinion Hybrides in their profession Amphibia in their conversation like unto those flying fishes in America that live sometimes in the water and sometimes in the air and are ill accepted in both places the ravenous fishes being ready to devour them below and the Sea fowls continually beating them above And last of all men openly profane and vicious (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat Epist ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat ibid. Ignatius reduces the several sorts of men in the visible Church to two Heads and observes the same difference among men that is to be found in coyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof some is true and sound such as can endure the Touch the other is false and counterfeit Holy men are God's coyn that bear his image and superscrip ion But as for proâ—â—ne and wicked men they are adulterate deceitful and corrupt â—oyn that are minted and stamped by the Divel It is St. Chrysoâ—â—omes observation upon the 23. of Saint Matthâ—w that there is somewhat bred and born in every creature that wasts and consumes the substance The soundest Timber engenders worms the finest Garments give life to Moths The most wholesome Herbs bring forth small flies that fret them in pieces Neither fares it otherwise
gape and thrust out their Tongues against profession and purity it self And because all is not gold that glisters they from hence take occasion to reject and condemn the most orient and shining colour of the purest gold Needs must it be as a racking pain and torture yea as the torments of Hell to God's faithful Servants The word signifies no less and so it proved unto just Lot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2 8 He racked and tortured and tormented his righteous soul in Sodome as if he had been in Hell it self in seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds And where shall we find a Lot either without his Sodome or without racking the joynts of his soul with inward grief and sorrow To hear the blasphemy of the common multitude in every street which makes their ears to tingle who by their cursed oaths in each Fair and Market crucifie the Lord of life the second time open his wounds cause his blood to stream forth a fresh yea rend and tear asunder his sacred Body Like unto a company of Blood-hounds or Hellhounds rather having seized upon a poor Hare which they soon dispatch and pull one joynt from another That the lascivious and lustful livers should defile the Temples of the Holy Spirit and make the members of Christ the members of an Harlot That the voluptuous and sensual Glutton the swinish Drunkard should ordinarily abuse the good creatures of God to riot and excesse making their bodies no other then (n) Cribra ciborum potuum Senec. Colanders and strainers for meats and drinks meer graves to bury both the creatures and themselves alive and even dig their Graves with their Teeth And who is there among the people of God that doth seriously consider and lay to heart their calamity that they are even constrained not onely to breath in the same open air but to abide in the same Church with such men or beasts rather and renews not this sad and mournful complaint of David Woe is me that I remain in Meshech and have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar How should this inflame the hearts of the faithful with an uncessant and unsatisfied desire of removing out of this world of exchanging the company of wicked and ungodly for the Spirits of just and perfect men the Society of Saints and Angels How should this provoke and excite them to a vehement and earnest longing of being Members in the Church Triumphant and of sharing in the accomplishment of that promise Cant 4.8 Come with me from Lebanon my spouse even with me from Lebanon and look from the Top of Amana from the Top of Shenir and Hermon from the Dens of the Lyons and from the mountains of the Leopards A threefold promise that Christ passes unto his Church 1. Of Delivery 2. Of Victory 3. Of Safety 1. A promise of delivery out of the world Lebanon which is a part of it being put for the whole 2. A promise of victory whereby the Church shall be exalted upon the Tops of the highest Hills and shall triumphantly look upon her vanquisht enemies that shall be trodden under feet 3. A promise of safety from Lyons and Leopards cruel and blood-thirsty men and from dissembling and coloured Hypocrites that have as many contrary forms and guises as a Leopards skin hath spots Saint Austin reports of his mother Monica that having discoursed and reasoned together of the joys of Heaven she being ravished with the consideration of them sent forth this ejaculation as a Harbinger to Heaven before her (o) August Conf. lib. 9. cap. 10. Fili quantum ad me attinet nuliâ jam re delector in hac vitâ Quid hic faciam adhuc cur hîc sim nescio I am delighted with nothing of this life And what do I and why am I here Hieron Epist And Saint Hierom relates of the Monks in Egypt that when they heard any mention of the Kingdom of Christ and of the glory of the life to come they all stole a secret sigh and lifting up their eyes to Heaven repeated the words of the Psalmist Psal 55.6 Quis dabit mihi pennas sicut columbae O that I had the wings of a Dove then would I flee away and be at rest And why should not the meditation of this worlds misery in regard of the association of the godly with the wicked beget in us the same desire that the apprehension of the glory of Heaven wrought in them why should it not move us to flie to Heaven not with the wings of a Dove but with our ardent wishes and devout affections which are the wings of the Soul Why should we not long after the end of the world when Christ will gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and them that doe iniquity When he will pluck up these Tares by the roots which till then must of necessity grow together And this is the fourth point that falls in course 4. The Temporal