done nothing to cut off the Favourers of that Church The reasons of their love and respect to the Church of Rome we wish but we do not command them to lay down their Lay-brethren have all means of instruction offered them Our Edicts and Statutes made for their restraint are such as serve onely to awaken them and cause them to consider the innocency of that cause for refusal of communion in which they endure as they suppose so great losses Those who are sent over by them either for the retaining of the already perverted or perverting others are either return'd by us back again to them who dispatch'd them to us without any wrong unto their persons or danger to their lives suffer an easie restraint which onely hinders them from dispersing the poison they brought And had they not been stickling in our state business and medling with our Princes Crown there had not a drop of their bloud fallen to the ground unto our Sermons in which the swarvings of that Church are necessarily to be taxt by us we do not bind their presence onely our desire is they would joyn with us in those Prayers and holy Ceremonies which are common to them and us And so accordingly by singular discretion was our service-Service-book compiled by our fore-fathers as containing nothing that might offend them as being almost meerly a Compendium of their own Breviary and Missal so that they shall see nothing in our Meetings but that they shall see done in their own though many things which are in theirs here I grant they shall not find And here indeed is the great and main difference betwixt us As it is in the controversie concerning the Canonical Books of Scripture whatsoever we hold for Scripture that even by that Church is maintained onely she takes upon her to add much which we cannot think safe to admit so fares it in other points of Faith and Ceremony whatsoever it is we hold for Faith she holds it as far forth as we our Ceremonies are taken from her onely she over and above urges some things for Faith which we take to be Errour or at the best opinion and for Ceremony which we think to be Superstition So that to participate with us is though not throughout yet in some good measure to participate with that Church and certainly were that spirit of charity stirring in them which ought to be they would love and honour us even for the resemblance of that Church the beauty of which themselves so much admire The glory of these our proceedings even our adversaries themselves do much envy So that from hence it is that in their writings they traduce our Judiciary proceedings against them for sanguinary and violent striving to perswade other Nations that such as have suffered by course of publick Justice for Religion onely and not for Treason have died and pretend we what we list our actions are as bloudy and cruel as their own wherefore if a perfect pattern of dealing with Erring Christians were to be sought there were not any like unto this of ours In qua nec saeviendi nec errandi pereundique licentia permittitur which as it takes not to it self liberty of cruelty so it leaves not unto any the liberty of destroying their own souls in the errour of their lives And now that we may at once conclude this point concerning Hereticks for prohibiting these men access to Religious Disputations it is now too late to dispute of that for from this that they have already unadvisedly entred into these battels are they become that which they are Let us leave them therefore as a sufficient example and instance of the danger of intempestive and immodest medling in Sacred Disputes I see it may be well expected that I should according to my promise adde instruction for the publick Magistrate and show how far this precept in receiving the weak concerns him I must confess I intended and promised so to do but I cannot conceive of it as a thing befitting me to step out of my Study and give Rules for Government to Common-wealths a thing befitting men of greater experience to do Wherefore I hope you will pardon me if I keep not that promise which I shall with less offence break then observe And this I rather do because I suppose this precept to concern us especially if not onely as private men and that in case of publick proceeding there is scarce room for it Private men may pass over offences at their pleasure and may be in not doing it they do worse but thus to do lies not in the power of the Magistrate who goes by Laws prescribing him what he is to do Princes and men in Authority do many times much abuse themselves by affecting a reputation of Clemency in pardoning wrongs done to other men and giving protection to sundry offenders against those who have just cause to proceed against them It is mercy to pardon wrong done against our selves but to deny the course of Justice to him that calls for it and to protect offenders may peradventure be some inconsiderare pity but mercy it cannot be All therefore that I will presume to advise the Magistrate is A general inclineableness to merciful proceedings And so I conclude wishing unto them who plentifully sowe mercy plentifully to reap it at the hand of God with an hundred fold encrease and that blessing from God the Father of mercies may be upon them all as on the sons of mercy as many as are the sands on the Sea-shore in multitude The same God grant that the words which we have this day c. A Sermon Preached on Easter day at Eaton Colledge Luke XVI 25. Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things I Have heard a Proverb to this sound He that hath a debt to pay at Easter thinks the Lent but short How short this Lent hath seemed to me who stand indebted to you for the remainder of my Meditations upon these words is no matter of consequence to you peradventure it may have seemed so long that what you lately heard at Shrovetide now at Easter you may with pardon have forgotten I will therefore recall into your memories so much of my former Meditations as may serve to open unto me a convenient way to pursue the rest of those Lessons which then when I last spake unto you the time and your patience would not permit me to finish But ere I do this I will take leave a little to fit my Text unto this time of Solemnity This time you know calls for a Discourse concerning the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ of this you hear no sound in the words which I have read and therefore you conclude it a Text unbefitting the day Indeed if you take the Resurrection for that glorious Act of his Omnipotency by which through the power of his eternal Spirit he redeems himself from the hand of the grave and triumphs over
which they are made vanishes and dies But Beloved prayer is a strange thing it can never want matter It will be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 è quolibet out of any matter upon any occasion whatsoever whatsoever you do wheresoever you are doth minister occasion of some kind of prayer either of thanksgiving unto God for his goodness or of praising and admiring his greatness or of petitioning to him in case of want or distress or bewailing some sin or neglect committed Is it the consideration of God's benefits that will move us to thankfulness Then certainly our thankfulness ought to be perpetual there is no person so mean no soul so poor and distressed and miserable but if he search narrowly he shall find some blessing for which he ows thankfulness unto God If nothing else yet his very misery and distress is a singular blessing if he use it to that end for which it was sent Is it the consideration of distress and affliction and some degree of the curse of God upon us that will stir our devotion Indeed this is it with most men that kindles the fire of prayer in our hearts Men for the most part are like unto the unslak'd Lime which never heats till you throw water upon it so they never grow warm in devotion till somewhat contrary to their wishes and disposition begins to afflict them then certainly our petitions to God ought never to cease For never was there man in any moment of his life entirely happy either in body goods or good name every man hath some part of affliction Blessing and cursing though they seem to be enemies and contrary one to another yet are never severed but go hand in hand together Some men have more of one some of another but there is no man but hath some part of both wherefore as it seems not onely prayer in general but all kind all sort of prayer ought to be continual Prayer must not be as it were of one threed we must blend and temper together all kind of prayer our praise or thanks our sorrow and make our prayer like Ioseph's party-coloured coat like a beautiful garment of sundry colours So then as fire goes not out so long as it hath matter to feed on so what shall be able to interrupt our devotion which hath so great and everlasting store of matter to continue it Secondly many things in the world are necessarily intermitted because they are tied to place or times all places all times are not convenient for them but in case of prayer it is otherwise it seeks no place it attends no time it is not necessary we should come to the Church or expect a Sabbath or an Holy-day for prayer indeed especially was the Sabbath ordained yet prayer it self is Sabbathless and admits no rest no intermission at all If our hands be clean we must as our Apostle commands us lift them up every where at all times and make every place a Church every day a Sabbath every hour Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As you go to the market as you stand in the streets as you walk in the feilds in all these places ye may pray as well and with as good acceptance as in the Church for you your selves are temples of the holy Ghost if the grace of God be in you more precious then any of those which are made with hands The Church of Rome hath made a part of her Breviary or common-prayer-Common-prayer-book which she calls Itinerarium Clericorum and it is a set form of prayer which Clergy-men ought to use when they set out in a journey and are upon their way why she calls it Itinerarium Clericorum and impropriates it unto the Clergy I know not she might for ought I see have called it Itinerarium Laicorum The Itinerary of the Laity since it is a duty belonging unto them as well as to the Minister Yet thus much the example of that Church teaches that no place no occasion excludes Prayer We read in our Books that one of the Ethnick Emperours was much taken when he saw a woman going in the streets with a vessel of water on her head her child at her girdle her spindle in her hand twisting her threed as she went he thought it a wonderful portion of diligence thus to employ all paces and