it self but in comparison with those twinkling cloudy stars of Jewish Ordinances and that once glorious but now eclipsed light the Law of Works since then this is the day which the Lord hath made for us we will rejoyce and be glad in it and we will be ready to hearken especially to any thing that shall be spoken concerning our Epiphany concerning that blessed light for many ages removed out of our sight and as on this day beginning to appear in our Horizon 3. The words of my Text I find so full and swelling with expression so fruitful and abounding in rich sense that I am almost sorry I have said so much of them to fit them to this day But in recompence I will spare the labour of shewing their dependance and connexion with the preceding part of the Epistle and consider them as a loose severed Thesis In which is contain'd not only the sum and extract of this Epistle but likewise of Christian Religion in general in opposition both to the Mosaical Law given to the Jews and the Law of Works call'd also the Moral Natural Law which from the beginning of the world hath been assented to and written in the hearts of all mankind The sense of which words if they were inlarg'd may be this We Christians by the tenour and prescript of our Religion expect the hope of Righteousness i. the reward which we hope for by righteousness not as those vain Teachers newly sprung up among you Galatians would have us by obedience unto the carnal Ceremonial Law of Moses but through the Spirit i. by a spiritual worship neither by performing the old Covenant of works which we are not able to fulfil but by faith by such an obedience as is prescribed unto us in the Gospel We through the Spirit wait c. 4. In these words then which comprehend the compleat essence of the Covenant of Grace we may consider First the conditions on mans part required in these words through the Spirit and by Faith Secondly upon the performance of our duty there follows Gods promise or the condition which God will make good unto us and that is the hope of Righteousness or Justification In the former part namely the obedience which is required from us Christians we may consider it first in opposition to the Mosaical Law by these words through the Spirit which import that it is not such an outward carnal obedience as Moses his Law required but an internal Spiritual worship of the heart and soul Secondly the opposition of this new Covenant to the old Covenant of Works in these words by Faith which signifie that we do not hope for salvation by the works of the Law but by the Righteousness of Faith or the Gospel In the second General we may likewise observe first the nature of Justification which comprehends the promises which God has been pleased to propose to us as the reward of our obedience Secondly the interest which we Christians in this life after we have perform'd our duties may have in these promises which is Hope express'd in these words We wait for the hope c. Of these 5. First then of the Covenant of Grace as it is distinguish'd from the Mosaical Law by these words through the Spirit Where we will consider the nature of the Jewish Law and wherein it is distinguish'd from the Christian When Almighty God with a high hand and a stretched out arm had rescued the people of Israel from the Aegyptian slavery and brought them in safety into the Wilderness intending then to settle and reduce them into good order and government himself and by common voluntary consent they all agree to submit themselves to whatsoever laws he shall prescribe unto them as we find Exod. 19. from 3d to the 9th verse Exod. 19.3 c. Judg. 8. So that afterwards Judg. 8. when the people after an unexpected glorious victory obtain'd by Gideon would have made him a King and have setled the government in his house No V. 23. saith Gideon v. 23. I will not rule over you neither shall my Son rule over you The Lord shall rule over you And likewise afterward when Samuel complained to God of the perverseness of the people who were weary of his government and would have a King as the Nations round about them had Thou art deceived saith God It is my government that they are weary of They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me and now are risen up in rebellion against me to depose me from that Dominion which with their free consents I assumed For which intolerable base ingratitude of that Nation in his wrath he gives them a King he appoints his Successour which revenged those injuries and indignities offered to Almighty God to the uttermost upon them 6. Now during the time of Gods reign over them never any King was so careful to provide wholesome laws both for Church and Common-wealth as He was Insomuch as he bids them look about and consider the nations round about them If ever any people was furnished with Laws and Ordinances of such equity and righteousness as theirs were which Laws because they were ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator namely Moses are commonly called by the name of the Mosaical Law and are penned down at large by him in his last four Books 7. The Precepts and prohibitions of this Law are of several natures For some duties therein enjoyn'd are such as in their own natures have an intrinsecal essential goodness and righteousness in them and the contrary to them are in themselves evil and would have been so though they had never been expresly prohibited Such are especially the 10. Words or Precepts written by Gods own finger in the two Tables of stone Other Precepts concern matters of their own nature indifferent and are only to be termed good because they were commanded by a positive divine Law such are the Ceremonial Washings Purifications Sacrifices c. A third sort are of a mixt nature the objects of which are for the most part things in their own nature good or evil but yet the circumstances annex'd unto them are meerly arbitrary and alterable as namely those things which are commanded or forbidden by that which is commonly called the Judicial Law for example The Law of fourfold Restitution of things stollen Theft of its own nature is evil and deserves punishment But that the punishment thereof should be such a kind of Restitution is not in it self necessary but may be chang'd either into a corporal punishment or it may be into a civil death according as those who have the government of Kingdoms and States shall think fit and convenient for the dispositions of the times wherein they live as we see by experience in the practise of our own Kingdoms For the due execution of which Laws and punishment of transgressours God appointed Judges and Rulers and where they failed through want of care or partiality himself
their fore-fathers intolerable 23. I will conclude this whole point of the difference between Moses his Law and the Law of Faith or the Gospel in Gods own words by the Prophet Jer. 31.31 Jer. 31.31 twice quoted by St. Paul in Heb. ch 8. ch 10. where God saith Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a New-Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with them After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their hearts and write them in their inward parts c. As if he should say The former Covenant which I made with them by Moses was only written in two Tables of Stone as the Roman Laws were in 12. Tables and required only an outward conformity and obedience for the which they did not need an inward sanctifying spiritual Grace to enable them as the New Covenant of Grace doth And therefore for the performiâ—â— of that I will abundantly afford and supply them with all the Graces oâ— my Holy Spirit 24. But a little to interrupt this Text You will say What had not the Jews God's Law written in their hearts also did not they worship him in Spirit as well as we No question But this they did not as commanded by Moses his Law but by that Covenant made with Abraham and by him traduced unto them It follows And I will be their God and they shall be my people i. e. I will be their God after a more especial manner then I was unto them in the Wilderness I will not only be their King to govern them in peace and tranquillity out of the danger and fear of their Enemies the Nations about them and preserve them safe in the promised Land but I will keep them from the fury and malice of their spiritual Enemies that would seek to destroy their souls and I will bring them to a Land infinitely exceeding theirs and whereof the Land of Canaan was but a most unproportionable type and shadow even mine own blessed and glorious Kingdom reserved in the highest Heavens for them who sincerely perform the conditions of my New Covenant Thus farr as largely as so small a measure of time would permit me I have told you the difference betwixt the Covenant of Grace and Moses his Law imply'd in these words of my Text through the Spirit I come now to my second particular namely the distinction of the same Covenant of Grace from the Law of works wherein I shall proceed by the same method i. e. shewing you first absolutely the nature of those Laws and then the several differences betwixt them 25. The Law of Works is the same with that to the obedience whereof Adam was oblig'd in Paradise with this exception that besides the Moral natural Law written in his heart the substance whereof is to this day reserved in the minds of all the sons of Adam Adam had a second positive Law injoyn'd him by God namely the forbidding him to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil which one Precept cannot properly be call'd a part of the Law of Works or Nature since the Action thereby forbidden was not of its own nature evil but only made unlawful by vertue of God's prohibition Excepting therefore this one particular Precept the Law which was given to Adam call'd the Law of Works comprehended in it all kind of moral duties referr'd either to God his Neighbour or Himself which have in them a natural essential goodness or righteousness and by consequence the prohibition of all manner of actions words or thoughts which are in themselves contrary to Justice and Reason All these Precepts are generally suppos'd to be contained in the Ten Words written by Gods own finger in two Tables of Stone though with submission I think that those two Tables contain only directly the moral duties of man to God and his Neighbour for it will require much forcing and straining to bring in the duties and sins of a man against his own person within that compass as Temperance Sobriety and their opposites Gluttony Drunkenness Self-incontinency c. 26. The Obligation to this Law is so strict severe and peremptory That it required not only an universal Obedience to whatsoever is contained in that Law in the full extent latitude and perfection thereof but that continual without interruption through the whole couâ—â—â— of a man's life Insomuch that he that should but once transgress it 〈◊〉 least point or circumstance should without redemption or dispensation be rendred culpable as of the breach of the whole Law and remain lyable to the malediction thereof And to this Law in this strictness mentioned are all men living oblig'd who are out of Christ and who either know not of him or are not willing to submit themselves to his New Covenant 27. The Justification which was due to the performance of this Law by Justice and as the wages thereof that is the condition wherein God oblig'd himself to such as fulfill'd it was the promises of this life and that which is to come Long happy and peaceable days in this world and in their due time a translation to the joys and glory of heaven This Justification did not comprehend Remission of Sins as ours does for the Law excluded all hope of pardon after sin no promise made to repentance repentance would do no good The Court wherein they were to be judg'd was a Court of meer rigorous Justice Justice rejoyc'd over and against Mercy Grace Loving-kindness and all those blessed and glorious Attributes whereby God for our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake is pleased and delighted to be known unto the world 28. This Law in the rigour thereof might easily have been perform'd by Adam he had that perfection of grace and holiness given him which was exactly equal and commensurable to whatsoever duties were enjoyn'd him But by his wilful voluntary God forbid we should say enforc'd or absolutely decree'd prevarication he utterly undid both himself and his posterity leaving them engag'd for his debts and as much of their own without almost any money to pay them Without Christ we are all oblig'd to the same strictness and severity of the Law which by reason of our poverty and want of grace is become impossible to be perform'd by us As the blessed Apostle St. Paul hath evidently proved by Induction in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans In the first chapter declaring that the Gentiles neither did nor could perform the Law in the second saying as much for the Jews and in the third joyning them both together in the same miserable desperate estate The conclusion of his whole discourse is All have sinned