prosperity and felicity of good and bad They both grow alike The Fourth Proposition The things of this life are neither morally good nor evil but of an indifferent and middle nature and indifferently dispensed to all sorts of men Vt nec mala turpiter evitentur That neither the crosses thereof should be abhorred as sins wherein thebest of God's Servants have their greatest share and portion Nec bona cupâ—dius appetantur Nor the comforts thereof too too eagerly desired and coveted whereof the most profane wicked are proprietaries and possessors Sometimes God pours forth with a liberal hand and heaps those external blessings in an abundant incasure upon the heads of the righteous as he did upon (p) Constantinum Imperatorem tantis teirenis implevit muneribus quanta optare nullus auderet August de Civ Dei lib. 5. c. 25. Constantine the great so that it is the height of boldness and presumption for any man to pray for the like It is the expression of St. Austin And yet for the most part the men of the world who have their portion in this life as the Psalmist describes them surpass and outstrip the godly in this respect The Tares stand boult-upright with an high and a lofty Top when as the good corn hangs down the head and is bowed to the ground I have seen the wicked strong and spreading himself like a green Bay Tree It is David's observation Psal 37.35 Tanquam arbor indigena virens as Junius renders it out of the original As a Tree that grows out of the soyl of the earth of its own accord whereof the earth is the natural mother and so more indulgent in affording it plenty of juyce and moisture Then unto those whereof she is an hard or unkind stepmother and planted by the hand of another This resemblance we find in nature and we need not seek far for the like in the course of the world even as in the structure of a house the chimney is designed to
are spirits in their function and office Believe not every spirit that are assigned and deputed to a spiritual service and imployment Thus a Prophet and a spiritual man are Synonymous and signifie one and the same thing The Prophet is a fool the spiritual man is mad Hosea 9.7 If any man thinks himself a Prophet or spiritual 1 Cor. 14.37 In both which places a Prophet and a spiritual man are linked together and go hand in hand And in this sense is the word here used in the Text and the name of spirit is taken by way of Metonymy for such an one as boasts and brags of the gift of the spirit for the discharge of a Prophets duty (b) Calv. in Lecum Nomen spiritus Metonymice accipitur pro eo qui spiritus done se praeditum esse jacrat ad obeundum Prophetae munus as Calvin well observes upon the place And if we take a full view of the Text we shall then find that they who are termed Spirits in the beginning and the middle are styled false prophets in the latter end of the Verse so that these spirits are no other then false prophets And herein we may take notice of a concession and a caution of the Apostle 1. A Concession A concession in that he grants them the honour of their name the dignity of their high place and calling the excellency of their parts and gifts All which are but airy and empty vanities huskes without grain shels without kernels unless they be stufft with realities and substance of inward holiness Nomine illuditur cui res nomini subjecta negatur saith Tortullian An honourable name and a glorious calling is but a goodly mockery where the truth of the name is wanting This is St. John's concession in that he gives them their due style and title Tertul. adv Marcion lib. 1. and freely affords them the name of spirits yet believe them not this is his caution or admonition 2. A Caution But is it not the great and weighty work of the Spirit of God to perswade men unto faith Doth he not use all possible arguments and inducements to incline and move the assent of the will to believe And would St. John have us to be Infidels Believe not What must we meer Scepticks and Academicks in religion and hold nothing positively and dogmatically as an established and grounded certainty what must we be such neuters in the Church as the Roman Orator in the commonwealth when he thus proclamed his indifferency Quem fugiam scio quem sequar nescio Must we know what to deny and not know what to believe This is the unstable state of many too many great Clerks and Scholars who having run out their lives in the study of Controversies and School-divinity in canvasing of doubts and questions and in (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Orat. 21. in laudem â—â—banas fighting with those School-weapons pro and con they are far better at the con then at the pro. and as Hierom speaks of Lactautius d Vtinam tam nostra confirmare potuisset quam facile aliena destruit So are they more able to confute others then to resolve or satisfie their own consciences This is not the scope and purpose of St. John's caution 〈…〉 onely to interdict a double fault or errour â— Inconsideration â— Inconstancy of judgement 1. Lightness and giddiness 2. Vnsteadiness and fickleness of belief 1. The first error St. John prohibits is inconsideration of judgement lightness and giddiness of belief Try all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 To try all things is a point of spiritual wisedom and discretion To hold fast that which is good Vtinam tam facile vera invenire possem quam falsa convincere is the property of Christian constancy and perseverance And it is St. Paul's method and order first to try and then to trust whereas such is the preposterous course of many that they begin at the wrong end of St. Paul's precept whosuddenly take up an hold-fast opinion without any previous tryal or examination It was a notable piece of folly of them in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athenag de Resurcarnis I have bought a Farm and I must needs go out and see it I have bought five yoak of Oxen and I go to prove them Luke 14.18 19. who by the rule of