in something to be done maketh an Active if in something to be suffered a Passive obedience Our Active Obedience to God is the keeping his Commandements and the doing of his will as the people said Iosh. 24. The Lord our God will we serve and his voice will we obey And this must be done in auditu auris upon the bare signification of his pleasure without disputing or debating the matter as the Centurions servant if his Master did but say Do this without any more ado did it So Abraham the servant of the Lord when he was called to go out into a place which he should receive for an inheritance obeyed and went out though he knew not whither Nor only so but in the greatest tryal of Obedience that ever we read any man any meer man to have been put unto being commanded to sacrifice his only begotten Son of whom it was said That in Isaac shall thy seed be called he never stumbled as not at the promise through unbelief so neither at the command through disobedience but speedily went about it and had not failed to have done all that was commanded him had not the Lord himself when he was come even to the last act inhibited him by his countermand If mortal and wicked men look to be obeyed by their servants upon the warrant of their bare command in evil and unrighteous acts When I say unto you Smite Amnon then kill him fear not have not I commanded you saith Absalon to his servants 2 Sam. 13. Ought not the express command of God much more to be a sufficient warrant for us to do as we are bidden none of whose commands can be other than holy and just That is our Active obedience We must give proof of our Passive obedience also both in contenting our selves with his allowances and in submitting our selves to his corrections He that is but a servant in the house may not think to command whatsoever the house affordeth at his own pleasure that is the Masters prerogative alone but he must content himself with what his Master is content to allow him and take his portion of meat drink livery lodging and every other thing at the discretion and appointment of his Master Neither may the servant of God look to be his own carver in any thing neither ought he to mutter against his Master with that ungracious servant in the Parable complaining of his hardness and austerity if his allowances in some things fall short of his desire but having food and rayment be it never so little never so course â—he should be content with it nay though he should want either or both he should be content without it We should all learn of an old experienced servant of God Saint Paul what grace and long experience had taught him In whatsoever state we are to be therewith content We are to shew our Obedience to our heavenly Master yet further by submitting to his wholesome discipline when at any time he shall see cause to give us correction Our Apostle a little after the Text would have servants to be subject even to their froward Masters and to take it patiently when they are buffetted undeservedly and without fault How much more ought we to accept the punishment of our iniquity as we have the phrase Levit. 26. and with patience to yeeld our backs to the whip when God who hath been so gracious a Master to us shall think fit to exercise some little severity towards us and to lay stripes upon us Especially since he never striketh us First but for our fault such is his justice nor Secondly such is his mercy but for our good And all this belongeth to that Obedience which the servant of God ought to manifest both by doing and suffering according to the will of his Master The third and last general duty is Fidelity Who is a faithful and wise servant Well done thou good and faithful servant As if both the wisdom and goodnesse of a servant consisted in his faithfulnesse Now the faithfulnesse of a servant may be tryed especially by these three things By the heartinesse of his service by being tender of his Masters honour and profit and by his quicknesse and diligence in doing his businesse A notable example whereof we have in Abrahams servant Gen. 24. in all the three particulars For first being many miles distant from his Master he was no lesse solicitous of the businesse he was put in trust withall then he could have been if he had been all that while in the eye of his Master Secondly he framed himself in his speeches and actions and in his whole behaviour to such a discreet carriage as might best set forth the credit and honour of his Master Thirdly he used all possible diligence and expedition losing not any time either at first for the delivery of his message or at last for his return home after he had brought things to a good conclusion Such faithfulnesse would well become us in the service of God in all the aforesaid respects The first whereof is Heartinesse in his service There are many servants in the world that will work hard and bustle at it lustily for a fit and so long as their Masters eye is upon them but when his back is turned can be content to go on fair and softly and fellow-like Such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle condemneth Col. 3. and elsewhere admonishing servants whatsoever they do to do it heartily and to obey their Masters not with eye-service but in singlenesse of heart Towards our heavenly Master true it is if we had but this eye-service it were enough because we are never out of his eye his eyes are in all the corners of the earth beholding the evil and the good and his eye-lids try the children of men he is about our beds and about our paths and spyeth out all our goings And therefore if we should but study to approve our selves and our actions before his sight it could not be but our services should be hearty as well as handy because our hearts are no lesse in his sight than our hands are We cannot content our Master nor should we content our selves with a bare and barren profession in the service of God neither with the addition of some outward performances of the work done But since our Master calleth for the heart as well as the hand and tongue and requireth truth in the inward parts no lesse rather much more than shew in the outward let us but joyn that inward truth of the heart unto the outward profession and performance and doubtlesse we shall be accepted Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart 1 Sam. 12. Secondly we must shew our faithfulnesse to our Master by our zeal in his behalf A faithful servant will not endure an evil word spoken of
punishment to awaken other from their security in sinne How should we send up Supplications and prayers and intercessions for Kings and for all that are in authority that God would incline their hearts unto righteous courses and open their ears to wholesom counsels and strengthen their hands to just actions when but a sinfull oversight in one of them may prove the overthrow of many thousands of us as David but by once numbring his people in the pride of his heart lessened their number at one clap threescore and ten thousand If Israel turn their backs upon their enemies up Iosuah and make search for the troubler of Israel firret out the thief and doe execution upon him one Achan if but suffered is able to undoe the whole hoast of Israel what mischief might he doe if countenanced if allowed The hour I see hath overtaken me and I must end To wrap up all in a word then and conclude Thou that hast power over others suffer no sin in them by base connivence but punish it thou that hast charge of others suffer no sinne in them by dull silence but rebuke it thou that hast any interest in or dealing with others suffer no sinne upon them by easie allowance but distaste it thou that hast nothing else yet by thy charitable prayers for them and by constant example to them stop the course of sinne in others further the growth of grace in others labour by all means as much as in thee lyeth to draw others unto God lest their sinnes draw Gods judgements upon themselves and thee This that thou mayest doe and that I may doe and that every one of us that feareth God and wisheth well to the Israel of God may do faithfully and discreetly in our several stations and callings let us all humbly beseech the Lord the God of all grace and wisdom for his Son Iesus sake by his holy Spirit to enable us To which blessed Trinity one only wise Immortal Invisible Almighty most gracious and most glorious Lord and God be ascribed by every one of us the kingdom the power and the glory both now and for ever Amen THE FOVRTH SERMON AD POPVLVM In S. Pauls Church London 4 Nov. 1621. 