the necessity of being good holy and vertuous No by no means I am not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it The righteousness of the Law according to the substance thereof shall be as necessarily required by vertue of that New Covenant which I preach unto you and to which I exhort you all to submit your selves as ever it was by the Old Covenant only because of your weakness and infirmity I will abate the rigour of it Those who notwithstanding my offer of Grace and Pardon upon such easie conditions as I prescribe will yet continue in an habitual state of profaneness and irreligion shall be as culpable nay ten times more miserable than if they never had heard of me for their wilful neglecting so great salvation It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fail For God would be no looser by the annihilation of the world whereas if any part of the Moral Law should expire the very beams and rayes of Gods essential goodness should be darkened and destroy'd 33. In like manner saith St. Paul Rom. 11. ult Rom. 3. ult Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Now if a succeeding Covenant establisheth any part of a Precedent especially if there be any alteration made in the conditions established all obligation whatsoever is taken from the Old Covenant and those conditions are in force only by vertue of the New When the Norman Conquerour was pleas'd to establish and confirm to the English some of the ancient Saxons Laws Are those Laws then become in force as they are Saxon No for the Authority of the Saxons the Authors of those Laws is supposed to be extinguished and therefore no power remains in them to look to the execution of them But by the confirmation of the Norman they are become indeed Norman Laws and are now in force not because they were first made by the Saxons but only by vertue of the succeeding power of the Norman line So likewise when the Gospel enjoyns the substance of the same duties which the old Covenant of Works required Are we Christians enforc'd to the obedience of them because they are duties of the Law By no means But only because our Saviour and only Law-maker Jesus Christ commands the same in the Law of Faith 34. Thus far the New Covenant is in some terms of agreement with the Old inasmuch as the same Moral duties are enjoyn'd in them both as parts of the conditions of both But the difference herein is That the Law commands a precise exact fulfilling of these Precepts as I told you before which the Gospel descending to our infirmities remits and qualifies much For in the Gospel he is accounted to fulfil the moral Precepts that obeys them according to that measure of Grace which God is pleas'd to allow him that obeys God though not with a perfect yet with a sincere upright heart that when he is overcome with a temptation to sin continues not in it but recovers himself to his former righteousness by Repentance and new Obedience Thus much then for the moral Precepts and with what difference they are commanded in the Old and New Covenant 35. In the second place there is another part of Evangelical Obedience which is purely Evangelical and which has no commerce nor reference at all to the Law and that is the Grace of Repentance For saith St. Paul Act. 17 30. Act. 17.30 But now that is by the Gospel God commands all men every where to repent Now Repentance implies a serious consideration and acknowledgment of that miserable estate whereunto our sins have brought us and hereupon an hearty unfeigned sorrow for them a perfect hatred and detestation of them inferring a full peremptory resolution to break them off and interrupt the course of them by new obedience This I say is an obedience purely Evangelical The Law of Works did not at all meddle with it neither indeed could it The Law condemns a man assoon as ever he is guilty of the breach thereof and makes no promise at all of Remission of sins upon Repentance but rather quite excludes it Yet from the grace of Repentance we may gather a forcible argument to make good that which before we spoke concerning the Renewing of the Moral Precepts in the New Covenant For no reasonable man can deny that Repentance is absolutely necessary before a man can be Justified Now what is that for which for example a new converted Heathen repents but the breach of the Moral Law therefore by this necessity of Repentance he acknowledgeth and so do we that by such sins he was excluded from all hope of being Justified Now it were absurd for a man to say that any thing excludes a man from being capable of receiving the promises of a Covenant but only the breaking of the conditions thereof 36. The third part of Evangelical Righteousness is Faith not Moral but Christian which is A relying upon Christ as the only meritorious cause of whatsoever benefit we obtain by the new Covenant It being for his sake both that God bestowes upon us grace whereby we are enabled to perform his will and after we have done our duty that he will freely and not as wages bestow upon us the reward thereof There is another virtue Evangelical which is Hope but of that I must speak in my last point And thus I have gone through the Conditions required on mans part in the New Covenant all which I suppose are implyed in this word Faith which being taken in so general a sense may I conceive be thus not improperly defined viz. To be a receiving and embracing of the Promises made unto us in Christ upon the terms and conditions proposed in the Gospel 37. Now follow the conditions on Gods part comprehended in these words The hope of Righteousness which are equivalent to the term of Justification the nature whereof I shall now endeavour to discover Justification I suppose imports the whole Treasure of blessings and favours which God who is rich in mercy will freely bestow on those whom he accepts as Righteous for his beloved Son our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ his sake which are first Remission of sins and an interest unto the Joyes of heaven in this life and a full consummation both of Grace and Glory in the life to come Some I know think that S. Paul when he discourses of Justification thereby intends only Remission of sins And the ground of this opinion is taken from S. Paul quoting those words of David Rom. 4.6 7 8. when he states the Doctrine of Justification Rom. 4.6 7 8. where he saith that David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin But if this Argument out of the
prohibited All which confirmeth your Majesties grave and learned Censure in your thinking the Geneva translation to be warst of all and that in the Marginal notes annexed to the Geneva translation some are very partial untrue seditious c. Lastly concerning the English translation the Puritans say Our translation of the Psalms comprized in our Book of Common-Prayer doth in addition substraction and alteration differ from the truth of the Hebrew in two hundred places at the least In so much as they do therefore profess to rest doubtful whether a man with a safe conscience may subscribe thereunto And M. Carlile saith of the English translators that they have depraved the sense obscured the truth and deceived the Ignorant that in many places they do detort the Scriptures from the right sense And that they shew themselves to love darkness more than light falshood more than truth And the Ministers of Lincoln-Diocess give their publique testimony terming the English Translation A Translation that taketh away from the Text that addeth to the Text and that sometime to the changing or obscuring of the meaning of the holy Ghost Not without cause therefore did your Majesty affirm that you could never see a Bible well Translated into English Thus farr the Author of the Protestants Apologie c. And I cannot forbear to mention in particular that famous corruption of Luther who in the Text where it is said Rom. 3. v. 28. We account a man to be justified by faith without the works of the Law in favour of Justification by faith alone translateth justified by faith ALONE As likewise the falsification of Zuinglius is no less notorious who in the Gospels of S. Matthew Marke and Luke and in S. Paul in place of This is my Body this is my Bloud translates This signifies my Body this signifies my Bloud And here let Protestants consider duely of these Points Salvation cannot be hoped for without true Faith Faith according to them relies upon Scripture alone Scripture must be delivered to most of them by the Translations Translations depend on the skill and honesty of men in whom nothing is more certain than a most certain possibility to err and no greater evidence of truth than that it is evident some of them embrace falshood by reason of their contrary Translations What then remaineth but that Truth Faith Salvation and All must in them rely upon a fallible and uncertain ground How many poor souls are lamentably seduced while from preaching Ministers they admire a multitude of Texts of divine Scripture but are indeed the false Translations and corruptions of erring men Let them therefore if they will be assured of true Scriptures flye to the alwayes visible Catholique Church against which the gates of hell can never so farr prevail as that she shall be permitted to deceive the Christian world with false Scriptures And Luther himself by unfortunate experience was at length forced to confess thus much saying If the Å¿ Li. cont Zuing. de verit corp Christ in Eucha world last longer it will be again necessary to receive the Decrees of Councels and to have recourse to them by reason of divers interpretations of Scripture which now raign On the contrary side the Translation approved by the Roman-Church is commended even by our Adversaries and D. Covell in particular saith that it was used in the Church one thousand t In his answer unto M. Joha Burges pag. 94. three hundred years ago and doubteth not to prefer u Ibid. that Translation before othâ—rs In so much that whereas the English-Translations be many and among themselves disagreeing he concludeth that of all those the approved Translation authorized by the Church of England is that which cometh nearest to the vulgar and is commonly called the Bishops Bible So that the truth of that Translation which we use must be the rule to judge of the goodness of their Bibles and therefore they are obliged to maintain our Translation if it were but for their own sake 17. But doth indeed the source of their manifold uncertainties stop here No The chiefest difficulty remains concerning the true meaning of Scripture for attaining whereof if Protestants had any certainty they could not disagree so hugely as they do Hence Mr. Hooker saith We are w In his Preface to his Books of Eccl. Politie Sect. 6.26 right sure of this that Nature Scripture and Experience have all taught the woâ—ld to seek for the ending of contentions by submitting it self unto some judicial and definiâ—ive sentence whereunto neither part that contendeth may under any pretence refuse to stand Doctor Fields words are remarkable to this purpose Seeing saith he the Controversies x In his Treatise of the Church in his Epistle dedicatory to the L. Archbishop of Religion in our timâ—s are grown in number so many and in nature to intricate that few have time and leisure fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which among all the societies in the world is that blessed company of holy ones that houshold of Faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the living God which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth that so they may imbrace her Communion follow her Directions and rest in her Judgement 18. And now that the true Interpretation of Scripture ought to be received from the Church it is also proved by what we have already demonstrated that she it is who must declare what Books be true Scripture wherein if she be assisted by the holy Ghost Why should we not believe her to be infallibly directed concerning the true meaning of them Let Protestants therefore either bring some proof out of Scripture that the Church is guided by the holy Ghost in discerning true Scripture and not in delivering the true sense thereof Or else give us leave to apply against them the argument which S. Augustine opposed to the Manicheans in these words I would not y Con. Ep. Fund cap. 5. believe the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church did move me Them therefore whom I obeyed saying Believe the Gospel why should I not obey saying to me Do not believe Manicheus Luther Calvin c. Choose what thou pleasest If thou shalt say Believe the Catholiques They warn me not to give any credit to you If therefore I believe them I cannot believe thee If thou say Do not believe the Catholiques thou shalt not do well in forcing me to the faith of Manicheus because by the Preaching of Catholiques I believed the Gospel it self If thou say You did well to believe them Catholiques commending the Gospel buâ— you did not well to believe them discommending Manicheus Dost thou think me so very foolish that without any reason at all I should believe what thou wilt and not believe what thou wilt not And do not Protestants perfectly resemble these men to whom
they might be saved God requiting of us under pain of damnation only to believe the verities therein contained and not the divine Authority of the Books wherein they are contained Not but that it were now very strange and unreasonable if a man should believe the matter of these Books and not the Authority of the Books and therefore if a man should profess the not-believing of these I should have reason to fear he did not believe that But there is not always an equal necessity for the belief of those things for the belief whereof there is an equal reason We have I believe as great reason to believe there was such a man as Henry the eighth King of England as that Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate yet this is necessary to be believed and that is not so So that if any man should doubt of or dâ—sbelieve that it were most unreasonably done of him yet it were no mortal sin nor no sin at all God having no where commanded men under pain of damnation to believe all which reason induceth them to believe Therefore as an Executor that should perform the whole will of the dead should fully satisfie the Law though he did not believe that Parchment to be his written Will which indeed is so So I believe that he who believes all the particular Doctrines which integrate Christianity and lives according to them should be saved though he neither believed nor knew that the Gospels were written by the Evangelists or the Epistles by the Apostles 160. This disourse whether it be rational and concluding or no I submit to better judgment but sure I am that the Corollary which you draw from this Position that this Point is not Fundamental is very inconsequent that is that we are uncertain of the truth of it because we say The whole Church much more particular Churches and private men may err in points not Fundamental A pretty sophism depending upon this Principle that whosoever possibly may err he cannot be certain that he doth not err And upon this ground what shall hinder me from concluding that seeing you also hold that neither particular Churches nor private men are infallible even in Fundamentals that even the Fundamentals of Christianity remain to you uncertain A Judge may possibly err in judgment can he therefore never have assurance that he hath judged right A Traveller may possibly mistake his way must I therefore be doubtful whether I am in the right way from my Hall to my Chamber Or can our London-Carrier have no certainty in the middle of the day when he is sober and in his wits that he is in the way to London These you see are right worthy consequences and yet they are as like your own as an egg to an egg or milk to milk 161. And for the self same reason you say we are not certain that the Church is not Judge of Controversies But now this self same appears to be no reason and therefore for all this we may be certain enough that the Church is no Judge of Controversies The ground of this sophism is very like the former viz. that we can be certain of the falshood of no propositions but these only which are damnable errors But I pray good Sir give me your opinion of these The Snow is black the Fire is cold that M. Knot is Arch-Bishop of Toledo that the whole is not greater than a part of the whole that twice two make not four In your opinion good Sir are these damnable Heresies Or because they are not so have we no certainty