nature and therefore partaketh of Gods properties both incommunicable and communicable may be thought an impertinent discourse by some because it deals in speculatives and perchance an impious discourse by others because it may seem to destroy practicks and so joyn hands with the sacrilegious profaneness of this age which trades wholly in destructives not onely in regard of man but also of God himself Yet since the end of Religion is to bring man to God it cannot be amiss to see how near the work thereof conduceth to that end and it may be proper if not necessary to shew the excellencies of Religion that mens eyes being dazled with the admirable beauty their hearts may be inflamed with the divine perfections of holiness For Holiness and Religion are one and the same thing essentially though they are different in our apprehensions therefore S. Peter calling upon us to be religious calleth upon us in these words 1 S. Pet. 1. 15 16. But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy where it is evident that we are called upon for holiness from the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God the Father and the communion of God the holy Ghost not onely by the authority of God the Father For it is written and by the example of God the Son But as he which hath called you is holy but also by the communion of God the holy Ghost Be ye holy for I am holy as if he had said Holiness can have no fellowship with impurity therefore unless you will be holy you must not onely renounce the authority of God commanding the example of God conducting but also the fellowship of God conversing and communicating with you For the force of the argument consists in the proper nature of God and our relation to and with God Accordingly I cannot better shew the excellencies of Religion then by shewing how near its holiness comes to the very nature and essence of God himself and then none will doubt but the Angelical Doctour did rightly say Nomen sanctitatis duo videtur importare Munditiem firmitatem that holiness imports two things purity for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one far removed from the corruptions of the earth and constancie for so sanctum or sancitum lege firmatum are all one and there is an absolute necessity of both these in that man that will be truly religious for he that will be joyned to the most High must be far removed from the things below there 's the purity and he that will be joyned to the first Beginning and last End which is wholly immoveable must be firm and immoveable in his conjunction there 's the constancy Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 38. Certus sum quòd neque mors neque vita separabit me à charitate Dei I am sure and certain not onely I am perswaded that neither death nor life shall be able to separate me from the love of God He that knows it is all one to love Religion and to love God will never be separated from its love and he that knows Religion to be the service of God will easily acknowledge that such as is the master such is his service And therefore all Divines agree in this that one and the same true Divinity but some have likewise said that one and the same commandment making the first and second but one doth teach us the true knowledge of God and of Religion the proper service of God for Religion is nothing else but the immediate worship of God Religio distinctiùs non quemlibet sed Dei cultum significat saith S. Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 1. If we say Worship we may possibly mean a civil or a moral worship but if we say Religion we can mean no other but Divine worship or the immediate worship of God And therefore there is no one attribute of God but shews in some sort the nature of the true Religion for such as God is in Himself such also is the Religion that serveth and pleaseth Him I will accordingly endeavour with Gods grace to shew the nature of Religion from the very nature of God yet with such a method as shall not seek to satisfie the curious by its exactness but onely to establish the conscientious by its godliness always remembring that when God shews a mortal man his glory as he did to Moses Exod. 33. 23. though he may see much yet much more there is which cannot be seen nor can any Divine whatsoever see so much of God as he doth desire nor can he express so much as he doth see It is enough therefore if I draw such a scheme of Gods attributes as is fittest to instruct my self and others in the nature of true godliness God is a Spirit and so is his service altogether spiritual S. John 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth There must be nothing in his worship of carnal inventions and much less of carnal affections for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Rom. 8. 6. wherein we have described in few words the true and the false Religion the one is spiritual the other carnal they are both described 1. In themselves to be minded for religion calls for the soul whether we serve God or Mammon 2. In their causes the cause of the one is flesh of the other spirit 3. In their effects the effect of the one is life and the assurance of it peace the effect of the other is death Religion then it self is to be minded it always engageth the soul and the true Religion is to be spiritually minded eagaging the soul according to the dictates of Gods holy Spirit And indeed Religion hath the chiefest properties of a spirit For 1. A spirit is invisible and imperceptible by the sense so is the true Religion the natural man perceives it not 1 Cor. 2. 14. and S. Paul calleth the things of Religion spiritual things Rom. 15. 27. The Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things and 1 Cor. 9. 11. If we have sowen unto you spiritual things Take heed then of a carnal eye in Gods worship that loves to look upon an image but much more of a carnal affection that loves to look upon it self 2. A spirit hath life in it self and giveth life unto the body so Religion hath life in it self and giveth life to those that are religious S. John 17. 3. This is life eternal that they may know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent The true knowledge of God in Christ which cannot be without a practise answerable to it is the true Religion and that is life eternal both formally in it self and effectually in regard of us Christ is not onely the truth
to restitution which is an act of justice that it be either twofold or fourfold Therefore the duties themselves are onely commanded in the Gospel but the manner of their performance is not under command And this is the first distinction or difference betwixt the substance and the exercise of Religion that the substance of Religion is all immediately from God but the exercise of Religion in many things depends upon the authority of man Secondly The substance of Religion requires an infallible or a Theological certainty grounded onely upon the word of God but the exercise of Religion is contented with a moral certainty depending upon the testimony of man Which being a proposition of great extent yet of greater consequence shall accordingly be first divided and then explained I say therefore The substance of Religion that is any thing of Faith Hope or Charity requires an infallible or Theological certainty grounded onely upon the word of God Here Dubius in fide infidelis est is a sure rule he that doubts in the faith is an infidel and again Certitudo unius partis tollit probabilitatem alterius is another excellent rule The certainty of one part takes away the probability of the other As the certainty of Christs institution of both kinds in the holy Eucharist takes away the probability of receiving in one kinde after his institution the certainty of praying in faith to God the Father Son and holy Ghost takes away the probability of praying in faith to any but the blessed Trinity But the exercise of Religion is often content onely with a moral certainty nor indeed can we have any other certainty either of times places or persons but meerly moral and humane Here the rule is good Non est opus infallibili certitudine sed sufficit moralis humana quae secum patitur haesitationem suspicionem de contrario In such cases there is no need of a Theological or infallible certainty but it sufficeth that we be guided by a moral or humane certainty which allows of many doubts and suspicions to the contrary as for example that God is to be praised for the nativity of his Son is grounded upon Theological certainty for the angels sang praises to him for it S. Luke 2. But that he is to be praised for it on the twenty fifth day of December is grounded onely upon moral certainty because antiquity hath accounted that for the very day of his nativity And it is no wonder that we can have no better assurance of Christmas day since we can have no better of the Lords day which we are sure is of apostolical imitation if not of apostolical institution for we cannot be otherwise assured that we keep not the second or third or fourth day in stead of the first day of the week but onely from humane testimony and yet he that should have no better assurance of the resurrection of Christ whereon is grounded the duty of the day would scarce deserve to be thought or called a Christian. Time place and person may admit of doubts but faith hope and charity admit of none the reason is these latter are of the pure substance the former belong onely to the exercise of religion Thirdly the substance of religion is unchangeable but the exercise of Religion hath passed under a great and notorious change it was the same faith hope and charity that saved the Jew which now saveth the Christian but the way of exercising all three of them was much different in the Jewish and in the Christian churches Aquinas in his 22 ae q. 2. ar 7. determines this question affirmatively Utrum explicitè credere mysterium incarnationis Christi sit de necessitate salutis apud omnes whether explicitely to beleeve the mystery of the incarnation of Christ be necessary to salvation in regard of all men and he thus demonstratively proves his determination Illud propriè per se pertinet ad objectum fidei per quod homo beatitudinem consequitur via autem hominibus veniendi ad beatitudinem est mysterium incarnationis passionis Christi Dicitur enim Act. 4. Non est aliud nomen datum hominibus in quo oporteat nos salvos fieri ideo mysterium incarnationis Christi aliqualiter oportuit omni tempore esse creditum apud omnes That properly and of it self belongs to the object of faith by which a man obtains eternal blessedness but the way for a man to come to bliss is the mystery of the incarnation and passion of Christ for so it is said Act. 4. 12. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved therefore the mystery of Christs incarnation was to be beleeved in some sort at all times and of all men that were to be saved And he tells us that the Romane histories make mention of a man taken out of his grave in the time of Constantine the great with a plate of gold upon his breast wherein these words were engraven Christus nascetur ex virgine ego credo in cum O Sol sub Irene Constantini temporibus iterum me videbis Christ shall be born of a virgin and I do beleeve in him O Sun in the time of Irene and Constantine thou shalt see me again This he brings as a proof that such of the Gentiles as were saved did beleeve in Christ. The proof perchance may be questionable but the doctrine cannot be so for even Adam in his innocency had an explicite faith in the incarnation of Christ as the onely means to bring him to the consummation ofglory though happily not till after his fall he had an explicite faith in the passion and resurrection of Christ to deliver him from the guilt and punishment of his sins And if the explicite belief of the mystery of Christs incarnation be so necessary to salvation we are little beholding to those men who forbid the commemoration of that mystery and the testification of that belief but however thus we see Omnes sideles usque ab Adamo re quidem ipsâ Christianos fuisse saith Eusebius lib. 1. cap. 1. That the Christian Religion was always the same in substance though not in exercise and the same Religion both of Jew and Christian Ratione objecti formalis non ratione objecti materialis in regard of the formal though not in regard of the material object of faith the same God worshipped by them both if they were true worshippers and with the same acts of faith hope and love to beleeve in him to trust in him and to obey and serve him but yet a far different form and manner of profession of faith and exercise of worship And thus Justin Martyr cleareth the truth of the Christian Religion to Tripho the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We do not think you had one God and we have another nor do we trust in any other God but yours for there is no other even the God of Abraham of
