means promise him to come because the liberty I had before to go or not to go is now determined by making such a promise neither may a young man bind himself an Apprentice with any certain Master or to any certain Trade because the liberty he had before of placing himself indifferently with that Master or with another and in that trade or in another is now determin'd by such a contract And so it might be instanc'd in a thousand other things For indeed to what purpose hath God left indifferent things determinable both ways by Christian liberty if they may never be actually determined either way without impeachment of that liberty It is a very vain power that may not be brought into act but God made no power in vain Our Brethren I hope will wave this first argument when they shall have well examined it unless they will frame to themselves under the name of Christian liberty a very Chimaera a non ens a meer notional liberty whereof there can be no use That which was alledged secondly that they that make such Laws take upon them to alter the nature of things by making indifferent things to become necessary being said gratis without either truth or proof is sufficiently answered by the bare denial For they that make Laws concerning indifferent things have no intention at all to meddle with the nature of them they leave that in medio as they found it but only for some reasons of conveniency to order the use of them the indifferency of their nature still being where it was Nay so far is our Church from having any intention of taking away the indifferency of those things which for order and comeliness she enjoyneth that she hath by her publick declaration protested the contrary wherewith they ought to be satisfied Especially since her sincerity in that declaration that none may cavil as if it were protestatio contraria facto appeareth by these two most clear Evidences among many other in that she both alloweth different Rites used in other Churches and also teacheth her own rites to be mutable neither of which she could do if she conceived the nature of the things themselves to be changed or their indifferency to be removed by her Constitutions Neither is that true which was thirdly alledged that where men are bound in conscience to obey there the conscience is not left free or else there would be a contradiction For there is no contradiction where the Affirmative and Negative are not ad idem as it is in this case for Obedience is one thing and the Thing Commanded another The Thing is commanded by the Law of Man and in regard thereof the conscience is free but Obedience to men is commanded by the Law of God and in regard thereof the conscience is bound So that we are bound in conscience to obedience in indifferent things lawfully commanded the conscience still remaining no less free in respect of the things themselves so commanded than it was before And you may know it by this In Laws properly humane such as are those that are made concerning indifferent things the Magistrate doth not nor can say this you are bound in conscience to do and therefore I command you to do it as he might say if the bond of obedience did spring from the nature of the things commanded But now when the Magistrate beginneth at the other end as he must do and saith I command you to do this or that and therefore you are bound in conscience to do it this plainly sheweth that the bond of obedience ariseth from that power in the Magistrate and duty in the subject which is of Divine Ordinance You may observe therefore that in humane Laws not meerly such that is such as are established concerning things simply necessary or meerly unlawful the Magistrate may there derive the bond of obedience from the nature of the things themselves As for example if he should make a Law to inhibit Sacriledge or Adultery he might then well say You are bound in conscience to abstain from these things and therefore I command you so to abstain which he could not so well say in the Laws made to inhibit the eating of flesh or the transportation of Grain And the reason of the difference is evident because those former Laws are rather Divine than Humane the substance of them being divine and but the sanction only humane and so bind by their immediate vertue and in respect of the things themselves therein commanded which the latter being meerly humane both for substance and sanction do not The consideration of which difference and the reason of it will abundantly discover the vanity of the fourth allegation also wherein it was objected that the things enjoyned by the Ecclesiastical Laws are imposed upon men as of necessity to salvation which is most untrue Remember once again that obedience is one thing and the things commanded another Obedience to lawful Authority is a duty commanded by God himself and in his Law and so is a part of that holiness without which no man shall see God but the things themselves commanded by lawful Authority are neither in truth necessary to salvation nor do they that are in Authority impose them as such only they are the object and that but by accident neither and contingently not necessarily about which that obedience is conversant and wherein it is to be exercised An example or two will make it plain We know every man is bound in conscience to employ himself in the works of his particular calling with faithfulness and diligence and that faithfulness and diligence is a branch of that holiness and righteousness which is necessary unto salvation Were it not now a very fond thing and ridiculous for a man from hence to conclude that therefore drawing of wine or making of shoes were necessary to salvation because these are the proper imployment of the Vintners and Shoemakers Calling which they in conscience are bound to follow nor may without sin neglect them Again if a Master command his servant to go to the Market to sell his corn and to buy in provision for his house or to wear a livery of such or such a colour and fashion in this case who can reasonably deny but that the servant is bound in conscience to do the very things his Master biddeth him to do to go to sell to buy to wear And yet is there any man so forsaken of common sence as thence to conclude that going to market selling of corn buying of meat wearing a blue coat are necessary to salvation Or that the Master imposeth those things upon the servant as of necessity unto salvation The obligation of the servants conscience to do the things commanded ariseth from the force of that divine Law which bindeth servants to obey their masters in lawful things The master in the things he so commandeth hath no particular actual respect to the conscience of his servant
the use of ordinary means to reclaim such men from the pursuit of their â—iciouâ— lusts as are once grown wretehless in their good names Sith they grow also therewithal shameless in sin and harden their foreheads against all reproof Ego illum perditum duco cui quidem periit pudor He is but a lost man that hath lost all shame there being then nothing left to keep him back from rushing headlong into all manner of wickedness And he that being often reproved hardneth his neck must needs be destroyed without remedy inasmuch as that which is the last and likeliest remedy to preserve him from destruction to wit reproof hath by his wilful neglect in not making use of it proved ineffectual to him 30. Thirdly the valuableness of a good name in the judgment of so wise a person as Solomon was may sufficiently inform us of the weakness of that Plea which is so often taken up for our own justification and to put by the wholsom admonitions of our friends when we are dealt withal for the reforming or forbearing some things in our practice which if they be not evil yet are ill-coloured look suspiciously and carry in their faces some resemblance or appearance of evil and for which we hear not well It is an usual plea with us in such cases That so long as we stand clear in our own Consciences and are sure our hearts are honest we are not to regard the speeches and censures of men There is a time indeed and there are Cases wherein such a Plea will hold good When men shall go about by proposing disgraces to fright us out of any part of that duty that by vertue of our general or particular calling lieth upon us or shall endeavour to put out our names as evil from amongst men for having done but that which was our bounden duty to do in such like cases we may seasonably comfort our selves in our own innocency flie for refuge against the injuries of Tongues into our own Consciences as into a Castle there repose our selves with security disregarding the reproaches of evil men and professing with St. Paul that with us it is a very small matter to be judged of them or of mans judgment 31. But where we may do more we are not to think it enough to satisfie our own Consciences but we are to endeavour as much as in us lieth to stop the mouths or at leastwise to manifest our uprightness to the Consciences of others What else meant St. Peter to exhort Christians that they should have their conversation honest among the Gentiles Or as St. Paul so frequently and earnestly to fall upon the point of Scandal Or to be so careful in his own person to provide things honest not only in the sight of God but in the sight of men also Or to stir up others to good things by arguments drawn as well from Praise as Vertue from Fame as Conscience As you shall find them mixtly thrown together in the heap Phil. 4. Finally Brethren saith he whatsoever things are true that 's taken from Conscience whatsoever things are honest that from Fame whatsoever things are just whatsever things are pure those from Conscience again whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report those again from Fame think on these things c. To say then as some times we do when we are told that such or such doings will be little to our credit That other men are not to be judges of our Consciences but we stand or fall to our own Master and if we do otherwise than well it is we not they that must answer for it c. I say these are no good answers If men were of St. Augustin's mind in his Book De bono viduitatis if that book be his they would not give them the hearing Non audiendi sunt c. It is confessed even by Heathens that for a man wholly to disregard what estimation others have of him is not only arrogancy and cruelty but stupidity too 32. Lastly Sith a good Name is a thing so precious it should be the great care of every one of us next the care of our Souls to keep that unstained that so we may be blameless as well as harmless carrying our selves as the Sons of God without rebuke though we live in the midst of never so crooked perverse and untoward a generation Scandalous behaviour will render our names unsavory as dead flies cause the Ointment of an Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour Apothecaries we see are very choice over their precious Confections therefore to preserve them from taint and putrefaction Shall not a Christian be as wise and chary in his generation as a shop keeper in his to keep the Ointment of his good Name from stench and rottenness which is so incomparably more precious than the others are Truly I see not why every honest godly man should not strive as earnestly and with as good hope to have every mans good word as he should to live in peace with every man You well know what the Apostle saith for that Rom. 12. If it be possible so much as in you lieth have peace with all men That is not solely in our own power nay it is a thing scarce possible else the If were needless so is this too But yet somewhat we may do towards it and possibly by our good endeavours obtain it in a competent measure else the Exhortation were bootless and so we may do in this too 33. To excite our care the more hereunto although the Excellency of the thing it self whereof we have spoken so much already might alone suffice if it were seriously considered yet consider farther First That the preservation of our good Names is a duty which by the Law of Nature and the Law of Charity and whatsoever belongeth to either of these is the very Law of God we are obliged unto God hath ingrafted in our Nature as a spur to vertuous and laudable actions an appetency and praise of glory and expecteth that we should make use of it accordingly so far as it may be servient to those ends for which he gave it and so as it be withal subservient to his glory that gave it And the Law of Charity binding us to honour all men and to preserve the just Reputation of our meanest Neighbour must consequently bind us to do our selves right in the point of honour forasmuch as we also as men are included in that generality Yea and that à fortiori too inasmuch as the duty of Charity to be performed to our selves is to be the rule and measure of that Charity which we owe to our Neighbour And it is not supposable that he that hath little care of his own should be meerly tender of his brothers reputation 34. Consider secondly as but now I touched that