times indifferently Beloved if it be thus with bodily labour how much more should it be so with the labour of the soul which is far more easie and needs not the help of any bodily instrument to act it And how welcome a spectacle will it be think you unto the great King of Heaven and Earth when he shall see that no time no occasion is able to interrupt the labour of our devotion Is it the time of Feasting and Jollity which seems to prescribe against prayer Indeed prayer is a grave and sober action and seems not to stand with sport and merriment yet notwithstanding it is of so pliable a nature that it will accommodate and fit it self even to feasts and sportings We read in the Book of Daniel that when Belshazzar made his great and last Feast to his Princes and Lords that they were merry and drank wine in bowls and praised the gods of gold and silver of brass and of iron of wood and of stone Beloved shall Ethnick feasts find room for their idolatrous worship and praise of their golden brazen wooden gods and shall not our Christian Feasts yeild some place for the praise of the true God of Heaven and Earth Last of all is it time of sleep that seems to give a vacation and otium to prayer Beloved sleep is no part of our life we are not accountable for things done or not done then Tertullian tells us that an unclean dream shall no more condemn us then a dream of Martyrdom shall crown us and the Casuists do teach that loose dreams in the night shall never be laid to our charge if they be not occasioned by lewd thoughts in the day for they are Cogitationes injectae non aenatae they are not thoughts springing out but cast into our hearts by the Devil upon his score shall they go and we shall not reckon for them So then though sleep partake not of our devotion yet this hinders not the continualness of it Aristotle tells us that men who sleep perceive not any part of time to have passed because they tie the last moment of their watching with the first moment of their awaking as having no sense of what past betwixt and so account of it as one continued time Beloved if we do with our devotion as we do with our time if we shut up the last instant of our watching with a prayer and resume that prayer at the first instant of our waking we have made it one continued prayer without interruption Thirdly and last of all the greatest reason why many businesses of the world cannot be acted perpetually is because they must give
fidelity and trustiness of Gods servants faithfully accomplishing the will of our Master is required as a part of our Christian Faith Now all those good things which moral men by the light of Nature do are a part of Gods will written in their hearts wherefore so far as they were conscientious in performing them if Salvianus his reason be good so far have they title and interest in our Faith And therefore Regulus that famous Roman when he endured infinite torments rather then he would break his Oath may thus far be counted a Martyr and witness for the truth For the Crown of Martyrdom sits not onely on the heads of those who have lost their lives rather then they would cease to profess the Name of Christ but on the head of every one that suffers for the testimony of a good conscience and for righteousness sake And here I cannot pass by one very general gross mistaking of our Age. For in our discourses concerning the Notes of a Christian man by what Signes we may know a man to be one of the visible company of Christ we have so tied our selves to this outward profession that if we know no other vertue in a man but that he hath Cond his Creed by heart let his life be never so profane we think it argument enough for us to account him within the Pale and Circuit of the Church on the contrary side let his life be never so upright if either he be little seen in or peradventure quite ignorant of the Mystery of Christ we esteem of him but as dead and those who conceive well of those moral good things as of some tokens giving hope of life we account but as a kind of Maâ—ichecs who thought the very Earth had life in it I must confess that I have not yet made that proficiency in the Schools of our Age as that I could see why the Second Table and the Acts of it are not as properly the parts of Religion and Christianity as the Acts and Observations of the first If I mistake then it is St. Iames that hath abus'd me for he describing Religion by its proper Acts tells us that True Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is To visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world So that the thing which in an especial refine Dialect of the new Christian Language signifies nothing but Morality and Civility that in the Language of the Holy Ghost imports true Religion Wherefore any difference that the holy Ghost makes notwithstanding the man of vertuous dispositions though ignorant of the Mystery of Christ be it Fabricius or Regulus or any ancient Heathen man famous for sincerity and uprightness of carriage hath as sure a claim and interest in the Church of Christ as the man deepest skill'd in most certainly believing and openly professing all that is written in the holy Books of God if he endeavour not to shew his faith by his works The Antients therefore where they found this kind of men gladly received them and converst familiarly with them as appears by the friendly entercourse of Epistles of S. Basil with Libanius of Nazianzen and Austin with sundry others and Antiquity hath either left us true or forged us false Epistles betwixt S. Paul himself and Seneca Now as for the admitting of any of these men to the discussing of the doubts in our Religioâ—s Mysteries who either know not or peradventure contemn them there needs not much be said by a Canon of one of the Councels of Carthage it appears it had sometimes been the erroneous practise of some Christians to Baptize the dead and to put the Sacrament of Christs Body into their mouths Since we have confest these men to be in a sort dead as having no supernatural quickening grace from above to put into their hands the handling of the word of life at all much more of discussing of the doubtful things in it were nothing else but to Baptize a carcase and put the Communion bread into the mouth of the dead Wherefore leaving this kind of weak person to your courteous acceptance Let us consider of another one quite contrary to the former a true Professor but a man of prophane and wicked life one more dangerously ill then the former have we any Recipe for this man May seem for him there is no Balm in Gilead he seems like unto the Leper in the Law unto whom no man might draw near And by so much the more dangerous is his case because the condition of conversing with Heathen men be they never so wicked is permitted unto Christians by our Apostle himself whereas with this man all commerce seems by the same Apostle to be quite cut off For in the 1 Cor. 6. St. Paul having forbidden them formerly all manner of conversing with Fornicators infamous persons and men subject to grievous crimes and considering at length how impossible this was because of the Gentiles with whom they lived and amongst whom necessarily they were to converse and trade he distinguishes between the fornicators of this world and the fornicators which were Brethren I meant not saith the blessed Apostle expounding himself that ye should not admit of the fornicators of this world that is such as were Gentiles for then must ye have sought a new world So great and general a liberty at that time had the world assumed for the practise of that sin of Fornication that strictly to have forbidden them the company of fornicatours had almost been to have excluded them the society of mankind But saith he If a brother be a fornicatour or a thief or a railer with such a one partake not no not so much as to eat Wherefore the case of this person seems to be desperate for he is not onely mortally sick but is bereft of all help of the Physician Yet notwithstanding all this we may not give him over for gone for when we have well search'd our boxes we shall find a Recipe even for him too Think we that our Apostles meaning was that we should acquaint our selves onely with the good and not the bad as Physicians in the time of Pestilence look onely to the sound and shun the diseas'd Our Saviour Christ familiarly converst eat and drank with Publicanes and sinners and gives the reason of it because he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Is Christ contrary to Paul This reason of our Saviour concerns every one on whom the duty of saving of Souls doth rest It is the main drift of his message and unavoidably he is to converse yea eat and drink with all sorts of sinners even because he is to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance Necessary it is that some means be left to reclaim notorious offenders let their disease be never so dangerous Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certe nihil tentare perditio est Who
or to Breathe and this Notion belongs to the FATHER and the SON alike for Pater Filius spirant Spiritum Sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God If any man think this Confession to be Defecti for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives be deficient and I shall thank him for his favour How we come to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God HOw come I to know that the Works which we call Livie's are indeed his whose name they bear Hath God left means to know the prophane Writings of men hath he left no certain means to know his own Records The first and outward means that brings us to the knowledge of these Books is the voice of the Church notified to us by our Teachers and Instructors who first unclasp'd and open'd them unto us and that common duty which is exacted at the hand of every learner Oportet discentem credere And this remaining in us peradventure is all the outward means that the ordinary and plainer sort of Christians know To those who are conversant among the Records of Antiquity farther light appears To find the ancient Copies of Books bearing these Titles to find in all Ages since their being written the universal consent of all the Church still resolving it self upon these writings as sacred and uncontrolable these cannot chuse but be strong Motioners unto us to pass our consent unto them and to conclude that either these Writings are that which they are taken for or nothing left us from Antiquity is true For whatsoever is that gives any strength or credit to any thing of Antiquity left to posterity whether it be Writings and Records or Tradition from hand to hand or what things else soever they all concur to