which he doth continually defile with with his intemperances and uncleanness And this truth being granted which is not to be denied and scarce to be disputed it must needs follow that 't is impossible there should be an absolute infallibility of Faith in any man till there be in him an absolute impeccabilitie of life for from the corruption in manners will proceed the corruption in doctrine and from corruption in doctrine corruption in manners so that the doctrine cannot be the form and the duty the matter of Religion since the false doctrine corrupts the duty and the defective duty corrupts or depraves the doctrine and we must allow the substance of Religion to be altogether incorruptible and because there can be in it no corruption 't is evident there is in it no Physical composition Secondly There is in Religion no Logical composition ex subjecto accidente for no part of it but is substantial and essential Faith can no more save without good works then good works can be without faith It seems the man had faith who came running to kneel to our blessed Saviour and to ask him What he should do to inherit eternal life sure a better faith then any of our Solifidians have who neither run nor kneel nor ask yet our Saviours answer is Thou knowest the commandments S. Mark 10. He saith not Thou knowest the faith in Christ and yet without doubt he included it but so it is Christ himself teaching us to go to heaven by obedience doth plainly shew there can be no true faith without it and Bona opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem is a most pernicious blasphemous doctrine though Amsdortius broach'd it out of zeal to the doctrine of Justification by faith in Christ and out of opposition to the merit of condignity in good works for 't is not the right way to build up faith by pulling down obedience since the Apostle himself telleth us that the truth of the Gospel was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16. 26. and 't is evident that faith it self is an act of obedience and a duty enjoyned in the first commandment so that we cannot take away faith from obedience but we must take away obedience from the first and great commandment that most requires it which will not be so much as good Judaisme and therefore sure cannot be good Christianity for the Jews did of purpose in their doctrine as it were entangle the commandments one with another to shew that one could not be violated alone and that our obedience was alike due to all therefore did they teach that the preface I am the Lord thy God was directly on the other side answered by the sixth commandment Thou shalt do no murder for he that kills a man destroys the image of God The first commandment it self Thou shalt have no other gods but me was directly answered by the seventh Thou shalt not commit adultery for idolatrie is a spiritual fornication The third for it seems they looked on the second as included in the first Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain was answered by the eighth Thou shalt not steal for he that will be a thief will not stick to forswear himself The fourth Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day was answered by the ninth Thou shalt not bear false witness for he that will not keep the sabbath doth bear false witness of God that he did not rest on the seventh day The fifth Honour thy father and thy mother was answered and as it were seconded by the tenth Thou shalt not covet for he that gives the reins to his concupiscence shall beget a son that shall dishonour and disobey him Salomom Iarchi in Cantic cap. 4. v. 5. Thus did they make one commandment not onely as a second to vindicate and avenge but also as a principle champion to fortifie and strengthen another that we should pay the readier obedience to them all for they did not this to confound our dutie towards God and our duty towards our neighbour but to shew that though these several duties might be distinguished yet they might not be divided nor separated for that no one commandment of the Moral Law was accidental but all alike substantial in that obedience which God doth now require and will hereafter reward so that there is no composition of Subject and Accident in Religion Thirdly and lastly There is in Religion no Metaphysical composition ex actu potentia of act and power for though this Metaphysical composition is in the Angels yet 't is not in Religion 'T is in the Angels for they have not all their essence and perfection together but as it were successively some after other so that in this respect Religion hath a prerogative above the Angels and therefore may not stoop down so low as to worship them for that hath its whole perfection altogether the Old the New Testament differing onely in modo not in re for the same Faith Hope and Charity saved Abraham that still saveth us and hence it is evident that all is either superstition of faction which cannot consist and be maintained without addition to the text the onely rule of Religion though it pretend not to be addition but onely exposition or declaration As for example When Christ hath said Drink ye all of this that the Laity or Clergy not administring are not bound to drink of it may pretend to be a declaration of the Church Ecclesia declarat nullo divino praecepto Laicos aut Clericos non conficientes ad bibendum obligari Concil Trid. Sess. 21. cap. 1. but it is indeed a depravation of the truth by way of addition Again when God hath said Thou sh'alt not worship any graven image for any man to say Thou shalt not worship the graven image of Venus or Bacchus or Jupiter but thou mayst worship the image of Christ and of the saints seems to be a declaration but is indeed a down right depravation by way of addition and yet this is the fleight whereby Baronius endeavours to elude the second commandment and why may not we as well say Thou shalt not kill that is Thou shalt not kill a Romane Catholick but thou mayst kill an heretick Thou shalt not steal that is Thou shalt not assault or invade the property of a brother one of the godly party but thou mayst of one that is a malignant or a reprobate and yet not be guilty of stealing In a word to instance in the fifth commandment which hath been alike trampled upon by the two grand factions of Christendome Honour thy father and thy mother saith God that is If he be not an heretick saith the one side for then he may be excommunicated deposed and killed If he be not a reprobate saith the other side for then he may be dishonoured and disobeyed and destroyed for having no share in grace he hath no right to
and Lord of lords Wherefore those men that under pretence of setting up Christs kingdom do fight against the power and authority of earthly Kings and powers do directly oppose this Text as well as very many other for they would so make Christ a King and a Lord as not a King of kings and Lord of lords but as a king and lord of the meanest of the people whereas though there be never so many kings and potentates and lords yet he is truly the onely Potentate the onely King the onely Lord because he is so in and of himself for all others have power and kingship and lordship from him as himself hath taught us S. Mat. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth It will be a hard task for any man to shew who it was that took this power from Christ and gave it to the people that kings and princes here on earth should have their power derived from them and not from Christ but yet least we should think the Power and Kingdom of Christ not the same with the Power and Kingdom of God we finde them both joyned together Rev. 11. 15. where it is said The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ he shall reign for ever and ever He not they to shew there is but one kingdom but one power of Christ and of God and lest we should further think the kingdom of Christ could not be set up without pulling down other kingdoms it is made evident in the 17 v. that his kingdom is set up by taking to himself his great power to reign not by giving it to the people v. 17. We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned where we see the Elders in heaven give thanks to God for taking to himself his Almighty power In imitation whereof our Church hath taught us to say We praise thee we bless thee we worship thee we glorifie thee we give thanks to thee for thy great glory O Lord God heavenly King God the Father Almighty joyning also God the Son and holy Ghost in the same power in the praise and without doubt we have little reason to persecute but we have great reason to honour a Church that teacheth us so to praise God here on earth as we shall hereafter praise him in heaven for thus is God the Father Son and holy Ghost Almighty in power and therefore thus to be praised for being so If then thou murmure and repine under this power when it punisheth thee or presume upon it much more rebel against it when it sustaineth thee thou art as far from heaven as thou art from true thankfulness But if God hath this Almighty power that he can do all how is it that S. Paul saith He cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2. 13. The answer is easie God cannot do what he cannot will and he cannot will any thing of impotency for that were directly to overthrow his Omnipotency and in this sense did Nazianzene speak like a Divine saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One kinde of impossibility with God is his unwillingness as the text plainly saith of the Son of God That he could there do no mighty work S. Mar. 6. 5. that is he would there do no mighty work because of their unbelief which unbelief of theirs was so great a miracle to him as that it hindred his working all other miracles accordingly Divines do say That some things are impossible to God in regard of his own will because he cannot will them as to give a new Gospel to make a new Religion to destroy the whole world with a second deluge to extirpate the Catholick Church which imply no contradiction in themselves and therefore might be done though God having promised the contrary cannot now will to do them Habent rationem factibilium sed non habent rationem factoris Other things are impossible to God in regard of themselves because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non habent factibilium rationem are not things to be done nec rationem factoris and therefore God cannot do them as those things that imply a contradiction as for the same thing to be and not to be at the same time for this being a contradiction cannot be without a lie and therefore that was a strange assertion of Bellarmines lib. 3. de Euchar. cap. 7. deinde and not maintained for its own sake when he said Per divinam potentiam posse ab homine tolli facultatem seu potentiam intelligendi interim ut maneat homo That God can take away a mans reasonable faculty or power of understanding and yet leave him still a man for that is all one as to say That God can make the same man reasonable and unreasonable for if he take away his reasonable faculty he makes him unreasonable and yet if he leave him still a man he leaves him reasonable for this indeed were Impotency in God not Omnipotency if he could make both parts of a contradiction true because they cannot both be made true without a lie And thus also is Religion Omnipotent by vertue of Gods Omnipotencie for it hath power to do all hath power over all Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to avenge all disobedience 2 Cor. 10. 5 6. The power of the sword may cast down images but 't is onely the power of Religion that can cast down Imaginations and they no less then the other do exalt themselves against the knowledge of God the power of the sword can bring into captivity every man to the obedience of the Conquerour but 't is onely the power of Religion can bring into captivity everythought to the obedience of Christ That power can avenge the disobedience without which is but half disobedience but 't is onely this power can avenge the disobedience within as well as without that is all disobedience Will you raise an army against Religion Alas That can scatter a people that delight in war for when Christ shall come to judge among the nations they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Isa. 2. 4. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day v. 17. and this being the signe the prophet hath given us of the coming of Christs kingdome let not those who are of a quite contrary disposition pretend to be under Christs government who labour to exalt man not Christ for as Dagon fell before the Ark so must all ensignes of hostility fall down before Christs banner and if they that carry them do not fall