of any great weight for altering the meaning of the words Nor is it my purpose to insist upon such inferior observations as might be raised from some expressions or circumstances in the Text otherwise than as they shall occasionally fall in our way in the prosecution of those main points which to the apprehension of evâ—râ— understanding hearer do at the very first view appear to have been chiefly intended therein 2. And they but two First The supposal of a duty tho for the most part and by most Men very slackly regarded and that is the delivering of the oppressed In the two former verses If thou faint in the day of adversity If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Secondly The removal of the common pretensions which Men usually plead by way of excuse or extenuation at least when they have failed in the former duty In the last verse If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it c. So that if we will speak any thing to the purpose of the Text we must of necessity speak to those two points that do therefrom so readily offer themselves to our consideration to wit the necessity of the Duty first and then the vanity of the Excuses 3. The Duty is contained and the necessity of it gathered in and from the tenth and eleventh verses in these words If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Wherein the particulars considerable are First The persons to whom the duty is to be performed as the proper object of our justice and charity Them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain They especially but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also all others that are in their condition in any kind or degree those that are injured or oppressed or in danger to be injured or oppressed by any manner way or means 2ly An act of Charity and Justice to be performed towards those that are in such a condition by such as by reason of the power and opportunities and other advantages that God hath put into their hands are in a capacity to do it which is the very duty it self viz. to look upon them in the day of their adversity and to deliver them out of the hand of their oppressors 3ly A possibility of the neglect or non-performance of this so just and charitable a duty by those that might and therefore ought to do it expressed here by the name of forbearance If thou forbear to deliver 4ly The true immediate cause of that neglect wheresoever it is found viz. the want of spirit and courage in the heart faint-heartedness from whatsoever former or remoter cause thht faintness may proceed whether a pusillanimous fear of the displeasure or a desire to wind himself into the favour of some great person or the expectation of a reward or a lothness to interpose in other Mens affairs or meer sloth and a kind of unwillingness of putting himself to so much trouble or whatever other reason or inducement can be supposed If thou faint in the day of adversity Lastly The censure of that neglect it is an evident demonstration à posteriori and as all other visible effects are of their more inward and secret causes a certain Token and Argument of a sinful weakness of mind If thou faintest c. thy strength is small 4. The result of these particulars amount in the whole to this Every Man according to his place and power but especially those that being in place of Magistracy and Iudicature are armed with publick authority for it are both in Charity and Iustice obliged to use the utmost of their power and to lay hold on all fit opportunities by all lawful means to help those to right that suffer wrong to stand by their poorer Brethren and Neighbours in the day of calamity and distress and to set in for them throughly and stoutly in their righteous causes to protect them from injuries and to deliver them out of the hands of such as are too mighty or too crafty for them and as seek either by violence or cunning to deprive them either of their lives or livelihoods Briefly thus and according to the language of the Text It is our duty every one of us to use our best strength to deliver the oppressed but our sin if we faint and forbear so to do And the making good and the pressing of this duty is like to be all our business at this time 5. A point of such clear and certain truth that the very Heathen Philosophers and Law givers have owned it as a beam of the light of Nature insomuch as even in their account he that abstaineth from doing injuries hath done but the one half of that which is required to compleat Iustice if he do not withal defend others from injuries when it is in his power so to do But of all other Men our Solomon could least be ignorant of this truth not only for that reason because God had filled his heart with a large measure of wisdom beyond other Men but even for this reason also that being born of wise and godly Parents and born to a Kingdom too in which high calling he should be sure to meet with occasions enough whereon to exercise all the strength he had he had this truth considering the great usefulness of it to him in the whole time of his future Government early distilled into him by both his Parents and was seasoned thereinto from his childhood in his education His father David in Psal. 72. which he penned of purpose as a prophetical benediction and instruction for his Son as appeareth by the Inscription it beareth in the Title of it a Psalm for Solomon beginneth the Psalm with a Prayer to God both for himself and him Give the King thy judgments O God and thy righteousness unto the King's Son And then after sheweth for what end he made that Prayer and what should be the effect in order to the Publick if God should be pleased to grant it Then shall he judg the people according unto right and defend the poor vers 2. He shall keep the simple folk by their right defend the children of the poor and punish the wrong doer or as it is in the last Translation break in pieces the oppressor vers 4. and after at the 12 13 and 14 verses altho perhaps the passages there might principally look at Christ the true Solomon and Prince of Peace a greater than Solomon and of whom Solomon was but a Figure yet I believe they were also literally intended for Solomon himself He shall deliver the poor when he crieth the needy also and him that hath no helper He shall be favourable to the simple and needy and shall preserve the souls of the
blood by Man shall his blood be shed And that Iudges should be very shy and tender how they grant Pardons or Reprievals in that case he established it afterwards among his own people by a most severe sanction Num. 35. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer which is guilty of death but he shall surely be put to death And there is a reason of it there given also For blood saith he defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed from the blood that is shed therein but by he blood of him that shed it Read that passage with attention and if both forehead and conscience be not harder than the neither milstone thou canst not have either the heart or the face to glory in it as a brave exploit whoever thou art that hast been the instrument to save the life of a Murderer 20. Indeed all offences are not of that hanious nature that Murder is nor do they cry so loud for vengeance as Murder doth And therefore to procure undeserved favour for a smaller offender is not so great a sin as to do it for a Murderer But yet so far as the proportion holdeth it is a sin still Especially where favour cannot be shewn to one Man but to the wrong and grievance of some other as it hapneth usually in those judicial controversies that are betwixt party and party for trial of right Or where favour cannot be shewn to an offender but with wrong and grievance to the publick as it most times falleth out in criminal causes wherein the King and Commonwealth are parties Solomon hath taught us that as well he that justifieth the wicked as he that condemneth the just are an abomination to the Lord. Yea and that for any thing that appeareth to the contrary from the Text and in thesi for circumstances may make a difference either way in hypothesi they are both equally abominable In doubtful cases it is doubtlesly better and safer to encline to Mercy than to Severity Better ten offenders should escape than one innocent person suffer But that is to be conceived only when things are doubtful so as the truth cannot be made appear but where things are notorious and evident there to justifie the guilty and to condemn the innocent are still equal abominations 21. That which you are to do then in the behalf of the poor is this First to be rightly informed and so far as morally you can well assured that their cause be just For mean and poor people are nothing less but ordinarily much more unreasonable than the great ones are and if they find the ear of the Magistrate open to hear their grievances as is very meet it should be they will be often clamorous and importunate without either cause or measure And if the Magistrate be not very wary and wise in receiving informations the Country swain may chance prove too cunning for him and make him but a stale whereby for himself to get the start of his Adversary and so the Magistrate may in fine and unwares become the instrument of oppression even then when his intention was to vindicate another from it The Truth of the matter therefore is to be first throughly sifted out the circumstances duly weighed and as well as the legal the equitable right examined and compared and this to be done with all requisite diligence and prudence before you engage in the poor Man's behalf 22. But if when this is done you then find that there is much right and equity on his side and that yet for want of skill or friends or means to manage his affairs he is in danger to be foiled in his righteous cause Or if you find that his Adversary hath a legal advantage of him or that he hath de rigore incurred the penalty of some dis-used statute yet did not offend wilfully out of the neglect of his known duty or a greedy covetous mind or other sinister and evil intention but meerly out of his ignorance and inexperience and in the simplicity of his heart as those two hundred Israelites that followed after Absalom when he called them not knowing any thing of his conspiracy had done an act of treason yet were not formally traitors In either of these cases I say you may not forsake the poor Man or despise him because he is poor or simple But you ought so much the rather to stick by him and to stand his friend to the utmost of your power You ought to give him your counsel and your countenance to speak for him and write for him and ride for him and do for him to procure him right against his Adversary in the former case and in the latter case favour from the Iudge In either case to hold back your hand to draw back your help from him if it be in the power of your hand to do him any help is that sin for which in the judgment of Solomon in the Text the Lord will admit no excuse 23. Come we now in the last place to some reasons or motives taken from the effects of the duty it self If carefully and conscionably performed it will gain honour and estimation both to our persons and places purchase for us the prayers and blessings of the poor yea and bring down a blessing from God not upon us and ours only but upon the State and Commonwealth also But where the duty is neglected the effects are quite contrary First do you know any other thing that will bring a Man more glory and renown in the common opinion of the World than to shew forth at once both justice and mercy by doing good and protecting the Innocent Let not mercy and truth forsake thee bind them about thy neck write them upon the table of thine heart so shalt thou find favour and good understanding or acceptance in the sight of God and Man Prov. 3. As a rich sparkling Diamond addeth both value and lustre to a golden Ring so do these vertues of justice and mercy well attempered bring a rich addition of glory to the Crowns of the greatest Monarchs Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens Prodesse miseris supplices fido lare Protegere c. Every Man is bound by the Law of God and of Charity as to give to every other Man his due honour so to preserve the honour that belongeth to his own person and place for Charity in performing the duties of every Commandment beginneth at home Now here is a fair and honest and sure way for all you that are in place of authority and judicature or sustain the persons of Magistrates to hold up the reputation both of your Persons and Places and to preserve them from scorn and contempt Execute judgment and justice with wisdom and diligence take knowledge of the vexations of those that are brought into the Courts or otherwise troubled without cause be sensible of the groans and pressures of poor Men in the