ordinary prudence should first have seen and proved ere they had concluded and struck up the bargain Such is the spiritual folly of the greater part who lay out their judgement as they suppose in buying the truth A double errour interdicted in the Caâ—tion and then make search and enquiry after it 1. Inconsideration or giddiness of belief But as it was the high commendation of the Heathen Emperor August in observing the rules of friendship Rarus ad meundas amicitias ad retinendas constantissimus that he was hardly drawn to enter the league of friendship but was most punctual and constant in the keeping of it Such should be the praise of an advised and wary Christian to be slow-paced in assent to those doctrines that are propounded but being once convinced of the truth he should not be more slow then sure and every way stedfast and immovable in their maintenance and just defence 2. A Second errour that Saint John forbids in these words believe not every spirit Inconstancy unsetledness is inconstancy of judgement unsteadinesse and ficklenesse of belief when men are meer whirlegigs in religion like unto Fanes and Weathercocks that are fastned to the tops and pinacles of the Temple and carried about with every wind That is St. Paul's metaphor Ephes 4.14 wavering and carried about with every wind of doctrine when men are now off and then on in their opinion now of this mind and forth with of another flust believing this spirit and soon after another And so ever spirit successively and in their turns Like unto the old Arrians who changed their faith every year and month (e) Eo processum est ut neque penes nos neque penes quenquam ante nos sanctum exinde aliquid atque invi labile perseveret Hil. cont Auxent Annuas menstruas de Deo fides decorn it is as St. Hilary tells them they took up a new faith every now your and every new Moon brought forth a new faith Their faith sometimes in the bull some 〈◊〉 in the Wane one while increasing another decreating and like the Moon in perpetual changes I cannot betten resemble these men thâ—â— to the Halcyon or Kings Fisher a Bird call'd by that name whose dead body being hung up in the house it flickers and moves to and fro and turns with the wind into every quarter Such Kings Fishers are there too too many in religion who are wheeled and hurried with every wind The wind of Soveraighty and Authority the wind of Honour and Presferment The wind
and affrights and scares them out of the profession of Christianity as conceiving by this means they shall soon become vile and contemptible and forfeit their reputation to ignomy and reproach For that which Salvian observes of the Humor of his Times is most true of ours (o) Si quis ex nobilibus ad Deum converti caeperit statim honorē nobilitatis amittit Statim enim ut quis melior esse tentaverit deterioris abjectione calcatur Ac per hoc on nes quodammodo mali esse coguntur ne viles habeantur Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 4. pag. 113. If any of the Nobility chances to be converted unto God forthwith he degrades himself and loses the honour of his Nobility Quantus in Christiano populo honor Christi ubi Religio ignobilem facit O how great is the honour of Christ even in the people of Christ where Religion renders men ignoble and betrayes them to contempt and scorn And this is the fear of many great ones of the Nobility and Gentry both that if they be truly zealous of Gods glory resolute down-right and thorow-pac'd in in his cause and quarrel If they set their faces toward Jerusalem with Christ and his Disciples and approve themselves not Agrippaes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almost but altogether Christians This will stain their Gentry taint their high-born blood ecclipse their credit and cloud their preferment This will open wide the black mouth of calumny and detiaction to stigmatize and brand them for brain-sick Puritans and formal Hypocrites This will burden them yea and break their backs with the weight of their heavy censures They are none of Caesars friends Incendiaries and common Boutefeus the very pests and plagues of the Commonwealth And for the better prevention of soul-mouthed Obloquie and disgrace they make use of this device and shift which they account of as a neat and quaint piece of State Policy to contain themselves within the narrow bounds and lists of Mediocrity and Moderation To be meerly indifferent and neutral in their carriage and to side with neither party They will not in any case be just overmuch which is the sage counsel of the wise man Eccles 7.18 They cannot endure to be noted for hot-spurs furious Jehu's that drive as if they were mad to over-lash and switch on too fast in Religion And indeed their main fear is to be true and sound Christians Christianity is a Race as Saint Paul resembles it 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtain whereunto is required agility of body strength and length of wind lest otherwise we tire and give over And as it is in other Races so likewise in this of Christianity wherein there are many purfie and short-winded Christians who set out with the foremost and run well for a while as S. Paul speaks of the Galatians but soon run themselves off their legs or out of breath And as that which causes this shortness of wind is either the corpulency and fatness of a soggy body or debility and faintness of spirits even so fat Livings and preferments A massie Corps belonging to an Ecclesiastical Dignity or else an over-timorous and feeble disposition make so many short-winded Christians who faint and fail ere they come to the goale and mark The price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus So that it is one of the two either the painted face of worldly glory inflaming the heart with inordinate love or the ugly vizard of worldly shame producing and causing in it immoderate fear That makes the conversion of great men to prove exceeding hard and difficult And when the most forcible