of the falshood of them I beseech you Sir to consider seriously with what strange captions you have gone about to delude your King and your Country and if you be convinced they are so give glory to God and let the world know it by your deserting that Religion which stands upon such deceitful foundations 162. Besides you say among publique Conclusions defended in Oxford the year 1633. to the Questions Whether the Church have Authority to determine Controversies of Fâ—ith And to interpret holy Scripture The Answer to both is â—ffirmative But what now if I should tell you that in the year 1632. among publique Conclusions defended in Doway one was That God predeterminates men to all their actions good bad and indifferent Will you think your self obliged to be of this opinion If you will say so If not do as you would be done by Again me-thinks so subtil a man as you are should easily apprehend a wide difference between Authority to do a thing and an Absolute The former the Doctor together with the Article of the Church of England attributeth to the Church nay to particular Churches and I subscribe to his opinion that is an Authority of determining Controversies of Faith according to plain and evident Scripture and Universal Tradition and Infallibility while they proceed according to this Rule As if there should arise an Heretique that should call in question Christ's Passion and Resurrection the Church had Authority to decide this Controversie and infallible direction how to do it and to excommunicate this man if he should persist in error I hope you will not deny but that the Judges have Authority to determine Criminal and Civil Controversies and yet I hope you will not say that they are absolutely infallible in their determination Infallible while they proceed according to Law and if they do so but not infallibly certain that they shall ever do so But that the Church should be infallibly assisted by God's Spirit to decide rightly all emergent Controversies even such as might be held diversly of divers men Salva compage fidei and that we might be absolutely certain that the Church should never fail to decree the truth whether she used means or no whether she proceed according to her Rule or not or lastly that we might be absolutely certain that she would never fail to proceed according to her Rule this the Defender of these Conclusions said not and therefore said no more to your purpose than you have all this while that is just nothing 163. Ad § 27. To the place of S. Austin alledged in this Paragraph I Answer First that in many things you will not be tried by S. Augustin's judgement nor submit to his Authority not concerning Appeals to Rome not concerning Transubstantiation not touching the use and worshipping of Images not concerning the State of Saint's souls before the day of Judgment not touching the Virgin Marie's freedom from actual and original sin not touching the necessity of the Eucharist for Infants not touching the damning Infants to hell that die without Baptism not touching the knowledge of Saints departed not touching Purgatory not touching the fallibility of Councels even general Councels not touching perfection and perspicuity of Scripture in matters necessary to Salvation not touching Auricular Confession not touching the half-Communion not touching prayers in an unknown tongue In these things I say you
13. I told you I remember my Text was a Law and I repent not of the expression though I know not how since our divinity has been imprison'd and fetter'd in Theses and distinctions we have lost this word Law and men will by no means indure to hear that Christ came to command us any thing or that he requires any thing at our hands he is all taken up in promise All those precepts which are found in the Gospel are nothing in these mens opinions but mere promises of what God will work in us I know not how sine nobis though indeed they be delivered in fashion like Precepts 14. These and many other such dangerous consequences do and must necessarily arise from that new invented Fatal Necessity A doctrine that fourteen Centuries of Christianity never heard of If we will enquire after the old and good waies we shall find the Gospel it self by its own author call'd a Law For thus saith the Psalmist in the Person of Christ Psal 2.7 I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And how familiar are such speeches as those in our Saviour's mouth This is my command a new commandement I give unto you Ye shall be my Disciples if ye do those things which I command you Among the ancient Fathers we find not only that Christ is a Law-giver but that he hath published Laws which were never heard of before That he hath enlarged the ancient precepts and enjoyned new and yet now 't is Socinianism to say but half so much Clemens Alexandr 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in fine saith that Christ is more than a Law-giver he is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quotes S. Peter for it 15. Well then my Text is a Law and a preparatory law it is the voyce of one crying Prepare the waies of the Lord let all hills be depressed and all valleys exalted It bears indeed the same office in our conversion or new birth that Aristotle assigns to his Privation in respect of natural Generation It hath no positive active influence upon the work but it is Principium Occasionale a condition or state necessarily supposed or prerequired in the subject before the business be accomplished For as in Physical Generation there can be no superinduction of forms but the subject which expects a soul must necessarily prepare a room or mansion for it which cannot be unless the soul that did before inhabit there be dispossessed So it likewise comes to pass in our Regeneration there is no receiving of Christ to dwell and live with us unless we turn all our other guests out of doors The Devil you know would not take possession of a house till it was swept and garnished and Dares any man imagine that a heart defiled full of all uncleanness a decayed ruinous soul an earthly sensual mind is a Tabernacle fit to entertain the Son of God were it reasonable to invite Christ to sup in such a mansion much more to rest and inhabit there 16. In the ordinary sacrifices of the old Law God was content to share part of them with his servants the Priests and challeng'd only the inwards as his own due And proportionably in the spiritual sacrifices his claim was My son give me thy heart He was tender then in exacting all his due It was only a temptation we know when God required of Abraham that his only son Isaac should be offer'd in holocaustum for a whole burnt-sacrifice to be utterly consum'd so that no part nor relicks should remain of so beloved a Sacrifice Yet even in those old times there were whole burnt-offerings whereby besides that one oblation of Christ was prefigured likewise our giving up our whole selves souls and bodies as a living reasonable sacrifice unto God And therefore our Saviour Christ who came to fulfil the Law not only by his obedience thereto but also by his perfect and compleat expression of its force and meaning doth in plain terms resolutely and peremptorily exact from all them that purpose to follow him a full perfect resignation of themselves to his disposing without all manner of condition or reservation 17. This was a Doctrine never heard of in the world before compleatly delivered Never did any Prophet or Scribe urge or inforce so much upon Gods people as is herein contained Yet in the Evangelical Law we have it precisely and accurately press'd insomuch that the holy Spirit of God has taken up almost all the Metaphors that can possibly be imagin'd the more forcibly to urge this so necessary a Doctrine 18. We are commanded so perfectly and wholly to devote our selves to Gods service so earnestly and resolutely to undertake his Commands that we must determine to undervalue and despise all earthly and transitory things besides nay from the bottom of our hearts we must hate and detest all things how gainful or delightful or necessary soever they seem if they do in any measure hinder or oppugn us in our journey to Christ 19. We must not so much as look upon Christ or glance our eyes upon his glorious mercy express'd in suffering and satisfying for us for S. Luke calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we must resolve to keep them there fix'd and not deign to think any creature to be a spectacle worthy our looking on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.11 saith S. Paul we have no English term that can fully express the force of this word for it is not only as we have it translated looking unto Christ but taking off our speculations from other objects and fastning them upon Christ the author and finisher of our Faith 20. When we have been once acquainted though but imperfectly with this saving knowledge we must strait bring our understandings into captivity unto the obedience thereof and whatsoever other speculations we have how delightful soever they be unto us yet rather then they should over-leaven us and as Knowledge without charity is apt to do puff us up we must with much greater care and industry study to forget them and resolve with S. Paul to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified 21. When we have had notice of that inestimable Jewel the Kingdome of Heaven so called by our Saviour in the Parable exposed to sale though our estate be never so great our wares never so rich and glorious yet we must resolvedly part with all we have utterly undoe our selves and turn bankrupts for the purchasing of it Hence are those commands Sell all thou hast And lest a man should think that when the land is sold he may keep the money in his purse there follows And give to the poor And such care is taken by the holy Ghost in those expressions lest any evasions should be admitted lest it should happen that such a Merchant should find no chapman to buy his wates nor which is scarce possible hands to receive his money
thine enemy What! did Moses his Law then permit a man to bear hatred and malice unto another Did I say permit them Nay it commanded them so perfectly to hate their enemies to wit the seven Nations who possessed that land which was theirs by promise Exod. 34.2 Deut. 7.1 Exod. 27.19 Deut. 30.19 mentioned Exod. 34.2 Deut. 7.1 to which were added the Amalekites Exod. 27.19 Deut. 30.19 That they were enjoyned to destroy them utterly old and young men women and children even to the very cattel without all pity and consideration Insomuch that Saul for his unseasonable pity but of one person and that a King of the Amalekites and reserving the best of the cattel for sacrifice to God had the Kingdom utterly rent from him and his posterity Whereas by our Saviour in the words of S. Paul Enmity is slain No enemies now in Christianity but all neighbours and friends and brethren nay more If any one will needs be your enemy love him notwithstanding saith Christ If he curse you bless him If he hate you do good unto him If he use you despitefully and persecute you pray for him To conclude this argument from our Saviour's authority Christ adds as a Corollary to his discourse speaking to his Disciples and followers Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharises V. 20. i. whereas they content themselves with an outward carnal obedience to the Law unless you besides this add a spiritual sanctification of the mind ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I deny not now but that there may be a mystical spiritual sense even of this Law and an application thereof almost as perfect as is express'd in the Gospel which those who were guided extraordinarily by the Spirit of God and with help of Tradition might collect out of it As the Prophet David Psal 19. where he saith Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the Commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes c. And in this sense the succeeding Prophets endeavoured to perswade the people to apprehend it But this was a forc'd sense of Moses his Law not primarily intended by the author it was no proper natural meaning of it 15. Proportionably to this Doctrine of our Saviour S. Paul speaking of Moses his Law considered in its proper natural and direct sense and as extreamly unsufficient to Justifie a man in the sight of God calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weak and beggerly elements Gal. 4.9 And Gal. 4.9 Heb. 7.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law of a carnal commandment Heb. 7.16 i. a Law which a carnal man one not guided by the Spirit of God might perform And a Law which made no man perfect Heb. 7.19 Nay more Ibid. v. 19. Heb. 8.7 saith he it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not without fault Heb. 8.7 i. a man might perform the Law of Moses and yet not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He may be a wicked man still in Gods sight for all his Legal Righteousness he may remain dead in trespasses and sins Insomuch as the same Paul speaking of himself before he was converted to Christianity saies he Concerning the righteousness which is of the Law I was blameless Phil. 3.6 I did so exactly fulfil that measure of Righteousness which Moses his Law required of me that in respect of that Law I was a guiltless innocent person I could justifie my self I durst with confidence oppose my self in Judgement to the censure of our most severe strict Judges 16. But what then Durst Paul with this his Legal Righteousness appear before God as expecting to be Justified in his sight as claiming any interest in the promises of eternal life by virtue of this his innocency By no means No saith he though I were blameless as concerning this righteousness which is of the Law though I had all the priviledges that any Jew could be capable of Phil. 3.6 circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the Tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews according to the Law a Pharisee i. e. of that Sect which had preserved the Law in the greatest integrity though I were so zealous thereof V. 6. that I persecuted the Churches of Christ which sought to abrogate it and lastly though concerning the Righteousness of the Law I was blameless Yet notwithstanding all these I will have no better an opinion of these priviledges than they deserve I will account them only outward carnal priviledges If I at all rejoyce in them yet this I will account only a rejoycing in the flesh Far be it from me to think to appear before Christ with such a righteousness as this is God forbid I should expect to be accepted of by him for these carnal outward priviledges Nay so far am I from that that whatsoever I thought before I knew him to be again and a prerogative unto me now that I have attain'd to the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ I account as loss as things likely to be rather a hindrance unto me V. 9. yea as dross and dung and desire to be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law For alas how mean and unworthy will that appear in his eyes but the righteousness which is of Faith the righteousness which is of God by Faith The former righteousness was mine own and therefore could not stand in his sight but that righteousness to which Faith or the Gospel directs me proceeds not from my own strength but only from God who will crow his own graces in me 17. I have thus far shew'd you both from our Saviour's authority and S. Paul's likewise that the performing of the Moral Duties as far as they were inforc'd by virtue of Moses his Law could not make a man capable of attaining to the promises of the New Covenant And that I may add one confirmation of this more out of the Old Testament hereupon it is that God by the Prophet Ezekiel manifestly sheweth that God gave not the Law of Moses to the Israelites for this end that they should think that the performance of that Law was all the duty which they owed unto God or that that obedience could make them accepted of him unto eternal life No saith he if you have any such conceit of those Ordinances Ezek. 20.25 The Statutes which I gave them were not good and the Judgements such as they should not live by them I will now proceed to shew you the weakness and unprofitableness of the Ceremonial part of Moses his Law likewise for such a purpose and that by Arguments taken from S. Paul especially out of that his most Divine Epistle to the Hebrews 18. The first argument shall be drawn out of the 9th Chapter of that Epistle the sum whereof is this The first Covenant which had Ordinances of Divine Service and a worldly Sanctuary