practice and yet very rarely observed and more rarely reprehended God hath endowed a man with good abilities and parts in some kind or other I instance but in one gift only for examples sake viz. an ability to enlarge himself in prayer readily and with fit expressions upon any present occasion Being in the Ministry or other Calling he is careful to exercise his gifts by praying with his family praying with the sick praying with other company upon such other occasions as may fall out He thinketh and he thinketh well that if he should do otherwise or less than he doth he should not be able to discharge himself from the guilt of unfaithfulness in not employing the talent he hath received to the best advantage when the exercise of it might redound to the glory of the giver Hitherto he is in the right so long as he maketh his gift a Rule but to himself But now if this man shall stretch out this Rule unto all his brethren in the same Calling by imposing upon them a necessity of doing the like if he shall expect or exact from them that they also should be able to commend unto God the necessities of their families or the state of a sick person or the like by extemporary prayer but especially if he shall judge or censure them that dare not adventure so to do of intrusion into or of unfaithfulness in their Callings he committeth a great fault and well deserving a sharp reprehension For what is this else but to lay heavier burdens upon mens shoulders than they can stand under to make our selves judges of other mens consciences and our Abilities Rules of their Actions yea and even to lay an imputation upon our Master with that ungracious servant in the Gospel as if he were an hard man reaping where he hath not sown and gathering where he hath not strewed and requiring much where he hath given little and like Pharaoh's Task-masters exacting the full tale of Bricks without sufficient allowance of materials Shall he that hath a thousand a year count him that hath but an hundred a Churl if he do not spend as much in his house weekly keep as plentiful a table and bear as much in every common charge as himself No less unreasonable is he that would bind his brother of inferiour gifts to the same frequency and method in preaching to the same readiness and copiousness in praying to the same necessity and measure in the performance of other duties whereunto according to those gifts he findeth in himself he findeth himself bound The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man let no man be so severe to his brother as to look he should manifest more of the Spirit than he hath received Now as for you to whom God hath dealt these spiritual gifts with a more sparing hand the freedom of God's distribution may be a fruitful meditation for you also First thou hast no reason whosoever thou art to grudge at the scantness of thy gifts or to repine at the Giver How little soever God hath given thee it is more than he owed thee If the distribution of the Spirit were a matter of justice or of debt God we know is no accepter of persons and he would have given to thee as to another But being as it is a matter of gift not of debt nor of justice but of grace take that is thine thankfully and be content withal He hath done thee no wrong may he not do as he will with his own Secondly since the manifestation of the Spirit is a matter of free gift thou hast no cause to envy thy brother whose portion is greater Why should thy eye be therefore evil against him because God hath been so good unto him Shall the foot envy the hand or the ear the eye because the foot cannot work nor the ear see If the whole body were hand where were the going and if the whole were eye where were the hearing or if the whole were any One member where were the body If the hand can work which the foot cannot yet the foot can go which the hand cannot and if the eye can see which the ear cannot yet the ear can hearken which the eye cannot And if thy brother have some Abilities which thou hast not thou art not so bare but thou hast other some again which he hath not Say thine be meaner yet the meanest member as it hath his necessary office so it is not destitute of his proper comeliness in the Body Thirdly if thy gifts be mean thou hast this comfort withal that thy accounts will be so much the easier Merchants that have the greatest dealings are not ever the safest men And how happy a thing had it been for many men in the world if they had had less of other mens goods in their hands The less thou hast received the less thou hast to answer for If God hath given thee but one single talent he will not require five nor if five ten Fourthly in the meanness of thy gifts thou mayest read thy self a daily Lecture of humility and humility alone is a thing of more value than all the perfections that are in the world besides without it This think That God who disposeth all things for the best to those that are his would have given thee other and greater gifts if he had seen it so expedient for thee That therefore he hath holden his hand and with-holden those things from thee conceive it done either for thy former unworthiness and that should make thee humble or for thy future good and that should make thee also thankful Lastly remember what the Preacher saith in Eccles. 10. If the Iron be blunt then he must put to the more strength Many men that are well left by their friends and full of money because they think they shall never see the bottom of it take no care by any employment to encrease it but spend on upon the stock without either fear or wit they care not what or how till they be sunk to nothing before they be aware whereas on the contrary industrious men that have but little to begin withal yet by their care and providence and pains-taking get up wonderfully It is almost incredible what industry and diligence and exercise and holy emulation which our Apostle commendeth in the last Verse of this Chapter are able to effect for the bettering and increasing of our spiritual gifts provided ever we joyn with these hearty prayer unto and faithful dependance upon God for his blessing thereupon I know no so lawful usury as of those spiritual talents nor do I know any so profitable usury or that multiplieth so fast as this doth your use upon use that doubleth the principal in seven years is nothing to it Oh then cast in thy talent into the bank make thy returns as speedy and as many as thou canst lose
not a market or a tide if it be possible be instant in season and out of season omit no opportunity to take in and put off all thou canst get so though thy beginnings be but small thy latter end shall wonderfully encrease By this means thou shalt not only profit thy self in the encrease of thy gifts unto thy self but which no other usury doth besides thou shalt also profit others by communicating of thy gifts unto them Which is the proper end for which they were bestowed and of which we are next to speak The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal To profit whom it may be Himself It is true If thou art wise thou shalt be wise for thy self said Solomon and Solomon knew what belonged to wisdom as well as another For Qui sibi nequam cui bonus He that is not good to himself it is but a chance that he is good to any body else When we seem to pity a man by saying he is no mans foe but his own or he is worst to himself we do indeed but flout him and in effect call him a fool and a prodigal Such a fool is every one that guiding the feet of others into the way of peace himself treadeth the paths that lead unto destruction and that preaching repentance unto others himself becometh a Cast-away He that hath a gift then he should do well to look to his own as well as to the profit of others and as unto doctrine so as well and first to take heed unto himself that so doing he may save himself as well as those that hear him This then is to be done but this is not all that is to be done In Wisdom we cannot do less but in Charity we are bound to do more than thus with our gifts If our own profit only had been intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have served the turn as well but the word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which importeth such a kind of profit as redoundeth to community such as before in the 10th Chapter he professeth himself to have sought after Not seeking mine own profit he meaneth not only his own but the profit of many that they may be saved We noted it already as the main and essential difference between those graces of sanctification and these graces of edification that those though they would be made profitable unto others also yet were principally intended for the proper good of the Owner but these though they would be used for the owners good also yet were principally intended for the profit of others You see then what a strong Obligation lieth upon every man that hath received the Spirit conferre aliquid in publicum to cast his gifts into the common treasury of the Church to imploy his good parts and spiritual graces so as they may some way or other be profitable to his brethren and fellow-servants in Church and Commonwealth It is an old received Canon Beneficium propter officium No man setteth a Steward over his house only to receive his rents and then to keep the monies in his hand and make no provision out of it for Hines and Servants but it is the office of a good and wise Steward to give every of the houshold his appointed portion at the appointed seasons And whoso receiveth a spiritual gift ipso facto taketh upon him the office and is bound to the duties of a Steward As every man hath received the gift even administer the same one unto another as good stewards of the manifold graces of God 1 Pet. 4. It was not only for Orders sake and for the beautifying of his Church though that also that God gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers but also and especially for more necessary and profitable uses for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes. 4. 11 12. The members of the body are not every one for it self but every one for other and all for the whole The stomach eateth not to fill it self but to nourish the body the eye seeth not to please it self but to espy for the body the foot moveth not to exercise it self but to carry the body the hand worketh not to help it self but to maintain the body every joynt supplieth something according to the effectual working in the measure of every part for the fit joyning together and compacting and encreasing of the body to the edifying of it self in love Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular Now this necessity of employing spiritual gifts to the good and profit of others ariseth first from the will and the intent of the Giver my Text sheweth plainly what that intent was The manifestation of the Spirit was therefore given to every man that he might profit withal Certainly as Nature doth not so much less doth the God of Nature make any thing to no purpose or barely for shew but for use and the use for which all these things were made and given is edification He that hath an estate made over to him in trust and for uses hath in equity therein no estate at all if he turn the commodities of the thing some other way and not to those special uses for which he was so estated in it So he that employeth not his spiritual gift to the use for which it was given to the profit of the Church he hath de jure forfeited to the giver And we have sometimes known him de facto to take the forfeiture as from the unprofitable servant in the Gospel Take the talent from him We have sometimes seen the experiment of it Men of excellent parts by slacking their zeal to have lost their very Gifts and by neglecting the use to have lost the principal finding a sensible decay in those powers which they were slothful to bring into act It is a just thing with the Father of Lights when he hath lighted any man a candle by bestowing spiritual Gifts upon him and lent him a candlestick too whereon to set it by providing him a stay in the Church if that man shall then hide his candle under a bushel and envy the light and comfort of it to them that are in the house either to remove his candlestick or to put out his candle in obscurity As the intent of the Giver so secondly the nature and quality of the gift calleth upon us for employment It is not with these spiritual gifts as with most other things which when they are imparted are impaired and lessened by communicating Here is no place for that allegation of the Virgins Nè non sufficiat Lest there be not enough for you and for us These Graces are of the number of those things that communicate themselves by