1 Cor. 7.24 Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God IF flesh and bloud be suffered to make the Glosse it is able to corrupt a right good Text. It easily turneth the doctrine of Gods grace into wantonnesse and as easily the doctrine of Christian liberty into licentiousness These Corinthians being yet but Carnal for the point of Liberberty consulted it seemeth but too much with this cursed glosse Which taught them to interpret their Calling to the Christian Faith as an Exemption from the duties of all other callings as if their spiritual freedom in Christ had cancelled ipso facto all former obligations whether of Nature or Civility The Husband would put away his Wife the Servant disrespect his Master every other man break the bonds of relation to every other man and all under this pretence and upon this ground that Christ hath made them free In this passage of the Chap. the Apostle occasionally correcteth this erour pincipally indeed as the present Argument led him in the particular of Marriage but with a farther and more universal extent to all outward states and conditions of life The sum of his Doctrine this He that is yoaked with a wife must not put her away but count her worthy of all love he that is bound to a Master must not despise him but count him worthy of all honour every other man that is tyed in any relation to any other man must not neglect him but count him worthy of all good offices and civil respects suitable to his place and person though Shee or He or that other be Infidels and Unbeleevers The Christian Calling doth not at all prejudice much less overthrow it rather establisheth and strengtheneth those interests that arise from natural relations or from voluntary contracts either domestical or civil betwixt Man and Man The general rule to this effect he conceiveth in the form of an Exhortation that every man notwithstanding his calling unto liberty in Christ abide in that station wherein God hath placed him contain himself within the bounds thereof and cheerfully and contentedly undergoe the dutiâ—s that belong thereto ver 17. As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk And lest this Exhortation as it fareth with most other especially such as come in but upon the by as this doth should bee slenderly regarded the more fully to commend it to their consideration and practice he repeateth it once again verse 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called And now again once more in the words of this verse concluding therewith the whole discourse into which he had digressed Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God From which words I desire it may be no prejudice to my present discourse if I take occasion to entreat at this time of a very needfull argument viz. concerning the Necessity Choice and Use of particular callings Which whilst I doe if any shall blame me for shaking hands with my text let such know First that it will not be very charitably done to passe a hard censure upon anothers labour no nor yet very providently for their own good to slight a profitable truth for some little seeming impertinency Secondly that the points proposed are indeed not impertinent the last of them which supposeth also the other two being the very substance of this Exhortation and all of them such as may without much violence be drawn from the very words themselves at leastwise if we may be allowed the liberty which is but reasonable to take-in also the other two verses the 17. and the 20. in sense and for substance all one with this as anon in the several handling of them will in part appear But howsoever Thirdly which Saint Bernard deemed a sufficient Apology for himself in a case of like nature Noverint me non tam intendisse c. let them know that in my choice of this Scripture my purpose was not so much to bind my self to the strict exposition of the Apostolical Text as to take occasion there-from to deliver what I desired to speak and judged expedient for you to hear concerning 1. the Necessity 2. the Choice and 3. the Use of particular Callings Points if ever needfull to be taught and known certainly in these dayes most Wherein some habituated in idleness will not betake themselves to any Calling like a heavy jade that is good at bit and nought else These would be soundly spurred up and whipped on end Othersome through weakness doe not make a good choice of a fit Calling like a young unbroken thing that hath mettal and is free but is ever wrying the
Callings too As the Lord hath called every one vers 20. When therefore we speak of the choice of a Calling you are not so to understand it as if it were left free for us ever to make our choice where and as we list The choice that is left to us is no other but a conscionable enquiry which way God calleth us and a conscionable care to take that way So that if it shall once appear that God calleth us this way or that way there is no more place for choice all that we have to doe is to obey Obsequium sufficit esse meum The enquiries we are to make ordinarily are as you shall hear anon what lawfulnesse there is in the thing what abilities there are in us what warrant we have from without But all these must cease when God once expresseth himself and calleth us with an audible voice No more enquiry then into the thing how lawfull it is If God bid Peter kill and eat and send him to preach unto the Gentiles there is no answering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so Lord nor alleging the uncleannesse of the meat or the unlawfullnesse of going into the way of the Gentiles Injusta justa habenda what God will have clean he must not account common His very call to any thing maketh it lawfull No more enquiry into our selves how able we are If God call Moses one of a slow speech and not eloquent from the sheep-fold to plead for his people before a Tyrant or Gideon a mean stripling of a small family and Tribe from the threshing floor to deliver Israel out of the hands of their oppressors or Ieremy a very child and one that could not speak from his cottage in Anathoth to set him over nations and kingdoms to root out and to plant or Amos a plain countrey fruit-gatherer from the Herd in Tekoah to prophesie at Bethel and in the Kings Court it is a fruitlesse and unseasonable modesty to allege unsufficiency or unworthinesse Iuvat idem Qui jubet Where he setteth on work he giveth strength to goe through with it His very calling of any man maketh him able No more enquiry into outward means what warrant we have If God call Paul to be an Apostle and to bear his name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel it is needlesse to conferr with flesh and bloud or to seek confirmation at Ierusalem from them which were Apostles before him by the imposition of their hands Gods work in him supplyeth abundantly the want of those solemnities and Paul is as good an Apostle as the best of them although he be an Apostle not of men neither by man Gods calling any man to any office sealeth his warrant Non tutum renuisse Deo Away with all excuses and pretences and delayes when God calleth submit thy will subdue thy reason answer his Call as Samuel was taught to do Speak Lord for thy servant heareth If it were expedient for us that God should still deal with us as he did long with the Iewish and a while with the infant Christian Church by immediate inspirations and call us either by secret Enthusiasms or sensible insinuations as he did many of them into the way wherein he would have us walk the Rule for our Choice would be easie or rather there would need no Rule at all because indeed there would be left no choice at all but this only even to get up and be doing to put our selves speedily into that way whereunto he did point us But since the wisdom of GOD hath thought it better for us to take counsel from his written word which he hath left us for our ordinary direction in this and all other difficulties rather than to depend upon immediate and extraordinary inspirations it will be very profitable for us to draw thence some few Rules whereby to make reasonable judgement concerning any course of life whether that it be whereunto God hath called us or no. The Rules as I have partly intimated already may be reduced to three heads according as the enquiries we are to make in this businesse are of three sorts For they either concern the course it self or else our selves that should use it or else thirdly those that have right and power over us in it If there be a fail in any of these as if either the course it self be not lawful or we not competently fit for it or our superiours will not allow of us or it we may well think God hath not called us thither God is just and will not call any man to that which is not honest and good God is all-sufficient and will not call any man to that which is above the proportion of his strength God is wonderfull in his providence and will not call any man to that whereto he will not open him a fair and orderly passage Somewhat by your patience of each of these And first of the Course we intend Wherein let these be our Enquiries First whether the thing be simply and in it self lawful or no Secondly whether it be lawfull so as to be made a Calling or no Thirdly whether it will be profitable or rather hurtfull to the Common-wealth Now observe the Rules The first Rule this Adventure not on any course without good assurance that it be in it self lawful The ground of this Rule is plain and evident For it cannot be that God who hateth and forbiddeth and punisheth every sinne in every man should call any man to the practice of any sin Let him that stole steal no more saith S. Paul But rather let him labour with his hands the thing that is good Ephes. 4. If it be not something that is good it is good for him to hold his hands off let him be sure God never called him to labour in that and he were as good hold to his old trade and steal still as labour with his hands the thing that is not good If Diana of Ephesus be an Idol Demetrius his occupation must down he must make no more silver shrines for Diana though by that craft he have his wealth Tertullian excellently enlargeth himself in this argument in his Book de Idololatria strongly disapproving their practice who being Christians yet got their living by making Statues and Images and other ornaments to sell to Heathen Idolaters Offenders against this Rule are not only such as live by Stealing and Robbing and Piracy and Purse-cutting and Witch-craft and other such like ungodly practices as are made capital even by the Lawes of Men and punishable by death but all such also as maintain themselves by or get their living in any course absolutely condemned by the Law of God howsoever they may find amongst men either expresse allowance as Whores and Baudes do in the holy Mother Church of Rome or at least some kind of toleration by connivence as
