observe this Monarchical administration so much owned by God as to declare the absence thereof as the fittest and surest token of his dereliction and punishment of a people that had been first false to himself and were now repudiated by him as may appear in that other Prophesie For the Children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince without a Sacrifice and without an Image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim And by the last words we may observe by the way not onely a depravation in religion and Church order to follow this no King in Israel by making use of Teraphim in the Ephod instead of Urim as the man Michah did but this disorder should increase till that remaining Priesthood who by their consistorial parity were as the Teraphims in this Ephod should be taken away also For this use of Teraphim amongst Israelites was to bee looked upon but as a shift in Jeroboam who wanting that order of Aaron and his Sons made use of the meanest of the people but in the Christian Church and when Christ typified in David shall be their King then also shall those several Kings under him maintain and settle order amongst the Priesthood and in religion it self as David also did Now concerning that separate jurisdiction which some Church-men would claim under colour of dividing our duties into religious and civil it cannot I conceive but plainly appear that notwithstanding sacred pretence this division is but of humane invention being not to be found in the Scripture and as it is for the most part made of no other use but to make division and discord by abating our obedience to the Magistrate under colour of giving it to God so are men not at agreement in stating thereof For while some think that whatever the Magistrate commands it but of civil obedience and so lyable to temporal reward and punishment onely and again what is of Gods command that is expresly set down in Scripture is to be only obeyed out of conscience of divine authority and then leaving men to private judgement what precepts are thence deduceable or when the Magistrates commands be such they must consequently leave them no certain rule whereby either to preserve duty or unity As also those other sort do who distinguishing men in their several relations by them phancied say that in whatever we do as subjects and men linked in Society the same is of civil cognizance and duty but in whatever we act as Christians we are to be guided by precept from God alone In which doing also being neither able to bring from Scripture all things that concern Gods outward worship and finding many precepts of Ethical Political and Oeconomical nature and which do concern our duty and good even as men although we had not been Christians they must needs fall themselves and drive others by these doubtfull precepts from giving any right obedience at all instead of directing them therein For although as to some intents men may be usefully considered in these different relations yet when the same person is now both a man and a Christian such distinctions as should â—imply a possibility of personal devision again so as for the same Christian to act as a man in any thing without being a Christian must besides absurdity bring upon us the many inconveniences of rebellion and civil war And therefore although in our being Christian we lose not the reality of manhood more then in being rational creatures or men we lose the properties of sensitive Creatures yet inasmuch as being rational Creatures and so having a greater and surer light to direct our actions all that we do answerable to other meer sensitives is therefore now to be attributed to us in the capacity of men as of the nobler and higher relation Even so also it fareth with us after and while we are Christians namely that all those actions in which in execution and direction I mean so far as is humane we resemble other meer natural men onely yet these things being by us now acted under the inseparable relation of Christians are although not of express litteral divine precept yet if done in obedience to lawful authority a Christian duty or if acted against it a Christian fault And it will follow that what was in us as men before but moral vertue or vice is now righteousness or sin even to the degree of an idle word And so again considering us as subjects those things that are onely by the light of nature investigable as civil duties when they come to be enforced by a Superiour having his power and office from God have the obligations of religious actions as being part of our obedience to that God who said them to be in that respect Gods also and children of the most high Therefore when God sometimes commands what would concern us and be our benefit as men although we had not been Christians as indeed if we had reason enough all precepts for outward direction would appear such or when again many things appertaining to our religion it self and our outward worship therein are by the Churches authority enjoyned whether the same be found in Scripture or no they are both of them to be held as religious dutyes to us and we being not able while we are Christians to act in any other personal capacity must be obedient and subject as in and to the Lord that is till something be enjoyned to overthorw Christianity we as Christians must obey in all things and it is as sinful to disobey Supream authority in the payment of taxes as in the observation of the Sabboth For God not now giving particular precepts as unto the Iewes but leaving us herein to the direction of the higher power ordained for that purpose of him we are to be obedient to our Masters in the flesh as unto Christ and willingly to do them service as unto the Lord and not as men That is we are now always to obey him as Christs Minister and head of our particular Church and not left at liberty to obey as in a religious tye no farther then we please For the actions and precepts of each State Kingdom are upon their conversion to Christianity to be called and reputed the actings of such or such a Church and not of such or such a State the name and notion of Church including that of State even as in the particular members whereof it is compounded the notion of man is involved in that of Christian. So that now as the entire trust power of Vniversal headship of the Catholike Church is unto Christ resigned and he thereupon to be obeyed as under a religious tye in all causes whatsoever by all such as acknowledge themselves Christians although they seem of never so civil a nature even so his supream deputy in each Christian Church or Kingdome being entirely entrusted like him from whom his power is derived is
so we again having no other direct outward precept from God or Christ himself are through faith and by our ready obedience to him actually performed to his Church in his stead as having the word of reconciliation committed unto them acquitted in all we do but if done otherwise we forfeit thereby the whole condition and as again obliged and culpable for the breach of the whole law nothing but read mission into the Covenant of Innonency by repentance can secure us from damnation CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power HAving hitherto spoken of the Reason and Foundation of the Church in general and of the necessity of our participation of her communion so now again it will be necessary to speak of each particular Church and its jurisdiction For since we cannot otherwise attain to be members of this Catholick body then as being first members of some particular Church it will therefore follow that as the necessary observation of the law of providence which we could not explicitely and perfectly do upon our owne abilities was the cause Christ became obedient to God for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him so there lies upon each member a duty of conformity and obedience to their particular Churches that thereby being made conformable to the image of his Son they may also be restored to the image of God And therefore although the Catholick Church cannot be aggregate or represented der any single head or rule but of Christ himself yet since it is integrated and by parts made up of particular Churches and in these Christs power being to be represented by other Christs or anointeds under him it will follow that our obedience to this Church and the head thereof must have of us all that obedience which unto the other we cannot give else would that precept of obedience to the Church come to nothing as indeed for the most part is intended by such as would have the Writers of their owne mind to be held for the Catholick Church onely Therefore now being to consider the Christian Church as an assembly of Believers separate from other for Gods more immediate honour and worship we cannot well appropriate this phrase to that part of the Catholick which is past and unconversant with men nor for the present to that part of it which is yet to suceeed although both the one and the other have done or are to do their personal parts herein but must interpret that notion of Catholick Church used either when those duties are in general given which are fit for the Church to observe in obedience to Christ or when againe given for her members to observe to her to intend that part of Christs body which shall be successively militant on earth to whom alone these instructions can be necessary and useful in both kinds But then again as this general duly of praising God before men can onely be performed by the visible Church because she hath onely power and opportunity therein yet since this power here on earth is subsistant by the separate jurisdiction of those particular Churches which constitute her Catholick body and she can in no other sence be termed Catholick with reference to any other head then of Christ himself it must be therefore granted that all those precepts for general obedience to the Church must be meant of every Church in particular as having onely use of jurisdiction to this purpose And as having besides according to the several inclinations of their owne people and the known affections of those of the world amongst whom they live the best and onely ability to know and command what is fittest to be done for advancing Gods glory according to the exigence of their particulars which otherwise in the strange mixture of Christianity with other religions throughout the world were not possible to be comprised under one certain or equal rule or to be known and executed by one single persons power And that the Church and civil jurisdiction of each place signifie the same and that by obedience to the Church obedience to the particular Church is ment will appear by that of our Saviour Mat. 18. where controversies are if not decideable by umperage to be told to the Church Under which name must be comprehended the present particular authority of that place because else how shall they go to it And it must be the civil as well as ecclesiastical authority also as having them conjoined because it determines particular personal injuries where brother offends against brother and one servant takes another by the throate saying pay what thou owest as the parable denotes But the conclusion is that the supream jurisdiction whilst it is Christian is the very Church we are to submit unto And those that will not hear the Church are to be unto us as Heathens and Publicans that is such as have renounced Christ by this their renoucing the Image of his authority the Christian Church whose definition and power be the thing of never so civil nature makes the breach of it a sin as on the contrary our obedience to them acquits us of guilt For it is from Christ they have this power that Whatsoever is bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven So that Christ having now blotted out that hand writing of Iewish Ordinances which was against us and released them from their litteral strictness to the extent of rational and natural laws and having also answered to God for the large morallity of the whole rule of providence leaving Christians at large in all things wherein their reason or Christian precept is not transgressed and lastly having left the charge for custody and enforcing these Christian precepts to every Christian Church who are thereupon to answer to him for the faults of the people the advantage that Christians have of living in a state of innocence is unquestionable and immoveable while they contiune obedient And therefore Christs Gospel might well be called Glad tytings and we may find that our Saviour made his general encouragement to the entertainment of him and his doctrine because his yoke was easy and his burthen light Insomuch that when he came in particlar to be asked what it was he answered in one command for both Tables thou shalt love c. including under the precept of love to God and our Neighbour all the law and the Prophets that is all things of faith and charity or of faith and obedience which is charities support First for our faith and its fundamental object life eternal is to know God and Iesus whom he hath sent he is the way the truth and the life the Authour and finisher of our faith on whom whosoever believeth hath everlasting life and on him that believeth not the wrath of God abideth Which one article comes therefore to be eminently necessary
one or many men had their distinct copies such a total losse could not have happened And although it may be well thought that the gift of tongues might have enabled such of the holy penmen as wanted natural learning to deliver themselves notwithstanding in Greek yet this cannot make it supposable that all of them the Epistles especially were so written originally because their address is not to the Grecians or Gentiles And that Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Saint Peter and Saint Iames c. must imply them to be written in that language which was best understood by those they were addressed unto and who were to be directed by him Else it were to suppose a miracle wrought to a wrong end even that which Saint Paul doth elswhere dislike namely the speaking in an unknown tongue by which he means no doubt a tongue unknown to the Auditors In which respect to speak or write in Greek to them that understood not the language renders the Writer a Barbarian to the Auditor as well as the Auditor one to him Upon which grounds I do believe against them that doubt that the Gospel of Saint Matthew was like the other Gospels written in Greeks and that because its general address did require it to be set forth in that language which was most generally understood but for some of the Epistles I cannot be so perswaded And if that first exercised gift of tongues be marked we shall finde those endewed therewith speaking to every Auditour in his owne language And although question be made whether those auditours of divers nations might not at the same time have been endewed with the miraculous gift of interpreting and understanding a strange tongue to avoyd a greater difficulty of supposing all of them speaking at once or any one speaking several tongues at once the which Saint Peters after-speaking alone may give countenance unto yet it will plainly appear that as that gift of tongues was then used to edification and to be understood even so afterwards no doubt the penmen of holy Scripture made use of the same upon the like useful occasions and none other And as for Authors quotation of Scripture texts in this language onely none beginning to write till these books had been by the Church all collected into one volume and so put into that one most intelligible language it proves no more their writing at first in the Greek then our Saviours and others quotations of the Greek translation of the Septuagint proves the old Testament to have been written in that language also Not that we would be understood by what hath bin spoken as forbidding the publike knowledg of the Scriptures for even the same reason that makes them chiefly to be trusted to the Church and its head namly to know the better how to govern all others under them will in that regard also make them useful to Fathers Masters and many of the Subjects themselves who by their offices and callings shall have things or persons under their power and government In both which respects if they come not occasionally to concern every one as he may have his Neighbors good or ill under his trust and power even in cases remitted by his Superiour yet will they concern every one in their general precepts to patience humility obedience c. which as the proper and necessary vertues of Subjects and which must constitute government are fit for the notice of all in general without exception of the Prince himself who as under the power of God almighty must submit in a far higher degree then his Subjects can to him The knowledge of which and other necessary duties fit to direct us in our charitable abearances whither in acting upon or suffering from one another may also afford sufficient reason why there should be many precepts of all sorts of duties and concerning all sorts of people promiscuously set down in the New Testament notwithstanding that Gods immediate rule was to be inward even for that our Saviour and his Apostles having charge and guidance of souls under them it was needful for their good deportment sake that they should leave to them and unto such as should succeed