are left to their own liberty in the use of indifferent things the Romans Corinthians and others to whom S. Paul wrot about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the authority of the Magistrate intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the reasons already shewn which now I rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loth to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better cheerfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we would first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what governours are bound to do or what is â—it for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their failing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the consciences of their inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly Printed before the Book of Common-prayer concerning that argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are more incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behoveth every man first to be wary that he do not at all admit them if he can chuse or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satans snares and things that may breed him worser inconveniences or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more probable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is let to his own liberty Much more might have been added for the farther both declaration and confirmation of these points But you see I have been forced to wrap things together that deserve a more full and distinct handling that I might hold some proportion with the time I had a purpose briefly to have comprised the sum of what I have delivered concerning a gainsaying a doubting and a scrupulous conscience in some few conclusions for your better remembrance and to have added also something by way of direction what course might be the most probably taken for the correcting of an erroneous conscience for the setling of a doubtful conscience and for the quieting of a scrupulous conscience But it is more than time that I should give place to other business and the most and most material of those directions have been here and there occasionally touched in that which hath been delivered already In which respect I may the better spare that labour Beseech we God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so to endue us all with the grace of his holy Spirit that in our whole conversations we may unfeignedly endeavour to preserve a good conscience and to yield all due obedience to him first and then to every Ordinance of man for his sake Now to this Father Son and blessed Spirit three persons and one eternal God be ascribed all the Kingdom the Power and the Glory both now and for evermore Amen AD CLERUM The fifth Sermon At a Visitation holden at Grantham Lincoln Octob. 8. 1641. MATTH XV. 9. But in vain they do worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men OUR Saviour sometimes forewarneth his Disciples to beware of the leaven of Pharisees Which leaven as he expoundeth himself
our selves and others See now if we have not reason to love Justice and Judgment and to make it our delight to put Righteousness upon us and to cloath us with judgment as with a Robe and a Diadem being a thing in it self so excellent and being from it there redoundeth so much glory to God to our selves so much comfort and so much benefit unto others The Inferences of use from this first Duty as also from the rest I omit for the present reserving them all to the latter end partly because I would handle them all together partly also and especially for that I desire to leave them fresh in your memory when you depart the Congregation And therefore without farther adoe I proceed forth with to the next duty contained in these words I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a father to the poor Wherein Iob declareth his own readiness in his Place and Calling to be helpful to those that were any way distressed or stood in need of him by affording them such supply to his power as their several necessities required And like him should every Magistrate be in this also which I propose as the second Duty of the good Magistrate he must be forward to succour those that are distressed and oppressed and to help and relieve them to his power Mens necessities are many and of great variety but most of them spring from one of these two defects ignorance or want of skill and impotence or want of power here signified by Blindness and Lameness The blind man perhaps hath his limbs and strength to walk in the way if he could see it but because he wanteth his Eyes he can neither find the right way nor spy the rubs that are in it and therefore he must either sit still or put himself upon the necessity of a double hazard of stumbling and of going wrong The lame man perhaps hath his Eyes and sight perfect and knoweth which way he should go and seeth it well enough but because he wanteth his limbs he is not able to stir a foot forward and therefore he must have patience perforce and be content to sit still because he cannot go withal Both the one and the other may perish unless some good body help them and become a Guide to the blind a Staff to the lame leading the one and supporting the other Abroad in the World there are many in every Society Corporation and Congregation there are some of both sorts some Blind some Lame Some that stand in need of Counsel and Advice and Direction as the Blind others that stand in need of Help and assistance and support as the Lame If there be any other besides these whose case deserveth pity in what kind soever it be the word Poor comprehendeth him and maketh him a fit object for the care and compassion of the Magistrate To each of these the Magistrate must be a succourer to his power He must be as here Iob was an Eye to the blind ignorantem dirigendo by giving sound and honest counsel the best he can to them that are simple or might without his help be easily overseen And he must be as here Iob was feet to the lame impotentem adjuvando by giving countenance and assistance in just and honest Causes the best he can to them that are of meaner ability or might without his help be easily overborn If there be either of these or any other defect which standeth in need of a supply in any other man he must be as here Iob was a Father to the poor indigentem sublevando by giving convenient safety and protection the best he can to them that are destitute of help and fly unto him as to a Sanctuary for shelter and for refuge in any misery grievance or distress Upon these he must both have compassion inwardly and he must shew it too outwardly Affectu and Effectu pitying them in his heart and helping them with his hand It is not enough for him to see the Blind and the Lame and the Poor and to be sorry for them but his compassion must be real He must lend his Eyes to the Blind to direct them and he must lend his feet to the Lame to support them and he must pity the Poor as a father doth his children so pity them that he do something for them Princes and Iudges and Magistrates were not ordained altogether nor yet so much for their own sakes that they might have over whom to bear rule and to domineer at pleasure as for the peoples sakes that the people might have to whom to resort and upon whom to depend for help and succour and relief in their necessities And they ought to remember that for this end God hath endued them with that power which others want that they might by their power help them to right who have not power to right themselves Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens c. Prodesse miseris supplices fido lare protegere c. This is the very thing wherein the Preheminence of Princes and Magistrates and great ones above the ordinary sort singularly consisteth and wherein specially they have the advantage and whereby they hold the title of Gods that they are able to do good and to help the distressed more than others are For which ability how they have used it they stand accountable to him from whom they have received it and woe unto them if the Accounts they bring in be not in some reasonable proportion answerable to the Receipts Potentes potenter into whose hand much hath been given from their hands much will be required and the mighty ones if they have not done a mighty deal of good withal shall be mightily tormented And as they have received power from God so they do receive honours and service and tributes from their people for the maintenance of that power and these as wages by Gods righteous Ordinance for their care and pains for the peoples good God hath imprinted in the natural Conscience of every man notions of fear and honour and reverence and obedience and subjection and contribution and other Duties to be performed towards Kings and Magistrate and other Superiours not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and all this for the maintenance of that power in them by the right use whereof themselves are again maintained Now the same Conscience which bindeth us who are under Authority to the performance bindeth you who are in Authority to the requital of these Duties I say the same Conscience though not the same Wrath for here is the difference Both Wrath and Conscience bind us to our duties so that if we withdraw our subjection we both wound our own Consciences and incur your just Wrath but only Conscience bindeth you to yours and not Wrath so that if ye withdraw your help we may not use wrath but must suffer it
the throne is established in the sixteenth and of its height too for it exalteth a Nation in the 14th of the Proverbs As then in a Building when for want of good looking to the Mortar getting wet dissolveth and the walls belly out the house cannot but settle apace and without speedy repairs fall to the ground so there is not a more certain symptom of a declining and decaying and tottering State than is the general dissolution of manners for want of the due execution and administration of Iustice. The more cause have we that are Gods Ministers by frequent exhortations admonitions obsecrations expostulations even out of season sometimes but especially upon such seasonable opportunities as this to be instant with all them that have any thing to do in matters of Iustice but especially with you who are Gods Ministers too though in another kind you who are in commission to sit upon the Bench of Judicature either for Sentence or Assistance to do your God and King service to do your Country and Calling honour to do your selves and others right by advancing to the utmost of your powers the due course of Iustice. Wherein as I verily think none dare but the guilty so I am well assured none can justly mislike in us the choise either of our Argument that we beat upon these things or of our Method that we begin first with you For as we cannot be perswaded on the one side but that we are bound for the discharge of our duties to put you in mind of yours so we cannot be perswaded on the other side but that if there were generally in the greater ones that care and conscience and zeal there ought to be of the common good a thousand corruptions rife among inferiours would be if not wholly reformed as leastwise practised with less connivence from you confidence in them grievance to others But right and reason will that every man bear his own burthen And therefore as we may not make you innocent if you be faulty by transferring your faults upon others so far be it from us to impute their faults to you otherwise than as by not doing your best to hinder them you make them yours For Iustice we know is an Engine that turneth upon many hinges And to the exercise of judicature besides the Sentence which is properly yours there are divers other things required Informations and Testimonies and Arguings and Inquests and sundry Formalites which I am neither able to name nor yet covetous to learn wherein you are to rest much upon the faithfulness of other men In any of whom if there be as sometimes there will be foul and unfaithful dealing such as you either cannot spie or cannot help wrong sentence may proceed from out your lips without your fault As in a curious Watch or Clock that moveth upon many wheels the finger may point a wrong hour though the wheel that next moveth it be most exactly true if but some little pinn or notch or spring be out of order in or about any of the baser and inferiour wheels What he said of old Non fieri potest quin Principes etiam valde boni iniqua faciant was then and ever since and yet is and ever will be most true For say a Iudge be never so honestly minded never so zealous of the truth never so careful to do right yet if there be a spiteful Accuser that will suggest any thing or an audacious witness that will swear any thing or a crafty Pleader that will maintain any thing or a tame Iury that will swallow any thing or a craving Clark or Officer that for a bribe will foist in any thing the Iudge who is tied as it is meet he should to proceed secundùm allegata probata cannot with his best care and wisdom prevent it but that sometimes justice shall be perverted innocency oppressed and guilty ones justified Out of which consideration I the rather desired for this Assise-Assembly to choose a Text as near as I could of equal latitude with the Assise-Business For which purpose I could not readily think of any other portion of Scripture so proper and full to meet with all sorts of persons and all sorts of abuses as these three verses are Is there either Calumny in the Accuser or Perjury in the Witness Supinity in the Iurer or Sophistry in the Pleader or Partiality in any Officer or any close corruption any where lurking amid those many passages and conveyances that belong to a Iudicial proceeding my Text searcheth it out and indicteth â—â—e offender at the tribunal of that impartial Judge that keepeth a privy Sessions in each mans breast The words are laid down so distinctly in five Rules or Precepts or rather being all negative in so many Prohibitions that I may spare the labour of making other division of them All that I shall need to do about them will be to set out the several portions in such sort as that every man who hath any part or fellowship in this business may have his due share in them Art thou first an Accuser in any kind either as a party in a Iudicial controversie or bound over to prosecute for the King in a criminal Cause or as a voluntary Informer upon some penal statute here is something for thee Thou shalt not raise a false report Art thou secondly a Witness either fetched in by Process to give publick testimony upon oath or come of good or ill will privately to speak a good word for or to cast out a shrewd word against any person here is something for thee too Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness Art thou thirdly returned to serve as a sworn man in a matter of grand or petty inquest here is something for thee too Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil Comest thou hither fourthly to advocate the cause of thy Client who flyeth to thy learning experience and authority for succour against his adversary and commendeth his state and sute to thy care and trust here is something for thee too Neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest Iudgment Art thou lastly in any Office of trust or place of service in or about the Courts so as it may sometimes fall within thy power or opportunity to do a suiter a favour or a spite here is something for thee too Thou shalt not countenance no not a poor man in his cause The two first in the first the two next in the second this last in the third verse In which distribution of the Offices of Justice in my Text let none imagine because I have shared out all among them that are below the Bench that therefore there is nothing left for them that sit upon it Rather as in dividing the land of Canaan Levi who had no distinct plot by himself