the authorising of holy Scriptures as amply as they do to any other thing left unto the world Yea but will some man reply this proves indeed strongly that Moses and the Prophets that St. Matthew and St. Paul c. writ those Books and about those times which they bear shew of but this comes not home for how proves this that they are of God If I heard St. Paul himself preaching what makes me beleive him that his Doctrine is from God and his words the words of the holy Ghost For answer There was no outward means to perswade the world at the first rising of Christianity that it is infallibly from God but onely Miracles such as impossibly were naturally to be done Had I not done those things saith our Saviour which no man else could do you had had no sin Had not the world seen those Miracles which did unavoidably prove the assistance and presence of a Divine power with those who first taught the will of Christ it had not had sin if it had rejected them For though the world by the light of natural discretion might easily have discover'd that that was not the right way wherein it usually walk'd yet that that was the true path which the Apostles themselves began to tread there was no means undoubtedly to prove but Miracles and if the building were at this day to be raised it could not be founded without Miracles To our fore-fathers therefore whose ears first entertain'd the word of life Miracles were necessary and so they are to us but after another order For as the sight of these Miracles did confirm the doctrine unto them so unto us the infallible records of them For whatsoever evidence there is that the Word once began to be preach'd the very same confirms unto us that it was accompanied with Miracles and Wonders so that as those Miracles by being seen did prove unanswerably unto our fore-fathers the truth of the doctrine for the confirmation of which they were intended so do they unto us never a whit less effectually approve it by being left unto us upon these Records which if they fail us then by Antiquity there can be nothing left unto posterity which can have certain and undoubted oredit The certain and uncontrolable Records of Miracles are the same to us the Miracles are The Church of Rome when she commends unto us the Authority of the Church in dijudicating of Scriptures seems onely to speak of her self and that of that part of her self which is at some time existent whereas we when we appeal to the Church's testimony content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time viz. since its first beginning and out of both these draw an argument in this question of that force as that from it not the subtilest disputer can find an escape for who is it that can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable men by opposing not onely the present Church conversing in earth but to the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages So that in effect to us of after-ages the greatest if not the sole outward mean of our consent to holy Scripture is the voice of the Church excepting always the Copies of the Books themselves bearing from their birth such or such names of the Church I say and that not onely of that part of it which is actually existent at any time but successively of the Church ever since the time of our blessed Saviour for all these testimonies which from time to time are left in the Writings of our fore-fathers as almost every Age ever since the first birth of the Gospel hath by God's providence left us store are the continued voice of the Church witnessing unto us the truth of these Books and their Authority well but this is onely fides humano judicio testimonio acâ—quaesita what shall we think of fides infusa of the inward working of the holy Ghost in the consciences of every beleiver How far it is a perswader unto us of the Authority of these Books I have not much to say Onely thus much in general that doubtless the holy Ghost doth so work in the heart of every true Beleiver that it leaves a farther assurance strong and sufficient to ground and stay it self upon But this because it is private to every one and no way subject to sense is unfit to yeild argument by way of dispute to stop the captious curiosities of wits disposed to wrangle and by so much the more unfit it is by how much by experience we have learn'd that men are very apt to call their own private conceit the Spirit To oppose unto these men to reform them our own private conceits under the name likewise of the Spirit were madness so that to judge upon presumption of the Spirit in private can be no way to bring either this or any other controversie to an end If it should please God at this day to adde any
Majesties strict charge That before the Synodical resolution concerning Christ's death and the application of it to us we stand upon it to have those conclusions couched in manner and terms as near as possibly may be to those which were used in the Primitive Church by the Fathers of that time against the Pelagians and Semi-pelagians and not in any new phrase of the Modern age and that the same may be as agreeable to the Confessions of the Church of England and other Reformed Churches and with as little distast and umbrage to the Lutheran Churches as may be What hitherto we have resolved concerning this Article may appear by our Theses long since subscribed by every of us and publickly among the rest read in the Synod a Copy whereof we now send humbly submitting the same and all other our actions to your Graces judgment and Authority To every of them as in all other of the rest of the Articles are annexed our brief Explications which we now spare to trouble your Grace withall intending at our return to exhibit to His Majesty and to your Grace an intire Copy of our whole judgment of the five Articles as it was read in the Synod unless your Grace command us to send over the same before In our avouching and declaring in this and other Articles some fruits of Christ's death not comprised in the Decree of Election but afforded more generally yet confined to the Visible Church as viz. true and spiritual Graces accompanying the Gospel and conferred upon some non-electi we gain ground of the Remonstrants and thereby easily repell not only their instances of Apostasie but also their odious imputation of illusion in the general propounding of the Evangelical Promises as we are ready more clearly to demonstrate Nor do we with the Remonstrants leave at large the benefit of our Saviour's death as only propounded loosely to all ex aequo and to be applied by the arbitrary act of man's will but we expresly avouch for the behoof of the Elect a special intention both in Christ's offering and God the Father accepting and from that intention a particular application of that sacrifice by conferring Faith and other Gifts infallibly bringing the Elect to Salvation And that our care in advancing this Doctrine might be the more remarkable we in these our Theses have set in the fore-front our Propositions concerning God's special Intention Our Synodical Proceedings whereof we now send your Grace a brief narration continued to our former having passed through all our Collegiate Iudgments of the Five Articles do shew rather an essential consent in substance than a conspiring identity in every consectary which we hope will approve even to our Adversaries the sincerity of our hearts and argue that we seek rather the Truth of God than the Triumph of men So continuing our dayly prayers for the peace of God's Church our most Religious King's prosperity and your Graces preservation we humbly crave pardon and remain Dort this 21. of March 1619. Stil nov Your Graces most humble to be commanded George Landaven John Davenant Samuel Ward Thomas Goad Walter Balcanquall Doctour Davenant touching the Second Article discussed at the conference at the Haghe of the Extent of Redemption 1. WE undoubtedly hold these two ensuing Propositions which are the two first which we have exhibited and in which we had the consent of the Foreign Divines 1. Ex speciali amore intentione tum Dei Patris tum ipsius Christi mortuus est Christus pro Electis ut illis remissionem peccatorum salutem aeternam reipsâ obtineret infallibiliter conferret 2. Ex hoc eodem amore per propter meritum Intercessionem Christi dantur iisdem Electis fides perseverantia caeteraque omnia per quae conditio Foederis impletur beneficium promissum i. e. vita aeterna infallibiliter obtinetur 2. But we hold also these two ensuing Propositions which we have also exhibited and were in like manner approved by the Exteri 1. Deus lapsi humani generis miseratus misit Filium suum qui seipsum dedit pretium Redemptionis pro peccatis totius mundi Which Proposition is equi-pollent to the express Article of the Church of England set forth by Authority Anno 1562. Oblatio Christi semel facta perfecta est Redemptio propitiatio satisfactio pro omnibus peccatis totius mundi tam originalibus quà m actualibus Art xxxi which also is delivered totidem verbis in the Consecratory Prayer before the Receiving of the Holy Eucharist in the Book of Common Prayer 2. In hoc merito mortis Christi fundatur universale Promissum Evangelicum juxta quod omnes in Christum credentes remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam reipsâ consequantur According to these two last Propositions we do hold that our Blessed Saviour by God's Appointment did offer up himself to the Blessed Trinity for the Redemption of mankind and by this Oblation once made did found confirm and ratifie the Evangelical Covenant which may and ought to be preached seriously to all mankind without exception Quicunque credit salvabitur si tu crederes salvaberis And moreover we hold this ensuing Proposition which we also have exhibited and which was in like sort approved as the rest 3. In Ecclesia uti juxta hoc Promissum Evangelii salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae suae quae sufficit ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos quod suâ culpâ voluntariâ vel neglectu vel contemptu Evangelii perierint beneficia oblata amiserint And according to this we hold that there are sundry initial preparations tending to Conversion merited by Christ and dispensed in the preaching of the Gospel and wrought by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of many that never attain to true Regeneration or Justification such are Illuminatio Notitia dogmatum sidei Fides Dogmatica Sensus peccati Timor poenae Cogitatio de liberatione Spes veniae c. An evident example whereof may be seen in them that sin against the Holy Ghost Heb. VI. X. And consequently we hold that the whole merit of Christ is not confined to the Elect only as some here do hold and was held in Colloq Hag. by the Contra-Remonstrants The Reasons which move us to hold these three latter Assertions are 1. WE make no doubt but this Doctrine of the Extent of Christ's Redemption is the undoubted Doctrine of the holy Scriptures and most consonant to Antiquity Fathers and Councils to whom our Church will have all Preachers to have special respect in doctrinal points lib. quorund Canon Discip. Eccles Anglic. Edit 1571. cap. de Concionatoribus 2. First The Church of England besides the places alledged deliver the first of the three last Article touching the Vniversality of Redemption as in our Confession set forth Anno 1562. Art 2 7 15. and elsewhere in the Communion Book and Homilies 2. For the Vniversality of the promises of the