Is it any thanks to our selves Nor that neither we have neither number to match them nor policy to defeat them nor strength to resist them weak silly little flock as we are But to whom then is it thanks As if a little flock of sheep escape when a multitude of ravening Wolves watch to devour them it cannot be ascribed either in whole or in part either to the sheep in whom there is no help or to the Wolf in whom there is no mercy but it must be imputed all and wholly to the good care of the shepherd in safe guarding his sheep and keeping off the Wolf so for our safety and preservation in the midst and in the spight of so many Enemies Not unto us O Lord not unto us whose greatest strength is but weaknesse much lesse unto them whose tenderest mercies are cruel but unto thy Name be the glory O thou Shepheard of Israel who out of thine abundant love to us who are the flock of thy Pasture and the sheep of thy hands hast made thy power glorious in curbing and restraining their malice against us Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Wonders we may well call them indeed they are Miracles if things strange and above and against the ordinary course of Nature may be called Miracles When we read the stories in the Scriptures of Daniel cast into the den among the Lions and not touched of the three children walking in the midst of the fiery furnace and not scorched of a viper fastning upon Pauls hand and no harm following we are stricken with some amazement at the consideration of these strange and supernatural accidents and these we all confesse to be miraculous escapes Yet such Miracles as these and such escapes God worketh daily in our preservation notwithstanding we live encompassed with so many fire-brands of hell such herds of ravening Wolves and Lions and Tygers and such numerous generations of vipers I mean wicked and ungodly men the spawn of the old Serpent who have it by kinde from their father to thirst after the destruction of the Saints and servants of God and to whom it is as natural so to do as for the fire to burn or a viper to bite or a Lion to devour Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for this his goodnesse and daily declare these his great wonders which he daily doth for the children of men Secondly since this restraint of wicked men is so only from God as that nothing either they or we or any Creature in the world can do can with-hold them from doing us mischief unlesse God lay his restraint upon them it should teach us so much wisdome as to take heed how we trust them It is best and safest for us as in all other things so in this to keep the golden mean that we be neither too timorous nor too credulous If wicked men then threaten and plot against thee yet fear them not God can restrain them if he think good and then assure thy self they shall not harm thee If on the other side they colloague and make shew of much kindnesse to thee yet trust them not God may suffer them to take their own way and not restrain them and then assure thy self they will not spare thee Thou maist think perhaps of some one or other of these that sure his own good nature will hold him in or thou hast had trial of him heretofore and found him faithfull as heart could wish or thou hast some such tye upon him by kindred neighbourhood acquaintance covenant oath benefits or other natural or civil obligation as will keep him off at least from falling foul upon thee all at once Deceive not thy self these are but slender assurances for thee to abide upon Good nature alas where is it since Adam fell there was never any such thing in rerum natura if there be any good thing in any man it is all from Grace nature is all naught even that which seemeth to have the preheminence in nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is stark naught We may talk of this and that of good natured men and I know not what But the very truth is set grace aside I mean all grace both renewing and restraining grace there is no more good nature in any man than there was in Cain and in Iudas That thing which we use to call good nature is indeed but a subordinate means or instrument whereby God restraineth some men more than others from their birth and special constitution from sundry outragious exorbitancies and so is a branch of this restraining Grace whereof we now speak And as for thy past Experience that can give thee little security thou knowest not what fetters God layed upon him then nor how he was pleased with those fetters God might full sore against his will not only restrain him from doing thee hurt but also constrain him to do thee good as sometimes he commanded the Ravens to feed Eliah a bird so unnatural to her young ones that they might famish for her if God did not otherwise provide for them and therefore it is noted in the Scripture as a special argument of Gods providence that he feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him But as nothing that is constrained is durable but every thing when it is constrained against its natural inclination if it be let alone will at length return to his own kinde and primitive disposition as these Ravens which now fed Eliah would have been as ready another time to have pecked out his eyes so a Natural man is a natural man still howsoever ouer-ruled for the present and if God as he hath hitherto by his restraint with-held him shall but another while withhold his restraint from him he will soon discover the inbred hatred of his heart against good things and men and make thee at the last beshrew thy folly in trusting him when he hath done thee a mischief unawares And therefore if he have done thee seven courtesies and promise fair for the eighth yet trust him not for there are seven abominations in his heart And as for whatsoever other hanck thou maiest think thou hast over him be it never so strong unlesse God manacle him with his powerful restraint he can as easily unfetter himself from them all as Sampson from the green wit hs and coards wherewith the Philistines bound him All those fore-mentioned relations came in but upon the bye and since whereas the hatred of the wicked against goodness is of an ancienter date and hath his root in corrupt nature and is therefore of such force that it maketh void all obligations whether civil domestical or other that have grown by vertue of any succeeding contract It is a ruled case Inimici domestici A mans enemies may be
Levellers whose Principles are so destructive of all that Order and Iustice by which publick societies are supported do yet style themselves as by a kinde of peculiarity The Godly And that secondly it is the easyest thing in the world and nothing more common then for men to pretend Conscience when they are not minded to obey I do not believe thirdly though I am well perswaded of the godliness of many of them otherwise that the refusal of indifferent Ceremonies enjoyned by Lawful Authority is any part of their Godliness or any good fruit evidence or signe thereof But certain it is fourthly that the godliest men are men and know but in part and by the power of godliness in their hearts are no more secured from the possibility of falling into Errour through Ignorance then from the possibility of falling into Sin through Infirmity And as for Tenderness of Conscience fifthly a most gracious blessed fruit of the holy Spirit of God where it is really and not in pretence only nor mistaken for sure it is â—o very tender Conscience though sometimes called so that straineth at a Gnat and swalloweth a Camel it is with it as with other tender things very subject to receive harme and soon put out of order Through the cunning of Satan it dangerously exposeth men to temptations on the right hand and through its own aptitude to entertain and to cherish unnecessary scruples it strongly disposeth them to listen thereunto so long till at the last they are overcome thereof Needful it is therefore that in the publick teaching the Errours should be sometimes refuted and the Temptations discovered And this ever to be done seasonably soberly discreetly and convincingly and when we are to deal with men whose Consciences are so far as we can discern truly tender with the spirit of Meekness and Compassion For tender things must be tenderly dealt withall or they are lost I know it is not allwayes so done nor can we expect it should All Preachers are neither so charitable nor so prudent nor so conscientious as they should be And they that are such in a good measure are men still and may be transported now and then through passion and infirmity beyond the just bounds of moderation But then the fault is not so much in the choise of the argument they treat of as in the ill-managing thereof which ought not to cast any prejudice upon others who deal in the same argument but after another manner § VII But that which pincheth most in this first particular is as I suppose this That upon all publick occasions especially in Visitation-Sermons they who agree with us in the substance of the same reformed Religion are for the most part the only mark shot at whilest the common enemy the Papist hath little or nothing said against him For answer hereunto First so far as concerneth the Sermons here published the Objection is void for therein the Papist hath had his share as well as his fellows so oft as the Text gave occasion or the file of my discourse led me thereunto as by the papers themselves whereunto reference to be had will evidently appear Secondly admitting all true that is alleaged either we are excusable in what they blame us for or they that blame us inexcusable who do the very same things Do not they usually in their Sermons fall bitterly upon the Papists and Arminians but seldome meddle with the Socinians scarce ever name the Turks I have been often told of their declamations against the observing of Christmas that great superstitious thing but I remember not to have heard of much spoken against Perjury and Sacriledge and some other sins wherewith our times abound Nay doth not their zeal even against Popery it self Popery I mean truly so called of late years and since most of the Pulpits are in their possession seem to abate at leastwise in comparison of the zeal they