means are attempted and applyed for the effecting of it they still remain in Agrippa's temper their pulse beats in the same manner and out of the abundance of their heart their mouth speaks and breaths out the same words Almost you perswade us to be Christians THE INNER-TEMPLE A SERMON Preached at Fakenham in Norfolk in the Lecture course Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 LONDON Printed by T. C. for Will. Rands at Fleet-bridge 1659. THE INNER-TEMPLE 1 COR. 3.17 For the Temple of God is holy which ye are WE are now Blessed be God presented and met together in the Temple The Preface And here is a Temple that presents it self and meets us in the Text. And what more proper and accommodate then to treat of the Temple in the Temple where both Text and place seem to comment upon each other The place whereon we stand is holy ground and Holiness becomes this House for ever Psal 93.5 Such is the Temple in the Text. For the Temple of the Lord is holy And yet lest some illiterate and literal Hearer should misapply the words to the material Temple as the ignorant Jews perverted our Saviours meaning John 2.19 Destroy this Temple Which our Saviour precisely affirms of the Temple of his Body Ver. 21. But he spake of the Temple of his Body St. Paul the best Expositour and Interpreter of himself puts the matter out of question and delivers himself in plain and positive Terms Which ye are The Parts of the Text are Two 1. A Thesis The Division of the Text. 2. An Hypothesis 1. The Shrine 2. And the Saint 1. The Saint is God himself the Holy one of Israel A Saint and more then a Saint The Saint as Christ spake of John the Baptist A Prophet and more then a Prophet Matth. 11.9 To whom the glorious Seraphims sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts Isa 6.3 2. The Shrine and that is the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church of God The Shrine the society and company of true Believers So that the sum of the words amounts to a double Observation A double observation 1. Sanctitas Templi For the Temple of God is Holy 2. Templum Sancti Which ye are Each of these agreeable to the several names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby the Temple is expressed in the original The material Temple is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mystical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both Holy But the first shall be last and the last first and by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall begin with the latter 1. Templum Sancti The Church is God's Temple There is not any creature but is of a limited and a finite nature The first Observation and confined to a definite place Bodily substances circumscriptive by way of circumscription Spiritual Essences as Angels and the souls of Men Definitive per Assignationem And are so restrained to a certain space that they neither are nor can be elsewhere present in the same Article of Time But God who is a divine and heavenly circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference no where is everywhere Repletive By way of diffusion and repletion
peremptory execution of justice to all complainants In all these respects they should be as hard as the Adamant immovable through fear or favor inflexible by menaces or rewards Such did Jethro commend to choice Men of courage in the first place Exod. 18.21 Which was Hierogly phically resembled by Solomons Throne supported and born up by Lions Magistrates must be as Lions not to devour and seize upon the prey these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were justly plainted by the Heathen but as bold and stout as Lions striking terrour and amazement into guilty consciences for they bear not the sword in vain And procuring an awful reverence of their Dignity by observing meet distance and decorum even in all yet still must they be Lions couchant under the Throne for so were those of Solomon not daring to prove rampant by way of opposition or to give an affront or check-mate to supreme authority Rare was the example of a Lord Chief Iustice of our own so famous in our Chronicle◠who ventured far in com mitting the Prince to prison for smiting him on the face and yet King Henry the fourth his Father thanked God at the tidings of it That he had both a Son of that obedience and a Judge of such irrespective and undaunted courage The Iudges in my Text were clean of another stamp and came as far behind in their exemplary vertue as they went before in time Partiality was their reproach and stain and this with their Bribery the motive cause of Gods restoring and yet not of the Iudges only but of the Counsellors So it follows in the Text The Judges and the Counsellors God descends from the Iudges to the Counsellors and my speech must descend likewise with the order of the words Betwixt these two there is a neer conjunction and are here linked in the same censure after the manner of Malefactors and seldom do they transgress alone They may not unfitly be assimilated to the Liver and the Heart in the body natural the Liver first concocts the meat and converts the nourishment into blood so transmitting it to the Heart which animates it by the inward heat and changes it into vital spirits Thus the Counsellor as the Liver prepares the matter for the Judge who like the Heart by his proper power doth umpire and determine it And as the Liver sometimes corrupts the Heart by conveighing crude and indigested humours and the Heart impoysons the Liver with pestilential vapours and distempers So oft the Counsellor perverts the sentence of the Judge by mis-information and the Iudge crosses the suggestions of the Counsellor by a sinister construction What were the particular faults of Judahs Counsellors is not punctually set down in the Context nor will I be over curious in the inquiry but only probably conjecture in touching those that are nearest allied with their profession and most ordinary in practice Some there are that