their brethren whilst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks under pretence of interpretation they violently broach their own conceits Great then is the danger in which they wade which take upon them this business of interpretation Temevitas asserendae incertae dubiaeque opinionis saith St. Austine difficile sacrilegii crimen evitat the rashness of those that aver uncertain and doubtful interpretations for Catholick and Absolute can hardly escape the sin of sacrilege But whereas our Apostle saith their own destruction is the destruction onely their own this were well if it stretched no farther The antients much complain of this offence as an hinderer of the salvation of others There were in the days of Isidorus Pelusiota some that gave out that all in the Old Testament was spoken of Christ belike out of extreme opposition to the Manichees who on the other side taught that no Text in the Old Testament did foretel of Christ. That Father therefore dealing with some of that opinion tells them how great the danger of their tenet is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if saith he we strive with violence to draw and apply those Texts to Christ which apparently pertain not to him we shall gain nothing but this to make all the places that are spoken of him suspected and so discredit the strength of other testimonies which the Church usually urges for the refutation of the Iews For in these cases a wrested proof is like unto a suborn'd witness it never doth help so much whilest it is presumed to be strong as it doth hurt when it is discover'd to be weak St. Austin in his Books de Genesi ad literam sharply reproves some Christians who out of some places of Scripture misunderstood fram'd unto themselves a kind of knowledge in Astronomy and Physiology quite contrary unto some part of heathen Learning in this kind which were true and evident unto sense A man would think that this were but a small errour and yet he doubts not to call it turpe nimis perniciosum maxime cavendum His reason warrants the roundness of his reproof for he charges such to have been a scandal unto the Word and hinderers of the conversion of some heathen men that were Scholars For how saith he shall they believe our books of Scripture perswading the resurrection of the dead the kingdome of heaven and the rest of the mysteries of our profession if they find them faulty in these things of which themselves have undeniable demonstration Yea though the cause we maintain be never so good yet the issue of diseas'd and crazie proofs brought to maintain it must needs be the same For unto all causes be they never so good weakness of proof when it is discovered brings great prejudice but unto the cause of Religion most of all St. Austine observ'd that there were some qui cum de aliquibus qui sanctum nomen profitentur aliquid criminis vel falsi sonuerit vel veri patuerit instant satagunt ambiunt ut de omnibus hoc credatur It fares no otherwise with Religion it self then it doth with the professors of it Divers malignants there are who lie in wait to espie where our reasons on which we build are weak and having deprehended it in some will earnestly solicit the world to believe that all are so if means were made to bring it to light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks using for advantage against us no strength of their own but the vice and imbecility of our defence The book of the revelation is a book full of wonder and mystery the Ancients seem to have made a Religion to meddle with it and thought it much better to admire with silence then to adventure to expound it and therefore amongst their labours in exposition of Scripture scarcely is there any one found that hath touch'd it But our Age hath taken better heart And scarcely any one is there who hath entertained a good conceit of his own abilities but he hath taken that Book as a fit argument to spend his pains on That the Church of Rome hath great cause to suspect her self to fear lest she have a great part in the Prophesies in that book I think the most partial will not deny Yet unto the Expositours of it I will give this advice that they look that that befall not them which Thuoidides observes to befall the common sort of men who though they have good means to acquit themselves like men yet when they think their best hopes fail them and begin to despair of their strength comfort themselves with interpretations of certain dark and obscure prophesies Many plain texts of Scripture are very pregnant and of sufficient strength to overthrow the points maintained by that Church againts us If we leave these and ground our selves upon our private expositions of this Book we shall justly seem in the poverty of better proofs to rest our selves upon those prophesies which though in themselves they are most certain yet our expositions of them must except God give yet further light unto his Church necessarily be mixt with much incertainty as being at the best but unprobable conjectures of our own Scarcely can there be found a thing more harmful to Religion then to vent thus our own conceits and obtrude them upon the world for necessary and absolute The Physicians skill as I conceive of it stands as much in opinion as any that I know whatsoever yet their greatest Master Hippocrates tells them directly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then the Physicians presumption upon opinion there is not one thing that brings either more blame to himself or danger to his patient If it be thus in an art which opinion taken away must needs fall how little room then must opinion have in that knowledge where nothing can have place but what is of eternal truth where if once admit of opinion all is overthrown But I conclude this point adding onely this general admonition That we be not too peremptory in our positions where express text of Scripture fails us that we lay not our own collections and conclusions with too much precipitancy For experience hath shewed us that the errour and weakness of them being afterwards discovered brings great disadvantage to Christianity and trouble to the Church The Eastern Church before St. Basils time had entertained generally a conceit that those Greek particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest were so divided among the Trinity that each of the Persons had his Particle which was no way appliable to the rest St. Basil having discovered this to be but a niceness and needless curiosity beginning to teach so raised in the Church such a tumult that he brought upon himself a great labour of writing many tracts in apology for himself with much ado ere matters could again be setled The fault of this was not in Basil who religiously fearing what by way of consequence might ensue upon an errour taught
women laden with iniquity were the cheif Ring-leaders in the errours of the Monnaâ—ists and as it is commonly said Bellum inchoant inertes fortes finiunt Weaklings are able to begin a quarrel but the prosecution and finishing is a work for stronger men so hath it fared here For that quarrel which these poor souls had raised Tertullian a man of great Wit and Learning is drawn to undertake so that for a Barnabas to be drawn away to errour there needs not always the example and authority of a Peter A third reason is the marvellous violence of the weaker sort in maintaining their conceits if once they begin to be Opinionative For one thing there is that wonderfully prevails against the reclaiming of them and that is The natural jealousie they have of all that is said unto them by men of better wits stand it with reason never so good if it sound not as they would have it A jealousie founded in the sense of their weakness arising out of this that they suspect all to be done for no other end but to circumvent and abuse them And therefore when they see themselves to be too weak in reasoning they easily turn them to violence The Monks of Egypt otherwise devout and religious men anciently were for the most part unlearned and generally given over to the errour of the Anthropomorphitae who held that God had hands and feet and all the parts that a man hath and was in outward shape and proportion like to one of us Theophilus a learned Bishop of Alexandria having fallen into their hands was so roughly used by them that ere he could get out of their fingers he was fain to use his wits and to crave aid of his Equivocating Sophistry and soothly to tell them I have seen your face as the face of God Now when Christian and Religious doubts must thus be managed with wilfulness and violence what mischeif may come of it is already so plain that it needs not my finger to point it out Wherefore let every such Weak person say unto himself as St. Austin doth Tu ratiocinare ego mirer disputa tu ego credam Let others reason I will marvel let others dispute I will beleive As for the man strong in passion or rather weak for the strength of passion is the weakness of the passionate great reason hath the Church to except against him For first of all from him it comes that our Books are so stuft with contumelious meladiction no Heathen Writers having left the like example of choller and gross impatience An hard thing I know it is to write without affection and passion in those things which we love and therefore it is free so to do to those who are Lords over themselves It seems our Saviour gave some way to it himself For somewhat certainly his Kinsmen saw in his behaviourâ— when as St. Mark reports they went forth to lay hold upon him thinking he was beside himself But for those who have not the command of themselves better it were they laid it by St. Chrysostom excellently observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan were by this notoriously differenced that they which gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much impatience and confusion with a kind of fury and madness