up before the Lord against the Sun If the Land be defiled with blood it is in vain to think of any other course when God himself hath pronounced it impossible that the Land should be purged from the blood that is shed in it otherwise than by the blood of him that shed it Up then with the zeal of Phinees up for the love of God and of his people all you that are in place of authority Gird your Swords upon your thigh and with your Iavelins in your hand pursue the Idolater and the Adulterer and the Murtherer and the Oppressor and every known Offender into his Tent and nail him to the Earth that he never rise again to do more mischief Let it appear what love you bear to the State by your hatred to them and shew your pity to us by shewing none to them The destroying Angel of God attendeth upon you for his dispatch if you would but set in stoutly he would soon be gone Why should either sloth or fear or any partial or corrupt respect whatsoever make you cruel to the good in sparing the bad or why should you suffer your selves for want of courage and zeal to execute Judgment to lose either the Opportunity or the Glory of being the instruments to appease Gods wrath and to stay his plagues But for that matters appertaining to Iustice and Iudgment must pass through many hands before they come to yours and there may be so much juggling used in conveying them from hand to hand that they may be represented unto you many times in much different forms from what they were in truth and at the first That your care and zeal to execute Iustice and Iudgment faithfully according to your knowledge may not through the fault and miscarriage of other men fail of the blessed end and success that Phinees found I desire that every of them also as well as you would receive the word of Exhortation each in his place and office to set himself uprightly and unpartially as in the sight of God to advance to the utmost of his power the due course and administration of Iustice. And for this purpose by occasion of this Scripture which pointeth us to the End of these Assemblies I shall crave leave to reflect upon another which giveth us sundry particular directions conducing to that End And it is that Scripture whereinto we made some entrance the last Assizes and would have now proceeded farther had not the heavy hand of God upon us in this his grievous Visitation led me rather to make choice of this Text as the more seasonable That other is written in Exodus 23. the Three first Verses Thou shalt not raise a false report put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause Wherein were noted five special Rules shared out among five sorts of persons the Accuser the Witness the Iurer the Pleader the Officer I will but give each of them some brief intimation of their duty from their several proper rules and conclude If thou comest hither then as a Plaintiff or other Party in a civil cause or to give voluntary Information upon a Statute or to prosecute against a Malefactor or any way in the nature of an Accuser Let neither the hope of Gain or of any other advantage to thy self not secret malice or envy against thine adversary nor thy desire to give satisfaction to any third party sway thee beyond the bounds of Truth and Equity no not a little either to devise an untruth against thy neighbour of thine own head or by an hard construction to deprave the harmless actions or speeches of others or to make them worse than they are by unjust aggravations or to take advantage of letters and syllables to entrap innocency without a fault When thou art to open thy mouth against thy brother set the first Rule of that Text as a watch before the door of thy lips Thou shalt not raise a false report If thou comest hither secondly to be used as a Witness perhaps Graecâ fide like a down-right Knight of the Post that maketh of an Oath a jest and a pastime of a Deposition or dealt withal by a bribe or suborned by thy Landlord or great Neighbour or egged on with thine own spleen or malice to swear and forswear as they shall prompt thee or to s enterchange deposition with thy friend as they use to do in Greece Hodie mihi cras tibi Swear thou for me to day I 'll swear for thee to morrow or tempted with any corrupt respect whatsoever by thy Word or Oath to strengthen a false and unrighteous report When thou comest to lay thy hand upon the book lay the second Rule in that Text to thy heart Put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness Though hand joyn in hand The false witness shall not be unpunished If thou comest hither thirdly to serve for the King upon the Grand Inquest or between party and party in any cause whatsoever like those selecti judices among the Romans whom the Praetor for the year being was to nominate and that upon Oath out of the most able and serviceable men in his judgment both for Estate Understanding and Integrity or to serve upon the Tales perhaps at thine own suit to get something toward bearing charges for thy journey or yoked with a crafty or a wilful foreman that is made before-hand and a mess of tame after men withal that dare not think of being wiser than their Leader or unwilling to stickle against a Major part whether they go right or wrong or resolved already upon the Verdict no matter what the Evidence be Consider what is the weight and religion of an Oath Remember that he sinneth not less that sinneth with company Whatsoever the rest do resolve thou to do no otherwise than as God shall put into thy heart and as the Evidence shall lead thee The third Rule in that Text must be thy rule Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil They are silly that in point either of Religion or Iustice would teach us to measure either Truth or Right by multitudes If thou comest hither fourthly as to thine Harvest to reap some fruit of thy long and expenceful study in the Laws to assist thy Client and his Cause with thy Counsel Learning and Eloquence think not because thou speakest for thy Fee that therefore thy tongue is not thine own but thou must speak what thy Client will have thee speak be it true or false neither think because thou hast the liberty of the Court and perhaps the favour of the Iudg that therefore thy tongue is thine own and thou mayest speak thy
licentiousness These Corinthians being yet but Carnal for the point of Liberty consulted it seemeth but too much with this cursed Gloss. Which taught them to interpret their Calling to the Christian Faith as an Exemption from the duties of all other callings as if their spiritual freedom in Christ had cancelled ipso facto all former obligations whether of Nature or Civility The Husband would put away his Wife the Servant disrespect his Master every other man break the bonds of relation to every other man and all under this pretence and upon this ground that Christ hath made them free In this passage of the Chapter the Apostle occasionally correcteth this errour principally indeed as the present Argument led him in the particular of Marriage but with a farther and more universal extent to all outward states and conditions of life The summ of his Doctrine this He that is yoked with a wife must not put her away but count her worthy of all love he that is bound to a Master must not despise him but count him worthy of all honour every other man that is tied in any relation to any other man must not neglect him but count him worthy of all good offices and civil respects suitable to his place and person though Shee or He or that other be Infidels and Unbelievers The Christian Calling doth not at all prejudice much less overthrow it rather establisheth and strengtheneth those interests that arise from natural relations or from voluntary contracts either domestical or civil betwixt Man and Man The general rule to this effect he conceiveth in the form of an Exhortation that every man notwithstanding his calling unto liberty in Christ abide in that station wherein God hath placed him contain himself within the bounds thereof and chearfully and contentedly undergo the duties that belong thereto vers 17. As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk And lest this Exhortation as it fareth with most other especially such as come in but upon the by as this doth should be slenderly regarded the more fully to commend it to their consideration and practice he repeateth it once again verse 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called And now again once more in the words of this verse concluding therewith the whole discourse into which he had digressed Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God From which words I desire it may be no prejudice to my present discourse if I take occasion to entreat at this time of a very needful argument viz. concerning the Necessity Choice and Use of particular callings Which whilest I do if any shall blame me for shaking hands with my Text let such know First that it will not be very charitably done to pass a hard censure upon anothers labour no nor yet very providently for their own good to slight a profitable truth for some little seeming impertinency Secondly that the points proposed are indeed not impertinent the last of them which supposeth also the other two being the very substance of this Exhortation and all of them such as may without much violence be drawn from the very words themselves at leastwise if we may be allowed the liberty which is but reasonable to take in also the other two verses the 17. and the 20. in sence and for substance all one with this as anon in the several handlings of them in part will appear But howsoever Thirdly which Saint Bernard deemed a sufficient Apology for himself in a case of like nature Noverint me non tam intendisse c. let them know that in my choice of this Scripture my purpose was not so much to bind my self to the strict exposition of the Apostolical Text as to take occasion therefrom to deliver what I desired to speak and judged expedient for you to hear concerning 1. the Necessity 2. the Choice and 3. the Use of particular Callings Points if ever need to be taught and known certainly in these days most Wherein some habituated in idleness will not betake themselves to any Calling like a heavy jade that is good at bit and nought else These would be soundly spurred up and whipped on end Othersome through weakness do not make good choice of a fit Calling like a young unbroken thing that hath metal and is free but is ever wrying the wrong way These would be fairly checkt turned into the right way and guided with a steddy and skilful hand A third sort and I think the greatest through unsetledness or discontentedness or other untoward humour walk not soberly and uprightly and orderly in their Calling like an unruly Colt that will over hedge and ditch no ground will hold him no fence turn him These would be well fettered and side-hanckled for leaping The first sort are to be taught the Necessity of a Calling the second to be directed for the Choice of their Calling the third to be bounded and limited in the Exercise of their Calling Of which three in their order and of the First first the Necessity of a Calling The Scriptures speak of two kinds of Vocations or Callings the one ad Foedus the other ad Munus The usual known terms are the General and the Particular Calling Vocatio ad Foedus or the General Calling is that wherewith God calleth us either outwardly in the ministry of his Word or inwardly by the efficacy of his Spirit or joyntly by both to the faith and obedience of the Gospel and to the embracing of the Covenant of grace and of mercy and salvation by Jesus Christ. Which is therefore termed the General Calling not for that it is of larger extent than the other but because the thing whereunto we are thus called is one and the same and common to all that are called The same duties and the same promises and every way the same conditions Here is no difference in regard of Persons but One Lord one Faith one Baptism one Body and one Spirit even as we are all called in one hope of our Calling That 's the General Calling Vocatio ad Munus Our Particular Calling is that wherewith GOD enableth us and directeth us and putteth us on to some special course and condition of life wherein to employ our selves and to exercise the gifts he hath bestowed upon us to his glory and the benefit of our selves and others And it is therefore termed a Particular Calling not as if it concerned not all in general for we shall prove the contrary anon but because the thing whereunto men are thus called is not one and the same to all but differenced with much variety according to the quality of particular persons Alius sic alius verò sic Every man hath his proper gift of God one man on this manner another on that Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some called to be