in the Christian Churches besides the fundamentals such farther precepts and directions â—s might keep them in a steady course of Charity and peace one towards another when they found their duties set forth by so good authority For want of due regard whereof and of that different respect which the Scriptures do carry in their instructions and for want of that necessary and truly Christian grace of humility instead of learning and practicing those more proper duties which concern us in our distinct callings and relations for which onely we stand accomptable before God we are through pride and partiality too often found to be studious and inquisitive after so much onely as doth concern others in theirs even such as are above us for whose faults we are not to answer that thereupon we may appear more fit to teach then be taught to govern then be governed And this is not onely practised in the more civil relation of Subjects or Servants against their Prince or Master but through this misused liberty a general usurpation is almost every where now made for interpreting Scripture against the sence and authority of the whole Church and of our more spiritual guides therein to whose charge they are most particularly entrusted from which preposterous proceeding what can be expected but what sad experience doth witness even Heresie Schisme disorder and civil broyles to the scandal of Christian religion it self But now when we finde the persons in authority to be expressed in the plural number as Those that have the guide over you those that must give an account for your souls c. or else our obedience directed to the Church in general we are to understand thereby the head of each Church to be chiefly meant In which respect as there were many distinct Churches and thereupon also many heads as before shewed so the Apostle might in his general admonitions to obedience put them in the plural number of those and them And as in this sence we are to understand that precept of tell it to the Church namely to the judiciary head thereof so also are we to interpret and apply the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing to be given to the Churches head and not the diffused body which can never in all its members meet nor can otherwise then by their head hear and determine And hereupon we shall finde this power to be expresly given to the Apostles in Saint John where Christ is saying to them As my Father sent me even so send I you thereby giving them authority over their particular Churches and trusts By which means as he had formerly answered that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins So these sons of men also may without Blasphemy in
corruption of manners or the deceivableness of unrighteousness as well as Heresie of Doctrine or belief of a lye do follow as a necessary train this sin of insubjection to Christs Authority and so make the Antichrist deservedly to be stiled the man of sin and son of perdition And this may be the reason why the name of Antichrist is not by Saint Paul given to this great one even because he should appear in the latter age of the world wherein the consequences of heresie and corruption of manners should be more notorious in him then was their first main cause the sin of stubbornness and rebellion which by that time should through possession and blinde devotion have gained to it self a shew of right It faring no otherwise in this respect with the application of this Gospel term of Rebellion then it formerly did under the Law with that other proper name of Rebels viz. sons of Belial For as that in after times came from the experience of that concomitant degree of lewdness vileness which always attended disobedient and ungovernable persons to be applyed to persons notoriously wicked as well as to such as were formally Rebels even so in this latter age it is no wonder if the notion of Antichristianism be otherwise used also then in the strict sense of insubjection Like as the vertue and grace of obedience upon a contrary reason is in usual speech made comprehensive of all or any other commendation unto that person unto whom it is given And that he was called Antichrist in opposition to Unction and Monarchical Government may undeniably appear by that which hindred him from taking upon him publikely this power namely the Roman Emperor For had his Antichristianism consisted in such Doctrines as had concerned Christian Faith onely why should the Emperor be at that time a let therein liking them one no better then another But because the Apostle saw such Doctrines set on foot as would overthrow Christs Regency in his Deputies afterwards he calls it the mystery of iniquity already working and concludes the onely let to keep it from being actually in the person of the Antichrist was the Emperors present possession And this was the reason why the actual Session of the Pope in this Authority is called Antichrist revealed even as the broaching of the Doctrines tending thereto was called the mystery of iniquity or Antichrist working aim and possession of jurisdiction making him properly Antichrist in both and not Heresie in Doctrine Having thus far shewed in brief how Antichristianism consists in opposing Christ that is in regard of his Regency it must farther follow that since this opposition cannot be to him now in Heaven otherwise then as done against such as are anointed under him here which are to act in his name and Authority that thereupon Antichristianism is to oppose Christian Monarchs who onely now are anointed as proper immediate Officers under him and who are holding their Office in the Christian Church according to prophetick designation of what should befal her in her flourishing condition namely to have sons whom she should set as Princes in all Lands And this farther appears according to that model of the Christian Church in the eight last Chapters of Ezekiel where the Priesthood also being designed the chief of them is put under such a Name and Notion as may minde them continually of their duty of loyalty and submission to Princes since from a King their predecessor Zadock was first preferred to that Office as heretofore noted And to take off Presbyterial parity from this Antichristian hope of Regency Ezekiel in the 34 Chapter reproving and setting forth the mischiefs arising from their Anarchical rule prophesies that God will set up one shepherd over them and he shall feed them even his servant David Which as it was to be understood first in Christ himself as coming of Davids natural loyns so to be executed by his adopted sons of oyle in the several Territories of his Church We shall finde this future condition of Monarchy prophesied plainly by Jeremy to accompany also the flourishing estate of the Church saying their Nobles shall be of themselves and their Governor should proceed from the midst of them that is shall be my servants also And I will cause him to draw neer and he shall approach unto me that is as I have the hearts of Kings in my power so will I guide his for who is this or who else is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord. Where noting Governor He and His to be set down in the singular number we may infer Monarchy to be meant And then follows Gods more remarkable owning his Church when his Kingdom shall be thus come amongst us and ye shall be my people and I will be your God The like we may observe done largely by Isaiah in the 49 Chapter both to express the increase and flourishing estate of Christs Church to arise and recover by degrees from its former distress and also that this should come to pass in the time of Christs adopted sons and through that glorious addition of kingship following the Gentile Princes entertainment of the Gospel and acknowledgement of their fealties unto him The Children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other shall say again in thine ears the place is too straight for me give place to me that I may dwell Then shalt thou say in thine heart who hath begotten me these seeing I have lost my Children and am desolate a captive and removing to and fro and who hath brought up these Behold I was left alone these where had they been Thus saith the Lord God Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my Standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carryed upon their shoulders And Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and their Queens thy nursing mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me The like we shall finde in the 60 Chapter the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising And again the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and Kings shall minister unto thee For in my wrath I smote thee but in my favor have I had mercy on thee Therefore shall thy gates be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the wealth of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought c. Which and many more places shewing the glory and increase of the Church under Kingship must be understood to be compleated in Christs adopted sons since in his own person he had while he lived neither form nor comliness and as to
the grace of God That is lest failing of the usual concommitant and conveyer of grace ye should through the lack thereof lack grace also Lest any bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby may be defiled Where malice hatred c. the attendants on war being also set down under the name of bitterness we are warned to avoid them by keeping peace for else these malicious bitter prosecutions will not only outwardly trouble but inwardly defile us And to let men see that by this peace the civil peace is meant it is called Peace with all men And again to let them see it is wrought by patience chiefly it follows the large commendations thereof set down in the twelfth to the Hebrews However to make answer to some that would have us endanger both peace and truth by putting the name of truth always in to prevent peace we have made instances of Peace being put before truth and also before Holiness yet the truth hereof is they are so coincident and depending one upon another that Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other They do become inseparable in themselves and are so inseparably our duties to follow and practise that we can never truly do the one whilst we are not highly regardful of the other also and must then be guilty when we prefer as some do a very uncertain discovery of truth to a certain loss of peace and so under colour of new Gospel-light lose the benefits of the Gospel of Peace and make it cease to be an Evangel or glad tidings And if men would consider what hath been hitherto spoken concerning Gods owning the Seat and Throne of Christian judgement now settled amongst us and so being according to his promise A spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgement they might thereby perceive how amongst other things of salvation and glory which should come to the Church that mercy and truth are met together and that righteousness and peace as aforesaid have kissed each other So that now truth shall spring out of the earth as from this earthly Throne of judgement by means of righteousness that shall look down from heaven according to the former Prophesie of that good King and Typical Head of the Church made concerning the Churches future state and prosperity where it is set down that God hath now given his own Mishpat or rule of right judgement to the King Christ himself and his righteousness or justice to the Kings Son Christs adopted sons of oyl that so in these there being these unions of Mercy and truth and of righteousness and peace they may be enabled to judge Gods people with righteousness and his poor with judgement And having thus far spoken of the Antichrist according to S. Pauls description we will again re-assume and speak farther of the many Antichrists mentioned by S. John Although S. Paul gives the liveliest discovery of the one and S. John only names the other yet are they both of them as Ring-leaders in the breach of Charity and publike Peace the subject and occasion of many Precepts in holy Writ the admonitions and examples that way given taking up a very considerable part thereof and being for the greatest part the object and aim of what our Saviour either did or suffered For as this general good or charity consisted in or at least had dependance upon the reciprocal duties of commanding and obeying so are we from him furnished with Precepts and Examples of both kinds To this end he rides to the Temple and there by exercising his authority over the Temple the type of the Christian Church as a King he leaves example and authority for the higher powers to demand subjection not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and that either to Kings as Supreme or to others as sent of him To this end again as being the harder duty he not only sets down those many Precepts of Humility but in his own Person becomes the patern to all admiration of Patience and Long-suffering We being to learn of him to be lowly and meek and in the testimony of our Discipleship unto him to take up our cross and follow him Which we must testifie chiefly by our following him in our deeds of meekness and patience under subjection patience and subjection differing from one another no otherwise then in generality For I may do many things whilst a subject which sort with mine own liking and wherein no patience is required but I can do nothing as patient but where subjection must be presupposed But ordinarily patience doth define and constitute true subjection as vertue doth the vertuous And as heretofore shewed Gods glory is the end of Charity and Charity the end of Government and subjection so is subjection the end and aim of patience for what need of patience in what I may avoid That the formal cause of Antichristianism is insubjection to Christian Headship S. John makes plain saying of the many Antichrists of his time they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us that is they were like such as receive seed amongst thorns Go forth and are choaked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and so minding division and separation they do for their sakes overthrow Charity and bring not fruit to perfection But nothing can to my thinking be a clearer evidence that this sin of Antichristianism is the same with Rebellion of one or more Church members against their Christian Head then to consider that we shall never find this phrase of Antichrist set down by any in the plain terms but by S. Iohn the only person whom we shall plainly and expresly read of to be in that sort opposed and disturbed For although S. Paul by his Corinthians and others puffed up against him who had raigned as kings without him might be induced through the sense of the mysterie of iniquity already working to speak so largely of the Antichrist to come yet doth he not name him as doth the other Who is recorded to be notoriously opposed by Diotrephes in his jurisdiction and exercise of Church power in not receiving or submitting unto him and as loving that pre-eminence which was only due to the other their sole Head And not being content therewith that is with his own departure doth neither himself receive or take into his care and protection the brethren such members as have no head and so doth not make his preeminence lawful as over a charge of his own but forbiddeth them that would that is such as would come to S. Iohn and casteth them out of the Church or takes upon him to excommunicate where he hath no authority This fault he warns his beloved Gaius against under the general notion of evil as