shew against Episcopacy and against the Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies lately in use among us These they cry down with all the noise they can and with all the strength they have having first branded them with the name of Popery and this must now pass for preaching against Popery I demand then Is there not the like reason of reproving Sins and refuting Errours If so are not Perjury and Sacriledge as great sins at least as keeping Christmas holy day Howsoever are not the Errors of the Turks that deny the whole structure of the Christian Religion foundation and all far worse then the Errors of the Papists who by their additional superstructures have only altered the fabrick but keep the foundation still And are not the Errours of the Socinians who deny the Trinity Gods Omniscience the Eternity of the Son the Divinity of the Holy Ghost Original sin the calling of Ministers and far worse then those the Arminians are charged withall of Free Will Vniversal Redemption Falling from Grace c. And are not the old rotten points of Popery the Popes Oecumenical Pastorship and Infallibility the Scriptures unsufficiency Image-worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Half-Communion c. Errours of as great a magnitude as those other points of Popery lately and falsly dubb'd such of Episcopacy Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies If they be why do our Brethren preach oftner and inveigh more against these later and lesser in comparison then against those former and greater sins and Errours I doubt not but they have some Reasons wherewith to satisfie themselves for their so doing else they were much to blame Be those Reasons what they will if they will serve to excuse them they will serve as well to justifie us § VIII It will be said perhaps First That the Turks have no Communion with us They are out of the Church and our chiefest care should be for those within leaving those without for God to judge Or indeed Secondly To what purpose would it be to address our speeches to them some thousands of miles out of hearing If our voyces were as loud as Stentors or that of Mars in Homer the sound would not reach them Besides that Thirdly There is little danger in our people of receiving hurt or infection from them who have no such agents here to tamper with the people in that behalfe no such artifices and plausible pretensions whereby to work them over to their side no such advantages as the agreement in some Common Principles might afford for bringing on the rest as the Papists have Who being within the pale of the visible Catholick Church and living in the midst of us have their instruments ready at hand in every corner to gain Proselytes for Rome the specious pretences of Antiquity Vniversality Consent of Councels and Fathers c. Wherewith to dazle the eyes of weak and credulous persons and some ground also to work upon in the agreement that is between them and us in the principall Articles of the Christian Faith § IX These Reasons I confess are satisfactory
because we know we may lawfully do it but for that we know we must of necessity do it as bound thereunto in obedience to lawfull authority and in the conscience we ought to make of such obedience And the refusers do not onely de facto not conform to the contempt of authority and the scandall of others but they stand in it too and trouble the peace of the Church by their restlesse Petitions and Supplications and Admonitions and other publications of the reasons and grounds of their such refusall And verily this Countrey and County hath been not the least busie in these factions and tumultuous courses both in troubling our most gracious judicious and religious Soveraign with their petitions and also in publishing their reasons in a Book called The Abridgement printed 1605. to their own shame and the shame of their Countrey He who as I have been informed was thought to have had a chief hand in the collecting of those reasons and printing of that Book was for his obstinate refusall of Conformity justly deprived from his Benefice in this Diocess and thereupon relinquished his Ministery for a time betaking himself to another Calling so depriving the Church and people of God of the fruit and benefit of those excellent gifts which were in him But since that time he hath upon better and more advised judgement subscribed and conformed and the Church like an indulgent Mother hath not onely received him into her bosome again but hath restored him too though not to the same yet to a Benefice elsewhere of far better value Lastly there is difference in the faulty carriage of the persons and that on both parts especially on ours For though our Non-conforming Brethren condemn us with much liberty of speech and spirit having yet lesse reason for it than the weak Romans had for the strong among them might have forborn some things for the Weaks sake and it would have well become them for the avoiding of scandall so to have done which we cannot do without greater scandall in the open contempt of lawfull authority yet we do not despise them I mean with allowance from the Church if particular men do more than they should it is their private fault and ought not to be imputed to us or to our Church but use all good means we can to draw them to moderate courses and just obedience although they better deserve to be despised than the weak Romans did they being truly Weak ours Obstinate they Timorous ours also Contemptuous Now these differences are opened betwixt the Case in my Text and the Case of our Church we may the better judge how far forth Saint Pauls advice here given to the Romans in their case of eating and not-eating ought to rule us in our case of conforming and not-conforming in point of Ceremony And first of not despising then of not judging The ground of the Apostles precept for not despising him that ate not was his weaknesse So far then as this ground holdeth in our case this precept is to be extended and no further And we are hereby bound not to despise our Non-conforming Brethren so far forth as it may probably appear to us they are weak and not wilfull But so farre forth as by their courses and proceedings it may be reasonably thought their refusall proceedeth from corrupt or partiall affections or is apparently maintained with obstinacy and contempt I take it we may notwithstanding the Apostles admonition in my Text in some sort even despise them But because they think they are not so well and sairly dealt withall as they should be Let us consider their particular grievances wherein they take themselves despised and examine how just they are They say first they are despised in being scoffed and flouted and derided by loose companions and by profane or popishly affected persons in being styled Puritanes and Brethren and Precisians and in having many jests and fooleries fastened upon them whereof they are not guilty They are secondly despised they say in that when they are convented before the Bishops and others in Authority they cannot have the favour of an indifferent hearing but are proceeded against as far as Suspension and sometimes Deprivation without taking their answers to what is objected or giving answers to what they object Thirdly in that many honest and religious men of excellent and usefull gifts cannot be permitted the liberty of their Consciences and the free exercise of their Ministery onely for standing out in these things which our selves cannot but confess to be indifferent To their first Grievance we answer thâ—t we have nothing to do with those that are Popishly affected If they wrong them as it is like enough they will for they will not stick to wrong their betters we are not to be chaâ—ged with that let them answer for themselves But by the way let our Brethren consider whether their stiff and unreasonable opposing against those lawfull Ceremonies we retaine may not be one principall means to confirm but so much the more in their darknesse and superstition those that are wavering and might possibly by more ingenuous and seasonable insinuations be won over to embrace the truth which we professe And as for loose persons and profane ones that make it their sport upon their Ale-benches to raile and scoff at Puritanes As if it were warrant enough for them to drink drunk talk bawdy swear and stare or do any thing without controll because forsooth they are no Puritanes As we could wish our Brethren and their Lay-followers by their uncouth and sometimes ridiculous behaviour had not given profane persons too much advantage to play upon them and through their sides to wound even Religion it self so we could wish also that some men by unreasonable and unjust other some by unseasonable and indiscreet scoffing at them had not given them advantage to triumph in their own innocency and persist in their affected obstinacy It cannot but be some confirmation to men in errour to see men of dissolute and loose behaviour with much eagernesse and petulancy and virulence to speak against them We all know how much scandall and prejudice it is to a right good cause to be either followed by persons open to just exception or maintained with slender and unsufficient reasons or prosecuted with unseasonable and undiscreet violence And I am verily perswaded that as the increase of Papists in some parts of the Land hath occasionally sprung by a kind of Antiperistasis from the intemperate courses of their neighbour Puritanes so the increase of Puritanes in many parts of the Land oweth not so much to any sufficiency themselves conceive in their own grounds as to the disadvantage of some profane or scandalous or idle or ignorant or indiscreet opposers But setting these aside I see not but that otherwise the name of Puritane and the rest are justly given them For appropriating to themselves the names of Brethren Professors Goodmen and other