praeparatione cordis in a full resolution of the heart and entire disposition of the mind So that though God be the sole proper Efficient Cause and Christ as Mediatour the sole proper Meritorious Cause of our Justification yet these inherent dispositions are exacted on our part as causae sine quibus non as necessary conditions to be found in us before God will perform this great work freely and graciously towards us and only for the Merits of Christ 43. This Assertion may Reas 1 I suppose be demonstrated first from the nature of a Covenant For unless there be pre-required conditions on man's part to be perform'd before God will proportion his reward the very nature of a Covenant is destroy'd And it will not boot to answer that though there be no qualifications required in a man before he obtain Remission of sins yet they are to be found in us before we be made capable of Salvation For as I have shew'd before Sol. 1 Salvation is as properly a gracious Act of Mercy as free and undeserved a gift as truly bestowed on us only for the Merits of Christ as Remission of sins and therefore may as well consist without any change in us as the former And secondly If that proposition of S. Paul We are Justified by Faith Sol. 2 without the works of the Law exclude all conditions to be perform'd by man If it exclude not only the righteousness of the Law which indeed it doth but the obedience of Faith or the Gospel likewise from being necessary dispositions in us before we receive remission of sins Then another saying of his parallel to this will exclude as well the necessity of an Evangelical Obedience to our salvation For saith S. Paul Eph. 2.8 Eph. 2.8 By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of Works lest any man should boast Put I hope no man will be so unchristian-like as to exclude the necessity of our good works to salvation for all this saying of S. Paul therefore they may as well be pre-required to Remission of sins notwithstanding the former place 44. Secondly Reas 2 If there be no necessity of any pre-disposition in us before Remission of sins then a man may have his sins forgiven him and so become a person accepted of God whilest he is a person unregenerate unsanctified whilest he is dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 c. whilest he walks according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whilest he has his conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind being notwithstanding his Justification a child of wrath as much as the profanest heathen though the veriest reprobate in the world lastly though he be no child of Abraham according to faith that is not having in him that faith which was imputed to Abraham for righteousness Now whether this Divinity be consonant to Gods Word let your own consciences be Judges 45. A third Argument to prove the Truth of the former Assertion Reas 3 shall be taken from several Texts of Scripture where Justification even as it is taken for Remission of sins is ascribed to other virtues besides Faith whether it be taken for a particular virtue or for the object thereof For example Our Saviour saith expresly Mat. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned where we see Justification is taken in that proper sense in which we maintain it against the Papists Again If you forgive men their trespasses Mat. 6.14 45. your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Again our Saviour speaking concerning Mary saith Her sins are forgiven her because she loved much Luk. 7.47 If the time or your patience could suffer me Reas 4 I might add a fourth Reason to prove my former Assertion which is the clearness and evidence of agreement and reconciliation between S. Paul and S. James in this point upon these grounds without any new invented Justification before men which is a conceit taken up by some men only to shift off an Adversary's argument which otherwise would press them too hard they think for S. Paul's Faith taken for the obedience of the Gospel would easily accord with S. James his holy and undefiled Religion before God Jam. 1.27 or works which is all one And S. James would be S. Paul's expositour without any injury or detraction at all from the merits of Christ or Gods free and undeserved mercy to us in him But I must hasten 46. The full meaning then of S. Paul's Proposition We are justified by Faith and not by the works of the Law and by consequence the state of the whole controversie of Justification in brief may be this That if we consider the efficient cause of our Justification it is only God which Justifies if that for which we are justified that is the meritorious cause thereof it is not for any thing in our selves but only for the obedience and satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour that God will Justifie us But if we have respect to what kind of Conditions are to be found in us before Christ will suffer us to be made partakers of the benefit of his Merits then we must say that we are not justified by such a Righteousness so perfect absolute and complete as the Law of Works does require but by the righteousness of the Gospel by a Righteousness proportionable to that Grace which God is pleased to bestow on us not by the perfection but sincerity of our obedience to the New Covenant And the Apostle's main argument will serve to prove this to any understanding most undeniably S. Paul has demonstrated that if we consider the rigour of the Law all men both Jews and Gentiles are concluded under sin and most necessarily obnoxious to Gods wrath Which Reason of his would not be at all prevailing unless by works of the Law he intended only such a perfect obedience as the Law requires which by reason of mans weakness is become impossible unto him For it might easily be reply'd upon him thus We confess no man can fulfil the Law but the conditions of the Gospel are not only possible but by the assistance of Gods Spirit easie to be performed so that though for this reason the former Righteousness be excluded from our Justification not only quoad meritum but also quoad praesentiam yet the later Evangelical Righteousness is excluded from our Justification only quoad Meritum 47. But I perceive an Objection ready to assault me and I will impartially assist the force and strength thereof against my self with all the advantage I can It is to this purpose When men are disputing in the Schools or discoursing in the Pulpit they
well as the Cardinals do the Pope Whether the King or Queen of England or they that have the government in their hands in the minority of the Prince may not lawfully commend one to them to be consecrated against whom there is no Canonical exception Whether the Doctrin that the King is Supreme Head of the Church of England as the Kings of Judah and the first Christian Emperours were of the Jewish and Christian Church be any new found doctrin Whether it may not be true that Bishops being made Bishops have their authority immediatly from Christ though this or that man be not made Bishop without the King's authority as well as you say the Pope being Pope has authority immediately from Christ and yet this or that man cannot be made Pope without the authority of the Cardinals Whether you do well to suppose that Christian Kings have no more authority in ordering the affairs of the Church than the great Turk or the Pagan Emperors Whether the King may not give authority to a Bishop to exercise his function in some part of his Kingdom and yet not be capable of doing it himself as well as a Bishop may give authority to a Physician to practise Physick in his Diocess which the Bishop cannot do himself Whether if Nero the Emperour would have commanded S. Peter or S. Paul to preach the Gospel of Christ and to exercise the office of a Bishop of Rome whether they would have question'd his Authority to do so Whether there were any Law of God or man that prohibited King JAMES to give Commission to Bishops nay to lay his Injunction upon them to do any thing that is lawful Whether a casual irregularity may not be lawfully dispens'd with Whether the Pope's irregularities if he should chance to incur any be indispensable And if not who is he or who are they whom the Pope is so subject unto that they may dispense with him Whether that be certain which you take for granted That your Ordination imprints a character and ours doth not Whether the power of consecrating and ordaining by imposition of hands may not reside in the Bishops and be derived unto them not from the King but God and yet the King have authority to command them to apply this power to such a fit person whom he shall commend unto them As well as if some Architects only had the faculty of architecture and had it immediatly by infusion from God himself yet if they were the King's subjects he wants not authority to command them to build him a Palace for his use or a Fortress for his service Or as the King of France pretends not to have power to make Priests himself yet I hope you will not deny him power to command any of his subjects that has this power to ordain any fit person Priest whom he shall desire to be ordained Whether it do not follow that whensoever the King commands an house to be built a message to be delivered or a murtherer to be executed that all these things are presently done without intervention of the Archirect messenger or executioner As well as that they are ipso facto ordain'd and consecrated who by the King's authority are commended to the Bishops to be ordained and consecrated Especially seeing the King will not deny but that these Bishops may refuse to do what he requires to be done lawfully if the person be unworthy if worthy unlawfully indeed but yet de facto they may refuse and in case they should do so whether justly or unjustly neither the King himself nor any body else would esteem the person Bishop upon the King's designation Whether many Popes though they were not consecrated Bishops by any temporal Prince yet might not or did not receive authority from the Emperor to exercise their Episcopal function in this or that place And whether the Emperours had not authority upon their desert to deprive them of their jurisdiction by imprisonment or banishment Whether Protestants do indeed pretend that their Reformation is universal Whether in saying the Donatists Sect was confined to Africa you do not forget your self and contradict what you said above in § 17. of this Chapter where you tell us they had some of their Sect residing in Rome Whether it be certain that none can admit of Bishops willingly but those that hold them of divine institution Whether they may not be willing to have them conceiving that way of government the best though not absolutely necessary Whether all those Protestants that conceive the distinction between Priests and Bishops not to be of divine institution be Schismatical and Heretical for thinking so Whether your form of ordaining Bishops and Priests be essential to the constitution of a true Church Whether the forms of the Church of England differ essentially from your forms Whether in saying that the true Church cannot subsist without undoubted true Bishops and Priests you have not overthrown the truth of your own Church wherein I have proved it plainly impossible that any man should be so much as morally certain either of his own Priesthood or any other man Lastly Whether any one kind of these external forms and orders and government be so necessary to the being of a Church but that they may be diverse in diverse places and that a good and peaceable Christian may and ought to submit himself to the Government of the place where he lives whatsoever it be All these questions will be necessary to be discussed for the clearing of the truth of the Minor proposition of your former Syllogism and your proofs of it and I will promise to debate them fairly with you if first you will bring some better proof of the Major That want of Succession is a certain note of Heresie which for the present remains both unprov'd and unprobable 40 Ad § 23. The Fathers you say assign Succession as one mark of the true Church I confess they did urge Tradition as an Argument of the truth of their doctrin and of the falshood of the contrary and thus far they agree with you But now see the difference They urg'd it not against all Heretiques that ever should be but against them who rejected a great part of the Scripture for no other reason but because it was repugnant to their doctrin and corrupted other parts with their additions and detractions and perverted the remainder with divers absurd interpretations So Tertullian not a leaf before the words by you cited Nay they urg'd it against them who when they were confuted out of Scripture fell to accuse the Scriptures themselves as if they were not right and came not from good authority as if they were various one from another and as if truth could not be found out of them by those who know not Tradition for that it was not delivered in writing they did mean wholly but by word of mouth And that thereupon Paul also said we speak wisdom amongst the perfect So Irenaeus