OF GOVERNMENT AND OBEDIENCE As they stand Directed and Determined BY SCRIPTURE AND REASON Four Books BY JOHN HALL Of RICHMOND LONDON Printed By T. Newcomb for J. Kirton A. Roper G. Bedell and G. Sawbridge and are to be sold at their Shops in St. Pauls Church-yard Ludgate-hil and Fleet-street 1654. The Preface TO have undertaken a work of this nature was once as little in my thoughts as the occasion of it the sad distraction of my Nation But as they say of him that was born dumb that he burst into speech against those he saw ready to murther his Father even so the past and feared desolations of my native Country come with such pressing horror upon my soul that neither my general dumbness and insufficiency in all things else nor the particular difficulty of this can keep my natural affection in longer silence that is from endeavouring to warn posterity to avoid the like inconvenience for the future by discovery of both rise and cure of that which is introductive thereof namely disrespect and contempt of the present Soveraign power For they shall finde it plain that from the time that Subjects shall be taught and permitted rudely to press within those secret vails of Authority which their wiser Progenitors had set up for its support and defense that their ignorance not letting them see throughly the cause of these different respects given to Superiors more then others they shall like Cham no sooner see then despise their fathers nakedness And as with them it fareth that through remoteness and want of reading know of their King no otherwise then by report as of someting of Power Riches c. above that which is incident to ordinary men to apprehend him to be some other thing then man also even so when ambitious men finding Authority oppose them have for the peoples engagement laid open to publike view That he is but as other men are and it may be worse too that this power and greatness he hath above the people he had it but from them and for them They then begin to be so much ashamed of their old ignorance and so much taken with this new insinuating lesson that their industry and practise thereupon is not to be wondred at And as themselves are now pleased with these Schollies as matters of high discovery so each one is ready to stretch his fancy therein and in a kinde of pride we all take to seem more wise then ordinary these discourses are told and enlarged to his yet loyal neighbour with no little glory of his new illumination He looks on himself in his past ignorance and on others not yet apprehensive of so much light but as little Children admiring those Babies which themselves had drest up For he comes now to think all those Prerogatives ornaments and Ceremonies given to Majesty nay Majesty it self to be but a sort of Pageantry and shew to please the ignorant sort with And as Bell and the Dragon were sometimes made terrible that as in their names and right others might be the more superstitiously cozened by those that attended them so to no other end as they suppose was all this obedience and expence by some Polititians and Courtiers called for as of duty to this one but that themselves under colour of his name and Authority might make their private uses thereof Whenas by these and the like practises the sinews and foundation of Government and Authority shall be let loose and dissolved and men once precipitated in a course of stubbornness and insubjection all those usual Arguments and Discourses made of that respect which is to Monarchy it self due and how it was not an office and power of yesterdays devising but had the confirmation of Antiquity and Law or the like will all of them prove ineffectual to give a stop to these proceedings Even because most of the writers of this kinde to win readier belief did still argue under the same supposition of derivation of power from the people and so to Princes by Paction by force vvhereof they thought they might defend him and his Authority as in Justice against any violent or injurious attempt whence it proved that want of building on the true and sure ground made their labour unsuccessful and instead of conviction did for the most part but prompt with farther Arguments upon the same foundation to encrease perfect that structure they had already begun And although they again did strengthen their Arguments from the particular Laws and usages of the kingdom it self yet not diving deeper into the ground thereof and shewing that what is there done is but upon the general reason of Government and good of Obedience common to it with all places else the success was little For the people being once confident that power came al from them it must be supposed by them intrusted for their good and that when they saw it otherwise they might reassume it for else say they it was a dry Right without a remedy What if their Progenitors for their folly or cowardise herein had been punished with deserved slavery they would make use of the blessed opportunity to recover their native freedom with the same resolution courage that others had oppressed it before And as for Law the interpretation thereof was not in the King but them as was the Legislative power also That the sin of Rebellion was falsly imputed to them they were the supreme power and above Kings the whole people cannot rebel against the Prince more then the greater against the less In this case since Antiquity cannot be taken upon her bare word but that the reason why it was so formerly done must be also given unto men now there is no remedy but to let them see how that which hath been herein formerly appointed was for and will prove if observed the onely general good by which means people seeing their obedience to be their benefit as well as their duty cannot I conceive but more readily follow it So that now being forced to dig even to the very root of Government which could have no subsistance but by Religion nor that again without a Deity this drew us on in the first place to make some proof and discourse thereof and of that work of Creation to which Providence necessarily succeeding as Gods way of Government in all things besides was needful in some things to be here also treated of not onely as having man himself so considerable a part of it but as partly imitable in the Government of Kingdoms also For as the Laws and Rules of Nature are but for the establishment and security of Creatures in general so those for Peace and Unity in Kingdoms are for men in particular those are to make and keep all Creatures in their species serviceable one to another these to do the like between man and man Then being to consider men as linked in society it was expedient I should first search out what mans natural end
protection when their Offices are invaded as the Prince is to the Fathers and Monarchs again being not unanimous and active in upholding each others rights as Fathers are it is no wonder if we finde here and there an Anarchical Kingdom even daring to profess themselves so which Families do not But would Monarchs take the common interest to heart as Fathers do and be as vigilant to preserve their neighbors power as others are to overthrow them they would finde that it would be the steadiest course to maintain their own power at home and that when other Kingdoms could never have been known successful in enterprising their Kings subversion their subjects would never undertake it no more then the Children or Servants of a Family dare for the like cause attempt the like against their Father and Master The main reason that Subjects usually have to desire such Change being the example of such or such a neighboring people as have thriven therein and so making fortune and success the onely judge of right and wrong they do proceed accordingly all stories telling us that until Anarchies came into the world such a thing as limited Monarchy was not in being Let us now again see their likeness in Rebellions and its pretences The Wife if she be of greater spirit then to be confined in her proper employment takes occasion from her Husbands remisness or too great trust in her to enlarge her power in the Family and to encroach on her Husbands also With these she lays Obligations and raises dependances as to her self and having now as she believes gotten strength to stand alone or above her Husband she becomes more insolent and open Which if it shall awake him to curb by his just power then comes she to spread through the Family the charge and power she hath She saith That the power of the head of the Family grew from the Family for as the Family was in greatness or power so was the head thereof also and therefore that they as the fountains of power might use the same to their just vindication from oppression She saith that as all kindes of good is increased by communication so the good of the whole Family is to be preferred in reason to the single good of any one especially since as the case now stands that one seeks but his own hurt also led and blinded with evil Counsel In which case necessity of self-preservation will not onely justifie but duty to their Master requires the other members to joyn in a course to force these from him and take the charge of his person and Government themselves She tells them that a Family as a Family hath foundation on the Wife and that as without Religion well instructed there could be no firm obligation for subjects obedience so without a Wife no Children no Family and so no Master thereof Besides though truly she is loth to say so much her self yet her Husbands late disrespect and forwardness to cross her makes her fear as men are now easily enclined to heresie so he hath turned his affection to some other women and therefore she would divorce her self from him that so he might be as excommunicate in his Family For although it is true that obedience is to be given to him by the Law of God yet again it is as true that he is to keep Gods Laws as well as we if not we must obey God rather then men Nay when he hath neglected his duty to his Family in not providing for them as this man hath done Saint Paul expressly saith He is worse then an infidel Now whether it be not fit that one that hath denied the Faith an Infidel nay worse then an Infidel should not onely be excommunicated but put from Government she thinks none can doubt But above all through her Husbands often absence about other imployments and remitting the directive part of Government to her in many particulars she lays the greatest claim to make herself as it were Governor in chief leaving to her Husband as pertinent to him that hath none but the coercive part the honor and authority only of a subservient officer that is to execute punish according to her determination and censure No otherwise then as the popish and Presbyterian Clergy upon advantage of their sole exercise in the Office of publike instruction do come to believe at last they are supreme and uncontrolable herein and do thence infer that as the body is to be subservient to the mind so the Prince or Civil Magistrate as they call him ought with his coercive part of Government to be reckoned but as subordinate and Ministerial to what they in their spiritual capacities shall enjoyn Not remembring that all that external jurisdiction and power she exerciseth in tâ—e Family is subordinate and to be acknowledged as derived from his supreme headship even as done by her as his Wife in his family by vertue of that choice and designation he then made at the time he personally ordained her to be his Wife and so consequently took her into this consortship and share of power For although the positive power and honor belonging to her as a mother and Mistris of a family be to be derived from God onely even from the sacramental efficacy of marriage and Ordination it self yet since it cannot be imagined that the constitution of a less and subordinate power was intended to be the overthrow of a greater therefore should she have considered that she is negatively in all things by him restrainable in the execution thereof Nay more in those things which she acts as Mistress of the Family over any but her own Children she is to hold her self as well impowered as restrainable by him although in respect of that obedience or honor rather which her own children give her she be not to acknowledge any humane derivation therein but is impowered as mother both by the Laws of God and Nature and that in chief where no other head or Monarch is With these and such like insinuations she may be supposed to win Children and others of the Family into a faction and association with her by whose help she may be able to work her ends For although women be rather more desirous of Government then men yet they wanting bodily strength are forced to draw in others to their assistance by setting up of their interests also Thus Children shall be won in by hope of some parity of power with the Father as well as Peerage among themselves for by the Text of Fathers provoke noâ— your children to wrath they would both have the duty of Fathers implyed of not commanding more to their Children then what they are willing to act for fear of angring them and also that being provoked by their Father it was just and reasonable for them to prosecute this wrath of theirs unto the abating his power for the future Then the Children when they meet with an easie and
of gratitude are as neer as may be to be proportioned to the measure of benefits received and because amongst sublunary Creatures man had the largest measure imparted it will follow that from him as from a Creature most bounden for receipt and best enabled for return this duty of praise and thanksgiving should be chiefly expected nay in a manner from him onely it can be had For although the Heavens may declare the glory of God and the Firmament shew his handy work yet because those beauties and excellencies which by the wisdom and power of God are bestowed on them and other irrational Creatures are not at all apprehended by themselves and are for the most part but subservient to others how should such return of praise or acknowledgement be expected from them or any but man who alone in these endowments and perfections received appeares of all Creatures least tyed in a subservient relation but on the contrary having all the vertues and benefits of other things directed and made appliable towards him and his own abilities again standing directly pointing at the service and honour of his Maker it may thereupon be fitly said That all things were made for man as the most able creature in regard of his reason to apprehend his owne interest and obligations and to make suitable expression of thanks to Gods glory By all which it appears that the end of all our whole religion and endeavours should be to the glory of God even such a God that being so infinite in power above us is yet so particularly extensive of his goodness towards us that whosoever shall but considerately weigh the measure thereof must ever think himself to high a debtor that with an holy extasie he may cry out What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me What can be more proportionable and becoming both our duty and benefit then in immitation of that thereby most pleasing person to have his praises alwaies in our mouths nay not in our mouths alone but in our actions also these must so shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in heaven When Birds or Beasts sing or play in the sense and exultation of benefits received from this universal Author of plentiousness to all things living they in their kind praise him but unto us as he hath given understanding so it is therewith to praise him and if with reason we do it not we do it not as men nor with all our might nor with all our strength And this reason of ours we must in so needful a work strengthen with all the help we can especially out of that portion of his owne unerring wisdome revealed in the holy Scripture And for farther fear that their meaning herein should be mistaken we are not to trust our single and private judgements for their interpretation but take direction from those that have rule over us whose faith we are to follow By which means we shall also most assuredly keep up and preserve our other duty the chiefe means of his praise on earth namely the good of our Neighbour For as God keeps on the whole Creation and our particular preservations for a means to express his glory by so we by observing his commands of Charity beneficence peace and love to one another must make that as having most necessary and direct tendency to this preservation the onely alowable means to give him that praise and glory By this means it will come to pass that although when we sin or multiply our transgressions we do nothing against him nor that he as directly in himself doth receive gaine or advantage by our righteousness yet since these our wickednesses may hurt men as we are and our righteousness on the other side may profit them therefore comes our good or ill deeds towards them to be reckoned as so to God and vertue and morality when truly such to be the same with piety and religion probity being the same with righteousness and vice the same with sin And as this is the end of Religion so of nature also for as both of them proceeded from him so both of them point at the same end the glory of God but in the means thereunto they somewhat differ For because in nature God stands as the most supream and remote cause and therefore the exigence of his manifestation so requiring is sometimes by miracles forced to make himself known to us by being the immediat cause of some extraordinary production it being else very difficult for the wit of man through so many intermediate causes and such long circuits of effects depending one upon another to pass in order through all the links of this golden chaine till they come at last to that which according to the Fable is fastned to Jupiters toe therefore God is by precepts of Religion brought to an easie plaine and immediate appearance in our conceits Whereupon having our duties of praises and acknowledgments unto him manifested even for the least good we receive we are hereby as by most plain direction fixed and taught both in the duty it self and manner of our return of gratitude which is by this means made intelligible to all in general and each one in particular Whereas if the light and direction of nature had been therein alone entrusted this supream cause and end of our being either through its intricacy and our weakness could not or through the hasty pursuits of our desires would not in such due manner have been discovered as to fix our selves on the Creator and nor by a kinde of Idolatry on the creature it self And as it had thus fared in the great end of all things Gods glory so in the chief appointed means to it mans preservation it would have come to pass that the knowledge and practice of our duty without precepts of religion would have been in many things at a loss For example although by long circuit of reason and such discourses as heretofore spoken of some men might come to have found that obedience should be given to the Prince or chief Magistrate even in order to that we owe to God yet considering the great number of the ignorant and the differences of others about the measure and manner of affording it without direct precepts of Religion commanding and determining it nothing but civil war and slaughter would follow In which war as my person must be equally hazarded with others so in lessening the number of mankinde the lessening of Gods praises in the instrument thereof would ensue Therefore as well out of care of Gods glory as my owne good my submission to government and a publique desinitive sentence was necessary but the ability to apprehend it by discourse hapning to few and yet the end of it being the duty of all it was behoofful that obedience should peremtorily be appointed by precepts of Religion whether unto