directly and per se but obliquely and indirectly and in ordine ad spiritualia The Man himself though he pretend to be supreme infallible judge of all Controversies yet heareth both parties and taketh advantage of what either give him as best sorteth with his present occasions and suffereth them to fall foul each upon other these accounting them grosse flatterers and they again these wicked â—oliticians but dareth not for his life determine whether side is in the right lest if he should be put to make good his determination by sufficient proof both should appeare to be in the wrong and he lose all which whilest they quarrell he still holdeth It is a certain thing The spirituall Power conferred in Holy Orders doth not include the Power of Temporall jurisdiction If Phinehes here execute judgement upon a Prince of Israel it is indeed a good fruit of his zeal but no proper act of his Priesthood Let it go for a non sequitur then as it is no better because Phinehes a Priest or Priests sonne executed judgement that therefore the Priestly includeth a Iudicatory Power Yet from such an act done by such a Person at least thus much will follow that the Priesthood doth not exclude the exercise of Iudicature and that there is no such repugnancy and inconsistency between the Temporall and Spirituall Powers but that they may without incongruity concurre and reside both together in the same person When I find anciently that not onely among the Heathens but even among Gods own people the same man might be a King and a Priest Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos as Melchisedec was both a Priest of the most High God and King of Salem when I see it consented by all that so long as the Church was Patriarchall the Priestly and the Iudicatory Power were both setled upon one and the same Person the Person of the first-born when I read of Eli the Priest of the sonnes of Aaron judging Israel 40. yeares and of Samuel certainly a Levite though not as some have thought a Priest both going circuit as a Iudge itinerant in Israel and doing execution too with his own hands upon Agag and of Chenaniah and his sonnes Izharites and Hashabiah and his brethren Hebronites and others of the families of Levi appointed by King David to be Judges and Officers not onely in all the businesse over the Lord but also for outward businesse over Israel and in things that concerned the service of the King when I observe in the Church-stories of all ages ever since the world had Christian Princes how Ecclesiasticall persons have been imployed by their Soveraigns in their weightiest consultations and affairs of State I cannot but wonder at the inconsiderate rashnesse of some forward ones in these daies who yet think themselves and would be thought by others to be of the wisest men that suffer their tongues to runne riot against the Prelacy of our Church and have studied to approve themselves eloquent in no other argument so much as in inveighing against the Courts and the Power and the Iurisdiction and the Temporalties of Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons I speak it not to justifie the abuses of men but to maintain the lawfulnesse of the thing If therefore any Ecclesiasticall person seek any Temporall office or power by indirect ambitious and preposterous courses if he exercise it otherwise then well insolently cruelly corruptly partially if he claim it by any other then the right title the free bounty and grace of the supreme Magistrate let him bear his own burden I know not any honest Minister that will plead for him But since there is no incapacity in a Clergy-man by reason of his spirituall Calling but he may exercise temporall Power if he be called to it by his Prince as well as he may enjoy temporall Land if he be heire to it from his Father I see not but it behoveh us all if we be good Subjects and sober Christians to pray that such as have the power of Iudicature more or lesse in any kind or degree committed unto them may exercise that power wherewith they are entrusted with zeal and prudence and equity rather than out of envy at the preferment of a Church-man take upon us little lesse than to quarrel the discretion of our Soveraignes Phinehes though he could not challenge to execute judgement by vertue of his Priesthood yet his priesthood disabled him not from executing judgement That for the Person Followeth his Action and that twofold He stood up He executed judgement Of the former first which though I call it an Action yet is indeed a Gesture properly and not an Action But being no necessity to bind me to strict propriety of speech be it Action or Gesture or what else you will call it the circumstance and phrase since it seemeth to import some materiall thing may not be passed over without some consideration Then stood up Phinehes Which clause may denote unto us either that extraordinary spirit whereby Phinehes was moved to do judgement upon those shamelesse offenders or that forwardnesse of zeal in the heat whereof he did it or both Phinehes was indeed the High Priests sonne as we heard but yet a private man and no ordinary Magistrate and what had any private man to do to draw the sword of justice or but to sentence a malefactor to dye Or say he had been a Magistrate he ought yet to have proceeded in a legall and judiciall course to have convented the parties and when they had been convicted in a fair triall and by sufficient witnesse then to have adjudged them according to the Law and not to have come suddenly upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were acting their villany and thrust them thorow uncondemned I have elsewhere delivered it as a collection not altogether improbable from the circumstances of the originall story that Phinehes had warrant for this execution from the expresse command of Moses the supreme Magistrate and namely by vertue of that Proclamation whereby he authorized the Under-Rulers to slay every one his men that were joyned unto Baal-Peor Num. 25.5 And I since find that conjecture confirmed by the judgement of some learned men insomuch as an eminent Writer in our Church saith that By vertue of that Commission every Israelite was made a Magistrate for this execution But looking more neerly into the Text and considering that the Commission Moses there gave was first onely to the Rulers and so could be no warrant for Phinehes unlesse he were such a Ruler which appeareth not and secondly concerned onely those men that were under their severall governments and so was too short to reach Zimri who being himself a Prince and that of another Tribe too the Tribe of Simeon could not be under the government of Phinehes who was of the Tribe of Levi how probable soever
and Iudas were called the one to the Kingdom the other to the Apostleship of whom it is certain the one was not and it is not likely the other was endued with the holy Spirit of Sanctification And many Heathen men have been called to several imployments wherein they have also laboured with much profit to their own and succeeding times who in all probability never had any other inward motion than what might arise from some or all of these three things now specified viz. the Inclination of their nature their personal Abilities and the care of Education If it shall please GOD to afford any of us any farther gracious assurance than these can give us by some extraordinary work of his Spirit within us we are to embrace it with joy and thankfulness as a special favour but we are not to suspend our resolutions for the choice of a course in expectation of that extraordinary assurance since we may receive comfortable satisfaction to our souls without it by these ordinary means now mentioned For who need be scrupulous where all these concurre Thy Parents have from thy childhood destinated thee to some special course admit the Ministery and been at the care and charge to breed thee up in learning to make thee in some measure fit for it when thou art grown to some maturity of years and discretion thou findest in thy self a kind of desire to be doing someting that way in thy private study by way of tryal and withall some measure of knowledge discretion and utterance though perhaps not in such an eminent degree as thou couldest wish yet in such a competency as thou mayst reasonably perswade thy self thou mightest thereby be able with his blessing to doe some good to Gods people and not be altogether unprofitable in the Ministery In this so happy concurrence of Propension Abilities and Education make no farther enquiry doubt not of thine inward calling Tender thy self to those that have the power of Admission for thy outward calling which once obtained thou art certainly in thine own proper Course Up and be doing for the Lord hath called thee and no doubt the Lord will be with thee But say these three doe not concurre as oftentimes they doe not A man may be destinated by his friends and accordingly bred out of some covetous or ambitious or other corrupt respect to some Calling wherefrom he may be altogether averse and whereto altogether unfit as we see some Parents that have the donations or advocations of Church livings in their hands must needs have some of their Children and for the most part they set by the most untoward and mis-shapen chip of the whole block to make timber for the Pulpit but some of their children they will have thrust into the Ministery though they have neither a head nor a heart for it Again a man may have good sufficiency in him for a Calling and yet out of a sloathfull desire of ease and liberty if it seem painfull or austere or an ambitious desire of eminency and reputation if it seem base and contemptible or some other secret corruption cannot set his mind that way as Salomon saith there may be A price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom and yet the fool have no heart to it And divers other