must resolve to obey rather the commands of the Pope than the law of Christ Whereas if I follow the Scripture I may nay I must obey my Soveraigne in lawful things though an Heretique though a Tyrant and though I do not say the Pope but the Apostles themselves nay an Angel from heaven should teach any thing against the Gospel of Christ I may nay I must denounce Anathema to him 66. Following the Scripture I shall believe a Religion which being contrary to flesh and blood without any assistance from worldly power wit or policy nay against all the power and policy of the world prevail'd and enlarg'd it self in a very short time all the world over Whereas it is too too apparent that your Church hath got and still maintains her authority over mens conscience by counterfeiting false miracles forging false stories by obtruding on the world supposititions writings by corrupting the monuments of former times and defacing out of them all which any way makes against you by Warres by Persecutions by Massacres by Treasons by Rebellions in short by all manner of carnal means whether violent or fraudulent 67. Following the Scripture I shall believe a Religion the first preachers and Professors whereof it is most certain they could have no worldly ends upon the world that they should not project to themselves by it any of the profits or honours or pleasures of this world but rather were to expect the contrary even all the miseries which the world could lay upon them On the other side the Head of your Church the pretended Successour of the Apostles and Guide of faith it is even palpable that he makes your Religion the instrument of his ambition and by it seeks to entitle himself directly or indirectly to the Monarchy of the world And besides it is evident to any man that has but halfe an eye that most of those Doctrins which you add to the Scripture do make one way or other for the honour or temporal profit of the Teachers of them 68. Following the Scripture only I shall embrace a Religion of admirable simplicity consisting in a manner wholly in the worship of God in spirit and truth Whereas your Church and Doctrin is even loaded with an infinitie of weak childish ridiculous unsavoury Superstitions and Ceremonies and full of that righteousness for which Christ shall judge the world 69. Following the Scriptures I shall believe that which Universal never-failing Tradition assures me that it was by the admitable supernatural works of God confirm'd to be the word of God whereas never any miracle was wrought never so much as a lame horse cur'd in confirmation of your Churches authority and infallibility And if any strange things have been done which may seem to give attestation to some parts of your doctrin yet this proves nothing but the truth of the Scripture which foretold that God's providence permitting it and the wickedness of the world deserving it strange signes and wonders should be wrought to confirm false doctrin that they which love not the truth may be given over to strong delusions Neither does it seem to me any strange thing that God should permit some true wonders to be done to delude them who have forged so many to deceive the world 70. If I follow the Scripture I must not promise my self Salvation without effectual dereliction and mortification of all vices and the effectual practice of all Christian Vertues But your Church opens an easier and a broader way to Heaven and though I continve all my life long in a course of sin and without the practice of any vertue yet gives me assurance that I may be lett into heaven at a postern gate even by an Act of Attrition at the hour of death if it be joyn'd with confession or by an act of Contrition without confession 71. Admirable are the Precepts of piety and humility of innocence and patience of liberality frugality temperance sobriety justice meekness fortitude constancy and gravity contempt of the world love of God and the love of mankind In a word of all vertues and against all vice which the Scriptures impose upon us to be obeyed under pain of damnation The summe whereof is in manner compriz'd in our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount recorded in the 5.6 and 7. of S. Matthew which if they were generally obeyed could not but make the world generally happy and the goodness of them alone were sufficient to make any wise and good man believe that this Religion rather than any other came from God the Fountain of all goodness And that they may be generally obeyed our Saviour hath ratified them all in the close of his Sermon with these universal Sanctions Not every one that sayeth Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven and again Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likned unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the flood came and the winds blew and it fell and great was the fall thereof Now your Church notwithstanding all this enervates and in a manner dissolves and abrogates many of these precepts teaching men that they are not lawes for all Christians but Counsels of perfection and matters of Supererogation that a man shall do well if he do observe them but he shall not sin if he observe them not That they are for them who aim at high places in heaven who aspire with the two sonnes of Zebede to the right hand or to the left hand of Christ But if a man will be content barely to go to heaven and to be a door-keeper in the house of God especially if he will be content to taste of Purgatory in the way he may obtain it at an easier purchase Therefore the Religion of your Church is not so holy nor so good as the Doctrin of Christ delivered in Scripture and therefore not so likely to come from the Fountain of holiness and goodness 72. Lastly if I follow your Church for my Guide I shall do all one as if I should follow a Company of blind men in a judgement of colours or in the choice of a way For every unconsidering man is blind in that which he does not consider Now what is your Church but a company of unconsidering men who comfort themselves because they are a great company together but all of them either out of idleness refuse the trouble of a fevere tryall of their Religion as if heaven were not worth it or out of superstition fear the event of such a tryall that they may be scrupled and staggered and disquieted by it and therefore for the most part do it not at all Or if they do it they do it negligently and hypocritically and perfunctorily rather for the satisfaction of others than themselves but certainly without indifference without liberty of judgement without a resolution to doubt of it if upon
Charity may be considered Towards God Our own soul The soul of our Neighbour Our own life or goods and the life or goods of our Nighbour God is to be beloved above all things both Objectivè as the Divines speak that is we must with or desire to God a good more great perfect and noble than to any â—or all other things namely all that indeed He is a Nature Infinite Independent Immense c. and also Appretiativè that is we must sooner lose what good soever than leave and abandon him In the other Objects of Charity of which I spake this order is to be kept We may but are not bound to preferre the life and goods of Neighbour before our own we are bound to preferre the soul of our Neighbour before our own temporal goods or life if he happen to be in extreme spiritual necessity and that we by our assistance can succour him according to the saying of Saint John In this we have known (b) 1. Joan. 3. v. 16. the Charity of God because he hath yeelded his life for us and we ought to yeeld our life for our Bretheren And S. Augustine likewise saith A Christian will not doubt (c) De mendac cap. 6. to lose his own temporal life for the eternal life of his Neighbour Lastly we are to preferre the spiritual good of our own soule before both the spiritual and temporal good of our Neighbour because as Charity doth of its own Nature chiefly encline the person in whom it resides to love God and to be united with him so of it self it enclines him to procure those things whereby the said Union with God is effected rather to himself then to others And from hence it follows that in things necessary to salvation no man ought in any case or in any respect whatsoever to preferre the spiritual good either of any particular person or of the whole world before his own soul according to those words of our Blessed Saviour What doth it (d) Mat. 6 avail a man if he gain the whole would and sustain the damage of his own soul And therefore to come to our present purpose it is directly against the Order of Charity or against Charity as it hath a reference to our selves which Divines call Charitas propria to adventure either the omitting of any means necessary to salvation or the committing of any thing repugnant to it for whatsoever respect and consequently if by living out of the Roman Church wâ— put our selves in hazard either to want something necessarily required to salvation or else to perform some act against it we commit a most grievous sin against the vertue of Charity as it respects our selves and so cannot hope for salvation without repentance 3. Now of things necessary to salvation there are two sorts according to the doctrin of all Divines Something 's say they are necessary to salvation necessitate praecepti necessary only because they are commanded For If thou wilt (e) Matth. 19.17 enter into life keepe the Commandements In which kind of things as probable ignorance of the Law or of the commandement doth excuse the party from all faulty breach thereof so likewise doth it not exclude salvation in case of ignorance Some other things are said to be necessary to salvation necessitate medii finis or salutis because they are Means appointed by God to attain our End of eternal salvation in so strict a manner that it were Presumption to hope for Salvation without them And as the former means are said to be necessary because they are commanded so the latter are commonly said to be commanded because they are necessary that is Although there were no other special precept concerning them yet supposing they be once appointed as means absolutely necessary to salvation there cannot but arise an obligation of procuring to have them in vertue of that universal precept of Charity which obligeth every man to procure the salvation of his own soul In this sort divine infallible Faith is necessary to salvation as likewise Repentance of every deadly sin and in the doctrin of Catholiques Baptism in re that is in Act to Children and for those who are come to the use of reason in voto or hearty desire when they cannot have it in act And as Baptism is necessary for remission of Original and Actual sin committed before it so the Sacrament of Confession or pennance is necessary in re or in voto in act or desire for the remission of mortal sins committed after Baptism The minister of which Sacrament of Pennance being necessarily a true Priest true Ordination is necessary in the Church of God for remission of sins by this Sacrament as also for other ends not belonging to our present purpose From hence it riseth that no ignorance or impossibility can supply the want of those means which are absolutely necessary to salvation As if for example a sinner depart this world without repenting himself of all deadly sins although he die suddenly or unexpectedly fall out of his wits and so commit no new sin by omission of repentance yet he shall be eternally punished for his former sins committed and never repented of If an Infant die without Baptism he cannot be saved not by reason of any actuall sin committed by him in omitting Baptism but for Original sin not forgiven by the means which God hath ordained to that purpose Which doctrin all or most Protestants will for ought I know grant to be true in the Children of Infidels yea not only Lutherans but also some other Protestants as M. Bilson late of Winchester (f) In his true difference c. Part. 4. pag 168. 369. and others hold it to be true even in the Children of the faithful And if Protestants in general disagree from Catholiques in this point it cannot be denyed but that our disagreement is in a point very fundamental And the like I say of the Sacrament of Pennance which they deny to be necessary to salvation either in act or in desire which error is likewise fundamental because it concerns as I said a thing necessary to salvation And for the same reason if their Priesthood and Ordination be doubtful as certainly it is they are in danger to want a means without which they cannot be saved Neither ought this rigour to seem strange or unjust For almighty God having of his own Goodness without our merit first ordained man to a supernatural end of eternal felicity and then after our fall in Adam vouchsafed to reduce us to the attaining of that End if his blessed Will be pleased to limit the attaining of that End to some means which in his infinite Wisdome he thinks most fit who can say Why dost thou so Or who can hope for that End without such means Blessed be his divine Majesty for vouchsafing to ordain us base creatures to so sublime an End by any means at all 4 Out of the foresaid difference followeth another