Magistrates some Ministers some Merchants some Artificers some one thing some another as to their particular Callings But as to the General Calling there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common Salvation all called to the same State of being the servants and children of God all called to the performance of the same duties of servants and to the expectation of the same inheritance of children all called to be Christians Of both which Callings the General and Particular there is not I take it any where in Scripture mention made so expresly and together as in this passage of our Apostle especially at the 20. vers Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called Where besides the matter the Apostles elegancy is observable in using the same word in both significations the Noun signifying the Particular and the Verb the General Calling Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called bearing sence as if the Apostle had said Let every man abide in the same Particular Calling wherein he stood at the time of his General Calling And the same and no other is the meaning of the words of my Text. Whence it appeareth that the Calling my Text implieth and wherein every man is here exhorted to abide is to be understood of the Particular and not of the General Calling And of this Particular Calling it is we now intend to speak And that in the more Proper and restrained signification of it as it importeth some setled course of life with reference to business office and employment accordingly as we say a man is called to be a Minister called to be a Lawyer called to be a Tradesman and the like Although I cannot be ignorant that our Apostle as the stream of his argument carried him here taketh the word in a much wider extent as including not only such special courses of life as refer to employment but even all outward personal states and conditions of men whatsoever whether they have such reference or no as we may say a man is called to Marriage or to single life called to riches or poverty and the like But omitting this larger signification we will hold our selves either only or principally to the former and by Calling understand A special setled course of life wherein mainly to employ a mans gifts and time for his own and the common good The Necessity whereof whilest we mention you are to imagine not an absolute and positive but a conditional and suppositive necessity Not as if no man could be without one de facto daily experience in these dissolute times manifesteth the contrary but because de jure no man should be without one This kind of Calling is indeed necessary for all men But how Not as a necessary thing ratione termini so as the want thereof would be an absolute impossibility but virtute praecepti as a necessary duty the neglect whereof would be a grievous and sinful enormity He that will do that which he ought and is in conscience bound to do must of necessity live in some calling or other That is it we mean by the necessity of a Calling And this Necessity we are now to prove And that First from the Obedience we owe to every of Gods Ordinances and the account we must render for every of Gods Gifts Amongst those Ordinances this is one and one of the first that in the sweat of our faces every man of us should eat our bread Gen. 3. The force of which precept let none think to avoid by a quirk that forsooth it was laid upon Adam after his transgression rather as a Curse which he must endure than as a Duty which he should perform For first as some of Gods Curses such is his Goodness are promises as well as curses as is that of the Enmity between the Womans seed and the Serpents so some of Gods Curses such is his Iustice are Precepts as well as Curses as is that of the Womans subjection to the Man This of eating our bread in the sweat of our face is all the three it is a Curse it is a Promise it is a Precept It is a Curse in that God will not suffer the earth to afford us bread without our sweat It is a Promise in that God assureth us we shall have bread for our sweat And it is a Precept too in that God enjoyneth us if we will have bread to sweat for it Secondly although it may not be gainsaid but that that injunction to Adam was given as a Curse yet the substance of the Injunction was not the thing wherein the Curse did formally consist Herein was the Curse that whereas before the fall the task which God appointed man was with pleasure of body and content of mind without sweat of brow or brain now after the Fall he was to toil and forecast for his living with care of mind and travel of body with weariness of flesh and vexation of spirit But as for the substance of the Injunction which is that every man should have somewhat to do wherein to bestow himself and his time and his gifts and whereby to earn his bread in this it appeareth not to have been a Curse but a Precept of divine institution that Adam in the time and state of innocency before he had deserved a Curse was yet enjoyned his Task To dress and to keep the garden And as Adam lived himself so he bred up his children His two first born though heirs apparent of all the world had yet their peculiar employments the one in tillage the other in pasturage And as many since as have walked orderly have observed Gods Ordinance herein Working with their hands the thing that is good in some kind or other those that have set themselves in no such good way our Apostle elsewhere justly blaming as inordinate or disorderly walkers And how can such disorderly ones hope to find approvance in the sight of our God who is a God of Order He commandeth us to live in a Calling and wo to us if we neglect it But say there were no such express Command for it the very distribution of God's gifts were enough to lay upon us this necessity Where God bestoweth he bindeth and to whom any thing is given of him something shall be required The inference is stronger than most are aware of from the Ability to the Duty from the Gift to the Work from the Fitting to the Calling Observe how this Apostle knitteth them together at the 17. Verse as God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk God hath distributed to every man some proper gift or other and therefore every man must glorifie God in some peculiar Calling or other And in Eph. 4. having alledged that of the Psalm He gave gifts unto men immediately he inferreth He gave some Apostles some
their own and the Gospels reputation before men they must endeavour both to do the will of the most Wise God and to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men by submitting to every humane Creature that the Lord hath set over them for his sake 2. This I conceive to be the scope of that part of the Chapter whence the Text is taken which I now stand not with farther curiosity to Analyze Suffice it us to know that in this seventeenth verse St. Peter shutteth up his general Exhortation concerning subjection to Superiours in four short Precepts or Aphorisms of Christian life Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King Which four though considerable also apart and as each hath a complete sence within it self may yet not unfitly be ranged and that agreeably as I conceive to the Apostles intendment into two Combinations The two former into one as thus Honour all men but not all men alike you must be ready to do all offices of respect and love as occasion serveth to every man but yet you are to remember that your brethren in Christ may claim a nearer and deeper interest in your affections and so in the exercise of your charity too than they that are without have any reason to do Honour all men but especially love the Brotherhood The two latter also into one thus Fear God and the King where the fear of the one will consist with the fear of the other But where they are incompatible hold fast to the fear of God howsoever but even in that case where you may not fear the King you must yet do him all the honour otherwise that may be Fear God yet honour the King too 3. We shall now hold us to the former Combination only consisting of these two Precepts Honour all men love the Brotherhood In either of which we may observe First the Duty what it is and then how that duty is either extended or limited in regard of the Object The duties are Honour and Love The duty of Honour in the former Precept tand that extended to every man Honour all men The duty of Love in the latter Precept and that limited to the Brethren Love the Brotherhood Of which in their order keeping the same method in both even this to consider first Quid nominis then Quid Iuris and lastly Quid facti The first by opening the Duty and what we are to do The next by enquiring into the Obligation and why we are so to do The last by examining our Performance and whether we do therein as we ought to do or no. And first of the former Precept Honour all men 4. Honour properly is an acknowledgment or testification of some excellency or other in the person honoured by some reverence or observance answerable thereunto Thus we honour God above all as being transcendently excellent and thus we honour our Parents our Princes our betters or superiors in any kind And thus the word is clearly used in the last Precept of the four in this verse Honour the King But so to take it in this first Precept would be subject to sundry difficulties and inconveniences this especially above the rest that the Scripture should here bind us to an impossible thing Impossible I say not only ex hypothesi and by consequent in regard of the weakness and corruption of our nature for so is every good duty impossible to be performed by us without the grace of God preventing and assisting us but impossible ex natura rei as implying a flat contradiction within it self For honouring in that notion being the preferring of some before other some we should be bound by this Text were the word so to be understood to prefer every man before every other man which how it should be possible for us to do is beyond the wit of man to imagine For to prefer all is in truth to prefer none and so the Apostles command to honour all men shall be all one upon the point as if he had directly forbidden us to honour any man It is necessary therefore for the avoiding of this contradiction and sundry other absurdities which would follow thereupon and I omit to take the word Honour in this place in a signification somewhat looser and larger than the former so as to import all that esteem or regard be it more or less which either in â—ustice or charity is due to any man in respect of his place person or condition according to the eminency merit or exigency of any of them respectively together with the willing performance of such just and charitable offices upon all emergent occasions as in proportion to any of the said respects can be reasonably expected In which sence it is a possible thing for us to honour not only our Superiors that are over us or above us but our Equals too that are in the same rank with us yea even our inferiours also that are below us or under us 5. And in this latitude you shall find the word Honour sometimes used in the Scriptures though not so frequently as in the proper signification You have one example of it in the seventh verse of the next Chapter where St. Peter enjoyneth husbands to give honour to the Wife as to the weaker vessel It was far from his meaning doubtless that the husband should honour the wife with the honour properly so called that of Reverence or Subjection For that were to invert the right order of things and to pervert Gods Ordinance who hath given man the preeminence and commanded the woman to be in subjection The woman therefore may not by any means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usurp authority over the man but it is her duty to reverence her husband and she must see that she do it His meaning clearly is that the husband should cherish the wife as one that though in some degree of inferiority is yet his yoke-fellow bearing with the weaknesses whether of her Sex or Person framing to her disposition and yielding to her desires as far as reason and wisdom will allow Being her head he must not make himself her slave by giving her the honour of dutiful observance and obedience and yet being his Companion he may not make her his drudge by denying her the honour of a tender respect and loving condescension Which kind of honour is in some measure and according to their different proportions due also to be given by Parents to their Children and by the greatest Masters to the meanest of their Servants 6. We have another example of the like use of the word 1 Tim. 5. where St. Paul biddeth Timothy honour Widows that are Widows indeed Timothy was a man of eminent rank in the Church of God a Bishop and that of no mean See but of Ephesus a famous City and the chief Metropolis of Asia and the Widows he there speaketh of were poor old women such as in those