occurrents there may be and are to hinder his happy conjuncture of Nature Skill and Education Now in such Cases as these where our Education bendeth us one way our Inclination swayeth us another way and it may be our Gifts and Abilities lead us a third in this distraction what are we to doe which way to take what Calling to pitch upon In point of Conscience there can no more be given General Rules to meet with all Cases and regulate all difficulties than in point of Law there can be general Resolutions given to set an end to all sutes or provisions made to prevent all inconveniencies Particulars are infinite and various but Rules are not must not cannot be so He whose Case it is if he be not able to direct himself should doe well to take advice of his learned Counsel This we can readily doe in matters of Law for the quieting of our Estates why should we not doe it at least as readily in matter of Conscience for the quieting of our souls But yet for some light at least in the generality what if thou shouldest proceed thus First have an eye to thy Education and if it be possible to bring the rest that way do so rather than forsake it For besides that it would be some grief to thy Parents to whom thou shouldest be a comfort to have cast away so much charge as they have been at for thy education and some dishonour to them withall whom thou art bound by the law of God and Nature to honour to have their judgements so much slighted and their choice so little regarded by their child the very consideration of so much precious time as hath been spent in fitting thee to that course which would be almost all lost upon thy change should prevail with thee to try all possible means rather than forgoe it It were a thing indeed much to be wished that Parents and Friends and Guardians and all those other whatsoever that have the Education of young ones committed unto them all greedy desires to make their Children great all base penurious nigardnesse in saving their own purses all fond cherishing of their children in their humours all doting opinion of their forwardnesse and wit and towardlinesse all other corrupt partial affections whatsoever laid aside would out of the observation of their natural propensions and inclinations and of their particular abilities and defects frame them from the beginning to such courses as wherein they were likeliest to goe on with chearfulnesse and profit This indeed were to be wished but this is not alwaies done If it have not been so done to thee the fault is theirs that should have done it and not thine and thou art not able now to remedy that which is past and gone But as for thee and for the future if thy Parents have not done their part yet doe not thou forget thy duty if they have done one fault in making a bad choice doe not thou adde another in making a worse change disparage not their Iudgements by misliking neither gain-say their Wils by forsaking their choice upon every small incongruity with thine own Iudgement or Will If thine Inclination draw thee another way labour throughly to subdue thy nature therein Suspect thine own corruption Think this backwardness proceedeth not from true judgment in thee but issueth rather from the root of some carnal affection Consider thy years are green affections strong judgement unsetled Hope that this backwardnesse will grow off as years and stayednesse grow on Pray and endeavour that thou maist daily more and more wain thy affections from thine own bent and take liking to that
course whereunto thou hast been so long in framing Thus possibly thou mayest in time make that cheerfull and delightfull unto thee which now is grievous and irksom And as for thy insufficiency if that dishearten thee which is indeed a main rubb doe thus Impute thy former non-proficiency to thine own sloath and negligence Think if after so long time spent in this course thou hast attained to no greater perfection in it how long it would be ere thou shouldest come to a tolerable mediocrity in another Resolve not to lose all that precious time forepast by beginning the world anew but rather save as much of it as is redeemable by adding to thy diligence Suspect that it commeth from thy pride that thou canst not content thy self with a Calling wherein thou mayest not be excellent and imagine that God of purpose to humble thee might divert thy education to another for which thou art lesse apt Observe what strange things past belief and such as have seemed insuperable have been conquered and subdued by the obstinacy and improbity of unwearied labour and of assiduity Doubt not but by Gods blessing upon thy faithfull industry to attain in time if not to such perfection as thou desirest and mightest perhaps have attained in some other course if thou hadst been bred up to it yet to such a competent sufficiency as may render thy endeavours acceptable to God comfortable to thy self and serviceable to community If by these and the like considerations and the use of other good means thou canst bring thy affections to some indifferent liking of and thy abilities to some indifferent mediocrity for that course which Education hath opened unto thee thou hast no more to doe There 's thy Course that 's thy Calling that 's the Work whereunto God hath appointed thee But if after long striving and pains and tryal thou canst neither bring thy mind to it nor doe any good upon it having faithfully desired and endeavoured it so that thou must needs leave the course of thy Education or which is another case if thy Education have left thee free as many Parents God knoweth are but too carelesse that way then Secondly thou art in the next place to consider of thy Gifts and Abilities and to take direction from them rather than from thine inclination And this Rule I take to be very sound not only from the Apostles intimation vers 17. As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one where he seemeth to make the choice of mens Callings to depend much upon the distribution of Gods Gifts but withall for two good Reasons One is because our Gifts and Abilities whether of body or mind being in the brain or hand are at a better certainty than our Propensions and Inclinations are which are seated in the Heart The heart is deceitfull above all things and there are so many rotten corruptions in it that it is a very hard thing for a man to discern his own Inclinations and Propensions whether they spring from a sound or from a corrupt root Whereas in the discerning of our Gifts and Abilities we are lesse subject to grosse Errours and mistakings I mean for the truth and reality of them howsoever we are apt to overvalue them for the measure and degree Now it is meet in the choice of our Callings we should follow the surer guide and therefore rather be led by our Gifts than by our Inclinations The other Reason is because our Inclinations cannot so well produce Abilities as these can draw on them We say indeed there is nothing hard to a willing mind and in some sense it is true Not as if a willing mind could make us doe more than we are able A man can doe no more than he can doe be he never so willing but because a willing mind will make us exerere vires stir up our selves to doe as much as we are able which we use not to doe in those things we goe unwillingly about Willingness then may quicken the strength we have but it doth not put any new strength into us But Abilities can produce Inclinations de novo and make them where they find them not As we see every other natural thing is inclinable to the exercise of those natural faculties that are in it so certainly would every man have strongest inclination to those things whereto he hath strongest abilities if wicked and untoward affections did not often corrupt our inclinations and hinder them from moving their own proper and natural way It is best then to begin the choice of our Callings from our Abilities which will fetch on Inclinations and not from our Inclinations which without Abilities will not serve the turn Concerning which gifts or abilities what they are and how to make true judgement of them and how to frame the choice of our Callings from them to speak punctually and fully would require a large discourse I can but touch at some few points therein such as are of daily use and proceed First by gifts and abilities we are to understand not only those of the Minde Judgement Wit Invention Memory Fancy Eloquence c. and those of the Body Health Strength Beauty Activity c. but also those which are without Birth Wealth Honour Authority Reputation Kinred Alliance c. generally any thing that may be of use or advantage unto us for any employment Secondly as our abilities on the one side so on the other side all our wants and defects which might disable us more or lesse for any employment are to be duly weighed and considered of and the one laid against the other that we may know how to make as near as we can a just estimate of our strength and sufficiency Thirdly it is the safer way to undervalue than to overprise our selves lest ignorantly confident we affect a Calling above our strength which were to flye with waxen wings and to owe the world a laughter Be we sure of this if God have not gifted us for it he hath not called us to it Fourthly in the judging of our Abilities we should have a regard to the outward circumstances of times and places and the rest Those gifts which would have made a sufficient Priest in the beginning of the Reformation in that dearth of learning and penury of the Gospel now the times are full of knowledge and learning would be all little enough for a Parish-Clerk Fifthly something would be yeelded to the judgments of other men concerning our Abilities It is either secret pride or base faintness of heart or dull sloath or some other thing and not true modesty in us if being excellently gifted for some weighty employment in every other mans judgement we yet withdraw our selves from it with pretensions of unsufficiency Sixthly and lastly let us resolve on that course caeteris paribus not only for which we are competently fit but for which we are absolutely fittest A