they which do such things and without amendment of life shall continue doing them shall not be excused by any pretence of sorrow and good purposes They shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven And again in another Epistle Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers shall inherit the Kingdom of God In Christ Jesus saith the same S. Paul in other places nothing availeth but faith nothing but a new creature nothing but keeping the Commandements of God it is not then a wishing but a working faith not wishing you were a new Creature nor sorrowing you are not but being a new creature not wishing you had kept nor sorrowing you have not kept nor purposing vainly to keep but keeping his Commandements must prevail with him Follow peace with all men and holiness saith the Divine Author of the Epistle to the Heb. without which no man shall see the Lord. Saint Peter in his second Epistle commends unto us a golden chain of Christian perfections consisting of these links Faith vertue knowledge temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness charity and then adds He that lacketh these things is blind and knoweth not that he was purged from his old sins Let his sorrow be never so great and his desires never so good yet if he lack these things he is blind and was purged from his old sins but is not Lastly St. John He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure the meaning is not with the same degree of purity for that is impossible but with the same kind the same truth of purity he that doth not purifie himself may nay doth flatter himself and without warrant presume upon God's favour but this hope he hath not and again Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous And thus you see all the divine Writers of the New Testament with one consent and with one mouth proclaim the necessity of real holiness and labour together to disinchant us from this vain phansie That men may be saved by sorrowing for their sin and intending to leave it without effectual conversion and reformation of life which it may well be feared hath sent thousands of souls to hell in a golden dream of heaven But is not this to preach works as the Papists do No certainly it is not but to preach works as Christ and his Apostles do it is to preach the necessity of them which no good Protestant no good Christian ever denyed but it is not to preach the merit of them which is the error of the Papists But is it not to preach the Law in time of the Gospel No certainly it is not for the Law forgives no sins but requires exact obedience and curseth every one which from the beginning to the end of his life continueth not in all things which are written in the Law to do them but the Gospel sayes and accordingly I have said unto you that there is mercy alwayes in store for those who know the day of their visitation and forsake their sins in time of mercy and that God will pardon their imperfections in the progress of holiness who miscall not presuptuous and deliberate Sins by the name of Imperfections but seriously and truly endeavour to be perfect Only I forewarn you that you must never look to be admitted to the wedding feast of the Kings Son either in the impure rags of any customary sin or without the wedding garment of Christian holiness only I forewarn you that whosoever looks to be made partaker of the joyes of heaven must make it the chief if not the only business of his life to know the will of God and to do it that great violence is required by our Saviour for the taking of this Kingdom that the race we are to run is a long race the building we are to erect is a great building and will hardly â—ery hardly be finished in a day that the work we have to do of mortifying all vices and acquiring all Christian vertues is a long work we may easily deferr it too long we cannot possibly begin it too soon Only I would perswade you and I hope I have done it that that Repentance which is not effectual to true and timely Conversion will never be available unto eternal Salvation And if I have proved unto you that this is indeed the nature of true Repentance then certainly I have proved withall that that Repentance wherewith the generality of Christians content themselves notwithstanding their great professions what they are and their glorious protestations of what they intend to be is not the power but the form not the truth but the shadow of true Repentance and that herein also we accomplish St. Pauls prediction Having a form of godliness c. And now what remains but that as I said in the beginning I should humbly intreat and earnestly exhort every man that hath heard me this day to confute in his particular what I have proved true in the general To take care that the sin of formality though it be the sin of our times may yet not be the sin of our persons that we satisfie not our selves with the shadows of Religion without the substance of it nor with the form of godliness without the power of it To this purpose I shall beseech you to consider That though sacrificing burning incense celebrating of set festivals praying fasting and such like were under the Law the service of God commanded by himself yet whensoever they proceed not from nor were joyned with the sincerity of an honest heart he professeth frequently almost in all the Prophets not only his scorn and contempt of them all as fond empty and ridiculous but also his hating loathing and detesting of them as abominable and impious The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God Prov. 15.8 What have I to do with the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord Esay the first I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams and of the fat of fed beasts when ye come to appear before me who required this at your hands Bring no more vain oblations Incense is an abomination to me I cannot suffer your new moons nor sabbaths nor solemn dayes it is iniquity even your solemn assemblies My soul hateth your new moons and your appointed feasts they are a burthen to me I am weary to bear them and when you shall stretch out your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and though you make many prayers I will not hear for your hands are full of bloud And again Isa 66.3 He that kils an Ox is as if he slew a man be that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines-flesh he that burneth incense
as if he blessed an Idol and what 's the reason of this strange aversion of God from his own Ordinances it follows in the next words They have chosen their own wayes and their soul delighteth in their abominations Terrible are the words which he speaketh to the same purpose in the prophecy of Amos chap. 5. v. 21 22 23. I hate I despise your feast dayes and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies though you offer me burnt offerings and meat offerings I will not accept them nor will I regard your peace offerings Now beloved if this hypocrisie this resting in outward performances were so odious to God under the law a religion full of shadows and ceremonies certainly it will be much more odious to do so under the Gospel a religion of much more simplicity and exacting so much the greater sincerity of the heart even because it disburdens the outward man of the performance of Legal rites and observances And therefore if we now vnder the Gospel shall think to delude God Almighty as Michol did Saul with an Idoll handsomly drest instead of the true David if we shall content and please our selves with being of such or such a Sect or Profession with going to Church saying or hearing of Prayers receiving of Sacraments hearing repeating or preaching of Sermons with zeal for Ceremonies or zeal against them or indeed with any thing besides constant piety towards God Loyalty and obedience towards our Soveraign justice and charity towards all our Neighbours temperance chastity and sobriety towards our selves certainly we shall one day find that we have not mocked God but our selves and that our portion among Hypocrites shall be greater than theirs In the next place let me intreat you to consider the fearful judgement which God hath particularly threatned to this very sin of Drawing nigh unto him with our lips when our hearts are farr from him It is the great judgement of being given over to the spirii of slumber and security the usual forerunner of speedy desolation and destruction as we may see in the 29 Chap. of Isaiah from the 9 to the 14 vers Stay your selves and wonder cry ye out and cry They are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with strong drink for the Lord hath powred out upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes The Prophets and your Rulers the Seers hath he covered and after at the 14 verse The wisdom of their Wisemen shall perish and the understanding of their Prudent-men shall be hid Certainly this judgement if ever it were upon any people we have cause to fear it is now upon us For if the spirit of deep sleep were not upon us How could we sleep so securely even upon the brink of the pit of perdition How could we proceed on so confidently in our mirth and jollity nay in our crying sins and horrible impieties now when the hand of God is upon us and wrath is gone out and even ready to consume us and if the wisdom of our Wise-men were not perished How were it possible they should so obstinately refuse the security offered of our Laws Liberties and Religion by the King's Oath by his Execrations on himself and his posterity in case he should violate it by the Oaths of all his Ministers not to consent to or be instruments in such a Violation by the so much desired Triennial Parliament from which no transgressor can possibly be secure and instead of all this security seek for it by a Civil Warr the continuance whereof must bring us to destruction and desolation or else He hath deceived us by whom we are taught That a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Now what was the sin which provoked this fearful judgement What but that which I have laboured to convince you of and to disswade you from even the sin of Hypocrisie as we may see at the 12 verse Wherefore saith the Lord for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart farr from me and their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work amongst them for the wisdom of their Wise-men shall perish c. Consider Thirdly what woes and woes and woes our Saviour thunders out against the Scribes and Pharisees for their Hypocrisie Wo be unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites and again and again Wo be unto you Scribes and Pharises Hypocrites Beloved if we be Hypocrites as they were Tithe mint and cumin and neglect the weighty matters of the Law judgement and justice and mercy as they did Make long prayers and under a pretence devour Widows houses as they did Wash the outside of the dish and platter while within we are full of ravening and wickedness write God's Commandements very large and fair upon our Phylacteries but shut them quite out of our hearts Build the Sepulchres of the old Prophets and kill their successors in fine if we be like painted Sepulchres as they were outwardly garnished and beautiful but within full of dead mens bones and rottenness we are then to make accompt that all these woes belong to us and will one day overtake us Consider lastly the terrible example of Ananias and Sapphira and how they were snatcht away in the very act of their sin and that their fault was as the Text tels us that they lyed unto God Beloved we have done so a thousand thousand times our whole lives if sincerely examined would appear I fear little less but a perpetual Lye hitherto God hath been merciful to us and given us time to repent but let us not proceed still in imitating their fact lest at length we be made partakers of their fall God of his infinite mercy prevent this in every one of us even for his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's sake by whom and with whom in the unity of the holy Spirit be all honour and glory to the eternal Father world without end Amen The Second Sermon PSALM XIV 1. The Fool hath said in his heart There is no God IF you will turn over some few leaves as farr as the 53 Psalm you shall not only find my Text but this whole Psalm without any alteration save only in the fift verse and that not at all in the sense neither What shall we say Took the holy Spirit of God such especial particular notice of the sayings and deeds of a Fool that one expression of them would not serve the turn Or does the babling and madness of a Fool so much concern us as that we need to have them urg'd upon us once and again and a third time in the 3 d. of the Romans Surely not any one of us present here is this Fool Nay if any one of us could but tell were to find such a Fool as this that would offer to say though in his heart There is no
many times would immediately and personally inflict the punishment 8. Now the general Sanction of this whole Law is expressed Deut. 27. v. 26 in these words Deut. 27.26 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the words of this Law to do them which curse as we find it afterwards at large interpreted imported a sudden violent untimely death together with all kind of misfortune that could make this life miserable so that he was liable to this curse that swerved in any one point or circumstance from what was contained in that Law Notwithstanding in some cases God was pleased to remit the rigour of this curse and to except of certain gifts and offerings and the expiatory sacrifices of beasts as it were in exchange for the lives of the delinquents I should but fruitlesly trifle away the time in insisting any longer upon the nature and quality of the Mosaical Law I will now as I am required by my Text shew you the extream difference and incomparable excellency of the Covenant of Grace or the Gospel beyond this in several respects 9. As first The Moral Duties of the two Tables as they are part of the Mosaical Jewish Law required only an external obedience and conformity to the Affirmative precepts thereof and an abstaining from an outward practise of the Negative They did not reach unto the conscience no more then the National Laws of other Kingdoms do so that for example where the Law of Moses forbids Adultery upon pain of death he that should in his heart lust with any woman could not be accounted a transgressour of Moses his Law neither was he liable to the punishment therein specified whereas the Gospel requires not only an outward and as I may say corporal obedience to Gods commandements but also an inward sanctification of the soul and conscience upon the same penalty of everlasting damnation with the former And what is now said of the moral precepts as they art part of Moses his Law by the same proportion likewise is to be understood of the Judicial 10. Notwithstanding what hath now been said yet we must know that these very Jews to whom this Law was given being the children of Abraham were heirs likewise of the promises which were made unto him and his seed And the way or means whereby they were to attain unto these promises were the very same by which himself obtained them namely Faith So that this Mosaical Law whatsoever glorious opinion the Jews had of it was not that Covenant whereby they were to seek for Justification in the sight of God Till Christ's coming there was no Law given which could have given life that is which could promise everlasting life unto man not the Law of works by reason of mans imperfection and weakness not the Law of Moses by reason of its own weakness as S. Paul clearly demonstrates especially in the Epistle to the Hebrews 11. For what end then was the Law of Moses given S. Paul shall answer the question Gal. 3.19 Gal. 3.19 It was added saith he because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promises were made It was added as if he should say After the promises made unto Abraham and his seed this Law was moreover annexed not as any new condition whereby they were to attain unto the promises but that in the mean time till the promises were fulfilled they should be restrained as it were and kept under a strict outward discipline from running into any excess of disobedience for those whom perhaps the goodness and mercy of God in affording them those promises would not by the hope of them