have vented both their spleen and solly in speaking contumeliously of their calling Pope Pius his comparison of the Field the Fowl and the Net is well known and who were the Fowlers but Advocates and Atturneys Let me not be thought bold though I tax his Holiness Not to mention the resolution of the question by the Duke of Milan touching the precedency of the Lawyer and Physician it being scurrious and invective That common Proverb is as uncharitable as witty The Physitian seldome lives well and the Lawyer dies well The former being oft intemperate in their Diet the latter injurious in their Courses For mine own part I cannot but think as reverently of the Counsellours profession as of the name so honourable in it self that it is attributed by way of excellency to our blessed Saviour And he shall call his Name Counsellour Isa 9.6 yet is this no priviledge of exemption or supersedeas to the professours why they may not prove guilty of miscarriage or lay open to reproof Why else should they stand in need of God's restoring As he spake in praise of Tully He that would commend Cicero must be another Cicero for the strength and sinnews of his Oratory So it were a task more meet for a Lawyer then a Divine to acquaint you with the tith of their abuses I should weary your patience and mine own infirmity as they many of their Clients to insist upon their lingring and tedious delays Involution of practice Labyrinths of suits and controversies cross motions as fitly so stiled as Grammarians derive montes à movendo motion without motion Contentions springing up like Hydra's Heads following fast and thick as one wave upon the neck of another and as one circle begets many So true is that of Solomon The beginning of strife is as the opening of the waters Our Edward the first complained of this evil in his Time so that it hath Antiquity to plead for it That his Lawyers were long advising but never advised And another passed his judgement of them long before Pay them and they will delay you Pay them not and they will deceive you To omit these and many more for I must not be infinite and the tast of the least drop of water in the Sea will make sufficient proof of the brackishness Give me leave to point out in a word or two Two foul enormities and excessive grievances 1. The perverting of the Laws A double Fault of Counsellors by a corrupt interpretation 2. The disturbing and troubling the State with needless and endless altercations Both which may in some measure be imputed to the Counsellours as the Authors 1. The Law is not as other Arts and Sciences that are grounded upon immutable Principles The pervorting of the Laws and confined within certain rules and precepts whose Truth is Eternal yet is it founded upon the evidence of Reason which though it be differently observed in several Nations and is appliable to the emergent necessities and occasions of the same Kingdom nevertheless it must not be made a nose of wax to turn and writhe every way a skippers Hofe to stretch out and girt up at pleasure a Lesbian Rule to serve the present Time or resemble the Polypus in the property that receives the shape and colour from the body it cleaves too and the next adjoining substance How could there be more piety discretion circumspection and moderation used in the framing and enacting of the Laws and the Lawyers themselves who are the Guardians of this Orphan ought to be as the Priests in Malac. cap. 2.7 The people should seek the Law at their mouth And yet for all this as the Heathen man observes of the Athenians That they found out the use both of Corn and Laws (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot but made use of Corn and not of the Laws So are wholsome Laws neglected by the Authors and Contrivers and laid aside by such as should quicken them in the execution And many there are that study the Law for no other end then to find
serves Dominr Calvinus Epist Bullingero pag. 383. though Luther should call me foul fiend and Divel yet would I most willingly acknowledge him as a famous instrument of God's glory Fourthly We must keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace the bond of perfectness The Fourth Rule To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace without breaking this bond asunder And in case of breach there cannot be a more honourable work then to be called A repairer of the breach Isa 58.12 to close the rents and ruptures of the Church of God and to bind up her wounds with the good Samaritan Shall I provoke you to emulation with the example of the Primitive Christians of the first and best Age of the Church I might put you in mind of the memorable behaviour of Irenaeus in compounding the difference betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches about the precise Time of the celebration of Easter who therein shewed himself a true Irenaeus And as he was (r) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb lib. 5. c. 23. pag. 70. peaceable in his name so was he a peacemaker in his Disposition as Eusebâ—us speaks oâ— him I might tell you of great Saint Basil and Gregory Nazianzen who were as it were miraculously raised up in the Church of God being then miserably rent and torn asunder with strange Divisions (Å¿) Nazianz. vita pag. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like unto Runnels that is poured into Milk that makes it curdle and unites the dispersed and scattered parts together And let me add hereunto that Elogium of Calvin (t) Non aliter in â—cclesias quantumvis remotas affectus quam si illas humeris gestaret Beza in vita Calvin That he had no lesse tenderness no less feeling even of remote Churches then if he had born them on his own shoulders And it was a noble Resolution of his Ne decem quidom maria That it would not grieve him to sail over ten Seas to settle an uniform draught of Religion in the Church of God Seeing therefore we are compassed about with so great a cloud of Witnesses let us follow the direction and guidance of it as the people of Israel did the motion of the pillar of the cloud in the Wilderness and walk in the light of their Example Learn we from so many goodly patterns and presidents not to make the like use of dissensions and distractions in Religion that the superstitious Pharisees did of their Apparrel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who made broad their Phylacteries and enlarged the borders of their garments Matth. 