things and not to make use of their sayings till the same reasons and purposes call upon us Had they lived in our days I am confident they would have spoken at another rate and have been as earnest in perswading and convincing men of their duty as they were in directing of it been as sharp upon those that neglected to come so preparedly as they should I speak not this to remit any mans care in fitting himself for this God forbid but we have a different task now upon us and I tell you plainly I would rather men should come though they be not so exactly fitted than that they should not come at all I am sure it is better to do our duty though it be imperfectly than wholly to neglect and disregard it I would and by Gods assistance will direct men as well as I can how to come like Christians and good men duely prepared for this but I would not beat the aire in doing this until I had convinced men that it is really their duty to come But to return to my purpose what a symptome is it of a faint and almost dying Religion in men to need to be contended with or compelled in this instance Those good Christians of old that I have been speaking of could not be restrained by the sharpest Laws from this service but must daily ante-lucano tempore said the great Pliny rise before day to do it though it was made death by the Law to do so Our good Fathers in the times either of Queen Mary or the late Rebellious Usurpers what would not they have given for half that liberty that we enjoy who ventured their lives and whatever can be dear to men rather than neglect this service Lord what are we to these who need Laws to drive us and yet will not be driven neither what a strange unhappy peevish temper are we of we neglect to go when there are no Laws to compel us and we resuse to go when there are when we are indulged and left to our liberty then we neglect and disregard it and when the Laws are awakened then we complain and say we ought not to be forced but left to our liberty Nothing will please us nothing shall work upon us we refuse our food or convert it into poyson the means that should reform us make us worse and what our Governours use as a method to perswade us we use to a quite contrary purpose and make an argument for our not being perswaded and prevailed with 2. What peevish frowardness is this yea what mighty folly and weakness I would we would consider that in the second place We have been told that this service is our necessary duty and tyed upon us by asexpress and plain precepts as any other service in the Gospel therefore it were folly to need any compulsion to it But we are assured it is as much our interest as it is our duty and greatly conducive to all the interests of our Souls What weak people are we then that need to be beaten to our own good and like Children cry make a stir when we are dressed or called to our meat Consider it in the case of the Parable that I have related unto it was a Feast a Royal Entertainment that they were invited unto nothing but kindness and benefit to them was intended and yet we are much more our own enemies than they were for perhaps they had meat enough of their own at home and perhaps as good too But alas so have not we what have we of our own to feed and support our selves upon either nothing or nothing comparable to what we have here where our Souls may be feasted with the surprizing and ravishing pleasures of God's love and the love of our dear Lord and nourished with the Divine Graces of the Holy Spirit to which any thing that we have at home either in the entertainments of the world or vice are fiction and dream yea Aconite and deadly wine 3. Therefore instead of blaming our Superiours and quarrelling with the Laws that would compel us to come let us see if we ought not rather to blame our selves and reproach our own foolish temper that needs all this adoe and makes force necessary for us Had we that sense of our duty that we should and would we do it as became wise and good men we should never hear of Law or need to fear it But it is the neglecting nay obstinate resolving against this that makes us uneasie or draws any ill circumstances upon us we have none to complain of but our selves nor any thing done to us but what is necessary unless our Governours must draw the guilt of our ruine upon their own heads in neglecting to do what they can what they ought for the avoiding of it 4. Whose care I think in the last place we ought rather to take kindly and thankfully than stand quarrelling and murmuring against it instead of repining and complaining against our Governours fall down upon our knees and bless God that such care is taken of us That we are not left only to our own arbitrary will and conduct but that we have Fathers that consult for us as we do for our own Children who give them not up only to their own wild untutored passions and judgements but consult for them and tye them to those methods which we know good for them though they do not think so themselves We have seen by too sad an experience how unable most men are to govern themselves aright in matters of Religion what the effects of indulging and leaving men only to their own liberty are and we should certainly soon see the same or worse again Lord what extravagancies and follies are there so rank and wild that ungoverned men will not run into when they are indulged and left wholly to themselves What then do we