labour that they may be strengthened by piety and godliness yet will I not enter upon a particular enumeration of Gods communicable Properties I have been too long already upon this argument much less upon a particular explication of them for it will be sufficient for my purpose which is the advancement of the true Religion in the hearts and lives of men if I briefly insist onely upon these three to which all the rest may be reduced and they are Truth in his Understanding Goodness in his Will and Purity in his Action for we cannot better consider Gods Activity then in the Purity of his Action unto which we must also annex a short discourse of Liberty as belonging to all three that is to say to Understanding and Will and Action And these three Properties of Truth Goodness Purity as they are eminently in God and evidences of his perfection so are they also eminent in Religion the service of God And first of the Truth of God and of Religion God is true by a metaphysical and by a moral Truth First By a metaphysical Truth as having the true knowledge of all things Psa. 139. 2. thou understandest my thoughts long before God understandeth our thoughts before they are the angels not when they are and therefore they are defective in truth because defective in understanding for Truth metaphysically is a conformity of the thing with the understanding and accordingly our blessed Saviour is particularly called the Truth as being the Omniscient Wisdome of God and the eternal Understanding of the Father even as the holy Ghost is the eternal Love both of Father and Son Secondly God is True by a moral Truth as having his Affection Expression Action agreeable to his knowledge and that in three respects 1. As Truth is opposed to Falshood for God neither wills nor speaks an untruth 2. As Truth is opposed to Dissimulation for God neither dissembleth nor deceiveth 3. As Truth is opposed to Inconstancy for God changeth not his judgement in truths declared or determined he changeth not the event in truths foretold or prophesied for in promises he keeps his word and his truth if man perform the conditions in threats he may not keep his word and yet keep his truth because they are but conditional And as for deceiving the Prophets Ezek. 14. 9. and 1 King 22. 23. we generally and truly answer Tradit diabolo decipiendos he delivereth them over to the devil to be deceived by him so saith the Text Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie that they all might be damned who beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. a text that gives us a fearful but yet a full account of all those strong delusions among men which led directly to the Father of lies the first step was a voluntary unrighteousness in not loving the truth the second step is a strong delusion in beleeving a lie the third step God keep them from treading in that who have trodden in the two former is a necessary damnation both for not loving the truth and for having pleasure in lies but still God is true though every man be a liar for God deceiveth the Prophet Ez◠14. 9. as he hardeneth the heart Exod. 10. 1. permissivè non efficienter permissively no◠efficaciously by not inhibiting or not purging those ill qualities that are already is the heart not by infusing any ill qualities into it and therefore though he saith I have hardened Pharaohs heart yet he saith unto us Harden not your own hearts and accordingly he threatneth in Ezekiel to destroy such a prophet from the midst of his people whose heart was hardned so fa◠as to deceive himself and others whereas he could not in justice destroy him onely for being that which himself had made him nay this permission is most plainly set forth in that parable of 1 Kin. 22. for all that God doth there is onely to let the evil spirit go forth that is not to inhibite him from going and deceiving not to send him down from heaven For it is evident that the evil spirit never did and never can come into heaven again since he was first thrown down from thence And thus briefly God is True Metaphysically and Morally Metaphysical truth consisting in the right apprehension of things as they are in themselves Moral truth in the right affection and profession of things as they are apprehended and this profession is either in word by veracity or in action by sincerity or in continuance of action by constancy so that moral truth is opposed to falshood because 't is the same with reality to dissimulation because 't is the same with sincerity and to wavering and floating because 't is the same with certainty And this same metaphysical and moral truth is also in Religion passing from the Master into his service for the Father seeketh such to worship him who worship him as he is that is who worship him in spirit because he is a Spirit and who worship him in truth because he is the Truth S. John 4. 23 24. The worship in spirit points at the metaphysical truth of Religion which requires a true apprehension of God the worship in truth points at the moral truth of Religion which requires an Affection Profession Action agreeable to that true apprehension and for both these hath our own Church taught us to pray Collect 7th Sunday after Tri. Graff in our hearts the love of thy Name Increase in us true Religion nourish us with all goodness and of thy great mercy keep us in the same Do you look for the metaphysical Truth of Religion 'T is in the knowledge of Gods Name which must be presupposed before the love of it since no man can love what he doth not know that you know God by his true Name such as himself hath proclaimed Exod. 32. 5 6 7. or that you apprehend God as he is not set up to your self an idol in stead of God as do all those who worship not the Father by the Son in the unity of the Spirit Again do you look for the moral truth of Religion 'T is in the love of Gods Name that you love him according to your knowledge or that you have your affection agreeable to your apprehension for to know God and not to love him is in effect to proclaim you do not truly know him since the same God is the first Truth and ground of our knowledge and also the last good and cause of our love and you may here likewise finde this moral truth of Religion in all respects First in its Reality for it is the very true Religion opposed to falshood or superstition 't is indeed Gods Name Secondly in its Sincerity or Fidelity for it is all Goodness not onely in the tongue but also in the heart
the Image of God the Son our good of Glory shall be according to the Image of God the Holy Ghost for as the Father and the Son enjoy each other in the communion of the holy Spirit so shall we enjoy them in the same communion And thus also is the Goodness of Religion in it self it is an universal and essential goodness demonstrable by way of efficiency that it makes men good those that have it though not all those that profess it by way of sufficiency that it makes men contented St Paul and Silas were better contented in their prison then the Magistrates that put them there were in their palaces and by way of eminency for that must needs be eminently good which hath filled the earth with so much goodness which were it not for Religion would be filled with nothing but rapine and unrighteousness Again In regard of us the goodness of Religion is the rule or exemplary cause of all goodness Similitudo formae est in omni agente vel secundùm esse naturale vel secundùm esse intelligibile saith Aqu. par 1. qu. 15. The similitude of every form is in the agent that labours for that form either according to its natural or according to its intellectual being so is the similitude of Religion in every man that works according to Religion God saying unto us in the Gospel Go and do likewise S. Luk. 10. 37. as he said in the Law See thou do it according to the pattern in the mount the form in the beginning of the action is the end but in the end of the action it is the form so also is Religion the end of our living and the form or pattern of our life as the knowledge and love of God was the form of man in his first creation as being the Image of God in him and yet withal the end for which he was created The third communicable property in God is Purity in his Action for as is his Power so is his Purity since all matter of impurity is also matter of Impotency and most true is that position of Divines Removentur a Deo actiones culpabiles poenales corporales inconvenientes all culpable or penal or corporal or inconvenient actions are removed far from God we may say in one word all impure actions so that in saying Gods work is pure we do in effect say it is holy as not culpable it is unpassionate as not penal it is unwearied as not corporal it is unblameable as not inconvenient But it shall be enough at present to say God is pure as loving purity and commanding it and as punishing impurity First God is pure as loving purity Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God S. Matth. 5. 8. the eye of the soul is to be refined and purged before it can behold such a heavenly beauty hence it is that the voice of reason proclaims our sinfull eyes to be as bats eyes when they should discern some more excellent created truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ar. 2. Metaph. how much more doth the voice of Religion proclaim our dimness of sight when we should discern that one supereminent uncreated truth for as the bird that is used to darkness cannot endure to see the Sun so also a man that is habituated to the works of darkness cannot look upon the Father of lights and much less stedfastly six his eyes upon the Sun of righteousness Secondly God is pure as commanding Purity S. Iames 4. 8. cleanse your hands you sinners and purisie your hearts ye double-minded an impure minde is a double minde so thinking of heaven as also and much rather of earth that minde onely is pure which is a single minde and that minde onely is single which thinks of heaven where is very much to settle and to compose but nothing at all to distract divide the soul wherefore he that thinks wholly of earth cannot draw near to God and consequently God will not draw near to him and what is the effect of Gods being at a distance from us is most terrible to think and yet more terrible to finde which made the Psalmist cry out so earnestly Psal. 69. 19. Draw nigh unto my soul save it for if God be far off we can have no hope of salvation Thirdly God is Pure as punishing impurity Our Saviour did cast out all wicked spirits but he is said most of all to have rebuked the unclean spirits and S. Paul advising us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit as having the promises 2 Cor. 7. 1. doth plainly shew that we can have no good of Gods promises as long as we continue in any filthiness either of flesh or spirit and if we have not a share in his promises we are sure to have a share in his punishments And thus also is Religion pure in its action as doing what is pure and pure in its affection as wishing and requiring others to do it and pure also in its disaffection as punishing those who delight in impurity nor can any man be impure and impenitent in his impurity and not be excommunicated by the Canon of Religion though haply the Canon of the Church may not take notice of him or not be able to reach him This consideration of Gods Purity should make us repent and abhor our selves in dust and ashes because of our manifold impurities for the heavens are unclean in his sight Job 15. 15. nay the purest bodies of heaven the moon and the stars Job 25. 5. nay the purest spirits of heaven the angels Job 4. 18. he charged his Angels with folly so that we need not with Rabbi David be overmuch inquisitive why Isaiah's Seraphins have six wings when Ezekiels Cherubins have but four for the Prophet himself gives the reason of six Isa. 6. 2. twain to sly withall there 's the readiness of their obedience twain to cover their faces as not daring to see saith Targum there 's their reverence and twain to cover themselves as not daring to be seen saith the same Paraphrast there 's their fear if these three vertues Obedience Reverence and Fear be so truly angelical what are our contrary vices not onely in Gods presence but also in his service but such as we may be ashamed to name and much more afraid to own that is to say diabolical for if all these purest creatures of heaven be impure in his sight and tremble at the thought of their impurity how much more we that are of earth nay of the most contemptible part of the earth of the dust of the earth Gen. 2. 7. and daily groveling in that dust by our affections before we return to it by our dissolution and in that respect alone fitly called worms twice together in one breath Job 25. 6. man that is a worm and the Son of man that is a worm we then who have the most impurity ought not to have the least