Kings as Supreum or unto others as sent of him As thus in many matters of Charity divine direction was usefull so to the particular direction of our Christian faith on which as a ground-work our Charity was to be built this direction was much more necessary For since none could come to God except he first know that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him so the stating our faith standing necessary as to the stating our obedience we we may see cause for the frequent commendation and injunctions thereof in the New Testament where it is expresly said that without it t is impossible to please God that is without confidence of his being and of his rewards and punishments following our good or bad actions we shall not be zealous of good works or duties of Charity And having so far shewed what the ground of Religion should be we will next shew what it usually is both in ground and practice CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received BEfore the knowledge of good and evil entred into man Nature was his religion and what was by her law done was also thereby justified But being once possessed with the apprehension of this discovery all our thoughts and actions were so involved herein that nothing we said or did could escape censure on one side or other and so consequently for well or ill doing we could not but expect reward or punishment But because on the one hand the natural pride and arrogancy of each man was ready to put a greater rate and desert upon his intents and doings then he saw them rewarded with in this life and on the other side knowing the great and many faults that had escaped him or others not at all espied by men or by law so throughly punished as he thought their gift required the two main guides of our nature hope and fear led on our expectations to a future reckoning in such a sort that where the souls immortallity and our resurrection are not by special revelation manifested men are yet generally found believing thereof the craft of persons in authority many times helping on and biassing these Superstitions of inferiours to sociable advantages or self respects Now the wayes men take for the obtaining of this future reward or a voiding the like punishment is their religion And then religion having its ground from conscience and each mans conscience following the light of his understanding in judging good and bad and their degree from the diversity of understanding followeth the diversity of religions which as they had their first rise and fashion from their several Authours so each one yeilds himself a Disciple as he findes his hopes or the fears of his owne conscience therewith satisfied Therefore now concluding mens religion and conscience to be according to their understanding and their understandings being not onely differing but altogether imperfect it is impossible that any Religion should be true but what is from God himself received But then again because truth doth not move by being but by being apparent and because there is no way for this apparency till it be made conceivable to my understanding will it not follow that therein also we must be subject to much difference uncertainty So that men generally acknowledging a deity that no religion can be true but what shal be from him received they do by means of this fallible guide so usually mistake in their choice For knowledg in this kinde is not innate but acquired for why else are not Children and innocents as well as men of riper capacity by priviledge of birth and species without more ado instructed Why is that long stay made until by natural course the sences and organs of the body receiving their due growth and perfection the understanding together therewith arrive also at a sufficient capacity for the same reason to work by So that then the priority and worth of divine truths being not able of themselves to enter our capacities otherwise then as let in by the senses or else made familiar by such things as formerly were so as types parables similitudes and the like it comes to pass that according to the several prepossessions of men and their several fashions in entertaining them our several beliefes and opinions do arise And although we are seldome able to remember those sensible inductions out of which they grew yet from such they must needs at first grow inasmuch as had they come in without mixture they would like truths have remained to all men the same and alike whereas now their variety shews the variety of their entertainment and admittance And therefore although naturally as men and for satisfaction of our hope and fears sake we generally adhere to one sort of Religion or another yet when we come to entertain the kindes we stand not onely disabled in our Election but for the most part use no Election at all depending rather on chance then choice For what one is there of a thousand that ever doubts of or alters the religion he was brought up in For do we not Scholly and Catechise our Children in the same opinion with our selves do we not carry and send them with directions for beliefe and attention unto such Churches and Preachers where we are sure the truth and benefit of this and the falsehood and dangers of all others shall be exemplified to the height What probability then that he should prefer an opinion unknown at least alwayes discommended before one he doth know and hears alwaies praised Whereupon we shall finde preoccupation of judgement of such force that whether they be Christian Jew Mahumetan Heathen or a distinct Sect under any of these generals yet all of them to resolute to their owne side that they will embrace Martyrdom rather then a recantation Not that all in any kinde will do so for all men stand differenced between perfect Atheism and height of belief but where such tenderness of conscience and disposition is met withall as can be subdued to entertain Myrterdome on one side the same party would also have entertained it on another had education and other fore-stalling arguments been applyed unto him And even as in Christianity it self and the sects thereof we may find both Martyrs and Renegates as strength of belief leades them so in other religions also upon tryal these kindes have been apparent For as the Magitians feigned Miracles found greater belief with the Egyptians then the true ones of Moses so a false information having nothing to contradict it or education having forestalled our judgements prevailes as true with us and the contradictory thereof as false For all men thinking it reasonable that the proof of divine authority should be evinced by something more then humane and that supernatural truths otherwaies not conceiveable by sense and so demonstrable should be ascertained and illustrated by such as were it made the founders of all Religions pretend miracles as thinking their endeavours
another did arise the restrictive name of a Church could not be applyed to one Nation or part of mankind more then another For although the closer observation of the first light and way given to Adam and other of the Fathers might make some of them more truly called the sons of God then others as the truer and more sincere worship of those of Judah above those of Israel might do the like yet as long as these Israelites did still make their acknowledgements to be guided by the same law and rule of Circumcision with the other it was not their Calves nor other failings could hinder them from being of the Catholique Church no more then could the corruptions of the sons of Adam the son of God hinder men from being equally his seed and members of the visible Church even after that their multiplication commerce one with another had caused pride and covetousness the two daughters of humane frailty to make the whole earth to be filled with violence and so to be equally punished by the Flood or then Noahs particular justice and closer walking with God above any other could at the same time shut out all but himself from being of the same visible Church also Mens general acknowledgement of the same way of divine guidance as proceeding from God the Creator even before the time that unto Moses he was distinguished under the expressions of the God of Abraham making all of them equally of the Catholique Church although by their deeds there after they might differently be of the Communion of Saints But although God might in mercy accept of that ready literal obedience in the Iew and also of that substantial obedience in the Gentile and albeit the law of Moses or reason were not exactly kept by either might impute Christs satisfaction unto them and so receive them into the merit of a Saviour as well as Job and other of the Patriachs yet unto us that now live after the time that this Saviour hath been by miracles proved to have been and appeared in the flesh as there can nothing save us but actual belief and profession especially where it may be had so where this profession of Christ is nothing can hinder the party from being a member of his body the visible Church nor the Church hereupon to admit him into her fellowship by the dore of Baptisme Which Sacrament being by the Church given to us as a seal of the performance of Gods gracious promises on our behalf is called a Covenant also and particularly the Covenant of Grace and that because salvation comes to us by free gift and not by performance of any positive outward law of God as to the Iewes it did Nor yet stand we now obliged with the Gentile to the observation of the whole law of nature for although the precepts of Love the Lord withall thine heart c. and love thy Neighbour as thy self be positively set down in holy Writ because the general insufficiency of that portion of reason which is committed unto men could not ordinarily otherwise discover so much yet they are as natural as creation and providence it self even as upholding the same For as heretofore declared in the particular of man each one in reason being obliged to do all things to the preservation and advantage of another because even thereby Gods praise and glory is preserved and encreased by the preserving and benefiting one another it followed that in whatsoever the least thing we neglected or thwarted our duty of acting herein we were so far culpable against the law of reason which was and alwayes is divine both as being part of Gods inexhaustable fountain and ayming also at the same end the continuance and furtherance of his creation and providence But because in Adam we had taken the morality of actions upon our owne score the portion of humane wisdome which would have sufficed to guide us as natural Agents in implicite obedience was not now sufficient to steer us unblamable in all things whatsoever no though we should be most intent upon it but that God and our Neighbour might have been better served therefore God to the Jew abreviates this Universal strict rule to some set precepts which being observed he makes his Covenant to accept of for performance of the whole Moral law or law of natural reason And therefore we may observe that there was something in it of providence and charity of all kinds As forbidding to eat blood the life of Creatures mercy to the poor and stranger letting the land take rest forbidding to take the young bird with the old or to seeth the kid in the mothers milk c. But exact obedience being found yet too difficult for men to attain salvation by and the very knowledge of these precepts being in the absence of the Lawmaker difficult also it pleased God to us Christians to make his Kingdom to be chiefly inward and accept of the will for the deed and the litteral exact performance being done by a Saviour in our stead we are accepted not for doing all we should but for having done what we can So that by belief and adhesion in and to him and doing what he commands we come by and through him to be accepted as having done all that he did And thereupon we that in respect of breach of Gods precepts were enemies and rebells to him and so could not be received into that Kingdome of his which was designed for innocent mankind came through faith to be made so much on with Christ who hath taken our nature upon him as to be accepted by God as actual performers of the whole law Which faith being the work of the holy Ghost doth by its reception in each person constitute him a member of that Society which we call the Catholick Church which consisting of parts or members triumphant militant and future are all yet by means of this owne Spirit received into the union of Christs mystical body or communion The communion of Saints From all which it will not be hard to conceive how God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and how Christ fulfilling for us both that natural large law of providence and beneficence which as Gods knowing good and evil we had undertaken as also that strict litteral abreviation thereof we come to be restored again to a state of innocence For under the condition of absolute necessity to salvation we have even as few precepts laid upon us under this second Adam as there were from God in Paradise laid on the first but that being ingrafted into Christ by faith and in all our outward deportments to our Neighbours walking according to Christian light and obedience we should be as unblameable and innocent now as then For as Adam while guided by the light of nature onely had his duty and innocence measured by obedience to that one outward law
course is to confess we know him not having indeed no warrantable rule for our direction herein but what God himself hath of himself in the holy Scripture set downe The which had it not stiled the second person the the Image of the invisible God the brighâ—ness of his fathers glory and the express Image of his persons And so leading us to conceive of the procession of the holy Ghost I see not how the true personal existence of those three that bear record in heaven could have been apprehended As for that hypostatical union of the two natures in that one person of our Saviour a mystery also necessary in some sort to be comprehended and believed it is learnedly done by others especially by the pen of Judicious Hooker and is not to our present occasion so proper But so much I thought necessary to premise in this place for the better conception of the personal subsistance of deity by way of supply to what was briefly spoken of the unity thereof and its operations in the entrance of the first book and what shall be spoken thereof in the last chapter of this book this being as necessary to be known to state us Christians as that was to remove us from Atheism and also for the better understanding the original and nature of love it self whereof we are now to treat For hence we may perceive how God himself is said to be love as being the foundation thereof and that also if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is made perfect in us The which is not onely true in the natural state wherein all creatures had existence and perfection from the love of God manifested in Christ by whom he made the world and had that thereby also recourse back towards God again by occasion of those natural propensions to mutual love and beneficence seated in men and other things by means of that blessed spirit which moved upon the waters but also true in the state of grace and regeneration wherein God the Father was pleased to love men again as in his beloved Son when they had now lost that Image and likeness wherein they stood lovely as his creatures before even by the love of God shed abroad â—n our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given us By whose blessed influence we are not onely holpen and directed in our love and obedience upward whereby to meet the God of love more directly even to the degree of a miracle-working faith where it is strong enough but also stand inwardly affâ—cted towards the assisting him in his course of providence by love to those his Images now presâ—nt amongst us men being not otherwise capeable of approving themselves to be Godly or God-like then by the expression of this their love according to such rules of obedience as Christ himself hath appointed and in Scripture plainly set down For as we are inwardly made preceptive and participant of this love by the grace of faith even by having our understandings cleared concerning the reallity of God and his goodness and of the communication thereof unto us of which we have spoken in this last discourse so again do we stand outwardly confirmed and conformable herein by the grace of obedience even by signal testification of our true love to him by our ready and conformable expression of it according to