not owe to the Divine Providence that hath set us under Government both in Church and State yea and what acknowledgments are big enough to be made to those that consider our temper and consult for our good do all they can to save us and to restrain us from destroying our selves We pray daily that God would not leave us to our solves but keep us under the influences of his Grace and guide us by his good Spirit and truly I think we have need too to pray that God will keep us in his Church and that those that watch for our Souls may be still careful and sollicitous for us guide us aright when we are unable to direct our selves and tye us to that duty that is so necessary and good for us when we grow wanton and regardless of it That when the great day of the Lord Jesus commenceth they may give up their accounts with joy and bless God for the success of their labor and care and we also may rise up and bless God for them and bless him with them and all of us be eternally happy in the enjoyment of him to whom be praise and honour and glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for Fincham Gardiâ—â—r 1. APerswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in answer to his three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of mixt Communion Whether it be Lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other parts of Divine Service prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament stated and resolved c. In two Parts 11. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where men think they can profit most 12. A serious Exhortation with some important Advices relating to the late Cases about Conformity recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England 13. An Argument to Union taken from the true Interest of those Dissenters in England who profess and call themselves Protestants 14. Some Considerations about the Case of Scandal or giving Offence to Weak Brethren 15. The Case of Infant-Baptism in Five Questions c. 16. A Discourse concerning Conscience wherein an Account is given of the Nature and Rule and Obligation of it c. 17. The Charge of Scandal and giving Offence by Conformity Refelled and Reflected back upon Separation c. 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 2. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be received and what Tradition is to be rejected 3. The difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith c. 5. A Discourse concerning a Guide in matters of Faith c. A Companion to the Temple or a help to Devotion in the use of the Common prayer divided into Four parts 1. Of Morning and Evening Prayer 2. Of the Litany with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings 3. Of the Communion Office with the Offices of Baptism Catechism and Confirmation 4. Of the Occasional Offices viz Matrimony Visitation of the Sick c. The whole being carefully Corrected and how put into one Volume By Thomas Comber D. D. Sold by Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard 1684.
the same doth the King govern us and we have no more right to quarrel the commands of the one than Children and Servants have to repine and murmur at the precepts of the other which they never have but when either Parents or Masters exercise an authority that doth no way belong to them 2. Which in our case is not done for Secondly it is done by those whose power reacheth to these things and who stand accountable to God for them The power of Kings in Spiritual Matters was never questioned that I know of in the Christian Church till Pride and Ambition began to corrupt it's Faith and poison it's Doctrine and till Rome began to aim at a Spiritual Empire as well as it had had a Temporal one The Doctrine of discarding Kings and Emperours from any intermedling in Religion was first hammered in the Conclave and thence our Classical Divines have fetched it and I wish it were the only instance in which they symbolize with those that they so lowdly declaim against I am sure the Kings of Israel supervised and when occasion was reformed matters of Religion and the Church and the better that they were the more they interested themselves and employed their care about them and embalmed their Names more by that than all their Arms and glorious Atchievements And when the Apostle commands Christians to pray for Kings that they might live honest and godly i. e. religious lives under them he certainly thought their influence might be greatly helpful thereunto And the truth is I do not well see how Kings and Governours can blast their honour more and more blacken their own name than by looking only to their own grandour and honour without any concern for his whose Vice-gerents they are by living themselves in glorious and Ceiled Houses but letting that of God lye neglected and wast as the expressions in the Prophet are Certainly when the great and final Audit comes and when the Kings and Princes of the world come to stand before him by whom they Reigned who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords one great Inquiry will be how faithful they have been to him their great Master and how much or how little they have consulted his honour and interest in the world and those doubtless will give their accounts with most joy to themselves and most acceptation to him that have been tender of his Church and consulted the benefit of his Religion that have been nursing