our selves truly thankfull we should take notice so far as possibly we could and in the species at least of all Gods blessings small and great and bring them all before him in the Confession of praise We should even Colligere fragmenta gather up the very broken meats and let nothing be lost those small petty blessings as we account them and as we think scarce worth the observation Did we so how many baskets full might be taken up which we daily suffer to fall to the ground and be lost Like Swine under the Oaks we grouze up the Akecornes and snouk about for more and eat them too and when we have done lye wrouting and thrusting our noses in the earth for more but never lift up so much as half an eye to the tree that shed them Every crum we put in our mouths every drop wherewith we coole our tongues the very ayre we continually breath in and out through our throats and nostrils a thousand other such things whereof the very commonness taketh away the observation we receive from his fulness and many of these are renewed every morning and some of these are renewed every minute And yet how seldome doe we so much as take notice of many of these things How justly might that complaint with GOD maketh against the unthankfull Israelites be taken up against us The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider The second degree of our Unthankfullness to God and that also for want of faithfull Acknowledgement is in ascribing the good things he hath given us to our own deserts or indeavours or to any of thertâ—ing or Creature either in part or in whole but only to him Such things indeed we have and we know it too perhaps but too well but we bestirred our selves for them we beat our brains for them we got them out of the fire and swet for them we may thank our good friends or we may thank our good selves for them Thus doe we Sacrifise unto our own nets and burn incense to our drag as if by them our portion were fat and our meat plenteous And as Pilate mingled the bloud of the Galileans with their own sacrifices so into these spiritual Sacrifices of Thanksgiving which we offer unto GOD we infuse a quantity of our own swinke and sweat of our own wit and fore-cast of our own power and friends still some one thing or other of our own and so rob God if not of all yet of so much of his honour This kind of unthankfulness God both fore-saw and forbad in his own people Deu. 8. warning them to take heed verse 17. lest when they abounded in all plenty and prosperity They should forget the Lord and say in their hearts my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth The very saying or thinking of this was a forgetting of God But saith Moses there Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is hee that giveth thee power to get wealth c. The whole Chapter is none other but a warn-word against unthankfulnesse All glorifying in our selves all vain boasting of the gifts of God or bearing our selves high upon any of his blessings is a kind of smothering of the receipt and argueth in us a kind of loathness to make a free acknowledgement of the Givers bounty and so is tainted with a spice of unthankfulness in this degree If thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it saith my Apostle elsewhere He that glorifieth in that for which he even giveth thanks doth by that glorying as much as he dareth reverse his thanks The Pharisee who thanked God he was not like other men did even then and by those very thanks but bewray his own wretched unthankfulnesse Besides a faithfull Recognition in freely acknowledging the benefit received there is required unto thankfulnesse a just Estimation of the benefit in valuing it as it deserveth Wherein we make default if either we value it not at all or under value it The third Degree then of our Ingratude unto God is the Forgetfulnesse of his benefits When we so easily forget them it is a sign we set nought by them Every man readily remembreth those things he maketh any reckoning of insomuch that although old age be naturally forgetfull yet Tully saith He never knew any man so old as to forget where he had hid his gold or to whom he had lent his monies In Deut. 8. Moses warneth the people as you heard to beware lest being full they should forget the Lord that had fed them and David stirreth up his soul in Psal. 103. to bless the Lord and not to forget any of his benefits Wee all condemn Pharaohs Butler of unthankfulness to Ioseph and so we may well do for he afterwards condemned himself for it in that having received comfort from Ioseph when they were fellow-Prisoners he yet forgat him when he was in place where and had power and opportunity to requite him How inexcusable are we that so condemn him seeing wherein we judge him we condemn our selves as much and much more for we do the same things and much worse He forgat Ioseph who was but a man like himself we forget God He had received but one good turn we many It is like he had none about him to put him in mind of Ioseph for as for Ioseph himself we know he lay by it and could have no accesse we have God himself daily rubbing up our memories both by his word and Ministers and also by new and fresh benefits He as soon as a fair occasion presented it self confest his fault and remembred Ioseph thereby shewing his former forgetfulnesse to have proceeded rather from negligence than Wilfulnesse we after so many fresh remembrances and blessed opportunities still continue in a kind of wilfull and confirmed resolution still to forget Well may we forget these private and smaller blessings when we begin to grow but too forgetfull of those great and publick Deliverances GOD hath wrought for us Two great Deliverances in the memory of many of us hath God in his singular mercy wrought for us of this Land such as I think take both together no Christian age or Land can parallel One formerly from a forein Invasion abroad another since that from an hellish Conspiracy at home both such as we would all have thought when they were done should never have been forgotten And yet as if this were Terra Oblivionis the land where all things are forgotten how doth the memory of them fade away and they by little and little grow into forgetfulnesse We have lived to see Eighty-eight almost quite forgotten and buried in a perpetual Amnesty God be blessed who hath graciously prevented what we feared herein God grant that we nor ours ever live to see
restraint And if he justly censured them as men of abject mindes that would for any consideration in the world willingly forgo their civil and Roman liberty what flatness of spirit possesseth us if we wilfully betray our Christian and spiritual liberty Whereby besides the dishonour we do also which is the fifth reason and whereunto I will adde no more with our own hands pull upon our own heads a great deal of unnecessary cumber For whereas we might draw an easie yoak carry a light burden observe commandements that are not grievous and so live at much hearts ease in the service of God and of Christ by putting our selves into the service of men we thrust our necks into a hard yoak of bondage such as neither we nor any of our fathers were ever able to bear we lay upon our own shoulders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy and importable burdens and subject our selves to ordinances which are both grievous and unprofitable and such are so far from preserving those that use them from perishing that themselves perish in the using Now against this liberty which if we will answer the trust reposed in us and neither wrong Christ nor dâ—shonour God nor yet dâ—base and encomber our selves where we should not we must with our utmost power maintain The offenders are of two sorts to wit such as either injuriously encroach upon the liberty of others or else unworthily betray away their own The most notorious of the former sort are the Bishops of Rome whose usurpations upon the consciences of men shew them to be the true successors of the Scribes and Pharisees in laying heavy burdens upon mens shoulders which they ought not and in rejecting the Word of God to establish their own traditions rather than the successors of S. Peter who forbiddeth dâ—minatum in Cleris in the last chapter of this Epistle at verse 3. To teach their own judgements to be infallible To make their definitions an universal and unerring rule of faith To stile their decrees and constitutions Oracles To assume to themselves all power in heaven and earth To require subjection both to their laws and persons as of necessity unto salvation To suffer themselves to be called by their parasites Dominus Deus noster Papa and Optimum maximum supremum in terris numen all which and much more is done and taught and professed by the Popes and in their behalf if all this will not reach to S. Pauls exaltari supra omne quod vocaâ—ur Deus yet certainly and no modest man can deny it it will amount to as much as S. Peters dominari in Cleris even to the exercising of such a Lordship over the Lords heritage the Christian Church as will become none but the Lord himself whose heritage the Church is Besides these that do it thus by open Assault I would there were not others also that did by secret underminings go about to deprive us of that liberty which we have in Christ Jesus even then when they most pretend the maintenance of it They inveigh against the Church Governours as if they Lorded it over Gods heritage and against the Church orders and constitutions as if they were contrary to Christian liberty Wherein besides that they do manifest wrong to the Church in both particulars they consider not that those very accusations which they thus