his direction of which we shall now speak in that which follows As the general praise of love is most plainly and largly discoursed of by Saint John so is he most of all copious to shew how love and charity being the general precept for Christians are the fulfilling of the law and how they secure us in a state of innocence And therefore commending love to us he saith I write no new Commandment unto you but that which ye have heard from the beginning meaning from Christ himself who had shewed that this precept of charity or love was as hath been hitherto shewed the sum and scope of all the Law and the Prophets that is of those particular precepts set down in the Law Again saith he a new Commandment I write unto you which things is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light shineth That is true in him that hath thus rid us of strict legal observance and from the darkness and multitude of litteral precepts and hath enlightened us with so much supernatural wisdome as to see this one performance of love to be the summ of their meaning they without it not being able to state us innocent For he that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now but he that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Which last words point plainly to the stating of our condition of innocence by love he concluding all Christian foundation and commandment in these words That we should believe the name of Christ Jesus and love one another And therefore is this Gospel single light hinted unto us as a single eye which enlighteneth the whole body This state of innocence through love may be also compared unto the strait Gate both for its singleness of precept in regard of those many precepts formerly given us and for its difficult too as for loving of Enemies and the like This is that wedding garment which whilst we have on we need not doubt our selves true members of and truly fitted for Christs Church and kingdome but if wanting it we are then to be rejected and cast out For without this roab of charity we shall be ready to devide this his kingdome against it self by breach of peace and order this being the leaven that must season all we do This is that rock on which we founding our Christian duties through faith in Christ they shall stand unmoveable against the stormes and tempests of the world whereas else prophesie miracles mighty works though done in Christs name and with never so religious pretences shall not make him owne us without its being their ground work And to this purpose he saith If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love and then he ads this is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you And least any one should think that this Commandment was but a single precept and not general and including all the rest of his Commandments he farther adds these things I Commanded you that ye love one another Where the command of love is put in the plural number as the sum of all the Commands we are to keep as truly his So that then no love to Christ without keeping his Commandments no keeping his Commandments without loving one another For as Christ in his actions stood excepted from sin notwithstanding his likeness to us in the
is every mans faith shall be tryed by the fire of afflictions and temptations and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt that is as every sacrifice under the law was to be so seasoned so he that came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets had now made the precept of love seasoned by the obedience to those that were to command in his stead to be the sure way of making each Christian duty lawful and after the same manner that each Christian himself was to be made acceptable by his baptism of afflictions And although it were reserved for the clearer light of the Gospel to discover that all wickedness proceeded from malice and other the works of the flesh and on the other side that love was the only thing to estate men râ—ghteous yet we finde the same in many places hinted at in the old Testament And Solomon in particular is very express to this purpose when he saith hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins Which is answerable to our Saviour reason of the corruption of the last times viz. because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold This accomplishment of our innocence through this saving grace of love or charity is that more excellent way by Saint Paul shewed to the Corinthians who had before shewed how all the several gifts of the holy Ghost were given for mutual edification and bestowed severally on several members but for compleating and adorning that one body the Church In which respect since the more ordinary and common members which were useful to the body as the feet or the like could not expect to have those more eminent endowments for then should they not be eminent if ordinary therefore is a whole Chapter spent in shewing this more excellent and ready way of Charity whereby those more feeble and less honourable members that could not attain to be Apostles Prophets Teachers or the like might yet by means of this common band of union and perfection finde an equal capacity with those that were highest gifted to attain to the edification and support of the general body This way being to them also the most excellent and sure because that without it all their other endowments will prove but as sounding brass and tinkling Symbals Of which bond or union and also of the union of the other Christian graces we shall farther discourse in the ensuing Chapter CHAP. VIII Of the Coincidence of Christian graces HOw the affection of unity is accompanying the whole race of things hath been abundantly declared as a metaphisical or supernatural speculation by such as have not had any other light to direct them in the inquiry then that which meer nature would afford being drawn from contemplation of her procession in things here below But unto us Christians who have from above been confirmed in the knowledg of deity and also of its unity as the ground of our divinity must grow more firm and steady in knowledge of God himself so will the contemplation of that unity as considered in him that is the cause of all things lead us by a plain way of demonstration to disscover why in each thing by him made the same affection should be also necessarily implanted not only in order of resemblance herein to its Author but to the formal stating of it such or such Concerning some of the nearer resemblances of deity in the things of life which we call individuals we have formerly spoken as also of mans above them all But this affection of unity is so much more closely accompanying them that it not onely formally constitutes them but thereby also differenceth them from inanimates who can receive no formal unity but what must arise from the definition of their whole Mass whereas in the definition of any species of individuals that natural unity which appears therein can have no other true existence or perfection then what was first really inherent in and constituted by the individuals themselves as being the observable properties in them severally abiding As therefore all things together with their creation and existence from God proceeding received from him this affection of unity also as necessarily constituting them distinct from the whole race of things so to the end that the Makers praise might yet receive addition and increase though the increase of the several objects of his bounty and goodness and that this division of the whole Mass might not by civil war and disunion amongst themselves prove the overthrow of one another but that one thing might be a continual support unto the good and preservation of another and thereby all conspire to the same end Gods glory we may observe all those friendly instincts and properties bestowed by God on natural Agents as heretofore noted By means of which propensity and benigne aspect of one thing towards another ariseth that other affection which we call goodness So that when the separate existencies of things which states truth are by this affection of goodness made agree in things to their own mutual preservation and to Gods glory also then doth the prevalence of union appear herein again as joyning good to truth and creation to providence and making the Creatures end or preservation conspire to that of Gods his owne glory and Gods glory to meet in direct points with their good But now although these benevolent inclinations of things might suffice to mutual preservation in Inanimates and such sensitives as had none or small cause of division through largeness of private appetite and will so to the end that voluntary Agents which were most to seek it might not be subject to recompence their owne higher sence of felicity from God received with the ingrateful diminution of his glory in the disturbance of the course of his providence it was onward necessary that for maintenance of the same unity which was made as aforesaid by inward instincts in other things there should not onely be an inward natural appetite to union implanted which we call love but also such outward directions given to them that through the due observance hereof their union and meeting amongst themselves might tend to the like end with the other things before spoken of namely the preservation and maintenance of Gods glory and their own good All which considerations will now make manifest the great reason not onely of that simplicity and fewness of the Gospel precepts as in order to our more easie performance and for their approaching so much neerer to the perfection and unity of him that gave them but also of that plain coincidence they have amongst themselves whereby they come like the whole race of things themselves the object of their directions to unite and conspire in the common end of all things Gods glory and the subservient end thereof each particular things natural preservation For as there is an union in the end so must there be also in the means and directions leading thereunto All which
should through subtilty be beguiled as the Serpent beguiled Eve from the simplicity that was in Christ. That is least as Eve in a desire and presumption of farther knowledg was by the Serpent tempted to disobey God so they by listening to such superstructures as were taught by others might be drawn to neglect those Fundamentall directions which he as their Master-builder had laid and wherewith he had espoused them to Christ and so suffer themselves to be brought into bondage by relying on the wisdomes of such false Apostles and deceitfull workers as transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ would under colour of Mission and authority immediately received from God be directing men in their Christian Morall duties contrary or above the direction of their own generall and authorized head who must now be in danger to be accounted as a fool in comparison of these transformed Angels of light and Ministers of righteousness To warn us against which seduction and to shew that the interpretation of Divine rules and precepts were by God and Christ now referred to that person who was next representing them it is observable that whensoever Christ is urged with the text of the Law or when himself is expounding it he always makes the sense thereof other then was formerly received releasing it to the generall law of reason or morality and not tying himself to the Letter as it was particularly morall to the Jews as by making Murther and Adultery to be inward and releasing by his Power sometimes the outward acts as by dispencing with that strict precept of the Sabbath and other instances may appear These precepts binding the Jews as Divinely Morall but Christians no farther then as rationally or politically so And St Paul having thus largely in the fore-recited and in the next Chapter spoken to the Colossians of our participation of God through â—hrist and of Christ through Christian obedience in this precept of love he then particularly instances how this love is to be outwardly stated and made perfect by obedience to rightfull Superiours in Christ naming such Masters in the flesh as were then Christians and saying Whatever yee doe doe it heartily as to the Lord And not unto men Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of his inheritance for we serve the Lord Christ that is we serve him by these in his stead But he that doth wrong that is disobeys or serves him according to his own will which must cause wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons Clergy and Laâ—ety high and low are made culpable by disobedience And in the next Epistle being the first to the Thessalonians having set down some particular commands for them to follow saying Yee know what Commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus he after adds He that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given to us his holy spirit meaning this authority which he might be bold in as the Apostle of Christ. And this he doth as presuming them inwardly guided and instructed from God himself in the generall precept of love saying but as touching brotherly Love ye need not that I write unto you for your selves are taught of God to love one another Meaning that this precept onely is of immediate Divine direction and injunction being able if rightly performed to estate us innocent according as he noted in his former prayer for them saying The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men even as we doe towards you to the end he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints At which time it will be found that Charity shall cover the multitude of sins or make us innocent And so far would he have them seek Peace the fruit of this love That they should study to be quiet and to doe their own business not taking upon them to censure the actions of others especially of those that are their Superiors And the means to accomplish and perfect this he after sets down We beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake That is count them directors of your love so far as it is operative and be at Peace among your selves Which is the same with the precept of study to be quiet Because being obedient to them we shall be at peace with one another but if we follow and beleeve them not in the manner how Christ is to be served and this our love to be exercised outwardly as well as we have already believed that these things are to be inwardly embraced it will follow that our private Will-worships to him and private apprehensions of love to our Brother will by their Crossings and thwartings one upon another prove to be their mutuall subversion and upon occasion of division and discontent hereabouts rankor and malice will break in to the reall overthrow of both true Faith and Charity It being impossible that any voluntary particular act of my love to any Neighbor can be so great and extensive as that more generall good to all which obedience must produce Whereupon follow directions both to Superiors and others for effecting it Warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient towards all men that is see that no man render evill for evill unto any man or take upon him to avenge his own wrong but ever follow that which is good both among your selves and to all men That is let your Obedience be continuall that your Charity may be Universall For if you should be so unruly as to raise Civill commotions and quarrels upon the score of your own particular enmity and revenge how would this confused return of evil for evil by the severall Members of a Kingdom one against another dissolve all bonds of Peace and Charity whilst every man should be both persecuting and persecuted Whereas by a joynt submission and acknowledgment of them that are over them in the Lord and acquiescence to them in their publick Charge and Trust all rankor will cease and generall Amity be preserved And these two fundamentall precepts of Faith and Love wrought by God in the Thessalonians he again mentions in his second Epistle to them as he had done in his former Epistle for as there he thanks God alwayes for them in his prayers remembring without ceasing their work of faith and labor of love So here he saith We are bound to thank God always for you Brethren as it is meet because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the Charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth So that we our selâ—es glory for you in the Church