Fathers to the one and tender of the other and used their power to keep men in their duty to him and his Laws as well as to their own And the Governours in the Church and those that are over us in the Lord they watch for our Souls says St. Paul and must give account for them Heb. 16.17 So that we must not think that our Governours exceed the bounds and limits of their own power when they make Laws about Religion and tye us to observe the services of it or that they do these things arbitrarily only and to exercise their power over us no neither of these are true their power reacheth to these things and they are bound by their great Lord to take all the care they can of them and therefore we must excuse them they do but their own duty to God which they compel us to do ours 3. And that this is really our duty and tyed upon us by the Laws of the Gospel is the third Consideration and will adde another reason to vindicate them in compelling us to it If this thing were contrary to the Gospel then we might justly complain of their rigor and severity or were it left wholly indifferent then we might raise objections and pretend invasion of our Christian liberty by these Laws as tragically as we do in the like cases But when it is a thing plainly and expresly commanded by our Saviour and tyed upon us as a constant and standing service of Religion to be observed and practised by all Christians until his second coming again as it is most plain it is if we will either consider his own words or St. Pauls after him then certainly there cannot be the least room for an objection in this matter Those that say the least of the power of Kings and Temporal Governours do say they are obliged to see that the precepts of God be observed and kept by men and that they are to inforce the Laws of Religion by their own and when it is for their purpose will boldly call for this exercise of their power summon the Temporal Sword and Arms when their own Spiritual ones are too weak and be ready to anathematize and curse those powers that in this come not to help the Lord against the mighty It it be their own 〈◊〉 of Religion why then it is the Scepter of Christ whom all Kings are bound to support and if it be any thing that they lack to have observed why then it is the Lords cause and the supporting of it is no less than fighting the Lords battel for which the highest Praises and Panegyricks are too little And therefore methinks men of this temper and who are yet known to have acted still upon this principle should for shame cease to complain cry out against the Government for using their power in that which they themselves allow the exercise of it lawful in and not condemn it when it compels men to nothing but what the Laws of Christ have made their necessary duty 4. Yea and fourthly which is as really their interest and advantage as it is their duty for so it is in this as well as in all other precepts of the Gospel they are real instruments of our happiness as well as instances of our obedience I cannot now stand to enumerate all the benefits and advantages of receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and I need to do it the less because the Church hath done it for me I will only recite the words in her Catechisme which are sufficient at this time The strengthning and refreshing out Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine And certainly if any thing can be an Apologie for the present exercise of power in our Governours in constraining men to an observance of this service this may that it is a matter of pure kindness and nothing but their own gain that they are compelled unto they are severely dealt with indeed in this and a mighty wrong sure is done them when they are compelled to be made happy and good All the world hath ever granted it lawful and innocent nay prudent and wise to direct and govern those who are not able to govern and choose for themselves Parents restrain the ignorance of Children and think it no crime to whip them to that duty and exercise which they know to be good for them and Guardians do the same thing too for their Minors what they are assured is for their
such great need of these extraordinary interpositions of providence to this purpose as was formerly and therefore they ceased Just as the power of Miracles which was a long time continued in the Church yet ceased afterwards when the truth and Divinity of Christian Religion was sufficiently attested and could be maintained without them 2. But then secondly it may be demanded Why there is so very little account and so very few instances of this to be found in the History of the Church sure a thing of this nature must have been much taken notice of had there been any such and it is very strange that there should be so little account of it The truth of what is here objected must be acknowledged unless there be more examples of this thing than I have yet either by reading or conversing with Learned men been able to discover But yet this I think may fairly be accounted for 1. For first it is certain and greatly lamented by Learned men that we have but very little of the History of those early times of Christianity come to us whether it be from the iniquity of time or of men whether from the rage of War or spight of Enemies the artifice of Hereticks or the industry of those men who can as easily suppress ancient Records as falsifie and corrupt them