irreverently dart at the face of their Mother to whom they owe better respect but miss it do recoil part upon themselves and cannot be avoided For whereas these constitutions of the Church are made for order decency and uniformity sake and to serve unto edification and not with any intention at all to lay a tye upon the consciences of men or to work their judgements to an opinion as if there were some necessity or inherent holiness in the things required thereby neither do our Governors neither ought they to press them any farther which is sufficient to acquit both the Governors from that Lording and the Constitutions from that trenching upon Christian liberty wherewith they are charged Alas that our brethren who thus accuse them should suffer themselves to be so far blinded with prejudices and partial affections as not see that themselves in the mean time do really exercise a spiritual Lordship over their disciples who depend in a manner wholly upon their judgements by imposing upon their consciences sundry Magisterial conclusions for which they have no sound warrant from the written Word of God Whereby besides the great injury done to their brethren in the impeachment of their Christian liberty and leading them into error they do withall exasperate against them the mindes of those that being in authority look to be obeyed and engage them in such sufferings as they can have no just cause of rejoycing in For beloved this we must know that as it is injustice to condemn the innocent as well as it is injustice to clear the guilty and both these are equal abominable to the Lord so it is superstition to forbid that as sinful which is in truth indifferent and therefore lawful as well as it is superstition to enjoyn that as necessary which is in truth indifferent and therefore arbitrary Doth that heavy woe in Esay 5. appertain think ye to them only that out of prophaneness call evil good and nothing at all concern them that out of preciseness call good evil Doth not he decline out of the way that turneth aside on the right hand as well as he that turneth on the left They that positively make that to be sin which the Law of God never made so to be how can they be excused from symbolizing with the Pharisees and the Papists in making the narrow waies of God yet narrower than they are in teaching for doctrines mens precepts and so casting a snare upon the consciences of their brethren If our Church should presse things as far and upon such grounds the one way as some forward spirits do the other way if as they say it is a sin to kneel at the Communion and therefore we charge you upon your consciences not to do it so the Church should say it is a sin not to kneel and therefore we require you upon your consciences to do it and so in all other lawful yet arbitrary ceremonies possibly then the Church could no more be able to acquit her self from encroaching upon Christian liberty than they are that accuse her for it Which since they have done and she hath not she is therefore free and themselves only guilty It is our duty for the better securing of our selves as well against those open impugners as against these secret underminers to look heedfully to our trenches and fortifications and to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free lest by some device or other we be lifted out of it To those that seek to enthrall us we should
wrong way These would be fairly checkt turned into the right way and guided with a steddy and skilfull hand A third sort and I think the greatest through unsetledness or discontentedness or other untoward humour walk not soberly and uprightly and orderly in their Calling like an unruly Colt that will over hedge and ditch no ground will hold him no fence turn him These would be well fettered and side-hanckled for leaping The first sort are to be taught the Necessity of a Calling the second to be directed for the Choice of their Calling the third to be bounded and limited in the Exercise of their Calling Of which three in their order and of the First first the Necessity of a calling The Scriptures speak of two kinds of Vocations or Callings the one ad Foedus the other ad Munus The usual known terms are the General and the Particular Calling Vocatio ad Foedus or the General Calling is that wherewith God calleth us either outwardly in the ministery of his Word or inwardly by the efficacy of his Spirit or joyntly by both to the faith and obedience of the Gospel and to the embracing of the Covenant of grace and of mercy and salvation by Iesus Christ. Which is therefore termed the General Calling not for that it is of larger extent than the other but because the thing whereunto we are thus called is one and the same and common to all that are called The same duties and the same promises and every way the same conditions Here is no difference in regard of Persons but One Lord one Faith one baptism one body and one spirit even as we are all called in one hope of our Calling That 's the General Calling Vocatio ad Munus Our Particular Calling is that wherewith GOD enableth us and directeth us and putteth us on to some special course and condition of life wherein to employ our selves and to exercise the gifts he hath bestowed upon us to his glory and the benefit of our selves and others And it is therefore termed a Particular Calling not as if it concerned not all in general for we shall prove the contrary anon but because the thing whereunto men are thus called is not one and the same to all but differenced with much variety according to the quality of particular persons Alius sic alius vero sic Every man hath his proper gift of God one man on this manner another on that Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some called to be Magistrates some Ministers some Merchants some Artificers some one thing some another as to their particular Callings But as to the General Calling there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common Salvation all called to the same State of being the servants and children of God all called to the performance of the same duties of servants and to the expectation of the same inheritance of children all called to be Christians Of both which Callings the General and Particular there is not I take it any where in Scripture mention made so expresly and together as in this passage of our Apostle especially at the 20 ver Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called Where besides the matter the Apostles elegancy is observable in using the same word in both significations the Noun signifying the Particular and the Verb the General Calling Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called bearing sense as if the Apostle had said Let every man abide in the same Particular Calling wherein he stood at the time of his General Calling And the same and no other is the meaning of the words of my Text. Whence it appeareth that the Calling my Text implyeth and wherein every man is here exhorted to abide is to be understood of the Particular and not of the General Calling And of this Particular Calling it is we now intend to speak And that in the more Proper and restrained signification of it as it importeth some setled course of life with reference to business office and imployment accordingly as we say a man is called to be a Minister called to be a Lawyer called to be a Tradesman and the like Although I cannot be ignorant that our Apostle as the stream of his argument caryed him here taketh the word in a much wider extent as including not only such special courses of life as refer to imployment but even all outward personal states and conditions of men whatsoever whether they have such reference or no as we may say a man is called to Marriage or to single life called to riches or poverty and the like But omitting this larger signification we will hold our selves either only or principally to the former and by Calling understand a special setled course of life wherein mainly to employ a mans gifts and time for his own and the common good The Necessity whereof whilst we mention you are to imagine not an absolute and positive but a conditional and suppositive necessity Not as if no man could be without one de facto dayly experience in these dissolute times manifesteth the contrary but because de jure no man should be without one This kind of Calling is indeed necessary for all men But how Not as a necessary thing ratione termini so as the want thereof would be an absolute impossibility but virtute praecepti as a necessary duty the neglect whereof would be a grievous and sinfull enormity He that will doe that which he ought and is in conscience bound to doe must of necessitity live in some calling or other That is it we mean by the Necessity of a Calling And this Necessity we are now to prove And that First from the Obedience we owe to every of Gods Ordinances and the account we must render for every of Gods Gifts Amongst those Ordinances this is one and one of the first that in the sweat of our faces every man of us should eat our bread Gen. 3. The force of which precept let none think to avoid by a quirk that forsooth it was layed upon Adam after his transgression rather as a Curse which he must endure than as a Duty which he should perform For first as some of Gods Curses such is his goodness are promises as well as Curses as is that of the Enmity between the Womans seed and the Serpents so some of Gods Curses such is his Iustice are Precepts as well as Curses as is that of the Womans subjection to the Man This of eating our bread in the sweat of our face is all the three it is a Curse it is a Promise it is a Precept It is as Curse in that God will not suffer the earth to afford us bread without our sweat It is a promise in that God assureth us we shall have bread for our sweat And it is a Precept too in that God enjoyneth us if we will have bread to