God in his recess from matters of earthly judicature doth not take upon him to set down rules for external obedience immediately from himself under the Gospel as formerly under the Law but mediately by humane instruments that as the salvation of our souls and also of our bodies was committed unto him that had taken our whole nature upon him and so he might be called the Son of man as well as the Son of God so this salvation of our bodies which is the object of Government and Society and of all things pertaining to judgment and morality being not by him to be personally managed it must be done by these more eminent Sons of Men each Christian Prince And surely as our Saviours frequent assumption unto himself of this expression The Son of man is not to be construed impertinently or casually done so will it clearly explain that as God hath referred all judgement to him that contains in his own person the radical excellence of our nature and that because he is the Son of man even so and to the same end are these other more eminent Sons of men to be in matters of judgement obeyed in his stead And if the method and order of dispensation used by that great and wise Creator and Disposer of all things be duly observed we shall finde that as in order to continuance and preservation of men both personally and in their kind he hath not only implanted those natural provocations to pleasure heretofore spoken of but also that natural readiness to acts of conference and kindness as now declared so to prevent all such abuses as might arise through the exorbitant or irregular use of things thus naturally ingraffed and likely thereupon to be as violently coveted we may also observe Divine bounty and providence to be as continually intent and careful in restoring and assisting of us being lasped as at first to create and state us happy The food which we take as it hath in it self personal respect only so hath it in each one a proper way of judicature to determine both of choyce and satiety as well as of appetite and hunger In those other inclinations that have aim beyond the party acting the one for bringing men into the world and the other for preserving and advantaging of them being there they also by divine appointment are to have their publike rules of direction and limitation set down by those Societies of men wherein they are to be exercised lest else the means might prove distructive of its own end For I that in nature and as a man could not more kind-like or meritoriously imploy my self then in such like actions may yet by intemperance or partiality in prosecution prove my self to be in these things more highly ignoble and vitious then in any thing else As for those rules and restraints put upon mens acting in the first sort by the appointment and limitation of Wed-lock or for avoiding of unchaste acts none do doubt of the fitness of positive direction and evidence herein in order to publike benefit although against the good liking of the obeyer Whereas if publike good were rightly known and weighed the other that hath a more high and general influence thereupon even as it is more continually practicable by each person ought also much more to have its directions and confinements set down by publike appointment for else it may happen that that more particular regard towards those of mine own family and other relations which might at first arise from the marriage tye and that precept of a mans providing for his own family might from too eager love fixed on some contract by consequent as great hatred and neglect towards others whereby to destroy in the street that which was thus carefully preserved in the house For as it is observed in the food of our natural bodies that the greatest and most dangerous surfeits do arise from the inordinate and irregular use of that which is in it self most wholsom and best even so in the politick frame there is nothing which more usually or with greater danger doth procure the disturbance and dissolution thereof then this arbitrary application of our loves even when we as men do so far follow our own natural tye of affection and interest in the placing of our good deeds as to be neglectful of that our more high and near kindred and relation we have towards them as Christians wherein as that common and equal affinity of Brotherhood and Fellow-members is always to fill us with due readiness to be beneficent to all so must it be directed and differenced in choyce of object and degree of exercise by Laws and Rules received from him that hath the common Headship and Superintendency herein And if such a liberty to dispute the warrantableness of commands should be left as some men do insist upon strange it is that amongst all those large and express Precepts for general obedience as Obey in all things Dâ— all things without disputing c. that no destinction of duties into civil and religious is ever made nor exception set down of unlawful commands But if men could but a little separate themselves from their own humors and that conceitedness of their private abilities in judging good and bad they would then find the judgement and interpretation of these things must be supposed left to their Christian Superior or else large volumns should have been left comprizing in every particular what duties and actions were to be held Civil and what Religious and what lawful and what nor because otherwise the liberty of disputing of these things would render men truly obedient in nothing and thereupon also make the said Precepts vainly given And having so far shewed how the Precepts of General Good and Charity stand pointed out in Scripture and Reason as the duty of each one in particular and under the pain of most heavy guilt and punishment and how it is best effected by obedience it seems now requisite to speak something also of those benefits and advantages which will hereby acrew even unto the particular persons that imploy themselves herein and out of duty undergo those difficulties and hardships which usually attend this obedience As of Patience Humility Gentleness Meekness Long-suffering c. To the end that none may grow heartless in the work as being always held in a task to the benefit of others and not at all to himself CHAP. X. Of Patience Long-suffering Humility Meekness c. HE that shall well consider that great and sudden growth of the Saracen Empire shall never be able to stop his admiration therein till he consider withal the prevalence of those enchanting promises of sensual delights and rewards in that Religion offered to the Sectators thereof For while Mahomet himself is standing like the Devil on his high Mountain of Prosperity and offering the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them to such as would fall down and worship him Who
he sits not down disconsolate under the burthen for he knows who hath called him to the combate and he will be thereupon always ready to entertain it He was not he knows born for himself onely nor can the sense of injuries to himself draw him from being publikely beneficial even although he get nothing but reproach for his labour as knowing that through this difficulty also his reward will be higher He he is still looking into all these things with the eys of love and publike Charity whereby he stands always magnanimous and resolved to undergo any thing for the good of those that bear the image of their Master and that according to such rules as those that have publike charge under him shall direct For each true Christians love and patience must through his obedience to the head of his own Church make useful that general end of humane peace and preservation for which Christian Patience was by Christ himself enjoyned to the whole Church and therefore he sits not down sullenly and discontentedly like a stubborn childe under his task and duty that will act no more because he cannot do as he likes Because he findes himself crossed in what is enjoyned him to do or in the measure thereof he will therefore by way of murmur and regret run into the extream thereof Because he hath been in the world crossed therefore like those children that are fallen out with their play-fellows he will hide himself and play no more And as thus his Patience could not have continued and been rightly steered without Charity so neither Charity without it It is not as we said every natural propension and voluntary beneficence that can of it self be called the labor of love for that may be the pleasure of love and Pride may be its Parent But when nature shal be holpen by the grace of obedience when that Patience that was enjoyned for publike benefit shal also wait on publike direction then comes he to give a lively testimony of the Grace of Regeneration For he knows he may decline harm but cannot duty Nature obligeth us to one Religion to the other Where he is strucken on the right cheek where the spirit of the Ruler doth rise upon him he must not leave his place the performance of Loyalty and Service to his rightful Superior although that he know that through false information he is for the present bent against him as know that he is thereunto called by him that hath his heart in his hand and can turn it which way he pleaseth Therefore now when I shall have so far subdued rebellious Nature as to submit unto and undergo my task with patience not as out of necessity but out of duty When our of no other reason but because God hath commanded it I shall obey what is enjoyned me and what I might with my first Parents finde Arguments against in a presumptuous knowledge of good and evil then it is that the strong man begins to be bound by a stronger then he When in the exercise and expression of my Love and Charity I suffer not my self to be swayed by interest or natural propension in the choice of the object or apportioning of my love but can be content as being in Christ now born again and through Grace become a new creature to love all men as bearing Gods image and more especially Christians and such as are made conformable to the image of his son and that without the exclusion of any under the apprehension of enemies or differing from me in judgement or opinion then it is that I may esteem my self renewed in the spirit of my minde and may gather a well grounded assurance of particular mercy and adoption for that as Christianity is by this sign of the Cross differenced from other Religions so may I by this my discreet and obedient taking of it up assure my self that more then Nature or Chance hath confirmed me herein For if in love to Christ and the Peace and welfare of his Church a Christian can be for a while content to be in subjection to these his Fathers in the flesh he thereby gives the best proof that he will much more be willing to be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live Even to that God who as an earnest of the acceptance of his endeavors had assisted him with his Grace of illumination and perseverance herein and thereby assured him of a blessed release and restoration into the glorious liberty of the sons of God when he shall have fought his fight and finished that his course of cleansing which was by divine Providence appointed him in the Purgatory of this life Not that we would be hereby thought bounding that inexhaustible riches of Gods mercy as though it stood confined to these or the like means in the appointment of particular mens salvations but as setting down the best proofs of a true and well grounded Faith where these things are practicable For although Faith cannot be good without Works nor Works without Christian Obedience yet God forbid we should exclude infants from salvation for want of them I say therefore that there is no true confidence and glory save in the Cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world even until I come to be a new Creature by bearing in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus And as many as walk according to this rule that is endeavouring to reform the rebellion and stubbornness of the world by their own exemplary Patience Peace be on them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God By the passed discourses we may gather how corrupted and depraved nature comes to be perfected and restored by Grace we may see how that former way we had with other natural Agents of glorifying God in our contents and pleasures being forfeited we come now through endurance of afflictions to arive at such a state of delight abstracted from sensuality as to be enabled in the condition of new Creatures to honor him in a supernatural way in such measures as naturally we could not do For we taking on us our own guidance and so not being content with the enjoyments of what delights natural sense did outwardly afford common to us with other sensitives and also not trusting to general Providence like other things but rather to our own contrivances and stocks of Propriety could not be rightly said in the exultations of pleasures thence proceeding to be thanking and praising God like them who in their simplicity of not undertaking to know the particular Author of their benefits or have stores of their own did as his Creatures and workmanship expresly though not intentionally praise him in every thing they did but then most when as sensitives in their singings playings and other ways of rejoycings they did most eminently confess and acknowledge his bounty and goodness by this their more lively resentment of benefit In regard whereof
thou didst receive it why dest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it that is since Christ hath given his power in the Church to us in chief and to all others as subordinate why should they act without us as though they had not received it from us Why should you in your popular fancy of underived power thick to raign as Kings without us For although we have suffered our selves to be accounted weak and despised that ye might be strong and honorable and also to try if by any means we might win you yet it is not to deny that we have as your father just power to command you and therefore I write not to shame you for your neglect but as my beloved sons to warn you that I may not have occasion to come with a rod but in love and in the Spirit of meekness as I have always done And therefore although S. Paul do now beseech them to be followers of him as the only way to be of the same mind and of the same judgement yet it is but what he might as an Apostle of Christ have been bold in and have commanded them in Christs name and what they as commanded in the Lord that is by the stewards of the Mysteries of God nay as labourers together with God in this building and husbandry ought to obey And therefore is it that S. Paul faith I praise you brethren that ye remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you even as I the Disciple or Follower of Christ have by vertue of my Mission from him appointed you Not as some would have it follow me no farther in any thing then you find me following Christ because this had been to overthrow all he had said before and to have given new toleration to schism under pretence of following Christ For if men be not followers of those their Supreme Heads that are followers of Christ but will make divisions by honouring God their own way then will the Author of peace be made the Author of confusion whilst some in their publike worship have a Psalm some a doctrine a Revelation and Interpretation c. to the overthrow of all true publike worship and service for want of uniformity No otherwise then if the same person in the manner of his return of thanks and service to God should be distracted in himself and not wholly intent on the thing he is about for as there are private benefits for which we are separately to be thankful so are there national ones to in which our prayers and praises are to agree by publike appointment And this is the reason why writing to the Ephesians of our publique duties of praising God he presently enjoyns them submission as the only means to make it right and uniform Speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ submitting your selves one unto another in the fear of God which is the same with let every soul be subject unto the higher power because they are of God And so he goes on to state obedience in all the present Christian relations that is of wives children and servants as unto Christ and as to the Lord and not to men But by his beginning with the duty of wives and staying so long upon it we may well conceive him to have herein a particular drift to set forth under the figure of womens obedience to their husbands as their heads each Churches obedience to its Husband or Head under Christ who is the head of the whole Church his spouse of which more hereafter As for the authority of that office of Priesthood so far as related to sacrifice and legal Ceremonies none make doubt of its abolition under the Gospel Whose Ministers or Preachers being now Ministers of the Spirit not of the letter themselves can by no pretence as heretofore shewed claim external jurisdiction and obedience As for the other office of Prophet it had indeed a continuance for some time in the Christian Church whilst it was in its weak condition as a necessary means to give them and their guides direction what to do in their continual distresses Thus is S. Pauls bands and ensuing death prephesied to happen in those times For as there could not under a good space of time be a sufficient number of able persons found to receive Ordination and so to be disposed of for the peculiar care of Churches as now but in this their unsetled and weak condition Christ himself by the means of the promised Holy Ghost being necessitated extraordinarily to endue men with several gifts for general edification in the absence of humane learning it was no wonder if this gift of prophesie did many times come along therewith since all proceeded from the same spirit Yet although this gift of prophesie were thus necessary to be held up from Christ for the support and direction of his Church during her weakness and infancy yet being usually accompanied with the gift of Doctrine and Instruction also it afterwards came to pass that Prophesie and Doctrine did come to signifie the same thing as in that place where it is said No prophesie of scripture is of private interpretation And indeed the predictions themselves were but instructions for those they were addressed unto how to guid themselves according as those events should happen So that it being but instruction in an object and busisiness more remote it was no wonder that the notion of Prophet came afterwards to signifie the same with the Preacher as also the word Prophesie the same with Doctrine even as the Minister or Deacon to comprehend the like function of instruction also But however even in those times there was still subordination nor was it in the power of those Prophets or any other to take on them to settle any Doctrine or Church order against or without Apostolical leave namely the leave of that general Father or Head of the Church under whom they had received their first Christian foundation and who was thereupon as a Master builder to have power over each workman that undertook their spiritual edification As was intimated to the Corinthians where S. Paul complains of this abuse in the practices of such as had ventured to build on that foundation without leave which he as head of the Church had first laid saying according to the grace of God given me have I laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take beed how he buildeth thereupon And this right of Government and Authority to be given to those persons from and under whom they had been taught and brought to Christianity we may find noted in those two forementioned places to the Hebrews where the first admonition for obedience to such