times for the mean services they were to perform to the Saints were called also Diaconissoe and were therefore to be maintained out of the contributions of the Church and the Common Stock The parties being of such wide distance it had been most unseemly for him to have given to them but extreme and most ridiculous arrogancy in them to have expected from him any honour properly so called honour of reverence and subjection But the honour he was to give them was such as was meet for persons of that quality especially in relation to their maintenance that in the execution of his Pastoral charge amongst his other cares he should take care that those widows should be provided for in fitting sort that so in the Province of Ephesus there might be no cause of such complaint as had formerly been by the Grecians at Ierusalem Acts 6 that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration 7. In like manner we are to understand the word Honour here in the Text in such a notion as may include together with the Honour properly so called and due to Superiours only all those fitting respects which are to be given to Equals and Inferiours also which is a kind of honour too but more improperly so called And then it falleth in all one with that of St. Paul Rom. 13. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour As if he had said I would not any of you should be behind with any man in any thing but if you owe him any duty perform it to the full If any honour or respect in whatsoever kind or degree belong to him account it as due debt and let him have it to the utmost of what can with justice or in equity be demanded So that we then fulfil this Precept of our Apostle when we are careful to our utmost power and best understanding to respect every man whether Superiour Equal or Inferiour secundum gradum meritum according to his place and desert For those two are as it were the Standards whereby to measure out to every man his proportion of Honour in this kind That is to say every man is to be honoured and respected according to the dignity of his place whatsoever his deserts are and according to the merit of his person whatsoever his place and condition be 8. It would be a tedious indeed rather an endless task and therefore I undertake it not to drive the general into its particulars and to shew what peâ—uliar honours and respects are due to all estates of men considered in their several ranks and mutual relations It must be the care of every godly wise man to inform himself the best he can for that matter so far as may concern himself and those whom he may have occasion to converse withal and it must be his resolution to give honour to every man accordingly that is to say neither more or less but as near as he can understand within a convenient latitude that which is justly his due Yet let him take this withal that where the case is doubtful it is the safest course lest self-love should incline him to be partial to pinch rather on his own part than on his Neigbours especially if his Superiour That is to say rather to forego a good part of that honour which he may think is due to himself if he be not very sure of it than to keep back any small part of that honour which for any good assurance he hath to the contrary may fall due to his neighbour Agreeably to the other Apostles advice Rom. 12. that not in taking but in giving honour we should go one before another 9. Now we see in the meaning of the words both what duty we are to perform and to whom The Duty Honour and that to all men and all this but Quid nominis It may next be demanded Quid Iuris upon what tye we stand thus bound to Honour all men I answer Funiculus triplex There lieth a three-fold tye upon us for the performance of this Duty to wit of Iustice of Equity of Religion A tye of Iustice first whose most proper and immediate office it is suum cuique to give to every one that which of right appertaineth to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Aristotles Phrase but St. Pauls is far beyond it in the fore-cited Rom. 13. Render to all their dues So we translate it but the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifieth Debts accordingly whereunto he saith in the next verse there pursuing his Metaphor Owe nothing to any man We do not account it discourtesie but dishonesty in any man that is able not to pay debts With-hold not good from them to whom it is due saith Solomon Prov 3. Whosoever with-holdeth a debt or a due from another doth an unjust act and is next a kin to a thief and as a thief is bound to restitution The other word in the same place inforceth as much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more than Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same word that is used where Zacheâ—â— promised four-fold restitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 19. render or restore 10. It is a thing not unworthy the observing that all those words which usually signifie Honour in the three learned Languages do either primarily signifie or else are derived from such words as do withal signifie either a Price or a Weight Now by the rules of Commutative Iustice the price of every Commodity ought to be according to the true worth of it And things payable by weight are by Law and Custom then only current when they have their due and full weight and that usually with some draught over rather than under Even so it is a righteous thing with us to make a just estimate of every mans worth and to set a right valuation upon him so near as we can respectively to the quality of his Place and his Personal desert and to allow him his full proportion of Honour accordingly neither under-rating him in our thoughts nor setting lighter by him than we should do in our carriage and conversation towards him A false weight is abominable and so is every one that tradeth with it and certainly that man maketh use of a false beam that setteth light by his brother or perhaps setteth him at nought whom he ought to honour The question is put on sharply by the Apostle Rom. 14. Why doest thou set at nought thy brother As who should say With what face with what conscience canst thou do it He that defalteth any thing of that just honour which he ought to allow his brother let his pretence be what it can be how is he not guilty of the sin of Ananias and Saphira even according to the Letter Act. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
artificial body be the materials never so strong yet if it be loose in the joynts when it is put to any stress as we call it to any use where the strength of it is like to be tried it will not endure it but be ready to fall one piece from another 8. Much of a mans strength whereby he is enabled to travel and to work lieth in his loyns and knees and in his arms and hands Whence it is that by an usual Trope in most Languages and so in the Scriptures too those parts are very often used Genua and Lacerti c. to signifie strength and weakness on the contrary usually described by the luxation of those parts The phrase is very frequent in Homer when one of the Grecian or Trojan Chieftains had given his adversary some deadly or desperate wound that he was not able to stand but fell on the ground to express it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say He loosened his knees Even as it is said of Belshazzar Dan. 5. when he was sore affrighted with the hand-writing upon the wall that the joynts bindings or ligatures of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another So for the hands and arms we meet in the Scripture often with such like phrases as these that by such or such means as the occasion required such or such mens hands were either strengthened or weakned So it is said of Ish-bosheth 2 Sam. 4. when he heard of the death of Abner General of his Army his hands were weakned The like we find in many other places as namely in Ier. 38. 4. where in the Greek Translation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same with this in the Text is used Not to seek far a little after in this very Chapter we have both the Metaphors together in one verse Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 12. which is another compound word from the same Theme As if he should say Support the hands that hang loose and have not strength enough to lift up themselves and bind up the palsie knees that are not well knit up in the joynts and so are unable to bear up the body 9. There is another Metaphor likewise often used by David and sometimes elsewhere which as it very well fitteth with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it serveth very well to express that feebleness or faintness of Spirit arising from fear and consternation of mind when great troubles come upon us whereof we now speak namely the melting of the heart or soul. 10. In Psal. 107. They that go down to the sea in ships when the stormy wind ariseth and lifteth up the waves so as the vessel is tossed up and down and the men reel to and fro and stagger like drunkards and are at their wits ends he saith of them that their very soul melteth away because of the trouble My soul melteth away for very heaviness in another Psalm speaking of himself and his own troubles In Psalm 22. he joyneth this and the other Metaphor both together I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joynt my heart also in the midst of my body is even like melting wax And so doth the Prophet Isaiah also describing the great miseries and terrors that should be at the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians he saith that by reason thereof all hands shall be weakned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again in the Greek and all hearts shall melt See also Ezek. 21. 7. to omit sundry other like 11. For even as wax which while it is hard will abide hard pressing and not yield or take impression when it is chafed or melted hath no strength at all to make resistance And as the Ice when the waters are congealed in a hard frost is of that firmness that it will bear a loaden cart uncrackt but as soon as a warm thaw hath fretted and loosened it dissolveth into water and becometh one of the weakest things in the world it is a common Proverb among us As weak as water so is the spirit of a man So long as it standeth firmly knit to God by a stedfast faith as David saith O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy name and true to it self in seipso totus teres atque rotundus by adhering to honest vertuous and religious Principles it is of impregnable strength against all outward attempts whatsoever Si fractus illabatur orbis if the weight of all the calamities in the world should come rushing upon him at once it would be able to bear up under them all and stand unruined amidst all those ruins The spirit of a man is of strength enough to sustain all his infirmities 12. But if the strength that is in us be weakness oh how great is that weakness If our spirits within us which should be as our life-guard to secure us against all attempts from without be shattered and dis-joynted through distrust in God or by entertaining fears and irresolutions so enfeebled that it is not able to stand out when it is fiercely assaulted but yieldeth the Fort to Satan and his temptations that is to say in plain terms if when any persecution or tribulation ariseth we be scandalized and fall away either from our Christian faith or duty forsake our standing and shrink from the rules of true Religion or a good conscience this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weakness and faintness ofmind spoken of in the Text. 13. We now see the Malady both in the Nature and in the Cause both what it is and whence it groweth We are in the next place to consider the part affected That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discovereth the mind or the soul That ye be not wearied and faint in your minds or souls And this occasioneth another doubt how it should be possible that worlaly tribulations which cannot reach beyond the outer-man in his possessions in his liberty in his good name in his bodily health or life should have such an operation upon his nobler part the soul as to cause a faintness there Our Apostle speaketh of resisting unto blood in the next verse as the highest suffering that can beâ—al a man in this world And our Saviour telleth his friends Luk. 12. that when their enemies have killed their bodies and from suffering so much his very best friends it seemeth are not exempted they have then done their worst they can proceed no farther they have no power at all over their souls 14. It is most true they have not And happy it is for us and one singular comfort to us that they have not Yet our own reason and every days experience can teach us that outward bodily afflictions and tribulations do by consequent and by way of sympathy