but they which gave Oracles from God by Divine Inspiration gave them with all mildness and temper If it be the cause of God which we handle in our writings then let us handle it like the Prophets of God with quietness and moderation and not in the violence of passion as if we were possess'd rather then inspir'd Again what equity or indifferencey can we look for in the carriage of that cause that falls into the handling of these men Quis conferre duces meminit qui pendere causas Qua stetit inde â—avet What man overtaken with passion remembers impartially to compare cause with cause and right with right Qua stetit inde â—avet on what cause he happens that is he resolute to maintain ut gladiator in arenam as a Fencer to the Stage so comes he to write not upon conscience of quarrel but because he proposes to contend yea so potently hath this humour prevail'd with men that have undertaken to maintain a faction that it hath broken oâ—t to the tempting of God and the dishonour of Martyrdom Two Friers in Florence in the action of Savonoralla voluntarily in the open view of the City offer'd to enter the fire so to put an end to the controversie that he might be judged to have the right who like one of the three children in Babylon should pass untouch'd through the fire But I hasten to visit one weak person more and so an end He whom we now are to visit is a man Weak through Heretical and erring Faith now whether or no we have any Receit for him it may be doubtful For St. Paul advises us to avoid the man that is a maker of Sects knowing him to be Damned Yet if as we spake of not admitting to us the notorious sinner no not to eat so we teach of this that it is delivered respectively to the weaker sort as justly for the same reasons we may do we shall have a Recipe here for the man that errs in Faith and rejoyceth in making of Sects which we shall the better do if we can but gently draw him on to a moderation to think of his conceits onely as of opinions for it is not the variety of opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church were we not so ready to Anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and not Identity of conceit which the Holy Ghost requires at the hands of Christians I will give you one instance in which at this day our Churches are at variance The will of God and his manner of proceeding in Predestination is undiscernable and shall so remain until that day wherein all knowledge shall be made perfect yet some there are who with probability of Scripture teach that the true cause of the final miscarriage of them that perish is that original corruption that befell them at the beginning increased through the neglect or refusal of grace offered Others with no less favourable countenance of Scripture make the cause of Reprobation onely the will of God determining freely of his own work as himself pleases without respect to any second cause whatsoever Were we not ambitiously minded familiam ducere every one to be Lord of a Sect each of these Tenets might be profitably taught and heard and matter of singular exhortation drawn from either for on the one part doubtless it is a pious and religious intent to endeavour to free God
was some difference between them two I know saith he my life may be profitable many ways and therefore am I loth to lose it but because of your life you know little profit little good can be made you care not how easily you part with it Beloved it may be justly suspected that they who esteem thus lightly of their lives are but worthless and unprofitable men our own experience tells us that men who are prodigal of their money in Taverns and Ordinaries are close-handed enough when either pious uses or necessary and publick expence requires their liberality I have not heard that Prodigals ever built Churches So these men that are so prodigal of their lives in base quarrels peradventure would be cowardly enough if either publick service or Religion did call for their help I scarcely beleive any of them would die Martyrs if the times so required it Beloved I do not go about to perswade any man to fear death but not to contemn life life is the greatest blessing God gives in this world and did men know the worth of it they would never so rashly venture the loss of it But now lightly prizing both their own and others Bloud they are easily moved to shed it as fools are easily won to part with jewels because they know not how to value them We must deal with our lives as we do with our money we must not be covetous of it desire life for no other use but to live as covetous persons desire money onely to have it neither must we be prodigal of life and trifle it away upon every occasion but we must be liberal of our lives know upon what occasion to spare upon what occasion to spend them To know where and when and in what cases to offer our selves to die is a thing of greater skill then a great part of them suppose who pretend themselves most forward to do it Nam impetu quodam instinctu currere ad mortem cum multis commune est For brutishly to run upon and hasten unto death is a thing that many men can do and we see that bruit beasts many times will run upon the spears of such as pursue them Sed deliberare causas expendere utque suaserit ratio vitae mortisque consilium suscipere vel ponere ingentis animi est but wisely to look into and weigh every occasion and as judgment and true discretion shall direct so to entertain a resolution either of life or death this were true fortitude and magnanimity And indeed this prodigality and contempt of life is the greatest ground of this quarrellous and fighting humour Qui suam vitam contempsit dominus est alienae There is a kind of men who because they contemn their own lives make themselves Lords and Commanders of other mens easily provoking others to venture their Bloud because they care not how they lose their own Few places of great resort are without these men and they are the greatest occasioners of Bloudshed you may quickly know them there are few quarrels wherein they are not either principals or seconds or some way or another will have a part in them Might there be publick order taken for the restraint of such men that make a practise of quarrelling and because they contemn their own lives carry themselves so insolently and imperiously towards others It will prevent much mischief and free the Land of much danger of Bloud-guiltiness The second cause which is much alledged in defence of Duels I told you was point of Honour a conceit that it is dishonourable for men of place and fashion quietly to digest and put up contumely and disgrace and this they take to be a reason of that authority and strength as that it must admit of no dispensation For answer First the true fountain and original of quarrel are of another kind and Honour is abused as a pretence The first occasioners of a great part of them are indeed very dishonourable let there an Inventory be taken of all the Challenges that have been made for some time past and you shall find that the greatest part by far were raised either in Taverns or Dicing-houses or in the Stews Pardon me if in a case of this nature I deal a little plainly Drinking Gaming and Whores these are those rotten bones that lie hid under this painted Sepulchre and title of Honour Lastly to conclude It is a part of our profession as we are Christians to suffer wrong and disgrace Therefore to set up another doctrine and teach that Honour may plead prescription against Christ's precepts and exempt you from patient enduring of contumely and disgrace you withstand Christ and deny your vocation and therefore are unavoidably Apostates But we lose our labour who give young men and unsetled persons good advice and counsel the civil Magistrate must lay to his hand and pity them who want discretion to pity themselves For as Bees though they fight very fiercely yet if you cast a little dust amongst them are presently parted so the Enacting and Executing some few good Laws would quickly allay this greatness of stomach and fighting humour How many have been censured for Schismaticks and Hereticks onely because by probable consequence and afar off they seemed to overthrow some Christian principle but here are men who walk in our streets and come to our Churches who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 openly oppose that great point of Christianity which concerns our patience and yet for their restraint no Synod is called no Magistrate stirs no Church-censure is pronounced The Church of Rome hath long ago to the disgrace of the Reformed Churches shut them out of the number of Christians and pronounced them all Excommunicated persons who upon what pretence soever durst enter the Feild for Duel and single Combat Theodosius the Emperour enacted it for a Law and it is extant at this day in the Code a Book of Laws that if any man spake disgracefully of the Emperour Si ex levitate contemnendum si ex infamia miseratione dignum si ex injuria remittendum Lactantius Summa virtus habenda patientia est quam ut caperet homo justus voluit illum Deus pro inerte contemni So great a virtue is patience that for the attaining of it it is Gods will we should suffer our selves to be contemned as Cowards Christ is an Example to us of suffering disgrace let us as the Israelites look up to this Serpent and all the stinging of fiery Serpents shall do us no harm We must forsake all and follow Christ therefore Honour and Reputation too If we be ashamed of this pattern of patience Christ will be ashamed of us Now that God may give a blessing to what hath been delivered let us c. Matth. XXVI Verse 75. And he went forth and wept bitterly THus to commit to writing as here our Evangelist hath done and so to lay open to all posterity the many slips and errours which have much blemish'd