23.5 But let us rather shorten and lessen them let us bring them into as straight and a narrow compass as may be and as much as lies in us utterly out them off by an unfeigned and zealous endeavour after peace and unity Secondly Charity must interpose in passing judgement and censures upon others In passing judgement censures upon others This must not be a precipitate a headlong a rash and unjust judgement Judge not after the appearance but judge righteous judgement John 7.24 where appearance and righteous are contra-distinguished to each other And then may men be said to judge according to appearance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is when they judge after the sight of the eyes which Christ himself did not lsu 11.3 Looking onely upon the face and outside as Samuel did upon Eliabs countenance and the height of his stature without prying and piercing into the hidden cause and the inward truth of the matter And herein we must observe a difference in the judgement of things and persons as is well noted by Aquinas the honour of the Schools (u) In rerum judicio debet aliquis niti ad hoc ut interpretetur unumquedque secundum quod est In judicio antâ— personarum us interpretetur in melius Aquin. 2da 2da quest 60. Artic. 4. In the judgement of things we must be exact and accurate and cut a hair if it were possible by interpreting them as they are in themselves without any addition or substraction But in the judgement of persons there is a greater latitude and liberty allowed in rendring them to the better by commenting upon the Text with a fair gloss and setting it off with a favourable Interpretation That man who makes another worse then he is makes himself worse then be And in matters of Fact of an evil colour or consequence it is a point of charity to apprehend or suppose them not done at the first For charity as it believeth all things so it hopoth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 and evermore presumes the best where there is not pregnant and proving Evidence to the contrary and favours the suspected or accused party in cases of an ambignous or doubtful nature that they are done out of weakness not wilfulness a common passion of humane frailty not any deliberate resolution or propensed malice and not so much out of any propending affection and inclination to the sin in their own persons as the importunate sollicitation and instigation of others and a prevailing power of a sudden and strong Temptation And howsoever we may spend our judgement upon wieked and ungodly men according to their present state and condition and deal plainly and roundly with them in an Apostolical manner Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die If ye live and die in your sins ye must needs die for your sins yet we must not desinitively pronounce any peremptory and damnatory sentence touching their final and last estate For who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 This is an Abortive kind of judgement that comes before the time and is justly disswaded by the Apostle 1 Cor. 4 5. Therefore judge nothing before the time till the Lord come And for men who were never empannell ' dâ—by God as his Jury to come in as a Quest of Life and Death and to give in a Verdict of Reprobates and Castawaies (x) Tertullia Apolog. cap. 19. de Excemmun Summum futuri judicii praejudicium est A strange kind of Prolepsis and no lesse uncharitable then presumptuous preoccupation of the latter Judgement Thirdly Our Charity must express it self in the exercise or forbearance of our Christian liberty In the exercise or for hearance of our Christian Liberty It is Saint Paul's advice 1 Cor. 8.9 Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak All manner of offence and scandal that is given though not taken be it in things morally evil or an indifferent and middle rank is either in the nature of the thing or the intention of the Doer a spiritual stumbling block laid in the way of ignorant or doubting Christians that hinders their going forward in the way of holiness as the dead Body of Amasa stopt the mareh of Joab's Army Or else it proves an
the rear and charge through and through far more furiously and desperately then the former Their Religion is errour themselves Hereticks their end destruction one Heaven cannot hold them and us hereafter nor one Church now That if we be not damned they will be damned for us This is the charity of the Papists And it would be no breach of charity to apply Jacobs imprecation against Simeon and Levi Brethren in evil Gen. 49.7 Cursed be them anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel And I will pray yet against their wickedness A second sort that offend against the rule of Charity are professing Protestants Professing protestants and those of both sides and parties the Lutheran and the Calvinist but especially the Lutheran And albeit they are distinguished into Rigidi molles Lutherani Rigid and gentle Lutherans yet for the generality and greater part they are Esaus and Edoms red and hairy all over like a garment and are as rough and rugged in their dispositions as he was hairy in his body Such is the bitterness of spirit and acrimony and sharpness of stile that possesses and transports some of them that Isaiahs Prophesie seems to be verified and fulfilled in a spiritual sense Isa 9.20 21 22. No man shall spare his brother they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh The Lutheran against the Calvinist and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and