outward exercise of it and namely from the three respects of Christian Sobriety of Christian Charity and of Christian Duty and Obedience But now in the comparing of these together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between one and another of them there may be some difficulty and the greatest difficulty and which hath bred most trouble is in comparing the cases of scandal and disobedience together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between Charity and Duty As for example Suppose in a thing which simply and in it self we may lawfully according to the Liberty we have in Christ either use or forbear Charity seemeth to lay restraint upon us one way our weak brother expecting we should forbear and Duty a quite contrary way Authority requiring the use in such a case what are we to do It is against Charity to offend a brother and it is against Duty to disobey a Superiour and yet something must be done either we must use or not use forbear or not forbear For the untying of this knot which if we will but lay things rightly together hath not in it so much hardness as it seemeth to have let this be our seventh Position In the use of the Creatures and all indifferent things we ought to bear a greater regard to our publick Governours than to our private Brethren and be more careful to obey them than to satisfie these if the same course will not in some mediocrity satisfie both Alas that our brethren who are contrary-minded would but with the spirit of sobriety admit common reason to be Umpire in this case Alas that they would but consider what a world of Contradictions would follow upon the contrary opinion and what a world of Confusions upon the contrary practice Say what can be said in the behalf of a Brother all the same and more may be said for a Governour For a Governour is a Brother too and something more and Duty is Charity too and something more If then I may not offend my Brother then certainly not my Governour because he is my Brother too being a man and a Christian as well as the other is And the same Charity that bindeth me to satisfie another Brother equally bindeth me to satisfie this So that if we go no farther but even to the common bond of Charity and relation of Brotherhood that maketh them equal at the least and therefore no reason why I should satisfie one that is but a private Brother rather than the publick Magistrate who that publick respect set aside is my Brother also When the Scales hang thus even shall not the accession of Magistracy to common Brotherhood in him and of Duty to common Charity in me be enough to cast it clear for the Magistrate Shall a Servant in a Family rather than offend his fellow-servant disobey his Master And is not a double scandal against Charity and Duty both for Duty implieth Charity greater than a single scandal against Charity alone If private men will be offended at our Obedience to publick Governours we can but be sorry for it We may not redeem their offence by our disobedience He that taketh offence where none is given sustaineth a double person and must answer for it both as the giver and the taker If offence be taken at us there is no woe to us for it if it do not come by us Woe to the man by whom the offence cometh and it doth not come by us if we do but what is our duty to do The Rule is certain and equitable the respect of private scandal ceaseth where lawful Authority determineth our liberty and that restraint which proceedeth from special Duty is of superior reason to that which proceedeth but from common charity Three Moderators then of our christian liberty to the Creatures we are to allow of Sobriety Charity and Duty unto every of which a just regard ought to be had Neither need we fear if we suffer Sobriety on one side and Charity on another and Duty on a third thus to abridge us in the use of our christian liberty that by little and little it may be at length so pared away among them that there may be little or nothing lest of it To remove this suspicion let this be our eighth and last Position No respect whatsoever can or ought to diminish the inward freedom of the Conscience to any of the Creatures And this inward freedom is it wherein especially consisteth our Christian Liberty to the Creature This freedom we are all bound to maintain to the utmost of our powers and not to suffer our selves to be made the servants of men otherwise than in serving one another by love but to stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath set us free Now this liberty consisteth in a certain resolution of Judgment and a certain perswasion of Conscience arising thence that all the creatures of God are in themselves lawful and free for us either to use or refuse as we shall see it expedient for us and that neither the use nor the forbearance of them doth of it self either commend or discommend us unto God or any way either please him as a part of his Worship or offend him as a transgression of his Law The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink saith St. Paul Neither if we eat are we the better neither the worse if we do not eat nor on the contrary Now here is the Wickedness and the Usurpation of the High-Priest of Rome that he challengeth to himself a spiritual Power over the Consciences of men which is the greatest tyranny that ever was or can be exercised in the world laying impurity upon the things he forbiddeth and annexing operative holiness and power both satisfactory and meritorious to the things he injoyneth Which Usurpation whosoever hateth not in him with a perfect hatred is justly unworthy of and shamefully unthankful for that liberty and freedom which the blessed Son of God hath purchased for his Church But this inward freedom once established in our hearts and our Consciences fully perswaded thereof let us thenceforth make no scruple to admit of such just restraints in the outward exercise of it as Christian Sobriety Charity and Duty shall require For we must know that the Liberty of a Christian is not in eating and drinking and doing what and when and where and how he list but in being assured that it is all one before God in the things themselves barely considered whether he eat or not eat wear or not wear do or not do this or that and that therefore as he may upon just cause eat and wear and do so he may upon just cause also refuse to eat or wear or do this thing or that Indeed otherwise if we well consider it it were but the empty name of liberty without the thing for how is it liberty if a man be determinately bound the one way and tied ad
alteram partem contradictionis precisely and not left indifferent and equal to either If then the regards of Sobriety Charity or Duty do not require a forbearance thou knowest every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused thou hast thy liberty therefore and mayest according to that liberty freely use that Creature But if any of those former respects require thou shouldst forbear thou knowest that the Creature still is good and as not to be refused so not to be imposed thou hast thy liberty therefore here as before and oughtest according to that liberty freely to abstain from that Creature Both in using and refusing the Conscience is still free and as well the use as the refusal and as well the refusal as the use do equally and alike belong to the true liberty of a Christian. We have seen now what liberty God hath allowed us and therein we may see also his great goodness and bounty towards us in making such a world of Creatures and all of them good Every Creature of God is good and not envying us the free use of any of those good Creatures Nothing to be refused But where is our Duty answerable to this Bounty Where is our thankfulness proportionable to such receipts Let us not rejoyce too much in the Creatures goodness nor glory too much in our freedom thereunto unless there be in us withal a due care and Conscience to perform the Condition which God requireth in lieu thereof neither can their goodness do us good nor our freedom exempt us from evil And that condition is the Duty of Thanksgiving expressed in the last clause of the verse if it be received with thanksgiving Forget this Proviso and we undo all again that we have hitherto done and destroy all that we have already established concerning both the goodness of the Creature and our liberty in the use thereof for without thanksgiving neither can we partake their goodness nor use our own liberty with comfort Of this therefore in the next place wherein the weight of the Duty considered together with our Backwardness thereunto if I shall spend the remainder of my time and meditations I hope my labour by the blessing of God and your prayers shall not be unprofitable and my purpose therein shall find if not allowance in your judgments at least in your Charity Excuse To speak of which Duty of Thanksgiving in the full extent and by way of common place were to enter into a spacious field indeed a very sea of matter without bottom For mine own ease therefore and yours I shall confine my self to that branch of it which is most immediately pertinent to my Text viz. That tribute of Thanks which we owe unto God for the free use of his good Creatures forbearing to meddle with the other branches thereof otherwise than as they fall within the reach of this by way either of Proportion or Inference And first we are to know that by Thanksgiving in my Text is not meant only that subsequent act whereby we render unto God praise and thanks for the Creature after we have received it and enjoyed the benefit of it which yet is most properly Thanksgiving but we are to extend the word farther even to those precedent acts of Prayer and Benediction whereby we beseech God to give his blessing to the Creature and to sanctifie the use of it to us For what in this verse is called Thanksgiving is in the next verse comprehended under the name of Prayer And we shall accordingly find in the Scriptures elsewhere the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one whereof signifieth properly Blessing the other Thanksgiving used oftentimes promiscuously the one for the other The Blessing which our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ used at the Consecration of the sacramental bread St. Luke and St. Paul express by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Matthew and St. Mark by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Prayer of Blessing used before the eating of common Bread is by every of the four Evangelists in some places described by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by three of them in other-some places by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes found in the Writings of the Ancients for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the more usual name whereof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the holy Eucharist And we in our ordinary manner of speech call as well the Blessing before meat as the Thanksgiving after by the common name of Grace or saying of Grace Both these then together Grace before meat and Grace after meat a Sacrifice of Prayer before we use any of the good Creatures of God and a Sacrifice of Praise after we have used them the Blessing wherewith we bless the Creature in the Name of God and the Blessing wherewith we bless the Name of God for the Creature both these I say together is the just extent of that Thanksgiving whereof my Text speaketh and we are now to entreat Concerning Meats and Drinks unto which our Apostle hath special reference in this whole passage this duty of Thanksgiving hath been ever held so congruous to the partaking thereof that long and ancient custom hath established it in the common practice of Christians not only with inward Thankfulness of heart to recount and acknowledge God's goodness to them therein but also outwardly to express the same in a vocal solemn form of Blessing or Thanksgiving that which we call Grace or saying of Grace Which very Phrases whether or no they have ground as to me it seemeth they have from those words of our Apostle 1 Cor. 10. For if I by Grace be a partaker why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks I say howsoever it be with the Phrase sure we are the thing it self hath sufficient ground from the examples of Christ and of his holy Apostles from whom the custom of giving Thanks at meals seemeth to have been derived throughout all succeeding Ages even to us Of Christ himself we read often and in every of the Evangelists that he blessed and gave thanks in the name of himself and the People before meat in the 14 and 15 of Matthew in 6 and 8. of Mark in 9. of Luke and in 6. of Iohn And in Matth. 26. that after meat also when Supper was ended he and his Disciples sang an Hymn before they departed the room And St. Luke relateth of St. Paul Acts 27. when he and his company in the Ship who were well toward three hundred persons were to refresh themselves with food after a long Fast that he took bread and first gave thanks to God in the presence of them all and then after brake it and began to eat yea St. Paul himself so speaketh of it Rom. 14. as of the known practice