because it seems fitly to open my meaning I will not refrain to speak it Lucian when Priam's young son was taken up into heaven brings him in calling for milk and cheese and such countrey eates as he was wont to eat on earth Beloved when we first come to the Table of God to heavenly Manna and Angels food it is much with us as it was with Priam's young son when he came first into Heaven we cannot forget the milk and cheese and the gross diet of the world Our Saviour and his blessed Apostles had great and often experience of this errour in men When our Saviour preach'd to Nicodemus the doctrine of Regeneration and new birth how doth he still harp upon a gross conceit of a re-entry to be made into his mother's womb When he preach'd unto the Samaritan woman concerning the water of life how hardly is she driven from thinking of a material Elementary water such as was in Iacob's well When Simon Magus in the Acts saw that by laying on of hands the Apostles gave the Holy Ghost he offers them money to purchase himself the like power He had been trafficking and merhandizing in the world and saw what authority what a Kingdom money had amongst men he therefore presently conceited coelum venale Deumque that God and Heaven and All would be had for money To teach therefore the young Courtier in the Court of Heaven that he commit no such Solecisms that hereafter he speak the true language and dialect of God our Saviour sets down this as a principal rule in our Spiritual Grammar That his Court is not of this world Nay Beloved not onely the young Courtier but many of the old servants in the Court of Christ are stain'd with this errour It is storied of Leonides which was Schole-master to Alexander the great that he infected his non-age with some vices quae robustum quoque jam maximum Regem ab illa institutione puerili sunt prosecuta which followed him then when he was at man's estate Beloved the world hath been a long time a Schole-master unto us and hath stain'd our non-age with some of these spots which appear in us even then when we are strong men in Christ. When our Saviour in the Acts after his Resurrection was discoursing to his Disciples concerning the Kingdom of God they presently brake forth into this question Wilt thou now restore the Kingdom unto Israel Certainly this question betrays their ignorance their thoughts still ran upon a Kingdom like unto the Kingdoms of the world notwithstanding they had so long and so often heard our Saviour to the contrary Our Saviour therefore shortly takes them up Non est vestrum your question is nothing to the purpose the Kingdom that I have spoken of is another manner of Kingdom then you conceive Sixteen hundred years Et quod excurrit hath the Gospel been preached unto the world and is this stain spunged out yet I doubt it Whence arise those novel and late disputes de notis Ecclesia of the notes and visibility of the Church Is it not from hence they of Rome take the world and the Church to be like Mercury and Sofia in Plautus his Comedies so like one another that one of them must wear a toy in his cap that so the spectators may distinguish them whence comes it that they stand so much upon State and Ceremony in the Church Is it not from hence that they think the Church must come in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Luke speaks with a great deal of pomp and train and shew and vanity and that the service of God doth necessarily require this noise and tumult of outward State and Ceremony Whence comes it that we are at our wits ends when we see persecution and sword and fire to rage against the true professours of the Gospel Is it not because as these bring ruine and desolation upon the Kingdoms of the world so we suppose they work no other effect in the Kingdom of Christ All these conceits and many more of the like nature spring out of no other fountain then that old inveterate errour which is so hardly wiped out of our hearts That the State of the Church and Kingdom of Christ doth hold some proportion some likeness with the state and managing of temporal Kingdoms Wherefore to pluck out of our hearts Opinionem tam insitam tam vetustam a conceit so ancient so deeply rooted in us our Saviour spake most excellently most pertinently and most fully when he tells us that his Church that his Kingdom is not of this world In which words of his there is contained the true art of discovering and knowing the true nature and essence of the Church For as they which make Statues cut and pare away all superfluities of the matter upon which they work so our Saviour to shew us the true proportion and feature of the Church prunes away the world and all superfluous excrescencies and sends her to be seen as he did our first Parents in Paradise stark naked As those Elders in the Apocryphal story of Susanna when they would see her beauty commanded to take off her mask so he that longs to see the beauty of the Church must pull off that mask of the world and outward shew For as Iuda in the Book of Genesis when Thamar sate veil'd by the way-side knew not his daughter from an whore so whilst the Church the Daughter and Spouse of Christ sits veil'd with the world and pomp and shew it will be an hard matter to discern her from an harlot But yet further to make the difference betwixt these Kingdoms the more plainly to appear and the better to fix it in your memories I will breifly touch some of these heads in which they are most notoriously differenced The first head wherein the difference is seen are the persons and subjects of this Kingdom For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world so the subjects of this Kingdom are men of another world and not of this Every one of us bears a double person and accordingly is the subject of a double Kingdom The holy Ghost by the Psalmist divides heaven and earth betwixt God and man and tells us as for God He is in heaven but the earth hath he given to the children of men So hath the same Spirit by the Apostle St. Paul divided every one of our persons into heaven and earth into an outward and earthly man and into an inward and heavenly man This earth that is this body of clay hath he given to the sons of men to the Princes under whose government we live but heaven that is the inward and spiritual man hath he reserved unto himself They can restrain the outward man and moderate our outward actions by Edicts and Laws they can tie our hands and our tongues Illa se jactet in aula AEolus Thus far they can go and when they are
every man therefore retire into himself and see if he can find this Kingdom in his heart for if he find it not there in vain shall he find it in all the world besides The fourth head wherein the difference of these Kingdoms is seen is outward state and ceremony for outward pomp and shew is one of the greatest stays of the Kingdom of this world Some thing there must be to amaze the people and strike them into wonderment or else Majesty would quickly be contemned The Scripture recounting unto us King Solomon's Royalty tells us of his magnificent Buildings of his Royal Throne of his servants and his attendants of his cup-bearers of his meats and these were the things which purchased unto him the reputation of Majesty above all the Kings of the earth Beloved the Kingdom of Christ is not like unto Solomon in his Royalty it is like unto David when he had put off all his Royalty and in a linen Ephod danced before the Ark and this plain and natural simplicity of it is like unto the Lilies of the field more glorious then Solomon in all his royalty The Idolatrous superstitions of Paganism stood in great need of such pompous Solemnities Vt opinionem suspendio cognitionis aedificent atque ita tantam majestatem exhibere videantur quantam praestruxerunt cupiditatem as Tertullian tells us For being nothing of themselves they were to gain reputation of being something by concealment and by outward state make shew of something answerable to the expectation they had raised The case of the Kingdoms of the world is the same For all this State and Magnificence used in the managing of them is nothing else but Secular Idolatry used to gain veneration and reverence unto that which in comparison of the Kingdom we speak of is mere vanity But the Sceptre of the Kingdom of Christ is a right Sceptre and to add unto it outward state and riches and pomp is nothing else but to make a Centaure marry and joyn the Kingdom of Christ with the Kingdom of the world which Christ expresly here in my Text hath divorced and put asunder A thing which I do the rather note because that the long continuance of some Ceremonies in the Church have occasioned many especially of the Church of Rome to think that there is no Religion no Service without these Ceremonies Our Books tell us of a poor Spartan that travelling in another Countrey and seeing the beams and posts of houses squared and carved ask'd If the Trees grew so in those Countreys Beloved many men that have been long acquainted with a form of worship squared and carved trick'd and set out with shew and ceremony fall upon this Spartan's conceit think the Trees grow so and think that there is no natural shape and face of God's service but that I confess the service of God hath evermore some Ceremony attending it and to our Fathers before Christ may seem to have been necessary because God commanded it But let us not deceive our selves for neither is Ceremony now neither was Sacrifice then esteemed necessary neither was the command of God concerning it by those to whom it was given ever taken to be peremptory I will begin the warrant of what I have said out of St. Chrysostom for in his comments upon the x. to the Hebrews he denies that ever God from the beginning requir'd or that it was his will to ordain such an outward form of Worship and asking therefore of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how then seems he to have commanded it he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by condescending onely and submitting himself unto humane infirmity now this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this condescending of God wherein it consisted Oecumenius opens For because that men had a conceit that it was convenient to offer up some part of their substance unto God and so strongly were they possess'd with this conceit that if they offered it not up to him they would offer it up to Idols God saith he rather then they should offer unto Idols required them to offer unto him And thus was God understood by the holy men themselves who lived under the shadow of those Ceremonies for David when he had made his peace with God after that great sin of his opens this mystery For thou requirest not sacrifice saith he else would I have given it thee but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a troubled and a contrite heart O God dost thou not despise After the revolt of Ieroboam and the ten Tribes from the House of David there were many devout and religious persons in Israel and yet we find not that they used the outward form of Worship which was commanded Elias and Elizaeus two great Prophets in Israel did they ever go up to Hierusalem to worship Obadiah a great Courtier in King Ahab's Court and one that feared the Lord exceedingly the seven thousands which bowed not their knees to Baal when came they up to the Temple to offer a thing which doubtless they would have done if they had understood the commandment of God in that behalf to have been absolute indeed If we live in places where true religious persons do resort and assemble for the service of God it were a sin to neglect it But otherwise it is sufficient if we keep us from the pollutions of that place to which we are restrain'd Quid juvat hoc nostros templis admittere mores Why measure we God by our selves and because we are led with gay shews and goodly things think it is so with God Seneca reports that a Panto-mimus a Poppet-player and Dancer in Rome because he pleased the People well was wont to go up every day into the Capitol and practised his Art and dance before Iupiter and thought he did the god a great pleasure Beloved in many things we are like unto this Poppet-player and do much measure God by the People by the World A SERMON On 1 SAM xxiv 5. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt TEmptation is the greatest occasioner of a Christian's honour indeed like an Enemy it threatens and endeavours his ruine but in the conquest of it consist his Crown and Triumph Were it possible for us to be at league and truce with this Enemy or to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without danger of Gun-shot out of its reach like the Candle in the Gospel that is put under a bushel the brightest part of our glory were quite obscured As Maximus Tyrius spake of Hercules if you take from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the savage beasts that he slew and the Tyrants whom he supprest his journeys and labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you lop and cut off the manifest Arms and Limbs of Hercules's renown So take from a Christian his Temptations his Persecutions his Contentions remove him from the Devil from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to consider whether there might not be found some means of accommodation which might somewhat mollify the Remonstrant and yet stand well with the Honour of the Synod And first to make way they read the Letters which in the morning by publick Decree of the States were forbidden to read a pretty matter in so grave a place to break those edicts in the Evening which but in the Morning had been so solemnly proclaimed and to speak truth their Decrees have hitherto been mere matter of formality to affright them a little for none of them have been kept as being found to be Pouder without Shot and give a clap but do no harm The Letters being read they began to deliver their minds Some thought the Synod had been too favourable to the Remonstrants already and that it were best now not to hold them if they would he going since hitherto they had been and for any thing appeared to the contrary meant hereafter to be a hindrance to all Peaceable and orderly proceedings Others on the contrary thought fit that all should be granted them which they required to surcease the Interrogatories to let them speak of Reprobation in what place in what manner and how much they pleased since this took from them all pretence of exception and prejudiced not the Synods power of determining what they pleased A third sort thought it better to hold a middle course and under colour of Explanation to mollifie some of their Decrees This sort prevailed and accordingly it was concluded that the Decree of the Synod of this decree I gave your Honour the sum in my Saturday Letters made in the morning should be more largely and Significantly drawn and withall in it should be exprest how far it pleased the Synod to be indulgent unto the Remonstrants in the points in Question The Forraign Divines were requested that they would conceive some Reasons by way of Answer to these late exceptions of the Remonstrants and give them up in writing the next Session to try whether by these means they might make them a little to relent This is all was done that Session which though it seem but litle yet being handled with much and long Speaking among so many took up a long time On Munday the 21 â—â— of December in the Morning the Synod being set Iohannes Polyander made a Latin Sermon His Theme was the seventh verse of the two and fiftieth of Isaiah O quam speciosi in montibus c. he spake much of the greatness of Ecclesiastical Function First in regard of their dignity in the word Speciosi Secondly of their industry in the word Montibus which argues them either to be Pastores or Speculatores Thirdly of the suavity of their Doctrine in the word Peace and Good things After this he fell Pathetically to bewail the torn State of the Belgick Churches and to commend the diligence of the Synod in endavouring to establish their Churches Peace This was the sum of his Sermon it being only a passionate strain and conteining nothing much Remarkable either for Doctrine or News The Praeses in the Name of the Synod gave him great thanks and signified that he had many causes Sperare optima quaeque de Synodo but that Gods good Spirit was indeed amongst them he gathered especially by this Argument that so many Learned and Pious Sermons had in this place been lately made and so he dismist the Company Concerning Monsieur Moulins proposition of which your Honour required my opinion thus I think His project consists of two heads of a General Confession and of a peaceable treaty for Union with the Lutheran Churches I imagine that the Generality of the Confessions must not include the Lutheran For if it doth then are both parts of his proposition the same it being the same thing to procure one general Confession of Faith and a Union Supposing then that this Confession stretches not to them I will do as Iupiter doth in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will grant him one part and deny him the other For a general Confession of Faith at least so far as those Churches stretch who have Delegates here in the Synod I think his project very possible there being no point of Faith in which they differ If therefore the Churches shall give power to their Delegates to propose it to the Synod I see no reason but it should pass But I did not like the intimation concerning Church-Government It had I think been better not mentioned not that I think it possible that all Churches can be Govern'd alike for the French Church being sub cruce cannot well set up Episcopal jurisdiction but because it may seem to his Majesty of Great Britain that his excepting the point of Government might not proceed so much from the consideration of the Impossibility of the thing as from want of love and liking of it in the Person Now for that part of the proposition which concerns the Lutheran either it aimes at a Union in Opinion or a mutual toleration The first is without all question impossible For in the point of the Sacrament and the dependences from it as the ubiquity of Christs manhood the Person of Christ the Communicatio idiomatum c. Either they must yield to us or we to them neither of which probable Their opinions have now obtain'd for a Hundred years ever since the beginning of the Reformation and are derived from the chief Author of the Reformation It is not likely therefore that they will easily fall that have such Authority and so many years to uphold them But I suppose Monsieur Moulins intended only a mutual toleration and be it no more yet if we consider the indisposition of the persons with whom we are to deal I take this likewise to be impossible The Lutherans are divided into two sorts either they are Molliores as they call them or Rigidi What hope there may be of moderation in the first I know not but in the second we may well despair of For they so bear themselves as that it is evident they would rather agree with the Church of Rome than with the Calvinist He that is conversant in the writings of Hunnius and Grawerus will quickly think as I do The first of which hath so bitterly written against Calvin that Parsons the Jesuit furnisht himself by compiling Hunnius his Books If the whole lump be Leaven'd as those two pieces which I but now named they are certainly too sowre for Moderate men to deal with The French wits are naturally active and projecting and withall carry evermore a favourable conceit to the Possibility of their projects Out of this French conceit I suppose proceeded this of M. Moulins Mr. Dean went away to the Hague giving notice to no man I understood not till dinner that day of any intent he had to go I wisht him an ill journey for this discourtesy but I hope he had a good one I fear I well wearied your Honour
doctrine which they had delivered in their Scholes and pulpits Episcopius most impudently answered thus briefly we here delivered to you the Delegates this book and to none else if you be pleased to take it from us we will leave it with you if not we pray you give it us again and we will keep it one of the Delegates commanded Heinsius to write down that their peremptory and saucy answer Episcopius very bravely told Heinsius that they would save him that labour for they had set down the same words already in their Preface and pointed out to him the place where he might find them so that my Lord they were never since the beginning of the Synod so lusty as now so as none can chuse but think that they yet have some secret and sure hopes I forget to tell your Lordship that the President told me he had been glancing at this volume and he finds it to be in many parts a confutation of the several discourses which have been had publickly in the Synod upon the â—ive Articles There is some talk â—here about the citation of Vorstius and Festius Hommius yesternight told me he had some talk with your Lordship about it If he be cited your Lordships credit with the Prince of Orange and Count William must help us for discretion in dealing with him else he will keep the Synod as long as the Remonstrants did your Lordship I hope will give counsel to them that if Vorstius should desire to have time to give in apologies and explications for the hard speeches in his book De Deo and should desire to be convinced with Reason and satisfaction of his arguments all which would take up a long time that the Synod would talk of no such matter with him but in plain terms tell him that all the members of the Synod had read his Book and found many things in it very near unto open blasphemy scandalous without all question to the Reformed Religion that explications of things which are not once to be called in question is no satisfaction and they therefore only desire to know whether he will make a plain recantation denial of it publickly ask God forgivenss for it his Church likewise there assembled whom by that Book he hath scandalized if he do this we gain him if not then without any more ado let the Synod censure him as they shall think fit I wish that to the terrour of others he might solemnly be excommunicated in the Synod in this and all other businesses we do and must relie upon your Lordships care for the handsome carriage of them which as your Lordship hath hitherto done so that your Lordship may still continue to the good of God's Church and your own immortal credit it is no small part of the prayers of Dordrecht this 20. of March Stylo novo Your Lordships humble and faithful servant Walter Balcanqual My very good Lord THis week hath been a very barren one for news for we have been taken up wholly with hearing yet such Sessions as we had your Lordship shall here have a note of them Sessio 119. 