that with such animosities and heats of Passion that they (l) A Calviniana fraeternitate libera nos Demine Lutheranus quidam apud Prolaeum Fasc cap. 1. q. 7. pray against the brotherhood of the Calvinists And if Adam Contzen the Jesuite may be believed and an enemy deposes as a legal witness (m) Si quisquam Lutheranorum libros erislicos contra Calvinianos vel illerum centra Lutheranos legere velit non hominum in hâ—mines invectivas esse sed Daemonum contra Daemonas furores rugitus sibi persuad ebit Adam Contr. Polit. lib. 2. cap. 19. sect 6. Whosoever will spare so much time as to peruse and turn over the Polemical Writings of Lutherans against Calvinists or Calvinists against Lutherans he will not conceive them as the invectives of men but the rage and roarings of Devils This is the charity of professing Protestants Nor can we of this Church and Nation be acquitted and discharged from being guilty of breach of charity And there are so many faulty in this kind that I may say of them as Leah at the birth of Gad A Troop or company cometh Lo a multitude of all sorts and kinds I shall instance onely in these two Two sorts of professing protestants 1. The hot-headed Pastor 2. The giddy-headed People The first sort who are guilty of the breach of charity is the hot-headed Pastor The hot-headed Pastor who neglecting the well tempered gravity and (n) Mediis consiliis vel Author vel Approbator semper Bucerus Calvin Epist Buâ—ero pag. 81. meek spirited moderation that so well becomes the Ministers of Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel are every way more indulgent to their natural passion of sudden anger the boyling of hot blood about the heart then affected with true zeal they rather scald then warm mens consciences and in stead of a cutting reproof of mens corruptions they fall foul upon ther persons These men instruct the people as Gideon taught the men of Succoth with thorns and briars Judg. 8.16 by pricking and scratching by rending and tearing and by drawing blood of the Hearers The Pulpit while they are in it is nothing but thunder and lightning all in a burning flame like mount Sinai when the Law was given upon it Or rather like mount Aetna that breaths forth Fire and Brimstone to the aâ—tonishment and annoyance of such as are afar off and the utter endangering and swallowing up of those that draw neer All their Sermons are sharp Satyrs fierce Philippicks violent Declamations and are seemingly used to evacuate and empty spleen to vent and void choler in that they abound and run over with Gall and bitterness reproachful and reviling speechs The old Donatists are long since dead yet do they seem to live in this generation And what Optatus in his time affirmed of the one may fitly be applied to the other (o) Nullus vestrum est qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat Lectiones Dominicas incipitis Tractatus vestros ad nostras injurias explicatis profertis Evangegelium facitis absenti Fratri convitium Auditorum animos infigitis odia inimicitias fuadendo docendo suadetis Opt. cont Parm. l. 4. There is none of you but inserts and interlaces the personal disgrace of others with your own works and writings you begin the reading of the word of God and expound it in our wrongs and injuries you take a Text out of the Gospel and comment upon it with rayling you in til hatred into the minds of your Hearers you perswade Hatred yea you perswade by your teaching Such were the uncharitable usages of the old Donatists and one egge is not more like another then our actions resembles theirs 2. The second sort that are guilty of the breach of charity The giddy-headed people are the giddy-headed people unstable as water as Jacob said of his first born Reuben Gen. 49.4 And they have this property of water that they are very hardly contained within their own terms but most easily within the bounds of another substance who schismatically divide cut off themselves from the unity of the Church and gather separate Churches apart by themselves and so set up Church against Church and Altar against Altar with the old Donatists An evil as antient as the Apostolick times and timously forewarned and forbidden by St. Paul Heb. 10.24 25. Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together and then may men be said to forsake the assembling themselves together when they withdraw and separate from Christian communion and fellowship in doctrine breaking of bread and prayers Act. 2.42 which are so many essential parts of it and wherein as to the publick exercise it consists and stands as the manner of some is and unmannerly manner and that taken up in St. Pauls daies And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works as it is in the foregoing verse whereupon this is inferred so that to be friends and favorers of a separation is by the Apostles argument to be enemies to love and to good works and then are our works good when they are well done and they cannot be well done in schisms and faction to gratifie and please a party to support and uphold a private interest And would we have our works well pleasing and acceptable unto God (p) August in Psal 83. Ponenda sunt ova in nido Ecclesiae (q) Vade prius reconciliare fratri tuo tunc veniens offer donum tuum