or from what other causes it hath proceeded I know not but the truth of the thing is too plain and we might be assured of it had our selves never made inquiry by consulting the Labours of the best Antiquaries and the most curious and unwearied searchers into Primitive times Here and there some very great thing they have picked up so as to be able to patch up a History of some great mens Lives but alas far enough from the exactness and fulness that they deserved and any competent account of those times would have enabled them to have done And therefore I no more wonder that we have so little account of this than that we have so little too of many others which it would much have advantaged us to have had 2. And yet perhaps a good reason may be given for this even more than for some other things As for example It may well be supposed that this punishment was very rare nor was there much occasion to make use of it those times were famous for Piety and zeal to Religion those good men needed not to be whipped to their duty their own fervours and the rage of their Enemies kept them close to it and they were so exercised with almost daily and continual sufferings for their Religion and their Lord that they had no leisure or temptation to grow wanton against the Laws and constitutions of either And they were so taken up with recording their own sufferings and transmitting accounts of them as they used to other Churches that they forget to record almost any thing else and the truth is the giving account of the brave actions and glorious sufferings of their Martyrs and Confessors together with some few Apologies for themselves and their Religion is almost all that we have left us of those times 3. But thirdly it may yet further be urged that we may point to a space in the Primitive times before the Government became Christian when some Christians became very troublesome and Schismatical when this punishment would have been proper and in all likelihood of most effect to chastise those whom all gentler methods were unsuccessful with And yet we do not read any thing that this remedie and these punishments were made use of Such was the time in which that great man St. Cyprian lived who was much harrassed and vexed with the petulancie and faction of some Priests and others in their carriage towards the lapsed as they called those that fell in times of persecution and in whose time the Novatian Schism broke out which so troubled the Church Now this was a proper time for this great punishment and these effects of it would very likely have done much good This is an Objection which seems to come roundly up to the matter and doth require satisfaction which I shall endeavour to give to it in these following considerations 1. It is certain that this extream and highest punishment was but very rarely used or inflicted upon men and indeed I think I may say scarce ever but when the lesser intermedial censures of the Church were ineffectual and despised such were excluding men from the full Communion of the Church and imposing such Penances upon them as they judged the nature of their offences to require 2. St. Cyprian did use all fair ways to direct and inform these erring Priests yea some of the Confessors themselves nay even the Martyrs who granted Letters of Communion to many to these lapsi before they had satisfied the Church and threatned to use the censures of the Church against them if they did not reform and by that means did happily effect his purpose on many of them and the business of Re-baptizing of them which this controversie after grew into was a matter of question and dispute but not of any ill manners in the Church 3. It is plain when all other means failed with Novatus and he still persisted or rather grew more Factious and Schismatical St. Cyprian had Excommunicated him and inflicted this highest censure upon him had he not fled into another Country which flight of his shewed clearly what a mighty dread he had of that punishment And that being the common practice of notorious and great Offenders of all resolvedly Factious and Schismaticks at that time as is plain in many instances and particularly of Privatus and his followers in St. Cyprians time also is to me a farther clear Indication of this thing what a mighty dread and horror they had of this punishment for otherwise what needed they have fled away for the Church had no power to punish them in their Estates or Bodies any other way and therefore had they not feared this they might have stayed and defied all the Church could do to them 4. And fourthly if there be any instance producible of this not being used and these effects following when the party was desperately fallen into sin and yet might be reached It was perhaps for this only reason because they thought Schism a sin so odious and provoking and of such a monstrous guilt that the committer of it scarce came within the compass of common charity his case was hopeless and his sin scarce to be forgiven or prayed for and therefore that he forfeited the charity of the Church in using means for his recovery and those were never to be admitted to the Communion of the Church again who wilfully cut off themselves from it they had given themselves over to Satan in one sense and it was needless for the Church to do it in another And that this is not only a conjecture may be concluded from the great sense that those good