shall our heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him S. Luk. 11. 13 the word Father is there titulus argumentosus not so truly a word as 't is an Argument if father be the antecedent how shall not giving the holy Spirit be the consequent and yet 't is observable that no such gift is asked explicitely in our Lords most holy Prayer to which this promise hath immediate relation to teach us that much more is asked in that most holy prayer then is mentioned and yet much more is given then is asked when we do indeed say Our Father with a true filial affection Thirdly True Religion teacheth us to honour God as a Father by loving him with all our strength with all our soul with all our might for every childe doth love his natural Father unless himself be a monster of nature and doth therefore love him because he is principium vitae because he is the beginning of his natural life much more do the children of God love thir spiritual Father who hath be gotten them again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that sadeth not away reserved in heaven for them 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. our fathers here do beget us but to dead hopes for we are born to dye and are often unable to maintain us when we are begotten but our Father in heaven hath begotten us to a lively hope or to the hope of everlasting life and is no less able to preserve life then he was to give it for he hath an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven to bestow upon his children so that he is infinitely more to be loved not onely as the giver of life but also as the preserver of it thus doth the true Religion teach us to honour God as a Father by Faith Hope and Charity and it doth also teach us to honour him as a Master by due and lowly reverence for to worship and reverence and to fear God is to take and acknowledge God for God because it is to take and acknowledge him for the chiefest excellency for reverence alwaies presupposeth excellency and therefore according to the proportion of reverence is the opinion of excellency Let me then shew what opinion I have of Gods excellency by my reverence and let me worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord my maker and not onely my maker to call for my lowest reverence but also my Master to quell and punish mine irreverence for though I may easily draw near him with my lips yet I can hardly draw near him with my knee whilest my heart is far from him there is indeed the same natural distance of the knee and of the mouth from the heart but not the same moral distance for so the mouth is much farther from the heart then is the knee the profession of godliness may be altogether without the heart but not so the practise of it 't is much easier for a man to be an hypocrite in his words then in his deeds in his pretences then in his practises for actually to serve God is a matter of labour and vexation even in regard of the outward man who all that while is withheld from serving himself either in his profit or in his pleasure but verbally to serve God that is to talk of serving him is nothing at all it being as easie a peece of lip-labour to say to God as it is to say to man Your humble Servant and yet still be far from doing him any service thus did that Son who being commanded to go work in the vineyard presently answered I go Sir but went not S. Matth. 21. 30. and those who are most ready to promise their fealty and homage to their master in heaven are too too often least ready to perform their promises which is the cause of that reiterated complaint in the Text this people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me a complaint that needs still be much repeated because it is still so little regarded for setting aside this empty honour of our lips and what have we left but Ichabod where is the glory for in truth the glory is departed from our Israel the ark of God is taken nay trampled under our feet and all this irreligion and profaneness must needs be where men will have a Religion that shall so honour God as not also fear him that shall pretend to honour him as a Father but not care to fear him as a Master for a Son that refuseth to be a servant will soon refuse to be a Son and he that once begins not to fear his Father will soon begin not to honour him and a servant that cares not to continue a servant by fearing his Master will easily not care to turn an enemy by provoking him for he cannot desire to please him if he do not fear to displease him either by disrespect to his person or by disobedience to his commands and therefore it is very necessary that we all think of Gods Majesty which is able to confound us no less then of his mercy which is willing to save us and come into his presence with fear and reverence to acknowledge his incomprehensible greatness no less then with Faith Hope and Love to acknowledge his infinite and undeserved goodness thus doth Hierotheus speak of God in the language of the divine Arcopagite libro de divin nom cap. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being is above all being to shew the greatness of his Majesty his loving is above all loving to shew the goodness of his mercy which made Damascene undertaking to write of the Orthodox Faith after he had begun his first Chapter de Deo immediately give this Title to his second Chapter de Effabilibus Ineffabilibus Cognoscibilibus Incognoscibilibus because the things concerning God are both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as we can neither know nor express and hence it is that our knee is fitter to proclaim the Majesty of God then is our tongue for the tongue cannot express what the man doth not know but the knee can and will acknowledge the Majesty of God though we cannot know it if so be we do indeed but truly beleeve it and it is observable that in the 99 Psalm after the Psalmist had declared the greatness of Gods Majesty he exhorts men to glorifie him in their words but much more in their deeds for he calls upon them but once to praise him v. 3. let them praise thy great and terrible Name but he calls upon them twice to worship him v. 5. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy and again v. 9. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy taking it for granted that the Name
offend many of those that manifestly oppose the truth and immortally injure their brethren by turning them out of the road of salvation to look after some new by-paths no less doubtfull then perilous for if St. Paul did wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9. 3. then none that takes upon him St. Pauls calling but is bound to have so much of St. Pauls zeal as to think the salvation of souls his greatest blessing and to make it his chiefest aim and he that doth the one will certainly do the other and consequently not regard the causless displeasure of many if he may take the right course to save but one and without doubt this doctrine doth immediately tend to the salvation of all which adviseth men to take heed of hypocrisie in professing Religion and of apostacy in renouncing it or of schisme in receding from it for schisme is a particular apostacy even as a apostacy is a general schisme For the onely way to be assured of our future communion with God in happiness is to be assured of our present communion with God in holiness and we cannot be assured of communion with the Father of lights unless we walk as children of the light It is in effect St. Iohns argumentation 1 Epist. c. 1. v. 5 6 7. He that saith he hath communion with God must walk in the light But all we that profess our selves Christians do say we have communion with God in and by our Saviour Christ Therefore we must all walk in the light We that do profess our selves Christians as we do say that we have communion or fellowship one with another so we do much more say that we have communion with God not inviting men to our civil but to our Christian communion and unless we make good that saying we cannot make good our own Christian profession for he that hath communion with Christ hath communion with the Son of God and he that hath the Son hath the Father also 1 Joh. 2. 23. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father therefore Turks and Infidels and Antitrinitarians do not worship the same God with us Orthodox Christians but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also therefore Orthodox Christians in having Christ are sure they have communion with God For although these latter words He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also be not in the Greek originals either of Greek or Latine Church for which cause they are by our Interpreters inserted in different characters from the text who did not desire to follow Beza where Beza did not follow the Church yet they are in the Vulgar Latine and are owned by Clemens of Alexandria in his comment upon this Epistle as it is recorded in Bibliothecâ Patrum and also by the Syrus Interpres and indeed are in effect owned by the Spirit of God himself for that they are virtually included in the former words by the rule of Contrariety or Opposition for by the same reason that whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father it is most undoubtedly true that whosoever confesseth the Son hath the Father therefore all our labour must be that we may have the Son for in having him we are sure to have the Father And this is the grand doctrine of all the New Testament this is the main Gospel-truth that the Apostles maintained against all sorts of gainsayers in their time and they have left us their writings that we should also maintain it unto the worlds end That the Christian Religion is the only way to eternal salvation This their doctrine was strongly opposed in their days by four sorts of men 1. By the Gentiles not yet converted for they still maintained their heathenisme 2. By the Jews not yet converted for they still maintained their Judaisme 3. By the Jews not fully converted for they still maintained a mixture of Judaisme with Christianity they mingled together the Jewish and the Christian Religion 4. By the Christians converted but withal partly perverted for they brought in untrue professions and ungodly practises into their Christianity they corrupted and depraved the Christian Religion and the Apostles were accordingly very carefull as to confute these heresies so also to confirm and establish the contrary truth whence it is that all their writings are wholly taken up either in those confutations or in this confirmation For though the truth it felf is but one yet the controversies concerning it were no less then four and the Apostles thought it necessary not only to establish the truth in it self that it might appear truth but also to establish it in our hearts that it might appear truth to us that is truth without controversie not only a mystery of Godliness but also a manifest and confessed mystery 1. Tim. 3. 16. Wherefore it will not be amiss for us to see the state of the several Controversies that so we may the more clearly see the more firmly embrace the more constantly profess the truth The state of the first Controversie which the Apostles had with the Gentiles consisted of these two questions First whether there were a life everlasting to be looked for after this life Secondly whether that life everlasting were to be obtained by continuing in the idolatry of the heathen or by turning to the Religion of the Christians And in both these questions the truth of the Christian Religion is declared or rather demonstrated against the heathenish superstition out of the principles of natural reason and that truth summ'd up by St. Paul 1 Thes. 1. 9 10. How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come There is a resurrection from the dead therefore the soul dies not with the body but lives eternally and this eternal life is not to be gotten by serving Idols but by serving the living and true God and there is no serving him but by waiting for his Son from heaven Thus was the Christian Religion justified against Heathenisme which afforded the first Controversie The state of the second Controversie which the Apostles had with the Jews not converted consisted but of this one Question Whether eternal life and salvation was to be obtained by the Jewish or by the Christian Religion And we finde the Apostles still proving out of the Old Testament the Ground of the Jews Religion and so acknowledged by themselves without the least doubt or contradiction that salvation was not to be had by Moses but by Christ so S. Peter in his several Sermons Acts 2. and 3. and 4. Christus Messias that Christ was the Messias the Saviour of the world is the subject of them all This he proves Acts 2. for that he had given the holy Ghost and was risen from the dead and both his proofs are out of the Old