outward occasion and impulsive cause of their fall into sin and that either by stumbling or staggering their judgements the sadding and perplexing their spirits the intangling and puzling their consciences with doubts and scruples and the utter ruine and overthrow of the whole man This the Apostle exemplifies by instancing in meats and drinks which are both clean in themselves and in the judgement of those that are sufficiently instructed and informed touching the nature and use of them but prove unclean unto those that through ignorance or errour misapprehend them to be such and yet partake of them being encouraged and emboldened by their examples who out of supercilious scorn or the ralliness of indiscretion at the best adventure on them in their fight and presence to the open violation of Christian charity That is Saint Paul's resolution in the case Rom. 14.15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died For Actions of this nature in the use of things indifferent must be ordered and measured by a double Rule Two Rules in the use of our Christian liberty 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Duty 2. Decorum 1. Lawfullness 2. Expediency 1. Necessity 2. And edification And there must be regard had not only to the strength of our own knowledge and the stedfastnesse of our perswasion but a tender respect shewn to the infirmity and weakness of others An arrogant knowledge may swell our spirits and make us carry our heads on high but it is an humble charity that must cause us to submit and stoop to the necessities and advantagos of our Brethren This is the excellency of Charity above that of Knowledge in the different effect of it 1 Cor. 8.1 Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth Fourthly Charity must act and operate in all our affairs and business In all our affairs and business in the whole series and course of our civil conversations Many are the works of charity in order to our converse and commerce with men And should I treat of them at large and in particular yet might you justly affirm even after the enumeration and rehearsal what the Queen of Sheba sometimes spake touching the report of Solomon 's wisedom the half was not told us I shall therefore bind up an handful of gleannings or rather some few Eurs out of a large and wide Field And reduce these works of charity to four Heads Four works of charity in the course of our civil conversation 1. The concealing and hiding the natural infirmities or moral and sinful imperfections of others 2. A Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and meek-spirited condescension to those that are beneath us for the avoiding of superfluous quarrels and contentions and for the procuring and promoting of peace and unity 3. A liberal communicating and distributing with a free heart and open hand to the necessities of our brethren 4. The exercise of benevolence and beneficence to such as are most alienated and estranged from us the persons of professed enemies 1. The first work of charity is the concealing and hiding the natural infirmities The first work of charity The concealing of natural or moral imperfection of others or moral and sinful imperfections of others this is the proper and immediate effect of it and is laid down by St. Peter as the Basis and ground-work of his exhortation 1 Pet. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for charity shall cover a multitude of sins not that charity covers our sins in the sight of God or hides them from the all-seeing Eye of his Vindictive and Avenging justice which nothing else can do but the glorious Robe of Christs unspotted and perfect righteousness imputed unto us for the remission and covering of sin which are both one in Davids account Psal 32.1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered but as for our righteousness and charity which is a part of it Pallium breve est 't is a very short cloak and mantle that will not reach down to the Ankles and palliate the spirtual nakedness of the soule and yet nevertheless charitie covers the sins of others by not divulging and spreading them abroad not lending an open and listning ear to reports and rumors that are dispersed and scattered by others by denying defending justifiing excusing extenuating qualifying what soever is capable of a candid and a courteous construction so far as it is compatible and consistent with the rule of charity Like unto Shem and Japhet that took a garment and laid it upon their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakednesse of their Father Gen. 9.23 or as the Emperour Constantine who in case of detecting the miscarriage of an Ecclesiastical person full sore against his will he would (y) Seâ—paludamento obtecturum scelerarum faciuus ne forte cui cernentium illud visum noceret Theodoritus Hist lib. 1. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Historian and taking the royal Robe from his own back cast it upon his fault and folly Such a cloak is that of charity a wide and side cloak and as St. Peter speaks of it covers a multitude of sins there cannot be a more demonstrative argument and evidence of our love then this and if we will credit the wise man Solomon he who covereth transgression seeketh love Prov. 17.9 2. The second work of charity is a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and meek spirited condescension to those that are every way beneath us The second work of charity A meek spirited condescension to those that are below us for the better avoiding of unnecessary quarrels and contentions and for the procuring and preserving of Peace and Amity a notable example whereof we have in the Patriarch Abraham who though he was Uncle to Lot and every way his superiour in age and dignity yet doth he leave it to his liberty for the setling his abode and for the choice of his habitation Is not the whole land before thee separate thy self I pray thee from me If thou wilt take the left hand I will go to the right or if thou depart to the right hand then will I go to the left Gen. 13.9 And that which moved him to yield so far and stoop so low was a sollicitous care to prevent and cut off all occasion of strife that sounded ill in the ears of the Gananite and Perezzite that then dwelt in the land And Abraham said to Lot let there be no strife betwixt me and thee and betwixt my Herdmen and thy Herdmen for we are brethren v. 8. thus doth Abraham conjure his Nephew Lot with a charm of love and charity And the Apostle St Paul severely reproves and taxeth this spirit of debate and division in the many headed Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.7 Now there is uttterly a fault among you