S. Paul S. Peter and other of Christs own Disciples because not of them shall not be by them called Saints also no not so much as Mr. Paul c. Whenas if any Author is mentioned by them he hath the addition of Mr. as Mr. Calvin or the like And their excuse for not doing it is the greatest Argument of their pride which is because the Apostles in their parity used not to give these titles to one another therefore are they not to give it to them neither Concluding as it should seem that because they had now attained an equal pitch of sanctity with them they might thereupon say our brother Paul Peter or the like But they should remember that as God alone is the searcher of hearts in such sort as to to distinguish between men of the same outward profession and say Behold a true Israelite in whom there is no guile so is it becoming Christian Duty and Charity to leave men in these censures to stand or fall to their own Master To him that hath the Keys of Heaven and of Hell we must leave the judgement and distinction of those persons and their qualities that are fit for the one or the other Whereas to us that cannot discover the hypocrisie of persons nor tell who in the visible Church are of the Communion of Saints and who not it is no ways safe nor becoming to make these arrogant and deceivable distinctions so as to call some Saints count others cast-aways in regard of any secret tokens of Grace and Salvation by our selves discoverable Whereas our Saviour that could best foretel of these hypocrisies bids us have an especial regard to these kinde of men that should come in sheeps cloathing but inwardly were ravening wolves Yes ravening Wolves indeed even too plainly found to be such by those seditions and destructive courses which do every day appear to be the fruit of these Trees of shew In which respect although none on earth can judge of these hidden Graces and Endowments by which one man is preferred before another as a Citizen of Heaven yet so far as men are here to be Citizens in Christs Kingdom the Church in that respect there are again certain moral Vertues and qualities differently seated and appearing in the Meembers of each Church whereby the head thereof may in reference to publike Peace and Order judge one man better or more holy then another But because these sorts of men do usually raise their Discipline and Tenents by abusing some Texts and Phrases of Scripture as supposing them plainly appliable to their uses when they are therein but set down as mysteries we shall now shew some Reasons for the darkness therein sometimes used CHAP. XIII Of the Mystical Delivery of some Divine Truths and the Reason thereof SOme there are who contend very seriously and with many arguments to make it appear that that work of Creation which is to ordinary apprehensions set down to be the imployment of six days was wholly effected in one chiefly perswading themselves that the contrary assertions of allowing six days time was derogatory to the Almightiness of such an Agent as was occupied herein In those that oppose them there is as much invention used to shew why we should keep our selves to the belief of six days work and that the litteral sense of that story could import none other And truly were I to judge I should assign to these last the greater hold of truth as not deeming it a diminution to the sufficiency of any workman that is not bound by any thing besides his own will to be as long or as short a time as he pleaseth in the finishing of what he undertakes especially since it is not therewithal set down that he had not ability to do it sooner For if the dispatch of the Creation in one day should have argued Almightiness more then in six then they should have left him but one hour or rather but one minute for the doing thereof if they must suppose him measuring his Almightiness in his operations by the time of their production Therefore as the only will and good pleasure of God Almighty was at first the cause why all things were by him at all or in such and such manner created so was it also the only rule and guid that set measure and form to the way and means of their preservation and so consequently was it the reason why the several species of creatures came to be endued with such friendly aspects and inclinations as that they prosecuting the same naturally and continually should therewith also preserve and promote the good of their fellow creatures Which affection although to that end common to all was yet only necessarily and insensibly to themselves imposed on the lower sorts of things when as the most noble race of creatures which had more resemblance to him had also so much knowledge and will implanted as to enable them not only to be so far apprehensive as to be expresly thankful for these favours but also to furnish them with power for farther acquisition of things delightful and good and of avoidance of what was contrary as hath been heretofore observed In which course of liberty and freedom of will whereby the welfare of voluntary Agents comes to be referred to their own demeanor and guidance God makes another manner of condition with us men then he did with Angels For the Angels that fell he hath so abandoned in his justice that they cannot rise and these that do stand he hath so surrounded with his grace and providence that they cannot fall For they sinning actually and personally or else after the same manner continuing upright and obedient could not but from his justice or goodness expect personal sentence accordingly whereas to us men that sinned by imputation as transgressing in the originals and representatives of our kind we in our separate persons are neither irremediably censured to punishment nor yet to mercy or reward For although traduction made eternal death liable to all even to such as had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression yet forasmuch as we had not like our first Parents personally so sinned God appoints us another means and way of deliverance whereby it should come to pass that none should suffer for the fault of Adam in his actual disobedience against God but such as should personally afterwards incur that guilt of disobedience by renewing it against his Son Christ Jesus nor should the bite and contagion of that Serpent in Paradise prove mortal to any that should with the eye of faith look unto this Brazen Serpent for cure But then farther some of mankind being for their original fault as aforesaid in justice to be punished and some again in mercy to be freed it stood not agreeable to Gods impartial rule of administration particularly to appoint and prosecute any peremptory and unavoidable means of distinct saving of all those persons which shall hereafter
and in the heart and so may carry some flattery of conscience along with them like unto Balaam who thought he might now go so long as according to Gods direction yet in such cases where a plain Precept is transgressed even so plain that every vulgar capacity like Balaams Ass may reprove the madness of the Prophet for men to think of venturing upon their own interpretations and think they can stop soon enough in their rebellious journey must be always dangerous as rendring them subject to be beguiled by the Prince of the ayr instead of an Angel of Light And we are by so much the more in danger of abuse and misinterpretation of Scripture by how much the design and advantage thereby to arise is more general as leaving none to contradict or bring us to rights therein as doth too evidently appear in the interpretation of all those Texts where insubjection is aimed at For each one being himself a subject and having a desire and interest towards encrease of freedom it is to be expected that all wayes of plausible addition should be still found out for advancement of a speculation so pleasing to all Whereas in the divided interests and opinions between Sect and Sect the violence of one is kept in moderation by the fear of his opposite who will be sure to use all the skill and diligence he can to detect him of error and to extol his own contrary tenent even so that an indifferent adjudication may be made between them And therefore if we put not on the whole armour of God and have not our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace that is with meekness and poorness of spirit we shall not be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil nor his stratagems devised to the breach of Charity nor be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked Those many arguments which he and his children of disobedience make use of for setting whole Kingdoms on fire by Rebellion But because many now under the Gospel have been the more drawn into these and other errors in matter of their practise out of their mistaken liberty in the imitations of some such presidents as they find in the Old Testament recorded without reproof it will not be amiss to discourse somewhat of their and our different conditions that so making it appear how their doings might be lawful in such things and how it comes otherwise to pass in ours we may then take off the ground of so much abuse After man had taken on him the knowledge of good and evil he stood thereby obliged as heretofore declared to the performance of all such explicite pious duties as were requisite for Gods service and all such vertuous moral actions as were advantagious for the good of others And albeit under the Law these were abreviated and under the Gospel contracted again into one Precept yet until that time it still remained so much their duties that men were more or less good or evil as they more or less kept or violated these Rules And from thence it again followed that those promises made to Adam as in the state of innocence and those threats sentenced on him as lapsed remained for rewards and punishments differently due and proper to his race The first great transgressor in this kind was Cain in the cruel slaughter of his brother and on him and his race as now exiled from Gods more particular care and right of the Creature we shall find the first curse of sterility to be again particularly laid And so himself understands it as appears by his answer Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid c. But when Seth is born and his first son reckoned you will presently find the distinction of the righteous seed from the other and that it is said Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord And then we may next gather him and his for this cause estated in the right of their Fathers promises as the other was of his Curse For it is after said That Adam beg at a Son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth So that he being represented in his Sonship to Adam under very same expressions of Image and likeness as Adam was made the Son of God we may conclude their undoubted propriety But when afterwards these Sons of God began to mingle and learn the vices of the other then by degrees did the whole world become corrupt and had been universally involved in natural death and destruction by flood had not Noah as a person upright in his generations found favour with God and to stopped specifical ruine So that we are henceforth to look that those promises made to mankinde in Adam should be renewed to him and his righteous seed Amongst whom we may again find this separation made and men still to be distinguished in regard of more eminent acts of Justice and Iudgement until the promises come more remarkably to descend and be conferred on Abraham and on his seed that is to the particular Nation of the Jews Unto whom those common blessings of nature were so often particularly promised as if they were their onely right whereas we shall find little mention in Holy Writ of the rest of the world other then as in relation to their affairs with this peculiar people In which we shall find them blessed as they were to them more kind or punished or destroyed as to them more malignant as the utter overthrow of Amaleck and the compleating of those many prophesies against all Nations that had any ways distressed them makes it plainly to appear These considerations being well weighed we may find reason for that right which the Israelites had unto the Land of Canaan We may finde a good right they had unto the Egyptians goods And of that right also which Moses had of being a god unto Pharaoh in demanding liberty of him for the Israelites departure to wit because these things were done and enjoyned in the name of that God that was supreme Lord of all as it was both to the Israelites and Pharaoh evidenced by miracles And so we may find a good right Iacob had unto the Amorites goods too although his sons had unjustly taken them away because done without his authority and so of divers other instances which would be by men now adays reduced into practise not considering our different conditions and how our Saviour the second Adam took not on him to restore or establish the rights of any particular People or Nation but dyed for all mankind and that in him the right of the creature became equally and universally restored For that now the wall of Separation being taken down there is no distinction in these things between the posterities of Cain and Seth or Cham and Iaphet but as the Christian duty of
reckoning Sol la mi and then Sol mi and Sol la mi fa and then Sol fa and so on the first note being itterated severally to each other comes to be as often mentioned as them all The like may be observed on the part of the eight when you come to descend and go back again Now for the pleasantness of the third and fifth above the fourth and sixth and for the pleasantness of fourth and sixth above the second and seventh we are to consider that as all things please by often presence where by they become familiar to this presence and familiarity may be made either by often repetition and succession in the fancy or by length of abode there as for example by the iteration of four footed beasts in my fancy I come to esteem those sorts handsomest that come nearest to the most agreeing and usual form So again by oftner and longer seeing the shape of a man then them all it may please better as more seen then their shapes altogether and so also the barking of Dogs though a noise singular to that creature yet it is tollerable by often hearing it nay it is Musick to Huntsmen that hear it very much but the howling of Dogs being in all kinds rare is unpleasant to all And so farther although handsomness and beauty usually move affection because it is the most usual and uniform feature yet through familiarity and often presence I may come to like better of a face or person differing from the general rule and commonly co-habitation proves a match-maker and frequent notice is the most effectual means which lovers can use even as we see other Creatures made friendly and loving hereby For two Pidgeons although at first never so disagreeing will mate and like one another being a while enclosed So now to return to Musick the second and seventh are but used as transient notes and have not usually above the eight part of time allowed them for their prolation in the ear and fancy which the other notes have for proceeding from the unison or first term I cannot make a stop at the next it being so near the first as there wants a note to measure the distance between them for all harmony being made up of proportion there will want a middle term to proportionate the extreams So in Sol la mi la is the measure between Sol and mi and serves but to number withal Nor can I make such a stand at la from Sol as to make a musical tone until I come to a note of greater distance For should I say Sol la and stop at la as I do at mi when I say Sol la mi Sol mi Musick would not be harmony or proportion but numeration only So in descending the Scale again the note that was seventh to the first is now second to the eight But then although in thus scaling of notes for teaching of