Thou art God from everlasting that is without beginning and thou art God to everlasting that is without end And so also is Religion Eternal both from everlasting and to everlasting from everlasting in the reason of it because it is a service or reverence due to God by vertue of his excellent Majesty and consequently that due is Eternal with his very Being but onely to everlasting in the practise of it because there was no creature from everlasting to practise it how then should we exceedingly desire to know Religion how to love it how to practise it whereby alone our souls are prepared to believe Eternity and to enjoy it and to employ it an irreligious soul could it possibly get to heaven would not know what to do there for there is nothing but the practise of Religion or praising God Rev. 19. 1 5 7. Again as God in that he is Eternal oweth his Beginning and Continuance to none but onely to himself and as Eternity because it is from it self is therefore without a Beginning and because it is of it self is therefore without an end so true Religiō hath in some sort its Being from it self for it is bonum in se it is good in and by it self and therefore hath its subsistence in and by it self let the whole world turn Atheist as it is turning apace yet the true Religion will still be the true Religion there may be in the practise of Religion many things good because they are commanded but in the substance of Religion the internal goodness is the reason of the external command so that Religion is indeed a beam of that light which proceedeth from the Father of Lights shewing unto Angels men what they are to know love and do and so leading them both to the Light everlasting for as God himself is so is his service and therefore I could not better explain the properties of Religion then from the properties of God Onely God hath his properties immediately flowing from his own essence but Religion partakes of these mediately from God as it is his service God hath these properties not onely Formally in himself but also Originally from himself Religion hath them Formally in it self but Originally from God Thus hath Religion all those properties of God which are incommunicable to the Creature and thereby appears to have in it self more of Divinity then any Creature whatsoever either in Heaven or in Earth for these being the properties of the true Religion in it self shew it to be spiritual far above the nature of all created spirits whereby themselves draw nearer to the God of Spirits in their affections then in their natures If therefore thou O man desire to be truly Religious thou must desire to be spiritually minded and the way to be so is to have a kinde of Simplicity or Incomposition that is a sincerity of the soul in the love of God To have a kinde of Immutability that is a Constancy to have an Immensity that is a servent Zeal and Alacritie which will not endure to be straitned or confined and to have an Eternity that is an unwearied perseverance in the Faith and Fear and Love of God Nay indeed these same properties are already in thy soul if thou be truly Religious for then thou art spiritually minded and thou canst not but have an uncompounded soul by sincerity of its service not dividing thy affection betwixt God and Baal betwixt Christ and Belial Thou canst not but have a constancy in his service which will let thee be no Changeling a thing as monstrous and abominable in the second as in the first birth thou canst not but have an alacrity and fervency of spirit which will not be circumscribed or confined either to or by time or place neither to a Conclave at Rome nor to a Consistory at Geneva nor to a Conventicle in England for as Christianity it self is not confined so neither the soul as 't is Christian but joyns in Communion with all Christians that ever were or that are or that shall be in the honour and love of Christ thy house is too little thou wilt to the Church nay the Church is too little thou wilt to the Catholick Church the whole Church Militant thy spirit shall be with theirs when theirs is with Christ nay the Catholick Church is too little here on Earth thou wilt up to that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven for Christian duties as they are practised here will cease with our lives therefore the Christian soul will look after such duties as she may practise in Heaven and at least in habit if not in act will even here be eternally Religious as we are divinely taught by our own Church saying with a most Catholick spirit It is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee O Lord holy Father Almighty everlasting God thereby shewing us the Immensity of Religion That it is not to be circumscribed to or by any place for it is meet that we give thanks in all places and also the eternity of Religion that it is not to be confined to or by any time for it is meet that we give thanks at all times Eternity being the blessedness we look for the means whereby we compass it must needs be eternal not onely in the efficient cause God himself but also in the instrumental cause that is Religion And since Omnipotency All sufficiency and Omnisciency are but three branches of Eternity It is necessary before I come to the Communicable Properties that I speak of them for God in that he is Eternal is Omnipotent since there could be no other fountain of power unless we would make two Eternals and the same God as he is Eternal is All-sufficient for having his being of himself he must needs also have it perfectly in himself and lastly the same God as he is Eternal is also Omniscient for it is the Property of Eternity to have all things present to it as to be always present to it self wherefore it will be worth our while briefly to consider these Properties as they are in God and as they are also in Religion the service of God and first of the Omnipotency Gods Omnipotency or Almighty Power appears especially in two things First that he hath power to do all that he will Secondly that he hath power over all when he will had he not the First he could not be Almighty in himself had he not the second he could not be Almighty in our esteem the first tends to the Execution the second to the Declaration of his Almighty power The text doth ordinarily prove them both together as 1 Tim 6. 15. the Son of God is called the blessed and onely Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords The onely Potentate that hath power to do all that he will and hath also power to do all when he will as King of kings
trembling but as we have out-passed those ten Lepers in our uncleanness so we may not come short of them in their holy fear and faith for as their fear made them stand afar off so their faith made them lift up their voices and say Jesus Master have mercy on us S. Luc. 17. 12 13. then will he give us such a purity as will not onely make us shew our selves to the Priest but also to our God such a purity as will wash our eyes to see him and much more our hearts to love him for so saith S. Peter Act. 15. 9. purisying their hearts by faith not a faith which costs the purse no alms the body no fasting the soul no praying for no true Israelite will ever offer that unto the Lord which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. but a faith which so purifies the soul by knowing the truth as much more by obeying it for so saith the same Apostle Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 S. Pet. 1. 22. this is the purity of the true Religion it purifies the soul not onely by faith but also by obedience and by love which yet are now generally farthest from many men who would fain be thought to come nearest Purity Thus we have seen Gods truth in his understanding his goodness in his will and his purity in his action it still remains that we consider his Liberty as belonging to them all for Liberty being nothing else but the dominion and power of action must needs be originally in the understanding which alone is able to judge and deliberate of what is to be done what not formally in the will which resolves to do or not to do but effectually 't is onely in the action which is the product of the said deliberate resolution this liberty is now briefly to be handled First as it is in God and then as it is in Religion for being the service of God Gods Liberty is seen in five respects in that he is free from sin free from misery free from obligation free from servitude and free from coaction which is the reason that he can both will and do what and when and where himself pleaseth I need not insist on the proof of these for to name them is to prove them nor can any man deny Gods Liberty in any of these respects but he must deny him to be God and in all these same respects we may see and must acknowlege the Liberty of Religion and to deny it to be free in any of these is to deny it to be Religion that is to say the service of God and to make it to be state policy that is to say the service of men First Religion is free from sin for the superstition and faction and profaneness and other sins that are so rife among Christians to the dishonour of Christ and the reproach of Christendome is a rust that cleaves to the men who are little better then iron not to the Religion which is as pure as the Refiners fire and therefore it is not safe nor fit to say of any order or kinde of Christians that their Religion is rebellion and their faith is faction though we cannot deny of too too many orders and kindes of men who profess Religion that they are both rebellious and factious Secondly Religion is free from misery ask the three children in the fiery furnace they will say their Religion had made them persecuted they will not say that it had made them miserable they profess that they were delivered into the hands of lawless enemies most hatefull apostates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning sure those of their own brethren which had renounced the Law of Moses and their Religion and helped the Babylonians to persecute and infest Jerusalem and to an unjust King and the most wicked in all the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus those blessed Martyrs will tell you they were in persecution the greatest that ever was but they will not tell you they were in misery nay it seems they told the quite contrary for none else could have told it but from their mouths that the angel of the Lord came down into the oven and smote the flame of fire and made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind but you will say these men were partial witnesses in their own cause therefore ask their persecutors they will tell you the same for the Princes Governours and Captains and the Kings Counsellours being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power nor was an hair of their head singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed on them nay ask Nebuchadnezzar himself who was the authour of the persecution and he will tell you that though he had caused these holy men to be so much afflicted yet he could not cause them to be miserable for at that instant when he had thought they had been burnt to ashes he heard them sing in the flames as saith the Greek Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that probably made him look about to see whence that melody proceeded and finding so sweet a breath to come from the blast of his fire he was astonied and rose up in haste and went to the mouth of the furnace which before bade him keep his distance in that it consumed his officers and called forth the holy and blessed Martyrs who having been delivered from a present death could not be looked on but as men newly risen from the dead Thirdly Religion is free from obligation there is no greater humane obligation then that of nature and there is no greater natural obligation then that which we owe to our Parents yet that may not be alledged to keep us from serving God so Aquinas determines the case Si ergo cultus parentum abstrahat nos a cultu Dei non jam esset pietatis parentum insistere cultui contra Deum ideo in tali casu dimittinda sunt officia pietatis in parentes propter divinum Religionis cultum 22 ae qu. 101. art 4. If our duty to our Parents take us away from our duty to our God as if the Father should command his son to turn rebel or Idolater or the like we must forsake our parents and cleave to God and shew the prevalency of that duty we owe to God by being undutifull to our parents in such a case again there is no civil obligation greater then that we owe to our Governours yet if they command us to sin against God by not speaking nor teaching by not praying nor preaching in the Name of Iesus we have our answer put into our mouths and God put it into our hearts lest atheism get possession there in stead of Christ whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