be able to bridle they notwithstanding when they saw punishment even unto death without mercy inflicted upon the transgressours they would be more careful of their waies It followes Till the seed should come to whom the promises were made or as himself in Heb. 9. alters the phrase Heb. 9.10 till the time of reformation that is When Christ who was that blessed Seed promised to Abraham should come he would so clearly and convincingly shew unto the world the way of Salvation that they should no longer need to be kept under their old Schoolmaster the Law and therefore at his coming the date of the whole Mosaical Law should expire And that may be one reason why S. Paul is in this chapter so violent against those that would urge the observation of the Mosaical Law forasmuch as by inforcing it now when the seed was already come to whom the promises were made they did seem to evacuate the Coming and Gospel of Christ 12. Now that the Mosaical Law was not given to the Jews for this end that by the fulfilling thereof they should promise to themselves the reward of righteousness everlasting life is evidently demonstrated both by our Saviour in the 5. of Matthew and by S. Paul through all his Epistles but especially in that to the Hebrews The force and vertue of whose arguments may in general be reduc'd to that issue which before I mentioned viz. That the Law by the performance whereof we may expect life requires not only an external conformity to the outward works but an inward spiritual sanctification also of the soul and heart 13. But what saith the Law of Meses It was said saith our Saviour by them of old Mat. 5.21 i. in the Law of Moses Thou shalt not kill not Thou shalt not be angry thou shalt not bear malice in thy heart so that if thou abstainest from Murder thou fulfillest Moses his Law And if thou doest kill thou shalt be in danger of Judgement i. the only punishment which the Law of Moses inflicted upon the transgressours thereof was the danger to be condemn'd to death by the Judgement or Bench of Judges appointed for the execution of this Law But I say unto you I who clearly shew unto you that way wherein you must walk before you can promise to your selves any hope of eternal life I say unto you not only whosoever shall kill his neighbour but whosoever out of malice or rancour V. 22. shall say unto his brother Thou fool shall be in danger of Hell fire V. 27. So likewise not only he which commits Adultery in the outward act is culpable by my Gospel before God but also he which looks upon a woman to lust after her in his heart V. 33. And so instead of Forswearing and breaking of Oaths and Vows which Moses his Law forbad Christ condemns fruitless and unnecessary V. 38. though true Oaths Instead of the Law of Retaliation of injuries Christ commands rather to suffer a second injury than to revenge the first 14. But in the last place the last Example which our Saviour gives may seem to destroy this collection which hath been drawn out of this Chapter for saith he Vers 43. You have heard V. 43. that it hath been said of old Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate
Heb. 10.10 which consisted in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them till the time of reformation in which also were offered gifts and sacrifices yet with all these Ceremonies and Formalities they could enter no deeper than the flesh V. 9. they could not make him which did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience That is for example those Expiatory Sacrifices which were to be offered for him which had transgressed they absolved him indeed from a civil carnal punishment but they could not reach to the conscience that remained still as guilty and defiled before God as ever it was And can it be imagined that a man so qualified with such an accusing condemning conscience could with any hope or confidence appear before God as expecting to be freed from the danger of Hell for the cost or ceremony of a Sacrifice Those Sacrifices therefore and Ceremonies V. 13. the bloud of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heyfer sprinkling the unclean might sanctifie a man to the purifying of the flesh and that is all they could do and so faâ— they could sanctifie even the most profane person or the veriest Hypocrite in the world But it must be only the bloud of Christ V. 14. who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God that is able to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God 19. But it may be objected Obj. The Baptizing and washing of us Christians and our Commemoration of the true Sacrifice are powerful and effectual even to the sanctification of the soul and spirit And why should not the water of Jordan have as much virtue in it during Moses his Law as it has had since or as ours has now Why should not their pre-figuration of the true Sacrifice by typical sacrifices be as much worth as our post-commemoration thereof for Christ was the same yesterday and to day and for ever I answer that Baptism and the Eucharist Sol. are proper instruments whereby the Sacrifice of Christ is applied and made beneficial unto us and were instituted for that and no other end whereas the proper and direct end of Moses his Leiturgy and Ceremonies were only civil carnal immunities and though it be true that the Legal Sacrifices were very apt and commodious to shadow forth the Oblation and satisfaction of Christ yet this use of them was so mystical and reserved so impossible to be collected out of the Letter of the Law that without a special Revelation from God the eyes of the Israelites were too weak to serve them to pierce through those dark clouds and shadows and to carry their observation to the substance so that I conceive those sacrifices of the Law in this respect are a great deal more beneficial to us Christians for there is a great difference between Sacraments and Types Types are only useful after the Antitype is discovered for the confirmation of their Faith that follow As for example Abraham's offering of Isaac by faith did lively represent the real Oblation of Christ but in that respect was of little or no use till Christ was indeed crucified it being impossible to make that history a ground-work of their Faith in Christ The like may be said of the Legal Sacrifices 20. My second Argument shall be taken out of those words of S. Paul Act. 13.38 where speaking of Christ he saith Act. 13.38 By him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses From which I inferr that since there were many sins for which the Law of Moses allowed no Sacrifice no Redemption no Satisfaction no Commutation in what a fearful desperate case would a person that should commit fuch sins be if he were to expect Justification before God by the Law of Moses for that must needs lead him to despair It could shew him no refuge no Sanctuary to fly unto nothing would remain unto such a person but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to consume Gods Adversary And therefore no marvail if the same Apostle Heb. 7.17 18. saith Heb. 7.17 18. That the former Law for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof i. e. to Justification was to be disannull'd since it could make nothing perfect 21. The last Argument shall be inferr'd from that saying of the Apostle Heb. 8.6 Heb. 8.6 where speaking of the New-Covenant of Grace he saith It was established on better promises namely than the Jewish Covenant was For all the happiness which was to be expected from Moses his Law was only an exemption from the inconveniences and curses of this life long days and peaceable enrich'd with worldly content and prosperity Whereas the blessings which attend the performance of the New-Covenant or the Gospel are unspeakable and glorious Such as eye hath not seen nor indeed as long as it is mortal can see neither can the heart of man conceive them being eternal in the Heavens Neither will the ordinary evasion serve the turn as if these temporal blessings or plagues and curses mentioned in Moses his writings should purposely signifie the blessed estate of glorified Saints or woes of the damned for then St. Paul's Argument would fall to the ground and indeed that whole Epistle to the Hebrews would be rendred inconcluding as might easily be demonstrated if the time and throng of matter which follows would permit 22. I would not now have you so conceive me as if I would exclude the Jews of the Old-Testament from being partakers of the Promises of the Gospel No God forbid But that which I have said is this that they attain'd not unto them by performing Moses his Law but by the very same means by which we hope to be partakers of them namely by performing the substance of those duties which are clearly delivered unto us in the Gospel and may be found sprinkled in several places even in Moses his writings and no question but were more fully and compleatly delivered unto them by Tradition from their Fathers And hereupon I suppose it is that when any were converted to the knowledg and worship of the true God in those times they who made them Proselytes were not curious to enforce upon them the Observation of Moses his Ordinances and Ceremonies as we find in the behaviour of Elisha to Naaman the Assyrian of Jonah to the Ninevites of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and of the rest of the Prophets to the Tyrians Moabites Aegyptians to whom they writ and whose conversion they sought None of which urged upon them the Observation of the Mosaical Liturgy as a thing necessary or needful to be observ'd by them Indeed those who were content to live amongst the Jews and enjoy their priviledges and immunities were bound to undergo the burden and costliness of the Offerings and Sacrifices which as St. Paul saith was so great that they were both to themselves and
and come short of the glory of God Thus much for the Law of Works 29. The state of mankind without Christ being so deplored so out of al hope as I told you Almighty God out of his infinite mercy and goodness by his unspeakable wisdom found out an attonement accepting of the voluntary exinanition and humiliation of his dearly beloved Son who submitted himself to be made flesh to all our natural infirmities sin only excepted and at last to dye that ignominious accursed death of the Cross for the Redemption of mankind Who in his death made a Covenant with his Father that those and only those who would be willing to submit themselves to the obedience of a new Law which he would prescribe unto mankind should for the merits of his obedience and death be justified in the sight of God have their sins forgiven them and be made heirs of everlasting glory Now that Christ's death was in order of Nature before the giving of the Gospel is I think evident by those words of St. Paul Heb. 9.16 17. where comparing the old Covenant of the Jews with that of Christ he saith Where a Testament is Heb. 9.16.16 there must of necessity be the death of the Testatour for a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwisâ— it is of no strength at all while the Testatour liveth whereupon neither the first Covenant was dedicated without bloud It was necessary therefore saith he ver 23. that the patterns of things in heaven should be purified with these i. e. with the bloud of Beasts but the heavenly things themselves with better things than those namely with the bloud of Christ 30. Which Covenant of Christ call'd in Scripture the New-Covenant the Covenant of Grace the grace of God the Law of Faith according to the nature of all Covenants being made between two parties at the least requires conditions on both sides to be perform'd and being a Covenant of Promise the conditions on man's part must necessarily go before otherwise they are no conditions at all Now man's duty is comprehended by St. Paul in this word Faith and God's promise in the word Justification And thus farr we have proceeded upon sure grounds for we have plain express words of Scripture for that which hath been said But the main difficulty remains behind and that is the true sense and meaning of these two words Faith and Justification and what respect and dependance they have one of the other Which difficulty by Gods assistance and with your Christian charitable patience I will now endeavour to dissolve 31. For the first therefore which is Faith we may consider it in several respects to wit first as referring us to and denoting the principal object of Evangelical Faith which is Christ Now if Faith be meant in this sense as by many good Writers of our Reformed Churches it is understood then the meaning of that so often repeated saying of St. Paul We are justified by Faith without the works of the Law must be We are justifi'd only for the obedience of Christ and not for our righteousness of the Law which is certainly a most Catholick Orthodox sense and not to be deny'd by any Christian though I doubt it does not express all that St. Paul intended in that Proposition Secondly Faith signifies the Act or exercise or duty of Faith as it comprehends all Evangelical Obedience call'd by St. Paul The Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 Rom. 16.26 4.13 9.13 10.6 The Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4 13. 9.13 10.6 And it is an inherent grace or vertue wrought in us by the powerful operation of God's Spirit Or thirdly Rom. 10.9 it may be taken for the Doctrin of Faith call'd also by him the Word of Faith Act. 20.32 Gal. 3.2 Rom. 3.27 Rom. 10.8 and the Word of Gods Grace Act. 20.32 and the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 In which sense as if he meant the Word St. Paul may seem to resolve us Rom. 3.27 where he saith that boasting is excluded by the Law of Faith which words are extant in the very heat of the controversie of Justification Now these senses of Faith if they be apply'd to that conclusion of St. Paul We are justified by Faith come all to one pass for in effect it is all one to say We are justifi'd by our Obedience or Righteousness of Faith and to say We are justifi'd by the Gospel which prescribes that Obedience As on the contrary to say We are justifi'd by the Law or by works prescribed by the Law is all one There is a fourth acception of Faith taken for the single Habit or Grace of Faith and apply'd to this proposition only of all Christians that I have heard of by the Belgick Remonstrants which being a new invented fancy and therefore unwarrantable yet I shall hereafter have occasion it may be to say something of it 31. St. Paul's Proposition I am perswaded excludes none of these senses it is capeble of them all But before I shew you how they may consist together I will in the first place declare of what nature that righteousness is which God by vertue of his New Covenant requires at our hands before he will make good his promise unto us First then God requires at our hands a sincere Obedience unto the substance of all Moral duties of the Old Covenant and that by the Gospel And this obedience is so necessary that it is impossible any man should be saved without it The pressing of this Doctrine takes up by much the greatest part of the Evangelical Writings Now that these Duties are not enforc'd upon us as conditions of the Old Covenant of Works is evident because by Christ we are freed from the Obligation of the Old Covenant God forbids that we should have a thought of expecting the hope of righteousness upon those terms For that Covenant will not admit of any imperfection in our works and then in what a miserable case are we There is no hope for us unless some course be taken that not only our imperfections but our sins and those of a high nature be pass'd by and overlook'd by Almighty God as if He had lost his eyes to see them or his memory to remember them 32. The substance then of the Moral Law is enjoyn'd us by the New-Covenant but with what difference I shall shew you presently And hereupon it is that our Saviour saith to the Pharisees who were willing to make any mis-construction of his Doctrine Think you that I am come to destroy the Law I by all means say we God forbid else for unless the old Law be destroy'd we are undone as long as that is alive we are dead If the Law of Works have its natural force still woe be to us Therefore that must not be Christ's meaning His intent is as if he should say Think you that I am come to destroy the righteousness of the Law to dis-oblige men from