young Schollars we use but one sort of time to all of them yet when we come to make such Musick as we call Tunes we must use difference of time and make the greatest stops at the most methodical and useful notes which by this means will also farther come to be most pleasant And as a second is the Numerator between the first and third so is the fourth between the third and fifth unto which third the fifth is a third also and the fourth is a second but the fourth is as much a better note then the second as the unison or diapason are better then the third for goodness being but by comparison as the second is more ill then the fourth or sixth so is the first or eight better then the third or fifth If a seventh should be a concord as being a third to the fifth then would there want a discord to set off other notes and the eighth would be imperfect by wanting his discord For these seconds are never used but by time and way of quaver as slides and passes to eights A fifth hath priority of a third as having more proportions in it and being more distant hath less debasement from the unison or eight All which we have spoken more largely concerning Musick to shew how in respect to Method and Harmony some notes must be oftner used then others and how in regard of this usuage and the longer stay upon such notes they come to be more pleasant And again for that Musick being a thing disputable how its pleasure should arise might by being thus discoursed upon serve to illustrate other things For from hence we may ground the chief reason why we come to be so wedded unto those customs and opinions we have been bred in and used unto especially in matters of Religion which having little proof from sense relies chiefly on this course of prevalence namely to affect by inculcation of Doctrines and Tenets as the experience of Sermons and Preaching makes good for thus God himself being first and last in Religion is as the unison and diapason terminating all things and as in Musick the sweetness of those notes above others ariseth from their longer continuance and oftner repetition So in Religion the more we press and oftner we mention Gods Glory Gods Worship Gods Commands c. that which we utter besides is the more acceptable even as those things are in value above others and that especially if compared to any thing in our selves whereby God appearing so much above us our perfections appear so much worse as his is better And this is wel known to undertakers for Church Reformation first to cast into Gods Service Gods Glory c. all that they would have acted in pursuance of their own designs then to put such Laws and Customs as oppose them on the score of Humane Inventions that so by the answerable disproportion in goodness as between an eight and second all that they like not may be disliked of others also But then again if an eight should be always stricken without other variety it would cease to please So to say nothing but Gods Service Gods Glory c. would not make a harmony to please above the degree of children and therefore Faith Charity and the like are taken in as thirds and fifths according as their usage and esteem hath made them preferrable in each Country and Sect For where Solisidians are there Faith is the fifth or best note and Love and Charity is made the worser and on the other side where Charity is rightly understood it is made chief as the end of the other And as for the other duties of Humility Prayer Repentance Zeal c. they are placed in the composure of the harmony of each Religion as they have different esteem in the Authors thereof Whereupon as the tunes of our Country please us beyond others so that form of expressing our devotion which custom hath wedded us unto but as we may fancy other tunes by degrees so other forms that have their differences at first
our partial that is to say our short and weak Methods and Collections we are subject to proceed too hastily to the liking or condemning of a Government or Governor upon the like sudden apprehension as the Barbarians did of S. Paul who must one while be no better then a Murtherer presently again concluded for no less then a god from single indications and accidents and such as had no coherence with that which they would apply them unto Upon which ground it may be observed that Princes and great men are by vulgar judgements never permitted to go under a middle censure they are still extreamly good or extreamly bad For being by some sudden accident brought to alter that conceit they had before entertained as suddenly and ungroundedly of his vertues or vices it is no wonder if they hereupon become as hasty and extream in their censures of him this way as they did the other way For it being to be supposed natural unto man to affect farther discovery and knowledge it comes therefore to pass that the delight in contemplation and prosecution of what is now in view keeps him for the time inconsiderate of what more may be had and so it must consequently leave the weak and empty comprehension as full and peremptory as to its self and its own satisfaction as he that hath more and better ground to go upon The which we find verified upon mens first undertaking to read and expound the Scripture the many examples there found of Gods miraculous attestation and reward of some such as have been eminent for goodness and piety presently raises in us a conceit of our own deserts herein also and men are usually thereupon ready to fancy and expect even to a degree of temptation that God should in some like manner appear in the honoring and acknowledging of them And upon a contrary rule again finding many examples therein of Gods displeasure and punishment of men for oppression injustice and other notorious wickedness they are as ready out of the conceit of their own wrong suffering and subjection at the hand of their own Enemies or Superiors to make a paralel of the one with the other and think that neither Patience nor Obedience is on their part due to these so apparent enemies to God and goodness as their prejudice and ignorance doth now judge to these so apparent enemies to God and goodness as their prejudice and ignorance doth now judge them to be The which is most especially instigated from the example and insinuations of persons of greater repute for learning or judgement then themselves who having many times ambitious or factious aims are ready as we said to cast before them such forms of examination as shall be sure to leave a dislike in them towards the actions and commands of their Superiors and consequently intice them to siding with them which must prevail because they are so far defective of observation and experience of their own and consequently entice them to siding with them which must prevail because they are so far defective of observation and experience of their own as to find and frame just Methods to themselves and so to examine how far these and other particulars are or are not agreeable and comprisable within the true rules and limits of Religion and Polity And of these kinds of deceits taken up upon too easie examination and credulity I can speak more confidently having had so great experience of them in my self and that in both kinds For I believe that no man was more averse to Episcopacy and Church Orders and Ceremonies and such like then my self in my youth and while I continued to converse with such only as had these things in detestation and all because the method of examination which was then put into me for to try cases of this kind by as to their approach to evil was to search whether Papist used them or no. So that I not having then knowledge or experience enough to examine how those things stood grounded in themselves or to understand that Papists even as they were Christians could not choose but be in the right in somethings was thereupon in danger to abandon some Christian truths and duties because I found them within my rule of dislike as being acted and believed by Papists Being once prepossessed with these and such like short Rules and Methods of distinction and adjudication I was quickly tainted also with the Pharisaical humour of judging for my self and those of my belief against such as differed thinking that all that were not as invective against the thing called Popery which truly for a good while I understood not and as conversant in Sermons and some select phrases and demeanors were notwithstanding their unblamable lives otherwise and that according to Christian faith to be esteemed but bare moral men Their outstripping me in the real duties of general love and beneficence to men and in the rendring God more honorable by their publike and more solemn adoration and acknowledgement of him before men were not as I thought arguments comparable to prove them of the number of the godly and Saints as were those Rules of distinction which I had framed to my self And so again in matter of Government and Political speculation none more pleased and taken then my self with all those fine Maxims and Rules of Examination which in the beginning of our unhappy troubles were set on foot for tryal and control of the actions of Princes My thought I was now much elevated in my rank and ability being enabled to give a just censure of all that was done by one so much above me and whom I had ignorantly hitherto thought should have guided me When he acted in Civil matters the Law of the Land was to be his bound and director and when in affairs of Religion the Scripture If I had staid there it had been well No as I was told that it was not fit that Kings should be unlimitted and arbitrary in their rule So also that his single judgement or conscience were not to be trusted herein neither therefore I did next fancy that the Judges were to determine the meaning of the Law and the Divines of Scriptures In which I was not yet so far out of the way but what a few caveats might set right But I proceeded farther still in pressing onwards that I at last thought none to be trusted in these high powers but the people themselves The Judges and Divines alas they might be corrupted but a community could not wrong it self And therefore over all as the Paramont Power I conceived there was to be a Parliament to give final determination and see execution done This at first I thought to import the King in Parliament afterwards I was lead to believe it was the King and Parliament afterwards it came to be the two houses of Parliament which were apprehended to be the Supreme Authority And as the pleasing speculations of paction and derived
is of far more advantage to knowledge then honor and that not only as more strongly terrifying and engaging but also as more universally doing it For there are more things which in conscience I stand bound to perform then those which honor takes notice of whereas there is nothing truly honorable but what conscience doth encourage and accompany even as its best guide and surveyor And this especially in matters of society and our moral deportments therein because men out of interest or prejudicate custom or education may make things honorable which are not and may also make that honorable at one time which was not so at another the which may prove thereby also dangerous to mislead us in matters of duty and obedience Whereas by a due regard had unto conscience we shall be always kept both upright and steady Yet then again by that which some call Conscience men may be both kept and led into error for if Religion be made to consist on a few slothful observances or if by dividing mens duties you separate some of them from the religious tye of conscience and so make their concern less Or if lastly through flattery men be made proud of what they have already by too soon assuming to themselves the title of Saints or believing they cannot sin or fall away or the like then I say knowledge must want of its extent by how much each one is more easily satisfied then otherwise he would be And from hence we seldom find great heirs notwithstanding the advantage education might afford them become so eminent for wisdom or ability as those whose harder breeding and greater wants engage them to invent and study means of supply and encrease for the first thinking only of enjoying what they have already grow proud without search of more honor So for Religion too strict relyance on set tasks may well induce slothfulness nor it is not zeal alone that can attain wisdom because it may be too implicit and negligent that is it may be placed in the observance of a few private directions and precepts and not in the general observation of all devout and charitable actions according to the Laws and Rules of his Country And therefore when many men appearing of great tenderness and scrupelousity are yet known to be fools it ariseth for that they as all fools else are slothfully implicite and want such general scrupelousness or enquiry of their own as they seem to have For when they with most ardency enveigh against the opinion and practices of some other person or order it is but out of implicite belief of others and not out of precedent enquiry and satisfaction of their own no not in these very things they practise or condemn And their devotion being still fixed but upon a few observations and the rest carelesly rejected as abominable they must so far want wisdom as they want general zeal and enquiry and can at most be but religious craft And therefore as in covetousness and appetites of less general engagement their discovery can amount to no more then a stare of craftiness even so when these greater engagers are not closely followed they produce neither wisdom nor craft in any perfection We see then that to resist affections and passions altogether is to dilete our natural and individual beings For if the diffused observations of things should not at last collect themselves into affections it would not be possible to have any promptness towards pursuit desire for want of present appearance of former particulars therein concerned or to have any steady rule for discourse within for want of union and agreement amongst the notified observations towards determination but they being now transmitted into affections carry so general and ready a sway in judging and willing of all things else that it is not to be supposed that the doing or not doing having or not having of any thing can be equally sought or avoided and not differently according to the degrees of instigation from them proceeding And from this ground do passions proceed which as they rise from affections as being heightned from extraordinary concern in objects so is one passion generative of an other And therefore the wisest men although it be part of their wisdom to conceal them have the most and most eager passions which may be easily proved bp their breaking out upon pressure or sudden occasioâ—s wherein discretion cannot or is not warned of concealing them Affections work more inward passions more outward because I must like or dislike first before I can act accordingly and therefore mens affections are seldom truly to be discovered but by their passions even as those again are best by their actions Actions without passion differ from passionate ones but in measure for all proceed from affections the first only proceed from affections counterpoised by comparison of one to another which we call discourse and reason these from one violent affection alone When the affections move toward the enjoying any thing called desire the prosecution outward is accompanied with the passions of joy love jealousie envy ambition covetousness c. and when they are averse to any thing called hatred they are in their outward means of avoiding it accompanied with grief anger scorn malice revenge c. Amongst all which Government finds so few steady supporters as she is forced to make use of those including and commanding passions of hope and fear under whose force she is able by means of rewards and punishments to keep the other within rule We cannot forbid our selves affections by reason for they and reason are all one for as they did first proceed from the same root of in induction and experiment so when they come to provoke to action they point at the same end my particular good But this consideration of my particular good may from new observation forbid the prosecution of an affection in some present thing And affections if they be violent do turn into passions and so sometimes awake a contrary affection to stand up against execution if his enjoyment be more then proportionable to the others and this may be then called an inward reason for so doing as a new argument or induction may be called an outward For the many passed inconveniencies sustained through violent prosecutions create in us a ready fear to make stoppage till farther enquiry but if against this pressing affection no other affection appear then what have heretofore been remitted as unvaluable to stop the other then this affection passeth uncontrolled afterwards as to that affection these two affections uniting and becoming one as experimented inductions do And so affections become satiate upon use when particular objects have not proficiency so as to persist in pleasing by variety even as observation grows satiate and weak upon itteration of the same inductions and experiments also So then will differs from other affections as a double to a single and is the issue of two reasons or affections aiming at