us I will heal their backslidings saith that Spirit I will love them freely Hos. 14. 4. he heals us freely he loves us freely we were backsliders when he did heal us we are backsliders now he doth love us what the sick man doth towards his cure who provokes his physician by backsliding and wilfully relapsing into his disease that we have done to God why he should heal us why he should love us and how then shall we not alwaies think of this free and undeserved mercy which is the surest salvation of our souls and therefore the best imployment of our thoughts and how shall we but once think of it and not finde words answerable to our thoughts not be ready to sing our Hosanna to the Son of David we have an excellent president from two sorts which were in the lowest degree of speakers the multitudes and the children S. Mat. 21. the one cannot speak orderly the other cannot speak plainly yet both join together in this heavenly consort and sing their Hosannas to our blessed Saviour both orderly and plainly nay we may finde a president by way of supposition though not by way of position from a sort that are in the very highest degree of not speakers for so saith Truth himself Verily I say unto you if those should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out S. Luk. 19. 40. as if he had said if these two that are in the lowest degree of speakers the multitudes and the children should hold their peace and not magnifie that mercy which they cannot deserve which is therefore the more to be magnified because it it hath been the less deserved then would the very stones cry out which are in the highest degree of not speakers as not having any organs that conduce to so much as the making of a noise and therefore sure not to the uttering of a voice and yet even these should not onely speak but also cry out speak very loud if we should be so unthankfull as to hold our peace for God who can out of these stones raise up children unto Abraham S. Matth. 3. 9. can also out of these stones raise up Saints unto himself to sing hosannas to his Son nay indeed he hath raised up both children to Abraham and saints unto himself as it were out of these stones in mollifying the hard hearts of men to make them capable of the impressions of his grace and in opening their lips that he might fill their mouths with the expressions of his praise and glory a mercy that in this respect is greater then all the rest because without this we could not be thankfull for them and unthankfullness is able to make the greatest mercies no mercies at all So that now we may clearly see how to answer that curious and fond Question What did God do before the Creation not by saying that he was making hell for such Questionists but that he was wholly imployed in making heaven for doubtless God the Father Son and Holy Ghost delighted in himself from all eternity and consequently was making heaven for himself for he is indeed his own heaven his own blessedness rejoycing everlastingly in himself but we may yet go further and say that he was making heaven also for us men for that same goodness which made him rejoyce in himself as being his own blessedness made him also rejoyce in his workmanship as that which should proceed from himself and as that which should be blessed in himself and that same goodness made him in time give us a being and such a being as was capable of blessedness as was capable of the joy of heaven by rejoycing in the God of heaven for as God is his own heaven by rejoycing in himself so is he also our heaven by making us rejoyce in him O the happiness of a judicious soul that contemplates this mercy but much more of a religious soul that embraces it for doubtless such a soul begins to go to heaven by delighting it self betimes in God according to that heavenly advice given by the Psalmist Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart what else is the work of heaven but to delight thy self in the Lord what else is the reward of heaven but to have the desires of thy heart If thou do the work thou wilt not miss of the reward but though thou have not all that thou canst imagine which is the desire of the brain yet thou wilt have all that thou canst enjoy which is the desire of the heart thou maist want the corporal rest of thy body but thou shalt not want the spiritual rest and repose of thy soul thou maist be much oppressed by mans cruelty but thou wilt much more be refreshed by Gods mercy which always brings a great refreshment in its contemplation to shew it cannot be without an unimaginable joy in its fruition we may think those men merriest that sing loudest but the Apostle tells us of another singing which thought it hath much less noise yet can it not but have much more chearfulness Eph. 5. 19. Speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord a true and lively faith in Gods mercy which is most usefull in all times but most needfull in the worst times will neither let us want company for it will make us speak to our selves nor want a speech for it will teach us to speak in Psalms and Hymns nor will it let us want mirth for it will cause us to sing and make melody in our hearts Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs speaking and singing and making melody all is too little to welcome the very thought of mercy and what then can be enough to express the joy and the enjoyment of it but if we look upon the verse before we may there discern a double fulness a fulness of wine and a fulness of the Spirit he that is filled with wine the joys of this world may sing lowdest but he that is filled with the Spirit the joys of the world above surely sings sweetest for come what can come this man must either not be miserable or which is the greater happiness not be discontented with his misery for as it follows in the verse next after he is giving thanks always for all things to God and therefore he is giving thanks also for those things which seem to bring him the greatest discomforts and disturbances because his disturbances cannot be so fixed upon his body as his soul is fixed upon his God and looking with an eye of faith upon the eternal mercy he cannot but look with an eye of scorn upon a little momentany and temporal misery thus we finde S. Paul and Silas singing Psalms to God in the prison after all their stripes having been scourged in the day yet singing in the night these two discords scourging and singing make up an admirable harmony
this attribute of mercy we that have been the sinners are the greatest sharers and therefore I dare not say it is an errour of charity to assert that the Blessed Virgin had no sin to be forgiven her I may say it is an errour for it is against the Text Death passed upon all for that all had sinned Rom. 5. 12. nay I may say it is in some sort an uncharitable errour against the charity that is due to the blessed Virgin for though this doctrine may seem to adde to her honour yet it must needs detract and diminish from her joy since her self hath proclaimed these words My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour and we know what his salvation was whom she calls her Saviour even that which gave him his name Jesus S. Mat. 1. 21. which was to save his people from their sins so that if she had no sin how could she have this Jesus for her Saviour and I dare not say that she had him not for her Saviour when I see her so rejoycing in his salvation wherefore the errour must be contented to go without the charity for there is no charity in denying the mother of God the greatest interest in God the interest in his mercy no charity in denying the mother of our Saviour the best interest in her own Son the interest in his salvation I dare not then exclude the blessed Virgin out of that number of which S. Paul hath spoken these words Even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you and can but wonder that some who have phansied her more tender-hearted then Christ himself should ascribe so much tender-heartedness to so little need of forgiveness for it is not unknown to travellers that in some Christian Churches where this doctrine of the Immaculate conception is maintained our blessed Saviour is pictured as one ready to pursue and smite the sinner when as his mother is pictured as one ready to shelter and to receive him which false representation seems to have proceeded from as false an imagination broached by Gabriel upon the canon of the Mass Lect. 8. Sibi reservavit justitiam Virgini Mariae concessit misericordiam there being two principal boons of the heavenly kingdome justice and mercy the King of heaven hath reserved the justice to himself but the mercy he hath bestowed on the blessed Virgin 't is very unsound and unsafe divinity that robs the King of Saints of the fairest slower in his Crown to make a garland for his mother but besides the unsoundness and unsafeness whereby it may destroy us there is also in it some unreasonableness whereby it destroys it self for all inclination to mercy in the creature is meerly from receiving it as in the Creatour meerly from giving it God being mercy in himself at first hath mercy because he will have mercy and at last will have mercy because he hath had mercy on us so that in him giving or shewing mercy is the onely cause of mercy because he cannot repent him of his own gifts but man being misery in himself learns to shew mercy by having first received it and continues to shew mercy because he still expects it so that in him receiving mercy is the onely cause of shewing mercy for that he will not be unthankfull to God for the free gift of his mercy wherefore this supposition that the Blessed Virgin needed no mercy cannot be agreeable with this position that she is most ready to shew mercy unless we will grant a non sequitur in the Apostle who thus argues concerning Christ himself the onely fountain of mercy as God to give it the onely channel of mercy as men to derive and to convey it that because he was tempted in all points as we are therefore he is the more to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4. 15. And the same doctrine which he preacheth concerning the head he enforceth concerning the members advising them therefore to forgive because they had been forgiven therefore to be kinde tender-hearted to their brethren because God for Christs sake had been kinde and tender-hearted to them he maketh choice of the best Topick that can be for an argument to perswade them to mercy even the infinite and undeserved mercies of God the Father Son and holy Ghost Forgive one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you here are the two first persons of the most holy blessed and glorious Trinity and if we look back upon the 30. verse we may see the third person and grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption how shall they not grieve that holy Spirit even by doing what follows in the next words v. 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kinde one to another c. this bitterness and malice least grieves your spirits but it most grievs Gods Spirit which cannot enter into a malicious soul and much less will dwell there wherefore you must put away all bitterness wrath and anger if you would have this heavenly guest come into your souls and you must keep them away if you would have him make any stay and abode when he is come the Apostle reckons up three several kindes or degrees of that fury which opposeth and grieveth Gods holy Spirit the first is bitterness a light distaste or dislike of the minde the second is wraths a violent commotion and disaffection of the heart both these contain themselves within doors and are to be rectified not by Aristotle's but by Christs Ethicks which alone reach to the inward man the third is anger an outward exorbitant passion that expresses it self in clamour and evil speaking and malicious doing not one of these but is against some act of true mercy and accordingly the Apostle prescribes three acts of mercy which will expell them all for first he requires us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benigni kinde or courteous that 's against the bitterness in the distaste or dislike of the minde Secondly he requires us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misericordes tender-hearted or mercifull that 's against the wrath the strong inward impression of anger in the heart Thirdly he requires us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 donantes or condonantes forgiving or pardoning that 's against the anger or fury the outward expression of exorbitant passion either in our words or works and as a sufficient motive to all this notwithstanding it is so contrary to flesh and bloud he onely wills us to consider how much kindness tender-heartedness and forgiveness we have all found from God and then we shall never think it much to be kinde and tender-hearted and to forgive one another and to this motive though enough of it self we may further adde another argument for we have need of arguments more then enough to confute