18. Martii Stylo novo There were read Letters from the Marques of Brandeburgh in Dutch containing as the President told us an excuse why he deputed none to the Synod the President told us they should be turned into Latin and after read again unto the whole Synod there were read the judgements of the South Hollandi the North Hollandi the Zelandi the Vltrajectini upon the third and fourth Articles Sessio 120. eodem die post meridiem There were read upon the same Articles the judgements of the Frisii the Transisulani the Groninganii and Omlandii the Gallo-belgici the Drentani And so was ended the reading of all the Collegial judgements upon the third and fourth Articles in which there was wonderful great consent both in the things themselves as likewise in the phrases and forms of speaking Sessio 121. 19. Martii There were read the judgement of our College upon the fifth Article Which was far longer than any which we gave in before At the end of it we annexed an adhortation to the Delegates for the defence in their Provinces of the Doctrine received in the Reformed Churches Likewise an Exhortation to all the Members of the Synod for avoiding harshness and rigidity and embracing of all moderation in making the Canons especially upon the second Article as likewise an admonition to the Provincials for great wariness and discretion in propounding to the common People the Doctrine of Predestination and especially Reprobation these things we told his Majesty desired us to observe and so with a Prayer we wish'd both we and all the Synod might be careful in the observing of them There was read the judgement of the Palatines at the end whereof they annexed an Epilogue much to the same purpose with ours In all the judgements that were read upon this Article it is to be observed that every College concluded with such an Epilogue and a Prayer Sessio 122. eodem die post meridiem There were read the judgements of the Hassiaci of the Helvetici of the Nassovici of the Genevenses who used as in their former judgements no confirmations besides plain citations of places of Scripture of the Bremenses Sessio 123.20 Martii There were read the judgement of the Embdani who were exceeding long of the four Professores Belgici which was subscribed as with their own hands so a little beneath with the hand of Sibrandus next the judgement of Sibrandus subscribed likewise by the other four Professours there were read likewise the judgement of the Geldri of the South Hollandi all these except the Embdani were exceeding short Sessio 124. eodem die post meridiem D. Crocius one of the Bremenses appointed by the President publickly all Auditours being admitted did discuss at great length these two questions First An fides justificans per Dei acceptì lationem reputetur à Deo pro omni illâ legis justitiâ quam nos praestare tenebamur The second An ipsa fides seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere id est actus credendi imputetur homini à Deo ad justitiam he held the Negative of both against Socinus the Remonstrants but namely Bertius Sessio 125. 21. Martii There were read the judgements of the North Hollandi the Zelandi the Vltrajectini the Fristi Sessio 126. eodem die post meridiem There were read the judgements of the Transisulani the Groninganii and Omlandii the Drentani the Gollo-belgici And so was happily ended the reading of all the Collegial judgments upon the five Articles in which praised be God for it there was seen an incredible harmon far greater than almost could be hoped for in so great an Assembly of so many learned men The President told us that the Estates General between this and Easter did expect that the Canons should be made and therefore did desire that against the morrow at ten of
Fathers they were called Heresies for Heresie is an act of the will not of the reason and is indeed a lye and not a mistake else how could that of Austin go for true Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo indeed Manichanisme Valentinianisme Macedonianisme Mahometisme are truly and properly Heresies For we know that the Authors of them received them not but invented them themselves and so knew what they taught to be a lye but can any man avouch that Arius and Nestorius and others that taught erroneously concerning the Trinity and the person of our Saviour did maliciously invent what they taught and not rather fall upon it by error and mistake Till that be done and upon good evidence we will think no worse of all parties than needs we must and take these Rents in the Church to be at the worst but Schismes upon matter of opinion In which case what we are to do is not a point of any great depth of understanding to discover if so be distemper and partiality do not intervene I do not see that opinionum varietas opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that men of different opinions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris and both go to one Church Why may I not go if occasion require to an Arian Church so there be no Arianisme exprest in their Liturgy and were Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private fancies but contained only such things as in which all Christians do agree Schismes on opinion were utterly vanished for consider of all the Liturgies that are and ever have been and remove from them whatsoever is scandalous to any party and leave nothing but what all agree on and the evil shall be that the publick Service and Honour of God shall no ways suffer Whereas to load our publick Forms with the private fancies upon which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schisme unto the worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and the simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private opinion or of Church-Pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all superstition and when scruple of conscience began to be made or pretended there Schism began to break in if the special Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customes or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism or Superstition and all the inconvenience were likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiours a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do mean while wheresoever false or suspected opinions are made a piece of Church-Liturgy he that separate is not the Schismatick for it is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshood as to put in practise unlawful or suspect actions The third thing I named for matter of Schisme was Ambition I mean Episcopal Ambition shewing it self especially in two heads one concerning pluralities of Bishops in divers Seas Aristotle tells us that necessity causeth but small faults but Avarice and Ambition were the Mother of great Crimes Episcopal Ambition hath made this true for no occasion hath produced more frequent more continuous more sanguineous Schismes than this hath done The Sees of Alexandria of Constantinople of Antioch and above all of Rome do abundantly shew thus much and all Ecclesiastical stories witness no less of which the greatest that consists of fanctionating and tumultuating of great and potent Bishops Socrates Apologizing for himself that professing to write an Ecclesiastical story he did oft-times interlace the actions of secular Princes and other civil business tells us that he did this to refresh his Reader who otherwise were in danger to be cloyd by reading so much of the Acts of unquiet and unruly Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which as a man may say they made butter and cheese one of another for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may shew you a cast of my old Office and open you a mystery in Grammar properly signifies to make butter and cheese and because these are not made without much agitation of the milk hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a borrowed and translated signification signifies to do things with much agitation and tumult But that I may a little consider of the two heads I but now specified the first I mentioned was the Prelacies of Bishops in one Sea For the general practice of the Church since the beginning at least since the original of Episcopacy as now it is was never to admit at once more than one Bishop in one Sea and so far in this point have they been careful to preserve unity that they would not have a Bishop in his Sea to have two Cathedral Churches which thing lately brought us a Book out of France De Monomachia Episcoporum written by occasion of the Bishops of Langres who I know not upon what fancy could not be content with one Cathedral Church in his Diocess but would needs have two which to the Author of that work seems to be a kind of Spiritual Polygamy It fell out amongst the Ancients very often sometimes upon occasion of difference in opinions sometimes because of those who were interessed in the choice of Bishops that two and sometimes more were set up and all parties striving to maintain their own Bishop made themselves several Churches several Congregations each refusing to participate with others and many times proceeding to mutual Excommunications this is that which Cyprian calls Erigere Altare contra Altare to this doth he impute the Original of all Church-disorders and if you read him you would think he thought no other Church-tumult to be Schisme but this This perchance may plead some excuse for though in regard of Religion it self it matters not whether there be one or more Bishops in one Diocess for Epiphanius reckoning up the Bishops of Rome makes Peter and Paul the first and St. Augustine acknowledgeth for a time he sate fellow Bishop with his Predecessor though he excused it that he did so being ignorant that the contrary had been decreed by the Council of Nice yet it being a thing very convenient for the peace of the Church to have it so neither doth it any whit savour of their misdemeanor their punishment sleeps not who unncessarily and wantonly go about to infringe it But that other head of Episcopal Ambition concerning Supremacy of Bishops in divers Seas one claiming Supremacy over another as it hath been from