them to fly away and escape out of the hands of the Purchasers Shall such men because they are not able to restore be concluded in such a desperate estate as before I have mentioned No God forbid If in such circumstances a man shall be unfeignedly sorry for his misdeeds and withal resolve if God shall hereafter bless him with abilities Sol. to make restitution our merciful God will accept of that good inclination of his heart as if he had perfectly satisfi'd and restor'd to each man his due For without all question God will never condemn any man because he is not rich 40. If it shall be again questioned and the supposition made that a man for example Object 3 a Tradesman cannot possibly call to remembrance each particular mans name whom he hath wrong'd as indeed it is almost impossible he should what advice shall he take in such a case I answer that he must in this case consider Sol. that by this sin he hath not only wrong'd his Neighbour but God also therefore since he cannot find out the one let him repay it to the other Let him be so charitable and do that kindness to God as to bestow it in Alms upon his poor servants Or since God himself is grown so poor and needy especially in this Kingdom that he hath not means enough to repair his own Houses nor scarse to make them habitable He may do well to rescue God's Churches from being habitations of Beasts and stables for Cattel Or lastly which more concerns you since God is here grown so much out of purse that he has not means enough to pay his own Servants wages equal to the meanest of your houshold servants let not them any longer be the mocking-stocks of those Canaanites your Enemies that so swarm in your Land Here is a subject fit indeed for your Charity and a miserable case it is God knows that they should be the persons who of all conditions of men should stand in greatest need of your mercy and charity 41. Oh! but will some man say We have found now at what the Preacher aimeth All this ado about Restitution is only to enrich the Clergy If such thoughts and jealousies as these arise in your hearts as I know by experience it is no unlikely thing they should Oh then I beseech you for the mercies of God consider in what a miserable state the Church must needs be when the most likely course to keep the Ministers of God from starving must be your sins When those to whom you have committed your souls in trust as they that must give God an account for them shall through want and penury be rendred so heartless and low-spirited that for fear of your anger and danger of starving they shall not dare to interrupt or hinder you when you run head-long in the paths that lead you to destruction When out of faint-heartedness they shall not dare to take notice no not of the most scandalous sins of their Patrons but which is worst be the most forward officious Parasites to sooth them in their crimes and cry Peace unto them when God and their own Consciences tell them that they are utter strangers from it and neither do nor are ever likely to know the ways of Peace Lastly when these Messengers of God shall be the most ready to tell you that those Possessions and Tithes which have been wrested out of Gods hands are none of Gods due that they are none of the Churches Patrimony that their right is nothing but your voluntary Alms and charitable Benevolence and that they shall think themselves sufficiently and liberally dealt withal if you shall account them worthy to be the companions of the basest meanest of your servants I could almost be silent in this cause did not our Enemies in Gath know of it and if it were not publish'd in the streets of Askalon insomuch that you have given cause to the Enemies of God to blaspheme our glorious and undefiled Religion 42. I will conclude this Doctrin of Restitution most necessary certainly to be prosecuted in these times only with proposing to your considerations two Motives which in all reason ought to perswade you to the practise of it the one shall be that you would do it for your own sakes the other for your childrens sake For the former though I could never be scanted of Arguments sufficient to enforce it though I should make it the subject of my Sermons to my lives end yet because I perceive it is time for me to hasten to your release I will only desire you to remember how much I have told you already that this Doctrin concerns you since it is impossible for any man while he is guilty of the breach of this duty to put in practise even the most necessary and indispensable Precepts of Christian Religion 43. But concerning the second Motive which I desire should induce to the practise of Restitution namely that you should be perswaded to it even for your childrens sake I beseech you take this seriously into your consideration That whereas it may be you may think that by heaping wealth howsoever purchased upon your heirs you shall sufficiently provide for them against all casualties yet that God also hath his treasures in store to countervail yours and to provide so that your Heirs shall take but little content God knows in all their abundance for as it is in Job 20.8 God will lay up the iniquity of sinners for their children i.e. He will not satisfie himself with wreaking vengeance of other mens wrongs upon your heads that have done them but will take care also that your children shall be no gainers by the bargain Therefore as you desire the welfare of those for whose sake especially you dare adventure to hazard even your own souls bequeath not to them for a legacy a canker and moth that will assuredly consume and devour all your Riches Take pitty of those poor souls who are nothing interessed in their own persons in those crimes wherewith their wealth was purchased and leave not unto them a curse from God upon their inheritance But I see I must be forc'd even abruptly to break from this Argument of Restitution I come therefore briefly to my last particular namely the excess and extraordinary measure of Zacchaeus his Restitution which he professeth shall be four-fold to be dispatch'd in one word 44. However I found it something a hard task to clear my first particular of Confession from the danger and neighbourhood of Popery yet Partic. 2 I fear that in most mens opinions it will prove more difficult to do as much for this For here is an Action perform'd by Zacchaeus namely Object Fourfold Restitution without all question good and acceptable to God and yet not enjoyn'd by vertue of any Commandement and What is that but plain Popish Super-erogation For the Judicial Law of restoring fourfold is only in strictness and propriety applicable to plain direct
Stealing 45. I confess that some particular men for fear of this consequence Sol. have thought themselves oblig'd to dissent not only from St. Paul's distinction of counsels from Precepts in the Gospel but also from the General uniform consent of all Antiquity Whereas if we shall well consider it they have feared where no fear was For our Churches never condemned that distinction as if there were danger from thence of making way for Popery But this is that abomination of a more then Pharisaical self-justifying Pride in the Church of Rome that upon so weak a foundation they have most inartificially erected their Babel of Super-erogation whereby they teach that they cannot only through the whole course of their lives exactly perform all the Commandements of God without offending in any one mortal sin by this means challenging at Gods hands Remission of their Sins and everlasting Salvation for themselves But also by their voluntary unrequired obedience unto Evangelical Counsels leave God in arrearages unto them and make an extraordinary stock of merits which shall be left unto the Popes care and providence to mannage and dispense to any mans use for ready money This is that Doctrin which the Church of England in express words most worthily professeth a detestation unto in their 14th Article which hath been transcribed into the 45th of this Church And yet for all this neither of these Churches have any quarrel to that distinction of St. Paul when speaking of voluntary Chastity he saith I have received no such Commandement from the Lord 1 Cor. 7.25 yet I give my advice or counsel as hath been excellently discovered by the late incomparable Bishop of Winchester in his Resp ad Apologiam 46. And now though I have gone through and quite absolv'd my Text yet I can scarse think my Sermon finish'd till I have endeavoured to make it beneficial unto you by applying it to your Consciences and practise But when I should come to that I confess I find these times wherein we live so indisposed for such an Application that I know not which way to begin with you For shall I seriously enjoyn you as by a Precept from God that where you have unjustly oppress'd or cunningly and closely defrauded your Neighbour that you should as Zacchaeus did here restore unto him four-fold No I dare not adventure so farr I have received no such Commandement from the Lord and then I should be guilty of that which was an unjust accusation laid upon Moses and Aaron Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi. 47. Shall I then endeavour to perswade you to conform your selves to this pattern of Zacchaeus as to a Counsel Alas the times are such that well were we if as some have turn'd all Counsels into Precepts that the same men would not at least in their practice convert all Precepts into Counsel If they would not think that the Moral Legal Precepts were antiquated and dissolved by bringing in the New Covenant of Grace Or if not quite abrogated yet left so arbitrary that they should become matters of no necessary importance and consequence duties which if we shall perform we shall thereby approve our gratitude and thankfulness unto God our Saviour and yet if by chance they be left undone since they are esteem'd no necessary conditions of the New-Covenant there is no great danger as long as we can keep a spark of faith alive as long as we can perswade our selves that we have a firm perswasion of Gods mercy in Christ to our selves in particular which kind of newly invented faith an Adversary of our Church pleasantly and I fear too truly defines when he says Dr. Carrier in his Epistle to K. James It is nothing but a strong fancy 48. These things therefore considered I will leave the application of Zacchaeus his extraordinary Restitution to your own Consciences according as God and your own souls shall agree together Only I beseech you not to make a counsel of Restitution in general but to free your selves from the burden and weight of other mens Riches lest they over-leaven and swell you so unmeasurably that you shall not be able to press in at that straight gate which would lead you unto those blessed and glorious habitations which Christ hath purchased for you not with these corruptible things of silver and gold but with his own precious bloud Unto which habitations God of his infinite mercy bring us all for the same our Lord Jesus Christ his sake To whom with the Father c. The Eighth Sermon GAL. V. 5. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith THis day the wisdome of the ancient Primitive and I think Apostolick Church hath dedicated to the memory of an Epiphany or Apparition of a miraculous Star which was sent to guide the Magi or Wisemen of the East to the place where our Saviour was born But suppose there were such a Star seen and three men of the East conducted by it must all the Christian world presently fall a rejoycing for it There was reason indeed that they should be exceeding glad but shall we therefore lose a whole day's labour by it To say the truth there is no reason for it therefore either better grounds must be found out for our rejoycing or it were well done to make Christ-mass a day shorter hereafter 2. But for all this if we well consider it we Gentiles might better spare any Holiday in the year than this for there is none besides this properly our own but the Jewes will challenge an equal interest in it The appearing of the Star then is the least part of the solemnity of this day For a greater and more glorious light than the Star this day arose unto us even that so long expected Light which was to lighten the Gentiles which was to give light to them which sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guid our feet in the way of peace This day as S. Paul saith Tit. 11.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was an Epiphany likewise of the grace of God to wit the Gospel which now as on this day began to bring salvation not to the Jews only but to all men even to us sinners of the Gentiles of whom those three wise men were the first fruits And to say the truth the appearing of Christ himself unless he had brought with him this light to lighten the Gentiles in his hand had not been sufficient to make a Solemn day for us The Star then was not that light but it was sent to bear witness of that light namely the Gospel the glory whereof fills my text fuller than the Majesty of God ever fill'd the Temple For here we have the whole nature of the Gospel comprehended and straitned within the narrow compass of my Text yet no part of it left out yea we have not only the Gospel discovered by its own light as it is in