countenance any in sin and in impenitency and yet even this severe Bishop in his greatest strictness for Church discipline though he would not allow the Martyrs and Confessours to be too importunate for the over speedy reconciliation of notorious offenders in which he had also the approbation of the Clergy of Rome yet if an offender had been overhastily reconciled he would not by any means make void that act of mercy thus we read that when the Bishop Therapius had given the peace of the Church to Victor the Presbyter for the Bishops were in those dayes the governours in chief if not in whole of the Ecclesiastical Communion before he had made publick satisfaction for his offence though S. Cyprian and his collegues were much troubled that he had so hastily received him into the Communion of the Church nullâ infirmitate urgente when as no dangerous sickness of his had called for a dispensation of the Canon yet they would not revoke that act of grace that had been done by Therapius but let Victor still enjoy the benefit of it thereby shewing that the true Religion though it stand much upon the exactness of Justice yet is much more delighted in the exercise of Mercy the words of S. Cyprian and his fellow Collegues met together in a Synod meerly about Church-discipline are very remarkable Sed librato apud nos diu consilio satis fuit objurgare Therapium collegam nostrum quod temerè hoc fecerit instruxisse ne quid tale de caetero faciat pacem tamen quomodocunque a sacerdote Dei semel datam non putavimus au-ferendam Cyp. Ep. 59. cum Pam. after we had taken long and full advice about this business we thought it enough to reprove Therapius our Collegue that he had done this rashly and require him to do so no more but the peace which had been given by a Priest intrusted of God to give it though given after never so ill a manner we did not think fit to take away again and therefore declare that Victor shall still enjoy the communion of the Church But what do I speak of Mercy above Justice in the true Religion when she would not call for Justice at all were it not that she might shew Mercy for thus she proceeds to deliver a sinner to Satan that she may keep him from hell as faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 5. to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus true Religion would not exercise that Justice which is for the destruction of the flesh were it not to make way for that Mercy which is for the salvation of the spirit therein resembling God himself who thrusts men away from him meerly out of the necessity of Justice but embraceth and receiveth them from his incessant desire and delight of shewing mercy CHAP. VIII The assurance we have of Religion in that it maketh us reverence and fear God ascribing the honour due unto his Name and of the ten proper Names of God collected by S. Hierome HE that is willing to expostulate with God can never be unwilling to offend him for it is impossible that man should ever be dashed out of countenance by the consideration of any sin who is resolved to justifie and maintain all his sins such a man is more fit for the School of the Peripateticks then for the School of the Prophets because he is made rather for disputation then for devotion and truly this is the chiefest reason that we can alledge for the continuance of all those grand miscarriages that are in the practise of Religion whether by way of superstition or of profaneness that men wedded to their own corrupt practises are in a manner resolved to expostulate with God rather then to comply with him 't is such a Clergy humour as this which the Prophet Malachi complaineth of Mal. 1. 6. saying unto you O Priests that despise my Name and ye say wherein have we despised thy Name they would needs be disputing when they should have been repenting for all this while they did neither honour God as a Father not fear him as a Master for so saith the Text a son honoureth his father and a servant his master if then I be a father where is mine honour if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O Priests that despise my Name It is a foul shame for any to despise Gods Name but most especially for those who are most bound to glorifie it that is for his Priests who are peculiarly consecrated to serve God and therefore ought to be more particularly devoted to his service no man may securely contemn Religion but he least who is entrusted to teach it for what he is entrusted to teach he is much more commanded to practise and truly this is the proper work of Religion which the Prophet here cals for to glorifie the Name of God that is to honour God as a Father and to fear him as a Master for without this honour and this fear we cannot take God for God but it is the work of Religion to make man take God for God and how can that be but by acknowledging and professing his Verity Omnipotency Goodness and Excellency so that the work of Religion most especially consists in Faith Hope Charity and Reverence or holy Fear for by Faith we acknowledge Gods eternal truth or Verity by Hope his Omnipotency by Love his allsufficient Goodness and by Fear or reverence his Soveraign Majesty or supertranscendent excellency Thus he that beleeveth in God acknowledgeth God to be God because he acknowledgeth him to be the first Truth or chiefest Verity he that hopeth in God acknowledgeth God to be God because he relyeth on his Omnipotency he that loveth God with all his might acknowledgeth God to be God because he taketh him for the chiefest good being wholly satisfied with his allsufficiency and lastly he that feareth God with all his might acknowledgeth God to be God because he taketh him for the Soveraign Majesty or for the greatest excellency wherefore God is truly to be honoured as a Father by Faith Hope and Charity and to be honoured as a Master by Fear and Reverence and the true Religion reacheth us to honour God both as a Father and as a Master as a Father by beleeving in him for shall not a Son beleeve his Father though all others beleeve him no further then for his honesty yet his own Son is bound to beleeve him also for his authority again to honour him as a Father by hoping and expecting a blessing from him and more particularly our inheritance for as faith looks to the promise so hope looks to the thing promised and we can never look upon God too much and much less can we look for too much from him For if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children how much more
unto God blind lame and sick prayers but in so doing we do rather in truth offer him defiances then prayers we do rather contemn then worship him unless we will say that God is less honoured with the Christians prayers then he was with the Jews sacrifices or that we have a greater priviledge granted us that we may more securely dishonour him Again if we seriously consider that there is an incomprehensible mysterie in this incomprehensible majestie three persons in one God we will labour for such prayers as may be suitable with the properties of the persons no less then with the majestie of the Godhead thus if we consider the power of the Father the wisdome of the Son the charity of the holy Ghost we will earnestly desire to have our mouths and our hearts filled with powerfull wise and charitable prayers not guilty either of emptiness or of indiscretion or of faction but however it is necessarie that in all our prayers we invocate One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance for the Father Son and holy Ghost are equally to be worshipped and equally to be glorified nor may we communicate with other Christians in their prayers who worship not one God in three coequal and coeternal Persons no more then we may with Turks and Jews who worship an idole in stead of God for S. John in saying Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father 1 S. John 2. 23. hath plainly taught us that Turks and Jews do not worship the same God with us Christians and since we do certainly worship the true God it must needs follow that they do worship an idole in stead of God wherefore doubtless all Anti-Trinitarians are idolaters for though many of them talk much of the spirit yet they have kept him onely in their mouths but thrust him out of their Creed and consequently in vain do they pretend to godliness whiles they fight against God for they cannot truly honour him in their prayers whiles they falsly conceive of him in their belief not acknowledging Three Persons Father Son and holy Ghost in one immortal invisible and onely wise God The fourth Name of God alledged by S. Hierome is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod Septuaginta virtutum Aquila exercituum transtulerunt saith he which the Septuagint translate Powers but Aquil a translates Hosts And this name we find Isa. 6. 3. Holy holy holy the Lord of Hosts which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Cherubims the true ground of the hymn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Church for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a declaration of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy O God Holy O Powerfull Holy O Immortal is but an exposition of this Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth and who can say Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth and not say also Heaven and earth are full of the majestie of glory and who can confess that heaven and earth are full of Gods majestie and not earnestly desire that his own soul may not be empty of it And indeed this Name of God the Lord of Hosts is able to strike terrour into their hearts who make it their work to terrifie all the world multitudes of armed men who have violence in their mouths to threaten and swords in their hands to act their threats for 't is not their multitudes or their strength can bear them out in their impiety and injustice since there is far greater strength there are far greater multitudes with God then with them even all the hosts of Heaven and earth Let this consideration move me to take that care of my soul which the approach of an army would me to about mine estate that I may take heed above all least I be spiritually plundred for what have I worth the keeping if I have lost my Saviour and how shall I not lose my Saviour if I lose my Religion Let therefore those angry fellows of the children of Dan ransack me as they did Micah Iudg. 18. yet shall they never get any power over my Religion nor shall it ever be said They have taken away my God for I am commanded by my Saviour who best knew the right way of salvation not to fear those hosts which kill the body and are not able to kill the soul but rather to fear him who is Lord of hosts and is able to destroy both body and soul in hell and will certainly so destroy all those hosts that oppose him if they impenitently persist and persevere in their oppositions Let me thus in my greatest frights think more of spiritual then of carnal Terrours and though I may perchance be almost frighted out of my wits yet I shall be sure of this that I shall not be frighted out of my Religion The fifth Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod nos excel sum dicimus saith the same Saint Hierome the most High and this Name is recorded Gen. 14. 18. where it is said that Melchisedeck was the Priest of the most High God and thus let me with the heavenly host say Glory to God in the Highest S. Luke 2. 14. let me always think of his Highness who is no less above heaven then above earth He is in the Highest I am in the lowest in a twofold deep in duplici prosundo inobedientiae miseriae as S. Gregory said of Jonas when he was swallowed up in the whales belly in the depth of disobedience and in the depth of misery and therefore in the depth of misery because in the depth of disobedience Out of these depths have I called unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice and let thine ear consider well the voice of my complaint that I may be delivered out of the depth pf misery and let not thine eye be too extreme to mark what is done amiss that I may not be confounded in the depth of disobedience so shall I say with great admiration and greater consolation Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth Psal. 113. 5 6. the higher he dwelleth the lower he humbleth himself to behold me the greater is his condescension the greater is my consolation let me then delight in my devotions as being the only means to bring down my Saviour to raise up my soul. The sixth Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 QUI EST unfit me I AM hath sent me unto you Exod 3. 14. and again I AM that I AM. This Name of God should make me constant in my Religion zealously to practise it at all times and resolutely to maintain that practise in the worst times for my Master in calling himself I AM forbids me to be a changeling in his service and indeed true Christianity is able to say with Christ Before Abraham was I AM John 8. 58. for the same
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alsufficient who by small or unlikely means can bring great or mighty things to pass they doubt of his being alsufficient who walk in uneven waies and use evil means to work out their ends and to effect their enterprises as did Ahaziah the son of Ahab who in his sickness sent messengers to Baal-zebub the God of Ekron to enquire of him whether he should recover of his disease 2 Kin. 1. the like did the wicked Saul 1 Sam. 28. when being in a great strait by the Philistines that warred against him he went to a woman that had a familiar spirit to know of her whether he should conquer his enemies but this did not holy David he apprehended God to be all-sufficient that having promised him the kingdom would in his good time effect what he promised wherefore he used no sinister or unlawfull means to accomplish his desires but waited on God for the performance of his promise he had many opportunities to have gotten the Crown oftentimes Saul fell into his hands so that he might have destroyed him but he would not do it he would not touch him to his hurt because he was the Lords anointed but committed himself to the will of God waiting his leisure so after a few years his desires were accomplished his grand enemy flain and he setled in the Throne of this holy frame of spirit was that good Jonathan the Son of Saul 1 Sam. 14. 6. when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non est Jehovae impedimentum there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few so was Asa affected towards God his heart was possessed with high thoughts of his all-sufficiency 2 Chr. 14. 11. when Zerah the Ethiopian came against him with a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots then saies the Text he cried unto the Lord his Lord and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee the Lord heard his cry and did help him that huge host was overthrown in a moment this Victory he obtained by his faith in the Lord of Hosts who is all-sufficient The thinking of him not so to be is the cause of all those indirect courses which men take to accomplish their worldly designes as when they lie and dissemble swear and forswear to get riches or go to conjurers and witches such men put not their whole trust and assiance in God but rather conceive that God cannot do what they desire by himself or by his own power unless they help him with their crafty wiles and politick devices when Peter denied Christ was it not out of fear and from whence was that fear was it not because he did not apprehend God to be all-sufficient a strong buckler of defence so that without his lying and dissimulation he could have rescued him out of the Jews bloudy hands although he had own'd his Lord and Master Christ Jesus To conclude if this comfortable Name of God were throughly digested by faith in our souls if we did beleeve that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God almighty and all-sufficient we should walk before him or as in his presence as Enoch Abraham and David did with a perfect heart we should fear him for his all-commanding power and love him for his Goodness of which there is in him a transcendent fullness we should be chearfull in adversity being content with God alone and think our selves very rich and happy though we be poor when we have God for our possession we should then see an emptiness in the creatures here below through whom God shines so that whatsoever excellency or beauty whatsoever worth vertue or comfort is in them it is an high degree in God who gave them their being and all things that attend it the consideration of this would make us more to delight in God and not dote on them which are but shadows in respect of that everlasting Sun and all their excellencies or perfections but so many beams descending from the Father of Lights or as so many blossomes of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Goodness so that if we separate these particularities from that universal good and not admire God in them or be not thankfull to God for them all our affections spent on them would be unchaste and their embraces adulterous hence it is said in the Scriptures that men in regard of their blinde dotage on them are said to go a whoring after vanities or the creatures which are vain and empty if compared with their makers fullness Lastly if God be all-sufficient then let him be our onely stay and comfort Let us trust in him alone being perswaded of this truth that he can help and support us without the assistance of the creatures but not all these without his blessing and providence ever look at God through the creatures who subsist by him who is a present help in trouble and oft sends best success when we are at the lowest or in a sad desperate condition because we usually then relie upon him most and go to him alone by prayer and supplication and then may we expect great mercies when we have a great faith in the great God of Heaven who delights in them who by their affiance or whole dependency on his powerfull Goodness bring much glory to him to this great all-sufficient and Almighty God to the Father Son and holy Ghost be given and ascribed all honour praise dominion and power c. Amen Most gracious God who art all-sufficient in thy self and from the inexhausted Treasury of thy goodness conveyest all things for the use of our bodies and comfort of our souls give us we pray thee largeness of spirits sutable to thy bounty towards us O enlarge our hearts with love and thankfulness to thee and let both display themselves in large expressions of duty that our thankfull lips may ever praise and our holy lives glorifie thee and above all Lord give us thine own self in blessing all thy gifts unto us and give us withall thy Son Christ Jesus that he may be ours in the pardon of all our sins by the merit of his death and passion and in the saving of our poor souls and we his by serving him all our dayes in holiness and righteousness Grant this heavenly Father for his sake who died and now sits in heaven at thy right hand making intercession for us Amen FINIS ALLEGIANCE AND CONSCIENCE Not fled out of England OR THE Doctrine of the Church of England CONCERNING Allegiance and Supremacy As it was delivered by the former Authour upon the Occasion and at the Time of Trying the King by his own Subjects In several Sermons Anno 1649. on the words of Ecclesiastes Eccles 8. 2 3 4. By EDW. HYDE D. of Divinity Tert. ad Scap. c. 2. Colimus Imperatorem ut Hominem à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem
also conformable thereto in our lives either by our obedience or by our repentance so saith the Psalmist Psal. 119. V. 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way as if he had said Through thy word I get the knowledge of the saving truth and that makes me avoid and abandon whatever is destructive of salvation for every way is a false way that leads from truth and from the God of truth wherefore the Greek translation thus renders the latter part of the verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hate every wicked way for a false way is a wicked way and a wicked way is a false way the Urim and Thummim being inseparably joyned together so that what is against the light of the truth is also against the perfection of life and indeed the way of wickedness is a false way according to Aristotle's own determination of falsity who in the fifth of his Metaph. cap. 29. saith that things are said to be false 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either because they are not in being so a Chimaera or a castle in the air is said to be false or because they make a false appearance and beget in us false apprehensions and so a glass that represents those colours and those proportions which are not in the object is called a false glass In both these respects is the way of wickedness properly said to be a false way both because it is defective in a true being for it is a meer non entity and also because it is excessive in a false being making a false appearance and begetting in us false apprehensions as if it were pleasant and profitable when as it is the onely cause of all our wo and misery of all our punishment whether of sense or of loss And it is observable that every irreligious man hath in himself these two properties of a liar a wilfull liar which is the falsest of all false men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first he loves and embraces that which is false and secondly he desires to propagate and derive it to others so the irreligious man whether he be irreligious out of superstition or out of faction delights in the errour of his own way and desires to bring others into the same perdition as we finde it spoken by the mouth of truth S. Matth. 23. 15. That Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites compass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is made they make him twofold more the childe of hell then themselves factious men and hypocrites are much more zealous for their own new and false opinions then for Gods eternal and undoubted truth so that were there nothing else in impiety and irreligion but onely its own falseness yet that alone were enough to make it eternally odious to God the God of truth and to the godly man the lover of truth for God cannot but be true even as he cannot but be God and as he is God he is truth for God is truth and for this reason some Schole Divines do answer negatively to this question Whether God can dispence with a lie as he can with the other commandments and the reason is because in his own essence he is truth so the master of Advertencies upon S. Chrys. and the four Doctours of the Church S. Hierome S. Ambrose S. Augustine and S Gregory An Deus possit in mendacio dispensari sicut in aliis praeceptis Decalogi Negatur Quia ex sua Essentia est Veritas But we may go much further because the truth will go along with us for not onely the ninth Commandment which requires us to be true men is indispensable but also all the rest of the moral Law which requires us to be good men for indeed we cannot be one without the other therefore is all the moral Law alike indispensable that is all that is intrinsecally moral by its own nature whereby we do not onely obey God but also imitate him and not extrinsecally moral being made so by Gods command or by Divine precept whereby we onely obey God but do not imitate him and the reason is because all that is contrary to what is intrinsecally moral is a lie and consequently contrary to the truth of God and God cannot will not dispence with his own truth And this is the cause that whatsoever is evil in it self is necessarily displeasing unto God and that indeed under a twofold reason for as it is evil in it self and defective in a right being so it is opposite to his goodness and as it is a lie and redundant or excessive in a false being by a counterfeit appearance and representation so it is opposite to his truth Men may and do too much out of stomack and animositie oppose one another in matters of disputation but 't is out of some spice of atheisme if they wilfully oppose Gods undoubted truth in matters of Religion either speculatively by going in a false way or practically by going in a wicked way The next communicable property in God is Goodness in his Will which appears in that he hath been so diffusive of himself in communicating his being to the creature therefore is our creation put as a ground of our thankfulness and thanksgiving Psal. 149. 2. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him which could not be if God had not created us out of his Goodness to give us a good being to make us the object of his mercy but out of his power that by his absolute dominion he might give us an everlasting ill being to make us the object of his justice Therefore 't is an excellent position of the Protestant Divines in Colloquio Mempelgertensi recited by Osiander Neque ex lege neque ex ratione humana sed ex solo Evangelio de praedestinatione electorum judicandum est That neither out of the law nor out of humane reason but onely out of the Gospel can we rightly judge of the predestination of the elect and the Gospel condemns none for reprobates but those who despising the riches of Gods goodness and forbearance by their infidelitie and impenitencie heap upon themselves damnation But let us more particularly consider this Goodness of God both in regard of it self and also in regard of us First In regard of it self and so it is an essential and universal Goodness demonstrable these three ways per viam efficientiae per viam sufficientiae per viam eminentiae as saith Bonavent by the way of efficiencie for he made all that is good by the way of sufficiencie for he satisfieth the desire of all with good by the way of eminencie for all that is good being made by him is most eminently in him that made it Secondly Consider we this Goodness of God in regard of us and so 't is the rule or exemplarie cause of all goodness in man for our good of Nature is according to the image of God the Father our good of Grace is according to